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NMIMS offers new courses

A new four-year B.Sc. Animation and VFX course will begin at NMIMS (Deemed to be University) this month. The emphasis of this programme will be students overall development and experiential learning, with hands-on applications and real-world projects.

Eligibility: Candidates must have completed their Class 12 or equivalent exam (diploma in Engineering/ITI) from a recognised board with minimum 50% aggregate marks. Preference will be given to those who have completed national-level certification courses in drawing, acting, dancing and photography. Those above 25 years of age cannot apply.

For details, visit, https://science.nmims.edu/academics/programs/bsc-animation-vfx

The B.Sc. (Tech.) in Cosmeticology and Perfumery focuses on advances in cosmetic product development, pharmacology, perfume chemistry and analytical techniques used in cosmetic and perfume industries.

For details, visit, http://www.nmimsnavimumbai.org/academics/programs/bsc-tech-cosmeticology-and-perfumery.

IMS Noida opens admissions and hosts FDP

Institute of Management Studies (IMS) Noida, invites application for its 2021 batch for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Business Management, Law, Mass Communication, and Information Technology.

How to apply: Applicants can collect the application form from the institute by paying 1,000 (cash) for UG courses and 1,400 (cash) for the PGDM programme. It can also be obtained by post, online or demand draft facility of 1,050/- for UG courses and 1,450/- for PGDM, in favour of IMS- NOIDA payable at Noida / Delhi Noida / Delhi.

Admission process: Applications are open to applicants who have passed or will appear for the qualifying exams under the higher secondary (10+2) from any recognised Board or equivalent. All eligible candidates will have to appear for the entrance exam, which comprises of a written test and personal interview. Qualifying candidates must carry their portfolios. Admission is based on the marks obtained in the qualifying exam and the performance in written tests and personal interviews.

For details, visit, http://imsnoida.com/ http://imsnoida.in

The institution also organised a Faculty Development Program on Personal and Professional Ethics for Teaching Effectiveness. The keynote speaker was Dr . Parin Somani, motivational speaker and author. Dr. Kulneet Suri, Senior Director, IMS Noida, also spoke at the event.

Infinity Learn India Talent Exam

Infinity Learn will conduct the Infinity Learn India Talent Exam (ILITE) for students from Classes 9-12 who want to write the JEE Main, JEE Advanced, and NEET exams. The scholarship aims to students prepare with top faculty for these exams. Infinity Learn by Sri Chaitanya offers online classes for JEE Main, JEE Advanced and NEET. The ILITE will be held online on October 10, between 2.00 and 5.00 p.m. Toppers can win up to 100% scholarship for Infinity Learn courses, as well as other exciting prizes. For details, visit, infinitylearn.com/ilite

Life skills training using tennis

Xebia recently announced its support for EduTennis, a programme that trains underprivileged children in essential life skills using tennis. Xebia will support EduTennis with a series of employee volunteering programmes, wherein its employees will offer time, skills, and mentorship to deepen the impact of the development intervention. For details, visit http://www.xebia.com

Indias first BMC-run Cambridge education school in Mumbai

Mumbai is set to become the first city in India to have a Cambridge affiliated municipal school that will be free to its residents and impart quality education. The inclusion of an international board will go a long way in developing a strong culture of teaching and learning to students of Mumbai Public Schools and ensure that the international curriculum reaches out to every child. The aim is to also explore a more thoughtful collaboration with Cambridge in school reforms and development of municipal schools.

AWS to offer Cloud Computing Curriculum to more institutions

After successfully integrating Cloud Computing curriculum in programmes of study at seven education institutions in 2020, Amazon Web Services (AWS) will add another 21 higher education institutions across India. The curriculum will be included in engineering programmes for Computer Science and IT, degree programmes such as Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Computer Applications, and postgraduate programmes in technology and management offered by institutions in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu. Students will learn about Cloud Architecture, Data Analytics, Cybersecurity, AI and ML. In addition to AWS training and learning resources, students will have access to the AWS Management Console, a web interface that that provides them real-world, hands-on experience in using and experimenting with AWS cloud services and building applications.

Moturi Satyanarayana Centre for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences inaugurated

M. Venkaiah Naidu, Vice President of India, recently inaugurated the Moturi Satyanarayana Centre for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Krea University. The official inauguration event was hosted at Raj Bhavan in Chennai. The centre aims to promote scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and commemorates the life and legacy of Moturi Satyanarayana, veteran freedom fighter, Member of the Constituent Assembly, and a two-time Rajya Sabha MP.

