Senior Women Web

Author: SeniorWomenWeb

  • Oxford’s Geometry of War and The Hurt Locker

    Through the availability of Netflix, we watched The Hurt Locker last night and understood its prominence in the list of the Oscar nominees for ‘Best Picture of 2009.’

    Illustrations from an exhibition at  Oxford’s Museum of the History of Science, The Geometry of War, although not exactly comparable to the scenes used in Kathryn Bigelow’s film, are elemental enough to illustrate the use of weaponry:

    “The mathematicians of the Renaissance applied their geometry to all manner of practical disciplines – from navigation and surveying to cartography and perspective. They aimed to demonstrate the usefulness of geometry as well as its ingenuity and certainty, and to associate it with action, achievement and progress. Many new instruments were designed in this context, as the collections of this museum amply demonstrate.”

    “Developments in the art of warfare in the late 15th and 16th centuries provided another outlet for geometry, and the mathematicians were quick to respond by devising techniques, designing instruments and writing books. Heavy guns manufactured in single metal castings were longer, capable of more accurate fire, and were adjustable in elevation. Consequently, gunners needed instruments to measure both the inclination of the barrel and the distance to the target, together with a means of relating these two measurements. Geometers offered a variety of solutions to these problems, as well as designs for fortifications to withstand attack from the new artillery.”

    “The ingenuity and precision of many instruments, and in some cases their elegance, poise and delicacy, contrasts with the harsh conditions of the battlefield. How usable would they really have been in practice? They were supposed to be employed in battle but it is clear that their purported military value also had other functions, in justifying textbook geometrical problems, for example, or in attracting patronage.”

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  • The Suicide Tourist

    On Tuesday, March 2nd, PBS presents the Fronline program exploring another difficult subject — that of suicide tourism and assisted suicide — at 9 pyem ET (check local listings), The Suicide Tourist:

    “I am dying. … There is no sense in trying to deny that fact,” 59-year-old Craig Ewert says of his rapid deterioration just months after being diagnosed with ALS, a motor neuron disorder often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease. suicide tourist

    “I’m not tired of living,” explains Ewert, a retired computer science professor. “I’m tired of the disease, but I’m not tired of living. And I still enjoy it enough that I’d like to continue. But the thing is that I really can’t.”

    Directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker John Zaritsky, the film is a portrait of Ewert’s final days as the Chicago native pursues a physician-assisted suicide in the one place where it’s legal for foreigners to come to end their lives: Switzerland. With unique access to Dignitas, the Swiss nonprofit that has helped more than 1,000 people die since 1998, The Suicide Tourist follows Ewert as he debates the morality — and confronts the reality — of choosing to die before his disease further ravages his body, and he loses the option to die without unbearable suffering.

    “At this point, I’ve got two choices,” Ewert reasons. “If I go through with it, I die, as I must at some point. If I don’t go through with it, my choice is essentially to suffer and to inflict suffering on my family and then die — possibly in a way that is considerably more stressful and painful than this way. So I’ve got death, and I’ve got suffering and death. You know, this makes a whole lot of sense to me.”

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  • Paul Delaroche: A Painter Whose Subjects Meet Untimely Ends

    The National Gallery in London is presenting a painting by Paul Delaroche (1787-1856), The Execution of Lady Jane Grey (1833), part of an exhibition of his paintings and one of a number subjects who met a brutal end:

    “Lady Jane Grey was Queen of England for just 9 days until she was driven from the throne and sent to the Tower of London to be executed.”

    “Jane became queen after the death of her cousin, Edward VI in 1553. As a Protestant, Jane was crowned queen in a bid to shore up Protestantism and keep Catholic influence at bay.”

    “The plan didn’t work. Jane’s claim to the crown was much weaker than Edward VI’s half sister Mary. Mary, a Catholic, had popular support and soon replaced Jane as queen.”

    “Lady Jane Grey was executed at Tower Green on 12 February 1554. She was just 16 years old.”

    “In this painting, she is guided towards the execution block by Sir John Brydges, Lieutenant of the Tower. The straw on which the block rests was intended to soak up the victim’s blood. The executioner stands impassive to the right and two ladies in attendance are shown grieving to the left.”

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  • Too Much Information? The Rhetoric of Women Wronged: When Political Spouses Tell Their Stories

    Nichola Gutgold writes: Resilience is not what I expected, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. When I teach communication at Penn State, I tell my students that the “rhetorical situation” is any set of circumstances that invites an utterance or writing that aims to influence others. I’m influenced, indeed, by Elizabeth Edwards.

