Sixty years ago the British scientist and novelist C.P. Snow (1905-1980) delivered his famous lecture The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution, published later the same year in book form. FT columnist Tim Harford celebrates the occasion this week in a column that reminds me that IIASA, the Austrian research institute with which I have been associated since my retirement from the UN in 2004, provides a meeting place for mathematicians, statisticians, social scientists -from sociologists to economists- and natural scientists -from biologists to physicists- to work together. This is an important public service, as Snow’s lecture and Harford’s column clearly show. (more…)
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
collaboration is important
Saturday, May 4th, 2019Sci-Fi predictions of the future
Saturday, March 16th, 2019Zambian author Namwali Serpell has written an interesting essay for this week’s Sunday Book Review of the New York Times. She covers a lot of ground, including her own work. I particularly liked this example of predicting the future:
I write science fiction set in the near future, so I
life, death and consciousness
Wednesday, April 25th, 2018I finished reading this fascinating book, and would like to share a few segments with you. The entire book is useful for anyone considering the right to life of a fetus or the right to life (or death) of an unconscious, older person in a vegetative state. It has made me re-think my ‘living will’, my request that no special efforts be made to prolong my life should I become unconscious and unresponsive.
What is consciousness? This is a surprisingly complex question. The author of this book, British neuroscientist Adrian Owen, explains that “part of the problem is that questions about consciousness have as much to do with personal taste as science”. (more…)
chemical and conventional weapons in Syria
Monday, April 16th, 2018FT chief foreign affairs columnist Gideon Rachman writes that destruction of chemical plants and deposits will have little effect on the war in Syria, even if the Assad regime refrains from using chemical weapons,
Jan Morris at lunch with the FT
Sunday, March 25th, 2018This week’s Lunch with the FT, hosted by FT political correspondent Henry Mance, is one of the best I have read. It is very entertaining.
Welsh historian and travel writer Jan Morris, CBE, FRSL (born 1926) published under her birth name (James) until 1972, when she had surgery and transitioned from living as a male to living as a female. Now aged 91, she continues to live with the woman she married in 1949. The couple had five children together. (more…)
lunch with the FT at Mar-a-Lago
Saturday, March 3rd, 2018I am bored with Donald Trump, his family and his friends. What I most enjoyed in this week’s FT lunch with a close friend of Trump were the photos of Mar-a-Lago, where the lunch took place. Here are two of the photos. The first is a painting of Donald in his youth. (more…)
addition to my cv
Sunday, February 11th, 2018Today I completed my facebook cv by adding the high school diploma I received in 1962. It is from Lincoln High School in Lincoln, Nebraska. Although it is a modest public school,
Trump’s private meeting with Putin
Thursday, July 20th, 2017The meeting at the G20 summit on July 7 was unplanned and lasted an hour. Mr Putin’s translator was the only person who witnessed the event, so we are left with no record of the conversation. Julianne Smith explains why this is dangerous.
[I]nternational summits are not wedding receptions. World leaders do not wander from table to table, making small talk. Summits and the meals accompanying them are highly choreographed and scripted events and for good reason. ….
For one reason or another, while he was at the G20 dinner, Mr Trump decided that, irrespective of what his team had spent months planning, he would disregard both their guidance and standard protocol and meet Mr Putin for a second time. ….
Most troubling is that … [meeting without] an American translator … gave the Russians a huge advantage. It enabled Mr Putin to say things he might not have said in the presence of his own staff or Mr Trump
military and non-military spending on security
Saturday, May 27th, 2017Princeton political scientist Andrew Moravcsik argues that Europe pays its fair share of Nato security once non-military spending is included along with military spending. This is an interesting perspective, as non-military spending does contribute to security, and 23 of the 28 Nato members are criticised for spending less than 2% of GDP on defence. (more…)
job losses in US retail sales
Friday, May 26th, 2017Productivity is rising rapidly in the US retail sector, driven by a shift to large, self-service stores and, in recent years, to online shopping. Increased productivity brings decreased employment in the sector unless there is an offsetting increase in output. Nonetheless, the fragility of jobs in retail sales has been neglected by nearly all politicians, including Donald Trump.
FT columnist Edward Luce explains. (more…)