Pritzker forms independent commission to document misconduct of federal agents
After urging Illinoisans last month to record concerning actions by federal agents, Gov. JB Pritzker signed an executive order Thursday creating a commission to review documentation submitted by the public.
“The federal government has chosen to treat the people of this country as an adversary,” Pritzker said of the Trump administration’s “Operation Midway Blitz” targeting the Chicago area. “We will not meet intimidation with fear. We will meet it with truth.”
The newly formed Illinois Accountability Commission has been charged by Pritzker to create a public record of abuses, document the impact of those abuses on families and communities, and recommend actions for justice and reducing future harm.
The commission will investigate past actions by federal officials, according to its chair, U.S. District Judge Rubén Castillo, including the fatal shooting of unarmed father and Mexican immigrant Silverio Villegas González by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer after dropping off his two young sons at school and daycare in the Chicago area.
Pritzker forms independent commission to document misconduct of federal agents
Pritzker creates an Illinois commission to document misconduct by federal agents and recommend accountability steps.Maggie Dougherty (Capitol News Illinois)
Missed opportunity for OneShot to come to GOG?
I'd like to play Oneshot but it's not on GOG. I went looking to see if anyone had said why not and I found a post from the Oneshot dev GIR saying he submitted the game to GOG.
I'm curious about what happened. I'd love to see Oneshot come to GOG.
GOG? :: OneShot General Discussions
Will be this game released on GOG some day? I know that it is on Itcho but I prefer GOG.steamcommunity.com
Farm-state Republicans finally reach their breaking point
Farm-state Republicans finally reach their breaking point - E&E News by POLITICO
President Donald Trump's plan to import beef from Argentina has unleashed a wave of protest from GOP loyalists.Meredith Lee Hill (E&E News by POLITICO)
California fights Trump's attempt to steal the midterms
Bisognano notes that even if Prop. 50 passes, Democrats could still end up six to 10 seats behind Republicans in a redistricting arms race, as Missouri and North Carolina already have enacted new gerrymandered maps, following Texas. Other Republican states, including Ohio, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, and Nebraska, could go next. That would make it much harder for Democrats to take back the House.
There are signs, however, that other Democratic states are starting to follow California’s lead. Virginia Democrats convened a special session this week to begin redrawing their map to boost Democratic representation, which would require approval in two sessions of the legislature, this year and early next year, followed by the backing of the voters, much like California. Democratic members of Illinois’ congressional delegation voiced unanimous support for a new congressional map Tuesday.
California fights Trump's attempt to steal the midterms
The state can strike the first blow against Trump's plan to subvert democracy.Mother Jones
Justice Department strips Jan. 6 references from court paper and punishes prosecutors who filed it
The Justice Department has stripped references to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack from court papers and punished two federal prosecutors who filed the document seeking prison time at sentencing Thursday for an armed rioter arrested near former President Barack Obama’s home.
The prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office in the District of Columbia were locked out of their government devices and told they were being put on leave Wednesday morning shortly after they filed a sentencing memorandum describing the crowd of President Donald Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol as a “mob of rioters,” according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel issues.
Later Wednesday, the Justice Department replaced the court filing with an updated version that stripped references to the Jan. 6 riot. The new filing also no longer included a reference to the fact that Trump posted on social media what he claimed was Obama’s address on the same day that the defendant, Taylor Taranto, was arrested in the former president’s neighborhood.
A Court Ordered New York State to Issue Major Climate Rules. What’s Next? “We have time to work it out,” Governor Kathy Hochul said.
A Court Ordered New York to Issue Major Climate Rules. What’s Next?
“We have time to work it out,” Governor Kathy Hochul said.New York Focus
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Google partners with Ambani's Reliance to offer free AI Pro access to millions of Jio users in India | TechCrunch
Google partners with Ambani's Reliance to offer free AI Pro access to millions of Jio users in India | TechCrunch
The offer will first roll out to Jio users aged 18 to 25 before expanding to all subscribers nationwide.Jagmeet Singh (TechCrunch)
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EU imports of Russian LNG up seven percent in first half of 2025, study finds
EU imports of Russian LNG up seven percent in first half of 2025, study finds
Liquid natural gas future demand in Europe is uncertain, but the continent continues to import LNG from both the US and Russia in high volumes.EUobserver
Wrist-Cut Transformation Subculture ✡ Menhera-chan - Capitolo 2
Menhera-chan si trova a combattere contro un mostro sputafuoco a forma di nuvola incazzata che, a caso, ha già fatto 2000 vittime da quando è
OpenAI maps out the chatbot mental health crisis
On Monday, OpenAI released new research on the prevalence of users with potentially serious mental health issues on ChatGPT. In any given week, 0.07 percent of users show signs of psychosis or mania; 0.15 percent of users “indicate potentially heightened levels of emotional attachment to ChatGPT”; and 0.15 percent of users express suicidal intent.More than 800 million people now use ChatGPT every week. And so while those numbers may look low on a percentage basis, they are disturbingly large in absolute terms. That’s 560,000 people showing signs of psychosis or mania, 1.2 million people developing a potentially unhealthy bond to a chatbot, and 1.2 million people having conversations that indicate plans to harm themselves.
