Criminal mastermind at work, ladies and gentlemen.

I notice a common pattern for voicing characters like Sméagol (Lord of the Rings), Stitch (Lilo & Stitch), Mogwai (Gremlins), and Jar Jar Binks (Star Wars Ep. 1) that involves falsetto and raising the back of the tongue to the roof of the mouth while talking. Is there a common name for that technique?

State-backed experimental network spans 40 cities and targets AI and deterministic networking.

Redstar Runner. I dont really have anything but the premise here.

This second tanker is not on a list of vessels sanctioned by the U.S., a source said.

Venezuela's minister of the interior, Diosdado Cabello, condemned the operation in a Saturday post on Instagram.

"The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela denounces and rejects the theft and hijacking of a new private vessel transporting Venezuelan oil, as well as the forced disappearance of its crew, committed by military personnel of the United States of America in international waters," Cabello said.

Saturday's operation comes after the U.S. interdicted a large, sanctioned oil tanker known as the Skipper off the coast of Venezuela last week. The ship, previously identified by the Treasury Department as the Adisa, is an oil tanker tied to a sanctions-evading smuggling network that U.S. officials say moved Iranian oil to generate revenue for Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

“Just know that if you see someone that looks like me at a Republican event

appeared on opposing ends of an extremely public redistricting debate

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/14867

Jake Paul is an influencer-turned boxer who’s famous for fighting retirees. He also came out to support Donald Trump in 2024 alongside the violent rapist Conor McGregor:

Paul Brothers with Conor McGregor for the inauguration for Donal Trump pic.twitter.com/JZtDwSqAel

— Mcgregor Forever (@mcgregorufc22) January 20, 2025

Now, Paul has finally done something which people can rally behind, and that’s getting his jaw broken in two places:

Jake Paul is an absolute embarrassment to the sport of boxing. A fraud who buys his way into fights against legitimate champions like Anthony Joshua, only to get knocked out in the sixth round after clinching, flopping, and running like a coward. He has no real skill or heart… pic.twitter.com/9JSPqi9LS2

— Zenith (@ZenithTheNinja) December 20, 2025

A Paul-ing

As the New York Times reported, Jake Paul has fought 13 matches since becoming what they describe as a “professional” boxer. The reason we’re not so sure that wording is appropriate is because only five of those 13 bouts were against boxers (including a 58-year-old Mike Tyson). Paul has also boxed against two retired MMA fighters, cementing the impression that he’s the least professional boxer in the profession:

Jake Paul is the biggest clown on earth and has done irrefutable damage to boxing. Those who know, know.

Anthony Joshua getting the KO is karma for YEARS for so many REAL boxers and fighters that Paul disrespected, and had rigged fights with. pic.twitter.com/m4UiUWcJ1n

— Robby The Brain (@RobbyTheBrain) December 20, 2025

That was so embarrassing for boxing and hopefully the end of the Jake Paul bullshit in the ring

— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) December 20, 2025

The fight between Paul and Anthony Joshua lasted for six rounds, and it ended when Paul found himself unable to get back up in time following repeated knockdowns. People took great joy in sharing images and videos from the knockdowns:

THE MOMENT YOU’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR.

Jake Paul’s final moments against Anthony Joshua… pic.twitter.com/NCI2OktHB1

— george (@StokeyyG2) December 20, 2025

It later came out that Joshua broke Paul’s jaw, with Paul himself sharing an X-ray:

Double broken jaw. Give me Canelo in 10 days. pic.twitter.com/8R8NK4OeUv

— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) December 20, 2025

Jake Paul has gone to the hospital with a suspected broken jaw. pic.twitter.com/Fwb459Exmy

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) December 20, 2025

People also suggested Joshua went easy on Paul:

There’s going to be a ton of “respect to Jake Paul for even taking this fight”

BUT F**K THAT… there are 7 billion people on this earth that would have done that to triple their net worth.