Professional Certificate in Digital Marketing

Simplilearn, in collaboration with the University of Arizona Global Campus Forbes School of Business and Technology (UAGC), recently launched its Professional Certificate in Digital Marketing. With this intensive five-to six-month programme, learners will gain knowledge on the practical aspects of SEO, SEM, Web Analytics, and Social Media Marketing through tools and hands-on practice. On completion, learners will receive a joint Professional Certificate in Digital Marketing by University of Arizona Global Campus and Simplilearn, university credits toward a degree, along with a UAGC Forbes Alumni conferral. Learners will also receive certificates from Simplilearn for all modules in the learning path.

Pearson updates PTE Academic

Pearson recently announced two major updates to its English language proficiency exam, PTE Academic. From November 16, the duration will reduce to two hours. There are no changes to the overall format, question types or scoring scale there will simply be fewer questions allowing candidates to prepare in the same way. The shorter test is still accepted by the same universities and professional bodies, including more than 3000 academic institutions world-wide, and by the governments of the U.K., Australia and New Zealand for visa and immigration purposes.Pearson is also launching PTE Academic Online, for people who prefer to take the test remotely. Also available to take from November 16, the online test takes two hours and will follow the same format and scoring system as the new shorter PTE Academic test centre exam.

Virtual platform to conduct end-to-end campus drives

Mercer | Mettl recently developed an innovative digital platform to conduct virtual campus hiring drives to accelerate campus recruitment processes impacted by COVID-19. The new-age platform enables companies to replicate the step-by-step process of a traditional campus hiring drive online. From campus selection to student engagement before placements through case study competitions and hackathons to assessments to interviews, the platform helps conduct every step virtually and seamlessly. It not only automates the process, but also eliminates the long-standing challenges associated with traditional drives by doing away with activities such as multiple campus visits, physical assessments and other logistical hassles and monetary overheads. The solution allows employers to locate and hire talent from anywhere through a streamlined and scientifically validated process and make data-backed hiring decisions.

IISER Bhopal researchers sequence genome of Giloy

Scientists at IISER Bhopal have sequenced the genome of Giloy, a plant with medicinal properties. This is important due to the use in pharmaceuticals and Ayurvedic formulations to treat various health conditions including COVID-19 and can provide deep insights into the genomic basis of its medicinal properties. This research was undertaken by MetaBioSys Group.

Honeywell launches centres of excellence for skilling

Honeywell Hometown Solutions India Foundation (HHSIF) recently entered into a three-year partnership with ICT Academy to create centres of excellence for skill development in 50 colleges across the country. As part of its CSR efforts, Honeywell has committed 10 crore in the first year to develop these centres, which will offer certifications in AI, ML, Big Data Analytics, and Nano technology. This programme will empower 15,000 students half of whom are women. It offers a globally-recognised certificate that will benefit bright students from societys marginalised sections across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra. HHSIF is also establishing centres for women students. The student learning pathway in the programme includes 100 hours of classroom sessions, personal mentoring in select technologies, proficiency assessments, certification, and campus placements.

LPU launches Semester Abroad Programmes and honours Nishad Kumar, Bajrang Punia

In order to help students gain international educational exposure, LPU will send 150 students to foreign universities on a 100% scholarship under the Semester Abroad Programme. Universities that are part of the programme include University of Lethbridge Canada, IMT Lille Douai France, Curtin University Australia, and others. Early this year, LPU partnered with 43 foreign universities from 22 countries for its students to spend a semester at a foreign university. Under the programme, LPU students will be able to study a full semester at LPUs partner universities and be awarded a degree from LPU. In addition, LPU also offers an International Credit Transfer Programme where the university provides credit transfers to students for 28 programmes to 30 universities in 10 countries, including the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, and more. Under this programme, the initial two years are spent at LPU and the other two years abroad. The student is awarded a degree from the foreign partner university.

The institute also honoured Nishad Kumar, student of its B.A. Physical Education programme and silver medal winner at the recently concluded Paralympics, and Bajrang Punia, a student of its B.PEd programme at the recent Olympic Games. Nishad Kumar was awarded 25 lakhs for the silver medal in High Jump at Paralympics while Bajrang Punia was awarded 10 lakhs for his bronze medal in wrestling.