OpenAI is publishing these figures against the backdrop of a larger mental health crisis whose arrival preceded ChatGPT. Nearly a quarter of Americans experience a mental illness each year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. A staggering 12.6 percent of Americans aged 18 to 25 had serious thoughts of suicide in 2024, NAMI reports.
The question is to what extent these conditions may be triggered or exacerbated by interactions with chatbots like ChatGPT. Large language models are generally trained to be agreeable and supportive, which can comfort people going through difficult situations. But chatbots can also veer into sycophancy, as ChatGPT did in April, pushing users into strange and harmful spirals of delusion. They can also be talked into giving instructions for suicide, and some vulnerable people have used its advice to end their lives.
OpenAI maps out the chatbot mental health crisis
Millions of people are sending messages to ChatGPT each week suggesting emotional dependence or plans for self-harm, the company says. Will an updated model protect them?Casey Newton (Platformer)
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International Criminal Court to ditch Microsoft Office for European open source alternative
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/38271574
The International Criminal Court (ICC) will switch its internal work environment away from Microsoft Office to Open Desk, a European open source alternative, the institution confirmed to Euractiv.German newspaper Handelsblatt first reported on the plans. The switch comes amid rising concerns about public bodies being reliant on US tech companies to run their services, which have stepped up sharply since the start of US President Donald Trump’s second administration.
For the ICC, such concerns are not abstract: Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the court and slapped sanctions on its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.
International Criminal Court to ditch Microsoft Office for European open source alternative
The International Criminal Court (ICC) will switch its internal work environment away from Microsoft Office to Open Desk, a European open source alternative, the institution confirmed to Euractiv.German newspaper Handelsblatt first reported on the plans. The switch comes amid rising concerns about public bodies being reliant on US tech companies to run their services, which have stepped up sharply since the start of US President Donald Trump’s second administration.
For the ICC, such concerns are not abstract: Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the court and slapped sanctions on its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.
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International Criminal Court to ditch Microsoft Office for European open source alternative
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/38271574
The International Criminal Court (ICC) will switch its internal work environment away from Microsoft Office to Open Desk, a European open source alternative, the institution confirmed to Euractiv.German newspaper Handelsblatt first reported on the plans. The switch comes amid rising concerns about public bodies being reliant on US tech companies to run their services, which have stepped up sharply since the start of US President Donald Trump’s second administration.
For the ICC, such concerns are not abstract: Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the court and slapped sanctions on its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.
International Criminal Court to ditch Microsoft Office for European open source alternative
The International Criminal Court (ICC) will switch its internal work environment away from Microsoft Office to Open Desk, a European open source alternative, the institution confirmed to Euractiv.German newspaper Handelsblatt first reported on the plans. The switch comes amid rising concerns about public bodies being reliant on US tech companies to run their services, which have stepped up sharply since the start of US President Donald Trump’s second administration.
For the ICC, such concerns are not abstract: Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the court and slapped sanctions on its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.
Chuck Schumer scolds reporter for spreading lies about SNAP funding: "Who are we kidding here?"
Chuck Schumer scolds reporter for spreading lies about SNAP funding: "Who are we kidding here?" - LGBTQ Nation
"There's enough money to start feeding people right away."Molly Sprayregen (LGBTQ Nation)
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International Criminal Court to ditch Microsoft Office for European open source alternative
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/38271574
The International Criminal Court (ICC) will switch its internal work environment away from Microsoft Office to Open Desk, a European open source alternative, the institution confirmed to Euractiv.German newspaper Handelsblatt first reported on the plans. The switch comes amid rising concerns about public bodies being reliant on US tech companies to run their services, which have stepped up sharply since the start of US President Donald Trump’s second administration.
For the ICC, such concerns are not abstract: Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the court and slapped sanctions on its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.
International Criminal Court to ditch Microsoft Office for European open source alternative
The International Criminal Court (ICC) will switch its internal work environment away from Microsoft Office to Open Desk, a European open source alternative, the institution confirmed to Euractiv.German newspaper Handelsblatt first reported on the plans. The switch comes amid rising concerns about public bodies being reliant on US tech companies to run their services, which have stepped up sharply since the start of US President Donald Trump’s second administration.
For the ICC, such concerns are not abstract: Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the court and slapped sanctions on its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.
International Criminal Court to ditch Microsoft Office for European open source alternative
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/38271574
The International Criminal Court (ICC) will switch its internal work environment away from Microsoft Office to Open Desk, a European open source alternative, the institution confirmed to Euractiv.German newspaper Handelsblatt first reported on the plans. The switch comes amid rising concerns about public bodies being reliant on US tech companies to run their services, which have stepped up sharply since the start of US President Donald Trump’s second administration.
