‣ Candice Breitz speaks to Philip Poltermann on the Guardian about her German exhibition being canceled because of her positions on Gaza:
What have been the explanations the museum gave for the cancellation?
After I lastly acquired to talk to the museum’s director, she instructed me that the way in which I had publicly spoken out in regards to the ongoing bombardment of Gaza was inappropriate. Throughout a gathering of the Saarland Cultural Heritage Basis, she defined, the rector of the native artwork academy had insisted that the exhibition couldn’t go forward on condition that I had, in his phrases, “possibly signed a letter in help of BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, a Palestinian-led movement promoting economic sanctions against Israel].”
‣ Final week, UCLA college students held a die-in on campus and planted small flags bearing the names of Palestinians killed in Gaza, organized within the bigger form of the Palestinian flag. Anna Dai-Liu and Catherine Hamilton report for the Daily Bruin:
The demonstration, which started at 1 p.m. in entrance of Perloff Corridor, was hosted by College students for Justice in Palestine at UCLA along with different pupil organizations together with the UC Divest Coalition at UCLA and Jewish Voice for Peace. Throughout the occasion, college students – many carrying keffiyehs and masks to cowl their faces – walked from Perloff Corridor to Royce Corridor, the place they laid down and recited the names of Palestinians killed within the ongoing violence in Gaza, chanting phrases reminiscent of “Honor our martyrs” and “UC is complicit” in between names.
Protesters additionally hung banners in entrance of Royce Corridor that mentioned “Biden funds the genocide of the Palestinian individuals” and “Murdering 5000+ youngsters shouldn’t be self protection, #FreePalestine.” Gravestones and small flags with names of these killed have been positioned on the garden of Dickson Plaza, with the flags organized within the sample of the Palestinian flag.
‣ For ProPublica, Mary Hudetz and Ash Ngu inform the story of the Wabanaki tribal nations who’ve been preventing Harvard and prep faculty Phillips Academy for the return of their ancestors’ stays:
As an alternative of sending a letter as Harvard did, the Phillips Academy museum director, Ryan Wheeler, had requested to satisfy with the tribes. Seated on the desk that morning, he was initially unsure what he would do. He would later say that it grew to become evident through the assembly that the tribes exhibited a powerful connection to the ancestors they sought to assert, each from the report that they had supplied and their response to Harvard’s resolution.
He recalled leaving the assembly sure he would repatriate. “There was actually no query about it,” he later mentioned.
What the Wabanaki committee and Wheeler didn’t know, nonetheless, was simply how laborious Harvard would push again. Within the two years that adopted, the director of the Harvard museum went to stunning lengths to strain Wheeler to reverse his resolution.
‣ Angelica Jade Bastién reviews the new film about Beyoncé, Renaissance, for Vulture and has some crucial phrases in regards to the resolution to take away the reason for dying of her Uncle Johnny:
There’s a clip within the documentary of Beyoncé name-checking Uncle Johnny whereas talking on the 2016 CFDA Vogue Awards, which is supposed to stipulate that his presence has at all times mattered to her profession. Although Johnny died of AIDS problems, you received’t be taught that from Renaissance. The one point out of his ultimate days comes when Beyoncé’s cousin, Angie Beyince, off-handedly refers to his hospice care. At first blush, the refusal to say AIDS is odd in a documentary, album, and tour so primed on queer Black pleasure. However that is by design. For there isn’t a star of such magnitude who extra cunningly positions themselves as apolitical than Beyoncé.
‣ In Truthout, Elliot Kukla writes about how Zionism has made Hanukkah about Israel however it has at all times been extra about diaspora:
Because the candles burn, will probably be time to play dreidel. That is my 4-year-old’s favourite half: spinning the highest and consuming goodies encased in golden foil. This 12 months, she is going to lastly be sufficiently old to be taught the story that’s encoded within the squat Hebrew letters engraved on both sides of the dreidel: A Nice Miracle Occurred There. However what miracle of Hanukkah ought to I train her?
You’ll assume there’s a simple reply to this query. In spite of everything, there’s a historic report of the Hanukkah story. In 167 BCE in occupied Jerusalem, there was a Jewish rebellion towards the repression of the Hellenist Seleucid Empire led by a bunch of rebels often called the Maccabees (actually the “hammers”). Miraculously, the ragtag group of radicals received towards one of many largest empires the world has ever seen. That is the miracle that dominates fashionable retellings of Hanukkah: the marvel of resistance.
‣ The Chronicle of Greater Training stories {that a} misinformation scholar is being pushed out for being crucial of social media large Meta. Stephanie Lee stories:
However in a 120-page declaration launched on Monday, she alleges that her bosses — beginning with Douglas W. Elmendorf, dean of the Kennedy College — started turning on her in late 2021, after she acquired and made plans to publish a cache of explosive paperwork leaked from inside Fb, which has since rebranded itself as Meta.
