Today in history, greetings, and social banter here. (More)
An earthquake struck Pompeii today (62). Also, Roger Williams arrived in Boston (1631), Saint Petersburg, Russia’s Hermitage Museum opened to the public (1852), Alexander John Cuza began the process of forming modern Romania by bringing Wallachia and Moldavia together as the autonomous Danubian Principalities (1859), John Deason and Richard Oates discovered the “Welcome Stranger,” the largest alluvial gold nugget at 156.6 pounds, in Moliagul, Australia (1869), Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announced the creation of Bakelite (1909), Mexico adopted her current constitution, on the same day Congress overrode President Woodrow Wilson’s veto of the Immigration Act that severely limited immigration from Asia (1917), Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launched United Artists (1919), the Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the “BBC pips” (1924), President Franklin Roosevelt proposed his plan to enlarge the U.S. Supreme Court (1937), French President Charles De Gaulle called for Algeria to be granted independence (1962), the European Court of Justice held in Van Gend en Loos v. Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen that certain provisions of what is now European Union law had “direct effect” and could be enforced in member nation’s courts (1963), Bob Douglas became the first black member of the Basketball Hall of Fame (1972), a nationwide swine flu epidemic began at Fort Dix, New Jersey (1976), Manuel Noriega was indicted on charges of drug smuggling and money laundering (1988), Byron De La Beckwith was convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers (1994), and the Union Bank of Switzerland, Swiss Bank Corporation, and Credit Suisse announced the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families (1997). And 57 people died as the Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak swept across the southern U.S. (2008).
+++++
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
February 5, 2013 at 6:01 am
Yesterday on Campus
Morning Feature – 21 Months? (Meta Monday)
Things We Did This Week – Share your stories of offline political activism!
Midday Matinee – addisnana with Pockets
Campus Question – Will the FCC try to create national public WiFi?
Today on Campus
Morning Feature – Winning Progressive with The NFL and Progressive Values
Furthermore! – Jim W with Will You Be Ideal at 80?
Noontime News at noon
Midday Matinee – Tuesday’s Tale: Ancient Carnaubans
Campus Question at 6pm ET
February 5, 2013 at 8:40 am
By the way, a big Thank You to JimW for today’s Furthermore!. I highly recommend it!
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
February 5, 2013 at 6:27 am
Good morning! It’s currently -4 degrees and clear. We’re supposed to get a dusting of snow today and tomorrow, but starting Thursday night, up to 6″. According to the long-range forecast, things don’t look good this spring for part of the country:
February 5, 2013 at 7:12 am
The weather regularly reminds us that human beings don’t have nearly as much control as we imagine. A farmer can do everything right … and still be ruined by drought.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
February 5, 2013 at 7:52 am
The long-range forecasts are bleak indeed. El Nino didn’t emerge but faded away before developing. So the droughts will continue.
Six inches headed your way, huh? More than I want.
February 5, 2013 at 7:06 am
The US Drought Monitor is a cool map that is updated weekly.
Our tax dollars at work! The extreme drought, dark brown blob has shrunk a bit since I started checking this site. Lots of agriculture in that brown blob.
February 5, 2013 at 7:07 am
Mostly strongly Republican areas, too. Good thing they won’t need any federal aid ….
February 5, 2013 at 7:17 am
The National Drought Mitigation Center may have a lot to mitigate next year. Republicans who insist on offsets for natural disaster relief are right in one sense: we need a larger natural disaster relief budget. In years where there are few disasters, the relief fund should be built up toward the years when needs outweigh current spending. Unfortunately, when Democrats propose that very sensible approach … Republicans howl about slush funds and waste.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
February 5, 2013 at 7:53 am
And the disasters are likely to continue. We may not be in control of the weather, but we’ve sure messed it up.
February 5, 2013 at 7:59 am
On the other end of the weather spectrum, Gov Cuomo is seeking to set aside $400,000,000 from the $50 billion hurricane Sandy relief fund to purchase property in the flood zone. The plan is to purchase homes at pre-storm market value, forbid any future building on the land and use then turn the property over to the locals to do anything but build on it.
Some residents in Staen Island were in with the idea. Others, in Queens, not so much.
Plaudits to Cuomo for this, though.
My property is thisclose to the flood zone but on the other side. Wonder if some point in the future, after Greenland melts, I can install a diving board on my roof.
February 5, 2013 at 8:12 am
I think Cuomo has an excellent idea. I’m sure more homeowners would agree if they called their insurance companies to learn what is likely to happen to their premiums…or whether they will even be considered reinsurable.
February 5, 2013 at 7:14 am
Good morning. I have so far had one of those mornings where the limits of my ability to put the “right terminology” into my googlator have become quite apparent. I have stumbled across a lot of interesting stuff that of course slows down the process as I take a detour because “Oh that looks interesting.” At least when I was a kid flipping through the encyclopedias I was somewhat limited by the letters of the book I was in. I wish websites were somehow rated on how factually based and well sourced they are. Geez Louise there is a lot of crap out there.
I am also checking out the baseball spring training schedule. I am so close that I think I will attend a game or two.
February 5, 2013 at 7:27 am
There is indeed a lot of crap on the intertoobz. The good news is that while I know of no ratings for websites’ factual accuracy, that’s built into the structure of a reliable website … in the form of links to academic journals, polling or survey data, well-sourced news reports, and/or self-authenticating sources (e.g.: an organization’s own website, or an article by or video of the person being quoted). In short … the kinds of sources we link to here at BPI.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
February 5, 2013 at 7:55 am
Wandering afield like that is fun. I don’t do nearly enough of it.
