Our Phones Have Become Amazing Cameras. But You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet…

“Computational photography takes a swarm of data from images or image sensors and combines it algorithmically to produce a photo that would be impossible to capture with film photography or digital photography in its more conventional form. Image data can be assembled across time and space, producing super-real high-dynamic range (HDR) photos—or just ones that capture both light and dark areas well.”

Admission Fees Make Up Only A Small Part Of A Museum’s Budget. So Why Have Them?

“The study reports museums across the country have fairly diverse revenue streams, with endowment income (22%), combined college/university and federal, state and local government support (18%) and individual and family contributions (11%) accounting for over half of all revenue. Admissions revenue accounts for just 6% of revenue, on par with Individual & Family memberships, and just behind contributions from Foundations & Trusts (7%). Corporate contributions and memberships, benefit events, facility rentals, restaurants and catering and exhibition fees all make up between 1–4%, respectively.”

Why So Many Actors Today Talk In An Alec Baldwin-Style Whispery Growl

“Just 25 years ago, Baldwin’s quiet growl was so uncommon that The Larry Sanders Show made a running gag of it, with Larry wrestling the upper hand from the much more attractive Baldwin by insulting his ability to project. Nowadays, Talking Like This is so ubiquitous that Will Arnett is about to launch a new children’s franchise based entirely on Batman’s harsh whisper. How did Talking Like This take over the male acting world?” Slate talks to voice (and stage and screen) actor James Urbaniak, something of a historian of acting styles. (includes video)

‘1984’ Isn’t The Only Classic Book Whose Sales Are Surging In The Trump Era

1984‘s recent spike has been notable, but the novel has perpetually hovered on the bestseller list … For other works, though,” – by Sinclair Lewis, Hannah Arendt, and John Steinbeck – “their rise in popularity seems more directly linked to the emergence of Trump as a political leader.”

Battle Over St. Petersburg’s Cathedral Gets Ugly (And Anti-Semitic)

Protests have broken out since the city’s government announced earlier this month that it was turning over custody of St. Isaac’s Cathedral, a 19th-century gem that was made into a museum by the Soviets, to the Russian Orthodox Church. Secular Russians fear that the church may not be a careful steward of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. (Tensions went even higher after parliament deputy speaker Pyotr Tolstoy, Leo’s great-grandson, gave a speech criticizing the protests that was widely interpreted as anti-Semitic.)

Poland’s Second World War Museum Under Threat After Court Allows Controversial Merger

“The €100m museum in Gdansk, which is scheduled to open to the public at the end of February, has become a political pawn in an ongoing battle over national memory, with the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) keen to control how the years under Nazi German occupation are portrayed.”

What Happens In Your Brain When Your Life Flashes Before Your Eyes

“The phenomenon isn’t confined to fiction: Plenty of people have reported having what researchers call ‘life review experiences,’ or LREs.” So a group of neurologists set out to find what people’s reported LREs had in common and what areas of the brain might be involved.