These plans, she says, drew the ire of a high-ranking former Meta government and Harvard donor; angered the dean, a pal of one other former high Meta government; and occurred as Mark Zuckerberg, the corporate’s chief government, was making ready to make a serious donation to Harvard, his alma mater.
Donovan says that she was compelled to go away behind about $3.1 million that she had raised for her staff from foundations and philanthropists. She was additionally instructed by Harvard that it owns the mental property of every thing she wrote whereas there, together with, she says, the copyright to a e-book she co-authored final 12 months, Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the On-line Battles Upending Democracy in America.
‣ Relatedly, MIT Know-how Overview stories on how Big Tech is claiming ownership over AI:
Till late November, when the epic saga of OpenAI’s board breakdown unfolded, the informal observer might be forgiven for assuming that the trade round generative AI was a vibrant aggressive ecosystem.
However this isn’t the case—nor has it ever been. And understanding why is key to understanding what AI is, and what threats it poses. Put merely, within the context of the present paradigm of constructing larger- and larger-scale AI methods, there isn’t a AI with out Huge Tech. With vanishingly few exceptions, each startup, new entrant, and even AI analysis lab depends on these companies. All depend on the computing infrastructure of Microsoft, Amazon, and Google to coach their methods, and on those self same companies’ huge shopper market attain to deploy and promote their AI merchandise.
‣ In Noema journal, Cory Doctorow, who ought to be no stranger to anybody who has been on the interwebz for many years, writes about how we can free ourselves from Big Tech and its toxic results:
The tech giants cheat on a regular basis. They’re pathologically incapable of not dishonest. Whether or not it’s privateness regulation, competitors regulation, labor regulation, environmental regulation — you title it, they cheat on it. However in addition they sort of suck at it. They hold getting caught. A disgruntled worker blows the whistle, for instance, or the conspirators simply get sloppy.
‣ Mayor Eric Adams of New York Metropolis is not having a superb week. First, his approval rating clocked in at 28% (the bottom ever recorded within the 27-year historical past of the Quinnipiac ballot), and now, a donor allegedly instructed the City that their boss reimbursed them for the contribution in cash, which might be very a lot unlawful:
A donor to Eric Adams’ 2021 mayoral marketing campaign instructed THE CITY that their boss reimbursed them for a contribution recorded at an occasion that’s on the heart of the federal probe into whether or not the marketing campaign conspired with the Turkish authorities to just accept illegal international donations.
Such a reimbursement would represent an unlawful “straw donation,” enabling the true supply of the funding to stay unknown in an effort to evade marketing campaign finance legal guidelines that set limits on who can provide and the way a lot they will donate.
‣ Lately, writer Louise Adler, and director of Adelaide Writers’ Week, spoke about the outrage of some audience members over three actors donning a keffiyeh, a standard Palestinian scarf, through the curtain name of the Chekhov play The Seagull. Her protection of inventive freedom is a must-listen. You may watch it on YouTube.
‣ A pleasant audio interview with poet Laura Mullen who talks about the troubles of academic and death threats … terrible. It’s on the Poetry Basis’s Poetry Off the Shelf podcast. She talks about her newest e-book of poetry that imagines academia as a milk manufacturing unit and the dying threats she acquired because of a tweet a couple of months in the past.
‣ Leonard Leo is probably not a family title, however writing for Politico, Heidi Przybyla explains how he has an outsized influence on the US Supreme Court:
A POLITICO evaluation of tax filings, monetary statements and different public paperwork discovered that Leo and his community of nonprofit teams are both instantly or not directly linked to a majority of amicus briefs filed on behalf of conservative events in seven of the highest-profile rulings the courtroom has issued over the previous two years.
It’s the first complete evaluation of amicus briefs which have streamed into the courtroom since Trump nominated Justice Amy Coney Barrett in 2020, solidifying the courtroom’s conservative majority. POLITICO’s evaluation discovered a number of situations of language used within the amicus briefs showing within the courtroom’s opinions.
The Federalist Society, the 70,000-member group that Leo co-chairs, doesn’t take political positions. However the motion centered across the society usually weighs in by means of many like-minded teams. In 15 % of the 259 amicus briefs for the conservative facet within the seven circumstances, Leo was both a board member, official or monetary backer by means of his community of the group that filed the temporary. One other 55 % have been from teams run by people who share board memberships with Leo, labored for entities funded by his community or have been amongst a close-knit circle of authorized specialists that features chapter heads who serve underneath Leo on the Federalist Society.
‣ New Zealand politician Rawiri Waititi performed a haka before swearing an oath to King Charles III in New Zealand’a 54th parliament. Haka is a ceremonial dance in Māori tradition, and two years ago, the same politician was ejected from parliament after performing haka in response to what he mentioned have been racist arguments. Vice Information has posted the video:
‣ Nothing like some near-sightedness to spice up those holiday lights! I’ve by no means felt extra ~seen~: