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

October 4 is the 277th day of the year (278th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 88 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1883, the Orient Express commences its first run.

The Orient Express is the name of a long-distance passenger train, the route for which has changed considerably in modern times. The first run of The Orient Express was on 4 October 1883. The train travelled from Paris to Giurgiu in Romania, via Munich and Vienna. At Giurgiu, passengers were ferried across the Danube to Ruse in Bulgaria to pick up another train to Varna. From here they completed their journey to Istanbul by ferry.

The Orient Express was the name of a long-distance passenger train originally operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. Its route has changed many times, and several routes have in the past concurrently used the name, or slight variants thereof. Although the original Orient Express was simply a normal international railway service, the name has become synonymous with intrigue and luxury travel. The two city names most intimately associated with the Orient Express are Paris and Istanbul, the original endpoints of the service.

The original route, which first ran on October 4, 1883, was from Paris, Gare de l’Est, to Giurgiu in Romania via Munich and Vienna. At Giurgiu, passengers were ferried across the Danube to Rousse in Bulgaria to pick up another train to Varna, from where they completed their journey to Istanbul (then called Constantinople) by ferry. In 1885, another route began operations, this time reaching Istanbul via rail from Vienna to Belgrade and Nis, carriage to Plovdiv and rail again to Istanbul.

In 1889, the train’s eastern terminus became Varna in Bulgaria, where passengers could take a ship to Istanbul. On June 1, 1889, the first non-stop train to Istanbul left Paris (Gare de l’Est). Istanbul remained its easternmost stop until May 19, 1977. The eastern terminus was the Sirkeci Terminal by the Golden Horn. Ferry service from piers next to the terminal would take passengers across the Bosporus Strait to Haydarpasa Terminal, the terminus of the Asian lines of the Ottoman railways.

The onset of World War I in 1914 saw Orient Express services suspended. They resumed at the end of hostilities in 1918, and in 1919 the opening of the Simplon Tunnel allowed the introduction of a more southerly route via Milan, Venice and Trieste. The service on this route was known as the Simplon Orient Express, and it ran in addition to continuing services on the old route. The Treaty of Saint-Germain contained a clause requiring Austria to accept this train: formerly, Austria allowed international services to pass through Austrian territory (which included Trieste at the time) only if they ran via Vienna. The Simplon Orient Express soon became the most important rail route between Paris and Istanbul.

The 1930s saw the zenith of Orient Express services, with three parallel services running: the Orient Express, the Simplon Orient Express, and also the Arlberg Orient Express, which ran via Zürich and Innsbruck to Budapest, with sleeper cars running onwards from there to Bucharest and Athens. During this time, the Orient Express acquired its reputation for comfort and luxury, carrying sleeping-cars with permanent service and restaurant cars known for the quality of their cuisine. Royalty, nobles, diplomats, business people and the bourgeoisie in general patronized it. Each of the Orient Express services also incorporated sleeping cars which had run from Calais to Paris, thus extending the service right from one edge of continental Europe to the other.

The start of the Second World War in 1939 again interrupted the service, which did not resume until 1945. During the war, the German Mitropa company had run some services on the route through the Balkans, but partisans frequently sabotaged the track, forcing a stop to this service.

Following the end of the war, normal services resumed except on the Athens leg, where the closure of the border between Yugoslavia and Greece prevented services from running. That border re-opened in 1951, but the closure of the Bulgaria-Turkey border from 1951 to 1952 prevented services running to Istanbul during that time. As the Iron Curtain fell across Europe, the service continued to run, but the Communist nations increasingly replaced the Wagon-Lits cars with carriages run by their own railway services.

By 1962, the Orient Express and Arlberg Orient Express had stopped running, leaving only the Simplon Orient Express. This was replaced in 1962 by a slower service called the Direct Orient Express, which ran daily cars from Paris to Belgrade, and twice weekly services from Paris to Istanbul and Athens.

In 1971, the Wagon-Lits company stopped running carriages itself and making revenues from a ticket supplement. Instead, it sold or leased all its carriages to the various national railway companies, but continued to provide staff for the carriages. 1976 saw the withdrawal of the Paris-Athens direct service, and in 1977, the Direct Orient Express was withdrawn completely, with the last Paris-Istanbul service running on May 19 of that year.

The withdrawal of the Direct Orient Express was thought by many to signal the end of Orient Express as a whole, but in fact a service under this name continued to run from Paris to Budapest and Bucharest as before (via Strasbourg, Munich, and Budapest). This continued until 2001, when the service was cut back to just Paris-Vienna, the coaches for which were attached to the Paris-Strasbourg express. This service continued daily, listed in the timetables under the name Orient Express, until June 8, 2007. However, with the opening of the Paris-Strasbourg high speed rail line on June 10, 2007, the Orient Express service was further cut back to Strasbourg-Vienna, departing nightly at 22:20 from Strasbourg, and still bearing the name.

 610 – Heraclius arrives by ship from Africa at Constantinople, overthrows Byzantine Emperor Phocas and becomes Emperor.

663 – The battle of Baekgang begins. (Traditional Chinese date: August 28, 663).

1209 – Otto IV is crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Innocent III.

1227 – Assassination of Caliph al-Adil.

1363 – End of the Battle of Lake Poyang; the Chinese rebel forces of Zhu Yuanzhang defeat that of his rival, Chen Youliang, in one of the largest naval battles in history.

1511 – Formation of the Holy League of Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Papal States and the Republic of Venice against France.

1537 – The first complete English-language Bible (the Matthew Bible) is printed, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale.

1582 – Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian Calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, October 4 of this year is followed directly by October 15.

1636 – The Swedish Army defeats the armies of Saxony and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Wittstock.

1693 – Battle of Marsaglia: Piedmontese troops are defeated by the French.

1725 – Foundation of Rosario in Argentina.

1777 – Battle of Germantown: Troops under George Washington are repelled by British troops under Sir William Howe.

1779 – The Fort Wilson Riot takes place.

1795 – Napoleon Bonaparte first rises to national prominence with a “Whiff of Grapeshot”, using cannon to suppress armed counter-revolutionary rioters threatening the French Legislature (National Convention).

1824 – Mexico adopts a new constitution and becomes a federal republic.

1830 – Creation of the state of Belgium after separation from The Netherlands.

1853 – Crimean War: The Ottoman Empire declares war on Russia.

1876 – Texas A&M University opens as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, becoming the first public institution of higher education in Texas.

1883 – First run of the Orient Express.

1883 – First meeting of the Boys’ Brigade in Glasgow, Scotland.

1895 – The first U.S. Open Men’s Golf Championship administered by the United States Golf Association is played at the Newport Country Club in Newport, Rhode Island.

1910 – Declaration of the Portuguese Republic. King Manuel II flees to the United Kingdom.

1910 – Adoption of the Flag of Bermuda.

1918 – An explosion kills more than 100 and destroys the T.A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant in Sayreville, New Jersey. Fires and explosions continue for three days forcing massive evacuations and spreading ordnance over a wide area, pieces of which were still being found in 2007.

1921 – Riccardo Zanella becomes first elected president of Free State of Fiume.

1927 – Gutzon Borglum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore.

1940 – Meeting between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini at the Brenner Pass.

1941 – Norman Rockwell’s Willie Gillis character debuts on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.

1943 – World War II: U.S. captures Solomon Islands.

1957 – Space Race: Launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.

1957 – Avro Arrow roll-out ceremony at Avro Canada plant in Malton, Ontario.

1958 – Fifth Republic of France is established.

1960 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 375, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, crashes after a bird strike on takeoff from Boston’s Logan International Airport, killing 62 of 72 on board.

1965 – Becoming the first Pope to ever visit the United States of America and the Western hemisphere, Pope Paul VI arrives in New York.

1966 – Basutoland becomes independent from the United Kingdom and is renamed Lesotho.

1967 – Omar Ali Saifuddin III of Brunei abdicates in favour of his son, His Majesty Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.

1976 – Official launch of the Intercity 125 High Speed Train (HST).

1983 – Richard Noble sets a new land speed record of 633.468 mph (1,019 km/h), driving Thrust 2 at the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.

1985 – Free Software Foundation is founded in Massachusetts, United States.

1988 – U.S. televangelist Jim Bakker is indicted for fraud.

1991 – The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty is opened for signature.

1992 – The Rome General Peace Accords ends a 16 year civil war in Mozambique.

1992 – El Al Flight 1862: an El Al Boeing 747-258F crashes into two apartment buildings in Amsterdam, killing 43 including 39 on the ground.

1993 – Russian Constitutional Crisis: In Moscow, tanks bombard the White House, a government building that housed the Russian parliament, while demonstrators against President Boris Yeltsin rally outside.

1997 – The second largest cash robbery in U.S. history occurs at the Charlotte, North Carolina office of Loomis, Fargo and Company. An FBI investigation eventually results in 24 convictions and the recovery of approximately 95% of the $17.3 million in cash which had been taken.

2001 – NATO confirms invocation of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

2001 – Siberia Airlines Flight 1812: a Sibir Airlines Tupolev TU-154 crashes into the Black Sea after being struck by an errant Ukrainian S-200 missile. 78 people are killed.

