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So What Is This ‘Festival Of Brexit’ Going To Be, Anyway? Here’s What Its Director Says

“It has been mocked and pilloried as a ‘festival of Brexit‘, but the newly appointed boss of the £120m nationwide celebration planned for 2022 has said he is going to embrace the cynics – and prove them wrong. In his first interview as the director of Festival 2022, Martin Green said the aims would be to bring the nation together, showcase British creativity, and on a basic level bring some ‘joy, hope and happiness’.” – The Guardian

Large Incan Idol That Pizarro Claimed He Destroyed Has Survived

“A basketball-player-size wooden idol that allegedly escaped destruction by the Spanish conquistadors is real — but it may not be quite what people suspected. The statue is even older than thought, and may have been worshipped by the people who came before the Inca. And belying the grisly lore that surrounds it, the so-called Pachacamac idol was painted with cinnabar, not drenched in blood, the researchers found.” – Live Science

Christopher Tolkien, JRR’s Son And Collaborator, Dead At 95

While his father was alive, he drew many of the maps of Middle-earth in the original edition of The Lord of the Rings; after JRR’s death, “his son was left to sift through the files and notebooks, and over the [next] two decades … he published The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, Beren And Lúthien and The History of Middle-earth, which fleshed out the complex world of elves and dwarves created by his father.” – The Guardian

Just Days Before Grammy Awards, Recording Academy’s New CEO Suspended

“Deborah Dugan, who took over as Recording Academy president/CEO on Aug. 1, has been placed on administrative leave just over a week before the 2020 Grammy Awards due to ‘serious concerns’ brought to the board of trustees’ attention.” Those “concerns” include “including a formal allegation of misconduct by a senior female member of the Recording Academy team.” – Billboard

Barry Tuckwell, Perhaps The World’s Most Prominent French Horn Player, Dead At 88

He started playing the horn at age 13 and within two years landed a position in the Melbourne Symphony; by age 19, he had gone to Britain and played in orchestras there; at age 24, he was appointed first horn in the London Symphony. After 13 years, he left the LSO for a full-time career as a soloist (then, as now, very rare for his instrument), making more than 50 recordings, and developed an additional career as a conductor. – Gramophone

Missouri Debates Jailing Librarians For Lending “Age-Inappropriate” Books

Under the parental oversight of public libraries bill, which has been proposed by Missouri Republican Ben Baker, panels of parents would be elected to evaluate whether books are appropriate for children. Public hearings would then be held by the boards to ask for suggestions of potentially inappropriate books, with public libraries that allow minors access to such titles to have their funding stripped. Librarians who refuse to comply could be fined and imprisoned for up to one year. – The Guardian

Want A Job? Increasingly You’ll Have To Get By The AI Algorithms First

With HireVue, businesses can pose pre-determined questions — often recorded by a hiring manager — that candidates answer on camera through a laptop or smartphone. Increasingly, those videos are then pored over by algorithms analyzing details such as words and grammar, facial expressions and the tonality of the job applicant’s voice, trying to determine what kinds of attributes a person may have. Based on this analysis, the algorithms will conclude whether the candidate is tenacious, resilient, or good at working on a team, for instance. – CNN