“One widely held theory suggests that a single brain region acts as a centralised timekeeper – possibly in the basal ganglia or cerebellum. However, a study now suggests that timekeeping is decentralised, with different circuits having their own timing mechanisms for each specific activity. The finding could help explain why certain brain conditions affect our sense of timing.”
Tag: 10.30.12
Vietnam Sentences Two Songwriters To Prison
“Two musicians in Vietnam whose topical songs are popular among overseas Vietnamese … Vo Minh Tri and Tran Vu Anh Binh were sentenced to four and six years in prison, respectively, on charges of spreading propaganda against the state … They faced possible sentences of up to 20 years.”
Iran Disbands Its National Symphony Orchestra For Second Time
“The Iranian national symphony orchestra has been disbanded for lack of funds, musicians said Monday … Orchestra members told the semiofficial ILNA news agency Monday that they have not rehearsed together and have not been paid for three months. … The orchestra was reactivated just last year, after a two-year break.”
Tehran Symphony, Iran’s Oldest Western Orchestra, Also Nearly Defunct
“Watching [the ensemble] from the front row in late August was Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in what was seen as an endorsement from the ruling theocracy … Just two months later, the musicians are out of work, funding has run dry and a nearly 80-year-old institution that survived wars, coups and the 1979 Islamic Revolution was declared Tuesday in an apparently irreversible ‘coma’ by media.”
Beloved Somali Poet-Playwright Gunned Down
Warsame Shire Awale, a popular poet, playwright and songwriter who was a fixture of Somali culture for three decades, was murdered by gunmen near his Mogadishu home. He had received a number of death threats following his radio plays criticizing and mocking the violent Islamist militia Al-Shabab.
Adapting China’s Great Revenge Tragedy For The RSC Stage
James Fenton: “The Orphan of Zhao, which I have been adapting for the RSC, survives in various versions, going back to what is no more than the lyrics for a set of arias whose music can only be guessed at. A play with songs, its earliest versions date back to the 13th century; the events it describes date back two millennia before that, between 800BC and 600BC.”
Enough With The Fourth Plinth Nonsense, Says UK National Gallery Director
“Nicholas Penny, the director of the National Gallery in London, has criticised the contemporary works that temporarily occupy the empty plinth in front of the gallery in Trafalgar Square as ‘antagonistic to the architectural character of the square’, turning the plinth into ‘a stage, which can be used ironically, farcically [and] inappropriately’.”
Maybe Everyone Really Is Just A Little Bit Psychic
“Scientists understandably don’t have much patience for the notion of extrasensory perception. Yet evidence persists in the psychological literature that people’s bodies sometimes unconsciously ‘predict’ unpredictable future events. These visceral responses don’t appear to be the result of sheer chance.”
How Budget Cuts Imperil UK Regional Theatre
“The jeopardy is that if we start to affect the quality of our work and we don’t live up to audience expectations, then people will stop wanting to buy tickets. That’s the real tipping point and we’re getting closer and closer to that point.”
Kurt Vonnegut Eccentric? Not If You Believe His Letters
“Vonnegut himself is a near-perfect example of the same flawed, wonderful humanity that he loved and despaired over his entire life.”