AI Surveillance Startup Caught Using Sweatshop Workers to Monitor US Residents
Bombshell new reporting from 404 Media found that Flock, which has its cameras in thousands of US communities, has been outsourcing its AI to gig workers located in the Philippines.
After accessing a cache of exposed data, 404 found documents related to annotating Flock footage, a process sometimes called “AI training.” Workers were tasked with jobs include categorizing vehicles by color, make, and model, transcribing license plates, and labeling various audio clips from car wrecks.
In US towns and cities, Flock cameras maintained by local businesses and municipal agencies form centralized surveillance networks for local police. They constantly scan for car license plates, as well as pedestrians, who are categorized based on their clothing, and possibly by factors like gender and race.
In a growing number of cases, local police are using Flock to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents surveil minority communities.
It isn’t clear where all the Flock annotation footage came from, but screenshots included in the documents for data annotators showed license plates from New York, Florida, New Jersey, Michigan, and California.
Flock joins the ranks of other fast-moving AI companies that have resorted to low-paid international labor to bring their product to market. Amazon’s cashier-free “just walk out” stores, for example, were really just gig workers watching American shoppers from India. The AI startup Engineer.ai, which purported to make developing code for apps “as easy as ordering a pizza,” was found out to be selling passing human-written code as AI generated.
The difference with those examples is that those services were voluntary — powered by the exploitation of workers in the global south, yes, but with a choice to opt out on the front-end. That isn’t the case with Flock, as you don’t have to consent to end up in the panopticon. In other words, for a growing number of Americans, a for-profit company is deciding who gets watched, and who does the watching — a system built on exploitation at either end.
AI Surveillance Startup Caught Using Sweatshop Workers to Monitor US Residents
The powerful surveillance startup Flock was caught using workers in the Philippines to collate data on US residents.Joe Wilkins (Futurism)
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Had an issue with an update and had no networl access after reboot. How many kernals can be available in grub?
Still pretty new to Linux, I'm on Ubuntu Studio 24.04 LTS and had some issues with updates through the updater with errors and so I did sudo apt update/upgrade instead. Something went wrong and had errors, and after a reboot I had no internet access, Ethernet or WiFi, and no options to connect to anything. Running sudo lshw -c network showed unclaimed networks.
In case anyone has a similar issue, I fixed it by:
1. Reboot, spam shift to get into grub
2. Advanced options
3. Recovery mode for the lower number kernel
4. Enable networking
5. Fix broken packages
My question is about number 3. There were 4 kernel options, 2 normal with a recovery for each (I can't remember the specifics but one had 37 and the other 36). I selected recovery 36 as it was the older kernel. Is that amount of options (2 for each kernel) normal or can I create more? Like 37, 36, 35, 34, etc.
I was in panic mode since this PC is for work, and thought it might be nice to have more older kernel options if possible. I've also learned my lesson and am currently running Timeshift.
It's been a long time since I used Ubuntu, but at the time I did I recall running into issues keeping too many old kernels. They were stored in a fixed space folder (or maybe partition?) that was like 100MB and sometimes wouldn't clear out automatically, so I remember this. May not be relevant now, but if it is, space in the storage folder is the limiting factor so you would need to change that. If it IS a partition, then you would need to deal with all that is involved with that.
edited to add that my current OS only stores three or four as well. I have never really dived into it.
The Quest for Reasonably Secure Operating Systems
The Quest for Reasonably Secure Operating Systems
I never worried on Windows about security as much as I should have, it just so happens I've been lucky to have never been hit with ransomware. By the time...yazomie > tech
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Another step up is the confidential computing project. Requires hardware that supports it though, which sucks, but takes the virtual hardware concept and adds multi key memory encryption on top.
Remember though security without a threat model is just paranoia, so what level of hoops and investment you need really depends on what your threats actually look like.
I personally love containers and Macsec. It limits most of my concerns. I want to mess with confidential containers next, which is to say lightweight VMs in containers with memory encryption set, but thats all future to me. The irony is that I then I have to figure out attestation better for those machines since from the host they are black boxes.
iOS 26 doesn't offer privacy settings at all for "Home" app
It appears that even if you don't have the app installed, it is in Settings > Apps. But there's no option at all, to customise its privacy settings.
Downloading the app also doesn't let you customise its privacy settings. In fact, the app then disappears altogether from the privacy settings! It doesn't even appear anymore in the "Hidden Apps". Removing it again however, shows the app popping up again in the settings.
What's more, it's deliberately erroneously labelled as "Start Screen" when you don't have downloaded it.
Ridiculous. One more reason to go to a Fairphone or something like it.
However, you can edit it... but very cumbersomely, only by going to Settings > Siri > App Access ... and then suddenly, you see the app!
This seems like it's straight up illegal.
If by “privacy settings” you mean controlling what system permissions the Home app has, you’re out of luck. It’s a semi-default app and may be more deeply embedded into iOS than is apparent.
If you’re trying to control what other apps have access to HomeKit data, you can find that in Privacy & Security.
[2024-10-27] OpenZFS new deduplication mechanism and why you still may not want to use it
OpenZFS deduplication is good now and you shouldn't use it
OpenZFS 2.3.0 will be released any day now, and it includes the new “Fast Dedup” feature. My team at Klara spent many months in 2023 and 2024 working on it, and we reckon it’s pretty good, a huge step up from the old dedup as well as being a solid ba…despair labs
Linux kernel version numbers (Greg Kroah-Hartman's blog)
Linux kernel version numbers
Despite having a stable release model and cadence since December 2003, Linux kernel version numbers seem to baffle and confuse those that run across them, causing numerous groups to mistakenly make versioning statements that are flat out false.Greg K-H (http://www.kroah.com/log/)
The blog post is confusing, but the image is very clear.
