Today, they comprise the third largest sector of the U.S. economy: well over 1.5 million nonprofits employ roughly 12.5 million people as of 2017, the latest year for which comprehensive data is available, according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies. - The Baffler
This process transformed improbable rumors into seemingly solid facts, backed by evidence from different sources and accepted by political and religious leaders. - Lapham's Quarterly
Why can it feel as though the entire ecosystem of content that we interact with online has been engineered to influence us in ways that we can’t quite parse, and that have only a distant relationship to our own authentic preferences? - The New Yorker
We humans are besotted by intelligence, especially our own. And yet “intelligence is not the miracle of evolution we like to think it is. - The Wall Street Journal
Says one member, "We call them instruments, some people call them office machines, some people call them sculptures. It's got a limited range of sounds, so you really have to work at what you are trying to extract out of it." - CBS News
The Putin regime has dealt Russian culture a crushing blow, just as the Russian state has done to its artists, musicians, and writers so many times before. People in the arts are forced to sing patriotic songs or emigrate. The regime has in effect “canceled” culture in my country. - The Atlantic
"This is the future an emerging number of publishing startups are after — aiming to change the value of a book from a $10 Amazon purchase to a $100 investment opportunity, while creating a market of readers excited to see the books they love succeed." - Esquire
We need not consume drugs or get inebriated to be met on a daily basis with sights and behaviours to which the only reasonable reaction is an alternation between ‘wow!’ and ‘oh my god…!’ - 3 Quarks Daily
"Library workers across Oklahoma's Metropolitan Library System (MLS) were shocked this week after receiving instructions to avoid using the word 'abortion' and not to help patrons locate abortion-related information on either library computers or their own devices." - Vice
The project aimed to invite Nottingham’s citizens and tourists to experience and interact with the historical roots of the city through virtual archaeology, using their smartphones or tablets. - The Conversation
The company, founded by former Ballet West principal Derryl Yeager and his wife, Cheryl, was unusual in having as its annual cash cow not The Nutcracker but a Halloween production titled Thriller. Rather than undertaking a laborious search for a successor, the Yeagers are simply retiring. - KSL (Salt Lake City)
To fully understand a culture it’s necessary to get to know the specific patterns of life within it, and these can’t be captured by abstractions or generalisations. You might, for example, say that culture X is Christian but that doesn’t actually tell you very much about how life is lived in that culture. - 3 Quarks Daily
New research finds that 29% of UK teens use Instagram as their main news source; another 28% use TikTok and YouTube. Says one, "The only time I visit news sites is to look further into stories I've heard of or seen. Physical newspapers are not of interest." - The Observer (UK)
"Known as K11 Ecoast, the forthcoming complex" — to be built by Hong Kong real estate mogul and art collector Adrian Cheng — "is located in Prince Bay in Shenzhen's Nanshan district and covers more than 2.4 million square feet, the equivalent of 50 football fields." - Artnet
The 78-year-old folk legend, who has spent years recovering from a 2015 brain aneurysm, made a surprise appearance in what had been billed as "Brandi Carlile & Friends" to close this year's Newport Folk Festival, an event she last performed at in 1969. - Billboard
