The combination of computer use, Internet, and smart phone, I would argue, has changed the cognitive skills required of individuals. Learning is more and more a matter of mastering various arbitrary software procedures that then allow information to be accessed and complex operations to be performed without our needing to understand what is entailed in those operations. This activity is then carried on in an environment where it is quite normal to perform two, three, or even four operations at the same time, with a general and constant confusion of the social, the academic, and the occupational. – New York Review of Books
Author: Douglas McLennan
David Brooks, Art Critic, Weighs In Again: This Time On Definitions Of Greatness
For most people, creativity is precisely the ability to pursue multiple interests at once, and then bring them together in new ways. “Without contraries is no progression,” William Blake wrote. – The New York Times
UK’s Creative Industries May Face Labor Problems After Brexit
“The prevalence of freelance workers in the sector – 50% of companies surveyed had used freelancers in the past year – and EU workers among them, meant that ‘one in ten businesses in the creative industries employ a freelance worker who might be unable to gain continued access to the UK workforce’ after Brexit.” – Arts Professional
Ancient Tablet Recording Homer’s “Odyssey” Discovered – Maybe The Oldest
It is engraved with 13 verses from the poem recounting the adventures of the hero Odysseus after the fall of Troy. The tale was probably composed by Homer in the late 8th Century BC. – BBC
It’s Easy To Get Depressed About The World Ending (Climate Change And All). But Enter The Extremophiles…
Extremophiles tell us that everything we think we know about the fragility of life is wrong. Life is indeed extraordinary, not to mention precious and deserving of reverence – but not in any sense miraculous. – Aeon
Pink Seesaws That Straddle The US/Mexico Border Fence
In an Instagram post that has received tens of thousands of likes, children and adults can be seen playing and interacting on both sides of the fence using the seesaws, which provide “a literal fulcrum” between the countries. – The Guardian
What Happens When What You See Gets In The Way Of What You Know?
Most philosophers nowadays think that knowledge is fallible. In other words, they think that you can know something without its being certain for you. – 3 Quarks Daily
Broadway Giant Hal Prince, 91
Over his long career in the theater, Prince received 21 Tony Awards, including three special Tonys, marking the most Tonys received by any individual. The celebrated director and producer was a frequent collaborator with Stephen Sondheim, as the director and producer of “Company,” “Follies,” “Pacific Overtures,” “Merrily We Roll Along” and “A Little Night Music,” director of “Sweeney Todd” and producer of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and “West Side Story.” – Broadway News
Report: Notre Dame Fire May Have Poisoned Local Residents With Lead
According to confidential documents leaked to the (paywalled) website Mediapart earlier this month and discussed across French media, locations surrounding the fire-damaged cathedral have registered levels of lead contamination ranging between 500 and 800 times the official safe level. – CityLab
Pew Study: YouTube Videos With Kids Get More Views
Any video that starred a child who appeared to be under the age of 13 “received nearly three times as many views on average as other types of videos.” – The Verge