| Time |
Event |
| 10:18a |
Billionaires' playbook, sports stadiums
Robert Reich explains how
billionaires use sports teams
to strongarm
our governments to subsidize teams and dump the cost on the public.
If your city's stadium is named after a big company, that shows that
its government was bought. Is your government still for sale
nowadays?
|
| 10:18a |
Justice for the masses
People who are frantic will propose widepread mistreatment to deal
with occasional injustices. Here is an example:
to protect gig ride
drivers from robberies
(which occasionally escalate into killings) by
requiring every passenger to prove per identity with an official
document.
A person whose SO has been killed by criminals can easily demand a
massive system of injustice to reduce such crimes. Even, as in this
example, to demand it as an afterthought added to other measures that
ought to be sufficient by themselves.
A person in that situation can lose sight of the enormity of the
demand perse is making on millions of others.
One of the main injustices of gig ride dis-services as they are today
— one of the reasons that they merit the term "dis-services" — is
tracking passengers: they require passengers to identify themselves by
using cell phones and payment cards. Apparently robbers have a way to
avoid being tracked; what can it be? Perhaps they steal phones and
payment cards to use for this. That is not an option for a
law-abiding person; our only way to protect ourselvss from tracking
dis-services is to reject them entirely.
But even though these dis-services are unjust already, changes in
practices that make the tracking more strict and pervasive are
important to fight against. Please join in.
|
| 10:18a |
Economics of machine learning
The Guardian's economics editor can see that
machine learning systems
can eliminate millions of fairly good jobs,
forcing millions to join
other millions in dead-end poverty.
But he won't look for solutions outside the narrow capitalist system.
Trying to train people for better jobs won't do any good if the better
jobs are disappearing too.
For the next few decades, we might make a lot more good jobs:
construction work to replace our carbon-dependent systems, and medical
jobs to care for increasing numbers of old and infirm. Those jobs
need to be funded by the public — which implies adding more socialism
to our society.
In the long term, to quote a man who spoke at a meeting in Cambridge
decades ago, "If the robots make it, we gotta take it!" We must tax
the rich and give every person a decent life.
|
| 10:18a |
Race-based society, Australia
Australia once again has a legal system which makes
distinctions
between people based on race.
Ironically, those of indigenous descent
are first-class Australians this time, and the descendants of
immigrants from the past 250 years are the second-class Australians.
Australia, and the people who defend this policy, do not use those
terms, of course. But that shoe fits the policy. The practice of
capitalizing the words "indigenous" and "aboriginal" underlines the
kind of distinction between these classes.
The British colonists (mainly convicts who were sent there as
punishment) took the land by force, and killed many aboriginals in the
process. Then they set up a society in which indigenous people were
systematically denied most or all of the rights of citizenship. This
persisted until the late 20th century.
Justice calls for compensation for those wrongs — but not by creating
inequality of rights once again.
I agree that the way Kuster is being treated is unjust. However,
dividing Australians into first and second class is not the only way
Australia can change its legal system to correct that.
One possible solution would be to generalize this new right so as to
be applcable to all people whose background is associated with
Australia — not solely to people whose background is indigenous.
Another solution that would apply to Kuster is suggested by the issue
that the US DACA program partially addresses: people who were brought
t the US as children and grew up there but are not citizens. They
should have a way to become citizens. Australia should have such a
policy too, and that would make Kuster a citizen.
|
| 10:48a |
Machine learning for injustices
Here's a cheery list of possible commercial applications for machine
learning systems (referred to in the article as "AI"). How many
injustices, real or probable, can you spot
Here's a hint: John Deere tractors, famous for being designed to make
their "owners" helpless to fix them independently, collect data about
parts of the field, and can use them to improve efficiency of
production. John Deere keeps that data, so this becomes yet another
way of subjugating users (farmers, in the case).
[ Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<p [...] illustrates,>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.] <p>
Here's <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/18/from-retail-to-transport-how-ai-is-changing-every-corner-of-the-economy">a cheery list of possible commercial applications for machine
learning systems</a> (referred to in the article as "AI"). How many
injustices, real or probable, can you spot
<p>
Here's a hint: <a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2022-nov-feb.html#18_January_2023_(Right_to_repair,_John_Deere)">John Deere tractors</a>, famous for being designed to make
their "owners" helpless to fix them independently, collect data about
parts of the field, and can use them to improve efficiency of
production. John Deere keeps that data, so this becomes yet another
way of subjugating users (farmers, in the case).
