Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY 7) gave a speechless speech on the floor of the House to rant about the GOP’s lack of bills to create jobs.

He broke a little new ground in the area of floor speeches by giving an entire floor speech but not speaking at all.

Standing in front of an easel, he ripped down sheets of paper with words on them, giving his angry speech, but not actually saying a word of the partisan invective.

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.

April 17 is the 107th day of the year (108th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 258 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1961, The Bay of Pigs invasion begins when a CIA-financed and -trained group of Cuban refugees lands in Cuba and attempts to topple the communist government of Fidel Castro. The attack was an utter failure.

Fidel Castro had been a concern to U.S. policymakers since he seized power in Cuba with a revolution in January 1959. Castro’s attacks on U.S. companies and interests in Cuba, his inflammatory anti-American rhetoric, and Cuba’s movement toward a closer relationship with the Soviet Union led U.S. officials to conclude that the Cuban leader was a threat to U.S. interests in the Western Hemisphere. In March 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the CIA to train and arm a force of Cuban exiles for an armed attack on Cuba. John F. Kennedy inherited this program when he became president in 1961.

Political Background

On March 17, 1960, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved a document prepared by the 5412 Committee (also known as the ‘Special Group’), at a meeting of the US National Security Council (NSC). The stated first objective of the plan began as follows:

   A PROGRAM OF COVERT ACTION AGAINST THE CASTRO REGIME

   1. Objective: The purpose of the program outlined herein is to bring about the replacement of the Castro regime with one more devoted to the true interests of the Cuban people and more acceptable to the U.S. in such a manner to avoid any appearance of U.S. intervention.

The outline plan (code-named Operation Pluto) was organized by CIA Deputy Director for Plans Richard Mervin Bissell, Jr., under CIA Director Allen Dulles. Having experience in actions such as the 1954 Guatemalan coup d’etat, Dulles was confident that the CIA was capable of overthrowing the Cuban government as led by prime minister Fidel Castro since February 1959. The first detailed CIA plan proposed a ship-borne invasion at the old colonial city of Trinidad, Cuba, about 270 km (170 mi) south-east of Havana, at the foothills of the Escambray Mountains in Sancti Spiritus province. Trinidad had good port facilities, it was closer to many existing counter-revolutionary activities, it had an easily defensible beachhead, and it offered an escape route into the Escambray Mountains. When that plan was rejected by the State Department, the CIA went on to propose an alternative plan. On April 4, 1961, President Kennedy then approved the Bay of Pigs plan (also known as Operation Zapata), because it had an airfield that would not need to be extended to handle bomber operations, it was further away from large groups of civilians than the Trinidad plan, and it was less “noisy” militarily, which would make any future denial of direct US involvement more plausible. The invasion landing area was changed to beaches bordering the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) in Las Villas Province, 150 km south-east of Havana, and east of the Zapata peninsula. The landings were to take place at Playa Giron (code-named Blue Beach), Playa Larga (code-named Red Beach), and Caleta Buena Inlet (code-named Green Beach).

In March 1961, the CIA helped Cuban exiles in Miami to create the Cuban Revolutionary Council (CRC), chaired by Jose Miro Cardona, former Prime Minister of Cuba in January 1959. Cardona became the de facto leader-in-waiting of the intended post-invasion Cuban government.

Bay of Pigs: The Invasion

The first part of the plan was to destroy Castro’s tiny air force, making it impossible for his military to resist the invaders. On April 15, 1961, a group of Cuban exiles took off from Nicaragua in a squadron of American B-26 bombers, painted to look like stolen Cuban planes, and conducted a strike against Cuban airfields. However, it turned out that Castro and his advisers knew about the raid and had moved his planes out of harm’s way. Frustrated, Kennedy began to suspect that the plan the CIA had promised would be “both clandestine and successful” might in fact be “too large to be clandestine and too small to be successful.”

