Graduate student Stephen Hedger, from the University of Chicago, US, had perfect pitch identified by objective tests. He explained what it meant.
“I’m able to name any musical note in isolation without the aid of a reference note. Someone with perfect pitch would be able to tell you a car alarm is honking in F sharp, for example. Generally it enables people to identify notes across a wide variety of octaves.”
Mr Hedger was tricked by his colleague who secretly adjusted the pitch on an electronic keyboard as he was playing a tune. The notes were made flat by 33 cents – which is one-third of the distance between adjacent keys on a piano.
People with perfect pitch did not identify out of tune tones after hearing music that was slightly flat
When the note was shifted back to its original correct key, it sounded drastically sharp to Hedger, who explained he found it “shocking” that he had not noticed the change.
A similar model was tested on 27 students with perfect pitch. They were played a piece of music for 45 minutes which was gradually changed over time to become flatter.
The subjects then perceived the flattened music as in tune, while the in-tune notes were perceived as slightly sharp.
“In the literature, perfect pitch is talked about as a fixed ability, so it was quite surprising to find that as little as 45 minutes of de-tuned music could temporarily shift note categories,” Mr Hedger told BBC News.
“What this points to is the malleability of the human brain. Relatively brief exposure to flattened music is able to rearrange what was thought to be a very long-term and stable note category.
“This is a great example of how our immediate surroundings and perceptions can change the way in which we view the world.”
Posts Tagged ‘music
6.6.2010 … music memories …
music memories, Soundhound, apps: Recently i noted that I now enjoy getting into the car and listening to my kids’ music, something that used to annoy me. So here’s what I heard. And thank you Soundhound.
Where Do You Go by Sister Hazel
Long-distance running, evolution, anthropology: Great article … Long-distance running and evolution: Why humans can outrun horses but can’t jump higher than cats. – Slate Magazine.
My daily meditation was from Henri Nouwen:
We continue to put ourselves down as less than Christ. Thus, we avoid the full honour as well as the full pain of the Christian life. But the Spirit that guided Jesus guides us. Paul says: “The Spirit himself joins with our spirit to bear witness that we are children of God. And if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ” Romans 8:16-17.When we start living according to this truth, our lives will be radically transformed. We will not only come to know the full freedom of the children of God but also the full rejection of the world. It is understandable that we hesitate to claim the honor so as to avoid the pain. But, provided we are willing to share in Christs suffering, we also will share in his glory see Romans 8:17.
Labyrinth — at Myers Park Baptist Church.
Ray Bradbury, RIP, PaperlessPost: Love this tribute to Ray Bradbury from PaperlessPost:
For Ray Bradbury, who brought to life the things we could not have even imagined.
Davidson, Toast, music, Rachmaninoff: Lunch in Davidson at Toast then music by locals at the college … The final piece, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, performed by a teenager, was phenomenal! — with Susan. I closed my eyes and imagined my grandmother Matibel Dennard playing that piece in Athens Ga in approximately 1920 in the state high school music competition … which she won!
2012 Presidential Election, GOP Debates: another one bites the dust … RIP Rick Perry … Did I hear this was the 17th debate? Have you changed your mind because of them!
college application process, kith/kin, UNC: Molly has a college option … 🙂
Davidson College, basketball:
That was it. Kansas was done. Losing that game meant there was no way coach Bill Self’s team, one that couldn’t even beat a lowly Southern Conference squad, could hold off Baylor and Missouri in the rugged Big 12.
But the Jayhawks haven’t lost since Davidson. They demolished rival Kansas State to open conference play, then crushed previously undefeated Baylor on Monday. All of a sudden, Kansas looks like a very legitimate Final Four squad. At the time, the loss to Davidson was all about the Jayhawks; very few people even considered what the win meant about the Wildcats.
Well, it’s time to consider the Wildcats.
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“When you get a big win like that, it builds and you just want to keep it going,” said guard Nik Cochran, who was 4-for-5 from beyond the 3-point arc against Kansas and finished with 21 points in the upset. “It definitely gave us a lot of confidence that we know we can play with anyone in the country.”
The Wildcats played a challenging non-conference schedule. They hung around long enough to give Duke a mild scare at Cameron Indoor, and they pushed Vanderbilt to the final few seconds before losing.
In the win against Kansas, though, everything came together.
“What happens when you have a victory like that is it’s recognized so nationally that the memory of it is constantly brought to the players’ minds,” McKillop said. “They’re watching Kansas beat Baylor the other night and Dick Vitale mentions it a couple of times. Well, that resurrects that memory, and that’s a good memory, something they can think about as they come to practice and get better.”
This is a relatively young Davidson squad—McKillop starts three juniors and two sophomores—but it’s also an experienced team. The Wildcats returned 81 percent of their scoring and 87 percent of their rebounding from last year’s team.
via Upset of Kansas not all Davidson is about – NCAA Basketball – Sporting News.
public speaking, advice, Abraham Lincoln:
Introducing “Show and Tell,” a series in which we ask arts professionals for advice that applies to our everyday lives. First up: how to be a good public speaker, with David Selby, who plays Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre’s “Necessary Sacrifices,” opening Friday. Selby, 70, has appeared in numerous Broadway, off-Broadway and regional productions and has portrayed Lincoln multiple times, most recently in “The Heavens Are Hung in Black” at Ford’s in 2009.
via Take public speaking tips from Abraham Lincoln – The Washington Post.
free ride, marketing, hybrid stores, Apple:
But ample showrooms and well-trained staff are costly. And consumers may find that, having made their choice, they can save money by buying from dealers who skimp on such expenses—or, in the case of internet-only sellers, who spend nothing on maintaining physical outlets.
Rival dealers also like to see others invest in high-quality stores. In one of the cheekiest examples of low-cost sellers free-riding on other retailers’ lavish spending, Dixons, an online electronics retailer in Britain, ran a big advertising campaign in 2009 urging the public to try out televisions and other gadgets in big department stores—and then go to its website and buy them more cheaply (ironically, the parent company of Dixons operates physical stores vulnerable to online free-riders).
Unsurprisingly, high-quality retailers have trouble recouping their costs—a phenomenon economists call a “missing market”. That is a good thing for consumers: free-riding dealers keep prices down. But they also cause problems. The pressure on prices forces full-service dealers to cut spending on showrooms and advertising. As a result, fewer consumers may get to know the products, and overall demand for them may fall.
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A paper by two American-based academics, published in 2001, just as the dotcom boom had turned to bust, suggested a market-friendly answer to all this. The manufacturers themselves could open “hybrid stores”, in which the full range of their products are beautifully displayed, but with not much stock. Consumers could try out the products, even if they ultimately bought them from a retailer elsewhere. The best-known adopter of this approach is Apple, a computer maker, whose chain of stores in city centres and shopping malls let browsers try out the company’s gadgets, with lots of bright young assistants offering advice, but with little pressure to buy.
Joe Oddo, one of the authors of the Capgemini report, notes that carmakers are increasingly following suit. Many have opened chains of Apple-like car showrooms in city centres, where potential buyers can kick tyres, sit behind the wheel and maybe even do a test-drive. Those who decide to buy are typically directed towards a retail dealership close to their home, which will also offer the after-sales services that motorists prefer to have close by. This is unlikely to reverse the trend towards fewer, larger dealerships (see chart). But neighbourhood dealers will no longer need to maintain such well-appointed and heavily staffed showrooms. The free-riding problem is unlikely to go away, but it will be less costly
Tim Tebow, Denver Broncos, race issues:
Yes, many people feel that that the issue of race and the quarterback position in the NFL was settled long ago, when Michael Vick became the first African-American quarterback to be selected with the first overall draft pick in 2001 by the Atlanta Falcons.
But the social issues around Vick are still generating heated discussion. On ESPN’s “First Take” several days ago, the panelists debated whether Tebow was in fact getting exposure because he was white and that black quarterbacks in the past had not been given the same opportunities. On the show, sports journalist Rob Parker stated “The NFL is making an exception for Tebow which has created resentment that is grounded in the question of ‘How come black players with similar skills in the past were not granted the chance to play quarterback?’”
There is little comparison between Tebow and Michael Vick apart from the fact that they are both left-handed, Vick clearly was a polished passer with very good mechanics meshed with tremendous speed and uncanny athletic ability. In essence he challenged many of the historic criticisms that limited the opportunities of those before him, black quarterbacks could not “read” defenses, did not have the ability to go through their progressions, or were not fundamentally sound mechanically throwing the football. Tebow has largely been described as a leader or winner, a player with intangibles who has drive and determination, and rock solid Christian faith despite having poor technique that causes numerous inaccurate passes to the tune of a 46.5 completion percentage. Professional football, unlike baseball or basketball only has a sixteen game regular season and coaches typically don’t have the luxury of extending patience to players–particularly quarterbacks who are not accurate.