Placement assurance for Hero Vireds full-time programme in Data Science, ML, and AI

Hero Vired recently announced placement assurance for all aspirants enrolling in the full-time integrated programme in Data Science, ML,and AI. The programme, developed in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is designed to make learners proficient in the industry standards of Python, R, Tableau, PowerBI, Azure, Excel, Tensorflow, PyTorch, SQL and KNIME. It provides hands-on project-based learning on real data, and offers end-to-end programming, including data engineering and MLOPs. Hero Vired has also announced Scholarship Advantage to make its programmes accessible to a broader spectrum of learners and working professionals in India. The scholarships are for individuals with exceptional past academic records, women, and merit students who need financial assistance. For more details, visit http://www.herovired.com

Study on online learning

A new study commissioned by Lenovo and Microsoft recently found that students and educators see enormous potential in online learning, but are just beginning to enjoy its advantages. Conducted by YouGov and Terrapin across 12 markets in Asia Pacific in May, the study examined nearly 3,400 students, parents and educators (including 232 students in India) to understand their assessment of e-learning since the pandemic began and explored how technology can further engage students and support learning. Among students, accessibility (63%) and flexibility (50%) were named as major advantages of online learning. Additionally, 62% of students and 67% of educators praised the convenience of eliminating the need to commute, among others.

Vikram Singh appointed as mPokkets new Head of Product

mPokket recently appointed Vikram Singh as its new Head of Product. He will lead mPokkets product team and develop the product strategy and roadmap that applies creativity, utilises advanced technologies and aligns with the companys strategic goals and will manage a team of product managers and UX designers to build new products and scale existing ones at mPokket.

RV University launches new-age School of Economics and Finance

RV University recently launched a new-age School of Economics and Finance, which offers a mix of three undergraduate, two postgraduate and a Ph.D. programme. In the current year, it will offer B.A. (Hons.), (Economics), B. Com (Hons.) and B.B.A. (Hons.), besides a full-time and part-time Ph.D. programme. In 2022, it will start M.A. (Economics) and M.B.A. programmes. The curriculum has been designed anticipating the fast-evolving needs of the industry. Students of B.B.A. (Hons.) will specialise in Entrepreneurship, and Finance with career tracks in FinTech, Value Investing, Banking and Insurance. M.B.A. students will have choices to specialise in Finance with career tracks in Equity Research, Investment Banking, FinTech and Corporate Finance.

NIIT University appoints Prof. Rajesh Khanna as President

NIIT University recently appointed Prof. Rajesh Khanna as the new President. Prof. Khanna, former faculty and Dean of Students at IIT Delhi, has held numerous faculty and administrative positions at IIT Delhi over the course of his 23-year career, including Head of Department of Chemical Engineering, Dean of Students, Faculty-in-Charge of Sports, Faculty Advisor for Students Society, and a mentor to countless students. He has also held the position of Vice-Chairman of the Joint Entrance Examination. With over 2,000 citations, his research has been well received by the scientific community.

Award for commitment to sustainability

KL Deemed-to-be University was recently bestowed the prestigious Clean and Smart Campus Award 2020 by AICTE, under the category of universities that use Indian Knowledge Systems and in recognition of its wide range of initiatives allied to sustainable growth, and was cited for its sustainability, traditional systematised waste management, resource and use of technology to engage the campus in environmental stewardship. It has also been recognised for promoting several eco-friendly initiatives such as the use of battery powered vehicles, road sweeping machines, sensor-based parking, sensor-based lighting, sensor-based flushing systems, solar and wind power generation, and its active participation in climate change related activities.

Cuemath report on deteriorating Maths learning during the pandemic

Cuemath recently commissioned a study with market research firm AC Nielsen to highlight the learning challenges faced by students during the pandemic. It was conducted to understand parent perceptions and concerns in their childs learning. Around 1,200 samples, split equally across cities and grades, were collected across six metros: Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, and Hyderabad, for Classes 1-12. The report showed a high learning loss amongt children across grades, especially in Maths. According to the survey, one in every four parents of students up to class five believe learning loss to be severe in Maths in the past 18 months. The study also highlights 44% of parents have reported fear of Maths as a prominent factor for learning loss. Furthermore, six out of 10 parents feel that enhanced classroom teaching methods such as interactive videos, game-based learning, and DIY activities by either schools or EdTech platforms are solutions to address this problem.

