By Keegan Kelly Published: November 13th, 2024

By Keegan Kelly Published: November 13th, 2024

By Jesse Published: November 13th, 2024

The Apalachin Meeting was a summit of some 100 Mafiosi from the US, Canada, and Italy that was raided after their fancy cars and out-of-state license plates aroused the suspicions of law enforcement agents in Apalachin, New York. Fifty-eight Mafiosi, including bosses Carlo Gambino and Vito Genovese, were detained. Perhaps the most significant consequence of the raid was that it confirmed the American Mafia's existence, a fact that had long been denied by what prominent law enforcement official? Discuss

Having killed several London policemen during a botched robbery in 1910, the members of a politically motivated gang of burglars went into hiding. When their location was revealed to authorities, 200 men were sent to surround the building. This prompted a wild gunfight now known as the Siege of Sidney Street. Though outmanned, the gang members possessed superior weapons and were only overtaken when their building caught fire. Why was Winston Churchill criticized for his role in the siege? Discuss

"A Bar Song (Tipsy)" added another week atop the chart, making it the longest-running No. 1 of the decade. In two more weeks, it could tie the all-time record, but a seasonal juggernaut approaches.

A discovery of absolutely epic proportions has just been revealed, but the corporate media in the United States almost entirely ignored it.  A team of scientists led by Dr. Irving Finkel has deciphered the oldest map in the world, and we are being told that it actually reveals the location of Noah’s Ark.  This is …

‘The plight of Jews today … would be greatly helped through a revival of Christian faith’ World War II ended almost 80 years ago, and yet, amazingly, Jews again are being persecuted in earnest in some parts of Europe. CNN reports on last week’s clash in Holland after a sports event: that Israeli soccer fans were beaten …

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”—James Madison Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Unadulterated power in any branch of government is a menace to freedom, but concentrated power across …

The U.S. is accusing Russia of preparing to cut undersea cables which carry Internet traffic all over the world, and Russia is accusing western powers of preparing to do the exact same thing.  In some cases, these undersea cables literally stretch from one continent to another, and so it is impossible to guard them.  That …

The delusion the American people are under is quite amazing. Some are led by their fears and others by their idolatry. In this episode, we’ll take a look at how the new Trump cabinet is shaping up and it looks really good for special interests like Big Pharma and not so good for you and …

Scott Johnson hopes to support more men as his mental health initiative expands across London.

By Jerry Newcombe, D.Min., World War II ended almost 80 years ago, and yet, amazingly, Jews are being persecuted in some parts of Europe in earnest again. CNN reports on last week’s clash in Holland after a sports event: that Israeli soccer fans were beaten and injured in violent clashes..” Now Israel is warning Jews […]

