Blogging

by Madeleine Kando

I have been spending an awful lot of time lately getting this blog ‘optimized’. It is, of course, a never ending process, especially for someone like me, who has an obsessive compulsive nature.

I am starting to feel the side-effects of too much web searching, too much sitting on my posterior. I have forgotten what blogging is really about – writing good stuff for those of you out there, who seem to enjoy it. Read more...

Language and Colors: Now you see Them, Now you Don't

by Madeleine Kando

Not too long ago, people believed that the ability to see colors was a trait that was inherited over generations. Even as recently as 1858, the British statesman William Gladstone theorized that Homer must have been color-blind because his texts don’t mention the colors blue or green. He concluded that full-color vision had not yet developed in humans at that time. Read more...

Europe is Not in Decline

by Juliette Kando

I have just come from Amsterdam via London, back to Southern Spain and I do not see a decline in Europe apart from perhaps fewer Real Estate agents in Spain. Generally the people in Europe are almost as fat as in America, they drive new cars, I do not see any beggars or poor people. In Holland house prices have risen by 30% since last year! Yes everyone moans about the "economy", but isn't that to a great extend just talking about the news?
I repeat: The news bears little relevance to the reality we see around us. How can we, educated middle class Westerners moan about hard financial times when our bellies and shopping malls are bursting at the seams? I don't get it. Read more...

Has the 9-11 Attack Changed Anything?

By Tom Kando

It is incumbent to post something about 9/11, on the decennial anniversary of the attack. Let me try to come up with something non-superfluous, something beyond the platitudes uttered by the media at this time.

I am in Holland right now. (From where I flew back to California by way of Newark on 9/10, 2001, incidentally! Can you believe it?)

Maybe I can say something positive from this vantage point. In the US, of course, the commemoration is important.
Read more...

The Proof is in the Pudding

by Madeleine Kando

In his book 'The Tyranny of Guilt', Pascal Bruckner explains the causes of Europe's guilt complex vis-à-vis the rest of the world. The best approach to living conscious-free is to become a passive observer. Europe stands on the side-lines in fear of repeating the atrocities it has committed in the past.

Is there an analogy to be drawn here between nations and people? Does old age inherently imply that one is more careful, less adventurous, less confident about the future and one's ability to affect it? Read more...

America, the Beautiful

by Madeleine Kando

I have been sitting in this airplane seat for the past two hours, flying from San Francisco to Chicago. Mine seems to be the only window whose shade isn't down. Most passengers are either reading, watching t.v. or sleeping. What on earth possesses them to ignore this unique opportunity to witness one of the world's wonders up close? For me, flying cross-country is still an incredible adventure.

This plane is like a claustrophobic, smelly movie theatre, showing a super-sized, five hour long movie. The scene is continually changing. What is that, over there in the distance? A hazy yellow patch and next to it, tiny specks which must be houses. Is it sand, salt or just a dust storm the size of a small town? Read more...

Are There Too Many People?

By Tom Kando

Today, I am traveling to the Netherlands again. Every time I arrive, what strikes me most forcefully is how crowded this place is compared to the US:

By some measures, the Netherlands are still one of the most, if not THE most densely populated place on earth: The Netherlands have 1,100 people per square mile. That’s 13 times more than the US density of 83 per square mile. (The world as a whole, incidentally, has 35 people per square mile)
Read more...

Europe's Growing Pains

by Madeleine Kando

There is a lot of talk lately warning about the impending downfall of 'Europe'. Forbes Magazine has an article: The End Of Europe: A Civilization Built On Sand, basically saying that, since there is no unifying force to hold Europe together, it has no army, no common language and no common religion, Europe is bound to end soon.

But how can a continent disappear? Short of the earth's crust splitting open and swallowing it whole, Europe is here to stay. What they are really talking about is the European Union, of course. Read more...

Which are the World’s Best Universities?

By Tom Kando

I just came across a fascinating article about the University of Shanghai’s annual ranking of the world’s 500 best universities (It’s actually 1,000, but the readily available data only cover 500). The research and the methodology have good credibility. The criteria are the usual ones - the quality of education, research output, Nobel laureates, etc. Here are some of the results:
Read more...

Israel and Palestine: Whose Turf is it?

By Tom Kando

The Jewish-Palestinian conflict is interminable. It has raged since before I was born, and it will not be solved by the time my grand-children are gone. It is what it is. It almost seems mystical. One of the world’s sine qua nons. Fate, or God, or something, has decreed that this problem must not be solved.

Many of the arguments on both sides hinge on who should own the turf, i.e. who was there first. So how far back do we go? Do we just look at 1948, when Israel became independent, or do we go back to Moses, 5,000 years ago?
Read more...