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Arts
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Images of War and Peace
Text
| Audio
NEW
Holy wars, civil wars, world wars and race wars: the artists featured in a new exhibit entitled “The Art of War & Peace” span continents, time and types of conflict.
At the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Md., through 9/2002, it
highlights the work of 65 self-taught artists, most of whom have experienced war firsthand.
“War, like peace, is always experienced one irreplaceable universe at a time,” Rebecca Hoffberger, the museum’s director and founder, told NPR’s Elizabeth Blair.
The experience of war is so huge, it is often difficult to comprehend. This exhibit is dedicated to individual artistic responses to terrible events and is broken down into two sections: the art of war, and the art of peace. Some of the artists express pain, while other artists draw from their pain to evoke peace.
-- NPR
The Art of Aftermath, Distilled in Memory
NEW
How do artists respond to momentous acts of violence? Some are stunned into silence, others rush forward to express their feelings with a poem or a painting. But many allow for a time of reflection until they can begin to grasp the meaning and approach it within a creative context.
In the mix of responses, though, there appear to be marked similarities of theme and emotion that transcend time, cultures and particular disasters.
"There are specific forms of reaction that are unique to each culture," said Clifford Chanin, the founder and president of the Legacy Project, a nonprofit research organization that studies the creative and intellectual response to cataclysms like Hiroshima, the Holocaust and the Armenian and Cambodian genocides. But, he added, "what is amazing are the similarities, how much the works explore the same kind of questions, although from very different cultural perspectives."
-- New York Times
Art
Without an Author
There's something new in the field
of copyright and trademarks. And it has nothing to do with the Internet.
Rather it involves a move to protect something a little more traditional
-- the art, music, and culture of indigenous peoples throughout the world.
The World Intellectual Property Organization is a leader in the effort to
standardize intellectual property laws worldwide. Three years ago it
launched a series of fact-finding missions to analyze issues relating to
protecting traditional knowledge and folklore. While the United States has laws on the books protecting artists from infringement, the country does not recognize folklore and traditional knowledge for copyright protection. The United
States has given "lip service" to the idea that it offers protection to Native American artists.
-- Law.com
Business -
Green
and Growing
What is environmental sustainability, and how can you measure it? How are prosperity and greenery related? It has been a combative and so far undecided issue among environmentalists and economists, made the more so by the poor quality of most environmental data. Now a team
hopes to fill that information gap, and perhaps to help answer the broader question, too.
They have developed the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI), a detailed assessment of dozens of variables that influence the environmental health of economies
and released its rankings of 122 countries.
-- The Economist
Entertainment -
The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century
NPR explores the stories behind the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century.
These cover a wide variety of genres, including classical, jazz, rock'n'roll, country, R&B, musical theatre and film scores.
By virtue of its achievement, beauty, or excellence, the work is an important milestone of American music in the 20th century. It significantly changed the musical landscape, opened new horizons, or in itself had a major effect on American culture and civilization.
-- NPR
Environment
-
Fashion
Designer Tam goes home for 'China Chic'
One of the world's most successful fashion designers is transferring her talents to the printed page.
Vivienne Tam's new book, "China Chic," takes a look at her homeland's influence on world style.
Each chapter offers an insight into different aspects of Chinese culture, including food, furniture and, of course, fashion.
"This book is about lifestyle," she said. "If I had to summarize it, ... it's more like bringing the traditional together with the pop culture. It's like East meets West."
-- CNN.com
Food -
The Reality of GMOs
NEW
Ask the people next to you what they know about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and chances are they won't know much, if anything. A recent survey shows that only a third of Americans are aware that GMOs have infiltrated our food chain. Nearly half simply don't believe it.
This disbelief and lack of awareness isn't surprising, given that the U. S. government has paved the way for a quiet invasion. Federal agencies have done this by actively promoting the genetic engineering of food crops while opposing mandatory labeling of GE products.
-- Sound Consumer
Biotech corn protein found in other seeds
Material from a genetically engineered type of corn found in taco shells earlier this year has been discovered in a different
seed. The discovery raises the possibility that the material could find its way into other food products.
"We don't yet know exactly what happened where and how," USDA spokesman Andy Solomon said. "We are working with the companies involved and others in the industry to learn more about the nature and the extent of the situation."
-- CNN.com
Health -
Young people look to Web for health information, survey finds
NEW
Three-quarters of teenagers and young adults online have used the Internet to research health information, including details on sensitive topics such as depression, birth control and sexually transmitted
diseases. Results suggest the Internet could be a valuable alternative for those who are uncomfortable talking to their parents or doctors about sensitive topics.
"The Internet is empowering young people," said Vicky Rideout of the Kaiser Family
Foundation. "Right there, at the click of a finger, without anybody knowing about it, they can find this whole wealth of information."
