I tend to be pretty extreme in terms of the limits I want put on government spending. I can think of very few things more important to society than treating mentally ill people in an adequate way that isn't just chemically lobotomizing them, though. In terms of all the stupid things we pay taxes for, that's an issue where I'll proudly and happily cut the check. Obviously we all know mental health is the underlying problem, the question is, how do we fix it? I don't know the answer to that of course, but if someone figures it out, I'm willing to help pay, since a stable society is what separates a conservative from an anarchist. I'm still hoping for conservative congressmen to take on a leading role there, since I don't think the solution to the mental health problem is mental health Obamacare. We as a country need to do something though, I don't think the status quo is ok.
@CalvinAndHobo said:
I tend to be pretty extreme in terms of the limits I want put on government spending. I can think of very few things more important to society than treating mentally ill people in an adequate way that isn't just chemically lobotomizing them, though. In terms of all the stupid things we pay taxes for, that's an issue where I'll proudly and happily cut the check. Obviously we all know mental health is the underlying problem, the question is, how do we fix it? I don't know the answer to that of course, but if someone figures it out, I'm willing to help pay, since a stable society is what separates a conservative from an anarchist. I'm still hoping for conservative congressmen to take on a leading role there, since I don't think the solution to the mental health problem is mental health Obamacare. We as a country need to do something though, I don't think the status quo is ok.
One of the biggest factors in determining how they treat mental health is The Affordable Care Tax. Within its gazillion pages it declares many forms of mental health to not be necessary and therefore it is not covered by many insurance providers. Without insurance covering a chunk of the cost people simply can’t afford to have someone treated. All that can be afforded is a pill prescribed by a general doctor with no mental health background.
I will say it again and stand by it unwaveringly… guns are not and have never been the problem. The society we live in and have allowed to be constructed around is where the problem is. The fact that inanimate objects are blamed regularly for actions is proof of that in my mind.
AI-generated nude images of girls at NJ high school trigger police probe: ‘I am terrified’
By Shannon Thaler
Published Nov. 2, 2023, 9:12 a.m. ET
AI-generated pornographic images of female students at a New Jersey high school were circulated by male classmates, sparking parent uproar and a police investigation, according a report.
Students at Westfield High School — located in Westfield, a town about 25 miles west of Manhattan where the average household income is $259,377, according to Forbes — told the Wall Street Journal that one or more classmates used an online AI-backed tool to create the racy images and then shared them with peers.
A mother whose daughter is a student at Westfield High School, recounting what her child told her to the Journal, said sophomore boys at the school were acting “weird” on Monday, Oct. 16.
Multiple girls started asking questions, and finally, on Oct. 20, one boy revealed what all the whispering was about: At least one student had used girls’ photos found online to create the fake nudes and then shared them with other boys in group chats, per the Journal.
Several female students were also reportedly told by school administrators that boys had identified them in the fake pornographic images, parents said, though a spokesperson for the high school declined to tell the Journal whether staff members had seen the photos.
Another parent, Dorota Mani, said her 14-year-old daughter Francesca was told by the school that her photo was used to generate a fake nude image, known as a “deepfake.”
“I am terrified by how this is going to surface and when. My daughter has a bright future and no one can guarantee this won’t impact her professionally, academically or socially,” Mani told the Journal.
The concerned mother said she doesn’t want her daughter in school with anyone who created the images, and confirmed that she filed a police report.
According to visual threat intelligence company Sensity, more than 90% of deepfake images are pornographic.
Many also use celebrities’ likenesses, such as a recent viral video where an AI-generated deepfake showed supermodel Bella Hadid, whose father is Palestinian, express support for Israel. Earlier this year, deepfake images of Pope Francis in a Balenciaga puffer jacket and Donald Trump resisting arrest also took the internet by storm.
Snap, behind Snapchat, has taken steps to ban such images of minors and report them to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to the Journal, though there are close to zero safeguards in place to stop this from happening elsewhere on the internet.
It wasn’t immediately clear which AI website was used to create the pornographic images, though there are many free AI-backed image generators on the internet, including OpenAI’s Dall-E, Adobe’s Firefly and Canva, as well as a slew of lesser-known tools such as Freepik, Wepik, Craiyon and Fotor, just to name a few.
Other girls’ parents who spoke to the Journal — including two of the four who filed reports with local police — said they and their daughters hadn’t seen the images in question.
A person familiar with the police investigation said the police haven’t seen the photos either, the Journal reported.
