About 48,000 unionized academic workers across the University of California’s 10 campuses — who perform the majority of teaching and research at the state’s premier higher education system — walked off the job Monday morning, calling for better pay and benefits. - Los Angeles Times
As a practical matter, turning out movies that look worse in a theater than they might on a TV screen is a real problem for an industry that desperately needs box office revenue to survive. - Washington Post
The team found that all violins produced combination tones, but the oldest instruments produced the strongest ones. The magnitude of the most prominent combination tone for the oldest violin, made in Bologna in 1700, was about 75 per cent larger than the one from a modern mass-produced instrument. - New Scientist
Researchers in Japan played Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major (K. 448) for 10 rats, and tiny wireless accelerometers affixed to the animals’ heads revealed that the rodents subtly nodded in sync with the musical beat. - The Wall Street Journal
Which debut novel might hear its name called? Will nonfiction about viruses or chronic illness defeat Imani Perry's sweeping take on the history of the South? And in young people's literature, will a high school lesbian crush or a 12-year-old Chinese American in Minnesota prevail? - Vox
The director "was certain that viewers would never mistake her absurdist, autobiographical ... queer coming-of-age film, in which the titular heroine battles gender dysphoria and a toxic romance with a fellow comedian, for an official DC Comics movie." Warner Bros. disagreed. - Los Angeles Times
Summary Culture gone wild: "I was flattered that these folks, whoever they are, had bothered to rip off my book. But I was also pissed. I was angry on behalf of any and all unsuspecting readers who had ordered a workbook, only to receive these worthless word salads." - The Atlantic
The hair samples were taken from children at residential schools between 1930 and 1933. The Peabody Museum "apologized to Indigenous tribal nations and descendants ... and indicated that it had initiated the process of returning samples to families and tribes." - Hyperallergic
And how they rip us, and artists, off as well. "Large firms can corner audiences and put them into a sort of corral. And because creators need to reach those audiences, these large firms can take whatever it is you have of worth." - Irish Times
And by long, we're talking centuries. "Swirling veils and drapery were added to Allegory of Inclination about 70 years after Gentileschi painted the lifesize female nude, believed to be a self-portrait, in 1616." - The Guardian (AP)
Well, first of all, the romance author doesn't think that's quite enough: "I’m now writing my third book this year. I always aim for four. Four is like the magic number, but I don’t think it’s actually happened." - Slate
Imagine making a ballet of this: "The novels that constitute the MaddAddam trilogy are set in a world where genetic engineering has produced a variety of new creatures: raccoon-skunk hybrid pets; guard dogs who look sweetly domestic but are as ferocious as wolves; and supersized pigs." - The Globe and Mail
Rubin was a geologist before he discovered the joys of art films in San Francisco. "For nearly three decades before it went dark in 1996, the 270-seat Biograph was an oasis for a small but devoted class of film buffs." - Washington Post
There was the case of the vanishing Beatles hit, the decision around "Ding Dong, the Witch Is Dead" after Margaret Thatcher's death, and the whole question of a tie. - BBC
"It's been a long negotiation process for the approximately 250 union members. This includes people working in publicity, design, marketing and more - all the parts of putting out a book that you usually don't see." - NPR
