On a drizzly day in New York’s Chinatown, journalist April Xu suggested stopping at a bakery for a snack. “But not Fay Da,” she said, referring to a bakery on the nearby corner. Xu doesn’t go to Fay Da Bakery anymore. Not since she reported on how New York’s largest Chinese bakery chain had allegedly…
October 30, 2024 8:01 AM EDTWant to discuss A Room with a View with Lena Dunham? Or hear Roxanne Gay talking through Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence? Now you can, thanks to publishing outfit Rebind. The company was founded by John Dubuque, who hired a professor at Corpus Christi College, at the University of Oxford, to teach him the philosophical tome Being and Time. With Rebind, AI provides expert conversational commentary about a book in response to user questions. So far, 10 books are available to the 1,000 users in the open beta, with two more books added each month, once the 10,000-strong waitlist opens. “The goal is to make this encounter with deeply meaningful texts possible for many more people,” says Dubuque.Learn More at RebindMore Must-Reads from TIME
New Delhi [India], October 30 (ANI): Thomas Dohmke, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the developer platform GitHub, lauded India for its extraordinary rise as the fastest-growing developer population worldwide, recognising the country’s increasing impact on the global tech landscape and its vital contributions to artificial intelligence (AI).
Dohmke in a social media post on X noted that Indian developers are embracing AI as a core tool and are driving advancements by building AI systems using AI itself.
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“Of course, I have to show some love to India. Now the fastest growing developer population on the planet, India’s rise as a global tech titan is inexorable,” Thomas Dohmke said in the post on X.
“India’s developers have gone a leap further: they’re increasingly using AI to build AI. India has the second-highest number of contributors to public generative AI projects. This makes it evermore likely the next great AI multinational is borne on the continent,” he added. Dohmke added in the post that India’s contribution to all projects on GitHub stood at 5.2 billion, with 108 million new repositories in 2024. He further added that India has the fastest-growing developer population.
GitHub is a developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code.The company, in its recently unveiled report called Octoverse, said that notable growth is occurring in India, which is expected to have the world’s largest developer population on GitHub by 2028, as well as across Africa and Latin America.As per the Octaverse report, there was a 59 per cent surge in the number of contributions to generative AI projects on GitHub in 2024 and a 98 per cent increase in the number of projects. It mentioned India as a major contributor country in its projects.
The report added that India is on track to surpass the United States in number of developers on GitHub by 2028, adding that the country has the fastest-growing developer community. “India prioritises open source software and introduced the National Education Policy of 2020, which requires schools to include coding and AI in student curriculum. And notably, a recent study from the learning platform Udemy found that GitHub is one of the most sought-after skills in India, comparable to English grammar skills,” the company added in the report underscoring the potential of the country due to various government-run schemes.
As per GitHub, it has seen a 95 per cent increase in year-over-year contributions to generative AI projects on its platform, which shows the company’s impressively growing business in the country. (ANI)This report is auto-generated from ANI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Earth’s climate in 2024 is “in a major crisis with worse to come if we continue with business as usual,” a team of 14 climate scientists warned in “The 2024 state of the climate report: Perilous times on planet Earth.” The report did not sugarcoat their view of the dangers humanity is facing.
“We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster,” the report begins. “This is a global emergency beyond any doubt. Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled. We are stepping into a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis.”
The report is the latest such annual peer-reviewed paper published in the journal BioScience by an international team of scientists led by Oregon State ecologist William Ripple.
The authors found that 25 of 35 “planetary vital signs” reached record levels last year, including global temperatures, human climate pollution, fossil fuel subsidies, heat-related mortality rates, meat production, and loss of forest cover.
After decades of warnings from climate scientists and efforts by some policymakers and activists, “the world has made only very minor headway on climate change, in part because of stiff resistance from those benefiting financially from the current fossil-fuel-based system,” it says. “We are currently going in the wrong direction and our increasing fossil-fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are driving us toward a climate catastrophe. We fear the danger of climate breakdown.”
They did note a few positive indicators like clean energy production.
“Of course, the situation is not hopeless,” wrote Harvard science historian and study co-author Naomi Oreskes via email. “What we want people to understand is that, while there has been progress – particularly in the price and deployment of renewables – it’s not nearly enough. And the atmosphere does not respond to our intentions. It responds to chemistry.”
