More than anyone but an insane person could ever want to know about President Obama’s birth certificate from the Pulitizer-winning PolitiFact.
Author: NewMexiKen
Best–and worst–bangs for your charity bucks
Consumer Reports Money & Shopping Blog has the lists and links.
Factoid of the day
“In 1967 there were 103 million drivers and 9.54 million light vehicles sold; now there are about twice that many (205.7 million licensed drivers in 2007).”
And in June 9.69 million light vehicles sold (seasonally adjusted annual basis).
Lincoln’s virtues
“I defy anyone to read just the last two chapters of ‘President Lincoln’—a passionate exegesis of the Second Inaugural Address and a straighforward sampling of the national and (surprisingly) global grief that followed the assassination—without tears. (Of course, it helps to have read the preceding nine hundred pages, as a reminder of the profundity of the loss.)”
Hendrik Hertzberg referring to Lincoln’s Virtues: An Ethical Biography and President Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman, both by William Lee Miller.
We’re 34th
New Census estimates for cities are out today.
Albuquerque had an estimated 521,999 residents as of last July 1st. That makes this the 34th largest U.S. city (by population).
Albuquerque grew by 6,603 people compared to a year earlier (up 1.28%). 26.3% of all New Mexicans live inside the city limits of Albuquerque.
Only three other cities in New Mexico have more than 50,000 residents:
Las Cruces 91,865
Rio Rancho 79,655
Santa Fe 71,831
Crazy is as crazy does
[Rep. Michelle] Bachmann [R-Looney Bin] talked to Sean Hannity on Fox News last night about her anti-census crusade, and returned to one of her favorite arguments: “Sean, you know the one question they don’t ask? They [don’t] ask, ‘are you an American citizen?’ … [T]hey could at least ask if we’re an American citizen? They don’t bother to ask for that. That’s why I think people need to read this census for themselves. If you go to my website, michelebachmann, you can read it.”
Good idea. If you take Bachmann’s advice, visit her website, and read the census, you find the American Community Survey put together by the Census Bureau. Question #7 reads: “Where was this person born?” Question #8 reads, “Is this person a citizen of the United States?”
10 more citizenship questions
1. The idea of self-government is in the first three words of the Constitution. What are these words?
2. How many amendments does the Constitution have?
3. The House of Representatives has how many voting members?
4. If both the President and the Vice President can no longer serve, who becomes President?
5. When was the Constitution written?
6. Who was President during World War I?
7. Before he was President, Eisenhower was a general. What war was he in?
8. Name one American Indian tribe in the United States.
9. Name one of the two longest rivers in the United States.
10. Name one U.S. territory.
Glastonbury 2009
Over the weekend, approximately 190,000 people made their way to Worthy Farm in western England to attend the 2009 Glastonbury Festival. Attendees came to see performances at what is billed as “Europe’s largest open-air music festival” on many stages over four days – headliners included Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, and a reunited Blur. Rainy weather did little to dampen the mood, as attendees enjoyed themselves in tent cities, concert performances, dance tents, and the surrounding countryside of Somerset, England. Collected here are a handful of images from this year’s festival. (33 photos total)
We are an interesting lot, us humans.
We should start the holiday now
July 1st is the birthday
… of Olivia de Havilland, 93 today. Miss de Havilland was nominated for an acting Oscar five times, winning for To Each His Own and The Heiress. She lost the best supporting actress Oscar for Gone With the Wind to Hattie McDaniel.
… of Cpl. Klinger. Jamie Farr is 75.
… of Famous Amos. Wally Amos is 73.
… of hockey great Rod Gilbert, 68.
… of Twyla Tharp. The choreographer is 68.
… of one-time Oscar nominee for best actress Geneviève Bujold. She’s 67. The nomination was for Anne of the Thousand Days.
… of Deborah Harry of Blondie. She’s 64.
… of Louis Winthorpe III. Canadian-born Dan Aykroyd is 57. Aykroyd was nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar for Driving Miss Daisy.
… of Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis, 48.
… of Pamela Anderson, 42.
… of Arwen. Liv Tyler is 32.
Diana, Princess of Wales, should have been 48 today.
Today is Canada Day, a holiday celebrating its independence from Britain on this date in 1867. The holiday was called Dominion Day until 1982 (in Quebec Le Jour de la Confédération). Three British colonies were joined to form Canada — Canada (which included Ontario and Quebec), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Oh, say can you see
… by the rocket’s red glare.
A great story to put you in a Fourth of July mood. It includes this line:
“It was around that time that my cousin suggested dynamite.”
Is this a great country, or what?
