The year was terrible due to cataclysmic eruptions that blocked out the sun and the spread of the plague. It ushered in the coldest decade in thousands of years and started a century of economic devastation. - Big Think
"The streaming device maker will rebrand the Quibi library, which it bought in January, as Roku Originals in the run-up to debuting them on its free, ad-supported Roku Channel later in the year. Any future original programming will fall under that banner as well. … The Roku Originals library includes some 75 shows" — with expensive talent and production...
Endel uses a bunch of data, including your location, weather, time of day and even biometrics to create an individual soundtrack on the fly. "This is a technology that is designed to help you focus, relax and sleep." - Protocol
The paint, developed at Purdue University's mechanical engineering department, reflects 98.1 percent of the sun's rays, while the strongest heat-resistant white paints currently on the market reflect 80 to 90 percent. The new pigment's superpower is that, by absorbing so little infrared heat, it actually cools the material it's covering below the ambient temperature. (So far, tests show 8...
The 90-odd people who worked, some for decades, as waiters, bartenders, dishwashers and the like were told last fall that their furloughs were officially layoffs. But now Second City has a new owner and is making plans to reopen — and those workers find out that, rather than getting a chance at their old jobs, all catering at the...
"The study centred on four paintings inspired by the Ballets Russes, the Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev's itinerant dance troupe, which Picasso produced in no more than a few months while working at a friend's studio in Barcelona in 1917." - The Art Newspaper
"Classical music has been surprisingly slow to embrace podcasting, a medium ideally suited to illuminate its sounds and stories. But something changed in the last year, with live performances on hold because of the pandemic and the music industry belatedly exploring new platforms." Joshua Barone has a look at three notable podcasts, including one that follows the creative process...
"The budget earmarks $300-million over two years to Canadian Heritage to create a recovery fund to combat that drop in employment and support the recovery of those industries. … There's an investment of $200-million through regional development agencies for major Canadian festivals, and an additional $200-million through Canadian Heritage for local festivals and cultural events, including outdoor theatre." There's...
"Parsons faced a financially embattled DSO when she took the reins in 2004, followed by grueling labor strife several years later. She ultimately helped guide the organization to fiscal stability, along with global acclaim for a series of pioneering digital initiatives. Parsons also oversaw the appointment of two music directors, Leonard Slatkin in 2007 and Jader Bignamini in 2020."...
"Last week, City Manager Marcus Jones recommended that the city take over arts funding from the Arts & Science Council, which has managed the funding process for decades. Jones's plan would see the arts and cultural groups receive $12 million per year from the public and private sectors — a 50% hike from a proposal the council has been...
It alleges Google "punishes" publishers in its rankings if they don't sell enough advertising space in its marketplace. Google called the claims "meritless". Associated Newspapers' concerns stem from its assessment that its coverage of the Royal Family in 2021 has been downplayed in search results. - BBC
What most comes across is the protean creativity of the period, the globe-spanning connections that promoted it, and Menand’s mastery of large slices of it. “People cared. Ideas mattered,” Louis Menand writes. “People believed in liberty, and thought it really meant something.” It would be silly to say that people no longer care about such things, but perhaps they...
On your path to becoming an intellectual in Silicon Valley, understanding these two lessons—the Peter Principles, we’ll call them, since that adds nothing to the conversation but sounds sophisticated—will be key to your success. First, the point of your interventions in the public sphere is not to “win” any “argument,” nor to attract new adherents or convince neutrals of...
Musicians addressing the environment head-on only represents one side of the music industry’s engagement with the climate crisis. The way we listen to music impacts the environment. Streaming music uses a significant amount of energy, even though the technology seems to make sound feel immaterial. Kyle Devine is author of Decomposed: The Political Ecology of Music, which traces “the...
The stress and cost of work visa requirements, new taxes, and prohibitively high touring costs have upended the careers of scores of British musicians, to the extent that many are considering moving to Europe. “There will be a new hub of freelancers in an EU country instead.” - Bloomberg
