Puzzler...

Last week's puzzler was this: what caused the “erratic boulders” that are found all over the country of Estonia? Most of you (13 of 17) got it right: the erratic boulders were left by the retreating glaciers. The boulders were originally scraped from the pink granite bedrock exposed in northern and southern Finland, and then carried hundreds of miles south to Estonia. As the glaciers melted, the boulders gradually descended until finally they were left on the bare limestone ground of Estonia. The Vikings carved runes into some of these boulders, and examples of such carved boulders can be seen in many locations in Estonia. In addition, the local cultures paid attention to many of them (especially the larger ones), and many of the boulders have footpaths to them, and ladders to climb them, and these are maintained to this day. A popular roadmap made by an Estonia company has the location of hundreds of these boulders marked, and in my travels around Estonia I have visited dozens of them, just for fun.

This week's puzzler tests your knowledge about the Earth's atmosphere. You most likely know that the atmospheric pressure is highest at sea level (well, actually, at those points on the Earth that are below sea level), and that the pressure falls as you go to higher and higher elevations. But at what altitude does the atmospheric pressure fall to half the pressure at sea level?

No fair Googling until after you answer!

My Grandfather's Son...

I just finished reading this fine memoir by Clarence Thomas (Supreme Court Justice). It was not at all what I was expecting. I knew nothing whatsoever about Clarence Thomas' life other than his years at the helm of the EEOC, the Anita Hill “scandal”, and what I've read of his decisions and opinions on the Supreme Court. So I was expecting surprises, but the book delivered many more than I'd imagined…

The picture of Clarence Thomas that emerges is that of an ordinary human, with all the imperfections and failures that any of us might have. But for all his failings, I also have the impression of a good man, in the old-fashioned sense of that term. I've read quite a few of his legal opinions at this point, and they uniformly impress me with their logic, analysis, and unpretentious style – even when I don't agree with them. After reading his memoir, they seem to me to be evidence of a real victory for civil rights in America – that such a talent might rise to an office like Justice of the Supreme Court, despite having grown up in a nation full of official and enforced prejudice against him simply for being black.

I remember well the confirmation hearings and the Anita Hill debacle. At the time, without being able to hear Clarence Thomas' case in any detail, it just seemed an awful mess to me – I had no idea who was telling the truth, or who to believe. If all of Anita Hill's allegations were true, then Clarence Thomas certainly shouldn't have been confirmed; on the other hand, if the allegations were false (or largely so), then the whole affair made a travesty of the confirmation hearings and Clarence Thomas was being terribly wronged. Having read his memoir now, I've got his side of the – and his version seems to be amply confirmed by independent witnesses. I'm persuaded now that the entire Anita Hill “scandal” was manufactured by Ms. Hill and her Democratic enablers who were so eager for a reason to thwart President Bush's effort to appoint Clarence Thomas. In other words, it was just one more pathetic political charade, fully in character with the disgusting (and equally pathetic) posturings we're already seeing in both the Democratic and the Republican presidential primary races…