He didn’t even do that. Joshua could have put him out cold at any moment he wanted. pic.twitter.com/Opd1pUrrra

— Super Fan (@McGregorRousey2) December 20, 2025

incredibly satisfying watching jake paul get the shit beaten out of him especially after anthony joshua stop playing with his food after the 5th round

— hasanabi (@hasanthehun) December 20, 2025

They further drew attention Paul’s interesting fighting style (or ‘avoiding fighting’ style, you might say):

Wild stat: Jake Paul shot 13 takedown attempts against Anthony Joshua while landing just 16 total punches

A boxing record that will absolutely never be broken

Takedown attempt number 9 seemed to be when AJ had finally had enough. pic.twitter.com/lvT4oLKaK9

— AFeldmanMMA (@afeldMMA) December 20, 2025

Jake Paul: Trump love in

As noted, Jake Paul threw his weight behind Donald Trump in the 2024 election:

In the text for the above video, Paul noted:

I was very hesitant to make this video, but I felt like I had no choice. This is the most important election in U.S history. If you are a U.S citizen, please exercise your right to vote, and let’s come together to save America. This is who I am supporting in the 2024 Presidential Election… and why you should too.

He added:

make the right choice, and exercise your right to vote… America depends on it

On the same day that Paul was getting his clock rung, Trump was breaking the law by not releasing the so-called Epstein Files (files which many believe will incriminate him personally). Meanwhile, the American economy is showing significant signs of trouble, and millions of people are facing the loss of their healthcare.

So yeah, it’s not for nothing that people wanted to see this guy get knocked out.

Imagine if Jake Paul getting knocked out was the first domino to fall in things finally taking a turn for the better in the world.

— Blockhead (@BlockheadNYC) December 20, 2025

Featured image via PBS

By Willem Moore

From Canary via This RSS Feed.

Dim Sum bond sales hit record; overseas yuan loans soar

Bankers see robust demand from issuers and investors

China's overseas bank lending has tripled in four years to 2.52 trillion yuan and sales of onshore and offshore yuan debt are at or near records for the second year running.

"I think this phase is now really more driven by fundamental interest in renminbi funding," said Samuel Fischer, Deutsche Bank's head of China onshore debt capital markets

The NSW parliament is being recalled on Monday to address legislative changes in response to Sunday's terrorist attack at Bondi Beach, which saw 15 people killed in a shooting targeting the Jewish community.

The government will seek to outlaw the public display of "terrorist symbols" such as the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) group flag, and give police more powers to require someone suspected of committing an offence during a public assembly to remove their face covering.

The laws will carry penalties of up to two years' imprisonment or a $22,000 fine for any individual publicly displaying terrorist symbols. For organisations, the fine will be up to $110,000.

Under current laws, face coverings only have to be removed for police to confirm someone's identity post-arrest. The new restrictions would mean the threshold would be lowered to include all suspects.

Minns said the chant 'globalise the intifada' would also be banned, saying "horrific recent events" had shown that the phrase "is hate speech and it encourages violence in our community".

The 15 innocent victims killed in Sunday’s terrorist attack on a Hanukkah party at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia are being exploited by extreme Zionists in a bid to distract from Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Their memories are being used by the likes of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli as well as Australian officials, sections of the media and members of the public.

Instead of putting the blame on the only known perpetrators police have identified so far — the father and son shooters Sajid and Naveed Akram — Zionist extremists are implicating innocent citizens who have dared protest Israeli atrocities.

John is a great man who's just trying to navigate the world as an adult child and all I see from him on this site is negative press. Quit "trolling" our boy or I will be sending a cease and desist letter to your CEO.

About 4 in 10 U.S. adults named health care or health issues in an open-ended question that asked respondents to share up to five issues they want the government to work on in the coming year. That’s up from about one-third last year.

The high cost of health care came as a shock to Republican Joshua Campbell when he and his wife recently sought a medical plan for their young daughter. The 38-year-old small business owner from Hot Springs Village, Arkansas, voted for Trump last year, and he mostly approves of the way Trump is handling his job, particularly on immigration. But health care expenses have become a major priority for him going into 2026.

“Health care costs are pretty crazy,” he said. “I just thought, ‘Man, there’s got to be something better than what we have.’”

