Monthly Archives: May 2002

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Naturalist

It was worth waiting an extra day for the British obituaries of Stephen Jay Gould.

In The Guardian, Steve Jones hits a wonderful tone of fond respect and acute scientific criticism: “Scientifically, he was — in the eyes of us ‘creeps’ at least — a failure, but a heroic one, in the sense that Columbus failed to find India. In science, failures can be heroes, too – think of Newton after relativity.”

And in The Independent Gabriel Dover argues the pro-punctuated equilibrium case and notes, “He was considered arrogant by some but that is as nothing compared to the tolerance of human differences that formed his personal take on humanness. As has been said of the composer Varèse, it was not so much that he was ahead of his time, but that most people are behind theirs.”

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Naturalist

It was worth waiting an extra day for the British obituaries of Stephen Jay Gould.

In The Guardian, Steve Jones hits a wonderful tone of fond respect and acute scientific criticism: “Scientifically, he was — in the eyes of us ‘creeps’ at least — a failure, but a heroic one, in the sense that Columbus failed to find India. In science, failures can be heroes, too – think of Newton after relativity.”

And in The Independent Gabriel Dover argues the pro-punctuated equilibrium case and notes, “He was considered arrogant by some but that is as nothing compared to the tolerance of human differences that formed his personal take on humanness. As has been said of the composer Varèse, it was not so much that he was ahead of his time, but that most people are behind theirs.”

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“Decisive battle”

Just when I thought things were looking up on a whole range of global issues, Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee tells his troops to prepare for a “decisive battle”.

From what I’ve seen of US media, there’s not much attention being paid to the worsening situation in the India-Pakistan dispute in Kashmir. Both countries have nuclear weapons, and there are now reckoned to be 1 million troops marshalled on both sides in the contested territory. Last night, UK foreign minister Jack Straw accurately called Kashmir the most dangerous conflict in the world today, posing dangers even greater than the Middle East.

Remember MAD — mutually assured destruction? In an echo of Cold War brinksmanship, both sides seem to reckon the other will back down just short of using nuclear weapons. I wish I could be so sure.

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The joys of tinkering 

On Sunday, The New York Times discussed the demise of tinkering, and now Glenn Fleishmann is ranting about the use (misuse) of computers in education.

It is becoming a commonplace to suggest that technology is no panacea for learning — or anything else, for that matter. Although I didn’t become a technologist, I was one of the kids referred to in the Times who assembled Heathkits in my basement, and built model rockets which Larry Berz and I shot high into the sky from a local park. There is tinkering that can be done with computers, but most kids are seduced instead by video games and ICQ.

In schools, things are generally worse, as Glenn points out. Too few teachers have much understanding of computers or the Internet, so either the kids get on with it or the equipment languishes as expensive paperweights. My Daily Princetonian colleague (those many years ago) Mitch Resnick is making valiant efforts to change this, not least with his StarLogo projects. As he said in Davos last year, “Would you rather have your child learn to play the stereo, or learn to play the piano.”

The great remaining hope, as I see it, is the tinkering possibilities of other technologies, particularly robotics. My six-year old is fascinated by Robot Wars (it ranks below Harry Potter, but not by that much), and regularly bugs me to start a robot project of our own. In a couple of years…

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On tour

“Politics at a certain level is pop — you have to get your record on the radio for people to pay attention.” Bono is on tour with US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill in Africa this week, and has some interesting reflections on the parallels between his profession — music — and his passion — helping the world’s poorest people.  

“It will take many visits of this kind to turn it around,” Bono says in the Financial Times. “But if history is made of small increments, this could well be one of them.”

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Honest Rather

Newsnight, BBC’s late-night news analysis programme, had an extraordinary interview last night with US television anchorman Dan Rather (only the latest programme is available, but once it expires, I’ll try to find an archived version. If you want to watch, start at 31 minutes into the programme). Rather admitted he felt personally ashamed at the inability of American journalists to ask the tough, telling questions in the current US climate.  

“We’ve seen a time in South Africa when people had flaming tires placed around their necks for dissenting,” Rather said. “And in some ways, the fear is that you will be necklaced here, with a flaming tire, for lack of patriotism. That fear is what keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions and to keep on asking those questions. I’m humbled to say I don’t exempt myself from this kind of criticism.”

There are also disturbing demonstrations of how war is being turned into entertainment.

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Neuroethics

Bill Safire introduces his readers to the field of neuroethics, the examination of the benefits and dangers of treating and manipulating our minds. Safire’s involvement in politics and language are well known; fewer people are aware of his profound interest in brain science, expressed through his active role in the Dana Foundation. The questions he poses have no easy answers.

“How about a future use of imaging to pinpoint a brain area indicating a traumatic memory — should we expunge a victim’s ability to recollect, say, a rape? Do we outlaw implantation of a memory of an event that never happened? Should brain imagers give law enforcement a “lie detector” far more reliable than the mechanical polygraph , and if so, is the reading of a mind of a resistant terrorist akin to torture?”

And Safire is surely right to say it’s of the utmost importance that discussions about these issues are open and public, rather than confined to a room of experts.

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The corrupters

It’s common for economic and political analysts to decry corruption in the developing world. Transparency International takes a more intelligent approach, focusing as much on the corrupters who come from the rich world. Their latest report reckons the OECD’s efforts to stem bribes is proving fairly ineffective. Rather surprisingly to me, US companies come out worse than those from any G7 country other than Italy.

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Different views

Matthew Engel on US gun laws: “The most famous of the 27 amendments to the US constitution is probably the fifth… The most bewildering is the second.”

Another trans-Atlantic chasm became the hook for the opening episode of a new and enjoyable BBC series, Spooks. The baddies were radical anti-abortionists, led by a fanatical American. Makes a change from drug dealers and Arab terrorists. Incidentally, the BBC has started an interactive game based on the series, which should keep obsessives busy for a few weeks.