I'm looking for "dumb phone" recommendations.

Must-haves:

- No internet
- MP3 player (ideally lossless hi-res with FLAC support)
- No pre-installed Meta/Google/Microsoft/Amazon apps
- Bluetooth 5.0+
- USB-C
- Flashlight
- Calendar
- Calculator
- Basic camera (quality not important)
- No ads (looking at you, KaiOS)

I searched online but couldn’t find anything that meets the above criteria. Nokia 5310 (2024) is close, but it comes with root Facebook (😖), with no possibility to uninstall.

Far-right candidate is set to win the Polish presidential elections.

Once again, when looking at the election map, the same split between the right (east) and the left (west) has emerged—a tale of two countries.

Modern Poland is a made up place, with current borders having been drawn out of thin air by Allied forces after WW2.

In fact, the concept of a "nation" is much more modern than most realise; some speculate it came into existence with the advent of media and mass propaganda.

#Poland

@Andii @ChrisMayLA6

Yes, you are correct. By Reform I meant any neoliberal far right party.

@ChrisMayLA6

Yesterday, it occurred to me that if we consider the fact that Keir Starmer was ‘selected’ by the ‘establishment’ precisely for the purpose of shifting Labour voters to Reform, all of the government’s actions start to make sense.

They seem not to understand the economy nor their voters, but maybe that’s the whole point?

#UKPol

@John_Loader @GeofCox @ChrisMayLA6

UK Gov rail support (2023): £21.1 billion.

“RMT report [2023] finds that between 2006 and 2022, the train operating companies invested just 1% of the money spent on the railways.

Train company bosses take little risk with their capital but have benefited from profits before tax, of 126% of the capital invested by rail operators.
 
65% of profits are locked away in shareholder dividends (…).”

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rail-companies-raking-in-profit-and-stripping-the-railways-of/

@ChrisMayLA6

I admire the German Deutsche Bahn model:

1. Buy and run four private train companies in the UK, including London Overground and the Grand Central line.

2. Charge Brits up to £2 per mile.

3. Use profits made in the UK to subsidise German train tickets (58€ per month, unlimited travel).

At least one nation has benefited from Thatcher’s privatisation.

I do not and will not post links to YouTube.

Apart from this one.

This musician deserves all the monetisation she can get. Incredible work!

That wee chuckle at the end is what pure joy sounds like.

Please like and share.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KKuEw3mHGc&pp=ygUYRGF2aWthaCBjYXJhdmFuIHdoaXBsYXNo

Two pictures from last week’s walk.

(Yes, it really is that green in Scotland.)

#wildlife #WildlifePhotography

Linguistic Tree of Borean Language Families proposed by Sergei Starostin, 2002. It encompasses nearly all language families worldwide.

🔴 Red = Extinct
🟢 Green = In Use
⬆️ Up = Old
⬇️ Down = Young

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/BoreanLanguageTree.png

#linguistics

@mrundkvist

I will miss NASA too.

However, other agencies aren’t really slower. The Western news cycle has been dominated by NASA (there is only so much information one can absorb per day), which makes it seem like the US is ahead of others. This is only true for certain—mostly a few decades old—missions, but there are areas where the US is trailing behind.

JAXA’s Hayabusa asteroid mission was 13 years ahead of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx.

CLEP is 8 years ahead of Artemis.

Etc.

@AstroHyde

Moreover, if you turn your toaster sideways, you eliminate the need for an oven or an air frier.

@avlcharlie

Your browser has a unique fingerprint.

Why not use the Mullvad Browser (https://mullvad.net/en/browser), built by the Tor and Mullvad teams? It is far superior to any other browser when it comes to safety and privacy, especially if you already use their VPN (additional blending in with the crowd).

As for testing tools, C.Y.T. is good but https://browserleaks.com offers more detailed information. I also recommend https://dnsleaktest.com for more thorough dns leak tests.

Up close with a baby hare.

It grazed, stretched, and scratched, blissfully enjoying a nice warm day.

I snapped a few pictures and left quietly without disturbing it.

Aberlady, Scotland

#wildlife #WildlifePhotography

Hare Yoga

#Wildlife #WildlifePhotography

@arstechnica
@GossiTheDog

Please see the thread above with comments. It should be a much bigger story.

Cc @jwildeboer

@owiecc

Arrangeable (adj.) - That can be arranged (especially in a specified manner).

Antonym - unarrangeable

Example sentence: “A spacious and flexibly arrangeable room which can work with the dining space to either the front or rear.”

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/arrangeable