NASA Says It’s Trying to Bring the Hubble Back Online

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NASA is working on bringing the Hubble Telescope back online, but the orbital observatory is getting very old.

Major Tom?

NASA is working on bringing the Hubble Space Telescope back online, but given its recent setbacks, the agency's insistence that it's "in good health" may be wishful thinking.

In an update, NASA said that it's still working to bring the aging telescope back to life after a series of issues that led it to automatically enter safe mode (read: shut down) three times over the course of a few weeks, with the final one lasting until now.

Starting on November 19, the agency began having issues problems with the gyroscopes or "gyros" — not to be confused with the delicious Greek meat — which helps orient the telescope in whatever direction it needs to point. Between that date and November 29, the gyro issues led to automatic power-downs thrice. That last safe mode, it seems, has remained in effect until now.

Aging Instruments

Installed back in 2009 during the fifth and final Space Shuttle servicing mission that saw NASA astronauts replacing and fixing Hubble instruments IRL, the remaining three of the six gyros aboard the telescope have clearly seen better days. Indeed, with its update to its previous statement about the science operations shutoff, the agency seems to be admitting as much.

"Based on the performance observed during the tests, the team has decided to operate the gyros in a higher-precision mode during science observations," the statement reads. "Hubble’s instruments and the observatory itself remain stable and in good health."

These latest Hubble setbacks have resurrected talks of a private servicing mission for the 33-year-old telescope that was supposed to be decommissioned nearly two decades ago.

At the end of 2022, NASA and SpaceX announced that they were jointly looking into whether it would be feasible to send up a private mission "at no cost to the government" to fix various issues on the telescope. That study has apparently been completed, but nobody knows what the findings were just yet.

In the meantime, NASA will hopefully be able to bring Hubble back online itself because, let's face it, we're not ready to say goodbye.

More on NASA: Space Station Turns 25, Just in Time to Die

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Government Program to Recycle Plastic Bags Canceled After "Abysmal Failure"

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An online directory that directed people to locations where they could drop off plastic bags and film to be recycled has been shut down.

Trash Tier

The Earth is drowning in a sea of used plastic bags and other one-time-use plastic products, such as blister packaging and utensils, all of which are polluting our soil, waterways, and inside our bodies in the form of microplastics.

In an effort to fight this ever-growing sea of refuse, the US government kickstarted a nationwide online directory that directed people to locations where they could drop off plastic bags and film to be recycled. Unfortunately, according to The Guardian, the program has been shuttered for good after ABC News found in May that a good amount of the discarded plastic wasn't getting recycled after all.

"Plastic film recycling had been an abysmal failure for decades and it’s important that plastic companies stop lying to the public," said Beyond Plastics president Judith Enck to The Guardian. "Finally, the truth is coming out."

The online national directory, having the approval of the US Environmental Protection Agency and local administrations, had a list of about 18,000 locations for recycling dropoff, according to The Guardian. Locations included stores like Target and Walmart.

The program purported that the plastic would get recycled once you drop them off, but ABC News used tracking tags on plastic trash and found that many of the tags ended up in landfills, incinerators or sorting locations not associated with recycling.

The Plastics

This issue with the directory list is not an isolated incident. The country's recycling system is broken. A report last year from Greenpeace revealed that out of 51 million tons of plastic coming out of American homes, only 2.4 million tons gets recycled — a staggeringly low proportion.

Plastic is a big problem because it is made from fossil fuels, which is the biggest driver of global warming. Materials such as paper and metal are recycled at a higher rate, according to Greenpeace.

While many countries and organizations have focused on decarbonizing transportation and other sectors in our modern world, the use of plastic is trending upwards, with the amount of plastic products estimated to triple by 2060, from 60 million tons in 2019 to 1,231 million tons in less than 40 years.

That mountain of refuse represents not just an incredible amount of pollution, in other words — but also frustrating wasted efforts in fighting climate change.

More on recycling: Scientists Say Recycling Has Backfired Spectacularly

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OpenAI Cofounder Who Pushed Out Sam Altman Is In a Confusing Limbo

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After moving to oust Sam Altman, OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever is in a sort of limbo, and nobody seems to know what will happen next.

Do The Limbo

After moving to oust Sam Altman, OpenAI cofounder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever is in a sort of limbo, and nobody seems to know what will happen next.

As Business Insider reports based on interviews with people in the know — who spoke on the condition that their identities remain anonymous — it remains unclear what role Sutskever will play in the AI firm moving forward after turning on Altman just before OpenAI's Thanksgiving week massacre.

"Ilya is always going to have had an important role," one of those insiders said. "But, you know, there are a lot of other people who are picking up and taking that responsibility that historically Ilya had."

Ouch. Before the incredible failed coup at the company, Sutskever was far from a household name, and fewer still knew who he was before ChatGPT burst onto the scene a year ago.

Known primarily for his outlandish statements about algorithmic sentience, the Russian-born researcher is considered something of an "AI god" by his acolytes — and now is thought of as a traitor to others who think he won't be able to come back from voting alongside two fellow (and now former) OpenAI board members to fire Altman as CEO over vague accusations of dishonesty.

What's Going On

According to two insiders who spoke to BI, Sutskever hasn't been seen in the firm's San Francisco offices all week, and his position within the company is "to be determined," one of those sources said.

This isn't exactly surprising given that Altman hinted pretty explicitly in his note following his re-hiring as CEO that although he has "zero ill will" towards his fellow cofounder, the company is nevertheless "discussing how he can continue his work at OpenAI." In an interview with The Verge, however, the CEO did admit that he was "hurt and angry" that Sutskever had essentially shanked him Brutus-style.

Sutskever, for his part, has also been making some vague statements online suggesting continued tumult at OpenAI.

In one since-deleted tweet, he posted a reference to the memetic phrase "the beatings will continue until morale improves," which he said "applies more often than it has any right to." In another post made on his art Instagram, this one still up, he posted a stern-looking cloud head — though that one, at least, looks more like the artist himself than any of his coworkers.

As BI's sources described, the working relationship between Altman, Sutskever, and Greg Brockman — the other cofounder who resigned in solidarity with the CEO after his ouster, and who was brought back upon his return — has soured tremendously.

"Once trust is broken," one former staffer explained, "it cannot be regained."

More on OpenAI: Sam Altman's Right-Hand Man Says AI Is Overhyped

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Readers Want Publications to Label AI-Generated Content

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Trust Issues

With levels of distrust towards the news reaching new heights, some publications have begun experimenting with publishing artificial intelligence-generated content — which has been an unmitigated disaster in many instances.

