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<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RMS RSS" href="rss/rss.xml"> <title>Richard Stallman's Personal Page</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/common/stallman.css"> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://stallman.org/rms.png" type="image/x-icon"> <link rel="icon" href="rms.png"> </head> <body style="min-width:678px;"> <h3 class="c1"> Richard Stallman's Personal Site </h3> <p style="text-align:center;"><img src="Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019.jpg" width="320" height="400"> <br><font size="-1"> The photo comes from <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019.jpg"> wikimedia.org<br> "Richard_Stallman_at_LibrePlanet_2019"</a> by Ruben Rodriguez </font></p>  <h6> <p style="text-align:center;">   </h6> <div style="text-align:center; font-size:16pt; margin:50px;">I continue to be the Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project.<br /> This is my long-term commitment and I plan to continue.<br /> You may have heard or read critical statements about me; <a href="https://stallmansupport.org">please make up your own mind.</a> </div> <div style="text-align:center; font-size:16pt; margin:50px;"> I am making a second visit to Europe this year after February. If you are interested in inviting me to speak there, and you have a venue to use and a public to invite, please email me in March with "speaking invitation" in the Subject field, using the name rms and the host gnu dot org. One advantage of this period for you is that the intercontinental flights are already covered, so you won't need to pay for that. </div> <center>  </center> <div class="columnt1"> <p> <a href="#politics">Political Articles</a> | <a class=nobr href="archives/polnotes.html">Political Notes</a> | <a href="talks.html">Talks</a> | <a href="airlines.html">Airlines</a> | <a href="/antiglossary.html">Anti-Glossary</a> | <a href="/archive.html">Archive</a> | <a href="/banfacerecognition.html">Ban face recognition</a> | <a href="#books">Books</a> | <a href="/comics.html">Comics</a> | <a class=nobr href="empire.html">Empire of the Megacorporations</a> | <a href="#fiction">Fiction</a> | <a href="/glossary.html">Glossary</a> | <a class=nobr href="gpg.html">GPG Key</a> | <a href="#humor">Humor</a> | <a class=nobr href="/biographies.html#humorousbio">Humorous Bio</a> | <a href="/links.html">Links</a> | <a href="/media.html">Media/Press/Bio</a> | <a class=nobr href="#non-political">Non-Political Articles</a> | <a href="#apocalypse">The Four Factors of the Apocalypse</a> | <a class=nobr href="#oughttobe">There Ought to Be a Law</a> | <a class=nobr href="#travel">Travel Experiences</a> | <a class=nobr href="#travel_photos">Travel Photos</a> | <a class=nobr href="stallman-computing.html">How I Do My Computing</a> | <a class=nobr href="rms-lifestyle.html">RMS personal FAQ</a> | <a href="sayings.html">Sayings</a> | <a class=nobr href="#sci_links">Scientific Links</a> | <a href="#love">Stallman on Love</a> | <a href="#thanks">Thanks</a> | </p> </div> <div class="columnt2">  <form method="post" action="/cgi-bin/site-search.cgi"> <div> <input type="hidden" name="case" value="0"> <label>Site search: <input type="text" size="30" name="term"></label> <input type="submit" value="go"> <a style="font-family: monospace" href="site-search/index.html">advanced</a> </div> </form> <p><i><small>Send comments/questions about the search engine to: rms at gnu dot org</small></i></p> </div> <br style="clear:both"> <div class="c2"> What's bad about: <a href="/airbnb.html">Airbnb</a> | <a href="/amazon.html">Amazon</a> | <a href="/amtrak.html">Amtrak</a> | <a href="/ancestry.html">Ancestry</a> | <a href="/apple.html">Apple</a> | <a href="/change.org.html">Change.org</a> | <a href="/chatgpt.html">ChatGPT</a> | <a href="/cloudflare.html">Cloudflare</a> | <a href="/discord.html">Discord</a> | <a href="/disney.html">Disney</a> | <a href="/ebooks.pdf">Ebooks</a> | <a href="/eventbrite.html">Eventbrite</a> | <a href="/evernote.html">Evernote</a> | <a href="/twitter.html">Ex-Twitter</a> | <a href="/facebook.html">Facebook</a> | <a href="/flixbus.html">FLIXbus</a> | <a href="/frito-lay.html">Frito-Lay</a> | <a href="/frontier.html">Frontier</a> | <a href="/google.html">Google</a> | <a href="/gofundme.html">Gofundme</a> | <a href="/food-delivery.html">Grubhub</a> | <a href="/in-n-out-burger.html">In-N-Out Burger</a> | <a href="/intel.html">Intel</a> | <a href="/linkedin.html">LinkedIn</a> | <a href="/lyft.html">Lyft</a> |  <a href="/eventbrite.html">Meetup</a> | <a href="/microsoft.html">Microsoft</a> | <a href="/netflix.html">Netflix</a> | <a href="/patreon.html">Patreon</a> | <a href="/pay-toilets.html">Pay Toilets</a> | <a href="/privatization.html">Privatization</a> | <a href="/skype.html">Skype</a> | <a href="/slack.html">Slack</a> | <a href="/spotify.html">Spotify</a> | <a href="/tesla.html">Tesla</a> | <a href="/threads.html">Threads</a> | <a href="/ticketmaster.html">Ticketmaster</a> |  <a href="/uber.html">Uber</a> | <a href="/wendys.html">Wendy's</a> | <a href="/whatsapp.html">WhatsApp</a> | <a href="/zoom.html">Zoom</a> | </div>  <p> <a href="rss/rss.xml">RSS site feed</a> for the most recent political notes and new material.<br><br> This is the personal web site of Richard Stallman.<br> The views expressed here are my personal views, not those of the <a href="http://www.fsf.org/">Free Software Foundation</a> or the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/">GNU Project</a>.<br> For the sake of separation, this site has always been hosted elsewhere and managed separately. </p> <p> If you want to send me GPG-encrypted mail, do not trust key servers! Some of them have phony keys under my name and email address, made by someone else as a trick. See <a href="/gpg.html">gpg.html</a> for my real key. </p> <p> Richard Stallman has cancer. Fortunately it is slow-growing and manageable follicular lymphoma. Treatment put it into remission, and he can expect to live many more years. However, he now has to be even more careful not to catch Covid-19. </p>  <p>  <a href="https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v14/">FSF Giving Guide</a>   <h3> <h3> Canadians: I suggest you seek election advice at a local chapter of a group that pushes to curb global heating and has the courage to say, "Canada should stop exporting fossil fuel." It will at least use the right goals to suggest who to vote for in your area. </h3> <h3> Join a <a href="http://www.next.gen.oh.us/~anton/reference/fff.html">Friday climate strike</a>. <br>That page is made by scraping Fridays for Future so you can get the information without running any Javascript code. I would be very glad if they made the information on their own site accessible from the Free World; then we could simply refer people to their site and do without the scraping etc. </h3> <h3> I am limiting the number of new political notes per day so as not to overload the volunteers who install new notes. If you'd like to help, please write to rms at gnu period org. </h3> <h3> Is your bank pressuring you to use biometric ID? If so, please write to rms at gnu dot org. It could be useful if you document what is happening. </h3>  <h3> Please <a href="https://fsf.org/"> join the Free Software Foundation</a> to support its work for your freedom. </h3> <h3> "They" is plural — for singular antecedents, use <a href="/articles/genderless-pronouns.html"> singular gender-neutral pronouns</a>. </h3> <p> <a href="/linkpolicy.html">Link Policy</a> </p> <p> The largest part of the site is the <a href="archives/polnotes.html" >political notes</a>, and they are typically updated every day.