notsoloud

vicgrinberg, 10 days ago to random

You don't owe anyone a follow (this includes me). Not even people you've been mutuals for a while. Not even people you know on real life. Not even people whose profile you check often.

Sometimes they just post too much. Or post stuff you don't want pop up on your list (but want to check on your terms). Or they start (re-)posting hate (you don't owe them a call out; especially not if you don't think it will go well). Sometimes they are lovely folks but just bore you with their favorite sports.

anderspuck, 14 days ago to random

Denmark has joined the group of countries allowing Ukraine to strike inside Russia with donated weapons. This has been announced by the Danish prime minister.

From: @TV2nyhederne
https://expressional.social/@TV2nyhederne/112522226707001951

kravietz, 21 days ago to Russia

#Russia has declared an intention to unilaterally extend its territorial waters on #Baltic sea in a way that collides with territorial waters of #Finland and #Lithuania. Russian Ministry of Defense (!) proposed to cancel the 1985 #USSR decision of demarcation of the sea borders and redraw them according to “new geographical references”, and then declare them “internal waters”.

Obviously, this looks very much like a poorly disguised attempt to create an strategic dilemma for #NATO by unilaterally opening a territorial dispute with two NATO members without really invading anyone yet. In case of NATO inaction the next step will be Russian actually enforcing their “new territorial waters” by threatening or sinking ships sailing to Finland and Lithuania. And if the inaction continues, the next step will be likely establishing “new geographical references” on one of the land borders of NATO countries.

Source: https://www.moscowtimes.ru/2024/05/21/rossiya-reshila-vodnostoronnem-poryadke-sdvinut-granitsu-slitvoi-ifinlyandiei-ibaltiiskom-more-a131403 (in Russian)

Alon, 23 days ago to random

Via @kechpaja, I'm learning of a proposed tram project in Turku: https://www.turku.fi/en/tramway

The projected cost is 344M€/12 km, which is sort of okay for France or Germany in the 2020s but higher than I'd expect given how low Nordic costs used to be.

Projected ridership is 22,000/day by 2030 and 43,600 by 2050; 15,636€/rider is fine for a tram these days (for a metro, it's very good).

kravietz, 25 days ago to infosec

Going through this excellent book by Shaun Pinner, much recommended! There’s many lessons to learn from this book but from my #infosec angle there are a few. Firstly, always keep an off-line maps app on your phone (I use OsmAnd). As a test — switch on airplane mode and try to survive for a day. Can you still navigate from point A to point B? Secondly, keep your social media profiles friends-only access. Thirdly, don’t keep any passwords in memory - it’s a bad practice from security point of view anyway, but I never thought about the interrogation angle. A password manager locked with biometrics and PIN and random passwords everywhere will prevent you from finding yourself in situation where you’ll be begging your interrogators to check another password because you might have remembered wrong.

futurebird, 25 days ago (edited 25 days ago) to random

Trump has said FOUR times that he will withhold federal funding from schools that require vaccines. Not just COVID. ALL.

This is most schools. This is hitting me where I work. This will lead to children dead from measles. It's obvious, inevitable.

Someone on here said they just couldn't bear to vote for Biden to keep Trump from office since at least under Trump there were better masking rules.

I hope that person sees this.

Worse is worse.

edit: because I don't know measles from smallpox

kravietz, 27 days ago to China

Outcome of #Putin visit to #China in terms of economic agreements signed:

• ✅ Agreement on supplies of Russian topinambour and beef by-products, particularly beef cartilage and stomachs to China
• ✅ Creation of a new nature reserve “Land of big cats”
• ✅ Cooperation between TASS and Xinhua news agencies
• ❌ Construction of Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline was not agreed

To me, these indicate an extremely close and strategic partnership between China and Russia, especially the beef cartilages are going to change the course of the world 😂

Source: https://www.moscowtimes.ru/2024/05/16/putin-ugovoril-si-tszinpina-pokupat-rossiiskii-topinambur-i-govyazhie-hryaschi-a130877

anderspuck, 27 days ago to random

No country should buy Swiss weapons before they change this policy. The ability to transfer weapons to each other in times of need has proven to be a strategic requirement.
https://mastodon.social/

kravietz, 28 days ago to Russia

Unconfirmed reports of heavy shelling of #Schetinivka (Щетинівка), a village in #Russia Belgorod oblast just next to the #Ukraine border. This could indicate Ukraine shelling a concentration of Russian forces preparing for another border incursion - as you can see on the map, there was no battle activity in that area previously.

hanse_mina, 1 month ago to Ukraine

#Ukraine is to start recruiting prisoners to fight against #Russia under a new law designed to bolster its frontline forces, including with men convicted of murder or fraud.

Using a tactic #Moscow has relied on to fill ranks since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, #Kyiv would begin to offer certain convicts a path to freedom if they are willing to join a combat unit.

https://www.ft.com/content/b5e43498-1cd2-422a-9db6-ca726c689bac

jackofalltrades, 1 month ago to climate

It's very clear how desperate green tech advocates are to paint the current developments as a win for the climate. But by doing so they only reinforce the status quo.

https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/04/17/wind-energy-saw-record-growth-in-2023-which-countries-installed-the-most

#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #climate #renewables #wind #solar #EnergyTransition

randahl, 1 month ago to random

This is awesome: 🙌🏻

The Baltic countries are raising the middle finger to Putin and switching their railway from the old Russian width to European width, and building an enormous railway all the way from Helsinki in Finland to Warsaw in Poland, where it connects to the existing European railway system.

