The Washington Post reports on something peculiar about support for Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang online after he'd told the world he'd been unfaithful to his wife (before reports of his second extramarital affair):


Joining the chorus online were voices of seemingly everyday people: a chef, a stock trader, a Hebrew teacher and several environmental activists. But at least 400 of them were fake, according to research from the nonprofit Midas Project, with links to a public relations firm involved in previous so-called "sockpuppet" campaigns... Many of the fake accounts, according to Midas Project executive director Tyler Johnston, replied to journalists, former U.S. officials and other prominent figures and backed not just Huang but Nvidia's push to sell its cutting-edge chips to Chinese firms.

Like other documented influence campaigns, the posts appeared to have limited reach; the most-viewed tweet garnered about 8,000 views and 32 likes. Still, some of the posts targeted lawmakers, including accounts for the [U.S.] House Select Committee on China, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts). "That's a place where you might not need a lot of views, but maybe the staffers who are running the lawmakers' account are paying attention to how their messages are received," said Johnston, whose group advocates for safe AI development...

There were other clues that helped identify accounts as being part of an apparently coordinated campaign, according to the Midas Project. Some of them were created minutes or hours apart, and had user names and profile photos refreshed at similar times. They also sometimes engaged on oddly specific issues ranging from Qatar to Nippon Steel's bid for U.S. Steel and a waste management plant in Oregon.... Any one one of the posts — often replies to other posts — might have not looked suspicious in isolation. But the various clues taken together, Johnston said, gave evidence that they were linked. Some of the accounts then rushed to delete posts after he posted his findings online, and at least 260 of them have been deactivated or suspended by X.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"In August, Amazon announced it was expanding its airborne shipping to suburban areas in nearly 500 U.S. cities," reports the Chicago Sun-Times, "including the Chicago, Atlanta, Cleveland and Boise, Idaho, metro areas." And on Tuesday Amazon cut the ribbon on its new drone delivery center Tuesday 24 miles south of Chicago.

But Amazon's drones are already servicing parts of Texas, notes the Houston Chronicle. And north of Houston, Theresa Gibbons complains "It was kind of cool and fascinating at first, but now it is driving me crazy."
Her home in the Bridgestone neighborhood is nestled right in the flight path of Amazon's drone service. Gibson said she hears roughly a dozen drones flying over her home each day. Noise pollution has become a frequent complaint in Texas neighborhoods where the service operates. Residents have compared the sound to everything from a massive beehive to a full-on air raid. "It does not sound like a [single] bumble bee. It sounds like a large swarm of bees at a much higher volume than a normal swarm of bees. And it's all day long," said Gibson.
Amazon's drone delivery service is currently operating in four Texas cities, including Houston, Waco, San Antonio and Richardson. The company announced major expansion plans in August, but growing complaints in pilot neighborhoods could foreshadow complications later down the line, with regions such as Harris County already taking legal action in response... So far, a group of fifteen states, plus Harris County, [Texas] have formed a coalition that has filed a petition in the US Court of Appeals challenging the Federal Aviation Administration's environmental review, citing that it failed to adequately address the effects of expanding drone deliveries.
And meanwhile near Boise, Idaho, local news station KTVB reports....
Less than two weeks after Amazon began delivering packages by drone in Nampa, the cities of Nampa and Meridian say they have received complaints over the noise and how often the drones fly... Amazon began Prime Air drone deliveries Oct. 30 from its East Franklin Road fulfillment center, making Nampa the company's first Idaho drone site...

How people feel about the drones depends on whom you ask. A Meridian man who has received drone deliveries says the noise doesn't bother him. Neighbors closest to the launch site say the drones fly from sunup to sundown and are disturbing their peace. Randy Nye, who has lived in Cherry Creek Estates for 17 years, compared it to living in a beehive. "It's just a constant presence," he said.... Nye, who works from home, said he and his neighbors who technically are just outside city limits had no idea this was coming. He said the city approved the drones in May, and they were never given written notice this was coming, despite living so close. He said they were shocked when deliveries started by drones just 12 days ago. Nye said he hopes something can change.
A few homes down, Kerri Wattier has started counting. On Wednesday with KTVB, she clicked a handheld counter each time a drone passed over her home. She started at 3:30 p.m. By 4:18 p.m., she had counted 39. "It sounds like lawnmowers and leaf blowers flying over our house," Wattier said.

