Spain's Prado Museum Teams Up With Google Earth

The two have been working on a project that allows people to zoom in on the gallery's main paintings. This is the first of its kind involving an art museum. The project involves 14 of the Prado's best paintings, including Diego Velazquez's Las Meninas, Francisco de Goya's Third of May and Peter Paul Rubens' The Three Graces and you can zoom in on details not normally seen with the human eye. Google Spain says the images on the internet were 1,400 times clearer than what would be rendered with a 10-megapixel camera. 8,200 photographs were taken of the paintings and then combined with Google Earth's zoom-in technology. You can see the images by going to Google, and downloading Google Earth software, type in Prado Museum in the search engine. Once the museum zooms into focus, click on the square with the name of the museum.

"Better protection for performing artists working outside their home country"

According to the European Parliament Press Service, "The employment conditions for performing artists who move around Europe as part of their work should be improved, and they should be better informed on how to transfer their social rights. So says the Culture Committee in a report adopted on Monday, calling for better protection for artists and the introduction of a special electronic social security card.
In the own initiative report on the social security status of artists by Claire Gibault (ALDE, FR), adopted unanimously, the committee explains that many artists in Europe, be it singers, musicians or - like the rapporteur herself - conductors, have experienced problems when trying to perform in other countries, or trying to transfer their social rights. International co-productions of live performances, circus or audiovisual productions have been increasing the mobility of many artists, and thus increasing the need for a clearer legal status for the European artists."

This Press Release is available in full text.

Beatles Sign Rejected

The Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions have rejected the city of Liverpool's request that road signs leading to the city should state "Liverpool - Birthplace of the Beatles" on the grounds that it would distract drivers. The Road Traffic Act permits brown and white road sigs to indicate routes to tourist attractions. The city's tourist office has appealed against the decision to the Secretary of State for Culture, Chris Smith.

(Originally posted by John Downes)