Category: ideas

It’s a phenomenon that seems to cross all artistic genres and mediums: the live-fast, die-hard lifestyle of artists from James Dean to Lord Byron. But why is it that artists capable of communicating such profundity through their work are so frequently incapable of normal social interaction? ” A new exhibition at Britain’s National Gallery traces the image of the artist as rebellious loner from its Romantic roots through works by Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Edgar Degas and others.”

“Call it the Age of Peer Production. From Amazon.com to MySpace to craigslist, the most successful Web companies are building business models based on user-generated content. This is perhaps the most dramatic manifestation of the second-generation Web. The tools of production, from blogging to video-sharing, are fully democratized, and the engine for growth is the spare cycles, talent, and capacity of regular folks, who are, in aggregate, creating a distributed labor force of unprecedented scale.”

“A new brand of music maestro is turning programming into performance, eschewing turntables for a compiler and a mind for syntax structure. ‘Livecoding’ practitioners improvise using Perl or homemade programming architectures to build compositions from the ground up, replacing instruments and samples with raw code authoring before a live audience.”

Scientists in Japan are building an odor recorder. “Simply point the gadget at a freshly baked cookie, for example, and it will analyse its odour and reproduce it for you using a host of non-toxic chemicals. The device could be used to improve online shopping by allowing you to sniff foods or fragrances before you buy, to add an extra dimension to virtual reality environments and even to assist military doctors treating soldiers remotely by recreating bile, blood or urine odours that might help a diagnosis.”

“A wealth of data in recent decades has shown that once personal wealth exceeds about $12,000 a year, more money produces virtually no increase in life satisfaction. From 1958 to 1987, for example, income in Japan grew fivefold, but researchers could find no corresponding increase in happiness.”

In Mexico, where the term ‘intellectual’ usually connotes a person possessing mental gravitas, serious literary chops and at least a few friends in high places, intellectuals have enjoyed a degree of name-brand recognition that’s rare in all but a handful of countries — France comes to mind — at least among the educated chattering classes. Along with that acclaim, intellectuals reap other rewards: generous government stipends, cultural and academic sinecures, ambassadorships and access to those wielding power. But lately something funny has been happening on the way to the symposium. Mexico’s powerful mass media, particularly television and radio commentators, are steadily usurping intellectuals’ power to shape public opinion.”

“Some 2,000 books are published each year on ‘leadership’, but perhaps we don’t need to look much further than the lessons we can learn from our greatest writer and dramatist: William Shakespeare.”

“To those who dwell in the design universe, Apple Computer has accomplished the near-impossible: making nerdy computing products seem hip and friendly. Sleek, ergonomic, and accessible, first their computers and now their iPods have gained raves and a cult following, and they have brought terms like “nano” out of geekdom and into everyday use… Now, with the opening of an architecturally audacious retail store in Manhattan, Apple has crossed another design threshold. The Apple Store Fifth Avenue has made the ultimate statement of design and product packaging by morphing the design of Apple products with the design of the building that houses them.”

“Despite its vaunted reputation as a juggernaut of American culture, McDonald’s has come to function as an ecumenical refuge for travelers of all stripes. This is not because McDonald’s creates an American sense of place and culture, but because it creates a smoothly standardized absence of place and culture — a neutral environment that allows travelers to take a psychic time-out from the din of their real surroundings. This phenomenon is roundly international.”

Will the recent philanthropic commitments by billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett lead other wealthy types to follow suit and commit a significant portion of their assets to charitable use? Time will tell, but the Gates/Buffett announcement has already inspired the richest Chinese action star in the world to folllow suit. “Jackie Chan announced Wednesday he has bequeathed half of his fortune to charity.”