Nadia Boulanger

Boulanger’s family had been associated for two generations with the Paris Conservatory, where her father and first instructor, Ernest Boulanger, was a teacher of voice. She received her formal training there in 1897–1904, studying composition with Gabriel Fauré and organ with Charles-Marie Widor. She later taught composition at the conservatory and privately. She also published a few short works and in 1908 won second place in the Prix de Rome competition with her cantata La Sirène. She ceased composing, rating her works “useless,” after the death in 1918 of her talented sister Lili Boulanger

Barbara Rose, Impassioned Critic Who Reshaped Art History, Has Died at 84

“The only thing anybody knows about me is that I wrote that article with the title I didn’t give it, which was ‘ABC Art,’ and then everybody insisted that I invented Minimal art,” Rose told Artforum in 2016. “Well, that is seriously wrong. I don’t invent art movements. I just notice coincidences, and those coincidences began to make sense to me as a worldview, which the Germans call weltanschauung.”

A Comparison between Natives and Second-generation Immigrants in Switzerland (2013)

for the children of Portuguese, former-Yugoslav, Albanian, and Turkish immigrants, the socio-economic background plays a minor role in explaining the transitions into NEET. In this case, a disadvantage persists even after socio-economic background is taken into account in the model.

The Caspian Sea is set to fall by 9 metres or more this century

It means the lake will lose at least 25% of its former size, uncovering 93,000 sq km of dry land. If that new land were a country, it would be the size of Portugal.

The Dumbest Moments of the Trump Presidency

The president told the nation to inject bleach during a pandemic; his team altered the projected path of a hurricane on an official document, with a Sharpie, to help the president save face after an erroneous tweet

What happened after an explosion at a Russian disease research lab called VECTOR?

On September 16th, 2019, an explosion occurred at the State Research Centre of Virology and Biotechnology building (Vector) in the city of Koltsovo, in the Novosiberisk region of Siberia, Russia. The affected building was a BSL 4 virology research centre, and one of only two known sites housing variola virus, the cause of smallpox. The facility has one of the largest collections of dangerous pathogens in the world. Whilst laboratory safety breaches are common and do not usually result in epidemics, explosions are rare. Unlike a needlestick injury or an accidental shipping of live anthrax, an explosion of this magnitude is likely to lead to a physical breach of the integrity of the laboratory, possibly affecting multiple parts of the structure and equipment within. An explosion is sudden, uncontrolled and unpredictable, and involves force which may result in pathogen release into the surrounding environment. An epidemic which arises in close proximity to the explosion could spread beyond the affected region or even globally, which makes this event a concern for global public health.

US Congress passes bill to support Tibet

US lawmakers have approved legislation that may lead to sanctioning China if it interferes in the Tibetan people's process of choosing a successor to their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Over 500 animals slaughtered

Over 500 animals have been slaughtered in a walled estate in Azambuja purportedly making way for a massive solar energy park. Uproar began over social media last weekend after photographs of ‘the massacre’ were uploaded by some of the Spanish hunters who had taken part.

Great Conjunction 2020 (December 21)

The last closest Great Conjunction we could see occurred in 1226

Stop fake green!

The burning of trees and crops for energy, factory animal farming, polluting cargo and cruise liners significantly damage our planet and people’s health, and should not be featured in the list of ‘green’ activities to receive EU money.

Sanam Khatibi’s Paintings Envision a Fantastical World of Skulls, Poisons, and More

Sanam Khatibi’s painstakingly detailed paintings come in many forms, from small-scale still lifes that reflect Dutch Golden Age styles to larger canvases with nude figures in forestial settings. Binding them all is an interest in rituals and mysteries of the natural world.

"People have an easier time blaming the victim"

So-called revenge pornography, which is a type of image-based sexual abuse, has been a criminal offence in England and Wales since 2015. The law defines it as "the sharing of private, sexual materials, either photos or videos, of another person, without their consent and with the purpose of causing embarrassment or distress". It is punishable by up to two years' imprisonment. However platforms that share this content have not been held accountable so far.

Clean meat

Singapore has given regulatory approval for the world’s first “clean meat” that does not come from slaughtered animals.

Ukrainian citizen was victim of torture at Lisbon airport

The national director ... admitted that the Ukrainian citizen killed at Lisbon airport, Ihor Homenyuk, was a victim of torture.

“Say Our Names”

Among the most striking and widely shared murals was one painted in Minneapolis by artists Xena Goldman, Cadex Herrera, and Greta McLain, along with a crew of collaborators drawn from the community. In the painting, Floyd is framed by names of Black Americans, including Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, and Breonna Taylor, who have been killed by police over the last decade. Above Floyd’s head is a simple phrase eponymous with the movement: “Say Our Names.”

#HumanRightsDay 2020

There were many bright spots, from the caretakers and essential workers globally persevering during this pandemic, to the protesters who were inspired to march by the murder of George Floyd. From the people in Lebanon who came together to help each other after a horrible, preventable explosion, to the brave peaceful protesters in Belarus demanding free and fair elections. But not every heartening story made the headlines, and many heroes are unsung.

Michigan secretary of state says armed protesters gathered outside her home

Dozens of armed people gathered outside Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's home over the weekend "shouting obscenities" and threatening violence in an effort to overturn the presidential election results in the state, she said Sunday.

Agnes Chow: Hong Kong’s 'real Mulan' fighting for democracy

Ms Chow has not been charged yet. For now, she is in custody awaiting sentencing this week on separate charges of unauthorised assembly related to last year's protests, to which she has pleaded guilty. And although she is no stranger to being arrested, she says things have become much more ominous in recent times. She describes how her house was surrounded for an entire day by plainclothes police in August, before they banged on her door many hours later. An infrared camera had also been installed on a nearby hill.

Who knew that ancient Amazonians bungee jumped?

Archaeologists recently discovered eight miles of painted rock face in the Colombian Amazon, sited along the Guayabero River. The Colombian and English researchers studying the works suspect that there could be upward of 100,000 individual paintings on 17 walls, dating from the time when humans first arrived in South America and then traveled through Central America. The thousands of paintings, made by people who lived there 12,500 years ago, have captivated viewers the world over. Now, Artnet News has obtained more photographs of the giant sloths, armadillos the size of a car, and countless other animals, as well as humans dancing, engaging in ceremonies, and even bungee jumping.

Trump backers, including Flynn, edge toward a call to 'suspend' Constitution

Even as prominent Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, began to grudgingly acknowledge that Joe Biden will be the next president, a noisy grassroots movement devoted to keeping Donald Trump in office seemed to be edging closer to advocating seizing power in what would amount to a coup d’état.

Plastic bottles dumped in rivers can travel thousands of kilometres

The team released the bottles along the Ganges river in India and Bangladesh, which is the second largest contributing river to ocean plastic pollution. They found that the average bottle travelled at speeds of about 1 kilometre a day. Some ended up in the Bay of Bengal and travelled an average of 6 kilometres a day at sea.

France: 76 mosques face closure, 66 migrants deported

The Grand Mosque of Pantin, in a low-income suburb on the capital’s northeastern outskirts, had shared a video on its Facebook page before the attack that vented hatred against Paty, who was beheaded in broad daylight near his school.