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An open letter to current Harvard faculty, donors, and trustees:
I know you hate me.
I know you hate President Trump.
I know you think the enforcement of federal law is actually a conspiracy to overhaul higher education.
I know you think the multiple conclusions of religious discrimination against Jews is a lie.
But I am genuinely struggling to understand, irrespective of antisemitism, how the current disastrous state of the University has not resulted in tangible, meaningful reform.
I implore you to answer basic questions about how you continue to choose to run Harvard University:
1. Why do you insist on paying Claudine Gay, an actual serial plagiarist who was forced to resign, a salary of $900,000 a year?
2. Why specifically should Claudine Gay of all people be teaching a class on leadership, using Harvard as a case study?
3. What specific merits and talents does Chairwoman Penny Pritzker bring to the table? What is the specific justification for keeping her?
4. For what specific reason is the University refusing to comply with federal law by not sharing the criminal background history of your foreign students to DHS?
5. Does it bother you that 97% of the faculty identify with one particular political ideology? If yes, what are two specific actions you're willing to take to rectify the problem?
6. What specifically have you done to ensure that the few conservative students left on campus aren't self-censoring their work and opinions?
7. Does it bother you that multiple faculty members, such as Professor James Hankins, admitted they or their colleagues were told that white men, in the post George Floyd backlash would no longer be hired if there was a (less qualified) black or gay applicant?
8. Thousands of donors, representing billions of dollars, have refused to give anymore since 10/07. What specific policy overhauls have you implemented to win them back?
Irrespective of antisemitism, I'm genuinely struggling to understand why Harvard refuses to get out of its own way.
This entire controversy since Day 1 has been entirely self inflicted and avoidable. Poor leadership after poor leadership...

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Remembering the legendary English filmmaker, David Lean, on his 118th birthday!
David Lean on the timelessness of "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) & the reaction it got from the audience when the restored version was released in 1989:
"Everyone worried about re-releasing ‘Lawrence of Arabia.’ (1962) They said the audiences have changed. They talk and shout at the screen; they’re impatient; they wouldn’t sit still for it. Not at all. You could hear a pin drop. London, New York, Washington, Los Angeles. Everywhere.
It was a subtle piece of work, depicting Lawrence and his character. It’s less than 1% of the film in terms of footage, but it’s the cumulative effect of nuances, and if you dig out too many you’ve lost a whole hunk of his character.
I think audiences had almost forgotten the power of pictures. They’ve gotten smaller and smaller. And suddenly you see this old film, wonderfully photographed; tremendous detail; you almost feel you could take a hair off the actor’s collar. There’s a mesmeric effect from the picture on the screen."
("The Phenomenal Persistence of David Lean : At 81, the director fields several honors and awaits the start of his next project--Conrad’s ‘Nostromo’", Charles Champlin, LA Times, 1989)
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Today, March 25, 2026, marks the finish of a multi-day Ukrainian operation to turn off the whole of Russia's Baltic oil and gas hub: Ust-Luga, Primorsk and Vyborg.
After Ukrainian strikes, the ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk stopped shipping oil. By preliminary data, 40% of the Russian oil exports capacity has been disrupted.
◾️Ust-Luga: information is coming in about the sinking of two shadow fleet tankers, and full destruction of the Novatek oil shipping terminal.
◾️In Primorsk, oil reservoirs keep burning for two days in a row now, and the tankers are drifting at sea.
Russian exports through the Baltics has been de-facto paralyzed.
Anton Gerashchenko@Gerashchenko_en
🔥The scale of the fire in Russia's port of Ust-Luga is striking: reports indicate that the Capital, a tanker belonging to the "shadow fleet," is ablaze. Another tanker can also be seen burning, though its name cannot be made out. Waiting for official confirmation.
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Well worth a listen - I joined this four-way discussion about the impact of #LenDeighton on spy fiction readers around the work.
Spybrary@spybrary
Len Deighton didn't just write spy fiction he changed the entire genre. In this special tribute episode, we celebrate the working-class outsider who gave us some of the greatest spy novels ever written. Available on good podcast apps & YouTube - just search Spybrary #LenDeighton
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Len Deighton didn't just write spy fiction he changed the entire genre. In this special tribute episode, we celebrate the working-class outsider who gave us some of the greatest spy novels ever written.
Available on good podcast apps & YouTube - just search Spybrary #LenDeighton

English

Listening to "Blowing in the Wrong Direction: The billion-dollar plan to make sure nothing gets built." at buzzsprout.com/2604856/episod…

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Just a flawless design aesthetic. I don't know what you'd call it - Noir Deco? - but it's incredible to see the care put into designing something as mundane as a free book of matches. No computer, and for 1-2-3 color printing.
Halle Gilbert@hallegilb
Matchbooks from the American roadside.
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