<p
As this illustrates, all the moral issues of subjugating users that
apply in general to nonfree software and to online dis-services apply
to machine learning systems as they apply to other technology.
<p>
Professor Sussman, who works on artificial intelligence at MIT,
reminds us that machine learning systems are no smarter than
Dissociated Press. He reserves the term "artificial intelligence"
for systems that understand what they are talking about and know what
the facts are.
<p> |
| 10:48a |
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| 10:48a |
Republicans and initiative petitions
Republicans in many US states are proposing bills to restrict citizens'
ability to pass initiative petitions.
Once they have seized the power to rig a state's elections of officials,
initiative petitions are the citizens only way to take back control from
the Republican tyranny and restore some democracy.
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| 10:48a |
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| 10:48a |
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| 10:48a |
Wage theft on the rise
*Wage theft, security issues and health problems on the rise after AT&T,
Verizon and T-Mobile outsource retail stores.*
There should be strict limits on outsourcing jobs to a subcontractor
in the absence of real competition.
|
| 10:48a |
Buttigieg pretending to be powerless
*Buttigieg Pretends He's Powerless To Reduce Derailment Risks.*
The article explains that there are some wrinkles, but there are ways
around them for some cases.
|
| 10:48a |
(Satire) Deregulation success story
(satire) *Officials Champion Ohio Train Derailment As Deregulation
Success Story.*
If an Onion page appears blank, try disabling Javascript entirely or
telling LibreJS to blacklist all scripts in the page, then
right-click and select item "Reveal hidden HTML". Or use a browser
such as lynx that doesn't implement Javascript and CSS.
|
| 10:48a |
Climate feedback loops
*Scientists warn of many dangerous climate feedback loops.
Current plans to mitigate climate change may be inadequate.*
In total, the researchers identified 27 amplifying (positive)
feedbacks, 7 dampening (negative) feedbacks, and 7 uncertain
feedbacks.
Only fools would depend on precisely how far we are from the climate
cliff. The wise thing to do is to work harder to stop us before we
find out the hard way.
|
| 10:48a |
Ancient stolen jewels sent to Cambodia
Ancient Khmer jewelry from the Angkor period still exists, and was
stolen in Cambodia. The US has sent it back to Cambodia.
I hope that those returning these objects will photograph them first
and post the photos for all to see. It would be an outrageous
wrong to treat works a thousand years old as copyrighted.
|
| 10:48a |
Menstruation questions removed from medical form
*Florida High School Athletic Association removes all questions about
menstruation from required medical evaluation form.*
People suspect that the requirement for women athletes to answer those
questions was part of a Republican scheme to cause trouble for women:
either for those who are trans, or for those who get pregnant, or
for those who have abortions.
|
| 10:48a |
Pakistan on edge of collapse
Pakistan is on the edge of collapse -- economic collapse, political
collapse, and climate collapse. Since it has nuclear weapons, it is hard
to tell what would happen in the event of such a collapse.
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| 10:48a |
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| 10:48a |
Homelessness from earthquakes
In Syria and Turkey, the earthquakes have left millions of people homeless.
I would expect most of them have no food. How can the world provide food
for them?
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| 12:33p |
Race-based society, Australia
Australia once again has a legal system which makes
distinctions
between people based on race.
Ironically, those of indigenous descent
are first-class Australians this time, and the descendants of
immigrants from the past 250 years are the second-class Australians.
Australia, and the people who defend this policy, do not use those
terms, of course. But that shoe fits the policy. The practice of
capitalizing the words "indigenous" and "aboriginal" underlines the
kind of distinction between these classes.
The British colonists (mainly convicts who were sent there as
punishment) took the land by force, and killed many aboriginals in the
process. Then they set up a society in which indigenous people were
systematically denied most or all of the rights of citizenship. This
persisted until the late 20th century.
Justice calls for compensation for those wrongs — but not by creating
inequality of rights once again.
I agree that the way Kuster is being treated is unjust. However,
dividing Australians into first and second class is not the only way
Australia can change its legal system to correct that.
One possible solution would be to generalize this new right so as to
be applicable to all people whose background is associated with
Australia — not solely to people whose background is indigenous.
Another solution that would apply to Kuster is suggested by the issue
that the US DACA program partially addresses: people who were brought
t the US as children and grew up there but are not citizens. They
should have a way to become citizens. Australia should have such a
policy too, and that would make Kuster a citizen.
|