In 1970, right in the middle of his minimalist period, Philip Glass composed a work called Music in Eight Parts. It was performed a few times and then lost to the sands of time.
Recipe books that could almost double as celebrity memoirs
Now is the perfect time to catch up on the best books, films, television shows, music and podcasts you might have missed.
Monday musings on Australian literature: Guest post from Bill on Melbourne and Sydney, 1880-1939
“The Lumen database collects and analyzes legal complaints and requests for removal of online materials, helping Internet users to know their rights and understand the law. These data enable us to study the prevalence of legal threats and let Internet users see the source of content removals…” Lumen is an independent research project studying cease and desist letters concerning online content. We collect and analyze requests to remove material from the web
Is This Private Island Tasmania's Best Kept Secret?
Our dangerous addiction to prediction - UnHerd
There are subtler manifestations of the prediction addiction. In science, for example, researchers — and I include myself in this — often deploy the word “predict” in a way that doesn’t comport with its everyday usage. Variable X predicts variable Y, they say, even though both were measured at exactly the same time. What they mean is that, if you didn’t know anything about Y, you would have some information about it if you knew X. But this “prediction” can be very weak: usually just “a bit better than chance” rather than “with a strong degree of accuracy”. By the time this translates to the public, often via hyped press releases, it’s frequently been imbued with a great deal more certainty than is warranted by the data.
Well, astrology and alchemy were once thought to be science.
Arvo Pärt On What The Pandemic Says To Us
“This tiny coronavirus has showed us in a painful way that humanity is a single organism and human existence is possible only in relation to other living beings. The notion of “relationship” should be understood as a maxim, as the ability to love. Although this is truly a high standard, maybe even too high for a human being. Our current situation is paradoxical: on the one hand, it means isolation, on the other, it brings us closer. While isolating ourselves, we should be able to – we are even forced to – appreciate our relationships in a small circle and to tend to them.” –Estonian World
ROGER SIMON: Twitter as Prototype of the New High-Tech Totalitarianism.
It’s a virus of the mind as well — somebody should write a book about the multifaceted elements of its insidious nature.
David Allen is a tattoo artist who does postmastectomy tattooing. He works with women who survive breast cancer to design and implement tattoos that cover scarring from mastectomies, transforming what might be seen as a destructive disfigurement into something creative and beautiful. Here’s Allen writing for The Journal of the American Medical Association (abstract):
I am a tattoo artist who works with women after they’ve had mastectomies to transform their sense of disfigurement and loss of control into feelings of beauty and agency. On a good day, I can heal with my art.The women with breast cancer with whom I work share a feeling that they’ve been acted upon — by cancer, the health industrial complex and its agents, the sequelae of their treatments. Their physical and psychological points of reference are destabilized, having changed so quickly. A successful tattooing experience establishes a new point of reference, a marker that’s intimately theirs that replaces their sense of rupture and damage with an act of creation and, in my work, images of natural life.
Allen even does “solidarity tattoos” for his clients’ partners and friends. You can see more of his postmastectomy work on Instagram.
Success requires flirting with the public, saidGeorge Bernard Shaw. He was more accomplished as a flirt than as a playwright
Mark Rober’s Rube-Goldberg squirrel feeder is the unicorn chaser you need right now BoingBoing Trust me, this is a must watch.
- History of the codpiece
- Baldwin v. Buckley
- Regarding Isaac Asimov
- Bottom line about bidets
- Not Dalí!
- Mahler and sexual creativity
- History of chair design
- Kafka, Kafka everywhere
- Foucault, power thinker
- On Hilary Putnam
How to fact-check coronavirus misinformation on social media
Fact-checking your friends and family on social media could help slow the spread of misinformation about COVID-19.
