The speed and voracity with which Republicans have shed the mask speaks to their glee in being able to do so.

The instructions were published Tuesday in a Defense Intelligence Agency memo obtained by The Associated Press and affect 11 annual events, including Black History Month, which begins Saturday, and National Hispanic Heritage Month.

The other annual events listed in the DIA memo are Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, National American Indian Heritage Month, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, Women’s Equality Day and Women’s History Month.

...

It also noted a pause on “special observances” hosted throughout the year. While Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth were included, the memo said the change would not affect those national holidays.

Here is the list of special observances. Can't be observing things like Harriet Tubman Day or National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day (or, "Loser Day", as Trump would call it).

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked at a briefing Tuesday whether Black History Month would cease to be celebrated.

“As far as I know, this White House certainly still intends to celebrate, and we will continue to celebrate American history and the contributions that all Americans, regardless of race, religion or creed, have made to our great country,” she said.

Any bets on how long before Black History Month gets renamed to American History Month?

Grim Dawn is a diablo-like ARPG, kickstarted in 2012 as the debut title from Crate Entertainment, an indie studio made up of devs from Iron Lore (who made the Titan Quest games). The devs describe it thus:

Players are thrust into the dark, war-torn world of Cairn where a once proud empire has been brought to ruin and the human race driven to the edge of extinction. Cairn has become ground zero of an eternal war between two otherworldly powers, one seeking to use human bodies as a resource, the other intent upon destroying the human race before that can happen. This cataclysmic war has not only decimated human civilization but is warping the very fabric of reality and, in its wake, giving life to new horrors.

I cannot recommend it highly enough if you enjoy the old-school style ARPGs. It hits perfectly on the loot-drop gameplay loop, class variety and differentiation, and world design (and it has excellent co-op!). Check out the homepage for guides, or the Steam page for the trailers.

It's on sale on Steam for $2.50 USD right now, which is 90% off of its normal price. It is an absolute steal at this price. If you're interested but still don't want to pay that for it, DM me.

A lead organization monitoring for food crises around the world withdrew a new report this week warning of imminent famine in north Gaza under what it called Israel’s “near-total blockade,” after the U.S. asked for its retraction, U.S. officials told The Associated Press. The move follows public criticism of the report from the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

The rare public challenge from the Biden administration of the work of the U.S.-funded Famine Early Warning System, which is meant to reflect the data-driven analysis of unbiased experts, drew accusations from aid and human-rights figures of possible U.S. political interference. A finding of famine would be a public rebuke of Israel, which has insisted that its 15-month war in Gaza is aimed against the Hamas militant group and not against its civilian population.

Bruh...

Good piece on the intersection between technology and politics, and the influence that the US government has on US-based technology companies.

Missouri voters on Tuesday resoundingly approved an amendment to overturn the state’s near-total abortion ban, making it the first state to do so in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which eliminated federal constitutional protection of abortion. The passage of Amendment 3, which enshrines reproductive rights in the state constitution, signals the potential to begin restoring access to health care in a swath of the country that has become an abortion desert.

“The people of Missouri — be they Democrat, Republican, or independent — have resoundingly declared that they don’t want politicians involved in their private medical decisions,” said Rachel Sweet, campaign manager for Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the umbrella organization for the Yes on 3 campaign.

Taking the wins where I can, today...

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/16537189

Selected the wrong WorldNews community (lemmy.ml) -_-

The Generals’ Plan was presented to the parliament last month by a group of retired generals and high-ranking officers, according to publicly available minutes. Since then, officials from the prime minister’s office called seeking more details, according to its chief architect, Giora Eiland, a former head of the National Security Council.

Israeli media reported that Netanyahu told a closed parliamentary defense committee session that he was considering the plan.

Eiland said the only way to stop Hamas and bring an end to the yearlong war is to prevent its access to aid.

“They will either have to surrender or to starve,” Eiland said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re going to kill every person,” he said. “It will not be necessary. People will not be able to live there (the north). The water will dry up.”

...

When asked if the evacuation orders in northern Gaza marked the first stages of the “Generals’ Plan,” Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said no.

“We have not received a plan like that,” he added.

