For instance, “the way walking speeds are slower at midday than before or after work; the way people don’t like to maintain the same walking speed as a stranger next to them; the way tourists walk in inappropriately spread out groups” (New Yorkers’ pet peeve); “crosswalk bulge” and “minimizing dissatisfaction.”
Month: April 2012
So What If Apple And Publishers Really Were Fixing E-Book Prices? Does It Matter?
“If there’s a case against the government’s [price-fixing lawsuit,] it’s that the forces of disruption buffeting traditional publishing are much too large to be blocked by any cartel. The good news is that literary culture should survive either way.”
For Carole King, Songwriting Just Came Naturally
On “You’ve Got a Friend”: “That song, pure and simple, came through me. I sat at the piano; the song came through me. People say, ‘Did you write it for James Taylor?’ No, no I didn’t.”
Ancient Chinese Zither Makes 21st-Century Comeback
“For much of the 20th century, the contemplative guqin – the favored instrument of Confucius – has lacked an understanding audience and been eclipsed by showier musical instruments, including Western imports like piano and violin. But, after decades in the shadows of China’s musical life, the guqin is making a comeback, riding a wave of renewed interest in the nation’s traditional culture and the government’s efforts to promote this.”
Where Is Springfield In The Simpsons? Matt Groening Finally ‘Fesses Up
“Springfield was named after Springfield, Oregon. The only reason is that when I was a kid, the TV show Father Knows Best took place in the town of Springfield, and I was thrilled because I imagined that it was the town next to Portland, my hometown. When I grew up, I realized it was just a fictitious name.”
After 60 Years, West Australian Ballet Gets Its Own Home
“From cramped conditions at His Majesty’s Theatre, the company has now moved into the $12 million heritage-listed State WA Ballet Centre in [suburban] Maylands, which has been transformed to contain purpose-built studios, a ballet school, costume workshops and a cafe.”
Political Differences Begin In The Brain (So There’s Probably No Bridging Them)
One example: “Tough-on-crime, pro-military conservatives have a more pronounced startle reflex after hearing a sudden loud noise. They also show stronger skin responses when shown threatening images and look at them more rapidly and for longer.” Says one leading researcher, “One of the things we’re trying to get people to realise is that those who disagree with them politically really do experience the world in a different fashion.”
Was Thomas Kinkade So Very Different From Damien Hirst?
Hirst, like Kinkade, “has been criticized for his determined profit-seeking, for inflated prices, for using assistants to produce his work, even for a general lack of originality … But Hirst is seen as a conceptualist – his art is these brilliant money-making ideas themselves. Why don’t we see Kinkade in a similar light? What Kinkade was selling was also ideas: a mythical America, a pink-dawned, Christian cartoonscape of flowers, waterfalls and Disneyland.”
Microsoft Word Is Inefficient And Obsolete And Should Be Put To Death
“Like the fax machine, Word was designed to put things on paper. … [But] Microsoft Word is an atrocious tool for Web writing. Its document-formatting mission means that every piece of text it creates is thickly wrapped in metadata, layer on layer of invisible, unnecessary instructions about how the words should look on paper.”
MPAA Joins With Obscure Gay Porn Website In Copyright Lawsuit
“The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which counts Disney, Paramount and Sony pictures among its members, is supporting a case brought by Flava Works, an adult-film studio that specializes in black and Latino productions with titles such as Raw Rods and Snow Ballerz. The case revolves around the ongoing argument fought by far bigger players than Flava – namely, whether embedding videos on a third-party website constitutes piracy.”