News Nuggets 341

Agricultural workers in Srinagar in Kashmir on the border between India and Pakistan. From the Times of London.

The Incredible Shrinking Iranian Influence (Editorial) from Foreign Policy Magazine

"The trumpeted U.S.-Iran showdown at the United Nations was over moments after it began. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad strutted and fretted his almost-hour on the stage of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference on May 3. Then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered her smack down. If it were a boxing match, the refs would have ended it."

Blood or Treasure? Obama's Goals in the M-E Peace Process from the Nation

"There’s a curious scarcity of discussion about why the administration is opening up room for debate now and, should it recalibrate policy, what its ultimate aims will be. Those questions deserve careful attention—and they turn out to be closely linked to each other."

A Money Too Far (Paul Krugman) from the New York Times

"The problem, as obvious in prospect as it is now, is that Europe lacks some of the key attributes of a successful currency area. Above all, it lacks a central government."

A similar sentiment is voiced here:

Greek Crisis Exposes Cracks in Europe's Foundation (Steven Perlstein) from the Washington Post

"The fundamental problem is that even with a single currency and a unified political and bureaucratic structure, the arrangement is only a "halfway house" on the way to genuine political and economic integration, and a rickety one at that."

Best Jobs Report Yet for Obama (Andrew Leonard) from Salon

"April payrolls swell by a hefty 290,000. The unemployment rate also ticks up, but even that is a healthy sign"

When Bad News is Good News (Ezra Klein) from Washington Post

"The unemployment rate is the percentage of the workforce actively looking for a new job but unable to find one. During long recessions, discouraged workers stop looking."

Young People Seek Shelter from the Storm (Ronald Brownstein) from National Journal and the Atlantic

"The poll found that large numbers of the massive Millennial Generation are struggling through the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. Just one-sixth of the Millennials surveyed say they are earning enough to live comfortably."

This article is part of a series. The other parts can be found HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Oil Riggers on Ship that Exploded in Gulf of Mexico Describe Fateful Night from the Washington Post

"In the weeks that followed, dozens of scientists would analyze the evidence and debate the damage. They would conclude that a gigantic blast of gas, oil and mud had roared up from the drilling zone below, bursting through the floor of the Deepwater Horizon and sparking a historic fire."

Immaculate Misconception and the Supreme Court (Joseph Ellis) from the Washington Post

"The constitutional doctrine of original intent has always struck most historians of the founding era as rather bizarre. For they, more than most, know that the original framers of the Constitution harbored deep disagreements over the document's core provisions, that the debates in the state ratifying conventions further exposed the divisions of opinion on such seminal issues as federal vs. state jurisdiction, the powers of the executive branch, even whether there was -- or should be -- an ultimate arbiter of the purposefully ambiguous language of the document."

The GOP's Damaging Border War (Reid Wilson) from National Journal

"Arizona's harsh new immigration law is giving conservative Republicans locked in competitive primaries a chance to separate themselves from their more moderate rivals. Party strategists worry, though, that the law, which was passed by a Republican-dominated Legislature and signed by a Republican governor, is a repeat of mistakes that will seriously damage an already troubled political brand."

New Conservative Groups Focus on Messaging, but What Message? (Ben Adler) from Newsweek

"The rest are focused on developing or implementing strategies for winning elections. What they actually sound like is not the Democracy Alliance, but America Coming Together, the unsuccessful grassroots fundraising and voter mobilization effort that liberals concocted to skirt the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance restrictions and assist the Democrats."

The Conservative Tide (Ronald Brownstein) from the National Journal

"A party too narrow for Specter, Crist, and maybe Bennett will face a tough challenge building a presidential majority coalition in 2012, when economic distress could be easing and the electorate swelling with more young people and minorities."

How Sarah Palin Crossed the Tea Party (Marc Ambinder) from the Atlantic

"An endorsement in the Senate primary in California hasn't gone over well among some of her fans."

WORLD WAR II NUGGET!!

Why Did the Pope Keep Quiet About the Holocaust? from Foreign Policy Magazine

"German historian Hubert Wolf has dug through the files to find damning evidence that Pope Pius XII, known to critics as "Hitler's pope," made a conscious decision to pass on the issue, leaving it up to his bishops in Germany to protect the Jews and Catholics who were being killed."

ANTHROPOLOGY NUGGET!!

Neanderthals, Humans Interbred, DNA Proves from Discovery News

"A newly mapped Neanderthal genome reveals that between 1-4 percent of DNA of many humans today came from Neanderthals."

See also this related ITEM that shows the faces of many human ancestors.

PLANET NUGGET!!

Martian Air Blown Away by Solar Super Wave from Discovery News

"Scientists have identified a sort of double-whammy solar super wave that is responsible for blowing away air from Mars and keeping its atmosphere thin, frigid and downright inhospitable for any possible future travelers."

This does not bode well for those who have been advocating "generating an atmosphere" for Mars. Seems that these solar winds would eliminate anything we generated there. We'll see.

SCIENCE NUGGET!!

Science Embraces Time Travel, Once Stuff of Sci-Fi from AOL News

"Two of the world's most respected scientific minds now say that time travel could become a part of science reality."