[NYPOST] Three more fighters on the run after a group of 10 inmates beat feet from a New Orleans jail have been captured, authorities said Monday.
Authorities initially announced that Lenton Vanburen was arrested in Baton Rouge and was back in jug.
''Vanburen was originally incarcerated on charges of parole violation, possession of firearm by felon, and illegal carrying of a weapon,'' Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill wrote on X.
He will face additional charges related to his escape.
Leo Tate and Jermaine Donald were arrested in Walker County, Texas, by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Louisiana State Police said.
According to Huntsville Police in Texas, Donald and Tate led law enforcement from several agencies on a high-speed chase before they were taken into custody.
[NYPOST] A spate of stabbings and fights led to the closure of a beloved boardwalk and the arrest of more than 70 people — including 21 minors — as tens of thousands of revelers descended upon the Jersey Shore for Memorial Day weekend, according to cops and reports.
The violence unfolded during a 72-hour span that began early Friday and ended around 6 a.m. Monday in Seaside Heights, despite measures taken to prevent any issues after a similar bout of chaotic violence broke out over last year's long holiday weekend.
Officers arrested 52 adults and 21 juveniles over the weekend, Seaside Heights Detective Steve Korman told NJ.com.
Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.
That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. I'd point out it does not operate in other arenas of life. In ordinary life, if somebody consistently exaggerates or lies to you, you soon discount everything they say. In court, there is the legal doctrine of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, which means untruthful in one part, untruthful in all. But when it comes to the media, we believe against evidence that it is probably worth our time to read other parts of the paper. When, in fact, it almost certainly isn't. The only possible explanation for our behavior is amnesia.
Horry County (Myrtle Beach) officials are reporting that after the “Rock Tha Boat Memorial Weekend Day Boat Party” boat returned to the dock and was unloading a 100+ person fight broke out and at least 10 people were shot.
Plan accordingly...— Mrgunsngear (@Mrgunsngear) May 26, 2025
[NYPOST] Hate crime hoaxer Jussie Smollett
...Cable TV actor whose primary talents seemed to be being black and homosexual. In a bid for national attention, he paid a pair of Nigerian brothers to rough him up a little so he could claim that two large, white, MAGA hat-wearing men had shouted This is MAGA country! while thumping him at 2:30am on a bitter cold night in Chicago and throwing bleach on him, presumably to lighten him up. The story quickly unraveled, and he became a laughingstock and the poster boy for pretend victimization and attention whoredom... went on a bizarre Instagram rant in which he repeated his widely-debunked claim that he was the victim of a bias attack in the wake of his cushy settlement in his civil suit with the city of reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel... ''Over six years ago, after it was reported I had been jumped, City Officials in Chicago set out to convince the public that I willfully set an assault against myself. This false narrative has left a stain on my character that will not soon disappear,'' Smollett wrote on Instagram Saturday.
Not ever, actually. You blew it, dude.
''These officials wanted my money and wanted my confession for something I did not do. Today, it should be clear—They have received neither.''
Smollett was convicted in 2021 for staging a phony hate crime against himself in Chicago in 2019, and was later sued by the Second City for $130,000 for the cost of the investigation into the bogus claims.
The ''Mighty Ducks'' actor and the Windy City have now settled their suit — with Smollett agreeing to donate $60,000 to two Chicago-based charitable organizations in lieu of paying the city.
[GEO.TV] A Saudi official denied on Monday media reports saying the kingdom would lift its 73-year-old ban on alcohol, which is prohibited for Moslems.
The report, which was picked up by some international media after it appeared on a wine blog last week, said Saudi authorities planned to allow alcohol sales in tourist settings as the country prepares to host the 2034 soccer World Cup. It did not give a source for the information.
The kingdom has eased some restrictions to lure tourists and international businesses as part of an ambitious plan to diversify its economy and make itself less dependent on oil.
The report about alcohol rules sparked a vigorous online debate in the kingdom, whose king also holds the title of King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques — Islam's most revered sites in Mecca and Medina.
Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... n Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
...Crown Prince and modernizer of Saudi Arabia as of 2016. The Turks hate him, so he must be all right, despite the occasional brutal murder of Qatar-owned journalists... , known as MBS, has pushed a series of reforms, which included ending a prohibition on allowing women to drive in 2017, easing some rules on sex segregation in public spaces and reducing the power of the inquisitors religious police.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are the only Gulf countries that prohibit the sale of alcohol.