The climate is changing, and our journalists are here to help you make sense of it. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter and never miss a story.
The report calls for “rapidly phasing down fossil fuel use” by ratcheting up the carbon price in wealthy countries and using some of the proceeds to fund policies to stop climate change and adaptation programs to reduce damage from climate disasters. It also urges sharp reductions in emissions of methane, a potent heat-trapping gas, to “slow the near-term rate of global warming, helping to avoid tipping points and extreme climate impacts.”
Without a course correction, the report warned, “climate change could cause many millions of additional deaths by 2050.”
Stressed planetary vital signs and scientists
Average global surface air and ocean temperatures shattered records in 2023, and are on track to do so again in 2024. The report notes that this extreme heat exacerbated numerous damaging and deadly extreme weather events over the past year, ranging from heat waves, droughts, and wildfires to hurricanes and floods.
Some other planetary indicators setting records over the past year include global sea level rise, ocean acidity and heat content, the amount of ice on Greenland and Antarctica and in glaciers around the world, and tree cover loss due to wildfires. Preliminary findings from another recent report made headlines for finding that Earth’s trees, plants, and soils absorbed almost no carbon in 2023 due in part to the year’s record wildfires. But climate scientist Zeke Hausfather noted that this phenomenon sometimes happens in years with El Niño events.
While human activity is responsible for long-term global warming, 2023 and 2024 were also influenced by an El Niño in the Pacific Ocean, which drew warm water up to the sea surface and contributed to short-term surface warming and associated climate impacts like droughts and wildfires in some regions.
Nevertheless, the report warned that human influence on Earth’s climate kept growing. Global fossil fuel consumption and associated climate-warming pollution reached record levels in 2023. So did the number of meat and dairy cattle and other ruminant livestock whose digestive processes generate planet-warming methane pollution, along with global per-person meat consumption.
The report also referenced a recent survey of climate scientists conducted by the Guardian in which more than three-quarters of the 380 respondents believed humanity will miss the target set in the Paris climate agreement of limiting global warming to less than two degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures.
How 380 climate scientists who have contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports responded to the question, “How high above preindustrial levels do you think average global temperature will rise between now and 2100?” Created by Dana Nuccitelli from Guardian survey data.
There is some encouraging evidence of such decisive action, albeit at insufficient levels so far. Expert organizations like the International Energy Agency project that based on current climate policies, the world is headed toward around 2.5°C global warming by 2100. That’s not enough to meet the Paris climate targets, and yet implementing additional climate policies and solutions in the coming years could improve that outcome even further to levels below the worried expectations of three-quarters of climate scientists.
Any course correction depends largely on governments’ climate policy actions in the coming years, and the report includes some good news in this arena.
A few positive signs
For example, global renewable energy consumption reached record levels in 2023. The report notes that so far the increase in clean energy has only been sufficient to meet some of the world’s rising power demand, and fossil fuel consumption also reached record levels last year to meet the rest of that growing thirst for energy. But the persistent rise in fossil fuel combustion is finally poised to stop, as organizations like the International Energy Agency forecast that global coal, oil, and gas consumption will all peak within the next five years, and global climate pollution may be peaking right now.
The “State of the climate” report also notes that while the forest area lost to wildfires is reaching record levels, the level of global deforestation due directly to human activities in places like the Brazilian Amazon is declining due to government policies.
Among further indicators of successful climate action efforts, the amount of institutional assets divested from fossil fuels and the fraction of climate pollution covered by carbon pricing also reached record levels last year. In other words, fewer organizations are investing in fossil fuel company stocks, and more countries are charging a price for the climate-warming emissions from an increasing number of economic sectors.
“Only through decisive action can we safeguard the natural world, avert profound human suffering, and ensure that future generations inherit the livable world they deserve,” the report concludes. “The future of humanity hangs in the balance.”
The state of the climate is currently perilous, but humanity still has every opportunity to reduce the level of peril.
We help millions of people understand climate change and what to do about it. Help us reach even more people like you.
