“[E]veryday life is based on ‘basic’ beliefs for which we have no good arguments. There are, for example, no more basic truths from which we can prove that the past is often a good guide to the future, that our memories are reliable, or that other people have a conscious inner life. Such beliefs simply – and quite properly – arise from our experience in the world.”
Tag: 08.01.10
New York’s Indie Bookstores Hang On (Some Even Make Money)
“New York’s independent bookshops were supposed to be long gone by now. After a decade of slow financial strangulation at the hands of the big-box stores, the web, the Kindle, and, finally, the recession, the fact that there are still Strands and McNally Jacksons standing seems positively miraculous.”
Jerry Saltz’s Favorite Paintings in New York
“Summer is a great time to visit art museums, which offer the refreshing rinse of swimming pools – only instead of cool water, you immerse yourself in art. … Think of me as your Sister Wendy in swimming trunks.”
The Observer Picks the World’s Ten Greatest Dancers
Luke Jennings’s list includes the expected (Astaire, Pavlova, Nijinsky), the current (Acosta, Cojocaru), and the surprising (Josephine Baker, Michael Clark). Among the missing: Baryshnikov, Nureyev, Savion Glover, Ginger Rogers, and pretty much the entire world of modern dance. Let the arguing begin …
At Edinburgh’s Fringe, Cabaret and Burlesque Move In on Standup Comedy’s Turf
“The downbeat look is out; sequins and red lipstick are very much in. For while it may be true that standup comedy is still king of the fringe, sophisticated cabaret and its brash theatrical sister, variety, will be giving comics a run for their money this month.”
Bollywood’s Bin Laden Satire Is a Hit
“Tere Bin Laden (‘Without You Laden’) has grossed more than $2m in India, despite having a first-time director and initially only being shown on 344 screens. … The film recouped its budget in India alone and has made a further £200,000 in the UK, Middle East and Australia, despite limited releases.”
Can We Please Just Start High School Half an Hour Later, OK? The Scientists Say So
“A pilot study at a small private high school in Providence, R.I., has confirmed the well-documented benefits of a half-hour delay in the school start time for teens, an easy fix for the chronic and rampantly ignored sleepiness of adolescents.”
Fifth Time Around, Restoration Of Eakins Masterpiece Gets It Right
“The fifth such intervention, just completed, not only restored the masterpiece to something close to how it looked when it left the artist’s studio, it also proved that Weil’s aphorism isn’t absolute. History might have been compromised years ago, but to a large extent it has been revived in one of America’s greatest paintings.”
A Call To Scrap BBC License Fee
“The growing use of the internet for viewing has made licensing TV sets outdated, according to right-wing think tank the Adam Smith Institute. The BBC’s current TV services could still exist with more flexible methods of funding, its report adds.”
Data, Data Everywhere (But How To Keep Up?)
“The volume of data on the world’s mobile networks is doubling each year, according to Cisco Systems, the U.S. maker of routers and networking equipment. By 2014, it estimates, the monthly data flow will increase about sixteenfold, to 3.6 billion gigabytes from 220.1 million.”