This week, Kankakee Public Library's TikTok features the former president "drinking out of a library-branded mug and leafing through a paperback. It’s the first in a series of TikToks that Obama has filmed with libraries across the country" in a pushback against book banning laws. - Washington Post
The actors weren't - and aren't - getting paid a ton. Glenn: Some of the other actors "were fucking famous as shit, like internationally famous, couldn’t go outside, but had to keep their second jobs because they couldn’t afford to not. We couldn’t afford cabs to set." - Vulture
No indeed: We're all essentially the background actors. "If a digital replica of you — without your bothersome need for money and the time to lead a life — can do the job, who needs you?" - The New York Times
Here's the issue with a lack of US regulation: "If the EU’s forthcoming AI Act isn’t matched with US rules for AI, it will be more difficult to ask tech giants to be in full compliance and change how the industry operates." - Wired
"Almost nobody is immune to the risk that A.I. could devalue their economic position, even though A.I. will also have widespread benefits." - The New York Times
It's our history. And right now, for a definition of "classic" that means before 2010 (!), "the availability of classic games is only slightly better than the availability of American silent films, or audio recorded before the Second World War." - CBC
"'I am sure that the feeling is unanimous among background actors that being scanned and having our likeness used in perpetuity for a one-time payment of approximately $200 is horrifying,' said Christopher Cosmo, a New York-based background actor." - HuffPost
"Stars including Elliot Page, Martin Short and Tatiana Maslany are among the 74 Canadian actors who signed a July 10 open letter calling for on- and off-screen colleagues in B.C. to vote down the deal they say uses them as 'a bargaining chip.'" - CBC
"The cultural nonprofit Mizhvukhamy is documenting these findings in Wall Evidence, an open archive created for future research (on) the Russian invasion." Some samples: "It was an order. Sorri." "I'll burn other people's villages with a smile." "Sorry for the mess, but it’s okay, Americans will help with cleanup." - Hyperallergic
"The $97.6 million in bonds will be backed by property taxes, which surged in recent years as the city became a magnet for the wealthy. The sale is part of a broader effort by the barrier-island city to ditch its reputation as a spring-break destination." - Bloomberg CityLab
"As far back as the ancient Greeks people like Plato were complaining about what he called a vicious theatrocracy, where audiences who were previously happy to sit quietly suddenly wanted to use their tongues and start cheering and screaming. - BBC
"Management’s attempt to overhaul the Hong Kong Arts Centre has triggered a mass walkout at the 46-year-old non-profit institution, with former employees reporting that at least half of its staff have left since the previous executive director stepped down in August 2022." - South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
"The position was initially held by Alex Poots, who founded the Manchester International Festival and served as the artistic director of the Park Avenue Armory. But he gave up the title in January, when the organization said he would solely focus on his role as artistic director." - The New York Times
This particular struggle is over the tradition of comic bullfights, often before the main corrida, featuring performers with dwarfism. Traditionalists see it as Spanish culture worth preserving; many liberals consider it demeaning, backward, and, now, illegal; the performers want to keep their jobs. - The New York Times
"(It) was built in 1797 in Philadelphia to be the central hub of Hamilton's national banking system. The Independence National Historical Park (INHP) will soon begin a $50 million renovation to turn this building" — closed to the public since the 1970s — "into a museum of the American economy." - WHYY (Philadelphia)
