2024-12-28
define "free"?, Canoo folds, VW exposes, distrust of AI, Meta wants AI-book?, Parker probe lives, Do Kwon to be extradited, suspect CISA activities, Jan6 2 setup, German elections, NY climate fines
Horseshit
-
The effects of 'brain rot': How junk content is damaging our minds
-
Why did so many mid-century designers make children's books?
-
A Silicon Valley nudist resort is on sale for $30M – will it 'go textile'?
-
Their Decisions Make or Break Your Holiday Travel at the Trickiest U.S. Airport
-
87.4% of population experienced a decline in freedom from 2020 to 2022
- After having fallen significantly in 2020 and further in 2021, human freedom increased in 2022 but remained well below its pre-pandemic level.
- Just 14.1 per cent of the world’s population lives in the top 25 per cent of freest jurisdictions while 43 per cent live in the bottom 25 per cent.
- The freest place on Earth is Switzerland, followed by New Zealand; Denmark; Luxembourg; Ireland; Finland; Australia, Iceland and Sweden (tied at 7); and Estonia.
- Canada ranks 11th and the UK and US are tied for 17th place.
-
'Living proof that you can spend money on the poor': Utopia comes to Mexico City
celebrity gossip
Obit
-
Osamu Suzuki, who ran Suzuki Motor for five decades, dies at 94
-
Dick Parsons, Emergency Fixer for Troubled Companies, Dies at 76
-
Hudson Meek death: Tributes paid to Baby Driver actor
Meek fell from a vehicle in Vestavia Hills, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, on 19 December, authorities said. He sustained blunt force trauma in the fall and died of his injuries two days later.
Musk
Electric / Self Driving cars
-
Canoo Imposes 'Mandatory Unpaid Leave' on All Employees
the self-driving vehicle manufacturer Canoo suffers from more self-inflicted problems than most. Earlier this year, it was revealed that the company spent twice as much on a private jet for its CEO than it had earned for the entire year of 2023. It burned through capital and now seems unable to wrap up the year.
-
VW Suffers Major Breach Exposing Location of 800k Electric Vehicles
Religion / Tribal / Culture War and Re-Segregation
- I've seen this said decades ago, "filthy hippies profaning our rites"... by people who turned out to be paid by the FBI to run "terrorist" groups. Peyote sacred to Native Americans threatened by psychedelic Renaissance
Edumacationalizing / Acedemia Nuts
Info Rental / ShowBiz / Advertising
-
Apple Explains Why It Doesn't Plan to Create a Search Engine
-
Fake Nintendo lawyer is scaring YouTubers, and its not clear YouTube can stop it
-
Malicious Microsoft VSCode extensions target devs, crypto community
-
I'm Tired of Pretending Physical Media Isn't Still Better Than Streaming Digital
-
Matt Mullenweg Asks What Drama to Create in 2025, Community Reacts
-
Cybersecurity firm's Chrome extension hijacked to steal users' data
-
Copyright Industry Wants to Apply Automated Blocking to Core Internet Routers
TechSuck / Geek Bait
AI Will (Save | Destroy) The World
-
Trust Issues: The closed corporate ecosystem is the problem
It’s worth stressing just how closed, and thus untrustworthy, the corporate AI ecosystem is. Meta has earned a lot of press for its “open-source” family of LLaMa models, but there is virtually nothing open about them. For one, the data they are trained with is undisclosed. You’re not supposed to use LLaMa to infringe on someone else’s copyright, but Meta does not want to answer questions about whether it violated copyrights to build it. You’re not supposed to use it in Europe, because Meta has declined to meet the regulatory requirements anticipated from the EU’s AI Act. And you have no say in how Meta will build its next model.
-
OpenAI says it needs 'more capital than we'd imagined', lays out for-profit plan
-
Geoffrey Hinton shortens odds of the technology wiping out humanity within 30yrs
-
Meta envisages social media filled with AI-generated users
The Silicon Valley group is rolling out a range of AI products, including one that helps users create AI characters on Instagram and Facebook, as it battles with rival tech groups to attract and retain a younger audience. “We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do,” said Connor Hayes, vice-president of product for generative AI at Meta. “They’ll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform. that’s where we see all of this going,” he added. Hayes said a “priority” for Meta over the next two years was to make its apps “more entertaining and engaging”, which included considering how to make the interaction with AI more social.
