It turns out that Francis Fukuyama doesn’t like what history’s end has wrought. Liberalism has been corrupted by bad actors on all sides who have lost faith in its tenets: free speech, universal tolerance, and human equality. - The Baffler
Countries—including Bangladesh, China, Denmark, Ireland, and Uruguay, and Bangladesh—had a net gain in tree cover, according to new data from researchers at the University of Maryland and the nonprofit World Resources Institute. Others, including the U.S., had a net loss. - Fast Company
The deal reduces the number of top agencies to three dominant players: CAA, WME and United Talent Agency. ICM is the fourth largest firm. The combination of the two companies will give the emerging entity the heft to better compete against Beverly Hills-based Endeavor. - Los Angeles Times
"For me, at least, fandom has started to feel like a phenomenon akin to cryptocurrency or economic populism—a history-shaping force that we’d be foolish to ignore." - The New Yorker
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) shared the clip on Twitter — and blasted the popular PBS/HBO children’s show for allowing Elmo to “aggressively advocate for vaccinating children UNDER 5.” He added: “You cite ZERO scientific evidence for this.” - Washington Post
I do think the purpose of criticism is to make an assertive claim for what is there. When Toni Morrison speaks of the “Africanist presence” in Willa Cather, or Richard Dyer on “romanticism” in disco, these observations operate inquisitively yet still, “stake a claim.” - The Point
Probably not, says Education Through Music executive director Janice Weinman, and especially not this year. The state legislature just passed a law requiring the city to lower class sizes, even as the Mayor and City Council cut $200 million from the schools' budget. - New York Daily News
Most metropolises are overrun with ghosts; from New York to London, Mumbai to Shanghai, a simple Google search throws up an encyclopaedia’s worth of results about urban legends based on things that go bump in the dark. - Aeon
She wrote poetry regularly, though she never published any of it. Sure, she was no Marianne Moore, but there's real thought and feeling in her verse. As her friend Norman Rosten put it, "She had the instinct and reflexes of the poet, but she lacked the control." - The Paris Review
He was a Roman soldier martyred in the 3rd century CE, traditionally depicted tied to a tree, wearing only a loincloth, his bare torso pierced with arrows. Here's what we know about his life and why he became a gay icon. (It wasn't just the bare torso.) - Artnet
Large cast-metal bells like the ten at the Paris cathedral (they survived the 2019 fire) emit sounds all the time: when they're not actively ringing, they vibrate in sympathy with the various sounds around them. Bill Santana has recorded those vibrations and fashioned them into a sound installation. - Smithsonian Magazine
In this respect, the orchestral world is like a throwback to the postwar employment landscape, when it was not uncommon to spend your entire career in a single job, or at least working for a single company. - San Francisco Chronicle
Yes, Serge Diaghilev was what we might call today queer, but he certainly couldn't be open about it — and neither could the pathbreaking dance-theater works he produced. Today, choreographer Christopher Williams has no such restrictions, and he's reimagined some Ballets Russes classics with queer elements brought forward. - Pointe Magazine
"The bulk of the sound in film is typically added in postproduction. ... Foley effects are custom to a film, and are synchronized to characters' movements. They might include the sound of someone walking across a room, stirring a pot, typing, fighting, eating, falling, or kissing." - The New Yorker
