NEWS AROUND US: January 2025

Friday, 31 January 2025

OpenAI launches o3-mini, its latest ‘reasoning’ model

OpenAI on Friday launched a new AI "reasoning" model, o3-mini, the latest in the company's o1 family of reasoning models.

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Thursday, 30 January 2025

Nazi Salutes Seem All The Rage In MAGA World Now UPDATED

Right Wing Watch caught Anglo-Catholic Priest Calvin Robinson, now of Michigan, ending his speech to the National Pro-Life Summit with the Nazi salute recently revived and imported to the U.S. by Apartheid boy and illegal immigrant, Elon Musk.

As Robinson ended his speech, he said, “This is the last stand for Christendom. The whole of the old world is crumbling. Every country in Europe is embracing death. America, as far as I can see, is the only country fighting for life.”

“So God bless all of you for what you’re doing, please keep doing it,” Robinson continued. “I hope I can encourage you and my heart goes out to you.”

At that moment, Robinson gave the Nazi salute.

He followed that with a smug smile and a “God bless.”

He got very enthusiastic applause and cheers.

Father Calvin Robinson finished his remarks at the National Pro-Life Summit by throwing an Elon Musk salute, much to the delight of the crowd.

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US Justice Department says cybercrime forum allegedly affected 17 million Americans

U.S. prosecutors accused an Argentinian national living in Spain of being an “active administrator” of Nulled, one of the two hacking forums seized and shut down by authorities.

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Wednesday, 29 January 2025

MoviePass might pivot to crypto

After MoviePass’s historic implosion, subscribers to the “Netflix for movie theaters” were already cautious around the company’s 2023 relaunch. These moviegoers may grow even more skeptical after MoviePass sent out an email blast on Wednesday, which surveyed customers about their interest in web3. “Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain technologies are transforming the business landscape at an unprecedented […]

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Climate change ignited LA’s wildfire risk. These startups want to extinguish it

Extreme weather conditions will be more common, according to the study, adding fresh urgency to a burgeoning group of climate adaptation startups.

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Tuesday, 28 January 2025

Documents show UK wooed a16z for five years

UK documents show that the UK’s Department of Business and Trade spent five years convincing Andreessen Horowitz to create a presence in London, only for the US firm to leave 18 after launching an office, according to government documents obtained by Sifted. In 2023, a16z launched a crypto office in London, deeming the crypto environment […]

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Pardoned J6 Rioter Brought A Gun To A Cop Fight, Now Un-Alive

I am unsure whether this should be classified as a FAFO post or not, so I will leave it open to interpretation. My view is that a large majority of criminals who get pardoned end up reoffending afterwards or get caught up in charges for unrelated crimes committed prior to the crime that was pardoned.

In today's case, it is the former. FOX 59 Indiana is reporting that a man pardoned by Donald Trump just last week was KILLED for resisting arrest during a traffic stop. Imagine getting a free pass for a truly awful crime and then feeling so emboldened that you literally fought with a police officer to the point where they had to take lethal action to stop you!

Matthew Huttle was shot and killed during a traffic stop on Sunday afternoon after resisting arresting and getting into a physical struggle with law enforcement. This led to the deputy firing his weapon and killing Huttle. Choices made, consequences felt. Literally.

Huttle had a gun on him during the traffic stop. It is unclear what led to the attempted arrest. Huttle had served 6 months in prison for his role in the January 6th insurrection and was released from custody on July 17, 2024. He was to be on supervised release (aka probation) for a period of 12 months, although that ended when the pardon was issued.

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Monday, 27 January 2025

'Groom The Victims': Ex-Child Crimes Investigator Guilty Of Abusing Minors

Former Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent Jordan Francis Toyne, 36, of Broken Arrow, was convicted Wednesday by a federal jury of sexually abusing two minors. Toyne was found guilty on three counts of sexual abuse of a minor in Indian Country. Toyne is not a drag queen. For some reason, that needs to be pointed out. Toyne used his specialized knowledge as a Child Crimes Investigator to groom the victims and evade detection of his crimes.

