The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

Blog Posts

Donal's picture

Is the Occupy Movement Over?

By Donal on Sun, 05/20/2012 - 9:59pm | Politics, Social Justice


Based on an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll (right), the Guardian announces, Occupy Wall Street's people power loses popularity:

... the public's backing of Occupy has taken a hit. Nationally, most pollsters have not even bothered to survey Americans on their views of Occupy since the end of the Zuccotti Park sit-in. The only pollster who has reasonably consistently asked about Occupy has seen a decline in its support. The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that the percentage of Americans who consider themselves a "supporter" of the Occupy movement has dropped by half since November.

I read this last week, and wondered, who of course, could be more impartial about Occupy Wall Street than the WSJ's pollsters? And who, I wonder are they asking?

Topics: 
Politics
Social Justice
Donal's picture

Torture is not Missing from TV

By Donal on Fri, 05/18/2012 - 2:54pm | Arts & Entertainment

Finale Spoiler! My wife insisted that I had to watch the ABC primetime show Missing, in which former spy Becca Winstone (Ashley Judd), married to supposedly dead spy, Paul Winstone (Sean Bean), is always searching for their kidnapped son Michael (Nick Eversman). She was sometimes hindered and sometimes assisted by Dax Miller (Cliff Curtis) at the CIA and Giancarlo Rossi (Adriano Giannini) at Interpol. There were lots of evil-looking Eastern European types wielding black semiautos, friendly but cutthroat double agent Martin Newman (Keith Carradine) and cute but deadly double agent Violet Heath (Laura Donnelly). And of course Paul was not really dead, or the walrus.

Topics: 
Arts & Entertainment
Donal's picture

Blue Clay Disappoints

By Donal on Tue, 05/15/2012 - 2:43pm | Sports


Tennis is in the middle of clay court season. Last year Novak Djokovic stunned everyone by continuing his winning streak on Rafael Nadal's best surface—beating Nadal on the red clay of Madrid and Rome. This year, Djokovic has been less dominant, losing to Nadal in Monte Carlo, and losing early in Madrid. So Djokovic should be motivated to defend his points this week at Rome—the Internazionali BNL d'Italia.

Topics: 
Sports
Donal's picture

Solar & Wind Expo

By Donal on Mon, 05/14/2012 - 3:57pm | Technology


On Saturday, I attended a Solar & Wind Expo, which was held about three stops away on light rail. At the Timonium Fair Grounds stop, there was no sign that anything was happening. I walked past the empty entrance kiosks, and saw a truck with a horse trailer backing up to the mostly empty livestock sheds. I continued past the empty cow palace, and eventually saw some balloons tied to two tiny cars in front of a nondescript concrete block building. The cars were Think City EVs. A small banner announced that the expo was inside.

I was a bit early and when I tried to pay the $10 entry fee with my debit card, one of the cashiers went to a table and pulled a cardswipe machine out of a box. She fiddled with it and asked, "Do you have any cash?" I had eight dollars, so she took that and let me in. That worked out about right because I was supposed to get two dollars off for arriving by light rail.

Topics: 
Technology
Donal's picture

Luxury Electric Motor Bikes

By Donal on Fri, 05/11/2012 - 3:17pm | Technology



Along with their hybrids and EVs, luxury automakers have been developing prototype e-bikes, like the Audi Wörthersee above. These aren't full-fledged motorcycles, like the Brammo or Zero, but they aren't just bicycles either:

Topics: 
Technology
Donal's picture

Tesla and the Uncertain Middle Class

By Donal on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 11:33am | Business, Technology

Tesla is about to release its Model S sedan. Despite operating at a loss, despite never having turned a profit, despite being the recipient of government loans (which the right wing hates about the Volt), despite its stock price dropping due to perceived competition from the Toyota RAV4 EV, some Wall Street pundits are still bullish on Tesla.

Why? Well it promises decent range:

Tesla: The Time Has Come

The Tesla Model S will give you significantly more range than a Nissan LEAF or any other practical all-electric car to date. The Nissan is EPA-certified at 73 miles on average. Tesla claims 160 miles for the base version of the Model S. ...

Tesla will also sell you an alleged 230-mile and a 300-mile version of the Model S. Each step up is $10,000 more.
Topics: 
Business
Technology
Donal's picture

Bilateral Breathing

By Donal on Wed, 05/09/2012 - 10:24pm | Sports

I've always admired the grace, efficiency and symmetry of swimmers that breathe to both sides at any pace and distance. Laure Manadou, Rebecca Adlington, Federica Pellegrini and many other elite female swimmers breathe bilaterally while competing, as do many excellent masters swimmers. But, many other women and almost all of the elite male swimmers in the world breathe to one side, or unilaterally, in their races. 

