Monument muddle I applaud Hadley Nagel for her efforts to memorialize James Madison through a “national monument,” but writer Michael Anft might have done some fact-checking in reference to what constitutes a national monument [“With Due Respect to James Madison,” Wholly Hopkins, Fall]. There are many national memorials, national monuments, national historic landmarks, etc. The […]

Circular logic Regarding the religious controversy described in “Man in the Middle” [Summer], it seems to me that there is one overarching fact that is always ignored: It is absolutely impossible to prove that God does or does not exist. Therefore, even if it is assumed that He does exist, He is completely mysterious and […]

Americans and guns: Mass insanity Your spread on gun control [The Big Question, “Is America Culturally Capable of Controlling Its Guns?” Spring] caught my interest, which lasted just long enough for me to read it. Interest quickly turned into dismay. All my European friends think when it comes to guns we Americans exhibit a mass […]

One step forward, two steps back? In “Back to Basics for the ‘Division Clueless,’” Lisa Watts reports on Krieger School mathematics professor W. Stephen Wilson’s lament about how the “new-old-new” math has ruined elementary students’ grasp of numeracy [Wholly Hopkins, Winter 2010]. The substitution of technology for memory and understanding eventually affects SAT scores and […]

Bearing reproof I enjoy receiving Johns Hopkins Magazine. Even when I am too busy to read the entire issue, I always check in with the puckishly pseudonymed Guido Veloce and usually enjoy a perceptive critique of contemporary absurdity that passes for everyday life. So I was especially disappointed by “Star, Lite” [Essay, Fall]. Quoth the […]

Unworthy and superficial It is a pity that “The Big Question” [“Will the Gulf of Mexico Recover from This Spring’s Massive Oil Spill?” Summer] did not take advantage of the opportunity to interview an expert at greater length about an important issue. I hope the magazine was not trying to trivialize one of the greatest […]

Bucks from pollution Some public health dollars [“The Buck Goes Here,” Spring 2010] should go to making bucks out of our massive, ever-expanding mess of organic wastes and sewage solids, rather than letting those messes get out of hand, polluting our biosphere and being allowed to re-emit the carbon dioxide that nature has so kindly […]

Spoiled by nostalgia Regarding “Now What?” [Winter 2009]: How old were these people? Did they actually experience the 1960s? The “heady days of the 1960s,” indeed; filled with optimistic visions of “progress,” to be sure. In the movies, we enjoyed that sanguine future in Dr. Strangelove (1964). In books, we read the cheerful fictional visions […]

Timely research The article by Dale Keiger regarding the research of Ellen Silbergeld [“Farmacology,” June 2009] was interesting, informative, and timely. The emergence of multi-drug resistant bacterial pathogens is well recognized as a major cause of morbidity and mortality among hospitalized patients in the United States and elsewhere. The health care community is working at […]

Couldn’t do it without them We are honored to be recognized in the comprehensive article by Dale Keiger on industrial food animal production and infectious disease [“Farmacology,” June]. In light of the H1N1 swine influenza pandemic, this topic is extraordinarily timely. I am writing to correct an omission concerning the support for much of the […]