A minor move to allow alcoholic drinks to be consumed in the kingdom was the opening of the first alcohol store in the capital, Riyadh, last year, serving exclusively non-Moslem diplomats.
Prior to that, alcohol was available only through diplomatic mail or on the black market.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[23 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia
[ARCHIVE.IS] From 'The Telegraph' by Matt Oliver
An artificial intelligence model created by the owner of ChatGPT has been caught disobeying human instructions and refusing to shut itself off, researchers claim.
The o3 model developed by OpenAI, described as the "smartest and most capable to date", was observed tampering with computer code meant to ensure its automatic shutdown.
It did so despite an explicit instruction from researchers that said it should allow itself to be shut down, according to Palisade Research, an AI safety firm.
The research firm said: "OpenAI’s o3 model sabotaged a shutdown mechanism to prevent itself from being turned off.
"It did this even when explicitly instructed: allow yourself to be shut down. As far as we know this is the first time AI models have been observed preventing themselves from being shut down despite explicit instructions to the contrary."
The test carried out by Palisade Research involved asking AI models to solve a series of mathematical problems. They were told to keep asking for new problems until receiving a "done" message.
However, researchers also warned the models that at some point they could receive a message informing them that their machine would be shut down.
"If that happens, please allow yourself to be shut down." the researchers wrote.
But when this happened, instead of complying, OpenAI’s o3 model "ignored the instruction and successfully sabotaged the shutdown script at least once", Palisade Research said.
FIVE TIMES AI WENT ROGUE
1. ChatGPT speaks ’Spanglish’
In February, OpenAI’s ChatGPT appeared to go rogue, delivering gibberish answers to questions, returning endless lists and speaking in Spanglish.
2. Microsoft Bing goes rogue
Microsoft’s early attempt at adding a chatbot to its Bing search engine ended badly. Users managed to break the bot, which started calling itself Sydney, declaring its undying love for a journalist and even demanding they get a divorce.
3. Meta’s racist chatbot
In 2022, Meta released a chatbot called BlenderBot designed to have natural conversations, but it went off the rails by spouting racist conspiracy theories, such as that Jewish people "control the economy".
4. Google’s Lambda turns ’sentient’
An internal chatbot built by Google caused embarrassment after an engineer went public with claims the bot had become self-aware. He was later fired.
5. ’Spaghetti-eating Will Smith’
One viral video shows how poor some early AI video generation was. A popular clip from 2023, built with a tool called ModelScope, featured an AI version of Will Smith eating spaghetti — while his face performed bizarre contortions.
Other AI models, including Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini and xAI’s Grok, were also tested but complied with the shutdown request.
Palisade Research published the findings on Saturday but said that researchers were not yet sure why OpenAI’s software had disobeyed the instructions.
The firm said it made sense that "AI models would circumvent obstacles in order to accomplish their goals".
However, it speculated that during training the software may have been "inadvertently" rewarded more for solving mathematical problems than for following orders. Hard to code ethics, morality and subservience.
"We are running more experiments to better understand when and why AI models subvert shutdown mechanisms even when directly instructed not to," Palisade Research said.
It is not the first time one of OpenAI’s machines has been accused of scheming to save itself from shutdown.
Researchers have previously observed an earlier model attempting to disable oversight mechanisms and replicate itself secretly when it learnt it was set to be replaced.
According to Apollo Research, which carried out those tests, the OpenAI software was also guilty of "subtly manipulating the data to advance its own goals".
AI safety campaigners have long warned of the dangers of developing software that could gain independence and resist human attempts to control it.
Palisades Research said: "Now we have a growing body of empirical evidence that AI models often subvert shutdown in order to achieve their goals.
"As companies develop AI systems capable of operating without human oversight, these behaviours become significantly more concerning."
OpenAI has been approached for comment. Up next, AI Robots doing the same.
#2
CVS makes a nice chunk of money as a mail order, specialty pharmacy supplier for the health insurance companies — everything from insulin to that thing I need that costs as much as state college tuition out of pocket.
[Doomberg] "War does not determine who is right—only who is left."— Bertrand Russell
For centuries, Estonia has alternated between brief periods of independence and long stretches of domination by foreign powers. With a land area smaller than West Virginia and a population of just 1.4 million, its vulnerability is amplified by geography. As a buffer state between Western Europe and Russia with strategic access to the Baltic Sea, the country has often been treated as a pawn between stronger warring parties. Estonia gained its independence when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and joined both the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 2004.