</p> I'm looking for people to <ul id="volunteerList"> <li>learn how to HTML-craft and remotely-install political notes</li> <li>send me examples of how proprietary programs have been designed to be addictive.</li> <li>check a few sites for me regularly and show me any new articles that I would like to see or link to. <li>help me in maintaining stallman.org by <a href="/articles/bigotry.html">occasionally looking for articles on a given point in the news</a>. <li>send me examples of how proprietary programs have been designed to cause programmed obsolescence of products.</li> <li>write <a href="https://www.gnu.org/help/help-javascript.html"> site-specific Firefox extensions</a> or local scripts to operate specific web sites.</li> <li>help <a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/maintenance/HowToBecomeASavannahHacker"> maintain and operate</a> savannah.gnu.org.</li> <li>experiment to find good ways to attach fruits to a <a href="http://stallman.org/grav-mass.html">Grav-mass tree</a>.</li> <li>help web sites put free licenses on their Javascript code.</li> </ul> If you would like to help me in any of these ways, please write to rms at gnu dot o r g.</li> <p>  <div class="column1"> <p> <a href="/civillibertiesminute/">Civil Liberties Minute</a> </p> <h6> <a href="http://www.aclu.org/safefree/"><img src="flag_set_vectorized.png" alt="[America Means Civil Liberties / Patriotism Means Protecting Them / www.aclu.org/safefree ]" style="margin-left:-6px;"></a> <br />graphic by Susan Henson<br> Americans, you may wish to copy this icon to your own page, as a way of showing what patriotism means to you. </h6> <h3> <a href="#upcoming-talks" id="upcoming-talks">Upcoming talks</a> </h3>  <ul>  <li><i>[ No upcoming talks. ]</i> <li> My second visit to Europe will be after February. If you are interested in inviting me to speak there, and you have a venue to use and a public to invite, please email me soon with "speaking invitation" in the Subject field, using the name rms and the host gnu dot org. One advantage of this period for you is that the intercontinental flights are already covered, so you won't need to pay for that. </li> </ul> <h3> <a href="#urgent" id="urgent">Urgent action items</a> </h3>   <ul>  <p> <li> <p> US citizens: <a href="https://act.commoncause.org/petitions/tell-congress-keep-elon-musks-hands-off-our-social-security?nowrapper=true&referrer=&source=">call on Congress</a> to keep the muskrat's hands off Social Security. <p> <li> <p> US citizens: <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/forms/tell-congress-america-stands-with-ukraine?nowrapper=true&referrer=group-takeitbackorg&source=group-takeitbackorg">tell Congress</a> that America stands with Ukraine. <p> <li> <p> US citizens: call on the USPS board of governors to resist the tyrant's plan to <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/letters/stop-trumps-illegal-usps-takeover?nowrapper=true">seize direct power over it</a>. <p> Here's how to make the actionnetwork.org letter campaign linked above work without running the site's nonfree JavaScript code. (See <a href="https://gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html">gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html</a>.) <p> First, make sure you have deactivated JavaScrupt in your browser or are using the LibreJS plug-in. <p> I have done the next step for you: I added `?nowrapper=true' to the end of the campaign URL before posting it above. That should bring you to a page that starts with, "Letter campaigns will not work without javascript!" <p> They indeed won't work without some manual help, but the following simple method seems adequate for many of them, including this one. <p> To start, fill in the personal information answers in the box on the right side of the page. That's how you say who's sending the letter. <p> Then click the "START WRITING" button. That will take you to a page that can't function without nonfree JavaScript code. (To ensure it doesn't function perversely _by running_ that nonfree code, you can enable LibreJS or disable JavaScript by visiting that page.) You can finish sending without that code By editing its URL in the browser's address bar, as follows: <p> First, go to the end and insert `&nowrapper=true'. Then tell the browser to visit that URL. This should give you a version of the page that works without JavaScript. Edit the subject and body of your letter. Finally, click on the "SEND LETTER" button, and you're done. <p> This method seems to work for letter campaigns that send the letters to a fixed list of recipients, the same recipients for every sender. Editing and revisiting the URL is the only additional step needed to bypass the nonfree JavaScript code. I'm sure you'll agree it is a small effort for the result of supporting the campaign without opening your computer to unjust (and potentially malicious) software. <li> <p> US citizens: call for legislation to <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/forms/break-up-big-medicine">break up Big Medicine</a>, including UnitedHellth. (The article explains all the different medicine businesses that conglomerate combines.) </p> <p> I think horizontal monopolies like that used to be limited generally by US anti-trust law. </p> </li> <li> <p> US citizens: call on Congress to block the wrecker's <a href="https://act.demandprogress.org/sign/block-weapons-sales-sanders-25/">weapons sale to Israel</a>. </p> <p> If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: <a href="tel:+12022243121">+1-202-224-3121</a> </p> </li> <li> <p> US citizens: call on media companies to <a href="https://act.commoncause.org/petitions/media-companies-must-stand-up-for-free-speech-3">defend freedom of the press</a>, rather than let the bully intimidate them. </p> </li> <li> <p> US citizens: call on Congress to overturn the wrecker's <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/forms/tell-congress-overturn-trumps-attack-on-clean-energy">attack on clean energy policies</a>. </p> <p> If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: <a href="tel:+12022243121">+1-202-224-3121</a> </p> </li> <p> <li> <p> US citizens: <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/forms/become-a-grassroots-co-sponsor-of-the-social-security-expansion-act?nowrapper=true&referrer=group-democracy-for-america-advocacy-fund&source=group-democracy-for-america-advocacy-fund">call on Congress</a> to pass the Social Security Expansion Act of 2025) <p> The page explains what that bill would do. <p> If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: <a href="tel:+12022243121">+1-202-224-3121</a> <p> <li> <p> Call your congresscritter to oppose the bills to weaken unions including the National "Right to Work" Act. <p> If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: <a href="tel:+12022243121">+1-202-224-3121</a> <p> <li> <p> US citizens: <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/forms/tell-congress-stand-up-to-the-coup-at-the-environmental-protection-agency-fire-elon-musk-2?nowrapper=true&referrer=group-hd&source=group-hd">call on Congress</a> to stand up to the coup at the Environmental Protection Agency, and to fire <a class="glossary" href="/glossary.html#musk">the muskrat</a>. <p> If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: <a href="tel:+12022243121">+1-202-224-3121</a> <li> <p> I'm looking for a <a href=/comics.html>cartoonist</a> who would like to draw cartoons for me once in a while. If you're interested, please write to rms, which refers to me, at the location gnu period org.  <li> <p> Boycott Chevron, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/08/15/dont-let-big-oil-open-new-front-its-war-environmental-defenders">in the name of Steven Donziger</a>.</p>  </li> </ul> <h3>Recording of Guantanamero</h3> Listen to the <a href="guantanamero.ogg">recording</a> of <a href="guantanamero.html">Guantanamero</a>, a protest song written in Spanish. The recording is in Ogg Vorbis format. To install an Ogg Vorbis player, see <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/formats/playogg"> the FSF's Ogg Players page</a>. <h3><a href="#oughttobe" id="oughttobe">There Ought to Be a Law</a></h3>  <ul> <li id="Require Services to be available anonymously"> <p> A pitifully weak attempt to solve a real problem: asking for a federal law that would permit victims of domestic abuse and stalking to <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/data-brokers-harm-abuse-survivors-we-need-a-law-to-stop-them">demand that data brokers delete information about them</a>. </p> <p> Data, once collected, <em>will</em> be abused. The way to prevent that abuse is to facilitate refusing to hand it over in the first place. </p> <p> Here is my proposal for protecting the specific people known to be in particular danger, and everyone else who could be harmed if individuals, businesses or governments use their personal data against them without a search warrant: require services to be available anonymously. </p> </li> <li id="toxic-chemicals"> The regulation of toxic chemicals in the US is hamstrung by laws that enable companies to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/17/lawsuit-prevent-hiding-toxic-chemicals">keep their use and their presence in any place secret</a>. <p> The selfish interest of those who keep trade secrets is rational but antisocial. In many cases the only harm it does is to hold back the general advance of technology. But sometimes it does really nasty things. For digital hardware and software, it often gives companies a way to subjugate their users. Regarding use of toxic chemicals, it endangers public health. <p> Why would legislators pass laws to "protect" companies instead of protecting the people they harm? I suspect it is partly because these companies are influential and the legislators seek their support, and partly because the legislators ask them for campaign funds. <p> But it is also partly the result of the mindset of "trickle down", which assumes that the only way to get more funds for the state is to let increase the size of the economy by letting companies have what they want. Unfortunately, what they want is often to be allowed to harm the public. <p> Most Democrats in Congress got corrupted this way in the 80s and 90s. (The exceptions are the progressive Democrats.) Now in the UK Starmer is guiding Labour into that sort of corruption. <p> Clearly our laws should say that any public need to know about the presence of toxic substances in a business facility overrides the desire to keep them secret. </li> <li id="state-business-funding"> *China-owned British Steel said to have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/jun/23/china-owned-british-steel-requested-600m-taxpayer-support">requested £600m of taxpayer support</a>.* <p> Whether the owners are Chinese is a question that there is no need to ask, because the state should <em>never</em> give money to a business "to support it." Instead it should offer to lend money to the company for suitable repayment, or else buy equity at a fair price. <p> These two ways of supporting a company avoid giving the owners an opporunity to rip off the state -- which the company's owners are likely to try to do, if they can, regardless of which country they are from. <p> With a policy like this, it wouldn't matter which country the company's owners are from. </li> <li id="recommendation-engine"> California is proposing an interesting approach towards <a href="https://www.engadget.com/proposed-california-bill-would-let-parents-block-algorithmic-social-feeds-for-children-220132956.html?src=rss">antisocial media platforms</a>. <p> It is exciting that SB 976 turns towards restricting recommendation algorithms. But these options should not be limited to minors — every user <a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2023-jul-oct.html#8_September_2023_(Taking_control_away_from_social_media_sites)">should have this choice</a>. (Please do not refer to teenagers as "children"; that feeds the US tendency to treat them like children and <a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2023-may-aug.html#20_July_2023_(Free-play_kid_programs)">retard their development</a>.) <p> However, I suggest taking a step beyond just choosing to use or not use the <a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2023-nov-feb.html#7_February_2024_(Misogynistic_messages)">platform's addiction system</a>. Recommendation algorithms should be completely separated from platforms! <p> If you want to use a nontrivial recommendation algorithm, you should be able to choose it yourself and use it anonymously. You could send it the URLs you want it to base its choices on. These might be some of the pages you had visited, and perhaps pages you had not visited. <p> Then it should send <i>you</i> its recommendations. You could pass all, or just some, or none of those recommendations to the platform to look at them. <p> AB 1949 is admirable because it gives a small boost to privacy for users of all ages, not only for children. It isn't enough, though — users should also be guaranteed the right and possibility to access through the Tor network and to use aliases. And collection of a user's data by the state should require a warrant against the user. </li> </ul> <a href="/there-ought-to-be-a-law.html">More items where there ought to be a law.</a> <h3>Quotes</h3> <p> Here are some <a href="/quotes.html"> quotations</a> that I particularly like. </p> </div>  <div class="column2"> <h2>Most recent <a href="archives/polnotes.html">Political Notes and News Items</a></h2> (<a href="rss/rss.xml">RSS Feed</a>) <p> You can now read the political notes on <a rel="me" href="https://mastodon.xyz/@rms">Mastodon</a>. <dl><dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#12_March_2025_(A_replacement_for_plastic)" target="_top"><b>A replacement for plastic</b></a><br><small><i>12 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> A new kind of plastic degrades in sea water into compounds that will be <a href="https://phys.org/news/2024-11-durable-supramolecular-plastic-fully-ocean.html">eaten by bacteria, with no harmful residue</a>. <p> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#12_March_2025_(Resist_worldwide_dystopia_led_by_US)" target="_top"><b>Resist worldwide dystopia led by US</b></a><br><small><i>12 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> *The world’s most admired democracy is being held hostage by a clique of far-right <a class="glossary" href="/glossary.html#thug">thugs</a>. It would be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/03/donald-trump-world-leaders-democracy">a mistake to placate them</a>.* <p> I am not sure that the US was really the most admired democracy a year ago. Certainly it had big flaws, introduced by earlier stages of <a class="glossary" href="/glossary.html#plutocratist">plutocratist</a> subversion. But it was, arguably, the oldest stable democracy. <p> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#12_March_2025_(Disconnected_identities,_UK_and_US)" target="_top"><b>Disconnected identities, UK and US</b></a><br><small><i>12 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> *We've witnessed the rise of a kind of identity politics that sidelines class. And the far right is benefiting from it.