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A Humanist's Reflections on Evolutionary BiologyHistorians/History
Editor's Note: The so-called Scopes Monkey Trial concluded on July 21, 1925, making this year the trial's eighty-fifth anniversary. HNN is pleased to present two articles, one by an evolutionary biologist, the other by a humanist, to mark the occasion.
As a whole, David Reznick's piece is right on. I have a few small reservations: the history of the evolution debates is more complex than his quick summary suggests, and there are real distinctions between the current climate and that of the 1920s. Antievolutionists today, for instance, are torn between appealing to postmodern notions of pluralism and modern ideas of objective truth. However, Reznick's main point is that alongside scientific colleagues, we humanists can do a major service when we directly engage the relationship between science and religion. As an English professor who wrote a dissertation on this conjunction and teaches an interdisciplinary course on evolution, I enthusiastically agree, and would offer several suggestions about how best to proceed.
Carefully distinguish between science and scientism. When I ask my Midwestern, largely middle-class students about their attitudes toward evolution, not surprisingly the way I frame the question has a major impact on the results. If I present evolution as the theoretical foundation of modern biology, and by extension, medicine, there is relatively little resistance. It makes sense as a paradigm emerging from a rigorous pursuit of testable, falsifiable knowledge. However, if I shade the question so that the overwhelming evidence for common descent and natural selection seems to slide into a metaphysical claim, one that rejects religious faith but ironically cannot be confirmed by the scientific method, there is much greater disagreement. My students smell scientism: the assumption that since the natural order of things can be productively examined via objective, empirical means, there can be nothing outside science's purview. Scientism makes science into its handmaiden, targeting whatever claims about reality or values that it perceives as threats. Thus evolution has been co-opted historically by social Darwinism and eugenics, wherein accurate natural descriptions are twisted into dangerous moral prescriptions. And thus more recently the New Atheism represented by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens has marketed a reductive determinism in the name of science, in the process occluding the scientific method's openness to change, unpredictability, nuance, and variety. Keeping this difference sharp is critical to productive discussions.
Humanize Darwin and other scientists. It is well known in advertising that a white lab coat raises an actress's credibility with many viewers. For all its prestige, though, this symbol also connotes an objectification that treats patients as statistics. The wearer may become a trustworthy paragon of knowledge, but she may also seem to embody creaturely hubris in the face of divine will. Neither image says much about most scientists, people who would peel back the unknown out of personal fascination and so that others might enjoy better lives. Yes, they make questionable ethical decisions and serve institutions that prioritize image over substance, but it never fails to impress me how different my students find the real scientists they meet from their pop-culture-instilled visions of nerds and narcissists. In Darwin's case, exposing students to portrayals like those of the PBS Evolution series or last year's Paul Bettany-Jennifer Connelly film Creation can help them look beyond the bitter old skeptic and sense his curiosity, patience, and very human timidity. Darwin was no saint, but neither was he the ardently anti-religious man that much propaganda imagines. Sensing his complexity helps many students begin to take his ideas seriously.
Question bifurcations of the religious and the secular. If our culture fails to distinguish between science and scientism, it is prone to distinguish too absolutely between the religious and the secular. This is only comfortable. We bracket politics and religion from polite conversation, letting us pretend our ideas about race, gender, and other topics proceed from the purportedly neutral standpoint of secularism. But where is this secular no-place? Isn't what counts as secular defined in relation to particular traditions and practices we call religious, and vice versa? The boundaries here are hardly unyielding: our "secular" friends express religious devotion to sporting events and national defense, while "religious" ones routinely champion popular media and political parties. Even more importantly, as Tracy Fessenden and Michael Kaufmann have argued, we need to see how the term "religious" indicates a very specific form of American Protestantism, while "secular" pretends neutrality, but is really only a reaction. Why does this matter for understanding science? Because many people will only consider the evidence for evolution after understanding how their confusion derives from a relatively recent form of Christianity. This is not to disparage that tradition as a whole or to discount other religions' mixed responses to evolution; as detailed by Salman Hameed, many predominantly Muslim nations also evince serious tensions about evolution and creationism. But in the U.S., the leaders behind efforts like Cincinnati's new $27 million Creation Museum have been mostly fundamentalist Christians, and a secularism that exists only to thwart them is unlikely to serve anyone very well.
Cultivate more careful readings of scriptures, not their dismissal. Blanket statements about the Bible and other scriptures remain frequent in our culture, even among academics. A still-common assumption among those outside religious studies is that the purpose of discussing Genesis or the Gospels is either to do theology or to debunk it. To be sure, this mistake has become less prevalent over the last decade than it once was, but I suspect it remains even where unstated. I mention this not as a plea for greater tolerance, but as an invitation to more extensive engagement with the world's scriptures, which can prove a very significant step toward the open-mindedness Reznick seeks. Too often Americans refuse to read from the library we call the Bible with as much attention to genre, historical context, and intertextual relationships as they extend to popular fiction, news radio, and Facebook postings. Challenging this inconsistency does not require a choice between biblical literalism and raging heresy, but only a willingness to become wiser believers, doubters, and knowers. To encourage this shift is merely to appreciate that setting the writings of an amazingly resilient ancient Near Eastern tribe or of a sixth-century Meccan revolutionary against a product of Victorian science is to compare apples and oranges. When people grasp the differences in purpose between the Bible, the Qur'an, and The Origin of Species, major stumbling blocks on the path to consilience begin to dissolve.
These suggestions are no more exhaustive than the brief list of books on evolution and religion that I'll close by recommending. For one of the most compelling overviews of this relationship, I like Karl Giberson's Saving Darwin (its subtitle, How to Be a Christian and Believe in Evolution, unnecessarily limits its audience). Also providing excellent broad treatments are books by Eugenie Scott, Kenneth Miller, Michael Ruse, and David Sloan Wilson. For good examples of the historical work in this area to which Reznick alludes, see Michael Lienesch's analysis of the Scopes Trial and Adrian Desmond and James Moore's look at Darwin and slavery. Those interested in biblical studies will appreciate William P. Brown's latest volume. And to begin imagining how better understandings of evolution could reshape my own discipline of English, Brian Boyd's new contribution to Darwinian literary criticism is worthwhile reading—even if many will be more provoked than convinced—and the science novels of Richard Powers are simply stellar.
HNN Special: The Scopes Trial at 85
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Nat Bates - 8/6/2010
It is the consensus of scientists and scientific philosophers that Americans are becoming increasingly ignorant. I happen to agree with them. I notice that old movies had references to Relativity, parallel lines, and Quantum Physics while newer movies are ever more stupid. I share with Biologists a sincere concern that young Americans are ever less educated about scientific facts, including Evolution. Regardless of what one believes, one should at least know enough of what Darwinian biology is predicated on, that Darwin did not teach that "man comes from monkeys" or that "we are gorillas." One should understand the idea of natural selection, sexual selection, speciation, homologous evolution, et al, even if one holds other views on life. And, most importantly, one should understand why Darwin came to the conclusions he did based on observation. Failure of Americans to successfully reason, even about beliefs that we do not share, is frightening.
