“The human mind is not adapted to solve rarified problems of logic, but is quite refined and powerful when it comes to dealing with matters of cheating and deception. In short, our rationality is bounded by what our brains were constructed – that is, evolved – to do.”
Tag: 11.03.03
Florida Public Radio Station Attacked Over Dropping Music
South Florida public radio station WLRN recently replaced some music programming with news from the BBC, prompting charges of racism from some listeners. “It has also raised questions about whether the publicly licensed station’s programming should be aimed at drawing in the largest number of listeners, the goal of commercial stations, or serving smaller fragments of South Florida’s ethnic and cultural mosaic.”
Miami Performing Arts Center Delayed And Over Budget
Miami’s new $344 million performing arts center has been beset by delays and cost overruns. “Center officials recently moved the expected opening date to early 2006, over 16 months behind what was originally hoped for. Meanwhile, cost overruns that accrue from design changes, material shortages or flawed work will eventually have to be covered by someone — either the county or the contractors.”
Disney – The West Rises Up?
LA’s Disney Hall is a great accomplishment, sure. And a good place to hear music, writes Joshua Kosman. “But it’s also a great roar of regional pride, a sweeping claim for the importance of the arts in a city and state long derided as philistine. It promises to strike a powerful blow – perhaps even, at long last, the fatal one – against the cultural mythology that says America’s musical life begins on the East Coast and peters out somewhere around the Mississippi River.”
Chunnel Project Yields Major Archaeological Finds
Important archaeological finds were made all along the route of the high speed trains for the Chunnel between England and France. “Hundreds of archaeologists, working over a period of 15 years, have salvaged vast stores of finds from the path of the 185mph trains, as well as recording scores of sites which will remain safe but buried beneath the tracks. One long string of pearls seems to be everyone’s favourite description.”
Versailles To Get A Restoration; Will Take 20 Years
The Palace of Versailles is to be given a €400 million restoration that will take 20 years. “The Sun King’s 700-room palace and 800-hectare (2,000-acre) garden are to be given a long-overdue facelift aimed at restoring their lost sparkle – recapturing their architectural purity and rendering them safe for the 10 million people who visit each year. This is the first big restoration programme for Versailles since the early 1800s, and the biggest such undertaking in France since the remodelling of the Louvre in the late 1900s.”
Britten Sculpture Condemned as “Eyesore”
A scuplture commemorating composer Benjamin Britten in his beloved town of Aldeburgh has provoked protests, with many townsfolk calling it an eyesore. “The eyesore is a glorious thing, four tonnes of steel cut and shaped into giant scallop shells, which will rear up from the beach. From the shore the cut-out letters against the sky will read as a line from Peter Grimes: ‘I hear those voices that will not be drowned.’ The artist is despondent over the reception his work is getting: “It never crossed my mind that it would be in any way controversial. I thought that people might come up and say thank you – more fool me. My own newsagent just said to me, ‘Hello, how’s the eyesore coming along?'”
The Chorus Grows – Singing Praises Of Pay-Per-Song
It’s official: downloading pay-per-song tracks is the new darling of the music world. “Pay-per-song is now a legitimate industry promoted by some of the best brains in modern technology and entertainment, from Apple to Napster to Dell. With prices starting low and falling lower, legally downloading your own songs and mixing them to use the way you want is a seductive right that is fast revolutionizing the music business.”
Amazon Scales Back Search
Amazon has apparently scaled back its nifty new search engine which allowed surfers to search texts within books. “The program had allowed users to print for free each excerpt and a few pages surrounding it. That capability led critics, chief among them the Authors Guild, to protest that Web users would forgo buying books from which they could print large chunks of copyrighted material.”
Rowling Earned £75 million From Latest Harry
“Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling was the highest female earner in Britain during the year to September – earning eight times more than Queen Elizabeth. A survey in the Sunday Times newspaper reported that Rowling earned £125 million ($A302 million), including £75 million from her latest instalment, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. However, the newspaper’s annual survey of Britain’s 500 highest earners found Rowling was only the fifth-highest earner overall.”