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The Ledes

Friday, June 14, 2024

CNN: “Heavy rainfall that’s caused unrelenting flooding in South Florida since Tuesday will continue for a fourth consecutive day after turning roads into canals and forcing some residents to stand on the roofs of their cars or trudge through waist-deep waters. Even as the robust tropical moisture fueling the soaking storms slowly starts to shift out of the area, Friday marks yet another drenching day for South Florida and multiple cities could see more than 2 feet of rain Tuesday through Friday.... Flood watches remain in effect for over 7 million people across South Florida, including in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, through Friday evening. An additional 2 to 4 inches or more of rainfall is expected through Friday night but thunderstorm activity is expected to subside by the weekend. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for Broward, Collier, Lee, Miami-Dade and Sarasota counties, and officials have urged locals to stay at home instead of walking or driving through the floodwater....”

The Wires
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The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705

New York Times: Explorer “Ernest Shackleton was sailing for Antarctica on the ship called the Quest, when he died in 1922. Researchers exulted over the discovery of its wreckage, 62 years after it sank in the Labrador Sea [off the coast of Canada. The Quest] ... was carrying him back to Antarctica when he had a heart attack and died in 1922. The Quest sailed on for another 40 years until it sank on a seal-hunting voyage off Canada’s Atlantic coast in 1962.... The expedition to find the Quest was led by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society..., and cost 500,000 Canadian dollars, or about $365,000.... The Quest was the last missing artifact from the 'heroic age of Arctic exploration,' said Martin Brooks, a Shackleton expert....”

Liberals Are No Fun at All: ABC News: "Eight climate protesters were arrested on Wednesday [June 12] after being tackled on the field during the Congressional Baseball Game, U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement. The self-described 'youth-led group,' Climate Defiance, took credit for the protest and shared videos on X of protesters rushing the field, calling the 'Chevron-sponsored' game 'unconscionable.' During the second inning, over half a dozen protesters hopped the fence to the field, wearing shirts stating, 'END FOSSIL FUELS.'" MB: Not sure why it took five ABC News reporters (including one contributor) to write this report. Maybe they all volunteered to be on the silly ball game beat.

"Countless studies have shown that people who spend less time in nature die younger and suffer higher rates of mental and physical ailments." So this Washington Post page allows you to check your own area to see how good your access to nature is.

Spam on a Plane. Some people just have, well, different fetishes. He's got the meats (or whatever Spam is). WashPo link.

Band of Lovers. Washington Post: In "the Battle of Tegyra in 375 B.C., a thousand Spartan soldiers, trained for combat from the age of 7, were returning from an expedition when they stumbled on a much smaller force from the rival city of Thebes. Rather than retreat, the Theban infantry charged, pulling into a close formation and piercing the Spartan lines like a spear. The Spartans turned and, for the first time ever in pitched battle, fled. The most fearsome military force of its day had been defeated by the Sacred Band of Thebes, a shock troop of 150 gay couples.... [The Theban commander] Gorgidas recruited 150 couples skilled in martial combat for his elite corps. This Sacred Band, 300 strong, became Greece’s first professional standing army, housed and fed by the city.... In the end, it took none other than Alexander the Great to bring [The Sacred Band] to heel."

New York Times: "It was only the second spell-off in the history of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and Bruhat Soma rattled off a head-spinning 29 correctly spelled words in 90 seconds, including heautophany, nachschläge and puszta. Bruhat’s spell-off sprint on Thursday night won him the competition’s trophy, the Scripps Cup, and a grand prize of $50,000. He far surpassed his competitor, Faizan Zaki, a sixth grader from Dallas who correctly spelled 20 words, and also the bee’s previous spell-off record of 22 correct words in 2022, according to Bee officials."

Washington Post: Coastal geologist Darrin Lowery has discovered human artifacts on the tiny (and rapidly eroding) Parsons Island in the Chesapeake Bay that he has dated back 22,000 years, when most of North America would still have been covered with ice and long before most scientists believe humans came to the Americas via the Siberian Peninsula.

Marie: BTW, if you think our government sucks, I invite you to watch the PBS special "The Real story of Mr Bates vs the Post Office," about how the British post office falsely accused hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of subpostmasters of theft and fraud, succeeded in obtaining convictions and jail time, and essentially stole tens of thousands of pounds from some of them. Oh, and lied about it all. A dramatization of the story appeared as a four-part "Masterpiece Theater," which you still may be able to pick it up on your local PBS station. Otherwise, you can catch it here (for now). Just hope this does give our own Postmaster General Extraordinaire Louis DeJoy any ideas.

The Mysterious Roman Dodecahedron. Washington Post: A “group of amateur archaeologists sift[ing] through ... an ancient Roman pit in eastern England [found] ... a Roman dodecahedron, likely to have been placed there 1,700 years earlier.... Each of its pentagon-shaped faces is punctuated by a hole, varying in size, and each of its 20 corners is accented by a semi-spherical knob.” Archaeologists don't know what the Romans used these small dodecahedrons for but the best guess is that they have some religious significance.

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Page Links
Monday
Sep202010

President Obama on CNBC's "Investing in America": Full Session:

New York Times: "It was billed as 'Investing In America,' a live televised conversation between President Obama and American workers, students, business people and retirees on the state of the economy, a kind of Wall Street to Main Street reality check. But it sounded like a therapy session for disillusioned Obama supporters." AND here's a page of CNBC links about the town hall meeting.

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