The story of the concept of ‘meritocracy’ has been well rehearsed in recent times, largely because of the way in which inequality and precarity have exposed its weaknesses. But some are still surprised to learn that the idea was conceived in the spirit of social satire, not the spirit of idealism. – Sydney Review of Books
With More Than 7000 Languages In The World, Google Translate Is Next To Useless
That is, for most of them, because Google Translate (and Bing) relies on written translations – which works well for French, Spanish, English, German, and other often-translated languages. “No such data mountain exists, however, for languages that may be widely spoken but not as prolifically translated” – languages such as Wolof, Luganda, Twi and Ewe, not to mention many indigenous languages in the Americas. Can “neural networks” be retrained to learn from smaller, and more spoken, samples? – BBC
Tony-Award-Winning Lighting Designer Pat Collins Dies
“She was brilliant, funny, warm, and sometimes quite daunting. I have a memory of Mark Lamos and John Conklin hiding from her at one point during the endless tech for the six-hour Peer Gynt – lest she unleash her wrath upon them.” – Live Design
Britain’s Biggest Theatre Owner Buys Three Venues In San Francisco And Detroit
Ambassador Theatre Group is purchasing from the Nederlander Co. the Orpheum and Golden Gate Theatres in San Francisco and the Fisher Theatre in Detroit, as well as taking over the presentation of Broadway tours at the Detroit Opera House and Music Hall. – Deadline
Are We At A Creative Reckoning?(It’s All Good)
Deborah Cullinan: “When we finally arrive in this future, we, the people, will be brazen about the power of artists and of art and creativity to change everything. We will have, at last, comprehended and put to action the real potential of our own strength as creative souls.” – Howlround
Dance Was An Integral Part of Christian Worship For Centuries
In the earliest period of Christianity, dance was frowned upon as pagan. (St. Augustine, in his typical way, was particularly scornful.) But when folks want to dance, it’s hard to keep them from it, and by the 9th century the church was permitting and even encouraging dance; by the 13th, it was being formally incorporated into liturgy. (Then came the Reformation and Counter-Reformation …) – The Conversation
Jean Nouvel Wins Competition For Dramatic New Opera House In Shenzhen
The design of the Opera House takes on unconventional forms, opening up the space and integrating the opera house into the Greater Bay Area. Entitled Light of the Sea, the proposal puts in place a curved, light, transparent, and floating roof, under which performance spaces such as opera hall and concert hall are placed. – ArchDaily
The Best Character Actors In The Business (Well, Most Of Them)
“[Here are] the results of an industrywide survey we conducted to answer one simple question: who are the most memorable character actors working today? To find out, we polled nearly 60 directors, showrunners, casting directors, and critics — and when we tallied the results, 32 names had emerged from a field of more than 300 suggestions.” (The only problem: anyone who has been nominated for an Oscar or won an Emmy was disqualified, thus leaving out the likes of J.K. Simmons and Melissa Leo.) – Vulture
How To Understand NFTs And What It Means For The Art World
“Imagine digital Beanie Babies, but with only one existing copy of each. For art works, the N.F.T. format functions a little like a museum label noting the piece’s provenance—a proprietary stamp, attached to digital pieces that can still circulate freely across the Internet. In new online marketplaces such as Nifty Gateway, SuperRare, and Foundation, artists can upload, or “mint,” their works as unique N.F.T.s, then sell them.” – The New Yorker
Blurb-Off
Book blurbs are ridiculous. And competitive, as it turns out. – The New Yorker
How Did This Ballet Company Keep Its Dancers Working Throughout The Pandemic? Giving Them Other Jobs
The St. Paul-based Ballet Co.Laboratory has “[a] dual-contract structure [which] provides its dancers with administrative employment, whether in management, communications, development or teaching — a framework that became especially useful in keeping the dancers employed during the pandemic.” – Pointe Magazine
The Return Of Tower Records?
Inspired by the vinyl LP revival, new CEO Danny Zeijdel thinks he can make a go of the online business and, ultimately, brick-and-mortar. For now, “you can visit the website, buy a vinyl record, a CD, even a cassette tape, or slake your Tower nostalgia with a logo T-shirt. Everything comes to you wrapped in that familiar yellow bag that, if you’re of a certain age, will bring back fond memories of taking home the new Liz Phair album.” – Slate
World’s Oldest Wooden Sculpture Is Far More Ancient Than We’d Thought — 12,500 Years
That’s more than twice as old as Stonehenge and the Giza Pyramids and by far the oldest surviving piece of ritual art. The new dating means that the Shigir Idol, as it’s called, dug up from a peat bog in the Urals in 1890, “challenges the ethnocentric notion that pretty much everything, including symbolic expression and philosophical perceptions of the world, came to Europe by way of the sedentary farming communities in the Fertile Crescent 8,000 years ago.” – The New York Times
Adam Zagajewski, ‘Poet Of 9/11’, Dead At 75
Already known and admired in his native Poland, he came to the English-speaking world’s attention when The New Yorker published his “Try to Praise the Mutilated World” shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. – Yahoo! (AP)
Rare Book Collecting: Connecting Brion Gysin and Paul-Armand Gette
To rate collectors by the use they make of their collections rather than simply by completeness or the rarity and excellence of individual items makes great sense. – Jan Herman
The Neglected Pyramids Of Sudan May Be Ready To Shine
After a long-invested dictator falls, the Sudanese people (and some of the rest of the world) may gain access to the archaeological sites that show off the history of their country. “The ancient city of Meroe — part of a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2011 — is a four-hour drive from Khartoum, northeast along the Nile River. The pyramids here, built between 2,700 and 2,300 years ago, stand as a testament to the grandeur of the Kingdom of Kush, a major power from the eighth century B.C. to the fourth century A.D.” – The New York Times