Powerline:

Andrew McCarthy quotes the examination of Attorney General Eric Holder before the House Judiciary Committee by Republican Reps. Dan Lungren and Louis Gohmert on the definition of torture. “In one of the rare times he gave a straight answer,” Connie Hair repots, “Holder stated at the hearing that in his view waterboarding is torture.” Lungren wondered: Are Navy SEALS subjected to waterboarding as part of their training being tortured?

Holder: No, it’s not torture in the legal sense because you’re not doing it with the intention of harming these people physically or mentally, all we’re trying to do is train them –

Lungren: So it’s the question of intent?

Holder: Intent is a huge part.

Lungren: So if the intent was to solicit information but not do permanent harm, how is that torture?

Holder: Well, it… uh… it… one has to look at… ah… it comes out to question of fact as one is determining the intention of the person who is administering the waterboarding. When the Communist Chinese did it, when the Japanese did it, when they did it in the Spanish Inquisition we knew then that was not a training exercise they were engaging in. They were doing it in a way that was violative of all of the statutes recognizing what torture is. What we are doing to our own troops to equip them to deal with any illegal act — that is not torture.

Poll Tracker:

The most angst-stricken victims of the recession are Americans in the boomer 50 to 64 age group who have seen their net worth shrink the most while adults over 65 have weathered it better and younger adults, under 49, remain “relatively upbeat” about their future despite the current lumps they are taking in the job market, according to a Pew Research poll conducted Feb. 23 - March 23.

…..

But among the middle-aged, two-thirds say they have lost money on investments in the past year, about 20 points more than the other two age groups and three-quarters say the recession will make it harder to meet their retirement needs. Two in 10 say they lost more than 40 percent in the value of their investments and four in 10 say they lost 20 percent to 40 percent.

Video at Real Clear Politics:

Columnist Charles Krauthammer on Nancy Pelosi’s statement today: “The charge that the C.I.A. lied to her is extremely serious one. She is now at war with the C.I.A., and it has the means by leaking selectively of destroying her, and I suspect it will do that.”

TrueSlant.com:

The matter was first brought to my attention by  Steve Lopez in his column published in the Los Angeles Times. The article so infuriated me that I got in touch with Lela Chick, the building manager of the Chino American Legion Post to learn more about the story. And it is quite a story.

The alleged infraction involves the screening on the TV at  the Legion’s local hall, of two, 2008 fights promoted by King and distributed by his company’s pay-per-view operation.

The lawsuits, asking for $150,000 and $160,000, respectively, were filed in California by King’s company, KingVision Pay-Per-View, and local promoter, J&J Sports Productions.

The Complaints state that the American Legion post was required to get a commercial license from the rights holders (King and J&J) rather than the residential license provided pursuant to the residential account the legion hall had with its cable provider. According to Don King, this violation is due to the fact that the Legion Post was not airing the broadcast in a home living room but in their Legion Hall which King and company characterize as a commercial establishment.

From K-State media:

K-STATE AWARDS EDGERLEY-FRANKLIN URBAN SCHOLARSHIPS TO FOUR HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS

MANHATTAN — Kansas State University has awarded Edgerley-Franklin Urban Leadership Scholarships to four high school seniors who have made notable contributions to the urban Kansas communities in which they live.

Scholarship recipients are: Oscar Rodriguez, Garden City Senior High School, Garden City; Stephanie DeSpain, J.C. Harmon High School, Kansas City, Kan.; Michelle Foster, Immaculata High School, Leavenworth; and Mary Jackson, Shawnee Mission East High School, Overland Park.

The Edgerley-Franklin Urban Leadership Scholarship is part of K-State’s new Urban Leadership Scholars Program, which aims to give students the knowledge they need to address America’s most crucial urban needs.

The $3,000 scholarships were awarded based on community service and high school grade point average.

The scholarship is named in honor of the Paul Edgerley and Bernard Franklin families, K-State alumni who continuously demonstrate leadership and support of service to individuals from urban areas. The scholarship was created in memory of Franklin’s wife, Elsia, who was committed to helping better the lives of young girls in urban Alabama.

Franklin is a 1976 graduate who also was K-State’s first African-American student body president. Edgerley, a 1978 graduate and K-State’s most recent Medal of Excellence recipient, supports the Boston-area Girls and Boys Club and other causes and individuals who work with urban youth.

