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"We live in a moment where critique risks flattening into instinct, where binaries do not merely polarize, but offer the illusion of coherence. Liberal humanism and conservative militarism, in their…"
Singapore’s vibrant martial arts scene offers families a chance to foster fitness, discipline, and bonding through taekwondo classes. OP Academy excels with its family-focused Taekwondo class Singapore programs at Yishun Sunshine, Linear Green at Bedok, and Marine Drive Gardens, catering to taekwondo for kids Singapore and adult self-defence. This martial arts school creates a nurturing environment where Kids' martial arts and Self-Defense Class Singapore thrive with a bully-proof curriculum. Discover how OP Academy and other top schools build family connections through taekwondo classes.
1. OP Academy: Family-Centric Taekwondo
OP Academy is a leading martial arts school renowned for its family-oriented taekwondo classes at Yishun Sunshine (Blk 259 Yishun Street 22), Linear Green at Bedok, and Marine Drive Gardens. Their taekwondo for kids Singapore program uses fun, interactive drills to teach discipline and confidence, creating a welcoming space for young learners. The academy’s modern facilities ensure safety and comfort for families.
The bully-proof curriculum empowers children to handle social challenges without conflict, using role-playing to build assertiveness. A student named Lucas, aged 8, overcame peer pressure at school after training at Yishun Sunshine, while his mother joined adult self-defence classes, fostering family bonding. This family-centric approach makes OP Academy a top choice for Kids' martial arts.
With experienced instructors and flexible scheduling, OP Academy ensures every Taekwondo class in Singapore supports family growth. Parents can join Self-defense classes for seniors or Krav Maga, making it a shared journey. Contact OP Academy at +65 91066242 to explore their vibrant taekwondo classes and start your family’s martial arts adventure.
2. J H Kim Taekwondo: Family Tradition
J H Kim Taekwondo Institute, located at Bukit Timah (9 Binjai Park) and Toh Tuck (19 Lorong Kilat), is celebrated for its traditional taekwondo classes. Their taekwondo for kids Singapore program emphasizes discipline and respect, helping children build confidence through structured training. The supportive environment is ideal for Kids martial arts enthusiasts.
For adults and seniors, J H Kim offers Self-Defense Class Singapore programs, including adult self-defence and Self-defense classes for seniors, blending traditional techniques with practical skills. Lucas’s mother, who joined adult self-defence at Bukit Timah, noted how the classes strengthened family ties, complementing Lucas’s progress in martial arts for kids in Singapore. The institute’s traditional approach fosters family connections.
J H Kim’s reputation for quality instruction creates a nurturing setting for all learners. Their programs balance discipline and bonding, making them a top choice for Taekwondo classes in Singapore. Contact them at +65 91738103 to discover how their taekwondo classes can inspire your family.
3. Gaonhae Taekwondo: Fun for Families
Gaonhae Taekwondo, led by headmaster Kang, offers dynamic taekwondo classes at Bukit Timah (271 Bukit Timah Road) and Jurong West (Blk 960 Jurong West Street 92). Their taekwondo for kids Singapore program focuses on fun, foundational skills, using engaging activities to build confidence. This approach makes Kids' martial arts accessible and enjoyable for young learners.
The bully-proof training helps children like Lucas navigate peer conflicts with poise, using techniques taught in interactive scenarios. For adults, Gaonhae’s adult self-defence and Self-defense classes for seniors, including Krav Maga, emphasize practical skills, fostering family bonding. This family-oriented focus makes Gaonhae a leading martial arts school, and for those just starting out, consider an Adult beginner Taekwondo class at Singapore OP Academy.
With multiple branches and skilled instructors, Gaonhae ensures accessibility and quality for families. Their programs promote teamwork and resilience, ideal for martial arts for kids in Singapore. Contact Gaonhae at +65 96706488 to explore their Taekwondo class in Singapore and start your family’s journey.
4. Kickmatics: Nurturing Family Bonds
Kickmatics Taekwondo, located at Punggol (Blk 407 Northshore Drive) and Serangoon Garden (68A Serangoon Garden Way), specializes in family-oriented taekwondo classes. Their taekwondo for kids Singapore program focuses on character development and fitness, using playful exercises to engage young learners. This approach strengthens Kids' martial arts.
For adults, Kickmatics offers Self-Defense Class Singapore programs, including adult self-defence, that blend practical techniques with fitness. Lucas’s mother, who joined adult self-defence at Punggol, appreciated the supportive environment, complementing Lucas’s growth in martial arts for kids in Singapore. The school’s family-centric focus fosters bonding and development.
Kickmatics’ modern facilities and flexible scheduling make it ideal for busy Singapore families. Their emphasis on safety and family growth ensures a positive experience. Contact them at +65 93883934 to discover how their Taekwondo class in Singapore can nurture your family.
Choosing a Family-Friendly School
Selecting the right Taekwondo class in Singapore involves assessing instructors, location, and family focus. Qualified instructors at schools like OP Academy provide tailored guidance, crucial for Kids' martial arts and adult self-defence training. Locations like Yishun Sunshine, Linear Green at Bedok, and Marine Drive Gardens enhance accessibility for families.
A focus on family bonding and safety is key to a rewarding experience. OP Academy’s bully-proof curriculum and modern facilities at Yishun Sunshine create an ideal environment for growth, as seen with Lucas’s family bonding. This martial arts school prioritizes holistic development for all ages.
Ready to join a Taekwondo class in Singapore? OP Academy offers tailored programs at Yishun Sunshine, Linear Green at Bedok, and Marine Drive Gardens. Contact them at +65 91066242 for a free trial and experience how Taekwondo for kids Singapore and Self-defense classes for seniors can strengthen your family.
On 16 July 2025, actionists targeted the global head office of Toll Holdings on St Kilda Road Melbourne, smashing the facade and dousing the building with red paint.
We demand that Toll drop all partnerships with Thales, NIOA, and other arms dealers.
We demand that Toll cease providing services for the ‘australian’ colonial occupation, including its military and mining sectors and border regime.
We demand that Japan Post direct Toll, its wholly owned subsidiary, to drop all partnerships and cease providing services for Thales, NIOA and other arms dealers, in line with international law.
– – –
‘Death Toll’: Toll Holdings Drives Genocide
The supply chain for genocidal weapons includes logistics firms. Multiple ‘Australian’ companies, including Toll Holdings, have been identified transporting weapons for export to the US where they are used to support ‘Israel’s murderous campaign against Palestine. Building off Palestine Action’s successful campaigns against Kuehne+Nagel and Front Runner Logistics, which culminated in those firms dropping contracts with Elbit Systems, we declare a goal of forcing Toll to cease abetting genocide and renounce all contracts with Thales, NIOA and any other weapons manufacturers.
A range of weapons and components are produced in ‘Australia’, including at government-owned sites at Benalla (‘Victoria’) and Mulwala (‘New South Wales’). Operated by Thales, the world’s 16th largest arms dealer, and by NIOA, a weapons company which also supplies the ‘Australian’ police, the Benalla factory manufactures ‘a variety of ordnance, including artillery shells and large bombs’. At Mulwala ‘the volatile materials that fill artillery, bombs and rifle rounds are made’. A union representative for workers at these sites has said: ‘The workers at these sites make bullets, bombs and shells… They don’t build anything’. Production at these factories comprises a ‘second supply line’ for the US military, used to ‘replenish U.S. stockpiles or be sold to American partners’ of which ‘Israel’ is at the forefront. Netanyahu has stated that what ‘Israel’ needs from the US is ‘munitions, munitions, munitions’. This is salient in context of the IOF practice of indiscriminate shelling and saturation bombing, a strategy befitting of their legendary cowardice and disregard for life.
