Type-Casting

“Thinking of ourselves as types can help draw out facets of our personalities that we might otherwise miss or ignore. Where it often goes wrong is that people take on the types under which they are categorised as though they were deep, immutable facets of their identities.”

Deborah Voight: Looks Do Matter In Opera

The slimmed-down soprano returns to Covent Garden this week. “I’m hoping that we don’t go so far as to put microphones on soubrette sopranos and have them singing Isolde. I don’t think that would be the case. Nonetheless, I think it would be foolish to think that singers don’t have to be more concerned about their physique than in decades past.”

Canadian Publishers Agonize Over Proposed New Copyright Law

“The concerns largely relate to a potential loss of control over content as the industry increasingly becomes digitized. No one predicts anything as dire as the havoc that unauthorized downloads have played on the music industry, but the introduction of the Sony e-reader into the Canadian market last month has helped focus the conversation.”

Research Beyond Google

“Just because students walk in the door as “digital natives,” the common observation goes, doesn’t mean they’re equipped to handle the heavy lifting of digital databases and proprietary search engines that comprise the bulk of modern, online research techniques. Yet the gap between students’ research competence and what’s required of a modern college graduate can’t easily be solved without a framework that encompasses faculty members, librarians, technicians and those who study teaching methods.”