Spyke

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memes

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Every fucking time

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The one I gave works on other search engines too. There's also site:, which allows you to search within a specific site. E.g. searching for anarchism/marxism could be done by going for :

site:anarwiki.org/ council communism

You then get all pages from that site that mention council communism. Crucially, the site has to directly be after the : there. You can also use it for specific domains; for .org domains, you would then do

site:org anarchism

and so on.


You can also combine them, like:

site:anarwiki.org/ filetype:pdf anarchism

Another is apostrophes:

"word or phrase you search for"

If you do that, it will specifically only include results with those exact formulas, not something related to it. Again, also can be combined with the above.

--

Boolean strings ("yes/no") are also options, if you want to exclude specific options. You then you do -keyword.

For example,

"anarchism" -AI

tells the search engine: only give pages that mention anarchism, and no pages that mention AI.


Finally, there's the wildcard, where you do # or * or ? depending on the search engine. You can do:

queer pride in *

Which basically says to the search engine, search for anything that is like "queer pride in" AND has some other term in there. It lets you search more broadly. This is the only one I don't use often, because usually you need more specific information, but if you want to search further, that might be an option.

Go experiment around and test it all out! Hope it helps!

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What should I change?

You got great choices, actually. I'd only recommend to be as little dependent on multiple fronts on one company. So I'd change a few of Proton to something else. As long as Proton doesn't replace their CEO with an explicitly antifascist one, I don't know if they re a good spot.

Depending on how private communications must be, Threema might be better than Signal.

If you don't need to synchronise with others and your threat model is not physical attacks/theft, then agendas can be just on paper. Same for the calendar.


As for distro...

Mint is great (and honestly what I'd rec for people brand new to Linux). If you want to harden privacy/security more though, the following Linux distros might be better:

  • Fedora (any of them). It's an international upstream distro from Red Hat (American company, parent company is IBM). In other words, it's developed by the community, which is gathered in the Fedora Project. Their headquarters is in NC, USA. Red Hat then uses the community distro to make their own distro, and in return, finances Fedora. Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, uses it. If he trusts it, I trust it.
  • OpenSUSE Tumbleweed -, developed by the OpenSUSE community, backed by OpenSUSE from Germany. Pretty good all-arounder.
  • Arch Linux, developed internationally, but most devs are spread across Europe. Has an extensive wiki (that also is good for other distros), though it's not exactly "plug and play" and I'd rec it only if you know what you're doing.
  • Debian is another option if privacy is less of a concern for you, than it being FOSS. It's one of the most FOSS distros out there, and also highly independent and international.

I assume you want to use your distro as daily driver, and that your threat model isn't too severe. So the above ones should suffice.

If the threat model calls for it, or you're willing to sacrifice some usability for slightly more security, you could try QubesOS (arguably one of the most secure distros since it sandboxes everything as if they were a separate computer). Tails is another alternative, that's on a USB and forgets itself after usage.


For search engines...

... go for Qwant (French) or Ecosia (German). Both are European-owned and are busy constructing their own indexes (currently they still use Bing and Google). There's Mojeek (UK-based) which is independent.

I don't know how to block specific sites from popping up on them though, since I notice a certain trillionnaire's personal ""wiki"" pops up a LOT. Probably he's cheating and search bumping to spread his desinformation. It should be blocked.

Presearch also exists, which is decentralised and uses its own indexes. If you want OSS, there's SearXNG and YaCy which have metasearch options. Be careful in which instance you pick, though.

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Websites like Facebook, TikTok and Reddit. Their toxic algorithms try to make you angry on purpose, to keep you clicking. And watch what your kids are looking at online.

What I do is:

  • Don't click on or share fascist content (or whatever would demotivate antifascists from action), promoting or naming them in any way.
  • Whenever you see a fellow comrade using their stuff - and you know they'd reject fascism -, privately inform them to use different content.
  • Share more centrist and left-wing stuff with everyone. Not just politics, also just relaxing stuff.
  • With those inclined to fascism, share only non-polarising, boring content, and don't share their shit. Make them feel welcomed.
  • Block fascists from reacting on you, but don't block them from seeing your content. After all, exposure is key to deradicalisation and striving for the wellbeing of all.
  • Don't use Big Tech wherever possible. Use anti-authoritarian, left-wing, people-owned media. Only use big tech to get people off from there.
  • Vouch for the good people to join trade unions, strike and protest, to join a left party, participate in direct and mutual aid, and those willing enough, to train to be able to defend.
  • Don't share real names with each other. Use an anonymously paid VPN, cover yourself and your tracks.
  • And at the end of day, be kind for yourself - have some self-care. :3

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America vs Europe: Two Ways to Build a City

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Almost no streets are 100 m wide. Maybe it was originally in inches and the author didn't bother to convert units?

1000 x 0.0254 yields about 25.4 m, which would be pretty reasonable. Let's assume that all lanes are 4 m wide, which would be much more than normal. (Usually, they're closer to 3 m wide each, which would yield about 20 m; 2 m is included for the kerbs to separate traffic).

Then with 6 lanes (2 mainwalks, 2 bicycle lanes, 1 car lane + carriageway), you'd have 24 m. Give 1.4 m for some kerbs and then you get the 25.4 m.

@[email protected] , @[email protected] , I think I have the answer.^

Not all streets are like that, by the way. All of them have side/mainwalks, but not all have the other lanes. Within European cities, the streets are usually closer to 10 m wide.