Possibly, reverse motivation - the training goal of such an agent would not be nice and smooth output, but shooting down misinformation.
But I have serious doubts about whether all of that is feasible, given the computational cost of running large language models.
Speculation on my part:
Patriot stocks may have been really reduced - by defending Israel during Netanyahu’s adventure against Iran (it could have been smarter to tell Netanyahu not to start).
There is no reason to think that stocks of other weapons (e.g. air to ground missiles, glide bomb units for F-16) have suddenly gone really low. In fact, there is probably a f**kton of them.
Consequently, I suspect that Trump and Putin have made a deal they failed to disclose: Putin promised to refrain from helping Iran (it was an easy promise, he was really low on supplies). Trump promised in return to refrain from helping Ukraine, which he could have easily helped. At best, he got conned, at worst he got to do what he already wanted.
I would advise journalists to ask around: “has the US DoD been ordered to alter criteria for determining what is sufficient supply?” If yes, we’re looking at an excuse. If no, we’re looking at inability.
Both are bad, but inability can be corrected with honest admission and action, Ukraine has a bit of money from other allies to actually buy some US weapons, although they are rushing to make more domestically.
If it’s not inability but an undercarpet deal, then corrections are bit harder to achieve.
But the SBU had followed the pair and had special equipment on hand, the operative said, expecting another attack after the previous blast. “We had certain technical means to block the signals to the telephone,” said the source. When Alexander rang the phones strapped to the bombs to detonate them, the calls did not go through.
That was thoughtful of them. :)
At this temperature, emergency medical departments are guaranteed to be full. Weeks later, an uptick in mortality is registered on stats, without exception.
I think the 38% number is definitely wrong, maybe even wrong by one order of magnitude.
I tried fact-checking and came up with this:
https://providencemag.com/2018/04/what-a-country-immigrants-serve-us-military-well
Few Americans realize that 65,000 immigrants serve in the US military today. That number includes some 18,700 troops who hold green cards (in other words, legal permanent residents who are not yet naturalized citizens). According to the Pentagon, about 5,000 such residents enlist each year.
Since the total number of the US armed forces is around 1.3 million, it follows that 38% is definitely wrong and the correct number of immigrants is likely around 5%.
I think the 38% number originates from service member naturalization stats or service member family stats and has been mis-interpreted. Can’t tell for sure, didn’t hire a spy to find out. :)
P.S. Edit: found a secondary source with similar data:
https://www.usafis.org/can-i-join-the-us-military-as-a-green-card-holder/
Approximately 8,000 Green Card holders join the US military each year and around 35,000 are currently serving on active duty.
Since green card holders aren’t the only variety of immigrant, the number 65 000 seems plausible.
My estimate is that this will result on 410 lawsuits filed per day. :o
I think it’s not a smart move to have 150 000 lawsuits per year over the same question - it’s much preferable to have 1 lawsuit for a whole class of people - defending the rights of everyone in the same situation - and some extra lawsuits for those who want to present a unique take on the matter.
Good to hear. :)
They have, but this does not look like a fiber optic scenario.
Guesses: either:
Missile silos are sadly, ridiculously hardened. You may have to hit a single door with 10+ drones to get through.
Aircraft are perfect targets, since an aircraft must be light and cannot be hidden underground too easily.
Also, missile silos aren’t being used to attack Ukraine. Knocking one out would have no effect on the safety of people in Ukraine. Aircraft however, are used daily / weekly. Tangible benefit is immediate - less air raids, less missiles fired, less glide bombs dropped.
It would also be sweet if a shortage of radar planes occurred - Russia not knowing what’s happening in its airspace would allow Ukrainian long-range drones to reach where they must.
Clever and economical, and 100% high value military targets. I wish the guys who pulled this off, all the luck they can have. :)
It is possible that Russia’s selection of AWACS planes (about 10 left) decreased even more.
The “sheds” were more like wooden boxes. They had a fake roof, the upper layer of which a mechanism could remove. Between the roof beams - “nests” for drones. This cargo was given for transport to ordinary truck companies. There’s even a video where cops have detained a trucker while drones are taking off from his truck and heading towards Belaya airfield, ordinarily unreachable to Ukrainian drones since it’s 4000 km away. I’m afraid the trucker will be facing some hard times. I hope they understand he was deceived, though, and eventually let him go.
I hope they get mild sentences because they didn’t even manage to enter.
The law is extremely dumb, as it sends the message “accomplish maximum obstruction, as you will get massive sentences, don’t talk with anyone, don’t even consider getting caught”.
