“In a neat little animated video published yesterday by the University of California, Berkeley, psychologist Dacher Keltner explains that we were essentially built to be nice.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Florida Caves To Satanic Temple, Will Allow Holiday Display Of Angel In Hellfire
In 2013, calling the idea “grossly offensive”, officials rejected the Temple’s request to put its seasonal display in the State Capitol Rotunda alongside those of Christians, Jews, secular humanists, atheists, and even Pastafarians. So why is this year different? …
Top Posts From AJBlogs 12.03.14
Lessons
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2014-12-02
Barron’s Strange Report On Art Museums
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2014-12-03
Steinbeck And Condon
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2014-12-03
The War on Drugs and Mexico’s 43 Students
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2014-12-03
Anne Lamott on Forgiveness
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2014-12-03
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Chinese Government Tries To Ban Wordplay And Puns In The Media
The State Administration for Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television “has banned wordplay on the grounds that it breaches the law on standard spoken and written Chinese, makes promoting cultural heritage harder and may mislead the public – especially children.” Problem is, puns have been enmeshed in every single aspect of Chinese culture, from the New Year’s menu to wedding gifts to people’s own names – for a few thousand years now.
And Why Would China’s Authorities Try To Ban Puns?
Oh, the Party has its reasons – alpacas, for instance, and marijuana. Nikhil Sonnad explains.
“The Happiest Ballet Studio In The World”
Sarah Kaufman: “The happiest ballet studio in the world may be the one just down the street from a Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery [in Charlotte], inside a bright purple building bearing the words ‘Patricia McBride/Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux Center for Dance’.”
Theatre Critics – Theatres Miss Them, Now That They’re Disappearing
Tim Walker: “‘Another day, yet another newspaper critic in @ThatTimWalker faces the axe,’ the Tricycle Theatre in north London tweeted recently, when it was announced the curtain was coming down on my run as the Sunday Telegraph‘s chief theatre critic. ‘What’s going on? Theatre will be the poorer without these voices.'” Many professionals, not least the director Michael Grandage, “retweeted this howl of despair – and one can well understand it.”
Philadelphia Theatre Company Edges Away From The Brink
“With the help of former Kennedy Center president Michael M. Kaiser, the financially beleaguered Philadelphia Theatre Company has bought itself some time, buoying hopes for its survival.”
Americans Have Always Felt Guilty About TV Watching
“Television’s association with guilt has persisted since the medium’s early days, but the nature and tenor of that guilt has evolved under the influence of several factors, including demographics, time period, technology, program type, and intellectual stimulation.”
To Avoid High Ticket Taxes, This Theater Group Started Selling Porn Mags With Free Tickets Inside
When the Spanish government raised the sales tax on movie and performance tickets from 8% to 21%, the Madrid theatre company Primas de Riesgo (“risk premium”, as in the extra interest charged for junk bonds) thought it would have to swallow the expense – until it realized that magazines, including porn, have a sales tax of 4%.