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Many thought that Tebow would find himself in a similar position, maybe as a hybrid quarterback/tight end/fullback, but instead the Broncos have stuck with their young quarterback. As a long-time Pittsburgh Steeler fan, I am not unbiased in my critique of the mania that this young man has generated, but he must be given credit for bringing raw determination, faith and more importantly chemistry to a team few believed had a chance to make the post season.
via Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos: What’s Race Got to Do With It? – Speakeasy – WSJ.
curiosity, education, lifelong learning: !!
We are all lifelong learners, from day one to twenty-thousand-and-one, and that’s why we keep exploring, wondering and discovering, yearning and learning, reaching with more than just our hands… The future belongs to the curious.”
via The Future Belongs to the Curious: A Manifesto for Curiosity | Brain Pickings.
vocabulary, websites:
Definitive Jest is a vocabulary-building and SNOOT-approved word-of-the-day blog centered around David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.*
John Steinbeck, advice, love: Love this!
We had your letter this morning. I will answer it from my point of view and of course Elaine will from hers.
First—if you are in love—that’s a good thing—that’s about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don’t let anyone make it small or light to you.
Second—There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you—of kindness and consideration and respect—not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.
You say this is not puppy love. If you feel so deeply—of course it isn’t puppy love.
But I don’t think you were asking me what you feel. You know better than anyone. What you wanted me to help you with is what to do about it—and that I can tell you.
Glory in it for one thing and be very glad and grateful for it.
The object of love is the best and most beautiful. Try to live up to it.
If you love someone—there is no possible harm in saying so—only you must remember that some people are very shy and sometimes the saying must take that shyness into consideration.
Girls have a way of knowing or feeling what you feel, but they usually like to hear it also.
It sometimes happens that what you feel is not returned for one reason or another—but that does not make your feeling less valuable and good.
Lastly, I know your feeling because I have it and I’m glad you have it.
We will be glad to meet Susan. She will be very welcome. But Elaine will make all such arrangements because that is her province and she will be very glad to. She knows about love too and maybe she can give you more help than I can.
And don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens—The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.
Strange as it might sound, the dead bird and accompanying year-long Dickens program at the Free Library probably provide the perfect means for the American culture vulture to celebrate not only Dickens’s 200th birthday on Feb. 7, but also the little-known yet astonishing impact of Grip on American letters and popular culture to this day.
“That’s because Grip is ‘The Raven,’ ” said Edward G. Pettit, a lecturer at La Salle University, author of “Edgar Allan Poe in Philadelphia” (History Press, 2012) and consultant to the library’s coming year of exhibits, readings, pub crawls and other events to mark Dickens’s ties to Philadelphia and, more subtly, Poe’s shadow behind Dickens.
Poe (1809-49) was a literary critic in Baltimore, New York and, for six years, Philadelphia. (After his wife died, he wandered back to Baltimore, where he died mysteriously in the streets.) In 1841, he reviewed Dickens’ serialized new novel, “BarnabyRudge” for Graham’s Magazine, explained Pettit. The novel, long out of favor, centers on anti-Catholic riots in London and a strange hero named Rudge, who has a goofball talking raven named Grip. At the end of the fifth chapter, Grip makes a noise and someone asks, “What was that — him tapping at the door?”
Another character responds, “’Tis someone knocking softly at the shutter.”
In his review, Poe both accurately predicts the outcome of the serialized novel, and suggested that a spooky raven like Grip could have a more weighty role in literature.
“Two years after Dickens visited Philadelphia, when both met and groused about copyright infringement,” Pettit continued, “Poe writes ‘The Raven,’ with its haunting refrain of ‘Nevermore.’ ” The poem, for which he was paid $15 (about $350 in inflation-adjusted dollars today) “sweeps Poe to instant fame, if not fortune, and generations of American kids get their first exposure to poetry, usually in high school or junior high, through ‘The Raven.’ ”
via Charles Dickens bicentennial, and his link to Poe – The Washington Post.
OnLive Desktop, apps, cloud technology:
Most well-known for its cloud gaming service, OnLive rolled out a pretty ambitious product for Windows users looking to get a little work done. The company’s new OnLive Desktop iPad app grants you access to a version of Windows and, most importantly, Microsoft Office apps that run from OnLive’s servers directly to your tablet. Oh, and it’s free.
via OnLive Desktop | The 12 Coolest Things We Saw at the Consumer Electronics Show | Techland | TIME.com.
Norma Kamali Kulture, LBD (little black dress): LBDs … Under-$100!
Norma Kamali is launching a collection named Kamali Kulture this season, featuring a lineup of figure-flattering Polyester-Lycra jersey LBDs ranging in price from $74 to $96. “There are always situations when you need a little black dress,” the legendary designer told InStyle. “I know that no matter what woman you put in front of me, I can find a flattering dress for her in this line.” To see more Kamali Kulture looks—including dresses designed to balance your hips, highlight your collarbones and enhance your chest—check out page 129 in InStyle’s February issue, on newsstands now. We’ll reveal the full lineup soon, and you can sign up for updates at kamalikulture.com. Plus, read our tips on shopping for your shape!
via Norma Kamali to Launch Kamali Kulture, New Under-$100 Collection! : InStyle.com What’s Right Now.
Samuel Beckett, doodles, marginalia:
Novelist, playwright, poet, and Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) is one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. As a hopeless lover of marginalia and voyeur of famous creators’ notebooks, I was thrilled to discover these excerpts from the original manuscript of Watt, Beckett’s second novel and a pinnacle of his signature deadpan philosophical humor, courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. The manuscript consists of 945 pages spanning six notebooks and loose sheets, written in ink and colored crayons between 1940 and 1945, and features a wealth of doodles, sketches, mathematical calculations, rhyming schemes, and drawings.
via A Rare Look at Samuel Beckett’s Doodle-Filled Notebooks | Brain Pickings.
yoga, Ayn Rand: Makes you think …
The great appeal of yoga is that you are doing something selfish and virtuous at the same time. You are sweating and suffering and honing a “watchful mind,” but also taking a break from your daily burdens and acquiring fantastic-looking abs. And that’s the genius of Ayn Rand: She made egoism the ultimate good. What Christianity labels as the unfortunate consequence of original sin, Rand saw as man’s natural and best state. (Interestingly, while Ayn Rand’s atheism bothers conservative evangelicals, it seems to bother some of them less than does yoga, which they view as paganism parading as a health movement. John Galt, at least, would have shared their hatred of Obamacare.)
— Slate on the Who Is John Galt quasi-meme and what Aynd Rand and yoga have in common
via curiosity counts – The great appeal of yoga is that you are doing….
eternal youth, Tony Bennett, music, kudos: Never liked him, but kudos!
In a youth-oriented industry, Tony Bennett is enjoying some of his greatest successes at the age of 85.
In September, the acclaimed vocalist scored his first-ever No.1 album on the Billboard 200, becoming the oldest living person to top the chart. Last week, he garnered three Grammy nominations for his hit album “Duets II.” And when he stopped by the Wall Street Journal’s acoustic music showcase the WSJ Cafe he talked about collaborating with such stars Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder and Amy Winehouse, the British vocalist who passed away earlier this year at the age of 27.
via Tony Bennett: How To Be No.1 Your Whole Life (WSJ Cafe) – Speakeasy – WSJ.
apps, NPR: Mu local station has an app … which is great … now I can just pull up NPR.
NPR News: The ultimate portable NPR experience for your iPhone or iPod Touch. Follow local and national news and listen to your favorite NPR stations wherever you are and whenever you want to.
via App Store – NPR News.
Campbell Soup Company, csr, kudos: Idealistic Realistic …
Instead of making lethal cuts, we decided that our dream — our vision — was to transform Campbell into a place where employees wanted to be…and wanted to stay. You can’t have an organization that consistently delivers high performance unless you have a consistently high level of engagement predicated on trust. We needed to restore both — trust and engagement. If we could do that, then we were sure the profits would follow. There were a lot of things we changed, from the leadership team to package design — you’ve read about those. But what took the momentum at Campbell to an even higher level in terms of employee engagement happened more recently.
One of the primary things that makes Campbell a place where people want to come to work is the company’s earnest and ongoing commitment to our communities around the globe. We forged an ambitious plan to make Camden, our hometown for more than 140 years, a better place. That is what is helping employees feel more fulfilled despite even this latest economic crisis.
