diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index daf2bd1..56252cb 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -11,12 +11,13 @@ rusqlite = {version=">=0.34",features=['bundled']}
 scraper = "0.23.1"
 directories = "6.0.0"
 chrono = "0.4.41"
-rss_content = { git = "https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel/rss_content", version = "0.1.1" }
 url = "2.5.4"
 opml = "1.1.6"
 sha1 = "0.10.6"
 bytes = "1.11.1"
+ego-tree = "0.10.0"
 #rfd = "0.15.4" (for importing files)
+
 [profile.dev]
 debug=true
 incremental = true
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index 951ca1c..3d68e40 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ pub mod ui;
 pub mod db;
 pub mod files;
 pub mod widgets;
+mod rss_content;
 
 pub fn main() -> iced::Result {
     db::initialize();
diff --git a/src/net.rs b/src/net.rs
index 10dad05..a84e62b 100644
--- a/src/net.rs
+++ b/src/net.rs
@@ -89,28 +89,20 @@ fn get_client(network: Network) -> Result<Client, Error> {
     }
 }
 
-pub fn get_content(url: &str) -> Option<String> {
+fn fetch(url: &str) -> Option<reqwest::blocking::Response> {
     let client = get_client(url_network(url)).unwrap();
-    let res = client.get(url).header(USER_AGENT, "RSS Reader").send();
-    match res {
-        Ok(resp) => match resp.text() {
-            Ok(body) => return Some(body),
-            Err(_) => return None,
-        },
-        Err(_) => return None,
-    }
+    client.get(url)
+        .header(USER_AGENT, "RSS Reader")
+        .send()
+        .ok()
+}
+
+pub fn get_content(url: &str) -> Option<String> {
+    fetch(url)?.text().ok()
 }
 
 pub fn get_bytes(url: &str) -> Option<bytes::Bytes> {
-    let client = get_client(url_network(url)).unwrap();
-    let res = client.get(url).header(USER_AGENT, "RSS Reader").send();
-    match res {
-        Ok(resp) => match resp.bytes() {
-            Ok(body) => return Some(body),
-            Err(_) => return None,
-        },
-        Err(_) => return None,
-    }
+    fetch(url)?.bytes().ok()
 }
 
 pub fn retrieve_opml(url: &str) -> Vec<Url> {
diff --git a/src/rss_content/mod.rs b/src/rss_content/mod.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cfdbe07
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/rss_content/mod.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,350 @@
+use scraper::{ElementRef, Html, Node};
+use iced::widget::markdown;
+
+/*
+    The goal here is to flatten the DOM as much as possible. 
+    paragraphs with fancy formatting are turned into markdown, same with 
+*/
+
+//Supported content
+#[derive(Debug,Clone)]
+pub enum Content {
+    Markdown(String),
+    MarkdownParsed(Vec<markdown::Item>),
+    Image(String),
+    Audio(String),
+    Video(String),
+    Ignore
+}
+
+pub fn parse_content(c: &str) -> Vec<Content>{
+    process_content(&itemize_content(c)).into_iter().map(|i| {
+        match i {
+            Content::Markdown(s) => {
+                Content::MarkdownParsed(markdown::parse(&s).collect())
+                //this is super lazy but it works....
+            }
+            _ => {i}
+        }
+    }).collect()
+}
+
+fn markdownify_child(item: &Item) -> String {
+    let mut result = "".to_owned();
+    match markdown_content(&item) {
+        Content::Markdown(s) => {
+            result = result + &s;
+        },
+        _ => {}
+    }
+    result
+
+}
+
+fn process_children(children: &Vec<Item>) -> String {
+    let mut result = "".to_owned();
+    for c in children{
+        result = result + &markdownify_child(c);
+    }
+    result
+}
+
+
+fn has_image(children: &Vec<Item>) -> bool {
+    for c in children {
+        match c {
+            Item::Image(_) => {
+                return true;
+            }
+            _ => {}
+        }
+    }
+    false
+}
+
+fn has_video(children: &Vec<Item>) -> bool{
+    for c in children {
+        match c {
+            Item::Video(_) => {
+            return true;
+            }
+            _ => {}
+        }
+        
+    }
+    false
+}
+
+fn markdown_content(item: &Item) -> Content {
+    let mut markdown = String::new();
+    match item {
+        Item::Title(n,children) => {
+            markdown = markdown + &"#".repeat(*n) + " " +&process_children(children);
+        },
+        Item::BoldedText(children) => {
+            markdown = format!("**{}**",process_children(children));
+        },
+        Item::EmphasisText(children) => {
+            markdown = format!("*{}*",process_children(children));
+        }
+        Item::Text(s) => {
+            markdown = markdown + s;
+        },
+        Item::Link(href, children) => {
+            markdown = markdown + &format!("[{}]({})",process_children(children),href);
+        }
+        Item::Paragraph(children) => {
+            markdown = markdown + &process_children(children);
+        }
+        Item::UnorderedList(children) => {
+            markdown = markdown + &process_children(children);
+        }
+        Item::OrderedList(children) => {
+            markdown = markdown + &process_children(children);
+        }
+        Item::ListItem(children) => {
+            markdown = "\n- ".to_owned() + &process_children(children);
+        }
+        Item::Code(children) => {
+            markdown = markdown + &format!("```{}```",&process_children(children));
+        }
+        Item::Blockquote(children) => {
+            markdown = markdown + "> " + &process_children(children);
+        }
+        _ => {}
+    }
+    Content::Markdown(markdown)
+}
+
+fn get_media_source(children: &Vec<Item>) -> Option<String> {
+    for c in children {
+        match c {
+            Item::Source(src) => {
+                return Some(src.to_owned());
+            }
+            _ => {}
+        }
+    }
+    None
+}
+
+fn media_content(item: &Item) -> Content{
+    match item {
+        Item::Link(_,children) => {
+            for c in children {
+                match c {
+                    Item::Video(_) => {return media_content(c);}
+                    Item::Audio(_) => {return media_content(c);}
+                    _ => {}
+                }
+            }
+            Content::Ignore
+        }
+        Item::Audio(children) => {
+            match get_media_source(children) {
+                Some(s) => {
+                    return Content::Audio(s);
+                }
+                None => {
+                    return Content::Markdown("<Audio Element with no source>".to_owned());
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        Item::Video(children) => {
+            match get_media_source(children) {
+                Some(source) => {
+                    return Content::Video(source)
+                }
+                None => {
+                    return Content::Markdown("<Video element with no source>".to_owned());
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        _ => {
+            Content::Markdown(format!("Incorrectly assigned element:{:#?}",item))
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+
+fn process_content(items: &Vec<Item>) -> Vec<Content> {
+    let mut result: Vec<Content> = Vec::new();
+    //println!("Converting {} items into Content",items.len());
+    for i in items {
+        match i {
+            Item::Title(_,_) => {
+                result.push(markdown_content(i));
+            }
+            Item::Paragraph(_) => {
+                result.push(markdown_content(i));
+            },
+            Item::Link(_,children) => {
+                if has_video(children){
+                    result.push(media_content(i));
+                }
+                else if has_image(children){
+                    result.push(media_content(i));
+
+                }
+                else {
+                    result.push(markdown_content(i))
+                }
+            }
+            Item::UnorderedList(_) => {
+                result.push(markdown_content(i));
+            }
+            Item::OrderedList(_) => {
+                result.push(markdown_content(i));
+            }
+            Item::ListItem(_) => {
+                result.push(markdown_content(i));
+            }
+            Item::Image(src) => {
+                result.push(Content::Image(src.to_owned()));
+            }
+            Item::Video(_) => {
+                result.push(media_content(i));
+            }
+            Item::Audio(_) => {
+                result.push(media_content(i));
+            }
+            Item::Container(children) => {
+                //should actually plan to contain things
+                for c in process_content(children){
+                    result.push(c);
+                }
+            }
+            Item::Code(_) => {
+                result.push(markdown_content(i));
+            }
+            Item::Blockquote(_) => {
+                result.push(markdown_content(i));
+            }
+            _ => {
+                result.push(Content::Ignore);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    result
+}
+
+#[derive(Debug,Clone)]
+enum Item {
+    Ignore,
+    Title(usize,Vec<Item>),
+    Text(String),
+    //text, links, formatting are all markdown
+    //arguably, for better control it will be best to turn markdown into its own set of items
+    Image(String),
+    Video(Vec<Item>),
+    Audio(Vec<Item>),
+    Source(String),
+    Blockquote(Vec<Item>),
+    Code(Vec<Item>),
+    BoldedText(Vec<Item>),
+    EmphasisText(Vec<Item>),
+    UnorderedList(Vec<Item>),
+    OrderedList(Vec<Item>),
+    ListItem(Vec<Item>),
+    Paragraph(Vec<Item>),
+    Container(Vec<Item>),
+    Link(String,Vec<Item>),
+    Table(Vec<Item>)
+}
+
+
+fn itemize_content(content: &str) -> Vec<Item> {
+    let frag = Html::parse_fragment(content);
+    frag.root_element().children().map(|e|{
+        parse_items(e)
+    }).collect()
+}
+
+fn get_children(el: &ElementRef) -> Vec<Item>{
+    el.children().map(|c|{parse_items(c)}).collect()
+}
+
+fn parse_items(n: ego_tree::NodeRef<'_,Node>) -> Item{
+    if n.value().is_text(){
+        return Item::Text((&n.value().as_text().unwrap()).to_string())
+    }
+    if n.value().is_element(){
+        let el = ElementRef::wrap(n).unwrap();  
+        let tag_name = el.value().name();
+        match tag_name {
+            "h1" => {return Item::Title(1, get_children(&el))},
+            "h2" => {return Item::Title(2, get_children(&el))},
+            "h3" => {return Item::Title(3, get_children(&el))},
+            "h4" => {return Item::Title(4, get_children(&el))},
+            "h5" => {return Item::Title(5, get_children(&el))},
+            "h6" => {return Item::Title(6, get_children(&el))},
+            "strong" => {return Item::BoldedText(get_children(&el))},
+            "em" => {return Item::EmphasisText(get_children(&el))},
+            "br" => {return Item::Text("\n".to_owned())},
+            "hr" => {return Item::Text("---".to_owned())}
+            "p" => {
+                return Item::Paragraph(get_children(&el))
+            },
+            "a" => {
+                let href = match el.attr("href") {
+                    Some(link) => {link}
+                    None => {""}
+                };
+                return Item::Link(href.to_owned(),get_children(&el))
+                                            
+                
+            }
+            "img" => {
+                match el.attr("src") {
+                    Some(src) => {
+                        return Item::Image(src.to_owned())
+                    },
+                    None => {return Item::Ignore}
+                }
+            }
+            "source" => {
+                match el.attr("src") {
+                    Some(src) => {
+                        return Item::Source(src.to_owned())
+                    },
+                    None => {return Item::Ignore}
+                }
+            }
+            "video" => {
+                return Item::Video(get_children(&el))                
+            }
+            "audio" => {
+                return Item::Audio(get_children(&el))
+            }
+            "ol" => {
+                return Item::OrderedList(get_children(&el))
+            }
+            "ul" => {
+                return Item::UnorderedList(get_children(&el))
+            }
+            "li" => {
+                return Item::ListItem(get_children(&el))
+            }
+            "div" => {
+                return Item::Container(get_children(&el))
+            }
+            "code" => {
+                return Item::Code(get_children(&el))
+            }
+            "blockquote" => {
+                return Item::Blockquote(get_children(&el))
+            }
+
+            _ => {}
+        };  
+    }
+    
+    Item::Ignore
+
+
+
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+ mod tests;
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/rss_content/tests/example_data.rs b/src/rss_content/tests/example_data.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cc53957
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/rss_content/tests/example_data.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,19792 @@
+pub const FEEDS: [&str; 2] = [
+	LSN,
+	GABE_ROCKS
+];
+
+pub const FRAGMENTS: [&str; 2] = [
+	SIMPLE_ARTICLE,
+	TABLE
+];
+
+pub const TABLE: &str = r#"
+<table">
+        <tr>
+            <th colspan="4">
+                <h2 style="text-align: center;">Weight Tracker</h2>
+            </th>
+        </tr>
+        <tr>
+            <td><strong>Starting Weight</strong></td>
+            <td><strong>Current Weight</strong></td>
+            <td><strong>Weight Lost</strong></td>
+            <td><strong>Goal Weight</strong></td>
+        </tr>
+        <tr>
+            <td>576</td>
+            <td>373</td>
+            <td>203</td>
+            <td>15% BF</td>
+        </tr>
+        <tr>
+            <td colspan="4">
+                <h3 style="font-size:x-large;">2025 Goal: 200lbs in 2025 challenge</h3>
+                <div
+                    style="border:3px solid var(--color-accent);align-items: flex-start;justify-content: flex-start;margin:5px;border-radius:15px;overflow: hidden;">
+                    <div style="width:53%;padding:10px;background-color:var(--color-accent);color:black;font-weight: bolder;font-size:larger;">53%
+                    </div>
+                </div>
+                <p style="margin:5px;text-align: left;width:fit-content;font-size:large;">This year's goal is to lose <strong>200lbs</strong> in 2025!<br>Current progress: <strong>106lbs</strong> out of 200!
+                <br>I'm catching up 🏃</p>
+            </td>
+        </tr>
+        <tr>
+            <td colspan="4" style="text-align: center;">Last updated: 2025-07-19</td>
+        </tr>
+    </table>
+
+"#;
+
+pub const SIMPLE_ARTICLE: &str = r#"
+<p> Just some text here and a <a href="">link</a><br>
+with a simple list for funzies:
+<ul>
+<li>First</li>
+<li>Second</li>
+<ul>
+<li>Indented item</li>
+</ul>
+</ul>
+<image src="https://example.com/photo.png">
+<div>
+	<p>Some other stuff here</p>
+</div>
+
+"#;
+
+pub const LSN: &str = r#"
+<?xml-stylesheet href="/feed-style.xsl" type="text/xsl"?>
+<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:podcast="https://github.com/Podcastindex-org/podcast-namespace/blob/main/docs/1.0.md" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd">
+  <channel>
+	<title>Libre Solutions Network</title>
+	<link>https://libresolutions.network/</link>
+	<description>Freedom in the digital age</description>
+	<generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator>
+	<language>en-ca</language>
+	<image>
+    <url>https://libresolutions.network/logo.png</url>
+    </image>
+	
+	<podcast:funding url="https://liberapay.com/Gabe">Support this work!</podcast:funding>	
+	<item>
+		<title>Darknet Market Maximalism with Anti Moonboy (AKA Xenu)</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/anti-moonboy/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Jul 2025 13:42:05 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/anti-moonboy/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/antimoonboy.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<description>Exploring the possibilities that remain for peer-to-peer digital cash</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/cG7Nag4zKju8dhy7y7XxVi&#34;&gt;Listen on Peertube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is a great conversation with &lt;a href=&#34;https://antimoonboy.com/&#34;&gt;Anti Moonboy&lt;/a&gt; a highly knowledgeable Monero advocate also known as &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/xenumonero&#34;&gt;Xenu on X.&lt;/a&gt; It was a pleasure to be joined by a knowledgeable and passionate cyber rebel to discuss many things including his latest manifesto &lt;a href=&#34;https://antimoonboy.com/darknetmarketmaximalism/&#34;&gt;Darknet Market Maximalism.&lt;/a&gt; In our conversation we touch on the wider cryptocurrency discussion as well as the finer points of decentralization and privacy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re interested in staying up to date on Monero and other topics &lt;a href=&#34;https://antimoonboy.com/amn/&#34;&gt;Anti Moonboy News&lt;/a&gt; is a phenomenal resource. Please consider following Anti Moonboy through his site&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://antimoonboy.com/index.xml&#34;&gt;RSS feed,&lt;/a&gt; but you can also check out his channels on &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/@Anti_Moonboy&#34;&gt;YouTube,&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/c/c-7272376&#34;&gt;Rumble,&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://odysee.com/@anti_moonboy:7&#34;&gt;Odysee.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/genesis-block.asp&#34;&gt;Satoshi Nakamoto - Bitcoin Genesis block&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;links--resources&#34;&gt;Links &amp;amp; Resources:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/15/coinbase-says-hackers-bribed-staff-to-steal-customer-data-and-are-demanding-20-million-ransom.html&#34;&gt;Coinbase says hackers bribed staff to steal customer data and are demanding $20 million ransom&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/world-us-cryptocurrency-related-crimes-1.7546701&#34;&gt;&amp;lsquo;Wrench attacks&amp;rsquo; subject some cryptocurrency holders to violence, kidnapping&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Self-hosting tools:
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://yunohost.org/&#34;&gt;YunoHost&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libreserver.org/&#34;&gt;LibreServer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://start9.com/&#34;&gt;Start9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://protos.com/michael-saylor-suggests-selling-kidneys-as-bitcoin-dips-below-80k/&#34;&gt;Michael Saylor suggests selling kidneys as bitcoin dips below $80K&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://antimoonboy.com/aotpo/&#34;&gt;Attacked of the Poisoned Outputs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/videos/bitcoin&#34;&gt;Geopolitics &amp;amp; Empire: Bitcoin’s Rise &amp;amp; Its Future Role…Tulip Mania or Digital Gold?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/_alDjVDcX4k&#34;&gt;Sam Bankman Fried and his empty boxes.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/zano&#34;&gt;The Zano Conspiracy: Hijacking Privacy&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/docs/#/page/zano&#34;&gt;Notes&lt;/a&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://antimoonboy.com/posts/amn32/&#34;&gt;Anti Moonboy News 32 - Spy Nodes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://odysee.com/@anti_moonboy:7/AMN9:c&#34;&gt;Anti Moonboy News 9 - &amp;ldquo;How is Zano being used today?&amp;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://xmrchat.com/&#34;&gt;XMRChat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://nostr.com/&#34;&gt;Nostr&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://xmrbazaar.com/&#34;&gt;XMRBazaar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/mitra/&#34;&gt;Mitra&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&#34;https://codeberg.org/silverpill/mitra&#34;&gt;Repository&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;donate&#34;&gt;Donate&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://antimoonboy.com/donate/&#34;&gt;Support Anti Moonboy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/about/support&#34;&gt;Support this work&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Decentralization in Practice: Pitfalls and Possibilities</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/simplified-privacy/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 29 Jun 2025 17:21:41 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/simplified-privacy/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/simplified-privacy.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<description>Talking the finer points of freedom tech with Simplified Privacy</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;This conversation is an opportunity to learn from &lt;a href=&#34;https://simplifiedprivacy.com/&#34;&gt;Simplified Privacy,&lt;/a&gt; an organization that works to put decentralization in practice. It was a pleasure to talk with &lt;a href=&#34;https://simplifiedprivacy.com/shadow-rebel/index.html&#34;&gt;Shadow&lt;/a&gt; from the team to dig deep into the challenges involved with privacy for fun and profit. This was a great opportunity to compare notes on the bleeding edge of decentralization and privacy tools and the practical realities of putting it to use. There are a lot of important questions to ask and lots of fine points to consider.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can follow Simplified Privacy on &lt;a href=&#34;https://ditto.pub/@npub14slk4lshtylkrqg9z0dvng09gn58h88frvnax7uga3v0h25szj4qzjt5d6&#34;&gt;Nostr&lt;/a&gt; to get connected.&lt;br&gt;
+They also have &lt;a href=&#34;https://podcast.simplifiedprivacy.com/&#34;&gt;podcasts&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://video.simplifiedprivacy.com/&#34;&gt;videos&lt;/a&gt; on a variety of privacy &amp;amp; decentralization topics.&lt;br&gt;
+For those looking to peer deeper into the systems, you can also browse their public &lt;a href=&#34;https://git.simplifiedprivacy.is/explore/repos&#34;&gt;code repositories.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;relevant-links&#34;&gt;Relevant links:&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://cyberfreedom.ca/tag/45th-parliament/&#34;&gt;New Canadian Legislation against privacy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/self-hosting-your-own-media-considered-harmful-updated&#34;&gt;Self-hosting your own media considered harmful (Updated)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/ftJ6eGll8HU&#34;&gt;YouTube Considers This Software &amp;ldquo;Harmful or Dangerous&amp;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://videos.lukesmith.xyz/w/fd4pz1jhA9GazuJ9PUy7tM&#34;&gt;Fight the System? Or Exit the System?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/6AynIIFM2WU&#34;&gt;AKSHUALLY! You Should ALWAYS Use A VPN! - The Hated One&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.androidpolice.com/meta-yandex-apps-de-anonymize-localhost-tracking/&#34;&gt;Researchers catch Meta apps abusing Android to track sensitive browsing history&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://snikket.org/blog/on-the-jabber-ru-mitm/&#34;&gt;On the jabber.ru MITM attack&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/06/critical-moveit-vulnerability-puts-huge-swaths-of-the-internet-at-severe-risk/&#34;&gt;Critical MOVEit vulnerability puts huge swaths of the Internet at severe risk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.404media.co/the-signal-clone-the-trump-admin-uses-was-hacked/&#34;&gt;The Signal Clone the Trump Admin Uses Was Hacked&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Smile! You&#39;re being recorded.</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/smile-recorded/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Jun 2025 15:00:42 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/smile-recorded/</guid>
+		
+		<description>Recognizing and contending with the nature of systemic surveillance.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Omnipresent surveillance isn&amp;rsquo;t merely normalized, but expected. It&amp;rsquo;s a sad state of affairs when the extreme consolidation and misuse of sensitive personal information is merely yet another risk placed on individuals without a care. Worse still, people are quick to blame consumers for particular technology choices without considering structural factors. While it is worth our time to try to find ways to minimize digital intrusions, at some point the bigger picture has to be drawn and confronted. We are well past the time where being careful about what you post online was sufficient to protect your data. In our time, almost every institution you interact with creates a larger and larger digital footprint that is almost entirely outside of your own control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While this can be mitigated by refusing to interact with any large public or private institution, it is unreasonable to expect the general public to make the same sacrifice consistently. Instead of playing the blame game, it can be useful to take stock of the information that is unnecessarily collected by institutions we choose to interact with, and those people are forced to contend with. Even when information collection is necessary, we should ask if data retention truly necessary? Even if it is, how long? Regardless of how long the information is kept, what practices are acceptable with that particular information? By recognizing the new threats created by mass data collection we should reassess how we allow people&amp;rsquo;s information to be collected and used.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many of these issues are currently coming to a head with &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cbsnews.com/video/senate-holds-hearing-23andme-concerns-company-selling-customers-data/&#34;&gt;the sale&lt;/a&gt; of 23andMe&amp;rsquo;s treasure trove of sensitive data ranging from personal details to DNA. In many ways this is but the tip of a massive and jagged iceberg, given that the potential uses (&lt;em&gt;and misuses&lt;/em&gt;) for intimate personal and medical details multiply by the day. While institutions both public and private promise to protect the information they collect with the latest and greatest standards and practices, these guarantees aren&amp;rsquo;t worth very much. Data breaches are &lt;a href=&#34;https://tech.co/news/data-breaches-updated-list&#34;&gt;so common&lt;/a&gt; to be background noise to many. Once information is shared, sold, or stolen, there is hardly any recourse for those who are harmed by its misuse.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The only way to ensure information is protected across time is to never record it in the first place. Consequences of breaches both large and small are severe for individuals. Information divulged in breaches is often &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.fastcompany.com/91347086/data-breach-illicit-markets-personal-information-criminals&#34;&gt;weaponized&lt;/a&gt; against individuals, resulting in a wide array of terrible consequences. The tragedy is that your digital footprint is already far outside your control. While it is advisable to avoid proactively enlarging it, the sad fact is that almost every institution and service has an incentive to &lt;a href=&#34;https://gizmodo.com/data-broker-brags-about-having-highly-detailed-personal-information-on-nearly-all-internet-users-2000575762&#34;&gt;work against you.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The latest stock-market hype cycle, &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFQvErdlATeY-mEHozu5GlfffewysnHFq&#34;&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;AI Mania&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/a&gt; is the fuel for this particular bonfire of civil liberties. The clear desire to integrate &amp;lsquo;intelligent&amp;rsquo; tools into all levels of society is based on the assumption that the mass collection, retention, and use of sensitive personal information is not only harmless, but desirable. This is a direct assault on the ability for individuals to have, much less choose their own boundaries with particular entities. It&amp;rsquo;s a lot harder to &amp;lsquo;opt-out&amp;rsquo; of particular features when your phone plan is &lt;a href=&#34;https://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs/114699542271613288&#34;&gt;linked to your healthcare&lt;/a&gt; or entities are able to leverage information collected on you from everywhere and anywhere.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The problem is not contained to a single institution or sector. This is a classic &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/externality.asp&#34;&gt;negative exernality&lt;/a&gt; feedback loop. The privacy and security of individuals is being traded for risk management by institutions both public and private. This trade is anything but voluntary and immensely one-sided. Powerful automation and robotics systems are being developed with the express purpose of making our physical reality &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/bigmadcrab/status/1930016652457898091&#34;&gt;as controlled&lt;/a&gt; as our digital one. If one is concerned about the information dark age online, they should be a great deal more concerned with what is coming to our actual lives if this trend continues.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It can be hard for people to see why anyone would cooperate with all this, but there are many strong incentives to go &lt;em&gt;play pong&lt;/em&gt; with the machine. The gold rush surrounding artificial intelligence tools means that many are going to experiment with &amp;lsquo;AI agents&amp;rsquo;, even &lt;a href=&#34;https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/07/signal-president-meredith-whittaker-calls-out-agentic-ai-as-having-profound-security-and-privacy-issues/&#34;&gt;at their own peril.&lt;/a&gt; The more interwoven these tools become with our lives, the more serious abuses can come from the misuse of personal information. It&amp;rsquo;s one thing when a person chooses to use these tools, but a whole other scenario when institutions are making use of them and individuals are left with the consequences.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While private entities are massively responsible for expanding surveillance, Governments are escalating their own measures. Every level of society, including corporate data collection can be leveraged for &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/why-predictive-policing-must-be-banned/&#34;&gt;real-time social control.&lt;/a&gt; The &lt;a href=&#34;https://theconsciousresistance.com/emergent201-tech-army/&#34;&gt;militarization&lt;/a&gt; of everyday technical tools has profound implications for governments capacity and willingness to suppress even the most minor signs of dissent.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This depressing dystopia is far from the inevitable path that its beneficiaries and sci-fi would have you believe. The biggest barrier to a better digital future is not the systems we have to contend with but our own imagination and will. Devices can be repurposed, systems can be replaced, and tools can be rebuilt or refined. In the worst case scenario, we&amp;rsquo;ll have a great deal of recycling to do. It is difficult to draw the line that the problem is not the devices themselves, necessarily. &amp;lsquo;Wearables&amp;rsquo;, touch-screen devices, robots, and automation are all things that get a lot of &lt;em&gt;well-intentioned&lt;/em&gt; ire, but are hardly the actual basis for the feared top-down technological terror. The actual problems are caused by these tools being built for a terrifyingly consolidated power structure to manage any resistance, internal or external. As political corruption consolidates actual power, the digital landscape morphs to suit this state of affairs. It is unavoidable that those who want a better digital experience must be engaged citizens supporting initiatives for transparency, accountability and justice.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The good news is that non-technical people are very much needed in this fight. None of this is an engineering problem. This is a reflection that our digital experience is a direct consequence of the powers at play in society. It is understandably overwhelming to consider the greater scope at hand. To make matters worse, it is entirely unlikely that these problems will be properly addressed. One can bet on more invasive (&lt;em&gt;both voluntary and coerced&lt;/em&gt;) data collection on even the smallest details one can imagine in their life. The problem with privacy is that its harms are largely abstract to many people. The solutions are even more opaque as it&amp;rsquo;s genuinely difficult to understand what moves are genuinely worth the effort. It&amp;rsquo;s a challenging problem to solve because the harms are effectively diffused throughout society, like pollution, harming people in subtle to severe situations over longer periods of time. Odds are, there will likely be no single moment where people decide to take these issues head-on, especially when there are more pressing matters at hand. Unfortunately, this does nothing to stop privacy issues from impacting various other areas of life. This leads to scenarios where people are distraught by our modern digital landscape, but feel it&amp;rsquo;s not only inescapable but also impossible to change.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a case for apathy. Those of us who want to see a better digital future may not want to admit it, but many people are up against more acute and practical concerns than data privacy. This is incredibly frustrating as we see the consolidation and weaponization of information used to create new and concerning dangers. Instead of blaming those who are unable to prioritize privacy, we have to ask ourselves what we need to do to structurally &lt;em&gt;change the game&lt;/em&gt;. It is not reasonable to expect those shackled by information control and invasive surveillance to pay the entire cost of overcoming it themselves. Such an expectation is an inevitable descent into disappointment and despair.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;but-what-can-we-do&#34;&gt;But what can we do?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I would encourage you to face the problems as they are, and with some faith and creativity seek out smaller wins. Given that we have finite lifetimes, our goal shouldn&amp;rsquo;t be to unilaterally solve everything. Instead, a cooperative long-term approach of &lt;em&gt;building momentum&lt;/em&gt; in the right direction can absolutely yield meaningful results. There are notable examples from history in both the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.fsf.org/&#34;&gt;Free Software Foundation&lt;/a&gt; and the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eff.org/&#34;&gt;Electronic Frontier Foundation,&lt;/a&gt; but know that you need not be constrained by these particular efforts. Don&amp;rsquo;t be afraid of drawing your own lines in different places than others. If anything it can be a unique advantage to recognize particular problems and share insights.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Those who can unplug their minds from algorithmic control should, those who can protect their information absolutely need to, but that&amp;rsquo;s not the entire picture. The best we can expect from the vast majority of people is for them to play the cards they&amp;rsquo;re dealt. It is our job as those who want to work towards a better digital future to give the public better cards to play. In hindsight the cypherpunks most important point was recognizing it was the role of privacy advocates to create things that make digital autonomy possible and convenient. It is absolutely a high bar. Every year commercial trends raise the expectations the public has for technology. This is a daunting challenge, but more importantly an awesome opportunity.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is fundamentally crucial that we recognize that our digital experience is downstream of our cultural understanding of the tools and systems we use. Without judicious and careful understanding of the world as it is, we will never see the future as we would like it to be. The dreamers must come to understand the doomers, and the doomers in turn must learn to appreciate the dreams. With this common understanding then we can wrestle with the fundamental social foundations of our technological landscape. This is far from philosophical navel-gazing, but is a necessary prerequisite for making the change necessary to avoid digital totalitarianism.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Now more than ever, it is vital to build a vision for a better digital experience. Simply decrying the egregious abuses of our existing one will only help us find opportunities to cope. By bringing people together to envision a truly radical and ambitious transformation of cyberspace, we have the opportunity to build lasting and holistic &lt;em&gt;solutions&lt;/em&gt;. We have only begun to grapple with the consequences of our experience as it is. There is so much work to define what a better future looks like. Those of us with technical ability have two immense responsibilities: to be stewards for technology &lt;em&gt;as it is&lt;/em&gt;, and to be fierce advocates for technological change that is used for people rather than against them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If we are willing to take on these responsibilities, it is outright shocking how quickly things can improve. By responding to present-day realities we can properly inform long-term approaches. There is a real chance to make the tyrants of the world regret leaving so many bright technical minds &lt;a href=&#34;https://sfstandard.com/2025/05/20/silicon-valley-white-collar-recession-entry-level/&#34;&gt;without work.&lt;/a&gt; Fighting for freedom in the real world is increasingly dependent on recognizing and addressing the realities in cyberspace, and we would ignore this to our peril. Those interested in a better future in general would be wise to consider how we plan to make space for a much needed independent technical revolution.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Digital Autonomy &amp; Open-Source Intelligence with James Corbett</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/digital-autonomy-osint/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 12 Jun 2025 10:55:02 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/digital-autonomy-osint/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/corbett.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//images/corbett.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//images/corbett.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//images/corbett.webp" />
+		<description>Discussing the fine points of research, censorship &amp; AI terror.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;We return to the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/digital-autonomy-series&#34;&gt;Digital Autonomy series&lt;/a&gt; to take a close look at our role in participating in today&amp;rsquo;s information landscape. It is an honor and a pleasure to be joined by James Corbett of the &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com&#34;&gt;Corbett Report&lt;/a&gt; to dig into this topic in detail. James brings his vast experience as an independent researcher and alternative media voice. We discuss the evolving digital landscape as well as the pressing concerns around artificial intelligence tools. Independent voices and audiences themselves face unprecedented challenges to make the most of the opportunities of our time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Consider taking this as an opportunity to reevaluate how you want to engage online. It has never been more clear that our time on corporate platforms is on borrowed time. You can consider trying out the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/fediverse&#34;&gt;Fediverse&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://nostr.com/&#34;&gt;nostr&lt;/a&gt; or even just bookmark sites you find important and valuable. We all have a role to play in shaping the future of the information landscape, and our choices matter.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;links-discussed&#34;&gt;Links discussed:&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/apr/18/20060418-110124-3694r/&#34;&gt;CIA mines ‘rich’ content from blogs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/episode-288-open-source-journalism/&#34;&gt;Open Source Journalism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/mission-un-accomplished-the-corbett-report-back-on-youtube/&#34;&gt;Mission Un-Accomplished? The Corbett Report Back on YouTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://antennapod.org/&#34;&gt;AntennaPod&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/the-corbett-report-now-on-ipfs/&#34;&gt;The Corbett Report . . . Now on IPFS!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://andrewblackman.net/2025/05/no-rss-isnt-dead/&#34;&gt;No, RSS isn’t dead!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.businessinsider.com/jack-dorsey-partially-to-blame-for-centralizing-the-internet-regrets-2022-4&#34;&gt;Twitter founder Jack Dorsey said he&amp;rsquo;s &amp;lsquo;partially to blame&amp;rsquo; for centralizing the Internet and that he regrets it&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://odysee.com/@Odysee:8/welcomestheindependentmediaalliancetoportal:b&#34;&gt;Decentralization in Action: Odysee Welcomes the Independent Media Alliance to Portal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/ima.opml&#34;&gt;Independent Media Alliance.opml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/grayjay/&#34;&gt;A Grayjay Review&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/self-hosting-your-own-media-considered-harmful-updated&#34;&gt;Self-hosting your own media considered harmful (updated)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftJ6eGll8HU&#34;&gt;YouTube Considers This Software &amp;ldquo;Harmful or Dangerous&amp;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/the-internet-is-dead-long-live-the-internet/&#34;&gt;The Internet Is Dead. Long Live the Internet.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/we-need-to-talk-about-ai/&#34;&gt;We Need To Talk About AI&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://web.archive.org/web/20230810084819/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFj6-z8KeeU&amp;amp;t=2985s&#34;&gt;Neil Postman on Technopoly (1992)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-shopify-ceo-says-ai-use-for-work-a-fundamental-expectation-for-all/&#34;&gt;Shopify CEO says AI use for work a ‘fundamental expectation’ for all employees&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://ml-site.cdn-apple.com/papers/the-illusion-of-thinking.pdf&#34;&gt;The Illusion of Thinking: Understanding the Strengths and Limitations of Reasoning Models via the Lens of Problem Complexity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFQvErdlATeY-mEHozu5GlfffewysnHFq&#34;&gt;AI Mania - Nobody Special&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.iflscience.com/rokos-basilisk-the-banned-thought-experiment-you-might-regret-reading-about-78478&#34;&gt;Roko&amp;rsquo;s Basilisk: The &amp;ldquo;Banned&amp;rdquo; Thought Experiment You Might Regret Reading About&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Cool Concepts That Deserve More Recognition</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/experiments/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 27 May 2025 10:37:16 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/experiments/</guid>
+		
+		<description>Learning from the past to inform the future</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Over the years, there have been many fascinating projects attempting to push the limits of digital decentralization. What makes these inventions interesting is the opportunity to truly transform the systems people take for granted. While not every attempt succeeds in radically changing the game, there is often quite a fair bit to learn from them. In fact, it is often through failed experiments that we can learn the most to inform future approaches. Cyber rebels of all stripes need to rekindle their sense of creativity and curiosity.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is tragic that so many brilliant technical minds are absorbed into big money cargo cults rather than drawn to working on practical answers to pressing problems. A lot of the very tantalizing and game-changing techniques are very often the most obscure. It is our job as cyber rebels to give these underrated gems their due credit. In the hopes of exploring the art of the possible, we&amp;rsquo;ll be looking at a few fascinating projects that have covered important ground.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;zeronet---a-web-revolution&#34;&gt;ZeroNet - A web revolution&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A particularly ambitious project to reinvent the Internet as we know it was &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/docs/#/page/zeronet&#34;&gt;ZeroNet.&lt;/a&gt; This project was a particularly daring attempt to solve a great many problems all at once. Describing itself as &amp;ldquo;Open, Free and un-censorable websites, using Bitcoin cryptography and BitTorrent network&amp;rdquo;. The project was also built to be quite friendly with Tor, leveraging existing anonymity solutions to protect privacy on this new frontier. This project had some absolutely astounding potential and some very well-refined approaches. It is a shame that &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/HelloZeroNet/ZeroNet&#34;&gt;the repository&lt;/a&gt; hasn&amp;rsquo;t been updated since 2021, but the project lives on as &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/zeronet-conservancy/zeronet-conservancy&#34;&gt;0net.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://youtu.be/cjVMuLLoM00&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video muted autoplay preload=&#34;none&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/video/zn.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;If ZeroNet had gained significant adoption, it would have become an incredibly powerful tool against online censorship. ZeroNet attempted to level the playing-field of information dissemination by ensuring that sites were served by their visitors. Getting the visitors to share the load meant that the originator didn&amp;rsquo;t even need to stay online for their content to remain available. This has many performance benefits that have also been replicated in other projects. &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/interview-1435-declare-your-independence-with-ipfs/&#34;&gt;IPFS&lt;/a&gt; is another parallel initiative that tried to take this on, but ZeroNet also had other advantages.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Far from merely being a resilient content delivery system, ZeroNet had a truly revolutionary design for serving dynamic content. A limitation IPFS and other similar approaches had was that it was impossible or impractical to build even relatively simple web experiences on top of them. Because of its radically different approach to static and dynamic content, ZeroNet had mechanisms to allow for any modern site to be built on top of it. At the peak of its popularity ZeroNet had a decentralized, password-less, pseudonymous single-sign-on system that worked with &lt;a href=&#34;https://zeronet.io/docs/using_zeronet/sample_sites/&#34;&gt;blogs, mail&lt;/a&gt; and even an attempted YouTube clone. Serving a web site from ZeroNet rather than the regular Internet had many advantages similar to other &lt;a href=&#34;http://libresolutions.network/operations/shadow&#34;&gt;darknets,&lt;/a&gt; such as no cost permission-less hosting.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;ZeroNet did a lot of very interesting things, but it certainly had its limitations. To my knowledge it was quite obscure and relatively unknown even to technical people. Many trade-offs had to be made to work as well as it did, and there are a wide variety of valid criticisms one could make. If ZeroNet was remade today I&amp;rsquo;m sure it would be radically different, but there is a great deal to appreciate about how it was put together. The best and worst thing about ZeroNet was that it took on a lot all at once. This made the project much more rigid and inflexible, but certainly created a more user-friendly experience than similar projects often have.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;opennic---democratic-dns&#34;&gt;OpenNIC - Democratic DNS&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many people underestimate how many problems of our current Internet are downstream of the social conventions around DNS, Domain Name System. Web addresses (such as &lt;code&gt;libresolutions.network&lt;/code&gt; or &lt;code&gt;example.com&lt;/code&gt;) are effectively just names mapped to assigned numbers. What we know of as the Internet is largely based on the mutual agreement on a single set of addresses mapped to assigned internet addresses. There is no real technical barrier to people deciding to use alternative numbers mapped to the same names. You very well could reinvent your own internet and assign names and numbers as you wish, but then the problem is getting others to cooperate. This may sound wildly impractical, but it&amp;rsquo;s truly a testament to how free we can be with technology if we choose to be. It&amp;rsquo;s worth understanding the advantages of an alternative DNS root if for no other reason to recognize the real potential we have to change our digital experience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The centralized and capitalist nature of the domain name system is a huge design problem for those of us working to build bridges between the centralized Web and the Peer Webs as the current system makes it very difficult to match the onboarding experience of centralized platforms. (You can sign up to a centralized social network in 30 seconds… can you register your own domain name, have your server and app set up, and be up and running with your decentralized one in that time? You could. But not with our current system.)&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://web.archive.org/web/20180626180725/https://ar.al/2018/06/26/web+/#fn:1&#34;&gt;Web+ - Aral Balkan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the recurring problems when it comes to radically transforming the very structure of the web is facing DNS. While some attempts try to eliminate DNS all together, a great deal of infrastructure has been built on top of it, so throwing it away entirely includes a variety of trade-offs and consequences. The trouble with going through the effort to reinvent the wheel, is that you&amp;rsquo;re also going to reinvent many other things people take for granted as well. This would notably include infrastructure for generating and accepting certificate files to protect connections with TLS.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite being over 24 years old, OpenNIC is a very ambitious attempt to maintain an independent DNS root. What&amp;rsquo;s worth considering is that it doesn&amp;rsquo;t have to be the only one. As covered in &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/interview-1328-new-world-next-week-with-james-evan-pilato/&#34;&gt;NWNW 1328,&lt;/a&gt; Russia &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2017/11/russia-will-build-its-own-internet-directory-citing-us-information-warfare/142822/&#34;&gt;made a move&lt;/a&gt; in 2017 to build their own. With some creativity, it&amp;rsquo;s absolutely possible for even smaller localities to experiment with doing the same themselves. By localizing control over the &amp;ldquo;Internet phonebook&amp;rdquo;, it&amp;rsquo;s possible to begin building &lt;a href=&#34;https://anarchosolarpunk.substack.com/p/offgridinternet&#34;&gt;truly independent&lt;/a&gt; digital infrastructure.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;piratebox---portable-internet&#34;&gt;PirateBox - Portable internet&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Piratebox.jpeg&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Piratebox.jpeg&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Chgoddon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons &lt;a target=&#39;_blank&#39; href=&#39;https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Piratebox.jpeg&#39;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re interested in local internet you can start yourself, PirateBox was a phenomenal demonstration of &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/t4V_Pt2C3Qk&#34;&gt;what can be done.&lt;/a&gt; The concept is relatively straightforward: you load up public services on portable hardware and then share a public WiFi (or wired) access point. The PirateBox project itself is &lt;a href=&#34;https://forum.piratebox.cc/read.php?9,23070&#34;&gt;discontinued since 2019&lt;/a&gt; but it&amp;rsquo;s a relatively simple concept to replicate. In many ways it is much easier, because many open source self-hostable solutions are even more robust and accessible.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It may seem quaint in a time where most people spend their time collaborating online, but there are real advantages to locally-based digital services. At minimum, it&amp;rsquo;s a convenient way to have your own separate internet with a curated set of content and services. With a significant investment in network access, a permanent installation could provide private and uncensored comms to a small community.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As a proof-of-concept the project demonstrated that even mobile phones &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/0MEyxMY_Gus&#34;&gt;can be utilized.&lt;/a&gt; It&amp;rsquo;s important to consider that there are many ways to adapt to modern consumer trends. Ironically, because smartphones are consumption-based devices, they&amp;rsquo;re well suited to be clients for PirateBox-like systems. With permanent installations, and long-range communications there can be many useful independent networks with a wide variety of capabilities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;gun---decentralized-application-framework&#34;&gt;Gun - Decentralized application framework&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The holy grail that cyber nomads have been seeking for a long time is a truly refined ecosystem to build dApps. A &amp;ldquo;dApp&amp;rdquo; is a decentralized application that doesn&amp;rsquo;t rely on centralized points of failure. The calling card for a good dApp is &amp;ldquo;write once, use forever, anywhere&amp;rdquo;. &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/docs/#/page/gun&#34;&gt;Gun&lt;/a&gt; is a web application framework that provides peer-to-peer functionality and a decentralized database to persist data. These features are what&amp;rsquo;s necessary to build truly revolutionary online experiences.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This means that any developer who learns to use gun can build almost any &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.fosdem.org/2022/schedule/event/gun/&#34;&gt;peer-to-peer private application&lt;/a&gt; they can imagine. This radically different way of building applications creates new possibilities to escape the problems of our present paradigm. By breaking free of centralized management, these applications have the potential to build the &amp;ldquo;best of all worlds&amp;rdquo; when it comes to convenience, security, and resilience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Gun has the advantage of leveraging many modern web browser functionalities. This is both an asset and a liability. On the positive side, it allows for many tried and tested technologies to be leveraged to build the foundation. But on the negative side it means that these applications are entirely dependent on major browser vendors. In a time where the future of the open web is in doubt, there are reasons to take this concern seriously. Like many of the other projects in this piece, and others across the web there are win conditions beyond critical mass success. Even if gun doesn&amp;rsquo;t become the main dApp framework, there can still be a lot to learn from it&amp;rsquo;s successes and challenges.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-future&#34;&gt;The Future&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These three examples are but a taste of the ocean of possibilities out there. I wanted to highlight these examples to show that obscurity or lack of mass adoption is not actually failure. Ambitious attempts themselves are valuable experiments regardless of how they end up. Often times, newer projects are inspired or informed from techniques that were tried in the past. It&amp;rsquo;s high time we embrace the &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;freedom in freedom&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; and learn to explore possibilities rather than fight over dogmatic preferences and approaches.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are a wide variety of projects I&amp;rsquo;m currently curious to see grow and evolve. From &lt;a href=&#34;https://guix.gnu.org/&#34;&gt;Guix&lt;/a&gt; a new approach to a fully-free Linux OS, to the fascinating work of the &lt;a href=&#34;https://spritely.institute/&#34;&gt;Spritely Institute&lt;/a&gt; on real-time distributed computation. Peer-to-peer and private applications are also entering a new phase as &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.iroh.computer/&#34;&gt;Iroh&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://veilid.com/&#34;&gt;Veilid&lt;/a&gt; are becoming more mature. But software is only part of the real equation. Finding truly independent and &amp;lsquo;hackable&amp;rsquo; (&lt;em&gt;user-modifiable&lt;/em&gt;) hardware solutions is what I&amp;rsquo;m most curious about these days.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As dark as the technological landscape can be at times, it&amp;rsquo;s now more important than ever to remember that there is so much potential to build a different future. The inertia behind centralized and controlled platforms is very much on borrowed time. Even you could discover, build, or share the part that tips the scales. There is an immense amount of power in the hands of those who decide to strike out a new path in our time. Digital technology is really just a heap of re-programmable logic circuits, with enough effort, creativity, and inspiration there are no limits to how much things can change.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Never forget that your choices matter, and that we can always forge a new path.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The opportunity of our time: Reversing Demoralization</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/remoralization/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 04 May 2025 20:44:38 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/remoralization/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/candles.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/candles.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/candles.webp" />
+		<description>Learning to overcome defeatism and apathy</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;A free cyberspace needs people willing to take action and learn from mistakes. Demoralization robs people not only of their capacity for action, but also their very spirit. Making the best of our future requires us to directly oppose the mass-demoralization that paralyzes people in despair and complacency.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To take part in a better digital future, we are obligated to wrestle with the real human problems that will be with us no matter what tools we use. The social dynamics of our society aren&amp;rsquo;t things we can out-engineer, nor should we want to try. It is of utmost importance that those of us interested in better tools for a brighter tomorrow need to contend with the real difficulties people are actually facing. If we do not work to &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;win hearts, and change minds&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; on important issues like privacy, security, and digital autonomy; nobody will have any sympathy for our concerns.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;How many times have freedom-minded people heard:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s hopeless.&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;It&amp;rsquo;s too late.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;We won&amp;rsquo;t make a difference!&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s the point in trying?&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;They won&amp;rsquo;t let it happen!&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a dire need to recognize and reverse the most insidious force working against people&amp;rsquo;s lives and liberty. It is so oppressive and omnipresent that many feel it is not merely immovable, but a fundamental structure of our reality. The vast majority of things needed to make our digital (and actual) lives better aren&amp;rsquo;t technological engineering challenges, but rather sophisticated &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_action_problem&#34;&gt;collective action problems.&lt;/a&gt; This means that the path to success isn&amp;rsquo;t dependent on novel breakthroughs in technology but rather in preserving and repairing a frayed social fabric. It is tempting to blame those who wallow in despair, but it is always far more important to ask ourselves why so many are trapped within it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Despair is an op[eration], and it&amp;rsquo;s world wide.&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;br&gt;
+Catherine Austin Fitts&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The most potent weapon of our time is not merely fear, but the &lt;a href=&#34;https://posthumousstyle.substack.com/p/is-the-military-developing-mind-reading&#34;&gt;calculated mass application&lt;/a&gt; of it. When governments and corporations are the most desperate to maintain their stranglehold over the public, we can expect ever increasing resources to be deployed into never-ending mass demoralization. This is because a demoralized individual is compliant, dependent, and unwilling to consider alternatives. The demoralized person is a very profitable mark because they are vulnerable to advertising campaigns and emotionally charged scams. A demoralized public will be entirely unable to push for accountability, justice, or even simple truth, by design. It is vital to understand that rage is not evidence of resisting demoralization, because rage &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/redirecting-resistance&#34;&gt;can be directed.&lt;/a&gt; If anything, rage is a weakness that leads many to a path of fruitless self-destruction.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;recognizing-demoralization&#34;&gt;Recognizing demoralization&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s relatively easy to identify demoralization in those who are different than us, but so much harder to find it in our peers and ourselves. When we understand the harms of both targeted and mass demoralization, it is crucial for us to recognize it in our midst. At its root, demoralization is learned helplessness. The constant mutterings of the demoralized is that &amp;ldquo;it doesn&amp;rsquo;t matter&amp;rdquo;. Details, or even the truth itself are irrelevant when one learns that their own contributions to society, or even their own life make no difference. Robbed of dignity and self-determination, people individually and as a whole begin to adapt to their captivity.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These adaptations drive the individual to lose perspective of their situation. Over time it becomes difficult to even remember what life was like before they had to adapt to a countless array of impositions and threats. In losing touch with their own life circumstances, it becomes almost impossible to understand others, especially those who are different. While it is certainly possible for an individual to rise above these challenges, it is a whole other matter to reverse the tide society wide.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;why-are-people-demoralized&#34;&gt;Why are people demoralized?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The easily accessible answers are far too oversimplified. While it&amp;rsquo;s undoubtedly true that modern entertainment technologies and convenient services have taken face-to-face time away from people, &amp;ldquo;digital disconnects&amp;rdquo; are only a partial and temporary measure. It is more difficult to wrestle with the idea that mass demoralization of the public is an intended policy outcome for its stabilizing effects. It&amp;rsquo;s so much easier for corrupt schemes to go along nicely when people are unable to react and respond. Over time, the consequences of this kind of abuse create conditions that perpetuate these circumstances.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Very often, the subjects of demoralization are themselves blamed for their condition. In a world where everyone can recognize &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/5thgen/&#34;&gt;omnipresent negative messaging&lt;/a&gt; and polarization, this seems to be an uncharitable stretch. Viewed from a far, it is so much easier to identify demoralized people because the problems they are adapting to seem abstract or at least distant. Whereas when we look at ourselves and those around us we are intimately aware of the circumstances that constrain our agency and power. This mismatch is precisely responsible for much of the polarization we see today; different groups of people are demoralized by different but similar circumstances, leading to anger and confusion.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As times get harder, bitterness and resentment settle in. These feelings make it harder to trust and cooperate. This directly attacks people&amp;rsquo;s ability to work together to achieve things that matter. As people begin to forget that people actually &lt;em&gt;can&lt;/em&gt; work together to make a difference, eventually the entire idea begins to sound crazy and impossible. All this creates a suffocating atmosphere of futility and despair. Living in those conditions is no simple thing, one necessarily must cope however they can. Truly recognizing demoralization in oneself and others is often far too terrifying to contemplate.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;were-not-exempt&#34;&gt;We&amp;rsquo;re not exempt&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Demoralization isn&amp;rsquo;t about what you know, or what you have. It&amp;rsquo;s about what you&amp;rsquo;re doing. Given the overall depressing atmosphere of the modern digital landscape, it is no surprise that almost everyone shows some signs of demoralization. It&amp;rsquo;s easy to arrogantly dismiss that we have been corrupted by hopelessness in one way or another simply because we want to believe we&amp;rsquo;re above it all. What makes despair and apathy corrosive is that they weave themselves into the very social fabric that means no single person can fight it alone, no matter how well-equipped. Do not fall into the trap of assessing yourself as having everything figured out and others being a herd of dull and demoralized masses. In truth, almost all of us are closer than we care to admit.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;yuri-bezminov-was-hopefully-wrong&#34;&gt;Yuri bezminov was (&lt;em&gt;hopefully&lt;/em&gt;) wrong&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While he didn&amp;rsquo;t invent the term, people often associate the word demoralization with Yuri Bezminov&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/y9FjDb6_tcc?list=PLBED093AE4B485153&#34;&gt;lectures.&lt;/a&gt; He makes a couple of very strong claims that are entirely counter-productive to overcoming mass demoralization:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Claim: &lt;em&gt;Demoralized people can&amp;rsquo;t be reasoned with&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With the benefit of hindsight, this seems to be a great mindset to isolate oneself from others. This ironically creates more demoralization in the long run. It would be more productive to consider that one has to take more care when trying to persuade others. Any good sales person knows the most important skill on their part is to &lt;em&gt;listen&lt;/em&gt;. One has to understand a person&amp;rsquo;s perspective to begin to change their mind. It&amp;rsquo;s entirely possible (&lt;em&gt;and quite likely&lt;/em&gt;) that those you can&amp;rsquo;t persuade have concerns and risks you don&amp;rsquo;t comprehend.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Claim: &lt;em&gt;Demoralization is irreversible&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The fundamental point of this piece is that we can and should work to bring others from the brink. It is worth striving to refine our skills, knowledge, and language to build a digital future people want to be a part of. Things are hard, and many people are absolutely struggling with a lot, but there is so much that can be done to make real tangible change. Not immediately, not all at once, and definitely not easily, but it&amp;rsquo;s absolutely achievable.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;learning-to-overcome-demoralization&#34;&gt;Learning to overcome demoralization&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Just because it&amp;rsquo;s outright impossible to single-handedly and unilaterally transform society, this doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean we can&amp;rsquo;t make a meaningful difference. With people growing more and more frustrated with our existing digital experience, building gradual improvements seems like a lower and lower bar every day. The most important step is to remind others and ourselves that we don&amp;rsquo;t need to accept things as they are. We are entitled to a better digital future and we can work together to make it happen. Resisting digital totalitarianism requires a lot of hope, and all the imagination we can come across. It is perfectly within our reach to work to build, and share a culture of good stewardship over our digital lives. We must recognize the opportunity in inspiring ourselves and others to take first steps. With clarity, focused effort, and willingness to cooperate, there is so much that can be accomplished.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/aVNDLISHXpw&#34;&gt;No, Humanity Doesn&amp;rsquo;t Have to Zombie Walk Into a Dystopic Nightmare Future&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;growth-mindset&#34;&gt;Growth mindset&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The thing holding most people back the most is the understandable desire to change everything all at once. That&amp;rsquo;s far too impractical for many, so embracing gradual change is a practical necessity. A dozen different projects starting small can avalanche into massive changes over time. Odds are most people can think of a few things they would want changed in their digital life, even the simpler fixes can be quite meaningful.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s a lot more important to be willing to learn than to have everything figured out. Nobody is going to change everything all at once, odds are people are going to want different options. Being able to withstand setbacks and experiment can really unlock better opportunities and insights. Building the capacity for people to take risks to try new things out itself is a worthwhile goal.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Embracing win/win cooperation will be the biggest game-changer when it comes to transforming our digital lives. It&amp;rsquo;s entirely likely that people with radically different visions for a better cyberspace can still share insights, progress, and opportunities. By focusing on shared objectives we can set aside petty fights that derail meaningful improvements.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;learning-lessons&#34;&gt;Learning lessons&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Optimism doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean refusing to &lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/against-defeatism-the-apocaloptimist&#34;&gt;admit difficulties.&lt;/a&gt; It is natural, and absolutely vital to spend time recognizing the limits and drawbacks of particular techniques and tools. A willingness to take criticism is far more valuable than avoiding it entirely. By being able to maintain honest and open communication, so many embarrassing problems can be avoided. Facing the bleakness of how difficult things are isn&amp;rsquo;t about diminishing hope, but about refining and informing it. Making strategic decisions can be the difference between playing around and gaining serious ground. It&amp;rsquo;s almost certain that many techniques have been tried in the past, and that there is useful information to glean from previous attempts. Despite how shiny and new our tools can seem, almost nothing is truly new under the sun.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;share-goodwill&#34;&gt;Share goodwill&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s no extra credit for working alone. &lt;a href=&#34;https://rusingh.com/surround-yourself/&#34;&gt;Surround yourself&lt;/a&gt; with people willing to do what they can. &lt;em&gt;Teamwork makes the dream work&lt;/em&gt; as they say. Becoming comfortable working with others to build new things is very much its own reward. Finding ways to share joy despite bleak circumstances is often what will make or break long-term success. Spending time to recharge and celebrate the small wins is critical in maintaining morale and momentum. Appreciating and supporting creative works can go a long way to make things less of a slog. Songs, memes, and silly cartoons are all things that can help get the word out and share perspective.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A better digital future has to be explicitly pro-human and pro-fun. We have a unique opportunity in our time to make things that are truly transformative but also have real soul and care put into them. There are so many ways in which we can revitalize our digital experience with play and creativity rather than tyranny and profit. It has never been easier to make a bigger impact on the future of cyberspace, it is high time we embrace it. There are all kinds of ways one can get involved, but it starts with helping others break free from the worst of it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Remind yourself that your enemies aren&amp;rsquo;t those with different technological choices, but rather those who seek to impose theirs on others. Willingness to accept differences and make compromises can absolutely yield promising results with proper boundaries. Even relatively small projects can do a lot of good. A simple forum, small online community, or even a simple tool can be part of a bigger picture to help people gain a much better digital experience. Instead of surrendering cyberspace to bots and Big Tech, we can proactively create our own things that demonstrate that we can all ask for better.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If the Internet never forgets, how do you want to be remembered?&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The Lie of AI</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/lie-of-ai/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Apr 2025 01:25:57 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/lie-of-ai/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/confused-man.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/confused-man.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/confused-man.webp" />
+		<description>Dispelling the false dichotomy between innovation and precision</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Tools can be great, but stories are much more powerful. By weaving a fantastic tale you can trap people into wrestling with the wrong questions. It is difficult to disentangle the reality of what machine learning tools actually offer, as opposed to the sci-fi cultism that surrounds &amp;ldquo;AI&amp;rdquo; discourse. To make matters wore, efficiency and accelerated progress are mere pretexts for the central management of all economic (&lt;em&gt;and even non-economic&lt;/em&gt;) activity under a consolidated technological machine. If the top-down roll-out of AI tools in workplaces were about efficiency and productivity, there would be no need to &lt;a href=&#34;https://aftermath.site/ai-video-game-development-art-vibe-coding-midjourney&#34;&gt;push so hard&lt;/a&gt; to get the workforce to adopt tools. Any truly revolutionary advancements would have workers and entrepreneurs experimenting with or without permission, not under mandate.  The imposition of &lt;a href=&#34;https://betakit.com/shopify-ceo-tobi-lutke-tells-employees-to-prove-ai-cant-do-the-job-before-asking-for-resources/&#34;&gt;&amp;ldquo;AI first&amp;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt; policies in government and corporations reeks of a political maneuver, rather than a technological one.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;ai-politics&#34;&gt;AI Politics&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Science fiction offers no shortage of terrifying potential futures at the hand of rogue AI systems. The far more pressing issue for many people is the concern about generative tools like ChatGPT and more sophisticated &amp;ldquo;agents&amp;rdquo; eliminating jobs. If these tools were being adopted purely for efficiency and innovation this would be merely a difficult transition in a phase that could potentially leave people better off. The problem is that consolidated infrastructure and information management under centralized control creates additional risks. It seems that the &amp;rsquo;efficiency&amp;rsquo; that much of theses institutions are after is not productivity, but this technological and economic consolidation. This is conspicuously absent from the public discussion about throwing AI into everything.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Generally, this line of questioning comes up in regards to equity concerns. If we&amp;rsquo;re transforming every institution to systematically discriminate, the chosen solution seems to be to merely carve out the most broad categorizations. Unfortunately, the more data provided to the machine, the more innocuous reasons the system can find to discriminate against or target any particular person or group. Even worse, we must ask what are the consequences of creating even more dependence on these corporate platforms. Countries have already begun to recognize digital sovereignty as &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/government-in-tech&#34;&gt;an important priority.&lt;/a&gt; It is high time we heed that warning and recognize that institutions are often much more vulnerable to these problems than we consider.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The stakes are quite high. There are countless initiatives to deeply integrate various &amp;ldquo;AI tools&amp;rdquo; into almost every major institution in society. &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.healthcareexcellence.ca/media/qdmn0p3b/20211208_aireport_en.pdf&#34;&gt;Healthcare,&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/how-ai-can-strengthen-law-enforcement-insights-europols-new-report&#34;&gt;law enforcement,&lt;/a&gt; and even &lt;a href=&#34;https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2025/03/artificial-intelligence-in-schools-everything-you-need-to-know/&#34;&gt;education&lt;/a&gt; aren&amp;rsquo;t safe from the long march. Manufacturing and military are no exception as the AI arms race &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/war-and-technocracy/&#34;&gt;heats up.&lt;/a&gt; While workplaces are being disrupted with inane chatbots and AI workflows, the real innovation is in building an all-encompassing &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/algocracy/&#34;&gt;&amp;lsquo;algocracy&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/a&gt; The difference between the average person&amp;rsquo;s direct experience with AI, and how vulnerable they are to its excesses couldn&amp;rsquo;t be more extreme.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;People are already beginning to notice that a reliance on generative AI tools not only builds dependence, but also &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/copilot-and-ChatGPT-makes-you-dumb-new-microsoft-study&#34;&gt;atrophies the mind.&lt;/a&gt; It is intuitively clear that taking the &amp;ldquo;easy way&amp;rdquo; undermines one&amp;rsquo;s ability to properly master their trade or craft. On the other hand, that doesn&amp;rsquo;t matter at all when the job one is confined to serves no real purpose other than to boost the stock value of AI companies. If the plan is to replace a competent, skilled, and rational workforce with robotic servants, training human talent serves no purpose. This has profound impacts as not only do workers have to worry about AI tools being imposed in their workplaces, but for skills and training to be withheld from them. We can expect more professions to be &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deskilling&#34;&gt;&amp;lsquo;de-skilled&amp;rsquo;&lt;/a&gt; and replaced with streamlined AI-friendly gig work.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The two-punch combination of withdrawing opportunities to learn skills, and the expectation that workers self-sacrifice their mental faculties for minimal gains is likely to be devastating to people&amp;rsquo;s long-term prospects. The true dangers of AI for most people are not magical properties of the technologies themselves, but rather calculated economic warfare waged in the name of their implementation. It has almost nothing to do with the technology itself, but is entirely in the way these controlled platforms are infiltrating society. It is crucial to understand that without the AI mania hype &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFQvErdlATeY-mEHozu5GlfffewysnHFq&#34;&gt;manufacturing a bubble&lt;/a&gt; to distort incentives, these tools would be deployed in more rational and productive ways.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-death-of-the-web&#34;&gt;The Death of the Web?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Corporate social media has caused a lot of problems, but one of the more subtle ones is the absolute devastation of the Web as a resource for people to create, learn &amp;amp; share together. A world-wide means of direct communication for people in a variety of media formats has truly &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/perfect-cms/&#34;&gt;changed the world.&lt;/a&gt; Government censorship and corporate consolidation have drastically impacted the ability for the Web to function for dissent as well as cultural expression and exchange. To make matters worse, the companies training AI models are &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.designrush.com/news/80-percent-of-web-traffic-is-bots-the-hidden-cost-of-ai-scraping&#34;&gt;raising the costs&lt;/a&gt; for those trying to share content at all. There aren&amp;rsquo;t many great solutions to this, it&amp;rsquo;s really a difficult predicament to manage.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If we are not careful, we could absent-mindedly give AI tools the authority to be the gateway for people&amp;rsquo;s access to information as a whole. Search engines are in a &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/search/&#34;&gt;difficult spot&lt;/a&gt; with more people beginning to use chatbots to respond to any and every query. Without direct audience support, it is unlikely that running a web site will be economically viable for much longer. This has profound implications for the future of humanity&amp;rsquo;s knowledge as a whole. It is ironic in the quest to build tools that could deliver all of humanity&amp;rsquo;s knowledge to the forefront, we end up &lt;a href=&#34;https://posthumousstyle.substack.com/p/are-the-tech-bros-insane&#34;&gt;putting it in jeopardy.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/dead-internet/&#34;&gt;Dead Internet Theory&lt;/a&gt; isn&amp;rsquo;t a quirky observation, but a serious problem with devastating consequences. If everyone&amp;rsquo;s information landscape is entirely polluted by corporations and dictated by governments, genuine dissent and accountability will only become more and more out of reach. The last thing we want is for every level of society to be manipulated by the same forces that have transformed the &amp;lsquo;digital town square&amp;rsquo; into a spectacle of self-harm and menticide.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;rising-above&#34;&gt;Rising above&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Things are absolutely looking staggeringly dire. As people&amp;rsquo;s opportunities in the real world decline, we can sadly also expect them to evaporate in cyberspace. It is crucial that we recognize that this is a path we can deviate from. If we recognize the manufactured dependence on these systems as the problem and threat that it is there are many alternative actions that can be taken. It is paramount that people get others to understand that we are allowing our civic, social and economic lives to be systematically undermined by not mere technological change, but the weaponization of it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The situation is far from hopeless. It seems quite likely that the economic engineering of insanity is as fragile as it is potent. You have the power to rationally plan out your future on what&amp;rsquo;s good for you and those around you. Just because there are overwhelming incentives to &amp;lsquo;go with the flow&amp;rsquo;, that doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean that it is, the only path possible. There are thankfully many ways for you to double-down on your humanity. I fully expect our present insanity to sow the seeds for an environment where people begin to respect genuine craftsmanship and care.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The worst thing AI tools can do to you is to deter you from building up your own capabilities. No matter what skills or knowledge you work to acquire and refine, the better you can recognize the truly useful advances in your field or endeavor. While automation and generative AI can be very sexy, it can also leave you with an unpleasant feeling of being unfulfilled. Mastering your own craft, or even learning a variety of practical skills can be its own reward worth cherishing. We may not be able to escape the AI inquisition over our lives, but we can at least create room to retreat from it.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Practical Paranoia: Navigating A Hostile Digital Landscape</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/practical-paranoia/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Apr 2025 05:10:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/practical-paranoia/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/spy.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/spy.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/spy.webp" />
+		<description>Making the best of difficult situations</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;One of the greatest roadblocks to people making real progress in improving our digital experience is apathy. The all too common refrain &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;they can get anything if they want&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; ignores the all-too-real reality that &amp;ldquo;they&amp;rdquo; can be more than just governments and intelligence agencies. Given our sad state of affairs, &lt;em&gt;they&lt;/em&gt; can be smaller and smaller entities as the stakes rise. You would be shocked at what could come your way if you just became enough of a target. To make matters worse, to the worst offenders, everyone is a target. Governments aren&amp;rsquo;t just interested in spying on you, but seizing more and more control over your entire life. Recognizing the &amp;lsquo;big picture&amp;rsquo; of our technological troubles can help us appreciate the long term objectives. It is far too late to merely make a few simple changes to feel &amp;lsquo;safe&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Privacy invasions are bad, but dependency is arguably worse. Once people are &amp;rsquo;locked-in&amp;rsquo; to particular tools, they&amp;rsquo;re vulnerable to future impositions with less ability to change course. The sheer scale of consolidation in our time makes even relatively abstract abuses have immense impact. Subtle propaganda or &amp;lsquo;dark patterns&amp;rsquo; can force behavior change in large groups of people. Making the effort to avoid or circumvent these intrusions can be daunting in the best of circumstances. The situation is dire, but is it worth going against the grain?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In today&amp;rsquo;s digital landscape, even the very idea of privacy appears entirely out of reach. Flexibility and independence is impractical and expensive for the vast majority of people. This is because many of the encroachments that appeared under the guise of convenience have come at significant costs. Many people struggle to recognize the undesirable impacts of tools and services they use, much less devote time to mitigating them. When one becomes aware of these all-pervasive threats, the natural response is to become entirely overwhelmed. It&amp;rsquo;s a reasonable question to wonder what&amp;rsquo;s worth one&amp;rsquo;s effort and what is more pain than peace of mind.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Deciding how far one is willing to go to secure not just privacy, but digital autonomy and censorship resistance will have a lot to do with one&amp;rsquo;s goals. While I would hope that you&amp;rsquo;re sympathetic to these aims, it&amp;rsquo;s certainly a great deal to expect one to make it their top priority. Even worse, in some circumstances like employment, people often have little choice. Those choosing to refuse to adopt the &amp;rsquo;latest and greatest&amp;rsquo; are often seen as sticklers or &amp;rsquo;luddites&amp;rsquo; despite there being very valid reasons to have pause. It is crucial to consider the path we&amp;rsquo;re on and what can be done to navigate in a more productive direction.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A sizable portion of the public has clear ideas of what should be avoided, but a concrete idea of where to go is generally lacking. The Free Software movement has done a great job providing incredible alternatives, but genuinely radical change is required to make an impact for the broader public. Many great strides have been made in public awareness, but actionable steps are often insufficient and/or require significant technical ability. The fight for a better digital future requires a truly independent vision of a better cyberspace that isn&amp;rsquo;t aiming to put massive demands on the public.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;At the very least, we must recognize where things have gone wrong. Beyond merely adapting to every new imposition, strategic choices have to be made. To make real progress one has to accept that this is not an all-or-nothing affair, but it is a war of attrition. Can our greatest and freest minds build something better before everyone is trapped into selling every neuron in their brain? Can we create, build, and share genuine solutions before people are out of options? Do we have the humility to reach out to those behind before they&amp;rsquo;re trapped in shame and despair?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-broad-strokes&#34;&gt;The broad strokes&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Any attempt at narrowing down what&amp;rsquo;s worth a person&amp;rsquo;s time is almost definitely going to be contentious and incomplete at best. Each person is going to have more or less available time and resources available to improve their digital experience. It&amp;rsquo;s easy to blame people for not doing enough, but much harder to consider what steps could be taken to make the right choices more practical. In my opinion, the optimal balance is to be motivated by deliberate decision-making with reasonable expectations, rather than fear.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;simplify&#34;&gt;Simplify&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;No matter where you wish to draw the line, complexity is bound to cause problems. A disorganized digital life is as problematic as real-world analogues. Cutting back from non-essential accounts/software/systems can go a long way to bring back some peace of mind. Ruthlessly streamlining your digital life can yield time, money and even security benefits. By focusing on tools, systems, and devices that enrich your life, you can avoid the stress of innumerable dead ends. Above all, it is important to remember that we should fiercely exercise our right to refuse various tools, devices and systems while we still can.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;replace-the-most-egregious-options&#34;&gt;Replace the most egregious options&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Things are far worse than the &amp;ldquo;if it&amp;rsquo;s free, you&amp;rsquo;re the product&amp;rdquo; days. If anything, people often pay for the privilege of a user-hostile experience. When things truly can&amp;rsquo;t be given up, it can sometimes be worth learning a better alternative until you&amp;rsquo;re ready to make a complete switch. Don&amp;rsquo;t let purists dissuade you from making small steps to change your digital life, gradual progress is real change. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s about asking yourself if the product or service is financially incentivized to give a good experience, or simply collect your data. Sometimes, like in the case of social media companies, they also have a vested interest in manipulating you, potentially making the deal much worse.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;fortify-your-mind&#34;&gt;Fortify your mind&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The information landscape is both incredible and tragic, sadly much of it is getting much worse over time. No matter what technological decisions you make, it&amp;rsquo;s prudent to guard your mind against undue influence. Manipulating minds is big business that scales to incredibly significant power. Being skeptical of information sources, especially those saying what you want to hear is absolutely vital. It&amp;rsquo;s critical to take time to understand the incentives that your media, news, and entertainment have. It is intuitively clear that entities with the resources to buy the best influence, PR, and advertising are likely not those providing honest value-for-value. Recognize that your trust is an incredibly valuable prize that you should be very judicious with.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;ask-others&#34;&gt;Ask others&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Odds are, you likely have trusted friends who have already taken many steps to improve their privacy and/or security. Instead of simply following someone&amp;rsquo;s prescribed plan of what &amp;lsquo;should be done&amp;rsquo;, it can be incredibly useful to get feedback on how particular things work in practice. It is very easy to put together lists of theoretically good options, but it&amp;rsquo;s much harder to spend the time properly evaluating then. Learning how various tools or substitutes actually work in practice is much more useful than stressing over perfection.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-fine-details&#34;&gt;The Fine details&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The best use of your time is to gradually refine your digital habits to work for you. There are crucial areas where you&amp;rsquo;ll want to start, but pragmatism goes a long way. You&amp;rsquo;re not going to be able to change everyone else&amp;rsquo;s habits once you&amp;rsquo;ve decided what works for you. Flexibility and compromise are necessary parts of adapting to the world as it is.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;digital-sovereignty&#34;&gt;Digital sovereignty&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Reclaiming control over your work, ideas, memories, and files is a great place to start. Prioritizing tools that allow you to work without the internet is a great strategy for long-term resilience. It&amp;rsquo;s much easier to predict a system you have some control over than a wide variety of online services competing for attention and market-share. If you can&amp;rsquo;t do anything productive without access to online services, it&amp;rsquo;s worth wondering how much of your device is wasted computing power.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Offline or offline-first tools go a long way towards allowing you to be productive in a permission-less way. This is an area where Free &amp;amp; Open Source software provides a great deal of abundance. The less dependent you are on online services the less influence corporations and governments inherently have over your processes. By taking action to protect your information and workflows, you&amp;rsquo;re also building reliable independence.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;communication&#34;&gt;Communication&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ensuring that your personal communications aren&amp;rsquo;t being leveraged against you is a pretty critical objective. Why should your sensitive conversations with friends and family be fed into AI algorithms to precisely market or manipulate you? Healthy boundaries are a must-have in a time where companies are rushing to squeeze everything out of you and governments are desperate to suppress dissent. The trouble with improving your communications is that some level of negotiation with others is required. People may have different priorities and ease-of-use is often a very important factor. Communication is definitely an area where choosing the &amp;ldquo;lesser evil&amp;rdquo; is a perfectly defensible choice.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;opsec&#34;&gt;OPSEC&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Protecting your data is one thing, but protecting data about you is a whole other challenge. Anonymity and pseudonymity are very valuable tools when interacting online. Speaking from experience, using your real name online for a tiny bit more credibility is not worth the many serious downsides. We are in a time where it&amp;rsquo;s relatively easy for novices to automate cyber-stalking, and there are other severe threats like &amp;lsquo;doxxing&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;swatting&amp;rsquo;. When people are more polarized than ever, its never been easier for small organized groups to make an example out of a target.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Consider being very careful about what information you share on public platforms, or with services that collect and sell data. So much is already out of your control that what little you can do to protect your identity online is very valuable. Things can seem innocuous and harmful today, but you never know where the winds will blow a decade from now and what makes somebody a &amp;lsquo;fair target&amp;rsquo; for harassment and abuse. Fierce insistence on not only your own privacy, but respect for that of others is absolutely paramount moving forward.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The UN Is Working To Open Source Your Government: For Better Or Worse</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/politics-in-tech/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/politics-in-tech/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/un.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/un.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/un.webp" />
+		<description>Embracing the opportunities of our time</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;We are in a difficult position when it comes to maintaining our digital liberties. Governments across the world are racing to seize more control over people&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/apple-rejects-uk-surveillance-backdoor-pulls-icloud-encryption&#34;&gt;private information&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/whatsapp-eu-dsa-vlop-regulation-meta-46-million-users&#34;&gt;communications.&lt;/a&gt; People are beginning to recognize the downsides of moving the &amp;ldquo;public square&amp;rdquo; to controlled online platforms. In truth, we are only beginning to grapple with the problems caused by our technological landscape. A great deal can be done, but if we continue to let apathy and defeatism discourage real action, we will end up in very grim circumstances.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s certainly possible to withdraw oneself from the most blatant intrusions, but escaping entirely ends up being quite unsustainable. Various workplaces are introducing &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/ai-is-inflaming-workplace-surveillance&#34;&gt;their own intrusions&lt;/a&gt; into people&amp;rsquo;s digital lives, and many public institutions evaluating &amp;ldquo;AI tools&amp;rdquo; with little care for the important details. The public is denied representation in the future of technology. For many, their only voice is to choose one intrusion over another.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With enough effort, collaboration, and time we could forge a better path. While many of the devices we use have become so entrenched in our lives, that doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean we no longer have the ability to set healthy boundaries. The devices themselves can be redesigned, changed, and improved based off lessons we have learned in recent decades. A healthier digital landscape is very much within reach, we just have to devote our focus and resources to it. If we aren&amp;rsquo;t proactive in shaping the future of our own technological experience, governments and corporations will speak for us.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many super-national entities are working towards transforming our digital experience. The United Nations has a concerning initiative that may have far-reaching implications about the future of digital government and open source projects. This isn&amp;rsquo;t the first initiative of its kind, but a parallel initiative that could very well end up being quite impactful. During the Covid Crisis, The EU launched the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/government-in-tech/&#34;&gt;Next Generation Internet&lt;/a&gt; plan to reshape cyberspace. The plan included leveraging open-source development to truly harness decentralized innovation. While there were many excellent advancements under this initiative, the positives were largely incidental. The EU NGI was motivated by a desire to help European governments protect their digital sovereignty from Big Tech, but not necessarily to protect the digital sovereignty of European citizens. In part, the goal was to transform not only Europe&amp;rsquo;s digital experience, but also that of the world. While the rhetoric against digital totalitarianism was laudable, in practice it seems that Europe&amp;rsquo;s stance was in degree and not in principle.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-un--open-source-solutions&#34;&gt;The UN &amp;amp; open source solutions&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While it was great to see many great and excellent Free Software projects get funding, it certainly comes at a price. If the EU or any institution directs funds towards open source projects, they can effectively pick winners and losers. Various &amp;lsquo;soft&amp;rsquo; mechanisms such as &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBZ21k4BL04&#34;&gt;codes of conduct&lt;/a&gt; can enforce social and political behaviors. This means that the more investment made into Open Source by Big Tech, governments, or other institutions, the more the ecosystem is made in their image. The stakes of this are quite high. Not only does this mean particular projects can thrive or be broken by political incentives, but so to can individuals seeking to build their skills. To truly build a better digital future we must contend with these forces and find ways to &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/bankroll&#34;&gt;make our own impact.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The greatest challenge posed by the UN&amp;rsquo;s involvement in Open Source is the mere fact that there are a lot of resources being tapped into. A world-wide network of people to collaborate with on particular projects, and a great deal of mentorship and support. It is quite possible that many communities will be entirely unable to retain technical talent that hasn&amp;rsquo;t gone to either UN initiatives or Big Tech projects. This is a non-trivial problem to overcome.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Recognizing the significant potential for Open Source to be deployed to accelerate progress on the SDGs, ECOSOC has called for the development of specific proposals for how its power can be best leveraged.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The OSPO for Good event hosted by the United Nations Office of Special Envoy on Technology and the United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology answers directly to this call by focusing on how OSPOs, which have been instrumental for tapping the value of Open Source in the private sector, can be used also outside of industry, by governments, not for profits, and academia.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Such “OSPOs for Good” have the power to bring the world’s population closer together, both technically through an open and interoperable infrastructure, and socially through the open and culture-spanning communities that maintain the infrastructure through peer-production and collective action.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.un.org/digital-emerging-technologies/sites/www.un.org.techenvoy/files/OSPOs_for_Good_Report_1.pdf&#34;&gt;OSPOs for Good Building &amp;amp; Designing Cooperative Digital Infrastructure&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The UN like the EU, recognizes the power of open source collaboration and bottom-up change. It&amp;rsquo;s highly likely that these initiatives will bear genuinely good fruit, but there will be smaller details to be concerned with. Putting our entire digital future in the hands of the UN, (or some compromise between governments &amp;amp; corporations) is sure to diminish any hopes of having meaningful digital autonomy in the future. It is important to recognize that decentralized innovation is the future, but many forces are competing to seize control of it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This year at FOSDEM, a European open source conference sponsored by Google and other big companies, there was &lt;a href=&#34;https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-5687-scaling-open-source-solutions-to-achieve-the-sustainable-development-goals-a-global-call-to-action/&#34;&gt;a presentation&lt;/a&gt; made by representatives from the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/who-we-are&#34;&gt;Digital Public Goods Alliance.&lt;/a&gt; The presentation outlines how open source initiatives are driving various &lt;a href=&#34;https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Agenda_2030&#34;&gt;UN sustainable development goals.&lt;/a&gt; The DPGA has &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.devex.com/news/why-donors-are-backing-a-global-push-for-digital-public-infrastructure-104007&#34;&gt;received funding&lt;/a&gt; from various governments, the Gates Foundation, and many more &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/who-we-are&#34;&gt;notable members&lt;/a&gt; like USAID. They even include an &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/registry&#34;&gt;interesting registry&lt;/a&gt; mapping projects to particular SDGs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;digital-public-goods--sdgs&#34;&gt;Digital Public Goods &amp;amp; SDGs&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Just as many great things came out of the EU NGI, it&amp;rsquo;s important not to take an all-or-nothing approach. Digital public goods can definitely be a fantastic mechanism to build a freer cyberspace, but the devil is always in the details.