KTUL reports:

A former Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent was convicted Wednesday by a federal jury of sexually abusing two minors.

Jordan Francis Toyne, 36, of Broken Arrow, was found guilty on three counts of sexual abuse of a minor in Indian Country.

The trial, which began Monday, showed Toyne sexually assaulted one minor repeatedly from 2020 to 2023 and another in 2021. The victims, who were not related to Toyne's work with the OSBI's Internet Crimes Against Children unit, were under 16 at the time of the assaults.

Prosecutors argued Toyne, who resigned from the OSBI before an internal investigation was completed, used his knowledge as a child crimes investigator to manipulate and groom the victims.

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OpenAI-backed 1X acquires Kind Humanoid

1X has acquired Kind Humanoid, the Norwegian robotics startup told TechCrunch on Monday. The deal marks a small but key consolidation for a humanoid robotics industry on the brink of a major moment in 2025. TechCrunch spoke with Kind Humanoid in October, when the then-three-person startup announced that it had enlisted famed designer Yves Béhar […]

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Sunday, 26 January 2025

Christian Nationalism In Power

And on Sunday morning they'll all bow their heads and thank Baby Jesus they can do as much harm in as little time as possible.

Good morning, here is your Sunday morning open thread. I'm surly today, how about you?

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Saturday, 25 January 2025

Will states lead the way on AI regulation?

2024 was a busy year for lawmakers (and lobbyists) concerned about AI — most notably in California, where Gavin Newsom signed 18 new AI laws while also vetoing high-profile AI legislation. And 2025 could see just as much activity, especially on the state level, according to Mark Weatherford. Weatherford has, in his words, seen the […]

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Trump Leads Off With The WORST THING A New President's Ever Done

If you thought Donald Trump’s disdain for democracy be get any clearer, his latest move should do the trick. On Day One of his second term Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 of his most loyal foot soldiers from the January 6th seditious attack on our democracy. Yes, you read that right, he let out violent, domestic terrorists, including Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and others who assaulted police officers and tried to murder lawmakers. Turns out, in Trump’s America, attacking the Capitol isn’t just forgivable—it’s downright commendable.

He even referred to them as hostages, which makes me have thoughts I won't share here as it's better for all of us. This is easily the worst thing a newly inaugurated President has ever done. The audacity is staggering. Trump isn’t just rewriting history; he’s handing out participation trophies to the very people who tried to overthrow the government. Watch my video about this sickening cretin, the precedent it sets, and the real reasons he did it.

FINALLY: in this age of pathetic, suck-up corporate media, with Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg's lips planted squarely on Trump's arse, independent media's MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER.I ask you to click here and help support Cliff's Edge produce these hard hitting videos by simply subscribing to the channel, which is 100% free. Thank you.

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Friday, 24 January 2025

Stargate will use solar and batteries to power $100B AI venture

Solar farms can be completed far faster than nuclear reactors and natural gas power plants.

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Thursday, 23 January 2025

Substack introduces a $20M funding guarantee to entice creators to migrate to its platform

Substack on Thursday announced the launch of its Creator Accelerator Fund, which provides a $20 million funding guarantee aimed at helping creators grow their audience and move their paid subscribers from another subscription-based platform to Substack. The company says the fund is designed to ensure that creators will retain all of their current revenue during […]

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Wednesday, 22 January 2025

US Police Union Blasts Trump For J6 Pardons: 'Sends Dangerous Message'

One of the most prominent Trump-supporting groups, the police union, has now blasted Donald Trump for issuing this blanket pardon of 1500 people convicted of the seditious attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The largest police union in the US, which endorsed Donald Trump during his campaign, said Trump’s decision to pardon more than 1,500 people convicted over the January 6 insurrection “sends a dangerous message”, in a statement on Tuesday.

The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), which endorsed Trump in September 2024, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) warned that the blanket clemency offered to rioters – including those convicted of violent offenses, and several leaders of the attack on the Capitol – threatened Americans’ safety.

