January 2013 archive

Magnesium, with a Z = 12, is an extremely common element in the crust of the earth, but it is never found in nature in the elemental state.  It is the second member, after beryllium, in the alkaline earth series of elements.  It is above calcium in that same group, and has significant biological roles.

As is the general trend for elements on the left hand of periodic table, magnesium is less reactive than calcium, just as beryllium is less reactive than magnesium.  This is due to the fact that elements in the first and second columns have their electrons more tightly bound the higher in the column they appear because of less shielding from other electron shells.

Pretty uniforms is how I feel about the Seahawks.

By which I mean painfully ugly but they are an otherwise unobjectionable team no more evil than any other unless they are playing one of my particular favorites and win.

They face the Native Americans who I hate on 3 different levels.

First of all they’re divisional rivals of the Jints that I’d despise just as much as the Evils except they employ fewer dog killers and are generally more hapless and ineffectual.

Second is their racist name I’ve decided not to dignify by repetition.

Third (and I can not emphasize this enough), they are the Village darlings and the fawning bootlicking of the courtier class is bi-partisan and universal.

‘nuf said.

I am going to the movies where I am going to watch actors attempt to sing show tunes and get weepy eyed when I hear anthems like this-

My friend Bobby will be watching while I’m distracted by flickering images.

Rachel Maddow says good bye to the outgoing members of the 112th Congress, from the ludicrous to the legendary, and takes a look at the political conditions and pending issues on the first day of the new year with a new congress.

As I told TMC yesterday (offline, don’t bother looking) throwball is more about who you hate the most.

Today we start with 2 teams either of which is an approprate target for your scorn and derision.

On the one hand we have the Bolts–

(M)any of the prominent old-time Colts, many of whom had settled in the Baltimore area, were bitter and chose to cut all ties to the relocated Colts team. Most notable and vocal among them was Johnny Unitas, who recognized himself solely as a player for the Baltimore Colts until the day he died, with his estate defending that stand to this day.

And on the other we have the Carrion Crows who’s only redeeming feature is that they failed in their attempt to carpetbag away from the land of Cleves before the community was able to reclaim their name.

(T)he agreement stipulated that the Browns’ name, colors, uniform design and franchise records would remain in Cleveland. The franchise history includes Browns club records and connections with Pro Football Hall of Fame players. Modell’s Baltimore team, while retaining all current player contracts, would, for purposes of team history, appear as an expansion team, a “new franchise.”

So Bolts or Crows– slime pit Hell wrestling until they both get their asses kicked.

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

January 6 is the sixth day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 359 days remaining until the end of the year (360 in leap years).

On this day in 1838, Samuel Morse’s telegraph system is demonstrated for the first time at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, New Jersey. The telegraph, a device which used electric impulses to transmit encoded messages over a wire, would eventually revolutionize long-distance communication, reaching the height of its popularity in the 1920s and 1930s.

Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born April 27, 1791, in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He attended Yale University, where he was interested in art, as well as electricity, still in its infancy at the time. After college, Morse became a painter. In 1832, while sailing home from Europe, he heard about the newly discovered electromagnet and came up with an idea for an electric telegraph. He had no idea that other inventors were already at work on the concept.

Morse spent the next several years developing a prototype and took on two partners, Leonard Gale and Alfred Vail, to help him. In 1838, he demonstrated his invention using Morse code, in which dots and dashes represented letters and numbers. In 1843, Morse finally convinced a skeptical Congress to fund the construction of the first telegraph line in the United States, from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore. In May 1844, Morse sent the first official telegram over the line, with the message: “What hath God wrought!”

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

The Sunday Talking Heads:

Up with Chris Hayes: Joining Chris will be: Steve Ellis, the vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense; Fran O’Connor, a resident of Sayreville, NJ, one of the towns hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy; Ben Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP; Esther Armah, host of “Wake Up Call” on WBAI-FM; Tio Hardiman, director of CeaseFire Illinois and creator of the Violence Interrupter Initiative; and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), newly elected Congressman representing parts of Brooklyn and Queens.

This Week with George Stephanopolis: Guest on “This Week” are Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY); Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND); Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-TX), and Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR).

