Matteo Ricci (a/k/a Li Madou), who arrived in China in 1582 and died there in 1610, mastered Chinese and the Confucian classics; wrote respected and popular books; translated Euclid; made and annotated world maps; built astrolabes and sundials; and won the admiration of the empire’s entire mandarin class.
Tag: 09.28.10
Telling a Lie Makes You Want to Wash Your Mouth
“Apparently your mom had it right when she threatened to wash your mouth out with soap if you talked dirty. Lying really does create a desire to clean the ‘dirty’ body part, according to a University of Michigan study.”
Jonathan Jones: ‘How I Learned to Love Damien Hirst’
“There is nothing worse than good taste. Nothing more stultifying than an array of consumer choices paraded as a philosophy of life. And there is nothing more absurd than someone who aspires to show good taste in contemporary art.”
Indianapolis Museum Lays Off 56 Security and Gallery Officers
“The Indianapolis Museum of Art is turning to reserve police officers and college students in a new strategy to upgrade security and customer service. As part of an overhaul estimated to save $600,000 annually, the museum fired 33 full-time security officers and 23 part-time gallery attendants Monday.”
California Symphony Conductor Firing: The Plot Thickens
“The decision to terminate California Symphony founder and longtime music director Barry Jekowsky had already been made when a faction of the symphony’s board voted in executive session Sept. 21 to ratify it.” Board members say that Jekowsky’s attitude toward contract negotiations was less than cooperative.
Why Choreograph for 3D Film?
Wayne Eagling of English National Ballet: “Ballet has never worked on screen for me. It’s always looked so flat. I wanted to see if it could work any better, and this is promising. … It’s good, very lifelike, almost as if you’re watching from the front of stage.”
KenCen Creates $10K ‘Sondheim Awards’ for Outstanding Teachers
“The Kennedy Center-Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Awards will award an unspecified number of grants each year to U.S. teachers in any subject from kindergarten through college. Organizers said Sondheim is a committed mentor and credits teachers for his success.”
St. Louis Symphony Sees Jump in Attendance, Income
“In fiscal 2010, the St. Louis Symphony boosted ticket sales to the most in a decade, attracted the largest total attendance since 2002 and cut its deficit to its smallest in five years in what President and CEO Fred Bronstein describes as a major turning point in the orchestra’s history.”
How Atheists and Creationists Think Alike
“[Both] have arrived at the conclusion that accepting the science behind evolutionary theory will inevitably render Christianity extinct. As a result, one group has essentially made a religion out of naturalism, while the other has avoided serious consideration of the scientific data.”
Larry Kramer Finishes His ‘National History of Homosexuality’
“In 1980, convinced that Ronald Reagan’s references to ‘the American people’ were not intended to include gay citizens like him, Larry Kramer began writing a book called The American People, envisioned as a national history of homosexuality.” He worked on it for 30 years, and Farrar, Straus and Giroux now plans to publish the book – which it is classifying as fiction – in 2012.