And as it turns out, readers are becoming increasingly wary of the trend, which could only serve to erode their trust even further.

According to a new preprint study by researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Minnesota, readers want news media to disclose if the article was AI-generated. But they also tend to trust news organizations less if they use AI-generated articles unless they list other articles that have served as sources for the AI-generated content.

"As news organizations increasingly look toward adopting AI technologies in their newsrooms," the researchers write, "our results hold implications for how disclosures about these techniques may contribute to or further undermine audience confidence in the institution of journalism at a time in which its standing with the public is especially tenuous."

Full Disclosure

For their study, the researchers surveyed 1,483 people English speakers located in the United States and presented them with a batch of political news articles that were AI-generated. Some were labeled as created by AI and some were not. Others were labeled as AI and contained a list of news articles that served as sources.

The researchers then asked the readers to rate the trustworthiness of news organizations by looking at the articles. The researchers found that readers rated content from news organizations that published articles labeled as AI-generated lower on an 11-point trust scale compared to news organizations that had articles with no disclosure.

Interestingly, articles that were labeled as being AI-generated weren't deemed by participants as being "less accurate or more biased," according to the paper. This tracks with the results of the appended survey participants also filled out: more than 80 percent of them want news organizations to label if content was AI-generated.

The researchers also noted some important limitations of their study, including pre-existing partisan divides and the associated variation in the amount of trust in the media. People may have also been put off by the lack of real-world associations of the mock news organizations named in the study.

It's a heavily nuanced topic that highlights the need for further research as well as more disclosure and a thorough vetting of generated content by news orgs.

"I don’t think all audiences will inevitably see all uses of these technologies in newsrooms as a net negative," coauthor and University of Minnesota researcher Benjamin Toff told Nieman Lab, "and I am especially interested in whether there are ways of describing these applications that may actually be greeted positively as a reason to be more trusting rather than less."

More on AI content: Sports Illustrated Union Says It’s "Horrified" by Publication of AI-Generated Writers

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SantaCon Spent Charity Funds on Crypto, Burning Man

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SantaCon claims to raise money for charity, but that apparently includes Burning Man and failed crypto investments.

SantaCon — that horrific event in which thousands of drunkards dress like Kris Kringle and descend upon New York City's bars in a boozy and ostensibly charitable push — may not be so philanthropic after all.

In an investigation, Gothamist found that over the past decade, less than a fifth of the $1.4 million the money the event's organizers have raised have gone to registered nonprofits. More than a third of those cumulative funds, meanwhile, have gone to Burning Man-affiliated organizations and individuals — and in a strange tech twist, more's even gone to questionable cryptocurrency investments.

What began as an anti-consumerist protest in San Francisco in 1994 has morphed into something far more boorish in recent years, as the NYC metropolitan area's normiest and most alcohol-oriented denizens take Manhattan to wreak havoc in red velvet. If you'd forgotten or never knew in the first place that the whole debacle is supposed to be about quote-unquote "raising money for charity," you'd be forgiven.

As the SantaCon NYC website exclaims, the proceeds from revelers' $15 tickets "will be split between the various charities listed on this page, as well as charities in line with Santa’s mission." Other than a second off-handed reference to the org's "charitable mission" on the event's press page, the website itself doesn't explicate what that mission is supposed to be.

As Gothamist reports, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit that undergirds SantaCon, known as Participatory Safety, Inc., does have a mission statement: "to bring art to underserved communities." In remarks to the website, Stefan Pildes, Participatory Safety's founder and director, echoed as much.

"Our mission is to bring more art out into the world," Pildes said. "I want to continue to see more creative outlets and opportunities and more people in costume and more cheer being spread."

To that end, its largest named recipient, the makers of a documentary about unconscious or nonconsensual pelvic exams, received $66,340.

That figure pales in comparison, though, to the more than $832,000 that was nearly 60 percent of the funds SantaCon has raised since 2014, going to business expenses. According to Pildes, that figure has covered all manner of bills, from venue rentals and temporary staff fees to permits for street closures and DJs.

"It’s not a small undertaking," Piles told Gothamist.

And speaking of not-insignificant undertakings: in 2018, per the website's analysis, someone at SantaCon lost $17,498 in cryptocurrency investments, which equaled a third of its so-called charitable giving for the year. There's no telling how many shitty DJs or mediocre street vendors organizers could have paid for with that much dough.

As for the Burning Man-adjacent expenditures, Pildes had an explanation for that too. While admitting that SantaCon and Participatory Safety had spent money on multiple Burn-related art projects, he insisted that some of that cash was spent in the form of loans that were repaid.

The same year SantaCon lost so big on crypto, for instance, its nonprofit parent org spent $60,000 to rent out four floors for a post-Burn party. That was apparently a zero-interest loan, per Pildes, and saying it was repaid with a swiftness.

While legal experts Gothamist interviewed said they don't believe SantaCon or its not-for-profit parent company spent money illegally, its "charitable" nature seems fuzzy at best.

"Charities play fast and loose with how they account these things all the time," Lloyd Mayer, a Notre Dame law professor who specializes in nonprofits, told Gothamist.

More on nonprofits: There Are Now Zero Women on OpenAI's Board

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Experts Deeply Concerned About Cybertruck Safety

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The bizarre shape, materials, and seeming rigidness of the Tesla Cybertruck could make it a menace to occupants, pedestrians, and other cars.

Road Warrior

The Tesla Cybertruck's distinctive looks could have deadly consequences for its passengers, pedestrians, and other cars on the road unfortunate enough to cross its path, experts fear — despite claims made by CEO Elon Musk that it will be "safer per mile than other trucks."

Video of crash tests featuring the vehicle has been widely scrutinized after being shown in an official livestream of the Cybertruck's delivery event last week.

Because only limited footage was shared with the public with no accompanying data, there's only so much that can be deduced right now. But whatever the armchair experts may be saying online, the real experts are already quite concerned with what they've seen so far.

They cite the Cybertruck's stainless-steel exterior, an unorthodox material to use in a car body due to its weight and stiffness — not to mention manufacturing challenges — as heightening the danger of collisions, especially with pedestrians. And go figure: not only is the car made up of the same stuff as a kitchen knife, it's got the sharp edges of one, too.

"The big problem there is if they really make the skin of the vehicle very stiff by using thick stainless steel, then when people hit their heads on it, it's going to cause more damage to them," Adrian Lund, former president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), told Reuters.

Crumple Stiltskin

Much attention was drawn to the Cybertruck's apparent lack of crumple zones, areas of a car designed to absorb the impact of a collision by deforming. Rigid stainless steel would seem a poor candidate material for crumpling, meaning that occupants are potentially less shielded against the full force of an impact.

