World Donkey Day

Today is World Donkey Day, and what better way to celebrate them than to share a few of the things that make these intelligent, curious animals who they are?

Portugal said to be 5th most corrupt

more than 80 percent of those surveyed said bribes were a generalised practice in Portugal

Julião Sarmento (1948 - 2021)

Sarmento studied painting and architecture at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts. He began exhibiting film, video, sound, painting, sculpture, installation and multimedia in the early seventies, but also developed several site-specific projects. He has exhibited his work extensively around the world in solo and group shows. Sarmento represented Portugal at the Venice Biennial in 1997. His work is represented in several museums and private collections, including an artist room showing at London's Tate Modern in 2010.

Protecting UK fishing waters is one of the Royal Navy's oldest tasks

Protecting UK fishing waters is one of the Royal Navy's oldest tasks, but Downing Street's decision to send two warships to the Channel Islands is a deliberate posture after France's initial threat to cut off electricity to the islands

The Book of Charlatans provides an unusual glimpse into the street life of medieval Islamic societies

In the medieval city of Tinnis, on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, a prophet was legendary for his ability to cure lepers and resurrect the dead. His sanctity was so great that even creatures of the sea would pay him homage. When he strolled along the shore, the fish leapt from the waters to kiss his feet. But the creatures were drawn to something besides his spiritual purity: he had coated his toes with a potion—one part human feces, one part basil, and one part Persian gum resin, all mixed with jasmine oil—that worked like catnip on fish. The Artuqid emir Rukn al-Din Mawdud, whose kingdom spanned the region of the Tigris River in what is now southeastern Turkey, was fascinated by such schemes. Perhaps he sensed that his own power, too, was only a fleeting illusion

Today, World Press Freedom Day, is a reminder that the struggle for freedom in Tibet is also a struggle for information

Tibetans who blog, share information or contact Tibetans in exile about their experiences of CCP rule are inevitably imprisoned. Meanwhile, independent journalists are blocked from accessing Tibet. Information that makes its way out of Tibet does so rarely and at great risk.

Carbon loss from forest degradation exceeds that from deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

Spatial–temporal dynamics of aboveground biomass (AGB) and forest area affect the carbon cycle, climate and biodiversity in the Brazilian Amazon. Here we investigate interannual changes in AGB and forest area by analysing satellite-based annual AGB and forest area datasets. We found that the gross forest area loss was larger in 2019 than in 2015, possibly due to recent loosening of forest protection policies. However, the net AGB loss was three times smaller in 2019 than in 2015. During 2010–2019, the Brazilian Amazon had a cumulative gross loss of 4.45 Pg C against a gross gain of 3.78 Pg C, resulting in a net AGB loss of 0.67 Pg C. Forest degradation (73%) contributed three times more to the gross AGB loss than deforestation (27%), given that the areal extent of degradation exceeds that of deforestation. This indicates that forest degradation has become the largest process driving carbon loss and should become a higher policy priority.

International Dance Day

ITI Centres and Cooperating Members, prominent figures of the global dance communities and dance companies contributed more than three-hour’s beautiful dance performances videos to this online celebration. These performances, from different continents of the world, can be dances of classic and contemporary, in solo, pas de deux and group, on a stage or on any space, happening in a real venue or online. All of them combined together, are an excellent expression of the cultural diversity and the resilience of human being when facing difficulties. Just as the slogans in the International Dance Day introduction videos, let us dance together in all corners of the world to create light in the dark.

Charles Michel: out!

 

How the Spiraling Installations in Yayoi Kusama’s New Berlin Retrospective Hold Up a Mirror to Our Anxious and Repetitive Modern Lives

The indexical approach sheds light on the enduring complexities that hide in plain sight in Kusama’s obsessively painted and warping world. Though pleasurable for all the senses, a plunge into Kusama’s work offers little reprieve from the anxieties and shifting realities outside. Each decade of her oeuvre is packed with frantic energy and emotion. Boundaries are crossed, one’s psychological stamina is tested. There is a sort of endlessness to each installation that creates a frenzy of seeing as chaotic and constant as a TikTok feed.

