The “free speech” argument can be a useful tactic. But it’s not necessarily a successful one in the long term. Overusing it can turn real debates into insoluble meta-arguments with no room for compromise, driving a self-perpetuating dynamic in which one party exudes a feigned and slyly provocative equilibrium while the other becomes increasingly bitter and confrontational. – Washington Post
Blog
A Machine That Responds Intelligently To Queries
GPT-3 is a product of OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research lab based in San Francisco. In essence, it’s a machine-learning system that has been fed (trained on) 45 terabytes of text data. Given that a terabyte (TB) is a trillion bytes, that’s quite a lot. Having digested all that stuff, the system can then generate all sorts of written content – stories, code, legal jargon, poems – if you prime it with a few words or sentences. – The Guardian
Remembering Leon Fleisher
He remained, in critical estimation, a pianist of sublime musical intelligence whether playing with one hand or two. But he also gained renown off the stage as a conductor and an influential teacher. – Washington Post
Neighbors Performing Music For Neighbors Hasn’t Stopped
And, in the U.S., it may be just getting started. A cellist in Pasadena who performs weekly with his wife, a pianist, says, “We thought with so much suffering, and so much anxiety, this is something very small that we can try to do to help.” – Los Angeles Times
There’s A New Genre In Town: Quar-Horror
A couple of the filmmakers: “This is where our brains went. Instead of making bread, we were like, ‘what can we do with how we’re creative?'” – NPR
It Took 80 Years For This Piece By Composer Ulysses Kay To Have Its World Premiere
Why? Perhaps this: “While Ulysses Kay shared stages with the greats of his day, his daughter said over time his compositions haven’t been performed as widely and are often programmed for cultural anniversaries or events including Black History Month.” – WBUR
Is That Dead Air Time? No, It’s Deliberate Peace And Quiet On The Airwaves
Some stations have meditation minutes, and some have other ways to fill all of that time when they’d normally have stories about events (the events that aren’t happening right now). Some 30-second promos “feature sounds like ocean waves and remind listeners to breathe and limit their screen time.” – Nieman Lab
Victor Victor, Musician Who Brought Music, Dance, And Theatre To The Underprivileged, 71
Víctor’s hit was the 1991 “Mesita de la Noche,” but before that, his son says, the Dominican singer/songwriter/producer had “lived a double life. … He was writing romantic songs and being an artist, but he was also part of the underground political movement” opposed to dictator Rafael Trujillo. – The New York Times
Putting Up A Monument To The Unknown Enslaved People Of The United States
As the Civil War raged, Kentucky was officially neutral – but it was a slave state. Freedom lay just across the river in Indiana, says poet Hannah Drake, whose nonprofit is preparing to install a kind of monument to those who dreamt of escape. “The memorial will start as a path of cast or carved footprints. That will lead people from nearby history museums to the river, where there will be limestone benches. Then there will be more footprints leading to the river’s edge.” – NPR
That Time A Research Librarian Discovered His Library Owned A First Edition Of Beethoven’s Sixth
At the Moravian Music Foundation, librarian David Blum “was doing a routine cataloging of material that the foundation has owned for years, [when] he noticed the plate number of the printing was 1809, his first clue that he was onto a first edition. He thought that would be great — but unlikely.” And yet. – Winston-Salem Journal