Tag: 03.14.18

Paris Or China? Here’s The Chinese Eiffel Tower Knockoff

Francois Prost’s photograph of the Eiffel Tower looks like it was taken on any given day in Paris. But just outside the frame are clues that the structure in his picture is nowhere near the Champ de Mars: Chinese script adorns all the shop signs, and there is no shortage of canteens serving up fried rice. That’s because Prost didn’t capture that image in France—he captured it 6,000 miles away in a facsimile of the City of Light.

Radio Giant iHeartMedia Files For Bankruptcy

iHeart, formerly known as Clear Channel, is the nation’s largest radio company, with more than 850 stations. It also owns iHeartRadio’s music streaming service, a large concert business, and a 90% stake in Clear Channel Outdoor, the billboard company. Clear Channel Outdoor did not file for bankruptcy. For years, the company has been saddled with $20 billion in debt, the legacy of a leveraged buyout in 2008.

Just What Is “A Priori” Justification?

What is your justification in believing that 2 + 2 = 4? You are justified because you understand the concepts involved. You understand what all the terms in that simple sum mean and that, as a result, the sum of two and two is four. Philosophers call that sort of justification a priori justification, and describe it as justification independent of experience. But how could there be such justification? Isn’t all justification dependent on experience?

A Revolution In How We Perceive (And Acquire) Knowledge

We are experiencing a fundamental paradigm shift in our relationship to knowledge. From the ‘information age’, we are moving towards the ‘reputation age’, in which information will have value only if it is already filtered, evaluated and commented upon by others. Seen in this light, reputation has become a central pillar of collective intelligence today. It is the gatekeeper to knowledge, and the keys to the gate are held by others.

Satires Of Academia Once Flourished. Why Did They Suddenly Disappear?

One answer is that academe’s devastation since the late 1990s has rendered it too grim and vulnerable a target for satirists. The gutting of public universities by right-wing politicians, the brute transformation of colleges into exploitative institutions that run on adjunct and graduate-student labor — these changes have resulted in a landscape so desolate it hardly seems worth mocking.

The Best-Foreign-Language-Film Oscar Has Already Affected Politics In The Country That Won It

The award to A Fantastic Woman, about a transgender waitress dealing with the death of her partner, “has been enough to rekindle debate over a gender-identity bill that had been lagging in Chile’s Congress for nearly five years. What was once a proposal with partisan backing is now seeing support from both progressive and conservative legislators.”