Author: Blazingcatfur

The AI Cold War That Will Redefine Everything

China’s leaders were anxious and frustrated. The world’s most promising new technology was being dominated by OpenAI, Google and other American companies.

Chinese tech companies were so far behind on generative artificial intelligence early last year that many were relying on Meta Platforms’ open-source Llama models, which can be downloaded for free. Worse, U.S. restrictions on exports of top-end AI chips threatened to hobble China even further.

So in the spring of 2024, Beijing ratcheted up pressure on tech executives. One leading Chinese AI company told The Wall Street Journal it fielded calls from 10 different government agencies in a single month urging action on native AI models. The country relaxed regulations, rolled out funding and rushed to install computing power.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"AI - Artificial Intelligence"

“Ur homie dropped like a fly that day.”

Judge acquits Toronto teen who stabbed unarmed 18-year-old, mocked his death

During a fight between two groups in a North York parking lot in the early morning hours of July 8, 2022, a teenage boy swung at an unarmed man with a bottle, fatally stabbed him, and then later sent messages to the victim’s friend appearing to mock his death.

Three years later, a judge has acquitted him of manslaughter.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Justice", "Law and Order"

Tracking China in the Americas: Hongqi Bridge Is Falling Down — and Everything Else Is Too

Welcome to the fourth installment of my “Tracking China in the Americas” series, in which I cover some underreported stories on China’s footprint in the Western Hemisphere. I actually had something different planned for this week — a deep dive into how China is reaching out to young people in the Western Hemisphere — but when I saw this bridge fall, I knew I had to switch gears. Anything to point out what China does wrong should spread far and wide. So, check back in next week for the young people stuff. Let’s get to the Hongqi Bridge.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China - Communist Slave State"

U.S. tourism faces $5.7B US loss as Canadians continue to stay home

Many Canadians continue to boycott travel to the United States, and the U.S. economy is paying the price.

A U.S. Travel Association report forecasts a 3.2 per cent decline in international tourism spending in the country for 2025, a loss of $5.7 billion US compared to the previous year.

The association largely attributes the loss to a decline in the number of Canadian visitors — a trend that has persisted since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office in January, sparked a trade war with Canada and began referring to the country as the 51st state.

Lots of reasons to be angry with Trump & his policies but your anger should not be exclusive to the US.

Canada’s corporate and political class have beat us like a pinata for so long we’ve come to enjoy it.

Reserve a large dose of vitriol for the “ruling class”.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Canada - USA Tariff Wars"

Carney gov’t committed to Trudeau’s economy killing eco-loon policies

These children were jailed for coal scavenging under the Carney government’s eco-laws.

Canada’s new environment minister and Environment and Climate Change officials confirmed that the federal government is standing by the national climate targets previously set under Justin Trudeau.

On several occasions, Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin was asked about whether the current Liberal government was still committed to working toward the near-term targets set under the previous prime minister, particularly the 2035 emissions target.

Canada has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by a minimum of 45 per cent below 2005 by that timeline.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Net-Zero Tyranny", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Congressional Democrats Release Emails Allegedly Showing Epstein Talking About Trump and One of Epstein’s Victims

‘I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump,’ Epstein allegedly writes in an email to Maxwell in 2011 — years after Epstein had pleaded guilty after having sex with a minor.

Democrats on the House Oversight are not wasting any time releasing key excerpts of the Epstein files, despite having been out of town for the last seven weeks. On Wednesday, the minority on the committee released a trio of emails allegedly showing notorious sex abuser corresponding about his friendship with President Trump and how the president once spent time at Epstein’s home with one of the pedophile’s victims.

In the emails released Wednesday, Epstein is allegedly seen corresponding with his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is now serving a 20-year sentence on sex trafficking charges. Mr. Trump is also weighing whether or not to commute Maxwell’s sentence.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inTrump Derangement Syndrome

Donald Trump says he has ‘obligation’ to sue BBC over speech edit

Donald Trump has said he feels he has “an obligation” to sue the BBC over its editing of one of his speeches, as a deadline looms for the corporation to respond to his billion-dollar legal threat.

The US president accused the broadcaster of having “defrauded the public” with an edition of Panorama last year that spliced together two parts of a speech he made on 6 January 2021 and has given it until Friday to respond.

It is seen as one of the main factors in the shock resignation on Sunday of Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, and Deborah Turness, the head of BBC News.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inBBC, The Media Lies, Trump Derangement Syndrome

Tasha Kheiriddin: Don’t fall for Carney’s ‘Buy Canadian’ fallacy

Protectionists, start your engines. On Monday, Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled a “Buy Canadian” procurement policy that prioritizes Canadian suppliers for all manner of federal spending, including a second set of national “major projects” he’s announcing on Thursday. “We will build Canadian, by becoming our own best customer,” Carney intoned. Ottawa will allocate nearly $186 million in new funding to the policy, including “streamlined support for Canadian small and medium-sized businesses trying to break into the federal market.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada's Corrupt Liberal Government

From tears for Arafat to Death to the IDF’: How BBC’s Israel coverage has gone from bad to worse

In the end, it was revelations concerning the manner in which the BBC’s flagship current affairs program, “Panorama,” spliced together clips of a speech by US President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, that forced the corporation’s boss and head of news to quit on Sunday.

But director-general Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News, have been in the firing line for months over allegations of bias — not least because of the national broadcaster’s coverage of antisemitism, the war in Gaza, and Israel more generally.

h/t MP

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inBBC, Israel

Can the Conservative caucus please eat a Snickers bar?

Deep Fried Snickers Bar – Never had one myself.

Floor-crossing is just about the ultimate political betrayal, and the motivation of the political migrant is almost always self-serving. In the case of Nova Scotia MP Chris d’Entremont, who crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals last week, it is impossible to infer anything else.

Only about six months have elapsed since the last federal election, during and after which Mr. d’Entremont was happy to echo Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s “negativity,” which he now cites as the reason for his migration to the Liberal benches. He cannot reasonably claim that his constituents are better served by him now sitting with the governing party, because if they wanted to vote for that party, they would have back in April. Neither party has meaningfully changed its approach since spring (with the exception of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s more docile approach to U.S. President Donald Trump), and certainly not enough for Mr. d’Entremont to claim the ground has shifted so much as to justify his defection.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Canadian Politics", Conservative Party

Taliban order women to wear burkas to access hospitals, charity says

The Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have ordered female patients, caretakers and staff to wear a burka – a full Islamic veil – to enter public health facilities in the western city of Herat, medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says.

MSF said the restrictions came into effect from 5 November.

“These restrictions further impede women’s lives and limit women’s access to health care,” Sarah Chateau, the agency’s programme manager in Afghanistan, told the BBC. She said even those “in need of urgent medical care” had been affected.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", Afghanistan, Islam, Islam and violence

Carney’s new nation-building projects list to include mines, LNG, Iqaluit hydro: all realized in LEGO say sources

New nation-building projects list to include mines, LNG, Iqaluit hydro: sources

Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to announce a second set of “nation-building projects,” including at least three focused on critical mineral extraction, one for exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) and at least one transmission project, sources told CBC News.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, WTF?