Marie NDiaye has become the first black woman to win France's leading literary prize, the Goncourt. The 42-year-old was honoured for her novel Trois Femmes Puissantes (Three Powerful Women), a saga set in both Africa and Europe. Frenchwoman NDiaye, whose father is Senegalese and mother French, said: "This prize is an unexpected reward for 25 years of persistence."
The 42-year-old was honoured for her novel Trois Femmes Puissantes (Three Powerful Women), a saga set in both Africa and Europe.
Frenchwoman NDiaye, whose father is Senegalese and mother French, said: "This prize is an unexpected reward for 25 years of persistence."
Twenty years after that shameful symbol of division was torn down, ultra-liberal capitalism needs its own perestroikaTwenty years have passed since the fall of the Berlin wall, one of the shameful symbols of the cold war and the dangerous division of the world into opposing blocks and spheres of influence. Today we can revisit the events of those times and take stock of them in a less emotional and more rational way.The first optimistic observation to be made is that the announced "end of history" has not come about, though many claimed it had. But neither has the world that many politicians of my generation trusted and sincerely believed in: one in which, with the end of the cold war, humankind could finally forget the absurdity of the arms race, dangerous regional conflicts, and sterile ideological disputes, and enter a golden century of collective security, the rational use of material resources, the end of poverty and inequality, and restored harmony with nature.Another important consequence of the end of the cold war is the realisation of one of the central postulates of New Thinking: the interdependence of extremely important elements that go to the very heart of the existence and development of humankind. This involves not only processes and events occurring on different continents but also the organic linkage between changes in the economic, technological, social, demographic and cultural conditions that determine the daily existence of billions of people on our planet. In effect, humankind has started to transform itself into a single civilisation.
Twenty years have passed since the fall of the Berlin wall, one of the shameful symbols of the cold war and the dangerous division of the world into opposing blocks and spheres of influence. Today we can revisit the events of those times and take stock of them in a less emotional and more rational way.
The first optimistic observation to be made is that the announced "end of history" has not come about, though many claimed it had. But neither has the world that many politicians of my generation trusted and sincerely believed in: one in which, with the end of the cold war, humankind could finally forget the absurdity of the arms race, dangerous regional conflicts, and sterile ideological disputes, and enter a golden century of collective security, the rational use of material resources, the end of poverty and inequality, and restored harmony with nature.
Another important consequence of the end of the cold war is the realisation of one of the central postulates of New Thinking: the interdependence of extremely important elements that go to the very heart of the existence and development of humankind. This involves not only processes and events occurring on different continents but also the organic linkage between changes in the economic, technological, social, demographic and cultural conditions that determine the daily existence of billions of people on our planet. In effect, humankind has started to transform itself into a single civilisation.
The Portland City Council today approved agreements that will allow the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation to move ahead with plans for a new facility housing three historic steam locomotives. The agreements include approval of a loan of as much as $1 million to help the foundation buy land near the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.
The agreements include approval of a loan of as much as $1 million to help the foundation buy land near the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.
The Oregonian: Portland's locomotives will get new $3.5 million home
Doyle McCormack, president of the nonprofit foundation, a consortium of railroad history groups, said the Union Pacific's need for space in the Southeast Portland rail yard necessitated the move. But he said it will finally allow people to get close to the engines. "This is history," said McCormack, 66. "These are the machines that made America." ... The foundation has been negotiating with the railroad for about four years on land near OMSI and was close to closing on the property when TriMet decided it needed the land for the planned eastside streetcar line. The transit agency and the foundation worked out a straight trade. The foundation next year will get a larger piece of property to the southeast, under the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard viaduct, for its new roundhouse. Timing is critical, McCormack said. The foundation will have about a year after that deal is done late next year to move the locomotives. It will be worth the effort, he said. "When you fire one of these things up, it's the closest that man has come to creating life," he said. "Each one has a personality. They're warm. They have a heartbeat. "That's the magic that the people of Portland should have the right to experience."
"This is history," said McCormack, 66. "These are the machines that made America."
...
The foundation has been negotiating with the railroad for about four years on land near OMSI and was close to closing on the property when TriMet decided it needed the land for the planned eastside streetcar line. The transit agency and the foundation worked out a straight trade.
The foundation next year will get a larger piece of property to the southeast, under the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard viaduct, for its new roundhouse. Timing is critical, McCormack said. The foundation will have about a year after that deal is done late next year to move the locomotives.
It will be worth the effort, he said. "When you fire one of these things up, it's the closest that man has come to creating life," he said. "Each one has a personality. They're warm. They have a heartbeat.
"That's the magic that the people of Portland should have the right to experience."
Yay!
