“Between the eighth and the 13th centuries, while Europe stumbled through the dark ages, science thrived in Muslim lands.” Yet despite a centuries-long stagnation and the violently reactionary views of some radical groups, “a Muslim scientific awakening is under way. And the roots of scientific backwardness lie not with religious leaders, but with secular rulers, who are as stingy with cash as they are lavish with controls over independent thought.”
Tag: 01.26.13
Barnes Foundation To Present First Special Exhibition In Its History
“Under its ancien régime, the foundation didn’t offer special shows. It didn’t have room at its Merion gallery, but more to the point, such activities were anathema to founder Albert Barnes and his acolytes.”
Police Question Bolshoi Ballet’s Great Troublemaker Over Acid Attack
Nikolai Tsiskaridze, 39, “last year lashed out at the Bolshoi’s leadership for not giving him enough lead roles and has also been openly jockeying for the position of the theatre’s general director. … [Current] Bolshoi general director Anatoly Iksanov told Investia that while he hoped ‘Tsiskaridze would not stoop so low he was the one who created this unhealthy atmosphere at the theatre’.”
Warning: Computers Are About To Invade Our Brains
“The whole brain-implant artificial-intelligence thing that philosophers and science-fiction writers have been warning us about for decades – centuries even… is finally manifest. Not only that, it’s going to be next Christmas’s iPad – the gizmo that every self-respecting gizmo-consumer must have.”
Breaking Into Hollywood, By Breaking Bones (And Other Things)
Mixed martial arts movies – called “fightsploitation” – enter the mainstream, or at least aspire to.
Will The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra Lockout Ever End?
Faint signs point to yes – maybe.
Jane Austen, Homo Erectus (So Says Big Data)
“The new tools of discovery provide a fresh look at culture, much as the microscope gave us a closer look at the subtleties of life and the telescope opened the way to faraway galaxies.”
What Do You Do With A Former Dairy? Make It A Gallery, Of Course
“The 12,500 sq ft warehouse was the former milk depot for Express Dairies … Entry will be free and there will be a bar lounge because, in Cohen’s words, ‘we think that art should be for everyone.'”
The City Of Westminster (That Is, London) Joins The Arts Funding Carnage
The funding slash would include cutting out programs at Soho Theatre – and the English National Ballet.
Mary Jane Phillips-Matz, Biographer Of Puccini And Verdi, 86
“She conjured her subject’s life from her years of sifting through records in libraries, church registries, provincial town halls and family archives. The fruit of her labor, reviewers agreed, was a forthright portrait of a complex personality, set against the background of his renown as the composer of Rigoletto.”