The Internet’s gone batty, er catty, over our cat video film festival, scheduled for Aug. 30 in Open Field, with reports on it coming from Gawker, Time, the BBC, the Guardian, the LA Times, the Bangkok Post, and Beirut’s Daily Star, to name a few.

UNESCO has expanded its World Heritage List by 26, including 16 sites from outside Europe and North America. New entries: Kublai Khan’s city of Xanadu, the colonial capital of Côte d’Ivoire, and, controversially, the Church of the Nativity in Palestine.

Given the launch of our Kitchen Lab project, Conflict Kitchen catches the eye: Based in Pittsburgh, it’s a “take-out restaurant that only serves cuisine from countries with which the US is in conflict”: Iran, Afghanistan, and Venezuela, for starters. (Via Animal NY.)

The US arts and culture industry generated $135.2 billion of economic activity in 2010, according to a new Americans for the Arts report: $61 billion came from from nonprofit organizations, while $74 billion more was from audience expenditures.

“[C]reativity does not decrease with memory loss, making it a great platform to build self-esteem and community,” writes Rose Hansen of the Walker’s program for people with Alzheimer’s. “The work can also evoke memories buried deep beneath the surface.”

We all know the intangible benefits of visiting museums—inspiration, education, a chance to get out of the house—but a new study finds a more concrete benefit: Last year, museums provided a $674 million boost to Minnesota’s economy.