Reads: Boston Marathon Bombing, Breaking News & More
[A wrap up of some of the interesting reads from across the Web.]
The Culprits - The New Yorker
The Boston bombing incident came at a time when people were least expecting it, and occurring after almost 13 years post 9/11 it has put the spotlight back on terrorism (or is it?). David Remnick, in his article on The New Yorker, traces the brothers' background noting how the elder of the duo never felt at home in the USA, while his 19-year old sibling displayed a case of chilling coolness after carrying out the attack on innocent lives.
The Tsarnaev family had been battered by history before—by empire and the strife of displacement, by exile and emigration. Asylum in a bright new land proved little comfort. When Anzor [their father] fell sick, a few years ago, he resolved to return to the Caucasus; he could not imagine dying in America. He had travelled halfway around the world from the harrowed land of his ancestors, but something had drawn him back. The American dream wasn't for everyone. What they could not anticipate was the abysmal fate of their sons, lives destroyed in a terror of their own making. The digital era allows no asylum from extremism, let alone from the toxic combination of high-minded zealotry and the curdled disappointments of young men. A decade in America already, I want out. >>
Why is Boston 'terrorism' but not Aurora, Sandy Hook, Tucson and Columbine? - The Guardian
While the Boston Marathon attack may have been a case of extremism gone wrong, can it be labeled an act of terrorism? The USA, which is enthusiastic about its 'war on terror', does practically nothing about the gun violence induced mass killings (or home-grown terrorism?) that ravage the nation. Glenn Greenwald's hard hitting opinion on the paradox:
In sum, neither the President nor the FBI - by their own admission - know the motive here nor have evidence showing it, but Andrew Sullivan, along with hordes of others yelling "terrorism" and "jihad", insist that they do. That's the special species of rank irrationality that uniquely shapes public US discourse when the issue is Muslims. >>
Breaking News Is Broken - Slate
News channels and media organizations these days resort to multiple means of disseminating what's popularly called 'breaking news'. With rapid technology advances, they can tweet and broadcast events live as and when they unfold. The best example recently being the Boston incident, where the city's police department took to Twitter to provide latest updates on the manhunt. However, the ugly side too cropped up when CNN and tweeters made terrible gaffes in the name of identifying the suspects after their photographs were released to the public.
So is it worthwhile to follow a breaking news story on a TV channel or on a social networking site? There are obvious downsides to both approaches, and Slate has a solution:
We get stories much faster than we can make sense of them, informed by cellphone pictures and eyewitnesses found on social networks and dubious official sources like police scanner streams. Real life moves much slower than these technologies. There’s a gap between facts and comprehension, between finding some pictures online and making sense of how they fit into a story. What ends up filling that gap is speculation. On both Twitter and cable, people are mostly just collecting little factoids and thinking aloud about various possibilities. They’re just shooting the shit, and the excrement ends up flying everywhere and hitting innocent targets. >>
Coffee and the selfish gene - The Hindu
Don't you like a hot steaming cup of coffee to jump-start your day? But apparently it looks like it's just not us who prefer to take these drugs! Yes I am referring to those tiny bees, for whom caffeine acts as a stimulant to make them keep coming back to the plants in addition to keeping herbivores at bay.
In effect then, caffeine has two roles in the plant. One is defence against the predator goats and cows, while the other is to entice the pollinating insect by drugging it and tweaking its memory so that it pollinates this plant in preference to other pants that do not pack the drug in their nectar. The researchers conclude by stating that “our experiments suggest that by affecting a pollinator’s memory, plants reap the reproductive benefits arising from enhanced pollinator fidelity”.
In plainer English, one can say that the trick the coffee plants play is another example of the ‘selfish gene’ idea, namely, use any ruse to help propagate my genes over other competitors, and do so for generations; and if it takes caffeine to entice and tweak the memory of the pollinator, so be it. >>
Dan Brown still can't write, but he deserves some respect - The Guardian
Inferno is no literary masterpiece - though not abysmal as the Fifty Shades trilogy - and should be enjoyed for it is (hasn't that been the case with any novel that panders to the masses?). Dan Brown seems to have perfected the art of satisfying readers' craving for mystery and adventure very well, and his latest blockbuster, which is topping UK best seller lists, sees him stepping into the shoes of Michael Crichton with a very scientific setting as the backdrop. No doubt he is raking in loads of fortune, but thanks to Alan for pointing out what I had in mind myself. And of course, Brown should do better considering all that humongous fan following!
