As L.A. burned, online gamblers bet on how much the fires would destroy. 'That was fun'
As L.A. burned, online gamblers bet on how much the fires would destroy. 'That was fun'
While Southern California was burning in January 2025, people online were placing money on potential outcomes. Experts say the possibility of making money on disasters can create dangerous incentives.
latimes.com
SCOOP: 404 Media placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it. What did we find? It ended up at an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books. Yes. This is literally the logo outside the Amazon warehouse door. Read now:
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility
We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.
404media.co
"AI’s Impact on the Environment Is Absolutely Horrifying, New Paper Finds" > AI companies are the fossil fuel industry's best friends. futurism.com/artificial-i... And yet so many people I know in tech keep finding excuses to justify not only using the tech but even working on the tech itself
AI's Impact on the Environment Is Absolutely Horrifying, New Paper Finds
AI is giving the fossil fuel industry a major leg up, a new paper has found, indicating its carbon footprint extends beyond data centers.
futurism.com
Around the world, many huge cities sit in water-stressed regions. Mismanagement of water resources is often the key driver of water stress, explains Prof Kaveh Madani of UNUIWEH, “Climate change is like a recession on top of bad management of business.” share.google/CXYdpL32y5Zj...
Half the world’s 100 largest cities are in high water stress areas, analysis finds
Exclusive: Beijing, Delhi, Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro among worst affected, with demand close to exceeding supply
share.google
🟣 SUBSTACK Hot Type: 'It is Hard for Many Americans to Discern the Totality of What is Happening' By Heidi Cuda Read below. ↓
Hot Type: 'It is Hard for Many Americans to Discern the Totality of What is Happening'
Byline political columnist Heidi Siegmund Cuda interviews distinguished Russia watcher Keir Giles about the 'crash programme of state capture' outlined in his forthcoming book 'American Overthrow'
bylinesupplement.com
WTF? Amazon received a permit from the state of #Texas allowing its new gas power plant to emit 33 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — the largest single source of pollution in the United States. newrepublic.com/post/214111/...
Amazon Is Creating the Biggest Pollution Source in the Entire Country
Amazon has bought a site in Texas where it plans to build a data center campus.
newrepublic.com
So, Microsoft did a dirty deal with Chevron to fuel one of its massive new data centres with fossil fuels. Microsoft almost never mentions it, but Chevron can't stop screaming it from the rooftops. Lol :)
Several Democratic senators have sent a letter to Michael Selig, chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, expressing deep concern about online prediction gambling markets allowing bets on wildfires.
Democrat Senators Warn Prediction Markets Allowing Bets on Wildfires Threaten Public Safety
The prediction market website Polymarket had $1.2 million in bets placed on Los-Angeles area wildfires in 2025.
truthout.org
Deranged chaos agent RFK Jr has rapidly helped to infect the United States with more deadly diseases and food-borne illnesses than seen in the last two decades. Just him deliberately destroying the Health System alone should be considered an act of treason. He’s a psychopath.
“The EPA announced its new approach in January in a rule on emissions from gas turbines, stating that it would no longer value public-health benefits from reducing fine particulate matter and ozone—two of the most prevalent and damaging air pollutants.” Article: zurl.co/lTNBu
Trump’s EPA Found a Sneaky New Way to Make Our Air More Polluted
The Trump administration has done everything in its power to make our air less clean. It has new, stealthier strategies to weaken clean-air standards.
zurl.co
Have the people who think renewables are expensive heard how much Trump is paying *not* to build renewables??
With our continued use of fossil fuels, we are committing ecocide. We are killing our beautiful, precious, unique Earth habitat. www.scientificamerican.com/article/its-...
It’s 90 degrees in the Arctic right now
The Arctic is heating faster than the rest of the planet. New data illustrate how dire that is
scientificamerican.com
NEW: Meta has run dozens of paid ads that include explicit, AI-generated child sexual abuse material in recent months. Some as recently as this week. "These are ads that were reviewed, approved, and allowed to run by Meta, never encountering interference while the company collected the ad dollars."
Meta Ran Ads That Contained AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Imagery
More than 50 offending image and video ads were published across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Threads, according to Meta’s ad library data. Some ran as recently as this week.
wired.com
Things I and friends have done to calm an angry abusive man from further escalating and killing us or our children: -Smiled -Kept normal schedules in order not to trigger a fight -Appeased with kind acts (cooking, cleaning, favors) -Forced friendly tones and words
The Bulwark@thebulwark.com · 4w agoRep. Max Miller: "My former wife has claimed that during a custody exchange at my home that day, I assaulted her…If I had assaulted her, would she have offered to cook me dinner six days later?"
