- Email: [email protected]
Golem's revenge
SEE OUR WEBSITE FOR LETTERS ON: ● Legalise it ● Shingle Street burnings
are in fact true of the LHC. There is unanimity among particle physicists worldwide, formalised in publications of the CERN Council and the US National Academies, for example, that the LHC is the top priority for research and discovery in particle physics, with a linear collider the next logical step. Precisely what form that collider might take will not be known before we have the first results from the LHC. Whatever it is, particle physicists would be foolish to forget the messy atom smashers. They are an essential part of the discovery process, as the LHC is set to prove when it switches on next year. Geneva, Switzerland
Cash-strapped maths From John Ball, International Mathematical Union Your editorial mentions that a global effort is under way to digitise the past mathematical literature, but adds that the project is ”bogged down by petty disputes over formatting” (26 August, p 3). This is certainly not the case. The International Mathematical Union has led an effort to digitise the paper archives and has coordinated standards for such projects. It has suggested ways to incorporate links to this past literature into the current reviewing services, created a registry for such projects (www.wdml.org) and promoted a vision for a World Digital Mathematics Library (www.ceic. math.ca/Publications/dml_ vision.pdf). We estimate that nearly 20 per cent of the past literature is already online. The impediments to completing this enterprise have nothing to do with formats, but are rather more mundane. Research agencies are unwilling to invest money in routine work such as digitisation, even when it clearly benefits research. Further, the vast majority of this literature is owned by those who originally published it, and they see an opportunity to sell it again in www.newscientist.com
060923_R_Letters.indd 21
digital form. The second point (the copyright problem) is an obstacle that will vex digitisation projects of the future as well as the present unless we find a solution now. Oxford, UK
Legalise it From John Anderson Your editorial discusses the problems associated with illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine (2 September, p 3). The obvious solution is to legalise them. This immediately eliminates the criminal problem and its attendant huge costs: no more efforts abroad to squash growers and combat suppliers, no more efforts at home to arrest suppliers and users, and greatly reduced prison requirements. Establishing a free-market cost for each drug at the level of alcohol and cigarettes, with similar taxes, should essentially
Golem’s revenge From Wolf Pascheles You suggest that the most significant thing about the golem of legend is that he is a big lummox (2 September, p 46). But the major theme of the legend is hubris – humanity going where it should not. And it is important that in the best-known version, the Golem of Prague, the monster was conceived as a defensive weapon but caused mayhem. Though golems are, generally, held to be incapable of harming their creators directly, in many stories they are smart enough to work out that they can seek revenge by harming others. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a golem story, and her monster in its despair kills Elizabeth, the beloved of the doctor who created him. It should be forbidden to practise science or technology before deep contemplation of Shelley’s book. London, UK
Yours sins nearly
remove the necessity for users to commit robberies to support their habit. The taxes can then go to school-age and adult programmes to prevent usage and treat users who want to quit. Advertisement of drugs or any other means of enticement must be prohibited. Drugs would be available only over the counter at pharmacies, with information and appropriate health warnings, and any other means of sale would continue to be prohibited. Purity could be regulated, and a minimum age requirement would be necessary. Lake Mary, Florida, US
From Duncan Macpherson Your story on “eggcorns” was fascinating, but covered only part of the territory (26 August, p 52). Modern writers have often coined new versions of words to great satiric or ironic effect – such as John Irving’s sinister under toad (undertow) in The World According to Garp, or the many examples in D. B. C. Pierre’s 2003 Booker prizewinner, Vernon God Little, where, for example, the adolescent hero yearns to overturn the near-universal misreading of his actions, or “change the paradigm”, which he thinks is spelled “power dime” – an ironic comment on the primacy of money in this writer’s dystopic vision of the US. No doubt your readers will now be sending in their own examples, and this could be a regular feature in New Scientist – in which case you could then look forward to the ultimate accolade,
having the idea pinched by a broadsheet Sunday newspaper. Stowmarket, Suffolk, UK From Ken Pease Eggcorns are characterised as linguistic errors whereby people connect what they have heard with what they know, as when Alzheimer’s disease is rendered old-timer’s disease. These should be distinguished from the deliberate use of misnomers to point up links or balder truths. In our family acupuncture becomes actualpuncture, while environmental worthiness leads to the purchase of organist’s milk and the Toyota Pious. Stockport, Merseyside, UK
Exploding Pluto From Andrew Kraus I am writing to you as a concerned uncle. My 5-year-old nephew recently started school and was told that Pluto was no longer a planet. He is a very sensitive young boy (always getting upset about violence and destruction) and he came home from school upset because he thought that Pluto had blown up. I tried my best to console him, finally doing so by telling him that we would fight to get Pluto back. Here is our simple letter and our plea to you, dear scientists: please give us our planet back! Pluto, we will miss you. Buffalo, New York, US
For the record ● In our feature on space elevators (2 September, p 36), we assumed that Nicola Pugno was female. He isn’t. Sorry, Nicola. Letters should be sent to: Letters to the Editor, New Scientist, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS Fax: +44 (0) 20 7611 1280 Email: [email protected] Include your address and telephone number, and a reference (issue, page number, title) to articles. We reserve the right to edit letters. Reed Business Information reserves the right to use any submissions sent to the letters column of New Scientist magazine, in any other format.
