Prisoners of Possibility: Robbe-Grillet’s La Belle Captive as ‘Quantum Text’

Prisoners of Possibility: Robbe-Grillet’s La Belle Captive as ‘Quantum Text’

John Ford Made … Monsters? The Grotesque Tradition in Ford’s Work

John Ford Made … Monsters? The Grotesque Tradition in Ford’s Work

Land of Promise: The British Documentary Movement 1930-1950 (British Film Institute)

Land of Promise: The British Documentary Movement 1930-1950 (British Film Institute)

“1963-1968. Paris: The Godard Years”

“1963-1968. Paris: The Godard Years”

Milton’s Golden Compass

On heav’nly ground they stood, and from the shore They view’d the vast immeasurable Abyss Outrageous as a Sea, dark, wasteful, wilde, Up from the bottom turn’d by furious windes And surging waves, as Mountains to assault Heav’ns highth, and with the Center mix the Pole. . . .

Milton’s Golden Compass

Warmed to Death: Climate Change Threatens German Flora

A new study by German and French researchers claims that a dramatic rise in the globe’s temperature could wipe out one in five German plant species by 2080. Plants must migrate to more hospitable niches — or die out.

Warmed to Death: Climate Change Threatens German Flora

Looking Away From Beauty

Every four years I marvel all over again at those bodies honed like precision instruments to defy the bounds of human ability, those people flying with graceful force over hurdles, off diving boards, into somersaults in midair, speeding down tracks, slicing through water. The athletes’ bodies are relentlessly particular, concrete, personal, and tangible: the reality [...]

Looking Away From Beauty

One-Fifth of Iraq Funding Paid to Contractors

Excerpt: As a new report forecasts that the 190,000 private contractors in Iraq and neighboring countries will cost U.S. taxpayers more than $100 billion by the end of 2008, an under-the-radar Florida court case suggests that U.S. President George W. Bush — a staunch contractor supporter — is preparing to throw security contractors such as Blackwater under the political bus.

One-Fifth of Iraq Funding Paid to Contractors

Air Fresheners’ Unlisted Ingredients

[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

Laundry detergents and air fresheners have long promised to keep your house and clothes smelling sunshine fresh and rain shower clean. But what they haven't said is what exactly you're sniffing when you snuggle up in your just-washed sheets. After hearing from people who said strong scents made them sick, University of Washington researcher Anne Steinemann scratched the surface and found almost a hundred chemicals that weren't listed on the labels. According to her report in the journal Environmental Impact Assessment Review, plug-in air fresheners, scented sprays, dryer sheets and detergents all contained a mixture of volatile organic compounds. [More]

Air Fresheners’ Unlisted Ingredients

The Danger of Stress

You probably think you're doing everything you can to stay healthy: you get lots of sleep, exercise regularly and try to avoid fried foods. But you may be forgetting one important thing. Relax! Stress has a bigger impact on your health than you might realize, according to research presented yesterday at the annual conference of the American Psychological Association in Boston. [More]

The Danger of Stress

Surfer physicist gets grant to study theory of everything

Last week, the Foundational Questions Institute (FQXi) announced it has awarded $2.7 million in grants to 33 researchers to study basic questions in physics and cosmology.Among the grant winners was surfer/theoretical physicist A. Garrett Lisi (pictured), who made the news…

Surfer physicist gets grant to study theory of everything

Why real and imagined disgust have the same effect

Reading something disgusting and actually experiencing it have effects in the same part of the brain - test it for yourself with this disgusting prose

Why real and imagined disgust have the same effect

Bisexuality passed on by ‘hyper-heterosexuals’

‘Gay genes’ persist because female relatives of homosexual and bisexual men have more children than those of straight men

Bisexuality passed on by ‘hyper-heterosexuals’

Eleven new streams of stars found in Milky Way

The streams were likely ripped from dwarf galaxies that were gobbled up by our Milky Way long ago

Eleven new streams of stars found in Milky Way

Milky Way keeps tight grip on its neighbour

The Large Magellanic Cloud is not breaking free of the Milky Way’s cluster of galaxies after all, according to the latest measurements on our galaxy

Milky Way keeps tight grip on its neighbour

Stone Age mass graves reveal green Sahara

Sahara desert was lush and people thrived 10,000 years ago - before the climate changed for the worse

Stone Age mass graves reveal green Sahara

Farms in Brazil and India must adapt or roast in heat

Agriculture in Brazil and India cannot avoid the effects of global warming, but low-latitude countries can take steps to limit the damage, says study

Farms in Brazil and India must adapt or roast in heat

"Pluto Huggers" Fight to Renew Planet Status

Two years after Pluto was ousted from the planet lineup, some Pluto supporters aren’t giving up hope for restoring the now dwarf planet’s title.

