Stand Still a Moment: Look Up, Breathe

(4 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Since the Winter Solstice, it seems like we have been moved from one crisis to the next without no respite, many of these events overlapping the others, each one exponentially worse. Time to stop for a night and look up at the sky and breath. Tomorrow the moon will not only be full, it will be the closest it has been to Earth in 18 years, a Supermoon. Many astrologers believe it can trigger natural disasters but in actuality, it has little to no effect. The moon may effect the ocean’s tides but it is not capable of triggering devastating earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.

Native Americans have several names for March’s full moon:

As the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear, heralding the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this Moon as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter; or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night.

This Supermoon is doubly special as it occurs on the last night of this long, cold snowy winter. Sunday is the Spring equinox when the night and day are equal and the earth is in balance. In mythology it is the time, that Persephone, the Greek goddess of spring, starts Her journey back to Earth and Her beloved mother, Demeter.  Each year at the end of the winter season, She returns to the surface of the earth for a joyful reunion with Her mother.  In winter, She returns to live in the Underworld as the Queen of Hades. Persephone is the goddess of death, yet with a promise of life to come. For Pagans, it is one of the eight important festivals in the Wheel of the Year.

We cannot control the Earth or slow the Wheel, we can take time to go out side, stand still a moment to look up at the night sky and breathe.

War Du Jour, Part III

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

War, endless war.  Evidently, Iraq and Afghanistan, even taken together, cannot sate the US’s taste for armed combat and blood. No. Not a chance. Those are insufficient. Today we learned that the US was going to get involved in yet another war, a third one, this time in Libya, again complete with ill defined purpose, the possibility of massive and uncontrolled escalation, and no exit plans.  Yes, I know.  No ground troops are being committed. Yet. Right now. But this intervention is a lot more than just imposing a “no fly zone”.  Let’s call it what it is: it’s an open invitation for the US to get embroiled in yet a third, simultaneous, distant ground war.

How so?  Let’s suppose that air power can keep Libya’s air force on the ground.  But let’s also suppose that Libyan armor attacks Benghazi.  Or Libyan mercenaries and infantry attack some other civilian center in which there is resistance to the Gaddafi government and its tanks and infantry and mercenaries. It’s clear that to defend the rebels (read: the less well armed Libyan people) there would have to be at the very least an air attack on the advancing forces. And the Libyan response to that would be an escalation of some kind, and the response to that, in turn, another escalation. Have we seen this particular sequence and its consequences before?  Or more to the point, haven’t we seen it far too often?  And hasn’t it killed enough US soldiers?  And enough foreign soldiers?  And enough civilians?

MSNBC reports:

NATO allies meeting in Brussels were drawing up plans to enforce a United Nations resolution authorizing military action to prevent the killing of Libyan civilians Friday as Western leaders delivered an ultimatum to Moammar Gadhafi.

Fighting continued Friday in Libya despite the government’s declaration of a cease-fire to comply after the U.N. resolution passed a day earlier.

President Barack Obama and other Western leaders said military response would be swift if Gadhafi forces continue attacking protesters trying to end his 42-year rule.

I think we’ve heard that line about “swift” elsewhere, perhaps in the different context.  At least so far we’ve been spared the silly prediction that the Libyan people would greet US troops in the streets of Tripoli with flowers. We’ll have to wait until next week or next month for that.  Right now there is already video of people in the streets with Libyan flags supposedly cheering the UN/US decision to intervene.  Those videos are positively Chalabi-esque.

But it’s the language about “military action to prevent the killing of Libyan citizens” that’s the real problem.  That very phrase opens the door wide to yet another quagmire.  You remember quagmires.  Vietnam.  Iraq.  Afghanistan.  Now Libya.  What does this phrase mean about the limits, if any, of US/UN intervention in Libya?  As far as I can tell, not so very much.

And how does our present War President explain (video) why the US cannot sit this out in the peanut gallery and try to nurse it’s own economy and Japan back to a modicum of health?  Ah.  Well.  He doesn’t.  You have to watch the entire statement.  Very nice rhetoric.  Very broad.  Very fierce (where has this fierceness been hiding for the past two years that it gets to show off now?).  Yes, it’s intolerable that Gaddafi’s forces are killing civilians.  Yes, Gaddafi has abused the populace for more than four decades.   Yes, he’s violated human rights.  Yes, he’s suppressed expression and the right to assembled.  And worse. We’ve heard all that before about Mubarak, and Saddam Hussein, and [fill in the name of the dictator who is now out of favor in the US].  Yes, he’s a bad, bad man.  And, yes, he has oil, oil, oil.  How coincidental.

You would expect a large outcry about this newest of US wars.  But so far, I don’t hear much.  I’m amazed that committing the US’s military to anything like this can happen so easily.  Have we become that desensitized, that habituated to war for oil?  


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cross posted from The Dream Antilles

     

Popular Culture (Music AND TeeVee) 20110318: Iconic Themes Part I

I love to be able to fuse two topics into one!  Since almost the beginning of TeeVee, there has been theme music for its programs.  Many of you will remember lots of them, but there were some programs without music, the very first TeeVee image being one of them, although it got a theme later.  Does that pique your interest?

TeeVee became widely available in the late 1940s, in large part because of the revolutionary improvements in electronics because of the necessity of the war effort.  However, there is a backstory to that as well:  after the war was over, there was a flood of components that were military surplus, available for cents on the dollar, to be had by manufacturers.

TeeVee had been invented long before World War II, but the components were rare and expensive.  Because of the glut of surplus components, TeeVee became widely available, but that is more of a Pique the Geek piece.