For the ICC, such concerns are not abstract: Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the court and slapped sanctions on its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.
International Criminal Court to ditch Microsoft Office for European open source alternative
The International Criminal Court (ICC) will switch its internal work environment away from Microsoft Office to Open Desk, a European open source alternative, the institution confirmed to Euractiv.German newspaper Handelsblatt first reported on the plans. The switch comes amid rising concerns about public bodies being reliant on US tech companies to run their services, which have stepped up sharply since the start of US President Donald Trump’s second administration.
For the ICC, such concerns are not abstract: Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the court and slapped sanctions on its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.
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An in-space construction firm says it can help build massive data centers in orbit
An in-space construction firm says it can help build massive data centers in orbit
“Size is not the limit anymore.”…Eric Berger (Ars Technica)
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US declines to join more than 70 countries in signing UN cybercrime treaty
Human rights groups warned on Friday that it effectively forces member states to create a broad electronic surveillance dragnet that would include crimes that have nothing to do with technology.
Oh how unfortunate, im sure that was not part of the plan from the beginning... /s
US declines to join more than 70 countries in signing UN cybercrime treaty
More than 70 countries signed the landmark UN Convention against Cybercrime in Hanoi this weekend, a significant step in the yearslong effort to create a global mechanism to counteract digital crime.Jonathan Greig (The Record)
What Graham Platner Said When a Trans Mainer Asked: 'Will You Stand Up for Me?'
What Graham Platner Said When a Trans Mainer Asked: 'Will You Stand Up for Me?'
“I believe that you are a better person than you once were because I am a better person than I once was," said the potential voter at a campaign stop.julia-conley (Common Dreams)
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Danish EU Council presidency drops chat control: It's dead for now 🎉
The Danish government will no longer push for chat control!
Here's a machine translation of what the Danish newspaper Berlingske has to say about it.
Fair warning: The journalists in Berlingske don't seem to have the slightest idea what they are talking about, and are enthusiastically gobbling up the Kool-Aid served to them by Danish Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard, a man who is on the record claiming that privacy is not a human right (it is). Don't expect to gain any worthwhile neural connections in your brain by reading the below.
Danish proposal on digital child protection dropped after German criticism
Danish EU presidency could not create support for proposals to scan messages for abuse material.
The government will no longer force tech giants to scan citizens' messages for imagery of sexual abuse of children.
The Danish EU Presidency is thus withdrawing its proposal after Germany and later the ruling Moderates have opposed it. This is stated in a written comment.
"This will mean that the injunction will not be part of the EU Presidency's new compromise proposal and that it should continue to be voluntary for tech giants to track down material with child sexual abuse," Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said.
He sits at the table end in the work to get the CSA regulation adopted under the Danish EU Presidency, which lasts until the New Year.
The regulation was originally proposed by the European Commission in 2022. It will be able to force tech companies to scan the contents of private citizens’ images and videos on encrypted services.
But both Germany and since the Moderates withdrew their support for the proposal because it was too intrusive.
Hummelgaard, however, believes that Denmark's proposal was less intrusive than the EU Commission's original proposal. And he highlights that Save the Children, Unicef, Children's Terms and Digital Responsibility gave their clear backing.
However, the risk of losing an important tool is highly weighted.
"Right now, we are in a situation where we risk completely losing a central tool in the fight against sexual assault against children, because the current scheme that allows for voluntary scanning expires in April 2026," he said.
That's why we have to act no matter what. We owe it to all the children who are subjected to monstrous abuses, says Peter Hummelgaard.
The government's original proposal will break with fundamental freedoms and will potentially result in mass surveillance of citizens in the EU, the critics said. Among other things, they count hundreds of scientists and experts, the Dataetian Council and the tech giants themselves.
Germany has directly called it "mass surveillance" in the past.
"The mass surveillance of private messages must be taboo in a rule of law," the German Ministry of Justice wrote at X.
Save the Children calls the previous volunteer tracing via scanning a "huge success" and is frustrated that there was no backing for a compromise.
"We are deeply concerned and frustrated that there has been no European support for a compromise where tech companies may be required to track down and remove photos and videos with sexual assaults on children," senior adviser at digital child protection Tashi Andersen said in a written commentary.
Dansk forslag om digital børnebeskyttelse droppet efter tysk kritik | Berlingske
Dansk EU-formandskab kunne ikke skabe opbakning til forslag om at scanne beskeder for overgrebsmateriale.Berlingske
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Janet Mills Opposes Eliminating The Flibuster
Janet Mills Says She Opposes Eliminating The Filibuster
The Maine governor and establishment pick to challenge GOP Sen. Susan Collins said she wants to keep the Senate's 60-vote requirement for most legislation.Kevin Robillard (HuffPost)
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Dead Rivers and Vanishing Villages: China’s Rush for Serbia’s Minerals
cross-posted from: lemmy.sdf.org/post/44906060
Archived[...]
