by Charles Oliver, The reasonMay 10, 2024.
Quote:
A German court has ruled that robots in a supermarket in Tegut must be taken out on Sundays, just like human workers. Under German law, retail stores must be closed on Sundays and Christian holidays to give workers a day off. Tegut reached that goal by automating its stores, and it gets 25-30 percent of its sales on Sunday. A union representing retail workers has filed a petition to force stores to close on Sundays, saying it fears the company’s success could undermine support for state laws.
My comment: A good reminder of the many ways the United States is this is not the case please.
by Alex Tabarrok, The Marginal RevolutionMay 14, 2024.
Quote:
Alec Stapp points out that Canada is the only NATO country that has a free trade agreement with the United States. That’s amazing when you think about it. NATO allies are bound by mutual defense obligations, support for military cooperation, and commitment to democratic principles. Despite these shared commitments, the US still applies tariffs and quotas to our NATO allies including France, Germany, the UK, Denmark, Portugal, and Spain. This is like being married and not having a joint checking account. If they are good enough partners to commit to their defense, are NATO partners good enough to commit to free trade? (emphasis added)
by Doug Bandow, American ConservativeMay 9, 2024.
Quote:
Biden took office touting his commitment to human rights and his determination to turn MbS, as the prince is known, into a “pariah.” Now the administration is proposing to turn the US military into a modern Janissary corps, a bodyguard of thousands of royal officers who rule over their own people. It is past time to stop going to KSA.
Also:
For years American policy makers justified their determination in the Mideast by the importance of protecting Israel and importing oil. Israel, however, has become a regional military power, threatened more by mistreatment of the Palestinian people and bitter political struggles than by external aggression. The oil market is fragmented, and supply is limited mainly by American sanctions, which can be released or removed at any time. Terrorism is a perennial and catastrophic problem of US military intervention. Growing Chinese and Russian activity in the region is a diplomatic challenge, not a threat that warrants military commitment. Today, as my Cato Institute colleague Jon Hoffman explains, “Washington’s needs in the region” on issues that are often central to Saudi relations, particularly oil, stability, and terrorism, are “limited and easy to achieve.”
Any support for Riyadh is hard to justify. Saudi Arabia is one of the worst dictatorships in the world. According to Freedom House, the Kingdom is more oppressive than Russia, China, and Iran: “Saudi Arabia’s absolute monarchy restricts almost all political rights and civil liberties. There are no elected officials at the national level. The regime relies on widespread surveillance, criminalization of the opposition, sectarian and ethnic incitement, and public spending supported by oil revenues to maintain power.” MbS’s discomfort was highlighted by the brutal killing and dismemberment of journalist critic Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey. More than five years later, the official cover-up continues.
by Anonymous, Foundation Against Intolerance and Discrimination, May 15, 2024.
Quote:
Traditional cataloging practice requires the cataloger to describe the book as accurately as possible; there are even specific guidelines reminding catalogers not to choose subject headings (those subject descriptions with a link to the database) based on their own values and beliefs. One of the first questions I was asked in my hiring interview was to confirm that I would agree to do a catalog, which I personally found annoying. After all, libraries—and, by extension, advertisers—should be guardians of free speech and intellectual freedom. We don’t know who will be looking for materials and for what purpose, so we have to be fair, accurate, and objective in order to make information readily available. But it seems that now the main function of the catalog is to protect patrons from damage that can be caused by records (even materials!).
In the interviews I mentioned above, the fellow catalog editors were unequivocally saying that certain marginalized groups should decide how the book should be written. If a cataloger who is a member of a marginalized social group believes that the book in question is dangerous or offensive, they have every right to add a note to the catalog stating their beliefs. So now we have four books in the international catalog (used by libraries all over the world) labeled “Transphobic works”. Several books criticizing the current model of gender-affirmation care now bear the title “Transphobia”. These books are not about transphobia, so the title is probably used as a way to warn the record reader (and possibly the librarian choosing which books to order from the library) that these are “bad books” and shouldn’t be. read or purchased.
by Jacob Sullum, The reasonMay 15, 2024.
Quote:
“This was a planned, systematic, long-term conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal spending, to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior,” lead prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said earlier. of Trump’s impeachment trial last month. “It was election fraud, pure and simple.”
Contrary to Colangelo’s pitch, there is nothing “pure and simple” about the case against Trump. First, Trump not charged with “conspiracy” or “election fraud.” He was charged with violating New York’s law of “falsifying business records” with “intent to defraud.”
by James Broughel, The reasonMay 15, 2024.
Quote:
Nuclear power could be a game changer in energy procurement, grid reliability, and carbon reduction. However, it has been imprisoned for decades based on one deeply flawed scientific model: the linear no threshold (LNT) model. The theory underlying this model suggests that any exposure to ionizing radiation, no matter how small, increases cancer risks and that risks increase in direct proportion to exposure levels. It’s not fair.
The roots of the LNT’s dominance are more political than scientific. Its influence dates back to Hermann Muller, geneticist and 1946 Nobel Prize winner. Muller’s research in the 1920s and ’30s showed that radiation caused mutations in fruit flies, without a safe limit. He became an ardent evangelist of the idea that even small doses of radiation could cause similar paralysis.
However, it appears that Muller may have deliberately misled his followers. For example, Muller lied in his Nobel acceptance speech in 1946 and said there was “no escape” from the conclusion that any radiation is harmful, despite being aware of evidence to the contrary.
Source link