Perhaps you can find inspiration from Daryl Davis, who convinced 200 Klansmen to give up their robes.

https://www.npr.org/2017/08/20/544861933/how-one-man-convinced-200-ku-klux-klan-members-to-give-up-their-robes

I saw a documentary once that said that elephants are starting to be born without tusks. Male & female. It’s evolution in action. It’s sad to me, but life finds a way.

There was a sea turtle at an aquarium that I visited with a 3d printed shell, so why not this?

I’d prefer to use the confiscated tusks to beat the poachers with. After that, they should give them back.

I researched this a little while ago. The new protocol is licensed by Google and has not been released to the public. Also, unless everyone in the middle supports the protocol, messages are routed through Google’s network.

I settled on Signal for people who will switch and SMS for the rest. I do plug Signal when I can, like sending images between Apple & Android are degraded, but not on Signal.

I heard something on a radio show during Covid on how to talk to people who have “gone down the rabbit hole”. It was discussing MAGA as a cult. The guest on the show was a woman who was raised in a cult in the 70’s and she “got out” and spent her time talking with others in the cult to help them to break free. I can’t find a reference to the show, but I think it was Carrie Miller hosting.

My takeaway was that you can’t come at people and tell them that everything they know is wrong and you will show them the way. They’ll fight you. You need to deprogram them similarly to how they were programmed into the cult. Small bits, here and there to slowly guide them to questioning their beliefs. Once that happens, show them how to research and seek out information and let them know that they will be safe.

If someone found a link to the podcast/radio show, I’d be super happy.

I think what we’re dealing with, in part, is a collective action problem. There’s a lot of people who want to do something but either don’t know what to do or don’t agree on what to do. It’s one way that a minority population can stay in power.

What an individual can do is miniscule compared to a crowd. Also, some people are willing to break laws to make change and others are not.

I landed on Tandoor. I had a bunch of recipes on one of those web sites and they switched to a subscription model and locked me out of my recipes. I don’t remember why I chose Tandoor over Mealie, but having full ownership over my recipes is freeing.

What’s the deal with VPNs? I noticed many instances don’t work over VPN but didn’t know where to ask.

I do on all my devices that can as a matter of practice, not for any real threat. I’m interested to learn about how to set it up and use it on a daily basis including how to do system recoveries. I guess it’s largely academic.

Once I switched to linux as my daily driver, I didn’t have a need to do piracy anymore since all the software I need is FOSS.

You’re both right. I’d do the same to jump ship before the enshitification sets in. Often, I’ve seen how innocuous policy and feature changes creep in and before you know it, the switching costs are too high.

I had an app on my phone and one day they removed the export function. I only used it for backing up my data but when they raised rates and started slamming with ads, I wanted to leave but could not take my data with me. I ended to just uninstalling and starring over elsewhere.

Also, this is exactly what happened to reddit. They cut the api first so it was harder to take your communities and saved stuff with you.

I scrolled way too far to find exercise. Not that you’re going to fall asleep within 5 minutes of returning from a run, but it really does work. Among other things, aerobic exercise will help with stress, sleep, some back and joint problems, helps you to eat less and burn more calories.

On another note, I heard something in a podcast or radio show that said that a special type of breathing exercise is as good as exercise for many of these things and will fool your body. Obviously, it won’t build muscle, but it may help with sleep and stress.

I was surprised to hear that a coworker suscribes to one of the streaming services to stream shows from PBS. First of all, it’s free OTA. Second, I think they have an app.

Do you think this would make enough people mad enough to get their representatives to do something about it?

I find your parents’ mindset interesting. They trust the big companies but not the government (I assume the list is a government list). Do they know that the big companies harvest data and make it available for sale, even to the government? It’s a loophole.

This is only partially true in the situation the poster named. What if your secrets are from the government or governmental organization? What if you live under a repressive regime where the law firms are either corrupt or that the law is not in your favor?

That being said, I have a will and a bank safe deposit box. It is filed with the state that I have a will and the will is (also) in the safe deposit box along with stuff that I’d prefer not be released until my death. There’s also a clause in the will that says something to the effect that if somebody sues to invalidate the will, they are automatically excluded from any benefit (or responsibilities). Also, if an individual is found to be somehow responsible or had an intentional involvement in my death, then they are also excluded.

It’s not air tight, but works for my needs. By the way, I don’t have any company or government secrets, it’s just normal family drama, so please don’t kill me.

I’ve been using Noscript on firefox for a while. It basically blocks any JavaScript (and other stuff) unless you specifically allow it. It’s not something that I would recommend for a casual user, because it breaks lots of sites. By using it, I’ve discovered how much nonessential stuff is jammed into your browser. Most of it is analytics and tracking. One home improvement store has over 25 scripts when less than a quarter are needed for a functioning site.

Some of the biggest offenders: offenders:

• home improvement stores
• car dealerships
• some big box retailers

Also, a shoutout to decentraleyes, a plugin to use local copies of JavaScript code so that it’s not downloaded (and reported back to) Google.

You look at your weekly pill container to know what day of the week it is.

This is getting off topic from the original post, but I did hear an interview on NPR of a few ways to lift the 2 party system. The only one that I can remember now is that each state would need to pass a law to allow the state to split theIR electoral votes. IIRC, Maine and Oklahoma(?) do this. The result is that if a state has 5 electoral votes, they would split the electoral votes amongst the candidates. If I remember the example right, Maine sent 2 votes for Trump, 2 for Harris and 1for someone else.

Initially, this would weaken the state’s country-wide impact, but as more states vote in such a system, it would allow independent candidates to secure a foothold. I imagine that if all states did this, the net effect would be to have the 2 parties that we currently have soften their stance on things in order to secure votes that would normally have been lost to the independent.

I very much enjoy online shopping and am not nostalgic for driving all over town to find a part or thing only to settle for something that’s a partial match for what I want and much more than I wanted to spend. If a local retailer happens to have what I am looking for, I’m more than happy to purchase it in store, but almost always know exactly where it is in the store and how many are in stock.

If by “no, not even now”, you’re referring to how the incPliny US administration is basically Ronald 2.0, I’m right there with you.

• Let’s Make America Great Again
• star wars
• even the assassination attempts