“My explanation is that interest groups that are involved primarily in providing professional services like finance or law or medicine have distorted or corrupted markets. The result is that the members of these groups can charge excessive prices for their services. That’s the main factor driving such high levels of inequality in the United States.” – CityLab
Author: Douglas McLennan
Five Historians Claim Errors In The NYTimes’ Groundbreaking “1619” Project. The Times Responds
Raising profound, unsettling questions about slavery and the nation’s past and present, as The 1619 Project does, is a praiseworthy and urgent public service. Nevertheless, we are dismayed at some of the factual errors in the project and the closed process behind it. – New York Times Magazine
The Benefits Of Modesty
“If modesty sucks so bad, then why did I spend so much of my time thinking about it? Because, despite all the unsavoury accumulated baggage that modesty has acquired over the years, I think there is something there that is not only one of the important goods in life but is actually quite life-affirming. Seeing this means taking a short detour through some recent thinking on what modesty is, and what might be good about it.” – Aeon
A Tale Of Two Deaths Of Two Critics
While Clive James, a critic, writer and television broadcaster who left his native Australia to find fame in the U.K., received encomiums for the catholicity of his taste, the splendor of his wit and his evangelical passion for the life of the mind, John Simon, the Yugoslavian-born polymath who was long enthroned at New York Magazine as a theater and film critic, was remembered less for his razor-sharp prose than for his vitriolic glee, his attacks on actors’ physical flaws, his sometimes shocking political insensitivity and his penchant for acidulous put-downs and puns. – Los Angeles Times
Why High Resolution Audio Has Had Such A Hard Time Finding Takers
Leaving people’s personal abilities to distinguish high sonic quality from low sonic quality out of this conversation, there is a virtually insurmountable issue with mass adoption of hi-res audio: acoustic environment. – Shelly Palmer
Sensory-Friendly Orchestra Performances Tap Unserved Audiences
Typically kids, adolescents and adults with autism take in information differently than their neurotypical peers. They can be easily overwhelmed by the senses, noises, visuals and smells. The loud music and the crowds and flashing lights at traditional concerts can overwhelm someone with autism such that they need to leave. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
End Of An Era For Penguin Books
The last British owner of Penguin, Pearson, announced that it was selling its remaining stake in Penguin Random House, the book publishing joint venture it formed six years ago with Bertelsmann, the German media group to rival Random House. – MSN
How The Hallmark Channel Got Caught Up In The Culture Wars
The world of Hallmark often resembles a kind of rear-guard action in a culture war that the network’s prime demographic is losing. The jobs, homes, community and security in the bleached pastoral hamlets showcased in the Hallmark universe are dwindling, increasingly as unreal as their TV presentation. – Washington Post
Vienna Ballet Academy Fires Director Over Abuse Claims
The academy had given its students “insufficient medical and therapeutic care,” a commission set up by the Austrian government, said in a report issued on Tuesday. There also seemed to be “no awareness” that it had a responsibility for its students’ health. The decision to effectively dismiss Simona Noja-Nebyla was announced in a news release on Friday by the company that oversees all of Austria’s federal theaters. – The New York Times
What Classical Music Needs To Do About Climate Change
Welcome work by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Research examines all the areas of impact touring has on the environment and recognises that the issue is complex: it cannot be solved by planting a set number of trees per tour. From audiences travelling to concerts to the power required by the halls, this crisis is the responsibility of all of us. Everyone must be conscious of their behaviour and acknowledge the active part they have to play. Planning permission for all new concert halls, for example, should only be given if the buildings will be carbon neutral. Existing concert halls must make radical changes to ensure they are as close to carbon neutral as possible. – The Guardian