New York City is about to introduce municipal rental scooters that will track whoever uses them.

Don't be distracted by the side issue of rules for access to this tracking data. Whatever rules New York City adopts, the FBI won't be required to heed them. It will be empowered to collect the whole data base at will -- once a month, or once a minute.

Making systems respect privacy means designing them not to _collect_ sensitive data (such as locations) about people without a specific justification validated by a court.

I would not use these scooters unless I could use them anonymously. Likewise, I would not use Uber unless I could use them anonymously.

A thousand covidiots were joyfully infecting each other in Boulder, Colorado, when cops tried to make them stop.

I don't know whether the cops acted like thugs -- one can never presume they did not -- but some of the covidiots did.

The location outdoors would have tended to interfere with transmitting virus, but with no masks and no distancing, they could have done it anyway.

Ethiopia's violent suppression of Tigray has triggered guerrilla resistance.

This could continue for years.

India has arrested Rohingya refugees and threatens to deport them to Burma, where they might be killed.

Forests and wetlands are more useful for humanity if preserved as they are than if they were converted to other uses.