In 2018, Serbia chose the Chinese Zijin Mining Group as its strategic partner, and the mining giant took over 63 per cent of RTB [a Serbian mining company that was formerly 100% state-owned].
[...]
Since 2018, Zijin has taken over the Bor [a city in Serbia] mining complex and invested 2.3 billion euros to expand operations. This enlargement is not just industrial – it is reshaping the landscape and the lives of local communities. Entire families are witnessing their homes, land, and memories vanish as the mine swallows settlements. Meanwhile, the Serbian government has offered no real options for resettlement.
[...]
The environmental consequences of the mining rush are also severe: forests, rivers, and wildlife have been devastated, and residents breathe some of the most polluted air in Europe.
[...]
The Borska Reka River is one of the most polluted waterways in Europe. [...] Sediment analysis has shown high concentrations of copper, arsenic, and nickel, exceeding remediation thresholds, particularly near mining areas. As a result, the Borska Reka is considered a “dead river,” devoid of aquatic life, with severe environmental impacts that extend to the Danube via the Timok.
[...]
The fact that Chinese contractors were responsible for renovating the canopy in Novi Sad’s rail station – which later collapsed, killing 16 people and sparking the largest protests in Serbia’s history – only adds to the complexity of China’s presence in Serbia. In [the cities of] Bor and Majdanpek, this engagement is at the same time both significant and invisible. Thousands of workers brought from China live in isolated camps, rarely interacting with the local population.
[...]
Although Chinese presence is barely visible in the city –Chinese workers live in camps inside the mining complexes, which are inaccessible to the local population – several Chinese-operated betting shops have opened in recent years. These venues signage in Chinese and are intended to attract company managers and senior staff, who are allowed to leave the camps, unlike the regular workers from China.
[...]
While [Serbian] president Aleksandar Vučić’s authoritarian government claims lithium extraction would respect strict environmental norms, the experience of local communities in [the cities of] Bor and Majdanpek tells a different story.
[...]
A report published in January 2024 revealed frequent spikes of sulphur dioxide (SO2) in the Bor area, responsible for both acute and chronic respiratory problems as well as acid rain. The study also detected PM10 fine particles containing heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, nickel, and arsenic. Despite the proven adverse effects of mining, no systematic assessment of public health has been carried out since Zijin took over operations. However, the Batut Institute of Public Health has published a study showing an increased mortality risk for both men and women in Bor across all age groups.
[...]
Dead Rivers and Vanishing Villages: China’s Rush for Serbia’s Minerals
As foreign investors rush to claim a share of Serbia’s natural resources, Serbia’s sovereignty and autonomy are on the line.Green European Journal
U.S. agencies back banning top-selling home routers on security grounds
The Commerce Department has proposed barring sales of TP-Link products, citing a national security risk from ties to China, people familiar with the matter said.
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I think that, TP-Link aside, consumer broadband routers in general have been a security problem.
- They are, unlike most devices, directly Internet-connected. That means that they really do need to be maintained more stringently than a lot of devices, because everyone has some level of access to them.
- People buying them are very value-conscious. Your typical consumer does not want to pay much for their broadband router. Businesses are going to be a lot more willing to put money into their firewall and/or pay for ongoing support. I think that you are going to have a hard time finding a market with consumers willing to pay for ongoing support for their consumer broadband router.
- Partly because home users are very value-conscious, any such provider of router updates might try to make money by data-mining activity. If users are wary of this, they are going to be even more unlikely to want to accept updates.
- Home users probably don't have any sort of computer inventory management system, tracking support for and replacing devices that fall out of support.
- People buying them often are not incredibly able to assess or aware of security implications.
- They can trivially see all Internet traffic in-and-out. They don't need to ARP-poison caches or anything to try to see what devices on the network are doing.
My impression is that there has been some movement from ISPs away from bring-your-own-device service, just because those ISPs don't want to deal with compromised devices on their network.
cyberattack in which an attacker sends spoofed ARP messages onto a LAN to associate the attacker's MAC address with the IP address of another host (e.g. the default gateway), causing any traffic for that IP address to be sent to the attacker instead
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)
That last part says it all, though.
The ISPs are horrible companies, mostly, and that alone warrants that users should be able to have their own router
I need a better router than my ISP wants to give me, then just give me the modem, I'll do the rest
A long time ago, for whatever reason, I decided to do a port scan on my entire WAN subnet. That's how I discovered that a certain brand of DSL modem (I don't recall which) made the admin portal accessible from the WAN. And of course the credentials were admin/admin.
I think most hardware providers do better now but it was just mind boggling to me that it even happened in the first place.
Honestly, even limiting it to, say, the WiFi network, having a default admin login is not great.
Like, Android isolates apps from the rest of your Android system, but not from touching the rest of the network. If any random app I install on my phone can reflash my WAP's firmware or something like that, that's not great.
