Issue 4
December 8, 2023
1 Elite university presidents endure bipartisan congressional wrath
2 Google releases AI model to compete with ChatGPT
3 US shipbuilding capacity lags China
4 Hunter Biden indicted for tax fraud
5 Mullet isn’t a hairstyle, it’s a lifestyle
1980: John Lennon shot
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1 Elite university presidents endure bipartisan congressional wrath
The presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT are under heavy, bipartisan fire after they hedged when asked in a congressional hearing whether they would discipline students who called for a genocide of Jews. Rarely has a congressional hearing generated this much bipartisan rage. On Tuesday, the three presidents were handling the usual questions in the usual way, and condemned Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel — until Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) asked whether they would discipline students who called for the genocide of Jews. (Axios)
2 Google releases AI model to compete with ChatGPT
Google unveiled details about Gemini, the next version of its large language model that will power Bard and other products. Google is eager to show it can keep up with rivals, especially OpenAI and Microsoft. Gemini is multimodal — recognizing video, images, text and voice. (Axios)
3 US shipbuilding capacity lags China
“In terms of industrial competition and shipbuilding, China is where the U.S. was in the early stages of World War II.” In the U.S. now, “we just don’t have the industrial capacity to build warships…in large numbers very fast.”
Intensifying security challenges from the western Pacific to Ukraine to the Middle East have fueled debate over whether the U.S. can afford a bigger military. In fact, the more pressing question is whether it can build one—when its principal adversary possesses vast industrial capacity.
A shipyard in Huludao that builds civilian vessels and nuclear submarines boasts annual capacity in excess of all the ships the U.S. has launched since 2014. (Wall Street Journal)
4 Hunter Biden indicted for tax fraud
A federal grand jury charged Hunter Biden on Thursday with a scheme to evade federal taxes on millions in income from foreign businesses, the second indictment against him this year and a major new development in a case Republicans have made the cornerstone of a possible impeachment of President Biden.
Mr. Biden, the president’s son, faces three counts each of evasion of a tax assessment, failure to file and pay taxes, and filing a false or fraudulent tax return, according to the 56-page indictment — a withering play-by-play of personal indulgence with potentially enormous political costs for his father. (New York Times)
5 Mullet isn’t a hairstyle, it’s a lifestyle
The mullet — short on the sides, long in the back — is not an Australian invention. The ancient Greeks were said to be partial to the 'do, as was singer Billy Ray Cyrus and, more recently, Joe Exotic of “Tiger King.” The Beastie Boys arguably popularized the term in 1994 with their song “Mullet Head.”
But no society has embraced the mullet quite like Australia, where the cut enjoyed cult status in the 1980s. It made a comeback during the covid-19 pandemic, when Australians endured some of the world’s most restrictive lockdowns. The hairstyle, often dubbed “business in the front, party in the back,” was perfect for DIY cuts and endless Zoom calls. (Washington Post)
This day in history
1980: John Lennon shot
John Lennon, a former member of the Beatles, the rock group that transformed popular music in the 1960s, is shot and killed by an obsessed fan in New York City.