Also on Oct. 20, Westfield High School Principal Mary Asfendis confirmed the incident to the parents of each of the school’s roughly 1,900 students after girls reported the photos to school administrators.
Asfendis also said in the email obtained by the Journal that she believed the images had been deleted and were no longer being circulated.
“This is a very serious incident,” Asfendis penned. “New technologies have made it possible to falsify images and students need to know the impact and damage those actions can cause to others.”
She also vowed to continue teaching children about responsible technology use.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many students were involved in creating the fake nude images, or if any disciplinary action had been taken.
“To be in a situation where you see young girls traumatized at a vulnerable stage of their lives is hard to witness,” Westfield Mayor Shelley Brindle told the Journal of the incident, adding that as the town’s first female mayor, she considers herself an advocate for women and girls.
The Post has sought comment from Westfield High School and the Westfield Police Department.
Just this week, President Biden issued a sweeping executive order that regulates the development of AI, and implements “safeguards against … producing child sexual abuse material and against producing non-consensual intimate imagery of real individuals.”
State officials have outlawed the distribution of AI-generated porn or have given victims the right to sue in civil court in Virginia, California, Minnesota and New York.
@OutdoorsSmoke_21191 said:
My Jui Jitsu gym is attached to a dialysis center… Just saw dude leaving dialysis treatment smoking a cigarette in his car 🤯
What's the point of NOT smoking cigarettes (or doing something else you like to do) when you are in kidney failure? You are on your way out anyway. The kidneys will get him before lung cancer.
It's at this joint called eight lounge Las Vegas. It's in the new resorts world casino on the strip. Built on top of the old Riviera. What a **** crock of **** bro.
The former chief operating officer of a cybersecurity company has pleaded guilty to hacking two hospitals, part of the Gwinnett Medical Center (GMC), in June 2021 to boost his company's business.
Vikas Singla, who worked for Securolytics, a network security company that provided services to the healthcare industry, pleaded guilty to hacking into the systems of GMC Northside Hospital hospitals in Duluth and Lawrenceville, as prosecutors said in a June 2021 indictment.
The reason for his concern is the Federal Reserve's emergency liquidity program, known as the Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP). It is a financial support initiative launched by the Federal Reserve in response to banking system stress felt after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in March.
The primary goal of the BTFP is to support the banking system's stability and ensure banks have adequate liquidity. Under the BTFP, banks can borrow from the Federal Reserve for a term (often one year) using high-quality securities as collateral. These securities typically include U.S. Treasury bonds, mortgage-backed securities, and other government-backed debts.
The problem for Gammon, however, is the extent to which the program is being used. Since March, the Fed went from lending $60 billion to over $100 billion.
"Everyone thinks that we're past [the banking crisis]," Gammon told Michelle Makori, Lead Anchor and Editor-in-Chief at Kitco News, on the sidelines of the New Orleans Investment Conference. "But the utilization of the BTFP is almost twice as much today than it was during the height of the banking crisis in March of 2023."
When I lived on St. Croix I would find the trash pits on old slave trade sugar plantations. Lots of really old hand blown glassware. Still got a couple of small bottles.
A professor of surgery says students have spent so much time in front of screens and so little time using their hands that they have lost the dexterity for stitching or sewing up patients.
Roger Kneebone, professor of surgical education at Imperial College, London, says young people have so little experience of craft skills that they struggle with anything practical.
"It is important and an increasingly urgent issue," says Prof Kneebone, who warns medical students might have high academic grades but cannot cut or sew.
"It is a concern of mine and my scientific colleagues that whereas in the past you could make the assumption that students would leave school able to do certain practical things - cutting things out, making things - that is no longer the case," says Prof Kneebone.
Such skills might once have been gained at school or at home, whether in cutting textiles, measuring ingredients, repairing something that's broken, learning woodwork or holding an instrument.
Students have become "less competent and less confident" in using their hands, he says.
"We have students who have very high exam grades but lack tactile general knowledge," says the professor.
Comments
I tend to be pretty extreme in terms of the limits I want put on government spending. I can think of very few things more important to society than treating mentally ill people in an adequate way that isn't just chemically lobotomizing them, though. In terms of all the stupid things we pay taxes for, that's an issue where I'll proudly and happily cut the check. Obviously we all know mental health is the underlying problem, the question is, how do we fix it? I don't know the answer to that of course, but if someone figures it out, I'm willing to help pay, since a stable society is what separates a conservative from an anarchist. I'm still hoping for conservative congressmen to take on a leading role there, since I don't think the solution to the mental health problem is mental health Obamacare. We as a country need to do something though, I don't think the status quo is ok.
