Los Angeles Archdiocese Covered Up Molesting Priests for Decades, Pays $1.5 Billion in Damages to Victims
October 20th, 2024Via: Los Angeles Times:
Clergy sex abuse scandals have rocked Catholic churches across the world, but few places have seen the financial toll of the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
With a record $880-million settlement with victims announced this week, the Los Angeles Archdiocese has now paid out more than $1.5 billion.
Integer Addition Algorithm Could Reduce Energy Needs of AI by 95%
October 20th, 2024I have nowhere near enough propellers in my beanie to do a reality check on this: Addition is All You Need for Energy-efficient Language Models
Definitely interesting, if real.
Via: TechXplore:
A team of engineers at AI inference technology company BitEnergy AI reports a method to reduce the energy needs of AI applications by 95%. The group has published a paper describing their new technique on the arXiv preprint server.
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In this new effort, the team at BitEnergy AI claims that they have found a way to dramatically reduce the amount of computing required to run AI apps that does not result in reduced performance.
The new technique is basic—instead of using complex floating-point multiplication (FPM), the method uses integer addition. Apps use FPM to handle extremely large or small numbers, allowing applications to carry out calculations using them with extreme precision. It is also the most energy-intensive part of AI number crunching.
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The researchers call their new method Linear-Complexity Multiplication—it works by approximating FPMs using integer addition. They claim that testing, thus far, has shown that the new approach reduces electricity demand by 95%.
The one drawback it has is that it requires different hardware than that currently in use. But the research team also notes that the new type of hardware has already been designed, built and tested.
“Even the Amish Are Voting for Trump”
October 20th, 2024You know it’s getting weird out there when…
Via: Nick Johnson:
Total Electric Grid Failure in Cuba
October 19th, 2024Via: BBC:
Cuba is experiencing a nationwide blackout after its main energy plant failed, knocking out power to its 10 million people.
Its power grid collapsed at around 11:00 (15:00 GMT) on Friday, the energy ministry announced on social media.
Grid officials said they did not know how long it would take to restore power.
The island has suffered months of lengthy blackouts, prompting the prime minister to declare an “energy emergency” on Thursday.
Friday’s total blackout came after the Antonio Guiteras power plant in Matanzas – the largest on the island – went offline.
UN in 2000: Replacement Migration: Is it A Solution to Declining and Ageing Populations?
October 18th, 2024And now…
Bill Clinton: "We got the lowest birthrate we’ve had in well over a hundred years, we’re not a replacement level, which means we’ve gotta have somebody come here if we want to grow the economy.”
Democrats want to replace American citizens with migrants.
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) October 14, 2024
Via: United Nations:
Building upon these estimates and projections, the present study considers five different scenarios with regard to the international migration streams needed to achieve specific population objectives or outcomes for the eight countries and two regions mentioned above.
A Kentucky Man Was Declared Brain Dead, Became Conscious as Doctors Were Going to Harvest His Organs
October 18th, 2024Via: WKYT:
TJ was then taken into organ retrieval surgery.
“About an hour into it, the doctor came out and got us. He said he wasn’t ready. He woke up. But we also hadn’t been told during his heart catheterization that morning, he woke up then. If we had known that, then clearly we would have known he wasn’t brain dead,” Rhorer said.
Rhorer was told to take TJ home and make him comfortable. She was told he wouldn’t live long. Rhorer’s been caring for her brother for three years now.
“He made several attempts to say, ‘Hey, I’m here.’ But it was kind of ignored. They finally stopped the procedure because he was showing too many signs of life,” Rhorer said.
More: ‘Horrifying’ Mistake to Take Organs from a Living Person Was Averted, Witnesses Say:
“So the coordinator calls the supervisor at the time. And she was saying that he was telling her that she needed to ‘find another doctor to do it’ – that, ‘We were going to do this case. She needs to find someone else,’ ” Miller says. “And she’s like, ‘There is no one else.’ She’s crying — the coordinator — because she’s getting yelled at.”
