What Caught My Eye Today - Michele Bachmann, Israel, Congress, Time, Olympics

Michele Bachmann - Minnesota Congresswoman, Michele Bachmann has alleged that Huma Abedin, one of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's top aides, has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. This should be good. Bachmann cites reports that Abedin's long-deceased father once "crossed paths of people" associated with the organization. If that isn't ironclad proof, I don't know what is. Based on this information, Bachmann alleges that Abedin is helping Islamists "secretly burrow their way into our government." Well, duh. With a name like Abedin, he must be be a radical Islamic fundamentalist. Fellow Republicans, including Senator John McCain of Arizona, are condemning Bachmann for launching "an unwarranted and unfounded attack on an honorable woman." Bachmann refuses to relent, and Abedin is now receiving death threats. I sometimes wonder what sort of cranial wiring it takes to to dream this stuff up. Seriously, was it a slow news day or what? You wouldn't believe how many media outlets picked up on this story. I have to confess I was laughing after reading this, and then it dawned on me that some poor guy has received death threats based on the preposterous rantings of a government official who clearly lives in a different reality than the rest of us. Shame on me, and shame on Michele Bachmann.

Israel - Moshe Silman, a son of Holocaust survivors set himself on fired during a protest and later died of his burns. If memory serves, this is not the first time someone has resorted to this form of protest. Don't help me...it'll come to me. A few years ago, Silman lost his business and incurred a small debt, and his nightmare began. Tangled in a web of bureaucracy, he was harassed by various government agencies. His appeals for public housing were ignored until, on the brink of homelessness, he set himself alight in public at a rally marking the anniversary of last year's protests for social justice. Yup, I definitely remember reading something like this...oh, when was it? February, 2011...just before spring. Same part of the world too, I think? The demonstrations following his self-immolation reveal that a portion of the Israeli population is "like a powder keg ready to explode." Ah ha! Arab Spring. That's it! Of course, I'm not sure I would have predicted that Israel would be prone to this sort of protest. Then again if you had asked me in January 2011 if Tunisia, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya and Syria were all going to be subject to regime change and/or civil war, I probably would have said no that that as well.

Congress - The U.S. Congress has sent only 54 bills to President Barack Obama so far this year, including 14 to rename post offices, 9 to approve real estate transactions, and 6 to renew existing laws. That record puts the current Congress on track to be one of the least productive sessions in recent times. THUD! That would be me falling out of my chair at that shocking revelation. Truth be told, I'm surprised they were able to agree on that many.

Time - A new study used atomic clocks to confirm Albert Einstein's prediction that time runs faster the higher off the ground you are. For every foot about ground, a person ages about 90 billionths of a second (0.000000009) faster over a lifetime. Let's put some context to this, shall we? The average global life expectancy in 2010 was 67.2 years which equates to 2,403,043,200 seconds. Now, let's say that you choose to spent your entire lifetime in residence at the summit of Mount Everest (elevation 20,029 ft). Well, my friend, you would be 2.6 ten thousands of a second older than the dude who decided to spend his lifetime at sea level. But maybe we aren't thinking big enough. What if terra firma just isn't your deal? Let's say you spend your lifetime on the International Space Station, with has an average orbit of about 230 miles (1,214,400 feet) about the earth. Well now we are talking about some serious aging, just over one hundredth of a second (0.01). Bottom line, well I'm not sure there is one. I probably lost the vast majority of you at that "90 billionths of a second" bit.

Olympics - Three days into competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, medals have been awarded for 38 of 302 events. The People's Republic of China and the United States top the medal table with 17 medals apiece, though China has more gold (9 to 5). Japan (11), Italy (8) and France (7) round out the top 5. Host nation, Great Britain is tied for 10th with 3 medals, a silver and 2 bronze.