| Time |
Event |
| 1:46a |
A true patriot, defined
*True patriotism is
the opposite of Trump's White Christian Nationalism.*
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| 1:46a |
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| 1:46a |
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| 1:47a |
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| 1:47a |
Maternal death rise, US
US maternal deaths
doubled from 1999 to 2019
— and that period does
not count whatever effect Covid-19 had.
The cause is not clear, but since black mothers die at a much higher rate,
it probably has to do with racism and to right-wing policies.
|
| 11:32a |
Climate-era duties, FL Keys
The foolish response to sea-level rise: two people are trying to
preserve
a small island
they own by building sea walls.
This is futile because sea-level rise is accelerating. If they
heroically manage to keep up with it this decade, they won't keep up
next decade. By the end of this century, all their work will have
been erased.
What a shame they aren't putting all that effort into an effort that
may not be futile — that may actually win a victory.
We can't save everything, and scattering our efforts makes them
futile. We must concentrate on defeating the planet roasters who are
deliberately accelerating the problem.
|
| 11:46p |
Construction and testing of mini-submarine
The construction and testing of the mini-submarine that imploded
trying to visit the Titanic were characterized by schemes to evade
regulations.
That was inviting disaster, and indeed disaster came.
The company used a contractual scheme to label passengers as "crew", to
avoid liability in case they died.
|
| 11:46p |
Migrant conscripts to run smuggler boats
Migrant-smugglers typically recruit, or conscript, one of the migrants
to run and direct the boat — so that the real smugglers can be far
away if the boat is captured. After one boat fell apart and sank,
its conscript faces charges for the death of some refugees.
The prosecutor said straight out that the fact the smugglers forced
the conscript to do this, and beat him when he tried to refuse, was
no excuse. This is an unusual form of a frequent prosecutor's excuse
for treating someone as guilty who is manifestly innocent.
The more usual form is "joint and several liability", where you can
be convicted of murder that someone else committed. |
| 11:46p |
Fake debts imposed on destitute people in Australia
Australia's previous government, plutocratist and right-wing to the core,
scapegoated the poor and accused welfare recipients of nonexistent fraud.
It imposed fake debts on destitute people, and it intimidated
those who reported the wrongs.
A government inquiry recommends prosecution of some ministers. But we also
must denounce the scapegoating of the poor. |
| 11:46p |
Joining climate defense battle
Josh Appignanesi writes about how he learned that joining in the climate
defense battle does not require becoming a different person. Nor does it
require dedicating every minute of your waking life to the cause.
It's the same with fighting for software freedom.
Taking steps towards less dependence on unjust computing
will enable you to help.
The sad thing is when climate defense activities are set up to require
people to run nonfree software. Many of their web sites do that.
They shouldn't demand we choose between one of these good causes and
the other — it is agratuitous own goal. |
| 11:46p |
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| 11:46p |
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| 11:46p |
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| 11:46p |
Twitter reports disrupted from storm spotters to US Weather Service
The US National Weather Service has been using Twitter to receive reports
from storm spotters. Due to recent Musk madness, that has started to fail.
Twitter is unsuitable for anything that really needs to work. |
| 11:46p |
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| 11:46p |
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| 11:46p |
International conference about reducing greenhouse emissions
An international conference about reducing greenhouse emissions from
shipping did not agree on any concrete plan to do that —
only a long-term target.
Long-term targets don't achieve anything unless followed by concrete
short-term plans. |
| 11:46p |
Low concentration release of tritium into ocean
Japan plans to release slowly into the ocean a large amount of water
containing an extremely low concentration of tritium.
Many countries are shouting about this. Is it really dangerous, or is
that irrational exaggeration? I can't be certain, but I think
it is irrational.
Japan claims that other nuclear power plants in the region
release larger amounts of tritium annually than this water would.
Indeed, Wikipedia's article on Tritium
lists nuclear facilities that release much larger amounts
of tritium, totaling almost 100 times what the Fukushima storage
tanks would release — and the list is not complete.
It is clear that people are making an inordinate fuss about this
tritium because it came from a major nuclear accident rather than from
operating a reactor. However, the tritium itself is indistinguishable.
Nuclear reactors generate waste that is truly dangerous. That is the reason
not to build more nuclear reactors — that and the danger that enemies
will bomb them.
In addition, they are so expensive and slow to build that they
slow down decarbonization.
Those are good reasons not to build more of them.
Likewise for the chemical industry — consider PFAs, which are toxic in very small amounts
which are not radioactive and therefore don't decay at all. |
| 11:46p |
Priority on order over education in US schools
As America puts more thugs in schools, and fewer nurses, social
workers and counselors, this giving the priority to imposing order
rather than education. some experiment with restorative justice
instead.
Restorative justice takes more time. Do we think that raising children well
is worth that effort? Maybe we should have fewer children and put more
time into raising each one. |
| 11:46p |
Kerala plan to donate prepared food in hospitals
Kerala has organized thousands of women to cook a little extra food and
donate it to a plan that provides food for patients in hospitals.
There are so many volunteer cooks that each one is asked to do this
only occasionally.
The person who receives the donation does not know the cook's religion
or caste. By eating the food, they learn to reduce caste and
religious prejudice in their own minds. |
| 11:46p |
Grey whales ask for lice removal
Grey whales ask humans (in boats) to remove "lice" from their heads.
When humans do this, the whales come back for more.
Whales need to have some of those symbionts, so there is some danger
the whales might ask humans to remove too many. Or maybe the whales
will naturally DTRT.
I like the idea of intentional cooperation between humans and whales. |
| 11:46p |
Putin's system to eliminate dissent
How Putin's government adapted a system for finding and eliminating various
kinds of illegal "content" to find and eliminate dissent as well. |
| 11:46p |
Urgent: Speed limits in Gulf of Mexico to protect Rice's whales
US citizens: call on NOAA to impose 10-knot speed limits on ships in Gulf of
Mexico to protect endangered Rice's whales.
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| 11:46p |
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