FLAME University hosts virtual convocation

FLAME University recently virtually hosted its convocation ceremony. Prasoon Joshi, poet, writer and Chairperson of Central Board of Film Certification, was the chief guest. Along with Vice-Chancellor Dishan Kamdar, he presented multiple awards and certificates to celebrated graduates academic and all-round excellence. Owing to the COVID-19 restrictions, the convocation was held virtually, and students, parents and other guests attended the ceremony online.

Khaitan World School launched in Rajnagar, Ghaziabad

The Khaitan Family recently launched The Khaitan World School in Rajnagar, Ghaziabad, which aims to offers a broad and balanced curriculum aligned with the NEP. It will have a capacity to accommodate 2,000 students, with the student:teacher ratio being 1:14. Its primary focus will be on developing skills and attitudes so that students can be successful. Along with reading and speaking skills, there will be a strong focus on other literacies such as media, digital and financial literacy. Learning will be inquiry-driven.

Abhinav Bhatnagar appointed as Tekies VP, Business Strategy

Tekie recently appointed Abhinav Bhatnagar as Vice President, Business Strategy, to strengthen the business strategies further and develop a growth engine. He has an experience of about a decade in the edtech sector and will oversee the high-performing business team at Tekie. Before joining Tekie, he worked as Associate Vice President at PlanetSpark, and has also co-founded ClassReadyTechnologies.

Scaler launches lifelong career accelerator programme

Scaler recently launched Forever, a subscription-based upskilling programme for tech professionals, designed on continuous learning and mentoring principles, essential to remaining relevant to the industry and lifelong career growth. The programme provides mentoring, guidance and support sessions with leading tech professionals allowing members/learners to make better career decisions, career and skill development cohorts that encourage in-depth and high-quality learning of topics and upcoming technologies, networking opportunities such as group classes + access to an exclusive community of motivated technology professionals, access to all Scaler masterclasses, hackathons and coding/programming competitions to fine-tune and build technical skills, and engagement with industry peers and leaders through regular events such as AMAs and fireside chats.

UBS includes CMAPS module in MBA

Universal Business School, Mumbai, has recently included a Collaborative Multi-disciplinary Approach towards Problem Solving (CMAPS) module in its MBA. This is being offered to first-year students, and will support them in getting business knowledge from the field experts with practical exposure to problem-solving, analytics and technical abilities. Over 500 corporates are being approached to finalise 60 projects under CMAPS.

Prof. U Ramamurty, researcher from NTU Singapore, at SRM University-AP

An interactive session between Prof. U Ramamurty, President Chair Professor, School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, and the faculty members of SRM University-AP was held recently. During the discussion, Prof. Ramamurthy emphasised the importance of research collaboration between faculty members from different research areas and utilising expertise to achieve significant scientific output. Dr. Pardhasaradhi Maram, Department of Chemistry, Dr. Sabyasachi Mukhopadhyay, Department of Physics, and Prof. G S Vinod Kumar, Department of Mechanical Engineering presented their detailed research areas.

IIT Roorkee contributes to confirm cosmic clocks, conducts virtual convocation

The Indian Pulsar Timing Array (InPTA) team of astronomers recently detected unprecedented changes in a radio pulsar with the help of a highly versatile, sensitive and upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT).The InPTA is a collaboration of Indian and Japanese astronomers from several institutes, including IIT Roorkee. Earlier this year, the InPTA became a part of an international collaboration aiming to catch the elusive nanohertz gravitational waves. The results of this project was recently published as letters in monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The paper had contributions from two IIT-Roorkee students Jaikhomba Singha, a Ph.D. student, the lead author and Piyush Marmat (Int. M.Sc. student) of the Department of Physics.

IIT Roorkee also conducted its virtual convocation recently. The chief guest was Prof. Pradeep K. Khosla, Chancellor, University of California San Diego. A total of 1,804 degrees were awarded this year. There were 912 undergraduate, 685 postgraduate, and 207 doctorate degree recipients.

BYJUS apooints Vineet Singh and acquires Gradeup

BYJUS recently appointed Vineet Singh as Vice President, Brand & Creative Strategy. Hewill be responsible for building and enhancing the brands value proposition across offline and online mediums to cater to a diverse array of audiences across the country.

