AJ Four Ways: Text Only (by date) | headlines only
DANCE
IDEAS
- The Web Fills Up And Empties Out
Good Morning,
Two numbers today, and they belong together. Traffic to the ten biggest US news sites is down by a third in two years (Press Gazette). More than a third of web pages published since ChatGPT launched show signs of machine authorship (TechCrunch). The open web is filling with writing nobody asked for and emptying of the readers who used to justify the rest.
Here’s what that does downstream: a hoax claiming the Tang Dynasty never existed is picking up genuine believers on the Chinese internet (CNN). Three centuries of poetry, apparently now up for a vote.
The counterexample is in theaters. Hadestown — a show built in front of live audiences for more than a decade before it got near a screen — just broke Hamilton‘s box office records (IndieWire). Nobody found it through a feed. That’s the point.
The bill still arrives: ICA San Diego laid off nearly half its staff (San Diego Union-Tribune), and a new study puts the Paramount-Warner merger’s cost to Los Angeles at 4,500 film and TV jobs (TheWrap).
Meanwhile, America’s first jellyfish museum has opened in Pompano Beach, built by a Ukrainian couple who left their Kyiv one behind in 2022 (AP).
All of our stories below.
- Behold America’s First-Ever Jellyfish Museum
“The private Jellyfish Museum in Pompano Beach, Florida, just north of Fort Lauderdale, … was created by Alex and Yana Yanovsky, who previously developed successful aquariums in Ukraine, including their first jellyfish museum in Kyiv. The couple left those facilities behind when they fled Ukraine following the 2022 Russian invasion.” – AP
- Study: Web Traffic To The 10 Biggest News Websites Has Dropped By A Third In Two Years
Combined traffic to the ten biggest news websites in the US is down by almost a third compared to two years ago, new analysis shows. The difference was even higher across the top 50 news websites in the US, with monthly visits falling 37% since July 2024. – Press-Gazette
- Weird Idea Spreads On Chinese Internet That Tang Dynasty Never Existed
The Tang era (618-907 CE) is considered a golden age, a period of territorial expansion, prosperity and high culture which every Chinese schoolchild learns about. Claiming it never happened is like telling Brits there was no Norman Conquest. Yet the bogus idea has caught on widely enough that China’s government is weighing in. – CNN
- How The COVID Crisis Shifted Culture Funding
In 2019, arts organizations in BIPOC-majority neighborhoods of a major U.S. city received 16% less median grant funding than those in white-majority neighborhoods. By 2022, they were receiving 289% more. – SMU Cultural Data
ISSUES
- Behold America’s First-Ever Jellyfish Museum
“The private Jellyfish Museum in Pompano Beach, Florida, just north of Fort Lauderdale, … was created by Alex and Yana Yanovsky, who previously developed successful aquariums in Ukraine, including their first jellyfish museum in Kyiv. The couple left those facilities behind when they fled Ukraine following the 2022 Russian invasion.” – AP
- The Growing Threat Of Cyberattacks On Museums
We live in a time when digital systems underpin everything from ticketing to surveillance and building access. Sidelining cybersecurity leaves museums vulnerable to attacks that could threaten both their finances and their collections. – The Conversation
- Institute Of Contemporary Art San Diego Lays Off Nearly Half Its Employees
The ICA San Diego (not to be confused with the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego) is reducing its staff from 19 to 11, including almost all senior management and public-facing workers. The head curator position was eliminated last month. – The San Diego Union-Tribune
- Colombian Cultural Heritage Sites Damaged In The Earthquake
The report, published on 14 August, identifies 40 nationally protected cultural properties in the seven departments hardest hit by the disaster that suffered some degree of damage, 22 of which were severely impacted. Of the remaining properties, 13 suffered moderate damage and five were only lightly affected. – The Art Newspaper
- This Summer’s European Heat Waves Are Damaging Monet’s Gardens At Giverny
Horticultural staff are reporting that some foliage is scorched and many flowers are wilting, though they’ve been able to mitigate the weather’s worst effects by careful watering and moving some plants around. Chief gardeners also say they may have to change some of the seasonal scheduling and choice of plantings. – ARTnews
MEDIA
- Weird Idea Spreads On Chinese Internet That Tang Dynasty Never Existed
The Tang era (618-907 CE) is considered a golden age, a period of territorial expansion, prosperity and high culture which every Chinese schoolchild learns about. Claiming it never happened is like telling Brits there was no Norman Conquest. Yet the bogus idea has caught on widely enough that China’s government is weighing in. – CNN
- How The COVID Crisis Shifted Culture Funding
In 2019, arts organizations in BIPOC-majority neighborhoods of a major U.S. city received 16% less median grant funding than those in white-majority neighborhoods. By 2022, they were receiving 289% more. – SMU Cultural Data
- How The Kennedy Center Plans To Put Trump’s Name Back
- Refurbishment Plans For The Kennedy Center Detailed
More than 160 pages of plans, assembled by the real estate company JLL and presented to the board of trustees, outline extensive changes throughout the building. – Washington Post
- Google Now Has An AI Tool To Catch Fake AI Images
“After (a fact-checker) upload(s) an image and enter(s) a basic question, Backstory can automatically run checks to determine whether the image is AI-generated, whether it shows signs of manipulation, and where else the image has appeared throughout its lifetime on the internet.” – Nieman Lab
MUSIC
- More Schools Are Teaching Cursive Again. Should They Be?
