“Almost a century ago, a fad for sleep-learning swept the industrialised world, ending only after neuroscientists determined it was physiologically impossible. Yet today, a growing body of research suggests they were wrong. Sleep-learning appears to be heading for a revival, on a far more solid scientific basis than its earlier incarnation.”
Tag: 10.02.15
Margaret Atwood On Her New Book, And A Lot More
“You can’t face this alternative, so let’s pretend it’s not there. You can’t face global warming, so let’s pretend it’s not there. We know that Santa Claus is really our parents, but we don’t want to look at that too closely. People do that all the time. We know Stephen Harper is a dictator in the making, but he’s convinced some people that they’re going to be financially better off under him, which is untrue.”
James Levine Steps Down From Conducting New Opera ‘Lulu’ At The Met
“The announcement did not directly address Mr. Levine’s history of health problems, but said that ‘faced with the demands of rehearsing and performing two large-scale operas simultaneously this fall,’ he would concentrate his energies on Wagner’s ‘Tannhäuser,’ which opens on Oct. 8. The overlapping runs of two of Mr. Levine’s favorite operas were to have been a highlight of the Met’s 2015-16 season.”
Selling A Norman Rockwell To Fund Journalism
“”We are able to expand our mission and do even more for the profession of journalism and press freedom,’ he said. ‘That’s a great legacy for Norman Rockwell.'”
Workers At London’s National Gallery Come To An Agreement, End Strike
“Union members had been on strike for more than 100 days in protest against plans to switch visitor services to a private company. PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said he still opposed privatisation, but had been unable to prevent it.”
It’s OK – Even Vital – To Be A Film Snob
“I look up in admiration at models of artistic perfection, sound judgment and noble achievement, and I look down on what I take to be the stupid, cheap and cynical aspects of public discourse. … If the words nerd and geek can be rehabilitated — if legions of misunderstood enthusiasts can march from the margins of respectability to the heart of the mainstream — then why not snob as well?”
The Future Of Landscape Design
“Over the past decade, Hayes, 56, has become known for her blown-glass terrariums: biomorphic bubbles that house miniature ecosystems of ferns, bonsai, crystals and flowering plants. In creating them, Hayes reinvented a Victorian concept—the portable greenhouse—by giving it a curvy shape and a pristinely futuristic aesthetic.”
Amazon Won’t Sell Chromecast Or Apple TV Anymore – And That’s Important
“On its face, it’s insane that the biggest e-retailer in the world, looking at the stunningly lucrative consumer electronics market, would stop selling some of its biggest sellers. As of this writing, Google Chromecast was the sixth-best seller in Amazon’s US electronics store, and Apple TV was 14th — two of just a handful of non-Amazon products at the top of the list. What is the endgame here?”
So Hollywood Is Politically Liberal? Not So Fast
The film and television industry is far from an Edenic paradise of equality where diversity reigns supreme, Ruby Rose plays the harpsichord, and Shonda Rhimes lectures biracial hunks on the perils of toxic masculinity. In fact—and someone should probably give Breitbart a heads up on this one—Hollywood is as amorally capitalistic and irritatingly anachronistic as America itself.
Grand Rapids Ballet – How To (Re)Build A Dance Company
Patricia Barker has been “instrumental in preventing the regional company, which is Michigan’s only professional ballet company, from shutting its doors. And, under her direction, both the size of the company and the breadth of the works it performs have grown.”