2004 – SpaceShipOne wins Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight, by being the first private craft to fly into space.

Vagueness of alert leaves travelers frustrated

Authorities don’t want to unnecessarily panic the public  

By SCOTT SHANE  

The State Department travel alert issued on Sunday in response to reports of a threat by Al Qaeda was anything but precise.

Where is the threat? Europe. What is the target? Subways, railways, aircraft, ships or any “tourist infrastructure.”

What should Americans in Europe do? “Be aware of their surroundings” and “adopt appropriate safety measures to protect themselves when traveling,” the department advised.

More world news Pakistan: Dozens of Europeans in terror training

Dozens of Muslim militants with European citizenship are believed to be hiding out in the lawless tribal area of northwestern Pakistan, Pakistani and Western intelligence officials say. Full story

U.S. warns of potential terror attacks in Europe NYT: Alert vagueness leaves travelers frustrated French terrorism suspect arrested in Italy NYT: Drug smugglers burrow on the border The alert’s vagueness, issued after days of discussion inside the Obama administration, embodied the dilemma for the authorities in the United States and Europe over how to publicize a threat that intelligence analysts call credible but not specific.

Biodiversity 100: actions for the Americas

Preservation of rainforest dominates in South America, plus the threatened woodland caribou in Canada and vaquita in Mexico



Guillaume Chapron, Christine Ottery, Tim Holmes and James Randerson guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 October 2010 00.05 BST  

Description: Argentina’s milestone Ley de Bosques (Forest Law) was passed in 2007, was one of the first national laws to set minimum standards of use of natural resources, largely in response to the rapid expansion of soy bean crops. However, the northern provinces of Argentina have been slow to implement the law in full. Hastily authorised, as well as illegal, forest clearings still threaten valuable corridors of native forest and their incredible biodiversity including jaguars, giant armadillos and Chacoan peccaries (which resemble hairy jungle pigs). Without proper implementation of the forest law, vast swathes of forest will be lost in the coming decades.

USA

Parties’ economic plans: Blame the other guys  

As time before midterms draws short, lots of charges but few solutions  

By TOM RAUM  

WASHINGTON – If you don’t like the economy, blame President Barack Obama and Democrats because they’re making times tougher, Republicans are telling voters entering the four-week homestretch to an election the GOP hopes will return the party to power in Congress.

Look, Democrats say, it’s the Republicans who caused the financial meltdown and recession. Do you want them to do it again? As bad as high unemployment, record home foreclosures and bankruptcies are, they’d be worse if the GOP had succeeded in blocking financial and auto industry bailouts and Obama’s stimulus plan, Democrats claim.

Interest-group spending for midterm up fivefold from 2006; many sources secret



By T.W. Farnamand Dan Eggen

Washington Post Staff Writers

Monday, October 4, 2010; 12:09 AM  

Interest groups are spending five times as much on the 2010 congressional elections as they did on the last midterms, and they are more secretive than ever about where that money is coming from.

The $80 million spent so far by groups outside the Democratic and Republican parties dwarfs the $16 million spent at this point for the 2006 midterms. In that election, the vast majority of money – more than 90 percent – was disclosed along with donors’ identities. This year, that figure has fallen to less than half of the total, according to data analyzed by The Washington Post.

The trends amount to a spending frenzy conducted largely in the shadows.

Europe

Outsiders: The trouble with the Roma

Europe’s most persecuted minority has become the subject of increasingly draconian laws. But recent treatment of the Roma shames our continent, argues Peter Popham

Monday, 4 October 2010

This Thursday, in a hall in the Council of Europe’s headquarters in Strasbourg, a group of academics, government advisers and gypsy representatives will get together to discuss the next steps in a pan-European project entitled “The Decade of Roma Inclusion, 2005 to 2015”.

The idea of the “decade”, according to its authors, is to “improve the socio-economic status and social inclusion of Roma”. The next phase will see Romanies stepping forward in museums and other institutions in Britain, Greece, Germany and Slovenia and talking about their culture, “getting people to talk to them and get to know them, to get rid of some of the fear,” as one of the organisers puts it.

Preliminary results show Bosnians divided on vote  

Preliminary election results released on Sunday indicate that Bosnia’s three-person presidency will remain deadlocked over the nation’s future, with two leaders of the ethnically divided country advocating unity and a third pushing for the country’s break-up.  

Published: 12:35AM BST 04 Oct 2010

Some three million voters in a country uneasily split between Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats had the choice of 8,000 candidates for the central parliament, several regional parliaments, the Bosnian Serb presidency and the federal presidency, which is shared among the three ethnicities.

With half the votes counted shortly before midnight, the Croat and Bosniak seats in the presidency were likely to be won by strong supporters of a unified Bosnia, the electoral commission said. Leading for the Serb seat was a candidate advocating separation of Bosnian Serbs from the rest of the country.

Middle East

Israeli PM ignoring all real issues in talks, sources say

The Irish Times – Monday, October 4, 2010  

MICHAEL JANSEN

ISRAELI PRIME minister Binyamin Netanyahu has refused to address substantive issues during three sessions of direct talks with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, an Israeli newspaper has reported.

Instead, he limited discussion to the conduct of negotiations and Israel’s partial curb on settlement building in the West Bank.

Quoting unidentified western diplomatic sources, the Israeli liberal daily Haaretz reported yesterday that Mr Netanyahu “refuses to present fundamental positions or discuss the borders of the[ future] Palestinian state”.

Asia

Ahmed Wali Karzai: ‘The stories are very hurtful. The only thing I haven’t been accused of is prostitution’

If you believe his critics, Ahmed Wali Karzai is a corrupt gangster who has allowed the Taliban to flourish but remains untouchable because he is the President’s brother. But, in a rare interview, he tells Kim Sengupta that his hands are clean

Monday, 4 October 2010

Ahmed Wali Karzai has a letter to prove that he is not a drug trafficker with a private army who runs Kandahar in the manner of a Mafia don. “It has taken years to get this, but here it is, and it shows that these accusations against me are false, baseless,” he declared.

The letter from the US Drugs Enforcement Agency gives an assurance, Mr Karzai told The Independent, that he is not the subject of narcotics investigations. It will be made public in Kabul at a press conference in the near future by his half-brother, the Afghan President. “Then, perhaps, all these stories, which are very hurtful, will stop. I have been accused of so many things that I have begun to forget them. The only thing I have not been accused of so far is prostitution.”

Maoists on the rise in lopsided economy

FORTUNES OF INDIA: Dispossessed villagers have an open ear for left-wing extremism, writes Mary Fitzgerald in Chhattisgarh

The Irish Times – Monday, October 4, 2010  

RAMESH WAS an illiterate teenage orphan when he joined the ragtag army that came to his village preaching Maoist revolution. During his years in the jungle he learned to read, write, and fire a gun.

Ramesh says he left his cadre only because he wanted to start a family with a fellow Maoist. The couple now live quietly with their young daughter not far from where, in April, their former comrades ambushed and killed almost 80 paramilitaries – the deadliest attack in a dirty war fought out far from the high-tech companies and Bollywood glamour of boom India.

Africa

A trucker explains how foreign hauliers and officials prey on South African operators, writes Paul Ash  

‘Have you pimped my truck?” Andre van Huyssteen roars into his cellphone. “I want a furry dashboard and a gold tissue box, so I can compete on rates.” Then he laughs.

By Paul Ash



Van Huyssteen, owner of Boksburg trucking company Vanito Trading, is a plain speaker and tells you straight that Africa is not for sissies.

On any day, one of his five rigs is crawling along the road between Johannesburg and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with a grader, bulldozer or cement-mixer chained on the back.

One of his trucks is there now, on a roadside south of Lubumbashi. He knows this even before his driver calls to tell him as the truck has a satellite tracker that he monitors during a journey.

Latin America

Brazil presidential elections head for second-round

Dilma Rousseff may have fallen just short of becoming country’s first woman leader  

Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro The Guardian, Monday 4 October 2010  

Brazil looked to have fallen short of electing its first female president last night, with Dilma Rousseff appearing to have to go into to a second round run-off.

With 90% of votes counted, Rousseff had in the region of 46%; to win outright she would have needed more than 50%. One “well-placed” source within the Rousseff camp told Reuters there was “no way” she would take the first round, although Rouseff, a former guerrilla, had the backing of the retiring president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Ignoring Asia A Blog  

We have been talking about sustainability recently, and one of the resources in most jeopardy is fresh water.  In the United States the freshwater problem is becoming more and more significant, and in many parts of the world it is already desperate.  We shall look at some of the methods used to purify nonpotable water tonight.

First of all, we need to understand what kind of water we are purifying.  It ranges in quality from surface or ground freshwater, requiring only minor treatment to eliminate microbes that might cause disease (the vast majority of drinking and industrial water in the United States comes from these sources), all the way to seawater, with lots of intermediate kinds.

We shall focus on the more difficult kinds this time.  Seawater is becoming and important source of drinking water in many parts of the world, and will continue to do so.  However, it is not an easy or cheap thing to purify.

