Month: January 2006

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Deaths, indirect and preventable

Hmm. I was following this thread in the Posner/Becker blog:

The Becker-Posner Blog

I mainly asked in my two postings: if capital punishment were known to reduce significantly the number of murders, can someone opposed to the government taking lives remain opposed? I argued no. I was pleased to receive this week from my colleague Cass Sunstein an article that he and Adrian Vermuele will publish shortly. They argue in much greater detail than I did that a government that refuses to use capital punishment when it would significantly reduce the number of murders is indirectly taking the lives of those persons who would not be murdered had such punishment been used.

and then saw this bit in the Times:

Pentagon Study Links Fatalities to Body Armor – New York Times

A secret Pentagon study has found that as many as 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to the upper body could have survived if they had had extra body armor. Such armor has been available since 2003, but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials. The ceramic plates in vests now worn by the majority of troops in Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of the 93 fatal wounds that were analyzed in the Pentagon study of marines from March 2003 through June 2005, bullets and shrapnel struck the marines’ shoulders, sides or areas of the torso where the plates do not reach. Thirty-one of the deadly wounds struck the chest or back so close to the plates that simply enlarging the existing shields “would have had the potential to alter the fatal outcome,” according to the study, which was obtained by The New York Times. For the first time, the study by the military’s medical examiner shows the cost in lives from inadequate armor, even as the Pentagon continues to publicly defend its protection of the troops.

For now I just leave these two items hanging out there…

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More goodies from the used CD bin

Everyone’s heard the wonderful music of Giovanni Gabrieli; but his uncle, Andrea, was also a very fine composer; indeed, he contributed to what we now know as the antiphonal, polychoral sound associated with St Mark’s in Venice. Timothy Roberts directs His Majesty’s Sagbutts and Cornetts in fine performances of his Missa Pater Peccavi, some organ works, and motets. Sadly, this does not appear to be in the Hyperion catalog at present; but it is certainly worth looking for.

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Sublime Guerrero

OK, so this recording was on my list years ago but never made it to the top of the heap, but I found it in the used bin yesterday and snatched it up. It is one of the very finest albums of 16th-century Spanish polyphony I’ve ever heard. The Westminster Cathedral Choir sing magnificently under their then director James O’Donnell, and His Majesty’s Sagbutts and Cornetts add just the right dash of intrumental color. A special treat is the instrumental arrangement of Regina caeli laetare. And more good news: Berkshire Record Outlet has it! If you’ve never heard any of Guerrero’s music…, well, you know what to do.

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Life-affirming Bach on BBC Radio 3

From December 16 through Christmas Day, BBC Radio 3 did Bach lovers everywhere the huge favor of programming nothing but the Master’s works. For me, coming at the end of a very long and frustrating year at work, it was, indeed, a life-affirming experience to be able to access the stream in my office. There were far too many highlights to point out more than a few; but the Proms performance of the Matthew Passion with Herreweghe and the same soloists as in his 1998 recording was certainly special; and the short interviews with the likes of Andrew Parrott and John Eliot Gardiner were just right.

I am disappointed, though, that the BBC has decided against doing a similar Mozart marathon (too many long operas!).