| Time |
Event |
| 1:02a |
When young viewers harmed online, tech execs liable
The
UK's new online identification requirement will effectively
require all discussion platforms and search engines to verify the age of each user.
The obvious way to do that is a repressive and
tyrannical way: by making each user show government photo ID.
I reject commercial communications platforms, because they already
deny users' freedom in various ways — instance, by demanding to
identify the user and/or running their code in the user's computer.
However, there are commercial search engines that currently do nothing
wrong to the user. Will this law make them all engage in repression?
Does the age verification requirement apply to search engines?
GNU Taler can be used to give people a way to verify their ages to
a web site without giving the site any way to identify them. But this
is not entirely finished yet.
The goals of this bill mostly seem valid to me; indeed, they may not
go far enough. For instance, TikTok's practices seem to reduce
teenagers' attention spans; should those practices be banned? I am
not sure. However, the internet is a threat to democracy if tracks
what people do and where they go.
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| 1:02a |
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| 1:02a |
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| 1:02a |
Fossil fuel cos, CEO liability
There is some sign that
climate disasters cause harm to fetuses and
newborns.
There are states and countries that make it a crime to cause harm
to a fetus. Could fossil fuel CEOs be prosecuted under these laws?
I hate to suggest it, because the main use of those laws is
to prosecute women who may have tried to give themselves abortions.
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| 1:02a |
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| 1:02a |
Tepco execs not liable, Fukushima
*Fukushima:
court upholds acquittals of three Tepco executives over disaster.*
That is the right outcome. The Fukushima nuclear plant disaster could
have been averted my designing the nuclear plant differently, and that
gives us in our hindsight grounds to conclude that the actual design
was excessively risky. But that doesn't mean people should be
convicted of a crime for not recognizing this in advance.
Perhaps Tepco, the company, should face civil liability for the
economic damage to surrounding businesses. These executives can't
possibly pay that much, but maybe Tepco can do so over many years.
|
| 1:17a |
US freshwater fish, forever chemicals
*Wild caught,
freshwater fish in the United States are far more
contaminated with toxic PFAS
“forever chemicals” than those
commercially caught in oceans,*
This makes sense. The PFAs in a lake is basically stuck there, while those
released into the ocean can diffuse through the whole volume of the ocean.
What is clear is that we must stop filling the water with these toxins.
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| 1:17a |
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| 1:17a |
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| 6:17a |
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| 6:17a |
Some Billionaires seek to push workers down to penury
Billionaires strive to undermine democracy to pass laws to transfer
more wealth to them. But desire for even more wealth is not their
only reason. Some also make a political calculation that if workers
are in penury they will be unable to organize to resist. So they seek
to push workers down to penury.
That ideology appeared by the late 1700s and it is still influential
today among billionaire right-wingers. |
| 6:17a |
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| 6:17a |
Rapist thugs in Britain have made British women afraid to deal with cops
Many rapist thugs in Britain have made British women afraid to deal
with cops. It has become clear that there are groups of misogynistic
thugs which protect thugs who commit misogynistic acts.
The article proposes reforms to put an end to that. I wish the author
had not dismissed the campaign to "defund the police" by taking it to
mean, literally, "abolish cops." The intended meaning was to respond
to incidents of psychological breakdown by sending people trained in
how to respond to that. |
| 6:17a |
Chile rejected ex-president's plan to start new copper mine
Chile has rejected ex-president Piñera's personal plan to start a new
copper mine that would endanger marine wildlife nearby. |
| 6:17a |
British climate defenders painted government building black
British climate defenders painted a government building black in honor
of the government's plans to open a new coal mine.
That building holds the office of the minister who approved a new
coal mine. |
| 6:17a |
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| 6:17a |
Tories neglected their commitments to protect wildlife in Britain
A government monitoring committee finds that Tories have neglected
their long-term commitments on policies to protect wildlife in
Britain.
This seems to be the standard Tory approach to any scandalous problem:
to proclaim themselves scandalized, discuss measures to reduce the
problems, then are slow in carrying out the promises. Months or years later they forget or cancel the plans, still unimplemented.
A few years ago, British deportation of people who were lawfully
brought from the Caribbean as children, but cannot now prove that was
lawful for want of necessary old documents, caused a scandal and the Tories
promised to correct this and compensate them. But now they plan to quit early. |
| 6:17a |
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| 6:17a |
Carbon offsets for sale concluded to be bogus
A study concluded that over 90% of carbon offsets for sale under the
Verra standard were likely to be bogus. It has been a tempting avenue
for fraud.
I don't trust these offsets. When a business makes statements
about greenhouse gas emissions that are based on offsets, I don't take
them seriously. |
| 6:17a |
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| 6:17a |
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| 6:17a |
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| 6:17a |
Iceberg floating away from Thwaites glacier
An enormous iceberg which cracked apart from the Thwaites glacier 20
years ago has started floating away from the glacier. This is
important because it will enable the glacier to start sliding into the
ocean and melting faster. |
| 6:17a |
Volunteer contribution platforms threatened by UK proposed "child protection" law
Wikipedia and other volunteer contribution platforms are threatened by
the UK's proposed "child protection" law. |