The results suggest that “ordinary variations in room temperature can affect cognitive performance significantly, and differently for men and women,” write co-authors Tom Chang of the University of Southern California and Agne Kajackaite of the Berlin Social Science Center. – Pacific Standard
Author: Douglas McLennan
Butterflies, Roasted Pigs And Radios: Christopher Rountree And The Music Of Anything
And he’s having a moment now, with the LA Philharmonic’s FLUXUS Festival. – San Francisco Classical Voice
Study: More Millennials Are Defining Themselves By Their Work
According to Jobvite’s annual Job Seeker Nation survey, 42% of American workers define themselves by the jobs they perform and/or the companies they work for, and that number rises to 45% among those under the age of 40. Furthermore, of the 42% who say that they define themselves through their work, 65% say it’s “very important” to who they are as people. – Fast Company
Spoiler Alert: Does Knowing The Ending Of A Story Ruin Or Enhance Enjoyment?
A 2013 study Offers some answers: “After sneakily revealing the end of short stories when describing them to test subjects, he found that their enjoyment of the fictional narratives actually increased – a conclusion that perhaps isn’t so surprising if you think about how many times you’ve watched your favourite movie or read your favourite book.” – Aeon
The Next Great Indie Bookstore Chain? Shakespeare & Co. Makes A Move
In addition to the flagship store on Lexington Ave., the company opened its first store in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square last October. A second New York City store, which opened the following month, marked Shakespeare & Co.’s return to the Upper West Side after a 20-year hiatus. A fourth store, which originally was to have opened in Greenwich Village late last year, is expected to open soon. – Publishers Weekly
Are You Obsessive Compulsive? You Fit The Age In Which We Live
“There’s no sugar-coating it: full-fledged OCD is pathological. It renders you unable to function, as I have experienced firsthand. But at the same time, obsessiveness suits our current cultural moment, and functional obsessives are often found perched at the top of social and vocational hierarchies.” – Aeon
This Year’s NEA Jazz Masters
Jazz’s highest public honor will go to Roscoe Mitchell, Dorthaan Kirk, Reggie Workman and Bobby McFerrin at a ceremony in April 2020. Held at the SFJazz Center in San Francisco, it will be the first Jazz Masters gala in California since 2005. Awardees receive cash prizes of up to $25,000. – The New York Times
Learning As Observation (First From Afar) And Then Focusing On What Can Be Known
“As the conversation of the physical phenomenon under discussion grows more complex, language is revealed to be inadequate to the task of describing abstract thought. At this point, students resort to drawing on the chalkboard to more clearly demonstrate their questions and hypotheses and the process of emendation continues in pictures. What this reveals is that scientific investigation is primarily a matter of imagination since the realities being investigated are frequently invisible and incompletely understood.” – American Enterprise Institute
Study: To Teach Music To Students, Ditch Mozart And Add Hip Hop
A four-year study by Youth Music concluded that too many schools fail to include current musical genres and recommended that lessons should focus on “Stormzy rather than Mozart” in order to engage hard-to-reach young people. – The Guardian
How To Reshuffle The Historical Great Books Canon
The “great anthology” collections of books drew readers’ attention to books of the past. But most of the works chosen were from the historical mainstream. How to change it? A couple of publishers are creating new anthologies and purposefully picking writing from outside the tradition. – Vox