In just the past half year, TikTok mobs have dived headlong into engagement-baiting investigations of recent murders, online “pedophile rings,” and the legitimacy of popular creators’ neurological or psychiatric conditions. - The Atlantic
“Goblin mode” is taking the current pandemic-ridden world by storm. This state of being is defined by behaviours that feel reminiscent of deep lockdown days – never getting out of bed, never changing into real clothes, grazing from tins or packets instead of cooking... - The Conversation
“Doomscrolling is essentially an avoidance technique used to cope with anxiety, so wherever you are vulnerable to anxiety, doomscrolling can become an unhealthy coping mechanism.” - Wired
The mass-energy-information equivalence principle Melvin Vopson proposed in his 2019 AIP Advances paper assumes that a digital information bit—used for digital data storage today—is not just physical, but has a “finite and quantifiable mass while it stores information.” - Popular Mechanics
There is abundant evidence to show the government’s financial support for the arts and culture has been significantly reduced over many years. Today the arts don’t even rate a mention in the title of the government department responsible for them. - ArtsHub
In 2021, just 20 revenue-sharing U.S. titles were released in Chinese cinemas, compared with 31 U.S. tentpole releases before the pandemic, in 2019. - The Hollywood Reporter
She studied with Andrés Segovia and is a virtuoso in classical and flamenco styles. "At her shows, after she sings and gyrates to a set of disco numbers,” writes Amanda Hess, "she slips backstage, emerges in the tuxedo, picks up the guitar and blows everybody's mind." - The New York Times
Almost nobody knows him back home in England, but in China — thanks to a chance meeting while waiting to renew his visa — Kevin Lee (or Kaiwen Li in Chinese) has become a familiar face in several popular action franchises. - BBC
“I can’t tell you how stressed out these fines made our customers,” said Tienya Smith, a librarian who runs the branch in Long Island City, Queens. “Not having these fees erases all of that.” - The New York Times
If his name was less well known to the museumgoing public than those of Met directors like Thomas Hoving or Philippe de Montebello, two towering figures under whom Mr. Hawkins served, he was their near-equal when it came to the ultra-rarified networks that undergird the museum. - The New York Times
It's now an elaborate, rarefied classical art form, but kabuki got its start in the red-light district across the river from Kyoto in 1603, and several of the genre's important conventions were introduced as ways to curb all the vice tied up with kabuki in its early years. - Apollo
“From the start of the invasion of Ukraine by the armies of Vladimir Putin, I’ve felt deep dread and a certainty that this will be a bloody and horrific conflict,” writes Baryshnikov, in the submission titled, “The Ukrainians are fighting for all of us.” - San Francisco Examiner
Compiled by a French noblewoman circa 1256 and copied across Europe over the next two centuries, the Régime du corps ("body regimen") survives in 70-odd manuscripts that "offer a window into many aspects of everyday medieval life – from sleeping, bathing and preparing food to bloodletting, leeching and purging." - The Conversation
"Many of them seem tired of the demands of online celebrity and seem to be moving on from pushing for ever more shocking videos. And while it's made them a lot of money, it seems many of YouTube's biggest stars are facing reckonings about whether it's been worth it." - BuzzFeed
