Stories

Solidarity Mural In Iowa, Covered By Blue Tarp In Advance Of Trump Visit, Ordered By The City To Be Uncovered

A spokesperson from the building's management company: "The goal of the White House in covering the mural was to provide exterior branding and put up a U.S. flag." But the city had not authorized any exterior modifications. - Des Moines Register (MSN)

Algos Are Ruining Music, Young People Say

Hence: CDs are making a dramatic comeback. - The Guardian (UK)

The La Brea Tar Pits Renovation Requires Packing, Moving, And Unpacking 3.5 Million Fossils

"Buried in the bones are clues about how plants and animals lived and died. Understanding why some of those species became extinct could help us." - The New York Times

You Don’t Know What The Algorithms Are Doing To Us Until You Walk Away

"Here’s the thing about spending a month off grid and overseas: ... You are more relaxed than you have ever been, and you have forgotten the way nearly every news story of the past decade grabs hold of your heart and squeezes, twists, strangles. That constant, low-level dread." - Slate

Predictive Algorithms Are Flattening Culture Everywhere In The World

"At 'temperature zero,' the model always chooses the most likely next token and gives the same answer every time" - down to the music and menus in every restaurant or pub. - The New York Times

How Will A24 Handle Four Oscar Contenders?

This used to be the frontrunner for A24 (before You Can See Everything): "Though The Invite wasn’t a huge blockbuster, one thing its fans keep mentioning is that it was, in its own way, a movie where the theatrical experience was paramount." - Vulture

A Third-Generation Opera Costumer Closes Down The Shop

Robert Stivanello: "The opera costume business has changed a lot. ... Covid killed a lot of opera companies." Now the knock-on effect has killed his company as well. - The New York Times

How To Write Fictional AI In An Age Of Tech Bros

"Silicon Valley has become adept at repurposing science fiction as building blocks of its fantastical hype machine. When authors try to imagine a future in which machines have thoughts and feelings, their work instantly seems to get woven into a tapestry of bullshit." - Happy Dancing

The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Gets A Whole New Look

"While the music never stops and its doors didn’t close, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is undergoing the largest renovation and expansion since it was built in 1995 — a $195 million, nine-year effort." - The New York Times

Taika Waititi Says He Never Reads Reviews, But Reacts Badly To The Bad Reviews Of His Most Recent Movie

"Let’s spare a thought for those sad lost souls who couldn’t achieve their dreams of becoming artists, and thus became critics. The same people who also hated Jojo Rabbit. Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete. In the bin." - Variety

As AI Infiltrates Scholarly Writing, The Value Of A Journal Article Is Collapsing

"Unfortunately, the scholars submitting papers aren’t the only ones using AI. So are many of their peer reviewers. One recent peer review that my journal received—from a senior scholar—read like an unedited cut-and-paste job from an LLM." - The Atlantic

Dems Cite Internal Pressure To Cover Decline Under Trump In Lawsuit Over Kennedy Center

"'Defendants are shuttering the Kennedy Center to hide the ongoing mismanagement of this once vibrant institution and to placate its current chairman,' they wrote in the filing." - The New York Times

Why We Like To Be Scared

"Because of horror’s position as a sandbox for misfortune, consumers tend to reward horror films that reflect their generation’s anxieties." - Time

Behind The Scenes With Alisa Weilerstein’s Cello

"It is a tragic situation, after all, for a piece of wood to have to plead with us for decency, love, and justice. It was the cello’s purest act of superheroism, to play Bach’s solo suites to a civilization sunk into depravity." - Paris Review

The Queen Of Fairy Smut, With A New Book And Loads Of Merch, Rises Again

"Maas hysteria gripped the Bell House in the hours before the book dropped. Fans traded conspiracy theories about future plot twists, got temporary tattoos and face paint, drank themed cocktails, posed for photos behind a giant cauldron and bought branded candles, bag charms and other memorabilia." - The New York Times

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