Author: NewMexiKen

I can’t get no

“Do you know that the Rolling Stones are actually lowering their ticket prices for the upcoming tour? I guess they finally realized a lot of their fans are on a fixed income.”

Leno

Or fire their weapons

“And now the state of New Jersey is now considering a law that would ban smoking while driving. Authorities say that people who smoke while driving are not able to properly concentrate on their cell phone conversations or the movie playing in the back seat.”

Leno

If you saw Jaws …

or read it, you will remember the harrowing story Quint (Robert Shaw) tells of surviving the sinking of the cruiser Indianapolis. It was on this date 60 years ago that the ship, which had carried the Hiroshima atomic bomb, was torpedoed by the Japanese. According to the U.S. Navy:

The ship capsized and sank in twelve minutes. Survivors were spotted by a patrol aircraft on 2 August. All air and surface units capable of rescue operations were dispatched to the scene at once, and the surrounding waters were thoroughly searched for survivors. Upon completion of the day and night search on 8 August, 316 men were rescued out of the crew of 1,199.

Shark attacks began with sunrise of the first day and continued until the survivors were removed from the water almost five days later.

The Navy web site includes oral histories with Indianapolis Captain McVay and Japanese submarine Captain Hashimoto. The Discovery Channel has a wealth of material.

The site dedicated to the Indianapolis is perhaps the best source.

Henry Ford …

was born on a farm in Dearborn, Michigan, on this date in 1863. Though a tinkerer, Ford’s claim to fame is not for inventing the automobile but, as the Library of Congress tells us, for the mass production of them.

From the time he was a young boy, Ford enjoyed tinkering with machines. Farm work and a job in a Detroit machine shop afforded him ample opportunities to experiment. He later worked as a part-time employee for the Westinghouse Engine Company. By 1896, Ford had constructed his first horseless carriage which he sold in order to finance work on an improved model.

Ford incorporated the Ford Motor Company in 1903, proclaiming, “I will build a car for the great multitude.” In October 1908, he did so, offering the Model T for $950. In the Model T’s nineteen years of production, its price dipped as low as $280. Nearly 15,500,000 were sold in the United States alone. The Model T heralds the beginning of the Motor Age; the car evolved from luxury item for the well-to-do to essential transportation for the ordinary man.

Ford revolutionized manufacturing. By 1914, his Highland Park, Michigan plant, using innovative production techniques, could turn out a complete chassis every 93 minutes. This was a stunning improvement over the earlier production time of 728 minutes. Using a constantly-moving assembly line, subdivision of labor, and careful coordination of operations, Ford realized huge gains in productivity.

In 1914, Ford began paying his employees five dollars a day, nearly doubling the wages offered by other manufacturers. He cut the workday from nine to eight hours in order to convert the factory to a three-shift workday. Ford’s mass-production techniques would eventually allow for the manufacture of a Model T every 24 seconds. His innovations made him an international celebrity.

“History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.” Henry Ford

Oddly enough, the man who said history was more or less bunk established one of the great historical museums — the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.

Stay in school

“For the fourth year in a row, Arizona ranks last among the states for its percentage of teens, ages 16 to 19, who have dropped out of school.”

Source: The Arizona Republic

The survey said 12 percent of Arizona kids do not graduate but State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne says is closer to 6 percent. How could there be this large of a gap? Don’t they take attendance at school any more?

Congress — conducting the people’s business

In a sign of the changing politics of gun control, the Senate appears poised to pass a top priority of the National Rifle Assn. this week, legislation that would shield the gun industry from lawsuits arising from the misuse of its weapons.

Gun manufacturers have pressed for years for such a law. They argue that it is needed to protect them from lawsuits filed by municipalities or individuals that the industry contends could bankrupt some gun makers. Dozens of such lawsuits are pending across the country.

From a report in the Los Angeles Times

So much for Runaway Jury.

Today, July 27

Peggy Fleming is 57 today. Miss Fleming won her gold medal for figure skating at the 1968 Winter Olympics.

Bobbie Gentry is 61. No yet word on what it was she and Billy Joe threw off the Tallahatchee bridge.

Bugs Bunny made his first featured appearance in a cartoon released on this date in 1940, A Wild Hare. Bugs was modeled on Groucho Marx with a carrot instead of a cigar — and with a Brooklyn accent.

The truce ending the Korean War was signed on this date in 1953. Read the report from The New York Times.

The first U.S. government agency, the Department of Foreign Affairs (which became the Department of State), was established on this date in 1789.

It may be perfectly OK to drink the water

From a surprising article in the Los Angeles Times:

But what he’s uncovered already is surprising, both for the seasoned wilderness traveler as well as the day hiker who stares longingly at a gushing river and wonders whether it’s safe to take a slug. At many trails and backcountry camps throughout California, signs warn visitors off casual sipping. But are the dangers of Giardia lamblia, E. coli, Cryptosporidium and other bugs that wreak intestinal havoc grossly exaggerated?

Derlet thinks so, and his research reveals that the water is much cleaner than most people believe. His findings thrust him into the middle of a long-simmering controversy that’s blatantly at odds with what many state biologists preach and what wilderness classes teach: Purify water before drinking. But is that really necessary? Do those high-priced pumps, chemical disinfectants and elaborate filtration gadgets truly merit a place in the backpack?

…

The available scientific evidence, which is admittedly limited because of the scarcity of funding for testing wilderness water quality, confirms Derlet’s findings. The threat is comparable to the chances of beachgoers being attacked by a shark, according to University of Cincinnati researchers who studied the danger giardia poses to backpackers, namely “an extraordinarily rare event to which the public and the press have seemingly devoted inappropriate attention.”

