Catherine Deneuve and other women condemn the current sexual "witch hunt", saying that people should not be punished for overtures such as tentatively putting a hand on someone's knee or stealing a kiss.

In other words, sexual invitation should not be automatically defined as sexual coercion.

Critics immediately condemned the signatories as "apologists for rape", but this misrepresents them totally.

An overture has to cross the line of usual behavior, or it doesn't function as an overture.

If you hope your overture will be accepted, you will try to make it in a way that will inspire "yes" rather than provoke "no". However, few are such masters of human relationships that they never mess up an overture; every overture is risky. The resulting anxiety can itself make you mess up. Thus, there has to be slack for people who go a little too far — a way to teach them more finesse and gentleness, rather than ruin their lives.

Overtures cannot go very far beyond the line. This is not a matter of intentions, it's a matter of actions. A stolen kiss, to be an acceptable overture, must not be pushy — meaning no pushing the tongue into someone's mouth. Calling groping an overture doesn't make it a legitimate overture — groping is an attack. As for masturbating in front of someone, the idea of that as an overture is ludicrous … except perhaps in an orgy.

Parts of New York City will end the jailing of people accused of misdemeanors.

This is not a law, just a policy decision by two current district attorneys.

Protests in Tunisia, against the poverty imposed by foreign banks, turned into riots.

In one city, protesters chased the thugs out of town and burned down their building.

I hope Tunisia can democratically choose a government firm enough to defy the banks. That's what it would need to do, to represent the people.

"The Tories’ obscene joke: shred the safety net, then toss people into it."

US plutocratists have gone even further: homeless Americans appear to number in the millions, though I can't find a figure now.

Reportedly the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities were published in this 2015 thesis.

I don't have the expertise or time to study it. Can someone tell me whether it really shows the same vulnerabilities, and whether it makes clear what they are?