Best historical analogy of the day, so far

“In 1850, the fifth-biggest industry in our country was whaling, and most houses were lit by whale-oil lamps,” he said. “But as whales started to get shy or scarce and the price of whale oil drifted up, this started to elicit competition, particularly from coal-based oil and gas.” By 1859, these competitors had seized five-sixths of the whale-oil lighting market. “This was a real shock to the whalers. They never expected to run out of customers before they ran out of whales. But that’s what happened, and they were soon reduced to begging for subsidies on national-security grounds.”

Elizabeth Kolbert, quoting Amory Lovins in a profile of Lovins in the January 22, 2007, issue of The New Yorker (not currently available online).

Star gazing update update

NewMexiKen’s request to for you to write about seeing/meeting famous people outside their natural habitat, or better yet, actually talking to them, generated 43 comments. (Above link, and here.)

Now that Tom and SnoLepard are — you think? — finished, maybe there are still others among you who would like to mention an encounter or two with “greatness.”

NewMexiKen once was able to attend a small conference with many, many notables. As I remember three Rockefeller brothers were there (Nelson, David and Lawrence), Lady Bird Johnson, William Paley and Frank Stanton the founders of CBS, Pat Weaver the creator of “The Today Show” and “The Tonight Show” (and Sigourney’s dad), Herman Kahn the thermonuclear war theorist, and Edward Teller one of the physicists that made thermonuclear war possible. I saw Nelson Rockefeller stirring his coffee with his glasses end piece (the part that extends to the temple).

But my favorite those two days was Bess Myerson, Miss America 1945. She was extraordinarily lovely nearly 30 years after her reign.

NIE on Iraq

NIE stands for National Intelligence Estimate1. NIEs are the unified assessment of the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. An excerpt from today’s NIE on Iraq:

The Intelligence Community judges that the term “civil war” does not adequately capture the complexity of the conflict in Iraq, which includes extensive Shia-on-Shia violence, al-Qa’ida and Sunni insurgent attacks on Coalition forces, and widespread criminally motivated violence. Nonetheless, the term “civil war” accurately describes key elements of the Iraqi conflict, including the hardening of ethno-sectarian identities, a sea change in the character of the violence, ethno-sectarian mobilization, and population displacements.

Via TPMmuckraker, where one commenter says, “I believe the word they are seeking is ‘clusterf*ck.'”

1

National Intelligence Estimate (NIE)-These reports are the DCI’s most authoritative written judgments concerning national security issues. They deal with capabilities, vulnerabilities, and probable courses of action of foreign nations and key developments relevant to the vital interests of the United States. NIEs are produced at the national level by the NIC and are issued by the DCI with the approval of the NFIB. NIEs are designed to identify trends of significance to national security and, when relevant, differences of views among the principal intelligence officers of the US Government. Presidential Summaries of NIEs are prepared for the President, Vice President, and other key executive officers.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

In November 1835, the northern part of the Mexican state of Coahuila-Tejas declared itself in revolt against Mexico’s new centralist government headed by President Antonio López de Santa Anna. By February 1836, Texans declared their territory to be independent and that its border extended to the Rio Grande rather than the Rio Nueces that Mexicans recognized as the dividing line. Although the Texans proclaimed themselves citizens of the Independent Republic of Texas on April 21, 1836 following their victory over the Mexicans at the Battle of San Jacinto, Mexicans continued to consider Tejas a rebellious province that they would reconquer someday.

In December 1845, the U.S. Congress voted to annex the Texas Republic and soon sent troops led by General Zachary Taylor to the Rio Grande (regarded by Mexicans as their territory) to protect its border with Mexico. The inevitable clashes between Mexican troops and U.S. forces provided the rationale for a Congressional declaration of war on May 13, 1846.

Hostilities continued for the next two years as General Taylor led his troops through to Monterrey, and General Stephen Kearny and his men went to New Mexico, Chihuahua, and California. But it was General Winfield Scott and his army that delivered the decisive blows as they marched from Veracruz to Puebla and finally captured Mexico City itself in August 1847.

Mexican officials and Nicholas Trist, President Polk’s representative, began discussions for a peace treaty that August. On February 2, 1848 the Treaty was signed in Guadalupe Hidalgo, a city north of the capital where the Mexican government had fled as U.S. troops advanced. Its provisions called for Mexico to cede 55% of its territory (present-day Arizona, California, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado, Nevada and Utah) in exchange for fifteen million dollars in compensation for war-related damage to Mexican property.

Other provisions stipulated the Texas border at the Rio Grande (Article V), protection for the property and civil rights of Mexican nationals living within the new border (Articles VIII and IX), U.S. promise to police its side of the border (Article XI), and compulsory arbitration of future disputes between the two countries (Article XXI). When the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty in March, it deleted Article X guaranteeing the protection of Mexican land grants. Following the Senate’s ratification of the treaty, U.S. troops left Mexico City.

Hispanic Reading Room, Library of Congress

The map used to negotiate the Treaty

Because there’s never enough Molly

From 1998:

“If we had devoted this much time and this much space in the newspapers to the single most important problem in American politics today, which is the money that finances campaigns and the way the people that get elected respond to that money, we would have solved the problem by now. We would have the people of this country so outraged, they would be demanding campaign finance reform. What are we doing? We’re talking about the president’s dick. It’s ridiculous.”

Groundhog Day is the birthday

… of Tom Smothers. He’s 70. Brother Dick, the straight-man, is 67.