Three things I would change about Albuquerque

There is much to love about living in Albuquerque — a climate with seasons, yet none of them extreme; affordable real estate and manageable traffic; a simple, yet attractive airport; red and green chiles.

And, as with all places, there are things worth lamenting — more than our share of violence; a police force that fails to police itself; awful newspapers (despite some good local writers); failing schools; no Crate and Barrel.

And there are three comparatively minor things that annoy NewMexiKen and that I would change in a second if I were emperor.

1. New Mexico’s largest and most comprehensive community college goes by the deplorable and self-defeating name Technical Vocational Institute (TVI). Could there be three words strung together that could possibly make its students feel more second class? And this despite programs in Business and Information Technology; Communications, Humanities and Social Sciences; Health, Wellness and Public Safety; and Mathematics, Sciences and Engineering that demonstrate a reasonably broad curriculum.

If I were emperor TVI would be renamed Albuquerque Community College, or Rio Grande Community College or Bernalillo Community College.

[Update: A name change is in the works, possibly Central New Mexico Community College or Community College of Central New Mexico. Thanks for getting me to do my homework, Kelly.]

2. The Rio Grande is (Sandia Crest notwithstanding) simply the best thing about the Duke City. America’s third longest river passes through the entire length of the city from north to south. And yet, at no place along the river can one stroll at the river’s edge. Yes, there are paths parallel to the river through the bosque (groove) that borders the river, and one can occasionally push aside the bushes and bugs and find the river’s edge. But nowhere can one stroll, or paddle, or stop and drink some wine or enjoy some New Mexican cuisine and watch the river roll by. With lesser rivers, San Antonio and even Oklahoma City have made attractive river walks. Why not here?

If I were emperor I would forget about pandas for the zoo and new arenas and re-zone a few appropriate areas of the Rio Grande waterfront for commercial development. Inviting developers to such an area would, I believe, be so attractive that no public funding would be needed and safeguards to protect the natural beauty of the riverfront could be easily enforced.

3. For more than half of its 299 years this community was known as Alburquerque after the Spanish duke — note that the fifth letter is an “r”. When English-speaking settlers began arriving in the mid-to-late 19th century Alburquerque was corrupted to Albuquerque.

If I were emperor the name would revert to its orginal — AlbuRquerque. What the hell, most strangers can’t spell Albuquerque anyway — what’s another letter?

Today, July 26

Mick Jagger is 62 today.

Two great comediennes were born on this date — Gracie Allen in 1902 and Vivian Vance in 1909. Miss Vance was only two years older than her long-time co-star Lucille Ball.

New York ratified the Constitution on this date in 1788, thereby becoming the 11th state.

The Indian trust lawsuit — there are two sides to the story

This from the Special Trustee for American Indians, Ross Swimmer, published in Indian Country Today:

A few weeks ago, a $27.5 billion offer was proposed – by plaintiffs and others – to settle the Cobell v. Norton Indian Trust accounting litigation. This case has dragged on since 1996, and there is widespread hope across Indian country, in the administration and in Congress that an acceptable solution can be achieved for the good of all Indian people.

In her editorial, lead plaintiff Elouise Cobell called the proposal “a commonsense bargain for the government and Indian people.” In light of the size of the settlement figure – an amount greater than the combined budgets of the Department of the Interior, Commerce and the Environmental Protection Agency – a resolution to this case should be based upon facts, and the facts do not support Cobell’s statements.

Over the course of the last century, BIA employees across Indian country (most of whom are American Indians) did, in fact, distribute trust funds to Indian Trust account holders and did, in good faith, attempt to keep good Indian trust records.

To date, the accounting firms working to reconcile historic accounts have found only a few instances in which individual Indians were underpaid. And while some records have been lost, most have not because of the “do not destroy” orders by the National Archives [and] Records Administration – which are still in place as a consequence of the Indian Land Claims Commission in the early 1950s. Existing records account for a large percentage of Indian Trust funds because the bulk of the money came into the trust after 1970, when oil and timber prices began to rise dramatically. So far, 119,665 boxes containing almost a quarter of a billion pages of Indian records have been electronically indexed and stored in a brand-new, state of the art archive facility for safeguarding and future use.

…

Today, Interior reconciles cash receipts on a daily basis and financial assets on a monthly basis. Beneficiaries are provided with quarterly financial statements, and we are beginning to issue new quarterly asset statements that include comprehensive information. Our accounting systems are the same as those used in major private trust corporations, and are audited every year.

Today, July 25

Estelle Getty of The Golden Girls is 82.

Matt LeBlanc, aka Joey, is 38.

The San Francisco-based longshoreman, philosopher and writer Eric Hoffer was born on this date in 1902.

Henry Knox, a book-seller turned army general during the American Revolution, and America’s first secretary of war, was born on this date in 1750. It was Knox who brought 50 cannon from captured Fort Ticonderoga to Boston via ox-cart in the winter of 1775-1776 and thus assured the British withdrawal.

Today is also the birthday of NewMexiKen’s dad. Happy birthday, Dad.

Today, July 21

Don Knotts is 81 today.

Janet Reno is 67.

Edward Hermann is 62.

Robin Williams is 54. Williams has been nominated for the best actor Oscar three times without winning. He did win the best supporting actor Oscar for Good Will Hunting.

Jon Lovitz is 48.

Brandi Chastain is 37.

Ernest Hemingway was born on this date in 1899.

Best line of the day, so far

“The panel’s approach in this case leads to the result that regulating the taking of a hapless toad that, for reasons of its own, lives its entire life in California constitutes regulating ‘Commerce…among the several States.'”

Judge Roberts, dissenting from denial of rehearing en banc in Rancho Viejo v. Norton (2003).