The Ridgeway is the oldest continuously used road in Europe, dating back to the Stone Age. Situated in southern England, built by our Neolithic ancestors, it's at least 5,000 years old, and may even have existed when England was still connected to continental Europe, and the Thames was a tributary of the Rhine. Once it probably ran all the way from Dorset in the southwest to Lincolnshire in the northeast, following the line of an escarpment -- a chalk ridge rising from the land -- that diagonally bisects southern England. Long ago it wasn't just a road, following the high ground, away from the woods and swamps lower down, but a defensive barrier, a bulwark against marauders from the north, whomever they may have been. At some point in the Bronze Age (perhaps around 2,500 B.C.), a series of forts were built -- ringed dikes protecting villages -- so the whole thing became a kind of prototype of Hadrian's Wall in the north of England... The Ridgeway of today is 87 miles long. But about half of that is a series of footpaths that connect the original old track following the ridge up on the chalk escarpment to the Thames River in the east...
Once it probably ran all the way from Dorset in the southwest to Lincolnshire in the northeast, following the line of an escarpment -- a chalk ridge rising from the land -- that diagonally bisects southern England. Long ago it wasn't just a road, following the high ground, away from the woods and swamps lower down, but a defensive barrier, a bulwark against marauders from the north, whomever they may have been. At some point in the Bronze Age (perhaps around 2,500 B.C.), a series of forts were built -- ringed dikes protecting villages -- so the whole thing became a kind of prototype of Hadrian's Wall in the north of England...
The Ridgeway of today is 87 miles long. But about half of that is a series of footpaths that connect the original old track following the ridge up on the chalk escarpment to the Thames River in the east...
A Conservative MP has been told to stop reading aloud from a Blackberry-type gadget - during a House of Commons debate on anti-social behaviour.Alistair Burt, who represents North East Bedfordshire, read out the text of a letter he had received on the device about Criminal Records Bureau checks. But he was asked to desist by Deputy Speaker Sir Michael Lord, who said the practice was "to be discouraged". The MP did so, but argued it was simply a "letter to me in a different form".
A Conservative MP has been told to stop reading aloud from a Blackberry-type gadget - during a House of Commons debate on anti-social behaviour.
Alistair Burt, who represents North East Bedfordshire, read out the text of a letter he had received on the device about Criminal Records Bureau checks.
But he was asked to desist by Deputy Speaker Sir Michael Lord, who said the practice was "to be discouraged".
The MP did so, but argued it was simply a "letter to me in a different form".
It is a textbook of surgery, containing systematic and highly detailed descriptions, diagnoses, treatments and prognoses of 48 neurosurgical and orthopaedic cases. The papyrus, which is named after Edwin Smith, is now housed in the New York Academy of Sciences. 27 of the cases documented in the Edwin Smith papyrus are head injuries, and 6 are spinal injuries. Each of them is investigated rationally and deductively, with only one of the 48 cases being treated with magic. Although ancient civilizations are generally regarded as primitive, the Smith papyrus demonstrates that the ancient Egyptians had highly advanced knowledge of medicine. Many of the surgical procedures and concepts described in the document are still in use today, and it seems that the ancient Egyptians had knowledge of neuroanatomy that was as detailed and advanced as that of modern medicine. The papyrus even contains a prescription for a wrinkle remover containing urea, an ingredient of modern anti-wrinkle creams.
27 of the cases documented in the Edwin Smith papyrus are head injuries, and 6 are spinal injuries. Each of them is investigated rationally and deductively, with only one of the 48 cases being treated with magic. Although ancient civilizations are generally regarded as primitive, the Smith papyrus demonstrates that the ancient Egyptians had highly advanced knowledge of medicine. Many of the surgical procedures and concepts described in the document are still in use today, and it seems that the ancient Egyptians had knowledge of neuroanatomy that was as detailed and advanced as that of modern medicine. The papyrus even contains a prescription for a wrinkle remover containing urea, an ingredient of modern anti-wrinkle creams.
An illustrated history of trepanation | Neurophilosophy | Jan 2008
The first specimen of a trepanned skull was found in 1685 by Bernard de Montfauchon at a site in Cocherel, France, but its importance was not recognized. In 1816, a second specimen was found by Alexander Francois Barbie du Bovage at Nogentles-les-Vierges. This time, it was recognized that the skull had belonged to an individual on whom a craniotomy had been performed, apparently years before his death. However, the second specimen was considered to be exceptional, and little thought was given to why the skull had been perforated. In 1839, Samuel George Morton depicted a trepanned skull in his book Crania Americana, but mistakenly assumed the hole had occurred as the result of a battle wound. Although the second specimen to be found was recognized as a craniotomy, the real significance of the skulls had escaped scientists and physicians.
