In reverse order of importance:
The uncalled-for Total Recall remake barely made more money on its opening weekend than the original Arnold flick… and that’s after 22 years of ticket price increases.
Mike Huckabee sent thousands – perhaps millions – of people to Chick-Fil-A on Wednesday to show support to the fast-food chain that was meeting resistance from mayors who disagreed with the CEO’s stance on gay marriage. Depending on your point of view, it was either a glorious act of unity defending free speech and godly principles and America, or a despicable act of hate towards the gays. Two days later gays retaliated with a Chick-Fil-A kiss-in, but I never heard how many people showed up for that.
Knight Capital lost millions of dollars on the stock market thanks to a bug in their high frequency trading algorithm. These algorithms are responsible for more and more trading these days, and some people wonder if that’s healthy or not.
While NASA waited for the Curiosity Rover to get to Mars, scientists from Argentina attached a video camera to a “Superbird” cormorant for the first time and got some spiffy footage of it diving to the sea floor – apparently nobody knew they went that far down.
The Olympics went on. Michael Phelps broke the record for most number of medals won by any athlete ever, and then won a couple more. Gabby Douglas became the first African-American to win gold in individual all-around gymnastics. A South African named Oscar Pistorious became the first double amputee to race in the Olympics, qualifying for the 400m semi-finals. Guatemala won its first Olympic medal ever, a silver in the 20km race walk.
Ted Cruz won the Texas Republican primary for the Senate race, which he will most likely win in November. The Tea-Party-backed Hispanic came from behind to beat the establishment Dewhurst, and many pundits think Cruz will join the growing ranks of reliable, anti-establishment, small-government conservatives in the Senate.
A new monthly US unemployment report showed things not getting worse but not really getting better. The Federal Reserve continued to indicate that it’s not planning to do much more than it’s already done even though inflation is below target, continuing to tick off a lot of economists and pundits who think they know better.
Some of the parched US got some rain, although experts think it may be too late for some of the crops as corn has surged to record prices, prompting South Americans to plant more of it as their growing season gets underway.
India suffered a power outage that affected 670 million people, easily the largest blackout in history. On the one hand, India’s infrastructure still leaves a lot to be desired. On the other hand, it wasn’t that long ago that there weren’t 670 million Indians with electricity to lose.
The euro crisis continued to trot along with no real developments as the plans and meetings stagger on.
The civil war in Syria continued. Supposedly the defections from Assad’s regime now include hundreds of soldiers per day. Obama appears to have signed a “covert directive” supporting the rebels, who unfortunately (surprise surprise) may have a growing influence from al Qaeda.