"Then it is dark; a night where kings in golden suits ride elephants over the mountains." - John Cheever

Friday, June 29, 2007

Fitz Redux

Good to revive the Fitz nights yesterday, even if it was a Thursday. From what I can remember, the following topics needed follow up: Semi-identical twins; huge ligers (are they sterile?) and pizzly bears; mindfulness, meditation, depressive realists and forms of OCD; the tribulations of middle-managers; the share of London businesses that account for half of employment. What have I missed?

Also, something I meant to mention and didn't get around to - the German super baby. This is a kid with a gene mutation that makes him super-strong but otherwise healthy. You could view it as an interesting example of evolution at work - a random mutation produces a version of the species that would have been more likely to survive and pass on his genes (in cave man days at least, providing he doesn't need to eat twice as much food or anything).

6 comments:

Tom said...

Have read up extensively on ligers (male lion, female tiger) and tigons (male tiger, female lion). Ligers are huge (can be twice as big as lions), but tigons are normal size. In both cases, the males are infertile but the females fertile. Some good pictures on the web, but as usual, Wikipedia has the best account. Amazing! And I'd never even heard of them before Thursday.

Col said...

I'd heard of ligers, but not ti-ligers! Check out the pictures of Hercules the liger from the links at the end of the Wikipedia page. It's huge!

Col said...

There's a 'hebra' on the BBC news site today (horse/zebra). Only video, so can't provide link.

Unknown said...

Can't remember what the exact claim on business employment was, but the London Annual Business Survey 2004 (PDF warning) says on Page 10:

"Figure 2.4 shows that businesses employing over 200 people (0.6% of total businesses) account for just over one-fifth (21.7%) of total employment in London."

Which, I think, backs up what I was saying about there not being a total reliance on huge corporations.

Anyway, I had a good evening, but it was too short!

John said...

Sorry I had to head off so early on btw - only just managed to catch the last connecting train from Reading to Wokingham on my way home mind you.

Hopefully be back in Londons before too long...

Tom said...

Cheers for the fact check Seumas! I think the seminar I was at quoted from a different source, but the Annual Business Survey is actually published by the LDA, where I work, so I'll go along with that. I don't think it significantly undermines my argument however, but that will have to wait until we next meet...!