“The IACP and FOP are deeply discouraged by the recent pardons and commutations granted by both the Biden and Trump administrations to individuals convicted of killing or assaulting law enforcement officers. The IACP and FOP firmly believe that those convicted of such crimes should serve their full sentences,” the IACP and FOP statement said.

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This Week in AI: OpenAI gains an invaluable infrastructure advantage

Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. OpenAI is making gains at the expense of its chief rivals. On Tuesday, the company announced the Stargate Project, a new joint venture involving Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, Oracle, and others to build AI infrastructure for OpenAI in […]

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Tuesday, 21 January 2025

Meta is building Oakley smart glasses for athletes: report

Meta’s Reality Labs is expanding its lineup of AI smart glasses with a new pair of Oakley-branded spectacles targeted at athletes, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Bloomberg reports the new smart glasses, with which Meta seeks to capitalize on the Ray-Ban Meta’s success, will be based on Oakley’s Sphaera glasses, and will shift the camera […]

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Govtech giant Conduent won’t rule out cyberattack as outage drags on

At least four states reported being affected by the outage, which Conduent says is ongoing.

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Monday, 20 January 2025

Jason Kelce's Daughters Make Hilarious Mascot For ESPN Show

Jason Kelce's daughters made a mascot for his ESPN Late-Night show, naming it ‘Dragon McFartFartButtButt. People reported that the eldest Kelce brother went one step further and brought his girls creation to life. Watch the video above because it's funny as hell and adorable.

There's a reason that it's a Kelce world, and we just live in it. Jason and his brother Travis Kelce are famous for their NFL football, podcast and Jason's new ESPN career. Jason's wife Kylie Kelce beat out Joe Rogan when her new podcast hit in early January. And Travis is seriously dating the most famous singer on the planet, so there's that too.

With Trump, Vance, Leon and all the oligarchs making the news, take a minute to laugh with this sweet family.

Midday open thread below...

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James Comer Pitches A MAGA Fit After Biden Pardons Family Members

President Joe Biden isn't taking anyone's shit minutes before his term is set to end -- especially James Comer's shit. Several of Biden's family members, who were the target of relentless attacks by Comer and his suckups, were just pardoned, including the outgoing President's brother, James Biden, sister-in-law Sara Biden, sister Valerie Biden Owens, brother-in-law John T. Owens and brother Francis Biden.

Earlier today, Biden issued preemptive pardons for Gen. Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the members of the Jan. 6 committee, and the officers who testified before the committee.

And that shouldn't even have to happen, but since a convicted felon is about to take power who wants retribution against those who investigated him for his crimes, Biden is shielding them from Donald's fury. His family members will now be protected, too.

CNN reports:

"My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me—the worst kind of partisan politics. Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end," Biden said in a statement released as the inauguration ceremony was underway at the US Capitol.

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Grothman's Office Torched Over TikTok Ban

A Wisconsin man was apparently upset over the on again/off again TikTok ban and allegedly set Rep. Glenn Grothman's district office on fire:

The Fond du Lac Police Department said the Menasha man was arrested after being found near a strip mall, 525 N. Peters Ave., that contained Grothman's district office.

Police and fire officials initially responded to the strip mall about 1 a.m. after receiving a report of a fire. The building was unoccupied at the time and no injuries were reported, police said. Fire personnel extinguished the blaze, which began outside the building and burned the building's outside siding and an air conditioning unit.

Police said the 19-year-old suspect “admitted to starting the fire in response to recent talks of a TikTok ban.” Grothman was among a bipartisan majority of 360 House members who voted last year in favor of a bill that would force TikTok’s Chinese parent company to sell the app or face a ban in the U.S. That ban went into effect over the weekend.