But it was too late to apply the brakes. On April 17, the Cuban exile brigade began its invasion at an isolated spot on the island’s southern shore known as the Bay of Pigs. Almost immediately, the invasion was a disaster. The CIA had wanted to keep it a secret for as long as possible, but a radio station on the beach (which the agency’s reconnaissance team had failed to spot) broadcast every detail of the operation to listeners across Cuba. Unexpected coral reefs sank some of the exiles’ ships as they pulled into shore. Backup paratroopers landed in the wrong place. Before long, Castro’s troops had pinned the invaders on the beach, and the exiles surrendered after less than a day of fighting; 114 were killed and over 1,100 were taken prisoner.

Bay of Pigs: The Aftermath

According to many historians, the CIA and the Cuban exile brigade believed that President Kennedy would eventually allow the American military to intervene in Cuba on their behalf. However, the president was resolute: As much as he did not want to “abandon Cuba to the communists,” he said, he would not start a fight that might end in World War III. His efforts to overthrow Castro never flagged-in November 1961, he approved Operation Mongoose, an espionage and sabotage campaign-but never went so far as to provoke an outright war. In 1962, the Cuban missile crisis inflamed American-Cuban-Soviet tensions even further.

Fidel Castro is still Cuba’s symbolic leader today, although his younger brother Raul (1931-) has taken over the presidency and serves as commander in chief of the armed forces.

 69 – After the First Battle of Bedriacum, Vitellius becomes Roman Emperor.

1080 – King of Denmark Harald III dies and is succeeded by Canute IV, who would later be the first Dane to be canonized.

1397 – Geoffrey Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II. Chaucer scholars have also identified this date (in 1387) the start of the book’s pilgrimage to Canterbury.

1492 – Spain and Christopher Columbus sign the Capitulations of Santa Fe for his voyage to Asia to acquire spices.

1521 – Martin Luther speaks to the assembly at the Diet of Worms, refusing to recant his teachings.

1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano reaches New York harbor.

1555 – After 18 months of siege, Siena surrenders to the Florentine-Imperial army. The Republic of Siena is incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

1797 – Sir Ralph Abercromby attacks San Juan, Puerto Rico in what would be one of the largest invasions of the Spanish territories in America.

1797 – Citizens of Verona, Italy, begin an eight-day rebellion against the French occupying forces, which will end unsuccessfully.

1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Plymouth begins – Confederate forces attack Plymouth, North Carolina.

1895 – The Treaty of Shimonoseki between China and Japan is signed. This marks the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtien province, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands to Japan.

1905 – The Supreme Court of the United States decides Lochner v. New York which holds that the “right to free contract” is implicit in the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

1907 – The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day.

1912 – Russian troops open fire on striking goldfield workers in northeast Siberia, killing at least 150.

1941 – World War II: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany.

1942 – French prisoner of war General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Konigstein.

1945 – Brazilian forces liberate the town of Montese, Italy, from German Nazi forces.

1946 – Syria obtains its Independence from the French occupation.

1949 – At midnight 26 Irish counties officially leave the British Commonwealth. A 21-gun salute on O’Connell Bridge, Dublin, ushers in the Republic of Ireland.

1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban refugees lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.

1964 – Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to circumnavigate the world by air.

1969 – Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.

1969 – Czechoslovakian Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubcek is deposed.

1970 – Apollo program: The ill-fated Apollo 13 spacecraft returns to Earth safely.

1971 – The People’s Republic of Bangladesh forms, under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Mujibnagor.

1975 – The Cambodian Civil War ends. The Khmer Rouge captures the capital Phnom Penh and Cambodian government forces surrender.

1982 – Patriation of the Canadian constitution in Ottawa by Proclamation of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada.

1984 – Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher is killed by gunfire from the Libyan People’s Bureau in London during a small demonstration outside the embassy. Ten others are wounded. The events lead to an 11-day siege of the building.

1986 – The Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years’ War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly ends.

2006 – Sami Hammad, a Palestinian suicide bomber, detonates an explosive device in Tel Aviv, killing 11 people and injuring 70.

Holidays and observances

   * Christian Feast Day:

       Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (Canada)

       Pope Anicetus

       April 17 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   * Earliest day on which Store Bededag or General Prayer Day can fall, while May 13 is the latest; observed on the 4th Friday after Easter day. (Denmark)

   * Evacuation Day, celebrates the recognition of the independence of Syria from France in 1946.

