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Thursday, September 19, 2024

New York Times: “A body believed to be of the suspect in a Kentucky highway shooting that left five people seriously injured this month was found on Wednesday, the authorities said, ending a manhunt that stretched into a second week and set the local community on edge. The Kentucky State Police commissioner, Phillip Burnett Jr., said in a Wednesday night news conference that at approximately 3:30 p.m., two troopers and two civilians found an unidentified body in the brush behind the highway exit where the shooting occurred.... The police have identified the suspect of the shooting as Joseph A. Couch, 32. They said that on Sept. 7, Mr. Couch perched on a cliff overlooking Interstate 75 about eight miles north of London, Ky., and opened fire. One of the wounded was shot in the face, and another was shot in the chest. A dozen vehicles were riddled with gunfire.”

The Wires

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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI."

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Page Links

Monday

Oct182010

A Modern U.S. President

I had intended to save this for the weekend, but it was just too good to hoard. I am indebted to my very first boyfriend ever for finding this gem:

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Monday

Oct182010

The Commentariat -- October 19

Republican Tea Party Legal Scholars

As the attorney general of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, I'm always amused to get a lecture on constitutional law from a self-certified ophthalmologist. -- Jack Conway, in his debate with Rand Paul

You're telling me that's in the First Amendment? -- Christine O'Donnell, responding to opponent Chris Coons, who said in a debate yesterday that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion ...

... This video of the clash between Coons & O'Donnell is stunning. O'Donnell could not pass 9th-grade civics class. O'Donnell has repeatedly promised that when she becomes Senator, she will let the Constitution guide her decisions. What Constitution? --

... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The audience at the law school can be heard breaking out in laughter.... The reaction of the audience suggests that they thought Ms. O’Donnnell’s [sic.] comments appeared to indicate that she did not know, or did not believe, that the separation of church and state -- a bedrock principle in constitutional law -- was derived from the First Amendment."

Artwork by David G. Klein for the New York Times.Economics Prof. Robert Frank in the New York Times: Rising economic inequality "is ... a bad thing" and we should "try to do something about it." ...

... AND like clockwork, Bob Herbert reminds us again that Republicans have done nothing but exploit the economic crisis but "Democrats are in trouble because they have not been nearly aggressive enough in confronting this profound economic crisis facing so many millions of ordinary Americans." ...

... AND Paul Krugman writes a devastating short post on the Obama Administration's response to every economic crisis it faces: "... the administration has never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. And soon there won’t be any more opportunities to miss." ...

Ian Katz & Simon Kennedy of Bloomberg: "For U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, a weaker dollar may now be in the national interest.... Companies from Costco Wholesale Corp. to Deere & Co. have credited the weaker dollar for giving their earnings a boost, and the currency’s slide has helped propel the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 11,000 for the first time since May. Higher stock prices in turn are bolstering consumer and business confidence." ...

... Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers Austan Goolsbee with an economics history lesson:

... On a less serious note, Michael Scherer of Time reminds us of Goolsbee's first-place-winning performance at this charity event held last fall:

Uncle Sam Wants (to Watch) You! Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Law enforcement and counterterrorism officials, citing lapses in compliance with surveillance orders, are pushing to overhaul a federal law that requires phone and broadband carriers to ensure that their networks can be wiretapped, federal officials say."

Steven Aftergood in Foreign Policy: "... there is one issue that nearly everyone in Washington agrees on: The overclassification of information in the name of national security has run amok."

This Just In! Mark Sherman of the AP: Justice Samuel Alito won't be attending next year's State of the Union address because he doesn't want to be forced to sit silently "like the proverbial potted plant." Last year he took heat for muttering "not true" when President Obama criticized the Court's Citizens United ruling.

** No Wonder Democrats Are Losing. Ben Smith of Politico details President Obama's "surrender to outside spending." Smith is a smart observer of the inside game, & the evidence he cites is compelling. That is, unlike every other President before him, Obama decided to take the "principled" high road & (1) dismantle his fundraising network, (2) discourage liberal groups from fundraising & (3) shun big donors.

Spitzer Lite, in an elephant suit. -- the Murdoch-owned New York Post's description of Republican Carl Paladino. The Post unenthusastically endorsed Democrat Andrew Cuomo

Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times: "The first — and possibly last — debate in the New York race for governor unfolded as 90 minutes of political theater verging on farce Monday night.... Kristin Davis, a former prostitution madam, made frequent brothel jokes. Jimmy McMillan, the candidate of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party, responded to a question about same-sex marriage by declaring “If you want to marry a shoe, I’ll marry you.” And Carl P. Paladino, the Republican candidate, startled those watching by accidentally walking off stage during the closing statements, in search of the men’s room." ...

Alaska Republican Senate nominee Joe Miller wants the U.S. to be more like the communist totalitarian state of East Germany where border guards shot people trying to cross the border illegally. CW: I'm not making this up:

Joe Miller is a Liar Who Pushes around Little Kids. Alaska Dispatch: "A Valley woman who [said she had been a staunch Miller supporter & who] witnessed the incident involving Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller and the editor of Alaska Dispatch on Sunday says the journalist, Tony Hopfinger, did not threaten Miller and that the whole thing should never have escalated into a police matter." CW: unless the witness, named Lolly Symbol, is a plant or a liar, Joe Miller is a serious horrible human being.

James Kirkup of the (London) Telegraph: " One of the [British] Navy’s new £3 billion aircraft carriers will never carry aircraft and will sail for only three years before being mothballed and possibly sold, ministers will announce on Tuesday.... The decision on the new carriers has been at the heart of tense and prolonged Whitehall negotiations over the future of the Armed Forces."

... AND Mark Thomson of Time notes that this three-year-old, uh, interview was "amazingly prescient":

New York Times: "China, which has been blocking shipments of crucial minerals to Japan for the last month, has now quietly halted shipments of some of those same materials to the United States and Europe, three industry officials said on Tuesday. The Chinese action, involving rare earth minerals that are crucial to manufacturing many advanced products, seems certain to further ratchet up already rising trade and currency tensions with the West." See Paul Krugman's also amazingly prescient column about this possibility -- which he wrote for yesterday's New York Times.

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Monday

Oct182010

White House Science Fair

President Obama speaks about the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education to the country’s economic future after viewing exhibits from science fair winners from across the country.

Related Washington Post story: "President Obama has announced he's headed to Discovery Channel -- he will appear on an episode of 'MythBusters,' a reality series that sends adventure-seekers to discover the scientific truth behind famous urban legends."

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