F as in Fat
Mississippi had the highest rate of adult obesity at 32.5 percent, making it the fifth year in a row that the state topped the list. Four states now have rates above 30 percent, including Mississippi, West Virginia (31.2 percent), Alabama (31.1 percent) and Tennessee (30.2 percent). Eight of the 10 states with the highest percentage of obese adults are in the South. Colorado continued to have the lowest percentage of obese adults at 18.9 percent.
Mississippi also had the highest rate of obese and overweight children (ages 10 to 17) at 44.4 percent. Minnesota and Utah had the lowest rate at 23.1 percent. Eight of the 10 states with the highest rates of obese and overweight children are in the South. Childhood obesity rates have more than tripled since 1980.
The Trust for America’s Health has much more.
Could you become a citizen?
Ten questions from the 100 on the U.S. citizenship test. You must score sixty percent or better to pass.
1. What is the supreme law of the land?
2. What do we call the first 10 amendments to the Constitution?
3. What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?
4. How many justices are on the Supreme Court?
5. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
6. What ocean is on the East Coast of the United States?
7. What are the two major political parties in the United States?
8. We elect a U.S. senator for how many years?
9. Who was the first president?
10. Who is in charge of the executive branch?
Answers in first comment.
C’mon Arizona, have a little fun
Possession of fireworks is illegal in Arizona, but less than 150 miles to the east, Tucsonans can get their fix.
A New Mexico shop has been flooding the Tucson area with fliers promoting its overflowing stock of bottle rockets, Roman candles, M-80s and various other things that go boom in the air, just in time for the Fourth of July.
What’s in a name
Valle de Atrisco — that’s the name for the new city to be incorporated in Albuquerque’s South Valley. ‘Burque Babble has some less pretentious ideas for the name.
This won’t be as terribly amusing or interesting to anyone not from these parts. For us locals, it’s hilarious.
People don’t believe me
… when I tell them about the New Mexico whiptail, so I thought I’d publish this again. (It first appeared here in 2005; the citation has been updated.)
How come having a New Mexico whiptail lizard in the utility sink in the garage is so much more pleasant than say finding a tarantula or mouse there would be? I scooped her (and they are all females) into a coffee can and released her outside.
[T]he New Mexico Whiptail, as well as several other all-female species of whiptail lizard, does reproduce, and all of its offspring are female. Moreover, it reproduces by parthenogenesis — its eggs require no fertilization, and its offspring are exact and complete genetic duplicates of the mother.
Scientists understand only partially how this reproductive mode developed, and it raises many questions. One of the most intriguing is how this cloning affects the lizard’s ability to adapt to environmental changes. Since there is no genetic variation except that which occurs through mutation, the New Mexico Whiptail cannot evolve as other species do.
The New Mexico whiptail (Cnemidophorus neomexicanus) is the official reptile of New Mexico.
Bad day to drive
I read several years ago that traffic fatalities were not particularly more significant on holiday weekends than any other days. Safety advocates just had us all thinking they were with their public service advertising campaigns and police check points.
A new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety confirms this. For the period 1986 through 2002 there were an average of 117 traffic fatalities a day in the United States. And, while July 4 was the worst day of the year with an average of 161 fatalities, 158 people were killed on any given Saturday. July 4 is the only date in the year less safe than any given Saturday.
The worst dates:
July 4 — 161
July 3 — 149
December 23 — 145
August 3 — 142
January 1 — 142
Days of the week:
Sunday — 132
Monday — 96
Tuesday — 95
Wednesday — 98
Thursday — 105
Friday — 133
Saturday — 158
This year, July 4th, the worst day of the year, is on Saturday, the worst day of the week. Be careful out there.
Oh, my aching back
“A federal advisory panel voted narrowly on Tuesday to recommend a ban on Percocet and Vicodin, two of the most popular prescription painkillers in the world, because of their effects on the liver.”
Acetaminophen is the culprit. Smaller dosages recommended for Tylenol, etc., too. The New York Times has the details.
Delightful
A mid-afternoon thunderstorm just passed, dropping some rain but almost as exciting, lowering the temperature more than 20 degrees in a few minutes. It’s 67º F right now (just after 3PM). It’s monsoon season!
Monsoon is an Arabic term for a seasonal shift in the prevailing wind.
Both the Southwest USA, including Arizona and New Mexico, and Southeast Asia, including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, experience the monsoon each summer. The Asian monsoon often brings heavy, flooding rains to the area, while the Southwest monsoon brings scattered strong thunderstorms to dry desert regions. The Southwest monsoon is caused by two meteorological changes during the summer:
–The northerly movement of the Bermuda High (a strong area of high pressure) into the central USA
–Intense heating of the Mohave Desert to the west, which creates low pressure over the areaSince air rotates counterclockwise around low pressure and clockwise around high pressure, the positioning of these systems allows for a strong southerly flow over the Southwest. (Prevailing winds in the winter are from the west and northwest …) These south winds bring in moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Ocean, increasing the chance of rain and thunderstorms.