However, Rideout added that teenagers and young adults need to be educated on how to evaluate the information they find and how to identify differences between advertising and medical expertise.The study found that 90 percent of teenagers and young adults ages 15-24 have used the Internet, and nearly half of them go online at least once a day.
Among those who have checked health information, 44 percent have
researched topics related to pregnancy, birth control, AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases.
-- Nando Times
New Trend: Paying for Boutique Medicine
NEW
Dr. John Kirkpatrick of Seattle does something that's almost unheard of. He makes house calls.
It may sound like a practice of the past, but patients can get appointments with Kirkpatrick almost instantly and call him at any hour, even on his cell phone.
"The patients like it," says Kirkpatrick. "They are happy with the immediate access."
But the personal attention comes with a steep price tag: $3,000 a year. That does not cover visits, routine care, tests or procedures, which the patients or their insurance companies will pay as usual. It is, in effect, a membership fee.
It's an idea that is spreading. Until he trimmed his list of patients from 2,600 to 600, Dr. Bernard Kaminetsky says his practice was a "treadmill." As a result of shrinking reimbursements to doctors, many add more and more patients to try to make up for the loss of income. Hence, they have jammed schedules and patients have to wait longer for appointments, which often are quite brief.
"The difference now is I'm a physician again," says Kaminetsky. "I think it's offensive," says Andy Simonds, who was dropped as a patient by Kaminetsky because he refused to pay the new fee.
"What they've done is change health care into wealth care."
-- ABC News
Sexual Activity and Substance Use Among Youth
NEW
Almost one quarter (23 percent) of sexually active teens and young adults – about
5.6 million 15- to 24-year-olds nationally – report having unprotected sex because they were drinking or using
drugs at the time. Twenty-nine percent say that because of alcohol and drug use, they did “more sexually than
they had planned,” according to a new national survey. “For teens, drinking and sex is at least as dangerous as drinking and driving,” said Joseph A. Califano Jr.,former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.
Of the 15- to 24-year-olds surveyed:
• 50 percent say “people their age” mix alcohol or drugs and sex “a lot.”
• 73 percent believe that their peers often don’t use condoms when alcohol and drugs are in the picture.
• 37 percent want more information about “how alcohol or drugs might affect decisions about having sex.”
-- Kaiser Family Foundation
Home -
Toys on a Mission
NEW
New trend sees rescue action figures win out over their violent
counterparts. But in the wake of Sept. 11, firefighters are not the only ones happy about the trend toward more civic-minded action figures. Toy executives at industry giant Mattel, for instance, are pleased to see that action figures like its Rescue Heroes — which focus on helping others, such as victims of a "flood" or cats stuck in a tree — are rocketing to the top of the $1.6 billion action figure toy category.
-- ABCnews.com
Law -
Politics -
Screech
Marks
Pundits and politicians are fond of complaining about partisan politics causing gridlock in government. But you won't hear corporate America grumbling very often. For them, generally, the less Congress does, the better. Indeed, the fact that most of the issues at the top of the 106th's agenda failed to pass was exactly the result sought by the legions of corporate lobbyists working Capitol Hill.
-- Legal Times
Science -
Antarctic Experts Warn of Global Warming Meltdown NEW
There is a one in 20 chance of a dramatic rise in world sea levels over the next century due to global warning, according to a new risk assessment published on Friday.
The survey said there was a five percent chance of the giant West Antarctic Ice Sheet disintegrating due to climate change and raising sea levels by one meter (yard) in the next 100 years. "You have to balance the likelihood against the severity of the impacts, and in this case even a five percent chance of this happening is really damn serious," said scientist David Vaughan.
-- ABCnews.com
The science of sexual attraction
NEW
When it comes to sexual attraction, does the nose lead the heart?
So it would seem from the marketing of any number of fragrances - particularly those products that claim to contain pheromones, which are scented sex hormones that supposedly bring about subconscious attraction.
But the science of pheromones, while still far from definitive, suggests that unlike lower mammals and other animals, humans don't seem to use pheromones to guide them to a mate, but do get some useful signals from subliminal scents.
-- Nando Times
Forensics studies note physical changes in Americans over last century
NEW
It's no stretch to say Americans have grown taller over the past 100 years, but research conducted by the University of Tennessee shows that the increase in height is only the tip of the iceberg.
What started as an attempt to develop a quick and easy way of dating skeletons has evolved into a research project that unveils how much humans have changed biologically over generations.
"We very quickly noticed that the skeletons of modern people are strikingly different from those of the last century," Jantz said.
On average, 20th century North Americans are more elongated and less able to withstand extreme physical stresses than their
forebears. "We actually have much less bone than we once had. .... The differences are big enough that you can identify 19th and 20th century skeletons very easily."
