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Richard Stallman
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This is the Mastodon account for Richard Stallman. I founded GNU & the @fsf and with them launched the Free Software Movement. Please join or donate to the FSF: https://www.fsf.org I use this account to mirror the political notes from my web site, stallman.org. Read my linking policy: https://stallman.org/linkpolicy.html The views expressed here, as in stallman.org, are my personal views, not those of the Free Software Foundation or the GNU Project. #FSF #GNU #FreeSoftware
Richard Stallman's avatar
Richard Stallman 2 years ago
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:
Daily Kos
Poll gives shocking new data about the cult of Trump
Cults work hard to turn their adherents against family, friends, and anything from the outside that might snap them back to reality. In Scientology...
 Interestingly, almost 1/3 of them don't trust the bullshitter either, but they are more likely to trust him that trust anyone else.
Richard Stallman's avatar
Richard Stallman 2 years ago
Low levels of sea ice around Antarctica killed most of the emperor penguin chicks, in a large part of that continent. They can't survive if the sea ice melts:
the Guardian
Emperor penguins: thousands of chicks in Antarctica die due to record-low sea ice levels
Breeding failures in the Bellingshausen Sea ‘without precedent’ as multiple colonies across large region all fail in a single season
 As global heating eliminates sea ice, it may eliminate emperor penguins too. To save them - and to save ourselves - we need to curb global heating.
Richard Stallman's avatar
Richard Stallman 2 years ago
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner, is reported to have been on a small plane that crashed, or (some say) was shot down by the Russian army:
the Guardian
Yevgeny Prigozhin onboard plane in fatal crash, says Russia
Officials say Wagner chief behind June mutiny was on jet that crashed in Tver region, killing all 10 onboard
 I wouldn't take any of this as certain. But if Prigozhin is alive but in hiding for the long term, he won't be able to run Wagner effectively, so for most practical purposes it would be equivalent to his death. If Prigozhin was indeed killed by that crash, it means the end of Wagner too.
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Richard Stallman 2 years ago
Google's experimental "artificial intelligence" search was willing to answer about the "benefits of slavery" and offered a supposedly safe recipe for cooking "angel of death" mushrooms:
Gizmodo
'Benefits of Slavery:' Google's AI Search Gives Ridiculous and Wrong Answers
Google's AI-powered Search Generative Experience is happy to list the advantages of genocide and provide cooking instructions for poisonous mu...
 I think this demonstrates that it is using a language model, Many refer to then as "artificial intelligence", but that is a misuse of that term, since they don't actually understand the subjects they generate text about or what that text means.
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Richard Stallman 2 years ago
Andrew Malkinson was convicted of rape despite strong evidence he was not the rapist. It took the UK judicial system 17 years to conclude that this was wrong:
the Guardian
Rape, DNA and injustice: a timeline of the Andrew Malkinson case
After spending 17 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, the 57-year-old’s conviction was finally overturned last month
 Prosecutors had key DNA evidence 16 years before Andrew Malkinson cleared. What I see here is the effect of a presupposition of guilt, and later a presupposition that a court conviction can't have been wrong.
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Richard Stallman 2 years ago
[01/04] A vandal attacked a tree in Australia designated by indigenous people SST a "birthing tree":
the Guardian
Vandals damage Indigenous birthing tree sacred to Victoria’s Djab Wurrung people
Police investigate vandalism of tree that was set to be demolished for major road project before large protests in western Victoria
 They are fighting a plan to eliminate that tree to build a road which motorists consider necessary. In my view, the religious feelings and wishes of indigenous people should get the same level of consideration as the religious feelings and wishes of any other people, but not more. Regardless of which group, such feelings do not outweigh everything else in life. To...
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Richard Stallman 2 years ago
[01/04] Thugs in Colorado shot Sestinee Thompson dead as she tried to flee by car from a confrontation:
the Guardian
Family of pregnant woman fatally shot by Colorado police sue
Destinee Thompson’s family file wrongful death and excessive force lawsuit after mother mistaken for robbery suspect
 They knew she was not the robbery suspect they were searching for, but they wanted to grab her for completeness' sake. That was surely not urgent enough to justify the escalation. That Ms Thompson had children was irrelevant; that she was pregnant was irrelevant. Her right to life was as valid as yours or mine, no more and no less. Her actions, as described by...
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