“Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show” - Yayoi Kusama

At Kusama’s 1963 “Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show” at New York’s Gertrude Stein Gallery, Warhol allegedly told her how impressed he was with the work, which covered the floor, walls, and ceiling with a repeated photograph of the exhibition’s only sculpture. Fast-forward three years later, and the Pop art legend installed Cow wallpaper at Leo Castelli. “Andy picked up what I did and copied it for a show!” Kusama said.

Russia joins forces with China in largest war games since Soviet era

With 300,000 soldiers, 36,000 vehicles, 1,000 aircraft and 80 ships, the Vostok exercises in eastern Russia will be even bigger than the USSR's 1981 Zapad training, according to defence ministry claims. They will last a week and take place across nine training grounds as well as in the Sea of Japan and near the Bering Strait.

New study raises red flags on tax haven role in environmental destruction

Tax havens – and the financial secrecy they provide – may bolster industries tied to Amazon deforestation and the unsustainable management of natural resources, a new study has found.

Ocean Cleanup project sails out to sweep Pacific plastic

A supply ship towing a long floating boom designed to corral ocean plastic has set sail from San Francisco for a test run ahead of a trip to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Alien Life Could Exist on Worlds Overflowing with Water

Red dwarfs are dimmer than our own sun, but if planets are close enough to the star, they could, theoretically, have water on their surfaces and meet the conditions for habitability. 

The dark side of creativity: Depression + anxiety x madness = genius?

"The sun began to set - suddenly the sky turned blood red," he wrote. "I stood there trembling with anxiety - and I sensed an endless scream passing through nature."

Can the EU actually protect itself against Russia?

The EU itself is becoming weaker rather than stronger amid rising nationalism and populism, and even those countries that favor a stronger, more united Europe — namely France and Germany — disagree over who should lead it. Europe’s more realistic politicians — including Merkel — understand this, which is why they have emphasized the need for continuing trans-Atlantic cooperation on security and other issues, and cautioned against precipitating a decisive break.

Atlanticism has long been a convenient myth

“Atlantic” designates not a real set of values so much as an empty form that can be filled with whatever meaning its organisers want: liberal democracy, the diplomatic partnership between the US and Europe, or the simple continuation of structures set up after the second world war and not redefined since.

Why is glyphosate all over our food?

Because according to current EU rules, Monsanto & Co. can keep their industry studies secret – studies which independent experts could potentially use to show the substance is carcinogenic, if they had access to them. If there is proof a substance could cause cancer, the EU wouldn't allow it on the European market. Now the Commission wants to increase transparency in our food system. It’s proposing new rules which could force industry to disclose its secret studies. But industry is pushing back hard, and as a result, the new rules could be rendered meaningless, or worse: they could leave us with even less information than we have access to now. 

Hidden but not forgotten: Int’l Day of the Disappeared shines light on Tibet’s dark prison secrets

Tibetans and Uyghurs who defend their culture, Chinese dissidents and activists in Hong Kong are all at risk under Chinese Communist Party rule. Official state figures reveal a conviction rate of 99.93 percent; of the 1.16 million people placed on trial last year, Chinese courts returned a guilty verdict for all but 825 of them.

Like Tashi Wangchuk, many of these people will have never have committed a recognisable crime. His charge, “inciting separatism”, is one of a number of catch-all “state security crimes” contained in the Chinese penal code.

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a Tibetan monk named Thardhod Gyaltsen was sentenced to 18 years in prison after a police raid allegedly found him to be in possession of images and recordings of the Dalai Lama.

Händel: sonata HWV 367 | D. Castello: Sonata seconda | Vivaldi: from concerto for 2 violins RV 522 -- Lucie Horsch, recorders / Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya, harpsichord

Arctic Wintertime Sea Ice Extent Is Among Lowest On Record

The Arctic has gone through repeated warm episodes this winter, with temperatures climbing more than 40 degrees above average in some regions. The North Pole even experienced temperatures above the freezing point for a few days in February.

Join the protest on copyright action day in your city on August 26

Save your internet today!

John McCain dies aged 81

McCain’s first brush with death came in July 1967 when, as a a navy pilot in the Vietnam war, a missile exploded near his fuel tanks, causing a ship fire that killed 134 troops. Three months later he was shot down over Vietnam, breaking both arms and a leg, and was captured by the North Vietnamese.

McCain was offered early release because his father was a four-star admiral but rejected it until his fellow PoWs were also freed. During five years in captivity, including more than two in solitary confinement, he suffered beatings and torture almost daily.

