Writing music down like Mozart did is ‘white hegemony’, proposed reform of Oxford’s curriculum reportedly claims

Teaching music at Oxford may soon be less about writing notation and conducting orchestras, and more about which artists hated Donald Trump’s use of their works without permission, proposed reform reportedly suggests.

One of the most prestigious universities in the UK plans to overhaul its music courses for undergraduates to steer them away from elements of ‘colonialism’ and ‘white supremacy’, the Telegraph reported, citing internal documents. The supposedly problematic parts of the curriculum include the study of musical notation, described as a “colonialist representational system.”

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WTF?

Joshua wasn’t exactly a big help

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Paramount+ reportedly removes SpongeBob episode about ‘Clam Flu’ due to similarities with Covid-19 pandemic

At least two ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ episodes have been removed from streaming service Paramount+ due to “inappropriate elements,” including a “panty raid” and a Krusty Krab quarantine that resembles the coronavirus pandemic.

Both ‘Mid-Life Crustacean’ – a 2002 episode where Mr. Krabs has a mid-life crisis – and ‘Kwarantined Krab’ – a 2019 episode where the Krusty Krab is placed under quarantine to contain a case of ‘Clam Flu’ – are unavailable on the Paramount+ streaming service, which serves as the digital home for all Nickelodeon content as well as other properties owned by ViacomCBS.

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Pete Buttigieg says the Biden administration is considering taxing drivers by the MILE to fund their $3trillion climate-friendly infrastructure proposal

The White House is mulling a tax on vehicles’ mileage to pay for a proposal to revamp the nation’s infrastructure expected in the coming days, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Friday.

In an interview with CNBC, Buttigieg said a tax on miles driven ‘shows a lot of promise,’ as President Joe Biden’s administration faces pressure to find ways to fund infrastructure improvements, a goal that has eluded the past two presidential administrations.

‘The gas tax used to be the obvious way to do it. It’s not anymore, so a so-called vehicle miles traveled tax or mileage tax, whatever you want to call, could be a way to do it.’

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Sajjan was involved in Vance pay raise, top civil servant says

A top civil servant contradicted Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan’s denial of any role in awarding former chief of defence staff Jonathan Vance a pay raise after the Prime Minister’s Office and Mr. Sajjan were made aware of sexual misconduct allegations against him.

Janine Sherman, who as a deputy secretary to the cabinet is one of the most senior civil servants in the federal government, appeared at the House of Commons defence committee Friday. Citing privacy rules, she declined to answer many questions about the allegations and the government’s response, prompting an NDP MP to compare her responses to a “culture of denial and deflection” within the public service.

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Suez Canal: Ships stuck in ‘traffic jam’ as salvage efforts continue

The blockage of Egypt’s Suez canal by a giant container ship is causing a “traffic jam” in the Red Sea, according to a merchant seaman on a nearby ship.

Joe Reynolds, chief engineer of the Maersk Ohio, told the BBC the number of vessels waiting at the canal’s southern entrance was “growing exponentially”.

“It’s going to affect shipping schedules around the world,” he warned.

Tugboats and dredgers are trying to dislodge the Ever Given, which is wedged diagonally across the waterway.

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Mitt Romney Receives JFK ‘Profile In Courage’ Award For Voting To Impeach Donald Trump

Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney has been officially announced as the 2021 recipient of the JFK Profile In Courage Award.

The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation made the announcement Friday, and cited Romney’s vote to convict former President Donald Trump in his first Senate impeachment trial as the reason for his selection.

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Original assessment of COVID-19 as low-risk wasn’t wrong, Tam says, despite Auditor-General’s report

Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer says her agency wasn’t wrong when it rated the risk of COVID-19 to the country as low in early 2020, a ranking that the federal Auditor-General says was concerning and based on a faulty assessment tool.

At a news conference on Friday, Theresa Tam said the low-risk assessment was to show a moment in time rather than the potential risk the coronavirus posed to Canadians. However, she said her agency is now more focused on its forward-looking risk assessments, rather than only capturing the immediate risk posed by a disease.

“It was not wrong, it’s just that it is important to also provide what that future state might be like,” Dr. Tam said. Public-health agencies, she said, “need to be prediction organizations and not just being able to assess the risk of that present moment.”

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Suez Canal crisis threatens global toilet roll shortage as shipping route still blocked

A megaship blocking the Suez Canal may cause a new toilet paper crisis, it is claimed.

It comes just a year after UK supermarket shelves were stripped of toilet roll in a frenzy of panic buying just before the first lockdown.

Huge queues of ships waiting for the Suez Canal to be unblocked could now result in a new worldwide shortage of toilet paper, according wood pulp firm Suzano SA.

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