Tag: 12.10.08

A Scientific Excuse Explanation For Not Paying Attention

It’s because your brain was disconnected. A U. Michigan researcher “asked volunteers to spend a tedious hour in a functional-MRI brain scanner, identifying letters that flashed on a screen. At times, their reactions slowed, showing that attention was wavering. During these lapses, communication between regions related to self-control, vision and language processing died down.”

Is New Music Really Liberated?

These days composers have the freedom to work in any musical language they want. But is this really freedom? “Is the progress from a common practice to a diverse one truly progress, when it compels us to choose between a reactionary, audience-friendly idiom, an exclusionary avant-garde, or a sober modernism or ironic postmodernism that hovers between these two extremes?”

Uproar In Italy Over Cuts To Brokeback Mountain

“Italian state television cut a gay sex scene from Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, as well as a sequence showing the lead characters kissing when it aired the movie, drawing allegations of censorship from gay rights groups… Activists protested that RAI TV would never have dropped similar scenes had they involved a heterosexual couple, and politicians called for the incident to be discussed in parliament.”

Chilean Cardinal Praises Pinochet, States The Obvious About Madonna

Retired cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez interrupted his homily in honor of the late dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet yesterday to rail against the pop star, who is currently making her first appearances in Chile. “This woman comes here and in an incredibly shameless manner, she provokes a crazy enthusiasm, an enthusiasm of lust, lustful thoughts, impure thoughts.”

Are Local Papers Superfluous? Well, Yeah, In Some Ways

John Gapper: “[R]eporting is expensive… Papers have done this basic work for cities and states for so long that we take it for granted. Other aspects of US journalism will not, however, be missed. Some things, such as sports scores and weather forecasts, can be collated in a more timely and user-friendly way online. In addition, there is a swath of national and foreign coverage that is no longer needed.”