Today in history, greetings, and social banter here. (More)
Two years after his death, Oliver Cromwell was ritually executed today (1661). Also, the first specialized lifeboat was tested on the River Tyne (1790), the original Lower Trenton Bridge opened (1806), the Menai Suspension Bridge connecting the Isle of Anglesey with Wales opened (1826), fire destroyed two-thirds of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico (1841), Yerba Buena, California was renamed San Francisco (1847), the Hallé Orchestra gave their first professional concert in Manchester, England (1858), the USS Monitor was launched (1862), the Canadian Naval Service became the Royal Canadian Navy (1911), the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church moved to Greece when Turkey expelled Patriarch Constantine VI from Istanbul (1925), Mohandas Gandhi was assassinated (1948), the home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was bombed in retaliation for his involvement in the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1956), the MS Hans Hedtoft, said to be “unsinkable,” hit an iceberg and sank on her maiden voyage (1959), Carole King’s Tapestry album was released (1971), the USS Monitor National Marine Sanctuary was established (1975), Richard Skrenta wrote the first personal computer virus code, the “Elk Cloner” (1982), and 14-year-old Péter Lékó became the then-youngest chess grand master (1994). And the National Institutes of Health announced the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease (1995).
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
January 30, 2013 at 6:01 am
Yesterday on Campus
Morning Feature – Winning Progressive with Comments on Feminism, Inequality and Meritocracy, and More
Furthermore! – The Squirrel with Higher, Deeper, Alligatorier
Midday Matinee – Tuesday’s Tale: Paranoiburg
Campus Question – Will sensible immigration reform pass in 2013?
Today on Campus
Morning Feature – Immigration Reform: Plans and Distinctions
Noontime News at noon
Midday Matinee – Rethinking Timbuktu
Campus Question at 6pm ET
Our Earth at 8pm ET – NOAA: State of the Climate
January 30, 2013 at 6:32 am
Good morning! It’s currently 34 with a high of 51 predicted. Rain in the forecast, with a flood watch in effect. It’s supposed to get back to “normal” by Friday. That is, temps in the teens or 20′s, and more snow.
January 30, 2013 at 6:54 am
I wonder how we will cope with there being no ‘normal.’ For a while now some meteorologists have tried the term “the new normal” to reflect changing weather patterns. That of course assumes there is a pattern and thus some predictability. Your putting normal in quotes triggered my thoughts. “Normal” may be a disappearing notion.
January 30, 2013 at 7:55 am
Very few people in this area doubt climate change. We’re definitely warmer than in the past, and it’s been like that for the past decade. We used to get temperatures in January that rivaled International Falls for “cold,” that is, -30 or less for a few weeks. Now we might get a few days here and there where it’s -20 or so. The variations in snowfall are unusual as well, and this summer set new records for “heat” – we never got in the high 90′s before.
January 30, 2013 at 7:45 am
The weather in South Blogistan is very normal: currently in the high 60s with highs expected in the mid 70s, like pretty much every day so far this winter. Of course … that’s the indoor weather….
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
January 30, 2013 at 6:56 am
Good morning!
Still 52 degrees, but falling temperatures and snow showers predicted this afternoon. Had rain yesterday evening…….
Miner’s rally was enjoyable yesterday. I guess we had about 400-500 on hand. Good speeches in front of the Eagleton Federal Courts building, then we marched over to Peabody’s offices. Cecil Roberts, president of the UMWA was arrested there, along with a few others……. Harley Rich and yours truly remain un-jailed……..
Plan to work on the shelf project today. PW was out, had a good idea that I will use. Sure would like to run those boards through a planer, but don’t think that’s gonna happen. Addisnana might ask, “Will your oil cans be ashamed to sit on non-planed shelves?”
Have a decent day!
Best, G
January 30, 2013 at 7:03 am
Somewhere in my mind is the voice of my dad saying, “If it is worth doing, it is worth doing well.” I have had to find my own little voice that says, “Sometimes good enough is good enough.”
January 30, 2013 at 7:33 am
Pop used to say, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.” Hmmmm……..
January 30, 2013 at 7:42 am
Somewhere our fathers are laughing at us.
January 30, 2013 at 7:44 am
But the voice of experience says “good enough for who it’s for.”
Years back, I helped a friend build his garage, and he was fanatic about everything being “just so.” When we got to putting up the roof, the boards ended up not being quite perfect to enable the plywood to be flat. My suggestion was “just put some shims in,” which he didn’t like. He ended up calling his stepfather, who was a professional carpenter, and was told “just put some shims in.” 
January 30, 2013 at 7:59 am
January 30, 2013 at 8:24 am
Ah, a second opinion…..
January 30, 2013 at 7:21 am
I’m so glad the rally went well yesterday. That sounds like a pretty good turnout, given the weather conditions I was hearing were headed your way. I guess you avoided the worst of it? I hope so.
As for unplaned shelves… do they work? That’s my only question.
Have a great day, Gardener!
January 30, 2013 at 7:34 am
Either way would work fine. It’s just that I sanded a bit on one of the boards, and the grain is gorgeous!
The boards are Red Oak.
January 30, 2013 at 7:47 am
Neat story of a man who salvages urban trees. Their business is named “Wood from the Hood.” There is an article and a slide show at the link. Very cool way to recycle.
January 30, 2013 at 7:59 am
The sad part is why he’s getting some of those trees: Emerald Ash Borer.
January 30, 2013 at 7:58 am
Oh, wow, red oak? I’m salivating….
Hey, what are you doing putting oil cans on that????
