Author: HP McLovincraft

Seeker of rabbit holes. Pessimist. Libertine. Contrarian. Your huckleberry. Possibly true tales of sanity-blasting horror also known as abject reality. Prepare yourself. Veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I have seen the fnords. Deplatformed on Tumblr and Twitter.

IMF warns of systemic threat from AI

Artificial intelligence could make cyberattacks a systemic threat to global finance, the International Monetary Fund has warned, saying advanced models can help attackers exploit vulnerabilities faster than institutions can fix them.

In a blog post published on Thursday, the IMF said its latest analysis suggests that “extreme cyber-incident losses could trigger funding strains, raise solvency concerns, and disrupt broader markets.”

According to the organization, the current financial system relies on shared digital infrastructure, including software, cloud services and networks for payments and other data. The fund warned that advanced AI models can sharply reduce the time and cost needed to identify and exploit weaknesses, raising the risk of simultaneous attacks on widely used systems.

The fund cited Anthropic’s recent controlled release of Claude Mythos Preview, which it described as “an advanced AI model with exceptional cyber capabilities.” According to the IMF, Mythos could find and exploit vulnerabilities in every major operating system and web browser, “even when used by non-experts.”

AI-driven cyber risks could destabilize the financial system if they are not managed carefully, the IMF stressed, noting that attacks could spread beyond finance because banks share digital foundations with energy, telecommunications and public services. 

“Defenses will inevitably be breached, so resilience must also be a priority,” the IMF warned, calling for cyber stress testing, scenario analysis, board-level oversight, public-private cooperation and stronger international coordination.

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NBC News Report on Kyle Rittenhouse Spider Bite Proves You Don’t Hate Media Enough

In 2020, then 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse found himself in a situation he never should have been thrust into. By that, I don’t blame him, but the rampaging mob that decided to chase a teenager in the middle of a riot. They not only knew he was armed, but one of the mob tried to disarm him during the confrontation, making it clear that Rittenhouse had reason to fear for his life. The reporting of that incident was a journalistic tragedy, though, as many people had very strong opinions as to what happened, all while being very wrong about what happened.

And now, NBC News has decided to repeat that mistake by covering, of all things, Rittenhouse getting a spider bite.

I saw that Rittenhouse was in the hospital dealing with the bite, but while I hope he will make a full recovery, I didn’t think of it as particularly newsworthy. The guy got bitten by a nasty spider. It sucks and all, but it just wasn’t something I figured I needed to report on.

NBC News, however, was apparently very bored, which I guess is fine. What isn’t fine is just how they describe things in that tweet.

We know that, for better or worse, there are a lot of people who never do more than read the tweets as they’re presented, and look at what they see. Kyle Rittenhouse, you see, opened fire at a civil rights rally. He didn’t defend himself from a rampaging mob trying to kill him. He didn’t shoot a man who’d already assaulted him once with a deadly weapon (a skateboard) and was trying to do it again. He didn’t shoot a third man who pointed a gun at him following all of this, the only one he didn’t kill.

No, he just shot at some peaceful civil rights rally.

Spare me.

Luckily, NBC News is being dragged over this journalistic abomination.

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You Won’t Believe What They’re Selling at the Obama Presidential Center GIFT SHOP

Obama’s presidential center is about to open, and apparently it has a gift shop. A GIFT SHOP.

As you can imagine, some of the items in the shop are beyond parody. Others make perfect sense. All of this makes for an incredibly funny story. Tickets to get into the place are a whopping $30. Imagine dropping more cash on the junk in the gift shop.

The sad thing is that some people will actually buy this stuff.

The Washington Free Beacon broke the story:

YES YOU CAN Support Obama’s Hideous Vanity Complex With These Inspiring Gift Shop Items

The Barack Obama Presidential Center won’t be open to the public for another few weeks, but the gift shop is already up and running. All proceeds will support the Obama Foundation and its mission to “inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world.” The foundation is also responsible for funding and operating the new presidential center, which has been described as a “hideous eyesore” befitting the colossal vanity of a tinpot dictator.