Health care is a particularly high concern for adults between the ages of 45 and 59 — people who may have higher health care costs than younger adults but aren’t yet eligible for Medicare.

The poll shows a similar landscape to the one Trump faced at the end of his first year in office during his first term, when health care reform was at the top of many Americans’ minds. But Trump has an added complication now. At the end of 2017, very few mentioned cost of living concerns — now, about one-third do.

Campbell described his politics as conservative, and while he recalled viewing the Affordable Care Act somewhat negatively when it first passed, he said he now views it as a step toward helping improve health care.

“I do think they were at least trying, and at least trying to do something,” he said. “And I don’t really see that — it’s one of the things from the Republican Party as well that I don’t necessarily agree with. Or I think that they should be doing better at.” Cost and inflation concerns remain pressing

Inflation and the high cost of living have been a top priority for many Americans since the end of 2021. Tommy Carosone is reminded every time his wife returns from the grocery store, especially with their two kids, both teenagers, still at home.

“My wife is spending so much more money on groceries than just a few years ago. Every time she comes home from the grocery store, I hear about it,” said Carosone, from St. Peter’s, Missouri. “She tells me it’s stupid expensive, especially meat. Ground beef, bacon, anything from the deli. It’s outrageous.”

The 44-year-old jet aircraft mechanic, the sole wage earner for his family of four, doesn’t see the cost of living coming down any time soon. He voted for Trump and generally agrees with his tariff agenda as a way to make the U.S. more competitive, and he figures prices will stay higher until the trade war ends.

“In the meantime, what are you going to do, not eat?” he said.

Carosone said he is glad he voted for Trump and had been concerned before Trump took office again about illegal immigration. But it doesn’t register even as a top priority for him now, in light of action the administration is taking.

“It’s a lot better,” he said. “It’s not really one of the main concerns I have now. I mean, don’t stop. That’s for sure. But I don’t think it’s something that’s a top concern.”

About 2 in 10 U.S. adults want the federal government to focus on housing costs next year. That issue has been rising in recent years, with young adults being especially likely to mention it. About one-quarter of adults under age 30 want the government to focus on housing expenses, compared with about 1 in 10 of those 60 or older.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7083635

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/14457

As voters across the country begin to rally against the unchecked construction of data centers, artificial intelligence companies are panicking and investing millions into propaganda to paint the energy-sucking facilities in a more positive light.

By 2030, the amount of energy demanded by US data centers is expected to more than double, according to the International Energy Agency.

Energy costs have spiked considerably in the states with the most data centers. And as the industry continues its breakneck expansion, one watchdog report found that consumers on America's largest electric grid are expected to pay hundreds of dollars more to meet increased power demand from now until 2027.

These costs became an unexpected point of emphasis for Democrats in November, whose calls for greater transparency from tech companies seeking to build data centers propelled them to victory in elections from New Jersey to Virginia.

But tech companies want to keep building, and as AI threatens to become a central villain of the 2026 midterm elections, Politico reports that companies are putting the wheels in motion to portray themselves "as job creators and economic drivers rather than resource-hungry land hogs."

As Gabby Miller wrote on Wednesday:

A new AI trade group is distributing talking points to members of Congress and organizing local data center field trips to better pitch voters on their value. Another trade association, the Data Center Coalition, nearly tripled its lobbying spend in the third quarter of this year from the previous quarter, according to US lobbying disclosures.

The social media giant Meta, with billions invested in its own fleet of data centers from Stanton Springs, Georgia, to Richland Parish, Louisiana, has been running a multimillion-dollar ad campaign depicting data centers as a boon to agricultural towns in Iowa and New Mexico. It has spent at least $5 million nationally in the past month on TV ads plugging Meta’s $600 billion pledged investment in tech infrastructure and jobs.“

"There’s a very bad connotation around data centers. And this is something that, frankly, the data center industry needs to figure out,” said Caleb Max, president and CEO of the National Artificial Intelligence Association, a new trade group established in January to accelerate AI infrastructure development.

