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Canada Has A New Cultural Plan. But What If It’s Wrong?

The problem with Creative Canada isn’t that it devotes money to artists. It’s that it treats those artists as tech entrepreneurs. The ethos of Silicon Valley is encoded into the very dna of our new policy framework. Artists, says Creative Canada, are valued not for the art they produce but for “playing a critical role in driving innovation.” The plan answers the call “for developing the business, technology and entrepreneurial skills of Canadian artists and creators.”

Canada’s Heritage Minister Is Lambasted For Proposed New Cultural Plan

“Several things dragged the Minister down, some quite unnecessarily. It was a mistake for her to pose as a champion of consumers while waving away a tax that would have cost Netflix subscribers less than a dollar a month. She seemed not to realize that tax fairness is also a potent issue – especially when the lack of it directly penalizes Canadian companies competing with Neflix for audiences. Or, more likely, she was instructed not to let anything divert her from the mission of keeping Neflix tax-free. And why?”

Risk Intelligence: Scientists Try To Pin Down Why Some People Are More Inclined To Take Risks

Despite its importance, there is a lack of consensus over whether people’s tendency to take risks is consistent or whether it varies depending on the type of risk. To find out, Renato Frey at the University of Basel in Switzerland and his colleagues asked 1500 adults to complete 39 tests commonly used to measure risk preference in different scenarios.

Is An Obsession With Arts-As-Useful-Policy A Road To Nowhere?

A problem arises if culture becomes simply a means to a non-cultural policy end. As Eleonora Belfiore argued, “if the logic of the instrumental view of culture… is taken to its extreme (but intrinsically consequential) conclusions, there would be no point in having a cultural policy at all”. Does an increasing emphasis on non-cultural policy intentions (health, wellbeing, etc) lead to a loss of meaning for cultural policy in its own terms? If so, what are the implications for the arts sector?

Finalist For Canada’s Prestigious Journey Prize For Literature Disqualified After Copying Concerns

The story The Most Human Part of You, by Richard Kelly Kemick, a National Magazine Award-winning writer from Calgary, Alta., was found to share elements with the story The Dog of the Marriage by the American writer Amy Hempel. As a result, Kemick’s story, as well as a second work, have been pulled from The Journey Prize Stories, an anthology that features the best fiction published in Canadian literary journals and magazines.

You’re Probably Not As Self-Aware As You Think You Are (But You Could Get Better At It)

“‘On a good day, 80 percent of us are lying to ourselves about whether we’re lying to ourselves,’ [psychologist and author Tasha] Eurich says. Making things extra tricky is the fact that self-awareness has two components: Internal self-awareness is the ability to introspect and recognize your authentic self, whereas external self-awareness is the ability to recognize how you fit in with the rest of the world. ‘It’s almost like two different camera angles,’ Eurich says. … To be truly, fully self-aware, you need both components – a feat that’s difficult to pull off for pretty much anyone. But, it’s worth noting, not impossible.”

Boys Are Being Bullied For Dancing Ballet – It’s An Epidemic, Actually

The statistics on boys, ballet and bullying are staggering. According to a study by dance sociologists Doug Risner and Maggie Allesee of Wayne State University in Detroit, 93 percent of boys involved in ballet reported “teasing and name calling,” and 68 percent experienced “verbal or physical harassment.” Eleven percent said they were victims of physical harm at the hands of people who targeted them because they are boys who study dance.