“A baby giraffe can stand within an hour of birth, and can even potentially flee predators on its first day of life. A monkey can grasp its mother and hang on for protection and nourishment. A human infant can’t even hold up its own head. … Humans are born quite helpless, far more so than any other primate, but, fairly early on, we start becoming quite smart, again far more so than any other primate. What if this weren’t a contradiction so much as a causal pathway?”
Tag: 09.07.16
‘I Think We Should Approach The Operas With More Humility Than That’ – David McVicar On Regieoper
“The debate about production style – a lot of time audiences are unhappy about production style – and I am too when I see some work, particularly in Germany, because what I’m detecting is a director saying, ‘I have to make my mark with this piece. I have to do something that will never be forgotten.’ And I think that’s such a dull way of proceeding because I think we should approach the operas with more humility than that. All of us.”
How Do You Explain Color To Someone Who’s Always Been Blind?
“It’s a challenge that renders all the normal visual frames of reference completely useless – you can’t say that green is the color of grass, or blue is the color of water, because they haven’t seen those things. But they have felt them.”
Is Writing Just A Technology, Or Is It A Different Language From Speech?
“Arrival, the forthcoming sci-fi drama, is that rare bird: a Hollywood film featuring a linguist as the main character.” With that as a (quite relevant, as it turns out) jumping-off point, linguist Chi Luu argues that writing is far more separate from speech than most of us realize – and that the linguistic problem at the heart of this new movie (yes, there are spoilers) is just a logical extension of that difference.
Turkish Government Shuts Down Archaeological Work At Ephesus
“Turkey’s crackdown on dissent has spread to the field of archaeology, with a dig at the ancient site of Ephesus in western Turkey suspended because of a political dispute with Austria. The project, run by the Austrian Archaeological Institute, was forced by the Turkish government to stop work at the end of August, despite two more months of planned conservation at the site.”
What We’ve Learned From Studying Generations Of Gifted Kids
“As the longest-running current longitudinal survey of intellectually talented children, SMPY has for 45 years tracked the careers and accomplishments of some 5,000 individuals, many of whom have gone on to become high-achieving scientists. The study’s ever-growing data set has generated more than 400 papers and several books, and provided key insights into how to spot and develop talent in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and beyond.”
FTC Cracks Down On Brain-Training Site Lumosity
“The privately held company, based in San Francisco, has drawn in 70 million people over the past decade to play games that challenge users to remember sequences of brightly colored animations, or to ignore visual distractions and click only on certain objects. The FTC charged that Lumosity oversold the benefits of the games.”
Oldest Surviving Manuscript From Americas, Long Questioned, Is Declared Genuine
“The Grolier Codex, an ancient document that is among the rarest books in the world, has been regarded with skepticism since it was reportedly unearthed by looters from a cave in Chiapas, Mexico, in the 1960s. But a new study yields a startling conclusion: The codex is both genuine and likely the most ancient of all surviving manuscripts from ancient America.”
What The Smithsonian’s African-American Museum Means For African-American Washington, D.C.
“‘All cultures need places where their things can land and be celebrated,’ [Theaster] Gates says. ‘For D.C., locals now have the bragging rights of having a home for reflection on black lives and black trauma. They get to share this amazing museum with the world.'”
Digital Archives From The Hammer Museum Are Another ‘Game Changer’
“The project goes beyond just creating a bells-and-whistles exhibition website. The archive features important essays generated by the show, links to outside coverage, as well as documentation, photography and other research material.”