"Amazon says it is evaluating changes, including adjusting flight paths," the article adds.

Ironically at that ribbon-cutting ceremony near Chicago, the speakers were occasionally drowned out by the roar of the drones, reports the Chicago Tribune, since they're "relatively loud when they are close to the ground." ("At the point of delivery they top out at 68 decibels," said Amazon economic development manager Sam Bailey, adding that "It's very brief exposure and it only occurs during daytime hours.")

But that site has been operational since October 12, and has "generally" hit its maximum capacity of 300 drone orders daily, Bailey told the Chicago Tribune, adding that scaling up is "something that we're always considering." And since October 12 they've already seen "thousands" of orders delivered by their 21 drones just across that 7.5-mile radius:

Bailey said customers should clear the area when a drone delivery is incoming. The drones drop packages from about 12 feet. If the drone detects movement in the area, he said, the delivery will be canceled. "You want your kids inside the house," Bailey said. "We will not drop a package in an unsafe location. People who want to stand below and try to catch it, don't do that."


The Chicago Sun-Times points out that Walmart already offers some drone deliveries from over 75 stores across Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Texas, and "earlier this year said it planned to expand drone delivery service to 150 more stores in partnership with Wing, a division of Google parent company Alphabet, giving it 270 drone delivery locations by 2027."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

America's nationwide grounding of flights on Friday happened "amid growing scrutiny... of a new AI-powered air traffic management system" deployed by America's Federal Aviation Administration, reports Texas news station KXAN.
Ironically, the system is called SMART — but the outage happened "following warnings" from members of the U.S. Congress about this new AI system's safety, reliability and oversight:
In an Oct. 13 letter to the Government Accountability Office, more than 20 members of Congress requested an independent review of the FAA's development and implementation of its Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories system, known as SMART. The lawmakers questioned whether the technology was being deployed with adequate input from frontline air traffic controllers, sufficient training and appropriate safety evaluations... In their letter to the GAO, the lawmakers specifically questioned whether the FAA had adequately evaluated risks associated with SMART's artificial intelligence capabilities, including the potential for the technology to interfere with experienced controllers' decision-making or generate inaccurate safety-critical information. "The nation's frontline aviation safety workforce apparently had little to no input into SMART's development and have received limited training and information during the current deployment process," the lawmakers wrote. The letter also questioned the FAA's decision to initially pilot the technology in heavily congested airspace, including the National Capital Region.

"Our switches, our routers, actually got overloaded with data," U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy acknowledged Friday.

But an article from The Hill.com notes that Duffy also said the new AI tool had nothing to do with the ground stop, and that he said the system "isn't plugged in."

"This is completely disconnected, and I love that some people have said this would be the root cause. By the way, if it was, I'll tell you that, but this is not even plugged in," he said. "So, there's no possible way SMART would have impacted."

Duffy also asked Congress for $50 billion to rebuild what he described as an "incredibly old" air traffic control system.


Duffy had posted the day before that the AI system had been at least partially rolled out and that it was already working (adding "Soon this technology is going NATIONWIDE")

And Friday CNN's aviation analyst said they believed that AI system could be connected to the nationwide outage, calling it "a tremendous amount of coincidence," according to a report from Mediaite:


CNN Aviation Analyst: "Many times in the past, what we have seen, and this has gone back decades, is that because air traffic control is this piecemeal, mishmash of a whole bunch of different systems... some going back to radio, telephones and floppy disks... when they put in new computer systems, they often have difficulty talking with, communicating with, or working with the much older systems. And I have to say, it's a tremendous amount of coincidence... If they're putting in new software now, this new SMART system to start managing that, and now we have a communications outage, I'm — we've seen this so many times in the past. I don't know if they're linked, but it's just too much coincidence that they were trying to start that moving today, and now we have problems with the en route system.