From K-State media:

K-STATE’S CHAPTER OF PHI BETA KAPPA NAMES RUTH ANN WEFALD AS HONORARY MEMBER

MANHATTAN — Kansas State University’s first lady Ruth Ann Wefald has a new honor. K-State’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa is naming her an honorary member.

Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most widely recognized academic honor society, recognizes excellence in liberal learning and cultural achievement in academic institutions and in the community at large.

“Ruth Ann Wefald’s accomplishments exemplify Phi Beta Kappa’s values, and election to honorary membership is its highest form of recognition,” said Charles Fehrenbach, research assistant professor in physics and president of K-State’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter. “In a lifetime of service she has been a strong advocate for the advancement of the arts, the humanities, liberal education and public cultural life.”

At K-State, Wefald has been a strong advocate for the arts, most notably in spearheading the successful effort to establish an art museum for the university, the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art. She has been a member of the Beach Museum’s advisory board and the board of visitors. She also has been an active supporter of the K-State Libraries, botanic gardens and historic costume museum, as well as the university’s programs in theater, dance, sculpture and international studies.

In the Manhattan community, Wefald has had major roles in advancing local charitable causes, such as the United Way, the Child Care Coalition and the Flint Hills Breadbasket.

Wefald will be recognized at the Phi Beta Kappa induction ceremony April 24.

The K-State chapter of Phi Beta Kappa was established in 1974.

From K-State media:

News release prepared by: Kristin Hodges, 785-532-6415, khodges2@k-state.edu

K-STATE SENIOR FROM MANHATTAN RECEIVES NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP

MANHATTAN — A Kansas State University student has received a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship for graduate studies in physical chemistry.

Michael Reppert, senior in biochemistry, chemistry and mathematics, Manhattan, will receive three years of funding for graduate studies that includes a $30,000 annual stipend and payment of tuition and fees.

The National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship awards outstanding graduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees.

“Valued at more than $100,000, National Science Foundation Fellowships represent a major effort by the U.S. government to invest in the future potential of the best math, science and engineering students in the country,” said Jim Hohenbary, K-State assistant dean for nationally competitive scholarships. “Being recognized by the National Science Foundation really highlights the hard work and talent that Mike has demonstrated during his undergraduate career.”

Reppert is involved in research projects with Ryszard Jankowiak, K-State professor of chemistry, and Virginia Naibo, K-State assistant professor of mathematics.

For his project with Jankowiak, Reppert looks at the primary events of photosynthesis. He is studying the molecular details of how plant proteins and the chlorophyll molecules they bind are able to harvest sunlight and convert it into usable energy. The researchers use laser-based spectroscopies to study electronic structure and excitation energy transfer processes in a variety of complex biological systems, including spinach proteins involved in photosynthesis.

Reppert’s role is to model the experimental data using quantum mechanics and computer simulations. He said the research has implications for a wide range of energy-related issues.

“Existing technologies are not going to be able to support the world’s demand for energy for much longer,” he said.

“Solar power seems like a particularly promising solution to the problem, but the solar cells we have right now are either too expensive or too inefficient to be practical on the type of massive scale that will be needed to replace fossil-fuel sources of energy,” Reppert said. “Our goal is to understand how natural systems like plants and algae are able to harvest sunlight in order to apply that knowledge to the eventual design of high-efficiency solar cells to combat the energy problem.”

His research with Naibo is closely related to the chemistry project, though focused more on the theoretical and computational side of the problem, he said.

“We are working both to improve our current models of the experimental data generated in the lab and to come up with new methods of extracting useful information from easy-to-get experimental data,” Reppert said.

He said the numerical methods the researchers are developing are intended to make it easier for chemists and physicists to obtain certain types of experimental data.

His chemistry research is funded through Jankowiak’s U.S. Department of Energy EPSCoR grant; his research with Naibo is funded through the Center for Integration of Graduate and Undergraduate Research at K-State.

Reppert said he likes that his research incorporates different areas of science and mathematics.

“I think it is a truly astounding thing to see how beautifully the world fits together and how neatly all the different branches of science come together to explain the world around us,” he said. “To me, research is a bit like an enormous scavenger hunt that God set up for mankind to entertain themselves here on earth. Getting paid to do research seems almost too good to be true, sort of like getting paid to do the crossword puzzle every day.”

