Tootfinder

New Texans WR Christian Kirk: C.J. Stroud will ‘take this team as far as we want to go’ https://www.nfl.com/news/texans-wr-christian-kirk-c-j-stroud-will-take-this-team-as-far-as-we-want-to-go

caida_as: CAIDA AS graphs (2004-2007)
A sequence of 122 network snapshots denoting Autonomous System (AS) relationships on the Internet, from 2004-2007, inferred using the Serial-1 method from RouteViews BGP table snapshots and a set of heuristics.
This network has 20344 nodes and 81882 edges.
Tags: Technological, Communication, Unweighted, Temporal

Luckily, it‘s not as bad as it may appear …
#LibreOffice Lands Built-In Support For #Bitcoin As Currency - Slashdot

Oopsie
„Tensions erupted at the Rafah crossing as local Egyptians confronted far-left Western activists— described as "Greta Thunberg types" —who had gathered to "march on Gaza" and protest against Israel.
The mostly European demonstrators, accusing Israel of
"genocide," were met with fierce opposition from Egyptian locals, who pelted them with clubs and water bottles, forcing them back and halting their advance toward the border.“

Jewish Breaking News on Instagram: "🇪🇬😱Chaos Erupts in Egypt as Locals Clash with Western Pro-Ham@s Activists Near Gaza Border BREAKING: Tensions erupted at the Rafah crossing as local Egyptians confronted far-left Western activists—described as “Greta Thunberg types”—who had gathered to “march on Gaza” and protest against Israel. The mostly European demonstrators, accusing Israel of “genocide,” were met with fierce opposition from Egyptian locals, who pelted them with clubs and water bottles, forcing them back and halting their advance toward the border. Many of the activists have since taken to social media claiming they were beaten, had their passports stolen, and are now stranded in Egypt. Several are pleading online for help from their embassies. One Egyptian pundit remarked: “There’s a reason Egypt has a huge wall and doesn’t let any Gazans in. What made these people think they could just ‘march to Gaza’ via Egypt?” Egyptian authorities have yet to issue an official statement."
12K likes, 1,023 comments - jewishbreakingnews on June 13, 2025: "🇪🇬😱Chaos Erupts in Egypt as Locals Clash with Western Pro-Ham@s Activists Near Gaza Border BREAKING: Tensions erupted at the Rafah crossing as local Egyptians confronted far-left Western activists—described as “Greta Thunberg types”—who had gathered to “march on Gaza” and protest against Israel. The mostly European demonstrators, accusing Israel of “genocide,” were met with fierce opposition from Egyptia…

5 killed, 53 injured in Ukraine as Russia strikes hospitals, residential areas across country: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/15/killed-injured-in-ukraine-as.html

Apache Flink is uniquely positioned to serve as the backbone for AI agents, equipping them with the powerful new tool of stream processing. Join Steffen Hoellinger at this year's Berlin Buzzwords to explore how Flink jobs can be transformed into “Agents”—autonomous, goal-driven entities that dynamically interact with data streams, trigger actions, and adapt their behaviour based on real-time insights.
Learn more:

‘L.A.’s too hot for ICE'
Smaller but determined crowds march downtown as heat rises
https://www.latimes.com/california/live/los-…

Tensions rise as immigration raids continue across Southern California
Federal authorities raided a swap meet in Santa Fe Springs Saturday as tens of thousands of ‘No Kings’ protesters flooded the streets of downtown Los Angeles in opposition to President Trump’s policies.

Degrowth as an Essential Part of an Eco-Socialist Transition
by Anna Gregoletto, on DegrowthUK
https://degrowthuk.org/2025/06/12/degrowth-as-an-essential-part-of-an-eco-socialist-transition/
Also
Degrowth: …

Degrowth as an Essential Part of an Eco-Socialist Transition
by Anna Gregoletto* In the series Prospects for Degrowth Many thanks to Mark Burton for encouraging me to write this article and offering so many helpful suggestions. Thank you also to my comrades …

"Pen vs. Keyboard? Why the Tool Doesn’t Matter as Much as You Think for Personal Knowledge Management" #KnowledgeManagement

I am not an elevator pitch.
I don't have clear, clean boundaries.
My #art has always been more MacGyver than artisan.
Full thought: https://fromemily.com/feedbackless-fee

Yale Divinity School has received a record number of applications for next fall’s entering class, reflecting the School’s outstanding reputation and advances in financial aid as well as society’s renewed interest in theological education and religious/spiritual formation.
https://

Congressional sanctions on hold as Trump threatens Russia with 'severe' tariffs: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/15/congressional-sanctions-on-hold-as.html