"Pluto Huggers" Fight to Renew Planet Status

Portal to mythical Mayan underworld found

Mexican archeologists have discovered a maze of stone temples in underground caves, some submerged in water and containing human bones, which ancient Mayans believed was a portal where dead souls entered the underworld.

Portal to mythical Mayan underworld found

Quantum atoms "dance to chaos"

Chaotic behaviour has been observed for the first time in a quantum system of ‘frozen’ atoms. This an important step in applying classical physical laws to weird quantum systems and could have spin-off benefits for technology.

Quantum atoms "dance to chaos"

Nobody cared when they were alive or mourned when they died alone

Elizabeth Day reports on modern-day Eleanor Rigbys who die with no friends or family to notice

Nobody cared when they were alive or mourned when they died alone

Hiroshima & Nagasaki Mayors - Toward the Abolition of Nuclear War: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Declarations

Toward the Abolition of Nuclear War: Hiroshima and Nagasaki DeclarationsOn the 63rd anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we present once again the Peace Declarations of the two cities. They call on all nations, and particularly the nuclear powers, to honor their commitments as signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to abolish nuclear weapons, noting that precisely the opposite has been the tendency of recent years. Both also outline citizen-based approaches to ending nuclear war and abolishing nuclear weapons. Hiroshima Peace Declaration 2008Another August 6, and the horrors of 63 years ago arise undiminished in the minds of our hibakusha, whose average age now exceeds 75. "Water, please!" "Help me!""Mommy!" — On this day, we, too, etch in our hearts the voices, faces and forms that vanished in the hell no hibakusha can ever forget, renewing our determination that VNo one else should…

Hiroshima & Nagasaki Mayors - Toward the Abolition of Nuclear War: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Declarations

Teachers warn of ‘brand bullying’ (UK)

The poll found more than eight in 10 teachers (85%) believe possession of fashionable goods is important to their pupils, with 93% saying brands are the top influence on what children buy, followed by friends (91%) and logos (77%).

Teachers warn of ‘brand bullying’ (UK)

Prelude To Excellence

Prelude To Excellence - Forbes.com

Greeley teen spends year building WWII diorama

Greeley teen spends year building WWII diorama Buildings in the tiny French village are not much more than crumbled stone in the aftermath of the bombs and the tanks.You can almost hear the bullets f | GreeleyTribune.com

Book of the week: 1918: A Very British Victory

A.W. Purdue on the high cost of the Armistice

Book of the week: 1918: A Very British Victory

Modernism for the Masses

What’s most impressive about Charles Eames’s House, officially known as Case Study House #8, is the modesty of everything, the easygoing relationship between structures and site.

Modernism for the Masses

Mills & Boon: the art of love

As Mills & Boon celebrates its 100th birthday, a new collection of cover illustrations reveals how all those blushing virgins and square-jawed heroes have evolved over the decades. Louisa McKay is gripped.

Mills & Boon: the art of love

Music: Puccini at 150, Still Capable of Revelations

Puccini’s popularity continues to grow, and this year is no different, with releases of new CDs of “La Bohème” and an eye-opening new film.

Music: Puccini at 150, Still Capable of Revelations

Bold English: Anglo-Saxon Poetry

Hwæt. That word, barking through the clatter of the mead hall, typically opened an Old English poem in the Dark Ages, and roughly translates to "What" or "Listen now." Old English is largely Germanic, its brusque sounds ungussied by the softer French words that would later mix into Middle English. It is the language of conquerors: The Roman Empire, finally crushed by the Vandals and Goths, withdrew from Britain in the fifth century, leaving the rural Britons to a vicious invasion by the Angles…

Bold English: Anglo-Saxon Poetry

‘The Life of a Jazz Singer’: The Ballad of Anita O’Day

For the bulk of her career, the late Anita O’Day (1919-2006) described herself, quite accurately, as a "song stylist" rather than just a jazz vocalist. Not surprisingly, then, the central sequence in "Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer," which makes its premiere Friday at Cinema Village, is a performance. In 1958, O’Day was invited to appear at the Newport Jazz Festival — the same year that filmmakers Bert Stern and Aram Avakian were asked to document what was then the fifth annual seaside…

‘The Life of a Jazz Singer’: The Ballad of Anita O’Day

Hammershoi’s decade of brilliance, before banality set in

For 10 dazzling years, the Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershoi seemed possessed by some inner vision that made him see the world around him through a luminous haze. Some of his poetic portraits and interiors are now on view at the Royal Academy until Sept. 7.

