"Being violated and brought close to death is (a) psychological abyss, but living with the belief that actors and producers have exploited your rape for money, and that more than 5 million viewers, including some of your own friends, watch it for entertainment … will bring you dangerously close to becoming the Joker." - Slate (Yahoo!)
Fortnite “customers could ultimately receive $245 million for what the agency called Epic’s use of ‘dark patterns’ to trick millions of players into unwanted purchases. Another $275 million will settle accusations that the studio violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.” - The New York Times
In Bend, Oregon, “there have been previous reports of sculptures being decorated with Christmas garb in the past, but the googly eyes are a newer development” - one city officials are begging people to stop. - Oregon Public Broadcasting (KLCC)
Andrew Wallenstein, then-co-editor-in-chief of Variety: "I’m not going to say if I had to do it all over again I would do it differently because I understand why I did what I did then. But looking back on the hack, I wish I’d taken a different tack. Let me explain why." - Variety
Justin Davidson: "A new museum wing here can’t just be an exercise in logistics. It’s also a presence in Central Park and a half-billion-dollar embodiment of the museum’s encyclopedic mission. … (Frida Escobedo's design) looks laudably simple because it provides an elegant solution to a tangle of trade-offs and constraints." - Curbed (MSN)
"In the months since the revelations, I revisited Munro’s stories, spoke with members of her family and tracked down a number of her unpublished letters. Munro’s appalling failures as a mother seem to have been an imaginative incitement, instrumental to her artistic project." - The New York Times Magazine
"A federal judge in Texas rejected the auction sale of Alex Jones’ Infowars to The Onion satirical news outlet, criticizing the bidding for the conspiracy theory platform as flawed as well as how much money families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting stood to receive." - AP
Under a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board, "10 fired dancers, and three whose offers of employment were rescinded, will receive over $560,000 from the dance company in back pay, front pay and compensation for damages incurred through the loss of their employment." - KERA (Dallas)
"A poet of rage and revolution as well as love and longing, (she) emerged as a fiery voice of Black liberation in the 1960s before honing a more tender, meditative style in best-selling books for children and adults." - The Washington Post (MSN)
Why? Because the reasoning era is here. The basic difference: “Language models learn a grammar, perhaps even something about the world, while reasoning models aim to use that grammar.” - The Atlantic
“Notre Dame was a monumental achievement in the 12th and 13th centuries. Its resurrection after the devastating fire that threatened to bring the entire edifice down, is a monumental achievement for the 21st.” - The Observer (UK)
"One thing voting for awards has taught me is that virtually every outside assumption about how the process works is wrong, (especially) any attempt to extract an overarching meaning from the results. … Fortunately, there’s an easy way to explain the process. … All you have to do is watch Conclave." - Slate (MSN)
"So what do we mean when we designate something a landmark? It’s a trickier question than you might think. Landmark laws across the country have come into existence to preserve things we deem culturally significant. But they don’t always protect what we actually want to save." - The New York Times
Lisa Ko “was subjected to weeks of harassment as well as a broader smear campaign in the media which resulted in a loss of professional opportunities,” and many of her fellow authors will not have it. - LitHub
The TV series version of Fanny and Alexander is more than five hours long, but the opera (perhaps sadly) has to be shorter. “The key to their adaptation was to capture the look and feeling of the movie with efficiency, and in new ways." - The New York Times
“Athletes, coaches, and choreographers are now facing the fact that they’ve been unintentionally breaking the law nearly every day, through the music that soundtracks their performances. And as rumors of the dollar amounts in musicians’ complaints spread, many athletes began to question” if their sports can continue at all. - Slate - Slate
And they’re filing a major lawsuit over copyright violations. "The suit was filed by several leading Canadian media companies, including the owners of the National Post and Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and CBC/Radio-Canada.” - The Verge
Adam Moss: "(it) is full of notes-to-self that provide a real-time map of what was going through his mind. … It’s rare for a writer to allow you this far in to see how a novel is written; most are secretive, superstitious about exposing a process that even they don’t understand." - Vulture
Mohammed Rasoulof had been imprisoned for his work before, and he knew that his The Seed of the Sacred Fig — which ultimately got a 13-minute ovation and a special jury prize at Cannes — would land him there again. Yet he felt compelled to do it. - The New York Times Magazine
