UP-FRONT AMAZING-INSPIRING ANIMAL STORIES REVISITED!
There has been so much SUBSTANTIVE news happening lately, I thought [just for a change of pace], to open today's selection with two of my favorite animal stories both of which I've posted before. For different reasons, these are stories I will NEVER forget!
I. Daring Rescue of Whale Off Farallones from the San Francisco Chronicle [from 2005]"Humpback nuzzled her saviors in thanks after they untangled her from crab lines, diver says."
The NPR program RadioLab did a wonderful description of this story in 2010. You can listen to it HERE.
II. Rare Breed: Can Laurie Marker Help the World's Fastest Mammal Outrun Its Fate? from Smithsonian Magazine [from 2008]
"In most cat species, enzymes in the blood differ genetically between individuals by 20 percent to 50 percent. But the cheetahs' blood enzymes were all alike. "We found nothing," says O'Brien, no variation at all. After looking at 52 genes, O'Brien halted the study. The cheetahs [all of them] were virtual clones."
Back to our regularly scheduled nuggets!
IT seems that the death of OBL has loosened things up in south Asia. See the following two items:
US Steps Up Face-to-Face Peace Talks with Taliban from the Daily Telegraph [of the UK]
"The United States has stepped up face-to-face peace talks with the Taliban, holding at least three meetings in Qatar and Germany in recent days with figures believed to be close to Mullah Omar, the group's leader."
Pakistani Intel Pressures Haqqanis to Negotiate: Report from Foreign Policy Magazine
"The Journal reports that Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) is prodding the insurgent Haqqani network into peace talks with the Afghan government, resisting U.S. pressure to go after the group's strongholds in North Waziristan (WSJ). U.S. officials consider the Haqqanis one of Afghanistan's most violent and effective insurgent groups, and the increased efforts to target the Haqqanis, including drone strikes and concern about a cross-border raid, reportedly led worried Haqqani members to vacate their compounds in the North Waziristan capital of Miram Shah in the wake of the U.S. operation that killed Osama bin Laden."
Gaddafi's Wife And Daughter Are In Tunisia, Says Source from Reuters via the Huffington Post
"The wife and daughter of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi crossed the border into Tunisia, a Tunisian security source said, but it was unclear whether they were on a diplomatic mission or seeking safe haven."
Backdrop to Upheaval in the Mideast (David Ignatius) from RealClearPolitics
"The "Arab Spring" has analysts searching for the right historical comparison. Is it like 1848, and the wave of revolution that swept Europe? Or is it 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall? Or perhaps 1979, and the toppling of the Shah of Iran by Muslim radicals? The democratic uprising of 2011 has elements of all of the above, and the spirit of change mostly has been exhilarating. But the loudest noise I hear from the Middle East just now isn't from the barricades but from frightened leaders who say, with the desperation of the French army retreating in disarray at Waterloo in 1815: "Sauve qui peut!" Save yourself if you can!"
Iran Has Been Isolated by the Arab Spring (Simon Tisdall) from the Guardian [of the UK]
"The era of cocky Iranian international defiance may be drawing to a close as it deals with the fallout from Middle East uprisings."
China's Bold New Plan for Economic Domination from the Atlantic
"The Chinese leadership has unveiled a strategy to lead the globe in seven of the most important industries. Is the rest of the world ready?"
Le Scandale DSK (Agnès Catherine Poirier) from the Nation
"Reeling in the wake of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's arrest on rape charges, the French public has started to ask some soul-searching questions."
Strauss-Kahn Accuser Lives in Apt. for HIV/AIDS Victims from the New York Post
"Dominique Strauss-Kahn may have more to worry about than a possible prison sentence. The IMF chief's alleged sex-assault victim lives in a Bronx apartment rented exclusively for adults with HIV or AIDS, The Post has learned."
French Code of Silence Protected IMF Chief (Emma-Kate Symons) from The Australian
"Christophe Deloire, one of the authors of the 2006 book Sexus Politicus wrote in Le Monde, a "strange omerta" has too long existed in the French press corps on the subject of Strauss-Kahn. Deloire says French democracy is in need of an Anglo-Saxon cure a la George Orwell, requiring "common decency" and respect for facts, honesty and simplicity on the part of politicians, intellectuals and reporters."
ONE THING I will have to say about this DSK affair: it has brought to the fore so many interesting broadly held cultural stereotypes from across the globe. So far, the French are not looking to good in the game of compaisons that has emerged.
Catholic Bishops Release Sex Abuse Report (Barbara Bradley Hagerty) from NPR's All Things Considered
I posted a story on this the other day without comment -- but a closer look shows that the Catholic Church is still running from the pedophile priest issue. SOMEBODY needs to start getting a clue in the Vatican! Sad.