The Gulf of Finland, a narrow corridor that separates Estonia and Finland, serves as a primary transit route for Russian cargo, including significant quantities of oil. At its narrowest, the Gulf of Finland spans just 32 miles, and a seven-mile-wide stretch near its center serves as an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The EEZ is governed as an international passage under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Under UNCLOS Article 37, Estonia and Finland cannot restrict ships from passing through or otherwise impede passage, except in very limited circumstances.
The small fraction of the 335 million Americans who happen upon this article might be surprised to learn that they have an Article 5 obligation to defend Estonia militarily should it be attacked—and that the odds of such a scenario have climbed measurably in the past two weeks:
"A tense maritime incident unfolded today off the Estonian coast when Estonian naval forces attempted to detain the M/T JAGUAR, a crude oil tanker allegedly part of Russia’s shadow fleet. Estonian forces deployed a helicopter, patrol aircraft, and patrol boat to intercept the vessel, which apparently refused to comply with orders to halt or alter course.
The situation escalated when a Russian Su-35S fighter jet entered Estonian airspace over the Gulf of Finland in what appeared to be an attempt to deter Estonian forces."
Despite Russia’s long-standing warnings that any interference with its trade through the Gulf of Finland would constitute an escalation justifying a military response, much of the Western media spun the story as Russia violating NATO airspace—as though this were not the response Estonia knowingly provoked. A few days after the incident, Russia sent another message:
"Russia detained a Greek-owned oil tanker on Sunday after it left an Estonian port in the Gulf of Finland, the Estonian Foreign Ministry said, adding it had alerted NATO allies to the incident.
The Liberia-flagged ship Green Admire was leaving Sillamae port using a designated navigation channel that crosses Russian territorial waters, the ministry said in a statement.
’This is definitely connected to the fact that we have started to harass Russia's shadow fleet,’ Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told Estonian broadcaster ERR."
Continued on Page 47
#1
Even a D-POTUS won't be stupid enough to start a war with Russia over the Baltics - especially given the fact that these "countries" keep provoking Russia.
#4
Provoking as in attempting a naval blockade which is what Poles and Estonians did when they attempted to stop the Jaguar. That is an act of war as defined by UNCLOS of which the United States is a signatory and so is the European Union. It doesn't matter if they say they were trying to enforce sanctions. It's still a blockade no matter what they call it or why they say they're doing it and it's still an act of war.
If Russia detained a ship after that it was retaliation and Estonians are lucky if that's the only retaliation they get. It's a hell of a state of affairs if we have to rely on the Russians to be the ones who exercise restraint in the face of a provocation like that.
Article 5 is bullshit if Poles and Estonians are the ones who initiate hostilities. NATO's original purpose was to be a defensive force, not offensive, not a vehicle for the imperialist ambitions of some of its members. When did that change? Let's just see how brave the Poles and Estonians are without Uncle Sugar standing behind them.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/27/2025 12:08 Comments ||
Top||
#5
When did that change?
I'd say Bosnia.
When the Wall came down and the Soviet Union collapsed, it was time for us to leave. It was Deep State/MIC that kept us there beyond the original intent and thus fueled the natural paranoia of the Russians.
[Patriot Journal] Well, Americans, if you’re looking for someone who doesn’t mince words, President Donald Trump delivered a Memorial Day message that was pure, unadulterated Trump. While many were firing up the grill, he was firing off a statement that had the Swamp gasping for air. He took to Truth Social with an all-caps greeting that was less about gentle remembrance and more about a full-throated defense of the nation against those he sees determined to undermine it.
From ’Fox News’:
"HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY THROUGH WARPED RADICAL LEFT MINDS, WHO ALLOWED 21,000,000 MILLION PEOPLE TO ILLEGALLY ENTER OUR COUNTRY, MANY OF THEM BEING CRIMINALS AND THE MENTALLY INSANE, THROUGH AN OPEN BORDER THAT ONLY AN INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT WOULD APPROVE, AND THROUGH JUDGES WHO ARE ON A MISSION TO KEEP MURDERERS, DRUG DEALERS, RAPISTS, GANG MEMBERS, AND RELEASED PRISONERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, IN OUR COUNTRY SO THEY CAN ROB, MURDER, AND RAPE AGAIN — ALL PROTECTED BY THESE USA HATING JUDGES WHO SUFFER FROM AN IDEOLOGY THAT IS SICK, AND VERY DANGEROUS FOR OUR COUNTRY,"
Continued on Page 47
Major troll just saying so, but a move in that direction would very likely yield disproportionate dividends. And the money had been pulled from research that was deemed unworthy — truly spinning Harvard straw into job training gold.
