“Breaking through the £2bn barrier for the first time last year, online advertising now accounts for 11.4% of all ad spending in the UK compared with 10.9% for newspapers. The gap is getting wider, as growth in online advertising – at 41% in 2006 – far outstripped growth in national newspapers – at 0.2% – and TV, which saw advertising revenues drop 4.7%.”
Tag: 03.31.07
Orwell’s House Meets Big Brother
George Orwell foresaw a world where everyone was spied upon. “According to the latest studies, Britain has a staggering 4.2million CCTV cameras – one for every 14 people in the country. Use of spy cameras in modern-day Britain is now a chilling mirror image of Orwell’s fictional world. On the wall outside his former residence – flat number 27B – where Orwell lived until his death in 1950, an historical plaque commemorates the anti-authoritarian author. And within 200 yards of the flat, there are 32 CCTV cameras, scanning every move.”
Architect Solves Pyramid Mystery?
A French architect believes he has solved the mystery of how the great pyramids were constructed. “He believes workers used an outer ramp to build the first 43 metres (47 yards) then constructed an inner ramp to carry stones to the apex of the 137m pyramid.”
Canada’s “Ad Hoc” Museum Policy
The shocking collapse of Alberta’s Prairie Art Gallery led to an outpouring of public support for the museum. But Canada’s Conservative government is standing by its policy that the nation’s museums need to stop expecting public money to be available whenever they need it. “More troubling for the country’s 2,500 museums is the fact that Ottawa has yet to produce a long-promised national museum policy. Instead, it all seems ad hoc.”
Smithsonian Starts Filling In Leadership Gaps
“Paul G. Risser, a biologist and former chancellor of the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education, was named acting director of the National Museum of Natural History yesterday by the Smithsonian Institution. Risser, a member of the museum’s advisory board, will run the facility in place of Director Cristián Samper, who was appointed acting secretary of the Smithsonian this week.”
Stand-Up Comedy: Now With Glass Ceiling!
Becoming a successful stand-up comic is hard work. Becoming a successful female stand-up comic is brutal, even now, when most of the world has moved beyond the ridiculous old notion that women aren’t funny. “One of the rules of comedy-club booking goes like this: Only one female comic can play on the bill each night. Few clubs will ever exceed that quota.”
Toshio Sasaki, 60
“Toshio Sasaki, a Japanese sculptor known for works in public spaces, particularly ‘The First Symphony of the Sea,’ a 322-foot-long wall relief at the New York Aquarium at Coney Island, died on March 10 near his home in Nagakute in the Aichi Prefecture of Japan.”
Poli-Girl Lit Takes Off
What’s the best way to score yourself a book deal when you have no previous experience as a writer? Just arrange to be born the daughter of a prominent Washington, D.C. politician. “The authors of D.C.-daughter lit are often, however, the very same children who grew up trying to steer clear of the media spotlight. They didn’t run for public office, the line of reasoning goes; they didn’t ask for the publicity. But now they are asking.”
Making French Less French
“With French long engaged in a losing battle against English around the world, a new way of fighting back has been proposed by a multinational group of authors who write in French: uncouple the language from France and turn French literature into ‘world literature’ written in French. For guardians of the language of Molière, Voltaire and Victor Hugo, this is tantamount to subversion.”
The Remarkable Mr. Benjamin
“That George Benjamin at 47 is one of the most formidable composers of his generation should come as no surprise. A British prodigy, he began playing the piano at 7 and was soon after composing. His first work for orchestra was given its premiere at a BBC Proms concert when Mr. Benjamin was 20… Stylistically, Mr. Benjamin’s music, while bursting with personality, has always been hard to pin down. The pungent chromaticism of Berg, the astringent atonality of Boulez, a feeling for French sonorities, spectral colorings — these elements and more permeate his works.”