McCain is dying of cancer but he won’t leave this earth without one more fight. The Restless Wave is his latest book, and Vladimir Putin’s Russia is his latest foe.

Bergoglio out! Vatican shutdown!

Francis marked the first papal visit to Ireland in 39 years by acknowledging that the failure of Church authorities to adequately address “repugnant” clerical child abuse crimes there remains a source of shame for the Catholic community.

* Former top Vatican official says pope should resign

Old wounds have never healed for millions of Spaniards

While Franco has lain in splendour 37 miles (60km) outside Madrid, until recently, an estimated 140,000 of his opponents lay in unmarked graves around the country, buried where they were summarily executed during and after the civil war. The last of these executions was carried out in 1975.

Cleaning Cash Amid Slovakia’s Peaks

Journalists were about to publish an investigation into the Vadalas in Slovakia when Jan Kuciak, a member of the reporting team, was murdered.

...

One never fully investigated angle involved Fruitpoint BV, a Dutch fruit importer from whose docks the Aquinos picked up some of their drug-laden containers.

New evidence for cyclic universe

Unexpected hot spots in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) could have been produced by black holes evaporating before the Big Bang. 

How Tourists Are Destroying the Places They Love

residents of the cities and regions affected are perhaps the biggest losers. When, for example, it becomes more lucrative for property owners to rent their apartments out to tourists on a daily or weekly basis than to locals who need an affordable place to live.

9 Female Painters of the 19th Century You Need to Know

The women who bravely paved the way for the modern-day counterparts are largely forgotten, mere footnotes in the art history textbooks. “Women Artists in Paris” seeks to change that, shining a light on 37 women from 11 countries who studied art in Paris in the second half of the 19th century. 

...

“Every single one of these artists could have a powerful monographic exhibition,” she added, noting that she hopes the current show will be a stepping stone for further recognition for its subjects. “It is the responsibility of institutions to continue this dialogue in a sustained way, not just having the exhibition and forgetting about these artists again, but to really keep seeking out opportunities to highlighting this work, encourage art historical inquiry, and to engage our public with the work of these women.”

Aretha Franklin died

the undisputed Queen of Soul, died Thursday at her Detroit home, the Associated Press reports, surrounded by family and friends. She had been battling various undisclosed illnesses for years, and, in recent weeks, was receiving hospice care. Franklin was 76.

Catholic Priests Abused 1,000 Children in Pennsylvania

Bishops and other leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania covered up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests over a period of 70 years, persuading victims not to report the abuse and law enforcement not to investigate it

New study raises red flags on tax haven role in environmental destruction

An analysis of Brazilian central bank data from 2000 to 2011 revealed that at least nine of the world’s largest producers of soy and beef, two industries considered to be main drivers of deforestation, use offshore subsidiaries to finance their operations in the Amazon forest, which Galaz called “a sleeping giant” in the climate change system. Scientists agree that deforestation is one of the main causes of global warming as the carbon dioxide that is typically absorbed by trees gets released in the atmosphere when they are cut or burnt.

Haydn - L'Isola d'isabitata (Overture) - Apollo's Fire/Jeannette Sorrell

Chinese delegates try to play down and suppress evidence of Beijing’s repression in Tibet

On 25 July, Free Tibet was contacted by a staff member at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights informing them that the Chair of CERD had requested that their submission be removed from the session’s website. The decision to remove the submission was based on the fact that the submission contained a footnote referring to Tibet being invaded and occupied in 1950, and that Free Tibet’s mission statement again referred to China’s occupation of Tibet.

The decision for a UN human rights body to remove a NGO submission is rare. Given China’s long track record of trying to subvert efforts to scrutinise its human rights record in international forums, Free Tibet and Tibet Watch have strong grounds to believe that the decision to remove the submission was taken after the Chinese government put pressure on the Chair of CERD.

Tibet: A Glossary of Repression

The agency in charge of propaganda, the Propaganda Bureau, is one of the highest-level offices in the Chinese Communist Party (the “Party”) and reports directly to the Central Committee, the Party’s senior leadership. Its task is to persuade populations both at home and abroad of the correctness of the Party’s rule and of its policies, as well as to use censorship and other means to deter or prevent criticisms of the Party.

Heat: the next big inequality issue

The deadly global heatwave has made it impossible to ignore: in cities worldwide, we are now divided into the cool haves and the hot have-nots

“Justice, not corruption”

Massive crowds gathered in downtown Bucharest on Saturday night, watched by security forces as they chanted: “Down with the government” and “Justice, not corruption”.

