Category: issues

“Sir Stephen House, the Chief Constable of Police Scotland, suggested that disaffected members of the public are increasingly using services such as Twitter and Facebook to make angry or abusive comments instead of spray-painting buildings, leading to a decline in recorded vandalism.”

“Festivals are one of the biggest growth stories in live entertainment of the past two decades and they are still expanding, diversifying from pop, rock and electronic dance music into poetry and theatre. “

Aurelie Filipetti was one of three ministers who left the government in protest over the ongoing austerity policy and repeated budget cuts. Their departure led prime minister Manuel Valls to dissolve the cabinet on Sunday.

Fleur Pellerin, who is just turning 41, is the country’s first top minister of Asian descent. “Local commentators suggest that [her previous] experiences handling the innovation and digital economy portfolio will stand the minister in good stead in her new role.”

The Corbett Foundation – which gave more than $70 million to arts and education in the region over the last 60 years – is shutting its doors, effective immediately.

“Marking an end to the controversy surrounding the ‘monkey selfie,’ a self-portrait snapped by a particularly photogenic macaque in Indonesia in 2011, the US Copyright Office” has ruled that it “will register an original work of authorship, provided that the work was created by a human being … the Office will not register works produced by nature, animals, or plants.”

“Organisers said the gate to the temporary desert city would be closed until at least midday on Tuesday as the Black Rock desert playa turned to mud. Police were turning people around at the entrance to avoid stuck vehicles.”

“A true golden age of journalism, if it is to last more than a few ephemeral years subsidized by check-writing billionaires and venture-capital speculation, will require that publishers make a profit and writers and reporters can make a decent living. … If you are lucky, you might be able to command a freelance pay rate that hasn’t budged in 30 years. But more people than ever work for nothing.”

“In a small number of Silicon Valley conference rooms, decisions are being made about what people should and shouldn’t see online – without the accountability or culture that has long accompanied that responsibility.”

“The Copenhagen-based theatre company Global Stories’ project Through Different Eyes has been removed from the Malmö Festival after more than 200 Swedes signed a petition accusing the project of racism” – specifically, of being modern-day blackface.”