Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

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Tras el telónrespiran aliviadas,todas las máscaras. j.ll.folch 23/11/24 Esta obra está bajo una Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-…

9992 haiku

OpenAI’s new defense contract completes its military pivot | MIT Technology Review (Me: “Skynet 2.0 launching?”)

…The company says it will partner with the defense-tech company Anduril, a maker of AI-powered drones, radar systems, and missiles, to help US and allied forces defend against drone attacks. OpenAI will help build AI models that “rapidly synthesize time-sensitive data, reduce the burden on human operators, and improve situational awareness” to take down enemy drones, according to the announcement. Specifics have not been released, but the program will be narrowly focused on defending US personnel and facilities from unmanned aerial threats, according to Liz Bourgeois, an OpenAI spokesperson. “This partnership is consistent with our policies and does not involve leveraging our technology to develop systems designed to harm others,” she said. An Anduril spokesperson did not provide specifics on the bases around the world where the models will be deployed but said the technology will help spot and track drones and reduce the time service members spend on dull tasks…

Source: OpenAI’s new defense contract completes its military pivot | MIT Technology Review

Liz Cheney calls Trump threat to jail her an ‘assault on the rule of law’ | Liz Cheney | The Guardian

The former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney has described a threat by President-elect Donald Trump to imprison her alongside others involved in an investigation of his supporters’ 2021 US Capitol attack an “assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic”.

Cheney was responding to comments made by Trump during an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday in which he said members of the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack “should go to jail” – but said he would not direct the attorney general or FBI he appoints during his second presidency to pursue the matter.

During that interview, Trump said: “Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with [Bennie] Thompson and the people on the … committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps.

Source: Liz Cheney calls Trump threat to jail her an ‘assault on the rule of law’ | Liz Cheney | The Guardian

This LA company gives old polluting trucks new, electric life | LAist

An older man with light-tone skin wears a long-sleeved blue shirt and glasses works on the chassis of a medium-duty truck in a brightly lit warehouse space.

Rick Reinhard, chief architect at Evolectric, works on retrofitting an Isuzu truck. (Erin Stone/LAist)

California is pushing the trucking industry to electrify — that’s because medium and heavy-duty trucks make up only 6% of the vehicles on the road, but they cough up about 35% of the pollutants that give Southern California its notorious smog as well as a quarter of vehicle pollution that gets into the atmosphere and heats up the planet, according to the California Air Resources Board.

The effort so far has prioritized swapping out old trucks for shiny new electric ones. But that doesn’t always have to be the case.

Evolectric, a company headquartered in Rancho Dominguez in south L.A. County, retrofits diesel medium-duty trucks to be all-electric.

Source: This LA company gives old polluting trucks new, electric life | LAist

Open Thread | Looking At the Shadow of Jim Crow 2.0 Creeping Up On Us | 3CHICSPOLITICO

It has been very obvious that the other side wants to erase the 20th Century and usher in Jim Crow 2.0.

Social Conserv. 📚 (@bookkeepPLUS) posted at 10:07 AM on Sat, Dec 07, 2024:
I will argue that the racism of today is more sinister than in the past—not because it’s louder, but because it’s quiet enough to hide in plain sight, cloaked in language that sounds virtuous not only to the uninformed but even causing some black people to be led astray.
/1

We see it in the open attacks on diversity and equity programs, branded as unnecessary or even divisive. These attacks ignore the systemic barriers that such programs are meant to address. /2

It’s in the lawsuits against economic programs aimed at helping Black communities, such as policies designed to compensate Black farmers after decades of systemic discrimination. /3

These efforts are undermined under the guise of “equality,” erasing the history of inequity that created the need for them in the first place. They’re sold as noble crusades for “fairness,” when in reality, they’re just new ways to reinforce old hierarchies./4

We hear it in the rhetoric of “victimhood,” as if pointing out injustice somehow makes you weak. And let’s not forget the most glaring examples: the applause that erupts when Black people are killed in public, with offenders hailed as heroes under the guise of “self-defense.”/5

Or the countless innocent Black people killed by law enforcement, only for their deaths to be justified, excused, or ignored. These are grotesque celebrations of lives lost, disguised as justice. /6

 

As if everything mentioned above weren’t bad enough on its own, when you consider that the church is often on the front lines of perpetuating this modern form of racism, it makes it even worse. /7

This is the racism of today. It’s not the segregation signs or cross burnings of the past. It’s subtler, more insidious, and harder to combat because it hides behind a mask of moral righteousness. /8

And because it looks different, too many people are fooled into thinking it isn’t racism at all. /9
(https://x.com/bookkeepPLUS/status/1865427990894596594?t=xQnrgKI5l6xiFzkcNigOAw&s=03)

It’s only not racism, because they want to be in denial. They CHOOSE denial. It’s what they voted for.

Ronnie James Dios Mio (@BigBaldFred) posted at 4:16 PM on Sat, Dec 07, 2024:
I agree 100%.

It has been festering as the quiet, dark underbelly of white society in the US since the Civil Rights Act in 1964.

Just like Nazis didn’t just instantly disappear when WWII ended, White supremacists didn’t go away when the Civil Rights Act passed either.
(https://x.com/BigBaldFred/status/1865520667476770876?t=p3pDT6j_NLc6TKiVGASGnw&s=03)

Source: Open Thread | Looking At the Shadow of Jim Crow 2.0 Creeping Up On Us | 3CHICSPOLITICO