Sound is relatively easy to broadcast on a carrier wave, since it is relatively information sparse.  Pictures, on the other hand, are information dense, and motion pictures are much more so, because of the persistence of vision, making around 28 or so (and the more the better) frames per second necessary for the eye/brain combination to integrate what is a series of still, no matter the recording medium, pictures to flow like a live scene.

However, this is also more a topic for Pique the Geek.  Tonight we shall look back on some of the iconic theme music for TeeVee programs from the early days to around 1970 or so.  I know that I will miss a bunch of them, because there are so many.  However, there are the ones that I remember well and enjoyed.  Please add the ones that you remember and like in the comments.

One of the earliest, and certainly most popular TeeVee shows ever filmed (no tape in those days) was I Love Lucy.  Most people are familiar with the theme, with the velvet heart emblazoned with the title.  Here it is:

This was composed by, as far as I can tell, a man named Eliot Daniel, and was performed by the Desi Arnaz Orchestra.  The Cuban influence is obvious.  However, this was NOT the original opening for the show.

HERE is the original one.  Phillip Morris cigarettes was the main, original sponsor for the program.  The velvet heart opening was a replacement for the original opening when the program went into syndication, since the original sponsors were no longer associated with the program.

Only the cartoon part was the opening theme.  The live action was in internal commercial that shows at the time often ran.  There is another one later when we discuss The Beverly Hillbillies, likely in another installment.  Ironically, Arnaz died in 1986 from lung cancer!

Most people do not know that the I Love Lucy theme acutally had words.  Here is that version.  Desi Arnaz is the singer.

The show ran with that title from 1951 to 1957 as a regular series, and in another reincarnation until 1960.  I have a very soft place in my heart for it, because its success bankrolled the way for Desilu Studios, where the first two seasons of Star Trek were filmed.

Another iconic theme is from the marvelous anthology program created by the brilliant Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone.

However, the one that you remember was not the first one.  HERE is the original opening sequence from 1959:

The iconic one was written by Marius Constant.  I have not been able to determine exactly who performed it for the show.

The original program ran from 1959 to 1964.  It was revived in 1985, long after Serling’s death, with the same theme song, but performed by a band with whom many of us are familiar.  Here is The Grateful Dead’s take on it.  Note that the skull device is very briefly shown.

The Twilight Zone has LOTS of connexions with Star Trek!  William Shatner (twice), Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, James Doohan, and Theodore Bikel (Worf’s adopted human father in The Next Generation) all had starring roles.  There is also a musical connexion, because Jerry Goldsmith wrote a lot of the incidental music in the program itself.  He is remembered as the creator of the theme music for Star Trek:  The Motion Picture, which was also used for The Next Generation.

Another program with an iconic theme, which also happened to premiere in 1959, was Rawhide.  The words for the theme were written by Ned Washington, and the music composed by Dimitri Tiomkin.  A popular singer at the time, Frankie Lane, sung it.  Belushi and Ackroyd seemed to like it, too, since they covered it in The Blues Brothers!

HERE it is, both the opening and closing versions:

Here is the Blues Brothers’ version (it starts about a minute and a half in):

Rawhide also had a lot of connexions with Star Trek.  Here is a partial list of actors who guest starred on Rawhide:  DeForest Kelley, Michael Ansara (the Klingon captain from the episode The Day of the Dove), Susan Oliver (Lena, the human captured by the Talosions in the original pilot for Star Trek, The Cage, most of which was used in the second season for the two part episode, The Menagerie), and William Schallert (most well known as Patty Duke’s father in her self named program, but also played the inept Earth ambassador in the award winning episode The Trouble with Tribbles).

Even animated cartoons had iconic themes.  The Flintstones, the William Hanna and Joseph Barbara production, is probably the most iconic one of all (by the way, Hanna and Barbara provided the original opening for I Love Lucy, the cigarette one, but were not credited because they were moonlighting, since they had an exclusive contract with MGM in 1951).  However, the iconic theme was not the first one!  The first one was called Rise and Shine, and was used for the first two seasons, 1960 and 1961.  Here it is:

The one that you remember is this one:

Personally, I like the earlier one better.  The second one is sort of garish, but Hanna and Barbara like annoying noise.

One more reference to Hanna and Barbara, and we shall go elsewhere.  One of their most popular cartoons was Scooby Doo, Where are You!  It also had two theme songs, and again I like the first one better:

This one was performed and cowritten by Austin Roberts, best known for the horrible Rocky.

Here is the second one, written by Hoyt Curtin.  I could not find who performed it:

Red Skelton had a variety program that ran for many years.  Skelton was sort of multitalented individual:  composer, comedian, serious actor, and one of the outstanding mimes of all time.  Here is the theme music for The Red Skelton Show, called Holiday for Strings.  David Rose wrote the piece and conducted the orchestra, and we will see more of him in a bit.  This is the long version of it:

Another iconic theme with which Rose was associated was the theme for Bonanza!.  Written by David Rose, Walter Scharf, and Harry Sukman, Rose conducted the orchestra playing it, here:

What most folks do not realize is that this actually has words, and here is Lorne Greene singing them:

I was unable to find a list of guest stars, but know for a fact the DeForest Kelly was on at least once, so there is a Star Trek connexion.  One episode stands out to me in my alter ego role as The Geek.  I do not recall the name of the episode, but it had to do with Hoss helping a young, Jewish boy by the name of Albert Abraham Michelson trying to figure out the speed of light by using a circular array of mirrors cut like a pie, with alternate spaces being non mirrored.  This actually is based on fact, in that Michelson did spend some time in his youth in Virginia City.

