Jul 26 2010

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 BP boss expected to quit but new payoff row looms

AFP

2 hrs 19 mins ago

LONDON (AFP) – BP chief executive Tony Hayward was expected to quit imminently with a payoff of up to 18.5 million dollars despite being lambasted over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, British media reported Monday.

The size of any such payoff, which must be agreed by a BP board meeting in London on Monday, risks sparking a fresh row as the British-based firm battles to rebuild its reputation after the worst environmental disaster in US history.

BP insists no final decision has yet been made on the future of Hayward, whose string of public relations gaffes during the crisis included telling reporters “I want my life back” and joining a yacht race.

2 Khmer Rouge prison chief handed 30 years in jail

by Patrick Falby, AFP

29 mins ago

PHNOM PENH (AFP) – In a historic first, a UN-backed court Monday sentenced a Khmer Rouge prison chief to 30 years in jail for crimes against humanity over mass executions during Cambodia’s “Killing Fields” era.

Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, is the first Khmer Rouge cadre to face justice in an international tribunal over the deaths of up to two million people through starvation, overwork and execution under the 1975-1979 regime.

But to the dismay of survivors and relatives of victims, the court took into account the years he had already served since his arrest in 1999, meaning that the 67-year-old could walk free in about 19 years.

3 Outrage over huge leak of Afghan war files

AFP

1 hr 26 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The leak of some 90,000 secret US military files triggered outrage Monday from nations fighting in Afghanistan, amid fears it could endanger the lives of international forces battling the Taliban.

The United States and Britain led anger from the coalition engaged in the conflict, now in its ninth year, as the files exposed how Pakistan’s spy agency secretly supports the Taliban and the deaths of civilians have been concealed.

The White House reacted furiously saying the documents released late Sunday by the whistleblowers’ website Wikileaks was “irresponsible.”

4 US condemns massive leak of Afghan war files

by Kerry Sheridan, AFP

Mon Jul 26, 6:46 am ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A whistleblower leaked tens of thousands of secret military files on the Afghan war Monday, documenting the deaths of innocent civilians and how Pakistan’s spy agency secretly supports the Taliban.

The leaks prompted a furious reaction from the White House, saying they put the lives of soldiers at risk, but the man behind the revelations said the controversy vindicated the decision to break cover.

In all, some 92,000 documents dating back to 2004 were released by the whistleblowers’ website Wikileaks to the New York Times, Britain’s Guardian newspaper and Germany’s Der Spiegel news weekly.

5 The ‘tapadas:’ Latin America’s veil-clad women

by Philippe Bernes-Lasserre, AFP

Mon Jul 26, 12:01 pm ET

LIMA (AFP) – Europe’s heated debate over the Islamic hijab has revived memories in Peru of its own tapadas, women from Lima who in centuries past wore long skirts and a face-covering veil.

The saya, an overskirt worn tightly at the waist and raised slightly to show ankles, and the manto, a thick shawl that covered shoulders, head and much of the face, inspired painters and writers for three centuries. And they were once considered a distinctively national attire.

A legacy of the Moors, or Muslims, who fled persecution in Spain, “las tapadas Limenas” were especially common among the Spanish elite when they first arrived in Peru after the Spanish colonization in the 16th century.

6 Contador triumphant in Tour as Cavendish wins final stage

by Justin Davis, AFP

Sun Jul 25, 6:43 pm ET

PARIS (AFP) – Spain’s Alberto Contador secured a third Tour de France yellow jersey Sunday after the 20th and final stage to the Champs Elysees won by Briton Mark Cavendish.

Cavendish powered to the finish line alone for the second consecutive year to claim his fifth stage success of this year’s race and 15th of his career.

Italian Alessandro Petacchi, the winner of two stages, finished second on the stage to secure the green jersey for the race’s points competition while France’s Anthony Charteau won the best climber’s polka dot jersey.

7 NATO rocket killed Afghan civilians: Karzai

by Lynne O’Donnell, AFP

Mon Jul 26, 11:28 am ET

KABUL (AFP) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Monday that NATO troops had fired a rocket that killed 52 “innocent” villagers in southern Afghanistan, as leaked documents laid bare the civilian toll of the US-led war.

An investigation by the National Directorate of Security found that a house in Helmand province’s Sangin district was hit on Friday “by a rocket launched by NATO/ISAF troops, leaving 52 civilians dead, including women and children,” a statement from Karzai’s office said.

“The president condoled via phone with the mourning families and called on NATO troops to put into practice every possible measure to avoid harming civilians during military operations,” it said.

8 German banks ‘did not reveal full debt details’

AFP

Mon Jul 26, 7:17 am ET

FRANKFURT (AFP) – European banking regulators say six German banks did not reveal full details of sovereign debt holdings as part of a key test of the sector’s health, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

“We agreed with all supervisory authorities and with the banks in the exercise that there would be a bank-by-bank disclosure of sovereign risks,” the FT quoted Arnoud Vossen, secretary general of the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS), as saying.

The six German banks included the country’s biggest, Deutsche Bank, as well as Deutsche Postbank, which has the nation’s largest retail network, and Hypo Real Estate, which failed the so-called “stress tests,” the newspaper said.

9 Ferrari blasted for ‘made-to-order’ German F1 win

by Gordon Howard, AFP

Mon Jul 26, 7:11 am ET

HOCKENHEIM, Germany (AFP) – Formula One glamour team Ferrari are battling to salvage their reputation after being accused of using team orders to manufacture a German Grand Prix victory for Fernando Alonso.

The Italian giants were fined 100,000 dollars for breaching sporting regulations after double world champion Alonso was allowed by teammate Felipe Massa to pass 18 laps from the end of Sunday’s race despite the Brazilian having led since the start.

Although the FIA, the sport’s governing body, said the Ferrari 1-2 result will stand, the team must still appear before the World Motor Sport Council.

10 Quark by quark, atom smasher closing in on ‘God particle’

by Marlowe Hood, AFP

36 mins ago

PARIS (AFP) – The world’s biggest atom smasher has scaled up in power even faster than hoped for and may soon unlock some of the universe’s deepest secrets, scientists said Monday at a top physics conference.

After a shaky start and a 14-month delay, experiments at Europe’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have in a few months replicated discoveries it took decades to complete at the rival Tevatron accelerator in the United States.

At this pace, the more powerful LHC could begin to deliver new insights into the fundamental nature of the cosmos within months, they said.

11 BP set to replace CEO Hayward

By Tom Bergin, Reuters

52 mins ago

LONDON (Reuters) – BP Plc is expected to install an American known for diplomacy as chief executive, replacing Tony Hayward who has come under fire for his gaffe-prone handling of the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Bob Dudley, the U.S. executive managing the response operation to the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, is poised to get the top job in the next 24 hours, a move that could soften U.S. criticism of the British oil major, sources close to the company say.

Hayward has described Dudley as BP’s “Secretary of State” for his role overseeing the cleanup efforts. Dudley was previously head of BP’s Russian joint venture, TNK-BP. Sky News reported Hayward would be offered a position with TNK-BP.

12 Spill puts Obama’s oil fund chief on hostile turf

By Leigh Coleman and Rachelle Younglai, Reuters

1 hr 24 mins ago

BAYOU LA BATRE, Alabama (Reuters) – The man who acquired a solid gold reputation for fixing sticky situations for the U.S. government is facing one of his toughest challenges yet: running BP Plc’s $20 billion compensation fund.

Kenneth Feinberg, lawyer extraordinaire, was in charge of compensating victims’ families after the September 11, 2001 attacks and presided over executive pay at bailed-out Wall Street firms.

But the job President Barack Obama has asked him to do — deciding who will be compensated from BP’s catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — is placing Feinberg in hostile territory where residents are still reeling from the federal government’s bungled response to Hurricane Katrina.

13 Leaked archive fuels doubts on Afghan war

By Susan Cornwell and Phil Stewart, Reuters

2 hrs 27 mins ago

WASHINGTON, July 26 Reuters) – The Obama administration scrambled on Monday to manage the explosive leak of secret military records which paint a grim picture of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and raise new doubts about key ally Pakistan.

The unprecedented release of some 91,000 classified military documents was likely to fuel mounting uncertainty in the U.S. Congress about the unpopular war as President Barack Obama sends 30,000 more soldiers into the faltering drive to break the Taliban insurgency.

The documents detail allegations that U.S. forces sought to cover up civilian deaths in the conflict as well as U.S. concern that Pakistan secretly aided the Taliban even as it took billions of dollars in U.S. aid.

14 EU banks could seek 25 billion euros in capital top-up

By Sudip Kar-Gupta and Joel Dimmock, Reuters

Mon Jul 26, 10:15 am ET

LONDON (Reuters) – European banks who only just scraped through a health check could look for over 25 billion euros in new capital, while Spain’s smaller lenders set out to reassure investors on Monday that they too can raise funds.

Of the 91 banks tested, seven failed, including five from Spain, and another 17 barely passed the EU tests which have been widely criticised as not demanding enough.

The tests were aimed partly at opening the door to funding markets for a batch of southern European banks and lowering costs for other lenders, and analysts said it would make sense for banks to seek to raise the capital they would have needed had the test criteria been tougher.

15 Senate Democrats to introduce energy bill

By Timothy Gardner and Richard Cowan, Reuters

Mon Jul 26, 12:41 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Staff members from several U.S. Senate committees were meeting on Monday to stitch together a slimmed-down energy bill that still needs approval from Majority Leader Harry Reid, a senate source said.

If all goes well, the full Senate could begin consideration of Reid’s bill on Tuesday. Democrats would like to pass it by the early part of the following week.

With time running short ahead of a month-long recess starting on August 6, Democrats abandoned efforts last week to put climate-control measures in the bill, with Reid citing a lack of Republican support for carbon caps and mandates requiring utilities to generate some of their power from renewable fuels.

16 Senior Khmer Rouge cadre jailed for mass murder, torture

By Martin Petty and Prak Chan Thul, Reuters

32 mins ago

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – The first Khmer Rouge commander to face a U.N.-backed tribunal was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Monday for overseeing 14,000 deaths in the 1970s, but he’ll serve about half that, angering many Cambodians.

Kaing Guek Eav, a 67-year-old former prison chief known as Duch, received less than the maximum 40 years sought by the prosecution for his role in the ultra-communist “Killing Fields” regime blamed for 1.7 million deaths from 1975 to 1979.

Duch was found guilty of murder, torture, rape, crimes against humanity and other charges as chief of Tuol Sleng prison, a converted school known as S-21 that symbolized the horrors of a regime that wiped out nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s population.

17 BP’s Hayward to leave as CEO; Russia job in works

By HARRY R. WEBER and ROBERT BARR, Associated Press Writers

38 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS – Tony Hayward, who became the face of BP’s flailing efforts to contain the massive Gulf oil spill, will step down as chief executive in October and be offered a job with the company’s joint venture in Russia, a person familiar with the matter said Monday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not been made by the British company’s board, which was meeting Monday in London to decide Hayward’s fate. The decision is the board’s to make, and it was unclear if it had formally done so.

It’s not yet clear what Hayward’s role will be with TNK-BP. He left the board meeting Monday without speaking to reporters, climbing into a silver Lexus that sped off.

