Wel.nl

Minder lezen, Meer weten.

Doden door orkaan in Haïti, ook elders steeds meer schade gemeld

PORT-AU-PRINCE (ANP/AFP) - Orkaan Melissa heeft in Haïti aan zeker tien mensen het leven gekost, melden de autoriteiten in het land. De slachtoffers kwamen om in overstromingen. Ook wordt langzaam meer duidelijk over schade en slachtoffers in andere landen, vooral Cuba en Jamaica.

De rivier La Digue trad in het zuiden van het land buiten zijn oevers. Meerdere mensen werden meegesleurd, melden de burgemeester van de plaats Petit-Goâve en de directeur van een ziekenhuis. Er zouden ook nog mensen vermist worden.

In Cuba kwamen huizen en wegen onder water te staan, meldden verslaggevers van persbureau AFP. De orkaan is nu op weg naar de Bahama's.


Man krijgt 18 jaar cel voor doden en laten verdwijnen van partner

ARNHEM (ANP) - De rechtbank in Arnhem heeft woensdag een gevangenisstraf van achttien jaar opgelegd aan de 60-jarige Lutfi K. uit Zevenaar voor het doden van zijn partner en het laten verdwijnen van haar lichaam. De vrouw Yildiz Kayali wordt sinds 29 december 2023 vermist.

De rechtbank concludeert dat K. zijn 42-jarige partner van het leven heeft beroofd en vervolgens haar lichaam heeft laten verdwijnen.

De politie deed uitvoerig onderzoek in binnen- en buitenland. Er zijn geen aanwijzingen voor een natuurlijk overlijden, een dodelijk ongeval of suïcide. Ook van een vrijwillig vertrek kan geen sprake zijn. De rechtbank oordeelt dat de man zelf de 'afscheidsberichten' van zijn vrouw schreef en verzond aan zichzelf en hun kinderen.

Twintig jaar geëist

In de kofferbak van een auto en op sierkussens in de woonkamer zijn bloedsporen gevonden met het DNA van het slachtoffer.

De man werd in februari 2024 aangehouden. Het Openbaar Ministerie had begin deze maand een celstraf van twintig jaar geëist.


Gewonden bij Russische aanval op kinderziekenhuis in Cherson

CHERSON (ANP) - Bij een Russische aanval op een kinderziekenhuis in de zuidelijke Oekraïense stad Cherson zijn zeker negen gewonden gevallen, melden Oekraïense autoriteiten. Onder anderen drie medewerkers en vier kinderen zouden gewond zijn geraakt, aldus de Oekraïense ombudsman Dmytro Loebinets.

President Volodymyr Zelensky schrijft op X dat het jongste slachtoffer 8 jaar oud is en dat ook zijn moeder en broer gewond raakten. Zelensky voegt eraan toe dat het onmogelijk is dat Rusland "niet wist waar het aanviel". Zelensky spreekt over Rusland als "op dit moment de grootste terroristische organisatie ter wereld", die er niet voor zou schromen locaties als kinderziekenhuizen tot doelwit te maken.


AI-chipconcern Nvidia 5 biljoen dollar waard op beurs

NEW YORK (ANP) - AI-chipconcern Nvidia heeft woensdag op de aandelenbeurzen in New York als eerste bedrijf een beurswaarde van meer dan 5 biljoen dollar bereikt, oftewel 5000 miljard dollar. Het aandeel Nvidia stond kort na opening van de handel op Wall Street 4,4 procent hoger.

Slechts vier maanden geleden doorbrak Nvidia al de mijlpaal van 4 biljoen dollar aan beurswaarde. De koers van het Amerikaanse bedrijf is dit jaar al ongeveer 50 procent gestegen.


Meeste kandidaten voor Tweede Kamer wonen in grote steden

DEN HAAG (ANP) - De meeste kandidaten voor de Tweede Kamerverkiezingen wonen in Amsterdam. De hoofdstad levert 91 mensen die woensdag op het stembiljet staan. Daarna volgt Den Haag met 71 kandidaat-Kamerleden. Uit Rotterdam komen 62 kandidaat-Kamerleden en uit Utrecht 26 mensen.

