There are studies suggesting that as much as 80% of people’s laughter is at things they don’t really find humorous. Says one neuroscientist, “It’s a hall of mirrors of inferences and intentions every time you encounter laughter.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
There’s A Neurological Explanation For Why I’m Always Late
As the surprisingly simple title of the study in question says, “Familiarity expands space and contracts time.” (See, boss? It’s science!)
In Defense Of The Publisher That Rejected ‘Pride And Prejudice’
Fans of Jane Austen have always tut-tutted about Thomas Cadell of Cadell & Davies, who returned the P&P manuscript to Jane’s father with a curt five-word note in 1797. Yet Cadell really doesn’t deserve the ignominy that that one decision has conferred on him. (Hey, we all make mistakes.) He certainly wasn’t anti-woman – quite the opposite, in fact.
Our Matisse Is Not Nazi-Looted Art And You Can’t Have It, Says UK’s National Gallery To Plaintiffs – And Besides, You Can’t Sue Us In New York
The heirs of Greta Moll, the subject of a portrait by Matisse now valued at more than $30 million, claim that Moll was cheated out of the painting as a result of World War II and that the National Gallery acquired it illegitimately. The museum is responding that just about everything about the lawsuit is bogus.
A Truly Living Art Form: Chicken Artist Breeds Poultry For Gallery Shows
For his Cosmopolitan Chicken Project, Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen has spent two decades crossing heritage breeds from different nations to create handsome, healthy, and (yes) cosmopolitan birds, which he shows in art galleries. For an upcoming show in Detroit, he’s taking things to the next level – the Planetary Community Chicken.
Dude, *Please* Don’t Call Me A Philanthropist, Say Millennial Donors
Have the young’uns heard too many TED Talks? “The next generation of philanthropists at this year’s Philanthropy Australia conference made it perfectly clear that they would prefer to be known as ‘change-makers’ or ‘social entrepreneurs’, and so, are ‘consciously uncoupling’ from being known as philanthropists.”
How Hollywood Eagerly Enlisted In The War On Drugs
“The prospect of foreign drug traffickers invading American shores gave pop-culture cops a new and more dangerous enemy to fight, one that justified fast driving, explosive shootouts and all sorts of audience-thrilling rule-breaking. In return, Hollywood promoted the idea that drugs posed a grave threat that justified new, frightening police tactics and the erosion of basic rights.”
Black-And-Blue Lives That Matter: Minority Cops In Popular Culture
“As Tom Wolfe put it in The Bonfire of the Vanities, ‘All the cops turned Irish: the Jewish cops … the Italian cops, the Latin cops, and the black cops.'” You’re only accepted if you adopt that brand of machismo.
Opera Is *Not* Too Posh And Exclusive, And If You Think It Is, It’s Your Own Damn Fault, Says Opera Boss
“I continue to argue incessantly with people who claim opera is for the rich, unattainable, impenetrable, elitist and from a parallel universe,” writes Michael Volpe, general director of London’s Opera Holland Park. “I swear and shout and stamp my feet – well, I used to, but I stopped doing that because it doesn’t work.”
Edmonton Symphony’s New Chief Conductor Is A 24-Year-Old Former Child Prodigy
When he was 13, Alexander Prior wrote a ballet score commissioned by the Moscow State Ballet; when he was 17, he finished a conducting degree at the St. Petersburg Conservatory; he speaks six languages. Now, he’ll take over the baton in Alberta’s capital from William Eddins at the beginning of next season.