xoaArs Tribunus Angusticlaviuset Subscriptorreply2 days agoReader Favignore user
Wheels Of Confusion wrote:
Break Up Google.

No, this is stupid. The antitrust sledgehammer is a very bad choice vs actual decent consumer protection regulation. Merely having companies be smaller doesn't actually solve anything, lots of small companies are plenty nasty and that somebody can go elsewhere in theory doesn't necessarily make it any easier. In fact the "break them up so easy lol" meme is so dumb that it honestly has had me wondering if it got started as a false-flag by those opposed to any regulation at all, since it short circuits everything else. There are a lot of scalpels to try first that would be really valuable. Amongst them in no particular order (and not apply at all just to Google either):
Require read-only data access/export for a period of time. Services need to and should be able to refuse to do further business with somebody (and at scale given abuse, this necessarily requires some level of automation). But banning someone should not mean they lose any of their data, and it shouldn't require them to do any work in advance either. Unless it's due to a court order wrt illegal material, companies should be required to have a 6 month window say following a ban to allow someone to get everything. Making sure someone can get everything out would go a long way towards fixing effects and incentives.
Require paid access to a person with review powers. Human review is expensive, but if someone is willing to pay for it they should be able to get it.
Require purchase-time choice for hardware buyers to add their own certs to hardware and/or software roots. There are good reasons for App Stores and certified hardware chains and people should be able to roll with those if they want. But there are real risks too, and a legal requirement for an opt-out would be an easy requirement as a release valve.
Enshrine the notion of software ownership. Account bans and DRM should never result in the loss of purchased software, simple as that. Ongoing use of services sure, but only going forward.
No tying free OS/security updates to accounts. Doesn't need any explanation, no account should be required to receive free updates that are required for continuing functionality.
Basic warranties that match buyer expectations. The "lol 1 year but you can buy more" thing is bad. People have a rough expectation of "how long something should last" in proportion to its cost, and the price should internalize the failure rate and repair cost rather than externalize it onto an unlucky few. Maybe 1 month warranty per $20 retail up to 5 years, maybe some other formula, but while it should be up to manufacturers to figure out how to meet the goal of basic reliability, meet it they should. Lots of other issues are covered by this ("right to repair" which is a bad way). Extended warranties should only be for things like premium turnaround, enterprise level beyond EOL coverage, etc.
Spell out SLAs in standardized way, even for consumer level. Maybe the paid pro version has a 99.9% uptime guarantee and 12-hour response time etc, while in practice the consumer version only promises 95% and "here's our FAQ, or you can pay $200 per incident to talk to someone", but the latter should still be something people can understand upfront before committing.
And more, but these would be good starts. Big Companies and Big Tech in particular provide major, major benefits. They are also convenient, concentrated targets for careful, focused experiments in regulation. There is no reason we can't try to have the best of both worlds. "Break them up" is not just short sighted but lazy. We should try to make things better for everyone.

Despite the snowstorm over the weekend that caused dozens of cancelations in the nearby Netherlands, Brussels Airport remained open thanks to local farmers. //

In the fields surrounding Brussels Airport, nothing is growing in the winter as the ground is too hard to work. With Belgian farmers having nothing to do, a group sprang up in the Boerenbond Belge (Belgian Farmers Union) called the “Werkers” (Workers).

Experienced in driving large machinery, the group approached the airport to offer their services. A team of 114 farmers now helps keep the airport open during the winter by driving airport snow and ice removing vehicles.

These measures are not necessary, and they are profoundly un-American. The presence of armed troops in the nation’s capital, the perpetual announcement of threats that never materialize, fences, walls, and security checkpoints are not the outward signs of a regime that feels particularly secure or is focused on the “general Welfare.” They conjure up images of a White House staff living furtively out of suitcases, afraid to unpack, with a convoy of armored vehicles standing by to race them to Joint Base Andrews and a flight into exile. They call to mind scenes from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 (yes, yes, I saw all of them, I have two daughters) when the invincible capital of Panem is beset by enemies and there are heavily armed Peacekeepers on every corner.

