Reproducing Reality
The family values of the radical Left Two films display stolen virtue: (I)s the injunction to grow up, embrace family responsibility, etc., really a neutral apolitical wisdom that posits a limit to our political engagement? Or is it, rather, a way for ideology to intervene, preventing us from analyzing to the end the morality of violent resistance?..Violent help to illegal immigrants is also problematic: it helps big capital (providing cheap labor and lowering the wages of American workers through arbitrage) and simultaneously gins up support for Trumpian populists. While I am fully aware that often violence is often needed and fully justified, I suspect that in today’s United States, direct small-scale single acts of violence like those practiced by the Weathermen have no chance against the Trumpian state and would only serve to intensify its brutal logic and oppressive measures. They amount to a public request to the White House: “Please send the National Guard to our town!” The focus, instead, should be on sabotaging the corporate digital control over our lives. - Zizek
Israel’s parliament advances bill to annex occupied West Bank
The situation has become so complicated because the simple “reproduction of reality” says less than ever about that reality. A photograph of the Krupp works or the AEG reveals almost nothing about these institutions. Reality as such has slipped into the domain of the functional. The reification of human relations, the factory, for example, no longer discloses those relations. So there is indeed “something to construct”, something “artificial”, “invented” [“etwas aufzubauen”, etwas “Künstliches”, “Gestelltes”]. Hence, there is in fact a need for art. But the old concept of art, derived from experience, is obsolete. For those who show only the experiential aspect of reality do not reproduce reality itself. - Brecht In capitalism, relations between humans do not appear as such but as relations of things (Dinge), that is, commodities.
A foreign actor infiltrated the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Kansas City National Security Campus through vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s SharePoint browser-based app, raising questions about the need to solidify further federal IT/OT security protections. - CSO
Supporters of the winology theory take this further, arguing that the Western denial of China’s successes stems from a caste-like perception that inherently devalues the country. Some even claim the US itself is forming a caste-based society, with racial groups confined to specific roles – African-Americans in basketball or rap, Chinese in programming, Mexicans in manual labour and white liberals in finance and tech. Yu argued that winologists saw these “stereotypes” as a proto-caste system that maintained stability by restricting social mobility. - SCMP
Israeli National Security Minister Ben-Gvir: Now that we have received the hostages, we must return to war and open the gates of hell upon Gaza.
Israeli defense contractor Rafael Advanced Defense Systems will supply the German army with Spike anti-tank missiles in a deal worth approximately €2 billion, one of the largest agreements signed by Israeli defense industries in Europe in recent years. The contract is especially notable given the arms embargo imposed on Israel earlier this year by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, following the Israeli cabinet’s controversial decision to extend the war in Gaza. - CTech
“Gamers have been a punching bag for society,” Otis says as we chat over Discord. “Guy in his mom’s basement and stuff. But these friendships are as real as any other friendship. Gaming is the time I have to hang out with my friends.” - Working Class Storytelling
PARIS — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and America’s use of economic force to achieve goals signal the end of a world order based on respect of sovereignty and crisis resolution through negotiation, and indicate the resurgence of empires, French Army Chief of Staff Gen. Pierre Schill said. The world is experiencing a turning point that may be at least equivalent to the end of the Cold War, and possibly comparable to the First World War, Schill said at a presentation of his first book, “Le sens du Commandement,” which roughly translates as the meaning of command, at La Procure bookstore in central Paris last week…“The modern world and the world of future combat will in any case be a world in which adaptation and adaptability will be essential,” Schill said. “We need to adopt a mindset of continuous innovation, not only in terms of technology, but also tactics.” - Defense News
Two people looking at the same product at the same time might see different prices. AI has turbocharged the process. You check prices online for a flight to Melbourne today. It’s $300. You leave your browser open. Two hours later, it’s $320. Half a day later, $280. Welcome to the world of algorithmic pricing, where technology tries to figure out what price you’re willing to pay…AI uses personal data – your browsing history, purchase habits, device, even postcode – to predict your willingness to pay. The price varies with the individual. Some call this “surveillance pricing”..At its core, such systems mine data, a lot of it. Every click, the amount of time spent on a web page, prior purchases, abandoned carts, location, device type, browsing path – these all feed into a profile. Machine learning models predict your “willingness to pay”. Using these predictions, the system picks a price that maximises revenue while hoping not to lose the sale. - UNSW
OpenAI slipped shopping into 800 million ChatGPT users’ chats − here’s why that matters. Your phone buzzes at 6 a.m. It’s ChatGPT: “I see you’re traveling to New York this week. Based on your preferences, I’ve found three restaurants near your hotel. Would you like me to make a reservation?” You didn’t ask for this. The AI simply knew your plans from scanning your calendar and email and decided to help. Later, you mention to the chatbot needing flowers for your wife’s birthday. Within seconds, beautiful arrangements appear in the chat. You tap one: “Buy now.” Done. The flowers are ordered. This isn’t science fiction. On Sept. 29, 2025, OpenAI and payment processor Stripe launched the Agentic Commerce Protocol. This technology lets you buy things instantly from Etsy within ChatGPT conversations. ChatGPT users are scheduled to gain access to over 1 million other Shopify merchants, from major household brand names to small shops as well…AI’s responses create what researchers call an “advice illusion.” When ChatGPT suggests three hotels, you don’t see them as ads. They feel like recommendations from a knowledgeable friend. But you don’t know whether those hotels paid for placement or whether better options exist that ChatGPT didn’t show you. OpenAI isn’t alone in this race. In the same month, Google announced its competing protocol, AP2. Microsoft, Amazon and Meta are building similar systems. Whoever wins will be in position to control how billions of people buy things, potentially capturing a percentage of trillions of dollars in annual transactions. - The Conversation
In the face of rising public concern, entrepreneurs are marketing novel solutions to remove microplastics and PFAS from the body. Some are simple supplements claiming to clear toxins from the gut; others involve high-end blood-filtration machines that can cost more than $10,000 per treatment. Still, experts who study microplastics caution that little is known about quantifying their presence in the body, what a protocol for reducing them should look like and whether removing them will improve patients’ health. There is little published evidence that any therapy is effective at removing microplastics from the body, leaving patients with few guideposts to navigate claims made by companies peddling solutions.
Stolen Louvre treasures are uninsured, France says. France will not receive payouts for the loss of jewellery of “inestimable” historical value stolen from Paris’s Louvre museum, after the French government confirmed the objects were not covered by private insurance. - WP
Meta Employee Creates AI App That Deepfakes the Dream Vacation You Couldn’t Afford. Users can buy anywhere from 30 to 300 photos at a time. Prices vary depending on how long you want your vacation album to be, with 30 photos running just a measly $3.99, or $34.99 for the largest package, according to TechCrunch. It even has a “room service” option which runs in the background, spitting out two automatically-generated travel pics every morning — so you can see what you’re missing in your sad little life, apparently. - Futurism