So if I was to guess — and we haven't heard any, you know, it's not that it's threats or criminals or terrorists. We haven't heard anything like that. So I am guessing that once again we have a problem with new air traffic control computer systems, AI — you know, modern systems trying to communicate with old systems. And we have just seen this so many times in the past, and it's a big problem... Our whole national airspace system is you know, pieces and parts. It's kind of a Franken-system. And that would be my guess, that they are having computer issues by putting the new software in with the old, just because today they announced that that were going to do this new system.

KXAN describes some of the complexity of the newly-launched AI system:

According to the FAA, the system consolidates approximately 200 data streams, including airline schedules, flight paths, weather patterns, airport capacity, airspace conditions and air traffic controller staffing metrics. The agency says SMART uses artificial intelligence to analyze that information, predict traffic flows, identify potential conflicts and recommend adjustments to flight routes and departure schedules before disruptions occur. The FAA describes the technology as a shift from a reactive approach to a predictive one, allowing aviation officials to identify congestion, weather-related restrictions and other operational problems hours, days or even weeks in advance...

The congressional letter raised questions about whether the FAA's implementation strategy was moving faster than its safety evaluations, workforce training and independent oversight could support.


Ironically, the article points out that the FAA promoted anticipated benefits from the technology including fewer delays and flight cancellations. (Other anticipated benefits included improved on-time performance and faster recovery from weather disruptions.) Although the FAA has realized one of the system's anticipated benefits: reduced fuel consumption.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

braart has added a photo to the pool:

Completed on 12 January 1996, the Spire now reaches 162 metres above street level and is topped by a 10-metre mast.

Trace Connolly Photography has added a photo to the pool:

A first for me, very happy

Trace Connolly Photography has added a photo to the pool:

A first for me, very happy

Trace Connolly Photography has added a photo to the pool:

A first for me, very happy

Trace Connolly Photography has added a photo to the pool:

A first for me, very happy

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Vanillasludge posted a photo:

Vanillasludge posted a photo:

Vanillasludge posted a photo:

Vanillasludge posted a photo:

Mauricio Pochettino’s arrival feels like yet another appointment that would have been better made a few years ago

Magnusson: And your time starts ... now! What is paleontology? Smithers: Yes, absolutely correct. Magnusson: What’s the name of the directory that lists members of the peerage? Smithers: A study of old fossils. Magnusson: Correct. Who are Len Murray and Sir Geoffrey Howe? Smithers: Burke’s. Magnusson: Correct. What is the difference between a donkey and an ass? Smithers: One’s a trade union leader, the other’s a member of the Cabinet …

One of the Two Ronnies’ most celebrated sketches involves a Mastermind contestant whose specialist subject is answering the previous question. History repeats itself: the first time as comedy, the second time as Manchester United, who seem continually to be answering not the question of who would be the best available manager now, but who might have been the best available manager a few years ago.

Continue reading...

• Home side avenge October defeat in Cardiff

• Wales bottom of Group A4 with one game left

Wales suffered a 3-1 defeat to Norway in Oslo to dent their hopes of staying in the top tier of the Nations League.

Antonio Nusa and Andreas Schjelderup struck in the space of nine second-half minutes as Norway turned the screw.

Continue reading...

• Original No 7 design preserved to honour player

• Career brought 146 goals and three major titles

Portugal have made a permanent change to the No 7 shirt to honour the legacy of Cristiano Ronaldo and ensure the number remains forever associated with their greatest footballing icon.

The former forward, whose career spanned 23 years and 246 caps in which he scored 146 goals, announced his retirement on 5 November after a falling out with coach Jorge Jesus. His last appearance for Portugal was on 24 September, in a 1-0 home win over Wales in the Nations League.

Continue reading...

Ik kreeg een aanval van blinde misogynie toen ik op X met stijgende verbijstering de kiekjes bekeek van de Rode Lijn-demonstratie: verschrompelde ANWB-stelletjes, gefossiliseerde Trouw-lezeressen, geëxalteerde macraméheksjes, gepensioneerde sannyasins in Baghwan-kloffies en busladingen grouponnières uit de negorij des lands die iedere maand iets “geks” doen (zoals de workshop dildo kleien bij de Libelle & Margriet Zomerweek in Biddinghuizen sur Plage). 