Toll provides equipment to physically transport genocidal weapons. They also support the arms trade by enabling Thales and other weapons manufacturers to invest and operate at low financial risk. Their trucks have been observed and photographed entering Point Wilson pier, a dedicated Victorian facility for military imports and exports including ‘explosive ordnance’, to meet ships en route to Sunny Point, the primary terminal for shipment of weapons and ammunition for the US military. Thales calls Toll a ‘key transport partner’. Toll describes Thales as ‘a very important part of our business’, assigning staff with titles like Senior Manager Explosive Services to oversee the partnership. NIOA has also ‘partnered with Toll Logistics-Mining/Toll Global Forwarding’ to deliver 155mm shells. These relationships underpin the weapons dealers’ access to insurance, credit and financial services – a commercial position underwritten, not only by any trucks and equipment used to transport arms, but by all assets owned by Toll, whose ongoing viability as a company is needed to secure the stability of services provided.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has issued an advisory ruling declaring ‘Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories to be illegal, and has ordered states to ‘take urgent steps to prevent ongoing international crimes, including by imposing a comprehensive arms embargo against Israel’. This is not to say the bounds of pro-Palestinian solidarity or Palestinian resistance should be delimited by international law, which has comprehensively failed Palestinians. These rulings are cited, not as an arbiter of morality, but a lever to be leveraged via broader social movements and freedom struggles.
Toll Holdings is owned by Japan Post, which itself is part-owned by the Japanese government. Toll boasts in weapons trade publications that the ‘As a division of Japan Post, the Toll Group brings substantial and secure financial backing… ensuring Toll is a low-risk, trusted and reliable partner’. While many Japanese call for stability and peace, they are forced to underwrite military escalation in Palestine, Iran and across the Middle East through investment in Toll. In February 2024, the Japanese conglomerate Itochu ended its ‘strategic co-operation’ with Elbit Systems, in line with the ICJ ruling and against a backdrop of domestic protests, a threatened Malaysian boycott of the Itochu-owned chain Family Mart, and Palestine Action’s ongoing direct action campaign against Elbit.
In so-called ‘Australia’, increasing investment in arms manufacturing occurs in the context of AUKUS, the trilateral militaristic alliance with the UK and the US. AUKUS signifies ‘Australia’s deepening embeddedness into the US military-industrial complex and as a servant or junior partner under US-hegemony. Major state expenditure on arms and armament production, including $220 million at the Benalla and Mulwala sites announced in 2023, coincides with the hollowing out of domestic social services and quality of life.
The Benalla and Mulwala factories produce unguided 155-millimeter artillery shells, non-precision weapons that are not even purported to minimise deaths among non-combatants. A senior ‘Israeli’ official has been quoted describing the 155mm shells as being in ‘increasingly short supply’ and suggesting that ‘Israel’ ‘might lose the war’ because it is running out of ammunition. Delaying, disrupting or cutting off the supply of these munitions may be immediately material and life-saving for Palestinians.
Much of ‘Australian’ arms production is concentrated in remote, centralised and/or government-owned facilities, including those at Benalla and Mulwala. At military sites, security is high and the consequences of action may be severe. Toll Holdings is a privately-owned company whose assets are dispersed and move through ordinary communities. People have a right to resist the flow of weapons, or assets that support this genocidal trade, through their homes.
All Toll Holdings assets in so-called ‘Australia’ are on Aboriginal land, where no consent for settler-colonisers to underwrite genocide has been given. NIOA Munitions, which has partnered with Toll, is also a major supplier for ‘Australian’ police, producing 70 percent of their ammunition as at 2017. Munitions used to repress, terrorise and dispossess Aboriginal communities are manufactured by NIOA, likely including the bullets that murdered Kumanjayi Walker. Toll also provides logistics for unauthorised mining in violation of First Nations sovereignty, and for offshore immigration detention camps, thus facilitating ‘Australia’s white supremacist colonial occupation and border regime.
Toll Holdings is a platinum sponsor of Land Forces, the largest arms trade exhibition in the Southern hemisphere. In ‘Brisbane’, Toll partner with Leonardo to provide helicopters for the ‘Australian military’. Toll Fuels trucks have been photographed supplying ‘Australian’ navy ships, reflecting the deep intertwinement of this company with ‘Australian’ militarism and imperialism.
All sites and equipment used or owned by Toll Holdings are legitimate targets for anti-genocide action. This may include sabotage, vandalism, blockades, strikes, occupations and all forms of material resistance and disruption. Everything is on the table.
*’Australia’ and ‘Israel’ are in quote marks to denote the illegitimacy of these occupying colonial entities.
"On 16 July 2025, actionists targeted the global head office of Toll Holdings on St Kilda Road Melbourne, smashing the facade and dousing the building with red paint. We demand…"
This is a bit of a rant; feel free to skip it if you’re here for the KDE content. This isn’t the first time I’ve blogged about the dearth of truly great PC laptops out there, and …
Yeah I opted for the Framework 13, even with the less than perfect keyboard and lack of touch. My hope is that touch will be an option in the future. otherwise its a near perfect option.
No but on my 3 in 1 I find the touch screen and pen very useful as a big tablet for consumption, laptop for productivity and gaming, and writing and drawing pad.
I'm constantly trying to touch the screen on my work provided laptop, and my FW13. I spent a long time with a fancy Chromebook for my couch computing needs, when away from the desktop.
I’ve been daily driving a framework 13 for like 9 months now. I’m pretty happy with it as a Linux machine.I can and will nitpick here to some of the points made in the article - but I’d buy another / recommended it regardless.
the touchpad. It’s a diving board style. It’s also got a good amount of play in it prior to clicking. The diving board style means it’s tough to click at the top. Tapping works great. The extra play takes a little getting used to. It’s 1000% functional and works well - but if you’re snobby about trackpads, you won’t like it. It’s way worse than an Apple touchpad, but an upper end windows touchpad. The trackpads play also tends to allow “crap” and dirt to fall in there. I’ve had to take it apart once to clean it out (which is super easy to do on a framework, but it’d be nicer if I didn’t have to do it at all)
the price - it’s a bit high for the specs. But that comes with the territory of a non glued laptop
battery life is ok
speakers are kind of crappy. They are fine, but they ain’t wowing anyone.
the keyboard is ok
That’s it. 9 months of daily use, I love it, that’s my complaints list. The idea here is that someday, a better trackpad, or keyboard, or speakers will become available-and it’ll take me 5 minutes to upgrade. It’s a desktop laptop. And for me, everything “just works” on fedora 42.
Framework are nowhere near the scale of any of the large manufacturers, and they've had to spend a huge amount of time and money on R&D, so their laptops are probably always going to cost more. IMO it's worth the price though, given you can keep updating it over time.
I'm curious about this as well. The keyboard flex was always brought up by early reviewers for the Framework 16, and I think Framework said they would make a more sturdy keyboard for it later, but I haven't heard any updates about that.
Thanks, that's good to know. I heard the Framework 13 wad solid; I thought I was replying to a comment about the Framework 16, though. That must have been a different comment. I heard the 16 has a little flex.
Literally zero flex on the keyboard. I just pulled it out and pressed hard on it. No flex of the keys pushing down through the metal (like a gasket mounted mechanical keyboard would do), and zero flex of the aluminum.
I've been getting annoying amdgpu crashes every now an then. I've tried all the various BIOS and kernel params but so far nothing has worked. Next step is rolling back a kernel version, at least that's what I've gathered from all the threads about it. It's bothersome but not frequent enough to be a real pain.
(This is an amd framework 13 with fedora 42 / wayland)
I've had mine about 4 months, minimal issues. I got a 7840U slightly on sale when the new AI 300 series came out.
