With respect to Will's post, below, Alfred Nobel stipulates the following:

"[...]The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses. The prize for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical works by Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm; and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be a Scandinavian or not."

...although, I should say that I think that the Nobel Committee has made an honest attempt--and has often succeeded--in not being political in their decision, with the (to me) obvious exception of the Peace prize, which can't help but be [political, that is].

Two odd things I learned in the past 24 hours:

1: Some goat cheese, indian paneer, ricotta and a few other cheeses are made with acid rather than rennet. The consequence is that these cheeses don't melt (because water disappears before the bonds do). This makes putting paneer cheese on an unorthodox curry pizza a bit of a challenge.

2: Shoelaces are sales-tax free in Connecticut. So are magazine subscriptions, bicycle helmets, and buttons. Also, U.S. and CT state flags are sales-tax free, which strikes me as a violation of First Amendment content-neutrality doctrine.

I do enjoyed being referred to in class as "Our local iconoclast on this subject." But then I wonder-- in which of my classes am I not a local iconoclast?

UPDATE: A Friend of Crescat appends this quote from H.L. Mencken:

The iconoclast proves enough when he proves by his blasphemy that this or that idol is defectively convincing--that at least one visitor to the shrine is left full of doubts. The liberation of the human mind has been best furthered by gay fellows who heaved dead cats into sanctuaries and then went roistering down the highways of the world, proving to all men that doubt, after all, was safe--that the god in the sanctuary was a fraud. One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms.