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Illuzzi: Liberal arts cuts hurt students & country

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 22:11:28 GMT

Want to help young people graduate into well-paying jobs and a lifetime of good citizenship? Across the country, colleges and universities are doing the opposite. Facing budget shortfalls and declining enrollments, schools – like SUNY Potsdam, Clarkson University, Warren Wilson College, Lesley University, and even West Virginia University – are slashing liberal arts programs to fund programs in STEM, business, social work, nursing, and the like.This strategy will backfire and hurt both students and the country.Let me explain.First, an education lacking in the liberal arts hurts our students – as citizens and human beings. My students are acutely aware we face grave challenges: climate crises, pervasive poverty, threats to democracy, racial and gender discrimination, and much more. They know they’re entering a profoundly unfair world. To take their money and turn them into assembly-line tools for existing jobs while ignoring the harms they know are coming to them and their children i...

For better and worse, a Bruin year to remember

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 22:11:28 GMT

The heights were as fun and exhilarating as anything we’ve experienced with the Bruins in their 100-year history. The depths were about as depressing as this team has treated us to over the years. Hopes were raised, only to be dashed in the most painful of fashions. One era ended and a new one began with a glimmer of hope that no matter who hangs up his skates, someone else will come along to fill them. It may not be a perfect fit, but the new guy eventually breaks them in his own way.Here’s a look back at some key dates in a remarkable calendar year for the Boston Bruins:Jan. 26-29 – The Bruins lose three straight to Tampa Bay, Florida (overtime) and Carolina. It would be the longest losing streak of the 2022-23 regular season. They would match it, however, in the most untimely fashion.Feb. 23 – The Bruins obtain Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway from the Washington Capitals in exchange for a first-round pick (2023), a second-rounder (2025) and forward Craig Smith. At th...

AI set to change how work gets done in ’24

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 22:11:28 GMT

If AI was a hit new toy in 2023, 2024 will cement it as a tool.AI, or artificial intelligence, grabbed the attention of every industry in 2023, creating hope for easier, more streamlined work processes and stoking fear that the technology could advance enough to replace employees.While the technology world wrapped itself around the possibilities of AI this year, the business world is getting ready to put it to use and test just how much it will change the world beyond cheating on college essays.Business leaders, from the airlines to commercial real estate, have been quick to tout the potentially game-changing uses of AI. Government leaders are pushing to create guidelines for how and when AI should be used.Regardless of how you feel about it, AI isn’t going anywhere in 2024; Experts say it’ll only become more commonplace for companies to implement a number of AI programs to use in day-to-day business.The AI umbrella encompasses tools that range from large language models like ChatGP...

Folan: Sacrifice, integrity worthy aspirations for ’24

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 22:11:28 GMT

Everyone needs role models and to be inspired and aspire towards something greater. Before the Army-Navy game at a leadership symposium hosted by the National Medal of Honor Leadership and Education Center, a group of Catholic Memorial seniors and I found all three.The event showcased esteemed New England Medal of Honor recipients Thomas Kelley and Ryan Pitts, as well as Rear Admiral Tom Lynch. The distinguished panelists shared the values and virtues they relied upon in the most challenging of moments. They highlighted the importance of being authentic, having integrity, embracing hard work, and the importance of devoting oneself to others. Their humility, courage, patriotism, and selflessness inspired all in attendance.Meeting a Medal of Honor recipient is an honor of a lifetime. In 2021, our school hosted Lt. Brian Thacker, one of the 67 living Medal of Honor recipients, to share his courageous story.  In 2023, Adam Makos’s “Devotion” was our all-school summer read. T...

Editorial: NYTimes AI lawsuit aims to protect journalism

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 22:11:28 GMT

The New York Times is not content to let OpenAI and Microsoft get rich using the newspaper’s web content for artificial intelligence like ChatGPT without paying and sued last week in Manhattan federal court.Having people, not machines, tell the human stories of the city and the world for other humans to read should stay that way.We could have asked ChatGPT to write an editorial about how it is bad that ChatGPT lifted wholesale without paying from a newspaper to teach itself how to replace newspapers. However, while AI doesn’t get tired of gimmicks, real people do.The Times alleges in its lawsuit that ChatGPT was fed huge numbers of articles produced by the paper’s website to allow the program to learn using the “large language model.” As the complaint states, “an LLM works by predicting words that are likely to follow a given string of text based on the potentially billions of examples used to train it.”For teaching material, “the training set was comprised of 45 terabytes of data —...

