First the link to this week’s complete list as HTML and as PDF.
***
Abramson is not just about religion and not just about Judaism, but about the general question of individual freedom versus the totalitarian aspirations of the state. And as Abramson clearly states it is completely wrong for anyone to watch from the sidelines as the American Jews do, just because we are not currently the targets. As notably said by Martin Niemöller[1], Totalitarianism is never sated and devours its victims singly, one group after the other. The only way to stem its evil flow is to stand all together right from the beginning, which is now.
***
I know next to nothing about medical procedure and how Anthes’ checklists may or may not fit in. But the idea of lists as such was developed by engineers and has long been proven invaluable in aviation, both space and terrestrial, and other areas. An experienced pilot is just as highly trained as a surgeon and if checklists have proved helpful for the former it’s common sense to expect the same for the latter. N.B: Last year’s BBC Reith lectures[2] were held by Gawande and centred on just that theme.
***
If true Smith et al.’s interpretation of their result would overthrow nearly everything so far known about the Mesolithic. Bennett questions their dating but I continue to think they were too thorough for that. In all I still believe my hypothesis from March 20th to be the most plausible one.
***
Shi et al. describe a powerful solution to the climatisation problem. Unfortunately nano-hairs like these probably need an amount of maintenance and cleaning that can only be upheld by living tissue and won’t be easy to transform into technical application.
***
Wengrow & Graeber is a timely addition to the book by Morris (list of 2015-07-09, reviews 2015-07-02 and 2015-05-28). Their result should not be seen as novel, because what all the frequently quoted ethnographic studies have consistently shown is, that egalitarianism is not the natural condition of Rousseauan romanticism but actively imposed against naturally occurring differences through a sophisticated cultural process. Current hunter-gatherers consciously reject and oppose their agricultural neighbours’ culture and lifestyle. Theirs is a minority view and probably not representative of a time when hunting and gathering included all of the human majority.
