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Comment Re: Well, that's sad. (Score 2) 103

People made a big fuss about the USA trying to enforce its laws outside its jurisdiction. How come its somehow ok for the EU to do the same? If the company is based outside the Eu and so are the servers I dont legally see how this can work unless theres a rule saying that EU citizen data can only be stored on servers in the EU. Good luck getting smaller companies to agree to that.

There's so much confusion to untangle here but this is the original article: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.eu%2Farticl...

Submission + - ICE Is Paying Palantir $30 Million to Build 'ImmigrationOS' Surveillance System (wired.com)

Submitted by ArchieBunker
ArchieBunker writes: Immigration and Customs Enforcement is paying software company Palantir $30 million to provide the agency with “near real-time visibility” on people self-deporting from the United States, according to a contract justification published in a federal register on Thursday. The tool would also help ICE choose who to deport, giving special priority to “visa overstays,” the document shows.

Palantir has been an ICE contractor since 2011, but the document published Thursday indicates that Palantir wants to provide brand-new capabilities to ICE. The agency currently does not have any publicly known tools for tracking self-deportation in near real-time. The agency does have a tool for tracking self-reported deportations, but Thursday’s document, which was first reported by Business Insider, does not say to what degree this new tool may rely on self-reported data. ICE also has “insufficient technology” to detect people overstaying their visas, according to the Department of Homeland Security. This is particularly due to challenges in collecting "biographic and biometric" data from departing travelers, especially if they leave over land, according to Customs and Border Protection.

The agency says in the document that these new capabilities will be under a wholly new platform called the Immigration Lifecycle Operating System, or ImmigrationOS. Palantir is expected to provide a prototype of ImmigrationOS by September 25, 2025, and the contract is scheduled to last at least through September 2027. ICE’s update to the contract comes as the Trump administration is demanding that thousands of immigrants “self-deport,” or leave the US voluntarily.

ICE and Palantir did not respond for comment.

According to the document, ImmigrationOS is intended to have three core functions. Its “Targeting and Enforcement Prioritization” capability would streamline the “selection and apprehension operations of illegal aliens.” People prioritized for removal, ICE says, should be “violent criminals,” gang members, and “visa overstays.”

Its “Self-Deportation Tracking” function would have “near real-time visibility into instances of self-deporation,” the document says. The document does not say what data Palantir would use for such a system, but ICE says it aims to “accurately report metrics of alien departures from the United States.” The agency stipulates that this tool should also integrate with “enforcement prioritization systems to inform policy” but does not elaborate on these systems or policies.

Meanwhile, the “Immigration Lifecycle Process” function would streamline the “identification” of aliens and their “removal” from the United States, with the goal of making "deportation logistics” more efficient.

In a “rationale” section, ICE claims that it has an “urgent and compelling” need for ImmigrationOS’s capabilities. Without them, ICE claims, it would be “severely” limited in its ability to target the gangs MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, and abide by President Donald Trump’s executive order to expedite deportations.

Palantir, ICE claims, is “the only source that can provide the required capabilities and prototype of ImmogrationOS [sic] without causing unacceptable delays.” ICE says the company has developed “deep institutional knowledge of the agency’s operations over more than a decade of support.”

“No other vendor could meet these timeframes of having the infrastructure in place to meet this urgent requirement and deliver a prototype in less than six months,” ICE says in the document.

ICE’s document does not specify the data sources Palantir would pull from to power ImmigrationOS. However, it says that Palantir could “configure” the case management system that it has provided to ICE since 2014.

Palantir has done work at various other government agencies as early as 2007. Aside from ICE, it has worked with the US Army, Air Force, Navy, Internal Revenue Service, and Federal Bureau of Investigation. As reported by WIRED, Palantir is currently helping Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) build a brand-new “mega API” at the IRS that could search for records across all the different databases that the agency maintains.

Last week, 404 Media reported that a recent version of Palantir’s case-management system for ICE allows agents to search for people based on “hundreds of different, highly specific categories,” including how a person entered the country, their current legal status, and their country of origin. It also includes a person’s hair and eye color, whether they have scars or tattoos, and their license-plate reader data, which would provide detailed location data about where that person travels by car.

