Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Scientific American:
The Patent Clerk’s Legacy. Bit of Princetoniana ... Einstein would sail Lake Carnegie, though he couldn’t swim. During the Manhattan Project period, Secret Service agents would line the lake to monitor him ... making sure he didn’t drown.
NY Times Books:
The short story shakes itself out of academe. One of my favorite forms.
LogosJournal:
Cornel West, Democracy Matters Are Frightening in Our Time. If you read nothing else today, read this. Excellent.
NY Times:
Nation’s Charter Schools Lagging Behind, U.S. Test Scores Reveal. “The data shows fourth graders attending charter schools performing about half a year behind students in other public schools in both reading and math. Put another way, only 25 percent of the fourth graders attending charters were proficient in reading and math, against 30 percent who were proficient in reading, and 32 percent in math, at traditional public schools.”
Telegraph.UK:
You too, can be an enlighted reviewer. I have only minor quibbles with this searing indictment, which, though woefully inadequate, will stay with you long after the last page is turned.
Science Blog:
Science and Engineering jobs not just for those with four-year degrees. 1/5 of the market is open.
Chronicle of Higher Ed:
When you say “the Greeks”, what of modern Greek culture do you think of, if any?
Chronicle of Higher Ed:
Presses Seek Fiscal Relief in Subsidies for Authors; Universities would provide money to underwrite their professors’ books. Because of our current era’s pressures to be profitable (at any cost), most University presses have dumped their on-staff editors for freelancers, weighted ‘popular’ tomes over scholarly ones. We all suffer as a result.
Tangential: The Economist, scientific publishing, “Access all areas.”
Chronicle of Higher Ed:
Style: A Pleasure for the Reader, or the Writer? Style in writing as mere fashion. “... there you have a paradigm of style for the rest of us. It emerges when writers are comfortable and proficient with their tools. Style is expressed unconsciously, but shaped consciously, in revision. It is a whispering, not a shouting voice; whether readers discern it depends on their familiarity with the writer and their own skill as readers. The writer himself or herself is aware of it; identifying, developing, and shaping it is one of the main pleasures of the craft.”
New Perspectives Quarterly:
Neural Darwinism. “It is silly reductionism, of course, to claim that you and I are just bags of molecules. But I do not believe consciousness arises from spooky forces.”
The Economist:
Central Europe’s chosen language may end up being ... English.
NY Times:
Maybe “2001” should have been set to the “1812 Overture”. Duh-duh-dee-duh duhn duhn duhn, duhn-dun ....*Bang* *Crash* ...
RedNova:
Well, I wondered, and now it seems research has been done. Studies at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research reveal: solar activity affects the climate but plays only a minor role in the current global warming. “They took the measured and calculated variations in the solar brightness over the last 150 years and compared them to the temperature of the Earth. Although the changes in the two values tend to follow each other for roughly the first 120 years, the Earth’s temperature has risen dramatically in the last 30 years while the solar brightness has not appreciably increased in this time.” Much interesting information within.
Of course, intergalactic magentic fields could be disturbing the Sun and Earth, too. And more background, if you’re interested.
Guardian.UK:
Nutty professors. First step, uninstall Powerpoint.
Reason:
On the fear of overpopulation. And yet, with development and growth continuing relatively unchecked, one can’t help look around and wonder. New Mexico’s very empty, but it’s filling in fast ... in spite of our water woes.
Astronomy:
SF New Mexican:
How to restart a weapons lab. Anyone got a manual?
Discover:
Forbidden Science, What can studies of pornography, prostitutes, and seedy truck stops contribute to society? There’s a truck stop/gas station on the outskirts of Santa Fe where one sees dishevelled underage runaways routinely exiting the cabs of trucks. I was surprised to find this particular gas station has a ‘rep’ in the area. I say a great benefit to society will be realized by this research ... this is a culture that has been running under the radar for way too long. “Smokey and the Bandit” was not a documentary.
CJR:
Panel discussion (RealPlayer streaming media), “Journalism and the War: What Went Wrong?”, with Fallows, Krugman, Massing, Lemann, Gladstone, and Varadarajan. Abridged. Full-length. Good discussion, many illuminating points batted back and forth.
Oh, and CJR has a good piece on CBS and the Abu Ghraib photos ... “Tortured Logic.”
MIT Press/Daedalus:
How not to buy happiness. “If we could all live healthier, longer, and more satisfying lives by simply changing our spending patterns, why haven’t we done that?”
Scena.org:
The Walkman ... thumbs up, or thumbs down? “Then there was the health impact. ENT specialists warned unheeded that prolonged exposure to anything above 93 decibels, could inflict irreparable hearing loss. Pop fans received 105db through Walkman headphones. Cases of deafness were reported in medical journals, as well as aural cavity damage from the insertion of mini headphones. A generation’s ears were physically wrecked.” I seem to recall someone telling me ZZ Top’s “Eliminator” album had been mixed ‘down’ for the bad stereo in cars and Walkmans.
Wageningen University
in the Netherlands has some interesting health research posted.
Globe and Mail.CA:
Is that tetraplegic or quadriplegic? Clearing Latin and Greek roots to reveal meaning.
SF New Mexican:
Lapses at LANL were widespread. Keeping scientists and theorists in line, making sure employees aren’t stealing pencils and post-its, is like herding cats. It’s amazing any such entity is considered ‘secure.’