Since ancient times it has been known that seawater can be rendered free of salt by distillation.  In a loose sense, almost ALL freshwater is distilled water, since solar heating causes seawater to evaporate, leaving the salts behind, the freshwater falling as rain or snow.  However, much of that freshwater falls right back into the oceans, and thus is lost.  However, enough falls on land to provide for the needs of humanity, or at least used to do so.

In the past 100 years or so we have been tapping what I call fossil water, that is, water that fell as rain or snow hundreds if not thousands of years ago and charged vast underground aquifers.  We have been tapping these aquifers faster than they can recharge for quite a long time now, and they are beginning to become depleted, sometimes seriously so.  In eastern Arkansas, for example, the alluvial aquifer has become so depleted, mostly from agricultural use, that a project is being planned to divert water from the White River to help recharge the aquifer.  Obviously, this will cause a decrease in flow at the mouth of the White.

Aquifer water has the distinct advantage of being unusually pure, insofar that it is usually not salty, although it is often “hard”.  That is fine for most domestic and agricultural uses, but excess hardness is a problem with industrial uses, especially when boilers are involved.  The point is that we are using up fossil water faster than it can be regenerated, and this fossil water has been the difference between having enough water and not having enough, since it makes up the difference between recent rain and snow (surface water) that we get and what we need.

Thus, desalination of seawater has become an alternative.  As I said previously, it has long been known that distillation purifies water, but that is an extremely expensive proposition because of one of the many unique properties of water.  It turns out that it requires more energy to get water to boil than for almost any other substance.  This is called the latent heat of vaporization, and is 40.7 kJ/mol for water, a high number.  As a comparison, it requires only 38.6 kJ/mol to vaporize ethanol.  But, you say, that is not a very big difference.  Well, it is because a mole of water has a mass of 18 grams, whilst a mole of ethanol has a mass of 46 grams, so on a mass, rather than a molar, basis, it takes over 2.5 times more energy to vaporize water.

Thus, to distill one gallon of water, assuming 100% thermal efficiency, it takes 8550 kJ, or 2.4 kilowatt-hours.  Now, last month I used 414 kw-hr of electricity for everything, so I could have distilled 172 gallons of water if ALL of my electrical use went towards it, or a little less than six gallons per day.  A couple of toilet flushes would have taken care of that.  At my power rate (one of the lowest in the US), each gallon of distilled water would have cost me a little over 11 cents per gallon.  Once again, this is assuming 100% efficiency, and distillation is not 100% efficient.

For desalination, low pressures are usually used to reduce the temperature at which water boils.  That does not change the latent heat of vaporization, but it does reduce heat loss and so increases efficiency.  As a matter of fact, some of the heat to distill the water comes from the ambient environment, further increasing efficiency.  However, the vacuum pumps have and energy cost associated with them as well.  There are lots of variations on the theme of distillation, but you still can not get around that 40.7 kJ/mol latent heat problem, since it is a fundamental property of water.  By the way, most nuclear naval vessels distill water for use on board, using the waste heat from the nuclear power plants.

Distillation can be fairly cost effective, but as energy costs increase, it will become less viable since there are alternative methods with lower energy costs.  Except for very limited applications, water distillation for drinking and industrial usage will become more and more rare, although there will always be some demand for specialized applications.

The most widely used method to desalinate water is one of the membrane technologies, reverse osmosis (RO).  Before we look at RO, let us take a moment to examine what “regular” osmosis is.  It has been known for several centuries that when a semipermeable membrane is filled with a salt solution and then placed in a container of fresh water, the fluid inside of the membrane increases in volume at the cost of the fresh water outside the membrane.  This has to do with thermodynamics, but instead of heat, the driving force is entropy.  The physics behind it show that the natural tendency is for water to pass through the membrane (which has pores in it large enough to allow water to pass, but too small for sodium and chloride ions to pass) to dilute the salt solution, making the system as a whole more disordered.

In RO, this same property is exploited, but the pressure is kept high INSIDE of the membrane, forcing the water in the salt solution to pass through the membrane, as the membrane retains the salts.  Obviously, this requires energy to run the pumps to drive the motion of the water through the membrane.  It does, but not as much energy as vaporizing water.  RO units are becoming common around the world, and can produce potable water for around 50 cents per cubic meter, or around 264 gallons, which works out to about 0.2 cents per gallon, making it much more economical than distillation (please double check my arithmetic; I did not use paper to set up this conversion).

RO has a number of disadvantages, however.  The membrane is a critical part of the system, and is easily fouled.  Bacterial growth tends to foul the membrane, and particulate matter destroys it quickly.  Thus, seawater has to be carefully filtered and treated to kill microbes before being introduced to the membrane.  Also, there is a limit as to how much salt can be removed from the seawater, hardly ever more than half of the water being purified.  The concentrated saltwater then has to be disposed of somehow, usually by sending it back to sea.

This can cause problems, since the concentrated brine is more dense than seawater, and tends to sink rapidly, rendering the seafloor much saltier than normal in the vicinity of the effluent pipe.  When you are talking about millions of gallons per day, this can have serious environmental consequences.  Regulations are being formulated to minimize this negative impact, but my point is that no desalination process is without its downside (by the way, the same problem with concentrated brine also exists with distillation).

In addition, these large plants have huge intakes of seawater, which also cause environmental problems, since unless properly designed they suck in fish, larvae, plankton, and anything else swimming in the ocean.  Regulations have been introduced to minimize this, and one approach is to use HUGE diameter intakes so that the water velocity is so slow that free swimming creatures can easily swim against the flow.  Various screens and filters are also in use, but they necessarily restrict flow.

It is estimated that RO capacity will quadruple in the next decade, mostly in arid parts of the world near seacoasts.  There are several facilities in the US, notably in California and, of all places, Florida.  The Middle Eastern countries are going about it in a big way, as is Australia.  However, RO is no panacea because it does require a significant amount of energy as well as a huge infrastructure for large plants.  However, it is the best technology that is mature at present.

There are several membrane technologies being investigated, but none are in large commercial production at present.  As nanotechnology becomes more developed, it is hoped that more efficient methods (thus, less costly) will become available.

RO is usually operated at around 1000 psi for seawater, so the membrane has to be somewhat robust and well supported.  The surface area of the membranes is huge, so that enough contact can be made for the process to occur with a useful rate.  By the way, RO is even better for brackish water than it is for seawater, because less pressure is required to overcome the entropic driving force towards forward osmosis.  Remember, the pressure required for the process increases with the salinity of the water.  Distillation, on the other hand, is just as costly for nearly pure water than it is very salty water, because you are still hitting the latent heat problem.  Since RO has nothing to do with latent heat, it is not limited in that manner.

A lot of people have home RO units.  I am not really a fan of them unless you have a specific need for highly purified water.  Here are a couple of the reasons.  First, small RO units are extremely inefficient, because they usually works at whatever water pressure the supply line gives, thus reducing the efficiency of the process tremendously.  For every gallon of purified water obtained, 15 gallons of water, give or take depending on the system, is discharged into the sewer.  This is a real waste of water unless there is no alternative.  The second reason that I am not fond of them is that most homeowners are not qualified to monitor the quality of the water.  One of my neighbors has a system, and the membrane is shot.  I know this because it use demineralized water in my humidifier in the winter, and they offered to give me their RO water instead of my buying it.  After one of two tanksfull, I noticed a light, white coating on the TeeVee screen.  Always the scientist, I drew my finger through it and tasted it.  It was salt.

In addition to the RO system, they have a water softener just before the RO unit.  In the Bluegrass, the water is extremely hard with calcium salts, and a water softener uses ion exchange to replace the calcium with sodium (that is why you have to buy salt pellets for them).  Their water softener works well, but obviously the RO system does not or there would be no salt in the water.  By the way, my humidifier is an ultrasonic one, and everything gets thrown into the air.  If I had a boiling water one, the salt would be left behind, but the energy costs are high for that kind (back to the latent heat thing).

Thus, I am against home RO systems unless there is some real need for one, such as living in a remote area with horrible well water.  Some method of checking the ionic strength of the output water to monitor the performance of the membrane.

One desalination process that is used sometimes for sea emergencies is based on silver.  Since silver chloride is insoluble, silver salts effectively scavenge chloride, and sodium is absorbed by another material to form an insoluble product.  Thus, seawater passed through this device is drinkable.  Obviously, this is not good for large scale application, but as a lifeboat addition might save some lives.  As I recall it was developed for the military, and I do not know if they are even still in use.  Anyone with more expertise on these is welcome to comment.

This all gets back to sustainability because we are using a resource faster than it is being regenerated.  For many years we have been using fossil water to make up the difference between what we need and what we get, and that is not sustainable.  Desalinating water costs energy, and we are already using up fossil fuel, so in sense we are trading fossil water for fossil fuel use unless alternative energy sources are used to treat the water.  To complicate matters further, think about our food exports.  In a very real sense, those are water exports since most of our cropland is irrigated, much of it by fossil water.  Sustainability is a many faceted problem, and as I said last week, everything is connected to everything.  As population increases and climate change becomes more pronounced, water may well be the next war issue, even more than oil.

