(quote)

Maggie Smith: ‘A National Treasure’
Viola Davis commended Smith for “defying the expectations of age” in a touching tribute. “The end of an era of the sheer definition of what it means to be an actor. You created characters that clung to us, moved us, entertained us……made us look within,” she wrote in part. “You were read more

(quote)

In the last two years, tennis has taken over our closets (court-appropriate garb can be found everywhere from Skims to Miu Miu), our screens (who could forget Zendaya’s turn as the tennis protogé-turned-elite-coach Tashi Duncan in “Challengers”) and now — our living rooms.

At least that is the hope of Belgian eco-designer Mathilde Wittock, who fashions bespoke furniture read more

(quote)

Procreate announced that it will not incorporate generative AI into its popular iPad illustration app. The decision comes in response to an ongoing backlash from some parts of the art community, which has raised concerns about the ethical implications and potential consequences of AI use in creative industries.

“Generative read more

(quote)

Music industry giants allege mass copyright violation by AI firms
Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and Warner Records have sued AI music-synthesis companies Udio and Suno for allegedly committing mass copyright infringement by using recordings owned by the labels to train music-generating AI models, reports Reuters. Udio and Suno can generate read more

(quote)

A dramatic photo of two gannets fighting for a fish in the waters off Scotland’s Shetland Islands has won first prize at the World Nature Photography Awards.
The image by Tracey Lund, from the United Kingdom, was selected from thousands of submissions to receive the $1,000 prize. “Thousands of gannets were in the sky above us and then started to dive into the sea after locally read more

(quote)

San Francisco’s Lunar New Year parade celebrates the Year of the Dragon (Video)
Amid the loud pops of firecrackers, thousands of people gathered as dozens of floats rolled from Market and Second streets on a balmy Saturday to celebrate the Year of the Dragon.

San Francisco’s Lunar New Year parade, the largest one outside read more

Mulan’s Lunar New Year Procession, Los Angeles, USA
London, England
Lion dance, Edinburgh, Scotland
Dragon dance, Manila, Philippines
Traditional stilt walkers, Beijing, China
Sydney, Australia
Barcelona, Spain
Auspicious Dragon Lego set 2024

Image courtesy Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images, Leon Neal/Getty Images, Ezra Acayan/Getty Images, Kevin Frayer/Getty Images, Axel Miranda/SOPA Images/Sipa/Reuters, Disney and Lego

(quote)

‘Steamboat Willie’ is now in the public domain. What does that mean for Mickey Mouse?
An early Walt Disney movie featuring the first appearance of Mickey Mouse is among the copyrighted works from 1928 moving into the public domain on Jan. 1, 2024.

“You know, he’s evolved so much and become more 3D and colorful,” observes Ryan Harmon, a former Disney read more

(quote)

Sir Michael John Gambon CBE (19 October 1940 – 27 September 2023) was an Irish-English actor. Gambon started his acting career with Laurence Olivier as one of the original members of the Royal National Theatre. Over his six-decade-long career, he received three Olivier Awards and four BAFTA TV Awards. In 1998, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama.

Gambon read more

(quote)

George R. R. Martin, Jodi Picoult and other famous writers join Authors Guild in class action lawsuit against OpenAI
New York (CNN) — A group of famous fiction writers joined the Authors Guild in filing a class action suit against OpenAI on Wednesday, alleging the company’s technology is illegally using their copyrighted work.

The complaint claims that OpenAI, the company behind read more

(quote)

Al Young, joint chief creative officer, St Luke’s “…getting rid of the perfect little bird icon, which is instantly recognizable and charismatic, in favor of X is not going to be a successful solution for Twitter, in my opinion. X is ubiquitous and it is shorthand for danger. No one wants to put Xs in their search bars unless they are actively looking read more

(quote)

For over a decade, the Twitter bird logo has been inseparable from the social media platform. But with the service’s X rebrand, Musk is saying goodbye to ‘all the birds.’

Early Monday morning, Twitter began replacing its blue bird logo with a fan-made “𝕏” logo. The same X also appears on Twitter’s homepage, as a profile picture for its official @twitter read more

(quote)

Tony Bennett, legendary singer and master of the American songbook, dies at 96 “I’ve never worked a day in my life,” Tony Bennett told USA TODAY in 2011, “because I love what I do.” The great singer cited that bit of Confucian wisdom often. In a career spanning more than six decades, Bennett conveyed that joy and read more