“The Outs started as an alternative to television’s treatment of same-sex romance. With its final episode posted, can a show like this find a wider audience offline?”
Author: Matthew Westphal
When Animals Rescue Animals
“Tragedies like the Boston Marathon bombings remind us how important first responders are. Animals come to the rescue of members of their own species too. Dolphins, for example, form ‘living rafts’ to keep ill or injured dolphins buoyant.”
A Ten-Breasted Whale In The Sky To Celebrate Canberra’s Centennial
“Skywhale, a 23m-high, 34m-wide hot air balloon resembling a whale-like creature, will be unveiled in Canberra tomorrow as the headline commission for the Centenary of Canberra celebrations.”
Sotheby’s Pulls In $230M In Impressionist/Modern Art Sale
“The first of the big spring auctions began Tuesday night at Sotheby’s, where paintings and sculptures by Cézanne, Braque and Léger topped expectations as bidders from 35 countries put money on their walls rather than in the shakier financial markets.”
Original Miniature Of Elizabeth I Surfaces At Estate Sale
“The National Portrait Gallery has spent £329,000 on a postcard-sized painting about which it knows almost nothing, except that it is more than 400 years old, exquisitely painted, and outrageously flattering. Elizabeth I was in her late 50s, and losing teeth and hair, when the image of a girlish round-faced queen, dazzling in cloth of gold and diamonds, was created.”
Jobless Professionals In Copenhagen Display Themselves In Storefront Window
“Catching people’s attention is exactly what more than a dozen job hopefuls in Denmark’s capital are looking to do, even though they seem to be ripping a page from Amsterdam’s famous red-light district to achieve their goal.”
France’s Newest Oscar-Winning Director Slams French Film Industry
“[Michel] Hazanavicius, who won the best picture and director Oscar for his silent comedy The Artist in 2012, took to the pages of Le Monde to lambast what he sees as a well-meaning but outmoded system of French film production. ‘Today our responsibility is to denounce the failings of a once virtuous system that is being devoured by gangrene’.”
Is Massively Open Online Education A Threat Or A Blessing?
“One might object that MOOCs are no different from textbooks. What is a textbook, really, but a programmed course template, a whole course in a box? Have popular textbooks destroyed local learning communities and entrenched established hierarchies? No. … But maybe the comparison with textbooks breaks down.”
Colgate University To Return Aboriginal Art Collection To Australia
“A collection of artwork by aboriginal Australian children that was given to Colgate University in 1966 is being voluntarily returned to Australia. The upstate New York school said Tuesday that it would transfer 119 pieces from the collection to Curtin University in Perth in Western Australia.”
Berlin State Ballet Gets Kinky In Nightclub
“Berlin’s state ballet has teamed up with a leading techno night club to produce a dark, avant-garde show with bondage masks and a bus wreck set in a former power plant that showcases the city’s vibrant alternative cultural scene.”