* <p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/03/identity-politics-the-left-the-right-liberation-victimhood">An insightful article</a> explains how identity politics on antisocial media tends to divide people into groups that argue about which of the many kinds of cruelty, and of the many groups that sometimes are caused to suffer, deserves the "worst oppression" award. <p> I don't like this competition. I prefer Martin Luther King's message, that we should try to help others who suffer and to end social injustices, regardless of "identity" groups. <p> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#12_March_2025_(Executive_order:_judge_firings'_legality)" target="_top"><b>Executive order: judge firings' legality</b></a><br><small><i>12 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> One of the underminer's executive orders says that he can fire anyone in the federal government <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/01/trump-executive-order-dictatorship">who disputes his version</a> of what the law requires. <p> "The essence of it is that Donald Trump is trying, quite consciously, to make himself an elected dictator," said law professor Frank Bowman. <p> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#12_March_2025_(Urgent:_Save_Social_Security)" target="_top"><b>Urgent: Save Social Security</b></a><br><small><i>12 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> US citizens: <a href="https://act.commoncause.org/petitions/tell-congress-keep-elon-musks-hands-off-our-social-security?nowrapper=true&referrer=&source=">call on Congress</a> to keep the muskrat's hands off Social Security. <p> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#12_March_2025_(Urgent:_Stand_with_Ukraine)" target="_top"><b>Urgent: Stand with Ukraine</b></a><br><small><i>12 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> US citizens: <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/forms/tell-congress-america-stands-with-ukraine?nowrapper=true&referrer=group-takeitbackorg&source=group-takeitbackorg">tell Congress</a> that America stands with Ukraine. <p> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#12_March_2025_(Urgent:_Write_to_the_USPS_board)" target="_top"><b>Urgent: Write to the USPS board</b></a><br><small><i>12 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> US citizens: call on the USPS board of governors to resist the tyrant's plan to <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/letters/stop-trumps-illegal-usps-takeover?nowrapper=true">seize direct power over it</a>. <p> Here's how to make the actionnetwork.org letter campaign linked above work without running the site's nonfree JavaScript code. (See <a href="https://gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html">gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html</a>.) <p> First, make sure you have deactivated JavaScript in your browser or are using the LibreJS plug-in. <p> I have done the next step for you: I added `?nowrapper=true' to the end of the campaign URL before posting it above. That should bring you to a page that starts with, "Letter campaigns will not work without javascript!" <p> They indeed won't work without some manual help, but the following simple method seems adequate for many of them, including this one. <p> To start, fill in the personal information answers in the box on the right side of the page. That's how you say who's sending the letter. <p> Then click the "START WRITING" button. That will take you to a page that can't function without nonfree JavaScript code. (To ensure it doesn't function perversely <em>by running</em> that nonfree code, you can enable LibreJS or disable JavaScript by visiting that page.) You can finish sending without that code By editing its URL in the browser's address bar, as follows: <p> First, go to the end and insert `&nowrapper=true'. Then tell the browser to visit that URL. This should give you a version of the page that works without JavaScript. Edit the subject and body of your letter. Finally, click on the "SEND LETTER" button, and you're done. <p> This method seems to work for letter campaigns that send the letters to a fixed list of recipients, the same recipients for every sender. Editing and revisiting the URL is the only additional step needed to bypass the nonfree JavaScript code. I'm sure you'll agree it is a small effort for the result of supporting the campaign without opening your computer to unjust (and potentially malicious) software. <p> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#12_March_2025_(Independent_app_stores)" target="_top"><b>Independent app stores</b></a><br><small><i>12 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> Suggesting that Canada and Europe retaliate for US tariffs, not by putting up their own tariffs, but by <a href="https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/03/friedmanite/">allowing independent app stores</a>. <p> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#12_March_2025_(Microplastics_and_photosynthesis)" target="_top"><b>Microplastics and photosynthesis</b></a><br><small><i>12 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> A research project estimates that microplastics cut crop production by 4% or more by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/10/microplastics-hinder-plant-photosynthesis-study-finds-threatening-millions-with-starvation">hampering photosynthesis</a> when they get into plants. <p> They also retard the growth of algae, which slows the growth of sea animals. <p> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#12_March_2025_(Syria_chaotic_violence)" target="_top"><b>Syria chaotic violence</b></a><br><small><i>12 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/10/deadly-clashes-between-syrian-security-and-assad-loyalists-what-we-know-so-far">Chaotic violence</a> has broken out in coastal northwest Syria between Assad loyalists and Turkey-sponsored groups who hate them. <p> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#12_March_2025_(Coca_leaf_prohibition)" target="_top"><b>Coca leaf prohibition</b></a><br><small><i>12 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> Colombia urges the UN to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/10/colombia-coca-leaf-united-nations">end international prohibition</a> of coca leaf. <p> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#12_March_2025_(Syria_human_rights)" target="_top"><b>Syria human rights</b></a><br><small><i>12 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> *Syrian government reaches deal with Kurdish-led SDF (Rojava) to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/10/syrian-government-reaches-deal-with-kurdish-led-sdf-to-integrate-north-east-region">unite and respect human rights of Kurds</a>.* <p> I admire what I have read about democracy in Rojava. The article doesn't make it clear whether that will be preserved under this deal. <p> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#12_March_2025_(Israel's_lethal_force)" target="_top"><b>Israel's lethal force</b></a><br><small><i>12 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> 6 weeks ago, the UN was *‘<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/24/un-deeply-concerned-israel-using-unlawful-lethal-force-in-west-bank">deeply concerned</a>’ Israel using ‘unlawful lethal force’in West Bank.