CULTURAS IN VITRO
Ratings Board, Studios Need Separate Beds: [T]he MPAA operates a shadow rating system that can only be decoded by knowing Hollywood insiders. If your movie is full of gross-out jokes about flatulence and penis size - and is made by a major studio with scores of promotional partners - it can get a PG-13 rating. If your movie deals with sex from the point of view of smirky teenagers or sultry movie stars - and is made by a powerful studio with big marketing dollars - it can get an R rating. But if your movie deals with sex in a frank or unsettling manner, as if it were actually close to reality - and it's being released by a tiny independent distributor - it is almost guaranteed to get an NC-17 rating, a rating that virtually kills any hope of your film being accepted by major theater chains and advertising buyers.

Film fests: Beware the buzz
When you get more than 300 movies, major-league distributors and an excitable press in one place, not everything is as it seems
As a breed, film festivals don't have a great track record of predicting movies that will catch on with the public. Time and again, movies that ignite festival crowds and set off bloody feeding frenzies among the sharks who bid for distribution rights are released to a limp commercial reception.
Why we like to watch: Figuring out festivals
[T]here is a global shift in how people apprehend movies, which in turn has given rise to a world in which there are more than 1,000 film festivals a year.
Paradoxically, the economic importance of festivals is subverted by the fact that audiences behave in unpredictable ways. "In the regular course of human events, people do not see these films in the numbers that their popularity at festivals would lead you to think they would".

Hollywood Has A Record Summer: By Labor Day, domestic ticket sales will have totaled about $3.15 billion since Memorial Day weekend, surpassing the record of $3.06 billion set last summer. Factoring in higher ticket prices, movie admissions this summer likely will come in slightly lower than last year's 542 million and well below the modern record of 589 million set in 1999.
Big Hollywood Hits Don't Ensure Big Profits

Linking to Dance's Future in a 21st-Century Workshop: With the formal opening on Oct. 2 of the new Dance Theater Workshop in Chelsea, New York dance officially enters the cyber universe. The new D.T.W. is the most technologically sophisticated dance theater space in the nation and perhaps the world, judging by anecdotal evidence from touring dance companies.

Bringing music to life: [T]he real problem isn't that kids don't like Beethoven or Wagner any more - it's that dreary and snobbish phrase "classical music".
Shakespeare and da Vinci named as composers in child survey: When a recent sample of British six- to 14-year-olds was asked to name a classical composer they chewed their pencils and suggested: Leonardo da Vinci, William Shakespeare, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley.
A survey published by Classic FM magazine as part of its Instruments for Schools campaign shows 65% of children under 14 cannot name one classical composer. Only 14% of 600 children nationwide knew Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven wrote music.

"Sickening" paedophilia books rock French literary world: The first scandal of France's week-old literary season has erupted over two violent and sexually explicit novels whose heroes are an obsessive paedophile and a perverted serial killer with a preference for very young girls, including his two-year-old daughter.

Sense and sensitivity: Museums are restricting access to certain artefacts so as not to give offence

West finally gets to listen to Soviet musical archives: [A]fter years of legal and technical wrangling, the performances recorded over nearly seven decades by the Soviet Ministry of Radio and Television are being released. They number more than 400,000 - enough to fill 12,000 compact discs.

"Thou shalt worship the arts for what they are": All arts funding is now judged by the Treasury according to whether it delivers the predicted outcomes. From patient survival rates in hospital operations, to literacy rates in schools, to punctuality rates in railways, to attendance at museums, to seats sold in theatres, future public funding turns on the achievement of agreed performance indicators.
A farcical extension of this principle came in summer 2001, when the head of UK Sport - the organisation responsible for delivering international sporting success - conceded that Britain's comparative failure to get gold medals in the European athletic championships, after targets for medal numbers had been agreed with the Treasury, could lead to less funding for training athletes in the future.

Kahlo and Picasso works stolen: Works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Mexican painter Frida Kahlo have been stolen from a doctor's home in Texas, USA. The haul, worth more than $700,000 (£450,000), was taken from the San Antonio house of Dr Richard Garcia while he was asleep upstairs. [...] Dr Garcia, who has not publicly identified the paintings on the advice of his lawyer, said he had not insured the works because the premiums would be too high.

