"(The giant media conglomerate) said it is restructuring into two operating divisions, one focused on the legacy cable TV business and the other on streaming and studios, a move that could set the company up for dealmaking down the road." - The Wall Street Journal (MSN)
“While we did not secure all the improvements we had hoped for, the union was able to secure a number of wage and benefit improvements that went far beyond what SAM leadership initially offered,” the SAM VSO Union said. - Seattle Times
“A book sits atop a large language model, allowing readers to converse with an A.I. facsimile of its author.” At last: No more having to think about the meaning of complicated passages, or trace the lines of thought that got an author from A to B. - AV Club
To add sense memory to the penultimate scene, the prop crew cooks two pounds of bacon during every performance, using a box fan to blow the aroma onto the stage and into the audience. And every Wednesday there's a BLT party to use it all up. - The New York Times
Andrew Wallenstein, then-co-editor-in-chief of Variety: "I’m not going to say if I had to do it all over again I would do it differently because I understand why I did what I did then. But looking back on the hack, I wish I’d taken a different tack. Let me explain why." - Variety
"YouTube just released some new stats that show how the service is being consumed on televisions, and the numbers are enormous. … The trend hasn’t changed in forever, but YouTube has spent the last couple of years finally doing something about it." - The Verge
"If the Marbles return to the Acropolis, the hole they will leave in the British Museum may be filled by perfect replicas. The Oxford-based Institute for Digital Archaeology uses robot sculptors following detailed computer scans to carve copies that are accurate to within fractions of a millimetre." - The Telegraph (UK) (MSN)
"Might these events deter future winners of prizes with controversial sponsors" — the Baillie Gifford prize in the UK, the Scotiabank Giller Prize in Canada, and so on — "from accepting prizes or prize money, and could that threaten those prizes’ funding?" - The Guardian
"The deal … promises to maintain the current compensation and performance levels for the 32 paid choristers during the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons. … The breakthrough, which includes retroactive application of the agreement from Aug. 1, was made possible by the generous donation from an anonymous patron." - San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
"A £191 million funding package to support critical repairs and upgrades at (the arts complex) were approved on Thursday … (by) the City of London Corporation." The grant is about 80% of what's needed for the project; fundraising for the rest begins next year, with construction to start in 2027. - The Standard (London)
Attorneys for Rachael Gunn, who gained global notoriety with her last-place performance at the Paris Olympics, put the kibosh on Raygun: The Musical, arguing that the show would damage her reputation and that she owns the IP of her moves. Does she have a leg to stand on? Here's an explainer. - Crikey (Australia)
The diary that Yitskhok Rudashevski kept from June 1941 to April 1943, written entirely in Yiddish, contains references not only to folklore from the Vilna Ghetto, but also to the Jewish community’s cultural resistance to the Nazi occupation. - Smithsonian
The "Ladies' Lounge" at the Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania reopens through January 13 after an appeals court voided a ruling that the installation was discriminatory. Artist Kirsha Kaechele says the Ladies' Lounge "could appear anywhere at any time, especially in centres of male power." - AAP (MSN)
“Booksellers save lives. Period,” Patterson said in a statement released Tuesday through his publisher, Little, Brown and Company. “I’m happy to be able to acknowledge them and all their hard work this holiday season.” - AP News
Just what was Kreskin’s talent? “I am not a psychic, an occultist or fortune teller. I am not a mind reader, medium or hypnotist. I am a scientist, a researcher in the field of suggestion and ‘extrasensory’ perceptions. I perform what I discover.” - The Hollywood Reporter
