The Silly New Fad in Scientific Paper Publishing

What's this new fad of putting up the picture of the lead author in scientific publications?

It's useless and distracting. I glance at the paper and instead of focusing on the title, my eye is caught by this picture... and I wonder how she can see with hair falling across her eyes, if she's outdoors trekking somewhere, if this picture was recent, how much this lady can trek, whether she had this picture taken specifically for this paper, and if so, why did she choose this particular picture, and if I don't have something better to do than wonder about random people.

Please, publishers, don't waste the 3-5 minutes of my attention that you've grabbed. Just tell me the main scientific story and store the biography for a news release. That same space could have better used by putting a little box with the highlights of the paper.

Kids, Language and Accents

Ani has a friend, L, in preschool.

L's parents speak Tamil to her, insist on her answering in Tamil and speak Tamil to each other.

I speak Tamil to Ani, but it is peppered with English. English is the language with which RK, Ani and I converse.

Ani speaks English with a strong Indian accent at home (complete with the head bobs... I didn't realize that either RK or I did that until Ani started doing it) and English with a strong American accent at preschool. He understands Tamil but he doesn't think in it. On the other hand, L speaks English only with an American accent, but Tamil with a Tamil accent.

Even more interesting: L calls Ani the way his name is supposed to be pronounced: A-nee
However, when she refers to him in the third person, he becomes 'Aah-nee', the American-accented version of his name.

It's one thing to read about kids unconsciously absorbing the culture around them, quite another to see it in real life.