For those of you more artistic than scientific, Michelson was the first American to win a Nobel Prize, in this case in physics.  His Nobel Prize was for several accomplishments, and the Nobel citations states it was “…”for his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid.”  I really need to do a Pique the Geek installment with his biography as the topic.  Interestingly, this yet another Star Trek connexion, because the bigoted teacher who declined to recommend him for the Naval Academy (Michelson actually was graduated from it) in the episode was played by William Schallert, mentioned before.  By the way, Michelson made the best determination of the speed of light in a vacuum until the electronics revolution made more precise measurements decades later.  In 1926 his value was 299,796±4 km/s.  The best value known now is 299,792.458 km/s.  Note that his 1926 value, with error limits, is within the modern one that contains nine digits.  By the way, the modern value is defined to be an exact value, with no error.

Only two more themes and I shall stop for this installment.  I can see that there needs to be a second, and perhaps, a third one.  Likely the most iconic theme for any TeeVee show is the whistled one from The Andy Griffith Show.

This tune actually has a name, called The Fishin’ Hole, written by Earle Hagen.  Here it is as it was aired, except without the voiceover announcing the name of the show and the cast.

But there is MORE!  This song acutally has words, like several ones earlier!  Here is Andy Griffith himself singing it:

Before he got the show, he was, amongst other things, a singer.  This was a song strongly identified with him, so they adopted it for the theme.  As you might suspect, The Andy Griffith show ALSO has a connexion with Star Trek!  Both were filmed at Desilu Studios until 1967, and both were filmed at Paramount after that.

Are you getting the idea that Star Trek is connected with almost everything?  Well, it is.  The inventor of the “flip” cellular telephone admitted that he got the idea from the original communicators from Star Trek.  The original ideas for remote medical imaging also had their roots there, as does the idea of having a COMPUTER terminal in every crew quarter.  By the way, the very first interracial kiss EVER on TeeVee was on Star Trek!

With that said, I must finish this installment with the theme from Star Trek.  It was written by Alexander Courage, and is perhaps almost as iconic as The Fishin’ Hole.  Here is the full, original version.  Note that for the first season it was mostly the string part that was used, the vocal one coming out later.  Also please give a couple of seconds of thought for Majel Barrett, DeForest Kelly, and James Doohan who are no longer with us.

Here it is as it appeared, with the voiceover, for the first season:

Can it get any more iconic than that?

Now, here is the second one.  Note that the Enterprise orbits the strange, red planet and did not do so in the original one.  Also notice that the motions of the Enterprise are much more fluid, and that DeForest Kelly’s name was added to the front credits.  Although the effects got better, the stories did not.  The first two seasons were much better written for the most part.

Here is the theme that Jerry Goldsmith wrote for Star Trek:  The Motion Picture.  I have a story to tell about waiting in line to see it on opening night in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but that is for the comments.  You will likely notice that a modified version was used for Star Trek:  The Next Generation for all of its wonderful run.  I am POSITIVE that there is a blend of Alexander Courage’s original theme and Goldsmith’s new one in the motion picture, without the voiceover, somewhere, but I can not find it.  Perhaps it is when the motion picture starts, but they repeated it in a modified manner for The Next Generation.  Here is the opening theme for the first season.

Note that the sexist phrase “…where no man has…” was by then replaced by the more acceptable “…where no one has…”.  BUT they NEVER corrected the split infinitive, “… to boldly go…” with something more acceptable, like, “…boldly to go…” or “…to go boldly…”.  But that is just The grammarian Geek in me!  LOL!  See?  I just split my alter ego’s name!

I know that I have missed many iconic themes from this period, but that is why we have Comment Time.  I would love to hear your favorites, and if you can find video feeds, so much the better.  If you can not, just describe them and I bet that someone here might find one.

It is always my honor to respond to comments, because without a loyal readership, I would not write very much.  The responses from all of you keep me going.  Please check in Sunday evening at 9:00 PM Eastern for my Pique the Geek first installment of Nuclear Reactors:  How they Work Part I.  I think that you might like it, considering what has happened and is still happening in Japan.

Warmest regards,

Doc

Crossposted at Antemedius.com, Dailykos.com, Docudharma.com, and Fireflydreaming.com.

from firefly 18.3.11

(midnight. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Regular Daily Features:

Late Night Karaoke visits Hotel California, mishima DJs

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

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

Gha!

Essays Featured Friday, March 18th:

slksfca  takes us on A Trip to the Tea Garden in Friday Open Thoughts

Interlude from Dreamer features Donald Fagan

Tahoe warns Fallout has reached Southern California!

puzzled talks about getting stuff, making stuff & happiness in The Hedonic Treadmill

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

Evening Edition

I’ll be sitting in for ek hornbeck who is Live Blogging the NCAA Championship Games for the next few days.

  • Japan battles nuclear crisis, power effort crucial

    By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Yoko Nishikawa

    (Reuters) – Exhausted engineers scrambled to fix a power cable to two reactors at Japan’s tsunami-crippled nuclear station on Saturday in a race to prevent deadly radiation from an accident now rated at least as bad as America’s Three Mile Island in 1979.

    In a crude tactic underlining authorities’ desperation, fire engines also sprayed water overnight on a third reactor deemed to be in the most critical state at the Fukushima plant in northeastern Japan, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

  • Obama warns Gaddafi to comply with U.N., halt advance

    (Reuters) – President Barack Obama warned Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Friday to comply with U.N. demands for a ceasefire or else face consequences that include military action.

    He said Gaddafi must stop advances on the rebel capital of Benghazi.

    “All attacks against all civilians must stop,” Obama said in a White House speech.

    Obama, offering his first justification to Americans for getting the U.S. military involved in Libya, said the goal is to protect Libyan citizens from what he called Gaddafi’s campaign of repression against his people.

  • Japan weighs need to bury nuclear plant; tries to restore power

    By Shinichi Saoshiro and Yoko Nishikawa

    (Reuters) – Japanese engineers conceded on Friday that burying a crippled nuclear plant in sand and concrete may be a last resort to prevent a catastrophic radiation release, the method used to seal huge leakages from Chernobyl in 1986.

    But they still hoped to solve the crisis by fixing a power cable to two reactors by Saturday to restart water pumps needed to cool overheating nuclear fuel rods. Workers also sprayed water on the No.3 reactor, the most critical of the plant’s six.

  • In free Egypt, Jihad leader says time for gun is over

    By Tom Perry

    NAHIA, Egypt (Reuters) – Abboud al-Zumar went to jail 30 years ago for his role in killing Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Now a free man, he believes democracy will prevent Islamists from ever again taking up the gun against the state.

    Zumar was a prisoner for as long as Sadat’s successor, Hosni Mubarak, was president.

    His release with other leading Islamists jailed for militancy is a sign of dramatic change in Egypt in the five weeks since Mubarak was swept from power by mass protests.

  • Judge temporarily blocks Wisconsin’s anti-union law

    By Jeff Mayers

    (Reuters) – A judge on Friday temporarily blocked Wisconsin’s controversial new law stripping public employee unions of key collective bargaining rights, though the ruling does not strike down the law itself.

    Dane County Judge Maryann Sumi granted a temporary restraining order, which stops the official publication of the bill by Wisconsin’s secretary of state, while she considers a complaint filed against several Republican lawmakers who orchestrated the measure’s passage last week.

  • Aristide returns to Haiti as key vote looms

    by Guillaume Decamme

    PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) – Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically-elected leader who was twice driven into exile, returned to his homeland Friday in a move that threatens to cloud an already fraught presidential run-off.

    The former leader, smiling and wearing a dark blue suit, stepped off a private jet with his wife and two daughters, who wept as their father emerged to a ceremonial welcome by President Rene Preval’s chief of staff, as well as foreign ministry officials and bouquet-bearing supporters.

  • 46 dead in Yemen protest bloodbath: medics

    by Jamal al-Jaberi and Hammoud Mounassar

    SANAA (AFP) – Beleaguered Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered a state of emergency Friday after regime loyalists killed at least 46 protestors in the deadliest incident in weeks of unrest, according to medics.

    Witnesses said pro-Saleh “thugs” had rained bullets from rooftops around a square at Sanaa University, the centre of demonstrations against Saleh, adding that more than 400 people were wounded.

  • Libya offers cease-fire after UN no-fly zone vote

    By Hadeel Al-Shalchi and Ryan Lucas

    TRIPOLI, Libya – Libya declared an immediate cease-fire Friday, trying to fend off international military intervention after the U.N. authorized a no-fly zone and “all necessary measures” to prevent the regime from striking its own people. A rebel spokesman said Moammar Gadhafi’s forces were still shelling two cities.

    The United States said a cease-fire announcement was insufficient, calling on the regime to pull back from eastern Libya, where the once-confident rebels this week found themselves facing an overpowering force using rockets, artillery, tanks, warplanes.

  • CBO: Obama understates deficits by $2.3 trillion

    WASHINGTON – A new assessment of President Barack Obama’s budget released Friday says the White House underestimates future budget deficits by more than $2 trillion over the upcoming decade.

    The estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that if Obama’s February budget submission is enacted into law it would produce deficits totaling $9.5 trillion over 10 years – an average of almost $1 trillion a year.

    Obama’s budget saw deficits totaling $7.2 trillion over the same period.

  • Arizona Senate votes down immigration bills

    PHOENIX (Reuters) – The Arizona Senate on Thursday rejected five immigration bills, placing a major stumbling block in the way of state conservatives’ hopes to pass more laws cracking down on illegal immigrants.

    The Senate voted down bills that sought to provoke a reevaluation by the U.S. Supreme Court of birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants, Senate officials said.

  • G7 central banks in rare currency action after yen surge

    Leika Kihara and Kristina Cooke

    TOKYO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – A coordinated move by central banks of rich nations to stabilize the yen appeared to be working on Friday, tamping its value down after Japan’s devastating earthquake and nuclear crisis triggered a yen surge and raised fears about the global economy.

    The action by the Group of Seven, in which they poured billions of dollars into markets, was the first joint intervention in currency markets since the G7 came to the aid of the newly launched euro in 2000.

  • JPMorgan, Wells Fargo boost payouts after Fed tests

    By Maria Aspan and Rachelle Younglai Maria Aspan And Rachelle Younglai

    NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co, Wells Fargo & Co and other major U.S. banks plan to boost their dividend payments after passing stress tests evaluated by the Federal Reserve.

    The dividends, and announcements of share buybacks in some cases, signal that regulators view banks as being healthy enough to withstand the remaining uncertainties in the economy, after the banking system has been profitable for a year.

  • California seeing no radiation level increase

    By Fredrik Dahl and Nichola Groom

    VIENNA/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – California air quality officials said on Friday they saw no elevated radiation levels on the U.S. West Coast from Japan’s nuclear power plant disaster.

    “At this point we’re unable to verify if there are any elevated levels,” said Ralph Borrmann, a spokesman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District in San Francisco. “We’re not seeing it on our live data in California.”

    Radiation levels have not shown an increase at any of the monitoring stations up and down the West Coast, he added.

  • Libya set to release NY Times journalists: report

    NEW YORK (Reuters) – Four New York Times journalists who were captured by Libyan forces while covering the conflict there will be released on Friday, the Times reported.

    The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Seif al-Islam, told ABC News they would be released, and the Times reported that Libyan officials told the U.S. State Department on Thursday evening that all four would be released.

    The Times could not confirm details of their condition but quoted Executive Editor Bill Keller as saying, “We’re all, families and friends, overjoyed to know they are safe.”

  • Report criticizes immigrant detention system

    PHOENIX (Reuters)- Immigrants detained in the United States lack adequate access to legal representation and medical care, while the system itself is over reliant on detention, a human rights report released on Thursday found.