So, what are you waiting for? You can help fund Obama’s brutalist monstrosity right now by purchasing some of the inspiring items for sale on the center’s website.

This gorgeous lapel pin ($30) This “unique accessory” was designed by Sameera Chukkapalli Holmes, a former NYU professor of ethical leadership and an architect who specializes in sustainability and social equity. It allegedly represents the “intersection of bold design and global leadership.”

These heartwarming hats ($35) Choose from hope, empathy, community, and imagination. These low-key powerful fashion statements were designed to serve as a “reminder to keep dreaming big.”

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WaPo Satellite Analysis: Iran Hit More Than 225 U.S. Military Assets Across Region Through Mid-April

Iranian airstrikes that were launched to retaliate for the unprovoked U.S.-Israeli attack on the country have hit almost 230 U.S. military assets across the region, a review of satellite imagery by The Washington Post shows.

The damage, the Post reported, exceeds that reported by the Defense Department.

The report comes a week after the department’s head bean-counter low-balled the cost of the war during testimony before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee.

In late March, The New York Times revealed that Iranian strikes had wrecked 13 military bases across the Middle East.

But this latest report suggests that Iran hit back hard. And, it shows, Trump’s war planners underestimated Iran’s ability to defend itself and inflict costly damage.

The airstrikes “have damaged or destroyed at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at U.S. military sites across the Middle East since the war began, hitting hangars, barracks, fuel depots, aircraft and key radar, communications and air defense equipment,” the imagery showed:

The amount of destruction is far larger than what has been publicly acknowledged by the U.S. government or previously reported.

The threat of air attacks rendered some of the U.S. bases in the region too dangerous to staff at normal levels, and commanders moved most of the personnel from these sites out of the range of Iranian fire at the start of the war, officials have said.

While imagery of the region is difficult to obtain, the newspaper scrutinized more than 100 images that Iran released. It validated 109 against the European Union’s low-resolution Copernicus system and the Planet system’s high-resolution imagery. While the Post excluded some images, none was manipulated.

“In a separate search of Planet imagery, Post reporters found 10 damaged or destroyed structures that were not documented in the imagery released by Iran,” the newspaper continued:

In all, The Post found 217 structures and 11 pieces of equipment that were damaged or destroyed at 15 U.S. military sites in the region.

In other words, Iran had no trouble hitting targets:

“The Iranian attacks were precise. There are no random craters indicating misses,” said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a retired Marine Corps colonel, who reviewed the Iranian images at The Post’s request. The Post previously revealed how Russia provided Iran with intelligence to target U.S. forces.

Some of the damage may have occurred after U.S. troops already left the bases, making protection of the structures less vital. Cancian and other experts said they do not believe the attacks have significantly limited the U.S. military’s ability to conduct its bombing campaign in Iran.

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Transgender athlete AB Hernandez dominates three jumping events at California postseason track meet

A California postseason track meet on Saturday opened with a “Save Girls’ Sports” rally outside the gates and ended in familiar fashion, as one athlete again separated from the field in the jumping events, highlighting growing concerns over competitive fairness in girls’ sports.

Saturday’s CIF Southern Section Division 3 preliminaries in Yorba Linda drew attention before competition began, with demonstrators protesting California’s policy allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports.

Inside, the focus turned to the jumping events, where biological male AB Hernandez, a senior from Jurupa Valley, competed against women and finished first across all three competitions with dominant performances.

Hernandez, a trans multi-sport athlete (previously involved in girls’ volleyball), won the Long Jump Division 3 Prelim and Triple Jump Division 3 Prelim by wide margins and tied for first in the High Jump Division 3 Prelim with Reese Hogan, an athlete with past ties to Hernandez.