249 kph means 3½ hour rides between European capitals — using clean electrical energy thereby helping our climate too.

B1M has a video about the Rail Baltica:

https://youtu.be/spQ4v0Y2FfM?si=PmTaLt_JQY_2gewt

jon, 1 month ago to random

When Enrico Letta speaks of significant gaps in Europe’s high speed train network https://orf.at/stories/3354759/ what should be built?

Rail Baltica, Lyon-Turin, Montpellier-Perpignan, Dresden-Prague, most of Madrid-Lisbon, lines across Poland are in planning

Ok, Ljubljana & Zagreb are hard. Faster to Budapest. Speed up Amsterdam-Hamburg/Berlin. Then what? High speed to Bucharest, Sofia, Athens?

ErikJonker, 2 months ago to Ukraine

It remains completely crazy that the US doesn't think it's a good idea that Ukraine strikes oil installations in Russia, while Russia keeps destroying civilian infrastructure like powerplants in Ukraine....
#Ukraine #USA #Russia
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2024/04/11/Ukraine-Russia-strikes-hit-energy-targets/6221712832960/

randahl, 2 months ago to random

I kid you not: Marjorie Taylor Greene has released a video on YouTube, where she says, “If I had it may way, we would have been successful on January 6, and [Joe Biden] wouldn’t even be president.”

That is the same woman, who claimed the violence on January 6 was started by federal agents disguised as insurrectionists. And now, she says, if “WE would have been successful on January 6”.

I wonder what the US Justice Department does now.

video/mp4

Loukas, 2 months ago to random

It's almost a year since I wrote this hopeful article about the state of social media and the potential of the Fediverse.

Looking at what I got wrong, I thought twitter would continue to collapse, rather than to stabilise in a stagnant way.

I also thought the Fediverse would continue to grow at a similar rate, rather than falling into its own stagnation.

https://freedomnews.org.uk/2023/04/28/social-media-is-dead-long-live-social-media/

kravietz, 2 months ago to China

#China was quite openly talking to its internal audience about its strategic goal of creating a dependency on themselves in “international supply chains”. Here’s Xi Jinping speech from 2020:

Firstly, we should stretch the long board, consolidate and enhance the international leading position of advantageous industries, forge some “ace card” technologies, continuously enhance the advantages of the whole industrial chain in the fields of high-speed railway, electric power equipment, renewable energy, communication equipment, etc. and improve the quality of the industry, so as to tighten the dependence of the international industrial chain on our country, and to form a strong counter-control and deterrent ability against artificial supply cut-offs by the foreign side.

Xi explicitly mentions two elements: energy systems and deterrence which leaves no place for ambiguity - this dependence is intended to be used as a weapon. This is literally what #Russia wanted to achieve in 2021 when it artificially raised gas prices, creating an artificial energy crisis in EU, hoping it will deter Europe from engaging on the side of Ukraine in 2022. But in case of Russia, the strategic dependence was gradually disarmed since 2000’s with initiatives such as EU Gas Directive (only one country continuously sabotaged it, actually increasing its strategic dependence on Russia with a new gas pipeline). In case of China the dependence is growing according to China’s plan - where Xi mentioned “renewable energy”, China now controls 80% of the global supply chain for PV manufacturing.

Source: https://www.xuexi.cn/lgpage/detail/index.html?id=13237620485782082031&item_id=13237620485782082031 (translation by DeepL)

janrosenow, 2 months ago to random

MEGA FACTCHECK: Heat pumps are the “central technology in the global transition to secure and sustainable heating” says the IEA.

But heat pumps still face relentless hostile media coverage. I comprehensively debunked 18 heat pump myths in Carbon Brief.

Find it here 👉https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-18-misleading-myths-about-heat-pumps/

CatherineFlick, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

Which? magazine had a very positive review of Simplisafe alarm systems this month and they apparently have a 45% discount til today. This information might be useful to someone!

Edited to add the very important ? that distinguishes between an informative post and a classic comedy sketch

w7voa, 2 months ago to random

Russia apparently jammed the satellite signal on an aircraft used by UK defense minister Grant Shapps to travel from Poland back to Britain for ~30 minutes while the plane flew close to Kaliningrad, forcing the plane to use alternative methods to determine its location, reports Reuters.

kravietz, 3 months ago to random

Did you realize that among other brilliant research on economics, Marx also was a mathematical genius who disproved derivatives?

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1881/mathematical-manuscripts/ch03.html

w7voa, 3 months ago to random

Honda's CR-V e:FCEV will use a hydrogen fuel cell powertrain jointly developed with GM and be assembled in Ohio for delivery this year to Japan and California. https://www.autonews.com/mobility-report/honda-cr-v-fuel-cell-built-ohio-sold-japan