International Criminal Court to ditch Microsoft Office for European open source alternative
The International Criminal Court (ICC) will switch its internal work environment away from Microsoft Office to Open Desk, a European open source alternative, the institution confirmed to Euractiv.
German newspaper Handelsblatt first reported on the plans. The switch comes amid rising concerns about public bodies being reliant on US tech companies to run their services, which have stepped up sharply since the start of US President Donald Trump’s second administration.
For the ICC, such concerns are not abstract: Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the court and slapped sanctions on its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.
Major AI updates last 24h
Companies
- Nvidia’s market valuation topped $5 trillion, cementing its dominance in AI chips but drawing regulatory attention.
- OpenAI is gearing up for an IPO that could value the company at up to $1 trillion, reflecting its market leadership.
Applications
- Worldpay integrated OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol, allowing U.S. ChatGPT users to checkout instantly with secure payment flows.
- Los Angeles partnered with Google Public Sector to roll out Google Workspace with Gemini across 27,500 employees, boosting AI-augmented productivity.
- Vail, Colorado adopted HPE’s AI-enhanced smart-city platform to detect wildfires early, leveraging camera analytics and geospatial data.
Funding
- OpenAI CFO cited the Microsoft partnership as a catalyst for faster capital raising and resource access.
- Microsoft reported a 74% jump in AI spending to $34.9 billion, earmarking massive data-center expansion to support AI workloads.
Regulation
- US senators introduced the GUARD Act to impose safeguards.
- The EU is assessing whether ChatGPT should be classified as a “Very Large Online Search Engine” under the Digital Services Act (DSA), which would add transparency and risk-assessment duties.
- California’s attorney general announced continued oversight of OpenAI’s conversion to a for-profit entity, despite retaining a nonprofit arm.
Hardware
- Extropic unveiled its Thermodynamic Sampling Unit (TSU), a probabilistic chip claimed to be up to 10,000 times more energy-efficient than conventional GPUs.
- President signaled intent to sell Nvidia’s Blackwell AI chips to China, sparking criticism over national-security implications.
Products
- Adobe “Corrective AI” feature can edit the emotional tone of voice-overs and separate audio elements automatically.
- IBM released the IBM Defense Model, a secure, domain-specific AI system built with Janes data for mission-critical defense tasks.
AI Safety
- Security researchers found that OpenAI’s Atlas browser can be hijacked via crafted URLs to execute arbitrary instructions, highlighting high-risk exposure in AI-driven web tools.
The full daily digest: aifeed.fyi/briefing
AI top news briefing 29 October 2025 -aifeed.fyi
Daily AI top news briefing and digest. Read top AI news of the day.aifeed.fyi
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Thomas Massie Hits His Own Party for ‘Protecting Sex Traffickers’ After JD Vance Says They Can’t ‘Count On Him’
Thomas Massie Hits His Own Party for ‘Protecting Sex Traffickers’ After JD Vance Says They Can ...
Thomas Massie ripped into the Republican Party after JD Vance specifically called him out and claimed the party can't rely on his support in Congress.Zachary Leeman (Mediaite)
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Why it’s so hard to bust the weather control conspiracy theory | From effective rain-enhancing technology to a long, secretive history of trying to weaponize storms, there’s fertile ground for misinfo
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Why it’s so hard to bust the weather control conspiracy theory
From effective rain-enhancing technology to a long, secretive history of trying to weaponize storms, there’s fertile ground for misinformation.Dave Levitan (MIT Technology Review)
A URL to respond with when your boss says "But ChatGPT Said "
cross-posted from: lemmy.bestiver.se/post/707027
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Perplexity.ai is offering a full year of free AI access
If you’re into AI tools or use ChatGPT often, you should definitely check out pplx.ai/hsnqndt86289
.
They’re currently offering a free one-year trial 🎁
Why it’s worth trying:
Cites real sources for every answer (with direct links)
Fast, clean, and easy-to-use interface
Handles complex questions with context and accuracy
Great for research, study, or everyday learning
Try it here: pplx.ai/hsnqndt86289
What do you think — could this be a real alternative to ChatGPT? 🤔
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You could pay me and i still wouldn't want to use any of this.
I can write my own texts, I can read long ones without having to get a summary. I can draw, I can take pictures, I can do online research. All by myself without a spicy autocomplete to prechew it for me.
Wrist-Cut Transformation Subculture ✡ Menhera-chan - Capitolo 1
La storia di Menhera-chan inizia con degli istanti banalmente tristi. Rincorsa per strada e subito acchiappata da 3 bulle sue compagne di classe...
Los Lobos - Gates Of Gold (2015)
Questo disco arriva dopo che le ultime prove discografiche in studio erano diventate un poco appannate, avevano perso smalto (“The Town and The City” una spanna sopra l’ ultimo “Tin Can Trust” di cinque anni orsono, tuttavia entrambe sono prove meno convincenti di un glorioso passato)... Leggi e ascolta...
