Notices by Richard Stallman (rms@mastodon.xyz)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/08/harris-medicare-long-term-home-care

*Harris announces plan for Medicare to cover long-term care at home.* This would be a big help for partially or completely disabled Americans, and not just those 65 years old or older.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/08/temperatures-1-point-5c-above-pre-industrial-era-average-for-12-months-data-shows

*Temperatures 1.5°C above pre-industrial era average for 12 months, data shows. Copernicus Climate Change Service says results a ‘large and continuing shift’ in the climate.*

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/23/police-officer-killing-deathsk

Why police killings like that of George Floyd get labeled "accidents", according to a forensic pathologist.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01051-2
https://gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#ArtificialIntelligence

There is evidence that peer reviewers are using bullshit generators (chatbots) to generate evaluations of submitted papers. Since those programs don't really understand the articles that are being reviewed, or the subject that those are about, this is asking for error. Please don't call those programs "AI"!

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/11/aid-still-not-reaching-gaza-as-top-us-official-warns-famine-has-started

Israel promised to allow more aid into Gaza, but it has not really done that. Famine has started. Israel said it would allow aid into Gaza from the north, but instead of doing this using the existing crossing, it has decided to build a new crossing first. That's as absurd as extinguishing a life-threatening urban fire by ordering a new fire engine and waiting for it …

[2/2] … to arrive. However, there seems to be other impediments to distributing aid inside Gaza once it gets across the border. Perhaps these are not directly Israel's doing, but they are consequences of Israel's actions. I can imagine that truck owners don't want to risk that their trucks be destroyed by Israeli drones, and drivers don't want to risk getting killed that way.

[1/4] https://progressive.org/latest/five-reasons-biden-should-drop-the-extradition-of-julian-assange-blum-20240327/
https://stallman.org/archives/2012-jul-oct.html#25_October_2012_(Is_execution_a_form_of_torture)

The US cannot assure Britain that that the First Amendment will apply to Julian Assange outside the US, because an old Supreme Court decision says it does not. This probably means that Assange's last appeal will proceed, and go on for a long time during the US election campaign. …

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/17/argentina-president-javier-milei-security-guidelines-protests-currency-devaluation

Argentina's new right-wing president is planning to repress protests cruelly.

I warned that the stretchable term "sexual assault", which extends from grave crimes such as rape through significant crimes such as groping and down to no clear lower bound, could be stretched to criminalize minor things, perhaps even stealing a kiss: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/06/jenni-hermoso-files-criminal-complaint-against-luis-rubiales-over-kiss Now this has happened. What next? Will a pat on the arm or a hug be criminalized? There is no clear limit to how far this can go, when a group builds up enough outrage to push it.

The main antisocial media companies are opening the gates to disinformation of all kinds, including Republican disinformation, Russian disinformation and Chinese disinformation: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/08/25/political-conspiracies-facebook-youtube-elon-musk/

Ex-Twitter is now firmly established as a fascist propaganda site: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/aug/25/trump-twitter-mugshot-truth-social