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Richard Stallman's Political Notes

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Children with ADHD

vendredi 14 août 2015 à 02:00

Children with ADHD often face harsh discipline in school, from teachers that don't understand their problem. Being handcuffed is not so unusual.

The FCC authorized phone companies to replace copper wires with fiberoptics.

The backup power systems offered, which customers have to pay for specifically, would last only a limited time.

It is not clear to me whether those backup power systems would be located in the subscriber's premises. If they are, it might be easy to replace the batteries in them yourself.

US medical privacy laws

vendredi 14 août 2015 à 02:00

Laws about privacy of medical records in the US are thoroughly inadequate.

It is a shame that the article uses the word "hacker" to mean "security breaker". To avoid giving us hackers a bad name, please use the word "cracker" when you mean "security breaker".

I think the central registers of drug prescriptions are a violation of patients' rights.

Data collected by medical devices should belong to the patient that uses them, and the devices should be designed to facilitate access via published APIs and not to send them to the manufacturer.

The software in the devices should be free, of course.

Truce with al Nusra

vendredi 14 août 2015 à 02:00

Division 30, the US-supported Syrian rebel group, declared a truce with al Nusra (a branch of al Qa'ida) after facing hard attacks from that group.

It is bizarre to refer to capturing an enemy soldier as "kidnapping". It is called "taking a prisoner". Al Nusra ought to treat these captives according to the laws of war, but I don't have much confidence in its ethical principles.

Division 30 was effectively compelled to do this, because it is too weak to do otherwise. The US has only managed to train around 50 rebels, and success would require thousands. I take this as further confirmation that this approach is simply futile.

A few years ago, I said that there was no effective way to intervene in Syria that would make things any better. All the sides were bad.

The situation has changed since then. PISSI (*) is worse than Assad, and we can support the revolutionary Kurds of Syria without shame (we need not suppose they are flawless). They welcome non-Kurds that accept their secular and egalitarian society.

The US should support the revolutionary Kurds of Syria vigorously.

* The Pseudo-Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Urgent: compensate workers in India

vendredi 14 août 2015 à 02:00

Everyone: call on Unilever to compensate its poisoned ex-workers in India.

Urgent: support nuclear deal with Iran

vendredi 14 août 2015 à 02:00

US citizens: call on Senator Schumer to support the nuclear deal with Iran.

I'm richer than you! infinity loop