Media Matters hit with sweeping layoffs after defamation suit by Elon Musk, federal probes

https://nypost.com/2024/05/23/media/media-matters-hit-with-sweeping-layoffs-after-defamation-suit-by-elon-musk-federal-probes

Liberal watchdog Media Matters fired at least a dozen staffers Thursday — and management and some of the laid-off journalists blamed X owner Elon Musk for the cuts.

The billionaire mogul sued the Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization for defamation last November, accusing the company of manufacturing images showing advertisements from major companies alongside posts made by white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

The lawsuit led to federal probes by Republican Attorneys General Ken Paxton of Texas and Andrew Bailey of Missouri into the outlet for possible fraudulent activity by allegedly manipulating data on the site formerly known as Twitter.

Media Matters did not immediately return requests for comment but its president Angelo Carusone released a statement on Thursday regarding the layoffs.

“We’re confronting a legal assault on multiple fronts and given how rapidly the media landscape is shifting, we need to be extremely intentional about how we allocate resources in order to stay effective,” Carusone said.

“Nobody does what Media Matters does. So, we’re taking this action now to ensure that we are sustainable, sturdy and successful for whatever lies ahead.”

Ousted staffers took to social media Thursday to announce their sudden dismissal, with one having particularly harsh words for Musk.

“Bad News: I’ve been laid off from @mmfa, along with a dozen colleagues. There’s a reason far-right billionaires attack Media Matters with armies of lawyers: They know how effective our work is, and it terrifies them (him),” Kat Abughazaleh wrote.

The Post reached out to Musk for comment.

Other longtime Media Matters journalists lamented the layoffs.

“After nearly four years of working at media matters, I got laid off,” wrote a staffer named Beatrice. “So if anyone is looking for researchers with video experience, drop a line.”

“Journalism milestone achieved (got laid off),” now-former Media Matters writer Bobby Lewis added.

“Layoffs at Media Matters today. Lots of smart people available for jobs now,” said Jared Holt, a senior researcher at the Institute of Strategic Dialogue.

At the time of the Musk lawsuit, Carusone called it “meritless” and pointed out that “major brands” are “rightly skittish of partnering” with the social media platform.

The suit — which was filed in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas — is still winding through the judicial system.

Media Matters’ purge is the latest in a slew of layoffs in the industry — and notably at liberal outlets.

NowThis laid off half of its editorial team in February as part of a “broader initiative to realign our resources and structure to ensure a long-term sustainable business in the evolving media landscape,” The Daily Caller first reported.

The Intercept also laid off 15 staffers, including its editor in chief Roger Hodge, on the same day. Last month, The New York Times reported that the news site co-founded by Glenn Greenwald is running low on cash and that it is in danger of closing next year.

>nobody is gonna hire these faggot losers, getting what [they] deserve

>[laid off losers] will come here to shill for free

>Media Matters president Angelo Carusone

Google's new AI search feature has been recommending people drink urine ('light in color')

https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/googles-new-ai-search-feature-has-been-recommending-people-drink-urine-light-in-color-so-heres-how-to-turn-its-ai-overviews-off-to-avoid-such-dodgy-advice

Thankfully there are a couple different ways to opt-out of the new Google AI service it's automatically opting you into.

Google's revolutionising the search engine game using AI… obviously. And that means it's giving out worse advice than you'll find a president espousing during a global pandemic. Okay, it wasn't suggesting you inject bleach, but just prior to a full launch as Google's new AI Overviews feature it was recommending users drink a couple of litres of specifically light-coloured urine.

This was during its initial Lab testing phase, where it was called the Search Generative Experience (SGE), but it was still recommending the drinking of urine as an effective method for quickly passing kidney stones a week or so before Google announced it was rolling the feature out across the US.

Now called AI Overviews, the feature—which essentially seems to be replacing Featured Snippets at the top of a Google search page—is kicking off in the US first, with other territories "coming soon." Even apart from the dodgy AI-driven advice, we're not really here for it. To us it really looks like Google is intent on breaking the internet it helped create, and not for the benefit of anyone apart from itself. But because it is based on current generative AI technology, with all its flaws, you are going to get more erroneous advice than you would if it was just serving up different pages with actual authority and expertise for you to go check out yourself.

Instead, it's doing the classic AI thing of presenting completely incorrect information as factually accurate with complete confidence in its fuzzy thinking. As one user states looking for ways to disable these overviews: "I'm more than capable of misinterpreting internet articles on my own."

Google has learned some things in its Lab phase, however, and our own experts have seen it generating fewer AI Overviews than in testing, and it's more readily citing its sources, too. It's also gotten smaller than it was in earlier iterations, so it's not taking up as much search page real estate.

Morgan Spurlock, ‘Super Size Me’ filmmaker, dead at 53

https://nypost.com/2024/05/24/entertainment/morgan-spurlock-dead-super-size-me-filmmaker-dies-at-53/

Morgan Spurlock, the documentary filmmaker best known for “Super Size Me,” has died. He was 53.

He died Thursday night from complications of cancer, The Post can confirm.

“It was a sad day, as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan,” his brother Craig Spurlock to the outlet. “Morgan gave so much through his art, ideas and generosity. Today the world has lost a true creative genius and a special man. I am so proud to have worked together with him.”

Born in 1970 in Parkersburg, West Virginia, Spurlock graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1993.

He got his start in the entertainment industry as a playwright, winning awards for his 1999 play “The Phoenix” at the New York Fringe Festival.

Shades of Crimson Harvard student goes off script in commencement speech to rip school as more than 1,000 walk out

https://nypost.com/2024/05/24/us-news/more-than-1000-walk-out-of-harvard-graduation-in-protest

A Harvard University commencement speaker went dramatically off script to blast the Ivy League school for barring a handful of those involved in a disruptive anti-Israeli encampment — before more than 1,000 students also staged a walkout.

