Well, it's like this: The so-called Z-Library had an unsavory underpinning."Two Russian nationals, Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova, have been charged with criminal copyright infringement, wire fraud and money laundering for operating Z-Library." - Washington Post
Of thousands who have fled, "Russians are relocating mostly to Turkey, Kazakhstan and Georgia. But Israel offers one big advantage: Those with at least one Jewish grandparent can get Israeli citizenship for themselves and their close family." - NPR
Our machines have crossed a threshold. All our lives, we have been reassured that computers were incapable of being truly creative. Yet, suddenly, millions of people are using a new breed of AIs to generate stunning pictures. Most of these users are not professional artists, and that’s the point. - Wired
War has always provoked remarkable writing. Anton Filatov’s blog posts on Facebook are a 21st-century version of this, and they have gained him a growing audience. - The New York Times
"Do these attacks not reveal the fragility of what we hold dear? Do they not make us think about what we want to save for the next generation? Yet the answer to these questions is mostly no. Instead, these attacks feel part of a helpless careering towards climate chaos." - The Guardian
"There is no relocation," Harry Brünjes told a group of MPs this week about Arts Council England's decision to defund the company unless it leaves the capital for a city such as Manchester. "This is closing ENO down. This is losing 600 jobs from London." - London Evening Standard
Last month, shortly after the 12th edition of the annual art competition in Grand Rapids ended, the board announced that "we know the time is right to conclude the original ArtPrize experiment and open up space for new energy and creativity." They say that an "ArtPrize 2.0" is coming. - Artnet
Geopoliticians’ reluctance to reckon with the climate crisis comes from their sense that there are only two options: transcend the landscape or live with it. Either globalisation will release us from physical constraints or we’ll remain trapped by them. - The Guardian
And by long, we're talking centuries. "Swirling veils and drapery were added to Allegory of Inclination about 70 years after Gentileschi painted the lifesize female nude, believed to be a self-portrait, in 1616." - The Guardian (AP)
Arseny Avraamov's work, written and performed in Baku, Soviet Azerbaijan for the fifth anniversary of the October Revolution, "included the entire Caspian flotilla, cannons, locomotives, artillery regiments, hydroplanes, factory sirens, bells, foghorns, brass bands and a massive choir. Avraamov wasn't just conducting an orchestra, he was conducting a city." - BBC
"Mark Zuckerberg's empire has lost hundreds of billions of dollars in value and laid off 11,000 people. ... Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter has caused advertisers to pull spending and power users to shun the platform. It's never felt more plausible that the age of social media might end." - MSN (The Atlantic)
Data indicate that interest in classical music itself is growing, but BBC Radio 3, the more populist Classic FM, and newish Scala Radio have lost worryingly large chunks of audience in the past year. But there are good reasons why — and some of those might be fixable. - MSN (The Telegraph)
“The government has presented a compelling case that predicts substantial harm to competition as a result of the proposed merger of PRH and S&S,” Judge Florence Pan concluded. - Publishers Weekly
"The Calgary-based Mayr won for her novel ..., which follows a queer, Black sleeping car porter making a treacherous trip from Montreal to Vancouver in 1929." - Toronto Star
The overriding focus on the algorithm—and the content it delivers—has caused us to overlook a central part of TikTok’s operating logic: the phone. A failure to fully explore the role of this device in TikTok’s powers of transmission has resulted in a limited appreciation of how the platform works. - Wired
Martial law declaration "grants the country the power to 'evacuate' items of economic, social, and cultural significance. Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk are the four regions specified in Putin’s decree." - Artnet
When the American Alliance of Museums asked a volunteer committee to sign loyalty oaths and also something that meant they wouldn't criticize AAM in public, the scholars and museum directors resigned en masse. - Hyperallergic
"The English National Opera is to lose its £12.6m core annual funding from Arts Council England in a major shake-up that leaves its future uncertain. Instead, the prestigious company will get £17m over three years to 'develop a new business model', with a suggestion it moves from London to Manchester." - BBC
Mark Zuckerberg is obsessed with a virtual world no one wants, the company’s stock is down 70 percent from its peak, and it has lost $800 billion of its market capitalization. - Vice
It’s tempting to see Garfield as a footnote. But he was far better than his contemporaries at solving the puzzle of how to take the new acting techniques coming out of the New York theatre during the thirties and forties and adapt them for the screen. - The New Yorker