    The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights study — “Immigration in the United States: Detention and Due Process” — examined the U.S. federal government’s immigration enforcement and detention system.

  • Utah becomes first in U.S. to designate official state gun

    By James Nelson

    SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) – Utah has become the first U.S. state to name an official firearm, placing an automatic pistol on a list of designated symbols, right along with the honeybee and the cutthroat trout.

    Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed the bill into law this week, designating the Browning model M1911 automatic pistol as the official state firearm.

    The gun, which turns 100 years-old this year, is manufactured in Ogden, Utah.

Round of 64 Day 2 Evening

Maybe Boston University will shock Kansas but I somehow doubt it.  Other than that I’m just killing time until Syracuse tips off at 10 pm.

Go Orange.

This afternoon CBS let Barack’s little Libya speech crush the end of an exciting Texas/Oakland finish and the begining of the Villanova/George Mason game.  Must not have been part of his bracket.  Thanks for nothing you elite failures.

This Afternoon’s Results

Seed Team Record Score Seed Team Record Score Region
4 *Texas 29 – 7 81 13 Oakland 26 – 10 85 West
8 *Michigan 21 – 13 75 9 Tennessee 20 – 16 45 West
2 *Notre Dame 29 – 6 69 15 Akron 24 – 13 56 Southwest
8 *George Mason 29 – 5 61 9 Villanova 22 – 12 57 East
5 *Arizona 29 – 7 77 12 Memphis 27 – 10 75 West
1 *Duke 33 – 4 87 16 Hampton 24 – 9 45 West
7 Texas A&M 25 – 9 50 10 *Florida St. 24 – 10 57 Southwest
1 *Ohio St. 34 – 2 75 16 UT-San Antonio 19 – 14 46 East

Current Matchups

Date Time Network Seed Team Record Seed Team Record Region
3/18 6:50 pm TBS 1 Kansas 34 – 2 16 Boston U. 21 – 13 Southwest
3/18 7:15 pm CBS 2 North Carolina 27 – 7 15 Long Island 27 – 5 East
3/18 7:20 pm TNT 3 Purdue 27 – 7 14 St. Peter’s 20 – 13 Southwest
3/18 7:27 pm True 6 Xavier 25 – 8 11 Marquette 21 – 14 East
3/18 9:20 pm TBS 8 UNLV 26 – 8 9 Illinois 21 – 13 Southwest
3/18 9:45 pm CBS 7 Washington 24 – 10 10 Georgia 22 – 11 East
3/18 9:50 pm TNT 6 Georgetown 21 – 10 11 Virginia Commonwealth 24 – 11 Southwest
3/18 9:57 pm True 3 Syracuse 26 – 7 14 Indiana St. 22 – 13 East

Follow the 2011 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on The Stars Hollow Gazette.

If you don’t like squeeky shoes you can look for alternate programming here-

For a more traditional bracket try CBS Sports.  My Master Bracket Schedule is still good for today.

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 Forgotten Millions

More than three years after we entered the worst economic slump since the 1930s, a strange and disturbing thing has happened to our political discourse: Washington has lost interest in the unemployed.

Jobs do get mentioned now and then – and a few political figures, notably Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, are still trying to get some kind of action. But no jobs bills have been introduced in Congress, no job-creation plans have been advanced by the White House and all the policy focus seems to be on spending cuts.

So one-sixth of America’s workers – all those who can’t find any job or are stuck with part-time work when they want a full-time job – have, in effect, been abandoned.

Robert Reich: As the Global Economy Trembles, Our Nation’s Capital Fiddles

Why isn’t Washington responding?

The world’s third largest economy suffers a giant earthquake, tsunami, and radiation dangers. A civil war in Libya and tumult in the Middle East cause crude-oil prices to climb. Poor harvests around the world make food prices soar.

All this means higher prices. American consumers, still reeling from job losses and wage cuts, will be hit hard. (Wholesale food prices surged almost 4 percent in February, the largest upward spike in more than a quarter century.)

Even before these global shocks the U.S. recovery was fragile. Consumer confidence is at a five-month low. Housing prices continue to drop. More than 14 million Americans remain jobless, and the ratio of employed to our total population is at an almost unprecedented low.

Lisa Hajjar: Pvt Manning proves ‘slippery slope’

Treatment of the US soldier shows there is a fine line between torture of enemy combatants and American citizens.

Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst accused of leaking a massive trove of classified material to WikiLeaks, has been imprisoned since May 2010. The treatment to which he has been subjected, including protracted isolation, systematic humiliations and routinised sleep deprivation, got more extreme last week when the commander of the brig at Quantico, Virginia, imposed on him a regime of forced nakedness at night and during an inspection of his cell every morning until his clothing is returned.

These types of abusive tactics were authorised by the Bush administration for use on foreign detainees captured in the war on terror, on the theory that causing “debilitation, disorientation and dread” would produce “learned helplessness” and make them more susceptible and responsive to interrogators’ questioning.

 

Eugene Robunson: Spent Fuel’s Toxic Legacy

The most urgent focus of Japan’s worsening nuclear crisis is the threat from radioactive fuel that has already been used in the Fukushima Daiichi reactors and awaits disposal. In the United States, the nuclear industry has amassed about 70,000 tons of such potentially deadly waste material-and we have nowhere to put it.

U.S. officials’ increasingly dire assessment of the situation in Japan stems largely from the fact that spent fuel rods-which were stored in pools of water to keep them cool-have apparently become uncovered. The material is “cool” only in the relative sense: Once exposed to air, the fuel rods rapidly heat up and release large amounts of radiation.