Diagram is from August 2006, but it shows clearly how the monsoon draws humid air up from the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico. Click the image for larger version.
In the eye of the beholder
On average, survey respondents said old age begins at 68. But few people over 65 agreed; they said old age begins at 75.
Respondents under 30 said 60 marks the beginning of old age.
How Old Do You Feel? It Depends on Your Age
Most adults over age 50 feel at least 10 years younger than their actual age, the survey found. One-third of those between 65 and 74 said they felt 10 to 19 years younger, and one-sixth of people 75 and older said they felt 20 years younger.
Best line of the day
“And I noticed that all players in MLB were paying tribute to Michael Jackson by wearing one glove.”
Flip Flop Fly Ball, which is a great site, full of odd, but interesting graphics about baseball.
Great web site
The site has a decidedly historical bent, as you might expect, including dailiy “On this day in history” features. There’s a fair amount of cultural commentary – including the iPhone, Paris, Ratatouille (the movie), Harry Potter, and so on. There’s comparatively little, and fairly brief, political commentary. The writer has a great voice and a charming personality, and the commentary is very thoughtful.”
Wow, don’t you wish I was still good? The review by MyDD was written two years ago.
June 30th really ought to be a holiday
Today we honor two venerable American institutions.
On this date in 1864 Abraham Lincoln signed the land grant preserving Yosemite Valley.
According to the Library of Congress:
The legislation provided California with 39,000 acres of the Yosemite Valley and the nearby Mariposa Big Tree Grove “upon the express conditions that the premises shall be held for public use, resort, and recreation.”
The newly-appointed Yosemite Board of Park Commissioners confronted the dual task of preserving the magnificent landscape while providing for public recreation. With amazing foresight, board member and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted noted these goals could conflict. In his August 9, 1865 Draft of Preliminary Report upon the Yosemite and Big Tree Grove, Olmsted warns “the slight harm which the few hundred visitors of this year might do, if no care were taken to prevent it, would not be slight, if it should be repeated by millions.”
And Lena Horne is 92.
Even in her eighties, the legendary Lena Horne has a quality of timelessness about her. Elegant and wise, she personifies both the glamour of Hollywood and the reality of a lifetime spent battling racial and social injustice. Pushed by an ambitious mother into the chorus line of the Cotton Club when she was sixteen, and maneuvered into a film career by the N.A.A.C.P., she was the first African American signed to a long-term studio contract. In her rise beyond Hollywood’s racial stereotypes of maids, butlers, and African natives, she achieved true stardom on the silver screen, and became a catalyst for change even beyond the glittery fringes of studio life.
Elsewhere —
Vincent D’Onofrio is 50.
Deirdre Lovejoy — Rhonda Pearlman of The Wire — is 47.
Mike Tyson is 43.
Michael Phelps is 24.
38 years ago today the 26th amendment was ratified by Ohio, the required 38th state. The amendment lowered the voting age to 18.
Best line of the day, so far
“The boys are so immature.”
The 16-year-old niece of my friend Donna
Hold that thought about the other sex for about 70 years dear, it will serve you well.
Good Neighbors
Nearly every week I could recommend the fiction that appears in The New Yorker — and from time-to-time I do.
I thought this story by Jonathan Franzen from an issue a few weeks back was particularly worth mentioning.
The New Yorker BTW has a website configured for the iPhone.
Great reads
I was busy over the weekend reading two novels by Rennie Airth — River of Darkness and The Blood-Dimmed Tide.
Both are set in England after World War I — one in 1921, the other in 1932 — and both are detective stories dealing with serial killers. They’re what I’d call literary, mystery novels. Good stuff.
Airth has a third John Madden mystery coming out in a few weeks.
Last week I read Michael McGarrity’s Nothing But Trouble, the 2006 addition to his series of Kevin Kerney mysteries. This one was really two stories — Kearney taking leave of his duties as Santa Fe Police Chief to work on a movie being made in the New Mexico Bootheel, and Kearney’s Army officer wife looking for a fugitive in Dublin. There’s almost no overlap. Odd.
McGarrity’s Kerney books are interesting to New Mexicans because of the local settings and I’ve enjoyed several of the series, especially those after he got his formula well-honed and before he got bored with it. Nothing special about this one.
Also recently, I’ve read my first two Nevada Barr Anna Pigeon mysteries, the first and the fifteenth (and latest) of the series featuring the National Park ranger. The two are Track of the Cat, set in Guadalupe Mountains National Park, and Borderline
I read Borderline on my iPhone.