Dear Newsletterest,

Well it’s just over 24 hours to go until the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics! I’ll be watching them in IMAX tomorrow before heading to Paris this weekend to attend the games in person for the sixth time. Next week’s email will feature an inside look at the Games from the ground - so I can’t wait to share that with you!

In stories this week, you’ll read about a stunt that tried to give the British Museum “a taste of its own medicine,” why Milli Vanilli may have just been 30 years too soon, why the “created with human intelligence” badge probably won’t work and another edition of my Non-Obvious Book of the Week feature.

Enjoy and stay curious!

Rohit

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Modern Artist Consults a Lawyer Before Not Stealing Coin From British Museum

The British Museum has faced plenty of criticism for it's continued policy to hold onto its archives that were built from artifacts that were looted from native cultures around the world. To offer the museum "a taste of its own medicine," Brazilian conceptual artist Ilê Sartuzi spent a year planning the oddest of heists. His piece of performance art involved attending a community event where patrons were allowed to handle old coins as part of an interactive exhibit and replaced a valuable 1645 silver coin with a replica.

He later deposited the original coin back into the donation box at the museum, filming the entire project and releasing it online as a commentary on the state of the museum's collection and who it originally belongs to. Most interesting about the story was the fact that he consulted with legal experts before implementing his stunt and is likely to face no legal consequences since he technically never removed the coin from the museum and thus broke no actual laws.

Whether you agree with the museum that it was a "disappointing and derivative act" or that it was a brilliant piece of social commentary, you have to appreciate the forethought that went into it.

Milli Vanilli Could Have Been Heroes Today … Maybe?

If you are a certain age, you might remember Milli Vanilli. I still have a cassette tape of their album that I could have resold for the same price I probably bought it for … since it was officially recalled. Back at the time, that fact alone made me want to keep it. In case you don't know the story, Milli Vanilli was the name for a German singing duo who had exotic looks, long hair and a catchy pop sound that got popular quickly in the late 1980s. The rapid rise ended in flames once it was discovered that the two singers were lip-synching the whole time and their record label offered refunds to anyone who had bought their album.

This week a new trailer was just posted with two actors cast after a multi-year long search who seem perfectly suited for their roles. The emergence of the biopic, though, is raising some new questions about the role or importance of authenticity in the same way we once defined it. In a world where influencers are virtual, media can be deep faked and we watch films with "de-aged" actors ... could Milli Vanilli have succeeded today if they just told the truth? Or even if they didn’t? It's an intriguing question that shines a spotlight on just how much our standards when it comes to “real” entertainment may have shifted.

The Real Reason the "Created With Human Intelligence" Badge Probably Won't Work

Freelance artist Beth Spencer had a brilliant idea that went viral. She suggested that artists hand draw their own version of a "created with human intelligence" badge to put on their work to distinguish it from AI-generated art. The idea caught fire among other designers presumably also looking for a way to separate their art from the wave of generated content online. It's a great thought, and one that we might hope succeeds ... but it won't.

The reason I say that, though, isn't because of some doomsday plot from AI to create its own version. That could happen, of course, but the problem is the way any of us would define the idea of human intelligence itself. When someone uses an AI tool and meticulously crafts a complex initial prompt, followed by a dozen additional prompts in order to end up with a result they like - who's to say that isn't "human intelligence" even though AI was used? A better badge would be something inspired by food labeling that tells you what isn't inside. "Nut-free" means the product has no nuts. "AI-free" could be used to indicate the same thing about AI.

The Importance of Local News

This week was a big one for political news, obviously … but as we come closer to the U.S. election, one of the elements that will probably never get as much attention as it deserves is the importance of local news and the role that it plays in helping people understand who is running for all the local elections that will be contested this year too. The critical role local news can and must play is a topic Pew Research explores in a multi-part series that just released it’s continuation this week.

The research has some interesting but not entirely surprising data points, such as the finding that people seem to value local news and describe it as important yet only 15% of people report actually paying for it. 85% say local news is at least somewhat important to the well-being of their community.

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

Here in the US, it’s a time for summer jobs, August (almost!) introspection, family holidays, and the last glimpse of sanity before we get bombarded with election news and into the Fall. For some of you, this time might include some thinking about what you’re doing for work and how you’re spending your time. It might also bring up the notion of bullshit jobs. This week’s book recommendation features a title that is about exactly what you think … jobs that suck.

In the book, Graeber showcases everything from a security guard who spends his day protecting an empty room to the many insignificant things we might suffer through in service of our own work. Along the way, he makes the connection between work and our own self-worth and just how damaging it can be to realize the thing you do for work is utterly unnecessary. No one wants a bullshit job, but reducing the amount of bullshit in your job is a worthy aspiration too. Whether this is a problem you currently identify with or not, the book is a welcome read to either help you make your work better or at the very least give you reason for gratitude that at least your job has less bullshit than some unfortunate others.

About the Non-Obvious Book Selection of the Week:

Every week I will be featuring a new “non-obvious” book selection worth sharing. Titles featured here may be new or from the backlist, but the date of publication doesn’t really matter. My goal is to elevate great books that perhaps deserve a second look which you might have otherwise missed.

Even More Non-Obvious Stories …

Every week I always curate more stories than I'm able to explore in detail. Instead of skipping those stories, I started to share them in this section so you can skim the headlines and click on any that spark your interest:

How are these stories curated?