Maybe DOGE did nothing?
https://www.bespacific.com/what-1000-pages-of-documents-tell-us-about-doge/
What 1,000 pages of documents tell us about DOGE
The Verge [no paywall ]: “As Brendan Carr heads to Capitol Hill, newly released documents still don’t say much about what DOGE did at the FCC. Months after staffers from the Department of Government Efficiency were found in the Federal Communications Commission directory, the FCC is being accused of slow-walking demands for information about what they did there. On February 24th, advocacy group Frequency Forward and journalist Nina Burleigh filed a public records request to the FCC, seeking details about DOGE’s activities and whether they created conflicts of interest with DOGE creator Elon Musk. But the FCC has so far produced largely useless documentation that creates more questions than answers. Now, DOGE’s role is among the many topics FCC Chair Brendan Carr could face during a highly anticipated oversight hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday. Frequency Forward and Burleigh asked in their But the agency has produced little that casts light on DOGE’s operations. It has released 1,079 pages of documents, nearly all of them within the past few weeks, comprised mainly of spreadsheets, an ethics manual, and an already public FCC order. The FCC says it is still processing 900 pages that include records it needs to consult with other agencies about before releasing. The FCC did not respond to a request for comment on the FOIA battle or the DOGE staffers… While delays may have been exacerbated by the 43-day government shutdown, Frequency Forward and Burleigh have accused the FCC of “acting in bad faith” and “intentionally seeking to delay” court proceedings. The FCC has denied that’s the case in court filings. The group
The documents that have been produced so far are interesting not so much in what they show, but in what they don’t show,” says Arthur Belendiuk, an attorney carrying out the FOIA case against the FCC and a former employee at the agency. They include relatively limited information about what DOGE staffers were working on, what systems they had access to, and which of them were even fully onboarded…”
Apparently, Epstein did a lot…
Scams, Schemes, Ruthless Cons: The Untold Story of How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich
The New York Times Magazine [no paywall]: For years, rumors swirled about where his wealth came from. A Times investigation reveals the truth of how a college dropout clawed his way to the pinnacle of American finance and society. “For years, rumors swirled about where his wealth came from. A Times investigation reveals the truth of how a college dropout clawed his way to the pinnacle of American finance and society… Much of the last quarter-century of Epstein’s life has been carefully examined — including how, in the 1990s and early 2000s, he amassed hundreds of millions of dollars through his work for the retail tycoon Leslie Wexner. Yet the public understanding of Epstein’s early ascent has been shrouded in mystery. How did a college dropout from Brooklyn, claw his way from the front of a high school classroom to the pinnacle of American finance, politics and society? How did Epstein go from nearly being fired at Bear Stearns to managing the wealth of billionaires? What were the origins of his own fortune? We have spent months trying to pierce this veil. We spoke with dozens of Epstein’s former colleagues, friends, girlfriends, business partners and financial victims. Some agreed to speak on the record for the first time; others insisted on speaking confidentially but gave us access to never-before-seen records and other information. We sifted through private archives and tracked down previously unpublished recordings and transcripts of old interviews — including one in which Epstein gave a meandering account of his personal and professional history. We perused diaries, letters, emails and photo albums, including some that belonged to Epstein. We reviewed thousands of pages of court and government records. What emerged is the fullest portrait to date of one of the world’s most notorious criminals — a narrative that differs in important respects from previously published accounts of Epstein’s rise, including his arrival at Bear Stearns. In his first two decades of business, we found that Epstein was less a financial genius than a prodigious manipulator and liar. Abundant conspiracy theories hold that Epstein worked for spy services or ran a lucrative blackmail operation, but we found a more prosaic explanation for how he built a fortune. A relentless scammer, he abused expense accounts, engineered inside deals and demonstrated a remarkable knack for separating seemingly sophisticated investors and businessmen from their money. He started small, testing his tactics and seeing what he could get away with. His early successes laid the foundation for more ambitious ploys down the road. Again and again, he proved willing to operate on the edge of criminality and burn bridges in his pursuit of wealth and power…”
Tools & Techniques. Possible use in forensics?
Meta Platforms transforms audio editing with prompt-based sound separation
Meta Platforms Inc. is bringing prompt-based editing to the world of sound with a new model called SAM Audio that can segment individual sounds from complex audio recordings.
The new model, available today through Meta’s Segment Anything Playground, has the potential to transform audio editing into a streamlined process that’s far more fluid than the cumbersome tools used today to achieve the same goal. Just as the company’s earlier Segment Anything models dramatically simplified video and image editing with prompts, SAM Audio is doing the same for sound editing.
The company said in a blog post that SAM Audio has incredible potential for tasks such as music creation, podcasting, television, film, scientific research, accessibility and just about any other use case that involves sound.
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