7-1-06

Sunday, 6-25-06: "I think-- tide turning-- see, as I remember, I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of, it's easy to see a tide turn-- did I say those words?" President Bush, asked if the tide was turning in Iraq Yesterday Phillipine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed a law abolishing the death penalty. Hooray! More than 1200 people on death row will now not be killed. Terrfic!... If only the US could be so enlightened.... Meanwhile in Somalia, a fundamentalist Muslim warlord was named the new leader of the Islamic militia that's seized control of the capital. Somalia hasn't had a government since the US tried to intervene and failed. How would you like to live there?... Oh, disaster, my friends! Hubble's main camera has shut down. The Advanced Camera for Surveys was installed by the Shuttle in 2002. Nasa doesn't know what went wrong or how to repair it. This would be a bigger disaster if ground-based telescopes hadn't surpassed the capacity of the Hubble some time ago anyway. The breakthrough there was, of course, the laser-beamed guide-star to take atmospheric wiggle out of the picture. Dave Letterman recently said, "Did you hear about this? North Korea might have missiles with the capabilities to reach the West Coast of the United States. I got to thinking about it and, hell, that's Leno's problem." In Pullman, Washington, a beaver was hit by a car and had its front teeth knocked out. She was taken to the Washington State veterinarian hospital, and they fed her baby food, soft berries, dandelions and corn till her teeth grew back. She'll be released back into the wild in August. Monday, 6-26-06: Warren Buffet, the second richest man in the world, is giving away most of his money. Most of it will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This comes just as Bill Gates is retiring from running his business to running the foundation. It had a $30 billion endowment before, and now that's more than doubled. Buffet said he saw an opportunity to invest in an existing,well respected foundation run by 2 "ungodly bright" people.... The United States added the secret number for it's Homeland Security Hotline to the federal Do Not Call Registry. "Every time that phone rings," said Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner, "it's telemarketers." I know the feeling.... Palestinian fighters dug a tunnel 800 yards long under the border with Israel. Wow! It took them months. That's almost half a mile long. They burst out of it and kidnapped an Israeli soldier. Israel is threatening a major military operation in Gaza unless he's returned unharmed. I'd say this ought to encourage kidnappings.... Tuesday, 6-27-06: The US Supreme Court has taken up a case that would require the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide from cars and power plants as a pollutant harmful to health. My goodness! The suit's filed by a dozen states, including Oregon. This will be the Court's first ruling on global warming. Given the Bush appointees, I'd say we're doomed.... In local news, a couple in Astoria are suing the police for killing their son. A neighbor reported that a man was on his roof cutting electrical cables. Catherine Pollock pleaded with the police not to shoot her son, because he was a paranoid schizophrenic who wasn't violent. The police chief shot him anyway. The chief was put on paid administrative leave, cleared of wrongdoing and returned to work. Wednesday, 6-28-06: Somali gunmen in a pickup truck crossed the border into Kenya and kidnapped three lion cubs. The pride of lions attacked a village and killed five villagers. The Kenya Wildlife Service has tried to get the cubs back, but the Somalis have demanded too high a ransom. Researchers have found that polar bears are turning to cannibalism because of the effects of global warming. Large males are breaking into dens and killing the females, dragging them off to eat and leaving the cubs to starve. Omigod.... The Oglala Sioux are setting up roadblocks around the Pine Ridge Reservation to stop people bringing in beer from four surrounding stores. Alcohol's illegal on the reservation, but the stores sell an estimated four million cans a year. Alcoholism has long ravaged the Pine Ridge Sioux. The youth suicide rate is the highest in the nation, for example. A vote to make flag-burning unconstitutional failed by one vote in the Senate. Holy cow! Ron Wyden, Hilary Clinton and John Kerry voted no. This is from Discover June 2006: Astrophysicists are abuzz with the latest results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotrophy Probe. It shows the baby universe in unprecendented detail. WMAP detects tiny differences in the cosmic microwave background, the pervasive bath of radiation that was set loose 380,000 years after the big bang with the birth of the first stars. The hotter and cooler spots show the large-scale structure of the universe, and they provide the first hard evidence for inflation. Within the first trillionth of a second after the big bang, the universe underwent a septillion-fold expansion, far faster than the speed of light. Wow.... "A Texas man was robbed at gunpoint by two teenage girls he met on MySpace.com." Wow, I've been hearing about the dangers of MySpace.... Jay Leno had Connie Chung on his show last night. She was great. "It was meant as a private joke between me and our two viewers," she said. How bold she is.... Thursday, 6-29-06: The House voted yesterday to continue allowing federal prosecution of those who smoke pot for medical purposes, even in the 11 states where state laws allow it. Israel has invaded the Gaza strip, blowing up bridges and the one power station they have. People in Gaza now have no water or electricity. Israeli warplanes are making sonic booms all night long over Gaza so no one can sleep. Israeli forces have arrested more than 30 Hamas officials and lawmakers. And the Israeli Justice Minister says they're going to assassinate the leader of Hamas. Friday, 6-30-06: Wow! This is amazing. The Supreme Court has ruled that with Guantanamo the Bush administration's plan to try detainees with military tribunals is violating both federal and international law. They will either have to give the people in Guantanamo trials using the established rules of courts martial, or get permission from Congress for military commissions. I wonder where this will go.... Israel bombed more than a dozen places in the Gaza Strip after midnight last night. One of them was the Interior Ministry. I feel sorry for the mentally ill people in Gaza. It's hard enough to be mentally ill in peacetime....