The money, doled out over five years, will go toward Indigenous leadership programs and social impact and social innovation courses. It will help pay for faculty, program design and scholarships for those from “remote and under-served communities.” – CBC
Tag: 02.26.19
Comedian Brody Stevens Dead Of Suicide At 48
“His stand-up style was a seemingly contradictory mix of confrontation and self-deprecation. He would often mock the fact that he was not a household name and had managed to land only small parts in television shows and movies [such as the Hangover series]. … He was widely admired by other comedians for his willingness to venture into unsafe territory.” – The New York Times
Digital Sign-Language-To-English Translation – Can It Work?
There have been a few previous devices developed using gloves with motion sensors, and a team at MSU has invented a new one using an internal camera and deep-learning AI software. But many in the Deaf community, including Prof. Christian Vogler of Gallaudet, are skeptical, pointing out the complex difficulties of translating ASL to English. – Smithsonian Magazine
When A Linguist Discovers A Sign Language Developed In Isolation, Will She Kill It Just By Studying It?
“Given the high stakes, and the potential to exert unwanted influence on these fragile languages, researchers have been arguing for years about how to handle them.” Some follow a “prime directive,” trying not to have any effect whatsoever; others argue that keeping deaf villagers isolated from a national sign language smothers their prospects, keeoping them poor and isolated. It turns out, Michael Erard reports, that these languages aren’t really so fragile. – Digg
Orlando Ballet Will Stop Charging Dancers To Audition
Executive director Shane Jewell, responding to a previous Dance Magazine post: “Sara’s argument that it’s unfair that dancers are the only members of the company that have to pay for a job interview is a valid one. As she suggests, Orlando Ballet did not charge me $30 when I interviewed for the role of executive director last year. … But issues with charging dancers to audition go much deeper.” – Dance Magazine
A Million New Visitors Have Come To National Portrait Gallery To See Paintings Of Barack And Michelle Obama
“The Obama portraits have catapulted the Smithsonian museum to the top tier of the city’s attractions by dramatically increasing attendance. The Old Patent Office Building — the historic home to the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum — had a record-breaking 2.3 million visitors in 2018, about a million more than in 2017.” – The Washington Post
Makers Of ‘Fortnite’ Sued Over Yet Another Dance, This One By Basketball Players
“The federal lawsuit, filed Monday in Maryland, accuses Epic Games Inc. of unfairly profiting from the ‘Running Man Challenge’ dance that Jared Nickens and Jaylen Brantley performed in social media videos and on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2016. … [Other artists] also have sued Epic Games over other dances depicted in the shooting game. Celebratory dances in Fortnite are called ’emotes.'” – Yahoo! (AP)
Russian Choir In Cathedral Sings About Nuking America To Dust; Viral Video Causes Consternation
In a performance at the city’s St. Isaac’s Cathedral on Feb. 23, “Defend the Fatherland Day,” the St. Petersburg Concert Choir sang a cheerful little ditty about a submarine headed toward D.C. with “a dozen hundred-megaton payloads.” (A few days earlier, state TV had shown a map of the U.S. marking possible nuclear targets.) Said ditty was written in 1980 by a Soviet dissident and was intended (then) as a parody of militaristic propaganda; its reappearance now has causes a minor uproar. – Global Voices
Choreographer Angie Pittman On Dance As A Community Experience
“I used to look up line dancing videos on YouTube and learn them in my living room by myself. And I was like, that’s one way to do it, but also, this form is meant to be done in community, so you should go do it in community.” – The New York Times
Canadian Comedians Fear Collapse As Canadian Comedy Channel Shifts Focus
The blowback has been brewing online among comedians, many of whom rely heavily on the royalties and exposure provided by the station to make ends meet, says the Canadian Association of Stand-Up Comedians. “For some people, this is their primary source of income,” said Sandra Battaglini, a Toronto comic and head of the two-year-old association. “It’s devastating for people, because these changes have already started happening, and people have stopped being played.” – CBC