Tech investor Balaji Srinivasan has announced plans to move into an abandoned resort city in Malaysia called Forest City where he hopes to build a “network state.”
Tech Utopians Are Using a Chinese-Built ‘Ghost City’ to Trial Their Network State Fantasies – Gizmodo Source Link Excerpt:
For the better part of a decade, tech investor Balaji Srinivasan has been calling for Silicon Valley to “secede” from the rest of the United States. The free-market tech guru doesn’t just want space from regulators and government officials; he literally wants the industry’s coders and bigwigs to split off and crowdfund their own separate country.
Over the years, Srinivasan has articulated his own political philosophy, which he calls “the network state” movement—an anarcho-capitalist school of thought that envisions the creation of privately run “countries” that are governed by decentralized corporations rather than governments.
Last year, Srinivasan announced the launch of a new school where interested tech denizens could learn how to take part in the Network State movement. The school, which was announced on his blog, was styled as a place where the founder’s followers could go to learn about the tenets of his philosophy, which is, admittedly, pretty weird.
San Francisco Resident Guido Reichstadter, 45, is leading a hunger strike to stop Anthropic from further developing artificial general intelligence.
Activists launch hunger strikes outside Anthropic and DeepMind offices over race to build advanced AI– www.techspot.com Source Link Excerpt:
45-year-old Guido Reichstadter has been camped outside Anthropic’s San Francisco offices for just over a week now, during which time he has not consumed any food. He told Business Insider that he plans to stay there on hunger strike until the company addresses his concerns about its AI development.
In a message posted to online forum LessWrong, Reichstadter wrote, “I am calling on Anthropic’s management, directors, and employees to immediately stop their reckless actions, which are harming our society and to work to remediate the harm that has already been caused.”
An Imam in Texas is urging businesses to become Sharia compliant or else face the wrath of Sharia patrols, which are, allegedly, currently “doing their job” in Houston
SHARIA LAW IN TEXAS: Imam Warns Store Owners To Stop Selling Pork, Alcohol, Lottery Tickets, Threatens Consequences– gellerreport.com Source Link Excerpt:
A Muslim iman in Houston, Texas is warning store owners there that they have 30 days to stop selling alcohol and pork, or face repercussions.
For years, a mall handful of my colleagues and I warned of the islamization of America. We were smeared, defamed, libeled – our names and reputations destroyed. The cowardice of Western elites will result in unfathomable consequences, a very dark future.
A new bill in the Jersey legislature would force parents to teach children to think like anti-Americanist, anti-human DNC woke activists think.
New Jersey bills would force homeschooling families to teach DEI [Video] – AOL.com Source Link Excerpt:
A new bill in New Jersey could require homeschooling parents to teach their kids about controversial topics such as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
The proposal, which is still under review, would force homeschooling parents to submit a curriculum in line with state learning standards. That includes subjects like gender identity, sexual orientation, DEI and climate studies.
It would also add more oversight to homeschooling, requiring families to submit a portfolio of student work every year to be evaluated by either a teacher or a licensed psychologist.
Some parents say they won’t comply even if the bill passes.
The Department of Justice under Donald Trump is floating the idea of banning guns for people who are on “gender affirming” chemical treatment. This follows another mass shooting targeting children by a transgendered person.
DOJ weighs firearm ban for transgenders after Minneapolis shooting– www.theblaze.com Source Link Excerpt:
In the aftermath of the tragic Minneapolis shooting — where two young lives were lost to a violent gunman — Trump’s Department of Justice is considering taking action to stop guns from getting in the hands of transgenders.
The move is being celebrated by conservatives, as the shooter, Robin Westman, was a 23-year-old man who identified as a woman.
One potential avenue could see Trump formally declare that those who identify as transgender are mentally ill and no longer legally allowed to possess firearms.
“Under Attorney General Bondi’s leadership, this Department of Justice is actively considering a range of options to prevent mentally unstable individuals from committing acts of violence, especially at schools,” a spokesman for the DOJ said.
However, while many conservatives believe that transgenderism is a mental illness — they’re not sure that broadly banning guns for any group of people is the right move.