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As a food company, working hand-in-hand with a cadre of strategic local and national partners, we centered our efforts on health and nutrition. The project, still in its infancy, is focused on cutting the BMI (Body Mass Index) of Camden’s 23,000 children in half over the next decade. It includes bringing nutritionists into schools and having Campbell’s chefs help parents think about ways to serve healthy food at home. And that is just the beginning: Today, Campbell is working to attract food retailers to Camden’s food desert — the city has only one supermarket — and helping to build neighborhood gardens to get children closer to the food supply. Campbell is also sponsoring activities for youth to increase physical fitness in schools and to help them remain active and occupied when school is not in session. And the company is developing the areas all around its world headquarters — leveling run-down buildings to attract commerce.
It is an ambitious agenda but it is right in Campbell’s sweet spot. And why not? It has advanced our corporate agenda. Focusing these efforts on food and nutrition has allowed us to smartly leverage our resources. Another part of the corporate social responsibility plan — committing to cut Campbell’s carbon footprint by half — has saved money and lowered costs. Campbell is earnestly and sincerely helping to build a better world within the scope of what the company does well. But even more than that, employees are proud to be associated with a company that is doing this kind of work, and consumers in the community and beyond have supported our efforts and our business.
The flywheel effect is astounding and ongoing: Winning in the community leads to winning in the workplace and winning in the marketplace. The more the Company takes care of the world, the more the world responds. The more the company leans into building a better society in a strategically focused way, the better the company performs.
Gallup, the polling and research firm, studied the engagement levels of Campbell’s managers back in 2002 and found that for every 2 people actively engaged in the business, 1 was actively disengaged. Anecdotally, those numbers were the worst for any Fortune 500 firm at the time. As of 2011, the story is far different: 17 Campbell employees are actively engaged for every 1 employee who is actively disengaged. Gallup considers twelve to one to be world-class.
short film:
Beautiful animated short film about a racist barber in 1930s New York, who moves away from bigotry after a magic trumpet arrives at his shop
via curiosity counts – Beautiful animated short film about a racist….
Christmas, cake balls: This is my life for the next few weeks!
Easy to make and delicious to eat, cake balls can be made out of any of your favorite cake recipes. All you do is make the cake, crumble it up and mix it with frosting or cream cheese then roll the cake mixture into balls, bake and dip. But, don’t take our word for it, look at Bakerella‘s video below.
Karen Chiumento uses only fresh, all natural ingredients in her hand made cake balls. Yes, they ship! Photo by Jacqueline Marque
Bakerella explains it very easily. She also wrote the Cake Pops book (below) with recipes and decorating ideas. Cake Pops are Cake Balls with a lollipop stick in them!
Christmas Cupcakes, Cake Balls and Mini-Pies Baking Supplies | The Daily Basics.
journalists, media: As a lawyer, I often feel “attacked” … never thought about the journalists feeling that way!
Writers from around the country have posted pictures and life stories at the ‘We Are Journalists‘ blog on Tumblr.
Launched by St. Petersburg Times reporter Emily Nipps (pictured, via) the site gives journalists a place to share why they keep writing despite a challenging economy and a rapidly changing profession. Why do you keep writing?
Here’s more from the site: “We are journalists. We are proud of what we do. We are tired of bad press about the press. We are trying to be ‘team players.’ We are terrified of more layoffs and paycuts. We would like to produce quality work without ‘obamasux99′ posting some non-sequitur rant at the end of it. We complain because we want things to be better. We would like some respect, plz. We are journalists.”
via Writers Proudly Post at ‘We Are Journalists’ Blog – GalleyCat.
design, dichotomies, makes you think …: Excellent essay … makes you think …
We’re at the apex of our power, but the nadir of our potency. Let’s start with the biggest heartbreaker of them all: We are at a moment in history when, as designers, we are at our most powerful. There is almost nothing we cannot make, enjoying the triumphs of research and development in materials science, manufacturing technology, and information systems. We can get any answer we seek through social networks, peer communities, or hired guns. We have sub-specialties at unimaginably thin slices of expertise—from ubiquitous computing to synthetic biology—and a plumbing system in the Internet that is simultaneously unprecedented in human history and entirely taken for granted.
At the same time, unbelievably, we have never been in worse shape: We are witnessing the collapse of every natural system on earth. Take your pick—on the ground we’ve got clear-cutting, desertification and agricultural run-off. Underneath we’ve got fracking and groundwater contamination. In the air, greenhouse gasses; in the oceans, ice sheet melting, acidification and Pacific trash vortices; in space we have the ghastly and ultimately impossible problem of space debris (we won’t be able to leave even when we’re ready to, and nobody will be able to get in to help us if they wanted to). We carry body-burdens of toxic chemicals leached and outgassed from our homes, our cars, our food packaging. The consequences of industrialization metastasize out to slave factory labor, massive river diversions, obesity, malnutrition, gender inequality, rampant poverty, minefields. We tax our economies with war machinery instead of fueling healthcare and education provision. We feel helpless on the one end and hopeless on the other.
How can we be so strong and yet so weak? How can it be that we, as a species, are at the absolute height of our power at exactly the same moment that we are on the precipice of self-annihilation?
via 1000 Words: The Critical Dichotomies of Design – Core77.
psychology, the mind, makes you think…: Another good essay …
If someone asked you to describe the psychological aspects of personhood, what would you say? Chances are, you’d describe things like thought, memory, problem-solving, reasoning, maybe emotion. In other words, you probably list the major headings of a cognitive psychology text-book. In cognitive psychology, we seem to take it for granted that these are, objectively, the primary components of “the mind” (even if you reject a mind/body dualism, you probably accept some notion that there are psychological processes similar to the ones listed above). I’ve posted previously about whether the distinction between cognitive and non-cognitive even makes sense. But, here, I want to think about the universality of the “mind” concept and its relationship to the modern view of cognition.
In fact, this conception of the mind is heavily influenced by a particular (Western) cultural background. Other cultures assign different characteristics and abilities to the psychological aspects of personhood. Wierzbicka (2005) delves into this problem in detail. She argues that speakers of a particular language make assumptions about what must be universal based on their own ability to imagine doing without a certain concept. Important cross-cultural differences in meaning become lost in translation. For instance, Piaget’s “The moral judgment of the child” was translated to English by substituting the French “juste” with the English “fair.” So, English readers think they are reading about the development of fairness in children, when this was not the author’s intention.
via Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists: How Universal Is The Mind?.
Christmas, Christmas carols, history: this is a great history of Christmas carols in particular and Christmas generally.
At face value, the Christmas carol may be the least captivating style of occasional song. While other popular tunes arise from passion or desire, heroism or defeat, the Yuletide songbook is a catalog of modest thrills and postindustrial neuroses. A quick survey turns up portraits of manic stress release (“Jingle Bells”), overwrought hallucination (“Do You Hear What I Hear?”), complex Freudian trauma (“I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”), desperate midlife lechery (“Baby, It’s Cold Outside”), forced enthusiasm (“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”), and thinly veiled xenophobia (“Dominick the Donkey … the Italian Christmas donkey!”). It was apparently decided long ago that we can overcome these demons by frightening them away with feckless vocalization. Carol-singing, like drinking, accounts for a large part of boisterous group behavior in this country. If a large posse of merrymakers rings your doorbell in the quiet suburban night, there is an equal chance that you should call the cops or offer them a nutmeg-flavored snack.
Consider, too, that Christmas carols have no obvious counterparts among the other holidays. Large group odes are not sung in anticipation of Memorial Day.
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If anything, their legitimacy as tradition has only increased in recent years. Today’s carols are one of our few genuine access points to the history of Western pop music, the centuries of mainstream fare buried beneath our own.
via The Long, Strange History of Christmas Carols – Slate Magazine.
flash sites, fashion, GILT: I have never bought anything from a flash fashion site … new term for me … but have bought from groupon, etc.
It’s not surprising that fashion deal sites like Gilt Groupe, Rue La La and Ideeli, which often offer designer merchandise discounted up to 80%, have garnered more than 5 million members in just a few short years. Known for “flash sales”—deals that typically last just 36-48 hours—these members-only websites feature excess inventory from more than 1,000 brands at steeply reduced prices.
Gilt Groupe launched in fall 2007, and the industry has quickly become packed with competitors, with Amazon.com’s MyHabit launching in May. “There are lots of outlets that offer consumers huge assortments that take a lot of time to shop,” says Steve Davis, president of Rue La La. “The beauty of the flash business is that we’re perfect for that time-starved consumer. You can shop our site for five minutes every day. It’s a very specific, curated assortment, and we help to pick the right things for you.”
But the bargain sites aren’t just booming among consumers. In May, CNN Money reported that flash sites made $1 billion in sales in 2010, with a projected $6 billion revenue figure by 2015. As these retailers expand to include travel, home and culinary deals, TIME Moneyland asked the presidents and CEOs of the top five fashion flash sites about making the most of the online deal-hunting experience.
