Category: News
Taliban outlaws women from speaking or showing their faces in public
Afghanistan’s Taliban have banned women from speaking in public or showing their faces outside their homes.
Gold Star Families Rip Biden, Harris on Third Anniversary of Abbey Gate Bombing: ‘They Just Want to Pretend It Didn’t Happen’
Gold Star Family members ripped Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal on Monday.
The post Gold Star Families Rip Biden, Harris on Third Anniversary of Abbey Gate Bombing: ‘They Just Want to Pretend It Didn’t Happen’ appeared first on Breitbart.
The Necessity Of Making A Meaningful Life: People, Power, And Freedom
by Matt Agorist, The Free Thought Project: People who lack meaningful fulfillment in their lives seek to exercise power over others as a distraction. As this becomes detrimental to liberty, finding true meaning for one’s life becomes a foremost means of creating a better future. (American Institute For Economic Research) One of my more memorable […]
China Gains Secret Access To Nvdia Microchips By Renting Computers
China Gains Secret Access To Nvdia Microchips By Renting Computers
Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,
The US has blocked export of Nvdia chips to China. But where there’s profit, there’s a way.
Sanctions Fail Again and Again
The Wall Street Journal reports China’s AI Engineers Are Secretly Accessing Banned Nvidia Chips
Chinese artificial-intelligence developers have found a way to use the most advanced American chips without bringing them to China.
One entrepreneur helping Chinese companies overcome the hurdles is Derek Aw, a former bitcoin miner. He persuaded investors in Dubai and the U.S. to fund the purchase of AI servers housing Nvidia’s powerful H100 chips.
In June, Aw’s company loaded more than 300 servers with the chips into a data center in Brisbane, Australia. Three weeks later, the servers began processing AI algorithms for a company in Beijing.
“There is demand. There is profit. Naturally someone will provide the supply,” Aw said.
Renting far away computing power is nothing new, and many global companies shuffle data around the world using U.S. companies’ services such as Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. However, those companies, like banks, have “Know Your Customer” policies that may make it difficult for some Chinese customers to obtain the most advanced computing power.
The buyers and sellers of computing power and the middlemen connecting them aren’t breaking any laws, lawyers familiar with U.S. sanctions say. Washington has targeted exports of advanced chips, equipment and technology, but cloud companies say the export rules don’t restrict Chinese companies or their foreign affiliates from accessing U.S. cloud services using Nvidia chips.
Buyers and sellers of computing power use a “smart contract” in which the terms are set in a publicly accessible digital record book. The parties to the contract are identified only by a series of letters and numbers and the buyer pays with cryptocurrency.
The process extends the anonymity of cryptocurrency to the contract itself, with both using the digital record-keeping technology known as blockchain. Aw said even he might not know the real identity of the buyer. As a further mask, he and others said Chinese AI companies often make transactions through subsidiaries in Singapore or elsewhere.
One decentralized GPU provider with more than 40,000 chips in its network, io.net, advertises in its user guide that it doesn’t impose know-your-customer restrictions. This “allows users to access GPU supply and deploy clusters in less than 90 seconds,” it says.
Meanwhile, Aw is raising more money from a group of investors in Saudi Arabia and South Korea. They plan to build a cluster of Nvidia’s latest Blackwell chips for another Singapore company with a Chinese parent.
“No one is breaking the export controls,” Aw said. “Legally speaking, they are Singapore companies.”
Know Your Customer’s Customer’s Customer
China sets up an AI company in Singapore.
AI developers buy cloud time through a subsidiary that further masks the operation by paying in Bitcoin.
In turn, the subsidiary buys time from a company Dubai or Singapore that hosts the servers.
US politicians outraged. But some of us are amused knowing full well that sanctions don’t work.
And instead of cloud profits going to US corporations, the profits go to Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Dubai, and South Korea.
Only Amazon is forced to “know your customer”.
Flashback Lesson
Didn’t you declare victory on these sanctions?
Here’s the deal: China and India will always buy. And they should. It’s in their best interest.
— Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) September 18, 2023
Massive Failure of Sanctions
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September 19, 2023: Lesson of the Day: Sanctions Don’t Work Because They Create New Markets
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December 29, 2023: How Russia Makes a Mockery of US Sanctions in One Picture
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February 19, 2024: US Impounds Thousands of German Vehicles Over One Tiny Part Made in China
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May 21, 2024: Another Sanction Failure: The US Blacklisted Xiaomi Three Years Ago Now it Makes EVs
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June 11, 2024: Russia to Export Coal to India Via Iran. It’s a 4 Alarm Bells Fire
Sanctions don’t work but they do drive up prices and/or create competition for US companies.
The beneficiary is either the sanctioned company, as in the case of China’s EV maker Xiaomi, or intermediaries as in today’s example.
