Thursday, August 02, 2018

Loneliness: Police Recover Renoir And Rubens Stolen By Con Man Dressed As Rabbi


I follow here Jean-Paul Sartre, who said that if, for the same text, you are attacked by both sides, it’s usually one of the few reliable signs that you are in the right.


People who don't drink any alcohol are more likely to develop dementia, suggests study


via Arkpad
WATCH: Surveillance video shows trio stealing shark by disguising it as a baby KSAT


via Colin Cowie Weddings

 

Extremism is too often seen as a foreign threat — an infection from an alien civilization. As Hannah Arendt knew, it grows out of a local problem: Loneliness  

In addition to vintage, wooden pianos, chic, hanging light bulbs and percussion drums can add edginess to a neutral space.

Police Recover Renoir And Rubens Stolen By Con Man Dressed As Rabbi


"The paintings had been stolen in an elaborate scam involving at least eight different con artists, the police confirmed. At least one had posed as a Jewish rabbi with diplomatic immunity and offered the respective gallery owners €26 million for the paintings before stealing them. The theft took place at a rented office in Monza, above the Albanian embassy ... on April 20th, 2017." … [Read More]



The Death of Truth by Michiko Kakutani: Kakutani is best-known as the long-reigning—and frequently eviscerating—chief book critic at The New York Times, a job she left last year in order to write this book. In The Death of Truth, she considers our troubling era of alternative facts and traces the trends that have brought us to this horrific moment where the very concept of “objective reality” provokes a certain nostalgia. “Trump did not spring out of nowhere,” she told Vanity Fair in a recent interview, “and I was struck by how prescient writers like Alexis de Tocqueville and George Orwell and Hannah Arendtwere about how those in power get to define what the truth is.” (Emily)

Michael Ondaatje’s Booker Prize Wins Say Much About The Current State Of Global Literature


Your Mind Is Not Like An Iceberg, With Masses Of Stuff Hidden Below The Surface


Behavioral scientist Nick Chater: "This whole idea of uncovering things from the unconscious and making them conscious has the presupposition that they are of the same type. ... The tip of the iceberg is made of the same stuff as the rest of the iceberg, which is an invisible mass. And I think that's really a mistake. The reality is that the things we're conscious of — experiences, thoughts, fragments of conversation — are completely different in type from the things we're unconscious of — all these mysterious brain processes, which lay down and retrieve memories, piece fragments of information together, and so on. The brain is doing lots of unconscious work — but it is not thought in any way we understand it." … Read More

Ondaatje’s Booker wins are complicated. More than anything, Ondaatje’s Golden Booker win showcases the contradictions of literary value in the current context of the global commodifications of creative goods. His 1992 success can be examined within the broader context of the prize, its relation to postcolonial fiction and the globalization of Can Lit. … Read More




REPORTING ON THE BOSS: Anna Werner took the straightforward approach on "CBS This Morning" on allegations involving CBS CEO Les Moonves and “60 Minutes” executive producer Jeff Fager. Hours later, CBS announced that Moonves will remain as CEO while an outside investigation is conducted.
NOT THE FIRST TIME: The Washington Post’s Amy Brittain noted that CBS also announced May 3 an investigation into the network’s workplace culture after The Post’s story on disgraced "CBS This Morning" host Charlie Rose. The network said it was going to get to the bottom of the accusations that Rose had harassed 14 women at the network. Since then, not a peep, Brittain tweeted Monday.
FORMATION AT VOGUE: Anna Wintour is basically turning over her last issue to Beyoncé, reports Yashar Ali. The music icon already has made a striking move, hiring the first black photographer to shoot a cover in the publication’s 126-year history.  
SUNRISE IN COLORADO: Even before posting its first story, the Colorado Sun is attracting people who want to sign up, and it is promising to cover uncovered stories around the state. The site, to be produced primarily by former staffers of the shrinking Denver Post, raised more than $160,000 from readers and has seed funding from Civil, a media startup funding journalism through cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. By Poynter's Taylor Blatchford.

THE NUMBERS: Newsroom employment dropped 23 percent in the past decade, with digital gains not fully offsetting the 45 percent drop in newspaper editorial employment. From Elizabeth Grieco at the Pew Research Center.

THE MOVE TOWARD UNIONS: More traditionally aligned with Hollywood, the Writers Guild is making union inroads in journalism at the same time that news outlets are looking toward Hollywood for video and film revenue, writes Anna Heyward for CJR.

LONGEVITY: Carl Bernstein “is not a careerist — he’s a gigantic fire hose of boyish enthusiasm,” says Tim O’Brien, Bloomberg View editor (and a Trump biographer). Bernstein, 45 years after Watergate, is in the middle of the Trump-Russia reporting as well, writes Margaret Sullivan.

D-DAY: The Commerce Department has until Wednesday to make a ruling that will have huge effects for the suffering U.S. newspaper industry: Will the United States end or extend a tariff that may increase the cost of Canadian newsprint up to 30 percent? By Joseph Spector for USA Today.

WHY WAIT FOR THE EMMYS OR OSCARS?: Vulture will be making a weekly awards show for TruTV.


‘QUIET SKIES’: That’s the name of a previously undisclosed surveillance initiative revealed over the weekend by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team. Federal air marshals have begun following ordinary U.S. citizens not suspected of a crime and not on any terrorist watch list, collecting extensive information about their movements and behavior under the new domestic surveillance program, Jana Winter writes.

DEMOGRAPHIC SHOCK: Is fear short-circuiting logic in American politics? Vox’s Ezra Klein says the Trump reaction to Obama was pronounced in places that had rapid demographic change.



What the HILDA survey says about your economic wellbeing, family life
PODCAST: The HILDA survey, one of Australia’s biggest longitudinal surveys and richest data sets, released today, reveals how the nation is changing. And some of the trends may surprise you.


How a data project is making investigations safer for AFP staff
JANIS DALINS: Using data doesn't just have to be about making better decisions ‒ it can also help protect employees by reducing dangerous tasks.

Govt datasets reveal widespread use in policy, delivery, compliance
A whole-of-government survey has put a price tag on the design, collection, governance and use of data by Australian government agencies. But, ironically, the survey is not data you can trust due to a string of problems with its collection.



Hubspot: “Easy-to-use infographic templates for PowerPoint & Illustrator