Sure, some of the sequences were a bit zany (and then there are the hot dog finers), but the film "feels more in line with last year’s winner, CODA, suggesting that pandemic-scarred academy voters are especially fond of cozily sentimental family dramas these days." - Los Angeles Times
Majers Coin Laundry in San Fernando is "tucked between an auto repair shop and a mobile home park, its tall glass windows revealing vending machines stocked with M&M’s and bleach." And for six fateful days in 2020, it turned into a film set. - Los Angeles Times
"Tuxedo vendors say that awards season drives huge sales on top of their usual income from weddings and proms, on the order of 20% to 30% of their annual revenue." But, from last-minute requests to late returns, it's not easy. - Los Angeles Times
For how long has science occurred outside the West? Is it fundamentally a Western export, a product of distinctly Western attitudes and values? - Boston Review
Gorsuch’s fairness question resonates right away. Why these debts and not others? Why them and not me? These are rhetorical questions, and they have a rhetorical purpose: to frame student loan forgiveness as a sucker’s game. - Slate
One of the most consequential developments of our moment is that the experiences that create sensory memories are disappearing even faster than temperatures are rising. - City Journal
Using around 90 per cent of the brain-imaging data, the pair trained a model to make links between fMRI data from a brain region that processes visual signals, called the early visual cortex, and the images that people were viewing. - New Scientist
One of the first things I’d learned about optimization was that something is optimal if it is equal or preferable to any alternative. To optimize an experience, then, is to shepherd it toward the preferable. - Wired
There is little hope for meritocracy as a theory of distributive justice. The “playing field” isn’t level, there is an oversupply of talent and the methods for determining merit are often winner-take-all, the social determinants of merit often don’t line up with objective criteria of merit. - 3 Quarks Daily
The idea of ‘truth’ as something subjective may seem odd, but nevertheless it is clear how the notion of lived experience leads in this direction. - 3 Quarks Daily
The toys - but "the most desired lot of all was Raccacoonie, a raccoon puppet that features in one universe in the film where the raccoon is revealed to be helping a chef with his cooking, a reference to the Pixar film Ratatouille. Raccacoonie fetched US$90,000." - The Guardian (UK)
A massive new study shows that, at least for white-collar companies including advertising agencies and consulting firms, it's a good deal for employees and employers alike. Could the arts benefit as well? - Fast Company
"In a sense, Bing and Bard are finishing what Ask Jeeves started. What people want when they ask a question is for an all-knowing, machine-powered guide to confidently present them with the right answer in plain language, just as a reliable friend would." - The Atlantic
For a long time, psychologists saw personality as fixed throughout our lives. This has since been disproven – although personality is relatively stable, it’s far from set in stone. - Psyche
