“Birds may be bilingual, trilingual or better, suggest new findings that birds in the wild can learn the vocalizations of other species. The discovery not only proves that birds eavesdrop on what other birds are saying, but it also provides some of the strongest evidence to date that birds can learn ‘foreign’ calls, as opposed to just confusing similar sounds with their own.”
Tag: 11.12.08
Protests Over Giant Ads In Venice’s St. Mark’s Square
“Plakativ is paying E3.5m to restore the Correr Museum side of the Square in exchange for a 240-sq. m advertising space (half the size of an Olympic swimming pool) on the scaffolding of the façade. Near the bell tower there will shortly be a 60,000 sq. m ad, which has already been let out, and for which the asking price was E165,000 a month.”
Sunset Boulevard To Return To West End
The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, once a big Broadway-style extravaganza, is coming to London in an admired small-scale production from the Watermill Theatre in West Berkshire, where it completely sold out.
It’s Not Just Newspaper Journalists In Trouble Anymore
“Sorry, news anchors – you might soon have to share your job with avatars. A virtual news technology is turning heads by quickly creating news stories and commentary, no humans required… News At Seven (newsatseven.com) is an automated system combining 3-D avatars, images, video, opinion and generated speech. The website collects news stories from the Web, edits them automatically and formats the content for artificial anchors.”
V&A’s Medieval and Renaissance Wing To Open In 2009
“The Victoria & Albert museum in London will open its £30 million Medieval and Renaissance galleries as planned next year, its director has announced. Ten galleries, occupying an entire wing of the South Kensington landmark, will open in November 2009, said Mark Jones.”
Some Foundation Officials Keep Their Eyes Off Asset Levels
For now, that is. “Why officials are willing to avoid obsessive worrying can be attributed to the way formal grantmaking is calculated. Though assets and endowments determine the level of giving, endowment size is generally determined by taking a multiyear average. Such averaging – which is based on an endowment’s market value on a specific date, such as the end of the third or fourth fiscal quarter – tends to ‘smooth out’ market highs and lows….”
Social Networking Could Be TV’s Next Big Thing
“As television audiences migrate online, media companies are eyeing social networking as a possible killer app for hooking viewers through their laptops. From simple chat rooms to unique games, the race is on to develop content that complements traditional shows — the more creative and addictive the better.”
All Grown Up, Can The Kids Who Loved Kotter Save TV?
“It’s never good news to discover that your generation, broadly speaking, is in charge of things. … But it’s nice, sort of, that the people tasked with putting stuff on TV at least remember what it was like to love it, to love Bosley, to love Squiggy, to love Les Nessman, to know who Skippy and Mallory are. If you’re going to fix something, it helps to love it first.”
Dancing About Architecture, Sort Of
“But choreographer Tere O’Connor, 50, who also calls himself ‘an advanced architectural hobbyist,’ sees plenty of connections between the two [disciplines].” His piece Rammed Earth, named after an ancient building technique, makes “conceptual links between solid and moving architecture.”
Michael Kaiser To The Rescue Once Again
Faced with money troubles, a nearly dark season and the departure of artistic director-designate Gérard Mortier, New York City Opera is turning for help to “the performing arts world’s Mr. Fix-It,” Kennedy Center CEO Michael Kaiser, who has famously presided over turnarounds at Covent Garden and American Ballet Theater and helped steady Miami’s teetering Adrienne Arsht Center.