Samen hebben de vier grote steden 250 potentiële volksvertegenwoordigers. Dat is vrijwel gelijk aan het totale aantal kandidaten uit Overijssel, Limburg, Groningen, Flevoland, Zeeland en Drenthe bij elkaar. Ook twee jaar geleden kwamen relatief veel kandidaten uit de grootste steden.

Opvallend veel kandidaten komen uit Friesland. De provincie telt 73 mensen die zich verkiesbaar hebben gesteld, oftewel 6,3 procent van de totale kandidatenlijst, terwijl Friezen maar 3,7 procent van de Nederlandse bevolking uitmaken. Dat komt door de deelname van de Fryske Nasjonale Partij (FNP). De Friese nationalisten doen voor het eerst mee. De partij heeft 49 kandidaten, van wie 37 in Friesland zelf wonen, oftewel ruim driekwart van de lijst. Bij de andere partijen levert Friesland in totaal 3,2 procent van de kandidaten.

Noord-Brabant is juist ondervertegenwoordigd op het stembiljet. Die provincie levert 9,3 procent van de kandidaten, maar vormt 14,8 procent van de Nederlandse bevolking. Ook Gelderland heeft relatief weinig kandidaat-Kamerleden: 9,7 procent van alle lijsten, bij 12 procent van de bevolking.


Marc Andes Raven

Nies Vooijs – wie kent haar niet – weet met scherp oog de meest illustere schilders bij elkaar te brengen. Ik vind dat leuk en verrassend.

Marc Andes Raven (Phoebus, Martin van Zomeren en Bradwolff) dacht ik niet te kennen maar en ow ja: does ring a belletje. Tijd voor nadere in- en introspectie! Online genoeglijk duistere verf-melee. Zeg maar nogal hardcore.

Zien is geloven want over een uur worden de werken voor de tentoonstelling one way or the other – A PAINTING SHOW als zodanig geleverd. Opening aanstaande vrijdag 17:00 uur in ons aller Het Wilde Weten.

marcraven.nl

Afbeeldingen op trendbeheer van instagram.com/marc.andres.raven geplukt.

Trump fires federal arts board in charge of reviewing White House ballroom and ‘Arc de Trump’

Guardian: Trump fires federal arts board in charge of reviewing White House ballroom and ‘Arc de Trump’

Rijnmond - Nieuws

Het laatste nieuws van vandaag over Rotterdam, Feyenoord, het verkeer en het weer in de regio Rijnmond

Langste dakpark van Rotterdam op lange baan, gemeente breekt met bouwers

Het Hofbogenpark is minstens een jaar later klaar dan gepland. De gemeente Rotterdam heeft - naar eigen zeggen in goed overleg - de samenwerking met de partijen die het park zouden aanleggen, beëindigd. Het is niet helemaal duidelijk waarom. Wel is duidelijk dat de gemeente nu actief op zoek gaat naar een nieuwe partij voor de ingewikkelde klus.

Stemmen met swingende beats? Daar ging hier een streep door: 'Ook de burgemeester verwachtte een dj'

Het is woensdag stil in het stembureau aan de Van Oestendestraat in Rotterdam-Charlois. Daar, in productiehuis FLOW, hadden juist swingende beats moeten klinken, om mensen te verleiden om te komen stemmen. Maar wat blijkt nu, het mag niet. Tot ontsteltenis van burgemeester Carola Schouten.

Proef in Alphen aan den Rijn: compact stembiljet vervangt ‘rol behang’

Een 'nieuw' stembiljet moet onder meer in Alphen aan den Rijn stemmen én tellen makkelijker maken. Maar is stemmen op een nummer niet in strijd met het Nederlandse parlementaire systeem?

Na golf van geweld zoekt Schiedam contact met jongeren: ‘Als ze doorkrijgen dat je niet van de politie bent, komen ze los’

Schiedam kreeg in het afgelopen jaar te maken met een golf aan geweld onder jongeren. De gemeente wil voorkomen dat „jonge aanwas” zich aandient.


Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

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Pluralistic: When AI prophecy fails (29 Oct 2025)


Today's links



A black and white image of an armed overseer supervising several chain-gang prisoners in stripes doing forced labor. The overseer's head has been replaced with the glaring red eye of HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The prisoners' heads have been replaced with hackers' hoodies.

When AI prophecy fails (permalink)

Amazon made $35 billion in profit last year, so they're celebrating by laying off 14,000 workers (a number they say will rise to 30,000). This is the kind of thing that Wall Street loves, and this layoff comes after a string of pronouncements from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy about how AI is going to let them fire tons of workers.

That's the AI story, after all. It's not about making workers more productive or creative. The only way to recoup the $700 billion in capital expenditure to date (to say nothing of AI companies' rather fanciful coming capex commitments) is by displacing workers – a lot of workers. Bain & Co say the sector needs to be grossing $2 trillion by 2030 in order to break even, which is more than the combined grosses of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple Nvidia and Meta:

https://www.bain.com/about/media-center/press-releases/20252/$2-trillion-in-new-revenue-needed-to-fund-ais-scaling-trend—bain–companys-6th-annual-global-technology-report/

Every investor who has put a nickel into that $700b capex is counting on bosses firing a lot of workers and replacing them with AI. Amazon is also counting on people buying a lot of AI from it after firing those workers. The company has sunk $120b into AI this year alone.

There's just one problem: AI can't do our jobs. Oh, sure, an AI salesman can convince your boss to fire you and replace you with an AI that can't do your job, but that's the world's easiest sales-call. Your boss is relentlessly horny for firing you:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/18/asbestos-in-the-walls/#government-by-spicy-autocomplete

But there's a lot of AI buyers' remorse. 95% of AI deployments have either produced no return on capital, or have been money-losing:

https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/01/25/1436/we-analyzed-16625-papers-to-figure-out-where-ai-is-headed-next/

AI has "no significant impact on workers’ earnings, recorded hours, or wages":

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5219933

What's Amazon to do? How do they convince you to buy enough AI to justify that $180b in capital expenditure? Somehow, they have to convince you that an AI can do your workers' jobs. One way to sell that pitch is to fire a ton of Amazon workers and announce that their jobs have been given to a chatbot. This isn't a production strategy, it's a marketing strategy – it's Amazon deliberately taking an efficiency loss by firing workers in a desperate bid to convince you that you can fire your workers:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/05/ex-princes-of-labor/#hyper-criti-hype

Amazon does use a lot of AI in its production, of course. AI is the "digital whip" that Amazon uses to allow itself to control drivers who (nominally) work for subcontractors. This lets Amazon force workers into unsafe labor practices that endanger them and the people they share the roads with, while offloading responsibility onto "independent delivery service" operators and the drivers themselves:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/23/traveling-salesman-solution/#pee-bottles

Amazon leadership has announced that AI has or will shortly replace its coders as well. But chatbots can't do software engineering – sure, they can write code, but writing code is only a small part of software engineering. An engineer's job is to maintain a very deep and wide context window, one that considers how each piece of code interacts with the software that executes before it and after it, and with the systems that feed into it and accept its output.

There's one thing AI struggles with beyond all else: maintaining context. Each linear increase in context that you demand from AI results in an exponential increase in computational expense. AI has no object permanence. It doesn't know where it's been and it doesn't know where it's going. It can't remember how many fingers it's drawn, so it doesn't know when to stop. It can write a routine, but it can't engineer a system.

