Punting the Pundits

“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”

Paul Krugman: The President Is Missing

What have they done with President Obama? What happened to the inspirational figure his supporters thought they elected? Who is this bland, timid guy who doesn’t seem to stand for anything in particular? I realize that with hostile Republicans controlling the House, there’s not much Mr. Obama can get done in the way of concrete policy. Arguably, all he has left is the bully pulpit. But he isn’t even using that – or, rather, he’s using it to reinforce his enemies’ narrative.

His remarks after last week’s budget deal were a case in point.

E.J. Dionne, Jr.: The End of Shutdowns

One image perfectly captured the absurd, irrational and wholly unnecessary confrontation over whether to shut down the federal government on the basis of differences over a small part of the budget.

During a tea party rally near the Capitol last Wednesday-“rally” being generous for a gathering of a few hundred people-Rep. Mike Pence, the Republican fire-eater from Indiana, declared that if Senate Democrats refused to accept “a modest down payment on fiscal discipline and reform, I say, ‘Shut it down!’ ”

And the crowd erupted, lustily and joyfully: “Shut it down! Shut it down!”

As the shouting persisted, it became clear that the government of the most powerful country in the world was being held hostage by a band of fanatics who (1) represent a very small proportion of our population; (2) hate government so much that they relished the idea of closing its doors, no matter the cost; and (3) have neither respect nor patience for the normal democratic give-and-take between competing parties and points of view.

New York Times Editorial: The Crisis Next Time

The federal government survived the hostage crisis created by House Republicans, but emerged staggering from the deal struck Friday night. The compromises were damaging, the amount of money cut from a sickly economy was severe, and the image of Washington as a back-alley dogfighting garage will not soon fade.

snip

The worst aspect of the deal, however, was the momentum it gave to Republicans who have hoodwinked many Americans into believing that short-term cuts in spending will be good for the economy. After the agreement was reached, President Obama actually patted himself on the back for agreeing to the “largest annual spending cut in our history.”

Johann Hari: We’re Not Being Told the Truth on Libya

Look at two other wars our government is currently deeply involved in – because they show that the claims made for this bombing campaign can’t be true

Most of us have a low feeling that we are not being told the real reasons for the war in Libya. David Cameron’s instinctive response to the Arab revolutions was to jump on a plane and tour the palaces of the region’s dictators selling them the most hi-tech weapons of repression available. Nicolas Sarkozy’s instinctive response to the Arab revolutions was to offer urgent aid to the Tunisian tyrant in crushing his people. Barack Obama’s instinctive response to the Arab revolutions was to refuse to trim the billions in aid going to Hosni Mubarak and his murderous secret police, and for his Vice-President to declare: “I would not refer to him as a dictator.”

Rania Khalek: the Media Promotes Ignorance and Stifles Debate

Friday night, my eyes were glued to to the news, as I awaited any and all emerging details about the possible government shutdown. As outlets began reporting that republicans and democrats had finally reached a deal, I immediately felt a sense of relief.  Thank goodness, I thought, so much unnecessary suffering averted.  But the relief didn’t last long, because in the pit of my stomach was fear for the many millions of people who will be affected by the $38 billion in budget cuts passed by congress. Unfortunately, the media feels differently, preferring to discuss ad-nausium the budget cut’s political ramifications for the two parties.

The same thing happened when the GOP was determined to shutdown the government if democrats did not sign on to defunding Planned Parenthood.  Again, the media’s focus was not on the health of the 3 million people the organization treats every year, by providing cancer screenings, HIV and STI checks, and contraceptives.  They focused on how this painted republicans as partisan ideologues, or the democrats as supporters for women’s rights, which party was to blame for the almost-shutdown, and most notably, the consequences this would have on their popularity.

Monday Business Edition

Monday Business Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Business

1 Karzai unveils action on troubled Kabul Bank

by Sardar Ahmad, AFP

2 hrs 1 min ago

KABUL (AFP) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday announced action against bad loans and rogue shareholders in the war-torn country’s troubled Kabul Bank, which came close to collapse last year.

The bank had to be taken over by Afghanistan’s central bank after claims that former executives granted themselves off-the-book loans worth a reported 900 million dollars which were partly used to buy luxury properties in Dubai.

The crisis has highlighted chaos and corruption in Afghanistan’s financial system, more than nine years after Karzai’s Western-supported government replaced the Taliban regime following a US-led invasion in 2001.

AFP

2 British banks ‘need to ringfence retail operations’

by Roland Jackson, AFP

2 hrs 3 mins ago

LONDON (AFP) – British banks need to ringfence their retail operations from investment bank activities, the Independent Commission on Banking said Monday in a report aimed at preventing more state bailouts.

The ICB, launched last year in the wake of the global financial crisis, also proposed raising capital requirements and recommended that state-rescued Lloyds Banking Group should sell off more assets to boost competition.

“The Commission is … considering forms of retail ring-fencing under which retail banking operations would be carried out by a separate subsidiary within a wider group,” the ICB said in a provisional report.

3 British, Dutch announce litigation after Icesave ‘no’ vote

by Agnes Valdimarsdottir, AFP

Mon Apr 11, 3:21 am ET

REYKJAVIK (AFP) – Britain and The Netherlands have said they will return to the courts to get Iceland to refund them billions of euros after voters there said “no” in a referendum to the reimbursement plan.

Iceland’s government insisted it could pay back more than 90 percent of the money lost, despite most voters having rejected a deal to refund 3.9 billion euros ($5.6 billion) to the two countries, according to partial results.

“The Icelandic state has absolutely no problem in repaying its debts” resulting from the collapse of the Icesave bank, Finance Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson told reporters.

4 Iceland has ‘no problem’ repaying debt

by Agnes Valdimarsdottir, AFP

Sun Apr 10, 11:04 am ET

REYKJAVIK (AFP) – Iceland insisted on Sunday it has “no problem” repaying its debts as litigation loomed over voters’ rejection of a deal to reimburse The Netherlands and Britain for the collapse of Icesave bank.

“The Icelandic state has absolutely no problem in repaying its debts,” Finance Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson told a news conference the day after voters gave a resounding “no” to a proposed deal for repaying 3.9 billion euros ($5.6 billion) to the two countries.

“Iceland’s reserves are more than enough to cover all the payments in the coming years,” he added.

5 Japan’s post-disaster economy faces electric shock

by Hiroshi Hiyama, AFP

Sun Apr 10, 5:44 pm ET

TOKYO (AFP) – Japan’s economy, the world’s third-largest, has been in trouble for nearly a generation, but nothing prepared it for the brutal impact of power shortages following the March 11 disaster.

The 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami knocked out a sizable portion of the nation’s electricity supply, creating a ripple effect that has spread throughout the economy and leaving Japan with a new kind of problem.

“Over the past twenty years, the primary cause of economic downturns has been deficient aggregate demand,” BNP Paribas chief economist Ryutaro Kono said in a research note.

6 Berlin moves from capital of cool to start-up haven

by Patrick Rahir, AFP

Sun Apr 10, 6:35 pm ET

BERLIN (AFP) – Already a magnet for tourists and young artists, Berlin is attracting a new generation of Internet start-ups, changing the ways scientists interact or musicians store and share music.

So much so that US Internet giant Google is preparing to open a research centre in the German capital.

Based in the top floors of an anonymous building in former communist East Berlin, for example, SoundCloud, launched in 2008, is one of the fastest growing companies in the music world.

7 Portuguese president appeals for interim debt deal

AFP

Sat Apr 9, 1:33 pm ET

GODOLLO, Hungary (AFP) – Portugal’s president pleaded for mercy from the EU and IMF Saturday after they set tough conditions for an 80-billion-euro ($115 billion) bailout weeks ahead of snap general elections.

Anibal Cavaco Silva said that with new elections due on June 5 “what we need now is an interim programme so that the next government can take part in the final negotiations, because it is the next government that will implement” the deal that emerges.

“It’s understandable (and) we need, let’s say, a little imagination on the part of European institutions to come up with a suitable interim programme,” he added.

8 Tens of thousands against European austerity measures

by Eszter Balazs, AFP

Sat Apr 9, 11:54 am ET

BUDAPEST (AFP) – European and local trade unions held a massive demonstration in the Hungarian capital Budapest Saturday to protest austerity measures, on the margins of a meeting of European finance ministers.

“We want jobs, growth, our welfare state intact, and we are not going to pay for bankers’ mistakes,” European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) leader John Monks said in front of a crowd organisers estimated at 45,000.

The tens of thousands of marchers swarmed from everywhere from Spain to Romania into Budapest, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

9 World Bank highlights conflict as key to poverty

by Veronica Smith, AFP

Sun Apr 10, 10:12 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Conflict and violence are holding back global economic growth and trapping 1.5 billion people in dire poverty, the World Bank has said, calling for an international effort to break the cycle.

In countries affected by repeated cycles of political and criminal violence, poverty rates are 20 percentage points higher than in other countries, the World Bank said in a new report.

“If we are to break the cycles of violence and lessen the stresses that drive them, countries must develop more legitimate, accountable and capable national institutions that provide for citizen security, justice and jobs,” said World Bank president Robert Zoellick.

10 Britain’s ailing economy wins modest royal boost

by Ben Perry, AFP

Sun Apr 10, 6:28 am ET

LONDON (AFP) – Britons will throng pubs, buy gifts and host parties thanks to the royal wedding, and the tourism sector is set to gain, but the extra spending is unlikely to reignite Britain’s economy, analysts warn.

Retail analysts estimate up to £620 million (707 million euros, $1.0 billion) may be spent in Britain as a direct result of Prince William’s marriage to girlfriend Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey on April 29.

Britons are snapping up wedding memorabilia ahead of Britain’s biggest royal wedding since 1981, when William’s mother Diana married heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles.

11 Critics: blocked SGX tie-up may hurt Australia

by Madeleine Coorey, AFP

Sun Apr 10, 1:58 am ET

SYDNEY (AFP) – When Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan declared his decision to reject Singapore’s proposed takeover of the local bourse a “no brainer”, critics fear he may have scared off future Asian investment.

The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and Singapore Exchange (SGX) announced plans in October to merge, hoping to create one of the world’s largest financial trading hubs and a rival to Hong Kong.

But the Aus$8.4 billion ($8.8 billion) proposal hit opposition almost immediately, with Canberra lawmakers raising concerns about foreign ownership and Singapore’s human rights record.

