Jerry Seinfeld has compared the Free Palestine movement to the Ku Klux Klan, according to a Duke University newspaper report of his surprise appearance on the North Carolina school's campus.

According to The Chronicle student newspaper, the 71-year-old Seinfeld star and stand-up comedian spoke to students Tuesday at the Durham, N.C., institution, where he compared those advocating for Palestinian liberation to the KKK white supremacy organization.

“Free Palestine is, to me, just — you’re free to say you don’t like Jews. Just say you don’t like Jews,” Seinfeld said, per the outlet, at an event with Omer Shem Tov, one of the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas during the terrorist group's deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attacks. The attacks preceded the ongoing assault on Gaza by Israel, which has killed over 64,000 Palestinians in the region.

Per the publication, the star continued, "By saying, 'Free Palestine,' you’re not admitting what you really think,” Seinfeld stated. “So it’s actually — compared to the Ku Klux Klan, I’m actually thinking the Klan is actually a little better here because they can come right out and say, ‘We don’t like Blacks, we don’t like Jews.’ Okay that’s honest."

The event was held on behalf of the Chabad at Duke group, as well as the Provost’s Initiative on the Middle East, according to the Chronicle, which also reported that Sen. Sophia Chitlik moderated the presentation. When reached for comment, a university spokesperson provided Entertainment Weekly with a statement via email.

"Universities are places where diverse perspectives on difficult and sensitive subjects are explored in a safe and respectful environment. Duke does not preview nor approve the remarks of outside speakers, and their presence on campus should not be understood as an endorsement of their views," the statement reads. It continues, "Jerry Seinfeld was the surprise guest at the student-led event and introduced the program. At his request, his appearance was not announced in advance so the focus could remain on Omer Shem Tov’s spiritual journey during captivity. Several other Duke organizations co-sponsored the event by providing logistical support, as they do for many student-led programs."

EW has additionally reached out to representatives for Seinfeld for comment. EW has also attempted to reach Sen. Chitlik directly. Calls for an end to violence in Gaza have sounded across multiple social and political sectors since the Oct. 7 attacks, particularly in the entertainment industry.

Hey, what's the deal with not being honest and just saying you're ok with genocide and that you desire the extermination of an entire people? Play Seinfeld theme song

Remember folks, America is above corruption and money has no influence on public policy. This is democracy baby!

Meta is building several gigawatt-sized data centers to power AI, as reported by Bloomberg. CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the company will spend "hundreds of billions of dollars" to accomplish this feat, with an aim of creating "superintelligence." The term typically refers to artificial general intelligence (AGI), which describes AI systems that boast human-level intelligence across multiple domains. This is something of a holy grail for Silicon Valley tech types.

The first center is called Prometheus and it comes online next year. It's being built in Ohio. Next up, there's a data center called Hyperion that's almost the size of Manhattan. This one should "be able to scale up to 5GW over several years." Some of these campuses will be among the largest in the world, as most data centers can only generate hundreds of megawatts of capacity.

Meta has also been staffing up its Superintelligence Labs team, recruiting folks from OpenAI, Google's DeepMind and others. Scale AI's co-founder Alexandr Wang is heading up this effort.

However, these giant data centers do not exist in a vacuum. The complexes typically brush up against local communities. The centers are not only power hogs, but also water hogs. The New York Times just published a report on how Meta data centers impact local water supplies.

There's a data center east of Atlanta that has damaged local wells and caused municipal water prices to soar, which could lead to a shortage and rationing by 2030. The price of water in the region is set to increase by 33 percent in the next two years.

Typical data centers guzzle around 500,000 gallons of water each day, but these forthcoming AI-centric complexes will likely be even thirstier. The new centers could require millions of gallons per day, according to water permit applications reviewed by The New York Times. Mike Hopkins, the executive director of the Newton County Water and Sewerage Authority, says that applications are coming in with requests for up to six millions of water per day, which is more than the county's entire daily usage.

“What the data centers don’t understand is that they’re taking up the community wealth,” he said. “We just don’t have the water.”

This same worrying story is playing out across the country. Data center hot spots in Texas, Arizona, Louisiana and Colorado are also taxing local water reserves. For instance, some Phoenix homebuilders have been forced to pause new constructions due to droughts exacerbated by these data centers.

Found this while I was cleaning up my room.

The LAPD:

Gruesome Newsom and other Cali Dems, probably: Instead let us do the legwork for you by pumping up the budgets of our police forces so they can be militarized locally

I thought Milchick's character development was one of, if not the most, compelling parts of season 2. I had been wanting to do a little post/commentary on it, but Afrodizjha does a much better job of putting it together than I could ever hope.

Best part is:

The New Orleans Police Department said in a statement that “law enforcement is working to determine applicable charges in this incident.”

They arrested him before determining what he could be charged with.

Death to America

UPDATE: No charges. Still imagine probably spent the night locked up for caring about people being genocided. And I'm guessing the NFL won't be reversing their ban on him from all events.

In a rare youtube algoritim W, I got recommended the trailer for the series from Chinese studio Flint Sugar, which is releasing in 2025, based on this short film. Kinda gives some FLCL vibes, at least in so far as the style.

Trailer for the series: youtu.be/watch?v=YOqMmz0gDZ8

Guess Brian Thompson didn't bring his moral vest to his visit to NYC. Oh wait, that's right. He never had one because his job is to be immoral for the sake of chasing the fantastical ever growing profit margin.

Rest in power, Comrade Castro

I'll allow myself to get hyped just this once. Funny thing is I've recently been thinking of rewatching season 1.