Well, you have done it again.  You have wasted many more einsteins of photons reading this watered down drivel.  And even though Rahm Emanuel becomes devoid of ambition when he reads me say it, I always learn much more that I could possibly hope to teach writing this series, so please keep those comments, questions, corrections, and other thoughts coming.  The comments are the best part of this series.

Warmest regards,

Doc

Crossposted at Docudharma.com and at Dailykos.com

Premiers are back.  Amazing Race for my friend who likes that, Simpsons, Cleveland Show, Family Guy, and American Dad for me.   In Throwball, Bears @ Giants.  Mets lose 2 – 1 in 14, 79 – 83 on the season.

• A&E– The Glades marathon (including premier)
• AMC– The Perfect Storm, Rubicon and Mad Men (premiers)
• Bravo– House marathon
• Comedy– South Park Imaginationland Trilogy
• Disney– Jonas LA (Season Finale- don’t clap too loud)
• Discovery– Life marathon
• Food– Challenge (premier), Next Iron Chef x 3 (Season Premier)
• History– [Ice Road Truckers ] marathon (2 premiers)
• Lifetime– Mini’s First Time, Swimfan
• Sci Fi– The Pumpkin Karver, The Reeds
• TBS– Shooter x 2 (again and again)
• Turner Classic– Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, To Kill a Mockingbird
• TNT– A Time to Kill
• Toon– Beetlejuice, Delocated (premier)
• Vs.– Miami Indy 300 (repeat of Season Finale)

Later-

• FX– Hitman
• Sci Fi– Swamp Devil, Dying Breed
• TBS– Exit Wounds
• Turner Classic– Phantom (shhhh)
• USA– The Pacifier, Eight Below

Adult Swim- New Childrens Hospital and Metalocalypse.  The Venture Brothers, Everybody Comes to Hank’s.  Last week’s Every Which Way But Zeus summary.

Just get up off the ground, that’s all I ask. Get up there with that lady that’s up on top of this Capitol dome, that lady that stands for liberty. Take a look at this country through her eyes if you really want to see something. And you won’t just see scenery; you’ll see the whole parade of what Man’s carved out for himself, after centuries of fighting. Fighting for something better than just jungle law, fighting so’s he can stand on his own two feet, free and decent, like he was created, no matter what his race, color, or creed. That’s what you’d see. There’s no place out there for graft, or greed, or lies, or compromise with human liberties. And, uh, if that’s what the grownups have done with this world that was given to them, then we’d better get those boys’ camps started fast and see what the kids can do. And it’s not too late, because this country is bigger than the Taylors, or you, or me, or anything else. Great principles don’t get lost once they come to light. They’re right here; you just have to see them again!

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 41 Top Stories.

1 Troubled Games come alive in fortress Delhi

by Martin Parry, AFP

Sun Oct 3, 12:50 pm ET

2 C’weath Games set to open after shambolic run-up

by Martin Parry, AFP

Sun Oct 3, 10:03 am ET

3 Brazil’s Lula waits on election victory for chosen candidate

by Aldo Gamboa, AFP

1 hr 37 mins ago

4 Dilma Rousseff seen on verge of winning Brazil presidency

by Marc Burleigh, AFP

2 hrs 56 mins ago

5 US issues travel alert for Europe

by Michael Mathes, AFP

1 hr 34 mins ago

6 Pope warns against ‘deadly path’ in Mafia heartland Sicily

by Catherine Jouault, AFP

56 mins ago

7 Pope celebrates mass in Mafia heartland Sicily

by Catherine Jouault, AFP

Sun Oct 3, 12:10 pm ET

8 Pakistan to reopen NATO supply line ‘relatively quickly’

AFP

Sun Oct 3, 1:39 pm ET

9 Magical Europe seize lead at rain-hit Ryder Cup

by Rob Woollard, AFP

1 hr 7 mins ago

10 Europe draw level with US in rain-hit Ryder Cup

by Rob Woollard, AFP

Sun Oct 3, 12:37 pm ET

11 Greece to keep to bailout terms in 2011 budget: minister

AFP

Sun Oct 3, 2:13 pm ET

12 Germany marks 20 years since reunification

by Johannes Eisele, AFP

Sun Oct 3, 11:54 am ET

13 Divided Bosnia goes to the polls

by Katarina Subasic, AFP

Sun Oct 3, 7:57 am ET

14 India restores pride with Games opening show

By Amlan Chakraborty, Reuters

2 hrs 51 mins ago

15 Lula’s pick favored as booming Brazil votes

By Ana Nicolaci da Costa, Reuters

18 mins ago

16 U.S., UK raise terrorism threat level in Europe

By Caren Bohan and Kylie MacLellan, Reuters

3 mins ago

17 Emanuel announces candidacy for Chicago mayor online

By Andrew Stern, Reuters

50 mins ago

18 Big crowd gathers for liberal rally in Washington

By Ayesha Rascoe, Reuters

Sat Oct 2, 10:25 pm ET

19 Afghanistan begins disbanding private security firms

By Sayed Salahuddin, Reuters

18 mins ago

20 Climate talks put top emitter China in hot seat

By Chris Buckley, Reuters

Sun Oct 3, 2:51 am ET

21 Housekeeper fracas mars California governor debate

By Peter Henderson, Reuters

Sat Oct 2, 9:23 pm ET

22 Key NATO supply route hit again in Pakistan

By ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 4 mins ago

23 US terror warning could hurt Europe’s economy

By ALAN CLENDENNING and MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writers

2 hrs 54 mins ago

24 Will voters believe Dem or GOP message on economy?

By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer

Sun Oct 3, 2:08 pm ET

25 Emanuel says he’s preparing run for Chicago mayor

By KAREN HAWKINS, Associated Press Writer

40 mins ago

26 Western lawmakers turn sights on endangered wolves

By MATTHEW BROWN, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 46 mins ago

27 Afghan starts to close private security firms

By HEIDI VOGT and RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writers

Sun Oct 3, 11:05 am ET

28 Oregon jumps Boise St, Texas drops out of AP poll

By RALPH D. RUSSO, AP College Football Writer

Sun Oct 3, 2:06 pm ET

29 Conn. prison inmates have choice of violent books

By PAT EATON-ROBB, Associated Press Writer

Sun Oct 3, 1:08 pm ET

More Censorship.  And I know John Kissel and he’s a total asshole.

30 Rousseff leads in Brazil vote, but runoff likely

By BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press Writer

35 mins ago

31 Stem cell pioneer mentioned for Nobel Prize

By MALIN RISING, Associated Press Writer

Sun Oct 3, 11:23 am ET

32 Health overhaul centerpiece endures growing pains

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press Writer

Sun Oct 3, 2:01 pm ET

33 Whitman, Brown tangle on immigration, illegal maid

By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer

Sun Oct 3, 5:41 am ET

34 Pakistanis push trade, not just aid, after floods

By NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writer

Sun Oct 3, 3:47 am ET

35 Pope to Sicilians fighting Mafia: do not fear

By FRANCES D’EMILIO, Associated Press Writer

Sun Oct 3, 3:59 pm ET

36 Europe eyes big Ryder Cup comeback as night falls

By DOUG FERGUSON, AP Golf Writer

Sun Oct 3, 3:42 am ET

37 DC rally shows support for struggling Democrats

By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer

Sun Oct 3, 3:48 am ET

38 After 2 NY jumps, aiming to prevent public suicide

By CRISTIAN SALAZAR, Associated Press Writer

Sun Oct 3, 3:29 pm ET

39 Navy offers sailors online help to quit addictions

By STEVE SZKOTAK, Associated Press Writer

Sun Oct 3, 1:13 pm ET

40 Comic book collector learns fine art of letting go

By MARTHA IRVINE, AP National Writer

Sun Oct 3, 10:40 am ET

41 Appeal puts 3 Ark. boys’ murders back in spotlight

By JILL ZEMAN BLEED, Associated Press Writer

Sat Oct 2, 10:01 am ET

The Word – Original Spin

Justice Scalia: “A lot of stupid stuff is perfectly constitutional.”

   You know what else is insane folks? All the special rights minorities are asking for these days. Gay Americans want the right to be married in California. Mexican Americans want the right to drive through Arizona. And Muslim Americans want the right to be Muslims.

   But if we keep giving the rights, there will be fewer rights left for us. That’s just mad. Well luckily there is a way to preserve our rights and it brings us to tonight’s Word-Original Spin.

   Folks, these bogus rights are being dished out by activist judges who claim the Constitution is a “living document” that’s transformed every time society shifts its views on an issue, like gay rights, or how many fifths of me a black person is worth.

   To them, it just magically changes, as if James Madison wrote the Constitution on an Etch A Sketch. But I say… I say a document should never change its meaning unless it’s your health insurance policy and you just got sick.

   Now Supreme Court and shaved walrus Antonin Scalia agrees with me on this. He’s what’s called a Constitutional originalist saying “I interpret (the Constitution) the say it was understood by society at the time.”

