“How does the ability to come up with unusual ideas change as we grow older? Does it begin to flag in adolescence? Before then? To investigate these questions, we and our colleagues recently conducted several experiments, which we relate in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”
Blog
How To Encourage And Support Canadian Content? Cut Budgets?
“As streaming services erode the broadcasting business model and render Canadian content regulations less effective, critics have accused the industry of fighting over who gets the best deck chair on the Titanic… But cutting the money that TV producers can get from broadcasters for their best work seems an odd way to encourage them.”
Are We Really In A Time Of “Post-Truth”? That Presumes A Lot
Post-truth’s stations of the cross are pretty familiar. Most if not all of them are given some attention in each of the books under review. In terms of contemporary evidence, any journalistic book on the subject will do what all three of the ones here do at some length. They pick over the global warming “debate”; over claims made in the Brexit referendum – especially the notorious £350 million figure on the side of the Vote Leave bus; and the various lies of the great orange elephant in the room, the forty-fifth President of the United States. The row over the crowd size at the Presidential inauguration, the “birther” conspiracy, “alternative facts”, “fake news” – it’s all here. Where they differ a little in their approaches is in how they unpick what led us here, and in their more or less optimistic ideas as to how we (that we being less interrogated than perhaps it should be) can fight back.
Instrument Designed By Leonardo da Vinci Is Built For The First Time
“The unusual instrument is a hybrid of elements from a harpsichord, an organ and a viola da gamba. It looks like a harpsichord and has a set of strings, but rather than being plucked, the strings press against rotating wheels covered in horse hair – the same mechanism that produces sound in string instruments.”
You Want Diversity In The Arts? What About Political Diversity?
Should we care if art doesn’t reach the people who might learn something, reconsider a point of view, or see the dangers of a current value or belief?
The Kennedy Center Honors Have Been Politicized. It May Be Difficult To Restore Their Place
“The Honors may be governed and selected by a nonprofit institution occupying a national memorial, but they are what passes in this country for knighthoods for the performing arts: the highest-profile awards bestowed for lifetime achievement in popular and high culture. Now that the culture wars have intervened, stoked by a president who has alienated many artists throughout the nation, one wonders whether the political taint will be so easily removed.”
Venezuela Cancels Dudamel Tour
The cancellation was first reported by El Nacional, which reported that the decision came from the office of the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro. It came days after Mr. Maduro openly mocked Mr. Dudamel, who is arguably Venezuela’s most important cultural export — and who, as the product of the El Sistema music program, has been an international symbol of the power of the nation’s government-supported social programs.
Study: Millennials Don’t Watch, Don’t Like, Classic Movies
A new study finds that less than a quarter of millennials have watched a film from start to finish that was made back in the 1940s or 50s and only a third have seen one from the 1960s. Thirty percent of young people also admit to never having watched a black and white film all the way through – as opposed to 85 percent of those over 50 – with 20 percent branding the films “boring.”
Museum Visitor Steps On, Damages Yves Klein Artwork
“Even though we have several safety measures (warning signs, a partial barrier and a guard), the man was too fascinated [with the other work] to notice all of that,” a museum spokeswoman tells The Art Newspaper.
In The Age Of The Internet, Is There Any Point To Protests And Demonstrations?
“What has protest done for us lately? Smartphones and social media are supposed to have made organizing easier, and activists today speak more about numbers and reach than about lasting results. Is protest a productive use of our political attention? Or is it just a bit of social theatre we perform to make ourselves feel virtuous, useful, and in the right?”