Hard Pass

Let me tell you about a Microsoft AI researcher [...] who recently spent quite a lot of time considering whether the legendary Microsoft real time strategy game Age of Empires II is conscious, and built a basic neural network within the video game using digital goats to prove his point. [...]

De Wynter built an LLM within AoEII using goats. “The point of the paper is to formally show that we anthropomorphise too readily, and that sometimes the claims we make with regards to LLM capabilities are too strong,” he told 404 Media. “It's not an easy task, given that ‘human-like attributes’ is a bit of an abstract term.”

Funds meant for Secret Service were transferred to project president promised would be financed by private donations

Donald Trump’s administration has quietly redirected $352m in federal funds designated for the Secret Service toward the president’s controversial White House ballroom project, despite repeated promises by Trump that the construction would be financed by private donations

The funds were drawn from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Trump’s signature tax legislation passed last summer on Republican-only votes. The law stipulates the money may only be spent on Secret Service personnel, training facilities, technology and related costs, not construction.

About $340.8m of the funding was placed into an account labeled “Procurement, Construction, and Improvements” on 12 June, according to the office of management and budget (OMB) database. Another account labeled “Operations and Support” was also approved the same day, adding another $10.75m to the budget.

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/52191489

It took more than a decade of planning, a messy court battle with preservationists and years of plodding construction, but the Obama Presidential Center will finally be unveiled on the South Side of Chicago on Thursday.

The opening itself will be a star-studded party, concert and celebration, the rare event that is expected to draw four former presidents — George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Joseph R. Biden Jr., along with Barack Obama himself.

An invitation was not extended to Trump, who recently compared the center to a trash heap.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, once a figure of contention among leaders from both major political parties, has seen a remarkable surge in his political standing just six months into office.

The 34-year-old democratic socialist, a prominent figure on the progressive left, has garnered unexpected praise from both Donald Trump and New York Governor Kathy Hochul.

He has also emerged as the face of the region's sports renaissance. Now, days before New York's primary elections,

The Trump administration has joined a lawsuit attempting to stop a first-of-its-kind reparations plan that would compensate Black residents of a Chicago suburb, arguing that its race-based criteria are unconstitutional.

The program, in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, offers Black residents and their descendants up to $25,000 for past raced-based housing discrimination. When the city’s program was approved in 2021, it was hailed as a model for reparations movements across the US.

  “A house divided cannot stand”

Throughout his second term, Donald Trump has sought to weaponize civil rights laws against groups they once protected and has fixated on dismantling programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion.

image alt link (blahaj zone)

whenever these things drive by slowly, you can just get on.

just like that. just - just jump on, stand on these steps. no one can stop you. no one will try to get you off, thatd be dangerous.

where will it bring you?

take a backpack with drinks and food and enjoy the ride.

really tho. what's gonna happen?

worst case, u end up in a far away train station and you get looked at weirdly.

old peeps keep saying they had such adventures back then.
it feels like everything fun one can do is bad for you, unsafe, unhealthy or inappropriate.

what are we supposed to do? play veloren all day?

if u wanna

link to post

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what are we here for? to eat? to find friends and or a or more partners and make them happy?

nothing safe, accepted and regular is gonna get us anywhere.

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anyway have a lovely day or night or midnight <3

also, tell me, how have things felt recently? are you doing okay with the heat? did you drink enough water? (im getting a liter bottle now because i reminded myself to drink more)

Bitches, that's always been the case. We don't call it TACO Everyday for no reason there you bunch of perpetual losers.