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Two Scholars Argue Over The Number of Penises In The Bayeux Tapestry

Oxford professor George Garnett announced in 2019 that he had counted 93 penises stitched into the embroidered account of the Norman conquest of England — 88 belonging to horses and five to humans. Historian Christopher Monk now argues that there is a 94th appendage; Garnett insists that that one is a scabbard. - The Guardian

Government Funding Is Not Public Media’s Most Pressing Problem

"Too many stations simply serve as passthrough distributors for national content. That model was the only way to distribute content in the 1970s. Today, that model is dated — honestly irrelevant. Most consumers can access what they want whenever and wherever they desire." - Editor & Publisher

Revisiting The World’s First Advice Column, Which Debuted In 1691

London printer John Dunton created the Athenian Gazette, or Casuistical Mercury as a broadsheet answering questions and providing topics for patrons to discuss at coffeehouses. The questions submitted were initially about science, law, or philosophy, but it took only a few weeks for readers to start asking about personal relationships. - Literary Hub

When The Machines Think Of Things We Never Would Have

For better and for worse, science today is shaped by strongly human factors: economic value, political priorities, career prospects, cultural trends, and a range of human biases and beliefs. Imagine the science if all that baggage could be abandoned. - Aeon

AI CEO: We Will Track Everything You Do

“That’s kind of one of the other reasons we wanted to build a browser, is we want to get data even outside the app to better understand you. Because some of the prompts that people do in these AIs is purely work-related. It’s not like that’s personal.” - TechCrunch

We Used To Think Of Nostalgia As Some Sort Of Disease…

It is not only that those wistful and innocent longings we all feel when we think of home were once subject to urgent medical intervention and scrutinised as symptoms of a fatal disease. The 17th-century medical-scientific literature possessed a weirdly inhuman and morbid philosophy of the effects of nostalgia. - Psyche

Hofesh Schechter Says The English Have A Problem With Contemporary Dance

“’English audiences, in particular, expect to come in, understand it, and have a good conversation about it afterwards.’ The Israeli-born, soon-to-be-British choreographer would prefer people to approach contemporary dance ‘more like a concert’ – something you experience ‘through your senses’.” - The Telegraph (UK) (Yahoo!)

Jazz Critic Francis Davis, 78

Davis wrote for The Atlantic for more than three decades, from 1984 to 2016, and was a contributing editor for much of that time. He also had a high-profile stint at The Village Voice, where he originated an annual jazz critics’ poll that continues today elsewhere and now bears his name.  - The Atlantic

Has Progress For Women Composers Stalled?

When asked whether the fact that the last two Proms festivals in Britain have each featured only eight female conductors — compared with well over 40 males — meant progress had stalled, Alsop replied: “Stalled, that could define the quest for gender equality throughout history.” - The Times

How AI Is Changing The Job Of Design

Whether it’s Adobe apps or Figma, AI features are increasingly being built into creative tools that push designers into an era of editing and using AI as a tool, rather than having to create everything from scratch. - The Verge

What Netflix Was Planning When It Decided To Put “Stranger Things” On Broadway

“In addition to feeding the fandom, the play, written by Kate Trefry, who is also a writer on the Netflix series, is set up as a prequel to the events in the streaming show and may inform some of what’s to come in the next season.” - The Hollywood Reporter

Why “Views” Are A Poor Measure Of Popularity

A “view,” in reality, is not a universal metric. It’s not really anything. It is whatever a platform wants it to be, which usually has no actual correlation to whether someone actually encountered and experienced a piece of content. You can just make the views whatever you want! - The Verge

The Destruction Of Sudan’s Cultural Heritage

The looting of the Sudan National Museum is the most striking example of the destruction of cultural heritage. Dramatic images of the remains of the temple of Buhen, rescued during the UNESCO campaign and brought to the museum, suggest that they have been damaged. - Apollo

These Are The 250 Historical Figures To Be In Trump’s “Garden Of Heroes”

The garden, which was announced during Mr. Trump’s first term, will feature life-size renderings of “250 great individuals from America’s past who have contributed to our cultural, scientific and political heritage,” according to a news release. - The New York Times

It’s Taken Three Tries To Get Jennifer Higdon’s Latest Opera Onto A Stage

“Woman With Eyes Closed was commissioned, completed ahead of deadline, cast and workshopped when the 2020 lockdown canceled Opera Philadelphia’s premiere. The (piece) was dropped again when the ailing company’s 2024 fall festival was put on hold.” The opera finally premieres this weekend — in Pittsburgh. - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)

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