Second Links 7.29.10

An English engineer solves the mystery of Pisa’s leaning tower’s lean , and finds a way to stabilize it.  Not all Italians are happy.

Jonathan Cohn thinks Obama’s a success and gets annoyed with liberals who don’t see that , because they undermine the cause. “Truth be told,” he says, “a Democratic member in a Republican district probably benefits more from higher Obama approval ratings than an ad buy from Moveon.org.”

Some people, almost certainly young men under forty, worry that in the future we won’t be able to play old video games .

And a reviewer ponders a book on video games that doesn’t dare look at the “the strange species of hopped-up man-boy whose compulsions find both their spur and their outlet in the hyperactive cartoon worlds rendered in meticulous detail on high-definition screens.”

An Oxford physicist says that radiation isn’t as dangerous as we thought , and that “Given the availability of carbon-free nuclear power, this makes a sea change in our view of radiation rather urgent.”

The alternative Anglican group in Canada voted overwhelmingly (the clergy unanimous, the laity almost so) to begin to establish an Catholic Ordinariate in Canada.

Ruth Franklin argues that Amazon isn’t responsible for the problems of the publishing industry, and that “The real trouble with Amazon, it seems, is that nobody truly believes we were better off without it.”

From 1924, Rose Macaulay (later a Christian) reviews H. G. Well’s novel/tract The Dream , which now looks very quaint .

Finally, more liturgical puppetry , this time at the opening service of the Presbyterians’ General Assembly.