Category: issues

A quarry which scientists have recently identified as being the source of Stonehenge’s famous rocks is being plundered at a “terrifying rate” by thieves selling them on eBay for £8, tourism bosses say.

“Despite its outward appearance as being more female-friendly, despite there being less puppeteering than in pop music, despite the seeming prevalence of “male feminists” in the scene, women in the indie music scene say that sexual harassment is rampant and just as much a reality for them.”

“Five years ago, Google — one of the most public proselytizers of how studying workers can transform productivity — became focused on building the perfect team.”

Adam Gopnik considers the British supermarket chain Tesco’s decision to stop making its croissants curved. “Adding an arbitrary national shape to an established one to attempt an entirely English croissant, [some] future scholar will argue, is an affirmation of refusing to be one with Europe. (The crescent, moreover, is the sign of the Islamic empire, and some damp, suspicious kinds will see meaning in that, too.)”

Research psychologist Robert Epstein finds, and worries about, just how much effect a small change in the order of search results can have.

At a time when the price of a degree from elite institutions is well over six figures, fields such as literature and the arts may seem like a luxury item. But we may have it backwards. They are, to cite Hemingway’s title for his Paris memoir, “a moveable feast,” and they offer us a kind of reach into time and space that we can find nowhere else.

Jacob Weisberg: “Our transformation into device people has happened with unprecedented suddenness. The first touchscreen-operated iPhones went on sale in June 2007, followed by the first Android-powered phones the following year. Smartphones went from 10 percent to 40 percent market penetration faster than any other consumer technology in history.”

“Given the tendency to be distrustful of television, we were curious: are people going to be worse off on average watching TV instead of engaging in other, potentially more enriching, activities? Is there an opportunity here to improve wellbeing through the arts?”

“Even before the news media descended, the city was bankrupt, a poster child for urban ills — the poorest city of its size in California and a haven for gang violence, drug addiction, foreclosures and political dysfunction. San Bernardino has long been known for nightmarish air pollution in which asthmatic children from low-income families breathe diesel fumes from cargo trains and trucks.”