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Flipboard’s new app Surf adds its own video feed, too

After the TikTok ban went into effect on Sunday, social network Bluesky launched a custom feed for videos on its platform. Now, Flipboard’s newest app, Surf, which is dedicated to browsing the open social web and decentralized services like Mastodon and Bluesky, is taking advantage of that move to introduce a video feed of its […]

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Sunday, 19 January 2025

From recruiting for Palantir to landing a plane on Highway 85: meet defense tech’s wildest power broker

Peter Conway has recruited for some of the buzziest defense and hard tech firms in Silicon Valley over the last decade, like Palantir and Mach Industries.

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AI benchmarking organization criticized for waiting to disclose funding from OpenAI

An organization developing math benchmarks for AI didn’t disclose that it had received funding from OpenAI until relatively recently, drawing allegations of impropriety from some in the AI community. Epoch AI, a nonprofit primarily funded by Open Philanthropy, a research and grantmaking foundation, revealed on December 20 that OpenAI had supported the creation of FrontierMath. […]

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Meta announces a new CapCut rival called Edits

Meta today announced a new video editing app called Edits, after ByteDance’s video editing app CapCut was removed from Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store as part of the TikTok ban. Instagram head Adam Mosseri (pictured above) said on Threads that the app will launch next month on iOS, with an Android version […]

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Saturday, 18 January 2025

FTC says partnerships like Microsoft-OpenAI raise antitrust concerns

The Federal Trade Commission said in a staff report issued Friday that there are potential competitive issues in partnerships between big tech companies and generative AI developers — specifically, Microsoft’s backing of OpenAI and Amazon and Alphabet/Google’s partnerships with Anthropic. “The FTC’s report sheds light on how partnerships by big tech firms can create lock-in, […]

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Fox Poll: Trump Doesn't Have A Mandate And They Don't Expect Him To Be A Good President

The headline for this Fox story is "Fox News Poll: Trump Is the Most Popular He’s Ever Been." But that's not saying much:

As Inauguration Day approaches, President-elect Trump receives his highest favorable rating and half of registered voters approve of his handling of the presidential transition.

When you look at the numbers, you see that the "highest favorable rating" is a mere 50%, with 50% having an unfavorable opinion of him. As for his handling of the transition, he gets 52% approval, with 46% disapproving. But among Fox poll respondents in December 2020, 65% approved Joe Biden's handling of his transition, while only 26% disapproved.

Still, a majority does not view his election win as a mandate, and more think it was a rejection of the outgoing administration rather than an endorsement of Trump.

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Friday, 17 January 2025

AI startup Character AI tests games on the web

Character AI, a startup that lets users chat with different AI-powered characters, is now testing games on its desktop and mobile web apps to increase engagement on its platform. The games are available to Character AI’s paid subscribers and a limited set of users on the free plan. For this initial release, the company developed […]

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TikTok CEO responds to Trump, thanks him for trying to solve US ban

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew responded to comments made by Donald Trump regarding Friday’s Supreme Court ruling to ban the app in the U.S. In a video posted on TikTok, Chew said, “On behalf of everyone at TikTok and all our users across the country, I want to thank President Trump for his commitment to […]

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Thursday, 16 January 2025

What is Bluesky? Everything to know about the X competitor

Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is most certainly bluer. It’s been two years since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now X, leading people to set up shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (two of which have already shuttered operations) and Spill have been presented as potential […]

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Kevin O'Leary Defends Trump's Threats To Imprison Rivals By Using CA Wildfires

The man hoping Canada would become part of the USA because Trump spewed the idea, Kevin O'Leary, is a dumbass.

Appearing on CNN, O'Leary criticized Sen. Adam Schiff for questioning Pam Bondi during her Senate confirmation hearing, suggesting he should focus on the California wildfires.

Some US Senators can walk and chew gum, Kevin. They're not ALL Marco Rubio.

These scumbags will defend, deflect, ignore, and cover up every all of Trump's crimes and false statements.

Trump jailing his political rivals is fascist, you twit.

This is a doozy. Using the Pacific Palisades wildfires to deflect for Trump is reprehensible.

Sen. Schiff has a job to do during the AG confirmation hearings, and if he didn't question Pam Bondi and instead came back to California for a photo-op as Trump does, he would have been pillared.