Welsh distance swimmer Dave Davies is one of the few male swimmers I have seen consistently breathing bilaterally. World 1500m champion Sun Yang quickly breathes to both sides before and after turning, but mostly breathes to one side. Many male swimmers can sneak a breath to the opposite side to keep an eye on an opponent, but most opt for the additional air available when breathing every other stroke.

Despite the prevalence of unilateral breathing, some coaches recommend bilateral breathing to develop symmetrical body roll to each side and to avoid the lopsided stroke that often comes with same-side breathing. Michael Phelps breathes to one side, but in this training video, his coach, Bob Bowman, recommends learning bilateral breathing:

Topics: 
Sports
Donal's picture

Three Articles

By Donal on Mon, 05/07/2012 - 12:19pm | Social Justice

I found these three posts interesting, and rather than fill up the news section, I decided to put them here:

The Birth, Decline, and Re-Emergence of the Solid South: A Short History

Since the Civil War, the American South has mostly been a one-party region.  However, by the turn of the 21st century, its political affiliation had actually swung from the Democrats to the Republicans.  Here’s how it happened.

It is not an oversimplification to say that slavery was the single most important issue leading to the Civil War.  For not only was slavery the most important on its own merits, but none of the other relevant issues, such as expansion into the western territories or states’ rights, would have mattered much at all if not for their indelible connection to slavery.

Initially, Northerners rallied around the issue of Free Soil: opposition to slavery on economic grounds.  Small farmers and new industrial workers did not want to compete with large slave plantations and unpaid slave labor.  This was the philosophy that bound together the new  Republican Party.
Topics: 
Social Justice
Donal's picture

Roki

By Donal on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 9:28am |

Donal's picture

Alexander Dale Oen

By Donal on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 9:46am | Sports


At the pool, you often see people swimming a very relaxed style of breaststroke—head out of the water, breathing freely, legs frog-kicking deep down—but swum properly, modern breaststroke is as physically grueling and technically demanding as butterfly, itself an evolution of breaststroke. One would expect a world breaststroke champion to be in fantastic physical condition. Norway's Alexander Dale Oen was 26, almost 27. In Beijing, he had won the Silver medal in 100m Breast behind Kitajima Kosuke, and was in training for the London Olympics.

Champion Swimmer Found Dead in Arizona

Topics: 
Sports

Pages

TypeTitleAuthorRepliesLast updated
Reader blogBarack Hussein Obama Will Be Remembered As One of Our Greatest Presidents - Here's the Facts Wattree4811 years 2 weeks ago
Blog entryObamacare's Website Benghazi'd His Birth Certificate Michael Maiello6911 years 3 weeks ago
LinkWhen Detroits Go Bankrupt Michael Maiello911 years 3 weeks ago
LinkMale and female brains wired differently, scans reveal artappraiser311 years 3 weeks ago
LinkI Want You To Live Forever Michael Maiello711 years 3 weeks ago
Blog entryThe Politics of Cruelty Ramona911 years 3 weeks ago
Blog entryThe Long, Cold Christmas Doctor Cleveland1211 years 3 weeks ago
LinkIran nuclear deal reached in Geneva artappraiser2711 years 4 weeks ago
LinkHow A Gun Dealer Sees It artappraiser211 years 1 month ago
Link11-17-2013 Tornado Washington,IL Donal311 years 1 month ago
Blog entryYes, WaPo: There Is A Retirement Crisis Michael Maiello1811 years 1 month ago
Link2013 Solar Decathlon • Orange County Great Park Donal011 years 1 month ago
CreativeA CRITIQUE Richard Day1711 years 1 month ago
Reader blogHi everyone. Just a F.Y.I.: TPM just blocked me from making comments, artappraiser12311 years 1 month ago
LinkGeorge Zimmerman Arrested for Domestic Disturbance rmrd00001711 years 1 month ago
Reader blogTHE NEW REPUBLICAN PLATFORM Richard Day1011 years 1 month ago
Blog entryJonathan Martin Does Not Need Your Nonsense Doctor Cleveland1411 years 1 month ago
LinkDow 16,000 -- Maiello Snarks In Esquire Michael Maiello411 years 1 month ago
LinkWhy I Won’t Do the Food Stamp Challenge Donal011 years 1 month ago
LinkThe Insanity of Our Food Policy Donal111 years 1 month ago
LinkOut of the press box and onto the field A Guy Called LULU511 years 1 month ago
Blog entryWhy Do we Plebians keep blaming the Super-rich? Because, Dammit, They're to Blame Ramona4911 years 1 month ago
Blog entryThe Plight Of The Ultra Low Affluent Michael Maiello3211 years 1 month ago
CreativeMy First CSA Box of This Season trkingmomoe1211 years 1 month ago
Blog entryDear angry American who has to pay more for better health insurance, Michael Wolraich5511 years 1 month ago

Pages