However, most scientists and scientific philosophers believe that the problem is the spread of either "Scientific Creationism" or New Age beliefs. Supposedly, that turned a nation founded on Enlightenment Reason in to a superstitious country on the way to Taliban domination. I suggest that, in fact, "Scientific Creationism" and "Quantum New Age Science" are actually mirror images of Scientism. They make claims of absolute certainty based on what (admittedly non-establishment) "scientific experts" claim, proof that Americans trust so-called experts too much. In a way, mainstream science was beaten at its own game of obtaining public trust by way of being "expert."
So it is that I believe that the true enemy of science and the spirit of open exploration is not "Scientific Creationism" or "New Age" ideas. The real enemy of science is the appeal of authority, a meme imbedded in mainstream science itself. That is the enemy of Enlightenment Reason, even if it is predicated on Enlightenment Reason as a foundational ideology (Marxist-Leninism, Behaviorism, One-Dimensional Man, Bentham's Panopticon...).
The real problem with science education lies with the education system itself. The education system was founded on the Prussian model of obedience to authority. We cannot blame "Scientific Creationism" for the breakdown of authority and thus of trust, since they were on the side of authority during the 60's and 70's. Nor can we even blame New Age liberal goopiness, since New Agers were not particurly radical and often not involved in politics. We have to look at deeper issues as to why people believe the claims of alternative experts more than mainstream scientific experts. In particular, it is telling that the more adamant the phony expert is that his or her claims are the only truth, given them by aliens or purported higher beings, people believe them more than if this person were to promote a pluralistic view of reality in which their view might share a stage with other views.
Science is based on experimentation and openness. Scientific education is based on training people for specific slots in society, a society in which Corporations and Governments do not want openness. Freedom and openness is an inherent contradiction in an age of NCLB testing and ever more conformity. Real science has to be based on creative thinking. Could Newton, Darwin, or Einstein even be able to publish a paper today? Think about that question before you cast stones as a presumed irrationalist tide that is really more of an authoritarian tide than anything else.
So, in summation, I agree with Evolutonary Biologists that Americans are ever more stupid about basic scientific facts. However, they are too keen to scapegoat the vast Christian Conspiracy, just as old McCarthyites had the Vast Communist Conspiracy. The truth is that people of faith have believed in Evolution. Most of them believe in their faith for reasons of deep personal reasons, often not related to claims that would compete with science. The spread of anti-scientific and authoritarian attitudes really begins in other domains. Deeper causes need to be studied, among them the institutionalized nature of power and the fact that irrationalism is often more rewarded as a trait in hierarchies than an honest questioning of the claims of authority.
Nat Bates - 8/5/2010
Well, I don't know what you mean by a "bridge." However, just as religions have been misused for oppression, so has the "selfish gene" concept. Eugenics laws were justified by the evolutionary biology of the time, backed up by the key intellectuals of the time.
A key question pops in to my mind. For Neo-Darwinists, life is powered by the continuation of the selfish gene. This was not necessarily the view of Darwin, but it is said to be the most crystalized and completed form of his views given modern genetic science. OK, so we have the "selfish gene" powering the increasing complexity of certain organisms, at least as imagined by the Chief Pontificators of the For Horsemen.
Now, on the one hand, we are told that teleology is out of the question. Bacteria are just as adapted as crocodiles, perhaps even more so. So, there is no order or teleology in Nature. But, on the other hand, it is strongly suggested that life is about offspring and the diffusion of genes (not directly stated, but intimated, as an imperitive). The idea that life becomes increasingly complex and eventually reaches for the stars is what has attracted people to evolutionary philosophies the most, even if evolutionary biologists disclaim the idea of the some organisms are more evolved than others. This increasing complexity is believed to be a result of adaptationism (contra Lewontin), which results in some lines of life becoming dominant and directing the future of life. Eventually, reason evolved, and with reason we adapt to life even beyond the planet.
So, on the one had, there is no teleology. But, on the other hand, there appears to be a hidden teleology that is imbedded in the philosophy. Yet, it is never admitted as a teleology. It is never admitted that there is a kind of philosophy of meaning involved.
That philosophy of meaning implies a moral imperitive, to be mutualist on the left, or to be individualist and competitive on the right, based either on what is good for the whole species (mutualism) or the more conservative Neo-Darwinist idea of selfish individual genes. Yet, we are then told that Platonic notions of meaning are not to be imposed on Nature.
There is a real paradox here. Either meaning exists as a reality, or it does not. If our meaning is to pass on our genes, and to favor our kin, then King, Gandhi, Aristide, and others who have made incredible sacrifices for broader concepts of justice are seemingly out of place in Nature.
To be clear, I believe that the evolutionary process exists, and I am quite comfortable with the idea that I am a cousin to the Great African Apes. In fact, I have read the claim that we are considered one of the four African Apes ourselves. Actually, the thought gives me a feeling of identity, one compatible in my mind with a belief that we are made in the Divine Image and possess inherent dignity. So, please don't go down the road of quoting a bunch of scientific facts that I may well know already. I am talking about a real contradiction in the philosophy of the Neo-Darwinists who have claimed to reduce all of Nature to mechanism. The more that all of Nature is reduced to mechanism, the more corporations are justified in exploiting Nature, and then human beings are next.
Please watch "Food Inc." for more on this question.
Everett Hamner - 8/2/2010
Dear Dr. Hughbanks,
Thanks for your comment. Please understand, though, that I am no way challenging the validity of scientifically-achieved knowledge. The scientific method is something I am celebrating. What you hear me contesting in the article, I think, is the same mistake to which you are objecting: the conflation of science as a methodology and scientism as a metaphysics or ideology. It is precisely because I agree with you on your comment--that what you can know about molecular structures is derivable only from reproducible evidence, for instance--that I am arguing for the science/scientism distinction.
If that distinction needs to be made more clearly, however, I also think the distinction between the religious and the secular is often made too absolutely. We have the holy vs. the profane, the supernatural vs. the natural, the sacred vs. the ordinary, etc., and what I'm following other postsecular thinkers in arguing is that these binaries are very commonly the unconscious product of our equation of "religion" with a particular brand of American Protestantism, whether we are followers of that tradition or not. One reason this is problematic is that it makes people assume that "science" is not just secular, but secular_ist_, that it necessarily competes against "religion," when in fact many world religious traditions (and in fact other threads of Christianity) have never made this assumption.
Does that help?
Best wishes,
Timothy Hughbanks - 8/1/2010
While there may be things which don't "count as secular", evolutionary biology isn't one of them. It's is science, and as such what we can say that we "know" (or find to be very likely) has nothing with religion - period. As a chemist, what I know about the structure of a molecule has nothing to do with my religious views - or at least is doesn't if I'm a chemist worth listening to. What I know about the structure of a molecule has only to do with reproducible evidence I have gathered to make well-supported inferences about the structure of the molecule. It is not different with evolutionary biology and only the stubbornness of religious people obscures the obviousness of that fact.
Nat Bates - 7/30/2010
I am looking at the recent explosion of theories on "recent evolution" (title of book: Ten Thousand Year Explosion) as a reference. Some, though not all, focus on IQ differences between the races, as if the IQ test were objective in any way. So, you may disagree with the term Social Darwinism, but the reality on the ground is such that theories once expunged from academia are regaining ground.
