Not because of the skill of the one-take camera crew. “We know, of course, that being a very famous person these days involves having phones shoved in your face. But to see it like this, minute by minute, is bleak viewing, no matter how catchy the tunes are.” - Slate
No Muppets will be on sale - thanks to their purchase by HBO - but among the hundreds of items up for auction as the company’s Los Angeles studio closes (the company will continue elsewhere) are some Great Muppet Caper props. And then, there are the Fraggles. - The New York Times
“Many participants reported that their work had already been used without their permission to train large language models, and more than a third (39%) said their income had fallen as a result of generative AI. A large majority also expected their earnings to decline further.” - The Guardian (UK)
Novelist Ann Packer is OK with that. “As any veteran author knows, books that get people talking have a better chance of bubbling up on the best-seller list, even without celebrity endorsement.” - The New York Times
One of the organizers: “It’s a way to get folks to know or get used to what might look like. … What their rights are as bystanders, as citizens, as noncitizens, as folks who are documented, undocumented.” - Wired
“While it was not immediately clear what they were protesting, eyewitnesses said one of them had denounced David H. Koch, the billionaire industrialist, a polarizing figure who poured much of his fortune into right-wing causes and a campaign to discredit the idea of climate change.” - The New York Times
“A generation of gen Z and millennial artists are reckoning with what it meant to come of age through recession, austerity and the tail end of the Troubles. The music pulsates with the sense of promises made and withdrawn.” - The Guardian (UK)
“It’s hard not to see the platform as a place where users are encouraged to double down on familiar archetypes instead of making something truly original, or even remotely interesting. … So where is the good stuff?” - The Verge (Archive Today)
A man who said he would help Rockoff - one of the last photographers in Phnom Penh as the Khmer Rouge marched in - has all of the negatives, but what is he planning to do with them? And where will any money go? - The New York Times
“The Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium has revealed that United Talent Agency (UTA) has signed the governing body for ‘the king of cheeses’ to get the supermarket staple placement in films, TV shows and streaming projects around the globe.” - The Hollywood Reporter
A copy of Superman No 1 that was discovered in an attic in California last year has become the world’s most expensive comic book after selling for US$9.12m (£6.96m, A$14.14m). - The Guardian
In an excerpt from his book Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle, crossword constructor and former Will Shortz assistant Natan Last describes not only how it happened, but why it was probably unavoidable. - The Nation
The BBC is now losing more than £1bn a year from households either evading the licence fee or deciding they do not need one, according to a cross-party group of MPs who warned the corporation is under “severe pressure”. - The Guardian
