Ken Padgett

  Despite insisting it is not a media company and is not in the business of making editorial judgments, Facebook is all too happy to censor user-generated content. Facebook censors operate under a cloak of anonymity, with no accountability to users. Facebook Auto Censorship H ave you ever tried to post a comment and got a message saying, " U nable to post comment - try again?"  Or  "An error occurred . Please Try again in a few minutes"? And no matter how long you wait, you keep getting the same error?   H ave you ever had a Facebook post rejected becau se of an "unsafe link"? The link could be a web page or an image that Facebook decides is "unsafe."   H ave you ever had a Facebook post rejected becau se Facebook decided your comment "seems irrelevant or inappropriate"? T he primary way Facebook flags and takes down content is via automated algorithms. As with any automat ed system examining content , ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/03/31/its-our-central-hub-for-clean-energy-science-trump-wants-to-cut-it-massively/?utm_term=.434a45acb93c Sounds bad, but I'm not sure these cuts are all that terrible. And despite the headline, the proof that they "helped make solar power affordable" is non-existent. American-made solar panels generally cost from 80¢ to $1 per watt (W) – about 10-30¢ more per watt than imported panels. And where do most of the panels installed in the US come from? China, of course. So, the prices on installed systems have come down because of innovations in manufacturing made by China and result ing competition from China. We are already way behind. Beyond that, any innovations that might arise from US government-sponsored research will go directly to US manufacturers. Will they ever pass the savings on to consumers without the competition from China forcing them to do so? Not likely. So, what have we be...