   * FAO Day (Iraq)

   * Flag Day (American Samoa)

   * Women’s Day (Gabon)

   *World Hemophilia Day (International)

Actually this diary is not about food so much as it is about writing.

From 1934 to 1975 Rex Stout chronicled the adventures of Archie Goodwin (fictional detective) and Nero Wolfe.

If you have not yet made Archie’s acquaintance yet you really should.  He’s a fun guy.  Dances 2 or 3 nights a week, heiress girlfriend with interesting connections that can usually scare up a buck or two. Often deployed by his boss as a sympathetic face for the women to cry on the shoulder of.

Still, among your other exciting duties are the cataloging of the orchid hybrids and book keeping.

About Nero

His name is taken from The Black Mountain where he and Marko were born and where he served in Italian Intelligence during the first world war.  He has a house in Egypt you know.

Yet it is hard to pry him away from 35th street where he keeps a very rigid schedule.

• 9 to 11 Orchids.
• 4 to 6 Orchids.
• Lunch is usually at 1:15 p.m.
• Dinner is generally at 7:15 or 7:30 p.m.

He is obsessed with sausage recipes and never does business outside his house except when tempted by his love of food and flowers.  When he is not otherwise occupied he reads books about which he has strong opinions.

What makes Nero Nero instead of a Mycroft Holmes variant is that he’s admirably mercenary.  He’s not interested in detecting so much as he is in making money, right up to his Galtian marginal tax rate.

eksmas

Among the gems at eksmas was a gift from Aunty Mame- an out of print copy of the Nero Wolf Cookbook-

Wolfe-

Archie-

Fritz-

Shad Roe

Note:

“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”.

The Sunday Talking Heads:

This Week with Christiane Amanpour: Ms. Amanpour’s guest will be Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner discussing the debt ceiling. A gang of Tea Party Republicans, Reps. Joe Walsh (R-Ill), Steve Southerland (R-Fl), Renee Ellmers (R-NC) and Allen West (R-Fl), “debate” that and the looming debt crisis and Donald Trump.

The roundtable with George Will, economist Alice Rivlin of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, political strategist Matthew Dowd and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick debate the competing budget plans.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr. Scheiffer’s guests are Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) to  discuss the deficit and debt reduction

The Chris Matthews Show: This week’s guests are Joe Klein, TIME Columnist, Norah O’Donnell, MSNBC Chief Washington Correspondent, Becky Quick, CNBC Co-Anchor, Squawk Box and Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Beast Editor, The Dish, who will discuss these questions:

Why is raising taxes on the rich so tough?

What if there Is no hell?

Meet the Press with David Gregory:Tim Geithner makes another appearance to discuss spending and the debt ceiling and Gov. Deval Patrick (D-MA)joins David Gregory to discuss the candidacy of Mitt Romney.

At the round table, Fmr. chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan; Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Fmr. Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-MI); author Jon Meacham; and author of the new book “Fail Up,” PBS’s Tavis Smiley will add their opinions on Romney

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York will join Ms Crowley exclusively to debate the buget competing proposals.

Former CIA Director, Gen. Michael Hayden (Ret.) will discuss the Libya crisis. The former president of Shell Oil, John Hofmeister will try to explain rising gas prices when there is no shortage and another interview with Donald Trump

Now that you’ve read this, you can go back to bed or get out in the fresh air.

Glenn Greenwald: Mission Transformation in Libya

Barack Obama, March 28, 2011, explaining America’s involvement in the war in Libya:

   Of course, there is no question that Libya — and the world — would be better off with Qaddafi out of power. I, along with many other world leaders, have embraced that goal, and will actively pursue it through non-military means. But broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake.

