FINDINGS
change the outcome of the Spanish elections three days later. “The only effect that Al Qaeda seems to produce with preelection activities,” he concludes, “is the media’s fascination with the terrorists’ supposed ability to ‘control foreign elections.’ ”
Hidden Code Liberian logjam Reform’s all well and good—as long as it’s bought and paid for. In 2006, Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf appointed former justice minister Philip Banks to head a commission to codify the nation’s law, much of which was scattered about in loose-leaf pamphlets. The U.S. Department of Justice sent $400,000 to support the project, and Banks set to work, reports Foreign Policy on its Web site. But when the money ran out and the Justice Department declined to send more, Banks copyrighted the assembled laws in his own name. As a result, no one can publish them without his approval. Banks tells Foreign Policy, “These are resources that you’ve had to expend in putting all of this together, and the question is, should you be compensated? I hold the view that you should.” He and his allies are negotiating to transfer the copyright to the government for a six-figure sum. For now, says Foreign Policy, “lawyers, courtrooms, and even the government are operating blindly; it’s impossible to be certain if they are following a legal code they don’t have.”
Bathroom Twofer Watered down In the movie Psycho, which came out 50 years ago, Janet Leigh’s character resolves to return the $40,000 she has stolen from her employer. But she has spent $700 on a car. She sits at a table and, David Thomson writes in The Moment of Psycho (Basic), “does a sum that hardly speaks well of her education: $40,000 minus $700.” Then she steps into the bathroom, drops the paper in the toilet, and flushes it. “Apparently, in all of American film,” Thomson writes, “there had never been a scene that showed a toilet being flushed before.” Hitchcock may have relished the challenge of getting the toilet scene (as well as the shower scene) past censors. Thomson observes, “It really is quite exhilarating to see what tender creatures we were in 1960.”
Birds Formerly of a Feather Going in different directions Is your bird feeder spurring evolutionary change? Maybe so, according to Gregor Rolshausen and three coauthors, writing in Current Biology (December 29, 2009). Around 10 percent of Central European blackcaps fly from southern Germany to the United KingIs the UK blackcap evolving at the feeder?
dom every winter, lured by human-provided birdseed. The rest of these warblers head to Spain. The split migration has been going on since the 1960s, and the researchers report that the two groups have evolved differently. The UK blackcaps have rounder wings, reflecting the shorter distance they travel. And their beaks are longer and narrower, well suited to bird feeders. By contrast, the Spain-goers’ broader beaks are better for fruit trees. The ultimate result, the researchers say, may be two distinct species.
Babysitters United Sofa solidarity On a quest for equal rights, many American babysitters informally unionized in the late 1940s. Some demanded extra pay for working late at night, according to Babysitter: An American History (New York University Press), by Miriam Forman-Brunell. Sitters in West Branch, Michigan, demanded an extra 15 cents for washing dishes. In Leonia, New Jersey, babysitters demanded “adequate heat.” But unionization couldn’t solve all problems. “Little children are bothersome beings that have to be waited on hand and foot, who are generally around when not wanted, and who are, all in all, a nuisance,” one girl later wrote of her inaugural experience as a babysitter. Her name was Sylvia Plath.
Wi n t e r 2 0 1 0 ■ Wi l s o n Q ua r t e r l y
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