Attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans
January 1st, 2025Update: Multiple Suspects
Via: Daily Mail:
The FBI said they do not believe the terrorist acted alone, and surveillance footage captured three men and a woman placing one of multiple improvised explosive devices in the area, according to the Associated Press.
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Update: Shamsud Din Jabbar Was a U.S. Citizen
This is originally from YouTube:
Shamsud Din Jabbar from YouTube four years ago. pic.twitter.com/6Q4UE546OS
— cryptogon (@cryptogon) January 1, 2025
Via: AP:
Jabbar was a US citizen, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.
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Update: Suspect Is 42-Year-Old Shamsud Din Jabbar, Had ISIS Flag on Vehicle
Via: The Advocate:
The suspect accused of plowing a truck through a crowd on Bourbon Street early Wednesday morning has been identified by a law enforcement source as 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar.
Police fatally shot him after the attack, which killed 10 people and injured 35.
The source said Jabbar was carrying an ISIS flag in the truck, and authorities have said he was dressed in military gear.
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Update: Suspect Shot Dead After Gun Battle with Police
Via: Daily Mail:
A terrorist who killed at least 10 people and injured 35 others after plowing a vehicle into a crowd celebrating New Year on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street has been killed, sources say.
The driver rammed into the large group at high speed, then got out and started firing a weapon, witnesses said. Investigators later added that they found what appeared to be improvised explosives at the crash site that did not detonate.
A shootout between police and the suspect ensued, and two officers were shot by the suspect and are in stable condition.
Police sources later told the New York Times that the suspect was deceased following the shootout. No information about the suspect’s identity has been released.
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Via: New York Post:
At least 10 people were killed and dozens injured when a driver rammed a truck into crowds on the famed Bourbon Street in New Orleans before reportedly jumping out and opening fire — just hours after the city rang in the New Year, according to officials and multiple reports.
The mass casualty incident unfolded at the intersection of Bourbon and Canal streets in the French Quarter neighborhood around 3:15 a.m. — close to where revelers had gathered to watch the city’s New Year’s Eve fireworks, city officials said.
Ten people were dead and at least 30 others were hospitalized in the wake of the ordeal, according to NOLA Ready, the city’s emergency preparedness agency.
U.S. Treasury Says Chinese Hackers Stole Documents in ‘Major Incident’
January 1st, 2025Via: Reuters:
Chinese state-sponsored hackers breached the U.S. Treasury Department’s computer security guardrails this month and stole documents in what Treasury called a “major incident,” according to a letter to lawmakers that Treasury officials provided to Reuters on Monday.
The hackers compromised third-party cybersecurity service provider BeyondTrust and were able to access unclassified documents, the letter said.
U.S. Announces $5.9 Billion in Military and Budget Aid to Ukraine
December 31st, 2024Let’s pause to remember this moment in Congress when Mike Johnson gave the Democrats the billions of dollars they wanted for Ukraine. The House Sergeant at Arms threatened to fine me for sharing this video. That same man still works for Mike Johnson.pic.twitter.com/wvFKr3Xzph
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 30, 2024
Via: Reuters:
The United States on Monday announced nearly $6 billion in additional military and budget assistance for Ukraine as President Joe Biden uses his final weeks in office to surge aid to Kyiv before President-elect Donald Trump takes power.
Orbit by Mozilla: “AI You Can Trust”
December 31st, 2024“Easily summarize emails, docs, articles, and videos across the web — without sacrificing your privacy.”
Mmm hmm.
In the first entry of Orbit’s frequently asked questions, “How does Orbit work?” we read:
For the current version, we are using a Mistral LLM (Mistral 7B) hosted within Mozilla’s GCP instance.
In case you don’t know, and I assume Mozilla didn’t spell it out on purpose, GCP stands for Google Cloud Platform.
Mozilla is so concerned with my privacy that this supposedly privacy focused AI assistant is hosted on Google’s infrastructure.
Well, that’s just ******* great.
*sigh*
Mozilla goes on to apply a soothing balm of meaningless words:
Does Orbit save the content of the pages I visit or summaries generated?