Barack Obama, David Cameron, Nicolas Sarkozy, joint Op-Ed, yesterday:

   The bombing continues until Gaddafi goes

   Our duty and our mandate under UN Security Council Resolution 1973 is to protect civilians, and we are doing that. It is not to remove Gaddafi by force. . . . However, so long as Gaddafi is in power, Nato and its coalition partners must maintain their operations so that civilians remain protected and the pressure on the regime builds. Then a genuine transition from dictatorship to an inclusive constitutional process can really begin, led by a new generation of leaders. For that transition to succeed, Colonel Gaddafi must go, and go for good.

Whatever one thinks about this war limited humanitarian intervention on the merits, this is not the mission that Obama cited when justifying America’s involvement. It’s the opposite:  “broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake” v. “so long as Gaddafi is in power, Nato and its coalition partners must maintain their operations.” To claim that “regime change” is subsumbed under the goal of “protecting civilians” is to define that objective so broadly as to render it meaningless and, independently, is to violate Obama’s explicit decree at the start that regime change would not be the military goal.  Finally, note the blithe dismissal of the very limited U.N. Resolution that initially justified all this: it does not provide for regime change in Libya by force, acknowledged the three leaders, but that, in essence, is what we’re going to do anyway (continue “operations” until he’s gone).

John Nichols: How Socialists Built America

This article is adapted from The “S” Word: A Short History of an American Tradition… Socialism, published in March by Verso.

If there’s one constant in the elite national discourse of the moment, it is the claim that America was founded as a capitalist country and that socialism is a dangerous foreign import that, despite our unwarranted faith in free trade, must be barred at the border. This most conventional “wisdom”-increasingly accepted at least until the recent grassroots mobilizations in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and Maine-has held that everything public is inferior to everything private, that corporations are always good and unions always bad, that progressive taxation is inherently evil and that the best economic model is the one that allows the wealthy to gobble up as much of the Republic as they choose before anything trickles down to the great mass of Americans. Rush Limbaugh informs us regularly that proposals to tax people as rich as he is for the purpose of providing healthcare for kids and jobs for the unemployed are “antithetical” to the nation’s original intent and that Barack Obama’s reforms are “destroying this country as it was founded.”

MIchelle Chen: A Year On, BP Oil Still Mars Gulf Communities, Public Scrutiny Dries Up

The April 14 meeting proceeded efficiently, as scheduled, for BP shareholders. For the workers, environmentalists and community members rallying in protest, though, the day of reckoning had yet to arrive.

The government and media may be moving on from aftermath of the Deepwater disaster, but the scars left behind by the spill are still raw and festering.

First, Congress has passed no legislation to prevent the kind of disaster that touched off the explosion that killed 11 workers and poured masses of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Bill McKibben; What if Your President’s Just Not That Into You?

Tomorrow in Washington, at the sprawling and wonderful Power Shift, a few of us are on a panel titled “What If Your President’s Just Not That Into You?” Funny title, serious question.

The first thing: those of us in the environmental movement aren’t high school sophomores feeling jilted by their first crush. Most of us liked Obama a lot: I was among the first green leaders to join upon ‘Environmentalists for Obama,’ back when he seemed a longshot. It wasn’t because I thought he would solve every problem; it’s because I thought he’d make climate change one of the top two priorities of his presidency. And he thought so too: on the day in June of 2008 when he finally clinched the nomination he said that people would someday look back and say “this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

A couple of days ago, while I was taking my 10 o’clock constitutional :), I was fortunate enough to be graced by nature. There in a scraggly tree still bare from its winter sleep was a handsome raptor.

Now, palantir is a city-boy and this was as close as I’d ever come to anything wilder than biker bar. So I was, as every smoker who passed, intrigued by the magnificent bird.

