Tag: 01.29.20

Want High School Kids To Get Excited About Engineering? Try Teaching Them To Make Guitars

“Unlike science and math, engineering and technology skills aren’t typically included in the standardized tests used to evaluate students and their teachers. Because the stakes are high, schools generally make the subjects that are tested their highest priority. When kids make guitars, they learn the math and science, but also the importance of mechanical precision, the design process and basic manufacturing skills, which are central to what engineers do.” – The Conversation

How The Broadcast Industry Convinced Americans, Gradually, To Embrace Color TV

The technology to transmit color television signals was first developed in the 1920s, and all three of the major U.S. networks had switched to color in the 1960s. But in the mid-1970s, nearly half of American households still had black-and-white sets, which didn’t disappear completely from store shelves until the 1990s. What took so long, and how was the public persuaded to make the switch? – Public Books

Racially-Tinged Strife At America’s Largest All-Jazz Radio Station

At WBGO in Newark, NJ, accusations that a largely white and elitist station leadership had lost touch with, and stopped paying respect to, the largely nonwhite people of its city led to rancor among the staff and, this week, the resignation of station CEO Amy Niles. But the roots of the station’s difficulties lie in the changing media landscape and in the tension between openness to WBGO’s local community and serving a listener and membership base that’s almost entirely outside Newark. – The New York Times

Can You Trust Political Promises About Supporting Culture?

The cultural sections of election manifestos always make for interesting reading. Wonderful-sounding aspirations rarely have detail. Proposals are mostly aspirational rather than costed. This, presumably, means that whatever the intended real-world outcomes are, they have not been factored in to any budgetary strategy. And the numbers that are given don’t always match up.  – Irish Times

Vienna Proposition: Leave Your Car At Home And Museums And Theatre Are Free

Starting as a pilot project next month, Vienna’s “Culture Token” will track users’ movements—and their chosen mode of transit—across the city via an app. For each car-free kilometer the user travels, the app stores up credits. Once the user has stored up 20 kilograms of carbon savings—possible with about two weeks of car-free commuting—they get a token they can exchange for a ticket to various arts venues, including Vienna’s most respected concert hall, theater, and contemporary art venue. – CityLab