GoFundMe has deleted an OnlyFans model's campaign after she offered nudes to anyone who donated $10 to Maui wildfire victims. Mariah Casillas, also known as 'Lavaxgrll' had created a GoFundMe to help raise money for those in Maui who have been affected by the wildfires that have tragically claimed up to 100 lives so far. In order to raise as much money as possible, Casillas offered to send nudes to anyone who proved that they had donated $10 or more to her campaign. It seemed to be working as Casillas managed to raise over $6,000 in just a couple of days, but GoFundMe removed the campaign. Meaning that all the money raised went with it, too. In response to GoFundMe's move, Casillas took to social media to reassure fans that she was not going to let it stop her from raising money. "GoFundMe took down my account but that isn't going to stop me from doing what I can to help the people of Maui," she wrote. "I'll be making a list of nonprofits to donate towards instead, you can still send me your screenshots!" It seems that GoFundMe took down Casillas' campaign as it violated its services that state GoFundMe can't be used to raise funds if they involve, "offensive, graphic, perverse or sensitive or sexual content." In order to keep raising money, Casillas has moved her fundraiser to OnlyFans telling subscribers to "drop your donations on my pinned post and let's get to work." On Wednesday a GoFundMe spokesperson told FOX Business that its platform had raised over $30 million for the communities needing support in the aftermath of the wildfires. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Elon Musk’s X has agreed to attempt to settle a lawsuit by former employees who say the company cheated them of severance pay following mass layoffs. After taking over Twitter, which he rebranded X recently, Mr Musk cut nearly two-thirds of the social media company’s workforce from about 8000 to 2,000, claiming he had “no choice” as the company was losing $4m per day. “Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50 per cent more than legally required,” Mr Musk said. Many laid-off employees, however, publicly announced they never got the severance they were due to get. In the months that followed, the company was hit by several lawsuits, including one alleging the layoffs disproportionately targeted women. Now, months after urging Twitter, the company has agreed to try and settle, according to a memo sent by Shannon Liss-Riordan, who represents the laid-off workers. The labour and civil rights attorney, representing nearly 2,000 ex-employees, said X would attempt to settle with the laid-off staff. “After 10 months of pressing them in every direction we have succeeded in getting Twitter to the table,” she wrote in the memo cited by Bloomberg. Further schedule for the mediation remains unclear, but reports suggest negotiations could happen on 1 and 2 December. X did not immediately respond to The Independent’s request for comment. Some ex-employees have alleged Twitter did not pay them promised severance either. One employee said earlier this year that he had “never even seen a severance letter let alone been offered severance”. While some former staff attempted to resolve the issue by first filing a class-action lawsuit against X, their contracts with Twitter, however, required that disputes be resolved via arbitration. “We are very proud to be representing nearly 2,000 former Twitter employees, in individual arbitrations as well as more than a dozen class action lawsuits in court,” Ms Liss-Riordan had earlier said in a statement, adding that lawyers and former staff were working to recover “what they are owed”. Read More Musk the messiah (or a very naughty boy?) Elon Musk ignores reporter after claims he stopped Ukrainian attack on Russia Elon Musk was on brink of death after catching malaria on South African safari, book claims Musk the messiah (or a very naughty boy?) Elon Musk warns of ‘civilisational risk’ posed by AI at historic gathering Musk was on brink of death after catching malaria on safari, book claims

BELMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 3, 2023--

Oklahoma burgers—which feature onion slices smashed directly into the patty—may be the best way to enjoy the American classic.

This week’s new entertainment releases include albums from Kelly Clarkson and Portugal

