Category: issues

“Somewhat perversely, until now, the closest encounter Amazon has had with antitrust authorities was when it successfully prodded them to bring a case against five major publishers and Apple. That fight, too, centered on the price of e-books.”

“No matter what you think of Amazon’s tactics, they surely don’t violate any laws. It is acting the way hardheaded companies usually act — inflicting some pain on the party in a dispute to move it toward resolution.”

“The publishing world that is speaking as one against Amazon is really made up of two principal factions: publishers and authors. Their interests are not identical, and authors should consider the possibility that the publishers have contributed to the difficult situation they now face. Literature could end up suffering for it.”

Sisi’s clampdown has now widened to include artists, satirists, film-makers and journalists. A tough new law banning “abusive” graffiti, which was drafted by Sisi in December, means street art is also at greater risk of censorship. Artists could face up to four years in jail if found guilty of creating anti-military murals.

To receive financial intervention, the criteria say venues will be “assessed as high risk” and “at immediate and serious financial risk”. The Arts Council steps in where it believes an organisation is “irreplaceable”, where other forms of support have failed and where it is confident the cash injection will turn the situation around.

The lawsuit charges that trustees “undermined the financial health” of the school when they “built an extravagant new academic building that the school could not afford.” In addition, it alleges that “the Trustees compounded the impact of this mistake by squandering the endowment through investments in risky hedge funds.”

Michael Kimmelman: “The site of the Sept. 11 memorial is not singularly devoted to those who died. It also serves as the forecourt for an office development and as public space for Lower Manhattan. The neighborhood was a casualty, too, along with the rest of New York. In the tortuous planning process, victims’ families and real estate interests needed to be reconciled with the interests of everyone else in the city, including those who live and work downtown. So far, I’m not sure it’s working.”

“‘Outrage over gift shop’ ran the headline on NBC News, while NPR opted for ‘Gift shop makes some cringe’, and Gizmodo went for the more familiar ‘kitsch’ as well as ‘tasteless crap’. The store’s commemorative cheese plates and earrings were widely derided, but is this media criticism fair? The Guardian asked visitors to the gift shop what mementos they bought, and what the items meant to them.”

Fish Island Labs “will provide 50 emerging practitioners with support and guidance during a 10-month residency in which they will develop work from physical performance to digital art.”

“A report from the New York City comptroller “has raised fresh questions about how art enhances learning and whether children will be better prepared for a 21st century economy if they have mastered the ‘soft’ skills that art teaches. In an increasingly ‘creative’ economy, the argument goes, students need original thinking to thrive – and then only wealthy New Yorkers are being set up to succeed.”