Forty-five years ago today, a man landed on the moon for the first time. Understandably, he was a little nervous. Neil Armstrong’s heart raced to 160 beats per minute as the lunar vehicle touched down on the moon’s surface. But as he made that great leap for mankind and walked around the moon, his heart steadied and slowed. The rhythm of his heartbeat, which Berlin-based singer Louise Gold captured off of a radio program, become the basis for her cover of John Lennon’s “Oh My Love.”
It’s time for the latest edition of Feedback Loop! We discuss the dark and sometimes disappointing side of crowdfunding, ponder whether passwords are dying, look for point-and-shoot camera suggestions, share the cheapest ways to get HBO and talk…
Last week, Lake Mead dropped to the lowest levels since the reservoir was filled upon the completion of the Hoover Dam in the 1930s. The Southwest has remained in the grips of an everlasting drought for the past 14 years, forcing waters down more than 130 feet since a high-water mark was last reached in 2000.
As entire marinas run dry, the Bureau of Reclamation fears that an ongoing drought could force the agency to declare a shortage by 2017, which could ultimately affect the more than 40 million people that rely on Lake Mead for water. Take a look at some startling photos of the nation’s largest reservoir, now just 39 percent full, below.
PHOENIX (AP) — Showtime Shoni had quite the All-Star debut.
Shoni Schimmel, a rookie who doesn’t even start for her own team, put on a record-breaking performance — scoring 29 points to help the East beat the West 125-124 on Saturday in the first WNBA All-Star game to go to overtime. Hitting big shot after big shot in the fourth quarter and overtime, including a behind-the-head flip over 6-foot-8 Brittney Griner, Schimmel gave the fans a great show.
Schimmel’s only averaging 7.1 points in limited time for Atlanta, yet she was voted in as an All-Star starter because of a huge Native American following she has. With 17 family members — the boys wearing “Rez Ball Rules” t-shirts, cheering her on — Schimmel earned MVP honors.
“Being Native American, it’s a huge accomplishment to go out there and be in the WNBA,” Schimmel said. “To have the fans look up to me and to a role model not only for my siblings but also the Native American fans, the Native American people. It’s huge. I take on my shoulders because I enjoy it.”
Tamika Catchings, an All-Star for a record-tying ninth time, made a layup with 6.9 seconds to go to give the East the lead and then knocked the ball away from Skylar Diggins on the defensive end to seal the victory. Diggins finished with 27 points and seven assists, leading a furious West rally to force overtime.
Brittney Griner, of the host Mercury, scored 17 points, including the third WNBA All-Star dunk, for the West.
Schimmel, who grew up on a reservation in the tiny northeast Oregon town of Mission broke the All-Star Game scoring record of 23 set by Candace Parker last year.
Schimmel earned her “Showtime” nickname at Louisville. Yet it hasn’t really carried over to the Dream yet. She was drafted eighth by the team and has only started twice. She’s just the third reserve player ever to start a WNBA All-Star game, according to STATS. Any grumbling about her inclusion vanished in an electric second half and overtime, when she scored 24 points.
“It was awesome, just to be able to go out there and play my game, have fun,” Schimmel said, “feel free to go out there and play ‘rez ball.'”
With Diggins and Griner in their second year and Schimmel her first, it was a showcase of the league’s young talent.
“It just shows you the future of our league is so bright,” Diggins said. “…We have vets who have helped us out so much and done so much for our league. You see the passing of the torch, if you will, and tonight was a great example of that.”
Maya Moore scored 24 for the West. Tina Charles had 19, Chiney Ogwumike 15, Catchings 14 and Angel McCoughtry 13 for the East.
Diggins, the WNBA’s No. 2 scorer, had six of the West’s last eight points in regulation, capped by a layup off a turnover with 26.3 seconds to go to tie it at 112-112.
Griner opened the overtime with a layup and Moore’s 3-pointer put the West up 124-117 with 1:59 to play.
But Katie Douglas sank a 3 to cut it to 124-120 with 1:15 to go, then Schimmel made her seventh 3 of the afternoon with 41.9 seconds left to cut the West lead to 124-123.
Catchings’ driving layup and Diggins’ turnover finally put an end to the frenetic contest.
Lisa Leslie, who was in attendance at the game, was the first to dunk in a WNBA All-Star Game nine years ago. Sylvia Fowles did it in the 2009 contest. But nobody in league history has dunked as often as Griner.
The 6-foot-8 center has four dunks in her two WNBA seasons. The rest of the league has six in its entire history. Griner has, two this season, the most recent Tuesday night.
After wowing the crowd with a series of dunks in warmups, she got one that counted with 2:15 left in the first half, taking a pass from Parker and launching from the baseline to go above the rim.