I'm also running fedora 42, but it's Bluefin, based on silverblue. Everything works out of the box.
My biggest complaint is the sleep battery drain, iirc it's something like a few percent per hour, so I just get in the habit of turning it completely off if I'm not home with it plugged in. Otherwise it's dead when I need it, which sucks.
Also the fan can be a little loud and overzealous under barely moderate load, though I've found keeping it in power saving mode helps keep things cooler. Though I've been using it for note taking during some schooling this week, and it's been stone cold and silent, lasts all day on a single charge. So it definitely depends on your load. I appreciate having the power available when I need it, but wish it was better at keeping itself underclocked (or whatever it needs to do).
And finally the stock Wi-Fi 6 card in it gives some people problems with certain routers. Though I've only ever had problems with my parents starlink router 🤷♂️ That's a quick $20 upgrade though, to Wi-Fi 7, I just haven't needed to 🤷♂️
But still I'd buy another in a heartbeat.
Keyboard is great. Screen (2.8k) looks great to my eyes, though others say it has issues. No flex in the body. Touchpad is a little funky, but still great.
Plus when I want to upgrade the platform in a few years, or any component breaks before then, I can just fix it or upgrade it.
I wrecked my Framework about 3 months after purchasing it. Damaged the corner from an ugly fall. Being able to easily purchase the parts to repair it was fantastic. I’m a huge fan. My only gripe, like you said, is the touchpad. It’s not terrible, though.
Anyone here have a StarLabs laptop (briefly mentioned in the article) and am opinion on it? I'm thinking about replacing my crappy System76 laptop and looking for something with good build quality.
I think it's (one of) the best laptop brands in regards to coreboot support. The build quality of my starbook is great. The biggest + for me is how helpful, polite and friendly the support staff is.
I have a Pangolin 12. While it has great specs and software support, the build quality is horrible, and over the course of two years now, I have had to screw it open and bend the laptop case in position more often then I'm comfortable with. It is the far, far opposite of rugged, which is the main reason I want to replace it. Twice now, it has just randomly decided to not boot for one or two weeks...
Hmm I have Serval WS which quality is top notch. The keyboard feels nice. The screen is 4K 144Hz. All of the elements are aluminium so there is no bending. (Except some parts like probably keycaps of the keyboard and so on).
Sorry to hear that you have this experience. However I think you can count on System76 because they give for their laptops lifetime support.
The Serval WS is also more than twice the price of my Pangolin... and I had a one year warranty, so I'm not sure what you mean with lifetime support. As for the specs (i.e. the screen etc.), yeah, they are great. But the case is very poorly designed on my pang12, and gets bent out of shape, which can cause mechanical failure in the hinge, quite frequently, despite the aluminum chassis. My complaint is just that it is far from rugged, which is problematic for me, as I travel a lot with it. But your mileage may vary.
PS: one more thing that really bothers me is the known problem with the touchepad on the pang12, which regularly fails. Mine also came with a faulty motherboard, which suggest bad quality control. Over all, these issues have caused me to lose faith in System76 hardware.
Regrading warranty I meant lifetime support for problems related to your System76 laptop. The warranty for a hardware is gone I think but I guess when you describe your issues correctly and they won't resolve it maybe they will suggest you something friendly.
And I get your point with the case. Tbh looked like it.
Hmm do you have up-to-date firmware? I had similar issue resolved by it.
Also faulty motherboard sounds like manufacturer issue not yours.
It seems to be getting a little better lately, but historically they just didn't give firmware updates. I went 3 years without a stable bios update for my 12th gen Intel mainboard on linux despite known vulnerabilities since launch (just got its first update last month).
I actually upgraded my mainboard within that time, so I went the full lifetime of the product with an insecure BIOS and none of the firmware improvements that were promised at launch like thunderbolt 4 certification. For all practical purposes, firmware support ended when it left the factory until just last month.
That said, my new ryzen ai 350 main board just got its first update to patch some vulns that were disclosed a month ago. So still not in time for the coordinated disclosure, but a month is way better than 3 years so I'll take what I can get.
Fine, then "more ugly and cumbersome" than it needs to be. I frequently have to hook up laptops to devices that simply don't have wifi (think unconfigured network devices like routers and the like), so connecting via cable is the only option. Having a gigantic, plastic, snag-prone wart sticking out of my laptop certainly wouldn't help matters.
Most companies still change their laptops’ keyboard layouts in random negative ways every year; ship with stupid screen resolutions, woefully bad speakers, and disappointing touchpads; and stuff the most powerful processor and GPU in there and don’t focus enough on tuning the cooling, power usage, and fan profiles.
I don't really get these nitpicks. If you're planning to use the laptop as your daily driver, do what every other power user does and get a set of good peripherals.
The perfect laptop is one that works well with external gpu, then you just max out cpu and everything else positive about a laptop without worrying about cramming a gpu in there while still getting a thin and light laptop with a good batterylife and nice screen
It is even worse when you are on the secondary market. The company's product pages are broken. Trying to compare across different release years is way harder.
I assumed the reason for this had to do with the production systems and supply chains. They can get a certain number of x parts at y price from a factory located in a given location. You get enough parts in proximity to each other and you make it a model.
Its one thing for a small company to have enough components to have only a few models but with the volume dell or HP moves, they would need to really invest in suppliers or actually make the components themselves.
I dont imagine the marketing people have come up with all the options, they're just the ones who have to try to sell want they're given.
Thankfully I have some requirements for laptops that very significantly narrow my options: - It must have a good, ergonomic keyboard - It must have a good pointing stick
It's not what you would normally call an ergo keyboard with a curved / split key bed, but I think they're superior to the majority of recent laptop keyboards, especially compared to the flat square chiclets of MacBooks and the others who blindly copied them. The keys are curved so you get tactile feedback of where your fingers are and the action also feels good to type on.
You seriously can't go wrong with the lenovo thinkpads on eBay. I Got a thinkpad E14 ryzen 7 (7th gen), 48gb ram, 1tb ssd for $400 on ebay with a small hair crack on the hinge.
At the end of the day, a laptop is a laptop, and the cost difference between a $2000 brand new laptop and a $400 used laptop there really is no argument/justification to be made to buy a $2000 laptop in less-intensive tasks. Here's a better instance of your money: find a $400 laptop with semi-good performance (ryzen 3 or intel equivalent) put $1600 to a gaming computer and setup a virtual environment with a radeon or rtx gpu at your fingertips.
Well I say it's no wonder people gravitate towards it but I don't actually like it myself. It sucks that they make it basically impossible to upgrade snything. And that there storage and RAM upgrades cost several times more than they should.
I have a Macbool air (not by choice) and I installed asahi linux a couple of weeks ago. Main take away is that it's really good except for software support. I've had a bit of trouble finding programs that work well on arm even open source projects often don't compile there programs to work on arm.
before i go looking, does anyone have a decent PDF of the PDR? apparently the app wants a login now, and i'm not paying money for something that used to be on paper until KKR ruined it for everyone.
first attempt: a windows program that has, in the .\data\ directory, 189MB of html files.
from 2005. Also a torrent link to 2009 version. It looks like i might have to find a copy of the last printed version and do the scans myself. I have a scanner for that, but that's gunna be $$$
@El_Jefe not really, no. nothing on the scale even remotely like any library in southern california.
besides, i need a permanent copy, ideally of the latest version; that's why i was using the pdr app instead of my hard copy; hard to carry that massive thing around. Didn't know there was a pocket guide, i'll have to find a physical copy somewhere, maybe ebay. thanks!
