Tuesday, January 9th, 2024

Time	Event
7:48p	DRM An organization that represent DRM interests is suing security researchers, claiming that investigating their technology is copyright infringement. This is part of the general tendency to make copyright more and more oppressive. The article's use of the propaganda term "intellectual property" incorporates that tendency. (Comment on this)
7:48p	Energy charter treaty An oil company is trying to use the Energy Charter Treaty to eliminate the EU's windfall profitstax. The Energy Charter Treaty will kill millions of people if we let it. Even war could be justified if it's necessary in order to eliminate that treaty. But perhaps the threat of trade sanctions could suffice. (Comment on this)
7:48p	Moon resources could be destroyed Astronomers call for care in deciding where on the moon spacecraft should land, lest they damage things or sites that should be saved for more important uses, or use up scarce resources. (Comment on this)
7:48p	The insurrectionist The insurrectionist said that if he captures the Presidency this year he will pardon the people who participated three years ago in the insurrection he launched. He is the enemy of democracy in the US and intends to destroy it. The five truths [he] hopes you will forget about 6 January 2021. He is a narcissist, and he gets pleasure when anyone says his name. I've decided not to give him any that pleasure. That's the first step in fighting him -- but not the last, or course. (Comment on this)
7:48p	DNA profiling China is using DNA profiling to help monitor Tibetans in Tibet. A US company was selling the suppression forces DNA identification kits which it was using to do this. It has ceased to sell them there. It's obligatory to cease the sales, but that won't end the repression. I wonder if Tibetans living in territory that China annexed around 1960, which is ostensibly not Tibet, are repressed as much as Tibetans living in the regions still called Tibet. (Comment on this)
7:48p	Urgent: Supreme Court code of ethics US citizens: call on Congress to give us an enforceable Supreme Court code of ethics. (Comment on this)
7:48p	Solar cells Production of solar cells and efficient modern storage batteries are growing enormously. Perhaps we can beat greenhouse gas emissions that way. Aside from generation of electricity, we must decarbonize other causes of global heating, including transportation that uses fossil fuel, and agriculture (including deforestation). (Comment on this)
7:48p	Institutionally racist *Head of Britain's association of police chiefs says the police departments there are "institutionally racist."* That they acknowledge this is a step forward, but the thing is to change that. (Comment on this)
7:48p	Artificial intelligence threats *Artificial intelligence could supercharge threats to civil liberties, civil rights, and privacy.* *Programs aimed at "situational awareness," like those run by many parts of DHS or police departments preparing for public events, tend to have few safeguards. They often veer into monitoring social and political movements,* When the authors say "Artificial Intelligence," that includes degenerative systems such as bullshit generators. Spying uses them to converse with people, pretending to be human beings. (Comment on this)
7:48p	Israel says they need additional year of fighting Israel still claims it will totally eliminate HAMAS and free the hostages it took, saying that this will require an additional year of fighting. I don't think it is possible to achieve both of those goals -- they are essentially incompatible. Also, I wonder what fraction of the Palestinian population of Gaza could remain alive after such fighting, with the deadly hunger and thirst which Israel imposes there. I expect it would be much less than 50%. At some point soon, the US must say to Netanyahu, "We can't let you go on this way." (Comment on this)
7:48p	Tory power grabs *The reason for these cynical [Tory] power grabs: the weaker the Tories become, the stronger they need to appear.* (Comment on this)
7:48p	SUV pollution Emissions from the motor sector could have fallen by more than 30% between 2010 and 2022 if vehicles had stayed the same size,* if people had not switched to buying SUVs instead of regular size cars. (Comment on this)

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