Reuters

12 Nasdaq says its offer is superior after NYSE snubs bid

By Jonathan Spicer and Jonathan Stempel, Reuters

Sun Apr 10, 9:30 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Nasdaq OMX Group and IntercontinentalExchange responded late Sunday to NYSE Euronext’s rejection of their joint proposed bid, reaffirming that their cash and stock offer is superior to the offer submitted by rival Deutsche Boerse AG.

“The feedback we have received from NYSE Euronext stockholders is very positive, and we would expect NYSE Euronext would, at the very least, meet with us and our advisors to discuss the merits of the proposed combination,” Robert Greifeld, Chief Executive Officer of Nasdaq, said in the statement.

NYSE on Sunday said it was sticking with its deal with Deutsche Boerse, calling the rival offer from Nasdaq OMX Group too risky and counter to the Big Board’s vision.

13 UK banks told to boost capital, shield taxpayers

By Sudip Kar-Gupta and Steve Slater, Reuters

2 hrs 9 mins ago

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s top banks should shield their retail operations from riskier investment banking activities and hold more capital to protect taxpayers from any future financial crisis, a government-commissioned report said.

Proposals outlined on Monday appear harshest for Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L), which may be forced to sell hundreds more branches in addition to the 600 already on the block in order to improve competition on the high street.

For the others, ring-fencing their retail arms could force HSBC (HSBA.L), Barclays (BARC.L) and peers to hold billions of pounds more capital and increase funding costs, potentially squeezing their profits.

14 Rajaratnam defense to present its case for NY jury

By Grant McCool, Reuters

Mon Apr 11, 12:28 am ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Now it is hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam’s lawyers’ turn to make their case at his insider trading trial on Monday that the government was wrong to accuse him of conspiracy and fraud.

The jurors have heard five weeks of prosecution evidence, including dozens of FBI phone taps and testimony of three cooperating witnesses that Rajaratnam cheated to gain an unfair advantage in the stock market between 2003 and March 2009, reaping an illicit $63.8 million.

Through cross-examination and hearings, the defense has previewed its “mosaic theory” of stock trading in Manhattan federal court — the Galleon Group founder’s trades were based on a collection of research, analysis and public information, not corporate secrets whispered to him by high-placed insiders.

15 Court case looms as Iceland again rejects debt deal

By Anna Ringstrom and Karolina Tagaris, Reuters

Mon Apr 11, 3:07 am ET

REYKJAVIK/LONDON (Reuters) – Britain and the Netherlands plan to sue Iceland in a potentially drawn-out legal battle to recover $5 billion lost in a bank crash after Icelandic voters rejected a plan to repay the money.

The British and Dutch governments said they were disappointed with the result of a referendum on Saturday in which almost 60 percent of voters opposed a repayment deal, the second time the Icelandic public has snubbed an agreement.

The debt was incurred when the two countries compensated their nationals who lost savings in online “Icesave” accounts owned by Landsbanki, one of three Icelandic banks that collapsed in late 2008, triggering economic meltdown in the country of 320,000 people.

16 Earnings optimism priced in for investors

By Caroline Valetkevitch, Reuters

Sun Apr 10, 8:20 am ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The upcoming earnings season may not be the time for investors to buy aggressively, because this year’s winners already reflect earnings optimism.

The first-quarter reporting period, which begins Monday with results from aluminum company Alcoa Inc (AA.N), follows three months of solid gains that have brought stocks close to two-and-half-year highs.

Some gains have been in anticipation of a strong earnings season, particularly for the energy and other cyclical sectors, analysts said, raising questions about whether this quarter’s reports will be enough to keep the recent uptrend intact.

17 EU wants more Portugal austerity as EU unions protest

By Marton Dunai, Reuters

Sat Apr 9, 9:40 am ET

GODOLLO, Hungary (Reuters) – EU finance ministers on Saturday urged Portugal to commit to reforms and defended the region’s austerity steps as tens of thousands of European workers protested in Budapest against spending cuts.

Finance ministers and central bankers from the 27-nation bloc held a second day of informal talks outside the Hungarian capital on their response to the euro zone debt crisis after Portugal on Wednesday became the third euro zone country to ask for EU and IMF financial aid.

EU ministers said that in return for an estimated 80 billion euros in emergency loans over three years, Lisbon would have to commit to further structural reforms to bring down its budget deficit and debt in a sustainable way.

18 Google seals ITA deal but antitrust review looms

By Diane Bartz, Reuters

Fri Apr 8, 8:27 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Justice Department approved Google Inc’s purchase of ITA Software with stiff conditions on Friday, and left the door open to a larger probe into whether Google manipulates search results to hurt rivals.

The decision, which allows Google to expand into the online travel market, comes as new CEO Larry Page revamped the company’s management structure in a bid to accelerate efforts in social networking, mobile and other key businesses.

The Justice Department blessed Google’s $700 million deal with the ticketing software company. Google promised to license the software for five years, to continue to upgrade it, and to establish firewalls to protect ITA clients’ intellectual property.

19 Banks to post profits, but loan growth elusive

By Joe Rauch, Reuters

Fri Apr 8, 7:14 pm ET

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) – Investors looking for loan growth and surging revenues at the biggest U.S. banks, including Citigroup Inc (C.N) are likely to be disappointed by first-quarter earnings.

Banks have been generating most of their profits in recent quarters from dipping into money they previously set aside to cover bad loans. Those reserve reductions make sense if credit losses are stabilizing, which seems to be the case.

But banks cannot reduce their loan loss reserves forever and at this point profit growth must come from making more money from loans and generating more fees, analysts said.

20 Insider trading handbook, Rule 1: Keep it quiet

By Jonathan Stempel, Reuters

Fri Apr 8, 5:34 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Here’s some advice for anyone hoping not to get caught in an insider trading web: Shut up.

After the October 2009 arrest of Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, who was wiretapped by the FBI, the world woke to a new era of prosecutorial tactics in insider trading probes.

For those considering crossing the line, the changes may make insider trading seem a vocation not worth the risk.

21 J&J settles U.S., UK bribery, kickback charges

By Jeremy Pelofsky, Reuters

Fri Apr 8, 4:29 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson will pay $78 million to settle U.S. and UK charges that it paid bribes and kickbacks to win business overseas, the first big drug company to settle since the Obama administration began its scrutiny of the industry more than a year ago.

Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay a $21.4 million fine to settle Justice Department criminal charges and pay more than $48.6 million in disgorgement and interest to settle allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the agencies said on Friday.

The allegations date back to 1998 and involved sham contracts, bribes and kickbacks paid by J&J units to officials and doctors in Greece, Iraq, Poland and Romania to help earn millions of dollars in profits, according to authorities.

AP

22 Japan shaken by quake after more evacuations urged

By JAY ALABASTER and ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press

1 hr 1 min ago

SENDAI, Japan – A strong new earthquake rattled Japan’s northeast Monday as the government urged more people living near a tsunami-crippled nuclear plant to leave, citing concerns about long-term health risks from radiation.

The magnitude 7.0 aftershock came just hours after people bowed their heads and wept in somber ceremonies to mark a month since a massive earthquake and tsunami that killed up to 25,000 people and set off a crisis of radiation leaks at the nuclear plant by knocking out its cooling systems.

“Even after a month, I still cry when I watch the news,” said Marina Seito, 19, a student at a junior college who recalled being in a basement restaurant in Sendai when the original 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit on March 11. Plates fell and parts of the ceiling crashed down around her.

23 Afghan president: West shares in Kabul Bank fiasco

By RAHIM FAIEZ and HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press

2 hrs 38 mins ago

KABUL, Afghanistan – Foreign advisers share a large part of the blame for the country’s banking crisis and will face criminal investigation along with the bank managers and shareholders, Afghanistan’s president said Monday.

President Hamid Karzai’s comments and an equally combative statement about the need to shrink U.S. power over the Afghan government were his latest attempts to castigate his foreign partners, as the country tries to take on more responsibility for security and providing services.

The nation’s largest private lender, Kabul Bank, nearly collapsed last year under allegations of mismanagement, cronyism and questionable lending that implicated many members of the Afghan elite with ties to the government.

24 UK panel urges banking reorganization

By ROBERT BARR, Associated Press

Mon Apr 11, 5:29 am ET

LONDON – A British commission recommended Monday that banks should be reorganized so that firewalls protect retail operations from investment banking, an attempt to shield taxpayers from the sector’s risk-taking without forcing the banks to split up.

The preliminary report from the Independent Commission on Banking aims to avoid another catastrophic failure of a financial system dominated by a few large banks too big to be allowed to fail.

The commission, which will make final recommendations in September, said it was considering “forms of retail ring-fencing under which retail banking operations would be carried out by a separate subsidiary within a wider group,” which would still allow some capital transfers within the organization.

25 Leftist ex-officer tops Peru vote, heads to runoff

By FRANK BAJAK, Associated Press

Mon Apr 11, 2:32 am ET

LIMA, Peru – Peru’s voters will choose between an ex-army officer who vows to redistribute the nation’s wealth and the daughter of incarcerated former President Alberto Fujimori when they vote for a new president in a June runoff, unofficial results show.

The outcome of Sunday’s election – in which three less-polemical candidates collectively captured 44 percent but canceled each other out – reflects the disarray that has plagued Peruvian politics since Fujimori’s 1990 emergence from obscurity.

His daughter, Keiko Fujimori, could end up beating Ollanta Humala in the June 5 runoff, as Humala was the lone candidate advocating a greater state role in the economy to provide poor Peruvians with a greater share of the country’s mining riches.

26 Safes, cash wash up on Japan shores after tsunami

By TOMOKO A. HOSAKA, Associated Press

Sun Apr 10, 11:29 pm ET

OFUNATO, Japan – There are no cars inside the parking garage at Ofunato police headquarters. Instead, hundreds of dented metal safes, swept out of homes and businesses by last month’s tsunami, crowd the long rectangular building.

Any one could hold someone’s life savings.

Safes are washing up along the tsunami-battered coast, and police are trying to find their owners – a unique problem in a country where many people, especially the elderly, still stash their cash at home. By one estimate, some $350 billion worth of yen doesn’t circulate.

27 Debate stirred over 1st major US tar sands mine

By CHI-CHI ZHANG, Associated Press

Sun Apr 10, 4:42 pm ET

SALT LAKE CITY – Beneath the lush, green hills of eastern Utah’s Uinta Basin, where elk, bear and bison outnumber people, the soil is saturated with a sticky tar that may soon provide a new domestic source of petroleum for the United States. It would be a first-of-its kind project in the country that some fear could be a slippery slope toward widespread wilderness destruction.

