Daily Office: Friday
¶ Matins: Remember when we didn’t know much of anything about autism, not really? Now, it seems, we know less. Michelle Dawson shoots off ten “off the cuff thoughts” about the criteria for a diagnosis of autism prescribed by the DSM-V. (The Autism Crisis; via Marginal Revolution)
¶ Lauds: The late-June date is set for the Sotheby’s auction of Polaroid’s corporate photography collection, which is expected to bring $9 million (plus or minus 2). Critics would prefer to keep the collection both intact and in the hands of a known entity. Few of the photographs were purchases; many were exchanged, for free cameras, with famous photographers. Ansel Adams was the original de facto curator. (NYT)
The liquidation of the collection is required by bankruptcy proceedings involving Polaroid’s corporate parent. (Bloomberg)
¶ Prime: If George Cloutier is right about how to run a business, then we might as well nuke the planet, because his outlook is so profoundly antisocial that no social benefit can compensate for its utter inhumanity. “Fire Your Relatives. Scare Your Employees. And Stop Whining.”
Our bet is that a businessman such as George Cloutier has only his unattractive personal difficulty to work with. (NYT)
¶ Tierce: Linda Geddes exploited her very own wedding as a science project: before and after the ceremony, blood was drawn from the the bride, the groom, and other members of the wedding party so that levels of oxytocin and several other hormones (including testosterone) could be measured. (New Scientist)
¶ Sext: George Snyder takes us on a visit to Warter Priory, a horrible old pile that, sadly nonetheless, was torn down nearly forty years ago. The tinted postcard is worthy of Edward Gorey. George’s dish is even tastier.
¶ Nones: Who’s going to succeed Lybian leader Moammar al-Gaddafi? As Hugh Miles notes, this is a question not only of who but of how as well, because the Colonel is not a conventional head of state. Rather, he is the revolutionary leader. His second son (a likely contender, according to Mr Miles) would like to come to power “under the provisions of a constitution.” (LRB)
¶ Vespers: At Survival of the Book, Brian writes about Scott Brown’s impending contribution to the shelf of “polibrity books.”
¶ Compline: Compline: Lauro Martines reviews a book about the burgeoning field of public health, during an outbreak of plague in late-Sixteenth-Century Italy. We can only hope that Mr Martines will write his own book about these developments, even though (or precisely because) the 1570s are outside his established specialty, which is the Early Renaissance in Italy. (TimesOnline)