Hammershoi’s decade of brilliance, before banality set in

While a magician works, the mind does the tricks

How do magicians take advantage of our brains to create their seemingly impossible illusions?

While a magician works, the mind does the tricks

Mozart as an obstacle - and an inspiration

Kaija Saariaho, a Finnish composer who is in residence at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center in New York this summer, will be sharing the stage - figuratively at least - with a forebear whose example nearly stifled her own creativity.

Mozart as an obstacle - and an inspiration

Academics don’t know it all

As an independent art “historian”, I am puzzled by how academic scholars deride and belittle the …

Academics don’t know it all

‘Don’t Give Up the Ship’

‘Don’t Give Up the Ship’ » HistoryNet - From the World’s Largest History Magazine Publisher

An Ode to John Keats’s Immortality

When Stanley Plumly was finally ready to write "Posthumous Keats," he sat down at his IBM Selectric III and just typed it out.

An Ode to John Keats’s Immortality

Ideas & Trends: Kafka Himself Gets a Metamorphosis

A “porn” stash may show little but how each age shapes its idols.

Ideas & Trends: Kafka Himself Gets a Metamorphosis

Global systemic crisis / September 2008 - Phase of collapse of US real economy

Global systemic crisis / September 2008 - Phase of collapse of US real economy

Dr. Doom - Profile - Nouriel Roubini - Predicting Crisis in the United States Economy

Dr. Doom - Profile - Nouriel Roubini - Predicting Crisis in the United States Economy - NYTimes.com

Coastal "dead zones" spread globally, study finds

"Dead zones" in coastal waters — regions of ocean floor so deprived of oxygen that most marine life cannot survive — are spreading worldwide at an alarming pace, scientists said on Thursday. Driving the trend are nitrogen and phosphorous from chemical agricultural fertilizers that reach coastal waters after flowing off farm fields and into streams and rivers, according to the study published in the journal Science.

Coastal "dead zones" spread globally, study finds

Antarctic Climate: Short-term Spikes, Long-term Warming Linked To Tropical Pacific

Dramatic year-to-year temperature swings and a century-long warming trend across West Antarctica are linked to conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean, according to a new analysis of ice cores conducted by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Washington (UW).

Antarctic Climate: Short-term Spikes, Long-term Warming Linked To Tropical Pacific

The enduring appeal of the local; sociable networking in the pub

The enduring appeal of the local; sociable networking in the pub

Alison Benjamin: Why the decline in bee numbers matters

Alison Benjamin: The decline of bees won’t just affect honey production – they’re as important as the sun and rain in making crops grow

Alison Benjamin: Why the decline in bee numbers matters

Peter Singer: Money may be widening the social and emotional distances between us

Peter Singer: Not just the love of money, but money itself may be widening the social and emotional distances between us, psychologists say

Peter Singer: Money may be widening the social and emotional distances between us

Honeybee deaths reaching crisis point threatening fruit and vegetable pollination

Honeybee deaths reaching crisis point threatening fruit and vegetable pollination | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Ocean dead zones become a worldwide problem

Ocean dead zones become a worldwide problem - Yahoo! News

Mass Extinctions And ‘Rise Of Slime’ Predicted For Oceans

Mass Extinctions And ‘Rise Of Slime’ Predicted For Oceans

The Era of Catastrophe? Geologists Name New Era After Human Influence on the Planet

A striking report from the front lines of science suggests we’re officially entering a period in which humanity may simply outrun history itself.

The Era of Catastrophe? Geologists Name New Era After Human Influence on the Planet

Climate ‘altering UK bird habits’

Climate change is altering the egg-laying of many UK birds, and numbers visiting the country’s shores, a report concludes.