18 Oil cleanup brings strangers, tension to towns

By VICKI SMITH, Associated Press Writer

Mon Jul 26, 6:02 am ET

GRAND ISLE, La. – The women of Grand Isle are nervous. Used to be, they say, they could walk the streets of their beachside town alone, getting a little exercise after the hottest part of the day or setting out the trash after midnight.

Now, a waitress won’t let her 14-year-old daughter stroll to the store for a Coke, a souvenir shop owner is afraid to sit on her porch after dark and a bartender deadbolts her door, a newly purchased gun nearby.

The vacationing families and sport fishermen who make this tourist town of 1,500 what it is are absent this summer, replaced by an army of workers brought in by BP to clean up the massive Gulf Coast oil spill.

19 Allen: BP well-killing process starts in a week

By HARRY R. WEBER and ROBERT BARR, Associated Press Writers

2 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS – The government’s oil spill chief says workers expect to begin the two-step process of finally killing BP’s blown-out well in a week.

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen says Monday that the so-called “static kill” – in which mud and cement are blasted into the top of the well – should start on Aug. 2.

If all goes well, the final stage – in which mud and cement are blasted in from deep underground – could begin Aug. 7.

20 Pentagon scrambles to assess Wikileaks damage

By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer

40 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon said Monday it was trying to assess the damage caused by the leak of some 91,000 classified documents on the Afghanistan war.

The documents are described as battlefield reports compiled by various military units that provide an unvarnished look at combat in the past six years, including U.S. frustration over reports Pakistan secretly aided insurgents and civilian casualties at the hand of U.S. troops.

Wikileaks.org, a self-described whistleblower organization, posted 76,000 of the reports to its website Sunday night. The group said it is vetting another 15,000 documents for future release.

21 Twin car bombs kill 25 in Iraqi city of Karbala

By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press Writer

47 mins ago

BAGHDAD – Two car bombs targeting Shiite pilgrims during a religious festival in the holy city of Karbala killed 25 people on Monday, Iraqi police and hospital officials said. Sunni extremists are suspected.

Militants detonated two parked cars filled with explosives about two miles (three kilometers) apart as crowds of pilgrims passed by. Police and medical officials in Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad, said 68 people were injured in the attacks.

The pilgrims were on their way to Karbala to take part in an important religious holiday, known as Shabaniyah, that attracts devout Shiites from around the country.

22 Calif. subpoenas LA suburb records in salary probe

By JOHN ROGERS, Associated Press Writer

38 mins ago

BELL, Calif. – California’s attorney general said Monday he has subpoenaed hundreds of records from a Los Angeles suburb under investigation for sky-high salaries paid to its leaders.

Attorney General Jerry Brown demanded to see employment contracts from the city of Bell within 48 hours to determine whether to file charges.

The move followed last week’s resignation of Bell’s city manager, assistant manager and police chief. They earned a total of more than $1.6 million a year to run the poverty-plagued city of about 40,000 people.

23 Khmer Rouge jailer faces 19 years for 16,000 dead

By ROBIN McDOWELL, Associated Press Writer

42 mins ago

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – A U.N.-backed tribunal sentenced the Khmer Rouge’s chief jailer to 35 years for overseeing the deaths of up to 16,000 people – the first verdict involving a senior member of the “killing fields” regime that devastated a generation of Cambodians.

Victims and their relatives burst into tears after learning that Kaing Guek Eav – also known as Duch – will actually serve only 19 years after being convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity after taking into account time already served and other factors.

That means the 67-year-old could one day walk free, a prospect that infuriated many who have been demanding justice for victims of the regime that killed an estimated 1.7 million people between 1975-79.

24 Immigrant groups criticize fingerprint initiative

By IVAN MORENO, Associated Press Writer

50 mins ago

DENVER – The federal government is rapidly expanding a program to identify illegal immigrants using fingerprints from arrests, drawing opposition from local authorities and advocates who argue the initiative amounts to an excessive dragnet.

The program has gotten less attention than Arizona’s new immigration law, but it may end up having a bigger impact because of its potential to round up and deport so many immigrants nationwide.

The San Francisco sheriff wanted nothing to do with the program, and the City Council in Washington, D.C., blocked use of the fingerprint plan in the nation’s capital. Colorado is the latest to debate the program, called Secure Communities, and immigrant groups have begun to speak up, telling the governor in a letter last week that the initiative will make crime victims reluctant to cooperate with police “due to fear of being drawn into the immigration regime.”

25 New gov’t rules allow unapproved iPhone apps

By JOELLE TESSLER, AP Technology Writer

45 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Owners of the iPhone will be able to legally unlock their devices so they can run software applications that haven’t been approved by Apple Inc., according to new government rules announced Monday.

The decision to allow the practice commonly known as “jailbreaking” is one of a handful of new exemptions from a 1998 federal law that prohibits people from bypassing technical measures that companies put on their products to prevent unauthorized use of copyright-protected material. The Library of Congress, which oversees the Copyright Office, reviews and authorizes exemptions every three years to ensure that the law does not prevent certain non-infringing uses of copyright-protected works.

For iPhone jailbreakers, the new rules effectively legitimize a practice that has been operating in a legal gray area by exempting it from liability. Apple claims that jailbreaking is an unauthorized modification of its software.

26 UAE says BlackBerry is potential security threat

By ADAM SCHRECK, AP Business Writer

Mon Jul 26, 1:06 pm ET

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Emirati officials have declared BlackBerry smartphones a potential threat to national security because users’ data is stored overseas, where local laws don’t apply and where analysts say it could be harder for authorities to monitor.

The move renews concerns about efforts by the United Arab Emirates to control the flow of information in the Gulf nation, which includes the business hub Dubai and the oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi. The federation of seven hereditary states actively censors websites and other forms of media seen as harming national security and conservative local values.

Because BlackBerry maker Research in Motion’s computer servers are located outside the country, “it makes it easier for them to refuse requests from the authorities for users’ personal data,” said Lucie Morillon, head of the new media desk at advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, which monitors efforts to control smartphone use.

27 Afghans: 52 die in NATO attack; alliance disputes

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 10 mins ago

KABUL, Afghanistan – The Afghan government said Monday that 52 civilians, including women and children, died when a NATO rocket struck a village in southern Afghanistan last week – a report disputed by the international coalition.

The allegation was raised as the founder of WikiLeaks claimed thousands of U.S. attacks could be investigated for evidence of war crimes, and a leading human rights group alleged that NATO has an “incoherent process” for dealing with civilian casualties.

Some of the more than 90,000 secret U.S. military documents on the Afghanistan war posted Sunday on the Web by WikiLeaks included unreported incidents of Afghan civilian killings.

28 Obama’s message to voters: Things could be worse

By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer

Mon Jul 26, 6:31 am ET

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama, who rocketed to the White House promising “change you can believe in,” is now telling voters they shouldn’t change a thing.

His message for the fall elections, which are looking ominous for his Democrats, is that Republicans caused the nation’s economic troubles, but he and the Democrats are starting to fix them. So stick with the Democrats and don’t go back to the GOP.

“This is a choice between the policies that led us into the mess or the policies that are leading out of the mess,” Obama said recently in Las Vegas.

29 Contador wins 3rd Tour, as Armstrong steps aside

By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer

Sun Jul 25, 7:41 pm ET

PARIS – Alberto Contador stood atop the podium at the Tour de France on Sunday for the third time in four years, struggling to rein in his emotions as Spain’s national anthem echoed across the wide boulevard of the Champs-Elysees.

Off to one side, Lance Armstrong applauded and then, without much fanfare, headed toward the exit.

“I need a cold beer,” he said when asked his thoughts at the finish line.

30 Md. could save $829M under health care reform

By BRIAN WITTE, Associated Press Writer

Mon Jul 26, 1:20 pm ET

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Maryland could save about $829 million on health care costs between fiscal year 2011 and 2020 because of federal health care reform, according to a model the state released Monday.

The savings, however, last only until the end of the decade, when the federal law shifts a greater share of financial responsibility for Medicaid expansion to the states.

The projections are in an interim report by Maryland’s Health Care Reform Coordinating Council, which Gov. Martin O’Malley created in March to study how the federal health care reform law will affect the state.

31 Regal ruins: Palatial mansion near Philly crumbles

By JOANN LOVIGLIO, Associated Press Writer

Mon Jul 26, 12:42 pm ET

ELKINS PARK, Pa. – Lynnewood Hall, a century-old stunner of a building just outside Philadelphia, silently, almost invisibly, languishes 200 feet beyond a two-lane blacktop road like a crumbling little Versailles.

The graceful fountain that welcomed hundreds of well-heeled visitors, President Franklin Roosevelt among them, was dismantled and sold years ago. Its once meticulously sculpted French gardens are overgrown with weeds and vines. The classical Indiana limestone facade may have lost its luster but its poise still remains – at least from the other side of rusted wrought iron gates that keep the curious at bay.

Like other Gilded Age palaces of the nation’s pre-Depression industrial titans, Lynnewood Hall is a relic of a bygone era facing an uncertain future. Will it befall the same fate as neighboring Whitemarsh Hall, the demolished mansion of banking magnate Edward Stotesbury? Or will it be returned to former glory, like industrialist Alfred I. duPont’s former Nemours Mansion in Delaware?

Jul 26 2010

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.

Glen Greenwald: The WikiLeaks Afghanistan leak

The most consequential news item of the week will obviously be — or at least should be — the massive new leak by WikiLeaks of 90,000 pages of classified material chronicling the truth about the war in Afghanistan from 2004 through 2009.  Those documents provide what The New York Times calls “an unvarnished, ground-level picture of the war in Afghanistan that is in many respects more grim than the official portrayal.”  The Guardian describes the documents as “a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fueling the insurgency.”

The White House has swiftly vowed to continue the war and predictably condemned WikiLeaks rather harshly.  It will be most interesting to see how many Democrats — who claim to find Daniel Ellsberg heroic and the Pentagon Papers leak to be unambiguously justified — follow the White House’s lead in that regard.  Ellsberg’s leak — though primarily exposing the amoral duplicity of a Democratic administration — occurred when there was a Republican in the White House.  This latest leak, by contrast, indicts a war which a Democratic President has embraced as his own, and documents similar manipulation of public opinion and suppression of the truth well into 2009.  It’s not difficult to foresee, as Atrios predicted, that media “coverage of [the] latest [leak] will be about whether or not it should have been published,” rather than about what these documents reveal about the war effort and the government and military leaders prosecuting it.  What position Democratic officials and administration supporters take in the inevitable debate over WikiLeaks remains to be seen (by shrewdly leaking these materials to 3 major newspapers, which themselves then published many of the most incriminating documents, WikiLeaks provided itself with some cover).

snip

Whatever else is true, WikiLeaks has yet again proven itself to be one of the most valuable and important organizations in the world.  Just as was true for the video of the Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad, there is no valid justification for having kept most of these documents a secret.  But that’s what our National Security State does reflexively:  it hides itself behind an essentially absolute wall of secrecy to ensure that the citizenry remains largely ignorant of what it is really doing.  WikiLeaks is one of the few entities successfully blowing holes in at least parts of that wall, enabling modest glimpses into what The Washington Post spent last week describing as Top Secret America.  The war on WikiLeaks — which was already in full swing, including, strangely, from some who claim a commitment to transparency  — will only intensify now.  Anyone who believes that the Government abuses its secrecy powers in order to keep the citizenry in the dark and manipulate public opinion — and who, at this point, doesn’t believe that? — should be squarely on the side of the greater transparency which Wikileaks and its sources, sometimes single-handedly, are providing.

