What Caught My Eye Today

Israel - This is one of those "with friends like this, who needs enemies" stories. Last week, Israeli officials angered visiting U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden by announcing the building of 1,600 new homes in occupied East Jerusalem. Just hours before the announcement, Biden had emphasized how close relations were, saying there was "no space" between Israel and the U.S. The Obama administration said Israel's announcement of plans to build 1,600 homes for Jews in East Jerusalem was "destructive" to peace efforts. That's a little dramatic, don't you think? Palestinian leaders say indirect peace talks with Israel are now "doubtful". I'm not sure these so called indirect peace talks were going to amount to much, but still indirect talks are surely better than no talks. Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, was summoned to the state department and was reprimanded about the affair. Afterwards Oren said ties between Israel and the United States were at their lowest point in 35 years. Okay, scratch that last comment about the White House being too dramatic. This dude, needs to suck it up. So he got a diplomatic tongue lashing. Big deal. This sort of thing happens all time. Heck, there is probably even a script that the affected parties follow for this nonsense.

Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hard-line government has banned Iran's largest pro-reform political party in a new strike against an opposition movement that has largely been swept from the streets since last year's post-election turmoil. Poor Mahmoud. How frustrating is this? Think about it. Boyfriend stole that election fair and square under the watchful eye of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. People, you need to get over this obsession with democracy. If your opinions truly mattered, don't you think that Ahmadinejad would have acknowledge that by now?

Tigers - According to the secretary general of the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the world has "failed miserably" at protecting tigers in the wild, bringing an animal that is a symbol for many cultures and religions to "the verge of extinction." Just 20 years ago there were 100,000 tigers in Asia, but now only 3,200 remain in the wild. For those of you who aren't math whizzes, that's almost a 97% decrease in population in just 20 years. Tigers are poached for their skins and parts of their bodies are prized for decoration and traditional medicine. Delegates at the U.N. conference will also consider the spike in rhino poaching and ways to combat criminal networks involved in the illegal trade in horns in parts of Africa and Asia. All in all, there are 42 proposals on the table, ranging from stopping elephant poaching to banning trade in polar bear skins. I recognize that there are complexities that need to be considered by parties that don't see eye-to-eye on very many things, but if a decision isn't reached soon, Mother Nature will take matters into her own hands, and soon the only place we will be able to see tigers, rhinos, polar bears, and elephants is in pictures. Does anyone really what to see that happen?

Time - How many times have you muttered to yourselves that there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to accomplish everything you set out to do? I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but things just got a bit more rushed. The massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake that rocked Chile in February was so deep and strong that it redistributed Earth's mass. That movement shifted the axis around which the Earth is balanced by about 3 inches, enough to speed up the Earth's rotation. the faster Earth rotates, the shorter the day. So just how much are we screwed by this? Not so much as it turns out. Thanks to the Chile quake, the day is now 1.26 millionths of a second shorter than it used to be, which is twice the amount of time that was sliced as a result of the 2004 earthquake in Sumatra. Let me break it down for you. If you are lucky enough to live to the year 3380, you will have been witness to the cumulative loss of one whole second.

Money - A group of 14 Republican congressmen has introduced legislation to have the image of Ronald Reagan's face enshrined on the $50 bill, displacing that of Ulysses S. Grant. Interesting, though I'd be much more in favor of a national holiday...one that my employer would be compelled to acknowledge and honor by giving me the day off. Representative Patrick McHenry (R - North Carolina) cites a recent poll that ranked Reagan as the 6th greatest American president to Grant's lowly 29th ranking and said, "every generation needs its own heroes." Yeah, winning the Civil War may have been newsworthy back in day (the Civil War was fought like a thousand years ago, wasn't it?), but it isn't as if Grant ever got anyone to tear down any walls. I'm thinking we leave well enough alone. Of course, I voted Democrat in the last election, so what do I know.