Gino Severini

Gino Severini was an Italian painter and a leading member of the Futurist movement. Throughout his career, Severini published important theoretical essays and books on art.

A sensational auction record was set when the stylized rendition of a dancer painted by the Italian Gino Severini in 1915 climbed to £15.04 million, making it the most expensive Futurist work ever auctioned. Sotheby's performance definitely illustrates the soaring vitality of the art market despite an ever darkening economic context.

Souren Melikian writes about Gino Severini's works @ http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/27/arts/melik27.php

Everything is in movement, everything rushes forward, everything is in constant swift change.
- Gino Severini

Useful link:
www.sothebys.com

India: The Emerging Giant

India: The Emerging Giant by Arvind Panagariya is an interesting book on India's economy and sheds light on one of the most successful experiments in economic development in modern history. Great read. India is not only the world's largest and fiercely independent democracy, but also an emerging economic giant. I think it is a definitive book on India.

India: The Emerging Giant provides a comprehensive and panoramic exposition of the twist and turns in India's economic policy over the last several decades. As Arvind Panagariya has so convincingly argued, open policies and rapid economic growth is the best antidote for poverty reduction. This scholarly yet readable book is the best riposte to those who have any doubts of the validity of Indian reforms. Nandan Nilekani, Co-Chairman, Infosys Technologies Limited

Useful link: http://www.columbia.edu/~ap2231

Bio House

Shusaku Arakawa + Madeline Gins's visionary, boundary-defying art and architecture incorporates a wide-range of disciplines including experimental biology, neuroscience, quantum physics, experimental phenomenology, and medicine. Architectural projects have included residences (Reversible Destiny Houses, Bioscleave House, Shidami Resource Recycling Model House), parks (Site of Reversible Destiny-Yoro) and plans for housing complexes and neighborhoods (Isle of Reversible Destiny-Venice and Isle of Reversible Destiny-Fukuoka, Sensorium City, Tokyo). A definite must-visit. The designs are brilliant.

Useful links:

www.reversibledestiny.org
http://video.wired.com/?fr_story=FRdamp280097&rf=bm

Online Art Auctions In India

According to Dinesh Vazirani, co-founder and director of Saffronart, online auctions have grown more than 10 times in the last five years due to larger access, better transparency, cost effectiveness and easy participation. Online auctions have also transformed the landscape of modern and contemporary Indian art opening a wide spectrum of art lovers. Go to www.saffronart.com for further information.

Good Monsoon + Good Harvest = Good Jewelry Business

Jewelers in West-central and North India are praying hard for a good monsoon and a good harvest to boost their businesses. If the monsoon is good, then the jewelry trade can expect a rise of 30 -35 % in gold sales in the November-December period. The jewelers believe that good rains increase farmers’ disposable income, which they traditionally invest in gold jewelry. The harvests coincide with marriage season and festivals such as Navratri, Dussera, and Diwali. India’s inflation has risen to 11.5% in June affecting almost all the markets in the country.

Building In Motion

Italian architect David Fisher has unveiled the so-called Dynamic Tower, the world's first building in motion, in Dubai, with a second version planned for Moscow, with other locations planned worldwide.

Useful links:
www.dynamicarchitecture.net
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7472559.stm

It's amazing. I liked the design. It's an innovative architecture by David Fisher, but would the self-powered rotating skyscraper work? I hope it's a win-win case.

Chocolate Genome Project

Mars has announced that it is to decode the genetic structure of the cocoa tree via the Chocolate Genome Project, a joint research project with the US Department of Agriculture and IT firm IBM. They believe understanding the tree's DNA could make crop production more resistant to pests, diseases, and water shortages that may come from a warming climate. The experts believe it would take approximately five years to sequence, assemble, annotate and analyze the cocoa genome; the information would be available before then, as it is gathered, through the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture (PIPRA). DNA sequence information would be publicly available for no charge and no information will be patented.

Useful links:
www.m-ms.com
www.usda.gov
www.pipra.org
www.watson.ibm.com
www.nri.org
www.jic.ac.uk

Atul Gawande

I found Atul Gawande's article on Itch @ http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/30/080630fa_fact_gawande/?currentPage=all educational and insightful. Itching is definitely a peculiar and diabolical sensation. What's amazing to me is despite centuries spent mapping the body’s nervous circuitry, we are still learning about the curious link between our brains and bodies.