The Biology Of Narrowing Thinking "The link between ageing and intransigence is commonly put down to a combination of world-weariness, experience and impatience." But "researchers at Harvard Medical School believe that they have found the biological mechanism that makes people become set in their ways as they get older. They have identified a protein that stops new neural connections forming in adult brains." The Times (UK) 08/19/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 10:26 am
Why Solving Deeply Theoretical Math Matters So the landmark Poincare problem has been solved by a mathematicin, and there's much rejoicing across the land. But "it won't help anyone build a bridge, aim a rocket, crack a code, or privatize Social Security. Mathematicians, no dummies, like to point out that, in some unspecified future, Perelman's theorem might pitch in to help with these problems in ways that aren't obvious now. But its real significance is like that of the fact that a times b is equal to b times a; it's a basic structural statement about how the world is organized. If you prefer order to chaos, that's something worth caring about." Slate 08/18/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 7:53 am
How About Getting Movie Fans To Pay First, Before The Movie Is Made? The usual movie production formula is to raise the money to make it, then hope it sells enough tickets to make a profit. But Robert Greenwald has turned the formula upside down - he raised money from fans first, thn set about distributing it... Washington Post 08/20/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 7:48 am
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Rembrandt Reconsidered (400 Years Later) "As Rembrandt’s 400th birthday is celebrated this year with blockbuster exhibitions, symposia, festivals, tours, and performances, and as museums the world over lucky enough to own his works set them forth with pride, it seems unthinkable that the man we consider one of the supreme geniuses of world art was dismissed so contemptuously in his own time. But Breughel was only repeating what critics and theorists had been saying about Rembrandt’s art for years." ARTnews 08/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 11:39 am
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A Computer That Can Replace The Human Orchestra? "A program developed in Vienna mimics human musicians in the performance of greats such as Bach, Beethoven and Mozart so convincingly that a casual listener to Classic FM would be unable to tell the difference. Perhaps more importantly, it allows notes - 1.5 million different sounds, to be precise - to be combined in new ways, so that composers can make new music on their laptop without needing to hire an orchestra." The Observer (UK) 08/20/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 11:24 am
A Political Debate Occupies Israeli/Palestinian Orchestra A decision to attach a political statement about the Israeli/Lebanese war to programs by Daniel Barenboim's West Eastern Divan Orchestra made up or Palestinians and Israelies provokes a debate among the musicians. The New York Times 08/19/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 8:03 am
How Does Music Physically Affect Us? Daniel Levitin, "who now runs the Laboratory for Musical Perception, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University in Montreal, has immersed himself in music about as deeply as is humanly possible. He began asking scientific questions about the nature of his beloved obsession -- Where does creativity come from? What goes into making a song memorable? -- in the late 1980s. He began asking his peers and role models in the music business and publishing those conversations in magazines such as Billboard and Mix." Boston Globe 08/20/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 7:40 am
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In the UK: Rethinking Basic Education The British government has announced tough new reforms for English schools in a back-to-basics approach. "We are changing the way we measure performance and toughening up the English and maths GCSEs to ensure that young people master the three Rs. In addition, coursework, which counts towards GCSE grades, will be overhauled in a bid to eradicate pupils cheating by using the internet, helping each other or receiving parental help. More work will be done under exam conditions at school." The Observer (UK) 08/20/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 10:57 am
Rethinking Art's Creative Capitalization "Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has delivered $5 million in shots of adrenaline to nearly 250 artists, and in the process is creating a new template for private arts funding, using a mix of old-style grant-making and post-dot-com venture capitalism to re-imagine the relationships among artists, funders and markets." Los ANgelesTimes 08/20/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 10:49 am
Rethinking The Ph.D. How do you reform the way Ph.D.-level education is taught without sacrificing the quality of the degree? There are some proposals: "One involves non-residential Ph.D. programs for students who are older than most who earn doctorates. The other involves doctoral programs that are run by more than one university — and that sometimes cross state lines and public/private distinctions. Officials at the meeting said they believed there was strong demand for both kinds of programs, and wanted to find ways for their agencies to encourage such innovations." InsideHigherEd 08/18/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 8:10 am
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Ex-Getty Chairman Returns Some Of Questionable Book Advance "The Getty Trust, one of the world’s richest cultural and philanthropic organizations, said Friday that David P. Gardner, a former chairman, had agreed to repay approximately $99,000, or about half of the compensation he had received for work on an unfinished book commemorating the trust’s 25th anniversary. The book contract, which was canceled in March, is thought to be part of a continuing investigation by the California attorney general’s office into allegations of financial improprieties at the trust." The New York Times 08/20/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 10:53 am
Walesa Accuses Grass Lech Walesa has accused Gunther Grass of confessing his Nazi past to sell more books. "I can understand a confession from a Christian point of view. We should understand people and help them. But if someone wants to create publicity for himself, I don't want to be a part of that." Walesa also has called upon Grass to renounce his honorary Gdansk citizenship. Yahoo! (AP) 08/19/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 10:36 am
An Edinburgh Benefactor's Complications "Lean Scully amazed her many friends at the Edinburgh International Festival when it was revealed that almost her entire fortune had been left in trust to them as a thank you for decades of enjoyment.