Donald Wolberg - 7/28/2010
One can only agree that there is much to think about and discuss across the lines of science and the humanities as suggested by Dr. Hamner. Such efforts are to be encouraged and continued, to be sure, but I question the value if less than accurate notions of the history of ideas are used as discussion points. This of course is true from either end of the discussion, but I doubt if a true middle can be found no matter what the efforts. This is not because of lack of conviction in the trying, but because of the very different premises of each. I suggest there is little commonality to be found. Perhaps here Steve Gould's now much critized view of equal separate spheres left as independent as possible is the best we can do or expect. For example, there really is not a lot more than superb science that can be extracted from looking at the biostratigraphic record of Late Cretaceous Western Interior ammonites so superbly documented by the career of William Cobban. There really is no need for a "bridge" between the humanists and paleontologists in this example--the rocks exist and have ammonites and the ammonited tell us about shorelines and ammonite evolution in an ancient seaway. I sugegst that the same is true for the entire history of life over the last 3.6 billion years, and only is an issue or cause for discussion for only one lineage of countless millions that have existed. One would not contemplate Equus concerned about the meaning of Hyracotherium.
Donald Wolberg - 7/27/2010
I'd be curious finding out who amongst evolutionary biologists preaches an archaic or modern "social Darwinism." Biological evolution over the 3.6 billion years or so of life history on this 4.6 billion year old planet planet explains the diversity of 1.2 million species currently described, and perhaps 10 times that number that actually exists today. This number is but a poor reflection of the 99.9% of everything that once lived being extinct and only one species of that entire record needs a term like "social Darwinism." As for the political creeping in of the concept amongst conservatives, Republican Party members or not, Democrat of not, I do not believe George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Victor Davis Hanson, and others, all biological evolutionists, are "social Darwinists" in a 19th century or any other context. I do suggest the term has nothing to do with Darwin's world world view, is over-used or misused, and is better seen as "social Galtonism", perhaps. I don't think that Thomas Henry Huxley, who I think first used "Darwinism" as a term, ever noted a societal meaning.
Nat Bates - 7/26/2010
I don't recall claiming that Darwin was a Social Darwinist. If I did, then kindly quote those words and I'll either retract them or try to put them in context. You stated that there is not much Social Darwinism around these days. I agree, but it has crept back in through the intellectual margins and is poised to become respectable again. More and more evolutionary biologists are accepting the view that poverty is the result of less ability instead of the result of racism and inequality. This is a big sea-change since the twentieth century. I believe that it deserves a discussion.
Donald Wolberg - 7/26/2010
Mr. Bates raises a number of interesting points, although many if not most are less than firmly based in fact, I think. There is not mucg "social Darwinism" around these days and. of course, Darwin would likely be the last to be a "social Darwinist"--most likely he would be a classic "liberal" socially although a strong proponent of fiscal responsibility. I find a statement that, "today, Republicans may doubt evolution, but social Darwinism remains a plank of that Party," odd to the point of being as meaningless as stating: "all Democrats are evolutionists and believe in the redistribution of wealth." Sometimes, we get careless with words or what we think things are all about. Confusing what we think evolutionary theory is all about today, simply because we associate Charles Darwin with the term can be misleading. By the same token there are not many Herbert Spencers, or Ernst Haeckel type folks around these days, either.
Nat Bates - 7/26/2010
Darrow and Bryan would both be out of place in today's intellectual climate. Both were defenders of the underprivileged and weak, Bryan the poor farmer and Darrow the defendant. Bryan would have sore words for the Creationists of today, who care more about thousands of years ago than the poor and oppressed of today (as they are regular listeners of Limbaugh, Hannity, et al). Bryan was friends with radicals and union organizers. His opposition to the Social Darwinism of his time was well thought out, and he made it clear on the witness stand under questioning that he could accept evolution but not strict Darwinist-probablist interpretations.
Today, the Republicans may doubt evolution, but Social Darwinism remains a plank of that Party. Democrats have also moved closer to Wall Street than in the time of the Bryan Progressives. In any case, it is sad that Bryan did not challenge racism. In that sense, he compromised with the very Social Darwinist spirit he challenged. We have to accept that a lot of evolutionary thinking of the time was racist and eugenicist, and that this fact is the historical context for an admittedly stupid decision on Bryan's part to take part in the Scopes Trial (he opposed criminal penalties, by the way). Eugenic thinking has made a comeback among both Creationists and Evolutionists. "Bell Curve" anyone?
No, I am not "anti-science." Honestly, quite the contrary. I believe that the latest discoveries of how bacteria can alter DNA show a model of evolution that does not rely simply on members of a species dying out, leading to speciation. It is a lot more nuanced, and in line with how First Peoples see Nature in that there is synthesis and symbiosis. We have to accept that civilization in the last ten thousand years has departed from the wisdom of hunter-gatherers, both in the name of science and religion alike.
Getting back to the main point, Darrow and Bryan are both necessary for today. Sadly, we have FOX news instead. Note how Dawkins promotes his selfish genes, and Limbaugh promotes his selfish economy. Americans, being fools by our own decision, eat it all up.
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The mighty ice hockey sim returns, and this time it's spoiling for a fight. But that's not the only change...
Smoother than a molten milkshake, EA Sports' ice hockey series always delivers a good, playable game. The 2004 iteration is no different, and there are a couple of additions and tweaks to make it worth a good look for hockey fans. Chief among these is a new focus on the rougher side of the game. All players, even goalies, have access to the red mist - and when the game boils over into violence, a new fighting system makes for enhanced scrapping.
The simplistic face-punching of most hockey games is replaced by a system that revolves around grappling, making for a bit more strategy. And the hockey itself is made more physical by new moves on the right stick, allowing for directional shoving.
This all makes quite a difference to the action, as stringing passes together is made tougher by the ferocity of the tackling. But it's still as playable as ever.
1-8 Players
1-8 Player Types
See it in action

subset: commoncrawl


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These are young wines, generally coming from the previous years harvest, produced in a way which accentuates the character of their particular grape variety and flavor. They are brought to market after ageing for at least 6 months. These wines are fruity and high-spirited, and while ready to drink immediately they also can be stored for 2 to 5 years.For these wines, we use labels with a yellow color that suggest the fruity character.
Young wines made with grapes under organic specification and ECOCERT certified. If they are in line with the wines of the previous range, we notice that these wines have usually more freshness and length as the wines coming from conventional grapes. We call them NatureS to suggest the organic matter and to remind the customers the origin; S like SIPP!
The mature wines represent selections from our best vintages, brought out after resting in our cellars for between 4 and 6 years. They are wines which have blossomed; the character of the grape variety has receded, leaving in the foreground the secondary aromas which only develop with ageing. They have reached a perfect stage of maturity, and are ready for enjoying immediately.
In Ribeauvillé, we have a much diversified geology which gives different single vineyard wines that have each their own character. We try to express the diversity of our soils in making separate cuvee on those we consider the most interesting. With the experience, we have identified 5 terroirs which give each year wines with their own personality.
The Hagel, the only granite soil we have in Ribeauvillé, which is situated under the castles, gives Riesling that are perfectly dry and structured, with a crystalline purity.
The Steinacker, on gravelly soils, is dedicated to more fruity, full-bodied and charming Riesling.
The Rotenberg, on red and ferruginous calcareous, allow us to harvest Gewurztraminer that often have a part of noble rot and that give opulent, deep and rich wines with a nice length.
The Trottacker, on deep clayey marls, is the field of rich, complex and well structured Pinot Gris.
The Grossberg, a soil with calcareous and sandstone, oriented in the south, south-west, is very adapted to the Pinot Noir. Managed on low yields, it allows us to produce cuvees that are matured in oak barrels.
