Aaron Gerow

AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.

I try to avoid using AI as much as I can. But AI is still very much a brand that sells in Japan.

"AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself"

www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...

'Kokuho' breaks Japan's box office record for domestic live-action film | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News The Japanese movie

The film Kokuho, the nearly three-hour film about two kabuki actors directed by Lee Sang-il, just broke the record for box office earnings for a Japanese live action film, hitting 17.4 billion yen or 111 million dollars.
www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/...

Google's AI is now snooping on your emails - here's how to opt out A new change quietly rolling out allows Google to access your private messages and attachments to train its AI models - likely without your knowledge. Opting out takes just moments.

Here’s how to opt out.
“Google seems to be opting you in to these features without your permission. Second, the company doesn't seem to have notified its users about this. As a Gmail user, I don't recall seeing any notifications about this change.”

Yesterday, Trump defended the Saudi Crown Prince in the Oval Office.

He said he had “nothing” to do with the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

But I reviewed a call while serving on Trump’s NSC that I believe would be of interest to the Khashoggi family and the American people.

Release the transcript.

Aaron Gerow on the right smiling with the actor Nakadai Tatsuya on the left.

Extremely sad to hear of the death of Nakadai Tatsuya, one of the great actors in cinema. I was honored to bring him to Yale in 2016 (photo), interview him on camera, and visit his acting school Mumeijuku. He was supremely devoted to the act of acting and will be sorely missed.

アニメ・シンポジウム『桃太郎 海の神兵』から『ペリリュー -楽園のゲルニカ-』まで 国産アニメーションは戦争をいかに描いたか YouTube video by 東京国際映画祭

オリジナルの日本語バージョンはこちらです。

アニメ・シンポジウム『桃太郎 海の神兵』から『ペリリュー -楽園のゲルニカ-』まで 国産アニメーションは戦争をいかに描いたか

www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

YouTube video by 東京国際映画祭 Anime Symposium: From "Momotaro, Sacred Sailors" to "Peleliu: Guernica of Paradise" English Ver.

Video of the splendid symposium about how anime has depicted war that took place this week at TIFF 2025. This has English VO.
youtu.be/cBs-u1vuXik?...

ACQUAVIVA: U.Va. paid nothing, yet lost everything It seems disingenuous for the University to boast about its agreement having “no external monitoring,” since the University’s president is required to report compliance — and certify under penalty of ...

U of Virginia prof excoriates the university's agreement with the DOJ, which is very different from those signed by Columbia and Brown.

"U.Va. paid nothing, yet lost everything:
Two centuries of independence, undone with a stroke of the pen"
www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

Rally of several hundred people outside Shinjuku Station in Japan.

Perhaps one of the first No Kings rallies took place in Tokyo on the 18th, though it was called a No Tyranny rally. Several hundred gathered outside of Shinjuku Station. This is just the start. Hope you all attend your rallies in the States on October 18.

I interviewed Oki Hiroyuki for the YIDFF's magazine Documentary Box back in 1998. It is in both English and Japanese.
www.yidff.jp/docbox/11/bo...

Shocked to hear of the death of Oki Hiroyuki, one of the pioneer queer filmmakers in Japan. He was only 61. Working in a variety of media and genres, from experimental and documentary film to performance art, Oki-san was a daring artist who made the body both the subject and the method of his art.

US anti-fascism expert blocked from flying to Spain at airport Rutgers University professor who published book on antifa was informed at boarding gate that his trip was cancelled

US anti-fascism expert blocked from flying to Spain at airport

Rutgers University professor who published book on antifa was informed at boarding gate that his trip was cancelled

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

世界各国の監督の声を届けたい　山形映画祭がCFでインタビュー集：朝日新聞 山形市で9日に開幕する山形国際ドキュメンタリー映画祭で、世界各国から訪れる映画監督のインタビュー集を作る資金をクラウドファンディング（CF）で募っている。インタビュー集編集長の小野聖子さんは「様々な…

My partner appears in the Asahi newspaper, describing the collection of interviews she is putting together of filmmakers attending this year's Yamagata Film Festival.. Please support the crowd funding if you can.

www.asahi.com/articles/AST...

Chicago priest Father Michael Pfleger: "The state of emergency is in AMERICA, not Chicago. It's birthed from this president and his admin's reign of terror."

( ht: @mikenellis.bsky.social )

Larry Ellison predicts rise of the modern surveillance state where ‘citizens will be on their best behavior’ | Fortune Oracle's Larry Ellison believes citizens and police alike will be under constant surveillance of each other.

