Piles of Money

Pier 40, a recreational facility that youth athletic leagues serving Lower Manhattan depend upon is slowing falling into the Hudson River, but nobody knows exactly how much it will cost to repair. And that unanswered question makes it impossible to know whether a proposed air-rights deal that will allow real estate developers to build a...
Pier 40, which serves as a vital recreational facility for local youth sports leagues, is in danger of falling into the Hudson River - but could be bailed out by a plan to redevelop the St. John's Terminal building (visible behind the pier).

EYES TO THE SKY

Venus, brightest of all planets, shines in evening’s pastel twilight and sets by nightfall. A young crescent moon accompanies the goddess of love and beauty tonight, October 3; delight in the pair from about 7pm until 7:30pm, depending on your view to the west-southwest horizon. Saturn and Mars catch the eye to the left of...
Watch the waxing Moon step eastward against the stars-and-planets background from evening to evening. (These scenes are drawn exact for the middle of North America. For clarity, the Moon is drawn three times its actual apparent size. The visibility of faint stars through bright twilight is exaggerated.) Sky & Telescope diagram published with permission

Today in History

52 BC – Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, surrenders to the Romans under Julius Caesar, ending the siege and Battle of Alesia. 1283 – Dafydd ap Gruffydd, was Prince of Wales from December 11 1282 until his execution on October 3 1283 by King Edward I of England. He was the last independent ruler of Wales. On 30 September, Dafydd ap Gruffudd,...
Edgar Allan Poe "Man is an animal that diddles, and there is no animal that diddles but man"

Chaos and Creativity

The China Institute (40 Rector Street, between West and Washington Streets) is hosting a landmark exhibition, “Art in a Time of Chaos: Masterworks From Six Dynasties China, Third through Sixth Centuries.” This period, China’s equivalent to Europe’s Renaissance, ushered in an explosion of artistic creativity and the celebration of individual expression. And recent archaeological digs have...
Head of a Bodhisattva Northern Qi dynasty (550-577) Sandstone ~ Unearthed in 1954 Collection of the Shanxi Museum

A NOTE TO THE EDITOR

To Matthew Fenton, Very nice article (“Unaccompanied Minors”) on a cappella singing, and singing in general.  I like the inclusion of a discussion of the evolutionary origins of singing.  Darwin’s reference to the “principle of the inherited effects of use” is interesting.  It shows that the usual pedagogical practice of placing “Darwinian” (evolution by natural...
The Brown'sTones