The Wilson Quarterly: Star Wars by Tom Vanderbilt

In the days before the Internet, eating at an unknown restaurant meant relying on a clutch of quick and dirty heuristics. The presence of many truck drivers or cops at a lonely diner supposedly vouchsafed its quality (though it may simply have been the only option around). For “ethnic” food, there was the classic benchmark: “We were the only non-[insert ethnicity] people in there.” Or you could spend anxious minutes on the sidewalk, under the watchful gaze of the host, reading curling, yellowed reviews, wondering if what held in 1987 was still true today. In an information-poor environment, you sometimes simply went with your gut (and left clutching it).

via The Wilson Quarterly: Star Wars by Tom Vanderbilt.

A satellite to save Australia? We should have one of those

Does Australia need space capabilities? Well, as Senator Kate Lundy said this month when announcing the government’s new space policy: “Australians, whether they know it or not, rely on satellites every day.”

While this importance is indeed reflected in the policy, now is the time for specifics: to assess national space needs and develop programs to meet them. I want to argue that our most pressing national need is for data on water.

via A satellite to save Australia? We should have one of those.

Life of 3.14159… › Bernie’s Basics (ABC Science)

Most of us know that Pi (or π) has something to do with circles — or a guy in a boat with a tiger. But what’s grade 4 maths got to do with high-end physics?

Pretty-much everything. Pi is in the circumference and area of every circle, and in the volume of every sphere too. And from planets to force fields there’s no shortage of those shapes in nature — so it’s not surprising that Pi turns up in equations describing orbits, rotation and the strength of fields that spread out in all directions.

But the real kicker — the reason Pi goes viral in physics — is because it’s in every circular movement too. And in every movement that could pass for circular in the right light — like waves. From subatomic particles to cosmic background radiation there’s not a lot that doesn’t move in waves, so Pi’s there from one scale of the universe to the other.

via Life of 3.14159… › Bernie’s Basics (ABC Science).

Wet weather creates perfect conditions for fruit flies | Daily News

IF you’ve spotted cups of vinegar lying around local businesses, here’s why.Fruit flies are on the up, with numbers skyrocketing in recent weeks due to wet weather and humidity promoting perfect breeding conditions.Cafes, fruit stores and other businesses selling food are tackling the problem with an apple cider vinegar mixed with dishwashing soap, providing a simple trap for the nasty critters.Jenni Aston from Tweed’s Evergreen Pest Management said to make sure all food scraps were placed outside

via Wet weather creates perfect conditions for fruit flies | Daily News.

The Bottom-Line Benefits of Hope

Though hope may seem like a soft concept, it has hard-edged bottom-line implications for businesses. So says Shane J. Lopez, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Kansas School of Business, a Gallup senior scientist, and a leading researcher on hope.Hopeful leaders get rid of the clumsy obstacles and processes that get in the way.Hope is the basis of all positive change because hope is the belief that things could be better and one can make them so, Lopez writes in his new book Making Hope Happen. That belief can be learned and taught, and executives would do well to keep hope alive in their companies, as Lopez says in this interview.

via The Bottom-Line Benefits of Hope.

Too many nutters spoil political broth

Joke of the week

The Queensland government learns 200 dead crows have been found by a road near Townsville, and are alarmed that it might be avian flu. Mercifully, an expert examines the remains and determines they have actually died of vehicular impact.

Strangely, he also determines that 98 per cent of the crows had been killed after being hit by trucks and only 2 per cent killed by cars. The state then hires an ornithological behaviouralist to determine why the results are so disproportionate. His report comes back in a week. ”When crows eat roadkill, they always set up a lookout crow in a nearby tree to warn of impending danger. But while the lookout crow could warn the other crows by saying ‘Cah’, he had not yet learnt to call out ‘Truck!”’

via Too many nutters spoil political broth.

The Other Resource Curse – By Michael Levi | Foreign Policy

For as long as people have talked about moving beyond fossil fuels, another tantalizing prospect has hovered over the horizon: the decline of resource-rich authoritarian countries and the rogue nonstate actors that depend on them. A world of reduced demand for coal, oil, and gas is a world in which Iran, Russia, and various al Qaeda supporters are significantly weakened. That would certainly qualify as good news.COMMENTS 9SHARE:Share on twitter Twitter Share on reddit Reddit inShare1 More…But visiting Mozambique last week, I was reminded that not all of the losers from lower fossil-fuel demand will be the traditional bad guys. Mozambiques economy has tripled in size in the decade since the end of the countrys 15-year-long civil war, but GDP per capita remains barely over $1,000 a head — and highly concentrated among relatively wealthy elites. Leaders in Maputo, the capital, relied on international aid for 40 percent of the national budget last year.

via The Other Resource Curse – By Michael Levi | Foreign Policy.

Body of evidence : Nature News & Comment

Headline writers and bloggers dusted off their copies of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare this week to gleefully report the identification of the skeleton of King Richard III, found beneath a car park in the English midlands. The fascination with Richard, the last king of the Plantagenet line and the last English monarch to fall in battle, goes beyond the known facts of the historical record; Richard is known as much as the misshapen villain of Shakespeare’s play as the man who ruled until his violent death in 1485.

via Body of evidence : Nature News & Comment.

This really made us rush out and buy a copy of Shakespeare or look up Richard 111. Got our brain cells a hummin’!

Inauguration 2013: Richard Blanco’s inaugural poem ‘One Today’ – latimes.com

The following poem was delivered by inauguration poet Richard Blanco during ceremonies for  President Obama’s second inaugural Monday. The text of the poem was provided by the Presidential Inaugural Committee.

“One Today”

One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores,

peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces

of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth

across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.

One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story

told by our silent gestures moving behind windows.

 

My face, your face, millions of faces in morning’s mirrors,

each one yawning to life, crescendoing into our day:

pencil-yellow school buses, the rhythm of traffic lights,

fruit stands: apples, limes, and oranges arrayed like rainbows

begging our praise. Silver trucks heavy with oil or paper — bricks or milk, teeming over highways alongside us,

on our way to clean tables, read ledgers, or save lives — to teach geometry, or ring up groceries as my mother did

for twenty years, so I could write this poem.

 

via Inauguration 2013: Richard Blanco’s inaugural poem ‘One Today’ – latimes.com.

BBC News – Why kindness can help businesses grow

Do not make tea with boiling water. That is what the Rare Tea Lady told me the other afternoon.

A shocking statement for someone like me brought up from childhood to take the teapot to the kettle to ensure that the tea leaves were woken up by the hottest possible infusion.

“It was World War II propaganda because we had cheap industrial tea,” said the Rare Tea Lady, Henrietta Lovell. “In order to get good flavour out of it, you needed to use boiling water because they say boiling water dissolves the tannins – the strong bitter flavours.”

But real tea has lots more taste than that bitterness, and that is what Henrietta Lovell has built her Rare Tea Company around.

via BBC News – Why kindness can help businesses grow.