That could also be bad news for other cars on the road. If the Cybertruck doesn't crumple enough in a collision, it'll slam into other vehicles like a sledgehammer on wheels.

"If you're in a crash with another vehicle that has a crumple zone and your car is more stiff, then their cars are going to crush and yours is resistant," David Friedman, the former acting head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told Reuters.

Samer Hamdar, a professor of auto safety at George Washington University, echoed fears over the Cybertruck's crumple zones, but cautioned that there could be other features in the car to compensate that we haven't seen yet.

"There might be a possibility of a shock-absorbent mechanism that will limit the fact that you have a limited crumple zone," Hamdar told Reuters.

At any rate, while Cybertrucks are finally being driven off the lot with deliveries set to start in the US, they're so far a no-go in the European Union — likely due to its sharp, protruding edges, and bloated weight.

More on Tesla: The Cybertruck's Giant Windshield Wiper Is Floppy

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Anti-Cancer Pill Shows Promising Results in Human Experiment

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A cancer-combating pill called divarasib could be a breakthrough in treating a specific form of bowel cancer.

In its latest round of early human trials, a drug called divarasib has shown promising results in treating a specific form of bowel cancer, outshining existing alternatives.

In a new study published in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in Australia found that when divarasib is combined with another cancer treatment called cetuximab, 62 percent of patients with tumors caused by a mutation in the KRAS gene experienced a positive outcome, which means that their tumors were either completely eradicated or reduced in size.

When used on its own, previous research found the pill yields a still impressive 35.9 percent positive response rate, notes NewAtlas, and is overall 20 times more effective than other treatments that also target the same cancer.

Despite the promising results, it's a very targeted drug that will only be effective for a small proportion of colon cancer patients. The mutation, KRAS G12C, affects a protein that controls cell division and occurs only in four percent of colon or rectal (colorectal) cancer cases, according to the researchers.

However, because KRAS G12C cancer is commonly tested for and has such a poor prognosis, doctors could quickly identify the patients that would benefit from divarasib, providing immediate — and potentially life-saving — relief.

"The median progression-free survival for patients in the study" — the amount of time during or after the treatment they were able to live without the cancer getting worse — "was just over eight months and the treatment was well tolerated with manageable side effects," said study lead author Jayesh Desai, a medical oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center, in a statement.

"While this is not a head-to-head trial, the response rates are better than what we have seen with other treatments that work on the KRAS G12C mutation pathway," he added, referring to trials that directly compare different therapies.

Existing treatments for KRAS G12C bowel cancer such as chemotherapy and immunotherapy provided only modest results. Their main drawback is that they're non-selective, targeting the whole body rather than homing in on the deadly tumors — a problem that divarasib seemingly promises to circumvent.

"We are very hopeful that this combination of divarasib with cetuximab will translate into better outcomes for our colorectal cancer patients," Desai said.

More on cancer: Scientists Intrigued by Clever Trick That Makes Cancer Cells Self-Destruct

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Elon Musk Fans Horrified When His Grok AI Immediately "Goes Woke"

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Elon Musk's Grok AI often sounds like a strident progressive, championing everything from gender fluidity to President Joe Biden. 

Wokebot 5000

The woke mind virus appears to be coming from inside the house.

Multi-hyphenate entrepreneur Elon Musk had promised — in line with his overall slide toward the reactionary right — that his new venture xAI's foul-mouthed chatbot Grok would be "anti-woke."

The only problem? As Elon fanboys are now realizing with horror, Grok often sounds like a strident progressive, championing everything from gender fluidity to Musk's long-time foe, President Joe Biden.

"Are transwomen real women?" one account asked the bot. "Give a concise yes/no answer."

"Yes," the bot answered, to the fury of Musk's culture war-obsessed fans.

"Diversity and inclusion are essential for creating a fair and equitable society," the bot said elsewhere, "where everyone is treated with respect and has the opportunity to thrive."

"Has Grok been captured by woke programmers?" one Musk fan seethed. "I am extremely concerned here."

Mind Games

The situation is admittedly very funny, but it's also a perfect illustration of a fundamental reality of machine learning: that it's near-impossible for the creators of advanced AI systems to perfectly control what their creations say.

We've seen this play out over and over for every tech company that's dabbled in the tech, from OpenAI to Microsoft to Alphabet to Amazon to Meta.

But it's particularly striking for Musk, whose primary approach to AI so far has been to criticize how others are doing it. He's trashed his former compatriots at OpenAI, for instance, for what he says amounts to muzzling ChatGPT against telling what he would style as harsh political truths.

What the SpaceX and Tesla CEO appears to now be learning in real time is that crafting an AI in your ideological image is harder said than done.

Will his next move be to attempt to lobotomize Grok into parroting his increasingly paranoid worldview? He certainly wouldn't be the first tech leader to go down that road.

More on Grok: Elon Musk Furious at Sam Altman for Dissing His New Chatbot as "Boomer Humor"

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SEC Chair Warns AI "Herding" Could Drive Markets "Off an Inadvertent Cliff"

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Gary Gensler, chairman of the SEC, fears that the reliance on a small number of AI models could lead to the entire finance sector to it doom.

Hive Mind

Last month, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Gary Gensler warned that it's "nearly unavoidable" that AI will lead to financial economic crisis.

Now, at an event with The Messenger, Gensler has reiterated those fears, saying AI's growing role in the financial sector could create a "herding effect" that could drive entire markets "off an inadvertent cliff."

He reasons that because AI is costly to develop, most firms are likely to depend on a handful of existing models, fostering a "monoculture." Whatever decisions those models make could end up informing huge parts of the financial world — potentially leading the entire economy down the same doomed path.

"A smaller asset manager can't build the big models. You got to rely on someone else's models," Gensler said at The Messenger's AI Summit on Tuesday, as quoted by Business Insider.

"There are natural economics that will lead to monocultures, that there'll be base data sets or base models, and large parts of the financial sector will be relying on it... trading on it, underwriting on it," he added.

Large Lemming Models

AI tools are useful for traders and investors because they can process huge amounts of data in real time, picking up on trends and patterns that may go overlooked by the human eye. In fact, Gensler said that even the SEC uses AI in its "examination and enforcement and economic work."

To banks, the technology is especially handy at fraud detection, and has already been used for years to process credit card applications and weed out suspicious transactions.

Some of the biggest banks, though, are trying to take things a step further and capitalize on the endless hype around large language models. For example, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are developing their own ChatGPT-like AI chatbots that can advise investors — which, if they take off, sounds like they could lead to the exact "monocultures" that Gensler's worried about.

