#and the american tech sponsors

[topnotchquark]

Behind F1's Velvet Curtain

This article by Kate Wagner on her INEOS sponsored trip to the Austin GP at COTA last year was commissioned by Road and Track magazine and then taken down. Presumably because Kate has was pretty staunch in her opinions about what was essentially a paid trip.

It is exactly the kind of thing I have wanted to read about the felt experience of the money business of F1. It doesn't get into technicalities and does not produce any spreadsheets for reference. It's just, her experience of the presence of wealth in the sport.

She starts off by talking about how she has been covering cycling and NASCAR for a while now and both of those, in comparison, are scrappier sports with smaller sponsors and cheaper tickets.

What I also especially loved was how fascinated she was with the cars themselves, and how they seem like a true marvel of human engineering. She almost described the cars like these alien beasts that came into this dimension out of nowhere and were being constantly monitored and dueled with to furnish wins and glory (and shareholder value for sponsors).

I think I always had an understanding of the weird myth making surrounding F1 and the kind of media attention it attracts, but someone like Kate (who I have loved reading for a while now) putting it into perspective really made it click for me. This sport thrives off of the kind of cocoon it has built around it and understands exactly the certain exclusiveness it needs to maintain to keep the story alive.

Anyway, give it a read, especially because Road and Track is trying to bury it to not piss off sponsors.

#I think matt oxley was talking about how motogp has been struggling with money and hence dorna is trying to woo the American market #and the american tech sponsors #but bikes don't require as much data driven performance engineering as f1 cars do #Ducati is probably leading the operation in this regard because they have audi behind them #anyway I knew motogp does not produce the same level of wealth but I still decided to check numbers #Marc's net worth is $25Mn and he is arguably the best driver of his generation with enough sponsors behind him #Max's net worth in comparison is $165Mn easily over 6 times that of Marc #Vale's net worth is $200Mn but he is still somewhat of an outlier because his popularity far outweighs that of motogp itself #Lewis is still around $300Mn and he hasn't even retired yet #Schumacher was around $800Mn #I know net worth is a very stupid number to consider but driver net worth is an easy way to translate impact ig #the current Max to Mercedes rumours caused Merc valuation to rise by $11Bn #Billion! 11 of them! #honestly I frequently get desensitized to money just purely as a number because I am exposed to businesses with large valuations but #I still wanted a moment to reconsider how much money rides on this sport #and how that ties to how rich people function #just made me remember that Ocon is the last driver from a working class background #Fernando and Lewis are the only other with working class beginnings and both of them are over 35 and ridiculously talented #its not a sport for regular people to break into #Vale also started with karts and had to shift to bikes #anyway I love Kate Wagner please read this #and talk to me about money and F1 #Kate wagner #f1 #formula 1 #road and track magazine #lewis hamiton #mercedes amg petronas f1 team #Mercedes #INEOS

[fullhalalalchemist]

it is 8/26/22 and all i can think about is the idea we might live to see the literal death of internet anonymity/privacy in the span of a few months because of AB2273 (California bill that might get passed into law by next week) and all be forced to upload our government ID's online since most social media companies are based out of Cali. lmao. and the fact that the bill wasn't even written by americans it was literally written by some random British royal and she paid the California legislative to sponsor the bill. what the fuck. oh and yes, they are playing this off as a "protecting the children" type BS. and yes, nearly every tech expert/internet/cybersecurity expert who's heard about this bill (and there's not many because it's a state law and not a federal law but it's an internet bill that will impact the entire web) is properly freaking the fuck out right now, as they should.

anyway, please call governor newsom (yes even if you dont live in Cali) and tell him to veto this horrible bill.

Phone: [phone]

call/email script posted under the cut

I am calling you today to urge you to vote NO on AB 2273, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act. Tech experts and internet safety experts are rightfully worried that this dangerous bill would end the free and open internet as we know it, as well as actively harm children.

It targets websites "accessed by kids", anyone under 18, which is every website on the internet. It's being sold as protecting privacy for kids, but it forces websites to verify everyone's ages, and the only way to do that is to submit your govt ID or scan your face to third-party sites. This will lead to warrantless surveillance of everyone. This is coming at a time where people are being charged with felonies for accessing abortion care online, and being fired for posting pro-LGBT content online. More surveillance will literally ruin people's lives and get people killed.

This will force websites to surveil everyone and kill encryption, and with increasing right-wing attacks on minorities, abortion, and LGBT, this could spell a death-sentence for people.

Professor Eric Goldman claims this law will destroy the entire internet, and he is right. We need privacy protection, but not like this. This destroys our privacy, our 1st amendment rights, and our human and civil rights. You can't block children from the internet, to protect them you need parental oversight, not governmental or private from companies.

VOTE NO on this bill if you care about privacy, the open internet, freedom, and stopping right-wing attacks on our democracy and human rights.

#ab 2273 #ab2273 #california #internet #earn it act #net neutrality #privacy

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Elon Musk Is Trying to Break Another Democracy

X’s chief troll is inciting a “censorship” moral panic in Brazil, undermining the democratically elected government’s efforts to squash far-right extremism.

Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil who is barred from seeking public office until 2030, held a grievance-laden rally Sunday in Rio de Janeiro. Against the alluring backdrop of Copacabana Beach, and before thousands of supporters clad in the national colors of yellow and green, he decried his opponents while celebrating one man in particular: 

Now they accuse the richest man in the world, a man who was born in South Africa, who was naturalized as an American, who owns a platform whose aim is to make the whole world free, which is X, our old Twitter. A man who really seeks to preserve liberty for all of us, a man who had the courage to show, with some evidence, more will surely follow, where our democracy is headed, how much freedom we’ve already lost. I now respectfully ask for a round of applause for Elon Musk. 

Almost overnight, Musk, the graceless tech overlord and self-proclaimed free speech absolutist (who is anything but), has become a heroic figure among the reactionary right of Latin America’s largest nation. One rally-goer told The Guardian that Musk “is supporting Brazil against this shameless bloody dictatorship that we have in this country,” and another insisted that “Elon Musk has been an essential guy for us. God has used this man to expose the dictatorship that has taken hold in Brazil to the whole word. He is a crucial tool.” A bolsonarista member of Congress told the crowd that “Elon Musk is definitely watching what is happening here right now.”

There’s no doubt about that, as Musk’s X timeline shows—but he’s doing much more than simply watching. After years of overtures from the Brazilian right, Musk earlier this month finally plunged headlong into the country’s raging politics in a way that may sound familiar to Americans: Portraying himself as politically agnostic, and interested only in defending free speech, he is in fact taking the side of authoritarian, antidemocratic forces whose claims about government-sponsored censorship are a disingenuous rhetorical cover for attacking the rule of law.

Continue reading.

#brazil #brazilian politics #politics #elon musk #twitter #supreme federal court #alexandre de moraes #mod nise da silveira #image description in alt

[georgegraphys]

2024 team sponsors recap!

this is completely irrelevant to F1 but i study and do these stuffs for a living sooo 😩😩 2023 sponsors are based on the sponsors that are there at the beginning of the season (new sponsors that join in the middle of the season will be classified as 2024's)

Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team:

New sponsors: Whatsapp, Luminar (American tech company), SAP (German software company), nuvei (Canadian credit card services), Sherwin Williams (American painting company) 2024 data last update: 2024/02/14

Old sponsors that left: Monster Energy, Pure Storage (American technology company), fastly (American cloud computing services), Axalta (American painting company), Eight sleep (American mattresses company) 2023 data last update: 2023/01/07

Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team:

New sponsors: Yeti (American cooler manufacturer, joined later in 2023), APL (American footwear/athletic apparel manufacturer, joined later in 2023), CDW (American IT company, joined later in 2023), Sui (American tech app by Mysten Labs, joined later in 2023), Patron Tequila (Mexican alcoholic beverages company, joined later in 2023) 2024 data last update: 2024/02/15

Old sponsors that left: CashApp, Walmart, Therabody (American wellness technology company), Ocean Bottle (Norwegian reusable bottle manufacturer), PokerStars (Costa Rican gambling site), Alpha Tauri (? no info if they're official partners or not but Austrian clothing company made by Red Bull), BMC (Switzerland bicycle/cycling manufacturer), Esso (American fuel company, subsidiary of ExxonMobil), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (American technology company) 2023 data last update: 2023/03/07

More: Esso is a subsidiary of Mobil so there's possibility they merged or something

Scuderia Ferrari:

New sponsors: VGW Play (Australian tech game company, joined later in 2023), DXC Technology (American IT company, joined later in 2023), Peroni (Italian brewing company), Z Capital Group/ZCG (American private asset management/merchant bank company), Celsius (Swedish energy drink manufacturer) 2024 data last update: 2024/02/15

Old sponsors that left: Mission Winnow (American content lab by Phillip Morris International aka Marlboro), Estrella Garcia (Spanish alcoholic beverages manufacturer), Frecciarossa (Italian high speed train company) 2023 data last update: 2023/02/16

More: Mission Winnow is a part of Phillip Morris International. They are no longer listed as team sponsor but PMI is listed instead.

(starting here, 2023 data last update is 2023/02/23 and 2024 data last update is 2024/02/15)

McLaren F1 Team: (Only McLaren RACING's data is available idk if some of these are XE/FE team partners but anw..)

New sponsors: Monster Energy, Salesforce (American cloud based software company, joined later in 2023), Estrella Garcia (Spanish alcoholic beverages manufacturer), Dropbox (American file hosting company), Workday (American system software company, joined later in 2023), Ecolab (American water purification/hygiene company), Airwallex (Australian financial tech company), Optimum Nutrition (American nutritional supplement manufacturer), Halo ITSM (American software company, joined later in 2023), Udemy (American educational tech company, joined later in 2023), New Era (American cap manufacturer, joined in 2023), K-Swiss (American shoes manufacturer, joined later in 2023), Alpinestars (Italian motorsports safety equipment manufacturer)

Old sponsors that left: DP World (Emirati logistics company), EasyPost (American shipping API company), Immersive Labs (UK cybersecurity training company?), Logitech, Mind (UK mental health charity), PartyCasino (UK? online casino site), PartyPoker (American? gambling site), Sparco (Italian auto part & accessory manufacturer), Tezos (Switzerland crypto company)

Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team:

New sponsors: Valvoline (American retail automotives service company, joined later in 2023), NexGen (Canadian sustainable? fuel company), Banco Master (Brazilian digital banking platform, joined later in 2023), ServiceNow (American software company, joined later in 2023), Regent Seven Seas Cruise, Wolfgang Puck (Austrian-American chef and restaurant owner, joined later in 2023), Financial Times (British business newspaper), OMP (Italian racing safety equipment manufacturer), stichd (Netherlands fashion & apparel manufacturer)

Old sponsors that left: Alpinestars (Italian motorsports safety equipment manufacturer), crypto.com (Singaporean cryptocurrency company), ebb3 (UK? software company), Pelmark (UK fashion and apparel manufacturer), Peroni (Italian brewing company), Porto Seguro (Brazilian insurance company), Socios (Malta's blockchain-based platform), XP (Brazilian investment company)

Stake F1 Team (prev. Alfa Romeo):

???? Can't found their website (might be geoblocked in my country???)

BWT Alpine F1 Team:

New sponsors: MNTN (American software company), H. Moser & Cie (Switzerland watch manufacturer), Amazon Music

Old sponsors that left: Bell & Ross (French watch company), Ecowatt (??? afaik French less-energy smthn smthn company), Elysium (French? American? Software company), KX (UK software company), Plug (American electrical equipment manufacturing company)

Visa CashApp RB F1 Team (prev. Scuderia Alpha Tauri):

New Sponsors: Visa, CashApp, Hugo Boss, Tudor, Neft Vodka (Austrian alcoholic beverages company), Piquadro (Italian luxury bag manufacturer)

Old sponsors that left: Buzz (?), Carl Friedrik (UK travel goods manufacturer), Flex Box (Hongkong? shipping containers manufacturer), GMG (Emirati global wellbeing company), RapidAPI (American API company)

Haas F1 Team:

New sponsors: New Era (American cap manufacturer, joined later in 2023)

Old sponsors that left: Hantec Markets (Hongkong capital markets company), OpenSea (American NFT/Crypto company)

Williams Racing:

New sponsors: Komatsu, MyProtein (British bodybuilding supplement), Kraken (American crypto company, joined later in 2023), VAST Data (American tech company), Ingenuity Commerce (UK e-commerce platform), Puma (joined later in 2023)

Old sponsors that left: Acronis (Swiss software company), Bremont (British watch manufacturer), Dtex Systems (American? cybersecurity company), Financial Times (British business newspaper), Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts, KX (UK software company), OMP (Italian racing safety equipment manufacturer), PPG (American painting manufacturer), Umbro (English sports equipment manufacturer), Zeiss (German opticals/optometrics manufacturing company)

#mercedes amg petronas #red bull racing #scuderia ferrari #visa cash app rb #haas f1 team #mclaren f1 #aston martin #alpine f1 #williams racing #stake f1 team #f1 #ari's rant #sponsor talks

[theliterarywolf]

Hey, you don't think that future generations are royally fucked, do you? I mean, is it really too late to educate our kids for the real world. I sure hope not.

It depends on several factors, really: the school a teen goes to, the teachers a teen has, and parental/guardian involvement.

Because, look at me: before getting hired at my current virtual teaching job, I was at a private school that crowed about presenting opportunities and strict tech-focused curriculum for disenfranchised students.

The wi-fi would go out every other hour, the school didn't have enough computers for the students, and teachers (myself mostly) were constantly told that our curriculum was 'too hard'.

When, in actuality, it was just trying to get students used to meeting the technical length for a paragraph (200 words).

And then, of course, parents and guardians have to take some initiative with their students' learning; I'm sorry, even the most passionate educator can only do so much in the few hours a day they have with kids when they're just going to go home and have none of the parameters established in school reinforced at home.

There's a reason why there's the growing schism between educators and parents/guardians: because the prior's core job is supposed to be educating and preparing students' with applicable career and citizenship skills. Yet too many parents, particularly in the U.S., send their students to school thinking that it's basically government-sponsored babysitting.

So, of course, that schism has allowed the lazier of administrations and educators to come in, throw their hands into the air, and say 'well, the kids don't care anyway; why not just let them use ChatGPT and AI and just push them along to the next grade?'

Because, the way that things are going, the young adults graduating out of American high schools in the coming years aren't going to have half of the rudimentary skills that young adults graduated with ten years ago, allowing job gaps that will gladly be occupied by foreign graduates, and then the ouroboros of 'all the good jobs keep going to foreigners' will continue so on and forever ad nauseum.

