Essential: a site tracks every predicted apocalypse, shows which ones came true or didn’t, and counts down to the next tinyurl.com/46svuhcd...

BorrowedTime is a new clock each day, using found images from the Internet. Absolutely lovely, and very fine creative coding too www.cubistheart.com?...

Didn't see that coming: Frieze (and not Art Basel) is taking over the Abu Dhabi Art fair, which will rebrand as Frieze Abu Dhabi in 2026. Means Frieze goes up against Art Basel Qatar for the Gulf art business tinyurl.com/y9k2wsh6...

A history of 'Happy Birthday' and why it's so bad

loadmo.re is a gallery of websites for mobile that has some of the best design for unconventional web work

Metalabel and the promise/dream of the Artist Corporation, where "founding owners can build equity if and when the value of their IP grows, issuing shares to outside investors rather than selling off full rights". Could become legal in the US soon ...

Here’s a clever short called Pillow Fight which shows a series of marshmallow-soft collisions. Credit to Black Sheep Films and director Fernando Livschitz

Generative design, but without the 'e'. DIY experiments that are clever and fun www.generativ.design...

#MAGPIESEZ Here's another slice of the UAE's cultural and creative life, complete with comment: yes, it's your magpie weekly newseltter! tinyurl.com/3h67mank...

The Grateful Dead now has its own official Pantone colours. Nuff said tinyurl.com/yujhhtcm...

The most banned author in US schools? Stephen King, of course. Most banned book is A Clockwork Orange

UNESCO's Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects has gone live, using cutting-edge digital tech to raise awareness about illicit trafficking and theft of cultural property. It's a bit tech-heavy and v pleased with itself, but genuinely valuable

What your life has been missing: a plate for Ikea meatballs tinyurl.com/yypyvrbn...

DEADLINE 16 OCT – Ithra Art Prize: apply to be one of five contemporary artists from Arab countries to be exhibited at Ithra, Dhahran, KSA in Spring 2026 – one of whom gets the $100,000 prize, one of the world's largest. tinyurl.com/ye227xwc...

In praise of The Sound of Music, 60 years young

DEADLINE 15 OCT Open call: Made in the UAE – Apply to be one of five UAE-based artists (2D, 3D, photo, video) in a Dec 2025 exhibition at JD Mallat Gallery, Dubai Downtown. No prerequisites or selection criteria specified ... tinyurl.com/44d26ua7...

BeatMaker. The easiest beat/percussion sample-maker you'll ever find

Brown bear salmon cam (a companion to Far Bear Week)

Hooray, it's the Ig Nobel Prizes 2025! Here's Dr Elena Bodnar with a bra that converts into a pair of facemasks tinyurl.com/548x8rja...

You just missed the World Tram Driver Championships

Tough times for museums in the West?

Really interesting interview with Akram Khan and the last ever work for his company: "It’s difficult to convince contemporary dancers of the intangible: the idea of feeling something without showing it ..."

Does AI need red lines to prevent unacceptable risks? Of course it does (but who enforces them and how?) Here's a Global Call for AI Red Lines, with a who's-who of signatories and a sign-up-yourself invitation

Trump would hate this: some galleries at Frieze London and Frieze Masters have committed to remit 10% of the price of specific art works to the Gallery Climate Coalition (non-profit working to reduce the arts sector’s environmental impacts)

Generous review of Turner Prize 2025 shortlist -- it "asks some pressing questions: what is the United Kingdom, and what could it be?" Hmm. tinyurl.com/3hkvesfh...

Bana Kattan, associate head of exhibitions at Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, will curate the UAE's presentation at the 2026 Venice Biennale in 2026. Good choice tinyurl.com/yhvd9pn7...

"Whatever remains of genuine, human content is increasingly sidelined by algorithmic prioritization ... These are the last days of social media as we know it" James O’Sullivan tells it like it is

BIrds being beautiful: the 2025 Audubon Photography Awards winners tinyurl.com/4r8nj2ft...

AI searches vs SEO: some pointers on optimising a website to appeal to ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity (and the main site has a handy 'Am I Visible on AI?' tool)

Uzbekistan wants to build a cultural presence – "splashy, but it is also a carefully choreographed rewrite of how an art scene can take root" says artnet tinyurl.com/awfsny9d...

Why we need MIT et al: FOODres.AI is a 3D printer/converter project that transforms food scraps into a bioplastic paste from which useful household objects can be made. Want ... tinyurl.com/yxhupcrt...

A collection of words that just don’t translate. Like Forelsket or Kuidare

Why social media is now a dead end for musicians: people can’t remember the names of artists or the titles of songs they like, says a new MIDiA survey tinyurl.com/4zxhmtzm...

Bookshops are closing down in Beirut, the city once hailed as the Arab world’s publishing capital

Art on a budget: how to buy good art for less than £10,000, according to Cultured mag

#MAGPIESEZ It's Thursday, the weekend beckons, and magpie Weekly is here once again –your free guide to all that matters in the UAE's arts culture and creativity scene, with added comment and in-depth reporting tinyurl.com/36aer58s...

How to spot AI writing: an excellent field guide from Wikipedia tinyurl.com/2mpj9urc...

The 2025 Red Dot Award for Product Design 2026 call for entries is now open (deadline 16 Jan, but applications and paid-for and there are early bird deals). New category this year: Gaming and Streaming www.red-dot.org/pd?u...

Four acts vs three? An interesting argument for an alternative to the conventional story structure tinyurl.com/3hwwfcxh...

Artwashing in practice: "What look like publicly funded commissions sometimes hide public-private-third sector ‘partnerships’ whose aims are more questionable"

Branding 101, according to Hugo Morrissey of Black Book Design Collective. Simple, sane, sound

Lviv BookForum, Ukraine's largest book festival, is back (2–5 Oct) and Hay Festival is streaming events free to the world. This year's theme – Resilience and Endurance – explores literature's role during crises

DEADLINE 30 SEPT Open call: Concept proposals for National Pavilion UAE exhibition at the 20th Biennale Architettura di Venezia (May to Nov 2027) – propose an exhibition that uncovers an untold story from the UAE’s architectural landscape tinyurl.com/mv3tpy4m...

Contemporary Istanbul is back for its 20th edition – 24–28 Sep

Art Basel Paris (24-26 Oct) has signed up 206 "leading international galleries". Cheapest tickets are €30, normal day tickets are €45

Palestinian artist+activist Samia Halaby is the recipient of this year’s Munch Award celebrating artistic freedom tinyurl.com/mvj4avm5...

magpie interviewed Bill Bragin of NYUAD Arts Center to find out how his programming has developed for the season, what keeps him going ("It ­can to be too easy just to repeat the formula”), and where the Arts Center is going next tinyurl.com/3h57fd6j...

“We’ve always seen The Arts Center as a kind of thermometer for the development of the contemporary performing arts scene in the UAE over the last ten years – it’s about pushing the envelope, widening access and building the community.” Thanks @magpieuae.bsky.social magpie.ae/eleven-years...

What are the longest English words that are only one syllable long? Guinness World Records knows (semi-spoiler: there are two, each 10 letters) tinyurl.com/yc4pffr4...

The Hive Architect: a (short) documentary about British bee conservationist Matt Somerville and the log hives he builds for wild honeybees. Engaging, heartwarming, and there's more of the same in this YT channel