Machines That Can Think? "A new type of thinking machine that could completely change how people interact with computers is being developed at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories.The idea is to figure out ways to make humans smarter by improving human-hardware interactions..." Wired 08/27/03
Posted: 08/27/2003 7:52 pm
What's Next For Humans? Human evolution has been rapid and sophisticated. But "where do we go from here? Have we attained perfection and ceased to evolve? Many geneticists think that is very unlikely, though few find it easy to say where we are headed or how fast. Until the agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago, people used to live in small populations with little gene flow between them. That is the best situation for rapid evolution, said Sewall Wright, one of the founders of population genetics. But Sir Ronald A. Fisher, another founder of the discipline, argued that large populations with random mating — just what globalization and air travel are helping to bring about — were the best fodder for rapid evolution. Which of them is right? No one really knows." The New York Times 08/24/03
Posted: 08/27/2003 7:46 pm
Stolen Leonardo A Leonardo painting has been stolen in southern Scotland. "The work, known as Madonna with the Yarnwinder, was owned by the Duke of Buccleuch and on display at Drumlanrig Castle, in southern Scotland. Police said they were looking for four men seen driving near the castle in a white Volkswagen Golf Gti today." The Guardian (UK) 08/27/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 8:23 am
- Following Leads Scottish police have found the getaway car used by the brazen art thieves who swiped a Leonardo yesterday, but are still looking for the thieves themselves. The car was found abandoned in the woods near Drumlanrig Castle, and authorities are searching for a second car. The stolen painting is, of course, impossible to sell, and it has been added to Interpol's database of major artworks which are missing or stolen. BBC 08/28/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 8:19 am
Michael The One-Gloved Muse "The history of art holds many examples of performers who have ignited the imagination of artists. Compelled to bask in their often strange and lurid glow, artists draw closer, like moths to the flame... If a group of emerging Toronto artists is to be believed, Michael Jackson serves as just such a lightning rod today." Yup, it's that Michael Jackson, and much of the art inspired by His Strangeness is every bit the sarcastic dreck you'd expect. Still, "some of the work is surprisingly sincere." The Globe & Mail (Canada) 08/28/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 6:14 am
We Live In An 850-Year-Old House... The oldest continually-inhabited house in Britain has been identified. It was completed between 1148 and 1150 and is in Somerset. The news "stunned the owners of the house, James and Anna Wynn, who sold a small terrace house and left London five years ago to find somewhere with more room for their growing family and a bit of history." The Guardian (UK) 08/27/03
Posted: 08/27/2003 8:18 pm
Finalists For The New Picture Prize Finalists have been chosen for the first Schweppes portrait prize, an international competition with £15,000 awarded to the winner. "The prize is the successor to the John Kobal photographic portrait award, which until it ended last year was recognised as one of the most distinguished photography competitions. The new prize attracted more than 3,000 images from 1,212 professional and amateur photographers of which 60 have been selected for the exhibition's opening at the National Portrait Gallery in London in November." The Guardian (UK) 08/27/03
Posted: 08/27/2003 8:12 pm
Insane, Murderous, and Pregnant! Must Be An Opera. This September, Jennifer Welch-Babidge will make her New York City Opera debut in a new production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, playing the title character who goes mad and kills her fiance because she loves his enemy. It's a heavy role for any young singer, but in Welch-Babidge's case, there is an added twist - she is very obviously pregnant. Rather than hide her condition, the director is using it to heighten the drama of the opera, with various characters discovering her bulging belly at key moments in the plot. The New York Times 08/28/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 6:34 am
The Orchestra As Business Model Orchestral musicians are not known for their love of corporate types, and the orchestra business itself has been in somewhat dire straits for a couple of years now. So there is unmistakable irony in what conductor Roger Nierenburg is doing under the heading The Music Paradigm. Nierenburg, music director of a small Connecticut orchestra, has been marketing the experience of leading an orchestra to big corporations as a management training seminar, with the orchestra serving as a visible (and audible) example of the necessity of competent, innovative leadership. The program is just one of many arts-based business training programs now popular with Fortune 500 types. Charleston Post & Courier (AP) 08/28/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 5:39 am
