Chinese Claim a Moral Victory, Describing a Bigger Battle. Fascinating. The letter of ‘apology’ was negotiated in English only, allowing for different nuances of Chnese translation in describing it to the Chinese public. Depending on how you translate “very sorry”, it either implies culpability or not. In case there was any doubt, Li’l George issued a statement as soon as the plane’s crew were safely out of Chinese clutches making clear we had done nothing wrong. Sino-American relations just got a whole lot more interesting. New York Times

“Browsing takeaway pizza websites will never be the same again: you’ll soon be able to download and print the pizza’s aroma and taste. A company called TriSenx of Savannah, Georgia, will launch a device next month that looks like a desktop printer but which can ‘print’ smells and tastes. The $269 printer is loaded with a cartridge containing more than 200 water-based flavours that are deposited in varying combinations by a print head onto fibre-based cardboard to make over a thousand different smells. The company is adapting the device to print on an edible paper-like wafer, allowing it to print out tastes too. Included in the price is software to help you avoid combinations that don’t smell or taste too good.” New Scientist

N. N. Holland’s Seminar, Brain & Literary Questions:

” I plan to open up these topics: personal styles; what goes on when we read; Chomskyan and post-Chomskyan ideas of language; cognitive theories of metaphor; the mammalian and neo-mammalian brain; kinds of memory; whether language ability evolved; culture and the child’s growing brain. In this seminar, we shall explore ways in which these new discoveries bear on our understanding of literature and the literary processes of creation and response. We shall be reading such people as: Noam Chomsky, George Lakoff, Mark Johnson, Hanna and Antonio Damasio, Jerry Fodor, Heinz Lichtenstein, Steven Pinker, Terrence Deacon, Gerald Edelman, some psychologists of reading, and some people who have begun to apply these ideas to literary questions: Richard Ohmann, Mark Turner, Ellen Winner, and myself.”

In a different world: Simon Baron-Cohen, a
clinical psychologist at Cambridge University who runs a clinic for Asperger’s syndrome, heads a team which has come up
with a simple test for autism, suggesting a fresh approach to the social difficulties (and strengths) of AS sufferers.
Here are the items on the inventory, the Cambridge Lifespan Asperger Syndrome Service (CLASS). “Before you panic–or
feel relieved to have found a possible explanation for your problems–ALL 10 descriptions must apply to you, and your
difficulties must be significantly interfering with your daily life”:

I find social situations confusing

I find it hard to make small talk

I did not enjoy imaginative story-writing at school

I am good at picking up details and facts

I find it hard to work out what other people are thinking and feeling

I can focus on certain things for very long periods

People often say I was rude even when this was not intended

I have unusually strong, narrow interests

I do certain things in an inflexible, repetitive way

I have always had difficulty making friends

New Scientist.

“Circling the earth in the orbital spacecraft I marvelled at the beauty of our planet. People of the world! Let us safeguard and enhance this beauty — not destroy it!” — Yuri Gagarin. Today is the fortieth anniversary of his historic first manned spaceflight. Several articles commemorate the occasion by commenting on how we’re doing. First:

Moratorium Asked on Suits That Seek to Protect Species. Latest betrayal of America’s heritage and future on the docket. “The Bush
administration has asked Congress
to set aside, at least for a year, a provision
of the Endangered Species Act that has
been the main tool used by citizens’ groups
to win protection for plants and animals.

The request, spelled out in a section of the
budget document that President Bush sent to
Capitol Hill on Monday, would make it much
more difficult for citizens to use the courts to
force the Fish and Wildlife Service to act on
petitions to list a species as endangered.” Democratic opposition pledges to “any and all” tactics including, finally, filibuster threat, to prevent this, according to spokesperson Sen. John Kerry. New York Times

Related news: “George W. Bush has added a weird twist to his proposed budget. To promote
his goal of oil drilling on public lands, he has made the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge a kind of hostage. In a message that could have been
pasted together from words cut out of a magazine, Bush is telling the
environmental community that if it wants money for energy conservation and
non-polluting energy sources, it will have to let Bush and his allies
drill in the untouched Alaskan wilderness. Either drill in the Arctic
refuge or face deep cuts in renewable energy research.

Yet, Bush’s bizarre decision to hold the Alaska refuge hostage is only one
part of a federal budget that has the look of a battle plan against the
environment. ” The Consortium

Ile-Alatau Journal: Pristine Park Draws Poachers to Central Asia. “Throughout the five nations of Central Asia, a struggle is under way to save
unspoiled ecosystems like this one. There are 32 nature preserves that were
spared the nuclear testing, exploitation of resources and general environmental
insensitivity of the Soviet era.

The new assault comes not from development and growth but from neglect and
desperation bred of poverty. Many people in Central Asia are poor, and
poaching, subsistence ranching and small-scale logging in these fertile enclaves
are matters of survival for many of them…

For the most part, the governments lack the resources to protect these isolated
preserves. Well-intentioned bureaucrats cannot compete with people trying to
find food. Few international organizations are involved, and environmentalists
say assistance is needed badly.” New York Times