"(The briefing) by the NGO Blue Shield International has tentatively made the claim that the Putin regime has premeditatively, systematically — and provably — targeted heritage sites in Ukraine. If the report is correct, the critical legal threshold needed to prosecute Putin for a war crime is now significantly closer." - The Art Newspaper
"The 42-year-old Dudamel has been music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2009, a tenure that will end after 17 seasons when he starts in New York. … (He) will become The Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Music and Artistic Director Chair starting with the 2025-26 season" - AP
"The prestigious award for books, drama and music, which had previously been open to just US citizens, will now consider permanent residents of the US and those who have made the US 'their longtime primary home', according to a press release on behalf of the Pulitzer prize board." - The Guardian
The lonely are at substantially elevated risk for heart disease, stroke, obesity, addiction, and dementia; being lonely increases your overall risk of premature death by more than 60%. And the number of Americans afflicted by loneliness is not small: a recent survey found that more than 50 percent of us reported feeling lonely. - American Scholar
"I used several free tools to generate short essays for some Ivy League applications. The A.I. chatbots’ answers have been edited for brevity and clarity." - The New York Times
According to the survey, overall ticket sales are still well below pre-pandemic levels: down 23% across various art forms and venues. People also tend to decide much more last-minute, venues say, and pay more for that flexibility. In total, subscriptions are down 38%. - Seattle Times
Where psychedelic experience was at the heart of the old counter culture, Bayesian reasoning seems to be at the heart of this counter culture. Where the old counter culture dreamed of a coming Aquarian Age of peace, love, and happiness, this one fears the destruction of humanity by a super-intelligent AI. - 3 Quarks Daily
Because he makes ballets so quickly and in little bits, only at the very end of the process does it all come together. Sometimes he’s willing to take risks and even drag people along who aren’t fully on board—and then only at the end, they’re like, “Okay, now I get it.” - The Observer
How will cities grapple with the more difficult question of what to do with fraught landmarks that are more immovable than those statues—museums, train stations, and private houses, say—or whose connections to racism or slavery, while significant, are tougher to precisely trace? - The New Yorker
While soldier-led cross-dressing shows go as far back as the late 19th century, "drag in the military really took off during World War I and World War II when military leaders realized that it was a liability for their fighting men to be mired in conflict without any morale-boosting entertainment." - Slate
If the listener is wholly unaware that the narrator is digital, this raises some of the many ethical questions (such as that of consent) that arise whenever users are unaware that they are interacting with an AI-driven technology, rather than with a person. - The Conversation
Harriet Beecher Stowe, in her 1853 book A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, wrote that the autobiography of Josiah Henson was one of her main inspirations. And who was Henson? Someone with a life story as compelling as those of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. - MSN (The Atlantic)
Both studies used state-of-the art AI technology. Months after one study proclaimed that the so-called de Brécy Tondo, currently on display at Bradford council’s Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, is “undoubtedly” by Raphael, another has found that it cannot be by the Renaissance master. - The Guardian
Though the musical recounts, in reverse, the dissolution of a close personal and professional friendship, the work of re-creating the central characters has brought Daniel Radcliffe, Lindsay Mendez, and Jonathan Groff into a very tight (and platonic) relationship of their own. - The New York Times
"I think we’re at a moment with the development of AI where we have ways to provide support, encouragement, affirmation, coaching and advice. We’ve basically taken emotional intelligence and distilled it. And I think that is going to unlock the creativity of millions and millions of people for whom that wasn’t available.” - The Guardian