When tech bosses dream of firing coders and replacing them with AI, they're fantasizing about getting rid of their highest-paid, most self-assured workers and transforming the insecure junior programmers leftover into AI babysitters whose job it is to evaluate and integrate that code at a speed that no one – much less a junior programmer – can meet if they are to do a careful and competent job:

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/how-ai-is-killing-jobs-in-the-tech-f39

The jobs that can be replaced with AI are the jobs that companies already gave up on doing well. If you've already outsourced your customer service to an overseas call-center whose workers are not empowered to solve any of your customers' problems, why not fire those workers and replace them with chatbots? The chatbots also can't solve anyone's problems, and they're even cheaper than overseas call-center workers:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/06/unmerchantable-substitute-goods/#customer-disservice

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote that he "is convinced" that firing workers will make the company "AI ready," but it's not clear what he means by that. Does he mean that the mass firings will save money while maintaining quality, or that mass firings will help Amazon recoup the $180,000,000,000 it spent on AI this year?

Bosses really want AI to work, because they really, really want to fire you. As Allison Morrow writes for CNN bosses are firing workers in anticipation of the savings AI will produce…someday:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/28/business/what-amazons-mass-layoffs-are-really-about

All this can feel improbable. Would bosses really fire workers on the promise of eventual AI replacements, leaving themselves with big bills for AI and falling revenues as the absence of those workers is felt?

The answer is a resounding yes. The AI industry has done such a good job of convincing bosses that AI can do their workers' jobs that each boss for whom AI fails assumes that they've done something wrong. This is a familiar dynamic in con-jobs.

The people who get sucked into pyramid schemes all think that they are the only ones failing to sell any of the "merchandise" they shell out every month to buy, and that no one else has a garage full of unsold leggings or essential oils. They don't know that, to a first approximation, the MLM industry has no sales, and relies entirely on "entrepreneurs" lying to themselves and one another about the demand for their wares, paying out of their own pocket for goods that no one wants.

The MLM industry doesn't just rely on this deception – they capitalize on it, by selling those self-flagellating "entrepreneurs" all kinds of expensive training courses that promise to help them overcome the personal defects that stop them from doing as well as all those desperate liars boasting about their incredible MLM sales success:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/05/free-enterprise-system/#amway-or-the-highway

The AI industry has its own version of those sales coaching courses – there's a whole secondary industry of management consultancies and business schools offering high-ticket "continuing education" courses to bosses who think that the only reason the AI they've purchased isn't saving them money is that they're doing AI wrong.

Amazon really needs AI to work. Last week, Ed Zitron published an extensive analysis of leaked documents showing how much Amazon is making from AI companies who are buying cloud services from it. His conclusion? Take away AI and Amazon's cloud division is in steep decline:

https://www.wheresyoured.at/costs/

What's more, those big-money AI customers – like Anthropic – are losing tens of billions of dollars per year, relying on investors to keep handing them money to incinerate. Amazon needs bosses to believe they can fire workers and replace them with AI, because that way, investors will keep giving Anthropic the money it needs to keep Amazon in the black.

Amazon firing 30,000 workers in the run-up to Christmas is a great milestone in enshittification. America's K-shaped recovery means that nearly all of the consumption is coming from the wealthiest American households, and these households overwhelmingly subscribe to Prime. Prime-subscribing households do not comparison shop. After all, they've already prepaid for a year's shipping in advance. These households start and end nearly every shopping trip in the Amazon app.

If Amazon fires 30,000 workers and tanks its logistics network and e-commerce systems, if it allows itself to drown in spam and scam reviews, if it misses its delivery windows and messes up its returns, that will be our problem, not Amazon's. In a world of commerce where Amazon's predatory pricing, lock-in, and serial acquisitions has left us with few alternatives, Amazon can truly be "too big to care":

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/05/way-past-its-prime-how-did-amazon-get-so-rubbish

From that enviable position, Amazon can afford to enshittify its services in order to sell the big AI lie. Killing 30,000 jobs is a small price to pay if it buys them a few months before a reckoning for its wild AI overspending, keeping the AI grift alive for just a little longer.

(Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified)


Hey look at this (permalink)



A shelf of leatherbound history books with a gilt-stamped series title, 'The World's Famous Events.'