Jane Austen: New picture … changed perception … This discovery reminds me of the movie Possession …
Jane Austen scholar Dr Paula Byrne claims to have discovered a lost portrait of the author which, far from depicting a grumpy spinster, shows a writer at the height of her powers and a woman comfortable in her own skin.
The only accepted portraits of Austen to date are her sister Cassandra’s 1810 sketch, in which she looks cross, and an 1870 adaptation of that picture. But when Byrne, biographer of Evelyn Waugh and Mary “Perdita” Robinson and with an Austen biography due out in 2013, was given a portrait of a female author acquired by her husband, Shakespeare scholar Jonathan Bate, at auction, she was immediately struck by the possibility that it could be a lost drawing of Austen.
The portrait drawing, in graphite on vellum, had been in a private collection for years, and was being auctioned as an “imaginary portrait” of Austen, with “Miss Jane Austin” written on the back. “When my husband bought it he thought it was a reasonable portrait of a nice lady writer, but I instantly had a visceral reaction to it. I thought it looks like her family. I recognised the Austen nose, to be honest, I thought it was so striking, so familiar,” Byrne told the Guardian. “The idea that it was an imaginary portrait – that seemed to me to be a crazy theory. That genre doesn’t exist, and this looks too specific, too like the rest of her family, to have been drawn from imagination.”
Byrne pointed out that Austen did not become famous until 1870, 50 years after her death, and the portrait has been dated to the early 19th century, around 1815, on the basis of the subject’s clothes. “Why would someone have wanted to draw her from their imagination, when she was not popular at that time?” she asked.
via Jane Austen biographer discovers ‘lost portrait’ | Books | guardian.co.uk.
media:
One of the coolest and most charming book releases of this year, The Influencing Machine is a graphic novel about the media, its history, and its many maladies — think The Information meets The Medium is the Massage meets Everything Explained Through Flowcharts. Written by Brooke Gladstone, longtime host of NPR’s excellent On the Media, and illustrated by cartoonist Josh Neufeld, The Influencing Machine takes a refreshingly alternative approach to the age-old issue of why we disparage and distrust the news. And as the book quickly makes clear, it has always been
via The Influencing Machine: A Brief Visual History of the Media | Brain Pickings.
Kathryn Schulz, psychology, regret, TED: TED provides me with some of my favorite information.
My friend Kathryn Schulz, who penned the excellent book Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error and who is, in my opinion, one of the finest, bravest, most thoughtful journalists working today, recently gave a TED talk about regret. As the new owner of ink that makes me very happy, what got me to pay even closer attention was Kathryn’s extended example of her own tattoo as a lens for examining the psychology of regret, a vehicle for her characteristically potent formula of universal wisdom channelled through personal anecdotes and hard data.Make sure you watch to the very end, it’s well worth it.
via Kathryn Schulz on the Psychology of Regret and How to Live with It | Brain Pickings.
Twitter, ideal life: I follow a couple of these …. Martha Stewart Wannabees …
For more holiday ideas and inspirations, pop over to the rest of the #HolidayHQ posts today and discover what the experts are decorating, cooking and planning for a festive December. And then join us on Twitter Thursday 8 December at 8pm EST for the popular #HolidayHQ tweet chat for even more holiday ideas.
Christmas, salt dough ornaments: Add another to the list?
My fondest Christmas memory is sitting around our kitchen table watching my mother turn dough into works of art, she effortless hand crafted a jointed Santa Clause, an ornate rocking horse and many other keep sake ornaments while I fiddled around with gingerbread cookie cutters wondering why I did not inherit her creative gene. While those around me are turning their kitchens into cookie factories, churning out confections for countless recipients, parties and hostess gifts, I am recreating my favourite Christmas memory and creating the most delightful decorations for our holiday tree, gift toppers and garlands. While many of us think of salt dough crafts as the back bone of elementary school projects (and granted mine do have that air about them), artisans have been working with salt dough for centuries creating elaborate works of art using the most basic of ingredients: salt, water, flour and paint.
Thanksgiving, prayers, Lincoln, history:
Jon Meacham (@jmeacham)
11/24/11 10:24 AM
Lincoln, Thanksgiving 1863, asked prayers for “all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers.”We sd repeat them today.
Rev. James Howell, prayer, Thanksgiving Day 2011: excellent prayer … I must admit stole heavily from it for my reading at our Thanksgiving table.
O Give Thanks to the Lord, for He is Good (Psalm 118:1). What shall I render to the Lord for all His bounty? I will lift up the sacrifice of Thanksgiving, and call on the name of the Lord (Psalm 116:17).
Thanksgiving dinner, political arguments guide, table talk: 🙂
First, a prayer: May your Thanksgiving gathering be the supercommittee of our dreams, which is to say a happy meeting where everyone gets along despite their ideological differences and divides the pie equitably. We recognize, however, that some families are like the actual supercommittee — and the day may end with one faction pouting to Chris Matthews in the guest room after a political debate. In that case, the better prayer is always Loudon Wainwright’s Thanksgiving one: “If I argue with a loved one, Lord, please make me the winner.” In that spirit, we present Slate’s annual guide to this year’s political arguments, so that you might be lightly armed for small skirmishes.
via Thanksgiving dinner political arguments guide – Political Hotsheet – CBS News.
…
Time for the annual family dinner, where you are the behind-the-scenes powerbroker, the resident expert on All Things Beltway — or so your mom told her cousins. What if you’re just a deputy to an assistant to an undersecretary, i.e. intern? Our sixth annual Thanksgiving Talking Points are just smarty-pants enough to wow the hometown crowd. Okay, maybe they’re not technically true — but that never stops presidential candidates.
TIME, Spotify Playlist, music, Thanksgiving:
In the absence of classic Thanksgiving tunes, I put together a playlist of my own. You can listen to it on TIME’s Spotify account here. There are songs about food (The Kinks’ “Maximum Consumption”), songs about returning home (Simon & Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound”) and songs about being thankful for something (Sly & the Family Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again)” counts, right?). The playlist is an hour long, so while it might not keep you company during the entire time that your turkey is baking — those suckers take forever — it’ll definitely come in handy as you preparing some side dishes. Think of it as TIME’s way of saying thank you for reading.
Lynn’s Paradise Cafe, kith/kin: One of my favorite places,Lynn’s Paradise Cafe, with some favorite people — with Ruth-Ann, Sarah and husband … great way to start Thanksgiving.
apps, 6×7:
Description
For high-quality images, medium-format cameras were the professionals’ choice for years. And many preferred the framing of the 6x7cm format above all. Now 6×7 takes you back to that time, with beautiful, high-resolution images that aren’t quite square – but aren’t too stretched out, either.
via App Store – 6×7.
Davidson College, Davidson basketball, Duke, national tv: We played a respectable game … and Steph wore red!
It’ll be a tough task for the Wildcats (2-0) to end any of those streaks, as they haven’t beaten Duke since a 75-73 victory on Dec. 29, 1981.
Davidson is coming off a 74-61 victory over Richmond, as preseason All-Southern Conference selections Jake Cohen (22 points) and J.P. Kuhlman (11 points) had solid performances.
De’Mon Brooks scored 14 and is averaging a team-high 19.0 points through the first two games.
The Wildcats have won 12 of their last 15 games dating back to last season.
“It’s going to be a great opportunity for us to play on national TV and in that environment,” said coach Bob McKillop, who is in his 23rd season with Davidson, which is located roughly 150 miles from Duke’s campus.
The Wildcats have lost their eight games against ranked opponents, last beating then-No. 6 Wisconsin 73-56 in the 2008 NCAA tournament regional semifinals.
via Davidson Wildcats vs. Duke Blue Devils – Preview – November 18, 2011 – ESPN.
Atlanta, childhood memories: I loved the pink pig on top of Rich’s downtown … great memories … The Pink Pig Holiday Train – Buckhead – Atlanta, GA.
TIME, Spotify, social networking, music: Have you tried Spotify?
Hey guys, guess what? TIME is now on Spotify!
My colleagues and I will soon be posting regular playlists to the music platform, but we thought we’d kick things off in style with an inaugural playlist based on TIME’s 100 Best Songs of All-Time. Not every song from the list is on there because some bands don’t have their music on Spotify yet (what gives, Led Zeppelin?) but as far as free playlists go, this 6-hour, 93-song sample is pretty comprehensive. You can listen to the playlist here.