Size matters for artist: A life-sized picture of a tree - claimed to be one of the world's largest paintings - was unveiled yesterday. The picture of an oak tree is 975cm high and 670cm wide. It is going on display in the middle of Golden Square in Soho, central London.

How to Build a Creative City: The forces that forged classic arts scenes are pushing the edge farther and farther away
The World’s New Culture Meccas: A look at some creative locales on the rise in the new millennium. From Marseilles and Cape Town to Tijuana and Kabul

Al Feldstein [ex-MAD editor] on the FBI Experience

ECO-TERRORES
Remembering the Lost: Telling the stories of each victim of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States
9/11 News and Resources

Things Go Better

Justice Department Accomplishments in the War on Terrorism: The Shift From Investigation to Prevention
What Price Safety? Security and freedom in an age of fear.
Tech firms urged to aid security efforts: [L]egal restrictions against spying on U.S. citizens are not controversial, but those same limitations pose a problem when immigrants and tourists can benefit from the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on "unreasonable" searches.

Inquiétant rapport sur le poids des armes: Irak possède toujours des armes de destructions massives, mais son potentiel est aujourd'hui plus faible qu'il ne l'était à la veille de la guerre du Golfe (1991).
A report on Iraqi arms spells out risks: Iraq probably does not have enough chemical or biological weapons or long-range missiles to offer serious military resistance to U.S. armed forces protecting nearby countries or even invading Iraq itself, according to an independent assessment by a leading Western think tank. But the Iraqi threat could achieve a quantum leap overnight thanks to a "nuclear wild card" in Baghdad's armaments drive
Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction: A Net Assessment: The retention of [Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)] capacities by Iraq is self-evidently the core objective of the regime, for it has sacrificed all other domestic and foreign policy goals to this singular aim. [...] This Strategic Dossier does not attempt to make a case, either way, as to whether Saddam Hussein’s WMD arsenal is a casus belli per se. Wait and the threat will grow; strike and the threat may be used.
Iraq and IAEA Inspections: Vienna, 06 September, 2002 - With reference to an article published today in the New York Times, the International Atomic Energy Agency would like to state that it has no new information on Iraq's nuclear programme since December 1998 when its inspectors left Iraq.
Ten Reasons Why Many Gulf War Veterans Oppose Re-Invading Iraq
Bush mistakes Saddam for Osama bin Laden: The Bush administration's monomaniacal focus on Saddam Hussein as the fount of all terrorism was starting to sound like a clinical case of transference until, in recent days, the White House seemed to take a deep breath. Wouldn't any clinician worth her salt observe that Saddam, without having done much of anything since last September, has become immensely bigger and more menacing precisely as Osama bin Laden - remember him? - has become less available?
What Makes Dad Clench His Jaw: It's his son's war, so why do pundits keep calling it unfinished family business?

What is the International Community?

The Hunting of Steven J. Hatfill: Why are so many people eager to believe that this man is the anthrax killer?

VITAMEDIAS
Homefront Confidential: How the War on Terrorism Affects Access to Information and the Public's Right to Know
Beyond breaking news: Online news delivery must change with the consumer
The real lesson to be learned from Sept. 11 or from any major breaking news today is not how the news media have changed - we're slow to change - but how the public more routinely goes to the Internet to seek news and information. And there is still a gap between the power of this new technology now in the hands of news consumers and the reporting made available to them from established newsrooms.

Seattle publisher sounding alarm: "Can American democracy survive the loss of the independent press and diversity of voices? The answer is no"

There are lies, damned lies and newspaper circulation figures

'Philly Daily News' Ponders Photo Controversy: It's a tabloid tradition: using your cover as a most-wanted poster in the hope of helping police catch criminal suspects while giving readers a chance to help. What could be a better public service than that? And if some of the alleged bad guys are caught because readers happened to recognize them, well, so much the better, right? Not necessarily.

Clássicos da Rádio: Os Anos Dourados da Telefonia em Portugal

Who listens to the radio? It's the multimillion-dollar question and two companies have developed high-tech devices to find out.