(Shutterstock) Editor’s note: PolitiFact, which is owned by the Poynter Institute, is fact-checking misinformation about the coronavirus. This article is republished with permission, and originally appeared here.Fact-checking your friends and family on social media is not as weird as you think — and it could help slow the spread of misinformation about the coronavirus.A recent survey found that 34% of people reported seeing someone else get corrected for sharing about COVID-19 on social media. Nearly one-fourth of respondents said they had fact-checked coronavirus misinformation themselves, and more than two-thirds agreed that people should respond when they see someone sharing false claims.This is good news — research shows that, when people correct misinformation on their social media feeds, misperceptions decrease. For coronavirus-related falsehoods, correcting the record is even more important.Since the pandemic began, PolitiFact has fact-checked several inaccurate claims about how to prevent or treat COVID-19. Many of them are dangerous, such as the bogus claim that drinking bleach can destroy the virus or that wearing a mask in public is harmful. If taken seriously, that kind of misinformation could have dire health consequences.To make swatting down falsehoods a little easier for everyone, we created a guide for how to fact-check your friends and family on the coronavirus pandemic. Below are six tips to make your timelines a little more truthful.Don’t brush it off
When someone you know shares something false about the coronavirus, take the matter seriously. Health misinformation has the potential to cause harm.“In the middle of a pandemic, personal choice is inherently tied up in community. Every choice I make about being more safe and more risky has implications not just for me, but for a lot of other people,” said Emily Vraga, associate professor of journalism at the University of Minnesota. “That makes it more important that we do correct other people.”Even though it may feel like a small action, fact-checking social media can make a difference. A study Vraga co-authored in 2017 found that corrections can decrease health misperceptions online — even among the most ardent conspiracy theorists. This is especially true when you fact-check someone you know.“For conspiracy theories this can actually be easier,” said Drew Margolin, an assistant professor of communication at Cornell University, in an email. “It’s often the case that the theory is really a way of communicating distrust in a particular individual or entity. This is why the theories adapt so easily — they are motivated by distrust, not specific facts.”In short: facts matter, and anyone can wield them to correct misperceptions about the coronavirus.Consider your approach
Once you’ve decided that you want to correct someone, the next step is to think about how you’re going to do it. The goal is to convey accurate information in an analytical, scientific way — not make people mad or prove that you’re smart.“Try to avoid provoking them to defend themselves,” Margolin said. “This means either not embarrassing them — such as doing it in private — or, possibly, correcting diplomatically in front of others so that they do not lose face.”When people feel attacked, they may think their worldview or reputation has been challenged. That leads to less analytic thinking, Margolin said, making a fact-based discussion much harder.Whether you correct someone in a private message or in front of others depends on the person. If you think they won’t react well to a public correction, it’s fine to reach out directly, especially if you want to preserve that relationship. But researchers say there’s a benefit to fact-checking someone in front of other people.“Social media actually makes it more important that we’re willing to engage in those corrections because we know other people are going to see it, and we want to make sure that they’re not left with the wrong information,” Vraga said.Watch your language — or don’t
When you’re fact-checking someone, it can help to use language that isn’t too abrasive or belittling. A gentle approach can help the person you’re correcting see that you have their best interest at heart.“Particularly if it’s a family member or a friend, there are also other things you might want to consider than just encouraging belief change,” said Briony Swire-Thompson, a postdoctoral researcher at Northeastern University’s Network Science Institute. “You might want to give the correction in a kind way, just because no one wants to be wrong.”But that’s not always the case — how you phrase a fact-check depends on the person you’re correcting. Preliminary research from Vraga, Leticia Bode of Georgetown University and Melissa Tully of the University of Iowa suggests that corrections are good at changing misperceptions regardless of their tone.“When you correct someone, the correction works equally well when it’s uncivil or neutral,” Vraga said. “You can use the language you think is most appropriate. Maybe a snarky tone is appropriate for that relationship.”Regardless of how you speak to the person you’re correcting, experts agree that compassion is key. Try saying things like “I was confused, too” or “I understand why you shared this.”“You can refute the hoax but acknowledge the validity of the concern,” Margolin said.Avoid repeating misinformation. Say what’s true
