Background to the coup in Sudan. coup in Sudan.

Discounting the value of your own future earnings is economically rational. But when this is applied to economic models of the future of civilization, it has the effect of discounting future generations down to insignificance.

It is valid to discount our own future income, but it is not valid to discount someone else's future income as if it were going to be yours.

Alabama Republicans have made it illegal for schools to teach that any illegal action is a legitimate option.

If interpreted in an evenhanded way, this excudes the American Revolution from the curriculum, not to mention the civil rights movement. I expect Republicans to apply the law selectively.

Proper judges would declare it unconstitutional, not because of the specifics but rather on general principes, but we cannot count on today's judges to defend academic freedom.

A Tennessee Republican state senator, who is one of ALEC's leaders , has been charged with violating campaign finance laws.

Facebook says it will build a "metaverse". (Or is that "made it worse"?) That buzzword is not very precise about its meaning, so if something does get built, we concretely know hardly anything about what it might do.

What rhymes with "meta"? "Data". That's what Facebook wants, and that's what we should refuse to give it. Don't be a zucker!

I won't prejudge it just because Facebook is doing it, but we must suspect it will mistreat its users. We should pose these questions about it:

• Do we get to control our actions and perceptions through free software?
• Can we be free from surveillance?
• Can we stop it from manipulating us?