Hard Pass

Source: https://bsky.app/profile/mattielubchansky.com/post/3mnaafmu2h22b

“The rise of OpenAI is attributable to a web of deceit and the exploitation of users (including Floridians), leveraging their data and safety to boost OpenAI’s market value at unacceptable costs”

The civil action, seeking penalties and a court order rather than criminal charges, said Uthmeier “seeks to hold Altman personally liable for the harm he has caused Floridians through his reckless and willful conduct as founder and CEO of OpenAI, including his utter disregard for the risk to human life caused by his firms’ conduct.”

The State Department plans to drastically slash the number of U.S. embassies and consulates in Africa that can process visas for foreigners seeking to come to the United States.

The almost 50 U.S. embassies and consulates that are processing visa applications will be reduced to 20 in the coming weeks, according to three U.S. officials and an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. There is not yet a set date for the change, but it is expected in June, according to the officials, who were not authorized to comment to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The move is part of the Trump administration’s effort to crack down on issuing both immigrant and non-immigrant visas as part of its broader aim to limit immigration to the U.S. and clamp down on those who travel on temporary visas but then overstay them. The administration also has scaled back personnel at embassies and consulates around the world.

On a conference call last Friday, U.S. diplomats, including consular chiefs, were told the U.S. would be scaling back its visa services across Africa, according to one of the officials who was on the call.

Under a directive approved by Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week, the State Department will reduce consular operations in all but 20 “hubs” in Africa, according to the officials and the memo.

Visa processing in Africa has already been affected by a travel ban on certain countries as well as a requirement for applicants to post up to $15,000 bond in order to apply and more recently by restrictions caused by the Ebola outbreak.

A Pentagon policy illegally banned transgender troops from military service, a divided panel of federal appeal court judges ruled on Monday in another legal setback for President Donald Trump’s sweeping agenda.

The majority opinion — by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit — held that the Trump administration’s policy was designed to exclude people from the military based on their gender identity.

The ban will remain in effect for now. The U.S. Supreme Court let it go through last year as litigation continues to play out, and the appeals court put their own ruling on hold to allow for appeals. It would apply to plaintiffs serving in the miliary, but not those seeking to join. So the military would be able to prevent new transgender people from enlisting.

The appeals court panel’s 2-1 decision largely upholds a March 2025 ruling by U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C. Reyes concluded that Trump’s executive order to exclude transgender troops from military service likely violates their constitutional rights.

The administration appealed after Reyes issued a preliminary injunction requested by attorneys for several transgender people who are active-duty service members and others seeking to join the military. The appeal court’s majority decided that the injunction should be narrowed to the plaintiffs currently serving in the military but not those trying to enlist.

Another lawsuit challenging the ban was filed in Washington state and led to a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs challenging the policy in that case

BARAKA OBAMA

"This is it. We're dead. We're going to die right here in the Waymo."

This combined with another recent article from some insiders at Tesla saying, along the lines, "You couldn't pay me to let one of these things drive me somewhere."

And yet I still know people who are just so chuffed about "never having to drive again."

EDIT: Comments have pointed out that this story is, at best, overblown and semi-fabricated otherwise. Take it with a massive grain of salt. But feel free to discuss self-driving, waymo, etc in the comments!

Ok...I'm doing something...and I picked a meme. 42% of people won't read this, approximately. Everybody is a stimulus-rsponse machine. Until they choose not to be. In this essay about how the reality of worchestershire spelled from memory is the same as...fuck I got an extra "h" in there...

But like, fuck, dude. I'm not drunk. I had two beers, as God GOADED me to do. I'm not good enough for a last temptation, cuz I have logos in regards to understanding the benefits to espirichemicalanilia, as it relates to the basic human condition.

What you say is not what's heard. You speak through the Father. It's Server, Client, Holy Internet. The Server is the Ālaya-vijñāna, the Buddhists call it. The storehouse consciousness. And all you and all else is defined by entanglements that will be reconciled.

So what you say doesn't matter. It's what you intend to say, and your skillfulness in saying it. The unskillful throughout history have died. The bad intentioned throughout history have died. Strange. It's like morality is a skill.

National strategy, which could be revised, is light on details for AI safety

Representation is important, even if it's phony.

Elon Musk's SpaceX is preparing for a $1.75 trillion IPO that could place the company in major index funds within days. Changes to long-standing index rules may bring the stock into retirement portfolios far sooner than many investors expect.

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/47338700

Imagine Source