http://storybank.stanford.edu Stories of discovery and learning at Stanford en-us editor@mysite.com webmaster@mysite.com Story Bank Feed Creator Passages of Martin Luther King, a play written by history Professor Clayborne Carson, had a groundbreaking five-night run in Beijing last spring. The play, based on the late civil rights leader's letters and papers, was performed in the capital of a nation long criticized for human rights abuses. Yet the performance was hailed a success, playing to capacity audiences all five nights. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_3/tab_videos Using brain images of people listening to short symphonies by an obscure 18th-century composer, a research team from the Stanford University School of Medicine has gained valuable insight into how the brain sorts out the chaotic world around it. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_10/tab_videos What makes Stanford different, according to the people at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, otherwise known as the d.school, is "design thinking," the philosophy that good process ensures good ends and that problems can be solved through observation. The idea is that any problem can be approached from an experiential, observational, hands-on manner. Watch and listen, figure out the problem, then solve it. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_20/tab_videos The World Wide Web typically connects people through static media like text and photos. But what if people on two different continents could share a real-time environment combining sights and sounds from both places? Can online technology do justice to a musical performance, for example? And can the arts bring this technology to life? http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_34/tab_videos In a society dominated by celebrity, almost everything, even the news, has been reduced to entertainment, said Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, during Stanford University's 116th Commencement in Stanford Stadium on June 17, 2007. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_19/tab_videos According to Stanford psychology professor, Carol Dweck, people's self-theories about intelligence have a profound influence on their motivation to learn. Students who hold a "fixed" theory are mainly concerned with how smart they are-they prefer tasks they can already do well and avoid ones on which they may make mistakes and not look smart. In contrast, she says, people who believe in an "expandable" or "growth" theory of intelligence want to challenge themselves to increase their abilities, even if they fail at first. Dweck's research about intelligence and motivation, and http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_57/tab_videos A 16-year-old girl spars in the boxing ring. A Catholic nun examines patients in a rural health clinic. A woman looks back on her life as a man. People with disabilities create art with found objects. We see their worlds in student films from Stanford's award-winning graduate program in documentary film and video. With support from the Stanford Arts Initiative, the program is expanding to include an undergraduate major in Film and Media Studies. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_62/tab_videos Jeremy Bailenson, assistant professor of communication, is director of Stanford's Virtual Human Interaction Lab. In this video, he demonstrates how an avatar can mimic movement and discusses how this ability can influence interactions in cyberspace. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_54/tab_videos The rushing floodwaters in Evan Almighty, the heaving seas of the latter two Pirates of the Caribbean movies and the dragon's flaming breath in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire all featured computer-generated fluids in spectacular action. The science behind those splashy thrills was recognized with a 2008 Academy Award for Ron Fedkiw, associate professor of computer science at Stanford, and two collaborators at the special effects firm Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_82/tab_videos Why are opera singers' voices so distinctive and powerful? Why can we pick them out against the sound of more than 100 accompanying instruments? http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_136/tab_videos The story goes like this: In 2004, Jean-Pierre Dupuy, a professor of French at Stanford, is attending a conference in Berlin when he is confronted by a man in a café who asks, "Why did you become a Girardian?" Dupuy replies in a beat: "Because it's cheaper than psychoanalysis." http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_150/tab_videos A YouTube channel from Stanford made its debut Monday, featuring Oprah Winfrey's keynote speech at the university's Commencement ceremony on Sunday, June 15. The channel, at http://www.youtube.com/stanford, also includes nearly 200 other videos, and Stanford will continue to add additional content as it becomes available. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_153/tab_videos Stanford has developed a multimedia curriculum for teenagers that introduces them to China's history, culture and politics through the prism of the upcoming Olympics. Free video downloads and teacher guides are available. http://storybank.stanford.edu/article.php/contentID_161/tab_videos