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New ‘Election Day’ Book Author advocates American Holiday for Voting Day with Visual Storytelling – Book Publishing Industry Today – EIN Presswire
PIEN, Poland : Buried with a padlock on her foot and an iron sickle across her neck, “Zosia” was never supposed to be able to come back from the dead. Entombed in an unmarked cemetery in Pien, northern Poland, the young woman was one of dozens feared by her neighbours to have been a “vampire”.Now, using DNA, 3D printing and modelling clay, a team of scientists has reconstructed Zosia’s 400-year-old face, revealing the human story buried by supernatural beliefs.”It’s really ironic, in a way,” said Swedish archaeologist Oscar Nilsson. “These people burying her, they did everything they could in order to prevent her from coming back from the dead… we have done everything we can in order to bring her back to life.”Zosia, as she was named by locals, was found in 2022 by a team of archaeologists from Torun’s Nicolaus Copernicus University. Aged 18-20 when she died, analysis of Zosia’s skull suggests she suffered from a health condition which would have caused fainting and severe headaches, as well as possible mental health issues, Nilsson said.The sickle, the padlock and certain types of wood found at the grave site were all believed at the time to hold magical properties protecting against vampires, according to the Nicolaus Copernicus team. Zosia’s was Grave No. 75 at the unmarked cemetery in Pien, outside the northern city of Bydgoszcz. Among the other bodies found at the site was a “vampire” child, buried face down and similarly padlocked at the foot.Little is known of Zosia’s life, but Nilsson and the Pien team say items she was buried with point to her being from a wealthy — possibly noble — family. The 17th century Europe she lived in was ravaged by war, something Nilsson suggests created a climate of fear in which belief in supernatural monsters was commonplace.Nilsson’s recreation began with creating a 3D printed replica of the skull, before gradually building layers of plasticine clay “muscle by muscle” to form a life-like face. He uses bone structure combined with information on gender, age, ethnicity and approximate weight to estimate the depth of facial features. “It’s emotional to watch a face coming back from the dead, especially when you know the story about this young girl,” Nilsson says.Nilsson said he wanted to bring Zosia back “as a human, and not as this monster that she is buried as”.
The results of the presidential election will have a big impact on the economy, foreign relations and health care. But when it comes to technology, one of the most powerful people shaping regulation isn’t a candidate at all. It’s Sam Altman.Neither Republican candidate Donald Trump nor his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, have been outspoken on generative AI, much less outlined a clear roadmap to regulating a technology that’s already seen explosive growth and integration into businesses and consumer lives.
Altman, the OpenAI co-founder and CEO, meanwhile, has put on a masterclass in wooing Washington, learning from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and social media’s missteps in front of Congress. Lawmakers have now begun embracing AI in a way they never did social media.”Initially, when AI and ChatGPT came onto the scene, there was a lot of fear and panic about what AI might do in the world.” said Katie Harbath, founder of tech consulting firm Anchor Change and former public policy director at Meta. “You’re starting to see that get pulled back some. They’re worried about how it might impact innovation. People are worried about making sure we can stay competitive with China.”That new messaging on AI regulation is largely thanks to Altman turning OpenAI into a lobbying powerhouse. The startup has spent more than ever to influence Washington, and brought on staff with deep ties to D.C., including Chris Lehane, who joined as its head of global affairs in April.Lehane was a political strategist in the Bill Clinton White House before moving west to help companies like Airbnb and Coinbase shape political strategy. Now, he’s bringing his playbook to OpenAI, where his message to Washington is that if the U.S. doesn’t lead the way in AI, an autocratic nation like China will.”This is technology where we need to almost think about it at the scale of a New Deal. What the New Deal really did is put the U.S. in the position for the 20th century to become the American Century,” Lehane said. “As we think about AI at this particular moment that we’re in, infrastructure is going to be destiny, and that infrastructure has the ability to help re-industrialize the country.”But just like when social media was in its early stages, lawmakers don’t yet have a handle on AI as the stakes only grow larger. Can we trust the people behind the curtain? Watch this video to learn more.