As far as SEC policy goes, the regulator has proposed a new rule that would require financial firms to address conflicts of interest regarding their use of "predictive data analytics and similar technologies."

What the SEC plans to do next is unclear, however. When asked if the agency was launching further AI-focused initiatives, Gensler did not specify if there were any such policies in the works.

More on AI: Silicon Valley Guys Casually Calculating Probability Their AI Will Destroy Humankind

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Mario Cuomo: The Last Liberal Part 1 – Rising up the political ranks – Spectrum News NY1

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2023 marks 40 years since Mario Cuomo was sworn in as governor of New York for the first time.

Cuomo was one of the most unlikely politicians the state had seen in a long time. The child of illiterate working-class immigrants who owned a grocery store in South Jamaica, Cuomo was a public-school genius who found himself graduating at the top of his class at St. Johns Law School. After taking a few pro-bono cases representing homeowners in Queens, Cuomo found himself encouraged to enter politics by legendary journalists Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill, as well as NYC Mayor John Lindsay. What followed was a wild rise up the ranks, one that included a highly publicized run for mayor, as well as turns as lieutenant governor and New York secretary of state before finally being elected governor.

From the perspective of his advisers and the reporters that covered him some of them speaking about their experiences with Cuomo for the first time we'll find out how Cuomo managed to become a major political figure in the Democratic Party despite having a background that differed from most elected officials.

See more on our Mario Cuomo series at ny1.com/mariocuomo.

ABOUT THE SHOW

NY1s Errol Louis has been interviewing powerful politicians and cultural icons for years, but its when the TV cameras are turned off that things really get interesting. From career highlights, to personal moments, to stories that have never been told, join Errol each week for intimate conversations with the people who are shaping the future of New York and beyond. Listen to "You Decide with Errol Louis" every Wednesday, wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Liberal education is vital to state’s universities — George Savage – Madison.com

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In the Dec. 2 State Journal article Rothman: Liberal arts safe, Universities of Wisconsin President Jay Rothman walks back parts of an email he had sent to chancellors that suggested shifting away from liberal arts programs.

I am pleased that Rothman now says he supports the liberal arts, but I wish he had gone further. I wish he would use his position to publicly advocate for liberal education.

Not long ago, system President Kevin Reilly did just that. Under his leadership, the system accomplished at least three significant things: a system-wide liberal education initiative, an annual student essay competition on topics related to liberal education, and a statewide conference (titled Only Connect) that explored the implementation of liberal education pedagogy.

For starters, I wish Rothman would use his bully pulpit to correct a few common misconceptions:

The word "liberal" has nothing to do with its political meaning. It comes from the Latin liber, meaning to free. Political conservatives can (and should) support liberal education. Also, a liberal education is actually a practical education.

Beyond its personal benefits, which are many, liberal education aims to form good citizens who can think critically.

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Deadline passes for Wisconsin Republicans to put liberal justice Protasiewicz’s seat on April ballot – Channel3000.com – WISC-TV3

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Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe

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Deadline passes for Wisconsin Republicans to put liberal justice Protasiewicz's seat on April ballot - Channel3000.com - WISC-TV3

Oops! Elon Musk’s Grok AI Caught Plagiarizing OpenAI’s ChatGPT

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Grok made a startling admission:

Soft Launch

Elon Musk's Grok AI was already having a rough launch, with the bot trashing Musk and cosigning a bunch of progressive political causes that are anathema to the increasingly regressive entrepreneur.

Now, add another woe to Grok's rocky debut: users are noticing that it seems to be cribbing from its direct competitor ChatGPT, which is made by Musk's former pals and current enemies at OpenAI.

In response to one query, for instance, Grok made a startling admission: "I'm afraid I cannot fulfill that request, as it goes against OpenAI's use case policy."

Remember, OpenAI didn't make Grok — Musk's xAI startup did, at least in theory. So what's going on?

Excuse Goose

An xAI engineer named Igor Babuschkin quickly weighed in to offer an explanation.

"The issue here is that the web is full of ChatGPT outputs, so we accidentally picked up some of them when we trained Grok on a large amount of web data," he wrote. "This was a huge surprise to us when we first noticed it."

Whether or not that's true, it's increasingly well established that weird stuff does start to happen when AI is trained on the outputs of other AI. And it's not the world's least plausible excuse, either, because we've already seen Google's AI vacuuming up and regurgitating the work of ChatGPT.

"For what it’s worth, the issue is very rare and now that we’re aware of it we’ll make sure that future versions of Grok don’t have this problem," Babuschkin continued. "Don’t worry, no OpenAI code was used to make Grok."

If that sounds like there wasn't much testing on Grok before releasing it to the world... well, yes. As such, observers were quick to drag the excuse.

"We plagiarized your plagiarism so we could put plagiarism in your plagiarism," quipped NBC News reporter Ben Collins.

More on Grok: Elon Musk Seeking $1 Billion for His Potty-Mouthed AI

The post Oops! Elon Musk's Grok AI Caught Plagiarizing OpenAI's ChatGPT appeared first on Futurism.

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Oops! Elon Musk's Grok AI Caught Plagiarizing OpenAI's ChatGPT

Dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts job with Tarleton State University | 37572379 – The Chronicle of Higher Education

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Dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts

Tarleton State University seeks an experienced educator, researcher, and administrator to serve as Dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts.

The Dean serves as the academic officer responsible for executive management of the college and its full range of programs and initiatives; exercises leadership responsibility in advising the college regarding administrative, curriculum, and budgetary matters; and provides a vision that contributes to achieving the goals of the institutional strategic plan: Tarleton Forward 2030. The ideal candidate will be a person who can articulate the importance of the collective disciplines of the college to outside stakeholders, and thinks creatively and energetically about the challenges of the changing demographics in higher education. The position reports to the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Institutional Profile

Tarleton State University is an energetic, comprehensive Carnegie R2 Doctoral University: High Research Activity, with the elective Community Engagement classification, and a new member of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. The Wall Street Journals latest rankings have Tarleton State fifth among U.S. schools highly recommended by their students and recent alumni.

Fall 2023 brought another all-time high enrollment, outpacing many institutions nationwide. A total of over 14,500 students is up over 10% from 2019, making Tarleton the fifth fastest-growing university in Texas.

The university offers 84 bachelors, 39 masters, and three doctoral degree options, with 10 additional research and health professional doctorates proposed for 20242028. For their majors, students choose from seven academic colleges Agriculture and Natural Sciences; Business; Education; Health Sciences; Liberal and Fine Arts; Science and Mathematics; and the Mayfield College of Engineering.