Jay Rosen: The Afghanistan War Logs Released by Wikileaks, the World’s First Stateless News Organization

“In media history up to now, the press is free to report on what the powerful wish to keep secret because the laws of a given nation protect it. But Wikileaks is able to report on what the powerful wish to keep secret because the logic of the Internet permits it. This is new.”

   Wikileaks.org: Afghan War Diary, 2004-2010

   Der Spiegel: Explosive Leaks Provide Image of War from Those Fighting It

   New York Times: The War Logs

   The Guardian: The Afghanistan War Logs

From my internal notebook and Twitter feed, a few notes on this development:

1. Ask yourself: Why didn’t Wikileaks just publish the Afghanistan war logs and let journalists ’round the world have at them? Why hand them over to The New York Times, the Guardian and Der Spiegel first? Because as Julien Assange, founder of Wikileaks, explained last October, if a big story is available to everyone equally, journalists will pass on it.

2. The initial response from the White House was extremely unimpressive

3. If you don’t know much about Wikileaks or why it exists, the best way to catch up is this New Yorker profile of Julien Assange.

4. If you go to the Wikileaks profile, next to “location” it says: Everywhere. Which is one of the most striking things about it: the world’s first stateless news organization.

5. And just as government doesn’t know what to make of Wikileaks (“we’re gonna hunt you down/hey, you didn’t contact us!”) the traditional press isn’t used to this, either.

6. From an editor’s note: “At the request of the White House, The Times also urged WikiLeaks to withhold any harmful material from its Web site.”

Paul Krugman: Who Cooked the Planet?

Never say that the gods lack a sense of humor. I bet they’re still chuckling on Olympus over the decision to make the first half of 2010 – the year in which all hope of action to limit climate change died – the hottest such stretch on record.

Of course, you can’t infer trends in global temperatures from one year’s experience. But ignoring that fact has long been one of the favorite tricks of climate-change deniers: they point to an unusually warm year in the past, and say “See, the planet has been cooling, not warming, since 1998!” Actually, 2005, not 1998, was the warmest year to date – but the point is that the record-breaking temperatures we’re currently experiencing have made a nonsense argument even more nonsensical; at this point it doesn’t work even on its own terms.

Lee Wasserman: Four Ways to Kill a Climate Bill

IF President Obama and Congress had announced that no financial reform legislation would pass unless Goldman Sachs agreed to the bill, we would conclude our leaders had been standing in the Washington sun too long. Yet when it came to addressing climate change, that is precisely the course the president and Congress took. Lacking support from those most responsible for the problem, they have given up on passing a major climate bill this year.

It’s true that passing legislation to rebuild our fossil fuel-based economy was always going to be a momentous challenge. Senators and representatives feel in their bones (and campaign accounts) the interests of utilities and the coal and oil industries. Even well-intentioned members of Congress struggle to balance the competing needs of energy-intensive industries, coal workers and American families.

But with climate change a stated priority for President Obama and Congress, how did they fall so short? By weaving four coordinated threads into a shroud of inaction. This began long before President Obama took office, but rather than rip up the old pattern – as he advocated during the campaign – the president quickly took his place at the loom.

E.J. Dionne: Enough right-wing propaganda

The smearing of Shirley Sherrod ought to be a turning point in American politics. This is not, as the now-trivialized phrase has it, a “teachable moment.” It is a time for action.

The mainstream media and the Obama administration must stop cowering before a right wing that has persistently forced its propaganda to be accepted as news by convincing traditional journalists that “fairness” requires treating extremist rants as “one side of the story.” And there can be no more shilly-shallying about the fact that racial backlash politics is becoming an important component of the campaign against President Obama and against progressives in this year’s election.

The administration’s response to the doctored video pushed by right-wing hit man Andrew Breitbart was shameful. The obsession with “protecting” the president turned out to be the least protective approach of all.

The Obama team did not question, let alone challenge, the video. Instead, it assumed that whatever narrative Fox News might create mattered more than anything else, including the possible innocence of a human being outside the president’s inner circle.

snip

The Sherrod case should be the end of the line. If Obama hates the current media climate, he should stop overreacting to it. And the mainstream media should stop being afraid of insisting on the difference between news and propaganda.  

Robert J. Samuelson: Why CEOs aren’t hiring

Judging from corporate profits, we should be enjoying a powerful economic recovery. The drop in profits in the recession was about a third, the worst since World War II. But every day brings reports of gains. In the second quarter, IBM’s earnings rose 9.1 percent from a year earlier. Government statistics through the first quarter (the latest available) show that profits have recovered 87 percent of what they lost in the recession. When second-quarter results are tabulated, profits may exceed their previous peak.

snip

So far, history be damned. The contrast between revived profits and stunted job growth is stunning. From late 2007 to late 2009, payroll employment dropped nearly 8.4 million. Since then, the economy has recovered a scant 11 percent of those lost jobs. Companies are doing much better than workers; that defines today’s economy.

The most obvious explanation is that the relationship between labor and capital (to borrow Marxist vocabulary) has changed. Capital has gotten stronger; labor has weakened. Economist Robert J. Gordon of Northwestern University argues that the “shift of executive compensation towards much greater use of stock options” has made corporate managers more zealous cost-cutters in recessions and more reluctant hirers early in recoveries. Lowering the head count is the quickest way to restore profits and, from there, a company’s stock price.

snip

But it’s unclear whether corporate elites were so traumatized by the crisis that they’ve adopted a bunker mentality. That, as much as uncertainty over Obama administration policies, could be fearsome. What might appeal to individual firms — paring expenses to maximize profits, hoarding cash to protect against a future financial crisis, waiting to hire until sales improve — could, if adopted by most companies, sabotage a stronger recovery. If labor is cowed and capital is overcautious, the economy must suffer.

Jul 26 2010

Monday Business Edition

Remember, the reason they deserve this kind of money is that they are better and brighter than you or I.

They know things.  They work hard.

For the Calivinists among them their material prosperity is the manifestation on earth of their elect status in heaven.

Because luck and connections had nothing to do with it.

(also worth reading is Why Conservatives Hate Keynes By: masaccio Sunday July 25, 2010 10:30 am)

From Yahoo News Business

1 Hayward payoff ignites new BP controversy

AFP

6 mins ago

LONDON (AFP) – BP chief executive Tony Hayward will walk away from the crisis-stricken oil giant with a payoff of up to 18.5 million dollars, media reported Monday ahead of Hayward’s departure.

The reports risked setting off a new controversy over the handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster for which BP faces huge clean-up and damage costs and has been a public relations catastrophe for the conglomerate.

The BP board meets in London on Monday but the company insisted no final decision has been reached on a management change.

2 Hayward expected to resign as BP looks to rebuild

AFP

Sun Jul 25, 5:17 pm ET

LONDON (AFP) – BP will sacrifice embattled chief executive Tony Hayward within days as it tries to rebuild its image in the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, reports said Sunday.

The BBC said Hayward was negotiating his exit and an announcement was likely by Monday when the BP board meets ahead of second quarter results expected to reveal a 30-billion-dollar provision for paying for the disaster.

In the Gulf, US oil spill chief Thad Allen said BP’s long-awaited operation to permanently plug the leaking Gulf of Mexico well had been delayed until the week beginning August 2.

3 BP to start drilling for oil off Libya within weeks

AFP

Sat Jul 24, 3:23 pm ET

LONDON (AFP) – BP will start drilling off the Libyan coast in a few weeks, it said Saturday, despite lingering questions over the deal which led to the exploration and the oil firm’s role in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

“We expect to begin the first well in the next few weeks,” spokesman David Nicholas told AFP, adding that the 2007 deal signed with Libya to explore the Gulf of Sirte included commitments to drill five wells.

Although he could not give a detailed timeframe, he said: “These wells can take six months or more to drill.”

4 BP ‘still to decide’ on Hayward in wake of oil spill

AFP

Mon Jul 26, 3:00 am ET

LONDON (AFP) – BP said Monday no final decision has been reached on a change of management, after reports claimed chief executive Tony Hayward would resign in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.

The British energy giant said it noted “the press speculation over the weekend regarding potential changes to management” as well as the charge for the costs of the spill.

“BP confirms that no final decision has been made on these matters,” the company statement said.

5 BP chief likely to resign in wake of US oil spill

AFP

Sun Jul 25, 10:41 am ET

LONDON (AFP) – The chief executive of British oil giant BP, Tony Hayward, is likely to resign within the next 24 hours in the aftermath of the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the BBC reported.

Citing a senior BP source, the BBC said that an announcement is due shortly on Hayward, whose future has been in doubt for several weeks over his handling of the worst environmental disaster in US history.

There is a “strong likelihood” that he will be replaced by Bob Dudley, who took over management of BP’s response to the spill from Hayward last month, the public broadcaster added.

6 Venezuela’s Chavez threatens to cut off US oil

AFP

2 hrs 27 mins ago

CARACAS (AFP) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has threatened to cut off oil supplies to the United States if it were to back a Colombian military attack on Venezuela, warning Washington to stay out of the fray.

Chavez broke off diplomatic relations with Bogota Thursday in response to charges by President Alvaro Uribe that 1,500 Colombian guerrillas had set up camp inside Venezuela and were launching attacks from its territory.

The firebrand leftist president said on Sunday he had intelligence that “the possibility of an armed aggression against Venezuelan territory from Colombia” was higher than it has been “in 100 years.”

7 Japan export growth slows but beats forecasts

by Hiroshi Hiyama, AFP

Mon Jul 26, 2:17 am ET

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese exports continued to rise in June on shipments to Asia but the pace of growth was the slowest this year amid signs that recovery may be losing steam as global demand falls, data showed Monday.

“We previously saw a robust, V-shaped recovery in exports after the financial crisis. Now the speed of the recovery is tapering off,” said Atsushi Kamio, economist at the Daiwa Research Institute.

However, the slow-down was less sharp than economists had expected.

8 US’ Geithner rejects fears of double dip recession

AFP

Sun Jul 25, 3:06 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner dismissed fears of a double dip recession in an interview aired Sunday, but warned of a slow US recovery with the economy only gradually gaining strength.

Geithner was asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether he thought the economy would dip back into recession before things got better.

“No, I don’t,” he answered.

9 Russian farmers suffer ‘catastrophe’ in baking heat

by Eleonore Dermy, AFP

Sun Jul 25, 1:01 am ET

MOKRYE KURNALI, Russia (AFP) – Russian farm owner Ilshat Gumerov stands in the middle of his fields under the mercilessly hot sun with a look of despair on his face.

His 700-hectare land in the central Volga region of Tatarstan has not been touched by a drop of rain in weeks amid one of the severest heatwaves of the century in Russia. He already fears he has lost two thirds of his harvest.

“It is a catastrophe,” he said, ruefully fingering the dried-up ears of wheat. “This year I am going to make no profit. It will only be enough to buy fodder.”