Taiko Legacy 20/Photo: Ken CarlGet Chicago & Midwest culture news sent to your inbox every weekday morning. Subscribe to Newcity Today here.ARTStaple + Stitch Art Book Fair Coming To ChicagoArt book and print fair Staple + Stitch, featuring publishers, independent presses, book artists, zine makers and printmakers, is coming to 21c Museum Hotel Chicago. Chicago-based book and print vendors include The Renaissance Society, 5×7 books, Chicago’s Printers Guild, Skylark Editions, Western Exhibitions, Bert Green Fine Art, Buddy, The Chicago Reader, Spudnik Press and Sonnenzimmer, as well as individual artists, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Photography Department and the School of Visual Arts at Columbia College Chicago. November 15-17. More here.Wealthiest Art Collectors Reduce Buying Habits“Art Basel and UBS’ latest collector survey polls 3,660 high net-worth individuals on their buying behavior from fourteen regions during 2023 and the first half of 2024,” reports Artnet. “While median spending has not fallen markedly, the big drop in average spend is mostly due to the buying behavior of millennials, or collectors between twenty-eight and forty-three years old. In 2022, this age group spent the most on art thanks to a small group of big spenders at the top end. Yet, in 2023, their average outlay on art dropped from $864,940 to $395,000, or fifty-four percent.”UChicago Students Can Hang Original Art In Dorm RoomsSome students at the University of Chicago have “the opportunity to borrow an original work of art from the school’s Smart Museum of Art,” reports Alison Cuddy at NPR. The circulating work began with fifty pieces from a Chicago art collector’s gift from 1958, which grew to 500 before the program was dormant from the 1980s until 2017, when it was revived by money from a former participant. Now maintained by the Smart Museum, 134 works of paper from the museum circulate. “The color lithographs [include work by] Joan Miró, Marc Chagall and Yves Tanguy, iconic prints by Gordon Parks and Jenny Holzer, and even a couple of Picassos. Contemporary artists like Takashi Murakami and Robert Indiana are abundant, and Chicago artists, including Nick Cave, Amanda Williams and Karl Wirsum, are well-represented.”Amateur Art Sleuth Brings Lost Works To Light“Dashing, enigmatic” Clifford Schorer III has hunches that “don’t always prove correct: He’s been suckered by at least a few forgeries or phonies. ‘Sometimes you follow threads that turn into an unraveling sweater,’ he admits,” records Vanity Fair. “But many filaments he’s followed have led to veritable treasures: the previously unrecorded van Haarlem he spotted in New Jersey that now hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago; a Cézanne he snagged from a Campbell’s Soup heiress and helped place in Ireland’s National Gallery; and three possibilities he scooped up on the cheap that were subsequently reattributed to the Milanese maestro Daniele Crespi. He also owns four works from Rembrandt’s studio, he claims, including ‘two that I believe are by the master himself.’”DESIGNSOM Will Reimagine Ninety-Fifth And Ninety-Sixth Floors Of John Hancock, Which The Firm OriginatedSkidmore, Owings & Merrill have announced plans “to redevelop the ninety-fifth and ninety-sixth floors of the iconic 875 North Michigan, [formerly] named the John Hancock Center,” reports Arch Daily. “The building, originally designed by SOM in 1967 and completed in 1970, is recognized as the world’s first mixed-use skyscraper.” The redesign “aims to reimagine the two floors, measuring 30,000 square feet, into an observation deck and an attractive destination.”Mag Mile Office Conversion Could Yield More Than 300 Apartments“If approved by City Council, 324 apartments would be built inside a twenty-four-story former office building [at 500 North] Michigan Avenue,” reports Block Club. “Retail space would remain on the first two floors, which are occupied by a Vans store, a Bank of America branch and a Chick-fil-A. Office space will be retained on the third through fifth floors.”Looking Up To A New Glass Tower In Uptown“While some of Chicago’s late nineteenth-century tall buildings, such as the Reliance Building at State and Washington streets, were predominantly glass, it wasn’t until the arrival of Mies van der Rohe and the post-World War II building boom that the glass building become a staple of almost every city’s skyline. More recent developments surrounding energy efficiency and climate change have slowed glass’ dominance, but architects’ preference for large glassy volumes have led them to employ new tricks to maintain the desired aesthetic,” writes Trib architecture critic Edward Keegan. “That’s the case at Solverre, a new twelve-story residential