Same reason the House is out of session to avoid releasing the Epstein files?

The vision of a child bride is a deeply foreign concept to most Americans. Underage marriage is regarded by most as an abroad problem, or the type of detestable horror committed by isolated malcontent cult leaders, later to be turned into a true crime documentary one laments over with their friends.

But child marriage remains legal in the majority of U.S. states, and getting rid of it has proved supremely difficult.

Thirty-four U.S. states still permit a child under the age of 18 to marry — usually with the consent of their parents or a judge. Four states — California, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Oklahoma — establish no minimum age for a minor to enter into a binding legal and social contract. According to a new report from Unchained at Last, a nonprofit advocating for the end of underage marriage exceptions in the United States, and Equality Now, a gender equality nonprofit, over 314,000 marriages involving minors — most between the ages of 16 and 17 — were registered over the course of the last two decades.

Over 80 percent of those marriages involved a girl who was underage (some as young as 10), and most of those marriages were to adult men. The organization’s report found that in that same time frame, over 60,000 of those marriages involved a child that was not legally old enough to consent to sex with their spouse.

If you aren't irate yet, here are two explanations for opposition:

In New Hampshire, where an underage marriage ban was enacted in 2024, one Republican state representative argued that underage marriage was a “legitimizing option” for girls of “ripe, fertile age” who became pregnant before adulthood. In Missouri, a Republican-authored ban was opposed by members of the same party, with one member of the GOP arguing that eliminating child marriage would increase incentives for the pregnant child to seek an abortion.

Let's go back to "some as young as 10." There's no fucking defense for that. The argument is literally, "If you get a preteen pregnant, you should be able to marry her so she doesn't seek out an abortion."

I'm not a total prude here ... I get that there are edge cases like one high-schooler having just turned 18 while his girlfriend is still a sophomore, which to my mind is a morally grey area, but if that's about a pregnancy, that's a separate issue from marriage itself.

This said, knocking up someone one-third your age and needing the law to swoop to your rescue shows some extremely twisted thinking that probably mean being part of the general public is risky. It shouldn't be rewarded with a literal get-out-of-jail-free card.

Child Marriage Remains Legal in Majority of U.S. States. Why?

Despite a widespread and growing consensus that child marriage should be banned, a majority of U.S. states still allow the practice.

^{Nikki McCann Ramirez (Rolling Stone)}

cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/37860057

Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 4

This November, 17 amendments have been proposed by our legislature (under attack for its similar efforts to kick you out of your own government through racial redistricting) to continue in this strong tradition of taking away opportunity for civic engagement. Don’t let them, and learn what’s on the ballot next month ahead of time (totaling to more than $50 billion in property tax cuts). Fund your public services, and fight back by getting informed on what other unsatisfactory things are going to be added to this work-in-progress document.

---

Edit:

Here is a collection of helpful guides to the November 2025 Constitutional Amendment election:

League of Women Voters of Texas - 2025 Constitutional Amendment Election Voters Guide

Texas Tribune - 17 statewide propositions will appear on the November ballot. Here’s what Texas voters need to know.

KUT News - Your guide to Texas' proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot this November

Austin Chronicle - Chronicle Endorsements for the November 2025 Election

Lone Star Left - Texas 2025 Constitutional Amendments Ballot Guide And Vote Recommendations

Progress Texas - 2025 Texas Statewide Ballot Guide

Texas 2025 Constitutional Amendments Ballot Guide And Vote Recommendations

Defend Water, Schools, and Democracy: A progressive guide through 17 ballot measures

^{Michelle H. Davis (Lone Star Left)}

Oggi è sabato sera, e quindi, come è ormai tradizione, ho fin troppo da programmare, ma non ho nulla da dire… Tuttavia, considerato che stasera il famoso terremoto l’ho sentito pure io, e dunque i tempi sembrano pericolosamente maturi perché la mia esistenza possa purtroppo terminare a breve, nella malaugurata ipotesi in cui la situazione […]

octospacc.altervista.org/2025/…

minioctt

2025-10-25 21:30:57

inciampamento dell’octo di ieri quasi prevenuto per magia divina (stavo per inciampare sul marciapiede ma mi sono raddrizzata)

