Xboxes and other game consoles are doomed in our browser-obsessed time, says famed game designer Richard Garriott de Cayeux, aka Lord British.
Tag: 11.28.11
Philadelphia Orchestra Moves Pension Funds To Federal Agency
“The judge in the Philadelphia Orchestra’s bankruptcy case has approved the orchestra’s request to turn over two of its pension plans to an agency of the federal government. Assets and liabilities of the orchestra’s internal pension plans for musicians and staff will be assumed by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.”
Youssou N’Dour Says He’s Leaving Music For Politics
The Senegalese singer-songwriter, a world music superstar, told a cheering crowd, “I will free myself of all artistic commitments from 2 January next year to enter the political arena.” Senegal has a tense presidential election campaign coming, and rumors are already rife that N’Dour himself will be a candidate.
Agony and Ecstasy, The BBC Ballet Documentary Series – Did It Tell The Truth?
English National Ballet director Wayne Eagling: “We’re thrilled with Agony and Ecstasy. … it’s had a great effect on both our box office and our public image. But we had no editorial control over the end product, and because, inevitably, it needed to be good television and play up controversy and crisis, it over-emphasised a lot of things to the point of misrepresenting them.”
Stradivarius Violin ‘Replicated’ Using CAT Scans
“A Stradivarius violin has been ‘recreated’ using an X-ray scanner normally used to detect cancers and injuries, according to researchers. The US-based group used a computerised axial tomography (CAT) scanner on the 307-year-old instrument to reveal its secrets. They then used the data recovered to build ‘nearly exact copies’.”
China Bans Ads On TV Dramas
“The order is the latest in a series since the ruling Communist Party last month endorsed a program to raise the entertainment and ideological value of cultural offerings to better hold the attention of Chinese increasingly turning to the Internet for alternate viewpoints.”
Crowdsourcing The Meaning Of Whale Songs (You Can Help)
“If you head over to Whale.fm, you’ll be presented with a large whale call, placed on a Google map, and 36 smaller possible matches. Your task is to pick the one that’s closest to the original call, with the help of visualizations of what the audio sounds like.”
Group Fights Against Budget Cuts For CBC
“There’s been such a change in the last seven months that it caused us to feel that we had to send a message to the government, to remind [them] that Canadians, by huge majorities, value public broadcasting.”
How Books Grab The Childhood Imagination
“What is it, then, that makes the books enter kids’ consciousness? First, kids experience them as mythologies more than as stories–the narrative sweep is, curiously, the least significant part of their appeal.”
Guy Laliberté Creates A Show For Marine Museums
The founder and director of Cirque du Soleil “has a new passion: to re-energise the museum exhibition and spread his concern about the world’s water crisis. Laliberte’s new baby, Aqua: A Journey into the World of Water, opens at the Australian National Maritime Museum next week. It is a gamble for the museum.”