Friday, December 11, 2009

“Drop in attending cultural events, poll finds - San Francisco Chronicle” plus 4 more

“Drop in attending cultural events, poll finds - San Francisco Chronicle” plus 4 more

Drop in attending cultural events, poll finds - San Francisco Chronicle

Posted: 11 Dec 2009 07:31 AM PST

A new study from the National Endowment for the Arts finds a notable decline in theater, museum and concert attendance and other "benchmark" cultural activities between 2002 and 2008 for adults 18 and older, and a sharper fall from 25 years ago. The drop was for virtually all art forms and for virtually all age groups and levels of education.

The NEA's senior deputy chair, Joan Shigekawa, listed possible reasons: The rise of the Internet; less free time; and cuts in arts classes.

Released NEA's 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts is the sixth such report to come out since 1982, when 39 percent of adults attended a "benchmark arts activity" at least once in the previous year. The percentage peaked at 41 percent in 1992, just as the Internet was taking off, and dropped to 34.6 percent in 2008.

Between 2002 and 2008, percentages fell for moviegoing from 60 to 53.3; for jazz from 10.8 to 7.8; for museums/galleries from 26.5 to 22.7. Other categories with lower attendance include ballet, opera, musical and nonmusical theater.

The reading of "literature," defined as "plays/poetry/novels/short stories," was an exception, rising from 46.7 to 50.2, an increase NEA research director Sunil Iyengar credits, at least in part, to the growth of online reading. But the Internet did not stop a decline, from 56 percent to 54 percent, of reading of any kind that was not required by school or work.

"There is a fundamental change happening in our lives," said Jesse Rosen, president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras. "There's a sense that we have an old way of defining participating in the arts and that the public is redefining what participation means. The challenge for us is to see where the public is and engage with them and adapt."

This article appeared on page F - 11 of the San Francisco Chronicle

fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger

Indian origin scientist's team's new 'SCARE' software to help locate ... - New Kerala

Posted: 11 Dec 2009 05:15 AM PST

Washington, Dec.11 : Researchers at the University of Maryland have developed and successfully tested a new computer software and computational technique to analyse the patterns of improvised explosive device (IED) attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan or other locations, and predict the locations of weapons caches that are used by militants to support those strikes.

The software, named SCARE (Spatio-Cultural Abductive Reasoning Engine) allows human analysts to combine available intelligence with this analytical computational technique to identify the most probable locations of IED weapons caches.

The software, which has been developed by Professor V.S. Subrahmanian, together with Maryland University computer science Ph.D. student Paulo Shakarian and computer science Professor Maria-Luisa Sapino of University of Torino (Italy), is a tool which the military commanders can use with perfection to locate the hidden cache of arms of ammunitions.

'The SCARE software is not a stand-alone tool. Military commanders and intelligence analysts would use SCARE in conjunction with their own experience and knowledge of a region, and together with available intelligence to pinpoint likely cache locations,' said Subrahmanian.

Shakarian, who has spent over two years in Iraq, said the techniques would help the field commanders to better deploy resources, and in many cases, catch insurgents in the process of re-supplying such locations or actually carrying out IED attacks.

'SCARE is designed to address a very real tactical problem our soldiers encounter on a regular basis,' said Shakarian, who is a U.S. Army Captain enrolled in the Army's Advanced Civil Schooling program.

To test the latest technique, its developers ran the SCARE program publicly available data on the locations of IED attacks in Baghdad that occurred over a 21-month period. The locations of IED caches predicted by SCARE were then compared with actual locations of caches found in that region during that time. The predictions usually were within a half mile of actual locations.

--ANI

fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger

Racist messages left on Greater Ithaca Activities Center voicemail - Ithaca Journal

Posted: 11 Dec 2009 06:15 PM PST

ITHACA -- The first threatening, racist message left on GIAC's voicemail came the night before the community center's annual Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebrations.

The Board of Directors of the Greater Ithaca Activities Center reported, at Ithaca's Common Council meeting last Wednesday, about three intimidating voice messages left on GIAC's main office phone over the past year.

Leslyn McBean-Clairborne, deputy director of GIAC, said she thinks the messages are part of a nationwide surge of racism related to the election of the country's first African-American president. The GIAC board also reported that a city parking lot attendant has repeatedly complained about being called the n-word by patrons.

GIAC has likely been targeted for racial harassment this year because some people incorrectly presume that GIAC serves only people of color, rather than realizing that the city department and community center serves people of all colors, from children in after-school programs, to the elderly, McBean-Clairborne said.

"We don't see ourselves necessarily as victims here at GIAC, we see ourselves as catalysts for change. And sometimes to do that, you end up being the brunt of hatred," she said. "But we know that change will come out of it. So we stand strong because we also know that with all the phone calls and e-mails we've gotten with support, that we have good people behind us and standing with us."

One of those supporters is Lynne Jackier, a volunteer with the Multicultural Resource Center. Jackier said when she heard the news about what's been happening to GIAC, she was reminded of something that happened in Billings, Mont., in 1994, when the Ku Klux Klan began actively harassing Jewish people.

Klan members vandalized Jewish cemeteries and synagogues and finally threw a brick through the window of a child's bedroom, because the window displayed a Hanukah menorah, she said.

In response, people of all faiths put paper menorahs up in their own windows, Jackier said.

