“Once you’ve built a plug-and-play brain, anything is possible. You could take it apart to figure out the causes of brain diseases. You could rig it to robotics and develop a whole new range of intelligent technologies. You could strap on a pair of virtual reality glasses and experience a brain other than your own.”
Tag: 05.14.13
Patti Smith To Young Artists: Don’t Come To New York
“New York has closed itself off to the young and the struggling. But there are other cities. Detroit. Poughkeepsie… New York City has been taken away from you… So my advice is: Find a new city.”
Amazon Sees Its First-Ever Strike, In Germany
“Employees at two huge distribution warehouses, in Bad Hersfeld and Leipzig, launched the one-day strike, the giant services sector union Ver.di said. Ver.di is demanding that Amazon’s 9,000 workers in Germany be paid according to a wage deal in place for the retail and mail-order industries.”
Mayan Pyramid Demolished For Road Gravel
“A construction company has essentially destroyed one of Belize’s largest Mayan pyramids with backhoes and bulldozers to extract crushed rock for a road-building project, authorities announced on Monday.”
Mies Julie Director Takes On Delhi Gang Rape
Yael Farber, who adapted Strindberg’s mistress/servant drama into a powerful piece about post-apartheid South Africa, is leading an all-Indian cast in developing Nirbhaya, a new theatre piece inspired by the rape and fatal beating of a 23-year-old student by six men on a bus in Delhi last December.
Why Rituals Are Ubiquitous: They Work
“Recent research suggests that rituals may be more rational than they appear. Why? Because even simple rituals can be extremely effective. … What’s more, rituals appear to benefit even people who claim not to believe that rituals work.”
Planning A National Museum For Palestine
Jack Persekian, director of the new institution, to open in Birzeit in late 2014: “The Palestinian Museum is a political symbol only in so far that it celebrates the accomplishments of the Palestinian people in arts and culture, and that it affirms the presence of Palestinians as a people who have agency, who are productive, who shape their own histories.”
Researchers: Women Are Disappearing From Hollywood Movies
“Despite the success of recent female-driven movies such as “Bridesmaids” and the “Hunger Games” and “Twilight” series, female representation in popular movies is at its lowest level in five years, according to a study being released Monday by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.”
Director Of Canceled Tannhauser Defends His Production
“In Wagner’s opera, the mortal Tannhäuser sins by loving the goddess Venus. Today the story can no longer be told as a scandal that leads to expulsion from society. I’m interested in the great archaic theme of guilt. Why then shouldn’t Tannhäuser be made into a perpetrator, into a war criminal? In my staging Tannhäuser is forced by members of the Wehrmacht to shoot a family. The production deals with individual guilt under National Socialism and during the development of the Federal Republic of Germany.”
Growing Divide Between Arts Donating In London And Out Of London
“Philanthropic giving to theatres, galleries and other arts and heritage organisations rose 10% in London between 2011 and 2012. But donations elsewhere fell 3.5%, said Arts & Business, a charity that seeks to connect arts bodies with donors.”