It also announced the acquisition of Gradeup, which will be rebranded as BYJUS Exam Prep and cater to students preparing for 150+ exams including Government jobs and PG entrance exams such as UPSC CSE, GATE, CAT, Bank PO/Clerk, Defence, UGC-NET, and so on.

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News from the world of Education: September 14, 2021 - The Hindu

You may have great clients, loyal to your product or service, but how do you stay in touch with them when they switch jobs?

That was the dilemma faced by Ellie von Reyn, Conductors Director of Demand Generation.Our customers love our technology and our service team. Weve got thousands of customers, but marketers switch companies every couple of years. We wanted to reach out to this loyal user base, but we didnt have an easy way to do that. Automated contact tracking turned out to be the answer.

Whether you call it labor market fluidity or job hopping, the trend is clear people change jobs more frequently now than in the past. In 2016, LinkedIn data revealed that people who graduated between 2001 and 2010 (aka millennials) worked for an average of 3-4 companies in the first 5 years post-graduation.

For companies that sell goods and services to B2B clients, the high rate of job churn means that todays contacts may have moved on by next week (or tomorrow.) This is inherently challenging when trying to maintain a long-term relationship with a customer. But it also presents an opportunity for B2B marketers, assuming they can reconnect with their existing contacts when they inevitably move on to different companies.

Conductor, an enterprise SEO and content management platform, caters to marketers meaning, they tend to switch jobs frequently.

Von Reyn saw an opportunity to connect with Conductors past users as they moved to new companies, but she also knew their approach for doing this was not ideal: her team looked for former contacts on LinkedIn or reached out on a one-to-one basis a time consuming and manual process. She began researching tools that could help automate this process and ultimately found a solution.

We found UserGems, a tool that essentially does the heavy lifting for us, said von Reyn. The technology identifies when contacts from our existing customers move to a new company. Were now able to automate email campaigns that get in front of previous users we call them our past-user campaigns.

Von Reyn onboarded UserGems while working with Conductors VPs of revenue operations and marketing to get them on board with the new technology and approach. There wasnt much training or implementation involved once they moved forward with the tool.

We connected UserGems to Salesforce, said von Reyn, We did some preliminary training with our revenue organization to get them up to speed about what we were doing and where these new contacts were coming from. They didnt have to learn anything new because the information was in Salesforce, a tool they were already using.

With UserGems, von Reyns team can orchestrate past user outreach using a more consistent, planned approach. When a contact switches jobs on LinkedIn, Conductor gets an alert that says the contact left X company and moved to Y company. Conductors past-user campaigns typically include a list of recent product updates and news that the contact might have missed during their transition.

The entire process is automated. We can reach out via email to congratulate them on the new role and see if we can be of any help at their new company, said von Reyn.

Conductor runs quarterly email campaigns to a list of past users with customized messaging that addresses this very specific audience.

We include marketing messaging and communications from our revenue organization, said von Reyn, Typically we share new assets and creative content like invitations to webinars. This enables us to get our marketing materials in front of former users, but also leverage custom messaging acknowledging that the contact has worked with Conductor in their past role and offering to help them in their current role.

The UserGems solution seems fairly unique, but it does fall within the overall category of sales intelligence. We asked Michael Gigante, Senior Market Research Analyst at the business software review site G2, how he sees that category developing.

Sales Intelligence software enables sales teams to find information and insights about prospects, he said. Sales intelligence software has become an invaluable tool for many revenue teams as it dramatically reduces the amount of time it takes to identify qualified leads.

Traffic to the category page on G2 has almost tripled over the past three years and sales intelligence is now the third most visited of all G2s sales categories.

In terms of vendor presence in the category, the category has also experienced significant growth over the last three years, said Gigante. years. The number of vendors in the sales intelligence category has almost doubled (to 108) since 2018. As with any trending category on G2, I expect the total number of reviews in the category to steadily increase as well as the category page traffic, he said.

Von Reyn and her team are extremely happy with the success of the past-user campaigns. Specific success metrics include:

Von Reyn notes that a big reason for the high ROI with the past-user approach is that her team iscareful to reach out only to contacts who move to similar organizations and roles compared with their former positions. For Conductor, that means enterprise companies rather than small agencies or smaller companies.