Oggi è sabato sera, e quindi, come è ormai tradizione, ho fin troppo da programmare, ma non ho nulla da dire… Tuttavia, considerato che stasera il famoso terremoto l’ho sentito pure io, e dunque i tempi sembrano pericolosamente maturi perché la mia esistenza possa purtroppo terminare a breve, nella malaugurata ipotesi in cui la situazione dovesse peggiorare come ha già fatto in passato in queste terre… Racconterò come stavo non per morire, ma comunque per farmi non proprio bene, ieri mattina, cosa per fortuna non avvenuta… è bene che io mi prenda un minimo di tempo per raccontare le storielle divertenti prima di dimenticarmele ma, soprattutto, prima che muoio. 😳

Ieri mattina ero circa in ritardo per prendere l’autobus, e quindi, pur non dovendo correre, ho ovviamente dovuto tenere un passo veloce e sostenuto per non rischiare di raggiungere la fermata troppo tardi… che non è inusuale per me, quindi è strano che sia successo proprio quello che è successo. Praticamente, ad un certo punto del marciapiede su cui stavo, proprio in mezzo davanti a me, c’era un vecchio, che si muoveva fin troppo lentamente… quindi, per non dover uccidere il ritmo, ho dovuto in un attimo spostarmi verso il bordo esterno del marciapiede. Peccato che, forse perché ero ancora mezza fatta di sonno, o forse perché lo spazio di manovra era poco, perché proprio in quel punto c’era anche un palo, sono inciampata nel classico modo alla Taiga Aisaka o alla Usagi Tsukino. 😭

Non mi ricordo (perché sul momento ovviamente non ho processato la cosa, e a ripensarci pochi istanti o minuti dopo non ci ho capito niente) nemmeno come sia possibile che, inciampando nel bordo sinistro del marciapiede (relativamente alla mia direzione, il marciapiede era sulla destra della strada), io sia finita verso destra, quindi di nuovo dentro il marciapiede… ma ci stavo per finire di faccia, che non è proprio un ottimo modo di iniziare la giornata, direi; e, se non di faccia, certamente con le mani, quindi con buona probabilità di spaccare pure il telefono, che avevo in mano. Il bello però è che, in qualche modo, in realtà, non sono caduta… sono riuscita a ribilanciarmi in alto, e continuare a camminare senza nemmeno fermarmi… anche se mi pare di aver fatto molto rumore nella cosa, quindi ancora mi chiedo se il vecchio ha notato che stavo per scapezzarmi qualche metro avanti a lui… 😦

La cosa in realtà non dovrebbe essere tanto strana… suppongo che, nella realtà, fuori dai manga, per gente fisicamente giovane (pure se magari tremendamente vecchia dentro come me), riuscire a non cascare per terra di faccia camminando per strada sia la normalità, e non una roba stupefacente… eppure, a pensarci, quello che mi è successo mi sembra semplicemente rara fortuna; una gentile concessione da parte degli spiriti che, seppur hanno questo terribile vizio di farmi di continuo scherzi di pessimo gusto, non vogliono veramente farmi del male… Perché, a parte che se ero abbastanza addormentata da inciampare, non capisco come io abbia fatto allora a salvarmi dal cadere… ma avevo lo zaino mezzo pesante addosso, ovviamente (con dentro il PC che fa gran parte della massa e dell’area, e oggetti misti). 🙀

