Category: issues

“Once again we may have to respond by organizing a vocal and vociferous campaign to minimally keep the Endowments alive and their funding at the current level. The chances of our succeeding in that effort are, if history is any example, fairly decent. Of course, the effort will take time and energy we could better put to other endeavors, but we may have no choice.”

The mayor of Vendargues, near Montpellier, announced a one-month absolute ban on clown and clown costumes following a series of incidents elsewhere in the country in which people in clown costumes beat up passersby with fists or weapons – and anti-clown vigilante groups began forming.

“Since Facebook uses SSL encryption, no surveillance system watching either Facebook’s connection or the user’s local traffic should be able to match up a user’s identity with their Facebook activity.”

“‘I think if the media panel is brought back, then it should deal with (the Ghomeshi situation),’ Cruickshank said. ‘At this point, I think the panel would be reflecting on the transparency of CBC corporate, because I don’t think anybody is satisfied that they’ve really put forward the whole story.'”

“Barbarians, now too, as it has been throughout history, attacked libraries, museums and books.”

“The Smithsonian Institution has appointed Albert G. Horvath, its current senior finance official, as its acting leader for the first half of next year, until the incoming secretary, David J. Skorton, can take up his position in July.”

“Back in May, construction work for a new supermarket began in the center of Brest, a city in Belarus on the border with Poland. In a turn of events that wouldn’t seem out of place in a horror film, more than 450 Jewish gravestones have since been discovered in the foundations of the houses that have been demolished to make way for the store.”

“Busting graffiti artists distracts the local cops from fighting serious crime, like robberies or homicides, which have increased in Long Island City’s 114th Precinct, where 5Pointz is located, over the past year.”

“He has been wanted by US police since 1977 after fleeing the country before he could be sentenced for having sex with a 13-year-old girl.”

“In protest of their unemployment and its endangerment of the country’s vulnerable cultural resources [and in] reaction to the government’s broken promise to hire 50 workers among the thousands of unemployed cultural heritage professionals, the Association of Culture and Art Workers is taking desperate measures.”