-- Nando Times
Chinese scientist taps secret of how we remember
NEW
How do we remember? Life-long learning and memory research - described by 27-year-old Shi Songhai, now working in San
Francisco - earned this year's Young Scientist Prize. Shi received this prestigious award for young researchers
at the Centennial Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden. Just as weight-training strengthens muscles, learning opportunities "train" our brains to store and process massive amounts of information, Shi said in his prize-winning essay, published in
Science. This brain-strengthening process, described by scientists as the "long-term potentiation" of connections, may help explain how best to promote memory and learning and, perhaps someday, explain why memory can
falter.
-- China Daily
World Temperature Second Highest on Record
NEW
2001 was the second warmest year on record and the trend toward higher mean global temperatures looks set to continue, World Meteorological Organization officials said.
Compared with the 1961-1990 average used as the basis for comparison, officials said the global temperature in 2001 rose a fraction of a degree Fahrenheit to 57.2 F.
It is the 23rd year in succession that temperatures have been above the 1961-1990 mean.
"The expectation is for a continued gradual warming for the next
years," accompanied by further cases of extreme weather conditions -- both flooding and drought as well as sharp temperature variations. But it was not possible to predict where the weather events would occur.
-- ABC News
Society -
Antarctic Experts Warn of Global Warming Meltdown NEW
There is a one in 20 chance of a dramatic rise in world sea levels over the next century due to global warning, according to a new risk assessment published on Friday.
The survey said there was a five percent chance of the giant West Antarctic Ice Sheet disintegrating due to climate change and raising sea levels by one meter (yard) in the next 100 years. "You have to balance the likelihood against the severity of the impacts, and in this case even a five percent chance of this happening is really damn serious," said scientist David Vaughan.
-- ABCnews.com
The science of sexual attraction
NEW
When it comes to sexual attraction, does the nose lead the heart?
So it would seem from the marketing of any number of fragrances - particularly those products that claim to contain pheromones, which are scented sex hormones that supposedly bring about subconscious attraction.
But the science of pheromones, while still far from definitive, suggests that unlike lower mammals and other animals, humans don't seem to use pheromones to guide them to a mate, but do get some useful signals from subliminal scents.
-- Nando Times
Terrorised Americans turn to terror sex
NEW
They are calling it end-of-the-world sex, post-disaster sex, post-terror sex, and even Bin Laden sex, the inelegant post coital expression for which is "bin laid." The terrorist attack on the United States is sending Americans scurrying for cover - bed cover, that is.
Sociologists and psychologists are reporting that Americans are taking recourse to intercourse - frequent, random, and even reckless sex to cope with fear, sadness and vulnerability stemming from the September 11 terrorist attacks. Dating services are seeing a significant increase in clients and singles bars in New York and Washington are humming again. From the no-no nineties, America has leapt into a mating millennium after the worst-ever terrorist carnage last month has left them feeling bewildered and bereft.
-- Times of India
Terrorism threats prompt Doomsday Clock update
NEW
The hands of the Doomsday Clock, for 55 years a symbol of nuclear danger, were moved two minutes closer to midnight, reflecting the possibility of terrorism, relations between India and Pakistan, and other threats.
The symbolic clock, kept by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, had been set at 11:51 since 1998. It was moved to 11:53 p.m.
Such factors as the concern about the security of nuclear weapons materials stockpiled around the world and the crisis between nuclear powers India and Pakistan figured into the decision.
-- USA Today
UNESCO: 3,000 Languages Could Die Off
NEW
About half of the world's 6,000 languages are under threat of disappearing under pressure from more dominant tongues or repressive government
policies. From France and Russia to the Americas and Australia, minority languages and the heritage that goes along with them are at risk of dying out, according to a UNESCO study.
''With the death and disappearance of ... a language, an irreplaceable unit in our knowledge and understanding of human thought and world-view is lost forever.''
The study said the Americas and Australia had the worst record. ''In the United States, less than 150 Indian languages have survived out of several hundreds that were spoken before the arrival of the
Europeans.'
-- USA Today
The New Millennium: USA Today Special Report
"What will the future bring?" Get out your Farmer's Almanacs. Read the predictions of Nostradamus. Join mankind in looking ahead with hope and fear
at the new millenium.
-- USA Today
Sports -
Technology -
The online
'Blog' phenomenon
NEW
A recent overlooked Web trend--overlooked by the mainstream media, at least--is the proliferation of public diaries, generically referred to as Blogs. The term originated from "WeB
log." People who "Blog" are called Bloggers, and right now there are hundreds, thousands of Blogs on the Net.
The vanity page is dead; long live the Blog. The vanity Web page has lost momentum. People who posted one have already done so, and the growth has slowed. Most are uninteresting and uninspired. Cat pictures dominate too many of them. A Blog is the next iteration, and most vanity site mavens have gravitated toward these things. Serious vanity site developers have gone into posting hobby or special-interest sites, having learned by experience how to make an attractive Web page. This is, indeed, progress.
