Last month IBM announced that it had developed “a computer system that can simulate the thinking power of a cat’s brain.” The head of a Swiss team that’s “attempting to reverse engineer the mammalian brain” says that IBM’s claim is little short of fraudulent.
Tag: 12.04.09
Sometimes, You Really Ought To Hold The Curtain
On a night when many audience members were delayed in a jam caused by the theatre’s parking lot, the show started on time — and it shouldn’t have. “Unpleasantness prevailed. My blood was boiling. I don’t think I [have] ever come closer to jumping out of my seat and tackling an usher.”
Middle East’s Young Directors Catch Hollywood’s Eye
The novice filmmakers, “many of whom grew up in the shadow of civil war and political strife in their native countries, are proving to be comfortable straddling East and West. That fusion is imbuing their filmmaking aesthetic with an often intriguing mix of Arabic subject matter and cultural influences from both Hollywood and Europe.”
How MySpace Came Undone
It was the hottest social network out there. Now it’s an also-ran…
Dubai Downfall Squishes Architectural Dreams
“In the last decade, real-estate nutsiness created those rare conditions all over (even at a few spots in Manhattan), but Dubai was the place where the furthest whimsies of architects–rotating towers! A carbon-neutral ziggurat for 1 million people! A hotel designed by Brad Pitt!–were finally matched by the hubris of clients.”
New York Drama Critics Circle Admits First Online Critic
It’s David Finkle of TheatreMania. “Everyone agreed that Finkle was qualified; but several members, particularly those who had been in the Circle for a long time, were reluctant to start down what they worried would be a slippery slope into the blogosphere.”
Leonard Slatkin Talks About Having A Heart Attack On Stage
“All that was on my mind was that the pain was increasing and I needed help. The medical assistants then uttered the magic words, ‘You are having a heart attack but will be okay. An ambulance is on the way.'”
Computational Analysis Applied To All Of Literature
“Franco Moretti is already famous in bookish circles for his data-centric approach to novels, which he graphs, maps, and charts. Now he’s going digital, building searchable databases of old books, working to write software that can mine for patterns. Instead of diving deep into a few beloved titles, Moretti aims to zip across the creative output of entire eras. He calls it distant reading, and if his new methods catch on, they could change the way we look at literary history.”
Downsizing Trend For Broadway Orchestras Continues
Downsizing still engenders some key questions, though: Does the trend toward fewer musicians have creative consequences? And can composers of new tuners expect larger orchestras for their shows in the future? The answers are a respective “yes” and “no.”
Proposed Law On Internet Monitoring Could Cripple ISPs
“ISPs would have to scan the contents of every chunk of data, using what is known as “deep packet inspection” technology, which is used by China and Iran to monitor and censor internet communications. But even if ISPs install such technology, identifying infringers will be far from straightforward.”