Amy Ione Online » New York Times

Judge Rejects Google’s Deal to Digitize Books

admin — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 22:18:16 +0000

A federal judge rejected Google’s $125 million class-action settlement with authors and publishers, delivering a blow to the company’s ambitious plan to build the world’s largest digital library and bookstore.

Full article

Old Masters and Modern Science

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:12:32 +0000

I do not post as much as I would like to these days, but do feel compelled to note this recent review by Michael Kimmelman in today’s New York Times, titled Old Masters and Modern Science. It looks at an exhibition at the National Gallery in London about the chemistry of painting. According to Kimmelman, “Out to instruct us in the chemistry of painting, [this exhibition] ends up suggesting how elusive art remains despite all the gadgets that we devise to master it, see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/arts/design/13abroad.html

Below is the beginning of the review:

LONDON — At first blush “Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries,” here at the National Gallery, has the quaint, cheerfully scholastic earnestness of a science fair. Some 30 pictures from the permanent collection, most of them culled from storage, have been enlisted to anchor a flurry of wall texts, X-rays and the sort of enlarged microscopic cross sections of layered pigments and varnish vaguely resembling the cautionary photographs of plaque that elementary school teachers flourish before floss-wary fourth grader

A celebratory primer on polarized light microscopy and other cumbersomely termed diagnostic tools employed by conservators today to determine when and how a picture was made, the show may sound like homework.

But it isn’t; far from it. It’s one of those gems, which, amid the hard science, stumbles onto squishier truths about what we are really looking for when we look at art. Out to instruct us in the chemistry of painting, it ends up suggesting how elusive art remains despite all the gadgets that we devise to master it.

Continues at
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/arts/design/13abroad.html

Article: Brain Is a Co-Conspirator in a Vicious Stress Loop

Amy Ione — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:42:41 +0000

In these unpredictable times, I found the New York Times article examining how chronic stress changes the brain and relaxation can change it back fascinating.

FYI: Where do books come from?

Amy Ione — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:18:58 +0000

The other day I was reading a New York Times article about how teachers are being encouraged to
create lessons that incorporate materials they find online. Of course, in California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced an initiative that
would replace some high school
science and math texts with free, “open source” digital versions as a response to our budget crisis. This move toward digital materials got me thinking because I was sent a link to a clip from 1947 on how books are (were) made on the day I saw the NYT article. Then I saw a note about reCaPTCHA [reCAPTCHA
is a free CAPTCHA service that helps to digitize books, newspapers and
old time radio shows. More info here] that Dunn Miller posted on her Facebook page. Perhaps I am in the minority, but I still prefer reading old-style books more than digital materials. Perhaps if I had a Kindle I would feel otherwise .. .