Questo è in effetti un bel problema di fisica, che non ho idea di come trasformare in dati formali, e quindi certamente non posso risolvere, ma lascerò l’esercizio ai lettori, come si suol dire per chi non ha voglia di ragionare quando scrive (io, e gli autori dei libri di matematica)… Sono stata capace di raddrizzarmi durante la caduta nonostante lo zaino, o magari, di contro, proprio grazie allo zaino? E, inoltre, sono inciampata anche per colpa dello zaino, o questo non ha fatto praticamente differenza nel momento di terrore? Non è ovviamente la prima volta che rischio di capitombolare malamente su semplici marciapiedi e con indosso scarpe normali, comode, ma ora non ricordo tutte le variabili delle altre volte. L’importante è che, alla fine, il bus che ho preso è stato quello per l’università, come da piani, e non ho dovuto piuttosto aspettare quello per l’ospedale… 🥴
…Ma inoltre, posando questa roba e parlando invece di quelle leggi naturali non scritte… è per caso possibile che questo evento sia da imputare ad un potenziale karma negativo che ho accumulato youthmaxxando e agilitymoggando praticamente ogni giorno vecchi per strada, semplicemente superandoli in continuazione camminando? Per favore, astenersi moralisti da questa domanda in particolare, che il dubbio è serio… Cioè, io mica lo faccio apposta ad essere più veloce di loro, è che ho la mia vita e i miei tempi e sono sempre di fretta e quindi volente o nolente devo fare un po’ di gaming con le gambe… sotto sotto dispiace anche a me di sottoporre i poveri anziani a queste umiliazioni, ma non ho deciso io di avere 21 anni. 💔
#camminare #fretta #inciampare #marciapiede

cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/4087

A US-Israeli geoengineering startup has raised $60m as part of its plan to test ‘sun-reflecting technology’. Critics are warning the new tech could have unexpected negative impacts on global weather and drive “geopolitical conflict”. Supporters, meanwhile, have pointed out it might not do that. 🚨Big News in Solar Geoengineering Stardust Solutions, an Israeli-U.S. startup developing […]

By Willem Moore

If you’re unfamiliar with solar ‘geoengineering’, it’s essentially climate change in reverse. Much like how we’ve caused global warming and other changes by releasing carbon, methane, and other gases, scientists believe we can reverse the problem by releasing particles which reflect sunlight back into space.

In a report titled The Risks of Geoengineering, the Center for International Environmental Law summarised:

   Geoengineering technologies, if deployed at scale, could have profound, unpredictable, and potentially irreversible effects on biodiversity, both through their direct impacts and as a result of compounding and exacerbating existing planetary crises caused by pollution, climate change, and unsustainable land use.

As reported by Politico, this latest geoengineering plan is being led by US-Israeli startup Stardust Solutions. Their technology involves custom particles which the company claims are ‘inert’. They also believe these particles will not accumulate in humans or ecosystems, will not harm the ozone layer, and will not create acid rain.

Stardust Solutions’ founders are nuclear physicists who worked for the Israeli government. Although they insist their new project is unaffiliated with the state of Israel, they are headquartered outside Tel Aviv. This could cause problems for them worldwide given the boycott of Israel which began during Israel’s apartheid era and continued throughout the genocide.

From Canary via This RSS Feed.

Willem Moore, Author at Canary

Articles by Willem Moore for Canary

^{Willem Moore (The Canary)}

cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/4116

From private prisons to health care scams, the attack on unhoused people is about exploitation, not safety.

From the Trump administration to Democrats in California, responses to the homeless crisis in the U.S. continue to ignore the main drivers of the problem and aim to make the unhoused magically disappear. Like so many of the faux social policies in the U.S., this one increasingly looks designed for big private players to profit off the disappearing.

Let’s first look at the main tenets of the U.S. response at both the state and federal level before examining how such ruthless policy offers opportunities for economic elites to cash in on the added layers of cruelty.

Trump’s July executive order frames the country’s homelessness crisis as the sole product of mental illness and drug addiction and helps make it easier to arrest and involuntarily commit the homeless. This is a continuation of a years-long effort by American elites to redirect attention away from the root causes of homelessness. According to a study from UCSF’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative last year (one of the deepest dives into California’s crisis in decades), the number one problem that is fueling the homelessness crisis is the increasing precariousness of the working poor.

