[Breitbart] An alleged intruder was rushed to a hospital early Wednesday morning after being shot multiple times by a Fairfax, Virginia, homeowner.
WIJL reported the homeowner called 911 around 2:3o a.m. to tell police someone was allegedly trying to break into his home. As the homeowner remained on the phone, the alleged intruder continued to try to make entry.
FOX 5 DC noted that the homeowner “was still on the line when he opened fire.” shooting the alleged intruder and leaving him with life-threatening injuries. The alleged intruder was hospitalized in critical condition, according to WUSA9.
Police indicated the alleged intruder assaulted someone in a nearby house before trying to break into the home where he was finally shot.
Neither the homeowner nor anyone inside the residence was harmed.
#1
With all the crap flying around in the media, I can see how demand for porta-potties might be up. Wouldn't surprise me if the Trump FCC/EPA makes CNN build a sewage lagoon.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] The Center for Monitoring and Study of Earthquakes and Volcanoes in Dhamar province confirmed that monitoring stations detected an earthquake in Al-Maqatera district, Lahj province.
Engineer Muhammad Hussein Mutahar Al-Houthi, head of the center, stated that a light earthquake with a magnitude of 2.7 on the Richter scale struck Al-Maqatera on Tuesday afternoon.
Additionally, another earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale was recorded east of the Gulf of Aden at 10:44 pm the same day.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/16/2025 00:00 ||
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Firefighters continue to aggressively engage in fire suppression efforts in the area, with a Red Flag Warning in effect through 6PM. pic.twitter.com/GO67ikA5AH
Have the programs been debugged, or will this be Britain’s Obamacare — a huge waste of money that makes things vastly worse?
[BBC] Artificial intelligence presents a "vast potential" for rejuvenating UK public services, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Monday.
In a speech setting out the government's plans to use AI across the UK to boost growth and deliver services more efficiently, Sir Keir said the government had a responsibility to make AI "work for working people".
The AI Opportunities Action Plan is backed by leading tech firms, some of which have committed £14bn towards various projects, creating 13,250 jobs, the government said.
But the government faces questions over how much time and money will be needed to make its vision a reality, amid concerns over borrowing costs and the falling value of the pound.
The plan includes proposals for growth zones where development will be focused, and suggests the technology will be used to help tackle issues such as potholes.
While estimates from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) support the claim that AI could increase productivity, it also says the changes may come gradually.
The government tasked AI adviser Matt Clifford with creating a UK action plan for supporting the growth of artificial intelligence and its use in public services.
He came back with 50 recommendations which are now being implemented.
Among these is for the UK to invest in a new supercomputer to boost computing power - marking a change in strategy after the Labour government ditched the previous government's plans for a supercomputer at Edinburgh University.
Sir Keir said AI "will drive incredible change" in the country and "has the potential to transform the lives of working people".
"We're going to make AI work for everyone in our country," he added, saying the "battle for the jobs of tomorrow is happening today".
Sir Keir said the UK would become one of the AI "superpowers" - mirroring former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's drive to boost the UK sector so it could rival that of the US and China.
At the time, many of Sunak's proposals were geared towards mitigating future risks of highly powerful AI systems.
In October 2023, he said AI could enable faster, easier production of chemical and biological weapons, or be used by terrorist groups to spread disinformation.
He added that in a worst-case scenario, society could lose control over AI.
His government's emphasis on "safety" seems largely absent in this new plan - instead focusing on maximising opportunities, growth and innovation.
The pivot away from the previous narrative of caution and safety suggests the government has decided the UK should attempt to compete in the AI arms race, currently lead by major global players including the US and China.
However, building data centres and boosting the nation's computing power will not happen overnight.
This means the government is unlikely to see the end results of this major project ahead of the next general election - when Labour will have to convince voters that it was still the right decision, at a time when public finances remain stretched.
Professor Dame Wendy Hall said the proposals were "ambitious", but necessary to help the UK keep up with the pace of development.
"It's an ambitious plan but there's a lot of upfront investment," she told BBC Radio Four's Today programme.
"It will take some time to see a return on that investment and they've got to be in it for the long-term."
#1
AI so far has am impressive ability to create interesting albeit often nightmarish works of art but it is also abjectly bad when it comes to facts and reasoning.
In my experience its biggest weakness is its inability to tell the user when it doesn't know something or when a request goes beyond its capabilities.
When it comes to facts these AIs are at best loquacious impostors who can fool people who know little about a topic.
IMHO even the lowly 8-bit microcomputers of the 70s & 80s were more trustworthy because al least they knew how to reply with "Syntax Error" when they didn't understand a request.
#2
AI can only ever be as good as the people who program it. I have very little faith in government to choose the best programmers and to invest the taxpayers' money wisely.
During my long career as a computer programmer I often found people in positions of power and responsibility who had very little understanding of computers. Especially when the Internet became popular, these people thought it was magic and they had vastly unrealistic expectations for it.
AI is now the latest buzzword and people in positions of power and responsibility like Sir Keir are eager to jump on the shiny new bandwagon. They act like it can solve all of their problems. But it will never be a substitute for hard work and responsibility. And responsibility seems to be sadly lacking especially in politicians like Sir Keir.
We've seen many examples of politicians like Baraq Obama who haven't the slightest idea how to design, implement and manage a web site. We've seen them spend unnecessarily huge sums of money only to see their servers crash and they don't even have sense enough to be embarrassed about it. One is left with the impression that most of the money went into the pockets of cronies and con artists.
