National Library Week
Stump the Librarian
Questions and Answers
Q: Karl Marx died in London in 1883, rejected by his home country and largely unnoticed. Among the few mourners at his burial, who was the anomalous "odd man out," politically speaking, and what is one rationale for why they were there?
Date & Time: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 2:51 PM
A: "But the ninth and last mourner seems to fit about as well as that proverbial snowball in hell or that square peg trying to squeeze into a round hole: E. Ray Lankester (1847-1929), at that time already a prominent young British evolutionary biologist and a leading disciple of Darwin, but later to become--as Professor Sir E. Ray Lankester, K.C.B. (Knight Commander, Order of the Bath), M.A. (the "earned" degree of Oxford or Cambridge), D. Sc. (a later honorary degree as doctor of science), E R. S. (Fellow of the Royal Society, the leading honorary academy of British science)--just about the most celebrated, and the stuffiest, of conventional and socially prominent British scientists....
...Why, in heaven's name, was this exemplar of British respectability, this basically conservative scientist's scientist, hanging out with a group of old (and mostly German) communists at the funeral of a person described by Engels, in his graveside oration, as "the best hated and most calumniated man of his times"?.....
....Marx first sought Lankester's advice in recommending a doctor for his ailing wife and daughter, and later for himself. This professional connection evidently developed into a firm friendship...."
And the article goes on to explain further.
Source:
A Darwinian Gentleman at Marx's Funeral.
By Stephen J. Gould
Natural History,
v. 108 no7 (Sept. 1999) p. 32-3+
[Availble online in the WilsonSelect database]
Answered by: Alison Grodzinski Fountain, Reference Librarian and Health Sciences Bibliographer
Date & Time: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 4:41 PM
Q: How is a "left-to-right ratio" important to understanding affective style?
Date & Time: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 1:31 AM
A: "A growing number of Western psychologists are investigating the potential of Buddhist meditation training to shift the brain into positive emotional states. . . Davidson and his colleagues have demonstrated repeadly that activity in the frontal region of the brain reflects a person's emotional state. A high ratio of activity in the left versus the right frontal areas marks either a fleeting positive mood or what Davidson calls a positive "affective style" which is the quality of mood that persists over time. Subjects gripped in a negative mood, or with generally negative affective styles, rank lower on the left-to-right ratio."
Source:
Studying the Well-Trained Mind
By Marcia Barinaga
Science 3 October 2003; 302: 44-46
Answered by: Beth Macleod, Reference Librarian and Fine Arts Bibliographer
Date & Time: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 10:17 AM
Q: During the Cold War, what country had the second most active foreign intelligence service in the United States?
Date & Time: Monday, April 19, 2004 10:44 PM
A: Israel
Although it is impossible to definitely answer this question (if a country spied on the USA and the USA never learned of it, how would we know?), we think we have the best answer.
Source:
CLOSE U.S.-ISRAEL RELATIONSHIP MAKES KEEPING SECRETS HARD
By David K. Shipler
New York Times, December 22, 1985 (Section 1; Part 1, Page 1, Column 2)
"When the Pollard case broke, the general media and public perception was that this was the first time this had ever happened," said John Davitt, former chief of the Justice Department's internal security section. "No, that's not true at all. The Israeli intelligence service, when I was in the Justice Department, was the second most active in the United States, to the Soviets."
Note: The article goes on to indicate that Davitt was at the Justice Department from 1950-1980.
Answered by: Krista Graham, Electronic Service Coordinator/Reference Librarian
Date & Time: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 11:14 AM
See also: 2003 Contest Entries
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