News Nuggets 955

DAYLEE PICTURE: The Alatna River, the 'Gates of the Arctic.'  From National Geographic.  

China’s Population Crash Could Upend U.S. Policy (Ramesh Ponnuru) from the Bloomberg News Service
"From 2000 to 2030, the percentage of men in their late 30s who have never been married is projected to quintuple. Eberstadt doesn’t believe that having an “army of unmarriageable young men” will improve the country’s economy or social cohesion. He thinks demographic change will pose two problems specific to China."

Eased Tensions Lower Chances of Iran Strike, Experts Say from the New York Times
"With the revival of talks — which went unexpectedly well — and domestic differences arising in Israel, the odds of imminent conflict have decreased, experts and American officials say."

Vatican Loud on Liberals but Silent on Abuse (Fintan O'Toole) from the Irish Times [of Ireland]
"I thought about writing one of those columns in response to the Vatican’s censuring of five priests – Brian D’Arcy, Tony Flannery, Gerard Moloney, Seán Fagan and Owen O’Sullivan – simply for saying what most Catholics actually think about celibacy, women priests and homosexuality. But I couldn’t find either anger or hope. All that’s left is a double dose of sadness – for a generation of idealists; for a society in need of moral leadership that is being given just one more, all too familiar dose of the most abject cynicism. What we’re seeing now is the sadistic humiliation of a generation of clergy that deserves better."

Bin Laden's Failure: How Islamists and the U.S. Ended His War With the West (Michael hirsh) from the Atlantic
"In halting the global war on terror and engaging with Islamist political parties, Obama has helped create a world that the terrorist leader would hardly recognize."

Why Obama Owns bin Laden (Jon Meacham) from Time Magazine
"Judging from the Republican response, President Obama's ad asking whether Mitt Romney would have ordered the raid that captured Osama bin Laden raises serious questions."

How the GOP Became a Party of Whiners Over Osama (Michael Tomasky) from the Daily Beast
"Republicans love to act like tough guys. Yet it’s the Democrat in the White House who got Bin Laden—and the GOP that’s throwing a temper tantrum about an modest Obama ad."

Obama’s Osama bin Laden Ad Is a Well-Played Attack (Michelle Cottle) from the Daily Beast
"The president’s new ad trumpeting bin Laden’s killing may well politicize national security, as the GOP complains. But Obama’s just taking a page from a playbook the Republicans have trusted since 2001, says Michelle Cottle."

Rupert Murdoch 'Not a Fit Person' to Lead News Corp - MPs from the New York Times
"In a damning report after months of investigation into the hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers here, a British parliamentary panel concluded on Tuesday that Mr. Murdoch was “not a fit person” to run a huge international company. The startling conclusion about the world’s most influential media tycoon went much further in criticizing Mr. Murdoch personally than had been expected from Parliament’s select committee on culture, media and sport, which has been conducting the latest of two inquiries into the hacking scandal since last July."

Parliamentary Report Just Once Piece Of Larger News Corp Troubles from Talking Points Memo
"The UK parliamentary report on phone hacking practices at Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers is harsh — but it’s just one piece of a much larger puzzle. “It is only the ‘B movie’ — the two main features are the Leveson Inquiry, which has far more real power, and the five ongoing criminal investigations by the police,” said Paul Connew, a media commentator and former deputy editor of the News of the World (in its pre-hacking days)."

Wind Turbine Creates Water from Thin Air from CNN
"Wind turbines have long produced renewable energy but a French
engineering firm has discovered another eco-purpose for the towering structures. Eole Water claims to have successfully modified the traditional wind turbine design to create the WMS1000, an appliance that can manufacture drinking water from humid air."

Why Are Conservatives Petrified of Sexual Freedom? (Amanda Marcotte) from Alternet
"While Bryant doesn’t literally believe that pro-choicers want to abort every pregnancy, I do think this statement reveals the utter terror and hatred of feminism, particularly of feminist demands for women’s sexual liberation, that is at the heart of the anti-choice movement."

Rise of Generation Occupy (Jeffrey sachs) from Salon
"We're seing the start of a New Progressive Movement in which social media trumps money -- and truth outpaces greed."

Has Team Romney Forgotten that the Bush Years were Terrible? (Ezra Klein) from the Washington Post
"There’s not much in politics that allows me to say, “I’m old enough to remember when.” But here’s one: I’m old enough to remember when George W. Bush was president. It was, after all, only four short years ago. And it didn’t go so well. The Bush economy is one of the worst on record."

What Robert Caro’s LBJ Biography ‘The Passage of Power’ Could Teach Obama and Romney (Walter Shapiro) from Yahoo News
"Swanson declares: “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.” That’s the way I feel after losing myself in Caro’s stirring recreation of early 1960s politics in “The Passage of Power,” published Tuesday. The
presidential race between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney seems like a factory-produced miniature compared to titanic and maddeningly complex historical figures like Johnson and his nemesis, Robert Kennedy."

WATERGATE NUGGET!!
A Challenge to Robert Redford (Ron Rosenbaum) from Slate
"Will Woodward and Bernstein, gods and guardians of the myth of journalism’s mighty mission, finally do what they have never done—at least in print—for the past 40 years: Offer proof about who ordered the Watergate break-in and why? Was it Nixon campaign officials and their hirelings—or Nixon himself?"

MUSEUMS NUGGET!!
Museums Want to Entertain You (and That's Not a Bad Thing) (Hampton Stevens) from the Atlantic
"A new exhibition at the Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City uses technology without going too far."