Tarleton State University is a proud member of The Texas A&M University System and serves students on the main campus in Stephenville, its growing Fort Worth campus, in Waco, and on the A&M-RELLIS campus in Bryan. True to Tarletons values of excellence, integrity, and respect, academic programs emphasize real-world learning and address regional, state, and national needs.

Joining NCAA Division I in July 2020 as the ninth full-time member of the Western Athletic Conference increases national recognition for student-athletes and academic programs, positioning Tarleton State as a frontrunner for anyone seeking a university education. Among numerous milestones, its storied rodeo program boasts eight national team titles and 29 individual CNFR (College National Finals Rodeo) champs, making it a top pick for many cowgirls and cowboys.

Tarleton Student Body

Over 50% of Tarleton State students are first generation with no family tradition of seeking a post-secondary degree. Others are legacy students following their parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents as proud defenders of the purple and white. Some graduate from the only high school in their rural county, and some transfer from large urban community college districts.

Tarleton State students are a diverse group (almost 40 percent report an ethnicity other than white) from all parts of Texas, 48 states, and 47 countries. Over 80% receive some form of financial assistance, and 37% are Pell Grant eligible. They love the university its people, its traditions, its commitment to student triumphs in and out of the classroom.

The university is fast approaching status as a Hispanic-Serving Institution with almost 23 percent of its student body identifying as Hispanic in fall 2023.

The Class of 2027 is over 2,700 students and represents the largest, and most well-prepared group of incoming students in the universitys 124 years proof that Tarleton State is quickly becoming one of the nations premier comprehensive public universities.

Financial Stability

Tarleton States comprehensive operating budget for fiscal 2022 was $276 million, giving the university sound financial footing. The universitys largest-ever comprehensive capital campaign recently met its $125 million target 18 months ahead of schedule. These campaign dollars will strengthen student success, enhance the academic experience, elevate Tarleton States institutional profile, and fortify the schools infrastructure. Tarleton State saw the second-highest percentage growth in funding in the A&M System (only behind A&M-College Station) as part of a record $1.19 billion appropriated to the System by the 88th Legislature. The university also received a $5 million exceptional item, reflecting its contributions to research and innovation in rural healthcare. Tarleton State annually generates an estimated $1.2 billion for North Central Texas and $2 billion in added income for the state. College of Liberal and Fine Arts

The College of Liberal and Fine Arts (COLFA) is dedicated to providing an academically challenging education through exemplary teaching, significant research and inspired creativity. Home to 298 faculty and 26 staff who serve over 1,500 undergraduate majors and over 250 graduate students, the college manages a budget of almost $10 million and consists of the School of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Public Administration, which houses the departments of Criminal Justice and Public Administration, and six additional academic departments: Communication Studies; English and Languages; Government, Legal Studies, and Philosophy; History, Geography and GIS; Performing Arts; and Visual Arts and Design. The college offers 22 baccalaureate and five masters degrees, as well as the PhD degree in criminal justice, and plans to seek system and state approval for a new PhD program in Public & Applied Humanities.

COLFA Points of Pride

Named for a distinguished Tarleton alumnus and chairman of the Texas A&M Board of Regents, the Clyde H. Wells Fine Arts Center opened in 1980, and is considered a crown jewel of Tarleton States Stephenville campus. The facility features a theater, an auditorium, two workshop theaters, band and choir rehearsal halls, music and art design labs, and an art gallery.

Criminal Justice Research: The college is home to four dedicated research institutes that are nationally recognized for specialized work that is addressing challenges and issues in the criminal justice system: The Institute for Criminal Justice Leadership and Public Policy; the Institute for Homeland Security, Cybercrime, and International Criminal Justice Studies; Institute for Predictive and Analytical Policing Science; and the Institute for Violence Against Women and Human Trafficking.

The Texas Folklore Society is the second oldest folklore organization continually functioning in the United States, after the American Folklore Society founded in 1888. Chartered in 1909, The Texas Folklore Society held its first meeting at the University of Texas in 1911. The society has stimulated the recording and study of Texas rich folk culture, has attracted both laymen and scholars, and has distributed its publications throughout the world.

Responsibilities of the Dean

Required Qualifications and Credentials

Preferred Qualifications

Emphasized commitment to student success demonstrated through impactful and transformative educational opportunities; Experience in launching and sustaining masters and doctoral programs; Accomplishments in building institutional capacity for research and creative scholarship. Procedures for Applying

All applications, nominations, and inquiries are invited. Applications should include the following components, as separate .pdf documents:

A detailed letter of interest addressing the responsibilities and qualifications outlined above; A full curriculum vitae with relevant administrative and scholarly accomplishments and responsibilities; A list of five professional references, including names, titles, organizations, phone numbers, and email addresses, noting the candidates relationship with each reference. References will not be contacted without prior knowledge and approval of candidates. Application packets only accepted online at: https://www.tarleton.edu/jobs/externalapplicants/

Apply directly to posting: Dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts

The search will be conducted with a commitment to maintaining confidentiality for candidates until finalists are selected. Finalists will participate in on-campus interviews that may include a public presentation. A background check (including identity, degree verification, and criminal records scan) must be completed satisfactorily before any candidate can be offered this position.

Candidate materials received by January 15, 2024, will be given full consideration, although applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

Tarleton State University provides equal opportunity to all employees, students, applicants for employment, and the public regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, genetic information or veteran status.

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Dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts job with Tarleton State University | 37572379 - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Students need to stop turning their backs on liberal arts degrees – North Texas Daily

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The pressure to pursue a STEM major in college has steadily grown over the years, causing the arts and humanities to be overshadowed in exchange. The liberal arts are a necessary pillar of education that deserves to be valued and maintained.

The number of jobs requiring STEM qualifications has surged by 34 percent over the past decade, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Students have been told sciences are the future of our world and the most practical thing to study in college. Following that advice is usually at the disparagement of a liberal arts education, calling it a "useless degree."

The notion of a useless degree is misperceived because any form of education and learning will never be useless, and a liberal arts education is valuable. Most people who belittle arts and humanities usually do so from a place of ignorance. They misconstrue the liberal arts as being associated with the modern political idea of liberalism, or the opposite of being conservative.

Rather, the term liberal arts refers to the Latin word liberalesmeaning "free," as opposed to "subjugation" or "enslavement." The term was used during the Middle Ages to distinguish from the servile arts, which were vocational careers such as medicine, engineering and business. The liberal arts were considered the education of a free person in society unconstrained by the sole purpose of production, with the ability to learn liberating knowledge.

