Month: September 2019

Rio De Janeiro’s Mayor Tries To Censor A Marvel Book With A Gay Kiss, But The Court Blocks Him

Predictable results of the homophobic censorship attempt (which was headed off by the judge as an issue of freedom of expression): “Copies of the comic book, Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, quickly sold out after the mayor’s intervention. The illustration that upset that mayor was also printed on the front page of Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo.” – BBC

The Dances That Shook The World

What freaked out Elizabethan England? A dance from (gasp!) Italy, of course, where “a man clasped his female partner tightly around the waist with his left hand, took hold of the busk (the rigid point on the corset below her bosom) with his right, and lifted her high into the air so that his thigh was under her bottom.” Scandalizing! – BBC History Magazine

The FTC Just Fined YouTube $170 Million. Does It Even Matter?

“Time and again, the money extracted from the tech giants amounts to a pittance. The structural remedies that accompany those fines—the part where companies agree to change the offending parts of their behavior—can arguably have greater effect. But blaming the FTC for inadequately bringing Silicon Valley to heel on its own is like blaming a fork for not holding soup. Could it do more? Should it? Just don’t expect real privacy change without strong privacy laws in place.” – Wired

Do Book Prizes Matter? Researchers Crunched The Numbers

In short, prizes matter. But more surprising is the effect of a nomination alone. With only an appearance on the Booker shortlist, a book moves from total obscurity in the classroom and the pages of literary criticism to respectable showings in both—and it gets a healthy popularity boost along the way. Of course, a win gooses the stats across the board, but the difference between utter obscurity and modest fame is arguably greater than the difference between modest and runaway success. – Public Books

Malcolm Gladwell’s Impending Tipping Point

Nearly 20 years and millions of sales after his nonfiction debut, Mr. Gladwell is at something of a professional tipping point. He elicits from readers the kind of polarized reactions usually reserved for talk-radio hosts. To one camp, he is a master storyteller, pithily translating business concepts and behavioral science to a lay audience. To others, he is a faux intellectual, dressing up ordinary truths (such as an “Outliers” argument that success results from a combination of hard work and opportunity) as counterintuitive genius. How “Talking to Strangers” is received could cement Mr. Gladwell in one of those camps for good. – The New York Times