5.2.0 was released.
Then 5.2.1, 5.2.2, 5.2.3, 5.2.4, 5.2.5, and 5.2.6 were released as stable updates. Pretty straightforward.
After 5.2.0 came out, normal development continued toward the upcoming 5.3.0 in Linus’s mainline tree. As bugfixes for real problems (crashes, data corruption, build breaks, security issues, etc.) were written and merged into mainline, a subset of those fixes was then backported to the 5.2.y stable branch and released as 5.2.1, 5.2.2, and so on.
In other words, there is a separate 5.2.y branch, but most of its changes are not developed there first. They are developed in mainline (the code that will eventually become 5.3.0 and beyond) and then cherry-picked back into 5.2.y as “stable” bugfixes. There is no “merge 5.2.x back into 5.3.0”; instead, stable only takes fixes that are already in mainline.
This means that any fix you see in a 5.2.y release should already be present in the mainline code that leads to 5.3.0 (or replaced by an equivalent fix there). So when you move from 5.2.6 to 5.3.0, you should not lose any of the bugfixes you were getting from the 5.2.y stable series.
If semantic versioning is:
MAJOR version when you make incompatible API changes
MINOR version when you add functionality in a backward compatible manner
PATCH version when you make backward compatible bug fixes
then I think that would be on like 3.77.0 or something right now. Not terrible, but honestly prefer it to be like the major upped in the new year every year. It is about 43 years old,so 43.x in 2026. Would be easier to know how old a kernel release is without looking it up.
Would be easier to know how old a kernel release is without looking it up.
I concur, but it would be much easier to make the major version the current year (as many projects do, and Linux should imo) rather than the whole project's age at the time of a release.
Linux is only 34 years old, btw.
(Mexico) Continuing Neoliberal Policies Over Farmers’ Demands
cross-posted from: hexbear.net/post/6980341
cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/1231…
This article by Arturo Huerta González originally appeared in the December 2, 2025 edition of La Jornada de Oriente*, the Puebla edition of Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of* Mexico Solidarity Media*, or the Mexico Solidarity Project.*On November 26, 2025, the country’s President stated that “there is no money to pay what the farmers are demanding ” and that “you can’t promise what you can’t deliver.” The government has indicated that “the producers’ request to set a price far above the current market value for all national corn exceeds the government ‘s financial capacity ” and that the farmers ‘ demands “must be adjusted to budgetary availability, as public finances have limits.”
This rhetoric is the same as that of the neoliberal presidents who have governed us since the 1980s. By limiting public spending relative to revenue, the government seeks to curry favor with international rating agencies , the International Monetary Fund, and the national and international financial sector. This has led to a reduction in the size and participation of the government in the economy and a neglect of growth objectives for the productive sector, such as job creation, which the population demands. It is a crime to cut public spending in a context where the economy is not growing and the demands of large segments of the population are not being met.
It should be noted that a sovereign government has no financial limits. Financial resources are available. It’s simply a matter of amending the Organic Law of the Bank of Mexico so that it can purchase government debt directly at a low interest rate. This would allow the government to expand its spending and investment to meet the demands of farmers, promote the substitution of agricultural and manufactured imports, and generate employment. This would not be inflationary, as it would increase production, reduce the foreign trade deficit, and generate revenue to cover debt payments. The government could also reduce funding for failed projects such as the Maya Train, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec train , and the Dos Bocas refinery, and allocate those funds to support basic grain producers, a strategic sector essential for ensuring food self-sufficiency in these areas.
Upon learning of the demands from Mexican farmers, US congressmen sent a letter to the US chargé d’affaires stating that he must defend US agricultural exports to Mexico, as it is their primary market. If the Mexican government agrees to continue importing these products, it will continue to favor US producers at the expense of domestic producers, further jeopardizing self-sufficiency and increasing Mexican dependence on foreign imports.
The government says that the requested guaranteed price of 7,200 pesos per ton for corn is far above the market price and that absorbing the difference is very costly for the government. The problem is that the national price should not be set based on the open market, determined by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, as this has led to cheap imports displacing domestic production and jeopardizing food self-sufficiency in basic grains. This not only affects agricultural producers but also increases the foreign trade deficit and makes the economy more dependent on capital inflows, which requires setting high interest rates to stimulate them. This, in turn, increases the cost of servicing debt for the government, businesses, and households, and restricts investment, spending, and economic activity.
Farmers are not mobilizing to defend any privileges, as the government claims ; they are demanding the implementation of policies to boost Mexican agriculture and advance food self-sufficiency. Therefore, they are demanding an end to importing basic grains, the provision of affordable credit, and the establishment of fair prices for these products.
The government refuses to do so for fear of inflation and devaluation, which would affect the financial sector, which requires low inflation and currency stability to safeguard its capital. Since the economy lacks the conditions to lower inflation, given low productivity and production lags, it has resorted to stimulating capital inflows to lower the dollar’s value and thus imports in order to reduce inflation. All of this benefits the financial sector and producers from the US and other countries who flood the domestic market with their products at the expense of displacing national producers and without implementing policies that promote economic growth.
The government must work for the benefit of the country, not against it. Domestic production and employment must be incentivized , even if this seems more expensive in the short term, because it would boost economic growth and employment, reduce the foreign trade deficit, and provide workers with income to cope with higher prices. This would prevent the current practice of lowering inflation to benefit the financial sector and US producers of imported goods, which has led to a decline in our industry and production of basic grains. This, in turn, has stifled economic growth, increased unemployment and underemployment, and lowered the population’s standard of living.