[sapphicscholar]

Hey so remember how I posted yesterday about how it’s not a great idea to be condescending to people assuming the worst about the surveillance state and the role of the internet and tech companies in upholding and enforcing it? Well anyway, here’s an important thread on the House’s Section 702 “reform” bill, scheduled for a floor vote ASAP (as early as Dec. 12), which would be one of the largest expansions of surveillance within the US (accessible text below the images along with links to the linked articles)

Tweet thread from Elizabeth Goitein:

RED ALERT: Buried in the House intelligence committee’s Section 702 “reform” bill, which is schedule for a floor vote as soon as tomorrow, is the biggest expansion of surveillance inside the United States since the Patriot Act. 1/11

Through a seemingly innocuous change to the definition of “electronic service communications provider,” the bill vastly expands the universe of U.S. businesses that can be conscripted to aid the government in conducting surveillance. 2/11

Under current law, the government can compel companies that have direct access to communications, such as phone, email, and text messaging service providers, to assist in Section 702 surveillance by turning over the communications of Section 702 targets. 3/11

Under Section 504 of the House intelligence committee’s bill, any entity that has access to *equipment* on which communications may be transmitted or stored, such as an ordinary router, is fair game. What does that mean in practice? It’s simple… 4/11

Hotels, libraries, coffee shops, and other places that offer wifi to their customers could be forced to serve as surrogate spies. They could be required to configure their systems to ensure that they can provide the government access to entire streams of communications. 5/11

Even a repair person who comes to fix the wifi in your home would meet the revised definition: that person is an “employee” of a “service provider” who has “access” to “equipment” (your router) on which communications are transmitted. 6/11

The bill’s sponsors deny that Section 504 is intended to sweep so broadly. What *is* the provision intended to do, and how is the government planning to use it? Sorry, that’s classified. 7/11

At the end of the day, though, the government’s claimed intent matters little. What matters is what the provision, on its face, actually allows—because as we all know by now, the government will interpret and apply the law as broadly as it can get away with. 8/11

This isn’t a minor or theoretical concern. One of the FISA Court amici posted a blog to warn Americans about this provision. I can’t overstate how unusual it is for FISA Court amici to take to the airwaves in this manner. We’d be foolish to ignore it. https://www.zwillgen.com/law-enforcement/fisa-reform-bill-702-surveillance/ 9/11

If you don't want to have to worry that the NSA is tapping into communications at the hotel where you're staying, tell your House representative to vote NO on the House intelligence bill this week. More on the many flaws with that bill here: https://t.co/i9PEXmg5r6 10/11

Instead, they should vote for the Protect Liberty & End Warrantless Surveillance Act, a bill passed by the House Judiciary Committee on a 35-2 vote that would reauthorize Sec. 702 with strong reforms to protect Americans’ privacy and civil liberties. https://t.co/CN7ZepGSUu 11/11

#us politics #surveillance state expansion #no such thing as too much caution when it comes to privacy in a state or free market that has no incentives to provide it 🙃

[zvaigzdelasas]

not that i have any supporting evidence necessarily but i strongly believe that the increased war hawkishness on china from the west (especially wrt taiwan) is because china is on track to become a 'high income country' (by world bank standards) probably by next year, if not by 2025 at the latest and well. we can't have that!

Oh yeah no doubt, no high flung conspiracy theory needed abt that whatsoever lmao... 中国制造2025 ["made in china 2025"] is not only about becoming a "high income country" but specifically to fully develop a high-added-value production capacity. That's scary to the west bc thats supposed to be our part of the value chain!!! If you dont need to call on the Big Brains of the West to make your complex fancy tech products, and you can get that done in the same place that has most of the world’s actual productive capacity.....then why should anyone care about that peculiar little asian peninsula commonly known as "Europe" (or its friend across the pond)?

To quote that wiki article:

The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. described MIC 2025 as an "initiative to comprehensively upgrade Chinese industry", which is directly inspired by Germany's proposed Industry 4.0 strategy.[1] It is a comprehensive undertaking to move China's manufacturing base higher up the value chain[25] and become a major manufacturing power in direct competition with the United States.[26][27][...]

In 2018, the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think tank, stated that MIC 2025, with its government-sponsored subsidies, is a "threat to U.S. technological leadership".[48] The Li Keqiang government maintained that MIC 2025 aligns with the country's World Trade Organization obligations.[49] On 15 June 2018, the Trump administration imposed higher tariffs on Chinese goods, escalating trade tensions between China and the U.S. The tariffs primarily apply to manufactured goods included in the Made In China 2025 plan, such as those integral to IT and robotics industries.[50][51]

The U.S. began individual investigations over Chinese companies participating in the MIC 2025 plan, such as Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit, based on concerns over technology theft and national security.[37]

#this is also why the precise number of nanometers they can make chips down to is so geopolitically important #bidens recent chip sanctions should also be considered as a continuation of trumps sanctions

[bracketsoffear]

Who Goes There? (John W. Campbell) "A group of American researchers, isolated in their scientific station in Antarctica towards the end of winter, discover an alien spaceship buried in the ice, where it crashed twenty million years before. They recover an alien creature from the ancient ice. Thawing revives the alien, a being which can assume the appearance, memories, and personality of a living thing it devours, while maintaining its body mass for further reproduction. Unknown to them, the alien immediately kills and then imitates the crew's physicist, a man named Connant; with some 90 pounds of its matter left over, it tries to become a sled dog. The crew discovers the dog-Thing and kills it midway through the transformation process. Pathologist Blair, who had lobbied for thawing the Thing, goes insane with paranoia and guilt, vowing to kill everyone at the base to save mankind; he is isolated within a locked cabin at their outpost. Connant is also isolated as a precaution, and a "rule-of-four" is initiated in which all personnel must remain under the close scrutiny of three others.