Smart TVs a ‘Vast System of Digital Surveillance’ That Targets Everyone, Especially Kids
October 17th, 2024Via: The Defender:
The streaming television industry has morphed into a vast data-driven viewer surveillance apparatus, transforming people’s TVs into tools for monitoring, tracking and targeting, according to a new report from the nonprofit Center for Digital Democracy.
The 48-page report, “How TV Watches Us: Commercial Surveillance in the Streaming Era,” charts the evolution from broadcast, cable and satellite television to connected TV (CTV), a term that encompasses the wide range of content delivered through the internet to smart TVs.
CTV includes popular apps like YouTube TV, Free Advertiser-Supported TV (FAST) channels, and streaming services like Disney +, Netflix and Amazon Prime. It also includes Roku, smart TVs and smart TV devices themselves.
The report documents how CTV, whose surge in viewership is largely driven by young audiences, harvests user data through a “sophisticated and expansive commercial surveillance system” that privacy advocates argue undermines existing consumer protections.
“CTV has become a privacy nightmare for viewers,” said Jeff Chester, report co-author and executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, in a press release. “It is now a core asset for the vast system of digital surveillance that shapes most of our online experiences … as it gathers and uses sensitive data about health, children, race and political interests.”
Over the past five years, CTV corporations have teamed up with data brokers like Experian and TransUnion to create new data-mining tools that capture and aggregate everything an individual user does on their smart TV. This information can be integrated with data captured from other devices and real-world activities.
Politicians
October 17th, 2024Via: The Conspiracy Files:
The Pentagon Wants to Use AI to Create Deepfake Internet Users
October 17th, 2024Via: The Intercept:
The United States’ secretive Special Operations Command is looking for companies to help create deepfake internet users so convincing that neither humans nor computers will be able to detect they are fake, according to a procurement document reviewed by The Intercept.
The plan, mentioned in a new 76-page wish list by the Department of Defense’s Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, outlines advanced technologies desired for country’s most elite, clandestine military efforts. “Special Operations Forces (SOF) are interested in technologies that can generate convincing online personas for use on social media platforms, social networking sites, and other online content,” the entry reads.
The document specifies that JSOC wants the ability to create online user profiles that “appear to be a unique individual that is recognizable as human but does not exist in the real world,” with each featuring “multiple expressions” and “Government Identification quality photos.”
In addition to still images of faked people, the document notes that “the solution should include facial & background imagery, facial & background video, and audio layers,” and JSOC hopes to be able to generate “selfie video” from these fabricated humans. These videos will feature more than fake people: Each deepfake selfie will come with a matching faked background, “to create a virtual environment undetectable by social media algorithms.”
U.S. Air Force Strikes Houthi Underground Weapons Storage Facilities with B-2 Bombers
October 17th, 2024Via: The War Zone:
The Pentagon is stating that B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, along with other U.S. forces, conducted a strike on Houthi underground weapon storage sites in Yemen. This it the first operational strike mission for the Spirit in years and the first into Yemen. It sends a very specific and powerful message that only the B-2 can to the Houthis’ benefactor, Iran.
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The DoD’s description of the targets is very important. “Hardened underground weapons storage locations,” followed by declaring “the United States’ ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened, or fortified.” This directly highlights the B-2’s special ability to carry out unique penetrating ‘bunker buster’ strikes, specifically via its ability to carry the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, better known as the MOP. Although it isn’t clear if this weapon was used, it’s certainly possible for a number of reasons, and that is really all that matters.
The MOP, weighing in around 30,000lbs, can only be carried by the B-2. Two can be lugged aloft by each of the stealth bombers at a time. These are highly specialized and prized weapons only available in relatively tiny numbers. MOP is able to penetrate deeper than any other conventional bomb on earth and is specifically designed and has been repeatedly upgraded to go after deeply buried, high-value targets, especially those in Iran.
