“John Simpson began working at OED in 1976. The young index-card-shuffling assistant” became the man who led the transformation of the dictionary from a mammoth set of heavy printed volumes to “a vast, searchable database that tells the story of human history through a constantly expanding survey of the words we use.”
Tag: 04.23.13
Crowdsourcing Canine Cognition Studies
Animal psychologist Brian Hare’ research “has been constrained by the number of dogs he can study. … He is the chief scientific officer of a new company called Dognition, which produces a Web site where people can test their dog’s cognition, learn about their pets and, Dr. Hare hopes, supply him and his colleagues with scientific data on tens of thousands of dogs.”
Jane Austen Was A Game Theorist
“In 230 diagram-heavy pages, [political scientist Michael] Chwe argues that Austen isn’t merely fodder for game-theoretical analysis, but an unacknowledged founder of the discipline itself: a kind of Empire-waisted version of the mathematician and cold war thinker John von Neumann, ruthlessly breaking down the stratagems of 18th-century social warfare.”
Is There A Better Way Of Supporting The Arts Through The Tax Code?
“A case can be made that the nonprofit sector’s lobbying on behalf of the charitable deduction has neither improved the financial stability of the sector nor created greater legislative security. At best, it has limited the declines in individual giving in recent years.”
500,000 Free Books
“The event aims to promote literacy in the ‘spirit of generosity, passion and mass participation’. Each volunteer will give out 20 copies of their favourite book to people in their community who do not read.”
Prominent Architects Oppose MoMA Expansion Plan
“The public has a substantial and legitimate interest in this decision, and the Museum of Modern Art has not yet offered a compelling justification for the cultural and environmental waste of destroying this much-admired, highly distinctive twelve-year-old building.”
“Small” Books Remaking Book Market
David “Blum is the editor of Amazon Kindle Singles, a Web service that is helping to promote a renaissance of novella-length journalism and fiction, known as e-shorts.”
Royal NZ Ballet Locked Out Of Tianjin Theater In Battle Over Lack Of Heat
“The risk of serious injury from chilly theatre conditions has forced the Royal New Zealand Ballet to cancel two shows in its tour of China. The company was then locked out of the theatre and was unable to retrieve its sets and costumes until the New Zealand embassy in Beijing intervened.”
And The Next Director Of The Edinburgh International Festival Is –
– “Fergus Linehan, 43, a former artistic director of both the Sydney Festival in Australia and the Dublin Theatre Festival … [He] will succeed Jonathan Mills, whose final festival will be next year, and will run the festival until at least 2019.”
First-Ever International Opera Awards To Kaufmann, Stemme, Pappano, Frankfurt
“Frankfurt Opera was crowned the world’s best opera company on Monday at the inaugural International Opera Awards which were set up to promote opera to a wider audience as it comes under increasing financial pressure.” Top singer awards went to soprano Nina Stemme and tenor Jonas Kaufmann; Royal Opera music director Antonio Pappano took best conductor honours.