Richard (RJ) Eskow: Fukushima USA: Hell or High Water

Some politicians are so determined to serve their corporate patrons that even disasters like Fukushima can’t lessen their anti-government zeal. The expression for that kind of determination is “Come hell or high water.” Now, thanks to deregulation and government downsizing, we’ve seen both.

As tragedy unfolds in Fukushima, an ideological struggle’s being waged here at home. A CBS News headline reads “Nuclear Safety Expert: It Could Happen Here.” The Nation‘s Christian Parenti offers a piece called “Nuclear Hubris: Could Japan’s Disaster Happen Here? Experts are being quoted on both sides of the debate. The Brattleboro Reformer‘s “Could It Happen Here?” piece reflects a special anxiety, since the Vermont Yankee reactor down the road in Vernon is a General Electric Mark I like the reactors at Fukushima. Other “can it happen here?” stories have appeared in Pennsylvania, Grand Rapids, Detroit, South Carolina, San Francisco, Michigan, New Hampshire, and undoubtedly elsewhere around the country.

The question urgently needs to be asked. There are at least 23 similar reactors in the United States, and some them are forty years old. And “can it happen here?” stories are appearing in other parts of the world, too, like Canada, Great Britain, India, Russia, Australia, and Armenia.

Jack M. Balkin: Bradley Manning, Barack Obama and the National Surveillance State

In 2006, Sandy Levinson and I predicted that the next president, whether Democratic or Republican, would ratify and continue many of President George W. Bush’s war on terrorism policies. The reason, we explained, had less to do with the specific events of September 11th, and more to do with the fact that the United States was in the process of expanding the National Security State created after World War II into something we called the National Surveillance State, featuring huge investments in electronic surveillance and various end runs around traditional Bill of Rights protections and expectations about procedure. These end runs included public private cooperation in surveillance and exchange of information, expansion of the state secrets doctrine, expansion of administrative warrants and national security letters, a system of preventive detention, expanded use of military prisons, extraordinary rendition to other countries, and aggressive interrogation techniques outside of those countenanced by the traditional laws of war.

The reasons for the creation of the national surveillance state were multiple; they concerned the rise of digital networks, changes in the technology of warfare, and the concomitant rise of networks of non-state actors as serious threats to national security. These problems would present themselves to any President, whether liberal or conservative, Democratic or Republican.

Cliff Schecter: Prescribed pain by corporate America

Greed has become a foundational structure of the US economy – exemplified by the pharmaceutical industry.

During the ultimate scene of betrayal in the movie Wall Street, a young stockbroker named Bud Fox learns that his idol, the golden-calf worshipping Gordon Gekko, has not only lied to him but left his father’s company exposed to the whims and hunger of the wolves of Wall Street. In a climactic moment, Fox asks Gekko, “how much is enough? How many yachts can you water ski behind?”

Even though this film was mid-1980s fare, one can once again repeat that old refrain, the more things change the more they stay the same. Perhaps not for the actor who played Bud Fox, Charlie Sheen, who should share Natalie Portman’s Oscar for real-time transformation into the Black Swan.

But for the rest of us, who have watched as greed has become the foundational structure upon which much of our modern economy is built, it is often difficult to see how we might close the Pandora’s Box and return to saner times. You know, back when being Donald Trump wasn’t considered an asset in a hair-club-for-men commercial, much less a race to be President of the United States.

Round of 64 Day 2 Afternoon

I’m not going to be paying as much attention to the games today because I need the time to set up tomorrow’s master schedule and check out what’s happening on the lady’s side.

Some observations on yesterday’s action-

There are only 3 upsets so far, Moorehead, Richmond, and Gonzaga (which always seems to be a Cinderella).  Since Morehead and Richmond face off tomorrow, depending on what happens today those Cinderella brackets are looking pretty busted.

Princeton and Michigan State played tough and deserve some credit for that.  UConn had a larger margin than Florida (by 1) and played a higher seed.  In your face Armando.

The Round of 64  has been, well…, frantic, The Round of 32 seems much more relaxed.  While coverage starts at 12:15 pm and final Tip Off (Connecticut/Cincinnati) is at 9:55 pm, you’ll only be flipping channels in Prime Time.

Of this group of games the only one I’m moderately interested in is Michigan because of my Big Chill connection.  For the most part you’ll have to make your own fun.  (Update: On closer examination I must admit some affection for the Villanova Ballhogs because of their prominent mention in Bored of the Rings.

Yesterday Evening’s Results

Seed Team Record Score Seed Team Record Score Region
2 *Florida 29 – 7 79 10 UC Santa Barbara 19 – 14 51 Southeast
3 *BYU 33 – 4 74 14 Wofford 21 – 13 68 Southeast
3 *Connecticut 29 – 9 81 14 Bucknell 25 – 9 52 West
4 *Wisconsin 25 – 8 72 13 Belmont 30 – 5 58 Southeast
7 *UCLA 22 – 10 78 10 Michigan St. 21 – 15 76 Southeast
6 St. John’s 22 – 12 71 11 *Gonzaga 28 – 7 86 Southeast
6 *Cincinnati 28 – 8 78 11 Missouri 25 – 11 63 West
5 *Kansas St. 25 – 10 73 12 Utah St. 35 – 4 68 Southeast

Current Matchups

Date Time Network Seed Team Record Seed Team Record Region
3/18 12:15 pm CBS 4 Texas 28 – 7 13 Oakland 26 – 9 West
3/18 12:40 pm True 8 Michigan 20 – 13 9 Tennessee 20 – 15 West
3/18 1:40 pm TBS 2 Notre Dame 28 – 6 15 Akron 24 – 12 Southwest
3/18 2:10 pm TNT 8 George Mason 28 – 5 9 Villanova 22 – 11 East
3/18 2:45 pm CBS 5 Arizona 28 – 7 12 Memphis 27 – 9 West
3/18 3:10 pm True 1 Duke 32 – 4 16 Hampton 24 – 8 West
3/18 4:10 pm TBS 7 Texas A&M 25 – 8 10 Florida St. 23 – 10 Southwest
3/18 4:40 pm TNT 1 Ohio St. 33 – 2 16 UT-San Antonio 19 – 13 East

Follow the 2011 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on The Stars Hollow Gazette.

