MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video now allowed in Fedora

MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video are now cleared to be in Fedora: [Fedora-legal-list] MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 Video

Amazon now requires DRM to download Autorip CDs and to access music.amazon.com

Back in 2019 January 21st Amazon let you connect to their music store without using DRM.  Now, as of 2019 March 1st Amazon has disabled the ability to use https://music.amazon.com without DRM.  If you connect with Firefox with DRM disabled it requests you to enable DRM.  If you connect with Chromium it tells you to download Chrome or Firefox.  There is no link provided to just go to download the mp3 music. For digital music that is purchased, it is still possible to download it by going to Your Orders, and then to Digital Orders, but that has a strict limit on the number of times that it can be downloaded.  For Autorip CDs, there is no way to download them without enabling DRM.  Searching for Autorip DRM on Amazon's help just states that "The Digital Music Store delivers music in MP3 format ...". Unless Amazon fixes this, I will be looking for a different music store.

Connecting with Chromium

Connecting with DRM-less Firefox

Distraction by Screens

"I went out to eat with my friends, not to talk, but to watch them stare at their screens as they ignored me. I looked around to discover that I was the only adult aside from the servers not staring at a screen–until I saw a server sneak a peek at her phone between rounds."

http://annienygma.com/distraction/

H.R.1

The text of H.R.1 is finally available: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1/text  (I have not read all 570 pages)

Change my view article

Interesting article on trying to have constructive debate: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/12/change-my-view-does-not-allow-rudeness-or-hostility/578566/

Updated Rationality from AI to Zombies

I have created a new release candidate of the tex version of Rationality from AI to Zombies https://github.com/jrincayc/rationality-ai-zombies/releases/tag/1.0rc1. This version has been proofread from cover to cover. In other news, MIRI is also updating their version and has produced printed versions of the first two parts https://intelligence.org/rationality-ai-zombies/

Article on Anger

"""All of this anger-mongering in campaigns, whether subtle or overt, has had a corrosive effect on American democracy. A poll by The Washington Post found that 35 percent of voters in battleground districts of the 2018 midterm election chose the word angry to describe their feelings about the campaign; 24 percent chose patriotic. “The thing about political professionals is, we get to leave after the campaign is over,” the pollster Jefrey Pollock told me. “[We] don’t have to worry about what comes after the election.” These professionals aren’t moral crusaders, as Cesar Chavez was; they’re hired guns. After a long campaign, Pollock said, there’s “this huge group of passionate, energized people” who don’t know where to direct their anger.
As Chavez learned, that’s a perilous state of affairs. Without anyone to channel that anger, it can turn into a destructive obsession. And that’s when things can really get out of control."""

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/charles-duhigg-american-anger/576424/