Ik moest ook heel sterk denken aan de Biotex-juffies in Apeldoorn die “Welkom in mijn Land” zongen voor de viriele Afrikaanse asielzoekers. Dat warme welkom snap ik wel, want een “trommelcursus” van de bumsters in Gambia is behoorlijk begrotelijk met een AOW’tje of weduwenpensioen.

Wat mij vooral opviel bij de freubelvrouwtjes van de Rode Lijn, is hun volstrekte humorloosheid, de kneuterigheid en last but not least de libidoloze vreugdeloosheid in combinatie met de meur van stukgekookte spruiten en verschaald bejaardenblaasvocht. En dat in combinatie met wat mijn goede vriend, de Nederlands-Portugese schrijver J. Rentes de Carvalho, schreef in Waar die andere God woont:

Het Nederlands karakter is een mengelmoes van evenredige porties onvervalste trots, huis-tuin-en-keukenfilosofie en een argeloosheid die elders in verband gebracht wordt met zwakzinnigheid. De Nederlander vertoont een samengaan van naïviteit en verwaandheid; een menging van twee karaktertrekken die, als ze tegelijkertijd aan de oppervlakte komen, een rampzalig en onhandig mens van hem maken.

Blanke ongewervelde “mannen” van het type Jens van Tricht, Sander Philipse, Philip Huff, Rutger Bregman, Sybren Kooistra, Dick Zijp, Miko Flohr, Vieze Onderbroek Van Jole, Rob Wijnberg, Julien Althuisius, Tommy Wieringa, Nazi Rames, Pieter Klok, Ernst Jan Pfauth, Simon van Teutem, Daan Heerma van Voss, Marie Antoinette Huijbrechts, Erica Corton, Twan Huys, Dolf Jansen, Leo Lucassen, Joris Luyendijk, Jari van der Ploeg, Gijs Groenteman en Teun van de Keuken, mochten niet vooraan lopen van Sophie “fentanyl” Straat. De nobele wilde baardmannen van Hamas, zoals de uitvretende terrorist Aboe Eenarm, marcheerden daarentegen in de frontlinie van de Rode Lijn. Eppo Tjuchem en Kees Broer waren ooggetuigen, luister hier naar hun hilarische verslag.

John Dryden, die sprekend lijkt op Ed Nijpels na een etmaal poppers-bingen, gebruikte de uitdrukking “the noble savage” in zijn toneelstuk The Conquest of Granada (1672). 

De beroemde passage luidt:

I am as free as Nature first made man,
Ere the base laws of servitude began,
When wild in woods the noble savage ran.

Oriana Fallaci schreef in La rabbia e l'orgoglio (2001), in het Nederlands verschenen als De Woede en de Trots, dit over de fascinatie van westerse, progressieve vrouwen voor radicale moslimmannen: Zijn jullie allemaal verliefd geworden op Osama bin Laden, met zijn grote Torquemada-ogen, zijn vlezige lippen en wat er zich onder zijn vuile tuniek bevindt? Vinden jullie hem romantisch? Beschouwen jullie hem als een held? Dromen jullie ervan door hem verkracht te worden?

Het is eigenlijk precies wat Hans Teeuwen zegt over linkse meisjes die geil worden van rechtse praatjes (belijdende mohammedanen in de muzelmanosfeer zijn bij uitstek extreem-rechts). 

In de systeemmedia is de roomblanke ongewervelde sukkel altijd weer de sjaak en nooit de nobele wildeman uit het AZC, de Syriër, de Marokkaan of de Somaliër. De Halsemabode blijft erop hameren dat uitgerekend de Sybren Kooistra-achtigen de grote boosdoeners zijn. Deze week was het weer raak in het Amsterdamse sufferdje, dat kopte: Op onder meer sociale media en in de manosfeer krijgen mannen mee dat ze niet over hun gevoelens moeten praten. Deze Amsterdamse mannen geven via muziek, boeken, onlinecontent en praatgroepen een tegengeluid en laten zien dat je als man ook kwetsbaar mag zijn. ‘Deel je emoties en ga in therapie als het nodig is.’

HALLO, alsof Jacques Herb niet in 1972 al een pleidooi hield voor de huilende man! 