If you don’t like squeeky shoes you can look for alternate programming here-

For a more traditional bracket try CBS Sports.  My Master Bracket Schedule is still good for today.

On This Day in History March 18

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.

March 18 is the 77th day of the year (78th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 288 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1766, the British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act

After four months of widespread protest in America, the British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, a taxation measure enacted to raise revenues for a standing British army in America. However, the same day, Parliament passed the Declaratory Acts, asserting that the British government had free and total legislative power over the colonies.

The Stamp Act of 1765 (short title Duties in American Colonies Act 1765; 5 George III, c. 12) was a direct tax imposed by the British Parliament specifically on the colonies of British America. The act required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London and carrying an embossed revenue stamp. These printed materials were legal documents, magazines, newspapers and many other types of paper used throughout the colonies. Like previous taxes, the stamp tax had to be paid in valid British currency, not in colonial paper money. The purpose of the tax was to help pay for troops stationed in North America after the British victory in the Seven Years’ War. The British government felt that the colonies were the primary beneficiaries of this military presence, and should pay at least a portion of the expense.

The Stamp Act met great resistance in the colonies. The colonies sent no representatives to Parliament, and therefore had no influence over what taxes were raised, how they were levied, or how they would be spent. Many colonists considered it a violation of their rights as Englishmen to be taxed without their consent, consent that only the colonial legislatures could grant. Colonial assemblies sent petitions and protests. The Stamp Act Congress held in New York City, reflecting the first significant joint colonial response to any British measure, also petitioned Parliament and the King. Local protest groups, led by colonial merchants and landowners, established connections through correspondence that created a loose coalition that extended from New England to Georgia. Protests and demonstrations initiated by the Sons of Liberty often turned violent and destructive as the masses became involved. Very soon all stamp tax distributors were intimidated into resigning their commissions, and the tax was never effectively collected.

Opposition to the Stamp Act was not limited to the colonies. British merchants and manufacturers, whose exports to the colonies were threatened by colonial economic problems exacerbated by the tax, also pressured Parliament. The Act was repealed on March 18, 1766 as a matter of expedience, but Parliament affirmed its power to legislate for the colonies “in all cases whatsoever” by also passing the Declaratory Act. This incident increased the colonists’ concerns about the intent of the British Parliament that helped the growing movement that became the American Revolution.

 37 – The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius’s will and proclaims Caligula emperor.

235 – Emperor Alexander Severus and his mother Julia Mamaea are murdered by legionaries near Moguntiacum (modern Mainz). The Severan dynasty ends.

1229 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor declares himself King of Jerusalem during the Sixth Crusade.

1241 – Mongols overwhelm Polish armies in Krakow in the Battle of Chmielnik and plunder the city.

1314 – Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake.

1673 – John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton sells his part of New Jersey to the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers.

1766 – American Revolution: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act.

1850 – American Express is founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.

1865 – American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourns for the last time.

1871 – Declaration of the Paris Commune; President of the French Republic, Adolphe Thiers, orders evacuation of Paris.

1874 – Hawaii signs a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trading rights.

1893 – Former Governor General Lord Stanley pledges to donate a silver challenge cup, later named after him, as an award for the best hockey team in Canada; originally presented to amateur champions, the Stanley Cup has been awarded to the top pro team since 1910, and since 1926, only to National Hockey League teams.

1906 – Traian Vuia flies a heavier-than-air aircraft for 20 meters at 1 meter altitude.

1913 – King George I of Greece is assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki.

1915 – World War I: Massive naval attack in Battle of Gallipoli. Three battleships are sunk during a failed British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles.

1921 – The second Peace of Riga between Poland and Soviet Union.

1922 – In India, Mohandas Gandhi is sentenced to six years in prison for civil disobedience. He would serve only 2 years.

1925 – The Tri-State Tornado hits the Midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people.

1937 – The New London School explosion kills three hundred, mostly children.

1937 – Spanish Civil War: Spanish Republican forces defeat the Italians at the Battle of Guadalajara.

1937 – The human-powered aircraft, Pedaliante, flies 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) outside Milan.

1938 – Mexico nationalizes all foreign-owned oil properties within its borders.

1940 – World War II: Axis Powers – Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass in the Alps and agree to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.

1942 – The War Relocation Authority is established in the United States to take Japanese Americans into custody.

1944 – The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy kills 26 and causes thousands to flee their homes.

1945 – World War II: 1,250 American bombers attack Berlin.

1946 – Diplomatic relations between Switzerland and the Soviet Union are established.

1948 – Soviet consultants leave Yugoslavia in the first sign of a Tito-Stalin split.

1953 – An earthquake hits western Turkey, killing 250.

1959 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill into law allowing for Hawaiian statehood, which would become official on August 21.

1962 – The Evian Accords put an end to the Algerian War of Independence, which began in 1954.

1965 – Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.

1967 – The supertanker Torrey Canyon runs aground off the Cornish coast.

1968 – Gold standard: The U.S. Congress repeals the requirement for a gold reserve to back US currency.

1969 – The United States begins secretly bombing the Sihanouk Trail in Cambodia, used by communist forces to infiltrate South Vietnam.

1970 – Lon Nol ousts Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.

1971 – In Peru a landslide crashes into Lake Yanahuani, killing 200 at the mining camp of Chungar.

1974 – Oil embargo crisis: Most OPEC nations end a five-month oil embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan.

