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April 29, 2005

• "People Power Rattling Politics of Latin America" [Christian Science Monitor] Despite the continental scope of the title, protests in South America receive comparatively little attention in this article recounting recent events in Mexican politics. But the general theme--that power may have shifted from landed or armed elites in Latin America to the traditionally landless and powerless people of the former colonies--is interesting. (I'm oversimplifying a vastly more complicated class structure.) Americans need to remember there are more countries than Britain, China and the Middle East. (Selected by Paul Musgrave.)

• "Yao Nets Chinese Worker's Title" [Washington Post] The Post, whose China desk is one of the better sources for information on the changing society, reports on the recent awarding of the title of "model worker" to NBA star Yao Ming. The title used to be awarded only to the proletariats and peasants of Mao's time, and many Chinese find it odd that this symbolic celebration of the "working man" (a class identification with special resonance in Communist countries) has gone to a guy who slam dunks. (For a more political look, don't miss the Monitor's coverage of the visit of the Taiwanese KMT president to Beijing.) (Selected by Paul Musgrave.)

• "Survey Finds Many Have Poor Grasp of Economics" [New York Times] There's always something comic when the Times tries to explain the two matters it understands the least: economics and ordinary Americans. In this article, the Times notes that few Americans know the tying-your-shoe basics of political economy, but the author confuses "economics" with "knowing a lot of words." The survey remains troubling, even so. (Selected by Josh Claybourn.)

• "Pyroelectric crystal drives nuclear fusion at 'desktop' conditions" [Nature] Claims of "cold fusion" in the late 1980's proved to be infamously erroneous, leading to a great deal of skepticism about the "f-word" in physics. Nevertheless, in a remarkable achievement, a team of physicists appears to have induced nuclear fusion in a lab without the use of a huge, energy-guzzling accelerator. The reaction, however, is not self-sustaining and therefore not useful for energy production. The technical description of their project is here. (Selected by Eric Seymour.)

• "Bill Passed to Require Drivers to Move Over" [WTLV]: Like most people from the Midwest, aka, "normal" drivers, I'm always astounded by the behaviour of motorists in Florida, where there is no fixed speed limit for any one car or lane. This turns their highways into a sometimes exciting and always frustrating game of Pole Position, where the veteran racers are extremely veteran. I doubt this legislation will work, but I wish them luck. (Selected by Zach Wendling).

Posted by ITA Staff at April 29, 2005 12:00 AM

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