Photo, above: school of dolphins. See: 9:50PM report, below.

The brain of an adult bottlenose dolphin is about 25% heavier than the average human adult's brain.

At the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Mississippi, Kelly the dolphin has built up quite a reputation. All the dolphins at the institute are trained to hold onto any litter that falls into their pools until they see a trainer, when they can trade the litter for fish. In this way, the dolphins help to keep their pools clean.

Kelly has taken this task one step further. When people drop paper into the water she hides it under a rock at the bottom of the pool. The next time a trainer passes, she goes down to the rock and tears off a piece of paper to give to the trainer. After a fish reward, she goes back down, tears off another piece of paper, gets another fish, and so on. This behaviour is interesting because it shows that Kelly has a sense of the future and delays gratification. She has realised that a big piece of paper gets the same reward as a small piece and so delivers only small pieces to keep the extra food coming. She has, in effect, trained the humans.

Her cunning has not stopped there. One day, when a gull flew into her pool, she grabbed it, waited for the trainers and then gave it to them. It was a large bird and so the trainers gave her lots of fish. This seemed to give Kelly a new idea. The next time she was fed, instead of eating the last fish, she took it to the bottom of the pool and hid it under the rock where she had been hiding the paper. When no trainers were present, she brought the fish to the surface and used it to lure the gulls, which she would catch to get even more fish. After mastering this lucrative strategy, she taught her calf, who taught other calves, and so gull-baiting has become a hot game among the dolphins.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-host: John Avlon, CNN and Newsweek International

Monday 905P Eastern Time (605P Pacific Time):   Jodi Schneider, Bloomberg chief tax analyst, in re:  fiscal hang gliding, debt sealing. No deal exists.

Monday 920P Eastern Time (620P Pacific Time):   .John Avlon, in re: seven-mile beach front south of Brooklyn, the Rockaways. The Rockaways were hardest-hit by the storm Sandy in New York. A hundred years ago this was one of the swellest summer resorts in the country.  Herman Melville wrote of it. The area has been on the downturn ever since; this is a superb opportunity for massive renewal.  New York has 578 miles of beach front – more than Rhode Island does – yet we’ve cut ourselves off from it for many  years. We dredged the harbor (and incidentally allowed the oyster beds to be destroyed), thereby leaving New York open to storm surges.  Bedloe's Island, Statue of Liberty island, was originally an oyster bed.

Monday 935P Eastern Time (635P Pacific Time):   .Eric Trager, Washington Institute, in re: given the Muslim Brotherhood's structure and outlook, President Mohamed Morsi's power grab on Thursday shouldn't have surprised anyone. Two years past Tahrir Square, we see a plain-spoken, Anglophone Muslim Brother, Mohamed Morsi; praised by White House for his intervention in the war, on Friday announced sweeping mandates that  are intended to put him above the law.  Welcome, new tyrant.  Insulated himself from any judicial or legal oversight; this is after full legislation and constitution-writing authority Constitution committee cannot be dissolved. He also has the authority to "take any action necessary to complete the revolution." All this was predicted. How'd so many people manage not to see it coming? "Throughout the Arab world there are no nations, only tribes - except one: Egypt." Was the White House caught unawares??   Caveat the coming parliamentary elections: members of the non-MB parties.  Also, IMF deeds may soon engender protests. This power grab may mobilize the non-Islamists more swiftly than was expected.  What Obama should be doing is using US support of IMF to force Morsi to back down; otherwise, only a matter of time before the MB/Ikhwan turns against he US.  Graffiti on Cairene walls: violent, anti-US, anti-Jewish, vulgar and violent inscriptions. MB has embraced so many elements of Fascist ideology. Obama has well supported Morsi; because there's no effective domestic counter to Morsi can turn him around only internationally. Egypt's economy is struggling, so he'll need the West. We need to explain that our aid is not charity, it's an investment in democracy. Only.   No sign yet that Obama is willing to do this.

