Except he really hasn’t. According to Timothy Egan of The New York Times, Obama managed to save capitalism in the USA, at the price of losing his party’s majority after the midterm elections.

Suppose you had $100,000 to invest on the day Barack Obama was inaugurated. Why bet on a liberal Democrat? Here’s why: the presidency of George W. Bush produced the worst stock market decline of any president in history. The net worth of American households collapsed as Bush slipped away. And if you needed a loan to buy a house or stay in business, private sector borrowing was dead when he handed over power.

As of election day, Nov. 2, 2010, your $100,000 was worth about $177,000 if invested strictly in the NASDAQ average for the entirety of the Obama administration, and $148,000 if bet on the Standard & Poors 500 major companies. This works out to returns of 77 percent and 48 percent.

He also managed to save the banking system, following the same path as predecessor George W. Bush, without nationalizing the banks, and gave the auto industry a chance to recover so it could make both cars and money again.

Egan continues:

All of the above is good for capitalism, and should end any serious-minded discussion about Obama the socialist. But more than anything, the fact that the president took on the structural flaws of a broken free enterprise system instead of focusing on things that the average voter could understand explains why his party was routed on Tuesday. Obama got on the wrong side of voter anxiety in a decade of diminished fortunes.

In other words, he focused on the nuts-and-bolts of the economy, and not the high visibility items. He went for the long term gains, and not the short term, which for a politician, is pretty rare behavior.

The fact the economy is on the rebound has not yet resulted in better employment figures, so the middle class is still pretty pissed at Obama. Meanwhile, the Wall Street folks are making money, while trying to undermine whatever Obama and the Democrats want to do to help the middle class. Does reforming health care ring a bell? (Ask yourself, who is the most upset by health care reform? It’s probably the people who stand to “lose” some money (as in, “not make as much as before”) — the insurance industry — who have a lot of congressmen and women in their pockets.

Anyway, Egan has some good points. Maybe you’re not a big Obama fan, but I agree with Egan. Obama saved our asses.

The temporary restraining order issued April 30 does not affect existing screenings of the anti-evolution film, which uses a segment of John Lennon’s song, “Imagine,” as an example of “Darwinist” philosophy. Lennon’s heirs filed suit April 24 in US District Court in Manhattan against the producers and distributors of the film, alleging copyright and trademark infringement and requesting monetary damages and an injunction against any showing of the film in its present form.

Expelled is showing in 656 theaters nationally, and has gross box office receipts topping $6 million.

The parties involved in the suit have until May 6 (Wednesday) to produce documents supporting their cases. Premise Media and its co-defendants have until May 14 to argue against the injunction. The plaintiffs, Yoko Ono Lennon, John Lennon’s sons and his publisher, EMI Blackwood, have until May 16 to rebut. Final arguments are due May 19.

Justice is swift, for some of us anyway.

Here is the text of the judge’s order:

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE

Upon the annexed Affidavit of Yoko Ono Lennon dated April 29, 2008, Declaration of Dorothy M. Weber, Esq. dated April 30, 2008, Affadavit of Darnetha L. M’Baye dated April 29,2008, Declaration of Nancy Weshkoff dated April 29, 2008, together with the Exhibits annexed thereto; the accompanying Memorandum of Law and the Summons and Complaint, and all proceedings heretofore had herein

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IT IS ORDERED BY STIPULATION OF THE PARTIES in open court on April 30, 2008 or as otherwise ordered by this Court, Defendants Premise Media Corporation, L.P., C&S Production L.P. d/b/a Rampant Films, Premise Media Distribution L.P. and Rocky Mountain Pictures, Inc. (the “Defendants”), be and they are hereby are enjoined PENDING THE HEARING of the motion for a preliminary injunction from distributing any additional copies of the Movie “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” (the “Movie”) beyond those third party venues which possess and are showing the Movie as of the date of this Order. Defendants ALSO AGREE THAT pending the hearing of the motion for preliminary injunction they WILL NOT MANUFACTURE or PUBLICLY DISTRIBUTE ANY CDs or DVDs of THE MOVIE anywhere in the world.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Plaintiffs will be permitted to conduct expedited discovery. Defendants will produce the following documents on or before _May 6_, 2008: (i) a complete copy of the Movie, (ii) Defendants’ agreements,

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licenses and contracts with third parties in connection with rights and permissions for all musical compositions or “clips of third-party film or video footage, still photography, and any and copyrighted materials included in the Movie; (iii) documents and opinions obtained by Defendants in connection with their use of the song “Imagine” in the Movie which support any defense of fair use or first amendment; and (iv) Plaintiff will produce documents on or before May 6, 2008, reflecting the exclusive administration by EMI Blackwood Music, Inc.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that defendants show cause before the Honorable Sidney H. Stein, United States District Judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, 500 Pearl Street, New York, New York, Courtroom 23A, on May _19_, 2008, at 4:30 p.m., or as soon thereafter as counsel may be heard, why an order should not be entered, pursuant to Rule 65 of the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure and the Court’s inherent and equitable powers, during the pendency of this action:

