Despite hosting only about 4.5 percent of the world’s population, the United States is responsible for consuming 24 percent of the Earth’s total petrolium-based energy. According to PBS, per capita, this amounts to the average American consuming roughly the same amount of energy as two Japanese, six Mexicans, 13 Chinese, 31 Indians, 128 Bangladeshis, 207 Tanzanians or 370 Ethiopians. Consumption doesn’t stop at fuel; we consume 30 percent of the world’s paper, 20 percent of its metals and 60 percent of its illicit drugs (though odds are that this isn’t as harmful to the rest of the world).
Halloween and horror movies go together like Will Smith and the Fourth of July: it just feels wrong to have one without the other. There’s nothing to send the chills down your spine like turning out all the lights and curling up with your favorite frightful flick in anticipation of a sleepless night (and you will not be able to blame that midterm this time).
Warm, sentimental and funny, “Midnight In Paris” beautifully explores the clash of nostalgia and reality among fantastical encounters. Director Woody Allen takes us on an exquisite journey through time, spanning across the present, the 1890s and the 1920s — in the City of Light that reeks of wine, music, poignancy and genius, while effortlessly depicting conflicts inherent in the human nature. Only with such grace can the movie truly do Paris justice, and Allen doubtlessly did that, regardless of the extra crème layer on top.
The Renaissance music of the 16th century is easily associated with sexual dramas. Susan McClary, the most eminent scholar of feminist musicology, wrote a whole book, “Modal Subjectivities,” to describe the various sexual scenes she found in late Renaissance music during the final decades of the 16th century. To understand such drama, it is necessary to trace the footprints of such music, which was born out of a confusing and chaotic time.
Anyone who has purchased a personal computer in the last decade knows that computers tend to grow more powerful at an amazing rate. Buy a MacBook, wait 12 months and the next model runs at what seems to be twice the speed as your old one. People complain that we all just bought a new machine, wonder if anyone needs this level of speed and ask when the hell that Steve Jobs guy is going to stop telling me I need new gizmos and gadgets and whatchmacallits.
Have you ever seen an opera before? For me — and, I’m sure, a good portion of our student body — the answer would be no. The time and money required to go see an opera are quite considerable, not to mention that opera is not an art form that many young people have been routinely exposed to. This season of The Met: Live in HD, however, the Metropolitan Opera’s award-winning series of live transmissions of world-renowned operas to movie theaters around the world, will change my answer from no to yes.
Sept. 29: “Analysis of Partially-Observed Social Network Data,” UMass, 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Krista Gile, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at UMass Amherst will give a talk detailing three case studies involving social networing. The cases will be used to highlight the variety of questions and approaches used in social network research. Lunch will be provided for this free event.