With crude prices surging beyond $100 a barrel, and politicians preaching the need to reduce America’s reliance on foreign supplies, companies are now looking for more local sources. One Canadian firm says it’s found it in the tar sands of Utah’s Book Cliffs.

Alberta-based Earth Energy Resources Inc. aims to start with a roughly 62-acre mine here to produce bitumen, a tar-like form of petroleum, from oil-soaked sands. For decades, other Utah operators have used oil sands as a poor-man’s asphalt, and Canada has been wringing oil from the ground for years, but nobody has yet tried to produce petroleum from U.S. soil on such a scale.

28 Conn., RI marine industry say taxes will sink them

By SUSAN HAIGH and DAVID KLEPPER, Associated Press

Sun Apr 10, 2:57 pm ET

STONINGTON, Conn. – Boating season hasn’t begun yet and Mason’s Island Marina owner Eileen Morehouse has already felt the ill effects of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed increases to marine-related taxes – a move that industry veterans claim will repeat mistakes that proved economically devastating.

A customer recently told Morehouse she was moving her sailboat and Boston Whaler from the Mystic marina to neighboring Rhode Island, about 15 minutes away.

“She’s afraid that so many people are going to be running to Rhode Island,” said Morehouse, who has customers from as far away as Pennsylvania. “If you’re going to travel all the way from Philadelphia, what’s another 6 miles to Rhode Island? We will lose. Connecticut will lose.”

29 Iceland rejects debt deal to repay UK, Dutch

By GUDJON HELGASON, Associated Press

Sun Apr 10, 11:54 am ET

REYKJAVIK, Iceland – Voters in Iceland rejected a government-backed deal to repay Britain and the Netherlands for their citizens’ $5 billion worth of deposits in a failed online bank, referendum results showed Sunday – sending the dispute to an international court and plunging the economically fragile country into new uncertainty.

Final results showed the “no” side had just under 60 percent of the votes and the “yes” side about 40 percent.

The result reflects Icelanders’ anger at having to pay for the excesses of their bankers, and complicates the country’s recovery from economic meltdown.

30 Europeans seek new lives in old colonies

By BARRY HATTON, Associated Press

Sun Apr 10, 6:02 am ET

LISBON, Portugal – Spain and Portugal have for decades lured poor immigrants from their former colonies. Now, in a historic role reversal, these one-time empire builders are seeing legions of frustrated young people head to old dominions in quest of a better life.

Europe’s ruinous debt crisis and job-sapping economic miseries are reshaping migration trends, with a generation of home-grown talent grabbing at the chance of economic rewards on continents once treated with disdain.

Portuguese are packing their bags for booming Angola and Mozambique in Africa, and for emerging economic powerhouse Brazil, where there is a shortage of engineers to prepare the country for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Spaniards are being drawn to their former colonies in Latin America.

31 San Francisco hopes tech success isn’t Bubble 2.0

By MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press

Sat Apr 9, 5:41 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – A certain feeling is back in San Francisco. Murmurings of stock market riches. Twenty-something entrepreneurs as celebrities. Lamborghinis parked next to taco trucks.

Driven by social media and mobile startups, the money is flowing in the city’s tech industry again, a decade after the dot-com boom minted overnight millionaires and its crash fueled a local recession worse than anything San Francisco has seen in the latest downturn.

A recent tax break for Twitter and other proposals show city officials are hopeful that this latest tech industry prosperity does not portend another bubble and another bust.

32 Oregon cowboy town promotes solar energy

By SHANNON DININNY, Associated Press

Sat Apr 9, 5:13 pm ET

PENDLETON, Ore. – A cowboy grasping the reins of a bucking bronco has long been the image of this farm and ranch town. It’s the emblem of the annual Pendleton Roundup, a celebration of the city’s colorful past, when pioneers on the Oregon Trail settled the prairie.

Today, solar panels might just outnumber cowboys.

Rural Pendleton is blazing an unlikely renewable energy trail, offering no-interest loans to spark interest in solar power and a group-buy philosophy to get better prices. More than 50 residents installed systems last year, and the program was expanded to more residents and to include businesses this year.

33 AP Interview: Estonia pledges support for Portugal

By GABRIELE STEINHAUSER, AP Business Writer

Sat Apr 9, 1:13 pm ET

GODOLLO, Hungary – Estonia – the eurozone’s newest and poorest member – will not shirk from bailing out much richer Portugal and Ireland, the country’s finance minister said Saturday.

“Even if a rich country is in trouble, it is still in trouble and you need to support it,” Jurgen Ligi told The Associated Press.

Ligi was speaking a day after the 17 euro countries decided to give Portugal about euro80 billion ($115 billion) in rescue loans as long as it signs up to a strict economic adjustment program.

34 End to Japan nuke crisis is years, a fortune away

By CHARLES HUTZLER and MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press

Sat Apr 9, 10:24 am ET

TOKYO – Once Japan’s leaky nuclear complex stops spewing radiation and its reactors cool down, making the site safe and removing the ruined equipment is going to be a messy ordeal that could take decades and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Radiation has covered the area around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant and blanketed parts of the complex, making the job of “decommissioning” the plant – rendering it safe so it doesn’t threaten public health and the environment – a bigger task than usual.

Toshiba Corp., which supplied four of Fukushima’s six reactors, including two on which General Electric Co. collaborated, submitted a roadmap this past week to the plant’s operator for decommissioning the crippled reactors. The study, done with three other companies, projects that it would take about 10 years to remove the fuel rods and the reactors and contain other radioactivity at the site, said Keisuke Omori of Toshiba.

35 After tear in a 737, asking what’s old for a plane

By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ, AP Airlines Writer

Sat Apr 9, 7:45 am ET

How old is too old for an airplane?

Most travelers don’t think twice about it – although there’s something unsettling about easing into your seat and finding the armrest still has an ashtray built in.

But fliers may be more worried than usual after a 5-foot hole opened in the roof of a 15-year-old Southwest jet earlier this month. Southwest quickly grounded 79 of its older Boeing 737s for inspections.

36 Boeing 737s around the world face new scrutiny

By BOB CHRISTIE, Associated Press

Sat Apr 9, 5:25 am ET

PHOENIX – A terrifying flight emergency caused by a fuselage hole 34,000 feet over the Arizona desert is focusing attention on the hundreds of older-model 737s around the world that could be similarly vulnerable.

A 5-foot section of the passenger cabin roof of a 15-year-old Boeing 737-300 tore off April 1, forcing the Southwest Airlines flight to make an emergency landing.

None of the 118 people aboard was seriously injured, but light-headed passengers were banged around the cabin and had to quickly put on overhead oxygen masks as pilots made a rapid descent.

37 NYSE gets a facelift, its future unknown

By DAVID K. RANDALL, AP Business Writer

Fri Apr 8, 5:02 pm ET

NEW YORK – What do you do when a cathedral of capitalism becomes antiquated? You turn it into New York’s best party space.

The New York Stock Exchange has lost most of its famous shoulder-to-shoulder bustle in the age of computerized trading. So it’s hoping its status as an icon of American finance will be a popular draw for cocktail receptions, analyst presentations and other festivities.

The exchange, where traders have nervously watched tickers and shouted orders for more than 100 years, is already available for some events. It wants to expand to 1,000 a year, double the number from three years ago.

On This Day In History April 11

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 11 is the 101st day of the year (102nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 264 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1814, the Treaty of Fontainebleau ends the War of the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon Bonaparte, and forces him to abdicate unconditionally for the first time.

War of the Sixth Coalition

There was a lull in fighting over the winter of 1812-13 while both the Russians and the French rebuilt their forces; Napoleon was then able to field 350,000 troops. Heartened by France’s loss in Russia, Prussia joined with Austria, Sweden, Russia, Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal in a new coalition. Napoleon assumed command in Germany and inflicted a series of defeats on the Coalition culminating in the Battle of Dresden in August 1813. Despite these successes, the numbers continued to mount against Napoleon, and the French army was pinned down by a force twice its size and lost at the Battle of Leipzig. This was by far the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars and cost more than 90,000 casualties in total.

Napoleon withdrew back into France, his army reduced to 70,000 soldiers and 40,000 stragglers, against more than three times as many Allied troops. The French were surrounded: British armies pressed from the south, and other Coalition forces positioned to attack from the German states. Napoleon won a series of victories in the Six Days Campaign, though these were not significant enough to turn the tide; Paris was captured by the Coalition in March 1814.

When Napoleon proposed the army march on the capital, his marshals decided to mutiny. On 4 April, led by Ney, they confronted Napoleon. Napoleon asserted the army would follow him, and Ney replied the army would follow its generals. Napoleon had no choice but to abdicate. He did so in favour of his son; however, the Allies refused to accept this, and Napoleon was forced to abdicate unconditionally on 11 April.

   The Allied Powers having declared that Emperor Napoleon was the sole obstacle to the restoration of peace in Europe, Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, declares that he renounces, for himself and his heirs, the thrones of France and Italy, and that there is no personal sacrifice, even that of his life, which he is not ready to do in the interests of France.

   Done in the palace of Fontainebleau, 11 April 1814.

   -Act of abdication of Napoleon

In the Treaty of Fontainebleau, the victors exiled him to Elba, an island of 12,000 inhabitants in the Mediterranean, 20 km off the Tuscan coast. They gave him sovereignty over the island and allowed him to retain his title of emperor. Napoleon attempted suicide with a pill he had carried since a near-capture by Russians on the retreat from Moscow. Its potency had weakened with age, and he survived to be exiled while his wife and son took refuge in Austria. In the first few months on Elba he created a small navy and army, developed the iron mines, and issued decrees on modern agricultural methods.

 491 – Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine Emperor, with the name of Anastasius I.

1079 – Bishop Stanislaus of Krakow is executed by order of Boleslaw II of Poland.

1241 – Batu Khan defeats Bela IV of Hungary at the Battle of Muhi.

1512 – War of the League of Cambrai: French forces led by Gaston de Foix win the Battle of Ravenna.

1689 – William III and Mary II are crowned as joint sovereigns of Britain.

1713 – War of the Spanish Succession (Queen Anne’s War): Treaty of Utrecht.

1775 – The last execution for witchcraft in Germany takes place.

