Tag: 12.20.18

Fortnite Made Dance Moves Fabulously Lucrative. So Now The Courts Have To Figure Out Who Owns What

“There’s no definitive case law determining this.” When the Copyright Act of 1976 was passed, it finally established rules around choreography, with some limited fair use cases around criticism and dance education. Strangely enough, it covered even pantomime, but not an individual dance move as we’ve culturally come to understand it in the ensuing decades. – The Verge

An Independent Seattle Bookstore That’s Thriving On Community

Beloved Seattle bookstores were closing their doors throughout the aughts, and those who remained open seemed to face an impossibly uphill task — who would pay full price for a book when you could buy it for less online? But there’s more to an indie bookstore than the price on a book’s cover. In a manner worthy of a great writer’s unexpected third-act twist, independent bookstores have made an improbable comeback in the past few years, both nationally and locally.  – Seattle Times

Beyond Scrooge: Charles Dickens’s Strong, Strange Relationship With Christmas

“From his early short essay ‘A Christmas Dinner’ in Sketches by Boz (1836) to his incomplete final novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870), in which an uncle appears to have murdered his nephew on Christmas Day, Christmas is sunk into his imagination like a watermark. … [And some friends] observed that Dickens’s enjoyment of Christmas seemed more determined, even ruthless, than one might expect from someone with a genuinely boyish sense of fun.” — Literary Hub

Smithsonian’s Chief To Step Down After Only 3½ Years

David J. Skorton, who became secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in July of 2015, is leaving in June to become president of the Association of American Medical Colleges. A cardiologist by trade, he said of his decision that “the possibility of trying to contribute something to the national challenges of health care is important to me.” — The Washington Post

Actor Donald Moffat, 87

“American critics called Mr. Moffat a consummate pro who could play any supporting role from Shakespeare, O’Neill, Ibsen, Beckett, Pinter or Shaw, as well as the lawyers, doctors, husbands and tough guys who are the stock in trade of movies and television — characters that make the stars shine and place the accomplishments of the ensemble above personal glory.” — The New York Times

The Book Revolution That Already Happened

We were looking for the Future Book in the wrong place. It’s not the form, necessarily, that needed to evolve—I think we can agree that, in an age of infinite distraction, one of the strongest assets of a “book” as a book is its singular, sustained, distraction-free, blissfully immutable voice. Instead, technology changed everything that enables a book, fomenting a quiet revolution. – Wired

UK Government’s Brexit Proposal For Creative Sector Is “Huge Disappointment”

“Proposals to maintain the salary threshold, as well as the failure to include any measures to address the challenges faced by freelances, are hugely disappointing. It demonstrates government’s blindness to the major strains that Brexit and the current immigration system will have on organisations’ ability to recruit the talent they need.” – The Stage

Is There Any Wisdom In The Notion Of Wisdom Of The Crowd?

The “wisdom of crowds” refers to the result of a very specific process, where independent judgments are statistically combined (i.e., using the mean or the median) to achieve a final judgment with the greatest accuracy. In practice, however, people rarely follow strict statistical guidelines when combining their own estimates with those of other people; and additional factors often lead people to assess some judgments more positively than others. – Harvard Business Review