What would you like to see on TIME’s Spotify account? Would you like monthly round-ups of new music? Themed playlists (songs about trains! songs that feature animal noises!)? A “What We’re Listening To” section of staff recommendations? Tell us what you want and we will do our best to make it happen.
education, school counselors, reform:
School counselors see a broken system in need of reform. Eighty-five percent of school counselors believe that, ideally, a top priority of schools should be ensuring all students graduate from high school ready to succeed in college and careers; however, only 30 percent of all counselors and 19 percent in high poverty schools see this as their school’s mission. Nearly all counselors (99 percent) want to exercise leadership in advocating for students’ access to rigorous academic preparation, including college and career-readiness counseling, even if other educators do not envision counselors playing this role.
But why shouldn’t they? Three out of four counselors (74 percent) see themselves as unique student advocates, creating pathways and offering support to ensure all students reach their post-secondary goals. Yet only a minority (42 percent) believes their schools take advantage of this contribution. Strong majorities want to see more college and career exploration, admission and academic planning that will boost the life prospects of students in a globally competitive economy.
Accountability can be the third rail — especially in education reform — but a majority of counselors support fair and appropriate accountability measures that create a college-going culture in schools. A majority of counselors supports measures for their own success, such as transcript audits of graduation readiness; completion of a college prep course sequence; students gaining access to advanced classes and tests; and both high school graduation and college application rates.
We are at a crossroads in American education — and in defining the role of our nation’s school counselors. At a time when resources for schools are more constrained than ever and America is losing ground in educating students, we need to more effectively use the precious resources offered by our school counselors, so they can help prepare the next generation for a globally competitive world.
Stanford University, free online courses:
Two weeks ago, we mentioned that Stanford will be rolling out seven new courses in its experiment with online learning. Fast forward to today, and yet another seven courses have been added to the winter lineup, bringing the total to 14.
Immediately below, you’ll find the latest additions. All of these courses feature interactive video clips; short quizzes that provide instant feedback; the ability to pose high value questions to Stanford instructors; and feedback on your overall performance in the class.
Courses start in January and February. Enroll today for free. And, if something doesn’t pique your interest below, don’t miss our big list of 400 Free Online Courses.
Newly added:
Technology Entrepreneurship
Making Green Buildings
Anatomy
Information Theory
Design and Analysis of Algorithms I
The Lean Launchpad
Cryptography
Originally mentioned:
Computer Science 101
Software Engineering for SaaS
Human Computer Intereaction
Natural Language Processing
Game Theory
Probabilistic Graphical Models
Machine Learning
via Stanford Launching 14 Free Online Courses in January/February: Enroll Today | Open Culture.
Supreme Court, Health Care Reform, procedure: Interesting procedure …
The court has scheduled five and a half hours of arguments in the case. Ninety of those minutes will be devoted to severability, and an hour to the Anti-Injunction Act.
The court appoints outside lawyers to make orphaned arguments about once a term, though typically in minor cases. The practice has been the subject of some academic criticism, on the ground that it can amount to “judicial agenda-setting.”
via Supreme Court Names Two Lawyers to Argue Points in Health Care Law – NYTimes.com.
humerus break: My break is once again giving me trouble. Surgery scheduled for 12/29 … bone graft (ICBG). Once again, my humerus is not humorous. 😦
History, Civil War, Burning of Atlanta:
Atl History Center (@ATLHistCenter)
11/15/11 6:39 PM
Description of the burning of Atlanta. November 15, 1864.
Today the destruction fairly commenced … This P.M. the torch applied … Clouds of heavy smoke rise and hang like pall over doomed city. At night, the grandest and most awful scene… From our rear windows … horizon shows immense and raging fires, lighting up whole heavens… . First bursts of smoke, dense, black volumes, then tongues of flame, then huge waves of fire roll up into the sky: presently the skeletons of great warehouses stand out in relief against and amidst sheets of roaring, blazing, furious flames, — then the angry waves roll less high, and are of deeper color, then sink and cease, and only the fierce glow from the bare and blackened walls … as one fire sinks another rises, further along the horizon, … it is a line of fire and smoke, lurid, angry, dreadful to look upon.
via Atlanta History Center, Today the destruction fairly commenced … This P.M…..
college graduates, failure to launch, adolescent men: HELP!
Failure to Launch apparently isn’t just a terrible Sarah Jessica Parker movie but an actual phenomenon among young men. Thanks to the sluggish economy and high unemployment rates, more young men across the U.S. are living at home with their parents than in years past.
Of course, much has been made of the increasingly dismal state of today’s young men. But things don’t seem to be picking up, as the Associated Press reports that “[f]ederal statistics show that young men are, for instance, nearly twice as likely to live at home with their parents than young women their age. They’re also less likely to finish college, or to have a job.”
But now, according to the same AP story, there’s something that can be done about it. Instead of hiring a woman to pose as your son’s girlfriend — as the frazzled parents do in a certain rom-com — send them on a retreat. The Insight camp takes 18 to 23 year-old men and hosts them stay for three or four-month stretches. During that stay, the men are taught and encouraged to make and achieve a series of goals ranging from the (very) basic like getting out of bed to the advanced like finding a job.
But surely, you might be thinking, these boys’ parents must have taught them these sorts of lessons when they were growing up? Well apparently not, and now they’re literally paying for it. A stay at the camp costs $350 a day and most of these young men’s parents are footing the bill.
The whole thing, frankly, sounds more dubious than the plot of the movie which inspired the phenomenon’s name. While NewsFeed can grasp the bleakness of the current job-market and can even appreciate the challenges facing young college graduates, we fail to see how spending thousands of dollars on a retreat teaching you when to go to bed will help your situation. If this doesn’t embody first-world problems, then NewsFeed gives up now.
via Camp Aims to Get Young Men on Their Feet — and Out of Mom’s House | NewsFeed | TIME.com.
Prof. Julio Ramirez, National Neuroscience Education Award, kudos, McConnell Neighbors: Kudos to Julio … Honored as First-Ever Undergrad Teacher to Receive National Neuroscience Education Award!
Julio Ramirez, Dickson Professor of Psychology, has become the first-ever undergraduate educator to receive the annual “Award for Education” from the Society for Neuroscience (SfN). The award, first presented in 1991, recognizes one individual per year who has “made outstanding contributions to neuroscience education and training.” In earning this honor, Ramirez will be added to a list of prominent past recipients, such as Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel and neurologist Oliver Sachs.
Ramirez said, “I’m still incredulous. The award has always gone to a major figure in research and education, so I didn’t consider that I might get it. I was honored for having been nominated, and when I got the news that I actually won, I was shocked.”
Ramirez served on SfN’s Minority Education and Training Affairs Committee for six years, and is now a member of its Professional Development Committee. The award was presented this past weekend at the organization’s annual national conference held in Washington D.C
Facebook, about face: FB restoring “most recent” on news feed.
Facebook has big things planned for the next stage of its development, but is taking a small step back when it comes to its news feed. On Wednesday, Facebook engineering manager Mark Tonkelowitz wrote on a company blog that the social network will again let users sort their news feeds based on what was most recently posted.
via Facebook restoring “most recent” on news feed – The Washington Post.
Peter Schweizer, Throw Them All Out , books congressional corruption:
Throw Them All Out arrives at a moment when the populist anger and resentment of the Tea Party and Occupy movements have melded into a kind of generalized outrage toward a system that seems geared to protect the interests of the few. Schweizer offers some prescriptions, including laws forbidding members of Congress from trading stocks of companies overseen by their committees, but he doesn’t expect what he calls the “permanent political class” to reform itself.
What Schweizer says he does hope is that others will take up his mission—requiring only time, online access, and a willingness to wade through public databases—and eventually crowd-source reform. A Throw Them All Out campaign is an interesting prospect—a movement that both Sarah Palin and Michael Moore could embrace. Schweizer’s motivation and his message could well be a credo that transcends partisan conflict.
“I was troubled,” he says, “by the fact that the political elite gets to play by a different set of rules than the rest of us. In the process of researching this book, I came to the conclusion that political party and political philosophy matter a lot less than we think. Washington is a company town, and politics is a business. People wonder why we don’t get more change in Washington, and the reason is that the permanent political class is very comfortable. Business is good.”
via Peter Schweizer’s New Book Blasts Congressional Corruption – The Daily Beast.
women’s issues, NYC: Loved this article from 1911!
NEW YORK’S REAL LURE FOR WOMEN—OPPORTUNITY; Not the Fascinating Shops, or the Theatres, or the Lobster Palaces, or Bohemia, but the Chance to Win Success Tempts the Majority of Them to the Great City.
A gang of kids find a strange house with an overgrown garden where they play. Only once do they meet the man who lives there, a dead-beat alcoholic with a free and easy spirit who welcomes them. The children see him as a romantic character in stark contrast to their neurotically house proud parents.
