VICE

Good morning. It’s raining again in New York. Happy commuting!

Here are some links about dogs, artists moving out of the city, and why the Brooklyn Museum is updating Wikipedia pages.

• If you love dogs, then the 49th Annual Grand American Coon Hunt in South Carolina might be for you. You must also like barking though; dogs compete for the most barks per 30 seconds. [VICE]
• In 2009 three sculptures stolen from a Hindu temple in India were confiscated by U.S. special agents in New York. Today officials will hand over these artifacts over to the Indian consulate in New York. [City Room Blog]
• Climate change is real, but if there are no scientists to tell us that, perhaps that will make it easier for conservative governments to force through bills that ignore those problems. The Canadian Federal Government has dismissed over 2,000 scientists in five years. [CBC]
• The Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan responds to Bill Keller’s piece about Lisa Bonchek Adams, a blogger known for chronicling her 4th stage breast cancer treatment. Keller’s piece remains, but Sullivan concedes that Keller did not take the appropriate amount of time to understand his subject’s work. [The New York Times]
• The Brooklyn Heights Association’s library redevelopment questionnaire reminds me of trying to select a healthcare plan on the Obamacare website. You have no idea what you’re looking at or how to apply selection criteria. It turns out the “redevelopment plan” they’re polling us on includes selling the libraries. Your opinion on whether that’s a good idea isn’t asked until 3 pages in (question 9), and the plan is described only as the “redevelopment plan.” SKEEVY. [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
• Looks like the worry of artists leaving New York has been on people’s minds for a while. A sobering article from 2010 reports that New York art executives are concerned that art school graduates aren’t even attempting to move to New York at the beginning of their careers. Kate Tepper, a Cooper Union student is moving to Chicago the day her lease expires. “There was a romanticism about being an artist in New York that was handed down in stories, but no artist I know is living that kind of life here,” Ms. Tepper says. “In other cities where space is affordable, artists are now living the kind of life we dreamed about in New York.” [Crain’s]
• By Matthew Oates, the best wax heads that you probably haven’t seen yet in the Lower East Side. [Station Independent Projects]
• Alexandra Thom, with the support of the Kress Foundation, spent the bulk of last year making sure that Wikipedia articles on the Brooklyn Museum’s holdings were accurate. Hrag Vartanian reports. [Hyperallergic]