“I read that headline and my knee-jerk reaction is like, good, they shouldn’t have guns. And then I’m like, ah, I don’t know how you do that with the Second Amendment,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”
“I think everyone would agree you don’t want violent, mentally ill people to have firearms,” BlazeTV contributor Grant Stinchfield chimes in. “So we can all agree on that. The problem becomes ‘Who is the decider?’”
“So who decides who’s violently and mentally ill? Because I promise you, Nancy Pelosi is going to say, ‘Well, Stinchfield’s mentally ill because he loves freedom and God and all those things.’ So it’s all in the decider,” he continues.
“Now, transgender certainly … it’s a violent, violent section, mentally ill people, and it is a mental illness. If you think you’re a boy and you don’t have nuts hanging down below you, you’re mentally ill,” he adds.
Gonzales notes that while not all shooters are transgender, transgenders make up such a small percentage of the population and have committed several of the devastating mass shootings in recent years.
“It’s pretty skewed when you look at that,” she says, adding, “And so it’s just hard because you want to prevent this from happening.”
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AI has no idea what it’s doing, but it’s threatening us all– www.sciencedaily.com Source Link Excerpt:
The age of artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed our interactions, but threatens human dignity on a worldwide scale, according to a study led by Charles Darwin University (CDU).
Study lead author Dr Maria Randazzo, an academic from CDU’s School of Law, found the technology was reshaping Western legal and ethical landscapes at unprecedented speed but was undermining democratic values and deepening systemic biases.
Dr Randazzo said current regulation failed to prioritize fundamental human rights and freedoms such as privacy, anti-discrimination, user autonomy, and intellectual property rights – mainly thanks to the untraceable nature of many algorithmic models.
Calling this lack of transparency a “black box problem,” Dr Randazzo said decisions made by deep-learning or machine-learning processes were impossible for humans to trace, making it difficult for users to determine if and why an AI model has violated their rights and dignity and seek justice where necessary.
“This is a very significant issue that is only going to get worse without adequate regulation,” Dr Randazzo said.
“AI is not intelligent in any human sense at all. It is a triumph in engineering, not in cognitive behavior.
Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin strikes kills child and hits Kyiv government building in massive drone attack– www.independent.co.uk Source Link Excerpt:
Hopes for peace talks wane as Russia strikes Kyiv
Sunday’s attack is the second mass Russian drone and missile attack to target Kyiv in the span of two weeks, as hopes for peace talks wane.
The attack comes after European leaders pressed Russian leader Vladimir Putin to work to end the war after 26 of Ukraine’s allies pledged to deploy troops as a “reassurance force” for the war-torn country once the fighting ends.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is ready to meet Putin to negotiate a peace agreement, and has urged U.S. President Donald Trump to put punishing sanctions on Russia to push it to end the war.
Tens of thousands of protesters draw the Red Line for Gaza in Brussels– www.euronews.com Source Link Excerpt:
Tens of thousands of demonstrators wearing red gathered in Brussels on Sunday to protest against the Israeli government and to draw a symbolic red line against its war in Gaza. Protesters are also calling on EU member states to take a tougher stance and impose firm sanctions against Israel.
Local police estimated around 70,000 demonstrators took part in the second edition of Brussels’ ‘Red Line for Gaza’ march, but protest organisers estimate 110,000 people attended.
More than 200 human rights groups and aid agencies, including Oxfam, Doctors without Borders, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Save the Children, and more, participated and are drawing the red line.
The protest comes days after Belgium announced it would join the United Kingdom and France in recognising a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly later this month, and would impose sanctions against Israel, under certain conditions.
Mushroom murderer sentenced to life over toxic family lunch– www.bbc.com Source Link Excerpt:
Watch: What it was like as Australia’s mushroom murderer was jailed for life
An Australian woman has been jailed for life, with no chance of release for at least 33 years, for murdering three relatives and trying to kill another with a toxic mushroom meal.
The jail term, one of the longest ever handed to a female offender in Australia, means Erin Patterson, 50, will be in her 80s before she can apply for parole.
