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Sarah Hall On Writing While Single-Parenting And Homeschooling During Lockdown

Hall wrote by hand in the mornings: "I go into, as I call it, Sarah Connor mode from The Terminator: out there, here’s my child, what do I need to do? Get buff! I got pains in my hand because I wasn’t used to writing so much." - The Guardian (UK)

Two Cast Members Of Netflix’s The Chosen Ones Die In A Crash Near Their Set

Two actors were killed when their van flipped off the highway, and six other actors and crew members were injured. "One person said that actors on the set had complained about transportation issues, including tired drivers." - Los Angeles Times

The Reality Of AI Is Stranger And Far More Interesting Than That Viral Google Story

Part of the issue is language. "On the one hand, PaLM and other large language models are capable of understanding in the sense that if you tell them something, its meaning registers. On the other hand, this is nothing at all like human understanding." - The Atlantic

Ukraine, Under Attack, Will Not Be Allowed To Host Next Year’s EuroVision

Though the Ukrainian entry won the 2022 version of the competition, the war makes Ukraine as a host impossible, according to the European Broadcast Corporation - which is now looking to Britain, home of this year's runner-up. - The New York Times

Why Were Van Gogh’s Empty Chair Paintings Never Shown Together?

Blame Gauguin - often a good answer for Van Gogh mysteries, of course. And in this case, Gauguin plus Theo Van Gogh's widow. - The Observer (UK)

The TikTokification Of Food Media

Chefs love the food focus, but also aren't real happy with some issues. Alton Brown: 15-second clips on TikTok "trivialize cooking in a way that I find potentially harmful because we’re going to have a whole generation who think that cooking is just putting nuts in ice cream." - Variety

A National Juneteenth Museum Is Planned For Fort Worth, Texas

"In 2016, at 89, Opal Lee walked from her home in Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C., to help get Juneteenth made a federal holiday, which it finally was in 2021." Now Lee's Juneteenth collection, and her vision, have spurred the creation of a new museum. - The New York Times

The Artist Making Meticulously Detailed Carvings Of Melbourne Is Blind

Joe Monteleone was also born Deaf. During COVID lockdowns, he recreated Melbourne's iconic Flinders Street Station and "estimates he spent between 30 to 70 hours on each of the 12 squares, more than 800 hours in total. The station’s famous clock took four hours alone." - The Guardian (UK)

The Crypto – And NFT – Crime Wave Is Here

"Financial losses specifically from NFT crimes just through May this year were already more than 600% higher than for all of 2021, with the space seeing twice as many hacks and bigger and bigger heists. ... For many victims, there’s little hope of getting their lost art back." - Los Angeles Times

The Man Who Gave Us The De Facto History Of Recorded Music Has Died At 82

Joel Whitburn, who published nearly 300 books, "was a music lover whose personal collection — meticulously curated in his basement and, later, in a vault — totals more than 200,000 records, including every single ever to make a Billboard chart." - The New York Times

The Brand Is Dead

That is, the personal brand. Thanks, internet culture. "We’ve arrived at a new era of anonymity, in which it feels natural to be inscrutable and confusing—forget the burden of crafting a coherent, persistent personal brand. There just isn’t any good reason to use your real name." - The Atlantic

Architecture Students Deserve So Much More Than A Toxic Culture Of Overwork

"For years, both have been susceptible to a hero complex where the cause of great architecture is so exalted that almost no sacrifice is too much to be made in its name." It's simply got to end. - The Observer (UK)

Emmys Changes Force Filmmakers To Choose Between TV And Cinema

"For a long time, the Television Academy included a loophole in which Oscar doc contenders could turn around and try again for sloppy seconds at the Emmys — even though the Motion Picture Academy didn’t allow Emmy titles to do the same." That option is now gone. - Variety

The Limits Of The Advice To Write 500 Words A Day

Graham Greene's advice might have been rather ... specific. "Greene could have kids and write 500 words first thing every day because he had money, because of the gender norms at his time, and because he abandoned his family in 1947." - Slate

Who’s Making And Selling Racist Coins On Ebay?

Like the one that celebrates the U.S. Border Patrol's whipping, from horseback, of Haitian refugees? "Unofficial coins ... are funded independently and reflect a more clandestine tradition among agents to valorize their jobs. CBP agents allegedly promote them in a secret Facebook group." - Hyperallergic

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