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1. enjoining and prohibiting the Defendants, their officers, agents, servants, employees and attorneys and all persons in active concert and participation with them, from further use of any portion, or the music and lyrics, in any media, of the musical composition written by John Lennon entitled “Imagine”, or committing any further copyright infringement with respect thereto;

2. recalling for destruction or editing out of any and all references to the Song “Imagine” any and all copies of the Movie from all third-party distributors or editing those copies to remove the infringing Song;

3. awarding to the Plaintiffs costs, attorney fees and such other and further relief as this Court may deem just and proper; and

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, that good and sufficient service of this Order to Show Cause and other papers on which it is based shall be made, via hand delivery or Federal Express overnight delivery, to be received on or before April 30, 2008 at 5:00 p.m. on Defendants Premise Media Corporation, L.P., C&S Production L.P. d/b/a Rampant Films, Premise Media Distribution L.P. and Rocky Mountain Pictures, Inc. c/o Allen C. Wasserman, Esq., Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP, 885 Third Avenue, 26th Floor, New York, NY 10022 and

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, that answering papers, if any, shall be served upon Plaintiffs by hand delivering copies thereof to Plaintiffs counsel, Shukat Arrow Hafer Weber & Herbsman LLP, 111 West 57th Street, New York, New York 10019 on or before May _14_, 2008 at 5:00 p.m.; and

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IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, that reply papers, if any, shall be filed with the Court and served upon Dendants by hand delivering copies thereof to be retrieved by Defendants’ counsel, on or before May _16_, 2008 at 5:00 p.m..
On consent, no undertaking is required for the T.R.O.

_Sidney H. Stein_
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Dated: New York, New York
April 30, 2008

ISSUED: _4:23 p.m._

While the Lennons and EMI Blackwood Music allege copyright infringement and trademark damage, the makers of Expelled claim their use of “Imagine” falls within the “fair use doctrine” of copyright law, which allows critics and commentators the freedom to use short quotations or excerpts from a work in order to write about it. While the film makers obtained permission from other musicians to use their work in the film, they did not however seek similar permission from Lennon’s heirs.

Soon after the film opened April 18, a blogger at The Huffington Post, falsely accused Yoko Ono Lennon of “selling out” her husband’s legacy, which created a storm of anti-Yoko venom in the blogosphere. The adverse publicity forms part of the lawsuit against Expelled‘s producers and distributors.

Last week, Stanford University Law School’s Fair Use Project agreed to represent the makers of Expelled in court.

In an interview with the conservative news site, World Net Daily, Ruloff insisted the use of the song fit the theme of the movie.

“If you really listen to the lyrics of ‘Imagine’ then you realize that it represents everything that the Neo-Darwinists want. ‘Imagine there’s no Heaven … No hell below us … Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too…’ That’s exactly what the Darwinist establishment wants to do: get rid of religion,” said Walt Ruloff, CEO of Premise Media. “And that’s what we point out when we play less than 15 seconds of the song and show some of the lyrics on screen.”

Rrrright … John Lennon channeled Charles Darwin, who wrote a biological theory proposing that we do away with religion. I don’t understand how I missed that connection before.

Expelled alleges that a “neo-Darwinist” conspiracy seeks to quash any debate about the theory of evolution and that evolution — Darwinism — is directly responsible for racism, the Holocaust, abortion and euthanasia. The movie opened April 18 and has grossed just over $3.4 million so far.

Part of the movie includes a short excerpt of “Imagine,” in an attempt to make a connection between the sentiments expressed in the lyrics and the movie’s allegations of this neo-Darwinist (in the old days, it was called secular humanist) conspiracy.

Lennon’s heirs filed suit Wednesday in New York to bar the use of the song in the movie, and are seeking unspecified damages for copyright infringement, and damages of at least $75,000 for damages relating to Ono’s role as executor of Lennon’s estate.

Premise Media insists its use of the short excerpt was within the fair-use doctrine of copyright law, meaning that critics and authors can use portions of copyrighted material without seeking permission first.

Lennon’s heirs, widow Yoko Ono and sons Julian and Sean, and his publishing company don’t see it that way. Their complaint filed Wednesday in US District Court in Manhattan seeks to bar the use of Lennon’s song, which if enforced would require all 1,052 theaters showing the flick to pull it off their schedules and require Premise Media to make new 35 mm prints.

Musical woes are only part of Premise Media’s legal problems. Earlier this month, a Cambridge, Mass., based scientific animation studio sent a letter to Premise Media officials pointing out similarities between its cell animations and Expelled‘s animations, and alleging copyright infringement. The letter asked the animations be removed from the final release copies of the film, which apparently happened.

Premise Media then itself turned around and filed a nuisance suit in Texas against the animator, XVIVO LLC, asking for a summary judgment that there was no copyright infringement and for XVIVO to pay Premise’s legal and court costs.

Neither the Lennon nor the XVIVO suit has been settled yet.

Ono was raked over the coals in the blogosphere last week when a writer for the Huffington Post incorrectly reported that Ono had given her permission to use “Imagine” in the anti-evolution movie. He later retracted the story, but the viral nature of the Internet spread the infamy far and wide. Ono is still smarting from the allegations.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services officials had told Nakwa, a Sudanese “lost boy,” they were denying his application for a green card because of his association with a “terrorist organization.”

