Melting Arctic glaciers are creating a climate 'doom loop' by flushing methane from rocks beneath the ice, study warns
Melting Arctic glaciers are creating a 'doom loop' by flushing ancient methane out from the rocks beneath the ice, a study has found.
Disabled widow, 83, who has never had a licence is convicted of failing to tax her late husband's car while mourning his death
A housebound and partially blind 83-year-old pensioner has been hauled into court after failing to tax her late husband's car while grieving his death.
'We can't sleep at night': Residents fight plans to expand busy mosque amid tension over worshippers waking locals up with early morning prayers
The increasing noise and traffic at Jamei Mosque in Winton, Bournemouth, are causing tensions to arise between worshippers and local residents, who are now fighting plans to expand the site.
EV battery life ranked: Electric cars with the longest-lasting batteries with Hyundai beating Tesla
A global study has ranked 20 of the most popular EV models by how well their batteries have held up, providing an indication of what owners can expect from these vehicles.
Salma Hayek strips off for a nude swim and says she's 'grateful' as she celebrates her milestone 60th birthday
Salma Hayek stripped down for a nude swim and revealed she was 'grateful' on Monday as she marked her 60th birthday.
Liverpool agree one of most lucrative sponsorship deals in Premier League history with Turkish Airlines paying Reds £60MILLION-A-YEAR to front their shirts from next season
It represents the end of an era after 17 years with Standard Chartered, with the branding on the kits of the men's, women's and academy teams changing from the start of next season.
Why you should always close the lid before you flush the toilet: Disgusting study reveals how particles linger in your 'breathing zone' for at least 20 seconds
Scientists from Flinders University have warned that flushing toilets can release particles into the surrounding air, at heights corresponding to adults' 'breathing zones'.
Britain reboots its space strategy with £7.8B already on the launchpad
Cross-government plan combines civil ambitions with an increasingly military view of orbit
Moment 'selfish' Motability fly-tippers are caught red-handed using taxpayer-funded car to dump bucket loads of waste
Footage shows a man and woman parking a black Vauxhall people carrier by the side of a road in the village of Astley, Warwickshire, on May 30.
E-bikes to be fitted with number plates in clampdown on rogue riders
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT: One third of the 1,500-bike fleet of Forest bikes in Richmond, west London , will be fitted with five-digit ID codes in a bid to make it easier to identify riders.
Brooklyn Beckham proves himself to be the perfect assistant as he dutifully carries wife Nicola Peltz's couture Balenciaga gown at the Venice Film Festival
Brooklyn Beckham proved himself to be invaluable during the Venice Film Festival, acting as the perfect assistant to his wife Nicola Peltz.
Davina McCall, 58, shows off her gym-honed physique in a pink string bikini as she declares 'this is how I roll'
Davina McCall has showcased her incredible gym-honed figure in a pink bikini as she posed for a mirror selfie on Instagram on Monday.
BBC Radio 2's Bob Harris reveals his cancer is 'taking more of a hold' and says 'I was in tears when I left the hospital' as he issues health update
BBC Radio 2 DJ Bob Harris has given an update on his battle with stage four prostate cancer, telling fans the disease is 'taking more of a hold'.
Arm pushes agentic AI and desktop-quality graphics in next-gen phone platform
New CPU and GPU designs chase lower latency and richer games within a 1 W power budget
As Thomasina Miers reveals she followed an intermittent low calorie diet during chemotherapy, why research suggests FASTING may boost some cancer treatments
Skipping meals to fight cancer sounds radical, but new research suggests fasting may revolutionise treatment.
Three Cities, 16 Years And $1 Billion Later, 'Defiant' Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Opens To Mixed Reviews
It looks like a spaceship hovering over South Los Angeles, writes CNN, with futuristic tube-like elevators and an exhibition of Banksy murals. There's a room featuring Luke Skywalker's X-34 Landspeeder, but in its gardens there's a 19th-century cast of a sculpture showing David conquering Goliath — and then a bronze statue of Princess Leia strangling Jabba the Hutt with a chain. Next to Rosie the Riveter. CNN argues it's the museum's message that "all forms of art and mythology on display here — from comic book illustrations and 'Star Wars' concept art to Impressionist masterpieces and reproductions of the Sistine Chapel — are worthy of equal consideration within the long arc of human history."
More than 16 years after first proposing a cultural institution dedicated to visual storytelling, filmmaker George Lucas and his wife, businesswoman Mellody Hobson, will open their long-awaited museum in Los Angeles on September 22. The project made two false starts — plans to construct it in San Francisco and Chicago were both eventually abandoned — and has cost Lucas around $1 billion of his own money to build... Inside, visitors will find a significant slice of Lucas' private collection, amassed over five decades and spanning art, costumes, movie props and memorabilia, with more than 1,300 objects currently displayed across 30 galleries...
Many fans will come for the "Star Wars" vehicles and sculptures of Yoda and Grogu, but the sci-fi mega-franchise only occupies about 7% of the museum. Lucas and Hobson are betting those visitors will stay for artworks by Frida Kahlo and Norman Rockwell, photographs by Gordon Parks, comics by Frank Miller and Cowboy Bebop anime, which will be screened in one of two theaters alongside early silent movies, Lucas' own student films and productions by famed historical artists like Man Ray...