Reppert will pursue a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His career goal is to work at a university where he would conduct research on fundamental physical and chemical principles as they apply to biological systems.

Reppert also has been a Goldwater Scholar and a National Merit Scholar. He has received the Presidential Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Student in Research and the Phi Lambda Upsilon award for academic performance as a sophomore. He also has been awarded the Presidential Scholarship, the William and Melissa Harold Memorial Scholarship, the Dow K-State Alumni Association Scholarship, the Travis W. Miller Memorial Scholarship, the Jack and Betsy Lambert Scholarship and the College of Arts and Sciences Excellence Scholarship.

He is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Eta Sigma and Golden Key honor societies, and has been a member of the K-State mathematics team. He served as a peer minister for the Baptist Campus Center, is a member of the K-State Juggling Club and has received a black belt in kung fu. Reppert is the son of Jay and Sue Reppert, Manhattan.

From K-State media:

1) Sources: Raju Dandu, 785-826-2629, rdandu; and Greg Spaulding, 785-826-2622, gspaulding@sal.ksu.edu News release prepared by: Beth Bohn, 785-532-6415, bbohn@k-state.edu

K-STATE AT SALINA STUDENTS FIND CREATIVE USE FOR GAMING SYSTEM CONTROLLERS

SALINA — Kansas State University at Salina’s Mini-Baja Team may have a “Wii” bit of success this year thanks to some members of Greg Spaulding’s senior design course.

Spaulding is a professor of engineering technology at K-State at Salina. As part of the senior design course he teaches, students select, define and analyze a mechanical engineering project proposal in the fall semester, then develop and implement the project in the spring semester.

Four of Spaulding’s students teamed up this school year to improve the suspension system for the four-wheel off-road vehicle that K-State at Salina’s Mini-Baja Team designs and builds for competitions. The team’s coach is Raju Dandu, professor of engineering technology.

Before the students could come up with a new design to improve the suspension system, they had to know how the old system actually performed. That’s when they got a “Wii” bit of an idea, Spaulding said.

“They came up with idea of using the remote controllers from the Wii game system to get some key data about the old suspension system,” Spaulding said. “Part of the problem was they needed to sense acceleration, but to do this they needed something wireless and something relatively inexpensive. They found that Wii controllers had all these properties.”

The Wii remote has an MEMS accelerometer, an infrared camera and a Bluetooth communication system that can capture and transfer data via its wireless link, Dandu said.

“The ‘Wiimotes’ were installed on last year’s car to measure the G-forces absorbed and transmitted by the suspension system,” Dandu said. “The students and team members consulted with a professional in off-road recreation vehicles about the suspension analysis results so they could select the appropriate shocks and springs with ease of adjustment for the new vehicle’s suspension system.”

A fifth member of Spaulding’s class who is working on another project team helped the project team with computer interface issues so the wireless data collection would work.

“It looks pretty weird to have these things strapped to the car, but it works,” Spaulding said. “It was a very creative idea and I was impressed. I just got a Wii for Christmas and am enamored of its technology. When my students came up with this application, I thought it was really cool.”

Students working on the project, all seniors in engineering technology, included:

Michael Drach, Hutchinson; Clayton Wonsetler, Inman; Christopher Perdue, senior in engineering technology, Topeka; and Reid Rains, Wallace.

Former K-State at Salina student Justin Kunz helped the team with computer interface issues.

Wired:

It’s part of a sculpture called Kryptos, created by DC artist James Sanborn. He got the commission in 1988, when the CIA was constructing a new building behind its original headquarters. The agency wanted an outdoor installation for the area between the two buildings, so a solicitation went out for a piece of public art that the general public would never see. Sanborn named his proposal after the Greek word for hidden. The work is a meditation on the nature of secrecy and the elusiveness of truth, its message written entirely in code.

Almost 20 years after its dedication, the text has yet to be fully deciphered. A bleary-eyed global community of self-styled cryptanalysts-along with some of the agency’s own staffers-has seen three of its four sections solved, revealing evocative prose that only makes the puzzle more confusing. Still uncracked are the 97 characters of the fourth part (known as K4 in Kryptos-speak). And the longer the deadlock continues, the crazier people get.