The post Newcombe: Remembering Corrie ten Boom and the Jews appeared first on The Lid.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The classic PC games market is "in a sorry state," according to DRM-free and classic-minded storefront GOG. Small games that aren't currently selling get abandoned, and compatibility issues arise as technology moves forward or as one-off development ideas age like milk. Classic games are only 20 percent of GOG's catalog, and the firm hasn't actually called itself "Good Old Games" in 12 years. And yet, today, GOG announces that it is making "a significant commitment of resources" toward a new GOG Preservation Program. It starts with 100 games for which GOG's own developers are working to create current and future compatibility, keeping them DRM-free and giving them ongoing tech support, along with granting them a "Good Old Game: Preserved by GOG" stamp. GOG is not shifting its mission of providing a DRM-free alternative to Steam, Epic, and other PC storefronts, at least not entirely. But it is demonstrably excited about a new focus that ties back to its original name, inspired in some part by its work on Alpha Protocol. "We think we can significantly impact the classics industry by focusing our resources on it and creating superior products," writes Arthur Dejardin, head of sales and marketing at GOG. "If we wanted to spread the DRM-free gospel by focusing on getting new AAA games on GOG instead, we would make little progress with the same amount of effort and money (we've been trying various versions of that for the last 5 years)." What kind of games? Scanning the list of Good Old Games, most of them are, by all accounts, both good and old. Personally, I'm glad to see the Jagged Alliance games, System Shock 2, Warcraft I & II, Dungeon Keeper Gold and Theme Park, SimCity 3000 Unlimited, and the Wing Commander series (particularly, personally, Privateer). Most of them are, understandably, Windows-only, though Mac support extends to 34 titles so far, and Linux may pick up many more through Proton compatibility, beyond the 19 native titles to date. [...] [I]f you see the shiny foil-ish GOG badge on a game, it's an assurance that GOG has done all it can to bring forward a classic title. It's important work, too. "Preserving" games doesn't just mean locking a stable media in a vault, but keeping games accessible, and playable.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Bluesky has reached 15 million users, driven by a recent surge in U.S. signups following the presidential election. It's currently the top free app on iOS. The Verge reports: The platform, which rests on the decentralized AT Protocol, added about a million new users in the last week. Bluesky COO Rose Wang recently told The Verge that the "majority" of new users flocking to the platform have been from the US. Meta's Threads is still outpacing Bluesky, having recently hit 275 million monthly users and growing at a rate of over a million signups per day. But Bluesky offers a very different experience. Both are ad-free (for now), but whereas Threads uses a single Meta-made algorithmic feed, Bluesky offers user-created algorithmic feeds in addition to its "Discover" and "Popular With Friends" ones.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: There's a general consensus that we won't be able to consistently perform sophisticated quantum calculations without the development of error-corrected quantum computing, which is unlikely to arrive until the end of the decade. It's still an open question, however, whether we could perform limited but useful calculations at an earlier point. IBM is one of the companies that's betting the answer is yes, and on Wednesday, it announced a series of developments aimed at making that possible. On their own, none of the changes being announced are revolutionary. But collectively, changes across the hardware and software stacks have produced much more efficient and less error-prone operations. The net result is a system that supports the most complicated calculations yet on IBM's hardware, leaving the company optimistic that its users will find some calculations where quantum hardware provides an advantage. [...] Wednesday's announcement was based on the introduction of the second version of its Heron processor, which has 133 qubits. That's still beyond the capability of simulations on classical computers, should it be able to operate with sufficiently low errors. IBM VP Jay Gambetta told Ars that Revision 2 of Heron focused on getting rid of what are called TLS (two-level system) errors. "If you see this sort of defect, which can be a dipole or just some electronic structure that is caught on the surface, that is what we believe is limiting the coherence of our devices," Gambetta said. This happens because the defects can resonate at a frequency that interacts with a nearby qubit, causing the qubit to drop out of the quantum state needed to participate in calculations (called a loss of coherence). By making small adjustments to the frequency that the qubits are operating at, it's possible to avoid these problems. This can be done when the Heron chip is being calibrated before it's opened for general use. Separately, the company has done a rewrite of the software that controls the system during operations. "After learning from the community, seeing how to run larger circuits, [we were able to] almost better define what it should be and rewrite the whole stack towards that," Gambetta said. The result is a dramatic speed-up. "Something that took 122 hours now is down to a couple of hours," he told Ars. Since people are paying for time on this hardware, that's good for customers now. However, it could also pay off in the longer run, as some errors can occur randomly, so less time spent on a calculation can mean fewer errors. Despite all those improvements, errors are still likely during any significant calculations. While it continues to work toward developing error-corrected qubits, IBM is focusing on what it calls error mitigation, which it first detailed last year. [...] The problem here is that using the function is computationally difficult, and the difficulty increases with the qubit count. So, while it's still easier to do error mitigation calculations than simulate the quantum computer's behavior on the same hardware, there's still the risk of it becoming computationally intractable. But IBM has also taken the time to optimize that, too. "They've got algorithmic improvements, and the method that uses tensor methods [now] uses the GPU," Gambetta told Ars. "So I think it's a combination of both."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Punishments for those found to have abused horses are being strengthened by the body which governs equestrian sports globally.

Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill says there is plenty of positivity in the camp ahead of the Nations League games against Belarus and Luxembourg.

Wales boss Craig Bellamy explains how his assistant coach, ex-Manchester City analyst Piet Cremers, has influenced "everything" he does.

1. With more young obese patients, focus now on diabetes reversal  The Times of India
2. Does Diabetes Impact Mental Well-being? 5 Key Insights You Need to Know, According To Doctor  HerZindagi English
3. 86% diabetics in India facing anxiety, depression; women more affected: Report  Gujarat Samachar
4. Diabetes affects mental well-being of more than 4 in 5 Indians living with conditions, IDF survey reveals  The Financial Express
5. Diabetes-related Depression: How to work your way around the two Ds  Mint

1. Gold prices fall for 4th straight day, silver remains steady; check the latest prices in your city  Upstox
2. Business News Live Today November 14, 2024: Niva Bupa share price dips over 3% after rising into the green on debut, See details of its ₹2,200 crore IPO  Hindustan Times
3. Gold prices today: Key market trends investors should know  CNBCTV18
4. Gold and silver prices today on 14-11-2024: Check latest rates in your city  Mint
5. Gold slips to further lows today on November 14: Know gold, silver rates in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and other cities  The Financial Express

1. Trump meets Biden at White House for transition talks  The Indian Express
2. "Welcome Back": Biden Congratulates President-Elect Trump At White House  NDTV
3. Joe and Donald warm up by the White House fireplace  The Times of India
4. The Hindu Morning Digest, November 14, 2024  The Hindu
5. Trump praises ‘very gracious’ Biden after WH meeting they ‘both really enjoyed’: Here's what they talked about  Hindustan Times

1. Who is Tulsi Gabbard? Meet the Hindu American appointed by Trump as US Director of National Intelligence  The Times of India
2. From gifting Bhagavad Gita to PM Modi to speaking on Kashmir: Tulsi Gabbard’s Indian connection  The Times of India
3. Tulsi Gabbard, Narendra Modi meetings: Archival clips doing rounds on Social Media  The Economic Times
4. Trump picks ex-Democrat Tulsi Gabbard to be Director of National Intelligence  India Today
5. Who is Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump’s Hindu pick for US intelligence head?  Firstpost

1. Unrest over deaths of 10 ‘militants’ spills over to Assam, Mizoram; ‘extra-judicial killings’ by CRPF, sa  The Times of India
2. ​Manipur’s misery: On the need for the Centre to act  The Hindu
3. ‘Sleepless nights’: cop concerned about 6 missing family members  The Indian Express
4. Fresh gunfights, arson in Manipur amid shutdown  Hindustan Times
5. 'Completely charred': Autopsy fails to collect samples to prove claim of Hmar woman's rape in Manipur  Deccan Herald

1. Delhi Air Pollution: AQI at 426; continues to be in the ‘severe’ category on Thursday  The Hindu
2. Delhi AQI 'severe': Capital turns ‘gas chamber’, residents breathing toxic air plead for help  Hindustan Times
3. "We Just Have To Do Something": Priyanka Gandhi's Delhi 'Gas Chamber' Post  NDTV
4. Delhi Airport issues advisory for passengers as smog reduces visibility  The Times of India
5. Delhi IGI Airport: Nearly 400 flights delayed as thick layer of smog envelopes national capital  The Financial Express

Robinhood has added new tokens and re-listed some it had removed as the crypto market revels in Donald rump's election victory.

With the GOP retaining control of the House, Trump will enjoy a trifecta for at least the first two years of his term.

A teacher who left Florida for a remote Panamanian island said she loves the weather, the clear Caribbean water, and the simpler life there.

The standard 2022 iPad remains the top tablet for most users, while the 2024 iPad Air offers a boost in power for those with more demanding workloads.

Online conversations about Ozempic and similar medications are full of misinformation — and echo decades of flawed teachings on weight management.

Elon Musk frequently references "Doge," an internet meme from the 2010s based on a photo of a Shiba Inu dog with Comic Sans text overlaid on top.

Here are some of the women who've transformed television, from Betty White and Lynda Carter to Oprah Winfrey and Quinta Brunson.

Carnival's budget-friendly cruises are a stark contrast from its sister brand Seabourn's luxury voyages.

Donald Trump's presidency could lead to a boost in demand for consulting services

We've rounded up the best stocking stuffers under $20 that are both fun and functional.

My high-achieving high school senior was too overwhelmed to work on her college applications. I developed a plan to get her college-ready.

Joan makes her choice tonight in the Season 1 finale of The Golden Bachelorette, and we'll show you where to watch it at home.

After an arrest in France, Pavel Durov announced changes to Telegram's search and user data policies.

The last time a human visited the moon was in December 1972 during NASA's Apollo 17 mission. Since then, there have been many foiled plans to go back.

The Lo & Sons Aoyama travel purse is one of its best designs yet. We also compare its totes and weekender bags, which make commuting a lot more comfortable.

Trump's pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is an Army veteran and conservative commentator who's been skeptical of US support for the NATO alliance and Ukraine.

Winning the 2024 presidential election is already helping Donald Trump in all four of his criminal cases.

The US is considering expanding its export limits on AI chips to China and its allies. Experts say the race for AI dominance is like a new Cold War.

Joan Vassos got engaged to her final pick, Chock, on the finale of "The Golden Bachelorette." They're still together.

After getting eliminated during week six of "The Bachelorette," Grant Ellis will return as the next Bachelor. Here's what to know about season 29.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun was celebrating a production milestone of 100,000 units of the SU7, his company's EV.