1809 – Battle of the Basque Roads Naval battle fought between France and the United Kingdom.

1814 – The Treaty of Fontainebleau ends the War of the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon Bonaparte, and forces him to abdicate unconditionally for the first time.

1856 – Battle of Rivas: Juan Santamaria burns down the hostel where William Walker’s filibusters are holed up.

1865 – President Abraham Lincoln makes his last public speech.

1868 – Former Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu surrenders Edo Castle to Imperial forces, marking the end of the Tokugawa shogunate.

1876 – The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is organized.

1881 – Spelman College was founded in Atlanta, Georgia as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, an institute of higher education for African-American women.

1888 – The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam is inaugurated.

1908 – SMS Blucher, the last armored cruiser to be built by the German Imperial Navy, launches.

1919 – The International Labour Organization is founded.

1921 – Emir Abdullah establishes the first centralised government in the newly created British protectorate of Transjordan.

1945 – World War II: American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp.

1951 – Korean War: President Harry Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of overall command in Korea.

1951 – The Stone of Scone, the stone upon which Scottish monarchs were traditionally crowned, is found on the site of the altar of Arbroath Abbey. It had been taken by Scottish nationalist students from its place in Westminster Abbey.

1952 – The Battle of Nanri Island takes place.

1954 – The most boring day since 1900 according to the True Knowledge Answer Engine

1955 – The Air India Kashmir Princess is bombed and crashes in a failed assassination attempt on Zhou Enlai by the Kuomintang.

1957 – United Kingdom agrees to Singaporean self-rule.

1961 – The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.

1965 – The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965: Fifty-one tornadoes hit in six Midwestern states, killing 256 people.

1968 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.

1970 – Apollo 13 is launched.

1976 – The Apple I is created.

1979 – Ugandan dictator Idi Amin is deposed.

1981 – A massive riot in Brixton, South London, results in almost 300 police injuries and 65 serious civilian injuries.

1986 – The FBI Miami shootout between eight Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and two heavily-armed and well-trained gunmen.

1987 – The London Agreement is secretly signed between Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Shimon Peres and King Hussein of Jordan.

1990 – Customs officers in Middlesbrough, England, United Kingdom, say they have seized what they believe to be the barrel of a massive gun on a ship bound for Iraq.

1990 – Konstantinos Mitsotakis becomes the 178th Prime Minister of Greece.

1993 – 450 prisoners rioted at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio, and continued to do so for ten days, citing grievances related to prison conditions, as well as the forced vaccination of Nation of Islam prisoners (for tuberculosis) against their religious beliefs.

2000 – AT&T Park in San Francisco, Minute Maid Park in Houston, and Comerica Park in Detroit open.

2001 – The detained crew of a United States EP-3E aircraft that landed in Hainan, China after a collision with a J-8 fighter is released.

2001 – Australia beats American Samoa in a 31-0 win, the biggest ever in an international match of association football.

2002 – The Ghriba synagogue bombing by Al Qaeda kills 21 in Tunisia.

2002 – Almost 1 million people marched in Caracas towards the Presidential Palace of Miraflores, to demand the resignation of president Hugo Chavez. 19 of the protesters were killed, and the Minister of Defense Gral. Lucas Rincon announced Hugo Chavez resignation on national TV.

2006 – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has successfully enriched uranium.

2007 – 2007 Algiers bombings: Two bombings in the Algerian capital of Algiers, kills 33 people and wounds a further 222 others.

Holidays and observances

   Christian Feast Day:

       Antipas of Pergamum (Greek Orthodox Church)

       Gemma Galgani

       Godeberta

       Guthlac

       Stanislaus of Szczepanow

       April 11 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   Juan Santamaría Day, anniversary of his death in the Second Battle of Rivas. (Costa Rica)

Six In The Morning

Japan: Powerful earthquake hits north-east

A powerful earthquake has hit north-east Japan, exactly one month after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The BBC  11 April 2011

The 7.1-magnitude tremor triggered a brief tsunami warning, and forced workers to evacuate the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

The epicentre of the quake was in Fukushima prefecture, and struck at a depth of just 10km (six miles).

It came as Japan said it was extending the evacuation zone around the nuclear plant because of radiation concerns.

The cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were damaged in last month’s disaster. Workers have been struggling to prevent several reactors from overheating, and avert a large-scale release of radiation.

China says milk was tainted with nitrite intentionally

Suspect has been accused of poisoning milk from two dairies, which killed three children in Gansu province

Associated Press

guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 April 2011


Investigators have found that a tainted milk incident in north-west China which killed three children appears to be a case of intentional poisoning and have detained a suspect, state media said.

Investigators found that nitrite, an industrial salt that can be deadly, was added to fresh milk from two dairies last week in Gansu province in order to harm people, the China Daily newspaper reported on Monday. A suspect in Pingliang, where the poisoning took place, had been taken into custody.

Battles rage as African leaders claim Gaddafi is intent on peace



By Patrick Cockburn in Ajdabiya Monday, 11 April 2011<

Plumes of black smoke rose over Ajdabiya yesterday as rockets and mortar bombs exploded in this empty town that pro-Gaddafi troops and rebel militiamen have now been fighting each other to control for several weeks.

As the battles continued, Muammar Gaddafi met with African leaders in Tripoli to try to negotiate an end to the conflict. The African Union (AU) planned to press their efforts with the rebels in a separate meeting today. The South African President Jacob Zuma said Colonel Gaddafi had accepted the AU’s “road map” for peace, which calls for an immediate ceasefire, opening channels for humanitarian aid and talks between the rebels and the government.

Powerful yakuza boss released from prison



April 11, 2011 – 2:19PM

Police in Japan are bracing themselves for the possibility of conflict with the underworld after the head of the country’s most powerful crime syndicate was released from prison.

Kenichi Shinoda was freed from the Fuchu prison, near Tokyo, on Saturday (9APR) after serving a six-year sentence for firearms offences.

Shinoda – also known as Shinobu Tsukasa – served 13 years in prison for killing a rival with a samurai sword in the 1970s while he was the leader of the notorious Kodo-kai, a Yamaguchi-gumi affiliate based in central Japan

Sudan says Israel behind air strike

 

KHARTOUM, SUDAN – Apr 11 2011

Tuesday’s attack was carried out by two AH-64 Apache helicopters, about 15km south of Port Sudan, Sudan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

They flew in from the Red Sea and unleashed a barrage of Hellfire missiles and machinegun fire on the car after having jammed the local radar system, the statement added.

The US-made helicopters were not owned by any country in the region except Israel, said the statement.

Leftist Humala leads Peru election polls, but undecided voters could cause upset

Eleven percent of the electorate was still undecided ahead of today’s Peru election, a fact that could swing the vote away from leading candidate Ollanta Humala.

By Lucien Chauvin, Correspondent / April 10, 2011

Lima, Peru

Peru’s closely fought presidential election may come down to voters like Miguel Peña when more than 19 million people go to the polls today.

Mr. Peña, who helps park cars at a supermarket in Lima, the capital, has not decided who he will vote for out of a field of 10 candidates. He says he is still trying to decide between front-runner Ollanta Humala, former President Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006), and former Finance Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

“I like Humala, because he says he will work for the poor, but we hear on the radio that he will take the country backwards. I haven’t decided, but I think it might be Humala,” he says.

DocuDharma Digest

Regular Features-

Featured Essays for April 10, 2011-

DocuDharma

Pique the Geek 20110410: Carbon, the Basis of Life

We hear a lot about carbon these days as a greenhouse gas, sort of giving carbon a bad name.  While I agree that excessive carbon dioxide emissions from the wanton burning of fossil fuels is a  bad thing, it is not the fault of the carbon, but rather the fault of civilization for being unwise in how fossil carbon deposits are used.

As a matter of fact, without some carbon dioxide release, we would all starve because atmospheric carbon dioxide is the sole source of carbon in the food chain, thanks to the photosynthetic ability of green plants.  But this topic has been discussed in many places, sometimes in this regular series.  We shall discuss other properties of carbon and why it is essential to life as we understand life, and perhaps all life yet undiscovered.

Of all of the elements, carbon has the most interesting set of properties in its pure form.  There are several allotropic forms of elemental carbon, meaning that they differ only in the way that the carbon atoms are arranged.  The most common form is amorphous carbon, meaning that there is no definite, repeating unit cells which form the basis of crystals.  Amorphous carbon can be in any shape, and is well known with such examples as coal (the Latin name for coal is carbo), charcoal, lampblack, and many other materials.  Some of these are of extreme importance, with coal providing almost half of the United States electricity production.

The two most common crystalline varieties of carbon are graphite and diamond.  One could not even make up how different their properties are.  Graphite is so soft that we use it as pencil “lead” and as a lubricant.  Diamond is one of the, if not the, hardest substance known, used as the ultimate industrial abrasive.  Graphite is a good electrical conductor, for a nonmetal, whilst diamond is an extremely good insulator.  For many materials, thermal and electrical conductivity are related, most good electrical conductors also being good thermal ones.  Carbon is quite the opposite.  Diamond has the highest thermal conductivity of any known substance at normal pressures and temperatures, whislt graphite is such a good thermal insulator that the Space Shuttle uses graphite to insulate its wingtips for atmospheric reentry.  The list goes on, by the way.

Why are those two substances so different when they are made of the exact same atoms?  The answer is how those atoms are attached to each other.  In graphite, the atoms are bonded together in sheets of six membered rings, numbering in the untold billions of these rings fused to each other.  However, it has little three dimensional structure, with the sheets of fused six membered rings attracted to other sheets extremely weakly.  Thus, these sheets are free to slide away from each other, giving graphite its lubricity and softness.  These sheets are also only one atom thick.

In addition, these sheets are formed by two kinds of chemical bonds, sigma bonds and pi bonds.  This comes from the fact that the carbon atoms in graphite are sp2 hybrids.  I know that this is a little geeky, but sp2 hybrids allow for the delocalization of electrons, making each sheet electrically conductive.  This delocalization also imparts stability, so graphite is more thermodynamically stable than diamond.  Thus, graphite is useful for brushes in electric motors and many other electrical applications.

The case in a diamond is different.  The carbon atoms in diamond are all sp3 hybrizided, thus allowing only for sigma bonds.  Electrons in sigma bonds are not delocalized, so they are not available for electrical conduction.  The atoms in a diamond are arranged in a tetrahedral directions, with each of the four available bonding orbitals 109.5 degrees from the other three.  Thus, each carbon is bonded to four other carbons, forming a rigid three dimensional network.  As a matter of fact, a perfect (no cracks or other flaws) diamond is actually a single molecule!  Who says that molecules are too small to see?  I just gave you an example.

