News Nuggets 370

The eye of a humpback whale, a relevant image for the Whale Nugget noted below.

MUSIC TO A TEACHER'S EARS:

I just received this e-mail from one of my mid-career adult students who took one of my seminars this last semester:

"I would really like to extend my gratitude to you. I thought that your seminar was thought provoking in numerous ways. Had I taken such a course while I was in college, my career path might have been drastically different."

Is Israel a Liability? from the Atlantic

"In Washington policy circles, the United States' close relationship with Israel is coming under increasing scrutiny, observed The New York Times on Friday. Triggered in part by Israel's deadly showdown with an aid flotilla set for Gaza, centrist policy experts are beginning to question whether Israel is a liability."

BP Cap Trapping Substantial Amounts of Oil, Gas from the Washington Post

"Forty-nine days later, the Gulf of Mexico got a bit of good news. On Monday, U.S. officials said that a "cap" installed over a leaking oil pipe was capturing more than 460,000 gallons (11,000 barrels) of oil a day. Instead of spilling into the gulf, the oil was funneled up through the pipe to a ship on the surface."

Blaming Obama For Not Being a God (Froma Harrop) from the Providence Journal via RealClearPolitics

"Stopping the waves is a job for Neptune, not a president. Obama cannot raise his trident and force the oil back into the hole. There are things he can do, but they're a lot less impressive."

Obama's Overheated Critics (Clive Cook) from the Atlantic

"I don't think you could call me a reflexive supporter of Obama. I've criticized him often enough. So bear this in mind when I say that much of the recent Gulf-centered criticism--from Democrats and Democratic sympathizers as well as from the usual quarters--strikes me as not just unfair but ridiculous."

America's Incomplete Vision of the Past (Sasha Abramsky) from the Guardian [of the UK]

"The US knows its history – but the rallying cries of the Tea Party and others rely on its selective use as a propaganda device."

In the Name of Human Rights, France Should Not Ban the Veil (Editorial) from the Christian Science Monitor

"The burqa is part of an individual’s religious beliefs. It’s strikingly contradictory therefore that France, in order to liberate women from perceived Islamic oppression, has to violate their universal human rights."

Up until recently, I shared the view of this editorialist -- but I've had some new insight on the issue based on Ayaan Hersi Ali's books: Infidel and Nomad. It seems to me that these books (and other similar ones) have dramatically influenced how policy makers in Europe view the easy immigration of conservative and radical Islamic families to Europe. It has nothing to do with women "hiding something". In my view, this whole burqa issue is a disguised campaign to communicate not-so-subtly to conservative Islamists to stay away from Europe -- "Don't even think of coming here if you are not willing to embrace core European values!" It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

What to Watch for in Tonight's Primary Elections (Mike Madden) from Salon

"Halter vs. Lincoln, Sharron Angle, Nikki Haley and other highlights of a wild day of primaries in 12 states."

WHALE NUGGET!!

Daring Rescue of Whale Off Farallones: Humpback Nuzzled Her Saviors in Thanks After They Untangled Her from Crab lines, Diver Says from the San Francisco Chronicle [from 2005]

"A humpback whale freed by divers from a tangle of crab trap lines near the Farallon Islands nudged its rescuers and flapped around in what marine experts said was a rare and remarkable encounter."

There is a "Radio Lab" episode from NPR that interviews these folks, and you can listen to HERE. See the scroll-down on the right and select "Animal Minds".

OIL HISTORY NUGGET!!

America's Century of Oil Problems from the Saturday Evening Post

Yes -- this old chestnut of a publication is STILL in print.

"The Gulf oil spill "prompted me to look through the archives for past reports about the oil industry. I found scores of stories on the subject spanning the past century. Taken altogether, these articles present a story of America’s troubled relationship with oil and its producers."

TENNIS BOOK NUGGET!!

Deuce! A Review of Open: An Autobiography and A Terrible Splendor from the New York Review of Books

"Andre Agassi’s Open: An Autobiography is a remarkable and quite unexpected volume, one that sails well past its homiletic genre into the realm of literature, a memoir whose success clearly owes not a little to a reader’s surprise in discovering that a celebrity one may have presumed to know on the basis of a few television commercials hawking cameras via the slogan “image is everything” emerges as a man of parts—self-aware, black-humored, eloquent."

It has been decades since I read even an article about professional tennis and it's player "stars" -- but the review of Andre Agassi's autobiography sounds unusually good. The other about Bill Tilden also sounds interesting.

URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL NUGGET!!

The Future of Urban Agriculture from Popular Mechanics

"Rooftop farms could represent a future segment of agriculture. About 15 percent of the world's food is grown in cities. And that could grow, as cities strive for efficiency and reduce fuel consumption."

The ideas and images presented here are quite interesting.