When writing your fact-check, try to emphasize what’s right instead of what’s wrong. This works two ways.First, focusing on the facts could resonate more with the person you’re correcting, as they may feel less attacked. Second, research shows that, the more people hear a false claim, the more it resonates with them — even if it’s presented alongside a correction.“Repeating the misinformation is the biggest thing that we really need to be careful about,” Vraga said. “The more we hear something the more we think it’s true.”Instead of repeating the false claim, try using just a link to refer to it. Or speak about it in vague terms, such as “I saw your post about wearing masks.” The goal is to get to your correction as quickly as possible.“Clarity is certainly one of the main goals,” Swire-Thompson said. “If you make it really wordy and complicated so that no one reads it, or when you bury the corrective element in a way that people just kind of skim past it, it can be less effective.”Choose your sources wisely
The backbone of any fact-check is its source list. The same goes for corrections on social media.One 2017 study found that corrections of misinformation about the Zika virus were more effective when a source was provided. Fact-checks are even more effective when they come from expert sources like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization, which maintains a list of debunked coronavirus myths.However, experts say the kind of source you use should depend on the person you’re correcting. Try to find a credible source that the person respects.“If you can debunk misinformation using Fox News and this is a Fox News user, you should try to do that,” Vraga said. “Think about who are the sources they’re going to trust. If they’re not going to trust the CDC, maybe go to your local health organization.”Don’t rely on a single link to correct someone, either. Experts say two sources are better than one.“It’s not exactly clear why this is, but one theory is that it helps people identify relevant information to reconstruct their understanding, rather than just telling them to excise some specific beliefs from their knowledge, leaving it with weird holes,” Margolin said. “Another possibility is that it’s harder to attack the source when there are many sources.”When in doubt, try linking to articles from independent fact-checking organizations. They’ve debunked more than 6,000 claims about COVID-19 around the world.NFocus on facts, not values
This tip holds true when fact-checking any kind of misinformation, whether it has to do with health or politics.A 2017 study found that, when people were presented with a fact-check correcting a falsehood, they changed their belief in the claim. That finding held across party lines. However, the study noted that corrections did not change people’s voting patterns.In short: fact-checking changes specific ideas, not votes — a finding that is echoed by other studies on the effect of corrections.“In the context of the coronavirus, a common subtext is President Trump,” Margolin said. “If this is an ongoing struggle you are having with a family member, and you’d like to correct them, find a way to defuse this point.”A good way to do this is going back to tip No. 4: Focus on the facts. Research shows that fact-checks can decrease health misperceptions, but it’s much harder to change the way people think or see the world.“Frames that focus on the falsity/misleading nature of just the claim itself, without forcing substantial bigger changes, will work better,” Margolin said. “Avoid frames that make it seem like a struggle between you and them for power or reputation. These only make people more resistant.”PolitiFact, which is fact-checking misinformation about the coronavirus, is part of the Poynter Institute. See more of their fact-checks at politifact.com/coronavirus.
Artist Boss Move: Befriending Your Thief
Not everyone’s first reaction, is it? But: “After two of her most prized paintings were stolen, Czech artist Barbora Kysilkova came face-to-face with thief Karl-Bertil Nordland in a courtroom. Rather than reprimand Nordland though, she asked him if she could paint his portrait.” – Vanity Fair
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Like the carpenter whose tools were so dull
he couldn’t for the life of him devise a miter joint
Like the mattress left out on the curb all night
Like the woman
so fallen out of practice, she can no longer sing from the hymnal
Like the smoker on the scaffolding
Like the sleeper on his cardboard on the pavement Like the rain
Like the dog whose human so loves her Whose hip
will never heal again
Like the dog who trembles in pain on her leash whose human
so loves her, he cannot bear to let her go
Like the takeout tossed into the bin for recycling Like
the crosswalk the postbox the flashing light
Like the beggar whose accordion knows only
the single musical phrase Like the air
with its particulates Like the idling bus
Like the cherries at the fruit stall Like the cyclist Like
the bus Like the cyclist Like his cellphone Like the bus
Like the beggar so bored with the music, he
has never sounded out the rest of the song Like the carpenter
whose work went so slowly for the dullness of his tools,
he had no time to sharpen them
IPA is wrecking our democracy
The history of the IPA is curious. Many of the key players in its early years are either still around, or their children are. Continue reading
'I will kill you if you give this song to anyone but me': how Peggy Lee was perfect for Is That All There Is?
