In the age of YouTube and Twitter, Manfredi’s protest has resonated across Europe. Artists in the U.K., Germany, Hungary, and northern Italy are burning their works and sending him videos in solidarity. “Maybe this was the spark,” Manfredi says. “Remember, revolutions need fire, like what happened in Tunisia. That fruit vendor set himself on fire, and then everything exploded.”
Tag: 07.12
Innovation In Theater – Whose Job Is It?
Howard Shalwitz, co-founder of Washington, DCs Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, considered the question in this address to the Theater Communications Group’s 2012 national conference.
How “Dumb” Computer Logic Confuses Us About Reality
“The dissemination of information on the web does not liberate information from top-down taxonomies. It reifies those taxonomies. Computers do not invent new categories; they make use of the ones we give them, warts and all. And the increasing amount of information they process can easily fool us into thinking that the underlying categories they use are not just a model of reality, but reality itself.”
Did We Misunderstand Allan Bloom’s “The Closing of the American Mind”?
“If you view The Closing of the American Mind through the prism of the culture wars, as most on the left and right still do, you miss what’s vital and distinct about it. That perspective also makes the book appear to be mainly an artifact of its era, and not a work of more lasting value. Twenty-five years on, it’s time to rescue Bloom from the partisans.”
Professor’s Lament: A Rising Tide Of Mediocrity
“The majority of students in English courses today can expect a B grade or higher merely for warming a seat and handing in assignments on time. The result, as I soon discovered, was a generation of students so accustomed to being praised for their work that when I told them it was inadequate, they simply could not or would not believe me. They seemed very nearly unteachable: lacking not only the essential skills but also the personal gumption to respond adequately to criticism.”
More Intelligent Machines? Er… Perhaps Not
“We have many clever gadgets, but it’s not at all clear they add up to a ‘thinking machine.’ Their methods and inner mechanisms seem nothing like human mental processes. Perhaps we should not be bragging about how smart our machines have become; rather, we should marvel at how much those machines accomplish without any genuine intelligence.”
The Boat Ride That Changed Lewis Carroll’s Life
“When mulling over boat trips that inspired major works of fiction, we inevitably think of Mark Twain piloting the 865-ton Memphis down the Mississippi River, Joseph Conrad serving as a steamboat captain in the Congo, or Herman Melville’s 18-month trip to the South Pacific. But 150 years ago this week, a very short boat trip took place that resulted in a very big book.”
Why Are Americans So Far Behind In Taking Time Off?
“Just about everywhere in the West except the United States, where there is no mandatory paid time off, workers not only get vacations but also short work weeks, government health care, large pensions, high minimum wages, subsidized childcare, and so forth. Why is the United States the exception?”