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Richard Stallman's Political Notes

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Brain injuries from football

mercredi 14 août 2019 à 02:00

A study of college football players' brain scans found most of them showed signs of brain injury after just one season.

I think schools should not promote football.

China offers surveillance

mercredi 14 août 2019 à 02:00

China now offers any would-be totalitarian state the technology to watch and control everyone.

Mobile robots with face recognition now spread state control on streets.

China invites users of social media to act as stool pigeons in case any dissent goes unnoticed by the professional monitors and AI.

Sanders and Biden beats the bullshitter

mercredi 14 août 2019 à 02:00

In opinion polls, Sanders beats the bullshitter by the same margin as Biden.

So they are equally electable. However, Sanders would make a dent in plutocracy, while Biden would protect it.

US pharma system's design

mercredi 14 août 2019 à 02:00

The US pharma system was designed so that the public pays for the research, and the profits go to rich owners. It was set up this way by a scheme advised by right-wing economists and carried out by business lobbyists.

More recently, private equity companies have taken over many pharma companies and drive the gouging.

Pharma is one of the areas where patents do special harm.

It is unfortunate that the article occasionally says "IP" when it means patents. This encourages the confusion that the bogus overgeneralization "intellectual property" embodies.

The article suggests using compulsory licenses to knock down these patents when they endanger the public. I'm entirely in favor of that, but I think we need to cure the disease, not just treat the symptoms. The cure I recommend is to take the testing of drugs out of the hands of drug manufacturers, thus eliminating their argument for artificial monopolies, and turn them into generic manufacturers.

Domestic terrorism

mercredi 14 août 2019 à 02:00

The FBI Told Congress Domestic Terror Investigations Led to 90 Recent Arrests. It Wouldn’t Show Us Records of Even One.