Communique and Footage Released From Torching of Three Vehicles at Lovitt Technologies
Communique and footage released from torching of three vehicles at Lovitt technologies
Hello. This is an anonymous communique by the cell that torched three cars at Lovitt Technologies on the morning of July Sth 2025.
Let there be no illusions as to what this was. This was not an accident nor thoughtless vandalism. This is a clear and serious threat. If you continue making weapons components of any kind there will be consequences. Consider this a warning.
After 21 months of an accelerated genocide against the Palestinian people by the illegitimate zionist entity, eight decades of “american” warmongering and imperialism, two and a half centuries of the most violent colonial oppression, ethnic cleansing, and murder of Aboriginal peoples across so-called “australia” – Lovitt Technologies has chosen its place at the intersection of these catastrophes.
Lovitt was the first “australian” producer of components for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jets, proudly deployed in service to colonialism and imperialism by “america”, “israel”, “australia”, and “the uk”.
Lovitt was targeted because it is a bottleneck in the supply chain. This factory has the Makino T1 milling machine to make precision titanium and aluminum components. When it was acquired this was the only machine of its kind in so-called “australia”, and only one of ten in the world.
15 suppliers to the F-35 supply chain including Marand, Ferra, HTA, Levett AW Bell, Quickstep and Varley all depend on Lovitt, in addition to its subsidiary Electromold. Lovitt is also a supplier to BAE Systems, “israeli” weapons company Elbit Systems, and manufactures components to Boeing’s F-15, F-18, the so-called “chinook” helicopters, and the Ghost Bat an armed Al-powered drone.
Every worker in this supply chain is complicit. You have had years to contemplate the consequences of your actions. We will decide your fate, as you have decided the fate of millions.
For the past few months we have been closely watching you. We have your addresses. All the information we have about you will be distributed to our underground networks. Stop arming “israel” or else…
That the tools of colonisation and imperialism are manufactured on stolen Wurundjeri country is no accident. The illegitimate “australian” state only becomes a greater colonial and imperial power with its involvement in these supply chains. It is an affront to this sacred land and its true owners – who know genocide – that these weapons factories exist to continue another. Genocide begets genocide. And violence begets resistance.
We are behind the enemy lines of this genocide, and it is our duty to attack the belly of this colonial-imperialist beast at every opportunity. If you are watching this you can do what we have done.
Place half a slab of firestarter into each paper bag. Place one bag under the front and one under the back of the tire. Do this for both of the tires on the fuel cap side of the car. Be mindful of fingerprints and DNA. Set the bag on fire and run.
Every colony will burn. Land back and liberation will grow from their ashes.
DEATH TO “ISRAEL”! DEATH TO “AUSTRALIA”! DEATH TO “AMERICA”!
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.
Valve has updated the Steam guidelines and now allows payment processors to decide what should and shouldn't be published on the platform.
This may put the final nail in the coffin for adult games and any games with queer content, whether sexually explicit or not. "Adult content" has no clear definition and can be arbitrarily applied to a lot of media which certain (powerful) organisations, including payment processors like Visa and Mastercard, aim to ban everywhere.
I wonder, considering that EA has their own store, and has the BioWare studios and their games...if suddenly they would see this and open up their store to Indies to capitalize on this.
It would certainly be a potentially profitable move EA Desktop launcher...and a sign of some really weird times where someone might call EA all of a sudden "The Good Company", and Valve "The Bad Company".
I know and agree that this is really bad and would better not have happened, since making more uncomfortable to buy a certain kind of games will surely impact its sales.
That said, if anybody really wants to buy one of those games/content, the way of buying gift cards or topping-up in some other way their Steam Wallet (something not linked with what product you're going to invest your money in), and then buying the contentious game would still be there, I guess.
"Communique and footage released from torching of three vehicles at Lovitt technologies Hello. This is an anonymous communique by the cell that torched three cars at Lovitt Technologies on the…"
High above us, particles from the Sun hurtle toward Earth, colliding with the upper atmosphere and creating powerful explosions in a murky process called magnetic reconnection. A single magnetic reconnection event can release as much energy as the entire United States uses in a day. NASA’s new TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) […]
Άρχικά, θα μπορούσαν να το εφαρμόσουν μόνο σε όσους φέρουν οπλισμό & που τους χαρακτηρίζουν & “τρομοκράτες” (στον “πόλεμο” τι να το κάνει το όπλο άλλωστε, ο “εχθρός”?) & οχι σε αθώες ψυχές. “Το Ισραήλ αμύνεται.”, ε?
“Israel” is Digging its Own Grave, and the Ongoing Zionist Massacres in Gaza Only Hasten the Defeat of the Occupation
In his response to questions received by the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, Khaled Barakat, member of the Executive Committee of the movement, said that “The genocide against the Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza Strip, ongoing for over 21 months—including bombardment, starvation, and destruction—has failed to achieve its military and political objectives for the Zionist entity. Instead, it has deepened its global isolation and fueled waves of popular and official anger against the occupation. “Israel” is now headed toward a phase of self-destruction following its economic and political degradation,” Barakat said. “Its utter moral bankruptcy is now clear to all, and no propaganda campaigns will be able to restore illusions about the nature of the Zionist project as an illegitimate racist, aggressive and expansionist regime.”
“The enemy army is facing a strong, unified Palestinian resistance, ready to fight for many years if necessary,” Barakat emphasized. “The Palestinian resistance forces continue to bravely confront the occupation army using flexible, creative and courageous combat tactics across various fronts. They affirm their ability to continue this prolonged battle with their united will that transcends division, which creates the greatest fear for the enemy, as it will not succeed in breaking the unity of the internal front in the Gaza Strip.”
Barakat affirmed that “The real negotiations are taking place through fire in Khan Younis, Jabalia, and Beit Hanoun. Our people trust their resistance, which is waging a political battle in Doha despite all the pressures imposed upon them. They know that their representatives of the resistance will never accept terms of surrender imposed by the U.S. and the Zionist entity and are certain their trust and steadfastness will be rewarded.”
“The battlefield dictates the terms, and no matter how intense the political and regional pressures become, the resistance holds the initiative and negotiates from a position of strength, readiness to fight and sacrifice, backed by broad popular support inside and outside Palestine,” Barakat said.
“The resistance insists that any agreement must include a complete withdrawal of occupation forces from Gaza, the lifting of the siege, and the release of hundreds of leaders and cadres from the prisons of the occupier. Liberation movements and solidarity forces with the Palestinian people must escalate their support for the resistance’s position both on the ground and in the ongoing negotiations,” he emphasized, calling on movements around the world to heighten their actions and organizing at a critical moment for the Palestinian people confronting genocide.
“The Zionist enemy wants to eliminate the captured Zionist prisoners while keeping resistance leaders and Palestinian prisoners with high sentences behind bars,” Barakat said, noting that ‘Israeli’ officials have little interest in actually releasing the prisoners held by the resistance. “Every prisoner exchange negotiation exposes the enemy’s duplicity and its attempt to impose humiliating conditions. But the resistance knows the value of its cards and insists on the release of top leaders and national symbols, rejecting any deal that does not reflect a balance of deterrence and the stature of the resistance.”
In the West Bank, Barakat noted, “Settler paramilitary gangs are sponsored and given free rein to run amok, invading, assaulting and killing Palestinians while stealing their land. These vicious settler paramilitaries are fully supported and backed by the ongoing arrest and assassination raids of the Zionist military, the closures imposed throughout the West Bank, and the destruction of the refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarem and Nour Shams.”
“As this destruction continues, the Palestinian Authority continues to market itself as a solution to the Israelis for the ‘day after’ in Gaza, despite the reality that the Zionist officials have repeatedly dismissed them. The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah is rejected by our people; the next day in Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people, not to any forces that collaborate with the occupation. The aftermath of the PA’s security coordination with ‘Israel’ is seen in the escalating destruction in the West Bank, while the PA continues to imprison and arrest resistance fighters and suppress all movements to confront the occupation. ‘Removing pretexts’ for the occupation has led to nothing but encouragement for the settlers to escalate their crimes,” Barakat said.
“The ‘Israeli’ enemy, backed by the Trump administration, has left our people with no other option than the path of resistance. In fact, the United States bears primary responsibility for the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip,” Barakat said. “From the launch of the ‘Deal of the Century’ to the complicity of successive U.S. administrations, Washington has played the most critical role in enabling ‘Israel’ to continue its crimes—not only through military aid but also through the political immunity imposed by U.S. imperialism, that prevents any real international accountability.”
“Every American missile dropped by Israeli warplanes on our people in Gaza causes a massacre. This Palestinian blood is on the hands of Trump and before him, Biden. And every American missile that does not explode is turned by the resistance into 100 explosive devices,” Barakat said. “While Gaza is being pounded by American ‘smart’ bombs, the resistance continues to recycle ammunition and turn it into tools of retaliation, reflecting a spirit of defiance and innovation in the face of the killing machine. This reality also exposes Washington’s complicity as a direct partner in the massacres.”
Barakat further noted that, “While U.S. imperialism has long sponsored and directed the Zionist project in the region in order to advance its goals and create a giant colonial military base in the heart of our region, the current U.S. position also reflects a level of complete submission on the part of the war criminal President Donald Trump, administration officials and members of Congress to Zionist lobby organizations and donors like Miriam Adelson.”
“Trump is merely a puppet in the hands of the Israeli lobby, manipulated by Zionist organizations as they please, reflecting a level of corruption that transcends even the traditional sponsorship of the Zionist entity. Today, U.S. political decision-making reflects imperialism in crisis and a flagrant disregard for even the interests of people in the United States, for the sole benefit of a colonial settler project imposed upon our region,” Barakat said.
“The United States and ‘Israel’ want to reshape the region under the slogan of a ‘New Middle East.’ But the truth is that the Middle East is changing in favor of the peoples, not the illegitimate regimes that Washington and Tel Aviv seek to entrench. Normalization with the Israeli enemy is now more distant than ever, despite all attempts to impose it with both hard and soft power alike,” Barakat said.
“The collapse of recent normalization projects and the rise of boycott and popular resistance movements—from the Gulf to the Maghreb—reflect a deep strategic shift in the consciousness of the peoples, who no longer accept that their region be managed by a disguised Zionist colonialism.”
In Lebanon, Barakat noted, “If Netanyahu’s claims about ‘humbling Hezbollah’ were true, why then is the U.S. State Department holding a meeting with 30 countries to discuss and coordinate to confront the growing capabilities of Hezbollah? This is the 14th such meeting since 2014. And why is northern Palestine still devoid of settlers to this day?”
“The glaring contradiction between the Zionist victory narrative and the facts on the ground reveals a crisis of confidence within the Israeli security establishment. Northern Palestine is militarily occupied but liberated from settlers by the deterrent power of Hezbollah and the ongoing confrontation on the Lebanese front, which gains more popular support with each new Zionist breach,” Barakat said.
Barakat further said that “Yemen’s military capabilities today are sufficient to burn all oil facilities in the region. Western companies sending ships to the ports of occupied Palestine must understand that Yemen is very serious about its anti-genocide blockade, and the positions and patience of the Yemeni people should not be tested. So long as this continues, a new phase of escalation is coming—and it will not be in Europe’s interest.”
“Sana’a is redrawing the boundaries of the struggle for sovereignty and liberation. What was once seen as a symbolic threat has become a field reality that disrupts the calculations of the West. If intransigence and Western support for the occupation continue, Yemen’s response will cross the seas, and Europe will pay the economic and political price for the crimes of imperialism,” Barakat said.
In his response to questions received by the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, Khaled Barakat, member of the Executive Committee of the movement, said that “The genocide against the Palestinian people, particularly…
“Israel” is Digging its Own Grave, and the Ongoing Zionist Massacres in Gaza Only Hasten the Defeat of the Occupation abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/203…
"In his response to questions received by the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, Khaled Barakat, member of the Executive Committee of the movement, said that “The genocide…"
3 Reasons Why Ken Paxton Will Deliver a Texas-Sized Ass Whooping to John Cornyn
Paxton, a grassroots favorite, has destroyed his establishment foes in the past and will be backed by the President on his way to Washington, but this won't stop lobbyists from wasting their millions.
Budget: investir pour un cadre de vie sain, plutôt que de se restreindre sans solutionner
La France n'a jamais eu un PIB aussi haut. Donc nous n'avons jamais été aussi riches. Et pourtant, ces 20 dernières années, nous vivons de plus en plus mal. Que ce soit les catastrophes que nous avons commencé à subir (incendies, inondations, canicules...) et qui ne vont que s'accentuer avec le changement climatique, les problèmes de santé avec en tête le cancer et l'infertilité, dus à notre environnement de vie de plus en plus toxique (pas un mois ne passe sans un nouveau scandale, du thon au mercure au PFAS en passant par l'eau naturelle contaminée, la réintroduction des pesticides, etc, etc) et à un quotidien déprimant et un futur sans espoir (plus de 10 millions de personnes prennent des antidépresseurs en France !!!), tout va dans la mauvaise direction. Le 1er objectif de l'État, son rôle majeur, sa raison d'être, est de protéger sa population, de lui offrir un cadre de vie sain. Et on aimerait nous faire croire que réduire les investissements, les normes, les aides, c'est la solution ?
Cela revient à grimper sur un tabouret quand une inondation arrive, au lieu de construire une barque. Ça prend moins de temps et moins de bois, ça marche un temps, et puis on boit la tasse.
La solution est d'investir massivement, maintenant, pour nous adapter et nous protéger. Dans les énergies renouvelables, dans la remise en état de nos logements, mais aussi dans une agriculture durable, et surtout dans notre éducation, à tous les âges. Cela donnera des citoyens mieux capables d’appréhender les enjeux de notre monde, cela créera de l'emploi et donc permettra à terme de réduire notre dette (puisqu'apparemment c'est ce qui effraie tout le monde si fort), mais surtout, cela donnera espoir à nous toutes et tous, qui ne comprenons absolument plus pourquoi nous devrions trimer tous les jours pour "gagner" de quoi survivre alors même que le fruit de notre travail ne fait que dégrader toujours plus notre environnement et donc notre cadre de vie en enrichissant toujours plus quelques hommes déconnectés du monde, là-haut.
Mr Bayrou, faire des efforts, oui, mais pour rendre nos vies plus saines et belles, certainement pas pour maintenir un système qui détruit notre monde chaque jour un peu plus, au profit de quelques uns.
Tu n’espères plus pouvoir concurrencer Facebook ? Quand on veut obtenir quelque chose, il faut imaginer le chemin qui y conduit et y travailler. Ci-dessous un extrait de ce qui paraît mon profil et qui concerne diaspora-fr.org Tu peux, entre autres, reprendre ou t’inspirer de mon texte sur les images
Informations pour utiliser et promouvoir diaspora-fr.org
Comme pour toutes les catégories figurant ci-dessous cette catégorie va être complétée peu à peu. Je ne suis qu’un utilisateur de diaspora-fr.org parmi d’autres. Je publie sur diaspora-fr.org depuis le 26 décembre 2023. Pour trouver d’autres informations publiées sur diaspora-fr.org par d’autres utilisateurs voir #diaspora-fr
I’m launching a 3-part Reels series. This isn’t just video. It’s a chronicle. It’s energy beneath the concrete skin of the bunker. 📍TikTok and Instagram. 3 days. 3 signals from within. See you on the frequency.