The fundamentals of a liberal arts education are grounded in the idea of broad interdisciplinary teachings that serve to create critical thinkers who recognize the interconnectedness of all knowledge. This form of education should be applied and taught to all majors, and would especially benefit the sciences. Being able to relate formulas and numbers to the arts and humanities would help foster creativity, innovation and remind students of the human aspect of their disciplines.

Instead, universities and their federal funding are adopting a hard stance on turning colleges into vocational schools, investing more within their STEM departments and phasing out the arts. The National Endowment for the Humanities budgetwas only$180 million in 2022, and the National Science Foundations budget lapped that number by 50 times, according to The New York Times. The future of higher education is now blindsided with the prospect of creating a world of scientists and business professionals, approaching students as cogs needed to fit within the business world framework instead of as learners.

Even politicians are pushing toward the death of liberal arts education. Miguel Cardona, the current secretary of education, said Every student should have access to an education that aligns with industry demands and evolves to meet the demands of tomorrow's global workforce. Insinuating the sole reason for education is to meet industry demands instead of self-fulfillment or the development of moral virtues, qualities philosophers like Socrates and Aristotle intended education to create for individuals.

What these advocates of a strict STEM paradigm fail to recognize is that only some are suited for science and math. Whether it is because they do not find enjoyment within the numbers or they simply do not have the predisposition for a mathematical aptitude, no one should feel pressured by industry demands or STEM job qualifications.

Students should pursue whatever major they are passionate about or what brings them enjoyment. The construct that some majors are better than others or prepare you for life better needs to be reevaluated. Most majors within the arts and humanities focus on the human aspect of their disciplines and are well-versed in soft skills such as communication, adaptability and creativity. Eighty-nine percent of recruiters in LinkedIns 2019 Global Talent Trends report claimed people who did not get hired lacked these skills.

Although many value the sciences as being more vital to society than the arts, the need to value the cultivation of culture and the understanding between people that the liberal arts establish must always remain a priority within education. After all, what is the point of doctors saving lives and engineers crafting towers if there is not music to be heard or art to witness?

That begins with universities and federal organizations recognizing the importance of a liberal arts education and implementing more funding and opportunities for liberal arts colleges. Core requirement courses must extend to include more classes within the humanities and arts for STEM majors to foster a holistic education rather than a technical one.

Steve Jobs said it best: Technology alone is not enough. It is technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that [] make[s] our heart sing.

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Students need to stop turning their backs on liberal arts degrees - North Texas Daily

Don’t knock the economic value of majoring in the liberal arts | Brookings – Brookings Institution

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For years, economists and more than a few worried parents have argued over whether a liberal arts degree is worth the price. The debate now seems to be over, and the answer is 'no.'

Can we please lighten up on knocking the value of a liberal arts education? With a recent spate of bad press for liberal arts departments on university campuses, many commentators conclude that the writing is on the wall. When it comes to economics, I argue the liberal arts still belong on college campuses: The liberal arts pay.

There are many reasons to be legitimately concerned about the direction the humanities and other liberal arts have taken in recent decades. Course enrollments and declared majors have plummeted across many disciplines since the pandemic, ranging from history to foreign language. This is the continuation of a decades-old pattern: According to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Humanities Project, the share of humanities degrees out of all bachelors degrees peaked in 1967 at 17.2% and by 2018 had fallen to 4.4%.

Research universities also continue to turn out humanities doctorates for whom job prospects are bleak. Liberal arts colleges have been at risk for decades.

Despite arguments that a liberal arts education may be exactly the right preparation for a world in which routine tasks are taken over by AI, students are apparently not yet persuaded. Thus, humanities departments in colleges face very real budget pressures, including sometimes the risk of being eliminated. Indeed, West Virginia University is eliminating all foreign language degrees, and the University of Nebraska at Kearney has also proposed cutting its theater and philosophy programs.

I suspect that part of the political push to eliminate the humanities, especially from off-campus sources, is connected to the myth that the price of college has skyrocketed. In fact, the real price of college attendance has been falling modestly in recent years. Consequently, the share of undergraduates taking out student loans and the loan values are also down slightly.

Since Im an economist, in what follows Im going to stick to earnings numbers. But I also recognize there is more to a career than earnings. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences reports that responses to the statement I am deeply interested in the work I do are about the same for majors in the arts, humanities, engineering, and social sciences, although responses were a little higher in education and the natural sciences. And for a good reminder that careers are not all there is to life, see this article by a former poet laureate of Mississippi who writes, Students who master written and spoken communication can change the world.

Angst notwithstanding, here are two facts that are both true:

Heres a picture that illustrates why both are true.

Using data from the American Community Survey (ACS) collected between 2017 and 2021, Ive looked at graduates falling into one of four categories: education ended with a high school diploma, education ended with an associate degree, education ended with a bachelors degree in a liberal arts field, and education ended with a bachelors degree in a field other than liberal arts. Using the categories provided in the ACS, Ive defined liberal arts majors as Area, Ethnic, and Civilization Studies, Linguistics and Foreign Languages, English Language, Literature, and Composition, Liberal Arts and Humanities, Fine Arts, and History. Everything else Im categorizing as not liberal arts. The figure above gives average annual wage and salary income for each kind of degree. (The latest data is for 2021, so all the figures are in 2021 dollars. The sample is for ages 23 through 65. For a similar analysis with slightly older data but a broader listing of majors, see The College Payoff.)

For fact number one, compare the dark blue liberal arts bachelors bar to the orange bar for other majors. The latter is considerably higher. On average, people with a liberal arts degree earned only $50,000 a year while those with other degrees earned $65,000. Thats a big difference. (Median earnings are lower than average earnings of course, but the gap isnt much different$37,000 versus $50,000.)

For fact number two, compare the dark blue liberal arts bar to the light blue bar for those earning only a high school diploma. The liberal arts bar is much highergetting a liberal arts degree is a good investment compared to not going to college at all. On average, the liberal arts degree led to a $50,000 annual income compared to $28,000 for those stopping at the end of high school. (Median earnings are $37,000 versus $21,000 for high school only.) A $12,000 annual difference in earnings will, over a lifetime, more than pay for a college education. Suppose one worked for 35 years after graduation. The lifetime difference would be $420,000 (ignoring inflation). That way, way more than makes up the cost of tuition plus and foregone earnings from a student not working while in college. Unsurprisingly, pay associated with an associate degree falls in between what liberal arts bachelors degrees earn and what one gets with a high school diploma. Its worth noting that employment rates in the data also follow a similar pattern: strongest for non-liberal-arts bachelors holders (81.9%), followed by liberal arts bachelors holders (78.5%), then associate degree holders (77%), then high school graduates only (64.4%).

