Obama's visit to the Ise shrine along with Japan's prime minister could support his efforts to use Shinto as a vehicle for nationalism.

Shinto is basically an unreformed ancient religion, comparable to ancient Greek paganism, which believes that kamis (powerful spirits such as gods) can be found everywhere in nature.

The last US political leader to support Shinto was Senator Joe McCarthy. He too believed that kamis could be found almost everywhere, including Hollywood and the US State Department ;-}.

Poland's right-wing government has begun its plan to cut down a large part of the Bialowieza forest.

If a fanatical or extractivist government gets just one turn at power, it can destroy things that can never be replaced. Forests are especially vulnerable to this. Perhaps destruction of natural forests or wetlands should be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court.

The municipal government of Rome is begging companies to donate to preserve ancient monuments.

This is what happens when companies don't pay enough taxes for the state to do its job.

A method for commercial monitoring and manipulation of millions of people: profiling their way of thinking from their facial expressions in Youtube videos.

Meanwhile, states are planning to try to figure out people's feelings and thoughts from watching them with computer programs.

Microsoft continues more or less forcing "upgrades" to Windows 10 onto users that don't want the change.

That this is even possible shows how much unjust power Microsoft exercises over its users. How slow they are, most of them, to recognize that the problem is pervasive in Windows and this is just the culmination of decades of it.