| Vital Signs: Risks: Asleep, and Helping to Keep the Weight Off Children under 5 who do not get at least 10 hours of sleep at night are almost twice as likely to be overweight or obese later in childhood, a new study reports. feeds.nytimes.com |
Outlays Blocked for Charging Stations Legislation would be needed to permit the Capitol's steward to spend its budgeted money on car charging stations for employees and lawmakers. feeds.nytimes.com |
Dolphins produce £4m Scots bounty Dolphin spotters contribute an estimated £4m to Scotland's economy every year, new figures suggest. bbc.co.uk |
In praise of … the paradoxical mind | Editorial True breakthroughs in understanding come not from following the rulebook, but from tracking down its contradictionsMost contemporary academic work involves applying this or that established theory to this or that new context. The prospect of solid papers that tick the box for "advancing the specialist literature" easily persuades the research council to pop the cheque in the post. True breakthroughs in understanding, however, come not from following the rulebook, but from tracking down its contradictions – and then rewriting it. From Socrates (who only knew that he knew nothing) to Russell (who asked whether a barber who shaved everyone in his shop who didn't shave themselves would also have to shave himself), great minds have been drawn to paradox. The economist Maurice Allais, who died at 99 this week, asked real people to choose between different gambles, and in the process sent rational economic man into a logical tailspin from which he has never recovered. For Hegel, the lesson of history is that we never learn from history, but we can learn a good deal from internal contradictions. Allais detected them within a pyramid of debt which he rightly predicted would turn into a credit crunch. It was not just economic ideas he enjoyed testing to destruction: he devised a special pendulum which he claimed blew holes in the theory of relativity. Einstein originally devised that theory in response to contradictions in classical mechanics. He also said big problems could "not be solved at the same level of thinking" which had established them – a paradoxical prescription for paradoxical progress.guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Polar bears given Alaska 'haven' The US government designates a huge area in Alaska as a 'critical habitat' for polar bears, raising the hopes of environmentalists. bbc.co.uk |