"For the first time, we architected every part of the rack as a unified system," Su explained, highlighting Helios as "really a rack that functions like a single, massive compute engine."
http://m.timesofindia.com/articleshow/121834703.cms
Why does th…

AMD unveils next-gen AI chips as it takes on Nvidia: 'For the first time, we...' CEO Lisa Su says - The Times of India
Tech News : AMD has revealed its Instinct MI400 series AI chips, designed for rack-scale systems and set to compete with Nvidia's Blackwell. CEO Lisa Su highlight

Dallas Cowboys offense ready for growth, could emerge as NFL's best https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/news/dallas-cowboys-offense-ready-growth-could-emerge-as-nfl-best

Stack overflow is nearly dead.
I am not a fan of this site and will not miss it in any way but it’s a shame as it helped many.
Worse that it’s dying not because something better exist.
https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/stack-overflow-is-almost-dea…

Do Raiders Make Sense As Ramsey Landing Spot? https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/do-raiders-make-sense-as-ramsey-landing-spot-01jxwnzfsv0e

ICE Faces Cash Crisis as Trump Orders New Crackdown in Dem-Led Cities (Ewan Palmer/The Daily Beast)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-faces-cash-crisis-as-donald-trump-orders-new-crackdown-in-dem-led-cities/
http://www.memeorandum.com/250616/p85#a250616p85

as_skitter: Skitter IP graph (2005)
An aggregate snapshot of the Internet Protocol (IP) graph, as measured by the traceroute tool on CAIDA's skitter infrastructure, in 2005.
This network has 1696415 nodes and 11095298 edges.
Tags: Technological, Communication, Unweighted
https://networks.skewed.de/net/as_s…

seeing this makes me think there's a nonzero chance america's mainstream christianity literally melds and intersects with its business events in the future. book the killers as a walmart worship band till mr. brightside's as singable as the most enduring hymns.

As much as I’d love to believe that the 2024 election results were the result of covert ballot tampering, I land in @…’s camp here. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and the evidence here isn’t extraordinary. It isn’t even passing.
Sorry. I’d love to believe it. But I don’t.
1/ https://federate.social/@mattblaze/114684093459547741

Odd, I tried to get him and everyone else at Diem25 on the fediverse years ago but 🤷‍♂️
https://ar.al/notes/farewell-not-goodbye/
Do as I say, not as I do, I guess.

Went to see Soccer Mommy, as US-based indie musician, in Castlemaine last night because I couldn’t get to her Melbourne show. Wow, what a great concert and venue - the Theatre Royal, Castlemaine. Instead of peering over the heads of 500 people, I saw her with maybe 100 others, and with fantastic acoustics. Totally worth the extra effort to travel 90 minutes out of the big city. #livemusic

In the end it seems to me that one of the main distinctions between people who see LLMs as good and those who don't is whether they see the digital part of the world as "content" or "people".
If it's all just content, LLMs make sense. If it's where people live LLMs become a somewhat dumb idea.

The Way, and the Truth, and the Life - Pray As You Go
https://prayasyougo.org/prayer/the-way-and-the-truth-and-the-life-2684
Image generated by Wes Fryer using ChatGPT, edited with Canva for iOS.

The way, and the truth, and the life - Pray As You Go
Today is Friday the 16th of May, in the 4th week of Eastertide.    The Kyiv Chamber Choir sing the Credo: “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.” As I start this prayer today, can I join in with this strong...

Mgmt: We don't have the resources to make our own LLM. Can we just monetize AI prompts?
Business School Student: Hold my beer 🍺
#blockchain

PromptChain: A Decentralized Web3 Architecture for Managing AI Prompts as Digital Assets
We present PromptChain, a decentralized Web3 architecture that establishes AI prompts as first-class digital assets with verifiable ownership, version control, and monetization capabilities. Current centralized platforms lack mechanisms for proper attribution, quality assurance, or fair compensation for prompt creators. PromptChain addresses these limitations through a novel integration of IPFS for immutable storage, smart contracts for governance, and token incentives for community curation. O…

Statista: the global influencer marketing industry is projected to grow 36% between 2024 and 2025, reaching $33B, as brands tighten overall ad budgets (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-14/i…

Hashed Watermark as a Filter: Defeating Forging and Overwriting Attacks in Weight-based Neural Network Watermarking
Yuan Yao, Jin Song, Jian Jin
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11137

