Tag: 08.02.05

Study: Male Voice Vs. Female Voice

The brain processes male and female voices differently, says a new study. “The research explains why most of us hear female voices more clearly, as well as that we form mental images of people based only on the sound of their voices. The findings, published in the current journal NeuroImage, also might give insight into why many men tire of hearing women speak: the “complexity” of female voices requires a lot of brain activity.”

Groups Protest Satellite Radio In Canada

A group of Quebec arts and culture groups has filed a complaint over the decision by the CRTC to allow satellite radio into Canada. “The group says that the decision violates Canadian broadcasting policy. According to a press release, it believes “the CRTC has made a grave error in judgment that threatens the foundations of the broadcasting system in Canada – the very system that the CRTC should be protecting.”

Art Of The Interview

The secret to giving (and getting) a good interview? “As much as the interviewer must ask questions or provide discussion points that inspire or intrigue his or her subject, it is the subject’s job to be open and generous enough for an original and unpredictable conversation. It’s pretty obvious what an interviewer can do to screw up an interview—fail to read the book (or be unable to fake it), ask questions directly from the press materials, rely on a prepared list of topics and refuse to let a conversation take its natural course. But are there things that an interviewee can do to make sure that an interview goes smoothly, or dreadfully?”

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Dumps Live Music For Recordings

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, struggling to cut costs, has decided to ditch live music and use recordings, to save $500,000 this fall. “This isn’t something we like to do. You want to have a ballet company in Pittsburgh? This is what needs to be done. Just because you’re an arts organization doesn’t mean you can’t make a business decision. You have to live within your means.”

California Investigates Getty

The State of California has opened an investigation into the running of the Getty Trust. “The attorney general has requested eight years of records relating to trust Chief Executive Barry Munitz’s compensation and expenses, as well as expenditures made for his wife, grants, gifts to trustees and a 2002 real estate transaction. State regulators also have asked for documents connected to criminal charges pending in Italy against Marion True, the Getty’s curator for antiquities, for allegedly conspiring to purchase looted artifacts.”

Kennedy Center Puts Off Plaza Plan

After the US Congress failed to fund it, the Kennedy Center is postponing indefinitely plans for a huge $400 million plaza in front of the center. “The plaza would have laid a broad covering over the Potomac Freeway and included paths for pedestrians and bikers leading back to the Mall. A signature element was a cascading fountain stretching four blocks toward 23rd Street NW. The project was expected to take 10 years to complete.” The project isn’t dead, say Kennedy Center officials, but “under normal highway funding procedures, the money could not be appropriated before 2009.”

Orwell Home To Be Saved

The home in the little town in India where George Orwell was born in 1903 is to be restored. “More than a century after Orwell’s birth, his first home – a crumbling, one-storey building near the abandoned indigo warehouse where his father worked – is home to a local English teacher. Now plans are afoot to build a museum and a stadium and put up a statue of the writer in the 10-acre area in Telliapatti.”