| Time |
Event |
| 6:18p |
Black Britons convicted of killing
Black Britons convicted of a killing without evidence that they had
anything directly to do with it are challenging the verdict.
It may well be true that the practice of convicting people of murder
by labeling them as gangsters because they are friends with a murderer
is applied most often to blacks. Perhaps the decision to apply the practice
is made in a biased manner.
But the crucial problem with this practice is that it is fundamentally
not a valid way to determine that certain people are a gang. It is
only an unreliable heuristic. Each time it is applied, whatever the
demographics of those it is applied to, it is likely to result in a
miscarriage of justice. We need not ask what race they are to condemn
the practice.
If the practice were valid, thugs could nonetheless apply it based on
racist criteria. Many thugs are racist and they often do that.
But that is a different kind of issue.
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| 6:18p |
Important to track SARS-COV-2 mutations
It is important to monitor SARS-COV-2 in the human population in order to
keep track of its mutations. |
| 6:18p |
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| 6:18p |
Protection for historic buildings in Florida
Governor DeMentis has abolished protection of many historic buildings in
Florida.
I wonder why?
Is it simply that developers stand to make a lot of money by demolishing them,
and offered DeMentis and Republicans a share of that? |
| 6:18p |
Water depletion 150 years ago
Land privatization and water depletion, 150 years ago, set the stage
for the Lahaina fire this year.
Recreating the eliminated wetlands may be desirable, but it won't be easy
while sea level is rising. Coastal wetlands will turn into bays.
To have wetlands 50 years from now will require making wetlands where there
were no wetlands before. |
| 6:18p |
New censorship at Guantanamo
New censorship at Guantanamo: to cover any place other than the courtroom
for the "military commission" non-trials requires special permission. |
| 6:18p |
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| 6:18p |
The bullshitter leads a cult
The bullshitter leads a cult that systematically teaches its members to
distrust everyone but him.
That includes their friends, their families, and their religious leaders.
Interestingly, almost 1/3 of them don't trust the bullshitter either,
but they are more likely to trust him that trust anyone else. |
| 6:18p |
Space junk is dangerous
Space junk is dangerous because the objects tend to collide and
generate a lot more junk. This is already happening.
There is a danger that the process will eventually cascade and make it
too dangerous to put anything into low Earth orbit, or maybe even to
cross it. The movie Gravity depicted this disaster, in somewhat
accelerated form. The disaster itself would be so harmful to
humanity, and so permanent, that the survival of some of those who
were in orbit hardly reduces it.
In the quotation from the ESA, does "mitigating the impact of existing
objects" refer to "impact" in a physical sense, or in a metaphorical
sense? That's amusing as a double entendre. I wonder if it was
intentional.
Assuming it means the metaphorical sense, that sentence illustrates
the way "mitigate" introduces vagueness. I think we should avoid that
word. |
| 6:18p |
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| 6:18p |
Book of Revelation divides Bible
The Book of Revelation divides the Bible (and Christians) between an idea
of a god that is love and an idea of a god that is hate. Evangelicals mostly
worship hate. |
| 6:18p |
Closing of coal plant in Ohio
The closure of a coal plant in Ohio led to an immediate reduction in
hospital visits for heart problems and strokes in the vicinity, and
health continued to improve during subsequent years. |
| 6:18p |
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| 10:03p |
Inuit coastal zone
Inuit on the Arctic coast of Canada are managing a protected coastal zone.
That is a useful thing to do: it will delay regional damage from
global heating, giving humanity somewhat more time to carry out the
long-term global fix: to greatly reduce greenhouse emissions.
However, the article's headline seems to have been written by someone
inclined to formulate issues in terms of racial conflict: "The Inuit
plan to reclaim their sea."
It is a mistake to describe the Inuit as "the Arctic's first people";
archaeology shows that they spread across the Arctic less than 1000
years ago, replacing an unrelated people we call the Dorset culture.
Was that an instance of colonization? We can't judge that question,
since we don't know how or why the replacement took place. But this
lack of knowledge is enough to show that we shouldn't model the past
based on the roles various groups have played in recent history. |
| 10:03p |
Putin's murder habit
Putin has a protracted habit of murdering his enemies, rivals, and critics.
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| 10:03p |
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| 10:03p |
Federal Reserve ignoring recession risks
The head of the Federal Reserve intends to keep pursuing inflation to
the ends of the earth, and never mind the risk of causing a recession.
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