As the U.S. deals with a nationwide swatting wave, Motherboard has traced much of the activity to a particular swatting-as-a-service account on Telegram. Torswats uses synthesized voices to pressure law enforcement to specific locations.
LINK: https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7z8be/torswats-computer-generated-ai-voice-swatting
Hundreds of teenagers flooded into Downtown Chicago on Saturday night, smashing car windows, trying to get into Millennium Park, and prompting a major police response. A woman whose car was smashed by people jumping on the windshield said her husband was beaten as he sat in the driver’s seat. Police were escorting tourists and others back to their cars in the Millennium Park garage.
s Antarctic ice melts, all of that fresh water pours into the ocean, essentially diluting it by reducing its salinity. That, in turn, is dramatically slowing the currents that, like a conveyor belt, carry oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nutrients through the sea and around the world.
A study published last week in the journal Nature modeled the impacts of this phenomenon, called overturning circulation, on the deepest ocean currents, particularly in the southern hemisphere. It found that the world is on the verge of a potentially catastrophic slowdown, which could have a devastating effect on climate change, marine ecosystems, and the stability of Antarctic ice.
“Our modeling shows that if global carbon emissions continue at the current rate, then the Antarctic overturning will slow by more than 40 per cent in the next 30 years, and on a trajectory that looks headed towards collapse,” lead researcher Matthew England, an oceanographer and climate scientist at the University of New South Wales, said at a new conference announcing the findings, according to BBC.
Disturbing artwork created by the Nashville school shooting suspect has come to light as police revealed that the killer drew a “cartoon” outlining Monday’s attack.
Hale ran an art website called AH Illustrations.
Hale’s work showcased on the website ranges from the disturbing to the childlike, including a creepy drawing of Jack Nicholson in horror movie The Shining.
Chillingly, the word “MURDER” is scrawled backwards across the disturbing image, a reference to the movie.
There’s also a whole section titled “Mad World” which is filled with sprawling patterns and – perhaps more eerie given the age of Hale’s victims – there’s a whole trove of childlike images.
Audrey Hale’s artwork included this drawing with ‘murder’ spelled backwards
Another image on the website appears to show Hale’s feet with the phrase “To be a kid forever and ever” across it – as Hale is now accused of killing three small children.
The website also features a self-portrait of “Audrey the Artist” alongside a bio which describes the soon-to-be school shooter as “on a mission to change the world”.
Hale writes that “I am a freelance Illustrator and Graphic Designer who creates logos for businesses”.
The mass killer’s illustrative style is self-described as “whimsical” and with a “light-hearted feel”.
Audrey Hale’s artwork included this drawing with ‘murder’ spelled backwards
“Aside from art, I enjoy binging on video games, watching movies, and playing sports. There is a child-like part about me that loves to go run to the playground. Animals are my second passion, so I also enjoy spending time with my two cats,” Hale writes on the website, which had not been taken down as of Tuesday.
Hale, who went to art school in Nashville, is said to have used those creative skills to prepare for Monday’s mass shooting as police found a “cartoon” plan of the massacre.
Melted plastic has become intertwined with rocks on the Brazilian island of Trindade, researchers said, calling the discovery “new and terrifying.”
The water in the Colorado River is becoming an increasingly desirable investment target for private investment companies as it is becoming an increasingly scarce natural resource in the American West. One of the most significant landowners in the Grand Valley is an investment company called Water Asset Management, which is based in New York and has made at least $20 million worth of investments in Western Colorado over the course of the past five years.
This episode I’m joined by writer Dougald Hine to discuss his book At Work in the Ruins.
Book link: https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/at-work-in-the-ruins/
A community outside of Phoenix is furious after being cut off from its municipal water supply. NBC’s Vaughn Hillyard has more on how residents in the Rio Verde Foothills are doing everything to bring water back to their homes as others question why developers continue to build on dry land.
So much is happening, both wonderful and terrible – and it matters how we tell it. We can’t erase the bad news, but to ignore the good is the route to indifference or despair
LINK: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2023/jan/12/rebecca-solnit-climate-crisis-popular-imagination-why-we-need-new-storiesLINK: