Is it just for the dogs?

Archived version: https://archive.is/20260211015156/https://www.theverge.com/tech/876866/ring-search-party-super-bowl-ad-online-backlash

Another casualty of streaming, yet Blu-ray PC drives, players, and discs are expected to remain niche but stable markets.

In September last year, Peter Mandelson was fighting to keep his job as British Ambassador to the US after the first raft of revelations about the extent of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Within hours of the details emerging, an anonymous Wikipedia editor had made changes to Mandelson’s page that distanced him from Epstein and cast him in a sympathetic light. That editor has since been blocked for making undisclosed paid changes.

New details about the relationship between the two – including that Mandelson recommended a villa where Epstein could host his “guests” – have sparked a national scandal in recent weeks and led to pressure on Keir Starmer to step down as prime minister.

But over the course of two days in September, while Mandelson was still in his government job, the mysterious account made a series of edits that either reflected more favourably on him or pushed details of the Epstein scandal under unrelated information.

And when Mandelson was eventually sacked on 11 September, it moved within hours to remove the reason given by the Foreign Office for his dismissal: that Mandelson had told Epstein his 2008 conviction for sex offences was wrong and encouraged him to clear his name.

Kylie Brewer isn't unaccustomed to harassment online. But when people started using Grok-generated nudes of her on an OnlyFans account, it reached another level.

Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://www.404media.co/grok-nudify-ai-images-impersonation-onlyfans/

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/55116407

A British woman who was shot dead by her father while visiting his home in Texas had argued with him about US President Donald Trump earlier that day, an inquest has heard.

Lucy Harrison, from Warrington in Cheshire, was shot in the chest on 10 January 2025 in Prosper, near Dallas.

Police in the town investigated the 23-year-old's death as possible manslaughter but no criminal case was brought against Kris Harrison after a grand jury in Collin County declined to indict him.

An inquest into Lucy Harrison's death opened earlier at Cheshire Coroner's Court, where her boyfriend Sam Littler described the "big argument" about Trump, who was preparing to be inaugurated for his second term of office.

cross-posted from: https://lemmus.org/post/20084502

cross-posted from: https://lemmus.org/post/20084502

I've seen headlines this week about Olympic skiers and the dangers of a bigger bulge/cup or something?

Washington wants elections by 15 May—11 days after martial law even expires. The CEC says it needs at least six months to prepare

What are some things that your country admire about other countries?

For example, Germany often admires Switzerland's direct democracy and the Scandinavian countries for their education systems. What examples do you know of? It would also be interesting to hear if this is something the countries are aware and maybe also proud of.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said on Sunday that one of his most important jobs as Senate minority leader is to “fight for aid to Israel,” as the Trump administration’s masked federal agents continue their deadly raids of the U.S. with little to no pushback from Democrats.

In remarks at a breakfast gathering of Jewish leaders in New York City, Schumer said, “I have many jobs as leader … and one is to fight for aid to Israel, all the aid that Israel needs.” Part of the remarks at the ​​UJA-Federation of New York gathering were posted online by The Forward reporter Jacob Kornbluh. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) also spoke at the event.

Schumer went on to brag that the U.S. has sent Israel more military funding under his leadership “than ever, ever before,” referring to “many” threats that Israel faces in the region that Schumer does not specify.

for those of us who arent already mycologymaxxing, a lichen is a fungus that may be in a mutualistic relationship with various other yeasts, cyanobacteria, and algae. some have described them as fungi having discovered agriculture.

i tend to agree with this fungi-as-farmers take - in a few species that have been studied extensively, the "farmer" fungi build specialized structures around their livestock algae to harvest their output. sometimes the structures are used to cull older algae once they are unable to produce a net energy gain

aaaaanyway, here are some pertinent lichen facts, which i will then apply to my hypothesis

1. lichen grow on a substrate without damaging it

2. lichen extract sugars and sugar alcohols and store it within their thallus (non reproductive structures)

3. the thallus is made of hyphae, which are a series of tubes, much like a human being

4. lichen react to nearby water, which causes them to become more transparent and begin photosynthesis

I will need one brave lichenaut who meets the following criteria to begin my research:

-bald on a public-appropriate part of body which gets plenty of sunlight

-lighly damaged skin

-cool with sitting still for a long time while a foreign body slowly invades your capillaries (maybe)

-enjoys a light misting from time to time

It is my contention that lichen are the key to producing the worlds first photosynthesizing human. If you are selected to join this experiment, it will be brutal. people will call you a freak, a mushroom man (or yknow, whatever slur that combines your gendered appearance and a word for fungus), etc. but you may become humanity's next stage of evolution... the choice is yours

so, what do you think? how are you lichen my proposal? do you think im a fun guy or maybe amanita take a break from thinking about shrooms?