The long jump result separated the field. Hernandez posted 20 feet, 4 1/4 inches. The next closest finishers reached 19 feet, 1 1/2 inches and 18 feet, 7 inches.

More than a foot separated first from second.

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Why Won’t Barack Obama Go Away?

In 1921, Woodrow Wilson, the first of America’s four transformative progressive presidents, became the first president to remain in Washington and make the nation’s capital his permanent home after leaving office. In very mild defense of the man who did more than any other to establish the administrative state and thus pervert America’s carefully constructed constitutional design, Wilson had suffered a debilitating stroke two years prior that left him partially paralyzed and nearly blind. He died just a few years later, in 1924.

Barack Obama, the nation’s fourth transformative progressive president (following Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson), had no such excuse when he and his wife, Michelle, decided, like Wilson, to similarly make Washington’s tony Kalorama neighborhood their permanent home after leaving 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Surely, the physical proximity to the White House was one factor in the Obamas’ decision; the 44th president officially visited his former vice president there at least once, with perhaps other unofficial visits as well.

But convenience of his physical proximity to the White House aside, Obama’s residential decision has proven to be even more symbolically potent. The 44th president has declared that he is still here and he is not going anywhere. Some recent presidents, such as George W. Bush, have decided to ride off into the sunset and enjoy a peaceful, private retirement after leaving the Oval Office. Bush even took up painting as a hobby. Obama is a golfer, but he seems to enjoy politicking and punditry more than the links.

Unfortunately, the American people are suffering the consequences of Obama’s insatiable desire to insert himself into the national conversation. He has been vocal in criticizing the Trump-era GOP and boosting Democrats on the campaign trail ever since making the two-mile trek from the White House to Kalorama. Obama soared to the top of the political world after his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech vowed there was not a liberal America and a conservative America, but a singular United States of America. It’s a poignant sentiment. But once in power, Obama ruled as divider-in-chief.

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Gavin Newsom Launches ‘Free Diapers’ Program That Has a Curious Connection to His Wife’s Pet Project

California Governor Gavin Newsom is launching a new project in his state that will give new parents hundreds of free diapers. Sounds great, doesn’t it? New parents need diapers. Lots of them. Win win, right?

ABC 7 reports:

California families welcoming newborns will soon receive hundreds of free diapers before leaving the hospital under a first-in-the-nation program announced Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

During the program’s first year, it will be offered at about 65 to 75 hospitals that handle about a quarter of births in the state and largely serve low-income patients, Newsom’s office said. The initiative will expand to more hospitals statewide, though the governor’s office did not say how many. The state has partnered with nonprofit Baby2Baby to manufacture the diapers under the label “Golden State Start.”…

The state set aside $7.4 million in last year’s budget to roll out the initiative, and this year’s budget proposal includes an additional $12.5 million to implement the program for the upcoming fiscal year ending in June 2027.

Do you like this idea? Well, like all things Democrats offer for free, there is a catch.

As Kevin Dalton pointed out on Twitter/X, this program has a direct connection to Newsom’s wife and a charity she runs:

Gavin Newsom just announced a shiny new taxpayer funded program giving free diapers to newborns leaving California hospitals and his administration is partnering with Baby2Baby with almost $20 MILLION in state funds to manufacture them.

I’m sure it’s a total coincidence that one of Baby2Baby’s Co-CEOs, Norah Weinstein, sits on the board of Gavin Newsom’s wife’s California Partners Project.

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Tight-knit Midwest town becomes ground zero in America’s war on AI… and local politicians get swift justice

A sleepy Midwestern town has become one of the fiercest battlegrounds in America’s growing backlash against AI data centers – and voters are making their anger clear at the ballot box.

In the town of Festus, Missouri, a community of 14,000 people near St. Louis, residents have ousted four city council members who backed plans for a massive AI data center, replacing them with candidates who openly opposed the project.

The political upheaval didn’t stop there. 

