Pacific Standard - Latest Comments

Re: What Does It Take for Traumatized Kids to Thrive?

Lincoln staff — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:40:11 -0000

As a teacher at Lincoln I' m offended by the gross exaggeration and inaccurate descriptions of our school, both before and after Jim Sporleder. While its true that we have shifted some of the ways we do discipline, and we are more intentional about the way we relate and interact with students, this school loved kids, changed student's lives, and provided a high quality education delivered by dedicated teachers long before the addition of Sporleder. If you ask teachers how much they have changes their teaching in the last 5 years they would tell you very little. We have made great strides in the way discipline happens at our school but the academic work and the classroom interactions have always been focused on the student as a whole. There has always been a group of students at our school that have been kicked out of other schools, they that does not describe the student body as a whole. I teach with amazing teachers who where also amazing teachers when this building was called Paine. Jim's love of kids and specifically his defense of the underprivileged student is surpassed by no one. That being said, he would be the first to tell you that the power of our school doesn't ride on his shoulders. Good stuff happens at our school for sure, and it happens by the same staff that have been creating great stuff for many years.

Re: How to Entice People to Buy Symphony Tickets

Carl Schimmel — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:28:53 -0000

Thanks Rolf, we actually hope that orchestra managers can use modeling approaches such as this to design more inventive and perhaps "risky" programs. Accurate forecasting can help minimize financial risk. Programming a season of only the "most popular" works would run counter to most orchestras' mission statements. We sought to create a model that would help orchestras put a season together, rather than tell them what the ingredients of that season should be.

Re: How to Entice People to Buy Symphony Tickets

Christopher Guerin — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:32:58 -0000

Sorry, but this is simply not true. People have preference, likes, and dislikes about music. The number one reason why people attend concerts is repertoire, according to any survey I've ever seen. If they don't like Mahler they're not going to go. Period.

Re: How to Entice People to Buy Symphony Tickets

Rolf Erdahl — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:17:42 -0000

Thanks for your reply, and your point is well taken. I especially appreciate that your findings dispel some of the myths about the assumed danger of programming contemporary works. You clearly took a many factors and major orchestras into consideration, and were focusing on the role of repertoire in single ticket sales, a very legitimate and focused topic of study. My objection is not to your study so much as to the danger of bean counters among orchestral managers assuming surveys and results like these provide a recipe for a way to come up with a "safe" season. I believe the most vital audiences are the ones that are challenged as well as entertained, and that is driven more by artistic leadership, vision, and a track record that has earned trust than it is by the repertoire. Just anecdotally, we have found audiences in smaller venues to be more interested by something new, engaging, and good than by the same old retread things presenters keep trotting past them because they're assumed to be recognizable, familiar, unthreatening and safe.

Re: The Harry Factor

Micah 李文 Jung — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:47:13 -0000

Yeah not bad to be second in line to the throne! all the benefits none of the work.

Re: Alone With Everyone Else

Science — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:36:25 -0000

Unless your a vacant idiot.

Re: Teens Care About Online Privacy—Just Not the Same Way You Do

Priya — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:29:43 -0000

Grammar note: There's no hyphen for words that end in "-ly," so the phrase should be "socially oriented"

Re: Alone With Everyone Else

Bob — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:20:13 -0000

Happy is good

Re: Medicine Means Sometimes Having to Say You Are Sorry

bredon — Wed, 22 May 2013 11:47:28 -0000

Medical malpractice can occur in many different situations and some of the common medical malpractices claims are like birth Injury – It is one of the notorious malpractice cases in many countries. When a baby is born, it is a very fragile condition, and medical malpractice can arise because of errors made in the delivery or care of the toddler.To know more about malpractice and medical lawyers visit http://mymalpracticeexpert.com

Re: Study: If You’re a Narcicist, It’s Not Your Generation’s Fault. You’re Just a Narcicist.

Think4D — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:31:23 -0000

You lost me when you stated that "the year of one’s birth just isn’t very important." How can that possibly be the case?

