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Depressing Pride Month Update: Movies Had Less LGBTQ Rep In 2017 Than The Five Years Before That

What the heck, 2017? “In 2017, out of 109 major motion pictures, only 14 films included characters who identified as LGBTQ. In total, the year’s major studio films had 28 LGBTQ characters. This finding represents a 5.6 percent drop in representation from the films of 2016. Gay men, the report finds, are consistently the most-portrayed demographic. None of the movies released this year featured a transgender character.”

The U.S. Is About To Be Able To Stream China’s AI-Driven Competitive Dance Show

This is real: “Hot-Blood Dance Crew was created with help from iQIYI’s AI Brain, a system that uses machine learning algorithms to analyze video and search data and predict audiences’ likes and dislikes. iQIYI previously used the in-house AI to help create the rap reality show Rap of China, which debuted last June and became immensely popular; it had nearly 3 billion views during its initial run.”

Irving Sandler, Art Historian And Critic, Has Died At Age 92

Sandler, who wrote many books about Abstract Expressionism and the artists in that movement, “was a senior critic of Artnews in the late 1950s to early ’60s and a contributor to Artforum, among other publications.” He was also an educator, cofounder of Artists Space in New York, and a writer, with a novel coming out in the fall.

Without Ted Dabney, Who Just Died At 81, We Probably Wouldn’t Have Pong Or Video Arcades

Anyone who’s ever played a video game in a pizza place – this must be about 99 percent of Americans over age 30, surely – has Dabney and Atari cofounder Nolan Bushnell to thank. “The electrical engineer, U.S. Marine and Atari co-founder led a life about as eventful as his packed CV suggests — but things did really seem to accelerate when those thoughts of pizza entered the picture.”

This Comedian’s Teenage YouTube Videos Helped Make His Mom A Bollywood Star

Sure, this is a story of the wildness of YouTube videos and the daring role that Mawaan Rizwan’s mother, Shahnaz Rizwan, took on – but more than that, it’s a tale of Shahnaz’s life coming full circle. “At age 3 she made her film debut. Over the next decade, she told me, she went on to star in more than 30 black-and-white Pakistani films. By 12, she was supporting her family with her earnings. She was basically the Macaulay Culkin of Karachi. But when she was a teenager, she had to stop acting. People told her it was no profession for a young woman and that only prostitutes worked as actresses.”

Oprah Is More Than An Entertainer, As A New Show At The Smithsonian Makes Clear

The Museum of African American History and Culture is about to open a show that focuses on how Oprah became a go-to leader for political as well as cultural discussions. Some might have questions about this exhibit, however: “Winfrey donated $21 million to the $540 million museum, making her its largest individual benefactor (its theater is named in her honor). But her role as benefactor did not influence the exhibition, Bunch said.”

Creating A ‘5Pointz Vibe’ In Lower Manhattan

New murals are meant to make the site where the South Tower used to stand have “a more finished appearance” as 2 World Trade Center stands in wait for an anchor tenant. They’re not meant to be permanent, but it is serious work. “Selected artists each received $1,000 for paint and a $2,000 honorarium. They have been up on ladders and scissor lifts spraying and daubing paint in view of tourists and downtown office workers. Six murals are completed or nearly done; two more are expected. All the works will be on display for at least a year.”

The Apple Programmer Who Challenged Steve Jobs, And Figured Out How To Make Apps Talk To Each Other

Sal Soghoian “is a guy who’s built a long career creating technology that lets users hand the tedium of repetitive grunt work off to their computers in creative ways” – and he changed the way we use our computers and phones. Now he’s called “the dean of automation” and is working on new ways to make everything faster, more productive, and more automatic.

They Were Digging A New Aqueduct In Rome When Boom, An Undiscovered, Untouched Tomb

“All major construction that intrudes on Italy’s underbelly requires the presence of an archaeologist. Mr. Turchetta said he’d been on the job for about a year but that very little had turned up until this tomb. It was worth the wait, he said.” Understatement of the month: The fourth century B.C. tomb contained several skeletons, coins, and enough plant and pollen samples to potentially reconstruct the ancient landscape.