+Recognizing the potential of actual digital public goods is not necessarily the same as elevating the DPGA&amp;rsquo;s definition. The Digital Public Goods Alliance has &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/standard&#34;&gt;its own standard&lt;/a&gt; for what meets their definition of a digital public good. The standard includes 9 &amp;lsquo;indicators&amp;rsquo; of something meeting the criteria. Indicators 4,5,8 are great things relating to what is worth striving for, but indicators 1 &amp;amp; 8 are where things get messy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;#1 is the primary concern. The DPGA has explicit political goals for open source projects that aim to meet the standard. While the goals themselves may seem desirable, the devil is often in the details. For example, what content preferences can we expect from a project aimed at advancing education? Given the UN&amp;rsquo;s preference for censorship of what is deemed &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.un.org/en/un-coronavirus-communications-team/five-ways-united-nations-fighting-%E2%80%98infodemic%E2%80%99-misinformation&#34;&gt;misinformation,&lt;/a&gt; we can expect any &amp;lsquo;digital public good&amp;rsquo; that meets the standard to be also hostile to unpopular or inconvenient (&lt;em&gt;but possibly true&lt;/em&gt;) information. In #8 the standard also includes a requirement for the project to &amp;ldquo;Do No Harm by Design&amp;rdquo;. Knowing the UN&amp;rsquo;s heavy-handed approach to &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/un-cybercrime-treaty-human-rights-concerns-ratification&#34;&gt;sensitive issues,&lt;/a&gt; there is no reason to expect this standard would be enforced fairly or consistently, especially world-wide.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Given that we know the UN is not the ideal steward for the future of open source, how should we react? Is the plan to merely avoid anything labeled a &amp;lsquo;digital public good&amp;rsquo; and fall prey to corporate schemes instead? Big Tech is just as, if not more willing to take control over our digital future if we don&amp;rsquo;t reassert our own vision. Privacy, censorship resistance, elegance and efficiently can all be things we expect out of our own tools. A great deal can and should be done to help people reclaim their digital autonomy with a flexible but informed approach.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;notable-examples&#34;&gt;Notable Examples&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The DPGA recognizes various projects and systems, some you may even be aware of already. When one browses &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/registry&#34;&gt;the registry&lt;/a&gt; it&amp;rsquo;s clear that this is a large collection of tools for helping nations secure some form of digital sovereignty. While this can overlap with individuals and communities reclaiming their digital autonomy, it doesn&amp;rsquo;t always. Some genuinely useful (or otherwise harmless) projects are included within the registry, but others with more &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/r/iverify&#34;&gt;explicitly agenda-driven&lt;/a&gt; motivations are too. Browsing the software section reveals a variety of technical tools with health &amp;amp; climate monitoring dashboards.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/r/fedora-linux&#34;&gt;Fedora Linux&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/r/drupal&#34;&gt;Drupal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/r/libreoffice&#34;&gt;LibreOffice&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/r/mautic&#34;&gt;Mautic&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/r/openmandriva-lx&#34;&gt;OpenMandriva Lx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/r/rocky-linux&#34;&gt;Rocky Linux&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/r/tor-browser&#34;&gt;Tor Browser&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/r/truenas&#34;&gt;TrueNAS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/r/openstreetmap&#34;&gt;OpenStreetMap&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/r/mozilla-common-voice-dataset&#34;&gt;Mozilla Common Voice Dataset&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/r/harmony&#34;&gt;Harmony&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/r/wikipedia&#34;&gt;Wikipedia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;dont-throw-out-the-baby-with-the-bathwater&#34;&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t throw out the baby with the bathwater!&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In discussions about digital tools, people are incredibly quick to take an all-or-nothing approach. Just because we understand influences in the open source community, doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean that &amp;ldquo;open source is compromised&amp;rdquo;. By its own definition open source is decentralized innovation. Institutions like the EU and the UN are correctly recognizing its potential to make radical and dramatic change quickly. It is crucial that we recognize the very same potential and actualize it ourselves.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One can expect many excellent and worthwhile software and systems being recognized by the DPGA. For the moment, those under threat of digital totalitarianism have to make the best with what is available, or they can produce themselves. Expecting perfection is a non-starter in an environment where people have to make difficult decisions with available resources. It&amp;rsquo;s quite possible that many UN sanctioned Digital Public Goods are worth considering for particular purposes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In fact, those interested in forging a truly independent digital landscape should consider what has been done by the EU and the DPGA. Learning from not only the featured projects, but also the plan itself. There are many crucial details that those interested in building real &amp;ldquo;freedom tech&amp;rdquo; need to understand before even beginning to build their own solutions. Until such a time where we can expect independent communities and freedom-loving people world wide to build up their own technological innovation potential, there will always be catching up to do.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;digital-freedom-goods&#34;&gt;Digital Freedom Goods&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A good place to start would be defining a set of objective and testable criteria for what real freedom tools would be like. We can expect them to align with Free Software &amp;amp; Hardware goals, but there are many other things worth considering. We are at such a critical point because there is still a great deal of time to make real changes. We can gain a lot from taking the time to peer back through existing experiments and lessons learned over the years. There are useful projects that show promise, and useful techniques worth replicating.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is important to make the distinction between tools that give governments more digital sovereignty, as opposed to tools that can build a better digital landscape for all of us. There will be systems and tools with overlapping purposes, but others could be irrelevant or entirely at odds with personal digital sovereignty. It is critical that those liberty-minded individuals among us spend time putting together a vision of an efficient but ultimately healthy digital landscape. With enough people united under this vision, people would have something to flock to instead of Big Tech corporations or government-sponsored tech.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While many do build great things on their own, they&amp;rsquo;re often without much support. It is on us to discover, share, and support useful freedom tools so long as they are genuinely useful. It&amp;rsquo;s long past time to stop falling for marketing hype and start focusing on building up truly independent paths forward. Governments and corporations have very clear ideas about what direction we will be heading in, it&amp;rsquo;s time we work towards building our own vision.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Teachable Moment: Memecoin Mayhem</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/teachable-memecoin/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/teachable-memecoin/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/slots.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/slots.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/slots.webp" />
+		<description>Learning from one of the creators of the latest rug pull.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Javier Milei, Argentina&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;libertarian&amp;rdquo; resident promoted a memecoin &amp;lsquo;Libra&amp;rsquo;. The &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.vivalalibertadproject.com/&#34;&gt;project&amp;rsquo;s website,&lt;/a&gt; which Milei linked to, claimed that the project was &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;created with a clear mission: to boost the Argentine economy by funding small projects and local businesses, supporting those who seek to grow their ventures and contribute to the country’s development.&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; While this certainly sounds laudable, the game was rigged from the start.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/libra-chart.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It turns out that shortly after hitting a lot of quick attention, the price &lt;a href=&#34;https://decrypt.co/306134/did-argentina-president-javier-milei-launch-solana-meme-coin&#34;&gt;quickly dropped 89%.&lt;/a&gt; Javier Milei even deleted his tweet supporting the project. This controversial launch, featured things that look like a pretty typical &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pumpanddump.asp&#34;&gt;pump and dump scheme.&lt;/a&gt; This whole incident is noteworthy because of how much memecoin shenanigans are tolerated in politics and activist circles. Even president Trump has his own &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/trumps-meme-coin-made-nearly-100-million-trading-fees-small-traders-lost-money-2025-02-03/&#34;&gt;official memecoin.&lt;/a&gt; It&amp;rsquo;s worth asking ourselves, is this the behavior we want to see from our &amp;lsquo;allies&amp;rsquo;?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;coffeezilla-interview-highlights&#34;&gt;Coffeezilla interview highlights&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Coffeezilla does fantastic work. I&amp;rsquo;m a huge fan of &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/LDhU295bUv4&#34;&gt;his reporting.&lt;/a&gt; Coffeezilla managed to get Hayden Davis, one of the creators of the Libra memecoin &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/EqizJTbxAEM&#34;&gt;to talk about the incident.&lt;/a&gt; If you haven&amp;rsquo;t given much thought to the memecoin hype, this is very much worth your time. Coffeezilla manages to get some quite detailed and shocking admissions from Hayden. It&amp;rsquo;s worth expanding on some of the small details of the conversation to get a better picture of the memecoin schemes. You can also watch Coffeezilla&amp;rsquo;s follow-up video &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/Ud6GuH7gSDw&#34;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-reality-distortion-field&#34;&gt;The reality distortion field&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The most fascinating part of this interview is listening to someone from a particularly strong &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_distortion_field&#34;&gt;reality distortion field.&lt;/a&gt; Much of what Hayden says shocks Coffeezilla, and likely much of the public as well. When one is surrounded by people with particular strong preferences and beliefs it becomes difficult to question the atmosphere we are in. It is a great reminder to question our own assumptions about many things, even where there may even be consensus.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As an outsider, it&amp;rsquo;s very clear that Hayden is surrounded by people who claim to believe that while these memecoins often end up as naked rug-pull scams, there is surely a bright future for &amp;lsquo;social finance&amp;rsquo;. His attitude is nakedly nihilistic about these schemes because of corruption throughout the rest of society. Going so far as to argue &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;but then how else can we make money?&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; as if to say that profitable returns are the only meaningful indicator of productive economic activity. It&amp;rsquo;s understandable to be cynical about the bigger picture, but at what point do we take responsibility for our own actions?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This reality distortion field is itself troubling to contemplate. That many bright, entrepreneurial people are being given a strong signal that fraud is a good and productive use of their talents. In the interview, Hayden explicitly makes the case that the entire cryptocurrency industry, or even the economy at large is fundamentally no different. Even if one accepts this premise, it&amp;rsquo;s not difficult to make the case that there are wildly varying degrees to which this is true in particular places. The nihilistic refusal to make these distinctions seems to be a fundamental pillar of this reality distortion field. While it&amp;rsquo;s certainly true that neither Hayden or I will change all this, there&amp;rsquo;s something tragically dim about giving in to these forces. Is this truly the best we can hope for? I beg to differ.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;sniping&#34;&gt;Sniping&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Much of the conversation revolves around discussion of &amp;lsquo;sniping&amp;rsquo; the memecoin supply. This is when people will quickly buy up a sizable chunk of the memecoin supply before it&amp;rsquo;s even announced. For example, between when the Libra &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/smart-contracts.asp&#34;&gt;smart contract&lt;/a&gt; was deployed, and when Javier Milei tweeted about it. This gives the &amp;lsquo;snipers&amp;rsquo; an extraordinary advantage over all the people who find out about the memecoin later.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If this activity was purely organic, it would be easier to defend the behavior. It gets worse when behaviors like insider trading gets involved. It&amp;rsquo;s one thing to buy up a memecoin quickly because you think the name has potential, it&amp;rsquo;s a whole different world when you know in advance it&amp;rsquo;s going to be promoted by big names. Given the way these launches are structured, it&amp;rsquo;s guaranteed that there will be some with access to information that can be used to get massive returns at the expense of the rest.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To take things to a whole new level, in the interview the co-creator of Libra explains that those launching their own memecoin feel a need to snipe their own tokens. Not only was it done in this case, he argues that this is common practice in the space. This makes an already quite predatory arrangement even more slanted. Not only are the &amp;lsquo;outsiders&amp;rsquo; competing with those who specialize in sniping memecoins, inside traders, but also the creators themselves. By having a large control of the token supply, the creators and insiders can directly manipulate the price of these assets with very little transparency.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;insider-perks&#34;&gt;Insider perks&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In addition to all the other issues related to the Libra launch, Dave Portnoy &lt;a href=&#34;https://cointelegraph.com/news/dave-portnoy-claims-returned-6-million-libra-tokens-founder&#34;&gt;was offered&lt;/a&gt; a substantial amount of tokens to hype the project. David claims that after being told he was not to disclose this, that he returned the tokens. It just so happens that this very favorable exchange happens after the tokens had already crashed in value.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One insider who had lost about $5.34 million on LIBRA was compensated $5 million.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This insider, none other than Barstool founder David Portnoy, had spent 29,000 SOL worth $5.77 million on LIBRA tokens roughly 9 minutes after it launched at $2.51 per coin but quickly lost over $5 million as the token crashed amid speculation of foul play and as President Milei pulled his support, Lookonchain analysis showed on Monday, February 17.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;After the loss, however, Portnoy was sent 5 million USDC in two tranches of 4.5 million USDC and 500,000 USDC. He also dumped his remaining LIBRA holdings after receiving this compensation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://thecryptobasic.com/2025/02/17/how-libra-token-creator-compensated-dave-portnoy-while-others-hold-the-bag/&#34;&gt;How LIBRA Token Creator Compensated Dave Portnoy While Others Hold the Bag&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unlike other bag holders, David was given the opportunity to be made whole. The very fact that this was done demonstrates the nature of these memecoin schemes. There are many losers and a few winners by design. It&amp;rsquo;s worth considering how memecoins exemplify cryptocurrency at its worst, and what incentives they create for content creators. Despite a great deal of rhetoric about eliminating central banks, it&amp;rsquo;s troubling to see many trends all converge on the mere privatization and digitization of central banking.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;opposing-the-grift-industrial-complex&#34;&gt;Opposing the grift industrial complex&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;how-memecoins-work&#34;&gt;How memecoins work:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To put the interview in perspective, it&amp;rsquo;s worth contemplating the scheme from start to finish.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;People get together to plan to launch a cryptocurrency asset&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Deals are made, to get investment and buy off influencers&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Branding and marketing is put together, then the token is launched&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Word gets out, project creators, insiders and skilled traders leap on the opportunity to secure large amounts of the token&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;The influencers and figures promote the token to the masses&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Enticed by a rising price, the captive audience flocks in and buys the overpriced collectibles&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Large holders dump the token absorbing a majority of the funds put in by wider public&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It does not matter if the price tanks immediately, or after some time, the scheme is the same. All the buyers of the token are effectively a commodity being sold to investors by leveraging their parasocial connections. As was brought up in the interview, people you follow (&amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;key opinion leaders&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot;/KOLs) have many opportunities to exchange your trust for financial gain. Sponsorships absolutely have &lt;a href=&#34;https://odysee.com/@WatchmanPrivacy:1/Sponsorships:e&#34;&gt;their problems,&lt;/a&gt; so it is on you to judge your sources of information based on what they market to you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Memecoins are far from the only way this happens, it&amp;rsquo;s just one of the more blatant iterations of it. It is an instructive example of what kinds of behavior are indicative of mass manipulation. Looking at the bigger picture, we can consider how predatory modern social media is. Centralized platforms like Big Tech and &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/alt-tech&#34;&gt;Alt-Tech&lt;/a&gt; all have the ability to pick winners and losers. As the selected winners grow large audiences, they then have the opportunity to make substantial amounts off promoting various products and schemes to them. It&amp;rsquo;s worth asking how &amp;lsquo;independent&amp;rsquo; many of these voices can be when they are beholden to not only the platforms they choose, but also the partnerships that fund their operation. If we truly want to build up independent voices in the public discussion, we have to support them. Payment processors notwithstanding, it&amp;rsquo;s often just as easy to directly support great investigative work as buy a memecoin.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;we-can-do-better&#34;&gt;We can do better&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I would encourage you to adopt high standards. Not just in the voices you let influence your thinking, but also for platforms and what your wider community tolerates. There is definitely a limit to how effective your activism or cause can be if you permit your constituents to be fleeced by frauds and needless time-sinks. There is a great deal you can do to uplift truly independent voices, sharing great works directly with others is much more revolutionary than jumping to the &amp;ldquo;next great platform&amp;rdquo;. If we want a meritocracy in public discourse, it&amp;rsquo;s up to all of us to be the stewards of it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Above all, it&amp;rsquo;s important to consider how many social and political phenomenons are primarily driven by the desire to emotionally manipulate audiences to put them into a &amp;lsquo;marketable&amp;rsquo; mindset. We all have buttons that can be pressed to raise fear, urgency, or insecurity. Recognizing that  social media manipulation builds real fortunes can help put the need to disentangle from these machinations into perspective. It&amp;rsquo;s largely a matter of judgement: do you want to put your efforts towards supporting the most sleek and popular leaders, or would you rather discover and share genuine insight that others need?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;No matter how sophisticated our digital prison becomes, never forget that we have the ability to shape the future together. You would be genuinely surprised at how effective even the smallest of steps can be. Diverting your attention away from hype and instead turning it towards what you can do to make a difference on the small scale will yield fantastic results over time. There are many ways to make a difference, don&amp;rsquo;t let clever marketing trick you into thinking a purchase is the first step.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Can we save free speech online? Yes, if we build it!</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/perfect-cms/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/perfect-cms/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/network.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/network.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/network.webp" />
+		<description>How to lay the foundation for a better cyberspace.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;What would it be like to build something as radical as &lt;a href=&#34;https://clas.ucdenver.edu/nhdc/sites/default/files/attached-files/entry_172.pdf&#34;&gt;the printing press&lt;/a&gt; or the Internet today? Many of us take for granted that the World Wide Web already is the pinnacle of this achievement. We then erroneously assume that any improvement must be out of reach for us mere mortals. The good news is that there already is a blueprint for radically transforming the Web. This is no pie-in-the-sky fantasy. I will share the fundamentals of how to forge a path for a better cyberspace.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is tragic that for many, the World Wide Web is entirely confined to a few social media sites and mainstream publications. There are many tools one could build to reshape our online experience, but there&amp;rsquo;s a single one that can change this dynamic entirely: a Content Management System. Yep, CMS tools are things that truly don&amp;rsquo;t get enough attention when it comes to building a better cyberspace.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;what-is-a-content-management-system-cms&#34;&gt;What is a Content Management System (CMS)?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A Content Management System is the service that runs many functions for a website. It generally interfaces with a database and provides tools for non-technical users to configure and run the site. Without a content management system, one has to write every web part of their site &amp;ldquo;by hand&amp;rdquo;, or with the help of a &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/best-website-for-you&#34;&gt;static site generator.&lt;/a&gt;  The CMS is the lifeblood of a website that effectively defines what features and functionality is possible. If one wants to have a dramatic impact on the future of the Web, building a great CMS is likely one of the best ways to do it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Novel features can be designed to build a CMS that not only transforms cyberspace, but also makes it more resilient to censorship. There is a great deal of &amp;rsquo;low-hanging fruit&amp;rsquo; ripe for taking on many present challenges head-on. Building a truly transformative CMS is no small task, but the potential upside is immense.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;wordpress-a-proven-record-for-decentralizing-cyberspace&#34;&gt;WordPress: A proven record for decentralizing cyberspace&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The History of &lt;a href=&#34;https://wordpress.org/&#34;&gt;WordPress&lt;/a&gt; is its own &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/wd4DjJdCvJY&#34;&gt;long&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/GVzzC06qICw&#34;&gt;story.&lt;/a&gt; WordPress is a very ubiquitous CMS that powers &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.wpzoom.com/blog/wordpress-statistics/&#34;&gt;over 43%&lt;/a&gt; of the World Wide Web. There&amp;rsquo;s an entire industry around themes, plug-ins, and support as well as education. As a software project and community, WordPress is wildly successful. Thanks to its plug-in system, it&amp;rsquo;s hard to think of anything that can&amp;rsquo;t be done with it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It certainly didn&amp;rsquo;t start out dominating the Web. WordPress was one of many open-source blogging platforms. Its flexibility and relatively high usability gave it real staying power. It&amp;rsquo;s a shining example of how much wealth can be made off building a fundamental public good. One doesn&amp;rsquo;t need to pay to use WordPress, merely install it and run it like any other Free and Open Source Software. Part of this permissiveness allowed it to be packaged by hosting providers even further lower the barrier to entry.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By its mere existence, WordPress has given many people the opportunity to participate in Cyberspace that otherwise might not have been able to. Its relatively accessible features and adaptability are what allowed a simple open source project to dominate the entire Web. If you&amp;rsquo;re somebody who does manage to move their attention beyond social media sites, odds are many of the sites you visit are running WordPress.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;No matter how &amp;ldquo;big&amp;rdquo; WordPress is, it&amp;rsquo;s still a very useful tool for decentralizing the Web. It supports &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/docs/#/page/really%20simple%20syndication&#34;&gt;RSS&lt;/a&gt; out of the box, and even has a &lt;a href=&#34;https://wordpress.com/support/enter-the-fediverse/&#34;&gt;fediverse plug-in.&lt;/a&gt; Despite being over 20 years old, WordPress is still pushing boundaries and innovating. Practically everything you want to do with a web site can be built with WordPress, and if it can&amp;rsquo;t you can always build new themes and plug-ins to support it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This isn&amp;rsquo;t to say WordPress is perfect. No software project ever fully breaks free from the assumptions it was built on. There are new innovations worth fully embracing from a fresh start. The greatest advantage a new competitor can offer is simplicity. WordPress itself can do anything, but that doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean it&amp;rsquo;s easy to pull off. There are many competitors to WordPress, some open source as well, others fully proprietary. If one wants to radically transform cyberspace for the better, learning from WordPress&amp;rsquo; example is a the place to start.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;can-we-do-better&#34;&gt;Can we do better?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Building a new CMS to forge a new Cyberspace is no small feat. If we truly want others to participate in a free and open web, we must ensure that the tools to do so are accessible and intuitive. It will take a fair bit of investment, lots of work, but it&amp;rsquo;s likely the best place to start. There are many great examples to learn from, and many new innovations to embrace. Building a configurable, user-friendly, pro-decentralization CMS is certainly an achievable goal to strive for.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Personally, I took a &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/ghost/&#34;&gt;look at Ghost&lt;/a&gt; which is a newer CMS that also took a stab at &lt;a href=&#34;https://ghost.org/changelog/activitypub-alpha/&#34;&gt;decentralized social media.&lt;/a&gt; Ghost is trying to leverage itself to take on the independent creator economy, and includes payments as a first-class feature. The trouble is, I don&amp;rsquo;t believe payment features and a bolted-on social layer are quite enough to truly adapt to present-day troubles.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The beauty of a first-class free and open source CMS is that it can solve many problems at once. Once those problems are solved, others can then leverage those solutions. This is the mechanism that allows a truly revolutionary tool to actually reshape cyberspace.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;building-the-best-the-perfect-cms&#34;&gt;Building the best: The &amp;lsquo;perfect&amp;rsquo; CMS&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;d like to hire a CTO to build a free software revolution in cyberspace my contact details can be found &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/get-in-touch/&#34;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;😅 I&amp;rsquo;m (&lt;em&gt;mostly&lt;/em&gt;) kidding. I plan to freely share the secret sauce here since I am currently unable to build such a tool on my own. I have some smaller projects in mind for this year, so I&amp;rsquo;ll be pleased if people beat me to it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;aim-high&#34;&gt;Aim high&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Imagine a radically better cyberspace, and build the tool that people would actually use in that reality. Recognize that for every person, business, or group a &amp;ldquo;website&amp;rdquo; can be all kinds of very different things. Come up with as many different &amp;ldquo;use cases&amp;rdquo; for your software and hone those insights into requirements for a truly flexible platform. This defined flexibility will guide the construction of a truly revolutionary tool.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite what the defeatists will tell you, there&amp;rsquo;s a bright future in building real solutions to present-day problems. The endeavor itself will make anyone involved a powerful force for shaping cyberspace in a better direction. Armed with an ambitious goal, some diligent testing and experimentation,  programmers can become a real &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/videos/serenum&#34;&gt;force to reckon with.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;security&#34;&gt;Security&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A fundamental pillar of this project has to be strong security. As a tool for even the technical novice, it must not create opportunity for costly mistakes. Recognizing that this system may be operating in &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/hostile-cyberspace&#34;&gt;hostile cyberspace,&lt;/a&gt; it&amp;rsquo;s crucial that security is at the foundation of every decision. One way to enable decentralization without compromising on security would be a layered module approach.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of giving every plug-in or custom module access to everything, modules should have defined roles and be granted only what is necessary to fulfill those roles. A custom theme shouldn&amp;rsquo;t need direct access to your database, and a new video player shouldn&amp;rsquo;t need to connect to remote sites. Strong authentication will be needed to protect users and resources. Adopting the latest and greatest in security practices will yield great results moving forward. The plan from the beginning should be to be adaptable to future security upgrades.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;decentralization&#34;&gt;Decentralization&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A great deal of software today is written to build a monopoly around. Instead, there is an opportunity to build a truly revolutionary tool. Building a CMS with censorship resistance from the ground up can be a powerful advantage. Instead of &amp;ldquo;reinventing the wheel&amp;rdquo; the system can gracefully connect with existing censorship resistance technologies. By defining alternative transports, the entire idea of &amp;ldquo;the Web&amp;rdquo; can be broadened further beyond what it is today.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are many alternative transport mechanisms for websites. Some people use the &amp;ldquo;dark web&amp;rdquo; with &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/shadow&#34;&gt;Tor &amp;amp; I2P,&lt;/a&gt; but there are even more options. &lt;a href=&#34;https://veilid.com/&#34;&gt;Veilid&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://reticulum.network/&#34;&gt;Reticulum&lt;/a&gt; are both fascinating new ideas for revolutionizing cyberspace. For all the reasons existing content management systems are adopting federated social plug-ins, it makes sense to build this kind of decentralized social layer directly into the software. &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/mitra&#34;&gt;Mitra&lt;/a&gt; supports cross-federation over the web and darknets alike.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By designing the system with decentralization in mind, there must be a concept of a &amp;ldquo;remote user&amp;rdquo;. Recognizing that somebody commenting on, or engaging with your site must be able to define their own profile on their own systems. There are ways to leverage decentralization for better content as well. &lt;a href=&#34;https://framablog.org/2023/11/28/peertube-v6-is-out-and-powered-by-your-ideas/&#34;&gt;PeerTube uses&lt;/a&gt; decentralized technologies to enable peer-to-peer streaming. RSS and &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.thepodcasthost.com/business-of-podcasting/what-is-podcasting-2-0-and-why-should-i-care/&#34;&gt;Podcasting 2.0&lt;/a&gt; should be first-class features of the CMS.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Beyond this, it should be a goal of the system to provide the capability to help guests &amp;amp; contributors migrate their work to their own platform. Many fascinating systems could be built to allow multiple publications to collaborate over the open web. With this in place, people could gradually move from being guest contributors to eventually having their own body of work on their own platform as they learn.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;modularity&#34;&gt;Modularity&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The CMS should be designed to open as many doors as possible without drowning the user in abstract decisions. Instead, it should be designed to have an opinionated approach to things to serve the user. Learning from WordPress&amp;rsquo;s modularity is important, but that flexibility needs to be harnessed properly. A great many things that can be done with plug-ins should be able to be done with the software itself.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With a strong baseline set of features, and defined modularity, the CMS can be in an excellent position to adapt and grow over time. Modules that users don&amp;rsquo;t want or need can be disabled. When beginning to use the software, basic questions can be asked about what they would like to begin with various &amp;ldquo;profiles&amp;rdquo; of pre-set defaults.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;efficiency&#34;&gt;Efficiency&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Above all, the tool should work for the user. There are many solved problems that are unnecessary to make the user toil with. Properly converting and sizing media, transcribing audio &amp;amp; video are all things that can be easily done automatically today. Focus on assisting the user do what they want to, rather than making them fight the CMS to get basic things done. Performance is another critical objective. A great deal can be done to optimize for speed without the expense of quality. Being blazing fast at different scales is no small feat. The CMS should be as responsive as possible and find ways to optimize speed without dependency on third-parties.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;accessibility&#34;&gt;Accessibility&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Administrating the CMS should assume very little technical knowledge. This requires some strong design skills to ensure the software is intuitive as well as powerful. In addition to this, every effort should be made to use &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/docs/#/page/progressive%20enhancement&#34;&gt;progressive enhancement&lt;/a&gt; to be adaptable to a wide variety of viewers.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;New innovations are a great way to differentiate itself. A companion app could make it easy to publish content on the go. With the proper open protocols, this companion app could make updating one&amp;rsquo;s own space in cyberspace as easy as posting to social media.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;can-we-build-it&#34;&gt;Can we build it?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It would certainly require a great deal of work, but the opportunity is there. This is likely outside the scope of a single person, and would need a broader team or community to turn into a reality. Difficult is a far cry from impossible. It&amp;rsquo;s worth remembering that online free expression can be safeguarded by deliberate innovation if we put our minds to it. Instead of falling for the next big platform that promises to be better, we can truly build a foundation for a better outcome.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>How to REALLY Resist Digital ID – #SolutionsWatch</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/corbett-report/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/corbett-report/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/solutionswatch-digitalid.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/solutionswatch.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/solutionswatch.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/solutionswatch.webp" />
+		<description>Gabriel joins the Corbett Report</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;It was an honor and privilege to join James Corbett for &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/category/solutions/&#34;&gt;#SolutionsWatch&lt;/a&gt; to discuss &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/docs/#/page/digital%20identification&#34;&gt;Digital ID&lt;/a&gt; and how we can (&lt;em&gt;or can&amp;rsquo;t&lt;/em&gt;) stop it. James Corbett is a legend and a great inspiration to this project. I would highly recommend you check out more of his work at &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/&#34;&gt;the Corbett Report.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Show notes and comments&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/how-to-really-resist-digital-id/&#34;&gt;on the Corbett Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Since I&amp;rsquo;m a Corbett Report subscriber I&amp;rsquo;ll be engaging there as well!&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Reminder: Big Tech sucks no matter who is in charge</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/big-tech/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/big-tech/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/social-media.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/social-media.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/social-media.webp" />
+		<description>All the more reason to double down on the open web.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h3 id=&#34;animal-farm-the-digital-pen&#34;&gt;Animal Farm: The digital pen&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The power and profit from manipulating masses of &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.dictionary.com/browse/menticide&#34;&gt;menticided&lt;/a&gt; people is not to be underestimated. Nations across the world are considering it as part of their &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.aa.com.tr/en/opinion/opinion-elon-musk-brazil-and-the-battle-for-digital-sovereignty/3332242&#34;&gt;&amp;lsquo;digital sovereignty&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/a&gt; The people, are not as dull as social engineers would hope, and are beginning to turn away from the most egregious abuses. This is impacting growth &amp;amp; engagement figures, and also impacts their ability to collect more data for artificial intelligence.
+Despite years of troubling decisions, these companies are now beginning realize they need &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/3/24334946/meta-ai-profiles-instagram-facebook-bots&#34;&gt;actual people&lt;/a&gt; on their sites. The most overt sign would be Mark Zuckerberg&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k1ehaE0bdU&#34;&gt;interview on Joe Rogan,&lt;/a&gt; but this is no isolated incident. There has been a long trend of people beginning to recognize how abusive social media giants can be. The industry even has a cute term for it &lt;a href=&#34;https://itif.org/publications/2024/12/16/eight-ways-the-new-administration-can-pursue-a-post-techlash-agenda/&#34;&gt;&amp;rsquo;techlash&amp;rsquo;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
+The Information Technology &amp;amp; Innovation Foundation describes it as:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;New technologies and the tech companies that provide them are accused of fueling a myriad of economic and societal problems—from destroying individual privacy to amplifying biases, destroying jobs, and snuffing out competition.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://itif.org/events/2024/12/17/techlash-2025/&#34;&gt;Techlash 2025: The Outlook for Tech Policy in the Trump Administration&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Of course, the ITIF argues that these are myths and exaggerations, but despite their damage control, it matches people&amp;rsquo;s lived experiences. The problems created by corporate consolidation of cyberspace will manifest no matter which company the public flocks to. Even worse, these problems &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2024/06/how-online-privacy-is-like-fishing.html&#34;&gt;become normalized,&lt;/a&gt; making the intrusions feel acceptable. The answer is not new platforms, but new paradigms. There is a great deal of potential already being demonstrated in the decentralized social media networks such as Nostr and the &lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.elenarossini.com/my-year-of-fediverse-explorations/&#34;&gt;Fediverse.&lt;/a&gt; It&amp;rsquo;s important to remember if you just want information, &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/docs/#/page/really%20simple%20syndication&#34;&gt;RSS&lt;/a&gt; still can&amp;rsquo;t be beat! By truly committing ourselves to a better digital future, the road ahead becomes much more clear.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;zuckerberg-cooling-marks&#34;&gt;Zuckerberg cooling marks&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Zuckerberg&amp;rsquo;s interview on Joe Rogan is a great introduction to the concept of &lt;a href=&#34;https://kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2002/10/31/cooling-the-mark-out/&#34;&gt;cooling the mark.&lt;/a&gt; Skilled con artists have recognized that many people are smart enough to decipher schemes as they happen. This creates a problem where those who recognize the fraud or abuse end up willing to do something about it. Instead the scammer has to spend time consoling the victim. By arguing that the scheme was not only not a problem, the con artist can slip in that it was actually good for the victim.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As such, Zuckerberg is outright saying out loud what many had seen first-hand, but never seen addressed for years. Many commenting on the interview have been attempting to create a mark-cooling narrative that lessons have been learned and that mistakes will be corrected in the future. This presumes that Meta&amp;rsquo;s actions during the Covid Crisis, or other political events were not intended from the beginning. By re-contextualizing the overreaches of the last years, not only is history re-written but actual &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/social-media&#34;&gt;important lessons&lt;/a&gt; are buried. Even worse, by reframing reality with the same assumptions the problem was created with, the groundwork for future offenses is being laid.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the questions people have to ask themselves is &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Why the sudden pivot on censorship?&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;. Failing to consider this is to fall into the same trap of not asking why specific overt measures were put into place at the start. No serious individual can truly swallow the idea that governments and corporations are only now seeing the error of their ways. In fact, the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.verywellmind.com/streisand-effect-8654367&#34;&gt;Streisand Effect&lt;/a&gt; has been well understood for two decades. Instead of naively chalking it all up to ignorance, one needs to consider a more sophisticated game of &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/mindwar-a-radicalizing-mixture-of&#34;&gt;mindwar.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;All strong emotions are prone to being weaponized. By putting people in a situation where they are desperate you can &lt;a href=&#34;https://cdn-assets.minds.com/The_Censorship_Effect.pdf&#34;&gt;leverage their dissatisfaction&lt;/a&gt; to run all kinds of &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/-alt-tech&#34;&gt;cons&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/redirecting-resistance/&#34;&gt;schemes.&lt;/a&gt; It is my perspective, that what many experienced as &amp;lsquo;The Culture War&amp;rsquo; was a carefully crafted psychological event. In hindsight, it is clear that many people with a variety of concerns had their voices silenced in an orchestrated and coordinated fashion. It is too easy to presume that the eventual state of having to &amp;ldquo;tone down&amp;rdquo; the overt manipulation wasn&amp;rsquo;t known from the beginning. That limited window would be a very valuable opportunity to discover what techniques are able to &lt;a href=&#34;https://consentfactory.org/2024/08/23/the-global-crackdown-on-dissent/&#34;&gt;manufacture consent&lt;/a&gt; without as much resistance.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;speech-not-reach&#34;&gt;Speech not reach&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Elon Musk notably &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1593673339826212864&#34;&gt;announced&lt;/a&gt; a new standard of &amp;ldquo;Freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach&amp;rdquo;. There are natural barriers that make widespread information dissemination difficult, but modern-day social media companies are artificial structures. They have two major functions: attracting people to consume content, then selling their information and attention to others. Selling attention shifts incentives on the platform, prioritizing that which is profitable to promote. This means that there is a specific reason for every dominating narrative.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;People often mistake social media platforms for a level playing field. Truly &amp;lsquo;organic&amp;rsquo; discovery and growth is something that can only be possible in a &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/videos/attention-democracy&#34;&gt;radically different environment.&lt;/a&gt; This is something that already exists in some form on the open web. Outside of these consolidated platforms, nobody is funneled to spend time on specific sites over others. Your web browser gives you access to the limitless potential of the entire world wide web. There are still barriers, but they are somewhat limited to what is inherent to the technology, rather than having artificial gate-keeping organizations. The way to actually &amp;lsquo;fix&amp;rsquo; online free expression is to create a &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/AF2i7&#34;&gt;&amp;lsquo;web browser for social&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/a&gt; People need a tool that allows them to communicate in an interoperable permission-less way. If you&amp;rsquo;ve been following the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/fediverse&#34;&gt;Fediverse,&lt;/a&gt; you would know that there are exciting things on this front already.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;platform-migration&#34;&gt;Platform Migration&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Just prior to the United states banning Tiktok, many people have &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2025/01/15/tiktok-users-heading-to-rednote--it-looks-similar-has-the-same-issues/&#34;&gt;flocked to&lt;/a&gt; another social media app &amp;lsquo;Rednote&amp;rsquo;. This strategy is highly unlikely to be effective. Even if the community successfully migrates in significant numbers, countries all over the world are building the technological capacity to segregate themselves from &amp;lsquo;foreign influence&amp;rsquo;. Digital &amp;lsquo;sovereignty&amp;rsquo; for your government, but at your expense. Switching from platform-to-platform will never be sufficient to actually resolve these problems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The fact of the matter is that almost every social media app is going to be a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/online-behavioral-ads-fuel-surveillance-industry-heres-how&#34;&gt;spying nightmare.&lt;/a&gt; Nit-picking a particular one can be missing the point. No matter what platforms you&amp;rsquo;re on you should consider sticking to the web version, rather than the apps. It&amp;rsquo;s worth thinking about how every bit of data you provide these platforms can be &lt;a href=&#34;https://docs.reclaimthenet.org/12-18-24-Censorships-Next-Frontier.pdf&#34;&gt;leveraged by governments&lt;/a&gt; and other partners against you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is vital now more than ever that people and communities begin to consider how to build up their own independent digital infrastructure. Without doing this, people will always be &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.technocracy.news/how-engineered-dependency-erases-our-autonomy/&#34;&gt;subjects of the whims&lt;/a&gt; of governments and corporations alike. It is incredibly ironic that &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/hearth&#34;&gt;localizing the Internet&lt;/a&gt; will also have significant advantages to combating world-wide censorship. With a truly sovereign community infrastructure, it is much harder for outside forces to prevent messages from reaching it. As more and more people worldwide rebuild cyberspace from the ground up, you would be surprised how much better the web could be.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;turning-away-from-the-trough-of-menticide&#34;&gt;Turning away from the trough of menticide&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is high time we reject Big Tech for &lt;em&gt;what it is&lt;/em&gt; rather than who&amp;rsquo;s in charge of it. In hindsight, it is clear to see that social media giants were specifically designed &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/the-weird-darpa-facebook-coincidence-you-never-heard-about/&#34;&gt;as public control systems.&lt;/a&gt; One has to understand that every corporate (or state-run) social media platform is its own rigged game, with varying degrees of fairness. Continuing to migrate to the most perceived &amp;lsquo;free&amp;rsquo; option merely entrenches the mechanism itself: the commodification of parasocial interactions. What&amp;rsquo;s worse than profit off destroying minds is the real power that can be gained by manipulating those minds.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;lsquo;Slop&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt; and &amp;lsquo;&lt;em&gt;brainrot&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rsquo; are both terms to describe content with little informational value maximized for social media metrics. On any platform designed to capture one&amp;rsquo;s attention, these addictive and demeaning forms of content will proliferate widely. If you&amp;rsquo;re not used to listening to those with different perspectives than you, it&amp;rsquo;s going to be very hard to identify what percentage of your feed is pure slop. The brainrot is the long-term effects of not proactively managing your attention, and merely &amp;lsquo;doomscrolling&amp;rsquo; until your dopamine centers can&amp;rsquo;t respond anymore. The truth is, liberating yourself from these machinations still leaves many others trapped in it. Many are justifiably concerned about the effects of these platforms and want to either push for reform or outright ban these platforms.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Banning particular platforms will only mitigate the most egregious examples. The better option is to build ‘digital town square’ on a foundation that doesn’t foster these problems. This is not about just slapping a web3 token on top of social media, but truly understanding what participation in the Free and Open Web means. Big Tech CEOs, including Mark Zuckerberg have repeated over and over again that reducing online harms at scale is impossible, so we need to stop pretending that they&amp;rsquo;re going to miraculously figure it out. We are responsible for our participation online, and it requires us to consider what models we empower with it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;anti-slop-protocols&#34;&gt;Anti-slop protocols&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s clear that many people are going to continue to use mainstream social media, often without exploring the decentralized alternatives. This is a shame, but it&amp;rsquo;s at least a situation that can be mitigated. Taking the time to protect yourself from &amp;lsquo;slop&amp;rsquo; will go a long way to reduce social media&amp;rsquo;s impact on you.  It&amp;rsquo;s a bit of effort and might even be controversial, but you may find these techniques effective.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Keep your purpose in mind&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t visit a social media site to merely gaze at what the algorithm decides for you, remember what you actually want out of visiting in the first place.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Use the web version, rather than the app&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is a great way to keep you from being distracted by notifications and also reduces the information the platform can learn from you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Organize people you find insightful into lists&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is massively better than just waiting for their updates to be put into your feed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Make use of mute feature&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Sometimes you can mute words as well! It can be helpful when a big story is getting too much attention to simply ignore posts where that phrase is used.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s also a great idea to mute accounts that specialize in slop or otherwise inflammatory content.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Engage Judiciously&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Leaving a &amp;rsquo;like&amp;rsquo; can feel like such a small thing, but the algorithms tend to take it quite seriously. Your engagement is largely what drives your experience so make sure you&amp;rsquo;re being deliberate.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t respond to a post with massive engagement&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If a hundred thousand people have already liked the post, and there are thousands of comments, reconsider the benefit in adding yours to the pile. If you want to respond to an overall conversation, it&amp;rsquo;s better to take the time to write your own long-form post about the discussion.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ignore anyone too big&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Any massively public figure inherently has to maximize for the lowest common denominator. Consider finding accounts that others may not be aware of that have real merit. &amp;ldquo;Too big&amp;rdquo; can be a judgement call. My own metric is if your IRL contacts have heard of them, that&amp;rsquo;s way past the &amp;rsquo;too big&amp;rsquo; scale.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prioritize length&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This signal is a bit noisy since people can use chatGPT to generate large amounts of text, but it still holds relatively well. If someone is willing to take the time to frame their argument well, it&amp;rsquo;s often more worth considering than a simple one-line reaction.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Resist the urge to stay current&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s only natural to want to be on top of breaking issues. On the other hand, unless you&amp;rsquo;re personally involved, fact finding takes time. There is a great deal of noise that can be added by good-faith speculation and outright shameless attempts to capitalize on breaking news. Prioritizing which events are worth understanding in detail can definitely go a long way.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These are of course, suggestions and aspirations. Feel free to take on what you think can help you stay focused and discard the ones that aren&amp;rsquo;t desirable or even supported on your platform of choice. The most important thing is to be deliberate about what you&amp;rsquo;re doing and not let platforms themselves dictate your participation. Of course, like many other things this is easier said than done.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For those with spare time, resources, and creativity at hand, it may be seriously worth considering creating your own platforms. The Internet may be dead, but we can salvage the Free and Open Web by doubling-down on building it ourselves. While having your own website may not bring in huge amounts of views, you would be surprised at the quality feedback you get with quality contributions. Consider what you would like to see the &lt;em&gt;digital town square&lt;/em&gt; look like, and what you can do to build that future.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Digital Autonomy &amp; Fitness with Zachary Boissinot</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/fitness/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 13 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/fitness/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/digital-autonomy-fitness.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/gabe-and-zach.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/gabe-and-zach.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/gabe-and-zach.webp" />
+		<description>Work against resistance to become the resistance</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I would like to introduce you to Zachary Boissinot. A great Canadian who is passionate about health and people&amp;rsquo;s autonomy. I joined Zach to discuss what it&amp;rsquo;s been like for him a personal trainer and owner of a gym. Recently I&amp;rsquo;ve begun to &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/&#34;&gt;make progress&lt;/a&gt; on my own weight loss journey thanks in big part to his instruction. We touch on some of the recent challenges people are facing, as well as potential concerns of how health data can be misused. I hope you&amp;rsquo;ll find our conversation worth diving into.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/digital-autonomy-series/&#34;&gt;Digital Autonomy Series&lt;/a&gt; is where I try to have conversations to &amp;lsquo;bridge the gap&amp;rsquo; between technical minds and the real concerns people have in their daily lives. The goal is to build some understanding of the pressing issues related to how our digital experience impacts different domains of life. By learning from others with a solid understanding in one of those areas, we can begin to &lt;a href=&#34;http://localhost:1313/articles/digital-autonomy/&#34;&gt;imagine how a better digital future&lt;/a&gt; would actually work.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Zachary runs &lt;a href=&#34;https://afootabovefitness.com/&#34;&gt;A Foot Above Fitness&lt;/a&gt; a gym with an excellent community and it&amp;rsquo;s a pleasure to be a part of it. There&amp;rsquo;s something uniquely inspiring about a community of people being so forthcoming with kindness and encouragement. Even if you&amp;rsquo;re not local, there&amp;rsquo;s a lot that can be learned from his example. You can also get connected through either &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.facebook.com/AFootAboveFitness&#34;&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.instagram.com/afootabovefitness/&#34;&gt;Instagram.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The Zano Conspiracy: Hijacking Privacy</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/zano/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/zano/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/digital-world.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/digital-world.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/digital-world.webp" />
+		<description>Unraveling a massive affinity scam targeting the privacy-conscious cryptocurrency community.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Last December, Roger Ver appeared on the &lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/v5xyrwt-why-the-intel-agencies-want-to-track-your-every-transaction-and-throw-roger.html&#34;&gt;Tucker Carlson show.&lt;/a&gt; Taking the time to outline his history as an old Bitcoin fan, and staunch economic freedom advocate. He raised his concerns about how Bitcoin was &amp;lsquo;hijacked&amp;rsquo; by nefarious forces to neuter its utility as anything other than &amp;lsquo;digital gold&amp;rsquo;. Roger&amp;rsquo;s take on Bitcoin&amp;rsquo;s flaws are incredibly compelling, partly because it is backed by some real history. I raised many similar concerns when I spoke with &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/&#34;&gt;Mathew Crawford&lt;/a&gt; and Hrvoje on &lt;a href=&#34;https://geopoliticsandempire.com/2024/11/15/bitcoin-tulip-gold/&#34;&gt;Geopolitics &amp;amp; Empire.&lt;/a&gt; It is concerning however, to see this Bitcoin &amp;rsquo;limited hangout&amp;rsquo; used to promote a very &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/aES5WvXgAcw?t=161&#34;&gt;suspect cryptocurrency.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Roger is currently being prosecuted for tax evasion, despite renouncing his citizenship and &amp;ldquo;becoming a citizen of the world&amp;rdquo;. He believes this is a politically motivated prosecution. In &lt;a href=&#34;https://home.solari.com/hijacking-bitcoin-the-hidden-history-of-btc-with-steve-patterson/&#34;&gt;her interview&lt;/a&gt; with the co-author of Roger Ver&amp;rsquo;s book &amp;lsquo;Hijacking Bitcoin&amp;rsquo;, Catherine Austin Fitts points out that how Roger is being prosecuted is highly irregular. &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.freerogernow.org/&#34;&gt;The public petition&lt;/a&gt; in his name has currently reached over 18 thousand signatures. The petition has been signed by notable names like Tucker Carlson, Bret Weinstein, Jeffrey Tucker, Aaron Day with many others.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In his conversation with Tucker, Roger Ver argues that the only way to preserve financial privacy and autonomy is for humanity to adopt cryptocurrency, but specifically private ones. This is because while there are many cryptocurrencies, many of them are perfectly transparent. This creates privacy concerns. While private cryptocurrencies are absolutely worth exploring, Roger Ver has a few specific solutions in mind. Leveraging the fear of state abuse via central bank digital currencies, he argues we need to rush into more cryptocurrency projects. Saying he would be embarrassed to promote Bitcoin today, but he &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/zano_project/status/1870135248098382248&#34;&gt;explicitly promoted&lt;/a&gt; two other cryptocurrencies Monero &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/docs/#/page/zano&#34;&gt;Zano.&lt;/a&gt; I had already been familiar with Monero which I consider one of the few decent cryptocurrencies, but I had never heard of Zano. What I found looking into Zano I found highly troubling.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am choosing to highlight Zano for two reasons:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Some quite prominent figures vocal about decentralization and privacy have promoted it.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s exemplary of what one should avoid if they are to consider cryptocurrency at all.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;After spending a significant amount of time digging, and comparing notes with others even more knowledgeable than me, my mind is made up. I am strongly convinced that there is something nefarious in the promotion of Zano.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;whats-wrong-with-zano&#34;&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s wrong with Zano?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Zano is a cryptocurrency that has a great deal of &lt;a href=&#34;https://pdfhost.io/v/oIeFyPGBn_Zano&#34;&gt;red flags.&lt;/a&gt; These particular red flags put it in the &lt;a href=&#34;https://yanmaani.github.io/proof-of-stake-is-a-scam-and-the-people-promoting-it-are-scammers/&#34;&gt;same league&lt;/a&gt; as many failed projects and outright frauds. In many ways, it is an excellent example of how predatory the cryptocurrency market can be. Even people who may be familiar with Bitcoin itself, may not truly be able to appreciate the significant differences between it and other cryptocurrencies. There are many fundamental differences to these digital assets that can have a profound impact on how they work, as well as their future.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-liquidity-problem&#34;&gt;The liquidity problem&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Making a small cryptocurrency popular is no simple task. Bitcoin has had over a decade to gain familiarity and access, but almost every other cryptocurrency has to compete with &lt;a href=&#34;https://explodingtopics.com/blog/number-of-cryptocurrencies&#34;&gt;thousands&lt;/a&gt; of others. It is incredibly hard to stand out without at least promising truly innovative features. It&amp;rsquo;s very straightforward to download the source code of a cryptocurrency, make some trivial changes to function and branding to make a new one. These slight variations are often shameless attempts to ride on the coattails of a more successful project, but also create a &amp;ldquo;spam&amp;rdquo; problem for exchanges.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.investopedia.com/tech/190-cryptocurrency-exchanges-so-how-choose/&#34;&gt;Exchanges&lt;/a&gt; are online platforms where people generally buy their cryptocurrency. There are a huge variety of them, and they all have a different selection of cryptocurrencies. Some are naturally more popular than others. When one creates a cryptocurrency, it is not automatically listed on any exchanges, especially not the centralized ones. These exchanges effectively operate as &amp;ldquo;on-ramps&amp;rdquo; for people to acquire cryptocurrencies and trade within them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For smaller cryptocurrencies, this creates a bit of a &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;chicken and egg problem&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;. To be listed on an exchange, the coin needs to be sufficiently popular and &lt;a href=&#34;https://crypto.com/en/university/liquidity-in-crypto-markets&#34;&gt;liquid,&lt;/a&gt; but to be sufficiently popular and liquid it needs to be on exchanges. A potential solution to this is DExs (&lt;em&gt;Decentralized Exchanges&lt;/em&gt;), but these are generally not as popular among users. This creates many problems, but especially for cryptocurrency investors.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The biggest problem when trading a small coin is that you&amp;rsquo;re effectively at the mercy of the few exchanges it is sold on. Even if you &amp;lsquo;mine&amp;rsquo; your own coins, you won&amp;rsquo;t have many places to sell. What&amp;rsquo;s worse, is that all kinds of market manipulation is possible by even relatively small players on obscure coins and exchanges. To make a bold statement, this means that there is no such thing as organic &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pricediscovery.asp&#34;&gt;price discovery&lt;/a&gt; for coins not widely listed. Prices can wildly vary between smaller exchanges. All of this together gives larger holders of smaller coins very powerful economic influence over the ecosystem. Specifically in the case of Zano, &lt;a href=&#34;https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/zano/#Markets&#34;&gt;over 85%&lt;/a&gt; of its known daily trading volume (at the time of writing) takes place in a single exchange. Yet even at the most popular exchange Zano isn&amp;rsquo;t very liquid.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;hijacking-privacy&#34;&gt;Hijacking privacy&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The Zano project seems to have a lot of resources to throw around and buy influence. This on its own is a huge red flag for me. It wouldn&amp;rsquo;t be the first time a nominally &amp;lsquo;decentralized&amp;rsquo; project that used its own tokens to buy up positive PR. Odysee/LBRY had a program where they would &lt;a href=&#34;https://scribe.rip/@scottcbusiness/what-happened-to-lbry-odysee-ded8c4c24bbb&#34;&gt;sponsor creators&lt;/a&gt; with a significant amount of LBRY credits to be unlocked after a particular time. This meant that many popular figures had a huge incentive to promote and speak well of the platform no matter what the reality. Many well-known figures, may promote various cryptocurrencies, without being able to properly communicate the massive risks in playing with unproven cryptocurrencies. It&amp;rsquo;s often the case that many of these personalities themselves may not be able to reasonably tell just how bad a particular asset can be. This is because cryptocurrency projects all have very important details that often get glossed over by people getting excited about rapid price increases.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am highly suspicious that Zano has effectively &amp;ldquo;bought its way&amp;rdquo; into the online discussions it&amp;rsquo;s featured in. Regardless, the plug in Roger Ver&amp;rsquo;s Tucker Carlson interview has effectively done this. It&amp;rsquo;s so easy for somebody enchanted by a beautiful website, rising price, and growing popularity to overlook many glaring signs of trouble. Technical details take time to prove. Software requires testing and validation to truly prove that systems work as intended. It&amp;rsquo;s incredibly common for catastrophic bugs to come out of nowhere, just &lt;a href=&#34;https://fortune.com/2024/08/03/crowdstrike-outage-fortune-500-companies-5-4-billion-damages-uninsured-losses/&#34;&gt;ask Crowdstrike.&lt;/a&gt; But price rises come a lot faster than technical merit. It&amp;rsquo;s incredibly easy for a new cryptocurrency to become multiples of its current price on small exchanges before most people even hear of it. This in combination with project creators (and investors) maintaining control over the token supply with a huge &lt;a href=&#34;https://scribe.rip/zano-news/zano-development-fund-breakdown-5d320a6a88f2&#34;&gt;pre-mine&lt;/a&gt; makes for a very predatory arrangement.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;rigging-the-game&#34;&gt;Rigging the game&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Zano actually had multiple opportunities for insiders to take significant control over the token supply. The &lt;a href=&#34;https://docs.zano.org/docs/learn/emission/#premine&#34;&gt;pre-mine&lt;/a&gt; allocated nearly 30% of the total token supply to fund the project. This means that as the cryptocurrency launched, a huge share of the total supply was under control of the project team. Some argue that this is a good thing, it gives those working on the project a means of funding development of the project. Unfortunately, this is also a very popular means for outright frauds to run straightforward &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pumpanddump.asp&#34;&gt;pump and dump&lt;/a&gt; scams. For some cryptocurrencies, they use &amp;lsquo;Proof-of-Stake&amp;rsquo; as their consensus algorithm, which makes this circumstance even more dire. Because under a proof-of-stake system large holders have a significant control over the currency itself. In addition to this, large holders can maintain a permanent advantage by receiving profits from staking their large holdings.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While  Zano had a very generous premine, that wasn&amp;rsquo;t the only opportunity for insiders to acquire a large stake of the supply. In a highly unusual move, holders of a different cryptocurrency called &lt;a href=&#34;https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=740112.0&#34;&gt;Boolberry&lt;/a&gt; were able to exchange their tokens for Zano at a &lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.zano.org/coinswap-launch/&#34;&gt;1:1 ratio.&lt;/a&gt; In another unusual action, the window to swap tokens was relatively short. Lasting around a month, one can assume that only the most &amp;lsquo;in the know&amp;rsquo; holders would have had the opportunity to swap. Large holders of this highly obscure and relatively inexpensive token can potentially have a significant stake in Zano. Since Zano is intended to be a private cryptocurrency, there is no known way to learn how much of the supply is dominated by insiders.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In yet another unique move, Zano uses &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/JdPb0&#34;&gt;both&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/proof-work.asp&#34;&gt;Proof-of-Work&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/proof-stake-pos.asp&#34;&gt;Proof-of-Stake.&lt;/a&gt; Proof-of-work is where computing power is used to validate the network. Proof-of-Stake instead has holders of the token &amp;rsquo;lock up&amp;rsquo; some of their funds to participate in exchange for a share of block rewards. Because (&lt;em&gt;like many others&lt;/em&gt;) Zano is a relatively new cryptocurrency, its proof-of-work consensus is at risk of being dominated by those with significant computing power. The creator argues that adding proof-of-stake is a means of overcoming this initial weakness. On the other hand, there are other solutions that don&amp;rsquo;t create immense profit for insiders. A popular solution other cryptocurrencies use is &lt;a href=&#34;https://academy.binance.com/en/glossary/merged-mining&#34;&gt;&amp;lsquo;merged mining&amp;rsquo;&lt;/a&gt; where the cryptocurrency can be &amp;lsquo;mined&amp;rsquo; in parallel with other larger coins, encouraging more computing power a lot faster.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A hybrid consensus algorithm is a bold move that may encounter un-intuitive complications. The introduction of Proof-of-stake itself may not have been done for system security reasons, but possibly for profit. The combination of a pre-mine coin and proof-of-stake &amp;ldquo;pump and dump&amp;rdquo; is a scam that has gotten very old these days. It&amp;rsquo;s almost comical. Zano is possibly in the worst of all worlds given that there was a massive pre-mine, a large amount of Boolberry trade-ins, which will all be able to profit off staking rewards in the future. To discuss this and other issues in a &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/vHWEhO5RSHM&#34;&gt;Q&amp;amp;A with the Zano team,&lt;/a&gt; &amp;lsquo;Untraceable&amp;rsquo; effectively argued this was a &amp;ldquo;dev tax&amp;rdquo; on Zano in perpetuity. Meaning that the developers would have the capability of profiting off the system at the expense of participants. It is worth considering that it is not just merely the developers, but also unknown insiders who may also be able to reap significant staking rewards. To the degree it works out this way, it a frustrating &lt;em&gt;re-creation&lt;/em&gt; of all the things cryptocurrencies were ideally invented to eliminate. If we are willing to passively accept the owners of a cryptocurrency dominating the consensus algorithm and profiting off the ecosystem itself&amp;hellip; are we really any better off than with central banks?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Zano is attempting to corner the market on private digital currencies (&lt;em&gt;and assets!&lt;/em&gt;) while maintaining significant control over the token supply. A digital currency using proof-of-stake with a consolidated supply is truly just a &lt;a href=&#34;https://live.solari.com/w/p/dYcUH3sp9KY5v82GcoFWxH?playlistPosition=1&#34;&gt;CBDC&lt;/a&gt; with extra steps. It&amp;rsquo;s really worth considering how many of these projects directly aimed at enticing &amp;lsquo;freedom fighters&amp;rsquo; are &amp;ldquo;wolves in sheep&amp;rsquo;s clothing&amp;rdquo;. Since at least the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.citationneeded.news/the-fraud-was-in-the-code/&#34;&gt;FTX&lt;/a&gt; collapse, it&amp;rsquo;s clear that there is a desire to build a &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/i/85749309/establishing-a-new-global-financial-order-in-one-fell-swoop&#34;&gt;CBDC issuer&lt;/a&gt; that&amp;rsquo;s technically private. I wholeheartedly believe that Zano is an attempt to encircle the private cryptocurrency space and neuter it, because it&amp;rsquo;s possible that alternatives are far too resilient to tolerate. If Zano is given preferential treatment compared to Monero by exchanges, you will be able to be certain that this is true.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-bigger-picture&#34;&gt;The bigger picture&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One can argue, that none of this matters. The Zano team effectively did during &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/vHWEhO5RSHM&#34;&gt;their Q&amp;amp;A.&lt;/a&gt; As somebody who has watched the cryptocurrency space when people actually cared about decentralization, innovation, and potential it&amp;rsquo;s truly awful to witness. It seems that the simple strategy of setting up yet another cryptocurrency and hyping it up is itself so profitable it distracts from sincere attempts to build real solutions. What concerns me the most about the Zano platform is that it seems perfectly suited to operate as a means to recapitalize on the &lt;a href=&#34;https://whistleblowersinternational.com/Blog/meme-coin-scams-how-to-spot-and-avoid-them/&#34;&gt;memecoin hype,&lt;/a&gt; without delivering much in tangible innovation. I&amp;rsquo;m quite sure that sounds harsh, but regardless of whatever price movement Zano makes, I am incredibly skeptical it will accomplish stated objectives.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s clear that there isn&amp;rsquo;t a lot of interest in pointing out the flaws of various cryptocurrency projects. The time and effort to validate well-funded marketing in an area the majority of people don&amp;rsquo;t understand is daunting. It&amp;rsquo;s not just myself. If you listen &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/vHWEhO5RSHM&#34;&gt;to the Q&amp;amp;A,&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/DontTraceMeBruh&#34;&gt;Untraceable&lt;/a&gt; is very knowledgeable and has clearly done his homework. But I fully expect this to be ignored as the price may well continue to rise despite it all. I made an attempt to reach out to others much more knowledgeable about cryptocurrency than me, and received variations of the same question: &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Why are you even looking at this?&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;. Those I know who have a serious grasp of the fine details can&amp;rsquo;t take this project seriously, but is your favorite parasocial hero going to tell you this?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But all the major red flags: the premine, the token swap, decisions made about the consensus algorithm, lack of technical documentation, are all worth keeping in mind for any hyped-up asset. When one watches the cryptocurrency market with a healthy dose of skepticism you will see many doomed-from-the-start projects rise and fall over and over. One of the things that makes Zano particularly noteworthy is that it is not merely cryptocurrency, but it also intends to be a platform to launch other digital assets. As Untraceable pointed out in the Q&amp;amp;A, Zano doesn&amp;rsquo;t support smart contracts. This means that any digital assets launched under Zano are &amp;lsquo;dumb tokens&amp;rsquo; that currently are under centralized control. If Zano becomes significantly popular, the platform itself can become a haven for pump-and-dump memecoins that have no utility. The centralized issuance and lack of ability to create smart contracts makes any of these assets suspect.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;kaurma-not-all-that-glitters-is-gold&#34;&gt;Kaurma: Not all that glitters is gold&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Bitcoin may be very successful as &amp;lsquo;digital gold&amp;rsquo;, but many people are very disinterested in the &lt;a href=&#34;https://watchmanprivacy.com/2024/10/18/130-are-bitcoin-podcasts-divine-intervention/&#34;&gt;current trajectory&lt;/a&gt; of the Bitcoin community. The race to seek out the &amp;rsquo;next Bitcoin&amp;rsquo; is very intense these days. Many are desperate to recapture the vision, or the dream of &lt;em&gt;peer to peer digital cash&lt;/em&gt;. Building a project to take on this ambition is laudable, but actually achieving it is no small feat. If Bitcoin was &amp;lsquo;hijacked&amp;rsquo; or otherwise unable to function as a medium of exchange, any new project has massive shoes to fill to even make the attempt. In public discussions, there is a huge lack of serious consideration for what lessons could have been learned. Privacy, scaling, decentralization are all secondary concerns to marketing the next hyped up asset.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the things I stumbled on while looking into Zano was Aaron Day&amp;rsquo;s ambitious project Kaurma. The Zano profile on X &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/zano_project/status/1874896193672953925&#34;&gt;shared a video&lt;/a&gt; of Aaron Day explaining the dangers of CBDCs and economic surveillance. Arguing that you &amp;lsquo;defeat surveillance with privacy&amp;rsquo; and therefore we need to use Monero, Zano and his new project, which is planned to be built on top of Zano. The choice to build on top of Zano is interesting, given the details above. In defending this choice, he argues that a &amp;ldquo;fair launch&amp;rdquo; &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/AaronRDay/status/1876297418435854735&#34;&gt;isn&amp;rsquo;t really important.&lt;/a&gt; This certainly raises concerns about his ability to fairly steward a stablecoin project.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Aaron Day &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/AaronRDay/status/1859379045256896901&#34;&gt;wrote:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Tether will either blow up in a scandal or will be co-opted by the establishment and will become the de facto CBDC for this US. Either way, the end result is digital tyranny.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is why we are launching Kaurma - a gold-backed privacy stablecoin on Zano.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The world deserves private, P2P digital cash.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A &amp;ldquo;gold-backed privacy stablecoin&amp;rdquo; is quite the mouthful. It&amp;rsquo;s also at least an order of magnitude more complex than actually succeeding to build a peer to peer digital cash system. The intention appears to be to build the stablecoin (a digital asset with a stable value) with Zano&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;Confidential Asset&amp;rdquo; system. There are significant concerns about how these assets &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/DontTraceMeBruh/status/1821797625835769864&#34;&gt;are centralized.&lt;/a&gt; In addition to this, tying the physical world (like with gold) to cryptocurrencies is no simple task either. There are many cryptocurrency projects that have &amp;rsquo;tokenized&amp;rsquo; gold, but none of them are truly decentralized. Despite many people being attracted to cryptocurrency for decentralization &amp;amp; privacy, it seems that one is going to have to trust the operators of Kaurma to back their end of the bargain. While it&amp;rsquo;s almost guaranteed that Tether has problems, is building more Tether-like entities truly a solution?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Those genuinely interested in decentralizing financial power have to understand that the fine details matter. Being overly ambitious without due caution is at best a recipe for making others pay for your foolish mistakes. The problem is that this is largely a question of values. Being okay with your &amp;ldquo;allies&amp;rdquo; being fleeced by endless frauds and scams is a road to &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/redirecting-resistance/&#34;&gt;de-facto sabotage.&lt;/a&gt; There are values that served those who got into cryptocurrency early, that have largely been forgotten as the market has been refined into a parasocial plundering machine. It is highly suspect that those with the means to rise on centralized platforms always happen to have a &amp;lsquo;solution&amp;rsquo; that requires people to hand over their money and data for empty promises.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;can-we-do-better&#34;&gt;Can we do better?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Decentralizing is hard. Adopting a cryptocurrency in 2025 is not going to meaningfully protect people from CBDCs, de-banking, or state surveillance. For the vast majority of people their real weak-points are employment and ability to pay for necessities. Neither of those are going to be transformed overnight. If your goal is to just make enough money off suckers to &amp;rsquo;liberate&amp;rsquo; yourself from today&amp;rsquo;s major inconveniences, then maybe that can work. When one is truly interested in rebuilding the foundations of our digital experience, a lot more fundamental work is required to make meaningful change. The desire to do &lt;em&gt;something&lt;/em&gt; to oppose tyranny is wonderful, but it&amp;rsquo;s also something that can be weaponized against you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;At some point, thought leaders need to demonstrate their willingness to &lt;em&gt;walk the walk&lt;/em&gt;. If they talk a big game about innovation, decentralization, and protecting privacy, how much do their actions reflect this? It&amp;rsquo;s easy to be skeptical about what you&amp;rsquo;re being told, but it&amp;rsquo;s a whole other challenge to consider what you&amp;rsquo;re not being told. In an age where people&amp;rsquo;s digital experience is being confined to increasingly controlled devices, the systems we slather on top are never going to make a meaningful difference.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am incredibly disappointed that I am even moved to not only write this piece, but make it as long as this. One of the prime motivators for me to begin writing about technical topics was the complete un-seriousness they are given in so-called freedom loving circles. I am convinced that at least 99% of the cryptocurrency ecosystem exists to build a cargo-cult that keeps motivated technical minds away from real solutions. Bitcoin was released in 2008, do you feel more or less digitally free since then? Almost everyone who is old enough to remember would admit that things have gotten dire. Has the plentiful variety of cryptocurrencies available meaningfully enhanced your digital experience? I certainly doubt it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The most important way to make progress is to work against people being forced into digital systems not herd them into yet another unproven &amp;lsquo;solution&amp;rsquo;. If it truly is the answer, it can absolutely catch on organically. Technology can be a powerful force for helping people with all kinds of problems, but things will continue to get worse if we continue to be careless. New tools are needed, but at a much more fundamental level than mere software. It is distressing to see well-meaning people lured into blatant scams by appealing to their justified fear of tyranny and abuse. We should expect better from our thought-leaders. If they are so careless to look into the fine details, who needs enemies?&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Tool Tuesday: Logseq</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/logseq/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/logseq/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/logseq.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/logseq.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/logseq.webp" />
