By: KENNETH MAXWELL

Folha de São Paulo - Op-ed section - page A2   

On the way down from London to Devon by train this week to spend Christmas with my family I noticed an odd headline in The Daily Telegraph: "Magic carpets are not just a flight of fantasy says Harvard scientist". Apparently the research of professor Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has demonstrated that the aerodynamics of a rippling sheet make it theoretically possible that a rug could be raised off the ground and driven forward through thin air. It would not be a smooth ride as the carpet needs to ripple quite violently to achieve any speed. And a powerful engine would be required to generate the ripples for any carpet large enough to carry a man. So for the moment all this remains in the realm of the virtual. Which is a minor relief for those inclined towards magic at Christmas.

The late professor Edward Said has already made "Orientalism" a "bad" word. I had been thinking for some time that one of the collateral damages of President George W Bush and his Iraq war had been to kill off Baghdad as a location for romantic children's tales. The location where Rudolf Valentino in the epoch of silent movies had once been the thief of Baghdad"; where Aladdin had rubbed his magic lamp; and where ancient stories of Arabia like "One Thousand and One Nights" spoke of green silk carpets that rippled high in the sky carrying the likes of King Solomon and his entourage of bejeweled and turbaned potentates.

But, I seem to be entirely wrong in this supposition. My two young great nephews have set me straight on this account: At one and a half and three and a half respectively both seem entirely happy and conversant with Arabian magic. This is in rural Devon to be sure, and some might think therefore less sophisticated than the urban mainstream. Yet these two young boys are very cosmopolitan; they live in London; they are Anglo Swedish in heritage; and they have already spent time in New York City. So I take their advice on such matters as definitive.
There is, however, one practical application for the Harvard research that should not be overlooked. According to the Daily Telegraph, the scientists have only applied their theory to an object the size of a banknote vibrating at ten times a second. Maybe if Professor Mahadevan sold his patent to the US Treasury his discovery would help keep the US dollar airborne for a few months, and prevent any further loss of its value in 2008.

KENNETH MAXWELL is a weekly op-ed columnist (every Thursday) for Folha de São Paulo, Brazil's leading newspaper.