From Truthout via This RSS Feed.

The US Is Criminalizing Homelessness and Expanding Incarceration. Who Profits? | Truthout

^{Zack Kligler (Truthout)}

• The Irish Central Bank transfers an Israeli bond issue to the Grand Duchy, which raised 2.41 billion in 2024 and finances the Zionist State Budget.
• Legal experts at Law for Palestine warn that accepting this debt prospectus makes Luxembourg "complicit" in illicit international acts.

Israel relies on the EU's two main financial centers, Ireland and Luxembourg, to finance the war in Gaza and, therefore, the crimes against the Palestinian population that have earned it international condemnation. To do so, it uses so-called diaspora bonds , which Israel has been issuing since 1951 and whose volume increases each time it needs to fund its war campaigns, appealing to Jewish communities around the world for contributions. These are small-value bonds , priced at less than €1,000, but they are very successful: they raised €2.41 billion in 2024, according to the annual report of the Public Debt Unit of the Israeli Ministry of Finance.

To sell these bonds in the European Union, Israel needs a member state to become the country of origin of the issue . Until Brexit , this was the United Kingdom . Since 2021, that role has been played by Ireland . Until Israel asked the Irish Central Bank to transfer the authority to approve the prospectus for its bonds to Luxembourg . On September 1, the Grand Duchy's Financial Sector Supervisory Commission (CSSF) authorized this. The numerous protests outside the headquarters of the Central Bank of Ireland for serving as a financial tool for Israel then moved to Luxembourg, both in the streets and in Parliament. Opposition parties accuse the financial supervisor and the government of "supporting, as a financial center," a policy that the country was at the same time "verbally condemning." Luxembourg recognized the State of Palestine on September 22 .

Following the criticism, the CSSF sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting its opinion on Israeli bonds. It also asked the Ministry to inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of any changes in the official policy stance toward Israel, as, in such cases, it could review its decision. When the controversy erupted, the financial supervisor argued its independence : "The CSSF assumes no commitment regarding the economic or financial opportunity of the transaction or the quality and solvency of the issuer." The Luxembourg government did the same: it could not intervene in a supervisory body's decision. The CSSF can only reject a bond issue prospectus if it does not meet formal requirements, if the EU has sanctioned the issuer, or if restrictive national measures have been applied to it. "It is limited to determining whether the information contained in the prospectus is complete, consistent, and understandable ," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalled in the statement announcing the CSSF's letter.

Not sold in Spain

However, Luxembourg's Foreign Minister, Xavier Bettel, acknowledged that the approval of the bonds could "indirectly" contribute to financing Israel's war in the Gaza Strip. However, a motion by the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP) urging the government to classify Israel's actions in Gaza as war crimes and crimes against humanity, so that the CSSF could revoke the approval of the bond prospectus, was rejected in Parliament by 40 votes out of 60.

In response to the uproar, Israel's Finance Ministry simply explained that Ireland's transfer to Luxembourg was a "natural step" since it was already collaborating with the Grand Duchy on its tradable sovereign debt program. "This measure will ensure that Israel maintains continued access to investors around the world," according to a statement published by Reuters. Diaspora bonds issued in euros are sold in Austria, Germany, France, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Neither in Ireland nor in Spain . In any case, the transfer to the Grand Duchy is only temporary. Ireland has delegated the approval of the prospectus for these bonds to Luxembourg for one year, until September 2026. At that time, unless Israel requests otherwise, the issuance will return to Ireland. If it wishes to issue bonds for a value greater than the current €1,000, it may choose another Member State to place its prospectus.

Ireland recognized the State of Palestine in May 2024 , and did so in coordination with Norway and Spain . The controversy over financial support for Israel forced the Central Bank of Ireland to explain why it had transferred jurisdiction over the prospectus to Luxembourg. According to its governor, Gabriel Makhlouf, the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice , which in July 2024 determined that the occupation of the Palestinian territories "is not a law ," and therefore does not "bind" the Central Bank. "There was no reasonable and proportionate argument that justified us rejecting the transfer," he explained before the Finance Committee of the Irish Parliament last Wednesday.

