“Bad TV,” in this case, doesn’t mean reality television, which has a kind of integrity in its shamelessness, but old-style idiot-box TV like The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Gilligan’s Island, and Dynasty. And as the much-ballyhooed age of Peak TV runs on, argues Paula Marantz Cohen, some of the most insidious traits of Bad TV are creeping into what ought to be high-quality material.
Tag: 07.30.18
Why We Need New Classes On Critical Thinking
We need courses devoted to such matters because we are living in a time where the dangers to informed and rational thought are not so much bad or sloppy thought but a poisoning of the flow of reliable information. It is not the transition from premises to conclusion that is often at fault but the premises themselves. Philosophers who teach Critical Thinking courses need to adjust their syllabi to take this into account.
Baku, Azerbaijan’s Capital, Aims To Become The Cultural Center Of The Caucasus
For much of the Soviet era, Baku actually was known for a busy arts scene, but it faded in the upheaval following the dissolution of the USSR. Now, flush with oil money and equipped with a flashy new cultural center designed by Zaha Hadid, Baku is rebuilding its arts scene. Stephan Rabimov gives us a survey.
How AI Is Changing The Ways We Sell Things
It’s become apparent to leading edge companies that leveraging their existing internal database, and mining it for new opportunities using AI, will allow them do to so prudently. If data is indeed the new oil, then companies who can capture the data, analyze it, and generate actionable insights will have salespeople who’ll be able to close more deals, more often.
For Nico, Being An Icon Was A Problem
Michael LaPointe: “When she sang ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ in 1966, she wasn’t asking to become a permanent surface for our collective reflections. … Today she is best known for the songs she came to loathe. Of course, they’re also her catchiest, but I wonder if her artistic mission — a mission of destruction — is simply incompatible with any of the images we’ve made of her. We construct icons, but Nico was an iconoclast.”
Why Studying Literature Can Make Medical Students Into Better Doctors
“In particular, [a new paper] proposes that certain literary exercises, like rewriting short stories that involve ethical dilemmas, can expand doctors’ worldviews and make them more attuned to the dilemmas real patients face” than traditional medical ethics case studies do.
How Dancers Can Argue For Dance As An Intellectual Pursuit
“Unfortunately, it’s difficult to explain to non-dancers how corporal movement is a means of thinking and engaging with complex ideas. That’s why it’s so important that dancers can talk or write about their work, translating the corporal knowledge into language.” Alice Blumenfeld offers some suggestions for how to go about it.
Pat De Groot, Doyenne Of Provincetown’s Artists, Dead At 88
“Ms. de Groot came late to painting, in her mid-40s. But for the next four decades she was prolific, using a palette knife to etch dozens and dozens of scintillating, layered, small-scale seascapes of Provincetown Harbor as seen from the home and studio she designed for herself and her husband … With room to spare under an M-shaped double-gable roof, Ms. de Groot often played summer landlord to creative figures like [John]Waters” – who called her “bohemian royalty” – “[Peter] Hoare, the painter Richard Baker and the gallerists Pat Hearn and Colin de Land.”
Orchestras And Opera Companies Try Young Professionals’ Clubs To Attract Millennials
“Symphonies are attempting to lure these 22-to-37-year-olds with drastically increased social media presences, discounted tickets, and exclusive backstage access. Opera companies are capitalizing on the socializing aspect of their milieu and setting snares of free hors d’oeuvres and drinks during intermissions.” Jeremy Reynolds looks at the programs of the San Francisco and Atlanta Symphonies, the Cleveland Orchestra, and Houston Grand Opera.
The Neuroscience Of Cruelty And Evil (Not Much To Go On)
Today, biology is a powerful explanatory force for much human behaviour, though it alone cannot account for horror. Much as the neurosciences are an exciting new tool for human self-understanding, they will not explain away our brutishness. Causal accounts of the destruction that humans inflict on each other are best provided by political history – not science, nor metaphysics.