Vale Comrade Jack Mundey
A day after John Hatton's 87th birthday, It is impossible to overstate the legacy of Jack Mundey. Continue reading
The Shepherd’s Life is well written and thoroughly engaging. Rebanks’s story is about those who work hard and, it seems, hardly play at all, to make a living from sheep in the Lake District. The weather is tough, the hills are tough and the men are tough.
Alex Ross: Connecting With Music Through Tinny Video
“As a critic, I am desperate to maintain contact with what musicians are doing, thinking, and feeling. The sound is often tinny, the stage patter awkward, the home décor distracting. One could instead sample archived professional-quality videos that opera houses, orchestras, and other organizations have placed online. For me, though, the live or freshly recorded happenings matter more. They document, with the oblique power that the arts possess, an extraordinary human phase in history. Their mere existence is bracing, and at times they achieve startling power.” – The New Yorker
'The Whirligig of Time Brings in His Revenges'
A reader asks if I know the work of Isabel Bolton (1883-1975), in particular the novel The Whirligig of Time. Only by name. I do know the title’s origin, spoken by Feste, Olivia’s servant, in Act V, Scene 1 of Twelfth Night: “And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.” Meaning just deserts, getting precisely what we deserve, which is something few of us, happily, ever get.
A whirligig is a class of child’s toy that include tops. It dates from the mid-fifteenth century. Whirl means pretty what we would expect and a gig, besides being a job for a jazz musician, is a whipping top, the sort that’s wrapped with a string and thrown, according to the OED. I remember my step-grandfather, who grew up in Harrisburg, Pa., recounting how he made money as a kid “gigging” eels in the Susquehanna River and selling them. In this context a gig is “a kind of fish-spear” (OED).
The Dictionary cites Shakespeare’s use of whirligig as part of a complicated set of metaphorical usages: “(a) Something that is continually whirling, or in constant movement or activity of any kind; (b) a fantastic notion, a crotchet; (c) circling course, revolution (of time or events); (d) a lively or irregular proceeding, an antic; (e) a circling movement, or condition figured as such, a whirl.” All but (b) seem to apply to Feste’s use. There’s a suggestion that time “toys” with us, that nothing remains in place, that life is perpetual motion. Anthony Hecht adopts the expression in his adaptation of Horace’s Ode 1:25 as “The Whirligig of Time” (Flight Among the Tombs, 1996):
“They are fewer these days, those supple, suntanned boys
Whose pebbles tapped at your window, and your door
Swings less and less on its obliging hinges
For wildly importunate suitors. Fewer the cries
Of ‘Lydia, how can you sleep when I’ve got the hots?
I won’t last out the night; let me get my rocks off.’
Things have moved right along, and behold, it’s you
Who quails, like a shriveled whore, as they scorn and dodge you,
And the wind shrieks like a sex-starved thing in heat
As the moon goes dark and the mouth of your old dry vulva
Rages and hungers, and your worst, most ulcerous pain
Is knowing those sleek-limbed boys prefer the myrtle,
The darling buds of May, leaving dried leaves
To cluster in unswept corners, fouling doorways.”
Cruel, hardly kind, but a memorable accounting of vanity, especially of the sexual variety.