XE1YY makes DXCC history: Verónica Morales is the first woman from #Mexico to achieve 6 meter DXCC and 50 MHz VHF/UHF Century Club!

Source: QST, August 2025

#Intel’s #Battlemage Architecture
Battlemage is organized much like its predecessor. #Xe Cores act as a basic building block, 4 Cores grouped into a Render Slice. Xe Cores are split into XVEs, or Xe Vector engines. Intel merged pairs of Alchemist XVEs into ones that are twice as wide, completing a transition towards larger execution unit partitions. Compute is easier to utilize, cache latency improves, and weird scaling issues with global memory atomics are resolved.
https://chipsandcheese.com/p/intels-battlemage-architecture

Dhalgren (Samuel R. Delany) – Bellona, a city in the center of the United States, has suffered a catastrophe that causes portents to appear in the sky. The layout of the streets change geometry seemingly at random. Time itself scrambles and loops. Most of the population has fled and the rest of the country has a strange amnesia about the city, as though it were neatly sliced out of history. A gang called the Scorpions roam the streets masked by neon holographic armor. A unique culture has emerged among the few who remained behind and those rare pilgrims who seek the absolute freedom of the city. Joycean, Falknerian, difficult to read, but enormously rewarding and a best-seller for all that, #Dhalgren is one of the most important works in science fiction. #XE

How #Militaries Are Transforming #Agricultural Tech Into Deadly #Weapons

By Max Fenton
Sept 26, 2022

"A subsequent U.N. investigation found that one of [#ErikPrince’s] modified planes was due for #Libya, which has been subject to an international arms embargo since the outbreak of its brutal 2011 #civilwar. Known as #ProjectOpus, Prince and his associates attempted to sell the modified crop-dusters to #KhalidHaftar, a Libyan #warlord and one of the key players in the country’s civil conflict and power vacuum since the downfall of Muammar Gaddafi. The plane was thankfully intercepted in Jordan, where authorities demanded its military assets be removed. The plane later made its way to Cyprus, Balkan Insight reports, which is its last known location as of 2021 and where it may be undergoing mechanical servicing.

"Though largely foiled, Prince’s plans are a reminder of how #cropdusting planes are especially risky pieces of military technology when it comes to international law and #HumanRights issues in conflict. Many of the militaries interested in their use are alleged to have committed significant human rights violations in the course of irregular warfare campaigns, and the addition of a highly specialized attack plane to their arsenals may pose grave risks to those caught in the crossfire."

https://slate.com/technology/2022/09/crop-duster-agricultural-tech-military-conflict.html

ICYMI - 2010: From #DemocracyNow

The Nation: Docs Reveals #Blackwater-Linked Companies Provided Intel & Security to Multinationals Like #Monsanto, #Chevron

September 16, 2010

“Blackwater’s Black Ops” — that’s the title of an explosive new article in The Nation magazine that reveals how entities closely linked with the private security firm Blackwater have provided #security and #intelligence services to a range of powerful #corporations over the past several years. The companies include #Monsanto, #Chevron, #DeutscheBank and others. Blackwater has also provided intelligence and training services to foreign governments, including #Jordan, the Canadian military and the Dutch police. We speak with investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill. [includes rush transcript]

"AMY GOODMAN: “Blackwater’s Black Ops” — that’s the title of an explosive new article in The Nation magazine that reveals how entities closely linked with the private security firm Blackwater have provided security and intelligence services to a range of powerful corporations over the past several years. The companies include Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt #Disney Company, Deutsche Bank, #Barclays and #RoyalCaribbean Cruise Lines.

"Blackwater has also provided intelligence and training services to foreign governments, including the Kingdom of Jordan, the Canadian military and the Dutch police. In 2007, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto worked with Blackwater when she returned to #Pakistan to campaign for the general elections. Bhutto was assassinated in December of 2007.

"The new revelations come from documents obtained by The Nation. They show that Blackwater’s work for corporations and government agencies was contracted using two companies: #TotalIntelligenceSolutions and the #TerrorismResearchCenter. Both companies are owned by Blackwater’s owner and founder, #ErikPrince.

"Today also marks the third anniversary of the #NisourSquare massacre, when Blackwater guards gunned down seventeen #Iraqi civilians and wounded twenty in a fifteen-minute shooting spree in #Baghdad.

"For more, we’re joined now from New York by investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill. He’s a Puffin Foundation writing fellow at the Nation Institute. He’s a Democracy Now! correspondent and author of the book Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful #MercenaryArmy. His new article in online at thenation.com."

Listen / Read more:
https://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/16/the_nation__docs_reveals_blackwater

2020: Shock And Dismay After #Trump Pardons #Blackwater Guards Who Killed 14 Iraqi Civilians

by Laurel Wamsley
December 23, 20205:44 PM ET

"Among the pardons made by President Trump this week, the pardon of four former guards for Blackwater has been regarded by some as particularly galling.

"Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were convicted six years ago in the killing of 14 Iraqi civilians and the wounding of 17 others. Witnesses described how the American men ambushed the civilians unprovoked, firing on #Baghdad's #NisourSquare with heavy gunfire and grenade launchers.

"The massacre took place in 2007, when the four were working as guards for Blackwater, a private military contractor, on an assignment in Baghdad. They claimed they were fired on, but prosecutors said the Blackwater guards opened fire first. Slatten, whom prosecutors said started the shooting, was sentenced to life in prison."

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/23/949679837/shock-and-dismay-after-trump-pardons-blackwater-guards-who-killed-14-iraqi-civil

Extent of #Blackwater and #CIA Collaboration Uncovered

By Yana Kunichoff
Published December 11, 2009

"New details of Blackwater participation in clandestine CIA raids detail the extent to which private security contractors were involved in covert government antiterror operations.

"According to former employees and current and former American intelligence officials, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because they feared repercussions, Blackwater security guards participated in clandestine raids to capture or kill suspected insurgents in #Iraq and #Afghanistan and in transportation of detainees on CIA flights.

"The raids against suspects were said to occur almost nightly between 2004 and 2006, the height of the Iraqi insurgency. Several of the former Blackwater employees said the lines dividing the government-sanctioned agencies (the CIA and the military) and Blackwater began to blur.

"This information highlights a more extensive relationship between the CIA and Blackwater, now re-named Xe Services, than government investigation had previously acknowledged.

"This was confirmed recently by an article about #ErikPrince, the founder of Blackwater, published in Vanity Fair. In it, Prince spoke about the extent of his involvement with the CIA, which ranged from putting together, funding and executing operations to bring personnel into 'denied areas' to targeting specific people for #assassination who were deemed enemies by the #USGovernment.

"Though Prince alleged that he participated as a private citizen and used his personal funds to carry out operations, the Blackwater employees interviewed by The New York Times confirmed both their full knowledge of and participation in the raids.

"#Xe spokesman Mark Corallo, however, continued to deny this."

Full article:
https://truthout.org/articles/extent-of-blackwater-and-cia-collaboration-uncovered/