Fitting names
Every few days, I read a news story or research article in which the author or somone mentioned is somehow incredibly well-matched or badly-matched to the topic at hand simply by virtue of their name. This always makes me laugh in astonishment. Is it just coincidence, or do people with certain names follow or avoid certain kinds of work, or get involved in certain events, because of their names?
The truth is probably a bit of both. There are lots of people with many different names doing all kinds of work, so inevitably some will be matched or unmatched. So maybe it is just a question of how many people notice, or why.
In any case, here is a page to celebrate the bizarre, wonderful, and uncommon connections between names and stories. If you would like to report names here too, please send me the details (contact "Kowhai" using the email address: info at kowhai dot net).
Angel, Roger: an astronomer at the University of Texas, has suggested assembling a cloud of millions of small, reflecting spacecraft less than a metre across to create a giant [guardian] sunshade in space (Economist, March 10-16, 2007)
Booth, Sarah: discovered complications when she tried to resell a 35 sq. m. condo in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (International Herald Tribune, 16th March 2007)
Carbon, Barry: Chief Executive of the Ministry of Environment, New Zealand (New Zealand, Growing Today, Nov. 2003)
Greenleaf, Sarah: ecologist who found that wild bees increase pollination efficiency by dive-bombing honey-bees and prompting them to carry pollen from male to female plants (USA, Discover magazine, July 2007)
Gush, Mark Leader of a research project at the CSIR Land Use Hydrology Group in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, investigating transpiration (sap-flow), climate and site water balance in a biofuel plantation (Science in Africa, Sept. 2005).
Lovecraft, H. P.: 'Eccentric author of spine-tingling tales of horror' (M. Shreibner in Japan Times, 1st Feb. 2007)
Salter, Stephen: has designed an unmanned vessel that would blast tiny droplets of seawater into the air to create low-lying clouds, to keep the Earth cool [presumably our sea breezes would become saltier, which might not be good for crops] (Economist, March 10-16, 2007).
Sick, Karen: Food services director for the North Penn High School district, USA, cited in a discussion of school Body Mass Index reports (International Herald Tribune, 9th Jan. 2007).
Strange, Jennifer: Died tragically from 'water intoxication' after entering a radio station contest to drink as much water possible without taking relief; water is not poisonous, but the idea to run such a competition certainly is (International Herald Tribune, 15th Jan. 2007).
Swank, Hilary: Celebrity with a wide smile and a form-fitting black Chanel Haute Couture dress at the Golden Globe Awards in Paris (International Herald Tribune, 23rd Jan. 2007)
Noble, Cameron: Works for a wide-range of peace-building projects, from offering job-training to former guerillas to small-scale development programmes, in Aceh, Indonesia (Asahi Shimbun, Japan, 10th Jan. 2007)