So many Chinese character tattoos are done in the Chinese equivalent of boring Arial 10 font though, that's part of the point. The one in the photo is at least hand written, but by someone with poor aesthetic sense, it still looks dull and ugly.

Looks like a JVC RC-660

The guys in the back both have some kind of Grundig - probably C260 or similar.

Here are a bunch of Grundigs as well, also in Poland.

Even more here

Edit: found the same guy as well

YouTube video ads can't be blocked with just DNS blocking unfortunately, they are served from the same hosts as YouTube videos.

The history of Taiwan is quite a bit more complex than that, but the PRC (current government in mainland China) has never controlled Taiwan - it was never theirs.

Taiwan was a Japanese colony from 1894 until 1945 when Japan was forced to hand it over to the ROC (the successor government to the Qing dynasty, which was the last time you could argue China controlled the island - the Qing managed to almost fully colonize it before losing it to the Japanese, although a lot of the mountainous parts of Taiwan were still mostly autonomous at that time and inhabited by aboriginal Taiwanese who continued to resist the Qing rule)

The ROC takeover of the island is also seen as another colonization by many Taiwanese as well - the descendants of the Qing era colonists who were mostly Hokkien speakers from Fujian, while the ROC migration in 1949 was mostly Mandarin speakers from wider China, who fairly brutally imposed their rule over the island (see 4 decades of martial law, etc.)

ROC managed to reform itself over time, and Taiwan is now a vibrant democratic country which is forging its new national identity where most people would prefer to be left alone to control their own affairs.

Poland was not part of the USSR...

It's a play on this trope

Despite China's rapid adoption of renewables, their fossil fuel usage is also still climbing, while it is declining in the US.

Both total and per capita

Fossil fuels also still account for a larger share of electricity generation in China compared to US.

The "youth camp" back in the period these were drawn likely refers to a youth labor camp (rather than a recreation camp) These were a common thing during socialism - basically high school and college students were "volunteered" to help with seasonal labor (often crop harvesting) when school was out, and sometimes with large construction projects, irrigation/drainage, etc. It was generally unpaid and more or less mandatory work, but also an opportunity to live in a camp with other young people for the summer and socialize, so most people remember them quite fondly.

Lost of photos here from that period, as an example

He's playing Penderecki

Most Polish people would disagree. Poland got pretty fucked in ww2, from all sides, but at least they managed to hold on to some of their sovereignty and not be forced to join USSR as a Soviet Republic.

This partially allowed the democratization movement to form in Poland in the 80s (with Solidarność) and eventually for Poland to get out from under Russia's boot and join the EU and NATO, and avoid the fate of former Soviet Republics like Belarus and Ukraine.

You can have a Linux distro without GNU -Alpine Linux is a popular example

The kids always adapt though.

There is a strong survivorship bias in this though. Some kids do adapt, maybe even most, but many still are harmed, and have been by unhealthy exposure to radio, television, videogames, etc. in the past. Social media is even wreaking havoc in the older generations right now.

It's easy to point at the survivors and the success stories and say see, there is nothing to worry about - but that's also a bit like pointing at the lifelong smokers who do not get lung cancer as an argument against promoting non-smoking.

+1 for MoCA

I switched from powerline to MoCA about 10 years ago, and it was a huge step up. Even though it's half duplex, since MoCA version 2.5, there is enough total bandwidth available to sustain 1 Gbps in 2 directions simultaneously, so it is functionally almost equivalent to full duplex 1 gig Ethernet (except for few ms of extra latency)

There are different Chinese fonts (in print/computer context) and also different Chinese historical scripts, each with different styles of writing, and finally a very diverse variety of calligraphy styles.

The idea of what is considered "old", "fancy" and "fancy old" doesn't necessarily map the same way as it does in Latin/Western writing in general, the cultural and historical sensibility and connotations are often quite different, although in most broad sense, you could find some style analogues to achieve a similar vibe, but it would be quite context dependent.

You have to realize that popular culture was very tightly controlled and restricted by the Polish communist government at this time. This photo was taken at the Jarocin festival, which was a rare chance to see many bands play that otherwise had no radio play or record contracts and often played styles of music that were viewed with great suspicion by the establishment. Recording these live performances and trading tapes was often the only way people got to hear many of these bands.

I grew up in a neighboring country during this time, but I wasn't much into the rock scene then - I was into folk music, which had a similar scene in my country - many folk artists were straight up banned by the government, so it was impossible to hear them on the radio or buy their records, but tape recordings of live performances existed and were traded among the fans. Same of my favorite music from this period only existed in this form. There were even recordings of shows that got shut down by the police mid-set.

The 80s were a period of economic stagnation in eastern Europe, resulting in a lot of pent up anger and angst in the youth, and at the same time, the establishment was slowly losing its grip on the population. As a result artists were getting increasingly bold in channeling this anger and dissatisfaction, of pushing the boundaries of what was allowed, sometimes crossing them and getting slapped down - but you never knew what could happen at a large gathering of the youth back then - taping was an important tool to document and spread this to the wider population.

It was the 90s.. rules were different then ! I still have my white pants deep in the closet somewhere.. they haven't seen the light of day in a while though :)

I worked at Bell Labs back when this photo was taken - my office pretty much looked exactly like this, chair, furniture, Sun SPARCStation on the floor...

Bjarne still rocks white pants sometimes to this day though ! And the same haircut - he really committed to the look :)

This is true, however you can still be targeted for extra checks by both customs and immigration if they have a reason to suspect you, even when departing the US. Both CBP and ICE have access to departing passenger lists.

For example you are required to declare larger sums of cash being carried out of the country (over $10k). You are supposed to go to customs and fill out a form, but many people do not know this, often legal immigrant workers taking cash back to their home countries. CBP uses dogs trained to smell cash and patrols departure lounges in airports, and if they pick you out, you can be searched, and any undeclared cash will simply be seized if found.

It's easy to imagine with the current administration they could start targeting people based on social media posts or some kind of previously compiled political profile or "enemies" list or whatever, if they aren't already.

Expat is short for expatriate, not ex-patriot. Both expatriate and patriot do come from the same Latin root (patria, fatherland) via French.

But yes, expatriate means someone who lives outside (ex) of their fatherland (patria) - can be used for both immigrant or emigrant, depending on context.

Closeup for anyone interested

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