Research psychologist Cordelia Fine looks at what the data does and doesn’t show, and she reminds us about the questions that weren’t asked when all those stories and headlines were written last week.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Hannah Arendt’s Failure Of Imagination
Richard Brody: “Her mechanistic view of Eichmann’s personality, as well as her abstract and unsympathetic consideration of the situation of Jews under Nazi rule, reflect her inability to consider the experiences of others from within.”
Saudi Religious Police Ban Arabic Equivalent Of Twilight
The kingdom’s notorious Committee for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue has ordered bookstores to remove from their shelves the popular fantasy novel HWJN, about a young djinni who falls in love with a human woman. Among the Committee’s objections: the young woman’s use of a Ouija board.
Alexander Payne’s Issue With Fathers
Says the director of this fall’s Nebraska (and of The Descendants, Sideways, and Election), “I think many of us have experiences with fathers who … are loving, they are nice, but somehow they’re on another planet and you wonder your whole life, ‘What is that planet that my father is on?’.”
Gallery Manager Pleads Guilty To Possessing Looted Antiquities
For nearly two decades, Aaron Freedman helped run the Manhattan gallery of Indian art and antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor, who Federal agents say “is by far the biggest smuggler, in terms of numbers of antiquities stolen and their market value, that we have seen.”
Swiss Government Opens Inquiry Into Art Stash Given To UNICEF
“The authorities here are investigating the transfer to UNICEF in Germany of one of Europe’s largest and finest private art collections, a vast trove amassed by Dr. Gustav Rau, an eccentric collector and philanthropist who died in 2002.”
Bolshoi’s Chief Conductor Explains Why He Quit
Vasily Sinaisky said that he and former Bolshoi general director Anatoly Iksanov, who was replaced in July, “did our job hand in hand, and I was absolutely happy. Now, the new general manager – Mr. Urin – is a completely different person.”
Will This Be The Conductor Who Finally Ends Israel’s Ban On Wagner?
In a brief essay, Asher Fisch, a native-born Israeli and a protégé of Daniel Barenboim, explains how he believes his mentor went wrong in his 2001 attempt to break the Jewish state’s longstanding Wagner taboo – and how he hopes to succeed. Says Fisch, “It’s up to me, and it’s waiting to happen.”
Probing The Unknowable Mysteries Of The Brain
“Is the brain a sort of quantum computer? What is consciousness? Marcelo Gleiser’s brain is buzzing with big questions after participating in a conference that asked if quantum physics plays a role in how we think.”
Explaining What Happened At The Bolshoi Ballet
Ismene Brown, a London dance journalist who has been following and often translating the Russian media’s extensive coverage and knows some of the players, gives inside info and analysis of the Filin attack, the trial, and the whole affair’s effects on the company.