Hashed Watermark as a Filter: Defeating Forging and Overwriting Attacks in Weight-based Neural Network Watermarking
As valuable digital assets, deep neural networks necessitate robust ownership protection, positioning neural network watermarking (NNW) as a promising solution. Among various NNW approaches, weight-based methods are favored for their simplicity and practicality; however, they remain vulnerable to forging and overwriting attacks. To address those challenges, we propose NeuralMark, a robust method built around a hashed watermark filter. Specifically, we utilize a hash function to generate an irre…

ARPaCCino: An Agentic-RAG for Policy as Code Compliance
Francesco Romeo, Luigi Arena, Francesco Blefari, Francesco Aurelio Pironti, Matteo Lupinacci, Angelo Furfaro
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.10584

ARPaCCino: An Agentic-RAG for Policy as Code Compliance
Policy as Code (PaC) is a paradigm that encodes security and compliance policies into machine-readable formats, enabling automated enforcement in Infrastructure as Code (IaC) environments. However, its adoption is hindered by the complexity of policy languages and the risk of misconfigurations. In this work, we present ARPaCCino, an agentic system that combines Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented-Generation (RAG), and tool-based validation to automate the generation and verificati…

So last night, after watching the Russian Victory Day ‘24 video for contrast, I thought “what the hell” & went ahead & watched1️⃣ the PBS YT video of the “June 24 Military2️⃣ Parade” to see if it was as bad as all that
(Short Answer: Yes and No)
But this guy was the one that caught my sympathy as “you poor dude”.

Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 93 Palestinians, including several families, health officials say | AP News https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-07-15-2025-43e559363cba4eb99cd7238c00d1de12

Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 93 Palestinians, including several families, health officials say
Gaza health officials say Israeli strikes overnight and into Tuesday killed more than 90 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, including several families. One strike in the northern Shati refugee camp killed a 68-year-old Hamas member of the Palestinian legislature, as well as a man and a woman and their six children in the same building, according to officials from Shifa Hospital, where the casualties were taken. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes.

Can Large Language Models Understand As Well As Apply Patent Regulations to Pass a Hands-On Patent Attorney Test?
Bhakti Khera, Rezvan Alamian, Pascal A. Scherz, Stephan M. Goetz
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.10576

Can Large Language Models Understand As Well As Apply Patent Regulations to Pass a Hands-On Patent Attorney Test?
The legal field already uses various large language models (LLMs) in actual applications, but their quantitative performance and reasons for it are underexplored. We evaluated several open-source and proprietary LLMs -- including GPT-series, Anthropic, Deepseek and Llama-3, variants -- on parts of the European Qualifying Examination (EQE) for future European Patent Attorneys. OpenAI o1 led with 0.82 accuracy and 0.81 F1 score, whereas (Amazon Web Services) AWS Llama 3.1 8B lagged at 0.50 accura…

So the basic idea is that we first compute a "level" for whatever interaction, by adding beneficial modifiers and subtracting harmful ones. Imagine most modifiers are smallish integers like 2 or -3 (though they can be non-integers too). Each level can be thought of as making things twice as good/bad, although this only applies directly when they're balanced. The actual formula starts with a 50/50 chance of "success" at level 0, and then each positive level halves the chance of failure, or if the levels are negative, each negative level halves the chance of success (note that halving the chance of failure is not the same as doubling the chance of success).
The intuitive explanation is that you start with a coin flip. Then if the level is positive, you flip that many additional coins and succeed if any single coin succeeds, but it the level is negative, you have to flip that many additional coins and succeed only if *all* flips succeed.
For example, if I have a dagger with 5 crit chance, and I attack an opponent with no armor modifiers, I'd have to win any 1 of 6 coin flips to score a crit (p = 1 - (1/(2^6)) = 63/64. Increasing my crit modifier by 1 ups my chances only slightly, to 127/128. This is obviously pretty poor return, indicating that the 5 I already have is very strong. If the opponent had armor with -3 to crits, the interaction is now level 2, so the crit chance is 7/8, which is still pretty good. We can see from these examples that the basic system
rewards a small level advantage a lot, but the rewards diminish rapidly. The system has a few avenues for tweaking how it works though, that can let us modify this. There's also a potential benefit (though sometimes drawback) that no matter what the level gap, there's an effective limit to how much the interaction swings.

