Attempting to predict political collapse from big data.

That dooH niboR and the poverty it causes leads to political collapse is a truism. That idea of "overproduction of potential elites" as a major factor is less obvious, but over the years I've seen reference to large numbers of unemployed university graduates cited as a factor in civil unrest.

Since this theory is based on mathematical modelling, ultimately it will succeed or fail like any scientific theory.

On Wednesday, June 7th, RMS will give a talk, "Working for the public — universities, software and freedom" in Pisa at Aula multimediale.

The talk will include Richard Stallman as the speaker, and Marco Calamari (Progetto Winston Smith), Maria Chiara Pievatolo (Universitá di Pisa), and Francesco Potorti (CNR) as discussants.

On the situation of Moldova, just to the west of Ukraine.

PayPal is being rebuked for bias against Palestinians. It does business with Israelis in the occupied Palestinian territory, but refuses to do business with Palestinians there.

PayPal refuses to do business with any clients in a way that respects their freedom: to order, one must run nonfree software. No thanks, PayPal!

* As many as 14 million Syrians face a near insurmountable barrier to returning to their homes after [Assad's] government passed laws giving the state power to seize their land and property.*