23 September 2006 | NewScientist | 21
15/9/06 3:26:01 pm
are in fact true of the LHC. There is unanimity among particle physicists worldwide, formalised in publications of the CERN Council and the US National Academies, for example, that the LHC is the top priority for research and discovery in particle physics, with a linear collider the next logical step. Precisely what form that collider might take will not be known before we have the first results from the LHC. Whatever it is, particle physicists would be foolish to forget the messy atom smashers. They are an essential part of the discovery process, as the LHC is set to prove when it switches on next year. Geneva, Switzerland
Cash-strapped maths From John Ball, International Mathematical Union Your editorial mentions that a global effort is under way to digitise the past mathematical literature, but adds that the project is ”bogged down by petty disputes over formatting” (26 August, p 3). This is certainly not the case. The International Mathematical Union has led an effort to digitise the paper archives and has coordinated standards for such projects. It has suggested ways to incorporate links to this past literature into the current reviewing services, created a registry for such projects (www.wdml.org) and promoted a vision for a World Digital Mathematics Library (www.ceic. math.ca/Publications/dml_ vision.pdf). We estimate that nearly 20 per cent of the past literature is already online. The impediments to completing this enterprise have nothing to do with formats, but are rather more mundane. Research agencies are unwilling to invest money in routine work such as digitisation, even when it clearly benefits research. Further, the vast majority of this literature is owned by those who originally published it, and they see an opportunity to sell it again in www.newscientist.com
060923_R_Letters.indd 21
digital form. The second point (the copyright problem) is an obstacle that will vex digitisation projects of the future as well as the present unless we find a solution now. Oxford, UK
Legalise it From John Anderson Your editorial discusses the problems associated with illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine (2 September, p 3). The obvious solution is to legalise them. This immediately eliminates the criminal problem and its attendant huge costs: no more efforts abroad to squash growers and combat suppliers, no more efforts at home to arrest suppliers and users, and greatly reduced prison requirements. Establishing a free-market cost for each drug at the level of alcohol and cigarettes, with similar taxes, should essentially
Golem’s revenge From Wolf Pascheles You suggest that the most significant thing about the golem of legend is that he is a big lummox (2 September, p 46). But the major theme of the legend is hubris – humanity going where it should not. And it is important that in the best-known version, the Golem of Prague, the monster was conceived as a defensive weapon but caused mayhem. Though golems are, generally, held to be incapable of harming their creators directly, in many stories they are smart enough to work out that they can seek revenge by harming others. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a golem story, and her monster in its despair kills Elizabeth, the beloved of the doctor who created him. It should be forbidden to practise science or technology before deep contemplation of Shelley’s book. London, UK
Yours sins nearly
remove the necessity for users to commit robberies to support their habit. The taxes can then go to school-age and adult programmes to prevent usage and treat users who want to quit. Advertisement of drugs or any other means of enticement must be prohibited. Drugs would be available only over the counter at pharmacies, with information and appropriate health warnings, and any other means of sale would continue to be prohibited. Purity could be regulated, and a minimum age requirement would be necessary. Lake Mary, Florida, US
From Duncan Macpherson Your story on “eggcorns” was fascinating, but covered only part of the territory (26 August, p 52). Modern writers have often coined new versions of words to great satiric or ironic effect – such as John Irving’s sinister under toad (undertow) in The World According to Garp, or the many examples in D. B. C. Pierre’s 2003 Booker prizewinner, Vernon God Little, where, for example, the adolescent hero yearns to overturn the near-universal misreading of his actions, or “change the paradigm”, which he thinks is spelled “power dime” – an ironic comment on the primacy of money in this writer’s dystopic vision of the US. No doubt your readers will now be sending in their own examples, and this could be a regular feature in New Scientist – in which case you could then look forward to the ultimate accolade,
having the idea pinched by a broadsheet Sunday newspaper. Stowmarket, Suffolk, UK From Ken Pease Eggcorns are characterised as linguistic errors whereby people connect what they have heard with what they know, as when Alzheimer’s disease is rendered old-timer’s disease. These should be distinguished from the deliberate use of misnomers to point up links or balder truths. In our family acupuncture becomes actualpuncture, while environmental worthiness leads to the purchase of organist’s milk and the Toyota Pious. Stockport, Merseyside, UK
Exploding Pluto From Andrew Kraus I am writing to you as a concerned uncle. My 5-year-old nephew recently started school and was told that Pluto was no longer a planet. He is a very sensitive young boy (always getting upset about violence and destruction) and he came home from school upset because he thought that Pluto had blown up. I tried my best to console him, finally doing so by telling him that we would fight to get Pluto back. Here is our simple letter and our plea to you, dear scientists: please give us our planet back! Pluto, we will miss you. Buffalo, New York, US
For the record ● In our feature on space elevators (2 September, p 36), we assumed that Nicola Pugno was female. He isn’t. Sorry, Nicola. Letters should be sent to: Letters to the Editor, New Scientist, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS Fax: +44 (0) 20 7611 1280 Email: [email protected] Include your address and telephone number, and a reference (issue, page number, title) to articles. We reserve the right to edit letters. Reed Business Information reserves the right to use any submissions sent to the letters column of New Scientist magazine, in any other format.
23 September 2006 | NewScientist | 21
15/9/06 3:26:01 pm