Marie-Denise Villers: Young Woman Drawing (1801) [The painting was the cover image on ARTnews for the 1971 publication of Linda Nochlin’s article “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”]

 

Secrets of a tree whisperer: ‘They get along, they listen – they’re attuned’

Suzanne Simard revolutionized the way we think about plants and fungi with the discovery of the woodwide web. The ecologist's new book shares the wisdom of a life of listening to the forest

World Book and Copyright Day

reading and the celebration of World Book and Copyright Day, 23 April, we can open ourselves to others despite distance, and we can travel thanks to imagination

Biden vows to slash US emissions by half to meet ‘existential crisis of our time’

Joe Biden has called upon the world to confront the climate crisis and “overcome the existential crisis of our time”, as he unveiled an ambitious new pledge to slash US planet-heating emissions in half by the end of the decade.

Nomadland

A woman in her sixties, after losing everything, embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad

World on the verge of climate ‘abyss’, as temperature rise continues

The six years since 2015, have been the warmest on record, and the decade beginning up to this year, was the warmest ever.

Scientists suggest that trippy hallucinations and dreams influenced prehistoric cave art

Reduced oxygen resulting from the use of torches in narrow enclosed spaces likely triggered hypoxia, resulting in out-of-body experiences, researchers report

The infiltration and undermining of Europe's economy and society by organised crime

The SOCTA 2021 provides an overview of the current state of knowledge on criminal networks and their operations based on data provided to Europol by Member States and partners and data collected specifically for the SOCTA 2021. In trying to overcome the established, and limiting, conceptualisation of organised crime groups, this assessment focuses on the roles of criminals within criminal processes and outlines how a better understanding of those roles allows for a more targeted operational approach in the fight against serious and organised crime.

Jorge Peixinho: "Sax-blue"

Daniel Kientzy, saxophones

Male brain blood vessels became denser, thinner and twisted

Male and female mouse brains, as they aged, became marked by distinct differences in the blood vessel and neural stem cell systems. Female brain blood vessels became thicker but they weren’t crowded.

Louise Bourgeois

 

Nalini Malani: Utopia!?

Witness describes seeing George Floyd 'slowly fade away'

Williams, a former wrestler who said he was trained in mixed martial arts including chokeholds, testified Monday that he thought Derek Chauvin used a shimmying motion several times to increase the pressure on Floyd. He said he yelled to the officer that he was cutting off Floyd's blood supply.

Understanding Heidegger on Technology

The  Nazis  were  opposed  to  the  two  dominant  forms  of government  of  the  day  that  Heidegger  associated  with  “global technology,”  communism  and  democracy.  In  another  of  Heidegger’s infamous  political  remarks,  made  in  that  same  1935  lecture,  he  claimed that  “Russia  and  America,  seen  metaphysically,  are  both  the  same:  the same  hopeless  frenzy  of  enchained  technology  and  of  the  rootless organization  of  the  average  man.”  The  Nazi’s  rhetoric  about  “blood  and soil”  and  the  mythology  of  an  ancient,  wise,  and  virtuous  German  Volk might  also  have  appealed  to  someone  concerned  with  the  homogenizing consequences  of  globalization  and  technology.  More  broadly,  Heidegger’s thought  always  was  and  remained  illiberal,  tending  to  encompass  all matters,  philosophy  and  politics  among  them,  in  a  single  perspective, ignoring  the  freedom  of  most  people  to  act  independently.  The  ways  in which  liberal  democracies  promote  excellence  and  useful  competition were  not  among the  political  ideas  to  which  Heidegger’s  thought  was open.  His  totalizing,  illiberal  thought  made  his  joining  the  Nazis  much more  likely  than  his  condemning  them.

New Covid vaccines needed globally within a year

Survey of experts in relevant fields concludes that new variants could arise in countries with low vaccine coverage

A petition in support of a suspended teacher who showed students a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed has passed more than 50,000 signatures

The school, in Batley, near Bradford, West Yorkshire, is facing calls to reinstate the teacher after a petition in support of him reached more than 50,000 signatures in two days

Arashiyama mankai (Cherry blossoms of Arashiyama)

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)

10 seconds more electricity than the entire studio over the past 2 years

French artist Joanie Lemercier spent the past few years working to lower the carbon footprint of his studio only to learn that his first “drop” of NFT artworks on Nifty Gateway “consumed in 10 seconds more electricity than the entire studio over the past 2 years.”

