One Neuroscientist Wants To Understand Why People Who See UFOs Seem To Feel Really, Really Good

Wait, what? Instead of becoming hostile or paranoid or more like Fox Mulder, 85 percent of people who believe they’ve encountered UFOs or aliens “become more humane, experience a oneness with the world. They become less interested in organized religion, they become more spiritual, they have less interest in monetary values, and become more sensitive to the ecological welfare of our planet, among many other psychospiritual outcomes.”

The Art Market: A Partner (Witting Or Un-) In Crime

The secrecy of the seller might have to go the way of an expectation of no selfies at museums, but for better reasons: “This sort of discretion — one founded in a simpler time, when only a few wealthy collectors took part in the art market — is not only quaint but also reckless when art is traded like a commodity and increasingly suspected in money laundering.”

Arts Groups Make Battle Plans For After Trump’s Cuts

Sure, federal funding for the arts in the United States is already at a low, but it’s”much-needed money that supports community projects, new works and making the arts accessible to people in different parts of the country and to those who are not wealthy. And after years of culture-war debates in which conservatives took aim at the programs, questioning their value, arts groups are pressing the case that the federal money they receive supports organizations — and jobs — in all 50 states, both red and blue.”

Top Posts From AJBlogs For The Weekend Of 02.19.17

2017 Portland Festival Report No. 1
The Branford Marsallis Quartet and singer Kurt Elling combined in the first major concert of the 2017 Portland, Oregon PDX Jazz Festival. A packed audience in the capacious Newmark Theater heard a … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2017-02-18

The Martha Graham Dance Company’s New Visions
The Martha Graham Dance Company commissions works by Annie-B Parson, Pontus Lidberg, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Members of the Martha Graham Dance Company in Annie-B Parson’s I used to love you. (L to R): Anne … read more
AJBlog: DancebeatPublished 2017-02-18

What conservatories should do
What they should do to prepare students for classical music’s future. These are things I said in my talk at the Jacobs School at Indiana University. First, conservatories should make the future of classical music aread more
AJBlog: SandowPublished 2017-02-17

Your Mood is Understandable, but Unacceptable
I haven’t worn a Mood Ring since the late 1970’s but it’s time for that fad to return. I know, I know…  they never really worked all that well.  Regardless of how I was feeling … read more
AJBlog: Audience WantedPublished 2017-02-17

Our Cells Can Tell Left From Right, And That Actually Makes A Difference In Cancer Recovery

Each cell has a preference – a “handedness,” they call it, and that may make a difference in cell repair, in cancer, and in survival. “Ramsdell and a cadre of other developmental biologists are trying to unravel why the organisms can tell their right from left. It’s a complex process, but the key orchestrators of the handedness of life are beginning to come into clearer focus.”