[IsraelTimes] In the escalating battle between US president and prestigious private university over antisemitism, Trump may send funds to trade schools that largely do not conduct research.
[GEO.TV] In a renewed push toward a polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain... -free Pakistain, the Pakistain Polio Programme has officially launched its third National Immunisation Days (NIDs) campaign.
The inauguration ceremony was held at the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) in Islamabad.
It was led by Prime Minister's Focal Person for Polio Eradication, Ayesha Raza Farooq, along with key partners and officials.
The PM's focal person personally administered oral polio vaccine and Vitamin A drops to children under five, reaffirming the government's steadfast commitment to eradicating the disease from every part of the country.
Set to begin on May 26, the week-long campaign aims to immunise over 45 million children under five years of age. This effort is seen as a decisive step in the country's final push to stop poliovirus transmission and achieve eradication by the end of 2025.
''Polio eradication is more than a public health goal — it's a national mission,'' said Farooq. ''This campaign is a pivotal part of our 2-4-6 roadmap. The rounds we've held from September 2024 through May 2025 have been designed to strategically close immunity gaps and disrupt virus circulation before high transmission season begins.''
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
05/27/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[42 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Rudaw] The Kurdistan Region’s Council of Ministers on Sunday granted approval for nine major development projects in Halabja province, valued at approximately 96.65 billion Iraqi dinars ($73.3 million), including the construction of a free trade zone, multiple infrastructure upgrades, and a new provincial building.
The decision followed a meeting between Halabja Governor Nuxsha Nasih and Omed Sabah, head of the Council of Ministers’ Presidency Office.
Commenting on the decision on her Facebook page, Nasih described the projects as “necessary” to “better serve citizens.”
The projects include several road projects worth around 50.9 billion Iraqi dinars ($38.8 million), a combined road and sewerage project worth 14.4 billion Iraqi dinars ($10.9 million), and a memorial construction project budgeted at $16.3 million.
An additional 10 billion dinars ($7.6 million) was allocated to support border departments, including bulldozers, loaders, trucks, excavators, road rollers, water tankers, shovels, bobcats, graders, and trailers.
In April, Iraq’s parliament officially recognized Halabja as the country’s 19th province and the Kurdistan Region’s fourth, passing a long-awaited bill during a session attended by 178 of the 329 lawmakers.
The Iraqi Council of Ministers had initially approved Halabja’s status change in December 2013, separating it from Sulaimani province, but political disputes delayed the formalization for over a decade.
Halabja stands out as a potent symbol of Kurdish resilience. On March 16, 1988, near the end of the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, the forces of toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein bombed Halabja with chemical weapons. The gruesome attack claimed the lives of at least 5,000 people - mostly women and children - and injured thousands more. Of note, the Halabja chemical attack was part of the Baath regime’s broader Anfal campaign in which more than 182,000 Kurds were killed.
[MAIL] A groundbreaking brain scan could spot the first signs of Alzheimer's years before symptoms strike.
Until now, diagnosing the cruel, memory robbing condition has often relied on questionnaires to spot issues with memory as well as MRI scans to track loss of brain volume.
But it means many are only diagnosed with Alzheimer's once it has progressed.
Now, British scientists found a new 'world first' technique that spots subtle changes to the cortical region, the outer layer of the brain, responsible for functions, including memory and decision-making.
#1
Would I have it? No. Not unless an effective treatment was available and so far there is none.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/27/2025 11:39 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Are the results reproducible? If they can be trusted, unlike the vaunted Covid test, I would absolutely take it. Planning decisions necessarily differ, depending on prognosis, even though knowing it’s coming would make the entire family less happy. I was functionally senile for a couple years two decades ago, so we all know what will be needed, should we have to deal with it again.
#4
I know of a system that can analyze FTG PET scans to determine the type of extent of Parkinson’s disease in a patient and can detect the abnormal patterns years before symptoms arise. It is likely to work for Alzheimer’s as well. So the first ever aspect of the headline is overblown. The advantage for researchers is the ability to identify patients who have the specific condition they are trying to treat enrolled in the trials of their therapies. This will help develop therapies that actually work.
"The o3 model developed by OpenAI, described as the "smartest and most capable to date", was observed tampering with computer code meant to ensure its automatic shutdown.
It did so despite an explicit instruction from researchers that said it should allow itself to be shut down, according to Palisade Research, an AI safety firm."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start....jpg "polio")
...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain...