apartment building designed by… Valerio Dewalt Train and facing the Lakefront in Uptown.”Warehouse Fire Reveals St. Louis Has Nine Thousand Vacant BuildingsA fire at a vacant warehouse led St. Louis’ KTVI-TV to tally how many vacant buildings are in that city: the struck building, according to a city website, “is one of more than 9,000 vacant buildings within the city. It also shows another 15,000 vacant properties.”DINING & DRINKINGOooh Wee It Is No MoreChatham soul food restaurant Oooh Wee! It Is! has closed after three years, reports Block Club. It “closed in mid-June for ‘retooling’ and never reopened. A bright orange ‘for sale’ sign adorned the 83rd Street building Monday.” Asking price: $1.35 million. “The restaurant gained local and national acclaim for its pot roast cupcakes, corn muffins and shrimp and grits,” and boasted a cereal bar.Lawrence Fish Market Opens In ChinatownLawrence Fish Market, historically known for fresh, high-quality sushi and seafood at wholesale prices, is opening a second location in Bridgeport-Chinatown on Friday. The new spot will include a ramen bar while offering its signature sushi, maki and sashimi. The expanded menu includes Izakaya-style ramen, in-house noodle, and pork-based dishes. And for the first time, Lawrence Fish Market will offer dine-in service with both counter and waiter service. More here.Within The Orb At Chicago’s Nerds Gummy Clusters Plant“How does a candy brand that was started forty years ago suddenly become one of the most popular treats in America, with a cult following, a Super Bowl ad and TikTok fame?” asks the New York Times (gift link). “The answer lies at the center of a chewy ball rolled in smaller, crunchier balls. In other words, Nerds Gummy Clusters… In 2018, Nerds products brought in $40 million in sales. In the past calendar year, the company said, that number jumped to $800 million, a twenty-fold increase in about six years. The company declined to specify its profits. The new product’s following also led to the first Super Bowl ad in Ferrara’s history, and the company said it planned to release a second Super Bowl ad in 2025.”Wisconsin Pizzeria Accidentally Serves THC-Spiked Crust; Dozens Sick“Public Health Madison & Dane County is urging community members to throw out any pizza they may have from Famous Yeti’s Pizza in Stoughton,” they post, “due to unintentional THC contamination… Famous Yeti’s Pizza operates in a building that also has a shared industrial kitchen where many businesses make food and other products.” Famous Yeti’s posts that pizza dough was “mistakenly prepared with oil contaminated with delta-9. The oil accidentally used in the product originated from a shared storage space in the on-site cooperative commercial kitchen.”FILM & TELEVISIONFifteenth Mostra Brazilian Film Fest Is ComingFrom November 2-16, the fifteenth survey of features, documentaries and shorts from Brazil in the Midwest will hold screenings across Chicago and several cities in Indiana. Opening night at Instituto Cervantes features Kleber Mendonça Filho’s bittersweet documentary, “Pictures of Ghosts,” about his childhood memories of moviegoing, and closes with “Aunt Virginia” by Fábio Meira. Full details here.LITHeeere’s Bill Zehme’s Johnny Carson Biography“Not long after Bill Zehme and I linked up and hit it off, I began helping him streamline and organize transcripts for a memoir he was working on with Jay Leno,” writes Mike Thomas at Chicago magazine. “That morphed into a gig as Bill’s first-ever research assistant—’legman’ in crusty journo parlance… Shortly after Carson’s death in late January 2005, Bill started work on the biography, building on the foundation of his reporting for a 2002 Esquire profile of Carson… Bill was highly skilled at probing and humanizing public figures—especially talk show hosts, and perhaps most of all Letterman, whose psyche he described as ‘squirming, dark, and exquisite.’”Zehme’s health turned eight years into the project, and Thomas took over. “Bill completed the first three-quarters of ‘Carson the Magnificent’ before his diagnosis… Nearly twenty years in the making, the book will finally be published in early November. My part in making that possible was itself made possible by the extensive groundwork Bill laid. Everything I needed (and so much more) was there, somewhere, stashed in long-unopened binders and torn envelopes and dusty bins… But I’ve never lost sight of the fact that, despite my contributions, this is Bill’s book.”Wicker Park Barnes & Noble Opens Today“What was once the most architecturally magnificent chain drugstore in Chicago will soon be the city’s most magnificent chain bookstore,” writes Amy Yee at the Sun-Times. “The 1919 neoclassical building is considered an architectural gem and features