Many copies of the letter were made, and two differing versions exist — one that was sent to the Inquisition in Rome and another with less inflammatory language. But because the original letter was assumed to be lost, it wasn’t clear whether incensed clergymen had doctored the letter to strengthen their case for heresy — something Galileo complained about to friends — or whether Galileo wrote the strong version, then decided to soften his own words.
Tag: 09.21.18
The Museum Where You Can Hold A Human Brain In Your Hands
A visit to the Brain Museum at India’s National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore, where guests can see and touch whole brains, slices of brain, healthy brains, and brains with all manner of pathologies. (One is full of holes made by a tapeworm.) Writes Maya Prabhu, “I feel like I’m in some kind of eccentric petting zoo.”
Has Arts Council England Misunderstood Cultural Democracy?
Many experts on cultural democracy have suggested that the Arts Council has misunderstood the idea. Community arts specialist François Matarasso made a distinction between the democratisation of culture and cultural democracy. He told AP that the former is a policy – “an initiative as a cultural organisation or as a national body to promote access to culture”. By contrast, he said cultural democracy “is a process, not a state, like democracy itself, in which we negotiate what we believe to be valuable. I don’t think it’s something that you can achieve through policy or initiatives at a national level or at an institutional level.”
Berlin Cancels Artist’s Recreation Of The Wall
Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s immersive installation DAU, scheduled to open on October 12 as part of the Berliner Festspiele, was to include a mini-East Berlin, complete with a checkpoint requiring papers, bounded by a replica of part of the barrier that once divided East and West Berlin. The city government says that it has refused permission for the project because there’s not enough time to build it safely, but many locals argue that they’ve had quite enough of walls, thank you.
Does The Perfect Sentence Exist?
What can celebrated writers teach the rest of us about the art of writing a great sentence? A common piece of writing advice is to make your sentences plain, unadorned and invisible. George Orwell gave this piece of advice its epigram: “Good prose is like a windowpane.” A reader should notice the words no more than someone looking through glass notices the glass. Except that you do notice the glass.
Why Are Books Getting Longer?
One book survey found that the average number of pages had increased from 320 to 400 pages between 1999 and 2014. Some think that the shift to digital formats has contributed, not least in removing the fear of being crushed beneath your duvet by your bedtime reading. Val McDermid, another of the judges, cited the inexperience of editors; commercial pressures which deny them the time they need to spend on books; and the unwillingness of writers to listen.
Minority Report: The People Who Don’t Like “Hamilton”
“I am not at all shy about how much personally I love it as a show. But for me, understanding what’s problematic about it helps me appreciate it more and helps me understand more what is possible.”
Remembering The Cultural Pied Piper Of Detroit
David DiChiera belongs on the Mount Rushmore of contemporary Detroit. With his beloved city at its nadir in the 1970s and ’80s, he dared to imagine a future that was audaciously optimistic and inextricably linked to the arts and downtown Detroit. He promised to build an opera house and a major opera company from scratch in a city better known for producing Chevys than “Carmens.” Most people thought he was nuts. But then he accomplished everything he said he would do.
Is The First 100-Year-Old Human Alive Now?
Rather than potentially wiping out humanity, as some high profile futurists like Elon Musk have warned is a possibility, A.I. could increase our lifespan tenfold.
How Does It Work For An Author Take On A Dead Author’s Beloved Characters And Series?
First, the author’s heirs have to want that – and they have to pick the new author carefully. (Often they do want it because, well, money.) One author got good advice from a friend: “He said, ‘Reed, I’m a huge Elvis fan and I’ve seen the greatest Elvis impersonators in the world. And sadly, there’s two things they cannot escape. First, no matter how good their act, I always know it’s not really Elvis. Second, they can never do anything new.'”