Spyke

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support

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September 2025: Updates for the .worlds and call for donations

I’m trying to understand who (and where) to donate to here.

The blog post talks about various costs for the Worlds communities - the highest of which is server costs, and one line item is for “Monthly contribution to the FHF”. Then below, the donation links say “As a reminder, you can donate to FHF here”. So are those links for donating only to FHF? The Patreon link goes to “Mastodon.world (Fedihosting Foundation)”.

Some clarity here would be helpful so it’s easy for folks to understand who needs donations and where they can help with that.

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Elon Musk’s politics cost his firm Tesla more than one million EV sales, report reveals

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Or destroying the ozone layer.

Up to 4-5 Starlink satellites now burn up in Earth's atmosphere daily, releasing aluminum oxide particles that catalyze ozone destruction. Each 250kg satellite releases about 30 kg of aluminum oxide when it burns up, forming nanoparticles that persist in the stratosphere for 20–30 years, continuously damaging the ozone layer. With plans for up to 42,000 Starlink satellites (plus thousands more from other companies) all on 5-year replacement cycles, annual reentries could exceed 8,000 by the 2030s, adding 360 metric tons of aluminum oxide per year, 640% above natural levels.

The Montreal Protocol, which successfully phased out CFCs and enabled ozone recovery, does not cover aluminum oxide pollution from satellites. The FCC currently categorizes satellites as “extraterritorial activities” exempt from National Environmental Policy Act review, meaning no environmental assessment is required before launch approval. By the time the full impacts appear in the 2040s–2050s, the damage could be irreversible.

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A new exoskeleton to support workers in railways maintenance and renewal operations

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“Amtrak is a state-owned enterprise. This means that Amtrak is a for-profit company, but that the federal government owns all its preferred stock.”

“ Yes, your tax dollars (a tiny portion of them, at least) winds up keeping Amtrak trains on the tracks. Amtrak makes a significant portion of its money from ticket sales, but the company could not exist without the help of federal/state subsidies and billions of dollars in grants.

Amtrak typically sees between 1 and 2 billion dollars of federal money come its way each year. That’s roughly equivalent to a few thousandths of the federal government’s budget. If we took a super simple view of our tax bills, we could say that most Americans spend a couple bucks each year to subsidize Amtrak. Obviously, taxes are way more complicated than that, but it’s helpful to think about.

64% of Amtrak’s money comes directly from ticket sales. The rest comes from a combination of other things, most especially subsidies and grants, though investments and other business activities account for significant revenue as well.”

memes

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It's the better way

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Exactly. For a lot of people, the end of the day is your time. The beginning of the day is just getting ready and going to work. It serves the interest of the corporate employers to put more daylight (so to speak) at the start of the workday rather than letting us have that daylight for ourselves after work. It’s daylight theft!

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Plex increasing Lifetime Plex Pass cost to whopping $750

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The docker implementation on synology is pretty bad. I ran my setup on there for about a year before I got fed up. Ended up picking up a mini-pc and installing unraid on it, which has a much better way to run and manage docker containers. Only downside is having two machines now with the storage pool over the network. A bit more complications rather than direct attached storage.