| Time |
Event |
| 5:48a |
US bombing of Hanoi in 1972
The story of the US bombing of Hanoi in 1972 makes me think of Putin's
shelling and missile attacks on Ukraine. |
| 5:48a |
The road to fascism
Joseph Stiglitz: *The Road to Fascism*
* Growing hardship is all but assured in 2023, and it will provide even
more fertile ground for dangerous demagogues.* |
| 5:48a |
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| 5:48a |
Blueprint for achieving "net zero emissions"
California adopted a "blueprint" for achieving a "net zero emissions",
but the plan is bogus since it calls for carbon capture and storage,
which has never been made to work properly.
A blueprint means a precise set of measurements for something to be
made. A rough sketch is not a blueprint. |
| 5:48a |
Homes built from 2025 in Tokyo to have solar panels
*Tokyo will require new homes built from 2025 to have solar panels.* |
| 5:48a |
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| 5:48a |
Cop15 deal to included protecting 30% of nature
*Cop15 deal includes target to protect 30% of nature on Earth by
2030.*
The basic question is, will countries give this more than lip service?
For instance, most of the UK's "protected marine areas" are hardly
protected at all.
The article claims that China imposed the deal despite objections from
many countries. Given that the survival of civilization and the
natural world are at stake, I feel little sympathy for anyone that
refuses to help save But these objections may make the treaty a dead
letter.
The biodiversity movement seems to have adopted as a matter of faith
that indigenous humans will always protect biodiversity and ecosystems.
In many cases they will, because they depend on those ecosystems
for their living. In those cases, damage to those ecosystems will
harm them so they will oppose such damage.
But this is not invariably guaranteed. Human beings have been
polluting their environments for short-term benefit for millennia.
Humans often bend and redraw their moral rules to excuse their own
benefit. Humans can resist this tendency, but nobody is automatically
above it due to descent alone.
The part of this agreement that is absolutely perverse: the plan to
establish a parallel patent system in the name of preventing
"biopiracy."
The patent system we already have is harmful and unjust; this plan
creates a second parallel system of restrictions on the use of
knowledge, adds a second harm, a second injustice, to the first.
The goal, clearly, is to give some income to poor countries.
That goal is fine, but do it in some other way! |
| 5:48a |
Open Fascism the wrecker unleashed
*[The wrecker] Is Not Our Biggest Problem: It's the Open Fascism He
Has Unleashed.*
Many fascists are flexible enough to follow another authoritarian
leader, such as DeMentis, instead of the wrecker.
The article discusses a conjecture that fascism wakes up in the US
every 80 years as the people who defeated fascism before die and
cease to lead the country to reject fascism. |
| 5:48a |
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| 5:48a |
Twitter users banned from telling where to find them on other sites
Musk has banned Twitter users from posting information about where to
find them on other sites.
Of course, you shouldn't be used by Facebook or Instagram at all, anyway.
Twitter's policy may be illegal in the US.
I wonder, though, whether FTC enforcement power can prevail against
a billionaire who is willing to lose millions of dollars as a result
of his choice of policies. If he chooses to defy the FTC, can they
do more than fine Twitter a few million? |
| 5:48a |
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| 5:48a |
Peru's suppression forces have killed 20 protesters
Peru's suppression forces have killed 20 protesters, generally by
shooting them. This caused protests to spread.
People demand that Congress resign for new elections, but Congress refuses. |
| 5:48a |
Cinderella as a joke on Louis XIV's fancy for glass
Cinderella as a joke on Louis XIV's fancy for glass. |
| 5:48a |
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| 5:48a |
Enslaved migrant workers suing Tesco for selling clothing they were forced to make
Former enslaved migrant workers in Thailand are suing the UK
supermarket Tesco for selling the clothing that they were forced to make. |
| 5:48a |
Campaigners say global corporations cheating public out of tax money
*Global corporations "cheating public out of billions in tax," say
campaigners.*
This is why we designed GNU Taler
to reliably identify the payee. It gives anonymity to the payer only. |
| 5:48a |
Crown Prince Bone Saw trying to "sportswash" Salafi Arabia's reputation
Crown Prince Bone Saw is trying to "sportswash" Salafi Arabia's
cruel and repressive reputation.
Tobacco companies used sportswashing, and maybe still do in some
places. In the US, that was eventually prohibited. |
| 5:48a |
Crypto was supposed to solve financial corruption
*Crypto was supposed to solve financial corruption. But FTX shows it’s
just got worse.*
I am not sure this is an inherent part of using cryptocurrencies. It
may be due to a twisted way of using them: people buy and sell them
through companies called "exchanges" rather than trading them
directly. Those exchanges seem to tend particularly to corruption.
However, even if all users did everything directly in the currency's
blockchain, it would seem to be just perfect for bribing politicians
untraceably. |
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