A collaboration between Animator Jonathan Hodgson and Illustrator Jonny Hannah.
breast cancer awareness, Evelyn Lauder, creator of pink ribbon, kudos: Kudos to Mrs. Lauder and her pink ribbon. She started a movement that continues today.
In her long career as an executive at cosmetics giant Estee Lauder Cos., the company founded by her mother-in-law, Lauder worked with many shades of red, peach, bronze and even blues, but pink was the one hue that changed her life.
In 1992, Lauder worked with her friend Alexandra Penney, the former editor-in-chief of Self magazine, to create the pink ribbon campaign for breast cancer awareness. It started small with Lauder and her husband, Leonard, largely financing the little bows given to women at department store makeup counters to remind them about breast exams.
That grew into fundraising products, congressional designation of October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month and $330 million in donations — $50 million from Estee Lauder and its partners — to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, which Lauder also started.
That money helped establish the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, which opened in 2009.
Lauder died Saturday at her Manhattan home from complications of nongenetic ovarian cancer. She was 75.
Just last month, she reminisced about the early days of the breast cancer campaign. When it launched, it was so little known that some people thought it symbolized AIDS awareness.
via Evelyn Lauder, Creator of Breast Cancer’s Pink Ribbon, Dies at 75 – TIME Healthland.
Daniel Pink, email newsletters, recommendations, lists:
One reason I like writing email newsletters is that I also like reading them. Last month, a few folks asked me which e-newsletters I regularly read — not the ones I subscribe to, but those I actually read.
Here, in alphabetical order, are my top five:
1. ArtsJournal – A fascinating roundup of stories on media, publishing, visual art, music, and the world of ideas. Daily and weekly.
2. NBER Digest – Brief but comprehensive summaries of the most interesting and important new economics papers. Monthly.
3. SmartBrief on Workforce – For HR nerds only, this e-zine has lots of great links about talent, organizational behavior, and management. Daily.
4. Springwise – An amazing roundup of new business ideas and surprising business models from around the world. Daily and weekly.
5. Very Short List – A book, a film, a DVD, a TV show, an album that you probably haven’t heard of and probably should. Daily.
Occupy Harvard, 1%:
Don’t occupy the Yard. Occupy the libraries. Occupy the classrooms. You have just four years to devote to actually getting a grip on some small portion of the vast array of human knowledge. Do not spend any of them in a tent, surrounded by other people who have no better ideas than you, “engaging in dialogue.” It smells peculiar there, and you could be in a red-brick building next to a bust of John Adams, learning something. If you actually want to come up with a way to remedy the injustice, it is the only thing to do.
Spotify, writing, music, lists:
Many National Novel Writing Month writers depend on music to keep working during the literary marathon.
To help keep you motivated, we’ve rounded up five great NaNoWriMo playlists we discovered on Spotify. Just follow the links below to access hours and hours of free writing music.
1. Kimberly Golden Malmgren’s List
2. Kaella’s List
3. Kendall Laszakovits’ List
4. Amanda E Ringqvist’s List
5. Andréa Solin’s List
As an extra bonus, follow this Spotify link to listen to “The NaNoWriMo Song” by All Caps.
This is our fourteenth NaNoWriMo Tip of the Day. As writers around the country join the writing marathon this month, we will share one piece of advice or writing tool to help you cope with this daunting project.
Supreme Court, power, Health care law:
That’s a lesson for today. The current swing vote, of course, is Anthony Kennedy, and it is difficult to imagine health care being upheld without his support. Kennedy is an ethical and honorable man, but there’s no doubt that he, too, follows the news. All the Justices do. The case will be argued next February or March, when all of us will have a better idea of whether President Obama will be reëlected. If Obama looks like a lame duck at that point, it will be a lot easier for the Justices to dismantle his signal achievement; if Obama looks like a winner, some on the Court may think twice about picking this particular fight with him.
To a great extent, that’s what happened with George W. Bush in the Supreme Court, especially when it came to the central events of his Presidency, the war on terror and the Iraq war. The Court did make a series of measured rulings against Bush on the issue of the detainees at Guantánamo when he was facing reëlection in 2004, but the Justices, especially Kennedy, really turned on him when the war went south. The Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2007) and Boumediene (2008) cases clearly owe something of their contemptuous tone to the failed nature of the Bush Presidency. Like voters, the Justices smell weakness, and respect strength. No one likes a loser.
Recent auguries have looked promising for the fate of health care in the Supreme Court. As challenges to the law have worked their way through the lower courts, political form has mostly held; judges appointed by Democratic Presidents have tended to uphold the law, and judges named by Republicans have voted it down. But two recent exceptions to that rule have certainly drawn the attention of the Justices. Jeffrey Sutton, a former law clerk to Antonin Scalia, wrote the opinion upholding the law in the Sixth Circuit, and Laurence Silbermann, a widely respected conservative, wrote a powerful endorsement of its constitutionality in the D.C. Circuit.
It all goes to show that sometimes (often) you don’t need a law degree to know how the Supreme Court is going to vote—just know which way the wind is blowing.
cookbook: The Paris 1906 cookbook is out today: every dish, every recipe, 200+ photos. Only $4.99. @iBookstore exclusive:iTunes.com/NextRestaurant
2012 Presidential Election, religion, Mormonism:
A dark truth of American politics in what is still the era of Reagan and the Bushes is that so many do not vote their own economic interests. Rather than living in reality they yield to what oddly are termed “cultural” considerations: moral and spiritual, or so their leaders urge them to believe. Under the banners of flag, cross, fetus, exclusive marriage between men and women, they march onward to their own deepening impoverishment. Much of the Tea Party fervor merely repeats this gladsome frolic.
AS the author of “The American Religion,” I learned a considerable respect for such original spiritual revelations as 19th-century Mormonism and early 20th-century Southern Baptism, admirably re-founded by the subtle theologian Edgar Young Mullins in his “Axioms of Religion.”
A religion becomes a people, as it has for the Jews and the Mormons, partly out of human tenacity inspired by the promise of the blessing of more life, but also through charismatic leadership. What we now call Judaism was essentially created by Rabbi Akiva ben Joseph to meet the needs of a Jewish people mired under Roman occupation in Palestine and elsewhere in the empire. A great sage, Akiva was also a leader of extraordinary charisma, an old man when martyred by the Emperor Hadrian, presumably for inspiring the insurrection of Bar Kokhba that ended at the siege of Bethar.
via Will This Election Be the Mormon Breakthrough? – NYTimes.com.
photos: Great photos!
November 8, 2011. A sedated black rhino is carried by military helicopter away from a poaching area in the hills of the Eastern Cape in South Africa to a new home 15 miles away. The World Wildlife Fund organized the move of 1,000 rhinos, which are under threat from poachers across Africa because of the market value of their horns.
via TIME Magazine’s Best Pictures of the Week, November 4-November 11 – LightBox.
British humor, American Humor, culture:
It’s often dangerous to generalize, but under threat, I would say that Americans are more “down the line.” They don’t hide their hopes and fears. They applaud ambition and openly reward success. Brits are more comfortable with life’s losers. We embrace the underdog until it’s no longer the underdog.We like to bring authority down a peg or two. Just for the hell of it. Americans say, “have a nice day” whether they mean it or not. Brits are terrified to say this. We tell ourselves it’s because we don’t want to sound insincere but I think it might be for the opposite reason. We don’t want to celebrate anything too soon. Failure and disappointment lurk around every corner. This is due to our upbringing. Americans are brought up to believe they can be the next president of the United States. Brits are told, “it won’t happen for you.”
There’s a received wisdom in the U.K. that Americans don’t get irony. This is of course not true. But what is true is that they don’t use it all the time. It shows up in the smarter comedies but Americans don’t use it as much socially as Brits. We use it as liberally as prepositions in every day speech. We tease our friends. We use sarcasm as a shield and a weapon. We avoid sincerity until it’s absolutely necessary. We mercilessly take the piss out of people we like or dislike basically. And ourselves. This is very important. Our brashness and swagger is laden with equal portions of self-deprecation. This is our license to hand it out.
via Ricky Gervais: Is There a Difference Between British and American Humor | TIME Ideas | TIME.com.
Dogwood Farms, Ann and Cot Campbell, kith/kin, kudos: Cary’s mom and dad … kudos!
The celebration was originally set to honor Aikenite, Dogwood Stable’s 4-year-old colt, for winning a spring race to give the Aiken-based outfit a gold tray from Keeneland Race Course.
…
.Aikenite won Dogwood’s eighth graded stakes race at Keeneland by rallying in the stretch to win the Commonwealth Stakes in April. Jockey John Velazquez guided Aikenite to his first stakes win by 2 1/4 lengths over Cool Bullet.
