As the heart, lungs, gut and other organs transmit information to the brain, they affect how we perceive and interact with our environment in surprisingly profound ways. Recent studies of the heart in particular have given scientists new insights into the role that the body’s most basic processes play in defining our experience of the world. – Quanta
Tag: 07.12.20
It’s Too Late For Good-Faith Debate Online Anyway
“Blaming people on the internet — as most of us are, helplessly — for not engaging in ‘good-faith debate’ doesn’t just misdiagnose the problem; it’s stunningly naïve. Have you met the internet? … Political discourse has been warped less because of ‘cancel culture’ or ‘illiberalism’ than by the way social media platforms have been poisoned, like wells, that poison us in turn.” And, argues Lili Loofbourow, it’s not the left that’s ultimately at fault. – Slate
The Problem With The “Right” Kind Of Theatre Fans
“What is wrong with the theatre fandom is the belief that objectively, some musicals are better than others, and that if you like a certain show, you aren’t the right kind of theatre fan. Gatekeeping is the practice of musical theatre fans who feel that they have the authority to determine who belongs and who doesn’t belong based on whether or not someone is a “true fan.” – OnstageBl31
Montreal Museum Fires Chief Curator
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) says it is immediately terminating the contract of director general and chief curator Nathalie Bondil following what it describes as “disturbing testimonies from employees reporting an obvious deterioration in its workplace climate.” – Global News
Podcast Growth Cut In Half By Virus Shutdowns
The exploding audio medium is forecast to generate nearly $1 billion in 2020 advertising revenue, with an expected growth rate of 14.7%, according to the fourth annual Interactive Advertising Bureau Podcast Ad Revenue Report prepared by PwC. Before the pandemic, the industry was expected to grow as much as 29.6% this year. Revenues are expected to rebound in the third and fourth quarters. – Los Angeles Times
Eleanor Sokoloff, 106, Taught At Curtis For Eight Decades
Mrs. Sokoloff taught at Curtis longer than any other professor in the conservatory’s history, and more than anyone else, she was its gracious — if sharp-witted — personification. – Philadelphia Inquirer
Rage Against The Pretty Little Machine
Bonnie Lucas loves to take pretty things, cut them up, rip them apart, and then remake them into art. “The store-bought object is not meant to be cut up and dismantled. It’s highly valued in our culture. Especially by women. We take care of things, we wash things, we store them. Especially feminine and pretty things. A few people I know said, You really cut that doll up? My mother said that to me. She’s appalled that I did this, actually.” The New York Times
Some Of Bollywood’s Biggest Stars Are Hospitalized With The Coronavirus
While some big stars have already died, Sunday shook the Bollywood world further. “Superstar Amitabh Bachchan was in a ‘stable’ condition in the isolation unit at Nanavati Hospital, the facility said in a statement, after he and his son Abhishek Bachchan were both admitted following positive tests late Saturday evening. And soon Abhiskek Bachchan’s wife, the heralded actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, also entered hospital. The couple’s daughter tested positive for Covid-19 too.” – CNN
Art Galleries Are Opening Outposts In The Hamptons, Where Their Clients Are Ensconced
What virus? “Since the beginning of June, five major art galleries have opened here: Pace, Skarstedt, Van de Weghe, Michael Werner and Sotheby’s, all arms of New York art powerhouses. And more are on the way soon.” – The New York Times
The Excitement And Pain Of Reckoning With The Enslavers Of Bristol
The statue of Edward Colston loomed over the city at the beginning of June, and historians had given up hope to get even a plaque of context about the man. Now, “beaten-up, bloodied and graffitied, Colston’s statue is no longer just another piece of mediocre, late-Victorian public art. As is the case with the hundreds of segments of the Berlin Wall, which today stand in museums across the world, the graffiti Colston has acquired is as historically significant as the object on to which it was scrawled.” – The Guardian (UK)