a stained-glass window in its intricate ceiling. Entering through its gilt revolving doors creates a transportive feel, fitting for the power of books.”Tradition Of British Book Fairs Endangered“Over the past seventy-five years, the idea of the book festival has become embedded in the British cultural landscape. But as costs rise sharply and reading habits change, many are finding it a struggle to survive,” relays the Guardian.What’s Behind Those Shoddy Paperbacks?Bookstores are stocking more “print-on-demand paperbacks: low quality covers and paper, often poorly printed, and listed at a higher price than their regular-print brethren,” reports Literary Hub. It’s “basically fast fashion for books, and… the sudden rise in ‘cheaper’ paperbacks might have a long-term negative effect on the publishing industry.”MEDIAWashington Post Cancellations Approach Ten-Percent Of Subscriber Base; New York Times Brandishes Harris Endorsement“More than 200,000 people had canceled their digital subscriptions by midday Monday,” after the spiking of an editorial board endorsement of Kamala Harris by owner Jeff Bezos, the world’s third-richest man, reports David Folkenflik at NPR. “The figure represents about eight percent of the paper’s paid circulation of 2.5 million subscribers, which includes print as well. The number of cancellations continued to grow… Earlier this year, Will Lewis, the Post publisher, had touted the paper’s net gain of 4,000 subscribers as noteworthy… Three of the top ten viewed stories on the Post’s website Sunday were articles written by Post staffers outraged by billionaire owner Jeff Bezos’ decision.” Writes Gene Weingarten, two-time Pulitzer winner for the Post with his humor columns, “There is such a thing as moral authority. It may be intangible, but it is there, and it can be powerful. It is essential to newspaper opinion writing. The Washington Post owner flushed it down the toilet yesterday. What is left is invertebrate.”Former Post executive editor Marty Baron tells the New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner, “I feel exceptionally disappointed. And I worry about what it means, not just for the Post but for democracy… Anybody who owns a media organization needs to be willing to stand up to intense pressure. And Bezos demonstrated that he was capable of that and willing to do that. Now I worry that there’s a sign of weakness. If Trump sees a sign of weakness, he’s going to pounce even harder in the future.” Bezos published an editorial (gift link) citing his reasoning, which only muddied the waters, referring to journalism as “our profession,” which offended professional journalists online. “You can see my wealth and business interests as a bulwark against intimidation, or you can see them as a web of conflicting interests. Only my own principles can tip the balance from one to the other.”To forestall confusion with either the Los Angeles Times or Washington Post abrupt refusals to endorse, Times opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury tweeted a video assuring that the New York-based media and games conglomerate had in fact endorsed Kamala Harris. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times has shed at least 14,000 subscribers this week, tweets Semafor’s Max Tani.Guardian Media Journalists Could Strike Over Planned Sale Of 232-Year-Old The ObserverIn numbers passing ninety-three percent, “Guardian and Observer journalists have voted in favor of possible strike action in protest at proposals to sell The Observer to Tortoise Media,” reports PressGazette. Tortoise Media is a yet-unprofitable digital startup with a portfolio that includes podcasts.MUSICListen To Chopin’s New Release“An unknown work in Chopin’s hand has emerged in a New York museum, the first such find in more than a half century.” The pianist Lang Lang plays it at the New York Times (gift link). “After testing the manuscript’s paper and ink, analyzing its handwriting and musical style, and consulting outside experts, the Morgan has come to a momentous conclusion: The work is likely an unknown waltz by Frédéric Chopin, the great fantasist of the Romantic era, the first such discovery in more than half a century.”Sounds Of The Cold War Fill Guarneri HallThe nonprofit Guarneri Hall, the custom-built classical venue in the heart of downtown Chicago, presents “Sounds of the Cold War,” a three-day concert series examining Cold War-era music from both sides of the Iron Curtain. Honoring the thirty-fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, three performances will be held November 7-9, featuring music by Hanns Eisler, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sofia Gubaidulina, György Ligeti and György Kurtág, with each event including commentary about the sociopolitical context for the music from guest speakers from the University of Chicago: sociology professor Andreas Glaeser; Graham School instructor, Jennifer A. Lind; and associate professor of political science Paul Poast. Each performance is followed by a reception where audience members, performers and scholars engage in conversations. Tickets ($40) and more here.