Wednesday Links: Stamps and Strollers

A $9.5 million stamp

A 19th century one-cent stamp sold for $9.5 million at Sotheby’s. Auctioneer David Redden calls it the “Mona Lisa of stamps.” Sure. [Artnet]
Here’s a few of the reactions to Ryan Wong’s Joe Scanlan bombshell on twitter. As you can imagine a lot of people have strong opinions in every direction. [Hyperallergic]
California senate and assembly is issuing $5 million to the California Arts Fund. This isn’t the $31 million budget we saw in 2000-2001, but at least it’s higher than in the recent years after California’s financial nosedive. In 2004-2005, California’s allocation to the Arts Fund was only around $1 million. [Los Angeles Times]
In the growing lineage of photographs of Klaus Biesenbach standing next to Hans-Ulrich Obrist, this may be a Hallmark. [GalleristNY]
Lisson Gallery will open an exhibition space right under the Highline Park in Chelsea. Not sure how that will work considering the limited wall space, but we’ll leave the logistics up to them. [The Art Newspaper]
Kristof Kintera’s show at Basel involves camouflage strollers. From what we can tell, it’s kind of like Fisher Price gets a makeover from the Pentagon. [Twitter via @JavierPes1]
Loews AMC theaters have cancelled its broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera’s production of the “Death of Klinghoffer”, about the Palestinian Liberation Front’s hijacking of a boat and murder of Jewish-American passengers. The Zionist Organization of America is criticizing the opera for being anti-Semitic and pushing for the Met to cancel the production, too. [San Diego Jewish World, via @wyszniewski]
This is the list of the new emojis including a fax machine and what looks like John Trovolta from Saturday Night Fever. Emoji icons were never too topical anyway. [Time]
We’ve been hearing a lot about the ISIS in Iraq. Here’s an explanation of who they are and their origins in 90 seconds. [BBC News Middle East]
A really well-executed Vine magic trick. [Christian Leonard]
The Internet can seem pretty awful when deaths are treated with instant obits over twitter. But it’s also a place to honor people. Over a year after Roger Ebert’s death, fans are celebrating his birthday on Google +. [Google Plus, via @ebertchicago]
A pictorial essay of cats standing up. [Sad and Useless]