The crew realizes that they must isolate their base and therefore disable their airplanes and vehicles, yet they pretend that everything is normal during radio transmissions, to prevent any rescue attempts. The researchers try to figure out who may have been replaced by the alien (simply referred to as the Thing), to destroy the imitations before they can escape and take over the world. The task is found to be almost impossibly difficult when they realize that the Thing is shapeshifting and telepathic, reading minds and projecting thoughts. A sled dog is conditioned by human blood injections (from Copper and Garry) to provide a human-immunity serum test, as in rabbits. The initial test of Connant is inconclusive, as they realize that the test animal received both human and alien blood, meaning that either Doctor Copper or expedition Commander Garry is an alien. Assistant commander McReady takes over and deduces that all the other animals at the station, save the test dog, have already become imitations; all are killed by electrocution and their corpses burned.

Everyone suspects each other by now but must stay together for safety, deciding who will take turns sleeping and standing watch. Tensions mount and some men begin to go mad, thinking that they are already the last human, or wondering if they could know if they were not human any longer. Ultimately, Kinner, the cook, is murdered and accidentally revealed to be a Thing. McReady realizes that even small pieces of the creature will behave as independent organisms. He then uses this fact to test which men have been "converted" by taking blood samples from everyone and dipping a heated wire in the vial of blood. Each man's blood is tested, one at a time, and the donor is immediately killed if his blood recoils from the wire. Fourteen men, including Connant and Garry, are revealed to be Things. The remaining men go to test the isolated Blair, and on the way, see the first albatross of the Antarctic spring flying overhead; they shoot the bird to prevent a Thing from infecting it and flying to civilization.

When they reach Blair's cabin, they discover that he is a Thing. They realize that it has been left to its own devices for a week, coming and going as it pleased, as it is able to squeeze under doors by transforming itself. With the creatures inside the base destroyed, McReady and two others enter the cabin to kill the Thing that was once Blair. McReady forces it out into the snow and destroys it with a blowtorch. Afterwards, the trio discover that the Thing was dangerously close to finishing the construction of a nuclear-powered anti-gravity device that would have allowed it to escape to the outside world."

It Looks Like Us (Alison Ames) "Shy high school junior Riley Kowalski is spending her winter break on a research trip to Antarctica, sponsored by one of the world’s biggest tech companies. She joins five student volunteers, a company-approved chaperone, and an impartial scientist to prove that environmental plastic pollution has reached all the way to Antarctica, but what they find is something much worse… something that looks human.

Riley has anxiety--ostracized by the kids at school because of panic attacks--so when she starts to feel like something’s wrong with their expedition leader, Greta, she writes it off. But when Greta snaps and tries to kill Riley, she can’t chalk it up to an overactive imagination anymore. Worse, after watching Greta disintegrate, only to find another student with the same affliction, she realizes they haven’t been infected, they’ve been infiltrated--by something that can change its shape. And if the group isn’t careful, that something could quickly replace any of them."

#stranger poll #the stranger #poll #the magnus archives #leitner tournament #Who Goes There? #John W. Campbell #It Looks Like Us #Alison Ames #yes it's the book that inspired The Thing vs a book inspired by The Thing #I am very clever.

[themiddleofwonderland]

Ugh. I sent the letter to my senators about KOSA, one replied, and apparently, he was a co-sponsor of this bill? And the response is basically just "I put this out into the world and I hear your concerns, but it's out of my hands now." Gross. If you're in a state with senators on the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (seems like they could stand to break that committee into three), then reach out to them ASAP.

Here's the full response:

Thank you for contacting me about the Kids Online Safety Act. I appreciate hearing from you.

With the advent of the internet and social media, Americans can now exchange information and ideas more effortlessly than ever. While this has increased connectivity and led to technological breakthroughs, concerns about user data privacy, the spread of disinformation, and anticompetitive practices by Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple (“Big Tech”) are troubling.

On May 2, 2023, Senator Richard Blumenthal introduced the Kids Online Safety Act. I am a cosponsor of this bill, which would create standards for internet companies to strengthen the safety of minors online. It would restrict the availability of minors’ data, expand parental controls, and increase transparency around targeted advertising to minors. This bill would also establish a program to fund research on the impact of internet activity on the wellbeing and safety of young people and require social media platforms to perform annual independent risk assessment audits. This bill has been referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, of which I am not a member.

I have also heard many critiques about this bill and am receptive to ways to further refine and improve it to address these fair concerns. As Congress continues to examine these important issues, please be assured that I will keep your views in mind.

Again, thank you for contacting me. 

