Basically, because they can. Jason Zinoman explains how the huge changes over the past decade in the way television series are distributed and consumed have allowed the creators of comedies to break with what was always a fairly strict template.
Tag: 03.26.15
Apple Moves To Compete Directly With Spotify
“Almost a year after agreeing to pay $3 billion for Beats, the maker of hip headphones and a streaming music service, Apple is working with Beats engineers and executives to introduce its own subscription streaming service. The company is also planning an enhanced iTunes Radio that may be tailored to listeners in regional markets.”
When Memory Stops Functioning, Where Does A Person’s Identity Reside?
“Dementia undermines all of our philosophical assumptions about the coherence of the self. … Everyone touched by the disease goes through a crash-course in the philosophy of mind. … If someone cannot remember not just where the milk bottle goes, but what a milk bottle is for, then the shared pre-suppositions on which communication, meaning and identity depend become badly strained.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.26.15
Awakening to truths about ourselves and the world (in the Beauty Class)
AJBlog: Jumper Published 2015-03-26
Guest Columnist: Has Our Inner Child Won?
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2015-03-26
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A More Complicated View Of What Makes Us Intelligent
“Increasingly, it makes less sense to think of genes and environments as independent causes,” writes a research team led by Penn State sociologist David Baker. Its examination of likely reasons for the gradual rise in IQ scores over the 20th century suggest more challenging curriculums, to a significant degree, create smarter students.
Cirque du Soleil To Be Sold?
Renée-Claude Ménard, senior director of public relations for the circus, told CBC News the company is searching for a “strategic partner. This is a very long process and [founder and majority shareholder] Guy Laliberté will take the time necessary to evaluate all available options,” Ménard said.
Princeton Review Gives Taylor Swift An “F” For Bad Grammar (But…)
In a Princeton test paper, a section headed “Grammar in Real Life” told students: “Pop lyrics are a great source of bad grammar. See if you can find the error in each of the following.” Taylor Swift’s song Fifteen was then cited as containing the line “Somebody tells you they love you, you got to believe ’em.” A fan posted her sad reaction online: “I was just having an amazing time studying for the SAT and now I feel attacked.” Then Swift herself responded on Tumblr: “Not the right lyrics at all pssshhhh. You had one job, test people. One job.”
S**t Pierre Boulez Said
“I don’t want my statements to be frozen in time. A date should always be attached to them. Certainly if you take a picture of yourself 30 years ago, that same picture cannot be used as a picture of yourself today.” His incendiary comments, whether directed at his contemporaries (he has described Duchamp as ‘a pompous bore’, Cage as ‘a performing monkey’, and Stockhausen, ‘a hippie’), or more general topics such as culture and history, however, suggest that he enjoys the controversy.
People Are Fighting Over Sand (And There’s A Shortage)
“Though the supply might seem endless, sand is a finite resource like any other. The worldwide construction boom of recent years—all those mushrooming megacities, from Lagos to Beijing—is devouring unprecedented quantities; extracting it is a $70 billion industry. In Dubai enormous land-reclamation projects and breakneck skyscraper-building have exhausted all the nearby sources. Exporters in Australia are literally selling sand to Arabs.”
The Hot New Dance In New York? A Dance From Jane Austen’s Time
“Derived from English country dancing—think of the long paired lines of couples crisscrossing and partner-swapping in all those Jane Austen country-manor balls, now press fast forward—contra offers young urbanites an inclusive atmosphere where they can work up a little sweat away from the gym and touch human beings instead of screens.”