The government opposes the farmers’ request to remove staple grains from the USMCA trade agreement because it fears the US will impose further restrictions on Mexican exports to that country. Upon learning of the demands from Mexican farmers, US congressmen sent a letter to the US chargé d’affaires stating that he must defend US agricultural exports to Mexico, as it is their primary market. If the Mexican government agrees to continue importing these products, it will continue to favor US producers at the expense of domestic producers, further jeopardizing self-sufficiency and increasing Mexican dependence on foreign imports.
The President said that “we must be very responsible about what can and cannot be done,” and in this regard, it must be said that economic policy must be responsible in order to satisfy the demands not only of agricultural producers, but also of those who clamor for well-paying jobs, just enough to address the growing poverty and crime plaguing the country. To achieve this, the government must abandon budget cuts and ensure that the central bank serves the growth of the productive sector and employment. Furthermore, trade liberalization must be reviewed, and protectionist policies implemented to favor domestic production. If the government does not increase investment and spending to boost private investment, production, and employment, and if the central bank does not lower interest rates, the economy is headed for a crisis.
Without growth in production and employment, there is no growth. Neoliberal policies must be abandoned . If the government fails to meet the needs of the population and continues to act in favor of the interests of the US and the financial sector, economic and social problems and discontent among affected sectors will worsen, leading to increased protests.
The post Continuing Neoliberal Policies Over Farmers’ Demands appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.From Mexico Solidarity Media via This RSS Feed.
El gobierno privilegia mantener las políticas neoliberales, en vez satisfacer las demandas - Alternativa Económica
El gobierno ha señalado que “la petición de los productores de fijar un precio muy superior al valor actual de mercado para todo el maíz nacional rebasa la capacidad financiera del gobiernoArturo Huerta González (La Jornada de Oriente)
@Salamence@lemmy.zip please add the required [Opinion] prefix in the title.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Mexico Solidarity Media, or the Mexico Solidarity Project.
Is Europe ready to pull the trigger? Officials whisper about dumping US treasuries if Trump cuts Ukraine deal
Is Europe ready to pull the trigger? Officials whisper about dumping US treasuries if Trump cuts Ukraine d
European governments US Treasuries: European governments are considering a radical economic strategy by possibly selling off US Treasury bonds to counter a feared Trump-Putin agreement that could jeopardize Ukraine's security.Shreya Biswas (Economic Times)
i was going to say something like this.
it's like eisenhower's threat to eden but in reverse and just as empty; they'll never threaten profits or capital and they've also made themselves even more depended on the us.
Florida governor designates Muslim rights group as terrorist organization
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order designating one of the country’s most prominent Muslim civil rights groups, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, as a “foreign terrorist organization,” becoming the second high-profile Republican governor to do so in recent weeks.
CAIR's Florida chapter announced a lawsuit challenging the order at a Tuesday press conference in Tampa, where Hiba Rahim, the chapter's interim executive director, called the order "defamatory and unconstitutional."
The U.S. government has not designated CAIR or the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations, but President Donald Trump last month began the process of doing so for certain Muslim Brotherhood chapters, such as those in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan.
The Florida order instructs agencies to take action to prevent CAIR from receiving any state contracts, employment or funding.
CAIR was founded in 1994 and has chapters in nearly two dozen U.S. states.
Army begins to reshape its acquisition enterprise along portfolio lines
“We will leverage taxpayer dollars in a more accountable, flexible and deliberate manner to maximize their value across capability portfolios,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during an address at the National War College. “We will shift funding within portfolios’ authorized boundaries swiftly and decisively to maximize mission outcomes. If one program is faltering, funding will be shifted within the portfolio to accelerate or scale a higher priority. If a new or more promising technology emerges, we will seize the opportunity and not be held back by artificial constraints and funding boundaries that take months or even years to overcome.”
In that address, Hegseth credited the military services with laying the groundwork for some of the reforms he wants to make department-wide. And the Army started its implementation work last month, naming six new “portfolio acquisition executives.” Each of those PAEs will oversee different “capability areas” with programs managed by what had, up until now, been called program executive offices (PEOs), and will now be called capability program executives (CPEs).
Army begins to reshape its acquisition enterprise along portfolio lines
Former program executive offices are starting to realign their organizations under the new "capability portfolio executive" construct.Jared Serbu (Federal News Network)
Uncovered: Instacart is using AI algorithms to charge customers different prices for the same items. It's not just online. It's in physical grocery stores too.
New Investigation found that some grocery prices differed by as much as 23 percent per item from one Instacart customer to the next. In an inadvertently sent email, the company calls one pricing tactic “smart rounding.”
Instacart’s AI-Enabled Pricing Experiments May Be Inflating Your Grocery Bill, CR and Groundwork Collaborative Investigation Finds
Exclusive: Instacart’s AI pricing may be inflating your grocery bill.Consumer Reports
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Uncovered: Instacart is using AI algorithms to charge customers different prices for the same items. It's not just online. It's in physical grocery stores too.
New Investigation found that some grocery prices differed by as much as 23 percent per item from one Instacart customer to the next. In an inadvertently sent email, the company calls one pricing tactic “smart rounding.”
Instacart’s AI-Enabled Pricing Experiments May Be Inflating Your Grocery Bill, CR and Groundwork Collaborative Investigation Finds
Exclusive: Instacart’s AI pricing may be inflating your grocery bill.Consumer Reports
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Brigitte Macron faces criticism after using sexist insult about activists
The scene filmed on Sunday showed France’s first lady in discussion backstage at the Folies Bergère theatre in central Paris with actor Ary Abittan before a performance he was about to give.
