We Have Moved

Les Paul and the State of the Axe

Yesterday, legendary guitarist and inventor Les Paul passed away at the age of 94. Paul's innovations, including multi-track recording and the Gibson electric guitar that bears his name, forever changed the landscape of popular music. The guitarist's own compositions, ranging from lilting country ballads to frenetic flat-picking hootenannies to sentimental jazz pieces, highlighted not only his electronic wizardry but also his incomparable musician's touch.

In 2008, Paul lent his insights to a collection of essays by contemporary guitar players entitled State of the Axe: Guitar Masters in Photographs and Words. Featuring more than sixty intimate black-and-white portraits of guitar masters playing their instruments, State of the Axe taps into the feeling of true joy from creating music that Paul relished so notably over more than 60 years of performing.

For a sample of Paul's pioneering work with his then-wife Mary Ford, click on the video below.

Fresh perspectives on an age-old debate

One hundred and fifty years after Darwin first proposed the theory of evolution, the debate between religion and science continues to raise tensions in America. A recent USA Today article advocating peace between evolution and creationism generated nearly 100 comments in a little more than a day; the sponsored online chat drew more questions than the moderators could answer.

But perhaps the most important question we can ask about the religion and science debate is why it is has continued for as long as it has. The latest book in the continuing Terry Lectures Series seeks to answer this question with a collection of insightful essays from scholars across the country. Harold W. Attridge, Dean of the Yale University Divinity School, serves as editor of The Religion and Science Debate: Why Does It Continue?, which examines the ongoing debate through the perspectives of experts in physics, sociology, biology, history, and philosophy.

Marking the 100th anniversary of the Terry Lectures, this book takes an important step toward understanding the roots of one of theology's most fascinating debates.

Toward the realization of King's "Dream"

Forty-four years ago this week, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law, marking a monumentous moment in civil rights history. Yesterday's confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor fell on the anniversary of the law's passage, lending even greater historical resonance to a moment that President Obama celebrated as "breaking yet another barrier and moving us yet another step closer to a more perfect union".

When recalling the long struggle for civil rights, it is impossible to overlook the actions and words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Perhaps the most widely cited of all King’s addresses is his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, yet it may also be his most misunderstood. In King’s Dream, now available in paperback, Eric J. Sundquist elucidates the transformative power of King’s speech and emphasizes its continuing relevance for contemporary arguments for equality. According to Anthony Lewis of the New York Times Book Review, Sundquist provides not only detailed cultural context, but also “drama and emotion, a powerful sense of history combined with illuminating scholarship." In King's Dream, "The ['I Have a Dream'] speech and all that surrounds it—background and consequences—are brought magnificently to life."

"Crows" author draws attention on NPR

John M. Marzluff, co-author of the award-winning In the Company of Crows and Ravens, has been featured in a recent NPR interview discussing the "Crow Paradox." This popular broadcast originally aired on July 27th, but can be accessed online here.

In the interview, Marzluff discusses research he conducted at the University of Washington, which finds that while most humans can't differentiate between individual crows (or even between species of similar birds), crows have the ability to recognize and remember the faces of people they've encountered before. This adaptive skill enables crows to distinguish between a man who throws breadcrumbs and another who carries a rifle.

In their book, Marzluff and co-author Tony Angel argue that crows and people share similar traits and social strategies. "To a surprising extent," they contend, "to know the crow is to know ourselves.”

For more about the "Crow Paradox" broadcast on NPR, check out the animated video below.