If America is, for Amis, an easier place in which to grow old – fewer critics, for a start – he retains an expectation that he and his wife will move home one day. “I miss the English,” he says. “I miss Londoners. I miss the wit. Americans, they’re very, well, de Tocqueville saw this coming in about 1850 – he said, it’s a marvellous thing, American democracy, but don’t they know how it’s going to end up? It’s going to be so mushy that no one will dare say anything for fear of offending someone else.
Tag: 09.16.17
What Artists’ Last Works Say About Their Bigger Place In Our Lives
“When an artist knows he or she is dying, the last work that they put into the world comes to be something that is at once a bequest, a memorial and a breakup letter. It has a charge that surpasses reality.”
New Generation Computer Design Is Taking Clues From The Human Brain
After years of stagnation, the computer is evolving again, and this behind-the-scenes migration to a new kind of machine will have broad and lasting implications. It will allow work on artificially intelligent systems to accelerate, so the dream of machines that can navigate the physical world by themselves can one day come true.
The Appalling Twilight Of Marlon Brando
Dalya Alberge interviews screenwriter Ron Hutchinson, who recounts the actor’s bizarre behavior on the set of his last film, The Island of Dr. Moreau.
How Hull Became Britain’s Ballet Talent Engine
Skip back a generation or two, and those to have emerged from other Hull dance schools include former Royal Ballet principal Mark Silver and ex-Birmingham Royal Ballet principal Robert Parker. Hull seems to have a particularly good record with male dancers.
What’s Wrong With This Picture? Nikon Chooses 32 Star Male Photographers (No Women) To Promote Its New Camera
“What is so obvious to me – a professional photographer – as well as colleagues, photography bloggers and social media users, was not obvious to Nikon. Instead, it seemed to have worked on the campaign, from the concept stage through to development, marketing and public relations, without a thought for its female clients.”
Artificial Intelligence Is Mapping Our Faces – Say Goodbye To Privacy
“In the twenty-first century, the face is a database, a dynamic bank of information points—muscle configurations, childhood scars, barely perceptible flares of the nostril—that together speak to what you feel and who you are. Facial-recognition technology is being tested in airports around the world, matching camera footage against visa photos. Churches use it to document worshipper attendance. China has gone all in on the technology, employing it to identify jaywalkers, offer menu suggestions at KFC, and prevent the theft of toilet paper from public restrooms.”
UK Report: TV Broadcasters And Demographic Diversity
“The report found that across the five main broadcasters, women accounted for 48% of the total workforce – compared with 51% across the general population – and held 39% of senior roles. Ofcom also said those from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background made up 12% of workers, and disabled people just 3%, despite accounting for 14% and 18% of the general population respectively.”
Millennials Are Sooo Yesterday. Here’s iGen
Coming to shoulder the burden is a generation the psychologist Jean Twenge calls iGen — like iPhones, but people. They love not only iPhones but also a number of other things beginning with i, such as individualism, irreligiosity, and (we’re straining a touch here) “in person no more.” Twenge defines them thus: “Born in 1995 and later, they grew up with cell phones, had an Instagram page before they started high school, and do not remember a time before the internet.”
Mathematician: Math Is An Artistic Way Of Understanding The World
“A lot of mathematics ultimately is artistic rather than useful. Sometimes you see a picture that’s got a lot of symmetry in it, like an M.C. Escher sketch, and it’s like, ‘Wow, that’s just so amazing!’ But when you study mathematics, you start to “see” things in higher dimensions. You’re not necessarily visualizing them in the same way that you could with a sculpture or piece of art. But you start to feel like this whole system of objects that you’re looking at, and the symmetries it has, are really just beautiful. There’s no other good word.”