  • New Credit Card Rules and What Your Credit Card Company Has to Tell You

    The Federal Reserve’s new rules for credit card companies mean new credit card protections for you. Here are some key changes you should expect from your credit card company beginning on February 22, 2010.

    What your credit card company has to tell you

    • When they plan to increase your rate or other fees. Your credit card company must send you a notice 45 days before they can increase your interest rate;
    • change certain fees (such as annual fees, cash advance fees, and late fees) that apply to your account; or
    • make other significant changes to the terms of your card.

    If your credit card company is going to make changes to the terms of your card, it must give you the option to cancel the card before certain fee increases take effect. If you take that option, however, your credit card company may close your account and increase your monthly payment, subject to certain limitations.

    For example, they can require you to pay the balance off in five years, or they can double the percentage of your balance used to calculate your minimum payment (which will result in faster repayment than under the terms of your account). The company does not have to send you a 45-day advance notice

    • if you have a variable interest rate tied to an index; if the index goes up, the company does not have to provide notice before your rate goes up;
    • your introductory rate expires and reverts to the previously disclosed “go-to” rate;
    • your rate increases because you are in a workout agreement and you haven’t made your payments as agreed.

    How long it will take to pay off your balance. Your monthly credit card bill will include information on how long it will take you to pay off your balance if you only make minimum payments. It will also tell you how much you would need to pay each month in order to pay off your balance in three years. For example, suppose you owe $3,000 and your interest rate is 14.4% — your bill might look like this:

    New Balance:   $3,000.00

    Minimum payment due:   $90.00

    Payment due date:   4/20/12

    Late Payment Warning:  If we do not receive your minimum payment by the date  listed above, you may have to pay a $35 late fee and your APRs may be  increased  up to the Penalty APR of 28.99%.

    Minimum Payment Warning: If you make only the minimum payment each period, you will pay more in interest and it will take you longer to pay off your balance.

    New rules regarding rates, fees, and limits

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  • Two Studies: Marital Hostility and Change in Spouses’ Depressive Symptoms; Caring for An Ex

    “In the United States, nearly 10 percent of the population suffers from a depressive disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. While the causes of depression vary, a new study at the University of Missouri reveals that marital hostility is a contributing factor. MU researcher, Christine Proulx, found that husbands’ hostile and anti-social behaviors increased their wives’ symptoms of depression over time.”

    ” ‘In the study, husbands’ marital hostility was significantly related to increases in wives’ symptoms of depression,’ said Proulx, assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies in the College of Human Environmental Sciences. ‘The more hostile and anti-social behavior exhibited by husbands, the more depressed their wives were after three years. These findings suggest that husbands’ treatment of their wives significantly impacts their psychological well-being and that hostile behavior has a lasting effect on couples that continues throughout their marriages.’ “

    “The researchers found no significant relationship between wives’ hostile behavior and husbands’ depression, unless significant life events, such as a death in the family or a job loss, were present. Additionally, warm, positive behavior from husbands lessened the negative impact of their hostile behavior.”

    “Anti-social behaviors are those that are self-centered, defiant or show a lack of constraint; hostile behaviors are those that are angry, critical or rejecting. To measure hostile and anti-social behaviors, the researchers watched and coded twenty-minute videos of couples interacting in their homes. Symptoms of depression were self-reported by those in the study.”

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  • The Libertarian Invasion of the 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference

    Jo Freeman writes: In a panel on “Why Real Conservatives are Against the War on Terror,” four self-identified conservatives gave some very strong anti-imperialist speeches. Ron Paul also used strong anti-language in his address to CPAC.

  • An Armchair ‘Grand Tour’ of Italy, A Room With a View and Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark

    The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles conducts an 18th century  ‘grand tour’ of  Italy using its art collections to illustrate the artistic and cultural side of the celebrated event. Princeton’s Wordnet defines the term, Grand Tour, as:

    “an extended cultural tour of Europe taken by wealthy young Englishmen (especially in the 18th century) as part of their education”

    The online site poses and answers the question, Why Italy?

    “The primary destination of the Grand Tour was Italy, with its heritage of ancient Roman monuments. 18th-century taste revered the art and culture of the ancients. The British, in particular, were lured to Italy by their admiration of antiquity and their desire to see firsthand such monuments of ancient civilization as the Colosseum in Rome, and such wonders of nature as the volcanic eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, near Naples.”