O'Leary purposely mispronounces Sen. Schiff's name.

O'LEARY: But so, listen, Cheney was referenced also today being asked by, you know, Schiff, would you put her in jail as Trump has ordered?

And basically, who cares when Cheney is going to jail or if she should go to jail when he's from California? This whole state's burning down.

NAVARRO: You don't care that Donald Trump might put somebody or is threatening to put somebody in jail because of doing her job on the January 6th committee?

NAVARRO: And you don't think that's a legitimate question?

O'LEARY: When his whole state's burning down and people have no homes?

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Wednesday, 15 January 2025

Idiot GOP Senator Rails Against DEI But Can't Spell 'Military'

Missouri Republican Senator Eric Schmitt railed about DEI supposedly destroying the competence in our military in front of a sign with the word military spelled wrong at this Tuesday's hearing for Trump's unqualified nominee for Def Sec, Pete Hegseth.

Maybe Schmitt should worry about the competence of his own staff before making a fool of himself like this:

One issue front and center at his confirmation hearing has been the aforementioned DEI, which Hegseth has promised to expunge at the Department of Defense. Republicans say that casting a wider net to ensure a more diverse workforce has led to unreadiness in the military, which they claim is run by “woke” generals.

During the hearing, Schmitt thanked Hegseth for his service before launching into a diatribe against DEI and the incompetence it has allegedly wrought.

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Tuesday, 14 January 2025

Substack rolls out livestreaming for all publishers

After testing live video features in the fall, newsletter platform Substack announced on Tuesday that it is now making livestreaming available to all publishers. This new feature allows creators to engage with their viewers and collaborate with other publishers. The introduction of livestreaming indicates that Substack is following in the footsteps of other platforms like […]

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CBRE buys remainder of co-working company Industrious at an $800M valuation

Real estate giant CBRE announced Tuesday that it is acquiring the rest of co-working startup Industrious, in which it already had a sizable investment, at a valuation of over $800 million. Founded in 2013, New York-based Industrious raised a total of $522 million in funding from investors, including Riverwood Capital and Fifth Wall Ventures. Its last […]

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Monday, 13 January 2025

JD Vance Tells Fox Violent J6 Insurrectionists Shouldn't Get Pardons

The backlash has already started after JD Vance said this to Shannon Bream on this weekend's Fox News Sunday:

The focus on President-elect Donald Trump's vow to pardon Jan. 6 protesters is sharpening, with his return to the White House just eight days away. Vice President-elect JD Vance — who, like Trump, has been critical of a justice system allegedly weaponized against the protesters — laid out how their offenses might be weighed when considering the pardons.

"If you protested peacefully on January 6th, and you've had Merrick Garland's Department of Justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned," Vance told Fox News' Shannon Bream during an exclusive one-on-one interview that aired Sunday.

"If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn't be pardoned, and there's a little bit of a gray area there, but we're very much committed to seeing the equal administration of law. And there are a lot of people, we think, in the wake of January the 6th who were prosecuted unfairly. We need to rectify that."

We'll see how fast he backtracks on that. As Raw Story reported, the MAGAs are already up in arms: 'We will raise hell': MAGA activists 'swearing vengeance on J.D. Vance' for new 'betrayal':

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The first AI chip startup to go public in 2025 will be Blaize

Blaize, an AI chip manufacturer founded by former Intel engineers, is set to IPO on the NASDAQ on January 14.

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Sunday, 12 January 2025

UK in-home healthcare provider Cera raises $150M to expand its AI platform

Around the world, public healthcare systems have struggled to reset post-pandemic, and in particular, the increasingly aged populations in Western countries are putting pressure on services, not least in the UK where ‘NHS in crisis’ is a regular headline in the media. As a result, private companies, many powered with technology, see a gap in […]

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Watch Duty was downloaded 2 million times during this week’s LA fires

Fire-tracking app Watch Duty has become a crucial source of information for Los Angeles residents threatened by wildfires. As TechCrunch’s Maxwell Zeff explained, the app relies on a network of active and retired firefighters, first responders, official government reports, and volunteer reporters who monitor radio scanners to offer real-time updates on active wildfires. During this […]

