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This Guy Poured Water On 6,000-Year-Old Cave Art So He Could Get A Better Pic For Facebook

"The cave paintings (in the Sierra Sur de Jaén mountain range) were made on limestone, which contains water-soluble salts. When water is poured on the paintings, these salts dissolve and then come to the surface when the water evaporates, leaving a crust that causes 'irreparable damage' to the paintings." - CNN

The Salzburgians Who Hate Sound Of Music On Its 60th Anniversary

“The story was too romantic. It was tears cutting out of your eyes. And the von Trapp, they left their home. For the others, it was not possible to go away, only for the noble family. And then all the other people in the film seemed to be Nazis.” - NPR

Warner Bros-Discovery Takes A Huge Financial Writedown

Shares of the merged company dropped to their lowest point since they began trading in 2022. CEO David Zaslav said, “This better aligns our carrying values with our future outlook.” - Bloomberg (MSN)

Art For Change Partners With Michelle Obama To Increase Voter Participation

Artists are “constantly engaging with these ideas around family, community and relationships, so I think that we look to artists, not necessarily on how to rebuild society, but to tell us what’s wrong with it. Where does it hurt?” - The Guardian (UK)

What’s The Right Name For New Music?

“The goal of LOUD Weekend is to imagine the world that’s yet to exist — one where composers and musicians work on equal footing, where programming is collaborative and challenging, where creation builds community, where audiences appreciate risk.” - Washington Post (MSN)

Banksy’s Fourth London Piece Is Stolen Nearly As Soon As It Goes Up

The image of a howling wolf was on a satellite dish on top of a store on Rye Lane. Two men with a ladder and masks quickly snagged the satellite dish and ran off with it. - BBC

Two Teenagers Arrested In Plot To Create Terrorist Attacks At Taylor Swift Concerts In Vienna

The main suspect is a 19-year-old, who “had confessed to the plans shortly after being arrested, giving the police a detailed insight into his intended acts, which included using explosives and weapons to kill as many concert attendees as possible.” - The New York Times

Could Terraced Rice Paddies Hold The Secret To Mitigating Urban Flooding?

"(There's a) trend in Asia seeing architects seek inspiration from the region's rice terraces and other agricultural heritages to help urban communities reduce waterlogging and flooding. Examples range from adapted wetland parks in Chinese cities to homes in Vietnam with rice paddy-inspired rooftops" — and one particularly innovative university building in Bangkok. - BBC

Top Welsh Cultural Honors Stripped From Disgraced BBC Presenter

The Eisteddfod, Wales’ week-long “language cultural festival includes competitions in music, dance and literature. … No member of the Gorsedd has been expelled before due to being dishonoured,” but Huw Edwards’ admission of having child pornography did it. - BBC

After Four Straight Years Of Deficits, One Of England’s Best Regional Theatres Reconsiders Its Programming

The Bristol Old Vic says its ticket sales are up one third over last year, but ever-rising costs and the loss of grants from Bristol City Council (not to mention uncertainty over Arts Council England funding) mean it may need to cut back both its mainstage productions and community/educational work. - BBC

A Play Calling JK Rowling A TERF Was Hotly Debated At The Edinburgh Fringe Festival

That is, until it opened. “The muted response to the show itself suggests that fewer British people are riled by the debate than the media coverage implies — or at least that when activists engage with potentially inflammatory art, outrage can quickly vanish.” - The New York Times

Oklahoma Governor’s Push To Get Bibles In Every Classroom Goes Right Back To 19th-Century Publishers

Starting in the 1830s, the American Bible Society began a campaign to get inexpensive Bibles into homes "in every part of the land," while the American Sunday-School Union, which considered secular books "sweet poison" for young minds, worked to replace them in classrooms with Christian instructional books and evangelical tracts. - Slate (MSN)

A Retiring Violinist Compares Classical Music To A Colonoscopy

Christopher Wu has some ideas to make symphony-going seem less of a chore to newbies. “Culture is always shifting. Everyone is into TikTok now. ... So maybe we need to be open to reimagining the presentation of this music we love, not the music itself.” - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Gradually, Restaurants Are Becoming Literally Inhuman: Pete Wells In His Farewell Column

"Blackbird’s new checkless exit gives me the creeps. It's just the latest in a series of changes that have gradually and steadily stripped the human touch and human voice out of restaurants. Each of these changes was small, but together they’ve made going out to eat much less personal." - The New York Times

Sam Neill’s Hardworking Second Act

After Neill’s blood cancer went into remission - and his book about his experiences was published - the Jurassic Park, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and The Piano actor started working harder than ever. - The Guardian (UK)

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