Behavioral scientist Nick Chater: “This whole idea of uncovering things from the unconscious and making them conscious has the presupposition that they are of the same type. … The tip of the iceberg is made of the same stuff as the rest of the iceberg, which is an invisible mass. And I think that’s really a mistake. The reality is that the things we’re conscious of — experiences, thoughts, fragments of conversation — are completely different in type from the things we’re unconscious of — all these mysterious brain processes, which lay down and retrieve memories, piece fragments of information together, and so on. The brain is doing lots of unconscious work — but it is not thought in any way we understand it.”
Month: July 2018
Have We Lost Our Sense Of Moral Rigor And Equivalency?
The outrage over a police shooting of an unarmed black teenager unfolds at the same level of intensity as the outrage over what might or might not be a case of racial profiling by a sales clerk in a small Brooklyn boutique. This is intentional: The general feeling seems to be that distinguishing between degrees of morally repugnant conduct will lead to some sort of blanket pardon of all such conduct; that to understand is always to forgive. Such concern is understandable, but misplaced — it flattens and obfuscates, rather than clarifies.
Art Gets Damaged All The Time – Here’s How It Gets Back To The Market
“Artsy spoke to insurance brokers, lawyers, gallerists, a conservator, and an appraiser to understand what happens to a damaged work, and how it can find its way back to market with its value intact (or not).”
The Theatre Director Who Seeks To Divide His Audiences Rather Than Unite Them
“Dissatisfaction itself has become a commodity. Every day I see the headhunters from Western Europe’s theatres searching for fresh blood from problematic countries. At one point, everybody was asking me if I knew any directors from Ukraine. Then the focus shifted to Syria and Poland. There’s something deeply humiliating and colonial in the reduction of the work of an artist to her or his country of birth and the political problems of that same country.”
Warren Brown, Washington Post Auto Columnist Who Co-Wrote Memoir On Kidney Transplant, Dead At 70
“He described himself as a ‘servant’ to his readers — a representative who looked out for their financial interests while also trying to satisfy car enthusiasts’ passions for details about fuel efficiency, horsepower and torque. But in writing about one of the largest sectors of the U.S. economy, he also challenged readers who might have preferred that he stick to interiors and exteriors, penning columns that could veer sharply into politics and race.” In 2002, he and Post colleague Martha McNeil Hamilton published Black & White & Red All Over, about her donation of one of her kidneys to him.
Australian Museum Director Resigns After Failed Fundraiser
Dolla Merrillees’ resignation comes in the wake of revelations that the black-tie dinner hosted by the museum in February was a massive loss maker, costing $388,000 to stage, and requiring the museum to chip in $215,209.50 from its own budget. The fundraiser raised $78,000, of which a mere $1050 was raised from supporters on the night.
New Technology Could Finally Make Lightweight Braille Books And E-Readers Workable
“Harvard researchers … [have] crafted reprogrammable braille that could eliminate the need for unique pages without the bulk of a display. The concept is straightforward. The team compressed a thin, curved elastic shell using forces on each end, and then made indents with a basic stylus (similar to how you print a conventional braille book). Once you remove the compression, the shell ‘remembers’ the indents. You can erase them just by stretching the shell. … There’s no lattice holding it up, and it works with everything from conventional paper to super-thin graphene.”
Patrick Williams, Grammy-Winning Jazz-Band Leader And Emmy-Winning Composer, Dead At 74
“Williams was among the most versatile composers of his generation, earning an Oscar nomination (for adapting opera in Breaking Away, 1979), four Emmys (for dramatic music including Lou Grant, 1980) and two Grammys (for arrangements including his classic jazz album Threshold, 1974) during more than 50 years of music-making in New York and Los Angeles.”
Police Recover Renoir And Rubens Stolen By Con Man Dressed As Rabbi
“The paintings had been stolen in an elaborate scam involving at least eight different con artists, the police confirmed. At least one had posed as a Jewish rabbi with diplomatic immunity and offered the respective gallery owners €26 million for the paintings before stealing them. The theft took place at a rented office in Monza, above the Albanian embassy … on April 20th, 2017.”
Cambodian Classical Dance Revival Takes A Surprising Turn: An All-Gay-Male Troupe
The resurrection of an art form nearly wiped out by the Khmer Rouge has spread from Phnom Penh to Northern California to South Philadelphia. Now a young Cambodian-American has returned to his parents’ homeland to teach other gay men in a genre traditionally danced only by women – and to choreograph new works in the style.