Category: issues

“Public clocks are only a little bit dead. On their road to obsolescence, they have taken a surprising detour and are seeing a burst of popularity that is baffling even to the people who make them.”

“There is a societal value to snarky snobs. We need snarky snobs, we love them, we look to them with interest even if we’re not going to slavishly follow their proclamations: We want at least to know what the snarky snob position is.”

“Local residents say satellite navigation systems are making it easier for tourists to find their way through the area’s winding roads and narrow alleyways in their quest to take photographs close to the sign.”

“Mere months after overthrowing their despots, Egypt and Libya are enjoying an explosion of new periodicals, including 150 new journals and magazines in Benghazi alone.”

“[The] Opera House will offer arts and educational experiences not only onsite at the World Heritage-listed icon but also online and offsite at Port Macquarie on the Mid North Coast. The new online program means that [for instance] schools with video-conferencing facilities can book a digital excursion at the Opera House.”

“As a devout numbers geek, Glen Whitney was bothered that the cultural landscape offered no museum celebrating the field of mathematics. So he left his job as an algorithms specialist and manager at [a hedge fund] and created the nonprofit Museum of Mathematics. This year, he found a 19,000-square-foot space on East 26th Street in Manhattan and plans to open the doors in 2012.”

“This is an amazing time to be an artist, so long as you’re not expecting to be swept up and treated as a genius by a bunch of suits who, heaven forbid, probably make a tidy, but apparently banal to you, hourly rate out of your album sales.”

“England’s Arts Council has signalled an end to the bold and rejuvenating new arts buildings of recent years as it published details of how it was going to spend more than £400m of lottery money between 2012 and 2015.”

“A new National Endowment for the Arts report finds jobs for artists are concentrated in specific states, including New York, California, Oregon, and Vermont.” (Among the surprises in the top ten: Hawaii.)

Funeral homes may be among the most staid and risk-averse of businesses, but a visit to this year’s industry expo indicated that some new ideas – environment-friendly fiberboard coffins, some printed with the departed’s name and photographs; custom-decorated coffins; “virtual tombs” online – are (just) beginning to catch on.