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CES 2025: Self-driving cars were everywhere, plus other transportation tech trends

Even before CES 2025 kicked off a few trends began to emerge — or more accurately, some gaps appeared. All U.S. and some European automakers that have helped turn CES into an auto show were absent. Several Chinese automakers filled that void, notably Zeekr, the EV brand owned by China’s Geely Holdings. Wey, a premium […]

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Kamala Harris Crops Trump And Melania Out Of Photo

Removing the stain of Trump's presence at Jimmy Carter's funeral. As it should have been.

Source: The Daily Beast

Kamala Harris’ social media post honoring Jimmy Carter seemingly slighted Donald Trump as the vice president shared a snapshot from the late president’s funeral featuring all living U.S. presidents, except for her political rival.

The wide angle photo, posted to her Instagram on Saturday, appeared to crop out Trump, who was seated next to Barack Obama during the ceremony.

Followers were quick to point out the president-elect’s exclusion with one user writing “Best photo crop of the decade.”

“This crop is legendary,” another commenter added.

I can't imagine anyone saying something similar when Trump kicks off in a few years.

President Jimmy Carter loved our country. He lived his faith, served the people, and left the world better than he found it.

President Carter’s many contributions will echo for generations to come. pic.twitter.com/xF96snw8hV

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) January 11, 2025

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Saturday, 11 January 2025

Apple board opposes proposal to abolish DEI programs

Apple’s board of directors has come out in opposition to a proposal seeking to end the company’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. In a proxy filing, the company said the National Center for Public Policy Research (a conservative think tank) is submitting a proposal for Apple to “consider abolishing its Inclusion & Diversity program, […]

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Researchers open source Sky-T1, a ‘reasoning’ AI model that can be trained for less than $450

So-called reasoning AI models are becoming easier — and cheaper — to develop. On Friday, NovaSky, a team of researchers based out of UC Berkeley’s Sky Computing Lab, released Sky-T1-32B-Preview, a reasoning model that’s competitive with an earlier version of OpenAI’s o1 on a number of key benchmarks. Sky-T1 appears to be the first truly […]

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What’s behind ballooning video game budgets?

Why does it cost some companies hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a popular video game? A couple weeks ago, The New York Times blamed the never-ending quest to deliver more photo-realistic graphics— and it suggested the industry is beginning to see diminishing returns, leading to layoffs and studio closures. However, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier […]

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Canadian MP Responds To Orange Felon With A Counterproposal

Canadian MP Elizabeth May took some time out of a speech she was giving to respond to The Orange Felon's asinine suggestion that Canada would become our 51st state.

After taking a little time to explain how a parliament system of government works, including not allowing billionaire cronies to buy cabinet seats, she got into the meat of the matter by offering an intriguing counterproposal:

I don't want to belittle Mr. Trump, but on the other hand, hey, Donald, have we got a deal for you? You think we want to be the 51st state? Yeah, but maybe California would like to be the 11th province. How about it? California, Oregon, Washington. You've got geography in common with us. And not only that, we've already got a carbon-trading system between California and Quebec. We've got some strong alliances on our West Coast from British Columbia. There's been a lot of academic papers on the idea of Cascadia. So California, Governor Newsom and Washington State, Jay Inslee, and newly elected Governor of Oregon, Tina Kotak, help out it. Want to put a referendum to your citizens?

Because this is what you deal with. We've got a deal for you. This is what you get. Free health care. Universal free health care. No more one-year-olds who suddenly fall off the Medicaid list and their parents are in the news. news, because they're trying to do a GoFundMe so they can get their daughter to a doctor. Universal, free healthcare.

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Friday, 10 January 2025

Meet the Chinese ‘Typhoon’ hackers preparing for war

U.S. intelligence says these China-backed hackers are among those laying the groundwork for future conflict with the United States.

