Matt Ridley: The promiscuity of things and ideas
On the evening of Wednesday, 19 May, 2010, author Matt Ridley gave an hour-long talk on his new book, The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. He spoke at the New York Academy of Sciences, at its headquarters at the newly constructed 7 World Trade Center, which provides stunning views of Manhattan and, as Ridley pointed out at the start of his talk, represents the resilience and ingenuity he believes to be typical of human beings, and which informs his optimism about our future. The event was a part of the “Science in the City” series. About 100 people were in attendance, and the event was filmed for C-SPAN’s Book TV. Ridley is an engaging speaker, eminently clear, speaking at a measured pace in simple but elegant language, humor simmering just below the surface, coming up at just the right moments. He’s excited about his work, and he makes the audience excited about it too. He exhibited model form as a speaker, outlining his talk at the start, and sticking to his plan throughout. Its Book TV presentation is highly recommended; consult the Book TV or NYAS site for schedule information. Science in the City frequently makes podcasts or video footage of its events available on its site as well.
My aim here is to give readers rapid access to the central claims and arguments of the talk. Note that everything I say here is drawn from the talk rather than the book, although it’s reasonable to believe that the aim of his talk is to convey the book’s main ideas. I stay away from evaluating his claims, which I intend to do in a later post. Here I just want to give readers a clear sense of what Ridley is up to.
BibDesk 1.5.2 released
A new version of BibDesk, the bibliographic reference manager for users of BibTeX on OS X with extensions for use with word processing software, is now available. Visit http://bibdesk.sourceforge.net/, or use the “Check for updates” menu item from within BibDesk itself.
Many thanks to contributors to the bibtex-users mailing list, who, as usual, tested nightly builds, proposed and tested new features, and identified and help kill bugs. Those wanting to join the mailing list are invited to visit the BibDesk home page for more information. Scroll down to “Helping” and “Information” for links.
Release notes are as follows:
Blog Carnival of Evolution #23
Filed under: Blogging, Evolution: Education & Outreach news, Science writing
Greetings all! Everyone go visit
http://blogs.springer.com/evoo/?p=369
and look at this month’s Blog Carnival of Evolution.
All posts are really excellent, focusing on important topics in evolutionary biology. It makes for exciting and informative reading.
WHOI Top Stories- Sand, Sun, Waves ... and Bacteria?Every year bacteria close beaches nationwide. One student wants to know why.Elizabeth Halliday spent her summer at the beach, but she wasn't swimming or sunbathing. Instead, the MIT/WHOI Joint Program student traveled to Provincetown three times per week to collect samples of sand and water in order to study the source of bacteria that can lead to perio […]
- Sand, Sun, Waves ... and Bacteria?