Just What does the infamous SAT test measure? “Just before the SAT undergoes another of its periodic transformations — a new version of the exam, referred to as the ‘New SAT,’ will be unveiled next spring and will include, for the first time, a writing portion — a study published in the June issue of the journal Psychological Science claims to prove that the current SAT is, in the end, an IQ test.”
Category: ideas
Ready For My Close-up? Awww, Forget It!
The new generation of movies has abandoned the close-up. “This trend towards wide shots is in part explained by the landmark technological changes which cinema is undergoing. Those who doubt that the digital revolution is significant should consider the fact that the two previous occasions on which film “went wide” and turned to stories set in classical times were the 1950s – after the switch to the various widescreen processes such as CinemaScope – and the very first decades of filmmaking, when audiences were still agog and directors such as Cecil B DeMille presented frieze-like tableaux of classical excess. Both were formative moments, and so is the present one. In each of these three periods, producers and directors who were faced with a new technology fell back on primitive, likeable, pre-cinematic ideas of showmanship.”
Claim The Slur, Or Bury It?
A new documentary purports to examine one of the most delicate debates in American race relations: who, if anyone, should be able to say the word “nigger,” and what do the various taboos surrounding the word tell us about our society? “To some degree the filmmakers are using the debate over language as an emblem for a host of uncomfortable racial issues that are pushed to the side, in Hollywood as in other parts of American society.”
Here’s A Good Idea – Music Reviews For Dummies?
National Public Radio ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin has a problem with NPR’s music reviews. “NPR regularly reviews new music. This is good, since it takes NPR listeners out of what is familiar and exposes them to what is happening in other parts of the culture. problem, according to some listeners, is that NPR’s reviews are too hip to be good journalism. In short, some musical commentary, especially on All Things Consdered, is incomprehensible to some listeners, and I confess, to me.”
A Link Between TV and Puberty?
Though there’s still no definitive link between watching TV and an increase of violence, there may be one between TV-watching and puberty. “Girls are reaching puberty much earlier than in the 1950s. One reason is due to their average increase in weight; but another may be due to reduced levels of melatonin. Scientists at the University of Florence in Italy found that when youngsters were deprived of their TV sets, computers and video games, their melatonin production increased by an average 30 per cent.
The Secret Of London’s Success (Hear That US?)
London has become one of the great world cities just a decade or so after pundits were predicting her decline. What’s the evidence? “An amalgam of the world language, an open culture, two of the world’s top 10 universities and a vibrant cultural and intellectual life. Example: Britain now publishes more book titles than any other country. Further example: there are more Chinese students in the UK than in any other country, again more than the US. Of course, this is a UK phenomenon but it is one that is skewed disproportionately to the South-east.”
Is London’s Success Harming The Rest Of UK?
Yes, London has become a powerhouse. But is it to the detriment of the rest of England? “In the last decade, the island of Britain has become split effectively into two provinces: the megalopolis of London, and everywhere else. The seeds of this north-south divide go a long way back, but the final transformation of the British Isles into an appendage of Greater London has really taken place since the start of the 1990s.”
In Praise Of “Difficult” Art
“Life in the cultural universe of the difficult tribe could be bleak – yet perhaps this is a time to revive those debates, for the silencing of such severe examinations of value has occurred in step with the closing down of cultural spaces wherein complexity or difficulty might thrive. The enemy of complexity has always been the commodity – the work of art reduced to mere gratification.”
The New Criticism (Or Not)
“Critics today, it is claimed, are too cozy behind the ivied walls of academe, content to employ a prose style that is decipherable only to a handful of the cognoscenti. The deadly dive of university critics into the shallow depths of popular culture, moreover, reveals the unwillingness of these critics to uphold standards. Even if the reasons offered are contradictory, these Jeremiahs huddle around their sad conclusion that serious cultural criticism has fallen into a morass of petty bickering and bloated reputations. Such narratives of declension, a staple of American intellectual life since the time of the Puritans, are misplaced, self-serving, and historically inaccurate. And difficult to prove. Has the level of criticism declined in the last 50 years?”
Erring On The Side Of No Progress?
The ‘precautionary principle’ is the idea that “scientists, medical researchers, technologists and just about everybody else these days should err on the side of caution lest they cause harm to human health or the environment.” But one of Britain’s leading medical experts says the principle inhibits knowledge. “He wonders whether, if the precautionary principle had been about for the past 200 years rather than the past 20, breakthroughs such as blood transfusions would ever have been made.”