The previous night, feminist campaigners had disrupted his show, wearing masks of the actor bearing the word “rapist” and shouting, “Abittan, rapist!”
A woman in 2021 accused the actor of rape, but in 2023, investigators dropped the case, citing a lack of evidence.
Before Sunday’s performance, Macron is seen in the video, published by local media Public on Monday, asking him how he was feeling. When he said he was feeling scared, Macron was heard jokingly responding, using a vulgar expression in French, “If there are any stupid removed, we’ll kick them out”.
Brigitte Macron faces criticism after using sexist insult about activists
The French first lady’s team says she had intended to criticise a feminist group’s ‘radical method’ of protest.Al Jazeera
Best multi player steam setup?
cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/39957209
Hello lemmings, I've once again come for your advice. I've built a sff system with a dual boot bazzite os. This will be mostly for my kids playing games and media serving from Big picture in the living room. I'm trying to figure out the best way to set up the accounts. Ideally it would be as close to a console experience as possible but I want to make sure each kid can save their own progress. What's my best option here? Does everyone need their own os account that signs them into steam properly? I've never set up a system for multiple users before.Edit: details
Edit: thanks for all the feedback! I'm leaning towards single system account with multiple steam accounts. Now I just need to figure out how to keep myself signed in on steam so I don't have to put my PW in every time. Thanks a ton!
I'd go with different system acounts. That way their savegames are guaranteed to stay separate.
That's because on PC most games just care about the system user when determining the savegame folder, and don't care about steam accounts.
So, what I'd do is to:
- Give each their own system account
- Set up Gamescope as a session: wiki.archlinux.org/title/Steam…
- Configure the Display Manager to use that session for their users (In GDM, for instance, it's enough to manually select it once on login - GDM remembers the last-used session per user)
- Profit
If your kids are only going to be using big picture mode in steam, then one system account will work. The steam deck only has one system user with the ability to have multiple steam accounts and that works great for multiple users, from my experience.
For anyone interested in a great dual use system for regular desktop use and a console-like experience, I recommend checking out nixos and jovian-nix:
jovian-experiments.github.io/J…
I'm using it on my main PC and it works incredibly well to mimic the steam deck experience using a full desktop on nixos 25.11
What’s a graphical piece of software you wish existed or was better?
Hi Linux Lemmites. Recently finished up school and started working full time and kind of miss working on personal projects. I’m looking to try to make something in rust and try out gpui if I can figure it out or maybe egui. I also want to make something maybe even a handful of people would actually use as I find that motivating, so I ask what would actually be useful to you?
Edit: thank you all very much for the input, I think that maybe doing something akin to a “settings+” would be a fair target for me for a n initial project. If I make anything interesting I’ll make another post in this sub.
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(ADC) “Smartphone, dopamina e dipendenza: il mio ESPERIMENTO di 7 Giorni”
Caspiterina, De Concimi ha cacciato fuori questo esperimentino pazzo 2 settimane fa e io me l’ero perso… l’ho scoperto solo stasera per caso: 1 settimana senza lo smarfonino (o smarfonone, nel suo caso) per capire se è possibile vivere senza. Non tanto in senso di pratica universale del mondo, perché purtroppo al giorno d’oggi l’avere […]
Glauber Braga é expulso do plenário após ocupação da Mesa Diretora
Glauber Braga é expulso do plenário após ocupação da Mesa Diretora
Congressista foi levado por policiais legislativos para fora do plenário após protesto contra possível cassação.Congresso em Foco
Can DSA Hold Mamdani Accountable? Its Co-Chairs Respond
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
Segal Secrets: docs reveal Antisemitism Envoy's big pay day - Michael West
Top Brazilian Official Warns Trump of 'Vietnam-Style' Regional Conflict If He Attacks Venezuela
cross-posted from: hexbear.net/post/6977610
cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/1231…
A top Brazilian official is warning President Donald Trump that a US military attack on Venezuela could easily spiral out of control into a "Vietnam-style" regional conflict.
Celso Amorim, chief foreign policy adviser to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said in an interview published on Monday by the Guardian that a US military strike on Venezuela would inevitably draw nations throughout Latin America into an armed conflict that would be difficult to contain.
"The last thing we want is for South America to become a war zone—and a war zone that would inevitably not just be a war between the US and Venezuela," he said. "It would end up having global involvement and this would be really unfortunate."
Amorim added that "if there was an invasion, a real invasion [of Venezuela]... I think undoubtedly you would see something similar to Vietnam—on what scale it’s impossible to say."
While acknowledging that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is disliked by many other South American leaders, Amorim predicted that even some of Maduro's adversaries would rally to his side in the face of destabilizing military actions by the US government.
He also predicted that anti-US sentiment would surge throughout the continent in the event of an invasion, as there is still major resentment toward the US for backing right-wing military coups during the Cold War in Chile, Brazil, and other nations.
"I know South America," he emphasized. "Our whole continent exists because of resistance against foreign invaders."
The Trump administration in recent weeks has signaled that it plans to launch attacks against purported drug traffickers inside Venezuela, even though reports from the US government and the United Nations have not identified Venezuela as a significant source of drugs that enter the United States.
The administration has also accused Maduro of leading an international drug trafficking organization called the Cartel de los Soles, despite many experts saying that they have seen no evidence that such an organization formally exists.
Trump late last month further escalated tensions with Venezuela when he declared that airspace over the nation was "closed in its entirety," even though he lacks any legal authority to enforce such a decree.