ICSPWI Call For Mobilization On The Occasion Of Martyrs’ Week 2025 In India
The ICSPWI (International Committee to Support the People’s War in India) calls on MLM organizations and parties, all communist organizations and parties, revolutionaries, progressives, and sincere democrats, to mobilize in support of the People’s War in India and its leading party, the Communist Party of India (Maoist), on the occasion of Martyrs’ Week 2025 (July 28th – August 3rd).
The blood shed by the Indian revolutionary martyrs who fell for the New Democratic Revolution in India, the first step towards Socialism and Communism, must be honored: it is the blood shed by our comrades who are ready for the ultimate sacrifice to free India from the semi-feudal and semi-colonial yoke and from bureaucratic capitalism in the service of imperialism.
India is not only the largest country in the world, with approximately 1.5 billion people, but it is also the country ruled by Modi’s Hindutva (fascism with Hindu characteristics) regime and the main bastion of Yankee imperialism as well as the main supporter of the Zionist regime in South Asia and the world.
The Indian revolution (Protracted People’s War) has been active since 1969. Over the decades, it has succeeded in liberating millions of proletarians, peasants, and tribal people from feudal and caste oppression in the areas where it spread, covering an area inhabited by over 50 million people from the far north of the Indian subcontinent to the southern states of Kerala and Karnataka.
The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is virtually the largest armed revolutionary party in absolute terms by number of comrades, mobilizing sectors of the masses through trade unions, women’s organizations, environmental organizations, and adivasis (tribals) and casteless groups. The PLGA numbers approximately 20,000 armed men, not counting local popular militias.
This great revolution is now entering a crucial phase: Modi’s Hindutva regime, through a brutal and genocidal military operation supported by imperialism and Zionism (using know-how and drones supplied directly by the Zionist Israeli state), Operation Kagaar, which involves tens of thousands of police, paramilitary forces, and the army, declares it will “defeat Maoism” in the country by April 2026.
As this deadline approaches, Operation Kagaar is intensifying: last May, the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) himself, along with 27 other comrades and guerrillas, fell in combat after resisting a two-day encirclement by over 2,000 paramilitaries.
In recent months, hundreds of people, not only revolutionaries but also villagers and tribals, have been massacred during this military operation.
Indian civil society has called on the government to immediately stop this “war against the people” and accept the CPI (Maoist)’s proposal to initiate negotiations, but Modi’s Hindutva regime not only continues its course but also labels these activists “urban Maoists,” repressing them as well.
Fourteen years ago, on July 1st, Comrade Azad, a member of the party’s central committee and political bureau, was killed in a fake encounter. He was arrested and subsequently killed in cold blood.
A few months later, on November 24, 2011, Comrade Kishenji, a member of the party’s political bureau, was martyred in another fake encounter.
The martyrs of the Indian revolution are the best sons of the Indian people who sacrificed their lives not only for the liberation of India, but of the entire world, from exploitation, contributing to the World Proletarian Revolution.
Since October 7, 2023, the Communist Party of India (Maoist) has actively supported the Palestinian resistance, despite the difficulties it is experiencing, organizing support and propaganda actions in India.
It is therefore an internationalist duty to support this advanced revolutionary experience and remember its martyrs, who are also ours.
ICSPWI therefore calls for mobilization in all countries of the world on the occasion of the CPI (Maoist) Martyrs’ Week from July 28 to August 3, and in accordance with the specific objective and subjective conditions in each country, organizing:
Actions and protests at Indian embassies and consulates
Support meetings
Propaganda actions in factories, workplaces, among struggling workers and peasants, in working-class neighborhoods, and in universities
The martyrs of the revolution are immortal!
The revolutionaries of the CPI (Maoist) are our comrades!
Comrades Basavaraj, Azad, and Kishenji, leaders of the new democratic revolution in India, will never be forgotten; their example will inspire future generations of revolutionaries!
Stop operation Kagaar! Immediate freedom for all political prisoners in India!
Long live the Communist Party of India (Maoist)!
Long Live the People’s War in India!
For more information and materials, contact: csgpindia@gmail.com
"The ICSPWI (International Committee to Support the People’s War in India) calls on MLM organizations and parties, all communist organizations and parties, revolutionaries, progressives, and sincere democrats, to mobilize in…"
xAI's Grok is rated for kids age 12 and up in the iOS App Store, despite adding "companions"; one includes an NSFW "Bad Rudy" mode and the other becomes NSFW (Casey Newton/Platformer)
“Folks, this is the captain speaking, if there are any medical professionals on board, could you please make yourself known to the crew?”
What timing. Her first flight since becoming a doctor, and she was about to find herself in the hotseat. Still, she was confident in her abilities, so didn’t hesitate to stand. Was everything she’d learned about to be tested? Time would tell.
She tapped a flight attendant on the shoulder.
“Hi, I’m a doctor, can I help?”
“Oh thank you, please, this way.”
She was brought to row 9, where she was introduced to a gentleman in his late 50’s, who was clearly in some distress.”
“Sir, I’m Dr. Moss, what’s going on?” She asked, gently.
“I am…I have…” he struggled to speak.
“Ok, before you use up all your energy. Let me ask you this,” she said. “Do you have a copy of your insurance card?”
“Erm I er…”
“Wait, you do have insurance, right? I am in network for Anthem.”
At this point, the flight attendant interjected.
“Is that really relevant, at this moment in time?” He asked.
“You’re right. I’m so sorry,” she said. “I actually have the Stripe app on my phone, so we can just put a hold on your credit card for now until we figure out insurance on the ground.”
The anarchists, on behalf of the proletariat, therefore consider it necessary to show the proletariat that it will have to win a gigantic battle before it realizes its goals. -- Johann Most
"Entretien avec l'autrice de La promesse qu’on nous a faite. L’article Fatma Çıngı Kocadost : « Penser l’hétérosexualité au pluriel » est apparu en premier sur BALLAST."
...mment on USAID funding of gain of function on Coronaviruses!
USAID is the CIA proxy that funds bioweapons research in Ukraine as well.
#minds. Subscribe to @barrybestt on Minds
Kick US Troops Out of Oyster Bay, Out of the Philippines!
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemns in the strongest terms the brazen US military takeover of the Oyster Bay in Palawan. The once peaceful community of small fishermen has now been overrun by US soldiers with their giant war arsenal.
The Oyster Bay now serves as a forward base for US imperialist provocations against China. It is just one of the latest in the long list of locations the Marcos regime has handed over to US armed forces, putting Filipino lives and livelihoods in even more danger.
Since 2020, the US has been quietly upgrading its facilities in Oyster Bay. Working with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the US developed the Oyster Bay Naval Detachment where it can dock, repair and resupply its naval warships. On March this year, the US Congress authorized the release of up to $5 million to complete repairs to the naval detachment so it could fully serve US manned and unmanned surface vehicles.
Hundreds of local fisherfolk have lost their sole source of livelihood as US warships and military exercises turn Oyster Bay’s waters into a toxic playground for US war games. Rich marine life and fragile coral reefs, the lifeblood of Palawan’s fisheries, are being destroyed. The environmental damage from US naval waste is both permanent and unacceptable.
Oyster Bay is now being used as a launchpad for so-called “freedom of navigation operations” of US military forces in the South China Sea. It serves the joint naval exercises being conducted by the US with Australia and Japan, in conjunction with operations from Subic Bay.
