In the face of complicated events, bewildering new technologies, and sometimes contradictory information, the explanatory power of some occult yet totalizing narrative easily overmasters more prosaic explanations of the world. To those in thrall to such conspiracy beliefs, observable reality conceals plots that are hatched in secret by powerful people and organizations with malevolent purpose—to control, harm, or kill...
Its diameter of 110m is identical to the ditch that encloses Stonehenge, and it is aligned on the midsummer solstice sunrise, just like the Wiltshire monument. A series of buried stone holes that follow the circle’s outline has been unearthed, with shapes that can be linked to Stonehenge’s bluestone pillars. One of them bears an imprint in its base that...
"One of the things I wasn’t thinking about, but which is very obvious to me now, is the great value of having each festival stage exactly what they would like to present. This has brought in a richness I couldn’t have dreamt of." - LitHub
Sir Tom occasionally shades into Saint Tom, thanks to a notably ample collection of friends who remark on his generosity and kindness. He remembers birthdays, he lends money when others are in need, his wit always beguiles. He is an unstoppable correspondent, keeping in touch with everyone, including long-ago landladies, and for 50 years he wrote once or twice...
The state has issued $750,000 to seven stations annually since 2019. The funding, which is divided evenly among the stations, supports technology needs and operating expenses. It also covers program-related fees, production and distribution costs, and acquiring equipment. - Current
We live in a technopoly, a society in which powerful technologies come to dominate the people they are supposed to serve, and reshape us in their image. These technologies, therefore, might be called prescriptive or manipulatory. For example, social networks promise to forge connections — but they also encourage mob rule. The proper response to this situation is not...
The cinema chain Malco has been doing this in six Southern states since November, and the South Korean chain CGV started it in January. With prices for a small group of players running around $100 for two hours, it's not close to making up for the lack of moviegoers, but it's at least a bit of income. And the...
What we haven’t pulled out yet is a black ball: a technology that invariably destroys the civilisation that invents it. That’s not because we’ve been particularly careful or wise when it comes to innovation. We’ve just been lucky. But what if there’s a black ball somewhere in the urn? If scientific and technological research continues, we’ll eventually pull it...
"I realized right away with COVID that people were becoming dancers, in that their spatial awareness was growing. We were literally afraid of each other's presences. We were backing away from each other on the street, remember? … Our bodies were very, very alive, unfortunately with this negative sense of contagion, but nevertheless it was a choreography that was...
The novel has been misinterpreted for a long time: just after it was published, Fitzgerald complained to Edmund Wilson that "of all the reviews, even the most enthusiastic, not one had the slightest idea what the book was about." And that's continued in the popular mind for nearly a century. (The idea of a Gatsby-themed party, after all, seems...
The site, which the City of Federal Way annexed in 1994, has been lauded over the years for the pioneering way it intertwines building and landscape. Today, it is caught up in controversy over plans to build massive warehouses that opponents say would disrupt the balance with nature but that the property’s new owner says are necessary to pay...
"Peter Barnes had 14 soliloquies on BBC Radio 3 under the umbrella titles Barnes' People and More Barnes' People. They attracted remarkable actors, including Laurence Olivier (in his final role), Judi Dench, Alec Guinness, Alan Rickman, Janet Suzman and Jeremy Irons. Barnes wrote, though, a 15th monologue, which the BBC, in mysterious circumstances, withdrew from production in 1990....
"After Donald Trump made a flurry of hasty, last-minute appointments to the board that oversees the design of much of what is built in the capital, the CFA is once again all White and all male after decades of more diverse membership." - Washington Post
Anthony Tommasini: " locks them into standard-issue, week-after-week programs loaded with the classics and sprinkled, at best, with unusual or new choices. … Why can't orchestras be nimble and respond to sudden inspiration, or current events? If the Pittsburgh Symphony has a hit with a premiere, why must audiences in other cities wait years to hear it?" - The...