Another unique property of carbon is that it can form long chains of carbon to carbon bonds that are kinetically stable at temperatures up to the ignition point of a material.  Kinetic stability is different than thermodynamic stability, because you can get carbon (even diamonds) to burn, if you heat it hot enough in an atmosphere that supports combustion.  No other nonmetal has this property to any great extent.  This makes life itself possible, because complex chains and rings with carbon backbones are essential for life.  DNA would not be possible without this stability, nor would things like starch and cellulose.  Fatty acids, the essential parts of lipids, would not be stable, nor would proteins which are polymers of amino acids, and the amino acids are composed of chains and rings of carbon atoms.

We hear a lot of speculation about silicon based life forms, with silicon (the element directly under carbon in the periodic table) taking the place of carbon.  However, silicon does not form stable chains.  A carbon carbon single bond has a bond length of 154 picometers and a bond strength of 348 kiloJoules per mole.  The silicon silicon single bond length is 235 pm.  In general, the longer the bond length, the weaker the bond.  In addition, the silicon hydrogen single bond is 148 pm long, whilst the carbon hydrogen single bond is only 111 pm.  One of biggest differences is in the energy released when the oxides are formed.  The enthalpy of formation for carbon dioxide is -394 kJ/mol, whilst for silicon dioxide it is -911 kJ/mol.  This huge difference makes compounds that contain silicon bonded to hydrogen extremely unstable (the negative sign represents that heat is released when the compound is formed from the elements).

This means that compounds of silicon that are otherwise analogous to those of carbon very unstable if oxygen is available.  For example, butane (a four carbon chain with hydrogens everywhere else) has an autoignition temperature (the temperature that is required to ignite in the atmosphere) of 405 degrees C, that of silane (one silicon bonded to four hydrogens) it is less than 21 degrees C, so if you allowed silane to enter the atmosphere at around room temperature, it would burst into flame.  The longer chain ones are even more reactive.

Take a hydrocarbon like methane and bubble it into water, and a little of it (not much) dissolves and the rest just escapes.  Do the same thing with silane, and it explodes!  I just does not seem possible for life to be based on silicon and a drop in replacement for carbon.

On the other hand, it might be possible for large molecules such as are required for life to be based on silicones, polymers with a backbone of silicon oxygen silicon oxygen and so forth.  It might be possible to “hang” sidechains onto this backbone and produce biologically active molecules, but that is a stretch.  Those molecules are less reactive than long carbon chain based ones, and some reactivity is essential for metabolism.  We use silicones all of the time as adhesives, and some of you might even have silicone bakeware.  But I strongly suspect that there are no lifeforms based on silicon in any form.

One of the reasons that carbon behaves so differently than silicon is its position in the periodic table.  With an atomic number of 6, it is in the second row of the table.  Silicon, with an atomic number of 14, is in the third row.  This might not seem significant, but it is critical.  Second row elements have only s and p suborbitals of electrons, whilst third row ones also have d suborbitals.  This greatly changes their chemistry insofar as forming covalent bonds (bonds in which electrons are more or less shared by atoms).  This is much less marked a tendency for ionic bonds (where electrons are more or less transferred from one atom to another).  Thus, carbon and silicon are very different from each other because they form predominately covalent bonds, whilst lithium and sodium are much more similar to each other because they form predominately ionic bonds.

So, I am afraid that the Horta from the original Star Trek episode “The Devil in the Dark” is just not possible.  Remember that one?  McCoy finally healed that silicon based life form with quick setting concrete, a silicate material.

There are other allotropic forms of carbon, such as nanofibers and fullerenes, but they are not that commonly encountered, yet.  They have extremely interesting and potentially useful properties, but are for the most part still in the research phase.  By the way, the carbon fiber that is used as a structural material is not nanofibers, which are formed on the atomic level, but actually just very fine tubes of what is essentially graphite.  These tubes are on the order of a few micrometers in diameter, where actual nanofibers have diameters on the order of one micrometer or less.  The method of production is also quite different.

Carbon forms more compounds than all other elements put together.  Organic chemistry (my academic area) is the study of carbon compounds, although a few, like carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and carbonates can be considered to be essentially inorganic molecules.  For a molecule to be an organic one, it must contain carbon, and may contain many other elements.  The most common other elements are hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, the halogens, nitrogen, and many other are less common.  Phosphorous is a constituent of DNA, as is nitrogen and oxygen.

Sugars are made up of only carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen (although sugar derivatives may have other elements), and thus are called carbohydrates.  Simple sugars can polymerize into starches or into cellulose.  Humans have the ability to digest most of the simpler sugars and starch, but not cellulose.  Ruminant mammals, however, can digest cellulose, making grass and hay valuable foodstuffs for them.  Actually, that is not quite right, it is really bacteria in their complex stomachs that digest the cellulose.  It is the same for termites.

Almost everything that you touch every day has carbon, often lots of it, in them.  The only common examples that come to mind are glass, water, salt, ceramics, and pure metals.  We usually think of steel as being just another name for iron, but this is not the case as all.

Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon!  Pure iron is rather soft and not very useful, whilst steel can be made to be extremely strong.  Sometimes other alloying materials are added to specific grades of steel, but without carbon it is not really steel, but some other ferrous alloy.  Pure iron also can not be hardened by heat treatment, but steel can be.  Up to a point, the higher the carbon content, the greater the hardenability.  A little carbon goes a long way:  high carbon steels contain only about one per cent carbon.

There are three naturally occurring carbon.  Carbon-12, the most common isotope, with 6 neutrons in addition the the 6 protons, amounts to 98.9% of it, and carbon-13, with 7 neutrons, about 1.1%.  Both are stable and do not decay into other materials.  Carbon-13 is of particular interest to us organic chemists because it happens to be a nucleus with a spin=1/2, essential for nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry.  With NMR, how atoms are connected in molecules can be elucidated, and since carbon is a constituent of all organic compounds this is a stroke of luck.  By the way, there is another nucleus with spin=1/2, the hydrogen nucleus.  This makes hydrogen NMR possible, and also Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), that is used as a medical diagnostic tool.

Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope that is formed in the atmosphere by cosmic ray bombardment of nitrogen-14.  The nitrogen molecule immediately dissociates, and the carbon-14 atom immediately reacts with atmospheric oxygen to for carbon dioxide.  This radioactive carbon dioxide is taken up by plants and thus enters the food chain.  It has a half life of 5730 years and decays by the relatively harmless and easy to measure soft beta decay.  When a plant dies (or an animal, for that matter, since all animal food is ultimately derived from plants) the steady state concentration of carbon-14 begins to become smaller, by a known rate.  In other words, all living things contain about the same amount of carbon-14 because it is constantly being replenished.  When an organism dies, it stops taking in new carbon-14, and what is there decays.  If something has been dead for 5730 years, only half of the radiation that a living specimen is present.  In another 5730 years, only 1/4 of the radiation is left, and so on.  Modern instrumentation is so sensitive that only a few milligrams of sample are required for analysis.  It good for items up to around 60,000 years, when the amount of radiation becomes too low for accurate measurement.  There are some nuances involved, but that is the general principle.  Ask in a comment if you would like more information.

Carbon-12 is the forth most abundant element in the known universe, after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen.  It is formed in stars of high mass that are beginning to collapse because of depletion of hydrogen for fuel.  When this happens, the core becomes extremely hot and dense, and two helium nuclei fuse to form beryllium-8.  This extremely unstable nucleus sometimes fuses with another helium nucleus to form carbon-12, which is stable.  Carbon should be more abundant than oxygen, but sometimes a carbon-12 nucleus absorbs another helium nucleus to form oxygen-16, depleting the amount of carbon-12.

Well, this is long enough.  Since I always learn more than I ever could hope to teach by writing this series, please keep comments, questions, corrections, and any other feedback coming in the comment section, the best part of the post.  I shall stick around as long as comments warrant, and will return tomorrow night for Review Time around 9:00 PM Eastern.

I must comment of the latest foolish thing that Isadore Rosenfeld said on his weekly medical piece this morning on the Fox “News” Channel.  Whilst extolling the virtues of breastfeeding (with which I fully concur), he said this, and I believe that this is verbatim:

Everything that is natural is good.

I disagree.  Anthrax is natural, and no one says that it is good.  Ebola is natural, but I do not think that it is good, either.  Floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and other such are natural, but few would agree that all of them are good.  This guy needs to retire.

Warmest regards,

Doc

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 42 Top Stories.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 British, Dutch announce litigation after Icesave ‘no’ vote

by Agnes Valdimarsdottir, AFP

1 hr 15 mins ago

REYKJAVIK (AFP) – Britain and The Netherlands said Sunday they would return to the courts to get Iceland to refund them billions of euros after voters there said “no” in a referendum to the reimbursement plan.

Iceland’s government insisted it could pay back more than 90 percent of the money lost, despite most voters having rejected a deal to refund 3.9 billion euros ($5.6 billion) to the two countries, according to partial results.

“The Icelandic state has absolutely no problem in repaying its debts” resulting from the collapse of the Icesave bank, Finance Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson told reporters.

AFP

2 Iceland has ‘no problem’ repaying debt

by Agnes Valdimarsdottir, AFP

Sun Apr 10, 11:04 am ET

REYKJAVIK (AFP) – Iceland insisted on Sunday it has “no problem” repaying its debts as litigation loomed over voters’ rejection of a deal to reimburse The Netherlands and Britain for the collapse of Icesave bank.

“The Icelandic state has absolutely no problem in repaying its debts,” Finance Minister Steingrimur Sigfusson told a news conference the day after voters gave a resounding “no” to a proposed deal for repaying 3.9 billion euros ($5.6 billion) to the two countries.

“Iceland’s reserves are more than enough to cover all the payments in the coming years,” he added.

3 African mediators in Libya as NATO hits tanks

by Imed Lamloum, AFP

1 hr 1 min ago

TRIPOLI (AFP) – A high-ranking African Union delegation arrived in Libya on Sunday to try to broker a truce between Moamer Kadhafi and rebels seeking to oust him, and as air strikes took out 26 loyalist tanks.

The peace mission came as NATO warplanes were in action against Kadhafi’s forces in the stricken port city of Misrata and Ajdabiya in the east.

