MUSEUMS/EXHIBITIONS
Looking Back from Ground Zero: Images from the Brooklyn Museum Collection
The fifth anniversary of the September 11 attack is upon us. The focus of this exhibition of works in various media is the transformation of the landscape of lower Manhattan and Ground Zero leading up to, during and after that appalling crime; it is a change that serves as a physical metaphor for the paradigm shift in our individual and national psyches.
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Brooklyn Museum, New York City
August 31–December 17
718-638-5000
Robots and Us
A gizmophile's exhibition that highlights “the curious intersection where people meet machines.” The troupe of robots for work and play includes a face-recognition device; museumgoers are challenged to don disguises in an attempt to fool it. Also, care to have a Turing test with your tea? This exhibition, originally put together by the Science Museum of Minnesota, is slowly traveling around the country.
Museum of Science, Boston
September 30–January 1, 2007
617-589-0250
[break] CONFERENCE
Brain Development and Learning: Making Sense of the Science
A conference for physicians, educators and parents. It covers the latest developments in child and adolescent neuroscience and development and is organized by a psychiatrist and a psychologist from the University of British Columbia. The two themes for this year's meeting are “Brain Plasticity” and “Interventions.”
August 19–22
Vancouver, B.C.
e-mail: devcogneuro@gmail.com
www.interprofessional.ubc.ca/brain_dev_and_learning.html
[break] MOVIES
How to Eat Fried Worms
There are more ways than one to deal with bullies in the classroom, some of them less palatable than others. Billy (Luke Benwald) accepts a dare on his first day at a new school; if he wins, it might make his life easier—if only he can get through the menu items. The film is taken from the popular Thomas Rockwell book of the same gastronomic persuasion.
New Line Cinema
Opens August 25
Idiocracy
A top-secret government program needs a guinea pig. Shuffling up to the plate is a naive American soldier (Luke Wilson) who gets himself sent 1,000 years into a future where the people are so dumbed down and hapless that he's the smartest guy in any room. Director Mike Judge's 1999 film Office Space was a hilarious satire on the cubicle farming of American business; this film takes on the much wider target of an entire social system.
20th Century Fox
Opens September 1
Snakes on a Plane
Samuel L. Jackson, helped by various good guys, battles assassins and, of course, deadly reptiles. I’m looking forward to this one as I have neither a snake phobia nor a fear of flying, but if the sequel is called Tarantulas in a Confined Space, I'll pass.
New Line Cinema
Scheduled to open August 18
[break] The Science of Sleep
From the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind comes another journey along the “what if” paths traversing the landscape of the human mind. Director Michel Gondry takes Stéphane (Gael García Bernal) on a mad romp between the reality of his dreary (but comic, at least to us) life and the visually stunning contents of his sleeping head. Unfortunately for Stéphane, his dream and waking worlds begin to blend together, and as he struggles with his inner turmoil he wins and loses the romantic interest of his neighbor (Charlotte Gainsbourg). The narrative arc in this film may be twisted, but the images are mind-bending.
Distributed in the U.S. by Warner Independent Pictures
Opens starting August 4
www.gaumont.com/films/sleep/index.html
[break] WEB SITES
http://neuropsychological.blogspot.com/
“BrainBlog.” News and commentary from current research in neuroscience, well written by a consulting neuropsychologist.
http://intelligencetesting.blogspot.com/
“Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner).” Kevin McGrew, a professional in the psychometric field, also offers an excellent set of links (mostly to blogs in related fields), which save you the trouble of staying up all night trolling the Internet to get the “blox populi” of the mind and brain community.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Mind_and_Brain
Here is the Mind and Brain Portal from Wikipedia, that vast agglomeration of information freely available (and freely flung together, sometimes unevenly) on the Web. The portal provides a handy interdisciplinary point of entry to a good deal of information in such related fields as the philosophy of mind, neuroscience, linguistics and psychology, listed as topics in categories such as News and People; there's always an interesting Showcase Article.