Dogwood won its first Keeneland grades stakes race in 1971 with Mrs. Cornwallis in the Alcibiades. Other Dogwood horses to win a gold julep cup from Keeneland include Luge II (Forerunner), Summer Squall (Blue Grass and Fayette Handicap), British Banker (Phoenix Breeders’ Cup), Golden Gale (Beaumont) and Vicarage (Perryville).
The eighth one earned Dogwood the solid gold tray, which the stable proudly displayed at the museum Friday night.
via Cot Campbell honored at hall of fame event | The Augusta Chronicle.
…
For Campbell, in his tailored role as a racing manager, the 2012 season will dawn with Aikenite at the head of the runners in the existing partnerships. This year, Aikenite, a son of Is It True, won the Commonwealth at Keeneland and the Churchill Downs Handicap on Derby Day, and those are the races he will target early next year as well. Campbell knows enough, though, not to heap upon Aikenite disproportionate praise. He has yet to reach the heights of such Dogwood runners as Summer Squall, Southjet, Inlander, Storm Song, Nassipour, Trippi, and Wild Escapade.
“He’s a very satisfying horse,” Campbell said of Aikenite. “A horse with a lovely personality. He’s not going to volunteer anything, but when you do ask him the question he’ll give you the answer. He’s here now in Aiken for a couple months. I was just over giving him some peppermints.”
It was Friday morning, and that evening the Campbells were set to host an open house at the local Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame and Museum. It was fitting that Aikenite’s victory in the Commonwealth earlier this year was enough to earn Dogwood a special honor from Keeneland, commemorating the stable’s eight graded stakes wins there. A gold tray of some sort was involved, but mostly it was a good excuse for a party. Aiken, pop. 29,494, has a rich tradition as South Carolina’s off season mecca for the Thoroughbred industry, offering a wintertime home to many of the leading stables throughout the history of the sport. Aikenite was named as Campbell’s tribute to Dogwood’s home.
“This is a good town to live in if you’re going to be in any kind of horse business,“ Campbell said. “We’ve invited the entire citizenry of Aiken, and right now it looks like they’re all coming.”
Without much doubt, the evening was destined to end up a tribute to Campbell as well.
“I was going to hold up my announcement about my plans, but I figured hell why not just say what I’ve got to say,” he said.
“To put it kindly, I’m in the twilight of my existence, or maybe the late evening,” Campbell said. “Who knows how long it will go on? I’m fit, I feel great, and I’m having a good time.
via Dogwood leader Cot Campbell eases into semi-retirement at 84 | Daily Racing Form.
Sara Bates, Watson Scholars, Davidson College, D2s, kith/kin, kudos: A fun blog to follow … daughter of classmates Thomas and Lisa. Kudos to Sara!
Let me share my experience with you as I travel this next year as a Watson Fellow.
Joe Paterno, tragedies: I hate this story …
The best piece about Darío Castrillón Hoyos was written by the Catholic essayist John Zmirak, and his words apply to Joe Paterno as well. Sins committed in the name of a higher good, Zmirak wrote, can “smell and look like lilies. But they flank a coffin. Lying dead and stiff inside that box is natural Justice … what each of us owes the other in an unconditional debt.”
No higher cause can trump that obligation — not a church, and certainly not a football program. And not even a lifetime of heroism can make up for leaving a single child alone, abandoned to evil, weeping in the dark.
via The Devil and Joe Paterno – NYTimes.com.
…
First, let’s get the language straight. The very last thing that these brave boys and men need is a nation referring to them as victims. They are heroes and survivors. Words matter.
Second, I’m not sure that any of us really know what happened and how it happened. But based on my research, I do know this:
When the culture of an organization mandates that it is more important to protect the reputation of a system and those in power than it is to protect the basic human dignity of individuals, you can be certain that shame is systemic, money drives ethics, and accountability is dead. This is true in corporations, nonprofits, universities, governments, churches, schools, families, and sports programs. If you think back on any major scandal fueled by cover-ups, you’ll see this pattern.
In an organizational culture where respect and the dignity of individuals are held as the highest values, shame and blame don’t work as management styles. There is no leading by fear. Empathy is a valued asset, accountability is an expectation rather than an exception, and the primal human need for belonging is not used as leverage and social control.
We can’t control the behavior of individuals; however, we can cultivate organizational cultures where behaviors are not tolerated and people are held accountable for protecting what matters most: human beings.
Atlanta, Civil War, history, William Sherman, Burning of Atlanta:
I reached Atlanta during the afternoon of the 14th, and found that all preparations had been made-Colonel Beckwith, chief commissary, reporting one million two hundred thousand rations in possession of the troops, which was about twenty days’ supply, and he had on hand a good supply of beef-cattle to be driven along on the hoof. Of forage, the supply was limited, being of oats and corn enough for five days, but I knew that within that time we would reach a country well stocked with corn, which had been gathered and stored in cribs, seemingly for our use, by Governor Brown’s militia.
Colonel Poe, United States Engineers, of my staff, had been busy in his special task of destruction. He had a large force at work, had leveled the great depot, round house, and the machine-shops of the Georgia Railroad, and had applied fire to the wreck. One of these machine-shops had been used by the rebels as an arsenal, and in it were stored piles of shot and shell, some of which proved to be loaded, and that night was made hideous by the bursting of shells, whose fragments came uncomfortably, near Judge Lyon’s house, in which I was quartered. The fire also reached the block of stores near the depot, and the heart of the city was in flames all night, but the fire did not reach the parts of Atlanta where the court-house was, or the great mass of dwelling houses.
Atlanta History Center, I reached Atlanta during the afternoon of the….
‘Three Cups of Tea, tragedy: I hate that Greg Mortenson’s story is not true.
The fight over whether mountaineer Greg Mortenson made up portions of “Three Cups of Tea,” his best-selling memoir about building schools in Pakistan, is getting nastier.
On Monday, Jon Krakauer, the climber and author, released online a 75-page story on Mr. Mortenson called “Three Cups of Deceit.” Mr. Krakauer also appeared in CBS’s “60 Minutes” program on Sunday, which cast doubt on Mr. Mortenson and the financial management of his charity, Central Asia Institute.
The allegations fall broadly in two categories: That Mr. Mortenson fabricated key elements of “Three Cups of Tea” and a later memoir “Stones into Schools” and that CAI has improperly helped Mr. Mortenson buy and promote his books.
via Were There ‘Three Cups of Deceit’? – India Real Time – WSJ.
DailyLit, The Intellectual Devotional: Love getting an excerpt every day! DailyLit: The Intellectual Devotional, book by David S. Kidder and Noah Oppenheim.
‘Stairway To Heaven’, music, history: Turns 40!!
“Stairway to Heaven.” Those three little words have come to mean so much. Led Zeppelin’s eight-minute classic turns 40 this week, and it still sets the bar for headbanging chutzpah, if not sophisticated songcraft.
Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were woodshedding in Wales when they devised their faery-strewn folk-metal psychedelia masterwork. Bassist/arranger John Paul Jones added mood-setting recorders and drummer John Bonham brought his protean thwunk to the game. The song may or may not have borrowed key elements from an instrumental by the American band Spirit, with whom they once toured. But nobody but Zep could have molded those chord progressions into such a masterpiece of excess.
“Stairway to Heaven” set the template for the power ballad and made unwitting J.R.R. Tolkien experts out of listeners who merely intended to get their rocks off. Depending on your view, the song is the greatest achievement of one of history’s most important groups … or rock’s ultimate nightmare, incessantly resurrected by awful cover bands, shrieking karaoke singers and your very drunk uncle who grabbed the microphone at your sister’s wedding reception.
via ‘Stairway To Heaven’ Turns 40: Celebrate With 7 Covers : The Record : NPR.
meditations, faith and spirituality, Henri Nouwen:
The Fruit of Our Communal LifeOur society encourages individualism. We are constantly made to believe that everything we think, say, or do, is our personal accomplishment, deserving individual attention. But as people who belong to the communion of saints, we know that anything of spiritual value is not the result of individual accomplishment but the fruit of a communal life.Whatever we know about God and Gods love; whatever we know about Jesus – his life, death, and resurrection – whatever we know about the Church and its ministry, is not the invention of our minds asking for an award. It is the knowledge that has come to us through the ages from the people of Israel and the prophets, from Jesus and the saints, and from all who have played roles in the formation of our hearts. True spiritual knowledge belongs to the communion of saints.
college tuition, student loans, Great Recession: Makes you think …
The college-bubble argument makes the solution to rising costs seem simple: if people just wake up, the bubble will pop, and reasonable prices will return. It’s much tougher to admit that there is no easy way out. Maybe we need to be willing to spend more and more of our incomes and taxpayer dollars on school, or maybe we need to be willing to pay educators and administrators significantly less, or maybe we need to find ways to make colleges more productive places, which would mean radically changing our idea of what going to college is all about. Until America figures out its priorities, college kids are going to have to keep running just to stand still. ♦
via College Tuition, Student Loans, and Unemployment : The New Yorker.
