The ancient Greek polymath Eratosthenes, who was the first person to measure the circumference of the Earth, disputed that the Odyssey had anything to do with geography. He said: “You will find the scene of the wanderings of Odysseus when you find the cobbler who sewed up the bag of the winds.” - The Conversation

According to a new national survey of 1,690 adults from research firm Verasight, 69% said they support “forcing” AI firms to transfer half their stock to a public sovereign wealth fund that would, in theory, pour AI profits back into the economy and even provide direct payments to Americans. - Fast Company

How can we tell? Well, a lot of ways. One grim statistic: “Gambling has become a more common leisure activity than reading a book.” - The Atlantic

Too much scrolling (of papyrus) in ancient Rome had the philosopher Seneca in search of an answer. His advice, “which he outlined in his Letters From a Stoic: Devote your attention to one idea a day.” - The New York Times

“The Odyssey – the story of a warrior’s homecoming, his long and tortuous journey to reintegrate himself within his own household – has passed into the bloodstream of many storytelling traditions,” from Finding Nemo to Game of Thrones. - The Guardian (UK)

"Growing up in Puerto Rico in the late 19th century, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was told by his teacher that Black people had no significant history or accomplishments.” Just how wrong was that teacher? Very. - The Guardian (UK)

The secret to the company’s success lies in its network of “partners”—museums and churches and palazzi, but also artists and photographers and scholars. Each has something special to offer if they can be persuaded to provide it.  - The Atlantic

“The free speech wars of recent years are not just about rules – they’re about what it means to be a good person.” - The Guardian (UK)

Can genAI art or writing ever, ever be more than mid? - Glasstire

“We are making real trade-offs as we shift to communication through short-form video, and maybe it will be worth it, but we certainly are losing a lot.” - NPR

A new Netflix adaptation would argue that some people - though likely not those trying to ban anything not “positive” in history texts - are so ready. - Salon

“The article offers no convincing explanation for a response this totalizing. It does not solve the mystery. It compounds it.” - Study Marry Kill

The labels are simple icons that distinguish between those that are “AI-generated” and “AI-assisted,” but they are designed to be adopted by digital music services, distributors and others. The track labeling is voluntary. - Deadline

“In too much classical modern contemporary music, there’s just sound,” he said. “Nothing sticks. You're not giving the audience anything to hold on to. It’s just a lot of sound, a lot of orchestration.” - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The river has “been neglected, trashed and often forgotten over time, myriad governmental and nonprofit groups have been working for years to restore habitat. … And recently, creatives and activists, who dream of transforming it into a hospitable greenway, have been hosting arts events.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Big crowds for a church venue, anyway - and a lot of participants. “The choir is full of these intense, amazing, freaky, kooky people, and the community that I've been able to fall into and build has just been a game changer.” - San Francisco Chronicle

Pianist Jayson Gillham, who spoke from the stage about Israel killing journalists in Gaza, said “I believe artists should be free to speak with integrity. … This case was never just about me. My principles remain unchanged.” - The New York Times

"Given the complexity of the music, the central role of the voices and the challenging subject matter of the opera, how has it been to re-immerse in that sound world and those themes? Has learned anything new during the process of writing the orchestral suite?” - Bachtrack

Initially, the administrators discussed removing some of the pieces from the show. But then the provost texted that he wanted to take down the entire exhibition instead. Michael McPherson wrote, "I think it'll be easier to manage any barking from our friends in Austin." - NPR

“The famous work depicts a rural scene near the River Stour in Flatford, but it was actually painted in Constable's London studio.” - BBC

A painter from Manchester, who focused on the working class, isn’t necessarily what Londoners think. “What we’re hoping to do is actually to bust a few myths. … wasn’t just an industrial painter. He certainly wasn’t naive or isolated.” - The Guardian (UK)

“Initially, the administrators discussed removing some of the pieces from the show. But then the provost texted that he wanted to take down the entire exhibition instead. wrote, ‘I think it'll be easier to manage any barking from our friends in Austin.’” - NPR

Smooth, not chunky - the artist wasn’t a monster. - The Guardian (UK)

“When Kapoor first made one of these works in Prussian blue, he was stunned to find ‘it wasn’t an empty space painted blue,’ he said. ‘It was full of blueness or, as I say, darkness. What was empty became full. How can that be?’” - ArtNet

PEN America currently sits on a widening fault line, one that divides old-school liberalism, which treats the right to speak as more important than any particular ideology, from a surging and fiercely ideological left that sees Israel and Zionism as its enemy. - The Atlantic

Last week’s New Yorker has a rather intense article on the uselessness of BookTok for real book discussion. This woman begs to differ. - BBC

Personal testimony is paramount on BookTok; a book is deemed successful if it ‘breaks’ or ‘destroys’ a “reader. The most common book-review content on the app understands books as pleasure-spiking torment factories.” - The New Yorker

But this one may become legendary. “Tomi Adeyemi, the author of the bestselling fantasy Children of Blood and Bone, isn’t planning to see the forthcoming film adaptation — even though she co-wrote it.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Then you might want to read more Golden Age mysteries, including Josephine Tey (and not just Daughter of Time). - The New York Times

