Write someone else’s college papers, basically. Essay farms are a huge industry now, so blatant that one administrator says, “If we don’t do anything about it, we will turn every accredited university into a diploma mill.” – The New York Times
Month: September 2019
How Do People Win Dance And Other Reality Competition Shows?
Literally, it’s the luck of the draw – or where they’re placed before people vote. The later, the better. (Though the very first performers also do well.) Why? The “recency effect” and a kind of grade inflation. – Phys
Is Instagram Ruining Architecture?
Sometimes, but not always, because Instagram is filled with artists and designers. One architect recalls something she learned in the early days of the app. “‘You came, you saw, you stood there, you took your picture. … That was my first realization how status can be brought through a photograph.’ It is like bagging a seven-point Instagram buck.” – The New York Times
Opera Union, Not Trusting Opera Companies, Opens Investigation Into Allegations Against Placido Domingo
The American Guild of Musical Artists, which represents opera performers and staff, has launched its own investigation into the sexual harassment and abuse allegations against the singer. The claim: This investigation will go beyond any individual company and will “examine the systemic failures within the industry that could have allowed this conduct, if substantiated, to continue unchallenged for decades.” – Billboard (AP)
The Muslim Woman Who Photographed The Last Synagogue In This British Town
In Bradford, “a city that became home to so many German Jews in the 19th century that the warehouse district they created is still called Little Germany,” the 2011 census showed fewer than 300 Jewish residents left. The photographer is a single mother who can’t afford her own camera, but her documents of the final synagogue, which has an unusual Moorish style, are going up as an exhibit. “‘There are fewer and fewer Jewish people left,’ she says. ‘It’s this declining population and disappearing culture that I wanted to document.'” – The Guardian (UK)
Can An Opera Company Do ‘Butterfly’ Without Offensive Stereotypes?
Sure, if the opera company completely strips down and alters the opera’s plot, going back to the original story, and removing race as a driving issue. Anne Midgette: “I wondered how anyone who didn’t know the opera would react to the piece, as those of us who did were inevitably recognizing familiar pieces and assessing how well they fit together in this new configuration.” – The Washington Post
Camilo Sesto, Spain’s Romantic Songwriter And Pop Singer, Has Died At 72
Sesto, writer and performer who also brought Broadway musicals to Spain with Jesus Christ, Superstar, had more than 50 pop hits go to number one on the worldwide charts. Though El País reports that he was practically forgotten in Spain, he was still beloved in the U.S., and he had a (second) farewell tour planned for next year after he released a retrospective album in 2018. – The New York Times
How Can A World Run By Big Data And AI Better Reflect The Real World, Including People Of Color?
To put it in the most basic ways, AI doesn’t see color – even when it should. “Errors from incomplete AI training data already affect people of color. For one, facial recognition software has a history of misidentifying black citizens. – Wired
Disney’s Big British Move Raises Concerns
Disney will have the use of almost every bit of Pinewood Studios, outside of London for at least 10 years – and that comes just after Netflix did a similar deal for Shepperton Studios. Those two deals “are sure to deepen concern that studios space in Britain, already in scarce supply, will now be even tougher for smaller companies and indies to secure.” – Variety
Update On The Progress Of The Boy Thrown From The 10th Floor Of The Tate Modern
Though the 6-year-old French boy still can’t speak or move a month after the trauma, he’s responding to his family by smiling and possibly, they say, laughing. “The family has raised more than $83,000 so far to help his recuperation. He was visiting London with his family and was on the museum’s 10th-floor viewing platform when he was thrown off, falling around 100 feet and landing on a fifth-floor roof.” – The New York Times