Oyster Bay now serves as a key node in the sprawling US military web across the Philippines—a network of military bases and facilities, ports, airfields, as well as storage facilities and factories for war. The recently announced plans to manufacture drones and produce ammunition in Aurora and Subic will further deepen US military entrenchment in the country.
The rapidly increasing US military presence in the Philippines is absolutely not about defending the country’s sovereignty. This is about turning the Philippines into a fortification for US imperialist hegemony and a springboard for the so-called Indo-Pacific Strategy, positioning the country as a key link in the US “first island chain” strategy to contain the growth of its imperialist rival China.
The Marcos regime’s gross subservience to US geopolitical strategy has allowed the US to drag the country into its hegemonic schemes and war plans. Marcos’ betrayal of the nation’s sovereignty has placed the country’s security in jeopardy. Regional security is under threat.
The Party firmly unites with the Filipino people in the fight against US imperialist aggression in the country. It is imperative that we raise our voices to make a powerful demand for the immediate dismantling of all US military bases, and the expulsion of all US forces from Oyster Bay, all of Palawan, and the entire Philippines. We must hold Marcos accountable and make him pay dearly for this betrayal.
The Filipino people must act now as nation’s sovereignty and future are at stake.
BREAKING: Trump has privately encouraged Ukraine to 'step up deep strikes on Russian territory' and asked Zelensky if 'he could strike Moscow', according to Financial Times report.
“Reform #Capitalism: Tax the Rich” Well, let’s see what “reform” means, but we’ll analyze it with an example. #Slavery. Towards the end of slavery in #US, in the North there were two trends. The #revolutionary one that called for the complete abolition of slavery and then there were the “reformers”. What did they demand? Better food and better clothing for the slaves. But there would still be slaves. So? Are you still in favor of the petty-bourgeois reform of Capitalism?
http://KEXP.ORG presents Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 performing live in the KEXP studio. Recorded May 7, 2025Songs:Stand Well Well 00:28T.O.P. 05:25Emi Aluta 11:...
"The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemns in the strongest terms the brazen US military takeover of the Oyster Bay in Palawan. The once peaceful community of small fishermen…"
Daily Beast reports CNN polling analyst Harry Enten has never seen Americans so unified on how much they dislike Trump, particularly Trump's handling of the Epstein files.
ο υφυπουργός Παιδείας Κωνσταντίνος Βλάσης αποκάλυψε ότι η αφαίρεση κειμένου μου για τα παιδιά της Γάζας από αναγνωστικό βιβλίο της Γ’ Γυμνασίου έγινε ύστερα από παρέμβαση του Κεντρικού Ισραηλιτικού Συμβουλίου.
Ο Υφυπουργός Παιδείας K. Βλάσης αποκάλυψε ότι το κείμενο του Π. Παπακωνσταντίνου για τη Γάζα αφαιρέθηκε από το βιβλίο της Γ' Γυμνασίου έπειτα από παρέμβαση του Κεντρικού Ισραηλιτικού Συμβουλίου.
Support me this summer in the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop! This summer, I'm writing "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux that explains how to be an effective AI critic:
Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently RADICALIZED and WALKAWAY, science fiction for adults; HOW TO DESTROY SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM, nonfiction about monopoly …
*Close To the Machine* is Ellen Ullman's classic memoir of writing software in Silicon Valley at the start of the dotcom bubble; it was originally published in 1997 and reprinted in 2022 for the 25 annniversary by Farrar, Straus and Giroux's MCD books:
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
This 25th Anniversary Edition of Close to the Machine, featuring a new introduction by Anna Wiener, author of Uncanny Valley, resurfaces Ellen Ullman’s astonishing account of computing and the ways it shapes our very existence.
“I’m filing this lawsuit because the government uses the U.S. border to bypass the rule of law,” Poitras said. She filed a Freedom of Information Act request in 2013.
My latest novel is "Picks and Shovels," a historical technothriller set in the Weird Era of the PC, about Ponzi schemes, techbros, and the dawn of enshittification:
My next nonfiction book is "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," out from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux on October 7:
My ebooks and audiobooks (from Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."
The Booksmith is so excited to be welcoming Cory Doctorow back to San Francisco for the release of Enshittification at Public Works. More to come, but grab a ticket and join us!About the bookEnshittification: its not just youthe internet sucks now.
Co-op Congress brings together those working to build a fairer economy to share ideas, get inspiration and take action. See the full programme of Day One at ...
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Support me this summer in the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop! This summer, I'm writing "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux that explains how to be an effective AI critic:
Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently RADICALIZED and WALKAWAY, science fiction for adults; HOW TO DESTROY SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM, nonfiction about monopoly …
Co-op Congress brings together those working to build a fairer economy to share ideas, get inspiration and take action. See the full programme of Day One at ...
The aurora australis arcs above a partly cloudy Indian Ocean in this photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 269 miles above in between Australia and Antarctica on June 12, 2025. Astronauts aboard the space station take photos using handheld digital cameras, usually through windows in the station’s cupola, for Crew Earth Observations. […]
SANAA, July 15 (YPA) - The Yemeni armed forces of Sanaa government announced on Tuesday the implementation of a simultaneous, dual military operation targeting a major Israeli military target in the Negev region and the Umm al-Rashrash port in occupi
Here is a quick series of frequently asked questions about the X11 session kissing us goodbye. Shoutout to Nate from which I copied the format of the post. Is Xorg unmaintained and abandoned? No,...
Baby supplies were already expensive, but now the Trump tariffs are sending those costs through the roof! Tell us more about how Trump is reducing costs for Americans... #DemocratsAbroad #Tariffs #Trump #USpolitics
Tribes in North Dakota yesterday appealed to the Supreme Court, after a lower court said they couldn’t challenge state maps under the Voting Rights Act.
Bolts covered that ruling, which risks making the VRA a “law without a way to enforce it,” in June: boltsmag.org/voting-rights-act…
In North Dakota as elsewhere, Native groups face a triple threat on voting rights: judges targeting the VRA, Trump officials hostile to enforcing it, and a funding crunch depleting their work.
Tous les jours de nouvelles preuves et de nouvelles victimes du Génocide à #Gaza mais ce n'est pas suffisant pour l' #UE pour dénoncer l'accord avec #Israél au risque de fâcher #Trump et les investisseurs en Riviera theguardian.com/world/2025/jul…
WATCH: “We are tired of being treated as disposable.” California farm workers announce a 3-day strike in response to Trump’s Gestapo raids and racial profiling.
A man was detained Wednesday morning near the Capitol after police spotted a vehicle with a tricycle on its roof with a bow and arrow and empty holster inside near a security barrier located at 200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, according to repo…
*Close To the Machine* is Ellen Ullman's classic memoir of writing software in Silicon Valley at the start of the dotcom bubble; it was originally published in 1997 and reprinted in 2022 for the 25 annniversary by Farrar, Straus and Giroux's MCD books:
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
This 25th Anniversary Edition of Close to the Machine, featuring a new introduction by Anna Wiener, author of Uncanny Valley, resurfaces Ellen Ullman’s astonishing account of computing and the ways it shapes our very existence.
I somehow never read Ullman's book; having read it now, it's easy to understand how this beautifully rendered snapshot of life at the end of the 20th century became a touchpoint for multiple generations of coders and technologists, and why it's still in print, 27 years later.
Ullman's subtitle for the book is "Technophilia and its discontents," and therein lies the secret to its magic. Ullman loves programming computers, loves the way they engage her attention, her consciousness, and her intelligence. Her descriptions of the process of writing code - of tackling a big coding project - are nothing less than revelatory.
She captures something that a million technothriller movies consistently fail to even approach: the dramatic interior experience of a programmer who breaks down a complex problem into many interlocking systems, the momentary and elusive sense of having all those systems simultaneously operating in a high-fidelity mental model, the sense of being *full*, your brain totally engaged in every way.