No, it does not.
When you use Orbit, we receive a payload back that contains the contents of your query; information about the model queried (such as the name and version number); information about technical problems with processing the query, if any; the number of tokens required to process the query; and the model outputs in response to the query. We do not store this data beyond temporarily caching it to process your query and return the outputs to you.
Orbit summaries are only available on the page that you are actually on. As soon as you navigate away from that page, Orbit erases the session.
Ok. They state the contents of the payload that comes back.
However, when a user queries Orbit, what exactly is sent to GCP instance?
Even assuming Mozilla is telling the truth about not storing anything (I wouldn’t believe this/no way to verify), what is Google storing about you, me and everyone else who uses Orbit?
Hmm.
China Claims to Have Found ‘Supergiant’ Gold Deposit
December 30th, 2024Via: Science Alert:
A “supergiant” deposit of high-quality gold ore containing an estimated 1,000 metric tons (1,100 US tons) of the precious metal has been discovered in central China, according to Chinese state media.
Valued at up to approximately 600 billion yuan or US$83 billion, the discovery could be one of the largest and most lucrative reservoirs of gold ever uncovered, surpassing the 900 metric tons estimated to lie within the mother of all gold reserves, South Deep mine in South Africa.
U.S. Homelessness Epidemic Explodes Under Biden-Harris
December 30th, 2024Via: ZeroHedge:
The latest Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, released by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), reveals that homelessness across the United States has surged to record highs during the Biden-Harris administration. This is largely attributed to the ongoing housing affordability crisis. Additionally, Biden-Harris’ disastrous open southern border policies unleashed untold millions of illegal aliens, compounding the problem as Democrat-run cities are giving free hotel rooms to illegals while their own homeless populations suffer.
HUD’s report found 770,000 people were ‘experiencing homelessness’ on a single night in January 2024, an 18% jump from 2023 figures. This number does not include the nation’s entire homeless population because some stay with friends or family.
The figure follows a dramatic 12% rise in homelessness in 2023, and is the highest since the country began using the yearly point-in-time survey in 2007.
Forbes: Global Warming Probably Caused Cold Weather Deaths to Double in U.S. Between 1999 and 2022
December 30th, 2024Comedy Gold.
Via: Forbes:
The number of people who died in the United States from cold weather-related causes more than doubled between 1999 and 2022, according to an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Thursday, and scientists say increasing extreme winter weather events due to climate change could be to blame.
Walking Tour of Downtown Oakland, California
December 28th, 2024It’s not quite the case that, “No businesses” can survive there. I wonder what all those Chinese businesses, without any customers, are actually doing???
Via: Metal Leo:
Apple Photos Phones Home on iOS 18 and macOS 15
December 28th, 2024Apple privacy:
In case anyone thinks this is somehow an endorsement of Windows, see: Pointless Rant About Hopeless Situation.
Via: Jeff Johnson:
From my own perspective, computing privacy is simple: if something happens entirely on my computer, then it’s private, whereas if my computer sends data to the manufacturer of the computer, then it’s not private, or at least not entirely private. Thus, the only way to guarantee computing privacy is to not send data off the device.
…
It ought to be up to the individual user to decide their own tolerance for the risk of privacy violations. In this specific case, I have no tolerance for risk, because I simply have no interest in the Enhanced Visual Search feature, even if it happened to work flawlessly. There’s no benefit to outweigh the risk. By enabling the “feature” without asking, Apple disrespects users and their preferences. I never wanted my iPhone to phone home to Apple.
Related: ‘Apple’s Best Product Is Now Privacy’
Aaron Siri on Tucker Carlson
December 28th, 2024The New York Times claims the evil Bobby Kennedy wants to ban the polio vaccine and paralyze children. That’s an absurd lie, explains his lawyer Aaron Siri.
(0:00) The Establishment’s Attempt to Discredit Bobby Kennedy Jr.
(8:18) The Vaccine Religion
(18:57) Did Anyone Protest… pic.twitter.com/li0KhP5aye— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) December 27, 2024