I was beginning to feel guilty about gawking at a raptor instead of a report, so back inside I went. Once there though I had to share, so in seconds I had an entire neighborhood of cube people peepin out the window to check out the hawk in a tree. After chatting a bit I started a search for Illinois hawks to determine what species it was, although I was fairly certain it was a red-tailed hawk. That led me to A Pictoral Guide to Illinois Birds There are a quite a few birds of prey in Illinois. Rough-legged hawk (Buteo lagopus) This is a broad-winged raptor, typical of the genus Buteo. Compared to the Common Buzzard, it is longer-winged and more eagle-like in appearance. Its feet are feathered to the toes (hence its scientific name, meaning “hare-footed”) as an adaptation to its arctic home range. Its toes are short for its size.Wiki Broad-winged hawk (Buteo platypterus) The Broad-winged Hawk (Buteo platypterus) is a small hawk of the Buteo genus. During the summer they are distributed over most of eastern North America, to as far west as the Alberta province and Texas; they then migrate south to winter in the neotropics from Mexico down to Southern Brazil. Many of the subspecies in the Caribbean are endemic and most do not migrate. Adult birds range in size from 34 to 45 cm (13 to 18 in), weigh from 265 to 560 g (9.4 oz to 1.2 lbs) and have a wingspan from 81 to 100 cm (32 to 40 in). As in most raptors, females are slightly larger than males. Adults have dark brown upper parts and evenly spaced black and white bands on the tail. Broad-winged Hawks’ wings are relatively short and broad with a tapered, somewhat pointed appearance unique to this species.Wiki Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) Males are 43 to 58 centimetres (17 to 23 in) long, weigh about 550 g (19 oz) (1.2 lbs) and have a wingspan of 96 cm (38 in). Females are slightly larger at 48 to 61 cm (19 to 24 in) in length, a weight of about 700 g (25 oz), and a wingspan of about 105 cm (41 in). Adults have brownish heads, reddish chests, and pale bellies with reddish bars. Their tails, which are quite long by Buteo standards, is marked with narrow white bars. Red “shoulders” are visible when the birds are perched. These hawks’ upper parts are dark with pale spots and they have long yellow legs. Western birds may appear more red, while Florida birds are generally paler. The wings of adults are more heavily barred on the upper side. Juvenile Red-shouldered Hawks are most likely to be confused with juvenile Broad-winged Hawks, but can be distinguished by their long tails, crescent-like wing markings, and a more flapping, Accipiter-like flight style. This bird is often confused with the Red-tailed Hawk. Wiki Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) The Hen Harrier (Circus cyaneus) or Northern Harrier (in North America) is a bird of prey. It breeds throughout the northern parts of the northern hemisphere in Canada and the northernmost USA, and in northern Eurasia. This species is polytypic, with two subspecies. Marsh Hawk is a historical name for the American form. It migrates to more southerly areas in winter. Eurasian birds move to southern Europe and southern temperate Asia, and American breeders to the southernmost USA, Mexico, and Central America. In the mildest regions, such as France, Great Britain, and the southern US, Hen Harriers may be present all year, but the higher ground is largely deserted in winter.Wiki Cooper’s Hawk (Accipitercooperii) The average size of an adult male ranges from 280 to 350 g with a length between 35 and 46 cm. The adult male is significantly smaller than the average female, which are 440 to 570 g and 42 to 50 cm long. Individuals living in the eastern regions tend to be larger and heavier than those in the western regions. All have short rounded wings and a very long tail with dark bands, round-ended at the tip. Adults have red eyes and have a black cap, with blue-gray upper parts and white underparts with fine, thin, reddish bars. Their tail is blue gray on top and pale underneath, barred with black bands.Wiki Sure enough, however, it was as I thought… Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) The Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is a bird of prey, one of three species colloquially known in the United States as the “chickenhawk,” though it rarely preys on chickens. It breeds throughout most of North America, from western Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies, and is one of the most common buteos in North America. Red-tailed Hawks can acclimate to all the biomes within its range. There are fourteen recognized subspecies, which vary in appearance and range. It is one of the largest members of the genus Buteo in North America, typically weighing from 690 to 1600 grams (1.5 to 3.5 pounds) and measuring 45-65 cm (18 to 26 in) in length, with a wingspan from 110 to 145 cm (43 to 57 in). The Red-tailed Hawk displays sexual dimorphism in size, with females averaging about 25% heavier than males.Wiki I wanted to take some pictures and, since the bird seemed to be amused by the humans traipsing up and back, he was still there when I got back with my new fangled phone. From the top floor I’d noticed a patch of color that, from there, I thought odd, but now as I moved around to snap a profile that the bird I saw that the bird had been tagged-090. Of course, that boded ill for my reports, raptors were the first order of business now, so back to the intertubes. I searched for banded red-tailed hawks. I ran across this article Red-tailed hawk seen on U of I campus subject of O’Hare study Back on the morning of January 21st, I was dutifully pecking away at my keyboard when I got a phone call from a coworker one floor below. “Quick,” she gasped, “clook outside, there’s a huge bird!” I was at the window in a flash, and there, perched atop the nearest streetlight, was a first-year red-tailed hawk. Now, a red-tailed hawk is an everyday bird in Illinois, and I wouldn’t mention this one had it not been for something I noticed as I photographed it; it was wearing on its wings great big tags, marked with the number 80. Snap! I named that bird song in two googles 🙂 I’ll have the actual study in 3! red-tailed hawk o’hare study and I had it: Tagged red-tailed Hawks released near O’Hare – please report sightings To: Birding Groups Subject: Red-tailed Hawk Research Date: 10/19/2010 USDA APHIS Wildlife Services (WS) and the National Wildlife Research Center have started a mark/re-sighting study on red-tailed hawks as part of the ongoing efforts to find non-lethal solutions to wildlife issues at airports. For the mark/re-sighting study, we are marking roughly 200 birds/year for the next three years and relocating them 50, 75, 100, and 125 miles due west of a major airport in the Chicago region. This year the tags are green with white numbers ranging from 000 to 200. Next year (2011) they will be white with black numbers 000 to 200, and the following year (2012) orange with black numbers 000 to 200. We want to see if there is a difference in the return rates of the birds back to the airport, depending on how far away from the airport we move them. These birds will also be fitted with a metal USGS leg band. If anyone observes these birds, please feel free to contact Craig Pullins ([email protected]) at (773) 686-6742 or Travis Guerrant ([email protected]) at (773) 686-6955. If possible, time, date and GPS location would be greatly appreciated, but any information you can provide would be helpful. Thank you, Travis Guerrant Wildlife Biologist, IL Wildlife Services That evening I sent Craig and Travis an email including the 3 pictures I took and asked for the particulars for 090. Craig Pullins kindly replied… Mike, Thank you for the info and the pictures, it is very interesting for us to hear about where these birds are hanging out. The bird you spotted is part of a study being conducted at O’Hare Airport in Chicago to determine if relocation distance from the airport has any influence on the return rate of these birds back to the airport. We just finished our first year of the study and plan to continue it for at least the next 2 years. The bird you saw looks to be #90 and it was originally caught on 9/29/10 at ORD and was relocated to a state park in Whiteside County. You might be interested to read the article published in a newspaper in Champaign about the study (the story mentioned above). I was interested in some other statistics and where exactly 090 was released, so I sent Craig another email. He said that they didn’t weigh or determine the sex of the captured hawks and that they released 090 in Morrison-Rockwood State Park in Whiteside County about 100 miles from O’hare airport. That was my science adventure this week. I wonder what might be next. Thanks for giving this a read.

