Category: issues

“[The] rapid building of museums, invitations to big-name artists and purchases of major Western artworks have, some in the art world say, overshadowed the sovereign state’s grassroots intention: to explore its cultural heritage, nomadic history and develop deeper bonds with the Middle East and beyond.”

“The phenomenally popular social networking site may be skewing the way users perceive their lives. It finds those carefully selected photos of cheerful, contented people cumulatively convey a self-esteem-shattering message: Our lives are fantastic! What’s wrong with you?”

One of the most popular commenting services for news websites and blogs says its data shows that commenters using pseudonyms are “the most important contributors to online communities.”

A Q&A with Isak Gerson, spiritual leader of the Church of Kopimism, a faith dedicated to electronic file-sharing which has been formally recognised as a religion by the Swedish government.

Remember predictions of population pressure and world collapse, most clearly laid out in the book The Limits of Growth? The model’s still around – and things don’t look that good for later in the 21st century.

The government of the Bosniak-Croat federation has provided €25,000 to cover the museum’s unpaid utility bills, though an agreement with the Bosnian Serb republic to fund national cultural institutions over the long term remains elusive.

“Students who share certain tastes in movies and music – but not in books – are more likely to friend each other on Facebook, according to a study released in November that has been getting attention in academic circles.”

“Whimsy. Like iPads and overly bookish spectacles and bacteria, it is everywhere.
It is difficult to pinpoint the moment when whimsy escaped from the birthday parties of six-year-old girls and into the business of serious art.”

“Over five centuries, more than 18 million people were forcibly removed from Africa to the Americas, Caribbean and Europe.” Can the Jamaican ambassador to the U.N. convince the U.S. and corporate sponsors to get a new memorial built?

Despite what some copyright lawyers would like to think, fair use is pretty good for creative types: “Without fair use, it would be impossible to write a negative book review, or compare Shakespeare to the Simpsons. Without fair use, it becomes just about impossible to have a thoughtful discussion about anything that’s been published since you were born.”