What Caught My Eye Today - Barack Obama, India, Postal Service, Olympics

India - Grids supplying electricity to half of India's 1.2 billion people collapsed on Tuesday, in the second major blackout in as many days. More than a dozen states with a population of 670 million people were without power. Revised estimates put the number at closer to 700 million which, for those of you who like context, is the same as the entire population of the United States, twice; or if you prefer a more global perspective, 10% of the world population. Either way...damn, that's a lot of people. The outage was the worst to hit India in more than a decade and embarrassed the government, which has failed to build up enough power capacity to meet soaring demand. India's Power Minister blamed the system collapse on some states drawing more than their share of electricity from the over-burdened grid. India's electricity distribution and transmission is mostly state run, with private companies operating in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Less than a quarter of generation is private nationwide. Although I don't mention it here, it seems India relies upon the honor system to ensure that there is enough energy to go around. No doubt a noble idea. Then again, so is world peace. More than half the country's electricity is generated by coal, with hydro power and nuclear also contributing. Power shortages and a creaky road and rail network have weighed heavily on the Asia's third-largest economy's efforts to industrialize. Grappling with the slowest economic growth in nine years, the government recently scaled back a target to pump $1 trillion into infrastructure over the next five years. Yeah, these guys can't catch much of a break at the Olympics either. The world's second most populous nation has managed just one medal so far, a bronze in Shooting. Still that one more than our hapless Bangladeshi friends have managed. More on the Olympics in a moment.

Barack Obama - A study from Ancestry.com has determined that President Obama is related to John Punch, the first black African enslaved for life in America--which would make Punch the 11th great-grandfather of Obama. I'm telling you, this guy's family tree must look more like a tropical forest than a tree. The connection is made through Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunhan. Punch tried to escape indentured servitude in colonial Virginia in 1640 and was punished by becoming enslaved for life. Records show that Punch had children with a white woman, and her status as free was passed on to her offspring. Punch's descendants became successful landowners in the slave-owning state of Virginia. This would mean that the first documented slave and the first African American president have a shared lineage. Anyone want to place bets on whether or not someone (paging Michele Bachmann) tries to draw the conclusion that Obama's root can be traced by to slave owners? Ironic, wouldn't you say? Genealogists seem to be fascinated with the current president's family tree: The site has also traced an Irish branch of Obama's family. And researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society claim he is the distant cousin of movie star Brad Pitt and six past presidents, including George W. Bush. In all fairness, what else do genealogists have to occupy their time? This sort of thing is pretty much what they do.

Postal Service - Here's an amusing followup to an item I mentioned in my lavish praise of Congress' recent accomplishments. In the 18 months, the 112th Congress has been sworn in, the House has introduced 60 bills to rename post offices. 38 have passed the House and 26 have become law. Not a single bill has come to the House floor aimed at reforming a Postal Service, which is bleeding billions of dollars because of Congressional mandates. Naturally. That would require some actual decision making and, I daresay, compromise. The United States Postal Service just defaulted on a Congressional mandate to pay $5.5 billion to "prefund" health benefits for future retirees, and will miss an additional $5.6 billion payment due on September 30. The Postal Service is trying to pull itself out of a $22.5 billion budget shortfall. Still, the USPS could have it worse; it could be facing a the $1.1 trillion deficit facing the U.S. government. Come to think of it, maybe the Postal Service should look elsewhere for solutions to it's budget crisis. I'm not sure Congress is a beacon of fiscal discipline.

Olympics - Five days into competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, medals have been awarded for 71 of 302 events. The People's Republic of China tops the medal table with 30 medals. 17 of which are gold, which apparently is all that really counts unless, of course, you happen to be one of those 142 athletes who received a silver or bronze medal. The United States is second with 29 medals. Japan (17), France (13) and Germany (13) round out the top 5. However, if you gauge success solely on gold medals, then the top five looks like this: China - 17, United States - 12, South Korea - 6, France - 5, North Korea - 4. Host nation, Great Britain is tied for 8th with 9 medals including 2 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze. For an Olympics remarkably short on controversy (despite the media's fervent attempts to create some), we finally have one, sort of. A scoring controversy in Fencing? No. Sour grapes over the performance of a rather gifted young swimmer? Not so much. Racist remarks on Twitter? Nope. All of these happened, but the controversy I'm referring to comes from the world of badminton. I kid you not. In successive games two opposing women's doubles teams lined up against each other and tried to lose. It appeared they were trying to secure a more favorable draw in knockout play or, in the case of a Chinese team, to avoid playing their fellow countrymen until the finals. Badminton World Federation officials were aghast, even though it isn't uncommon in sports for teams to attempt to manipulate results in pool play to set up the best possible route in a playoff. An elaborate disciplinary machine was churned up, and eventually all eight athletes were thrown out of the competition, which inspired frustration, outrage, finger pointing, and one of the most enduring parts of Olympic competition: nationalistic indignation. The Chinese, to their credit, declined to even appeal. Yeah, they did it. Indonesia did at first, but eventually they sheepishly pulled the argument and conceded the point. That left South Korea in the awkward position of saying that while it appeared they were trying to lose on purpose, the truth is their players were just terrible. I'm going stop now. How in the world could I possibly top this?