One of the biggest factors in determining how they treat mental health is The Affordable Care Tax. Within its gazillion pages it declares many forms of mental health to not be necessary and therefore it is not covered by many insurance providers. Without insurance covering a chunk of the cost people simply can’t afford to have someone treated. All that can be afforded is a pill prescribed by a general doctor with no mental health background.
I will say it again and stand by it unwaveringly… guns are not and have never been the problem. The society we live in and have allowed to be constructed around is where the problem is. The fact that inanimate objects are blamed regularly for actions is proof of that in my mind.
But if there were no guns there would be no violence, only peace and love.
Trapped in the People's Communits Republic of Massachusetts.
New York Post
AI-generated nude images of girls at NJ high school trigger police probe: ‘I am terrified’
By Shannon Thaler
Published Nov. 2, 2023, 9:12 a.m. ET
AI-generated pornographic images of female students at a New Jersey high school were circulated by male classmates, sparking parent uproar and a police investigation, according a report.
Students at Westfield High School — located in Westfield, a town about 25 miles west of Manhattan where the average household income is $259,377, according to Forbes — told the Wall Street Journal that one or more classmates used an online AI-backed tool to create the racy images and then shared them with peers.
A mother whose daughter is a student at Westfield High School, recounting what her child told her to the Journal, said sophomore boys at the school were acting “weird” on Monday, Oct. 16.
Multiple girls started asking questions, and finally, on Oct. 20, one boy revealed what all the whispering was about: At least one student had used girls’ photos found online to create the fake nudes and then shared them with other boys in group chats, per the Journal.
Several female students were also reportedly told by school administrators that boys had identified them in the fake pornographic images, parents said, though a spokesperson for the high school declined to tell the Journal whether staff members had seen the photos.
Another parent, Dorota Mani, said her 14-year-old daughter Francesca was told by the school that her photo was used to generate a fake nude image, known as a “deepfake.”
“I am terrified by how this is going to surface and when. My daughter has a bright future and no one can guarantee this won’t impact her professionally, academically or socially,” Mani told the Journal.
The concerned mother said she doesn’t want her daughter in school with anyone who created the images, and confirmed that she filed a police report.
According to visual threat intelligence company Sensity, more than 90% of deepfake images are pornographic.
Many also use celebrities’ likenesses, such as a recent viral video where an AI-generated deepfake showed supermodel Bella Hadid, whose father is Palestinian, express support for Israel. Earlier this year, deepfake images of Pope Francis in a Balenciaga puffer jacket and Donald Trump resisting arrest also took the internet by storm.
Snap, behind Snapchat, has taken steps to ban such images of minors and report them to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to the Journal, though there are close to zero safeguards in place to stop this from happening elsewhere on the internet.
It wasn’t immediately clear which AI website was used to create the pornographic images, though there are many free AI-backed image generators on the internet, including OpenAI’s Dall-E, Adobe’s Firefly and Canva, as well as a slew of lesser-known tools such as Freepik, Wepik, Craiyon and Fotor, just to name a few.
Other girls’ parents who spoke to the Journal — including two of the four who filed reports with local police — said they and their daughters hadn’t seen the images in question.
A person familiar with the police investigation said the police haven’t seen the photos either, the Journal reported.
Also on Oct. 20, Westfield High School Principal Mary Asfendis confirmed the incident to the parents of each of the school’s roughly 1,900 students after girls reported the photos to school administrators.
Asfendis also said in the email obtained by the Journal that she believed the images had been deleted and were no longer being circulated.
“This is a very serious incident,” Asfendis penned. “New technologies have made it possible to falsify images and students need to know the impact and damage those actions can cause to others.”
She also vowed to continue teaching children about responsible technology use.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many students were involved in creating the fake nude images, or if any disciplinary action had been taken.
“To be in a situation where you see young girls traumatized at a vulnerable stage of their lives is hard to witness,” Westfield Mayor Shelley Brindle told the Journal of the incident, adding that as the town’s first female mayor, she considers herself an advocate for women and girls.
The Post has sought comment from Westfield High School and the Westfield Police Department.
Just this week, President Biden issued a sweeping executive order that regulates the development of AI, and implements “safeguards against … producing child sexual abuse material and against producing non-consensual intimate imagery of real individuals.”
State officials have outlawed the distribution of AI-generated porn or have given victims the right to sue in civil court in Virginia, California, Minnesota and New York.
A good cigar and whiskey solve most problems.
