Real Estate Through The Ages

Tony Perrottet gives a brief tour of leases and land sales down the centuries, from the world’s oldest lease (a 4,000-year-old Babylonian clay tablet), through the first professional real estate agents (in ancient Rome, where they were called extractores), to the reason so many American writers and artists could afford to live in 1920s Paris.

DC’s Arena Stage Hires Playwrights As Employees

“Over the next three years, five playwrights will be part of Arena’s American Voices New Play Institute, which was formed in August and financed by a $1.1 million gift…. The writers will be paid to write on any project they please during their three-year tenure, with the promise of a stage production and an additional pot of development money under their control.”

Does The Internet Offer A Utopian Future?

“Yes, a wired future might look good for democracy if some of the social functions currently performed by traditional media are taken up by new Internet projects. But that outcome needs to be demonstrated–perhaps constructively aimed at–rather than assumed. For populists such as Clay Shirky, the need for considered political commitment does not even merit discussion. The triathlon must go on, even if the athletes become brainwashed and bigoted.”