Tootfinder

Google has filed a lawsuit to protect its search results,
targeting a firm called SerpApi
that has turned Google’s 10 blue links into a business.
According to Google, SerpApi ignores established law and Google’s terms
to scrape and resell its search engine results pages (SERPs).
This is not the first action against SerpApi, but Google’s decision to go after a scraper could signal a new, more aggressive stance on protecting its search data.

Google lobs lawsuit at search result scraping firm SerpApi
Google says the lawsuit is its last resort.

Raiders Get Curt Cignetti Message Amid Fernando Mendoza Link https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/las-vegas-raiders/curt-cignetti-message-fernando-mendoza-link/

Cynicism, "AI"
I've been pointed out the "Reflections on 2025" post by Samuel Albanie [1]. The author's writing style makes it quite a fun, I admit.
The first part, "The Compute Theory of Everything" is an optimistic piece on "#AI". Long story short, poor "AI researchers" have been struggling for years because of predominant misconception that "machines should have been powerful enough". Fortunately, now they can finally get their hands on the kind of power that used to be only available to supervillains, and all they have to do is forget about morals, agree that their research will be used to murder millions of people, and a few more millions will die as a side effect of the climate crisis. But I'm digressing.
The author is referring to an essay by Hans Moravec, "The Role of Raw Power in Intelligence" [2]. It's also quite an interesting read, starting with a chapter on how intelligence evolved independently at least four times. The key point inferred from that seems to be, that all we need is more computing power, and we'll eventually "brute-force" all AI-related problems (or die trying, I guess).
As a disclaimer, I have to say I'm not a biologist. Rather just a random guy who read a fair number of pieces on evolution. And I feel like the analogies brought here are misleading at best.
Firstly, there seems to be an assumption that evolution inexorably leads to higher "intelligence", with a certain implicit assumption on what intelligence is. Per that assumption, any animal that gets "brainier" will eventually become intelligent. However, this seems to be missing the point that both evolution and learning doesn't operate in a void.
Yes, many animals did attain a certain level of intelligence, but they attained it in a long chain of development, while solving specific problems, in specific bodies, in specific environments. I don't think that you can just stuff more brains into a random animal, and expect it to attain human intelligence; and the same goes for a computer — you can't expect that given more power, algorithms will eventually converge on human-like intelligence.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, what evolution did succeed at first is achieving neural networks that are far more energy efficient than whatever computers are doing today. Even if indeed "computing power" paved the way for intelligence, what came first is extremely efficient "hardware". Nowadays, human seem to be skipping that part. Optimizing is hard, so why bother with it? We can afford bigger data centers, we can afford to waste more energy, we can afford to deprive people of drinking water, so let's just skip to the easy part!
And on top of that, we're trying to squash hundreds of millions of years of evolution into… a decade, perhaps? What could possibly go wrong?
[1] #NoAI #NoLLM #LLM

Could someone understanding modern monetary theory please explain to me the link between issuing new money and people getting poorer due to dropping currency exchange rates? How is making your population less able to purchase imported goods a lesser problem than "expanding productive capacity" of the state?

The economics behind Zack Polanski’s claims
In these pages last week (25 November), Green Party leader Zack Polanski told George Eaton that “The fiscal rule we need to have is to make sure that inflation doesn’t go higher than the skills and re

Here's the scenario. Walz passes the ball to Klobuchar, who immediately scores and appoints Walz to replace her in the Senate. Another eight years of DFL control of Minnesota, and Walz has a long career in Washington. MyPillow guy winds up in Hazelden.

If you can, go watch "It Was Just An Accident". It's good (albeit a little slow) and will stay with you long after the credits rolled. Can't say I've watched anything similar yet.
https://letterboxd.com/njamster/film/it-was-just-an-accident/

A ★★★★ review of It Was Just an Accident (2025)
Takes quite a while to get going and is pretty slow-paced in general, but if you can handle that, you're in for a treat! During the middle part Panahi masterfully manages the really impressive tightrope act of being almost comedic despite the very heavy topic. The central question of "Did he really do it?" remains open right until the end, and will keep you at the edge of your seat, despite the rather minimal (almost "chamber play"-like) set pieces and cast. And the ambiguous ending is just... …

Meer dan 1.100 doden t.g.v. regenval in Zuid-Oost Azië
#klimaatverandering
"Human-caused climate breakdown has increased the occurrence of the most intense and destructive tropical cyclones, though the overall number of storms per year has not changed globally. This is because warming oceans provide more energy, producing stronger storms. Extreme rainfall from tropic…

« Le cessez-le-feu risque de créer l’illusion dangereuse d’un retour Š la normale pour les gens qui vivent Š Gaza. Si les autorités et les forces israéliennes ont réduit l’ampleur de leurs attaques et autorisé l’entrée d’une aide humanitaire limitée Š Gaza, le monde ne doit toutefois pas se laisser berner. Le génocide perpétré par Israël n’a pas pris fin »
#Gaza

Jack Kerouac’s original typescript scroll for "On the Road"
– the 37 metre (121 ft) long roll of paper on which he typed his defining Beat novel in a three-week burst
– will go under the hammer at Christie’s in March, with a sale estimate of £1.8m to £2.9m ($2.5m to $4m).
The scroll is one of the centrepieces of the Jim Irsay Collection,
one of the most extensive private collections of music, literary,
film and sports memorabilia ever assembled.
…

Insider Delivers Exciting Take for Raiders Amid Coaching Search https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/las-vegas-raiders/nfl-insider-exciting-take-coach-search/