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“We Need A National Memorial To Gun Violence, Now.”

"It must be close to the Capitol, close enough to implicate and shame those inside it on a daily basis. ... After every mass shooting, turn on the lights and the microphones, and let no political leader who makes the symbolic pilgrimage escape speaking actual truth on the site." - MSN (The Washington Post)

Would We All Be Better Off without Philanthropy?

Philanthropists rarely make the large, unrestricted gifts that the receiving institutions really want, and so the two parties bargain: over the purpose and the control of a gift, over the form of credit, over how much the institution has to raise from other sources as a condition. - The New Yorker

Not What You Thinks: How The Internet Is Destroying Us

We can at least say of the oil economy that its environmental damage, and consequent destruction of the human world, is only an epiphenomenon, whereas for the internet, the destruction of the human is itself the source of value. - LA Review of Books

How Are We Supposed To Talk About The Future?

I too grew up imbibing common technotopian fantasies of the late-20th Century zeitgeist, of a belief in humanity’s manifest destiny of multi-planetary spread and dominion. I just didn’t put the pieces of the puzzle together until I tried to understand climate change. - 3 Quarks Daily

Just Switch It Off: Why Great Numbers Of Australians Have Quit The News

 Research from the University of Canberra found that heavy news use dropped from 69% in April 2020 to 51% in January 2021, while those expressing high interest in the news fell from 64% in 2016 to 52% in 2021. - The Guardian

ABT’s Incoming Director Could “Quietly Blow Up The Entire Way We Think About Ballet”

"Susan Jaffe, who recently turned 60, has in mind such steps as opening up artistic processes to the public and soliciting views from balletgoers and other stakeholders on the delicate task of updating thorny works from the classical canon. It's an audience-first approach." - MSN (The Washington Post)

When The Artist IS The Content

Rather than the “death of the author” heralded by French novelist and philosopher Roland Barthes in the 1960s, are we now witnessing its counterpoint—a cultural sphere where nothing remains but a cult of celebrity being played out on digital platforms? - LitHub

How A 1972 Production Of Godspell Changed The Comedy World Forever

Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Victor Garber, Jayne Eastwood, Andrea Martin, and Paul Shaffer all walked into a theatre. This is a (rollicking) oral history of the experience. "Jesus starts his narration, and we look up and Andrea has a dinner roll in her mouth." - Washington Post

How Our Memory Is Becoming More Specialized

Memorizing can become a highly specialized act, based on regular practice and rehearsal. A singer, though fully capable of performing the role of say Aida, is unlikely to be able to memorize an epic poem that is similarly long. - The Baffler

What Cancer Therapy Is Teaching Us About The Vast Complexity Of The Human Condition

How can immunotherapy cure a 65-year-old, newly retired man of Stage IV lung cancer, restoring the promise of his golden years with his family, but do nothing for the 55-year-old woman whose cancer robs her of decades of life? We do not know. - LA Review of Books

Somehow The Internet Went Wrong. We Could Fix It

Many of us find ourselves in the alienating position of using (even relying on) technology companies we distrust and hate, knowing that they are bad for us and for society, but somehow being unable or unwilling to escape. - New Statesman

The Collective That Launched Australia’s Indigenous Art Movement 50 Years Ago

"Starting out as an informal gathering of local men painting wherever they could find some shade, Papunya Tula has become one of the most respected players in the world of Indigenous art, with two art centers (in tiny desert towns) and an art gallery in Alice Springs." - Smithsonian Magazine

The Einstein Franchise – Rapacious And Wealthy

Einstein had been a well-paid man. His Princeton salary of $10,000 – roughly $180,000 in today’s money – was set by the university to exceed that of any American scientist. But his earnings in life were insignificant compared to his earnings in death. - The Guardian

How Looted Cambodian Statues Ended Up At The British Museum And V&A

Cambodian investigators have explained to the BBC the routes by which sculptures stolen from ancient temples made it to Britain, and two former looters identified items in the British Museum and V&A catalogues which they themselves had taken during the Khmer Rouge years. - BBC

Scientists Want To Know Which Problems Are Too Difficult

Computer scientists want to know whether all the problems we hope to solve can be solved efficiently, in a reasonable amount of time — before the end of the universe, say. If not, they are simply far too difficult. - Quanta

DeafBlind People Are Adapting ASL Into A Language Of Touch

Protactile, as the new language is called, started with people (usually sighted) signing ASL into the hands of DeafBlind folks.  But many of ASL's signs don't really come across in touch, so DeafBlind people have been gradually developing their own vocabulary and linguistic conventions. - The New Yorker

The Clutter Versus Anti-Clutter Wars

Why do some people revel in collections of novelty eggcups? Or have so many framed pictures you can barely see the (ferociously busy) wallpaper? And why do those at the other end of the spectrum refuse to have even the essential stuff visible in the home? - The Conversation

Why Canadians Have To Move To The US To Find Success

Canada’s tidy, modest institutions have lowered the ceiling on its creative professions. There’s also something very stay-in-your-lane about the presumption that a Canadian artist will never get big enough to be one of them. They’d sooner call you dead. So much for assimilation! - The Walrus

The Next Version Of Authenticity Online: BeReal?

To summarize the BeReal user experience: once a day, at a random time, the app sends a push notification to its users, granting them two minutes to snap a two-way photo using their phones’ front- and rear-facing cameras. Only after posting the daily photo can users see what their friends have posted. - The New Yorker

How I Learned To Appreciate The Intelligence Of Trees

The idea of intelligence without a brain can sound mystical or speculative, but the initiative has attracted quite a lot of human intelligence so I was intrigued. - The New Yorker
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