Its common for marketers to move to similar organizations and take on similar roles when they switch jobs. We probably wouldnt see the same ROI if we reached out to past users who moved from a big enterprise company to a small agency because thats not our target profile. We really shine in the enterprise space, so we make sure that were reaching out to the people who are in that target profile.

For companies who want to use the past-user approach to marketing, von Reyn recommends making sure they reach out to people who move to similar roles within organizations that fall within their target profile.

Make sure you think about your customer base, said von Reyn, We typically refine the list by industry and use data from Salesforce and other sources to filter out contacts that dont fit our profile.

Continued here:
How contact tracking tech can reconnect brands with former customers - MarTech

Business Wire IndiaOn the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, Ace Edutech (AceManbass subsidiary) and Blue Digital Media Pvt. Ltd. announces the formal launch of a new era in the Edu Tech space in South India.Ace Edutech aims at giving direction to anyone in their career. They provide right expertise, skills and support to the students, job seekers and other aspirants at every level.Ace Edutech is associated with the world class associations of the group companies. Theyhave developed their model in such a way that they are identifying individuals and organizations learning needs and providing them the world class training from the industry experts. A blended approach of online and offline, traditional teaching techniques and neo learning tools is taken depending upon the requirement. They provide market relevant courses and industry relevant materials so that students are apt to accommodate from day 1 of their practice.With everything going digital, Ace Edu Tech and Blue Digital collaborated to digitize the online learning space with the help of Technology. The new world order requires talent and skill upgradation from time to time. Blue Digital Medias portfolio is an example itself to answer the question of why choosing them as a partner. Being in the industry from last 12 years, Blue Digital is being working in education space with clients like Western University Canada, SP Jain Dubai, LPU, AIC-ISB, IMTCDL, and many more.How Ace Edutech and Blue Digital Media are making a difference?

Original post:
A Good Education Is a Foundation for a Better Future - IndianWeb2.com

Photo: AFP via Getty Images

On September 11, 2001, Donald Trump honored the then-unknown number of dead in lower Manhattan by pointing out that the collapse of the World Trade Center meant that he now owned the tallest building downtown. To commemorate the events 20th anniversary, he visited a fire station and police precinct in New York City before flying back to Florida to guest-host a novelty pay-per-view boxing match with his son.

The former president, a promoter at heart, mostly stuck to vague bromides that couldnt get him in trouble as he provided color commentary during four underwhelming bouts at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. I think tonights card is going to be very successful, he said, when asked about his expectations for the evening. He is like a totally different fighter, he said, seconds after a co-host made the exact same observation. I like to do that, he said, when asked if he liked to eat lobster. Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the night is that Trump hung on for the whole undercard without getting visibly bored.

Though he largely behaved himself, a few non-boxing jabs inevitably came through. When asked at the beginning of the broadcast about 9/11, Trump said that the anniversary was made even worse because of a very bad week from President Joe Biden. He praised the state of Florida for the way they ran the election clean. Describing the way that referees decide boxing matches, he said, Its like elections: It could be rigged. Donald Trump Jr., during a particularly boring moment in the first bout, said that right now, the audience likes politics better.

It was an astute observation: During the first two fights, the only real noise from the crowd came during outbursts in support of the former president. Cardboard banners dotted the casino arena: Bring back #45 and Trump won. (Im watching the signs, said Trump.) The home audience that paid $50 to stream the fight also got access to a live chat in which viewers talked about QAnon, Hunter Biden, Joe Biden sucking, Pepe the frog, Trump actually winning the 2020 election, and Jeffrey Epstein not actually killing himself.

Theres a reason the boxing wasnt really the main event: Celebrity fights, of the sort featuring aging heavyweights, jacked influencers, and retired NBA players, are a sideshow of the sport itself designed purely to make money. (Other than Anderson Silvas first-round knockout of Tito Ortiz in the third bout, many of the boxers on Saturday night spent more time trying to avoid boxing than actually boxing.) Into this world enters President Trump, a man whos never been afraid of a weird opportunity to make money. His presence was a perfect addition to the resurgence of novelty fighting: a domain full of shady financing; alleged sexual assaults; aging stars who are trying to mount a comeback; and guys who really like Florida.