Re: No Uniform Solution

brad cooper — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:30:24 -0000

It could have a indirect affect on grades. One of the purposes of school uniforms is for less distraction. If kids are less distracted they may focus more on their studies?

chad from Uniforms

Re: How to Entice People to Buy Symphony Tickets

Carl Schimmel — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:50:55 -0000

Mr. Erdahl is certainly correct that there are many non-quantitative criteria that determine the success of a concert, a concert venue, or a performing ensemble. Our statistical model could not take those criteria into account, and it only models underlying quantitative factors such as programming, presence of guest conductor, day of week, seasonality, etc. Anecdotal evidence suggests that a charismatic and energetic conductor, strong marketing, world-class facilities, an active and supportive community, and of course outstanding musicians, all result in a more successful concert season and are probably more important than programming. But, those elements are not the subject of this study.

Re: Alone With Everyone Else

not_a_drudge_zombie — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:44:56 -0000

So most of the clones out there actually don't like ugg boots and crappy music and only the fringe people are being honest?
I don't have as much faith in the masses. Most humans I meet tend to be vacant happy idiots.

Re: How to Entice People to Buy Symphony Tickets

HsiaoLing Chang — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:06:40 -0000

Have a heart and if you are that boring and dont have one, then read Rolf Erdahl's comment. The key to music listening is listening to music with heart, with soul and with brain, not with numbers and statistic. Thanks a lot for tying, I wont even approve your proposal in the first place based on just one classical radio listener polls as your main resources..and I am sorry that Brhams first is very popular, oh ya!

Re: The Science of Psychics

David Metcalfe — Wed, 22 May 2013 08:31:53 -0000

Greetings Katie,

"A sizable chunk of America believes in ESP—despite the only evidence behind it being one truly bizarre study."

Bem was actually working on exploring insights from previous experiments. Here are some additional peer reviewed studies -

http://deanradin.com/evidence/...

Best,

David

Re: Teens Care About Online Privacy—Just Not the Same Way You Do

Azzras — Wed, 22 May 2013 07:45:31 -0000

Hard to take them seriously with a name like Pew. ;)

Re: Why Is China Stealing Cities, Towns, and Buildings?

Martin S. — Wed, 22 May 2013 07:44:59 -0000

Well, in my mind, when the Chinese copy traditional western architecture, that's certainly better than *nobody* copying it.

Look at most new towns in Germany, Italy and the UK, and you'll see that builders can't adopt the best of our Western heritage: the walkable, pretty, human-scale town and city. Instead, our new places are car-friendly, traffic-friendly, unhealthy and boring.

Regulations re: car parking, street width, and zoning (no proper mix of residential and workplace) effectively prevent building towns of the type that the Chinese are copying.

Instead of wondering why the Chinese so freely "steal" our heritage, we should be wondering why we don't adopt the best of our own any more.

Re: Major Lessons From the Minor Leagues

morskiski — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:49:35 -0000

I am a huge "English Football" fan and love the concept of relegation/promotion. Definitely be interesting if more sports adopted this format

Re: How to Entice People to Buy Symphony Tickets

Rolf Erdahl — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:25:13 -0000

This study is built on a flawed premise. People don't come to a concert for repertoire. They come for music, because they're come to trust the programing and quality of the performers, music director, concert series, etc. It comes from people with vision building something and letting other people know how great it is. Once the artistic foundation is laid with integrity, and word of mouth spreads that great things are happening, people will come to the symphony whether it's to hear a familiar warhorse, "top-ten" favorite, forgotten Brahms, or world premiere because they know they can trust they people who are bringing them music as performers and presenters. Not every piece is for everyone, but if there's a valid artistic reason for presenting a concert, series or season, it will work if it's done and promoted well and builds on consistent excellence.

Re: How to Entice People to Buy Symphony Tickets

Jeffrey Holsen — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:47:38 -0000

When we start building public excitement about our connoisseur and expert program committees choosing unsung works like this (there are hundreds) http://www.youtube.com/playlis... then we might get somewhere.

Re: Why Haven’t Obama’s Scandals Hurt His Approval Ratings?

watermelonpunch — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:16:09 -0000

That occurred to me too. I have to admit, I don't even pay attention, because it makes no sense anyway. It's all sound bites. There are much more interesting things to read about, listen to, or watch, than the same old political hoopla news. If I want to be educated or entertained, there are a lot rewarding &/or satisfying ways to spend my time.