This range of wines is characterized by ochre labels that suggest the expression of the terroirs. On those labels one may read the name of the vineyard, the type of soil and the type of grape.With their structure and their complexity, these wines could be stored between 5 and 10 years.
These are wines originating the Kirchberg and Osterberg hillsides, whose superior quality is officially recognized as « Grands Crus ». The method of nurturing the vines there, the type of making process used and the long fermentation period allowed, are all deigned to strengthen the wines expression of the excellence of the soil. They can be enjoyed while still quite young, but the lover of complex wines will be able to bring them to full maturity when they will be fully expressive of the soil and the micro-climate which created them. They may be stored for at least 15 to 20 years.From the vintage 2004, we have tried to suggest on our labels the characteristics of these two Grands Crus. The slope and the exposition are suggested by beige frames whereas the nature of the soils is represented on small rectangles on the top and on the bottom of the label.When considering these labels, one can see that Kirchberg de Ribeauvillé is defined by a steep slope, a sout- south-west exposition and soils with marls, calcareous and sandstone that are poor and very stony. On the other side, Osterberg is characterized by softer slopes, and eastern exposition and heavier and deeper soils.
The late harvest wines.(« Vendanges Tardives ») and « noble grape wines (Sélections de Grains Nobles) are wines made from grapes from the finest hillside vineyards of Ribeauvillé, harvested at a point of over-ripeness. These plots of vineyard are managed so as to produce the low yields which favor ripening, concentration of minerals in the fruits, and the process of over-maturing on the vine which is known as noble rot. The pressing, wine processing and fermenting are all calculated to ensure that these wines conserve well.The lover of mellow wines will enjoy these quite early, while the gourmet who wants exceptional wine will do best to wait a few years to enjoy them at full complexity. They may be kept for 20 years or more.For these wines, we chose a golden label that reminds the liquorous character and the honey aromas. One can also find some graphic elements that suggest sun, wind and mist, three very important natural conditions for the development of a nice and pure botrytis, on which these wines are constructed.
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Old-Style Mustard and Rosemary Asparagus Recipe
Asparagus, tossed with olive oil, grain mustard, fresh rosemary, lemon zest, and sea salt. Roasted until nutty and fragrant. Simple, just like that.
The mustard adds a tangy spice and crunch, rosemary pairs gorgeously with both old-fashioned mustard and asparagus, and the lemon zest is like a flash bulb, exploding and exposing the best things in all the other flavors.
- Yield:2 to 4 servings
- Active time: 5 minutes
- Total time:15 minutes
- Rated:
- 12 ounces asparagus, trimmed and halved
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon grain mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
- The zest of 1/4 lemon
- Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Toss the asparagus with all the other other ingredients on the baking sheet until combined. Roast for 10 to 12 minutes. Serve immediately.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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Ouch. Electronic Arts, maker of The Sims, Mass Effect, Madden NFL, among other games, won the title of "Worst Company in America" in a recent online bout that also included Google, Apple, Facebook and PayPal.
In its seventh annual March Madness-style tournament, The Consumerist pitted 32 companies against each other, which were selected by the blog's readers. (The Consumerist is part of the same organization that publishes Consumer Reports.)
Some could only be expected: The Occupy movement's target, the banking industry, made the cut, with Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citibank and Chase all in the lineup. The telecommunications companies, such as AT&T and Comcast, several airlines and retailers were also among the contenders.
Silicon Valley was also well represented: Google and Facebook were nominated because of their respective privacy flaps, while PayPal was dinged for poor customer service, Netflix was cited for last year's streaming debacle and Apple was picked not so much for its manufacturing practices but for the premium it forces customers to pay. PayPal and Facebook made it pretty far to the elite eight while Apple triumphed over Google to advance to the sweet sixteen.
Interestingly enough, EA was making its first appearance in the competition. But clearly gamers are steamed at the Redwood City company for milking them for all they're worth. Voters ultimately crowned EA the champion over Bank of America.
In a response, EA said in a statement to Kotaku, a gaming news site, "We're sure that British Petroleum, AIG, Philip Morris, and Halliburton are all relieved they weren't nominated this year. We're going to continue making award-winning games and services played by more than 300 million people worldwide."


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I am out of town on vacation with my daughter, watching plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. Sometimes this means escape from reality, and we laugh great belly-laughs. Sometimes a play brings reality so sharply into focus, tears run down my face. Every day in the afternoon, I wander from our hotel to Louie's Sports Bar, to give my daughter some space. The key to good family togetherness is not overdoing the together part, in my opinion. So here I sit, sipping a refreshing beverage, glancing at the soccer on TV whenever a goal is scored, and working on chipping away at the backlog of emails in my work inbox. I am not opening comments on this blog post, as I won't be able to respond in a timely manner.
One of the emails I read yesterday, captured perfectly the reasons I voted against the Regional Flexible Funding proposal the Council approved last Wednesday, in a hearing that was supposed to take 30 minutes and instead lasted 2.5 hours (hence my hurried departure at 1 p.m., since I had been scheduled to leave for Ashland at noon).
Let me preface this by saying I wholeheartedly support three of the four projects in the Resolution. Those three, the infrastructure improvements for all modes in the freight project and those on SE Foster and SE Division, definitely meet the criteria of safety and equity required by the federal and Metro mandates for the funds. I asked that the proposal could be split into four, so I could vote in support of these three. My request was denied, so I had to vote No on the whole Resolution.
The project approved by the rest of the Council, allocating $2 million in precious federal funds to a bike rental project downtown, does not meet the goals of improving equity or safety, in my opinion. With permission, here is what my thoughtful correspondent wrote, explaining why. I am not posting the writer's name because I get paid for reading and hearing vitreolic responses, the writer does not. I endorse the following:
I support the inclusion of the Barbur Streetscape Project, the East Portland Active Transportation and Areawide Improvements, and the Foster Road Safety Enhancements in the City's Regional Flexible Funds (RFF) application to Metro.
As you know, this year Metro has established equity as a criterion for the Regional Flexible Funds, and each of these projects will help move the region toward a transportation system with more equitably distributed resources. I urge you to take a deeper look at the proposed Bike Sharing Program, particularly in these times of scarce resources and lean budgets. When the bike sharing proposal was introduced at a recent Metro Transportation Policy meeting , it received more criticism and doubt than ANY other RFF proposal that was presented. Here are a few concerns and questions that I think need to be addressed regarding the Bike Sharing Program:
1. It is unclear who the target user is for this project? People who own bikes or don't own bikes? People who work downtown? Bike commuters who ride the MAX? "Interested but concerned" Portlanders? It's not clear who this project is designed to benefit, therefore it's impossible to know whether or not this is intervention will lead to the desired outcome. Is there any data to show market demand for this program?
2. Why should we have a bike sharing program that only benefits the Central City, particularly when we already have a "Free Rail Zone" in downtown Portland?
Thank you, thoughtful citizen, for sending your comments and giving me permission to post them. I need to add, that this is NOT a "Bike Sharing" program. It is a Bike Rental program, which will now be subsidized with $2 million in public money. If it is likely to be successful as a business enterprise, it seems to me that private entrepreneurs would be providing the service.
