In an old issue of The Onion, I found this depressing satire – a kind of celebrity interview with an average [U.S.] suburbanite.

Experts say Chelecki, while aware of the inexorable passage of time, does not comprehend the magnitude of what is happening to him.

“Many people don’t truly allow themselves to consider the finite nature of their lives until the end is right in front of them,” said Brown University sociologist Geoffrey Gausmann.

Norman Lebrecht writes in a recent column, about some moral and artistic problems with books and films about Holocaust:

“There must be a credible justification, a reason that can be given before the courts of conscience, before an author sits down and makes a fine living out of other people’s suffering.”

One of the books mentioned, that also has become a film, is Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer. I bought that book years ago, but for some reason never read it. My son started to read it, and I thought it could be “fun” for him as illustration of both history and the hilarious use of English language by one of the characters. Well, I have to try to read it. I am not sure I want to see the film, or, Schindler’s List.

Photo Credit: Nick Galifianakis For The Washington Post Photo

And here we have a little something about misunderstood “liberal” liberal arts education (from Kyle Gann’s blog). So – what has freedom to write poor essays to do with today’s theme in Carolyn Hax’ advice column? Am I suggesting that students who don’t want to learn anything should be forced to eat their words? Or, that it is not disrespectful to give a vegetarian a beef course against her will?

Underbar ruta av Berglin i Svenska Dagbladet idag. Nödvändig självironisk läsning för alla som bloggar. Tills vidare (om ingen ber mig att ta bort den av copyrightskäl) lägger jag bilden här. (Klicka på bilden om ni inte kan läsa de minsta texterna i serien!)

After I read an article about a new cure for inherited learning disabilities in mice (a common drug for cholesterol-lowering), I found in another scientific piece of news that birds have cognitive problems, too. These can be traced to environmental change, which has lead to malnutrition in chicks, which increases their stupidity, and lower their chance to survive through adaptions to the changes.

“It has been shown recently that brain size effects behaviour and can even influence population trends, so it would be expected that an increase in stupidity in some species would adversely affect their ability to perform their day-to-day activities.” http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8287

Comments: first it seems like they have found a cure for stupidity. That may save the world. If intelligence and plenty of well-functioning creatures was all that was needed to avoid disaster. Then you have to realize how many eco-nurses and brain development doctors it would take to administer the medication to all the mice, cock-roaches, elks, porpoises, herrings, presidents, criminals, musicians, journalists, web designers and athletes whose behaviour would benefit from more reason and less belief. We haven’t the resources necessary for such large-scale projects.