+		<description>An excellent knowledge management tool</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Welcome to a the first (&lt;em&gt;of many&lt;/em&gt;) iteration of &lt;strong&gt;Tool Tuesday,&lt;/strong&gt; a new format where I show off a free and open source tool I &lt;em&gt;actually use&lt;/em&gt; and find useful. Today&amp;rsquo;s episode is about &lt;a href=&#34;https://logseq.com/&#34;&gt;Logseq,&lt;/a&gt; a knowledge management tool. Logseq is &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/logseq/logseq?tab=AGPL-3.0-1-ov-file#readme&#34;&gt;fully Free Software.&lt;/a&gt; Logseq is a great privacy-first option that supports all the major platforms; Windows, MacOS, Linux, as well as Android &amp;amp; iOS. I&amp;rsquo;ve only scratched the surface of what makes it useful, so I hope you feel enticed to dive in.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/010e942b-abe0-47f3-b133-2aaf1b5f9b8e&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Casey Means: &#39;Good Energy&#39; &amp; Biosurveillance</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/good-energy/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/good-energy/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/meds.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/meds.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/meds.webp" />
+		<description>Can Big Data &amp; wearables improve our health?</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Since the Covid Crisis, there has been a renewed interest in people taking control of their health. This on its own is fantastic news. This is something that&amp;rsquo;s very close to my heart since I&amp;rsquo;ve been embarking on my own &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health&#34;&gt;health journey.&lt;/a&gt; As part of this, I was gifted Casey Means&amp;rsquo; book &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/196848596-good-energy&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Good Energy&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; by my mother. I think there is a lot of very useful and important information in this book. Sadly, it also leaves out a wide variety of &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/gXjj2EoElFg&#34;&gt;important information,&lt;/a&gt; especially when it comes to digital autonomy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;good-energy&#34;&gt;Good Energy&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The book is about Casey Mean&amp;rsquo;s journey from being a surgeon within the medical system, to adopting new ideas and practices for helping people take charge of their own health. Recognizing that to a surgeon armed with a hammer (scalpel) everything starts to look like a nail, she started to consider how many different problems were caused by common lifestyle factors. The book outlines how taking on many simple habits can really build into massive health improvements over time. The author provides a large picture of how our modern environment impacts our health, and strategies for mitigating this. If you&amp;rsquo;re somebody like me, who could learn a lot more about health, I would highly recommend reading the book as a good step in taking responsibility for one&amp;rsquo;s health.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Just because I agree with many points made by the book, doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean I agree with every line. It is absolutely true that to take better charge of one&amp;rsquo;s own health getting more information is helpful. On the other hand, as a &amp;rsquo;techie&amp;rsquo; I have significant concerns over data privacy. It would be different if all the means of acquiring your own personal health information were entirely analog. In that case, you could harmlessly get all the information required with few to no privacy concerns. Sadly this isn&amp;rsquo;t the state of things.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Good Energy explicitly recommends many smart watches and devices known as &amp;lsquo;wearables&amp;rsquo;. There are non-trivial privacy concerns people should consider before making an informed choice about using them. The book goes even further to recommend having a Continuous Glucose Monitor (GCM) to get real-time metabolic information. The author is an adviser to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.levels.com/&#34;&gt;Levels,&lt;/a&gt; a company that is launching a new &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/uQMBE&#34;&gt;smart GCM.&lt;/a&gt; over time, I&amp;rsquo;ve become more and more skeptical of the further digitization of health. All kinds of companies are after everyone&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.microjourneys.io/p/exploring-the-pure-blood-trap&#34;&gt;medical information,&lt;/a&gt; but what are they using it for?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;wearables-a-cause-for-concern&#34;&gt;Wearables: A cause for concern?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Health monitors as a whole are a gold mine of useful information about a person. This is something that can be used for an incredible amount of good, but sadly also just as much evil. The best way to protect sensitive information is not to record it, and these tools by design do a lot of recording. It&amp;rsquo;s one thing to have crucial information in your own hands, but once it&amp;rsquo;s in others&amp;rsquo; control the game changes completely.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While digitizing medical data could revolutionize healthcare, systemic inefficiencies, weak security measures, and a lack of trust in Big Tech make it risky. These vulnerabilities expose patients to data theft, scams, fraud, and exploitation. If patients can&amp;rsquo;t trust healthcare companies like UnitedHealth Group to safeguard sensitive health data, why should they believe digitizing and uploading healthcare data to a Big Tech company like Google is a good idea?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.androidpolice.com/sending-digitized-medical-data-to-google-bad-idea/&#34;&gt;Android Police: Digitizing and sending medical data to Google sounds like a bad idea&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is a non-trivial concern. As we &amp;lsquo;digitize&amp;rsquo; healthcare, there are many serious questions to ask about who or what is being empowered with our sensitive health information. We have already seen much simpler IoT devices used to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/25/tracking-device-domestic-violence-offenders-stalking-apple-find-my-friends&#34;&gt;enable stalking and harassment,&lt;/a&gt; the dangers related to health monitors are only beginning to become apparent. There is a frustrating lack of health monitoring gadgets that don&amp;rsquo;t require a smartphone app. These apps all inherently rely on connecting to a corporate controlled service with very few real guarantees of privacy. Even when a particular provider may have strong guarantees, little prevents it (and all of people&amp;rsquo;s sensitive information) from being &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewwilliams/2021/01/14/google-now-owns-fitbit-what-it-means-for-your-fitness-data-privacy/&#34;&gt;sold to a new company&lt;/a&gt; with less scruples. There are countless ways personal health information on a wide variety of people could be misused and abused.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In fact, we already saw in the Covid Crisis that vaccination status was used to fuel &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=vaccine_passport&#34;&gt;systematic discrimination&lt;/a&gt; in many areas of life in many countries. Given the serious decline in both medical ethics and privacy since that time, there are hardly any guarantees about all kinds of forms of medical discrimination in the future. To be clear, there&amp;rsquo;s a lot of good to come from people being given the tools to take charge of their own health, but unfortunately that&amp;rsquo;s not exactly what&amp;rsquo;s being offered here. With the vast majority of commercially available options, the risk of people&amp;rsquo;s sensitive biological information being in the wrong hands is almost guaranteed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In addition to all this, there are also simple fundamental technical &lt;a href=&#34;https://theconversation.com/a-medical-right-to-repair-can-empower-consumers-and-save-lives-234451&#34;&gt;problems with the lifecycle&lt;/a&gt; of these products. Being so dependent on smartphones and online services means that these products are vulnerable to (if not designed with) &lt;a href=&#34;https://pirg.org/articles/bricked-house-how-obsolescence-looms-over-our-smart-home-devices/&#34;&gt;planned obsolescence.&lt;/a&gt; Just as one begins to take charge of their health, a simple business decision could pressure them into giving up more data just in exchange for continuing to use the tool they&amp;rsquo;ve begun to rely on. With people beginning to connect the very idea of taking care of themselves with cloud-based tools, they can forget the most important tool of all: being in control of their health and data. Without the individual being in control of their technological experience, just like with health, they can fall prey to very nefarious and harmful schemes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;biosecurity-is-more-information-always-good&#34;&gt;Biosecurity: Is more information always good?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To reiterate, individuals having control of their own information is an entirely different circumstance than &lt;a href=&#34;https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2021/global-drive-control-big-tech&#34;&gt;powerful institutions&lt;/a&gt; having insight into the public&amp;rsquo;s information. As &lt;a href=&#34;https://macleans.ca/society/why-social-media-has-taken-over-your-life-and-you-need-to-sign-off-now/&#34;&gt;we saw&lt;/a&gt; with Big Tech social media, information that can be abused inevitably will be. The stakes can only become higher and higher as the information collected from people shifts from self-reported data to passively collected biological markers. Far from a mere hypothetical, these tools are able to be weaponized to build &lt;a href=&#34;https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/05/investigative-reports/wearable-solutions-and-the-internet-of-incarceration/#from-private-prisons-to-wearable-prisons&#34;&gt;wearable prisons&lt;/a&gt; given enough opportunity.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In a much related manner, the ruling class also seems to be marrying the issue of mass incarceration with the wearables revolution.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;“In a digital world with ankle bracelets and GPS devices, there is no reason to believe that physical imprisonment is the only option for those convicted of nonviolent offenses,” Darrell West wrote for the Brookings Institute in 2015. “Compared to incarceration, ankle bracelets and GPS devices seem far more tolerable. They keep offenders in society, are less punitive than prisons, and are much less expensive.”&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/05/investigative-reports/wearable-solutions-and-the-internet-of-incarceration/&#34;&gt;Wearable “Solutions” and the Internet of Incarceration&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When one is letting a cloud-enabled wearable govern their personal health decisions, are they truly free? How many of those subtle nudges from the platform able to change seemingly unrelated decisions? Is it not out of the question to imagine of the individual&amp;rsquo;s biological information for propaganda and control purposes? Just as these &amp;lsquo;innovations&amp;rsquo; blur the line between those incarcerated and those who are &amp;lsquo;free&amp;rsquo;, they also blur the line between civilian and target. Military use of and investment in wearables is &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/military-wearables-market&#34;&gt;rising precipitously.&lt;/a&gt; There are serious questions to ask about how personal health information is able to be used against people in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;And he’s [Giorgio Agamben] really articulated what this is and where it’s going, and the fact that this is a new governance paradigm for the planet. For example, he did an interview in May of 2020—so, very early on—called Polemos Epidemios, where he said:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;“An epidemic, as is suggested by its etymological roots in the Greek term demos (which designates the people as a political body), is first and foremost a political concept. In Homer, polemos epidemios is the civil war. What we see today is that the epidemic is becoming the new terrain of politics, the battleground of a global civil war — because a civil war is a war against an internal enemy, one which lives inside of ourselves.”&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;And it goes on to say:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;“It is important to understand that biosecurity, both in its efficacy and in its pervasiveness, outdoes every form of governance that we have hitherto known. As we have been able to see in Italy — but not only here — as soon as a threat to health is declared, people unresistingly consent to limitations on their freedom that they would never have accepted in the past.”&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Well, that’s a pretty good articulation of what’s happened over the past couple of years.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/interview-1698-james-corbett-lays-out-the-biosecurity-agenda/&#34;&gt;James Corbett Lays Out the Biosecurity Agenda&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Not only we can be sure that these changes have disastrous consequences, but we can also be sure that this information is already leaking wherever possible. Both wearables and various online fitness services have had &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.scworld.com/analysis/unsecured-fitness-app-database-leaks-61m-records-highlights-health-app-privacy-risks&#34;&gt;massive data breaches&lt;/a&gt; in the recent past. Even when these services aren&amp;rsquo;t being outright breached, generous data sharing and selling will ensure that your information is not &amp;lsquo;siloed&amp;rsquo; within a single organization.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s incredibly troubling to see prominent voices having financial ties to &amp;lsquo;solutions&amp;rsquo; that collect, and eventually give away sensitive health information. For a time, a huge amount of YouTube personalities were sponsored by BetterHealth, an online teletherapy service. It turned out that BetterHelp was &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/2/23622227/betterhelp-customer-data-advertising-privacy-facebook-snapchat&#34;&gt;lying&lt;/a&gt; about it&amp;rsquo;s promise to not share customer sensitive data with Big Tech giants. This is an important reminder that we can&amp;rsquo;t take these companies privacy guarantees at face value.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;are-there-good-wearables&#34;&gt;Are there good wearables?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s certainly &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.welivesecurity.com/en/privacy/prescription-privacy-protection-exercise-caution-mobile-health-app/&#34;&gt;a minefield.&lt;/a&gt; Despite Mozilla&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/garmin-vivoactive/&#34;&gt;glowing report&lt;/a&gt; on Garmin wearables, I&amp;rsquo;m not convinced there are enough acceptable options in the space. The most convenient option for many will be either the &lt;a href=&#34;https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/google-pixel-watch/&#34;&gt;Google&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/apple-watch/&#34;&gt;Apple&lt;/a&gt; variant based on their smartphone of choice. The apps built around these watches all inherently make you more reliant on their services, undermining your ability to keep your information private. If you&amp;rsquo;ve made the (laudible) effort of &amp;ldquo;de-googling&amp;rdquo; your phone, a smart watch will likely claw back some of the progress made. Even if you do find a decently secure and private choice, other health apps can &lt;a href=&#34;https://globalnews.ca/news/4249893/pumpup-security-breach-fitness-app/&#34;&gt;be their own problem.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;what-i-would-like-to-see-in-a-smart-watch&#34;&gt;What I would like to see in a smart watch&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;rsquo;t think it&amp;rsquo;s impossible for a company to build a privacy-friendly wearable. In fact, &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/jakkra/ZSWatch&#34;&gt;ZSWatch&lt;/a&gt; is a model project to consider. It&amp;rsquo;s a Free and Open Source hardware &amp;amp; software solution. Using a powerful app &lt;a href=&#34;https://gadgetbridge.org/&#34;&gt;Gadgetbridge&lt;/a&gt; to put you in charge of your own information. There&amp;rsquo;s a great deal of opportunity in designing a health monitor that doesn&amp;rsquo;t sacrifice on privacy and autonomy. If you&amp;rsquo;re interested in building these kinds of products, here&amp;rsquo;s my wishlist:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Highly Repairable&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Waterproof (I like to swim!)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Replacable straps&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;No Smartphone/app required&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;All the basic metrics:
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Sleep&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Steps&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Heart rate&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Workout tracking&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Optional&lt;/em&gt; personal server (appication) that can be run for those who want real-time metrics available.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;Optional&lt;/em&gt; User-friendly software for updating firmware and making changes&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Direct data export &amp;amp; backup/import&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Robust support for simple applications being built by users&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Notifications/Interactions for phones&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Compatible with &lt;a href=&#34;https://kdeconnect.kde.org/&#34;&gt;KDE Connect&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Works as a FIDO2 key / additional storage.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;thinking-differently&#34;&gt;Thinking differently&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are definitely still some &amp;ldquo;app free&amp;rdquo; pedometers available. I would encourage you to focus on the healthy habits rather than particular technologies. The most powerful tool you&amp;rsquo;ll ever have for improving your health is your own mind. Taking your own notes, recording your progress in a workbook can help a great deal. My hope is that you walk away reading this not only cautious about many of these wearables, but more importantly confident you can make changes in your life without them. All the value of these tools only matters if they genuinely improve your life, which is something you have the power to do without them. Having more in-depth information helps, but there&amp;rsquo;s a great deal that can be done on your own.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The book &lt;em&gt;Good Energy&lt;/em&gt; by Casey Means is still an excellent guide for taking control of your health, even if you pass on the wearables recommendation. Having already made many of the changes suggested in the book myself (even prior to reading it) I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed a radical change in my quality of life. You will still get a great deal out of taking charge of your lifestyle without making yourself dependent on these online services. I can certainly understand circumstances where it may feel like a decent trade-off regardless. In that instance, I would just remind you that you&amp;rsquo;re not forever dependent. Once you&amp;rsquo;ve built the habits, you&amp;rsquo;re always free to continue your journey without the wearables.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Teachable Moment: Bitcoin can survive everything... except World War 3</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/teachable-bitcoin/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/teachable-bitcoin/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/bitcoin.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/bitcoin.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/bitcoin.webp" />
+		<description>Raising the bar in cryptocurrency discussions.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I stumbled on a shocking piece making the rounds on social media. It&amp;rsquo;s a fascinating example of how hype or doom can be manufactured so quickly over such a fundamental misunderstanding (or deception). The article was a piece in Fortune titled &lt;a href=&#34;https://fortune.com/2024/12/17/bitcoin-downtime-update-quantum-computing-attack-study/&#34;&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;Bitcoin would need over 300 days of downtime to adequately defend itself from the ‘imminent’ threat of quantum computing, research finds&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Here is the offending paragraph:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A study from the University of Kent’s School of Computing calculated that if Bitcoin were to try to effectively protect itself from the threat quantum computing poses, it would take a protocol update that would take the cryptocurrency offline for 76 days. More realistically, the study calculated, &lt;strong&gt;Bitcoin would instead designate 25% of its server to a protocol update and allow its users to continue to mine and trade at a slower rate.&lt;/strong&gt; But in that scenario, the downtime would take about 305 days. That’s 10 full months.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Please point to me where the Bitcoin server is, Fortune.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I was immediately perplexed about this article because anyone who spent time following &lt;a href=&#34;https://scribe.rip/@lorenzoprotocol/what-was-the-bitcoin-block-size-war-f17cff7af502&#34;&gt;the blocksize war&lt;/a&gt; in Bitcoin would know that upgrades happen without downtime. I was even more surprised to read the linked &lt;a href=&#34;https://arxiv.org/html/2410.16965v1&#34;&gt;paper&lt;/a&gt; from the Kent’s School of Computing, which also seemed to have this knowledge gap.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Proverbially, this is easier said than done. Any upgrade to a current-day cryptosystem to make it quantum-secure comes with an all-but inevitable downtime.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s funny how this line in the paper doesn&amp;rsquo;t have a citation. I genuinely have no idea why the authors of the paper put this in writing. The only scenario I can imagine this being plausible is if a powerful entity had kept an advanced protype quantum computer secret and their first observable act was to take on Bitcoin. Is it possible, sure&amp;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But not only is this not particularly likely, but there would most definitely be other signs on the way. In that scenario, Bitcoin is already toast, as the trust in the system will be gone entirely and it would be pointless to even attempt such an upgrade. There are many other scenarios where the Bitcoin network has time to upgrade. None of these scenarios involve downtime. The truth of the matter is that this paper fundamentally misunderstands how decentralized networks operate, which makes me have serious questions about the state of academia.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve been meaning to follow-up on the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=bitcoin:bitcoin_education_guide&#34;&gt;Bitcoin&lt;/a&gt; conversation I had the pleasure of participating in on &lt;a href=&#34;https://geopoliticsandempire.com/2024/11/15/bitcoin-tulip-gold/&#34;&gt;Geopolitics &amp;amp; Empire.&lt;/a&gt; Not only has it sparked many intense debates within my friends and associates, but there&amp;rsquo;s also been a much wider discussion on Bitcoin&amp;rsquo;s role in shaping the future of the US dollar and even digital currency systems. I believe there are some fundamental pieces of information that should be wider understood as this conversation progresses. It is clear, that there is a significant hunger for a deeper understanding on this topic.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/7c2613a8-4f93-4d1a-acdd-b5e2f2b027d1?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-basics&#34;&gt;The basics&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;quantum-computing-hype&#34;&gt;Quantum computing hype&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Google&amp;rsquo;s new Quantum Chip &amp;lsquo;Willow&amp;rsquo; has &lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.google/technology/research/google-willow-quantum-chip/&#34;&gt;reached a new milestone&lt;/a&gt; of cracking a key challenge in a tiny fraction of the time it would take an ordinary machine. This is due the fact that quantum computers process information in a much different way than classical computers do. The idea is that &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.ibm.com/topics/quantum-computing&#34;&gt;these differences&lt;/a&gt; can potentially find answers to hard-to-compute problems. Of course, these differences have profound security implications.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;encryption-apocalypse&#34;&gt;Encryption apocalypse&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Encryption uses math to protect information. To the degree quantum computers are vastly more powerful at the kinds of math used to protect information, they can be much more capable at reversing that math. In theory, this could be used to break many forms of encryption used today in online banking, websites, and even Bitcoin. As such powerful forces across the world are not only racing for &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/quantum-supremacy&#34;&gt;Quantum Supremacy,&lt;/a&gt; and having the most quantum computing power, but also for having the strongest &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nist.gov/cybersecurity/what-post-quantum-cryptography&#34;&gt;post-quantum cryptography,&lt;/a&gt; to protect their secrets.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This has profound impacts for cryptocurrencies, which all function due to cryptographic math. If quantum computers to become practical to use for breaking all kinds of cryptographic functions, than only &amp;ldquo;post-quantum&amp;rdquo; cryptocurrency projects will be able to withstand the onslaught. Of course this is not unique to cryptocurrency. Governments across the world have been collecting people&amp;rsquo;s communications on a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.keyfactor.com/blog/harvest-now-decrypt-later-a-new-form-of-attack/&#34;&gt;&amp;ldquo;harvest now, decrypt later&amp;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt; basis that will absolutely give those interested in historical mass surveillance an unprecedented insight into people&amp;rsquo;s lives.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To make matters worse, all digital communications and security would be impacted in this scenario. A nation or corporation using such computing power for their own interests would effectively have the ability to read any intercepted communications. Online finance, and other institutions already &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/REF_PQC-Report_FINAL_Send.pdf&#34;&gt;have to solve these problems,&lt;/a&gt; just differently than cryptocurrencies.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;a-bitcoin-post-quantum-upgrade&#34;&gt;A Bitcoin post-quantum upgrade&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The punchline is that Bitcoin could absolutely upgrade to post-quantum cryptography with zero downtime. The &lt;a href=&#34;https://arxiv.org/html/2410.16965v1&#34;&gt;paper,&lt;/a&gt; and the article(s) written about it are fundamentally misunderstanding how upgrades work in a decentralized network. Unlike centralized services, where the service provider can use a load-balancer to seamlessly migrate users to an upgraded system, decentralized networks have to handle things differently. The benefit of a decentralized protocol is that no single entity can shut down, disrupt, or modify the network, the idea of &amp;ldquo;downtime&amp;rdquo; for upgrades makes little sense.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Bitcoin, and every other blockchain based system has an advantage. Every block is an approximate for time and can be programmatically used to trigger certain events. Here&amp;rsquo;s a step-by-step walk-through of how a post-quantum upgrade of the Bitcoin network would work:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;The developers would agree on one of likely many solutions to migrate Bitcoin&amp;rsquo;s addresses, and security to new post-quantum cryptography.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;The ecosystem developers would then modify their Bitcoin software to &amp;ldquo;switch over&amp;rdquo; to the new cryptography after a certain time, defined by a specific block in Bitcoin&amp;rsquo;s blockchain.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Operators would then on their own time, without any downtime to the wider network, upgrade their software.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Eventually, once time passes to reach the selected block in the blockchain, everything running on the Bitcoin network switches over to the new cryptography and continues running as normal.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;But it can&amp;rsquo;t be that easy right?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;rsquo;s the rub, that&amp;rsquo;s a possible, but simplified &amp;amp; idealistic scenario. At minimum, you&amp;rsquo;d want to not hinge all the massive changes on a single hard fork. It presumes that all participants are enthusiastically pleased with the desired solution. In the past, controversial changes to the Bitcoin network have torn the community apart. But why would anyone reject this upgrade? Surely everyone in Bitcoin wants to have quantum-safe Bitcoin?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Imagine a hypothetical scenario where there is not one single post-quantum cryptography solution, but a variety. Instead of everyone making the choice between making the upgrade or not, maybe there are multiple competing proposals. Consider that the technical details, may be relatively minor, but we&amp;rsquo;ve already seen how social media can be weaponized to turn minor misunderstanding into horror and rage. With many competing scenarios, even assuming them all to be genuine finding &lt;em&gt;consensus&lt;/em&gt; on the solution long-term is a non-trivial task.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These different directions would likely be not only incompatible with each other, but by design they would all have to be incompatible with the way Bitcoin has run since its inception. This means that the post-quantum upgrade to Bitcoin must be a &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/XCo6yyutYAM&#34;&gt;hard fork,&lt;/a&gt; any software not applying the upgrade will effectively be running a completely different system.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Given how the Bitcoin community has handled scaling &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&#34;https://videos.lukesmith.xyz/videos/watch/6bae169d-abec-40f5-95dc-8a2c5687d767&#34;&gt;privacy,&lt;/a&gt; I am pessimistic that they could actually perform a migration to post-quantum cryptography. This is not the same as saying that it&amp;rsquo;s impossible. Given the amount of wealth in the Bitcoin ecosystem, I imagine there&amp;rsquo;s quite a bit of incentive to get it right. But this highlights Bitcoin&amp;rsquo;s fundamental weakness, it will always be vulnerable to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bitchute.com/video/4GT3RKbwxDZh&#34;&gt;manipulation of people&lt;/a&gt; influential in the community.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The mere idea of post-quantum Bitcoin splitting into a couple or several different parallel hard-forks would be absolutely disastrous for the long-term health of the project. On the other hand it&amp;rsquo;s possible that entities interested in resolving problems in Bitcoin could take advantage of the hard fork opportunity to correct other problems as well. In that scenario you would likely see different post-quantum Bitcoin networks diverge into entirely different projects, which could be a great thing in the long run. Bitcoin successfully migrating to post-quantum encryption would be a historic accomplishment that would be very difficult to overstate. If the Bitcoin community successfully completes a post-quantum upgrade hard-fork I will certainly be recanting some of my harsher words regarding how I see the community &amp;hellip;but I won&amp;rsquo;t be holding my breath.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;but-what-is-the-real-bitcoin-killer&#34;&gt;But what is the real Bitcoin killer?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The ongoing discussion around Bitcoin and its future is lacking some very important wider context. It is my personal belief that the major powers in the world are preparing (but not yet initiating) a global-scale World War 3. Bitcoin &amp;lsquo;maximalists&amp;rsquo; would argue that this can potentially be avoided if countries can replace brutal and bloody wars with &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.org/details/softwar-theory/page/15/mode/2up&#34;&gt;softwar.&lt;/a&gt; The simplest argument for this idea is that if entities can become more wealthy peacefully enriching themselves off Bitcoin, why would they commit acts of aggression to get less?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I believe that only analyzing human warfare at the economic level is reductive. One could ask, &amp;ldquo;If Bitcoin hasn&amp;rsquo;t stopped any wars yet, when will it start stopping wars?&amp;rdquo; If not at 100K USD, will it need to reach 1M USD? How about 1 Billion USD? I&amp;rsquo;m sure many would consider outright astronomical numbers a bargain to end wars forever, but wars may yet come. When wars get hot, many things quickly get pushed off the table. A scenario where World War 3 escalates despite Bitcoin is one where its utility is drastically limited.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Bitcoin (and every other cryptocurrency) inherits circumstances downstream of our technological landscape. No matter how well designed and robust the Bitcoin network can be, there are fundamental realities that it relies on and must contend with. In an open warfare scenario, not only is energy likely to be rationed away from independent operations, but computing power is already aggregated into clusters. This means that while the network itself may be able to operate in the most dire of circumstances, access can certainly be restricted and manipulated by strong forces in wartime. To the degree Bitcoin can be a threat to opposing powers, it can also be a target.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Regardless of what the future holds, it is crucial that we consider the fundamentals of our technological landscape. Cyberspace itself must have fertile ground for supporting peaceful innovation, lest we surrender it all to the Military Industrial Complex. Bitcoin &lt;em&gt;and many other great and useful technologies,&lt;/em&gt; serve effectively no purpose if digital freedom as we know it is extinguished by warmongers. It matters not where you fall on Bitcoin being benevolent or malevolent, it is time to ask what is the future of cyberspace and where does that put us?&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The Cyberwar comes for thee: telecommunications companies breached</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/telecom-hack/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/telecom-hack/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/civilian-based-cyber-defense.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/switchboard.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/switchboard.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/switchboard.webp" />
+		<description>A vindication of civilian-based cyber defense</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;You can taste the palpable salty feeling from the US Federal Government having to tell citizens they should use &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/us-officials-urge-americans-use-encrypted-apps-cyberattack-rcna182694&#34;&gt;encrypted communications.&lt;/a&gt; After ages of fighting citizen&amp;rsquo;s right to private communications from the very beginning, it seems that desperate measures must be taken to prevent foreign adversaries from having access to sensitive information. This is a radical departure from the top-down message of &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;nothing to hide, nothing to fear.&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/memes/telecom-hack.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;telecommunications-breach&#34;&gt;Telecommunications Breach&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Since 2022, a hacking group presumably linked to the Chinese government categorized as &lt;a href=&#34;https://theconversation.com/what-is-salt-typhoon-a-security-expert-explains-the-chinese-hackers-and-their-attack-on-us-telecommunications-networks-244473&#34;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Salt Typhoon&amp;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt; have gained incredibly sensitive access to telecommunications infrastructure all over the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/white-house-salt-typhoon-hacked-telcos-in-dozens-of-countries/&#34;&gt;world.&lt;/a&gt; This has recently escalated, to there being evidence of targeted spying on both 2024 presidential candidates.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s most troubling about this breach, is that it also included the &amp;ldquo;lawful access&amp;rdquo; &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/13/china-hackers-wiretap-data-telcos-00189445&#34;&gt;backdoor wiretaps.&lt;/a&gt; So not only are everyone&amp;rsquo;s sensitive communications vulnerable in specific contexts, but also by anyone with the capabilities of leveraging Salt Typhoon&amp;rsquo;s intrusion. Currently, there is &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/12/03/china-hack-salt-typhoon-telecom/&#34;&gt;no announced timeline&lt;/a&gt; for this being addressed. There&amp;rsquo;s not a whole lot of reason to be optimistic. Last month, a &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/HyNcrdxI9ZU&#34;&gt;Senate Judiciary Committee&lt;/a&gt; discussed just how logistically challenging it is to address this issue.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;never-let-a-crisis-go-to-waste&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Never Let A Crisis Go To Waste&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Naturally this kind of disaster is a great pretext for governments to push sweeping changes in impacted industries. At minimum, we can expect massive changes to be driven in cybersecurity, telecommunications, and hardware manufacturers. While many of these changes are long overdue, with security professionals rejoicing, others are not so benign.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This massive breach itself can be used as a rallying cry to consolidate control over digital products, companies, and even entire digital ecosystems. As the cyber security industry has advanced, the line between &amp;ldquo;cyber&amp;rdquo; and human problems becomes quite blurry. Serious concerns, like &lt;a href=&#34;https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/2023-04/FH_TransnationalRepression2023_0.pdf&#34;&gt;transnational repression&lt;/a&gt; can potentially be weaponized against subsets of the population. What&amp;rsquo;s more is that almost any aspect of what people currently take for granted as &amp;ldquo;digital freedom&amp;rdquo; can evaporate away as &amp;rsquo;national security&amp;rsquo; interests take priority.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am not so naive to believe this is the long-overdue wake-up-call to governments that their citizen&amp;rsquo;s security matters. If anything, this is a rallying cry for control freaks to demand more top-down micromanagement of all things technological. Instead of working on strategies from the ground up to create a truly resilient and secure digital landscape, these concerns will be leveraged to seize even more control over the World Wide Web. We have the opportunity to push for a different direction, but time is vanishingly short.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;re-introducing-civilian-based-cyber-defense&#34;&gt;Re-Introducing Civilian-based Cyber Defense&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Originally, I introduced the idea in &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/policy-framework/&#34;&gt;Good Governance in Cyberspace: Digital Freedom Policy Framework&lt;/a&gt; for Policies for the People. The idea is inspired by the idea of &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Civilian-Based-Defense-English.pdf&#34;&gt;Civilian-Based Defense,&lt;/a&gt; which is a fascinating model for society-wide resilience and freedom. Bringing civilian-based defense to cyberspace is likely to be much more effective than any top-down approach and can radically transform our digital landscape for the better.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Structural Basis of Freedom&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When power is effectively diffused throughout the society among strong loci, the rulers&amp;rsquo; power is most likely subjected to controls and limits, thus enabling the society to resist oppression, usurpation, and aggression. This condition is associated with political &amp;ldquo;freedom&amp;rdquo; When, on the other hand, such loci have been seriously weakened or their independence of action has been destroyed, when the subjects are all equally impotent and the society&amp;rsquo;s power has become highly centralized, then the rulers&amp;rsquo; power will most likely be uncontrolled. This condition is associated with &amp;ldquo;tyranny.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is no accident that past totalitarian systems have attempted either to eliminate all independent groups or to subject them to full control by the party or state. Ultimately therefore, freedom is not something that rulers &amp;ldquo;give&amp;rdquo; their subjects. Nor, in the long run, do the formal institutional structures and procedures of the government (as, for example, may be laid out in the constitution) by themselves determine the degree of freedom or the limits of the rulers&amp;rsquo; power.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A society may in fact be more free or more oppressed than the formal  constitutional or legal arrangements would indicate. Instead, the extent and intensity of the rulers&amp;rsquo; power and the actual degree of freedom of the society will be set by the strength of the subjects and the condition of: the institutions of the whole society. The rulers&amp;rsquo; power and the degree of the society&amp;rsquo;s freedom may in turn, be expanded or contracted by the interplay between the actions of the rulers and those of the subjects: some rulers may choose not to be as oppressive as the structural condition permits, and other rulers may receive more support than the structural condition requires, making them more powerful.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Increases in the rulers&amp;rsquo; power are directly or indirectly determined, on the one hand, by the willingness of the subjects to accept the rulers, to obey to cooperate and to carry out their orders and wishes. On the other hand, reductions in the rulers&amp;rsquo; power are determined by the subjects&amp;rsquo; unwillingness to accept the rulers, coupled with their ability to disobey, to withhold  cooperation, to defy orders, and to refuse demands made upon them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The degree of liberty or tyranny in any political society is, it follows, largely a reflection of the relative determination of the subjects to be free, of their willingness and ability to organize themselves to live in freedom and, very importantly, their ability to resist any efforts to dominate or enslave them. In other words, the population can use the society itself as the means to establish and defend its freedom. Social power, not technological means of destruction, is the strongest guarantor of human freedom.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Civilian-Based-Defense-English.pdf&#34;&gt;Civilian-based Defense - A Post-Military Weapons System: Page 32&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This maps directly onto our digital experience. The &lt;a href=&#34;https://fsf.org&#34;&gt;Free Software movement&lt;/a&gt; has demonstrated the incredible potential of building solutions that put power in the hands of the user. By building verifiable, open and transparent systems more people can collaborate to innovate on genuine solutions to pressing problems. The Open Source model of development has been so powerful that even &lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.org/sponsors&#34;&gt;giant mega-corporations&lt;/a&gt; have adopted it (&lt;em&gt;in part or in full&lt;/em&gt;) for their needs. True digital decentralization requires a hard look at how our devices are manufactured, built, and repaired. The entire &amp;ldquo;lifecycle&amp;rdquo; of the devices we use is filled with opportunities for genuine advancement.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Devices and software built with this in consideration can radically lower the &amp;ldquo;technical knowledge&amp;rdquo; barrier required for everyone to comfortably navigate. Many of our current challenges are precisely caused by the present condition of so much consolidated control over digital technology. I would encourage the future cyber rebels in our midst to consider building for the future we all want. Instead of corporate or state requirements driving innovation in this space, people can take on the challenge of learning to construct within new paradigms and discover novel approaches. The beauty of programmable circuits is that their potential is very often more constrained by our imagination than physics.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Everyone needs to consider who we are empowering when we allow nations to seize control over the digital landscape in the name of keeping us safe. Are we truly protecting ourselves from digital threats when we accept governments and corporations dictating our digital futures to us? If we do accept ceding more and more control in the name of safety, how can that control inevitably be abused? What should we focus on when it seems that our entire future is highly intertwined with present changes in the digital landscape?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I ask these questions aloud because there are no simple answers, only urgent lines of inquiry. More study, less complacency is the way out of digital totalitarianism. More passion, less apathy is what we need to truly push back against nefarious forces. I&amp;rsquo;m convinced that the public does have the qualities to build a much better technological future, all that&amp;rsquo;s required is some effort and creativity. In these times, this can&amp;rsquo;t be more urgent. If we desire strong freedoms within and without our societies, a much stronger emphasis on bottom-up problem-solving is required. The nature of cyberwarfare is that there aren&amp;rsquo;t really battle lines, merely troubles that come for us all, in one form or another. Governments and corporations will take care of themselves, but who&amp;rsquo;s thinking about everyday people?&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Teachable Moment: GrapheneOS DESTROYS Unplugged</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/teachable-phones/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 29 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/teachable-phones/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/grapheneos-unplugged.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/grapheneos-unplugged.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/grapheneos-unplugged.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/grapheneos-unplugged.webp" />
+		<description>Walking through the fine points of smartphone privacy &amp; security.</description>
+		<content:encoded>
+&lt;p&gt;GrapheneOS &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/GrapheneOS/status/1808159435245646046&#34;&gt;writes&lt;/a&gt; to Unplugged: (Emphasis mine)&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;No, you created it to make money. You do not believe in anything beyond making money. You&amp;rsquo;ve marketed your products with &lt;em&gt;highly inaccurate privacy and security claims including claiming it&amp;rsquo;s impenetrable.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You are scamming people&lt;/strong&gt;, and spreading misinformation about an open source project further contributes to it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The past history of many of the people involved in your company didn&amp;rsquo;t get erased through creating a new one.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You aren&amp;rsquo;t on the same side as us&lt;/strong&gt; and the deeper you dig, the more of a response there&amp;rsquo;s going to be from us. &lt;strong&gt;You are not our allies&lt;/strong&gt;, and you are &lt;em&gt;not bringing people privacy and security&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;You&amp;rsquo;re grifters&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/grapheneos-unplugged-dunk.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what&#34;&gt;What?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Alright, let&amp;rsquo;s rewind a bit. &lt;a href=&#34;https://unplugged.com/&#34;&gt;GrapheneOS&lt;/a&gt; is an open source custom operating system for Android devices (in the Pixel line) that &amp;ldquo;de-googles&amp;rdquo; the device and provides a wide variety of security and privacy features. Unplugged is a &amp;ldquo;private smartphone&amp;rdquo; company founded by the &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Prince&#34;&gt;Blackwater founder&lt;/a&gt; Erik Prince.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The above exchange began when Pierre Chang on X asked Unplugged what makes their phone more secure than GrapheneOS, tagging them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;GrapheneOS then &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/GrapheneOS/status/1804551479484645421&#34;&gt;replied&lt;/a&gt; with:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Where do they make any claim about GrapheneOS?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s an ARMv8.2 MediaTek Dimensity 1200 SoC device running a non-hardened fork of the Android Open Source Project. The hardware/firmware doesn&amp;rsquo;t come close to meeting our security requirements, and it&amp;rsquo;s not a hardened OS.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To translate this a bit. Android Open Source Project (AOSP) is the base foundation that all android-based systems are built on top of. It initially doesn&amp;rsquo;t include Google and other bloatware, but vendors tend to add that on. As GrapheneOS states, hardware and firmware matter a great deal when it comes to security, so getting it right is important. They also claim that the Unplugged phone&amp;rsquo;s operating system LibertOS isn&amp;rsquo;t hardened. In this context hardened means making specific modifications to improve security.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s interesting to note is that in this exchange, Unplugged doesn&amp;rsquo;t attack GrapheneOS in their weakest point: dependence on Google manufactured hardware. It&amp;rsquo;s possible that they don&amp;rsquo;t do this because they don&amp;rsquo;t want people taking too close a look at their own hardware choices.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;They get close in this exchange where GrapheneOS &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/GrapheneOS/status/1804634097442324989&#34;&gt;replies&lt;/a&gt; to Unplugged defending their firmware.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When using GrapheneOS (or any other custom ROM), Google driver binaries are required, but Google does not provide any commitments regarding data collection or privacy in this code.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This claim about data collection / privacy for the firmware or drivers isn&amp;rsquo;t accurate. Additionally, you use a MediaTek SoC device with proprietary MediaTek firmware and drivers, and they aren&amp;rsquo;t known for having good security. The hardware, firmware and driver security of the devices we&amp;rsquo;re supporting is much better, not worse as you&amp;rsquo;re making it seem.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As a side note, GrapheneOS is an operating system. The term ROM isn&amp;rsquo;t accurate and we don&amp;rsquo;t want it to be referred to as such. It&amp;rsquo;s a fork of the Android Open Source Project like the stock OS on any Android device.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unplugged makes the argument that their product is important because the GrapheneOS &lt;a href=&#34;https://grapheneos.org/install/web&#34;&gt;web installer&lt;/a&gt; is too difficult for much of the general population. You can watch &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/L1KZWjZVnAw&#34;&gt;Mental Outlaw demonstrate&lt;/a&gt; the process and judge for yourself. Regardless of the overall difficulty, would it not be better to have a trusted friend or relative give you assistance rather than settle for a potentially inferior product? In fact if one wants the privacy and security guarantees of GrapheneOS, you can always buy a pre-flashed version from a provider like &lt;a href=&#34;https://abovephone.com/&#34;&gt;Above Phone&lt;/a&gt; &amp;hellip;but that does require putting trust in that provider.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Back in July in response to a podcast, &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/GrapheneOS/status/1816539910620479802&#34;&gt;GrapheneOS wrote:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unplugged has simply doubled down on false claims about GrapheneOS security, pretending people cannot buy devices with GrapheneOS installed and pretending it&amp;rsquo;s hard to install along with promoting their blatantly insecure products with false marketing.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;They keep pushing the false claim that Pixels supporting using another OS makes them less secure. The reality is that it&amp;rsquo;s properly implemented in a secure way without adding any significant attack surface. The bottom of the barrel MediaTek Unplugged devices have awful security.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;They still haven&amp;rsquo;t ported to the initial release of Android 14 with Android 15 right around the corner. This means they&amp;rsquo;re missing at least around a year of Moderate severity privacy/security patches and huge privacy/security improvements from the past year of Android releases.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unplugged is using an SoC from MediaTek, a company known to have poor security practices, which fares poorly against real attackers and which has a history of &lt;em&gt;repeatedly shipping actual backdoors.&lt;/em&gt; They&amp;rsquo;re trying to portray that as more trustworthy and more secure hardware. Nope.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unplugged was founded by Erik Prince, noted war criminal and illegal arms dealer. They make a point in talking about the involvement of their employees in enabling &lt;a href=&#34;https://citizenlab.ca/2022/04/catalangate-extensive-mercenary-spyware-operation-against-catalans-using-pegasus-candiru/&#34;&gt;these kinds of operations&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;That doesn&amp;rsquo;t imply competence, but explains the lack of ethics.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;They&amp;rsquo;re trying to present themselves as if they were leaders in the field and switched sides, but they never were and simply want money.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unplugged is an &lt;strong&gt;affinity scam&lt;/strong&gt; in the same vein as the Freedom Phone. At least Freedom Phone doesn&amp;rsquo;t seem to try to harm open source projects.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unplugged has built their product out of open source projects, but without complying with the licenses from projects like DivestOS and while trying to harm open source. Claiming to be in the process of replacing some of the code they were caught stealing doesn&amp;rsquo;t change much&amp;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Now that&amp;rsquo;s the root of the teachable moment here. What is an &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/redirecting-resistance/&#34;&gt;affinity scam?&lt;/a&gt; In short, it&amp;rsquo;s when people create a scheme to profit off values without actually &amp;ldquo;walking the walk&amp;rdquo;. At worst, it is a deliberate attack on a particular group of people that masquerades as &amp;ldquo;one of them&amp;rdquo;. It happens to all kinds of groups and movements, and the privacy and security space is no exception.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s really worth asking why so many &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/alt-tech/&#34;&gt;targeted operations&lt;/a&gt; end up having severe &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.dailydot.com/debug/andrew-tate-the-real-world-hack/&#34;&gt;data breaches.&lt;/a&gt; Is it really too crazy to believe that in this day and age, cyberwarfare is just part of politics? Even Exxon is being investigated for allegedly hiring hackers to go after &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/exxon-lobbyist-investigated-over-hack-and-leak-environmentalist-emails-sources-2024-11-27/&#34;&gt;environmentalists.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We are in serious trouble if we can expect huge amounts of money to go into undermining people&amp;rsquo;s security. At minimum, it means everyone has to be a lot more careful about recommendations from media figures and personalities. This is one of the major reasons I am in no rush to sell any products. I don&amp;rsquo;t inherently believe that commercial success is impossible while providing good security, but I consider that bar extremely high.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is largely because nothing exists in a vacuum. If one company does everything they can to be the best they can be, they can still lose. We don&amp;rsquo;t have a &amp;ldquo;perfect market&amp;rdquo; when it comes to digital security. Because a large portion of the public aren&amp;rsquo;t very knowledgeable about the issues, it creates opportunities for them to be taken advantage of. A company that spends a majority of it&amp;rsquo;s time buying PR and marketing will inherently out-compete one that actually invests in the technical merits, all else being equal. But all things aren&amp;rsquo;t equal, many institutions and private interests have a great deal to gain from undermining people&amp;rsquo;s security.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is why Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is a pre-requisite for genuine advancements in privacy &amp;amp; security. By delivering solid software or hardware as a public good, it is much easier for more parties to test and validate any claims, especially security. Despite what many believe, refusing to compromise on Software &amp;amp; Hardware freedom doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean making money is impossible, it just means you have to take a radically different approach. My personal suspicion these days, is that the &amp;ldquo;Unix Philosophy&amp;rdquo; of &amp;ldquo;Do one thing, and do it well&amp;rdquo; can do a lot of good. Instead of single-handedly trying to completely transform the smartphone market all at once, maybe it&amp;rsquo;s better to focus on a single component and delivering it in a robust verifiable way.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This ultimately brings me to my own objection to the Unplugged phone on a very conceptual level. They pre-load some interesting software options with the phone. With their own dedicated VPN/Messenger/Antivirus and Store apps, it really makes you wonder how much of your life you&amp;rsquo;re trusting to them. Are we supposed to believe that while using sub-standard hardware (according to GrapheneOS), they&amp;rsquo;ve managed to somehow deliver the best secure Messenger/VPN &amp;amp; antivirus without any problems whatsoever? Call me skeptical.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;can-smartphones-be-safe&#34;&gt;Can smartphones be safe?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There really does seem to be a pattern of inferior options being promoted by slick marketing and alternative media. Even the Brax2 phone &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.productreview.com.au/listings/brax2-privacy-phone&#34;&gt;was no exception.&lt;/a&gt; People want to believe there are simple ways to avoid all the pitfalls of our modern digital environment, but that&amp;rsquo;s not possible. Everything involves trade-offs or sacrifice when one is trying to make meaningful progress. When one doesn&amp;rsquo;t understand these trade-offs they can fall prey to outright deceptive claims and become ensnared in something far more malevolent than even the defaults.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is a big part of the reason &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/why&#34;&gt;why&lt;/a&gt; this project is about trying to build understanding and context to these problems. Meaningful improvements are possible and within reach, they just require seriousness and dedication. One of the most important steps of all is building up more independent security research. This requires a great deal of funding, education, and promotion for those who either have the skills, or are able to learn them. Anything we can do to &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/bankroll&#34;&gt;bankroll&lt;/a&gt; independent security research will go a long way to answering the questions we have about how to move forward.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;tldr&#34;&gt;TL:DR&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I wouldn&amp;rsquo;t recommend buying the Unplugged phone and still see GrapheneOS as the gold-standard for smartphone security. It&amp;rsquo;s important to remember that a great deal of interests have sophisticated means and a huge desire to undermine your security. Tread lightly, and always double-check your assumptions.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>MAHA &amp; The Military - A Medical Freedom Roundtable</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/maha-military/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/maha-military/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/maha-military.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/maha-military.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/maha-military.webp" />
+		<description></description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Make American Healthy Again (MAHA). It&amp;rsquo;s the slogan that brought together former adversaries Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Donald Trump under a unified vision of a happier, healthier tomorrow. But questions remain: where does MAHA fit into the second Trump administration, and among the competitive agendas of Kennedy&amp;rsquo;s newfound allies?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Teachers For Choice:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://teachersforchoice.org/&#34;&gt;https://teachersforchoice.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;strong&gt;Liam Sturgess:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.liamsturgess.com/&#34;&gt;https://www.liamsturgess.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Why Does Digital Freedom Matter?</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/why-freedom/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/why-freedom/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/laptop.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/laptop.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/laptop.webp" />
+		<description>The reasons for realignment.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;a-defense-of-lost-causes&#34;&gt;A defense of lost causes&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A lot of the negative feedback I receive is not that digital freedom is undesirable, but generally that it&amp;rsquo;s impossible. Or at least, that it&amp;rsquo;s too difficult to be worth considering. In truth, these are very valid criticisms. At best, digital freedom is very far down the list of people&amp;rsquo;s pressing concerns of today. It is incredibly difficult to argue that a great deal of effort (and opportunity costs) needs to be taken on to radically reinvent our digital landscape. What could possibly justify the immense challenge on so many fronts just to begin making incremental change?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The purpose of this project, is not to single-handedly succeed at resolving all the massive issues at play. It is plain to see that this is impossible. Instead it is to act as (one of many) guideposts for others to start forging a better path. We have a once-in-a-century opportunity to make an impact on the future of technology from the bottom-up. It is of utmost importance that we take the time to evaluate how to avoid the dire pitfalls and build a better future. This chance is worth seizing. It is highly unlikely that there will be an opportunity this good ever again if the present sentiments of defeatism and apathy take hold.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Digital freedom is not the most important cause, but it has profound impacts on almost every other cause. As digital systems have infiltrated so many aspects of our lives, it&amp;rsquo;s important to consider how they can be used and abused.. Unless one decides to opt-out entirely, there will always be a degree of impact that must be understood to make optimal choices. A defeatist will tell you that these changes are inevitable and unavoidable. This is the wrong mindset because there are alternatives to an all-or-nothing approach.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For the same reason a great deal of people won&amp;rsquo;t decide to forsake electricity entirely, there is a phenomenal amount of good that can come from adopting powerful tools. But for all the reasons people are becoming suspicious of corporate social media, we must be chiefly concerned with how these powerful systems can be weaponized against ourselves and others. The goal is not to fight change itself, but take an active role in participating in shaping that change. Because if we refuse to, we will entirely give up our digital sovereignty individually, and collectively&amp;hellip; and who knows what else.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;digital-consolidation-is-consolidation-of-everything-else&#34;&gt;Digital consolidation &lt;em&gt;is consolidation of everything else&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the most underestimated forces in our day is how consolidated power in the technology space impacts almost every other issue. The most blatant example is the fact that when there are few viable online platforms, very little has to change for there to be rampant censorship and manipulation. In an environment with more competition and interoperability, there would be less problems and a better experience overall. As more and more people live a majority of their lives locked within corporate digital platforms, their options become drastically reduced.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We are already seeing how digital platforms are themselves ushering in &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/1ttmL&#34;&gt;Orwellian doublespeak,&lt;/a&gt; as remake new words to express things outside the automated censors. This effect is only going to have more profound impacts as we allow our entire digital landscape to be dictated by a handful of mega-corporations. Since digital platforms are already having a significant impact on culture, a powerful feedback loop is already in effect. The cultural changes from our digital decisions have impacts on our options to make change in the future. When we abandon the free and open web, in favor of a single corporate controlled &amp;ldquo;digital town square&amp;rdquo; we doom the future of free expression no matter who holds the reigns.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This applies to hardware as well. How many people are constantly frustrated with how badly smartphones have impacted their lives, yet feel powerless to address it? This is beyond mere addiction. As society centers itself around technological assumptions, those assumptions become hard requirements very quickly. There is no reason to believe this will end with smartphones. If we do not take the time to radically reassert individual autonomy separate from technological choices, things can get grim as fast as you can say &lt;em&gt;&amp;lsquo;singularity&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is the secret behind the true importance of fighting for digital liberty. Not only can we avoid future dangers, but we can also correct many serious problems in the present day. With a truly holistic and bottom-up approach for building a new digital foundation, fixing problems that seem impossible to resolve becomes much more viable. Suddenly issues such as e-waste, energy efficiency, and digital control are all much easier to tackle with pragmatic solutions. The opportunities are endless when it comes to taking the time to learn, create, and share not just alternatives &amp;hellip;but entirely new paradigms.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;crucial-objectives&#34;&gt;Crucial objectives&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s all well and good to wish for a better future, but it needs to be defined. Clear parameters are required to identify current problems and plan new directions. The only constraints on our ability to create a free cyberspace are our collective drive and creativity. There are many levels of detail that can go into this, but it&amp;rsquo;s clear that the primary objectives should at least be: &lt;strong&gt;privacy,&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;security,&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;autonomy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;privacy&#34;&gt;Privacy&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Privacy is not hiding. It&amp;rsquo;s about informed choice over one&amp;rsquo;s information. Everyone deserves a surveillance-free digital experience to effectively accomplish what they need. Participation in society, or acquiring basic needs should not require one to give up their reasonable expectations of personal privacy. The severe disks of weaponizing personal information individually and at scale are only beginning to become more widely understood. It is a guarantee that there are far more disastrous and un-intuitive impacts that are yet to be discovered.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;security&#34;&gt;Security&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Making compromises on security will always cause problems down the road. Having high standards for verifiable security is effectively the starting point of making any kind of guarantees at all. Reasonable precautions need to be taken to ensure systems function as expected. A strong security environment can be a powerful public good that can make cyberspace a great deal better than it currently can be.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;autonomy&#34;&gt;Autonomy&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/digital-autonomy/&#34;&gt;Digital Autonomy&lt;/a&gt; is the cornerstone of a pro-human digital future. Devices and systems must work for their operators not against or on them. This requires radical transparency and deliberate decisions to avoid imposing artificial limitations or restrictions. By taking the &amp;ldquo;protocols not platforms&amp;rdquo; paradigm to the hardware level, people can more freely choose to use or refuse all kinds of options. Personal computing needs to become even more personal, not something imposed from outside forces.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;other-useful-considerations&#34;&gt;Other useful considerations&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These really are just a starting point. Since the road is long it makes sense to consider other objectives as well. Elegance should be a priority to make systems maximally usable. Efficiency should be prized as it&amp;rsquo;s own end. Robustness can be a focus to enhance reliability. As you can see, even with all these factors there are boundless opportunities to learn and improve. The truth is that there is no finish line, it&amp;rsquo;s all about constantly refining things for the better.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;playing-the-long-game&#34;&gt;Playing the long game&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;At the simplest level, a radical shift in our cultural understanding and attitudes surrounding technology is a must. We can no longer afford to naively accept impositions from corporations or governments as if they have no consequences. Above all, education and outreach are essential to addressing this long campaign across time. Perfectionism should be a guiding star and not a obstacle to making change. People from all walks of live will have meaningful feedback on how things can be made better. The better we become at properly incorporating that feedback, the better our digital future will be.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are a wide variety of barriers to making this kind of radical change across time. It may sound entirely unreasonable economically. This challenge is something that needs to be confronted with sober ambition. Transforming the entire foundation of our digital experience will always take a great deal of time. Thankfully, there will be significant improvements along the way. Even moderate approaches towards this ideal can have phenomenal impact on people&amp;rsquo;s very lives. We must nurture the garden of cyberspace to flourish a bountiful fruits of innovation, lest we let it wither into a thorny maze of tyranny.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Geopolitics &amp; Empire: Bitcoin’s Rise &amp; Its Future Role…Tulip Mania or Digital Gold?</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/bitcoin/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 14 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/bitcoin/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/bitcoin.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/bitcoin-ge.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/bitcoin-ge.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/bitcoin-ge.webp" />
+		<description>Digging deep into the questions, concerns, and aspirations within the Bitcoin community.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;It was an honor and pleasure to dig deep into the Bitcoin discussion on &lt;a href=&#34;https://geopoliticsandempire.com/2024/11/15/bitcoin-tulip-gold/&#34;&gt;Geopolitics &amp;amp; Empire.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/&#34;&gt;Mathew Crawford&lt;/a&gt; brings a wealth of knowledge to the table to take it to the next level. I really enjoyed taking the topic to task with two brilliant friends.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Gabriel of Libre Solutions Network and Mathew Crawford discuss all things bitcoin and how it seems the plan was to have Trump installed and push crypto. They comment on the role of the U.S. military, influencers, BlackRock, the potential future role of bitcoin erasing U.S. debt and functioning as a banking currency, digital gold, tulip mania, viewing the technology as neutral, bitcoin&amp;rsquo;s future price, and more!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;mathew-crawford&#34;&gt;Mathew Crawford&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/EduEngineer&#34;&gt;Mathew Crawford&lt;/a&gt; is an Educator, Entrepreneur, Statistician, Finance Specialist, and Founder of &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.substack.com&#34;&gt;Rounding the Earth.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;comments&#34;&gt;Comments:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://geopoliticsandempire.substack.com/p/gabe-lsn-and-mathew-crawford-bitcoins&#34;&gt;Substack&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/gkaw1gr1ra1iWXANt8E5c4&#34;&gt;Fediverse&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You may also enjoy &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/tnt-radio/&#34;&gt;previous conversations&lt;/a&gt; with Hrvoje from his &lt;a href=&#34;https://geopoliticsandempire.substack.com/s/hrvoje-moric-show-tnt-radio&#34;&gt;TNT Radio show.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Podcast intro music is from the song &amp;ldquo;The Queens Jig&amp;rdquo; by &amp;ldquo;Musicke &amp;amp; Mirth&amp;rdquo; from their album &amp;ldquo;Music for Two Lyra Viols&amp;rdquo;: &lt;a href=&#34;http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html&#34;&gt;http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html&lt;/a&gt; (available on iTunes or Amazon)&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Did You Enjoy Your Ephemeral Web Experience?</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/ephemeral-web/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 14 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/ephemeral-web/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/candle-smoke.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/candle-smoke.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/candle-smoke.webp" />