I voted in support of an amendment that will perhaps direct other funds to projects on Barbur and in Sullivan's Gulch, both of which were deemed higher priorities for the here-and-now ederal RFF funds than the bike rental program. If other funds are or will be available, I wonder why these other projects were not already on their way to implementation. I also worry about what will not get done, if these projects now jump to the head of the queue.
It is true that Mayor Adams has allocated more funds than any Mayor in recent memory, for sidewalks in all parts of Portland, particularly outer East and deep Southwest in areas annexed 40 years ago and still lacking basic city services. I greatly appreciate his partnership in this endeavor, and his promise to have the Bureau of Transportation respond to my request for an estimate of the total cost to provide sidewalks where there aren't any, on all Major Transit Streets. Still, we know the needs and cost are huge. One mile of sidewalks in SW on Capitol Highway, a Major Transit Street, will cost over $19 million. With such great needs, we simply don't have $2 million to spare on something that might be nice, but isn't essential and doesn't promote safety or equity. And that's why I voted No on the Resolution for allocation of Regional Flexible Funds last week.


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You people can have your downloadable movies and your 2nd-generation iPhones and your revised laptops and what have you. What do I want to see at the coming MWSF get-together? Same thing I always want: Newton 2.0. (For the record, I'm well aware that there are facilities and treatments designed to help people like me.)
As it happens, AppleInsider is back with another report on the mythical device so roundly dismissed by my esteemed colleagues, who probably think "Newton" is a type of cookie. (It's actually fruit and cake!) Although the device will apparently miss out on a chance to be oohed and aahed over during this Tuesday's Stevenote, it remains under active development, and will possibly surface in the spring to hit the very beginning of the school shopping season. AI speculates that another holdup is the desire to add a more advanced version of Apple's multi-touch interface.
I've owned an iPhone since its introduction day and, although it's an amazingly capable device for its size, I have to admit it hasn't entirely supplanted my desire for a larger, more capable device. Question is, am I a market of one, or is there room in Apple's jumbled product matrix for a iPod megatouch?


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|The Heritage Foundation Since its founding in 1973, The Heritage Foundation has served as a research and educational institute -- a think tank -- whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense
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Will the Anti-Koch Brigade Boycott MSNBC?
On 05.22.12 10:00 AM posted by Lachlan Markay
Is cable news network MSNBC complicit in the death of Trayvon Martin? The suggestion, of course, is absurd. But under the same logic that liberals have used to tie Koch Industries to the Martin shooting, companies like General Electric and Comcastowners of MSNBCwould be just as responsible.
The issue arose during a testy interview on MSNBC last week between commentator Martin Bashir and Mark Holden, general counsel for Koch Industries. Karen Finney, a substitute host on Bashirs program, had previously suggested that Koch Industries, because it supports the American Legislative Exchange Council, had a role in Martins death.
ALEC has been falsely tied to passage of Floridas stand-your-ground law, invoked by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in his defense in the Martin case. But what Bashir didnt appear to realize is that MSNBCs parent companies, like Koch, are ALEC members.
That hasnt dissuaded MSNBC personalities such as Finney and other left-wing commentators from implying that Koch Industries is somehow complicit in Martins death. Its an inflammatory charge, but heres what the rationale for attacks against Koch boils down to: Zimmerman shot Martin in what may or may not have been a permissible use of force under a law that was not based on ALEC model legislation that Koch had no part in formulating – and somehow Koch is responsible.
The line of attack against Koch starts with the liberal campaign to silence or otherwise neuter ALEC, a non-profit that advises state-level policymakers. The lefts objection to ALEC has nothing to do with the function it serves or the way in which it operates if it did, liberals would also be criticizing the litany of similar progressive organizations. Rather, the objection is that ALEC advances center-right principles: limited government, free markets, and federalism, as the groups tagline states.
Despite the coordinated and well-funded campaign to take down ALEC, most of the lines of attack against the group have not gained much traction.
In the wake of the Martin shooting, however, the anti-ALEC crusaders have settled on a new tactic. Zimmerman invoked Floridas castle doctrine law, which allows citizens to use deadly force against would-be attackers in some instances. The groups looking to destroy ALEC have pointed out that it has written model legislation for similar laws.
The Trayvon Martin thing was like a gift, one anti-ALEC activist told Bloomberg.
The shooting helped accelerate the campaign to get ALEC members to drop their support in the face of organized boycotts by liberal groups and their supporters.
The Martin connection, however, is a specious one. ALEC approved its model castle doctrine legislation months after Florida passed its own law, meaning that model legislation played no part in forming the Florida law. That hasnt stopped the attacks.
In fact, the attackers have tried to tie Koch Industries, owned by libertarian philanthropists Charles and David Koch, to the shooting as well, claiming that by financially supporting ALEC (as a member), the company is complicit.
Koch has pointed out that it not only had no part in forming ALECs model legislation (which, again, was not the basis for Floridas law), but has actually lobbied for additional restrictions on Second Amendment rights its only involvement on the firearms issue.
But all of these facts aside, if Koch is responsible for the shooting, so too are Comcast and General Electric, both of which are ALEC members. Holden pointed that out in his Bashir interview, and it merits more attention.
Comcast and General Electric happen to own MSNBC, the cable news network on which many of these anti-Koch sentiments have been broadcast, and on which Holden had to battle accusations against his employer.
Should we expect to see a boycott of MSNBC and its sister news organizations? Given that MSNBC has served as the platform to broadcast so many of the attacks against ALEC and Koch, it may be too much to ask.
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Permanent Magnet Market size in the energy generation sector will increase substantially in the near future as the UN has aimed at 100% emission free energy generation by the end of 2050.
High fossil fuel depletion has led to an increased focus on green energy and carbon emission free resources, thereby impelling permanent magnet market growth. The changing dynamics of the automotive sector have resulted in an escalating demand for lightweight and strong products in the manufacture of commercial and personal cars. This factor, in particular, is slated to have a massive impact on the growth of permanent magnet industry. Introduction of low priced manufacturing methods and new technological innovations may also beneficially influence the business trends. Global Market Insights, Inc., reports that permanent magnet industry revenue is set to hit USD 50 billion by 2024, recording an annual growth of more than 10% over the period of 2016-2024.
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Considering the regional trends, North America permanent magnet industry, which collected a revenue of USD 4 billion in 2015, is forecast to register a CAGR of more than 9% over the next few years. Rise in the automobile production along with an increase in the wind energy deployment capacity will garner profits for this business space over 2016-2024. U.S. permanent magnet industry is likely to contribute to a major portion of the regional share.
Asia Pacific permanent magnet industry, which collected a revenue of more than USD 10 billion in 2015, is projected to observe a lucrative growth over the years ahead. Abundant availability of rare earth metals from the earth's crust along with high production of vehicles and electronic goods will attract foreign investors. India and China, which are likely to be the regional business destinations, are expected to boost APAC growth. These emerging economies have the ability of generating a profitable roadmap for permanent magnet market.
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Permanent magnets find applications across energy, automotive, and electronics sectors. Permanent magnet industry size in the automotive sector, worth USD 10 billion in 2015, is expected to witness a massive expansion over the coming seven years. Escalating product application in alternators, accessory motors, loudspeakers, and sensing devices as a result of its beneficial features will boost the revenue margin of this market. Furthermore, rise in the automobile production, increase in the GDP, and swift changes in consumer lifestyles will offer profitable growth avenues for the industry participants, thereby impelling the business expansion.
