“The notion, then, that we could enhance someone’s “natural” talents by tinkering with their genes just before or just after fertilization is fraught with both practical and moral difficulties. Which gene(s) should we target? Can we be confident of the intended result many years later? Are the risks to a child outweighed by whatever competitive advantage in sport might result?”
Month: February 2018
Man Breaks Off And Steals Thumb Of 2,200-Year-Old Terra Cotta Warrior
The man, who was attending the museum’s after-hours ugly-sweater party on Dec. 21, entered the terra-cotta warrior exhibition room and used his cellphone’s flashlight to view the displays. Then, according to an affidavit by Jacob B. Archer, an F.B.I. special agent, the man put his arm around the statue and took a selfie. The authorities said the man, later identified as Michael Rohana, then went for a more permanent memento.
When J. Edgar Hoover Declared War On Black-Owned Bookstores
In a one-page directive, Hoover noted with alarm a recent “increase in the establishment of black extremist bookstores which represent propaganda outlets for revolutionary and hate publications and culture centers for extremism.” The director ordered each Bureau office to “locate and identify black extremist and/or African-type bookstores in its territory and open separate discreet investigations on each to determine if it is extremist in nature.”
Is New York About To Get Its Own Iconic Eiffel Tower?
Stephen Ross calls it “my baby.” For the moment, it’s known as the Vessel—or, officially, as Vessel. (Ross longs for the public to give it an affectionate nickname.) One can think of it as a compressed extension of the High Line, or as the site of a perpetual evacuation drill; it’s a proposed future venue for downhill mountain-bike races. Starting sometime next year, it will be open to the public, via free, timed-entry tickets. Ross’s evident delight in the piece—even as some of his associates wonder about its size and purpose, and its cost, which exceeds a hundred and fifty million dollars—derives partly from his confidence that, in time, it will become “the icon for New York,” just as the Eiffel Tower is for Paris. The Vessel is about as wide as it is tall, and will fit nicely into an Instagram photograph.
Opera Has To Evolve… Or It Dies
“The medium of expressing emotions in hundreds-of-years-old opera is different from the emotions now. People fall in love on Tinder. In the old days we had time to write letters and to wait for weeks; the speed of emotional reaction and interaction is different. I’m not saying we dump opera – far from it – but we’ve got to let opera evolve.”
Study: The Economics Of Being A Musician In The UK
Over half of musicians worked unpaid over the past 12 months, and 66% of musicians who worked for free ‘exposure’ believe doing so did not benefit their career, according to the ‘world-first’ live music census. It also reveals that in the past year one in three music venues have struggled to cope with a business rates increase and 27% of venues have been affected by noise complaints.
Will Artificial Intelligence Ever Really Be Able To Make Art?
Plato argued that “the true, the good, and the beautiful” are all things that have value in themselves. Beauty has a value in its own right, not because it serves some other purpose. We do good for its own sake, and so on. In order for a machine to make its own fine art, it needs to satisfy Plato’s dictum, and create without any utilitarian purpose. The open question is whether machines will ever be able to do so.
The Secrets Science Is Revealing In Picasso’s Work
Picasso painted La Misereuse Accroupie in 1902, and it is currently on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The researchers used a non-invasive technique called x-ray fluorescent spectroscopy to analyze the painting. It turns out that the artist painted his work on top of another unknown artist’s painting of a landscape, and incorporated the landscape’s forms into the woman’s figure. You can sort of see the landscape by flipping the painting 90 degrees to the left.
Obama Portrait Debate Shows Americans Have Difficulty Talking About Art
“The general public tends to assume that contemporary paintings should be easily understandable for anyone with eyes to see them (and for more sophisticated audiences, for anyone who spends time and attention on the work). But this is not the case. Even if you are familiar with the moods, settings and styles of portraits you have previously seen, you are not necessarily equipped to understand Kehinde Wiley’s work.”
Who’s Not Enrolling In America’s Colleges? Rural Students
The reality that has gotten lost in the impassioned debate over who gets to go to college, which often focuses on racial and ethnic minorities and students from low-income families is: The high school graduates who head off to campus in the lowest proportions in America are the ones from rural places.