10 Tablets may allow ‘re-set’ for media: News Corp.

by Chris Lefkow, AFP

Fri Jul 23, 11:03 pm ET

ASPEN, Colorado (AFP) – Tablet computers such as Apple’s iPad may allow the news industry a “re-set” and to start charging for content after years of giving it away for free, a senior News Corp. executive said Friday.

News Corp. chief digital officer Jon Miller also said it was too early to make any judgements about the experiment of News Corp.’s The Times with a paid website but charging online readers was “an idea whose time has come.”

“A year ago, we were pretty out front with the idea that content has value,” Miller told an audience of top technology and media executives at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference here.

11 As German beast awakens, so will the grumbling

by Simon Sturdee, AFP

Sun Jul 25, 1:22 am ET

BERLIN (AFP) – Germany’s economy is fast returning to health, but thanks mainly to exports, leaving Chancellor Angela Merkel open to a fresh barrage of criticism from other countries, economists say.

On Friday the closely watched Ifo survey of around 2,500 companies showed sentiment in Europe’s biggest economy surging at its strongest rate since the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990.

Jennifer McKeown at Capital Economics said this suggested that the German economy was performing well, “not only compared with others in the eurozone but also with the rest of the world.”

12 Europe’s prospects brighten as U.S. fades

By Emily Kaiser, Reuters

Sun Jul 25, 3:01 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – What’s odd about this scenario?

German business confidence is soaring while U.S. consumer sentiment sinks.

Britain’s second-quarter economic growth was almost twice as fast as expected, the strongest in four years.

13 No new recession, let tax cuts die: Geithner

By Glenn Somerville, Reuters

Sun Jul 25, 11:05 am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The economy is not likely to slip back into recession but letting tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire is necessary to show commitment to cutting budget deficits, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Sunday.

In appearances on several Sunday talk shows, Geithner said only 2 to 3 percent of Americans — those making $250,000 or more a year — will be affected when tax cuts enacted under former President George W. Bush end on schedule this year.

Republicans want to extend the tax cuts and Democrats are divided but Geithner said reductions for top earners should end.

14 Japan export growth slows; yen rise may hurt ahead

By Rie Ishiguro, Reuters

Mon Jul 26, 2:13 am ET

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese exports rose more than expected in June from a year earlier but the pace of increase slowed for the fourth straight month, a sign the economic recovery may lose steam on moderating overseas demand.

While analysts expected export growth to slow from a sharp rebound in the first quarter, the yen’s recent gains and signs of a slowdown in big markets such as the United States and China have heightened uncertainty on the outlook for Japan’s export-reliant economy.

“Exports to China may have peaked for now. Shipments to Europe and the United States can’t be relied on either. That means the key will be whether exports to other Asian nations sustain momentum,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.

15 BP says ‘no final decision’ on replacing Hayward

By ROBERT BARR, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 6 mins ago

LONDON – BP PLC said Monday that “no final decision” has been made about management changes, which reportedly include the departure of Tony Hayward as chief executive in an effort to mend the company’s image after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The oil company said its board would meet Monday evening, a day before it announces earnings for the second quarter.

“BP notes the press speculation over the weekend regarding potential changes to management and the charge for the costs of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP confirms that no final decision has been made on these matters,” the company said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.

16 Could American take over Britain’s BP?

By HARRY R. WEBER, Associated Press Writer

1 min ago

NEW ORLEANS – The man overseeing the much-maligned response by BP PLC to the Gulf oil spill crisis is the likely choice to replace gaffe-prone Tony Hayward to run the company and would become the first American to ever head the oil giant.

A senior U.S. government official said Sunday that Hayward is on his way out but didn’t know who would be his successor. The official was briefed on the decision last week and spoke on condition of anonymity because an announcement had not been made.

BP said Monday that “no final decision” had been made about management changes. The oil company said its board would meet Monday evening, a day before it announces earnings for the second quarter. Shares were up 2.2 percent at 407.6 pence ($6.31) in early trading in London.

17 Hayward leaving behind daunting tasks at BP

By CHRIS KAHN and EMILY FREDRIX, AP Business Writers

Sun Jul 25, 9:49 pm ET

NEW YORK – For BP, removing Tony Hayward is just the beginning.

The departure of the man who became the vilified public face of the Gulf oil spill changes very little for BP. His successor still faces what could be decades of cleaning up and paying for one of the worst environmental disasters in American history.

Experts said Sunday that the new chief must also persuade thousands of employees to embrace a culture of safety that Hayward apparently failed to instill. He’ll need to mend fences among BP’s partners in the Gulf and convince the U.S. government and public they can trust it to safely do business here.

18 Fungus wilts spirits of basil lovers, farmers

By MICHAEL J. CRUMB, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 52 mins ago

DES MOINES, Iowa – A fungus spreading among the nation’s basil crop may leave lovers of Italian and Thai food feeling a bit bland.

Basil downy mildew first surfaced in the U.S. around 2007 and is slowly but surely ruining the herb at spots across the country. Hardest hit areas are on the East Coast but it also has been found as far west as California.

For growers, the fungus can be devastating.

19 Chavez warns of US oil cutoff in Colombia dispute

By IAN JAMES, Associated Press Writer

Sun Jul 25, 7:12 pm ET

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez threatened on Sunday to cut off oil sales to the United States if Venezuela is attacked by its U.S.-allied neighbor Colombia in a dispute over allegations that Venezuela gives haven to Colombian rebels.

Chavez made his warning in an outdoor speech to thousands of supporters, saying: “If there is any armed aggression against Venezuela from Colombian territory or anywhere else supported by the Yankee empire, we … would suspend shipments of oil to the United States!”

“We wouldn’t send another drop of oil to its refineries, not a single drop more!” Chavez shouted, adding that the United States is “the big one to blame for all the tension in this part of the world.”

20 How profits, stocks can rise as economy stumbles

By BERNARD CONDON, AP Business Writer

Sun Jul 25, 1:01 pm ET

NEW YORK – With earnings season in full swing, bulls and bears are combing through reports to arm themselves in what’s become the mother of all stock market debates: Does the recovery gain steam, sending shares aloft? Or does it remain sluggish, or even stall, and push them down further?

A third possibility: Maybe the economy doesn’t matter so much.

Larry Hatheway, an economist at UBS, says economic growth means companies selling more things. But he thinks that is not as important as it used to be to generating the profits needed to send stocks higher. That’s because U.S. firms have mastered the art of pulling more and more money from each dollar of sales.

21 In midst of river cleanup, supporters are divided

By BOB SALSBERG, Associated Press Writer

Sun Jul 25, 3:39 pm ET

LENOX, Mass. – Once a dumping ground for chemicals, a stretch of the Housatonic River that winds near this Berkshires hamlet is being scoured in a lengthy, expensive cleanup. Now, dredging other parts of the riverbed is under consideration, but the fishers, bird watchers and swimmers who would benefit are wondering how much effort is too much.

General Electric Co. used compounds called PCBs, now known to cause cancer, in producing transformers from 1932 to 1977 at its 254-acre plant in Pittsfield, Mass. Under a federal consent decree about two decades after it stopped, the company began cleaning up PCBs that had spewed for years into a residential neighborhood and a 2-mile stretch of the Housatonic.

Now, the $400 million first phase of the cleanup is almost over. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must decide in coming months what to do about pollution in the rest of the 149-mile river that flows through rural western Massachusetts and Connecticut and empties into Long Island Sound.

22 More roadside chargers needed for electric cars

By JOEL SCHECTMAN, AP Business Writer

Sun Jul 25, 2:22 pm ET

NEW YORK – The auto industry calls it range anxiety: Drivers want electric cars but worry they won’t have enough juice to make long trips. After all, what good is going green if you get stranded with a dead battery?

It’s a fear that automakers must overcome as they push to sell more battery-powered cars. So government and business are taking steps to reassure drivers by building up the nation’s network of electric charging stations.

The hope is Americans will become more comfortable buying cars such as Nissan’s all-electric Leaf, due out late this year, which can travel just 100 miles on a single charge. That’s fine for a commute but potentially stressful for longer road trips.

23 FCC, public safety at odds over broadband plan

By JOELLE TESSLER, AP Technology Writer

Sun Jul 25, 1:13 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Two years ago, the Federal Communications Commission stumbled as it tried to create a nationwide wireless broadband network for police officers, firefighters and emergency medical workers, delaying the construction of what everyone agrees is an urgently needed system.

Now the agency is hoping to rework the plan, which relies on a prime slice of airwaves called the D Block. But many public safety officials say the commission is, once again, going about it the wrong way.

In 2008, the FCC attempted to auction off the block to the wireless industry, with a requirement that the winning bidder help build out a sturdy communications network that would be shared with first responders and give them priority in an emergency. But those conditions proved too onerous, and the auction failed to attract any serious bidders.

24 Families mark 10 years since Concorde crash

By JEFFREY SCHAEFFER, Associated Press Writer

Sun Jul 25, 6:39 pm ET

GONESSE, France – Families whose loved ones died in the fiery crash of a supersonic Concorde jet 10 years ago joined together near Paris on Sunday, laying flowers at a monument to the dead and wandering the breezy field where the plane went down.

A French court is awaiting a verdict on who was to blame for the accident, which killed 109 aboard the plane and four on the ground, and devastated the reputation of the jet. The Concorde, which ferried the rich and famous across the Atlantic for three decades and could fly twice as fast as the speed of sound, was taken out of service in 2003.

Some 100 family members, witnesses of the crash and Air France officials attended ceremonies Sunday marking 10 years since the plane crashed after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle Airport, plowing into a hotel in the Paris suburb of Gonesse.

Jul 26 2010

On This Day in History: July 26

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

On this day in 1775, the U.S. postal system is established by the Second Continental Congress, with Benjamin Franklin as its first postmaster general. Franklin (1706-1790) put in place the foundation for many aspects of today’s mail system. During early colonial times in the 1600s, few American colonists needed to send mail to each other; it was more likely that their correspondence was with letter writers in Britain. Mail deliveries from across the Atlantic were sporadic and could take many months to arrive. There were no post offices in the colonies, so mail was typically left at inns and taverns. In 1753, Benjamin Franklin, who had been postmaster of Philadelphia, became one of two joint postmasters general for the colonies. He made numerous improvements to the mail system, including setting up new, more efficient colonial routes and cutting delivery time in half between Philadelphia and New York by having the weekly mail wagon travel both day and night via relay teams. Franklin also debuted the first rate chart, which standardized delivery costs based on distance and weight. In 1774, the British fired Franklin from his postmaster job because of his revolutionary activities. However, the following year, he was appointed postmaster general of the United Colonies by the Continental Congress. Franklin held the job until late in 1776, when he was sent to France as a diplomat. He left a vastly improved mail system, with routes from Florida to Maine and regular service between the colonies and Britain. President George Washington appointed Samuel Osgood, a former Massachusetts congressman, as the first postmaster general of the American nation under the new U.S. constitution in 1789. At the time, there were approximately 75 post offices in the country

.

 657 – Battle of Siffin.

811 – Battle of Pliska; Byzantine emperor Nicephorus I is slain, his heir Stauracius is seriously wounded.