Luxembourg signed the Genocide Convention

The academics who prepared a legal opinion on the acceptance of Israeli bonds in the EU for Law for Palestine , a human rights nonprofit registered in the UK and Sweden and accredited by the UN Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, disagree. Approving the prospectus, knowing that it will allow Israel access to European capital markets to fund its budget, would not only "trigger Luxembourg's international liability" but also make it "complicit" in "international wrongful acts ." They argue that the bond issuance constitutes "prohibited aid or assistance" under international law . Luxembourg is a signatory to the Genocide Convention —it also endorsed the International Court of Justice's July 2024 advisory opinion —and therefore has a duty to "employ all reasonable means at its disposal to prevent it." And denying the bond issue would be a "clear, available, and powerful means of economic pressure ," they conclude.

They also emphasize that "no other State interest," not even compliance with domestic legislation or other international commitments, can justify acts that contribute to or assist the commission of serious international crimes.

In their view, Luxembourg will incur a "manifest lack of due diligence" if the activities financed with these bonds include actions that could be considered genocide. Furthermore, the CSSF may have even breached its obligation to protect the companies and individuals who purchase them from "potential future liability as facilitators of Israeli violations of international law ," the legal experts at Law for Palestine conclude.

I think I understand how to post from mastodon but pixelfed just brought in all the text as one huge, run-on title, including hashtags, etc.

Pixelfed mostly cooperates with mastodon and the fediverse but the text, titles, and captioning not working, formatting breaking is pretty signature pixelfed in any of those exchanges.

When the president of the United States decides to demolish the East Wing of the White House to construct a ballroom, all that stucco and molding and wood has to go somewhere. So I tried to find it.

I’d heard that the dirt from the East Wing demolition was being deposited three miles away, on a tree-lined island next to the Jefferson Memorial called East Potomac Park. So yesterday I drove around until I saw trucks and men in construction gear. They were congregating at an entrance to the public East Potomac Golf Links, where rounds of golf carried on as usual, except every few minutes, dump trucks entered the green.

The trucks would cut across the course to a cordoned-off site in the middle, where the grass had been torn away and replaced with piles of dirt. It did not look like much, but several employees at the site confirmed: This was not just any dirt. This was White House dirt.

My Quest to Find the East Wing Rubble

An entire part of the White House can’t just disappear.

^{Nancy Walecki (The Atlantic)}

Bluesky link to video of woman. Make sure to watch the Wheeling, IL video in the comments:

bsky.app/profile/youranoncentr…

A New Yorker dubbed “polka dot dress woman” by the internet has gone viral after footage captured her flipping double birds at a law enforcement Humvee and tussling with agents Tuesday when an ICE sweep triggered protests on Manhattan’s Canal Street.

The raid unfolded late Tuesday when agents began questioning street vendors along the busy stretch of Canal Street. Within minutes, dozens of New Yorkers surrounded the agents, shouting and blocking vehicles as tensions flared.

Video from the scene showed agents shoving protesters to the ground and threatening them with stun guns and pepper spray.

‘Polka Dot Dress Woman’ Goes Viral for Fighting Off ICE Agents in NYC

The woman, dressed in a spotted dress and wearing a leather jacket, can be seen standing in front of the ICE vehicle and later pushing one agent.

^{David Gilmour (Mediaite)}

Miller: “The tragedy is a political party and a movement that has ripped down our statues, our monuments, our holidays, our heroes, our heritage,” Miller continued, ignoring the fact that the Trump administration has itself called for the removal of statues that do not align with its version of history.

“The Republican Party under President Trump celebrates beauty again and beautification again, and just as President Trump has beautified Washington D.C., now he’s repairing, finally, an area of the White House that has been left in disrepair for decades.”