    “Display and spectacle were all important in the 18th century. Cities such as Rome, Venice, and Florence put on elaborate religious and civic festivals that involved public processions and lavish temporary architecture. The greatest artists and architects of the day, Filippo Juvara, Giuseppe Vasi, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, were also stage designers. Even such academic pursuits as archaeological excavation had their theatrical side; ‘discoveries’ were sometimes staged for the delight of eminent visitors. Performance could take place at home as well as in public, as in Lady Emma Hamilton’s ‘Attitudes,’ a series of poses based on ancient subjects.”

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  • A Pew Survey Asks Will Google Make Us More Stupid or More Intelligent?

    “Among the issues addressed in the survey was the provocative question raised by eminent tech scholar Nicholas Carr in a cover story for the Atlantic Monthly magazine in the summer of 2009:  ‘Is Google Making us Stupid?’  Carr argued that the ease of online searching and distractions of browsing through the web were possibly limiting his capacity to concentrate. ‘I’m not thinking the way I used to,’ he wrote, in part because he is becoming a skimming, browsing reader, rather than a deep and engaged reader. ‘The kind of deep reading that a sequence of printed pages promotes is valuable not just for the knowledge we acquire from the author’s words but for the intellectual vibrations those words set off within our own minds. In the quiet spaces opened up by the sustained, undistracted reading of a book, or by any other act of contemplation, for that matter, we make our own associations, draw our own inferences and analogies, foster our own ideas ….  If we lose those quiet spaces, or fill them up with ‘content,’ we will sacrifice something important not only in our selves but in our culture.’

    Respondents were also asked to “share your view of the internet’s influence on the future of human intelligence in 2020 — what is likely to stay the same and what will be different in the way human intellect evolves?” What follows is a selection of the hundreds of written elaborations and some of the recurring themes in those answers:

    Nicholas Carr and Google staffers have their say:

    • “I feel compelled to agree with myself. But I would add that the Net’s effect on our intellectual lives will not be measured simply by average IQ scores. What the Net does is shift the emphasis of our intelligence, away from what might be called a meditative or contemplative intelligence and more toward what might be called a utilitarian intelligence. The price of zipping among lots of bits of information

    • “My conclusion is that when the only information on a topic is a handful of essays or books, the best strategy is to read these works with total concentration. But when you have access to thousands of articles, blogs, videos, and people with expertise on the topic, a good strategy is to skim first to get an overview. Skimming and concentrating can and should coexist. I would also like to say that Carr has it mostly backwards when he says that Google is built on the principles of Taylorism [the institution of time-management and worker-activity standards in industrial settings]. Taylorism shifts responsibility from worker to management, institutes a standard method for each job, and selects workers with skills unique for a specific job. Google does the opposite, shifting responsibility from management to the worker, encouraging creativity in each job, and encouraging workers to shift among many different roles in their career …. Carr is of course right that Google thrives on understanding data. But making sense of data (both for Google internally and for its users) is not like building the same artifact over and over on an assembly line; rather it requires creativity, a mix of broad and deep knowledge, and a host of connections to other people. That is what Google is trying to facilitate.” — Peter Norvig, Google Research Director

    • “Google will make us more informed. The smartest person in the world could well be behind a plow in China or India. Providing universal access to information will allow such people to realize their full potential, providing benefits to the entire world.” — Hal Varian, Google, chief economist

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  • SLPC: IRS Long a Target of Antigovernment Extremists

    Posted by Heidi Beirich, Southern Law Poverty Center

    “This morning’s attack by Joseph Andrew Stack against an IRS office building in Austin, Tex., is a reminder again of how extreme hatred of government can morph into violence. Since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has documented 75 domestic terrorist plots, most of which involved individuals with extreme antigovernment views. One of the plots, if carried out, would have resulted in the deaths of some 30,000 people.”

    “Stack’s actions come as the number of antigovernment ‘Patriot’and militia groups is rising fast, as revealed by the SPLC this past summer. In the 1990s, the combustible mix of rising antigovernment anger and the growth in militias was a recipe for disaster that ultimately resulted in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building by Timothy McVeigh, who was motivated by antigovernment hatred.”

    ” ‘This attack comes amid the absolutely explosive growth of the right-wing militias and the larger antigovernment ‘Patriot’ movement, which includes thousands of so-called tax protesters who believe the federal income tax is illegal’ said Mark Potok, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. ‘There is a populist rage out there about what is seen as the coddling of rapacious elites, like the mortgage bankers who kept receiving multimillion dollar bonuses, even as working Americans seem to keep losing more and more.’ “

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