Larry Ellison envisions a surveillance state in which techbros rule. '“Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on,” Ellison said in an hour-long Q&A during Oracle’s Financial Analyst Meeting last week.'

U.S. Education Dept. unites conservative groups to create 'patriotic' civics content The group of more than 40 conservative organizations met for the first time on Wednesday. The initiative is aimed at celebrations of the nation's founding next summer.

The DOE will partner with
40 conservative orgs to create K-12 programs led by the America First Policy Institute, a conservative group, with Turning Point USA, the Heritage Foundation, and other conservative state and nat’l organizations. Let the indoctrination begin! 😳
www.npr.org/2025/09/17/n...

‘Tentacles squelching wetly’: the human subtitle writers under threat from AI Artificial intelligence is making steady advances into subtitling but, say its practitioners, it’s a vital service that needs a human to make it work

No, we don't need AI translated subtitles.

‘Tentacles squelching wetly’: the human subtitle writers under threat from AI

Artificial intelligence is making steady advances into subtitling but, say its practitioners, it’s a vital service that needs a human.

www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se...

Opinion | The Billionaire Trump Supporter Who Will Soon Own the News

🧵For those who missed it, Larry Ellison is on the verge of becoming one of the most powerful media & entertainment moguls America has ever seen

If you fear Brendan Carr, fear Ellison more

He's already a major stakeholder in CBS & Paramount.

Now CNN, HBO & major share of TikTok are in his sights

Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan is caught on tape accepting a bag containing $50,000 in cash from undercover FBI agents-and the Trump administration quashes the investigation…

…so he can summarily detain immigrants who have lived in the US peacefully for decades-without committing crimes

The early polling on the FCC going after Kimmel is decisively anti-Trump/pro-free speech www.gelliottmorris.com/p/how-trump-...

TPM:

"If I were a Democratic official, (I'd taunt) every journalist ... from ABC, CBS and every other news and media organization that is now owned by the White House.... “Yes, I will happily answer your question, but first, how can we trust your company, since it is owned by Donald Trump?”"

ABC Pulls Jimmy Kimmel Off Air for Charlie Kirk Comments

One more critical voice being suppressed?

ABC Pulls Jimmy Kimmel Off Air for Charlie Kirk Comments www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/b...

Wow, first time I've seen him underwater in this poll with white people. He has negative disapproval across every possible cohort.

Film Director Atsushi Funahashi in Conversation with Asato Ikeda: Company Retreat (2022), Sexual Violence, and the Unconscious of the Time - Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus […]

Film Director Atsushi Funahashi in Conversation with Asato Ikeda: Company Retreat (2022), Sexual Violence, and the Unconscious of the Time
apjjf.org/2025/9/ikeda

Sorry to hear of the passing of one of my professors at Iowa.

Why the Spike in Black Unemployment Is an Alarming Sign of What’s to Come Troubling and unusual unemployment numbers for Black Americans are signaling that the...

DOGE and anti-DEI would of course lead to increases in Black unemployment—that was the point. But Black unemployment is also a harbinger of a full economic downturn.

Why the Spike in Black Unemployment Is an Alarming Sign of What’s to Come talkingpointsmemo.com/news/black-u...

CBS News hires Trump loyalist to review news coverage CBS News has hired Kenneth R.

1. CBS has hired Ken Weinstein as an ombudsman to review its news coverage for "bias"

Weinstein has no experience overseeing or producing news

A comprehensive review of his public statements, however, shows he has another qualification: undying loyalty to Trump

【告発】大島渚監督の映画『絞死刑』のシナリオ盗作疑惑に迫る - 集英社新書プラス ８月２日公開のドキュメンタリー映画『よみがえる声』（朴壽南監督・朴麻衣監督）が、連日大...

Filmmaker Yang Yonghi analyzes the charges of plagiarism against Oshima Nagisa's Death by Hanging. As covered in the film Yomogaeru Koe, Oshima used numerous sections of Park Soo-nam's book of correspondences with Ri Chin-u without attribution.
shinsho-plus.shueisha.co.jp/news/31810

Former CDC Director William Foege: How public health can fight back in a time of dangerous nonsense “Kennedy would be less hazardous if he decided to do cardiac surgery. Then he would kill people only one at a time,” writes former CDC Director William Foege.

"Kennedy would be less hazardous if he decided to do cardiac surgery. Then he would kill people only one at a time rather than his current ability to kill by the thousands."

Former CDC Director William Foege: How public health can fight back in a time of dangerous nonsense