920 – Rout of an alliance of Christian troops from Navarre and Leon against the Muslims at Pamplona.

1309 – Henry VII is recognized King of the Romans by Pope Clement V.

1469 – Wars of the Roses: Battle of Edgecote Moor – Pitting the forces of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick against those of Edward IV of England.

1581 – Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (Act of Abjuration). The declaration of independence of the northern Low Countries from the Spanish king, Philip II.

1745 – The first recorded women’s cricket match took place near Guildford, England

1758 – French and Indian War: Siege of Louisbourg ends with British forces defeating the French and taking control of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

1775 – The birth of what would later become the United States Post Office Department is established by the Second Continental Congress.

1788 – New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th state of the United States.

1803 – The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world’s first public railway, opens in south London.

1822 – Jose de San Martín arrives in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to meet with Simon Bolivar.

1847 – Liberia declares independence.

1861 – American Civil War: George B. McClellan assumes command of the Army of the Potomac following a disastrous Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run.

1863 – American Civil War: Morgan’s Raid ends – At Salineville, Ohio, Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and 360 of his volunteers are captured by Union forces.

1878 – In California, the poet and American West outlaw calling himself “Black Bart” makes his last clean getaway when he steals a safe box from a Wells Fargo stagecoach. The empty box will be found later with a taunting poem inside.

1882 – Premiere of Richard Wagner’s Parsifal at Bayreuth.

1882 – The Republic of Stellaland is founded in Southern Africa.

1887 – Publication of the Unua Libro, founding the Esperanto movement.

1890 – In Buenos Aires, the Revolucion del Parque takes place, forcing President Juarez Celman’s resignation.

1891 – France annexes Tahiti.

1908 – United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation).

1914 – Serbia and Bulgaria interrupt diplomatic relationship.

1936 – The Axis Powers decide to intervene in the Spanish Civil War.

1936 – King Edward VIII, in one of his few official duties before he abdicated the throne, officially unveiled the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.

1937 – End of the Battle of Brunete in the Spanish Civil War.

1941 – World War II: In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.

1944 – World War II: Soviet army enters Lviv, major city of western Ukraine, liberating it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jewish survivors left, out of 160,000 Jews in Lviv prior to Nazi occupation.

1944 – The first German V-2 rocket hits Great Britain.

1945 – The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom general election of July 5 by a landslide, removing Winston Churchill from power.

1945 – The Potsdam Declaration is signed in Potsdam, Germany.

1945 – The US Navy cruiser Indianapolis arrives at Tinian with the warhead for the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

1946 – Aloha Airlines began service from Honolulu International Airport

1947 – Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.

1948 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981 desegregating the military of the United States.

1952 – King Farouk of Egypt abdicates in favor of his son Fuad.

1953 – Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution.

1953 – Arizona Governor John Howard Pyle orders an anti-polygamy law enforcement crackdown on residents of Short Creek, Arizona, which becomes known as the Short Creek Raid.

1956 – Following the World Bank’s refusal to fund building the Aswan High Dam, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal sparking international condemnation.

1957 – Carlos Castillo Armas, dictator of Guatemala, is assassinated

1958 – Explorer program: Explorer 4 is launched.

1963 – Syncom 2, the world’s first geosynchronous satellite, is launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta B booster.

1968 – Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Truong Dinh Dzu is sentenced to five years hard labor for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.

1971 – Apollo Program: Apollo 15 Mission – Launch of Apollo 15.

1977 – The National Assembly of Quebec imposes the use of French as the official language of the provincial government.

1989 – A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing the Morris worm, thus becoming the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

1990 – The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is signed into law by President George H. W. Bush.

1994 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders the removal of Russian troops from Estonia.

2005 – Space Shuttle program: STS-114 Mission – Launch of Discovery, NASA’s first scheduled flight mission after the Columbia Disaster in 2003.

   

Jul 26 2010

Pique the Geek 20100725: Corruption of Scientific Terms

(10 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Scientific terms are often corrupted, and the wingnuts often do it.  They conflate hypotheses with theories, and theories with laws.  They also reduce the value of a theory to what they make out as just a guess.

This post is an attempt to separate the words and make the scientific method more sensible to folks who are not trained scientists.  As always, if I not clear, comments and questions are always welcomed.

Words are often taken the wrong way.  Boy, do I know that!  But let us try to take some the correct way, and those are about physical manifestations around us.

There are several words in science, and amongst them are Laws, Theories, and  Hypotheses.  These are often used incorrectly.  For the sake of completeness, I have added guesses and speculations.  I have used all of these concepts in my scientific work, and now shall attempt to define them in my own words and experience.  For the sake of impartiality, I have also included other workers’ definitions of the first three in the discussion.

In reverse order from the list just above, starting with the least precise term, let us examine each of them.  It is difficult to determine whether a guess or a speculation is less precise.  My gut feeling is that a guess is a little looser than a speculation, but that is only my personal take.  Let us start with a guess.

A guess is just that.  Now, some guesses are better than others, and the better guesses come with experience and insight.  Guesses often lead to more firm areas, but to be truthful, most great scientific concepts start with guesses.  The great advantage of guesses is that they need no proof, no evidence (other than intuition), and no experimentation.  Guesses form the basis for more well thought out concepts, and most of them are discarded soon after being made.  Sometimes, though, even incorrect ones last forever.

For example, Benj. Franklin guessed that the carrier of electricity had a positive charge, later shown to be incorrect.  However, except for algebraic sign it makes no difference, and electrical circuit mathematical development in engineering still uses that convention.  It was a bad guess, but not a fatal one.  In science, guesses are often discussed with colleagues and are often discarded or modified, but guesses are rarely published because there is no evidence to support them.  In the nonscientific world, folks guess all of the time.

The problem with guesses is that they are often affected by the prejudices of the person making the guess.  This can often be troublesome.  However, when experience and previous data are consistent with the guess, they can work very well.

For example, Sir Humphrey Davy guessed that the alkali metals were elements in the very early 1800’s, and was correct. He isolated sodium and potassium using an electric battery from their molten hydroxides, then proved that they could not be further changed into more fundamental chemical substances.  It was just a guess, but it was a good one.  By the way, the scientific method was in its infancy at the time.

A speculation is, to me, a bit more than a guess.  A speculation, while not formal at all, tends to have a bit more structure to it than a guess.  In a speculation, oft times there is a bit more background information than there is for a guess, and thus a speculation seems just a bit more based in observation.  However, the division between the two is not well defined at all, and for most purposes they can be treated as pretty much the same thing.  Those of you who are scientists may think that a speculation is weaker than a guess, and I will not argue since the difference is really pretty subjective.  The best way for me to explain the difference, at least to me, is that a guess involves what is happening, and a speculation involves why it is happening.  I suspect that this paragraph may cause some lively discussion.

Now, after these informal categories come the formal ones insofar as the scientific method is concerned.  These are the ones that cause the problems when lay people (absolutely no insult intended towards readers who are not scientists, for reasons that will become clear as the discussion progresses).  The reason that they cause trouble is that even scientists do not agree completely as to their definitions and distinctions (as will be seen in Dr. Hawking’s explanation of a theory).

Generally, it is agreed that the most basic category of explanation for a phenomenon is an hypothesis.  (Note that I use “an” rather than “a”, just as some folks say “an herb” rather than “a herb”.  Neither is more or less correct, but rather a matter of personal preference).

Here is one definition of an hypothesis:

A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for an observable phenomenon.

That is not a bad definition, and much better than the one so often used, an “educated guess”.  A guess is an educated guess, but an hypothesis is much more.  Implicit in the definition are several things, in accordance with the scientific method.

First, an hypothesis must explain something that can be observed and verified.  In other words, a viable hypothesis will have predictive value when similar phenomena are examined.  If the predictions hold, then the hypothesis remains valid.  If not, then the original hypothesis must be reexamined, and modified or discarded for a better one.

The reason for this is that an hypothesis must have some amount of generality to be useful.  If an hypothesis explains only one or two observations of a phenomenon in a very limited situation, it is too restrictive to be of much value in the grand scheme of things.

Second, an hypothesis must be reproducible when conducted by other investigators under similar conditions.  This is critical, because not only does this requirement greatly reduce falsification of data (observations), it also helps to eliminate systemic error introduced by any one investigator.  Data falsification does occur, even we wish that it did not, but is much more rare than experimental errors.  Testability reduces both of those eventualities.

Third, an hypothesis must be consistent with earlier observations and hypotheses, unless those observations and/or hypotheses were incorrect.  This is often the case, by the way.  Either way, one of the two conflicting hypotheses are discarded, and sometimes both are.  As understanding of the phenomenon becomes greater, and as more precise observations are made, better hypotheses are formulated.

After a particular hypothesis has been tested many times by many investigators and found to be without conflict, it may become a theory.  However, just because something is never shown to be incorrect does not mean that there is a causal relationship between the data going into the hypothesis.  Here is sort of a silly, but telling example.

Translator’s hypothesis about carrots and criminal behavior.



Observations show that in every case, persons convicted of felony crimes had drunk beverages containing water within 24 hours of commission of the crime.

There is nothing incorrect with the observations.  The hypothesis is completely bogus, however, because it purports to show a causal relationship betwixt drinking water and criminal behavior.  This may sound silly, but such false hypotheses are used all of the time by those who try to influence opinion.  Political types use this device to a great extent (on both sides of a given issue, by the way) and it is important to think for one’s self to determine whether or not a causal relationship exists.  I hear on wingnut talk radio all the time that “tax cuts always bring economic improvement” and one or two examples are given.  However, never mentioned are the cases wherein tax cuts did NOT produce economic improvement.

After an hypothesis has been tested many times over, and no experiment has shown it to be incorrect, AND if explains physical events, AND if it can be modeled mathematically, it becomes a theory.

Here is Stephen Hawking’s explanation of a theory:

A theory is a good theory if it satisfies two requirements: It must accurately describe a large class of observations on the basis of a model that contains only a few arbitrary elements, and it must make definite predictions about the results of future observations. … Any physical theory is always provisional, in the sense that it is only a hypothesis; you can never prove it. No matter how many times the results of experiments agree with some theory, you can never be sure that the next time the result will not contradict the theory. On the other hand, you can disprove a theory by finding even a single observation that disagrees with the predictions of the theory.

Note that Dr. Hawking is of the opinion that there is not much difference betwixt a theory and an hypothesis.  In the sense that he stated it, I do not disagree, but the fundamental difference is that a theory has been tested many more times than a hypothesis (in general) and that it is more broad in scope (in general).  Whilst an hypothesis may have had scores or hundreds of verifications, a good theory may have had tens of thousands in many different situations.  Generally, a theory is more broad than an hypothesis.

Theories also tend to be complex, although they are not always so.  There are several reasons for that.  One is that theories tend to explain lots of things, to the mathematics are often complex because of that.  For example, Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity has scores of pages of extremely complex mathematics associated with it, all essential to develop it properly.  By the way, after millions of observations, it has NEVER been shown to be incorrect.  As a matter of fact, its predictions are so good that relativistic corrections have to be made for the Global Positioning System to work.  (It turns out that the passage of time slows relative to an independent reference frame as the force of gravity increases, so the GPS satellites, being further from the center of mass of the earth are in a weaker gravitational field, so time passes more swiftly for them than of the surface of the earth.  Without correction for that, accurate locations would be impossible).

