the Guardian
Ukrainian naval drones strike two Russian oil tankers in Black Sea
Kyiv tries to pile pressure on Russia with attack on vessels on way to load up with oil for foreign markets
2022: March - June Political Notes
Richard Stallman
rms@mastodon-xyz.mostr.pub
npub1tp3f...e8qg
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
Ukraine used drone boats to attack two Russian oil tankers sailing empty to Novorossiysk to pick up an export cargo of oil. I suggested this method a few years ago.
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An experiment asks real developers to fix real bugs in real software, each day randomly asked to use a bullshit generator (LLM) or not to use it. They generally expected that their work would go faster using the LLM, but instead it slowed them down. Side issue: I am disappointed that this article promotes the amoral "open
Pivot to AI
AI coders think they’re 20% faster — but they’re actually 19% slower
Model Evaluation and Threat Research is an AI research charity that looks into the threat of AI agents! That sounds a bit AI doomsday cult, and the...
Why Open Source Misses the Point of Free Software - GNU Project -
Free Software Foundation
Glossary
the Guardian
Fears AI factcheckers on X could increase promotion of conspiracy theories
Former UK minister says platform, which will use AI to draft community notes, is ‘leaving it to bots to edit the news’
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/uks-co-op-to-halt-sourcing-from-countries-with-widespread-rights-abuses-including-israel/3613564
A nationwide British food co-op has decided to boycott exports from a list of countries, on account of their widespread human rights abuses: Afghanistan, Belarus, Central African Republic, North Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Iran, Israel, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Protesting Tesla is not terrorism
In response to Elon Musk taking a hatchet to the federal government, Americans are taking to the streets to protest Musk’s actions outside of Tes...
The Intercept
How Much Did Congress Make Off Market Turmoil and Why’re They Allowed to Make Anything at All?
Questions about who profited from Trump’s tariff flip-flop revived the push to ban members of Congress themselves from trading stocks.
the Guardian
‘We’re like sitting ducks’: the right’s ‘war on woke’ has a well-tested playbook to take down academics
The campaign against Claudine Gay, Harvard’s first Black president, has become a blueprint increasingly wielded against women and scholars of color
Glossary
Prohibit Members of Congress from Owning Stocks
It’s time to put an end to members of Congress using their positions of power for personal financial gain. Despite the STOCK Act of 2012, which w...
The New Civil Rights Movement
'People Are Really Angry': Fury Over Musk and DOGE Triggers Spike in Calls to Congress
Members of Congress say they are being flooded with calls from angry constituents about President Donald Trump’s Director of the Department o...
US citizens: phone your congresscritter and senators and call on them to protect FEMA from plans to abolish it or greatly cut its funding. Climatic disasters are increasing, and will continue to increase as long as we keep increasing greenhouse gases in the air. FEMA will need more funding than it needs now. If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
The Conversation
I’m a neuroscientist who taught rats to drive − their joy suggests how anticipating fun can enrich human life
Equipped with a rodent version of a Cybertruck, these driving rats reveal that positive experiences may sculpt the brain just as powerfully as str...
the Guardian
Big tech is picking apart European democracy, but there is a solution: switch off its algorithms | Johnny Ryan
The latest actions of Musk and Zuckerberg are a sign of things to come, but the EU already has the power to give people back control, says Johnny R...
Richard Stallman will give a talk in Montpellier, France Jan 20 at 18:30 Location: Salle du Conseil de l'Hotel de la Métropole, à Montpellier. Language: En français Streaming: if this is arranged, a URL will be posted here. If you arrange a libre streaming URL for the talk by Monday, please email it to stallman-org@gnu.org. They can post it.
the Guardian
Ladders, noodle stations and K-pop: how the arrest of South Korea’s president unfolded
Police came better prepared than for their first attempt two weeks ago while supporters on both sides of the political divide came out to protest
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Roman mining activities put a substantial amount of lead into the air, which shows up in Arctic ice cores. This could have reduced the average IQ by up to 3 points. That decrease could have had an effect on society overall. If this atmospheric lead arrived in the Arctic, it may have arrived in Asia and North America too. So the effect could have reached there too.
the Guardian
Roman Empire’s use of lead lowered IQ levels across Europe, study finds
Widespread use of metal caused estimated 2- to 3-point drop in IQ for nearly 180 years of Pax Romana
Glossary
the Guardian
The normalizers are exuding calm – but Trump 2.0 is anything but normal
Trump’s repeated threats to US allies mark a new and alarming departure, indicating he’ll top his first term by going more extreme
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In January 2025, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook and Instagram will replace fact-checking with a system of not-really-checking similar to what ex-Twitter does. The
the Guardian
Why did Mark Zuckerberg end Facebook and Instagram’s factchecking program?
The social media giant enters a more partisan political era as its CEO pursues Donald Trump’s approval
Glossary
The Intercept
Facebook Fact Checks Were Never Going to Save Us. They Just Made Liberals Feel Better.
Billionaires gonna billionaire — and lick the boots of whoever will bring them more riches and impunity.
Glossary
Reasons not to use (i.e., be used by) Facebook
the Guardian
AI tools may soon manipulate people’s online decision-making, say researchers
Study predicts an ‘intention economy’ where companies bid for accurate predictions of human behaviour
Save PBS from GOP budget cuts
President-elect Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, and Elon Musk are escalating their war on public media – threatening to slash funding for our Public...
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https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/4992787-trump-deportation-plan-immigration/
How the bully plans to strip the citizenship from naturalized citizens, even over minor harmless errors, with a funded program to de-naturalize as many people as possible. The program would be led by people have absorbed the right-wing ideology of dehumanizing hatred for immigrants. If the people targeted can't afford a lawyer, they could easily be punished by
Glossary