| Time |
Event |
| 2:02p |
Enshittification
Online services that allow advertising tend to pass through a
transformation known as
"enshittification".
First, the service shows users what they want to see. Then it shows
users with high priority whatever businesses pay it to show them.
Finally, it shows users with even higher priority whatever will keep
them spending more time on the site — at which point the users and
the advertisers hate it but feel they don't have an option to refuse.
I do refuse. It just happens that these disservices tend to require
users to run nonfree client software, and I refuse to do it. Thus,
by defending my control over my computing, I avoid the shit too.
I think that the key to ending enshittification is to pass laws to
change the funding model.
|
| 2:02p |
Lifeworks of hard lives
The US continues to hold on to art done by
prisoners in Guantanamo
even when prisoners are allowed to leave.
|
| 2:02p |
Snowmaggedon plus some, CA
A
heavy snowfall in California
is crushing trees and buildings.
The heavy storms in California result from global heating. This won't
be the last one that drops snow instead of rain. I have a feeling
that in isolated mountain areas most of the inhabitants will have to
move away.
Heavy rains may reduce the fire danger, if they are frequent enough.
|
| 2:02p |
Oil dependance
The history of the end of dependence on
whale oil
may have lessons for
the end of dependence on fossil fuels.
|
| 2:02p |
Taxing by the ability to pay
In calculating various people's
effective tax rate,
there are
decisions to make. Deciding wrong leads to giant confusion.
|
| 2:02p |
Urgent: Special Julian Assange documentary
Thru April 16.
A documentary about Julian Assange is touring US cinemas.
The tour
continues till mid-April.
Each showing is followed by a Q&A discussion with
Julian's father and/or his brother.
|
| 2:17p |
Oil dependence
The history of the end of dependence on
whale oil
may have lessons for
the end of dependence on fossil fuels.
|
| 9:02p |
|
| 9:02p |
FBI bought location tracking data
The FBI director acknowledged that the FBI had bought location tracking data.
Data about Americans, no less.
But this scandal is being understood only at the superficial level.
The most superficial scandal here is that the FBI bought location data
about Americans in order to track them.
A deeper scandal is that the company which collected the data was able
to sell the data without asking permission of the users the data is
about.
The deepest scandal here is that the company was able to collect
location data about Americans. For real privacy, we need to require
systems to be designed so as not to track people's life activities.
No systems should be able to keep track of where people go, what they
do there, or who they communicate with. |
| 9:02p |
Airline lobbying to cut taxes on flying
The British government's stated commitment to reduce greenhouse emissions
was unable to stand up to airline lobbying to cut taxes on flying.
This also shows that the supposed need to limit the deficit
is limited to the people who don't count (for Tories), and
doesn't apply when interests that are really important want a boost. |
| 9:02p |
|
| 9:02p |
Far-Right's culture wars are a distraction
*The Far-Right's Culture Wars Are Just a Distraction So Oligarchs Can
Keep Looting the Working Class.*
I agree that that is a large part of the purpose of these "culture wars,"
but they do have a secondary purpose: to radicalize supporters so that they
give way completely to hatred. |
| 9:02p |
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