Rainy, grey London NOT and it's bad, very bad. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Drought Declared for London and Half of England as Risks Mount
Drought conditions were declared across half of England, including London, underlining the increasing threat posed by wildfires and the risks facing farmers.
bloomberg.com
The DOJ has named a former ExxonMobil attorney as the Environment and Natural Resources Division’s senior counsel, intervened on behalf of polluters and gone on offense for the fossil fuel industry, suing states over their climate policies and efforts to hold oil companies accountable.
DOJ’s Environmental Enforcement Arm Has Been Captured by Industry, Critics Say
Instead of enforcing environmental laws, it’s suing states over their efforts to hold oil companies accountable.
truthout.org
“No one in command could claim under the circumstances not to have known what was happening, even if they did not give orders to those under their control to do it.” David Schwendiman (my old boss from Bosnia war crimes prosecution days) citing a key element of command responsibility.
The Wall Street Journal@wsj.com · last mo.Ukrainian former POWs and civilians have recounted sexualized torture they suffered in Russian camps, as evidence grows that the practice has become a core tactic.
NEWS: WV GOP Assistant Majority Leader Elliott Pritt has been arrested and charged with enticing a minor after allegedly grooming a 15-year-old through Roblox and Snapchat, then having her meet him in his classroom. GOP leadership won't call for his resignation.
Snap is the latest big tech company to settle a lawsuit that claimed social media platforms are harmful to children and young adults. The company has
After TikTok, Snap settles social media addiction case | TechCrunch
Snap is the latest big tech company to settle a lawsuit that claimed social media platforms are harmful to children and young adults. The company has
techcrunch.com
Meta’s smartglasses mean any child can be covertly filmed. In the age of AI, how do we tackle that risk?
Meta’s smartglasses mean any child can be covertly filmed. In the age of AI, how do we tackle that risk?
The company argues that it’s for individuals to ensure they don’t ‘actively exploit’ this technology. That won’t keep children safe, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff
theguardian.com
Serbian Football Star Files Police Complaint Over Former Chief's Intimidation Plot www.occrp.org/en/news/serb...
Serbian Football Star Files Police Complaint Over Former Chief's Intimidation Plot
International star Nemanja Matić joins Nemanja Vidić in taking legal action after leaked encrypted chats revealed a former football chief's plot to silence critics.
occrp.org
A first-of-its-kind analysis found more than one in eight apps built for US service members carried foreign code—some from firms in nations the Pentagon designates as adversaries. www.wired.com/story/apps-m...
Apps Marketed to US Troops Are Shipping Chinese and Russian Code
A first-of-its-kind analysis found more than one in eight apps built for US service members carried foreign code—some from firms in nations the Pentagon designates as adversaries.
wired.com
The fact that VP JD Vance and Richard Grenell went to Romania—on behalf of the Trump Administration— to advocate for Andrew and Tristan Tate, who by all accounts, were rapists running a coercive sex ring, then permitted them to come to Florida, should be a crazy, crazy scandal.
(guy pointing at the first toaster) is this a bread witch
The Guardian@theguardian.com · last mo.Could AI be conscious?
The authors of this are high AF, and it's clarifying to know the lead author self-describes as "I also helped to start the effective altruism movement." This is what happens to your brain when you're paid to say stuff billionaire techbros want to hear.
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · last mo.Starts with asking Claude if it’s a “moral patient” and goes downhill from there.
Thread. Rapists running a coercive sex ring AND transmitting CSAM AND inducing other men to abuse women and girls in turn. The alleged behavior is legitimately monstrous and it’s a HUGE deal that the Trump regime is undermining law enforcement to help/free them. Epstein in real time
Professa Murray@kalimurray.bsky.social · last mo.The fact that VP JD Vance and Richard Grenell went to Romania—on behalf of the Trump Administration— to advocate for Andrew and Tristan Tate, who by all accounts, were rapists running a coercive sex ring, then permitted them to come to Florida, should be a crazy, crazy scandal.
I understand why people say "Epstein is a distraction" but, um, sex trafficking is an essential form of (neoliberal) finance capital that I beg to differ. Especially because sex trafficking demonstrated how global finance and global governance are linked to exploitation, esp of women & children.
”The Trump administration has exempted more petrochemical facilities across the country from Clean Air Act standards, unlawfully giving more of these chemical plants a free pass to pollute.” Article: zurl.co/zIaVf
Trump administration hands out unlawful air pollution exemptions to more petrochemical facilities
The Trump administration has exempted more petrochemical facilities across the country from Clean Air Act standards
zurl.co
