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The News Shared On Facebook Gets Smaller And Smaller

The percent that are about news — defined broadly, including sports and entertainment — is now somewhere less than 4%. It’s something of a niche interest for Facebook users. - NiemanLab

Pennsylvania School District Bans Children’s Books On MLK And Rosa Parks

In a clip from a meeting aired by CNN, which reported on student protests of the ban, members referred to the list of reading and educational material as “divisive” and “bad ideas.” - Miami Herald

Pathbreaking TV Writer Irma Kalish Dead At 96

Most female scriptwriters in the 1950s and '60s had to churn out proto-Hallmark-Channel movies, but Kalish thrived in comedy. Her biggest mark was in Norman Lear's sitcoms All in the Family and its spinoff Maude; she co-produced the Maude spinoff Good Times. - The New York Times

Clearing Up Simplicity: The Fallacies Of Occam’s Razor

Cited widely in science, but often misunderstood, for some it’s invaluable, hinting at profound truths about the nature of knowledge. For others it’s worse than useless. - Prospect

Someone Thought Putting The Bible, The US Constitution, And Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless The USA” In One Book Was A Good Idea

"Big-name Christian authors penned a letter blasting it as 'dangerous,' and more than 900 people signed a petition decrying the decision to print it. The advertised publisher, part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, disavowed the book and denied it ever planned to print it in the first place." - Slate

Free Artistic Expression In India Is Being Gradually Strangled

Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party, "censorship (is) no longer about nudity, gore, or promiscuity. It (has) firmly set its sights on whether (a) narrative matched the right-wing Hindu nationalists' narrative." - Slate

Scientists Have Created The Whitest White Ever

Their original goal was to create a paint that would effectively reflect sunlight away from a building, which required producing an extremely white pigment. - Hyperallergic

Looping — Perhaps Hollywood’s Most Surprising, And Most Secretive, Profession

Loopers are the equivalent of extras: they're voice actors who provide realistic background chatter for just about any setting or subject. And no, you can't become one: says one insider, "No one gives up their spots. You have to kill someone to get in." - The Hollywood Reporter

Do You Know About #DarkAcademia?

On Instagram, the tag #darkacademia now has over 1 million posts, and Grazia has named the aesthetic as autumn 2021’s biggest trend. The TikTok generation has keenly embraced the tweedy cosiness of scholarly life. - The Conversation

The Royal Ballet’s Most Unlikely Star Says Farewell To The Stage

Edward Watson was a very promising student, but the gangly ginger never fit the handsome-Prince mold. As he retires after 27 years with the company, 16 of them as principal, his astounding flexibility and dramatic intensity have created a new model for male ballet stars. - Dance Magazine

China Now Has Its Own Version Of The Carbuncle Cup

Each year, an online architecture magazine offers a list of 80-odd edifices from which readers can vote for the ten ugliest buildings in China. What's the purpose? "To provoke thinking about the beauty of and ugliness of architecture and promote architects' social responsibility." - The Guardian

Ethiopian Popular Culture Is Making The Chinese Its Bogeymen

As investment from China flows into Ethiopia, social media and entertainment are voicing worries about inexpensive made-in-China versions of Ethiopian handicrafts, mocking Chinese eating habits, and stoking anger that the country's donkeys are being stolen and shipped to China to make a traditional medicine. - Global Voices

Five Small Theaters Sue City Of New York Over Vaccine Requirements

The issue: the venues must require audiences to wear masks and be vaccinated, but similar buildings, or even the same one, are exempt from those rules when used for church services. The mandate "applies differently to venues depending on who is speaking and what they are saying." - Gothamist

Supply Chain Problems Are Still Plaguing Publishing, And There Might Be Book Shortages For Christmas

"Supply chain problems have touched almost every aspect of book production, storage, and delivery, mostly as a result of Covid-related bottlenecks. Printer capacity issues plagued the publishing industry last year, too, though 2021 is expected to be worse." - Yahoo! (Quartz)

With The Walls Finally Stabilized, Reconstruction At Notre-Dame In Paris Can Begin In Earnest

Those solid, 850-year-old walls were damaged much more by the catastrophic 2019 fire than authorities realized at first. (They really could have collapsed.) Now that they're stabilized, rebuilding can begin — and could possibly be finished in time for the 2024 Olympics. - Artnet

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