Artefacts that have been around for a thousand years or more have been destroyed in Russia’s illegal war. However, facing up to the issues, which includes improving this international legal structure, might help prevent some destruction of cultural treasures in the future. - The Conversation
Olivia Swarthout is the researcher behind the popular art history-inspired social media account Weird Medieval Guys, which has attracted nearly 700,000 followers on X, formerly Twitter, since she began posting with the handle @WeirdMedieval in April 2022. - CNN
His much-loved BBC series Tutti Frutti, about an ageing rock’n’roll band attempting a tour of Scotland, starred Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson and won six Baftas. Byrne was also a masterful painter, known for his self-portraits, as well as designing theatre sets and album covers. - The Guardian
Starting this year, the award comes with $500,000 for the winner to donate to a non-profit of their choice. (Bradford has yet to announce his pick.) - The Art Newspaper
Paste Magazine, a digital pop culture publication based in Atlanta, announced Wednesday that it was buying Jezebel.com from G/O Media, which closed it and laid off its staff earlier this month. - AP
For a large part of international public opinion the return seems only fair. For some, it is a matter of aesthetics: repatriating historic monuments to exhibit them in the environment they were created for. For others, it is a political question: another step towards accepting the many crimes committed by imperialism and colonialism. - The Guardian
"In a small garden hut in north-eastern Tunisia, just a short distance from what was once Carthage, one man has spent most of the last 16 years smashing up sea snails – attempting to coax their entrails into something resembling Tyrian purple," for which all recipes have been lost for centuries. - BBC
“We thought, 'What’s the point in us existing in perpetuity and just trickling out funds while saying no to more communities when we knew we could have a greater impact by allocating our resources at an accelerated rate.'” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
The right-wing account Libs of TikTok claims "Kellogg's wants to indoctrinate your children with breakfast cereal." The Dank Night tweeted "Would you like a side of rainbow commie propaganda with your diabetes, honey?" All because Froot Loops boxes offer access to a free online library with DEI content. - New York Post
Lately, however, the social-science world has become mired in controversy. Researchers themselves have started to note that many famous experiments have been debunked—such as, indeed, the Stanford prison experiment—or simply can’t be replicated. - The Atlantic
"On the cusp of celebrating their company’s milestone anniversary, Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, who co-founded the New York-based (company) in 1994, still have plenty to say, both onstage and off. " - Fjord Review
A small but thoughtful new study in PLOS One calls into question whether addiction is the right term for heavy social media use, and suggests digital detox, at least over the short term, may not have much impact on mental health at all. - Nautilus
In a Q&A, U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns says that yes, it has — even the recent visit by only 14 musicians (following the cancellation of a planned full tour). - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
A.I. as photographer falls short because it can’t truly empathize with a subject. A camera, no matter how high-tech, can’t grasp the unspoken stories in a person’s eyes or the vulnerability they show in front of the lens. Empathy is a major element of what allows a photographer to build trust. - The Observer
"Parking the new-age woo-woo momentarily (the seven-day detoxes, the walking barefoot to cure depression, the vagina-steaming), there is a provocation here or at the very least a disconnect – it was 2008. … Paltrow's vision of luxury was so preposterous, it's surprising we didn’t immediately see it as a critique of consumption." - The Guardian