How To Catch A Pirate "The music industry's methods of tracking down suspected music pirates have been revealed for the first time. Using digital fingerprints, or 'hashes', investigators say they can tell if an MP3 file was downloaded from an unauthorised service. The industry also tracks 'metadata' tags, which provide hidden clues about how files were created." The methods of detection were revealed in the proceedings of an industry lawsuit against a file-trader known by her screenname, 'Nycfashiongirl,' who is accused of offering over 900 copyrighted and illegally obtained songs for free download. BBC 08/28/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 5:15 am
iTunes - Not Such A Good Deal After All People are raving about Apple's iTunes. But it's not a good deal for consumers, or for artists. "Apple takes a 35% cut from every song and every album sold, a huge amount considering how little they have to do. Record labels receive the other 65% of each sale. Of this, major label artists will end up with only 8 to 14 cents per song, depending on their contract. Many of them will never even see this paltry share because they have to pay for producers and recording costs, both of which can be enormous. Until the musician 'recoups' these costs, when you buy an iTunes song, the label gives them nothing." Downhillbattle 08/26/03
Posted: 08/27/2003 11:16 pm
Architect Of The Dispossessed There was a time when young architects and designers considered it their civic duty to put some time and effort into creating affordable housing and shelter for the dispossessed. But by the late '90s, "these concerns had given way to a preoccupation with signature design and theory." Enter Cameron Sinclair, a 29-year-old designer determined to return the notion of large-scale community service to prominence within his profession. The New York Times 08/28/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 6:44 am
Unintended Consequences Canada's duMaurier Arts Council doles out $2 million a year in grants to arts groups which otherwise might go unfunded. But the council, which is funded entirely by the Imperial Tobacco company, is about to be shut down, thanks to new restrictions on tobacco advertising by the federal government. "In what is widely being viewed in the arts community as one last, concerted effort by Imperial to shame the federal government into backing down on the advertising ban, the company issued a news release yesterday. It ran more than four pages and detailed, community by community, the $60 million the tobacco company has pumped into the arts through the council since 1971." Toronto Star 08/28/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 5:57 am
San Jose Considers Privatizing City Theatres San Jose is considering privatizing the management of the city's public theatres. The city's arts groups are concerned. "In light of a $4 million loss at the city-run McEnery Convention Center in 2002, the mayor's office sees privatization as a possible way to run the buildings more efficiently. However, the Mayor's Budget Message Task Force, an ad hoc advisory committee of representatives from local arts groups, has urged the city to consider the impact on local groups as well the bottom line when determining who will manage the facilities." San Jose Mercury-News 08/28/03
Posted: 08/27/2003 10:59 pm
Welcome To The Skypit In the national touring company of the Broadway smash The Producers, the orchestra is huge, by Broadway standards and that is creating a problem in many theaters outfitted with tiny, ancient orchestra pits. But rather than employ the controversial 'virtual orchestra' concept, The Producers hires a full 23-piece orchestra, and the players who don't fit in the pit are placed in dressing rooms, backstage nooks, and wherever else they, their instruments, and a microphone can fit. In Boston, the harp, percussion, and cello sections are all located remotely, connected to the conductor only by a video screen and an audio monitor. It's not ideal, but the musicians, knowing that the alternative would likely be their replacement by synthesizer, aren't complaining. Boston Globe 08/28/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 5:48 am
Broadway's Back After a dropoff in audience because of the blackout a few weeks ago, Broadway has rebounded with a robust end of summer... Backstage 08/27/03
Posted: 08/27/2003 11:25 pm
