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FTC: Time To Hold Amazon Accountable

Lina Khan made her reputation with a very different idea: What if pleasing the customer was not enough? Low prices, she argued in a 95-page examination of Amazon in the Yale Law Journal, can mask behavior that stifles competition and undermines society. - The New York Times 

What This AI-Created Image Tells Us About The Future Of Art

"If art is meant to be a portal, then the art of the future will have not one single exit, but unlimited gateways... This transition, as we are now experiencing it in the early days of the AI overhaul, will test our relationship to reality." - Wired

Writers And Producers Reach A Tentative Agreement

The strike is still alive, but picket lines (for the WGA) have been suspended. - Variety

Studios Allege They’ve Presented Their Final Offer To Writers

A "best and final offer" before today's meetings may lead to a deal soon, but the writers say this is a management-side leak and that the WGA needs to stay focused and strong. - The Hollywood Reporter

The Babysitting Nonprofit Helping Parents Go To Broadway Shows

"Helping people in theater take care of their children is part of core mission — an early initiative was hiring babysitters to watch children at auditions. Then the leadership realized that theater artists need audiences." - NPR

Inside The Science Of Figuring Out Crowds

Crowd science has long been working to understand how throngs can turn dangerous. It has borrowed from psychology and epidemiology, and now is also incorporating complex systems theory, physics, and physiology, combined with plentiful empirical data coupled with computer modeling. Scientists have even started turning their eyes toward the dangerous dynamics of virtual crowds. - Nautilus

Orchestra In Ontario Cancels All Performances And Practices

The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, founded in 1945, abruptly canceled its youth events on Saturday - and then deleted everything off its calendar for 2023-24. - CTV Kitchener

In Germany, Right-Wing Threats Lead To Museum Police Protection

The Zeche Zollern "wanted to create a space for visitors 'affected by racism' where they could experience the museum while 'protect themselves from further (even unconscious) discrimination,'" but the backlash is so intense there are now armed guards. - Hyperallergic

And Just Like That, Drew Barrymore Puts Her Show Back On Hiatus

The new Instagram video: "I have listened to everyone, and I am making the decision to pause the show’s premiere until the strike is over." - The New York Times

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Board Removes Former Rolling Stone Editor

Jann Wenner, a founder of the Hall of Fame, was removed after an interview in which he said "said that Black and female musicians 'didn’t articulate at the level' of the white musicians featured in his new book." - Variety

Report: Majority Of US Museum Workers Want To Quit

Two-thirds of museum workers are thinking about leaving their jobs, if not the field altogether, according to a survey out this month. The top reasons? Burnout and low pay. - The Art Newspaper

Oscar-Winning Writer Of “Moonlight” And “Choir Boys” Named Geffen Playhouse’s Artistic Director

"An ensemble member of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company," Tarell Alvin McCraney "is professor of playwriting at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University and has earned a reputation as a passionate mentor. He will continue to teach at Yale while leading the Geffen Playhouse." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

Evidence For A Putin War Crimes Trial In A New Report On Destruction Of Ukraine’s Cultural Heritage

"(The briefing) by the NGO Blue Shield International has tentatively made the claim that the Putin regime has premeditatively, systematically — and provably — targeted heritage sites in Ukraine. If the report is correct, the critical legal threshold needed to prosecute Putin for a war crime is now significantly closer." - The Art Newspaper

Is Google Search Now Just Sneaky, Janky Ad-Filled Spyware?

Possibly! The trial starts Tuesday. - Wired

Streaming Is Over

It is, obviously, a victim of its own success - but viewers are hurting too.- The Atlantic

When American Government Encouraged Artists To Critique

Clear-eyed, truthful portrayals of American history and contemporary affairs have long been disfavored as beneficiaries of public funding — though the movement to strip them out of classrooms, textbooks and school libraries has seldom been as ferocious as it is currently. - Los Angeles Times

Rotten Tomatoes Has Never Been More Important — Or More Compromised

"Now, it can make or break them — with implications for how films are perceived, released, marketed, and possibly even green-lit. The Tomatometer may be the most important metric in entertainment, yet it's also erratic, reductive, and easily hacked." Here's how it got that way. - New York Magazine

The Webb Telescope Has Cosmologists Thinking Our Ideas About The Universe May Be Wrong

It’s not just that some of us believe we might have to rethink the standard model of cosmology; we might also have to change the way we think about some of the most basic features of our universe — a conceptual revolution that would have implications far beyond the world of science. - The New York Times

The Myths Around One Of The Greatest of Native American Basket-Weavers

The Nevada businessman who sold the baskets in the early 1900s said they were made by a Washoe princess named Dat So La Lee. In fact, she preferred her English name, Louisa Keyser, and the backstories told by the salesman about her were mostly made up. - The New York Times

The Real Villain In The British Museum Scandal: Politicians

At the British Museum, flat funding from the Conservatives has meant a real-terms cut in revenue grant-in-aid of 37% between 2009-10, under Labour, and now, under the Tories. - The Guardian
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