| Time |
Event |
| 1:49a |
|
| 1:49a |
UK facial recognition database
UK ministers want to put everyone in the UK into a facial recognition
database that can be searched instantly.
This would be ideal for finding shoplifters, protesters, journalists,
whistleblowers, and anyone else the state wants to catch.
|
| 1:49a |
Student safety not improved by surveillance technology
*US student safety not improved by surveillance technology such as
cameras and facial recognition software, research shows.*
Keep in mind that many of the edtech "tools" that students and teachers
are compelled to use are also surveillance technology
even though surveillance is not their ostensible purpose.
(I suspect it is a substantial part of businesses' purpose
in selling those products and dis-services.)
Surveillance that is a "byproduct" is just as wrong as surveillance
"on purpose."
|
| 1:49a |
Renouncing US citizenship
Some Americans who want to renounce US citizenship are suing because the
government demands they pay over $2000 for the bureaucratic act.
To impose a fee for renouncing citizenship is, in effect, an attempt
to block renunciation, and that is unjust. The US government should
simply absorb any costs of the updating of records.
|
| 1:49a |
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| 1:49a |
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| 1:49a |
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| 1:49a |
The marketing of gambling
Comparing the marketing of gambling with the marketing of tobacco.
Both can get people hooked on habits that can can prove dangerous.
I am opposed to prohibition of tobacco, and opposed to prohibition of
gambling, but that doesn't mean we should allow them to be the object
of planned advertising and marketing.
|
| 1:49a |
Hollywood writers-studios contract
The Hollywood writers-studios contract has interesting rules to permit
some uses of large language models but not allow them to replace writers.
I hope that they give good results — but we still should not call
those models "AI", because whatever their output says you had better
not believe it is true.
Chatgpt is an injustice because it is software that is not released
for users, not even as an executable. So it is even more restrictive
than a nonfree program. We call that "Service as a Software
Substitute".
|
| 1:49a |
|
| 1:49a |
Correcting common myths about cancer
Correcting common myths about cancer.
As for homeopathy, that is such an absurd idea it can't possibly do anything.
It is quackery with dilutions of grandeur.
|
| 1:49a |
Monoculture tree plantations
Ecologists warn that monoculture tree plantations endanger native
wildlife while doing little good against global heating.
This is especially the case when the trees planted are an intrusive
species to begin with.
Negative consequences reported include drying out ecosystems, acidifying soils,
crowding out native plants and turbocharging wildfires.
|
| 1:49a |
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| 1:49a |
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| 1:49a |
Asylum claims by those crossing Channel
*[A study by the Refugee Council charity] suggests asylum claims by
three out of four crossing Channel [are valid and] would be granted.*
If this is correct, Tory claims that most are "economic migrants" are false.
Right-wing politicians often do this: they try to put the
disadvantaged in the wrong, and don't hesitate to do so falsely.
|
| 12:19p |
Near-Arctic melt
A poet visited Svalbard
and found that the retreat of the ice was so blatant that one couldn't miss it. |
| 12:19p |
Web-research pollution, Bing
*Untruths [that is, bullshit] spouted by chatbots ended up on the web — and Microsoft's Bing
search engine served them up
as facts.*
|
| 12:19p |
Chief thug suspended, KS
*Police chief who led raid of small Kansas newspaper
put on
suspension.*
|
| 12:19p |
Ad bleed, so clickbait attempts, X
Ex-Twitter now shows
ads that don't
identify themselves as ads, and don't say who is doing the advertising.
Musk seems determined to adopt for Ex-Twitter every nasty thing
that users have criticized web sites for.
|