Space / Boomy Zoomers / UFO
Crypto con games
Economicon / Business / Finance
Gubmint / Poilitcks / Law Making
-
The Spies Who Hate Us ⋆ Brownstone Institute
It is part of the Department of Homeland Security created after 9-11. It is called the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency or CISA. It was created in 2018 out of a 2017 executive order that seemed to make sense. It was a mandate to secure American digital infrastructure against foreign attack and infiltration. And yet during the Covid year, it assumed three huge jobs. It was the agency responsible for dividing the workforce between essential and nonessential. It led the way on censorship efforts. And it handled election security for 2020 and 2022, which, if you understand the implications of that, should make you spit out your coffee upon learning.
Everything that the intelligence agencies did not like during this period – doubting lockdowns, dismissing masking, questioning the vaccine, and so on – was targeted through a variety of cutouts among NGOs, universities, and private-sector fact-checkers. It was all labeled as Russian and Chinese propaganda so as to fit in with CISA’s mandate. Then it was throttled and taken down. It managed remarkable feats such as getting WhatsApp to stop allowing bulk sharing. It gets crazier. CISA documented that it deprecated the study of Jay Bhattacharya from May 2020 that showed that Covid was far more widespread and less dangerous than the CDC was claiming, thus driving down the Infection Fatality Rate within the range of a bad flu. This was at a time when it was widely assumed to be the black death. CISA weighed in to say that the study was faulty and tore down posts about it. The granularity of their work is shocking, naming Epoch Times, Unz.org, and a whole series of websites as disinformation, often with a crazy spin that identified them with Russian propaganda, white supremacy, terrorist activity, or some such. Reading through the document conjures up memories of Lenin and Stalin smearing the Kulaks or Hitler on the Jews. Everything that is contrary to government claims becomes foreign infiltration or insurrectionist or otherwise seditious.
-
DOE natural gas analysis draws disbelief from Republicans, industry.
While the analysis admits that increasing LNG exports would generate revenue and create jobs across the natural gas supply chain, it simultaneously holds that the average American household would face 30% higher gas prices. Without citing specific data, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said the projected price increase is due to “the increasing domestic price of the natural gas itself, increases in electricity prices (natural gas being a key input in many U.S. power markets), and the increased costs for consumers from the pass-through of higher costs to U.S. manufacturers.”
Trump
Democrats / Biden Inc
Left Angst
-
Congress does not have to accept Trump's electoral votes
The Constitution provides that an oath-breaking insurrectionist is ineligible to be president. This is the plain wording of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. “No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” This disability can be removed by a two-thirds vote in each House. Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution and not the government. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming. The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel.
-
The authors and other who agree with them should go express themselves in front of the Capitol on Jan 6th when they count the EC votes.
-
The Left Is Pushing Congress for an Insurrection on Jan. 6, 2025.
-
Libs Demand Congress Do Something That Was Considered an Act of Armed Rebellion Not So Long Ago.
-
-
Incoming border czar hints at battle between federal and local authorities
-
Big companies that denounced Jan. 6 are now showering millions on Trump inauguration
Law Breaking / Police / Internal Security
External Security / Militaria / Diplomania
World
-
Finland Says Vessel Suspected of Cutting Cable Part of Russia's 'Shadow Fleet'
-
Germany Opened Its Doors to Migrants. Now It’s Struggling to Cope. - WSJ
Germany has long been one of the world’s most welcoming nations to migrants. Between 2013 and 2023, 6.43 million more people settled in Germany than left, according to Germany’s Federal Statistics Office—the biggest inflow of any country outside the U.S., according to the United Nations. Polls show immigration is a top issue for voters ahead of a general election in February. The concern is likely to gain urgency after a 50-year old Saudi refugee was detained on suspicion of ramming a car into a Christmas market in Eastern Germany on Dec. 20, killing five and leaving more than 200 wounded.
-
Germany's president dissolves parliament, sets national election for Feb. 23
-
Who is Friedrich Merz, the pilot politician tipped to be German chancellor?
-
Singapore Mansion Deals Are Increasingly Shrouded in Secrecy
-
South Korean lawmakers impeach acting President Han Duck-soo
-
New Syrian authorities arrest official from notorious prison, war monitor says
-
The USB-C charging mandate arrives in the EU – here's what that means
Israel
-
Israel Weakened Civilian Protections When Bombing Hamas Fighters
-
Medics among at least 59 killed in Israel airstrikes across Gaza strip
-
The head of the World Health Organization is caught in Israeli bombing of Yemen airport
-
Houthis claim new attacks on Israel after strikes hit Yemen airport
-
US THAAD air defense system intercepted Friday morning Houthi missile