“Harvard researchers … found that processing food through cooking freed up [for early humans] literally hours each day not spent ‘feeding,’ which includes ingesting, chewing, and swallowing food. That newfound time could be spent on other pursuits, such as hunting to procure higher-quality foods, creating tools, and socializing.”
Tag: 08.22.11
David Cameron Puts A Tracey Emin Work In No. 10 Downing Street
Jonathan Jones: “This week’s unveiling of a neon artwork by Tracey Emin in 10 Downing Street looks very much like an attempt to balance the new image of Cameron the moral conservative backlash-surfer with a sop to contemporary cultural cool. For any remaining liberal supporters of the coalition, don’t despair – here’s an Emin to show how modern Cameron really is.”
Why Is ‘Theatre’ Considered A Pejorative Word In Politics?
“So why is ‘theatre’ so consistently used as a byword for ‘fakery’ by a political industry that relies so heavily on its techniques? When so many of its fundamental characteristics – drama, symbolism, stage-setting, voice, image, text, audience impact – are praised for their effectiveness, how can the theatre reclaim its proper territory, and stop being used as a term of abuse?”
Frida Kahlo’s Corsets
“Frida Kahlo wore plaster corsets for most of her life because her spine was too weak to support itself. She painted them, naturally, covering them with pasted scraps of fabric and drawings of tigers, monkeys, plumed birds, a blood-red hammer and sickle, and streetcars like the one whose handrail rammed through her body when she was eighteen years old.”
What The World Looks Like To A Bee
“When a bee flies into your garden, it doesn’t see what you and I see. Flowers leap out from much darker-looking leafy backgrounds, and they have ultraviolet-reflecting landing strips that show the way to the nectar.”
Martin Luther King Memorial Unveiled On Washington’s National Mall
“The first members of the public to see the official opening of Washington’s new $120 million memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. walked in quietly, smiling but ‘so slow it was like we were coming to see a body’.”
The National Mall: Is ‘America’s Front Yard’ Getting Too Many Lawn Ornaments?
“After years of public squabbling over how many memorials is too many, a 7-acre homage to World War II was plunked in the middle of the National Mall in 2004. Congress then declared the cherished space known as America’s Front Yard an ‘essentially finished work of art’.” (Ha.)
Uh-Oh, TV Really Is Bad For You, Says Study
“The report, published last week in The British Journal of Sports Medicine, says that every hour of television, after the age of 25, shortens the viewer’s life expectancy by 22 minutes. Adults who watch six hours a day may be cutting almost five years off their lives – almost as much as if they were lifelong smokers.”
‘YouTube Rules The Ballet World,’ Says Renowned Russian Ballet Master
Mikhail Messerer on national styles of ballet dancing: “The ballet world is ruled by YouTube, Russian performers are watching French performers and the other way around, and they take bits from each other, sometimes good and occasionally bad … everything is so mixed up now.”
Why Endowments For The Arts Don’t Solve Anything
” ‘Guaranteed’ income from an endowment makes everyone feel safer. But the truth is most organizations that create an endowment simply, and rather quickly, increase the size of their budgets by the amount of income the endowment is meant to generate annually.”