“Of course, people don’t come to cities for jobs alone; people come to places such as New York and London to be around other people. They come for the addictive energy that you get only in places where millions of dreams are crammed together. And many of us – misfits and minorities – stay in cities because they are the only places we feel we can be ourselves. I always think it is funny when people talk about cities being dangerous: as a queer, mixed-race woman, New York is probably where I feel safest.” – The Guardian
Author: Douglas McLennan
Students Figured Out AI Was Grading Their Work – And Gamed The Answers To Trick It
“I always tried to make the answer at least semi-coherent because it seemed a bit cheap to just toss a bunch of keywords into the input field,” Paradiso said. “But if I was a bit lazier, I easily could have just written a random string of words pertinent to the question prompt and gotten 100 percent.” – The Verge
What (And When) Was The First Novel?
Some critics argue that a novel has to also be one narrative through and through, one long story about one person. A lot of ancient fiction, arguably, is too distractible and prone to side stories to count. Even so, there are works that follow one character all the way through that are old—very old. – BookRiot
Should Foundations Spend Down Their Assets To Truly Make A Difference?
By 2030, if only the 5 largest foundations spent down the entirety of their assets, approximately $73 billion would flow directly to large-scale issues that require only cash to be truly solved. Even if only half of that were to boost US issues, $36.5 billion in ten years might solve food insecurity. It might provide responsible housing for those who fight for it. – LinkedIn
Maybe We Need To Expand Notions Of What Creativity Is
Imagine instead that we worked with idea that creativity wasn’t about novelty. That doesn’t mean we’d have to give up the value of originality entirely, but rather see it as one of a range of possible outcomes. Casting a wider net in this way might hence make creativity (whatever it involves) easier to achieve. – Psyche
The Venice Film Festival Is About To Open. Will It Be Safe?
Ahead of the event guests have been sent a list of Covid-19 guidelines, including information on passing through thermo-scanners as they enter the festival and anyone found to have a body temperature of 37.5°C or higher will be denied access. The guidance also states that face coverings must be worn at all times, including in outdoor areas. It is not clear how that rule will be enforced, or whether attendees will be allowed to eat or drink while in screenings. – The Guardian
Why We’re Drawn To Stories About Monsters
Loving monsters is a love of chaos, a longing to dance a little with death to better understand the danger. Cryptid violence is more approachable than human violence. It’s easy to ponder ways to control something that is other, a thing. We’ve built entire political and economic structures based upon just that—imperialism, colonialism, racism, sexism. It’s more difficult to figure out how to survive the things we do to ourselves. – LitHub
How The Classical Music System Conspires Against Minority Participation
White people and some ethnic groups follow a progression of youth orchestras and schools of the arts and then are often paired with principal musicians in local professional orchestras. Meanwhile, young Black musicians inevitably draw attention to their raw talent but can’t afford the coaching and mentoring to help develop technical expertise and to help direct the way through the audition maze. Having little or no experience in a youth orchestra, they arrive in college music departments with, as one musician put it, “a lot of heart and personality but may not catch every note.” – San Francisco Classical Voice
Susan Jaffe’s Plans As Pittsburgh Ballet’s New Artistic Director
Beyond navigating COVID-19, Ms. Jaffe has big ideas for PBT and its growing school. She wants more diversity in choreography, more collaborations with museums and other institutions and someday, perhaps a choreographic festival in Pittsburgh. In regards to the PBT School, additional satellite locations are being considered as a way to bring ballet into more communities. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A German Experiment In How To Have Large Audiences And Be Safe From COVID
All the fans were volunteers, part of Restart-19, a study to see if and how big cultural and sporting events can be held safely in the era of COVID-19. The daylong experiment was set up by scientists to try and understand why mass events are so effective at spreading the novel coronavirus and how organizers can act to minimize the risk. – The Hollywood Reporter