Pennsylvania and Florida legislators argue, for example, that an informed citizenry needs to be able to read historical documents, which are often written in cursive script. – Washington Post
- Texas Is Coming After The “Filthy, Dirty” Books In School Libraries, Says Lt. Gov.
“Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, during a Wednesday press conference, threatened to take over public school districts that don’t remove ‘obscene books’ from their library shelves.” – San Antonio Current
- Utah Bans Novel Adapted Into Movie “Precious” From Schools
“’Push’ by Sapphire got cut across the state Wednesday after the Davis, Granite and Washington County school districts removed it, bringing the total number of books banned from public schools to 37.” Current Utah law holds that if three county school districts ban a book, the title is then barred statewide. – The Salt Lake Tribune
- In Russia: The Publishers’ Plot
In May 2025, ten people affiliated with Eksmo, Russia’s publishing behemoth, were detained in Moscow. Three of them, Pavel Ivanov, Dmitry Protopopov and Artyom Vakhlyaev, were charged with ‘organising activities of an extremist organisation’. Their crime was distributing LGBT-themed books. – London Review of Books
- Why The Closing Of Harvard’s Writing Center Matters
A Harvard faculty member who requested anonymity so that he could speak openly told me he worried that the elimination of the center could be seen as part of a broader trend of “real boosterism” of AI on campus—one that students feel acutely. – The Atlantic
PEOPLE
- The Web Fills Up And Empties Out
Good Morning,
Two numbers today, and they belong together. Traffic to the ten biggest US news sites is down by a third in two years (Press Gazette). More than a third of web pages published since ChatGPT launched show signs of machine authorship (TechCrunch). The open web is filling with writing nobody asked for and emptying of the readers who used to justify the rest.
Here’s what that does downstream: a hoax claiming the Tang Dynasty never existed is picking up genuine believers on the Chinese internet (CNN). Three centuries of poetry, apparently now up for a vote.
The counterexample is in theaters. Hadestown — a show built in front of live audiences for more than a decade before it got near a screen — just broke Hamilton‘s box office records (IndieWire). Nobody found it through a feed. That’s the point.
The bill still arrives: ICA San Diego laid off nearly half its staff (San Diego Union-Tribune), and a new study puts the Paramount-Warner merger’s cost to Los Angeles at 4,500 film and TV jobs (TheWrap).
Meanwhile, America’s first jellyfish museum has opened in Pompano Beach, built by a Ukrainian couple who left their Kyiv one behind in 2022 (AP).
All of our stories below.