Japan nuclear crisis ‘over in nine months’

The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has said it expects to bring the crisis under control by the end of the year.



Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said it aimed to reduce radiation leaks in three months and to cool the reactors within nine months.

The utility said it also plans to cover the reactor building, which was hit by a huge quake and tsunami on 11 March.

Nearly 14,000 people died and another 14,000 are still unaccounted for.

Tepco unveiled its roadmap as Hillary Clinton flew into Tokyo to pledge America’s “steadfast support” for Japan’s reconstruction.

Siena Palio: scrap cruel street races, activists say

Italian animal-welfare group says local races must be stopped to protect horses

Tom Kington in Rome The Observer,Sunday 17 April 2011

Animal-welfare activists are demanding that the famous Siena Palio and other Italian horse races are shut down as concerns grow over the number of animals dying on the streets of ancient towns.

Staged in Siena’s steep Piazza del Campo amid medieval pageantry and thousands of cheering spectators, the Palio has pitched jockeys from the city’s neighbourhoods against each other every year on this course since 1659. But the leading Italian animal welfare group LAV (Anti-Vivisection League) is calling for the event to be scrapped, citing the deaths of 48 horses between 1970 and 2007 after collisions and crashes on the tightly curved course.

Misrata becomes Libya’s Stalingrad

The brutality of attacks on the rebel city reveal how important reclaiming the port is to Col Gaddafi

By Kim Sengupta  Sunday, 17 April 2011

The “dawn chorus” came in on time, salvos of missiles crashing down with shattering noise, burning buildings, killing and maiming people. It was the start of another day in Misrata, the city whose fate may decide the military outcome of this brutal civil war.

The besieged and battered bastion has become Libya’s Stalingrad. The fall of Misrata would not only be a huge symbolic and psychological triumph for Muammar Gaddafi, but also end significant opposition to his rule in the west of the country.

It is this defiance and determination only 150 miles from where he sits in Tripoli that seem to enrage the dictator of Libya.

Dynamic cities – despite challenges – key to nation’s future



By Garth Stapley | McClatchy Newspapers

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Vibrant, dynamic cities hold mankind’s best hope for the future despite chronic problems with housing, transportation and crumbling services, some big names in public policy told a national gathering of land-use journalists.

“Cities have never had more intensity, more magnetism,” said Adrian Fenty, former mayor of Washington, D.C., on Friday at Harvard University. However, “nowhere have (economic) problems been seen more than at the city level.”

The forum’s participants pointed out _ sometimes in caustic tones _ how a lack of political will was risking America’s best hope for resuscitating its urban centers.

New theory on date of Last Supper

 

Leesha McKenny April 17, 2011

ONE of the most famous meals in history is commemorated a day late, a new book by a Cambridge University physicist claims.

Professor Sir Colin Humphreys, who was knighted last year for his contribution to science, argues that the last supper Jesus Christ shared with his disciples occurred on Wednesday, April 1, AD33, rather than on a Thursday as traditionally celebrated in most Christian churches.

The theory would explain the apparent inconsistencies between the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke – which say the Last Supper was a Passover meal – and that of John, which says Jesus was tried and executed before the Jewish festival. It would explain another puzzle: why the Bible has not allowed enough time for all events recorded between the Last Supper and the Crucifixion.

Facebook looks to cash in on user data

Profiles, status updates and messages all include a mother lode of voluntarily provided information. The social media site is using it to help advertisers find exactly who they want to reach. Privacy watchdogs are aghast.

By Jessica Guynn April 17, 2011

Reporting from Palo Alto– Julee Morrison has been obsessed with Bon Jovi since she was a teenager.

So when paid ads for fan sites started popping up on the 41-year-old Salt Lake City blogger’s Facebook page, she was thrilled. She described herself as a “clicking fool,” perusing videos and photos of the New Jersey rockers.

Then it dawned on Morrison why all those Bon Jovi ads appeared every time she logged on to the social networking site.

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Rachel Maddow notes that as the awareness of the inadequacies of the safety improvements in deep water drilling is growing, the Department of Interior had decided to stop issuing press releases when they grant drilling permits.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – With everything Big Oil and the government have learned in the year since the Gulf of Mexico disaster, could it happen again? Absolutely, according to an Associated Press examination of the industry and interviews with experts on the perils of deep-sea drilling.

The government has given the OK for oil exploration in treacherously deep waters to resume, saying it is confident such drilling can be done safely. The industry has given similar assurances. But there are still serious questions in some quarters about whether the lessons of the BP oil spill have been applied.

The industry “is ill-prepared at the least,” said Charles Perrow, a Yale University professor specializing in accidents involving high-risk technologies. “I have seen no evidence that they have marshaled containment efforts that are sufficient to deal with another major spill. I don’t think they have found ways to change the corporate culture sufficiently to prevent future accidents.”

He added: “There are so many opportunities for things to go wrong that major spills are unavoidable.”

WASHINGTON – A year after BP’s Macondo well blew out, killing 11 men and spewing millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the much-maligned federal agency responsible for policing offshore drilling has been remade, with a tough new director, an awkward new name and a sheaf of stricter safety rules. It is also trying to put some distance between itself and the industry it regulates.

