The goal is to incorporate the African locust’s “sensory-input routing methodologies” in a car, making it smart enough to avoid hitting people. “If we could trace how the locust is able to avoid each other, maybe we could program our cars not to hit pedestrians.”
Tag: 09.18.08
History Of English In Words
English has never had its Académie Française, but over the centuries it has not lacked furious defenders against foreign “corruption”. There have been rearguard actions to preserve its “manly” pre-Norman origins, even to reconstruct it along Anglo-Saxon lines: “wheel-saddle” for bicycle, “painlore” for pathology. But the omnivorous beast is rampant still.
Study: Great Art Lessens The Pain
“Subjects rated the pain as being a third less intense while they were viewing the beautiful paintings, compared with contemplating the ugly paintings or the blank panel. Electrodes measuring the brain’s electrical activity suggested a reduced response to the pain when the subject looked at beautiful paintings.”
Hollywood Studios Face Financing Crunch
Not unlike homebuyers facing tougher standards to get a mortgage, the people who greenlight movies are facing more stringent demands from their financiers. “All of the studios, if they want to get a deal done in this environment, will need to better align their interests with investors,”
Seattle Art Museum And Its Troubled Bank Partner
“WaMu owns the top four floors and rents eight more floors in Brad Cloepfil’s 16-story museum expansion, which is next door to WaMu’s own 42-story tower. SAM occupies four floors in its new building. Eventually it will occupy 12. In the meantime, the museum is landlord to a tenant that may or may not be able to pay.”
Will Lehman’s Big Art Collection Be Liquidated?
“Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. owns about 3,500 contemporary artworks that have been displayed in the investment bank’s offices around the world, and the fate of the collection is unclear. Depending on Lehman’s bankruptcy proceedings and whether portions of its businesses are acquired, some or all of the art may be sold.”
Why Britain Isn’t Turning Out New Star Dancers
“On leaving the company, many of those homegrown dancers set up as teachers, feeding a new generation through the schools. That thread – that continuity – is now broken, and the results for British ballet have been catastrophic. A sideways glance at football tells the same story: a national skill-base weakened, possibly beyond repair, by a vast influx of foreign players.It doesn’t have to be this way.”
Detroit Institute Of Art Feels The Fiscal Pain
“Ten months after the Detroit Institute of Arts celebrated the grand opening of its $158-million renovated building and the innovative reinstallation of its permanent collection, the museum’s chronic budget shortfalls — including a $17-million loss in 2008 — have become the top priority at the institution. The DIA’s combined losses have totaled nearly $100 million in the past decade.”
Is The Russian Art World Coming of Age?
“Russia’s yachting, partying, British football club-acquiring billionaires are, as they mature, refining their tastes, learning the fine art of collecting fine art and breathing new life into a once-struggling Russian market.”
Rwandan Genocide Play May Not Make It To Rwanda
The Canadian government’s $45 million cut to federal arts funding is forcing many projects to be shelved, including an award-winning play commemorating the Rwandan genocide which was scheduled to travel to Rwanda itself in 2009.