#ZenBrowser is considering to change the behaviour of windows in the following way:
- Two windows of the same workspace show the exact same tabs.
- Tabs are not lost when closing a window.
- In order to create a new, empty window, you first need to create a new workspace.
Any opinions? I find that quite weird and don't understand the purpose. 🤔

What’s the difference between ordinary functions and arrow functions in JavaScript?
Arrow functions (also known as ‘rocket’ functions) are concise and convenient. However, they have subtle differences compared to function declarations and function expressions. So how do you know which one to use, and when?
🧑‍💻

What’s the difference between ordinary functions and arrow functions in JavaScript?
Arrow functions (also known as ‘rocket’ functions) are concise and convenient. However, they have subtle differences compared to function declarations and function expressions. So how do you know which one to use, and when?

Software help files be like
"
# <Objects>
In FancyApplication, <object>s are classified as
* Named <object>
* Unnamed <object>
*# <whizzbangs>
In FancyApplication, <whizzbang>s are classified as
...
"
Thanks for telling me that.
Now, how to connect <object>s to the turboencobombulator is, I guess, left as an exercise to the reader.

Waymos, like all drivers, treat the bike lane as buffer zone. it was only a matter of time before somebody got hurt https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/06/10/san-francisco-bicyclist-crash-waymo/

San Francisco bicyclist sues over crash involving 2 Waymo cars
As the cyclist attempted to avoid one car’s open door, a second Waymo car reportedly crossed into the bike lane.

Oil markets are spooked as Iran-Israel tensions escalate | Oil and Gas News | Al Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2025/6/13/oil-markets-are-spooked-as-iran-israel-tensions-escalate?traffic_source=rss…

Oil markets are spooked as Iran-Israel tensions escalate
Israel’s strike on Iran, and Tehran’s subsequent retaliation fuel fears of Strait of Hormuz trade disruptions.

I've just tagged build-and-inspect-python-package 2.13.0 of my popular GitHub Action.
It now offers the package name as an output and uses it in the job summary which should be useful to people building multiple packages at once.
https://github.com/hynek/build-and-ins

Release v2.13.0 · hynek/build-and-inspect-python-package
Added New output: package_name is the name of the built package as stored in metadata. #162 The package name is now part of the action summary which is helpful when you build more than one pack...

Hora de me arrumar para ir ao trabalho pela última vez antes das férias. Em situação normal estaria super animado. Mas como o período não acabou por conta desse calendšrio maluco, estarei com všrias pendências para resolver durante as férias, como preparar as provas finais (que jš acontecem assim que voltarmos).
De maneira geral, eu jamais paro completamente durante as férias, só diminuo (bastante) o ritmo. Mas receio que neste período vai ser difícil reduzir do mesmo modo.

Beyond Code: #APIs as the Next #OSS Battleground
https://redmonk.com/sogrady/2025/06/09/o…

Fears of racial profiling rise as Border Patrol conducts ‘roving patrols,’ and detain U.S. citizens
video: “These guys, literally based off of skin color! My homie was born here!” The friend said Gavidia was being questioned “just because of the way he looks.”
U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino,
who oversaw raids that included picking people up at Home Depot
and stopping them on the highway,
has emerged as a key figure in L.A.
He stood alongside…

Fears of racial profiling rise as Border Patrol conducts 'roving patrols,' detains U.S. citizens
Border Patrol agents on 'roving patrol' arrest U.S. citizen on assault charges. Fear of widespread racial profiling gains momentum as Home Depots and car washes raided.

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #MorningShow
R.E.M.:
🎵 It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)
#REM
https://mototembo.bandcamp.com/album/its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-moto-tembo-edits
https://open.spotify.com/track/2oSpQ7QtIKTNFfA08Cy0ku

Three New Frog Species Discovered as Scientists Trek to Remote Peaks in the Andes Where No Roads Go https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/three-new-frog-species-discovered-as-scientists-trek-to-remote-peaks-in-the-andes/

Three New Frog Species Discovered as Scientists Trek to Remote Peaks in the Andes Where No Roads Go
Three new types of frogs were discovered during off-road scientific expeditions in the remote cloud-shrouded peaks of the Andes.

I like to complain about mean, petty, and just generally awful colleagues as much as anyone in #academia. But most people around here are alright. Some are even great. Today's example: a junior colleague at a different university asked to see something relatively minor, but still meaningful that I and a senior colleague had put together for internal purposes. When I asked the older guy if it was OK …

This comment from a Microsoft announcement post is a vibe

"‘An enormous scar’: the battle over solar farms and pylons as Reform UK takes aim at net zero"
#UK #UnitedKingdom #NetZero

