Fond Farewell

Freeman Dyson (1923 -- 2020)

Variation on the Hidden Clue

The real reason concealed in the merger between Volkswagen and Daimler (6,6)

The solution refers to the nature of the clue. (If you join up the two car-makers’ names, you’ll see a word in the middle.)

I have been asking myself ...

Why am I writing this blog? Some possible answers:

• I’m seeking attention
• I’m showing off my knowledge
• I have nothing better to do and should “Get a life!”
• I am proselytizing for my world-view

Some self-serving reasons (or why I really think I’m doing it)

• I find writing satisfying; it helps me shape my thoughts
• I like to share some of the things I get a buzz from
• I have spent much of my life teaching and the habit dies hard
• The world of ideas provides mental stimulation for my retirement
• It staves off dementia (perhaps)
• I am interested to see how blogs develop a following -- no luck here.

Nobel Cryptic Clue

Mention of Nobel prizes in the previous post prompts me to cite this recent clue from The Guardian:

Nobel Laureate in job, a man avoiding extremes (5)

There are around 15 distinct types of word-play in conventional cryptic crossword clues. This is an example of a “hidden clue”: take the string "job a man" and delete the extremes.

Fields Medals

The obverse side of the Fields Medal

Alfred Nobel did not endow a prize for Mathematics; instead we have the Fields medals. These are awarded to at most four mathematicians under the age of 40  at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), which takes place at four-yearly intervals. (The next Congress will be in St Petersburg in 2022.) The name is in honour of John Charles Fields, a Canadian mathematician who in 1936 established the award, designed the medal itself and funded the monetary prize (set at 15,000 Canadian dollars since 2006). The medal belonging to Caucher Birkar, one of the four winners at the Rio de Janeiro Congress in 2018, was stolen shortly after the presentation, but happily the International Mathematical Union replaced it a few days later.

At the Royal Society in London last week, Professor Birkar, gave an inspiring talk about his remarkable intellectual journey that began at primary school in a small Kurdish village in Iran, close to the Iraq border, at the time of the Iran-Iraq war, and three decades later reached the highest distinction in his profession with the award of a Fields medal. He describes how the teachers and family members encouraged and inspired him at different stages in his education and shares his experiences as a refugee, finally settling in England, He speaks lovingly of the creativity and beauty he finds in mathematics and of the collegiality he enjoys with fellow mathematicians around the world. He emphasises the value of migration in enriching the human commonwealth and the vital importance of maintaining cultural and linguistic diversity. His talk is both touchingly personal and yet universal in its relevance and appeal. Click the link above to listen to it.
 

Sorry you haven't a clue? Read on.

"ICE SHEETS A BRUTE" is an anagram of "BECAUSE ITS THERE", and this explains the answer to the clue:

Why climb Everest? Ice sheet's a brute to struggle with (7,3,5)

The context of the surface meaning of the next clue is that Nigel Farage is a populist English politician who played dishonestly on the voters' fears of unlimited immigration during the lead-up to the referendum on the UK's departure from the European Union. He was also a Member of the European Parliament.

Lies lead to Farage, as reality gets distorted (5,5)

'Lies' is the definition, the 'lead to Farage' is the letter F and 'gets distorted' indicates an anagram.

Finally, to solve the last clue today, it helps to know about a long-running BBC radio programme in which people in the public eye are asked to choose their music for a life on a desert island:

I'd over a hundred in the ship but only eight when shipwrecked (5)

A hundred is the letter C and the ship is SS.

Prisoners of Geography

Tim Marshall’s book, in my updated 2019 edition, is a most enlightening analysis of how history, national borders, climate and, above all, physical geography dramatically influence the economic development and the political decisions of the nations of the world. The “Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need To Know About Global Politics” of the book’s subtitle appear at the start of each of the following 10 chapters:

1.     Russia

2.     China

3.    USA

4.    Western Europe

5.     Africa

6.    The Middle East

7.     India and Pakistan

8.     Korea and Japan

9.    Latin America

10.  The Arctic

They cover most of the world’s potential flash points in the headlines today, as well as some that are still quiescent or slowly building tension like a seismic fault. To flourish as a nation, it helps if you have fertile plains, a temperate climate, navigable rivers, natural harbours with access to the open seas, natural resources, and (a rarity) friendly neighbours. Unless they sit on oil and gas reserves, large desert regions don’t help; neither do mountains ranges, except when they straddle a national border and offer protection against invasion.

Russia is vast. It is the largest country in the world and covers almost twice the area of the United States. Last month I flew from Japan’s northern island, Hokkaido, to Helsinki in Finland. and for 9 hours of the 10-hour flight we were looking out on Russian soil. Russia’s northern coastline encircles nearly half of the Arctic Ocean. Our aerial view was of a cold and sparsely-populated landscape. More than three-quarters of Russia’s 110m people live in European Russia to the west of the Ural mountains, which stretch 1000 miles from north to south. But Russia has several serious handicaps. In addition to its declining birth-rate and its relatively small population (just a third of that of the USA), it has no warm-water ports that don’t freeze over in winter, unless you count Sevastapol, which was on lease from Ukraine until Russia annexed Crimea and took full control. But even with Sevastapol its navy still has to pass through the Black Sea and the Mediterranean to reach the oceans of the world. The melting of the Arctic Ocean, however, and the consequent opening of the North-West passage may change that.

Russia is vulnerable to attack from Europe. The North European Plain that runs from France to the Urals has a pinch-point in Poland, which explains why that poor country has been overrun so often, in both directions, in European conflicts. By the time this corridor reaches the Russian border, however, it is 2000 miles wide and therefore hard to defend, a fact that has tempted adventurers to invade: the Swedes in 1708, Napoleon in 1812 and the Germans in both world wars in 1914 and 1941. They all discovered to their cost that the supply lines to Moscow are very long and the Russian winters treacherous. The Russians simply retreat to their capital and wait for the weather and the hunger to take its toll on the enemy. Nevertheless, the loss of its protective buffer: the Baltic states, Poland, East Germany after the collapse of the Soviet Union was a severe blow both to its pride and its security, and the weakening of NATO must surely be part of its long-term strategy,

This brief summary of Russia’s geopolitical imperatives is typical of the analysis and thoughtful insight to be found in every chapter of this rewarding book.  In Chapter 2 for example we understand how China’s annexation of Tibet in 1950 gave it the defensive line of the Himalayas against invasion from the south, we understand its need to control the South China Sea, its reopening of the old Silk Road and the soft power it exerts through aid and investment in Africa and Latin America in search of natural resources and influence. In Chapter 3 we learn how the economic development of the USA depended on the Mississippi and other navigable rivers, on its large areas of fertile land, its temperate climate and its unrestricted access to two great oceans, the Atlantic and the Pacific, across which to deploy its navy and its trade. And so on.

My pleasure in reading Prisoners of Geography may be partly due to my previous ignorance. But if you are fascinated by the realpolitik of our comity of nation states and feel you might have some gaps in your knowledge of the geographical and historical forces at play, then fire up Amazon, or better, visit your local bookshop and get your copy today.