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Thursday, 9 January 2025

Google folds more AI teams into DeepMind to ‘accelerate the research to developer pipeline’

As it looks to accelerate the pace of its AI development, Google is further streamlining the teams building its AI services, platforms, and tools. On Thursday, Logan Kilpatrick, who leads product for Google’s AI Studio developer platform, said in a post on X that Google’s AI Studio team and the team developing the API for […]

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Y Combinator scored a surprise win when Larry Page came to speak

Y Combinator is maybe only two-degrees of separation from anyone in tech. Even Larry Page.

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Wednesday, 8 January 2025

A comprehensive list of 2024 and 2025 tech layoffs

A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024.

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Tuesday, 7 January 2025

Xpeng Aero HT unveils ‘flying car’ that’s part-van, part-eVTOL at CES 2025

Xpeng Aero HT, the aerospace company under Chinese EV startup Xpeng, unveiled at CES 2025 its “modular flying car,” the so-called Land Aircraft Carrie. It’s ssentially an electric minivan with a small folding eVTOL (vertical takeoff and landing vehicle) tucked in the back, which can be rolled out and launched into flight. The company says […]

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Honda reveals its futuristic ‘0 SUV’ prototype at CES 2025

Honda unveiled Tuesday at CES 2025 the latest EV in its so-called 0 Series — a mid-sized SUV prototype dubbed, surely enough, the 0 SUV. Honda’s take on the SUV will join the 0 Saloon that the automaker showed off at last year’s show. And while Honda first showed us the 0 Saloon, the SUV […]

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Monday, 6 January 2025

Bosch is making e-bike batteries lockable via an app to deter theft

German conglomerate Bosch announced on Monday at CES 2025 a new layer of theft prevention for its e-bike batteries: the ability to lock a battery through the company’s Flow+ app. With the feature activated, batteries will automatically digitally lock when owners turn off their Bosch e-bike. If a thief somehow steals one of these batteries […]

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Sunday, 5 January 2025

Mike's Blog Round Up

Alicublog: Roy Edroso breaks it down.

Press Watch: Trump coverage needs to change, and here’s how.

The Psy of Life: A guide to influencing your member of Congress and other government officials.

Open Windows: Why I'm quitting The Washington Post, and the role of editorial cartooning in a free press.

annieasksyou…: Ringing in the new year.

This installment by Batocchio. E-mail tips to mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com.

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Saturday, 4 January 2025

Is Trump For Real Or Bluffing? Bernie Sanders Doesn't Care

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said yesterday that he’s going to introduce legislation in the next Congress to fulfill one of RePresident-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promises.

We pause now for a routine reminder that not everything Trump says is bad. Thank you. We now return you to your regularly scheduled newsfucking.

Sanders said he was referring to Trump’s promise to cap your credit-card interest rates at 10%:

Sanders on social media

This is an especially pertinent issue at the moment, as Americans burdened by predatory Wall Street debt are defaulting on their credit-card debts at rates unseen since the last economic crisis.

The Financial Times reports that Wall Street credit-card companies wrote off $46 billion in unpaid debts during the first nine months of this year. That’s up 50% from the same period in 2023.

(It’s worth noting that any industry capable of writing off $46 billion needs to be regulated into a prison cell.)

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Jesus Johnson Reads Fake Thomas Jefferson Prayer Shortly After Being Reelected Speaker

These Christian Nationalists like Mike Johnson are so desperate to rewrite history and how our founding fathers felt about the separation of church and state.

Shortly after being reelected as House Speaker, Johnson read a prayer on the House floor which he attributed to Thomas Jefferson, but according to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, there's no evidence Jefferson ever recited the prayer:

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) read off a prayer on Friday shortly after being re-elected to House speaker, but experts say he flubbed his assertion it was recited daily by President Thomas Jefferson.

“I was asked to provide a prayer for the nation," Johnson told his colleagues on Friday, according to a report in The Daily Beast. "I offered one that is quite familiar to historians and probably many of us. It is said each day of his eight years of the presidency and every day thereafter until his death, President Thomas Jefferson recited this prayer."

