Let’s end the week on rejoicing notes. The first of which will come as often from the headlines :
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/oct/10/obama-to-designate-national-monument-in-la-area/
American President Obama used federal powers to declare the mountains outside Los Angeles as a national monument to allow them to escape the claws and talons of real estate developers. A good thing for sure since California itself couldn’t agree on that. Except that the good news soured with successive titles : Obama designates the whole mountain range, uh no sorry, only part of them, huh, shucks! just that hill over there! I’m now scared to check any further and discover the new monument is about the size of a standard suburban yard!
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-10-10/clinton-comes-to-terms-with-being-hillary
Clinton comes to term with being Hillary? Unless we’re talking about Bill, doesn’t this come a bit late? Who would have thought Ma’am Clinton, with her extensive record and seemingly well adjusted, hadn’t finished adolescence?
http://www.betawired.com/black-hole-p13-is-consuming-more-gas-than-was-previously-calculated/147319/
OK! So I guess we can predict more frequent refueling stops. What size is its tank and has the EPA been told?
That’s one study I wish had been called for!
OK! That is cleared; let’s see, what else? OH! Yeah, the Nobel Prizes came out of their Swedish closet this week. Practical mention for the Medecine team with an explanation of how our brains locates us in the world http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29504761. A mix of cells in the hypothalamus ( an old structure in vertebrates that controls hormonal levels and body functions, mediates sensory input and plays a regulatory role in major cycles – menstruation – and behaviours – agression – ) that defines position provides data applied to a group of cells in the hippocampus ( another old part we share with other vertebrates part of our limbic system and merging informations like short and long time memories and has specifics cells for things like the direction of the head to the body or space cells ). On top of the space cells, the team discovered that there are grid cells that build a conceptual grid on which sensory input ( and supposedly memories if linked ) can be applied to to make a mental map of the surroundings.
Chemistry rewarded a better microscope through biological lighting of tissues in probable relation to the one in Physics going to a Japanese trio for the invention of the blue diode lights that are now used in low energy consumption applications the world over. Literature went to a unique writer obsessed in the good sense with relating what occupation under the Nazis was like and the Peace prize was announced this morning.
It finally went to Malala Yousafzai to whom it should have gone last year ( http://definitivelapseofreason.com/2013/10/11/breaking-news-and-the-nobel-peace-prize-2013-goes-to-politics-and-diplomacy/ ) for her heroic stance for education for girls and to a man in India fighting to bring kids out of child labor. It took me a while to catch on the double entendre behind the pairing, busy that I originally became with checking how many times in the last 30 years the prize had recognized the UN or its cronies, 8 -women, 6 -those that truly signed peace, 4 or just stars as Barack Obama winning for being Black and the Dalai-Lama for being nice ( at least Jimmy Carter built houses for his second peace prize 2002 ). Some rare like Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee 3 years ago had more than one group : women and peace signatories. One was so strangely formulated that I has me puzzled since 1997, given to the
International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Jody Williams!
I have no idea who Jody Williams is or what she did to be on the same ban list as land mines but it must have been huuuuuuuge?*
So lost in such contemplations, I reopened my browser window and was struck by an epiphany, facepalm, etc!
http://tribune.com.pk/story/773258/malala-yousafzai-shares-nobel-peace-prize-with-indian-activist/
In a rare but beautiful moment of subtlety, the Peace prize was awarded to an India and a Pakistani, two nations at each other’s throat for longer than our 30 years look-back! And just to show that the Nobel Committee is no better at these things than the UN, a fresh spat of over the border “skirmishes” killed over a dozen folks in both lands last week!
But I swore that this would be a feel good post and to insure it is, here are a few links to the incredible efforts of Cristofer and Regina Catrambone. This Italian millionaire couple known to philantropy went as far as refurbishing a boat
The Phoenix 1
and using it to save migrants that transit over all the Mediterranean to reach the coasts of Europe, a sort of private venture in humanitarianism. They end up bringing the people saved to their own country’s officials since Italy is pretty much alone in caring for these. Kudos to both the nation and the individuals then and since their actions answered a call by Pope Francis, let’s just say in closing that as far as influencing the World through one’s Faith, it’s a no contest with them Da’esh nuts!
http://www.dailysabah.com/features/2014/09/16/sailing-to-save-lives
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28953237
Most recent piece also involving Angelina Jolie :
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/06/sport/angelina-jolie-and-pope-boat/
Great evening all, Tay.
* Said in my best Kandi, the Two and a Half Men character, imitation!
Definitive Lapse of Reason 