Monday 950P Eastern Time (650P Pacific Time):    Robbie Brown, NYT, in re:  the murder of six dolphins in the Gulf since summer, the NOAA investigation. What are the clues, motive, opportunity, hotlines, reward sites? Encephalization (brain-measuring) scale: dolphins are almost highest, next to humans.  Seven hundred dolphins found dead since 2007; six cases since the summer had bullet holes, severed fins, stab wounds, sawed-off jaw. Murdered by humans. They wash ashore, show up in marshes.  NOAA has been tallying. Marine Animal Protections Act of 1972 includes pinnipeds. Depend on the public calling in with information and tips. Also doing crime lab analyses. Alabama: stabbed; Louisiana and Mississippi: shot.  Under the Act, fine up to $100K plus a year in jail for every dolphin killed. $30,000 reward.  800 number at NOAA. Paul Watson has offered $20,00o; also two additional $5,00 rewards.

Monday 1005P (705P Pacific Time):   .John Fund, National Review Online, and Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,  in re: SZ: Rice nomination?  She's aggressive and rubs many people the wrong way, evinces inappropriate behavior for her position; in effect, lacks polish. The nation's top dip?

JA:  Gerrymandering. Directly about the rigged system of redistricting.  The vote was very close – 200,000 out of __ million. Thirty per cent of ___  = majority of seats with a minority of votes.

Engraving, below: The Drunkard's Progress

Monday 1020P (720P Pacific Time):   . continued: Prohibition – hooch was the nation's fifth-largest industry; Wickersham Commission - began in the late 1800s, came to fruition in 1920s. Obamacare (began 1912 with Teddy Roosevelt: "Healthcare for all."): Illegal to arrogate state resources to accomplish federal goals – which is what the health exchanges do.   Nationalized health care works in Britain. The efficacy of the Affordable Care Act is still unclear to us.  JA:  I don’t subscribe to the Cloward-Piven notion that it's been set up to fail and so inevitably lead to single payer.

Monday 1035P (735P Pacific Time):   .  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Abbas heads to NY ahead of UN statehood bid.  I was just in the region yesterday: everything is interrelated; can't look at what Morsi did, even though it was a domestic move, without considering widespread ramifications.  Different interpretations of what he pledged w jurists today but kept his prerogatives. A lot of the agreement that led to the ceasefire depended on Sgyo[tinas; stopping Hamas smuggling. If he divides all groups, can't implement.  Will give Hamas greater leverage if he's weak at home.  Note; Both Hamas an Ikhwan are devoted to destroying everything that run against his thinking: all opinions are not to contradict MB. Morsi was never a democrat this power grab is consistent with his stripping generals of power, then fired 50 editors, TV producers, in one day; similar to Erdogan in Turkey.   The hitherto silent secularists have mobilized.   Sinai is a mess: just blew up two of Morsi's new police stations. Weapons en route by truck to Gaza. Army's voice has been neutralized, but it might come back and be decisive again, as there's a lot of unrest in the military. Ship intercepted this morning  by Egyptian forces. Attempt to bring in Farjr-3s and Fajr-5s, but Egypt may not like that. Mfrs their own UAVs. Iran-Sudan- Egypt-Sinai route still feasible? And how about the tunnels?  The Israeli-built fence has worked well. The Bedouin are enraged at the Egyptians for usurping their space, but at the same time are increasingly radicalized.  White House has huge stake in Morsi's success; as long a Hamas retains its ideological orientation, unacceptance of the state of Israel, the agreement will have to break down.   JB: Hamas is a terrorist predator: when it says "truce," it means re-arm.

Monday 1050P (750P Pacific Time):   .Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re US has formally notified the Portuguese govt that it will abandon its base in the Azores.  Will be a ghost base, remove our US staff, use only 10% of the Portuguese staff – sending it into a downward economic spiral – so they have to invite in another country:  Chinese are about to move into the Azores: cover the mouth o the Med, and able to control routes to the US, which is suddenly  closer than Pearl Harbor is to Japan .

Landed J15 on the Liaoning, their aircraft carrier, which now is operational. Development much faster than everyone thought. Japan is cautiously raising its military profile (read: going on to a war footing).  China has said it'll flood the Senkaku waters with craft, continuing to violate Japan's territorial waters.  This easily could trigger the US treaty with Japan. Arms race in East China Sea and in South China Sea. Operational aircraft carrier  alarms all neighbors, who're buying aircraft to sink the ship.   