But one official with knowledge of the matter said parts of the plan are already being implemented, without specifying which parts. A second official, who is Israeli, said Netanyahu “had read and studied” the plan, “like many plans that have reached him throughout the war,” but didn’t say whether any of it had been adopted. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, because the plan isn’t supposed to be discussed publicly.

On Sunday, Israel launched an offensive against Hamas fighters in the Jabaliya refugee camp north of the city. No trucks of food, water or medicine have entered the north since Sept. 30, according to the U.N. and the website of the Israeli military agency overseeing humanitarian aid crossings.

The Generals’ Plan was presented to the parliament last month by a group of retired generals and high-ranking officers, according to publicly available minutes. Since then, officials from the prime minister’s office called seeking more details, according to its chief architect, Giora Eiland, a former head of the National Security Council.

Israeli media reported that Netanyahu told a closed parliamentary defense committee session that he was considering the plan.

Eiland said the only way to stop Hamas and bring an end to the yearlong war is to prevent its access to aid.

“They will either have to surrender or to starve,” Eiland said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re going to kill every person,” he said. “It will not be necessary. People will not be able to live there (the north). The water will dry up.”

...

When asked if the evacuation orders in northern Gaza marked the first stages of the “Generals’ Plan,” Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said no.

“We have not received a plan like that,” he added.

But one official with knowledge of the matter said parts of the plan are already being implemented, without specifying which parts. A second official, who is Israeli, said Netanyahu “had read and studied” the plan, “like many plans that have reached him throughout the war,” but didn’t say whether any of it had been adopted. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, because the plan isn’t supposed to be discussed publicly.

On Sunday, Israel launched an offensive against Hamas fighters in the Jabaliya refugee camp north of the city. No trucks of food, water or medicine have entered the north since Sept. 30, according to the U.N. and the website of the Israeli military agency overseeing humanitarian aid crossings.

Been working on a cyberdeck project for a few days, using it to learn woodworking and wiring. Currently have the front and rear panels cut and attach-able, and the PSU wired up to supply enough power for the rPi 5.

Still have to finish the handle and side panels, and wire up the second PSU for supplying the fans, screen, and temp sensor. Also have to plan, assemble, and install the keyboard. Lastly, I'll paint and lacquer the case panels.

I'm trying to hew more closely to a Shadowrun-esque deck design, rather than the clamshell designs that are more popular now.

Gallery

Some photos from during the California Camp Fire, taken in SF during the daytime

Hello Bees!

I've got a couple of projects lined up that I want to use SBCs (single-board computers) for, and I admit that I have very little knowledge about how the different SBCs from different manufacturers compare to each other, so I figured I'd get y'all's help.

Project 1: Portable media server

This is something I've been wanting for a while in order to make long car trips that involve low or no internet access more enjoyable. The basic idea I have is an SBC with a 2-4 M.2 SSDs, wireless, and bluetooth, that I can load up with media and run Jellyfin on, and then connect to with whatever devices I have around (whether that's a tablet, a smart tv in a hotel, etc). I want to do this as an SBC versus on a laptop partially so I can power it off my car more easily, and potentially have the car play music from it while driving.

I'm leaning towards something like the CM3588 from FriendlyElec is where I'm leaning, so I could RAID 5 some 4TB M.2 SSDs and get ~11.5TB usable (which would match my current Jellyfin home server setup). I'd love to hear if thoughts on this for this kind of portable use case, and any recommendations on alternatives, or other routes to explore.

Project 2: Miniature AI Machine

I've enjoyed experimenting with LLMs and StableDiffusion, and I want to make something a little faster and more targeted towards AI without building a 5U GPU server (nor do I have a spare $14.5k for a barebones setup of one). I've seen SBCs targeting AI use via baked-in NPUs, or with NPU expansion slots, and I'm interested in what y'all think about this approach.

I've also seen people with rPi clusters ostensibly for ML applications, but never any real write-ups on how these perform compared to a regular (E-)ATX machine with a high-end GPU.

Talking about JD Vance, he said

And I gotta tell you, I can't wait to debate the guy.

That is, if he's willing to get off the couch and show up.

...See what I did there?

The rest of his speech is worth a watch, to see just how good of a pick he really was.