Y'all were wondering which way the army would break. This is as clear an answer as you're going to get.
This isn't a mistake. It's a message.
Edit: cut out "During drills they were perfectly in time" because I don't have receipts to show. Linking to a longer video in a threads post that shows a bit more intense of a juxtaposition between themselves and the division in front of them. This thread makes the same claim about drills, but I also don't see video.
https://www.threads.com/@davidmorehouse/post/DK7ExrKs5iw?xmt=AQF0w52awa66lUQeIuolzDaz8uSFcMmJLHALm9RZc4P75w
Edit: to clarify a bit, this is one division. The division in front of them in the longer video is in step. This isn't "the whole army is going to refuse" but this may be, "some units are fed up enough to make it clear they don't want to play, which is saying a lot."
Any division that exists needs to be cultivated. The way you cultivate that is absolutely not by lumping them all together. Some of the military voted for Trump, some don't care, some hate him. All of them are being treated like shit right now. All of them swore an oath to defend the constitution. Some of them probably know what that means.
I'm absolutely not a fan of the military, but I will take every opportunity I can to humanize these folks. Look for every opportunity you can to remind them that they are welcome on our side whenever they're ready to actually fulfill their oath, and we will appreciate every subtle bit of resistance they give to those who are violating it in the meantime.

Im Mai 2025 erlebten große Teile Mittel- und Nordeuropas – darunter Südskandinavien, die #Ukraine und Teile Russlands – deutlich trockenere Bedingungen als im langjährigen Mittel.
#Niederschlag, #Bodenfeuchte

This fashion look isn't limited to GenAI. You too can sport extra body parts as accessories!

As you ford life's rivers, keep your knees bent and face upstream so you can better see what's coming at you. But as you crawl life's ductworks, face downwind and keep your mouth shut lest you suck in dust-bunnies.
#NaturalPhilosophy #Strife and

How does a movement demonstrate political strength? Some thoughts and measures as the anti-Trump resistance kicks into gear.
https://wp.me/pcFxY-1jo

No Kings protests were extraordinary. How exactly?
Americans, citizens and immigrants alike, protested on Saturday, June 14, in exceptional numbers as a wave of No Kings protests became the most widespread public repudiation of the second Donald Tr…

Detecting AI Assistance in Abstract Complex Tasks
Tyler King, Nikolos Gurney, John H. Miller, Volkan Ustun
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.10761 https://…

Detecting AI Assistance in Abstract Complex Tasks
Detecting assistance from artificial intelligence is increasingly important as they become ubiquitous across complex tasks such as text generation, medical diagnosis, and autonomous driving. Aid detection is challenging for humans, especially when looking at abstract task data. Artificial neural networks excel at classification thanks to their ability to quickly learn from and process large amounts of data -- assuming appropriate preprocessing. We posit detecting help from AI as a classificatio…

Statista expects the global influencer marketing industry to grow 36% between 2024 and 2025, reaching $33B, as brands tighten overall ad budgets (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-14/influen…

This is a sad evening. By the time this posts, my WoW sub will have expired. I will not be renewing it.
I have played WoW since 2006. I have played it almost as long as all my relationships combined. (There's been a couple sizable gaps between 'ships, yo.) I have dozens of alts. 2 years played time (yeah, not THAT much considering, but I also play other games and have taken a couple year long breaks.)
WoW had always been there as an excellent escape from reality when I …

Do you enjoy working? Sure, as long as the shop floor runs on real democracy and it’s the workers themselves making the calls through good old-fashioned worker self-management, without bosses or rigid hierarchies.
#RevolutionarySyndicalism #Syndicalism

There is lots of talk that using correct punctuation like “curly quotes”—or em-dashes—in – as it looks for me – US book style is a hint for AI-generated text. As LLMs basically are statistical parrots with some syntax engine that are based on vector similarity on their training data I suppose this means AI were predominantly trained on books (and maybe newspaper articles) with proper copy-editing.
This also means all the biases and the racism etc comes from this properly edited books t…

as_skitter: Skitter IP graph (2005)
An aggregate snapshot of the Internet Protocol (IP) graph, as measured by the traceroute tool on CAIDA's skitter infrastructure, in 2005.
This network has 1696415 nodes and 11095298 edges.
Tags: Technological, Communication, Unweighted
https://networks.skewed.de/net/as_s…

Commanders to retire Art Monk's number as team continues to honor their 'Super Bowl era'

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/commande…

"New File Format Research and Documentation on the Sustainability of Digital Formats" | The Signal https://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2025/06/new-file-format-research/

As we approach Commencement, YDS is sharing profiles of some of our graduating students. Such as John Markowski ’25 M.A.R.! #YDS2025 https://divinity.yale.edu/news/graduat

Sources: Anthropic's financial performance has prompted some investors to indicate interest in funding the company at a valuation of $100B if it pursues a deal (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/investors-float-deal-valui…

Investors Float Deal Valuing Anthropic at More Than $100 Billion
As Anthropic’s sale of artificial intelligence has surged, the company has told investors some of its profit-related metrics are improving even as it burns a tremendous amount of cash. That financial performance has prompted some investors to indicate interest in funding Anthropic at a valuation ...