Sincerely,

Tim Kaine

#kosa bill #stop kosa

[stevebattle]

Ganymede, Io and Callisto Blizzard trash-collecting robots (1994) by the Georgia Tech AAAI-94 team led by Tucker Balch, Mobile Robot Laboratory, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA. “Io, Ganymede and Callisto won the ‘clean up the office’ event at the annual Mobile Robot Competition sponsored by the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI). The small robots, which look like miniature tanks, were programmed to clean up an office littered with soda cans, coffee cups and wads of paper. The group from Georgia Tech won the event by collecting more trash in ten minutes than any other team's robot. … Georgia Tech's robots are programmed with a ‘reactive’ system called motor schema-based control. Motor schemas can be thought of as low-level behaviors; ‘avoid obstacle’ and ‘move to the goal’ are examples. More complex behaviors are constructed by ‘adding’ several motor schemas together. The robots sequence from one behavior to another as they accomplish their task of gathering trash. Initially, a tiny color camera guides the robots to trash, which they grab with a specially-designed gripper. The robot's vision is sometimes fooled, so they may grab non-trash objects like table legs. But they can tell the difference since tables don't move when small robots try to carry them away; objects that do move are considered trash. Once a robot has a piece of trash in hand, it searches for a trash can, again using vision. After locating a trash can and moving to it, the robot drops the trash nearby. … Even though the robots performed well, there was one problem: the competition trash cans were black, so the robots were programmed to move toward the darkest objects to deliver trash. Unfortunately, they confused dark shadows under tables with trash cans. The result was that they sometimes hid trash under furniture instead of throwing it away.”

#cybernetics #mobile robot #robot #1994

[georgegraphys]

New sponsors: Whatsapp, Luminar (American tech company), SAP (German software company), nuvei (Canadian credit card services), Sherwin Williams (American painting company)

Old sponsors that left: Monster Energy, Pure Storage (American technology company), fastly (American cloud computing services), Axalta (American painting company), Eight sleep (American mattresses company)

Data based on a Mercedes sponsorship list last updated January 7th 2023

#mercedes amg petronas #f1 #i'm a marketing brainrot #sponsor talks

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has signed a bill banning drag shows in public spaces, a measure that will likely force drag shows underground in Tennessee. Other states across the country are proposing similar legislation.

Lee gave his signature just hours after the measure passed in the Senate Thursday afternoon. In the same sitting, Lee signed a ban on gender-affirming health care for youth in the state.

The announcement comes as a yearbook photo of the Republican Governor in drag recently surfaced on Reddit.

Lee says there's a big difference between wearing a dress at a high school football game and drag queens wearing a dress on stage.

Hella Skeleton, a drag performer in rural Middle Tennessee, says the line is not clear.

"For Bill Lee to say, 'You know, that was lighthearted when I did it,' that is absolutely absurd when a lot of drag is extremely lighthearted," Skeleton says. "Apparently when straight men dress up badly in drag, that's OK. But when gay and queer and trans people do it, that's not OK."

Republican State Rep. Jack Johnson co-sponsored the bill. He says, "We're protecting kids and families and parents who want to be able to take their kids to public places. We're not attacking anyone or targeting anyone."

BROAD LANGUAGE WORRIES ADVOCATES

The language of the bill has also drawn concern from the larger LGBTQ community. Drag performers are defined as "male or female impersonators." The ACLU of Tennessee's Henry Seaton says that could impact queer Tennesseans across the board, not just drag performers.

"It's ... this subtle and sinister way to further criminalize just being trans," Seaton says.

The ban could also have a chilling effect on Pride festivals. Outdoor drag is a staple in the Tennessee summer heat. While new laws typically go into effect on July 1, the bill was quietly amended in January to take effect April 1 — ahead of Pride month in June.

Tennessee Tech student Cadence Miller says his generation of queer people owe a lot to drag queens, and that it's no accident they're under threat now.

"Historically, drag has been such an integral part of queer culture," Miller says. "Trans drag performers who were like pioneers and us getting ... any type of queer rights, like at all."

LEGAL CHALLENGES AHEAD

The law calls drag shows "harmful to minors," but the state's American Civil Liberties Union says that the legal definition for "harmful to minors" is very narrow in Tennessee and only covers extreme sexual or violent content.

"The law bans obscene performances, and drag performances are not inherently obscene," says ACLU of Tennessee Legal Director Stella Yarbrough. The way the law is written, she says, should not make drag shows illegal in the state.

"However, we are concerned that government officials could easily abuse this law to censor people based on their own subjective viewpoints of what they deem appropriate."

Yarbrough says the ACLU will challenge the law if it is used to punish a drag performer or shut down a family-friendly LGBTQ event.

IMPACTS ON LOCAL BUSINESS AND BEYOND

The measure refers to drag shows as "adult cabaret" that "appeal to a prurient nature." Nashville business owner David Taylor testified before the state legislature that the drag shows at his club are not sexually explicit:

"We know this because we have a Tennessee liquor license and are bound by Tennessee liquor laws. Our more than 20 years in business, we've not received a citation for one of our drag performers."

Taylor says the ban on drag will negatively impact Nashville's economy. Drag brunches in the city's bars are filled with bachelorette parties, and Music City's infamous fleet of party vehicles includes a drag queen-specific bus.

"My businesses alone have contributed more than $13 million to the state in the form of sales and liquor taxes since we opened," Taylor says.

This legislative session is the third year in a row that the statehouse has peeled back the rights of transgender Tennesseans. It has many trans people and families of trans kids wondering whether staying in the state is worth the fight.

"There's a lot of people who grew up here, and this is where their roots are. And it's really brutal to be faced with that sort of choice of, you know, you can either stay here and suffer or you can leave this home that you've created and all that you've invested in here," says drag performer Hella Skeleton. "So, yeah, it's a really tough choice."