Monday 1105P (805P Pacific Time):   Reza Kahlili, author, A Time to Betray, in re: Teheran is elated by the Obama re-election; why? What do we know of backchannel negotiations? What of testing?  What of ambitions of Teheran for the spring?

Monday 1120P (820P Pacific Time):   Seb Gorka, FDD, in re: Morsi shows the hand of the autocrat, railing against “Mubarak loyalists” in his power grab over the judiciary. What does this resemble in Eastern Europe?

Monday 1135P (835P Pacific Time):   . Ajax, the Dutch, the War: The Strange Tale of Soccer During Europe's Darkest Hour by Simon Kuper; 1 of 2

Monday 1150P (850P Pacific Time):   . Ajax, the Dutch, the War: The Strange Tale of Soccer During Europe's Darkest Hour by Simon Kuper; 2 of 2

 

Monday/Tues 1205A (905 Pacific Time):   Jodi Schneider, Bloomberg chief tax analyst, in re:  fiscal hang gliding, debt sealing. No deal exists.  

Monday/Tues  1220A (920 Pacific Time):   John Avlon, in re: seven-mile beachfront south of Brooklyn, the Rockaways. The Rockaways were hardest-hit by the storm Sandy in New York. A hundred years ago this was one of the swellest summer resorts in the country.  Herman Melville wrote of it. The area has been on the downturn ever since; this is a superb opportunity for massive renewal.  New York has 578 miles of beach front – more than Rhode Island does – yet we’ve cut ourselves off from it for many  years. We dredged the harbor (and incidentally allowed the oyster beds to be destroyed), thereby leaving New York open to storm surges.  Bedloe's Island, Statue of Liberty island, was originally an oyster bed.  

Monday/Tues  1235A (935P Pacific Time):   Eric Trager, Washington Institute, in re: given the Muslim Brotherhood's structure and outlook, President Mohamed Morsi's power grab on Thursday shouldn't have surprised anyone. Two years past Tahrir Square, we see a plain-spoken, Anglophone Muslim Brother, Mohamed Morsi; praised by White House for his intervention in the war, on Friday announced sweeping mandates that  are intended to put him above the law.  Welcome, new tyrant.  Insulated himself from any judicial or legal oversight; this is after full legislation and constitution-writing authority Constitution committee cannot be dissolved. He also has the authority to "take any action necessary to complete the revolution." All this was predicted. How'd so many people manage not to see it coming? "Throughout the Arab world there are no nations, only tribes - except one: Egypt." Was the White House caught unawares??   Caveat the coming parliamentary elections: members of the non-MB parties.  Also, IMF deeds may soon engender protests. This power grab may mobilize the non-Islamists more swiftly than was expected.  What Obama should be doing is using US support of IMF to force Morsi to back down; otherwise, only a matter of time before the MB/Ikhwan turns against the US.  Graffiti on Cairene walls: violent, anti-US, anti-Jewish, vulgar and violent inscriptions. MB has embraced so many elements of Fascist ideology. Obama has well supported Morsi; because there's no effective domestic counter to Morsi can turn him around only internationally. Egypt's economy is struggling, so he'll need the West. We need to explain that our aid is not charity, it's an investment in democracy. Only.   No sign yet that Obama is willing to do this. 

Monday/Tues  1250A  (950P Pacific Time): Exeunt.   Elizabeth Rosenthal, NYT, in re: Effort to Curb Coolant Falters, Sometimes at Home  The United States has pressed poor countries to pick up the pace in eliminating the harmful HCFC-22, but it still has 140 million central air units running on the gas.

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Music (using New York City broadcast times)  

9:00 hour:    Three Musketeers; Painted Veil.

10:00 hour:   The Raid; Call of Duty, modern warfare.

11:00 hour:    The Raid; Call of Duty, modern warfare; The Pacific.

midnight hour:   Three Musketeers; Painted Veil. 

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