And yes, I mean that seriously. There may be a lot of crap out there, but there’s a whole lot of: “Gee, who would have thought?” stuff, too.
February 5, 2013 at 7:52 am
Good morning,
D-I-S-G-U-S-T was my main reaction to last night’s T.V. viewing.
First, Ed Schultz had a piece on the new anti-Obama mania: is that photo of Pres O skeet shooting real? Beyond the crazies, though, Schultz focused on yesterday’s press conference with Jay Carney, and revealed (not that we didn’t know) the Washington press corp’s obsession with the insignificant. Many silly questions: why weren’t we told of the president’s skeet shooting before? was anyone else with him? etc, etc. This silly irrelevance just drives me bonkers. Good thing I don’t own a gun.
Disgust, part 2.
HBO special last night: Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence
Nothing angrier than a former alter boy scorned. Although I’ve followed the church pedophile scandal closely, it’s a very different thing to watch interviews with the victims and the reporting of the relentless unfeeling and criminal response from the church, from so many quarters, especially the Vatican. Just had my blood boiling.
Good thing I recorded a basketball game to watch something untainted (I think).
February 5, 2013 at 8:01 am
Sorry the TV got your blood boiling, Mike. It does mine, too, all too often. Skeetgate is stupid beyond belief.
As for the pedophilia scandal, it’s horrifying. Father Andrew Greeley wouldn’t shut up about it back when, demanding that a pedophile priest in his diocese be defrocked, demanding his cardinal address the issue and the church stop burying it. Result: our current pope (Josef Cardinal Ratzinger, now Benedict VI), who was then head of The Congregation for the Defense of the Faith (erstwhile Inquisition) had him removed from parish duties and forever banned from having his own parish. He now teaches at two universities, and he still hasn’t shut up about it.
Beyond disgusting.
February 5, 2013 at 8:05 am
I’m with you Mike on the victims of the church pedophiles. My cousin is an attorney who has represented many victims. Her stories (obviously with no names) of the life long impact of such abuse and betrayal are eye opening and heart breaking. Some victims never really recover. Many of their families found their initial stories too incredible to believe and the parents supported the church over believing their own child. Double whammy.
February 5, 2013 at 8:25 am
I completely agree on the institutional defense to pedophilia, in the Catholic Church and other churches, as well as other institutions (Penn State football, Boy Scouts, etc.). I understand institutions’ desire to protect their reputations, but the best way to do that is to vigorously and publicly respond to abuses … not to cover them up.
As for SkeetGate, there’s a reason I covered that in a Sunday Ask Ms. Crissie column … and I share your disgust that too many reporters are treating it as a serious issue.
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
February 5, 2013 at 8:29 am
But think of those poor pigeons, blown to smithereens.
Oh, they’re clay you say and not real birds.
Oh, sorry. I thought some people were upset about wanton slaughter of real birds.
How are we doing on the slaughter of our citizens then?
February 5, 2013 at 8:33 am
Zing! Spot on, addisnana.
February 5, 2013 at 8:36 am
February 5, 2013 at 8:20 am
Ratzinger/Benedict is an abomination. He has all the documents and stories. Last night’s piece showed footage of him, while a Cardinal, being questioned by a reporter about the scandal. He was very abrupt and curt with the reporter: Not now, not now!
The piece focused on the a school for the deaf in Minnesota where the pedophile practice went on for years. Father Murphy’s modus operandi: pick on the kids whose parents weren’t adept at signing so the students would have difficulty conveying their experience and emotions to their mothers and fathers.
February 5, 2013 at 8:24 am
Horrifying, Mike. Ratzinger is an an abomination, all right. And that story about the school for the deaf just breaks my heart.
February 5, 2013 at 8:33 am
Late to school!!!
Good morning! Blue sky with some high, mottled clouds, and 32 degrees greet us this day…… Soil thermometer has arrived, although tiny and hard to read. Will put it to use later, and see what the soil temperature is out in the greenhouse.
Shelving project about done. I am through gluing and screwing, need mebbe one more coat of varnish, woo-hoo! Next project is to arrange some legs for a pair of “skate conveyors” donated to the food pantry. This will help in the truck unloading process.
Have a decent day! Anyone heard from trs?
Best, G
February 5, 2013 at 8:41 am
Sad to hear this, Gardener….
Oh wait, maybe I should read the rest….
Good morning! ::hugggggs::
February 5, 2013 at 8:46 am
February 5, 2013 at 8:49 am
February 5, 2013 at 8:55 am
You should also read Furthermore! at 10am ET
February 5, 2013 at 9:01 am
Will do Jim and thanks for the heads up.
February 5, 2013 at 8:45 am
The food pantry is lucky to have your skills!
No, I haven’t heard from trs and I miss him. His shop building must be close to being started.
February 5, 2013 at 8:52 am
Wow, you got a lot done, Gardener! And the next project already on the list? Let me know when you discover the meaning of “retirement.”
I haven’t heard from trs either. And I’m going to try to remember to call early enough tomorrow that he won’t have already gone to work. I think he sent his phone number… I think. Regardless, assuming I wake up early enough, and assuming I do have his phone, somebody remind me to call him in the a.m. My memory seems to be full of useless stuff these days….