CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK Cats In The Medieval Ages Key Takeaways: In the middle ages, men and women were often identified by the animals they kept. Keeping an animal that was lavished with attention, affection and high-quality food in return for no functional purpose – other than companionship – signified high status. Pets became part of the personal identity of the nobility. The 14th-century […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN CULTURE EDITOR'S PICK The Secrets Of The Lindisfarne Book Key Takeaways: Sometime around the turn of the 8th century, on Lindisfarne, a windswept island off the English coast in Northumbria, a monk by the name of Eadfrith writes an amazing manuscript. Most impressive of all are its five “carpet” or ornamental pages, where a dizzying pattern of repetitive knots and spirals, designed around the […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK How We Observe Paintings Key Takeaways: According to researchers, most visitors spend less than 30 seconds on average looking at an artworkwhile visiting a museum. Paintings conservators often spend hours looking at a picture, often with low magnification, in order to assess the painting’s condition and how it was constructed. The X-radiograph shows that there is fibrous material between […] 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 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
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS EDITOR'S PICK ENTREPRENEURSHIP STRATEGY Branding Secrets From LEGO Toymaker LEGO provides a great example of the brand-alignment and brand-building strategies explored in this module. Anyone who has wandered through the LEGO section of a toy store or a department store knows that the company understands its target audiences very well: young children (ages 1.5 to 11) who like to build things and parents […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK PHILOSOPHY SOCIOLOGY The World’s Most Disturbing Piece Of Art The series culminated with Rhythm 0, or what can surely be described as one of the world’s most profound and yet horrifying pieces of art. All of the performances in the Rhythm series were meant to test the limits of the human body, beginning with knife-play in the first performance and gradually mounting to the destruction and seduction […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN Defining Art Many have argued that it is a mistake to even try to define art or beauty, that they have no essence, and so can have no definition. Andy Warhol exhibited wooden sculptures of Brillo Boxes as art. One contemporary approach is to say that “art” is basically a sociological category that whatever art schools and […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS ENTREPRENEURSHIP STARTUPS STRATEGY The Importance Of Useless Knowledge In Business Although managing a business, or even a small part thereof, is a complex task, the solutions for solving problems often seem deceivingly simple. Managers resolve even the most complex issues with a two-by-two matrix or simple lists of steps. Most management books simplify the complicated world of business by providing attractive solutions with a high level of […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
ART & DESIGN EDITOR'S PICK SCIENCE When Artists And Scientists Team Up For Clifford V. Johnson, there’s a powerful instrument that’s often missed when we talk about science: art. The professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Southern California researches the nature of space and time, including topics like quantum gravity and black holes. But he’s also interested in broadening the cultural understanding of science. He works […] Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why Amazon Became So Successful Key Takeaway: Amazon with a market capitalization of over $1.5 trillion and net revenue of $386 billion in 2020. Customer Service and Convenience is one of the key factors that has contributed to its success. Amazon’s focus on customer service and convenience has played a major role in its success. Innovative Business Model is another […] Written by Andreas Lehmann January 16, 2023January 16, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Terence Clarke – Founder of CastleCourt, DailyCoach and GrowthHub This article was originally published here: Terence Clarke – Founder of CastleCourt, DailyCoach and GrowthHub Terence Clarke believes that everyone has the answers to life’s questions and, as a coach, it is for him to help them find them. What’s your story? Born in Ireland, I grew up in England and I’ve lived and studied […] Written by Callum Laing January 11, 2023January 11, 2023 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Importance Of Ritual Key Takeaway: A “ritual” is a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order. They are often embedded in a larger symbolic system, such as religion or philosophy. The oldest evidence for ancient rituals is found at Mt Carmel in Israel, where a woman was buried 130,000 years ago. Rituals play an important role […] Written by Michelle Langley December 27, 2022December 27, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The Origin Of Christmas Trees Key Takeaways: The humble Christmas tree is emblematic of the growth of market economics and world trade. Who would have imagined that fir trees would be grown in Denmark especially for the export market, or that factories in China would produce plastic replicas? So, let’s climb on the sleigh and take a ride around this […] Written by François Lévêque December 24, 2022December 24, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
The “Sunk Benefit” Fallacy Key Takeaways: When you work on a project with people and successfully solve a problem, you (rightly) feel proud and accomplished. If the project helped create some “thing” that will require further maintenance and attention, you’ll probably come to love (and hate) that system. Don’t be afraid to move on to the next task, always […] Written by Yonatan Zunger December 23, 2022December 23, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Why TikTok Might Be A Threat To Music Key Takeaways: Viral TikTok videos have meant success for new and established artists alike. The short-form video service has earned US$12 billion (£10.5 billion) in advertising revenue in 2022. Many of its most popular videos feature music – available to use for free – through its audio library. TikTok pays the “Big Three” record labels […] Written by Beth Klein December 22, 2022December 22, 2022 Saving Bookmark this article Bookmarked
Important Lessons From FTX’s Collapse Key Takeaways: Cryptocurrency exchanges are sometimes described as being like stock exchanges. But they are very different to the likes of the London or New York stock exchanges, which are highly regulated and serve a regulatory function. Cryptocurrency exchanges make money by helping “mum and dad” investors into the market. Seven of the world’s ten biggest crypto […] Written by Paul Mazzola December 19, 2022December 19, 2022 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
