Why does music sometimes get stuck in your head? “A team from Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, played music to volunteers while using a technique called functional magnetic resonance imagery to scan their brains. As the music was played, parts of the tune were cut. Researchers found volunteers mentally filled in the blanks if a familiar song was missing snippets, although the same effect was not seen with unfamiliar tunes. The brain activity was picked up by the scan and found to be centred in the auditory cortex.”
Tag: 03.10.05
The Customer As Inventor
“How does innovation happen? The familiar story involves boffins in academic institutes and R&D labs. But lately, corporate practice has begun to challenge this old-fashioned notion. Open-source software development is already well-known. Less so is the fact that Bell, an American bicycle-helmet maker, has collected hundreds of ideas for new products from its customers, and is putting several of them into production. Or that Electronic Arts (EA), a maker of computer games, ships programming tools to its customers, posts their modifications online and works their creations into new games. And so on. Not only is the customer king: now he is market-research head, R&D chief and product-development manager, too.”
NY To Change Child Performer Rules?
The New York legislature is considering a bill to change the child performer laws. “The current New York law lists the educational requirements for child performers and also mandates a trust fund to protect 15% of the child’s income. It also provides a method by which producers can file that money with the state Child Performer’s Holding Fund if the performer’s parents or guardians don’t establish a trust.”
BBC Cuts
The BBC is undergoing significant cutbacks. “The changes to the BBC’s professional services divisions will result in the loss of 980 jobs through a combination of redundancy and staff turnover. A further 750 posts will be outsourced, resulting in 1,730 job losses in total – a 46% reduction in headcount. Overall cost savings across the BBC are expected to reach £355m – £35m more than the original £320m target.”
Arab Star Decries Western Radio Censorship
Algerian musician Rachid Taha says there’s more censorship in Western radio than in the Middle East. “Censorship is actually stronger in the West. Western leaders lead us to believe we are free to express our views – when actually we’re not. Radio stations have become like dinosaurs,” said the star, who sings in Arabic and French.
Report: UK Libraries Need Major Help
A new government report says UK public libraries are in dreadful shape and need major lottery funding. “The report by the Commons select committee on culture, media and sport indicts 50% of library services as “persistently below standard” after decades of underfunding – an explanation for steadily falling book loans and visitor numbers over the past 15 years. The committee cites estimates that between a quarter and more than two-thirds of a billion pounds would be needed to wipe out the backlog of building repairs and refurbishments.”
Is Shanghai The New Paris?
“China’s commercial capital is starting to take on the chic of Paris, the sophistication of New York and the futuristic vibes of Tokyo. It already boasts the world’s fastest train (the Maglev that takes eight minutes to run the 30 km from Pudong airport into the city), the longest underwater pedestrian tunnel (under the Huangpu river) and the world’s tallest hotel—the 88-storey Grand Hyatt, complete with the world’s highest swimming pool and longest laundry chute. Most interesting, it has Xintiandi, a two-hectare (nine-acre) complex of hip restaurants, bars and shops in an open, elegant, low-rise style that cost $170m to develop and is one of the first examples of China preserving its own architecture.”
A Concert Hall With Its Own Recording Label
London’s Wigmore Hall is “launching its own record label. In what is clearly becoming a significant industry trend it joins the likes of ensembles such as the London Symphony Orchestra and the Hallé, and artists as diverse as Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Michael Nyman, in taking recording work in-house. Uniquely, though, it is probably the first venue to take the step.”
Building A Better Case…
Arts advocates have been touting the arts’ economic benefits in making their case for the arts. But a new RAND study wonders if arguments for the arts shouldn’t bebroadened…
Major Prize For Author Who Can’t Read
“Writer Howard Engel, who has serialized soft-boiled Jewish-Canadian gumshoe Benny Cooperman in 10 mystery novels, took home the top prize last night when [Canada’s] Writers Trust handed out its annual awards… The white-haired author, 74, won the $20,000 Matt Cohen award ‘in celebration of the writing life’ for the body of his work, though the judges’ citation made it clear the prize was also given for the gallant way Engel has faced a difficult personal situation. A widower raising a teenage son, he suffered a stroke four years ago in the occipital lobe of his brain that deprived him of the ability to read, though he is still able to write.”