[01/03] Some educators propose that college applicants use ChatGPT to make up for the lack of a family containing well-educated people who can help them write the essay in high-quality English. Especially applicants who are not native speakers of English. The idea was new to me but I'm not opposed to it. However, when the article talks about "how students can use AI ethically", it makes a number of important errors: What it intends by that phrase is whether the students are behaving...
The College Board Tells TikTok and Facebook and other companies the test-takers' grade averages and Details About SAT Scores:
Gizmodo
The College Board Tells TikTok and Facebook GPAs and Details About SAT Scores
Gizmodo’s tests found the higher-ed gatekeeper shares GPAs, SAT information, and other data with big tech.
 Staff who set up such surveillance, or knowingly allow it, should be prosecuted. By taking surveillance that seriously, we can end it.
[01/02] Russia accused of intimidating US consulate staff who are Russians with Ukraine war spying charges:
the Guardian
Russia accused of intimidating US consulate staff with Ukraine war spying charges
State department says allegations against Robert Shonov are ‘wholly without merit’, as rare footage of detained US citizen Paul Whelan emerges
 What Shonov is accused of — relaying non-secret information picked up from the public — is a normal part of the work of staff of diplomatic organizations. The US consulate would have trouble functioning without these employees. But it can't tolerate this repression. The US could not morally respond by threatening the American citizens and other non-Russians...
[01/02] Inuit on the Arctic coast of Canada are managing a protected coastal zone:
the Guardian
A new dawn rises in the Arctic: the Inuit plan to reclaim their sea
The environment Inuit have lived in for millennia is changing fast. Canada’s government once ignored Indigenous knowledge of it but now they are ...
 That is a useful thing to do: it will delay regional damage from global heating, giving humanity somewhat more time to carry out the long-term global fix: to greatly reduce greenhouse emissions. However, the article's headline seems to have been written by someone inclined to formulate issues in terms of racial conflict: "The Inuit plan to reclaim their sea." It is a mistake to...
[01/02] Space junk is dangerous because the objects tend to collide and generate a lot more junk:
Futurism
Attempt to Clean Up Space Junk Foiled When Cleanup Target Hit by Even More Space Junk
The junk-on-junk collision created even more space junk, not to mention a headache for the scientists working on the ESA's clean up mission.
 This is already happening. There is a danger that the process will eventually cascade and make it too dangerous to put anything into low Earth orbit, or maybe even to cross it. The movie Gravity depicted this disaster, in somewhat accelerated form. The disaster itself would be so harmful to humanity, and so permanent, that the survival of some of those who were in orbit...
The head of the Federal Reserve intends to keep pursuing inflation to the ends of the earth, and never mind the risk of causing a recession: https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/fed-chair-again-ignores-recession-risks-under-higher-interest-rates
(satire) Texas Cancels School Over Concerns Extreme Heat Not Safe Environment For Shootings:
The Onion
Texas Cancels School Over Concerns Extreme Heat Not Safe Environment For Shootings
PLANO, TX—Citing faulty HVAC systems and temperatures over 100 degrees, Plano Independent School District in North Texas canceled classes Friday ...
The main antisocial media companies are opening the gates to disinformation of all kinds, including Republican disinformation, Russian disinformation and Chinese disinformation: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/08/25/political-conspiracies-facebook-youtube-elon-musk/
Putin has a protracted habit of murdering his enemies, rivals, and critics:
the Guardian
Twenty years of ruthlessness: how Russia has silenced Putin’s opponents
From poisonings to shootings to falls from windows and now possibly plane crashes, Kremlin has been accused of numerous lethal attacks
Labour's backtracking on casual workers will weaken the rights of all employees:
the Guardian
Labour’s backtracking on casual workers will weaken the rights of all employees | Kenan Malik
The party wants to look business-friendly but risks condemning even more people to living precariously
 The "Labour" party is too right-wing to qualify for that name.