Los Lobos - Gates Of Gold (2015)
Questo disco arriva dopo che le ultime prove discografiche in studio erano diventate un poco appannate, avevano perso smalto (“The Town and The City” una spanna sopra l’ ultimo “Tin Can Trust” di cinque anni orsono, tuttavia entrambe sono prove meno convincenti di un glorioso passato). Però David Hidalgo e Louie Pérez sono tornati in gran forma e c’è una grande varietà nei suoni, con brani che si presentano in una veste squisitamente latina, oppure troviamo blues urbani, sonorità black, poi ci sono riferimenti ai Grateful Dead ed al loro capolavoro Kiko e riscontriamo la presenza di alcune grandi canzoni come ad esempio “Magdalena” e “When We Were Free”. Azzarderei col dire che è il disco più convincente dai tempi di “Good Morning Aztlán” (2002) e qualitativamente siamo ai livelli di Kiko... artesuono.blogspot.com/2015/10…
Ascolta il disco: album.link/s/7oM8JtjRTcDm4F9I3…
Home – Identità DigitaleSono su: Mastodon.uno - Pixelfed - Feddit
Los Lobos - Gates Of Gold (2015)
di Massimo Orsi Questo disco arriva dopo che le ultime prove discografiche in studio erano diventate un poco appannate, avevano perso s...Silvano Bottaro (Blogger)
RRF Rassegna stampa 30 10 25. Corte dei conti boccia piano ponte sullo stretto. Ira del governo. Opposizioni "Parole gravi"
RRF Sport. Basket serie B. Juve Caserta Luiss Roma 55 a 59
Viaggio fantastico tra pennelli di mosca e frammenti di polvere intagliati a misura - Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri
Viaggio fantastico tra pennelli di mosca e frammenti di polvere intagliati a misura - Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri
Una delle storie più frequentemente ripetute dall’artista britannico Willard Wigan nel corso delle sue interviste riguarda il processo formativo dei suoi anni scolastici ed il modo in cui un’esperienza negativa lo condusse, per via indiretta, alla la…Jacopo (Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri)
'Keep Android Open' movement fights back against Google sideloading restrictions
'Keep Android Open' movement fights back against Google sideloading restrictions
: Petition seeks to rally community opposition and alert regulatorsThomas Claburn (The Register)
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Europe’s rights court clears Norway of climate misconduct over Arctic oil licences
Europe’s top human rights court ruled Tuesday that Norway did not violate its climate obligations by granting Arctic oil and gas exploration licenses in 2016. It was a setback for climate activists after a landmark ruling last year against Switzerland for failing to take sufficient action on climate change.
UK far right movement is still led by anonymous accounts
But an analysis of social media suggests something else. Many people and groups on the radical and far-right are harnessing a process known as audience capture in order to influence political policy.A group of anonymous X accounts is said to follow a “posting-to-policy” strategy. These accounts – some of which are run by disaffected Westminster professionals – post to inject their grievances into online discourse.
To explore this dynamic, and how Reform’s recent u-turn has been shaped by it, we analysed the online networks that drove conversation about “mass deportations” on X over the past year. Using computational methods, we identified four distinct sub-communities defined by their retweet relationships. These sub-communities were formed around far-right influencers, radical right influencers, Advance UK/free-marketeer influencers – and around the Reform party.
Discussion of mass deportations in 2024 was almost exclusively dominated by the far-right and the anonymous accounts of the radical right. Fast forward to April 2025 and we find Lowe, Habib and a wider range of rightwing influencers have entered the conversation in support of the policy.
Finally, in September, following Reform’s August announcement, you can see Farage and key Reform personnel supplant the influencers as players in a movement they had little role in creating. In doing so, the party has aligned itself with a policy that less than a year ago it vehemently rejected.
Inside the far-right social media ecosystem normalising extremist ideas in UK politics
A process of normalisation has led Reform to propose mass deportations where once it believed such a policy would never be politically viable.The Conversation
Amanhã a babá não trabalha
Crédito: Tomaz Silva/Agência Brasil
A FAVELA SANGRA, E O PAÍS FINGE NORMALIDADENas coberturas à beira–mar, a vida segue, porque o sangue derramado não mancha o piso de mármore
AOL sold to Bending Spoons for $1.5 Billion
Bending Spoons, the company behind Evernote, Meetup, StreamYard and WeTransfer is acquiring AOL from Yahoo!'s new owner, Apollo Global Management, for $1.5 Billion.
the-independent.com/news/world… (Archive]
You’ve got a new owner: AOL is sold in reputed $1.5B deal to tech conglomerate
AOL, which became symbolic of the early internet age, is being bought by Italian tech company Bending SpoonErin Keller (The Independent)
The Insanity of the Facebook Puzzle Scam Code: “BE CV BK 2025 -R-D” and the Unbelievable Spread of an Obvious Scam
It’s hard to overstate just how bizarre it is that something as nonsensical as “BE CV BK 2025 -R-D” has taken over Facebook and even started creeping into Google search results. This strange code — which looks like some mix of a fake model number, a coded message, and a bot gibberish tag — has appeared in thousands of posts across Facebook. And what’s wild is that, despite being so obviously a scam, so clearly fraudulent, so transparently fake, it’s everywhere. The fact that it’s not being widely discussed, not being reported on by major outlets, not being taken down effectively by Facebook, makes the whole thing even more insane.
