“Our brains don’t see everything – the world is too big, too full of stimuli. So the brain takes shortcuts, constructing a picture of reality with relatively simple algorithms for what things are supposed to look like. Magicians capitalize on those rules.” Says Teller (of Penn and), “If the audience asks, ‘How the hell did he do that?’ then the experiment was successful. I’ve exploited the efficiencies of your mind.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Where Free Will Comes From (A Little Behind Your Ears)
“Free will resides in a place toward the back of the brain called the parietal cortex, new research suggests. When a neurosurgeon electrically jolted this region in patients undergoing surgery, they felt a desire to, say, wiggle their finger, roll their tongue or move a limb. Stronger electrical pulses convinced patients they had actually performed these movements, although their bodies remained motionless.”
Mikhail Baryshnikov, Dance Photographer
“He is one of the great ballet dancers of all time, has shown his acting chops, conquered modern dance (and continues to), and has become an impresario with the opening of the Baryshnikov Arts Center. And now he has published a book of photographs of Merce Cunningham Dance Company.”
A Mobile Home Fit For A Glossy Shelter Mag?
“From its bamboo floors to its rooftop deck, Clayton Homes’ new industrial-chic ‘i-house’ is about as far removed from a mobile home as an iPod from a record player.” The iHouse (as it is branded), “was conceived as a moderately priced ‘plug and play’ dwelling for environmentally conscious homebuyers,” who can customize the structure online.
Augusto Boal, 78, Who Created ‘Theatre Of The Oppressed’
“[T]he visionary Brazilian theatre director and dramatist, who has died aged 78, spent his life proving that you didn’t have to wait until ‘after the revolution’ for worthwhile social improvements – you could use theatre to make radical changes in the here and now.”
Henry Hitchings Replaces Nicholas De Jongh At London Evening Standard
“Described by The Evening Standard as ‘one of London’s most exciting new writers’, 34-year-old Oxford graduate Hitchings is the author of The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English, which in 2008 became the first non-fiction work in six years to win the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.”
As Centuries-Old Manuscripts Are Digitized, Unexpected Treasures Emerge
“Improved technology is allowing researchers to scan ancient texts that were once unreadable – blackened in fires or by chemical erosion, painted over or simply too fragile to unroll.” The new finds include “never-before-seen versions of the Christian Gospels, fragments of Greek poetry and commentaries on Aristotle.”
A New Classical-Only Digital Store
“[Pierre] Schwob, a businessman who is largely unknown in the insular world of orchestras and operas, has put some $4 million of his own money into the launch of Classical Archives, which is a new version of a site Mr. Schwob founded 15 years ago. His site’s selling points: an emphasis on high-quality audio and a browsing system designed by musicologists.”
San Francisco Symphony Launches Online Social Network – Will It Work?
Anne Midgette: “But isn’t the point of an on-line social network that it puts you in touch with hundreds of like-minded people around the globe? Is the San Francisco Symphony really going to pull in the numbers to make a viable network, which involves people wanting to log on regularly to post, chat, check out other people’s profiles, and so on?”
Incomprehensible Plots, Clarified
Never figured out just what the heck actually happens in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ziggy Stardust, Pink Floyd’s The Wall (wait, that had a plot?) or James Joyce’s Ulysses? The good folks at Wired explain it all for you – in Twitter-sized summaries, no less.