“Like Malcolm Gladwell and David Brooks, Jonah Lehrer writes self-help for people who would be embarrassed to be seen reading it. For this reason, their chestnuts must be roasted in “studies” and given a scientific gloss. The surrender to brain science is particularly zeitgeisty. Their sponging off science is what gives these writers the authority that their readers impute to them, and makes their simplicities seem very weighty. Of course, Gladwell and Brooks and Lehrer rarely challenge the findings that they report, not least because they lack the expertise to make such a challenge.”
Tag: 06.07.12
Has Cultural Diversity Made Us Really Really Dumb?
“When people doll up declining linguistic standards as ‘cultural diversity’, they’re really making a virtue out of dumbness, turning illiteracy into just a variant form of literacy. It is insulting to assume that young people, especially poor young people, are incapable of mastering standard language, of conquering English and all its glorious complications, and so instead must be allowed to write ‘potatoe’ instead of ‘potato’.”
Books? What Are They? (An Open Question)
“Beyond the page, ebooks may someday transform how we read. We are used to being alone with our thoughts inside a book, but what if we could invite friends or favourite authors to join in?”
The Texas Problem (Its Influence Over America’s Textbook Selection
“In 2009, the nation watched in awe as the state board worked on approving a new science curriculum under the leadership of a chair who believed that “evolution is hooey.” In 2010, the subject was social studies and the teachers tasked with drawing up course guidelines were supposed to work in consultation with “experts” added on by the board, one of whom believed that the income tax was contrary to the word of God in the scriptures.”
What Concerns The Keepers Of Our Academic Libraries
Academic libraries are under stress, as the publishing world changes. Digitization, data collection, changing reader habits – America’s librarians have a lot to worry about…
Corning Museum Of Glass To Begin $64M Expansion
“The Corning Museum of Glass in upstate New York will undergo a $64-million expansion that will add approximately 100,000 square feet of space to its facilities. The expansion, designed by architect Thomas Phifer and Partners, is expected to be completed in 2014.”
Rosa Guy, 89, Admired Young-Adult Novelist
“[She was] known for her unflinchingly direct novels for young people about black life in urban America … She addressed subjects that had remained largely unexplored in fiction for teenagers when she began her career four decades ago.”
Virginia’s Richmond Ballet Makes Its First Foreign Tour
“From June 15 through 19, this troupe of modest size and queenly ambitions will be making the first overseas trip in its 54-year history. For performances [in greater London], the 13-member company is bringing four works created in America and new to British audiences.”
Peter Schjeldahl Changes His Mind About Klimt’s Adele
“The gold- and silver-encrusted picture … isn’t a peculiarly incoherent painting, as I had once thought. It’s not a painting at all, but a largish, flattish bauble: a thing. It is classic less of its time than of ours, by sole dint of the money sunk in it.”
First Deal On Radio Performer Royalties Doesn’t Mute Critics
“The first deal allowing a record label and its performers to be paid for AM and FM radio airplay in the US has been welcomed by the record industry. But the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said the deal between radio giant Clear Channel and the Big Machine label was not enough.”