Ukraine war latest: Mass attack hits cities overnight as Ukrainians brace for 50 more days of Russian terror: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/16/ukraine-war-latest-mass-attack.html

Just finished reading Dream State by Eric Puchner, and it kind of pissed me off. I think I can see exactly why it might be popular with a certain WASPy liberal "literati" type that probably includes a lot of influential reviewers, but to me, it's points about love & life, despite being much more complex, ring just about as hollow (and harmful) as a Disney movie.
I've got a lot of quibbles, but I think most galling to me was a throwaway line near the beginning about why platonic relationships get so much less glory in media than romantic ones, when so much of the plot proceeds to revolve around a stale agency-free romantic attraction model that's certainly more complex on its face than a Disney romance but which is ultimately just as misleading.
Go read Loveless or really any YA #OwnVoices romance (especially queer) and you'll be learning more & better lessons about the human condition.

From over-reliance to smart integration: using Large-Language Models as translators between specialized modeling and simulation tools
Philippe J. Giabbanelli, John Beverley, Istvan David, Andreas Tolk
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.11141

From over-reliance to smart integration: using Large-Language Models as translators between specialized modeling and simulation tools
Large Language Models (LLMs) offer transformative potential for Modeling & Simulation (M&S) through natural language interfaces that simplify workflows. However, over-reliance risks compromising quality due to ambiguities, logical shortcuts, and hallucinations. This paper advocates integrating LLMs as middleware or translators between specialized tools to mitigate complexity in M&S tasks. Acting as translators, LLMs can enhance interoperability across multi-formalism, multi-semantics, and multi…

Krugman continues:
❝While there is a cadre of Trumpist true believers who will obey the Leader under any circumstances, most of those doing the dirty work of undermining democracy and the rule of law are cowards and opportunists. They’re willing to participate in the destruction of America as we know it because they believe that many others will do the same. As a result, they believe that they are unlikely to face any personal consequences for their actions and may even be rewarded for their lawbreaking.
And what of those who oppose Trumpism? While there are heroes willing to take a stand against tyranny whatever the personal cost, most anti-Trumpists are reluctant to stick their necks out unless they believe that they are part of a widespread resistance that will grant them some measure of safety in numbers.
In other words, the victory or defeat of competitive authoritarianism will depend to a large extent on which side ordinary people believe will win. If Trump looks unstoppable, resistance will wither away and democracy will be lost. On the other hand, if he appears weak and stymied, resistance will grow and — just maybe — American democracy will survive.❞
2/

There’s gonna be an open space on Python and complex applications tomorrow at 10am in room 223 224:
“Is Python suitable for writing maintanable (complex) software?”
I’ll try to be there & as far as I am concerned, Betteridge's Law of Headlines doesn’t apply! #EuroPython

So far the Social Security agency’s core functions — like sending monthly checks to 74 million Americans — have remained largely intact.
But under pressure from Musk’s team, nearly half of the Social Security Administration’s 140 senior executives, and thousands of employees overall, have taken buyouts or retired.
As many as 12 percent of staff members, out of a bureaucracy that numbered around 57,000 people, are expected to depart their jobs as part of DOGE’s cost-cutting plan.

Inside DOGE’s Chaotic Takeover of Social Security
The drama offers a case study in how Elon Musk’s team sought to run a critical government agency through misinformation and social media blasts — and how longtime employees responded.

Cardinals' Calais Campbell embracing role as mentor, says he doesn't want his knowledge going 'to a graveyard'

https://www.cbssp…

In an internal memo, NYT's culture editor says four critics, including long-time music critic Jon Pareles, will be reassigned as the section seeks new voices (Todd Spangler/Variety)
https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/new-y

NY Times Reassigns Four Critics in Culture Desk Shake-Up
Four New York Times critics -- Margaret Lyons, Jon Pareles, Jesse Green and Zach Woolfe -- will be assigned 'new roles' as the paper changes up its culture desk coverage.

Zelensky proposes former Prime Minister Shmyhal as Ukraine's new defense minister: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/16/zelensky-proposes-former-prime-minister.html

caida_as: CAIDA AS graphs (2004-2007)
A sequence of 122 network snapshots denoting Autonomous System (AS) relationships on the Internet, from 2004-2007, inferred using the Serial-1 method from RouteViews BGP table snapshots and a set of heuristics.
This network has 19267 nodes and 77860 edges.
Tags: Technological, Communication, Unweighted, Temporal

Terry McLaurin landing spots: Potential trade suitors as WR frustrated with Commanders amid contract dispute

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/terry-m…

hiv_transmission: HIV transmission network (1988-2001)
A set of networks of HIV transmissions between people through sexual, needle-sharing, or social connections, based on combining 8 datasets collected from 1988 to 2001. Metadata includes test results of several diseases, as well as demographic variables such as age, ethnicity, and gender. Networks come in two flavors: egodyads and altdyads. Egodyads are the network among study-participants and their direct partners. Altdyads are the…

"At De Gruyter Brill, we are committed to supporting rigorous academic research that drives meaningful change. As part of this vision and mission, we have launched "Sustainability Matters" - a podcast exploring how #sustainability shapes #research,

As Trump pledges more Patriot systems, US envoy Kellogg arrives in Kyiv: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/14/as-trump-pledges-more-patriot.html

hiv_transmission: HIV transmission network (1988-2001)
A set of networks of HIV transmissions between people through sexual, needle-sharing, or social connections, based on combining 8 datasets collected from 1988 to 2001. Metadata includes test results of several diseases, as well as demographic variables such as age, ethnicity, and gender. Networks come in two flavors: egodyads and altdyads. Egodyads are the network among study-participants and their direct partners. Altdyads are the…

Death toll mounts in Israel and Iran as both countries threaten further response after trading strikes overnight
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/202

Top draft pick Jihaad Campbell gives update on Eagles return, has simple goal as he prepares for rookie season

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/top-d…

Commanders' Terry McLaurin 'disappointed' and 'frustrated' with contract situation as training camp nears

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news…

Imagine spending years as an intelligence officer, working diligently to subvert the Kremlin,
only to watch the US stand with Russia, Iran and North Korea,
as it did in February when it voted against a UN resolution condemning the invasion of Ukraine.
In that moment, Tim Weiner said: “You come to the realization, if you hadn’t already:
‘My God, the president of the United States has gone over to the other side. He has joined the authoritarian axis.’”

Mass attack hits cities overnight as Ukrainians brace for 50 more days of Russian terror: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/15/mass-attack-hits-cities-overnight.html

internet_as: Internet AS graph (2006)
A symmetrized snapshot of the structure of the Internet at the level of Autonomous Systems (ASs), reconstructed from BGP tables posted by the University of Oregon Route Views Project. This snapshot was created on 22 July 2006.
This network has 22963 nodes and 48436 edges.
Tags: Technological, Communication, Unweighted

Emmanuel Macron has criticised Donald Trump’s threats to take over Greenland
as he became the first foreign head of state to visit the vast, mineral-rich Arctic territory since the US president began making explicit threats to annex it.
“I don’t think that’s what allies do,”
Macron said as he arrived in the Danish autonomous territory for a highly symbolic visit aimed at conveying
“France’s and the EU’s solidarity” with Greenlandon his way to a summit of G7 leaders in …

EU fails to approve new Russia sanctions as Slovakia holds up vote: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/15/eu-fails-to-approve-new.html

US-Ukraine minerals fund looks for manager as critical resources deal advances: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/15/usukraine-minerals-fund-looks-for.html

DEFUNDING NPR, PBS:
The Senate is expected to cast 2 votes beginning 8 p.m. Eastern on moving ahead on a bill to cancel already approved funding for NPR and PBS,
as well as foreign aid including PEPFAR.
We will have a story from @statesnewsroom.com DC.
Watch here
https://www.senate.gov/…

wiki_users: Wikipedia user interaction (2011)
A network derived from interactions between editors of the English language Wikipedia, as derived from the edit histories of 563 wiki pages related to politics. A positive sign indicates positive links such as trust or similarities, and a negative sign indicates distrust or disagreement.
This network has 138592 nodes and 740397 edges.
Tags: Social, Online, Signed

Trump's ultimatum on Ukraine war: Kremlin weighs response as tensions rise: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/15/trumps-ultimatum-on-ukraine-war.html

So grateful for the clear, unequivocal witness and voice of Rep. @maxwellfrost.bsky.social
who visited the horrifying detention camp in Florida.
As he said, “I didn’t see any Russians who’ve overstayed their visas.
Only Black & Latino men who look like me.”
@maddow.msnbc.com
https://

Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social)
So grateful for the clear, unequivocal witness and voice of Rep. @maxwellfrost.bsky.social who visited the horrifying detention camp in Florida. As he said, “I didn’t see any Russians who’ve overstayed their visas. Only Black & Latino men who look like me.” @maddow.msnbc.com

board_directors: Norwegian Boards of Directors (2002-2011)
224 networks of the affiliations among board directors due to sitting on common boards of Norwegian public limited companies (as of 5 August 2009), from May 2002 onward, in monthly snapshots through August 2011. Some metadata is included, such as director and company names, city and postal code for companies, and gender for directors. The 'net2m' data are bipartite company-director networks, while the 'net1m' ar…

Kyiv court releases Ukraine's top anti-corruption activist on recognizance as his lawyer dismisses the charges: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/15/kyiv-court-releases-ukraines-top.html

When Donald Trump last attended a Group of 7 meeting in Canada, he was in many ways the odd man out.
At that meeting, in 2018, Trump called for the alliance of Western countries to embrace Russia,
antagonized allies and
ultimately stormed out of the summit over a trade battle he began by imposing metals tariffs on Canada.
As he returns on Sunday for the Group of 7 meeting in Alberta, those fissures have only deepened.
Since retaking office, the president has sough…

As Trump Returns to G7, Rift With Allies Is Even Deeper
In 2018, the president called for the group to embrace Russia and stormed out of the summit. Now he is seeking to shrink America’s military role abroad and embarking on a more expansive trade war.

Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s border czar, refers to undocumented immigrants as “the gotaways,” the ones we didn’t catch.
In a lecture at Loyola University Chicago in April, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso observed that the current immigration crisis
“is driven by the deeper crisis of public and social life.”
He continued: “On a fundamental level, these are signs that we are losing the story of who we are as a country.
This is a crisis of narrative.
Are w…

Opinion | We Will Regret Not Standing Up to This Venomous Cruelty
Nothing good happens when people become “the other.”

'Unbearable' — EU's Kallas raises alarm over Russia's escalating chemical warfare in Ukraine: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/16/unbearable-eus-kallas-raises-alarm.html

We should acknowledge that if there is an "Epstein client list",
there’s a good chance Donald Trump is on it.
“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” Trump said in 2002.
“He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
Is that why Bondi won’t release the list?
Quite the enticing possibility.
If there ever was a case made for conspiracy theorists,…

Trump betrays his conspiracy-addled base
From Epstein to chemtrails, they're learning it was all a scam.

3 killed, 40 injured in Russian attacks against Ukraine over past day: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/16/killed-injured-in-russian-attacks.html

The White House effort to claw back $9.4 billion of already allocated government spending faces a critical vote in the Senate this week.
Some Republicans have concerns about the cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting
as the clock ticks to Friday’s deadline to approve or modify the Trump administration plan.

Republicans face deadline to claw back funding for foreign aid and public media
The White House effort to cut back $9.4 billion of already allocated government spending faces a critical vote in the Senate this week. Some Republicans have concerns about the cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting as the clock ticks to Friday’s deadline to approve or modify the Trump administration plan. Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins reports.

Trump appears eager to create optics that support his claim that public dissent constitutes an existential threat to the nation.
He also apparently seeks to get the American public used to seeing our armed forces in a new light.
In the president’s version of America, the military should be seen less as an apolitical body loyal to the Constitution.
-- Rather, it should be viewed as an institution that serves at the behest of a leader and his ideological and political agen…

Opinion | Trump Wants You to Get Used to This
The president wants to get Americans used to seeing the armed forces in a new light.

The Justice Department is accelerating its efforts to undo decades of civil service protections intended to insulate the work of law enforcement officials from political interference.
A new batch of more than 20 career employees at the department and its component agencies were fired on Friday,
including the attorney general’s own ethics adviser, Joseph W. Tirrell.
Others who were dismissed included a handful of senior officials at the U.S. Marshals Service, as well as pros…

Dismissals at Justice Dept. Would Bypass Civil Service and Whistle-Blower Laws
In court filings and dismissal letters, the Justice Department’s political leadership claims sweeping authority to fire career law enforcement officials without cause.

Four food truck companies face online backlash following their services at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
https://abc17news.com/news/2025/07/05/4-food-truck-companies-face-online-backlash-following-their-services-at-alli…

4 food truck companies face online backlash following their services at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
By Cassie Martinez, Julie Calhoun Click here for updates on this story     OCHOPEE, Florida (WSVN) — A TikTok video showing four food trucks enter the new immigration detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” on its opening day sparked online outrage. As of Thursday night, the video gained more than four million views and 20,000 comments, as