A New to Science Urchin Species

Marine biologists have identified 400 to 500 new to science species in reefs off Australia. Detailed analysis has to be carried out but the newly catalogued species are thought to include 150 soft corals, 130 crustaceans and up to 100 worms. Urchins form part of the class known as Echinoidea (echinoderms) that includes starfish and sand dollars.

A slide show from the Times of London.

A complete overview of new species (zootaxa nova) can be found at Zootaxa. Earlier this month a species of bat was found in Australia. Discoveries of mammalian species are rare and thus highly exciting.

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This is the fifth poll of the critical battleground state of Ohio (link to US census demographic data) and the fourth to show the trendline in Senator McCain’s direction. Two weeks ago, the Quinnipiac poll showed that Senator McCain had a five point lead and last week, the Survey USA poll had McCain up by four. Today a new poll from the Ohio News Organization (a consortium of Ohio newspapers) shows McCain still holding a moderate lead over Obama in the Buckeye state. The poll has McCain leading 48% to 42%. Four percent expressed a preference for independent candidate Ralph Nader and 1% for Libertarian candidate Bob Barr.

In the battle for Ohio’s 20 electoral votes, Republican presidential nominee John McCain holds a 48-42 percent lead over Democratic opponent Barack Obama — but with lots of time left in a volatile race, according to the first Middletown Journal/Ohio Newspaper Poll.

The poll also surveyed Ohio voters on health care, energy, and their personal financial situations — with nearly half saying they are worse off today than four years ago.

The Ohio News Organization — a cooperative formed this year by the state’s eight largest daily newspapers — commissioned the poll. The Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati, which also runs the Ohio Poll, surveyed 869 likely Ohio voters Sept. 12-16, with an error margin of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

While McCain is in front, the poll showed his margin is less than secure. Four percent favored Independent Party candidate Ralph Nader, 1 percent opted for Libertarian Bob Barr, and 5 percent said they were undecided. In addition, 19 percent said they could change their mind by election day.

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The Obama campaign released this ad yesterday tying Senator McCain to President Bush’s scheme to privatize Social Security. The ad is a 30 second spot. The ad is running in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri and Michigan.

From FactChecker.org:

Summary
In Daytona Beach, Obama said that “if my opponent had his way, the millions of Floridians who rely on it would’ve had their Social Security tied up in the stock market this week.” He referred to “elderly women” at risk of poverty, and said families would be scrambling to support “grandmothers and grandfathers.”

That’s not true. The plan proposed by President Bush and supported by McCain in 2005 would not have allowed anyone born before 1950 to invest any part of their Social Security taxes in private accounts. All current retirees would be covered by the same benefits they are now.

Obama would have been correct to say that many workers under age 58 would have had some portion of their Social Security benefits affected by the current market turmoil – if they had chosen to participate. And market drops would be a worry for those who retire in future decades. But current retirees would not have been affected.

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In his home state of Illinois (link is to US Census demographic data), a new poll from Rasmussen Reports finds Senator Obama comfortably ahead by 16 points, 56% to 40%.

No surprises in Illinois as the home state Senator Barack Obama remains comfortably ahead of his Republican presidential rival John McCain.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of voters in the state shows Obama attracting 56% of the vote while McCain earns 40% (see crosstabs) . Those results are little changed from last month when Obama held a fifteen point advantage.

Fifty percent (50%) of Illinois voters say that local reporters will try to help Obama win the White House while 8% believe they will try to help McCain. Thirty-three percent (33%) believe the media will try to remain neutral and offer unbiased coverage. These figures are similar to perceptions on a national basis.

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In the Palmetto State, a new poll by the Charleston Post and Courier finds Senator McCain leading Senator Obama by 22 points, 59% to 37%. McCain leads among men by almost 2 to 1 and among independents in South Carolina, McCain leads by a 18 point margin.

A new poll shows that Republican John McCain might win South Carolina as handily as George W. Bush did four and eight years ago.

McCain had a 59 percent to 37 percent lead in this state over Democratic rival Barack Obama, according to a recent American Research Group poll. Four percent remained undecided.

McCain’s support was stronger among male voters and older voters, but 13 percent of Democrats also indicated they would vote for McCain. Only 2 percent of Republicans indicated they would vote for Obama.

Bush had a strong showing in South Carolina in 2000 and 2004, when he won by margins of roughly 3-2.

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“Following the decision of the national executive committee of the African National Congress to recall President Thabo Mbeki, the president has obliged and will step down after all constitutional requirements have been met,” the presidency said.

South African President Thabo Mbeki agreed to resign after his after the top leaders of his party, the African National Congress, asked him to step down after reports surfaced that Mbeki had intervened in a court case against his political rival Jacob Zuma, pressuring the court to find Zuma guilty of corruption charges. In that decision, Judge Chris Nicolson not only set aside the case against Mr. Zuma on procedural grounds, the judge pointed toward what seemed to be a pattern of vindictive political meddling in the matter by Mr. Mbeki’s government. Once this was publicly revealed, his position became untenable. Party leaders asked for his resignation.

Mbeki will be replaced by another member of Parliament with general elections due in April 2009 likely to moved up. I, for one, am not sorry to see Mbeki exit in disgrace. Mugabe is still in command in Zimbabwe because of Thabo Mbeki, who moved heaven and earth to protect Mugabe. The fight against HIV/AIDS in South Africa was set back when Mbeki questioned what caused the disease. Under Mbeki, South Africa became one of the world’s most violent nations with a murder rate second only to El Salvador’s. Mbeki who succeeded Nelson Mandela nine years did usher in a period of high economic growth but it was uneven and made little dent in the country’s near 40% unemployment rate.