Naipaul died (but the immortals do not die)

Immortals do not die. So the greatest of the XX century "neo-realist" novelists did *. When I read "The Bend in the River" I start to wonder that that would happen with me. Waiting in some crazy country's border until the official gave me, after many hours, an affordable price to allowd me to cross the border with my very old veichle. Automatically I felt a deep connection with VS Naipaul and I did read everything I got from him. If the moving "A House for Mr Biswas" is, perhaps, the most "famous" of his creations, everything comming from his pen is a great "image", sucesion of images, or whatever, of the "human been", grasping the "essence" of it, in a interesting, acute and funny way. I have two great-great masters among the great masters of the literature: one is VS Naipaul, the other one is Marguerite Yourcenar (and, again, less because of her most famous work, "Memoires of Hadrian", than of the total of his creations). Styles completely differents coming from genius completely differents **. Immortals never die. Rest in Pace Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul because you will keep alive forever.

* after all he was an human been with (human) socio-cultural contextualized mistakes... like his misogyny, which, pretty obviously, is comming from his "native" culture, that he despised to much...

** Naipaul had an approach based in what he saw. Yourcenar's approach was completely detached from her own experiences, founded in hers great erudition, namely in ancient and medieval history. Most of the Nobel prizes just can dream on writing as Naipaul did. The great Marguerite Yourcenar never got the Nobel. And... what that matters?

Boulez - Notations 1-4 & 7 - BBCSO/Susanna Malkki

2018 Is Shaping Up to Be the Fourth-Hottest Year

Temperatures are still rising, and, so far, efforts to tame the heat have failed. Heat waves are bound to get more intense and more frequent as emissions rise, scientists have concluded. On the horizon is a future of cascading system failures threatening basic necessities like food supply and electricity.

Beethoven - Arietta. Adagio molto semplice e cantabile from Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111 - Maria João Pires

What is PM2.5?

when scientists talk about air pollution, they’re generally thinking about those sources and variants that arise from human activity: things like sulfur dioxide from power plant and other emissions, nitrogen dioxide from vehicle exhaust, and ground level ozone — as well as particulate matter. That last category is crucial, because it’s the microscopic stuff that can actually slip past the respiratory system’s defenses and cause both acute, short-term impacts, and over time, chronic diseases that kill.

Saudi-led air strike on bus kills 29 children

The health ministry run by the rebel Houthi movement said put the death toll at 43, and said 61 people were wounded.

The coalition, which is backing Yemen's government in a war with the Houthis, said its actions were "legitimate".

U.S. imposes sanctions on Russia for nerve agent attack in UK

Washington said on Wednesday it would impose fresh sanctions on Russia by the end of August after it determined that Moscow had used a nerve agent against a former Russian agent and his daughter in Britain.

Quantification of drought during the collapse of the classic Maya civilization

We modeled the data and conclude that annual precipitation decreased between 41 and 54% (with intervals of up to 70% rainfall reduction during peak drought conditions) and that relative humidity declined by 2 to 7% compared to present-day conditions.

Facebook wants to know your bank balance

The tech mogul’s Facebook has been quietly lobbying some of the biggest US banks to sign partnerships that would have the financial institutions share customer data — including account balances and recent purchases.

Researchers suggest that global warming will have severe consequences for the planet

They paint a picture of boiling hot climates and towering seas in years to come if temperatures rise by just 2C.

Women speak out on France's harassment problem

“It’s not about harassment, it’s about women being treated as objects in society and the new law won’t change anything. The police don’t have the money to train officers effectively about what constitutes harassment and often they are part of the problem. “If you call them and say a guy behaved weirdly towards you, often the first reaction is they laugh. The answer is having more women in charge of the institutions, the police, the fire services, other bodies. Then we might have real changes.”

Metamorphoses (Bass Clarinet Concert) - Jorge Peixinho

Social media manipulation rising globally

The manipulation of public opinion over social media platforms has emerged as a critical threat to public life. Around the world, government agencies and political parties are exploiting social media platforms to spread junk news and disinformation, exercise censorship and control, and undermine trust in media, public institutions and science.

China: Crackdown on Tibetan Social Groups

In February 2018, the Tibet Autonomous Region Public Security Bureau published a list of newly defined forms of “organized crime” in a circular – the first set of such prohibitions to be announced at the provincial level. The now-banned activities include any initiatives for the promotion of local language and culture, and protection of the local environment.