But delight has turned to disappointment after Scully's relatives emerged to claim the Irish art lover had 'ignored' and 'turned her back on' her own family." The Scotsman 08/19/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 10:28 am
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Broadway's Busted Road Game "By almost any definition, Broadway has been enjoying a very good run for the last few years, if not for the last couple of decades. Attendance has been rising despite ever increasing prices, so that overall ticket revenue — even after being adjusted for inflation — has more than doubled in the last 15 years. But the road, which by some measures brings in as much revenue as Broadway, is far more of a boom-and-bust business." Right now, it's a big bust, with huge declines in box office. The New York Times 08/19/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 7:43 am
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More Books, Fewer Opportunities For Writers It is "the great paradox of modern publishing. While there are more books published than ever before, it is more difficult to get published than ever before... This is supported by evidence of publishers rejecting new writing that does not have a celebrity attached while scaling down the money paid to mid-list authors to a level where there is barely an incentive for them to get out of bed." The Times (UK) 08/17/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 11:34 am
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Critical Choice (And That Is?) There's been a lot of chatter lately about whether movie critics still matter and whether they have any impact on movie box-office success. But "no critic in his/her right mind believes that a bad review will have any major impact on the box office performance of a motion picture whose introduction to thousands of theaters has been preceded by months of entertainment coverage and marketing promotions. We don't assume that readers look to reviews for an absolute gladiatorial go-ahead, either. Most of us have heard of the Internet and are aware of the phenomenon of word-of-mouth." Los Angeles Times 08/20/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 10:45 am
Hollywood's Animation Writers Want More Of A Share "Writers of live-action features get royalties when their work is repackaged and sold. But writers of animation don't. Their 'ancillary profit participation,' as it's known, is paid in multiples of zero." That means "live-action" writers can get rich, while writers for animation don't. Now the animation writers want a share... Los Angeles Times 08/20/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 10:41 am
The Revolution Is Being Televised "YouTube (slogan: 'Broadcast Yourself') isn't the Internet's only video-sharing service. But it's the reigning brand, the talked-about phenomenon, and a mighty good example of the multiple roles now greeting yesterday's couch potato. These are get-up-and-do-something roles as artist, journalist, pundit, self-promoter, exhibitionist, prankster, weirdo and wag. Now you, too, can be a TV producer and a TV programmer." Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP) 08/19/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 10:34 am
Star-Crossed Critic While readers often note the number of stars a critic gives a movie in a review, most critics dislike the star system. "If I give the animated film "Cars" and the global-warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" three stars each, are they equally good? Am I comparing them to each other? Or am I comparing them to other animated and documentary films?" Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 08/18/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 8:16 am
Edinburgh Fest Tussles With Israeli Movie The Edinburgh International Film Festival has got itself some controversy after planning to show and Israeli movie, then reportedly canceling and returning some Israeli funding... OpinionJournal 08/15/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 7:33 am
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NY Ballet's All In The Family "At New York’s two major ballet companies — City Ballet and American Ballet Theater — siblings are increasingly common..." The New York Times 08/20/06
Posted: 08/20/2006 10:30 am
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