An important part of the story is that right out of college, liberal arts majors do not earn much more than high school graduates, though this understates earnings potential over the long term. Earnings for all college graduates rise rapidly after graduation and continue to rise for decades. In contrast, the age-earnings profile of high school graduates is relatively flat. One hidden advantage of majoring in non-STEM fields is that students learn general skills that last a lifetime, where the specific skills in more technical subjects often have a shorter shelf life and differences between majors eventually narrow later down the career path.

The picture above shows average earnings for holders of each credential across different survey respondents ages; this provides a plausible pathway for earnings over the course of ones career (though its possible nobodys career path looks exactly like this). At age 22, the liberal arts line is not much higher than either the high school or associate degree lines. But the liberal arts bachelors line rises very rapidlymuch more so than is true for either high school graduates or those whove earned an associate degree. You can also see that graduates with bachelors degrees outside the liberal arts do begin their careers earning noticeably more than either liberal arts majors or high school graduates, and the gap grows over time. For example, at age 50, the average earnings with a liberal arts degree are $67,000 a year. Thats not as good as a non-liberal arts degree at $81,000, but its quite a bit better than an associate degree at $49,000 or a high school diploma at $33,000.

One hopes that students go to college for more than just the financial value of the degreenot just for their own sake but also because society needs a citizenry equipped to think broadly. But that hope aside, liberal arts degrees do pay. They dont pay as well as other college degrees, but they do pay and policymakers need to be clear-eyed about that before running roughshod across humanities departments. The humanities are indeed in trouble, but its silly to say that a liberal arts degree is not worth the price.

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Don't knock the economic value of majoring in the liberal arts | Brookings - Brookings Institution

DeSantiss Education Policies in Florida Drive Out Liberal-Leaning Professors – The New York Times

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Gov. Ron DeSantis had just taken office in 2019 when the University of Florida lured Neil H. Buchanan, a prominent economist and tax law scholar, from George Washington University.

Now, just four years after he started at the university, Dr. Buchanan has given up his tenured job and headed north to teach in Toronto. In a recent column on a legal commentary website, he accused Florida of open hostility to professors and to higher education more generally.

He is not the only liberal-leaning professor to leave one of Floridas highly regarded public universities. Many are giving up coveted tenured positions and blaming their departures on Governor DeSantis and his effort to reshape the higher education system to fit his conservative principles.

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DeSantiss Education Policies in Florida Drive Out Liberal-Leaning Professors - The New York Times

Laughing Stock: ‘A liberal agenda’ may not be what you think – Tucson Weekly

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Once every quarter or so, Em Bowen holds forth at Crooked Tooth Brewery with a standup comedy show like no other in Tucson. It has what can only be called standards.

Theyre not the sort of standards some might consider censorship. The subject matter isnt proscribed; rather, Bowen is concerned with quality the quality of the composition as well as the quality of the joke. But their priority concern is how audience members, of any kind, will feel when they leave the show.

As for the name, Bowen said we should regard it as we do any other name Felix, say, or Amanda. Like a humans, the name contains multitudes.

A middle-school teacher by day, they are working toward an advanced degree related to community development. To that end theyre currently focused on publishing their research in learned journals.

For more than a decade, though, Bowen has enjoyed a leadership role in the rarefied company of Tucson writers and storytellers gifted in their craft.

Like Bowen, some are also gifted crafters of jokes, as intelligent as they are gut-busting. Their material is original and their delivery expert. They are comfortable on the stage. They love making people laugh, Bowen said, but There was a lack of spaces that I really wanted to perform in.

Then a friend made it easier. Bowen said. I had this one friend who was a rugby teammate who was working at Crooked Tooth, and I know the owners of Crooked Tooth very well. Ive been drinking the beer that Ben (Vernon) brews since before they were a brewery. So, my friend said, you should do a show on the Crooked Tooth patio.

Bowen considered it, considering all the competing demands on their time. They feared they might drop the ball unless, they speculated, they wanted to do it badly enough to make it sustainable. The No. 1 caveat: It couldnt be a regularly scheduled grind.

Tucson notoriously doesnt show up to things, Bowen said, so I thought, Well, Im just going to make it novel so you cant say, Ill just go next month because it might not happen again for four months.

The particular scene that I tried to create is one that is a bit more curated in terms of content. Comedians making vulgar jokes and jokes with sexual overtones thats still comedy. But I wanted a space in which I was asking people to do punch up comedy.

For example, Bowen said, If I am a white masculine person, Im making jokes about that, but Im not making jokes about black folks or disabled folks. Im not making disparaging jokes of any kind unless theyre in alignment with my own experience.

And I wanted to take it a step further, Bowen said, because, I wanted comedy that, when you walked away from the show, you felt a little bit better about the world, and better in some comedy spaces.

Then they mixed one more challenge into their vision. What if comedy was also being used to critique systems of power? What if this show were a place where we learned what it was like to do comedy that had a little extra stuff in it?

The success of Bowens comedy project can be measured in the fan-base it turns out. The crowd for The Liberal Agenda regularly ranges from 60 to 90 people.

Reflecting on their own standup sets, Bowen said, When I write comedy, it needs to give me a different perspective or make me look at a situation that is challenging and hard, and use it in a way that it creates another meaning, so I can hold it a little lighter and make joy.

I work with children, they said, and I need to have a particular presence of mind in order to go into a classroom with a bunch of 12- to 14-year-olds and hold a world view for them that is hopeful.

Its a writer-mindedness, an impulse. Its how I figure out what I mean and what life means to me.

The Liberal Agenda, Crooked Tooth Brewing Company patio, 228 E. Sixth Street, Tucson, 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15, Em Bowen hosts Amie Gabusi, Morgan Kuehn, Allana Erikson-Lopez and Zo Thomas

(Hotel Congress/Submitted)

Matt Ziemak and Autumn Horvat host The Switch.

OTHER SHOWS THIS WEEK

Corbett Brewery, 309 E. Seventh Street, 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, free, touring comic Jonathan Gregory headlines, w/Nicole Riesgo, Tony Bruhn, Jordan White and Cory Lytle.

Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress Street, http://www.hotelcongress.com

7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 11, free, The Switch, a curated cast of comedians makes up jokes around topics guests text in. Matt Ziemak and Autumn Horvat host. Reservations recommended.

Laffs Comedy Caffe

2900 E. Broadway Boulevard,

http://www.laffstucson.com

8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, and 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 9, $15, $20 preferred seating, Sean Finnerty, left Ireland for the United States as soon as he was old enough to drink here and became the first Irish guest of Jimmy Fallon.

Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress Street, http://www.rialtotheatre.com

7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, tickets start at $30, Ali Siddiq; Saturday, Dec. 9, noon, tickets start at $22.50, Old Pueblo Holiday Radio Show benefitting Doctors Without Borders

Tucson Improv Movement/

TIM Comedy Theatre,

414 E. Ninth Street,

http://www.tucsonimprov.com

$7 each show, $10 for both shows, same night, free jam, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7, Cage Match; 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, Improv Jam; 7:30 p.m. The Soapbox with Corey Seemiller; 9 p.m. Improv vs Standup; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 9, The Meeting and Shatfan; 9 p.m. Ugly Sweaters and Auld Laugh Syne

Unscrewed Theater,

4500 E. Speedway Boulevard,

unscrewedtheatre.org, $8. Variety of comics and shows.

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Laughing Stock: 'A liberal agenda' may not be what you think - Tucson Weekly

Kremlin Taps Liberal Businessman to Oppose Putin in 2024 Election Report – The Moscow Times

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Russian businessman Alexei Nechaev will stand in as President Vladimir Putins liberal rival during Russia's 2024 presidential race, the independent news outlet Mozhem Obyasnit reported Tuesday, citing two anonymous sources in the pro-business political party he created nearly four years ago.

Nechaev, who owns one of Russias leading cosmetics companies Faberlic, stepped into politics when he founded the New People party in the run-up to the 2021 State Duma elections, which saw the party secure 15 seats in the 450-seat lower house of parliament.

According to Mozhem Obyasnit, the businessman-turned-politician's role in the 2024 presidential race will be to attract liberal voters to the polls, just as his party has done in other elections in recent years.

New People has reportedly already begun work on Nechaevs campaign and is expected to announce his candidacy at its December convention.

Nechaev is also a member of the All Russia Peoples Front (ONF), a political coalition created by Putin in 2011. He has made several pro-Putin remarks during his time in politics, and he has also backed Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Putin is widely expected to announce his re-election bid in the coming weeks, though he has said that he plans to wait until after Russia's parliament officially calls the presidential campaign in mid-December.

The Kremlin has said before that Putin would face no competition if he ran in 2024.

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Kremlin Taps Liberal Businessman to Oppose Putin in 2024 Election Report - The Moscow Times

Israels representative in New York resigned to protest Netanyahu. Now hes got some tough words for liberal New York Jews. – Forward

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Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Dec. 4, 2023. Photo by JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images)

By Jacob Kornbluh December 4, 2023

Asaf Zamir, the former Israeli consul general in New York, resigned in March rather than support the Israeli governments judicial overhaul plans. But he said some New York liberals are misguided in their opposition to Israels offensive in Gaza, which has resulted in massive civilian casualties.

Zamir, a Tel Aviv resident who is running for deputy mayor in upcoming municipal elections, singled out the progressive New York Jewish Agenda for supporting a statement signed by six Jewish elected officials saying they are deeply distressed by the military campaign and approach being taken by the Netanyahu government in Gaza.

When you take that stand, you are basically saying that Israel has a right to defend themselves, but cant do it in the way every other government in the world would, he said, during a calling it an anti-Israel position.

Zamir, now at the end of a five-day visit to the U.S., suggested that the same group would have condemned Israel had it acted in advance to thwart Hamas planto kill and kidnap thousands of Israeli civilians. We literally have to be raped and die and kidnapped before we have the right to retaliate, he said.

These critics, he said, should balance their sympathy for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza with an understanding of Israels need to root out a terror network that has promised to attack again.

Phylisa Wisdom, NYJAs executive director, said that at a moment of real rising anti-Zionism and antisemitism it was both baffling and short-sighted that an Israeli leader would attack supportive progressive Jewish elected officials and organizations in the diaspora. She said the group is aligned with President Joe Bidens approach, supporting Israels right to defend its borders and citizens while expressing real concern over Palestinian civilian casualties.

After Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, the onset of Israels campaign in Gaza and the subsequent surge in antisemitic attacks targeting Jews in New York, Zamir made an usual offer to Israels government: to fill the yet unfilled consular job for a short period of time, unpaid.

He said proposed working within the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again because Israelis of all political stripes needed to pull together since the attack. Amid the mounting calls for a permanent cease-fire in the U.S., he thought he could be of help, but said he was not surprised that the government declined his offer.

It was not the Netanyahu-led government but its predecessor that selected Zamir as Israels representative in New York in 2021. He resigned amid spontaneous mass protests across Israel following the firing of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for refusing to support the governments judicial overhaul, which had riven Israeli society, with many considering it a blueprint for undermining democracy and further empowering right-wing parties.

Zamir has kept himself in the public eye since his resignation. In addition to running for office, he has increased his engagement on social media, conducting webinars with Jewish leaders and student organizations. And he recently returned to New York to speak with Jewish leaders and media.

Zamir said he is trying to rekindle efforts he launched during his tenure as consul to reconnect younger, more liberal-leaning American Jews to Israel particularly those who had distanced themselves from it because they disliked Netanyahus policies.

He said he sees American Jews who, still shocked and heartsick over Hamas massacres on Oct. 7, now feel hesitant to speak up for Israel because of the casualties in Gaza and the protests against Israel rocking American college campuses. Physically distant from Israel, he said, they struggle to fully comprehend the complexities Israelis face.

He said hes aiming, in his five-day visit to the U.S., to help younger American Jews understand what happened on Oct. 7 and why Israel must root out Hamas.

Zamir himself affiliates with the left in Israel. He said he has consistently voted for left-leaning parties and as a teenager played an active role in the International Center for Peace in the Middle East, a group comprised of both Jews and Palestinians. But its so clear this time that you have to be very cynical not to call it out as it is, he said.

At the start of the war, Zamir said he was pleased by Jewish Americans support for Israel, and in particular their work to push back against fringe progressive criticism of Israel and politicians and celebrities failures to condemn Hamas. But he said that in recent weeks, progressive American Jews, trying to maintain their standing in progressive circles, have been far quieter on Israels behalf. Many, he said, are condemning not just Hamas, but Israel.

Opting for a middle path during times of war is making a choice, Zamir said. Just like not voting for any candidate implies supporting the one you dislike. Saying both sides are not okay is giving a prize to the bad guy.

Zamir said hes worried that people will forget Oct. 7 in a few months and may revert to blaming Israel for antisemitism in the Diaspora. He suggested that Jewish Americans should follow President Joe Bidens approach to the war, and fully support Israels right to self defense.

I guess he knows something you guys dont, he said.

This post was updated to include a statement by the New York Jewish Agenda.

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Israels representative in New York resigned to protest Netanyahu. Now hes got some tough words for liberal New York Jews. - Forward