#us politics #news #npr #Tennessee #Tennessee legislature #2023 #Gov. Bill Lee #drag show bans #drag queen story time #drag queen story hour #drag queen show #trans rights #trans #transgender pride #transphobia #lgbtqia+ representation #lgbtqia+ pride #lgbtqia+ rights #lgbtqia+ #pride month #wpln #reddit #american civil liberties union #Jack Johnson #Stella Yarbrough

[beardedmrbean]

Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, recently threatened to boycott U.S. news outlets on its platform if Congress passes a law giving said outlets "greater power" to acquire a larger share of the platform’s ad revenue.

Media companies in favor of the law claim that Meta generates massive income from their news articles, while the social media platform pushed back by saying that Meta drives viewership to news sites.

BBC News reported on this brewing feud between the social media giant and news outlets, pending the passage of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA).

MARK ZUCKERBERG TELLS JOE ROGAN FBI WARNED FACEBOOK OF 'RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA' BEFORE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY

The piece opened, stating, "Meta has threatened to remove news content from Facebook in the US. It objects to a new law that would give news organizations greater power to negotiate fees for content shared on Facebook."

The bill has yet to be enacted by Congress, however BBC News indicated that it has bipartisan support. It was first introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., with the intention of "tackling the dominance of Big Tech," BBC News claimed.

As the outlet reported, "It would give publishers and broadcasters greater powers to collectively bargain with social media companies for a larger share of ad revenue."

Media companies that support the bill claim that "Meta generates huge sums of money from news articles shared on the platform," while many outlets, especially local news, have "struggled during the pandemic."

FBI MET WEEKLY WITH BIG TECH AHEAD OF THE 2020 ELECTION, AGENT TESTIFIES

American Economic Liberties Project research director Matt Stoller claimed that media outlets have been "eaten alive" by Meta, and slammed the tech company for coming out against the bill. He added, "Meta's efforts to blackmail Congress prove again why this monopoly is a threat to democracies worldwide."

In a recent statement, Meta communications director Andy Stone blasted the bill, calling it "ill-considered," and characterizing it as government overreach. 

He stated, "If Congress passes an ill-considered journalism bill as part of national security legislation, we will be forced to consider removing news from our platform altogether rather than submit to government-mandated negotiations that unfairly disregard any value we provide to news outlets through increased traffic and subscription."

He added, "The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act fails to recognize the key fact: publishers and broadcasters put their content on our platform themselves because it benefits their bottom line — not the other way around."

Stone claimed that the bill would be turning Meta into a "cartel-like entity which requires one private company to subsidize other private companies."

The BBC News report noted that in 2021, Meta – back when it was still called Facebook – suspended Australian news outlets because of a similar law passed in that country. It added, "The company quickly reversed the decision after wide-ranging criticism - brokering a deal with the Australian government."

#nunyas news #you want me to pay you to host your content

[naptimed]

the other thing about immigration is that a lot of americans don’t know about h1b visas. ppl are like. why are there so many asians in high paying tech positions…. hmmm must be because of their culture/asians are naturally smart/whatever

no you dumb motherfuckers 😭 if you’re immigrating from china pretty much the only way to do so besides marriage is if you have an h1b visa, which requires an employer sponsor and goes through a lottery process. the only companies with an immigration lawyer on retainer and the means to sponsor foreign nationals are… big corporations and silicon valley big tech. if you don’t have a visa you can’t even get out of the airport in china.

it’s survival bias that native americans don’t know about because they have no reason to be interested in the immigration process 😭

[seeker-of-truth]

VERENA SOTO

Here's the lore for my favorite girl! PS I adapted this layout from this post from @glitchinginthegarden for her fantastic profile for Vaye (please head the tags friends!)

BASICS

AGE: 27 during game

DOB: June 10, 2049

ETHNICITY: American Latina

GENDER: female

PRONOUNS: she/her

SEXUALLY: Queer, uninterested in labels

NICKNAMES: V, Rena (reserved for the people closest to her), Rennie (childhood)

BIRTH PLACE: Wellsprings, Heywood, NC

HEIGHT: 5'6"

WEIGHT: 138 lbs

LANGUAGES SPOKEN: English almost exclusively, some Spanish picked up from around the home

BODY TYPE: Think super featherweight boxer during off-season || ex: Alycia Baumgardner || strong but still has curves and softness. She's still a round-faced queen tho

HAIR COLOR:  natural - very dark brown || During her corpo days she keeps it grey as a small form of self-expression, always pulled back into a tight bun. || After Konpeki she wants to feel in control of her body again and dyes it canary yellow and cuts her hair to shoulder length with micro bangs and an undercut. She also shaves both sides to make the shaving Vik had to do to save her life look more intentional. Both the cut and color stick.

EYE COLOR: Kiroshi optics designed to look identical to her natural deep brown eyes.