Will someone please tell us who the hell owns AI.com and what they're doing with

A new report from Wired has alleged that Elon Musk's Neuralink - a neurotechnology company developing a brain-computer interface - euthanised the company's macaque subjects after they suffered various complications from the implant. The report comes after human-test subjects were recently approved for Neuralink's clinical trial. Elon Musk had claimed earlier this month that "no monkey has died as a result of a Neuralink implant, but public documents obtained by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and seen by Wired, suggest that the primate subjects suffered complications including "bloody diarrhoea, partial paralysis, and cerebral edema." Musk had acknowledged the deaths on September 10 on Twitter/X, denying the deaths were "a result of a Neuralink implant", and that researchers had selected subjects who were already "close to death." However an anonymous former employee called this "ridiculous" if not a "straight fabrication." However, the public records reviewed by Wired suggest a different story. The PCRM, a nonprofit aiming to abolish live animal testing, claim that Musk knew his comments about the primate subjects deaths "to be false". They write that investors deserve to hear the truth about the safety, "and thus the marketability," of Neuralink's product. A December 2019 experiment outlined in one of the documents mentioned a subject known as Animal 15. The documents said that the subject "began to press her head against the floor for no apparent reason" just days after receiving the implant. Her condition only worsened as she "began to lose coordination" and "would shake uncontrollably when she saw lab workers." Staff finally euthanised her months later. Last year, the PCRM filed a complaint with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) alleging that Neuralink's practices violate the Animal Welfare Act. The US Department of Transportation is also investigating Neuralink over allegations contimanted devices that were removed from monkeys' brains were illegally transported. Indy100 have reached out to Neuralink for comment. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The actor Jared Gilman, best known for his role in Wes Anderson's 2012 film Moonrise Kingdom has branded a new AI trend surrounding the director as "bulls**t." If you aren't aware, a YouTube channel called Curious Refuge has been using artificial intelligence to create trailers for famous movies but reimagining them as if they were directed by Anderson in his typical whimsical aesthetic. Earlier this month a version of Star Wars directed by Wes Anderson went viral and immediately caused some division with many fans wishing it was a real movie while others felt that the trailer missed the point of what makes Star Wars and Anderson movies great. Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter Now Curious Refuge have used AI to imagine what a Wes Anderson Lord of the Rings film would be like. The trailer called 'The Whimsical Fellowship' features all your favourite Tolkien characters but this time they are played by the likes of Timothee Chalamet, Ben Stiller, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton and Owen Wilson to name a few. Lord of the Rings by Wes Anderson Trailer | The Whimsical Fellowship www.youtube.com While the clip has already gone viral again, 24-year-old Gilman, who has also starred in the Jim Jarmusch film Paterson wasn't as enthusiastic about it. He tweeted a version of the Return of the King title and instead changed it to read 'Return of the Wes Anderson AI bulls**t.' Gilman's tweet also went viral and one person asked him: "I'm assuming he texts you every time one of these comes out asking 'have u seen this?'" The actor replied: "Lmao I hope he never sees any of them." Meanwhile, Anderson's next real film Asteroid City is set for release on June 23rd and stars Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Scarlett Johansson, Maya Hawke and Jason Schwartzman. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Since the 1960s, one scholar has dedicated his career to arguing that Jesus was not a living man, but in fact a mushroom. John Marco Allegro was one of the first scholars permitted to decipher the ancient documents now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, that were discovered in 1947 in the Judean Desert. They contained the oldest surviving versions of books that would later be incorporated into the biblical canon. Allegro and his colleagues were the first to go about making sense of the documents, as they were obviously discovered untranslated, eventually publishing the texts after hard work and disagreements. Allegro then went on to write two more books on the subject in 1958, The Dead Sea Scrolls and The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which remain extremely influential. Then in 1970 and again in 1979, Allegro published two more books. These expanded on his idea that Christianity was a cover for a secret cryptic sex cult generated by people under the influence of Amanita muscaria, more commonly known as Fly agaric. And that Jesus was a metaphor for the fungus and its influences. Using etymology, Allegro argued that early Christianity was created by an Essene cult that recorded their practices through the texts of the New Testament. And that evangelists misunderstood the text's true meaning when they transcribed it. There was never a man called Jesus, only a cult that used mushrooms to have hallucinations. He also argued that the God of the Old Testament was "a mighty penis in the heavens who in a thunderous climax of the storm ejaculated semen upon the furrows of Mother Earth." Allegro's views were not well received, with some believing he created the argument as revenge against Christian critics who dismissed his earlier translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls, whilst some believed he just ran away with the wrong idea. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Things just keep getting better for Reddit. Less than a week after CEO Steve Huffman

A popular left-wing Twitter account with thousands of followers, which often went viral and provoked the outrage of leading conservatives, may have been a fake all along, according to online researchers, using a provocative posts to generation attention in a tactic known as “rage-baiting.” Erica Marsh, a self-proclaimed “proud Democrat” from Washington, started her Twitter account in September of 2022, and quickly gained more than 130,000 followers, sometimes netting over 1,000 followers a day posting her quick-twitch takes on the day’s main political news. Her messages often read like a near-parody of an over-the-top, out-of-touch progressive. In a 29 June post, reacting to the recent Supreme Court decision striking down race-based affirmative action in college admissions, she wrote, “Today’s Supreme Court decision is a direct attack on Black people. No Black person will be able to succeed in a merit-based system which is exactly why affirmative-action based programs were needed. Today’s decision is a TRAVESTY!!!” The tweet quickly caught fire online, provoking the ire of leaders like Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, who told his followers, “I strongly disagree with this racist allegation.” However, despite her ability to win followers and stir the pot and attract online attention, Ms Marsh may never have been real, according to an analysis from The Washington Post. Ms Marsh doesn’t appear in phone or voting records, and past employers she claimed like the Biden campaign say they have no record of her. “I strongly suspect that this person doesn’t exist,” John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, told the paper. “It’s as if she dropped from the moon and arrived fully formed with this narrative that makes liberals look like idiots.” Twitter officially does not comment on press requests, and Ms Marsh’s account has been suspended. Before buying the social media site last year, Elon Musk argued fake accounts were a serious problem on Twitter, at one point threatening not to carry out his acquisition over the matter. Twitter said last July it removes over 1 million fake accounts per day. Fakes have been a persistent issue. In November, the company temporarily suspended its Twitter Blue subscription service, after users bought Twitter verification status and used it to impersonate celebrities, politicians and brands. Read More ‘Rate limits’ and Twitter chaos: What exactly is Elon Musk doing? Elon Musk supports eliminating voting rights for people without children Greg Abbott mocked after falling for hoax story about Garth Brooks being booed off stage Judge blocks Biden agencies from communicating with social media platforms Elon Musk supports eliminating voting rights for people without children Outrage erupts in South Africa over video of deputy president's security officers stomping on man

By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A California state agency on Monday said it is reviewing the privacy practices of automakers