The Washington Post reported on Monday that Maduro is remaining defiant in the face of US pressure, as he is refusing to go into exile despite the threat of an attack on his country.
According to the Post's sources, Maduro's inner circle of allies "shows no signs of imminent collapse," even as he has limited his public appearances and beefed up his personal security amid fears that he could be the target of an assassination attempt.
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
Trump Claims Venezuelan Airspace Is Closed in Latest Illegal, 'Dangerous Escalation'
"Even if unenforced, Trump’s declaration functions as an improvised, extralegal no-fly zone created through fear, FAA warnings, and military pressure," said the anti-war group CodePink.julia-conley (Common Dreams)
it's the one we've created for ourselves thanks to self re-enforced propaganda.
remember this the next time someone tells you that you MUST vote democrat or republican.
Diaries of Blood, The secret artists within Israeli detention facilities.
cross-posted from: hexbear.net/post/6980575
"I will carry my soul in my palm,
And cast it into the abyss of death,Either a life that pleases a friend,
or a death that angers an enemy."When I asked my uncle Khader Shaat, 47, about the poetry verse that he inscribed on the embroidered, handmade notebook about 30 years ago in Asqalan Israeli prison, he told me that it was the fuel that made him survive.
"Clinging to a life of freedom kept me alive," he said, remembering the notebook he made out of black fabric and framed using many beads.
Khader Shaat was detained when he was 17, sent to prison as a child, and released as a very strong young man.
From 1948 until today, Israel has detained and attacked many iconic, educated thinkers and revolutionaries as a way to suppress their voices, lessen awareness, and hide the truth. But the Occupation doesn't discriminate. According to the 2023 report of the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, there are currently 4,850 detainees in Israeli prisons, among them 31 women, including eight mothers and 160 children.
Israel detains these children for nothing more than being Palestinian. You may be walking in the street, performing your prayer at a mosque or a church, doing your job at a company, studying for your exam to a school, or whatever and whenever. The accusation is homelove. They want the young Palestinians to grow up with fear, to stop raising their voices, to never defend their land.
Diaries of Blood: The secret artists within Israeli detention facilities
Palestinian prisoners have a powerful weapon against the Israeli occupation and illegal detainment: art, forged in blood on the prison walls.Eman Al-Astal (Scalawag)
Official Propaganda for Caribbean Military Buildup Includes “Crusader Cross”
cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/1260…
An official U.S. military social media account on Monday shared a photo collage that included a symbol long affiliated with extremist groups — and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.In a post on X trumpeting the deployment of troops to the Caribbean, U.S. Southern Command, or SOUTHCOM, shared an image that prominently displayed a so-called Jerusalem cross on the helmet of a masked commando.
The Jerusalem cross, also dubbed the “Crusader cross” for its roots in Medieval Christians’ holy wars in the Middle East, is not inherently a symbol of extremism. It has, however, become popular on the right to symbolize the march of Christian civilization, with anti-Muslim roots that made it into something of a logo for the U.S. war on terror.
Tattoos of the cross, a squared-off symbol with a pattern of repeating crosses, have appeared on the bodies of people ranging from mercenaries hired by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to Hegseth himself.
Now, the symbol has reared its head again to advertise President Donald Trump’s military buildup against Venezuela — an overwhelmingly Catholic country — and boat strikes in the Caribbean.
U.S. military forces are deployed to the #SOUTHCOM area of responsibility in support of #OpSouthernSpear, @DeptofWar-directed operations, and @POTUS' priorities to disrupt illicit drug trafficking and protect the homeland. pic.twitter.com/vLvg9fQ5Lx— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) December 8, 2025
“As with all things Trump, it’s a continuation, with some escalation, and then a transformation into spectacle,” said Yale University historian Greg Grandin, whose work focuses on U.S. empire in Latin America.
The social media post came amid rising controversy over a series of strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela, dubbed Operation Southern Spear.
[
Read Our Complete Coverage
License to Kill
---------------](theintercept.com/series/licens…)Hegseth is alleged to have ordered a so-called “double-tap” strike, a follow-up attack against a debilitated boat that killed survivors clinging to the wreckage for around 45 minutes. The U.S. has carried out 22 strikes since the campaign began in September, killing a total of 87 people.
The Pentagon’s press office declined to comment on the use of the Jerusalem cross, referring questions to SOUTHCOM. But in a reply to the X post on Monday, Hegseth’s deputy press secretary Joel Valdez signaled his approval with emojis of a salute and the American flag. In a statement to the Intercept, SOUTHCOM spokesperson Steven McLoud denied that the post implied any religious or far-right message.
“The graphic you’re referring to was an illustration of service members in a ready posture during Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR,” McLoud told The Intercept. “There is no other communication intent for this image.”
The original image of the masked service member appears to have come from an album published online by the Pentagon that depicts a training exercise by Marines aboard the USS Iwo Jima in the Caribbean Sea in October. The photo depicting the cross, however, was removed from the album after commentators on social media pointed out its origins.
Amanda Saunders, a spokesperson for the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, the Pentagon-run photo agency, said she was unable to comment directly but forwarded the request to the Marine unit involved in the exercise.
“Content on DVIDS is published and archived directly by the registered units,” she said, “so we don’t have control over what is posted or removed, nor are we able to comment on those decisions.”
Hegseth and the Cross
The Jerusalem cross’s popularity on the right has surged in part thanks to featuring in various media, including the 2005 Ridley Scott film “Kingdom of Heaven” and video games, according to Matthew Gabriele, a professor of medieval studies at Virginia Tech and a scholar of Crusader iconography.“It supports the rhetoric of ‘defense of homeland.’”“It supports the rhetoric of ‘defense of homeland,’” Gabriele told The Intercept, “because the crusaders, in the right’s understanding, were waging a defensive war against enemies trying to invade Christian lands.”