These functionalities have been mentioned in a government privacy assessment published in 2016, and it’s not clear what new information may have been integrated into the case management system over the past four years.

This week’s $30 million award is an addition to an existing Palantir contract penned in 2022, originally worth about $17 million, for work on ICE’s case management system. The agency has increased the value of the contract five times prior to this month; the largest was a $19 million increase in September 2023.

The contract’s ImmigrationOS update was first documented on April 11 in a government-run database tracking federal spending. The entry had a 248-character description of the change. The five-page document ICE published Thursday, meanwhile, has a more detailed description of Palantir’s expected services for the agency.

The contract update comes as the Trump administration deputizes ICE and other government agencies to drastically escalate the tactics and scale of deportations from the US. In recent weeks, immigration authorities have arrested and detained people with student visas and green cards, and deported at least 238 people to a brutal megaprison in El Salvador, some of whom have not been able to speak with a lawyer or have due process.

As part of its efforts to push people to self-deport, DHS in late March revoked the temporary parole of more than half a million people and demanded that they self-deport in about a month, despite having been granted authorization to live in the US after fleeing dangerous or unstable situations in Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela under the so-called “CHNV parole programs.”

Last week, the Social Security Administration listed more than 6,000 of these people as dead, a tactic meant to end their financial lives. DHS, meanwhile, sent emails to an unknown number of people declaring that their parole had been revoked and demanding that they self-deport. Several US citizens, including immigration attorneys, received the email.

On Monday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s move to revoke people’s authorization to live in the US under the CHNV programs. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt called the judge’s ruling “rogue.”

Comment Re: 242 milihectar? (Score 1) 48

Should he have checked with ChatGPT before posting?

Should I post this or does it seem like the ramblings of a drunk "That is, wait, 24'200 square meters... Somebod that does not sound accurate. Looks like somebody does not understand SI. Pathetic."?

It definitely has a bit of a scattered, uncertain tone, which could make it sound like the speaker is either confused or intoxicated. The pauses, the hesitation, and the slight misspelling all contribute to that effect.

If your goal is to highlight someone's misunderstanding of SI units in a sharp or critical way, you might consider making the phrasing clearer or more direct. If you're going for a more dramatic or humorous tone, then it already has that unpredictable energy.

What vibe are you aiming for—pointed critique or a playful jab?

I think you're on to something.

Comment Re:Terrible Headline. (Score 2) 28

Knowing next to nothing about medical research or AI I wondered about applying LLMs to proteins; after all, DNA is just a language with four letters. But then I remembered Folding@Home and when I read a little about it I found that it is (or at least was) very difficult to predict how a protein folds itself up when just looking at the DNA sequence, and that it's the shape of a protein that determines what it does. I've no doubt that there are people around the world applying AI to this problem right now

Alphafold https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F... https://f6ffb3fa-34ce-43c1-939d-77e64deb3c0c.atarimworker.io/index2.pl...

Comment Re:Spoiler alert: there's no global soil (Score 1) 48

Heavy metals pollution is almost entirely localized to a very specific belt, going from Turkey through Iraq and Iran into Pakistan, India and terminating in China. There are a couple of other hot spots like certain mining areas in Africa, but other than that, it's not a problem.

Rest of the world it's just the same old overfertilization they're trying to sell as "pollution" again. This is 1960s panic, 1980s panic and 2000s panic being recycled again. Nothing new at all.

I don't get it. I'm aware of over-fertilization as pollution but afaik that's nitrogen. Are you saying it also shows as metals (which sounds plausible)?

Comment Re:Values (Score 1) 213

This is what happens when you have no values. You think it's OK to promote anti-reality beliefs and let millions suffer and even die unnecessarily if it helps you gain or hold power.

I've come to suspect it's a form of LARPing. Choose yourself as a main hero character and equip with enlightened knowledge. The narrative anticipates enemy attacks so now you can absolve yourself from negative consequences of your actions for the greater good. What fuels this specific to our time is the attention economies ability to easily monetise the outrageous.

Comment Re:c'mon (Score 1) 48

A Guardian story, doesn't report the analysis levels, methods, exposure limits for the metals, anything other than what's in the title. Slashdot admins you can do better.

The paper is linked in the article. For your convenience: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.science.org%2Fdoi%2F10... You're welcome.

