In the New York Times:
Some years ago, the evolutionist and atheist Richard Dawkins pointed out to me that Sir Isaac Newton, the founder of modern physics and mathematics, and arguably the greatest scientist of all time, was born on Christmas Day, and that therefore Newton’s Birthday could be an alternative, if somewhat nerdy,
Here’s the original (now replaced) cover to the latest issue of MaxPlanckForschung, the flagship journal of the Max Planck Institute:
As MPF later explained,
The cover of the most recent German-language edition of MaxPlanckForschung (3/2008) depicts a Chinese text which had been chosen by our editorial office in order to symbolically illustrate the magazine’s focus on "China". …
Prior to publication, the editorial office had consulted a German sinologist for a translation of the relevant text. The sinologist concluded that the text in question depicted classical Chinese characters in a non-controversial context. To our sincere regret, however, it has now emerged that the text contains deeper levels of meaning, which are not immediately accessible to a non-native speaker.
Contracts are a lot like a foreign language. There’s a whole body of interpretation — i.e. case law — of which non-lawyers are generally unaware. There are also numerous known unknowns and unknown unknowns with regard to the interpretation of a specific contract in a given factual scenario. That is, there are times when an MBA who has done a lot of contracts will, like a German sinologist, not suffice.
Language Log has a long explanation of the deeper meaning here. I’ve posted their rough translation below the fold.Continue Reading Why Should Companies Have Lawyers Review Contracts? An Example from the Max Planck Institute
Marc S. Dreier knew the 45th-floor conference room of Solow Realty well. He had been in it many times as a trusted lawyer for the company’s founder.
So nothing seemed amiss when he showed up one afternoon in October and told a receptionist he had a meeting with her boss, people associated with
More than a dozen reasons, at science fiction site io9. An example:
Making History by Stephen Fry: A history student and a physics professor manage to send a permanent male contraceptive pill back in time where Hitler’s father will consume it, ensuring Hitler will never be born. But without Hitler, the Nazi party is
Some links to get your neurons going over the next week:
From America’s Finest News Source:
WASHINGTON—In a landmark decision Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly ruled to uphold the Bill of Rights, the very tenets upon which American society is based. "After carefully considering the relevance of the 10 inviolable rights that comprise the ideological foundation on which our nation is built, the court
The Associated Press has picked up the dispute between Paul Rosen, who wants to paint a mural on a parking lot near Rittenhouse Square, and his neighbors, who apparently believe public art is beneath them. The dispute was covered in depth last month by Philadelphia Magazine.
The mural has been designed by
Since politics are about more than just tax cuts and foreign policy:
There’s no way around it: the Obama administration will need to address food issues head-on.
Last month, Michael Pollan published a sweeping letter to the next president, Farmer in Chief, in the New York Times. After Pollan’s article was published, the American
How would you think about something if you had minimal data and a handful of rules?
The late Carl Sagan once asked this question, “What does it mean for a civilization to be a million years old? We have had radio telescopes and spaceships for a few decades; our technical civilization is a few
