There was interesting news out of the annual meeting of the International Astronomical Union in  Rio De Janeiro this month.   No, not the discovery of a new exoplanet or red complex galaxies, but rather a growing concern that “managerialism” may kill the golden age of astronomical discovery.(http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14209662)  As telescopes become bigger and more expensive, management techniques have been [...]

I found a comment from George Schultz (recent interview with Charlie Rose – see video) particularly interesting:
Sometimes change happens simply because the leader thinks it can happen.
He was referring to the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago and the impact of Reagan’s optimism and Gorbachev’s open-mindedness.  I often wonder if optimism is a [...]