* <p> I hope to encounter and post a more detailed article soon. <p> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#12_March_2025_(Chemical_plant_pollution)" target="_top"><b>Chemical plant pollution</b></a><br><small><i>12 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> Astronomers are concerned that a proposed chemical plant in the Atacama desert will <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/04/chile-stargazing-night-sky">pollute the region's air</a> and spoil it for many telescopes. <p> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#11_March_2025_(Prices_not_lowered)" target="_top"><b>Prices not lowered</b></a><br><small><i>11 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> Americans are realizing that <a class="glossary" href="/glossary.html#bullshitter">the bullshitter</a> did not mean it when he said claimed he would protect working-class Americans (if they are white) <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/affordability-czar-nothing-more-than-a-pr-stunt-says-groundworks-alex-jacquez">from high prices</a>. <p> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#11_March_2025_(Business_as_usual,_NOT)" target="_top"><b>Business as usual, NOT</b></a><br><small><i>11 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> The <a class="glossary" href="/glossary.html#s-i-c">saboteur-in-chief</a> tries to be unpredictable to hamper resistance. It turns out that that very <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/08/how-trumps-dizzying-jerks-and-jolts-on-tariffs-are-freezing-us-business">unpredictability hampers US businesses</a> from making nonpolitical business decisions. <p> The businesses controlled by oligarchs are partly exempt from this problem because they have enough influence on the <a class="glossary" href="/glossary.html#s-i-c">saboteur-in-chief</a> to make sure their decisions will be safe. <p> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#11_March_2025_(Amy_Coney_Barrett_defending_const'n)" target="_top"><b>Amy Coney Barrett defending const'n</b></a><br><small><i>11 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> <a class="glossary" href="/glossary.html#magat">Magats</a> are excoriating <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/08/amy-coney-barrett-under-attack-by-right-wing">Justice Barrett for voting to disapprove</a> one of <a class="glossary" href="/glossary.html#wrecker">the wrecker's</a> extreme acts of sabotage. They demand that "their" judges strictly follow the party line established by the great leader. </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#10_March_2025_(Urgent:_Break_up_Big_Medicine)" target="_top"><b>Urgent: Break up Big Medicine</b></a><br><small><i>10 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> US citizens: call for legislation to <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/forms/break-up-big-medicine">break up Big Medicine</a>, including <a class=glossary href="/glossary.html#united-hellth">UnitedHellth</a>. (The article explains all the different medicine businesses that conglomerate combines.) </p> <p> I think horizontal monopolies like that used to be limited generally by US anti-trust law. </p> </li> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#10_March_2025_(Urgent:_Block_weapons_sale_to_Israel)" target="_top"><b>Urgent: Block weapons sale to Israel</b></a><br><small><i>10 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> US citizens: call on Congress to block <a class=glossary href="/glossary.html#wrecker">the wrecker's</a> <a href="https://act.demandprogress.org/sign/block-weapons-sales-sanders-25/">weapons sale to Israel</a>. </p> <p> If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: <a href="tel:+12022243121">+1-202-224-3121</a> </p> </li> </dd> <dt><h3><a href="https://stallman.org/archives/2025-jan-apr.html#10_March_2025_(Urgent:_Defend_freedom_of_the_press)" target="_top"><b>Urgent: Defend freedom of the press</b></a><br><small><i>10 March 2025</i></small></h3></dt><dd> <p> US citizens: call on media companies to <a href="https://act.commoncause.org/petitions/media-companies-must-stand-up-for-free-speech-3">defend freedom of the press</a>, rather than let <a class=glossary href="/glossary.html#bully">the bully</a> intimidate them. </p> </li> </dd></dl> </div>  <div class="column3"> <hr /> <p href="#apocalypse" id="apocalypse"> The four factors of the apocalypse: <br />    global heating, global hating, <br />    global eating, global mating. </p> <hr /> <div id="comic-container"> <div id="comic"> <div id="comic-expand"> <a href="comics.html"><img src="images/expand_r.png" alt=""></a> </div>  <a href="/images/so-many-candidates.jpg"> <img src="/images/so-many-candidates-small.jpg" alt="So Many Candidates"> </a> </div>  </div>  <a href="comics.html">[More Cartoons]</a> <hr /> <br><br> <a href="https://stallman.org/facebook.html"><img src="/no-facebook.svg" alt="Not f'd. You won't find us on Facebook" width="200"></a> <p> Copy <a href="/no-facebook.svg">this button</a> (courtesy of R.Siddharth) to express your rejection of Facebook. </p>     <hr> <h3>E-books</h3> <p> <a href="/non-oppressive-ebooks.html">Non-oppressive Commercial E-books</a> </p> <hr> <h3>Don't use Facebook</h3> <p> Facebook's <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jun/14/facebook-facial-recognition-software">face recognition demonstrates a threat</a> to everyone's privacy. I therefore ask people not to put photos of me on Facebook; you can do likewise.</p> <p>Of course, <a href="/facebook.html">Facebook is bad for many other reasons as well.</a> <hr> <h3> <a href="harry-potter.html">Boycott Harry Potter Books, Movies, etc.</a> </h3> <br> <hr> <h3> <a href="/internet-music.html">Internet Music EULAS</a> </h3> <br> <hr> <h3> <a href="/business-supremacy-treaties.html">Business Supremacy Treaties</a> </h3> <br> <hr /> <h3> <a href="/stay-away-countries.html">Countries to Stay Away From</a> </h3> <br /> <hr> <h3>No national identity cards</h3> <p> I'd like to make a list of countries that do not require a national identity card, and have no plans to adopt one. If you live in or have confirmed knowledge of such a country, please send email to rms at gnu.org. <p> Here's my list of countries with no national ID cards and no plans for one: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK. Australia's previous government tried to institute national ID cards, but the Labor government dropped the plan.</p> <p>India has mostly finished imposing a national biometric ID number in a grand act of oppression. </p> <p>Switzerland has national ID cards which are optional, but they or some other government ID card are needed for some purposes. <p> Iceland doesn't have ID cards as such, but they have ID numbers that citizens are forced to use frequently. For example, the national ID number is often required to rent a video or use a gym. </p> <p> Denmark issues non-photo ID cards with a "person number", and many services use this card to identify people. </p> <p> Norway will impose a national <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Norwegian_citizens_now_required_by_law_to_give_their_fingerprint_to_the_police.html">biometric ID card</a>. </p> <p> <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/privacy-campaigners-concerned-over-national-id-card-by-stealth-1.3091209">Ireland</a> - national ID card by stealth. </p> <p> ACLU: the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/other/5-problems-national-id-cards">five dangers of national ID cards</a>. </p> <p> Wikipedia has a list of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_identity_card_policies_by_country">identity card policies by country</a>. </p> <hr> <h3>Borders</h3> <p> Stay away from certain countries because of their <a href="bad-border-policy-countries.html">bad immigration policies</a>. </p> <hr> <h3>Flight connections</h3> <p> Avoid flight connections in these airports because of their <a href="bad-connection-airports.html"> treatment of passengers</a>. </p> <hr> <h3>The Lifelong Activist</h3> <p> People often ask how I manage to continue devoting myself to progressive activism (such as the free software movement) for years without burning out. The best way I can answer is by recommending a book, <a href="https://hillaryrettigproductivity.com/the-lifelong-activist/"> The Lifelong Activist</a> by Hillary Rettig. <p>I disagree with the book on one theoretical point in the last part of the book: we shouldn't think of political activism as <em>being</em> marketing and sales, because those terms refer to business, and politics is something much more important than mere business. However, this doesn't diminish the value of the book's practical advice about borrowing techniques from marketing and sales.