Powerful bombs prompted such concern about mass deaths in Gaza that Biden officials paused delivery two years ago

The Trump administration is planning to deliver powerful 2,000lb bombs to Israel as part of an upcoming arms deal, weapons that prompted such concerns about the possibility of mass casualties in Gaza that the Biden administration paused their delivery two years ago.

The $2.8bn package includes 40,000 bombs, made up of 20,000 MK-84s and 20,000 BLU-117s, according to two US officials and a person familiar with the plan who spoke on Tuesday on condition of anonymity to discuss the package, which is not yet final.

Continue reading...

At San Francisco conference, OpenAI chief Sam Altman calls for more rigorous security measures

Anthropic’s CEO took the stage at a conference in San Francisco on Tuesday to reiterate his call for a slowdown of AI development, while Nvidia’s CEO argued against such deceleration.

Dario Amodei used an automotive analogy to make his point: when a competing car company has a safety incident like brake failures, it is a moment for all car companies to stop and review their own practices, he said at Salesforce’s Dreamforce convention on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

iain.davidson100 has added a photo to the pool:

iain.davidson100 has added a photo to the pool:

iain.davidson100 has added a photo to the pool:

Orchids return to grassland after 28 Years Later filming. Fountains Abbey staff left grounds unmown to appear abandoned for film shoot - and orchids returned for the first time since the 1850s. (North Yorkshire, Britain.)

There had been no record of the flowers on the abbey site since the 1850s and the orchids had not been seen in living memory. 170 Years Later, nobody knows where they have come from or why they have germinated once again.