1. Rachael Fionda introduced me to Gwich’in language and culture and its rich website https://gwichin.ca/ in her NILE webinar on Language Policy and Language Pedagogy earlier this week. The Dinjii Zhu’ Ginjik (the Gwich’in language) is spoken by fewer than 300 people, nearly all over forty years old, in Canada’s Northwest Territories.

“Now, same time too, as you all know, we haven’t got no written history of our Dene Nation.  For this part of the world.  …We haven’t got no written statement of our own.  After the Mission have come into our land here, both Hudson’s Bay and the Mission, only then did we [draft a] written statement of our history.  …We know, for sure, that we have been in this North Land for a long, long time.  [For example,] the Rat River… goes up and past the summit lake which is called Daadzaii Van, or Loon Lake.  And then you get to Bell River, the small Bell River, first.  And then you get to the Big Bell.  Now it’s called Bell River since 1898, but before that, people knew these rivers as Chii Vee Njik.  Chii Vee Njik Gwitsal– Little Bell River, Chii Vee Njik Gwichoo– Big Bell River.  So, you will know by these names that people have used all these areas for many, many years.  …Made their living for many years.” (Jim Edwards Sittichinli)

2. From Daisy Christodoulou, on her blog No More Marking, The ethics of AI assessment: five big issues – What do teachers, students and parents think about AI marking essays?https://substack.nomoremarking.com/p/the-ethics-of-ai-assessment-five

(…) it is obviously wildly unrealistic to expect human teachers to routinely provide feedback on essays within a couple of hours. In fact, one of my biggest bugbears as a teacher was when a student would hand an essay in a week late and then turn up at the staff room door at the end of the day asking if I’d marked it! If AI can deliver quicker feedback, that’s definitely a good thing.

3. From Carne Ross, How Power Works: Iran and the deeper forces driving US military action https://carneross.substack.com/p/how-power-works-iran-and-the-deeper

The US and Israeli attacks on Iran are only possible because of their vast military superiority. Israeli military power — both its scale and technology — is itself a function of US power. The United States can strike any point on Earth within hours, with negligible risk to its own forces. It can deploy overwhelming air power in any region. This awesome power alone helps explain the propensity to use force: the more dominant a state’s military power, the lower the perceived cost of using it — and the more likely it is to be used. But there’s something more. This military power often fails to translate into political success. Yet the US persists in choosing this tool. Why? The reasons are often obscure.

4. Another piece on Iran, by Amjad Iraqi for The London Review of Books, From Gaza to Iran https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n06/amjad-iraqi/short-cuts (Open access at the time of writing.)

It’s no surprise that Operation Roaring Lion (Israel’s name for its campaign) and Operation Epic Fury (as the US calls its own) bear the hallmarks of Israel’s offensives on the Gaza Strip. For more than two years, Israel has radically reshaped its policy of managing conflict by what it calls ‘mowing the lawn’. Since 7 October 2023, its political and military leaders have embraced a much more ambitious and devastating approach, which has been tested in Gaza, then replicated in Lebanon and to some extent in Yemen. Palestinians and their supporters have long likened the occupied territories to a ‘laboratory’ where Israel experiments with military tactics, surveillance technologies and methods of population control, before applying them elsewhere. War with Iran is a long-held ambition of Netanyahu’s, but Gaza is where he and his generals designed the playbook that is now being followed in that war.

5. And, finally, Katja Hoyer and Christopher Dillon’s new free German history podcast, Reichs and Republics https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/BATTLEGUIDETOURSLTD9754164360

Bismarck this week!