I find that the less I say about my music, the better. If I say anything, it tends to be oblique or oracular: words meant to jar the listener out of the complacency of expectation. Then it’s on you to come to the sound curious and open-eared to hear what you find. - LitHub
Heritage tourism isn't new - after WWII, "Europe welcomed America’s tourists, and tried to encourage more to come. Some hosted 'homecomings'—festivals meant to lure the children and grandchildren of emigrants back to visit." But now we have DNA evidence. - The Atlantic
"The dull gray masses which popular imagination associates with twentieth-century totalitarian rule were never really unified, Arendt tells us. Mass movements were created out of isolated loners and democracy’s losers." Well. That sounds familiar. - LitHub
We can, partly, blame social media. "One of the requirements for fun is that you be completely present and that your inner critic is silent. And if you're performing, then you're not fully present and you probably have your inner critic on." - NPR
The connections between mathematics and music have been celebrated since at least as far back as the Pythagoreans. However, though there has been writing and academic research about specific books, authors or genres, I hadn’t seen a book for a general audience about the broader connections between mathematics and literature. - Quanta
One problem is that consciousness means different things to different people. For example, some researchers focus on the subjective experience — what it is like to be you or me. Others study its function — cognitive processes and behaviours enabled by being conscious. - Nature
Populists in particular latch on to social media today as a way to connect directly with people, bypassing restraints on their behavior that political parties would have provided in the pre-internet age. Yet social media is not inherently populist. - Foreign Policy
The perils associated with AI are not abstract doom scenarios but are very real. They are intricately entwined with issues that impact all areas of life, including racial capitalism, labor exploitation, the automation debate, and data theft. - Hyperallergic
Modelling, in general, is now routine. We model everything, from elections to economics, from the climate to the coronavirus. Like model cars, model airplanes, and model trains, mathematical models aren’t the real thing—they’re simplified representations that get the salient parts right. - The New Yorker
Trigger sounds might be triggering only when they’re made by your spouse, or when you’re already upset. The reason, according to new research, is that misophonia is about more than just the irritating sounds. - Psyche
Each language seemingly compels us to talk in a certain way and to see things from a particular perspective. But is this just an illusion? Does each language really embody a different worldview, or even dictate specific patterns of thought to its speakers? - Aeon
My right of ownership of some piece of intellectual property bars everyone else from using that property without my consent. I.P. rights have an economic value but a social cost. Is that cost too high? - The New Yorker
Their petition reads, "The German state has intensified the repression of its own Palestinian population and those who stand against Israel’s war crimes. ... Palestine solidarity protests are mislabeled as anti-Semitic and banned, activist spaces are raided by police, and violent arrests are frequent." - Hyperallergic
This is a skill many science fiction writers would like to possess - but it wasn't uncomplicated. "Through the noise of late-20th-century America, Butler heard a clear signal: The future would not be like the present; it would, instead, be a techno-juiced doppelgänger of the past." - The Atlantic
One reason we are such poor lie detectors may be because we tend to believe others are telling the truth more often than we think that others may be lying to us. This is called the “truth bias”: that is, a bias towards believing what others say. - The Conversation