January 30, 2013 at 7:47 am
I’m glad you and Harley Rich didn’t get arrested … unless you tried to and the cops refused … in which case I’m sorry you felt unwanted.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
January 30, 2013 at 7:48 am
Congrats on the rally, Gardener, glad to read you remain unjailed, free, able to plane or unplane.
January 30, 2013 at 7:01 am
Good Morning. The weather is south blogistan is very pleasant. I did watch the storms and tornadoes rolling through the middle of the country last night. I hope all are safe. The photo below pretty much sums up my thoughts on the gun safety debates.
January 30, 2013 at 7:32 am
Love these photos. As they say, a photo is worth a thousand words. Most definitely in this case. Thanks!
January 30, 2013 at 7:46 am
My experience has been that the people who talk the toughest about guns have never been in any situation – real or training – where they might experience reality. Reality is never what they fantasize about.
January 30, 2013 at 7:57 am
Agree, Norbrook. Do movies and other entertainment effect the mental state of criminals? Don’t know. But I’m quite sure it impacts the mental state of those thinking that they could win a gun duel with a criminal, same as their screen heroes.
January 30, 2013 at 8:42 am
The Denver Police Chief, back in the 80s when I lived in the area, was asked what impact he thought violent movies had on crime. His answer was simple and chilling.
He said, (approximate quote) “We’ve always averaged 7 murders a year in Denver. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is the type of crime. We are seeing more female victims and a lot more torture. There is no question in my mind that movies are changing the quality of the crimes.”
Something to think about.
January 30, 2013 at 7:54 am
What a clever photo, addisnana!
Thank you for sharing it! 
And I agree with Norbrook: the grim aftermath of acting in self-defense is very different from the fantasy. (Note: that article is from a very gun-industry-friendly magazine.)
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
January 30, 2013 at 8:07 am
I had some video of “reality” in a blog post last month.
January 30, 2013 at 7:07 am
The Weather Channel is at long last “leading the charge” on climate change. After years of watching them waffle on the subject, they’ve finally taken the bull by the horns, even going so far as to interview Al Gore, and do a series on climate change.
About time. The “you can’t tell from one weather anomaly” meme needed to die a very long time ago. No, you can’t tell from one, but there’s been an aggregate for some time now, one that was being ignored by the press most of all, and by TV meteorologists, who, I guess, are now the press as well.
Hugggs and good morning!
January 30, 2013 at 7:52 am
It seemed for a while that the center of ther “sane” climate change skeptics were meteorologists. Maybe the wise meteorologists have won the internal argument.
January 30, 2013 at 7:55 am
A little over a year ago, the American Meteorological Association threatened sanctions against TV meteorologists who denied global warming. I don’t know how much impact that had.
OTOH, it was funny to hear Al Roker criticizing the media for ignoring the subject over the last few years, when the TWC crew had been hedging it forever and only lately started to get into it full force.
January 30, 2013 at 8:02 am
The bad news: we’re finally at the point of admitting climate change matters … now that it’s probably too late to prevent significant climate change.
The good news, also in that article: humans have adapted and are again adapting to climate change, and the Obama administration established a Climate Change Adaptation Task Force in 2009. That task force released their first report on progress for climate change adaptability in October 2011.
More good news than bad news.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
January 30, 2013 at 8:12 am
I read for the first time yesterday about a cute geo-engineering trick. Sprinkle the ocean with lead which serves as a fertilizer for CO2 gobbllng plankton. Drawback is the toxicity to the rest of the food chain.
January 30, 2013 at 8:24 am
Thanks for the links, Crissie. Very useful.
January 30, 2013 at 7:52 am
As for unsinkable ships. Hah. I’m not superstitious, but I’m just Irish enough that I would never have boarded the Titanic after the blaring headline “Even God couldn’t sink this ship.” Really? And then we get another “unsinkable ship” that goes down the same way?
Spare me the hubris.
January 30, 2013 at 8:04 am
The parallels between the MS Hans Hedtof and the RMS Titanic were … eerie. One hopes shipbuilders and owners might learn….
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
January 30, 2013 at 8:09 am
Good morning,
Played golf the other day. Starting out the new year with good shot, bad shot. Not much different from other years. What was unique was the whiny conservative Republicans I played with. Hee Hee. Thankfully they weren’t non-stop, it only lasted for a couple of holes. I enjoyed playing along, jumping in to make a comment to any ambiguous comment they made.
For example, one guy says,” this country will never be the same.” Me: “I agree. This country has changed.”
It truly amazes me how these guy just don’t get it. One of my golfing companions tells me that he has a brake and muffler business in Chicago. That he has a crew of 8 back home who he can trust not to steal his business blind so he can take his Fla sojourns to play tons of golf, while staying at his 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom getaway. Tough life. Later he mentions that business is off a bit so he recently sold his 42′ yacht.
Of course, his business would be flourishing and he’d have a 50′ yacht if Romney were president.
Me: “Well, life aint all bad, it’s sunny, we’re playing golf and we’re not being held up by a slow foursome ahead of us.”
That got us out of the whiny Republican funk.
January 30, 2013 at 8:12 am
How amusing, Mike. I wonder if my oil magnate uncle is thinking of getting rid of his private executive jet. I doubt it.
Whine, whine… I’m proud of you for handling it so well!
January 30, 2013 at 8:23 am
Yesterday’s NYT carried a story about the first responders to the Newtown shooting tragedy. Heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking. Talk about PTSD. These poor guys.
January 30, 2013 at 8:28 am
The ‘survivors’ truly pay an unimaginable price. I so feel for all of them even if my imagination is limited.
January 30, 2013 at 8:39 am
This broke my heart, Mike. I’ve known some first responders who deal with PTSD, but none as bad as this. God bless these people.
January 30, 2013 at 9:37 am
The NYT’s article.