“But as a simple regime-change operation in Iraq descended into a baffling counterinsurgency, it became clear that you can have the most advanced… [equipment], but without any insight into the civilian population – or at least some sense of how they’ll react to your moves – your war effort is sunk.”
Tag: 09.22.08
The Last Stand of Physical Media?
Betting that many listeners still want to buy music on some sort of physical medium, the four major labels and flash drive giant SanDisk have unveiled “slotMusic” – recordings on flash memory cards that can be slipped into MP3 players and mobile phones. (Except for Apple iPods and iPhones.)
Be Your Own Virtual Karl Rove
A new game called Political Machine Express, available as a free download, lets players run virtual versions of the Obama-Biden vs. McCain-Palin campaign. “Much of the actual political process has made the transition into the game intact: You’ll give speeches, take a stand on a candidate’s real issues and juggle the costs of running a campaign while securing enough attention and support to win.”
Dallas School District Gets Cold Feet Over PBS Documentary
The city’s art teachers were set to use a new curriculum featuring the public TV series art:21-Art in the Twenty-First Century when “some teachers and parents [became] concerned that images they consider too disturbing or sexual for the classroom may be acceptable to some art teachers.” (Among those images are Sally Mann’s photos of her naked children.)
The Nose Knows, Even When We’re Asleep
“Pleasant scents give rise to pleasant dreams, and foul smells turn fantasy to phantasmagoria: so concludes a small, unreplicated and wholly plausible study on odor and dreaming.”
Rebranding Gone Wild: London Underground Lets Artists Play with Logo
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the subway system’s famous circle-with-bar symbol, the Tube has commissioned 100 artists to design posters based on the iconic emblem.
Report Card: Congress Scores Higher On The Arts
“Support for the arts in the House of Representatives increased appreciably during the soon-to-conclude legislative session, according to Americans for the Arts, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, which released its Congressional Arts Report Card Sept. 22.”
Young Adult Writers Get Political — Together
“Attention political strategists: don’t forget to court the Young Adult (YA) writing community. Author Maureen Johnson started the social networking site YA for Obama after she realized many of her friends from the YA community supported the senator, and thought (in true YA fashion), ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we all had a place where we could write about Obama? And if we invited everyone to join?'”
So Next We Should Expect a Bollywood Hanna Mun Taana?
“A court in the Indian capital Delhi has rejected a lawsuit filed by Hollywood company Warner Bros. against the makers of a Bollywood film [titled] Hari Puttar.”
Covent Garden to Offer Don Giovanni Online
“A performance of the masterpiece, filmed at London’s Covent Garden earlier this month, will be put on the Royal Opera’s new site on 5 October… Archive material includes first night cast lists going back to 1946. The website also features trailers, interviews with artists and documentary footage.”