NFTs and the market places that sell them are touted as an alternative to a Wall Street-dominated financial system

If the hype is to be believed, it is a system ripe with democratic potential, will eke power from the art world’s elites and hierarchies, and will allow artists to create, sell, trade and be paid on their own terms

What an artwork is? (what is no more than a fraud?)

It’s mildly interesting to see what Beeple’s early art influences were: punk drawer Zak Smith, cartoon painter Victor Castillo, and, interestingly, Martín Ramírez, the self-taught former janitor who made most of his work while institutionalized in a California mental hospital, and developed his own private, haunting lexicon of images. Beeple dedicates an entire series of “Everydays” to redoing themes from Ramírez, whom he refers to as a “tard.”

A guide to Iannis Xenakis's music

A Greek man in his early 20s fights for his homeland as part of the Communist resistance at the end of the second world war. Shrapnel from a blast from a British tank causes a horrendous facial injury that means the permanent loss of sight in one eye. He is sentenced to death after his exile to Paris (a sentence that was later commuted to a prison term, with his conviction finally quashed with the end of the junta in 1974). By the time he returns, he has become one of the leading creative figures of the century: an architect who trained, worked, and often transcended the inspiration of his mentor and boss, Le Corbusier; an intellectual whose physical and mathematical understanding of the way individual particles interact with each other and create a larger mass - atoms, birds, people, and musical notes 

A failure to eliminate racial discrimination will continue to force innocent people to flee and fear for their lives

Violent and deadly attacks against Black, Brown, Asian and Indigenous people, toxic language, and daily and sustained racially charged acts have rightly forced painful - but necessary - conversations to re-examine prejudice, privilege, the way we view the world, and most importantly how we act. We must take this opportunity to work towards a world that is not just against racism, but is actively anti-racist.

Las Abejas (The Bees) is a Christian pacifist civil society group of Tzotzil Maya formed in Chenalho, Chiapas in 1992

As the Zapatista Army of National Liberation uprising took place in 1994, Las Abejas stood in solidarity with Zapatista ends and principles, but not their violent means. Las Abejas paid a high price for their support when the December 1997 massacre in Acteal killed 45 members praying in a church.

The Threat of Cascading Extinctions on Earth Could Be Greater Than We Thought

In the delicately tangled web of an ecosystem, snapping certain anchor lines can bring the whole thing tumbling down faster than severing other threads

Dark Matter

Sholette, a politically engaged artist, argues that imagination and creativity in the art world originate thrive in the non-commercial sector shut off from prestigious galleries and champagne receptions. This broader creative culture feeds the mainstream with new forms and styles that can be commodified and used to sustain the few artists admitted into the elite.

Tibetan monasteries barred from organising religious festival

These days all the religious activities in Tibetan monasteries are directly controlled by Monastic Management Committees, which comprises a group of Chinese government officials who are permanently stationed in the monasteries. The committee replaces the centuries-old tradition of senior lamas overseeing the study and practice of Tibetan Buddhism. 

Womanhood, as Seen by 12 Inspiring Female Photographers

To celebrate International Women’s Day, "we" invited 12 photographers – who have either contributed to or been featured on AnOthermag.com – to send us an image in response to the brief of ‘womanhood’. Here are their brilliant submissions

The Bride

a revealing, unfinished painting, titled The Bride and found in his studio after his death from pneumonia in February of 1918. On the right hand side is a scantily clad female figure, her legs akimbo, her pubic region portrayed in meticulous detail. Over the top of this, the artist has begun painting a patterned skirt, which presumably would have obscured the subject’s nether regions. Viewers have often wondered what is happening beneath the hefty drapery covering the protagonists of The Kiss and other such works, and if The Bride is anything to go by, the answer is a lot.

Girlhood (It’s complicated)

commemorates the anniversary of woman suffrage by exploring the concept of girlhood in the United States, but also how girls changed history in five areas: politics, education, work, health, and fashion. We argue that girlhood has an unexpected and complicated history and that girls, like suffragists, used their voices to make a difference.