Nakwa had been forced to join the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army when he was 12. He escaped, and was granted political refugee status in the US in 2003. He settled in Louisville, where he raised his four brothers and attended Jefferson Community College. Nakwa is now on the dean’s list at Transylvania University.

Check the details at the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Forty years ago today, the very first launch of the Apollo lunar mission ended before the spacecraft left the launch pad. A runaway fire took the lives of three astronauts as they prepared for a test of the Apollo-Saturn spacecraft.

Coincidentally, I screened the movie Apollo 13 for my physics students just last week, originally to focus on the zero-g scenes but later also to educate them. I was surprised to see so few students knew anything at all about the lunar missions of the 1960s and ’70s. So we watched the entire movie.No one died on Apollo 13, but they could have, had fate moved in a different direction. Although it is a tragic concept to appreciate, NASA learns from its mistakes.

Apollo 1 was not even planned as an actual launch on Jan. 27, 1967. The crew was supposed to practice a dry run of launch procedures to see if the Apollo Command Module could operate independently of ground connections. Pilots Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee and Ed White were suited up, running through a well practiced check list.

Their suits — intended to protect them in an airless environment — were not fire proof. The atmosphere in the Command Module was pure oxygen, at normal sea level pressure. The hatch swung inward and was secured by 12 bolts. There was no escape rocket system atop the capsule. In retrospect, one wonders what NASA was thinking.

According to an official investigation, worn insulation on one of the thousands of meters of wire in the spacecraft allowed electricity to arc near a supply of ethylene glycol coolant. In pure oxygen, ethylene glycol (a kind of antifreeze) burns quite nicely. So does aluminum metal, as it turns out, and there was plenty of aluminum and other flammable materials in the Command Module. Within 17 seconds of reporting the fire to ground control, the astronauts were dead. The official cause of death was smoke inhalation — the heat destroyed their suits and air supply tubes.

In the months that followed the accident, NASA changed the atmosphere to a more Earth-like oxygen-nitrogen mix (requiring additional tanks of N2 gas) and lowered the cabin pressure. The suits and the cabin in general were made more fireproof. The hatch would now open outward, and included an emergency blowout device. The wiring was improved and faults corrected.

Those electrical improvements to the Apollo spacecraft probably helped save the lives of the Apollo 13 crew.

Unlike NASA’s other spaceflight accidents, which have all occurred at launch or on re-entry, Apollo 13 suffered a near-crippling explosion 320,000 km from Earth, as the spacecraft approached the Moon.

A routine procedure — stirring the tanks of liquified gas — resulted in an electrical fire near the oxygen tank. The heat caused the O2 pressure to increase, and the tank exploded, blowing off an access panel and rupturing electrical connections and O2 lines. The craft used O2 to power the electrical systems, so the crew soon found themselves with rapidly dwindling power and air in the Command Module.

The details of their survival are chronicled in the Ron Howard movie, and elsewhere, so I don’t need to review them here. One of their worries, though, was how the electrical systems would work once the Command Module was powered up for re-entry.

Under normal operations, the heat of the electrical equipment in the ship and the air circulation system would keep the humidity in Apollo under control. Apollo 13′s crew, however, had to shut off the heat and survive with minimal environmental systems running to conserve power. Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert lived for four days in a cold, damp environment. Moisture from their bodies condensed on the cold equipment panels, so much that Swigert, for one, worried whether closing the breakers would cause the electrical systems on the Command Module to short out and fail, leading to the crew’s death.

Had NASA not improved the wiring and electrical connections following the Apollo 1 fire, those electrical failures may well have happened. After surviving the initial explosion, Lovell, Haise and Swigert would have died in space, by cold, suffocation, or fiery re-entry.

The loss of three lives on Jan 27, 1967, prevented the deaths of three more a little more than three years later.

Rest in Peace, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee.

The new theme is called Sharepointlike, developed by a coder in Bulgaria. The links for “Category,” “Edit this post,” and “Comment on this post” were in Bulgarian, so one of my tweaks was to change those into English for the Cyrillic-impaired.

Then, I had to manually edit the index.php file for the theme to add the Amazon, PayPal and other doodads I have added during the last six months. This part was the post time-consuming, as I do the editing the old-fashioned way: change the code, upload the file, view in browser. Rinse. Repeat as necessary.
Finally, I could not live without my header image, a Martian sunset transmitted to Earth by the Mars rover, Spirit, in 2005. The image is compelling. I have the same feeling looking at it as I did way back in 1976 when the Viking lander sent back the first images of the ruddy Martian desert. I can imagine standing alongside the landers viewing the scenery with my own eyes.

Both bring home that Mars is another planet like Earth, with its own sunrises, sunsets and landscapes. Someday, a future Ansel Adams will be photographing Martian scenery just as the real Adams did in the American West, though perhaps with different equipment.

I still need to fix the counter for Spam Karma 2 at the very bottom of the page, and I suppose other little details will consume my attention in the next few days. In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy the new look.

Yosemite and the High Sierra