At a packed City Hall meeting following the election, newly sworn-in officials were greeted with cheers – while the city’s mayor Sam Richards, who still supports the development, was met with boos and jeers from the crowd.

‘You’re next!’ one resident shouted, underscoring how heated the fight has become.

At the center of the dispute is a proposed $6 billion data center spanning roughly 360 acres, designed to support the growing demands of artificial intelligence.

Supporters say the project could transform the local economy – generating an estimated $32 million a year in tax revenue for decades, funding schools, roads, and public services.

But many locals aren’t convinced, and opponents fear the development could strain the electrical grid, push up utility bills and disrupt daily life with years of construction.

Other residents worry about environmental risks, including pollution from backup generators and wastewater systems – concerns shaped by the region’s industrial past.

In a bid to scrap the development, locals have launched a website and a Facebook group titled No Data Center in Festus, which has attracted more than 3,000 members.

The backlash quickly spilled into local politics: In the landslide election, all four incumbents who supported the data center were voted out. 

‘It was an annihilation,’ said one local campaigner. 

Since then, more than 4,000 residents have signed petitions seeking to recall the mayor and other officials still backing the plan.

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REPORT: As People Flee New York City Over Mamdani’s Policies, NYC Public School Enrollment is Going to Drop Dramatically

As New York City’s new Democratic Socialist (communist) Mayor Zohran Mamdani implements his new policies, there has been a lot of talk about wealthy people fleeing the city, but that is only part of the story.

Everything is connected on some level. As people leave the city, the number of children enrolled in their public schools is going to drop, which will have other rippling effects.

At some point, too much of the foundation is eroded away and things start to crumble. Then the real problems begin.

FOX News reports:

New York City’s declining public school enrollment projected to lose over 150K more as population declines

New York City’s public schools are projected to drop, mirroring the downward trend of its overall population since last year.

According to a “Statistical Forecasting” prepared for the New York City School Construction Authority, New York City is projected to lose thousands of students in the 2034-35 school year.

“Enrollment is projected to be 721,251 in 2034-35, which would be a decline of 153,000 students from the 2024-25 enrollment,” the outlet reported.

“Over the next ten years, enrollments are projected to decline in each of the five boroughs. Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx are projected to have the largest declines in the next ten years, losing 45,000, 43,000, and 35,000 students, respectively,” it added.

The projected shortfall was attributed to continuing falling birthrates, an exodus of residents, and an aging population. “Statistical Forecasting was retained by the New York City School Construction Authority (“SCA”) to perform enrollment projections for the New York City Public Schools for the ten-year period beginning with the 2025-26 school year and ending in 2034-35,” the document states…

New York City public schools lost 22,000 students this year from last year’s 906,248 students. According to preliminary Department of Education data, a total of 884,400 students were enrolled in the city’s traditional public schools. NYC had more than 1,002,000 students enrolled at the start of the 2019-2020 school year, meaning it has since lost more than 117,000.

New York City currently spends more per school student than any other place in the country and gets mediocre results on reading and math.

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Two feds nicknamed the ‘Alien Girls’ attempting to interview UFO witnesses at military bases around country

They are the Women in Black.

A pair of Government Accountability Office workers nicknamed the “Alien Girls” are touring military bases in an attempt to interview purported UFO witnesses, The Post has learned.

The non-partisan legislative-branch agency launched its probe of UFO disclosures and claims it is reviewing the practices of previous executive-branch alien investigators.

The two unidentified female investigators quickly move from formalities in the interviews to directly asking if their subject has witnessed unexplained craft, sources with direct knowledge of the interviews said.

They also offer their interviewees a classified setting where they can share their out-of-this-world tales, sources said.

Some of those interviewed questioned whether the GAO alien girls had high enough clearance to hear the classified information that some UFO witnesses would be able to share from their personal experiences. 

The agency claimed that their investigation is focused on previous government investigations into UFOs — and that the results will be keep under lock and key.

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