ADHD, science, brain-function link:
A brain area that helps orchestrate mental activity works overtime in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, reflecting the internal struggle to hold more than one thing in mind at a time, neuroscientists reported Sunday.
The scientists used a functional magnetic imaging scanner to track signs of neural activity among 19 affected children and 23 other children who were asked to remember a simple sequence of letters. The scientists discovered that a critical mental control area, called the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, worked much harder and, perhaps, less efficiently among children with attention problems.
This fundamental difference in brain function might be an underlying cause of the inattentiveness, impulsivity and focus problems that make it hard for ADHD children to concentrate in the classroom, the scientists said during an annual gathering of 31,000 brain researchers in Washington, D.C.
“Our findings suggest that the function as well as the structure of this brain area is different in children with ADHD,” said Wayne State University biologist Tudor Puiu, who reported the team’s findings Sunday at a conference held by the Society for Neuroscience. “It might explain the cognitive problems we see in the classroom.”
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, can be diagnosed in preschool-age children as young as 4, according to new treatment guidelines issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Jennifer Corbett Dooren has details on Lunch Break.
All told, about two million U.S. children have been diagnosed with attention problems. No one yet understands the basic neurobiology responsible for the mental ailment, which has grown more common since 2003, according to a survey by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.
NBA, Steph Curry: Yeah … Steph can finish the semester!
In a move that jeopardizes the NBA season, the NBA players union rejected the league’s latest offer and said it would begin the process to disband the union.
In a move that jeopardizes the NBA season, the NBA players union rejected the league’s latest offer and said it would begin the process to disband the union. Kevin Clark has details on The News Hub.
Labor talks “completely broke down,” said union Executive Director Billy Hunter. The union said it has begun legal proceedings to dissolve the union, a tactic that would take the dispute to the courts.
“The 2011-12 season is now in jeopardy,” said NBA Commissioner David Stern.
The decision came after a five-hour meeting among player representatives at a New York City hotel. Mr. Hunter said an anti-trust lawsuit should be filed in the next day or two. Union president Derek Fisher said the idea to dissolve was approved in “unanimous fashion.”
Jeffrey Kessler, a union lawyer, said the decision came after the players agreed that “bargaining completely failed” and said the players wanted to assert their antitrust rights.
via Players Reject NBA’s Offer, Begin to Disband Union – WSJ.com.
Jerry Sandusky Scandal/tragedy:
Jerry Sandusky to Bob Costas in exclusive ‘Rock Center’ interview: ‘I shouldn’t have showered with those kids.’
Davison College, Wildcats v. Spiders: Up by 9 at the half … Wildcats stomp the Spiders. 🙂
music, theme song: Some days just need a theme song: Beatles – The Long and Winding Road ( Phil Spector Orchestration ) – YouTube.
faith and spirituality, art, Laurie Carter, kith/kin, Charlotte Latin Families, kudos: Kudos to Laurie Carter for her beautiful Ascension needlepoint, “threading so fine it appears to be paint.” What a great project for a church to undertake!
Here’s an interesting theological question: Are the verses and stories of the Bible open to artistic interpretation?
Sunday, you can judge for yourself. That’s when Christ Lutheran Church on Providence Road opens its biblical gallery to the public.
For 43 weeks, the congregation built part of its Sunday service around a chronological examination of what is perhaps history’s most famous book, and each installment featured an original piece of art.
The goal, says the church’s art coordinator, Stephanie Burke, was to use “some of the best-read stories of our times as the perfect opportunity to tap into the deep vein of artistic talent in our congregation that had yet to be used ministerially.”
Outside artists also joined in. A few even responded to Burke’s invitation on craigslist.
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For the Ascension, Laurie Carter spent six months using needlepoint to re-create the cover of the church’s Easter bulletin, threading so fine it appears to be paint.
via The art of faith | CharlotteObserver.com & The Charlotte Observer Newspaper.
writing, lesson plans, twitter, social media, Ernest Hemingway, short short story: Less Is More! I had forgotten about Hemingway’s “For sale: baby shoes, never used.”
Overview | How can online media like Twitter posts, Facebook status updates and text messages be harnessed to inspire and guide concise writing? In this lesson, students read, respond to and write brief fiction and nonfiction stories, and reflect on the benefits and drawbacks of “writing short.”
Materials | Slips of paper with brief stories (see below; one per student), computers with Internet access
Warm-Up | Before class, select six-word love stories from The Times’s Well blog, in the post itself and in the reader comments, to share with students. (You can find more stories in the same vein at the Web site Dear Old Love and Smith Magazine’s Six-Word Memoirs.)
To use fictional stories instead of or alongside memoirs, include the following “short short story” by Ernest Hemingway, along with stories posted on the Web site inspired by it, Six Word Stories:
For sale: baby shoes, never used.
via Less Is More: Using Social Media to Inspire Concise Writing – NYTimes.com.
Matt Ridley, scientific heresy, climate change, TED: I have no idea who matt Ridley is (so I looked him up … see below), but this is very interesting … funny even.
My topic today is scientific heresy. When are scientific heretics right and when are they mad? How do you tell the difference between science and pseudoscience?
Let us run through some issues, starting with the easy ones.
Astronomy is a science; astrology is a pseudoscience.
Evolution is science; creationism is pseudoscience.
Molecular biology is science; homeopathy is pseudoscience.
Vaccination is science; the MMR scare is pseudoscience.
Oxygen is science; phlogiston was pseudoscience.
Chemistry is science; alchemy was pseudoscience.
Are you with me so far?
A few more examples. That the earl of Oxford wrote Shakespeare is pseudoscience. So are the beliefs that Elvis is still alive, Diana was killed by MI5, JFK was killed by the CIA, 911 was an inside job. So are ghosts, UFOs, telepathy, the Loch Ness monster and pretty well everything to do with the paranormal. Sorry to say that on Halloween, but that’s my opinion.
Three more controversial ones. In my view, most of what Freud said was pseudoscience.
So is quite a lot, though not all, of the argument for organic farming.
So, in a sense by definition, is religious faith. It explicitly claims that there are truths that can be found by other means than observation and experiment.
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That’s a voodoo claim. The glacier claim was not peer reviewed; nor was the alteration to the sensitivity function Lewis spotted. The journalist Donna Laframboise got volunteers all over the world to help her count the times the IPCC used non-peer reviewed literature. Her conclusion is that*: “Of the 18,531 references in the 2007 Climate Bible we found 5,587 – a full 30% – to be non peer-reviewed.”
Yet even to say things like this is to commit heresy. To stand up and say, within a university or within the BBC, that you do not think global warming is dangerous gets you the sort of reaction that standing up in the Vatican and saying you don’t think God is good would get. Believe me, I have tried it.
Does it matter? Suppose I am right that much of what passes for mainstream climate science is now infested with pseudoscience, buttressed by a bad case of confirmation bias, reliant on wishful thinking, given a free pass by biased reporting and dogmatically intolerant of dissent. So what?
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The remarkable thing about the heretics I have mentioned is that every single one is doing this in his or her spare time. They work for themselves, they earn a pittance from this work. There is no great fossil-fuel slush fund for sceptics.
In conclusion, I’ve spent a lot of time on climate, but it could have been dietary fat, or nature and nurture. My argument is that like religion, science as an institution is and always has been plagued by the temptations of confirmation bias. With alarming ease it morphs into pseudoscience even – perhaps especially – in the hands of elite experts and especially when predicting the future and when there’s lavish funding at stake. It needs heretics.
Thank you very much for listening.
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British author Matt Ridley knows one thing: Through history, the engine of human progress and prosperity has been, and is, the mating of ideas. The sophistication of the modern world, says Ridley, lies not in individual intelligence or imagination; it is a collective enterprise. In his book The Rational Optimist, Ridley (whose previous works include Genome and Nature via Nurture) sweeps the entire arc of human history to powerfully argue that “prosperity comes from everybody working for everybody else.”
It is our habit of trade, idea-sharing and specialization that has created the collective brain which set human living standards on a rising trend. This, he says, “holds out hope that the human race will prosper mightily in the years ahead — because ideas are having sex with each other as never before.”
Watch his 2010 TEDTalk, “When Ideas Have Sex.”
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Matt Ridley: When ideas have sex | Video on TED.com.
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