Thursday, November 28, 2013
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Collateral damage in Riga
After the collapse of that newly built supermarket which
killed dozens of shoppers and three resquers, the president of Latvia described
the tragic accident as “large-scale murder of many defenseless people.” Strong
words reflecting much justified indignation – which also raise the obvious
question: who was the murderer in this case?
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Child's play
This morning, a title caught my attention on the front screen of
the international edition of the NYT: “Sign
of Hope: Children Playing Again.” That sounded quite extraordinary, so I looked
at the teaser beneath. It started with: “The
sight of children bouncing balls and using swings has given at least a glimpse
of normalcy.” The rest of the sentence, though, indicated that the article was
not about what I thought: it noted that those surprising signs of normalcy among
children were on display “even if many are orphaned or burdened by awful
memories of the storm.”
Friday, November 15, 2013
Of mice and humans
A couple of
new neuroscientific studies were presented the other day at a press conference.
On the basis of animal models, they were said to “reveal links between social status and specific brain
structures and activity, particularly in the context of social stress.” One such study found
that “adult rats living in disrupted environments produce fewer new brain
cells than rats in stable societies, supporting theories that unstable
conditions impair mental health and cognition.” On reading this, my first thought, of course, was: “Hmm,
how would this finding about lab rats apply to a human society organized around a winner-takes-most
rat race?”
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
The true Copernican revolution
A
slightly abridged version of this should probably have gone on Twitter, but I
don't have an account there. Why? Because I don't want to generate
"content" for yet another smug internet zillionaire; and because I
would probably have 3 "followers" there. Anyway, I was in Torun a few
days ago, in Poland. The old city there is quite impressive - in fact, the
English adjective "impressive" doesn't quite begin to convey the feel
of it. Ouitside of the old town there is, though, a big glitzy mall named after
Copernicus - who was born here 540 Earth rotations around the sun.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
The odds of scientific poiesis
Nautilus is a new journal which aspires to become the New Yorker of science writing - as if there can ever be such a thing. Most of the articles there are, indeed, finely written. But once in a while some overethusiastic prose does seems to slip in. Here is the teaser they emailed lately for an article festooned with the poetic title "The Odds of Innocence":
"Our group of astronomers took in the naked mountains by the sea. We had flown into the La Serena airport at noon, and found a parched landscape. What sparse vegetation there was survived by drinking coastal fog. Sleeping dogs melted in the sun and dotted the sidewalks beneath knotted telephone wires. In the busy town bazaar, an ancient man stood stooped by his cargo, dripping sweat, while two wolfish dogs sat on top of his empty car, a kind of primal security system."
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Nadal über alles?
An
article in the NYT asks if Federer or Nadal is the greatest among the current
generation of male tennis players. What does Nadal have going for him?
Apparently, his “ability to crunch the best numbers
in what remains the essence of tennis, a sport often referred to as boxing
without the blood.” So, he “holds a 21-10 record over Federer”; “holds a winning record over every other Grand Slam
singles champion who has crossed his path as a professional” (with one
minor exception); has the same, this time perfect, “winning record over
every member of the current top 30”; and the list goes on and on: “Nadal
also has the best career winning percentage in tour history at 84 percent to
Federer’s 81. Nadal also has the edge in Grand Slam winning percentage over
Federer at 88 to 86 and in Masters 1000 winning percentage (84 to 77) as well
as a better strike rate against top 10 opponents (69 to 65).”
Friday, November 1, 2013
The joy of lobbying for a good cause
Der Spiegel carries
a probing interview with the spokesperson of the Professional Association of Erotic and Sexual Services – a
newly founded lobbying group for prostitutes in Germany (brothel owners can
join, too, but only if “they themselves are
working or have worked as a prostitute”). Her
profile says she was trained as a precision engineer, tried sex work while
acquiring that kind of education, and has not yet given it up at 45. The new
association will fight a misguided draft law which “lumps prostitution together
with human trafficking,” contains some misguided new restrictions on the sex
industry, and could force many brothels to close down. For this purpose, the
lobbying group will work to correct “the public perception that thousands
of women in Germany are being forced into prostitution.” Instead, the German public will be educated that “there are many
good, clean brothels, and most of the women do these jobs independently and
voluntarily.”
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