Shruthi Kumar, the Harvard senior selected to deliver the English address Thursday, pulled out a piece of paper containing controversial remarks hidden up the sleeve of her gown and took aim at university leaders over the decision to deny more than a dozen students their diplomas.

“As I stand here today, I must take a moment to recognize my peers—the 13 undergraduates in the class of 2024 that will not graduate today,” Kumar told the crowd, according to a video posted by Harvard.

“I am deeply disappointed by the intolerance for freedom of speech and their right to civil disobedience on campus,” she said of the protests, which famously replaced the American flag with a Palestinian one.

BOOGIE DON BRONX https://nypost.com/2024/05/23/us-news/trump-vows-to-make-nyc-great-again-at-boisterous-crotona-park-rally

Celebrities from across the world have descended upon Cannes for the Film Festival, but some were surprised to see the Son of God on the red carpet.

The Cannes Film Festival is currently taking place in the South of France and celebrities from across the globe have travelled to the coastal area to celebrate films and parade on the red carpet.

70s music legend Iggy Pop was among the A-Listers making waves with their fashion statements at the annual event, casually rocking up in flip flops and a bare chest as he took his punk rock style to the next level.

In a very different move, Cate Blanchett appeared to wear a secret Palestinian flag on the red carpet. The symbolic sign was revealed when she held up her black dress to reveal a white and green lining that looked very much like the colours supporting the war-torn state. Elsewhere, taking fashion statements to a whole other level, one guest appeared on the red carpet wearing a white cape with an image of Jesus draped across the stairs at the event.

The guest was unidentified but supported the film The Count of Monte Cristo which had its world premiere at the festival.

https://metro.co.uk/2024/05/23/jesus-christ-makes-unlikely-red-carpet-debut-cannes-20899360

Are Russia and North Korea planning an ‘October surprise’ that aids Trump?

U.S. officials are bracing for Pyongyang to take military actions close to the U.S. presidential election, possibly at the urging of Vladimir Putin.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is increasingly concerned that the intensifying military alliance between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could vastly expand Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities and increase tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, six senior U.S. officials told NBC News.

U.S. officials are also bracing for North Korea to potentially take its most provocative military actions in a decade close to the U.S. presidential election, possibly at Putin’s urging, the officials said.

The timing, they said, could be designed to create turmoil in yet another part of the world as Americans decide whether to send President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump back to the White House.

“We have no doubt that North Korea will be provocative this year. It’s just a matter of how escalatory it is,” a U.S. intelligence official said. U.S. intelligence officials accused Russia of interfering in the 2016 election to help elect Trump. The Biden administration had tense relations with Russia, which collapsed after it invaded Ukraine in 2022.

With Putin expected to visit North Korea to meet with Kim in the coming weeks, U.S. officials expect them to solidify a new deal to expand transfers of military technology to Pyongyang. “2024 is not going to be a good year,” said Victor Cha, senior vice president for Asia and Korea chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It’s going to be a bit of a roller coaster.”

U.S. intelligence officials believe Putin is providing North Korea with nuclear submarine and ballistic missile technology in exchange for Pyongyang’s sending Russia large amount of munitions for its war in Ukraine, the senior U.S. officials said. North Korea provides Russia with more munitions than Europe provides to Ukraine, including millions of artillery shells.

Officials are also concerned that Russia might help North Korea complete the final steps needed to field its first submarine able to launch a nuclear-armed missile.

In September, North Korea unveiled a submarine, based on an old Soviet model, but U.S. officials said Pyongyang was most likely exaggerating its capabilities. They said the submarine still needed additional technology before it could deploy or launch a nuclear-armed missile.

Despite repeatedly offering to begin talks without any conditions, the U.S. has had no significant dialogue with the Kim regime for three years, the officials said. The administration reached out to North Korea again this year, but it did not respond.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/are-russia-north-korea-planning-october-surprise-aids-trump-rcna153828

/ourdoge/ has died

>Kabo=chan

Kabosu, the dog behind the 'doge' internet meme, has died

“She quietly passed away as if asleep while I caressed her,” the dog’s owner Atsuko Sato, a kindergarten teacher from the city of Sakura in Japan, wrote on Friday.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kabosu-dog-doge-internet-meme-died-rcna4472

Kabosu, the shiba inu dog whose quizzical expression starred in an array of "doge" internet memes, has died, its owner said Friday.

A picture of Kabosu with a slight side-eyed look went viral around 2013 on Tumblr and various online chatrooms, before it became known as "doge," one of the most iconic and recognized images of the social web era.

The dog’s owner, Atsuko Sato, 62, a kindergarten teacher from the city of Sakura in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, confirmed the news in a poignant poem on her blog on Friday.

“At 7:50 a.m. I fell into a deep sleep,” she wrote. Sato said she would hold a farewell party for “Kabo-chan” on Sunday.

"She quietly passed away as if asleep while I caressed her," Sato wrote, according to a translation by the AFP news agency. "I think Kabo-chan was the happiest dog in the world. And I was the happiest owner."

Kabosu's face has been featured in countless social posts and even became the face of a cryptocurrency. A non-fungible token, or NFT, of the image was sold in 2021 for $4 million.

Dogecoin paid tribute to the dog on X, saying she was a "being who knew only happiness and limitless love."

https://youtu.be/hE74Ts_C7tk

Hunter Biden’s ex-wife to testify after text messages released

-Robert Gouveia ESQ

>>20909438

drug test - what will it reveal? I wonder if Trump will make that happen before the debate and it will show cocaine use….after all, Trump has said specifically that Joe does cocaine, so he's got the intel that can prove it, just needs to make the drug test happen…

do all Bidens do coke?