PBS is considering putting its shows online. “My goal in running PBS is that no matter what choice consumers in the digital age decide to do … we recognize the need to make content available to any of those platforms, and right now we’re moving in that direction.”
Blog
Think Your Computer Through It
Scientists are working on a computer that could be controled by brainwaves. “We are dreaming of something like a baseball cap with electrodes in the cap that can measure the brainwaves. People could just put on the cap and have a wireless connection from these electrodes to a computer and they can play video games.”
Southeast Asia’s First “Ring”
“Thailand’s decision to be the first Southeast Asian nation to present the work has surprised even the most ardent Wagnerians. The production, by the Bangkok Opera, has the official blessing of the composer’s great-grandson Wolfgang, who inaugurated Bangkok’s Wagner Society last year. But it is a huge undertaking for a country that has been producing Western opera for only five years. Will Wagner be raising a quizzical eye from beyond the grave?”
Ancient City Pays The Price Of War
“Babylon, the mud-brick city with the million-dollar name, has paid the price of war. It has been ransacked, looted, torn up, paved over, neglected and roughly occupied. Archaeologists said American soldiers even used soil thick with priceless artifacts to stuff sandbags. But Iraqi leaders and United Nations officials are not giving up on it.”
Canadian Bookstore Goes To Court To Fight Government Censorship
A Vancouver gay bookstore is going to the Canadian Supreme Court to continue a fight against government bureaucrats who block books and magazines at the border.
Wyner Wins Pulitzer
Yehudi Wyner has won this year’s Pulitzer for music. “Commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra through the New Works Fund (established by the Massachusetts Cultural Council), the concerto was premiered by soloist Robert Levin and the BSO under the baton of frequent guest conductor Robert Spano on February 17, 2005.”
Brooks Wins Fiction Pulitzer
Geraldine Brooks wins this year’s Pulitzer for fiction. “March,” Brooks’ invention of the Civil War adventures of the absent father from Louisa Alcott’s classic “Little Women,” was awarded the honor Monday.
For Better Doctors – Study Humanities
Some medical schools are now requiring humanities courses for their students. “At least one study, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association in 2001, has found that looking at painting and sculpture can improve medical students’ observational abilities. ‘With heightened observational skills physicians can often ask the questions necessary to make correct diagnoses without relying too much on costly blood tests and X-rays’.”
The Tension Of Leadership
The mix between strong leadership and democracy is a tough balance to strike. “A democratic leader is, at least in part, an oxymoron. A leader is ahead of those being led, but a democratic leader is also supposed to be a follower, obeying the will of the people. Neither position is without dangers.”
Coffee Culture – Finding Ourselves In A Starbucks
Starbucks seems to be everywhere. But does the “Starbucks experience” tell us anything about ourselves? “Founded in Seattle in 1971, Starbucks Corp. now has 11,000 outlets in 37 countries, including 500 in Tokyo. There is a Starbucks’s in Beijing’s Forbidden City, and the round green logo adorns the streets of Edinburgh and the boulevards of Paris. The company expects to open 1,800 new stores this year and aims eventually to have 30,000 outlets, half of them outside the United States.”