| Time |
Event |
| 11:48a |
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| 11:48a |
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| 11:48a |
HAMAS success as result of planning
HAMAS succeeded (for some hours) with its attack on Oct 7 as a result
of discipline, attention, and planning at many levels.
What strikes me is that this resembles what I read about how Israel
won the Six-Day War. But it seems that Israel has ceased to pay
careful attention, and thus made itself vulnerable.
I suspect that this reflects a kind of contempt for Palestinians.
</li> |
| 11:48a |
Big firms reveal carbon emissions
*California to require big firms to reveal carbon emissions in first law of
its kind.*
This will apply to all large companies doing business in California,
so the whole US will get the benefit, and in many cases the rest of
the world as well.
</li> |
| 11:48a |
Congenital syphilis increase in US
Congenital syphilis in the US increased by a factor of 10 from 2012 to
2022. This measures the disorganization and inadequacy of the US
medical system, which fails to notice and treat these infections.
</li> |
| 11:48a |
Abortion rights defeated Republicans
Abortion rights were at stake in several state-level elections in the
US this week, and abortion rights defeated the Republicans in each
one.
Almost 60% of Americans support abortion rights, and that support is
firm. In 2024 ten or more states are likely to have votes about
abortion rights, and abortion rights will probably win each of them.
This could defeat the Republicans in their bid to establish a fascist
system in the US.
</li> |
| 11:48a |
Australia's subsidies to fossil fuels
Pacific Islands demand that Australia cease its subsidies to fossil
fuels.
They know these subsidies are working to inundate them (except for the
volcanoes),
</li> |
| 11:48a |
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| 11:48a |
Enlisting Ukrainian PoWs to fight against Ukraine
The Putin forces have proudly announced that they are enlisting
Ukrainian PoWs to fight against Ukraine.
There is no easy way to determine whether any part of this story is
true. Perhaps the Ukrainian PoWs were forced to agree to this.
Perhaps they are not really Ukrainian PoWs. Perhaps they are not
really Ukrainian. Perhaps they are not really soldiers. The only way
to find out what, if anything, in this claim is the truth is to get
other evidence.
</li> |
| 11:48a |
Google remote attestation system
Google says that it will use its remote attestation system ("Web
Environment Integrity") only in the most oppressive scenario: as DRM.
Making Google drop the rest of the plan is a tactical advance, but it
is not victory. Google still plans to prevent playing "embedded
video" through an application that users can trust. Why could users
trust that application? Precisely because Google could not trust it
to impose Google's control over the users.
As long as companies have a way to control whether we use applications
that we have modified, we are not safe! Our goal should be to
prohibit the sale or distribution of computer systems that allow
remote servers to do remote attestation of the software you choose to
run on your computer to talk to them with.
</li> |
| 11:48a |
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| 11:48a |
Japan continues catching whales
Japan continues catching whales, even though one of the targeted species
seems to have decreasing population.
A Japanese friend speculates that Japanese whaling is subsidized somehow,
since not many people seem to buy whale meat.
</li> |
| 11:48a |
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| 11:48a |
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| 11:48a |
Apple's objection to Jon Stewart
Apple reportedly had objections to what Jon Stewart said in his video
program — it canceled the show after he had criticized China, and something the article describes as "AI".
(It could be that what he criticized was actually large language
models, which may be an important issue but are not "intelligence".)
We should protect the media from censorship by commercial interests by
not allowing companies that make or sell other products to be involved
in the business of making or distributing audio or video programs.
I expect that Apple does much worse things than this in its distribution
of video programs. For instance, I suspect it requires viewers to
run nonfree software with DRM, compels them to identify themselves,
and imposes an immoral "antisocializing" contract where you promise
not to share a copy with anyone else.
(Not coincidentally, this resembles the bad things that commercial e-books do.)
My response to any disservice which asks me to accept of those forms
of mistreatment is to invite it to jump in the lake.
</li> |
| 11:48a |
Urgent: Freight electrification
US citizens: call on the White House to set a national strategy for freight
electrification alongside a strong heavy-duty vehicle rule.
If you have disabled the page's JavaScript, you may get a blank
response after signing. That does not mean anything is wrong; your
signature has probably been sent in properly. The blank screen has
text that is rendered invisible by CSS; if your browser gives you a
way to disable the CSS in the page (as Icecat does), that should make
the text appear.
</li> |
| 11:48a |
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| 11:48a |
Urgent: Pass Justice for All Act
US citizens: call on Congress to pass the Justice for All Act.
It would extend nondiscrimination law to cover sex, sexual orientation, gender
identity, and various characteristics linked with race or sex
If you phone, please spread the word!
Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
</li> |
| 11:48a |
Urgent: Clean economy must be unionized
US citizens: Insist that the clean economy must be unionized.
</li> |
| 11:48a |
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