Brown doesn't blend facts into his books like other novelists, though, who use solid science or history as a foundation to build creative, even impossible stories. It's the difference between using an anagram or a pun: an anagram is just letters rearranged, and a pun has multiple meanings. Both can be fun, but one has no substance. Brown rearranges appearances to create his world of wacky coincidences, but the consequent confusion over 'fact' and meaning understandably annoys some parties. >>
The Culprits - The New Yorker
The Boston bombing incident came at a time when people were least expecting it, and occurring after almost 13 years post 9/11 it has put the spotlight back on terrorism (or is it?). David Remnick, in his article on The New Yorker, traces the brothers' background noting how the elder of the duo never felt at home in the USA, while his 19-year old sibling displayed a case of chilling coolness after carrying out the attack on innocent lives.
The Tsarnaev family had been battered by history before—by empire and the strife of displacement, by exile and emigration. Asylum in a bright new land proved little comfort. When Anzor [their father] fell sick, a few years ago, he resolved to return to the Caucasus; he could not imagine dying in America. He had travelled halfway around the world from the harrowed land of his ancestors, but something had drawn him back. The American dream wasn't for everyone. What they could not anticipate was the abysmal fate of their sons, lives destroyed in a terror of their own making. The digital era allows no asylum from extremism, let alone from the toxic combination of high-minded zealotry and the curdled disappointments of young men. A decade in America already, I want out. >>
Why is Boston 'terrorism' but not Aurora, Sandy Hook, Tucson and Columbine? - The Guardian
While the Boston Marathon attack may have been a case of extremism gone wrong, can it be labeled an act of terrorism? The USA, which is enthusiastic about its 'war on terror', does practically nothing about the gun violence induced mass killings (or home-grown terrorism?) that ravage the nation. Glenn Greenwald's hard hitting opinion on the paradox:
In sum, neither the President nor the FBI - by their own admission - know the motive here nor have evidence showing it, but Andrew Sullivan, along with hordes of others yelling "terrorism" and "jihad", insist that they do. That's the special species of rank irrationality that uniquely shapes public US discourse when the issue is Muslims. >>
Breaking News Is Broken - Slate
News channels and media organizations these days resort to multiple means of disseminating what's popularly called 'breaking news'. With rapid technology advances, they can tweet and broadcast events live as and when they unfold. The best example recently being the Boston incident, where the city's police department took to Twitter to provide latest updates on the manhunt. However, the ugly side too cropped up when CNN and tweeters made terrible gaffes in the name of identifying the suspects after their photographs were released to the public.
So is it worthwhile to follow a breaking news story on a TV channel or on a social networking site? There are obvious downsides to both approaches, and Slate has a solution:
We get stories much faster than we can make sense of them, informed by cellphone pictures and eyewitnesses found on social networks and dubious official sources like police scanner streams. Real life moves much slower than these technologies. There’s a gap between facts and comprehension, between finding some pictures online and making sense of how they fit into a story. What ends up filling that gap is speculation. On both Twitter and cable, people are mostly just collecting little factoids and thinking aloud about various possibilities. They’re just shooting the shit, and the excrement ends up flying everywhere and hitting innocent targets. >>
Coffee and the selfish gene - The Hindu
Don't you like a hot steaming cup of coffee to jump-start your day? But apparently it looks like it's just not us who prefer to take these drugs! Yes I am referring to those tiny bees, for whom caffeine acts as a stimulant to make them keep coming back to the plants in addition to keeping herbivores at bay.
In effect then, caffeine has two roles in the plant. One is defence against the predator goats and cows, while the other is to entice the pollinating insect by drugging it and tweaking its memory so that it pollinates this plant in preference to other pants that do not pack the drug in their nectar. The researchers conclude by stating that “our experiments suggest that by affecting a pollinator’s memory, plants reap the reproductive benefits arising from enhanced pollinator fidelity”.
In plainer English, one can say that the trick the coffee plants play is another example of the ‘selfish gene’ idea, namely, use any ruse to help propagate my genes over other competitors, and do so for generations; and if it takes caffeine to entice and tweak the memory of the pollinator, so be it. >>
Dan Brown still can't write, but he deserves some respect - The Guardian
Inferno is no literary masterpiece - though not abysmal as the Fifty Shades trilogy - and should be enjoyed for it is (hasn't that been the case with any novel that panders to the masses?). Dan Brown seems to have perfected the art of satisfying readers' craving for mystery and adventure very well, and his latest blockbuster, which is topping UK best seller lists, sees him stepping into the shoes of Michael Crichton with a very scientific setting as the backdrop. No doubt he is raking in loads of fortune, but thanks to Alan for pointing out what I had in mind myself. And of course, Brown should do better considering all that humongous fan following!
Brown doesn't blend facts into his books like other novelists, though, who use solid science or history as a foundation to build creative, even impossible stories. It's the difference between using an anagram or a pun: an anagram is just letters rearranged, and a pun has multiple meanings. Both can be fun, but one has no substance. Brown rearranges appearances to create his world of wacky coincidences, but the consequent confusion over 'fact' and meaning understandably annoys some parties. >>
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