Andrew O’Hehir: “The philosopher gave himself credit for being the first modern thinker to tackle ‘the problem of science itself,’ for presenting ‘science for the first time as problematic and questionable.’ Dude! If the perverse German genius could only have known how far ‘the problem of science’ would extend in our age, or to what ends his critique of Socratic reason would be twisted.”
Tag: 03.07.15
“The Work That Changed Ballet For Ever”: William Forsythe’s “In The Middle, Somewhat Elevated”
Sarah Crompton: “He is consequently the only choreographer who has ever been mentioned in the same sentence as the philosopher Michel Foucault, applying a similar critical intelligence to the nature of dance and its language.”
Everything Around Us Is Recorded Now. So What’s The Role Of The Writer?
“The rise of corporate capitalism, and the astonishing, almost exponential rate of its recent acceleration, I would argue, present a huge challenge to the writer, forcing him or her to rethink their whole role and function, to remap their entire universe.”
Barbarians At The Gate: What Was Lost At Nimrud
“Before ISIS’s razing of Nimrud, the Met had created a stunning 3-D tour of the northwest palace, to show Ashurnasirpal’s stronghold in all its glory.”
Can You Tell If What You’re Reading Was Written By A Human?
“These days, a shocking amount of what we’re reading is created not by humans, but by computer algorithms. We probably should have suspected that the information assaulting us 24/7 couldn’t all have been created by people bent over their laptops.”
A Victory For Photographers: Taking Pictures Is Not A Crime
“Los Angeles has agreed to pay a $50,000 settlement to three photographers after they were detained by LA County Sheriffs while taking pictures in public places. As part of the settlement, the city will also teach its sheriff deputies that photography is not a crime.”
Yet Another Ancient Iraqi Site (Probably) Destroyed By ISIS
“‘We are in despair with the government,’ Ali al-Nashmi, a professor of history at Mustansiriya University in Baghdad, said in a telephone interview. He was nearly in tears after hearing the reports about Hatra, which he said had been rare in Iraq for its classical ruins. ‘We are losing the country.'”
How Black Comics Take On Unmentionable Subjects (Like ‘Drunk Mandela’) In South Africa
“The topics of the day were listed on a white board: ‘Je Suis Charlie’; the governing African National Congress party’s convention in Cape Town; results of the nationwide matric exams, South Africa’s equivalent to the SAT. But the crew remained stuck on the Paris killings, in an animated back and forth about free speech.”
The Mysterious World Of Art Attribution, And The Painting That Exploded In Value After It Became A Constable
“The anonymous buyer, an art dealer, had a hunch. Real Constables were often painted over during the 19th century, when their rough, seemingly unfinished quality put off prospective purchasers. So the dealer had it cleaned and took it to a leading Constable expert, Anne Lyles, a former curator at Tate Britain.”
Who’s Counting The Real TV Audience?
Not advertisers – and TV executives are fed up with that. They’re “pushing advertisers to pay for all viewers as measured by Nielsen up to a full week after the original airdate. That might sound like inside baseball. But tens of millions of dollars are at stake.”