A lead researcher at Anthropic, one of the world's leading artificial intelligence firms, said Wednesday that he believes there is a more than 10% chance AI "could kill all humans" within the next decade.
The UN General Assembly backed a resolution promoting the Equal Earth map projection, with 164 countries voting in favour. The map gives a more accurate representation of the relative sizes of continents ... read more
Your LG smart TV may be doing far more than displaying your favorite shows while it sits "off" in the corner of your living room. read more
A federal appeals court panel rejected the Trump administration's bid to lift a ban on using a federal immigration database to check the accuracy of citizenship records on states' voter rolls. read more
OpEd: President Trump's administration is waging war against children, especially those in our nation's poorest families. read more
Quelle surprise.
Did Trump hire illegals on any of his properties? (November 2025)
factually.co
... Reporting spanning 2016-2025 documents multiple instances where Trump Organization properties employed people who lacked legal work authorization or where contractors used undocumented labor -- including claims that more than 100 undocumented workers were used at Bedminster during construction and that a roving construction crew with undocumented members worked on many Trump properties [1] [2]. ...
Related ...
Ballots Discounted for Late Postmarks Surged in Washington and Oregon After Postal Service Changes
www.usnews.com
... The number of ballots rejected for late postmarks has soared in the vote-by-mail states of Washington and Oregon, according to newly released data highlighting concerns about recent changes in U.S. Postal Service operations ahead of this fall's pivotal midterm election.
The struggling agency has been consolidating its operations with an emphasis on regional hubs in an effort to save billions of dollars. Some U.S. senators and election officials for months have been warning that the changes could delay the application of postmarks to ballots -- even if they're mailed on or before Election Day. That would prevent otherwise valid votes from counting.
That prediction is being borne out, they say, with thousands of voters having their ballots rejected during this year's primaries. ...
Related ...
Ballots Discounted for Late Postmarks Surged in Washington and Oregon After Postal Service Changes
www.usnews.com
... The number of ballots rejected for late postmarks has soared in the vote-by-mail states of Washington and Oregon, according to newly released data highlighting concerns about recent changes in U.S. Postal Service operations ahead of this fall's pivotal midterm election.
The struggling agency has been consolidating its operations with an emphasis on regional hubs in an effort to save billions of dollars. Some U.S. senators and election officials for months have been warning that the changes could delay the application of postmarks to ballots -- even if they're mailed on or before Election Day. That would prevent otherwise valid votes from counting.
That prediction is being borne out, they say, with thousands of voters having their ballots rejected during this year's primaries. ...
Another view ...
Teen reading slumps to worst this century due to surge in screen time
www.reuters.com
...Teenagers more accustomed to smartphones than Shakespeare are reading at the worst levels seen this century, driving a broader decline in education, a global student assessment found.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's 2025 test of 760,000 15-year-olds across 91 countries showed reading, mathematics and science scores at their lowest levels since data began to be collected in 2000. ...
Related ...
Border Patrol is monitoring US drivers and detaining those with suspicious' travel patterns (November 2025)
apnews.com
... The U.S. Border Patrol is monitoring millions of American drivers nationwide in a secretive program to identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious, The Associated Press has found.
The predictive intelligence program has resulted in people being stopped, searched and in some cases arrested. A network of cameras scans and records vehicle license plate information, and an algorithm flags vehicles deemed suspicious based on where they came from, where they were going and which route they took. Federal agents in turn may then flag local law enforcement.
Suddenly, drivers find themselves pulled over -- often for reasons cited such as speeding, failure to signal, the wrong window tint or even a dangling air freshener blocking the view. They are then aggressively questioned and searched, with no inkling that the roads they drove put them on law enforcement's radar.
Once limited to policing the nation's boundaries, the Border Patrol has built a surveillance system stretching into the country's interior that can monitor ordinary Americans' daily actions and connections for anomalies instead of simply targeting wanted suspects. Started about a decade ago to fight illegal border-related activities and the trafficking of both drugs and people, it has expanded over the past five years. ...
ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok all went down at once; enterprises need a backup plan
www.computerworld.com
... Thursday's outages across the three services highlight an uncomfortable reality: Enterprises are automating work faster than they're planning for AI failures.
Enterprises are facing a disturbing new question in the age of AI: What happens when agentic assistants go dark?
This became a very real scenario on Thursday, as OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, and SpaceXAI's Grok near-simultaneously, and somewhat mysteriously, experienced significant, prolonged outages.
Beginning in the morning, Eastern time, several ChatGPT models went down over a roughly two hour period, Claude models over a four-hour span, and Grok models for a near three-and-a-half hour duration. All three companies acknowledged the "elevated" issues and applied fixes. ...
Nvidia's Jensen Huang says 'AGI has arrived' after OpenAI GPT-6 Astra rollout for which Sam Altman said 'sorry'
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
... Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has congratulated OpenAI following the debut of its latest frontier model, Astra, and declared that artificial general intelligence (AGI) has finally emerged.
Taking to social media platform X, he celebrated ChatGPT-maker's rapid technological progression while highlighting that Astra was developed using Nvidia's advanced hardware.
The term AGI refers to automated systems capable of equaling or exceeding human cognitive abilities across various domains. ...
@#5 ... how long before AI takes over? ...
OpenAI chief scientist warns no-one is prepared for consequences of AI
www.bbc.com
... OpenAI's chief scientist Jakub Pachocki has called for "extreme caution" over AI's runaway progress and warned more intervention may be needed to ensure "humans remain in control of the future".
"I am concerned no one is prepared for the consequences of a continued rapid rise in machine intelligence," he wrote in a blog post entitled "An Alien Mind". ...
Fact Sheet: Costs of Iran War (August 2026)
www.americanprogress.org
... The Trump administration's war in Iran has cost at least $1,200 per household. With no end in sight, American families are paying a price. ...
US diesel prices hit record high as conflicts intensify supply crunch
www.usatoday.com
... Average U.S. diesel prices jumped to record highs on Thursday, as a global supply crunch intensified after renewed hostilities between the U.S. and Iran and on disruptions caused by Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, a major source of diesel exports. ...
Industry watchers warned that already-elevated prices could climb further as seasonal demand picks up. Farmers harvesting crops in the Northern Hemisphere, combined with preparations for planting in the Southern Hemisphere, are expected to boost diesel consumption in the coming months. Demand for heating oil, a distillate fuel similar to diesel, also typically rises ahead of the winter heating season.
Higher diesel prices can ripple through the broader economy because the fuel is widely used in trucking, agriculture and industrial activity. This boosts transportation and production costs that can ultimately raise food prices, Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, said. ...
"Farmers and truckers typically use more diesel in the autumn, which raises the stakes for the current crisis and increases the risk of sharper price increases," he said. ...
Is Trump's $1 coin now on sale a legal tender? What the law says
www.firstpost.com
... The US Mint has begun selling the 2026 Donald Trump $1 coin, a legal-tender issue marking America's 250th anniversary. Rolls of 25 cost $61, while 100-coin bags cost $154.50. The coin has a $1 face value and features Trump alongside the Presidential Seal as part of the Semiquincentennial programme ...
The coins are also available online at the website of the US Mint, although as of Thursday, the product was unavailable or on back-order due to rising demand.
Because the coins are sold at a premium above face value, the US Mint is categorising them primarily as collectible numismatic products, even though they are legally minted as circulating currency. ...
@#15 ... "A nuclear power plant produces power for decades; the nuclear waste it leaves behind will remain lethal for 10,000 years. Put on a blackboard the year the EPA has determined these materials will be safe, 11,993" ...
Yup.
Apropos tune ...
John Hall - Plutonium Is Forever (1979)
www.youtube.com
@#36 ... His story sounds to me like it is full of crap and he is trying to steal some valor. That should be enough in itself. ...
Trump's Own Nephew Jumps Into the Fray to Debunk His 9/11 Storytelling
www.mediaite.com