| Time |
Event |
| 3:33a |
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Almost
500 species of animals,
mostly coastal species, have colonized the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
|
| 3:33a |
Greenwashing, clothing cos.
A guide to the
typical terms
used for greenwashing in the clothing
industry.
The best way to reduce the waste made from making your clothing
is to stop the frequent purchase of clothing. If you wear each thing
you buy on at least 50 days, you will buy far less than most people do
in the wealthier countries. You'll also save a lot of money.
|
| 3:33a |
Voter fraud bills, TX
Texas is considering many
new laws to punish fraud in voting,
which almost
never happens in the US.
I am sure this is blowing smoke so they can claim a fire exists, but I
susepect it is worse than that.
I think these bills are in fact intended to create opportunities to
intimidate voters — voters who belong to disprivileged groups and
probably vote Democratic — by making false accusations and threats.
For instance, the "marshals" could make false accusations on election
day to drive voters away.
|
| 3:33a |
Epitome of plastics, OH
Making plastic often spreads toxins, and disposing of it likewise. We need to
reduce total production.
|
| 3:33a |
Judicial appointments blocked
Senator Feinstein is ill and unable to go to the Senate to vote.
This is blocking many judicial appointments. She agreed to let
another Democrat replace her on the judiciary committee,
so as to unblock these votes,
but Republicans' assent was required and some refused.
It is absurd for Senator Durbin to defend a questionable bipartisan
tradition of the past that the Republicans refused to observe when the
saboteur in chief was president. To defend it unilaterally is being a
sucker.
|
| 3:33a |
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| 3:33a |
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| 3:33a |
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| 3:33a |
|
| 8:48a |
Antioch, CA police
*Shocking messages about
beating suspects and making up evidence
were found when Antioch, [California], [thugs] were investigated.*
Nearly half the thugs in the department either sent them or read them
without objecting.
The article linked to just above displays symbolic bigotry by
capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry,
capitalize both words or neither one.) I denounce bigotry, and
normally I will not link to articles that promote it. But I make
exceptions for some articles that I consider particularly important.
That article is one of the exceptions.
The point of the article is that we have a responsibility to object to
bigotry when we see it. Symbolic bigotry is nowhere near as bad as
beating people up, but we should still call it out, as I am doing here.
|
| 8:48a |
|
| 8:48a |
Govt ethics, Supreme Court
Justice Thomas's rich patron funded a right-wing group that had a case
before the Supreme Court, during the time he knew and
gave gifts to
Thomas.
|
| 8:48a |
Deepwater Horizon cleanup workers
*They cleaned up BP’s massive oil spill.
Now they’re sick
— and want justice.*
|
| 8:48a |
Cost of abortion, AU
The Australian Capitol Territory will offer
abortion gratis to anyone.
This is what every country should do. No one should be compelled to have
and raise a baby.
|
| 8:48a |
Copyright hassle, UK
A concert to benefit poor musicians in the UK accidentally used a
copyrighted work. The collecting society PRS charged it a fee that
amounts to
half the money
it had raised, and thus revealed it has the
attitude of a parasite.
Copyright is an extremely bad way of supporting musicians and
composers. We should allow noncommercial use of music with no fee,
and for supporting musicians and composers, we should
set up
other systems
for that.
|
| 8:48a |
Debt ceiling plan
Republicans have described a specific plan to
impose disaster
specifically on non-rich Americans.
If I were the Democrats, I would tell the Republicans, "If you are
determined to cause a disaster for Americans, you'll have to do it by
yourselves. We will not participate. Especially, don't expect we will
help you save the rich while abandoning the poor."
|
| 8:48a |
Energy plan risks failure, UK
If the UK transitions to renewable energy by 2050, it could save money
and achieve lower total greenhouse emissions if it avoids
building any
nuclear energy.
|
| 8:48a |
|
| 8:48a |
|
| 12:33p |
Lithium mining, Chile
Chile's president Boric plans to gradually
nationalize the lithium
mining industry.
Some countries are permitting export of lithium only if the
refining is done there before export.
|
| 12:33p |
Wrong door shootings, US
Frequent killings of people for going to the wrong door are *the
effects of a "national experiment in freely
giving deadly weapons to
anyone
who wants one."*
|
| 12:33p |
Labour leader seems Tory
*By reviving scrounger myths and rubbishing free social care, Starmer’s
begun
a race to the bottom
— one the Tories will win.*
Prime Minister Wilson said, "Labour is a moral crusade or it is nothing."
What does that say about Starmer?
|
| 12:33p |
|
| 12:33p |
Top five climate methods
An IPCC publication comparing the effectiveness of various ways of
reducing greenhouse gas emissions
finds that the five most effective methods are:
- solar power
- wind power
- ending deforestation
- improving energy efficiency (what Amory Lovins called "negawatts")
- shutting off methane emissions
|
| 12:33p |
A dangerous Internet proposal
Verisign has asked ICANN to give
every government total power
to seize or shut .net domains.
If some government, such as Tuvalu or China or Beijing, seized your
domain, you'd have to sue in the courts of Tuvalu or China, not your
own country.
This is a very dangerous concentration of power. The fact that Verisign
arranged for this shows it is far too powerful. The network's arrangements
with it should be canceled and replaced with something quite different.
The fact that ICANN agreed to this suggests that there is corruption in ICANN
that needs to be rooted out.
|
| 12:33p |
Preempting local business regulations, TX
Texas is planning to pass
a bill to invalidate local regulations
in a
sweeping way. This would include regulations to *protect workers,
consumers, and the environment.*
Naturally, ALEC is involved, showing that the main benefit will be for
the rich.
I expect that fascists will use this to prevent cities and counties
from resisting voter-suppression.
|
| 12:33p |
The 3rd gender in southern Mexico
On the Zapotec form of transgenderism, called
"muxe".
|
| 12:33p |
A "never again" slavery memorial
Proposing
April 9 as a national holiday
for the military defeat
of the forces of slavery.
I am in favor of having such a holiday, but April 9 is not the
only candidate. Juneteenth, June 10, seems to have momentum.
Either one is ok with me.
|
| 12:33p |
|
| 12:33p |
Free market dogma costs
Allowing business to
optimize everything with profit
as its only goal
has produced disaster over and over.
Railroads, masks, medicine, arms — every area of work that has been
put under the dominion of the profit-maximizer works badly for everyone
except the owners. A profit-maximizing AI will be little different from
a paperclip-maximizing AI.
|
| 12:47p |
Apt. apps greatly abused, AU
People who want to rent an apartment, in Australia, are almost forced
to use invasive data-collection sites. The users of the sites are
unhappy with the data they collect,
and some of them are manipulative
too.
I expect similar abusive practices exist in the US. They may have
started in the US. So many other Internet abuses did.
There is a danger concern that the site will implement housing bias.
If their developers get the idea to use trained neural nets to
evaluate would-be renters, they are likely to learn whatever sorts of
biases landlords have.
I confidently predict that the site insists on
running nonfree
software on the user's site. The users are not complaining about
this, but they would if they were wise. |
| 1:02p |
American Clean Power Assoc. dirty
The American Clean Power Association, which officially represents various renewable energy companies, seems to have been
corrupted by fossil fuel influence.
|