+		<description>Consequences and considerations from the Internet Archive outage.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.org&#34;&gt;Internet Archive&lt;/a&gt; has been down since October 9th. As of morning eastern time, a provisional read-only version of the Wayback Machine is online.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Initially when archive.org went down, there was a prompt displaying a message:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Have you ever felt like the Internet Archive runs on sticks and is constantly on the verge of suffering a catastrophic security breach? It just happened. See 31 million of you on HIBP!&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;HIBP&amp;rdquo; referring to the breach notification service &lt;a href=&#34;https://haveibeenpwned.com/&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;have i been pwned?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, which is worth checking with any and all emails you happen to use. At the very least it&amp;rsquo;s worth making sure you&amp;rsquo;re not re-using any passwords from previous breaches.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The outage itself meant that for many, we are already experiencing an &lt;em&gt;ephemeral  web&lt;/em&gt; where the current state is the only state. The old adage &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;the Internet never forgets&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; relies on a variety of assumptions and compromises. The truth is, a great deal of information disappears from the web on a very regular basis. Projects terminate, companies rebrand and/or change, other sites just disappear without a trace. In the hope of preserving crucial information, various online archives have been used. It takes an immense amount of resources, allegedly 160 petabytes, of data to even attempt to store a record of the web&amp;rsquo;s state. This is something that very few can even consider taking on. This difficulty means that the web will always have ephemeral qualities to a degree, and we have to consider how best to navigate that environment.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;navigating-the-ephemeral-web&#34;&gt;Navigating The Ephemeral Web&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Have you ever been in a chat room with disappearing messages? &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T32XfRSaC0w&#34;&gt;Maybe you should.&lt;/a&gt; The web as it exists is very similar to that. Every site and service changes over time. In some ways this may not necessarily be bad, not every byte of data on the web is inherently valuable or desirable. Some people may be relieved that their digital footprint fades over time. But there are serious and troubling concerns as well. As an information management system, the World Wide Web is arguably one of the &lt;em&gt;wonders of the world&lt;/em&gt;. Any decision to deliberately, destroy, conceal or manipulate critical information is itself a massive problem. Beyond mere entropy, there will always be concerted efforts to ensure that particular information is kept from being used to counter various interests.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The deliberate removal of information online can be as simple as various platforms removing content from their site, it could be institutions breaking links to previously available reports and documents, or even destruction of entire sites. It takes a great deal of effort to preserve information across time. That effort isn&amp;rsquo;t to be taken for granted. Online information destruction certainly isn&amp;rsquo;t new, but there is a troubling, and accelerating trend. One of the more significant warnings is episode 384 of the Corbett Report&amp;rsquo;s podcast &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/episode-384-the-library-of-alexandria-is-on-fire/&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Library of Alexandria is on Fire&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; where James Corbett gives some excellent advice regarding overcoming this problem:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Refuse cloud-confined devices&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The very beginning of preserving information is having the very storage devices under your own control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Move away from controlled platforms&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Relying on online services to protect information is doomed in the long run.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Save EVERYTHING!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As far as your own information management is concerned: if it&amp;rsquo;s not on your own machine, it doesn&amp;rsquo;t exist.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s worth reiterating that information management is its own (&lt;em&gt;very worthwhile!&lt;/em&gt;) skill. There&amp;rsquo;s a variety of things you&amp;rsquo;ll want to do on top of preserving information, but saving it is always the first step. Never feel bad merely saving information, but here&amp;rsquo;s some things worth considering after you have:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Indexing:&lt;/strong&gt; Is your information stored in an easily searchable way?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The easiest way to accomplish this is to use very descriptive file names, so that they can be searched with your operating system, regardless of media type.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conversion:&lt;/strong&gt; Sometimes you want information in a different format, this is useful to save space and stay current.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Adding Metadata:&lt;/strong&gt; There&amp;rsquo;s a lot of useful information about saved content that&amp;rsquo;s worth keeping, such as transcriptions, summaries, and citations.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sharing:&lt;/strong&gt; Why keep it all to yourself? Sharing is caring and can help better protect information by increasing the amount of copies in existence. Remember &lt;a href=&#34;https://libreddit.projectsegfau.lt/r/DataHoarder/comments/y1heob/hoarding_preservation/&#34;&gt;hoarding is not preserving,&lt;/a&gt; but it&amp;rsquo;s a good start!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But why do we need information on our machines if the Internet Archive exists? If we can&amp;rsquo;t hope to compete with the 160PB behemoth ourselves, why bother duplicating data ourselves?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;concerns&#34;&gt;Concerns&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While it&amp;rsquo;s been &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/11/24268040/internet-archive-data-breach-outage-hacked&#34;&gt;confirmed that&lt;/a&gt; the entire Internet Archive should be back online in &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;days not weeks&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; there are some serious questions to ask in the meantime. At the very least, we have up to 31 million emails breached from a population that is more likely to be journalists and researchers.(&lt;em&gt;independent and mainstream alike!&lt;/em&gt;) This is an important reminder that when one is doing sensitive work, that you should make sure to isolate online identities from each other by using completely different emails. It should go without saying that any information that can be used, &lt;em&gt;will be.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The outage itself is a serious concern. Given that not only is this an election year, but also many high-stakes events are currently taking place that benefit from having a public information trail. The (&lt;em&gt;hopefully&lt;/em&gt;) temporary outage of the Internet Archive not only temporarily &lt;em&gt;memory-holes&lt;/em&gt; the existing record, but potentially &lt;em&gt;permanently&lt;/em&gt; prevents current events from being properly preserved. This may have profound implications on the future.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Far more troubling than the outage itself, is the nature of the hack of the Internet Archive itself. With the data from the breach, we know that those who attacked the Internet Archive had access since &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/internet-archive-hacked-data-breach-impacts-31-million-users/&#34;&gt;September 28th.&lt;/a&gt; There is a great deal of damage that attackers could do in even a single day without being detected. Even worse, because the Internet Archive is a &lt;em&gt;record of events&lt;/em&gt; a mere rollback to a previous state is insufficient to reverse serious inside attacks. Independent tech journalist Bryan Lunduke &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/DZq-eplpWfQ&#34;&gt;raises the serious concern&lt;/a&gt; that these attackers may not be the only ones attacking the Internet Archive, merely the ones that we know about.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is difficult to overstate the implications of the Internet Archive potentially being manipulated in real-time. Attackers with high-level access could absolutely manipulate records in difficult to address ways. We have assurances from staff that &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/brewster_kahle/status/1844790609573277792&#34;&gt;the data is safe,&lt;/a&gt; but it is an open question how confidently they can make those assurances.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-makes-the-internet-archive-great&#34;&gt;What Makes The Internet Archive Great?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite all this, should the Internet Archive return, there is no reason to abandon the cause entirely. Imperfections are themselves noteworthy, but never a reason to completely disregard any particular tool. For what it is, the Internet Archive is a phenomenal achievement and a incredibly useful service for a wide variety of people and purposes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;trust&#34;&gt;Trust&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As a long-standing archive, the Internet Archive has garnered a great deal of trust. For many, the site is a go-to resource, and it has partnered with many organizations like libraries and other institutions. This trust is a big part of the reason why citing the Wayback Machine is very often considered as good as citing the original link itself. Other alternatives, may not have the same level of trust, and it may be difficult to rely on them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;scale-depth--diversity&#34;&gt;Scale, Depth &amp;amp; Diversity&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The size alone of the Internet Archive is formidable. Beyond merely archiving versions of the web, it also includes a massive amount of media from all over the world. The cultural and historical relevance of that information is its own treasure not to be taken lightly. No radical new approach will even begin to reach the same size anytime soon.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;age&#34;&gt;Age&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Founded in 1996, the Internet archive has a massive head-start over other projects. Despite present circumstances, almost 30 years of being operational is nothing to scoff at. Catching up to 30 years of information at such a scale is an enormous task.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;limitations-of-the-internet-archive&#34;&gt;Limitations of The Internet Archive&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite these things, there are reasons why one should consider alternative archives for particular purposes. For some situations, these limitations may be deal-breakers, for others they may be fairly trivial. In any case it is still best that one still maintains their own archives of important information, for its own sake and potentially because of the following.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;centralized&#34;&gt;Centralized&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The Internet Archive is a massive target. From now, until it stops existing it will always have to contend with a wide variety of threats. From cyber threats like this incident, to even financial and legal troubles. The institution itself is vulnerable to being pressured by a variety of forces that all have their own agendas. This is not to say that a decentralized internet archive is some kind of panacea. Such an undertaking would absolutely have its own challenges and trade-offs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;removals&#34;&gt;Removals&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are primarily three ways that information is deleted the Internet Archive:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Copyright Infringement:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Since March 2001, their &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/QOhQq&#34;&gt;copyright policy states:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The Internet Archive respects the intellectual property rights and other proprietary rights of others. The Internet Archive may, in appropriate circumstances and at its discretion, remove certain content or disable access to content that appears to infringe the copyright or other intellectual property rights of others.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Deletion Requests:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Internet Archive honors &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/uc7n4&#34;&gt;deletion requests&lt;/a&gt; as well, these are reviewed by their team. There are many reasons why a request would be honored, such as removing &lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.lukaszwojcik.net/how-to-delete-personal-data-from-wayback-machine/&#34;&gt;personal information,&lt;/a&gt; but can quite plausibly include a wide variety of other requests as well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;/robots.txt&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Every website can forbid the Wayback Machine from recording information through their &lt;code&gt;robots.txt&lt;/code&gt; file. This file is generally used to suggest to search engines and other bots what information is supposed to be indexed. Not only does the Wayback Machine &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/tdXaS&#34;&gt;honor this mechanism,&lt;/a&gt; but they also apply it retroactively. Meaning that it is relatively simple for any website operator to &amp;ldquo;memory-hole&amp;rdquo; their own specific content, even on a per-item basis.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;a-call-for-innovation&#34;&gt;A Call For Innovation&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The greatest challenge with independent archives is credibility. Anyone can create their own modified mirror of a web site and claim it&amp;rsquo;s an honest and true archive. If the operators of the site deny its authenticity how can others be sure? It&amp;rsquo;s a reasonable question if &lt;em&gt;any archive&lt;/em&gt; can be trusted on a long enough time frame. One can even argue that generative AI tools can make any and all information falsifiable. Reputation can&amp;rsquo;t be trusted, because it can be sold as a commodity like anything else.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Credibility alone, is not the only reason to preserve information, however. The truth is that there are many reasons to take on the task even in such conditions. In many scenarios, the information itself would be lost to time forever. Preservation can very often be its own end for a wide variety of reasons. When aiming to hold powerful institutions accountable, very often the information can be corroborated by other facts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Trying to independently archive the entire Web is effectively an impossible task. The goal should never be to preserve the totality of information online, but merely what is important. Defining what is important is its own massive challenge, but ultimately it boils down to a personal choice on how to use resources available. It is clear that more tools for independent information management are needed. Either building those tools yourself, or teaming up with others to cooperate on them would be a massive step in the right direction. Indexing and automation are both viable avenues to provide powerful tools for independent researchers.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We can hope, that for as long as the digital landscape remains somewhat free, that there will be those willing to support investing in building specialized tools that can begin to &lt;em&gt;level the playing field&lt;/em&gt;. If we are not ardent in our support for a better technological future, we may end up with the ones imposed on us via governments and/or corporations.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;tools-to-consider&#34;&gt;Tools to Consider&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;other-online-archives&#34;&gt;Other Online Archives:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These are definitely worth considering, even in parallel with the Wayback Machine.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.ph/&#34;&gt;Archive Today&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://ghostarchive.org/&#34;&gt;Ghost Archive&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;archiving-tools&#34;&gt;Archiving Tools&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Courtesy of the &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted?tab=readme-ov-file#archiving-and-digital-preservation-dp&#34;&gt;Awesome-Selfhosted list&lt;/a&gt;:
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://archivebox.io/&#34;&gt;ArchiveBox&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/wabarc/wayback&#34;&gt;Wayback&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/iipc/awesome-web-archiving&#34;&gt;[&lt;em&gt;bigger list&lt;/em&gt;]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://webrecorder.net/&#34;&gt;Webrecorder&lt;/a&gt; which is a suite of useful tools for maintaining one&amp;rsquo;s own web archives. Webrecorder aims for accuracy that may not be matched by other tools.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/gildas-lormeau/SingleFile&#34;&gt;SingleFile&lt;/a&gt; Browser add-on to save pages &amp;ldquo;as a single .html file&amp;rdquo;, which can be a handy alternative to printing a page as a PDF.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp&#34;&gt;yt-dlp&lt;/a&gt; for downloading videos &amp;amp; audio&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;For those who want to go pro, &lt;a href=&#34;https://wiki.archiveteam.org/&#34;&gt;archive team&lt;/a&gt; is a great place to get started.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;dont-forget-your-backups&#34;&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t forget your backups!&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/articles/backups&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/backups.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Any data that isn&amp;rsquo;t backed up is considered to be in a superposition of accessible and gone forever. It&amp;rsquo;s there until it just isn&amp;rsquo;t. Since the goal is to preserve information, it&amp;rsquo;s crucial to learn how to protect information now that you&amp;rsquo;ve started collecting it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/ad775286-6a54-40fd-adca-b56be7caff8f&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Good Governance in Cyberspace: Digital Freedom Policy Framework</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/policy-framework/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/policy-framework/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/whitehouse.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/whitehouse.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/whitehouse.webp" />
+		<description>Ideas for Policies for the People</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-is-policies-for-the-people&#34;&gt;What is &amp;ldquo;Policies for the People?&amp;rdquo;&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.policiesforpeople.com/&#34;&gt;Policies for the People&lt;/a&gt; is a fascinating project aimed to help the public &amp;ldquo;open source&amp;rdquo; policies for a better future. They have several main categories such as Health, Food, Liberty, Economy &amp;amp; Peace. I would encourage you (but especially Americans) to get involved in either writing your own proposals, or at least giving constructive feedback to ones written about issues that are near and dear to you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As somebody who is a HUGE FAN of bottom-up strategies, I believe this is a golden opportunity to recognize the potential of elected representatives having organized, genuine bottom-up feedback. The platform is running &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.discourse.org/&#34;&gt;Discourse&lt;/a&gt; which is the go-to choice for many open source projects &amp;amp; communities. The platform itself &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/discourse/discourse&#34;&gt;is available&lt;/a&gt; as fully Free and Open source, so it&amp;rsquo;s even possible to setup your own independent instance. I would highly recommend considering how you could adopt this model for your own region or priorities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am thrilled to take a stab at building a better technological future by presenting my vision on what the United States Federal Government can do to improve. My hope is that you find &lt;a href=&#34;https://forum.policiesforpeople.com/t/digital-freedom-policy-framework/2115&#34;&gt;my submission&lt;/a&gt; a worthwhile conversation-starter. If you have feedback, I would highly encourage you signing up to &lt;a href=&#34;https://forum.policiesforpeople.com/&#34;&gt;Policies for the People,&lt;/a&gt; and then replying to &lt;a href=&#34;https://forum.policiesforpeople.com/t/digital-freedom-policy-framework/2115&#34;&gt;the post.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;executive-summary&#34;&gt;Executive Summary&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;primary-concerns&#34;&gt;Primary Concerns&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Allowing Foreign governments to dictate free expression online&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Big Tech &amp;amp; Government stifling innovation&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Mass surveillance and privacy risks to citizens&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;overview&#34;&gt;Overview&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is an immense amount of opportunity in building conditions for a more free cyberspace. By adopting a strong stance on digital freedoms and protections, Americans can transform the digital landscape. This opportunity represents a chance to truly resolve many pressing concerns, and brings huge economic and cultural benefits.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When many think of grand-sweeping changes in technology, often they think of the European Union. As a leader pushing for ambitious reforms, the EU is very much in the driver&amp;rsquo;s seat of deciding the future of cyberspace. While there are many benefits to this, the EU does not prioritize classic American values such as free speech. This is quite apparent in many projects and initiatives.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In this proposal, I share a vision on how the United States can replicate many of the successes from the European Union&amp;rsquo;s strong digital vision, without conceding cyberspace to be dictated by the EU or foreign adversaries. This proposal is a vision for a future of cyberspace where Americans are free to maximize innovation, creativity, and security.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;At a high level the following reforms are required:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A strategic vision to exceed the European Union&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://ngi.eu/&#34;&gt;Next Generation Internet&lt;/a&gt; initiative&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Institutional Safety&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A Digital Bill of Rights&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Creating opportunity for a better cyberspace&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;strategic-vision&#34;&gt;Strategic Vision&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Protecting the interests of Americans in cyberspace requires a bold new departure from the status quo. For too long, the web has largely stagnated as cyber threats and online harms escalate. Instead of trying to address concerns on a reactionary per-issue basis, a new direction is needed to confront the foundations of these troubles. The goal must be to transform the technological landscape to represent one of innovation, collaboration, and strong security practices.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;First and foremost, there must be recognition of the fact that online freedom issues quickly become national security concerns. If Americans don&amp;rsquo;t feel they can safely and effectively engage online, they become vulnerable to &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutionsnetwork.substack.com/p/lessons-from-alt-tech-failures&#34;&gt;being exploited,&lt;/a&gt; undermining their own security. Transformative change is required to adapt to the realities of cyberspace in our time. As the Crowdstrike Global IT outage has shown, top-down security efforts have their own risks. Instead of developing a plan to centrally manage digital affairs, Americans deserve a properly decentralized technological landscape.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A variety of EU projects are aimed specifically at granting the European Union &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/&#34;&gt;digital sovereignty,&lt;/a&gt; but falls short of reclaiming it for the citizenry as well. A cyber strategy for the United States has to recognize the importance of it&amp;rsquo;s own digital sovereignty as well as that of individual Americans. If this opportunity is forsaken, the entire infrastructure of our online interactions can be dictated by the European Union, or even foreign adversaries.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thus, the United States Cyber Strategy must pivot away from consolidating power through Big Tech, and towards empowering citizens, families, communities, and businesses to be truly resilient from modern cyber threats. This will require a long-term plan that includes necessary components like right to repair, privacy protections, strong privacy guarantees, and above all transparency and accountability. Americans are not lacking in skills, knowledge, or creativity, what is lacking is a solid foundation to build a modern and free cyberspace.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The benefits of a bottom-up effort to transform our digital landscape &lt;a href=&#34;https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/sep/29/vw/&#34;&gt;are immense.&lt;/a&gt; This taps into vast swaths of under-utilized labor and skills and create the conditions for multi-disciplinary collaboration and innovation. Open Source has proven to be a highly effective and highly resilient model for not only innovation, but also collaboration with throughput vastly superior to constrained models. The future of work is here, it&amp;rsquo;s just about making it economic.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The purpose of the strategic vision is to realign priorities towards &lt;em&gt;Civilian-based cyber defense&lt;/em&gt;. This principle recognizes the reality that every person has a role to play in keeping digital threats at bay. Therefore radical new approaches are required to foster an environment of education, collaboration, and competition. By creating fertile ground for innovation and bottom-up feedback, many of our present challenges can be &lt;a href=&#34;https://autonomia.digital/en/2024/01/19/free-software-digital-security.html&#34;&gt;transformed into opportunities.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;civilian-based-cyber-defense&#34;&gt;Civilian-based Cyber Defense&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The principle of Civilian-based cyber defense is so effective that it has already been partly implemented out of necessity. Organizations like CISA run programs to raise cybersecurity awareness and digital education. This is something that needs to be explored to it&amp;rsquo;s fullest, and brought to the forefront of many cyber &amp;amp; education initiatives. Instead of relying on massive entities to safeguard everyone, a radical new approach is required to tackle modern digital threats. This new approach is equipping every individual to be an &lt;a href=&#34;https://savannah.gnu.org/news/?id=10677&#34;&gt;active participant&lt;/a&gt; in a more safe and secure future.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Understanding the threats&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These risks are outlined to demonstrate that many of these threats and their components are inseparably intertwined. For too long our institutions are modeled with a vision that cyberspace is entirely separate from the real world and &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.makeuseof.com/smart-glasses-privacy-issues/&#34;&gt;people&amp;rsquo;s lives.&lt;/a&gt; Cyber threats very often include planning, preparation, or even methods that impact real-world infrastructure and people&amp;rsquo;s personal vulnerabilities. The idea that these threats can be mitigated, much less eliminated without a holistic, bottom-up approach is madness at best and arrogance at worst.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cyber warfare&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Software / Hardware supply chain attacks&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Mass surveillance (foreign and domestic)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Ransomware&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;System disruption&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cybersecurity &amp;amp; IT&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Malware&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Breaches&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Outages&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Social engineering attacks&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Online Harms&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Harassment&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Cyber-stalking&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Exploitation&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Privacy Risks&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Identity theft&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Personal safety / Extortion&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Undermines trust&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Chills speech and participation&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fragility&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Single-points of failure&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Dependence&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Censorship&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Lack of competition&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Civilian-Based Cyber Defense in Action&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Education&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Our technological future is always going to be in the hands of our youngest. Their decisions on what to use, how to use it, and what to build on fundamentally reshapes our collective digital experience in real-time. At the very least, it is crucial that this is an informed decision. At the bare minimum, &amp;ldquo;computer literacy&amp;rdquo; should be tracked, fostered, and improved just like actual literacy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Beyond schooling, public awareness is crucial. Education and outreach must be a life-long experience. Just as online threats and harms have evolved over the last two decades, we can be quite sure they will continue to evolve at a rapid rate. This can only be ameliorated with an environment where Americans are able to have a meaningful impact on their own digital experience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A wide range of initiatives are on the table when one recognizes that the first-line of cyber defense isn&amp;rsquo;t powerful tech giants, but rather individuals themselves.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Research&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Information is the most precious resource. Initiatives that can acquire vital information about pressing concerns are invaluable. America&amp;rsquo;s highly &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.engadget.com/big-tech-layoffs-183005386.html&#34;&gt;skilled and creative workforce&lt;/a&gt; can take advantage of opportunities to leave no stone un-turned when it comes to investigating digital threats, and their solutions. Agencies should be leveraging their unique insight to provide information to the public on ground that needs to be covered.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Building a national defense strategy around bottom-up innovation requires exhausting lines of inquiry that many technical minds are eager to explore. With properly aligned goals, the digital sovereignty of individuals and national security can lead to powerful strengthening of both. By relying on the same methods to secure both, citizens can have a direct impact on not only improving their lives, but the very fate of the nation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Collaboration&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Leveraging powerful models, like Open Source development (for both hardware and software) offers huge benefits for innovation. There are many ways to include people with varied expertise to gain multi-disciplinary benefits from broader collaboration. With open and transparent methods of governance, and even tools and techniques, feedback from the front-line can make an even bigger impact.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Transparent sharing of insights, but also including public feedback into the equation, allows for much more rapid iteration on crucial concepts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Innovation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With the benefits of hardware and software freedom, technologies can be safely used in both public and private contexts. Optimizations can be widely deployed and many can reap the benefits. By building the foundation for a truly free technological landscape, the USA can become the home for boundless innovation. Realigning strategies and goals for a free digital future has immense opportunities for both individuals and institutions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;institutional-safety&#34;&gt;Institutional Safety&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While all of the above sounds wonderful and amazing, very little of it is truly possible without trust. This is very much where the European Union fails to deliver on what they intend in their digital strategy. With some reform, the United States is in the unique, enviable position to be a world leader in not just technological innovation, but also digital freedom and security. Improving the relationship between institutions and people, trust can be built towards genuine cooperation and shared interests.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;de-fanging-the-surveillance-apparatus&#34;&gt;De-FANGing the Surveillance Apparatus&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The very fact that the European Union has spent so much trying to break free from American companies tells us all we need to know about how much Americans can trust public-private collaboration with these entities. As such, not only do Americans require stronger privacy and security guarantees, but they also deserve a government that doesn&amp;rsquo;t leverage private entities against their interests. Public, short, medium and long term plans must be made to entirely &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/11/reauthorizing-mass-surveillance-shouldnt-be-tied-funding-government&#34;&gt;dismantle domestic surveillance.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Cooperation, subsidy, and information sharing with for-profit entities must be phased out. These institutions seize and pacify a huge amount of America&amp;rsquo;s top minds and puts them to work building things that are incompatible with a free digital future. Maintaining proper boundaries between private and public institutions is a vital reform in building meaningful trust in the future. When law enforcement requires information, it must be obtained with a valid court order, both requests and receipts must be properly and transparently disclosed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;digital-bill-of-rights&#34;&gt;Digital Bill of Rights&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The White House currently has a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/ai-bill-of-rights/&#34;&gt;Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights.&lt;/a&gt; Some of the concerns raised are excellent, others are unnecessary barriers to innovation. Even worse however, the AI Bill of Rights is far too narrow, and possibly wastes the opportunity to develop a truly comprehensive Digital Bill of Rights. &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.adbusters.org/articles-coded/digital-bill-of-rights&#34;&gt;A Digital Bill of Rights&lt;/a&gt; must not only apply to government departments, but where possible, to publicly traded and regulated entities. Some of these exist already in some form or another, but a comprehensive (Federal) act is required.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Digital Bill of Rights (Shortlist)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Access&lt;/strong&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Non-discrimination on protected status, politics, or even a wider range of criteria&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Prior notice to disruptions to access with proper due-process&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Data Sovereignty&lt;/strong&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Right to refuse data collection&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Control over how information is used and shared&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Right to request, and delete personal data&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Transparency &amp;amp; Accountability&lt;/strong&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Clear and transparent disclosure of information sharing and breaches of personal information&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Liability for data misuse&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Freedom of Choice&lt;/strong&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;The right to refuse particular devices, services, and systems&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;regulate-digital-public-infrastructure-providers-as-common-carriers&#34;&gt;Regulate digital public infrastructure providers as &amp;ldquo;common carriers&amp;rdquo;&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Not only as a means to strengthen the Digital Bill of Rights, but also to protect good-faith providers of digital infrastructure. With a broad conception of public digital infrastructure, more Americans can feel they can equitably participate in the digital economy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This would include:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;ISPs&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Domain Registrars &amp;amp; Public DNS Providers&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Cloud &amp;amp; Web Hosting Providers&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Payment Providers&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Financial institutions&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;protecting-innovation--security&#34;&gt;Protecting Innovation &amp;amp; Security&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To compete in the modern digital environment, new approaches are required to stay adaptable. Beyond sustaining various rackets, the goal is to allow American innovation to thrive in an environment that makes people and cyberspace more free. There is significant demand for secure, verifiable systems that put the person first. Instead of falling behind foreign competitors, the USA can reclaim it&amp;rsquo;s status as not only the land of the free, but also free cyberspace.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;right-to-repair&#34;&gt;Right to Repair&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.repair.org/know-your-rights&#34;&gt;Right to repair&lt;/a&gt; involves various reforms that are essential to long-term innovation and security. Of crucial importance is the ability for users to have the capacity to modify potentially defective &lt;a href=&#34;https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/firmware-liberation.html&#34;&gt;firmware.&lt;/a&gt; Very often digital products fall behind in security, so much so that the EU is considering harsh import restrictions under the &lt;a href=&#34;https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/cyber-resilience-act&#34;&gt;Cyber Resilience Act.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By encouraging an environment where devices are more free and open by default, users can have the control to obtain the highest security guarantees needed for the situation. This alone has the potential to resolve security issues faster than any single initiative could, by allowing almost everyone to take a role in thwarting cyber threats.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;prioritize-free--open-source-software--hardware&#34;&gt;Prioritize Free &amp;amp; Open Source Software &amp;amp; Hardware&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Software &amp;amp; hardware freedom is a very important public good. Open source is a very effective way to put bottom-up feedback and contributions to use. By harnessing these goals, America&amp;rsquo;s technological economy can be radically transformed in a way that provides a great deal of jobs and opportunities. By using Free &amp;amp; Open Source Software, government agencies and departments can not only reclaim their own digital sovereignty, but individuals as well. The technological landscape moves very quickly, and is only poised to accelerate as enthusiasm for decentralized open cooperation improves. It&amp;rsquo;s crucial not to miss the opportunity to embrace this change.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Related Proposals:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://forum.policiesforpeople.com/t/digital-privacy-bill-of-rights/162/1&#34;&gt;Digital Privacy Bill of Rights&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://forum.policiesforpeople.com/t/digital-privacy-act-of-202x/748&#34;&gt;Digital Privacy Act of 202X&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://forum.policiesforpeople.com/t/right-to-repair-legislation/581&#34;&gt;Right to Repair Legislation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://forum.policiesforpeople.com/t/nil-law-attached-to-your-cyber-footprint/152&#34;&gt;NIL Law attached to your cyber footprint&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://forum.policiesforpeople.com/t/the-digital-privacy-and-anti-surveillance-act/465&#34;&gt;The Digital Privacy and Anti-Surveillance Act&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://forum.policiesforpeople.com/t/enhanced-privacy-protection-for-u-s-citizens/545&#34;&gt;Enhanced Privacy Protection for U.S. Citizens&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://forum.policiesforpeople.com/t/how-to-restore-free-speech-through-simple-legislation/35&#34;&gt;How to Restore Free Speech Through Simple Legislation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://forum.policiesforpeople.com/t/rural-broadband-infrastructure/1398&#34;&gt;Rural Broadband Infrastructure&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Mitra: A tool to rebuild online free expression</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/mitra/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 08 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/mitra/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/mitra-q&amp;a.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/mitra-q&amp;a.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/mitra-q&amp;a.webp" />
+		<description>A Q&amp;A with Mitra&#39;s developer Silverpill</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;introduction&#34;&gt;Introduction&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For quite some time, I&amp;rsquo;ve been on the hunt for effective technological solutions. One of the major game-changers online has been the rise of decentralized social media. The &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/fediverse&#34;&gt;Fediverse&lt;/a&gt; is one such system for building and running decentralized social media. In my opinion, the Fediverse is one of the more under-utilized tools by those who want to protect free speech online. Instead of merely moving to greener pastures with a new tech giant, we can take advantage of the opportunity to &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/bVw81Snxdp9nQe2k5wQUDd?start=0s&#34;&gt;transform the social landscape&lt;/a&gt; ourselves.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/40a5c731-92e5-48ec-bc4f-a441a9930408?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I run a few of my own Fediverse servers at the moment, such as &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;Peertube,&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://codeberg.org/silverpill/mitra&#34;&gt;Mitra,&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://misskey-hub.net/en/&#34;&gt;Misskey.&lt;/a&gt; But when it comes to censorship resistance features, Mitra is a cut above the rest. And so I had asked &lt;a href=&#34;https://mitra.social/@silverpill&#34;&gt;Silverpill&lt;/a&gt; the developer of Mitra if he would join me for a Q&amp;amp;A.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;qa&#34;&gt;Q&amp;amp;A&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;in-your-own-words-what-is-mitra&#34;&gt;In your own words, what is Mitra?&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Mitra is a social media server for the Fediverse.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;why-that-logo-how-did-you-come-up-with-it&#34;&gt;Why that logo? How did you come up with it?&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The outer shape is known as &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub_el_Hizb&#34;&gt;Rub el Hizb,&lt;/a&gt; it&amp;rsquo;s an Islamic symbol. There is no deep meaning, I just saw it somewhere and decided to use it as a starting point. I experimented with many different designs and selected one that seemed most interesting and pleasing to the eye. You can spot a bunch of &amp;ldquo;M&amp;quot;s inside.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;why-should-more-people-become-familiar-with-and-use-federated-social-media&#34;&gt;Why should more people become familiar with and use federated social media?&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can have your own Twitter, Facebook or YouTube, connected to thousands of other small networks. Isn&amp;rsquo;t that great?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I think federation is the best architecture for a decentralized social network. The user experience is decent and the network can scale without compromising on decentralization, as was demonstrated by Email, XMPP and Matrix.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/mitra-screenshot.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Mitra home 
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;why-did-you-decide-to-build-mitra&#34;&gt;Why did you decide to build Mitra?&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Before Mitra I was working with blockchain technology. At some point I realized that decentralized financial infrastructure needs a social layer, and that existing solutions are inadequate. After doing some research on decentralized social protocols I picked ActivityPub because it was mature, well-designed and had a strong developer community with values similar to mine. The missing pieces were decentralized payments and decentralized identity, so I started working on these problems.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;what-makes-mitra-unique-compared-to-other-fediverse-servers&#34;&gt;What makes Mitra unique compared to other Fediverse servers?&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;So, one of my original goals was integrated payments. I tried several ideas and eventually settled on paid subscriptions. This feature provides a way to accept payments in Monero and publish premium content for paying subscribers.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The second goal was decentralized identity, or &amp;ldquo;nomadic identity&amp;rdquo;, as we call it in the Fediverse. This turned out to be a very difficult task, but I&amp;rsquo;ve made significant progress. Nomadic identity mechanism allows people to have an account that is not tied to any single server, but exists on many servers simultaneously. My implementation of this mechanism is not complete yet and currently can be used only by developers.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Mitra also can federate over Tor and I2P networks.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Besides that, it is very lightweight and easy to host, so it might be a good choice even for those who are not interested in subscriptions and nomadic identity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;what-other-fediverse-software-would-you-recommend-servers-clients-etc&#34;&gt;What other Fediverse software would you recommend? (Servers, Clients, etc)&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My favorite server is &lt;a href=&#34;https://pleroma.social/&#34;&gt;Pleroma.&lt;/a&gt; I borrowed many ideas from it when Mitra was in the early stages of development. &lt;a href=&#34;https://codeberg.org/streams/streams&#34;&gt;Streams&lt;/a&gt; is also very interesting. It implements nomadic identity in the same way as Mitra, and has many other nice features.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Among web clients, my favorite was Soapbox, but its developer quit Fediverse (there is now a fork called &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/BDX-town/Mangane&#34;&gt;Mangane)&lt;/a&gt;. For Android devices, I recommend &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/captainepoch/husky&#34;&gt;Husky.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;in-your-opinion-what-features-are-most-important-for-censorship-resistance&#34;&gt;In your opinion, what features are most important for censorship resistance?&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In my work I prefer to focus on the positive side of censorship resistance: digital sovereignty. A server that runs on your own hardware and that doesn&amp;rsquo;t depend on any external services is practically unstoppable. This is already possible today with Tor and I2P, but requires specialized technical knowledge, and even if you have it, you can communicate only with a very small number of people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;So the most important features are those that make this experience more accessible. Ideally, everyone should be able to send messages to millions of followers from a personal social media server that runs on the phone with unstable internet connection.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;what-are-the-biggest-threats-to-online-free-speech-and-what-do-you-believe-has-kept-them-at-bay-the-best&#34;&gt;What are the biggest threats to online free speech, and what do you believe has kept them at bay the best?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The biggest threat is centralization. It occurs on multiple levels, both technical and social, and every time there is a bottleneck, someone tries to use it to censor their opponents. What keeps it at bay are all those people who invest resources in building decentralized networks and circumvention tools, and those who make information about these tools accessible to the general public.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;are-any-of-the-alternative-protocols-like-nostr-meaningful-competition-from-a-censorship-resistance-perspective&#34;&gt;Are any of the alternative protocols (like nostr) meaningful competition from a censorship resistance perspective?&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Nostr seems to be the only meaningful competition, although it is still not big enough to matter. Other networks are even smaller, or not really decentralized.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The current situation is really unfortunate because so much effort is wasted in technological dead ends. Fediverse is the biggest decentralized network and is perfectly capable of supporting decentralized identity, the purported lack of which is often used as an excuse to create a competing protocol.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;how-does-a-person-or-even-a-small-group-directly-oppose-online-censorship&#34;&gt;How does a person, or even a small group directly oppose online censorship?&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Use decentralized networks and open source software. Educate others. Ultimately, this a collective action problem, and only together we can make censorship prohibitively expensive and therefore ineffective.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;what-are-your-short-medium-and-long-term-goals-for-mitra&#34;&gt;What are your short, medium and long term goals for Mitra?&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the short term, I&amp;rsquo;ll be working on several basic features that are still missing, such as polls, audience controls and moderation tools. Medium term plans include finishing nomadic identity system, improving premium subscriptions and implementing groups. I&amp;rsquo;m also planning to release a Rust library for developing ActivityPub applications. In the long term, I want to build a powerful social media server that has everything you need, costs nothing and can run in your pocket.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;what-motivates-you-to-continue-building-mitra-into-the-future&#34;&gt;What motivates you to continue building Mitra into the future?&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I think a tool like Mitra is necessary, an no one else is working on that, so I have no choice but to build it myself.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;outside-of-just-mitra-how-are-you-working-to-make-the-fediverse-even-better&#34;&gt;Outside of just Mitra, how are you working to make the Fediverse even better?&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I proposed a number of standards for the Fediverse, covering message signing, quote posts, federated payments, data portability and other things. I also help maintain a platform for publishing those proposals (&lt;a href=&#34;https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep&#34;&gt;Fediverse Enhancement Proposals,&lt;/a&gt; or FEPs).&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Every Friday I publish a newsletter about the Fediverse: &lt;a href=&#34;https://mitra.social/@weekinfediverse&#34;&gt;https://mitra.social/@weekinfediverse&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;whats-the-best-way-to-support-your-work&#34;&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s the best way to support your work?&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Try Mitra. If you like what I&amp;rsquo;m doing, you can help by suggesting improvements, testing different clients, reporting bugs and spreading the word.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re a developer, you can contribute to Mitra or implement my FEPs in your own project.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I also accept donations. My Monero address is &lt;code&gt;8Ahza5RM4JQgtdqvpcF1U628NN5Q87eryXQad3Fy581YWTZU8o3EMbtScuioQZSkyNNEEE1Lkj2cSbG4VnVYCW5L1N4os5p&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Cyber Fix Episode 8: Learning from Others</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/cyber-fix-8/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/cyber-fix-8/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/cyber-fix-7.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix-icon.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix-icon.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix-icon.webp" />
+		<description>Solutions and technological terrors.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Welcome to Cyber Fix, your dopamine-infused tech news update.&lt;br&gt;
+My name is Gabriel, here to help get other information junkies up to speed with important tech news. Stay tuned for a light-hearted exploration of hostile cyberspace and what we can do about it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Cyber Fix is on hiatus, you may now listen to full episodes on &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/p/2FbUhGmiRbzmf1TUjWP3Xr&#34;&gt;PeerTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;stories&#34;&gt;Stories&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;platform-peril&#34;&gt;Platform Peril&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.404media.co/telegram-changes-policy-says-it-will-provide-user-data-to-authorities/&#34;&gt;Telegram Changes Policy, Says It Will Provide User Data to Authorities&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/TechloreInc/status/1841569103066124436&#34;&gt;Since 2018, Telegram has been able to disclose IP addresses/phone numbers of criminals to authorities.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.404media.co/telegram-confirms-it-gave-u-s-user-data-to-the-cops/&#34;&gt;Telegram Confirms it Gave U.S. User Data to the Cops&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://kevquirk.com/blog/my-thoughts-on-the-wordpress-drama&#34;&gt;My Thoughts on the WordPress Drama&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.indiemediatoday.com/p/rokfin-what-is-going-on-a-sale-closing&#34;&gt;Rokfin: What Is Going On? A Sale? Closing?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/30/24253727/reddit-communities-subreddits-request-protests&#34;&gt;Reddit is making sitewide protests basically impossible&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;solutions-roundup&#34;&gt;Solutions Roundup&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://savannah.gnu.org/news/?id=10677&#34;&gt;Time to take back the Internet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://antennapod.org/blog/2024/10/hacktoberfest-2024&#34;&gt;AntennaPod is participating in Hacktoberfest 2024 – Join us!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://bookofadamz.com/how-to-keep-communicating-when-your-internet-is-disrupted/&#34;&gt;How to keep communicating when your internet is disrupted&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://ladybird.org/newsletter/2024-09-30/&#34;&gt;This Month in Ladybird September 2024&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/Redot-Engine/redot-engine&#34;&gt;Redot Game Engine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-fine-details&#34;&gt;The Fine Details:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/naomibrockwell/status/1840377991303770308&#34;&gt;Modern society has a super complicated relationship with privacy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/digital-id-foundation-technocracy/&#34;&gt;Digital ID: The Foundation for Technocracy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/09/ftc-report-confirms-commercial-surveillance-out-control&#34;&gt;FTC Report Confirms: Commercial Surveillance is Out of Control&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://news.itsfoss.com/youtube-strikes-media-server-video/&#34;&gt;YouTube Doesn&amp;rsquo;t Want You to Use a Media Server at Home&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;&#34;&gt;Tornado Cash: Code Not Speech, Non-Custodial MSBs, Knowledge Not Required&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;cyberwar&#34;&gt;Cyberwar&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://dailysceptic.org/2024/10/02/microsoft-buys-nuclear-power-plant-to-run-ai-and-its-showing-us-the-future/&#34;&gt;Microsoft ‘Buys’ Nuclear Power Plant to Run AI – and it’s Showing Us the Future&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://torrentfreak.com/isps-betrayed-over-pirate-site-blocking-threats-the-reckoning-will-be-invisible-241005/&#34;&gt;ISPs ‘Betrayed’ Over Pirate Site-Blocking Threats, The Reckoning Will Be Invisible&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://hackread.com/dutch-police-hacked-officers-details-exposed/&#34;&gt;Dutch Police Hacked, 63,000 Officers’ Details Exposed&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-cyber-resilience-act--an-accidental-european-alien-torts-statute&#34;&gt;The Cyber Resilience Act, an Accidental European Alien Torts Statute?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/QDGf8&#34;&gt;U.S. Wiretap Systems Targeted in China-Linked Hack&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;music-credits&#34;&gt;Music Credits:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/n79aphwhpW0&#34;&gt;Y&amp;amp;V - Lune&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/o_v9WSImGIU&#34;&gt;Valcos - A New Light&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/qLYmtdi-GzA&#34;&gt;Killercats - Kaibu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/hu3FPs2MYc0&#34;&gt;Dark Ages - MaxKoMusic&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;honorable-mentions&#34;&gt;Honorable Mentions&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These are items that didn&amp;rsquo;t quite make it into the final episode, but noteworthy in their own right.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/10/harvard-students-make-auto-doxxing-smart-glasses-to-show-need-for-privacy-regs/&#34;&gt;Meta smart glasses can be used to dox anyone in seconds, study finds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/26/unauthenticated_rce_bug_linux/&#34;&gt;That doomsday critical Linux bug: It&amp;rsquo;s CUPS. May lead to remote hijacking of devices&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://xeiaso.net/notes/2024/cups-cve/&#34;&gt;You&amp;rsquo;re probably not vulnerable to the CUPS CVE&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/09/nist-proposes-barring-some-of-the-most-nonsensical-password-rules/&#34;&gt;NIST proposes barring some of the most nonsensical password rules&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/09/digital-id-isnt-everybody-and-thats-okay&#34;&gt;Digital ID Isn&amp;rsquo;t for Everybody, and That&amp;rsquo;s Okay&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/cIBLOkvoVl8&#34;&gt;We Need Internet! Running a 3,000 ft Fiber Optic Cable&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://mrzool.cc/tex-boilerplates/&#34;&gt;LaTeX Boilerplates&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://anytype.io/&#34;&gt;anytime - the everything app for those who celebrate trust &amp;amp; autonomy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.amacad.org/publication/internet-and-engaged-citizenship&#34;&gt;The Internet and Engaged Citizenship&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://citizenlab.ca/2024/10/gender-based-digital-transnational-repression-as-a-global-authoritarian-practice-article-by-the-citizen-lab-published-in-globalizations/&#34;&gt;Gender-based digital transnational repression as a global authoritarian practice&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://dailydarkweb.net/threat-actor-claims-to-have-breached-high-profile-israeli-institutions/&#34;&gt;Threat Actor Claims to Have Breached High-Profile Israeli Institutions&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/QFyZk1nLih8&#34;&gt;CrowdStrike executive testifies on global outage&lt;/a&gt; (Starts ~30mins in)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://cdt.org/insights/insights-from-a-child-safety-online-symposium-bridging-research-and-policy/&#34;&gt;Insights from a Child Safety Online Symposium: Bridging Research and Policy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/6NsRC0T35WA&#34;&gt;The TENET Media Disaster&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://mstdn.ca/@andykm/113239835423280803&#34;&gt;TekSavavvy Quarterly Transparency Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Cyber Fix: Episode 7</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/cyber-fix-7/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 22 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/cyber-fix-7/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/cyber-fix-7.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix-icon.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix-icon.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix-icon.webp" />
+		<description>Exploding pagers and control grid updates</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Welcome to Cyber Fix, your dopamine-infused tech news update.&lt;br&gt;
+My name is Gabriel, here to help get other information junkies up to speed with important tech news. Stay tuned for a light-hearted exploration of hostile cyberspace and what we can do about it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Cyber Fix is on hiatus, you may now listen to full episodes on &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/p/2FbUhGmiRbzmf1TUjWP3Xr&#34;&gt;PeerTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;part-1&#34;&gt;Part 1&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;no-joke-exploding-pagers--radios&#34;&gt;No Joke: Exploding Pagers &amp;amp; Radios&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://drmathewmaavak.substack.com/p/death-by-remote&#34;&gt;Death by Remote&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.404media.co/experts-lebanon-pager-explosions-likely-not-lithium-batteries-alone/&#34;&gt;Experts: Lebanon Pager Explosions Likely Not Lithium Batteries Alone&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://tube.tchncs.de/videos/watch/9eef3877-b1f2-4b10-8a6e-f57dba645b2c&#34;&gt;Targeted Pagers Explode Across Lebanon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/2024/turning-everyday-gadgets-into-bombs-is-a-bad-idea/&#34;&gt;Turning Everyday Gadgets into Bombs is a Bad Idea&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;digital-blunders&#34;&gt;Digital Blunders:&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/AutismCapital/status/1836511189796556905&#34;&gt;first Trump Bitcoin transaction takes minutes to complete and they’re unsure if it even went through&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/researchers-find-hundreds-of-android-apps-using-ocr-to-steal-login-details&#34;&gt;Crypto fans beware — hundreds of Android apps found using OCR to steal login details&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/10/bumble-to-leverage-ai-to-help-users-with-profiles-and-conversations/&#34;&gt;Bumble to leverage AI to help users with profile creation and conversations&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;solutions-roundup&#34;&gt;Solutions Roundup:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.freecad.org/2024/09/10/the-first-release-candidate-of-freecad-1-0-is-out/&#34;&gt;The first release candidate of FreeCAD 1.0 is out&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://ar.al/notes/encouraging-individual-sovereignty-and-a-healthy-commons/&#34;&gt;Building the world you want to live in&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://samthursfield.wordpress.com/2024/09/17/fairphone-5-review/&#34;&gt;Fairphone 5 review&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/gnukeith/status/1835879824939766242&#34;&gt;The plan is simple&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.privacytools.io/guides/exodus-for-android-finds-trackers&#34;&gt;Exodus for Android: Finds trackers embedded in all your apps&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://radicle.xyz/2024/09/10/radicle-1.0.html&#34;&gt;Radicle 1.0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://servo.org/blog/2024/09/11/building-browser/&#34;&gt;Building a browser using Servo as a web engine!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;part-2&#34;&gt;Part 2&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;tech-news&#34;&gt;Tech News:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.macrumors.com/2024/09/18/end-to-end-encryption-rcs-messages/&#34;&gt;End-to-End Encryption Coming for iPhone-to-Android RCS Messages&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/IncogNetLLC/status/1834227149147935202&#34;&gt;IncogNET is now an accredited registrar for .ST&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/17/discord-launches-end-to-end-encrypted-voice-and-video-chats/&#34;&gt;Discord launches end-to-end encrypted voice and video chats&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.techdirt.com/2024/09/20/ex-cop-wields-law-that-only-protects-cops-to-sue-data-broker-for-selling-his-personal-data/&#34;&gt;Ex-Cop Wields Law That Only Protects Cops To Sue Data Broker For Selling His Personal Data&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;precrime-roundup&#34;&gt;Precrime Roundup:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://ioc.exchange/@matthew_d_green/113113384146496597&#34;&gt;Phones &amp;amp; Precrime&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/cOnPx&#34;&gt;Billionaire Larry Ellison says a vast AI-fueled surveillance system can ensure &amp;lsquo;citizens will be on their best behavior&amp;rsquo;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/pwc-tells-employees-it-will-use-location-data-to-police-back-to-office-rule-1.7031968&#34;&gt;PwC tells employees it will use location data to police &amp;lsquo;back-to-office&amp;rsquo; rule&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://sfstandard.com/2024/09/16/san-francisco-police-bought-drones-illegally-emails-warned/&#34;&gt;Emails show cops knew buying drones broke state law. They did it anyway&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/australian-intelligence-official-threatens-to-ban-private-messaging&#34;&gt;Australian Intelligence Official Threatens To Ban Private Messaging&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;control-grid-updates&#34;&gt;Control Grid updates:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://darkwebinformer.com/chainalysis-successful-deanonymization-attack-on-monero-2/&#34;&gt;Chainalysis Successful Deanonymization Attack on Monero&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/canadian-conservatives-propose-bill-for-online-digital-id-verification-and-anonymity-restrictions&#34;&gt;Canadian Conservatives Propose Bill for Online Digital ID Verification and Anonymity Restrictions&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/can-ai-make-you-less-gullible-or-is-it-a-conspiracy&#34;&gt;Can AI make you less gullible or is it a conspiracy?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/ausvstheagenda/status/1834375535813951606&#34;&gt;This is about Sovereignty&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;music-credits&#34;&gt;Music Credits:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/n79aphwhpW0&#34;&gt;Y&amp;amp;V - Lune&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/o_v9WSImGIU&#34;&gt;Valcos - A New Light&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/qLYmtdi-GzA&#34;&gt;Killercats - Kaibu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/MT814DNhy_U&#34;&gt;Ephixa &amp;amp; Jim Yosef - Everlasting [NCS Release]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;honorable-mentions&#34;&gt;Honorable Mentions:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bakx-boc-cbdc-digital-currency-1.7326887&#34;&gt;Bank of Canada shelves idea for digital Loonie&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/09/ftc-staff-report-finds-large-social-media-video-streaming-companies-have-engaged-vast-surveillance&#34;&gt;FTC Staff Report Finds Large Social Media and Video Streaming Companies Have Engaged in Vast Surveillance of Users&amp;hellip;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.torproject.org/tor-is-still-safe/&#34;&gt;Is Tor still safe to use? &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://nlnet.nl/news/2024/20240919-NGI-Assure-Concluded.html&#34;&gt;NGI Assure Programme Successfully Concluded&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/21/x-reverses-course-in-brazil/&#34;&gt;X reverses course in Brazil&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://itsfoss.com/compute-module/&#34;&gt;What is a Compute Module? Why should you care about it?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://cyberscoop.com/oig-audit-calls-for-more-clarity-from-cisa-dhs-on-disinformation-mission/&#34;&gt;OIG audit calls for more clarity from CISA, DHS on disinformation mission&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Private Web Search: A Contradiction in Terms</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/search/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/search/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/search.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/search.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/search.webp" />
+		<description>A look at the fine details of finding information online</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;One of the first things many people do online is search for information. A simple search may not seem like sensitive information, but all of everyone&amp;rsquo;s searches, on every topic, all the time absolutely includes a lot of sensitive information. If that wasn&amp;rsquo;t bad enough, it&amp;rsquo;s relatively simple for those collecting the information to make inferences on that data to learn incredibly sensitive things about individuals.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a wide variety of search engines that have attempted to build their own indexes, or tried to position themselves as privacy-respecting alternatives to mainstream search:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://swisscows.com/en&#34;&gt;Swisscows&lt;/a&gt; is an &amp;ldquo;anonymous search engine&amp;rdquo; hosted in Switzerland.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Brave is not just a browser, but they have also attempted to put together their own independent &lt;a href=&#34;https://brave.com/search/&#34;&gt;search engine&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://kagi.com/&#34;&gt;Kagi&lt;/a&gt; is a company that hopes to make &lt;a href=&#34;https://help.kagi.com/kagi/why-kagi/why-pay-for-search.html&#34;&gt;paying for search&lt;/a&gt; a sustainable way to improve search functionality.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://stract.com/&#34;&gt;Stract&lt;/a&gt; is another interesting option that received &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/government-in-tech/&#34;&gt;funding from the EU,&lt;/a&gt; but unfortunately intends on using ads for &lt;a href=&#34;https://stract.com/about&#34;&gt;funding in the future.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.mojeek.com/&#34;&gt;Mojeek&lt;/a&gt; is another attempt at an independent search provider.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;For those who like their solutions &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tokenized-resistance&#34;&gt;tokenized&lt;/a&gt; there&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://presearch.io/&#34;&gt;Presearch.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;But if private search is a fruitless endeavor anyways, why not get some &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.ecosia.org/&#34;&gt;trees out of it?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To figure out how to protect our information online, we have to take a serious look at one of the biggest culprits of not only invasions of privacy, but also online manipulation and censorship: &lt;strong&gt;search engines.&lt;/strong&gt; It is incredibly tempting for some to want to replace a known-malicious part of their tech life (like &lt;em&gt;Google&lt;/em&gt;) by merely introducing a &amp;ldquo;better&amp;rdquo; drop-in replacement recommended online. Unfortunately, solving some of the serious problems regarding dragnet surveillance and censorship will require more consideration and effort.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;understanding-web-search&#34;&gt;Understanding Web Search&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To many, web search is synonymous with &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Google&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;. Google certainly isn&amp;rsquo;t the only search engine out there, but it is by far the largest and most used in the English language. Despite it still being the de-facto standard for many, the concerns related to Google Search are quite numerous. From banning &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/oZgOg&#34;&gt;particular results&lt;/a&gt; and queries, to the significant privacy concerns, there are a lot of reasons why somebody would want to switch to a different search engine.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But the friction is quite high. Many report that no matter what engine they switch to, they never get quite as good results. This itself can sometimes be a bit of a &amp;ldquo;skill issue&amp;rdquo; given that searching is something one can get better at over time. There definitely is truth to people&amp;rsquo;s trouble however. Any competing search engine has a phenomenal amount of work to do before even beginning to think about being comparable. Any existing search engine has the advantage of time and hindsight. A new project effectively has to out-innovate both of those advantages in addition to building almost entirely from scratch.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The most valuable and important parts of any search engine are the &lt;em&gt;crawler&lt;/em&gt; and the &lt;em&gt;index&lt;/em&gt;. These are the two crucial components any serious attempt at building a new search engine has to get right.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-crawler&#34;&gt;The Crawler&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To allow others to search the entire web, you&amp;rsquo;d have to actually &lt;em&gt;visit&lt;/em&gt; the entire web at one point. If for no other reason to load the site and store what&amp;rsquo;s on the site. Building a bot (&lt;em&gt;or set of bots&lt;/em&gt;) to scan the entire internet and record their contents is a massive undertaking. This alone sets a very high minimum on the amount of resources required to build and maintain a search engine. Presumably, you want your search engine to be reasonably up to date, so this requires constant upkeep.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Loading so many web sites, and downloading any needed resources alone is a huge burden in both bandwidth and storage costs. Some smaller search engines will focus on a particular niche. This comes with significant downsides however, crawling less creates blind spots for your search engine thus limiting its usefulness for others. That can be a perfectly reasonable trade-off when aiming for specialization. &lt;a href=&#34;https://wiby.me/&#34;&gt;Wiby&lt;/a&gt; for example, primarily indexes non-commercial hobbyist style web sites.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While crawling the web there are effectively two big questions that need answers. 1) How wide do you cast your net over the web to discover resources? and 2) How much information do you collect on each resource? Number 2 is harder because one could just store links and their titles, but a more sophisticated engine will store keywords or even the entire text to have the most accurate information possible. With the the greater accessibility of machine transcription, it may even make sense to download and transcribe audio/video content for even more accuracy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If all that wasn&amp;rsquo;t challenging enough, there will always be content online that is inaccessible to your crawler. Any information that requires an account or payment will automatically be refused to your crawler until it becomes well-known and approved by those resources. The more time people create &amp;amp; share information behind these walled-gardens the worse off all search engines inevitably become.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-index&#34;&gt;The Index&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;After you&amp;rsquo;ve crawled all over the web your work still has only really just begun. A proper search engine needs to be fast, complete, and accurate. All of this relies on the information you&amp;rsquo;ve stored being intelligently analyzed and categorized for retrieval. For fast retrieval you&amp;rsquo;ll probably want to calculate scores for common queries in advance, or use mathematics to generate them with a carefully curated subset of your information. A search engine without a crawler is frozen in time, but a search engine without an index is just a massive unsorted collection of online resources.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Properly building a search index requires a great deal of forethought and maintenance. There will always be ways to improve accuracy and speed. The algorithms built on top of your index may be specifically designed for particular kinds of information. There is ultimately no limit to what can be done to craft the perfect index of the entire web. I would argue that the index is the most important resource of a search engine, big or small.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-problem-of-surveillance&#34;&gt;The Problem of Surveillance&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is important to understand to make sense of the privacy risks of search engines. When you use a web search, it&amp;rsquo;s very difficult to hide the fact that you&amp;rsquo;re using it, especially from the provider itself. While tools like Tor &amp;amp; VPNs can mitigate the risk a bit, the vast majority of people won&amp;rsquo;t even take these (far from bullet-proof) measures. This creates a wide variety of concerns, especially as the searches from a wide variety of people starts becoming massively aggregated. Search data from particular people is also very useful information to have against that specific group.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There have been many &amp;ldquo;private web search&amp;rdquo; providers that have entered the space. Ultimately the first thing they offer is a promise to collect less data about you than Google. While that&amp;rsquo;s good, it&amp;rsquo;s not a high bar. Even when a search engine actually collects very little, the aggregate information as a whole is still a treasure trove of power that can be used against individuals and groups alike. And if no user data is collected at all, that will never stop governments that snoop on their own citizens.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In a time where people running tech companies are &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/07/telegram-chiefs-arrest-sends-a-clear-message-tech-titans-are-not-above-the-law&#34;&gt;placed under arrest,&lt;/a&gt;  it&amp;rsquo;s time to start wondering how independent a search engine truly can be. Even with no data collection and no snooping involved, every entity will face the pressure to leave out inconvenient information from their index, even merely as a cost saving measure. The difficulty of running a large search engine itself creates so many challenges that are almost impossible for any truly independent organization to achieve without external interference.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To make matters worse, given the difficulty in hiding that one is using a particular public search engine, it&amp;rsquo;s entirely possible that using an obscure search engine itself reveals a fair amount about a person.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;alternative-strategies&#34;&gt;Alternative Strategies&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;metasearch&#34;&gt;Metasearch&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One strategy is to use a privacy-protecting &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.privacytools.io/privacy-frontends&#34;&gt;front-end&lt;/a&gt; to route your search queries through a variety of public search engines. &lt;a href=&#34;https://docs.searxng.org/&#34;&gt;SearXNG&lt;/a&gt; is a notable example that&amp;rsquo;s highly configurable. Using a metasearch engine alone is a meaningful improvement over using many public search engines. A community of people sharing a metasearch engine provides more people &amp;ldquo;safety in numbers&amp;rdquo;, at least from the search engines themselves.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Of course, the danger of using a metasearch engine is that one is placing their trust on the operator to be responsible, trustworthy, and competent. Another point to consider is that a metasearch engine can not find information that is concealed (or otherwise not indexed) by the configured search engines.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-pirate-bay&#34;&gt;The Pirate Bay&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The Pirate Bay is an example of a web service that has been able to stay online despite a massive amount of opposition both legal and technical. It&amp;rsquo;s important to note that this was possible because The Pirate Bay exists to index a narrow set of content (Torrents) and stores the bare-minimum amount of information to work. This allows the service to be quickly mirrored or migrated elsewhere incredibly easily. The larger and more complicated a service is, the harder it is to make resilient to external pressure and influence.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;searching-particular-sites&#34;&gt;Searching Particular Sites&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many seem to forget that various websites often have their own search function. This amnesia is sometimes warranted because sadly many sites own search engine is not as efficient as just using google and &lt;a href=&#34;https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433&#34;&gt;specifying the site.&lt;/a&gt; When looking for specific information, it&amp;rsquo;s often quite effective to search specialized or related wiki&amp;rsquo;s or forums to get a specific answer. This lost art is becoming part of many people&amp;rsquo;s habits again now that search engines are gradually &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/dead-internet&#34;&gt;getting worse&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Of course, searching a specific site is only as private as the site you&amp;rsquo;re visiting is. It is sad to hear that allegedly &amp;ldquo;Gen Z&amp;rdquo; is notorious for using TikTok as their go-to search engine, which is a condemnation of our current situation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;can-we-do-better&#34;&gt;Can We Do Better?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s hard to believe that &lt;em&gt;yet another private search engine&lt;/em&gt; is the panacea to resolve all our privacy concerns. While many of them provide non-trivial benefits, for those aiming to make dragnet surveillance impossible, we need to go even further. Breaking away from the cloud works for various kinds of software, why can&amp;rsquo;t it work for search?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;local-search&#34;&gt;Local Search&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Usually, your device has an embedded search function that can search files and even settings. This is a very useful thing to have. It doesn&amp;rsquo;t immediately sound like a crazy idea to distribute indexes to devices for people to search on their own. A narrow, but useful search engine would be a powerful thing to include on one&amp;rsquo;s own machine. &lt;a href=&#34;https://kiwix.org/en/&#34;&gt;Kiwix&lt;/a&gt; is a fascinating project that aims to provide (searchable) online resources for offline use.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Personally, I actually do have my own locally hosted search engine. One of my favorite &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/rss-love&#34;&gt;RSS&lt;/a&gt; readers, &lt;a href=&#34;https://freshrss.org&#34;&gt;FreshRSS&lt;/a&gt; stores every article from each feed I&amp;rsquo;m subscribed to. This means that when I want to find relevant commentary on a particular story, I can easily find stories related to topics I&amp;rsquo;m interested in. Having done this for quite some time, I&amp;rsquo;ve found it a very valuable tool for looking back as issues develop.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Indexing the entire Internet is an immense affair. It&amp;rsquo;s entirely possible that the best search engine for an individual to represent an incredibly tiny fraction of the entire whole. Where possible it would be nice if such a search engine was able to be dynamically extended with additional indexes. That would mean that provided the device one is searching on is sound, all searches would be safe from prying eyes, and even censorship!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;information-management&#34;&gt;Information Management&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What ultimately makes one search engine better than another is &lt;em&gt;relevance.&lt;/em&gt; This is what makes LLM-generated search summaries convincing even when they&amp;rsquo;re obviously wrong. If the solution to make offline search a viable endeavor is sharing small, but useful indexes, then a wide variety of information management tools are needed. Once such tool I&amp;rsquo;ve been starting to use is &lt;a href=&#34;https://logseq.com/&#34;&gt;Logseq&lt;/a&gt; and I&amp;rsquo;ve been quite impressed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Software like this, that allows users to leverage their own computing and knowledge in a harmonious way is clearly the way we build not only better privacy, but a much better digital experience for people. Those interested in learning how to build software should consider how to build tools that enable that experience, rather than ones that fit neatly within the cloud paradigm. More and more people are learning to break free from the cloud for their workflows, but often find themselves looking for tools. There are many niches worth filling, so find one you find interesting!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;building-high-quality-resources&#34;&gt;Building High-quality Resources&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Condensing information and resources is incredibly valuable. By maintaining a public online resource where you curate useful knowledge, you can greatly assist others in saving time. This is where the Free and Open Web really shines. High quality independent websites are the backbone of a truly free cyberspace and can do innumerable things to tip the scales in favor of people and communities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As long as your content is available in accessible and/or machine-readable formats, a great deal can be done to make those resources indexed more easily. With a large collection of valuable information to share, you can reduce the odds that snoopers have a clear idea of what specific information people are accessing. This is why I would highly encourage any web site to include a full-text &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/rss&#34;&gt;RSS archive&lt;/a&gt; of all their posts. You never know when such a thing may be seriously helpful.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;conclusion&#34;&gt;Conclusion&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Private web search is almost impossible in our current environment where large institutions are fighting over control of people&amp;rsquo;s very own knowledge. It is crucial to build solutions that broaden people&amp;rsquo;s ability to learn, create &amp;amp; share independently. Information control is a terrifying force that can be incredibly difficult to reverse. For many, search is where they acquire most of their information online, and it&amp;rsquo;s getting increasingly controlled. Thinking about ways to acquire information online without systems acting as gatekeepers is going to become only more important as time goes on.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Teachable Moment: John McAfee&#39;s Gmail Rant</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/teachable-mcafee/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/teachable-mcafee/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/mcafee-glowing.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/mcafee-glowing.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/mcafee-glowing.webp" />
+		<description>Responding to arguments from a late veteran computer expert</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve seen this video making the rounds and feel compelled to use it as a teachable moment. This is a great example that can be used to go deeper into a couple of important points about privacy &amp;amp; security. It&amp;rsquo;s always important to consider why a particular short, oversimplified video is making the rounds &lt;em&gt;right now&lt;/em&gt;. Often it&amp;rsquo;s not too hard to speculate why nefarious interests would be interested in promoting particularly simplified views. Important ideas take time to understand, so always take the time to reflect on the details when you can, or at least embrace some uncertainty.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;who-was-john-mcafee&#34;&gt;Who was John McAfee?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;That&amp;rsquo;s a complicated question to answer. Allegedly John McAfee died of suicide in 2021. John had a compelling technical resume. Besides being known for selling anti-virus software, he also worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed, and &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee&#34;&gt;even NASA.&lt;/a&gt; Despite being well credentialed, he was quite a controversial figure with a very dramatic life. What&amp;rsquo;s specifically relevant to his statements here is that he was somebody who got to learn computers very well just as they were getting off the ground. There is no doubt that he was a very skilled technical mind. In addition to this, he would bring important issues like &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/cyberwar&#34;&gt;Cyberwar&lt;/a&gt; into the forefront of the &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/KMjCie-fTRo&#34;&gt;2016 US presidential election.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;He made some excellent statements regarding online privacy and security. It&amp;rsquo;s obvious that McAfee had a very clear understanding of not only the technological details, but also the broader social implications. During some of his more lucid comments he discusses the important details with clarity that I hope to someday myself. In some ways, I would argue this clip is doesn&amp;rsquo;t represent him at his best. So much so, that I am convinced the wide dissemination of this particular clip is a &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/mindwar-not-fifth-generation-warfare&#34;&gt;mindwar operation&lt;/a&gt; aimed at not only disarming people from taking their own privacy seriously, but also to discredit some of McAfee&amp;rsquo;s more salient points.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One final disclaimer is that I am uncertain when this video was recorded, but of all people John would still know better regardless.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/079a3193-8edb-47f1-96d6-205f2d63ded0?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/media/text/mcafee-gmail-rant.txt&#34;&gt;[Link to transcript]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;rebuttals--refinement&#34;&gt;Rebuttals &amp;amp; Refinement&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;overall-message&#34;&gt;Overall message&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Before addressing the content of the message, there is a lot about the &lt;em&gt;framing&lt;/em&gt; that needs to be addressed. The most important factor is that privacy and security are not a simple binary of &amp;ldquo;safe/unsafe&amp;rdquo;. Safe from who? Unsafe how? There are always finer details that matter. Given McAfee&amp;rsquo;s complicated history, he has a particular (well-funded and well-staffed) adversary in mind and is predominantly concerned with a single threat (the US government).&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/threat%20modeling.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/threat%20modeling.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Feel free to download and share! 
