“Reality is annoying like that: at every level of examination, it raises more questions than answers. There are always details that don’t fit, exceptions to rules, consequences that can’t be predicted. That’s why humans, who famously cannot bear too much reality, have evolved a method of coping with all this complexity: we lie to ourselves about how much we understand.” – New Statesman
Author: Douglas McLennan
How America’s Elaborate Visa System Is Choking Off Culture From The Rest Of The World
As one presenter said, “These days, if you have a Muslim name, much less coming from a country on ‘the list,’ you can pretty much forget being granted a visa.” – San Francisco Classical Voice
The Next Big Thing: Getting Rid Of Experts In Favor Of Generalists Who Can Do It All (Huge Implications)
“Minimal manning—and the evolution of the economy more generally—requires a different kind of worker, with not only different acquired skills but different inherent abilities. It has implications for the nature and utility of a college education, for the path of careers, for inequality and employability—even for the generational divide.” – The Atlantic
Too Soon? David Mamet Wrote A Play About Harvey Weinstein. It Doesn’t Work
“Is there anything, anything at all, to be said for a character whose name all too obviously part-rhymes with Harvey Weinstein? Well, he continues to have sympathy for illegal immigrants, despite or perhaps because of his mother’s murder. But Mamet can find no good word for his films.” – The Daily Beast
The Country Music Stereotype Is Redneck. But It Grew Out Of Progressive Roots
These kinds of negative projections of the people who have made country music, and have listened to it, linger even unto today. The stereotype is that they all harbour conservative political and social beliefs, setting them as sexist, racist, jingoistic and fundamentalist Christian by nature. But this image is a lie. For, right from the start, country music spoke up with a progressive voice. – Aeon
Warning: US Tariffs On Chinese Book Publishing Would Be Catastrophic For US Publishers
“The US publishing industry invests in literature, children’s books, educational materials, religious and historical texts, Bibles, scientific expression, and numerous other works of fiction and nonfiction that support and celebrate American voices but are printed in China. There are no viable alternatives either inside or outside of the United States at this time, meaning that the impact of the tariffs—if applied to books—would be swift and devastating to both American publishers and the important works they disseminate.” – Publishing Perspectives
If Ideas Drive History, What If They’re Really Bad Ideas?
“If ideas drive history and most ideas are bad, as Felipe Fernández-Armesto believes, what follows for politics? A sceptical sort of anti-utopianism, perhaps, which regards any large scheme for human improvement with suspicion.” – New Statesman
The Serial Museum-Creator
Seattle’s Greg Lundgren has grown up to be an artist, curator and entrepreneur who has spent the past few decades hunting around Seattle for negative zones (derelict properties, soon-to-be-demolished buildings) and fortifying them into fleeting new homes for art. – Seattle Times
How Prosecution Of A Sex-Ad Website Will Have Profound Repercussions For The Internet
Backpage.com is the site. And “maybe they should have seen it coming: The betrayals. The asset seizures. The changing zeitgeist. They were, to be sure, brazenly cashing in on the sex trade. But here’s the thing: Silicon Valley had better hope they win. United States v. Lacey is a dangerous case, with potential consequences far beyond the freedom of two aging anti-authoritarians.” – Wired
Will Audio Books And Podcasts Eventually Merge Into One?
Will these different digital audio worlds continue to exist separate, parallel, and mostly unintrusive of each other? Or will they, over the medium to long term, end up colliding in direct competition? – NiemanLab (3rd item)