Group items tagged

Is our response to music hard-wired or culturally determined? Is the reaction to rhythm and melody universal or influenced by environment?

cross cultural demonstrations

1. Klingon Perhaps the most fully realized science fiction language, Klingon has a complete grammar and vocabulary, permitting countless nerds to learn it like it was high school Spanish. Fans have translated Shakespeare, Sun Tzu and the Bible into the language. There’s a Klingon Language Institute, the purpose of which is to promote the language and culture of this nonexistent people. You can even select Klingon as your language of choice in Google.

it has become almost de rigueur for fiction writers and moviemakers to include a constructed language (conlang) when crafting a new universe. Here are some of the best:

Among the treasures hidden from sight at Harvard’s Museum of Natural History are the world’s biggest egg, Stephen Jay Gould’s seashells and Vladimir Nabokov’s collection of butterfly genitalia. So when the museum’s curator asked photographer Mark Sloan if he’d be interested in photographing the most unique specimens from their behind-the-scenes collection, Sloan was glad to oblige. In exchange, he got the tour of a lifetime.

“It came with its own curator. He sat there with that egg for the entire duration of my photo shoot, which was quite long. He had white gloves on and was the only one who could touch it,” said Sloan. “The one time the curator went out to the bathroom, my assistant pretended to flick the egg.” The museum preferred the flick-free version.

Nigeria's government is asking cinemas to stop showing a science fiction film, District Nine, that it says denigrates the country's image.

she had asked the makers of the film, Sony, for an apology.

the film portrays Nigerians as cannibals, criminals and prostitutes.