“Do we share musicality with other animals on account of the ‘common physiological nature of [our] nervous systems,’ as Darwin suspected? To understand the evolution of music and musicality, we have to establish what the components of music are and how they demonstrate their presence in animals and humans.” Music cognition researcher Henkjan Honing takes on the challenge. – Nautilus
Tag: 03.14.19
How The Internet Is Changing How We Preserve Endangered Languages
Across the world, language revitalization movements are attempting to reverse language loss. While levels of institutional support and overall strategies differ, the goal is the same. Language is more than a way to communicate basic information, it expresses culture and identity: it’s used to explain the surrounding world, to sing songs, to worship, and to pass on stories. Languages are a link that bond people in a community to each another and to their shared past. – The Outline
Lawyers For Guy Who Stole Terracotta Warrior’s Thumb Try Defense That’s — Let’s Call It Novel
At a holiday party in 2017 at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, an inebriated Michael Rohana allegedly broke off and pocketed the thumb of one of the 2,000-year-old Chinese terracotta warriors on display there at the time; FBI investigators found it in his home desk drawer a few weeks later. Now his public defenders are using some inventive arguments to get his charges reduced: that Rohana was too drunk to intend to steal the thumb, that the thumb wasn’t worth enough to qualify for the charges, that the Institute was, at the time of the incident, not a museum but “an after-hours nightclub.” – The Courier-Post (Cherry Hill, NJ)
EU’s Proposed Copyright Directive Would Make YouTube, FB, Others Not Viable (Do They Care?)
More people are creating than ever before, and they’re using the tools that Article 13 will punish to do so. When people have fewer places to share their content or to make money from their content, that’s not helping creators or the “creators industry.” Sure, it might help a very small number of old gatekeeper companies — record labels, book publishers, movie studios — be in a position to demand more money from internet companies, but thinking that those old gatekeepers represent the “creators industry” is ludicrously out of touch. – TechDirt
The Internet Is Being Walled Off Country By Country. There Are Dangerous Consequences
As the web becomes more splintered and information more controlled across the globe, we risk the deterioration of democratic systems, the corruption of free markets and further cyber misinformation campaigns. We must act now to save a free and open internet from censorship and international maneuvering before history is bound to repeat itself. – TechCrunch
After A Magazine Exposé, Amazon Pulls Books Touting Dangerous ‘Cures’ For Autism
Yes, even in 2019, a magazine article – in this case, in Wired – can make a difference. For instance, “Kerry Rivera’s Healing the Symptoms Known As Autism, which advocates dosing autistic children with a bleach-like substance, chlorine dioxide, was no longer available from the online giant.” – The Guardian (UK)
Of Critics, Bullies And Trolls – How Do You Tell Which Is Which?
Famous people who spend a lot of time online become especially defensive; experts point to the explosion of social media for the increase in conflating bullies with critics. After all, bullying has been around forever. Now, there are just more opportunities for anyone to weigh in on any subject they want, and it’s far more likely the intended target will see or hear the criticism. – Washington Post
Overnight Reviews Are Largely A Thing Of The Past. Is It A Good Thing?
Is a review dashed out in an hour really going to be as good as one written under a more generous deadline? Sometimes, maybe: I know some critics who think British deadlines are the enemy of decent reviews, but they can underestimate the quality that can be mustered with the adrenaline pumping. Nonetheless, there is something obviously counterintuitive about the idea that the more important the review, the less time will be spent on it. – The Stage
Meet DC’s National Gallery’s First Woman Director
The gallery’s fifth director, Kaywin Feldman thinks that her appointment as the institution’s first woman director broadcasts a commitment to diversity. When she started working in the field 25 years ago, only about 15 percent of museum directors were women; now, according to the AAMD’s 2017 Gender Gap report, 48 percent of museums have female directors—but only 30 percent of museums with annual budgets of $15m and higher, decreasing as budget size increases. Feldman now oversees a museum with a $190m annual operating budget. – The Art Newspaper
NY’s New Hudson Yards – Architecture As Luxury Branding With A Giant Waste Basket In The Center
Michael Kimmelman: “It gives physical form to a crisis of city leadership, asleep at the wheel through two administrations, and to a pernicious theory of civic welfare that presumes private development is New York’s primary goal, the truest measure of urban vitality and health, with money the city’s only real currency.” – The New York Times