Tag: 04.01.19

How Grown-Up Actors Pull Off Playing Children Onstage

“Sometimes adults play children’s roles for absurd effect … but the bigger challenge is pulling off realism, creating the illusion that the adults onstage are plausible as the much-younger characters — a feat accomplished by two of Broadway’s biggest hits, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and To Kill a Mockingbird.” Stuart Miller talks to the performers in question about how they do it. – Los Angeles Times

A Way To Make College A Lot Cheaper?

This is how universities could break the tuition cost curve—by making the price of online degrees proportional to what colleges actually spend to operate the courses. So far, colleges have been more aggressive in launching online graduate programs. But there’s huge potential for undergraduate education, too, including hybrid programs that combine the best of in-person and virtual learning. And yet nearly every academic institution, from the Ivies to state university systems to liberal arts schools, has refused to pass even the tiniest fraction of the savings on to students. They charge online students the same astronomical prices they levy for the on-campus experience. – Huffington Post

Will Non-Physicists Ever Be Able To Intuitively Understand The Connection Between Space And Time?

Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli thinks that “counterintuitive phenomena — for example, of time moving slower for faster travelers — will, slowly, become intuitive. ‘It has happened with the fact that the Earth is a sphere (clarified two millennia ago) and the fact that it spins (clarified a few centuries ago). At first these were extremely counterintuitive ideas; nowadays we accept them as comprehensible. But it takes time.'” – Nautilus

How 3D-Printed Replicas Of Objects Are Changing The Ways Museums Can Engage Their Audiences

“Being able to touch, explore the shape, feel the weight and even smell the replica of an artefact has the potential to transform cultural heritage experiences. In reality, these connections are the closest that most people could ever have with heritage objects. What is new about digitally-fabricated replicas is that they can be extremely accurate with regards to the shape of the original.” – The Conversation

For Its National Book Week, The Netherlands Makes Trains Free If You Showed A Book Instead Of A Ticket

Not just any book, mind you. “Traditionally, a well-known Dutch author writes a special novel – the book week gift or Boekenweekgeschenk – which is given out for free to people who buy books during the festivities or sign up to a library. But the special book … can also be presented instead of a rail ticket on every train in the country on the Sunday of book week.” – The Independent (UK)

Federal Judge Strikes Down Oklahoma Law About Marketing Of Native American Art

“U.S. District Judge Charles B. Goodwin ruled that the Oklahoma Indian Arts and Crafts Sales Act violates the U.S. Constitution because it is more restrictive than a federal law with the same purpose — protecting and promoting Indian artists. The Oklahoma law requires artists to be members of a federally recognized tribe if they are to market their art as American Indian. The federal law also allows members of tribes recognized only by a state to market art as American Indian, along with artists certified by Indian tribes.” – The Oklahoman

Emmett Till, Censorship, And The Creation Of ‘The Twilight Zone’

“[Rod] Serling, riding off the success of his most well-received teleplay to date, felt compelled write a teleplay around the racism that led to Till’s murder. But the censorship that followed by advertisers and networks, fearful of blowback from white, Southern audiences, forced Serling to rethink his approach. His response, ultimately, was The Twilight Zone, the iconic anthology series that spoke truth to the era’s social ills.” – Smithsonian Magazine