“The British prisoners’ rights group Reprieve has issued a statement accusing authorities at Guantánamo Bay of blocking the delivery [to a long-term detainee] of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Soviet-era classic The Gulag Archipelago.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Ten Things We Learned About Learning This Summer
For instance: laptops in the classroom do more harm than good, you can learn a foreign language better when you sing your vocabulary, it’s good for small kids to talk with their hands, and middle-schoolers (despite what they tell you) are not really good at multitasking.
Even Stone-Age Cooks Spiced Their Food: Researchers
“A bubbling broth of oysters and fresh cod, seasoned with a little garlic-mustard seed, sounds like a mouth-watering meal worthy of any modern kitchen. But this repast was being enjoyed in Northern Europe some 6,000 years ago, according to research that offers the earliest direct evidence that Neolithic people in the region added spices to their food.”
A Ballet For Plastic Bags
“What do you get when you combine Debussy’s music with a troupe of plastic bags? The answer is one of the Edinburgh fringe’s most charming family shows – Non Nova’s L’après-midi d’un Foehn, being performed at the Summerhall venue. Performer Jean-Louis Ouvrard takes us through his day as a choreographer working with some unlikely forces.”
Prosecutors Near Settlement Of New York Art Forgery Case
“A New York art dealer who was known as a source of undiscovered masterpieces by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and other modern artists is close to resolving criminal charges related to her alleged sale of fake artwork and her failure to pay taxes on those works.” Prosecutors said they expect to make more arrests in the case.
Simon & Schuster And Barnes & Noble Settle Their Feud
“The two companies said Monday that an eight-month-long dispute that had reduced the number of Simon & Schuster titles appearing in Barnes & Noble stores has been settled. The bookstore chain and the publisher had been at odds over various financial issues, including which of them would bear the burden of e-book discounting and in-store promotional costs.”
UK Orchestra Saved From Closure By Last-Minute Fundraising Drive
“A campaign to raise £70,000 in less than two weeks in order to save the freelance Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra has claimed success, after garnering pledges of £72,200. The orchestra will now continue with its planned eight-concert 2013/14 season under music director Barry Wordsworth.”
New York’s Pacifica Radio Station Desperately Short Of Cash As Its Board Bickers On (And On)
WBAI had to lay off two-thirds of its staff this month just to be able to afford basics such as rent for its transmitter. “But critics have long said that its top-heavy governance, with large local boards and frequent, expensive elections, have put the organization in a constant state of gridlock, and that unless Pacifica reforms it will simply govern itself to death.”
Groping Toward A New Understanding of Modesty
“Actress, designer, and former White Power Ranger Jessica Rey has a mission: to get as many women as possible in one-piece swimsuits” – preferably those marketed by her. But her campaign has led to a serious debate among Christian writers in the US about the meaning(s) and purpose(s) of dressing modestly.
Colorado Symphony Appoints Andrew Litton Music Director
Litton, formerly music director of the Dallas Symphony and currently in the same job at Norway’s Bergen Philharmonic, had joined the Colorado Symphony as artistic adviser in 2012 following the 2010 departure of music director Jeffrey Kahane.