How Nefertiti Became a Powerful Symbol in Contemporary Art

Since its discovery in the early 20th century, the bust of Nefertiti, a work of limestone and stucco crafted by the sculptor Thutmose around 1345 B.C.E., has cemented the ancient Egyptian queen’s relevance as a global pop-culture icon. 

Tibet ranked as the joint-worst place in the world for civil rights and political freedoms

summary of political rights and civil liberties in Tibet is expected to be released later this year. It is likely to include further restrictions on freedom of religion, the detention of Tibetans who criticise the Chinese government or carry out peaceful protests, torture and the ongoing “vocational training” programme, which last year saw at least 500,000 rural Tibetans encouraged or coerced to move from the land they have historically stewarded and into menial jobs.

Dissenting Artists Around the Globe Were Jailed and Killed at an Alarming Rate Last Year, According to a New Report

The survey found that governments may be using the pandemic as a pretense to crack down on artists.

Scientists entered people’s dreams and got them ‘talking’

For the first time, researchers have had “conversations” involving novel questions and math problems with lucid dreamers—people who are aware that they are dreaming. The findings, from four labs and 36 participants, suggest people can receive and process complex external information while sleeping.

Black Feminist Visions

Pieces like Lavar Munroe’s Virgin and Child (2020) consider the bond that a mother has with her child through bold strokes of color and expressive mark-making. Other works are more introspective, focusing on the relationship that one has with themself. For example, Zanele Muholi’s self-portraiture explores themes of race, sexuality, and labor; their gaze is penetrating, and it’s clear they have agency. All of these artists have stories to tell, and the importance of their work transcends aesthetic appeal. 

Life on the streets of the French town branded as ‘lost to Islam’

Hairdressers and their clients hit the headlines after local teacher Didier Lemaire claimed there were no mixed salons in Trappes – suggesting the town was in the stranglehold of Islamic radicalisation. He also claimed schoolchildren were banned from singing and some women barred from cafes. Lemaire has since been placed under police protection following alleged death threats. The accusations came on the eve French MPs voted on a controversial bill to combat Islamist extremism, put forward after the brutal murder of teacher Samuel Paty last October.

The Limits of Thought

This is an introduction to the life, work, and legacy of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. There is little doubt that he was a towering figure of the twentieth century; on his return to Cambridge in 1929 Maynard Keynes wrote, “Well, God has arrived. I met him on the 5:15​ train”. Wittgenstein is credited with being the greatest philosopher of the modern age, a thinker who left not one but two philosophies for his successors to argue over: The early Wittgenstein said, “the limits of my language mean the limits of my world”; the later Wittgenstein replied, “If God looked into our minds he would not have been able to see there whom we were speaking of”. Language was at the heart of both. Wittgenstein stated that his purpose was to finally free humanity from the pointless and neurotic philosophical questing that plagues us all. As he put it, “To show the fly the way out of the fly bottle”. He was something of a philosopher's philosopher. But how did he think language could solve all the problems of philosophy? How have his ideas influenced contemporary culture? And could his thought ever achieve the release for us that he hoped it would? Melvyn Bragg discusses Wittgenstein and these questions with Ray Monk (Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton), Barry Smith (Lecturer in Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London), and Marie McGinn (Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of York).

Photographing Black Style

“Black Lens: Photographing Black Style” brings together emerging Black photographers from across the globe who document Black style in order to explore the multiplicity of Black culture, people, and history. Through their nuanced images of Black life and experiences, these artists remind us of the important role that Black style plays in preserving African diasporic histories and cultures. Equally importantly, their work offers an exciting opportunity to reflect on and reimagine the future of Black style. 

A Democratic member of Congress invoked Reconstruction-era

A Democratic member of Congress invoked Reconstruction-era anti-Ku Klux Klan laws in a lawsuit filed along with the NAACP against former President Donald Trump, his lawyer, and the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers right-wing extremist groups

Chick Corea dies at 79

“Like a runner loves to run because it just feels good, I like to play the piano just because it feels good,” 

Iron Ox year of 2148

some local people refer to Losar as Bal Gyal Lo, where Bal refers to Tibet, Gyal to the King and Lo to the Year

Don’t burn wood, don’t burn food. Stop fake renewables!