Karlik et al., "MRI and Multinuclear MR SPectroscopy of 3,200-year-old Egyptian Mummy Brain," AJR 2007 (pdf)
"Paleohistology revealed primarily homogeneous tissue on rehydration. All the samples showed residual tissue shrinkage, which resulted in tissues that had hole like artifacts. Despite this limitation there were structural anomalies observed in the solochrome cyanin R- and H and E-stained sections. The exact identification of these hypostained lacunar structures and the thin linear eosinophilic threads is unknown. Furthermore, the silver stain revealed a plethora of staining, with some semicircular structures observed that were similar to those stained with eosin. Again, the exact nature of the structures identified is unknown at this time, but calcification is a possible interpretation." Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
The row between the Government and its scientific advisers blazes on like an out-of-control forest fire. It began with that difficult customer Professor David Nutt, who was chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. He told the Home Office that alcohol and tobacco were more dangerous than the banned substance cannabis, and horse-riding was more of a risk to your health than ecstasy. But he was not content simply to give advice, of course. What he appeared to want to do was to dictate to the Government, and when it refused to acknowledge his infallibility, Professor Nutt started to break ranks and to denounce the country's law on drugs.
The row between the Government and its scientific advisers blazes on like an out-of-control forest fire.
It began with that difficult customer Professor David Nutt, who was chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. He told the Home Office that alcohol and tobacco were more dangerous than the banned substance cannabis, and horse-riding was more of a risk to your health than ecstasy.
But he was not content simply to give advice, of course. What he appeared to want to do was to dictate to the Government, and when it refused to acknowledge his infallibility, Professor Nutt started to break ranks and to denounce the country's law on drugs.
The trouble with a 'scientific' argument, of course, is that it is not made in the real world, but in a laboratory by an unimaginative academic relying solely on empirical facts.
Yes, scientists do much good. But a country run by these arrogant gods of certainty would truly be hell on earth | Mail Online
Going back in time, some people think that Hitler invented the revolting experiments performed by Dr Mengele on human beings and animals. IrrationalityBut the Nazis did not invent these things. The only difference between Hitler and previous governments was that he believed, with babyish credulity, in science as the only truth. He allowed scientists freedoms which a civilised government would have checked. I am not suggesting that any British scientists are currently conducting experiments comparable to those which were allowed in Nazi Germany or in Soviet Russia. But I see the same habit of mind at work in Professor Nutt and his colleagues as made those mad scientists of the 20th century think they were above the moral law which governs the rest of us mortals.
Going back in time, some people think that Hitler invented the revolting experiments performed by Dr Mengele on human beings and animals. Irrationality
But the Nazis did not invent these things. The only difference between Hitler and previous governments was that he believed, with babyish credulity, in science as the only truth. He allowed scientists freedoms which a civilised government would have checked.
I am not suggesting that any British scientists are currently conducting experiments comparable to those which were allowed in Nazi Germany or in Soviet Russia.
But I see the same habit of mind at work in Professor Nutt and his colleagues as made those mad scientists of the 20th century think they were above the moral law which governs the rest of us mortals.
:) In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Originally, the online version of this article had a picture of Hitler next to these paragraphs. This has been removed in the last hour or so.
Where do I begin? Is this a W quote? It has the ring of absolute stupidity. In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
The Army's top generals worry that surging tens of thousands more troops into Afghanistan could increase the strain felt by many military personnel after years of repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. The October suicide figures mean that at least 134 active-duty soldiers have taken their own lives so far this year, putting the Army on pace to break last year's record of 140 active-duty suicides. The number of Army suicides has risen 37% since 2006, and last year, the suicide rate surpassed that of the U.S. population for the first time. The health of ground combat forces is emerging as an element of the Obama administration's review of its Afghanistan strategy. Conditions there have deteriorated in recent months amid lingering political instability and a worsening Taliban-led insurgency.... In response, the Army has launched a broad push to better understand military suicide and develop new ways of preventing it. [?!] In August, the Army and the National Institute of Mental Health said they would conduct a five-year, $50 million effort to better identify the factors that cause some soldiers to take their own lives.
The October suicide figures mean that at least 134 active-duty soldiers have taken their own lives so far this year, putting the Army on pace to break last year's record of 140 active-duty suicides. The number of Army suicides has risen 37% since 2006, and last year, the suicide rate surpassed that of the U.S. population for the first time.
The health of ground combat forces is emerging as an element of the Obama administration's review of its Afghanistan strategy. Conditions there have deteriorated in recent months amid lingering political instability and a worsening Taliban-led insurgency....
In response, the Army has launched a broad push to better understand military suicide and develop new ways of preventing it. [?!] In August, the Army and the National Institute of Mental Health said they would conduct a five-year, $50 million effort to better identify the factors that cause some soldiers to take their own lives.
...redrum redrum redrum redrum... Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