But is it fixed? The simple answer is no. Even those who run the agency formerly known as the Minerals Management Service concede that it will be years before they can establish a robust regulatory regime able to minimize the risks to workers and the environment while still allowing exploration offshore.

“We are much safer today than we were a year ago,” said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who oversees the agency, “but we know we have more to do.”

Oil industry executives and their allies in Congress said that the Obama administration, in its zeal to overhaul the agency, has lost sight of what they believe the agency’s fundamental mission should be – promoting the development of the nation’s offshore oil and gas resources. Environmentalists said the agency, now known as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, has made only cosmetic changes and remains too close to the people it is supposed to regulate.

About tire strategy

It was odd last night to watch pretty much everyone except McLaren and the one Red Bull left sit in the pits until there was only 2 minutes left in Q3 (time enough for one warm up and one hot lap).

They are very concerned about having enough Soft Pirellis and those are going off quickly, particularly if abused from the start which is, unfortunately, typical.

Tyre allocation has been reduced for 2011, with 11 rather than 14 sets of dry-weather tyres available to each driver per race weekend. Drivers will receive three sets (two prime, one option) to use in P1 and P2 and must return one set after each session. A further eight sets will then be at their disposal for the rest of the weekend, although one set of each specification must be handed back before qualifying.

So in total you have eight sets of Softs to get you through the final 2 practices (one before the Qualifying and ‘Warm Up Laps’ pre-race) and 3 rounds of Qualifying and then the race.  Some desperate soul sometime is going to make themselves famous by running an all Prime strategy but it hasn’t happened yet though some of the also rans have attemped it.

KERS you!

Mark Webber is pretty pissed off today.  In a car supposedly identical to pole sitter and Championship leader Sebastian Vettel’s, his KERS software is sucking power like a broken air conditioner at all the wrong places.

Speaking of Red Bull, Scuderia ‘I’ll have a cigarette with my espresso’ will start surprisingly strong.  Michael Schumacher once again under performs, his team mate Nico Rosberg is driving a contender.  Scuderia Marlboro UPC is over rated.  Paul di Resta impresses, Petrov couldn’t even put it back on the track.

It’s still very early in the season, this is only the third race of 19 and there are lots of points out there, but like The America’s Cup and Le Tour, Formula One tends to magnify advantages.  As a die hard McLaren fan I’m really satisfied with their performance this year, but Red Bull doesn’t seem to be suffering from their hardware failures.

• F1: Shanghai Qualifying
• Formula One Official Site
• Speed Racecast

Re-broadcast Monday at noon.

Pretty tables below.

The Q-Laps field gives an indication of tire and engine wear during qualifying.  Petrov did not take the track for a timed lap during Q3 even though he advanced, his best Q-Time was 1:35.149.

Starting Grid

Driver Standings

Constructor Standings

Regular Features-

• Late Night Karaoke by mishima
• Six In The Morning by mishima

Featured Essays for April 16, 2011-

• More on the movie, "The Town"–No Sympathy for Doug or Claire: by mplo
• Republicans run public deficits because that increases private wealth. by BruceMcF
• Kucinich 2012! by ek hornbeck
• Obama: A True Progressive Moving Forward by Edger
• What’s Cooking: Sweet Potato Mash by TheMomCat
• Popular Culture (Music) 20110415: Eight Track Tapes (with Poll!) by Translator

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(midnight. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

This is an Open Thread

Essays Featured Saturday the 16^th of April:

Late Night Karaoke has the spotlight on Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem, mishima DJs

Six Brilliant Articles! from Six Different Places!! on Six Different Topics!!!

                Six Days a Week!!!    at Six in the Morning!!!!

Saturday Open Thoughts has Alma  moaning about ‘Puter Problems & BSOD

A gorgeous piece of Saturday Art! from mishima‘s talented hands.

Happy Birthday Alma!!

I Like It TOO! brazenly stolen from edger

The most recent Popular Culture  from Translator discusses Eight Track Tapes (with Poll!)

join the conversation! come firefly-dreaming with me….