Why we have a right to ask, is the Biden regime acting this way? No one is attacking them. No opposing army has blockaded Washington. They control the Congress and the Executive Branch of government is stocked with its partisans. There are, contrary to FBI wet dreams, no militias contending with the federal authorities to control the hinterlands. Do they think acting terrified of the citizenry makes them look strong? Or do they think we are intimidated by this half-assed show of force? Someone needs to start asking questions. Fast.

Twenty-year-old Alex Kearns took his own life last June mistakenly believing he'd lost nearly $750,000 in a risky bet on Robinhood, the stock-trading app where he started trading as a teenager.

In 2019*, from the beginning of the year up to this day in that year, all world nuclear power plants generated enough energy to supply low-carbon electricity (12 gCO2eq/kWh) to

534,564,060
French households during 1 year
(equivalent of 2,779,733,114 MWh)

If this electricity had been produced from
coal (820 gCO2/kWh)
, it would have caused the emission of greenhouse gases equivalent to those of

...
389,163,258
additional vehicles
in circulation
(equivalent of 1,945,816,291 tonnes of CO2eq)

Furthermore, this same electricity produced
from coal would have been
responsible for

68,409
premature deaths
(24.61.deaths/TWh, while the human toll of nuclear power and of modern renewable energy sources is below 0.1)

Every life unjustly killed deserves justice. In the cause to make things right, I will not join a movement that has nearly everything wrong. More innocent lives have now been killed (including cops) since these predominantly violent protests began over George Floyd’s horrific death. What about the black lives killed in this nationwide chaos? Do they matter?

“Well, you don’t have to agree with everything. Just pick out the good things in the #BlackLivesMatter movement,” I’m told. Really? Let’s apply that same logic to another example. I’ve been repeatedly approached to partner with New Black Panthers in anti-abortion billboard campaigns. We agree on the violent injustice of abortion, and that’s it. Our worldviews are diametrically opposed. But, but, but they believe unborn lives matter! That doesn’t matter. Their mission is not my mission. I cover all of this in-depth in my new podcast, Life Has Purpose.

Yes, #BlackLivesMatter. But Truth matters. As a Christian, the Church should be leading on these issues instead of sheepishly following a deceptive movement hostile to the Gospel.

The original BLM founders, the #BlackLivesMatter Foundation (BLMF), created it to radically shift culture. The far-left Ford Foundation, the world’s largest population control organization, vowed in 2016 to raise $100 million for the Movement for Black Lives (MFBL)—a nationwide coalition of BLM groups (including BLMF). MFBL released a shocking manifesto of policy positions that are deeply political and deeply disturbing.

Drawing mostly from those positions, here are the top 10 reasons why I will never support the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

The premise isn’t true. I hate racism. And I hate when it’s used as a political weapon. According to the FBI’s latest homicide statistics, I’m 11 times more likely to be killed by someone of my own brown complexion than a white person. Also, a comprehensive 2019 study concluded: “White officers are not more likely to shoot minority civilians than non-White officers.” Every loss of life is tragic, but Washington Post’s database on police-involved deaths puts things into further context. In 2020, among those killed were (all males): 2 Native Americans, 9 Asians, 46 Hispanics, 76 blacks, 149 unlabeled individuals and 149 whites (whose deaths don’t get reported by national mainstream media). Only nine black individuals were actually unarmed.

There is no goal of forgiveness or reconciliation. None. It’s never mentioned on their sites. You can’t talk about the sins of the past and expect to move forward if there is no intention of forgiveness. I’m tired of the deeply prejudiced oppressed/oppressor critical race theory paradigm. It’s not Gospel-centered. This should, immediately, be a deal-breaker for Christians. //

They heavily promote homosexuality and transgenderism. //

They completely ignore fatherhood. //

Apparently, not all black lives matter. Pro-abortion BLMF declared: “We deserve and thus we demand reproductive justice [aka abortion] that gives us autonomy over our bodies and our identities while ensuring that our children and families are supported, safe, and able to thrive.” Aborted children don’t thrive.