Opposition leader Alexei Navalny says the prison he's in isn't like the old Soviet gulag, with inmates doing hard labor in subzero weather. Instead, part of what he calls "psychological torture" is being forced to sit and watch Putin-controlled news media and "propaganda films." - The Irish Times
A large community has grown up around a now-outdated version of the online game RuneScape — and many players in rich countries don't want to slog through the tasks required to build their characters' skills or hoards of gold. - Slate
“It’s called ‘trailerizing’ a song. That means changing every aspect of the song but leaving the lyrics. People know the lyrics. The goal is to catch people’s attention." - Variety
In an uncertain time, vaccine mandates for eligible moviegoers might be the only way to salvage the long-term future of the cinema experience. - The Atlantic
In case anyone was still wondering, yes, Richards-as-executive-producer definitely rigged the choice of Richards as host. Here's a look at the circumstances, expected and unexpected, that led Sony Pictures Entertainment to a PR disaster at its biggest game-show property. - Vulture
Nielsen had long been the undisputed master of counting broadcast media's audience, but its traditional methods have had trouble accurately measuring the number of people streaming programming online. NBCU has had enough and is actively assembling alternatives. - Variety
“There’s so much I really don’t understand, like: how the impeccable idea of ‘Let’s all be kind to people’ has been developed in some cases ad absurdum." - Irish Times
"Authorities are tightening their grip on the screening of films with a series of censorship law amendments that will include empowering the city's No. 2 official to ban previously approved productions if they are deemed threats to national security." - South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
Ask academic and writer Nancy Wang Yuen: "As minorities, women of color often occupy precarious positions in universities, particularly in leadership. Ji-Yoon describes this when she says to Yaz, 'I don’t feel like I inherited an English Department; I feel like someone handed me a ticking time bomb because they wanted to make sure a woman was holding...
Yes, the show was a traitor its audience, but worse, it ignored its own values. The system that briefly elevated Mike Richards (and still hasn't ended his producer career on the show) "took the thing that makes Jeopardy, for so many people, so important and beloved—its abiding conviction that facts are sacred—and betrayed it." - The Atlantic
"From the outside of Sundance, one is aware of the noise and glitter and glamour and all that stuff at the beginning of each year which goes with the festival. But what I felt to be a kind of quiet soul of the work of the institute is the year-round artist support, and this very intimate expression of the...
“Reasonable rest demands that the employers not treat our members like machines that can just work until they are broken and then be replaced.” - Deadline
When Rick Allen sued NC for (ahem) pirating his footage of the salvage of Blackbeard's ship, the justices unanimously ruled that citizens can't sue states in Federal court. But a different Court decision offers Allen a new angle: the 5th Amendment's Takings Clause. - The Hollywood Reporter