It's a poetics of language that meets and exceeds the high bar set by the few fiction writers who've ever approached a decent rendering of this feeling, like William Gibson.
These glittering moments are fleeting, though. No code project survives contact with the computer, a brutal and unforgiving cognitive partner that ferrets out every error in your thinking, every trap you've unknowningly fallen into.
Here again, Ullman shines in her renderings of the ferocious mental combat that programmers must do with their computers, grueling matches that are made all the worse by the certain knowledge that the only way to win the bout is to discover and fix your own flaws.
These set-pieces make for great branching points into the three other components of Ullman's classic: first, there are the stories of high-tech institutions.
We follow Ullman - a contract programmer who is hired to assemble teams to run specific projects - as she works on a gnarly all-in-one tool for matching people with AIDS with a spectrum of public services; and when she is brought into a failing startup as part of an abortive turnaround attempt.
All of this is happening just as the web and the internet are devouring all high-tech projects, and Ullman - a techie who is an old hand at networked communications, but it professionally part of a breed of coder who specializes in standalone and modem-based services - finds herself sitting opposite glittering new-breed hackers who have arrived to eat her lunch.
Here, too, Ullman absolutely *nails* the experience of a technologist who has transitioned from surfing the cutting edge to being decapitated by it. This sequence is made all the more poignant by a series of scenes in which Ullman confronts the impossible knot of writing code that benefits marginalized, at-risk users (people dying of AIDS) while satisfying the political and bureaucratic imperatives of multiple charities, government agencies, and advocates.
Ullman has finally wrestled all of these stakeholders into a stable configuration, only to have these shiny young people show up and tell her that she - and everything she's done and everything she stands for - is obsolete. It's a gut-punch of a scene.
That's the third component of Ullman's memoir - the workplace culture of a programmer who must answer to (and assuage) a variety of nontechnical people who flip from awe to seething resentment of you and your work.
Ullman, who lives the simultaneously precarious and lucrative life of a high-paid, much sought-after freelancer, is at the mercy of so many people who have terrible power over her, little empathy for her, and an almost total lack of understanding of what she does (imagine Dilbert, but written by a smart and aware person, not a humorless asshole).
The final quadrant of Ullman's book is the memoir itself - the story of her life growing up in the shadow of a driven, striving Jewish immigrant in New York City whose manic entrepreneurship and minimal self-awareness transforms him into both a source of inspiration and an object of pity for Ullman.
Ullman's personal life in San Francisco is painted with equal fidelity, from her bisexual, polyamorous romantic life to her camaraderie with other hackers (some of whom end up in her bed).
Ullman introduces us to characters that are instantly recognizable today, from the cypherpunk who dreams of setting up an anonymous digital cash system that is financed by an offshore porn empire to a semi-libertarian young man who can't imagine why the law would set limits on when a worker can be treated as an independent contractor.
These are timeless avatars for the kinds of people whose live "close to the machine," whose brains are easily and productively ensnared by digital computers and their pitiless logic. Despite that, this volume is also a perfect, high-fidelity capture of Silicon Valley at the start of one of its many (many, many) bubbles.
I was there, then, working as a contractor (what else?) for a Unix shop and learning on the job as we tried to figure out whether our customers would expect to access our tools through a browser rather than at the console of a quarter-million dollar SGI machine. Though I'm a generation younger than Ullman, I was in the same place, time and milieu as she was when this book was written, and all of it rings utterly true.
What's more, Ullman's work here preserves and reveals the extent to which the best and worst aspects of tech culture have been present since the earliest days, and gestures at the causal relationship between those aspects and the intrinsic nature of the work of programming computers.
While Ullman doesn't advance an explicit theory relating the attitudes and conundra of her field to the nature of computer programming, this work is implicitly webbed over with gossamer threads joining all these phenomena.
That's something I've tried to do in my own fiction, particularly with my Martin Hench novels, which visit different moments in Silicon Valley history (the 1980s, the 2000s, the 2020s) through the eyes of a forensic accountant who unravels tech scams and, in so doing, traces those same threads:
This 25th anniversary edition features a beautiful introduction by Anna Wiener, author of the extraordinary 2020 Silicon Valley memoir *Uncanny Valley*. Wiener is the perfect choice to introduce this volume, connecting the present moment with the first days of the commercial internet:
Support me this summer in the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop! This summer, I'm writing "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux that explains how to be an effective AI critic:
Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently RADICALIZED and WALKAWAY, science fiction for adults; HOW TO DESTROY SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM, nonfiction about monopoly …
I showed up a year too late to be one of those shiny (or savvy: Ullman) folks in the dot-com gold rush. I owe my career more to SFBay relatives with couches for me to crash on than good timing, but also to the learning community of the Silicon Valley Patterns Group who wanted to figure out new and classic software tech and how to best understand and use it, and the people I met from there.
latest #distrochallenge candidate idea for me, keeping my no-systemd rule, thus keeps many distros ruled out, if i also add, none of my standard dependable 4 (artix, devuan, gentoo, void), what would i go for? yus, still bedrock... but perhaps also could limit it to static libs distros and bsd style packaging and init... CRUX, i imagine as the hijack core i'd build around, as i figure out what other exotic lesser-known distros fit.
KISS, Carbs, joborun, spring to mind too. As does stali, but, that's not really a distro, and long abandoned.
maybe if i limit respins and distros based on other distros, so even carbs and joborun are out. i know carbs is independent, and has its own package manager, but, it's nearer KISS than guixsd is to nixos, or funtoo is to gentoo. joborun too, impressive and appealing an independent direction it's taking, is still basically an arch derivative, not sufficiently distinct again from the likes of parabola, artix, obarun and the arch respins for my tightened criteria here (~ otherwise, it'd make a strong 2nd most used stratum).
and i've had the idea of all the little distros already (my post on this just prior, 19 days ago)... so it's not that kind of thing i'm going for here.
they may be little, but, not the cute little, if you know what i mean. (not slax, slitaz, puppy, dsl, tinycore, etc)
like ideally they're focussed on a solid core, and their minimal system's top priority, and comes available as a rootfs tarball ready to deploy as a stratum. ... heh, maybe that should be the only criteria.
well, it's fun to think about, but shant be making any hasty moves on this today.
... okies, food will be burning if i dont hop afk to it now.
Osaisko kukaan vinkata aurinkorasvaa, joka ei haise eikä tee iholle niin hengittämätöntä kelmua, että rasva nostaa jo lämpöuupumuksenkin riskiä, kun iholta ei haihdu mikään. Mulla alkaa olla suojakertoimen 50 hajustamattomat mömmöt testattu ja hylätty pitkäkestoiseen rasitukseen soveltumattomina. Onko pienemmän kertoimen rasvat yhtään vähemmän vesieristetyyppisiä?
En haluis ihosyöpää, mutta lämpöuupumus on myös vaarallinen tila.
@Duusi Kiitos, ohuen oloinen kuulostaisi lupaavalta. Mä olen käyttänyt naamatököttejä niskaan ja käsivarsiin (muut paikat mulla yleensä on suojattu vaatteilla), mutta yllättäen osa kalliimmistakin naamarasvoista muuttuu kovassa rasituksessa kalvoksi, jonka sisällä pää paistuu, kun hiki ja lämpö ei tunnu poistuvan iholta kunnolla.
Zonz
Unknown parent • • •@Killer_Mule
Time for one of those famous acoustic techno shows!
🌈Magical Thinking
in reply to Zonz • • •@Killer_Mule
burning man?
Steve In Texas
Unknown parent • • •