In the 1996 movie Black Sheep David Spade, “glances at a fold-up map and realizes he somehow has become unfamiliar with the name for paved driving surfaces. ‘Robes? Rouges? Rudes?‘ Nothing seems right. … ‘Rowds. Row-ads.‘ … Row-ad-type word wig outs similar to the one portrayed in that movie are things that actually happen, in real life, to people with full and total control over their mental capacities.”
Why Do Japanese Seem Fond Of Insects While Westerners Abhor Them?
“Travel agencies advertise firefly-watching tours, there are televised beetle-wrestling competitions and beetle petting zoos. Department stores and even vending machines sell live insects. … Not all Japanese, perhaps not even the majority, admire insects. But while Western culture amplifies our perhaps innately human suspicion of insects into distaste and fear, Japanese culture encourages affection, even reverence, for the six-legged. Why?”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.04.15
On Selfies vs. Self-Portraits and Universal Beauty vs. What I Find Beautiful (Beauty Class Portfolio Assignments)
AJBlog: Jumper Published 2015-03-04
Art and Puppies
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2015-03-04
Hot competition
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2015-03-04
Just Because: Dizzy Gillespie, 1987
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2015-03-03
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Rethinking How Technology Can Help Students Learn
“We’ve seen that technology can do a lot of stuff to support students, but the real driver is: Do they actually want to learn something? If they do, kids will go through a lot of barriers to learn it. Creating the conditions that turn on that drive has become the major function of our work.”
Biggest Selling Book Last Week? Workers Of The World Unite!
“More than 1,700 bargain copies of The Communist Manifesto have sold in the last week, in the form of an 80p edition of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s call to the working classes to revolt.”
Controversy Over Twerking Exposes Dance Hierarchy
The whole conversation around twerking unwittingly exposed a dance-world hierarchy, whereby some styles are ignored while others are bestowed with the status of art. “[That debate] raised a question about why some dances become very well-funded, and other dances just remain in the dark.”
Remake Of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall Will Be Named For Geffen
“David Geffen, the entertainment magnate who has shaped cultural tastes in music and movies and holds one of the world’s leading art collections, is extending his reach into classical music with a $100 million gift that will renovate — and rename — Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.”
Logical: Canadians Are Turning Their $5 Bill Into Tributes To Mr. Spock
“For years, Canadians have been wielding pens to draw Spock’s pointy Vulcan ears, sharp eyebrows and signature bowl haircut on the fiver’s image of Laurier. Contrary to what many believe, the Bank of Canada said Monday it’s not illegal to deface or even mutilate banknotes, although there are laws that prohibit reproducing both sides of a current bill electronically.”
A-List Stars Used To Sell Movies. Now, Not So Much
“The shelf-lives of A-listers are just much shorter. Basically, you find a lot more actors having that spark of an A-list spark. The ability to structure a career almost as completely and militantly as someone like Tom Cruise” — who conquered Hollywood hit by hit — “is very tough.”
Dubai Unveils Plans For Futuristic “Museum Of The Future”
The latest in innovation. “The $136 million project is expected to open in 2017. The curving, oblong — and of course futuristic-looking — building will feature poetry written by the Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also the Emirati prime minister.”
ASCAP Pulled In More Than $1 Billion In 2014
“ASCAP, the music licensing agency, is in one sense fighting for its survival, seeking to change decades-old rules to fit the economics of online music. In another, it is finding ways to distribute more money than ever to its thousands of songwriters. … [Last year was] the first time that ASCAP or any organization like it has raised so much.”