This is actually the first thing I've read actually, about the IRS or the Bengazzi stuff. I know nothing, and I don't really care. Well in the case of the IRS, my idea is that ALL non-profits ought to be heavily scrutinized... or they should just do away with tax exemption completely. Problem solved.

I don't want to hear about the plight of some political organization... left or right, & how they were done wrong by the IRS.

I want to hear something about fixing the economy so there's not high unemployment and horridly low wages. I want to finally get health insurance after 5 years without it.
I really don't care about anything else.

Re: How to Entice People to Buy Symphony Tickets

Robin Zarin Diperna — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:53:30 -0000

This article has a ridiculous amount of cliches. Plenty of facts, but no real journalistic analysis. Disappointing for a veteran journalist!

Re: How to Entice People to Buy Symphony Tickets

Carl Schimmel — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:35:19 -0000

Hi everyone,

I'm happy to address any questions about the study. Addressing the points made in comments thus far:

1) I agree that Brahms' 1st is standard rep -- however, it is not a truly popular work. Based on a nationwide study of classical radio listener polls, only the following works were deemed "most popular":

Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 "Choral"
Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 "From the New World"
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 Pastoral

22 other works were classified as "other popular", but only 2 of these were by Brahms (the Requiem, and his Fourth Symphony). Brahms' First Symphony is a fantastic piece, and beloved by traditional concertgoers, but it does not compare to Beethoven's 9th or 5th Symphonies in widespread popularity. To give you a sense, some of the "other popular" pieces include Handel's "Messiah", Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", and Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture".

2) Mr. Guerin's observation about work duration is probably very accurate; unfortunately we couldn't take duration into account, in this study. The more program space occupied by an obscure work (whether contemporary or from a previous era), the less space there is for a "most popular" (or "other popular") work. And as mentioned in the article, it is indeed possible that contemporary works (especially large-scale contemporary works) may not be welcomed by subscription-ticket holders. However, I suspect that Corigliano's First Symphony, paired with Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto would do about as well as (or better than) Brahms' First Symphony, paired with Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto. The study attempts to take into account what is called in statistics "cannibalization", that is, overlap in audience tastes.

Carl Schimmel

Re: The Iraq Sanctions Myth

Mike Spagat — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:32:43 -0000

Thank you for your comments Mr. Emersberger.

It doesn't look like we disagree about very much, but I’ll respond in some detail anyway.

You appear to accept my main contention - that there was no spike in child mortality rates in Iraq in the 1990’s.

We also agree that Iraq was not a “grave threat” and should not have been invaded.

I hope I also convinced you that the spike falsehood was costly since it has helped various people, including Tony Blair, justify the invasion of Iraq.

I also agree with you that the decline in child mortality rates in Iraq has been slow over the last few decades. It is pretty likely that economic sanctions, the First Gulf War and the 2003 war are all among the reasons the decline hasn't been faster. Other factors likely include the Iran-Iraq War, uprisings in the north and south of Iraq in the aftermath of the First Gulf War and many years of misrule by Saddam Hussein.

The comparison you suggest with Saudi Arabia is interesting, but I’d go back further than you do, using numbers posted on UNICEF’s child mortality.org site. UNICEF puts Iraq’s under-five mortality rate at 69 in 1980 compared to Saudi Arabia’s 89. By 1990 the positions of the two countries were already reversed, with Iraq listed at 46 and Saudi Arabia at 43. So Iraq’s decline in child mortality rates was already much slower than Saudi Arabia’s before the First Gulf War, economic sanctions and everything else that affected Iraq in the 1990’s.

With so much going on it’s pretty hazardous to try to attach a number of deaths to one (or two) particular cause(s) and I prefer not to do it. Of course, it’s OK to speculate but speculators should recognize that they are operating on pretty shaky ground.

I do think that the economic sanctions caused a lot of pain in Iraq and probably helped Saddam Hussein to consolidate his power. I don’t think they were a good idea and wouldn't recommend such policies in similar situations.

I just think it’s a myth that economic sanctions caused a spike in child mortality that led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and that replacing sanctions with war could (or did) lead to an improvement for Iraq's children.

Re: Stuck in Canada

GT — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:33:30 -0000

Are all provincial borders created equal? Might the Quebecoise language/cultural barrier skew the results?