September Culture and Society

Read the articles selected in September 2016

Patricians of parchment

Source: The Economist, 17 September

A book tells the history of precious manuscripts, like “The Book of Hours” made for Jeanne de Navarre, that have seen and allow us to figure out the European history of Reichs and Empires, giving back a buried mystic world, or carrying in front of us a planetarian event described with incredible precision.

How morality changes in a foreign language

by Julie Sedivy

Source: Scientific American, 14 September

Moral judgments made in a foreign language are less emotional because are less tied to the memory of our past. So many people using a foreign language judge actions commonly believed wrong morally less reprehensible, because so our cognitive system works differently.

Evidence rebuts Chomsky’s theory of language learning

by Paul Ibbotson

Source: Scientific American, 7 September

Chomsky’s “universal grammar” that explained language learning with an innate, general grammatical template rooted in our brain, appears here to be overtaken by a more empirical approach, after which we learn a language through its use.

Don’t worry, this author’s got our dystopia all figured out

by Brian Raftery

Source: Wired, 20 September

Children of the new world by Alexander Weinstein is set in the future, where humanity after that technology has substituted the affective relations, keeps on trying to find kindness, love, and compassion. As dystopic and post-apocalyptic the future can be, we always remain dependent on each other.

Plastik banknotes come to Britain

Source: The Economist, 12 September

With the interest rates plummeted after the financial crisis, the quantity of banknotes circulating in Britain has risen significantly, so the Bank of England despite the increasing use of electronic money has dispensed the first plastic banknotes.

Ways of seeing John Berger

Source: The Economist, 9 September

A new documentary, “The seasons in Quincy”, directed by Tilda Swinton and Colin McCabe, describes the world of John Berger, the critic and storyteller politically radical, who put in contact the British mass public to art with its BBC series, reducing the distance between high and low culture.

Talking in tongues

Source: The Economist, 10 September

The old debate about how the tongue of religious worship should be is now of pregnant actuality. Should the religion tell its truth in a plain and fresh language or after its tradition and ancient texts? In past, the question triggered revolutions.

From oil to toil

Fonte: The Economist, 10 September

Bahrein’s government is struggling to promote employment of indigenous, especially young population in the private sector since locals don’t want to give up their privileges in the more and more swollen public sector and private firms prefer to hire foreigners that cost less.

The comeback of cursive

Source: The Economist, 7 September

Handwriting is connected to the ability to understand and paraphrase information, and encourages critical thinking. Thus the emerging digital ink, that uses handwriting to be stored and recognized through machine learning, is the new Gutenberg revolution, and marks the beginning of a new era in the communication.

The year of the great Gordon Parks

Source: The Economist, 31 August

The works of Gordon Parks, the photograph and filmmaker that half a century ago portrayed the bigotry, racism and colonialism of American society as an Afro-American citizen of the civil-rights movement, are living a revival in several exhibitions in this time of several police killings of innocent black people.

The glass harmonica’s unlikely comeback

Fonte: The Economist, 5 September

Classical music is discovering a long-forgotten instrument, the glass harmonica, popular in the past and then demised because its ethereal sound made think the19th- century listeners of a grave, but today it appears to our ears overwhelmed by the noise, interesting and quiet.

The best of times

Source: The Economist, 3 September

The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914 by Richard Evans describes an epoch of technology that grounded the first globalization of Europe, the expansion of the state and bureaucracy and the dismantling of the aristocracy, with the standardization of languages through the press that leads to the rise of new political forces.

The end of paid labour?

Source: The Economist, 3 September

India is going to ban surrogate pregnancies. After being fought for years as exploitation, although surrogate mothers often found this work more relaxing and paid than working in the fields, the new draft law will ban profit-making business and put restrictions.

When 2% is not enough

Source: The Economist, 27 August

Central banks are rethinking in the rich world the aged doctrine of the inflation targeting, playing now in a different context from the 1990s, when it was invented to stabilize prices with a specific target for inflation and a “natural real rate of interest” that today has fallen too much.

Consulta l’articolo:

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21705826-rich-worlds-central-banks-need-new-target-when-2-not-enough

False consciousness

Source: The Economist, 27 August

Karl Marx:Greatness and Illusionion by Gareth Stedman is an intellectual biography of the thinker who even if didn’t invent the communism, invented capitalism in its so clear and elegant representation, and has had more impact on the modern world than it is supposed.

Talk like a gaijin

Source: The Economist, 27 August

Japanese talk English in Japanese, and what it turns out for this far East Asian country is a not understandable English, thus the government is planning to teach it to the population, in order to boost the economy, and for the pleasure of ours, that will be able to better understand Japanese culture.

More than just getting from A to B

Source: The Economist, 27 August

The construction of Crossrail, a new rail line crossing London and its suburbs has unearthed lots and lots of deads. Bones and other objects, for an amount of 10.000 archeological discoveries, has been the material for a story on the road about the city of London for a journey through time.

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Pubblicato il : 20/12/2017
Modificato il : 04/04/2019

September Culture and Society

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