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Tenable CEO Amit Yoran dies

Longtime entrepreneur and cybersecurity executive Amit Yoran passed away Friday after a battle with cancer. Cybersecurity company Tenable, where Yoran was CEO and chairman, announced his death in a press release. Before becoming Tenable’s CEO in 2016, he held a number of roles including president of RSA, founding CEO of NetWitness, and CEO of In-Q-Tel. […]

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Friday, 3 January 2025

Generative AI funding reached new heights in 2024

If there was any doubt, the generative AI bubble did not burst in 2024. Investments in generative AI, which encompasses a range of AI-powered apps, tools, and services to generate text, images, videos, speech, music, and more, reached new heights last year. According to data from financial tracker PitchBook compiled for TechCrunch, generative AI companies […]

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Microsoft to spend $80 billion in FY’25 on data centers for AI

Microsoft has earmarked $80 billion in fiscal 2025 to build data centers designed to handle artificial intelligence workloads, according to a company blog post. Specifically, the tech giant plans to build out AI-enabled data centers “to train AI models and deploy AI and cloud-based applications around the world.” Of that $80 billion allocation, more than […]

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A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs

A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024.

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Thursday, 2 January 2025

These 55 robotics companies are hiring

From the looks of things, companies in the category — including Agility Robotics and Formlogic — can’t hire quickly enough.

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Meta policy chief Nick Clegg steps down

The President of Meta’s Global Affairs team, Nick Clegg, is stepping down from his position at the company, the executive announced in a tweet on Thursday. Clegg, Meta’s politically centrist policy chief since 2018, will be replaced by one of the company’s most prominent Republican executives, Joel Kaplan. Clegg noted on X that Kaplan is […]

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Chinese government hackers reportedly targeted US Treasury’s sanctions office during December cyberattack

Chinese government hackers targeted the U.S. Treasury’s highly sensitive sanctions office during a December cyberattack, according to reports. According to The Washington Post, the state-sponsored hackers targeted the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a government department that imposes economic and trade sanctions against countries and individuals, to potentially access information on Chinese organizations that […]

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Wednesday, 1 January 2025

RIP: Burt The Croc

Crocodile Dundee was 1986 movie that struck gold and became an international sensation. It cost roughly 8.8 million dollars to make and grossed around 328 million dollars.

Paul Hogan became a star as well as crocodiles in general.

Today we learn that Burt, the giant crocodile that featured in hit Australian comedy Crocodile Dundee, has died at around 90 years-old.

Crocosaurus Cove, an aquarium and exhibition space in Darwin, Australia, where Burt was housed, announced the news on social media, saying that the crocodile “passed away peacefully” and was “estimated to be over 90 years old”

In Crocodile Dundee, Burt features in a scene where American reporter Sue Charlton (played by Linda Kozlowski) is rescued by Mick Dundee (Paul Hogan) from a crocodile attack. While much of the sequence was shot using models, Priest said: “The scene … was actually filmed using the motions of Burt and him launching out of the water.”

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Police investigating Cybertruck fire outside Trump hotel in Vegas

A Tesla Cybertruck that caught fire Wednesday morning just outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas is being investigated by local law enforcement. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a post on social media site X that the fire was out and being investigated. The fire was reported around 8:40 a.m. PT, […]

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New Year's Day Football Open Thread

Today's bowl games, via CBS Sports, all times EASTERN.

Peach Bowl -- (5) Texas vs. (4) Arizona State: 1 p.m. | ESPN. Mercedes-Benz Stadium -- Atlanta

Rose Bowl -- (8) Ohio State vs. (1) Oregon: 5 p.m. | ESPN. Rose Bowl -- Pasadena, Calif.

Sugar Bowl -- (7) Notre Dame vs. (2) Georgia: 8:45 p.m. | ESPN. Caesars Superdome -- New Orleans

Who are you rooting for?

It's also a New Year's Day open thread. Happy New Year from all of us at Crooks and Liars!

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