“Witnesses report that three suspects rammed into the cathedral in Oloron-Sainte-Marie in southwestern France with a tree trunk strapped to their car.” (Yes, a battering ram.) “Inside the church, they quickly sawed through steel bars and smashed protective glass to access silver chalices, gold objects, and other treasures from the medieval cathedral. They fled the scene in a second vehicle.” – Artnet
Blog
Arts District Planned For London’s Former Olympic Village Is Already Late And Over Budget
The “East Bank” cultural quarter project — to include Sadler’s Wells dance theatre, the BBC, the London College of Fashion, a new University College London campus, and both a public building and a Collections Centre for the Victoria & Albert Museum — is running £14 million over the £470 million budget, which doesn’t even include UCL or the V&A Collections Centre. – Arts Professional
Chicago Public Library Dropped Overdue Book Fines, And Return Of Late Books Jumped By 240%
“It’s a big piece of evidence countering a major argument used by those arguing against ditching overdue fines for library books.” – Forbes
Mark Morris’s Rollicking New Memoir
“I was never ashamed of being a sissy, and I wore the bullying as a badge of honor,” he writes. “I knew what was going on and I knew who I was, so I took care of myself by being funny. Nevertheless, every solo I made up in the first part of my career was a humiliation dance in one way or another.” – Washington Post
Jean-Paul Dubois Wins Goncourt, France’s Top Literary Prize
Published in August, Mr. Dubois’s novel “Tous les hommes n’habitent pas le monde de la même façon” (“All Men Do Not Live in the Same Way”) is a story narrated by a man languishing in a Canadian prison for an unknown crime. – The New York Times
Is The “Crisis” In The Humanities Because They’re In The Wrong Zip Code?
Without the blunt, binaristic borders between zones — humanities versus sciences, humanities versus social sciences — the disciplines could connect across the much more complex and multifarious surfaces and interfaces they have with each other. Scholars could interact with their counterparts in all fields without the burdensome assumption that they represent more — an entire community more — than their specific area of expertise. – Inside Higher Ed
Vinyl Music Is Outselling CDs. Why?
Vinyl sales have been surging in the last few years, as CD sales stay flat and digital downloads decrease. In the United Kingdom, data from 2016 reveals that vinyl LP sales revenue surpassed that of digital downloads. And in the United States, LP sales are on par with the sales of CDs. – The Conversation
Conspiracy Theories Helped Us Survive. Lately, They’re More Problematic
“Particularly in the past few years, conspiracy theories have been omnipresent on the internet and in social media. These modern forms of communication allow conspiracy theories to spread faster than ever, and make it easy for like-minded people to connect and form online echo chambers. As a result, the flat-Earth movement – endorsing the conspiracy theory that the Earth is actually flat and that scientists have been lying to the public for more than 500 years – is now an organised society with regular conferences.” – Aeon
Why Helsinki’s New Public Library Might Be The Best In The World
The central library is built to serve as a kind of citizenship factory, a space for old and new residents to learn about the world, the city, and each other. It’s pointedly sited across from (and at the same level as) the Finnish Parliament House that it shares a public square with. – CityLab
Is Cellphone Prison The Solution For Stopping Ringing During The Show?
“As you reached your row, you were told to turn off your phone or put it on silent and insert it to a glove-like pouch. You keep your phone but you cannot turn it back on without unlocking the pouch, which uses a simple mechanism not unlike the security tags you find in clothing stores and that have to be removed by cashiers. At the end of the show, ushers show up and quickly unlock the devices.” – Chicago Tribune