Algorithms derived from "big data" can come to implement racial discrimination because the data reflect the results of discrimination.

The article takes a foolish, naive attitude to companies that collect data about people, in effect believing their claims that they use it only to "serve you better", and neglecting the danger that it becomes available to others such as crackers and Big Brother. But even though they ignore the principal injustices of collecting data about you, their point about another injustice in the use of the data is important.

A Muslim scholar defends the freedom of speech of a Christian preacher who is being prosecuted — in the UK — for saying Islam is "Satanic".

Islam has bad aspects, like Christianity and other major religions, but I would not apply the term "Satanic" to it. Nonetheless, I defend other people's right to do that.

Ted Cruz bases his global heating denialism on simple, clear lies. Then he attacks the complex solution of regulation, ignoring the market-based simple solution, a carbon tax.

A school in California told a boy to cover up his Star Wars t-shirt because it showed a fictional character holding a gun.

It may be a reasonable policy to exclude symbols of violence from the classroom, not because someone else was shot, but rather to avoid promoting militarism. It could also be a wise policy to prohibit shirts with commercial advertising, which this was.

Note that they did not punish the boy. US schools punish students for absurd reasons, even get them jailed, and that is a very harmful practice; but it did not happen in this case.

3/4 of Britain's butterfly species have declined, some very much, in the last 40 years. This indicates that many other insect species, less beloved by humans, have probably declined too — adding up to an ecological calamity.