</p> <p>Disclosure: I am friends with the author.</p> <hr /> <p> <h3>Bob Chassell</h3> <a href="/Bob-Chassell/">Writing</a> (mostly science fiction) by my friend Bob Chassell who recently died. </p> <hr> <h3>Solidarity Economy and Free Software</h3> <p> <a href="https://stallman.org/solidarity-economy.html"> Personal Declaration of Richard Stallman and Euclides Mance on Solidarity Economy and Free Software.</a> </p> <hr> <h3>Falkvinge articles</h3> <p> <a href="/falkvinge.html">I have reposted some of Rick Falkvinge's articles.</a> As posted on his site, you can't see them in a browser without running some nonfree Javascript code which is apparently non-free. These versions show the same text, without the obstacle. </p> </div>  <div class="rest"> <hr> <h3> <a href="/longterm.html" id="long-term">Long-term action items</a> </h3> <hr> <h3> <a href="#politics" id="politics">Political Articles</a> </h3> <p> These are my political articles that are not related to the GNU operating system or free software. For GNU-related articles, see the <a href= "http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/">GNU philosophy directory</a>. You can also download copies of my book, <a href="https://www.fsf.org/faif/">Free Software, Free Society, 3rd edition</a>. <ul> <li> <a href="articles/propaganda.html">A way to recognize misleading political propaganda</a> (July 2024) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/magellan-just-a-name.html">Fight Modern Slavery, but Leave Astronomy Alone</a> (May 2024) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/benevolence.html">Let Benevolence Shine</a> (December 2023) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/virgin-of-emacs.html">What I learned about gender and language from talking about the Virgin of Emacs, and how I made use of that in practice</a> (October 2023) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/companies-snoop-on-students.html">Many governments invite schools to invite companies to snoop on students</a> (June 2022) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/lasting-peace-weaken-putin-not-ruin.html">To Endure, Peace Needs to Weaken Putin But Not Ruin Him</a> (March 2022) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/putin-forces.html">The Russian Army has become the Putin Forces</a> (March 2022) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/defining-racism.html">The definition of "racism" must not be formulated based on who the perpetrators are</a> (February 2022) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/corporate-landlords.html">Why we should get rid of corporate landlords, and an easy method</a> (August 2021) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/cooperative-internet-disservices.html">Worker-owned internet services can still be dis-services</a> (June 2021) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/necessary-changes.html">Necessary Changes in Society</a> (March 2021) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/toobin.html">On the Firing of Jeffrey Toobin</a> (November 2020) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/policing-police.html">The Broken Trust Model of Policing Police</a> (October 2020) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/clark-killick.html">An Extinction Rebellion activist comments about the London police by Clark Killick</a> (October 2020) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/real-privacy-laws.html">What sort of laws would give us real privacy?</a> (December 2019) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/microsoft-talk.html">My Talk at Microsoft</a> (September 2019) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/surveillance-ordinance.html">Surveillance Ordinance</a> (November 2018) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/ramayana.html">How the Ramayana endorses caste bias</a> (April 2018) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/genderless-pronouns.html">Better Genderless Pronouns in English</a> (April 2018) </li> <li> A <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/03/facebook-abusing-data-law-privacy-big-tech-surveillance">radical proposal</a> to keep your personal data safe. (April 2018) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/what-mary-had.html">What Mary Had</a> (May 2017) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/anonymous-payments-thru-phones.html">Anonymous internet payments using pay phones</a> (Apr 2017) </li> <li> When people are <a href="/articles/conscripted.html">conscripted by the DMCA into the War on Sharing</a>. (Dec 2016) </li> <li> If you feel your organization needs a <a href="/facebook-presence.html">"presence" in Facebook</a>. (Dec 2016) </li> <li> <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/surveillance-vs-democracy.html"> How Much Surveillance</a> Can Democracy Withstand? </li> <li> Yes, <a href="/articles/why-fear-surveillance.html">You Have Something to Fear</a>. (August 2016) </li> <li> A <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/13/something-to-really-miss-about-david-cameron"> proposal for resolving the dispute</a> over the South China Sea. (July 2016) </li> <li> Is <a href="/articles/duckduckgo-censorship.html"> duckduckgo.com partially enforcing</a> the "celebrity threesome injunction"? (May 2016) </li> <li> Adapting the Marseillaise to the <a href="/articles/chant-du-29-novembre.html"> greatest threat to civilization</a>. </li> <li> <a href="/articles/logo-sea-turtle.html">Proposing the Logo Sea Turtle — for Whales</a> (October 2015) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/when-should-body-cameras-record.html">Controlling When the Cameras Record</a> (August 2015) </li> <li> A few <a href="/articles/words-to-greece.html"> words to Greece</a> (June 2015) </li> <li> Fixing <a href="/articles/progressive-tax-on-business-gross-income.html">Too Big To Fail</a> (Apr 2015) </li> <li> <a href="/enslaved-workers.html">Enslaved Workers</a> </li> <li> <a href="/articles/hrant-dink.html">What I said about Hrant Dink</a> in my talks in Turkey (Apr 2015) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/planet-koch.html">Earth under attack from planet Koch</a>. </li> <li> <a href="/articles/fine-hiring-ex-officials.html">Fine government contractors for hiring ex-officials</a> (Feb 2015) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/witch-hunt.html">Suggestion to the target of a witch hunt</a> (Feb 2015) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/nonexistence-not-good-or-bad.html">Nonexistence</a> (Feb 2015) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/thermocene.html">The Thermocene Epoch</a> (Feb 2015) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/digital-voting-bad.html">Digital Voting.