“In an ironic twist of history, more than half a century later grand and baby grand pianos from the same factory in a Tallinn suburb have become a huge success on the US market and are catching on in Asia too.”
Tag: 04.14.09
Mapping Political Moralities: The Disagreements Are Real
“Liberals and conservatives, [University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt] insists, inhabit different moral universes. There is some overlap in belief systems, but huge differences in emphasis. In a creative attempt to move beyond red-state/blue-state clichés, Haidt has created a framework that codifies mankind’s multiplicity of moralities.”
Finding Real-Life Love In A Virtual World
“Technologies like Second Life are allowing us to rethink what being ‘together’ really means. They’re inverting our laws of attraction, thrusting us into a zone where desire can be more abstract than pure physical lust, and where intimacy begins not with a partner’s touch, but with the things that usually come much later – the emotional candor that can take years to achieve.”
The Top Ten Novels Of Brotherly Love
Novelist James Runcie: “You can’t beat it as a subject: submerged emotions, intense rivalries, unrealistic expectations, differing levels of secrecy, betrayals both major and minor, and the genetic identity we can never escape. And if you then factor in the male ego, and tell a story of brotherly love and resentment then surely you can’t go too far wrong?” (Yes, The Brothers K is no. 1.)
Florence, Birthplace Of High Finance
“Banking developed in Florence because of the ingenious development of bills of exchange, first as a way of paying debts without having to transport cash, then as a means of evading the church’s usury laws, and finally as a means of extending credit.”
Egyptians Used Herbed Wine As Medicine
“A spoonful of sugar may help the medicine to go down, but wine worked even better for the ancient Egyptians, who used to doctor their alcoholic beverages with medicinal herbs and other ingredients, according to a new study.”
Nevada Ballet Theatre Ends Soloist/Corps System (And 12 Dancers’ Jobs)
New artistic director James Canfield “is doing away with the previous regime’s hierarchically tiered model, deleting titles of principal, soloist and corps de ballet. In other words, there are no more stars. Every dancer is on equal footing.”
Pliés And Paella
Choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh’s new work Just Add Water? “explores not only the global ethnic mix that makes up modern Britain, but the cuisine that results from it.”
Da Vinci Portrait Discovered In Stained Glass
“A new, vividly colored portrait of Leonardo da Vinci has emerged from the windows of Arezzo’s Cathedral in Tuscany, Italy, claims an Italian scholar who has published the finding in a new book, The Portraits of Leonardo.“
Child-Porn Charge For Longtime Children’s Theatre Staffer
“An employee of Seattle Children’s Theatre was arrested early Tuesday at his home in Seattle’s Columbia City neighborhood and charged with possession of child pornography. … A statement from the theater said the man had been placed on administrative leave and that no theater children were involved.”