Tag: 01.26.06

Google – Promise Or Threat?

“On the one hand, Google is cool. On the other hand, Google has the potential to destroy the publishing industry, the newspaper business, high street retailing and our privacy. Not that it will necessarily do any of these things, but for the first time, considered soberly, these things are technologically possible.”

Warning Labels – Truth In Memoirism?

The publisher of Augusten Burroughs’s “Possible Side Effects: True Stories”, has added a disclaimer sticker to the book’s cover: “Author’s Note: Some of the events described happened as related, others were expanded and changed. Some of the individuals portrayed are composites of more than one person and many names and identifying characteristics have been changed as well.”

A Plea – Make Nigeria The Next Capital Of The Entertainment World

No, really. It’s time, writes Larry Williams. “Give us a ministry for arts! When the machinery of entertainment industry is set in motion the income that it will generate will drop oil ‘to a mere second place.’ Michael Jackson and Bill Cosby can earn 200 million Dollars in 24 months, can you imagine what a ministry of art can rake in from the different forms of art, sports, tourism.

Will A Plan To Raise Venice Kill It Instead?

Scientists are about to test a theory to raise Venice 30 cms by pumping water back into the soil. The idea is to pump water down 700 metres. “We have calculated that if we pump in 18 million cubic metres of clean sea water 24 hours a day for 10 years, we will raise Venice 30 cms.” Critics aren’t so sure: “This is science fiction. It is too difficult and expensive to find out what the layers of the subsoil are really like at that depth, and raising the city would not be the same as the city subsiding; it would behave quite differently and could rise unevenly, doing untold damage.”

Pollock Owner Gives FBI Name Of Person He Says Stole Painting

The owner of a Jackson Pollock painting stolen a few months ago from Sranton’s Everhart Museum has given the FBI the name of a person he believes took the painting. “The thief or thieves who broke into the Everhart on Nov. 18 swiped two artworks: an oil by Pollock that could be worth millions of dollars and a less valuable silkscreen by Andy Warhol.”

Detroit Museum Sues To Keep Van Gogh

The Detroit Institute of Art “went to court Tuesday to protect what museum leaders say is its rightful ownership of an 1889 painting by van Gogh worth at least $15 million, by one estimate. The DIA took the action after failing to resolve a long-simmering dispute with the heirs of a Nazi-era Jewish collector, who claim that the painting, which has been in the DIA’s collection since 1970, belongs to the family.”

First Oprah, Now Frey’s Publisher Rebukes Author

Shortly after Oprah condemned James Frey for his misrepresentations in his bestselling “Million Little Pieces”, Frey’s publisher distances itself from the author. “It is not the policy or stance of this company that it doesn’t matter whether a book sold as nonfiction is true. Mr. Frey’s repeated representations of the book’s accuracy, through publication and promotion, assured us that everything in it was true to his recollections.”

Oprah: I was Wrong To Defend Frey

“In a live broadcast of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” from her studios in Chicago in which she interviewed Mr. Frey, Ms. Winfrey apologized to her audience for her call to “Larry King Live” earlier this month defending the author. Today, Ms. Winfrey, alternately fighting back tears and displaying vivid anger, berated Mr. Frey for duping her and her audience.”