Het dierbaarst op de wereld

Wat je ooit bezat

Dat is toch wel je moeder

Die je ′t meest aanbad

Opeens krijg je te horen

Dat zij is heengegaan

Dan wordt het je te veel

En je voelt opeens een traan

Een van de geïnterviewden in het Parool is Denzel Rudge (32), directeur van stichting Black Men Talk en jurist bij de gemeente Amsterdam. “Veel mannen groeien op in een cultuur waar het niet normaal is om kwetsbaarheid te tonen. Ze leven op de automatische piloot, kroppen hun emoties op en veranderen in een tikkende tijdbom met woedeaanvallen, of ze belanden in een depressie. Het is een maatschappelijk probleem. Jonge jongens zien op sociale media vaak nog weinig positieve mannelijke rolmodellen. In het algoritme van de manosfeer leren jongens dat het mannelijk is om alles zelf te moeten oplossen, dat je altijd krachtig en stoer moet zijn en dat je geen zwaktes mag laten zien.”

Recentelijk nog schreef de Halsemabode nog dat het buitensporige en vooral zinloze geweld van drugsdealende gangstarappers en moddervette moordzuchtige drillrappers in de Bijlmer kwam door de slavernij. “Of het nu gaat om het zelfbeeld van veel zwarte mannen, de manier waarop zij opgroeien of de wijze waarop zij later in het leven relaties onderhouden met partners, vrienden en familie: het slavernijverleden van de voorouders drukt op de een of andere manier een stempel op hun leven. Een van de terugkerende thema’s is de innerlijke noodzaak die zwarte mannen voelen om sterk te zijn. Kwetsbaarheid wordt vaak niet gezien als een kracht, maar als een zwakte.”

Maar willen de juffies van de Rode Lijn eigenlijk wel het zwarte/mohammedaanse equivalent van een Sybren Kooistra: het type “man” dat in in huilen uitbarst tijdens een kringgesprek en vervolgens helemaal leeg loopt over zijn toxic masculinity en zich aanbiedt als deurmat maar eventjes een spijker in de muur slaan ho maar. 

In de jaren zeventig had je nog echte klassieke zwarte mannen, denk aan de geweldige blaxploitationfilms, hier geduid door Tarantino. In het proefschrift van Marloes Westerveld, getiteld Seksualiteit in damesbladen. Een onderzoek naar het beeld van seksualiteit in Libelle, Eva en Viva,1960-1980 Staat een typerende passage over het stereotiepe beeld van mannen van kleur destijds. Westerveld: In 1976 werd een opvallende vraag gesteld aan de Viva: ‘Heeft een neger meer zin in seks?’. De vraag is ingezonden door een meisje dat een relatie heeft met een gekleurde jongen: ‘Ik ben een meisje van 20 jaar en heb sinds een tijdje een vriend, eigenlijk mijn eerste vaste vriend. Mijn probleem is dat ik op het gebied van seks weinig ervaring heb. Herman – mijn vriend – heeft die duidelijk meer en daar beginnen onze moeilijkheden. Van mijn ouders mag ik niet met hem omgaan omdat hij zwart is, dus alles gebeurt nogal stiekem. Mijn vader breekt me beide benen als ik zwanger thuis zou komen, en daarom durf ik niet zo goed met Herman naar bed. Hij dringt er echter steeds op aan zegt dat hij niet zonder kan, omdat hij een neger is en negers veel potenter zijn dan blanken.“

Dat de Rode Lijn-juffies helemaal klaar zijn met roomblanke deugkwallen en liever een nobele wilde in bed hebben, bleek wel uit deze potkast van seksgoeroe Debby van het AD waarin Elles Beijers, managing editor van Elle Nederland, het fenomeen mankeeping duidt: “In heteroseksuele relaties (potten zijn gelukkig heel anders, A.v. A) zijn vrouwen het zat om continu de emoties en agenda’s van hun libidoloze man te managen. Uit onderzoek blijkt dat vrouwen daar simpelweg op leeglopen. Mannen voelen zich allemaal dan meteen aangevallen, en barsten in huilen uit. Calm your titties, en doe eens rustig, aldus de potkasters.’  Ik kende die uitdrukking niet, calm your tits, maar ik neem aan dat ze bedoelen: calm your manboobs.