   I’ve always said a good Supreme Court Justice is a Constitutional scholar first… a time traveling mind reader second. And as an originalist Scalia argues that the idea that the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment protects women’s’ rights is a “modern invention” because he says in 1868 when it was written “Nobody thought it was directed against sex discrimination.”

   Evidentially back then women hadn’t been invented yet. Plus the 14th Amendment was created to protect the rights of newly freed slaves. That’s why it strictly limits equal protection under the law to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States.”

   So all Scalia is saying is that women aren’t persons. […]

   And gays, you don’t have any protections from sexual discrimination either. Back in the 1860’s there were no gay people.

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Pete Seeger shares his Sunday routine and some interesting observation and thoughts on life, letters, food and God.

Mr. Seeger, who lives in Beacon Falls with his wife of 67 years, spends his Sundays writing letters and chopping wood around the house that he built, calling Sunday the busiest day of the week. He also spends time at the Beacon Sloop Club which he helped build by tricking people into volunteering: “I called it a pot-luck supper, and 30 people showed up,” he said. “Food is one of the great organizing tools.”

Haven’t we all done that from time to time to get our families to help around the house. Bribery with food as an incentive.

Mr. Seeger isn’t a regular church goer but finds God in the woods.

My family’s not churchgoers, but we use the word God quite often. One of my most recent songs has God in every verse. Every time I’m in the woods, I feel like I’m in church.

On food, he eats healthy keeping down intake of fats, salt and sugar, which probably accounts for his relative good health and longevity.

Sunday breakfast is “a pick up” sometimes cereal and fruit, left-overs from the “ice box” or an indulgence

AN OMELET I met the French wife of a lefty organizer in Canada. She said you start the omelet by putting butter in the pan to get it sizzling. You put in your eggs and whatever, and you immediately put the heat down and the cover on. You don’t wait for it to get cooked; you want it to be liquid in parts. You take it out and turn it over so the brown is on top, and you take it right away to the table so it doesn’t get overcooked. And if you have good cheese, it can be super.

Once a month, there’s a pot-luck supper at the Sloop Club. I usually like some salad, so I made a salad. I like lots of lettuce, myself, but I like lots of onions, too. I’ll put some tomatoes in it. Purslane, if it’s fresh, is quite nice in a salad. Likewise another weed that came over from England, lamb’s quarters. If it’s the right season of the year, that will go on a salad. No two salads are alike. I used to go in for romaine, but now I like better the red-top lettuce. It’s almost a religious thing. I used to cut up my lettuce, but my family said no, a good salad, you break up the lettuce with your fingernails. I go along with my family. I like lots of color. Red peppers and yellow peppers.

His instructions for cooking corn on the cob, a couple of ears in boiling water for two minutes and not let the water temperature drop, is a “trick” he just learned.

I found his use of a rolling pin to reduce the swelling in his legs a neat idea. I learn something new every day.

I have to use a rolling pin on my legs because they swell up now. I promised the doctor I’d use a rolling pin to roll on my upper leg to pull the blood back up. It’s not painful at all, but it’s a nuisance. I’m in better condition than most people my age. I think because we don’t eat so much fat or salt or sugar.

But of all the “Secrets” that this lefty, anti- war activist, environmentalist, folk singing elder statesman shared, the most important one was this:

It’s a very important thing to learn to talk to people you disagree with.

We don’t have to agree but we need to keep communicating.

“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.

Thomas L. Friedman: Third Party Rising

“We basically have two bankrupt parties bankrupting the country,” said the Stanford University political scientist Larry Diamond. Indeed, our two-party system is ossified; it lacks integrity and creativity and any sense of courage or high-aspiration in confronting our problems. We simply will not be able to do the things we need to do as a country to move forward “with all the vested interests that have accrued around these two parties,” added Diamond. “They cannot think about the overall public good and the longer term anymore because both parties are trapped in short-term, zero-sum calculations,” where each one’s gains are seen as the other’s losses.

We have to rip open this two-party duopoly and have it challenged by a serious third party that will talk about education reform, without worrying about offending unions; financial reform, without worrying about losing donations from Wall Street; corporate tax reductions to stimulate jobs, without worrying about offending the far left; energy and climate reform, without worrying about offending the far right and coal-state Democrats; and proper health care reform, without worrying about offending insurers and drug companies.

“If competition is good for our economy,” asks Diamond, “why isn’t it good for our politics?”

We need a third party on the stage of the next presidential debate to look Americans in the eye and say: “These two parties are lying to you. They can’t tell you the truth because they are each trapped in decades of special interests. I am not going to tell you what you want to hear. I am going to tell you what you need to hear if we want to be the world’s leaders, not the new Romans.”

Dean Baker and Sarita Gupta: Tax Breaks Are Not Sufficient to Restore Employment

There is a depressing complicity among much of the political leadership about the recession. Many politicians seem prepared to accept that we will have sky-high rates of unemployment for the indefinite future. Projections from the Congressional Budget Office and other authoritative forecasts show the situation improving little over the next few years.

At the moment, this means 15 million people unemployed, 9 million under-employed and millions of other workers who don’t even get counted because they have given up hope of finding a job and stopped looking. It is outrageous that we have this situation today. Allowing high unemployment to continue for years into the future is unacceptable.

We know how to get the unemployment rate down.

Part of the story should include programs like the Local Jobs for America Act that will save and create jobs in areas of high unemployment. This will be a way to give young people a decent start to their working careers in areas like Detroit where the youth unemployment rate is close to 50 percent. These workers can help maintain and clean-up parks, schools, and other public facilities.

paradox: TARP Was Not the Bank Bailout

My immense, incredulous dismay with the US journalism corps amazingly grew this morning–even after yet another incredibly rancid evolution from James O’Keefe that even CNN can’t report on–for the New York Times completely blew the bank bailout story,  acting as if TARP was all there was to the bailout evolution and that the US taxpayer really wasn’t on the hook for all that much money.

Earth to Jackie Calmes and your incompetent editor: TARP did not bail out the big banks, the Federal Reserve did. After Congress so stupidly authorized $750 billion in the Fall of 2008 Treasury Secretary Paulson simply panicked–probably because $750 billion was not nearly enough to stop the meltdown-and ran to Federal Reserve chairman Bernanke, who secretly authorized the backing of $2 trillion dollars in “tired assets” to our felony crook financial lizards from the limitless coffers of the Federal Reserve.

A very angry Senator Sanders trying to get the truth-openly snubbed by Bernanke at a hearing as if he were a bathroom attendant-accomplished one of the most amazing legislative feats of Obama’s first term and got an audit of the Fed passed for this sickeningly secret and furtive giveaway to crooks. The audit is still compromised, it’s time frame is too limited and the web site listing of all the banks who Benny bailed out won’t be published until December 1, until after the election.

Frank Rich: The Very Useful Idiocy of Christine O’Donnell

ALL it took was some 30,000 Republican primary voters  in a tiny state to turn Christine O’Donnell into the brightest all-American media meteor since Balloon Boy. For embattled liberals, not to mention the axis of Comedy Central, “Saturday Night Live” and Bill Maher, she’s been pure comic gold for weeks: a bottomless trove of baldfaced lies, radical views and sheer wackiness. True, other American politicians have dismissed evolution as a myth. Some may even have denied joining a coven. But history will always remember her for taking a fearless stand against masturbation, the one national pastime with more fans than baseball.

Yet those laughing now may not have the last laugh in November. O’Donnell’s timely ascent in the election season’s final lap may well prove a godsend for the G.O.P.

At first some Republicans had trouble figuring this out. On primary eve, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee badmouthed O’Donnell’s “disturbing pattern of dishonest behavior.” On election night, Karl Rove belittled her “nutty” pronouncements and “checkered background” on Fox News. But by the morning after, bygones were bygones. The senatorial committee’s chairman, John Cornyn, rewarded O’Donnell’s “dishonest behavior” with an enthusiastic endorsement and a big check. A sweaty Rove reversed himself so fast you’d think he’d been forced to stay up all night listening to Glenn Beck’s greatest hits at top volume in a Roger Ailes re-education camp.

Dana Milbank: Tea Party may snuff out a chance to shrink government

If Tea Party adherents were serious about shrinking the federal government, they would have put down their picket signs, abandoned their defense of Christine O’Donnell’s  phony résumé and crowded into Room 608 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building last week.

There, 18 Democrats and Republicans sat around a conference table to work on what may be the last hope for gaining control of government spending.

This wasn’t about shouting slogans, waving posters that call the Democrats socialists, or giving voice to Glenn Beck conspiracy theories. Rather, they were poring over the arcana of gas royalty computations, user fees, federal leases and performance-linked funding formulas. The good news: The members of President Obama’s Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform are nearing agreement on a mixture of tax and spending policies that would put the country back on a path to solvency. The bad news: Nobody thinks their proposals have a chance of becoming law.

Nicholas D. Kristof: At Risk From the Womb

Some people think we’re shaped primarily by genes. Others believe that the environment we grow up in is most important. But now evidence is mounting that a third factor is also critical: our uterine environment before we’re even born.

