Douglas McLennan
Trump Demands Congress Defund Public Radio And Television
“Republicans, don’t miss this opportunity to rid our Country of this giant SCAM, both being arms of the Radical Left Democrat Party,” he wrote...
Are We Headed For A New “Dark Ages”?
If Russia, China, and the United States all sport various shades of totalitarianism, and Europe fractures over it, the world may very well enter...
Viral Trend: AI Image Update Floods Internet With Studio Ghibli-ized Images
On social media, users have shared multiple examples of Ghibli-style images produced by OpenAI’s new image generator. - Variety
Court Rules That Music Created By AI Can’t Be Copyrighted. But This Doesn’t Settle...
“Based on the fundamental principles of copyright, the current state of fast-evolving technology, and the information received… the Copyright Office concludes that existing legal...
Last Week’s AI Image Leap Reignites Copyright Fears
OpenAI’s and Google’s latest tools make it easier than ever to re-create the styles of copyrighted works — simply by typing a text prompt....
Music Publishers Lose AI Ruling In Court
A federal court in California denied an injunction sought by music publishers in their copyright case against Anthropic on Tuesday. The injunction would’ve barred the AI...
Technology Has Shaped Human Knowledge For Centuries
From clay tablets to electronic tablets, technology has played an influential role in shaping human knowledge. Today we stand on the brink of the next...
Justin Davidson: Recreating The Frick Museum
"I worried that all the tinkering would leave the grande dame of mansion museums like a movie star whose cosmetic procedures had gone awry:...
As Support For Culture Diminishes In Australia, Artists Look For Alternatives (Like Leaving)
“A lot of our organisations, especially established ones, are talking about cultural maintenance. I’m like, ‘What are we maintaining?’” - The Age
Violations Of Free Speech: Groups Challenge NEA’s Ban On Funding Projects On Gender
The ACLU and plaintiff organisations are challenging the NEA’s implementation of Trump’s order directing that “federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology”. -...
Poland Considers Plan To Give Pensions To Dancers At Age 40
The Polish parliament is set to vote on a reform that allowing dancers to draw their state pension 20 years earlier than most workers...
Should Rich Universities Use Their Enormous Endowments To Fight Trump Funding Cuts?
"The wealthiest universities, in particular, must pledge to use all available endowment funds as a backstop for any federal funding cuts to research, educational programs or student financial...
It’s Baaack. Napster Sold For $207M, To Be Reinvented As A “Social Music Platform”
Infinite announced today a definitive agreement to buy Napster for $207 million. The Norwalk, Connecticut-based company plans to turn Napster into a “social music...
Long-Term Play: Zoomer Ponders Buying “Affordable” Art With Her Retirement Savings
Imagining what it would be like to be a first-time art collector at the twice-annual Metropolitan Pavilion event, I told myself I’d mentally purchase...
AI Is (Going To Be) So Good That We Won’t Be Able To Tell...
These tools are constantly improving. The telltale signs we could once use to detect AI-generated images are no longer reliable. - The Conversation
Kennedy Center Fires Its Social Impact Team
Our work in Social Impact was to widen our cultural radius and to imagine that inspiration itself was a constitutional right afforded to ALL...
Tiny Library On US/Canada Border Raises Money To Build Separate Entrance For Canadians
Built in 1904, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House needs to renovate an emergency exit to become an accessible main entrance for Canadians after the...
Who Owns Common Sense?
Common sense has long had two contrasting emphases: an inquiry position that questions prevailing norms and a conservative position that doubles down on prevailing...
We’re Meant To Forget: Identity, Memory And Survival
There is a convincing scientific rationale for why the human self-image is so inaccurate. Evolution has no interest in truth or objectivity. Natural selection...
The Improbable Competitive Race To Decipher Cuneiform Language That Fascinated Britain In The 1850s
For mid-19th-century Britons, proving that this elusive script could be understood meant pulling back the curtain on a distant, vanished, yet hauntingly familiar world,...
Why Shakespeare Resonates Across Cultures
The sense that Shakespeare spoke the language of the oppressors, yet also a language that helped think beyond that oppression, was not unique to...
Does Anyone Actually Really Know You?
It’s a question that arises at odd moments—sometimes, perversely, when we’re surrounded by people who know us well. Suddenly, we become conscious of an...
Book Overdue By 98 Years Returned To Cincinnati Public Library
"I've been here a while, and I've seen books come back that were due in the '80s and the '90s and even the '70s,...
Can The Art Industry Achieve Gender Parity?
There is less female representation in leadership roles among larger firms. Around 40 percent of respondents working in outfits with fewer than 50 employees...
Dutch National Opera’s Crusade To Go Green
The Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam is setting an example with the great leaps it has made in recent years toward sustainability. The dream, distant for...