-- ZDNet
A Cop in Every Computer
NEW
There's a war looming in cyberspace over copyright. The war will not be about whether to combat the spread of unauthorized copies of computer programs, music or movies. On that point, the combatants agree. This will be a war about tactics and solutions.
The content industry -- especially Hollywood and the record labels -- wants the solution built into computers and other digital devices, such as Palm Pilots and MP3 players. The industry also wants it built into software, operating systems, Web browsers, and routers -- the devices that guide Internet traffic. It's a solution designed around the assumption that nearly all computer and Internet users are potential large-scale infringers.
In short: The content industry wants to place a copyright cop in your computer.
-- Law.com
The
Digital Century
100 of the best, worst, and weirdest events in computing history. PC World
looks back at the highlights and low points of our digital century--from the birth of the
ENIAC in 1945 to the introduction of the World Wide Web in 1989 to the IPO mania of the
1990s--and unearths the real story behind some of the greatest innovations and biggest
blunders in computing history.
-- PC World
100 of the best, worst, and weirdest events in computing history. PC World
looks back at the highlights and low points of our digital century--from the birth of the
ENIAC in 1945 to the introduction of the World Wide Web in 1989 to the IPO mania of the
1990s--and unearths the real story behind some of the greatest innovations and biggest
blunders in computing history.
-- PC World
100 of the best, worst, and weirdest events in computing history. PC World
looks back at the highlights and low points of our digital century--from the birth of the
ENIAC in 1945 to the introduction of the World Wide Web in 1989 to the IPO mania of the
1990s--and unearths the real story behind some of the greatest innovations and biggest
blunders in computing history.
-- PC World
Trendsetters
-
Peace exhibit reflects century of 'bloodshed,
progress' NEW
Nelson Mandela releases a white dove. Mikhail Gorbachev stands beside a remnant of the Berlin Wall. Aung San Suu Kyi looks out a window. Yasser Arafat holds a picture of the late Yitzhak Rabin.
Photographs of these Nobel Peace Prize winners reflect what U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the newest peace laureate, calls "a century of savage loss and bloodshed, but also one of extraordinary progress and vision."
The new exhibit at U.N. headquarters commemorating the centennial of the Nobel Peace Prize continues through March.
-- CNN
Nobel
Prize in Literature Winner Reflects on Career NEW
Looking back on a long, prolific career capped by winning this year's Nobel Prize in literature, V.S. Naipaul reminisced about how improbably it all began.
Born in 1932 to a struggling Indian immigrant family on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, he was taught no Hindi, learned little at school, and didn't like to read.
A "bright boy," in his own words, "I was surrounded by areas of darkness," Naipaul recalled. Much of his 69 years have been spent filling in the blanks.
"I never had a plan. I followed no system.... And I had to do the books I did because there were no books about those subjects to give me what I wanted. I had to clear up my world, elucidate it, for myself."
-- FOX News
Right
Livelihood Awards, known as the "alternative Nobels" NEW
An Israeli peace group that claims only justice and reconciliation can end
terrorism was named as a winner of 2001's Right Livelihood awards. Gush
Shalom and its co-founders Uri and Rachel Avnery, will share the $187,000
prize with three others: British anti-nuclear group Trident Ploughshares;
Leonard Boff, a Brazilian founder of liberation theology in Latin America;
and Venezuelan youth activist Jose Antonio Abreu. The award's creator,
Jakob von Uexkull, said each winner showed "positive ways forward at
this time of grief, fear and insecurity" after the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks in the United States. "We feel very strongly that the only
remedy for terror is justice and reconciliation and the promotion of human
rights," von Uexkull. The Right Livelihood Awards were founded in
1980 by von Uexkull, a stamp dealer who sold his collection to fund awards
for efforts he believes are ignored by the prestigious Nobel Prizes.
-- Right Livelihood Award Foundation
A century of romance: 12 trailblazing couples
NEW
The 20th century marked 100 years of romantic and sexual revolution. The introduction of birth control and the smashing of rigid social norms governing sex, marriage, and the traditional roles of men and women changed the way we love and live. Here are a dozen of our favorite 20th century trailblazing couples
-- MSN
21st
Century Lives
ABCNEWS polls viewers who has emerged as the most interesting person
in the news — here in the United States, around the world, in the spotlight or behind the
scenes -- and presents portraits of these trendsetters.
-- ABC News
The
Most Important People of the 20th Century
One century, 100 remarkable people. TIME has profiled those individuals who — for better or worse — most influenced the last 100 years. They are considered in five fields of endeavor, culminating with Person of the Century:
> Leaders & Revolutionaries
> Artists & Entertainers
> Builders & Titans
> Scientists & Thinkers
> Heroes & Icons
> Person of the Century
-- Time
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