ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

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The Censored Parts Of Elizabeth I’s First Biography Have Been Revealed

"State-of-the-art imaging technology has enabled the British Library to read hidden pages of William Camden's Annals for the first time. … Those pages had been either over-written or concealed beneath pieces of paper stuck down so tightly that attempting to lift them would have ripped the pages and destroyed evidence." - The Guardian

Orbán Government Fines Budapest Bookstore $36,000 For Displaying A Gay Young-Adult Graphic Novel

"Hungary’s right-wing government has fined a bookstore nearly €32,000 (12,000,000 forints) for displaying the award-winning young adult graphic novel Heartstopper in the children's section of the store." - Euronews

You Can’t Tell Much From A Person’s Handwriting, But You Can Tell This

It's how people have been socialized to present themselves. "Doctors have a culture of sloppy writing; teen girls have a culture of dotting their i's with tiny hearts. Girls don't write that way because they're feminine; (it's) because they've learned that tiny hearts are associated with femininity." - MSN (The Atlantic)

Three Pulitzer Winners Laid Off In One Day As McClatchy Drops All Editorial Cartoons

The casualties are Jack Ohman of the Sacramento Bee, Joel Pett of the Lexington Herald-Leader and Kevin Siers of the Charlotte Observer. The newspaper chain says the move is part of a "continuing evolution … based on changing reader habits." - MSN (The Washington Post)

I’ve Been Using AI To Automate My Writing

I have been experimenting with my literary automaton to see how well it accomplishes this task. Or, as Robot Kyle put it when I asked him to comment on the possibility of replacing me: “How could a machine generate the insights, observations, and unique perspectives that I provide as a human?” - The New Yorker

A Literary Translator Leads Us Through Her Process, Line By Line

"A word can be a perfect fit until something I try in the next clause introduces a clumsy repetition or infelicitous echo. Meaning, connotation and subtext all matter, but so does style. Below are two attempts to show the thought processes involved in the translation I do." - The New York Times

Here’s One Case Where AI Translation Seems To Work Well: Ancient Cuneiform

"A multidisciplinary team of archaeologists and computer scientists has developed an artificial intelligence that can translate Akkadian almost instantly and unlock the historic record preserved in these 5,000-year-old tablets," thousands of which remain untranslated. - Big Think

Authors Sue For Copyright After AI “Ingests” Their Work

This case will “likely rest on whether courts view the use of copyright material in this way as ‘fair use’”, said Lilian Edwards, professor of law, innovation and society at Newcastle University, “or as simple unauthorised copying.” - The Guardian

The Billionaire Who Bought The San Diego Union-Tribune To Save It Is Now Selling It To A Notorious Hedge Fund

Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the Union-Tribune and the Los Angeles Times in 2018, promising to invest in the papers the way Jeff Bezos did in The Washington Post. Now, a month after major layoffs in L.A., Soon-Shiong has sold the U-T to Alden Global Capital's MediaNews Group. - Axios

How ‘In Cold Blood’ Destroyed Truman Capote

"Overnight, Capote catapulted from a mere darling of the literary world to a full-fledged global celebrity on a par with the likes of rockstars and film legends. The success was all encompassing, but the cost would prove greater than even Capote had realized." - LitHub

How Do You Invent A Language That Half A Million People Want To Learn On Duolingo?

"You learn to say 'The woman is sweating' before that most basic greeting, 'Hello.' An incongruously cheerful cartoon asks you to translate 'All men must die, goodbye.' And, of course: 'Ñuhyz zaldrīzesse gevī issi.' ('My dragons are beautiful!')." - The Guardian (UK)

A Library Book Comes Back 119 Years Late

Good thing fines are mostly a thing of the past, eh? "This came back in extremely good condition. ... Someone obviously kept this on a nice bookshelf because it was in such good shape and probably got passed down in the family." - NPR (AP)

The Woman With The Many Languages

With (far) more than 350 dialects of indigenous languages spoken across the United States, and few interpreters, vital information can fall away. "When you convey an idea from an indigenous language to Spanish and then to English, there’s a big risk of losing crucial details." - El País

When A TikToker Approached A ‘Looking Defeated’ YA Author, You Won’t Believe What Happened Next

Or, you might. "The video was posted to TikTok on Sunday and was flooded with supportive comments. ... On Monday, Warner tweeted that the novel became No 1 in Amazon YA sales, and soon after it was No 1 across all book genres." - The Guardian (UK)

New York City’s New Old Hangout: The NYC Public Library

An ongoing $200 million renovation of the 1911 landmark has sought to open its doors and world-famous collections to more people — and not just the scholars and authors that have long traipsed through its marble halls — as the demand for public space in a crowded city has soared since the pandemic. - The New York Times

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