AI going DeepSeek

January 28, 2025January 28, 2025 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Most readers will know the news by now. DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company, released an AI model called R1 that is comparable in ability to the best models from companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta, but was trained at a radically lower cost and using less than state-of-the art GPU chips. DeepSeek also made public enough of the details of the model that others can run it on their own computers without charge.

AI going DeepSeek

Previously:

Interview with Deepseek Founder: We’re Done Following. It’s Time to Lead

Who funded the anti-BRI “Made in Ethiopia” documentary?

December 8, 2024December 8, 2024 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

WSWS: Made in Ethiopia—or anywhere else in the world – Xinyan Yu (National Fellow at New America*), Max Duncan (Reuters in China), Eastern Industry Park

In addition to the 12 industrial parks built by the government and managed by the Industrial Parks Development Corporation and regional governments and the Diredawa Free Trade Zone, there are also industrial parks built and managed by private investors in various areas of Ethiopia. One of these private industrial parks is Eastern Industry Park. The industrial park is located in Dukem area, and 153 companies are engaged in production activities in the park. 95% of the companies are owned by Chinese investors, while the rest are owned by companies from India, England, and other countries. These producers are contributing significantly in terms of job creation, foreign exchange earnings, technology, and knowledge transfer.

Trump 2.0: Prepare for the further dumbing down of America

November 20, 2024November 20, 2024 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

No, it’s not Communism! It’s the privatization of education. “School choice” takes away from government spending for public schools!

Trump Chooses Longtime Ally Linda McMahon to Run Education Dept.

President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday tapped Linda McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive who ran the Small Business Administration for much of his first term, to lead the Education Department, an agency he has routinely singled out for elimination in his upcoming term.

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In part because of her recent policy role and her experience as the small business administrator, Ms. McMahon had been discussed as a possible pick to lead the Commerce Department until the role was officially offered to Howard Lutnick, a Wall Street executive and a chairman of the Trump transition team, earlier in the day.

Ms. McMahon will be in charge of overseeing what is widely expected to be a thorough and determined dismantling of the department’s core functions, as Mr. Trump and many of those in his orbit have questioned the agency’s purpose and disparaged its work as overregulating schools on political and ideological terms.

Other than a brief appointment in 2009 to the Connecticut State Board of Education, where she served for just over a year, Ms. McMahon has no experience in overseeing education policy. She would assume the role at a time when school districts across the country are facing budget shortfalls, many students are not making up ground lost during the pandemic in reading and math, and many colleges and universities are shrinking and closing amid a larger loss of faith in the value of higher education.

While Mr. Trump has repeatedly called for an outright dissolution of the agency, any effort to shutter it would require congressional action and support from some Republican lawmakers whose districts depend on federal aid for public education.

But the America First Policy Institute has set out a more immediate list of changes it says could be achieved through vastly changing the department’s priorities. Those include stopping schools from “promoting inaccurate and unpatriotic concepts” about American history surrounding institutionalized racism, and expanding “school choice” programs that direct more public funds to parents to spend on home-schooling, online classes or at private and religious schools.

[2012] The Demise of Higher Education in the United States

May 13, 2024May 13, 2024 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The United States has experienced two major growth spurts in higher education. In 1862, the Morrill Act changed the face of higher education will by granting each state 30,000 acres of public land for each senator and representative. Sale of the land was intended to create an endowment fund for the support of colleges in each of the states. Prior to the creation of the land-grant colleges, higher education was predominantly intended for wealthy students and those intending to serve as clergy. The land-grant colleges expanded higher education to different regions and a different class of students. This expansion, however, was still incomplete.

The Demise of Higher Education in the United States

Previously:

The Origin of Student Debt: Reagan Adviser Warned Free College Would Create a Dangerous “Educated Proletariat”

The Powell Memo Revisited

Front Organizations

Psychedelic Drugs Are Rushing Towards Approval for Therapy. Here’s What’s Next

January 6, 2024September 25, 2024 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Psychedelic Drugs Are Rushing Towards Approval for Therapy. Here’s What’s Next

Yet one glaring problem remains. Despite promising clinical results, no one knows exactly how psychedelic drugs work in the brain. Examining their actions on brain cells isn’t just an academic curiosity. It could give rise to variants that maintain antidepressant properties without the high. And because hallucinogens substantially alter our perception [management?!] of the world, they could be powerful tools for investigating the neurobiology behind consciousness.

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This year, scientists found another common theme—psychedelics seem to “reset” the brain to a more youthful state, at least in mice. Like humans, mice have an adolescent critical period, during which their brains are highly malleable and can easily rewire neural circuits, but the window closes after adulthood.

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An earlier study showed that MDMA reopens the critical window in adult mice, so that they change their “personality.” Mice raised alone are often introverted and prefer to keep to themselves in adulthood. A dose of MDMA increased their willingness to snuggle with other mice—essentially, they learned to associate socializing with happiness, concluded the study.

It’s not that surprising. MDMA is well-known to promote empathy and bonding. The new study, by the same team, extended their early results to four psychedelics that don’t trigger fuzzy feelings—LSD, ketamine, psilocybin, and ibogaine. Similar to MDMA, adult mice raised alone changed their usual preference for solitude when treated with any of the drugs. Because habits are hard to change in adulthood—for mice and men—the drugs may have reopened the critical period, allowing the brain to more easily rewire neural connections based on new experiences.

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These are just early results. But psychedelic research is gaining a new ally—artificial intelligence. Algorithms that predict protein structure, combined with rational drug design, could generate psychedelics that retain their psychiatric benefits without the high.

H/T: The Most Revolutionary Act

Meaghan thought psychedelic therapy could help her PTSD. Instead it was the start of a nightmare

Why is the American right suddenly so interested in psychedelic drugs

What if a Pill Can Change Your Politics or Religious Beliefs? (archived)

Do Psychedelic Trips Change Your Political Views? (archived)

Israel’s War on American Student Activists

November 17, 2023November 17, 2023 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

For years the Israel on Campus Coalition—a little-known organization with links to Israeli intelligence—has used student informants to spy on pro-Palestinian campus groups.
Israel’s War on American Student Activists (archived)

Looks like those microgrants are for more than just attending pro-Israel protests.

Previously:

Pro-Israel Group Paid Students $250 Each to Attend ‘March for Israel’ Event in DC

Days After Saying ‘Every Jewish Person is a Zionist,’ ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt Says Anti-Zionist Jews are a ‘Hate Group’

ADL Director sounds alarm over lack of support for Israel among ‘Gen Z’

Something else about that Army War College article

October 3, 2023October 4, 2023 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)5 Comments

Forensic Architecture:

Forensic Architecture is a multidisciplinary research group based at Goldsmiths, University of London that uses architectural techniques and technologies to investigate cases of state violence and violations of human rights around the world. The group is led by architect Eyal Weizman.

A tiny company with a UPS Store address could help the government get around browser security

November 14, 2022November 14, 2022 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

A report from The Washington Post has raised doubts about a root certificate authority used by Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and other tech companies with ties to US intelligence. The company in question, called TrustCor, works as a root certificate authority to validate the trustworthiness of websites — and while the report found no concrete evidence of wrongdoing, it raised significant questions about the company’s trustworthiness.
A tiny company with a UPS Store address could help the government get around browser security