Submission + - FDA did not notify the public of deadly E. coli outbreak across 15 states (nbcnews.com)

Submitted by joshuark
joshuark writes: The outbreak is linked to romaine lettuce killed one person and sickened at least 88 more, including a 9-year-old boy who nearly died of kidney failure.

“There were no public communications related to this outbreak,” the FDA said in its report, which noted that there had been a death but provided no details about it.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported in February that it had closed the investigation without publicly detailing what had happened, or which companies were responsible for growing and processing the contaminated lettuce.

The FDA said its staff members “continue to provide critical communications to consumers associated with foodborne outbreaks,” including information about recalls and investigations.

Comment Re:242 milihectar? (Score 2) 48

That is, wait, 24'200 square meters...

Somebod that does not sound accurate. Looks like somebody does not understand SI. Pathetic.

"242m hectares". 1000000 "in British English as m" https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F... Cheers to making the most out of the long weekend and asking others to explain your made up quote.

Submission + - Starlink Equipment Discovered on Roof of U.S. GSA Building (apnews.com)

Submitted by fahrbot-bot
fahrbot-bot writes: The AP (and others) is reporting that an agency staffer at the General Services Administration (GSA) headquarters recently discovered a rectangular device on the rooftop patio attached to a wire that snaked across the roof, over the ledge and into the administrator’s window one floor below.

It didn’t take long for the employee — an IT specialist — to figure out the device was a transceiver that communicates with Elon Musk’s vast and private Starlink satellite network. Concerned that the equipment violated federal laws designed to protect public data, staffers reported the discovery to superiors and the agency’s internal watchdog.

On the GSA roof, employees found at least two transceivers, including the one with a wire running to the administrator’s office. It is not clear why the agency is using Starlink. The network provides internet service but is not generally approved for use in most government computer systems.

IT staffers, who reported the discovery to superiors, were concerned that the devices were not authorized to be used at GSA and DOGE might be utilizing them to siphon off agency data, according to internal emails obtained by the AP and a GSA employee who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal.

GSA’s IT staff opened an investigation to see if the terminals were a security threat, and an employee filed a complaint with the GSA’s inspector general, the emails show. The status of those probes could not be determined.

A GSA spokesman confirmed the presence of Starlink transceivers but said they were not connected “to GSA’s internal network, nor was there a security breach.”

Comment Re:Yet another embarrassment (Score 1) 139

by ISayWeOnlyToBePolite (#65312039) Attached to: First Global Pandemic Treaty Agreed - Without the US

i don't support much of the H1 2025 upheaval / rhetoric, and hope things will chill out reasonably soon, but for all our problems and to some degree BECAUSE we're already kind of uncomfortable the US is still the force to recon with.

If i had to pick between the US or the EU in any sort of serious crisis: war, pandemic, etc. ... i think i'd go US as to who would come out ahead.

Final Verdict: Model or Warning?
Europe presents a complex picture. On one hand, it offers a social model that prioritizes well-being, equity, and sustainability. On the other hand, it faces significant challenges in competitiveness, innovation, and demographic stability. For America, the European experience is both a model and a warning—a reminder that while social safety nets and progressive values are essential, they must be balanced with economic dynamism and innovation to ensure long-term prosperity.

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fworldecomag.com%2Feurope...

Please don't do this.That site is obviously all AI generated content. I do live in the EU and I find no joy in this self-harm.

Comment Re:It was a meteor moment (Score 5, Informative) 114

Started with BitKeeper changing its license because someone in the community had tried to reverse engineer the protocol. Linus tried to defend BitKeeper, but the other devs were spending their days shouting at the BitKeeper guy while searching for something freer. Linux coding pretty much stopped.

Then one morning Linus posted git v0.1 and instead of searching for another system the linux devs spent the next week critiquing git. Then they started to add patches and within a couple of weeks the system was fit for casual use. Overnight git became the VCS that every dev used at home and dozens of other VCS' companies were out of business within the year.

Good times.

I believe "Kernel SCM saga.." is the relevant LKML thread for the creation of git (although I can't find Linus announcing git 0.1 so perhaps there was also another thread) https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmarc.info%2F%3Fl%3Dlinux-ker...

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