| Time |
Event |
| 2:31a |
|
| 3:16a |
Senator Scott seeks policies that attack basic human and constitutional rights
*[Senator] Scott seeks to impose highly divisive and unpopular social,
economic, and fiscal policies that would attack the basic human and
constitutional rights along with the well-being of millions of
U.S. residents.* The Republican Party agrees with him.
|
| 3:16a |
US Jewish organizations condemn pogrom carried out by fanatical Israeli racists
Jewish organizations in the US condemned the pogrom carried out by the
fanatical Israeli racists that now control Israel's government.
In Israel, B'tselem said that the state and the army supported the
pogrom, as they have done before. "The [fanatics] carry out the
attack, the military secures it, the politicians back it," the group
said. "It's a synergy." |
| 3:16a |
Owner of Faux News told presenters to endorse the bullshitter's lies
The owner of Faux News admitted in court that he told presenters to endorse
the bullshitter's lies claiming the Democrats stole the election.
This is likely to enable Dominion, a company that makes voting machines,
to win its libel suit and collect enormous damages. Whether Faux News
could continue to operate after that, I can't determine. Maybe Dominion
will end up owning Faux News. |
| 3:16a |
DeMentis's latest bill to impose right-wing ideology
DeMentis's latest bill to impose right-wing ideology on Florida's
public universities not only prohibits teaching certain subjects, it also
eliminates tenure and will allow fascist state-controlled boards to
fire any professor for political reasons at any time. |
| 3:16a |
Republicans continue proposing bills to hamper voting
Republicans continue feverishly proposing bills to hamper voting or rig
elections. |
| 3:16a |
Disagreement on whether SARS-CoV-2 spread from animals or leaked from lab
US agencies disagree about whether they believe that SARS-CoV-2 spread from
animals or leaked from a lab.
I don't think it makes much difference.
It is agreed that deadly viruses can spread from animals; we should
take stricter precautions to ensure that does not happen.
Since it is agreed that deadly viruses can leak from labs doing
research on them, then we should take stricter precautions to ensure
that does not happen.
Which of the two happened this time changes nothing. |
| 3:16a |
Infrared lights to defeat infrared cameras
Infrared lights attached to a hoodie can reportedly defeat infrared
cameras used for tracking people on the street at night, so that they
can't follow the person that wears the hoodie.
Tracking people's movements threatens human rights, so it is good to
thwart tracking and surveillance cameras; it would be even better to
prohibit them. By contrast, security cameras, which record their
images locally in case a crime occurs there but do not allow remote
examination, are acceptable because they do not make it feasible
to track all the non-criminals.
We should require all cameras that watch public places to be the
record-locally security camera type. |
| 3:16a |
State-controlled "local government" over Disney World
DeMentis's law that sets up a special state-controlled "local
government" over Disney World has taken effect.
At its most basic level, that law the right thing. A company should
not have the powers of a local government. Disney used its economic
clout to squeeze that concession from the state, and now that has been
undone. However, normally a local government is democratic. The
officials of this "local government" seem to be chosen by the state.
I don't believe that DeMentis seriously believes the state must not
"treat all the other theme parks differently." On the contrary, what
he wants is arbitrary power to treat them differently, power that he
can use to bully each one for his own political purposes. |
| 3:16a |
Planned carbon bombs in South Wales
New South Wales (a state in Australia) is planning carbon bombs that would
emit 1.5bn metric tons of CO2. |
| 3:16a |
Visas for touring UK musicians
The US is making visas for touring UK musicians much harder to get.
Most of the musicians can't afford it. |
| 3:16a |
|
| 3:16a |
Norfolk Southern's system to detect failing bearings
Norfolk Southern's system to detect bearings in the process of failing
was set to too high a threshold, so it didn't warn the crew of the
train until it was about to derail.
One could suggest that the government require railroads to generate
these warnings at a lower threshold, but the company has a response
for that: the other major US railroads are even worse.
The article talks about a possible improved detector that would detect
such problems at an earlier stage. Perhaps that should be adopted,
once it is ready for use. But we should require safe practices now,
and we should not accept the possibility of a technical advance as an
excuse not to do so. |
| 3:16a |
|
| 3:16a |
UK's cancellation of citizenship as punishment
The UK's cancellation of citizenship as a punishment for crimes is an
injustice. Doing it without even a trial to determine guilt for those
crimes is flat-out contempt for justice.
In some cases, this has the added consequence of making the
condemned-in-advance person stateless as well. This extra affliction
and extra injustice must not distract us from the broader injustice of
cancellation of citizenship. That is the heart of the matter; that is
what the UK must change. |
| 3:16a |
Crafting an illusion
*"Crafting an illusion": US rail firms' multimillion-dollar PR push.*
The goal of the PR is to convince officials that it's good for railroads
to shift to smaller crews and that safety improvements are not needed. |
| 3:16a |
Urgent: Call on Congress to protect Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and call on per to protect the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are
+1-202-224-3121,
+1-888-818-6641 and
+1-888-355-3588.
If you phone, please spread the word! |