Stories

Louvre Discontinues Tours Guided By Nintendo 3DS

“For the past decade, visitors to the Louvre could rent a Nintendo 3DS console for personalized tours, audio commentary and additional information about more than 700 artworks at the famed Paris museum. Now, the Louvre is getting rid of the handheld gadgets” — because Nintendo has stopped making them. - Smithsonian Magazine

Agreement Is Near On Keeping TikTok Available In U.S.

In 2024, due to data security concerns, Congress passed legislation requiring the Chinese company ByteDance to either sell TikTok to an American owner or withdraw the app from the U.S. market. Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping will reportedly speak on Friday to finalize a deal. - AP

A Training Regime Designed To Strengthen Feet For Pointe Work

Working with a physician and several dancers, Lynne Charles (who had a 35-year-career as a principal ballerina) developed 4Pointe, a somatic method to strengthen specific muscles for pointe work. “It’s not meant to replace traditional pointe class,” she stresses. “It’s meant to go hand-in-hand alongside it, like Pilates or Gyrotonic.” - Pointe Magazine

What About Those Works Of Art That Aren’t Bestsellers?

Headlines focus on that tiny segment of the arts that garners extraordinary numbers (whether readers, audience members, or dollars). The lucky writers and performers are ultimately discovered and rewarded with untold riches and rewards. But what about those creative people—many quite talented, a few geniuses—who struggle to have their work recognized? - Nightingale Sonata

What’s Happened To Cultural Institutions In Russian-Occupied Mariupol

“In the months and years since the siege that destroyed it, the city has been turned into a showcase of the concept of the ‘Russian world’ — an idea of Russia as encompassing nations in its former sphere of influence — and an exemplary model of forced Russification.” - The Dial

Five Countries Say They’ll Boycott Eurovision Contest If Israel Is Allowed To Compete

Israel’s recent participation has been a divisive issue in Europe and its broadcasting community ever since Israel began its military campaign in Gaza Strip in late 2023. - Deadline

Des Moines Metro Opera Under Fire For Working Conditions

It sounds like boot camp. An 89.5 hour workweek. Back to back 14 hour days. Overtime pay a rarity (and lack thereof legally sanctioned). Working in a warehouse where temperatures exceeded 100. Bullying. - Broadway World

Cleveland’s Ideastream Public Media Gets $1 Million Gift For Dedicated Jazz Studio

“Since its launch in February 2024, (the station’s) JazzNEO (channel) has been operating without a dedicated studio and airing all pre-recorded programming. The new state-of-the-art space will allow for live hosting, interviews, and live jazz performances.” - Inside Radio

YouTube Says It Has Paid $100B To Creators In The Past Four Years

“Twenty years ago, YouTube launched with the idea that everyone should have the opportunity to create and find a global stage. Since then, we’ve seen creators shape culture and entertainment in ways we never thought possible." - Deadline

Is The Literary World Reforming Around Substack?

The digital froth of the 2010s—BuzzFeed, Upworthy, the ceaseless click-baiting and SEO-hunting—could be understood as a Bronze Age, and we are now after the fall, in a new era we can’t quite name yet. Literary prestige, for one, has never meant less. - Ross Elliot Barkan

Not Just The Humanities: Conspiracy Theorists Are Attacking Physics

In recent years, a group of YouTubers and podcasters have attracted millions of viewers by proclaiming that physics is in crisis. The field, they argue, has discovered little of importance in the last 50 years, because it is dominated by groupthink and silences anyone who dares to dissent from mainstream ideas, like string theory. - The Wall Street Journal

Trump Administration Orders National Park To Remove Historic Photograph Of Enslaved Man’s Scarred Back

“The Trump administration has ordered the removal of signs and exhibits related to slavery at multiple national parks, according to four people familiar with the matter, including a historic photograph of a formerly enslaved man showing scars on his back.” - The Washington Post

Traditional Dictionaries Are Dying Even As Interest In Words Soars

Definitions, professional and amateur, are a click away, and most people don’t care or can’t tell whether what pops up in a search is expert research, crowdsourced jottings, scraped data, or zombie websites. - The Atlantic

Two Blockbuster Collections To Open Sotheby’s New Home

They are "an estimated $400 million trove amassed by Leonard Lauder, chairman emeritus of the Estée Lauder, and an estimated $80 million collection from the Chicago billionaires behind the Pritzker Architecture Prize." - The Wall Street Journal

Is Living “One Day At A Time” Really A Good Idea?

In some recovery programs, “one day at a time” is a mantra. This is a little like what E. L. Doctorow said about being a novelist: Writing a novel “is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” - The New Yorker

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