The positive in all this is that South Africa is politically mature and stable enough to withstand the fall of its second President of the post-Apartheid era. The constitutional processes are working. In Africa, that is still a rare occurrence.

Stories from the world press.

Johannesburg Mail & Guardian
New York Times
Times of London
UK Guardian
The Christian Science Monitor

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McCain’s Economic Speech in Green Bay, Wisconsin

Thank you all very much. It’s a great pleasure to be introduced by Governor Sarah Palin — and I can’t wait to introduce her to Washington.

If Governor Palin and I are elected in 46 days, we are not going to waste a moment in changing the way Washington does business. And we’re going to start where the need for reform is greatest. In short order, we are going to put an end to the reckless conduct, corruption, and unbridled greed that have caused a crisis on Wall Street.

Here and all across our country, people are wondering what exactly is happening on Wall Street. And with good reason, they want to know how their government will meet the crisis. Clear answers are hard to come by in Washington.

As Senator Obama’s leader in Congress memorably put it the other day — and I quote — “no one knows what to do.” Perhaps given that reaction, it shouldn’t surprise us that the Congressional leaders of this do-nothing Congress also said that they weren’t going to take action until after the election, claiming that it wasn’t their fault. I am hopeful that last night’s discussions are a sign they have changed their mind and will take action soon. But any action should be designed to keep people in their homes and safe guard the life savings of all Americans by protecting our financial system.

There are certainly plenty of places to point fingers, and it may be hard to pinpoint the original event that set it all in motion. But let me give you an educated guess. The financial crisis we’re living through today started with the corruption and manipulation of our home mortgage system. At the center of the problem were the lobbyists, politicians, and bureaucrats who succeeded in persuading Congress and the administration to ignore the festering problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

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Here are a few articles from both the US and international media about the US Presidential race. Highlights of each article provided with a link to the full article.

It’s Still the Economy, Stupid! Obama Goes on the Attack
By Michael Tomasky in the UK Guardian.

Simply because he’s a member of George Bush’s political party, McCain has the bigger challenge over the next few days. With 81% of Americans believing the country is “seriously” on the wrong track, McCain has to explain why he’ll be so different even though he’s voted with Bush 90% of the time.

Obama has always had more trouble with packaging. He has, if anything, too many policy proposals. He finds it hard to pare them down to three or four compelling points and present them in crisp, short sentences. In US presidential politics, the packaging is more important than the thinking. And next Friday brings the first of the three important presidential debates.

No doubt, yesterday’s poll in Michigan has 73% of voters in Michigan saying the country was headed in the wrong direction and 42% tied McCain to Bush. For McCain, this may be too much to overcome.

Wall Street Woes Benefit Obama Candidacy
By Jonathan Martin & Glenn Thrush writing for Politico.

Wall Street’s breakdown and bailout are likely to improve Barack Obama’s odds of reaching the White House — a point not lost on John McCain, whose stumbles this week seemed to lend credence to the view that economics is not his strong suit.

He said the fundamentals of the economy were “strong,” then he said the economy was “in crisis.”

In politics, perception does not always match the reality. The reality is that Senator Obama is tied intimately with the former leadership Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and has received more funds from these now seized corporations than any other Senator except for Senator Dodd. The reality is that Senator McCain called for reform at these two institutions in 2006. The perception, however, is that this mess is all Bush’s fault and by extension McCain’s.

Betting on John McCain
Economist Steve Landsburg in The Atlantic explains why he thinks McCain’s economic policies make more sense.

Free trade and immigration are my top issues, and McCain wins on both.

These are my top issues for several reasons. First, trade is the engine of prosperity not just for the United States but also for the poorest of the world’s poor. Nothing matters more than that. Second, the instinct to care about the national origin of your trading partner (or employer, or employee, or landlord, or tenant) is an ugly one, and the instinct to care about the national origin of other people’s trading partners—and on that basis to interfere forcibly with other people’s voluntary transactions—is even uglier.

Finally, protectionism, like creationism, requires an extraordinary level of willful ignorance. The consensus for free trade among economists is approximately as solid as the consensus for evolution among biologists, and it is a consensus supported by a solid body of both theory and observation. To ignore that consensus betrays a degree of anti-intellectualism that frightens me.

Free trade and energy are two of mine. McCain scores better on these. On free trade, it’s not even a contest. Obama has not a leg to stand on after his attacks on NAFTA and the Colombian FTA. On energy, it’s impossible to overlook the fact that Obama voted for the Bush Cheney Energy Policies. Contrast that vote with McCain who did not. McCain also undestands that energy independence is a national security issue. (more…)

My former boss, Peter Appert who covers the US Newspaper Industry for Goldman Sachs, must be ready to slit his wrists with the underperformance of his sector. I worked with Peter covering the advertising segment and back then in 2005 it was clear that there was a transition out of print to new media. For the US newspaper industry, the loss of classified ads has been significant. Websites like Craigslist.org or Monster.com have simply taken that highly profitable business away.

Al Jazeera’s The Listening Post looks at troubles facing the US newspaper industry.

This is a chronic affliction – both advertising revenue and readership are shrinking, and newspapers across the country are performing something of a disappearing act. Moreover, US newspapers have seen their share value drop more than any other sector in the media industry, papers are haemorrhaging staff. They are faced with a choice: either migrate to the internet, or die.

The Listening Post goes to California, home of one of America’s oldest and best-known titles, the San Francisco Chronicle, to see if the US newspaper industry is about to publish its own obituary.

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