UK Telegraph:

Mental arithmetic became easier after volunteers had been given large amounts of compounds found in chocolate, called flavanols, in a hot cocoa drink.

They were also less likely to feel tired or mentally drained, the findings, presented at the British Psychological Society annual conference in Brighton show.

Prof David Kennedy, director of the brain, performance and nutrition research centre at Northumbria University, and a co-author of the study, said that chocolate could be beneficial for mentally challenging tasks.

The findings suggest students who binge on chocolate when revising for exams may gain a real benefit from doing so.

“For things that are difficult to do, mentally demanding things that maybe crop up in your work it could help,” Prof Kennedy said.

The flavanols, part of a group of chemicals called polyphenols, work by increasing the flow of blood into the brain.

HT Jonah Goldberg.  Gizmodo.com:

Building 31 North’s white halls are empty, because it is the middle of the night. NASA interns Thad Roberts and Tiffany duck inside a bathroom, and tear off their clothing. Then they change into the contents of their duffel bags-2mm thick neoprene bodysuits. Like in a bad movie, the suits will help Thad and Tiffany avoid heat sensors armed to feel out threatening climate changes inside a vault. The adrenaline, their attraction, the smell of rubber suits and the fear of failure is almost overwhelming. After pulling on the thermally shielded gear, Tiffany and Thad step back into the corridor, moving toward the turnstile lock that guards their target: NASA’s prized stash of moon rocks.

Julia Duin at The Washington Times:

Nancy Mayer-Whittington remembers it as though it were yesterday; the joy of learning she was pregnant followed by the news that her daughter’s first day of life would be her last.

Nearly 15 years later, she still weeps at the memory of how on the afternoon of Nov. 17, 1994, her gray-eyed daughter Angela lived barely 10 minutes, the victim of Trisomy 18, a fatal genetic defect. Pictures of the dark-haired little girl, robed in a white christening gown, are still scattered about her suburban Maryland home.

She was the first woman her doctor knew who had decided to keep her pregnancy. All his other patients in similar situations had aborted.

“I was so happy I did what I did,” she says of her decision to bring Angela to term. “You get to see your child’s birth and death all collapsed in one time frame. What most people want for their kids is for them to go to heaven. You get to complete that journey with them. As a parent, that is unbelievable. Life is about relationship to God. You know that when you literally pass them from your hands to His.”

Weekly Standard:

The environmentalists aren’t going to be happy about this, but Obama has sided with the Bush administration and decided to “uphold a George W. Bush-era rule under the Endangered Species Act that prevents linking greenhouse gas emissions from facilities to degradation of the polar bear’s habitat, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Friday.”

If Obama had gone the other way, it would have allowed the EPA — bureaucrats — to regulate carbon emissions from just about every industry in the country under the auspices of the Clean Air Act. From the point of view of environmentalists, this would be far preferable to allowing Congress to legislate regulation of greenhouse gas emissions that would be full of holes and possibly repealed in the not-too-distant future.

Principally Political:

NBC pushes anything and everything green for the commercial benefit of parent company GE, so it’s not surprising that they are recycling their own TV shows.

The new show Parks and Recreation is exactly like The Office - only not as good. It’s not terrible, but it’s also not original. (You could do much worse than imitating The Office, one of my favorite shows).

Consider that both are work-place based sitcoms featuring range of characters from the juvenile to the generally morally objectionable. Nearly all of them have dysfunctional relationships with one another. It also turns out that generic, municipal governments and mid-level regional paper companies feature similar office environments in tone and setting.

WSJ:

The U.S Chamber of Commerce said Thursday that it isn’t a big fan of the Waxman-Markey energy and climate bill, whatever shape it eventually takes.

That illustrates two points. Anyone who thought the specter of Environmental Protection Agency regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions would push the business community into the arms of Congress’ current climate bill appears to have been mistaken. And what was dubbed the “starting point” for climate legislation is turning out to be the starting point of an increasingly acrimonious debate.

The Chamber of Commerce outlined the kind of plan it could support-one that protects American jobs, gets developing countries like China to play ball, boosts nuclear power, and avoids trade weapons like carbon tariffs that could boomerang on American companies.

Nick Sloan:

this makes me laugh.

