Tattoos can be a barrier for people getting out of prison. They can make it hard to find jobs, to feel safe in certain neighborhoods, to reconcile with family and to leave the past behind. Now there are programs to help inmates with tattoos wipe the slate clean. – NPR
Tag: 01.16.20
The Man Who Invented The Laser Printer, Gary Starkweather, Dead At 81
“While officially working on a fax machine project, Mr. Starkweather began to experiment in his spare time with copy machines and digital technology, in effect trying to merge the two. … [His] supervisor at Xerox discouraged his experiments, calling lasers ‘toys’ … [and later] and threatened to lay off Mr. Starkweather’s entire staff.” Now, says the company’s chief technology officer, “The laser printer is arguably the greatest invention made in a Xerox research center.” – The Washington Post
Social Media Influencers Are Changing The Face Of Dance
Commercial dancers — the performers who animate music videos, films and TV shows — have long needed the right look, the right connections, expertise in the most popular styles and an agency to access coveted jobs. Now, however, video and social media have democratized who can succeed in the industry. – Los Angeles Times
They’re Building A Pushkin Theme Park In St. Petersburg
“Dutch design company Jora Vision will use Pushkin’s works as inspiration for the 17,000-square-meter Lukomorye park, named after the mythical Slavic land in which Pushkin’s fairy tales take place. … The amusement park will consist of three zones — a palace, a city and a harbor — each based on imaginary places in Pushkin’s stories. The park will also feature a swan lake, a fairytale forest and a ‘yarmarka,’ or Russian fair market. ” – The Moscow Times
A Group Of Musicians Relocate To A Failing Town To Create A New Culture. Townspeople Resist
The group wanted to Klein Jasedow provides a nearly perfect test case for a theory, popular within the classical music industry, which postulates that if we could just tweak the atmosphere in which the work is presented, we could unleash its universal potential. – Van
When The Washington Post Talked About The Top Book Trends Of The Last Decade, They Went Kinda Easy On A Big (Sometimes Bad) Player
Normally terrific, WaPo book critic Ron Charles goes lightly on Amazon, whose CEO owns the paper. So it’s time to consider some issues he missed. “E-books and audiobooks have greatly improved the reading experience over the past decade for those who can afford to pay Amazon for Kindle and Audible digital books. We have yet to figure out what the cost of Amazon’s dominance of e-books and audiobooks will be to the broader digital book ecosystem.” – Inside Higher Ed
We’re Losing Any Sense Of Place Because Now Everywhere Feels The Same
You can watch movies, order groceries, talk to friends, or do just about anything from anywhere, thanks to smart phones. “Nowhere feels especially remarkable, and every place adopts the pleasures and burdens of every other. It’s possible to do so much from home, so why leave at all?” – The Atlantic
Spanish Billionaire Fined $58 Million, Sent To Jail For Trying To Smuggle A Picasso Out Of Spain To Auction
And the ultimate punishment to the art dealer, who may not actually go to jail as it’s his first offense: “The artwork is now property of the state and has been given to the Reina Sofia art museum in Madrid.” – BBC
Hollywood Is Turning To AI To Decide What Movies To Make
No, machines aren’t writing usable scripts. (Yet.) But we all know about projects that seemed terrific on paper but turned out to be disastrous bombs — and about sleeper hits that seemed very niche but caught on. Now companies like Cinelytic and ScriptBook say that their AI software can analyze the qualities of a script and cast, compare them with large quantities of data on what films have and haven’t attracted a sizable audience, and predict how well a given project will do. And these companies claim far higher accuracy rates than those of human studio execs. Journalist Steve Rise investigates. – The Guardian
These Musicians Moved To A Dying Village, Hoping To Revive It. They Got Caught In The Culture Wars Instead.
“In 1997, a group of German classical musicians moved to the village of Klein Jasedow, a tiny, nearly abandoned hamlet close to the Baltic Sea. The performers were looking to escape the careerist rat race, and hoped to find a place that united community, art, and nature — which they found, along with suspicion, fierce resistance from the locals, and even accusations of witchcraft. Can music bridge the divides between people? A report from an ongoing cultural experiment.” – VAN