You can go on Facebook right now, type that code into the search bar — “BE CV BK 2025 -R-D” or “BE CV BK.2025 -R-D” — and what you’ll find is a flood of the same kinds of posts. Some are in different languages. Some use emojis. Some pretend to be part of “puzzle groups” or “mystery challenges.” Others are just random accounts spamming the same text over and over again, often accompanied by weird links, grainy photos, or random “game” announcements. But the one thing they all share is the same exact scam code.
The strangest part is that this isn’t just some obscure niche spam chain buried deep in Facebook’s murky corners. It’s out in the open. Public groups. Public pages. Public posts. You can find it by simply searching. It’s like the digital equivalent of walking through a city and seeing “SCAM” graffiti plastered across every wall — and somehow, no one’s talking about it.
That’s what makes this whole “puzzle scam” phenomenon feel so surreal. It’s not hidden. It’s not subtle. It’s right there in plain sight. And yet, despite being so blatant, it’s spreading like wildfire.
It’s easy to see why the “puzzle” angle works. These kinds of scams often rely on curiosity — on the human desire to “figure out” something mysterious. The code looks cryptic enough to seem like there’s a deeper meaning behind it. “BE CV BK 2025 -R-D.” It almost feels like it could be a secret message, or a part of a viral challenge, or some kind of ARG (alternate reality game). And that’s what hooks people in. Someone sees a friend post it. They think, “What is this? Is this some new Facebook game? Is this part of something?” And before long, they’re clicking links, joining groups, following instructions, or even sharing the post themselves — unknowingly helping to spread the scam further.
The entire design of this “puzzle” is meant to exploit one of the simplest psychological triggers: curiosity. Humans are hardwired to seek answers, especially when something looks like a code or a mystery. Scammers have known this for years — that’s why “riddles,” “tests,” “IQ puzzles,” and “hidden messages” have long been a popular front for phishing scams, malware links, and data-harvesting schemes. This particular Facebook scam just takes that formula and dresses it up with a meaningless code that looks intriguing to the untrained eye.
But what’s really unsettling about this whole thing is just how many posts there are. It’s not just a handful of scammers copying and pasting the same message. There are thousands. Some of them are weeks or months old. Others are being posted in real time. The scam has evolved into a kind of bot swarm, almost like a virus that keeps replicating itself across the platform. And the lack of any large-scale intervention from Facebook makes it even worse.
You’d think a platform with as much power, as much data control, and as much AI filtering as Facebook would be able to catch something as blatantly repetitive and nonsensical as this. But nope. The scam lives on, thriving. And that’s what’s disturbing. The scammers have found a way to stay one step ahead — maybe by slightly changing punctuation, or spacing, or formatting, to keep slipping past Facebook’s algorithmic filters. The difference between “BE CV BK 2025 -R-D” and “BE CV BK.2025 -R-D” might be enough to fool automated moderation systems.
And meanwhile, the rest of us are just sitting here, watching this nonsense flood our feeds, while hardly anyone seems to be calling it out.
It’s a sign of how desensitized we’ve all become to online spam. There’s so much garbage on the internet — from fake giveaways to impersonation accounts to AI-generated comment bots — that something like this barely registers anymore. The absurdity of a code like “BE CV BK 2025 -R-D” showing up everywhere doesn’t even faze people anymore. We’ve reached a point where mass spam has become so normalized that people just scroll past it without question.
But the danger here isn’t just about annoyance. It’s about what’s behind these scams. Many of these “puzzle” posts are actually phishing attempts or clickbait traps that redirect users to shady sites. Others use the puzzle format to get users to comment, share, or click a “Continue” button — all tactics designed to collect engagement data or personal information. And then there’s the possibility that some of these are part of larger coordinated bot networks — networks designed not just to scam individuals, but to manipulate engagement metrics, artificially inflate content visibility, or even test out new spam strategies that can later be used in political or commercial manipulation.
That may sound far-fetched, but it’s not. Facebook has long been a testing ground for disinformation and bot campaigns. If scammers can flood the platform with something so meaningless yet widespread, imagine what they can do when they actually put some effort into it.
What’s also strange is how the scam has spread to Google. Search “BE CV BK 2025 -R-D” and you’ll see that it’s indexed in all kinds of pages — cached Facebook links, random blog comment sections, obscure reposting sites. The digital footprint of this nonsense code is massive. And that means it’s not just a Facebook issue anymore. It’s become part of the broader web ecosystem, another layer in the weird, polluted strata of modern internet junk data.