Climate ‘altering UK bird habits’

Are Viruses Alive? [Features]

Editor's Note: This story was originally published in the December 2004 issue of Scientific American.

In an episode of the classic 1950s television comedy The Honeymooners, Brooklyn bus driver Ralph Kramden loudly explains to his wife, Alice, “You know that I know how easy you get the virus.” Half a century ago even regular folks like the Kramdens had some knowledge of viruses–as microscopic bringers of disease. Yet it is almost certain that they did not know exactly what a virus was. They were, and are, not alone.

[More]

Are Viruses Alive? [Features]

Solar systems like ours may be rare

Planetary systems like ours formed just 1% of the time in a new computer model of planet-forming discs

Solar systems like ours may be rare

World’s most powerful accelerator set to switch on

The first protons will be accelerated to near-light speeds at the Large Hadron Collider on 10 September

World’s most powerful accelerator set to switch on

Cassini to search for source of Saturn moon’s plumes

On Monday, the spacecraft will fly within 50 km of Enceladus, searching for heat signatures that could reveal what powers the moon’s icy jets

Cassini to search for source of Saturn moon’s plumes

Vanishing Animal Migrations Need Saving, Experts Say

Habitat destruction and climate change are making migrations increasingly difficult for many species, but it’s not too late to bring these visually spectacular and environmentally critical mass movements back, according to a new study.

Vanishing Animal Migrations Need Saving, Experts Say

Extreme Rains to Be Supercharged by Warming, Study Says

Raising the specter intense flooding and epidemics, a new study suggests global warming could make rains stronger and more frequent than previously forecast.

Extreme Rains to Be Supercharged by Warming, Study Says

Meltdown in the Arctic is speeding up

Scientists warn that the North Pole could be free of ice in just five years’ time instead of 60

Meltdown in the Arctic is speeding up

Mark Lynas: Why we must heed Bob Watson’s climate change warning

Mark Lynas: Bob Watson rightly warns us to prepare for 4C global warming. To avoid that, we must make drastic CO2 cuts now

Mark Lynas: Why we must heed Bob Watson’s climate change warning

Sensory cross-wiring causes people to ‘hear’ movement

Cross-wiring in their brains causes some people with synaesthesia to perceive numbers or letters as having colours. Now researchers have discovered synaesthetes who perceive movements as sounds, such as tapping, beeping or whirring.

Sensory cross-wiring causes people to ‘hear’ movement

Australian trees have secret stash of carbon

Australia’s native forests may be storing three times more carbon than previously thought, a new report says.

Australian trees have secret stash of carbon

India’s nuclear fuel shortage

India is suffering from a severe uranium fuel shortage due to a lack of domestic uranium, which has held up its ambitious nuclear energy program. Without uranium fuel, its existing reactors have run at partial capacity producing less electricity and new plants have been delayed repeatedly.

India’s nuclear fuel shortage

Vienna celebrates Venus centenary

Austrians mark 100 years since the discovery of a tiny but curvy figurine, dubbed the Venus of Willendorf, dating back 25,000 years.

Vienna celebrates Venus centenary

The coming first world debt crisis

The coming first world debt crisis | open Democracy News Analysis

The Fire This Time?

Any American who’s been on the planet for more than a few years has lived through a series of economic ups and downs — what economists call the business cycle. These booms and busts seem to follow one another as inevitably as sunset does sunrise. Phil Gramm hasn’t apparently noticed, but we’re now pretty deep [...]

The Fire This Time?

New Map Aims to Help Battle for Arctic Territories

LONDON - British researchers unveiled on Wednesday what they billed as the “first ever” Arctic map to show key disputed territories in the resource-rich region. The map — which highlights Arctic areas where boundaries are already agreed, as well as areas where claims have been made and where disputes could break out — is designed to [...]

New Map Aims to Help Battle for Arctic Territories

Prepare For Global Temperature Rise of 4C, Warns Top ScientistDefra’s chief adviser says we need strategy to adapt to potential catastrophic increase

The UK should take active steps to prepare for dangerous climate change of perhaps 4C according to one of the government’s chief scientific advisers. In policy areas such as flood protection, agriculture and coastal erosion Professor Bob Watson said the country should plan for the effects of a 4C global average rise on pre-industrial levels. The [...]

