What’s The Purpose Of Daydreaming?

• Almanac: Logan Pearsall Smith on the vanity of writers
  

  “Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast.” Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts 

  
  

  
  

  The Irish Buddhist Monk Who Faced Down the British Empire

  Dhammaloka’s story sheds new light on the history of non-violent resistance
  
  
  

  What’s so new about New Municipalism? Progress in Human Geography

  
  

  
  
  
  

  

  Facts: The coronavirus does affect younger people, can decrease lung capacity after recovery and is easily destroyed by soap

  In a sea of misinformation, here are three truths about COVID-19

  
  25 best interior design blogs

Berlin Launches €100 Million Aid Program For Freelance Arts Workers

“The Berlin Senate announced … that it would soon be offering €100 million ($107 million) in €5,000 ($5,366) grants to freelance workers and small businesses in the cultural sector. In addition, the senate is offering another €300 million ($322 million) in loans for the retail, hotel, restaurant, and cultural industries.” – Artnet

What’s The Purpose Of Daydreaming?

Daydreaming is taken very seriously within scientific circles, where it is more accurately referred to as mind wandering. The level of interest in this area runs more or less parallel to that of the default network, and that is no coincidence either. The neural activity that can be observed when a person is daydreaming is very similar to that found in the default network. The control situation when taking neural measurements is also one in which the brain is not performing any tasks, and so we start daydreaming. We let our thoughts run free and start associating different memories with each other. – LitHub

Thanks To Social Distancing, Drive-In Movie Theaters Are Having A Comeback

“Drive-in movie theaters may seem like a blast from the past, something out of the 1950s or ’60s. Numerous baby boomers haven’t gone for decades; Gen Xers and millennials, perhaps never. But there are still 305 of them in the United States” — and they’re seeing increased demand from stir-crazy customers. – The New York Times

Do Cities Work Against Us When The Pandemic Comes?

Michael Kimmelman: “The coronavirus undermines our most basic ideas about community and, in particular, urban life. Historians tell us that cities emerged thousands of years ago for economic and industrial reasons — technological leaps produced a surplus of agricultural goods, which meant not everyone had to keep working the land. Still, cities also grew, less tangibly, out of deeply human social and spiritual needs. The very notion of streets, shared housing and public spaces stemmed from and fostered a kind of collective affirmation, a sense that people are all in this together.” – The New York Times

Why Do People Read/Watch Apocalyptic Fiction In Crises?

No one seems to fully agree on why reading books or watching movies about apocalyptic pandemics feels appealing during a real crisis with an actual contagious disease. Some readers claim that contagion fiction provides comfort, but others argue the opposite. – The Conversation