Researchers are finding indications that obesity, diabetes and mental illness among adults are all related in part to what happened in the womb decades earlier.

One of the first careful studies in this field found that birth weight (a proxy for nutrition in the womb) helped predict whether an adult would suffer from heart disease half a century later. Scrawny babies were much more likely to suffer heart problems in middle age.

That study, published in 1989, provoked skepticism at first. But now an array of research confirms that the fetal period is a crucial stage of development that affects physiology decades later.

Perhaps the most striking finding is that a stressful uterine environment may be a mechanism that allows poverty to replicate itself generation after generation. Pregnant women in low-income areas tend to be more exposed to anxiety, depression, chemicals and toxins from car exhaust to pesticides, and they’re more likely to drink or smoke and less likely to take vitamin supplements, eat healthy food and get meticulous pre-natal care.

David Weigel: Blowing Up Stuff

How Citizens United’s latest movie, Battle for America, tries to motivate conservative voters.

It’s hard to count the explosions. Battle for America has the sort of pyrotechnics that would make Michael Bay worry about the viewers’ retinas. Some buildings implode as fireballs tumble out the windows. Others crumble into clouds of dust and rubble. A group of dinosaurs, minding their own business, scrambles away from a meteor that causes a mushroom cloud, bringing them all to extinction.

All of this is in the service of a very sober argument about the failures of the 111th Congress.

Joe Conanson: In the Obama era, right-wing militias flourish

That much-mocked DHS study of potential right-wing violence turns out not to have been so far-fetched after all  

When exploiting public fear of Islam, as so many Republicans have chosen to do in this election cycle, a favorite tactic is to treat “American Muslim” as a synonym for “homegrown terrorist.” But the threat of jihadi attack is not the only form of violent extremism that worries law enforcement officials. According to an extensive investigation  by Barton Gellman posted Thursday on the Time magazine website, they are deeply concerned about the growing prospect of violence from the far right.

Last spring, conservatives angrily denounced a Department of Homeland Security study of the violent potential of the revived militia movement as a political abuse by the Obama administration — and forced DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano as well as the White House to back away from the report. But Gellman’s reporting shows that top officials at the FBI and other agencies are in fact deeply concerned over that possibility. While they don’t expect a mass militia assault on Washington or on federal officials in the countryside, they worry about what a deranged loner, armed and trained by a militia group, might do when he becomes impatient waiting for the right-wing revolution. As they listen to the furious rhetoric emanating from organizations such as the Ohio Defense Force, they search nervously for any sign of the next Timothy McVeigh.

289 Stories served.  41 per day.

This is actually the hardest diary to execute, and yet perhaps the most valuable because it lets you track story trends over time.  It should be a Sunday morning feature.

• Sunday 9/26
• Monday 9/27
• Tuesday 9/28
• Wednesday 9/29
• Thursday 9/30
• Friday 10/1
• Saturday 10/2

Sunday 9/26 3

• 1 Italian bank chief’s exit sparks concern
• 3 Women entrepreneurs in China get a helping hand
• 8 U.S. set to be a posse of one on China yuan at G20

Monday 9/27 6

• 6 France, Germany split on automatic EU budget fines
• 8 Greening the high-street: big brands and the eco-revolution
• 10 Cambodian clothes workers fight to stitch a living
• 11 Germany calls for stricter EU fiscal rules
• 13 Southwest eyes AirTran to attack East Coast markets
• 20 Comcast COO Burke takes top spot at NBC Universal

Tuesday 9/28 8

• 2 Europe navigates between alarm, hope on economy
• 4 IMF boss sees low risk of ‘currency war’
• 11 Financial regulators to trot out reform plans
• 15 Lawmakers eyes late-year Senate vote on China yuan
• 21 Sour economic mood in living room and boardroom
• 24 Recession rips at US marriages, expands income gap
• 28 Consumer confidence drops to lowest since Feb.
• 29 Home prices to take hit next year in many markets

Wednesday 9/29 13

• 1 Workers swarm Europe’s streets in anti-cuts protests
• 2 Brussels braces as Europe-wide protest kicks off
• 5 Obama, US House target China over currency
• 8 Aussie dollar’s surge squeezes tourists
• 9 French budget makes ‘historic’ spending cuts
• 12 Europeans protest, strike against austerity moves
• 13 Congress funding fight may delay Wall Street reforms
• 14 House set to pass bill aimed at Chinese yuan
• 17 AIG’s Miller says U.S. may profit on bailout
• 18 Deficit-cut panel vows tough choices; markets yawn
• 23 Anti-austerity protests sweep across Europe
• 28 Gates, Buffett dine with China’s rich for charity
• 42 Volvo’s smallest U.S. car still rare on roads

Thursday 9/30 14

• 1 Ireland reveals full horror of banking crisis
• 2 Debt throws eurozone back towards dangerous waters
• 9 US House passes bill targeting China currency
• 10 Post-crisis Paris car show goes electric, looks to Asia
• 13 China warns US bill on yuan could hurt trade ties
• 14 Ireland faces "horrendous" bank bill, Spain downgraded
• 15 AIG, U.S. set faster, riskier exit path
• 17 China says U.S. yuan bill could harm ties
• 18 Consumer czar Warren says wants banks’ help on rules
• 21 Congress funding fight may delay Wall Street reforms
• 22 Nearly one in four second-quarter home sales a foreclosure
• 24 J&J CEO faces U.S. lawmakers over string of recalls
• 37 Economy loses speed in spring; more weakness ahead
• 38 AIG reaches deal to repay government

Friday 10/1 6

• 9 EU opens IMF door to emerging giants
• 13 Brake problem forces BMW, Rolls-Royce recall
• 22 Japan PM warns on debt, seeks multiparty tax talks
• 32 United, Continental complete combination
• 36 US auto sales remain sluggish despite new models
• 37 Holiday hiring picture gets a bit merrier

Saturday 10/2 8

• 1 French unions up ante with latest pension protest
• 9 Greece picks up Chinese support as Wen visits
• 12 BofA suspends foreclosures in 23 states
• 13 Wen says some in Congress politicize trade gap
• 15 Risk council takes first steps on Dodd-Frank
• 18 Single trade helped spark May’s flash crash
• 33 Bank of America delays foreclosures in 23 states
• 50 Choice of CEO signals new direction for HP

Sunday 9/26 3

• 18 PROMISES, PROMISES: Waiting for Abu Ghraib amends
• 22 Pakistani minister resigns after criticizing army
• 23 Afghan election commission orders recounts

Monday 9/27 3

• 24 PROMISES, PROMISES: Waiting for Abu Ghraib amends (different URL)
• 26 Hearing begins in alleged plot to murder Afghans
• 32 Iraq: US should help break government deadlock

Wednesday 9/29 1

• 21 US general: Iraq political limbo fuels violence

Thursday 9/30 2

• 20 Pakistan halts NATO supplies after border attack
• 32 Pakistan cuts NATO supply line after border firing

Friday 10/1 5

• 7 Main Shiite bloc picks Maliki for Iraq PM
• 16 Militants set fire to NATO tankers in Pakistan
• 21 European oil firms resist U.S. pressure to quit Iran
• 25 Anti-American cleric vies for more power in Iraq
• 28 NATO convoys attacked in Pakistan

Saturday 10/2 5

• 11 US drones kill 15 as Pakistan blocks NATO supplies
• 16 Tortuous path ahead to form Iraq government
• 20 No end in sight to Pakistan-NATO supply standoff
• 35 Iraq’s Kurds hold political cards for al-Maliki
• 36 Photos show US soldiers posing with Afghan corpses

Sunday 9/26 6

• 6 ETA ready for verifiable, permanent ceasefire: report
• 7 Miliband launches quest to return Labour to power in Britain
• 11 Chavez likely to retain parliament in Venezuela vote
• 12 Britain’s Labour elects Ed Miliband in cliffhanger
• 24 Turkey: gallery attack ignites debate
• 29 Kenya says West wasting money on anti-piracy ships

Monday 9/27 8

• 1 North Korean leader names son as general: official media
• 7 Japan demands China pull back boats from disputed islands
• 9 ‘Blood gold’ warning at precious metals conference
• 12 North Korean leader’s son rises as likely successor
• 14 Japan seeks damages as China trawler row lingers
• 16 NKorea appears to give military rank to Kim son
• 23 Chile: trapped miners get Brad Pitt, censored news
• 25 Japan, China test each other’s diplomatic resolve

Tuesday 9/28 8

• 3 N.Korea’s heir apparent gets senior party posts: state media
• 9 Medvedev fires veteran Moscow mayor
• 12 North Korea leader’s son seen set for succession
• 16 Medvedev fires defiant Moscow mayor
• 17 Brazil race tightens as Rousseff slips in poll
• 18 Myanmar tells U.N. it aims for ‘free and fair’ vote
• 23 North Korea leader’s son promoted, seen as heir
• 26 AP IMPACT: Haiti still waiting for pledged US aid

