Marc Salem can \”read\” the serial numbers on a bill in your wallet, stop his own pulse and guess a word you\’ve picked from a book. Just don\’t call the performer, who is an observant Jew, a \”mind-reader.\”
Teaching your brain new tricks is like a workout for the mind. It\’s never too early to start, and you don\’t have to ante up tuition to start your brain fitness program
During his nine-year tenure as Caltech president, 67-year old David Baltimore translated many of his family\’s principles into practice, on top of raising the university\’s already elite level of scientific research and education. He showed a keen interest in the quality of student life through improved housing and a multimillion dollar student activities fund, and raised the profile and number of women on the faculty and in the student body.
Most people are surprised, even flabbergasted, to learn that there is a sizeable Jewish community in Pasadena, one that has been here for well over a century.
I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, and I had never been to Pasadena. I knew little about it — mostly that the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl were there; I had no idea how close it was to Woodland Hills, where I lived. And I certainly didn\’t think about if there were Jews there.
Pasadena is located in the San Gabriel Valley — or what locals call the \”Other Valley\” — and it\’s surrounded by the San Gabriel Mountains. It sits at the foot of Mount Wilson, home to the observatory where Albert Einstein worked during his stay at Cal Tech. It\’s also home to Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the leading U.S. center for robotic exploration of the solar system, which offers us a connection to space, science and some of the best minds in the world.
\”Both sides ought to be properly taught,\” President George W. Bush told reporters in Texas Aug. 1, \”so people can understand what the debate is about. Part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought…. You\’re asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, and the answer is yes.\”
Together with Jason Hardy and Henry Harpending of the University of Utah, Gregory Cochran is publishing in a forthcoming edition of the Journal of Biosocial Science a paper that not only suggests that one group of humanity is more intelligent than the others, but explains the process that has brought this about.
The group in question is Ashkenazi Jews. The process is natural selection.
The mere mention of eugenics, which refers to a movement to improve humankind by controlling genetic factors through mating, is enough to ring bells that many Jews would rather not hear 60 years after the Allied defeat of the Nazis.
When David J. Gross, a winner of this year\’s Nobel Prize in physics, was asked whether he was Jewish, he told a reporter, \”What do you think? Of course!\” The same affirmative answer applied to five out of six 2004 science Nobel Laureates. Two are Israelis, three are Americans — all from Southern California universities — and two of these Americans have close ties to Israel.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.