Biden Eases Sanctions on Venezuela, Blocks Rare Earth Mining in Alaska
On April 21, 2024 I noted Biden Eases Sanctions on Venezuela, Blocks Rare Earth Mining in Alaska
What a hoot. How’s that great tradeoff working out?
Since we know the answer, here’s our real question of the day: Is robin Brooks finally ready to throw in the towel on the effectiveness of sanctions?
If he responds, I will add an addendum.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 08/26/2024 – 17:40
High cost of fast fashion: Shein admits to using child labor in factories
While the company said that the cases were “resolved swiftly,” there are continued concerns about the industry where child labor is concerned.
Tropical Storm Hone Public Advisory
…HONE MOVING AWAY FROM THE MAIN HAWAIIAN ISLANDS…
As of 11:00 AM HST Mon Aug 26
the center of Hone was located near 19.2, -161.6
with movement W at 13 mph.
The minimum central pressure was 998 mb
with maximum sustained winds of about 65 mph.
RFK Jr suspends campaign; endorses Trump
by Steve Kirsch, Steve Kirsch’s newsletter: Here are the most important points of RFK Jr’s historic announcement. Executive summary Kennedy’s speech is the most important political speech I have ever heard in my lifetime. You can find the speech video and transcript here. Here are the key points: Democrats basically made it impossible for him to […]
Hurricane Gilma Forecast Discussion
Issued at 1100 AM HST Mon Aug 26 2024
Hurricane Gilma Forecast Advisory
Issued at 2100 UTC MON AUG 26 2024
642 WTPZ22 KNHC 262036 TCMEP2 HURRICANE GILMA FORECAST/ADVISORY NUMBER 35 NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL EP072024 2100 UTC MON AUG 26 2024 HURRICANE CENTER LOCATED NEAR 18.4N 137.4W AT 26/2100Z POSITION ACCURATE WITHIN 15 NM PRESENT MOVEMENT TOWARD THE WEST OR 280 DEGREES AT 7 KT ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE 968 MB MAX SUSTAINED WINDS 95 KT WITH GUSTS TO 115 KT. 64 KT....... 15NE 15SE 10SW 15NW. 50 KT....... 30NE 30SE 20SW 20NW. 34 KT....... 60NE 50SE 40SW 70NW. 12 FT SEAS..180NE 60SE 180SW 180NW. WINDS AND SEAS VARY GREATLY IN EACH QUADRANT. RADII IN NAUTICAL MILES ARE THE LARGEST RADII EXPECTED ANYWHERE IN THAT QUADRANT. REPEAT...CENTER LOCATED NEAR 18.4N 137.4W AT 26/2100Z AT 26/1800Z CENTER WAS LOCATED NEAR 18.3N 136.9W FORECAST VALID 27/0600Z 18.5N 138.8W MAX WIND 90 KT...GUSTS 110 KT. 64 KT... 15NE 15SE 10SW 10NW. 50 KT... 30NE 30SE 20SW 20NW. 34 KT... 60NE 50SE 40SW 60NW. FORECAST VALID 27/1800Z 18.7N 140.9W MAX WIND 75 KT...GUSTS 90 KT. 64 KT... 15NE 10SE 10SW 10NW. 50 KT... 30NE 20SE 20SW 20NW. 34 KT... 60NE 50SE 40SW 60NW. FORECAST VALID 28/0600Z 18.9N 143.1W MAX WIND 60 KT...GUSTS 75 KT. 50 KT... 20NE 0SE 0SW 20NW. 34 KT... 60NE 40SE 40SW 60NW. FORECAST VALID 28/1800Z 19.4N 145.3W MAX WIND 50 KT...GUSTS 60 KT. 50 KT... 20NE 0SE 0SW 20NW. 34 KT... 60NE 40SE 30SW 50NW. FORECAST VALID 29/0600Z 19.9N 147.4W MAX WIND 45 KT...GUSTS 55 KT. 34 KT... 50NE 30SE 30SW 40NW. FORECAST VALID 29/1800Z 20.3N 149.5W MAX WIND 40 KT...GUSTS 50 KT. 34 KT... 50NE 0SE 0SW 40NW. EXTENDED OUTLOOK. NOTE...ERRORS FOR TRACK HAVE AVERAGED NEAR 100 NM ON DAY 4 AND 125 NM ON DAY 5...AND FOR INTENSITY NEAR 15 KT EACH DAY OUTLOOK VALID 30/1800Z 21.2N 154.0W...POST-TROP/REMNT LOW MAX WIND 30 KT...GUSTS 40 KT. OUTLOOK VALID 31/1800Z 22.8N 158.5W...POST-TROP/REMNT LOW MAX WIND 25 KT...GUSTS 35 KT. REQUEST FOR 3 HOURLY SHIP REPORTS WITHIN 300 MILES OF 18.4N 137.4W NEXT ADVISORY AT 27/0300Z $$ FORECASTER HAGEN/PASCH