The symbol’s position of prominence in official military communications is just the latest example of a trollish extremism by the Trump administration’s press teams, which have made a point of reveling in the cruelty wrought on its perceived enemies at home and abroad, or “owning the libs.”
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Team Leader at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites Belongs to Anti-“Jihad” Motorcycle Club, Has Crusader Tattoos](theintercept.com/2025/08/06/ga…)
Monday’s post may also be intended as Hegseth putting his thumb in the eye of the Pentagon’s old guard. Hegseth’s embrace of the symbol — in the form of a gawdy chest tattoo — once stymied, however temporarily, his ambitions in the military.Folling the January 6 insurrection, according to Hegseth and reporting by the Washington Post, Hegseth was ordered to stand down rather than deploy with his National Guard unit ahead of the 2021 inauguration of Joe Biden. The decision to treat Hegseth as a possible “insider threat” came after a someone flagged a photo of a shirtless Hegseth to military brass, according to the Washington Post.
“I joined the Army in 2001 because I wanted to serve my country. Extremists attacked us on 9/11, and we went to war,” Hegseth wrote “The War on Warriors,” his 2024 memoir. “Twenty years later, I was deemed an ‘extremist’ by that very same Army.”
Hegseth was hardly chastened by the episode and has since gotten more tattoos with more overt anti-Muslim resonance, including the Arabic word word for “infidel,” which appeared on his bicep sometime in the past several years. It’s accompanied by another bicep tattoo of the Latin words “Deus vult,” or “God wills it,” yet another slogan associated with the Crusades and repurposed by extremist groups.
The use of the image to advertise aggressive posturing in a majority-Christian region like Latin America may seem odd at first glance. In the context of renewed U.S. focus on Latin America, however, it’s a potent symbol of the move of military action from the Middle East to the Western Hemisphere.
“They’re globalizing the Monroe Doctrine.”The post comes on the heels of the release of the Trump’s National Security Strategy, a 33-page document outlining the administration’s foreign-policy priorities that explicitly compared Trump’s stance to the Monroe Doctrine, the turn-of-the-century policy of U.S. dominance in Latin America in opposition to colonialism by other foreign powers. Grandin, the Yale historian, described the document as a “vision of global dominance” based on a model of great-powers competition that can lead to immense instability.
“They’re globalizing the Monroe Doctrine,” Grandin said. “I’m no fan of the hypocrisy and arrogance of the old liberal international order, but there’s something to be said for starting from a first principle of shared interests, which does keep great conflict at bay to some degree.”
The post Official Propaganda for Caribbean Military Buildup Includes “Crusader Cross” appeared first on The Intercept.
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Pete Hegseth’s Arabic tattoo stirs controversy: ‘clear symbol of Islamophobia’
Critics say US defense secretary’s tattoo of the word kafir, meaning ‘infidel’ or ‘non-believer’ could offend MuslimsMarina Dunbar (The Guardian)
2025 set for second-hottest year on record
2025 set for second-hottest year on record
This year is expected to match 2023 as one of the warmest on record, second only to 2024, EU scientists warn. They cite greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels as the main cause of global warming.Felix Tamsut (Deutsche Welle)
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Spoiler formatting looks like this:
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Spoilers go here
:::The "Tap for spoiler" part is what shows up in the post, like this:
::: spoiler Tap for spoiler
Snape kills Dumbledore
:::
You can put whatever you like instead of "Tap for spoiler", such as emojis:
::: spoiler 😱😱😱😱
Mrs Flood is the Rani
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That's all 😀
Tesla Optimus falls in Miami demo, hand movements sparks remote operation debate
Tesla Optimus's fall in Miami demo sparks remote operation debate
While falls are not unusual in robotics development, a specific hand motion has raised questions about the current level of autonomy in Tesla’s system.Jijo Malayil (Interesting Engineering)
Samsung shifts focus from HBM to DDR5 modules: DDR5 RAM results in FAR more profits than HBM
Samsung is reportedly scaling down its HBM production, shifting focus of DRAM production to DDR5 modules because there's FAR more profits to be made.
Woman hospitalized after Pluribus ad on smart fridge triggers psychotic episode
A Pluribus ad displayed on a Samsung smart fridge led a UK woman to seek hospital care for a psychotic episode.
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‘I Was Paid’: Bongino’s Confession About His January 6 Claims | The deputy director of the FBI admitted to lying during his days as a pundit.
‘I Was Paid’: Bongino’s Confession About His January 6 Claims
The deputy director of the FBI admitted to lying during his days as a pundit.David A. Graham (The Atlantic)
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Unequivocal War Crimes
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
America Has Become a Digital Narco-State - Paul Krugman
America Has Become a Digital Narco-State
Social media giants have bought our government, and are trying to bully EuropePaul Krugman
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Krugman is a worthless hack. Sensational headline with implicit endorsement of prohibition is a prime example.
Edit about the "nobel": Everybody who's talking about this "nobel prize". There is no nobel prize in econ. It's a phony award made up by bankers. That's how pathetic the pseudo-science of economics is. They need to make up their own fake awards for relevancy. So please don't tout the phony awards of this pseudo-scientists. I could make up an award for flat earthers but that wouldn't legitimize flat earthism.
(And even if there were a nobel for econ... Who cares about awards if the underlying "science" is still trash?)
