February 19

 We should have temps around 50F with some sun after early morning rain. It is still pre-dawn here so I can't see anything outside.

The Supreme Court is considering a case concerning Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. It seems nobody likes the law but for different reasons. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) thinks that a clean cancellation of is possible but everyone wants the law repealed but they want something to replace it and can't agree on the replacement. The basic problem is the big internet is we haven't decided what exactly what it is. It doesn't have the legal liabilities a print publisher has for defamation and slander and it is't held to account for the truth of what is posted as a clearly news site would. They sit in the middle denying any responsibility for content others create. However, a publisher can be sued for publishing a book or article which is deemed defamatory or slanderous and a news site can be sued, under certain conditions, for the same especially if the "news" is false and causes significant harm. The authors can also be sued. So someone has to define exactly what they are and write law which makes them accountable.

Found some fantastic "before and after" pictures of some of California's lakes and rivers. The do show a dramatic improvement but, and it is a big but, the improvement doesn't take the lake and river levels back to a pre-drought level. They aren't really even half way back. I checked out the Drought Monitor and all of California is still dryer than what was normal. In spite of the deluge of atmospheric rivers and the massive snow storms the meteorologists say February, normally a wet month, is, so far, very dry.