Maybe next time, someone does like some alleged (claim unverified) anarchists in France. They burned a substation and cut down a high voltage pylon. Most likely a bit foolish because they didn’t stop the Cannes film festival from completing (it had backup power), but the point remains: they caused a massive pain in the ass for hundreds of thousands of people. If they get caught and get 10 years, they can say it was worth it.
Dishing out 10 year sentences for attempting to stop a plane from using a taxiway by standing in front of it… is not very smart from a judicial viewpoint. People might do the math and find they’d get smaller sentences for considerably bigger deeds.
Microvessel, yes.
But robot? Ahem, not as I understand robots. It has no sensors and no effectors, and no decision making logic between them. :)
"My immediate reaction was to say, ‘I don’t talk with the FBI,’” Neill said. The man said, “OK,” and Neill shut the door. Two other activists described similar visits in interviews with WBUR.
This guy is my hero. :)
A few hours later, the “few details” emerge:
But he suggested that Ukraine should neither rearm nor mobilise and that western military aid to Kyiv be halted during the 30-day ceasefire.
Some people probably say that “it was worth trying” (others would say it wasn’t).
To add bits and pieces to the “digital camouflage” article:
https://geti2p.net/en/ , http://i2p2.de/en (different mirrors, same content)
another good VPN service: RiseUp VPN
a note about e-mail: in careless hands, e-mail can blow up in your face, but used strictly (access remote inbox via TOR, only upload and download GPG-encrypted messages), e-mail can be used securely
From my perspective, slrpnk.net is occasionally very slow to respond… and then, after 5 minutes, fast again.
Basing on what I read on the “support” chat channel via XMPP, the server recently had major hardware trouble. I would guess that everything isn’t fully set up yet.
Nice to know. :)
Reading tip: a comment from a reader John Beech (an old radio amateur) at the bottom is probably of greater practical value: he describes how he developed DIY cells to the point of running a 2 W radio.
Another way to build DIY batteries is using the iron-air chemical combination. A decent collection of recipes can be found here, using filter cartridges of activated carbon as cathodes and rebar wrapped in steel wool as anodes:
https://www.instructables.com/Create-large-refuelable-metal-air-battery/
These cells convert iron into rust at an accelerated pace, producing power while doing that. However, they have really low cell voltages, so you have to wire many cells in series or use a really efficient voltage converter. Aluminum gives high cell voltages, but on the downside, produces annoying waste chemicals.
All useful information.
I would add some notes. They are somewhat haphazard, I apologize, it’s 3 at night here. :)
In a protest setting, where police might use non-lethal weapons, protective equipment can save the day repeatedly. It also protects well enough against thugs with clubs.
But if lethal weapons are used, even the best armor often fails and everyone is too fragile, despite having armor. Generally, in such conditions, other factors (awareness, coordination, range) determine outcomes.
Generally, quite soon after armor has proven useful, an age-old pattern emerges: competing factions erect barricades. At that point, much depends on what the population thought before that - whether the population is willing to support and supply protesters, or maybe even sabotage attempts to suppress them. If the population is “meh, it’s not my fight”, for a protester, that is bad news.
Needless to say, it’s best if peaceful mass protest can occur before this stage, and show great numbers. Srdja Popovic (whose colleagues helped remove Milosevic in Serbia, but it took them ages and required external help) makes several good points in Blueprint for Revolution. If a protest has no risk of violence, grannies and people with kids show up. Critical mass is shown and vital communication lines are established this way, police are aware that they will lose popularity fast if they initiate violence. Various factions will try to propose leaders, leaders will try to propose strategies and tactics. However, mass protest could lose momentum or fragment into non-cooperating factions. One way to protect a movement against loss of momentum is to build an organization that gathers resources and funnels them into the struggle, and to have achievable waypoints before a distant final goal. This way lies politics.
Another way out of mass protest is for protesters to attempt subverting power structures at a rapid pace - typically after gaining confidence of having overwhelming numbers, something which the phase of peaceful mass protest seeks to demonstrate. This way lies revolution, with a far greater risk of violence. It’s best not to go there without really having overwhelming numbers, and a clear message of how chaos will be short in duration (most populations in a tumultous situation desperately look for a message of how chaos will be over, and it’s best if a rotten government ain’t the only place offering one).
The heater model they depict looks good.
It’s like with earthquakes. At first, when nobody knows jack s**t, they tell you 10 people died.
When the statistics come home, often enough, an initial 10 turns into 10 000.
With a heat wave spanning half a continent and breaking records, the typical mortality to expect (basing on experience) is at least 1000 people (some of them old and about to go anyway, but pushed over the edge by heat).