Inspired by that story, Jackier, this week, created a poster that says "United Against Hate" and shows two complementary black and white handprints. The posters have been distributed through the Multicultural Resource Center's listserv, and others.

fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger

BURMA: EXILED MEDIA BRACE FOR 2010 ELECTION CHALLENGE - Investors Business Daily

Posted: 11 Dec 2009 06:51 PM PST

CHIANG MAI, Thailand, Dec 11, 2009, 2009 (IPS/GIN via COMTEX) -- A promised election in military-ruled Burma next year will be held in a vastly different media culture compared to the last general election in 1990, Burmese journalists said at a regional media forum currently underway in this northern Thai city.

That election was won convincingly by the opposition, but the junta refused to recognise its results.

The 2010 polls in Burma will be held against the backdrop of an abundance of media outlets run by exiled Burmese journalists that have mushroomed in the last two decades, says Kyaw Zwa Moe, managing editor of 'The Irrawaddy', a popular current affairs magazine produced by Burmese journalists living in Thailand.

"In the run-up to the1990 (election), no publications inside the country were free to cover elections, and there was no exiled Burmese media," he told participants Thursday at the Mekong Media Forum, which runs here from Dec. 9-12. "The media inside still faces danger to report independently about the elections."

Consequently, the "exiled media has an important role to play," he told more than 100 participants at a session on 'Burma 2010' during the forum. "It has grown strong in recent years."

'The Irrawaddy' has thus far set up a special series under the theme 'Election Watch' to cover different aspects of the elections before, during and after the vote.

Burma's junta has said the nationwide vote is part of its agenda to create a "disciplined, flourishing democracy."

"We need to watch every step of the elections," political activist Moe Zaw Oo, another panelist on the session, said about exploring how the media inside and outside the country will cover elections that will have not the usual ways of ensuring transparency and openness of popular votes. "It will be very tricky and complicated," given that independent media will not be inside the country to report on the vote.

Media representing Burma's ethnic minorities, such 'Kachin News' produced by Kachin journalists exiled in Thailand, are also preparing for the vote. "A new form of people's groups have been set up in the Kachin area," says Naw Din Lahpai, editor of the publication. "A brand new office of the (pro-junta) Kachin State Progressive Party was inaugurated on November 18th."

The junta is also trying to rope in the churches in the Kachin area in northern Burma, majority of whom are Christians. "Churches have been gifted with rice, cooking oil and small cash donations," Naw Din said. "A campaign based on religious organisations has been launched."

fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger

University News - Abilene Reporter-News

Posted: 11 Dec 2009 06:44 PM PST

Howard Payne

Dream Cast receives congratulations from Buckingham Palace

The 1959 theater troupe from Howard Payne University recently received a letter from Buckingham Palace on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II, congratulating the group on their reunion.

Lady-in-Waiting for the Queen, Susan Hussey, wrote the letter to Richard Don Simms, one of the cast members in the production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The theater group, under the direction of Dr. McDonald Held and Alex Reeve, toured England more than 50 years ago with their Texas version of one of Shakespeare's most famous plays.

"The Queen was interested to hear of the extensive theatrical tour of Britain made by members of the drama group of Howard Payne College in 1959," Hussey wrote. "Her Majesty was glad to hear that you hold such good memories of this time."

Concluding the letter, Hussey wrote, "The Queen was glad to hear that you held a reunion of those involved in this splendid project so long ago and hopes that you enjoyed a very happy day."

McMurry

Student wins state playwrighting award

The "And Scene!" play written by McMurry theater graduate J.D. Davis (May 2009) has been selected as one of two college-level entries in the annual Texas Educational Theatre Association's Playfest playwrighting contest.

The play had already been selected as one of three original student works the Theatre Department will be staging at McMurry in April 2010.

Davis will receive $200 from the award, and the McMurry Theatre Department will perform the play at the annual TETA Theatrefest convention in January in Dallas.

Davis is the ninth McMurry student playwright to win a TETA award since 1999.

Hardin-Simmons News

n Dr. Jon Ashby, visiting professor of speech-language pathology and audiology at Hardin-Simmons University, produced a DVD with Austin King, M.D., and Robert Laird, CNA, which he debuted at a conference in Mexico City. The DVD is titled "Anesthesia and the Larynx." Ashby represented HSU as a convention speaker on pharyngoesophageal reflux and voice disorders in Austin at the Texas Speech-Language and Hearing Association annual convention.

n Dr. Larry Fink, professor of English, presented his paper "Walter M. Miller, Walker Percy, Carl Sagan and Scientism" at the third annual Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture. Fink also presented his work "Pascal & Puddleglum, Boethius & Beowulf in The Silver Chair and Grendel" in Houston at the Southwest Conference on Christianity & Literature.

n Steve Neves, Hardin-Simmons assistant professor of art, won third place for his alabaster and stainless steel sculpture "Cock of the Walk" at the Texas Association of Schools of Art faculty show.

n Jeanne Tucker, Hardin-Simmons, Ph.D., RN, HSAD, CHES, successfully defended her dissertation at Texas Woman's University, graduating from TWU with a doctorate in philosophy with a major in health studies and a minor in higher education. Her dissertation is "A Retrospective Study of Graves' disease Patients in North Texas: An Epidemiological Study."

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Local student to be in 'Christmas at Belmont'

Austin Smith, an Abilene resident and member of Belmont University's vocal show ensemble Company, will perform in the annual "Christmas at Belmont" holiday special, which will be hosted by Belmont alumna and three-time Grammy Award winning country artist Trisha Yearwood. The special will air nationally on PBS on Dec. 23.

The ensemble performs literature from a variety of Broadway shows and popular music styles with fully staged choreography.

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Graduation

Crystal Ive, of Abilene, recently received a bachelor of science degree in kinesiology from the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger
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