“Our usual ideological responses to reminders of death—to cling more tightly to the comforting components of religion, and to “double down on your group values” by denigrating a critical outsider—were far less pronounced when one specific region of the brain was largely de-activated.”
Tag: 10.15.15
Planning To See A Movie Based On User Ratings? Think Again…
Fandango.com’s rounding methodology, even if it was just an innocent bug, is a good example of why you should be skeptical of online movie ratings, especially from companies selling you tickets.
Cleveland Orchestra’s Retiring CEO Looks Back
“Indeed, on the eve of his retirement Nov. 30, longtime executive director Gary Hanson likens his departure to jumping off a moving train. For all their enormous impact, he says, his accomplishments weren’t his alone. Neither will the organization fall apart without him. … ‘I’m proud to have had a role,’ [he says]. ‘But I didn’t start it, and no one’s ever going to finish it.'”
That Pay-Us-To-Review-Your-Play Website In L.A.? It’s Not Working Out
“Since an initial burst of summer activity from shows in the Hollywood Fringe Festival abated (festival reviews were discounted [by half] to $75), Bitter Lemons has posted just 12 paid reviews over the past 11½ weeks. … Colin Mitchell, Bitter Lemons’ founder, said Wednesday that there were no additional reviews in the pipeline.”
The Street Artist Who Punked ‘Homeland’ Tells How She Pulled It Off (And Why)
Heba Amin: “This is not necessarily a specific attack on Homeland, but on the inaccuracies in the visual depictions of the region, not just the storylines. And that has consequences on real-world situations. …Obama said this was his favorite show. So when you have a show where Iran and al-Qaida are friends all of a sudden …”
A Building You Want To Fondle: Burntwood School Wins Stirling Prize
“It’s not very often you want to rush up and stroke a school, but it’s hard to resist fondling the sharply chamfered concrete facade of Burntwood school in south London, winner of this year’s Riba Stirling prize for the UK’s best building. A 1950s timewarp in the best possible sense, the £41m comprehensive girls’ school recalls the values of another, more generous era.”
Playboy’s Abandonment of Nudity Was A Historical Necessity
“The disappearance of nudity from Playboy says more about the persistence of ticklish attitudes about nudity than it does about Playboy. Insofar as Hugh Hefner was somewhat correct to view himself as an agent of sexual liberation, this development resembles a kind of planned obsolescence. The Playboy nude was a stage to be passed through, like puberty or, in Marx’s theory of history, capitalism.”
‘My Soul’s Sweet Editor’: Leon Wieseltier’s Eulogy For Carol Brown Janeway
“I sent her everything I wrote, not so much because I wanted to be published by her, though I resolved almost immediately that I never wanted to be published by anyone else, but because I wanted her to know the contents of my mind and my heart, and I wanted her to admire them. Carol’s admiration was a very high attainment.”
The Psychological Case Against Tipping
“The basic idea behind tipping, of course, is that service workers are getting rewarded for doing a good job, but the science simply doesn’t back this up. There’s decades’ worth of consumer-psychology research demonstrating that tipping hardly improves service at all.”
One In Four Performing Arts Careers Are Halted By Parenthood, Says Survey
“The claim is made in a major new report into the impact that being a parent can have on people working in the sector, which also found that around three quarters of survey respondents – 74% – had to turn down work because of having a child.”