Today, August 13, marks the 111th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock’s birth. His movies have become enduring classics, and many remain as surprising as when they were when first released. The book Hitchcock’s Music by Jack Sullivan, examines the use and importance of music in Hitchcock’s films. Sullivan describes Hitchcock as
In November 2008, California voters approved Proposition 8, a decision that had a considerable impact on the same-sex marriage debate. Though the proposition had passed with 52% of the vote, its constitutionality was challenged in a 2009 case brought by two gay couples.The case, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, argued that Proposition
This summer, the International Center for Photography in New York is presenting the exhibition For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights, curated by Maurice Berger, a professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The show presents film and television clips, photography, newspapers, and
This past month, on July 16, in the middle of the night, Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, along with aides, soldiers, a television crew, and forensics experts gathered to exhume Simón Bolívar. Simón Bolívar helped free six countries from the Spanish Empire, rendering him the hero of most of Latin America.
This Sunday, August 1, the internationally acclaimed journalist and author Ahmed Rashid appeared as a featured guest on ABC News This Week. In a roundtable discussion with George Will, Donna Brazile and Paul Krugman, Rashid discussed the significance and concerns behind the recent exposure of information on the Afghanistan war
Dr. Richard Frank— There is alot of talk in the world of cancer today about "personalized cancer medicine" (PCM). PCM means that a cancer patient's treatment is specifically tailored to that individual's cancer based on the results of sophisticated genetic analyses, such as determining the complete DNA sequence (called the genome) of the cancer. PCM
This Sunday the New York Times Book Review featured an excellent review of Julie Flavell’s “When London Was Capital of America”, an historical appraisal of the cultural, political and economic significance of the city on the Thames in the early 18th century. As Flavell recounts, London in the decades before
This morning The Wall Street Journal ran a very positive review of Joel Mokyr’s “The Enlightened Economy”, a wedding of economics and intellectual history that examines the “Industrial Enlightenment” of 17th century Britain. Reviewer Trevor Butterworth applauds Mokyr’s book for its “densely packed but gratifyingly lucid prose” in explaining Britain’s
In 2013 a new edition of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) will be published, and the American Psychiatric Association has already begun to prepare it. A number of mental health professionals are warning that the expanded diagnoses are leading to a world in which almost no
This summer the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute is presenting the exhibition Picasso Looks at Degas. The Clark’s website is filled with information about each aspect of the show. They also have the checklist of works and an opportunity to download parts or all of the audio tour. If