What Caught My Eye Today

Middle East - Here's where things stand today. Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria and Yemen have gotten through the worst of their "regime re-calibrations" (I came up with that euphemism all by myself). Libya is knee deep in poo-poo (did I mention that oil prices hit a 29 month high, $104/barrel). And at last check things in Oman, Kuwait, Iran, the Palestinian Territories (I still don't get that one), and most recently, the Ivory Coast were shaky at best. Nice to see that everyone seems to be work "stuff" out.

Space Shuttle - If you didn't know, and given the amount of media coverage, there is a pretty good chance of that, Discovery is in the middle of its 39th and final voyage. Discovery astronauts are helping the International Space Station crew members get the Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module unpacked and set up for permanent life in orbit and working on ISS equipment repairs. The shuttle blasted off from Kennedy Space Center on February 24, on its last trip into orbit before it becomes the first of the three remaining US shuttles to become museum pieces later this year. Endeavour is to lift off on April 19 followed by Atlantis on June 28, marking the official end of the US space shuttle program after 30 years.

Supreme Court - Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas finds himself embroiled in a controversy by not disclosing his wife's $700,000 think-tank payday. Ginni Thomas was paid nearly $700,000 by the Heritage Foundation between 2003 and 2007, as well as an undisclosed amount by another lobbying group in 2009. The 1978 Ethics in Government Act requires all federal judges to fill out annual financial-disclosure forms. The relevant question on the disclosure form isn't complicated: the box marked NONE next to the phrase "Spouse's Non-Investment Income" should only be checked if his spouse had no non-investment income. I don't know. those double negative questions always confuse me. Thomas' defense is that he didn't knowingly violate the law, because he "misunderstood" the filing requirements. Let me see if I've got this straight. Thomas' main defense here is ignorance of the law? Dude, you are a Supreme Court Justice, for crying out loud! No wonder this rocket scientist doesn't speak up more often when he's on the bench--5 years without a single question. My guess is that it is far better to think that Thomas is a moron rather than him open his mouth and provide proof. A complaint has been filed with the Missouri Bar Association, of which Thomas is a member, demanding that Thomas be disbarred for lying to the federal government about his wife's financial dealings. Yeah, I'm sure that's going to happen. Interesting footnote...Bill Clinton was impeached—and subsequently disbarred—for defending his false statements about his affair with Monica Lewinsky with a similarly implausible excuse.

India - An angry mob of fired workers burned to death a senior executive of a steel factory. Is it just me or does "angry mob" seem a little redundant? think about it. Has anyone ever come across a "happy mob"? After learning they were laid off, about a dozen workers attacked a vehicle carrying the executive as he was leaving the factory, dousing the Jeep with gasoline and setting it on fire. Torching a fellow human being just sounds a bit extreme...it is just a job, after all. A trip to the liquor store would have been my first choice, but that's just me. Incidents of industrial violence are common in India, where workers often target executives in cases of wage disputes and job losses. This might be a bit of a stretch, but bear with me for a moment. In recent weeks, there have been a lot of stories in the U.S. about trying to reduce the rights of some labor unions. I'm not saying the arguments for doing so are without merit, but consider the ramifications of the elimination of labor unions. Imagine the possibilities of a work force without some mechanism for protecting the well being of the workers. Unions might not be perfect, but they sure as heck are a whole lot better than the mob mentality exhibited by these steel workers.

And now for something a bit lighter to end the week...

Mass Extinction - Mass extinctions include events in which 75% of the species on Earth disappear within a geologically short time period, usually on the order of a few hundred thousand to a couple million years. It's happened only five times before in the past 540 million years of multicellular life on Earth. The last great extinction occurred 65 million years ago, when the dinosaurs were wiped out. At current rates of extinction, the a recently release University of California, Berkeley study found the Earth will enter its sixth mass extinction within the next 300 to 2,000 years. I love how scientists are so good a predicting dire calamities with such pinpoint precision. They found that the overall rate of extinction is, in fact, between three to 80 times higher than non-mass extinction rates. Most likely, species are going extinct three to 12 times faster than would be expected if there were no crisis. Hold please. So if I read this correctly, it seems that if there was no change in the rate of extinctions, species are going still going to disappear, just at a slower pace? The good news, according to researchers, is that the total loss so far is not devastating. In the last 200 years, only 1 to 2 percent of all species have gone extinct. Not devastating, huh? I'm guessing those 1 to 2 percent of extinct species would beg to differ. The culprits for the biodiversity loss include climate change, habitat loss, pollution and overfishing.