Category: issues

That’s how it’s happening in Japan and China. “The codes serve multiple purposes: when scanned, they lead to a website with photos and information about the deceased and allow for users to give virtual gifts, like food, incense, or a Buddhist funeral chant.” The websites also serve as a locus of mourning for those who can’t travel to the gravesite – or when, in China, the loved one’s remains are removed and the tomb is reused.

“From humble and idealistic beginnings a decade ago, open-access scientific journals have mushroomed into a global industry, driven by author publication fees rather than traditional subscriptions. Most of the players are murky.”

When enormous cruise ships visit the city (sometimes illegally sailing through canals), they cause more damage than you’d think, and Venetians are worried and angry. How to handle the tourist-filled leviathans is an issue where at least eight government bodies have jurisdiction – and that’s just one of the problems facing the sinking city that can’t be addressed efficiently because there’s no boss.

“When Google’s robot told us, in so many words, that what we so naively took for literature was actually something closer to porn, we wondered, naturally, what AdSense’s aesthetic standards were.”

“For my money (literally and figuratively), for my needs, and I suggest the needs of most small businesses, English majors are easily the top choice when it comes to getting the type of teammate who can make us all better, as they say in basketball.”

“Middle-class people can barely afford to live here anymore, so forget about emerging artists, musicians, actors, dancers, writers, journalists and small business people. Bit by bit, the resources that keep the city vibrant are being eliminated.”

Vladimir Urin, whose surprise appointment this summer was made in hopes of ending the embarrassing turmoil at the Bolshoi and its ballet company, talks about quality control over a run of performances, developing a cadre of opera talent to match that of the ballet company, and his long working relationship with wounded Bolshoi Ballet director Sergei Filin.

“All of these stories make clear is that the Affordable Care Act matters to artists-just as it matters to a lot of entrepreneurs-because it makes it easier to take chances and carve out the time that makes it possible to pursue an artistic career.”

“A 28-member panel set up last year to revise policies for electronics on airplanes recommended that the F.A.A. change the rule, allowing passengers to use their devices from gate to gate, including takeoff, taxiing and landing.”

“That title, ‘curator’ — summoning images of gravitas, of somber, skilled art administrators and historians who have spent years with subjects, applying rigorous critiques, even nurturing artists’ careers — has flown from its ivory tower and become democratized.”