The company wanted to have it both ways: to exert the cultural influence of a major media company without shouldering any more responsibility (or economic burden) than is expected of a mere service provider, such as Gmail. - The Atlantic
The streaming ecosystem, say critics, is easily gamed. For $20, artists can buy an annual subscription to a music distributor, a company that can instantly post songs to dozens of streaming platforms. Unfortunately, bad actors have the same opportunity. - The New York Times
The two- or three-word tags, meant to convey the gestalt of a show or movie, regularly help viewers choose a show from the service’s nearly endless library, the company says. The words are selected by about 30 employees — so-called taggers. - The New York Times
The discoveries in Ecuador's Upano Valley "upend historical understandings of civilization in the Amazon: the largest city in the network is comparable in size to the Giza Plateau in Egypt or Teotihuacán in Mexico." - ARTnews
Chelsea Handler "went rogue" during the Critics Choice Awards, after Barbie won a bunch of awards during commercial breaks - including Best Comedy. Handler said, "Greta and Margot deserve the opportunity to make an acceptance speech," and invited Gerwig and Robbie onstage. - Variety
Ashton Taylor got her start alongside Edward R. Murrow at CBS Radio, then broke into broadcast TV in Los Angeles. "One of her favorite interviews, she noted, was with Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer and Glenn Seaborg for a piece on atomic science." - The Hollywood Reporter
"They are monuments of industry, built at the size (and more) of pyramids and cathedrals, graceful in their geometry, the perfect marriage of form and function, that come not alone but in concrete choirs of up to 12 in number." - The Observer (UK)
Swift obviously doesn't have any actual free time, but anyway: It all comes down a movie trailer and a cat in a backpack, signifying ... something. - Vulture
The conservatory's "response to a student’s report of sexual assault and stalking 'violated Title IX at every stage' and was 'deliberately indifferent,'" the investigation found. - Inside Higher Ed
The link between Albee's best-known play and artists Marie Menken and Willard Maas isn't undisputed although they "were notorious for drunkenly arguing in front of guests at their parties" - and Andy Warhol shot a version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf starring the couple. - The New York Times
But by that, we mean the acknowledgements, "where you learn about the temperament of your author, which is sometimes unexpectedly different from that of your narrator." - LitHub
Their petition reads, "The German state has intensified the repression of its own Palestinian population and those who stand against Israel’s war crimes. ... Palestine solidarity protests are mislabeled as anti-Semitic and banned, activist spaces are raided by police, and violent arrests are frequent." - Hyperallergic
Conor Friedersdorf on the fired University of Wisconsin-LaCross president: "First Amendment law can tell us only so much. How should Gow’s superiors have responded to this exhibitionist sexagenarian’s pornography? They should simply ignore it." - The Atlantic
