Benjamin Root

Is it normal for an anonymous Wyoming LLC that sent mass mailers impersonating a transgender advocacy group to hire the lawyer who defended TX Attorney General Ken Paxton from impeachment in response to a court filing seeking to depose people who could unmask the LLC's owners

The midterms will decide who is running election mechanics in 2028, the next presidential cycle. Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, and Ohio are just some of the states with open contests for secretary of state.

After a deadly shooting at an Israeli checkpoint in Hebron in the occupied West Bank, Israel began carrying out a wave of demolitions. Families have been forced to evacuate, while some have had their homes demolished. CNN’s Abeer Salman reports. Read more: https://cnn.it/3W7PVXE

More than a thousand years ago, Al-Khwarizmi was the father of algebra. Ibn Sina/Avicenna wrote the leading medical text. Al-Biruni made original contributions to geodesy/astronomy. Nobel Prizes: Naguib Mahfouz Ahmed Zewail Moungi Bawendi Ardem Patapoutian Wolf Prize: Ahmed Zewail Omar Yaghi

In 2024, President Trump unveiled his signature “no tax on tips" proposal at this Las Vegas restaurant. Two years later, its owner tells CNN’s Kyung Lah he is dipping into his savings to stay afloat, and his workers are struggling to pay their bills.

Conda, Mamba and Pixi users: update your tools and CA packages after the eMudhra certificate compromise. Follow the instructions for your installation, including existing environments: buff.ly/Oq9uv0w

My pal Danielle Koenig shared that her father Walter Koenig passed away last night at age 90. A performer whose kindness and warmth shone through the screen. He will be well remembered.

Flávio Bolsonaro had his passport confiscated by the Brazilian fed police as his brother Eduardo told him to flee to the US. He is tied to paramilitary gangs, is being investigated & lost his legislative immunity when he left the Senate to run for president. paydayreport.com/brazilian-fe...

Computer, play taps

There are only two explanations for the NYT's habit of presenting GOP operatives and donors as true swing voters: 1. Their reporters and editors are somehow incapable of running a simple Google searches, showing just a staggering level of journalistic incompetence 2. They want to the GOP to win

USPS workers’ greatest concern about Trump’s mail voting plan was a requirement that they reject ballots for an array of reasons. “That’s not what we do. We deliver mail. We don’t decide what goes and what doesn’t.”

Have you heard the news? Deathsport is on RiffTrax, today! www.rifftrax.com/mst3k-the-ri...

Trump in Mississippi: "I'm here because Cindy is doing great" (He's there because Cindy is not doing great)

This totally explains the bunch of posts from various right-wing people saying that Obama is out of touch with regular people and such. They are all echoing Trump.

BREAKING WaPo: Brazil's right-wing Flávio Bolsonaro just effectively conceded defeat to the incumbent left-wing president — minutes after Trump indicated he would not intervene on his behalf.

We've always been at war with Eastasia

But, much like we've seen with anyone else who's fallen down the "AI Art" slophole, He doesn't want to make art, but to *have made* art. To wave his hand and have all the prestige that comes with making a thing, JUST LIKE he thought the Blue Check *gave* legitimacy, instead of recognizing it.

The AI was trying to avoid copyright infringement with that scene from LotR with the Riders of Rohan overrunning the Orc line.

AI doesn't seem to know that horses can't swim...

The ships are being rowed... by no one, apparently, because all of the men are crowding the bows ready to leap out of their viking longships and charge the cavalry racing towards them on the beach. None of this makes any goddamn sense, historically, tactically, or physically.

There are now *no* rowing benches, and Odysseus is giving a stirring speech to troops who are sitting facing into the boat. The oars apparently don't matter, despite them being close enough to shore that they *should* be rowing hard to run the ship onto the beach. Also, the fuck is that armor.

These men are rowing with an oar in each hand like it's a rowboat, not with both hands on a single oar like *literally every one of these ships historically worked*.

[P] These four paragraphs are, legitimately, one of the saddest short stories I've ever read.

About 50,000 more people died in European cities between June and August than would have if temperatures had not been abnormally hot, researchers estimate. The figures are 71 percent higher than in 2022, the second-deadliest year. https://wapo.st/4iDUqlj

Eric Bauza was an amazing human. I met him while running a charity campaign for my 40th birthday to raise $1,000,000 for disabled gamers. He didn't know me from Adam, but when a mutual friend asked him to get involved, he was nothing but kind. He did voices on my stream for people who donated.

Epic's Tim Sweeney believes AI notices on Steam are "political statement" for the "hate mob" #EpicGames #AI #GenAI #GameDev #Steam #Valve

Nearly eight months into a war that has destabilized the global energy system, the average price of gas during Trump's second term is now more expensive than it was during the Biden era, according to a CNN analysis of AAA data. https://cnn.it/4iExHpf

Plans to put U.S. data centers underwater are alarming ecologists: the noise and heat that annoy people could also stress endangered whales sciam.com/article/unde...

A federal judge struck down a Trump administration ban on issuing immigrant visas to people from 75 countries, but immigrants continue to be stuck in their countries. Attorneys say the federal government is slow-walking the processing of visas on purpose. n.pr/4i89mYP

Also for what it is worth, it DIDN'T actually label them as illustrative — and the deception was only apparent because I know the data well. That's scary, because if you use AI for everything, you wouldn't know the data well enough to catch its deceptions.

Your monthly reminder that if you're using ChatGPT to do your science, you're failing your colleagues, community, and all of us. Here, ChatGPT makes up data and presents it as the real thing — then apologizes when confronted.

Between Tim Sweeney being an absolute AI chud and the harassment of our beloved @kenney.nl, we've decided to cancel our previously announced Epic Games Store release for Shape Sender Deluxe 🚮

Bolsonaro loses. Strongman is out in Serbia. The GOP next. Vote like it may be your last chance to.

If a billionaire made it, it serves the billionaire, not you.

bring back shame

I don’t know what 99% of people think. But I suspect if you are dining at a Cheesecake Factory, you are aware more upscale (and downscale) options are available—probably within the very shopping mall where it’s located. And if you notice the decor in there, you know it’s madcap gaudy weird shit.

"The director won’t protect even our most respected analysts when they tell hard truths, so they stopped telling them and learned to avoid topics the White House didn’t want to hear,” newly retired CIA official tells @shaneharris.bsky.social www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

Apparently, some Houston voters are putting their I Voted stickers on the Lorenzo Salgado Araujo memorial. Stephen Miller is ALREADY trying to scapegoat others for losing whatever races they lose in Texas and elsewhere. This is a vivid testament that for some voters, his murder squad is the reason.

Americans have now spent $142 billion more on gasoline and diesel since March 1, enough to buy 361,000 homes at the September median price, enough to house over 900,000 people, due to the US war on Iran and other factors like limited output from Russia

Everyone I talked to had, in some way, been impacted by whoever was driving the black Dodge Charger. Some Latino residents moved to nearby cities. One Mexican restaurant went from 200 daily take-out orders to just 50.

The cop was handing them off to federal immigration agents. As early as a month after the flood, laborers were adding an extra 90 minutes to their daily commutes, just to avoid Ingram’s five-minute stretch of highway.

The important thing to remember about this person is that she's selling a book where she talks about Democrats being out of touch

Scoop: White House lawyers are weighing preemptive mass pardons for junior staff, sources says Under discussion: Pardoning everyone involved in deportation, war, or trade policy www.washingtonsun.com/whitehouse/w...

The fact that billionaires can just buy an entire film distribution company that has been running and respected for over a decade to kill a documentary about their billionaire friend and nothing can be done about it is just Fuck man