- Behold America’s First-Ever Jellyfish Museum
“The private Jellyfish Museum in Pompano Beach, Florida, just north of Fort Lauderdale, … was created by Alex and Yana Yanovsky, who previously developed successful aquariums in Ukraine, including their first jellyfish museum in Kyiv. The couple left those facilities behind when they fled Ukraine following the 2022 Russian invasion.” – AP
- Study: Web Traffic To The 10 Biggest News Websites Has Dropped By A Third In Two Years
Combined traffic to the ten biggest news websites in the US is down by almost a third compared to two years ago, new analysis shows. The difference was even higher across the top 50 news websites in the US, with monthly visits falling 37% since July 2024. – Press-Gazette
- Weird Idea Spreads On Chinese Internet That Tang Dynasty Never Existed
The Tang era (618-907 CE) is considered a golden age, a period of territorial expansion, prosperity and high culture which every Chinese schoolchild learns about. Claiming it never happened is like telling Brits there was no Norman Conquest. Yet the bogus idea has caught on widely enough that China’s government is weighing in. – CNN
- How The COVID Crisis Shifted Culture Funding
In 2019, arts organizations in BIPOC-majority neighborhoods of a major U.S. city received 16% less median grant funding than those in white-majority neighborhoods. By 2022, they were receiving 289% more. – SMU Cultural Data
PEOPLE
- The Web Fills Up And Empties Out
Good Morning,
Two numbers today, and they belong together. Traffic to the ten biggest US news sites is down by a third in two years (Press Gazette). More than a third of web pages published since ChatGPT launched show signs of machine authorship (TechCrunch). The open web is filling with writing nobody asked for and emptying of the readers who used to justify the rest.
Here’s what that does downstream: a hoax claiming the Tang Dynasty never existed is picking up genuine believers on the Chinese internet (CNN). Three centuries of poetry, apparently now up for a vote.
The counterexample is in theaters. Hadestown — a show built in front of live audiences for more than a decade before it got near a screen — just broke Hamilton‘s box office records (IndieWire). Nobody found it through a feed. That’s the point.
The bill still arrives: ICA San Diego laid off nearly half its staff (San Diego Union-Tribune), and a new study puts the Paramount-Warner merger’s cost to Los Angeles at 4,500 film and TV jobs (TheWrap).
Meanwhile, America’s first jellyfish museum has opened in Pompano Beach, built by a Ukrainian couple who left their Kyiv one behind in 2022 (AP).
All of our stories below.
- Behold America’s First-Ever Jellyfish Museum
“The private Jellyfish Museum in Pompano Beach, Florida, just north of Fort Lauderdale, … was created by Alex and Yana Yanovsky, who previously developed successful aquariums in Ukraine, including their first jellyfish museum in Kyiv. The couple left those facilities behind when they fled Ukraine following the 2022 Russian invasion.” – AP
- Study: Web Traffic To The 10 Biggest News Websites Has Dropped By A Third In Two Years
Combined traffic to the ten biggest news websites in the US is down by almost a third compared to two years ago, new analysis shows. The difference was even higher across the top 50 news websites in the US, with monthly visits falling 37% since July 2024. – Press-Gazette
- Weird Idea Spreads On Chinese Internet That Tang Dynasty Never Existed
The Tang era (618-907 CE) is considered a golden age, a period of territorial expansion, prosperity and high culture which every Chinese schoolchild learns about. Claiming it never happened is like telling Brits there was no Norman Conquest. Yet the bogus idea has caught on widely enough that China’s government is weighing in. – CNN
- How The COVID Crisis Shifted Culture Funding
In 2019, arts organizations in BIPOC-majority neighborhoods of a major U.S. city received 16% less median grant funding than those in white-majority neighborhoods. By 2022, they were receiving 289% more. – SMU Cultural Data
THEATRE
VISUAL
- Study: More Than One-Third Of Web Pages Created Since 2022 Show Signs Of AI
Over one-third of web pages published after the release of ChatGPT show signs of being written by AI, according to a new study from Pew Research released on Thursday. – TechCrunch
- Research: Large AI Datasets Obscure Authorship
It feels counterintuitive, but at sufficiently large scales, they find, you can often remove any single image from the training data, or every image by a given artist, or every photograph of a given person, and the generated sample doesn’t change. – MIT
- The Fan Psychology
The fan at heart is a manager of excess: too much feeling, too much weight on too little incident. This is a kind of madness after all, the madness of meaning-making under a few too many constraints. – N plus 1
- Research: Majority Of Americans Are Anxious About AI
Today, 52% of Americans say they are more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life – up from 37% in 2021. Another 9% are more excited than concerned and 37% say they’re equally excited and concerned, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted June 22-28, 2026. – Pew Research
- Some Of The Sharpest Political Writers In 18th-Century Britain Were Fictional
British writers in the 18th century repeatedly invented fictional characters to intervene in the politics and culture of their day. – The Conversation