When you think 'renewables' you probably think of solar panels and wind turbines. The truth is that in Europe almost 60% of what we call 'renewables' is actually wood and crops. Yes! European dirty coal power plants now burn trees and crops on a mass scale. The EU calls it green energy and subsidises it. We can change this. EU leaders are rethinking the law that allows this to happen.

Stand With Belarus

Solidarity day with Belarus

Songbirds rely on an autism gene for memorization

Juvenile zebra finches practice their fathers’ song thousands of times a day over three months. They rehearse the song tens of thousands of times until it is a close match. 

7 aerial photos that show how human activity is dramatically reshaping our planet

The state of Rondônia in western Brazil has become one of the most deforested parts of the Amazon rainforest. Once home to 80,000 square miles (or 207,199 square kilometers) of forest, the past three decades have seen rapid clearing and degradation. By 2003, an estimated 26,000 square miles (or 67,340 square kilometers) of rainforest — an area that’s larger than the state of West Virginia — had been cleared.

Particle That Is a Portal to a 5th Dimension

“This could also eventually lead to an interesting cosmological history of the universe and might lead to the production of gravitational waves.” 

Human rights groups call for Winter Olympic boycott

More than 180 organisations have called on governments to boycott Beijing 2022 because of reported human rights abuses against ethnic minorities

ICIJ nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for combating dark money flows

Three Norwegian lawmakers have nominated the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Global Alliance for Tax Justice for a Nobel Peace Prize, citing the organizations’ “success in building global alliances” to increase transparency in the global financial system. “The outstanding work of the ICIJ to expose illicit flows, and the mammoth achievement of the GATJ to build national and international pressure for accountability and fair taxation — warrants attention, recognition and support,” the letter says

Thousands arrested at protests in support of Kremlin critic Navalny

Russian authorities mounted a massive effort to stem the tide of demonstrations after tens of thousands rallied across the country last weekend in the largest, most widespread show of discontent that Russia had seen in years. Despite threats of jail terms, warnings to social media groups and tight police cordons, the protests again engulfed cities across Russia's 11 time zones 

Navalny Poison Squad Implicated in Murders of Three Russian Activists

initial report disclosed that the FSB poison squad traveled in clusters of two or three people to many more destinations that can be explained with their now-known efforts to murder Alexey Navalny. We continued exploring this unit’s extensive travel data methodology ... seeking to link their itineraries to previously unexplained deaths of political activists, as well as poisonings of prominent figures

The daily grotesque

TrumpTrump now hosts more than 1,500 drawings—one for each day since the nightmare began. Its subjects have grown to include Trump’s appointees and sycophants, along with anthropomorphized rifles and pizza slices, giant skulls and Klansmen, a universe of monsters whose narratives offer a disturbing parallel to the news cycle under the Trump administration. 

Alpine plants face extinction as melting glaciers force them higher

‘Escalator to extinction’ means aggressive species will eventually take over, threatening the entire mountain ecosystem

Little comparison with the corrupt countries...

A millionaire Canadian couple who secretly travelled to a remote community to receive a coronavirus vaccine meant for vulnerable and elderly Indigenous residents may now face jail sentences for breaking public health rules.

Synchronization of human sleep with the moon cycle under field conditions

Timing and duration of sleep have changed vastly throughout human evolution and history, following changes in social organization and subsistence. Human beings, with reduced vision capabilities in low-lit environments, are mostly diurnal, and it is believed that nomadic groups timed their sleep onset to the time after dusk when it became too dark to be safe hunting and gathering

Conversations About Art and Performance by Charles Rosen and Catherine Temerson

True howlers and misinformation of course abound in all dictionaries, and the Harvard Dictionary of Music is no exception, but they are to be expected and even welcomed; they complement the more serious parts of a work of reference as the satyr-play sets off the tragedy. I am as delighted as the next reader to find Ravel’s Jeux d’eau defined as Water-games, as if it were not the play of fountains but a form of water-polo. To read again that Beethoven introduced the trombone into symphonic music (to say nothing of the triangle and the big drum) should excite more sympathy than censure, and the idea that Schoenberg actually intended his Music for a film sequence as part of the repertoire for silent films, like the pieces labeled “Help, Help,” is too ludicrous to mislead, and too engaging to wish corrected. Charles Rosen, 1970