More Views on Reviews: Corigliano vs. Davidson, Round II: The composer and critic exchange closing salvos on how to cover new music.
Am I saying that critics need to be trained musicians, thorough scholars, and snappy writers - all on a freelancer's meager salary? Yes. "What professional standards should critics be held to?" You need to be able to read like a conductor, research like an historian, judge like a parent and write like a playwright. "How should critics reconcile the demands of accuracy with the realities of the deadline and the music business?" Take this question to your editors, Justin. Critics must improve the business of criticism: composers cannot. It's tough out there, from what I hear. But it's tough for composers, too. Sorry. You tell me "the field is strewn with recovering pianists, musicologists, and tuba players." From what are they recovering? Hard work? I hope they didn't expect to escape it in music criticism.
Must a Critic's Heritage Dictate His Opinions? Irish writers aren't expected to promote U2. Canadian critics aren't bound to back Neil Young. So why must a Mexican reporter be partial to singer Paulina Rubio just because she's Mexican too?

AOL Online Unit Sees Ad Shortfall: Internet and media conglomerate AOL Time Warner Inc.said results at its America Online Internet unit will be below expectations for the year, citing the prolonged advertising slump.
Internet Ads Hit Rock Bottom; Some on AOL Are Free as Air: America Online is running Nutri/System's ads free for two months, and Nutri/System only has to pay $50 when one of its ads sparks a customer to buy a weight-loss package. [...] These days, Internet publishers are so downtrodden they are doing whatever it takes to win advertisers to their Web sites.
Pop-ups strike out with Internet advertisers: The Internet had 11.3 billion impressions — or distinct appearances — of pop-ups ads between January and July

Marketers Explore Product Placements in Music: Music Studio Offers Ads in Artists' Song Lyrics

Jornalistas Impedidos de Fazer Reportagem em Consulado: No dia 6 do corrente, os jornalistas Ivo Caldeira e Rui Marote entraram no serviço de atendimento [do consulado português em Londres], quando este abriu ao público, para observarem a forma como são atendidos os nossos compatriotas a residir em Inglaterra. Eis senão quando são abordados por duas funcionárias que, de forma desabrida, lhes dizem que não podem trabalhar ali e exigem a entrega do rolo fotográfico. Perante a recusa dos jornalistas a sair e a fornecer o referido rolo as funcionárias chamaram a polícia. [antes da "forma desabrida", eles não se deviam ter identificado como jornalistas?...]

TECNO-HOUSE
AltaVista Joins Google in 'China Block' Club: According to analysts, the blockage is probably occurring because search engines like Google and AltaVista can serve as work-arounds for users trying to access sites blocked by the Chinese government.
China, Google, and press spin: Chinese officials may be worried that Google logs all search terms together with the IP number, a time stamp, a unique cookie ID, and browser information. If this information is available to the National Security Agency from Google - and current U.S. laws almost require Google to provide this information to the feds, especially when the Internet user is a non-U.S. citizen in a country that's of national security interest to the U.S. - then China may be well-advised to block the use of U.S. engines to protect their own national security.

Year After 9/11, Cyberspace Door Is Still Ajar: So what has changed in the year since the attacks? Not so much, actually.

Balancing Linux and Microsoft

CONTAMINANTES
WTC Cough: [P]ublished early to coincide with the release of a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on illnesses among rescue workers after the World Trade Center disaster.

Tuned In: Science may not have yet figured out exactly how, or why, human beings respond to music. But research across many disciplines shows that music is a powerful stimulator, shaper and maybe even sharpener of memory.

The green Gestapo: The only way to save the planet is to get rid of poverty, but at Johannesburg the eco-fascists missed the point

Obesity is changing human shape: The abundance of food in affluent societies is presenting the human species with one of its greatest evolutionary challenges.

Big Brother watches you drive: Imagine being watched from the moment you get behind the wheel. Every glance is tracked and every blink monitored, with your car warning you before you are going to have an accident. This is now possible thanks to a system that studies the human face to detect fatigue or distraction and then alerts the driver.

Hey, Loser, Got a Message for You: Don't want to date that jerk? Give out this phone number and let the recording do the dirty work.

.DE!
Crystal b*lls: the sorry secrets of the psychics who have been doing brisk business since 11 September

Russian officials claim credit for rain: Light showers relieve smoke-choked Moscow, but how?

D'oh! There's One Tiny Flaw in This Plan...

ColonialMint $2001 Bush Memorial Dollar Bill

PHOTO-GRAFIAS
Spider Vendor

ZITE
Le Cri du Peuple (Tardi)