Cardinal steps down amid widening sex abuse scandal

“The Vatican must investigate and publish its conclusions regarding McCarrick’s advancement and very successful career,” said Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, a U.S.-based group that tracks abuse cases. “The officials responsible must be identified and disciplined, and the investigative file must be made public,”

A meeting with Oksana Shachko

Shachko was an artist from a young age. Educated in the Orthodox tradition, she made religious paintings and at the age of 8 her artistic talent earned her a place at a specialized school in Ukraine focused on painting religious icons. By age 10, Shachko was being commissioned to create church frescoes, and moved into the church full time at aged 12. As an adult, her later works subverted traditional religious iconography to create feminist art.  

"We have the immense sadness to learn the death of Oksana Shachko, promising artist that we presented in Crash and to whom we dedicated the cover of our December 2017 art issue. We also presented her work in our gallery, the 22Visconti. Oksana was an outstanding activist, co-founder of the Femen and political refugee in France because her life was in danger in her country. She had enrolled at the Paris Beaux-Arts school and her work as a painter has profoundly touched us with its light and strength. Here is the interview Armelle Leturcq did with her in November 2017."

Rameau - Les Cyclopes (rondeau in d minor) - Elaine Comparone

The Event

they (Silicon Valley’s elite) were preparing for a digital future that had a whole lot less to do with making the world a better place than it did with transcending the human condition altogether and insulating themselves from a very real and present danger of climate change, rising sea levels, mass migrations, global pandemics, nativist panic, and resource depletion. For them, the future of technology is really about just one thing: escape.

Pierre Boulez, Christine Schäfer, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (opening concert of the Musik Triennale Köln 2000)

Modern Slavery

North Korea has the highest prevalence of modern slavery globally, with one in 10 of the population, or 2.6 million people, victims of modern slavery. A third, or 15 million, of victims of modern slavery enter through forced marriage, an issue that disproportionately affects women and girls.

Google hit with record $5 billion EU antitrust fine *

EU regulators hit Google with a record 4.34 billion euros ($5 billion) antitrust fine on Wednesday for using its Android mobile operating system to squeeze out rivals.

* and the Facebook, which "apps" are inside the system of the devices (because the labels did allow it) and cannot to be removed? How much they will be fined? (I wrote to the European Commissars Vera Jurová and Cecilia Malmström on that issue)

Iannis Xenakis - REBONDS a.b. - Kuniko Kato

RSF describes Turkey as “the world’s biggest prison for professional journalists”

Turkey’s former prime minister Binali Yildirim, and President Erdogan’s son-in-law and powerful treasury and finance minister Berat Albayrak, and members of their families have filed defamation actions against award-winning journalist and International Consortium of Investigative Journalists member Pelin Ünker and her newspaper, Cumhuriyet. The influential Turkish figures do not claim factual errors or inaccuracies but seek financial penalties for alleged damage to their reputations.

Media freedom was one of the key demands of the revolution that toppled the Shah and swept Ayatollah Khomeini to power in 1979, but it is a promise that has never been kept. The media are mostly under the Islamic regime’s close control and there has been no let-up in the persecution of independent journalists, citizen journalists, and media outlets. Media personnel are still constantly exposed to intimidation, arbitrary arrest, and long jail sentences imposed by revolutionary courts at the end of unfair trials. Despite an improvement in its international relations, Iran continues to be one of the world’s five biggest prisons for media personnel.

The New Octopus

Today, as technology creates new forms of power, we must also create new forms of countervailing civic power. We must build a new civic infrastructure that imposes new kinds of checks and balances. But where new firms, however innovative, outstrip our ability to assure their accountability, then we have to ask hard questions about whether we want to pursue such innovation in the first place.

Iannis Xenakis - REBONDS a.b. - Kuniko Kato

U.S. accuses Russian spies of 2016 election hacking

Officers of Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, covertly monitored computers of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign and Democratic campaign committees, and stole large amounts of data, the indictment said.

Forty-two years ago, a Russian leader privately offered unlimited assistance to a presidential candidate. Given the continuity over the years of Russia’s covert-action methods, it is of little surprise to see Russia doing in 2016 what Brezhnev offered to do in 1975. The difference is that this time the offer was accepted, while in 1975 the United States was led by a man of great experience and absolute integrity, who ignored the offer.

Trump also refrained from publicly criticizing Russia’s 2014 seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea region, another geopolitical win for Putin against Western efforts to isolate him.