The African mediators were welcomed to Tripoli by Kadhafi supporters holding the veteran Libyan leader’s picture and waving the green flags of his regime.

4 Dozens shot in Yemen as Gulf urges transition

by Hammoud Mounassar, AFP

1 hr 42 mins ago

SANAA (AFP) – Dozens of anti-regime demonstrators were shot in clashes with security forces, sparking charges of “massacre”, as Yemen’s Gulf neighbours appealed to President Ali Abdullah Saleh to cede power.

Tens of thousands of people took part in demonstrations in Sanaa as well as Taez and Ibb, both south of the capital, and in the Red Sea city of Hudaydah to condemn Saturday’s bloodshed, witnesses said.

The protesters shouted slogans condemning the “massacre” and carried the flags of several other Arab countries, including Qatar which has come out vocally in support of the departure of Saleh.

5 Mubarak faces questioning over protest crackdown

by Samer al-Atrush, AFP

1 hr 41 mins ago

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt’s public prosecutor on Sunday ordered ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his sons to be questioned over violence against protesters and alleged corruption, MENA state news agency reported.

The announcement came after the broadcast of an audio tape in which the former president defended his reputation and after weeks of mounting protests calling for him to be put on trial.

“The public prosecutor Abdel Magid Mahmud decided today to ask for the questioning of former president Hosni Mubarak and his sons Gamal and Alaa,” the official news agency reported.

6 Cairo protesters defy military after deadly crackdown

by Samer al-Atrush, AFP

Sat Apr 9, 4:38 pm ET

CAIRO (AFP) – More than 1,000 protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square vowed on Saturday to stay overnight in defiance of the military after a protester was killed the night before when soldiers dispersed a similar sit-in.

At least one person was killed earlier in the morning when troops and police stormed the iconic square to break up an overnight protest demanding the trial of former regime officials.

The health ministry said one person died, a figure later echoed by the army, and 71 people were hurt — some from bullet wounds and others suffering breathing difficulties or having been struck during clashes.

7 Mubarak says he’s victim of defamation

by Samer al-Atrush, AFP

Sun Apr 10, 10:50 am ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt’s former leader Hosni Mubarak complained he has been the victim of a smear campaign, in his first comments aired Sunday since he was ousted in February by a popular uprising.

The former strongman’s statement was broadcast on the pan-Arab news network Al-Arabiya as pressure mounted on the ruling military to put him on trial for alleged corruption and other crimes.

Mubarak, who has been under house arrest since resigning on February 11, said he was prepared to assist any investigations into his family’s alleged assets abroad.

8 French, UN forces in I. Coast fire on Gbagbo positions

by Thomas Morfin, AFP

1 hr 50 mins ago

ABIDJAN (AFP) – UN and French forces in Ivory Coast attacked positions of troops loyal to strongman Laurent Gbagbo on Sunday, a day after an attack on the base of his rival, UN-recognised president Alassane Ouattara.

A spokesman for the UN mission in Ivory Coast (UNOCI) said its peacekeepers and France’s Licorne force had fired on the positions in the main city Abidjan in a bid to destroy heavy weapons that were being used against civilians.

“We have resumed the operation aimed at neutralising heavy weapons wherever they are found,” UN mission spokesman Hamadoun Toure said.

9 Pro-Gbagbo forces launch attack on rival’s HQ

by Thomas Morfin, AFP

Sat Apr 9, 4:20 pm ET

ABIDJAN (AFP) – Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo’s forces attacked the headquarters of his rival, UN-recognised president Alassane Ouattara, on Saturday in a major escalation of the battle for control of the country.

A UN spokesman and witnesses told AFP the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, where Ouattara has been holed up since disputed November elections, came under attack from about 5:00 pm local time (1700 GMT).

It was the first time since the start of the west African nation’s political crisis that the hotel had come under direct attack.

10 Ouattara lawyers wants Gbagbo "neutralised"

by Thomas Morfin, AFP

Sun Apr 10, 10:57 am ET

ABIDJAN (AFP) – Lawyers for Ivorian president-in-waiting Alassane Ouattara demanded on Sunday that the UN and France “neutralise” forces loyal to his rival Laurent Gbagbo and bring the strongman to justice.

“We call upon the impartial forces from UNOCI, with the support of the French Licorne troops, to eliminate with no further delay the heavy weapons, neutralise the militiamen on Gbagbo’s payroll … and to bring to justice the defeated (presidential) candidate,” the French lawyers said.

The statement, issued in Paris, described Gbagbo loyalists as “an illegal occupation force” as fighters backing the two rival claimants to the presidency battle it out in Ivory Coast’s main city Abidjan.

11 Bomb blasts hit Nigerian bid for credible elections

by M.J. Smith, AFP

Sat Apr 9, 5:21 pm ET

LAGOS (AFP) – Nigerians voted in large numbers Saturday in the first of a series of key elections in Africa’s most populous nation, but deadly bomb blasts cast a shadow over the country’s bid to hold credible polls.

Blasts hit an electoral office in central Nigeria on Friday night, a polling place as parliamentary voting was under way in the northeastern city of Maiduguri on Saturday and a vote collating centre in the same city Saturday evening.

At least 13 people were killed in the explosions and dozens of others were wounded, but the toll was likely to rise because details remained unclear from the blasts on Saturday.

12 Japan will ‘never abandon’ tsunami victims: PM

by Yasuyoshi Chiba, AFP

Sun Apr 10, 1:09 pm ET

ISHINOMAKI, Japan (AFP) – Prime Minister Naoto Kan promised Sunday he would “never abandon” survivors of Japan’s tsunami as he tried to focus attention on the future, despite a high-stakes battle at a nuclear plant.

Kan, on only his second trip to the disaster zone in the month since the March 11 tragedy, said the government would “work as fast as possible” to house 150,000 people living in emergency shelters since the disaster struck.

Speaking to survivors in Ishinomaki city, a major fishing hub in the worst-hit northeast of the country, the prime minister said the government would do all it could to ensure fishing “can be resumed as soon as possible”.

13 Scientists settle centuries-old debate on perception

by Marlowe Hood, AFP

2 hrs 1 min ago

PARIS (AFP) – Researchers said Sunday they had solved a conundrum about human perception that has stumped philosophers and scientists alike since it was first articulated 323 years ago by an Irish politician in a letter to John Locke.

Imagine, William Molyneux wrote to the great British thinker, that a man blind from birth who has learned to identify objects — a sphere and a cube, for example — only through his sense of touch is suddenly able to see.

The puzzle, he continued, is “Whether he Could, by his Sight, and before he touch them, know which is the Globe and which the Cube?”

14 Top British paper prints phone-hacking apology

by Sam Reeves, AFP

2 hrs 21 mins ago

LONDON (AFP) – Britain’s biggest-selling newspaper publicly apologised Sunday for hacking into the voicemail of numerous top celebrities, in a scandal that has engulfed top politicians, royals and stars.

As it sought to draw a line under the furore, the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World weekly tabloid begged pardon from its victims, saying its actions had been “unacceptable”.

The Sunday paper said it had admitted liability in some cases and planned to pay compensation from a fund being set up, reportedly worth around £20 million ($33 million, 23 million euros).

15 Russia releases Gagarin’s secret last words

by Dmitry Zaks, AFP

Sun Apr 10, 11:07 am ET

MOSCOW (AFP) – One of the last things Yuri Gagarin did before making his pioneering voyage into space 50 years ago was make sure he had enough sausage to last him on the trip back home to Moscow.

This tidbit was among more than 700 pages of once-secret material linked to the life and times of the world’s first spaceman that were released by Russia ahead of the April 12 anniversary.

The historic space shot turned Gagarin into an instant celebrity whose boyish charms became a powerful propaganda weapon for the Soviet Union as it scrambled to win its ideological battle against the United States during the Cold War.

16 Brilliant Vettel wins Malaysian Grand Prix

by Gordon Howard, AFP

Sun Apr 10, 9:18 am ET

SEPANG, Malaysia (AFP) – World champion Sebastien Vettel dominated the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday with a brilliant drive which maintained his perfect start to the season.

The 23-year-old German steered his Red Bull car from pole position to the chequered flag to win ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button, the 2009 champion, and Nick Heidfeld who finished third for Renault.

“In the heat, we kept our heads cool,” the jubilant Vettel told the Red Bull crew on his victory lap.

Reuters

17 NYSE snubs Nasdaq-ICE bid, sticks with Deutsche Boerse

By Jonathan Spicer and Jonathan Stempel, Reuters

56 mins ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) – NYSE Euronext chose its deal with Deutsche Boerse AG over a higher, rival takeover offer from Nasdaq OMX Group and IntercontinentalExchange Inc, dealing the latest blow in what could be a drawn-out bidding process.

NYSE Euronext’s directors found the $11.3 billion (6.8 billion pounds) bid from Nasdaq and ICE “strategically unattractive, with unacceptable execution risk”, the exchange operator said in a statement on Sunday.

The parent of the New York Stock Exchange said the friendly, $10.2 billion deal with Germany’s Deutsche Boerse announced in February is in shareholders’ long-term interest, and “significantly more likely” to be completed. A merger would create the world’s biggest exchange operator.

18 NATO air strikes help break attack on east Libya town

By Michael Georgy, Reuters

2 hrs 57 mins ago

AJDABIYAH, Libya (Reuters) – NATO aircraft destroyed Libyan tanks on the outskirts of Ajdabiyah on Sunday, helping to break a major assault by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi on the strategic rebel town.

NATO said it had hit 11 tanks outside Ajdabiyah, which Gaddafi’s troops had earlier threatened to overrun, and 14 more on the outskirts of Misrata, a lone rebel bastion in western Libya which has been under siege for six weeks.

A Reuters reporter saw six burning hulks surrounded by 15 charred and dismembered bodies in two sites 300 meters (1,000 feet) apart on Ajdabiyah’s western approaches.

19 Gulf states call for Yemen’s Saleh to transfer power

By Mohamed Sudam and Jason Benham, Reuters

2 hrs 23 mins ago

SANAA/RIYADH (Reuters) – Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh should hand over power to his vice president and allow the opposition to lead a transition government that would prepare new elections, Gulf Arab countries said on Sunday.

Saleh’s government and the opposition will meet in Saudi Arabia to discuss Yemen’s “unity, security and stability,” foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council said in a statement after talks in the Saudi capital.

