| Time |
Event |
| 5:16a |
The vagaries of anything centralized online
Depending on online disservices to make
your records or published works
available over time is asking to lose.
The only thing you can trust is to have your own copy on your own equipment,
and to keep multiple encrypted copies on various backup services that commit
to keep them for you unless a disaster happens.
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| 5:16a |
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| 5:16a |
Climate disruption adaptatives, AU
*Climate crisis to create
"acute" challenges
for Australia’s economy, incoming [Royal Bank of Australia] governor says.*
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| 5:16a |
Squalor tour, US$30, SF
A San Francisco
city commissioner organized a "doom loop"
tour to highlight the city's problems. It received a lot of media attention
so he felt compelled to cancel it, and then resign.
It turned out he is an executive in a real-estate company. Naturally
he would perceive civic issues in terms of profit in the real estate
market. Not the best sort of person to appoint to a municipal office
in a city where high rents are devastating low-wage workers, as ell
as many niche businesses that would employ them. San Francisco
has a real housing crisis and saying things are just fine will not help.
San Francisco needs to find a way to let people use the abandoned
office buildings and stores as housing — fast! Even if it means
relaxing or substituting, for these conversions, some codes that apply
specifically to residential buildings. In this case, the perfect is
the enemy of the good.
|
| 5:16a |
DNA collection and use
The
FBI now holds 21 million
people's DNA profiles, and is rapidly collecting more.
This could be aiming, in the long term, for a collection covering all Americans.
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| 5:16a |
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| 5:16a |
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| 5:46a |
Sponsors that systemically brainwash the Uyghurs
Many UK universities and organizations are sponsored by, or buy from,
organizations participating in the systematic brainwashing of the
Uyghurs.
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| 5:46a |
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| 5:46a |
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| 5:46a |
Burning coal and tires to mine bitcoin
A bitcoin miner in Pennsylvania is controversially burning waste coal
and discarded tires to generate electricity. This pollutes the air
but cleans land. Is that practice wise or not?
It should be noted that only some kinds of cryptocurrency (notably
Bitcoin) use the "proof of work" method that entails using lots of
electric power. There are other methods.
If burning waste coal to generate electric power is acceptable, it
doesn't have to be used for cryptocurrency. It could replace other
forms of generation. Thus, the crucial question is whether that
method makes more/worse pollution or less/milder pollution. I don't
know enough to judge the answer to that. |
| 5:46a |
Republicans want to invade Mexico
Republicans in Congress are pushing for the US to invade Mexico,
and want to pass laws to make this easy.
Biden won't do what they wish, but the ruiner would do it if he is
elected again. |
| 5:46a |
Global heating enabling spread of tropical tiger mosquitoes
Global heating is enabling formerly tropical tiger mosquitoes to spread into
northern Europe, bringing formerly tropical diseases with them.
When will we learn to defeat the plutocrats that lobby and
propagandize to make so many problems worse? |
| 5:46a |
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| 5:46a |
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| 5:46a |
Some environmentalists support nuclear power
Some environmentalists contend that building nuclear power plants
is useful for curbing global heating.
I think they have been taken in.
The article does not make it clear whether they are disputing about
existing nuclear reactors or building new one. But that distinction
is crucial.
A nuclear reactor takes many years to build and is very expensive. If
the aim is to curb global heating, that is an ineffective method.
A nuclear reactor is also vulnerable in wartime. It is, in effect, a
preexploded nuclear bomb, as regards fallout. Installing one more is
making extra vulnerability. At the end of its life, it will require
expensive and slow decommissioning.
However, for an existing reactor, the price of construction has
already been paid, the construction time has already elapsed, the
fallout is already there, and the cost of decommissioning is already
going to have to be paid. If you can ensure that the reactor is
maintained so that it won't fail, maybe it is better to keep it running.
The US has a history of letting flaws and damage slide. |
| 5:46a |
Venezuela punishing people with little evidence
Venezuela is accused of punishing people horribly based on only a hint of
evidence they were guilty of anything.
It is as bad when Maduro does this as it was when Dubya did this to
prisoners in black sites and Guantanamo, and in various massacres in
Iraq. |
| 12:01p |
Indigenous group in Australia wants pay for iron ore
An indigenous group in Australia demands payment for mining of dirt
that contains iron ore. Why? Because they consider it sacred
and feel very attached to it.
Nobody is entitled to more rights than others based on per religious
thoughts. Whatever per origin, whether indigenous or immigrant, and
no matter what religion person might practice, the answer has to be
the same: your religious ideas (if any) and practices (if lawful) are
your choice, but they don't entitle you to dominate others.
The decision ought to be based on other factors. What are they?
This case does not involve any ancient art that would be a treasure of
humanity's past and call for preservation.
But these factors clearly apply:
-
Whether the indigenous group owns that land (based on other reasons
than religion). If so, that must be respected. It seems that the
answer to this is "sort-of but not entirely."
-
The value of the iron ore to society.
-
Environmental protection. Mining that iron (like any other mining)
could do environmental damage. Often mining companies skip out on
compensating or cleaning up their damage. The local people
(regardless of their ethnicity or religion) are entitled to demand
compensation for that, or to block the mining to prevent that damage.
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