Despite the famously long hours and low pay, aspiring TV writers compete madly for these jobs, hoping to get a foot in the door and onto the career ladder. But, as one assistant puts it, "the ladder has been disappearing." - Fast Company
Studies suggest that bored people score higher on creativity tests. As our distractions have multiplied, our minds have less opportunity to wander. Thus... - Medium
The industry that produced Andrzej Wajda and Agnieszka Holland never anticipated that a trashy softcore flick would become its most-watched product, the world's lockdown guilty pleasure. Fortunately, Netflix has been putting a lot of resources into more (and more respectable) projects in Poland. - The Hollywood Reporter
"A researcher at the University of William and Mary analyzed 300,000 Torrance Test scores since the '50s. She found that creativity scores began to nosedive in 1990. - Inc
The A.I. Song Contest features three dozen or so teams that use artificial intelligence networks to create parts of, and sometimes all of, a song, along with a jury of scientists and songwriters led by Imogen Heap. And what did they come up with? - The New York Times
Face pareidolia – seeing faces in random objects or patterns of light and shadow – is an everyday phenomenon. Once considered a symptom of psychosis, it arises from an error in visual perception. - The Guardian
The theater students of the UNC School of the Arts Class of 2020 hadn't expected to be starting their careers right at the moment their chosen industry completely shut down. Here's a look at how they managed and where they are now. - The New York Times
Ari Honarvar, who as a teen danced secretly to get herself through life in post-revolution Iran, writes about how she now leads communal dancing as therapy for Central American asylum-seekers marooned in Tijuana. - Slate
He built a cult following in the 1960s underground with inventively odd satires, then hit the mainstream in 1969 with Putney Swope, in which a Black Power activist takes over a New York ad agency, followed by Greaser's Palace, the life of Christ as a spaghetti Western. - Variety
Researchers using an array of high-tech methods have found traces of alum, potash, lime, borax, and plain old salt in the wooden fronts of these old instruments — and the cellulose molecules in the spruce were rearranged by those treatments. - The Strad
"Truck driver shortages, widespread port congestion, and skyrocketing container costs are among the biggest challenges facing the book industry supply chain for the rest of the year and into 2022." - Publishers Weekly
"The plaintiffs" — local residents and a powerful labor union — "accuse the authorities of 'grave negligence', which they say exposed city dwellers, particularly children and those working to restore the cathedral, to dangerous levels of toxic lead dust." - The Guardian
"The Japanese government formally declared a state of emergency in Tokyo on Thursday, due to rising numbers of COVID-19 infections. Restrictions will be in place throughout the duration of the Games, and may mean that spectators are banned from some events in Tokyo and nearby prefectures." - Variety
"For every privileged kid too lazy to write an essay, there was a more complex story. To my surprise, of the hundreds of clients I worked with, many—maybe most—students were simply desperate for the help." - Slate