Here's one of the best traders talking about the same issue:
invidious.nerdvpn.de/watch?v=b…
It's eloquent and funny at the same time.
I included a timestamp to jump (almost) directly to the most relevant bit (also 33m, but 31m sets up a better context for an extra 2min of time compared to going directly to the 33m mark). But the whole video is worth watching.
Yes, Krugman is a hack.
The Plan is to Make the Internet Worse. Forever. | Aaron Bastani Meets Cory Doctorow
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
I bambini che piangono quando viene tolto lo schermo: Alberto Pellai racconta la mutazione antropologica che ha cambiato l’infanzia
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Cose scontate, ma ignorate, evviva l'adhd per tutti!
Personalization algorithms create an illusion of competence, study finds
Selected highlights:
The researchers divided the participants into different groups to test the specific effects of algorithmic personalization. One group served as a control and viewed a random assortment of items with all features available to inspect. Another group engaged in active learning, where they freely chose which categories to study without algorithmic interference.the study measured the participants’ confidence in their decisions using a rating scale from zero to ten. The analysis showed that participants in the personalized groups frequently reported high confidence levels even when their answers were wrong. This effect was particularly distinct when they encountered items from categories they had rarely or never seen during the learning phase.
This indicates a disconnection between actual competence and perceived competence caused by the filtered learning environment. The participants were unaware that the algorithm had hidden significant portions of the information landscape from them. They assumed the limited sample they viewed was representative of the whole.
The findings provide evidence that the structure of information delivery systems plays a significant role in shaping human cognition. By optimizing for engagement, current algorithms may inadvertently sacrifice the accuracy of user knowledge. This trade-off suggests that online platforms can shape not just what people see, but how they reason about the world.
Personalization algorithms create an illusion of competence, study finds
While personalization algorithms keep users engaged, they may create a false sense of expertise. A new experiment reveals that curated content feeds limit information exploration, causing learners to form distorted views while remaining surprisingly …Eric W. Dolan (PsyPost Psychology News)
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Basic Glitch
in reply to Basic Glitch • • •I have to give the broligarchs credit for always somehow managing to leave me stunned. Every time I learn some unbelievable bullshit like this, it's like falling in hate all over again.
As we leave the stagnation of society behind in the ruins of regulations and democracy that only held us back, and the technocratic elite steer us full speed ahead through this "Renaissance" we are truly blessed to be forced to live through, the line between technology and magic continues to blur...
Or maybe it's just 700 sweatshop workers in a trenchcoat. Who's to say?
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recursive_recursion
in reply to Basic Glitch • • •Looks like fraud will be on the rise as AI tech's just not worth the investment but pretending to use it still reaps in the investments.
Tesla Optimus - Exposed Teleoperator
AI's regressed to now
Alright I'm gonna take a gamble and say that it looks like the AI bubble collapse is basically here.
- YouTube
www.youtube.comBasic Glitch
in reply to recursive_recursion • • •But it's especially infuriating that this company has received so many government contracts from ICE and all over the U.S., and in some cases literally just gone into towns and put cameras up without permission. Then refused to get around to taking them down in some cases, so towns just started covering them up with trash bags.
Its like an entire business model where some creepers with a cardboard box pretend lemonade stand just decided one day to start selling pretend AI instead. And we just let them? Who fucking signed off on this?
Who is it that even helped them get their foot in the door in the first place? Who was the coked out billionaire who apparently just fucking picked their name from a list he glanced at for 5 minutes on his way to rehab? Somebody needs to find that person, and we all need to be allowed to give him a swift public kick in the ass.
recursive_recursion
in reply to Basic Glitch • • •Hold on my dude,
I never said I'm for this surveilance bullshit.
Fuck AI and Fuck ICE.
At the same time please take the time to read and interpret comments properly as you're directing your justified rage at the wrong person.
Basic Glitch
in reply to recursive_recursion • • •Wait, what? I was just making a joke.
Unless you are the coked out billionaire? In that case I would like to know what you were thinking when you vouched for these people.
I was just pointing out it's definitely going to contribute to the bubble popping, but it's even worse than other AI companies bc it was mainly government contracts (which means they'll probably still be getting funded for the foreseeable future even while other companies go under).
It's insane they were ever allowed to receive a government contract for tech that didn't even exist, so I would just really like to know how that happened? Like legally how could this have happened if not for somebody in some position of power helping these people get their foot in the door.
Lost_My_Mind
in reply to recursive_recursion • • •FINALLY.
phaedrus
in reply to Basic Glitch • • •symbolic serpent with its tail in its mouth
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)DickFiasco
in reply to Basic Glitch • • •like this
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Basic Glitch
in reply to DickFiasco • • •The main thing flock is really supposed to do is capture and match pictures of license plates at different locations. It's not even complex.
So how tf did they get the green light for the first government contract if they never even had that capability?
DickFiasco
in reply to Basic Glitch • • •Basic Glitch
in reply to DickFiasco • • •The history of the organization seems very odd
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flock_Sa…
What?? How did a detective use it to solve a crime? Who was he? And based off of this one dude you all 3 just quit your jobs??? What??
Then we just jump ahead to 2022 and these cameras that didn't even work had raised over $380 million in venture funding?
Then by the next year they were being used to sub for actual police due to a shortage of police officers?
So they just go from the Hardy Boys help solve a mystery in Georgia in 2017 and then suddenly by 2023 Marc Andreesen (big surprise) is suddenly funnelling millions into their business.