… of Graham Nash. The Nash of Crosby, Stills & Nash (or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) is 65.

Crosby, Stills & Nash have remained America’s longest-running experiment in vocal harmony and social relevance. The trio brought harmony to the forefront of popular music with their unique three-part vocal blend. A low-key supergroup, they emphasized singing and songwriting above all, and their example contributed to the evolution of the singer/songwriter movement in the Seventies. Born out of well-known groups that placed a premium on harmony, Crosby, Stills & Nash boasted impressive individual credentials before they joined forces in 1969. David Crosby sang and played rhythm guitar with the Byrds. Stephen Stills was a mainstay of Buffalo Springfield. Nash provided the high harmonies that helped make pop sensations of Britain’s Hollies. Even with those estimable prior alliances, Crosby, Stills & Nash would become their pinnacle as musicians. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)

… of Farrah Fawcett. Charlie’s Angel is 60.

… of Christie Brinkley. She’s 53.

… of Shakira. She’s 30. Shakira’s “La Tortura” (with Alejandro Sanz) was the number one tune on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart for 25 weeks and won the 2006 Latin Grammy for both Song and Record of the Year.

James Joyce was born in Rathgar, a suburb of Dublin, on this date in 1882. Joyce only wrote four books of fiction in his life, but they’re all considered masterpieces — Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939).

But, of course, it is on June 16th that we should celebrate Joyce.

Class act

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

“How much is an ice cream sundae?” he asked.

“Fifty cents,” replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.

“Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?” he inquired.

By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient.

“Thirty-five cents,” she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins.

“I’ll have the plain ice cream,” he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies.

You see, he couldn’t have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

One of 5 Life Lessons.

Dyslexic child ‘was stupid as well’

The parents of a middle-class child diagnosed as ‘dyslexic’ have been contacted by educational psychologists who have discovered that the underperforming pupil was actually just stupid as well.

Seven year old Henry Bradley from Gloucester had been doing less well than many of his classmates for some time. ‘We couldn’t understand it…’ said his mother; ‘Henry comes from a supportive home where he is encouraged with his homework and has a private tutor for his maths. Eventually we had him privately assessed, and it was a great relief to us when the experts told us that Henry was dyslexic. Suddenly it all made sense.’

However, suspecting there may more complex reasons for Henry’s underachievement, the educational psychologist booked the child in for further tests and eventually made her unprecedented discovery. ‘He’s just dim,’ said Dr Janice Trenter. ‘Someone has to be.’

NewsBiscuit

Except in Lake Wobegon, where all the children are above average.

The Daily Howler

At The Daily Howler, Bob Somerby continues to disconstruct the Irish-Catholic boys club that makes up much of the media:

MATTHEWS: But, hey, I measure people by their heart. I don’t think Biden was saying anything more than somebody of his generation would say.

But we know someone who’s roughly “of Biden’s generation” who hasn’t been uttering dumb racial gaffes. Her name, of course, is Hillary Clinton—and no, she hasn’t issued cringe-making remarks about Obama’s cleanliness. She hasn’t done so for an obvious reason—she’s smarter than Biden about such matters. She has cared more about matters of race; she has paid much better attention.

Somerby, brought up an Irish Catholic himself, was excellent yesterday as well on the Irish Catholic male (and even female) problem with women yesterday.

Techie stuff

Since January 8th NewMexiKen has spent more than 30 hours on my cell phone (my only phone).

Also, some may remember that I cut the cable cord a year ago. It’s still cut. I get along amazingly well on just the HD signals from the local network affiliates free with a 99¢ antenna. (It’s easy when you can see their towers from your TV.)

Eager to cut the Comcast cord entirely, I’m wondering if anyone has any experience with Verizon Broadband Wireless.

My iMac was a year old January 30. I love Macs more all the time but I am considering converting back to just a laptop (MacBook Pro). Is anyone interested in a year-old iMac (Intel Core Duo) with 1GB RAM, 250 GB HD, and 20-inch screen? It works with Windows. I’d sell it newly reformatted, just as if it came out of the box, which it would, because I have the box.

This information neither is, nor should be construed, as an offer, or a solicitation of an offer, to buy or sell. Just thinking.

February One

From PBS FEBRUARY ONE:

In one remarkable day, four college freshmen changed the course of American history. On February 1, 1960, Ezell Blair, Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil—later dubbed the Greensboro Four—began a sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in a small city in North Carolina. The act of simply sitting down to order food in a restaurant that refused service to anyone but whites is now widely regarded as one of the pivotal moments in the American Civil Rights Movement.

The Greensboro Woolworth’s lunch counter was integrated in July 1960.

Germs on board

First published here a year ago. I swear, I’m going to start wearing a face mask on airplanes.

From The Citizen Scientist:

Martin Hocking and Harold Foster of Canada’s University of Victoria have studied the problem of increased colds among airline passengers. In an article for the Journal of Environmental Health Research (“Common cold transmission in commercial aircraft: Industry and passenger implications,” 2004) , they reported that 20 percent of passengers who flew on a 2.5 hour flight developed colds within a week.

Depending on three different flight scenarios, Hocking and Foster found that airline passengers in three different scenarios were 5, 23, or 113 times more likely to catch a cold than if they had not flown at all!

The scientists also found that the threat of catching tuberculosis is substantially higher if an infected passenger is aboard a flight.

The most logical reason for infections would seem to be the limited amount of cabin air shared by the passengers. But Hocking, Foster and other scientists have found this is only one factor. The very low humidity in an airplane seems to be much more important.

There’s more.