What Caught My Eye Today

Corruption - Somalia remains at the bottom of Transparency International's annual Corruption Perception Index for 2008. The ranking measures perceived levels of public sector corruption in 180 countries and draws on surveys of businesses and experts. There was little change at the bottom from last year — with Somalia closely followed, as in 2007, by Myanmar, Iraq and Haiti. At the rate these folks are going, we might as well retire them to the Hall of Shame. The report pointed to worsening performances by Britain, which slipped to 16th from 12th, and Italy, down to 55th from 41st. The U.S. was in 18th place, compared with 20th last year. The report noted that it remains among the lowest-ranked leading industrial countries. I hate to point out the obvious, but does anyone really think that the demise of all those investment banks had nothing to do with corruption? Heck I'm surprised that the U.S. actually improved year over year.

Iran - In a blistering speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed "a few bullying powers" for creating the world's problems and said the "American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road." Always nice to see one of Ahmadinejad in top form, especially on a world stage like the U.N. Assembly floor. He went on to say that countries are turning their backs on "bullying powers." And while he insisted Iran's nuclear activities are peaceful, Ahmadinejad blamed the same powers for seeking to hinder it "by exerting political and economic pressures on Iran, and threatening and pressuring" the International Atomic Energy Agency. Seeing as the IAEA doesn't seem to be having much of an impact in either Iran or North Korea, I'm not sure this alleged 'threatening and pressuring' is making much of a difference. Those powers, meanwhile, are building or maintaining nuclear stockpiles themselves, unchecked by anyone, he said. Say what you will; technically, psycho-boy is right on this particular point. As Ahmadinejad spoke, the only person at the United States table was a note-taker; no U.S. diplomat was present. Yeah I bet that show of defiance by the U.S. sure showed him who was boss.

Oil Drilling - Stop me if you've heard this one before. Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer. A provision continuing the moratorium will be dropped this year from a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running after Congress recesses for the election. Democrats had clung to the hope of only a partial repeal of the drilling moratorium, but the White House had promised a veto. So the Democrats caved again. How is it--and again, stop me if you've heard this one before--that a lame duck President with a historically low approval rating can bend the Democratic-control Congress to his every whim. I just don't get it.

Atom Smashing - Scientists will have to wait until spring to use the world's biggest particle collider for groundbreaking research because repairs to damage will run into the laboratory's normal winter shutdown. What normal shutdown? These guys just turned this thing one a week ago. The European Organization for Nuclear Research earlier said an electrical failure, nine days after the collider was first started, released a large amount of liquid helium into the tunnel. Experts have gone into the 17-mile circular tunnel housing the Large Hadron Collider to check on damage caused when an electrical connection between two magnets apparently melted. But they have to wait several weeks before the temperature can be raised from near absolute zero so they can actually go inside the equipment and fully assess the damage. Apparently, it didn't come with a heating unit that could have sped up the thawing process. At least two months will be needed for the whole procedure, including the rechilling of equipment to obtain the "superconducting" properties needed to send subatomic particles streaming through the collider in beams that can be collided for studies. That would go past the shutdown already scheduled for CERN's facility to begin its winter break. It usually shuts in mid-November and resumes at the end of March or early April, to avoid its heavy use of electricity during the winter months when Europe has high demand for power. Nor did it come with its own power supply. Amazing how little 9.3 billion dollars (or 6.4 billion Euros) will get you these days. No heat or electricity. But hey, at least they can collide atoms...or at least they could for 9 whole days.