Big Tech Critics Alarmed at Direction of Biden Antitrust Personnel

Renata Hesse, a former Justice Department official under President Barack Obama, worked alongside Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) defending Google a decade ago, helped shepherd through the Amazon/Whole Foods merger, and represented several pharmaceutical companies and other clients in antitrust cases. She is the leading contender for the assistant attorney general for antitrust position, multiple sources told the Prospect and The Intercept on Friday. Sources also said that Juan Arteaga, another Obama Justice Department veteran who defended JPMorgan Chase and several other financial firms in fraud cases and represented AT&T in its merger with Time Warner, was also being considered but was more likely to be appointed deputy assistant attorney general in the antitrust division

Cosmic-ray detector might have spotted nuggets of dark matter

A series of mysterious events recorded by a cosmic-ray observatory a decade ago could be the signature of an unusual form of dark matter called “axion quark nuggets”

Ageing Water Storage Infrastructure: An Emerging Global Risk

The Report provides an overview of the current state of knowledge on the ageing of large dams –an emerging global development issue as tens of thousands of existing large dams have reached or exceeded an “alert” age threshold of 50 years, and many others will soon approach 100 years. These aged structures incur rapidly rising maintenance needs and costs while simultaneously declining their effectiveness and posing potential threats to human safety and the environment

Biden returns US to Paris climate accord hours after becoming president

Biden’s executive action, signed in the White House on Wednesday, will see the US rejoin the international effort curb the dangerous heating of the planet, following a 30-day notice period. The world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases was withdrawn from the Paris deal under Donald

US' terrorists still active and organized

"We are in a full blown military operation right now to remove the threats and install our President back in power and control the violence in the big cities,” wrote one QAnon supporter.

QAnon influencers, many of whom also invoked prayer and God’s role in what is supposedly to come. Over the last three years, QAnon’s high profile figures have attracted hundreds of thousands of loyal followers. Many of them have made a lot of money from their followings, and they’re not about give up the grift.

when Trump’s legal efforts failed, the Proud Boys called for him on social media to use his presidential powers to stay in office. Some urged him to declare martial law or take control by force. In the last two weeks of December, they pushed Trump in their protests and on social media to “Cross the Rubicon.”

Plastic pollution problem has reached new heights and new depths

Scientists have found bits of plastic on the seafloor, thousands of feet below the ocean’s surface. Plastic debris has also washed ashore on remote islands; traveled to the top of pristine mountains; and been found inside the bodies of whales, turtles, seabirds and people, too.

What We’ve Lost: The Species Declared Extinct in 2020

Dozens of frogs, fish, orchids and other species — many unseen for decades — may no longer exist due to humanity’s destructive effects on the planet.

Now Is the Perfect Time to Ruin The Donald’s Life

For the rest of his miserable life, he should be made to face the consequences of all his charges: rape; bank fraud; tax fraud; insurance fraud; trying to steal an election; and when all else fails, helping fuel and organize an insurrection.

Trump's 5-year campaign of lies led to the Capitol attack

the Biden administration must treat disinformation as the national security threat it is, and acknowledge the uncomfortable truth that Americans themselves are the main producers and amplifiers of it.

The Hacker Who Archived Parler Explains How She Did It

donk_enby, who has been researching Parler for months, understood that a litany of important information about America’s most prominent far-right extremist groups was at risk of being permanently hidden from the public eye. In a monumental effort, donk_enby and a few other fellow hackers and researchers managed to capture and archive nearly every post, photo and video on Parler before it was shut down. 

Right-Wing Brazilians Are Up in Arms Over This ‘Obscene’ Sculpture

The sculptor, Juliana Notari wrote that the artwork, titled Diva, “questions the relationship between nature and culture in our western phallocentric and anthropocentric society,” and invites discussion about the “problematization of gender.”