Wednesday 9/29 7

• 3 Europe hands France ultimatum in Roma row
• 19 North Korea’s "first" family readies for succession
• 20 Medical experts doubt Lockerbie bomber’s prognosis
• 25 Italy’s Berlusconi wins confidence vote
• 30 NKorea unlikely to alter strategy toward world
• 31 Chile rescue speeds up, cheering miner families
• 34 AP IMPACT: Haiti still waiting for pledged US aid (different URL)

Thursday 9/30 11

• 3 Ecuador in turmoil amid ‘coup attempt’
• 4 Indian court rules to divide disputed holy site
• 5 North Korea publishes first photo of heir apparent
• 11 North Korea’s US ‘trophy’ ship is tourist site
• 12 Myanmar to free Suu Kyi days after election: officials
• 19 North Korea’s leader-in-waiting goes on show
• 27 China releases 3 Japanese but isle dispute lingers
• 30 Protesting police throw Ecuador into chaos
• 34 Indian court: Hindus, Muslims must share holy site
• 39 NKorea prints photos of heir apparent Kim Jong Un
• 49 UN summit ends with call to action beyond rhetoric

Friday 10/1 10

• 1 UN claims possible genocide in DRCongo
• 2 Backlash as UN unveils DRCongo massacres report
• 3 Ecuador president safe after foiled police uprising
• 4 Ecuador in turmoil amid uprising by police, troops
• 5 Ecuador president rescued from police uprising
• 6 Nigerian independence day car bombs kill 10
• 15 Ukraine court strengthens president’s powers
• 17 Ecuador’s Correa asserts control as police chief quits
• 33 Ecuador calm after revolt; Correa alleges coup
• 34 Car bombs kill 8, mar Nigeria 50th ceremony

Saturday 10/2 7

• 2 British dignitaries stayed away from Nigeria parade
• 3 Mix of sadness, triumph as Brazil’s Lula makes his exit
• 10 Nigeria hunts militants after bombs kill 12
• 14 Rousseff ends Brazil campaign in Lula heartland
• 17 Kyrgyzstan tense as parliamentary vote nears: OSCE
• 19 North Korea’s Kim Jong-il no lame duck, in U.S. view
• 24 Nigeria: Ex-militant leader arrested over bombings

Sunday 9/26 1

• 13 Pakistan PM cancels trips as govt speculation swirls

Friday 10/1 2

• 18 Bin Laden criticizes Pakistan relief, urges climate action
• 31 Bin Laden uses Pakistani floods to drum up support

Saturday 10/2 1

• 26 Osama bin Laden softens tone, but to what end?

Sunday 9/26 7

• 10 Democrats, Republicans duel over tax-cut vote
• 14 Ga. megachurch pastor pledges to fight accusations
• 15 White House, Dems see tax cut vote after election
• 25 AP Poll: Many think health overhaul should do more
• 27 Plans to haul big oil refinery loads spark battle
• 28 After 10 years in US, abortion pill still divisive
• 30 Ill. anti-war activists targeted by FBI speak out

Monday 9/27 10

• 15 Obama presses for longer school years
• 17 Report: US would make Internet wiretaps easier
• 19 Attorney says ‘sexting’ Wis. prosecutor to resign
• 21 Citizens United finds niche after landmark case
• 22 Ga. megachurch pastor’s flock standing by him
• 27 Are we raising a generation of nincompoops?
• 28 Obama returning U. of Wis. to court young voters
• 29 Congress asked for study of urological war wounds
• 30 Pa. State Police says bulletins caused headaches
• 31 Some US executions held up by shortage of drug

Tuesday 9/28 16

• 13 Poll gives former Bush official big lead in Ohio
• 14 Obama hits the road in hopes of firing up voters
• 15 Lawmakers eyes late-year Senate vote on China yuan
• 19 Obama both rallies, scolds Dems in campaign trip
• 20 Obama: Democratic voter apathy ‘inexcusable’
• 22 Ethics panel faces partisan split over trial dates
• 25 Emanuel faces hurdles if coming home to Chicago
• 30 Colbert sparks debate about ‘expert’ celebrities
• 31 Drug expiration date pushes CA execution to brink
• 32 FEMA rejects disaster aid for Calif gas line blast
• 33 Rural teacher shortage leads schools to grow own
• 34 12-step manuscript rare glimpse into early AA
• 35 LA teacher suicide sparks test-score pushback
• 36 Calls for longer school years face budget reality
• 38 Hundreds protest FBI raids on anti-war activists
• 39 Hearing begins in alleged plot to murder Afghans

Wednesday 9/29 13

• 16 Obama faces voter policy doubts in backyard meeting
• 22 PROMISES, PROMISES: Pelosi ethics pledge falters
• 24 In Obama’s backyard visits, GOP is the absent foe
• 26 Congress punts tough choices until after election
• 27 Maine gov. candidate: I’d tell Obama to go to hell
• 29 Osama bin Laden evidence readied at detainee trial
• 32 Study: Audio recordings of US history fading fast
• 35 Obama tells questioner he’s ‘Christian by choice’
• 36 Emanuel faces hurdles if coming home to Chicago
• 37 Gates says too few in US bear the burdens of war
• 39 SD GOP Sen. Thune looking at 2012 presidential run
• 40 Kissinger: Vietnam failures ‘we did to ourselves’
• 41 Chef turns Katrina experience into new venture

Thursday 9/30 15

• 16 Obama aide Emanuel to run for Chicago mayor
• 28 AP sources: Emanuel leaving White House on Friday
• 29 Lawyer says Whitman’s husband saw ex-maid letter
• 31 Bias crime charges weighed after NJ teen’s suicide
• 33 And they’re out! Congress flees DC to campaign
• 35 Postal service denied rate increases for mail
• 40 High court looks at military funeral protests
• 41 Congress punts tough choice until after election
• 42 2 officers charged in La. convention center death
• 43 AG: FBI agents won’t be charged in Imam’s death
• 44 Family sues over Pa. man’s unheeded 911 calls
• 45 Court hears appeal in ‘West Memphis Three’ case
• 46 Groups plan march for jobs, justice in DC
• 48 Pastor accuser: Sex encounters on church grounds
• 50 Wis. crime victims board says DA wasn’t ‘candid’

Friday 10/1 13

• 19 Obama names low-key insider Pete Rouse as chief of staff
• 23 Rahm’s gone: New day, new tone for the White House
• 30 Emotions run high at Rutgers after teen’s suicide
• 38 Calif. governor’s race upended by immigrant maid
• 40 Mich. assistant AG’s anti-gay blog free speech?
• 41 US judge asks Vatican to serve court paper to pope
• 42 Washington wealthy clash over income tax on rich
• 43 Bin Laden evidence allowed at detainee’s NYC trial
• 44 Health care law may hamper limited insurance plans
• 45 Court: Make records public in friars’ sex cases
• 47 Feds want case dropped against Afghan in Calif
• 48 For-profit colleges hit again in Senate hearings
• 49 2 officers charged in La. convention center death

Saturday 10/2 16

• 21 DC rally shows support for struggling Democrats
• 22 US may tell US citizens to be vigilant in Europe
• 23 Dems, GOP recalibrate strategy a month to election
• 28 Free speech cases at top of Supreme Court’s agenda
• 29 9/11 conspiracy theories rife in Muslim world
• 30 Whitman looks to regain momentum in second debate
• 34 Rahm’s gone: New day, new tone for the White House
• 40 On paper, NY Islamic center looks modern, secular
• 41 Finding history: Web, vets help unearth war wrecks
• 42 Chicago mayor’s race may be battle of shoe leather
• 43 San Francisco Supes vs. Ronald McDonald
• 44 Stop-sign cameras catch SoCal drivers off guard
• 45 Farmer Jon: US Sen. spends weekends plowing fields
• 46 Brand pastor built fosters fierce member loyalty
• 48 DA to look into suicide of teen said to be bullied
• 49 Mich. worker’s blog sparks debate on free speech

Sunday 9/26 2

• 17 Experts question BP’s take on Gulf oil spill
• 26 BP fund czar promises bigger, faster claims

Monday 9/27 2

• 3 US commission told 50 percent of oil spill remains in Gulf
• 33 Oil gusher is dead, but not residents’ anguish

Tuesday 9/28 1

• 7 US commission told 50 percent of oil spill remains in Gulf

Wednesday 9/29 1

• 15 BP ousts exploration chief, vows to boost safety

Thursday 9/30 1

• 26 BP ousts exploration chief, vows to boost safety (different URL)

Sunday 9/26 3

• 16 Computer attacks linked to wealthy group or nation
• 19 $93,000 cancer drug: How much is a life worth?
• 31 At UN, climate ministers seek way out of stalemate

Monday 9/27 2

• 5 Asians muscling into social media world
• 18 Segway owner dies after falling off river cliff

Tuesday 9/28 5

• 1 One fifth of world’s plants threatened by extinction: study
• 5 At snail’s pace, nudging the world towards better food
• 8 Malaria vaccine closer than ever, scientists say
• 10 World failing to meet 2010 HIV/AIDS care target: UN
• 37 Scientists use hovering zeppelin to film whales

Wednesday 9/29 2

• 4 Lost letters add a twist to DNA breakthrough
• 38 Record number of children die in hot cars in 2010