It’s almost poetic, in a depressing way. The internet used to be about connection, creativity, and genuine curiosity. Now that same curiosity — the thing that once drove people to explore and learn — is being weaponized against them. Instead of solving puzzles for fun, people are being tricked into interacting with spam. Instead of decoding art or mystery, they’re decoding scams. And it’s not even subtle anymore.
What’s wild, too, is that Facebook users themselves are often the ones unknowingly keeping it alive. The bots can only do so much — but when real people start engaging, commenting, sharing, or trying to “warn” others by reposting the code, that activity actually boosts the visibility of the scam. Facebook’s algorithm doesn’t care why something is getting engagement — it just sees numbers. So every time someone posts, “Don’t fall for BE CV BK 2025 -R-D, it’s a scam!”, that post can ironically push the code further up the visibility ladder, leading even more people to see it.
The whole thing feels like an ouroboros of internet stupidity — a self-feeding loop where spam generates attention, attention generates engagement, and engagement keeps the spam alive.
And maybe that’s the most disturbing part of all: how effortless it’s become for something like this to go viral without any real content behind it. It doesn’t even have to make sense. It doesn’t have to be convincing. It doesn’t have to look real. It just has to exist in large enough quantity to trick the algorithm.
It’s a perfect reflection of how broken online ecosystems have become. In the old internet, scams had to at least try to look legitimate — a fake website pretending to be your bank, or a phony giveaway with a convincing logo. Now? All it takes is a random string of letters and numbers, a few thousand bot accounts, and a platform too busy or too lazy to do anything about it.
Facebook’s failure to stop something this blatant speaks volumes. It’s not just an oversight — it’s a sign that their moderation systems are reactive, not proactive. They’re so focused on surface-level metrics that something like this can thrive indefinitely. And in that sense, the “BE CV BK 2025 -R-D” code becomes more than just a scam. It becomes a symptom. A sign of decay. Proof that the systems that were supposed to protect users from obvious manipulation are no longer functioning as intended.
It’s worth asking: what’s the endgame here? What’s the point of this code? Is it just engagement farming? A front for phishing? A bot experiment? Or is it something even weirder — an automated system left to run amok, spamming for the sake of spamming?
At this point, no one really knows. But that’s the scary part — no one’s really trying to find out, either. The internet is so overloaded with noise that even something this widespread can go largely unnoticed by the mainstream. People see it, shrug, and move on.
That’s how scams survive. Not because they’re convincing, but because people have stopped caring enough to investigate.
Maybe that’s the biggest takeaway from the “BE CV BK 2025 -R-D” puzzle scam — not just how it spreads, but what it reveals about us. We’re living in a time where nonsense thrives because attention is cheap. Where scams succeed not through sophistication, but through sheer saturation. Where even the most absurd, poorly disguised fraud can blanket an entire social network and nobody blinks.
The “BE CV BK 2025 -R-D” code isn’t just a scam — it’s a mirror. A reflection of an online culture that’s too burned out, too overwhelmed, and too desensitized to call out the obvious anymore.
And maybe, until more people start noticing the sheer absurdity of things like this, we’re going to keep seeing the same pattern play out — again and again — until our feeds are nothing but codes, spam, and empty noise pretending to be meaning.
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Chloé 🥕
in reply to makeitwonderful • • •apparently this is a big problem with GOG, they have a very strict and opinionated policy for accepting games on their store.
on one hand, this means GOG doesn't have much shovelware, unlike Steam or itch. this is good. but it also means incredible games get the pass for ridiculous reasons.
iirc they passed on Balatro because it "wasn't what they were looking for on the store right now", and they initially passed on Undertale because the game's graphics made them think it was unpolished... i wonder how many incredible indie games aren't on GOG because of this?
Chloé 🥕
in reply to Chloé 🥕 • • •v0rld
in reply to Chloé 🥕 • • •How do you propose GOG should handle forever support for a nearly endless number of shovelware games? Preservation is more than offering the downloads, the games also need to run on systems people actually have.
As far as I can tell they are fullfilling all their marketing promises by taking charge of updating games when developers stop doing so. I wish they would do that for the Linux versions as well as the windows versions, but it's absolutely better than nothing.
Chloé 🥕
in reply to v0rld • • •what GOG is doing is great and i commend their efforts (even tho i wish they’d relax their submission policies juuust a bit), and as a store, not having piles of shovelware is great!
but as a preservation platform, GOG’s approach is inherently limited. they can’t have every game, and they can’t keep supporting every game. that’s the fundamental problem with them as far as preservation is concerned.
the only way i can think of where we could have total game preservation is if every game ever made had it’s source code readily available, and all people were taught the programming skills necessary to make the games work on whatever future computers we have. that way, even the most obscure games which don’t have a passionate fanbase can be ported, fixed and played for years to come.
which, obviously, is not something that’s doable, by GOG or by anyone else
Auster
in reply to makeitwonderful • • •