Intelligence officials released documents this evening saying that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was briefed in September 2002 about the use of harsh interrogation tactics against al-Qaeda prisoners, seemingly contradicting her repeated statements over the past 18 months that she was never told that these techniques were actually being used.

In a 10-page memo outlining an almost seven-year history of classified briefings, intelligence officials said that Pelosi and then-Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla.) were the first two members of Congress ever briefed on the interrogation tactics. Then the ranking member and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, respectively, Pelosi and Goss were briefed Sept. 4, 2002, one week before the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

AP:

MOSCOW - A Kremlin policy paper says international relations will be shaped by battles over energy resources, which may trigger military conflicts on Russia’s borders.

The National Security Strategy also said that Russia will seek an equal “partnership” with the United States, but named U.S. missile defense plans in Europe among top threats to the national security.

The document, which has been signed by President Dmitry Medvedev, listed top challenges to national security and outlined government priorities through 2020.

“The international policy in the long run will be focused on getting hold of energy sources, including in the Middle East, the Barents Sea shelf and other Arctic regions, the Caspian and Central Asia,” said the strategy paper that was posted on the presidential Security Council’s Web site.

WCBStv.com:

Tenafly Chrysler Jeep and Dodge of Englewood are two of more than 700 dealerships across the country that Chrysler is shutting down.

“I had to notify just around 50 people today that our business has been terminated, that they no longer have a job,” said Kevin Ormes, owner of the dealership.

Ormes got a courtesy call on Thursday morning delivering the news, and he’s angry.

“Over the past months, they’ve begged us to buy vehicles, they’ve begged us to do everything for them and when it came time to do something for the dealers that basically invested everything that they have, they’ve turned their back on us,” he told CBS 2.

Wash Examiner:

SAN FRANCISCO - Today is the one-year anniversary of a California Supreme Court ruling that allowed same-sex marriage - only to be struck down six months later by a voter initiative that made a ban on gay marriage part of the state constitution.

Supporters and opponents of gay marriage are now awaiting a second State Supreme Court decision on whether the initiative itself, enacted by voters Nov. 4 as Proposition 8, was constitutional.

The court heard arguments on the case in San Francisco on March 5 and must issue a ruling no later than June 3.

Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco, said, “The past year has been a glorious and crushing roller coaster.”

From OpenLeft.com:

From now until 2032, these four groups should make up the following percentages of the electorate (or something very, very close to these percentages):
Projected Ethno-religious % of Electorate, Presidential Elections 2008-2032

Group	2008	2012	2016	2020	2024	2028	2032
White Evangelicals	24%	24%	24%	24%	23%	23%	22%
White Traditionals	37%	35%	33%	31%	29%	27%	26%
Non-Christians	20%	21%	22%	23%	25%	26%	27%
Non-white Christians	19%	20%	21%	22%	23%	24%	25%

The Star:

To ride a bicycle thousands of miles across this country is a daunting undertaking. But so is halving the number of families living in poverty by 2020.

The Rev. Matt Ruhl plans on completing the first task to help achieve the second.

Ruhl, the affable pastor of the Church of St. Francis Xavier in Kansas City, has long thought about taking a cross-country ride. He has scheduled that dream adventure for the summer of 2010 to coincide with the end of his tenure at St. Francis and before his new assignment - and as a way to help Catholic Charities with its goal of reducing poverty.

The Cycling for Change ride, which will include other riders, is being coordinated through Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph. The idea is for Ruhl and his team to stop along the route for community fundraisers.

“I love Catholic Charities and I believe in the mission,” Ruhl said.

“I thought that’s a perfectly preposterous goal.”

To gear up for the big ride, the first Cycling for Change Kansas City ride is being held May 23 beginning at Ruhl’s church, 1001 E. 52nd St. It’s designed for both novice and experienced bicyclists, with 5-, 20-, 40- and 60-mile rides.

This isn’t the first time Ruhl has found an unusual way to raise money. In 2004, he raised $193,000 for his then debt-ridden church by paddling up the Missouri River.

Jim Geraghty on John Murtha:

According to Tom Daschle, an editorial from the Times was what persuaded him he was harming the president and ought to withdraw as the nominee for HHS secretary. Will the editors’ arguments be as persuasive with this bunch of Democrats?