In search of new ways to push the EU’s border control well beyond its territory, a Council presidency paper to the 13 November 2025 meeting of the EU Council's Working Party on External Aspects of Asylum and Migration (pdf) explores “place of safety arrangements”. In short, these are agreements with third countries to have them intercept and detain irregular migrants before they arrive in Europe.

Monsanto, and its German owner Bayer, maintain that glyphosate does not pose a health risk, and government officials say that residues of glyphosate and other pesticides found in food products are almost always so low that they are not considered harmful.

But international scientists affiliated with the World Health Organization have classified glyphosate as probably carcinogenic to humans, and recent studies out of Europe have found glyphosate herbicides pose not just cancer, but other health risks.

You can find the results on Healthy Florida First

Five oil tankers seized in a single month. 7.3 million barrels confiscated. One of the tankers was not even under sanctions.

The largest naval deployment in the Caribbean since 1962. US drones surveilling Mexican tanker routes. An executive order threatening tariffs on any country on earth that sells Cuba a single barrel of oil.

Mexico, facing $400 billion in trade exposure to the US, stopped shipments. Venezuela's supply was destroyed by force. No alternative supplier was willing to risk retaliation or seizures.

20-hour daily blackouts. Hospitals on generators running out of diesel. Families cooking with wood.

The Secretary of State testified to Congress that regime change is the objective. The President said: "I think it's just going to fall."

But the siege did not begin in 2026. It began decades ago, and it was never unilateral.

187 nations vote to condemn the US embargo on Cuba every year. 33 consecutive years. The most lopsided vote in UN history.

And every year, every country that votes against it lets its banks enforce it anyway.

The reason is structural.

88% of all global foreign exchange transactions touch the US dollar. 95% of cross-border dollar payments clear through 42 American banks. One country controls the pipes through which the world's money moves.

That is all it takes.

Any foreign bank that processes a Cuba-related payment faces ruin.

BNP Paribas was fined $8.9 billion.
Société Générale, $1.34 billion.
HSBC, $1.9 billion.
Standard Chartered, $1.1 billion.
ING, $619 million.

$13.5 billion in penalties against foreign banks from countries that formally oppose the embargo.

The lesson was received. Most foreign banks now refuse all Cuba operations.

Several countries passed laws making it illegal for their own companies to comply with the US embargo.

Total enforcement of those laws over 30 years: one fine. $15,000. Against a hotel in Mexico City.

The votes against the blockade are symbolic. The fines are real.

And the machinery does not stop at banking.

A US private equity firm buys a Dutch software company. 23 years of Cuban contracts, severed in a week.

A US corporation acquires two Swiss ventilator manufacturers. Deliveries to Cuba stop overnight.

An American cargo company refuses to deliver Jack Ma's donated medical supplies to Cuba. It was the only country in Latin America that did not receive them.

PayPal blocks any transaction containing the word "Cuba." Including orders for a cocktail recipe book.

Cuba does not lose these suppliers to politics.

It loses them to mergers, algorithms, and compliance departments that would rather cut off an entire country than risk a phone call from OFAC.

The result:

35 children on a pediatric ward vomiting 28 to 30 times a day because the anti-nausea drug essential for chemotherapy cannot be sourced from anywhere on earth.

An 89-year-old woman implanted with a pacemaker recycled from a dead patient, two years of battery life, because no manufacturer will sell to Cuba.

69% of necessary medicines unavailable.

Infant mortality rising for the first time in decades.

When one nation controls the infrastructure through which the world trades, and weaponizes that control to deny an island of 11 million people fuel, medicine, food, pacemakers, ventilators, software, insurance, shipping, and banking for more than six decades, while every other nation on earth formally objects and none enforces its objection, the word for that is SIEGE.

The longest siege in modern history.

Condemned annually. Enforced permanently.

Source -> https://xcancel.com/upholdreality/status/2020528085561667660

The increase only represents a small step toward restoring funding to former levels, meaning universities must still search for other sources of revenue.

And some wonder whether the government will be able to sustain the increased funding, given Japan’s mounting debt.