Category: issues

“For all the porn that can be found so easily now by kids and adults, digital technology creates its own pornography of narcissism. Hence the ease with which the old patterns of growth, maturity and aging are undermined, for all age groups. We grow cruder, not wiser and better from the connection-saturation culture of the digital world. Adults go back to the cave, and take the kids with them.”

“Violent protests have raged outside Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan for two days after local workers found the burned remains of more than 100 Qurans in a pile of garbage from the base. What’s the proper way to dispose of a Quran?”

On Monday, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) asked the Smithsonian inspector general for the complete documentation of Clough’s travels since 2008, when he became the institution’s top official. Grassley, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, said he was concerned that “the Smithsonian may have not learned from previous mistakes” after an online investigative group, JunketSleuth.com, questioned 59 trips.

“The idea, recommended by Mayor Stephen Mandel’s arts visioning committee, last fall would see three theatres constructed with a total of 2,800 seats – 400 more than the Jubilee [Auditorium] – orchestra pits, rehearsal space and room in the wings.”

“There is a symbiotic relationship between message and medium, and that medium influences how the message is perceived. If a user posts that he or she just got married on Facebook, they are essentially encouraging all of their friends to accept and react to that status update on Facebook. The medium embodies this message – you are married, on Facebook.”

“Of course decline can be a fairly straightforward descriptive term–in the sense that we say that a person who is old and ill and will probably never entirely recover is “declining.” But to speak of “The Decline of the Arts” is to suggest a development with a philosophical or ideological amplitude, to evoke thoughts about the rise and fall of civilizations and cultures, about periodicity, systemic failure, decadence, maybe even the divine retribution that is sometimes woven into arguments about the collapse of civilizations.”

“Villanova University abruptly canceled a weeklong workshop by a gay performance artist whose stage shows are often laced with nudity and simulated sex but who has taught and lectured at numerous colleges, including the nation’s largest Catholic university, DePaul, in Chicago.”

“The most common refrain is: If we don’t pay these salaries, we won’t get the best people. But this is rarely true. The people who run the great museums and universities would likely take jobs for half the wage because, actually, they do love museums and universities, and nothing better satisfies their lifelong passion than a top job. Still, if offered a CEO’s salary, who is going to turn it down?”

Television broadcaster Melvyn Bragg: “Class has not slunk away from these islands. It never will. Too many people have an investment in it. But … I would argue that we are now a nation of cultures rather than a nation of classes. If we look at the passion with which people describe what they do in their leisure time, you have a truer picture of our society today.”

“More than music, more than sports, more than “personal style,” comedy has become essential to how young men view themselves and others, the research showed. Eighty-eight percent of respondents said their sense of humor was crucial to their self-definition, 74 percent said ‘funny people are more popular,’ and 58 percent said they sent out funny videos to make what might be called a special impression on someone else.”