Tech giants are also putting focus on swaying policymakers. Max told Politico that his group has been making the rounds to talk with elected officials in critical battlegrounds for the AI future, like Georgia, Ohio, and Texas, to craft a "positive pro-data center campaign message for elected officials, for businesses, for current lawmakers who are going to be up for reelection in 2026."

Meanwhile, Meta reportedly aired its 30-second TV spots "featuring small-town imagery of farming equipment and mom-and-pop diners" in Washington, DC, and nine state capitals. Miller says this suggests "that policymakers might be Meta’s real target audience, rather than the rural Americans impacted by these energy-hungry server hubs."

AI and tech firms plan to ramp up the lobbying and ad blitzes as the next election draws nearer, and their attempt to reframe the narrative about data centers comes as no surprise, as communities across the US in recent months have increasingly come out in force to push their representatives to halt the construction of the facilities.

In Saline Township, a small community just outside Ann Arbor, Michigan, more than 800 residents descended upon a public input session earlier this month to protest against the construction of a $7 billion center—predicted to consume as much energy as the entire city of Detroit—fearing it would raise energy costs, pollute groundwater, and force the state to abandon its nation-leading climate policies.

The town initially blocked the plans, but reversed course following a lawsuit from a real-estate billionaire closely aligned with President Donald Trump, whose administration has backed the $500 billion "Stargate" initiative by OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle to expand data centers.

On Tuesday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined Saline residents at a gathering outside the state Capitol, where they called for a statewide moratorium on data centers.

Data center projects have run into similar resistance nationwide. As of March, the group Data Center Watch found that more than $64 billion worth of projects had been blocked or delayed due to local opposition since May 2024. This opposition has reached a fever pitch in recent months.

Last week, after it received hundreds of angry comments from residents, the city council of Chandler, Arizona, unanimously rejected plans for a $2.5 billion data center that had been pushed by former US Sen.-turned lobbyist Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).

Even in Trump country, backlash has been fierce. Last week, the planning commission of Starke County, Indiana, voted unanimously to recommend a one-year moratorium on the construction of centers bigger than 5,000 square feet after residents flooded a meeting to raise concerns about water pollution and energy costs.

"In Memphis, Tennessee, Elon Musk's AI company has built a data center whose energy demands have outgrown the region's energy capabilities," said one resident, Sophia Parker. "We've heard from everyone else saying that our infrastructure does not have the capacity to support a data center. And as a result, gas turbines are emitting nitrogen oxide to the point where residents cannot breathe. Their community is being used as a sacrifice for others to get rich. We cannot allow that to happen to us."

Last month in Montour County, Pennsylvania—a state where electric prices have surged by 15% this year, double the national average—environmentalists formed an uncommon alliance with conservative farmers and the Amish to stop the county planning commission from rezoning 1,300 acres of agricultural land for a massive new center.

“Stay out. We wouldn’t even be having this conversation without federal involvement,” said Craig High, a 39-year-old Trump supporter quoted by Reuters. “Both parties are pushing data centers and giving regulatory relief—water permits, permitting, all of it.”

“This is part of an experience that America and the world is having around tech billionaires who are seizing power and widening the gap between those who have much too much… and the working and middle classes,” Yousef Rabhi, a former Democratic state legislative leader from Michigan and clean energy advocate who opposes the construction of data centers, told The Guardian. “That’s what these data centers are symbolic of, and they’re the vehicle for the furtherance of this divide."

From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.

In short, the atomic ensemble time scale at our Boulder campus has failed due to a prolonged utility power outage. One impact is that the Boulder Internet Time Services no longer have an accurate time reference. At time of writing the Boulder servers are still available due a standby power generator, but I will attempt to disable them to avoid disseminating incorrect time.

Status: https://tf.nist.gov/tf-cgi/servers.cgi

nginx

cross-posted from: https://lemmings.world/post/38631327

I want to give a character of mine a wound infection on his leg. Something severe enough to raise the stakes, but not lethal. Something that would be interesting to write about. The setting is very much pre-modern in terms of medicine.

Those kids work hard on the posts in this comm