Energy generation applications are expected to hit a revenue of USD 6.5 billion by 2024, recording a CAGR of over 10% during the timeframe of 2016 – 2024. Escalating requirement of wind energy in the power generation sector across the globe is expected to boost the permanent magnet industry revenue.
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Aluminum-nickel-cobalt, ferrite, samarium-cobalt, and neodymium are the key permanent magnet products. Neodymium-based magnets, which contributed over USD 14 billion towards global permanent magnet market revenue in 2015, are slated to grow at a rate of more than 10% over 2016-2024. Beneficial lightweight and aesthetic features will boost the product popularity, thereby influencing the industry revenue. Ferrite-based magnets, which generated a revenue of USD 5 billion in 2015, will make substantial contributions toward permanent magnet industry growth in the near future. Easy raw material availability along with low costs of products will boost the revenue.
TDK Corporation, Adams Magnetic Products, Electron Energy Corporation, and Hitachi Metals Limited are the key players of permanent magnet industry.
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- Superconducting Materials Market Forecast, 2017 – 2024
Surge in demand for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) due to government spending for improving equipment efficiency will enhance superconducting materials market size by 2024. MRI equipment utilize superconducting materials and are employed in the diagnosis of several healthcare related problems including cardiovascular liver and musculoskeletal issues by producing images of structures of internal body parts.
About Global Market Insights
Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.
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Website: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/permanent-magnet-market


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Highlights from New York's Summer Fancy Food Show
The Summer Fancy Food Show, North America's largest specialty food and beverage event, took place at the Javits center starting this past Sunday and wrapped up yesterday. The industry-only event (the general public is not admitted) is a showcase for over 180,000 different food and beverage products as well as ancillary industries such as printing, packaging, and point of sale systems. As you might imagine, fitting all that in to a venue requires a lot of space. This year the event took up two floors of the Javitz Center as well as the North Hall. Even with the event running three whole days, it would be difficult to see everything.
The halls are divided into national sections with the major food exporters like Italy and Spain occupying large swaths of space on the main floor, with smaller producers like Great Britain and Morocco in relatively small spaces. These sections are set up primarily for business meetings—they tend to give out printed literature rather than food samples. To eat you need to visit the individual company booths that make up the rest of the space.
Here you will be plied with all manner of things to nibble on: cheese, charcuterie, sweets and even alcoholic beverages. This year the big trend was gluten free products: everything from popcorn to frozen tandoori chicken was labeled as such. There was far less discussion of non-GMO foods, but I predict that by next year that discussion will be is prevalent as gluten is this year. There was also a lot of cheese. I mean an awful lot of cheese—it was everywhere. You could also find plenty of domestically produced charcuterie.
Take a look through the slideshow to see selected sights, products and show winners.


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"Yuck, the salmon is so slimy!" says seven-year-old Haruki Oyama excitedly, as he touches a freshly killed catch.
Haruki and 15 other elementary school children from the area were gathered by a river in northeastern Japan on a recent fall morning to learn the tricky business of salmon farming.
Local volunteer fishermen showed the secrets to snagging salmon, returned from the ocean to lay eggs in the river, and spotting the difference between males and females. They gave pointers on how to gather the eggs, fertilize them and set them in the riverbed.
Despite the cold and wind, the kids are thrilled by the experience.
The educational program was organized by the nonprofit run by Hiromichi Oikawa, a tall, lanky 35-year-old who runs a group striving to make the tsunami-devastated town of Minami Sanriku a more appealing place to live.
His operation – which also created a résumé bank for young professionals, runs an after-school study program, and manages and helped coordinate the formation of a new community-wide neighborhood association – is funded, in part, by NVIDIA's Operation Kizuna.
Wiped Out
Many local residents moved away after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The entire business district was engulfed by a three-story-high tsunami, washing away most of the area's 2,000 buildings. Some 750 people were killed in what used to be a community of 17,500, and close to half the town's remaining residents still live in temporary housing.
But Oikawa's commitment to his community is unwavering.
"I'm doing this because the devastation made us almost hopeless – no jobs, inadequate educational system, no hope for the future," he said. "Someone had to do something about it. It wasn't a place anyone wanted to live in."
The day the disaster hit, Oikawa was several hours away, and it took him days to fully grasp the scale of the destruction. Roads were torn up, so Oikawa spent two full days — walking mostly – first being reunited with his school-age daughter and then returning home to find that his wife and two other children were safe.
Oikawa had the wit to use his social media network to alert the outside world to how badly his port town was hit, so help and supplies would come. After looking after his family, he started to devote his talents to help his town in every way possible. Oikawa hasn't stopped working since.
The daunting task has made him feel that he's unable to rest. He typically works into the early morning hours, catches four hours sleep and then starts all over again.
During the week, he spends most of his time on his paid job, several hours away in Sendai City. In the evenings he focuses on the nonprofit, talking by phone with his seven full-time and five part-time project managers.
Oikawa spends weekends in Minami Sanriku, plunging himself into the nonprofit's work. However, he rarely has time to see his family, who live on the other end of town. Yet he desperately wants to get his community back on its feet.
Oikawa's main worries these days are a lack of funding and manpower for the many projects he wants to run to help the local economy. He hopes to turn workshops like the children's weekend program into paid events that out-of-towners can participate in, and then use that revenue to fund other projects.
Working with his dedicated staff members excites Oikawa. They come from diverse backgrounds. A top manager is a former cook. Another is a car mechanic. A third is a live house sound engineer. Oikawa is touched by the number of townspeople he'd never previously met who want to lend a hand.
"I'm doing this for the future of not just my children, but for the future and survival of this community," he says.


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Excerpt: "Everything Bad Is Good for You"
June 2, 2005 -- Social critic Steven Johnson suggests in his book, "Everything Bad is Good for You," that video games -- violent or not -- are making children smarter. Studies show video games make people more perceptive, training their brains to analyze things faster.
You can read an excerpt from "Everything Bad Is Good for You" below.
It is a truth nearly universally acknowledged that pop culture caters to our base instincts; mass society dumbs down and simplifies; it races to the bottom. The rare flowerings of "quality programming" only serve to remind us of the overall downward slide. But no mater how many times this refrain is belted out, it doesn't get any more accurate. As we've seen, precisely the opposite seems to be happening: the secular trend is toward greater cognitive demands, more depth, more participation. If you accept that premise, you're forced then to answer the question: Why?
For decades, the race to the bottom served as kind of a Third Law of Thermodynamics for mass society: all other things being equal, pop culture will decline into simpler forms. But if entropy turns out not to govern the world of mass society - if our entertainment is getting smarter after all - we need a new model to explain the trend. That model is a complex, layered one. The forces driving the Sleeper Curve straddle three different realms of experience: the economic, the technological, and the neurological. Part of the Sleeper Curve reflects changes in the market forces that shape popular entertainment; part emanates from long-term technological trends; and part stems from deep-seated appetites in the human brain.
The Sleeper Curve is partly powered by the force of repetition. Over the past 20 years, a fundamental shift has transformed the economics of popular entertainment: original runs are now less lucrative than repeats. In the old days of television and Hollywood, the payday came from your initial airing on network or your first run at the box office. The aftermarkets for content were marginal at best. But the mass adoption of the VCR, and cable television's hunger for syndicated programming, has turned that equation on its head. In 2003, for the first time, Hollywood made more money from DVD sales that it did from box-office receipts. Television shows repurposed as DVDs generated more than a billion dollars in sales during the same period. And the financial rewards of syndication are astronomical: shows like The Simpsons and The West Wing did well for their creators in their initial airings on network television, but the real bonanza came from their afterlife as reruns.
