Stories

A growing number of young people are getting involved in what are traditionally considered "grandma hobbies," like knitting, to relax. - NPR

Called I know, You're Not Mine - Jag vet, du är inte min - it is currently top of the Spotify playlist of Sweden's most popular songs. But the singer is a digital creation and the country's music industry body has blocked the track from its official chart listings. - BBC

Artists have always excelled at coaxing mysteries out of their materials, whether pushing paint, film, or code until it reveals something unexpected. AI is no different. - Fast Company

Last month, Kinesis Dance, rebranded earlier that year as Frequency Dance, abruptly shut down. Preceding that closure was a long series of financial irregularities, unpaid bills, and other troubles, including a 2023 break-in which involved serious destruction but no theft. - Boulder Reporting Lab

Harvard recently dropped to No. 3 on the ranking. The schools racing up the list are not Harvard’s American peers, but Chinese universities that have been steadily climbing in rankings that emphasize the volume and quality of research they produce. - The New York Times

Designed by Snøhetta in collaboration with Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD), the project broke ground on 31 December above a metro line in Beijing's Tongzhou district. - Dezeen

Across undergraduate and graduate programs, total enrollment reached 19.4 million students, growing 1.0% compared with the fall of 2024, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, a nonprofit that studies higher education. - NPR

“Arts industry leaders have accused the Scottish Government of ‘eroding’ the culture sector after leaving its national performing companies” — Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, National Theatre of Scotland, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra — “on standstill funding despite promises to roll out £100m in new support for culture.” - The Herald (Scotland)

The real revolution isn’t AI itself but the space it exposes: a world where meaning, not management, becomes the organizing principle. - Big Think

It is the first time an actor has attempted to use trademark law to protect their likeness from AI misuse, his lawyers and an expert said. - BBC

Paying Spotify subscribers have been flagging the platform’s push of AI music for a while, but now they’re drawing a line, with many calling on the streaming giant to roll out filters to identify which songs have been generated by AI. - TechRadar

“The Pentagon said Thursday that it is changing the independent military newspaper … so it concentrates on ‘reporting for our warfighters’ and no longer includes ‘woke distractions.’ … Applicants for jobs at Stars and Stripes (are reportedly) being asked what they would do to support President Donald Trump’s policies.” - AP

“The Prado does not need a single visitor more. We are comfortable with 3.5 million,” (Miguel Falomir) said. ... “A museum can collapse due to success, like the Louvre, with some rooms becoming over-saturated. The important thing is not to collapse.” - The Times (UK)

“How does one spend 20 years training themselves not to be afraid, only to be reminded that they should have been scared all along? How to return to normalcy after that? High-minded principles, sure — ‘If you retreat, they win,’ etc. … It wasn’t principle that got him through this latest crucible.” - The Hollywood Reporter

The touring troupe Quarantine was to perform its midday-to-midnight piece 12 Last Songs this weekend as part of the Under the Radar festival of experimental theater. Thursday afternoon the company announced that US visas had been “paused” for 10 of its 13 members, and Citizenship and Immigration Services won’t say why. - The Stage