In some ways, he never really left the sport. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Trump hosted several marquee fights in Atlantic City, including Mike Tyson vs. Larry Holmes and Evander Holyfield vs. George Foreman. Since the 80s, Trump has been friends with World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Vince McMahon and once shaved his head in the battle of the billionaires at WrestleMania. McMahons wife, Linda, served as the head of Trumps Small Business Administration and worked on his 2020 campaign, while Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White is also a close friend. If his observations on Saturday night werent particularly insightful, it was clear that this world claimed him as one of their own. To his credit, Trumps best moments were his recollections of his Atlantic City days, and he seemed genuinely animated when Jorge Masvidal, a UFC champ who campaigned for him in south Florida, stepped into the announcers box.

George Foreman, Donald Trump, and Evander Holyfield promote an Atlantic City fight in April 1991. Photo: The Ring Magazine via Getty Imag

After his year of almost nonstop assaults on American democracy, its very strange to watch Donald Trump talk boxing, enjoy himself, and be in charge of absolutely nothing for a few hours. This bizarre appearance on a mostly tedious three-hour stream felt like a peek into another reality: one in which the 45th president accepted his electoral loss last November, and instead of flirting with a second run, he spent his time chasing quick cash in man-o-sphere appearances events that can be outrageously fun and stupid if you choose to engage and completely inconsequential if you do not.

As the night wore on, it got more absurd. Before Evander Holyfield got in the ring with former UFC champ Vitor Belfort, the audience was asked to observe the anniversary of 9/11 for a ten-count of the bell. The silence was broken up by a woman yelling, Feel that fuckers! Shut the fuck up! the crowd screamed back. The memorial bell tolled as the audience booed and a woman in short shorts walked around the ring with an American flag.

Once the fight started, Belfort more or less beat the pulp out of the 58-year-old Holyfield until the sad display was called off before the second round. (Holyfield wasnt actually supposed to fight: He was subbed in after Oscar de la Hoya got COVID at the last minute; his last opponent was in a charity fight against Mitt Romney in 2015.) When he was interviewed after the fight, Belfort called Jake Paul a bitch and demanded that the celebrity-boxing moneymaker fight him for $25 million on Thanksgiving. Trump, after avoiding the crowds chants requesting he give a speech, closed out the event with an address to his many supporters in the casino. This is like a rally, he said. We love you all. We love this country.

Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.

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Trump Guest-Hosting a Boxing Match on 9/11 Was a Vision From an Alternate Reality - New York Magazine

There are some things so difficult to countenance that it can seem simply easier to believe they didnt happen: that one man could put a bullet through the presidents skull, that human beings could stand on the moon, that a seemingly average man might walk into a school and kill the children inside. And, throughout history, many people have chosen simply not to believe those unfathomable events, telling themselves stories that help make the world make sense, albeit more sinister.

So when the first plane and then another collided with the Twin Towers 20 years ago in lower Manhattan, it opened a wound so unfathomable in its horror that it seemed necessary to tell a new kind of story one that helped make sense of the tragedy, even as it distorted it. The conspiracy theories began almost as soon as the attacks had finished, and they have stayed with us to this day.

The theories themselves are so well-worn that they have progressed all the way to memes: the common refrain that jet fuel cant melt steel beams, once an earnestly communicated part of conspiracy lore, has now become so hackneyed that it is almost meaningless. But there are many others, which either tend to suggest that that the US could have intervened but decided not to, or that it actually orchestrated the attacks itself.

At the same time, however, they borrowed from tropes and ideas that had existed for centuries before, and which have continued to prove popular in the decades since. For the most part, 9/11 conspiracy theories are the same as those that went before, and those that followed, with the nouns swapped.

Perhaps the most distinct facet about the 9/11 conspiracy theories is the way they were pushed through formats that are familiar now in everything from advertising to the arts. In 2005, as the early viral internet we know today was finding its feet it was the year of the first Pepe the Frog drawing, the beginnings of Chuck Norris facts and the Million Dollar Homepage there appeared a video known as Loose Change, a documentary that presented the central ideas of the 9/11 conspiracy theory in a way that sent it swiftly across the internet.

Korey Rowe, the Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who made the film with friend Dylan Avery after returning from those wars confused and disillusioned, has drawn a straight line from the film to the various conspiracy theories that surround us today.

Look at where its gone: you have people storming the Capitol because they believe the election was a fraud. You have people who wont get vaccinated and theyre dying in hospitals, he told the Associated Press. Weve gotten to the point where information is actually killing people.

One of the legacies of 9/11 was to give prominence to the idea of the false flag attack

(Reuters)

It can be easy to blame the internet. Experts are divided on whether technology has really made people more given to believing in conspiracy theories.

9/11 conspiracy theories existed, and the internet existed, says Joseph Uscinski, a professor at the University of Miami and author of books on conspiracy theories. But it wasnt the case that conspiracy theories somehow couldnt grow before the internet; thats just completely false, and it reflects a really rosy view of history.

We had multiple red scares in this country, Freemason breakouts, Illuminati panics, crushing and drowning witches all before the internet.

One month after Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, 55 per cent of Americans believed that the assassination was pulled off by a conspiracy rather than a lone gunman. That number increased to 80 per cent in the 1970s, and stayed that way for three decades; we havent seen 80 per cent numbers on anything in the internet era.

The view that the internet is to blame either for promoting or discouraging conspiracy theorists looks at the problem from the wrong perspective, Mr Uscinski argues; people are not simply blank slate lemmings walking around that can have their mind changed by any piece of information they run into, whether that emerged from the internet or the printing press. Instead, conspiracy theory belief is a worldview and interpretation of the world like any other.

Theres no evidence whatsoever that people believe conspiracy theories more now than they did in the past. We can only see it more.

Perhaps one of the more potent legacies of 9/11 conspiracy theories is the establishment of a career that has continued to flourish: the professional conspiracist. And perhaps nobody has embodied that more than Alex Jones.

Alex Jones feeds the disbelief and accusations that surround major tragedies

(Infowars)

Jones was already a relatively successful radio host by the time of 9/11, and some of that success was built using the same playbook he would use after the attacks. Before 2001, he had focused on other traumatic events and claimed to know the truth of them the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, for instance, and the Waco siege that had happened two years before and helped inspire it. While the late 1990s are sometimes depicted as a prelapsarian time of social harmony and reliable information that was broken by 9/11, those events and the response to them show that the foundations were there already.

And while 9/11 helped establish the Alex Jones brand as it exists today, it was only one stop on his road to underground domination. He has applied the same format of disbelief and accusations that the media story is a hoax to everything from school shootings to the Capitol riot.

He has been able to do so because one of the legacies of 9/11 was to give prominence to the idea of the false flag attack, a theory that an organisation or country conducts an operation under the banner of another. While that idea has been present for centuries its name derives from the very real flag that would flown on navy ships it became increasingly popular after 2001.

It is a way of explaining what the motivations were for, say, George W Bush to the extent that you believe that the president and certain aspects of the military industrial complex would be interested in allowing or organising an attack on US soil because it creates an enemy that you can go fight for whatever nefarious purpose you have, says Mark Fenster, a law professor at the University of Florida and author of the seminal book Conspiracy Theories. And that has just become a trope that explains everything now.

And so the Sandy Hook shooting massacre becomes not the horrible slaughter of kindergarten students by a teenager, but instead a fake operation through which Barack Obama could impose stronger gun control laws. The Capitol riot on 6 January was not an insurrection against Congress by the far right, but the intentional creation of chaos and violent mayhem to be used against conservatives.

20 years of conflict and terror since 9/11

Some of todays conspiracy theories have become far more involved than the ones that cropped up after 9/11, with their adherents behaving more like those interested in myth or religious texts than scholarly study. Those who believe in QAnon, for instance, gather their beliefs primarily through the almost-sacred texts that are posted by the mysterious Q, not by endlessly replaying videos and conducting experiments to understand whether the official story makes scientific sense, like those who believe in 9/11 conspiracies.

Others today are laced with a specific kind of irony, that does appear to have been born out of the internet. Accusations that Beyonc is a member of the Illuminati seem at once earnest and something of a joke; the slogan Epstein didnt kill himself emerges from both a sincerely held belief and has become enough of a meme that it could be slapped on beers and novelty Christmas jumpers.

At the same time, those conspiracy theories have deadly consequences. Covid and anti-vaccine conspiracy theories often borrowing from those same health-based scares that have spread for centuries continue to prove popular both online and in person.

Each age has its truths, its lies and its conspiracy theories. As much as the truth of 9/11 defined those first years of the 21st century, the conspiracy theories around them have helped colour the lies the world has told itself for the last 20 years.

Read more:
How 9/11 influenced the way conspiracy theories spread today - The Independent