Prepare For Global Temperature Rise of 4C, Warns Top ScientistDefra’s chief adviser says we need strategy to adapt to potential catastrophic increase

Is the market The Enemy?

Is the market The Enemy?

Friction over Fan Fiction

Literary Review of Canada Online - Friction over Fan Fiction

A Christian at the Movies

Oh for the days of the old Hollywood Production Code, when men were men, women were ladies, and sociopaths weren’t always the coolest guys in the room. You remember the Production Code: that system of dos and don’ts more or less agreed upon by moral watchdogs and studio heads to ensure that movie criminals always [...]

A Christian at the Movies

73% of students work

ALMOST three-quarters of Scotland’s students have to work to help fund their time at college or university, a survey revealed yesterday.

73% of students work

Miley Cyrus and the secret power of tweens

Tweens spend or influence their parents to spend $500 billion a year, estimates children’s marketing expert James U. McNeal — enough to buy both Microsoft and Google.

Miley Cyrus and the secret power of tweens

Bad spelling ’should be accepted’

Common spelling mistakes should be accepted as ‘variant spellings’, a lecturer has said.

Bad spelling ’should be accepted’

Is Memorizing Trivia Good for the Brain?

Does memorizing sports trivia as a child help contribute to easier memorization of materials as you get older? Experts debate the effects on the brain.

Is Memorizing Trivia Good for the Brain?

The Internet Is Ruining America’s Movies and Music

Why we’ll really miss our old-fashioned rock stars.

The Internet Is Ruining America’s Movies and Music

Many happy returns, credit crunch

Only about half of the £250bn of toxic debt at the heart of the crunch has been fully recognised. That means many more months of misery

Until a year ago the word "crunch" was something associated with a chocolate bar or a competitive sports event. No one outside the esoteric world of the interbank market - where financial institutions swap loans - would have applied it to an economic condition. Twelve months on from 9 August 2007, the day the markets froze over, it has become a headline writers’ favourite and part of the national dialogue.

[...]

Many happy returns, credit crunch

US Mortgage Crisis: Fannie and Freddie. Give Away the Farm

For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

US Mortgage Crisis: Fannie and Freddie. Give Away the Farm

The Lies Of Hiroshima Are The Lies Of Today

For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

The Lies Of Hiroshima Are The Lies Of Today

Dirk Bogarde’s letters - part one

In public, Dirk Bogarde was shy, reserved, polite to a fault. But in private, he was far more entertaining. In the first of two extracts from a new collection of his most intimate, wickedly funny personal letters, we reveal Dirk as he really was.

Dirk Bogarde’s letters - part one

Inflated phrases

When matter leads to immateriality and transcends the actuality of the object, we are reading a text about art. Notes on the crisis of criticism by Christian Demand

Inflated phrases

Mohammed on the "straight path"

Did the Prophet Mohammed only become a power-conscious religious politician in Medina, where he emigrated from Mecca in 622? Author of a new Mohammed biography, Tilman Nagel has found much to indicate the absence of any genuine break in the evolution of this religious founder.

Mohammed on the "straight path"

An Allegory To Vindicate Arcimboldo

Giuseppe Arcimboldo painted many interesting works, but few really good ones. That is one of the reasons for which this 16th-century Lombard master is held in scant regard by the more discerning critics of Old Master painting. Another reason, to be frank, is that people who don’t like painting often like Arcimboldo. Their affection is a consequence of the defining weirdness of his career — his fashioning of human portraits from such extravagant composites as fruits, books, timber, and eels. Nor…

An Allegory To Vindicate Arcimboldo

Flu pandemic ‘gravest risk to UK’

BBC NEWS | Politics | Flu pandemic ‘gravest risk to UK’

To make our cities healthier, think regional

To make our cities healthier, think regional | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press

Bumper Harvests Not Enough to Ease Food Costs

Bumper Harvests Not Enough to Ease Food Costs - WSJ.com

Surplus U.S. food supplies dry up

Surplus U.S. food supplies dry up - USATODAY.com

Her Own Society

Her Own Society: Books: The New Yorker

History repeats in age-old language

History repeats in age-old language | The Australian

Economics Does Not Lie

Economics Does Not Lie by Guy Sorman, City Journal Summer 2008

The Rap on Hip-Hop

The American Spectator

The Book on the Shelf

Richard Cohen - The Book on the Shelf - washingtonpost.com