How do the economics of repetition connect to the Sleeper Curve? The virtue of syndication or DVD sales doesn't lie in the financial reward itself, but in the selection criteria that the reward creates in the larger entertainment ecosystem. If the ultimate goal stops being about capturing an audience's attention once, and becomes more about keeping their attention through repeat viewings, that shift is bound to have an effect on the content. Television syndication means pretty much one thing: the average fan might easily see a given episode five or 10 times, instead of the one or two viewings that you would have expected in the Big Three era. Shows that prosper in syndication do so because they can sustain five viewings without becoming tedious. And sustaining five viewings means adding complexity, not subtracting it. Reruns are generally associated with the dumbing down of popular culture, when, in fact, they're responsible for making the culture smarter.
To appreciate the magnitude of the shift, you need only rewind the tape to the late seventies and contemplate the governing principle that reigned over prime-time programming in the dark ages of Joanie Loves Chachi -- a philosophy dubbed the theory of "Least Objectionable Programming" by NBC executive Paul Klein. LOP is a pure-breed race-to-the-bottom model: you create shows designed on the scale of minutes and seconds, with the fear that the slightest challenge -- "thought," say, or "education" -- will send the audience scurrying to the other networks.
Contrast LOP with the model followed by The Sopranos --é what you might call the Most Repeatable Programming model. MRP shows are designed on the scale of years, not seconds. The most successful programs in the MRP model are the ones you still want to watch three years after they originally aired, even though you've already seen them three times. The MRP model cultivates nuance and depth; it welcomes "tricks" like backward episodes and dense allusions to Hollywood movies.
The transformation of video games -- from arcade titles designed for a burst of action in a clamorous environment, to contemplative products that reward patience and intense study -- provides the most dramatic case study in the power of repetition. The titles that lie at the top of the all-time game bestseller lists are almost exclusively games that can literally be played forever without growing stale: games like Age of Empires, The Sims, or Grand Theft Auto that have no fixed narrative path, and thus reward repeat play with an ever-changing complexity; sports simulations that allow you to replay entire seasons with new team rosters, or create imaginary leagues from different eras. Titles with definitive endings have less value in the gaming economy; the more open-ended and repeatable, the more likely it is the game that will be a breakout hit.
Technological innovation, of course, has contributed mightily to the Sleeper Curve. To begin with, most of the media technologies introduced over the past 30 years have been, in effect, repetition engines: tools designed to let you rewind, replay, repeat. It seems amazing to think of it now, but just 30 years ago, television viewers tuning in for All in the Family or M*A*S*H had almost no recourse available to them if they wanted to watch a scene again, or catch a bit of dialogue they missed. If you wanted to watch the "Chuckles the Clown" episode of Mary Tyler Moore again, you had to wait six months, until CBS reran it during the summer doldrums -- and then five years before it started cycling in syndication.
Since those days, the options for slowing down or reversing time have proliferated: first the VCR; then the explosion of cable channels, running dozens of shows in syndication at any given moment; then DVDs 15 years later; then TiVo; and now "on demand" cable channels that allow viewers to select programs directly from a menu of options -- as well as pause and rewind them. Viewers now curate their own private collections of classic shows, their DVD cases lining living-room shelves like so many triple-decker novels. The supplementary information often packaged with these DVDs adds to their repetition potential.
These proliferating new recording technologies are often described as technologies of convenience, but the technology has another laudable side effect: it facilitates close readings. As technologies of repetition allowed new levels of complexity to flourish, the rise of the Internet gave that complexity a new venue where it can be dissected, critiqued, rehashed, and explained. Even a modestly popular show -- like HBO's critically acclaimed drama Six Feet Under -- has spawned hundreds of fan sites and discussion forums, where each episode is scrutinized and annotated with an intensity usually reserved for Talmudic scholars. The fan sites create a public display of passion for the show, which nervous Hollywood execs sometimes use to justify renewing a show that might otherwise be cancelled due to mediocre ratings. Shows like Arrested Development and Alias survive for multiple seasons thanks in part to the enthusiasm of their smaller audiences -- not to mention the fans' willingness to buy DVD versions en masse when they're eventually released.
The new possibilities for meta-commentary are best displayed in game walk-throughs: those fantastically detailed descriptions that "walk" the reader "through" the environment of a video game, usually outlining the most effective strategies for completing the game's primary objectives. Hundreds of these documents exist online, almost all of them created by ordinary players, assembling tips and techniques from friends and game discussion boards. If you have your doubts about the spatio-logical complexity of today's video games and don't have the time to sit down and play one yourself, I recommend downloading one of these walk-throughs from the Web and scrolling through it just to gauge the scale and intricacy of these gameworlds.
Pop culture's race to the top over the past decades forces us to rethink our assumptions about the base tendencies of mass society. Almost every Chicken Little story about the declining standards of pop culture contains a buried blame-the-victim message: Junk culture thrives because people are naturally drawn to simple, childish pleasures. Children zone out in front of their TV shows or their video games because the mind seeks out mindlessness. This is the Slacker theory of brain function: the human brain desires above all else that the external world refrain from making it do too much work. Given their druthers, our brains would prefer to luxuriate among idle fantasies and mild amusements. And so, never being one to refuse a base appetite, the culture industry obliges. The result is a society where maturity, in Andrew Solomon's words, is a "process of mental atrophy."
Think about it this way: if our brain really desired to atrophy in front of mindless entertainment, then the story of the last 30 years of video games -- from Pong to The Sims -- would be the story of games that grew increasingly simple over time. You'd never need a guidebook or a walk-through; you'd just fly through the world, a demigod untroubled by challenge and complexity. Game designers would furiously compete to come out with the simplest titles; every virtual space would usher you to the path of least resistance. Of course, exactly the opposite has occurred. The games have gotten more challenging at an astonishing rate: from PacMan's single page of patterns to Grand Theft Auto III's 53,000-word walk-through in a mere two decades. The games are growing more challenging because there's an economic incentive to make them more challenging -- and that economic incentive exists because our brains like to be challenged.
Excerpted with permission


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The Toxics Action Center of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont has named Moretown Landfill as one of the 12 most egregious polluters.
The report, released November 27, was created from a list of 60 nominations and selection for the top 12 was based on the perceived degree of pollution that the selection committee found.
The report lists EPA concerns about landfills in general, suggesting that all landfills eventually leak. The Toxics Action Center report notes that the landfill occupies 20 of the 200 acres the company owns and that the landfill is currently seeking permits for a fourth landfill cell that will last for 15 to 18 years.
The report takes the landfill to task for its former owner putting trash in an unlined cell that led to groundwater contamination, an issue the current owners are working to remedy and, in fact, according to manager Tom Badowski, the landfill has, since 2006, seen a significant reduction in groundwater contamination.
"What we're seeing now is elevated iron, manganese and arsenic. Some of the elevated levels we are seeing below the unlined cell are close to some of the levels we are seeing above the unlined cells, so our background levels are equal to our downstream levels," Badowski said.
