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Dear Valued Child,

This letter was slipped into your stocking to inform you that we recently identified a breach of our North Pole Magic Systems (NPMS) that may have compromised your personal data—namely, the thousands of hours of footage we have of when you are sleeping, as well as when you are awake.

How did the breach occur?

Shortly after Thanksgiving, we detected that a person within the NPMS organization (identity redacted for anonymity) clicked on a link entitled, “Winner!!! Claim FREE 6XL Red Coat With Fur Trim Now!” Regrettably, this turned out to be a phishing scheme that exploited a vulnerability in our system. We now understand that the innocent enchantment of believing hearts is not a reliable form of cybersecurity.

While we have yet to pinpoint the attacker’s identity, we have narrowed the suspects down to three previous perpetrators of crimes against the season: E. Scrooge, Mr. Grinch, and Big City Lady-Lawyer With Christmas Eve Deadline.

For one magical night a year, Santa and his friends bring holiday cheer to millions of people around the world. For the rest of the 364 nights? They’re just like us: hustling to get by in an ever-shrinking global economy.

Rudolph hasn’t had time for any reindeer games lately, thanks to the extra shifts he’s picked up as a Lyft driver. That glowing nose is easy for drunk people to find on Saturday night, but he wishes they’d stop asking him if it has a strobe setting.

The elves have still been working at Santa’s workshop, of course, but on weekends they supplement by working at one of Jeff Bezos’ sweatshops. Try their new line of Amazon elf-ssentials.

In rare interviews, Russians speak candidly about their lives in the presence of war – animated to protect their identities

- by Aeon Video

Watch on Aeon

The right to protest, the right to free speech, and the right to be heard are absolutely essential in any democratic society. That’s why these rights are clearly enshrined in both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights. The history of Britain is itself one of protest, protests that […]

For fifteen years or so, I’d been kicking around the idea of resurrecting the artist-apprentice model that reigned in the art world for hundreds of years.

Again and again, I’d heard from young people who lamented the astronomical and ever-rising cost of art school. For many college-level art programs, the total cost to undergraduates is now over $100,000 a year. I hope we can all agree that charging students $400,000 for a four-year degree in visual art is objectively absurd. And this prohibitive cost has priced tens of thousands of potential students out of even considering undertaking such an education.

For years, I mentioned this issue to friends in and out of the art world, and everyone, without exception, agreed that the system was broken. Even friends I know who teach at art schools agreed that the cost was out of control, and these spiraling costs were contributing to the implosion of many undergraduate and postgraduate art programs.

Users need to revolt against what will very likely be an even more widespread effort to censor voices critical of Israel.

The post Anti-Palestinian Billionaires Can Now Control What TikTok Users See appeared first on The Intercept.

Al premiar con su premio de la paz a la figura favorita de Trump de la oposición venezolana, la conspiradora golpista y proguerra María Corina Machado, el Comité Nobel desobedeció los principios entronizados en sus documentos fundacionales, así como la ley sueca, alega Julian Assange en un escrito legal explosivo revisado por The Grayzone. El gobierno sueco violó sus propias leyes al concederle el Premio Nobel de la Paz a María Corina Machado, según un escrito legal explosivo introducido por […]

The post Julian Assange: Suecia violó sus propias leyes al darle el Nobel de la Paz a María Corina Machado first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post Julian Assange: Suecia violó sus propias leyes al darle el Nobel de la Paz a María Corina Machado appeared first on The Grayzone.