Now, is the General Theory of Relativity absolutely the right explanation for our observations?  Maybe, maybe not.  What it is is the best model that we have at present to explained observed phenomena.  Perhaps the time will come that another theory that is more fundamental will replace it, or that it will become a special case of a broader theory.  This will become more clear later when we discuss scientific laws.

Now, a theory is just about the strongest statement in science that can be made.  In a good theory, as much assumption must be discarded as possible and replaced with actual observation.  (Alas, SOME assumptions are always made because our knowledge of the universe is imperfect, so we must substitute assumptions for actual knowledge from time to time).  However, when someone says, as in the case of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, “Well, that is just a theory”, you can now counter with certainty with the statement, “Perhaps so, but this theory has been been tested thousands of times, and no exception has ever been found.  It is not a guess, but rather the best model proposed that accounts for every observation yet made.”

Jingoists like to conflate the term “guess” with “theory”.  Remember, a guess is just that, although some are better than others.  I guess that this post will be well-received, but I have no evidence to support that.  A theory is as close as we have to the real picture of how things work.  As a matter of fact, the terms “theory” and “model” are sometimes used interchangeably, and often that is justified.

It is not even necessary to know the fundamental processes about why a theory works to have a good theory.  When Darwin proposed the theory of evolution, genetic science was in its infancy, chromosomes were just some part of the nucleus of a cell with unknown function, genes as a physical objects were not yet observed, and DNA had not even been imagined.  However, with few modifications, that theory still explains what is observed.  We now just have a better handle on the why and how, rather than just the what.

Thus, a theory is pretty much the distillation of knowledge from a large collection of many experiments, over many hypotheses, that still makes sense.  A theory is NOT rigid, but is open for new input, as experimental evidence comes forth.  To use more common English, a theory is “

a model, derived from empirical evidence, that can predict future events in a reliable manner

.”  That is my definition.  A good theory has been shown NOT to be incorrect over a huge number of observations.  That does NOT mean that it is completely correct.

The next step up in most folks minds is a scientific law.  I sort of take issue with the term, as will be shown later.  Here is one definition of a law:

A scientific law or scientific principle is a concise verbal or mathematical statement of a relation that expresses a fundamental principle of science, like Newton’s laws of motion.

Actually, to my way of thinking, a law is just a theory that has very broad application and (usually) a fairly short way of stating it.  However, just because something is called a law does NOT mean that it is the be all and end all.  For example, the very law used in the definition that I found above does not always hold.

Newton’s laws of motion work fine for objects that we can see (or even some smaller ones) as long as they are not too massive, or move too fast.  For example, they describe perfectly well, within any observable experimental limit, the motion of a bullet when fired from a rifle.  For the most part, they describe planetary motion to a high degree of accuracy.  However, those laws are actually theories (I maintain that there are NO natural laws of which we are yet aware, but that only means that we are not yet astute enough to decipher them yet).

However, when one looks on the atomic and smaller distance domain, Newton’s laws break down, particularly as particles become less massive and velocities increase.  To describe those motions, quantum mechanics must be invoked (and quantum mechanics is just another theory that explains motion on the very small scale).

Likewise, on the macroscopic scale, Newton’s laws fail when velocities become significant when compared to the speed of light.  Let us go back to our bullet analogy.  Let us use the .340 calibre Weatherby Magnum cartridge as an example.  This is a really “hot” cartridge in that is has a tremendous muzzle velocity and hence energy.  The 250 grain (1.62 x10^-2 kg) load has a muzzle velocity of 2963 feet per second (903.1 m/s).  For some reference, this is 2.65 times the speed of sound.  However, because of the high velocity, relativistic corrections show that the bullet is actually a bit more massive.  Without showing the work, the mass of the bullet at that speed is actually only about one trillionth of a kg larger.  That is because the muzzle velocity is small (only around three parts per million) compared to the speed of light, which is 2.9979 x 10^8 m/s.  Thus, the effect of relativity is negligible for this bullet.  However, what if we could fire it at, say, 10% of the speed of light?  Keep with me here.

If we were able to do that, the muzzle velocity would be 2.9979 x 10^7 m/s.  Applying the relativistic mass correction, the mass of the bullet then would be 1.71 x10^-2 kg, or almost 6% more massive.  Using Newton’s F=ma would give the wrong energy for the bullet because of the mass increase.  By the way, as the speed of light is approached, the effective mass tends to infinity.  (Physics purists will argue that I should properly use momentum rather than mass, but the approximation of using mass does not injure the illustration).

This is an example of high speeds affecting Newton’s laws of motion.  There is another one.  For years, the orbit of Mercury was observed not to follow Newton’s predictions quite correctly.  Speculation was that there was an invisible body affecting its orbital period or some other gravitational anomaly.  However, relativity explains it exactly, and it is the same effect that must be corrected for by GPS.  Mercury is so close to the sun that it is affected by the huge gravitational well of the sun that time passes more slowly for Mercury than it does for us on earth, in our reference point.

Thus, I am not fond of “laws”, because it makes them seem the ultimate answers.  They are not.  The laws that we know are highly developed theories with global applications, but they are not immutable.  This gets me to my final point.

Even the best theory is likely to be replaced by a better one.  Newton’s laws of motion are not wrong, just of limited scope.  They work well in their domain, and general relatively collapses to Newtonian physics at relatively (pun intended) reasonable masses and velocities small compared to the speed of light.

This is just to point out that there is a great difference between the casual use of the terms mentioned here and the strict scientific one, and that even top scientists are not in full communion as to the definitions.  However, a real theory is NOT a guess, it is a model that describes the behavior of a given system with no exception as of yet found.

Well, you have done it again.  You have wasted many einsteins of photons reading this hypothetical post.  And even though Karl Rove chooses slate and chalk when he reads me say it, I always learn much more than I could ever hope to teach whilst writing this series, so please keep those comments, questions, corrections, and other correspondence coming.  Tips and recs are also always welcome.  Remember, no scientific or technical issue is off topic here.

Warmest regards,

Doc

Crossposted at Dailykos.com and at Docudharma.com

Copyright July 25 2010 by Dr. David W. Smith.  The titles “Translator” and “Pique the Geek” are claimed trademarks of Dr. David W. Smith.  Anyone is free to quote the text in this essay if credit is given to Dr. David W. Smith for the quotations.

Jul 26 2010

Prime Time

Hello. Some of you know me as Lorelai Gilmore, and some of me know me as Cher, but either way, I wanted to say a few words about our girl. I’ve known Lane forever, and I’m just so incredibly happy that she has gotten married. I mean, I am just so happy that this adorable 22-year-old girl has gotten married, because it’s amazing, you know? It’s really hard to get married. Believe me, I should know. I mean, seriously, because Lane is married, and next thing, it’ll be my daughter, and then my granddaughter, but not me. I’m not getting married. No, it ain’t for me. It’s not in the cards. But hey, do you know what date I’m not getting married? June 3. Do not save the date. Do you hear me? Do whatever you want on June 3, because there’s nothing at all going on that day. If there’s anything you need to book, it’s totally safe to book it on June 3, So congratulations, Lane and Zack. Who else here had eight shots of tequila, huh? Hands? Nobody? Hmm. Oh, God, who misses the yummy bartenders? I know, me too, they’re so great. I was gonna ask them to not work on June 3, on my not wedding day. I just thought that would be so fun.

Ugh.  Well, I’m starting to wish I hadn’t decided to be a super cool party person last night not because of the hangover, I’ve got pancakes for that, but because the choices tonight are so much worse-

Toon has the new Children’s Hospital @ 10:30.

Later-

A good night if you like Abbott and Costello or Indian films from 1929.  Frankenstein was written in part as a reaction to the erruption of Mount Tambora (according to Mega Disasters).

Jul 25 2010

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 27 Top Stories.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Hayward expected to resign as BP looks to rebuild

AFP

Sun Jul 25, 1:23 pm ET

LONDON (AFP) – BP will sacrifice embattled chief executive Tony Hayward within days as it tries to rebuild its image in the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, reports said Sunday.

The BBC said Hayward was negotiating his exit and an announcement was likely by Monday when the BP board meets ahead of second quarter results expected to reveal a 30-billion-dollar provision for paying for the disaster.

In the Gulf, US oil spill chief Thad Allen said BP’s long-awaited operation to permanently plug the leaking Gulf of Mexico well had been delayed and will now probably begin the week after next.

2 Ships return to Gulf oil spill cleanup after storm fades

by Alex Ogle, AFP

Sat Jul 24, 7:58 pm ET

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – A major vessel charged with drilling a relief well to finally stop the BP oil spill arrived back at the Gulf of Mexico well site Saturday after briefly evacuating due to a tropical storm.

With blue skies reappearing over the Louisiana coast, officials raced to resume work to permanently “kill” the ruptured well which has spilled millions of gallons of oil into the sea since April in the most severe US environmental disaster ever.

The drill rig, Development Driller 3 (DD3), was among some 10 ships that evacuated the area ahead of Tropical Storm Bonnie. It was to begin reattaching to the well site immediately, according to the US official overseeing the spill response.

3 BP chief likely to resign in wake of US oil spill

AFP

Sun Jul 25, 10:41 am ET

LONDON (AFP) – The chief executive of British oil giant BP, Tony Hayward, is likely to resign within the next 24 hours in the aftermath of the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the BBC reported.

Citing a senior BP source, the BBC said that an announcement is due shortly on Hayward, whose future has been in doubt for several weeks over his handling of the worst environmental disaster in US history.

There is a “strong likelihood” that he will be replaced by Bob Dudley, who took over management of BP’s response to the spill from Hayward last month, the public broadcaster added.

4 Profile of BP chief Tony Hayward

by Alice Ritchie, AFP

Sun Jul 25, 10:31 am ET

LONDON (AFP) – BP chief executive Tony Hayward will quit within days, reports said Sunday, cutting short a 28-year-old career after becoming a lightning rod for anger over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

It was only three years ago that Hayward took over from his scandal-mired predecessor with the promise of a fresh start and a vow to forge a greener, safer future for the energy giant after a number of ecological disasters.

But while a PhD in geology and three decades of experience ensured Hayward knew BP’s core business inside out, he appeared ill-equipped as the public face of the catastrophe that emerged off the Louisiana coast in April.

5 Preparations for BP well ‘kill’ operation move ahead

by Alex Ogle, AFP

Sun Jul 25, 6:53 am ET

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – Engineers moved ahead on Sunday with preparations for a well “kill” operation that officials hope will permanently plug the oil leak causing the worst US environmental disaster.

A major vessel charged with drilling a relief well to finally stop the BP oil spill arrived back at the Gulf of Mexico well site on Saturday after briefly evacuating due to a tropical storm.

US Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said the first chance to seal the well for good could come in the next few days, as response crews quickly scaled operations back up after the storm fizzled.

6 Search on for two US sailors missing in Afghanistan

by Lynne O’Donnell, AFP

1 hr 55 mins ago

KABUL (AFP) – A massive manhunt was under way on Sunday for two US sailors missing in eastern Afghanistan, as a Taliban spokesman claimed the insurgents had killed one and captured the other.