The Toxics Action Center report also makes reports that the landfill's current Cell 3 does not have a current permit and that the landfill's "inability to secure renewed certification is primarily due to the inability of the applicant to demonstrate compliance with both groundwater and off-site odor standards."
But that is not the case, according to Ben Gauthier, an environmental analyst for the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.
Gauthier said that the landfill had complied with the recertification process and submitted a complete application and the public hearings were held and public comment taken.
"Then, after we had issued a draft certification, the state's new laws that make groundwater a public trust went into effect which complicated the certification process," Gauthier said.
"It is not accurate to state that the landfill is operating without certification for Cell 3 because the previous certification still applies since the landfill submitted a complete application and went through the process before the old certification expired. That is a function of a state statute known as Title 3. They got their application in for review and then the groundwater laws changed. If we can't make a decision, their old certification is valid," Gauthier said.
He said that part of what the state and the landfill are working on is reclassifying the water at and under the landfill from potable to nonpotable which may ease the state's permitting issues.


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ReviveX Leather Gel Boot Care KitThe Revive X Leather Gel Boot Care Kit can be your answer to taking care of your leather boots in the roughest of conditions. It contains a heavy-duty weatherproofing chemical that protects the leather from adverse weather, so you can wear them on rainy day.
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Part 4
Watch our conservation video:
An Aim Pilgrim Trust Conservation Project
This year, Salisbury Museum was awarded a grant from the AIM Pilgrim Trust Conservation Scheme to conserve the models. As these four models are so heavy and fragile, the Wiltshire Conservation Service moved some of its equipment to create an conservation laboatory at the museum and opened the doors to the public.
At many museums there is only ever enough space to display a small proportion of the collection at any one time. These models are very large and although they provide a significant resource, they do take up a good deal of space within a gallery. To make the most of the gallery space, smaller examples of Pitt Rivers' models have been on display. By conserving these large models today, the Conservation Service will ensure that they will be protected and remain in good condition for the future.
The Pitt Rivers excavation models
The four Pitt Rivers models depict excavations at Cranborne Chase
The model of Rotherley is made of solid wood, whereas the other three are made of plaster of Paris supported by a wire frame. The largest model, the Woodyates hypocaust measures over a metre long and takes 6 people to lift!
Condition of the models
The 3-dimensional model of Bokerley Dyke, for example consists of a wooden frame filled with plaster which has been painted to show details of the site and its contours. The model is dirty and dusty, with heavy deposits over much of the surface and cobwebs evident in some areas.
Dirt and dust has built up on the objects over time and in some cases, this has changed the colour of the models and stained other areas.
The wooden structure of the models has split and cracked in many areas. Wood shrinks and expands, reacting to the levels of humidity in the atmosphere. As the wood expands, this can force it to break and split giving it an uneven, damaged surface.
Where other materials, such as paint or plaster are attached to the wood, the uneven surface puts a strain on the paint; stretching or crushing it until the paint or plaster cracks and breaks off. Some fragments of paint or plaster have fallen off and been lost.
Three of the models have been attacked by woodworm. These are insect larvae, which eat their way through the wood and form complex tunnel systems inside the structure. Woodworm thrive in damp environments. If left untreated, the infested wood can be so badly damaged that it will crumble away completely.
Why is conservation necessary?
Our conservation treatment will help to make sure that the models survive so that future generations can see them. Without conservation treatment, the models would continue to deteriorate. The woodworm infestation would weaken the wooden frames to the point where they could collapse. The chips and paint loss mean significant details are lost. The surface dirt, dust and stains make the models harder to understand and appreciate for their craftsmanship and information.
Treatment Proposal:
- Clean the wood and painted plaster to remove dust, dirt and staining
- Consolidate areas of flaking paint
- Adhere the separated fragments of plaster and paint
- Fill areas of missing plaster where necessary for structural stability
- Treat the woodworm infestation to prevent further structural damage
Conservation treatment
All solvents, adhesives and techniques were rigorously tested in the laboratories before treatment commenced to ensure that no ill effects would occur to the models. Solubility tests were carried out on paint samples and the suitability of each adhesive in terms of bond strength, appearance and penetration were assessed.
The stable surface areas were then cleaned with smoke sponge (vulcanised natural rubber) to remove more ingrained deposits of dirt and dust. Any smoke sponge debris was removed with a museum vac and soft brush.
Fragile flaking areas of paint were consolidated with an acrylic solution with distilled water.
Areas of exposed plaster were stabilised using a facing of Japanese tissue adhered with acrylic adhesive. Areas of unsupported plaster have been stabilised by filling underlying gaps using Japanese tissue and injecting a acrylic solution with distilled water.
Areas affected by woodworm infestation where cleaned with a museum vac and soft brush to remove any loose frass from the infestation. These areas where then sprayed with a water-based insecticide.
Why aren't the models going on display?
Made-to-measure storage crates are being constructed for the models so that they are protected from the environment and pests which will prevent any further damage happening to them in the future. The bespoke crates will make it much easier to manoeuvre the models around the museum, without causing further damage.
For more information:
Visit our website: http://www.wshc.eu/our-services/conservation.html
Or contact us: firstname.lastname@example.com Tel. 01279 705500


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24 May: Guest Lecture - Essential Lipids in Aquatic Food Webs: Nutritional Requirements, Physiological Constraints, and Trophic Transfer
PD Dr. Dominik Martin-Creuzburg will give a lecture on "Essential lipids in aquatic food webs: nutritional requirements, physiological constraints, and trophic transfer" on 24 May, 2019, at 14:00 in Hörsaal 421 of the NW Faculty. The Department of Life Sciences invites you to attend!
PD Dr. Dominik Martin-Creuzburg ist Leiter der Gruppe Chemical Ecology & Ecophysiology am Limnological Institute der Universität Konstanz.
A dietary deficiency in essential lipids has serious physiological and ecological consequences for invertebrate consumers. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and sterols are indispensable structural components of eukaryotic cell membranes and serve as precursors for a number of bioactive molecules, such as eicosanoids and ecdysteroids. Eicosanoids are known to modulate reproduction and immunity while ecdysteroids are involved in the process of molting. PUFA play a crucial role for the so-called homeoviscous adaptation of membranes to varying temperatures and the dietary PUFA supply may thus affect the ability of ectothermic animals to cope with temperature fluctuations. Moreover, PUFA-derived eicosanoids have been shown to influence invertebrate immune responses and there is evidence that the dietary PUFA supply can affect the outcome of parasite-host interactions and the susceptibility to pathogens. Sterol auxotrophy is widespread among invertebrates. In contrast to animals, which predominantly contain cholesterol, plants and especially algae contain a great diversity of so-called phytosterols. Consequently, herbivorous invertebrates need to metabolize dietary phytosterols to cholesterol to cover their physiological demands. Dietary phytosterols, however, differ substantially in their potential to support growth and reproduction of invertebrates. Investigating the physiological constraints associated with an inadequate dietary lipid supply is crucial for understanding the performances of animals under various environmental conditions. The availability of essential lipids for consumers strongly depends on primary production and trophic transfer efficiencies. Aim of this talk is to highlight recent advances in biochemical food quality research and to point out gaps in knowledge and new avenues for future research.
After the seminar (ca. 16:00 h), everybody is welcome to join us for drinks and munchies in the "coffee corner on the second floor".