Thursday 9/30 1

• 23 Study finds first evidence that ADHD is genetic

Friday 10/1 6

• 8 China launches second lunar probe
• 20 U.S. apologizes for syphilis experiment in Guatemala
• 24 US apologizes for 1940s STD study in Guatemala
• 27 62 mpg for new cars? It’s the US target for 2025
• 35 New sex ed funding ends decade of abstinence-only
• 46 NY lawyer convicted in Dead Sea Scrolls case

Saturday 10/2 5

• 31 Beet it: To exercise longer, try beetroot juice
• 32 Nobel experts predict low-key prize after Obama
• 38 US apologizes for ’40s syphilis study in Guatemala
• 39 Navy scrambles after subs shed stealthy coating
• 47 Psychiatric experts assess parental alienation

Sunday 9/26 4

• 2 Alonso edges Vettel to win Singapore Grand Prix
• 5 Delhi makes frantic effort for C’wealth Games
• 9 India races to ready Games Village in time
• 21 Nevada ranked in AP poll for first time since 1948

Monday 9/27 1

• 2 Race to finish C.Games facilities as athletes move in

Tuesday 9/28 1

• 6 Competitors start arriving for C’wealth Games

Wednesday 9/29 3

• 6 Americans ready for Ryder Cup and Mother Nature
• 10 Thousands of tickets unsold in Delhi
• 11 Cricket captain Salman Butt appeals against ban

Thursday 9/30 1

• 7 Woods and McIlroy kept apart at Ryder Cup

Friday 10/1 3

• 10 US golfers bounce back at rain-lashed Ryder Cup
• 14 Watson hits ton in cricket Test before Zaheer strikes
• 29 So much drama, so little golf at Ryder Cup

Saturday 10/2 5

• 4 Monty inspires Europe fightback at Ryder Cup
• 5 US open up 6-4 lead at Ryder Cup
• 6 India poised to stage biggest C’wealth Games
• 25 New Delhi goes into lockdown for C’Wealth opener
• 27 Europe eyes big Ryder Cup comeback as night falls

Sunday 9/26 2

• 4 In Milan, Emilio Pucci revisits bohemian looks
• 20 New Muslim comic book superhero on the way

Monday 9/27 1

• 4 George Clooney lends star power to Milan fashion

Wednesday 9/29 1

• 7 Cross-dressing meets boy-girl duos on Paris catwalks

Thursday 9/30 2

• 8 Reptilian rock slides onto Paris catwalks
• 47 In American craft brewing, IPAs reign supreme

Friday 10/1 1

• 11 Dior’s tropical mists meet Miyake’s fashion ‘spirits’

Saturday 10/2 1

• 8 Summer collections look to misty isles and spirits

Tuesday 9/28 1

• 27 Landis says he waited too long to own up to doping

Thursday 9/30 3

• 6 Contador blames positive test on contaminated meat
• 25 Contador suspended for "adverse" test result
• 36 Contador blames bad meat for positive doping test

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

October 3 is the 276th day of the year (277th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 89 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1967, Woody Guthrie, godfather of the 1950s folk revival movement, dies.

In 1963, Bob Dylan was asked by the authors of a forthcoming book on Woody Guthrie to contribute a 25-word comment summarizing his thoughts on the man who had probably been his greatest formative influence. Dylan responded instead with a 194-line poem called “Thoughts on Woody Guthrie,” which took as its theme the eternal human search for hope. “And where do you look for this hope that yer seekin’?” Dylan asks in the poem, before proceeding to a kind of answer:

You can either go to the church of your choice

Or you can go to Brooklyn State Hospital

You’ll find God in the church of your choice

You’ll find Woody Guthrie in Brooklyn State Hospital

Woodrow Wilson “Woody” Guthrie (July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children’s songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his guitar. His best-known song is “This Land Is Your Land”, which is regularly sung in American schools. Many of his recorded songs are archived in the Library of Congress. Such songwriters as Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs and Tom Paxton have acknowledged their debt to Guthrie as an influence.

Guthrie traveled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California and learned traditional folk and blues songs. Many of his songs are about his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression, earning him the nickname the “Dust Bowl Troubadour”. Throughout his life Guthrie was associated with United States communist groups, though he was never an actual member of any.

Guthrie was married three times and fathered eight children, including American folk musician Arlo Guthrie. He is the grandfather of musician Sarah Lee Guthrie. Guthrie died from complications of Huntington’s disease, a progressive genetic neurological disorder. During his later years, in spite of his illness, Guthrie served as a figurehead in the folk movement, providing inspiration to a generation of new folk musicians, including mentor relationships with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan.

Folk revival and Guthrie’s death

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, a new generation of young people were inspired by folk singers including Guthrie. These “folk revivalists” became more politically aware in their music than those of the previous generation. The American Folk Revival was beginning to take place, focused on the issues of the day, such as the civil rights movement and free speech movement. Pockets of folk singers were forming around the country in places such as Cambridge, Massachusetts and the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. One of Guthrie’s visitors at Greystone Park was the 19-year-old Bob Dylan, who idolized Guthrie. Dylan wrote of Guthrie’s repertoire: “The songs themselves were really beyond category. They had the infinite sweep of humanity in them.” After learning of Guthrie’s whereabouts, Bob Dylan regularly visited him. Guthrie died of complications of Huntington’s disease on October 3, 1967. By the time of his death, his work had been discovered by a new audience, introduced to them in part through Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, his ex-wife Marjorie and other new members of the folk revival, and his son Arlo.

Huntington’s Disease Society of America

 52 BC – Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, surrenders to the Romans under Julius Caesar, ending the siege and Battle of Alesia.

42 BC – First Battle of Philippi: Triumvirs Mark Antony and Octavian fight a decisive battle with Caesar’s assassins Brutus and Cassius.

1283 – Dafydd ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwynedd in Wales, becomes the first person executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered.

1574 – The Siege of Leiden is lifted by the Watergeuzen.

1683 – The Qing Dynasty naval commander Shi Lang reaches Taiwan (under the Kingdom of Tungning) to receive the formal surrender of Zheng Keshuang and Liu Guoxuan after the Battle of Penghu.

1712 – The Duke of Montrose issues a warrant for the arrest of Rob Roy MacGregor.

1739 – The Treaty of Nissa is signed by the Ottoman Empire and Russia at the finish of the Russian-Turkish War, 1736-1739.

1778 – British Captain James Cook anchors in Alaska.

1795 – General Napoleon Bonaparte first rises to national prominence being named to defend the French National Convention against armed counter-revolutionary rioters threatening the three year old revolutionary government.

1835 – The Staedtler Company is founded in Nuremberg, Germany.

1849 – American author Edgar Allan Poe is found delirious in a gutter in Baltimore, Maryland under mysterious circumstances; it is the last time he is seen in public before his death.

1863 – The last Thursday in November is declared as Thanksgiving Day by President Abraham Lincoln as are Thursdays, November 30, 1865 and November 29, 1866.

1873 – Captain Jack and companions are hanged for their part in the Modoc War.

1908 – The Pravda newspaper is founded by Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles in Vienna.

1918 – King Boris III of Bulgaria accedes to the throne.

1929 – The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes is renamed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia, “Land of the South Slavs”.

1932 – Iraq gains independence from the United Kingdom.

1935 – Second Italo-Abyssinian War: Italy invades Ethiopia under General de Bono.

1942 – Spaceflight: The first successful launch of a V-2 /A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemunde, Germany. It is the first man-made object to reach space.

1950 – Korean War: The First Battle of Maryang San, primarily pitting Australian and British forces against communist China, begins.

1951 – The “Shot Heard ‘Round the World”, one of the greatest moments in Major League Baseball history, occurs when the New York Giants’ Bobby Thomson hits a game winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning off of the Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca, to win the National League pennant after being down 14 games.

1952 – The United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon.

1955 – The Mickey Mouse Club debuts on ABC.

1957 – Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems is ruled not obscene.

1962 – Project Mercury: Sigma 7 is launched from Cape Canaveral, with Astronaut Wally Schirra aboard, for a six-orbit, nine-hour flight.

1964 – First Buffalo Wings are made at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York.

1981 – The Hunger Strike by Provisional Irish Republican Army and Irish National Liberation Army prisoners at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland ends after seven months and ten deaths.

1985 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis makes its maiden flight. (Mission STS-51-J)

1986 – TASCC, a superconducting cyclotron at the Chalk River Laboratories, is officially opened.

1990 – Re-unification of Germany. The German Democratic Republic ceases to exist and its territory becomes part of the Federal Republic of Germany. East German citizens became part of the European Community, which later became the European Union. Now celebrated as German Unity Day.

1993 – Battle of Mogadishu: In an attempt to capture officials of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid’s organisation in Mogadishu, Somalia, 18 US Soldiers and about 1,000 Somalis are killed in heavy fighting.

1995 – O J Simpson acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

2003 – Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy is attacked by one of the show’s tigers, canceling the show until 2009, when they rejoined the tiger that mauled Roy just six years earlier.

2008 – The $700 billion bailout bill for the US financial system is signed by President Bush.