Language evolves in sudden leaps, according to a statistical study of three major language groups. The finding challenges the slow-and-steady model held by many linguists and matches evidence that genetic evolution follows a similar path.
Tag: 02.01.08
On The Trail Of A Forged Biography
Robert Fisk was surprised when a friend sent him Fisk’s latest book about Saddam Hussein. There was a problem. “I never wrote this book. It wasn’t plagiarism – a common practice in Cairo, which is why I ensure that all my real books are legally published in Arabic in Lebanon. No, this wasn’t plagiarism. This was forgery.”
Russell: Planned Visitor Center Will Spoil Vietnam Memorial
Jim Russell writes that only Congress can actually stop this juggernaut. “If a planned visitor center is built, it will diminish the evocative power of Maya Lin’s great 1982 work — by trying to explain it.”
Fury At UK Culture Cuts
“Relations between the Arts Council and artists are now at rock-bottom. Even during the dark funding days of the late 80s and 90s, artists felt that they and the funders were on the same side. That is no longer the case.”
Boy Soldier/Author Defends His Memoir
Ishmael Beah, author of a best-selling memoir about his time as a boy soldier in Sierra Leone, disputes newspaper reports that he had exaggerated his war service, telling The Associated Press on Wednesday that he will “stand by” what he wrote.
Music Industry Debates New Business Models
“Let’s collect revenue for the use and sale of that content. The ISPs have a moral obligation. Their responsibility is not a luxury for the future, it’s a necessity to be implemented right now. Our talented clients deserve better than the shoddy and careless way they’ve been treated in the digital age.”
St. Louis Symphony: “We Hope We’ve Bottomed Out”
The orchestra finished its fiscal year with a $3,397,000 loss, “a little better than the $3,481,000 loss in 2006 but still a real problem. And although ticket revenue was up, the number of tickets sold was down by more than 9,000 on the core classical side, a total of 6.5 percent for the symphony’s basic business.”
Bowers Museum Puts Smugglers’ Art On Display
“The Bowers Museum, under investigation on suspicion of accepting smuggled Thai and Native American art, is displaying Chinese art on loan from collectors who in the 1990s pleaded guilty to tax evasion and smuggling art.”
Lincoln Center – Arty Even Before It Existed
“Long before President Dwight D. Eisenhower broke ground for the Lincoln Center performing arts complex in 1959, the area from Columbus Circle through the neighborhoods called Lincoln Square and San Juan Hill was already something of an arts center.”
Grow Old With Me (But Where Are The Kids?)
“Graying audiences are a problem for nonprofit arts and entertainment groups nationwide, but the problem gets magnified in Allegheny County, the second-oldest big county in the country. Whether younger people will grow into arts patrons — the kind of people who will fill seats, buy subscription plans and kick in to fund-raising campaigns — is weighing on the minds of local arts professionals.”