For many people, a challenge to their worldview feels like an attack on their personal identity and can cause them to harden their position. Here’s some of the research that explains why it’s natural to resist changing your mind – and how you can get better at making these shifts. - The Guardian
One day a dance tutor, Catherine Chappell, came to show the children a video about “mixed ability” dance. She invited Rodney Bell to play harmonica at a workshop; instead, he found himself part of a dance improvisation, in which he fell, crawled and was pulled back to his chair. - The Guardian
Because young people have grown up with online communities, they have a more inextricable relationship with platforms and their identities. This changes the idea of what exactly a "healthy" relationship with social media should look like, making the notion of a digital detox unrealistic and, arguably, unhealthy. - CNET
"When Charlotte City Council last discussed arts funding a month ago, members were sharply divided about ... $2 million allocated to the Arts & Science Council, the nonprofit that controlled fundraising and grants for decades until last year." - WSOC-TV (Charlotte Business Journal)
The Justice Department argues that the resulting merged company would control close to half of the best-seller market, continuing a longer history of publisher acquisitions, mergers and consolidation. This extraordinary shift in the balance of power in one of our nation’s most important industries has gone largely unremarked upon. - The New York Times
Jane Boleyn, married to Anne's brother George, tends to be portrayed as a schemer whose (likely false) testimony sent her husband and sister-in-law to their deaths. The evidence from the time suggests otherwise, say several scholars. - Smithsonian Magazine
An Associated Press reporter witnessed a man storm the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and begin punching or stabbing Rushdie as he was being introduced. The author was taken or fell to the floor, and the man was restrained. - The Guardian
"The history of African country music is largely uncharted. When you piece together the fragments, a long and rich musical relationship begins to emerge. It starts in the 1930s, according to writer Jesse Jarnow, and differs hugely across the continent." - The Guardian
What these projects have in common — and what distinguishes them from Martin’s early days as the only guy onstage — is that he now eagerly shares the workload on almost every endeavor he tackles. - The Hollywood Reporter
"Nepal's Kusunda language has no known origin and a number of quirks, like no words for 'yes' or 'no'. It also has only one fluent speaker left, something linguists are racing to change." - BBC
"The A-list is a shrinking paddock of ageing thoroughbreds. All five films in the top 100 this year that might be called 'star vehicles' ... feature leads who found fame in the '90s, with an average age of 56." - The Guardian
"According to recent findings from analytics company Apptopia, 99 percent of the service's users have never touched a single video game on the platform. ... It would be easy to say the streaming giant isn't gaining gamers because their offerings are bad, but they're not." - Wired
Lily Janiak: "Recently, I heard about three artistic director resignations all in a single week. ... Three points do not a data set make, but it still felt like a wave within a wave. So I wondered: What's the deal with all these theater leaders leaving their jobs?" - San Francisco Chronicle
Patterned after the famous "Monuments Men" who tracked down treasures looted by the Nazis, a group of archivists, archaeologists, art historians, and other specialists are training as military reservists, ready to assist during armed conflicts. One specialist described it as "cultural first aid" training. - MSN (The Washington Post)
"The J. Paul Getty Museum is returning its Orpheus group of sculptures — a significant group of nearly life-size terra-cotta figures known as 'Orpheus and the Sirens,' some of the museum's greatest antiquities — to Italy. The objects ... have been determined to have been illegally excavated and exported." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