A Supreme Court judge said Patterson’s crimes were the “worst category” for offending and involved an “elaborate cover-up”.
Patterson killed her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, after serving them a toxic beef Wellington at her home in Victoria in 2023.
Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson, a local pastor, survived the lunch after recovering from a coma and has ongoing health issues related to the poisoning.
Patterson’s estranged husband Simon Patterson was meant to attend the lunch too but cancelled at the last minute, in part due to his belief that his wife had been trying to poison him for years.
Getty Images
Erin Patterson, 50, will be in her 80s before she can apply for parole
Patterson has long maintained her innocence, saying the toxic death cap mushrooms in the dish she prepared were accidentally added and that she never intended to harm her relatives.
She will serve three consecutive life sentences for the three murders and 25 years for the attempted murder of Mr Wilkinson.
During his sentencing remarks, Justice Christopher Beale said the gravity of Patterson’s crimes meant he must impose the “maximum penalty”.
Prosecutors had argued that the mother-of-two should be sentenced to life in jail with no prospect of release – the harshest punishment available in Australia.
Researchers Criticize Putting Preschoolers on Stimulant Drugs– www.madinamerica.com Source Link Excerpt:
In a new study, researchers found that preschoolers are not receiving appropriate guideline-directed care for ADHD.
Clinical practice guidelines for this age group recommend beginning with family/behavioral therapy. Drugs are recommended by the guidelines only after therapy has failed to improve the situation or in very severe cases. But the researchers found that 42.2% of these 3- to 5-year-olds were given stimulant drugs before therapy could even be attempted.
“Clinical practice guidelines recommend medications as second-line treatment in cases with substantial dysfunction or lack of response to behavioral treatment,” the researchers write. Yet, they add, “more than one-third of patients lacked sufficient time for an evidence-based behavioral treatment before starting medications.”
The study was led by Yair Bannett at Stanford University and published in JAMA Network Open.
Strange new bacteria found in Amazon sand flies. Could it spread to humans?– www.sciencedaily.com Source Link Excerpt:
A new species of bacteria of the genus Bartonella has been found in the Amazon National Park in the state of Pará, Brazil, in phlebotomine insects, also known as sand flies. This type of insect is generally associated with transmitting leishmaniasis, but according to the researchers, the DNA of the newly discovered microorganism is similar to that of two other Andean species of bacteria, B. bacilliformis and B. ancashensis. These bacteria cause Carrión’s disease (also known as Peruvian wart and Oroya fever) and are both transmitted by phlebotomine sand flies.
There is currently no evidence in Brazil that this new species of bacteria can cause disease. However, since species of the genus Bartonella are responsible for several diseases in other countries, further studies are needed.
The research was conducted by Marcos Rogério André in partnership with Eunice Aparecida Bianchi Galati. Both researchers are affiliated with Brazilian institutions: the Faculty of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences of São Paulo State University (FCAV-UNESP) in Jaboticabal campus and the School of Public Health of the University of São Paulo (FSP-USP). The study was supported by FAPESP through two projects (22/08543-2 and 22/16085-4).
Gov. Pritzker Calls U.S. Troops ‘Invaders’ — and Invading Illegal Aliens ‘Our Neighbors and Friends’ – PJ Media– pjmedia.com Source Link Excerpt:
Welcome to the upside-down, inside-out world of Gov. JB Pritzker (D-Ill.). It’s Orwellian Newspeak on steroids: white is black, wet is dry, and fat is… well, fat is still fat. (Even Newspeak has its limits.)
Yesterday morning, President Trump posted on Truth Social a tongue-in-cheek, “Apocalypse Now”-themed promise to deport the illegal aliens who’ve invaded Chicago, Ill. — a state with over half-a-million illegal aliens. That’s fifth most in the entire country.
Here was his post:
It’s not coincidence or happenstance that Illinois became the go-to destination for half a million illegal aliens. This was Gov. Pritzker’s deliberate policy: Illinois is a sanctuary state — a safe haven for illegal invaders — and Pritzker signed a slew of laws to further protect them from the federal government:
