Though the Wolf Hall actor last appeared on stage in an RSC production in 1989, his very public resignation as a longstanding “associate artist” is, at the least, a public relations blow to the prestigious company. – Deadline
Blog
Lorne Michaels: You Couldn’t Start “Saturday Night Live” Today
“You couldn’t do this show now. Mostly because of budget. The depth of costumes, design, film, all of those plus the talent office and all of the people working with each other…you can’t start that now because we’re in an age of narrowcasting.” – The Observer
New Berkeley Study: Our Brains Crave Information, Reward Us With Dopamine Shots
“To the brain, information is its own reward, above and beyond whether it’s useful,” says Assoc. Prof. Ming Hsu, a neuroeconomist whose research employs functional magnetic imaging (fMRI), psychological theory, economic modeling, and machine learning. “And just as our brains like empty calories from junk food, they can overvalue information that makes us feel good but may not be useful—what some may call idle curiosity.” – University of California Berkeley
Why Too Much Choice Leads To All Sorts Of Bad
It’s easier to pick one out of two meals than one out of 50. With more options, we spend more time analyzing and tend to get stuck. Often, we’ll choose to do nothing at all for a long time, and dragging your heels never feels good. – Good Company
Does Historic Preservation Speed Up Gentrification?
Using historic preservation to preserve affordability isn’t unheard of, but landmarking has something of reputation for hastening gentrification, not halting it. – CityLab
How To Avoid A Sexist Tax On Tampons? Sell Them In Books
In order to avoid the unreasonably high VAT on tampons in many European countries, a startup in Germany (where the tax is 19%!) has started packaging 15 tampons with a 46-page booklet about menstruation as a book (taxed at 7%). The Tampon Book’s first printing sold out in a day, the second within a week. What’s more, it just won the Grand Prix in PR at the Cannes Lions festival for advertising professionals. – Melville House
The Problem With Authenticity
“Here is the danger with authenticity: it has a tendency to make aspiration look fake. You are trying to be something you are not. But aspiring to be a better person—or better at anything—often involves trying to be something you are (currently) not. Hence the problem. Authenticity is often so bluntly insisted upon that all efforts at change or self-improvement appear phoney.” – Prospect
The Library Tucked In A Pakistani Arms Market
“This tribal district, located about 85 miles west of Islamabad, is best known for its sprawling weapons bazaar. … A local book lover, Raj Muhammad, hopes it becomes known as the home of the Darra Adam Khel Library.” Even the gun merchants have noticed; one of them says the library is “the best thing that happened recently for the people here.” – The New York Times
More Information Makes Things Complicated. No Wonder We Prefer Simple
“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
Can Public Radio And TV Help Bring A Sharply Divided America Together? Should It?
Andrea Smardon: “To answer these questions, I talked with innovative producers who are working on projects that attempt to bridge political and cultural divides. This work is going on across public broadcasting — at local stations, by independent producers and at national organizations such as NPR and StoryCorps. Few journalists view themselves as ‘healers,’ but everyone I talked with agreed that public media does have a unique role to play in this moment.” – Current