"A report released Wednesday by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says the church's sexual abuse crisis was the result of poor training for priests and the influence of social upheaval of the 1960s and '70s"
Voters Unhappy with Congress (Susan Page) from USA Today
"Americans switched control of the House of Representatives to Republicans this year, but a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds they remain as unhappy as they have ever been with Capitol Hill. By more than 2-1, voters say most members of Congress don't deserve re-election, matching a historic low from last spring."
How Obama Beats the RomBot (Matt Latimer) from the Daily Beast
"All the turmoil in the GOP 2012 field only enables Mitt Romney—and that must make the White House very happy. Former Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer on the Republicans' disastrous presumptive nominee."
Rick Perry Becomes Latest Name Floated as 2012 Savior for Republican Party (Jed Lewison) from Daily Kos
"Rick Perry's list of weaknesses is a mile long, but the thing that I think is most notable here is that Republicans still haven't figured out that their fundamental 2012 problem doesn't have anything to do with their candidates: it's that the GOP has moved so far to the extreme right that none of their candidates have room to take positions that would appeal to mainstream Americans."
No Quarter for Gingrich, but Gleeful Sympathy from Democrats (Alex Altman) from Time Magazine
"As the GOP picks over the wreckage of Gingrich’s presidential launch, Democrats are rubbernecking at the crash site with delight. ... The New York Senator expressed gleeful sympathy for the former House Speaker, who he argued was “nearly turned into a political outsider overnight” for daring to break with his party."
Newt Gingrich Presidential Campaign Goes Kaboom (Mark McKinnon) from the Daily Beast
"Torpedoing a GOP favorite son's budget plan, racking up a $500,000 debt at Tiffany's, succumbing to a confetti shower—Newt Gingrich has self-immolated in record time. And he's taking his party with him, says Mark McKinnon."
"Taking his party with him"! It would certainly be DIVINE JUSTICE for this exceptional trouble-maker of long standing!
Obama Sent a Message to Trump from The Hill
"...through Trump, Obama sent two powerful messages: This is a game for grown-ups, and Obama’s patience for the silliness of some Republicans only goes so far."
The Problem of Covering Colorful but Doomed Campaigns (James Fallows) from the Atlantic
"The deeper problem for Gingrich is that, shaky as his support might be on the left, the people who really hate him are in his own party."
TONGUE-IN-CHEEK JUDGMENT DAY NUGGET!!
Atheists Offer to Rescue Christians’ Pets After Judgment Day from Agence France Presse via Raw Story
"When judgment day comes -- which some US Christian fundamentalists insist will happen on Saturday -- have you thought about what you're going to do with the family dog and cat? In 26 US states, you could have them rescued and adopted by enterprising atheists who have set up a business to care for the animal companions of any Christians who are selected to go to heaven when Jesus Christ comes back."
You have to admire their entrepreneurial spirit!!
PRESIDENTIAL QUOTE NUGGET!!
Clinton Says Obama Believes 8 Years is Enough from the Associated Press
"She told a State Department forum that neither she nor Obama can understand leaders who refuse to transfer power and cling to office for 10, 20, 30 or 40 years. She says she and the president joke: "Oh, my gosh. Can you imagine?" Clinton says Obama told her, "I'm going to win re-election, and then I'm done," a remark that drew laughter from the audience."
This sounds SO TRUE!
GREAT DEPRESSION PHOTOS NUGGET!!
In the Bleak Light of the Depression: Rare Color Photographs of the Era that Defined a Generation from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Near the end of the 1930s the country was beginning to recover from the crash, but many in small towns and rural areas were still poverty-stricken. These rare photographs are some of the few documenting those iconic years in color."
OUTER SPACE NUGGET!!
Rogue Planets: Billions of Jupiters on the Loose in the Milky Way from Time Magazine
"Writing in the latest issue of Nature, a team of astronomers is reporting the discovery of ten objects roughly the size of Jupiter that seem to be on the loose, roaming the galaxy untethered to any star."
GLOBAL FOOD NUGGETS [of a sort]!!
Now -- along with everything else people are worrying about, the following two stories might send readers looking for a full cup of Draino. BUT I think they are of a piece with other resource stories that will shape our near future and, as Brown discusses, the US and other advanced economies can adapt VERY QUICKLY, more quickly than people suspect. For an interesting discussion of both stories, listen to Terry Gross's Fresh Air program HERE where she interviews the authors of both stories.
(1) Test-Tube Burgers (Michael Specter) from the New Yorker
"How long will it be before you can eat meat that was made in a lab?"
(2) The New Geopolitics of Food (Lester Brown) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"From the Middle East to Madagascar, high prices are spawning land grabs and ousting dictators. Welcome to the 21st-century food wars."
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