Monthly Archives: May 2011

More Proof That the Brain is Not a Vital Organ

“Did you know that ten percent of people 24 and younger think its OK to text during sex?” Wired.com


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Mercadante: Virginia

Today NPR’s World of Opera broadcast a performance of Saverio Mercadante’s opera Virginia. Mercadante (1795-1870) was a very prominent composer of operas in the 19th century. Both Rossini and Verdi held him in esteem. Now almost forgotten, Mercadante’s operas are performed rarely. This broadcast was recorded during a performance in 2010 at the Wexford Opera…


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Cello and Piano Recital

Cellist Orfeo Mandozzi and pianist Lily Maisky performed cello sonatas by Beethoven, Brahms and Shostakovich Thursday night, May 19, at the Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall.  The duo began their ambitious program with Beethoven’s third sonata (op 69) for this pair of instruments. This work is a product of Beethoven’s mature middle period. The piano has…


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Giuseppe di Stefano sings “Vainement, ma bien-aimée”

This recording by the inimitable Giuseppe Di Stefano singing the aubade from Édouard Lalo’s Le roi d’Ys is from a recital in Chicago in 1949. His voice is fresh and rich. He sings the piece in his unique style. Vainement ma bien aimee  Below is a video of the tenor singing the same aria 24 years later. His voice at…


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Die Walküre in HD

Die Walküre is the most frequently performed of Wagner’s Ring tetralogy. Yesterday’s staging at the Met showed why. Under James Levine’s thrilling direction the company realized one of those rare occasions when everything comes together and sweeps the audience away. This was clearly the best show that the Met has delivered since the inception of…


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Massachusetts Medical Society Releases 2011 Study of Patient Access to Health Care

The Massachusetts Medical society released its 2011 study of the state’s medical insurance plan, often called Romneycare. It’s a pretty damning description of the plan. Wait times for a new patient to see a primary care doctor have increased. Similarly, wait times to see a specialist have also increased. The number of primary care doctors who accept…


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Women in their 40s Want Mammograms

A new poll shows that women in their 40s want screening mammography despite the The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation that it not start until age 50. The article gives several reasons for women holding this view; but the real reason is that they have not been educated properly. It’s hard to fault them…


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Treatment of Prostate Cancer

The treatment of prostate cancer has been uncertain for some time. A paper in the May 5th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine examines two approaches to the disease – watchful waiting versus radical prostatectomy. A Scandinavian group observed 695 men with early prostate cancer for 15 years. They conclude that Radical prostatectomy was…


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He Dyed in Vane

OK they’re not print journalists and the headline writer probably went to an Ivy League school, but still… The article and its headline, now only available outside the solar system, speculated that OBL dyed his beard; or maybe it was really about the weather or the whether.


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The Last Pass Fiasco

Lastpass is a cloud website that advertises itself as the last password you’ll ever need. Well what do you do when the site crashes? Lastpass went down last night and is still not up as I write this. They took themselves offline when they saw a lot of unexplained traffic that they thought might indicate that they were being…


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