Category: ideas

“Even before Marcel Proust died in 1922, ordering iced beer from the Ritz on his deathbed, his monumental novel about art and memory was being dissected for wisdom on a stunning variety of topics… So it’s remarkable that before now no one has focused at book length on painting, a subject that dominates his novel… like almost no other.”

“It’s strange to remember there was once a time when highly literate speeches were all the rage. Tragically, that was almost four centuries ago.” Author Sarah Vowell’s latest book explores the language used by America’s earliest settlers, and how it impacted the way we still talk today.

“We are witnessing the end of the Information Age, just as our forebears saw the close of the Industrial Age. The heralded knowledge workers of the late-20th century – computer programmers, CPAs, engineers and MBAs – rooted their success in linear, analytical reasoning, traditionally considered left-brain skills. With complex, technical jobs now shifting overseas by the tens of thousands – from financial analysis to software development – the outsourcing megatrend has moved beyond manufacturing into the white-collar arena with skilled workers abroad working for a fraction of U.S-level wages.”

“Ever since Bram Stoker penned Dracula in 1897, the vampire’s image has been a work in progress. In the 43 sequels, remakes and adaptations of Stoker’s novel, Transylvania’s most famous son rarely appears the same way twice. He has evolved with the society around him.”

The atheist firebrand and author of The God Delusion “will write a book aimed at youngsters where he will discuss whether stories like the successful JK Rowling series have a ‘pernicious’ effect on children… [Dawkins] says he intends to look at the effects of ‘bringing children up to believe in spells and wizards’.”

“New underwater recordings have shown that the whales carefully coordinate their song to match the calls of their singing partner. The animals appear to enjoy singing to each other, possibly to strengthen relationships among females within the group.”

Just what exactly is the Holy Grail anyway? Does it really exist? Did it ever? The Independent explains it all for you.

“Thoreau died in 1862, when the industrial revolution was just beginning to pump climate-changing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In 1851, when he started recording when and where plants flowered in Concord, he was making notes for a book on the seasons. Now, though, researchers at Boston University and Harvard are using those notes to discern patterns of plant abundance and decline in Concord — and by extension, New England — and to link those patterns to changing climate.”

“In a loosely coordinated movement, dozens of hardware inventors around the world have begun to freely publish their specs. There are open source synthesizers, MP3 players, guitar amplifiers, and even high-end voice-over-IP phone routers. You can buy an open source mobile phone to talk on, and a chip company called VIA has just released an open source laptop: Anyone can take its design, fabricate it, and start selling the notebooks.”

Could we perhaps download War and Peace or, with a nod to The Matrix, a manual of how to fly a
helicopter? How about inscribing the sentence “See Spot run” into the memory of someone who is unconscious of the transfer? How about just the word “see”?