</a> (Jan 2015) </li> <li> My letter asking the judge not to sentence <a href="/articles/hammond.pdf"> Jeremy Hammond to prison</a>. (Jan 2015) </li> <li> It is a <a href="/evoting.html">bad idea to have computers count the votes in public elections</a>. </li> <li> <a href="/internet-voting.html">Internet Voting: don't even think of it!</a> </li> <li> The patent system is, at best, <a href="http://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/law/students/publications/llj/pdfs/45_1_stallman.pdf"> not worth keeping</a>. (February 2014) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/why-we-need-a-state.html">Why We Need A State</a> (November 2013) </li> <li> We can put an end to "too big to fail" with an <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUK261136661120130204"> innovative tax</a> that also defeats corporate tax-dodging. (August 2013) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/exxon.html">Exxon and the Letter Exx.</a> (April 1, 2013) </li> <li> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUK261136661120130204"> Fixing too big to fail</a> (February 2013) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2013/jan/21/hmv-loss-music-buying-cash">Why internet music "sale" is a bad deal.</a> (January 2013) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/online-education.html"> On-line education</a> is using a flawed Creative Commons license (September 2012) <a href="/articles/online-education.fr.html">French Translation</a> </li> <li> <a href="/articles/redistributable-scientific-publishing.html"> Redistributable Scientific Publishing</a> (April 2012) </li> <li> <a href="/articles/asked-to-lie.html">My Doctor's Office Asked me to Lie</a> (August 2011) </li> <li><a href="articles/responding-to-beggars.html">Responding to Beggars</a></li> <li><a href="articles/extreme.html">UK extreme pornography law</a>.</li> <li> My criticism of the <a href="/articles/zeitgeist.html">The Zeitgeist Movement</a>. The Venus Project is more or less the same idea. </li> <li> <a href="articles/states-union.html">The states need to form a union</a>. </li> <li><a href="/articles/political-articles.html">Additional Political Articles</a> are on a separate page</li> </ul> <h3> <a href="#notes" id="notes">Political notes</a> </h3> <blockquote> <em>"Those who profess to favor freedom, yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."</em> <div class="c3"> <a href="http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/doughtml/doughome.html">Frederick Douglass</a>, American Abolitionist, <a href="http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass#West_India_Emancipation_.281857.29">Letter to an associate, 1849</a> </div> </blockquote> <p> Here are notes about various issues I care about, usually with links to more information. The current notes are <a href="/archives/current.html">here</a>. For all previous notes, see <a href="/archives/index.html">this page</a>. <br> <p> See <a href="/repairing-links.html">this page</a> for information on efforts to maintain links in the political notes. <p> Political notes about the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, Italy are being archived on <a href="/genoa.html">their own page</a>. <h3>Media/Press/Bios</h3> <p> Richard Stallman's bio and publicity photos, and other things of interest to the press, have been moved to a <a href="/media.html">separate page</a>. </p> <h3> <a href="#travel" id="travel">Travel experiences</a> </h3> <p> <ul> <li> <a href="/articles/palestine-trip.html">How it happened</a> that I planned speeches at Israeli universities, then cancelled them. </li> <li><a href="http://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms">Richard Stallman's travel blog</a> and <a href="/restaurants.html">restaurants reviews</a></li> <li>My <a href="articles/machu.html">visit to Machu Picchu</a></li> <li>Stories about visits to <a href="articles/tikal.html">Tikal</a> and <a href="articles/greece.html">Greece</a></li> </ul> <h3> <a href="#travel_photos" id="travel_photos">Photos about my travels</a> </h3> <p> <ul> <li>Photos of me <a href="photos/rms-working/">working on my laptop</a> at various places</li> <li><a href="/photos/index.html">All of my photos</a>, organized by location, from my trips.</li> <li> <a href="/favorite-photos.html">Photos people like best</a>, among those I have taken and posted here. </li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201125151515if_/http://juliancash.com/view/rms2/set/medium_index.html">OSCON</a></li> <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20040630232452/http://juliancash.com/view/rms3/medium_index.html">More Photos from OSCON</a></li>  <li>my <a href="https://stallman.org/photos/switzerland/2003-RMS-Tour-de-Suisse/index.html"> visit to Switzerland</a> in May 2003 (and the same <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mum/sets/72157623706272563/"> photos at the original photographer's site</a>.)</li> <li>Some pictures from <a href="vaasa.html">Vaasa</a> where I slipped on icy ground in the airport, broke my elbow, and gave my speech by telephone from the hospital bed</li> <li>my <a href="/photos/greece">trips to Greece</a> </li> <li>In Singapore in March 2001, a <a href= "parrot-love.jpg">lovely parrot</a> (50k jpeg) became enamored of me, while others <a href="singapore-music.jpg">enjoyed my recorder playing</a> (91k jpeg)</li> <li>my <a href="/photos/china/2000/RMS_in_China_2000.html">visit to China</a> in May/June 2000. I also visited Tibet unawares, because nobody told me that JiuZhaiGou was part of Tibetan territory annexed by China since the conquest</li> <li>my visit to Brazil: some from <a href= "https://web.archive.org/web/20010613171306/http://www.cipsga.org.br/rmsinrio/">Rio de Janeiro</a> and some from <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20010613171306/http://www.cipsga.org.br/rmsinrio/">Porto Alegre</a> where the Software Livre 2000 event was held. <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060112234750/http://www.lugos.si/lugos/rms2000/pic/">my trip to Slovenia</a></li> <li>  A <a href="./rms-1.jpg"> photo of me</a> by Blake Livingston (may be used under CC-BY-SA). </li> </ul> <h3> <a href="#sci_links" id="sci_links">Scientific Links</a> </h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://arstechnica.com/science/2007/09/the-pseudoscience-behind-homeopathy/"> Homeopathy debunked</a>, and thoroughly, as pseudoscience. </li> </ul> <hr> <h3> Some <a href="#humor" id="humor">humor</a> </h3> <p> <a href="https://stallman.org/articles/the-berry-torture.html">The berry torture</a>. </p> <p> <a href="https://www.gnu.org/music/free-software-song.en.html">The Free Software Song</a>, by Richard M. Stallman. You can listen to a performance of the song: <a href="https://www.gnu.org/music/free-software-song-rhythmic.ogg">Free Software Song performed by Thor</a> Here is a variant of this song called <a href="https://blog.vimuser.org/free-firmware-song.html">"The Free Firmware Song"</a>. </p> <a href="/articles/planet-koch.html">Earth under attack from planet Koch</a>. </p> <p> <a href="/doxing.html">On doxing</a>, and how to spell it. </p> <p> <a href="/futon-physics.html">Futon Physics</a> </p> <p> <a id="ruleta-espanola" href="/images/ruleta-espanola.png">A Spanish cartoon: La Ruleta Española. <img src="/images/ruleta-espanola-small-alpha.png" alt="thumbnail" style="vertical-align:middle;"></a> </p> <p> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140208062623/http://shift-reset.com/blog/2013/12/24/The%20Night%20before%20M-x-mas/">The Night before M-x-mas</a> </p> <p> Here I am <a href="power-tie.jpg">wearing my "power tie"</a>. <p> <a href="https://harpers.org/archive/2021/01/pour-decisions/">Wine snobs</a> get their comeuppance.