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You&amp;rsquo;re probably (&lt;em&gt;hopefully&lt;/em&gt;) not in the same situation that John McAfee was, therefore your particular risks and circumstances will vary. Not only is this specific advice not particularly applicable to most individuals, many more concerns have become more pervasive threats to individuals and organizations alike. In short, cyberwar is no longer a sci-fi, or state-vs-state affair. Instead governments and corporations are &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/insecurity&#34;&gt;wrestling over control&lt;/a&gt; of not just the public conversation, but our &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/government-in-tech&#34;&gt;technological future&lt;/a&gt; as a whole.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thus your average individual (&lt;em&gt;even more for a high-value target!&lt;/em&gt;) needs to be cognizant of a wide variety of threats: stalkers, scammers, online mobs, gangs of cyber criminals, and even tech companies themselves. While McAfee makes some factual points in the video, the overall video leaves a counter-productive impression. It&amp;rsquo;s the opposite of informative, and requires fine correction. In today&amp;rsquo;s environment, things have only gotten much more complicated in the last few years, and certainly the last decade.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Yes, it is almost certain that a capable, motivated adversary can absolutely seize data from almost anyone no matter how cautious. The question is at what cost? Can every adversary seize everyone&amp;rsquo;s data all the time? That would get quite expensive rather fast, it would become even more expensive if those people were taking strategic measures to enhance their privacy and security. Ultimately, if we wish to de-fang the surveillance and censorship apparatus, getting more people involved to take action to raise the cost of mass surveillance is a highly effective tactic.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In addition to new adversaries, the game has gotten a lot more complicated with the advancement of new threats to people&amp;rsquo;s digital lives. Various governments are cracking down on various forms of dissent and online speech. Highly sophisticated &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.interpol.int/en/News-and-Events/News/2024/INTERPOL-Financial-Fraud-assessment-A-global-threat-boosted-by-technology&#34;&gt;online scams are on the rise.&lt;/a&gt; The sum total of data collection on people is weaponized to manipulate the public. Even &lt;a href=&#34;https://mastodon.social/users/wchr/statuses/113045679054331232&#34;&gt;employers&lt;/a&gt; are getting in on the mass surveillance game. State and private propaganda influence operations wage cyberwar both covert and overt. And if all that wasn&amp;rsquo;t bad enough, machine learning algorithms are quite capable of making all of the above a lot worse.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As always, the only constant is change. One can&amp;rsquo;t expect to clip two minutes from somebody with a very unique situation and an incredible depth of knowledge and necessarily expect to fairly represent their sum total expertise. I am certain that if John McAfee was still alive today and didn&amp;rsquo;t have the adversaries he did, he would state things very differently.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;point-by-point&#34;&gt;Point by point&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;email&#34;&gt;Email&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am dissed constantly for using &lt;em&gt;Gmail&lt;/em&gt; as my email system&lt;br&gt;
+&amp;hellip;&lt;br&gt;
+if you think you have any privacy whatsoever with an encrypted system whether it’s an email system like Proton mail or an encrypted messaging system like signal you have no fucking privacy&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The problems with email are pervasive. Even tools like Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) have their limitations. While McAfee is correct to point out that encryption is no &lt;em&gt;&amp;lsquo;silver bullet&lt;/em&gt; to privacy with email, he&amp;rsquo;s completely wrong when it comes to the choice of provider. As he points out later in the video, encryption was designed to thwart man-in-the-middle attacks. He&amp;rsquo;s likely not at all concerned about somebody (other than the govt) compromising Google&amp;rsquo;s infrastructure to get at him. The problem is that in his situation, the vast array of concerns from Google itself are still &lt;a href=&#34;https://campaignsoftheworld.com/news/the-dark-side-of-google/&#34;&gt;worth considering.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It would be better if McAfee explained that in his situation, abstract concerns like data-mining and data sovereignty are a much lower priority to him when he has to worry about imprisonment (and potentially assassination). But when an email provider (even one such as Proton) has the capability of snooping on emails, there are many reasons why an individual would want to take precautions. This is where the condemnation of Gmail makes perfect sense. From a standpoint of protecting emails from prying eyes of the provider, Google is obviously the worst one to choose.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;That said, Signal and Proton mail are worlds apart in terms of the risks involved. It&amp;rsquo;s not a reasonable comparison to make. Signal was originally designed to protect SMS messages, and eventually this was dropped in favor of becoming a pure messaging app. It&amp;rsquo;s pretty cool these days to dunk on Signal for it&amp;rsquo;s board&amp;rsquo;s membership, but when governments come knocking they repeatedly show they have (almost) nothing to hand over as recently as &lt;a href=&#34;https://signal.org/bigbrother/santa-clara-county/&#34;&gt;last month.&lt;/a&gt; On the other hand Proton has &lt;a href=&#34;https://restoreprivacy.com/protonmail-logs-users/&#34;&gt;repeatedly&lt;/a&gt; handed over user data.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Notably, there is a &amp;ldquo;secure by design&amp;rdquo; email client that does offer similar protection. It seems surprisingly absent in many discussions around secure messengers, but &lt;a href=&#34;https://delta.chat/en/&#34;&gt;Delta Chat&lt;/a&gt; is a fascinating telegram competitor that I believe is vastly underestimated in this space. Recently Delta Chat was able to respond to Russian authorities that they &lt;a href=&#34;https://delta.chat/en/2020-05-01-roskamnadzor&#34;&gt;have no user data to give away.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;encryption&#34;&gt;Encryption&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;encryption was designed 35 years ago to prevent a man in the middle attack meaning someone between your transmission and your receipt&lt;br&gt;
+&amp;hellip;&lt;br&gt;
+encryption is a worthless piece of shit old technology that is being marketed as a safe system. There is no safety anymore, there is no privacy.&lt;br&gt;
+&amp;hellip;&lt;br&gt;
+you are being sold a fucking bill of goods which is worthless with encryption&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As explained earlier, this is all relative. Cryptography (encryption) is a tool, and tools need to be applied and understood in their proper context. McAfee is absolutely correct that &amp;ldquo;encrypted&amp;rdquo; has become somewhat of a marketing buzzword that loses meaning rather quickly. Encryption is a very useful tool in a wide variety of contexts. It&amp;rsquo;s quite ironic that many sharing this particular rant would also argue Signal is &amp;ldquo;worthless&amp;rdquo; because it &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/signal-downplays-encryption-key-flaw-fixes-it-after-x-drama/&#34;&gt;didn&amp;rsquo;t encrypt&lt;/a&gt; the local messages database in the desktop client.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are different ways to use encryption to protect information. You can protect information in transit (which is what McAfee refers to here), you can encrypt it at &amp;ldquo;rest&amp;rdquo; (which is what Signal was criticized for not doing), and apparently while &lt;a href=&#34;https://phoenixnap.com/blog/encryption-in-use&#34;&gt;in use.&lt;/a&gt; Depending on your situation, these different techniques all have very important effects on what and how it protects. Of course, the details matter. Encrypting not enough is often just as damaging as not encrypting at all.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is where my charitable interpretation of what McAfee is expressing is that in his situation, he feels that encryption will not protect him against the particular adversary he&amp;rsquo;s concerned about. That&amp;rsquo;s certainly a defensible position, but it&amp;rsquo;s far from saying encryption is worthless for everyone, everywhere, all the time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;smartphones&#34;&gt;Smartphones&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;there&amp;rsquo;s no man in the middle anymore! we don&amp;rsquo;t need them&lt;br&gt;
+your fucking smartphone is the surveillance device preferred by every government on the fucking planet&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is the strongest point in the entire video, since many individuals will also have a smartphone. It is important to have reasonable expectations about what protections you can have from un-trusted devices you use. Arguably, this is the biggest &lt;em&gt;&amp;lsquo;Achilles Heel&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt; of various privacy software, if it only works on a smartphone your expectations have to be reduced dramatically. This also applies to any system running an atrocious AI data-miner such as &lt;a href=&#34;https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/08/microsoft-will-try-the-data-scraping-windows-recall-feature-again-in-october/&#34;&gt;Microsoft Recall&lt;/a&gt; ( or even &lt;a href=&#34;https://globalnews.ca/news/10580200/kaspersky-cyber-product-us-ban/&#34;&gt;antivirus software&amp;hellip;?&lt;/a&gt; )&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;How much you can trust a particular device or system is a complicated question. A great deal has gone into protecting consumer devices, and for various Android devices there are ways to have them &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;De-Google&amp;rsquo;d&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt; that may provide some benefits. But! McAfee&amp;rsquo;s strongest point is also a fairly weak point against encryption in general. Because serious risks to savvy smartphone users are really only presented by governments and tech companies. For those concerned with protecting their data sovereignty, there are significant benefits to encryption even on these devices. At any rate, people always have the choice to perform private tasks on more secure devices.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;malware&#34;&gt;Malware&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Do you know how easy it is to plant malware?&lt;br&gt;
+Go on pornhub, if you&amp;rsquo;ve been on pornhub someone is now listen[ing] to you.&lt;br&gt;
+All you have to do is do a drive-by of a website and it sets the &amp;ldquo;download unauthorized applications flag&amp;rdquo;, the first click and you now have malware that is doing two things:&lt;br&gt;
+Watching your inputs before they&amp;rsquo;re encrypted and transmitting them &lt;br&gt;
+And reading the outputs after they are fucking [de]crypted people&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is another very solid point in general. It&amp;rsquo;s not just state-level actors leveraging malware to &lt;a href=&#34;https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/06/shopping-app-temu-is-dangerous-malware-spying-on-your-texts-lawsuit-claims/&#34;&gt;collect people&amp;rsquo;s information&lt;/a&gt; or seize &lt;a href=&#34;https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pegasus-like-spyware-attack-likely-on-select-individuals-warns-apple/articleshow/109227296.cms&#34;&gt;control over people&amp;rsquo;s devices.&lt;/a&gt; As always, this is a greater concern for high-value targets, but even just the technologically naive can fall for opportunistic traps. Again, this doesn&amp;rsquo;t feel like a strong argument against encryption, but rather raises the amount of effort one has to put in managing their digital affairs. Nobody would seriously suggest that just because a thief can throw a brick through your window that you should never lock your doors.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One could always avoid porn sites and &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/hostile-cyberspace&#34;&gt;hostile cyberspace&lt;/a&gt; all together. It&amp;rsquo;s possible to build more secure systems that protect regular users better. There&amp;rsquo;s always a great deal that you can do to measurably reduce your risk to malware. Just being careful and running an &lt;a href=&#34;https://ublockorigin.com/&#34;&gt;ad-blocker&lt;/a&gt; takes you a great deal of the way there.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;legal&#34;&gt;Legal&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I use Gmail for one reason&lt;br&gt;
+the last company that requires a fucking subpoena from a government in order to give them your information, and their lawyers have 30 fucking days to review the subpoena&lt;br&gt;
+30 days is enough for me, I change my email every 15 days&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I think relying on a legal strategy to protect your data is more flawed than relying on encryption. Just ask anyone who wants &lt;a href=&#34;https://gdpr.eu/right-to-be-forgotten/&#34;&gt;to be forgotten&lt;/a&gt; online. I don&amp;rsquo;t think anyone can be certain that Google can&amp;rsquo;t figure out which of their users keeps changing accounts every two weeks. The best argument McAfee would have for using Gmail is that he is so attached to the Google ecosystem that it would be pointless for him to try to withhold information from them. Even simple things like using an Android phone, and various cloud services is enough to cross that threshold. But that represents an entirely new problem.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;not-discussed-but-still-relevant&#34;&gt;Not discussed, but still relevant&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;interacting-with-others&#34;&gt;Interacting with others.&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Lets take everything McAfee said at face value for a moment. He claims that in his situation, there&amp;rsquo;s no benefit to him for switching from Gmail to any other nominally secure provider for email. This breaks down the moment somebody else wants to contact him via email or he contacts a person through email. Suddenly he&amp;rsquo;s impacted someone else&amp;rsquo;s ability to protect information from Google just to communicate with him. This is exactly why even if it would do him no benefit to switch, others would benefit from him switching to a different provider. For example, if he was using Proton for mail, any Proton user could send him an email that would be encrypted in transit and at rest, and be at least a fair bit safer than in plain text on Google&amp;rsquo;s servers.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;conclusion&#34;&gt;Conclusion&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While John McAfee was a very knowledgeable person, his particular situation leads him to make judgement calls that aren&amp;rsquo;t necessarily right for everyone, especially as the situation evolves. At best, it&amp;rsquo;s an important reminder that your privacy and security are never entirely up to a single technology choice. It is the sum total of all your digital decisions that makes up your overall situation. Systems that handle personal information need to embody the spirit of &amp;ldquo;secure by design&amp;rdquo;. As always, the best way to protect information is not to record it, but the next best thing is to not store it. If it must be stored, than encryption is one tool to protect it from prying eyes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you see somebody sharing that video to make a snide point that protecting privacy is worthless, please consider sharing this post to explain why the reality is much more nuanced than that short clip presents.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Rest in peace John McAfee.&lt;br&gt;
+I pray that God has mercy on his soul, and for comfort to his loved ones.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Cyber Fix: Episode 6</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/cyber-fix-6/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/cyber-fix-6/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/cyber-fix-6.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix-icon.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix-icon.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix-icon.webp" />
+		<description>Tech Disasters &amp; Solutions</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Welcome to Cyber Fix, your dopamine-infused tech news update.&lt;br&gt;
+My name is Gabriel, here to help get other information junkies up to speed with important tech news. Stay tuned for a light-hearted exploration of hostile cyberspace and what we can do about it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Cyber Fix is on hiatus, you may now listen to full episodes on &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/p/2FbUhGmiRbzmf1TUjWP3Xr&#34;&gt;PeerTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;tech-disasters&#34;&gt;Tech Disasters&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hackers-leak-27-billion-data-records-with-social-security-numbers/&#34;&gt;Hackers leak 2.7 billion data records with Social Security numbers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.troyhunt.com/inside-the-3-billion-people-national-public-data-breach/&#34;&gt;Inside the &amp;ldquo;3 Billion People&amp;rdquo; National Public Data Breach&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-confirms-august-updates-break-linux-boot-in-dual-boot-systems/&#34;&gt;Microsoft confirms August updates break Linux boot in dual-boot systems&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/zero-click-windows-tcp-ip-rce-impacts-all-systems-with-ipv6-enabled/&#34;&gt;Zero-click Windows TCP/IP RCE impacts all systems with IPv6 enabled, patch now&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-fixes-ninth-actively-exploited-chrome-zero-day-in-2024/&#34;&gt;Google fixes ninth Chrome zero-day tagged as exploited this year&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.threads.net/@chriswelch/post/C-8LF4BOSAP&#34;&gt;Google Pixel 9&amp;rsquo;s AI photo features&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;solutions-roundup&#34;&gt;Solutions Roundup:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://lunduke.locals.com/post/6020029/total-linux-desktop-pcs-now-over-56-million&#34;&gt;Total Linux Desktop PCs Now Over 56 Million&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://logseq.com/&#34;&gt;Logseq&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.surveillancewatch.io/&#34;&gt;Surveillance Watch&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.04049&#34;&gt;Hypersyn: A Peer-to-Peer System for Mutual Credit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/robert-kennedy-jr-chd-standing-biden-administration-censorship-lawsuit/&#34;&gt;RFK Jr. and CHD Get Green Light to Sue Biden Administration for Censorship&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;control-grid-updates&#34;&gt;Control Grid Updates:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/08/shocker-french-make-surprise-arrest-of-telegram-founder-at-paris-airport/&#34;&gt;Shocker: French make surprise arrest of Telegram founder at Paris airport&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2024/08/25/telegram-is-not-really-an-encrypted-messaging-app/&#34;&gt;Is Telegram really an encrypted messaging app?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://telegram.org/faq#q-do-you-process-data-requests&#34;&gt;How does Telegram process data requests?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-crypto-keepers-levine&#34;&gt;The Crypto- Keepers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/08/un-general-assembly-and-fight-against-cybercrime-treaty&#34;&gt;The UN General Assembly and the Fight Against the Cybercrime Treaty&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/08/eff-and-partners-breton-uphold-fundamental-rights-enforcing-dsa&#34;&gt;EFF and Partners to EU Commissioner: Prioritize User Rights, Avoid Politicized Enforcement of DSA Rules&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/disney-says-man-cant-sue-wifes-death-agreed-disney-terms-service-rcna166594&#34;&gt;Disney says man can&amp;rsquo;t sue over wife&amp;rsquo;s death because he agreed to Disney+ terms of service&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;finer-details&#34;&gt;Finer Details:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/NameIsSpartacus/status/1826121058388423012&#34;&gt;I ain&amp;rsquo;t scared of no nanobots&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;honorable-mentions&#34;&gt;Honorable Mentions:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.welivesecurity.com/en/eset-research/be-careful-what-you-pwish-for-phishing-in-pwa-applications/&#34;&gt;Phishing in PWA applications (iOS &amp;amp; Android)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZyqVGHjDGo&#34;&gt;Communities on Nostr with Ditto&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.wired.com/story/the-cloud-is-a-prison-can-the-local-first-software-movement-set-us-free/&#34;&gt;The Cloud Is a Prison. Can the Local-First Software Movement Set Us Free?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.isosceles.com/openssh-backdoors/&#34;&gt;OpenSSH Backdoors&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2024/blog-vs-social-posts/&#34;&gt;Blog Posts vs. Social Posts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.thisdaysportion.com/posts/modes-of-reading-the-independent-web&#34;&gt;Modes of reading the independent web&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://tube.tchncs.de/videos/watch/84879753-be58-4461-84ac-95f96f51d190&#34;&gt;BREAKING: Telegram Founder Pavel Durov ARRESTED&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.w3.org/TR/privacy-principles/#privacy-labour&#34;&gt;Privacy Labor&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;music-credits&#34;&gt;Music Credits:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/n79aphwhpW0&#34;&gt;Y&amp;amp;V - Lune&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/o_v9WSImGIU&#34;&gt;Valcos - A New Light&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/qLYmtdi-GzA&#34;&gt;Killercats - Kaibu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/Uq-jny83Tlw&#34;&gt;Sad Dubstep Music&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Operation: Hearth</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/operations/hearth/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/operations/hearth/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/barn-house.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/barn-house.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/barn-house.webp" />
+		<description>Making computing more local</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;A radically different digital experience is more within reach than it would seem. With a bit of effort, support, and creativity, small groups and communities can make a huge difference. People can build up, pool, and share digital resources to benefit others. By adapting to the physical realities of digital systems, we can make more beneficial choices. Not only that, but there is the opportunity to restructure cyberspace in a way that is more in tune with people&amp;rsquo;s real-life connections. Despite how &amp;ldquo;pie in the sky&amp;rdquo; this may sound, it is a realistic initiative for gradually liberating people from top-down digital control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The secret to &lt;a href=&#34;#&#34;&gt;Operation: Hearth&lt;/a&gt; is the efficient re-allocation of technological resources with people in mind. Big Tech has operated on the basis of providing so much for free, that even highly technical people have lost sight of the importance of these resources. This creates scenarios where entire communities, institutions and even governments &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/government-in-tech/&#34;&gt;struggle with control&lt;/a&gt; over their own digital sovereignty.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Decentralization is the way of the future&amp;hellip;&lt;br&gt;
+The revolution is already here. The only question is:&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;strong&gt;Do you want to be a part of it?&amp;rdquo;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;James Corbett&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/decentralize-everything-how-to-avoid-the-technocratic-nightmare/&#34;&gt;Decentralize Everything: How To Avoid the Technocratic Nightmare&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ll re-introduce the three primary resources in cyberspace brought up in my guide &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/reclaiming-cyberspace/&#34;&gt;Reclaiming Territory in Cyberspace&lt;/a&gt; which are: &lt;strong&gt;computing power,&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;strong&gt;bandwidth,&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;storage.&lt;/strong&gt; Every device you acquire, or put to use has advantages and disadvantages regarding those resources. For example, it is intuitive to even non-technical people that a &lt;a href=&#34;https://thin.computer/index.php/2024/03/21/using-termux-on-android-for-self-hosting-yes-really/&#34;&gt;smart phone&lt;/a&gt; is likely not the device you want to use to provide a web service to millions of users. Our advantage when trying to reclaim cyberspace is that we&amp;rsquo;re not trying to move everyone on big tech to a new super-massive platform. Instead we are trying to do our part to make radical change on the &lt;a href=&#34;https://small-tech.org/&#34;&gt;small&lt;/a&gt; scale. The following strategies are introduced in order from least to most skill required.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;offline-first-workflows&#34;&gt;Offline-first Workflows&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Free (and Open Source) Software is fantastic. Many people intuitively understand the benefits of software being collaboratively built in the open, but there is a far greater advantage of using such solutions: offline-first workflows. By ensuring all your working data (such as documents, photos, videos and everything else) is in one place makes it much easier to keep track of and &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/backups&#34;&gt;backup&lt;/a&gt; when needed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is something almost anybody can take advantage of.  The goal is not necessarily to never connect to the Internet, but to do all you can without being reliant on it. A great deal of my software choices have been made with this in mind.&lt;br&gt;
+Here is a list of Free (and Open Source) Software that I believe are useful for this:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libreoffice.org&#34;&gt;LibreOffice&lt;/a&gt; for documents / spreadsheets.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://inkscape.org&#34;&gt;Inkscape&lt;/a&gt; for creating / editing images as well as PDFs.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://krita.org&#34;&gt;Krita&lt;/a&gt; for those with artistic talent.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://blender.org&#34;&gt;Blender&lt;/a&gt; a phenomenally powerful tool that can be used for a wide variety of creative tasks. I&amp;rsquo;ve used it for video editing but it&amp;rsquo;s also a very powerful 2d &amp;amp; 3d animation suite!&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://freecad.org&#34;&gt;FreeCAD&lt;/a&gt; A parametric 3d modeler, which means you can design precise components for 3D printing.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.kicad.org/&#34;&gt;KiCad&lt;/a&gt; allows you to design circuit boards.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird&#34;&gt;Thunderbird&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/JetpackDuba/Gitnuro/&#34;&gt;Gitnuro&lt;/a&gt; a tool for git &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/videos/gitnuro&#34;&gt;[Developer interview]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/abb128/LiveCaptions&#34;&gt;LiveCaptions&lt;/a&gt; is a pretty neat utility that provides real-time audio transcription for Linux desktop users.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&amp;hellip;and many, many more. This is not an exhaustive list by any means.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;sharing-is-caring&#34;&gt;Sharing is Caring&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The following are strategies that more technical people can use to help bring others the benefits of more localized and (more) trusted computing. The downstream consequences of such a transformation would do wonders to combat censorship, top-down manipulation, and surveillance all at the same time. What many people under-estimate is that it once particular services are established and running, it can be quite trivial to share them in ways that make it even easier to for others to participate.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-home-server&#34;&gt;The Home Server&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Change really can start at home. If you have a spare computer lying around, or even just a powerful machine, you can start running your own home services. This is a very useful way for technical people to provide their family members with the advantages of a (more) trusted computing experience without as much friction. One of the more popular options for this is to run a &lt;a href=&#34;https://nextcloud.com/athome/&#34;&gt;Nexcloud&lt;/a&gt; server. The options are &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted&#34;&gt;quite limitless&lt;/a&gt; especially if one learns to build their own services.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The main advantage of a home server is that you can once again gain all the benefits of cloud computing without the drawbacks of putting your data under somebody else&amp;rsquo;s control. With great power comes great responsibility, so it is important to take on challenges gradually as you learn to resolve troubles. Becoming your own (or your family&amp;rsquo;s) IT person can be frustrating and demanding at times. With reasonable expectations, gradual improvements, and a bit of patience by everyone involved, a great deal of good can be accomplished. I would highly recommend experimenting quite a bit to get a feel for what you want to run and support before taking on others as users.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are a variety of tools that themselves can help one in their goal of learning to run their own services. While these specific tools are handy, they are by no means a requirement. It&amp;rsquo;s possible to even run your own services from a Windows machine.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libreserver.org/&#34;&gt;LibreServer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://yunohost.org/#/&#34;&gt;Yunohost&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/Start9Labs/start-os&#34;&gt;StartOS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;community-services&#34;&gt;Community Services&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Do you know if you have a local, trusted hosting provider for various online services? It seems highly likely that the real reason many people are stuck with big-tech options is because of a lack of trusted local services. With surveillance and censorship only becoming more extreme, providing private local services seems like a huge opportunity for skilled and well-equipped entrepreneurs who want to protect not only themselves, but others as well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Community services are very well suited to systems that perform better at scale. These can be things like e-mail &amp;amp; community discussion platforms, to other more radical ideas such as providing storage and bandwidth for smaller entities in the community. Another benefit is that thanks to the Internet, these community run services can still be quite accessible to the wider-world when needed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For those who are remote or isolated for whatever reason, they can absolutely still benefit from online community services. Both skilled and less-skilled people alike can reap the benefits of pooled resources with a wide variety of options. Some may choose to offer open services &lt;a href=&#34;https://disroot.org/en&#34;&gt;to the public,&lt;/a&gt; but that is not the only option.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;pubnix&#34;&gt;Pubnix&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;d like to take the opportunity to highlight the concept of a &lt;em&gt;public access unix system.&lt;/em&gt; The provider(s) maintain and run what is essentially a shared computer over the Internet. This means that the capability exists for small online communities (or &amp;ldquo;digital tribes&amp;rdquo;) can have all kinds of community-centered experiences. Once someone with the skill understands how a &lt;a href=&#34;https://tilde.town/~cmccabe/online-communities.html&#34;&gt;pubnix&lt;/a&gt; works, it becomes clear that they are a very powerful tool for empowering small-scale groups of people online.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;An old and famous pubnix is the &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SDF_Public_Access_Unix_System&#34;&gt;Super Dimension Fortress&lt;/a&gt; and it&amp;rsquo;s something I wish I had encountered when I was learning my way around computers &amp;amp; linux. &lt;a href=&#34;https://sdf.org&#34;&gt;SDF&lt;/a&gt; has been in operation &lt;strong&gt;since 1987&lt;/strong&gt; which makes it older than a large amount of computer users today. It&amp;rsquo;s not the only example, there is also the &lt;a href=&#34;https://tilde.club&#34;&gt;Tilde Club&lt;/a&gt; and a wider network of &lt;a href=&#34;https://tildeverse.org/&#34;&gt;tilde communities.&lt;/a&gt; While these existing pubnixes are excellent and fascinating projects by themselves, I would challenge you to imagine what starting your own would look like.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many of these pubnixes provide a near friction-less experience for members who want to start building their own web space on top of it. Of course this is not at all limited to the web, and applies to many other kinds of online services. It&amp;rsquo;s an invaluable model for online communities that deserves much greater traction and awareness.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;restructuring-cyberspace&#34;&gt;Restructuring Cyberspace&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With a long goal of radically changing cyberspace in mind, it becomes clear that there is actually quite a bit of work to do. It&amp;rsquo;s easy to be overwhelmed with despair when one understand how far the Internet &lt;em&gt;is&lt;/em&gt; from what it &lt;em&gt;could be&lt;/em&gt;. What should excite you is that much of the effort required presents a treasure-trove of opportunities for learning and innovation. It has never been easier for individuals and groups, to have a positive impact on our digital future.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;new-software--hardware&#34;&gt;New Software &amp;amp; Hardware&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As the three primary resources in cyberspace (storage, computing power, bandwidth) become less scarce to smaller groups, new opportunities open up for systems better suited for that environment. Many ideas and techniques that seem implausible now, may very well be critical in building the foundation for a better digital future. The chance to write truly important software, and build revolutionary hardware is becoming more and more accessible. Early innovators can take a chance at building for the future they want, potentially resolving many &amp;ldquo;chicken and egg&amp;rdquo; problems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;local-isps--community-networks&#34;&gt;Local ISPs / Community Networks&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Acquiring and running computing power and having lots of storage definitely helps a person, group, or community gain more digital sovereignty. When it comes to the world-wide-web having low-latency high-speed connections are also quite important. There are many radical approaches to not only making networks &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.ncf.ca/en/high-speed-internet/community-wifi/&#34;&gt;more accessible,&lt;/a&gt; but by building local networks you build resilience from external disruption.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Self-management, the absence of profit, technological appropriation, and a community nature are recurrent characteristics of community networks. Self-management means that the decisions about the infrastructure will be made by the community itself, based on the formulation of its own rules.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://cetic.br/media/docs/publicacoes/7/20221129163841/sectoral_studies_community_networks_and_the_internet_in_brazil.pdf&#34;&gt;Community Networks and The Internet in Brazil&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A famous example would be &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/wifi-nyc-mesh-new-york-city-1.4617106&#34;&gt;NYC Mesh&lt;/a&gt; where enterprising tech volunteers built a powerful community internet for residents in exchange for a &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/UQYTO&#34;&gt;monthly donation.&lt;/a&gt; It&amp;rsquo;s worth pointing out that community networks don&amp;rsquo;t necessarily have to be wireless ones, and there are many advantages to &lt;a href=&#34;https://tech.co/news/chattanooga-fastest-internet-usa-2018-08&#34;&gt;running fiber to homes.&lt;/a&gt; It is possible to design community networks in such a way, that allows for direct connectivity to local services. Even greater censorship resistance can be built on community networks directly connecting to each other across large distances, instead of necessarily being routed through &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/hostile-cyberspace&#34;&gt;hostile cyberspace.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Trouble in Tech with Michael Ginsburg</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/trouble-in-tech/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/trouble-in-tech/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/actionable-truths.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/actionable-truth-banner.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/actionable-truth-banner.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/actionable-truth-banner.webp" />
+		<description>Exploring pitfalls, dead ends, and solutions</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I had a great conversation with Michael Ginsburg of &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.actionabletruth.media/&#34;&gt;Actionable Truth Media&lt;/a&gt; discussing how people are manipulated into supporting fake decentralization or fake solutions to pressing technological troubles. If you enjoyed our conversations you can visit his website at &lt;a href=&#34;https://actionabletruth.media&#34;&gt;actionabletruth.media&lt;/a&gt; or on his &lt;a href=&#34;https://actionabletruth.substack.com/welcome&#34;&gt;Substack.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/8318b66f-dc78-4f3d-a3c4-870d67d1ba43?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-musk-operation-x&#34;&gt;The Musk Operation (X)&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We briefly touch on how many people are falling into the cult of personality around Elon Musk, ultimately empowering Musk to have more control over their digital lives. Rallying around false saviors has a high opportunity cost in the best case scenario, and makes one complicit in all manner of concerns the worst case.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://x.com/CJHopkins_Z23/status/1823440897851449564&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/cj-musk-trump.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;web3-technocracy&#34;&gt;Web3 Technocracy&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While the Odysee team seems to be making an admirable effort taking action against censorship, there is reason to be concerned with the finer details. When one takes a close look at the &amp;ldquo;web3&amp;rdquo; ecosystem, many red flags come into view. Regardless of how one feels about the SEC decision, there are good reasons to take a close look at what new direction Odysee is taking.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://odysee.com/@lbry:3f/theendoflbryinc:d&#34;&gt;The End of LBRY Inc.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://scribe.rip/@scottcbusiness/what-happened-to-lbry-odysee-ded8c4c24bbb&#34;&gt;What Happened To LBRY &amp;amp; Odysee?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2023/10/the-sec-burned-lbry-to-the-ground.html&#34;&gt;The SEC Burned LBRY to the Ground&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/mopakmakkpa/SECURITIES%20LBRY%20ruling.pdf&#34;&gt;Ruling&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://odysee.com/@Odysee:8/FAQOdyseenewtech:e&#34;&gt;FAQ concerning Odysee&amp;rsquo;s new tech&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/jvlchandra/status/1820863442514797043&#34;&gt;Odysee moving from Ads&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/jvlchandra/status/1821250660949541328&#34;&gt;Fiat monetization for creators&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/road2hell.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/blockchain/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The road to hell: misplaced optimism in the blockchain space&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://arweave.org/&#34;&gt;Meet Arweave: Permanent information storage.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/aoTheComputer/status/1800244712093204553&#34;&gt;Additionally, persons in the US will not be able to mint $AO tokens via bridging to the network.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Cryptocurrency_Uses_Cases_2020.pdf&#34;&gt;World Economic Forum - Crypto, What Is It Good For?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/fwdresearch/status/1798748571006902751&#34;&gt;Forward Research, what is Arweave AO&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://mirror.xyz/0x1EE4bE8670E8Bd7E9E2E366F530467030BE4C840/-UWra0q0KWecSpgg2-c37dbZ0lnOMEScEEkabVm9qaQ&#34;&gt;Arweave AO economics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/MessariCrypto/status/1821233597954846746&#34;&gt;Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;internet-shutdowns&#34;&gt;Internet Shutdowns&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Michael raised the concern around Internet shutdowns. In whole or in part, internet shutdowns are a &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/smyZdtGD2ds&#34;&gt;recurring phenomenon&lt;/a&gt; as governments &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/keepiton-restore-internet-during-student-protests-bangladesh/&#34;&gt;seize control&lt;/a&gt; during times of unrest. World-wide accessible communication is a vitally important objective for those who care about a free and open Internet. In our conversation Michael explores how an internet shutdown could be used to manufacture consent for various policies such as digital ID. Currently, it seems like the primary use of internet blackouts is to &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/sierra-leone-cuts-off-internet-protests&#34;&gt;quell dissent.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-9-preview.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-9/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #9 Internet Shutdowns&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Information control is the root of modern tyranny.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Cyber Fix: Episode 5</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/cyber-fix-5/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 11 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/cyber-fix-5/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/cyber-fix-5.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix.webp" />
+		<description>Cyber Fix is a show to provide entertaining and insightful analysis of developments in Cyberspace.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Cyber Fix is on hiatus, you may now listen to full episodes on &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/p/2FbUhGmiRbzmf1TUjWP3Xr&#34;&gt;PeerTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;links-discussed&#34;&gt;Links Discussed:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;advertising-and-the-future-of-the-web&#34;&gt;Advertising and the Future of the Web&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.techdirt.com/2024/08/08/google-loses-big-antitrust-fight-which-will-mean-what-exactly/&#34;&gt;Google Loses Big Antitrust Fight, Which Will Mean What, Exactly? &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/06/breaking-up-google-would-offer-a-chance-to-remodel-the-web/&#34;&gt;Breaking up Google would offer a chance to remodel the web&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://corp.rumble.com/blog/rumble-joins-x-to-sue-advertising-cartel-that-allegedly-conspired-to-withhold-digital-advertising-revenue/&#34;&gt;Advertising Cartel that Allegedly Conspired to Withhold Digital Advertising Revenue&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.businessinsider.com/ad-group-to-suspend-garm-initiative-following-elon-musk-lawsuit-2024-8&#34;&gt;The Global Alliance for Responsible Media is &amp;lsquo;discontinuing&amp;rsquo; after Elon Musk&amp;rsquo;s X filed an antitrust lawsuit against it&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.thisdaysportion.com/posts/firefox-s-new-web-site-advertising-preferences-are-a-dark-pattern-and-the-idea-of-private-personalised-ads-is-nonsense-anyway&#34;&gt;Firefox’s new Web Site Advertising Preferences are a dark pattern and the idea of private personalised ads is nonsense anyway&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://fortune.com/2024/08/05/mozilla-firefox-biggest-potential-loser-google-antitrust-search-ruling/&#34;&gt;Forget Apple, the biggest loser in the Google search ruling could be Mozilla and its Firefox web browser&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;ai-sucks&#34;&gt;AI SUCKS&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2024/07/23/employees-report-ai-increased-workload/&#34;&gt;77% Of Employees Report AI Has Increased Workloads And Hampered Productivity, Study Finds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/survey-says-ai-is-more-buzzkill-than-buzzword-for-marketing&#34;&gt;Survey says AI is more buzzkill than buzzword for marketing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/26/apple-signs-the-white-houses-commitment-to-ai-safety/&#34;&gt;Apple signs the White House’s commitment to AI safety&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsLf4lAG0xQ&#34;&gt;AI Safety is a scam&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;crowdstrike-outage-fallout&#34;&gt;Crowdstrike Outage fallout&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.crowdstrike.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Channel-File-291-Incident-Root-Cause-Analysis-08.06.2024.pdf&#34;&gt;Root Cause Analysis&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/crowdstrike-delta-air-lines-refused-free-help-to-resolve-it-outage/&#34;&gt;Crowdstrike: Delta Air Lines refused free help to resolve IT outage&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.techradar.com/pro/microsoft-hits-back-at-delta-says-airline-refused-help-following-crowdstrike-outage-and-even-ignored-an-email-from-satya-nadella-himself&#34;&gt;Microsoft hits back at Delta — says airline refused help following CrowdStrike outage, and even ignored an email from Satya Nadella himself&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/legal/crowdstrike-sued-by-investors-over-massive-global-it-outage/&#34;&gt;CrowdStrike sued by investors over massive global IT outage&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/lets-not-celebrate-crowdstrike-lets-point-to-a-better-way&#34;&gt; Let&amp;rsquo;s not celebrate CrowdStrike &amp;ndash; let&amp;rsquo;s point to a better way &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;solutions-roundup&#34;&gt;Solutions Roundup&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.chris-wood.design/resources/linux-for-ux-designers&#34;&gt;Linux for UX Designers - What I learned after a year of doing design work on Linux&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://system76.com/cosmic&#34;&gt;Cosmic - Launch page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://ostechnix.com/pop_os-24-04-lts-first-alpha-with-cosmic-desktop-released/&#34;&gt;Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS First Alpha With COSMIC Desktop Is Released&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.system76.com/post/cosmic-team-interview-byoux&#34;&gt;COSMIC Team Interview: Building Your Own User Experience &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://sls.eff.org/&#34;&gt;Street Level Surveillance&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://brainmade.org/&#34;&gt;Brain Made&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://adamd.sdf.org/computers/mini/2024/07/20/FLX1LinuxPhone.html&#34;&gt;Furi Labs FLX1 Linux Phone first impressions&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;after-the-break&#34;&gt;After the Break:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;tech-troubles&#34;&gt;Tech Troubles&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.csoonline.com/article/3480918/design-flaw-has-microsoft-authenticator-overwriting-mfa-accounts-locking-users-out.html&#34;&gt;Design flaw has Microsoft Authenticator overwriting MFA accounts, locking users out&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/08/doj-sues-tiktok-alleging-massive-scale-invasions-of-childrens-privacy/&#34;&gt;DOJ sues TikTok, alleging “massive-scale invasions of children’s privacy”&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/31/bumble-and-hinge-allowed-stalkers-to-pinpoint-users-locations-down-to-2-meters-researchers-say/&#34;&gt;Bumble and Hinge allowed stalkers to pinpoint users’ locations down to 2 meters, researchers say&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/09/ecovacs-home-robots-can-be-hacked-to-spy-on-their-owners-researchers-say/&#34;&gt;Ecovacs home robots can be hacked to spy on their owners, researchers say&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/this-3d-printed-laser-chip-hacking-device-uses-a-dollar20-laser-pointer-costs-dollar500-to-build-and-was-developed-so-that-people-can-do-this-in-their-homes/&#34;&gt;This 3D printed laser chip-hacking device uses a $20 laser pointer, costs $500 to build, and was developed so that &amp;lsquo;people can do this in their homes&amp;rsquo;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;control-grid-updates&#34;&gt;Control Grid Updates&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://torrentfreak.com/z-library-more-domains-seized-than-any-other-pirate-site-in-history-240721/&#34;&gt;Z-Library: More Domains Seized Than Any Other Pirate Site in History&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.therage.co/banks-aml-inefficient-access-to-social-media/&#34;&gt;Banks Find AML &amp;ldquo;Ineffective&amp;rdquo;, Propose Access To Social Media&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://cybernews.com/security/paris-2024-olympic-apps-eavesdropping-on-users/&#34;&gt;Gold rush for data: Paris 2024 Olympic apps are eavesdropping on users&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://news.microsoft.com/2024/08/08/palantir-and-microsoft-partner-to-deliver-enhanced-analytics-and-ai-services-to-classified-networks-for-critical-national-security-operations/&#34;&gt;Palantir and Microsoft Partner to Deliver Enhanced Analytics and AI Services to Classified Networks for Critical National Security Operations&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://techcrunch.com/2024/08/09/as-unrest-fueled-by-disinformation-spreads-the-u-k-may-seek-stronger-power-to-regulate-tech-platforms/&#34;&gt;As unrest fueled by disinformation spreads, the UK may seek stronger power to regulate tech platforms&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;dunking-on-bitcoin&#34;&gt;Dunking on Bitcoin&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/sheislaurenlee/status/1816950008828272966&#34;&gt;Snowden&amp;rsquo;s Warning to Bitcoiners&amp;hellip;and everyone&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/jeremykauffman/status/1817895472540905636&#34;&gt;The problems with Bitcoin are cultural.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/AaronRDay/status/1820178013847441684&#34;&gt;Bitcoin and Network Effects: A myth?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;fine-details&#34;&gt;Fine Details:&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.pcworld.com/article/2413156/hackers-can-wirelessly-watch-your-screen-via-hdmi-radiation.html&#34;&gt;Hackers can wirelessly watch your display via HDMI radiation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://tv.undersco.re/w/b1d19257-96a8-4ca2-bee2-b526e8e8ee2c&#34;&gt;What Comes Next is Nothing: FOSS, subculture and platform collapse&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.404media.co/podcast-signals-president-meredith-whittaker-on-backdoors-and-ai/&#34;&gt;404 Media Interviews Meredith Whittaker on Backdoors &amp;amp; AI&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/russia-blocks-signal-for-violating-anti-terrorism-laws/&#34;&gt;Russia blocks Signal for &amp;lsquo;violating&amp;rsquo; anti-terrorism laws&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://soatok.blog/2024/07/31/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-signal-competitor/&#34;&gt;What Does It Mean To Be A Signal Competitor?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;music-credits&#34;&gt;Music Credits:&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/n79aphwhpW0&#34;&gt;Y&amp;amp;V - Lune&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/o_v9WSImGIU&#34;&gt;Valcos - A New Light&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/qLYmtdi-GzA&#34;&gt;Killercats - Kaibu&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/zTdzbNVf6lE&#34;&gt;The Grid by SavfkMusic&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Are You For Or Against Technocracy?</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/rethink-technocracy/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/rethink-technocracy/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/3-breaking-free.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/3-breaking-free.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/3-breaking-free.webp" />
+		<description>Your concrete choice between conscience or control</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;We are far from the time where various dystopian terrors were mere science-fiction. They are here, and we can see their effects. No longer blissfully ignorant, we have a choice, and a role to play in shaping the future. Some see the rise of surveillance, censorship, and consolidation of power as a threat to all we hold dear, others may see it as an opportunity to enrich themselves or resolve crises. This may initially seem like a fair exchange: some data and personal choice in return for mild advancements and security. We have seen this deal turn sour over and over, time and time again. It is poised to only get worse as digital intrusions continue to become more invasive.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/dystopia.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/technocratic-assimilation/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Has the technocracy already assimilated you?&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Where does the balance of power lie within your life?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The decision to maintain control over your data, or to avoid &lt;a href=&#34;http://localhost:1313/articles/hostile-cyberspace/&#34;&gt;hostile cyberspace&lt;/a&gt; may seem entirely inconsequential. But each day, each person refutes or reaffirms their support or withdraw from consolidated power and top-down control. Decisions over details that may seem innocuous, such as where to store data, how you work, and what tools are used; all amount to meaningful changes in cyberspace both for good and ill.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Presently, it seems that the path of least resistance is one fraught with suffering and despair, for ourselves and for others. The best thing about our problems being better understood is that we can identify the sources of problems, and start to find solutions. The hardest part about this burden of knowledge is that we must face our own responsibility for our choices.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s all well and good to recognize the danger of an all-encompassing totalitarian &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/insecurity/&#34;&gt;cyber-police state.&lt;/a&gt; Complete hubris is to consider that it&amp;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;just being used incorrectly&lt;/em&gt;. After all, if the problems are entirely &lt;em&gt;who&amp;rsquo;s really in charge&lt;/em&gt;, taking on that responsibility is the clear alternative. This means that there are not merely two choices.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Alternatively, one can recognize the dangers of such power and work to withdraw their financial, social, and cognitive support for the technological terror that is being constructed. Ultimately working to ensure that no person or people is able to wield such power against others. Doing this requires a lot of hard work, compassion and creativity to truly make waves across time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/platos-cave.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/cyber-resistance/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Rise of the Cyber Resistance&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Finding the path that works for you&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But those are not the only options. One may recognize the opportunity within the corrupt workforce to &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/musk/&#34;&gt;seize the power for themselves.&lt;/a&gt; There are all kinds of rationalizations that will comfortably fit within one&amp;rsquo;s mind to justify whatever excesses are necessary to secure such power. Telling themselves &amp;ldquo;If I don&amp;rsquo;t, &lt;em&gt;worse people&lt;/em&gt; will!&amp;rdquo; and that may sometimes be true to some degree, but it&amp;rsquo;s always relative.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But why take on &lt;em&gt;all that work yourself?&lt;/em&gt; This is something that can easily be outsourced to the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/trump-conservatives-technocracy/&#34;&gt;well-funded political machine.&lt;/a&gt; Instead of doing the hard work of understanding how systems actually work, and then working on ways to decentralize power, you can simply watch a new false savior to wage your battles from the comfort of your favorite glowing rectangle. By shirking your responsibility to engage, connect, and understand, you are empowering those who profit off speaking for you. With no mind to accountability in any form, power will be abused without resistance.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/1056de6c-237f-4ad5-8b59-762cdef5135e?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For better or worse, it&amp;rsquo;s not entirely up to you. This is a decision we all make in some form or another, on all kinds of issues. In terms of systems for mechanized control, the consequences can be quite profound. Therefore your decision is not merely a consequence of your preferences, attitude, or stated goals, but actually involves many more decisions like allies, methods, and choices.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This applies not just to individuals, but institutions like corporations and even governments. If one is quick to blame people for choosing convenience over principles, they must also consider how that multiplies over large organizations. It makes no difference how these systems are organized, be it through government, corporate power, or even on a blockchain the troubles are all the same. It is of utmost concern that the tide of machines being used to manipulate, destroy, and control people is reversed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/broken-house.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/war-and-technocracy/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The Ugliness of War and Technocracy&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;A look at weapons of war in the digital age.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The purpose of &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/why/&#34;&gt;this project&lt;/a&gt; is to encourage each other to take on the task of making total technocratic control impossible. This means, not merely in &amp;lsquo;&lt;em&gt;the right hands&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rsquo;, not only when convenient, not ever. There are a wide array of convincing pretexts one may use to justify censorship, mass surveillance, or worse. It is my position that these methods &lt;em&gt;themselves&lt;/em&gt; distort incentives against them being used properly, and ultimately lead to terrifying abuses.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The trouble for those working to re-work the foundations so that future generations may be more free from and over their digital experience, is that it is crucial not to be naive about those with different choices. First one must understand that there are many who are not willing or able to put in the effort to liberate themselves much less others, and forgive them for it. Then also recognize that there are many who will knowingly work to undermine the autonomy of others for their own benefit.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With the understanding that there are not only those who go along to get along, but a wide array of people competing for dominance, it becomes easier to understand why so much is spend on undermining the efforts of those working to improve cyberspace. The many differing factions vying for control over cyberspace are aligned in a single goal: nobody should be able to liberate the public. That is why you&amp;rsquo;ll often encounter fair-weather allies turn 180 degrees once they&amp;rsquo;ve built a stronger coalition than their opponents.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/affinity-scam.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/redirecting-resistance/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Mass Resistance Redirected&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Selling out for shamefully low prices&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is an urgent need for people to set aside petty differences and be honest to keep malevolent forces at bay. It is well past time to push for genuine accountability in our systems and our governance. This requires people to urgently build connections that are stronger than any political or social drama of today.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The future of a free cyberspace depends on the future of people being free to live without being micro-managed by systems of control. This is why our freedom over technology is inseparably connected with freedom from it in the real world. Instead of conceding cyberspace as a force for intrusion into people&amp;rsquo;s lives, we can &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/reclaiming-cyberspace/&#34;&gt;reclaim it&lt;/a&gt; for each other.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Heads up! Software Freedom Day: Reconnect, Rediscover, Rebuild</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/software-freedom-day/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 24 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/software-freedom-day/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/artistic-banner.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/artistic-banner.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/artistic-banner.webp" />
+		<description>September 21st is Software Freedom Day, celebrate with others!</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Never before has our ability to build complicated systems been such a threat to our very being. Social manipulation, media addiction, and many other problems lead people to want to disconnect entirely, or capitulate in despair. Many of us know better, and want to share a better digital future with others. Bringing that into being requires more than just using the right tools yourself, or having the perfect setup.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is incredibly important our journey to reclaim &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/digital-autonomy/&#34;&gt;digital autonomy&lt;/a&gt; isn&amp;rsquo;t taken on alone. Getting others involved is a fun and engaging way to actually strengthen your community online and offline. The answer is to learn, create, and share together with others. These days, people are almost begging for reasons to leave cyberspace behind and bond with each other in person.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In just a little less than two months, you have time to prepare what you want to share with others for &lt;strong&gt;Software Freedom Day on September 21st.&lt;/strong&gt; Maybe you&amp;rsquo;d like to organize a get-together, or instead merely get drinks with some friends to &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/digital-autonomy--the-arts/&#34;&gt;talk about your digital experience.&lt;/a&gt; Whatever you choose, there is tons of opportunity in sharing the software freedom with others. This is an excellent chance to rekindle a world-wide movement for digital freedoms, and reconnect with each other.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://digitalfreedoms.org/en/sfd&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/software-freedom-day-2012.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Resurrecting Software Freedom Day - LibrePlanet 2024 &lt;a target=&#39;_blank&#39; href=&#39;https://framatube.org/videos/watch/3d4c65c5-db42-4b61-b8e7-82564898cc33&#39;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-is-software-freedom&#34;&gt;What is &amp;lsquo;Software Freedom&amp;rsquo;?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Software that is free allows you to inspect it&amp;rsquo;s source code, make your own modifications, and share it with (&lt;em&gt;or without your changes&lt;/em&gt;) with others. Ideally, this means that our software can be more transparent, personal, and flexible. There is a vast array of &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software&#34;&gt;Free Software&lt;/a&gt; available, with over 6000 projects listed on the &lt;a href=&#34;https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Main_Page&#34;&gt;free software directory.&lt;/a&gt; The free software movement has grown significantly in no small part due to warning about many of our current day struggles as early as four decades ago. Software freedom is about more than just software licenses, it&amp;rsquo;s a mission to reclaim control over your machines and ultimately, your entire digital experience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;That mission is about more than just our individual experience, but also about withdrawing consent from consolidated top-down control systems. By supporting the digital autonomy of others, you&amp;rsquo;re helping throw a wrench in the gears of the technocratic machine. The less data and control flowing to corporations (&lt;em&gt;or dictated by governments&lt;/em&gt;) the more people can expect their systems to be transparent, efficient, and reliable. The fact that a great deal of &lt;em&gt;Free as in Freedom&lt;/em&gt; software also happens to be &lt;em&gt;free as in low cost&lt;/em&gt; is a great win for accessibility.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;helpful-resources-for-software-freedom-day&#34;&gt;Helpful Resources for Software Freedom Day&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://digitalfreedoms.org/en/sfd/blog/ten-ways-to-make-your-software-freedom-day-more-fun&#34;&gt;Ten Ways to Make Your Software Freedom Day More Fun!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://digitalfreedoms.org/en/sfd/events?view=map&#34;&gt;Software Freedom Day - Events Map&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/c/lsn/videos&#34;&gt;Libre Solutions Network Videos&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://video.blender.org/c/blender_reels/videos&#34;&gt;Blender Video&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://switching.software/&#34;&gt;Switching Software&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://tilvids.com/videos/trending&#34;&gt;TILvids&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-digital-freedom-foundation&#34;&gt;The Digital Freedom Foundation&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://digitalfreedoms.org/&#34;&gt;Digital Freedom Foundation&lt;/a&gt; is a non-profit that aims &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;to empower all people to freely connect, create and share in a digital world that is participatory, transparent, and sustainable.&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; It&amp;rsquo;s the go-to resource for organizing, or discovering local digital freedom events.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;table&gt;
+  &lt;thead&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;th&gt;Event&lt;/th&gt;
+          &lt;th&gt;Date&lt;/th&gt;
+          &lt;th&gt;Description&lt;/th&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+  &lt;/thead&gt;
+  &lt;tbody&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://digitalfreedoms.org/en/sfd&#34;&gt;Software Freedom Day&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;September 21st&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Software Freedom Day is an annual worldwide celebration of Free Software. It provides a wonderful way to increase awareness and educate others about the value of Free, Libre and Open Source Software.&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://digitalfreedoms.org/en/hfd&#34;&gt;Hardware Freedom Day&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;April 19th&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Hardware Freedom Day celebrates the benefits of Open Hardware and Open Hardware design initiatives. Imagine what we could do if medical and technical hardware was inexpensive and accessible for manufacture for everyone needing these tools.&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://digitalfreedoms.org/en/dfd&#34;&gt;Document Freedom Day&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;March 26th&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Document Freedom Day is an international event to celebrate and raise awareness of Open Standards. Without Open Standards how can we successfully communicate, share knowledge and scientific discoveries?&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+  &lt;/tbody&gt;
+&lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hopefully you can get connected with others through these events, or manage to run your own! Change really starts when we get together to share our passions, knowledge, and experiences. There has never been a better time to get people engaged on the wide variety of issues caused by our reliance on Big Tech, or state encroachments on cyberspace.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Of course, you&amp;rsquo;re always welcome to use the Internet as a last resort!&lt;br&gt;
+Feel free to share your thoughts, experiences, or creative work for Free Software Day however you can.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Cyber Fix: Episode 4</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/cyber-fix-4/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/cyber-fix-4/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/cyber-fix-4.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix.webp" />
+		<description>Cyber Fix is a show to provide entertaining and insightful analysis of developments in Cyberspace.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Cyber Fix is on hiatus, you may now listen to full episodes on &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/p/2FbUhGmiRbzmf1TUjWP3Xr&#34;&gt;PeerTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;links-discussed&#34;&gt;Links Discussed&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;wacky-tech-news&#34;&gt;Wacky tech news:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.techdirt.com/2024/07/11/2350-amazon-astro-business-robots-to-become-pointless-paperweights-11-months-after-release/&#34;&gt;$2,350 Amazon ‘Astro’ Business Robots To Become Pointless Paperweights 11 Months After Release &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://futurism.com/the-byte/child-safe-ai-alexa-girl-penny-wall-socket&#34;&gt;Researchers Call for &amp;ldquo;Child-Safe AI&amp;rdquo; After Alexa Tells Little Girl to Stick Penny in Wall Socket&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/single/squarespace-domain-hijacking&#34;&gt;Popular defi protocol websites replaced with wallet drainers amid mass Squarespace domain hijacking&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://stackdiary.com/linksys-velop-routers-send-wi-fi-passwords-in-plaintext-to-us-servers/&#34;&gt;Linksys Velop routers send Wi-Fi passwords in plaintext to US servers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/07/cloudflare-reports-that-almost-7-of-all-internet-traffic-is-malicious.html&#34;&gt;Cloudflare Reports that Almost 7% of All Internet Traffic Is Malicious&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;firefox-woes&#34;&gt;Firefox Woes:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.thisdaysportion.com/posts/firefoxs-new-web-site-advertising-preferences-are-a-dark-pattern-and-the-idea-of-private-personalised-ads-is-nonsense-anyway/&#34;&gt;Firefox’s new Web Site Advertising Preferences are a dark pattern and the idea of private personalized ads is nonsense anyway&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;solutions-roundup&#34;&gt;Solutions Roundup:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://brainfucksec.github.io//firefox-hardening-guide-2024&#34;&gt;Firefox Hardening Guide 2024&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.techradar.com/phones/i-used-a-dumb-phone-for-a-week-here-are-5-things-i-loved-and-5-things-i-missed&#34;&gt;I used a ‘dumb phone’ for a week – here are 5 things I loved and 5 things I missed&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.thepodcasthost.com/business-of-podcasting/what-is-podcasting-2-0-and-why-should-i-care/&#34;&gt;What is Podcasting 2.0? And Why Should I Care?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/how-and-why-to-block-ads/&#34;&gt;How and Why to Block Ads&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://kzimmermann.0x.no/articles/end_of_line_proprietary_os.html&#34;&gt;Reaching an &amp;ldquo;end of the line&amp;rdquo; regarding proprietary OSes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;dispatches-from-the-cyberwar&#34;&gt;Dispatches from the Cyberwar&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://thehackernews.com/2024/07/sap-ai-core-vulnerabilities-expose.html&#34;&gt;SAP AI Core Vulnerabilities Expose Customer Data to Cyber Attacks&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;after-the-break&#34;&gt;After the Break&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;crowdstrike&#34;&gt;Crowdstrike&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/SheriefFYI/status/1814208527335850481&#34;&gt;Sherief, FYI&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/RealGeneKim/status/1814380972068221344&#34;&gt;X thread of the scope of the damage&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/vincent_vancode/status/1814414074492731585&#34;&gt;Commentary of BSOD&amp;rsquo;d MRI machine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://infosec.exchange/@da_667/112814798447666589&#34;&gt;How does one secure data?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://bsd.network/@cynicalsecurity/112819827542225590&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/crowdstrike-tos.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/experts-are-warning-it-could-take-weeks-to-fix-the-global-it-outage-heres-what-we-know&#34;&gt;Experts are warning it could take &amp;lsquo;weeks&amp;rsquo; to fix the global IT outage – here&amp;rsquo;s what we know&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://stackdiary.com/crowdstrike-took-down-debian-and-rocky-linux-a-few-months-ago-and-no-one-noticed/&#34;&gt;CrowdStrike took down Debian and Rocky Linux a few months ago and no one noticed&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://thehackernews.com/2024/07/cybercriminals-exploit-crowdstrike.html&#34;&gt;Major Microsoft 365 outage caused by Azure configuration change&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Read more:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/falcon-update-for-windows-hosts-technical-details/&#34;&gt;Technical Details: Falcon Content Update for Windows Hosts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.crowdstrike.com/falcon-content-update-remediation-and-guidance-hub/&#34;&gt;Remediation and Guidance Hub: Falcon Content Update for Windows Hosts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;notable-breaches&#34;&gt;Notable Breaches&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/podcast/Risk-Repeat-ATTs-Snowflake-database-breached&#34;&gt;Risk &amp;amp; Repeat: AT&amp;amp;T&amp;rsquo;s Snowflake database breached&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://mjtsai.com/blog/2024/07/12/huge-att-data-breach/&#34;&gt;Huge AT&amp;amp;T Data Breach&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.biometricupdate.com/202407/data-breach-raises-questions-about-fractal-ids-decentralized-identity-architecture&#34;&gt;Data breach raises questions about Fractal ID’s decentralized identity architecture&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;government-and-tech&#34;&gt;Government and Tech&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.techdirt.com/2024/07/08/for-whatever-reason-the-us-post-office-is-still-running-its-mail-cover-surveillance-program/&#34;&gt;For Whatever Reason, The US Post Office Is Still Running Its Mail Cover Surveillance Program&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2024/07/staff-discussion-paper-2024-11/&#34;&gt;The Role of Public Money in the Digital Age&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://cyberscoop.com/cyber-budget-priorities-fiscal-2024/&#34;&gt;White House wants to boost cyber funds for fiscal 2026&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://fsfe.org/news/2024/news-20240719-01.html&#34;&gt;EC cuts funding support for Free Software projects&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://kde.org/announcements/2024_ngi_openletter/&#34;&gt;KDE signs petition urging European Union to continue funding free software&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Why Support the Libre Solutions Network?</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/why/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/why/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/3-breaking-free.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/3-breaking-free.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/3-breaking-free.webp" />
+		<description>Advancing the discussion on tech and liberty.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#im-sold-how-do-i-help&#34;&gt;[Jump to how you can help]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As more people&amp;rsquo;s lives become entirely dependent on technology, the impacts of the systems and tools we use can only become more profound. By naively accepting the assumptions and systems provided by corporations and governments, we allow ourselves to become prey on their hunting grounds.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This project was always intended to motivate people to take part in changing the technological landscape from the bottom up. We can all take action in our lives, for a better balance with cyberspace, one that isn&amp;rsquo;t outright dominated by large institutions. Each member of the public is under threat from grave concerns like mass surveillance, censorship, and manufactured dependence. Overcoming this will require time, perseverance, and a commitment to judgement-free education and outreach. As difficult as this can seem, we know that it is demonstrably within our power to fundamentally change our  digital experience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of merely presenting one-size-fits-all solutions, the focus has always been on providing the necessary context to build meaningful understanding. I wholeheartedly believe that we can build a digital foundation that isn&amp;rsquo;t corrosive to our autonomy, mental health, and civic participation. It will require a phenomenal amount of work, which is why it&amp;rsquo;s crucial to take on incremental goals while keeping a long-term vision in mind.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;what-is-that-vision&#34;&gt;What is That Vision?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The primary vision of the Libre Solutions Network is to discover, share, and collaborate on actionable steps for individuals and communities to reclaim their &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/digital-autonomy/&#34;&gt;digital autonomy.&lt;/a&gt; Which is when people are in charge of what systems they use, how they are used, and when they are used.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Without becoming overly invested in particular approaches, this project is about learning important lessons to build a solid understanding. Then with that knowledge, making the journey from where we are to where we would like to be. At the same time, it is important to recognize the shortcomings of approaches that rely too much on insulating people from each other, or from understanding.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In short, this project aims to be the &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Teach a man to fish&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; equivalent to promoting digital autonomy. Instead of striving to find the single best answer of today, the goal is always to build a more complete picture of where we are and where we would like to be. The way forward is going to require people motivated to learn, collaborate, and share. The values this project aims to promote are stewardship, responsibility, and dedication. Collaboration between people of different walks of life requires putting particular concerns aside, and embracing the opportunities that lie ahead.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;what-makes-this-project-different&#34;&gt;What Makes This Project Different?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The Libre Solutions Network is about getting the public excited about opportunities in building a better digital future. A great deal of this includes research into novel solutions as well as long-forgotten techniques to modern-day problems. I&amp;rsquo;ve come to learn that the biggest obstacle to people&amp;rsquo;s privacy, security, and digital autonomy is not doubt, ignorance, or even fear, but actually defeatism.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite the current state of technology being a recent phenomenon, a great deal of people see it as not only inevitable, but also immutable. These are both false. Through the Libre Solutions Network I aim to raise people from the slumber of apathy and despair and reinvigorate people&amp;rsquo;s fierce pursuit for true innovation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By putting cutting-edge software into practice I advance and share not only my own technical knowledge, but its application to broader objectives such as censorship resistance and digital autonomy. By recognizing the advantages of tried-and-true techniques, genuinely foundational knowledge can be shared to help others start on a better path.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;why-gabriel&#34;&gt;Why Gabriel?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I have been told throughout my career that I have a gift for communicating technological ideas and problems to those without advanced knowledge. I have witnessed my capacity to bridge understanding between those with tech skills and those without. This project is primarily motivated by my desire to use these skills for good.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I believe this project is important, and a great deal of compulsion drives me to carry it forward. While I will always work to advance this mission in some form or another, financial constraints limit my ability to allow this project to flourish. I&amp;rsquo;ve spent a great deal of time researching this problem, but I know I&amp;rsquo;ve really only scratched the surface. I believe I am in a unique position to know where the rich veins of insight can be found.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With more resources for this project I feel like I would be able to make significant investments that could make this project much more effective. Acquiring knowledge in specific areas of interest often results in costs from hardware or even information. Expanding my own knowledge helps me get a clearer picture of the larger whole. The hope is that if I am given the ability to fulfill this mission directly, I can then greatly accelerate other&amp;rsquo;s ability to get up to speed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I have ambitious goals. If given the opportunity, I believe this project can grow into a powerful force. Not only for keeping the the encroachments of technocratic control at bay, but it would also do wonders for helping people discover and adopt vastly better ways of working with technology, rather than being forced to work for it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, I believe that it is about more than merely the goals themselves. Goals are important, and one is almost always lost without them. However, I have a firm appreciation that the means used to accomplish particular goals are themselves worth giving serious consideration. If we truly want to deviate from the digital status quo, prioritizing education as an end to itself is vital. We need to recognize that building up the people&amp;rsquo;s knowledge is a more worthwhile endeavor than providing a &amp;lsquo;solution&amp;rsquo; that teaches them nothing.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;achievements&#34;&gt;Achievements&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Over the course of this project, there are a variety of things that have validated its importance to me.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Digital Autonomy First&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;All of my work has been made with censorship-resistance in mind, and decentralized platforms are given first-class treatment. Posts are written for &lt;a href=&#34;#&#34;&gt;this website&lt;/a&gt; which includes a &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/rss&#34;&gt;media-embedded RSS feed&lt;/a&gt; for use with various podcasting apps. In addition to this, videos and audio broadcasts are given first-class treatment on the self-hosted &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;PeerTube instance.&lt;/a&gt; Furthermore, for those who are deeply concerned about their anonymity, the website is mirrored on &lt;a href=&#34;http://3vmmhpy7723gkeohqalch5ycesyjl7atnol5jdiqbb55a5be7bcmtrid.onion/&#34;&gt;Tor&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&#34;http://libresolutionsnetwork.i2p/?i2paddresshelper=szPtrjHWqRnRnKiLEhTCtuZP6xqIau71yPEuxZSYziOzM-2uMdapGdGcqIsSFMK25k~rGohq7vXI8S7FlJjOI7Mz7a4x1qkZ0ZyoixIUwrbmT-saiGru9cjxLsWUmM4jszPtrjHWqRnRnKiLEhTCtuZP6xqIau71yPEuxZSYziOzM-2uMdapGdGcqIsSFMK25k~rGohq7vXI8S7FlJjOI7Mz7a4x1qkZ0ZyoixIUwrbmT-saiGru9cjxLsWUmM4jszPtrjHWqRnRnKiLEhTCtuZP6xqIau71yPEuxZSYziOzM-2uMdapGdGcqIsSFMK25k~rGohq7vXI8S7FlJjOI7Mz7a4x1qkZ0ZyoixIUwrbmT-saiGru9cjxLsWUmM4jszPtrjHWqRnRnKiLEhTCtuZP6xqIau71yPEuxZSYziOzM-2uMdapGdGcqIsSFMK25k~rGohq7vXI8S7FlJjOIx22WZm3WShEGsIwgVYjO6UOdhCqbpa1J5t3O56Hc1IFBQAEAAcAAA==&#34;&gt;I2P&lt;/a&gt; hidden services, which also includes the same RSS feeds.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The content itself is made with primarily Free Software and/or Open Source tools:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Images:&lt;/strong&gt; Made with &lt;a href=&#34;https://inkscape.org&#34;&gt;Inkscape&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://gimp.org&#34;&gt;GIMP&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Videos:&lt;/strong&gt; Edited using &lt;a href=&#34;https://blender.org&#34;&gt;Blender&lt;/a&gt; and often recorded with &lt;a href=&#34;https://obsproject.com/&#34;&gt;OBS Studio,&lt;/a&gt; some intereviews have taken place over &lt;a href=&#34;https://jitsi.org/&#34;&gt;Jitsi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Audio:&lt;/strong&gt; Editing done with &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.audacityteam.org/&#34;&gt;Audacity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Operating System&lt;/strong&gt; My favorite Linux Distribution&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Command-line tools:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://ffmpeg.org&#34;&gt;ffmpeg&lt;/a&gt; for converting audio/video &amp;amp;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Website:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://gohugo.io&#34;&gt;hugo&lt;/a&gt; for &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/best-website-for-you/&#34;&gt;static website generation&lt;/a&gt; with a automatic continuous deployment service integrated with &lt;a href=&#34;https://forgejo.org/&#34;&gt;Forgejo&lt;/a&gt; for source control.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Information Management&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://freshrss.org&#34;&gt;FreshRSS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;World-wide Reach:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Some of my articles, notably &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy&#34;&gt;The Tools of The Technocracy&lt;/a&gt; as well as &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/war-and-technocracy&#34;&gt;The Ugliness of War and Technocracy&lt;/a&gt; have been translated into many languages and widely shared. &lt;a href=&#34;#&#34;&gt;This website&lt;/a&gt; has seen hits from 79 countries all over the world!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;table&gt;
+  &lt;thead&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;th&gt;Country&lt;/th&gt;
+          &lt;th&gt;Visitors&lt;/th&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+  &lt;/thead&gt;
+  &lt;tbody&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;🇺🇸 United States&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;(44%)&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;🇷🇺 Russian Federation&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;(13%)&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;🇨🇦 Canada&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;(7%)&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;🇬🇧 United Kingdom&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;(5%)&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;🇦🇺 Australia&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;(3%)&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;🇳🇱 Netherlands&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;(2%)&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;🇩🇪 Germany&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;(2%)&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;🇨🇳 China&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;(2%)&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;🇫🇷 France&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;(2%)&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;🇦🇹 Austria&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;(1%)&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+  &lt;/tbody&gt;
+&lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite being Canadian, it seems that more of my known hits are coming from Russia.&lt;br&gt;
+Hopefully more Canadians find interest in this work!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Unique Coverage:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Where possible, I&amp;rsquo;ve covered topics that aren&amp;rsquo;t easy to find elsewhere:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/videos/data-shedding&#34;&gt;Data Shedding - A Real-time Privacy Risk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/broken-internet&#34;&gt;Cybergheddon ISP-level De-platforming&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/alt-tech&#34;&gt;Lessons from Alt-Tech Failures&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/videos/serenum&#34;&gt;Serenum: The &amp;lsquo;From Scratch&amp;rsquo; OS Revolution&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Long-form guides on Actionable Topics&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/reclaiming-cyberspace&#34;&gt;Reclaiming Territory in Cyberspace&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/diy-audit&#34;&gt;DIY Cyber Audit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/rss-love&#34;&gt;We Don’t Love RSS Enough&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/backups&#34;&gt;Securing your Data: Backups&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/shadow&#34;&gt;Operation: Shadow&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;testimonials&#34;&gt;Testimonials&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A great partner in the fight to liberate our stuff!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://fighttorepair.substack.com/&#34;&gt;Fight to Repair&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Gabriel, you doing something unique and useful. Helping people like me navigate the dangers of technology while also appreciating and taking advantage of is invaluable!&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://annecantstandit.substack.com/&#34;&gt;Anne Gibbons&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Gabriel, awesome that you are helping people to learn about free software and to embrace the freedom and respect the community generates.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;William&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Excellent and detailed coverage on the tools of technocracy and their privacy invasion and mass social engineering.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.alilybit.com/&#34;&gt;A Lily Bit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;im-sold-how-do-i-help&#34;&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m Sold! &lt;em&gt;How Do I Help?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-basics&#34;&gt;The Basics&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I greatly appreciate any encouragement or constructive feedback. I&amp;rsquo;ve certainly learned a lot from insight provided by those who appreciate this project, always know that your thoughts, questions, or suggestions are always welcome.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If nothing else, it can help a lot if you just make sure this resource isn&amp;rsquo;t forgotten.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Bookmarking the website at &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/&#34;&gt;libresolutions.network&lt;/a&gt; goes a long way.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I highly recommend following the media-enabled &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/rss&#34;&gt;RSS Feed&lt;/a&gt; or the light text/audio only &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/about/index.xml&#34;&gt;feed.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t forget that there is also a &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;PeerTube instance&lt;/a&gt; for all audio and video broadcasts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Sharing the information in this project with others is always very appreciated.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you use social media, you are encouraged to share clips, screenshots and link back!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;getting-involved&#34;&gt;Getting Involved&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This project has always been about more than just myself. I&amp;rsquo;ve always greatly appreciated the feedback and insight I&amp;rsquo;ve been given from others who have commented or reached out via other means.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;financial-support&#34;&gt;Financial Support&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are three ways to financially support this project, both Substack and Mitra subscriptions include access to full-length episodes of my new tech news roundup &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/cyber-fix&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Cyber Fix&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/a&gt; At the time of writing I believe the show is off to a great start, and I look forward to keeping it informative while making it more and more of an enjoyable listen.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;libresolutionsnetwork.substack.com/subscribe&#34;&gt;Substack subscription&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://fedi.libresolutions.network/@lsn/subscription&#34;&gt;Mitra subscription&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Donation through &lt;a href=&#34;https://liberapay.com/Gabe&#34;&gt;Liberapay&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;If you are already supporting this work, you have my sincere gratitude!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Noise About Signal</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/noise-about-signal/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/noise-about-signal/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/keyboard-key.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/keyboard-key.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/keyboard-key.webp" />
+		<description>Mulling over recent digital woes</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Earlier this month, Signal was embroiled in controversy as a known vulnerability in the desktop client was rediscovered by an iOS developer. Initially, the president of the Signal Foundation decided to state that it &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/mer__edith/status/1810645893714002039&#34;&gt;didn&amp;rsquo;t need to be fixed,&lt;/a&gt; but after a short period of time, the Signal developers started &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/pull/6849#issuecomment-2218845070&#34;&gt;working on a fix.&lt;/a&gt; In short, community engagement saved the day and we can all sleep better knowing that a fair amount of people care about security enough to push for meaningful improvements. That&amp;rsquo;s not quite the end of the story though, there are good reasons to consider the fine details.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;what-was-the-vulnerability&#34;&gt;What was the vulnerability?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many programs you use require &lt;em&gt;persistence&lt;/em&gt; in some form or another.