1980 – At Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia, 50 people are killed by an explosion of a Vostok-2M rocket on its launch pad during a fueling operation.

1989 – In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found nearby the Pyramid of Cheops.

1990 – In the largest art theft in US history, 12 paintings, collectively worth around $300 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.

1992 – White South Africans vote overwhelmingly in favour, in a national referendum, to end the racist policy of Apartheid.

1994 – Bosnia’s Bosniaks and Croats sign the Washington Agreement, ending warring between the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and establishing the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1996 – A nightclub fire in Quezon City, Philippines kills 162.

1997 – The tail of a Russian Antonov An-24 charter plane breaks off while en-route to Turkey causing the plane to crash and killing all 50 on board and leading to the grounding of all An-24s.

2002 – U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda ends (started on March 2) after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters with 11 allied troop fatalities.

2003 – FBI agents raid the corporate headquarters of HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, Alabama on suspicion of massive corporate fraud led by the company’s top executives.

2003 – British Sign Language is recognised as an official British language.

2005 – Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube is removed at the request of her husband.

Holidays and observances

   * Christian Feast Day

         o Alexander of Jerusalem

         o Cyril of Jerusalem

         o Edward the Martyr

         o Fridianus

         o Salvator

   * Earliest day on which Holy Wednesday can fall, while April 21 is the latest; celebrated on the week before Easter. (Christianity)

   * Flag Day (Aruba)

   * Gallipoli Memorial Day (Turkey)

   * Mens and Soldiers Day (Mongolia)

Six In The Morning

‘Everyone at the power plant is battling on, without running away’



Glenda Kwek

March 18, 2011 – 3:54PM


“Please dad come back alive,” the tweet read.

As foreigners boarded charter flights to leave Tokyo amid radiation fears from a troubled nuclear power plant in Japan’s north, 180 workers toiled tirelessly at the facility in a race to stop a full meltdown.

Messages from the Fukushima Fifty – named because they work in shifts of 50 people – are emerging a week after the massive earthquake and tsunami damaged cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The workers have been battling to keep fuel rods in the plant’s reactors from overheating and melting down by pumping seawater manually into the cores.

Revealed: Afghan chief accused of campaign of terror is on US payroll

Witnesses back leaked UN reports detailing claims of rape and murder against feared Tajik warlord

By Julius Cavendish Friday, 18 March 2011

An Afghan warlord backed by US special forces faces persistent allegations that he launched a two-year spate of violence involving burglary, rape and murder of civilians, desecration of mosques and mutilation of corpses. Yet, despite repeated warnings about the atrocities Commander Azizullah is alleged to have committed, he has remained on the payroll of the US military as an “Afghan security guard”, a select band of mercenaries described by some as “the most effective fighting formation in Afghanistan”.

Interviews with religious leaders, tribal elders, villagers, contractors and Western and Afghan officials all pointed to a reign of terror in which they believe 31-year-old Azizullah, a ethnic Tajik, targeted Pashtun civilians while fighting the Taliban.

Belgium’s Political Crisis Foretells EU’s Future

The Fries Revolution

By Walter Mayr in Brussels

Brussels is home to two political arenas, a small one and a large one, which are located just a short walk apart. In the dark, winding corridors of the Belgian parliament, Dutch-speaking representatives from Flanders in northern Belgium are locked in a stalemate with their French-speaking counterparts from the southern region of Wallonia that could tear their kingdom apart. From here, it’s just a few steps down the Rue de la Loi to number 175, the square glass-and-stone building that houses the Council of the European Union, the EU’s main decision-making body.

It is here that the brave new world envisioned by the EU’s leaders is being shaped. It is here that politicians are planning the continent’s future, a system symbolized by European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.

Nigerian election staff ask for life insurance



Mar 18, 2011 7:38 AM | By Sapa-AP  

Among them: How does one bribe police officers enough to pull guard duty on election day?

“If we inform the police, most of the time … they come to the area and ask you for money and for other assistance to do their job,” said Michael Osayande, an election official in Niger state during Thursday’s meeting.

Staff from the Independent National Electoral Commission asked for life insurance and worried aloud about ethnic and religious violence during the meeting with Jega, the assistant university chancellor picked to manage the nation’s election.

The Arab counter-revolution is winning  

THE ROVING EYE

By Pepe Escobar  

The current Arab counter-revolution is brought to you by the House of Saud – and enabled by the Pentagon. The Gulf has been plunged into pre-emptive war. After the initial euphoria of the great 2011 Arab revolt, the message of the Gulf kingdoms and sheikhdoms to Washington has been unambiguous – and effective; if we “fall”, your strategic game is in pieces. Once more, “stability” trumps democracy.

It’s hardly surprising to see Saudi Arabia – the home of pious Wahhabism, fanatic al-Qaeda, and hypocrite Saudi princes gambling, drinking and partying in London or the French Riviera – smashing a popular desire for democracy and human dignity.

Zimbabwe treason suspects released on bail

The last six of 45 Zimbabwean detainees arrested last month for watching a video about the Egypt and Tunisia uprisings were released on bail today.

 By Scott Baldauf, Staff Writer / March 17, 2011

Johannesburg, South Africa

The remaining six detainees in a Zimbabwe treason trial have been released on bail today. A Zimbabwean High Court judge called the evidence “unsubstantiated” and weak.

Despite the weakness of the evidence against the six accused – who were arrested with 39 others on Feb. 19 for attending a lecture by a university professor and for watching a video of the pro-democracy revolts in Tunisia and Egypt – the charges of treason are serious and they could receive the death penalty if they are found guilty.

The six accused, including university professor Munyaradzi Gwisai, have been required to hand over their passports and will be required to check in at their local police station three times a week until their trial begins. When issuing a bail of $2,000 for each defendant,

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