Sven Slootweg @joepie91@pixie.town

You can extinguish tear gas canisters!

Wearing heat-proof gloves, submerge the canister in a wide-mouthed water jug containing baking soda, dish soap, and/or vegetable oil—3 tablespoons of each per liter of water.

Cover the top with one hand, just enough to keep the gas from getting out, and shake the jug.

Never seal a bottle containing an active tear gas canister—you don't want it to explode.

One role you could play at demonstrations is to show up prepared to protect your fellow human beings from toxic gas, in case the mercenaries deploy it.

You can learn more here:

https://crimethinc.com/RiotMunitions

@drahardja
I saw a website for a US General Strike asking people to sign up.

Nope. We can't ask people to RSVP to a potentially nefarious actor.

Offline will be the new mode. I'm old enough to remember when utility poles were so encrusted with posters that they posed a danger to city workers who needed to climb them.

In some cities it is illegal to put posters on utility poles. So what? Now is not the time to follow laws that make no sense.

Privacy is intrinsically intertwined with politics. Each change in governance can have serious effects on privacy rights and privacy tools, for better or for worse. Let's examine with concrete examples how politics affect legislations that can have an immense impact on the privacy tools and features we use.

https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/02/03/the-future-of-privacy/

#privacy #politics #surveillance

Note also that the linked bug implies that the NixOS Foundation hadn't actually submitted their tax documents to the authorities for at least 3 years. The NixOS Foundation pays every year 1000€ for a part time admin assistant as well as 1600€ for a tax consultancy. Good use of sponsor and donation money if you ask me!

(source: https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixos-foundation-financial-summary-a-transparent-look-into-2023/43640)

More than 6 months ago I was posting here about the fact that the #nixos leadership transition was a complete joke, illustrated by the fact that the board announced they were replacing edolstra (board chair at the time) but clearly didn't: https://mastodon.delroth.net/@delroth/112487150789866814

You'll be happy to hear that as of today, edolstra is still board member, both "on paper" (officially) and also in practice, as proven by e.g. https://github.com/NixOS/foundation/issues/182

Nothing changed since May 2024 and the board lied as usual.

🫠

Railroad Tycoon's Western US map, at full zoom.

(This image is 4064x3040)

@catsalad best synergy of Thinkpad lid led, and sticker I've found so far

I said a while back:

I've been on HRT for a couple years now so I've seen a lot of changes when looking into mirrors, but the most important one is that the person on the other side seems to be smiling more.

this is connected to a deeper cultural thing i've been reflecting on which is the western(/global north?) expectation that we can just show up in any country w/o knowing their language, laws, and customs and expect to be treated graciously. a conference essentially attempts to install a miniature version of the (supposedly) "international" academic culture in a little bubble where its interaction w/local culture amounts to the equivalent of tourism, creating similar class tensions

I’d just like to point out that “removing all references to gender identity from official materials” sounds a lot like a mandate to use singular they at every occasion from a malicious compliance standpoint.

From @aeirlys.bsky.social

hey if any of you work on phone alarm clocks, i have exactly one feature request

if i set a one-time alarm, ie i did not actively schedule it to repeat and it will not repeat, give me the option to have it auto-delete so i dont have to clean them all up every few weeks

Hello! ✨🎲✨

I'm new to handmade.social and I'm a dicemaker, here are some dice I've made in the past:

some opinions about academic conferences:
- i think talking to each other in person is good and important.
- the ideal of the "inclusive international conference" doesn't exist. one can only make intentional decisions about what kinds of inclusion to prioritize.
- it's a problem that junior folks are expected to attend big international conferences regularly in order to advance their careers, especially when their circumstances are by default *not* prioritized as inclusivity criteria

If I post a blog URL to Mastodon, it immediately gets hits from hundreds or thousands of Mastodon servers worldwide.

You know what doesn't get hits? robots.txt .

That seems like an oversight.

@mjd perhaps we need a modern variant of the trn warning before you hit Post

Was thinking this morning about LGBT folks who made a real impact - ones who inspire people. Immediately came to mind people like Alan Turing and Wendy Carlos - but I know there are many, many more.

Who inspires you?