+In the case of Signal, this means that without saving files you would need to re-sync your account every time you open the program and download all your messages again. To solve this, programs generally store file and/or a database in an application data folder under your user account.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This &lt;em&gt;seems&lt;/em&gt; like a normal and reasonable thing to do, however on desktop platforms there is less protection from the user themselves accessing files. This means that any other program you run has the &lt;em&gt;capability&lt;/em&gt; of stealing that information as long as it is run under your user account. Mobile operating systems like Android and iOS work differently, and try to isolate files on a per-app basis.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Without any additional protections, such as the user having to enter a password to decrypt the messenger&amp;rsquo;s files, the user&amp;rsquo;s messages are vulnerable to being read by malicious actors. Anyone who seizes access to the files also has access to the user&amp;rsquo;s Signal chats and their content. It&amp;rsquo;s worth noting that for this particular vulnerability, Session (a Signal fork) was also impacted by this problem. In truth, for the same reasons that Signal didn&amp;rsquo;t see it as an important problem in 2018, I would expect other applications to have similar problems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;what-are-the-implications&#34;&gt;What are the implications?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Convenience vs security:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Depending on what the goals for a particular project are, you can rationally defend particular limitations. If a software project merely intends to be a &amp;ldquo;starter option&amp;rdquo; for somebody just beginning to seize control over their digital affairs, ease-of-use may be a higher priority than state-of-the art. It does sound like a terrible idea to those of us who do prioritize privacy and security, but getting more people protected from the most egregious threats can have a huge impact if made easy enough.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Signal is held to a higher standard however, at least by many who see it as the de-facto standard for a secure messenger. One way to overcome the convenience vs security dilemma is to allow for users to opt-in to better security protections. This isn&amp;rsquo;t necessarily ideal, because people rarely switch away from the defaults. Another solution would be to offer various &amp;ldquo;flavors&amp;rdquo; of the program, with different defaults based on the needs the user has. With regular reminders that enhanced security is available, this could be a best-case scenario for everyone involved at the cost of additional development headache.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Another solution that I believe should be considered more, is the adoption of hardware token based authentication. Instead of relying entirely on ourselves to remember and constantly enter difficult passwords, using an authentication key can work better. Having a dedicated encryption module can offer a more seamless interaction with various security measures at the cost of more development overhead. In addition to this, hardware keys can not be stolen over the Internet as easily as passwords.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Of course, without any development work, a sophisticated solution is for experienced users to use something like &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.qubes-os.org/&#34;&gt;Qubes OS&lt;/a&gt; to manually isolate every program on their system in its own virtual machine.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The only constant is change:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Personally, what&amp;rsquo;s really interesting to me is that this scenario really highlights how much people are generally willing to overlook problems when there isn&amp;rsquo;t a readily available &amp;rsquo;turn-key&amp;rsquo; solution. Since 2018, operating system features built for protecting sensitive information have been developed and more widely adopted by other applications. These features gaining prominence is the very thing that moved the needle on making the status quo untenable.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Not only do threats evolve, but so do solutions. It is possible that many things we currently accept may become disastrous, yet easy to resolve in the future. If nothing else, this is a call to seriously consider long-term sustainability of various habits and techniques, as well as how we can emphasize adaptability in a rapidly changing environment. It is clear that now is not the time for complacency, and that a significant amount of effort is required to truly build a coherent foundation for computing.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;File management:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Consider: &lt;em&gt;Does it even make sense to protect various files as &amp;lsquo;special&amp;rsquo; in the first place&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While at first glance one may assume that critical information like decryption keys are inherently more worth protecting than miscellaneous files or other program data, but there are good counter-arguments. For example, any documents or records you keep themselves may have sensitive content that also needs to be protected. In addition to this, most browsers are also vulnerable to the same threat, which means attackers can potentially break into a person&amp;rsquo;s accounts or read their entire browsing history.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;That itself is a big problem, without simple answers. One option is to try to build more protections on top of existing systems, another is to wipe the slate clean and try to rebuild entirely based on lessons learned. If you haven&amp;rsquo;t already, I&amp;rsquo;d highly recommend watching this interview I had with the developer of &lt;a href=&#34;https://samhsmith.com/serenum/&#34;&gt;Serenum&lt;/a&gt; to discuss his attempt at resolving some of these issues from the ground up.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/1ada88a4-40e8-421f-9fc0-fda2fc260da2?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s a bold direction for sure, but even more important than the project itself is for more people to learn the fundamental levels of computing to help transform the foundation. People vastly underestimate what can be accomplished with a bit of knowledge becoming a bit more common.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;a-defense-of-pragmatism&#34;&gt;A defense of pragmatism&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I will reiterate my position that it&amp;rsquo;s always worth using the most secure messenger you can with those around you. Isolating yourself entirely by refusing to compromise with close contacts is a road to being very isolated. Instead of demanding everyone you know only interact with you with a single &amp;lsquo;perfect&amp;rsquo; option &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/the-perfect-messenger&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;that doesn&amp;rsquo;t exist&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; taking on the burden of being familiar with multiple good &lt;em&gt;or even less bad&lt;/em&gt; options can help move people away from the most egregious circumstances.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Remember that while your own situation is vital, the big picture matters a great deal too.&lt;br&gt;
+To paraphrase the founder of &lt;a href=&#34;https://futo.org&#34;&gt;FUTO:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;A good programmer can often get in the weeds and be like: Hey, this is cool! I solved this hard conceptual problem, but polishing this for a billion users, that&amp;rsquo;s no fun! Who&amp;rsquo;s going to polish it for a billion users? It&amp;rsquo;s gonna be a big company that can pay people money.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.futo.org/videos/embed/229204e8-af1b-4904-8f72-04cf9ac9cc2b&#34;&gt;FUTO - Using the term &amp;ldquo;open source&amp;rdquo; - a response to everything!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/229204e8-af1b-4904-8f72-04cf9ac9cc2b&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Protecting digital autonomy needs to be about more than just our own individual self-interest, and more about doing what we can to help others. It is clear now more than ever that we don&amp;rsquo;t just need great programmers, but we also need more people to take these issues seriously, and that can&amp;rsquo;t happen if the solutions are too difficult to use. Despite everything, I find it easier and easier to be an optimist regarding these problems. It definitely seems that we really are only a bit of education, support, and passion away from making radical changes for a better technological future.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As bleak as things can be, it&amp;rsquo;s reassuring that a great deal of the problems we want to take on are very much in the open. As much as it can feel like rebuilding it all requires starting from scratch, that&amp;rsquo;s not true in the slightest. Important lessons have been learned that can help us steer clear from a wide range of fundamental problems and there is a lot of amazing software to retool or at least learn from.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I hope you can get excited about considering how things can be different, and how you can fit into making our digital environment better for not only yourself, but also those around you. It seems the opportunities for real change are only just beginning to present themselves.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Digital Autonomy And The Arts with The Starfire Codes</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/arts7/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/arts7/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/autio/arts7.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts7.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts7.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts7.webp" />
+		<description>Making sense of the online media matrix</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I spoke with Demi Pietchell from &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.starfirecodes.com/welcome&#34;&gt;The Starfire Codes&lt;/a&gt; to learn from her experience as someone with a long career in online media. We touch on many ongoing concerns such as community dynamics, censorship, the loss of coherence online, and even how that impacts artistic and intellectual creatives.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;featured-works&#34;&gt;Featured Works:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.starfirecodes.com/p/the-unintentional-online-meritocracy&#34;&gt;The Unintentional Online Meritocracy Experiment&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.starfirecodes.com/p/the-importance-of-intellectual-honesty&#34;&gt;The Importance of Intellectual Honesty&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.starfirecodes.com/p/censorship-an-unethical-violation-of-natural-law&#34;&gt;Censorship: An Unethical Violation of Natural Law&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.starfirecodes.com/p/the-loss-of-meaning-in-a-hyperconnected-age&#34;&gt;The Loss of Meaning in a Hyperconnected Age&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.starfirecodes.com/p/social-fragmentation-examining-the-roots&#34;&gt;Social Fragmentation: Examining the Roots and Finding Reconnection&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/p/1nTQDQee8QWTn1YDC7Wz8H&#34;&gt;Digital Autonomy And The Arts Series&lt;/a&gt; includes an open invitation for discussing how our digital experience impacts our lives. Beyond simply exploring arts &amp;amp; tech, I would be happy to explore other domains as well. If you&amp;rsquo;re interested in exploring this discussion, consider &lt;a href=&#34;mailto://gabriel@libresolutions.network?subject=Digital%20Autonomy&#34;&gt;getting in touch&lt;/a&gt; to share how your passion connects with, or is impacted by technology.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Serenum: The &#39;From Scratch&#39; OS Revolution</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/serenum/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/serenum/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/serenum.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/serenum-banner.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/serenum-banner.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/serenum-banner.webp" />
+		<description>A conversation with Sam H. Smith</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I had the honor and pleasure to speak with &lt;a href=&#34;https://samhsmith.com/&#34;&gt;Sam Smith&lt;/a&gt; about the new operating system he&amp;rsquo;s building: &lt;a href=&#34;https://samhsmith.com/serenum/&#34;&gt;Serenum.&lt;/a&gt; We had a conversation about what motivated him to build this system, plans for the future, and where this all meets the bigger picture.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Now more than ever, it’s time to seriously look closer at the fundamentals of our technological landscape and Sam has done the hard work of building something that could be the beginning of a solid new foundation to build on. For those who want to really advance their technical skills, it’s a great chance to seize the opportunity to understand computers at a very sophisticated level. Even for the ‘non-wizards’ among us, this project should represent a ray of hope in an otherwise tragically bleak technological landscape.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Even for those among us who aren’t ‘computer wizards’, this project should represent a ray of hope in an otherwise tragically bleak technological landscape. When it comes to forging a new path, I believe that making technology truly personal is something that can be a real game-changer. Even if one isn’t able to engage with or directly support this project, some of the fundamental principles are worth understanding to be aware of just how different things can be.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This project is fascinating for many reasons, but especially because it’s a call to action for those who wish to start truly innovating for the future. Many programmers, especially inexperienced ones can become intimidated by “low level” development, feeling filtered by complexity and lost in a labyrinth of extremely technical documentation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The Serenum project is an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of an exciting new frontier to take one’s technological knowledge to a new level. At the very least, let this conversation to be a reminder to stay curious, push the boundaries of your knowledge, and take the time to truly gain mastery over circuitry.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/serenum-hello.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    No capture card, sorry! 
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;d like to learn more about the Serenum operating system, you can take a look at the &lt;a href=&#34;https://samhsmith.com/serenum/release_6/&#34;&gt;latest release.&lt;/a&gt; Interested in more technical background details? Take a look at his original &lt;a href=&#34;https://vimeo.com/887510365/8446cf0e2d&#34;&gt;demo&lt;/a&gt; and follow-up &lt;a href=&#34;https://vimeo.com/889303217/4ea9a13f28&#34;&gt;Q&amp;amp;A.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Keep up with Sam&amp;rsquo;s work at: &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitch.tv/samhsmith&#34;&gt;Twitch,&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5d70JGqd8oJlCwaEOC_0Kw&#34;&gt;YouTube,&lt;/a&gt; or join the discussion on &lt;a href=&#34;https://discord.gg/PE2k3QN62Q&#34;&gt;Discord.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is an ambitious project, which in its own right is worth celebrating. I highly recommend thinking seriously about having reasonable expectations for what you intend to get out of this. If you feel you have the desire, time, and patience you may want to consider getting your hands on the hardware. You can do so at &lt;a href=&#34;https://taberna.shop&#34;&gt;taberna.shop.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Other &lt;em&gt;from scratch&lt;/em&gt; operating systems you may have heard of, or be curious about are:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://redox-os.org/&#34;&gt;Redox&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.serenityos.org/&#34;&gt;SerenityOS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://reactos.org/&#34;&gt;ReactOS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://toaruos.org/&#34;&gt;ToaruOS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://templeos.org/&#34;&gt;TempleOS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Cyber Fix: Episode 3</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/cyber-fix-3/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 07 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/cyber-fix-3/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/cyber-fix-3.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix.webp" />
+		<description>Cyber Fix is a show to provide entertaining and insightful analysis of developments in Cyberspace.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Cyber Fix is on hiatus, you may now listen to full episodes on &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/p/2FbUhGmiRbzmf1TUjWP3Xr&#34;&gt;PeerTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;internet-of-terrors&#34;&gt;Internet of Terrors:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://cybernews.com/security/rockyou2024-largest-password-compilation-leak/&#34;&gt;RockYou2024: 10 billion passwords leaked in the largest compilation of all time&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://hackread.com/android-spyware-steals-gamers-tiktok-users-data/&#34;&gt;New Android Spyware Steals Data from Gamers and TikTok Users&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/i-will-fucking-piledrive-you-if-you-mention-ai-again/&#34;&gt;I Will F**king Piledrive You If You Mention AI Again&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://hackaday.com/2024/06/30/root-your-sleep-number-smart-bed-discover-it-phoning-home/&#34;&gt;Root Your Sleep Number Smart Bed, Discover It Phoning Home&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://hackaday.com/2024/06/26/bats-can-no-longer-haunt-apple-vr-headsets-via-web-exploit/&#34;&gt;Bats Can No Longer Haunt Apple VR Headsets Via Web Exploit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.resecurity.com/blog/article/cybercriminals-are-targeting-digital-identity-of-singapore-citizens&#34;&gt;Cybercriminals Are Targeting Digital Identity of Singapore Citizens&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.mollywhite.net/micro/entry/fighting-bots-is-fighting-humans&#34;&gt;Fighting Bots is Fighting Humans&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;alt-tech-updates&#34;&gt;Alt-Tech Updates:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/24/experts-say-telegrams-30-engineers-team-is-a-security-red-flag/&#34;&gt;Telegram says it has ‘about 30 engineers’; security experts say that’s a red flag&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://brave.com/blog/brave-shields-manifest-v3/&#34;&gt;What Manifest V3 means for Brave Shields and the use of extensions in the Brave browser&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/proton-launches-free-privacy-focused-google-docs-alternative/&#34;&gt;Proton launches free, privacy-focused Google Docs alternative&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/naomibrockwell/status/1809291643838951716&#34;&gt;Naomi Brockwell on signal desktop issue&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+📢 Update: &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/mer__edith/status/1810645893714002039&#34;&gt;Statement by Meredith Whittaker&lt;/a&gt; (President of Signal Foundation)&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;problems-with-x&#34;&gt;Problems with X:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/hack-age-verification-company-shows-privacy-danger-social-media-laws&#34;&gt;Hack of Age Verification Company Shows Privacy Danger of Social Media Laws&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/x-re-joins-pro-censorship-advertisers-alliance&#34;&gt;X Re-Joins Pro-Censorship Advertisers’ Alliance&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;solutions-roundup&#34;&gt;Solutions Roundup:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://theoverlay.ghost.io/sustainability-and-standards-we-need-to-talk-about-building-censorship-circumvention-infrastructure/&#34;&gt;Sustainability and Standards: We Need To Talk About Building Censorship Circumvention Infrastructure&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://mastodon.social/@MakerTube/112729651355807241&#34;&gt;Celebrating 1 year of MakerTube Public Registrations&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://itsfoss.com/lm-studio-linux/&#34;&gt;Using LM Studio to Run LLMs Easily, Locally and Privately&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://ladybird.org/announcement&#34;&gt;Announcing the Ladybird Browser Initiative&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;music-credits&#34;&gt;Music Credits:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/n79aphwhpW0&#34;&gt;Y&amp;amp;V - Lune&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/o_v9WSImGIU&#34;&gt;Valcos - A New Light&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/qLYmtdi-GzA&#34;&gt;Killercats - Kaibu&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/N4uxaLPEWJc&#34;&gt;My Path - Next Route&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Insecurity</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/insecurity/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 26 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/insecurity/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/wasteland.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/wasteland.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/wasteland.webp" />
+		<description>How insecurity fuels security problems</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s ironic that the more the governments try to close their grip over the minds of the public, the more it begins to slip. From domestic turmoil, rising populist sentiment, and even just economic conditions, people are increasingly feeling a need to have a concrete impact on state policy. Instead of simply leaving it to their managerial handlers, motivated people are working to educate themselves and take action on a wide variety of topics.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is incredibly dangerous to &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/ZggCipbiHwE&#34;&gt;&amp;lsquo;Our Democracy&amp;rsquo;&lt;/a&gt; and those who benefit from how it functions. The greatest fear of those responsible for overseeing the system is that over time, people&amp;rsquo;s actions can actually tip the balance of power away from the delicately constructed &amp;lsquo;pay to play&amp;rsquo; dynamics built within it. If the public manages to wrestle political power away from lobbies, corporate powers, other &amp;lsquo;stakeholders&amp;rsquo;, the less power politicians have to auction to the highest bidder.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For government officials who perceive their job to be &lt;em&gt;managing the public, rather than serving them&lt;/em&gt;. This is an urgent and pressing crisis. To overcome this a phenomenal amount of research has gone into &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.pewresearch.org/topic/news-habits-media/media-society/misinformation/&#34;&gt;tracking and identifying&lt;/a&gt; how information spreads online, with a huge amount of help from Big Tech no doubt. That was only the first step in then refining information control measures to protect the public from their desire to enact meaningful reform.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A wide variety of methods were attempted in &amp;ldquo;digital public spaces&amp;rdquo;, such as social media, forums, and even &lt;a href=&#34;https://fandomwire.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-3s-disruptive-behaviour-enforcement-explained-and-how-to-appeal/&#34;&gt;video games&lt;/a&gt;. Such methods included &lt;em&gt;shadow-banning&lt;/em&gt; which is when one is banned from being seen without any clear indication, or more overt methods like banning individual accounts that gained traction. Eventually it became clear that the only way to truly &lt;em&gt;fortify&lt;/em&gt; the public from their own ideas was to start leveraging financial control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;lsquo;De-monetized&amp;rsquo; is now a well-known term online for when an individual or even company are restricted from receiving funds through a particular platform. This is a double-hitter when it comes to chilling effects on free expression. Not only are those who are impacted potentially forced to shut down operations, but their opposition has more space to grow louder and bolder. Financial de-platforming for political reasons is a very potent tool that has an impact that shouldn&amp;rsquo;t be underestimated.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As effective as these methods can be, they ultimately rely on people deriving their world views from the &lt;em&gt;parasocial hell&lt;/em&gt; that is corporate social media. Independent web sites, and personal communications have been largely &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/broken-internet/&#34;&gt;but not entirely&lt;/a&gt; unaffected by these measures. This has created a lot of room for those who are motivated enough to begin the work of seriously making a difference. While this may seem like such a minor or trivial thing, but it&amp;rsquo;s actually far from it. It&amp;rsquo;s crucial to understand that when it comes to the ability to broker political power to &amp;lsquo;stakeholders&amp;rsquo; any real opposition has the capacity to spin out-of-control, especially in our highly-connected yet-not-entirely-controlled environment.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;breaking-in&#34;&gt;Breaking In&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Because even private dissent and private thoughts are intolerable, and independent web sites and social media are just too much to bear, governments feel the pressure to take drastic action. In what is only the latest assault on people&amp;rsquo;s fundamental natural rights, governments of the world want to break into your home. Not yet literally, nor physically, but they want to have unimpeded insight into the communications between you and your closest contacts. Dinner table talk just isn&amp;rsquo;t the same with a government agent sitting next to you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;End-to-end encrypted communication outside corporate networks is something those who wish to have total control over information can not tolerate. This is true of any encryption for the most part. From the beginning of the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-shapeshifting-crypto-wars&#34;&gt;crypto wars&lt;/a&gt; governments have always attempted to undermine the public&amp;rsquo;s privacy even at the expense of security. If you listen to &lt;a href=&#34;https://media.privacyinternational.org/videos/watch/a56faeff-d41e-46c6-93fc-9e01eab8383c&#34;&gt;this discussion,&lt;/a&gt; on the history of encryption, you&amp;rsquo;ll learn not only was privacy in the digital realm a very hard-won fight, it&amp;rsquo;s even more important than ever.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;european-union-strikes&#34;&gt;European Union Strikes&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The European Union is taking bold action against people&amp;rsquo;s private communications. Ironically, while they &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/government-in-tech/&#34;&gt;support many initiatives&lt;/a&gt; that can support people&amp;rsquo;s digital autonomy, they are moving fast to undermine it from the top-down. Previously they&amp;rsquo;ve proposed &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/eu-cyberwar/&#34;&gt;back-dooring&lt;/a&gt; all online web traffic, but another proposal aims to directly attack private communication with mandated client-side-scanning for illegal material.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/client-side-scanning.png&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While fighting CSAM and its distribution is a desirable and noble goal, this step ultimately is prone to staggering scope creep without any guarantees of accountability or transparency. In situations where people are given obscene one-sided power over others you will always inevitably see &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/27/politics/nsa-snooping/index.html&#34;&gt;abuses.&lt;/a&gt; In case you had doubts, EU ministers have already moved to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eureporter.co/business/data/mass-surveillance-data/2024/04/15/leak-eu-interior-ministers-want-to-exempt-themselves-from-chat-control-bulk-scanning-of-private-messages/&#34;&gt;exempt themselves&lt;/a&gt; from the measure. Thankfully, the vote for the legislation seems to be &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/chat-control-vote-postponed-huge-success/&#34;&gt;postponed, for now.&lt;/a&gt; This is a great indication that being vigilant and being proactive can create tangibly beneficial results.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;a-world-wide-push&#34;&gt;A World-Wide Push&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It seems as no coincidence, that 2024 marked the year in which the most people voted globally, is also marked as a year with an immense &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/un-cybercrime-draft-convention-blank-check-unchecked-surveillance-abuses&#34;&gt;world-wide push&lt;/a&gt; for internet regulation. It&amp;rsquo;s not only ironic but highly demonstrative of how inter-twined the balance of power in nominally democratic countries is with online participation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Notably, Many internet censorship bills have been making progress in North America and throughout the world. In addition to online ID or age verification laws, more aggressive legislation against various forms of speech is also being proposed in many jurisdictions. Undeniably, these restrictions and impositions create many chilling effects.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is a delicate game for those who wish to maintain control. While getting large tech corporations to censor or promote content is effective, the more people who break away to independent alternatives make it exponentially harder. As more and more people truly learn to use technology as an effective tool, rather than a self-curated mind-prison, the more impossible information control becomes. Those who wish to push for meaningful change, transparency, and accountability need to skill-up and adapt without falling into the many well-laid traps.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;a-chance-for-change&#34;&gt;A Chance for Change&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;All this, motivated the creation of a &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/beehive/&#34;&gt;beehive&lt;/a&gt; called &lt;em&gt;Canadian Cyber Freedom&lt;/em&gt; at &lt;a href=&#34;https://cyberfreedom.ca&#34;&gt;cyberfreedom.ca&lt;/a&gt;. It&amp;rsquo;s intended to be a resource, but also a collaborative environment for Canadians to learn new ways for citizens to engage on political issues. The purpose of the project is to demonstrate that with a small amount of technical knowledge, activists can greatly enhance their efforts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Very often legislation comes out before the public gets a chance to understand the issues, much less make fair judgement on them. In most countries, giving the public a close look at legislation that impacts their lives is likely enough to motivate real pushback. With the pace that legislative bodies have to work at, a relatively tiny amount of activists could assemble resources that can adapt and move faster than legislation itself.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;The best way for citizens to move the needle against troubling legislation is for activists to effectively and fairly educate the public. Very often, debates over political issues become needlessly divisive. The way to resolve this is to find ways to collaborate on educating the public on not just the legislation itself, but also the wider issues. The more polished the collected information can become, the more opportunities towards bringing people on-board.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This requires trusting the recipients of the information a bit. Instead of merely relying on a single emotionally charged opinion piece, sharing the entire picture, warts and all will ultimately lead to better decisions and more rational opposition. &lt;a href=&#34;https://cyberfreedom.ca&#34;&gt;Canadian Cyber Freedom&lt;/a&gt; is just an example, that I hope eventually becomes a meaningful resource. But there are many ways for groups interested on a wide variety of issues to adopt the same pattern to tackle other issues.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;taking-on-online-harms-directly&#34;&gt;Taking On Online Harms Directly&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While I am wholeheartedly opposed to giving governments and corporations more control over people&amp;rsquo;s ability to dissent, I am not ignorant of many serious online threats to individuals and especially children. It is understandable that many who recognize these dangers urgently want change that is far too long overdue. Having government &amp;lsquo;child-proof&amp;rsquo; the Internet is just as irrational and likely to backfire as leaving everything on the shoulders of parents. It&amp;rsquo;s not about &amp;lsquo;striking a balance&amp;rsquo; but rather about understanding that the problem is far bigger than just small parameters.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Online spaces don’t exist in a vacuum, they’re a part of our human society. As things become challenging and confusing in life, there is an incredible draw to retreat to online spaces that feel cozier than the rest of the world. &lt;br&gt;
+Leading to all kinds of problems:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Sleep deprivation&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Depression&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Over-eating&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Escapism&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Political extremism / radicalization&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Sounds a lot like a millennial doesn’t it? Many of us are internet-addicted for a variety of reasons.
+Many of these problems aren’t new, and likely won’t be going away anytime soon. Some appear to have gotten much worse.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/think-of-the-children/&#34;&gt;Is the Internet safe for children?
+&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Every aspect of people&amp;rsquo;s lives is becoming increasingly intertwined with online services and a wide variety of online interactions. This alone is a serious reason to take a look at a much broader picture. If even a small fraction of people only get their interactions with other human beings mediated by online services, (or even worse &amp;hellip;AI-enabled ones) this alone can compound into a serious crisis of loneliness and despair for those people. Just as the problems have increased, so has the damage. Is it not fair to say that nobody could be prepared for having most of their &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/kids-average-daily-screen-use-increased-by-more-than-an-hour-and-twenty-minutes-during-pandemic-analysis-1.6142328&#34;&gt;socialization pushed online?&lt;/a&gt; While the Covid Crisis is a notable event, in this respect it was a mere escalation of an existing trend. Having compassion for those suffering from a wide variety of impacts is a necessary step towards lasting change.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Placing a larger emphasis on real-life personal interactions is of utmost importance. Quite tragically it seems we are completely forgetting that children need a safe and nurturing environment in the real world. We are all under constant threat to &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/videos/data-shedding/&#34;&gt;online surveillance&lt;/a&gt; and addictive &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/programmable-currency/&#34;&gt;gamified interactions,&lt;/a&gt; which can only cause problems in the long run. With this in mind, I don&amp;rsquo;t believe that all online interactions and systems are equal. Raising maximizing the quality of use for devices and systems, while minimizing dangers from less ideal services is the optimal path for everyone.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Clearly, resolving this goes far beyond a bit of legislation and hearings. To the degree those blunt instruments can be useful, there&amp;rsquo;s always more direct action people can take in their lives to make a meaningful difference. The first step involves getting a serious sober grasp of the problems. On that, a great starting point would be the work of &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.childrenandtech.co.uk/about&#34;&gt;Catherine Knibbs.&lt;/a&gt; Catherine has written many books on the subject and has worked extensively as a child therapist seeing these troubles up-close. &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.childrenandtech.co.uk/shop/p/online-harm-books-directly-available-from-routledge-or-amazon&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Online Harms and Cybertrauma&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is necessary reading for any online user, in my opinion. You can also check out her &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb2cLs1_9NYeTMglSRT-Spg&#34;&gt;YouTube channel&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.instagram.com/catherine_knibbs/&#34;&gt;Instagram account&lt;/a&gt; and share particularly useful videos or ideas with those around you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is extremely important for those who truly care about improving online safety have a strong understanding of these issues. Not only for its own sake, but also so that we can all have serious, reasoned discussions about addressing the root causes of these problems. Problems don&amp;rsquo;t go away merely because we don&amp;rsquo;t approve of popular solutions, there are many who are already in great pain who need care. Instead of allowing tragedy to be exploited for political power, we can all work towards setting proper boundaries at all levels of society. A lot more can be accomplished through compassion and education than scoring cheap political &amp;lsquo;wins&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Cyber Fix: Episode 2</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/cyber-fix-2/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 24 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/cyber-fix-2/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/cyber-fix-2.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix.webp" />
+		<description>Cyber Fix is a show to provide entertaining and insightful analysis of developments in Cyberspace.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Cyber Fix is on hiatus, you may now listen to full episodes on &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/p/2FbUhGmiRbzmf1TUjWP3Xr&#34;&gt;PeerTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;music-credits&#34;&gt;Music Credits:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Y&amp;amp;V - Lune: &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/n79aphwhpW0&#34;&gt;https://youtu.be/n79aphwhpW0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Valcos - A New Light: &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/o_v9WSImGIU&#34;&gt;https://youtu.be/o_v9WSImGIU&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Killercats - Kaibu: &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/qLYmtdi-GzA&#34;&gt;https://youtu.be/qLYmtdi-GzA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+@SavkMusic - The Traveling Symphony: &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/Qn3mb4LsoD8&#34;&gt;https://youtu.be/Qn3mb4LsoD8&lt;/a&gt;
+GhostrifterOfficial - Resurgence: &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/IzA39soWYG8&#34;&gt;https://youtu.be/IzA39soWYG8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The Ugliness of War and Technocracy</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/war-and-technocracy/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 16 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/war-and-technocracy/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/broken-house.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/broken-house.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/stock/broken-house.webp" />
+		<description>A look at weapons of war in the digital age.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;For those interested in preserving our nations, free markets, culture, or even basic human rights, we are in an outright harrowing time. Many of these challenges are direct physical assaults like warfare, but there is also a wide variety of abstract dangers. Such as censorship, surveillance, economic warfare, or disaster capitalism. Governments battle against their people for control over policy, and against mega-corporations for control over the public. Families, communities, even entire nations are stuck in the crossfire of larger plans without clear allies to depend on. Marshall McLuhan&amp;rsquo;s quote has become a tired cliche these days as more and more people recognize that vast swaths of humanity are under attack from seemingly every direction.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;World War 3 is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;- &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan&#34;&gt;Marshall McLuhan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The quote accurately describes what many are feeling, but little else.&lt;br&gt;
+It leaves behind many questions to ponder further:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;What is the war about?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Who&amp;rsquo;s waging the war, and against whom?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Who&amp;rsquo;s winning?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Is there a side to join or oppose?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;When will it be over?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;What can we do to protect ourselves?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;rsquo;t pretend to have all the answers, but there are useful guides to follow. In the words of &lt;a href=&#34;https://iceni.substack.com/p/spartacast-12&#34;&gt;Spartacus&lt;/a&gt; &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;War has always been a convenient human-shredder for the overclass. It has always been this way. &amp;hellip;It’s a scam. It has always been a scam.&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;. We&amp;rsquo;re reminded to consider who has always had a hand in orchestrating and profiting off wars: the powerful. Unfortunately, this isn&amp;rsquo;t immediately helpful. Just as the atom bomb changed the balance of power between nations of the world, &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/videos/tnt-radio-network-states/&#34;&gt;network warfare,&lt;/a&gt; where dynamic super-national forces engage in a &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/call-it-world-war-e&#34;&gt;global civil war,&lt;/a&gt; the game has changed immensely. As super-wealthy cliques accrue wealth and power that rivals nations, governments themselves can easily become mere strategic objectives in larger games.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/40fccac2-0239-40ce-88d5-4a029770c25b?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is arguable that network warfare has been the essential root of all human warfare throughout history. The only difference is that both people themselves, and our means of waging war, have the potential to be so disconnected from pre-existing structures of tribes, faiths, or nations. Never before have the warmongers of the past had the entire world potentially at their mercy, as well as the entire population. This form of warfare is total unrestricted warfare, and encompasses all aspects of participation in human society. It has been said that &amp;rsquo;the person is political&amp;rsquo;, paired with the acknowledgement that politics is warfare waged through other means, we understand our predicament more clearly.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a way to keep this simple, without losing the important details. People feel under attack, and they are correct to feel this way. This is because unlike what AI evangelists or &amp;lsquo;Net Zero&amp;rsquo; malthusians will tell you, human beings are the prize. Not just the prize, but the &lt;strong&gt;only prize&lt;/strong&gt;. Tyrants of all scopes of ambition realize that the source of all earthly power stems from effective cooperation between human beings. This requires them to use more and more &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/the-age-of-neurowarfare/&#34;&gt;sophisticated means&lt;/a&gt; of coercion to not undermine the value of total control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The point of sharing this is that you understand what &amp;ldquo;side you&amp;rsquo;re on&amp;rdquo; is a much more complex question than various accidents of birth. The physical, economic, and even digital empires run by many or even a few are competing for dominance over you and others. Lending your strength or allegiance to one may or may not be mutually exclusive with others. This naturally leads one to wonder if they can opt-out entirely, and abandon the game of conquest and live a life of peace. We can always pray this is possible, but it&amp;rsquo;s important to recognize that we inherit circumstances that make this require much more intense work than merely not choosing to commit overt aggression.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;conceptualizing-a-global-civil-war&#34;&gt;Conceptualizing a Global Civil War&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Economic control is no less devastating than bombs or bullets. Even when direct violence is involved, there are a wide array of ephemeral &amp;lsquo;slow-kill&amp;rsquo; means available. Biowarfare, toxins, or even sabotage of essentials are all means to cause mass poverty, suffering and death. Normalcy bias and plausible deniability allow atrocities to take place without recognition or recourse. Quiet weapons doing minor cumulative damage can make a significant impact despite going undetected and being difficult to attribute. To make matters worse, responsibility can be diffused by providing a vast array of self-destructive means of illusory relief.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;a-fractal-of-suffering&#34;&gt;A Fractal of Suffering&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Almost everyone can intuit simple cause and effect, most of the time. What&amp;rsquo;s much harder for many people to grasp is &lt;em&gt;force multipliers&lt;/em&gt;. Various techniques such as propaganda, spycraft, or even financial engineering can make relatively straight-forward attacks work through an incomprehensible maze of complexity. In these circumstances people only identify the pain, not the source of it. This can often lead those who don&amp;rsquo;t wish to feel guilty to justify the existence of that pain for their own comfort.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;overheated-threat-awareness&#34;&gt;Overheated Threat Awareness&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With attacks coming from seemingly nowhere and everywhere, there is a natural desire to identify threats. This desire can be leveraged by propagandists and profiteers alike to further their own ends, exhausting the reflex. As people continuously transform themselves into &lt;em&gt;the boy who cried wolf&lt;/em&gt; over and over, the populace becomes numb to the sensation of danger. In circumstances where this numbness has taken hold, people are no longer able to act on their self-preservation instincts, creating easy targets for even the most blatant schemes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;propaganda&#34;&gt;Propaganda&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;information landscape&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;, which is an abstraction of everyone&amp;rsquo;s thoughts, perceptions, and available information is a &lt;a href=&#34;https://unlimitedhangout.com/2024/03/investigative-reports/weaponizing-reality-the-dawn-of-neurowarfare/&#34;&gt;valuable strategic target&lt;/a&gt; of tyrants. The ability to control, restrict or modify the flow of information gives anyone a significant advantage over others. Pairing this with sophisticated understanding of people&amp;rsquo;s natural desires, fears, and hopes is a phenomenally powerful weapon to wield against individuals and groups alike. Beyond merely being a blunt instrument to rally compliance, propaganda can be weaponized to turn people against themselves, even individually. This immensely toxic pattern mass-produces hurt people who are readily able to hurt others.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;merchants-of-death&#34;&gt;Merchants of Death&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;War can be big business for propagandists, profiteers, and plunderers alike. It provides the state the pretext to more overtly and more aggressively dominate the financial system. This leads to the mass financial and social engineering of the economic structure to support the war effort.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To illustrate how U.S. military and intelligence agencies have supported tech startups, consider the case of Keyhole, a small San Francisco-based company that developed software for creating three-dimensional models of the earth’s surface. By patching together satellite images and aerial photos, the program could essentially produce a high-resolution map of the entire planet.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In-Q-Tel provided seed funding in 2003, and within two weeks, military and intelligence agencies were reportedly using Keyhole’s software to support the U.S. war in Iraq.&lt;/strong&gt; The following year, Google acquired Keyhole for an undisclosed sum. It was renamed Google Earth and today, it is worth approximately $4
+billion. In this case, In-Q-Tel’s investment paid off in monetary terms, but the bigger jackpot was the Keyhole program itself, which the CIA and Pentagon immediately deployed in support of military operations.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Like many DIU and In-Q-Tel investments, Keyhole-Google Earth is a dual-use technology that can be adapted for both military and civilian applications. &lt;strong&gt;The vast majority of In-Q-Tel funded startups acquired by large tech companies have created dual-use products&lt;/strong&gt;, such as &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.geekwire.com/2015/amazons-aws-acquires-portlands-appthwack-seeking-an-easy-way-to-test-apps-in-the-cloud/&#34;&gt;AppThwack&lt;/a&gt; and Elemental Technologies (acquired by Amazon); &lt;a href=&#34;https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2014/12/01/microsoft-acquires-acompli-provider-innovative-mobile-email-apps/&#34;&gt;Acompli&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.digitalspy.com/tech/a392457/microsoft-acquires-perceptive-pixel-inc/&#34;&gt;Perceptive Pixel&lt;/a&gt; (acquired by Microsoft); Tacit Software (acquired by Oracle);
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ibm-plans-to-acquire-cleversafe-to-propel-object-storage-into-the-hybrid-cloud-300153991.html&#34;&gt;Cleversafe&lt;/a&gt; (acquired by IBM); &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.crn.com/news/networking/300085046/cisco-takes-aim-at-microsoft-with-acquisition-of-mindmeld&#34;&gt;MindMeld&lt;/a&gt; (acquired by Cisco); &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.anandtech.com/show/10858/samsung-acquires-qd-vision&#34;&gt;QD Vision&lt;/a&gt; (acquired by Samsung); and &lt;a href=&#34;https://ipvm.com/reports/sony-acquires-pixim&#34;&gt;Pixim&lt;/a&gt; (acquired by Sony).&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2024/SiliconValley&#34;&gt;How Big Tech and Silicon Valley are Transforming the Military-Industrial Complex&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s hard to imagine the long-term incentive changes when an entire industry becomes a creature of the MIC. When states and super-national entities harness such massive economic power to run sprawling computing power to mechanize warfare, is there even possibly room for accountability? How does all this spending impact journalism, academia, or even governance?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;cyberwar&#34;&gt;Cyberwar&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When people imagine cyberwars, they often think of shocking news stories of ransomware attacks by shady hacker groups. This is a very serious concern, but another quite troubling development is the digitization of warfare that has accelerated since people&amp;rsquo;s very lives have become technologically transformed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The technological dimension of warfare is staggering. There was a time where the most horrifying technological terror was the atomic bomb. While not eclipsing its destructive power, various &lt;em&gt;tools of precision&lt;/em&gt; like drones, surveillance infrastructure, or autonomous weapons can be part of the construction of all manner of &lt;a href=&#34;https://treacherous.tech/2024/04/14/weaponised-ai-isnt-killer-robots-its-just-humans-killing-on-autopilot/&#34;&gt;inhumane horrors.&lt;/a&gt; The tragic irony is that warfare has generally been quite human. Warriors throughout history taking up arms against other people across the globe, or even withing their own regions, have always had to contend with the atrocities up close. It seems that we may be on the cusp of witnessing this change in real-time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;surveillance&#34;&gt;Surveillance&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Data collected for seemingly innocuous purposes can quickly become &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/28/fitness-tracking-app-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases&#34;&gt;military intelligence.&lt;/a&gt; There are many non-intuitive uses for even seemingly insignificant data-points collected over time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Using AI from Palantir, an American firm, Ukrainian counter-intelligence fishes for illuminating linkages in disparate pools of data. &lt;strong&gt;Imagine, for instance, an indebted divorcee at risk of losing his flat and custody of his children who opens a foreign bank account and has been detected with his phone near a site that was later struck by missiles.&lt;/strong&gt; In addition to such dot-connecting, the AI performs &lt;strong&gt;“social-network analysis”&lt;/strong&gt;. If, say, the hypothetical divorcee has strong personal ties to Russia and has begun to take calls from someone whose phone use suggests a higher social status, then AI may increase his &lt;strong&gt;risk score.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/TvLvY#selection-991.0-991.40&#34;&gt;How Ukraine is using AI to fight Russia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A serious challenge caused by industrialized surveillance is &lt;em&gt;information asymmetry&lt;/em&gt;, where information is known to few but unknown to great many. The first casualty of war is the truth, and this is never more clear when immense amounts of data are collected in secret to be used selectively. Just as cyber threats blur the lines between military and civilian targets, domestic surveillance becomes more of a priority for troubled regimes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/worldcoin-before-after.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/worldcoin-before-after.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    From War to Worldcoin: collecting biometrics for later use. 
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;machine-learning&#34;&gt;Machine Learning&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It would be naive, if not outright dangerous to underestimate the consequences of military use of machine learning, and how it can &lt;a href=&#34;https://sub.media/gaza-is-an-image-of-the-future/&#34;&gt;move to dominate our lives.&lt;/a&gt; Artificial intelligence is its own buzzword, but one must not fall into the trap of thinking it&amp;rsquo;s all worthless. The more a problem (or killing) can be accurately reduced to a simple set of variables, the more effective &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEM5qz__HOU&#34;&gt;these tools&lt;/a&gt; can become. Another danger is that many downsides of contemporary AI tools are still serious concerns. Machine errors can be devastating and must not be used to downplay accountability.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The military industrial complex (MIC) is a terrifying machine. Media, industry, and economy are all impacted directly or indirectly by it. Between 2022 and 2023 US Department of Defense spending on AI related contracts jumped from $269 million to &lt;a href=&#34;https://time.com/6961317/ai-artificial-intelligence-us-military-spending/&#34;&gt;$4.3 billion.&lt;/a&gt; It is concerning at minimum that this huge amount of resources in military uses of machine learning effectively drains talent from non-combat uses, which could actually improve people&amp;rsquo;s lives and solve serious problems. While it is true that military advancements in technology eventually &lt;em&gt;trickle down&lt;/em&gt; this only happens after an immense amount of avoidable suffering, it is not without cost either.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;dominating-cyberspace&#34;&gt;Dominating Cyberspace&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The Internet, despite it&amp;rsquo;s flaws, is a valuable tool for transmitting critical information. During times of conflict it is a common tactic for powers to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/mena-keepiton-internet-shutdowns-2023-en/&#34;&gt;cut off access&lt;/a&gt; as a means of restricting information or aid. It is a mistake to believe that an Internet shutdown means that others can not use their own private (or military) networks to maintain connectivity. This means that Internet shutdowns are a measure that overwhelmingly impacts civilians and may have much smaller cost for the initiator than one would assume.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Cutting off internet access can also be done in parts. &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-9/&#34;&gt;Sophisticated techniques&lt;/a&gt; can be used to deny, filter and even manipulate content given enough resources. In many circumstances, it may be preferable to simply inspect network traffic rather than outright block it. Interfering with communications changes behavior, but silently monitoring generally doesn&amp;rsquo;t.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;cyber-attacks&#34;&gt;Cyber Attacks&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Just as the lines between the physical and digital realities blur in our lives, so too do they in warfare. The more critical systems that depend on inter-connected online services, the more brittle and vulnerable people are to malicious (state-backed or not) entities. The impact can be devastating with little distinction between &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66998064&#34;&gt;civilian and military targets.&lt;/a&gt; Because of this, major cyber attacks certainly get the headlines. The impact of disruptive attacks on infrastructure can not be over-stated, but the risk management solutions by the regime can be just as troubling.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Governments have made it clear that information counter to their interests being disseminated itself is seen no different as a &amp;lsquo;cyber attack&amp;rsquo;. In recent years there has been greater emphasis on manipulating minds in the name of safety and national security. This is a troubling new direction in justifying the elimination of free expression, and justifying propaganda operations. A regime that treats it&amp;rsquo;s own citizens as if they were any other computing resource will justify very troubling means to meet its objectives.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As non-combatants, it is not merely enough to demand secure systems. It is crucial that we do not allow the fear of &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/cyberwar/&#34;&gt;cyberwars&lt;/a&gt; to allow institutions to take over our digital or actual lives. There is an immense pressure building for people to set aside &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/digital-autonomy/&#34;&gt;digital autonomy&lt;/a&gt; or even their civil rights in the name of safety. One must be cautioned that conceding these is a road to supporting atrocities without even the pretext of accountability. By being cow-towed into dependence on the regime, the public can very well make themselves unknowing accomplices in what they would otherwise resist with all their might.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;mechanized-murder&#34;&gt;Mechanized Murder&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As mechanized murder has become more advanced, and various technologies specialize into broader &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;soft-kill&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; capabilities, the circumstances become grim in unimaginable ways. Despite conflicts feeling vastly distant for many North Americans, warfare is as real as it as even been. For decades we have seen how many techniques and &lt;em&gt;weapons of war&lt;/em&gt; are first tested in remote conflicts then eventually assimilated into the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.marketplace.org/2020/06/12/police-departments-1033-military-equipment-weapons/&#34;&gt;domestic control structure.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This raises the stakes when it comes to our moral culpability in supporting such actions. Just as more powerful weapons expand our capacity to unleash terrible atrocities, automated weapons make each decision carry an immense amount of moral weight. Instead of responsibility being diffused between dozens of people, each reacting in the moment, a single person shoulders the entire responsibility for an orchestra of death and destruction.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The technology on offer may fall far short of Terminator-style robots: in Ukraine, the call to engage with a given target still lies with a human decision maker. But for how long?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;“If you think of AI as drones autonomously and independently making some decisions to strike or not to strike something, there is no such thing yet,” said Fedorov. “But I think that there is a certain future for it.”&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.politico.eu/article/robots-coming-ukraine-testing-ground-ai-artificial-intelligence-powered-combat-war-russia/&#34;&gt;‘Our Oppenheimer moment’ — In Ukraine, the robot wars have already begun&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;becoming-a-peacemaker&#34;&gt;Becoming a Peacemaker&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you are not already convinced, I would hope that you would consider taking on the role of peacemaker. The powers that are in play are capable of irreversible damage, not only that but our responsibility has never been greater. Despite what the overwhelming propaganda would have you believe, we all have an opportunity to push for peace. By connecting with those around you and working to understand and resolve even minor disputes, greater impacts can build over time. Bring peace to first yourself, then those around you, so that you can all work against cruelty in all its many forms.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is good to be proactive in asking ourselves if our words, and actions dehumanize others or build trust and empathy. Taking action in your own life to withdraw your support and presence from institutions and structures that support senseless violence is highly admirable. It is your burden to take on the massive undertaking of consciously evaluating how you support, or hold accountable various human endeavors without losing faith.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When one sees how bleak things are, it becomes easy to judge. We are all born into cycles that must be broken. Feeling superior to others, or more morally righteous is a prideful pathway to turning into what one wishes to fight. Genuine compassion, patience, and mercy are non-negotiable attributes when it comes to building lasting peace. It is painful to witness further pain caused by ignorance or arrogance, but it is typical that people know not what they do. Taking the time to understand other&amp;rsquo;s frame of mind and how to build trust and understanding is the only reliable path to making progress in dark times.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Header photo &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.pexels.com/photo/destroyed-residential-building-under-gray-sky-11518762/&#34;&gt;Destroyed Residential Building Under Gray Sky&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Cyber Fix: Episode 1</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/cyber-fix-1/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/cyber-fix-1/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/cyber-fix-1.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyber-fix.webp" />
+		<description>Cyber Fix is a show to provide entertaining and insightful analysis of developments in Cyberspace.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Cyber Fix is on hiatus, you may now listen to full episodes on &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/p/2FbUhGmiRbzmf1TUjWP3Xr&#34;&gt;PeerTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;music-credits&#34;&gt;Music Credits:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Y&amp;amp;V - Lune: &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/n79aphwhpW0&#34;&gt;https://youtu.be/n79aphwhpW0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Valcos - A New Light: &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/o_v9WSImGIU&#34;&gt;https://youtu.be/o_v9WSImGIU&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Killercats - Kaibu: &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/qLYmtdi-GzA&#34;&gt;https://youtu.be/qLYmtdi-GzA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Rise of the Cyber Resistance</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/cyber-resistance/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/cyber-resistance/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/platos-cave.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/platos-cave.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/platos-cave.webp" />
+		<description>Finding the path that works for you</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;confronting-the-techno-empire&#34;&gt;Confronting The Techno Empire&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Humanity has a long history of overcoming complicated challenges, even self-inflicted ones. Tyrants desperately want you to believe their control is total, inevitable, and impossible to reverse. This belief is not only a self-defeating illusion, it&amp;rsquo;s also very easy to dismantle. What&amp;rsquo;s harder to dismantle is the idea that many modern technologies aren&amp;rsquo;t inherently evil themselves.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For many, various devices and systems are themselves manifestations of the malicious intentions behind our modern digital experience. This is a perfectly understandable belief in many circumstances, smartphones themselves are notorious for being the gateway of online intrusion into people&amp;rsquo;s daily lives. Even worse, many of the major companies laying the foundation for almost all of the software and devices we use &lt;a href=&#34;https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/05/investigative-reports/the-cover-up-continues-the-truth-about-bill-gates-microsoft-and-jeffrey-epstein/&#34;&gt;are themselves attached&lt;/a&gt; to shady organizations and hostile agendas.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite all this, there are many who are diligently working to unravel all of it, piece by piece. This can sound impossible until one takes the time to learn the fundamentals. When one starts to tune out all the propaganda and calm their fears of technological terror they can start to make progress at forging a different path. Those at the forefront of breaking new ground take the time to learn simple physics, a programming language or two, and a bit of engineering. The more skills these &lt;em&gt;cyber rebels&lt;/em&gt; learn, the more cyberspace can be reclaimed for noble causes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To those who take the time to reflect, things are in quite a recoverable state. We are a long way into rediscovering and mapping out the ideal software patterns and practices that avoid many, if not the vast majority of our modern-day woes. The truly immense challenges ahead are more fundamental and will require inspiration, creativity and a drive for real innovation. Low-level learning of circuitry, computer engineering, and how to program circuits will be the bedrock of the new cyber resistance. The cyber rebellion is all about making the best of what we have while building that which can truly work for the people rather than against them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the broader fight against tyranny, those with technological aptitude and understanding are vital in many underestimated ways. Just as vehicles adopting more surveillance technologies doesn&amp;rsquo;t make mechanics evil or useless, it creates an opportunity for skilled individuals to participate in a better way. Salvage, reverse engineering, repair, and creation are all vitally important techniques that will only become more important over time. Those practices will also themselves highlight lessons that are crucial to truly improving the devices and systems we use.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;cyber-rebel-profiles&#34;&gt;Cyber Rebel Profiles&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite aiming for mostly similar goals, many digital rebels operate completely differently and have wildly different preferences. Instead of working to unite the differing flavors and specialties into a single consensus, the optimal path forward requires finding ways in which they can compliment each other. Aligning over shared goals, and knowing when to set differences aside is one of the most valuable skills in these times. The following profiles are generalities, and a single person may find it advantageous to dabble in more than one area of focus.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;digital-nomad&#34;&gt;Digital Nomad&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With almost every major platform having serious issues, digital nomads move from pasture to pasture to get the most out of what&amp;rsquo;s offered until things turn sour. These people will likely focus on one or maybe two devices, generally preferring whatever works on-the-go. Simplicity and elegance are valued over having any and every feature available. Often they tend to be quite good software developers, happy to build something that suits their particular needs. Digital nomads prefer systems that works in close proximity like peer-to-peer messengers such as &lt;a href=&#34;https://briarproject.org/&#34;&gt;briar,&lt;/a&gt; and ephemeral services like nostr.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;resources&#34;&gt;Resources&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/shadow&#34;&gt;Operation: Shadow&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://nostr.net/&#34;&gt;All about nostr&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.nihilism.network/servers/anon.html&#34;&gt;Anonymity, Privacy and Plausible Deniability&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;cyber-homesteader&#34;&gt;Cyber Homesteader&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of taking the web for what it is, these individuals focus on building up their own micro-internet. Self-hosting services, using powerful hardware the cyber homesteader dreams of being able to provide fully-featured network of services for those around them. By building up their own services and community, a cyber homesteader is able to reduce reliance on the Internet as a whole. They have the advantage of leveraging the latest and greatest hardware to enable others to have reasonably secure infrastructure with a decent amount of work. With the same skills, even a pile of old hardware can be transformed into a micro data-center with a high amount of utility.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;resources-1&#34;&gt;Resources&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://alexgleason.me/blog/run-your-own-server/&#34;&gt;A crash course on running your own servers on a shoestring budget&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.nihilism.network/selfhosting/index.html&#34;&gt;Self-Hosting: Decentralisation and Privacy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted&#34;&gt;Awesome-Selfhosted&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://delightful.club/&#34;&gt;Delightful Lists&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;specializations&#34;&gt;Specializations&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;archivist&#34;&gt;Archivist&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite the problems of the current Internet, there&amp;rsquo;s a tremendous amount of valuable information worth preserving. Never before has so much knowledge been able to fit in something as small as a simple microSD card. Just as immediately as people started sharing information, data was beginning to be eroded by time, technical changes, and &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/episode-384-the-library-of-alexandria-is-on-fire/&#34;&gt;outright destruction.&lt;/a&gt; By curating a personal collection of data, the &amp;ldquo;data-hoarder&amp;rdquo; works to ensure valuable insights, great works, and magnificent art isn&amp;rsquo;t lost to entropy forever.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;resources-2&#34;&gt;Resources&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Introduction&#34;&gt;Archive Team - Introduction&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://archivebox.io/&#34;&gt;ArchiveBox&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;computer-wizard&#34;&gt;Computer Wizard&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A good developer is worth a great deal. With the right focus, well-made software can make what we want to do easier and what we don&amp;rsquo;t want harder. These people are problem solvers through and through, the challenge is to get them interested in the right problems! Computer wizards are also excellent at securing software and systems. Those who learn from the cypherpunks will build systems that are resilient from surveillance and censorship alike.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;resources-3&#34;&gt;Resources&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/what-is-programming-tutorial-for-beginners/&#34;&gt;What is Programming? A Handbook for Beginners&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/practical-tutorials/project-based-learning&#34;&gt;Project Based Learning&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsBjURrPoezykLs9EqgamOA&#34;&gt;Fireship&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;mechanical-mind&#34;&gt;Mechanical Mind&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Those with a sophisticated understanding of how hardware works on a physical level can make the impossible doable. Getting the most out of hardware that exists, or being able to reprogram logic circuits are skills that can resolve a great many problems. To a great mechanical mind there aren&amp;rsquo;t good and evil devices,  only components that can be stripped out and put to better use. With the ability to make the most out of existing components, and even build new ones, the opportunities are endless.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;resources-4&#34;&gt;Resources&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/&#34;&gt;Icamtuf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6biysICWOJ-C3P4Tyeggzg&#34;&gt;Low Level Learning&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://learn.adafruit.com/&#34;&gt;Adafruit guides&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;cyber-muse&#34;&gt;Cyber Muse&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Those with a flair for presentation, can hone their skills in multimedia. No matter what the medium, their expertise is ensuring that tyrants can&amp;rsquo;t stop the signal. Getting the word out by a variety of means, these cyber rebels work to ensure they&amp;rsquo;re heard by other rebels and even those captured by the techno empire. Having a broad understanding of media formats, live production, and various multimedia skills allows them to be very useful in a pinch!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;resources-5&#34;&gt;Resources&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://kde.org/for/creators/&#34;&gt;KDE for Creators&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.davidrevoy.com/categorie3/tutorials-brushes-extras&#34;&gt;Tutorials: David Revoy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://opensource.com/article/16/12/yearbook-top-open-source-creative-tools-2016&#34;&gt;34 open source tools for creatives&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/digital-autonomy--the-arts/&#34;&gt;Digital Autonomy and the Arts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;retro-conservationist&#34;&gt;Retro Conservationist&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Nostalgia not a dirty word! One can the principle of &amp;ldquo;If it ain&amp;rsquo;t broke, don&amp;rsquo;t throw it away!&amp;rdquo;. In the 2020s one would be very surprised at what can be accomplished with hardware from a decade ago. A retro conservationist is crucial to keeping systems running across long periods of time, having seen first hand how entropy treats machines. Our culture throws a lot away, and there&amp;rsquo;s a great deal that can be repurposed instead of wasted.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;resources-6&#34;&gt;Resources&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://8bitnews.io/archive&#34;&gt;8bit News&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://retrocomputingforum.com/&#34;&gt;Retro Computing Forum&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://retrogamecoders.com/blog/&#34;&gt;Retro Game Coders&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;futurist&#34;&gt;Futurist&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There will always be those fascinated by the latest and greatest to see where the limits are. Following emerging trends can help those both new and experienced adopt new techniques or refine existing practices. Often there are useful new strategies that can be applied in other contexts. Those reflecting on the latest and greatest can get a sense for where new opportunities lie.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;battlefields&#34;&gt;Battlefields&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But where will you find all these fantastic net warriors? If you&amp;rsquo;re lucky you may find a couple sticking around on mainstream social media or accessible platforms, but these days you&amp;rsquo;ll find a majority of them engaging in the fight for the web itself.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;independent-web&#34;&gt;Independent Web&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We can rebuild the web by &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/reclaiming-cyberspace/&#34;&gt;taking part.&lt;/a&gt; No matter how bad search engines get, or how void of information mainstream websites become, there is always the opportunity of creating an oasis in the desert. Too many forget that the web itself is an open, decentralized, permission-less system that is vital in the fight to oppose tyranny in all its forms.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;decentralized-social-media&#34;&gt;Decentralized Social Media&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To some it may come as a surprise to know that social media can already outside corporate control. There are a variety of protocols but the two major ones are nostr and activitypub, both effectively part of the larger &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/fediverse&#34;&gt;Fediverse.&lt;/a&gt; By migrating to owner operated systems surveillance and censorship can both be challenged directly, at the cost of working out how to cooperate in an open network.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;networks&#34;&gt;Networks&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s a very powerful tug-of-war going on. The fight to wrestle control over the entire single world-wide Internet has the potential to destroy it forever. Those interested in the ability for people around the world to challenge power have to wrestle with the consequences either way. There&amp;rsquo;s a wide variety of strategies that can be employed, but overcoming this challenge requires a lot more study by brilliant minds.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;machine-brawl&#34;&gt;Machine Brawl&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Changing the technological landscape over the long time requires changes in hardware. There is only so much that can be done in software, eventually more deliberate work is needed to make improvements. It is possible to reclaim many modern conveniences without sacrificing autonomy or privacy if effort is put into improving the very foundation of our digital experience. Those engaged in rewiring the future have a great deal of power to have a massive impact.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;d like to suggest a resource, feel free to &lt;a href=&#34;mailto://gabriel@libresolutions.network?subject=resource&#34;&gt;reach out!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>What is Digital Autonomy?</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/digital-autonomy/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/digital-autonomy/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/breaking-free-banner.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/breaking-free-banner.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/breaking-free-banner.webp" />
+		<description>Aligning for a good future of technological innovation</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;when-big-brother-has-all-the-cards&#34;&gt;When Big Brother Has All The Cards&amp;hellip;&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is clear to many that modern digital society includes at best trading away one&amp;rsquo;s private life in exchange for fleeting novelty and convenience. At worst, we&amp;rsquo;ve industrialized profiting off people&amp;rsquo;s self-destructive traits to infantilize humanity mentally, socially, and even spiritually. These troubles have been long in the works, with minor exchanges here and there, but now the situation is dire and escalating.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Just as some people were beginning to grasp how large social media giants manipulate their feeds and minds for profit, an entirely new game has arisen. Companies hyping up their cloud &amp;ldquo;AI&amp;rdquo; chat interfaces as a substitute for any and all means of properly navigating information online. Google has been caught in a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/23/24162896/google-ai-overview-hallucinations-glue-in-pizza&#34;&gt;sticky situation&lt;/a&gt; where its search would return ridiculous answers to ordinary queries. This is really only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how the web may be transformed if the public acclimates to this form of finding information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s easy to hyper-fixate on the flawed use of &amp;ldquo;AI&amp;rdquo; in its present, quirky form. In doing so, one can completely fail to see how to overall trend is moving against people&amp;rsquo;s ability to find information online, or even use their own devices. Not to be outdone, Microsoft decided to eliminate any doubt that the Windows operating system is spyware. Announcing a new feature called &lt;a href=&#34;https://mashable.com/article/microsoft-recall-ai-feature-uk-investigation&#34;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Recall AI&amp;rdquo;,&lt;/a&gt; the system is intended to take at least a dozen screenshots per minute, potentially building a very complete user profile to be sold, or stolen off the device.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a frustrating sense of apathy and defeatism when these stories make headlines. Some will remark the creeping risk created by more surveillance and control, but ultimately many will simply shrug these concerns off like they have done in many other instances. Worst of all, those who do recognize some danger from these threats and encroachments will retreat into total nihilism and exclaim &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;nothing is really secure&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; or the all-time classic &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;they can get you anyways&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;. While both of these statements are indisputably true, it&amp;rsquo;s wildly irresponsible to treat every security problem as a reason to care less.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the spirit of being charitable, I don&amp;rsquo;t believe the large numbers of people who are apathetic about privacy, ignorant about security risks, or even dismissive of concerns have malicious intent. It seems more likely that much of this is a form of &lt;em&gt;learned helplessness&lt;/em&gt; developed over the long course of attempting to &lt;em&gt;adapt&lt;/em&gt; to technological intrusion. Just as those who reject propaganda outright may feel weary from incessant long-term exposure, those who are subjected to digital slights may too regret them piling up.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is not hopeless. It is easy to feel completely at a loss of what to do or where to go next. The solution involves identifying a guiding star to follow towards the right direction. That guiding star is &lt;a href=&#34;https://techautonomy.org/&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Digital Autonomy&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/a&gt; Which is the acknowledgement our natural rights such as bodily autonomy, freedom of conscience, as well as life, liberty, and happiness are not void in cyberspace. Protecting these natural rights in cyberspace requires more careful consideration of various technological systems and strategies.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;understanding-digital-autonomy&#34;&gt;Understanding Digital Autonomy&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A simple definition of digital autonomy is &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.compass.info/news/article/what-is-digital-autonomy-and-why-is-it-important/&#34;&gt;the ability to retain awareness and control over your own affairs in the digital space.&lt;/a&gt; This requires not only for systems and devices themselves to be transparent and consistent, but this also requires community stewardship and education. Many systems and devices are &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.defectivebydesign.org/&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;defective by design&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; in a variety of ways. Manufacturers will often impose restrictions to protect their interests at the user&amp;rsquo;s expense, or online marketplaces can restrict you from &lt;a href=&#34;https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/05/after-you-die-your-steam-games-will-be-stuck-in-legal-limbo/&#34;&gt;content you&amp;rsquo;ve paid for&lt;/a&gt; or remove it entirely. These concerns sound trivial when applied to media, but are far more nefarious when it comes to personal devices or vehicles &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.advrider.com/ride-smart-your-vehicle-or-your-neighbours-vehicle-is-spying/&#34;&gt;spying on you&lt;/a&gt; for a variety of entities. On the road we&amp;rsquo;re taking, many goods are beginning to resemble smartphones in all the wrong ways.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Your digital belongings need to begin to more resemble your analogue possessions. When you use a notebook, you&amp;rsquo;re likely not confused by the pages or lines inside it. It is not miraculously working to profit some other entity at your expense, and it is wholly yours as long as you choose to keep it. You have the ability to share it entirely, or even in individual sections, even sharing them with the wider world. Of course what is shared can generally be hard to un-share, but at least the choice is yours to begin with.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In many cases it isn&amp;rsquo;t really about rebuilding everything, but merely how various tools are used and reworking particular features. Even relatively simple things go a long way to enhance a person&amp;rsquo;s digital autonomy while using a system, such as intuitive menus that allow data to be painlessly exported. As more and more people learn to expect these simple methods, they can be further refined to synergize with existing solutions for an even better experience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, many of the ideal solutions don&amp;rsquo;t quite exist yet, or not in an easy to substitute way. As the public became accustomed to getting work done on cloud solutions, many offline-first workflows have largely faded into distant memory. There is a great deal of power to be regained as people rediscover, build or learn ways of doing computing work on their own systems without outside interference.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite what defeatists would have you believe, it is possible to build genuinely empowering technology. None of it would have ever been popular at all if there wasn&amp;rsquo;t a spark of ingenuity that drew people in the first place. With a relatively small investment in education, experimentation and encouragement, we could transform the digital landscape to be entirely unrecognizable. Too many assume that a radically better digital future involves no online interaction at all, this is too pessimistic. It&amp;rsquo;s entirely about setting the proper boundaries so that meaningful interactions are enhanced by new tools rather than governed by them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;digital-autonomy-is-about-more-than-tech&#34;&gt;Digital Autonomy Is About More Than Tech&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is undeniable that the Internet has encroached too far into people&amp;rsquo;s lives. It has gone so far that people in entirely unrelated domains feel the pressure of looming technocracy. I would encourage you to imagine how a vastly better digital ecosystem would impact your passions in life. As part of this conversation, I&amp;rsquo;ve had the pleasure of hosting many conversations with people about how technology intersects with their passions to gain a finer understanding of these issues.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;digital-autonomy-and-fitness&#34;&gt;Digital Autonomy and Fitness&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the more concerning trends these days is the encroachment of big data on our very bodies. It&amp;rsquo;s important to carefully consider how health information can be weaponized individually and as a society. Never forget that the best health tool is your own mind.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/5bc7c687-b9a2-41ec-84d4-4ea7200c0776?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;digital-autonomy-and-resilient-living&#34;&gt;Digital Autonomy and Resilient Living&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For those who are more &lt;em&gt;off-grid&lt;/em&gt; it can be interesting to discuss the finer points of being connected to the wider world. I hope you&amp;rsquo;ll enjoy this &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/2ZJBHUtGjecNTaRCY9Stba&#34;&gt;broadcast with Rebecca!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/1028cbe9-b1c1-4916-91f2-f5c9fbb81ee9?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;digital-autonomy-and-the-arts&#34;&gt;Digital Autonomy and The Arts&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am blessed to know many wonderful artists. They were generous enough to launch the digital autonomy discussions with me, and for that I am grateful.&lt;br&gt;
+You can watch the entire playlist &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/p/1nTQDQee8QWTn1YDC7Wz8H&#34;&gt;on PeerTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/video-playlists/embed/030e90e4-6bd1-4a8c-b332-9e438d2f21f3?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;If you are at all interested in taking part, please consider &lt;a href=&#34;mailto:gabriel@libresolutions.network?subject=Digital%20Autonomy%20and...&#34;&gt;contacting me.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I would be pleased to connect with passionate individuals who are interested in sharing their challenges and hopes when it comes to how technology impacts our lives.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Please provide a short summary of your passion and what you&amp;rsquo;d like to discuss!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;take-charge&#34;&gt;Take Charge&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s very easy to become overwhelmed. The goal isn&amp;rsquo;t to change everything all at once at the same time. Just like many other transformative changes in life, this is a marathon and not a sprint. You can make simple changes like using Free Software tools like &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.libreoffice.org/&#34;&gt;LibreOffice,&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.blender.org/&#34;&gt;Blender,&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://inkscape.org/&#34;&gt;Inkscape&lt;/a&gt; to create your own media and documents. Those who are more ambitious may want to try to run their own home server with a variety of services like &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.freshrss.org/&#34;&gt;FreshRSS,&lt;/a&gt; or even their &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/best-website-for-you/&#34;&gt;own website&lt;/a&gt;. The hard part would be migrating communications away from mainstream providers like Facebook. This involves working together with others to negotiate what best fits those participating.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a lot of opportunity in experimenting with and learning the large variety of techniques that people already use to break free from the cloud. As time passes it may be &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/bankroll/&#34;&gt;easier to support&lt;/a&gt; new device manufacturers, or large software projects to really create radical change. The more work that goes into solving this problem the easier things will get. There is little need to be dogmatic or impatient with others, any collaborative success will go a long way towards shaping the future we want.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Introducing Gitnuro</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/gitnuro/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/gitnuro/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/gitnuro.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/gitnuro.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/gitnuro.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/gitnuro.webp" />
+		<description>A FOSS Git Client for Newbies and Pros</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Many hands make light work&lt;/em&gt;. This is the essence behind the idea of &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/beehive/&#34;&gt;Operation: Beehive&lt;/a&gt; which outlines how people can use various software collaboration tools for non-technical uses. Git by it&amp;rsquo;s nature is an offline-first collaborative tool, this perfectly models what the optimal offline/online balance should be for many activities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To maintain our digital autonomy, it&amp;rsquo;s crucial to find ways to collaborate without being locked behind cloud platforms or locked-in services. This requires working in completely different ways than how Big Tech has trained people to collaborate within their digital walls. In scouring the net for research and ideas, I stumbled on &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/JetpackDuba/Gitnuro&#34;&gt;Gitnuro&lt;/a&gt; which is described as a &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;A FOSS Git multi-platform client for newbies and pros.&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I hope you find this conversation with me and &lt;a href=&#34;https://jetpackduba.com/&#34;&gt;Abdelilah El Aissaoui&lt;/a&gt; illuminating and inspiring. It was a pleasure to discuss not only his project but also his experiences and what people can do to support excellent software like Gitnuro. If we want to change the technological landscape for the better, it requires is to &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/bankroll/&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;put our money where our needs are&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and support independent developers and projects ourselves.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Abeliah himself gives some excellent tips on what actions people can take. Even simple things like opening quality issues, donations, or even a written thanks can go a long way to reinvigorate their efforts. I hope that you may consider sponsoring Abdelilah &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/sponsors/JetpackDuba&#34;&gt;on github,&lt;/a&gt; or any other Free Software project that suits you well!&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Digging Deep into Digital ID</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/digital-id/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 05 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/digital-id/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/digging-deep-into-digital-id.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/digital-id.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/digital-id.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/digital-id.webp" />