I don’t currently have a truck, so I’ve been using my beater car as a deer towing vehicle
Hey, if it works, it works!
"Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another." - Proverbs 27:17
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/humane-launches-ai-pin---marking-a-new-beginning-for-personal-ai-devices-301983548.html
My Jui Jitsu gym is attached to a dialysis center… Just saw dude leaving dialysis treatment smoking a cigarette in his car 🤯
A good cigar and whiskey solve most problems.
What's the point of NOT smoking cigarettes (or doing something else you like to do) when you are in kidney failure? You are on your way out anyway. The kidneys will get him before lung cancer.
A buddy sent me this. Apparently it’s a menu being offered at the F1 race in Vegas…I’m not exactly sure who it is that’s offering it
Wonder which one Frank is gonna hit?
Don't let the wife know what you spend on guns, ammo or cigars.
got gurkha?
Damn!
MOW badge received.
I’ll take the pole position via Frank paying of course 😜
A good cigar and whiskey solve most problems.
Six choices and two of them are gurkhas. Obviously whoever made the menu isn't a cigar smoker.
Trapped in the People's Communits Republic of Massachusetts.
It's at this joint called eight lounge Las Vegas. It's in the new resorts world casino on the strip. Built on top of the old Riviera. What a **** crock of **** bro.
For the prices they charge you would at least expect them to include a a couple of hours with a hottie.
By the way, if anyone is looking to rent out a locker in the Las Vegas area until midnight 24, let me know. I can give you a slightly better price.
The former chief operating officer of a cybersecurity company has pleaded guilty to hacking two hospitals, part of the Gwinnett Medical Center (GMC), in June 2021 to boost his company's business.
Vikas Singla, who worked for Securolytics, a network security company that provided services to the healthcare industry, pleaded guilty to hacking into the systems of GMC Northside Hospital hospitals in Duluth and Lawrenceville, as prosecutors said in a June 2021 indictment.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cybersecurity-firm-executive-pleads-guilty-to-hacking-hospitals/
There's always something to do
https://www.agweb.com/news/business/farmland/lost-and-found-bottle-hunter-digs-extraordinary-farmland-treasures
The reason for his concern is the Federal Reserve's emergency liquidity program, known as the Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP). It is a financial support initiative launched by the Federal Reserve in response to banking system stress felt after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in March.
The primary goal of the BTFP is to support the banking system's stability and ensure banks have adequate liquidity. Under the BTFP, banks can borrow from the Federal Reserve for a term (often one year) using high-quality securities as collateral. These securities typically include U.S. Treasury bonds, mortgage-backed securities, and other government-backed debts.
The problem for Gammon, however, is the extent to which the program is being used. Since March, the Fed went from lending $60 billion to over $100 billion.
"Everyone thinks that we're past [the banking crisis]," Gammon told Michelle Makori, Lead Anchor and Editor-in-Chief at Kitco News, on the sidelines of the New Orleans Investment Conference. "But the utilization of the BTFP is almost twice as much today than it was during the height of the banking crisis in March of 2023."
https://www.kitco.com/news/2023-11-20/Why-the-new-banking-crisis-could-be-unleashed-as-soon-as-March-George-Gammon-explains.html
Oh holy crap, upon first glance I thought this guy was digging up UXOs!! 😂😂
Nolite Oblivisci Peniculus Dentes
When I lived on St. Croix I would find the trash pits on old slave trade sugar plantations. Lots of really old hand blown glassware. Still got a couple of small bottles.
Young ‘lady’s’ t-shirt last night 😳
A good cigar and whiskey solve most problems.
My kind of place!
MOW badge received.
A professor of surgery says students have spent so much time in front of screens and so little time using their hands that they have lost the dexterity for stitching or sewing up patients.
Roger Kneebone, professor of surgical education at Imperial College, London, says young people have so little experience of craft skills that they struggle with anything practical.
"It is important and an increasingly urgent issue," says Prof Kneebone, who warns medical students might have high academic grades but cannot cut or sew.
"It is a concern of mine and my scientific colleagues that whereas in the past you could make the assumption that students would leave school able to do certain practical things - cutting things out, making things - that is no longer the case," says Prof Kneebone.
Such skills might once have been gained at school or at home, whether in cutting textiles, measuring ingredients, repairing something that's broken, learning woodwork or holding an instrument.
Students have become "less competent and less confident" in using their hands, he says.
"We have students who have very high exam grades but lack tactile general knowledge," says the professor.
https://www.bbc.com/news/education-46019429