“The optics of the case speak louder than the niceties of any contract dispute. Those optics advance the narrative that Meta is a heartless and negative force determined to stifle the truth about its misdeeds.” (In other words, buy physical copies of the book.) - Wired

To bolster engagement, executives at the company have recently discussed adding live channels that would continuously stream certain programs, or shows and films from a certain genre, according to people familiar with the matter. - The Wall Street Journal

A coalition of 12 Democratic states including California, New York and Washington filed a lawsuit Monday to block Paramount’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, the most serious legal challenge to date for one of the biggest media deals in history. - The New York Times

“The best side of a stunt always has to face the lens: The trajectory of a feigned punch, a few degrees off, can look fake to viewers.” - The New York Times

The state legislators “are calling for Gov. Gavin Newsom to exempt the state’s film and TV production incentive program from a recently approved cap on corporate tax credits.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

“On average, Disney has waited 27 years before remaking one of its animated classics as a live-action movie.” Just one problem: They’re out of animated classics to remake. - The New York Times

Remember Amazon buying Goodreads, anyone? “The app has become a beloved platform and community for young movie enthusiasts, and is most popular with audiences ages 18 to 35.” - The Guardian (UK)

The unnamed 17-year-old, who's been competing in girls’ youth divisions for several years, was enrolled as a contestant in last week's North American Irish Dance Championships in Orlando. She withdrew after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier threatened to pursue the competition’s governing bodies for violating state law. - Orlando Sentinel

“By eschewing music and narrative in favor of seemingly pedestrian motions—toe taps, limbs folding and unrolling—that don’t repeat, challenged dance tradition when it premiered in 1966. It requires performers to maintain what Rainer describes as an ‘uninflected continuity.’”- Dance Magazine

“For me, the key has always been to make Odette the embodiment of pure femininity, sorrow, refinement, and forgiveness — but never weakness. ... Odile, by contrast, should be explosive, feminine, bold, daring and wicked — but never vulgar. You know, without steam coming out of her nostrils.” - Gramilano (Milan)

Some companies have embraced outright celebration; a few are pointedly grappling with what they see as troubling issues in the country’s history and present. Many are highlighting the huge body of American choreographic work, both ballet and modern/contemporary. - Dance Magazine

Such an opportunity was bound to present itself to the director of San Francisco Ballet in the 2020s. It’s no surprise that she took the opportunity — but what she has to say about the experience, while quite perspicacious, isn’t much of a surprise either. - The Times (UK)

“Call it ballet-qua-haunted house. … Audiences came in-kind on opening night, sporting black lace, corsets, velour, brocade and, in at least a couple cases, a top hat and a waxed mustache.” - San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo)

“Ross said that it had been a dream of hers to be on Broadway. Instead of throwing a birthday party to celebrate turning 40, she rented stages in New York City and Los Angeles and invited her friends to watch her perform a one-woman show.” - The New York Times

“The cleaners, represented by 32BJ of Service Employees International Union, reached a tentative deal that includes $5 an hour wage increases, a 21% increase from the current rates, by the end of the new four-year contract, as well as improved paid leave and protection for its employer-paid family health care.” - The Hollywood Reporter

There are already at least four this summer, with more in production. "With the show’s success – all perky keisters, swanky hotel shags, a secret sex cottage and just a smidgeon of hockey – reckons it was inevitable.” - The Guardian (UK)

Borough Hall, Streatham Hill Theatre, Tottenham Palace Theatre, and the Intimate Theatre have been deemed “at risk of closure, redevelopment, or demolition.” Three of them are being eyed for conversion into churches or other sites of worship. - The Standard (London)

“What resulted was not just an outré and out lesbian ‘Latin spitfire,’ in words, but also decades of film and theater work on topics ranging from racism and homelessness to revolution to questions of identity.” - Hyperallergic

And, for balance, this report also includes on-the-record favorable comments from one high-level staffer who worked with Sharif at Arena — Reggie D. White. who followed Sharif to DC from the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. - DC Theater Arts

The actor was a warm internet presence and a proud producer of wine from his vineyard. “At 11, he changed his name to Sam, taking inspiration from characters in Western movies. It was, he added, ‘probably the best decision I made in my life.’” - The New York Times

Because she’s even more ubiquitous than usual this year — a blockbuster show at Tate Modern, a bio-series at Netflix, a fantasy opera about her at the Met, a new record ($54.7 million) for a woman artist at auction — here’s a recap of her life. No mention of the affair with Trotsky, though....

Her deadpan performances in Woody Allen’s early films (she was his second wife) first brought her to public notice, but she achieved real fame as the pigtailed, gingham-wearing, put-upon suburban heroine of Norman Lear’s soap opera parody Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, which aired 325 episodes over its 18-month run in 1976-77. - Deadline

“The problems at the Barnes were so obvious,” he told The New York Times in 1993, “Ray Charles could see them in a swamp at midnight.” - The New York Times

Robert Kimball, a musical theater historian and champion of American popular song who unearthed hundreds of pieces long thought to be lost and helped rediscover the work of the seminal Black Broadway songwriting team of Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. - The New York Times

Wallace was "a self-proclaimed radical historian whose magisterial, unvarnished biography of New York, Gotham, written with Edwin G. Burrows, won the Pulitzer Prize and inspired two more door-stopper volumes about the city.” - The New York Times