The Human Brain Project is “an effort to build a supercomputer simulation that integrates everything known about the human brain, from the structures of ion channels in neural cell membranes up to mechanisms behind conscious decision-making.”
Tag: 02.22.12
Foreclosing On Hollywood (Signs Of Ill Health)
“Beyond the hype that culminates in the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday, Hollywood is contracting, battered by the same economic forces reshaping the rest of the country.”
What The Hell Is Washington State Thinking, Trying To Sell Its Public Art?
“Public collections are kept in trust for the public. The thing about trusts is that you don’t go radically altering (in this case selling) the asset kept in trust. If you treat a trust as a rainy day fund, it simply ceases to exist.”
Umberto Eco: Not Only Overrated, But Also Anti-Semitic?
“Eco deliberately confuses fact and fiction. Having immersed his readers in conspiracy theories against the Jews, he then leaves them wondering whether some of these vile slanders might, after all, be true. The trouble with what his publisher calls ‘an inspired twisting of history and fiction’ is that Eco is playing with fire. This time it is not a game.”
Christo’s Colorado Project Pushed Back Yet Another Year
“At first, the project – which will drape 5.9 miles of fabric across a 42-mile stretch of the river between Salida and Parkdale for two weeks – was planned for summer 2001 ‘at the earliest.’ Then it was 2003. Then 2008. The latest plan – which followed Bureau of Land Management approval last year – was for August 2014, ‘at the earliest.’ Now it’s August 2015.”
Face It, Female Playwrights Really Do Face Sexism: Guardian Critic
Lyn Gardner: “We keep being told that women are about to storm our stages and there are certainly many more than there were 20 years ago, but the female playwright with an original main-stage play in performance is still the exception rather than the rule.”
The Real Downton Abbey And Its Real Lady Cora
Highclere Castle, the family pile stately home where the TV series is filmed, was the abode of Almina, the fifth Countess of Carnarvon, the filthy-rich bastard child goddaughter of industrialist Alfred de Rothschild.
Our Children Are Starved For Culture? Really?
“Recently published research found that 40% of British children aged five to 12 have never visited an art gallery. Claiming to have identified a “culture starved’ generation, the study also found, somewhat less dramatically, that 17% of children have never visited a museum with their parents. On closer reading, the research seems to be part of a public relations ploy to get parents to take their children to cultural venues in Britain’s second largest city.”
Is Oscar Losing Its Clout?
“We don’t even see a big bump anymore when a best picture winner hits home video. The Oscars are about ego and recognition. The spending just doesn’t stand up to any rational analysis. The culture has changed. The era when an elite institutional award could have a lot of sway with the public is pretty much at an end.”
Why Writers Work In Cafes (The Noise Helps Them Think)
“People who like to write in cafes are onto something, it seems: A moderate level of noise – the equivalent of the background buzz of conversation – prompts more creative thought, according to a study.”