Are kids natural scientists?

SMBC has an answer that you really ought to check out!

Phyllis Rostykus on Women Scientists in Films

In her Slate article -- The Real Real Genius -- she says, "Thirty years ago, I helped inspire the lead female character in the classic nerd movie. I finally understand why some critics disliked its portrayal of women."

Batmobile: The Origin

For the Annals of Pop Culture: The Batmobile: The Concept Car That Became a Star by Michael Beschloss.

[In] 1965, ABC television greenlighted a new series called “Batman,” and its producers needed a Batmobile — fast. Within three weeks, using blowtorches and saws, the automobile customizer George Barris transformed the Futura’s deteriorating concept car — which he had bought from Ford for a dollar — into a rakish roadster suitable for TV’s new Batman and Robin ... [Bold emphasis added]

Annals of Extreme Childhood

Exhibit 1: Reality Shows:

... [O]ne of these shows, which aims to select a “vamp queen” from among young girls, drew 340 initial entries after offering Rs 1 lakh for the winner and a chance to dance with “item girls” of Telugu cinema.

Exhibit 2: Cram Schools:

Last month a Bangalore preschool made national headlines when it started accepting eight-month-old babies for an educational program called "Brain Bear". It is designed to develop communicative, aesthetic, physical and mathematical skills.

Links ...

1. Let's kick this off with two punchy cartoons from LeftyCartoons.com: A brief history of corporate whining and Bitch if you do, Broke if you don't. The latter reminded me of this gem from xkcd.

2. Sankarshan Thakur in The Telegraph: The Prime Minister's Office wakes up to 100-day deadline.

3. Victor Mair at Language Log: Food choices in Indian airlines.

4. Stanley Kaplan, the guy who made a fortune by training students to do well in SAT and other such exams, died last week at 90. Here's the NYTimes obituary.

   Far more interesting is Malcolm Gladwell's 2001 profile of the man, his method, and his enduring influence on the testing industry.: Examined Life: What Stanley H. Kaplan taught us about the SAT.

5. While on coaching industry, here's a NYTimes story about a South Korean cram school that went online to reach the masses and became one of the hottest tech companies in Korea: Tech Company Helps South Korean Students Ace Entrance Tests.

A Pink Chaddi-like campaign to hit Vatican

From Samhita's post at Feministing:

... folks in Italy are not taking well to the Pope's allegation that condoms have led to an increase of AIDS in Africa. In response they have organized to send the Pope condoms [...].

Marlon Brando (Don Corleone): "Powerful people don't need to shout"

If you are into Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, you'll greatly enjoy Mark Seal's Vanity Fair story about the making of this epic film. [There's also a short companion story about the movie crew's dinner at a real mobster's place] Here's the part where the movie's producer Al Ruddy meets Joe Colombo, "the short, dapper, media-savvy head at 48 of one of New York’s Five Families":

Sidebar Quote

"Soon [Marlon] Brando had the voice of Don Corleone. 'Powerful people don’t need to shout,' he later explained."

* * *

“So next day Joe shows up with two other guys. Joe sits opposite me, one guy’s on the couch, and one guy’s sitting in the window.” Ruddy pulled out the 155-page script and gave it to the Mob boss. “He puts on his little Ben Franklin glasses, looks at it for about two minutes. ‘What does this mean—fade in?’ he asked. And I realized there was no way Joe was going to turn to page two.”

“Oh, these fucking glasses. I can’t read with them,” Colombo said, throwing the script to his lieutenant. “Here, you read it.”

“Why me?” said the lieutenant, throwing the script to the underling.

Finally, Colombo grabbed the script and slammed it on the table. “Wait a minute! Do we trust this guy?” he asked his men. Yes, they replied.

“So what the fuck do we have to read this script for?” said Colombo. He told Ruddy, “Let’s make a deal.”

Colombo wanted the word Mafia deleted from the script.

Ruddy knew that there was only a single mention in the screenplay, when Tom Hagen visits movie producer Jack Woltz at his studio in Hollywood to persuade him to give Johnny Fontane a part in his new film, and Woltz snaps, “Johnny Fontane will never get that movie! I don’t care how many dago guinea wop greaseball Mafia goombahs come out of the woodwork!”

“That’s O.K. with me, guys,” said Ruddy, and the producer and the mobsters shook hands.

Hat tip: Chugs.

Links ...

Let me start with the mystery link. The entire blog is worth following, for its sharp focus on a very interesting theme.

Have you ever wondered about Google's design principles?

A new kind of economic indicator: Lasik eye surgery. But is it a leading indicator?

And, finally, a post on the neuroscience of meditation and attention.