Dear Abby: A new year full of new opportunities

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 22:11:28 GMT

DEAR READERS: Welcome to 2024. A new year has arrived; the last one is safely behind us. As always, this new year brings with it our hopes for a new beginning.Today presents an opportunity to discard destructive old habits for healthy new ones and, with that in mind, I will share Dear Abby’s often-requested list of New Year’s Resolutions — which were adapted by my late mother, Pauline Phillips, from the original credo of Al-Anon:JUST FOR TODAY: I will live through THIS DAY ONLY. I will not brood about yesterday or obsess about tomorrow. I will not set far-reaching goals or try to overcome all of my problems at once. I know that I can do something for 24 hours that would overwhelm me if I had to keep it up for a lifetime.JUST FOR TODAY: I will decide to be happy. I will not dwell on thoughts that depress me. If my mind fills with clouds, I will chase them away and fill it with sunshine.JUST FOR TODAY: I will accept what is. I will face reality. I will correct those ...

With jobs on the line, the Chicago Bears and Justin Fields celebrate New Year with a convincing win over the Atlanta Falcons

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 22:11:28 GMT

When Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields arrived in the locker room after a snowy 37-17 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday at Soldier Field, he was surprised to find it clouded with cigar smoke.Someone had left the cigars on a table for the team to partake in, either to celebrate New Year’s Eve or the Bears’ fifth straight home win or just the general resurgence of a team that has won four of its last five games.“I’m not going to be at home lighting a cigar,” Fields said. “But of course I did it in the locker room to celebrate with the guys.”If it feels a bit much for a 7-9 team, the good vibes are understandable given that the Bears started 0-4 and have built momentum late in the year despite much speculation about the future of the coaching staff and Fields over the last two months.One piece of that future crystallized before the Bears had finished easily disposing of the 7-9 Falcons behind a good day from Fields and four inter...

Pedestrian hit, killed on SR-125 in Spring Valley; driver flees the scene

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 22:11:28 GMT

SPRING VALLEY, Calif. -- First responders are on the scene of a reported fatal pedestrian accident on a highway in Spring Valley. Crews responded to SR-125 and Jamacha Road in Spring Valley at 8 p.m. on New Year's Eve. According to a California Highway Patrol sig alert, a vehicle hit a pedestrian and the driver fled the scene Sunday night. CHP is reporting the incident as fatal. No other information was immediately available. According to Caltrans, one lane on southbound SR-125 north of Jamacha Road is currently closed due to the accident. This story is breaking. Stay with FOX 5 for the latest as this develops.

The Empire State rings in the new year with a pay bump for minimum-wage workers

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 22:11:28 GMT

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York’s minimum-wage workers had more than just the new year to celebrate Monday, with a pay bump kicking in as the clock ticked over to 2024.In the first of a series of annual increases slated for the Empire State, the minimum wage increased to $16 in New York City and some of its suburbs, up from $15. In the rest of the state, the new minimum wage is $15, up from $14.20.The state’s minimum wage is expected to increase every year until it reaches $17 in New York City and its suburbs, and $16 in the rest of the state by 2026. Future hikes will be tied to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, a measurement of inflation. New York is one of 22 states getting minimum wage rises in the new year, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute. In California, the minimum wage increased to $16, up from $15.50, while in Connecticut it increased to $15.69 from the previous rate of $15. This most recent pay bump ...

China’s manufacturing activity slows in December in latest sign the economy is still struggling

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 22:11:28 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — A survey of factory managers in China shows that manufacturing contracted in December in the latest sign the world’s No. 2 economy remains sluggish. The official purchasing managers index, or PMI, fell to 49 last month in what officials said was evidence of weak demand, the National Bureau of Statistics reported on Sunday. It was the third straight month of contraction. The PMI is on a scale up to 100 where 50 marks the cutoff between expansion and contraction. The index has fallen in eight of the past nine months, with an increase only in September. In November, the index was at 49.4, down from 49.5 the month before. Despite unexpectedly prolonged weakness after the pandemic, China’s economy grew at a 5.2% pace in the first three quarters of the year and showed signs of improvement in November, with factory output and retail sales rising.In recent months, the government has raised spending on construction of ports and other infrastructure, cut interest rates and ease...