Stories

A View From Second-Class On The Titanic In A Rare Surviving Letter From A Passenger

Henry Hodges, a musical instrument salesman, sent the letter from Queenstown (now Cobh), in Cork Harbour in Ireland, the ship’s final stop before crossing the Atlantic on its first and last voyage in 1912. The document provides a little-seen look at accommodations and activities for second-class travelers. - Smithsonian Magazine

How Hierarchy Hides in How We Think

The question is not whether the technological revolution already underway will abolish hierarchy. It will not. The question is different: what will the new currency of rank be, and will it better recognise ability, responsibility, and work, or give old advantages a new language? - 3 Quarks Daily

The Film Indian Censors Have Been Blocking For Three Years

Satluj, director Honey Trehan’s feature about an activist whom police tortured to death after exposed atrocities committed during a 1990s crackdown on violent Sikh separatists in Punjab, was withheld by India’s national censorship board since 2022. When Trehan released it online last week, it was taken down on government orders. - The Guardian

Why Philanthropists Give?

For some, this elevated focus on philanthropy is not so much a voluntary strategic choice, but rather a response to their existing funders encouraging them to diversify their revenue streams and achieve what they see as a more sustainable future for the sector as a whole. - ArtsHub

Is It A Reading Crisis Or A Comprehension Crisis?

Plenty of her students are smart and capable, but she’s never encountered a group less interested in reading. And neither she nor anyone else seems to have any idea how to fix it. - Wired

Jeff Koons Wins Case Accusing Him Of Copyright Infringement

A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday upheld a ruling in favor of pop artist Jeff Koons in a copyright dispute with a sculptor who ​had accused Koons of using his sculpture without permission in a ‌1989 series of artworks. - Reuters

Big, Shiny Concert Hall In Georgia’s Capital To Be Demolished After 14 Years Of Sitting Unfinished And Unused

Rike Concert Hall in Tbilisi, designed by Rome-based practice Studio Fuksas, was built, and nearly completed, between 2010 and 2012 at a cost of €40 million. Work stopped with a change in the national government; the project was abandoned in 2017, and the property was sold to a developer in 2022 for €10 million. - Dezeen

It Might Cost Too Much To Rebuild MacIntosh’s Glasgow School Of Art

Rebuilding the school in line with Mackintosh’s designs would cost 265 million pounds, about $355 million, the school said in a news release. That is “an amount that is not affordable and which would compromise the financial sustainability of the organization,” it said. - The New York Times

An AI That Will Write Your Bedtime Stories?

A Meta spokesperson described StoryKit as a creative storytelling app used to craft personalized, imaginative storybooks for children and noted that it uses AI safety filters with no social features and is only available to users over the age of 18. - TechCrunch

Arts And Culture Events In Downtown Chicago Contributed $395 Million To City’s Economy In Last Three Months

The figure is a 20% increase over the second quarter last year. There were slightly under 1.5 million visitors in that period, and foot traffic in the Loop on weekdays is still below pre-pandemic levels. - Chicago Sun-Times

A Coachella For Broadway Theatre?

For decades, theater fans have flocked to Broadway hoping to catch their favorite performers onstage. But what if, instead of seeing one show, they could spend an entire weekend surrounded by stage stars — watching concerts under the stars, singing show tunes around a campfire, dancing at a Broadway rave? - People

How Congressional Republicans Attacked American History At The Smithsonian This Week

Whether “love” is really the metric by which one should assess a historian’s credibility seemed outside the scope of the discussion. Nuance was treated like a threat. - The Atlantic

Scientists Discover We’re Speaking Fewer Words Every Year. What’s That About?

Each year the number of words spoken daily seemed to decline by about three hundred and thirty-eight. That translates into around a hundred and twenty thousand words a year—about the length of “Sense and Sensibility.” And Mehl noticed that the decline was even steeper for people under twenty-five. - The New Yorker

Brazil Gets A New Professional Orchestra

“São Paulo’s Teatro B32 has announced the creation of the ECO Orchestra, a new professional ensemble that will present its inaugural season between September 2026 and June 2027. American conductor Ira Levin has been appointed Artistic Director.” - Moto Perpetuo

Dance Is A Subjective Art Form. So How Do Judging And Scoring In Dance Competitions Work?

“Because every competition’s scoring rubric is slightly different, dancers may not always understand why they received a certain score or ranking. ... What do competitors and coaches need to know about the competitive-dance world’s many judging systems, and how can they glean useful information from the often-mysterious numerical scores?” - Dance Magazine

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