“The formation of a national unity government under the leadership of the opposition which has the right to form committees…to draw up a constitution and hold elections,” was a key principle of the Gulf-sponsored meeting between the two sides, they said.

20 Assad loyalists fire at Sunni Muslims in Syria city

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Reuters

Sun Apr 10, 1:25 pm ET

AMMAN (Reuters) – Irregular forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fired at a group of people guarding a mosque in Banias on Sunday, two witnesses said, after pro-democracy unrest flared in the conservative coastal city.

Once-unthinkable mass protests challenging Assad’s 11-year authoritarian rule have spread across Syria despite his attempts to defuse resentment by making gestures toward reforms and reaching out to minority Kurds and conservative Sunni Muslims.

Intensifying a crackdown on popular dissent now in its fourth week, security forces fanned out in tanks overnight near the Banias oil refinery — one of two in Syria — near the Alawite district of Qusour, where its main hospital is located.

21 Bahrain human rights activist "arrested, beaten up"

By Frederik Richter, Reuters

Sat Apr 9, 4:12 pm ET

MANAMA (Reuters) – Bahrain has arrested and beaten a prominent human rights activist and members of his family, a rights group said on Saturday, after the kingdom launched a sweeping crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

Bahrain saw the worst sectarian clashes since the 1990s last month after protesters, emboldened by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, took to the streets, prompting the government to impose martial law and invite in troops from Sunni-ruled neighbneighborsours.

Abdulhadi al-Khawaja was arrested with two sons-in-law, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights said in a statement.

22 Nigerian ruling party loses ground in poll

By Matthew Tostevin and Camillus Eboh, Reuters

1 hr 37 mins ago

ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria’s ruling party looked set to see its strong grip on parliament weakened as votes emerged on Sunday from an election that observers said was the fairest for decades in Africa’s most populous nation.

Election officials and party agents tallied results from 120,000 polling units stretching from the oil-producing mangrove swamps and teeming cities near the southern coast to the dustblown fringes of the Sahara desert in the north.

There were isolated reports of ballot box snatching, clashes between rival supporters in parts of the Niger Delta and two bombs in the remote northeast during the vote but observers said it appeared to have been a vast improvement on previous polls.

23 Japanese voters may further weaken PM over nuclear crisis

Reuters

Sun Apr 10, 9:26 am ET

TOKYO (Reuters) – An outspoken incumbent looked certain to win a fourth term as Tokyo governor despite a gaffe in which he said a deadly earthquake and tsunami in Japan’s northeast last month was “divine punishment,” media exit polls showed on Sunday.

In the first round of results for nationwide local elections, a pro-nuclear governor was also set to keep his post in Japan’s west despite a crisis at a nuclear power plant hit by the tsunami and leaking radiation into the air and sea.

Both are independents but other election results, to be finalized later on Sunday or Monday, could be bad news for Prime Minister Naoto Kan, under fire for his handling of the nuclear crisis, and a boost for rivals who want to seek his resignation once the crisis ends.

24 Japan ready to stop pumping radioactive water into sea

By Shinichi Saoshiro and Chikako Mogi, Reuters

Sun Apr 10, 9:48 am ET

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan hopes to stop pumping radioactive water into the sea on Sunday, which should help ease concerns in neighboring China and South Korea over the spread of radiation from the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

But problems in restoring cooling systems at Japan’s crippled nuclear plant, hit by a tsunami on March 11, mean more contaminated water may eventually be pumped into the sea if the complex again runs out of storage capacity.

Japan is struggling to regain control of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated its northeast on March 11, and is facing a major humanitarian and economic crisis.

25 Portuguese wary of bailout pain

By Shrikesh Laxmidas and Axel Bugge, Reuters

Sun Apr 10, 9:43 am ET

ALENQUER, Portugal (Reuters) – Portugal’s need for foreign aid has surprised few in a country where the signs of economic stagnation have been visible for years and politicians are widely regarded as part of the problem.

Alenquer, nestling between vineyard-covered hills 40 km (24 miles) north of Lisbon, is the perfect example: the skeleton of a shuttered textile factory stands at one end of the village and unfinished apartment blocks at the other.

The factory, closed down 15 years ago, is a reminder of how Portugal’s traditional industries were forced out of markets as cheaper goods flowed in from elsewhere, especially China.

AP

26 Egypt’s ex-President Mubarak denies abuse of power

By SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press

3 mins ago

CAIRO – In the first remarks since his dramatic ouster, former President Hosni Mubarak denied that he used his position to amass wealth and property during three decades in power, and issued an emotional defense of his legacy.

The statement, broadcast Sunday at the end of a turbulent weekend that saw a deadly military crackdown on protesters, only stoked more public anger.

In the prerecorded audiotape, the 82-year-old Mubarak spoke with a tone of authority more in keeping with his past power than his current situation. He said he had agreed to “authorize” an investigation of his finances, and promised to sue all those who smeared his reputation.

27 Witnesses: 4 protesters killed in key Syrian city

By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press

1 hr 17 mins ago

BEIRUT – Syrian security forces and pro-government gunmen killed four protesters Sunday in the port city of Banias after the army sealed off the city as hundreds of protesters gathered, undaunted by the regime’s use of deadly force to quell more than three weeks of unrest, witnesses said. State TV reported that nine soldiers were killed in an ambush near the city.

Details were sketchy because telephone lines, Internet access and electricity apparently were cut to most parts of the city. Army tanks and soldiers circled the city, preventing people from entering.

But one witness, reached by telephone, said hundreds of protesters had gathered near the al-Rahman mosque when security forces and armed men in civilian clothes opened fire on them. The names of the dead were read out on mosque loudspeakers.

28 African Union says Libya accepts cease-fire plan

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI and SEBASTIAN ABBOT, Associated Press

12 mins ago

TRIPOLI, Libya – A delegation of African leaders said Sunday that their Libyan counterpart, Moammar Gadhafi, accepted their “road map” for a cease-fire with rebels, whom they will meet Monday. They met hours after NATO airstrikes battered Gadhafi’s tanks, helping Libyan rebels push back government troops who had been advancing quickly toward the opposition’s eastern stronghold.

The terms of the African Union’s road map were unclear – such as whether it would require Gadhafi to pull his troops out of cities as rebels have demanded.

“We have completed our mission with the brother leader, and the brother leader’s delegation has accepted the road map as presented by us,” said South African President Jacob Zuma. He traveled to Tripoli with the heads of Mali and Mauritania to meet with Gadhafi, whose more than 40-year rule has been threatened by the uprising that began nearly two months ago.

29 Gulf bloc calls on Yemen’s ruler to step down

By AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press

1 hr 7 mins ago

SANAA, Yemen – A regional bloc of oil-rich Arab nations along the Gulf, including powerful Saudi Arabia, called on Yemen’s president Sunday to step down as part of a deal with the protest movement demanding for his ouster after 32 years.

Keeping up the pressure, tens of thousands of protesters complaining of poverty and corruption marched in the capital, Sanaa, on Sunday, a day after renewed clashes between demonstrators and security forces there. Witnesses said police fired a barrage of tear gas late Saturday and that many demonstrators suffered breathing problems.

The statement, by foreign ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in the Saudi capital, called on President Ali Abdullah Saleh transfer his powers to his vice president in return for promises that neither he nor his family would be prosecuted for any crimes committed under his leadership.

30 UN, French fire on Gbagbo residence in Ivory Coast

By MARCO CHOWN OVED, Associated Press

1 hr 36 mins ago

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – United Nations and French helicopters fired rockets on strongman Laurent Gbagbo’s residence on Sunday in an assault the U.N. said was to retaliate for attacks by his forces on U.N. headquarters and civilians.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he had authorized the strikes, accusing Gbagbo of using heavy weapons against Ivory Coast civilians and the U.N. forces trying to protect them.

Residents from nearby neighborhoods reported seeing two U.N. Mi-24 attack helicopters and a French helicopter open fire on the residence, where Gbagbo is holed up in a bunker. The residents couldn’t be named for fear of reprisal.

31 Month after quake, Japan homeless move into houses

By KOJI UEDA and SHINO YUASA, Associated Press

Sun Apr 10, 3:15 pm ET

RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan – One month after a devastating tsunami flattened their homes, some families took a step toward normalcy and moved into temporary housing, while Japan’s prime minister promised Sunday to help fishermen along the devastated coast get back to their boats.

Rows of 36 boxy, gray houses line a junior high school parking lot in this port city pulverized by the March 11 wave, and, after a lottery, the first lucky few families moved in this weekend. Each unit is just 320 square feet (30 square meters), but replete with modern comforts like a television, refrigerator, microwave and washing machine – a welcome upgrade for the homeless, many of whom have slept on the floors of school gyms for a month.

That’s just one house for every 50 applicants.

32 Fervor of Wis. debate shifts to recall elections

By JASON SMATHERS, Associated Press

Sun Apr 10, 2:02 pm ET

MADISON, Wis. – Nearly a month after the Wisconsin standoff over union rights ended, some of the fervor from that debate has shifted to recall efforts targeting lawmakers in both parties – Republicans who voted to cut back collective bargaining and Democrats who fled the state to try to stop them.

Now that the law has passed, organizers are focusing on signature-gathering efforts. But of the 16 state senators who were originally targeted, only six appear likely to face an election threatening removal. And before recall elections can be held, supporters need to find candidates to run against the incumbents.

Still, voter outrage remains high in many places, helping to stir interest in the recalls.

33 Debate stirred over 1st major US tar sands mine

By CHI-CHI ZHANG, Associated Press

2 hrs 32 mins ago

SALT LAKE CITY – Beneath the lush, green hills of eastern Utah’s Uinta Basin, where elk, bear and bison outnumber people, the soil is saturated with a sticky tar that may soon provide a new domestic source of petroleum for the United States. It would be a first-of-its kind project in the country that some fear could be a slippery slope toward widespread wilderness destruction.

With crude prices surging beyond $100 a barrel, and politicians preaching the need to reduce America’s reliance on foreign supplies, companies are now looking for more local sources. One Canadian firm says it’s found it in the tar sands of Utah’s Book Cliffs.

Alberta-based Earth Energy Resources Inc. aims to start with a roughly 62-acre mine here to produce bitumen, a tar-like form of petroleum, from oil-soaked sands. For decades, other Utah operators have used oil sands as a poor-man’s asphalt, and Canada has been wringing oil from the ground for years, but nobody has yet tried to produce petroleum from U.S. soil on such a scale.