Two days after the US Navy sailors went missing in Logar province, just south of Kabul, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it had no fresh information on their whereabouts.

After denying for 24 hours that they were involved, a Taliban spokesman Sunday claimed the insurgents had ambushed the pair, killing one and taking the other captive.

7 US’ Geithner rejects fears of double dip recession

AFP

1 hr 45 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner dismissed fears of a double dip recession in an interview aired Sunday, but warned of a slow US recovery with the economy only gradually gaining strength.

Geithner was asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether he thought the economy would dip back into recession before things got better.

“No, I don’t,” he answered.

8 Contador triumphant in Tour as Cavendish wins final stage

by Justin Davis, AFP

Sun Jul 25, 12:35 pm ET

PARIS (AFP) – Spain’s Alberto Contador secured a third Tour de France yellow jersey Sunday after the 20th and final stage to the Champs Elysees won by Briton Mark Cavendish.

Cavendish powered to the finish line alone for the second consecutive year to claim his fifth stage success of this year’s race and 15th of his career.

Italian Alessandro Petacchi, the winner of two stages, finished second on the stage to secure the green jersey for the race’s points competition while France’s Anthony Charteau won the best climber’s polka dot jersey.

9 Ferrari blasted for ‘made-to-order’ German F1 win

by Gordon Howard, AFP

36 mins ago

HOCKENHEIM, Germany (AFP) – Formula One glamour team Ferrari were battling to salvage their reputation Sunday after being accused of using team orders to manufacture a German Grand Prix victory for Fernando Alonso.

The Italian giants were fined 100,000 dollars for breaching sporting regulations after double world champion Alonso was allowed by teammate Felipe Massa to pass 18 laps from the end despite the Brazilian having led since the start.

Although the FIA, the sport’s governing body, said the Ferrari 1-2 result will stand, the team must still appear before the World Motor Sport Council.

10 Controversy as Alonso wins German F1 GP

by Gordon Howard, AFP

Sun Jul 25, 11:56 am ET

HOCKENHEIM, Germany (AFP) – Spaniard Fernando Alonso took full advantage of his Ferrari team’s support for their number one driver to win Sunday’s German Grand Prix in controversial circumstances.

Alonso’s win not only revitalised his bid for a third world title, it also crushed his Ferrari team-mate Brazilian Felipe Massa’s hopes of victory.

He was told to move over as ‘Fernando is faster’ in a message that signalled he had to let him pass – reviving the old arguments about team orders in Formula One.

11 Markets to issue verdict on stress tests

by Nathaniel Harrison, AFP

Sun Jul 25, 1:18 am ET

PARIS (AFP) – European bank stress tests will themselves be tested on Monday when investors return to markets in Europe and Asia with a verdict on an unprecedented bid to restore confidence in the EU banking sector.

Market reaction will be crucial to determine whether tests on the health of 91 EU banks, published on Friday, have dispelled suspicions that hidden problems and incorrectly priced risks lurk in their balance sheets.

The unprecdented decision to publish detailed results of the tests follows the global financial meltdown and the crisis in Europe in the last six months, compounded by doubt about the solvency of some banks.

12 US ‘wants more currency loosening’ from China

AFP

1 hr 53 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner praised Sunday China’s move to allow the yuan to float more freely, but again put pressure on Beijing to let its currency rise quicker and farther.

China had long held a tight rein on the yuan, and effectively pegged its currency at about 6.8 to the dollar since mid-2008 to support exporters during the global economic crisis.

The People’s Bank of China pledged on June 19 to let the currency trade more freely against the greenback, though it ruled out any large fluctuations. The yuan has appreciated 0.7 percent since the highly anticipated announcement.

13 Fees for online news yet to succeed

by Chris Lefkow, AFP

Sun Jul 25, 8:15 am ET

ASPEN, Colorado (AFP) – Top technology and media executives wrapped up a three-day conference in Aspen, Colorado, during which they grappled with — and left unresolved — the question of whether readers will pay for news online.

Firmly in the paid camp in the “paid vs. free” debate was News Corp.’s head of digital operations Jon Miller who said charging online readers is a notion that has been “accepted at a variety of levels.”

“It’s more about how it gets done,” Miller told participants in the Fortune Brainstorm Tech event which ended on Saturday in this Colorado ski resort.

14 Pilgrims flock to Way of St.James during Holy Year

by Elisa Santafe, AFP

Sun Jul 25, 5:56 am ET

PEDROUZO, Spain (AFP) – They come from around the world to have time to think, fulfil a promise or have an adventure: the gruelling “Camino de Santiago” has seen an influx of pilgrims this year, a Holy Year, for a variety of reasons.

Joshua Fleming, a 20-year-old Austrian student, said he decided to make the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain after reading best-selling Brazilian author Paulo Coelho’s book describing his own pilgrimage in 1986.

“The challenge has opened my spirit,” he said at the town of Pedrouzo at the start of the last leg of his pilgrimage, after having already walked some 300 kilometres (185 miles) across northern Spain.

15 BP CEO Hayward nears exit as relief well work resumes

By Tom Bergin and Kristen Hays, Reuters

21 mins ago

LONDON/HOUSTON (Reuters) – BP Plc has decided Chief Executive Tony Hayward should step down over his handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and his departure is likely to be announced in the next 36 hours, sources close to the company said on Sunday.

BP’s board is due to meet in London tomorrow to discuss a plan for Hayward to step down and be replaced by Bob Dudley, a senior U.S. executive who is currently managing the oil spill response operation, the sources said.

“The details are being worked out,” one source said.

16 Fraudsters angle for piece of BP oil spill fund

By Alexandria Sage, Reuters

Sun Jul 25, 8:08 am ET

BOOTHVILLE, Louisiana (Reuters) – Swindlers, scammers and even a few strippers are flocking to the Gulf Coast in search of a piece of the $20 billion BP Plc has set aside to compensate residents for spill-related losses.

Adjusters passing out emergency funds in Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states are on high alert for fraud even as they pay out legitimate claims following the April 20 oil rig explosion and spill that killed 11 workers and devastated the livelihoods of many fishermen, tourism workers and others.

The promise of a handout has attracted the unscrupulous, who have flocked to the Gulf in a bid to cash in.

17 Top U.S. officer warns Afghan war will get worse

By Jonathon Burch and Sayed Salahuddin, Reuters

1 hr 47 mins ago

KABUL (Reuters) – More NATO troops will die in Afghanistan as violence mounts over the summer, but Washington’s goal of turning the tide against the insurgency by year’s end is within reach, the top U.S. military officer said on Sunday.

The remarks by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, on a visit to the country, came as the Taliban said they were holding captive one of two U.S. servicemen who strayed into insurgent territory, and that the other had been killed.

It also comes less than a week since a major international conference in Kabul agreed that the Afghan government should aim to take responsibility for security in all parts of the country by 2014.

18 EU bank stress tests face their own test in markets

By Paul Taylor, Reuters

Sun Jul 25, 10:23 am ET

PARIS (Reuters) – EU tests of banks’ ability to withstand financial shocks, criticized as too easy after only 7 out of 91 failed, face their own stress test in the markets on Monday with early signs pointing to a more positive response.

European Union policymakers and regulators voiced relief at Friday’s results but some market analysts and many media commentators derided an exercise in which all listed banks passed as lacking in credibility.

“I see nothing stressful about this test. It’s like sending the banks away for a weekend of R&R,” said Stephen Pope, chief global equity strategist at brokers Cantor Fitzgerald.

19 Migrants sell up and flee Arizona ahead of crackdown

By Tim Gaynor, Reuters

Sun Jul 25, 1:43 pm ET

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Nicaraguan mother Lorena Aguilar hawks a television set and a few clothes on the baking sidewalk outside her west Phoenix apartment block.

A few paces up the street, her undocumented Mexican neighbor Wendi Villasenor touts a kitchen table, some chairs and a few dishes as her family scrambles to get out of Arizona ahead of a looming crackdown on illegal immigrants.

“Everyone is selling up the little they have and leaving,” said Villasenor, 31, who is headed for Pennsylvania. “We have no alternative. They have us cornered.”

20 Bomb in central Bangkok kills 1 and wounds 10

By Ploy Ten Kate, Reuters

Sun Jul 25, 12:40 pm ET

BANGKOK (Reuters) – A bomb at a Bangkok bus stop killed one person and wounded at least 10 on Sunday after polls closed in a parliamentary by-election seen as a referendum on recent political unrest.

The bomb had been hidden near a trash bin at a bus stop on Ratchadumri Road in the heart of Bangkok’s commercial district, an area occupied by thousands of “red shirt” anti-government protesters for several weeks until an army crackdown on May 19.

There was no indication of who had planted the device or whether it was linked to a Bangkok by-election in which a ruling party candidate narrowly beat an anti-government protest leader who has been jailed since May on terrorism charges.

21 Explosives experts in bloody dance with bomb makers

By Rob Taylor, Reuters

Sun Jul 25, 3:26 am ET

COMBAT OUTPOST NOLEN, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Explosives dog handler Jacob Evans had no hint of the mine that ripped into his legs. Neither did his detection dog, nor the U.S. patrol that had already walked over the buried charge.

Specialist Evans had arrived at Combat Outpost Nolen to help clear a ring of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) taking a vicious toll on U.S. and Afghan soldiers inside, penning them in easy firing range of a village used by Taliban fighters.

The mine that maimed one foot and both legs was hidden in front of a gateway to a field. Evans, 22, from Indian Mound, Tennessee, detonated it on Friday while backtracking from an alley with his patrol, sent to provide him with cover.

22 Official: BP CEO Hayward being replaced over spill

By HARRY R. WEBER, Associated Press Writer

46 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS – Gaffe-prone BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward – who incensed many on the Gulf Coast by saying he wanted his life back as they struggled with the fallout from the company’s massive oil spill – will be replaced, a senior U.S. government official said Sunday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because an announcement had not been made, was briefed on the decision by a senior BP official late last week.

The government official did not know who will replace Hayward or when it will happen. One of the most likely successors is BP Managing Director Bob Dudley, who is currently overseeing the British company’s spill response.

23 Contador wins 3rd Tour, as Armstrong steps aside

By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press Writer

36 mins ago

PARIS – Alberto Contador stood atop the podium at the Tour de France on Sunday for the third time in four years, struggling to rein in his emotions as Spain’s national anthem echoed across the wide boulevard of the Champs-Elysees.

Off to one side, Lance Armstrong applauded and then, without much fanfare, headed toward the exit.

“I need a cold beer,” he said when asked his thoughts at the finish line.

24 Uncertain future for Reid despite rebound in Nev.

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, AP Political Writer

Sun Jul 25, 8:30 am ET

HENDERSON, Nev. – Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid’s chances for six more years in Washington may be like tossing dice in a casino, even if he has made headway against Republican challenger Sharron Angle in a state with the nation’s highest rate of joblessness.

The four-term Reid holds a slight lead over Angle in the latest polling, thanks in part to her unsteady performance since winning the June primary and to Democratic ads portraying her as an extremist. Video of Angle scurrying away from reporters has mixed with television commercials of older voters upset about her call to phase out Social Security and Medicare.