</p> <p> Here I am <a href= "IMG_5884.JPG">struggling to open a bottle of water</a>. <p> My application to an join Marian Henley's <a href="ex-boyfriends-list.html">ex-boyfriends list</a>. <p> My <a href="doggerel.html">funny poetry and song parodies</a>. <p> A song parody, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210308124953/http://aoeu2code.com/post/251">Colors of the Lisp</a>, by Jefferson Carpenter. </p> <p> The text to a <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/filk">filk</a> song, <a href="https://potrzebie.review/johnny.txt ">Johnny v. N.</a>, by Paul Rubin. </p> <p> <a href="comics.html">My Cartoons</a> <p> <a href="/puns.html">My Puns in English</a> (<a href="/puns.html#littleleague">Little Leaguer</a>, August 2019). <p> <a href="/spanish-puns.html">My Puns in Spanish</a> (New pun: <a href="/spanish-puns.html#apostasia">Apostasía</a> April 2019) <p> <a href="/french-puns.html">My Puns in French</a> (New pun: <a href="/french-puns.html#microsoft">Microsoft à l'école</a> July 2019) <p> <a href="/portuguese-puns.html">My Puns in Portuguese</a> <p> <a href="/italian-puns.html">My Puns in Italian</a> (New pun: <a href="/italian-puns.html#pesce">Quale pesce fa starnutire?</a> New 10/2018) <p> <a href="/german-puns.html">My Puns in German</a> (New 02/2016) <p> <a href="linguistic-swifties.html">Linguistic Swifties</a> (Now with: Wintu, Penutian, Cochiti, Taos, and Towa.) <p> <a href="/saint.html"><img src="/graphics/saint-button.png" alt="I am a Saint In the Church Of Emacs"></a> --<a href="/saint.html">Saint IGNUcius</a>-- The Church of Emacs will <a href="extra/church.html">soon be officially listed</a> by at least one person as his religion for census purposes. <p> There are no godfathers in the Church of Emacs, since there are no gods, but you can be someone's <a href="editorfather.html">editorfather</a>. <p> <a href="articles/texas.html">Stallman Does Dallas</a>: "I have to warn you that Texans have been known to have an adverse reaction to my personality…" <p> <a href="articles/yellow-hat.html">The Dalai Lama today announced the official release of Yellow Hat GNU/Linux.</a> <p> <a href="/articles/pre-zen.html">Pre-Zen Studies.</a> </p> <p> I found <a href="extra/bdk.html">a funny song about the Mickey Mouse Copyright Act</a> (officially the Sonny Bono Copyright Act) which extended copyright retroactively by 20 years on works made as early as the 1920s. <p> If you are a geek and read Spanish, you will love Raulito el Friki, who said "Hello, world!" immediately after he was born. Here's <a href="http://www.taringa.net/posts/linux/1289402/Raulito-el-friki:-Homenaje.html"> an archive of this now-defunct comic strip</a>. <p> <a href="http://disobedience.mit.edu/?p=813"> Sleeping with Stallman</a> at MIT. <p> <a href="/malentendido-gracioso.html">Un malentendido gracioso</a>. <p> ESR's favorite programming language: <a href="http://fdiv.net/2012/04/01/objectivist-c"> Objectivist C</a>. <p> <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20140701124736/http://americanextremists.thecomicseries.com/ ">American Extremists</a> <p> <a href="/articles/mouth.html">My Small Mouth</a> <p> <a href="/huns-writs.html">The huns and the writs</a>. <p> <a href="/articles/cluj.html">No Kludges in Cluj</a> (June 2014) <p> <a href="/images/P1010083.JPG">Hammer into Anvil</a> <h3> <a href="#fiction" id="fiction">Fiction</a> </h3> <p> <p> <a href="/articles/made-for-you.html"> Made for You</a> (December 2012) (<a href="/articles/made-for-you.html">local copy</a>) <a href="/articles/made-for-you.eo.html">Esperanto translation</a> </p> <a href="/articles/jinnetic.html">A science fiction story: Jinnetic Engineering</a> (<a href="/articles/jinnetic-portuguese.html">in Portuguese</a>, <a href="/articles/jinnetic-engineering.fa.html">Farsi</a>, <a href="/articles/jinnetic.es.html">Spanish</a>, <a href="/articles/jinnetic.hy.html">Armenian</a>, <a href="/articles/jinnetic.ru.html">Russian</a>, <a href="/articles/jinnetic.fr.html">French</a>, and <a href="/articles/jinnetic.it.html">Italian</a>). <p> <a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html">The Right to Read</a> <h3> <a href="#books" id="books">Books</a> </h3> <p> My book of essays about the philosophy of Software Freedom, is available from the <a href="http://shop.fsf.org/category/books"> GNU Press</a>. </p> <h3> <a href="#love" id="love">Stallman on Love</a> </h3> <p> <a href="articles/love-and-dance.html">Love and Dance</a> <p> <a href="articles/childhood-sweetheart.html">My Childhood Sweetheart</a> <p> <a href="articles/made-for-you.html">Made for You</a> <p> <a href="extra/personal.html">My Former Personal Ad</a> <h3> <a href="#non-political" id="non-political">Non-Political Articles</a> </h3> <p> <a href="/articles/dr-stallman.html">Am I Doctor Stallman?</a> </p> <p> <a href="/articles/avec-des-chapeaux.html">Avec des chapeaux</a> French song parody. </p> <p> My <a href="/RMSGeorgianMusicWUOG.ogg">radio program of Music from Georgia</a>, originally broadcast on WUOG in Athens, Georgia on Oct 13, 2014. </p> <p> <a href="/articles/trolley-problem.html">Resolving the trolley problem</a> <p> <a href="/articles/quantum-abortion.html">Quantum Theory and Abortion Rights</a> </p> <p> A <a href="/articles/castellano-sin-genero.html"> proposal for gender neutrality in Spanish</a>, suitable for both speech and writing. </p> <p> <a href="articles/posix.html">Origin of the POSIX name.</a> </p> <p> <a href="articles/on-hacking.html">On Hacking</a>: In June 2000, while visiting Korea, I did a fun hack that clearly illustrates the original and true meaning of the word "hacker". </p> <p> <a href="/articles/childhood-sweetheart.html">My Childhood Sweetheart</a> </p> <p> <a href="/articles/love-and-dance.html">Love and Dance</a> </p> <p>Predicting the attack on <a id="pearlharbor" href="pearlharbor.html">Pearl Harbor</a></p> <p> <a href="/articles/destruction-certificate.txt">Certificate of confusion</a> </p> <h3> <a id="links" href="/links.html">Links</a> </h3> <h3> <a href="#thanks" id="thanks">Thanks</a> </h3> <p> I would like to thank: <ul> <li>Positive Internet for hosting this web site.</li> <li>Graziano Sorbaioli for improving the layout of the main page.</li>  </ul> <hr> <p> Please send comments on these web pages to <b>rms at gnu period org</b>. <p> Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 Richard Stallman<br> Verbatim copying and redistribution of this entire page are permitted provided this notice is preserved.<br> Verbatim copying and redistribution of any of the photos in the <i>photos</i> subdirectory is permitted under the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/"> Creative Commons Noderivs license version 3.0</a> or later. You can copy and redistribute the photo of <a href="rms.jpg">me playing music to the butterfly</a> under the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"> Creative Commons Noderivs Nocommercial license version 3.0</a> or later. Any other photos of me in this (the toplevel) directory may be copied and redistributed under the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/"> Creative Commons Noderivs license version 3.0</a>  </div> </body> </html>