From Wikipedia, edited James Burke (born 22 December 1936) is a British broadcaster, science historian, author, and television producer, who is known, among other things, for his documentary television series Connections (1978), and for its more philosophically oriented companion series, The Day the Universe Changed (1985), which is about the history of science and technology. The Washington Post called him one of the most intriguing minds in the Western world. James Burke was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, and was educated at Maidstone Grammar School, and at Jesus College, Oxford, where he earned an M.A. degree in Middle English. Upon graduation he moved to Italy, where at the British School in Bologna he was lecturer in English and director of studies, 1961–63. He also lectured at the University of Urbino. Thereafter he was head of school at the English School in Rome, 1963–65. He was also involved in the creation of an English–Italian dictionary, and the publication of an art encyclopedia. Burke explained how he got into television to the US magazine People in 1979: Television beckoned by chance one day on a Rome bus. Spotting an ad for a reporter for the local bureau of Britains Granada TV, he says, I decided if the bus stopped at the next corner I would get off and apply for the job. It did, he did, and the next thing he knew we went straight off to Sicily to do a series on the Mafia. In 1966 he moved to London and joined the Science and Features Department of the BBC, for which he was host or co-host of several programmes. He also worked as an instructor in English as a Foreign Language at the Regency Language School in Ramsgate. Burke established his reputation as a reporter on the BBC science series Tomorrows World. He was BBC televisions science anchorman and chief reporter for the Project Apollo missions, as the main presenter of the BBCs coverage of the first moon landing in 1969. In collaboration with Mick Jackson, he produced the ten-part documentary series Connections (1978), which was first broadcast on the BBC, and subsequently on PBS in the United States. Connections traced the historical relationships between invention and discovery: each episode chronicled a particular path of technological development. Connections was the most-watched PBS television series to that time. It was followed by the twenty-part Connections2 (1994) and the ten-part Connections3 (1997). Connections: An Alternative View of Change was broadcast in more than fifty countries and the companion book Connections: An Alternative History of Technology (1978) sold well. In 1985 Burke, with Richard Reisz and John Lynch, produced the ten-part series The Day the Universe Changed (revised 1995), which concentrated on the philosophical aspects of scientific change in Western culture. In contrast to the conclusion of Connections, in which Burke said that computing and communications might be controlled by a computer science élite, in the conclusion of The Day the Universe Changed he suggested that a worldwide revolution in communications and computer technology would allow people to instantaneously exchange ideas and opinions. Burke has also been a regular writer for Scientific American and Time, and a consultant to the SETI project. Burke has received the gold and the silver medals of the Royal Television Society. In 1998 he was made an honorary fellow of the Society for Technical Communication. Burke has also contributed to podcasts, such as in 2008, when he appeared on Hardcore History with Dan Carlin, and newspaper articles including two series for the Mogollon Connection by Jesse Horn, one focusing on the nature of morality, the other on the future of our youth. James Burke is the leading figure of the Knowledge Web Project, the digital realization of his books and television programmes, which allows the user to travel through history and create his or her own connections. Eventually, the Knowledge Web Project will feature immersive virtual-reality historical recreations of people, places, and events. Predictions In an article for the Radio Times in 1973 Burke predicted the widespread use of computers for business decisions, the creation of metadata banks of personal information, and changes in human behaviour, such as greater willingness to reveal personal information to strangers. In an interview on the PM programme on BBC Radio 4 on 30 August 2013 Burke discussed his predictions of a post-scarcity economy driven by advances in nanofactories, which he believes may be viable by the year 2043. “Why should we look to the past in order to prepare for the future? Because there is nowhere else to look.” ― James Burke, Connections ————————————————————————————————————————- From Wikipedia, edited Donna Tartt (born December 23, 1963) is an American writer and author of the novels The Secret History (1992), The Little Friend (2002), and The Goldfinch (2013).[1] Tartt won the WH Smith Literary Award for The Little Friend in 2003 and the Pulitzer Prize (Fiction) for The Goldfinch in 2014 and she was named to the TIME 100: The 100 Most Influential People in 2014. Tartt was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta, and raised in the nearby town of Grenada. She enrolled in the University of Mississippi in 1981, and her writing caught the attention of Willie Morris while she was a freshman. Following a recommendation from Morris, Barry Hannah, then an Ole Miss Writer-in-Residence, admitted eighteen-year-old Tartt into his graduate short story course. She was deeply literary, says Hannah. Just a rare genius, really. A literary star. Following the suggestion of Morris and others, she transferred to Bennington College in 1982, where she was friends with fellow students Bret Easton Ellis, Jill Eisenstadt, and Jonathan Lethem, and studying classics with Claude Fredericks. She dated Ellis for a while after sharing works in progress, The Secret History and Less Than Zero respectively. The Secret History (1992) The Little Friend (2002) The Goldfinch (2013) As of 2002, Tartt was reportedly working on a retelling of the myth of Daedalus and Icarus for the Canongate Myth Series, a series of novellas in which ancient myths are re-imagined and re-written by contemporary authors. In 2006, Tartts short story The Ambush was named to The Best American Short Stories 2006. A number of major recurring literary themes occur in Tartts novels. These include the themes of social class and social stratification, guilt, and aesthetic beauty. “—if a painting really works down in your heart and changes the way you see, and think, and feel, you don’t think, ‘oh, I love this picture because it’s universal.’ ‘I love this painting because it speaks to all mankind.’ That’s not the reason anyone loves a piece of art. It’s a secret whisper from an alleyway. Psst, you. Hey kid. Yes you.” ― Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 14:34:17 +0000
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