The  roundtable debates all the week’s political battles in Washington, with ABC News’ George Will; Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren; PBS’ “Washington Week” moderator and managing editor Gwen Ifill; University of California, Berkeley professor and former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich; and ABC’s Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr Schieffer’s guest are House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA); Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY); incoming Senators Jeff Flake (R-AZ); Chris Murphy (D-CT); Rep. Rick Nolan (D-MN); Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ); and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA).

Discussing the fiscal cliff deal and up coming round two are The New York Times‘ David Sanger and TIME‘s Rana Foroohar offer their insight.

The Chris Matthews Show: There was no information about this Sunday’s guests.

Meet the Press with David Gregory: Appearing on the Sunday’s MTP are Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY); Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles.

Guests on this week’s roundtable are freshman Senator from Maine Angus King (I-ME), former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA), Chair of the House Democratic Caucus Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), former head of HP and Vice Chair of the NRSC Carly Fiorina, and Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne.

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Ms. Crowley’s guests are Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL); Senator Lindsey Graham (D-SC; Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND); and Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC).

Her panel guests are Neera Tanden from the Center for American Progress; right-leaning economist Stephen Moore; CNN Senior Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash; and Jackie Calmes of the New York Times.

India and Pakistan in Kashmir border skirmish

 6 January 2013 Last updated at 06:54 GMT

Indian and Pakistani troops have exchanged fire across the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region.

Pakistan said Indian troops had raided a military post in the Haji Pir sector of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, killing a soldier and injuring another.

An Indian army spokesman said Pakistan had “initiated unprovoked firing” at Indian military posts.

Kashmir is claimed by both nations in its entirety and has been a flashpoint between them for more than 60 years.

Exchanges are not uncommon but rarely result in fatalities.

‘Small arms’

The Pakistani military’s public relations office said the two sides were still exchanging fire in the area.

Up host Chris Hayes discusses what we have learned since last week with guests Oliver Stone, award-winning director, producer and screenwriter; Veronique de Rugy, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University; David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author; and Suzy Khimm, reporter for the Washington Post.

2012: A Safe Year To Fly

By Daniel Politi, Slate

Fear of flying may soon be a thing of the past as 2012 was a great year to get on a plane. Air travel is now the safest it has been “since the dawn of jet planes,” reports the Wall Street Journal, noting that the industry is set to mark the lowest rate of fatalities in 2012 since the early 1960s. Before Saturday’s crash near Moscow that killed four people, there were a total of 22 fatal crashes across the world in 2012, a decline from the 28 seen in 2011 and far lower from the 34 fatal accidents per year that is the average over the last decade. Of the 22 crashes, only 10 were of passenger aircraft, and just three were larger jetliners built in the West. The other seven were turboprops built in the West or Russia.

Secrecy of Memo on Drone Killing Is Upheld

by Adam Liptak

WASHINGTON – A federal judge in Manhattan refused on Wednesday to require the Justice Department to disclose a memorandum providing the legal justification for the targeted killing of a United States citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, who died in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

The ruling, by Judge Colleen McMahon, was marked by skepticism about the antiterrorist program that targeted him, and frustration with her own role in keeping the legal rationale for it secret.

“I can find no way around the thicket of laws and precedents that effectively allow the executive branch of our government to proclaim as perfectly lawful certain actions that seem on their face incompatible with our Constitution and laws while keeping the reasons for their conclusion a secret,” she wrote.

“The Alice-in-Wonderland nature of this pronouncement is not lost on me,” Judge McMahon wrote, adding that she was operating in a legal environment that amounted to “a veritable Catch-22.”

A lawsuit for the memorandum and related materials was filed under the Freedom of Information Act by The New York Times and two of its reporters, Charlie Savage and Scott Shane. Wednesday’s decision also rejected a broader request under the act from the American Civil Liberties Union.

David E. McCraw, a lawyer for The Times, said the paper would appeal.

Sigh.  The not troll in me is strong despite my birth below the bridge and it’s extremely hard to hide my green and gold heritage at times like this so I seldom bother.

I don’t care who they play much, when the pack is on the field I remember things like this–

The Packers are the only non-profit, community-owned major league professional sports team in the United States.

Try as I might I can’t find a topper to that single statement.  Today they face the all purples, but I’m a class warrior over ethnic, bachelor farmers not withstanding however soothing and melifluous their tones.

The Vikings are disadvantaged by the injury of Christian Ponder who may not start and by Lambeau Field, the 12th player.  On the other hand they beat the Pack just last week 37 – 34.