“The regulations affecting television broadcasters, cable and satellite companies cleared the commission Tuesday on a 4-0 vote at the agency’s monthly meeting in Washington. Commercials can’t be louder than surrounding programming under rules that take effect Dec. 13, 2012.”
Tag: 12.13.11
‘No More Chassidic Reggae Superstar’: Matisyahu Loses His Beard
“The world’s most famous Chasidic Jew has shaved his beard.” Matisyahu, né Matthew Paul Miller and an improbable but major pop music star, tweeted to the world yesterday that he is now clean-shaven. He says he remains an observant Jew (though no longer a Chasid), and promises “an amazing year filled with music of rebirth.”
Iraqi Museum Pays Smugglers To Return Looted Objects
“Iraq’s second largest museum in Sulaimaniya is recovering stolen artifacts by paying smugglers to return the treasures. Located in the semi-autonomous northern region of Kurdistan, the Slemani Museum has taken drastic measures to refill display cabinets following looting.”
Flavorwire Picks The World’s Most Beautiful College Libraries
Yes, the Bodleian, the Sorbonne and Trinity College Dublin made the list, as did some gems little-known to anglophones (Coimbra, Salamanca), a surprise or two (UW Seattle), and some modernist landmarks (Yale’s Beinecke, Free University of Berlin).
Alarm For New Zealand Heritage As Government Plans Reconstruction After Earthquake
“The government’s plans to demolish 50% of buildings within the city’s Central Business District (CBD)–30% more than in poverty-stricken Haiti–has experts questioning the government’s commitment to heritage and the competence of the bodies tasked with safeguarding these properties.”
Tate Galleries May Give Up Sponsorship By BP
“The Tate galleries are reviewing their 20-year partnership with BP, after demonstrations by green campaigners. Tate’s director, Sir Nicholas Serota, has said it will decide whether to renew the contract with BP ‘quite soon’.”
Bookseller Of Kabul Author Cleared In Afghan Family’s Case
“[An] appeal court in Norway [has] overturned a previous ruling and cleared the author of The Bookseller of Kabul and her publisher … of invading the privacy of the family she lived with and wrote about, and concluded that the facts of the book were accurate.”
One Hundred Years Of British Film Censorship
“When it was first set up in 1912, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) – or Film Censors, as it was known then – concerned itself with the ‘unnecessary exhibition of under-clothing’ or ‘scenes calculated to afford information to the enemy’. Now … it finds itself more likely to be fending off Hollywood studios attempting to shoehorn too much violence into films aimed at 12-year-olds.”
Carlos Acosta, Ballet-Superstar-Turned-Novelist
The Cuban heartthrob of the Royal Ballet, who has already published an autobiography, has written a novel that will be published in 2013. “The story, which is as yet untitled, is set in Cuba and charts the island’s history from the 19th century to the present, including … the revolution of the 1950s.”
Don’t Support Your Local Bookstore, Buy Books On Amazon Instead
Farhad Manjoo: “Compared with online retailers, bookstores present a frustrating consumer experience. … As much as I despise some of its recent tactics, no company in recent years has done more than Amazon to ignite a national passion for buying, reading, and even writing new books.”