“Research that shows that the brain has to first accept a lie as true, only to analyze it, then refute it. Over time, the brain tires of that process and slowly starts to accept the lies as true. … What is most interesting is that processing falsehoods and processing certain types of satire appears to follow a very similar cognitive path.” Sophia McLennen looks at how this works, and argues that this is why the right hates political satire so much. (And satire worked so well in Weimar Germany, right?)
Category: issues
England’s Arts Funder Creates New Grants Program For Individual Artists
“Arts Council England (ACE) has launched a £14.4m fund for individual artists and creative practitioners in the early- and mid-stages of their creative careers. …Grants of between £2k and £10k will be available to individual creatives, or small groups of collaborators, to support research, the creation of new work or development of future ideas, training, networking or mentoring, or travel.”
The Next-Gen Ticket?
It could be an early sign that the days of the barcode are numbered as technological improvements allow companies to replace them with more secure digital tickets with codes embedded in a fan’s phone or a Wi-Fi connected wristband that lets them track consumers for both security and data-collection purposes.
Is Being A Fan Really Worth The Cost?
At first glance, the evidence isn’t encouraging. Following a loss, fans are more likely than usual to eat unhealthy food, [1] be unproductive at work, [2] and—in the case of the Super Bowl—die from heart disease. [3] What about fans of the winning team? Well, their testosterone levels tend to increase, [4] which may account for why triumphant fans are more likely than other fans to suffer a postgame traffic fatality if the score was close. [5]
How Do You Measure The Soft Power Of Culture?
The impact of cultural work is complex: it imparts insights, experience and attitudes that do not necessarily have to culminate in a ‘work’, but may create new networks, creative ideas, and extended action horizons. Here, the artistic process itself is often just as important as the result. In terms of intercultural understanding, it is sometimes even more so.
2018’s Great British University Strike: The Lecturers Rebel
The goad for this stunningly resolute strike was deep cuts to retirement pensions, but as in all such vast, spontaneous outpourings from below, the issue is not the issue. The issue, rather, is the deteriorating quality of work life and morale in the higher-education sector. The Great University Strike of 2018 is a powerful statement on behalf of intellectual and humane values, new university priorities, and organizational structures and norms that better embody the principles of dignity, transparency, respect, and democracy.
As London’s Rents Keep Rising, Warnings That The City Will Lose Its Artists And Its ‘Creative Crown’
Yikes: “Anna Harding, the chief executive of Space studios, which provides premises for nearly 800 artists including three Turner prize winners, blamed rising property prices and shrinking studios for dramatically squeezing the time and space available for creative activity. Artists now face a choice between working full time to pay the rent and fitting in a few hours in their studios at weekends, or giving up entirely.”
Reddit Has Harbored Some Of The Very Worst Of The Web – Here’s What It’s Doing To Clean Out The Filth
Andrew Marantz meets the co-founder/CEO of the fourth-most-visited website in the United States, looks at just what it took for the company to move past free-speech absolutism, and how the staff finds the bad stuff and decides whether or not to get rid of it. (He also watches the heartening results of a Reddit social experiment.)
Cooper Union Will Go Back To Free Tuition – Over Ten Years
“Cooper Union has a plan to gradually move back to free tuition for undergraduates over the next 10 years, reversing course from a controversial 2014 decision to start charging. Scholarships could begin increasing in two years … Costs to students will be bought down in increasing amounts over time as administrators find ways to pay for tuition by cutting costs and raising money.”
Study: University Experience Changes Students, It Doesn’t Just Deliver Knowledge
“We see quite clearly that students’ personalities change when they go to university,” Sonja Kassenboehmer of Monash University, the paper’s lead author, said in announcing the findings. “It is good news that universities not only seem to teach subject-specific skills, but also seem to succeed in shaping skills valued by employers and society.”