Stories

FCC Approves Transfer Of Penn State’s NPR Station

“The Federal Communications Commission has approved the transfer of WPSU’s broadcast licenses from Penn State University to news/talk WHYY Philadelphia (90.9), clearing the principal regulatory hurdle for a transaction designed to preserve public media service across central and northern Pennsylvania.” - Inside Radio

How The Smithsonian Prepared Its 9/11 Anniversary Exhibit As Trump’s White House Keeps The Pressure On

After the attacks, Congress charged the Institution with documenting them and preserving the physical record. A quarter-century on, with the White House constantly accusing the Smithsonian of distorting American history, its 9/11 exhibit is especially fraught — and especially important. - The Washington Post (Yahoo!)

Sacha Baron Cohen In Quentin Tarantino’s First Stage Play (Wait, What?)

The play, titled The Popinjay Cavalier and set in Europe in the 1830s, will be produced by Sonia Friedman in London’s West End next spring. - Deadline

“A Woman Going Places” — The New Statue On London’s Fourth Plinth

Ten feet tall, on a 13-foot-high platform, made of bronze, painted, and striding with purpose. Tschabalala Self’s Lady in Blue is this year’s sculpture for the empty fourth column in Trafalgar Square. - CNN

The Acrobats Who Entertain Drivers Stuck In Nairobi’s Horrendous Traffic Jams

“Nairobi’s street acrobats first began appearing in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they have since become normalized at traffic stops in and around the city, with acrobats taking advantage of gridlocks to perform in exchange for cash tips. It is how they earn a living.” - AP

What Jonathan Swift Warned Us About Reading

"Far from merely raising a reactionary fist in the air at the new science, Swift identified an attitude that is still around today — and one that has created many of the greatest challenges now facing educators." - The Dial

How, And Why, The BBC Must Renegotiate The Terms Of Its Existence Every Decade

The BBC’s charter, the legal document which enables the national broadcaster’s existence, must be renewed every ten years. That renewal results from a multi-year negotiation, with plenty of public participation, between the network and the national government — a process largely hidden from public view. - The Guardian

For The First Time, Netflix Will Report Box Office Numbers

Netflix will start reporting box office grosses with its upcoming expected Oscar contender, “La Bola Negra,” a queer drama from directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi that the mega-streamer acquired after its acclaimed premiere at Cannes earlier this year. - The Wrap

Louisville’s Speed Museum Gets A New Leader

The Speed Art Museum, which is Kentucky’s oldest and largest museum with around 15,000 objects in its collection, will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year. - ARTnews

Bristol Old Vic, One Of UK’s Top Regional Theatres, Announces Staff Buyouts

The company, saying it needs to cut personnel costs by 5%, is launching what it calls a “‘Voluntary Leavers Scheme.” Britain’s oldest continuously operating theatre, the Bristol Old Vic has for years been struggling with a pandemic-related decline in attendance and sharp reductions in arts funding from the city. - Bristol Live

When “Average-Level” Work Is Worth Nothing

When competent work is available at nearly zero cost, it provides little competitive advantage. We have seen versions of this value shift before: Cloud computing changed the skills required to manage infrastructure and GPS reduced the value of navigational skills. AI brought on a similar reset across a broader range of knowledge work. - Fast Company

Could AI Ever Make a Relativity-Level Discovery?

As philosophers of science have long recognized, that such advances require not inductive reasoning that derives a general rule from the accumulation of data or examples, but abductive reasoning: “a creative leap that invents a cause for a singular phenomenon”. - Nature

Arts Centre Melbourne Workers’ Conflicts To Win Better Pay

Where in most other industries bargaining occurs between workers and employers, in subsidised cultural institutions wage negotiations are often inseparable from questions of government support. - The Conversation

Brussels’s Big, Contentious, Expensive New Contemporary Art Museum Has Set Its Opening Date

“After a crisis-ridden decade of planning and renovations and more than €250 million ($290 million), the 430,000-square-foot Kanal-Centre Pompidou complex is set to open on November 28, when it will become the Belgian capital city’s only major modern and contemporary art museum.” - ARTnews

The Market For Non-Fiction Is Collapsing

The nonfiction collapse has profound implications for the industry. Nonfiction, historically, has always been seen as the more stable part of the business for logical reasons. The demand for nonfiction has always felt more predictable than fiction. - Dear Head of Mine

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