First Cuppa Coffee – March 21st, 2012: Etch A Sketch Edition

History is relative Part One… An extensive archive of the late Albert Einstein’s writings is coming on line this month, and with it, lots of insights into what made one of the greatest minds of our era tick. The old saw about Einstein being a terrible student turns out to be untrue as we learn from viewing the certification of completion of high school; however, he did have lots of problems with discipline and authority.  And there is an image of the manuscript containing the famous E=mc^2 equation written in Einstein’s handwriting, which describes the relationship between energy, mass and the speed of light.

History is relative Part Two…  Historians, scientists and salvagers from The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, are heading out to the Pacific island of Nikumaroro in July in the hope of finding the wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s plane and perhaps even the remains of the pilot and her navigator Fred Noonan. Recently enhanced photographs taken just month’s after her plane disappeared in 1937 show what experts think may be the landing gear of the aircraft protruding from the waters near the island.

The future is relative…   Lost in the journalistic mists of minutiae focused on GOP primary results during the past few days has been coverage of the resurgence of the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York. Over 70 people were arrested this week end in an all day and night struggle between demonstrators and the NYPD.

The future in San Diego, relatively speaking…  Here’s a video clip of the KPBS debate between Mayoral wanna-bes Carl DeMaio and Cong. Bob Filner. Watch it. And, in case you missed this tidbit, the City of San Diego sold the recruiting rights to its tourism business to area hoteliers.  Rumors about the price being “57 cents and a beer with Mayor Jerry Sanders” are completely untrue.

How Romney will win the Presidency... Coming off his big win in Illinois, Romney advisors are gleefully talking about new strategies for winning over voters who may have been turned off by the rhetorical battles during the primaries.   Appearing on CNN this morning, Romney Communications Director Eric Fehrnstrom was asked about concerns that his candidate may have alienated general election voters with some of the hard-right positions he’s taken during the primary to appeal to conservatives. Fehrnstrom’s reply:

Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all of over again.

 Or they could just pass out free booze… A new study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, tested whether low-effort thought promotes political conservatism, and part of the study measured alcohol’s effects on political positions. Researchers found that the higher the blood alcohol content, the more conservative the views on sex, education, and political identification became.  So look for the “free shooters” coupons, courtesy of the GOP, come November.