[M]ajor art institutions like New York's Museum of Modern Art and London's Tate Britain have reconsidered the cultural canon by rehanging their permanent collections, exhibiting overlooked or marginalized artists alongside more widely celebrated names. The Lucas Museum appears to follow a similar philosophy, contending that the gravitas of an artwork is not just determined by its display in space but by what it's in dialogue with. Lucas has even called his namesake museum "a temple to the peoples' art," elevating the work of illustrators and other underappreciated art forms...
The museum defines narrative art as any art that tells a story, and, moving through the space, one feels the enormity of the task of organizing and presenting such a broad vision... The open-plan, curvilinear design means the galleries are not fully divided, reinforcing the all-encompassing nature of the collection, though altogether the vast array of exhibits sometimes struggle for cohesiveness. Disjointed curation may reflect turbulence in the museum's management ahead of the opening. Last April, former director and CEO Sandra Jackson-Dumont departed, with Lucas himself assuming responsibility for "content direction." A month later, the museum laid off 15 full-time and seven part-time staff before chief curator Pilar Tompkins Rivas resigned in December, with no replacement planned...
After failing to secure a site in San Francisco, Lucas faced public opposition and a lawsuit in Chicago, with nonprofit Friends of the Parks arguing that his lakefront proposal would essentially privatize public land. Amid the delays and setbacks, simply opening the museum may feel like a victory to its founders.
Lucas's wife said she'd watched the awe-inspiring activity of genius at work, reports Variety. "And he was fanatical at times, but the thing about a fanatical person is they're a fan. He was a deep fan of these illustrators in this work, and he wanted them to be represented, and I became a deeper fan of his."
Hobson teared up as she continued, "I was a fan already, but I saw something, the inspiration, the unwillingness to compromise, the determination, the lack of sleep, the lack of rest, the doggedness that actually taught me so much more than I ever could have imagined." The museum, which features 1,200 pieces from Lucas's private collection, has been in the works for about 20 years... "I thought I was tough. I thought I was strong, I thought I had a will, and then I saw George, and I was like, 'Oh, that's why you could only do six of those movies,'" Hobson said. "Any more would have killed you."
Artforum magazine notes the museum received "mixed reviews" before its September 22 opening:
The billion-dollar, 300,000-square-foot museum, which opens to the public on September 22, encompasses 100,000 square feet of gallery space housing the collection of Lucas and Hobson. Intended to highlight storytelling in art, it presents the work of comic book artists John Romita Sr. and R. Crumb, illustrators Maxfield Parrish and Norman Rockwell, and fantasy painters Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta alongside masterworks by Artemisia Gentileschi, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and Pieter Brueghel the Younger, as well as Mary Cassatt, Frida Kahlo, and John Singer Sargent. All the works on display were chosen for their ability to tell a story, frequently in a single frame, Hobson told members of the press on September 2...
"Some visitors may be scandalized by the collision of so-called 'high' and 'low,'" wrote Min Chen in Artnet News. "But there's something liberating about watching those hierarchies collapse, seeing the breadth of human creativity arrayed beyond the bounds of genre or canon." Notably, most of the works appear without didactics, which is intentional. "We're encouraging people to have their own individual encounters with works of art and take away what they feel like speaks to them," Lucas told The Guardian.
The tactic did not land for everyone. "Without [didactics], I left the Lucas without a clear sense of how the museum is positioning itself or, frankly, without learning much about anything beyond what I already knew...." wrote Maximiliano Durón in Artnews. "The Museum of Narrative Art lacks any kind of narrative." Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times was unfazed by the lack of information, calling the institution "gutsy" and "defiant."
"Critics will roar," wrote McNamara, "but the Lucas Museum is a win for 'the people's art.'"
Even the museum's web site is a visual extravaganza (and impossible to scroll). Reportedly there's two restaurants, including the rooftop Skywalker Grill, which offers offering everything from striped bass and ragu bolognese to lobster corn dogs and Skywalker ranch Waygu burgers.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Nepotism, questionable payouts and jobs for disgraced fat cats: Inside story of the NHS's 'revolving door' of bosses
Paula Vasco-Knight was chief executive at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust and had previously enjoyed the prestige of being appointed NHS England's national lead for equality.
Like millions, my eyesight suddenly dropped off a cliff as soon as I hit 40. I began struggling to read books, laptop and phone screens. So could a pair of £85 'red-light' glasses REALLY transform my vision?
Peering at the menu in a local restaurant, I groan as I realise that I've forgotten my glasses yet again. The food choices are printed in tiny letters and I can hardly decipher a thing.
My GP surgery fobbed me off with a nurse appointment for my cough, itchy skin and exhaustion three times in a row. Now I'm fighting for my life at just 40
Even the specialists investigating Ella Cieslak's persistent cough and fatigue had believed she was most likely suffering from a chest infection. But the scans told a very different story.
Sasha Attwood and Jack Grealish make their first ever joint red carpet appearance as they enjoy a date night at Oasis: Don't Look Back In Anger UK premiere
The couple made their first ever joint red carpet appearance at the London premiere of Oasis: Don't Look Back In Anger on Monday night.