+		<description></description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Join Gabriel &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&#34;https://whiteroseintelligence.com&#34;&gt;Liam Sturgess&lt;/a&gt; in a discussion taking a look at the video &lt;a href=&#34;https://video.canadiancivil.com/w/e4TDrHhd1wHEsTSvK2wCjU&#34;&gt;Canada Fell Behind on Digital ID&lt;/a&gt; by Canadian Civil. The video contrasts Canada&amp;rsquo;s government log-in systems against Australia&amp;rsquo;s RealMe single sign-on, making the argument that Canada should make changes. This video, presents an opportunity to learn from advocates for strong &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/digital-id&#34;&gt;Digital ID&lt;/a&gt; systems, and to refine our understanding of the merits and pitfalls of that position.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Take the opportunity to watch our response to Canadian Civil&amp;rsquo;s video. You&amp;rsquo;ll likely be surprised about how much you can learn by listening to fierce advocates on &amp;rsquo;the other side&amp;rsquo; on this issue and others. It is far better to be equipped with awareness of your opposition&amp;rsquo;s arguments, rather than to be disarmed by ignorance. We&amp;rsquo;ll encounter some of the very strong arguments behind changing the way Canada currently does things, but also our concerns about how that change may take place.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;learn-more&#34;&gt;Learn more&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/v2vvbrj-identity-is-yours-and-yours-alone-microjourneys.html&#34;&gt;Identity is Yours, and Yours Alone - Microjourneys&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Digital-IDs-FAQ.pdf&#34;&gt;Understanding the Risks of Digital IDs&lt;/a&gt; (PDF)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://unlimitedhangout.com/2023/10/investigative-reports/sdg16-part-2-enforcing-digital-identity/&#34;&gt;SDG16: Part 2 — Enforcing Digital Identity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/G1AjkYFlPF4&#34;&gt; Why Covid-19 is the perfect Privacy by Design case (By Stephan Engberg)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.alilybit.com/p/global-progress-in-digital-identification&#34;&gt;Global Progress in Digital Identification Systems&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://mobileidworld.com/alberta-opens-search-digital-id-executive-director-042607/&#34;&gt;Alberta Searches for Digital ID Director Even as Premier Denies Program’s Existence&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://thespinoff.co.nz/internet/07-12-2021/what-is-realme-and-why-do-people-hate-it-so-much&#34;&gt;What is RealMe and why do people hate it so much?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://web.archive.org/web/20211118132100/https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/pages/ministry_of_health_position_statement_on_the_management_of_unvaccinated_individuals_in_healthcare_settings_.pdf&#34;&gt;Ministry of Health position statement on the management of unvaccinated individuals in healthcare settings&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://wiki.whiteroseintelligence.com/en/SMART-Health-Card&#34;&gt;SMART Health Card&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/v10t0w0-dig-it-104-digital-id-blockchain-and-databases.html&#34;&gt;Dig It! #104: Digital ID, Blockchain &amp;amp; Databases &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/digitalid/&#34;&gt;Episode 415 – The Global Digital ID Prison&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/canadas-conservatives-realize-they-cant-be-anti-digital-id-and-pro-online-age-verification&#34;&gt;Canada’s Conservatives Realize They Can’t Be Anti Digital ID and Pro Online Age Verification&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2024/01/bill-s-210-is-just-the-beginning-how-a-canadian-digital-lobby-group-is-promoting-a-standard-to-foster-widespread-adoption-of-age-verification-technologies-in-canada/&#34;&gt;Bill S-210 is Just the Beginning: How a Canadian Digital Lobby Group is Promoting a Standard to “Foster Widespread Adoption of Age Verification Technologies in Canada”&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Due to many technical issues during recording unfortunately the production quality is not as desired. Some cleanup was done, but my apologies for the overall visual quality.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Understanding Hostile Cyberspace</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/hostile-cyberspace/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/hostile-cyberspace/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/bad-network.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/bad-network.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/bad-network.webp" />
+		<description>Making sense of various online threats to privacy and security.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;To make deliberate decisions to improve one&amp;rsquo;s own privacy and security, one must make sense of cyberspace itself, and how it can be weaponized. With the benefit of hindsight, it is quite easy to see the traps that were set out for the public. The great news is that there is a phenomenal amount of &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/reclaiming-cyberspace&#34;&gt;territory to be reclaimed&lt;/a&gt; when people take action. Even a relatively simple shift to offline-first workflows will do wonders to secure control over one&amp;rsquo;s information. Of course, not all applications can be carried out entirely offline. For a variety of reasons, one must make use of the Internet and online services built on top of it. This piece will help people learn to discern the various risks related to &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;hostile cyberspace&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, to better choose what to use and how.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;cyberspace-fundamentals&#34;&gt;Cyberspace Fundamentals&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What makes computers amazing is that they can talk to each other. Software you use can connect with software running on other machines to do all kinds of fascinating and interesting things. &lt;strong&gt;Cyberspace&lt;/strong&gt; is any and all connected machines, including the services and apps running on them. These apps, services, and websites will all have various features and functionality. Unfortunately not all of this functionality is harmless. Spying, censorship, and even manipulation can be omnipresent threats on various websites and apps. One of the more un-intuitive network security problems is that these machines &lt;em&gt;can lie to each other&lt;/em&gt; which is the root of many serious concerns. Setting aside some of these more advanced concerns, we&amp;rsquo;ll explore how cyberspace is structured.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;there&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s No Place Like Home&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Home is the machine you&amp;rsquo;re running. Provided you&amp;rsquo;re not infected with &lt;em&gt;malware,&lt;/em&gt; this is your kingdom. You can decide which services to run, what to do with files, and whatever else suits your needs. With enough knowledge you may even be able to modify the device itself to change fundamental behavior. There are many ways for programs to share data on your own machine if you wish, and a great deal that you can do without connecting elsewhere.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Generally, you&amp;rsquo;ll have a &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/diy-audit/#browsers&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;web browser&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; installed on your device so you can reach the &lt;em&gt;world wide web&lt;/em&gt;, and the variety of services on it. This is often where most users will spend most of their time if they have not yet been assimilated into a wide variety of cloud-based services. The browser is a very sophisticated program that loads web sites from all over the Internet, but also has many advanced features for web applications. Ensuring that your browser itself is not vulnerable to intrusion, or giving away unnecessary information is vital to your own privacy online.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Other applications can also interact with online services. Using programs to load data from the web is fairly common, but can also have many of the same concerns as using a browser. Since browsers can generally be uniquely identified by their &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.amiunique.org/&#34;&gt;fingerprint,&lt;/a&gt; specialized software may be designed to access online information without divulging as much information. Some information leakage is unavoidable. By accessing an online resource it is inherently impossible to hide the fact that you&amp;rsquo;ve reached a particular service. The moment your request leaves your own network, it is now under control of the remote operators, and potentially others in-between.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;reaching-out&#34;&gt;Reaching Out&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To retrieve information from the Internet, your request has to be routed across the world. The server may be next door, or all the way across the ocean. To make this happen, various &lt;em&gt;routers&lt;/em&gt; will forward along the request to others towards the destination. Once the request is received the response is then forwarded all the way back to your system. Without any issues on the part of the service you connect to, it&amp;rsquo;s entirely possible for traffic between you and your destination to be copied, spied on, censored, or even manipulated. This is why the web uses encryption (HTTPS) to ensure that you have a secure connection to a server. Keep in mind that there are ways this can be overcome. Network security is it&amp;rsquo;s own challenge when it comes to these problems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Assuming that your connection to the service isn&amp;rsquo;t being interfered with or abused in any way, it is unfortunate that the &lt;em&gt;service itself&lt;/em&gt; can betray your trust in all kinds of un-intuitive ways. The phrase &amp;ldquo;If it&amp;rsquo;s free, you&amp;rsquo;re the product.&amp;rdquo; certainly applies. Unfortunately, being a paying customer is no inherent defense from malicious activity. Beyond merely selling your data, the service itself can expose you to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.mcafee.com/learn/what-is-malvertising-and-how-do-you-avoid-it/&#34;&gt;malware through advertizing&lt;/a&gt; or even require you to install dubious software. One of the major contributors to the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/dead-internet/&#34;&gt;death of the web&lt;/a&gt; is search engines driving traffic to hostile web pages that make browsing the web it&amp;rsquo;s own challenge. To make matters worse many services are hostile to users using privacy enhancing technologies like Tor or those connecting from proxies. By requiring users to reveal their real IP address, they are exposed to having their location, or even identity potentially uncovered.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;far-far-away&#34;&gt;Far, Far Away&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;That is not the end of potential troubles. The online services you use could be reliant on other services. These distant providers may have undesirable implications for the service itself and your use of it. These &lt;em&gt;third-party services&lt;/em&gt; are generally responsible for many privacy risks, but for a high-value target they may even be a security concern. This risk is so serious that many governments are questioning how it can impact &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/government-in-tech/&#34;&gt;their own data sovereignty.&lt;/a&gt; This is a much more difficult problem to resolve because such information may not be readily available. For the more surface-level technical details a service like &lt;a href=&#34;https://builtwith.com&#34;&gt;BuiltWith&lt;/a&gt; may help, but for some services you&amp;rsquo;ll never have a complete (or honest) picture.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;defining-hostile-cyberspace&#34;&gt;Defining &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Hostile Cyberspace&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hostile cyberspace&lt;/strong&gt; is any and every online site or service that engages in malicious activity such as:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Harvesting data&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Manipulating people&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Sharing or failing to secure user data&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Censoring or manipulating content&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Provides features at the expense of dependence (vendor lock-in)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Distributes malware or serves ads that do&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This includes a vast majority of the Internet. The most blatant examples would be mainstream social media, many smartphone apps and cloud productivity software. An un-intuitive example of hostile cyberspace would be sites and services that &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/alt-tech/&#34;&gt;abuse your trust&lt;/a&gt; with bad practices. The root of hostile cyberspace is making use of storage/bandwidth or computing power that isn&amp;rsquo;t entirely under your control, or that of those you trust. &lt;em&gt;Trust&lt;/em&gt;, in this circumstance, means more than congeniality, but responsibility, stewardship, and competence.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;people-farming&#34;&gt;People Farming&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The line between corporate data-harvesting and state surveillance gets ever blurry. The more and more people relying on a single giant organization the more value there is in exploiting and subverting the users and their information. This unfortunately creates a feedback loop where large services can use power gained from large user counts to capture or leverage against other people. Selling user data for profit is one such feedback loop, but there are many others.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In our time it is not simply about money, influence over minds, especially large numbers, can easily be converted back into money or other forms of power. Profiting off people&amp;rsquo;s online activity aligns incentives to ensure that people are encouraged, or even addicted to being constantly online for the sake of being online, to their own detriment. Taking control of your own mind requires making deliberate choices about what online organizations and systems you allow to influence or even govern your information and activity.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;shields-up&#34;&gt;Shields Up&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When one knows that they are interacting with hostile cyberspace there is a variety of measures that can be taken. The most basic but also very efficient measure is to use ad-blockers or other protections like disabling scripts and remote resources. By &amp;ldquo;locking down&amp;rdquo; your browser you limit what can ultimately be used against you. On the network side, you can proxy your requests through a remote server or anonymizing software like Tor. This is useful in situations where you don&amp;rsquo;t want either your location, or precise network details to be known. Using random or otherwise false personal information to fill out forms is one of many ways to work against active data collection.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;None of this, is a silver-bullet however. The more one interacts with hostile cyberspace the more opportunities are presented to compromise the user, thus raising the complexity of proper countermeasures. It can be easy to overlook particular technical details that undo all the work of protecting oneself in hostile cyberspace. It is always about a cost-benefit between what you&amp;rsquo;re willing to do to prevent bad outcomes. The most efficient means, is to merely avoid hostile cyberspace by making use of personal or offline alternatives where possible.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;avoiding-hostile-cyberspace&#34;&gt;Avoiding Hostile Cyberspace&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While the majority of the Internet is hostile to your digital autonomy, it would be a mistake to believe that it is entirely so. A non-trivial portion of the web includes many sites that merely provide information and don&amp;rsquo;t engage in the wide array of nefarious practices. Unfortunately in many cases they do not get the same amount of attention due to not usually being commercial ventures. There are rare services and online communities that do value and take responsibility for protecting user information and providing beneficial tools.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For example, databases of valuable or detailed information aren&amp;rsquo;t necessarily something someone wants to download entirely just to look up a few items. It makes sense for an entity to provide a means for the public (or customers) to have easy access to specific information. This only becomes nefarious once users themselves become a means to a different end than providing information as a service.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Another example would be cloud services that make use of open standards and Free Software. Taking proper measures to protect user data (such as encryption under control of the user, and good security practices), much can be done to run a service or platform quite responsibly. Useful features like being able to export data or media, as well as run your own instance can provide people the means to try new options before they&amp;rsquo;re ready to commit to maintaining them themselves.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ultimately, simplicity is the key. Over-complicated or ambitious solutions can fail in bizarre or unexpected ways. Reasonable expectations, and a pinch of caution can go a long way to make better choices.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Is This The End?</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/end-of-the-web/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 18 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/end-of-the-web/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/web-dead.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/web-dead.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/web-dead.webp" />
+		<description>How long can the free and open web survive attacks at every level?</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;will-we-watch-the-end-of-the-free-and-open-web&#34;&gt;Will We Watch The End Of The Free And Open Web?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These days, people are quick to attack the web for how it is, or more precisely how they make use of it. It doesn&amp;rsquo;t take a technical mind to notice that &amp;lsquo;browsing the web&amp;rsquo; has felt less like an adventure, and more like being at the console for a nuclear power plant. Day-to-day things are boring, but every once in a while panic rises and simple mistakes can have disastrous consequences. People who were around to see it generally miss how the web was before corporate social media: small sites and small communities. We have forgotten the power of small niche online interactions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Simple sites, created for fun or as quirky experiments. Among them even blogs containing unique treasures, galleries of personal photography and art.  As online communities grew larger things became so much more serious, and the barrier between the far away alternate reality of the web and real life was fractured. This barrier would crack, and eventually break once a critical mass of people were nudged into not just being online, but being &lt;em&gt;themselves online.&lt;/em&gt; It is quite ironic then, that much of the generations that brought themselves to the open web, may be the ones to see it&amp;rsquo;s demise. A light dims in the distance, as we begin to forget what it was even for.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/media/&#34;&gt;Media Matrix&lt;/a&gt; has caught up with the Internet Age. Large institutions are no strangers to this rich new medium of the millennium. Far from it, they&amp;rsquo;re already very &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/government-in-tech/&#34;&gt;far into the process&lt;/a&gt; of remolding what could have been into what serves their interests. No longer a refuge from censorship (to the degree it was), or even the insanity of the world, the Internet is far less free than it could be. Corporations lead the charge on surveillance, building all-pervasive &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/videos/data-shedding/&#34;&gt;real-time monitoring of every person&lt;/a&gt; who didn&amp;rsquo;t take proactive measures to limit contact. Governments chose to work to restrict dissent that threatens preferred policies and power. Despite the early Internet being well within living memory, it is no longer for individuals.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;internet-war-measures&#34;&gt;Internet War Measures&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1779920066840055847&#34;&gt;Snowden warns&lt;/a&gt; that this week, the NSA is being given control over the Internet. This is done through extending the powers in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) section 702, allowing the &lt;a href=&#34;https://tube.tchncs.de/videos/watch/f4031e9e-e6a0-4060-b1f7-145723a18612&#34;&gt;NSA to compel&lt;/a&gt; communications services to act as part of the country&amp;rsquo;s surveillance apparatus. The United States is not unique in this regard, there has been an ongoing assault on citizen&amp;rsquo;s digital autonomy that has only escalated since 2020. Late last year, the EU &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/eu-cyberwar/&#34;&gt;proposed&lt;/a&gt; regulation to back-door web traffic as well as build a digital identity framework.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://tube.tchncs.de/videos/embed/f4031e9e-e6a0-4060-b1f7-145723a18612?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Warfare has changed, and so too has the players. While nations still have conflicts with nations, governments are also becoming more tyrannical as they start to see the public as a threat to their uncontested power. This is made worse by private entities like multi-national corporations increasing their own power, locking large institutions into a negative sum game. No matter what the outcome, people will be worse off for the scramble. As geopolitical, economic, and other tensions rise we can fully expect for institutions to seize and abuse more and more power.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This means that the Internet is just another battlefield. To maintain untenable policies, institutions first seize control over information, then communication, and lastly the people themselves. The free and open web isn&amp;rsquo;t the reason why liberty is at risk worldwide, it&amp;rsquo;s merely one of the early obstacles to all kinds of atrocious acts. It&amp;rsquo;s easy to forget that many online services can stay very much intact while the ability for people to share vital information or cooperate can be taken from them entirely. Too many fall into the trap of believing that the web is entirely a tool of oppression, and underestimate it&amp;rsquo;s value for opposing tyranny.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;where-do-things-go-from-here&#34;&gt;Where Do Things Go From Here?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Structural assaults such as &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/broken-internet/&#34;&gt;ISP-Level De-platforming&lt;/a&gt; and other interventions make the death of a single Internet for the world all the more certain. As corporations and governments develop their own &lt;em&gt;great firewalls&lt;/em&gt; to micro-manage communication, the net will be fractured into a variety of &lt;a href=&#34;https://theweek.com/news/technology/961002/what-is-the-splinternet&#34;&gt;splinternets.&lt;/a&gt; These &amp;ldquo;split internets&amp;rdquo; will be highly-controlled networks that one may be allowed access to use particular services. This is effectively the final-form of &lt;em&gt;hostile cyberspace&lt;/em&gt; where any communications, content, or even access is completely under control of the operators. Such access can be gated behind authentication or even identification.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As this escalates, one can fully expect all but the most trivial discussion migrating to &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/shadow&#34;&gt;darknets&lt;/a&gt; while they still function. People themselves will either choose to work within an increasingly hostile and constrained digital environment, or will spend more and more time actively working to resist it. Eventually, this work will eventually culminate in small groups creating their own small internets. Community networks become much more important, and specialized tools will be highly sought after.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The great danger is if people entirely lose the ability to communicate with the outside world. While the tragedies of the world may weigh heavily on some, it is vital that people do not forsake the world or allow ourselves to be forsaken by it. If tyrants are permitted to perfectly isolate people from each other with the powerful tools that exist today, widespread atrocities are all but inevitable. This is the real challenge before us. Not to save a particular website, not to reform a particular service, or even to seize control ourselves. The single objective is to preserve people&amp;rsquo;s ability to challenge abuse of power and to victimize the defenseless. This requires getting serious &lt;em&gt;and realistic&lt;/em&gt;. It is far beyond anyone to single-handedly resolve all of it. Instead it&amp;rsquo;s critical to prioritize actionable meaningful steps that can be replicated widely for maximum impact.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-simple-heroics-of-a-lost-cause&#34;&gt;The Simple Heroics Of A Lost Cause&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When one recognizes the value that a free and open web presents to those who wish to hold abusive authority accountable, the more precious even relatively simple things become. When one thinks of a hero, they often think of a champion who receives the praise of all the world and recognition in history. People forget the anonymous everyday heroes who make small acts of charity, cooperation, and hope. The independent web does not need to have the best servers, the most clever software, or even the best minds to make it thrive. It does not need to compete with corporate networks and government control. People working to create, learn, and share together is always enough to make a difference.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s easy to underestimate the resilience of the World Wide Web. For all it&amp;rsquo;s faults, and all the concessions made, it&amp;rsquo;s still an amazing &lt;a href=&#34;https://hypermedia.systems/hypermedia-reintroduction/&#34;&gt;hypermedia system.&lt;/a&gt; Just as regimes can destroy books, there will always be people who have preserved them. A single person, can have &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/reclaiming-cyberspace/&#34;&gt;an immense impact&lt;/a&gt; to work to preserve and restore information, digital technology has made this phenomenally easier. As long as people have access to digital tools, there will be people willing to store and share important information. The beauty of &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/best-website-for-you/&#34;&gt;simple web sites&lt;/a&gt; is that not only can they make use of many modern media formats, but they&amp;rsquo;re pure data. This means that they can be distributed all kinds of ways.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s time to seriously consider how you want to take part and make your mark on the future of cyberspace. Will people continue feeding data, money, and power to the machine until the end? No matter where things end up, we still have a choice today. We can choose what services we want to use, run or share. We can make deliberate decisions on which technology we wish to use and avoid, while supporting the right of others to refuse to be locked in. &lt;em&gt;Your participation matters,&lt;/em&gt; and every little action has an impact that can build up over time.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Unjected Shows Nothing But Contempt For Their Users</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/unjected/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/unjected/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/unjected.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/videos2.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/videos2.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/videos2.webp" />
+		<description>A cautionary example from an arrogant endeavor.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Earlier this week, I hastily recorded a video for the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutionsnetwork.substack.com/p/how-stupid-do-they-think-you-are&#34;&gt;substack newsletter&lt;/a&gt; to dennounce the &lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/v4oo5qu-the-unjected-show-058-turbo-cancer-in-youth-or-accelerated-aging.html&#34;&gt;astounding behavior by Unjected&lt;/a&gt; in response to news breaking of their site being found to have &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.dailydot.com/debug/anti-vax-dating-site-unjected-private-user-data-dms/&#34;&gt;serious vulnerabilities.&lt;/a&gt; Instead of informting their users of the risks of their information being vulnerable, the company instead would prefer to downplay and dismiss any concerns and mislead their users about what steps they &lt;em&gt;should&lt;/em&gt; take to protect their private information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/f3d724a9-ca6e-4a30-be98-362d0fdafebe?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I have included the video here for anyone who may like to see an exemplary example of the attitude you DON&amp;rsquo;T want to see in operators of a site you frequent. It&amp;rsquo;s important that people learn &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/alt-tech/&#34;&gt;Lessons from Alt-Tech Failures&lt;/a&gt; of the past. It&amp;rsquo;s highly concerning how various ventures will take people&amp;rsquo;s values or identity to wear a skin-suit of them for &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/redirecting-resistance/&#34;&gt;self-serving reasons.&lt;/a&gt; Educate your friends and family of the risks of data breaches, and try to choose only online services you can trust, better yet consider &lt;a href=&#34;https://comfy.guide/&#34;&gt;self-hosting&lt;/a&gt; what you can.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;More importantly, don&amp;rsquo;t let people use the scare tactic of &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;the government can get everything&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; to dissuade you from putting in the effort to reinforce your own privacy and security. There are many advantages to even incremental steps that can resolve future problems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/threat%20modeling.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/threat%20modeling.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Lessons from Alt-Tech Failures</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/alt-tech/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/alt-tech/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyberwar.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyberwar.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyberwar.webp" />
+		<description>Understanding the dangers of letting down your guard.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Data breaches are a serious problem. We do not live in an environment where it is safe for people&amp;rsquo;s PII (Personally Identifiable Information) to be widely available. When somebody&amp;rsquo;s data is leaked or stolen, there can be and have been serious repercussions for that person. It is desperately important that we not only carefully choose the platforms we use, but also that they’ve taken steps to protect their users from risks related to &lt;em&gt;the platform itself&lt;/em&gt;. This piece aims to highlight examples where so-called “Alt-Tech” platforms have failed to do so, and hopefully provide meaningful insight from those experiences.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Big Tech has its own share of blame. By providing convenient access to privately owned (but often publicly funded) infrastructure, people have been lulled into a position of not only dependence, but outright helplessness. If it had not been for the model of &lt;em&gt;everyone throws their private information into a handful of nominally-free services&lt;/em&gt;, it&amp;rsquo;s possible that problems we have to account for today wouldn&amp;rsquo;t exist at all.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Breaking free requires more than simply switching providers. Consolidating information into a single large target has its own risks, changing the operators of it do not inherently resolve those risks. Sadly, it is all too easy for people to fall into the trap of supporting ill-equipped, negligent or outright malicious providers if they merely &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/redirecting-resistance&#34;&gt;brand themselves differently.&lt;/a&gt; As more people are and have been pushed out of mainstream providers due to escalating and extreme censorship, they may fall into outright traps.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;can-you-trust-an-online-service&#34;&gt;Can You Trust an Online Service?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What most people underestimate these days is the position of trust one puts into any service they use, but especially those they share important information with. Those who profit off mass data collection are very content to keep this information in the dark. By connecting to an online service you are at minimum trusting the fact that you&amp;rsquo;ve accessed it won&amp;rsquo;t be used against you. The problem with data about you being leaked online is that suddenly you&amp;rsquo;re not just worried about big brother, but now you have to ask yourself if you have &amp;lsquo;&lt;em&gt;nothing to hide&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rsquo; from extremist political rivals, people with personal grudges, and a large variety of online cyber-criminals.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are many concerns even for well-managed services:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;passive-data-collection&#34;&gt;Passive Data Collection&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For the most part, most people are essentially navigating &lt;em&gt;hostile cyberspace&lt;/em&gt;. Passive data collection is what&amp;rsquo;s collected by simply interacting with the service. From tracking scripts to ads, there are many dangers inherent to online services that people will mitigate with tools such as ad-blockers and firewalls.  That&amp;rsquo;s only part of the picture however, as there are many nominally benign forms of passive data collection, which may include:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Recording the IPs of your visits&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Technical details of your device or application (&lt;em&gt;fingerprinting&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Storing your activity across the platform&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Logs recording information across time&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;active-data-collection&#34;&gt;Active Data Collection&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Active data collection is information you have to explicitly provide the service, this can be your account details, ID verification, or any posts and interactions made on the service. Active data collection can include a wide variety of forms including:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Log-ins &amp;amp; Sessions&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Posts and uploads&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Requested personal information and documentation&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Payment information&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;third-parties&#34;&gt;Third-Parties&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Of course, any nominally dissident service can defeat all the efforts of putting together a rock solid service by slapping Google Analytics on it to track their users. To go even further, it&amp;rsquo;s worth considering the entire &amp;ldquo;tech stack&amp;rdquo; that the service is built on. Is it dependent on hosting from Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure? Is it making use of hosted providers that themselves can be restricted or abused? The sad truth is that a lot of malicious activity can be hiding behind a pretty website or smartphone app.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;application-exploits&#34;&gt;Application Exploits&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Even in an online service designed with the best of intentions, there are ways in which simple errors can create devastating security breaches. When there is a &lt;em&gt;security vulnerability&lt;/em&gt; in the application running the service, additional data can be stolen from third-parties and misused. The impact can vary greatly in scale and scope: from impacting a small portion of the service, to potentially giving hackers and the curious alike admin-level access.  Even worse, application exploits are a very important tool for hackers to gain system-level access to the operator&amp;rsquo;s systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;system-compromise&#34;&gt;System Compromise&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;System compromise is a disastrous and serious concern. It&amp;rsquo;s hard to imagine things worse than an application exploit giving the hacker admin-level access, but system compromise gives access to every component of the services that run the platform. This means that those who gain access can then modify records, cover their tracks, introduce new &amp;ldquo;features&amp;rdquo;, or disable others. The platform is effectively under new management and any information that&amp;rsquo;s available (far more than one would think) is vulnerable to destruction and publication. Without proactive vigilance from service operators intrusion can go undetected for quite some time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;examples-alt-tech&#34;&gt;Examples: Alt-Tech&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It may seem unfair to focus on &amp;ldquo;Alt-Tech&amp;rdquo; when there are many data-breaches in Big Tech services. It&amp;rsquo;s true that data-selling and data breaches are a serious problem on those platforms, but this is a known problem. What&amp;rsquo;s harder is when people starting a venture to &lt;em&gt;replace&lt;/em&gt; Big Tech are naive or flippant about the many security risks. In the name of &lt;em&gt;being better&lt;/em&gt; than Big Tech these ventures are also taking on the massive challenge of properly safeguarding their users&amp;rsquo; data. Especially when one is aiming to provide services for people who are being mistreated by their own governments. When working to help protect others from state overreach, they should realize the seriousness of their task increases their responsibility significantly. Some may sadly fall into a false sense of security when it comes to so called &amp;ldquo;alt-tech&amp;rdquo; alternatives. While a service that isn&amp;rsquo;t deliberately selling your data can be an improvement, one that gets breached can end up being just as dangerous if not more. When hackers seize the data from a service people trust maybe a bit too much, it can transform that service into a de-facto &lt;em&gt;honeypot&lt;/em&gt;, even if the providers had no intention of being such.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;ledger&#34;&gt;Ledger&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Those of you thinking ahead may have anticipated web3 as a solution. Unfortunately, there are many impure implementations of Web3 that allow for private profit and project governance. These projects are just as vulnerable as any other web service. Despite the security advantages of a hardware wallet, the associated Ledger service had &lt;a href=&#34;https://haveibeenpwned.com/PwnedWebsites#Ledger&#34;&gt;its own breach&lt;/a&gt; in summer 2020. This is highly concerning alone due to the privacy and security benefits one may assume from using a dedicated security solution. The breach includes physical addresses, which is a very dangerous data-point to have exposed for many people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;parler&#34;&gt;Parler&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite being de-platformed by Amazon Web Services, activists managed to scrape a large variety of public posts and upload terabytes of user content to The Internet Archive. This wouldn&amp;rsquo;t have happened if Parler had dead-simple rate-limiting features that many other services will have to basically keep bots in check. The lack of such feature, and other bad design choices &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.wired.com/story/parler-hack-data-public-posts-images-video/&#34;&gt;created the problem.&lt;/a&gt; The scraping of public data is a grey zone when it comes to data protection. In many circumstances it&amp;rsquo;s not considered a real Data Breach. For the purposes of the impact it has on individuals, it often won&amp;rsquo;t have much of a difference. In this case, Parler&amp;rsquo;s data was used to create an &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/14/22231749/parler-interactive-map-video-gps-capitol-attack&#34;&gt;interactive map&lt;/a&gt; of protestors and identify them for legal action or vigilante retaliation. Regardless of how one feels about that particular protest, it&amp;rsquo;s worth keeping in mind that this tactic would be effective against any protest that isn&amp;rsquo;t overwhelmingly popular.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;gab&#34;&gt;Gab&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Given the creator&amp;rsquo;s decisions over the years, It&amp;rsquo;s hard to take Gab seriously. Originally created by a &amp;ldquo;buy a website&amp;rdquo; &lt;a href=&#34;https://williamwelna.wordpress.com/2017/01/02/destroying-gab-with-words-on-a-screen-but-at-least-its-not-livejournal/&#34;&gt;online shop called Pusher,&lt;/a&gt; the social media site has had a long history of bizarre technical issues. In hopes to resolve some of these, Gab eventually used the code from the Federated Social Network Mastodon. This created some issues as the mainstream Fediverse urgently reacted to &lt;a href=&#34;https://fediverse.wiki/wiki/The_Gabbening&#34;&gt;work against&lt;/a&gt; Gab&amp;rsquo;s inclusion into the wider network, a political decision that emboldened a culture of thought-policing over parts of the Fediverse. Despite this some other servers would have been interested in federating, but Gab itself decided to not maintain federation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Eventually, Gab had &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=gab&#34;&gt;its own data breach&lt;/a&gt; leaking 70GB of user information. The site DDOSecrets is holding on to the data and scraped additions. They claim to have restricted access to the data to &amp;ldquo;journalists and researchers&amp;rdquo; for what little that&amp;rsquo;s worth. This data was one of many treasure troves of data used to research not just &lt;a href=&#34;https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:ns280ry2029/20220601_gabufacturing_dissent.pdf&#34;&gt;extremism,&lt;/a&gt; but also a large swath of people who were displeased with mainstream social media and sought an alternative.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One can choose to believe that Mr. Torba is sincere in his effort to legitimately represent a large amount of the American public hoping to dissent against various policies. This gets harder to believe when the CTO of Gab has threatened to abuse data to &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/Z7MXi&#34;&gt;build profiles&lt;/a&gt; on their own users. Ever since the site announced they would be &lt;a href=&#34;https://news.gab.com/2024/03/social-media-as-we-know-it-is-dead-and-ai-killed-it/&#34;&gt;pay-walling media attachments,&lt;/a&gt; the rise of anti-anonymity rhetoric by the founder and others is highly concerning. To be clear, it makes no sense to use your personal information on a site with a long history of security issues, no matter what their cause is.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;unjected&#34;&gt;Unjected&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Data breaches from dating sites are a non-trivial concern even in ordinary circumstances. People are encouraged to share intimate details about themselves they likely wouldn&amp;rsquo;t on other services. Despite a fairly small amount of users, the &amp;ldquo;dating site for the unvaccinated&amp;rdquo; is a particularly troubling example. The &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/uZrJC&#34;&gt;technical details&lt;/a&gt; are very much worth reading, but an attempt to do them justice will be made. The whole saga involves an embarrassing attempt to downplay and dismiss grave security concerns. When building a service for a community of people one feels are in need of special protection, a lack of concern for user information is a serious red flag.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In mid 2022 &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=unjected&#34;&gt;Unjected&lt;/a&gt; was caught with their pants down with an application exploit that was &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/bJHcM&#34;&gt;trivially easy to avoid.&lt;/a&gt; Despite its simplicity, that exploit allowed someone to have full admin access immediately. To make things worse, there were other exploits discovered, the site effectively didn&amp;rsquo;t enforce any security at all. Once somebody knew the paths for particular items, they could access whatever they wanted. This meant that from the beginning the site had no real security, only &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_through_obscurity&#34;&gt;security through obscurity&lt;/a&gt; which doesn&amp;rsquo;t help for long, if at all.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The Severity of the security risks raise more than just technical concerns. Like many other examples, there was a callous hubris on the part of the organization in the face of what should have been taken very seriously. The last thing you as a user want is for a service you rely on to have their spokespeople focused on PR and damage control over actually investigating and resolving potential problems. This absolutely raises the burden for those interested in starting this kind of venture, but the alternative is to lead users into a trap.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; Daily Dot reports that despite two years passing, the original researcher who discovered the 2022 breach confirms that the site is &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.dailydot.com/debug/anti-vax-dating-site-unjected-private-user-data-dms/&#34;&gt;just as insecure as before.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;givesendgo&#34;&gt;GiveSendGo&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Crowdfunding is an extremely powerful tool. Large amounts of individuals choosing to donate to accomplish an achievable goal is something &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/bankroll/&#34;&gt;society needs to consider&lt;/a&gt; more and more. Unfortunately, those who have concerns with the largest platform may feel the need to settle for &lt;em&gt;the next best thing&lt;/em&gt;. This was the case for the Canadian Freedom Convoy protest of February 2022. After raising over $10M CAD, GoFundMe had closed the crowdfund. A new fundraiser was created on GiveSendGo that raised over $9.7M CAD, with donors across the country and some abroad. What could have been a success &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.dailydot.com/debug/givesendgo-trucker-convoy-hack-leak/&#34;&gt;ended in disaster&lt;/a&gt; as hackers published a as website that published all the donors information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Making the rounds on &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/fUV8F&#34;&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt; the release of information about supporters was given &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.foxnews.com/media/twitter-hacked-material-canadian-freedom-convoy-donors-hunter-biden-laptop&#34;&gt;free reign&lt;/a&gt; on the platform. Eventually this lead to retaliation against &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/ottawa-officer-gets-punished-for-donating-to-the-freedom-convoy/article_af65d728-ab3d-5909-9743-82a7cece4c9a.html&#34;&gt;those who donated&lt;/a&gt; even &lt;a href=&#34;https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/threats-close-stella-luna-gelato-cafe-after-owners-name-appears-in-givesendgo-data-leak&#34;&gt;relatively small amounts.&lt;/a&gt; This was so egregious that even Ilhan Omar &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10522245/Squad-member-Ilhan-Omar-defends-Ottawa-cafe-owner-donated-Canadian-Freedom-Convoy-truckers.html&#34;&gt;tweeted&lt;/a&gt; &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;I fail to see why any journalist felt the need to report on a shop owner making such an insignificant donation rather than to get them harassed. It&amp;rsquo;s unconscionable and journalists need to do better.&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is an excellent example of how political polarization in the public can be manipulated to undermine everyone&amp;rsquo;s rights. The response to the Freedom Convoy protest by the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/emergencies-act-federal-court-1.7091891&#34;&gt;Canadian Government&lt;/a&gt; as well as the media, is a mark against Canadian civil rights history. We should all be careful by what means we permit institutions to limit peaceful means of resolving conflict. It&amp;rsquo;s never a bad time to to ask ourselves just how far we&amp;rsquo;re willing to let states go to suppress protests and other forms of political dissent.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;epik&#34;&gt;Epik&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The more important a service is, the more dangerous information from it being abused can be. Epik was a web hosting provider and domain registrar. It&amp;rsquo;s one thing to have your own website hacked, but if your service provider is hacked you have a whole world of other troubles. The Epik breach was an epic disaster. Hackers effectively stole &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=epik#data_breach&#34;&gt;everything&lt;/a&gt; and made it available as a torrent.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Domain purchases&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Domain transfers&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;WHOIS history&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;DNS changes&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Email forwards, catch-alls, etc.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Payment history&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Account credentials&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Over 500,000 private keys&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;An employee&amp;rsquo;s mailbox&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Git repositories&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;/home/ and /root/ directories of a core system&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Bootable disk images&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While the media will focus on the most inflammatory websites, a mass dump of the data doesn&amp;rsquo;t quite discriminate. Others who chose to use their service for whatever reason will end up caught in the crossfire. Since Epik&amp;rsquo;s own systems had been infiltrated, this has serious security concerns for any website hosted on their infrastructure at the time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re curious, you can see the list of &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=covid-19_pandemic:data_breaches&#34;&gt;Data Breaches during the Covid Crisis&lt;/a&gt; I started on &lt;a href=&#34;https://campfire.wiki&#34;&gt;Campfire.Wiki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;a-concerning-pattern&#34;&gt;A Concerning Pattern&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Theres a similar pattern among similar incidents where irresponsible operators will put the needs of their business ahead the interests of their users. You can find examples of outright denial, downplaying, or even inadequate solutions touted as a complete fix. When a representative for a service follows the following script, it is a sure sign to never do business with them again:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;There was no hack, they&amp;rsquo;re lying, it&amp;rsquo;s FUD!&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Okay there was a hack but it was a minor glitch and we fixed it.&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Hackers claim it&amp;rsquo;s not fixed, and post more data&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Okay it was bad, but it&amp;rsquo;s fixed, for &lt;em&gt;real this time&lt;/em&gt;, but they&amp;rsquo;re not in our systems!&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Media reports that the systems were in fact actually breached and/or data is posted online, potentially because of system compromise or a major vulnerability.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;does-it-really-have-to-be-this-way&#34;&gt;Does It Really Have To Be This Way?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One may argue that attempting to find solutions to this problem is a hopeless endeavor. If teams of people with serious funding aren&amp;rsquo;t able to solve the problem what hope is there? It is of utmost important that we take a second look and ask ourselves what problem we&amp;rsquo;re actually trying to solve. Are we actually trying to fight against censorship and democratize problem-solving? Are we truly motivated in making sure the problems caused by Big Data are put behind us? Resolving those questions is far beyond the scope of &amp;ldquo;how do I design my next website?&amp;rdquo; The answers lie in taking a look at the fundamentals of cyberspace and being willing to explore a much wider variety of possibilities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/58745e7d-9184-470a-bdec-a9c4c31d2bde?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;education-is-key&#34;&gt;Education Is Key&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Communities need to prioritize their own technological knowledge capital. Spending time to teach the fundamentals can help people not fall prey to the most prevalent of problems. Relying on governments or corporations to secure the Internet for everyone is asking to be entirely beholden to them. The ideal way forward requires people to be taught not merely how to use various technologies but to understand them at a deep fundamental level.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When fighting for something that matters, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;the details matter.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; One must not only consider what someone is up to but also how they intend to achieve it. The means of achieving particular goals can very easily and quickly corrupt the entire enterprise. Having the knowledge, but also the courage to call out careless or negligent behavior among one&amp;rsquo;s allies is a very difficult but important thing to do.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;join-the-self-hosting-revolution&#34;&gt;Join The Self-Hosting Revolution&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I can personally attest that self-hosting is a fun and liberating venture&amp;hellip;most of the time. It does take a fair amount of skill and effort, especially to maintain across time. While it may not be for every single person, small communities self-hosting services can help distribute the data, and therefore the risk much better than large monolithic platforms. It&amp;rsquo;s much safer to keep everyone&amp;rsquo;s data separate and distributed. To make the most out of this, open protocols are the way to allow a variety of different systems to still maintain some form of interoperability. A heterogeneous network built with a common protocol will be much more resilient to cyber attacks than everyone running the same &lt;em&gt;one-size-fits-all&lt;/em&gt; solution, or pooling their data in the same entities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/3ea25e18-a741-4fc1-9159-aacebef87855?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the best advantages of self-hosting or running services for a small community is that it reduces your reliance on large platforms. While it may be a challenge to protect your own systems, with proper backups you&amp;rsquo;ll have a lot less to lose than someone on a large platform that got breached or was selling the data anyways. With reasonable expectations, such as accepting that software is never complete but always improving, we can create radical change with relatively simple innovations.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;opsec-operational-security&#34;&gt;OPSEC (Operational Security)&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With our existing platforms and services harvesting more and more information on their users, it&amp;rsquo;s worth asking what you&amp;rsquo;re willing to do to &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/salting-your-data-solutionswatch/&#34;&gt;mix things up.&lt;/a&gt; Does every website you use require your real name just to lurk occasionally? Is it even reasonable that most online entertainment includes all kinds of invasive forms of surveillance? Our predicament as individuals is that protecting our private information is a burden that has been placed on us by the circumstances we find ourselves in. It takes proactive work, and careful consideration to not fall into traps.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Let&amp;rsquo;s ask a few questions:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Do you sign up to newsletters with your main or work email?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;How many sites have your only phone number or physical address?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Do you repeat usernames (or even worse passwords) across services?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;How many accounts do you have open with sites that you haven&amp;rsquo;t interacted with in years?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Each of those are OPSEC problems that you may want to spend time resolving in advance of a breach.
+As always it&amp;rsquo;s worth checking known breaches for &lt;a href=&#34;https://haveibeenpwned.com/&#34;&gt;your information.&lt;/a&gt; Sometimes controversial online services will openly share guides with their users on how they can &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/ABkK2&#34;&gt;proactively protect themselves&lt;/a&gt; from being compromised &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/kiwifarms-new-user-tips.webp&#34;&gt;in the event of a breach.&lt;/a&gt; General understanding and awareness can often go a lot further with a bit of creativity than relying solely on every service being impervious.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;advice-for-future-alt-tech-projects&#34;&gt;Advice for Future &amp;ldquo;Alt-Tech&amp;rdquo; Projects&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Think all the above were just chumps or malicious from the start?&lt;br&gt;
+Believe that you could do better and want to build the next big thing?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s still worth it to consider the following:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Have a plan to detect system intrusion proactively&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Build your product with security as a priority: Make deliberate choices in components and software&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Test your application for exploits based off previous breaches&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Get independent security audits&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Assume you will be breached, take measures to minimize harm&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Treat user information as radioactive: store as little of it as you have to, secure what you must keep&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Make an organized effort to ensure members of the organization are aware of important security practices&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;TL:DR Take cybersecurity seriously and don&amp;rsquo;t bite off more than you can chew.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The Jason Lavigne Show</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/the-lavigne-show/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/the-lavigne-show/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/the-lavigne-show.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lavigne-banner.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lavigne-banner.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lavigne-banner.webp" />
+		<description>Reaching far and wide across Canada</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I had the pleasure of Joining Jason Lavigne on The Lavigne Show. It was an excellent opportunity to share my message with a Canadian audience of liberty-minded individuals across the country. Jason has had a fascinating variety of guests on his show including Hrvoje of Geopolitics &amp;amp; Empire, Doc Malik, JJ Couey and even Dr Robert Malone among many others.
+It has been an honor to be featured on the Lavigne Show, and I was absolutely astounded at the positive feedback I received in the live chat.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Online Threats &amp; Technocracy with Hrvoje Morić</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/hrvoje-moric-show-mar-2024/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 20 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/hrvoje-moric-show-mar-2024/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/tnt-radio-mar-20.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tnt-radio.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tnt-radio.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tnt-radio.webp" />
+		<description>A great conversation about the impositions on people&#39;s liberty, both online and in real life.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I had an excellent time talking with Hrvoje Morić on his TNT Radio show. I highly recommend getting caught up with some of his great interviews with a very wide variety of fascinating guests. If you don’t already know of Hrvoje, you’re missing out and should absolutely take a look at &lt;a href=&#34;geopoliticsandempire.com&#34;&gt;Geopolitics &amp;amp; Empire!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;breaking-update&#34;&gt;Breaking Update&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;An update from the Geopolitics &amp;amp; Empire telegram channel:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hrvoje has left the building! I have finally found a guerrilla with enough experience to replace me on TNT Radio. Veteran information warrior Lieutenant General Jason Bermas!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The Ides of March was my last transmission on TNT Radio after 2 straight and grueling years of non-stop live shows without pause or break&amp;hellip;broadcasting from Croatia and from around the USA and México.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am completely frazzled and burned out. I LOVE TNT Radio, they have been amazing to me, they&amp;rsquo;ve never censored me or caused me any problems, in fact&amp;hellip;they&amp;rsquo;ve largely left me alone the entire time. They were basically like: here&amp;rsquo;s a mic, you got 2-3 hours, here&amp;rsquo;s your pay, go!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But doing 10-15 interviews a week is nuts, personally, for me right now. I desperately need to take a break and slow down. I will re-focus my efforts on Geopolitics &amp;amp; Empire! Stay frosty and stay tuned! 🎙 ✊&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It’s been an honor to be part of Hrvoje’s show on TNT Radio, and wish him the best!&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Tools of the Technocracy: #12 Network States</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-12/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-12/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/network-state-banner.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/network-state-banner.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/network-state-banner.webp" />
+		<description>The formalization of world-wide tyranny</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;tools-of-the-technocracy--12-network-states&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/tools-of-the-technocracy-series&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy&lt;/a&gt;:  #12 Network States&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-trap&#34;&gt;The Trap&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Network states are pitched as a nice-sounding way to improve or sometimes outright replace governments. This is a trap disguised as an opportunity. It would seem that the goal is to &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/redirecting-resistance/&#34;&gt;diffuse&lt;/a&gt; people&amp;rsquo;s desire for accountability into a variety of schemes for private profit. Tragically, even if these became successful, people are to be left behind.  For many, the temptation to eschew all the baggage of existing governments and &amp;lsquo;start fresh&amp;rsquo; is very tempting. Especially for those who are young and beginning their careers, who understandably feel no responsibility for the tragedies of the past. In the long run, those people would be entirely disconnected from the community they fled, potentially leaving many others who aren&amp;rsquo;t so lucky to struggle with the consequences.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is the exact opposite of what&amp;rsquo;s needed to actually secure justice for those victimized. Any &amp;lsquo;solution&amp;rsquo; that leaves people disconnected and communities shattered is the worst possible outcome. Instead of &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/dont-turn-on-the-flock/&#34;&gt;turning on the public&lt;/a&gt;, ideal solutions need to be oriented in investigating and acting on the truth. Digital tools can help, but they themselves can&amp;rsquo;t be treated as the idol that absolves us of the responsibility to act.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To make matters worse, false saviors can betray their followers into building &lt;a href=&#34;https://geopoliticsandempire.com/2022/04/23/spiritual-technocracy-great-awakening/&#34;&gt;the very system they aim to avoid&lt;/a&gt;. People&amp;rsquo;s justifiable frustration with the way things are is a very powerful impulse for malevolent forces to exploit. It seems entirely predictable, that once tragedy of nearly any kind strikes, pre-packaged &lt;em&gt;solutions&lt;/em&gt; are conveniently prepared for people to latch on to. By not allowing any crisis go to waste, people&amp;rsquo;s time, focus, and resources are redirected from maintaining things well enough to prevent or mitigate the seemingly inevitable &lt;em&gt;next crisis&lt;/em&gt;. These non-solutions are often very attractive, in the same way fast food is addictive but unhealthy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-encroachment-phase&#34;&gt;The Encroachment Phase&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It begins with forces using the unjustifiable aspects of the status quo to bit-by-bit dismantle or eliminate the parts that people rely on. By putting on a performance of impersonating independent reform, various non-state actors &lt;a href=&#34;https://scribe.rip/aspen-ideas/sleeping-through-a-revolution-8c4b147463e5&#34;&gt;can expand their own power&lt;/a&gt; at the expense of people. Often these displays will make use of pretty language or voice long-running concerns that have gone unresolved.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A well-known example of this model is the company Uber. Uber was not an &lt;em&gt;innovation&lt;/em&gt; that created new opportunities for communities. In many jurisdictions, the company started out &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/uber-becomes-officially-licensed-ottawa-1.3790649&#34;&gt;operating as an illegal taxi,&lt;/a&gt; with arguably worse working conditions, and added smart-city style &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.upguard.com/blog/what-caused-the-uber-data-breach&#34;&gt;data risks.&lt;/a&gt; Taking advantage of a highly regulated industry, there was opportunity to &lt;em&gt;move fast and break things&lt;/em&gt;, and seize more central control. It should be noted, that Uber &lt;a href=&#34;https://fourweekmba.com/is-uber-profitable/&#34;&gt;wasn&amp;rsquo;t even profitable.&lt;/a&gt; It ran at a loss up until 2023, making it significantly harder for competitors to participate in the space until then.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The company is a shining example of how profit-driven digital control can shape governance. As the service gained adoption, the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/uber-pressures-regulators-by-mobilizing-riders-and-hiring-vast-lobbying-network/2014/12/13/3f4395c6-7f2a-11e4-9f38-95a187e4c1f7_story.html&#34;&gt;riders themselves&lt;/a&gt; were leveraged to pressure governments to adopt more favorable regulation. If local governance is able to be dominated by a single large corporation, it raises serious questions about how much autonomy local residents truly have. Even federal governments, and even multi-nation structures like the EU have had to contend with large corporations and their dominance over industries or domains of life. This tug-of-war over control very often leaves the people taking the raw end of the deal. One has to wonder if governments will use network states to seize more control with vehicles like &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.wired.com/story/itana-binance-charter-cities-institute-africa-tech-startup/&#34;&gt;smart cities&lt;/a&gt;, given how much big tech was weaponized in the last decade.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;understanding-the-network-state&#34;&gt;Understanding the Network State&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In mid 2022, Balaji Srinivasan published &lt;a href=&#34;https://thenetworkstate.com/book/tns.pdf&#34;&gt;The Network State: How to Start a New Country&lt;/a&gt;, which more-or-less argues that the existing structure of nations is obsolete. Advancing the idea that &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;The Network&amp;rdquo; is the Next Leviathan&lt;/em&gt;, the book argues that digital technology can enable human beings to cooperate on a scale that entirely outmatches the ways of nation states. By citing a couple of examples, the chapter makes it clear that Network States are explicitly digital and explicitly connected, arguing that mobile is better than stationary, virtual reality is superior to physical interaction, and that &lt;a href=&#34;https://unlimitedhangout.com/2024/02/investigative-reports/tokenized-inc-blackrocks-plan-to-own-the-fractionalized-world/&#34;&gt;smart contracts&lt;/a&gt; are outright better than laws. If this isn&amp;rsquo;t sufficiently staggering, those examples are expanded on with the following:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These examples can be multiplied. As mentioned before, &lt;strong&gt;Uber and Lyft are better
+regulators&lt;/strong&gt; than the State’s paper-based taxi medallions, &lt;strong&gt;email is superior to the USPS&lt;/strong&gt;,
+and SpaceX is out-executing NASA. If you think about borders, you now need to think
+about the Network’s telepresence (which defeats physical borders) and its encryption
+(which erects digital borders). Or if you care about, say, the US census, the Network
+gives a &lt;strong&gt;real-time survey&lt;/strong&gt; which is far more up to date than the State’s 10 year process.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Page 53 &lt;a href=&#34;https://thenetworkstate.com/book/tns.pdf&#34;&gt;The Network State&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ultimately, the appeal seems to be the lie that our problems with current nation states are that they are merely not &lt;em&gt;efficient enough&lt;/em&gt;. Pretending that geography is a thing of the past now that people can be relegated to exile in cyberspace. By asserting that network states can be more powerful than nations, one is lead into the trap of believing that this is to the benefit of participants. For many people, the abuses from government and institutions come swiftly enough. The desire to make this process faster and more able to change on a whim isn&amp;rsquo;t to the benefit of the people, but rather the owners of the system. Network state advocates argue that one is able to co-own the network with other participants, but if they truly are &lt;em&gt;the Next Leviathan&lt;/em&gt; then one has to wonder what about opposing networks and nations? Many are concerned by China&amp;rsquo;s high-tech &lt;a href=&#34;https://fournier.substack.com/p/elon-musks-x-empire-building-a-trojan&#34;&gt;surveillance and control model,&lt;/a&gt; it seems that network states merely enhance all the worst aspects.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For all the fanfare, smart contracts are not a marker for fairness or even certainty. Odds are, there are many times you&amp;rsquo;ve agreed to terms you haven&amp;rsquo;t read or didn&amp;rsquo;t truly agree with. By attempting to make governance trust-less, one is effectively placing ultimate trust on these systems. DAOs (&lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;Decentralized&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;Autonomous&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;Organizations&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;) and smart contracts can both be &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.coindesk.com/learn/understanding-the-dao-attack/&#34;&gt;hacked and rolled back&lt;/a&gt;, vastly increasing the challenge of &lt;em&gt;system security&lt;/em&gt;. Jason Lowery has an &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/Iln2itH2k3s&#34;&gt;excellent explanation&lt;/a&gt; why smart contracts backed by proof of stake are inherently malleable.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/1d88eafc-9fbe-414a-a874-ff4b047bb5c8?title=0&amp;amp;peertubeLink=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;rsquo;t agree with Jason with all his conclusions, but it&amp;rsquo;s really important to understand his position that: &lt;strong&gt;System security depends on physical power (measured in watts).&lt;/strong&gt; Meaning that the system needs a justification in the real material world, and can&amp;rsquo;t solely exist as a social construct. Nation states solve this particular problem with taxes and armies. For a network state to truly replace nation states, it would require similarly powerful means to compel compliance. This means that while some people may come together and make their own authentic democratized network state, but it will still only exist within the wider context of physical power of those outside and within the system.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This brings us the problem of using Bitcoin or another proof of work system to build a network state. While it&amp;rsquo;s inherently superior to any &amp;ldquo;proof of stake&amp;rdquo; solution, it has many drawbacks that are inherently non-starters. For example, we could not create a truly decentralized and self-sovereign network state with Bitcoin today because the costs to self-custody one&amp;rsquo;s own Bitcoin becomes very prohibitive as the network expands. Scaling this, requires more computing resources, bandwidth and storage that can also increase the costs of running the network. This is the very reason why so many Bitcoin users use so many custodial exchanges and wallets despite Bitcoin being created to eliminate that problem.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But if proof of work is superior, why are other options even attempted? &lt;strong&gt;To create a powerful illusion.&lt;/strong&gt; The very reason why network states have to pretend that living in augmented reality is superior to physical reality is the same reason they have to use proof of stake, hiding where the power actually is. A great deal of the blockchain space seems devoted to not democratizing power, but competing to build a mirage of doing so. If one advocated building a network state out of Bitcoin, people would immediately realize the immense price of being self-sufficient within that kind of system, in proof-of-stake systems, those costs can be concealed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the name of selling &lt;em&gt;decentralization&lt;/em&gt;, advocates of network states offer a singularity of digital intrusion into people&amp;rsquo;s lives, with a staggering acceptance of surveillance and control packaged as &lt;em&gt;risk management&lt;/em&gt;. In addition to this hard sell, one has to take the claims of digital security at face value. Since any serious interrogation of privacy, security, and lock-in risks reveal many serious concerns. Once these concerns are raised, they are claimed to be addressed in the &lt;em&gt;implementation phase&lt;/em&gt; of the revolution. Why worry about the details when there is a grand cyber-utopian &lt;em&gt;vision&lt;/em&gt; to evangelize?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-next-leviathan&#34;&gt;The Next Leviathan&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Paradoxically, the very anti-human idea of network states is borne out of it&amp;rsquo;s principle contradiction: Human beings are useful and valuable. All the technocratic hype about automation, blockchain, AI, and virtual reality masks the true power underlying what Balaji calls &amp;ldquo;The Next Leviathan&amp;rdquo;. What those seeking to advance network states correctly understand is that large numbers of people cooperating can be an almost unstoppable force. This Leviathan is a &lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/v40x4r5-rte-discussions-41-the-cybernetics-matrix-revealed.html&#34;&gt;cybernetics machine&lt;/a&gt; that competes with other mass-mind control machines. In doing so, digital systems can be leveraged to transform human beings into cyber-collectivist foot-soldiers.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To avoid mincing words, this is the &lt;strong&gt;declaration of a permanent, automated, real-time &lt;em&gt;slave auction&lt;/em&gt; with every human being on the planet as fair game.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Understand that when harmonized together many of these new digital systems could be used for extreme levels of digitized tyranny. This series was primarily intended to help others consider the risks of mass-adoption and over-consolidation of various digital tools. Through the course of writing this series, it has become clear that what I suspected was possible is already highly formalized. To understand this, one only needs to read the book &lt;em&gt;The Network State&lt;/em&gt; or watch the entire &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/x-GfuIFkB_Y&#34;&gt;Network State Conference&lt;/a&gt; without being enchanted by the techno-utopianism.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Far from a voluntarist utopia, it seems that the archetypical network state is a form of digitized  anarcho-feudalism. Leveraging members to undermine what remaining protections nation states do provide, in exchange for a facsimile nation over cyberspace. Just as young people today are bribed to give up privacy and security in exchange for convenience, the network state offers ways to streamline one&amp;rsquo;s submission to all the same digital intrusions into people&amp;rsquo;s lives. Blockchain tools to manage people and assets, smart technology to streamline systems to control more and more people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The dark and twisted truth of this power is that human mind control experimentation has evolved past beyond controlling a single human being, but further into controlling people controlling other people. Artificial intelligence built on machine minds is an immense energy waste and effectively a dead end. It is immensely wasteful to use exponentially more energy to make LLMs (Large Language Models) only marginally more effective. Instead, seizing control of large amounts of human minds can do much more work with far less resources. The next level of artificial intelligence may very well be human intelligence organized into swarms for particular ends. This would necessarily require a form of total mental subjugation to ensure workers are on-task.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://d197for5662m48.cloudfront.net/documents/publicationstatus/174214/preprint_pdf/791ef67bdd4a3441977152b6295f43ab.pdf&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/mind-energy.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With this in mind, all the machines and digital systems are mere instruments for a more critical goal; wrangling control over people&amp;rsquo;s brain functions. This is an entirely new frontier, and the network state framework effectively argues that he who conquers the most minds wins. If true, it would be a devastating race-to-the bottom in terms of human liberty, as various &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/mindwar-a-radicalizing-mixture-of&#34;&gt;gurus are positioned to take control&lt;/a&gt; over others, leaving no minds uncorrupted.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What makes our current time so dynamic is that there is an open bid for those who are willing to manipulate others into control structures of a singular design but varying flavor. If you&amp;rsquo;re ambitious enough, you&amp;rsquo;ll be given the opportunity to sell-out your fellow human beings for &lt;em&gt;shamefully low prices.&lt;/em&gt; What makes the network state powerful is that large amounts of coerced people can be weaponized against critics and dissenters. It is naive to believe that in an era where network states rule uncontested that human rights would be any better protected than they already are, and there are quite a few reasons why things would be even worse off.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;lies-of-the-network-state&#34;&gt;Lies of the Network State&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Network states advocate for an entirely new system of power with many different illusions that mask the troubles caused by buying into the &amp;ldquo;digital &amp;gt; physical&amp;rdquo; prison. To successfully market the dissolution of existing nation states, to make way for a world-wide technocracy, one has to be indoctrinated into believing the following lies:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;elimination-of-violent-competition&#34;&gt;Elimination of Violent Competition&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Human history has had innumerable acts of war, genocide, and slavery. Much of this is attributed to nation states and their authoritarian ideologies across time. Time again that the very same dangerous superstition can be wrapped up in different language or symbols, just to enact the same regime of terror and cruelty. Network state advocates pretend that once people assemble themselves into self-selected groups, that there will no longer be any reason for violent conflict. To go further, the dream of network states relies on ignorance of various forms of &lt;em&gt;engineered dependence&lt;/em&gt; such as &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bitchute.com/video/jBn5Zt0tdWcQ/&#34;&gt;disaster capitalism&lt;/a&gt;, industry capture, and coercion from non-state actors. By distracting people with beautiful virtual reality, it provides only escapism from, not means to improve actual reality.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;decentralization&#34;&gt;Decentralization&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Fake decentralization is a booming industry. If Facebook or X forced users to maintain a &amp;ldquo;profile server&amp;rdquo; that was responsible for handling all requests, but maintained control over sorting and filtering posts, would that be decentralizing social media? In this case, the data is in the user&amp;rsquo;s control, but not the means in which it is used. The same can be applied to organs of government, a system can dismantle most if not all the laws and regulations, but maintain the power over others.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a bizarre assumption that decentralization can only happen digitally. It seems that decentralization is a post-hoc rationalization of the extreme emphasis on digitization. This is despite the fact that analog options are inherently more decentralized and private. It is the introduction of automated digital systems that placed the burden of privacy and security on the plan. It is also entirely possible that greater digitization of society can create real limits to how decentralized a system can be.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;that-theyre-needed&#34;&gt;That They&amp;rsquo;re Needed&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If one recognizes that large groups of cooperating people are a powerful force that can rival nations, there is no need to put so much emphasis on digital systems and surveillance technology. It seems that advocates of network states are eager to have a system that tracks everyone&amp;rsquo;s human connections, rather than simply building infrastructure that helps nurture meaningful connections between people. The adversarial focus against existing nations is also unnecessary, even the advocates themselves admit that most &amp;ldquo;network states&amp;rdquo; would have some form of cooperation (or subversion) of an existing nation state.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;fixing-statism&#34;&gt;Fixing &amp;ldquo;Statism&amp;rdquo;&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If government is the problem, don&amp;rsquo;t turbo-charge and automate it. If government isn&amp;rsquo;t the problem, then you&amp;rsquo;d fix the ones you have rather than dismantling it outright. Network states all seem to converge on the worst of both worlds. Network states are not merely an alternate form of government, but they are a model to create far more terrifying governments that are entirely unbound by what restrains existing governments. A principal focus of network states seems to be &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/KU-6URq8IOo&#34;&gt;undermining or avoiding regulations&lt;/a&gt; or even human rights protections.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;inevitability&#34;&gt;Inevitability&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If we accept the premise that network states are inevitable because they are inherently superior to regular nation states, that doesn&amp;rsquo;t at all imply that any of the so-called benefits of network states would materialize. A lot of damage can be done while dismantling nation states without delivering on the good promises made by network state advocates. People can quite likely be very much worse off as problems not yet discovered manifest themselves after it&amp;rsquo;s too late to reverse.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If network states are such a clear and obvious upgrade over nation states, what is preventing nation states from &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/government-in-tech/&#34;&gt;augmenting themselves?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;living-in-cyberspace&#34;&gt;Living in Cyberspace&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is quite a bit of focus on the immaterial. This is a fanciful distraction from what is taking place in the physical world. Why is there such a rush to capture more and more people into virtual reality prisons? We should ask what is taking place, that people would be forced to adapt to having no control over their actual lives that they must be satiated with surrogate digital activities. &amp;ldquo;Living in cyberspace&amp;rdquo; is a contradiction in terms, hence the emphasis on &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/yUYpJmk4zKQ&#34;&gt;tiny, cheap, modular homes&lt;/a&gt; for the people evicted from the physical world.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;solutions&#34;&gt;Solutions&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The root of the issue when it comes to network states is the frame of mind. By doubling-down on the worst aspects of digitized society, people are pointed towards awful and avoidable directions. Instead of putting time and effort making human dependency work, try to imagine ways in which a people-first approach can keep cyberspace a distinct experience from our waking lives. It&amp;rsquo;s not hard to work to forge a new path, it just takes some creativity and persistence. Take responsibility for holding public and private institutions accountable for overreach, corruption, and fraud.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;refuse-and-reverse-the-digitization-of-society&#34;&gt;Refuse and Reverse the Digitization of Society&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It does not matter how trivial or benign the application is, it&amp;rsquo;s clear that mandated use of technology is a recipe for disaster. Remember that it was not so long ago that everything was run with paper forms and correspondence in the mail. Institutions that serve us should be expected to have arrangements for those who choose to go without these intrusions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://mastodon.social/@lrvick/112079059323905912&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/lance-vick-smartphone-healthcare.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is a situation where apathy and defeatism can do a lot of damage. We owe it to future generations not to burden them with shackles that many still do not even understand. You can start small, start with a local bank or a nearby provider. &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/solutionswatch-notcommunity/&#34;&gt;Getting together&lt;/a&gt; to ensure that opt-ing out of these systems is still an option, or making it an option once again is the principal way people reassert their autonomy online and in the real world.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;be-judicious-about-how-things-are-done&#34;&gt;Be Judicious about How Things are Done&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are excellent digital tools, and there are awful digital tools. In addition to this, &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/7ZSPf7YnGfE&#34;&gt;how they&amp;rsquo;re used&lt;/a&gt; matters a great deal. Just because you agree with the goals of a particular initiative, that doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean that all means to achieve it are desirable or effective. Take the time to understand the impacts, and downsides of particular tactics and methods. There are many things which may seem like a fantastic idea early on, that can have insidious effects after time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ask questions of your allies and opponents alike. Consider alternate motivations and incentives. Raising your tolerance for those asking difficult questions goes a long way to make your mission sustainable, and accountable. Consider what your actual goals are, and if the means you&amp;rsquo;re taking are actually effective towards your ideal goal, or merely in service of someone else&amp;rsquo;s interests.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;free-minds-and-save-souls&#34;&gt;Free Minds and Save Souls&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When one is alone, and justifiably fearful of what&amp;rsquo;s going on it&amp;rsquo;s very easy to fall for all kinds of self-destructive scams. Now more than ever it is crucial to recognize the assaults on people and have compassion for their struggles. Doing what we can to support each other and refuse to leave others behind is what can set us apart from those who seek to dominate and control others. Taking the time, in whatever way you can to alleviate fear and suffering can go a long way to directly undermine both analog and digital tyranny.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>A Warning about Network States with Hrvoje Morić</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/tnt-radio-network-states/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 11 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/tnt-radio-network-states/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/tnt-radio-mar-9.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tnt-banner-2.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tnt-banner-2.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tnt-banner-2.webp" />
+		<description>A discussion on TNT Radio</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;In anticipation of publishing a new &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy/&#34;&gt;tools of the technocracy&lt;/a&gt; article, I had a chat with Hrvoje on his show to talk about what I had learned watching through &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/x-GfuIFkB_Y&#34;&gt;The Network State Conference 2023&lt;/a&gt;. It&amp;rsquo;s clear that the entire concept of Network States as published in &lt;a href=&#34;https://thenetworkstate.com/&#34;&gt;The Network State&lt;/a&gt; and highlighted by the speakers, is at best an attempt to dress up an all-encompassing technocratic terror. At worst, it&amp;rsquo;s a declaration of a world-wide open bid on human surveillance and control. Sharing some initial thoughts for the discussion, follow up article in &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-12/&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy #12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;More episodes: &lt;a href=&#34;https://geopoliticsandempire.substack.com/s/hrvoje-moric-show-tnt-radio&#34;&gt;https://geopoliticsandempire.substack.com/s/hrvoje-moric-show-tnt-radio&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/network-state-banner.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-12/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #12 Network States&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;The formalization of world-wide tyranny&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Attention Democracy with William Maggos</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/attention-democracy/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/attention-democracy/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/attention-democracy-banner.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/attention-democracy-banner.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/attention-democracy-banner.webp" />
+		<description></description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;In a special converation you would have a hard time finding elsewhere, Gabriel joins William Maggos to discuss the fediverse, attention economy, and the Culture War. Taking a sober look at the very foundation of our media and online discussions, William Maggos introduces the concept of &lt;em&gt;attention democracy&lt;/em&gt;, where we can have a real impact on culture by choosing platforms that put people in charge of helping spread ideas and culture.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Learn more about William Maggos&amp;rsquo; work at &lt;a href=&#34;https://culturewar.radio/&#34;&gt;Culture War Radio&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Follow &lt;a href=&#34;https://liberal.city/@wjmaggos&#34;&gt;@wjmaggos@liberal.city&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The RSS Feed linked to the wrong video, this has been corrected&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The EU Plan to Reshape the Internet Forever</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/government-in-tech/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 25 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/government-in-tech/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/eu-ngi.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/EU-NGI.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/EU-NGI.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/EU-NGI.webp" />
+		<description>The old continent is bringing a sea of change.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;The world wide web is no stranger to government control.  The Internet itself was created by the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/15/how-the-internet-was-invented-1976-arpa-kahn-cerf&#34;&gt;US Military,&lt;/a&gt; and governments across the world have subsidized Internet infrastructure in all kinds of ways. Many factors, such as the economies of scale, and sheer workforce size give large organizations an immense advantage when it comes to shaping the future of cyberspace. Just as individuals struggle with troubles relating to digital privacy &amp;amp; security, so do large organizations and governments.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;In response, governments across the world are moving fast to address these concerns. With the motive and means to transform the fundamental elements that lay the foundation for our digital lives, a tidal wave of change is taking place and just beginning to accelerate. The winning move isn&amp;rsquo;t to challenge the whole tsunami directly, but rather to find the right waves that can carry us to where we would like to be. Indifference and apathy will certainly lead us to a similar place it took us all during the big tech era: to dependence and exploitation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I am not familiar with the history of how the Internet/tech companies have infiltrated my life&amp;ndash; I only know one day the past, the before Internet part of life was like in another galaxy, and I was forcibly acclimated into accepting an intrusive technology if I want to use the Internet or a &amp;ldquo;smart&amp;rdquo; phone.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Written by a friend&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If nothing else, this should be a reminder of the dire necessity to be vigilant of how governments and large corporations can shape cyberspace to tilt the balance of power against the public. Many governments like to be permissive in all the ways that don&amp;rsquo;t impact prioritized policy objectives, then turn brutal the moment public opinion starts to shift against those policies. As the digital world has taken hold over more and more aspects of our lives, now more than ever, we all need take responsibility for shielding ourselves and others from such abuses.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of continuing to let the web be dictated by American Tech Companies, Europe has a bold new strategy to plan, build, and &lt;em&gt;enforce&lt;/em&gt; a new vision for cyberspace. The European Union&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.ngi.eu/&#34;&gt;Next Generation Internet,&lt;/a&gt; or NGI for short, aims to terraform cyberspace to represent the values of their elite. This plan is explicitly aimed at changing the Internet not just for Europeans, but for the entire world as well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;understanding-the-next-generation-internet&#34;&gt;Understanding the &amp;ldquo;Next Generation Internet&amp;rdquo;&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you take a look at &lt;a href=&#34;https://ngi.eu/wp-content/uploads/sites/48/2019/09/NGI-Brochure_A5_HR_FinalPrinted.pdf&#34;&gt;the brochure&lt;/a&gt;, it self-describes the plan as a &amp;ldquo;Human Internet for a better future&amp;rdquo;. Despite this, the document starts out making it explicitly clear that many technocratic ideals are directly woven into the plan. Surveillance, censorship, and more digital intrusion into our lives aren&amp;rsquo;t depicted as problems to be solved, but rather &lt;em&gt;responsibly managed&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The Internet is the &lt;strong&gt;engine of digitisation of our society and our economy.&lt;/strong&gt;
+As connectivity increases, the boundaries between the real and the digital world are blurring. With the explosion of the Internet of Things (IoT), multimedia content and social media,the Internet offers an unprecedented access to data and online services.&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;strong&gt;Artificial intelligence helps to extract meaning from this data&lt;/strong&gt; and to embed autonomy and intelligence into networks, connected objects and services.
