Stories

Grandparents Are Giving Their Grandkids Personalized AI-Slop Children’s Books, Driving Parents Nuts

“If the odds are against parents who disapprove of artificial intelligence, it’s because there’s an entire ecosystem of AI services designed to insert real children into books … and some relatives can’t resist their ads for specially curated storybooks.” - Wired

In Federal Trial Of Salman Rushdie’s Attacker, Defense Rests Without Presenting Testimony

As happened in defendant Hadi Matar’s New York state trial for attempted murder (for which he was convicted in February 2025), he declined to testify himself and his attorney called no witnesses. - AP

Why Are University Administrators Trying To Get Academics To Get Rid Of Books?

The bureaucrat sent an email to him with a dread warning. The books must go, it decreed. There was nothing healthy nor wise in the practice, for the keeping of books on bookshelves is now “the unnecessary storing of combustible materials.” - The Critic

Out, Damned Bot: How The Bots Took Over Our Lives

This strategy of manufacturing a froth of interest around a given subject, from Nicki Minaj’s political perspectives to Sydney Sweeney’s jean ads, has recently been especially effective, and has moved culture-war fights from the trenches of bot-infested social networks into more mainstream channels. - The New Yorker

What Cinema Is Becoming

In this new media landscape, the rigid divides between pure cinema and genre cinema collapsed. Show business no longer creates value solely by selling a single commodity. Instead, it thrives on building interconnected “media ecologies,” creatively connecting film production with TV, toys, games, tourism, platforms, brands, live events, local practices and new technologies. - The Conversation

Tulsa Ballet’s Artistic Directors Are Retiring After 30 Years

Artistic director Marcello Angelini and assistant artistic director Daniela Buson (who are married) announced they will retire from their positions at the end of the 2026-27 season, the company’s 70th. Among the couple’s crowning achievements is this spring’s tour to London, for which the company received glowing reviews. - Tulsa Flyer

The Depressing Notion Of AI Art

The point is that art is linked to dialectical movement. In most societies at most points in time, art is decoration or religious offering — the lyric is also possible. But to actually have artistic evolution, you really need a movement of historical forces that art, essentially, is keeping pace with. - Castalia

The Bullshit Jobs We Do To Make Possible Our Real Work

“Utilizing a bullshit job to pursue other projects isn’t easy. It requires judgment and determination to take time that’s been first flattened and homogenized … then broken randomly into unpredictably large fragments.” - Arrowsmith Press

New York State Museum Accused Of Fraud

Federal investigators said high-ranking administrators at the New York State Museum in Albany directed a subordinate to falsify time sheets, allowing the state to improperly draw down $597,624 in federal grants from 2020 to 2022. - The New York Times

Early Music Pioneer Joel Cohen, Founder Of Boston Camerata, Has Died At 84

He founded the Camerata in 1968 and directed it for 40 years, performing and recording (on over 50 discs) a repertoire ranging from 12th-century troubadour sings through large-scale French Baroque sacred works to 19th-century American spirituals and Shaker songs. He retired in 2008, succeeded by his wife, soprano Anne Azéma. - That Eric Alper

Italian Theatres, Mt. Olympus Added As World Heritage Sites

Meeting in Busan, South Korea, for its 48th session from July 19 to 29, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee inscribed 19 cultural sites, five natural environments, and one property exhibiting both cultural and ecological significance. - Artnet

Musicians Union Files Suit Against AI Music Companies And Universal And Warner To Block Licensing

The union alleges that Universal and Warner licensed recordings made by its members to the two AI companies “without compensation or credit.” - MusicBusinessWorldwide

Why Writing Feels So Difficult

Every time you sit down to write, you’re doing something your brain registers as socially risky. Translating private thoughts into language means exposing yourself to judgment and for most of human history, judgment wasn’t just uncomfortable, it was dangerous. - LitHub

Tobias Picker’s New Opera Is About A Trans Pioneer, Who’s Played By A Pioneering Trans Opera Singer

Lili Elbe, which gets its US premiere this weekend at Santa Fe Opera, is based on the trans woman whose story was told in the film The Danish Girl. Picker wrote the title role for baritone Lucia Lucas, the first active opera singer to come out as trans. - The New York Times

Group Which Founded Golden Globes Sues Company Which Bought It

“Members of the Hollywood Foreign Press, which founded and for decades owned the Golden Globe Awards, have sued Penske Media Corporation and others, alleging they engaged in fraud to acquire the valuable awards show in an attempt to create an entertainment industry monopoly.” - AP

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