But an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says Reid has a “a serious problem” with voters frustrated with the economy and “receives a great deal of blame.” The July 15 memo is based on polling research conducted for Patriot Majority, a union-funded group that is running TV ads against Angle.

25 Colorado’s tax iconoclast back in the spotlight

By KRISTEN WYATT, The Associated Press

2 hrs 57 mins ago

DENVER – Political outsiders, gun-toting miners and grizzled pioneers started Colorado’s government, but few have caused it more trouble than anti-tax iconoclast Douglas Bruce.

A prickly, paunchy activist who moved to Colorado in the 1980s after giving up a legal career in California, Bruce brought a hatred of government and a mission to hobble it to Colorado Springs. Bruce took over a fledgling effort to force voter approval for tax hikes, and less than a decade later, engineered a pioneering state constitutional amendment called the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, a tax-limiting measure still widely praised and panned for curbing government.

Appointed to the state House in 2007, Bruce showed a rebellious streak that left even his fellow Republicans slack-jawed. He voted against honoring veterans, called Mexican farm workers “illiterate peasants” and kicked a news photographer who took his picture, a kick that earned Bruce the first formal censure in the history of the Colorado House.

26 Life’s a beach for some homeless in Hawaii

By MARK NIESSE, Associated Press Writer

Sun Jul 25, 2:30 pm ET

HONOLULU – Every morning, Tony Williams wakes to the sound of waves crashing on Hawaii’s famed Waikiki beaches and has a spectacular view of the Pacific. But he’s not paying a cent for his priceless vista.

Williams is among the growing number of homeless on Oahu taking advantage of inviting beaches and support services in the islands, where they never have to worry about freezing.

But homeless encampments on the beach could damage tourism, officials fear, and they are currently weighing several proposals that they say would help the homeless, while also moving them from public view.

27 APNewsBreak: Ohio probation system fragmented

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, Associated Press Writer

Sun Jul 25, 1:11 pm ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio’s probation system is a jumble of overlapping and fragmented agencies without common rules for improving the way the state treats offenders under supervision, according to a report to be released Monday.

The study also says offenders who commit minor drug and property crimes are often supervised for years, while inmates who pose a high risk to public safety are released from prison without supervision.

The study by the Council of State Government Justice Center also confirms something Ohio officials have known for years: A large number of offenders cycle through prisons with sentences of just a few months, placing a costly burden on an already-strapped agency.

Jul 25 2010

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.

The Sunday Talking Heads:

This Week: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.  Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ).  Roundtable: Sam Donaldson, Cokie Roberts, Donna Brazile, Stephen Hayes.

CBS’ Face The Nation: Abigail Thernstrom, Vice Chair, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Michael Eric Dyson, Georgetown University. Cornel West, Princeton University. John Fund, Wall Street Journal Columnist. Michael Gerson, Washington Post Columnist.

Chris Matthews: Amy Walter The Hotline; Howard Fineman Newsweek; John Heilemann New York Magazine; Cynthia Tucker Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  Topics: Will African Americans Stick With Obama This Year?  Will This Year’s Elections Be an Historic Wave Year, and Is it Better for Obama to Lose Control of Congress?

CNN’s State of the Union: Gen. Michael Hayden on national intelligence.  FinReg with Mort Zuckerman. Christopher Edley Jr., Dean of University of California, Berkeley School of Law and past member of the Commission on Civil Rights,  and contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute City Journal and conservative commentator John McWhorter on race.

Fareed Zakaria – GPS: Afghanistan – U.S. Special Representative Richard Holbrooke; plus Richard Haass, Council on Foreign Relations; George Packer, New Yorker and Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal.  Then Harvard historian Niall Ferguson and Lord Robert Skidelsky: to spend or not to spend.  Plus oil drilling in the Niger Delta.

Frank Rich: There’s a Battle Outside and It Is Still Ragin’

This country was rightly elated when it elected its first African-American president more than 20 months ago. That high was destined to abate, but we reached a new low last week. What does it say about America now, and where it is heading, that a racial provocateur, wielding a deceptively edited video, could not only smear an innocent woman but make every national institution that touched the story look bad? The White House, the N.A.A.C.P. and the news media were all soiled by this episode. Meanwhile, the majority of Americans, who believe in fundamental fairness for all, grapple with the poisonous residue left behind by the many powerful people of all stripes who served as accessories to a high-tech lynching.

Thomas L. Friedman: We’re Gonna Be Sorry

We’ve basically decided to keep pumping greenhouse gases into Mother Nature’s operating system and take our chances that the results will be benign – even though a vast majority of scientists warn that this will not be so. Fasten your seat belts. As the environmentalist Rob Watson likes to say: “Mother Nature is just chemistry, biology and physics. That’s all she is.” You cannot sweet-talk her. You cannot spin her. You cannot tell her that the oil companies say climate change is a hoax. No, Mother Nature is going to do whatever chemistry, biology and physics dictate, and “Mother Nature always bats last, and she always bats 1.000,” says Watson. Do not mess with Mother Nature. But that is just what we’re doing.

Maureen Dowd: You’ll Never Believe What This White House Is Missing

The Obama White House is too white.

It has Barack Obama, raised in the Hawaiian hood and Indonesia, and Valerie Jarrett, who spent her early years in Iran.

But unlike Bill Clinton, who never needed help fathoming Southern black culture, Obama lacks advisers who are descended from the central African-American experience, ones who understand “the slave thing,” as a top black Democrat dryly puts it.

The first black president should expand beyond his campaign security blanket, the smug cordon of overprotective white guys surrounding him – a long political tradition underscored by Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 when she complained about the “smart-ass white boys” from Walter Mondale’s campaign who tried to boss her around.

Dana Milbank: Massey Energy’s Blankenship: No shame, but plenty of blame

If Don Blankenship had any sense of shame, he’d crawl into a mine and hide.

As CEO of Massey Energy, he has presided over a coal company that had thousands of violations in recent years, leading up to the April explosion that killed 29 of his miners. The company now faces a federal criminal investigation into what the government has called negligent and reckless practices.

But Blankenship must have no sense of shame, because he visited the National Press Club last week to complain about “knee-jerk political reactions” to mine deaths and to demand that the Obama administration lighten regulations on his dirty and dangerous company. “We need to let businesses function as businesses,” an indignant Blankenship proclaimed. “Corporate business is what built America, in my opinion, and we need to let it thrive by, in a sense, leaving it alone.”

Charles J. Ogletree Jr. and Johanna Wald: After Shirley Sherrod, we all need to slow down and listen

Once again, in the midst of the cacophony, calls abound for a national “dialogue” on race. Yet our nation cannot muster the patience or stamina to sustain such a discussion beyond a single news cycle. In some ways, Sherrod’s tale is a metaphor for this country’s aborted efforts to address race. In its entirety, her deeply moving story was about transformation and reconciliation between blacks and whites. It contained the seeds of progress and healing. She spoke of blacks and whites working together to save farms and to end poverty and suffering. But Sherrod, and those listening to her story, could get to her hopeful conclusion only by first wading through painful admissions of racial bias and struggle.

Unfortunately, our news and political cycles make it impossible for any of us to stay in a room long enough to reach that transformative moment. At the barest suggestion of race, we line up at opposite corners and start hurling accusations. Attorney General Eric Holder was widely criticized last year for suggesting that we are a “nation of cowards” when it comes to such discussions. The reaction to his comments is a reminder that we cannot continue to ignore this challenge. Yet Americans refuse to acknowledge that, in today’s society, racial attitudes are often complicated, multi-layered and conflicted.

Jul 25 2010

The Week in Review 7/18 – 24

212 Stories served.  30 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.

Economy- 21

Sunday 7/18/10– 2

Monday 7/19/10– 8

Tuesday 7/20/10– 4

Wednesday 7/21/10– 10

Thursday 7/22/10– 9

Friday 7/23/10– 5

Saturday 7/24/10– 3

Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran- 15

Sunday 7/18/10– 5

Monday 7/19/10– 1

Tuesday 7/20/10– 3

Wednesday 7/21/10– 2

Saturday 7/24/10– 4

International- 21

Sunday 7/18/10– 2

Monday 7/19/10– 2

Tuesday 7/20/10– 3

Wednesday 7/21/10– 5

Thursday 7/22/10– 6

Friday 7/23/10– 2

Saturday 7/24/10– 1

National- 71

Sunday 7/18/10– 5

Monday 7/19/10– 9

Tuesday 7/20/10– 13

Wednesday 7/21/10– 13

Thursday 7/22/10– 10

Friday 7/23/10– 11

Saturday 7/24/10– 10

Gulf Oil Blowout Disaster- 40

Sunday 7/18/10– 3

Monday 7/19/10– 5

Tuesday 7/20/10– 6

Wednesday 7/21/10– 7

Thursday 7/22/10– 5

Friday 7/23/10– 6

Saturday 7/24/10– 8

Science- 24

Sunday 7/18/10– 6

Monday 7/19/10– 4

Tuesday 7/20/10– 2

Wednesday 7/21/10– 4

Thursday 7/22/10– 4

Friday 7/23/10– 3

Saturday 7/24/10– 1

Sports- 8

Sunday 7/18/10– 2

Monday 7/19/10– 2

Tuesday 7/20/10– 1

Wednesday 7/21/10– 1

Friday 7/23/10– 1

Saturday 7/24/10– 1

Le Tour- 12

Sunday 7/18/10– 1

Monday 7/19/10– 2

Tuesday 7/20/10– 1

Wednesday 7/21/10– 1

Thursday 7/22/10– 2

Friday 7/23/10– 2

Saturday 7/24/10– 3

Jul 25 2010

Le Tour: Champs Elysees

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

The first thing to remember as you watch today’s final stage up and down the Champs Elysees is that it’s not a race anymore.

Unless of course you’re racing for the Green Sprinting Jersey in which case if you’re Alessandro Petacchi all you have to do is finish in the top six, though I expect the Manx Maniac Mark Cavendish to put on a show and push hard for his 5th stage victory.

Another thing to remember is that 39 seconds is not so much over 3 weeks of racing, about 2,263 miles.  Andy got within 6 seconds at one point.

There are people who will point to bad luck–

Ironically, it is the exact figure Schleck lost to Contador on stage 15 when the Spaniard counter-attacked him moments before he suffered an untimely mechanical problem with his gears.

He also lost his brother and climbing partner Frank back at Stage 3.

Menchov won the 3rd podium place by overcoming a 21 second deficit to finish the stage 1:39 ahead of Sanchez so there’s your 2 minute Time Trial margin.

I stand by yesterday’s analysis of Le Tour 2010, but maybe next year we’ll be talking about Alberto and Andy again.

In any event I’m open to suggestions about other sport coverage.  You’ll be hearing from me about Formula One and Baseball for sure, but I’m also open to World Championship Darts (well, it’s part of the same package that Vs. is in).

Which brings up some important points.  You, as is customary, can write about any sport you want including (shudder) Hockey.  If you want me to write about it, it has to be available on Cable TV and it has to have a beginning, a middle, and an end.  World Championship Poker and Monster Truck Races from 2007 on endless random repeat do NOT qualify no matter how many times I actually watch them.

Nor do Professional Wrestling and Figure Skating because they’re just too political.

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