ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK FINANCE TECHNOLOGY NFTs: An Overblown Speculative Bubble? Key Takeaways: While publicity given to the rapper’s purchase certainly seems to have boosted demand, the average price paid for Bored Ape NFTs so far in 2022 is about 83 Ether (currently about US$280,000). With prices disconnected from any future cash flows, there is less interest in forecasts from technical experts. A lot like Ponzi […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK The People Who Made Shakespeare A Global Celebrity Walk into any decent bookshop today in search of Shakespeare’s plays and you’re sure to find at least one. And even if you can’t find what you’re looking for on the bookshelves, there is always the internet, where a great variety of different complete works and editions are also available – almost all of them […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK How Theatre Has Changed Through The Ages Face masks, plexiglass dividers, proof of vaccine and photo IDand strict seating assignments: This might not sound like your ideal night out at the theatre. But as performance venues across the country begin raising the curtain once more, such regulations will likely become part of the “new normal.” While many of these rules may appear unprecedented, COVID-19 protocols […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY Life Lessons From Moby Dick As an environmental historian and scholar of the 19th century, I spend a lot of time thinking about how the past can help us confront our current crises – especially climate change. And there’s a lot of help to be found in the 1800s, from the appreciation of wildness in Henry David Thoreau’s famous “Walden,” to the rise of ecology, […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK TECHNOLOGY 4 Reasons Why Museums Aren’t Cashing In On NFTs Yet The eye-popping sale price of US$69 million on March 11, 2021, for a non-fungible token created by the digital artist Beeple sent shock waves through the art world. More multimillion-dollar sales of these digital assets that exist on a blockchain and are maintained on networked computers soon followed. At the same time, art museums have faced substantial financial shortfalls accelerated by a decline […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK 5 Intellectual Fashion Statements From History Writing with a quill pen dipped in ink, sitting in the flickering of candlelight in a book-lined study, and vintage tweed paired with knitted jumpers and brogues have all become the height of fashion for autumn 2021. Known as dark academia, this trend has brought the hallowed halls of ancient universities to the digital worlds […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK What An 18th Century Chair Reveals About Its Owner This large, extraordinary armchair has survived since the 1700s along with its original silk upholstery. Its sumptuously thick cushion is stuffed with over eight pounds of swan- and goose-down feathers. At the time it was made, these costly materials would have held the sitter in a plush embrace. While the chair itself is luxurious – […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY POLITICS TECHNOLOGY The Role Of Art In Shaping A.I. Ethics Think back to when you were in school learning about Greek mythology or the Industrial Revolution. Weaved into those “dry” textbooks and lectures were brilliant pieces of art—paintings, sculptures, or architecture—that brought to life the moments and ideas that would otherwise appear distant and dull. Art is an important tool for educating society about our […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK Why Do Artworks Have Frames? There’s a workshop at the Getty Center where the paintings aren’t the stars. Instead, the frames take center stage. In this bright and airy room, empty frames hang on the walls, and tools and books line the counters. There you’d find associate conservator Gene Karakker, who retired earlier this summer, choosing from an assortment of […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK The Women In Dante’s Inferno Revealed 700 Years Later When Dante Alighieri died 700 years ago, on Sept. 14, 1321, he had just put his final flourishes on the “Divine Comedy,” a monumental poem that would inspire readers for centuries. The “Divine Comedy” follows the journey of a pilgrim across the three realms of the Christian afterlife – hell, purgatory and paradise. There, he […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How To Tell If Conspiracy Theory Is False Key Takeaway: Conspiracy theories are prevalent and can involve various factors. People believe false conspiracy theories for various reasons, such as the existence of real conspiracies. However, unfounded conspiracy theories often lack evidence and substitute elements that should be red flags for skeptics. To vet a claim, one should seek out evidence, test the allegation, […] Written by H. Colleen Sinclair May 10, 2024May 10, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Surprising Discoveries About The Origin Of Life Key Takeaway: Recent research has focused on replicating the chemical reactions that constitute life as we know it in conditions plausible for early Earth around 4 billion years ago. However, the rise of experimental work has led to many contradictory theories. Some scientists believe that life emerged in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, where the conditions provided […] Written by Louise Gillet de Chalonge May 9, 2024May 9, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
NASA’s Search For Life On Mars Key Takeaway: NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rover missions are investigating the planet’s evidence for life, known as its “biosignatures,” in unprecedented detail. The rovers are acting as extraterrestrial detectives, hunting for clues that life may have existed eons ago, including evidence of long-gone liquid surface water, life-sustaining minerals, and organic molecules. The Mars of today […] Written by Amy Williams April 30, 2024April 30, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Smartphones & The Source Of Our Anxiety Key Takeaway: Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Anxious Generation, calls for action to limit teenagers’ smartphone access and address the mental health crisis caused by the widespread use of smartphones. Haidt cites the “great rewiring” period from 2010 to 2015 as a time when adolescents’ neural systems were primed for anxiety and depression by daily smartphone […] Written by Hugh Breakey April 29, 2024April 29, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Should TikTok Be Banned? Key Takeaway: President Biden signed a US$95 billion foreign aid bill in April 2024, allowing TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app. If the law stands, TikTok will be blocked from any US app store or web-hosting service, affecting over 170 million US users, including 62% of Americans aged 18 to 29. Critics argue […] Written by Sarah Florini April 26, 2024April 26, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Being Thoughtful In The Age Of A.I. Key Takeaway: Concerns about AI’s potential roguehood and potential harm to privacy and dignity are a significant concern. AI’s algorithms, programmed by humans, are also biased and discriminatory. However, a psychologist’s research suggests that AI is a threat to making people less disciplined and skilled in making thoughtful decisions. Making thoughtful decisions involves understanding the […] Written by Joe Arvai April 24, 2024April 24, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Are Single People Happier? The Science Of Being Single Key Takeaway: A study published in the Journal of Personality suggests that long-term single people can be secure and thriving, possibly due to their attachment style. The research found that 78% of singles were insecure, with 22% being secure. Secure singles are comfortable with intimacy and closeness in relationships, while anxious singles worry about rejection […] Written by Yuthika Girme April 23, 2024April 23, 2024 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Rethinking Education Key Takeaways: The Industrial model of education that fueled the modern era and its dizzying reach did its job incredibly well. In his writing, Flynn illustrates study after study, spanning nations and decades, in which modern educational gift of abstraction — a transcendent sign of intelligence, as we saw in Raven’s Matrices — has been […] Written by Anthony Fieldman March 2, 2022October 19, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
How China Is Transforming Its Economy Through Learning I highly recommend reading the McKinsey Global Institute’s new report, “Reskilling China: Transforming The World’s Largest Workforce Into Lifelong Learners”, which focuses on the country’s biggest employment challenge, re-training its workforce and the adoption of practices such as lifelong learning to address the growing digital transformation of its productive fabric. How to transform the country […] Written by Enrique Dans February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why You’re Not Seeing Success With Influencer Marketing With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to re-evaluate your past marketing strategies and gear up for the year ahead. For some businesses, influencer marketing has simply not seemed to live up to its lofty promises of genuine engagement, credibility, and transparency. Some have claimed that it has been failing […] Written by Michael Tan January 14, 2021January 15, 2021 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
A New Philosophy of Business I’m about to ask you to take a mental leap. For the next 8 minutes, suspend your notions of what a business is, and I’ll propose a new lens for you to look through. There are a lot of questions asked around what “community” means for business. “Where should community fit in my organization?” and […] Written by Empirics Asia September 5, 2018September 5, 2018 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked