Category Archives: Culture

Art

Interview With Bruce Bailey: Bringing Canadian Artists to the Global Stage

June 3, 2026 The Silo

Making Connections

For more than two decades, Bruce Bailey has played a crucial role in connecting Canadian contemporary artists with audiences beyond the country’s borders. Through exhibitions, institutional partnerships, artist residencies, philanthropy, and collecting, he has worked across Toronto, Montreal, Venice, Barcelona, New York, and London to expand international exposure for Canada’s most promising artists.

His involvement has taken many forms, including organizing exhibitions for emerging artists, sponsoring Canadian Pavilion presentations at the Venice Biennale, supporting museum acquisitions, and establishing Espacio Bruce Bailey in Barcelona as a residency and exhibition space for international exchange. Over the years, artists including Kent Monkman, Shary Boyle, David Altmejd, Geoffrey Farmer, Jeremy Shaw, and BGL have been connected to projects and institutions Bailey has supported.

Questions and Answers

Q: You founded Bruce Bailey Fine Art Projects in Toronto at a time when many younger artists struggled to gain institutional visibility. What were you trying to create?

Bruce Bailey: I wanted artists to have a serious presentation before the market fully formed around them. In many cases, commercial galleries were hesitant to take risks on younger artists whose work was still developing. I felt there needed to be a place where ambitious exhibitions could happen without immediate pressure from sales expectations. With Kent Monkman, for example, I organized Dance to the Berdashe in Toronto in 2008. Years earlier, I had already started collecting his paintings and introducing his work to museums and collectors. The same thing happened with artists like Ryan McGinley and Christian Jankowski. These were artists making very strong work before institutional recognition arrived. The idea was always to help build momentum for artists by placing their work in front of curators, collectors, museum directors, and critics who could continue supporting them afterward.

Q: Your work has often involved bringing Canadian artists into international conversations. Why has that mattered to you?

Bruce Bailey: Canadian artists have always deserved greater visibility internationally than they often receive. There is extraordinary work being produced here, although artists sometimes face structural limitations tied to geography and market size. I became involved with supporting Canadian Pavilion presentations at the Venice Biennale because Venice remains one of the few places where curators, museum directors, collectors, and critics from around the world gather in one concentrated setting. When David Altmejd represented Canada in 2007, or when Geoffrey Farmer, Shary Boyle, BGL, and Stan Douglas later participated, those presentations carried importance far beyond a single exhibition season. The exposure can influence museum acquisitions, future exhibitions, publications, and international representation. Supporting those projects was especially important, with the artists speaking to global audiences as representatives of Canada’s cultural life.

Q: In 2016, you established Espacio Bruce Bailey in Barcelona. What role does that space serve today?

Bruce Bailey: Barcelona offered something very specific. It has a strong cultural history, an international population, and proximity to major European institutions and collectors. I wanted to create a setting where artists from Canada could spend time working, exhibiting, and building relationships outside North America. The residency and gallery space are located in the Gothic Quarter, which brings people from many countries into contact with the program. Some artists arrive with established careers, while others are still developing. The conversations that happen there can be very productive, exposing artists to curators, writers, collectors, and other artists they may never encounter otherwise. I have always believed artists benefit from spending time outside familiar environments. It changes their view of the work and often changes the scale of their ambitions.

Q: Your collections have been shown in places such as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and in Venice. How do you approach collecting?

Bruce Bailey: I collect work that continues to hold intellectual and emotional weight over time. I am interested in artists who build complete visual languages rather than producing work that responds to short-term trends. The exhibitions drawn from my collection at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts were important. They provided public access to works that would otherwise remain private. For Every Atom Belonging To Me As Good Belongs to You brought together many different artists and generations in a museum context. Earlier, Disasters of War connected works by Jake and Dinos Chapman with Goya’s print series, addressing violence, history, and political imagery across centuries. Museums matter because they allow the public to encounter work slowly and seriously. That experience carries enormous value.

Q: Your fundraising efforts have supported museums, opera, and ballet organizations across Canada. How do you view that role?
Bruce Bailey: Public institutions require long-term support if they are going to take risks artistically. Acquisitions, exhibitions, catalogues, educational programs, and performances all depend on philanthropy at some level. With Bruce Bailey’s Canadian Fête Champêtre, the intention was to create something ambitious enough to generate substantial support for institutions while also bringing together people from different parts of cultural life. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts was central to those efforts, though support also extended to organizations like the Canadian Opera Company and Canada’s National Ballet School. I have always felt the arts ecosystem functions best when different disciplines interact with one another. Visual art, music, dance, opera, architecture, and literature constantly influence each other. Supporting one area strengthens the broader cultural environment around it, and ultimately benefits the arts scene as a whole.

For the Silo, Jarrod Barker.

Featured image Photography by Arseny Jabieve.

Culture

Vehicle Millennials Once Mocked Makes Major Comeback

June 3, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

Millennials are abandoning SUVs for the one vehicle they swore they’d never drive: the minivan.

For years, North Americans were told bigger was better. Three-row SUVs became the default family vehicle, and automakers poured billions into the category. Consumers followed in droves. But now a surprising reversal is underway. The same generation that spent decades mocking minivans is increasingly choosing them over SUVs, and experts say the shift reveals something much larger about the state of the North American consumer in 2026.

Faced with persistent affordability pressures, elevated borrowing costs, expensive insurance premiums, and rising household debt, many families are abandoning image-driven vehicle purchases in favor of practicality, value, and long-term cost savings. The result? The minivan is making an unexpected comeback!

Why Minivans Are Growing Again

The growth comes after decades of decline and signals a notable shift in consumer priorities. Industry analysts cite several major factors:

Better cargo space than most three-row SUVs.
Easier third-row access.
Sliding doors favored by parents.
Better fuel economy versus large SUVs.
Lower purchase prices compared to similarly equipped SUVs.
Strong hybrid offerings from Toyota and Kia.
Rising affordability concerns among younger families.

What makes this trend especially compelling is who is driving it. Millennials, many of whom grew up riding in minivans and spent years rejecting them as uncool, are now among the key buyers fueling the segment’s resurgence. As the oldest members of Generation Alpha enter their school-age years and family transportation needs evolve, functionality is increasingly outweighing perception.

Costly SUVs Are Pricing Out Families
SUV prices have steadily climbed since 2021, with three-row options outpacing overall car price inflation. As once-mainstream options like the Suburban and Expedition become more associated with luxury pricing, families looking to pack into a single vehicle have turned to minivans like the Chrysler Pacifica, Toyota Sienna, and Kia Carnival.

Kia Carnival with impressive seating capacity.

The rise of hybrid minivans has also changed the minivan’s reputation from gas guzzler to economical, Earth-friendly choice. Toyota’s hybrid Sienna is also available with all-wheel drive, a combination northern families would have once only dreamed of. For 2026, the hybrid Toyota Sienna gets up to 36 miles per gallon. Ten years ago, the Sienna was good for just 21 miles per gallon. Times are changing! Anyone want to talk about advanced style and design- look back over 30 years ago to the Previa.

The economics are difficult to ignore. Many popular minivans offer significantly more usable passenger and cargo space than comparably priced SUVs, often while delivering better fuel economy and a lower purchase price. For families already grappling with inflation and high monthly expenses, the savings can add up to thousands of dollars annually.

Automotive retail analysts and consumer advocates Zach and Ray Shefska at http://www.caredge.com/ emphasize the following factors:

Millennials Are Suddenly Embracing Minivans
This Trend Reveals About America’s Financial Reality in 2026
SUVs Are Becoming the New Status Symbol Consumers Can No Longer Afford
Minivans Deliver the Best Value for Families Today
Cargo Space, Insurance Costs, and Fuel Economy Matter More Than Ever
Is This a Temporary Shift or the Beginning of a Long-Term Consumer Reset?
Rising Household Costs Are Changing Vehicle Buying Decisions
The Minivan IS the Family Vehicle North Americans Are Reconsidering in Record Numbers

The minivan story is not really about minivans. It is about a generation confronting economic reality and making purchasing decisions based on value instead of image. The comeback of the vehicle many Millennials once swore they would never own may be one of the clearest indicators yet of how dramatically the North American consumer is changing.

For the Silo, Karen Hayhurst.

Vintage

Truly A Hit Record Maker- The Classic Roland TR-707

May 25, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

Released by the Roland Corporation in 1985, the Roland TR-707 Rhythm Composer contains 8-bit samples of real drums. This low resolution gives it a lo-fi sound that sets it apart from later and cleaner sounding sample playback drum machines.

A desirable, vintage drum machine spotlight via our friends at tonetweakers.com

The 707 sounds similar to other classic early to mid ’80s digital drum machines like the LinnDrum, Oberheim DMX and Oberheim DX (which is also available on tonetweakers website), but with a lower price tag. Professionally serviced and systematically tested to ensure full functionality, this classic unit now works like new again and is ready to play.

Little brother to the legendary Roland TR-808 and Roland TR-909, the 707 fits perfectly into the iconic Roland X0X ecosystem and is a must for any serious fan of Roland machines from that era. This example also includes its original cardboard box — a rare bonus for collectors.

The 707 was featured on classic pop (you might be surprised to learn that many rock and pop hits did not use acoustic drums but sample based drum machines and drum computers instead) and house tracks like “Need You Tonight” by INXS, ”Move Your Body” by Marshall Jefferson, and “Washing Machine”. Also reportedly used by electronic music legends Vince Clarke, Aphex Twin, Daft Punk and Jay Wires 😀

Much like the classic TR-909, this MIDI drum machine is a classic.

Used on countless pop, techno, house, new wave, synthpop, hip hop and other recordings from the mid 80s thru today. Its appearance and user interface are best compared to that of the 909. It’s a great studio drum machine but also an excellent portable live tool with the ability to trigger external sounds on a MIDI sampler or synth – perfect for the gigging techno musician.

Features:
15 great drum sounds
16 pads for tap entry or step entry (lights indicate position)
Can also be used to sequence your MIDI synthesizer or sampler – great for live use!
Pattern Mode – create lots of your own loops!
Track Mode – arrange your loops into songs!
Accent
Shuffle (variable)
Flam
Cartridge Port (fits the optional M-16c, see my other auctions below!)
MIDI In / Out
DIN sync output to synchronize with TB-303, TR-808, TR-606, CR-8000 and other fashionable Roland gear!
stereo out
10 additional individual audio outputs
phone out
start/stop input jack
sync out/tape save jack
sync in/tape load jack
DC in

For the Silo, Jarrod Barker.

Vintage

How 1972 Change To Horsepower Measurements Affects Today Muscle Car Values

May 23, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

A multitude of factors conspired to hamstring the American muscle car market in the early 1970s, most of all a 1972 change in how horsepower was measured. Here’s how that rating change affects the values of eight familiar collector cars.

Let’s Dig In!

As anyone who’s ever wrung out a small sports car will tell you, horsepower isn’t everything. Driving is more about feel than what’s on a spec sheet. But that magical equine number, first adopted in the eighteenth century to measure the output of steam engines, does count for a lot, and domestic carmakers have been using it to sell cars for generations.

This was especially true during the second half of the 1960s, when muscle cars were flexing their hardest and 400-plus horsepower V-8s were readily available. Starting in 1971–72, though, the muscle car market famously came crashing down, and it wasn’t until the spread of electronic fuel injection in the 1980s that the numbers finally started to catch up to those of the ’60s.

Used car dealership early 70s — *Flickr/CSUSM*

Understanding that early ’70s crash takes some explaining.

Muscle cars faced the multi-whammy of increased emissions regulations, crash safety rules mandating fatter bumpers, spiking insurance rates for high-performance automobiles, and lower compression ratios with the advent of lower-octane unleaded gas. There was also the 1973 oil crisis and well as the recession and 55-mph speed limits that resulted.

pumps during opec fuel crisis — *Pictorial Parade/Getty Images*

On top of all this was a 1972 switch in how horsepower was measured, which made the drop in muscle car performance seem worse than it actually was.

Prior to 1972, American carmakers used the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) “gross” measurement of horsepower, which is a figure taken from the engine running on a stand with no power-robbing accessories or mufflers. “Net” horsepower, meanwhile, measures the engine with accessories connected. Some carmakers started advertising gross and net figures in 1971, but a California law requiring only the net figure in any advertising materials starting in 1972 effectively prompted the switch to the net figure across the industry. Some American muscle favorites appeared to suddenly “lose” 100 hp.

That wasn’t strictly the case, though, and our friends at Hagerty recently started wondering what effect that gross-to-net switch might have on classic car values. Is there a discount to be had by ignoring the arbitrary numbers and going after an American V-8 classic from 1972 instead of its nearly identical ’71 counterpart? The answer is, sometimes “yes,” and sometimes “not really.” Below are eight examples. NOTE all monetary values are in US dollars- at time of posting multiply by 1.38 for CAD dollars.

Chevrolet Corvette LT1

Regular Production Option (RPO) LT1 debuted in 1970 on the Corvette and the Z/28 Camaro. In the Corvette, what it got you was a 350cid V-8 with solid lifters, tight 11:1 compression ratio, forged pistons, balanced crankshaft, freer-breathing heads, and more improvements that helped push the new hot-rodded, high-revving small-block to 370 hp and 380 lb-ft. Unfortunately, the LT1 arrived just in time for the horsepower wars to start winding down, and with its compression ratio lowered to 9:1 in the 1971 version, performance was down to 330 hp. A bit disappointing, sure, but still lots of oomph.

Chevrolet Corvette LT1 1972 engine — 1972 LT1 350/255 HP V-8 engineMecum

For the 1972 Corvette, RPO LT1 dropped to 255 hp with the switch to net ratings. The LT1 option disappeared after 1972, which was also the last year for chrome bumpers at both ends of America’s sports car. Visually, all 1970–72 LT1 Corvettes look nearly identical, but values drop way off as the power ratings decrease. A 1970 LT1 convertible is currently worth $108K in #2 (excellent) condition in our price guide. The equivalent coupe is currently worth $89,600. The 1971 model falls to $82,300 for a convertible in #2 condition, and $64,500 for a coupe. At the bottom, the 1972 LT1 currently carries #2 values of $74,300 for a convertible and $73,000 for a coupe. Condition #3 (good) values for these cars typically come in at about 25 to 30 grand less than the #2 value.

As for the Camaro Z/28, its #2 value drops from $53,600 for a 1971 model to $52,800 for a ’72, while the condition #3 value drops from $39,400 to $32,700.

AMC Javelin

American Motors redesigned its plucky pony car, the Javelin, for 1971. The new second-gen model sprouted the famous exaggerated, creased wheel arches and long hood for which the Javelin is perhaps best known, in part thanks to Mark Donohue’s dominant ’71 Trans Am season behind the wheel of one. AMC’s two-seater AMX model also disappeared after 1970, but was added to the Javelin lineup as a high-performance submodel.

New for ’71 was a 401cid V-8, available in both Javelin SST and Javelin AMX trim. In gross horsepower terms, the 401 made 330 hp. In 1972, the net rating dropped that figure to 255 hp. Values also drop from ’71 to ’72, despite there being few cosmetic differences between the two years. For ’71 Javelins, an SST is worth $35K in #2 condition, and an AMX is worth $49,300. For ’72 models, these figures fall to $25,700 for an SST and $43,200 for an AMX.

Cadillac Eldorado

Cadilac-Eldorado-500-CID — 500cid V-8Mecum

The ninth-generation Eldo came out in 1971, growing in wheelbase, overall length, and weight over its predecessor. Fender skirts were another addition, as was a convertible body style. Motivating this huge Caddy was a similarly huge V-8, which displaced a whopping 500 cid (8194 cc). The 500-cube unit had made 400 hp in the ’70 Eldorado, but this dropped to a still-potent 365 horses in ’71. The switch to net ratings suggested a huge drop, though, with the figure dropping to 235 hp for 1972.

The ’72 discount is fairly modest for the Eldorado, a car that never sold itself on speed, anyway. For 1971 models, a convertible is worth $37K in #2 condition, and a hardtop is worth $25,200. A ’72 convertible is worth $35,600, and a hardtop is worth $25,200.

Oldsmobile Toronado

Oldsmobile’s large, groundbreaking front-wheel drive Toronado entered its second generation in 1971. Like the Eldorado, it was larger than its predecessor. Its 455cid Rocket V-8 carried over from the ’70 model, and carried a gross rating of 350hp. The switch to net ratings knocked off a full 100 ponies, for 250hp total. But, also like the Cadillac, the Toronado’s primary selling point was never power, despite its monstrous engine.

That goes a long way in explaining why a ’71 Toronado and a ’72 Toronado are worth almost exactly the same, with a ’71 coming in at $16,000 in #2 condition and a ’72 coming in at $15,600.

Plymouth GTX

Plymouth redesigned its Road Runner, upon which the GTX was based, for 1971. The handsome fuselage theme included a loop bumper and a high trunk. While the 426-cid/425-hp Hemi was still available in the ’71 GTX, most got a version of the 440, either the three-carb 440-cid/375-hp “Six Pack” or the 440-cid/370-hp four-barrel.

By 1972, the original Street Hemi was gone, closing a major chapter in the history of Mopar muscle. The Six Pack was gone, too, leaving only the four-barrel 440 for GTX buyers, and its rating dropped from 370hp to 280hp. The GTX also ceased to be its own model that year, instead becoming an option package for the Road Runner, though styling remained largely the same. The discount in choosing ’72 over ’71 in this case is significant. The current #2 value for a 1971 GTX is $64,100, and for a ’72 Road Runner GTX it’s $53,300.

Pontiac GTO

By 1971, the second-gen GTO’s muscles had atrophied a bit. The splashy colors of “The Judge” were still available, but the potent Ram Air engines were not, and compression ratios dropped across the GM lineup. The Pontiac’s most potent powerplants were now a 455 cid/325 hp or a 455 cid/335 hp.

For 1972, the GTO went from being its own separate model to being an option package on the Le Mans, just as it had been when it kicked off the muscle car era in 1964. In net terms, the 455 engines now carried ratings of either 250 hp or 300 hp.

As collector cars, there is naturally some variation in terms of value. The ’71 455/325 GTO carries a #2 value of $54,300, while the ’72 455/250 is worth $41,000. With the higher-output engines, though, they are essentially worth the same, with both ’71 455/335 and ’72 455/300 sitting at around $64,000, possibly due to the rarity of the later car.

Oldsmobile 4-4-2 W-30

The second-gen 4-4-2, like the GTO, was a staple GM muscle car built on the A-body platform from 1968–72. It was similarly down on power and compression in 1971, with the high-performance W-30 package offering a 455-cid/350-hp V-8, down from 370 horses the year before. Net horsepower for the 1972 W-30, when the 4-4-2 reverted to being an option package on the Cutlass, sank the number to 300 hp. The beefier, slower third-gen 4-4-2 debuted in 1973 with GM’s malaise era “Colonnade” styling.

Olds 4-4-2 values drop significantly as the horsepower numbers go down. A 1970 W-30 Holiday Coupe in #2 condition is worth $99,200. The 1971, 350-hp equivalent is worth $82,800, and the 1972, 300-hp version is worth $69,400.

Chevrolet Chevelle SS

Also an A-body, the Chevelle got a mild facelift in 1971, with two headlights instead of four, and four circular taillights instead of two rectangular ones. While the big dog in 1970 was the 454-cid/450-hp LS6 engine, it disappeared from the Chevelle lineup in ’71, and the top engine became the 454-cid/365-hp LS5. For 1972, little changed visually other than an updated grille and new front parking lights, but the LS5’s stated output dropped to 270 hp. A completely new and significantly less exciting, Colonnade-bodied third-gen Chevelle debuted for 1973.

LS5 values don’t vary too much from ’71 to ’72. A ’71 convertible in #2 condition is worth $93,300 or $73,100 in #3 condition, while a sport coupe in #2 condition is worth $70,500 or $53,500 in #3 condition. A ’72 convertible in #2 condition is worth $89,700 or $75,300 in #3 condition, while a sport coupe in #2 condition is worth $69,300 or $55,400 in #3 condition.

For the Silo, Andrew Newton.

Vintage

Historic Modern Architecture- Walter White’s Palm Desert Masterpiece

May 20, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

Walter S. White’s Palm Desert Gem Comes To Market

Walter S. White was a prolific and innovative modernist architect, best known for advancing the use of geometry to passively control temperature. A fearless inventor, he held patents for a solar heat exchanger window wall and the hyperbolic paraboloid roof—concepts that continue to be used in desert architecture today. In keeping with the modern movement, his constructions were stylish but functional, making use of industrial materials and thoughtful integration with the natural landscape.

He worked extensively in Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, pursuing a vision of desert modernism that integrated structure, material, and light with the unique arid landscape. The Paulette Herbert Johnson House, nestled in South Palm Desert’s charming, historic Silver Spur Ranch neighborhood, is a gorgeous example of the architect’s work. Constructed in 1958, the modern residence has been listed for $1.755 million usd/ $2.41 million cad (conversion rate at time of posting).

White’s home design has a classic modern profile, with clean lines and floor-to-ceiling glass, offering fantastic natural light and an airy, open feel. The open floor plan is enhanced by terrazzo floors, original wood paneling, and White’s signature masonry walls, while desert views abound from every room. Designers Garret & Garage have tastefully updated the home, blending contemporary luxuries with original finishes, curating a tasteful and refined aesthetic while preserving the architectural mastery of the original design.

Outside, find a private oasis with a sparkling pebble-finish pool and spa surrounded by lush palm trees. A beautiful architectural breeze-block detail anchors the space. The 15,682-square-foot grounds encompass multiple fire features, several lounge and dining spaces, an outdoor kitchen, a putting green, and a bocce ball court, offering an excellent setup for both entertaining and private relaxation. For golf fans, the home is located close to numerous golf courses and country clubs, including Indian Wells Country Club, Stone Eagle Golf Club, and The Citrus Club at PGA West.

Silver Spur Ranch Neighborhood

The Silver Spur Ranch neighborhood was started in 1957 by prolific Tarzan movie producer Sol Lesser and a consortium of business leaders as a prestige development. Silver Spur’s modern ranch homes defined desert luxury in the post-war era. Spanning 400 acres of picturesque Palm Desert land, the development attracted movie stars, including actors Bing Crosby, Phil Harris and Randolph Scott. JFK was known to vacation at these celebrity homes while visiting California. Today, this storied enclave is popular for its well-preserved architectural homes, which retain the unique character of the modern age. Palm Desert is a hot spot with A-listers looking to get away from it all, with the Kardashian family, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Robert Downey Jr. being just a few of the big names with vacation retreats in the area.

For The Silo, By Kimberly Ridley & friends at toptenrealestatedeals.com

The listing is held by Reagan Richter at Compass. Photo Credit: David Potter

Source: www.compass.com

Art

Surreal Work From British Secret Service Painter

May 19, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

Many have been humbled simply standing in a darkened field and looking to the stars. Indeed the great thinkers of the many generations that have come and gone are regarded as giants when in fact they were merely humans dropped to their knees by the wonder that is the universe all around us.

There is as much wonder in a blade of grass as there is in a cosmic nebula, as much mystery in a drop of water as in the dark matter we yet fail to comprehend.

James Hart Dyke is based in Brighton, England nestled between the water and the south downs. In his studio he works largely on commissions. About a decade ago, Hart Dyke traveled to Patagonia and was inspired to begin painting mountain landscapes from this trip for an exhibition in London. Landscapes are his life’s work and his love for the art form has infused his life and career with adventure and physicality as he climbs and hikes the places he later paints. “Enduring the landscape in some way, I find that combination of painting and physicality very exciting…it’s what my painting is about, really,” he says. Hart Dyke has been embedded with British forces in war zones on commission from the UK military. In Baghdad he painted while two soldiers stood guard. This tradition of bringing artists along to paint is long standing and important to the regiments of the UK. The work created is kept in the collections of the individual regiments and displayed in the mess hall, documenting the history of each for the soldiers to witness. The tradition dates back before photography when artists were the only window to a visual representation of the action of the battlefield.

Artists’ representations of war convey more than just the actual imagery of what is going on before them. The emotions of the situation are infused into the work, as well. Hart Dyke has had an unusual career. His work has led him to a position as artist in residence for the British Secret Intelligence Service as well as to work for the Royal Family.

For the British Secret Intelligence Service, Hart Dyke helped to commemorate the centenary by documenting things in paint. As an artist he was able to venture where photographers could not go due to the highly sensitive nature of the work done there. His paintings from this series are quite surreal, a nod to the rather unusual nature of the work the British Secret Intelligence Service does. Hart Dyke studied architecture which he is still passionate about despite eventually moving to painting. His entrance into the painting world began with commissioned paintings of buildings. In reality, Hart Dyke began painting at the age of eight and despite his foray into architecture he never truly gave it up. There was inevitability to his career as a painter. Because of the physical nature of his process, art has become in a very real sense James Hart Dyke’s sport. To hear more about this, James Hart Dyke’s unusual career, and about the tradition of artists on the battlefield, listen to the complete interview.

Kambui Olujimi ‘s exhibited work titled Red Shift refers to celestial bodies in space that cannot be seen because of shifts in the spectrum of light. Through this lens, Olujimi contemplated the mythology of whiteness as an unseen force. Olujimi describes how the mythological space of whiteness plays out in the physical world through policy, allocation of resources, and myriad other ways. He references descriptions of mass shooters as “lone shooters” in a way that removes them from the space of violence pervasive in the US. Presidential assassins are another example. These two groups of predominantly white men are somehow isolated, removed from the larger conversation about violence in the US creating a Red Shift that in a sense conceals them from the rest of the data.

For the exhibition, Olujimi created collages from news imagery of the alt-right coupled with drawings. Olujimi’s current project centers on fragmentation of identity. His love of films informs this work. In particular he references the accidental announcement of La La Land for Best Picture in 2017 when in fact the film Moonlight claimed that title. His concept deconstructs and reassembles that moment, elongating it and examining the feeling of elation followed by crushing deflation. “A lot of my work is around these things that I call inevitabilities…I’m interested in bringing those inevitabilities out of the space of the implicit. Once you give them shape and weight and gravity and start to manifest them in some way, the incongruities and absurdities, the surreal aspects all become very evident and we are able to become more critical of them in that space.” It is these gaps, these “moments of silence” that inform Olujimi’s work. To hear more about this powerful art, listen to the complete interview. For the Silo, Brainard Carey.

Featured image- Mercy Doesn’t Grow On Trees, 2016 Wood, glass, hair, gold leaf, ratchet straps 150 x 48 x 30 inches

Culture

Commodifying Art -Damien Hirst

May 16, 2026 The Silo 2 Comments

All of modern life is a spectacle. Much of what contemporary man experiences in Western society is a false social construct mediated by images.

These mediated images create desires that can never be fulfilled; they create false needs that can never be met. “Many of our daily decisions are governed by motivations over which we have no control and of which we are quite unaware” (Berger 41). The constant specter of the mediated image creates an endless cycle of desire, consumption, and disinterest, fueling a banality in life that feeds the commodification of life.

Increasingly life itself becomes a commodity and the image more important than the reality it represents. This commodification infiltrates every aspect of human production, including the arts, and finds its pinnacle expression in the work of Damien Hirst. Hirst has carefully crafted a brand identity that has far surpassed the value of his art work in importance and worth. Working in tandem with former advertising executive turned art dealer Charles Saatchi, the spectacle of the Hirst image becomes the commodity. “Reality unfolds in a new generality as a pseudo-world apart, solely as an object of contemplation. The tendency towards the specialization of images-of-the-world finds its highest expression in the world of the autonomous image, where deceit deceives itself” (Debord
143).

No longer is the work of art itself a commodity, but rather the image of the artist (his/her/cis brand) that becomes the commodity.

It is this spectacle that drives the consumer to identify with a particular artist or brand. “The astronomical growth in the wealth and cultural influence of multi-national corporations over the last fifteen years can arguably be
traced back to a single, seemingly innocuous idea developed by management theorists in the mid-1980s: that successful corporations must primarily produce brands, as opposed to products” (Klein 4). The image has increasingly infiltrated and dominated the culture and the whole of society and has become “an immense accumulation of spectacles” (Debord 142).

Butterfly by Damien Hirst

Where once the products of labor were the commodity, now it is the spectacle that has become the commodity.

A prime example of this spectacle is Damien Hirst’s sculpture, “For the Love of God.” The sculpture consists of a platinum skull covered with 8,601 diamonds. The sculpture valued at over $100 million usd/ $129.361,000 cad [exchange rate at time of publication] is clearly out of the reach of almost any collector. The sculpture itself is not the art product, rather it is the spectacle that is the product. “Mr. Hirst is a shining symbol of our times, a man who perhaps more than any artist since Andy Warhol has used marketing to turn his fertile imagination into an extraordinary business” (Riding, nytimes.com). Acknowledging that the sculpture is out of reach for the majority of collectors, Hirst offered screen prints costing $2000 usd/ $2,587 cad to $20,000 usd/ $25,870 cad ; the most expensive prints were sold with a sprinkling of diamond dust.

Karl Marx argued that the value of the commodity arose from its relationship with other commodities; its ability to be exchanged for other commodities. Marx used the the production of a table to illustrate his thesis:
“…by his activity, man changes the materials of nature in such a way as to make them useful to him. The form of wood, for instance, is altered if a table is made out of it. Nevertheless the table continues to be wood, an ordinary, sensuous thing. But as soon as it emerges as a commodity, it changes into a thing which transcends sensuousness.” (Marx 122)

Hirst’s diamond encrusted skull remains mere diamonds, valuable yes, but still diamonds. However, when coupled with the spectacle of Damien Hirst’s identity, the skull becomes a fetishized commodity capable of selling screen-prints valued in the thousands. The argument can be made that diamonds on their own carry value, and could be commodities themselves, however that doesn’t account for the fact the Hirst was able to sell prints of the skull for over $2000 usd/ $2,587 cad. Nor do the diamonds alone account for the spectacle surrounding the art work; it is Hirst’s brand, his image that creates the spectacle.

“The mystical character of the commodity does not therefore arise from its use-value. Just as little does it proceed from the nature of the determinants of value” (Marx 123). The value of a commodity arises from its spectacle, its ability to be desired. In Marx’s day that desire was its ability to be traded for other commodities; today that value is derived from its association to a brand, an identity, a spectacle. “Art reflects the illusory way in which society sees itself, it reflects the bourgeoisie’s aesthetic ideas as if they were universal” (Osborne 79).

The spectacle feeds itself through the mediating of the image to create desire for status and recognition, through associations.

“The ends are nothing and development is all – though the only thing into which the spectacle plans to develop is itself” (Debord 144). The spectacle’s main objective is self perpetuation. Its aim is totality. It must be noted that Hirst himself did not even create the work of art, but rather employed a studio full of jewelers to execute the sculpture, and printers to produce the prints.

Hirst exemplifies the bourgeoisie capitalist employer who retains ownership over the fruit of the employees’ labor. He is in many ways more akin to a captain of industry than he is to the romantic notion of an artist. “In the early twenties, the legendary adman Bruce Barton turned General Motors into a metaphor for the American family, something personal, warm and human” (Klein 7). Hirst has also turned himself into a metaphor, however, metaphors aren’t always true. This falsehod is at the heart of the issue. The spectacle isn’t concerned with what is true, rather it is concerned with what can be made to appear true. It is this appearance of truth that makes a commodity valuable. This fetishism of the commodity is why gold and silver have value, it is because people gave them value. It is the reason Damien Hirst, or any other brand, has value, because people gave it value.

Damien Hirst cannot be blamed for commodifying art, he is simply following a long tradition of turning objects and products into commodities. The fact that his commodity is his own image doesn’t seem to matter. “Hirst is just playing the game. It is a game played by collectors and dealers at art fairs throughout the year; it is a game finessed as never before by Sotheby’s and Christie’s; it is a game in which, in the words of Nick Cohen, a rare British journalist to trash Mr. Hirst’s publicity coup, ‘the price tag is the art’ ” (Riding .nytimes.com).

That final statement beautifully summarizes the commodification of art, ‘the price tag is the art.’ The fact that the art is obscenely priced, and out of the reach for the majority of collectors, the fact that it is made of diamonds, a precious stone known as the blood stone because of its association with brutal and oppressive regimes, merely adds to its allure, to its spectacle. Damien Hirst is merely playing the game, like many before him. He is a part of the growing culture
industry that sells image. Images are the new commodity fetish. Images are the new mysterious commodities exchanged for more the more durable and enduring commodities. The bourgiousie sell their images, which have no real value, to the public which consumes them, in exchange for goods of real value.

“The $200 billion usd/ $270 billion cad culture industry – now North America’s biggest export – needs an every-changing, uninterrupted supply of street styles, edgy music videos and rainbows of colors. And the radical critics of the media clamoring to be ‘represented’ in the early nineties virtually handed over their colorful identities to the brand masters to be shrink-wrapped.” (Klein 115)

Nick Cohen said of Hirst, “[he] isn’t criticizing the excess, not even ironically … but rolling in it and loving it. The sooner he goes out of fashion, the better.” What Cohen fails to realize is that the spectacle is a fashion. And when one image goes out of fashion, another takes its place. Hirst may indeed go out of fashion, but another art brand will take his place, perpetuating the commodification of the arts in increasingly bombastic ways.

Perhaps art has always been a commodity?

In the past patrons would hire artists to paint them into scenes from the gospels. Patrons could be seen on the outskirts of paintings piously praying, thus creating an image of themselves as good and pious Christians. By association with the sacred art, the patron was creating a mediated image. Rulers did this all the time. The Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius is a perfect example. Its a mediating image that communicates power and authority.

But none of these examples reach the level of spectacle and fetishism that is Damien Hirst. While art may have been a commodity in the past, it was never commodified. In other words, while the art itself may have been exchanged for other goods, the artist himself was not treated as a commodity. The art of the past may have served a purpose, it may have contained a mediated message, but it was still a product, and it was the product that was valued, not its brand identity.

The commodification of art creates a unique problem in history. If it is the spectacle that matters, and the artist’s identity that has value, then what value is left in the art itself?

What then separates art from ordinary objects? Is there any aesthetic emotion that remains in the work of art itself, or does the aesthetic emotion dwell completely within the spectacle? These are questions that cannot easily be answered, and ultimately will require the lens of history to answer completely. But they are a pressing concern, for when art is commodified, it may cease to be art and instead become celebrity, product, or worse, advertising. For the Silo, Vasilios Avramidis

Works Cited
Berger, Arthur Asa. Seeing is Believing: An Introduction to Visual
Communication. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2008. Print.
Debor, Guy. “Showing Seeing: A Critique of Visual Culture.” The Visual Culture
Reader. Ed.Nicholas Mirzoeff. New York, NY: Routelage, 1998. 142-144. Print.
Klein, Naomi. No Logo, No Space, No Choice, No Jobs. New York, NY: Picador, 2000.
Print.
Marx, Karl. “Showing Seeing: A Critique of Visual Culture.” The Visual Culture
Reader. Ed.Nicholas Mirzoeff. New York, NY: Routelage, 1998. 122-123. Print.
Riding, Alan. Alas, Poor Art Market: ‘A Multimillion Dollar Headcase.’ The New York
Times. June 2007, Damien Hirst and the Commodification of Art http://www.visual-studies.com/interviews/moxey.htm

Vintage

It’s Time For the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este Auction

May 15, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

16 – 17 May 2026 Villa Erba, Italy

Our friends at Broad Arrow Auctions proudly welcomes the collector car community to the grounds of Villa Erba on the breathtaking shores of Lake Como—and amidst the prestige of the renowned Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este—for a live preview launching the auction weekend.

Presenting over 70 of the highest quality collector cars, the sale promises to deliver a truly premium auction experience across two days of spirited bidding.

Whether joining Broad Arrow in person or participating from across the globe, you may register to bid in person, online (link below), by phone, or absentee. Contact Client Services at [email protected] for personalized assistance, please mention The Silo when contacting.

Auction
Saturday, 16 May 18:00 (CET)
Sunday, 17 May 10:30 (CET)
Preview
Friday, 15 May 10:00 – 18:00 (CET)
Saturday, 16 May 10:00 – 18:00 (CET)
Sunday, 17 May 9:30 – 10:30 (CET)
Location
Villa Erba
Largo Luchino Visconti, 4
22012 Cernobbio
Italy

Some of the highlight cars

2018 Pagani Zonda Unica Lot: 228 Estimate: €9.500.000 – €12.000.000

1990 Ferrari F40 Lot: 126 Estimate: €2.300.000 – €2.500.000

1957 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing Coupe Lot: 124 Estimate: €1.600.000 – €2.000.000

2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 Lot: 253 Estimate: €6.500.000 – €8.500.000

1926 Bugatti Type 37 Grand Prix Lot: 109 Estimate: €1.000.000 – €1.300.000

1981 Sauber BMW M1 Group 5Lot: 224 Estimate: €1.000.000 – €1.200.000

1929 Bugatti Type 43 Roadster by Eugène Matthys Lot: 243 Estimate: €2.500.000 – €3.500.000

1975 Lancia Stratos HF Stradale Group 4 Specification Lot: 231 Estimate: €600.000 – €800.000 1955 Lancia Aurelia B24 S Spider AmericaL ot: 242 Estimate: €500.000 – €700.000

1990 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversario Lot: 130Estimate: €500.000 – €600.000 1989 Mercedes-Benz Boschert B300 Biturbo Gullwing Coupe Lot: 122Estimate: €475.000 – €525.000

1966 Porsche 911 S Soft Window Targa Test Car ex-Neerpasch Lot:22 Estimate: €700.000 – €1.000.000

For the Silo, Jarrod Barker.

View full auction lots here

Click here to place your bid

Culture

Why Meditation Is Science Approved Medicine

May 13, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

There have been countless anecdotal claims about the benefits of practicing meditation since the Eastern tradition has become more popular in the West.

 Now, there’s plenty of Western-based scientific evidence to support them, says Dr. Matt Mumber, a radiation oncologist and co-director of a non-profit integrative oncology program.

“Meditation is to the brain what physical activity is to the body. We’ve found meditation to be an important facet of health care, both for prevention and maintenance as well as in the treatment of disease, including cancer,” says Dr. Mumber, co-author with colleague and Yoga instructor Heather Reed of “Sustainable Wellness: An Integrative Approach to Transform Your Mind, Body, and Spirit,” (www.sustainablewellnessonline.com).

Mumber and Reed, who are co-facilitators of non-profit residential retreats for cancer patients, say one can experience sustainable wellness by developing a life practice grounded in the cultivation of awareness. This awareness is paying attention without attachment. The ability to be aware can be increased by a meditation tool called mindfulness.

“Life is a constant series of adjustments, matching your inner being with your outer doing,” Reed says. “One way to heighten your awareness is through practicing meditation.”

Mumber and Reed say there’s plenty of new evidence that the resulting sense of balance and peace is not just a psychological effect:

• Mindfulness meditation leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density: Recently published in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, shows that measurable changes in gray-matter density in parts of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress occurred with study participants who meditated for 30 minutes a day for eight weeks.

• Meditation practitioners have longer attention spans: Published by the journal PloS Biology, a study analyzed people with three months of rigorous training and found that they gained a drastically improved attention span – not only longer, but less susceptible to internal or external distraction. They also showed improved memory and enhanced performance in several tasks, from driving a car to playing piano.

• Reduces stress and blood pressure: Presented to the American Heart Association by researchers at the at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention, a study including 200 high-risk patients for heart attack found that meditation reduced their chances for heart attack by 50 percent.

Oncologist Matt Mumber co-author of Sustainable Wellness

“Studies involving people seeking to reduce stress and other problems in their lives via meditation will continue, as well as for those who want to enhance performance of various duties,” Mumber says.

“For those skeptical of the medical benefits of this Eastern practice, there’s now plenty of Western proof.” Matt Mumber, MD

For the Silo, Ginny Grimsley.

Matt Mumber, MD, is a practicing board-certified radiation oncologist with the Harbin Clinic in Rome, Ga. He completed his radiation oncology residency at Wake Forest University Bowman Gray School of Medicine and graduated from the Associate Fellowship Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. Dr. Mumber is past president of the Georgia Society of Clinical Oncology. He founded Cancer Navigators Inc, a non-profit organization offering cancer patients access to nurse navigation, social services and educational programs to support and augment the clinical care they receive. Dr. Mumber received the Hamilton Jordan Founders Award for involvement in statewide oncology activities and in 2008 he was named a Health Care Hero by Georgia Trend magazine. He serves on the editorial board for the journals Current Oncology and Journal of Oncology Practice and is on the board for the Society of Integrative Oncology.

Yoga instructor Heather Reed of “Sustainable Wellness: An Integrative Approach to Transform Your Mind, Body, and Spirit

Heather Reed has been teaching Yoga since 1996. She expresses an integrative, adaptive approach and specializes in using Yoga and meditation techniques for people living with cancer, post-polio syndrome and other chronic illnesses. Heather received an Experienced Teacher Certification from Esther Myers Yoga Teacher Training Program and has had extensive training with senior staff of the Commonweal Cancer Help program and Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease. She developed Yoga classes for cancer patients at The Wellness Community, Atlanta. Since 2008, she has been Yoga teacher and co-facilitator for the Residential Retreat Program for Cancer Navigators of Rome, Ga.

Supplemental- How Meditation May Change The Brain

Art

Torkwase Dyson Sculptural Installation With Sound At 61st La Biennale di Venezia

May 12, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

Installation view of Torkwase Dyson, Tougaloo, 2026.

ON VIEW
Torkwase Dyson
61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia
Venice, Italy
Through Nov 22, 2026 For the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, In Minor Keys, curated by Koyo Kouoh, Torkwase Dyson debuts Tougaloo, an immersive sculptural installation with sound.

Working within a distinct abstract language, which the artist terms “Black Compositional Thought,” Dyson employs forms refracted from histories of Black self-emancipation to explore the spatial dimensions of freedom. Presented at the Arsenale, Tougaloo draws on the artist’s experience at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, a campus where nineteenth-century plantation architecture exists alongside Modernist structures.

Christina Sharpe writes “Dyson’s installations and paintings are arc and ribcage, overhang and surface. Cement and graphite conjure water, extraction, hum, breath and its absence. Sonic wavelength becomes another material to extend a line and expand a field. Her works are studies in possibility, where a curve, a line, a wave, a sound/ing are acts of holding and practices toward liberation.”

Torkwase Dyson (b. 1973)
Errantry, 2024
Steel and timber
172 × 340 × 120 inches (436.9 × 863.6 × 304.8 cm)

Installation view of 1919: Black Water, Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery, Columbia University, New York, 2019

Art

New Book Details Significant Yet Unknown Art & Culture Collection Of US Diplomatic Reception Rooms

May 11, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

Author: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio

Back on March 31, 2026, Rizzoli released Views of America: The Diplomatic Reception Rooms at the U.S. Department of State, a richly illustrated volume celebrating the fine and decorative arts housed in 42 rooms at the Harry S. Truman building in Washington D.C. These rooms, which are open to the public, are home to a significant yet little-known cultural collection.

Many of the objects in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms were created, owned, and used by the men and women who dreamed of self-government and who made independence a reality. The collection reflects the pride, craftsmanship, and spirit of 18th- and early 19th-century America.

Remarkably, the Rooms and their collection were constructed, amassed, and continue to be maintained exclusively through the private gifts of philanthropic and patriotic individuals. Collectively, they are a testimony to the civic engagement and generosity of the American people and to their desire to advance American diplomacy.

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the nation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio penned the following foreword to Views of America:

Perhaps the greatest architectural symbol of American diplomatic hospitality is named in honor not of a Secretary of State or President but of one of our first diplomats. At first glance, the monumental Benjamin Franklin State Dining Room – with its gold-topped neoclassical columns, expansive and sumptuous carpets in the style of the finest 18th century British country estates, and magnificent views of our capital city – might seem at odds with the homespun reputation of the father of American diplomacy.

Ceramic figure group of Benjamin Franklin and Louis XVI

This porcelain group depicts Louis XVI of France in courtly martial costume, united with the American cause for independence, represented by Benjamin Franklin, plainly clothed and gesturing humbly.

But on reflection, besides being an appropriate tribute to an American hero, the room reflects the uniquely American perspective on diplomacy that developed even from Franklin’s vital diplomatic mission during the Revolutionary War, when he set sail for France in the months following our Declaration of Independence two hundred and fifty years ago.

In the Court of Versailles, Franklin presented an image of America that was cultured, literate, witty, and at the forefront of scientific research in its leisurely mid-eighteenth-century mode. At the same time, by intentionally setting aside the fashionable clothes he had worn in his earlier 1767 visit in favor of a more frontier-like demeanor, with a homely brown suit, spectacles and (famously) a large fur hat, he symbolized a new democratic polity. Franklin intrigued his audience in the court of Louis XVI through this synthesis of Old World charm with the virtues of the New World to create an American original.

Perhaps, Franklin was making the most of things in his own canny way. One suspects that he did not usually wear the rustic fur cap with which he charmed the Parisian salons when he was out and about on the streets of Philadelphia. But the contrast of these two missions to France, the rejection of a mere imitation and an embrace of the power of an authentic American perspective, reflects a deeper truth about the wellsprings of American diplomacy.

In the courts of the European powers, American diplomats faced key disadvantages. In the social milieu of diplomacy, rank, seniority, and access depended in part upon the personal rank of diplomats within the aristocratic hierarchies of Europe. Emissaries representing monarchs attained diplomatic privileges that those representing republics did not. The United States, a republic headed by a lowly citizen, ranked lower in diplomatic etiquette than the smallest European monarchy until well into the 19th century.

Historic room furnished with period furniture, portraits, and grandfather clock

Many of the objects in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms were created, owned, and used by revolutionary Americans.

The United States did not have many diplomats from families found in the Almanach de Gotha or Debrett’s Peerage. So, what could this young country hang its diplomacy on? The answer that began to emerge, even in the waning days of colonial rule, was an emphasis on classical inheritance and excellence in all that we did.

The Founding Fathers and their generation did not believe themselves to be colonial subjects of one far-flung outpost of the British Empire. Rather, they understood themselves to be inheritors of a great tradition, the descendants (through a British common law branch) of Christian Europe and of classical Greco-Roman civilization. The foundations of statesmanship they learned in Plutarch, Cicero, and Aristotle were more ancient and prestigious than any European noble house, and they taught the virtue and dignity of republican government for the common good of a free citizenry. This classical tradition (as renewed and reclaimed in the work of Montesquieu, Locke, and others) gave the early leaders of our country confidence and pride in the American experiment in self-government, one that sustained them in the face of European condescension and disregard.

And one lesson, clearly conveyed in the Roman histories which our Founders knew intimately from their schoolboy days, was the central importance of virtue and merit to the long-term success of a republic. As Thomas Jefferson and John Adams agreed in their post-presidential correspondence, the United States needed to be led by a “natural aristocracy” consisting not of inherited wealth or privileged birth but of those who had been endowed by their Creator with the “virtue and talents” necessary for good government and successful enterprise. Meritocracy was, for our Founders, a vital ingredient in the “long and perilous contest for our liberty and independence,” an advantage against European states still hidebound by hereditary class and monarchical privilege.

This commitment to excellence without ostentation, rooted in our classical Western inheritance, defined American diplomacy, extending to the architecture and decorative arts of the places in which it was practiced. In this respect, the Diplomatic Reception Rooms are an outstanding symbol of the heart of a uniquely American diplomacy. In interiors crafted by classical architects inspired by the 1960s Americana revival, these 42 rooms pull together a unique collection of furniture, art, and artifacts generously provided by the American people through private donations to reflect the best of our traditions of craft and art.

A GIF shows multiple images of a Benjamin Frothingham desk and bookcase from 1753.

This desk and bookcase was made by Benjamin Frothingham in 1753 when he was 20 years old. It is the first documented piece of bombé-shaped furniture made in America.

The excellence and craft that suffuses these rooms speaks to the dignity and worth of the American worker, and the ability of the United States to cultivate the best talent in the world. On July 4th, 1821, our 8th Secretary of State (and later president) John Quincy Adams gave a speech reflecting on what the young country had already contributed to the world in not yet half a century. While focusing on the glories of American liberty, Adams also extolled the industry, invention, and skill of America’s great craftsmen, artists, and entrepreneurs.

In a humbling way, the beauty of these objects contains a bitter lesson about the Americans we at the State Department are privileged to represent. At some point between the early years of the Republic (represented artistically and architecturally in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms) and the present, America’s foreign policy leaders lost sight of the everyday Americans they were called to represent. As we see throughout the Secretary of State’s office suite and the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, the Western tradition and a commitment to excellence are married in the very objects of our diplomatic practices. But the important industries that sustain that harmony have been destroyed by reckless policies. In the ten years after the U.S. lowered tariff barriers and agreed to let China join the WTO in 1999, more than half of the furniture makers in North Carolina lost their jobs. The halls of the State Department are still filled with furniture made in America, but today too few homes in this country or around the world can say the same.

As we celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of our nation, let us rededicate ourselves to a foreign policy for the common good of the American people. Inspired by the art and architecture of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, let us restore a diplomacy rooted in the Western inheritance and the cultivation of virtue. The essays and artwork of this volume are a noble tribute to our fine tradition of uniquely American diplomacy, and a fitting inspiration for the work remaining to us, to ensure a bright future for the next two hundred and fifty years of this great nation.

For the Silo, Jarrod Barker.

Marco Rubio was sworn in as the 72nd Secretary of State on January 21, 2025. The Secretary is creating a Department of State that puts America First.

Culture

Human Creators Becoming Premium Again?

May 6, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

For the past few years, AI in marketing meant competitive advantage, but new data shows that now it’s just becoming noise. The latest report on the state of AI in tech marketing, released by Callan Consulting, revealed that while AI is embedded in the majority of operations, it is also creating “copies of copies,” eroding quality and originality across the board.

Donatas Smailys, CEO of Billo, one of the largest creator marketing platforms, shares insight on why human creators are becoming premium again and what the next phase of this shift looks like for the industry. According to him, some brands, like Aerie, are already making “no AI” a campaign message to stand out.

AI Is Now Default in Marketing, New Data Shows: Brands Shift Back to Human Creators as ‘No AI’ Signals Grow

Real human creator vs. AI-generated avatar (Source: Canva, Midjourney)

May , 2026. A new report on the state of AI in technology marketing, released by Callan Consulting in April 2026, shows that artificial intelligence has moved beyond experimentation and is now embedded across most marketing operations.

The report identifies more than 70 distinct AI applications: from lead generation and personalization to sales forecasting, market intelligence, and content creation.

According to the findings, two-thirds of respondents, who were senior marketing specialists and organizations, say AI has a “strong” or “very strong” impact on their marketing teams, double the level reported a year earlier. At the same time, half of the organizations have already restructured their marketing functions around AI, integrating it into content, research, campaign execution, and analytics.

However, creator economy experts warn that rapid adoption may have come without fully considering long-term implications, and that the first signs of backlash are already visible.

“The ad industry became a playground for AI tools,” said Donatas Smailys, CEO and co-founder of Billo, one of the largest creator marketing platforms.

“Early adopters rushed to integrate everything, but we didn’t and approached it more cautiously. A year in, the backlash against AI content is the strongest it’s been. Stepping back might be the right move now.”

The report itself highlights a growing downside: overreliance on AI-generated content. Large volumes of similar outputs are already entering the market, increasing noise and reducing differentiation.

It warns that repeated reuse of AI-generated material risks creating “copies of copies,” gradually lowering content quality and originality across the ecosystem.

“AI is no longer a differentiator. Now everyone uses it, so the opposite is happening: human creators and real creativity are becoming premium,” added Smailys.

According to Smailys, the widespread use of AI-generated content has also shifted perception in advertising.

“When everyone started using AI visuals, advertising became ‘cheap.’ Even without labels, it’s often obvious what’s AI-generated, and it creates endless, low-quality content.”

Brands Positioning As Anti-AI?

Some brands have already begun responding to this shift by explicitly positioning themselves against AI-generated visuals.

In a recent example, Aerie, a brand owned by American Eagle Outfitters, stated in a campaign that it would not use AI-generated bodies or people.

“When tools like Sora first appeared, AI content worked because it was unexpected,” said Smailys. “Once it became the norm, the impact faded. Human content is exclusive again. Brands that see this early are taking the lead.”

The report also points to structural challenges. While marketers report improvements in speed, output, and cost efficiency (in some cases up to 2-3x productivity gains), few are able to measure AI’s direct impact using standardized metrics.

According to Smailys, platform dynamics may play a key role in what comes next.

“Social media platforms that introduce clearer signals through detection, labeling, or prioritization can shift value back toward higher-quality, human-led content.”

He noted that Billo has maintained a focus on human creators despite broader experimentation with AI-generated avatars.

“Our data already shows it. The shift back to human-first content is happening,” he concluded.

The report concludes that while AI will continue to expand across marketing, its long-term effectiveness will depend on how organizations balance automation with human expertise, as differentiation increasingly shifts away from technology itself and toward how it is used.

For the Silo, Jarrod Barker.

Art

The Dangers Of Selfies In Museums

May 5, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

In this episode from our friends at artforecast, they happily unpack what happened at Dallas Art Fair, the importance of insurance, managing kids in museums, the embarrassment of accidentally knocking over a sculpture, our favourite example of someone damaging artwork, one of us accidentally broke a sculpture (twice), the added bonus of buying editions (they can often be replaced), and which one of us loves small art. No need to guess just listen to the podcast below….

Ep 5: The danger of selfies in museums by Tatum Dooley

Art Hotline returns to talk about what happens when art is accidentally damaged

Read on Substack

For the Silo, Tatum Dooley and Bronwyn Hunter-Shortly.

Culture

Severe Menstrual Cramps Cured By Reiki

May 2, 2026 The Silo 1 Comment

Almost every woman has experienced the debilitating pain of menstrual cramps (dysmenorrhea) at some time. More than 40 percent of all North American women today suffer monthly with debilitating menstrual cramps. More than 10 percent of these women are incapacitated for one to three days each month because of excruciating pain.”
~Dr. Howard H. Smith (via sharecare.com)

Reiki can change your life in so many ways.

I’m Jeff Donovan, I’ve been a Reiki Master since 2003, but this isn’t about me. It’s about women with menstrual cramps and how they can become empowered to help themselves. It’s about Reiki. Reiki is an ancient Japanese art of energy healing. Reiki, loosely translated means, Universal Life Force Energy (or Source energy…whatever you think that source is). A Reiki practitioner can channel healing energy into himself/herself or others. For whatever reason, my clients and student base has a ratio of approximately 90% women to only 10% men. In my experience, women are more spiritually inclined, more open-minded and more willing to try ‘alternative’ methods.

In my early days of practicing Reiki, almost by accident, I saw vast improvement in women who suffer from menstrual cramps and other symptoms associated with their monthly cycles, so I put a small study together…I found 10 volunteers, age 17-50+ who suffered each and every month. Each agreed to try my home study course, practice daily for approximately 20 minutes and report back to me in 30-40 days. Of the 10 volunteers, 9 completed the program and 8 of them showed up to give their reports. 8 out of 8 reported vast improvement in their condition. Three of them stood out in the crowd because of the severity of their condition. Those three also had the most significant results and therefore, told the best stories. Here is my interview with Kristen, a 22 year-old woman who suffered from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome…her story will amaze you

Jeff: Before you knew about Reiki how was your cycle?

Kristen: Well, I’ve always had irregular cycles. About 8 month ago I was diagnosed with polycystic ovaries, which means I’m infertile and I bleed on my menstrual period for 45-60 days straight. And that’s enough in itself to make someone go insane. But on top of it, I have full menstrual symptoms…cramps, bloating, nausea, everything (for) the entire 45-60 days I’m bleeding. So basically, my life was pretty much horrible before finding Reiki. I’ve been to so many different doctors, been on so many medications, which all cause symptoms in themselves…bloating, nausea, everything else going on. It was just beyond me. I’d spend weeks at home, curled up in a ball, crying because I was so frustrated, feeling so helpless. When I came across Reiki, I said “what the heck, it can’t hurt, and it’s something to do.”

Within the first week, I felt my cramps diminish. I didn’t throw up the entire first week of trying Reiki. By the end of the month, when I was finished with the entire Reiki cycle, I still had irregular bleeding, but the bleeding had diminished significantly, so it wasn’t actually like a full period, and my bloating was gone, my headaches were gone, my cramps were gone…I didn’t miss any work, any school anything. It was absolutely amazing!

Jeff: Wow!

Kristen: Yeah, I hated being a girl. Right now I’m still on it (my period), and I’m going on day 72. But at least, I can function normally from not having the cramps. That was the biggest thing. I’m so used to being on my period, that I just wanted to get rid of some sort of symptom. If I could just get rid of the headaches, if I could just get rid of the cramps, if I could just get rid of the nausea…but all those things are gone now. I just have to deal with the bleeding, but I’m happy about having to do that because it’s manageable.

Jeff: Wow…that is awesome. So typically, how much school or work did you miss?

Kristen: Depending on…I’ve been switched to so many different medications. Every time I’m switched to a new medication, all the hormonal stuff going on…I’ve missed, just in the last 8 months of being “treated” I’ve missed probably 2 months of work/school together, just having to take sick leave and…having to take a week off here and there. But the main thing, it was just such a hamper on my social life too, because, you know, I’m young…so telling my friends I can’t go out because I just don’t feel well and being locked up for a month basically, because I’m on my period the entire time was just depressing in itself.

Jeff: And you didn’t miss any school or work this month?

Kristen: No, nothing at all this month.

Jeff: So, the results were basically immediate?

Kristen: Immediately. Like I said…within the first week. And I of course was skeptical too. I’ve been to every single specialist out there and have read every single book on my condition and what can be done, and nothing seemed to work. I was extremely hopeless…extremely, feeling helpless. And it was amazing actually, after the first week…I suffer from insomnia too because of my cramps and everything else going on. Within the first week of using Reiki, I didn’t have to use any of my sleeping medication and I haven’t used it at all this month, and I’ve felt rested.

The thing I am so happy about too, my family and friends have told me that my mood is so much better and I’m not suffering from these severe mood swings or, really depression from having to deal with all these horrible symptoms that go on. I can actually have a somewhat normal life.

Jeff: So in effect, Reiki has helped you with your depression as well?

Kristen: Oh Definitely. Yeah, Reiki has helped me with my depression, feeling like I’m actually taking control and actually seeing something work. And I think, if anything, that’s the best thing…to feel like you have some control over your body when you feel so out of control with all the symptoms going on.

Jeff: Sure. So what kinds of things have you tried in the past to try to help your symptoms?

Kristen: Oh, I’ve tried everything! I’ve been on every single medication out there I’m sure…yoga, pilates, fitness, meditation, aromatherapy. If it was out there, I tried it and nothing seemed to work and the more I looked into trying to find stuff, I actually became feeling more helpless. I actually entered into Reiki thinking that this wasn’t going to work for me at all, because nothing else had. So I was really, really shocked, really, really pleased at the same time too that this worked.

Jeff: So then, you would obviously recommend it?

Kristen: I would definitely recommend it! Without sounding comical, it has completely changed my life because I can actually function and live normally rather than being a hermit and hating being a woman.

Jeff: Wow, that’s awesome…so typically, your pain would be at 8-9 (out of 10, based on pre-study questionnaire she filled out), is that right?

Kristen: Yes, definitely…the physical pain would be 8-9 and all the emotional pain that went with it would be off the wall.

Jeff: So, you’re better in all areas?

Kristen: Oh yes, definitely!

Kristen and I stayed in touch for awhile. A few months after this interview, she emailed me she was shocked to find out her doctor was a proponent of Reiki, and after just a few months of practicing daily, he had taken her off 13 of the 14 medications she was prescribed.

Reiki can change your life in so many ways…this is only one woman’s story. Anybody and everybody can learn Reiki. We only need to be attuned by a qualified Reiki Master, learn some basic hand positions and some practical application. From the very first day of training, we can begin healing ourselves, our loved ones, our pets and so much more! The possibilities are endless. For the Silo, Jeff Donovan.

*Featured image- Red Dress painting by Michael Austin

Culture

Tradition Runs Deep At Kentucky Derby

April 30, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

Replete with pageantry, the Kentucky Derby has evolved into much more than a horse race since 10,000 people first watched 15 horses compete on a dirt track in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1875.

Known as “the most exciting two minutes in sports,” the 152nd Kentucky Derby will run May 2, bringing 150,000 spectators to Churchill Downs, the same track where the tradition began a century and a half ago.

Horses racing at the track (Library of Congress/Caufield & Shook, Inc.) — The 1943 Kentucky Derby at the Churchill Downs. (Library of Congress/Caufield & Shook, Inc.)

Rich traditions

A “social event” that encourages “whimsical fashion” is how Kentucky Derby Museum curator Chris Goodlett describes the race. Women wear wide-brimmed, feathered hats and pastel dresses. Men sport light-colored suits and derby hats. The mint julep, made with Kentucky bourbon, is the derby’s official drink.

Festivities fill the two weeks leading up to the derby with galas, fireworks and other horse races. Anticipation for the big event culminates with a bugle call 10 minutes before start time, bringing the race’s 20 competitors to the track. As jockeys lead the thoroughbreds to the starting gate, the crowd stands and sings “My Old Kentucky Home.”

Birthplace of legends

The victorious horse ceremoniously trots to the winner’s circle where a 14-karat gold trophy and rose garland await. Secretariat’s winning run in 1973 set a race record that still stands. Only one other horse has broken the two-minute mark in the 1.25-mile (2-kilometer) race.

The first of three races that form America’s Triple Crown of horse racing, the derby runs the first Saturday of May. The Preakness Stakes in Maryland follows in mid-May, and New York’s Belmont Stakes runs in early June. Only 13 horses have taken the famed Triple Crown — winning all three races in the same year. The most recent, Justify, achieved the rare feat in 2018.

Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Sir Barton are among the horses that achieved folklore status after winning the Kentucky Derby on the way to the Triple Crown. Most derby winners go on to become breeder horses with some enjoying retirement at the Kentucky Horse Park , a sanctuary and museum that celebrates the Kentucky Bluegrass region’s love for horses.

Canadian Bred Horses That Won The Kentucky Derby

Winning a global audience

The derby’s rich history grew from American entrepreneur Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr.’s 1872 visit to England’s Epsom Derby. The race inspired Clark to start the Kentucky Derby in Louisville three years later.

By the mid-20th century, the Kentucky Derby outpaced all other U.S. horse races in attendance and prestige. The 2025 Kentucky Derby was broadcast to 170 countries and territories, and total viewership continues to grow.

Left: Jockeys riding race horses (© Alex Slitz/Getty Images) Right: Horse racing spectators watching racing (© Leandro Lozada/AFP/Getty Images) — Left: Sovereignty wins the Kentucky Derby May 3, 2025. (© Alex Slitz/Getty Images) Right: Fans attend the 2025 derby in colorful attire. (© Leandro Lozada/AFP/Getty Images)

Goodlett, the museum curator, says the derby’s reputation as a national cultural event has helped drive its popularity outside the United States. Queen Elizabeth II attended the derby with her husband Prince Philip in 2007.

President Trump, who has attended the Kentucky Derby, calls the race “an iconic American institution and an elegant celebration of our culture, customs, and unwavering competitive spirit.”

This article via Brandon Lambert and our friends at U.S. Dept of State.

Culture

10 Reasons I (Sorta) Hate Going to the Porsche Dealership (& the 1 Reason I Stay)

April 27, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

It’s not all 9,000-RPM test drives; our friend at Rennlist has just finished breaking down the top 10 headaches at the Porsche dealership and the one reason why you will keep coming back.

Well, hate might be a little strong, but I can see why people would dislike going to the Porsche dealer. I have listed 10 reasons that in my personal experience and in talking to others in the community why the thought of going to the Porsche dealership is akin to a visit to the dentist’s chair. But there is one reason above all that I, and all of you keep coming back. Let’s discuss.

The truth is that I don’t hate going to the Porsche dealer. I have been going to Porsche dealers since I was a teenager. I have bought and sold many cars at a Porsche dealership. I go there for grand openings, new model reveals, Porsche Club of America membership meetings, cars and coffee events and more. I was just at a local dealership last night for a few hours. I have made plenty of friends at Porsche dealerships in my area. And it is not just me that enjoys the experience. In the most recent J.D. Power 2026 U.S. Customer Service Index (CSI) Study, Porsche ranks highest in satisfaction with dealer service among premium brands. It is the second consecutive year that they earned that distinction. So, why all the hate?

#1 Dislike – Playing the Allocation Game

After struggling for years and driving a beat-up Chrysler Sebring Convertible, your Pet Rock business takes off and you are now flush with cash. You want to replace that old convertible with the new 911 GT3 S/C. You head to the Porsche dealer excited to finally be in a position to buy your dream car. You burst through the dealership doors full of anticipation for speccing and ordering your new Porsche. You grab the first salesperson you see and tell them that you would like to order a new GT3 S/C. And they reply with “Yeah, you and everyone else buddy. How about we test drive this former service loaner Macan we have over here?” Having to be a dealership favorite with a long history of purchases to get a whiff of any of the desirable sports car models is one of the worst things about the modern Porsche dealership experience.

#2 Dislike – Talking About Added Dealer Markups

Let’s pretend for a moment that by some miracle, the dealership does have an available allocation for the GT3 S/C. That is only hurdle number one. Next, it is time to talk about how much money the dealership is going to drain from your account for the mere privilege of placing an order on your behalf. This added dealer markup is not small potatoes either. In some cases, it can go into the six-figure range. Some folks happily pay this, but personally, I hate the practice of dealer markups.

#3 Dislike – The Price for Service

OK, you got your allocation and you swallowed your pride and forked over the cash for the ADM. You have been enjoying your car for a while, and it is time for a service. If you have not serviced a Porsche at a dealership before, you might want to sit down before you get the invoice. Service pricing at a dealership can be a real eye-opener to say the least. Do they fly your car to Mars to change the oil? How the heck can it be so much when you can buy a 5-quart jug (that is about 4.73 L for my Canadian friends) of the recommended synthetic Mobil 1 at Walmart for less than 30 bucks? Paying dealership prices for parts and service can get painful very quickly.

#4 Dislike – The Lack of Technical Knowledge

This will vary on a case-by-case basis, as I have dealt with some very knowledgeable Porsche sales professionals. That being said, I am sure some of you have experienced talking to a Porsche salesperson and realized that you know far more about the vehicles on the showroom floor than they do. You expect them to be experts in the field, and many are. But when you encounter that one that tries to convince you that they can order you a new Carrera T with a PDK, it is uncomfortable for everyone.

#5 Dislike – Intimidating Atmosphere

As I said earlier, I have been going to Porsche dealers since I was a teenager, so I have pretty much always felt comfortable there, but that is not the case for everyone. For those new to the brand, walking through those Porsche dealership doors can be incredibly intimidating. No one is intimidated going in the local Honda store, but Porsche is on a different level. Is there a dress code? Will they run my credit before offering me a cup of coffee? No matter how friendly the dealership actually is, it can still be a bit like being on the set of Fear Factor for those that have not had much Porsche shopping experience.

#6 Dislike – Test Drives Aren’t Guaranteed

This can vary wildly from dealer to dealer and person to person. But there is a chance that getting a test drive might prove to be harder than you think. Although, to be fair, you have to have realistic expectations as well. If you are a 16-year-old kid pulling up in a ratty old Nissan Altima and ask to test drive the pre-owned 918 Spyder they have in stock, you should expect some questions. But sometimes dealers can be wary of offering test drives on just regular core models if they don’t know you.

#7 Dislike – Feeling Judged

And that is when you might feel judged. Even if you aren’t being judged, the mere fact that you are in a Porsche dealership may make you wonder if folks are evaluating you and your intentions just by looking at you. Are you wearing a pair of Hermès Bouncing sneakers and a Rolex Daytona, or a pair of Skechers Slip-ins and a Casio A158WA-1? Does it matter? It shouldn’t, and maybe it doesn’t and you will be treated with the same respect no matter what. But walking into a luxury dealership like Porsche can make you feel like you don’t measure up to others in there with you. Personally, I don’t give a crap, but I know some that are bothered by this.

#8 Dislike – The Urge to Upgrade

You are perfectly happy with your Porsche. It has been everything you dreamed it would be. Then you pop into the Porsche dealer for service or to pick up your twentieth Porsche t-shirt. And that is when you spot it, the 911 GT3 Touring that you have been dreaming of. It is just sitting there looking for a new home. You don’t need it. But you WANT it. You start doing the mathematical gymnastics in your mind. Little Jimmy probably won’t want to go to college anyway. And Ramen noodles aren’t that bad. The next thing you know, they are appraising your car, and you are trying to figure out what piece of jewelry you are going to need to buy your wife after you tell her what you just did.

#9 Dislike – Spoils You for Other Dealers

Porsche dealers are a nice place to spend some time. The atmosphere and amenities are far above your typical car dealership. A couple of years ago I was shopping for a car for my wife. We started at the Porsche dealership, looking at Macans. Naturally, she loved it, but we wanted to look at other options, so we went to the Toyota dealership to look at a 4Runner. Word of advice, do not ever go directly from a Porsche dealer to a Toyota dealer. Talk about culture shock. Not that the Toyota dealership was bad, but when you get used to the Porsche vibe, you get spoiled.

#10 Dislike – Driving Leads to Buying

I tell my non-Porsche owning friends this all the time. Do not test drive a Porsche unless you are ready to buy a Porsche. Once you get behind the wheel, you will be hooked. Climbing back into your old car will feel like a gut punch. A Porsche test drive can wreck your budget if you are not prepared to buy the car.

For the Silo, Joe Kucinski.

Culture

Perched Over LA’s Sunset Strip—Rare Street-to-Street Compound For Sale

April 24, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

Another superb realty spotlight via our friends at TopTenRealEstateDeals.com. Perched above the Sunset Strip in the Hollywood Hills, LA’s Bird Streets form a compact enclave defined by steep, winding roads and striking architecture.

“Bird Streets”

Named for avian-themed streets like Oriole, Thrasher, and Blue Jay, the area has become a showcase for contemporary residential design, with glass-walled homes oriented toward panoramic city and ocean views. This coveted neighborhood embodies the city’s fusion of landscape, privacy, and modernist aspiration, in which topography shapes both lifestyle and aesthetics. The Bird Streets also function as a benchmark for high-end real estate, influencing design trends and development patterns across the city.

Truly Modernist Design

The listing of a new Bird Streets home for $12.9 million usd/ $17.65 million cad offers the chance to join this unique zone. Set high above the city, the contemporary estate offers sweeping panoramic views from the city skyline to the Pacific Ocean shores. Designed by award-winning Colega Architects, the home is a tribute to modernist design, showcasing stark geometric forms, walls of glass, and an exquisite terraced construction that melds into the surrounding hill. The result is a seamless living experience that emphasizes light, space, and integration with the surrounding landscape.

Featured Image:Jason Fields

Culture

The Courage of Sudanese Women in a Country at War

April 22, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

Last week, I travelled to Sudan with two colleagues and six journalists. We went to listen, to learn, and to see more clearly what too much of the world now sees only in fragments. What I came home with was not one neat conclusion, but a deeper conviction that amid one of the gravest humanitarian catastrophes on earth, Sudanese women are still carrying extraordinary burdens with immense courage. More than 30 million people in Sudan are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, and major humanitarian agencies now describe Sudan as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

Photo: France24.com Hospital director Dr. Safaa Ali shows the bullet holes that still riddle the wards of the reopened Saudi hospital in Omdurman. © Ebrahim Hamid / AFP

That truth was visible in the wreckage of Khartoum, in the strain of Port Sudan, and in the harsh fragility of the refugee camp near Al Dabbah. But nowhere was it more clear than in the women we met, women who were not simply surviving the war, but, in many ways, still holding Sudan together.

One of the most unforgettable voices of the trip was Dr. Safa Ali, an obstetrician and gynecologist and the director of Saudi Maternity Hospital in Khartoum. She is one of the Sudanese women who have become symbols of moral seriousness in this war, not because they sought attention, but because they refused to leave when everything around them was falling apart. During the war, she stayed at her post even as parts of the city emptied out and the health system buckled under violence, shortages, and flight. She has been publicly recognized for her courage, including as one of the women highlighted internationally for remaining at work through the conflict.

Photo: Dr. Safa Ali speaking with international journalists in Khartoum. The word “dream” is repeated across her headscarf, a striking detail in a conversation about war, survival, and the future of Sudanese women.

When we met her, there was nothing theatrical about the way she spoke.

With the precision of a physician, she described a hospital under intense pressure: shattered windows, failing electricity, scarce water, damaged equipment, too few medicines, and too few staff. Yet women kept coming, because pregnancy and childbirth do not stop for war. Birth continues whether the world is stable or falling apart. Dr. Safa Ali described women arriving after long and dangerous journeys, weakened by malnutrition and anemia, often without antenatal care, and carrying pregnancies already under immense strain. She spoke of the collapse of neonatal support, the shortages of medicine, and the lasting damage the war is doing as experienced health workers leave and younger staff are forced to fill impossible gaps.

She also described stories that were difficult to hear and impossible to forget. A pregnant woman arrived with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. The bullet tore through her womb, injured the baby, and fractured the child’s arm. Somehow both survived. Another woman, critically wounded in a missile strike, could not be saved. She and her unborn child both died. Dr. Safa Ali also treated women made pregnant through sexual violence. A colleague who was struck and killed by a stray round mid-conversation. What stood out in the way she recounted these cases was not anger or self-dramatization, but steadiness. She said the first task was to create safety, to tell survivors it was not their fault, and to treat them with dignity. In a war like Sudan’s, even basic care becomes an act of resistance.

If Dr. Safa Ali showed what leadership looks like inside a collapsed health system, Duaa Tariq revealed something equally important: what it means to defend human dignity and agency under pressure. Duaa is an activist, humanitarian, and artist. She is also the co-founder and director of Color Sudan, a collective of artists that promotes civic and political rights through art and public engagement. Since the war began, she has remained deeply involved in grassroots efforts to support civilians, including through local mutual aid and women-led initiatives. Humanitarian networks have recognized her as one of many Sudanese women who stayed in Khartoum to support those left behind.

Photo: Duaa Tariq sits in front of “The Unfinished Piece” a mural that was interrupted when the war in Sudan began and the artists involved fled Khartoum.

What struck me most about Duaa was not just what she said, but what happened when the conditions around her changed. Before our interview formally began, she was warm, animated, charismatic, and full of life. But, she was careful. Government representatives were in the room listening to what she had to say to the journalists.

That moment said something profound about Sudan today.

The country is not only a place of bombs, displacement, and ruined institutions. It is also a place where people self-censor, where power enters the room quietly, and where what can be safely said depends on who is standing nearby. Duaa’s poise under those conditions was, in its own way, leadership. She represented a different but equally necessary form of courage: the courage to keep speaking, organizing, and staying present in a place where speech itself is constrained. This is hardly a surprise from a woman who insisted on going for walks in the city during the Battle of Khartoum, to demonstrate that women remained. To show other women that they are not alone.

If there was a theme that kept surfacing throughout the trip, it was this: Sudanese women are not incidental to the story of Sudan’s survival. They are central to it. In hospitals, camps, communities, and civic spaces, they are preserving life, preserving memory, and preserving some thread of continuity while so much else has been broken.

We saw that clearly near Al Dabbah, where displaced families were trying to survive amid too little sanitation, fragile water access, and clinics barely holding public health together. Even there, mothers were still trying to keep children focused on the future. Teachers were still teaching. In a retrofitted shipping container, 4-5 births happen each day. Families were still trying to impose some order on profoundly disordered lives. In camps like these, resilience is often talked about too casually, as though it were a noble trait. What we saw was not noble in the abstract. It was exhausting, practical, relentless. People were carrying life forward because they had no choice.

Sudan is often described in North America as a forgotten crisis.

That phrase is accurate, but insufficient. Sudan is not forgotten because there is nothing to see. It is forgotten because the world has chosen, again and again, to look elsewhere. Yet as the war enters another year, the scale of the emergency is staggering. More than 34 million people, roughly two-thirds of the population, now need urgent humanitarian assistance, and millions have been displaced. International officials and aid groups continue to warn that Sudan remains the world’s largest humanitarian disaster, even as global attention drifts.

That is why the courage of women like Dr. Safa Ali and Duaa Tariq matters so much. They are not symbols in the abstract. They are evidence that even under conditions of violence, surveillance, exhaustion, and profound uncertainty, leadership can still be humane, practical, and morally clear.

What I will remember most about Sudan is not only the destruction in a city of shattered glass, though there was plenty of that. It is the stubbornness of life in the middle of war. A doctor staying. An activist continuing. A mother enduring. A teacher teaching. A people insisting, despite everything, that this is still their home.

Sudan does not need pity. It needs attention, honesty, and sustained engagement. Readers should keep paying attention, even as the world’s focus is pulled in a dozen other directions, because Sudan remains too important, and too devastated, to be left to the margins. The women holding the line there deserve at least that much from us.

For The Silo, Justin McAuley/ONE.org.

ONE.ORG ONE fights for a more just world by demanding the investments needed to create economic opportunities and healthier lives in Africa.

ONE se bat pour un monde plus juste en exigeant les investissements nécessaires pour créer des opportunités économiques et des vies plus saines en Afrique.

Culture

Former Canadian Minister Of Defense Claimed UFOs Are Here

April 20, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

Some years ago, back in 2015, I spoke with Paul Hellyer the former Canadian minister of defense, who stated he believes UFOs are from another planet and that the U.S. Government has kept it covered up.

As Canadian Minister of National Defense in 1963, Hellyer was responsible for integrating and unifying the Royal Canadian army, navy and air force into a single organization, the Canadian Armed Forces.

He was outspoken about UFOs visiting Earth and the US Banking System that he felt was greatly responsible for economic hard times. He felt that we are naive and (take a breath) fail to understand we are being visited by alien life forms.

https://www.tvo.org/video/archive/hon-paul-hellyer-on-ufos

He told me he had spoken with key US government officials who confirmed aliens are visiting us and providing advanced technology.

His book, “Light at the End of the Tunnel: A Survival Plan for the Human Species” reveals that humans are hell bent for extinction unless we change our attitudes and actions with an urgency appropriate to an impending disaster. In the book, Paul Hellyer suggests that we have about ten years to wean ourselves from the oil economy and profoundly regrets that the Copenhagen Conference reflected little progress in that direction.

World Leaders Have to Do Better

The whole atmosphere was one that reminded him of Emperor Nero fiddling while Rome burned. World leaders simply have to do better! The book outlines the three monumental changes required to accommodate the miracle. First, the book claims that exotic energy sources already exist. They have been developed by the U.S. “shadow government” at the massive underground “black operation” installations in Nevada and Arizona using technology borrowed from visitors from other planets. Yet they remain secret for the alleged benefit of the privileged few. Second, the money has to be found to subsidize poor nations and facilitate major changes. This can be accomplished by a fundamental re-working of the monetary and banking system. Bank leverages must be dramatically reduced and the percentage of virtual money they create as debt strictly limited so that governments can gain the financial flexibility to finance the transition to sustainability. Finally, it will be necessary for all countries, races, faiths and colors to drop their antagonisms and work together in common purpose to save the heritage they have in common.

When Hellyer was Canada’s Minister of National Defense he stated, “I got periodic reports on sightings and I looked at them very casually, and it was decided that about 80 percent of them were natural phenomena of one sort or another, and the other 20 percent roughly were unexplained, and therefore unidentified. While spending one Thanksgiving holiday north of Toronto, Hellyer and his wife spotted an UFO. “The two of us stood there transfixed for 20 minutes, looking up at this thing moving first in one direction, and then another. By process of elimination, we determined it wasn’t a star or satellite and it wasn’t the space station, so there was really no explanation for it other than it was, in fact, a UFO.”

“It looked like a star, but it maneuvered in a way that stars do not. I must admit that when I saw this one, I wondered whether it was extraterrestrial or American. And I guess the thought that occurred to me was that if it is American, then they have learned some pretty big secrets about acceleration, because it accelerated at a pace that nothing I’ve ever known about that was built here is capable of.” For the Silo, George Filer. Join MUFON.

Supplemental- renowned Scientist Stephen Hawking warns about the danger of Extra-terrestrials.

Art

Rice University Upcoming- Masako Miki: Shapeshifters, Sprites, and Spirits

April 14, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

April, 2026 (Houston, Texas) — The Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University announces that its summer 2026 exhibition will feature the work of Masako Miki (b. 1973, Osaka, Japan). The artist’s first solo show in Texas, this site-specific, sculptural installation is populated with spirits, shapeshifters, and other changelings animated by a longing for recognition and connection amid a rapidly changing world.

The Influence Of Surrealism And Japanese Folklore

Rendered through Miki’s vibrant visual language in a style informed by twentieth-century art historical movements, including European Surrealism and Japanese manga, this exhibition interprets themes from Japanese folklore and brings them into relation with the present, reflecting the artist’s interest in storytelling and myth as forces that shape how the world is understood.

“The empathetic throughline of Miki’s work draws visitors together into a space that is both entirely original and deeply familiar,” said Alison Weaver, co-curator and Suzanne Deal Booth Executive Director for the Moody Center for the Arts. “Amid global conflict and widening cultural divides, in the year following the eightieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this exhibition offers a bridge across time and tradition to demonstrate how shared narratives can foster connections across seemingly insurmountable differences.”

Central to Miki’s practice, and to the folkloric traditions from which it draws, is the belief that all beings and things contain a spirit.

Specifically, the influence of Shinto animism informs Miki’s sculptures of everyday objects and natural elements—gourds, dolls, trees, and others—that assume human scale and a vivid sense of character. Constructed from felt layered over wood armatures, Miki’s creatures form abstract silhouettes that feel both natural and fantastical. Questions that inform Miki’s approach include: Why do some stories live on for generations while others are forgotten? And how do strangers relate to one another despite cultural and political divides?

According To The Artist

According to the artist, “[These] mythologies have the potential to counter past narratives such as the legacy of World War II in Japan and the history of slavery in the United States. My characters are ordinary but have extraordinary powers; they are secular but are attuned to sacred traditions. As a collective, they advocate for both individual and collective agency, and the importance of stories as unifying systems in today’s complex world.” This exhibition is curated by Associate Curator Claudia Mattos with Suzanne Deal Booth Executive Director Alison Weaver.

Masako Miki: Shapeshifters, Sprites, and Spirits is made possible by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, the Moody Center for the Arts Excellence Fund, the H. Russell Pitman Fund for the Moody Center for the Arts, the Tamara de Kuffner Fund, the Kilgore Endowment Fund, and the Sewell Endowment.

More About the ExhibitionMasako Miki, Blissful One-Eyed Spirit, Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman. Photo: Steve Ferrara

Bringing mythic and mundane worlds into contact, Masako Miki focuses her Moody presentation on yōkai—supernatural entities taking the form of beings, objects, and apparitions—particularly those that appear in the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (Hyakki Yagyō), a legend dating to medieval Japan. In this tale, discarded household objects, from a monk’s string of prayer beads to abandoned umbrellas, come to life and gather in an unruly procession, making themselves known to a world that has failed to recognize their presence.

Forms That Go Overlooked

“By attuning viewers to forms of life that often go overlooked, Miki raises questions about belonging, resilience, and who—or what—has been cast aside or forgotten,” said Claudia Mattos, co-curator and Associate Curator for the Moody Center for the Arts. “

Mindfully arranged in our gallery, each grouping suggests companionship, conspiracy, or collectivity, allowing sculptures to assert a presence in relation to the space, the viewer, and one another.” In tandem with the exhibition, the Moody will screen episodes of GeGeGe no Kitarō, a Japanese animated series based on a manga created in 1960 by artist Shigeru Mizuki (1922–2015), a World War II veteran whose work was shaped by his experiences of war.

Credited with reviving interest in Japanese yōkai in twentieth-century popular culture, the story follows a childlike yōkai named Kitarō who moves between human and supernatural realms and intervenes when conflict arises between them. The episodes were influential to Miki’s development growing up, and their contemporary reimagining of folklore resonates with themes that shape her practice today. Masako Miki: Shapeshifters, Sprites, and Spirits invites visitors to imagine how traditional stories can speak to contemporary sociopolitical realities. The exhibition makes the case that expressions of joy and the human imagination are radical acts with the potential to disrupt prevailing cultural discourse to imagine a more compassionate, harmonious, humane future.

For the Silo, Jarrod Barker.

Art

Met Exhibit Will Explore Human Body & Musical Instrument Physical Connections

April 7, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

The exhibition will feature an interactive space for visitors to make music through body movement, as well as immersive elements, live performances, and workshops
Exhibition Dates: June 7–Sept 27, 2026
Location: The Met Fifth Avenue, Gallery 199

(New York, April, 2026)—From clapping hands and tapping feet to beatboxing and whistling, the human body is a musical instrument. In turn, instruments often draw their form and decoration from the body. Musical Bodies, which opens on June 7 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, will explore the multifaceted relationship between musical instruments and the human body. This is the first major exhibition to address this theme and will bring together some 130 works from around the world and across time, including musical instruments, paintings, sculptures, and drawings from The Met collection along with important international loans.

Musical Bodies was conceived as an experiential exhibition. An innovative interactive will enable visitors to create music through intuitive movements and explore the blurred boundaries between body and instrument. Large-scale projections will display newly commissioned footage of beatboxing, body percussion, tap dancing, and more by such acclaimed New York–based and international artists as tap dancer Savion Glover, Beatbox House, and whistler Molly Lewis. Special activations throughout the run of the exhibition will take place in the gallery and include musical performances from an array of artists as well as workshops that activate the body as an instrument. More details will be announced at a later date.

“Musical instruments, which represent an important part of the Met’s collection, have long been recognized and celebrated as dynamic tools for creative expression, and also as works of art in their own right,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and CEO. “This multisensory exhibition is the first to explore—through remarkable instruments, objects, and works of art—the fascinating ways in which sound, musical objects and the human form have been in conversation for millennia. Including outstanding instruments, powerful performances and immersive in-gallery experiences, Musical Bodies is a show that will resonate, fascinate and inspire.”

The exhibition is made possible by Barbara Tober, the Diane W. and James E. Burke Fund, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, and the Gail and Parker Gilbert Fund.

Additional support is provided by Anonymous, The Dancing Tides Foundation, and the Vanguard Council.

Encompassing 4,000 years of music history and art, Musical Bodies will feature a range of objects from across the visual arts, literature, religion, pop culture, and mythology. This includes ancient Egyptian rattles, paintings by Titian and Degas, instrument-inspired apparel, and one of Prince’s most notable guitars. The ways in which the boundaries between body and instrument have been artfully blurred will be explored through visionary works such as Nam June Paik’s TV Cello; the PianoArc circular keyboard designed in collaboration with Brockett Parsons, keyboardist for Lady Gaga; and a steel guitar in the form of a crutch that was made for country music singer and songwriter Barbara Mandrell while she was recovering from an automobile crash.

Musical Bodies will include prominent works from across 10 of The Met’s curatorial departments, including over 50 instruments from the Department of Musical Instruments as well as ancient works from Egypt, 19th-century masterpieces from European Paintings, and 20th -century works from the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art. The exhibition will also feature significant loans from collectors and institutions such as the Musée de la musique (Paris), the National Music Museum (Vermillion, South Dakota), and the Royal College of Music (London). One of the earliest surviving bowed string instruments, a rare figural lira da braccio from the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna), and a lavish hurdy gurdy from the Victoria & Albert Museum (London) will be shown in the United States for the first time.

“Musical Bodies first formed in my mind as a deceptively simple question: Why are so many instruments shaped and decorated like the human body?” said Bradley Strauchen-Scherer, Curator in the Department of Musical Instruments at The Met.”The quest for an answer has become an exploration of humanity through the lens of instruments and music. We find ourselves represented in these instruments because, for much of our history, music has been central to who we are and what we do. I hope this exhibition will reconnect all of us with our innate musicality and shared heritage of harmony.”

Through six thematic sections, the exhibition will illuminate the relationship between the body and musical instruments and how they serve as channels for self-exploration and expressions of culture and belief systems. Musical Bodies will also reveal how instruments are used to stand in for the body to address topics that are traditionally considered taboo, such as sex and death.

Credits and Related Content

Musical Bodies is conceived and organized by Bradley Strauchen-Scherer, Curator in the Department of Musical Instruments at The Met, assisted by Ava Valentino, Research Assistant in the Department of Musical Instruments.

A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition and will be available for purchase from The Met Store.

The catalogue is made possible by the Mary C. and James W. Fosburgh Publications Fund.

The Met will host a variety of exhibition-related educational and public programs, including a Creative Convening, Artists on Artworks and Met Expert talks in the galleries, a music workshop, and more. Details will be announced.

Musical Bodies will be on view during the presentation of the exhibition Costume Art (May 10, 2026–January 10, 2027), which will examine the centrality of the dressed body in fashion and art. The two shows will provide visitors with distinct and engaging explorations of the body’s relationship to artistic expression.

For the Silo, Jarrod Barker.

Featured Image: Thomas Zach, Violino Harpa Forma Maxima, 1874. Wood (spruce, maple, ebony), metal strings. Collections Musée de la musique / Cliché Claude Germain, 2020. Cité de la musique-Philharmonie de Paris

Visit The Met
Fifth Avenue1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10028The Met
Cloisters99 Margaret Corbin Drive,
Fort Tryon Park
New York, NY 10040 metmuseum.org

Culture

Acupuncturist Explains Eastern Medicine Methods and Chi

April 6, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

As westerners we’re used to running to the doctor for a prescription when we’re sick, but the down side to this is that many pharmaceuticals come with serious side effects.

That’s just one reason why Asians believe in helping the body heal from more natural methods. Sheri Laine studied under one of the great Chinese medicine masters and in her new book, Living the EnerQi Connection, she shares a profound understanding of Asian medicine and explains the many benefits people are realizing from switching to natural products.

Powerful Eastern Chinese Words

Many of us have heard the words Eastern/ Chinese/Asian medicine, acupuncture, and chi, but we don’t really understand what they mean or the long tradition behind the culture of it. We are westerners. We are used to doctors in white lab coats rushing to meet with us and write a prescription for whatever problem we have at the moment. Living the EnerQi Connection presents a new idea to health, medicine, and introduces us to what those words really mean.

The Correct way to pronounce Qi

The book discusses Asian medicine as a whole, but one of the main points that it touches on is qi (pronounced “chee” and sometimes spelled chi). This is the energy that is constantly circling through our bodies. Sometimes the flow of our qi can become blocked in some way, because we’re tired or run down which can leave our bodies susceptible to illness. Sheri Laine, L.Ac, has developed a way through Asian medicine to help us maintain our health and keep our qi flowing.

In this book Laine presents the L.A.I.N.E. system, which stands for: Learn, Align, Inform, Natural, and Energy.

Each chapter of the book explains a part of her system to give us a better understanding of the concepts of the energy in our bodies and the energy around us. This will help us to take a more active stance on our lives, our health and our healing.

Laine shows us moments from her childhood when she loved to play doctor to her friends and family, giving them shots by sticking them with cactus needles and giving them medicine from the plants in her back yard. Many years later she is doing this again, but she is no longer playing make-believe. Acupuncture and herbal medicine are a powerful way for Laine to help enhance our qi and energy.

Sheri Laine studied for many years under the Chinese medicine master, Richard Teh-Fu Tan. It is a long tradition that an apprentice study under a master for many years to get such an extensive knowledge of the medicine, the science, and the tradition behind it. This is how Laine is able to help us understand the concepts for ourselves so that we may apply them in our lives. She is the president of Eastern Medical Arts, a licensed acupuncturist, herbalist and nutritionist, with a focus on Integrative Lifestyle Medicine.

“Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light. “– Theodore Roethke

Oriental Medicine draws from nature to diagnose internal medical challenges. We have all admired a great majestic tree. Your health is like that great majestic tree. The roots are your immune system, your qi essence, and the power of your qi essence. The branches of your tree are your subjective symptoms of a greater imbalance. The problem is not in a bad branch; it actually lies in the roots of the tree and within the soil that nourishes the tree, what is the underlying cause of distress?”– Chapter 2: Drawing from Nature: The Elements of EnerQi

Supplemental- Just how gentle can acupuncture be?

Culture

5 Spring Cleaning Tips For Your Garage

March 31, 2026 The Silo 1 Comment

Another superbly helpful article from our friends at Hagerty– if you find yourself ‘shuffling’ things around without any real improvements in organization you are not alone. Read on……

Spring time means cleaning time?

Spring cleaning is a concept that has existed for centuries. It’s the annual reminder to take personal stock of what we have, what we need, and what might need a little bit of organization or clean-up. Whether you take it seriously or not, spring cleaning is something worth at least trying if your garage is also a workshop or DIY space for your automotive habits. Make your annual cleanup better than ever with these five tips, straight from my overflowing and disorganized garage, direct to yours.

Beware of the organization trap

mounting ice tires XR250R Kyle's Garage — I think I might have a tire problem.Kyle Smith

When I was young, I would spend the occasional Saturday morning piddling around the garage with my father, who described the time as “organizing,” but if I snuck upstairs for a mid-morning snack, my mother would ask how dad was doing “shuffling his shit.” I spend a lot of my time shuffling my shit, so I guess that might be genetic. Perhaps you got that same gene.

If you do, be warned. We are the particularly gifted type who regularly put five pounds into the 10-pound bag—often without drama. The bag is not a literal bag here, but instead the area on a shelf or under a workbench. Packing things in more tightly is technically organizing, but it does not make it easier to get work done. Spending time unburying a part you now need but know is tucked behind a bunch of other things is still a waste of time. Organizing should make things easier to retrieve and use, not just allow you to fit more into the same space.

Be honest, are you actually gonna get to that?

workbench height demonstration Kyle's garage — Maybe we don’t talk about how long the project hiding under that towel has been sitting there…*Kyle Smith*

Spring cleaning might be about returning your storage bench to a workbench, but it is also prime time to take stock of how much time you have against how many projects you have. This doesn’t have to be about getting rid of things. Instead, consider keeping the priorities up front and putting in a little extra effort to pickle and store the long-term projects better. This ensures that when you do get to them, they are how you left them—not a mismatched pile of parts that has been shuffled five times in three years, that’s also starting to rust.

Think forward

While most of the thinking in the garage is very present-focused, it’s also important to think about the future and what projects might be coming up. Are there some things in the trash pile that would be useful for that project? A few things worth hanging onto just a little bit longer?

It can be easy to simply default to “throw everything away” or “keep everything.” Resist this urge and instead look at the discoveries you make while spring cleaning and honestly assess them against the to-do list or calendar that helps keep track of the projects and tasks you have on the docket. Some make sense to keep and keep track of due to an upcoming task. Let this help guide your selection of what stays and what goes.

Take out the trash

Motorcycle cables on garage floor — Every used cable I’ve taken off a project bike.Kyle Smith

It sounds simple, but actually throwing things away is tough. During an annual clean-out, a new pile will likely form in the garage, full of bits and pieces amassed during the colder months that you had every intention to throw out. It’s important to actually follow through.

The struggle—for me at least—is often that items in the trash pile do still have some small perceived value. For example, nearly every motorcycle I bring into the garage gets new control cables in the interest of safe operation. Some of the cables I pull off other bikes are still functional, just in less-than-desirable shape. Perfect spares, right? Yet I can easily find myself keeping all the cables “just in case,” which means I have a trash pile by a different name.

Create homes, not spots

parts storage Kyle's garage — A lot of parts, a little organization.Kyle Smith

Organizing is hard. Putting things down is easy. Be careful not to fall back into just piling things together. Instead, take the time to catalog—even if only mentally—the parts and pieces as they appear from the depths of disorganization. This holds for tools also; the items that get rare usage might end up in the same spot, but it’s not a good spot for them to live. Spring cleaning is the time to look at workflow and space to put things where they should be, rather than a place where they fit.

Here’s an example: The vise for my drill press often ends up living on top of a toolbox, meaning it has to move each time I open the box and again when I go to use the drill press. This spring, it’s going to get a better home.

Spring cleaning should feel refreshing when complete. That can be tough in a garage where we are often forced to confront the progress (or lack thereof) on a project each year. Whether life was good to us or not, taking a moment this spring to assess and get back on track can be powerful. If you have tips or tricks you use for your spring cleaning, be sure to leave them in a comment below.

For the Silo, Kyle Smith.

Culture

The Dangers Of Kissing And Aspartame- When Western Medicine Fails You

March 28, 2026 The Silo 1 Comment

What do you do when Western medicine fails to heal what ails you?

Mitzi Mensch knows only too well what happens once doctors have exhausted their bag of tricks. Through her writing, Mensch hopes to raise awareness of the dangers of Aspartame, challenge doctors to find answers – not simply mask symptoms – and to bring out the hopeless romantic in her readers.

Healthcare has turned into a multi-trillion dollar industry as patients around the globe are herded into doctor’s offices, only to leave with prescriptions in-hand for brightly colored pills. But what happens when the pills don’t work and the doctor is out of ideas of how to treat your symptoms? Mitzi Mensch knows first-hand the challenges this presents and has written about her experience in The Dangers of Kissing and Diet Coke: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know and Won’t Bother to Find Out, a neurological nightmare juxtaposed with a riveting love story.

This medical mystery has Mitzi playing dual roles of patient and detective all while embroiled in an intense affair with her long lost first love.

There was the “Go to Psych” doctor, the “We’re out of time doctor”, the “No, next” doctor. Physicians pushed pills which turned her into an emotional zombie and didn’t work. Alternative practitioners practiced protocols and provided potions which didn’t work. As Mitzi muddled through the morass she searched for anything that claimed to cure pain, calm nerves, create somnolence.

Still her headache raged on, her tics escalated, she didn’t sleep.

Mitzi was determined to find out what was wrong and fix it. And then there is the power of first love, potent and compelling. The Internet has made it so very easy for people separated by years and distance to rekindle what was long ago left smoldering. But should they? Much more than a self-help book, The Dangers of Kissing and Diet Coke sizzles, allowing the reader to voyeuristically experience an affair from the perspective of the ‘other woman.’

Mensch would like to help people through her writing. “Even if one person’s health is saved by eliminating Aspartame, or one person is cured of constant headache, or one doctor will look beyond the obvious – my words will have meant something. One thing I would like for readers to take away from this book is to be your own advocate when you get sick. As for lovers who love down through the decades, sometimes it works. They are the lucky ones. ”

Mitzi Mensch was born and raised in New England and attended college in Vermont. An island girl at heart, she lives in Hawaii.

Available on Amazon.com, AuthorHouse.com and local bookstores. The Dangers of Kissing and Diet Coke: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Know and Won’t Bother to Find Out By Mitzi Mensch Publisher: AuthorHouse ISBN-13: 978-1491814147

Culture

Top 5 Things that Make Finland Happiest Country For Ninth Consecutive Year

March 20, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

People and companies tend to do well in similar surroundings. Here’s how Finland cultivates an environment in which personal happiness and business success are not at odds but grow out of the same ground.

Several things contribute to Finnish happiness, many of which also make Finland a great country to do business and invest in. We listed five reasons why Finland is a country where people experience a high quality of life—and which also make Finland a place for entrepreneurship and innovation that punches above its weight in many sectors.

1. Stable, functional, and predictable—everyday

In Finland, people experience a high level of personal freedom, public services are widely available, buses run on time, and things just generally work. Daily life can be almost boring in its predictability— in the best possible way.

Such stability also represents a competitive advantage. In the recent 2026 Finland Investor Confidence Barometer, 54% of Finnish-owned and 62% of foreign-owned company business leaders considered social stability and functionality to be among Finland’s key strengths.

2. People work well together in a high-trust society

Finland is characterized by a widely shared sense of trust among both neighbors and strangers. It is also characterized by people’s trust in the authorities and governing bodies. Corruption remains low (2^nd in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index in 2025), and people and organizations don’t need to spend a lot of time and energy trying to work out who they can trust. This removes obstacles to collaboration, making for a happier, stress-free environment.

3. Work-life balance lifts both sides

Finnish society supports people’s ability to combine work with family life and the pursuit of one’s own interests and hobbies. Finnish policies support subsidized parental leave, infant health services, and daycare. This means people can both build a career and fulfill their dreams of a family without creating an undue burden on either. A big part of the Finnish dream is the accessibility of a fulfilling life for everyone.

4. World-class digital infrastructure keeps you connected

Finland has long had a thriving ICT sector. So it’s no surprise it’s among the top countries in the world when it comes digitalization. As a country of long distances, Finland benefits from reliable high-speed networks that support working from home, as well as enjoying life and staying connected outside office hours. In the Finland Investor Confidence Barometer, approximately half the surveyed leaders of both domestic and foreign-owned businesses listed the country’s digital infrastructure as one of Finland’s core strengths.

5. Connection with and appreciation of nature

Even with great digital connections, Finns also know how to log off. Anywhere in Finland (even in the cities), you’re always within a 10-minute walk from a nature trail or park. The proximity of nature gives people a sense of calm—and people who are relaxed, recharged, and happy outside work are also happy and productive people when they’re in the office. Finland is also committed to preserving its valued nature with a credible climate policy. Carbon neutrality is a common target for many cities and municipalities, and the green transition is viewed as a major opportunity for businesses.

The coming together of these factors contributes to the Finnish sense of happiness, both during and outside business hours. And it shows. The UN World Happiness Report surveys people from around the world annually, asking them to evaluate their current quality of life: on March 19, the report’s 2026 edition announced Finland as the world’s happiest country for the 9^th consecutive year.

For the Silo, Salla Salovaara/ Business Finland.

ABOUT

Business Finland is the Finnish government organization that provides innovation funding and internationalization services, promotes travel and investments, and attracts talents to Finland. Business Finland’s around 450 experts work in 12 offices globally and in 15 regional offices around Finland. Business Finland is part of the Team Finland network. www.businessfinland.fi

Invest in Finland helps foreign companies identify business opportunities in Finland, produces information on Finland as an investment destination, and enhances and coordinates national efforts to attract investment by actively networking with regional and international entities. Invest in Finland also collects and updates information about foreign-owned companies in Finland. Invest in Finland is part of Business Finland. www.businessfinland.com

Culture

How Meta and TikTok Turn User Rage into Revenue, While Pretending to Keep You Safe

March 18, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

Whistleblowers from Meta and TikTok revealed that both companies knowingly allowed more harmful content, including violence, extremism, and exploitation of minors, on their platforms to win the algorithm-driven engagement race, prioritizing stock prices and political relationships over user safety.

Disclaimer- According to Kate Miller at The Fastest Media, the original source for this story, Cybernews, has been caught in significant inaccuracies.

Cyberbullying Enabled

These platforms also prioritize resolving complaints from politicians over those from vulnerable people, such as minors experiencing cyberbullying.

“While platforms and lawmakers take their sweet time debating what borderline content is, people are left to deal with the psychological fallout of social media addiction. From the inability to tell right from wrong or fake from real, loss of concentration, sleep, and even sense of self, to radicalization, depression, and self harm – the consequences of companies toying with their algorithms to meet business goals are dire for humanity,” writes Jurgita Lapienytė, Editor-in-Chief at Cybernews.

Profit Over Safety?

A new BBC report revealed what we suspected all along – big tech platforms turn a blind eye to harmful content for the sake of profit. Platforms allow so-called borderline content – misogynistic, sexist, racist, conspiracy-driven – that is harmful yet legal.

According to the report, based on accounts from a dozen whistleblowers and insiders, Meta engineers were instructed to allow more borderline content to compete with TikTok. Meanwhile, TikTok is said to have prioritized several user complaints involving politicians to “avoid threats of regulation or bans.”

Unsurprisingly, big tech platforms denied any wrongdoing, insisting that they do not amplify harmful content.

Algorithms are allegedly designed to better understand user interests and needs, and cater to them accordingly. Unfortunately, most of what a user “wants” turns out to be conspiracy theories, AI slop, deepfakes, and pro-Nazi content. Or at least the algorithm seems to think so – because most of this is so-called ragebait content, designed to provoke a strong response from the user.

And since users engage with it, the algorithm is tricked into “thinking” this is what people want. Humans behind the algorithm must clearly understand this is not the case, but clicks translate to cash. So why would Big Tech cut the branch it’s sitting on?

In 2024, Meta earned $16 billion, or 10% of its annual revenue, from scam ads and banned goods. The information comes not from a third-party analytics firm but from Meta’s own documents, proving that the tech giant is well aware of how much harm it can spread – and how much money it can make along the way.

While platforms and lawmakers take their sweet time debating what borderline content is, people are left to deal with the psychological fallout of social media addiction. From the inability to tell right from wrong or fake from real, loss of concentration, sleep, and even sense of self, to radicalization, depression, and self harm – the consequences of companies toying with their algorithms to meet business goals are dire for humanity.

It’s not only our mental health that’s at stake. Adversaries, well aware of algorithmic logic, abuse it to spread misinformation and straightforward lies, sowing division to influence elections all over the world – making us wonder just how much harm performative compliance has already done to democracy.

Cybernews is a globally recognized independent media outlet where journalists and security experts debunk cyber by research, testing, and data.

Cybernews has earned worldwide attention for its high-impact research and discoveries, which have uncovered some of the internet’s most significant security exposures and data leaks. Notable ones include:

Cybernews researchers found that Android AI apps leak Google secrets the most, 700TB of files already exposed.
Cybernews researchers discovered multiple open datasets comprising 16 billion login credentials from infostealer malware, social media, developer portals, and corporate networks – highlighting the unprecedented risks of account takeovers, phishing, and business email compromise.
The research team also studies over 19 billion newly exposed passwords, and found that most people use 8–10 character passwords (42%).
Cybernews researchers analyzed 156,080 randomly selected iOS apps – around 8% of the apps present on the App Store – and uncovered a massive oversight: 71% of them expose sensitive data.
Recently, Bob Dyachenko, a cybersecurity researcher and owner of SecurityDiscovery.com, and the Cybernews security research team discovered an unprotected Elasticsearch index, which contained a wide range of sensitive personal details related to the entire population of Georgia.
The team analyzed the new Pixel 9 Pro XL smartphone’s web traffic, and found that Google’s latest flagship smartphone frequently transmits private user data to the tech giant before any app is installed.
The team revealed that a massive data leak at MC2 Data, a background check firm, affects one-third of the US population.
The Cybernews security research team discovered that 50 most popular Android apps require 11 dangerous permissions on average.
An analysis by Cybernews research discovered over a million publicly exposed secrets from over 58 thousand websites’ exposed environment (.env) files.
The team revealed that Australia’s football governing body, Football Australia, has leaked secret keys potentially opening access to 127 buckets of data, including ticket buyers’ personal data and players’ contracts and documents.
The Cybernews research team, in collaboration with cybersecurity researcher Bob Dyachenko, discovered a massive data leak containing information from numerous past breaches, comprising 12 terabytes of data and spanning over 26 billion records.
The team analyzed NASA’s website, and discovered an open redirect vulnerability plaguing NASA’s Astrobiology website.

For the Silo, Živilė Kasparavičiūtė.

Featured image via Cybernews- Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) firm xAI has said it is working to remove posts by its chatbot Grok that praised Adolf Hitler as the best person to deal with “vile anti-white hate.”

Art

Late Inuit Artist’s Work Named 100 Best Artworks Of 21st Century

March 15, 2026 The Silo Leave a comment

Annie Pootoogook’s drawing entitled Man Abusing His Partner was selected as one of the best 100 artworks of the 21st century by ArtNews.

Kinngait (Cape Dorset), Nunavut – A drawing by late Inuit artist Annie Pootoogook, who died under suspicious circumstances in 2016, has been named as one of the best artworks of the 21st century by ArtNews, one of the most trusted sources for news about the global art world and art market.

Known for her drawings that depict contemporary Inuit life, her drawing entitled Man Abusing His Partner was selected as one of greatest artworks of the past 25 years.

Annie Pootoogook works on her art on July 10, 2013, in Ottawa. The investigation into her 2016 death has stalled, sources tell CBC News. (Alexei Kintero)

The work on paper illustrates a haunting personal memory from Annie’s life during the early 1990s, when she was in an abusive relationship with a man in Nunavik.

The artwork depicts a violent and threatening scene, with a male figure holding a piece of wood above his head, directed toward a woman who lies defenseless on a bed. Initially, like many women facing similar situations, Annie remained silent about her experiences, reflecting the broader social stigma and silence surrounding violence against women. However, as she found her voice, it became clear that Annie possessed immense courage. She began sharing her story of survival as an Inuit woman, using her artwork as a powerful medium to communicate struggles with addiction, mental health, and intimate partner abuse.

Sadly, on September 19, 2016, Annie’s body was found in the Rideau River in Ottawa. Police declared it a suspicious death, however no arrests were ever made. Annie’s story, which she often conveyed through her work, became a representation of the broader experiences of Inuit and Indigenous women, highlighting the ongoing impact of colonialism and patriarchy in their lives. Her drowning and the subsequent police investigation drew significant attention because of her status as an internationally renowned artist and Inuit woman.

“This significant recognition of Annie Pootoogook is a testament to her enduring importance as a contemporary creator,” said West Baffin Cooperative President Pauloosie Kowmageak. “As we remember her significant contributions we also have the opportunity to look forward, knowing that her personal resilience and artistic innovation is inspiring new generations.’

Pootoogook was an artist member of the West Baffin Cooperative, Canada’s oldest Inuit owned and led social enterprise.

She was the third youngest in a family of ten children and grew up surrounded by artists, including both of her parents, as well as her grandmother, the renowned artist Pitseolak Ashoona (c.1904–1983), and her uncle, Kananginak Pootoogook (1935–2010).

Influenced by them, Annie based her drawings on her personal experiences, including her struggles with addiction and domestic violence. Her work found fame in the larger art world and was showcased at the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, The Power Plant, Biennale de Montreal, Art Basel and Documenta 12, among other exhibitions.

For the Silo, Jarrod Barker.

About West Baffin Cooperative

Established in 1959, West Baffin Cooperative has enjoyed an international reputation for the exquisite prints, drawings and carvings created by its Inuit artist members. In addition to operation of the Kinngait Studios at the Kenojuak Cultural Centre in Kinngait, the cooperative maintains a Toronto marketing division office, Dorset Fine Arts, which is responsible for interfacing with galleries, museums, cultural professionals, Inuit art enthusiasts and the art market globally. The mandate of West Baffin Cooperative includes public relations, promotion, advocacy, government relations and special projects relating to Kinngait Inuit art. Governed by an all-Inuit Board of Directors, the organization also maintains a local retail grocery/hardware store, a restaurant, rental properties and various utility contracts. As a community owned organization, practically all Kinngait adults are shareholders, profits are distributed back to the community in the form of annual dividends.

Featured image- Annie Pootoogook, Man Abusing His Partner, 2002 Coloured pencil and ink on paper, 51 x 66.5 cm
Collection of John and Joyce Price

Culture

What Are Mind Control Religions?

March 14, 2026 The Silo 2 Comments

Is Tom Cruise the poster boy for alternative religion?

In most western-world countries, laws protect consumers from fraud and unethical business practices. But to date, there are no laws on the books that recognize destructive mind control, much less prohibit the use of it by cult-like groups of religion. However, if my colleague Steven Hassan, the pioneer of exit counseling for cult members and a critically acclaimed author, and thousands of other ex-cult members have any say about it, that may soon change.

The mind, despite all of its strengths, depends on a stream of coherent information for it to function properly.

Put a person into an environment where the senses are overloaded with incoherent information and the mind becomes numb. In this confused state, critical thinking skills don’t work and the mind becomes suggestible to those who would replace an individual’s self-interest with the group’s best interests.

Everyone, like it or not, is vulnerable to mind control. Everyone is looking for something better in life: more happiness, more meaning and more security. Recruiters prey upon these basic human needs. People don’t join; they are recruited, and more often than not, during a stressful time in their lives.

Mind-control religions use our fantasies of an ideal world to draw us in. The “love bombing” and the sincere, committed members that newcomers initially encounter prove far more attractive and convincing than the doctrines.

Recruitment doesn’t just happen.

“It’s a process,” Hassan says, “imposed on people by other people.”

During that orientation process—it could be a seemingly innocuous six-month Bible study—irrational phobias are placed in the potential member’s unconscious mind. The first is that no one can really be happy and successful if they’re not a member of that particular religion.

After they become members, life is about sacrifice and living in a fantasy world created by the group.

The need to live in the present is continually reinforced with warnings like “Armageddon is just around the corner,” giving members a sense of urgency about the tasks at hand. Those who begin to doubt will find leaving painful, as one of the penalties will be extreme shunning.

Children raised in these groups typically receive an inferior education, are taught that the world is an evil place controlled by the devil, and must rely on church leaders’ interpretation of reality.

Mind-control clichés like “we alone have the truth” or “all non-members will die at Armageddon” are continually reinforced, which puts up an invisible wall between believers and outsiders. This makes members feel special, believing they are counted among God’s chosen few.

Control. Control And Control.

Behavior control, Information control, Thought control and Emotional control (the BITE model) has great power and influence on the human mind. Together, these four control mechanisms are used by destructive religious groups to form a totalistic web, which can manipulate even the strongest-minded people. (Hassan provides a thorough explanation of how BITE works in his three best-selling books.) And if that’s not enough, mind-control religious members are required to proselytize; research in social psychology shows that nothing confirms one’s beliefs better than trying to sell those beliefs to other people.

Given freedom of choice, people will choose what they believe is best for themselves. However, the criteria for determining what is “best” should be one’s own, not someone else’s.

Freedom of choice is the first thing that one loses when one becomes a member of groups like Scientologists, Moonies and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Unchecked, these groups will continue to wreak untold psychological and physical damage on millions of people who have no idea of what constitutes unethical mind control. Unless action is taken to make destructive religious groups accountable to society for their violations of the basic civil rights of their members, in particular the children of members, they will continue to deceive the public into believing they are a harmless group of people, deserving the same constitutional guarantees as benevolent religions.

Grant money for research projects and treatment of mind-control victims is needed now. Reform within public education must be made to encourage people to think for themselves, to understand the psychological principles of mind control and to teach students to be suspicious of any environment that discourages them from asking critical questions. If you would like to help, go to www.freedomofmind.com.

For the Silo, Richard E. Kelly.