“Taiko Legacy 21” Events Unite Taiko ArtistsAsian Improv aRts Midwest and Tsukasa Taiko, with director, multi-instrumentalist and media artist Tatsu Aoki, will celebrate a decade of “Reduction” concerts with “Reduction 10” at the MCA, Saturday, December 14 and the “Taiko Legacy 21” on Sunday, December 15. “The annual ‘Taiko Legacy’ concert is rooted in the traditions of ozashiki (geisha chamber music), ohayashi (classical-folk-theater music), and matsuri taiko (festival taiko music). Performative arrangements of original compositions from Tsukasa Taiko recontextualize the cultural traditions within contemporary ecologies of art, music and theater. Led by professional taiko artists and the longstanding Gintenkai community performance ensemble from Tsukasa Taiko, ‘Taiko Legacy 21’ also features the next generation youth members who form a vital part of this ongoing legacy. Special guests for this concert include flutist Hyakkyou Fukuhara from Tokyo, and Melody Takata and GenRyu Arts from San Francisco.” More details and tickets ($20) here.STAGETwenty-Fifth Chicago Theatre Week Set For FebruaryChicago Theatre Week with discount tickets has been set for February 6-16, 2025. For the third year, HotTix.org will host Chicago Theatre Week Continued from February 17-23, 2025, which will extend Theatre Week discounts to participating productions for an additional week. Tickets ($30, $15 and less) go on sale 10am Tuesday, January 7, 2025 here.ARTS & CULTURE & ETC.Report Released On Local Arts Spending Of Federal Relief Funds“Local arts agencies distributed $100 million in federal relief funding to arts and cultural organizations during the pandemic to sustain and fuel their programs,” relays SMU DataArts, along with Bloomberg Associates. The twenty-three-page report is here (pdf). The report “explores how eleven local arts agencies advocated for and distributed this funding to their communities through document reviews, interviews and qualitative data gathering. The insights gleaned demonstrate the responsive and nimble ways these agencies operated throughout the pandemic, and the common tactics related to advocacy, process, and equity across all eleven cities may point to local arts agency best practices moving forward.” (Chicago and DCASE are among the subjects.)Illinois Sand Mines Key Ingredient For Fracking“Both presidential candidates say a domestic supply of emissions-intensive fossil fuels is essential for national security in what political pundits say is an appeal to Pennsylvania voters,” reports the Tribune. “Fracking enables the extraction of oil and gases encased in rock formations thousands of feet underground that are not easily permeable via traditional drilling methods. The process releases large amounts of methane, a gas with eighty times more warming power than carbon dioxide in the short term. Beyond contributing to climate change, the fracking industry has also had wide-reaching impacts on land use and community health [including from] sand mines in Illinois. LaSalle County in north central Illinois sits on rich deposits of silica sand, the optimal ingredient for a pressurized cocktail of sand, water and chemicals that is essential for fracking.”Union Tells Hard Rock Casino Rockford They Will Be Unionized“Rockford area union members and leaders rallied outside Hard Rock Casino Rockford last week, saying an anti-union campaign is pointless,” reports the Rockford Register Star, and that the establishment “would be better off recognizing employee unions rather than engaging in an expensive anti-union campaign.”Airline Refunds Now Automatic“Airlines in the United States are now required to give passengers cash refunds if their flight is significantly delayed or canceled, even if that person does not explicitly ask for a refund,” reports CNN. “The final federal rule requiring that airlines [issue] refunds—not vouchers—went into effect Monday. The major change is being implemented only a month before the start of what is likely to be a huge holiday travel season.” MarketWatch expands on the new rules here. Transportation Secretary Buttigieg tweets the basics in a chart here.Send culture news and tips to [email protected]
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Global Sporting Goods, Hobby, Musical Instrument, and Book Stores Market 2024 To Reach $695.64 Billion By 2028 – Book Publishing Industry Today – EIN Presswire