1. How Music Changes The Brain A new study measures the physical effect of studying music on the brain. "Among expert musicians, certain areas of the cortex are up to 5% larger than in people with little or no musical training, recent research shows. In musicians who started their training in early childhood, the neural bridge that links the brain's hemispheres, called the corpus callosum, is up to 15% larger. A professional musician's auditory cortex — the part of the brain associated with hearing — contains 130% more gray matter than that of non-musicians." Los Angeles Times 12/13/02
   

2. The Problem Of Thinking Too Much... For most of us, the problem would seem to be not thinking enough. But it can go the other way. According to one scholar, "overthinking" can sometimes be worse than not thinking at all. "The real difficulty is knowing when to stop thinking and go with your gut"... Boston Globe 12/15/02

3. Those Flying Saucers Of 15th Century Art So you think UFO's are an invention of the 20th Century? How then to explain these pictures of Unidentified Flying Objects found in European paintings of the 15th Century? ETContact.net

4. Polling For Art As times get tougher for artists, the pressure to try to create work more people will want to see increases. That's why artists Komar & Melamid's work in ferreting out what people most want in a painting has been way ahead of its time. It's art-by-poll, and the artists have taken the trouble to find out what people in 14 countries most want (and don't want) to see in their artwork. Here's a gallery... Dia Center 12/02

5. Why "White Christmas" Is The Most Popular Song Of All Time The most-recorded song of all-time? The biggest-selling? That would be Irving Berlin's "White Christmas." "It has been recorded in Dutch, Yiddish, Japanese and - perhaps most surreal of all - Swahili. Its sales have topped 125 million worldwide and its place as the all-time top single has been challenged only once, not by the Beatles, not by Presley nor Sinatra, but by Elton John's 'Candle in the Wind 97' tribute to Princess Diana." The Observer (UK) 12/15/02