34 GOP presidential field sees budget wars from afar

By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press

Sun Apr 10, 12:18 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Republicans are pressing ahead with one of the most ambitious and risky long-term spending agendas in memory, yet the dozen or so potential White House hopefuls are nearly invisible on the issue.

They can’t stay on the sidelines for long, however. The contentious debate will rope them in on terms they might find hard to control.

The triumph of tea party candidates in 2010 pumped new urgency into a long-brewing Republican Party push for major cuts in domestic and benefit programs, including Medicare and Social Security.

35 US gay-marriage ban under assault but still potent

By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer

Sun Apr 10, 11:22 am ET

NEW YORK – These are frustrating, tantalizing days for many of the same-sex couples who seized the chance to marry in recent years.

The law that prohibits federal recognition of their unions in under assault in the courts. The Obama administration has repudiated it and taken piecemeal steps to weaken its effects.

Yet for now, the Defense of Marriage Act remains very much in force – provoking anger, impatience and confusion among gay couples.

36 Judge blocks deal on protections for wolves

By KEITH RIDLER, Associated Press

Sun Apr 10, 6:55 am ET

BOISE, Idaho – A federal judge has blocked a proposal to lift the endangered species protections for wolves in Montana and Idaho that had been hammered out by U.S. wildlife officials and conservation groups.

The plan could have led to public hunting of some 1,300 wolves in the two states.

In the 24-page decision, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula, Mont., cited the court’s lack of authority to put part of an endangered species population under state management and expose that population to hunting, noting “Congress has clearly determined that animals on the ESA (Endangered Species Act) must be protected as such,” and the court couldn’t “exercise its discretion to allow what Congress forbids.”

37 Beijing police halt unapproved church service

By ALEXA OLESEN, Associated Press

Sun Apr 10, 9:45 am ET

BEIJING – Beijing police on Sunday detained dozens of worshippers from an unapproved Christian church who were trying to hold services in a public space after they were evicted from their usual place of worship, a parishioner said.

Leaders of the unregistered Shouwang church had told members to gather at an open-air venue in Beijing for Sunday morning services, but police, apparently alerted to their plans, taped off the area and took away people who showed up to take part.

China’s Communist government allows worship only in state-approved churches, but many Christians belong to unregistered congregations. Such “house churches” are subjected to varying degrees of harassment by authorities.

38 Leftist leads in Peru election but runoff likely

By FRANK BAJAK, Associated Press

Sun Apr 10, 5:47 am ET

LIMA, Peru – A leftist former military officer who promises to favor the poor by redistributing Peru’s mineral wealth was expected to win the most votes in Sunday’s presidential elections but fall far short of the outright majority needed to avoid a runoff.

That made the tight battle for second crucial as no other candidate has expressed any intention of seriously shaking up the economic status quo.

Technically tied for second in an election-eve poll were Keiko Fujimori, 35-year-old daughter of the imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori whom Peruvians alternately adore and vilify, and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a 72-year-old former World Bank economist and investment banker. Trailing them was Alejandro Toledo, Peru’s president from 2001-2006.

39 Long meetings, dashed hopes – but finally a deal

By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press

Sun Apr 10, 4:37 am ET

WASHINGTON – There was barely an hour left before the midnight padlocking of government doors. In a Capitol basement meeting room, House Speaker John Boehner was telling exhausted fellow Republicans that a deal to avert a shutdown was nearly finished when an aide alerted him that staff had completed the final details and the agreement was complete.

“He said we don’t have the Senate and we don’t have the White House, and it’s a good day’s work,” said Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., who was in the closed-door session and later described the scene.

And with that, Republicans clapped: “Not euphoria,” Kingston said, reflecting fatigue and the realization of a long year of intense budget battling lay ahead. But for now, a week of top-level White House meetings, round-the-clock bargaining by staff and lots of emotional hills and valleys had produced a bipartisan accord to trim $38.5 billion in spending over this fiscal year’s remaining six months and head off a federal shutdown that both parties feared could hurt their standing with voters.

40 Analysis: GOP won first round of budget battle

By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press

Sun Apr 10, 12:57 am ET

WASHINGTON – Republican conservatives were the chief winners in the budget deal that forced Democrats to accept historic spending cuts they strongly opposed.

Emboldened by last fall’s election victories, fiscal conservatives have changed the debate in Washington. The question no longer is whether to cut spending, but how deeply. Rarely mentioned is the idea of higher taxes to lower the deficit.

Their success is all the more notable because Democrats control the Senate and White House.

41 Conn., RI marine industry say taxes will sink them

By SUSAN HAIGH and DAVID KLEPPER, Associated Press

Sun Apr 10, 1:07 pm ET

STONINGTON, Conn. – Boating season hasn’t begun yet and Mason’s Island Marina owner Eileen Morehouse has already felt the ill effects of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed increases to marine-related taxes – a move that industry veterans claim will repeat mistakes that proved economically devastating.

A customer recently told Morehouse she was moving her sailboat and Boston Whaler from the Mystic marina to neighboring Rhode Island, about 15 minutes away.

“She’s afraid that so many people are going to be running to Rhode Island,” said Morehouse, who has customers from as far away as Pennsylvania. “If you’re going to travel all the way from Philadelphia, what’s another 6 miles to Rhode Island? We will lose. Connecticut will lose.”

42 Maine Woods National Park idea faces challenges

By DAVID SHARP, Associated Press

Sun Apr 10, 11:02 am ET

PORTLAND, Maine – Judging by the reaction of Maine’s congressional delegation, a wealthy conservationist has some convincing to do if she’s to sell her idea of another national park in Maine.

While no one rejected Roxanne Quimby’s idea outright, all four members of Maine’s delegation expressed some level of concern about the proposal by the founder of Burt’s Bees personal care products to turn over more than 70,000 remote acres to the National Park Service.

The Park Service finds the idea intriguing, especially since it thinks people in the Northeast have fewer parks than other areas of the country. The park’s acreage would be roughly double the size of Maine’s Acadia National Park, which draws more 2 million visitors a year.

from firefly-dreaming 10.4.11

(midnight. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

This is an Open Thread

Essays Featured Sunday the 10th of April:

Late Night Karaoke shines a spotlight on The Soggy Bottom Boys, mishima DJs

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

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

Alma‘s Got Nothing but brings smiles.  (^.^)

Gha!

The latest edition of Bill Egnor‘s Sunday Bread is an airey, crusty French Bread for Fondue just in time for Spring entertaining.

KNUCKLEHEAD returns!! His Random Thoughts are truly captivating.

Rant of the Week: Cenk Uygur and Dylan Ratigan

Cenk Uygur and Dylan Ratigan discuss what it is to regulate banks in the Rant of the Week.

“Pretty please, can we regulate you with someone you like?”

The fight for Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a “fight worth waging”. Jennifer Granholm, former governor of Michigan

A Plague Of Forgetting

(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Photobucket

This story begins in 1928 with bananas.  On the Caribbean coast of Colombia, campesinos who are employed by United Fruit are paid less than $1 per day for backbreaking work.  They live in filthy hovels.  And they die of malaria and tuberculosis.  Then they form a union.  Then they go on strike and paralyze the exportation of bananas.

General Carlos Cortez Vargas announces in Aracataca at a dinner put on by United Fruit that he will end the strike.  

The workers are told that a manager of United Fruit will arrive to accede to their demands, so they gather together to hear the announcement of their victory.  Instead of a United Fruit manager, General Cortez Vargas appears.  He doesn’t issue a concession.  Not at all.  He issues instead an ultimatum: get back to work, end the strike right now.  Or else.

When nobody moves, the shooting begins from all sides.  Nobody knows exactly how many workers are killed.  After the shooting the soldiers spend the evening throwing bodies in the ocean and scrubbing the plaza.  In the morning there is no evidence of the massacre.  Immediately, hundreds of strikers who escaped the massacre are also rounded up and killed.

About these events, Eduardo Galeano cites Cien anos de soledad, written by Garcia Marquez, who was a child in Aracataca at the time :

“In Macondo nothing has happened, nor is happening, nor ever will happen.”

About Garcia Marquez and this event, Galeano writes:

The years will pass and [Marquez] will reveal to the world the secrets of a region so attacked by a plague of forgetfulness that it lost the names of things.  He will discover the documents that tell how the workers were shot in the plaza, and how Big Mama is the owner of lives and haciendas and of the rain that has fallen and will fall, and how between rain and rain Remedios the Beautiful goes to heaven, and in the air passes a little old plucked angel who is falling into a henhouse

A plague of forgetfulness.  If it were not for Eduardo Galeano’s masterful “Memory of Fire” trilogy, and his recitation of the above in volume 3, “Century of the Wind,” I wouldn’t know this story.  It is not in any of the history books I was directed to read in school.  It is not something most people in the United States have heard about.  It was apparently consigned to being forgotten.

The story transforms the piles of bananas in the supermarket.  Before they were a common fruit wearing its own package.  They were something we mash and feed to babies.  Their peels were a slapstick joke.  They were the title of a funny Woody Allen movie.  They were something used to demonstrate condom use.  They were so wonderful.  And humorous.  And multifaceted.  And now it is impossible to look at them without recalling the massacre, and the many murders, and blood that is responsible for them.  A plague of forgetfulness.

Bananas aren’t alone in this forgetting.

The list of horrors in this hemisphere is long and painful.  One example and then a list.  We drink rum, but have apparently forgotten that it was a leg of the triangle trade and that slaves from Africa were its hypotenuse.  We don’t think about the Middle Voyage and the cramped ships and the fetid smell and the abuse and the broken families and the horror of working under the lash.  We don’t think about branding slaves.  All of that, all of that that went into making the product, we omit.  We forget it.  We overlook it.  And, of course, we also don’t think about the history of cotton, sugar, gold, silver, tin, phosphates, on and on and on and on.  A plague of forgetfulness.

As time goes by, the forgetfulness inevitably grows.  Virtually all of those who were involved in these events have by now died.  And their stories.  What about the stories?  The stories, if they are retold at all, if they are remembered at all, compete, often unsuccessfully for attention with so many distractions.  We live in a society that produces spectacles and distractions, and inevitably forgets.  A plague of forgetfulness.

Forgetfulness is the Petri dish in which cruelty grows to its full virulence.  And it is its own justification:

“In Macondo nothing has happened, nor is happening, nor ever will happen.”


————————

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

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