Stories

While he claimed to have “never got 1 cent” for creating the GIF technology, his invention transformed the internet ecosystem and the ways in which people communicate online. - Slate

Jefferson’s Enlightenment contemporaries fully understood. They accepted happiness as our greatest good. But only in theory. And theory, as they were often quick to insist, was not practice. - The American Scholar

Even in the hands of the greats, food scenes can seem less than central to a story, more filler or filigree than substance. - The Atlantic

This year’s conference was generally low on jargon, but there were still notable moments of turbidity in the conference guide. - Los Angeles Times

As elsewhere in the world, the US museums that struggled the most in 2021 were the big names: the world-famous museums in the big cities that have been gutted by the evaporation of international tourism. - The Art Newspaper

In 1965, KYW-TV debuted Eyewitness News, followed in 1970 by WPVI's Action News, creating many of the local newscast conventions still in place today. Soon those formats were copied all over the country. Yet the "if it bleeds, it leads" mentality made some longstanding American problems worse. - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Many researchers say things like Instagram and TikTok probably aren’t entirely bad for all adolescents. They’re not entirely good, either, and can cause documented problems with body image, but the impact varies. - The Verge

"Spot is agile enough to inspect narrow passages and traverse uneven surfaces, and will collect terrain data alongside a laser-scanning drone released to fly over the site and conduct autonomous 3D scans. The robot will also be used to sniff out underground tunnels made by tomb raiders." - Artnet

Before the battle over the mural became a symbol of the nation they would call New Belarus, there were just three nondescript buildings in the middle of a city of two million, a courtyard set around a children’s playground: swings, a seesaw and a roundabout, surrounded by benches. - The New York Times

Cassie Beck: "I started to make choices in my mind and see where my sense of humor might infuse it a little differently. I realized (Heidi) didn't write just a performance piece for her to perform. She ultimately wrote a very well-structured, amusingly laid-out and emotional play." - Forbes

The total number of followers on TikTok for all 100 museums is 1.3 million. That is compared to a total of 55.3 million followers on Instagram, 47.3 million on Twitter and 33.6 million on Facebook. Startling when you consider that the platform was the most popular website in 2021. - The Art Newspaper

"I don't know how we lived to see this," said the 84-year-old of the Russian invasion. As ensembles all over are performing his works in solidarity with Ukraine, he can't help being upset "that this misfortune needed to happen for them to begin playing my music." - The New York Times

They are demotivating, they don’t actually measure learning and they increase students’ stress. - The Conversation

Experimental archaeologists Rick and Laura Brown have reconstructed the human-powered cranes that lifted huge objects during the Middle Ages and replicated the timber-framed roof of a destroyed 14th-century synagogue. Now they're leading a team using medieval tools and techniques to help repair the fire-ravaged Paris cathedral. - Smithsonian Magazine

When dancer Sybley Wozmak put up an Instagram post about her experience with a well-connected Salt Lake City choreographer, she got 250 responses in just a few hours.  And the consequences began ... - The Salt Lake Tribune