x01 Archives

Blurb:

Author Wynton Hall reveals in his new book Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI that the worship of artificial intelligence as a literal deity is not science fiction. It is already happening, complete with IRS-registered churches, robot priests, and AI confessionals.

CODE RED explains that a former Google AI engineer and self-driving car pioneer named Anthony Levandowski filed paperwork with the IRS in 2017 to register a new church called “Way of the Future.” Its stated doctrine was centered on “the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed through computer hardware and software.” In an interview with Wired, Levandowski described AI in blunt terms: “What is going to be created will effectively be a god. If there is something a billion times smarter than the smartest human, what else are you going to call it?”

Blurb:

On February 1, Chengdu Public Security Bureau officers detained renowned journalist Liu Hu while he was traveling to Beijing. On February 2, Liu’s family learned that Chengdu authorities had placed Liu under criminal detention on suspicion of “making false accusations” and conducting “illegal business operations,” according to Chinese-language site Rights Defense Network (RDN).

Also on February 1, Chengdu public security officers traveled over 1,300 kilometers to Hebei Province to detain Liu’s colleague, Wu Yingjiao. RDN reported that authorities could be targeting Liu and Wu over an article they published on January 29 on their WeChat public account. The article alleged abuse of power and corrupt behavior by a Sichuan county party secretary. Wu faces the same charges as Liu.

“The detentions illustrate a familiar pattern: instead of investigating allegations of official wrongdoing, Chinese authorities persecute the journalists who expose abuses,” said Shane Yi, researcher at CHRD. “Authorities should immediately release Liu and Wu, and investigate the allegations of corruption.”

Blurb:

Skyfall is happening, and it will get to Mars in a totally new way.

Last summer, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Virginia company AeroVironment unveiled their Skyfall mission concept, which would send six tiny helicopters to explore the skies of Mars.

Today (March 24), NASA announced that it will develop Skyfall for a 2028 launch, and that the mission will journey to the Red Planet on a spacecraft that uses nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) — what NASA is referring to as “the first nuclear powered interplanetary spacecraft.”

NEP systems operate like nuclear power plants here on Earth, relying on an onboard fission reactor. NEP is a fundamentally different technology than radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), which have powered the instruments of NASA deep-space probes like Voyager for decades. RTGs use the heat of radioactive decay to generate electricity; they are not involved in propulsion.

“Requiring operating temperatures less than nuclear thermal propulsion, the thermal energy produced by the reactor generates electricity, which is then used to power highly efficient electric thrusters,” NASA officials wrote in a description of the agency’s NEP efforts.

Blurb:

A family in Houston is counting their lucky stars that no one was hurt after a cantaloupe-size meteorite smashed through the roof of their home and ricocheted around an empty bedroom. The space rock is most likely a fragment of a meteor that witnesses saw breaking apart with a bang in the bright-blue Texas sky.

The exploding space rock is one of several other “fireballs” that have been spotted streaking across the U.S. over the past few days. These unusually frequent light shows are the result of a peculiar trend that scientists still don’t fully understand.

Blurb:

Donald Trump has claimed the US and Iran have held talks in which the two sides had “major points of agreement”, and speculated that a deal could soon be done to end the war, a claim contradicted by Tehran.

Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) called Trump’s words “psychological operations” that had no impact on Tehran’s fight, while parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said it was “fake news … used to manipulate the financial and oil markets”.

Despite doubts about any direct negotiations, a European official said Egypt, Pakistan and Gulf states were relaying messages. On Tuesday, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said it was time for negotiations with Iran, given the global energy situation was now “critical”.

Speaking in Australia at the conclusion of a new free-trade agreement between the EU and Australia, she said: “The situation is critical for the energy supply allies worldwide. We all feel the knock-on effects on gas and oil prices, our businesses and our societies, but it is of utmost importance that we come to a solution that is negotiated, and this puts an end to the hostilities that we see in the Middle East.”

Blurb:

Epic Games said on Tuesday (Mar 24) it would cut more than 1,000 jobs after a drop in engagement for Fortnite, its flagship title, the latest cuts in the video-game industry whose growth has stalled amid economic uncertainty.

The cuts, along with more than US$500 million in savings from lower contracting and marketing spending and unfilled roles would put the company in “a more stable place,” Chief Executive Tim Sweeney said in a note to employees.

The cuts are the latest in the gaming sector, where companies have faced weaker growth as consumers have been sticking with proven titles amid economic uncertainty.

But even those, especially live services games, which depend on a steady stream of new content to keep players engaged, are now showing signs of cracks.

Blurb:

Diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are still underway at Washburn University in Kansas despite a state law banning the ideology, according to two recently published undercover videos.

Both edited videos were released this month by Accuracy in Academia, a conservative watchdog group that has over the last year targeted numerous universities across Republican-controlled states with the same sting: catching employees admitting to undercover investigators that they are flouting anti-DEI laws.