Trump has repeatedly denied his campaign colluded with Russia and has characterized the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as a witch hunt. Trump is infuriated by any suggestion he might owe his election victory to Russia.

Here are 10 critics of Vladimir Putin who died violently or in suspicious ways

Oliver Knussen: "Cantata" for oboe and string trio

Amnesty International estimates that at least 97 prisoners of conscience are currently held in Vietnam’s prisons

serving a 10-year prison term following her June 2017 conviction on charges of spreading “propaganda against the state” under Article 88 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, Quynh (Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh) had blogged about human rights abuses and official corruption for more than a decade.

She had also criticized the government’s response to a 2016 toxic waste spill by the Taiwan-owned Formosa Plastics Group that destroyed the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Vietnamese living in four coastal provinces.

Tibetan Villagers Tear-Gassed, Beaten For Mine Protest

Chinese police have launched a violent tear-gas assault on Tibetan villagers in Qinghai’s Yulshul prefecture, ending a two-month protest against suspected mining operations on local mountains, according to a local source.

Kaija Saariaho - Circle Map - FRSO/Susanna Mälkki

Bad Romanian Horse Meat Stampedes Across Europe

Last year, the Agromexim-Cetina partnership generated a new European alert for cadmium- contaminated meat — its fifth one. The meat was sold to the Italian company Boventi SPA, which sent it on to Germany and Hungary. The source of the cadmium contamination has never been identified, according to the Romanian authorities. Meanwhile, Chevideco, the Belgian buyer, continues to buy horse meat from Agromexim.

Vivaldi's "La Folia" (Madness), arranged by Jeannette Sorrell after Sonata XII, Apollo's Fire

Former Pakistan PM Sharif Sentenced To 10 Years Over Panama Papers

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $10.6 million on corruption charges linked to 2016 Panama Papers revelations about his family’s properties overseas.

Elderly and disabled civilians were burned alive

Reiterating his call on the government and African Union to establish a hybrid court for South Sudan, he said the soldiers had slit elderly villagers’ throats, hanged women for resisting looting and shot fleeing civilians.

Nobel widow Liu Xia leaves China after 8 years’ house arrest

The release of Liu Xia, who has never been charged with any crime, is the result of years of campaigning by Western governments and activists and comes just days before the one-year anniversary of the death of dissident Liu Xiaobo while he was serving a prison sentence for inciting subversion.

Oliver Knussen - Horn Concerto

The composer and conductor Oliver Knussen has died

Oliver Knussen has died; he was 66. A pupil of John Lambert and Gunther Schuller, Knussen made a vivid impression at a very early age; his First Symphony was written when he was just 15.

A former Facebook moderator says she had to review 8,000 posts a day

Katz said she was not asked to report the accounts sharing the material — a fact that "disturbed" her. "If the user's account was less than 30 days old we would deactivate the account as a fake account. If the account was older than 30 days we would simply remove the content and leave the account active," she said.

Beethoven - Egmont Overture - Apollo's Fire/Jeannette Sorrell

Distorted neutron stars give up secrets of dense nuclear matter

GW170817 offers astrophysicists new and exciting information about the equation of state (EOS) of neutron stars. The EOS describes the complex behaviour of the dense nuclear matter that makes up neutron stars. Little is currently known about the EOS because it is difficult to glean information from conventional astronomical observations and because theoretical calculations of dense nuclear matter are extremely difficult to do. Before GW170817, the most important piece of information about the EOS came from observations published in 2010 and 2013, which showed that neutron stars can have masses at least as large as two solar masses.

Stravinsky - Petruschka - Yuja Wang

British woman dies after Novichok poisoning

A 44-year-old British woman died on Sunday after being exposed to the Novichok nerve agent in western England just a few miles from where Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were struck down by the same agent four months ago.

Mining the Sky

Space is relatively untouched. It has not yet been exploited and pillaged—and when it is, I would hope that everybody could benefit from it. If space becomes entirely privatized, however, I worry that the profits will simply flow to the private sector—and thanks to countries like Luxembourg, those profits won’t be taxed.

Gender and Climate Change

The Climate Change Gender Action Plansare nationally recognized strategies with a unique methodology for training and building the capacity of women and women’s organizations on the linkages between gender and climate change. 

The EU's dodgy Article 13 copyright directive has been rejected

The Copyright Directive, which contained the particularly concerning Article 13, was rejected by 318 votes to 278, with 31 abstentions

Pierre Boulez plays Douze Notations

Gustav Leonhardt: Louis Couperin's Suite in D