| Time |
Event |
| 9:02a |
Racial censorship
Racial censorship, first applied to censor white authors, has been
stretched to censors all racial groups -- the bizarre idea that "You
can only write about people in your own group."
It's valid to complain about stories told by an author writing about
people in a subculture perse does not know, works that are based
mainly on stereotypes. You can make the claim that a work is of that
sort; sometimes it is true. If people challenge it, you can defend
it.
However, erecting a racial system of prohibitions is worse than the
disease, and also won't cure it.
In a multiracial and multicultural society, that racial censorship
rule would allow no fiction whatsoever. Unless the characters live in
a ghetto together, no one author could write all of them.
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| 9:02a |
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| 9:02a |
Ukraine put up more wind turbines than England
Ukraine has managed to put up 19 wind turbines since being invaded by
the Putin forces. Meanwhile, England has built just two in the same
period of time.
A few years ago, Tories changed laws to make it almost impossible to
get permission to set up a wind turbine, but easy to get permission for
fracking.
I never understood why they wanted to discourage wind power.
Does anyone know?
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| 9:02a |
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| 9:02a |
Paying for aid
Disabled Britons now have to pay for aid in daily life, and it costs
more than most can afford.
It sounds like the US.
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| 9:02a |
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| 9:02a |
Pro-Russian Ukrainians taking children to Russia
Some pro-Russian Ukrainians, in occupied territories, have taken their
neighbors' children to Russia in order to get financial benefits,
using lies to convince them.
If they apply for adoption papers, the Russian system will not let their
parents get them back.
The article calls this "deportation", but I don't think that term fits
the example that it presents. Neither, I think, does "kidnaping."
Those terms do properly apply to many Ukrainian children, who were
forced to go to Russia by the Putin forces.
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| 9:02a |
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| 9:02a |
Britain and Covid
*We desperately need a government who will say it: Britain is still
reeling from Covid.*
The US is, too -- but not in one uniform, simple way. The policies
for dealing with Covid-19 were different from state to state. At the
start, some big cities were hit worst. Later, for many months,
Republican states were hit worst,
because Republicans seized
on Covid-19 as an opportunity for disinformation and sabotage,
especially after they realized that blacks were more likely to die from it.
One harm that most people don't recognize as one is that many
activities and institutions in our society have imposed the use of
nonfree computing technology. This includes most schools at all
levels. Most talks at MIT still require using Zoom to listen.
Whether you want to listen at the time of the event, or listen to
recording later, the only way is through Zoom's nonfree surveillance
system.
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| 9:02a |
London thugs won't answer mental crises calls
The London thug department has announced, all of a sudden, that it won't
answer emergency calls about mental crises.
This implements, by surprise, half the goal of "Defund the Police": to
stop sending armed thugs to deal with mental crises. However, it's
only half of the goal of "Defund the Police".
The other half goal was to send other personnel to respond to those
calls -- personnel trained in de-escalation and calming people down,
rather than in violence. This surprise announcement makes no
provision for anyone to do this job. It can't be the ambulance
service: they are underfunded, and often arrive so late that the
patient is ready for burial.
More info.
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| 9:02a |
CO2 in atmosphere
Increased CO2 in the upper atmosphere makes it cool and contract.
This enables dangerous space junk to remain longer in low Earth orbit,
and undermines the slowly recovering ozone layer.
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| 10:02a |
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| 10:02a |
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| 10:02a |
Protesters chain themselves to private jet
* Protesters from Greenpeace, Stay Grounded, Extinction Rebellion and
others chain themselves to aircraft in [Europe's biggest private
jet fair].* |
| 10:02a |
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| 10:02a |
Phones and credit cards to pay for public transport
Victoria (in Australia) wants to lead suckers to use phones and credit cards
to pay for public transport. If they do this foolish thing, the system
will track all their movements.
Will this system permit anonymous use, paying cash? Will it permit
use by someone who has no snoop-phone, snoop-watch, or snoop-card? If
so, how would that work? And what is possible with the existing
system? If you know by experience, please email me. |
| 10:02a |
Western states to take less water from Colorado river
* California, Arizona and Nevada strike deal with US government to take
about 13% less water from drought-stricken [Colorado] river.*
This will surely slow the drying of the Colorado river. Will it be
enough to prevent that? We don't know. It depends on whether the
atmospheric rivers that now plague California
bring enough water to the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains
to keep the Colorado flowing. If not, the trend of increased aridity
in the region may continue. |
| 10:02a |
UK study reveals mass grave sites
*UK study of 1948 Israeli massacre of Palestinian village reveals mass
grave sites.*
Wikipedia
reports that denial of that massacre has gone as far as a libel lawsuit
against an Israeli who wrote about it. |
| 10:02a |
Syrian refugees' fight to reclaim homes
* As many as 14 million Syrians face a near insurmountable barrier to
returning to their homes after [Assad's] government passed laws giving the
state power to seize their land and property.* |
| 10:02a |
Members of climate group homes raided
German thugs raided the homes of climate campaigners belonging to a
group called "Last Generation", comparable to Extinction Rebellion.
The group hopes to prevent mass murder. The thugs accused it of being
a "criminal organization." |
| 10:02a |
Election authority of Houston
Texas Republicans are creating new legal excuses to take over the
election authority of Houston, with its 5 million people.
It is not exactly clear what they want to do to Houston's voters,
but it must be come sort of voter suppression. |
| 10:02a |
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| 10:02a |
People exonerated after death sentence
Former governors of Alabama point out that around 12% of the people
sentenced to death in that state were subsequently exonerated.
One of them upheld the death sentence for a man he now believes was innocent. |
| 10:02a |
Labour proposing UK economic reform
The Labour Party is proposing to reform the UK economy.
I still have to ask: would they tax the rich and use the money to lift
people out of poverty? "Growth" as such is benefit if the growth goes
mainly to the wealthy. |
| 10:02a |
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| 10:02a |
PayPal bias against Palestinians
PayPal is being rebuked for bias against Palestinians. It does business
with Israelis in the occupied Palestinian territory, but refuses to do business
with Palestinians there.
PayPal refuses to do business with any clients in a way that respects
their freedom: to order, one must run nonfree software. No thanks, PayPal! |
| 5:47p |
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