Rattled Miller Puts Up Hysterical Defense of White House Teardown

Trump’s deputy is outraged that anyone would be unimpressed by the president’s changes to the White House.

^{Catherine Bouris (The Daily Beast)}

cross-posted from: ibbit.at/post/91485

Just over nine months after President Donald Trump returned to office and pardoned his supporters who stormed the US Capitol, one of the Republican’s top aides suggested that federal law enforcement may arrest Democrats standing up to the White House’s anti-migrant agenda, including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. Asked about the administration’s willingness and federal authority to arrest the…

Source

---

From Truthout via this RSS feed

Stephen Miller Threatens to Arrest Illinois Governor JB Pritzker

Miller told Fox News the threat “applies to any state official, any local official” who impedes ICE’s assaults.

^{Jessica Corbett (Truthout)}

cross-posted from: infosec.pub/post/36690409

This story may be characterized as Corporate Power is Protected as defined in The 14 Characteristics of Fascism

There are many ways to characterize Proposition 50, the single ballot initiative that Californians will be voting on this election season.

You could say it’s about redrawing congressional district lines outside the regular once-a-decade schedule. You could say, more precisely, that it’s about counterbalancing Republican efforts to engineer congressional seats in their favor in Texas and elsewhere with a gerrymander that favors the Democrats. You could, like the measure’s detractors, call it a partisan power grab that risks undermining 15 years of careful work to make California’s congressional elections as fair and competitive as possible.

The way California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and the Democrats are selling it to voters, though, boils down to something much simpler and more visceral: it’s an invitation to raise a middle finger to Donald Trump, a president fewer than 40% of Californians voted for and many loathe – for reasons that extend far beyond his attempts at election manipulation. For that reason alone, the yes campaign believes it is cruising to an easy victory.

“There’s actually a double tease here,” said Garry South, one of California’s most experienced and most outspoken Democratic political consultants who has been cheer-leading the measure. “Trump and Texas, the state Californians love to hate. How can you lose an initiative that’s going to stick it to both?”

Strange times we're living in.

How ‘screw Trump’ messaging may help California’s Proposition 50 prevail

Republican opposition to the effort to give House Democrats more safe seats may be no match for the fact that Californians really don’t like Trump

^{Andrew Gumbel (The Guardian)}

Amazon strategised about keeping the public in the dark over the true extent of its datacentres’ water use, a leaked internal document reveals.

The biggest owner of datacentres in the world, Amazon dwarfs competitors Microsoft and Google and is planning a huge increase in capacity as part of a push into artificial intelligence. The Seattle firm operates hundreds of active facilities, with many more in development despite concerns over how much water is being used to cool their vast arrays of circuitry.

Amazon defends its approach and has taken steps to manage how efficient its water use is, but it has faced criticism over transparency. Microsoft and Google regularly publish figures for their water consumption, but Amazon has never publicly disclosed how much water its server farms consume.

When designing a campaign for water efficiency, the company’s cloud computing division chose to account for only a smaller water usage figure that does not include all the ways its datacentres use water so as to minimise the risk to its reputation, according to a leaked memo seen by SourceMaterial and the Guardian.

Here's something I wasn't even aware of: Amazon is in the agriculture business!

As well as choosing not to disclose water use from electricity generation, Amazon has estimated its larger “indirect” water footprint, the document shows. This extra usage, which falls under a classification known as “scope 3”, includes water for production and construction – in Amazon’s case, mostly irrigation of cotton plantations supplying its fashion brands, and vegetables for its grocery arm, Amazon Fresh.

"Plantations" has nothing but positive connotations.

Amazon strategised about keeping its datacentres’ full water use secret, leaked document shows

Executives at world’s biggest datacenter owner grappled with disclosing information about water used to help power facilities

^{Luke Barratt (The Guardian)}

https://presearch.com/

https://www.techspot.com/news/110002-ai-assistants-misrepresent-news-stories-almost-half-time.html

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-china-seek-avoid-trade-war-escalation-salvage-trump-xi-meeting-malaysia-talks-2025-10-25/

The oil giant said requirements that companies calculate new details about greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks violate Exxon’s free speech rights.

