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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.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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Saturday
Jan222011

The Commentariat -- January 23

Art by Barry Blitt for the New York Times.Frank Rich: "True Grit' has unalloyed faith in values antithetical to those of the 21st century America so deftly skewered in 'The Social Network.'” Rich was the Times film critic some while back, & in this column he returns to his forte. ...

Keith Olberman. New Yorker artwork.... CW: Rich has put in the mood to take a more cinematic look at the news, & Peter J. Boyer of the New Yorker obliges in his comment on Keith Olbermann's divorce from MSNBC: "His critics (and even some of his friends) had always imagined a Howard Beale ending for Keith Olbermann, and in his MSNBC farewell Olbermann more or less obliged." ...

... Here's Boyer's June 2008 profile of Olbermann, also in the New Yorker. ...

... Paul Farhi of the Washington Post on the difficult Mr. Olbermann.

CW: here's a new low for the odious Mitch McConnell -- on Fox "News," he likens President Obama to communist leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Politico liveblog: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says Tuesday's State of the Union will serve as President Barack Obama's 'trust-but-verify' moment on whether he's serious about reducing federal spending." The term "trust but verify" is one that good Republicans know the demigod Ronald Reagan applied to Gorbachev in arms treaty negotiations. There was nothing wrong with the Reagan policy; there's plenty wrong with using the same terminology when referring to the President of the United States.

** Constitutional law scholar Jonathan Turley in a Washington Post op-ed on celebrity justices: "If justices come to personify political movements, the law appears to be merely an extension of the personalities -- and the politics -- on the bench.... Monday's [Michele] Bachmann-convened summit featuring Scalia magnifies this problem.... The principle of judicial neutrality should not be compromised for a legal seminar." This is really a must-read, start to finish.

Spy Story. Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "Duane R. Clarridge parted company with the Central Intelligence Agency more than two decades ago, but from poolside at his home near San Diego, he still runs a network of spies.... Over the past two years, he has fielded operatives in ... Pakistan and ... Afghanistan. Since the United States military cut off his funding in May, he has relied on like-minded private donors to pay his agents to continue gathering information about militant fighters, Taliban leaders and the secrets of Kabul’s ruling class.... For all of the can-you-top-this qualities to Mr. Clarridge’s operation, it is a startling demonstration of how private citizens can exploit the chaos of combat zones and rivalries inside the American government to carry out their own agenda."

Glenn Greenwald reports on Amnesty International's efforts to assure better treatment for alleged WikeLeaks leaker Bradley Manning, who is imprisoned in Quantico. Then he adds this: "... the ACLU has obtained new documents which shed more harsh light on the 190 War on Terror detainees who died in American custody. Specifically, many of these documents ... show that at least 25 to 30 of those cases were 'unjustified homicides,' i.e., murder."

Peter Baker has a long, informative article in the New York Times Magazine about President Obama & his economic team's search for jobs. The article includes a lot of insider-bickering dirt, too. Bottom line, tho -- no great ideas. Best quote, among many -- this one about Larry Summers:

He’s much better at telling you why you’re stupid than creating a system that can produce usable policy solutions. -- Anonymous Insider, of course

The President must not be seduced into believing — and must not allow the public to be similarly seduced into thinking — that the well-being of American business is synonymous with the well-being of Americans. -- Robert Reich ...

... Paul Krugman on Obama's "competitiveness" meme (mostly a crock), Jeffrey Immelt (ditto), & Robert Reich (above, gets it right).

Ken Auletta of the New Yorker: "Was Eric Schmidt pushed [out as Google CEO] or did he jump? Both." The backstory -- New York Times, January 21: "Google made the biggest management shake-up in a decade on Thursday, handing the reins of the company to one of its co-founders in an effort to rediscover its start-up roots.... Larry Page, its 38-year-old co-founder, would take over as chief executive from Eric E. Schmidt, a technology industry veteran who was brought in a decade ago to provide adult supervision, as Silicon Valley calls it. Mr. Schmidt, 55, will remain executive chairman of the company...."

CW: if you want to know what life will be like for women seeking abortions after state legislatures -- & likely the Supreme Court -- chip away at abortion rights, here's an example: Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times reports on an appalling clinic in Philadelphia, run by Dr. Kermit Gosnell, that responsible agencies failed to investigate for more than 16 years despite multiple deaths, lawsuits & complaints. Here's a more detailed report by Marie McCollough of the Philadelphia Inquirer. ...

... A pdf of the complete grand jury report is here. The Inquirer warns that it contains grusome pictures. The pictures aren't nearly as bad as the testimony.

... Philadelphia Inquirer Editors: "Antiabortion forces will likely use this horrific case to call for further restrictions on the medical procedure. But Gosnell is charged with acts that violated abortion laws already on the books. What's needed, beyond prosecuting Gosnell, is to ensure all women have access to safe and high-quality medical care that is regulated diligently."

What Could Possibly Be Wrong with This? Tim Hoover of the Denver Post: "Less than two weeks on the job, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler says the $68,500 a year salary doesn't pay enough. That's why Gessler, a Republican, says he is going to be moonlighting as a lawyer for his old law firm -- a firm known for representing clients on elections and campaign law issues, the very areas Gessler is now charged with policing as secretary of state." CW: glaring conflict-of-interest aside, didn't the little snake check on what the AG's salary was before he ran for office? ...

... BUT, local politics being what it is, Ben Smith finds a story to top Gessler's crassness: Gabrielle Giffords' 2010 general election challenger, Republican Tea Party candidate Jesse Kelly -- you know, the guy who ran a campaign event in which he invited supporters to join him in shooting a "fully automatic M-16" to "Get on target for November. Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office" -- is working behind the scenes to "find out how the seat would be filled if Giffords couldn’t serve."

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