Billionaires want to control everything

Cory Doctorow explains that in the face of protests from internet freedom advocates, the move to give control of the .org domain name registry to a billionaire owned private equity fund has been halted, for the moment at least.

Here’s what’s happened: first, ICANN (the legendarily opaque US corporation that runs the internet’s Domain Name System) approved a change in pricing for .ORG domains, run by the nonprofit Internet Society (ISOC) through its Public Interest Registry (PIR), allowing the registry to raise prices. The change was done entirely by staff, without board approval.

Next, several of the people involved in that decision migrate from ICANN to ISOC or to a brand-new private equity fund called Ethos Capital, whose major investors are three families of Republican billionaires: the Romneys, the Perots and the Johnsons.

Ethos then buys the Public Interest Registry from ISOC for a little over a billion dollars — about a billion dollars less than it’s likely worth — and makes a nonbinding pledge to limit its price increases to 10%, compounded annually (!!) and starts a PR campaign to argue that this is very reasonable (however, none of the defenders of this practice are willing to refinance their mortgages on these “reasonable” terms, nor to offer bonds for sale at that rate).
…

The self-dealing and corruption on display are so revolting and undeniable that the news spreads and spreads, and becomes part of the wider critique of the monopolization of the internet and the devastating tactics of private equity firms.

Doctorow says that it will take sustained and concerted action by internet activists and lawmakers to shut this move down permanently.

Scottish National Party seeks referendum on Scottish independence from the UK

While the UK general election saw a huge win for the Conservatives and was seen as driven by a desire to leave the EU, it also saw the Scottish National Party win big in Scotland, winning 48 seats of the 59 seats in Scotland, up from 35 seats in the previous parliament but less than the high of 56 they won in 2015. The Conservative vote totals in Scotland decreased by 3.5% and the party lost seven seats, going down to just six. This widens the split between Scotland and the rest of the UK. It should be remembered that Scotland voted against Brexit in 2016 and the new results have fueled moves to have another referendum on Scottish independence so that if it passes, they can rejoin the EU. The last independence referendum lost by a margin of 45-55% in 2014.
[Read more…]

Why Scientists Should Be Atheists revisited

My Oxford University Press blog post on Why Scientists Should Be Atheists generated an interesting discussion in the comments of my blog post here that linked to it. One issue that was raised was my use of the word ‘should’ and why I was singling out scientists with that imperative. Why should scientists apply the same standards they use in science to everything in life? Of course, no one can be forced to do so and people can (and do) compartmentalize their thinking to enable them to be scientists by day and believers in all manner of supernatural entities by night (so to speak).
[Read more…]

The rising Asian-American presence in US politics

In a recent episode of his show Patriot Act, Hasan Minhaj looked at the increased role that Asian-Americans are playing in US politics along with their rise in numbers, and that this demographic has been a key factor in changing some congressional districts from Republican to Democratic and that they could play a significant role in the 2020 elections. He says that Andrew Yang’s candidacy is one sign of this. He also talked with Cory Booker who has apparently had a lot of success reaching out to the Asian-American bloc.

But against this is the fact that their views are not homogeneous and indeed a large number of Indian-Americans have supported the Modi-Trump rightwing nationalistic program. One thing that surprised me was Minhaj pointing out that Asian-Americans tend to be below average in voter registration and actual voting.

Minhaj also traced the history of immigration laws such as the notorious Chinese exclusion act of 1882 and the 1924 law that largely shut down immigration from non-white countries before it was changed in 1965 following passage of the Civil Rights Act.

You can see the full show.

Curious understanding of the word ‘divisive’

The Hallmark TV channel, that has become synonymous with bland programming and anodyne content, had shown an ad from a wedding planning company called Zola that features a lesbian couple briefly kissing at the altar on their wedding day. This of course caused anti-gay bigots to get the vapors and an obscure conservative group called One Million Moms, part of the American Family Association, contacted the Hallmark CEO to complain and the company pulled four Zola ads that featured same-sex couples but not two that did not.
[Read more…]

What to expect from right-wingers after the Labour defeat

It is clear that the right wing and the Democratic party establishment in the US in the form of right-wingers Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg and pretty much the entire media establishment will seize on the UK election results to argue that progressive policies have no future and that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren should not be the Democratic nominee. They will also likely seize upon the tactics that the right wing used in the UK and try to smear at least Sanders with the idea that he coddles anti-Semites. Although that would require real contortions since he is the first Jewish candidate with a fighting chance of becoming president, we have seen that this will not stop the rabid right from attempting it. The process has already started with people trawling to find anything that can be used against him.
[Read more…]

The carbon bucket will soon overflow

A graphic from the Global Carbon Project vividly illustrates how close we are to a tipping point in climate change.

Doesn’t ICE have better things to do?

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (more commonly known by its acronym ICE) has been at the center of the controversies over the inhumane treatment of immigrants with their policies or separating families and keeping children in extremely cold cages with little food or sanitation facilities and required to sleep on concrete floors with thin blankets.

But they spread their cruelty widely and the Detroit Free Press reports on an elaborate scheme in which they set up an entirely phony university to entice students, some of whom were in the US legally, to enroll in them and then used that to deport them.
[Read more…]

What is the benefit of remote starting cars?

I came across this tragic item of a person who was killed when a car that had been remotely started moved.

A New York man has died after being crushed by an empty car accidentally started by remote control.

Michael Kosanovich, 21, had been standing between two parked 2002 Lexus IS300s, on 6 December, when one of them had been started remotely by its owner, police said.

The car rolled forward and he was pinned between the two vehicles.

Bystanders tried to push them apart but as they did so, the car rolled forward and crushed him again.

Mr Kosanovich was taken to hospital with severe trauma to his torso and legs, according to the New York Police Department (NYPD). He died of his injuries on 7 December.

The NYPD said Mr Kosanovich had been inspecting one of the vehicles at the time of the accident, intending to buy it.

[Read more…]