Oh, good, this citation will probably help make clear what the fuck actually happened between 2017 and 2023:
Flock Safety. "Media Kit: Our Founding Story". Flock Safety. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
American license plate recognition company
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)VieuxQueb
in reply to Basic Glitch • • •OldQWERTYbastard
in reply to Basic Glitch • • •Yeah I don't understand how a private company deploying cameras on the side of roads is even legal.
Does that mean I can build solar powered raspberry pi units with cameras that do the same thing and pepper them around the country without question?
potoooooooo ✅️
in reply to OldQWERTYbastard • • •CmdrShepard49
in reply to OldQWERTYbastard • • •MonkderVierte
in reply to Basic Glitch • • •fullsquare
in reply to DickFiasco • • •ThePantser
in reply to Basic Glitch • • •DickFiasco
in reply to ThePantser • • •like this
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Zwuzelmaus
in reply to DickFiasco • • •sigmaklimgrindset
in reply to ThePantser • • •OldQWERTYbastard
in reply to Basic Glitch • • •It's not legal where I live, but that didn't stop me from fighting back.
I'm not down with this surveillance state we're moving into.
License Plate Blur Cover | Camera Stopper
camerastopperCmdrShepard49
in reply to OldQWERTYbastard • • •Pope-King Joe
in reply to Basic Glitch • • •Zwuzelmaus
in reply to Basic Glitch • • •The whole world knows already that Us companies are doing such sh*t all the time.
But it never ceases to surprise me how Us americans themselves suddenly cry "scandal" as if they hadn't known already that their companies are doing such sh*t all the time.
DickFiasco
in reply to Zwuzelmaus • • •Basic Glitch
in reply to Zwuzelmaus • • •I mean there are legit companies doing good work that get passed over all the time.
How did these 3 guys get hundreds of millions in government contracts for a product that didn't even exist.
And not only did it not exist, they were demanding everybody let them violate their privacy so that their non-existent product could "end crime."
I'll just come out and say it, the "scandal" imo isn't the company was a fraud part. The scandal is that people within the government wanted so badly to amp up surveillance and the police state within the U.S. they just went ahead and dumped all this money into A.I. that didn't actually exist because "A.I. is already here and it will fix everything, and even if you don't want it, too fucking bad."
Like it was never that the government thought A.I. tech was that important, or the future, or whatever bullshit. They've just realized the tech industry allows them the ability to spy on people, control information, and make a shit ton of money doing it.
myfunnyaccountname
in reply to Basic Glitch • • •Basic Glitch
in reply to myfunnyaccountname • • •I mean, there is actual "AI" tech that exists, and isn't just people working in sweatshops, like this:
deeplabcut.github.io/DeepLabCu…
It's just kind of difficult to get consistency between trials, and reliability seems to boil down to completely eliminating variability. So kind of useless outside of a lab setting (as is).
I tend to feel like it's more trouble than it's worth and too unreliable (as is) to usually bother with it, but I know people who are just fellow lab rats (not broligarchs) and are super devoted to getting AI to work for their projects. Like most sectors in this country, even science is being forced to embrace AI. Regardless of if it actually makes sense for your line of work or not, the expectation is get it working or face the chopping block, and there are definitely people who are trying their hardest to really get this shit off the ground (because the alternative is be prepared to be out of a job for being obsolete).
This is also why it's kind of surprising to learn that even "AI" that's simply comparing license plates from one camera to the next, is actually just due to human slave labor.
So, do any of the broligarchs receiving these huge contracts actually believe that eventually they'll get AI to work once enough data and money is dumped into it and the little people at the bottom figure out all the kinks for them?
Or is it just that everybody at the top acknowledges this is a dead end, but once you're in the secret club at the top of the food chain, and you're making ridiculous amounts of money, your incentive is just to keep your mouth shut, keep making money, and fuck the consequences because once society collapses you'll get to be kings of your own little monarchs anyway?
If it is the second, and nobody at the top really believes AI is going anywhere, then what are all the giant, energy sucking data centers that are being built across the country actually for?
Welcome! 👋 — DeepLabCut
deeplabcut.github.ioDiurnambule
in reply to Basic Glitch • • •Still have to think to coordinates actions but the coding is mostly done by IA.
Basic Glitch
in reply to Diurnambule • • •But if the broligarchs don't actually expect to ever get any of this "AI" shit actually working, then what is the end game?
Obviously the majority of people are only in it to make quick money, but what about the psychos at the very top who are directing policy and building these giant nuclear powered "AI" data centers?
If Thiel/Musk/Zuckerberg don't actually have the expectation that "AI" will eventually work itself out, then it won't matter how money the rich (but not broligarch rich) Wall Street bros and bankers dumped into the "AI" boom.
It won't be like the .com boom and the Internet, because it doesn't actually exist. If the economy completely collapses, and dollar becomes worthless currency, the "money" the average rich asshole hoards away after investing in the 2025 "AI" boom, will have about as much value as monopoly money.
Meanwhile the fucking Bond villain billionaires like Thiel (who have been dreaming of this exact scenario for over 20 years) hold all resources (including a recently purchased uranium mine).
So, "hypothetically," if that was Thiel's endgame, and the "AI" jig is up, then they no longer have to pretend they're trying to develop artificial intelligence or AGI. But they do already hold control of most resources, have mass surveillance capabilities, and each broligarch owns one or more of these giant supercomputers/data centers that have been built in cities all over the ~~U.S.~~ world and soon in outer space.
In this totally fictional scenario, once the dollar collapses (likely followed by all of society collapsing along with it), what do the broligarchs actually use their giant nuclear powered "AI" data centers for?
AI or no AI, they're currently being built all over the country, so what is their actual purpose?
zebidiah
in reply to Basic Glitch • • •