“I have come to believe that advertising is the original sin of the web. The fallen state of our Internet is a direct, if unintentional, consequence of choosing advertising as the default model to support online content and services.” Ethan Zuckerman, who wrote the code for the very first pop-up ad, points out some downsides of the ad-based business model and argues that there’s still time to come to Jesus work out a better system.
Digitizing Warhol’s Films To Save Them
“For almost a decade beginning in the 1960s,” he used 16mm film “to record hundreds of reels, many of which are still little known even among scholars because of the fragility of the film and the scarcity of projectors to show them on.” Now MoMA and the Andy Warhol Museum are joining forces to fix that.
Amazon Vs. Hachette: What Would Orwell Really Think?
George Packer: “Amazon has its own corporate lexicon, its own uses of language. Warehouses are ‘fulfillment centers,’ algorithmic recommendations are ‘personalization.’ I won’t call it Orwellian, because that poor, much-abused term should be reserved for special occasions, like North Korea. But it’s a style conducive to cheerful deception, and Orwell would have seen straight through it.”
The Great Art Collections That The Likes Of Us Don’t Get To See
“Why do companies such as UBS bother with collecting expensive modern and contemporary art at all? What’s in it for them?” Alastair Sooke looks at the Swiss mega-banks’ art collection, among the biggest held by any business.
“Commando Squad”: Anthony Tommasini’s Fantasy Music Festival
The “Commando Squad” was Virgil Thomson’s American version of Russia’s “Mighty Five”, and it included himself (of course), Roger Sessions, Walter Piston, Roy Harris and (commander) Aaron Copland. The New York Times chief music critic dreams up a musical festival focusing on their lesser-known works.
Philadelphia Extends, Expands Free Museum Passes For High School Students
“Under the program, a dozen of the city’s biggest and most popular museums” of art, history and science “offered free admission and other programs geared toward young people. The only requirements: Live in the city, be 14 to 19, and sign up. They did. Big time.”
Here’s The Real Mess In Higher Education
“Expensive gambles, unforeseen losses, and investments whose soundness has yet to be decided have raised the price of a college education so high that today on average it costs eleven times as much as it did in 1978. Underlying the anxiety about the worth of a college degree is a suspicion that old methods and the old knowledge will soon be eclipsed by technology.”