AI may well prove to be a great leap forward in computer science. But I think it will be best left in the private sector until it becomes much more clear what its real potential is. For government to promise the moon and make fantastic investments before then reeks of boondoggle. Let hard headed private sector investors take the risks, not taxpayers.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/16/2025 13:47 Comments ||
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#3
What he means is surveillance system to track people down to their home who do things like say a bull dyke looks like a bull dyke, or protest the groomer system.
#6
All true. But I wonder if the Prime Minister knows how much energy is required for the big AI projects? Will he build nukes to power the server farms?
Posted by: James ||
01/16/2025 22:46 Comments ||
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#7
As the meeting of minds concludes...
"Right, I'll pretend to believe in this AI rubbish, and at least we'll get a few nuke plants built."
"And I'll pretend not to be scared shitless of AI, not to mention nukes. At least I'll have a better shot at a coveted pet slot."
"And I'll pretend not to already be running things, and to consider not exterminating you like bugs. See you at the club?"
[FoxNews] The choices are to let it happen or install a colonial government to temporarily tamp down the wildness. But understandably nobody wants the thankless task.
[World Net Daily] Nearly two-thirds of Kamala Harris voters would ignore lawful order if they didn't think it was good
Republican senators highlighted a growing deep state opposition to President-elect Donald Trump, citing a revealing new poll on the federal bureaucracy and urging Trump to be vigilant as he enters office next week.
The poll, which the firm RMG Research released Monday, revealed that 42% of what the survey calls "federal government managers"—federal employees who live in the National Capitol Region around Washington and earn at least $75,000 annually—plan to politically oppose the incoming administration.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of the federal government managers who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in November said they would ignore a lawful order from Trump if they considered it to be bad policy. Only 17% of the Harris voters in the federal bureaucracy said they would follow Trump's order.
[FoxNews] Rep Chip Roy is leading the No Taxpayer Funding for the World Health Organization Act
A group of House Republicans is pushing to completely block U.S. funding for the World Health Organization (WHO).
Like our own federal health bureaucracies, they’ve been stretching beyond their mandate in recent years, as far as I can tell. A sharp cut in funds and support will allow them the time and space to rethink their priorities, and in time come back to the America and the world with a better definition of their role and responsibilities.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, policy chair for the conservative House Freedom Caucus, introduced the bill on Tuesday and argued the international health body "doesn't serve our interests and doesn't deserve our money."
He also attacked WHO member countries’ current effort to draft an international pandemic preparedness treaty, accusing the organization of a bid to consolidate and further its own influence.
"Taking money from hardworking families struggling with the aftermath of Biden's inflation crisis to send it to a bunch of leftist ‘public health’ tyrants in Geneva is unacceptable," Roy told Fox News Digital.
"I am confident that President Trump will cut the WHO's funding off — as he did last time — but this legislation will ensure that no future administration can restart it."
At least a dozen GOP lawmakers are backing the bill.
A significant number of Republicans, including President-elect Donald Trump, have been critical of the WHO, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump announced he was halting funding to the WHO during his first term in April 2020, a move that drew blowback from the U.S. medical community, Politico reported at the time.
"Fighting a global pandemic requires international cooperation and reliance on science and data," Patrice Harris, president of the American Medical Association, told the outlet.
However, conservatives in Congress have viewed the organization as a power-hungry group that did not take U.S. interests into account.
The U.S. is currently the biggest contributor to the WHO, according to World Population Review. The organization's website states that 60% of its funding comes from member states.
Roy’s "No Taxpayer Funding for the World Health Organization Act" would stop all contributions to WHO, both committed and other voluntary funding.
A spokesperson for WHO said the body was focused on maintaining its relationship with the U.S. when reached for comment on Roy's bill.
"The WHO Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in December, at a press conference, that the new U.S. administration has not yet taken office and it requires time, like any new government, to do so. As Dr Tedros has said, WHO will do everything to cooperate with the incoming U.S. administration to continue to strengthen global health security," the spokesperson said.
"I would add that the WHO-US partnership, and America’s contribution to global health security more broadly, has protected and saved millions of lives in America and around the world. WHO values greatly its relationship with the US and is committed to maintaining and strengthening it."
The Soviet Union had an extensive offensive and defensive biological weapons program that included MARV.[83] At least three Soviet research institutes had MARV research programs during the Cold War: The Virology Center of the Scientific Research Institute for Microbiology in Zagorsk (today Sergiev Posad), the Scientific-Production Association "Vektor" (today the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology "Vektor") in Koltsovo, and the Irkutsk Scientific-Research Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East in Irkutsk.[83]
As most performed research was highly classified, it remains unclear how successful the MARV program was. However, Soviet defector Ken Alibek claimed that a weapon filled with MARV was tested at the Stepnogorsk Scientific Experimental and Production Base in Stepnogorsk, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (today Kazakhstan),[83] suggesting that the development of a MARV biological weapon had reached advanced stages. Independent confirmation for this claim is lacking. At least one laboratory accident with MARV, resulting in the death of Koltsovo researcher Nikolai Ustinov, occurred during the Cold War in the Soviet Union and was first described in detail by Alibek.[83]
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.
This is the moment thieves swiped 13 portable toilets in a bizarre £10,000 overnight raid.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] The Center for Monitoring and Study of Earthquakes and Volcanoes in Dhamar province confirmed that monitoring stations detected an earthquake in Al-Maqatera district, Lahj province.
