To manage the thousands of people who descend daily, operators have studied visitors’ behavior and engineered their parks to move people around without anyone realizing they’re being nudged. - The Atlantic (MSN)
Media organizations do not want cultural criticism the same way they do not want war reporting or fluffy opinion pieces as those specific things. They want those things as a way of getting what they actually want. - Notebook
You have always believed the arts are necessary ingredients of a healthy community, whether or not you used that language explicitly. We now know, through data and research, that it’s true. Yet, along with other care fields and organizations, we are being cast as unnecessary... - Arts Fuse
“A break-in was detected on Tuesday morning, with the intruders reportedly using an angle grinder and a blow torch to force their way into the riverside complex. … The stolen specimens are valued at around 600,000 euros based on the price of raw gold.” - France 24
The subject has grown rarer as the art world has gotten more commercial, but there are still people who immerse themselves in projects that take years and sometimes decades to complete, assuming they have any end date at all. - The New York Times
The Trump administration’s settlement proposal to UCLA — which includes a nearly $1.2-billion fine over allegations of antisemitism and civil rights violations — seeks to drastically overhaul campus practices on hiring, admissions, sports, scholarships, discrimination and gender identity. - Los Angeles Times
Philip Kennicott: “If you can erase ‘The Scourged Back,’ if you can erase … any one of the millions of enslaved people who suffered similar torments or worse, then you can erase anything, and nothing will trouble the American conscience ever again.” - The Washington Post (Yahoo!)
Headlines focus on that tiny segment of the arts that garners extraordinary numbers (whether readers, audience members, or dollars). The lucky writers and performers are ultimately discovered and rewarded with untold riches and rewards. But what about those creative people—many quite talented, a few geniuses—who struggle to have their work recognized? - Nightingale Sonata
“In the months and years since the siege that destroyed it, the city has been turned into a showcase of the concept of the ‘Russian world’ — an idea of Russia as encompassing nations in its former sphere of influence — and an exemplary model of forced Russification.” - The Dial
In recent years, a group of YouTubers and podcasters have attracted millions of viewers by proclaiming that physics is in crisis. The field, they argue, has discovered little of importance in the last 50 years, because it is dominated by groupthink and silences anyone who dares to dissent from mainstream ideas, like string theory. - The Wall Street Journal
We are again confronting a massive attack on the very foundations of democratic education and, this time around, the stakes feel even higher. In the 1950s, the targets were individual teachers—communists, progressives, liberals—and their left-wing unions. Now the target is the system itself. - Boston Review
This year, it will present over 700 shows across its stages, from pop music to Broadway musicals and seemingly everything in between. In recent years, it’s earned more revenue than Seattle Opera, Seattle Symphony and Pacific Northwest Ballet combined. - Seattle Times
Teacher evaluations are a big part of how higher education got to this point. The scores factor into academics’ pay, hiring, and chance to get tenure. But maximizing teacher ratings is very different from providing quality instruction. In fact, those aims are largely opposed. - The Atlantic
Although some devil’s advocates might say that AI use democratizes the ability to create high-quality promotional materials, Agan feels like the aesthetic just isn’t in line with the club’s ethos. - SFGate
“The company claims that the AI Overviews that often appear at the top of search results leave users with little reason to click through to the source, hurting traffic and illegally benefitting from the work of its reporters.” - The Verge
