To see how much the intellectual landscape has changed, consider the words of President Woodrow Wilson in 1922, asked what he thought about Darwinian evolution. “Of course like every other man of intelligence and education I do believe in organic evolution. It surprises me that at this late date such questions should be raised.”

Compare that with Tony Blair’s reaction to news in 2002 that a state-funded school in north-east England was teaching creationism in biology lessons: “In the end, a more diverse school system will deliver better results for our children.”


How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World

Been there, done that..."The Baghdad communiques are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things are far worse than we have been told... We are today not far short of a disaster". Lawrence of Arabia, 1920, on the British occupation of Iraq

The rebirth of New YorK Review of Books The Rebirth of the 'NYRB'">

WSJ readers say Fox News has "most accurate" Iraq reports
Wall Street Journal
Readers are asked: Which cable news network provides the most accurate depiction of the events in Iraq?
The results at last look, with 3,976 votes:
CNN 1115 votes (28%)
Fox News 2452 votes (62%)
MSNBC 409 votes (10%)

Wall Street Journal #3180.1

There are two main human sins from which all the others derive: impatience and indolence. It was because of impatience that they were expelled from Paradise, it is because of indolence that they do not return. Yet perhaps there is only one major sin: impatience. Because of impatience they were expelled, because of impatience they do not return.

A belief is like a guillotine, just as heavy, just as light.

------kafka

and here is one of his essays.
Kafka: Paradise

But Americans and their allies must understand that Iraq is not a pragmatic society when it comes to religion, culture and sexual mores. It is never acceptable to touch a woman and then come back later to express regret or, worse, offer money. In their culture, Iraqis would accept money and a public apology for the killing of a family member. But in matters of honor — sexual assault, for example — an apology is accepted only when it comes with the head of the perpetrator. Those who are unable to pay such a price had better not commit the offense in the first place. This is why Bush's appearance on Arab TV last week was insulting and meaningless. He can never have enough money to cleanse the shame that his soldiers inflicted upon the Iraqi prisoners, and no words can do this either.

Los Angeles Times: Official U.S. Reaction Compounds the Rage

Bad news for learners :

Researchers (Hayes, Bloom) have shown it takes about ten years to develop expertise in any of a wide variety of areas, including chess playing, music composition, painting, piano playing, swimming, tennis, and research in neuropsychology and topology. There appear to be no real shortcuts: even Mozart, who was a musical prodigy at age 4, took 13 more years before he began to produce world-class music. In another genre, the Beatles seemed to burst onto the scene, appearing on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. But they had been playing since 1957, and while they had mass appeal early on, their first great critical success, Sgt. Peppers, was released in 1967. Samuel Johnson thought it took longer than ten years: "Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price." And Chaucer complained "the lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne."

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