Children's Book Draws Fire "A pile of about 300 copies of a book in a Bolton warehouse, which tells the story of a young Palestinian boy living under Israeli military occupation on the West Bank, is at the centre of an international controversy. A Little Piece Of Ground, written by award-winning children's writer Elizabeth Laird, is the subject of a campaign calling on the publisher to reconsider putting out the novel." The content of the book is fairly intense for the genre, but the author and her supporters insist that it is all too familiar to Palestinian children growing up under the Israeli occupation. Toronto Star 08/28/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 7:06 am
53 Ways To Slim Down For The Rapture A newly released edition of the New Testament is taking a bizarre tack in trying to interest the youth market. "Revolve" is the first edition of the Bible ever to be published in a magazine format, according to its creators, and it looks more like an issue of "Teen Cosmo" than a religious text. "Its tips are wholesome but perky. On skin care: 'As you apply sunscreen, use that time to talk to God. Tell him how grateful you are for how he made you. Soon, you'll be so used to talking to him, it might become as regular and familiar as shrinking your pores.'" Philadelphia Inquirer 08/28/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 6:54 am
Why Would Anyone Review Books? "It stands to reason that book reviewers enjoy reading. After all, as was noted in the first two installments of this series, they must choose (often with the help of assigning editors), from the immense heap of books that accumulates each year, the titles to read and write about—in fewer and fewer words, under deadline, and for not much pay. It wouldn’t be a stretch to call book reviewing a labor of love, except for the fact that it is so often a vilified profession. Reviewers are accused of having agendas and of cronyism, are called show-offs and career-killers. It’s a lot of heat to take for some free books, a few bucks, and a byline. So what’s the draw?" Poets & Writers 09/03
Posted: 08/27/2003 11:36 pm
Fighting Piracy At Its Source The movie and record industries have long contended that, in order to get a handle on the digital piracy problem, they must be able to hold the companies who facilitate such piracy accountable for the actions of their users. Up to now, the courts have disagreed, but the industry has growing support from legal experts and copyright enforcement groups. The issue is a big one, since it would be relatively easy to sue the largest purveyors of file-trading software, and nigh onto impossible to go after individual users of the software. C|Net News 08/26/03
Posted: 08/28/2003 5:31 am
BBC For Free - Is It Possible? The BBC says it will digitize all its content and make it available for free. Is this even technically possible? "Giving away the BBC's content online is an eye-popping proposal, in part because it's such an ambitious project. The BBC produces eight TV channels and 10 radio networks, and it broadcasts the news in 43 languages worldwide. It's been doing television since 1936, and radio since 1922. How much of the Beeb's voluminous output could it really put online? With today's production software, digitizing the Beeb's shows to disk as they air or uploading a copy of each segment separately as it's produced would be easy. But what about the old shows?" Slate 08/27/03
Posted: 08/27/2003 8:06 pm
- Previously: All Things BBC Free For Download The BBC plans to make all of its radio and TV library available free for downloading over the internet. "The BBC probably has the best television library in the world. Up until now this huge resource has remained locked up, inaccessible to the public because there hasn't been an effective mechanism for distribution. But the digital revolution and broadband are changing all that." BBC 08/24/03
Video Gamers - Getting More Female And Older A new study reports that more adult women play video games than young boys. The average age of gamers has also risen to 29. "Video gaming traditionally has been seen as the province of teen boys locked in dark rooms, twitching away at game consoles. In recent years, however, the industry has worked to publish games catering to kids, women and older gamers." Wired 08/27/03
Posted: 08/27/2003 7:59 pm
Has Multicultural SBS TV Outlived Itself? When Australia's SBS TV was established, it was "an indulgence by the Fraser government and, some say, a sop to the growing electoral power of Australia's ethnic communities. But SBS was a world-first idea that, for relatively few taxpayer dollars, managed to deliver reasonable value for money. It was never expected to be a ratings leader, but after 25 years it seems to be treading water. With 3.5 per cent of the night-time audience in Melbourne in the week before last - the most recent week for which complete audience statistics are available - it is not doing well." The Age (Melbourne) 08/28/03
Posted: 08/27/2003 7:38 pm
Is Mark Morris Overrated? Mark Morris is a choreographic master. But has he lost a step or two? "There’s a good reason the press can’t stop talking about Morris’s musicality: When dance is a bastard of music and motion, it makes the spirit flesh, like God did." New York Press 08/27/03
Posted: 08/27/2003 11:10 pm
