The European Union will start taking fingerprints and "facial scans" of all visitors.

Can anyone tell me what a "facial scan" is, and how it differs from an ordinary photograph?

I have refused to go to countries that demand fingerprints. Refusing to visit Europe is too big a sacrifice for me, so I will yield in that one case.

That does not mean I will yield to similar demands from other countries. If there is one defensive position you can't hold, that is no reason to surrender them all! I will continue to refuse to visit the other countries that demand fingerprints, such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Argentina, unless I can bypass the system.

Of course, I will also not visit China.

In addition to the enshittification of individual web sites, the general practice of online sales is suffering collective enshittification as described here.

*Is the US going to approve the single biggest fossil-fuel expansion on earth?*

* Bipartisan [US] bill would require hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, surgical centers and pharmacy managers to publicly post prices.*

I think this will help block the tendency to gouge patients, but I suspect that putting an end to that tendency will require deeper changes — for instance, breaking up the large corporate chains and excluding for-profit business from treatment of patients.

British playwrights, actors and directors wrote to Israel calling for release of the members of the Jenin Freedom Theater. who were jailed a week ago.

My comments on the Palestinian boycott-divestment-sanctions policy.