Friday Notes
Bettyann Holtzmann Kevles,"The Interplay of Art and Science," Scientific American, May, reviews Martin Kemp, Leonardo da Vinci: Experience, Experiment and Design and Kemp, Seen/Unseen: Art, Science and Intuition from Leonardo to the Hubble Telescope.
"The Tory Atlas of the World," Strange Maps, 17 April, suggests a certain point of view. If you have trouble seeing detail, scroll down to the commentary below or left click on the image. Here is the map in higher resolution.
Michael Dirda,"Part genius, part holy man: the life behind science's most beautiful mind," Washington Post, 15 April, reviews Walter Isaacson's Einstein: His Life and Universe and Jurgen Neffe's Einstein: A Biography.
Now that the three Duke lacrosse players are officially declared innocent of all charges against them, will the nation's newspapers,"Sixty Minutes", and, above all, the lacrosse-bloggers turn their attention to similar cases of prosecutorial misconduct? At Outside Report, my virtual son, Chris Richardson, names case after case in which exculpatory DNA evidence was ignored and district attorneys withheld crucial evidence from defense attorneys.
Some absurd reactions to the Virginia Tech murders:
George Bush's cliche about the victims:"They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time." Exactly wrong, yourself, George. They were in class, doing what students and teachers do. You should have tried it more regularly.
Some solutions to campus terrorism: Eugene Volokh says"Arm the teachers!" Aeon J. Skoble says"Arm the students!" Both great ideas for improving classroom dynamics. Do you understand why I prefer to read Chris Bray, Tim Burke, and Nathanael Robinson?
New Kid on the Hallway responds to Alan Allport and me. We all wish her the very best.