Extra, Extra
Trouble is Bruin: So you’re a college president and all your training has been focused on managing academics. Now you’re confronted with campus protests being covered nonstop by the media. You celebrate free speech. You hate violence. You also need your school, ultimately, to run (classes, exams, graduation ceremonies). Students are raging, professors are chiming in, donors are writing open letters. So what do you do? It turns out, almost every answer to this test has been wrong. NYT (Gift Article): Before the Violence, U.C.L.A. Thought a Tolerant Approach Would Work.
+ Sinwar Monger: For political, geopolitical, and humanitarian reasons, a lot of leaders around the world want a ceasefire in Gaza. Bibi isn’t one of them. And neither is Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, orchestrator of the Oct 7 attacks. Sinwar views latest hostage deal as trap, exiled Hamas leaders don’t represent terror group. (He’s currently hiding in tunnels under civilians, likely surrounded by hostages he’s using as human shields.)
+ You’ve Got Some Balls: It’s often been said that consumer tech companies are in the business of aggregating eyeballs. The key is monetizing them. In the US v Google monopoly trial, we’ve learned just how valuable our eyeballs can be. “Google paid $26.3 billion in 2021 alone to be the default search engine on phones and web browsers … Apple, which had the most lucrative deal, was paid around $18 billion in 2021.”
+ Is Louis Pasteur Prime? “The results confirmed findings of earlier testing of a more limited number of samples and add weight to the FDA’s conclusion that pasteurized milk products are safe for consumption despite a widespread outbreak of cows infected with H5N1.” Pasteurization inactivates H5N1 bird flu in milk. That’s a relief. Unless you hate science and have a raw milk fetish. It is 2024 America, after all. Let’s reflect back on one of the the craziest of our political divides. Fraught Milk? Everything is part of the culture wars, even milk cultures.
+ What the Frocked: “Dr. Kansfield grew up to be a professor of theology, the denomination’s most esteemed rank, and president of the school that trains its ministers, the New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Jersey, which is the oldest seminary in the United States … So when his daughter, Ann Kansfield, was considering coming out of the closet to him, she was nervous. After she did, Dr. Kansfield went beyond responding with warm acceptance. Years later, in June 2004, he insisted that he officiate at her wedding.” Norman Kansfield, 83, Dies; Defrocked for His Daughter’s Same-Sex Wedding. (Not crazy enough to exclude someone because of the partner they love? Let’s exclude people for loving their child.)
+ Holding Food Court: The kids are shopping online. But they’re still hitting the mall. A big reason is the food. It’s a different lineup than the old days, and there’s a lot more of it. “The amount of space dedicated to food in malls has grown from 5% in the 1990s to 15 to 20% today.”
+ Chatty GPT: “After the first test roasting and blind testing, Kaffa’s coffee experts agreed, however, that the tech-assisted blend was perfect, and there was no need for human adjustments.” A coffee roastery in Finland has launched an AI-generated blend.