It's not like accounting standards aren't a thing in a whole variety of businesses. But that's somehow not a violation of free speech rights.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/climate/exxon-california-lawsuit-free-speech.html?unlocked_article_code=1.wE8.lG03.DiqyykWAm7mD

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-10-25/tariffs-and-climate-change-push-coffee-prices-up?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc2MTQwMjgxMywiZXhwIjoxNzYyMDA3NjEzLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUNE9QOERHUEZITjUwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJDMkYxNDM5NTYzRjg0QTBFOEIxNzA5MzY0RjMyQ0JFOCJ9.GSV16UXKya1o1K-rVT-a7fdHvAPuiZEzj2YxqDMRTAg

Domenica prossima, al vostro risveglio, potrete ascoltare la seconda puntata del nuovo #podcast in cui, girando per l'Europa, cerco una nuova casa.

Non cerco un edificio (quello arriverà dopo), ma un posto dove il Cuore voglia stare e la Ragione non abbia niente da obiettare.

E' una sfida, è una necessità, è un progetto di lungo termine ma che devo portare a compimento.

Comincio raccontandovi di quando, con tanta aspettativa e speranza, ho messo piede nell'isola più remota delle #Canarie, un'isola particolarissima che...

Potete ascoltare il podcast sulla vostra piattaforma audio preferita, su Youtube nel canale "Verso Casa" e naturalmente qui nel Fediverso, all'indirizzo castopod.it/versocasa

Se vi va, potete anche seguire l'account @versocasa@castopod.it

The problems with generative AI are endless. The environmental costs of the technology have been well litigated these past couple years, as the data centers that power it demand vast quantities of water and obscene amounts of electricity that creates pressure to build out even more fossil fuel power generation at a time we should be doing the very opposite. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Long before [Irish presidential candidate Catherine] Connolly was targeted by a political deepfake, a far wider swath of people — particularly women and girls — were the victims of nudify apps and explicit deepfakes made possible by image generators powered by generative AI models. More recently, a wave of stories have been published about the mental health risks that can come with forming a dependence on chatbots, including everything from breakdowns and institutionalization to the worst possible outcome of young people taking their own lives — sometimes even with coaching from the chatbot on how to do it.

Governments are belatedly waking up to the harms of social media, particularly as the companies prioritize profits and shareholder value above any other possible metric. Companies no longer care about the individual harm their products can cause, or the political and societal disruptions they can contribute to. Political leaders’ policy responses are open to criticism, like why so many are focusing on age limits rather than much wider regulation that recognizes it’s not just teenagers being harmed by how companies govern their platforms. But it’s quite clear action must be taken to rein in these sources of social disruption.

Social media regulation took far too long to arrive, and even then, it came in an imperfect form. But governments don’t appear ready to grapple with the reality that chatbots and image and video generators are speedrunning the harms caused by social media. The deceptive critical framing of the superintelligence argument has sent governments chasing that red herring as they try to present themselves as being friendly to tech investment to attract a small slice of the trillions of dollars being shelled out on generative AI and data centers. In short, they’re sacrificing the wellbeing of their citizens and arguably the foundations of a democratic society for a chance at short-term investment.

Generative AI is a societal disaster

Governments are deluding themselves into believing investment justifies allowing AI to upend society

^{Paris Marx (Disconnect)}

The internet is down... well, if you use AWS services it would appear to be true.

Things such as Alexa (now working again?), Ring, etc are either slow or not responding whilst they try to get things running again

https://www.techradar.com/news/live/amazon-web-services-alexa-ring-snapchat-fortnite-down-october-2025

cross-posted from: ibbit.at/post/91333

From MR Online via this RSS feed

MR Online

A project of Monthly Review Magazine

^{MR Online}