The Republicans pivoted towards a policy of "reopen business fast" in the same week when it became news that Covid-19 was disproportionally killing minority racial groups. Was this just a coincidence? Is it a coincidence also that Georgia's governor, Kemp, is stopping Atlanta from requiring face masks?

Reportedly Republicans want to punish school systems that don't physically reopen.

US citizens: Join Reporters Without Borders in calling on the UK not to extradite Julian Assange.

I could sign this, and I can post this, because I discovered recently that Reporters Without Borders changed its web site and it now works to sign that organization's petitions without running nonfree Javaascript code. I thank Reporters Without Borders for making this work.

There are several other organizations whose causes I support (at least usually), but whose petitions I cannot sign because they require nonfree Javaascript code: afsc.org, amazonwatch.org, change.org, coworker.org, defenders.org, democracyforamerica.com, earthjustice.org, freepress.net, moveon.org, pen.org, populationconnectionaction.org, publiccitizen.org, ran.org, splcenter.org, sumofus.org.

In addition, freedomunited.org appears to succeed but sends no confirmation, so I think it ignores signatures.

If you can convince any of those organizations to fix their sites so people can sign without running Javascript code, I would appreciate it, and it would help the free software cause too.

Or, alternatively, if you can publish a free Firefox extension that substitutes for the nonfree Javascript code which LibreJS blocks, that too would make signing possible.

A tanker full of oil has been sitting near Hodeida since 2015, and has decayed to the point where it can't be repaired and will surely spill its cargo. That will poison life in the Red Sea, perhaps the whole of it.

The sensible thing to do would be to pump the oil into other ships and take it away. But the Houthis will not let the UN try.

What, I wonder, is their motive; what do they demand? Surely they don't want to poison the Red Sea — they live near it and must depend on fishing in it.

200 Democratic Convention delegates called for cutting aid to Israel if it goes ahead with Netanyahu's intention to annex part of Palestine. I don't think those 200 are a majority, but they are enough to be significant.

By analying skeletons from ancient Egypt, archeologists have discovered that the Hyksos, a group that ruled Egypt for a century, consisted of people who had arrived from various places in the Near East, over a period of time.

We could do similar studies on the territory of the United States if it were not for the NAGPRA law, which required reburying the collections of skeletons.

A corpse can serve two good purposes: organ transplantation and science. It is a shame to waste it. At least I have made sure — or as sure as is possible — that my corpse won't be wasted after I die.