Object permanence (permalink)

#10yrsago Librarian of Congress puts impossible conditions on your right to jailbreak your 3D printer https://michaelweinberg.org/post/132021560865/unlocking-3d-printers-ruling-is-a-mess

#10yrsago The two brilliant, prescient 20th century science fiction novels you should read this election season https://memex.craphound.com/2015/10/28/the-two-brilliant-prescient-20th-century-science-fiction-novels-you-should-read-this-election-season/

#10yrsago Hundreds of city police license plate cams are insecure and can be watched by anyone https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/10/license-plate-readers-exposed-how-public-safety-agencies-responded-massive

#10yrsago Appeals court holds the FBI is allowed to kidnap and torture Americans outside US borders https://www.techdirt.com/2015/10/28/court-your-fourth-fifth-amendment-rights-no-longer-exist-if-you-leave-country/

#10yrsago South Carolina sheriff fires the school-cop who beat up a black girl at her desk https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/28/south-carolina-parents-speak-out-school-board

#10yrsago The more unequal your society is, the more your laws will favor the rich https://web.archive.org/web/20151028133814/http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/10/the-more-unequal-the-country-the-more-the-rich-rule.html

#5yrsago Trump abandons supporters to freeze https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/28/trumpcicles/#omaha

#5yrsago RIAA's war on youtube-dl https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/28/trumpcicles/#yt-dl

#1yrago The US Copyright Office frees the McFlurry https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/28/mcbroken/#my-milkshake-brings-all-the-lawyers-to-the-yard


Upcoming appearances (permalink)

A photo of me onstage, giving a speech, pounding the podium.



A screenshot of me at my desk, doing a livecast.

Recent appearances (permalink)



A grid of my books with Will Stahle covers..

Latest books (permalink)



A cardboard book box with the Macmillan logo.

Upcoming books (permalink)

  • "Unauthorized Bread": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2026

  • "Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It" (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026

  • "The Memex Method," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2026

  • "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2026



Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

  • "The Reverse Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about being an effective AI critic. FIRST DRAFT COMPLETE AND SUBMITTED.

  • A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING


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FOTOTOPIC. Politici steken stembiljet in gleuf

Geert Wilders (stemt PVV)

Frans Timmermans (stemt PvdA-GL)

Dilan Dinges (stemt toch maar weer VVD)

Eddy van Hijum (stemt NSC)

Rob Jetten (stemt D66)

Caroline van der Plas (stemt BBB)

Henri Bontenbal (stemt CDA)

Jimmy Dijk (stemt SP)

Stephan van Baarle (stemt Hamas)

Esther Ouwehand (stemt Vrede voor Dieren)

Lidewij de Vos (stemt FVD)

Joost Eerdmans (stemt JA21)

Mirjam Bikker (stemt Jezus)

Laurens Dassen (stemt Volt)

Chris Stoffer (stemt SGP, gek genoeg mag zijn vrouw ook stemmen)

U stemt: vanavond af op GeenStijl

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Formula 1 News

Formula 1® - The Official F1® Website

Mexico disappointment for Alpine's Colapinto and Gasly

Franco Colapinto admits there "was not a lot of things we can do" as the Argentinian and Alpine team mate Pierre Gasly finished at the back of the field in the Mexico City Grand Prix.

The Moscow Times - Independent News From Russia

The Moscow Times offers everything you need to know about Russia: Breaking news, top stories, business, analysis, opinion, multimedia

Russia-Linked Figures Move to Help Romanian Mercenary Accused of Coup Plot – The Guardian

Horațiu Potra was detained at Dubai International Airport on Sept. 24 while preparing to fly to Moscow.

Woodmen

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Woodmen

Diamond Crest

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Diamond Crest

Found Slide -- 1964 World's Fair

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Found Slide -- 1964 World's Fair

date stamped on slide, September 1965

Found Kodachrome

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Found Kodachrome

date stamped on slide, November 1966

The Register

Biting the hand that feeds IT — Enterprise Technology News and Analysis

AI layoffs to backfire: Half quietly rehired at lower pay

Bosses banking on automation? 55% will regret those job cuts

Many organizations rushing to cut staff in the name of AI efficiency are expected to quietly rehire those roles – often "offshore or at lower salary."…