Monday
Yet another fast workday. This could be habit-forming.
A little bit of site-to-site hopscotch for the first half of the day. No biggie. Stayed in Seattle letters for the rest of the day… which made it easy to let Julia listen to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with me.

NPR/PRI
News items of interest…

  • Talk of the Nation
    • India-Pakistan – and : One of the guests was Devin Hagarty from UMBC; he’s an assistant professor of Political Science. Do either of you know (or know of) him?
    • Mountain Climbing – This topic came up in light of the deaths of climbers on Mount Hood and Mount Rainier. They asked a few interesting questions here, such as: “Should new/inexperienced climbers have to take some sort of training before attempting a climb?” and “Should irresponsible climbers be charged for being rescued?”
    • Christopher Swain – Mr. Swain on Tuesday (04 June) will begin a six-month swim of the Columbia River, from the head of the river to the Pacific Ocean. He is doing this to raise awareness about the pollution of this (and other) rivers.
  • All Things Considered
    • As part of Lost & Found Sound’s Sonic Memorial Project, All Things Considered features the people and stories of “Radio Row,” the neighborhood that was demolished to make room for the World Trade Center in 1966. The six-square-block area in lower Manhattan once formed the largest collection of radio and electronics stores in the world.¹ An interesting thing about this segment was hearing the nostalgic tones in the mens’ voices as they talked about their pre-WTC shops and neighborhood.
    • P.C. Police – Commentator Jake Tapper is outraged by two recent excesses of the P.C. (that’s political correctness) Police: the New York Regents English exam censorship of certain literary passages, and the decision by the producer of the new Tom Clancy movie, The Sum of All Fears, to replace the bad guys in the book, which included a fanatical Muslim Palestinian, with Neo-Nazi bad guys.²
  • The World
    • Nepal Massacre Report – People in Nepal are marking a grim anniversary all this week. On June 1st last year, 9 members of Nepal’s royal family were gunned down by a young prince, who later shot himself. Among the dead were the gunman’s parents, the king and queen of Nepal. The traumatic events of a year ago have left a deep scar on the Himalayan kingdom, as the BBC’s Daniel Lak reports from Kathmandu.³
    • Afghan Women Interview – Women are hoping to play a role in shaping Afghanistan’s future, after years of living under the repressive laws of the Taliban. But despite some support from the country’s political and religious leaders, the equal rights movement in Afghanistan still faces serious obstacles. Recently, a mullah from Kabul’s biggest mosque announced he’s against giving equal rights to women. His statement reflects the country’s ambivalence towards gender issues, according to Marina Matin of the The Revolutionary Afghan Women’s Association or RAWA.4

And that’s the news from Lake Saline where the women climb mountains, the men don’t wear burkhas, and the children are swimming in the rivers. Goodnight, everybody! Thanks for tuning in!

Peace.

¹,²: From the All Things Considered website.
³,4: From The World website.