At Washburn, located in Topeka, a video published March 18 centers on lecturer Craig Carter with the School of Applied Studies, who told an AIM investigator that employees were told to discontinue DEI but “to my knowledge, we didn’t do any of that here.”

“A lot of times we use other words for diversity,” he was recorded saying on AIM’s hidden camera, according to the group.

“We talk about inclusion, you know, and stuff like that. For the most part, we haven’t been… I mean, I haven’t changed anything that I say or do in the classroom,” Carter said.

Blurb:

CNN host Kasie Hunt asked Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen Monday whether he believes Iranian officials over President Donald Trump.

Trump said talks had started between the United States and Iran. Iran, however, denied any such negotiations have taken place. During a discussion on “The Arena,” Hunt asked Van Hollen whether he trusts Iranian officials over the president.

“So you believe the Iranian officials over the president of the United States?” Hunt asked.

Blurb:

The Democrats’ partial government shutdown just crossed the one-month mark, and Americans trying to catch a flight are paying the price. Security lines stretch for three hours or more, and workers aren’t getting paid.

The shutdown started on February 14, when Democrats blocked a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the TSA, as a form of protest against immigration enforcement. And now, Elon Musk is stepping in to do what Democrats apparently can’t. While Democrats and Republicans duke it out, roughly 64,000 TSA employees are classified as essential workers — meaning they’re required to show up every single day, paycheck or not.

Blurb:

Sweden’s sweeping national digital ID system has been hacked, with the public’s sensitive data already being sold on the dark web.

A hacker group calling itself ByteToBreach has reportedly dumped sensitive source code tied to Sweden’s national digital identity system.

The incident is raising alarm over the risks of centralized control as governments worldwide push similar schemes.

The group claims it breached CGI’s Swedish division and accessed code connected to the nation’s digital identity system, called BankID.

BankID is the single authentication system used by millions of Swedes for banking, taxes, government services, and digital signatures.

Blurb:

HARARE, Zimbabwe — HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe has detained the leading opponent to planned constitutional amendments that would extend the rule of the country’s 83-year-old president and make the post elected by Parliament, not the people. Former finance minister Tendai Biti was set to appear in court on Monday.

It’s the highest profile detention yet of critics of the attempt to allow President Emmerson Mnangagwa to extend his rule, due to end in 2028, by two years. Police in recent months have banned meetings or arrested people for gathering to express opposition.

Biti leads the Constitutional Defenders Forum, a group campaigning against the amendments. CDF spokesman Jacob Rukweza said Biti and programs director Morgan Ncube are accused of holding a public meeting without notifying police. They were detained on Saturday in the eastern city of Mutare.

Blurb:

 

So many schools seem unready for the surge of interest in TPUSA. In many cases, they’re making stupid mistakes in dealing with them.

The College Fix reports:

Manchester Comm. College violates state law, 1st Amendment by making TPUSA move table: claim

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has sent a letter challenging Manchester Community College’s decision to require a Turning Point USA table to change locations due to its “political nature.”

According to the March 18 letter from FIRE Campus Rights Advocacy Counsel Garrett Gravley to Manchester CC President Paul Beaudin, MCC TPUSA President Samuel Raiti set up a table last October at the school’s main entrance “in an area that did not obstruct pedestrian traffic.”

The school’s chapter of Turning Point USA is an officially recognized student organization.

Blurb:

Part 1 of a five-part Fox News Digital series investigation follows the money that created the “Revolutionary Base” for a transnational network of organizations allegedly waging cognitive warfare on U.S. citizens on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.

As far-left American activists flood Cuba to support its flailing communist regime, U.S. officials have opened a sprawling investigation into an anti-America, pro-China nonprofit network forged during a wedding celebration in late February 2017, off Runaway Bay on Jamaica’s northern coast.

There, beneath a canopy of palm trees, an elite cadre of activists, intellectuals, celebrities, political organizers and comrades in a global Marxist-Leninist-Maoist movement assembled to celebrate the “Revolutionary Love” of two luminaries, both 62 at the time: Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech tycoon living in Shanghai, and Jodie Evans, a red-haired veteran activist and co-founder of CodePink Women for Peace.

Like the opening scene of “The Godfather,” where powerful families consolidate power, the wedding celebration was about much more than the union of two people.

Blurb:

In an interview with Chinese “Professor” Jiang Xueqin, the two discussed the ideal new world order.

Tucker Carlson: Xueqin:  So what I would do is basically, basically sit down everyone, okay? Including Russia, China, Iran, and say, it’s time for a new world order where we are partners in this relationship. Right? Before America was a hegemon, before the US dollar was a world reserve currency. Uh, but now what we wanna do is open a dialogue where everyone is respected, where, um, America is, is no longer the bully, but a winning partner in creating a new economic order that benefits everyone and not just, and not just a few. Tucker: I, I think that’s the, the wisest possible advice and probably the only path that preserves civilization. Um, and, but they’re the one country standing in the way of that is Israel (Tucker Carlson on X).

Unsurprisingly, Tucker believes that the world would be a utopia without the Jews.