Traffic jam just ahead on the superhighway. “Chemical Abstracts took 31 years (1907 to 1937) to publish its first 1 million abstracts,” writes Eli Noam in Science (October 13). “The second million took 18 years; the most recent million took only 1.75 years. Thus, more articles on chemistry have been published in the past 2 years than throughout history before 1900.”
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“Today’s lopsided debate over national policy stems in part from a shortage of liberal and left thinkers who can work full time to develop and sell ideas,” writes David Callahan in the Nation (November 13). “At the same time that conservative foundations began investing heavily in intellectual elites during the 1970s and 1980s, foundations on the left were moving in the opposite direction. Reflecting a widespread belief among progressives that more attention should be focused on the grass roots, they placed a new emphasis on community programs and sought greater diversity in their grant recipients. They poured money into activist groups….They continued to fund policy research, but they didn’t expand that funding to match growing spending on the right….The results of this starvation diet are now apparent. The left is handicapped in the war of ideas.”
Sorry, folks, we’ve pulled up the ladder. From a news release on Corrado Cutlery’s 90th anniversary: “In 1905, Dominick Corrado began offering sharpening services and hand made razor strops from a pushcart in Chicago’s Loop area. Specializing in professional sharpening services, Dominick established a unique retail store, later honored by Richard J. Daley as one of the oldest family-run retail stores in Chicago.” Our question: where in the Loop in 1995 will Richard M. Daley’s government allow today’s street vendors the chance to succeed?
