@Servais haven’t really watched it since 2 years ago. Not really into this geopolitical song contest anymore. I prefer finding stuff on YouTube, Spotify, Bandcamp or wherever I have an account.

Long overdue. He should have gone after the handling of last year’s elections

@mesamunefire The latest find, highly underrated, is @flwwhtrbt (also posting under @PerfectDark on !steamdeck@sopuli.xyz) posts about the latest gaming stuff on Linux and in general. Highly informative imo and not overwhelming with posts.

Then I get my memes from @nonfedimemes and @memes.pixelfed. I also liked @DarthPutinKGB, but it now it appears to have stopped posting.

There’s also my page called @cheamaminerii where I post infrequent updates about the health condition of Romania’s 1st president, Ion Iliescu, charged for crimes against humanity (currently mostly posting about the fact that he’s alive - which is what trăiește means).

There’s also @FoxNews which posts the latest news about foxes. Highly recommended if you want to stay up to date in this regard.

For serious news, some of the journalists I recommend following are @timkmak @kevinrothrock @w7voa @anneapplebaum plus other big publications, which have enabled federation via their Flipboard account, like @BBCNews or which they have an actual Mastodon presence like @theintercept @arstechnica or @Bellingcat

Other creators that I like are @silentbeauties (posting about vintage movies and actors), @Astro_benny (Italian NASA astronaut, posting about all things space) or @notjustbikes (yes, the real one).

Last but not least, there are some bots that reply to you with some various stuff if you tag them:

• @scream
• @bees
• @sandwich

Well, you can easily tell if an envelope has been tampered with. For email, on the other hand, it’s more difficult for the average folk. And again, Gmail is also sharing information with the government (okay, it’s mostly the US government, but still).

Imo, we need more providers like Proton, Tuta, Mailbox dot org etc. and probably more education into how one could protect their data and so on.

Having the government provide email as a public communication service sounds good in theory. However, this could also pose a privacy risk if your government turns rogue and authoritarian. If it is possible to also have this communication E2E encrypted in a way that is as frictionless as possible (no, PGP is not really that frictionless unless it’s built in), it would be great. However, we all know what is the general take of governments regarding E2E encryption, so I think I’ll pass this one.

@cm0002 I mean, it just plays on Trump&co.'s bigger strategy of shitting on Europe all over, so siding with the US might be a losing game for Europe in the long run. I think that, for the short term, Europe should have an ambiguous position, as it gradually rips its links from the US, but still supporting Ukraine in parallel to get back to its 1992 established borders one way or another. After all, recognizing Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea brings a huge blow to the post-WWII system and if these principles will no longer be enforced in any way by anybody, then this would encourage other countries to solve their disputes through force as well if they side with a permanent member of a security council.

After this point, there’s only one small step left until WW3

Fingers crossed for Flygsystem 2020

Here in Romania, much of what was left of our steel production was going to the US. This will hit us very hard.

Because surely someone asked about this /s

Didn’t they need some money for the arms industry? How will pumping the money into restricting this help out?

Would moving to the UK be an option? I remember they were a frequently used option by governments.

About time someone should have done this already. Well done, Sweden!

Russky Mir

@zaxvenz One of the few moments I’m proud of my country. Probably the annulment of elections last autumn here made other European countries aware that not anyone can run for a public office if they act against democracy. We also had another candidate that was barred from entry two times, but that one was more prominent than Călin-Russian-wisdom-Georgescu.

@latenightnoir well, we needed a landmark and the US was there for us right as we left communism. However we mostly failed to internalize its values and we kept things going even after joining the EU. Most of the European values seem like they’re more at home in the Western Europe (France, Germany, Austria, BeNeLux, the Scandinavian countries, hell, even the UK) than in Eastern Europe and in particular in Romania (can’t really tell about how our former Warsaw pact neighbors are doing).

For most of the population (except most of the richer and educated class in the bigger cities), America is the land of the brave, home of the free, the land of all possibilities that they see in those cheap Hollywood movies they see on TV every evening.

@zaxvenz kinda common among European conservatives. They all act like everything’s business as usual and we can still rely on the US and the West still has a collective voice. Here in Romania basically everyone is interpreting the White House administration’s policies as a good thing (edit: or at least fairly justified). They’ll be in for a surprise in the next 4 years.

I got it now. Thanks!

@tristipasta@feddit.org wrote:

True, but the primary advantage comes from the Earth’s rotational speed rather than a significantly weaker gravitational field. The Earth’s rotation provides an additional velocity boost to rockets, which helps reduce the fuel needed to reach orbit.

Right, that was it!

So this means that they will only do launches during a specific time of the year?

@tristipasta I thought it was more effective to launch the rockets from as close to the Equator as possible, as the gravitational field is less strong and so you need less fuel to take off.

That’s why US also launches rockets from Florida and the USSR and later Russia used/uses the Baikonur facility in Kazahstan.

Weren’t we already launching rockets from the French Guiana?

They’re good enough as well. Economics beyond the digital world, so there are plenty of things that can turn into a pain in the ass if missing.

(of course I wouldn’t mind taxing FAANG either though)