Computer-assisted preparation makes it ‘harder and harder’ to demonstrate the superiority of his intuition and strategic thinking in classical games. Players with good memories, decent calculation and solid technique can use the latest AI discoveries to boost their chances against him. - London Review of Books
No matter the time of year, the energy of Comic-Con thrives in Southern California’s comic book stores — spaces deeply entwined within its culture. - Los Angeles Times
Union members have grown impatient with worsening working conditions and IATSE’s long tradition of avoiding nationwide walkouts. IATSE members in October overwhelmingly supported a strike authorization vote for the first time in its history. - Los Angeles Times
In the face of such debilitating immensity, we cannot merely shrug and take a selfie. We cannot allow the scale of the crises we are already living through, and of those to come, to trump their urgency. - Boston Review
It is becoming clear that the mixed nature of Spanglish represents a general phenomenon. Among people born in and growing up in neighborhoods like Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach — where it’s common to hear Russian and Ukrainian spoken — lots of English words are mixed in. - The New York Times
In a world filled with the buff, brown and sand hues of more utilitarian Late Bronze Age materials, glass — saturated with blue, purple, turquoise, yellow, red and white — would have afforded the most striking colors other than gemstones. - Knowable Magazine
The developer said in response that JRR Token was intended to reference “a unique form of digital currency”, rather than the late fantasy author, and that the fact that the domain name “brings to mind” the name JRR Tolkien is parody rather than bad faith. - The Guardian
The amount of paperwork required by the USCIS (United States Citizen and Immigration Service), says Nicki Harper, Los Angeles Opera’s director of artistic operations, plus all the other requirements to obtain an artist’s visa can take on Kafkaesque proportions. - San Francisco Classical Voice
Janet Rollé, general manager of Parkwood Entertainment, Beyoncé’s media and management company, will in January assume the role of chief executive and executive director of Ballet Theater, one of the nation’s most prestigious ballet companies. - The New York Times
Felix Klieser, 30, was born without arms. Even so, he graduated from a German conservatory and made a recording at age 22 that won him an ECHO Klassik prize. His fifth CD came out in March, and he's currently the Bournemouth Symphony's artist in residence. - BBC Music Magazine
With the privatization and commercialization of higher education, universities are run like businesses, in which a degree becomes a product, students become customers, and the world’s most populous country becomes the biggest overseas market. - The Atlantic
In the 19th century, prompted by the disapproval of Protestant missionaries who wanted Hindu temple dancing banned, some Tamil reformers campaigned for the performers, called devadāsīs, to become like nuns, as they supposedly were in a purer golden age. Starting in 1911, some devadāsīs argued back. - JSTOR Daily
Telling parents you don’t want their kids to have the best possible public schools is never good politics. A full century ago, the most effective school-ban campaign in American history set the pattern: noise, fury, rancor, and fear, but not much change in what schools actually teach. - The Atlantic
This year was the third full production in modern times of the Ordinalia, a cycle of three 14th-century mystery plays originally written in the Celtic language once native to the far southwest of England. - Atlas Obscura
Louise Toppin is on a mission to recalibrate who, what, and how we program our concert seasons to enable a more equitable representation of music from composers of African descent. She is seeking a sustained and systemic cultural shift. - Classical Voice North America