CYBERWARE: EMP Threading || Biomonitor || Contraceptive Implant || Neural Link || 2 Chip Slots || Interface Plug || Smart Link || Kiroshi Optics Mk. 3 with Chyron and Low Light filter || NetWatch Netdriver Mk.5 Cyberdeck || Kendachi Monowire || Arasaka Syn-Lungs || Self-ICE || Reflex Tuner || Arasaka Cyberleg

CLASS: What I’ve taken to calling the “Buff Netrunner” - mostly relies on combat hacking but will physically fuck you up if you get too close.

WEAPONS: her main weapons are a Tsunami Nue with an XC-10 Alecto Silencer and her monowire || in addition she will often carry a non-silenced tech pistol on gigs, after giving Johnny his Malorian back she takes to using her old Arasaka JKE-X2 Kenshin (he totally gets her a 3516 after everything tho) || On Jobs that look to be messy she will take a Kang Tao G-58 Dian as an insurance policy.

VEHICLES: a Yaiba Kusanagi CT-3X is her daily driver || she also has a Quadra Turbo-R V-Tech for the days ya just need a car || (Johnny's Porsche is returned to him and Jackie’s ARCH is kept in the penthouse and taken out twice a year)

PERSONALITY

|| Extremely guarded, likes to keep her thoughts and feelings private, feels embarrassed when her feelings spill out || Patient to a fault. has the worlds longest fuse to a very big explosion || all icy, calculated fire || slow to trust but once she does, she considers that person to be family || will go to the ends of the earth to protect the people she loves || sarcastic || can be very ridged || highly empathetic, and will try to get people to better situations, regardless of the cost || will lie to get the best possible outcome || loves living in Night City || good with words, has learned to talk her way out of most situations || reserved, hates being approached  || feels like here life happens to her a lot and is desperate for control. || 

FAMILY HISTORY 

MOTHER: Diana Soto – alive, estranged

FATHER: Mario Soto – alive, estranged

Both of her parents were regular blue-collar workers, he mother is a machinist and her father a welder. They had met in passing as she was dropping off parts at the mechanics shop, he was working at and quickly fell in love, getting married and having Verena not long after.

Her relationship with them was always strained as they were both very closed off with their emotions with her. Because of that and being an only child, she never communicated with them well, eventually closing herself off to them completely.

CHILDHOOD - TEENS

2056 - At the age of 7 the standardized tests given to students flagged her as having an aptitude for netrunning so she was placed in an exclusive boarding school in Charter Hill as part of a special outreach program sponsored by night corp. She excelled at her studies but struggled to make friends as most of her peers were the children of corpos. She spent summers back at home with her parents and seeing the difference in the quality of life had an effect on her, jading her to NC as she aged. Her parents were ecstatic at the thought of their child having a better life than them so failure became something that was severely punished.

2060 - By the time she was in middle school she had a small but close-knit group of friends, both from corps backgrounds and backgrounds similar to her. She was fiercely protective of them and got in multiple fights defending them from the same bullying she had received.

2064 - When not studying she became very interested in edgrunning, specifically solos, but rockerboy culture as well. She liked the inherent rebellion they represented and wished she could do the same. But she knew that she would disappoint her parents if she strayed from the path she was on. So she would listen to records and read about the legends of NC under her blankets at night.

2065 - At 16 she was chipped with her professional ports, she viewed them as the final seal in the life that she was going to live, like it or not. As an act of rebellion, she shaved her head and got multiple ear piercings. She was reprimanded by the school, an action that brought her parent's fists down on her as well. During the summer she would often sneak into clubs and bars to get away from her home environment.

2067 - She graduated with high enough grades that she was able to attend NCU on a full ride where she majored in Cybersecurity with a focus on Offensive Hacking. She looks back on her time there fondly as she met more like-minded people, many of whom pushed her to express herself more. She joined a small band as a guitarist. Eventually entering a relationship with the basest – Sara. It was a very toxic relationship and they both treated each other like shit. V’s generally guarded nature closed her off the deeper in the relationship she got.

20’S

2070 - The unification war caused the university to push its students through faster so she graduated a year early and immediately started looking for a job, not wanting to disappoint her parents.

July 2070 - With Arasaka now back in night city they were doing massive hiring and V managed to get her foot in the door in the Counter Inelegance Division.

August 2070 - Her bosses found her to be adept at espionage so they sent her to do black ops work with a small crew in South America for approximately a year and a half. During this time she honed her skill with a pistol.

October 2072 - leaves to spend 11 months in Rio De Janeiro tracking a “terrorist” cell. Her team eventually took out the group after she was captured on a solo reconnaissance mission and interrogated/tortured for over a week.

September 2073 - Rio really traumatized her and she crawled into herself and didn’t want to return to work so Arasaka wanted to drop her, Jenkins saw her skills as exploitable and invited her to stay in office. During this time she became estranged from her parents.

June 2074 - Meets Jackie at the Mexican border, he saves her ass by helping her extract an agent.

September 2076 - Moves into the Wells household.

Late February / Early March 2077 - Konpeki Plaza Heist.

End of May 2077 - I, Pre Defined Starts

#oc: verena soto #she deserves to have at least one pic of her smiling lol #cw: violence #cw: torture #cw: child abuse #(alluded to) #cyberpunk 2077 canon typical violence #(please let me know if I missed a content warning!) #Did I give her male V's b-day because I needed her to be a Gemini not a Libra? Maybe lol