Month: January 2021

Innovating in Two Dimensions—A Dialogue with Prof. Sir Konstantin Novoselov, Painter and Nobel Prize–Winning Physicist

We’ve explained 2020’s Nobel Prizes. Now, The Diacritic’s Xing Hao and Rishav speak with one of the two winners of the 2010’s Nobel Prize in Physics, Prof. Sir Konstantin “Kostya” Novoselov. Not only is he a highly-distinguished physicist renowned for his groundbreaking work in isolating graphene, he is also formally trained in Chinese traditional painting. In this dialogue, Prof. Novoselov shares why he moved to Singapore, his current research, how his impatience motivated his scientific and artistic work, and his advice for young people today….

Inequality is Not Just a Poor People Problem: Limitarianism

Economic inequalities are widening. Consider inequality data from the World Bank or even recent work such as the landmark Capital in the 21st Century by Thomas Piketty. The consensus is clear: disparities in income and wealth have been increasing in many countries over the past few decades. Most of all, it has congregated greatly in the top 0.1%. In some countries, this 0.1% of individuals command more than the bottom 30% combined. Suffice to say, we now have the rise of the extremely wealthy—a new gilded age where certain individuals have the spending power and wealth accorded to the kings and rajas of past centuries.

Here, Llewllyn Carroll aims to properly introduce the view called Limitarianism, which, as its name suggests, argues that there should be an upper limit to the amount of income and wealth that a person can hold. He will show that this view is not as repugnant as some might think….

bruh: A Sociolinguistic Analysis

Listen to any conversation among adolescents today, and you will be sure to hear sentences peppered with “dudes” and “bruhs,” most likely meaning something slightly different each time. Upon further research, this fairly common observation of “dude”’s and “bruh”’s popularity and versatility has grounds in established sociolinguistic theories.

In 2004, before “bruh” in its current form emerged, linguist Scott Kiesling published an academic paper explaining the emergence of dude by young men in the 1980s and its continued popularity through the lens of conformity to hegemonic ideals of masculinity. In this article, Danan Lee from The Diacritic briefly describes the similarities between “dude” and “bruh” in order to demonstrate that his explanations apply strongly to “bruh” as well….

“Manaog Lang Ko Sa Ayala”: A City Owned By Corporations (Part 1 of 2)

In Cebu, Philippines, most people would agree that Ayala Corporation “owns” a major part of the city, even calling these places by the company’s name. Ride a jeepney (minibus) with outsourcing workers, and there’s a good chance some of them will say “manaog lang ko sa Ayala”—I am dropping off at Ayala.

What does it mean when real estate developers start creating projects that span entire urban districts? How does the concentration of capital in business parks affect local communities? In The Diacritic’s first Think-piece, Joshua Vargas opens a two-part series to investigate this phenomenon….

Explainer: 2020’s Nobel Prizes

The Nobel Prizes for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace were established in Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel’s last will, signed on 27 November 1895, and an additional prize for the Economic Sciences was established later by the central bank of Sweden, Sveriges Riksbank, in 1968. Every year, the Nobel Prizes are awarded “to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.”

In 2020, these prizes were awarded to eleven individuals and one organisation in recognition of their contributions to science, art, and world peace. Sadly, it is often difficult for non-specialists to understand just how significant these contributions are. To give some perspective to these achievements, The Diacritic’s Qian Zilan spoke to professors from Yale-NUS College and the National University of Singapore for their thoughts on this year’s prizes….