“Definitely wanted the win, didn’t get it, but I think everybody in the stands had a good time, enjoyed the game,” Griner said. “That’s what it is all about, putting a show for our fans.”
Notes: WNBA President Laurel Richie said before the game that six teams finished in the black last season, up from four the previous year. She also said the Golden State Warriors have strong interest in an expansion team. … The Ogwumike sisters, Chine of the East and Nneka for the West, were the first siblings to play in the same WNBA All-Star Game. … Schimmel leads the WNBA in jerseys sold. .
A wave of sadness tore through the internet this evening, as news spread that the original RickRoll’D video was being blocked to YouTube viewers in the U.S. and elsewhere. Fearing the end of an era, I went to the YouTube link and, somehow, it worked for me. Does this video play for you?
Lenovo has waded into reports that it is dumping the small Windows tablet market, insisting that it still has a roadmap for 8- and 10-inch slates due later in the year. Chatter of a withdrawal began late last week, with Lenovo said to have decided to no longer offer smaller models in the US because of underwhelming interest. However, Lenovo … Continue reading
The long road back for California Republicans came into clearer focus in the past few days as the Democratic candidate in the race for state controller was finally confirmed and the party’s little-known nominee for governor took some ill-advised cracks at the only Republican to win two landslide elections as governor of the nation’s largest state since Earl Warren more than 60 years ago.
A month and a half after the June 3rd primary election, former Assembly Speaker John Perez dropped his recount bid and thus his race for state controller, letting his fellow Democrat, state Board of Equalization member Betty Yee, assume her spot in the November 4th run-off election against what may be the Republicans’ only rising star, Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin. Yee finished just 481 votes ahead of the heavily favored Perez in the June open primary, as each trailed Swearengin’s 25 percent of the vote with 21.7 percent each.
Swearengin, a moderate conservative who backs Governor Jerry Brown’s controversial high-speed rail project already had the only shot at preventing another statewide Democratic sweep before the chaotic aftermath of the primary. With all the uncertainty and Perez’s attempt to tilt a recount his way by cherry-picking areas he did well in — a plan that yielded little once set in motion — the lightly-funded Yee has lost several weeks of building a general election campaign as the Democratic candidate. Not that the party organization didn’t step in and endorse her earlier this month, a key cue to Perez to find the door.
How did the heavily favored Perez, from vote-rich LA, get in this situation? Well, he chose to save funds for what he expected to the general election against Swearengin. His campaign was blind-sided on two fronts. First, by the emergence of Republican accountant David Evans, who nearly made the top two himself with a 21 percent showing after running second much of election night. Then by the campaign of San Franciscan Yee, a chief deputy budget director under Governor Gray Davis who refused to back away from Perez.
The reality is that Perez should not have been surprised either by Evans’s surprise showing or by Yee’s tenacity. As a powerful recent Assembly speaker — he just gave up the office to San Diegan Toni Atkins in May — Perez has a platoon of political operatives, advisors and consultants. Yet nobody noticed how the campaign was unfolding.
Swearengin, an articulate former local TV news anchor, found her way into politics as a leader in the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, a regional improvement organization created by then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The party’s sacrificial candidate for governor, former Assistant U.S. Treasury Secretary Neel Kashkari, in contrast, did not find his way into politics via Schwarzenegger. So, despite the fact that he has a few ex-Arnold aides working on his campaign, he has some very negative things to say about the former governor. Kashkari has taken to calling the state’s high-speed rail project, heavily championed throughout his governorship by Schwarzenegger, “the crazy train.”
He also ripped into California’s landmark climate change program, a signature Schwarzenegger accomplishment with global recognition, casting doubt on the effects of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and saying that California shouldn’t go it alone on what is supposed to be a worldwide issue. As fate would have it, he issued this opinion on the same day that President Barack Obama, through the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration, ordered major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, following the lead of California http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-bradley/california-says-welcome-a_b_5433658.html
In a Thursday talk in Newport Beach, Kashkari said that Schwarzenegger failed to reform the state — at least to his liking — because “he needed to be loved.”
Actually, Schwarzenegger spent an entire year of his governorship pushing four controversial reform initiatives, all of which were defeated. He would have been better served had he tried not to do so much. As it was, he later got one of the those initiatives, on redistricting reform, passed on another try. And his administration’s moves served to tee up a successful (so far) lawsuit challenging the state’s very expansive teacher tenure laws.
He also infuriated many Democrats by cutting social programs even as he moved forward on the biggest infrastructure program in decades.
In contrast, Kashari says he is the right man for governor because doesn’t need to be popular, ignoring the fact that you need to have a certain degree of popularity to get elected in the first place.
“When I talk about my need to be loved, I like to point out I’m the guy who ran TARP,” Kashkari gibed. TARP, of course, was the Troubled Assets Relief Program, better known as the Wall Street bailout. Kashkari thinks that was a great success.
And so it was. For some.
More than $400 billion of federal government funds was injected into Wall Street investment firms to keep them afloat after their highly speculative and leveraged projects nearly destroyed them. The program saved the firms, allowing them to keep paying big bonuses to their executives and continuing their business with little interference from the government. It even got paid back, on a dollar for dollar basis, but certainly didn’t make any money for the treasury as would have been the case with a private bailout.
It also came with so few strings attached that the economic recovery which followed during the Obama administration has been marked by a relative paucity of broad-based investment, resulting in a remarkably uneven recovery in which vast numbers of Americans have participated not at all.
Which sounds remarkably like the hollowing out of the middle class that Kashkari ludicrously blames on Jerry Brown.
I would say that Kashkari can’t possibly believe that he can run against Jerry Brown on the Wall Street bailout, but I’ve noted his extraordinary ignorance before.
The reality is that he is a bog standard corporate conservative. To him, a tough choice is one that doesn’t hurt the elite. He’s also a decidedly down-wing candidate, in that he rejects the sort of signature programs of future-oriented candidates of civilizational uplift, i.e., “up-wing” politicians like Schwarzenegger, such as renewable energy, climate change, and high-speed rail.
Instead, Kashkari sticks to big business as usual while he pretends that the only real problems in the state are caused by public employee unions.
If Kashkari was smart, he would study Schwarzenegger’s two campaigns for governor for clues on how to be a successful candidate in California without being a liberal Democrat.
Otherwise, he is just an occasional minor noise-maker in Jerry Brown’s latest political parade.
Brown delivered this rousing, largely extemporaneous keynote address last week at the annual InterSolar North America conference in San Francisco. Brown, who championed one of the first major solar programs back in 1975, when solar collectors were used for heating water rather than producing electricity with the latter still a phenomenon of the space program, declared solar energy one of the keys to a more just world. But he warned that, despite the vast progress on renewable energy achieved in California, the state still has not achieved a sustainable economy. Yet.
Speaking of which, Brown — who solved the state’s chronic operating budget crisis by continuing Schwarzenegger’s budget cuts, adding more of his own, and then raising some taxes on the clients of the firms bailed out by Kashkari’s claim to fame — got some more good news recently, this time about the high-speed rail project. First, longtime Atlantic writer James Fallows launched a series of articles supporting California’s high-speed rail program as an historic project after the fashion of the Erie Canal, the transcontinental railroad, the interstate highway system, even the Silk Road.
The Silk Road? Really? Well, let’s not get too carried away.
Then more signs emerged that the bullet train is getting on course. Brown’s decision to dedicate a portion of the annual proceeds from the state’s greenhouse gas cap-and-trade market has triggered new interest in potential private investments in the project.
Meanwhile, demolition work has begun in the Fresno area to clear the way for the first length of track.
I bet Kashkari ends up getting involved in this when he’s back in the investment banking business.
Something is changing in the most conservative corner of conservative South Carolina. Some tea-party Republicans and evangelical Christians are softening toward immigration.
PARIS (AP) — Police clashed on Saturday with thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters who defied a ban on a Paris demonstration over the Israeli offensive in Gaza. More than 30 people were arrested and it wasn’t immediately clear if there were injuries.
Some protesters threw stones and other objects at riot police, who responded with tear gas in an hours-long confrontation in a working class neighborhood, which had been designated as the starting point of the banned march. Hundreds of riot police stopped the protesters from marching, but several demonstrators climbed onto a building under construction and burned an Israeli flag. Others waved a Palestinian flag from atop a street sign.
The protest degenerated into running battles with police, and at least 33 protesters were arrested, a figure likely to increase, police said.
French authorities had banned the planned pro-Palestinian march after a protest on July 13 turned violent, with two synagogues attacked.
A group of protesters dispersed by the tear gas still managed to hang banners reading “Palestine Will Live” and “Israel Assassins” in front of Montmartre’s famed basilica.
Fighting in the Middle East has enflamed tensions in France, home to Western Europe’s largest Muslim and Jewish populations. Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was in the Mideast on Saturday in a bid to help open the way to a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant group which runs the Gaza Strip.
This weekend is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission , when man first set foot on the moon, but Buzz Aldrin just tipped us off to another of his many accomplishments: He took the world’s first space selfie back in 1966. Eat your heart out, Instagram.
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