+However, there has been an &lt;strong&gt;erosion of trust in the Internet&lt;/strong&gt; following revelations about the exploitation of personal data, large-scale cybersecurity and data breaches, and growing awareness of &lt;strong&gt;online disinformation.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Do you feel the warm and fuzzy human feelings yet? To go further, this is an excellent example of &lt;strong&gt;&amp;ldquo;brokering legitimacy&amp;rdquo;&lt;/strong&gt;. Which is when advocates for solving a problem undermine their cause by carving out counter-productive exceptions to their principles. This process uses the very real concerns about privacy and security to justify more control. Effectively binding critics of the plan, because it&amp;rsquo;s leveraging the unjustifiable aspects of the status quo to dismantle the parts worth preserving.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is naive to believe that the European Union, which very recently pushed to &lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.mozilla.org/netpolicy/files/2023/11/eIDAS-Industry-Letter.pdf&#34;&gt;backdoor everyone&amp;rsquo;s web traffic,&lt;/a&gt; is somehow sincerely interested in the privacy or even security of their citizens. I can wholeheartedly believe that European governments are very concerned about &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.iccl.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Europes-hidden-security-crisis.pdf&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;their own security&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; from the public, Big Tech, and foreign entities alike. As &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/cyberwar/&#34;&gt;cyberwars escalate&lt;/a&gt; moves are required to innovate not just their own systems, but to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-conducts-court-authorized-disruption-botnet-controlled-russian&#34;&gt;make changes&lt;/a&gt; to the systems that their citizens use as well. The following quote is from the &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/qeo7oJGxX7o&#34;&gt;Next Generation Internet Policy Summit in 2020&lt;/a&gt;, I find it exemplary of the kind of spirit that animates the initiative.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/3f3a8fbc-6ef8-4621-807a-2ad9d92e5af6?title=0&amp;amp;peertubeLink=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/media/text/NGI-Anu-Bradford.txt&#34;&gt;[Relevant Transcript]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the name of resolving a wide variety of issues created by the US Government and American Tech companies, Europe is working to consolidate information control over the Internet. In hindsight, it appears that the laissez-faire approach governments took with large tech companies was to merely buy time while more sophisticated digital surveillance techniques were built up. Hence the desire for rapid &lt;strong&gt;regulatory and technological &lt;em&gt;innovation&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; emphasized in the above quote.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In late 2019 &lt;a href=&#34;https://ar.al/&#34;&gt;Aral Balkan&lt;/a&gt; spoke with the &lt;a href=&#34;https://ar.al/2019/11/29/the-future-of-internet-regulation-at-the-european-parliament/&#34;&gt;European Parliament&lt;/a&gt;. Raising many important points, he pleaded with them to kill &amp;lsquo;surveillance capitalism&amp;rsquo;. The &lt;a href=&#34;https://video.lqdn.fr/w/hyvebph9MEGdCJGME4niAh&#34;&gt;video&lt;/a&gt; is absolutely worth watching to get an understanding of how where we are bridges to where the European Union would like to go.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://video.lqdn.fr/videos/embed/861c07f7-7e9b-4e64-9765-cf1de592c8a0?subtitle=en&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;[Regarding citing Facebook]&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If this is the presumption under which you are regulating the Internet,
+I despair about the future of human rights and about the future of our democracy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You&amp;rsquo;re going blindly towards a Silicon Valley model, I don&amp;rsquo;t know why you&amp;rsquo;re doing this.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In short, Aral seems unconvinced that the EU will actually go far enough to radically support citizen&amp;rsquo;s digital autonomy and is instead trying to import aspects of the big tech control regime under state control. It&amp;rsquo;s hard to disagree with that perspective, and he exemplifies what actual opposition to these problems looks like.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As frustrating as some aspects of the Next Generation Internet vision are, it is to the EU&amp;rsquo;s credit that this is a massive transparent undertaking. Much of it is not only open public knowledge, but features initiatives in which open participation is encouraged. This appears to be the case largely because the concerns around censorship and paternalism seem to be more broadly socially accepted in Europe, a critical sign that social acceptance of censorship is what entrenches it. The way in which the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=next_generation_internet&#34;&gt;Next Generation Internet&lt;/a&gt; is being rolled out is very effective at neutralizing any outright opposition, to the degree it is even possible. It is easy to see how such sweeping and extreme transformations made in other domains would use a similar model.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is a foolish and dangerous mistake to fall into the trap of thinking governments are entirely comprised of out-of-touch bureaucrats with no understanding of technology. In fact, these reforms are being drawn up by people with an incredibly high level of understanding that is quite difficult to match, independent reformers (&lt;em&gt;if there truly are any&lt;/em&gt;) are at a serious disadvantage.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;fully-embracing-open-source&#34;&gt;Fully Embracing Open Source&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the advantages the European Union has, is that they have recognized the immense opportunity of actually leaning into the open source development model. While North America bickers about &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2024/02/20/how-the-in-office-vs-remote-debate-is-shaping-the-future-of-work/&#34;&gt;remote work and commercial office space&lt;/a&gt;, the EU is harnessing the power of efficient decentralized work. By taking the &amp;ldquo;build it and they will come&amp;rdquo; approach, they are entirely out-maneuvering competitors with a treasure-trove of opportunity that has been laying dormant in people&amp;rsquo;s apathy and defeatism for over a decade.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=nlnet_foundation&#34;&gt;NLnet Foundation&lt;/a&gt; funds a wide variety of Open Source projects and tools that fit within the Next Generation Internet vision. This is good in some ways, notably that many of &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=nlnet_foundation&#34;&gt;these projects&lt;/a&gt; are Free Software, which means that if things do go wrong, at least people can modify the projects for their own needs. One does have to wonder what the exact terms of the agreement are, and what &amp;lsquo;carrots and sticks&amp;rsquo; are used to ensure compliance.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/ngi-funding.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Such explicit means may not be necessary however. It&amp;rsquo;s entirely possible that this is merely a circumstance where both governments and individuals have aligned interests to resist foreign surveillance and control. When it comes to how the Internet is currently controlled, it&amp;rsquo;s not always individual software itself that&amp;rsquo;s the culprit. While Google/Apple/Facebook may be reading your messages, there are other ways to achieve the same goals.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Open standards, protocols, and Free Software are all things that benefit everyone. The degree of benefit will naturally vary on the nature, purpose and quality of the project. It is critical that people seize the opportunity created from this deluge of resources being thrown into making useful software. To be clear, the NGI vision absolutely includes a lot of genuinely good ideas and solutions that should be taken seriously. It also supports many excellent and important projects that shouldn&amp;rsquo;t be seen as &amp;rsquo;tainted&amp;rsquo; simply due to association with this initiative.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Like similar initiatives, I believe many of these projects are selected because it is clearly an elegant and efficient way to achieve particular goals. One would hopefully understand that many technologies, but especially digital technologies can be used for good, evil, and everything in-between. An example worth pointing out is &lt;a href=&#34;https://garagehq.deuxfleurs.fr/&#34;&gt;garage&lt;/a&gt; which appears to be building a highly-performant file storage server that organizations and individuals alike can both use for particular purposes. Naturally, there are some aspects which will benefit larger organizations more, but that will vary from project to project.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To be clear, I still fully intend to use and support &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.ngi.eu/funded_solution/peertube/&#34;&gt;PeerTube&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.ngi.eu/funded_solution/misskey/&#34;&gt;Misskey&lt;/a&gt; for the foreseeable future, despite them both being supported, along with wider support for the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/fediverse&#34;&gt;fediverse&lt;/a&gt;. I am very concerned that EU funding many excellent (and important) FOSS projects will be used by people with different agendas to undermine Free Software generally.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It would be all-too-easy for private companies to start selling unverifiable software-suites in the name of promising you &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;real security with none of that open-source stuff&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;. Falling for that kind of &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/redirecting-resistance/&#34;&gt;affinity scam&lt;/a&gt; is how you end up falling for things like the so-called &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/freedom-phone-the-ultimate-political-tool-and-why-you-should-avoid-it/&#34;&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;em&gt;Freedom Phone&lt;/em&gt;&amp;quot;&lt;/a&gt; which inevitably includes a lot of open source tools because they&amp;rsquo;re just outright better than what most people can achieve in their own time. Simplistic, binary thinking is what sabotages serious and meaningful reform. Even worse it can very often enable the worst aspects of the project by allowing them to be justified by the important parts of the initiative.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;velvet-glove-iron-fist&#34;&gt;Velvet Glove, Iron Fist&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Just because there is good to be done, that doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean there aren&amp;rsquo;t rough edges to be concerned about. Keeping in mind that the primary motivation for the Next Generation Internet has more to do with protecting governments from the people rather than the other way around. With decades of surveillance scandals, censorship, and corruption there are good reasons to consider not further empowering governments through digital systems and tools.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Another serious concern one should consider is that the NGI project is very much a Covid Crisis era initiative. &lt;a href=&#34;https://dapsi.ngi.eu/&#34;&gt;NGI Dapsi&lt;/a&gt; which did support an excellent project like &lt;a href=&#34;https://dapsi.ngi.eu/hall-of-fame/postmarketos/&#34;&gt;PostmarketOS&lt;/a&gt; for linux phones, also sponsored the creation of a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=vaccine_passport&#34;&gt;vaccine passport&lt;/a&gt; candidate, the &lt;a href=&#34;https://dapsi.ngi.eu/hall-of-fame/dip/&#34;&gt;Digital Immunization Passport&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;a href=&#34;https://brownstone.org/articles/Internet-censorship-everywhere-all-at-once/&#34;&gt;Information control initiatives&lt;/a&gt; such as tracking and combating so-called misinformation and disinformation, are very much a foundational principle of the EU&amp;rsquo;s strategic priorities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://ngi.eu/wp-content/uploads/sites/48/2019/09/NGI-Brochure_A5_HR_FinalPrinted.pdf&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/ngi-projects.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In early 2020, The European Commission published their &lt;a href=&#34;https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/ba32bdc7-9324-4eee-b9b3-3d91ad16ce00_en?filename=cnect_sp_2020_2024_en.pdf&#34;&gt;Strategic plan for 2020-2024&lt;/a&gt;. The strategic plan outlined &amp;ldquo;A Europe Fit for the Digital Age&amp;rdquo;, with 6 specific objectives:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Europe&amp;rsquo;s strategic autonomy is ensured in critical technology areas&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;European &lt;strong&gt;single market for data&lt;/strong&gt; where data can flow for the benefit of all and where rules for access and use of data are fair, practical and clear&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Artificial intelligence that is human-centric, ethical, sustainable and that respects EU values&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A fair, competitive and resource efficient digital economy&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A cyber resilient Europe, &lt;strong&gt;promoting digital identities for all&lt;/strong&gt; Europeans, while protecting their e-privacy&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A modern, open and pluralistic society in the digital age &lt;strong&gt;where online disinformation is countered&lt;/strong&gt; and diverse cultural content is available to all Europeans&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Objective 1 makes it exceedingly clear why so many resources have been put into great software that actually works well. The EU, unlike the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-says-rules-not-followed-arrivecan-1.7120318&#34;&gt;Canadian government&lt;/a&gt;, actually understands how to get meaningful results. With a strong desire to actually augment their national digital sovereignty, better privacy tools are sorely needed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Objective 2 is arguably the most interesting. It seems that the EU intends to become the single broker for all of Europe&amp;rsquo;s data. This is a fascinating (if not outright terrifying) concept, and is effectively the legalization of domestic mass surveillance. It is clear that the level of intrusion will be determined by how the EU leadership decides the benefits they receive outweigh the risks to the public.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Objective 3 is just an outright fanciful delusion at best and a desire to single-handedly regulate away general-purpose computing at worst. One has to wonder if the &amp;ldquo;EU values&amp;rdquo; referenced in the documentation represent values of the European public or values that are being &lt;em&gt;imposed&lt;/em&gt; on them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Objectives 4,5,6 greatly enhance state control over the Internet and where it reaches into public life. After decades of American administrations using &amp;ldquo;national security&amp;rdquo; as a pretext for all kinds of abuses, it&amp;rsquo;s high time we understand that national sovereignty doesn&amp;rsquo;t quite mean what it used to. From everything we have seen, it is clear that this vision is entirely about protecting the European Union&amp;rsquo;s political structure rather than it&amp;rsquo;s people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;conclusion&#34;&gt;Conclusion&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite many people being seriously concerned about hostile governments working to destroy the Internet, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the European Union. Many significant regulations have already been put into place and it seems that they are only the beginning. It is understandable, if not outright laudable, for the EU to take it&amp;rsquo;s digital sovereignty seriously. It is however, our role to ensure that we are doing what we can to ensure those gains aren&amp;rsquo;t at the expense of people&amp;rsquo;s ability to dissent or otherwise participate in society.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Learn about Free Software, learn how to contribute to open source, these models are already clearly demonstrated to be the most efficient way forward on a wide variety of issues. This doesn&amp;rsquo;t automatically mean that everything that is made that way is wholly benign. It means that &lt;strong&gt;our participation matters&lt;/strong&gt;. What we do to decide how we build our tools and how they are used are vitally important concerns. The devil is in the details, as they say. The last thing I want to see, is people sharing this post to say &amp;ldquo;X project is funded under the NGI, so therefore it&amp;rsquo;s bad!&amp;rdquo; in a bizarre &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/signal-facing-collapse-after-cia&#34;&gt;knee-jerk reaction&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Anyone who even partially understands the state of online mass surveillance is keenly aware that the problem is larger than any single project or tool. We should absolutely be concerned about the state and future of projects that are entirely dependent on the EU for funding, but we have a role in this too. If we aren&amp;rsquo;t proactively focused on &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/bankroll/&#34;&gt;supporting development ourselves&lt;/a&gt; we can hardly expect for it to be built out of nothing.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Digital Autonomy &amp; The Arts with Hunter Stabler</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/arts6/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 18 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/arts6/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts6-banner.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts6-banner.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts6-banner.webp" />
+		<description>Part 6: Exploring tools and the social landscape</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Thrilled to have had an excellent conversation with &lt;a href=&#34;https://hunterstabler.com&#34;&gt;Hunter Stabler&lt;/a&gt; about digital autonomy and the arts. We spoke about many different topics, ranging from Free Software, community, and the broader impact of social media. It was a pleasure to connect with somebody who’s taken many steps towards reclaiming their digital autonomy, and has such incredible talent.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can take a look at Hunter’s creations on &lt;a href=&#34;https://pixelfed.social/hunter_stabler&#34;&gt;his Pixelfed.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We share an affinity for &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.blender.org/&#34;&gt;Blender&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://antennapod.org/&#34;&gt;Antennapod&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://xmpp.org/&#34;&gt;XMPP&lt;/a&gt;. Hunter has put together a CNC machine and likes to create with Free Software where possible. Adding that we need to all find ways to collaborate and work together to solve problems of education, outreach, and support.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;links-discussed&#34;&gt;Links Discussed&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://brownstone.org/articles/the-responsibility-of-intellectuals-2-0&#34;&gt;The Responsibility of Intellectuals 2.0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://nationalcitizensinquiry.ca/testimony/&#34;&gt;National Citizens Inquiry Testimony&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.salon.com/2024/01/09/impossible-openai-admits-chatgpt-cant-exist-without-pinching-copyrighted-work/&#34;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Impossible&amp;rdquo;: OpenAI admits ChatGPT can&amp;rsquo;t exist without pinching copyrighted work&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://apnews.com/article/ai-generated-election-deepfakes-munich-accord-meta-google-microsoft-tiktok-x-c40924ffc68c94fac74fa994c520fc06&#34;&gt;Tech companies sign accord to combat AI-generated election trickery&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/bankroll/&#34;&gt;Operation: Bankroll&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.wired.com/story/air-canada-chatbot-refund-policy/&#34;&gt;Air Canada Has to Honor a Refund Policy Its Chatbot Made Up&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;a-taste-of-freedom-libre-hosters&#34;&gt;A Taste of Freedom: Libre Hosters&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A very important topic highlighted in this discussion was how somebody without much time or resources can get started with using excellent Free and Open Source Software. One way to become familiar with self-hostable services is to try them out with an online community that provides them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Of course, since you are a guest on somebody else&amp;rsquo;s infrastructure it&amp;rsquo;s important to be a good digital citizen and respect their rules and culture while using their services. Of course, if you&amp;rsquo;re an experienced self-hoster with spare resources, consider becoming your own libre hoster for others!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Here are some examples:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://disroot.org/en&#34;&gt;Disroot&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libreops.cc/&#34;&gt;LibreOps&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://weho.st/&#34;&gt;weho.st&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Browse others at the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libreho.st/&#34;&gt;libre hosters directory&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This conversation took place over the &lt;a href=&#34;https://fsf.org&#34;&gt;Free Software Foundation&lt;/a&gt;&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://jitsi.member.fsf.org/&#34;&gt;Jitsi Instance&lt;/a&gt;. Consider &lt;a href=&#34;https://fsf.org/donate&#34;&gt;becoming a member&lt;/a&gt; to support Free Software, and gain acess to numerous member&amp;rsquo;s benefits, including an XMPP account. &lt;a href=&#34;https://obsproject.com/&#34;&gt;OBS Studio&lt;/a&gt; was used to record the conversation, and cleanup/edits were done in blender and &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.audacityteam.org/&#34;&gt;audacity&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Pushing Back against Surveillance and Control with Hrvoje Morić</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/hrvoje-moric-show-feb-2024/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/hrvoje-moric-show-feb-2024/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/2024-Feb-TNT-Radio.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tnt-radio.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tnt-radio.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tnt-radio.webp" />
+		<description>Delving into the crucial issues impacting people&#39;s digital autonomy.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Early this month, Hrvoje and I had a conversation about how governments and corporations are tightening their grip over the information landscape. We discussed some of my latest work, and it was an excellent opportunity to add some finer detail to points that come up often. Near the end, we talk about the &lt;a href=&#34;https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/the-verdict&#34;&gt;war on dissent&lt;/a&gt; in Germany. It’s important to note that the acquittal of CJ Hopkins &lt;a href=&#34;https://cjhopkins.substack.com/p/the-resistible-rise-of-the-new-normal&#34;&gt;is being appealed&lt;/a&gt; by the German government. Reiterating the importance for us to rally around the importance of Free Speech and Expression in the face of totalitarianism.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>SoundCloud Censors Geopolitics and Empire</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/geopolitics-and-empire-censored/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 26 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/geopolitics-and-empire-censored/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/soundcloud-hrvoje.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/soundcloud-hrvoje.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/soundcloud-hrvoje.webp" />
+		<description>Understanding corporate censorship, and what can be done about it</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;So I have been a loyal customer to Germany-based SoundCloud since 2015, where my podcast has been hosted&amp;hellip;and now they have finally jumped on the censorship bandwagon&amp;hellip;by deleting one of my interviews from a year ago. &lt;strong&gt;Are there any censorship-resistant podcast hosting providers left?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The censored interview: &lt;a href=&#34;https://geopoliticsandempire.com/2023/02/14/christie-grace-big-pharma-wants-to-force-biologics-on-us&#34;&gt;https://geopoliticsandempire.com/2023/02/14/christie-grace-big-pharma-wants-to-force-biologics-on-us&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://t.me/GeopoliticsAndEmpire/43908&#34;&gt;Geopolitics and Empire on Telegram&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This particular interview being censored is very notable to me. I was dissapointed to see that an episode of &lt;a href=&#34;https://geopoliticsandempire.com/&#34;&gt;Geopolitics and Empire&lt;/a&gt; was removed, but when I noticed which specific interview was removed it certainly raised an eyebrow. I&amp;rsquo;ve only had a passing awareness of Christie Grace&amp;rsquo;s work, with much of it &lt;a href=&#34;https://christiegrace.substack.com/&#34;&gt;going over my head.&lt;/a&gt; The thing I find specifically concerning is that there is a pattern of those with substantially higher-effort &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/lies-and-gaslighting-over-the-military&#34;&gt;investigative work&lt;/a&gt; being &lt;em&gt;sidelined&lt;/em&gt; in favor of those who can meet the demand for simple and inflammatory rhetoric.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://x.com/_HeartofGrace_/status/1719904020796449057&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/christie-censored.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Not cool at all. 
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When it first read her tweet I was stunned. Stunned that someone would have the audacity to demand a domain expert to &lt;em&gt;coach them&lt;/em&gt; how to present ideas instead of&amp;hellip; letting her speak to her expertise and answer questions. There&amp;rsquo;s undeniably a sexist angle to this, as such I also worry that this may be more common than one would expect. It&amp;rsquo;s a tragic mis-allocation of resources for those taking the time to actually put together potentially life-saving information to be maligned by those operating under the premise that it&amp;rsquo;s all &lt;em&gt;just business&lt;/em&gt;. This makes it explicitly clear that what our governments and mega-corporations fear the most is ordinary people choosing for themselves who and what to platform, rather than allowing intermediaries to shape any and all discussions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-attention-economy-is-the-problem&#34;&gt;The Attention Economy is the Problem.&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s really easy for someone to dunk on Hrvoje for using soundcloud. &lt;em&gt;You should be hosting it yourself silly!&lt;/em&gt; Right? That &lt;em&gt;sounds like useful information&lt;/em&gt;, but is naive at best and arrogant at worst in the face of &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/broken-internet/&#34;&gt;infrastructure-level de-platforming.&lt;/a&gt; It is certainly possible for an individual to run a multimedia project as a passion project out of pocket, but the more hurdles that are thrown in the way, the fewer will actually manage to take part.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It may seem like an &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akeRz7ouICQ&#34;&gt;extreme position&lt;/a&gt; to some, but it is clear that the industry built around supporting media with advertisements is fundamentally malignant. A smaller industry would not be able to get away with &lt;a href=&#34;https://avoidthehack.com/ads-cybersecurity-risk&#34;&gt;infecting users with malware&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.iccl.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Europes-hidden-security-crisis.pdf&#34;&gt;operating as a 24/7 continuous data breach&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/43d3d114-38b0-4a33-a1c9-ca29f8107912?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;we-are-not-powerless&#34;&gt;We are NOT Powerless.&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Blocking advertisements just makes sense, but to go even further we must explore more democratized and meritocratic ways of hosting, distributing, and sharing multimedia. The Free and Open Web is a beautiful thing, and despite many efforts to seize control over it we can still decide to &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tech/reclaiming-cyberspace/&#34;&gt;reclaim territory in cyberspace&lt;/a&gt; and make our mark on history.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-is-podcast-hosting&#34;&gt;What is Podcast Hosting?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Podcast hosting is a service that stores media files (either audio clips or video) and that allows for various podcast applications or apps to download and play media. Podcasting had its &lt;a href=&#34;https://podnews.net/article/first-podcast-feed-history&#34;&gt;origin in RSS Feeds&lt;/a&gt; and sadly many &amp;ldquo;podcasts&amp;rdquo; stray from this open standard that really began a new independent media revolution. By allowing people to upload media for free, the platform seizes control over the content that is stored on it. If you&amp;rsquo;re lucky, the platform still publishes an RSS feed instead of relying on centralized indexing services.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A podcast itself is very simple. It&amp;rsquo;s a collection of video and/or audio files with a file that is &lt;strong&gt;machine-readable&lt;/strong&gt; as in it&amp;rsquo;s very simple for a program to parse the information and use it as needed. A slimmed-down example of what this file would look like is this:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;highlight&#34;&gt;&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34; style=&#34;color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;&#34;&gt;&lt;code class=&#34;language-xml&#34; data-lang=&#34;xml&#34;&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;&amp;lt;rss&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#a6e22e&#34;&gt;version=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#34;2.0&amp;#34;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;&amp;lt;channel&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;        &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;&amp;lt;title&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;Example Podcast&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;&amp;lt;/title&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;        &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;&amp;lt;link&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;https://example.com/podcast&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;&amp;lt;/link&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;        &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;&amp;lt;item&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;            &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;&amp;lt;title&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;Episode 1&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;&amp;lt;/title&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;            &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;&amp;lt;link&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;https://example.com/podcast/episode-1&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;&amp;lt;/link&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;            &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;&amp;lt;enclosure&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#a6e22e&#34;&gt;url=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#34;/episode.mp3&amp;#34;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;/&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;        &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;&amp;lt;/item&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;&amp;lt;/channel&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;&amp;lt;/rss&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;The file outlines the title and description for the show, as well as a link to where each audio/video clip is stored. Distilled down to this level, a podcast is quite similar to a &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/best-website-for-you/&#34;&gt;static web site&lt;/a&gt; designed for a different kind of application interface. It&amp;rsquo;s pure data that can be stored in a large variety of ways. This means that any simple, inexpensive web hosting can be used to host a podcast. As the size of it grows, you may want to consider how you&amp;rsquo;re purchasing storage, and maybe using something like object storage can help you reduce costs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;podcasting-20&#34;&gt;Podcasting 2.0&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By wholeheartedly embracing this, Adam Curry (aka &amp;ldquo;The Podfather&amp;rdquo;), co-creator of the podcast &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxLqBZ2MwCA&#34;&gt;has started&lt;/a&gt; an exciting initiative called Podcasting 2.0. This initiative aims to expand the RSS format to include additional features that many &amp;ldquo;podcast&amp;rdquo; platforms refused to adopt. These features include donation links, chapters, and even transcripts. By expanding the RSS format with the &amp;ldquo;podcast namespace&amp;rdquo; Podcasting 2.0 allows for anyone to immediately take advantage of the latest and greatest features using &lt;a href=&#34;https://podcastindex.org/apps?appTypes=open+source&amp;amp;elements=Chapters&#34;&gt;open source software!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;sharing-is-caring&#34;&gt;Sharing is Caring&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Censorship resistance is only part of the story. It is down to all of us as individuals to take a proactive role in helping get the word out for independent voices that take the time to make room for conversations that need to happen. Censorship thrives as long as there is tolerance for it, making a deliberate choice to amplify those who are suppressed is a very effective way to counteract it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>New Website: Cyberfreedom.ca</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/building-a-beehive/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 21 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/building-a-beehive/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/honeycomb.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/honeycomb.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/honeycomb.webp" />
+		<description>Let&#39;s get down to business</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s something very powerful about splitting up a huge task into tiny pieces and making it easy for people to work on the particular chunks. In hopes to demonstrate how this is done, &lt;a href=&#34;https://cyberfreedom.ca&#34;&gt;cyberfreedom.ca&lt;/a&gt; is now launched to demonstrate &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/beehive/&#34;&gt;Operation: Beehive&lt;/a&gt;. It is still very much a work in progress, but the seed is planted. A lot of basic questions need to be answered, but there&amp;rsquo;s lots to come!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/honeycomb.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/beehive&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Operation: Beehive&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;A model for highly productive decentralized work.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-is-cyberfreedomca&#34;&gt;What is Cyberfreedom.ca?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Canadian Cyber Freedom is intended to be a resource for Canadians to identify legislative attacks on their digital autonomy and privacy. The site is a beehive because it&amp;rsquo;s using a version-control system &lt;strong&gt;git&lt;/strong&gt; to manage changes. Once changes are accepted, they are automatically integrated with the site. Anyone is free to clone &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel/cyberfreedom&#34;&gt;the repository&lt;/a&gt; and start making their own changes. Once they&amp;rsquo;ve published their version of the repository (or sent it directly) their updates can be integrated into the project.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The idea of keeping up with, and extensively detailing all the ways in which the government of Canada is working to undermine Canadians digital liberty is overwhelming. The hope is to recruit motivated volunteers to assist with building a resource that will help Canadians engage with their representatives to turn the tide in favor of liberty. While total success would be wonderful, even enough engagement to demonstrate the tactic would go a long way to change the game.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;why-all-the-fuss&#34;&gt;Why all the fuss?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many hands make light work. The ability to get many people working together in a decentralized way is severely underestimated. The goal is to exemplify a process that with a little learning, allows everyone to maximize their own ability to contribute to larger projects.&lt;br&gt;
+The major challenges are two-fold:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;The project has to be deliberately setup with this kind of workflow in mind. Some data formats or ways of managing information become much more complicated as projects gain participants or become larger.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;It does require a bit of learning on the behalf of volunteers, in exchange for learning a useful skill, they&amp;rsquo;re able to build things that would be impossible for individuals.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, there are also many advantages:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anti-Fragile Information Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s a lot harder to suppress information when a variety of people have a copy of it, that can be easily shared over many different mediums.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Highly Scalable&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The more people who get involved, the more can get done quickly&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Inherently Self-Hosted and Offline-First&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s all just managing information, there is no requirement to use websites or services at all. They&amp;rsquo;re just convenient for access and sharing.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Optimal Trust&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You may want the ability for people to contribute without necessarily trusting them with keys to the kingdom. Using git allows you to pull changes from anyone without having to give them control over your project.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Once you do want to trust collaborators to help you manage the project, it&amp;rsquo;s as simple as creating an account on your forge for them, and setting up permissions to the repository.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Division of Labor&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The beehive model allows for tech people to focus on tech things (such as site hosting and configuration) while contributors can focus on their areas of expertise such as writing, editing, translation, or creating multimedia content.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;what-can-be-accomplished&#34;&gt;What can be Accomplished?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Demonstrating how to decentralize collaboration online and offline is a phenomenal asset to those who wish to endure and oppose total top-down control. The goal is to primarily demonstrate how a task that appears to be too large to take on can be relatively simply transformed into a goldmine of opportunity for all involved. If this process was better understood, the broader community could adopt this model towards creating resources for other kinds of important issues.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Of course, it would be wonderful if &lt;a href=&#34;https://cyberfreedom.ca&#34;&gt;cyberfreedom.ca&lt;/a&gt; becomes the go-to resource to equip Canadians to engage with their elected officials to gain new ground for digital autonomy in Canada. With a bit of effort this resource could track terrible legislation before it has time to pass and give citizens the confidence to oppose it together. If this proves successful, it would be even possible for people to write new proposals that would greatly enhance the privacy and free expression rights on Canadians.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;thank-you-a-personal-note&#34;&gt;Thank you: A Personal Note&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I want to thank everyone reading this at the moment, it&amp;rsquo;s been a very rough start for me but I am very excited for the future of this and other projects. I hope that even if you can&amp;rsquo;t contribute time that you&amp;rsquo;re willing to at least share the idea with others, so that we can all start to bring meaningful change together. Whether you&amp;rsquo;re reading this via email, the website, or RSS feed your support has meant a great deal and your feedback means a great deal.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Digital Autonomy &amp; The Arts with Anne Gibbons</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/arts5/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/arts5/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts5-banner.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts5-banner.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts5-banner.webp" />
+		<description>Part 5: Understanding our tools and bonding over authenticity.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I’m pleased to have had the opportunity to discuss &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/digital-autonomy-the-arts&#34;&gt;Digital Autonomy &amp;amp; The Arts&lt;/a&gt; with Anne Gibbons. Anne is a courageous cartoonist and an inspiration to those who want to learn to make their mark on the canvas of history. We discuss the unique challenges that impact our lives at the cross-section of digital autonomy and artistic expression. I really appreciated having a discussion with a creative and passionate voice with such a wealth of experience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can follow Anne&amp;rsquo;s work on &lt;a href=&#34;https://annecantstandit.com/&#34;&gt;her website&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://annecantstandit.substack.com/&#34;&gt;substack&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;special-thanks-to-margaret-anna-allice&#34;&gt;Special Thanks to Margaret Anna Allice&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This discussion wouldn’t have taken place if not for &lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com&#34;&gt;Margaret Anna Alice&lt;/a&gt; and I am very thankful for that. Please take the time to watch (and share!) &lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/mistakes-were-not-made-video-dr-mike&#34;&gt;Dr Yeadon’s incredible reading&lt;/a&gt; of &lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/mistakes-were-not-made-an-anthem&#34;&gt;Mistakes Were NOT Made: An Anthem for Justice.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Related links:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.corbettreport.com/the-media-matrix-full-documentary/&#34;&gt;The Media Matrix&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/11/deviantart-upsets-artists-with-its-new-ai-art-generator-dreamup/&#34;&gt;DeviantArt upsets artists with its new AI art generator, DreamUp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/92rS5X3nfkHyZdknuodz6n&#34;&gt;War and Democide&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Data Shedding</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/data-shedding/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/data-shedding/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/data-shedding.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/data-shedding.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/data-shedding.webp" />
+		<description>Understanding a severe real-time privacy risk</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;The following video is a summary of &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.iccl.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Europes-hidden-security-crisis.pdf&#34;&gt;a report&lt;/a&gt; on how programmatic advertising can be weaponized for mass real-time surveillance. This report is highly troubling but not particularly surprising. If you want to learn how it&amp;rsquo;s being used, read up on the &lt;a href=&#34;https://mastodon.social/@wchr/111410591996456032&#34;&gt;mastodon thread&lt;/a&gt; made by one of the report&amp;rsquo;s authors.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;links&#34;&gt;Links:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://mastodon.social/@wchr/111410591996456032&#34;&gt;Mastodon Thread&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.iccl.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Europes-hidden-security-crisis.pdf&#34;&gt;Europe&amp;rsquo;s Hidden Security Crisis Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;further-reading&#34;&gt;Further Reading:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/04/investigative-reports/the-military-origins-of-facebook/&#34;&gt;The Military Origins of Facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.corbettreport.com/how-palantir-conquered-the-world/&#34;&gt;How Palantir Conquered the World&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Information_Awareness&#34;&gt;Total Information Awareness&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://avoidthehack.com/ads-cybersecurity-risk&#34;&gt;Understanding Malicious ads&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Securing your Data: Backups</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/backups/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 05 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/backups/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/backups.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/photos/drive.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/photos/drive.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/photos/drive.webp" />
+		<description>Don&#39;t overlook the importance of backups!</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Backups can feel like a chore, but they&amp;rsquo;re actually very empowering. Beyond the peace of mind knowing that you&amp;rsquo;re much less likely to lose data, you&amp;rsquo;re also in a better position to make changes. Many tasks, like moving from Windows to a Free and Open Source operating system, are much easier if you&amp;rsquo;ve already got your own backups. Keeping your data safe can be as simple as making copies and distributing them, all the way up to running your own cloud. The main purpose is always the same, preventing the horrors of data loss.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;contents&#34;&gt;Contents&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#tools&#34;&gt;Tools&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#example-strategies&#34;&gt;Example Strategies&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#extra-resources&#34;&gt;Extra Resources&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Data loss can be tragic. In a time where commercial services train us to think that everything is at our fingertips, it&amp;rsquo;s easy to forget that some things really are irreplaceable. Sure you can probably hunt down all those memes you&amp;rsquo;ve saved, but personal photographs, notes, and works can all disappear in a moment of surprise to be quickly replaced with a flood of dread and regret.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s the harsh saying, data that isn&amp;rsquo;t backed up is already lost. I&amp;rsquo;ve personally felt the loss of some personal data over the years that I&amp;rsquo;ll never get back. There are so many ways to lose data including deleting/overwriting data by mistake, device failure, or hostile attacks like ransomware. The solution is to keep your data on multiple devices in multiple places. Fortune favors the prepared, so it&amp;rsquo;s best to do what you can to avoid such scenarios.&lt;br&gt;
+The important steps are: &lt;strong&gt;Simplify, Store, Distribute, Test&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/backups.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/backups.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    share this poster! 
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;simplify&#34;&gt;Simplify&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Just like it can be hard to track down a specific form on a cluttered desk, it pays to have a deliberately organized system. Making as much use of your home directory as possible will go a long way. If you were able to have all your important files in a single place, such as &lt;code&gt;C:/Users/Gabriel&lt;/code&gt; on Windows or &lt;code&gt;/home/gabriel&lt;/code&gt; on Linux or Mac, it can be much easier to then copy and transfer those files.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Of course that&amp;rsquo;s the ideal scenario, things may be saved elsewhere for all kinds of reasons, or even relegated to a particular cloud provider. This creates a new challenge of tracking down particular files in a race against time before they are forgotten all together. The complexity isn&amp;rsquo;t always your fault, programs have the capability of installing their configuration settings in different places, so being aware of what program settings you need to keep safe is very important.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Using simpler tools, taking an offline-first approach, and spending time to organize important files can go a long way to making your backups simpler. Simple backups can sometimes be fully automated or at least sped up with scripts. This is all even more true when you use multiple devices, the more organized each device is, the less work required to manage it all.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;store&#34;&gt;Store&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;recovery-checklist&#34;&gt;Recovery Checklist:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For a complete recovery you&amp;rsquo;ll want to account for:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Personal/Work files&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Any file you wouldn&amp;rsquo;t want to have deleted. These include personal photos, documents, scanned documents or media.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Organizational Data&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Calendars and contacts are some of the first things you&amp;rsquo;ll want to ensure you have in a format &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted#calendar--contacts&#34;&gt;under your control&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Passwords&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you use a password manager, it&amp;rsquo;s very important not to lose all your passwords.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Browser Profiles&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Arguably the most important program to back up the settings for would be your browser. You can also separately back up important data such as bookmarks. By having the entire profile you ensure you keep your settings, add-ons, and many other useful things to avoid disruption.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Configuration files&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These are the program files mentioned earlier. Where they&amp;rsquo;re stored will vary from program to program, and it may depend on what system you&amp;rsquo;re using.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Installation media&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;At minimum, it&amp;rsquo;s nice to have a fresh start every once in a while. Having an installer on a USB to reinstall your system after any issues is a very useful thing to have when you can just throw all your files back in place.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;System backups&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can save time on re-installing your system and programs by maintaining a backup of your system in it&amp;rsquo;s current state. System backups are very useful to get back and running after a catastrophic problem or if a device is lost.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;No matter how much (or how little) simplifying you&amp;rsquo;ve done, you need to figure out how you&amp;rsquo;re going to store your needed files. At minimum you&amp;rsquo;ll want to copy them to some form of external medium or remote server.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;types-of-backups&#34;&gt;Types of Backups&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Copy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The most straightforward way to move files is to copy them from place to an external device such as a USB drive or optical media.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Push&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you have access to a home or remote server, you can regularly push files to keep them accessible.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pull&lt;/strong&gt;
+You could also give a home/remote server the capability to download your files remotely.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sync&lt;/strong&gt;
+It&amp;rsquo;s also possible to use tools to sync files and folders between devices in real-time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;encryption&#34;&gt;Encryption&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s useful to encrypt your backups, so if they fall in the wrong hands all your private files are safe from compromise. Sometimes cloud services will claim your backups are encrypted, but it&amp;rsquo;s critical that you control (and protect) the key that&amp;rsquo;s used to access the files.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;automation&#34;&gt;Automation&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Automation saves you time at the cost of initial configuration. It&amp;rsquo;s ultimately up to you how sophisticated you want the backup to be. It can be a very simple regular copy, or very complex with real-time sync and extra features.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;offline-backups&#34;&gt;Offline backups&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As far as I know, it&amp;rsquo;s impossible to steal data from an unplugged storage device &lt;a href=&#34;https://thehackernews.com/2022/07/new-air-gap-attack-uses-sata-cable-as.html&#34;&gt;over the Internet.&lt;/a&gt; Even if it was possible, it would be incredibly impractical to target most people. Having a backup that is disconnected from power is safe from all kinds of cyber threats.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;time&#34;&gt;Time&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Sometimes files aren&amp;rsquo;t merely lost, but are mistakenly damaged or altered. It&amp;rsquo;s useful to have a version history of particular files or keep multiple system backups from different moments in time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;redundancy&#34;&gt;Redundancy&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Less is absolutely not more in this scenario. If you&amp;rsquo;ve got spare time/resources and want to consider an additional layer of protection, more copies and/or more storage locations significantly increase the odds of being able to recover files in a disaster.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;distribute&#34;&gt;Distribute&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are scenarios where it&amp;rsquo;s vital to have your data not exist in a single physical location. Natural disasters, break-ins, and many other unpredictable incidents can make it impossible to retrieve data once it&amp;rsquo;s gone. Having a backup located somewhere else is how you overcome this.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For data that isn&amp;rsquo;t personal or sensitive, sharing is a perfectly viable option. If you&amp;rsquo;ve assembled an important curated collection of writing, media, or even just links publishing it online can help ensure your work isn&amp;rsquo;t wasted. You can even distribute files (&lt;em&gt;that you have the rights to!&lt;/em&gt;) on &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.org/&#34;&gt;archive.org&lt;/a&gt; to make a mark on history.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/photos/drive.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;storage-types&#34;&gt;Storage Types&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;portable-storage&#34;&gt;Portable Storage&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The easiest way to get started is to copy your personal files to a portable storage device. When one doesn&amp;rsquo;t require a huge amount of space, these are very convenient and work quite well. Portable flash storage is generally quite fast, but may not be suited for long-term storage.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;optical-media&#34;&gt;Optical Media&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re storing a relatively small amount of data that you don&amp;rsquo;t need to change, optical media such as CDs, DVDs, or Bluray disks may suit your purposes. Data stored on optical media is often likely to last much longer than flash storage when kept in ideal conditions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;external-hard-drives&#34;&gt;External Hard Drives&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A go-to method for people with many files is to back up their files to an external hard drive. These usually require their own power and data cable to work. They can feature faster speeds, and much larger storage space in exchange for a bulkier size.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;nas--remote-storage&#34;&gt;NAS / Remote Storage&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A more sophisticated method to store data is to run a server that allows files to be transferred over the network. There are all kinds of methods to setup repositories of data with various different forms of access control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;test&#34;&gt;Test&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Backing up is just the first step! You&amp;rsquo;ll want to make sure the files are properly usable. You don&amp;rsquo;t want to waste the time running a fancy automated fully-encrypted backup system to have that effort tragically wasted the moment you actually need it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;file-integrity&#34;&gt;File Integrity&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If it&amp;rsquo;s been quite some time, it&amp;rsquo;s worth making sure your old file backups aren&amp;rsquo;t corrupted or otherwise damaged. Bit rot, errors, and ordinary wear can all damage the information stored in a backup.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;disaster-recovery&#34;&gt;Disaster Recovery&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s good to make sure you can start with a new/fresh device in the event it gets damaged, or your residence is hit from a natural disaster.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;encryption-1&#34;&gt;Encryption&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If your backups are encrypted it&amp;rsquo;s important to make sure you can actually &lt;em&gt;decrypt&lt;/em&gt; the backup. Otherwise, you&amp;rsquo;re just generating random data.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;improve&#34;&gt;Improve&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Over time, you&amp;rsquo;ll find things in your backup strategy you want to improve. By testing your backups you have the opportunity to identify problems before you actually need the backup.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#&#34;&gt;Back to Top&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;tools&#34;&gt;Tools&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The best backup tool is the one you&amp;rsquo;ll actually use. Each will vary in features, complexity, and ease-of-use. You may be limited by what system you&amp;rsquo;re using and your comfort level with command-line tools.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;system-features&#34;&gt;System Features&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Both Windows and Mac have built-in features for file backups and system recovery. There are many Utilities for Linux distributions as well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;rsync--rclone&#34;&gt;rsync &amp;amp; rclone&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;rsync&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;rclone&lt;/strong&gt; are tools that are so useful, either one of them is enough to consider learning how to use command-line tools yourself. Both are excellent tools for transferring and syncing files between multiple systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;disk-cloning&#34;&gt;Disk Cloning&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://clonezilla.org/&#34;&gt;Clonezilla&lt;/a&gt; is a great tool for &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/ci2VyorBjyQ&#34;&gt;making an image&lt;/a&gt; of an entire disk. This is one of many ways to create a full backup of an entire system or to migrate a system from one disk to another.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#&#34;&gt;Back to Top&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;example-strategies&#34;&gt;Example Strategies&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;easy-street&#34;&gt;Easy Street&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Copies personal files to an external hard drive&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Has two extra usb drives one with an OS installer and the other with program installers or scripts&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Regularly rotates the external hard drive with a relative for a secure offsite offline backup&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-digital-serf&#34;&gt;The Digital Serf&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Maximizes their use of cloud services&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Uses multi-factor authentication to prevent intrusion&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Distributes data among nameless and innumerable third parties&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Zero digital autonomy, their entire digital life is at the mercy of a single provider without much ability to switch&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;total-sloth&#34;&gt;Total Sloth&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Uses their systems&amp;rsquo; &amp;ldquo;file history&amp;rdquo; feature to have multiple versions of each file across time.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Once a month, shuts down their system and creates a system image from the drive&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Copies the system image to an encrypted filesystem on an external drive&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&amp;ldquo;Simple as&amp;rdquo; they mutter while driving to their secure locker offsite storage.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-leech&#34;&gt;The Leech&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Encrypts files and uploads them to free or cheap cloud storage&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Abuses &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/4sDuNccDw80&#34;&gt;free signups&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Automates everything, providers hate him.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;diy-cloud&#34;&gt;DIY Cloud&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Self-hosts a variety of services&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;All their devices &lt;a href=&#34;https://enblog.eischmann.cz/2023/11/20/nextcloud-as-personal-cloud/&#34;&gt;sync to the home server&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Remote backup server pulls regular backups from the home server&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Doesn&amp;rsquo;t need much of the Internet anymore&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#&#34;&gt;Back to Top&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;extra-resources&#34;&gt;Extra Resources&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;video-guides&#34;&gt;Video Guides&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://share.tube/videos/watch/f3840d44-89fb-448b-8e07-e1be26f6bf59&#34;&gt;My backup routine (and why I keep it simple)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://apertatube.net/videos/watch/0dbfa576-6051-4136-a78e-79ad94f4c44a&#34;&gt;Let&amp;rsquo;s Talk About Backups&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://diode.zone/videos/watch/4bfdfc2a-c605-415c-a733-bb68d899faf0&#34;&gt;&amp;lsquo;Don’t eat my data - 30+ years of storage war stories&amp;rsquo; - Steven Ellis (LCA 2020)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/id01_oBuNR4&#34;&gt;How to Move Everything from an Old PC to a New PC&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/2VwpmEA9pYQ&#34;&gt;How to Clone Your OS Hard Drive in Linux to Use with a Different (or the same) Computer
+&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;links&#34;&gt;Links&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2014/08/06/performing-backups-the-right-way/&#34;&gt;Performing backups the right way&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://rclone.org/crypt/&#34;&gt;https://rclone.org/crypt/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://web.archive.org/web/20240107104820/https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/wiki/backups&#34;&gt;/r/DataHoarder Wiki - Backups&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.engineersgarage.com/data-loss-backup-and-recovery-a-complete-beginners-guide/&#34;&gt;Data Loss, Backup, and Recovery: A Complete Beginners’ Guide&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://ruvi-d.scribe.rip/personal-data-backup-strategies-e06086f4865d&#34;&gt;Personal Data Backup Strategies&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://apebox.org/wordpress/tech/1325&#34;&gt;Building a NAS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/awesome-foss/awesome-sysadmin#backups&#34;&gt;Awesome Sysadmin - Backups&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup&#34;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_backup_software&#34;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_backup_software&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://wiki.installgentoo.com/wiki/Backups&#34;&gt;https://wiki.installgentoo.com/wiki/Backups&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Backup_Tips&#34;&gt;https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Backup_Tips&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Face to Face on the The Hrvoje Morić Show</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/hrvoje-moric-show-dec-2023/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/hrvoje-moric-show-dec-2023/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/videos2.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/videos2.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/videos2.webp" />
+		<description>Recorded for December 22nd</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I’m very grateful for the opportunity to share insights that don’t fit neatly into longer posts. Hrvoje Morić who is well known for &lt;a href=&#34;https://geopoliticsandempire.com/&#34;&gt;Geopolitics &amp;amp; Empire&lt;/a&gt;, is a fascinating person to talk to and a very knowledgeable host. We hit many important topics, opening with how big tech is working to regain people’s trust as well as legislative attacks on people’s online freedom. We also discuss Signal and the Open Technology fund, as well as cost savings from ditching the cloud.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The Hrvoje Morić Show: &lt;a href=&#34;https://geopoliticsandempire.substack.com/s/hrvoje-moric-show-tnt-radio&#34;&gt;https://geopoliticsandempire.substack.com/s/hrvoje-moric-show-tnt-radio&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Operation: Bankroll</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/operations/bankroll/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/operations/bankroll/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/bankroll.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/bankroll.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/bankroll.webp" />
+		<description>Taking control of supporting solutions</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;putting-your-money-where-your-needs-are&#34;&gt;Putting Your Money Where Your Needs Are&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This mindset is applicable to all kinds of problems, but I think is particularly suited to the challenge of helping people reduce their dependency on big tech infrastructure and state manipulation. Taking the time to evaluate your resources, and your requirements, you can put together a plan on how you and/or your friends or community can properly support a better path. Getting others involved can magnify your impact significantly, and better represent a variety of people&amp;rsquo;s needs and concerns.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It has been a huge mistake for people to accept either high fees or surveillance in exchange for computing that should rightly be done under their own control and on their own devices. There will only be so many opportunities to correct that mistake, and time is running short. The desire for institutions to seize control over peoples’ computing is only likely to rise over time, so too will the necessity to be proactively involved in building better tools for people of all walks of life.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Liberty-minded individuals need to become proactive supporters of the technological ecosystem we wish to participate in. If we appreciate all the benefits we enjoy from useful Free and Open Source Software, then we should reward the effort with proactive funding. In so many ways over the years, people have become familiar with the costs of “free” services that aren’t under their control. The demand for digital autonomy can only rise as corporations and governments around the world become increasingly predatory.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;now-is-the-best-time&#34;&gt;Now is the Best Time&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With Big Tech services bootstrapping themselves with debt only to operate at a loss to shove out competition, skating by through lucrative government contracts, they&amp;rsquo;re arguably at the weakest they&amp;rsquo;ve ever been. Corporations are raising prices, reducing services, and having &lt;a href=&#34;https://news.crunchbase.com/startups/tech-layoffs/&#34;&gt;massive layoffs,&lt;/a&gt; forcing their workforce to find opportunities elsewhere. The last thing we want is for skilled, intelligent, and motivated people to continue building tools that work against us rather than for us. It is up to us to reverse this trend. Luckily, we have a great opportunity ahead of us.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/interest-rates.webp&#39; 
+
+ alt=&#39;tradingview chart of descending debt servicing costs over decades&#39;
+&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Voting with your wallet now matters much more now than it did for the last decade. &lt;a target=&#39;_blank&#39; href=&#39;https://tradingview.com&#39;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Now is a very unique window of time to make a serious impact on the future of technology. With interest rates higher than they&amp;rsquo;ve been for quite some time, it&amp;rsquo;s (relatively) harder for corporations and governments to purchase influence. Every dollar you spend (&lt;em&gt;or refuse to spend&lt;/em&gt;) means a great deal about what incentives are created and maintained. This means that what little you can spare &lt;em&gt;can make a real impact&lt;/em&gt;. If you&amp;rsquo;re interested in &lt;strong&gt;bankrolling&lt;/strong&gt; a better technological future, and have resources to spare I can&amp;rsquo;t think of a better opportunity.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;holding-in-reserve&#34;&gt;Holding in Reserve&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Of course, I am &lt;strong&gt;not telling you to spend without analyzing your own situation&lt;/strong&gt;. First and foremost, ensure that you&amp;rsquo;re still taking care of your responsibilities and that you&amp;rsquo;re spending money that you would happily part with to make a better future. Odds are there may be charities or local support systems you may want to consider giving to. It can also be fruitful to save. It&amp;rsquo;s possible that you may want to participate in supporting something new or want to get together with others to pledge a larger amount of funds to work on something ambitious.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;projects-worth-supporting&#34;&gt;Projects Worth Supporting&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These are intended to be &lt;em&gt;examples&lt;/em&gt; of how somebody can take action themselves to fund a more freedom respecting digital landscape. Suggestions are welcome! The intention is to give you an idea of what may be worth considering. Ideally, you&amp;rsquo;d be using a substantial amount of Free and Open Source Software already and you&amp;rsquo;re just going to budget to support the software and systems you use regularly or find useful.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;organizations&#34;&gt;Organizations&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;New initiatives and organizations are always needed to bring new ideas into reality, but those not willing to risk their limited resources supporting a long-shot can choose to instead support organizations with a track-record for delivering real results. Supporting an organization may also give benefits like membership, giving you a voice to raise concerns or even vote on important changes. Large organizations are complex machines. They may not be functioning exactly as you like, but by supporting organizations as a block of members, you can try to move them into a better direction.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;No matter what organization you choose to support, be sure to make sure it is aligned (or able to be aligned) with your goals and values. Many large organizations have a tendency to lure in supporters with a &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/redirecting-resistance/&#34;&gt;deceptive brand&lt;/a&gt; that presents itself as noble, but in actuality under-delivers.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;local-credit-union&#34;&gt;Local Credit Union&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While not strictly technological, I believe that supporting credit unions is an important step to protecting &lt;a href=&#34;https://home.solari.com/financial-transaction-freedom-ftf/&#34;&gt;financial transaction freedom&lt;/a&gt;. While no organization is safe from state overreach, it&amp;rsquo;s best to proactively put up as much resistance as possible, and build up resilience at the local level. Of course, supporters of digital autonomy should use their voice within any financial institution to encourage them to reduce their own dependency on big tech services, tracking, and other anti-user impositions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;At the time of writing this, I am currently a member of a credit union.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;advocates-for-digital-autonomy&#34;&gt;Advocates for Digital Autonomy&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are organizations centered around restricting state surveillance like the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eff.org/&#34;&gt;Electronic Frontier Foundation&lt;/a&gt;, and Free Software advocacy such as the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.fsf.org/associate/benefits&#34;&gt;Free Software Foundation.&lt;/a&gt;. Of course, taking it to the local level can help. Donating funds or equipment to local clubs can help those without access to devices, or gain more materials to learn and share.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;At the time of writing, I&amp;rsquo;m currently a Free Software Foundation member, and have donated in the past to &lt;a href=&#34;https://ev.kde.org/&#34;&gt;KDE e.V.&lt;/a&gt; in the past.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;software-foundations&#34;&gt;Software Foundations&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you use &lt;a href=&#34;https://fund.blender.org/&#34;&gt;blender&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://inkscape.org/support-us/donate/&#34;&gt;Inkscape&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://framasoft.org/en/#support&#34;&gt;PeerTube&lt;/a&gt;, or &lt;a href=&#34;https://matrix.org/blog/2023/12/electing-our-first-governing-board/&#34;&gt;matrix&lt;/a&gt; you may want to consider supporting their organizations. Large foundations can work on a variety of initiatives rather than a specific project. Love the Web? you could even become part of maintaining &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.w3.org/donate/&#34;&gt;open web standards.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;liberapay&#34;&gt;Liberapay&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://liberapay.com/Liberapay/&#34;&gt;Liberapay&lt;/a&gt; needs more love. It&amp;rsquo;s a donations platform for much of the Free Software and Open Source community. The platform allows you to support projects or developers directly if they wish, even &lt;a href=&#34;https://liberapay.com/explore/pledges&#34;&gt;pledge&lt;/a&gt; for projects that aren&amp;rsquo;t on the platform.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s a pleasure to highlight some of the excellent projects collecting donations there:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://liberapay.com/FreeCAD/&#34;&gt;FreeCAD&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://liberapay.com/keepassxc/&#34;&gt;KeePassXC&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://liberapay.com/YunoHost/&#34;&gt;YunoHost&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://liberapay.com/FreeTube/&#34;&gt;FreeTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://liberapay.com/FreshRSS/&#34;&gt;FreshRSS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://liberapay.com/mumble/&#34;&gt;Mumble&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If there is any ever doubt. It&amp;rsquo;s always a good idea to verify with the project&amp;rsquo;s website to ensure you&amp;rsquo;re donating in the right place. Liberapay just makes it easy and convenient to support FOSS projects. Through other means, I&amp;rsquo;ve donated to &lt;a href=&#34;https://grapheneos.org/donate&#34;&gt;GrapheneOS&lt;/a&gt;, Misskey and &lt;a href=&#34;https://framasoft.org/en/#support&#34;&gt;PeerTube&lt;/a&gt; as of the time of writing.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;purchases&#34;&gt;Purchases&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The traditional use of the phrase &lt;em&gt;voting with your wallet&lt;/em&gt; refers to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.corbettreport.com/buycotts-solutionswatch/&#34;&gt;buycotts&lt;/a&gt;, choosing to support a company with better practices than the competition. When it comes to purchasing hardware, the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.fsf.org/givingguide/v14/&#34;&gt;FSF&amp;rsquo;s Giving Guide&lt;/a&gt; is a good place to look at the advantages of hardware that &lt;em&gt;respects your freedom&lt;/em&gt;. It wasn&amp;rsquo;t long ago that many wouldn&amp;rsquo;t know where to find a computer vendor that sells machines with a linux distribution pre-installed, but now there are many vendors. When it comes to buying hardware, it&amp;rsquo;s a good idea to do a bit of research to ensure it suits your needs well. Choose carefully, but boldly!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Sometimes it can be nice to get something back in exchange for supporting a wild idea. Other times, you may make a purchase in the hopes of opening an entire new frontier of devices, such as the &lt;a href=&#34;https://unsigned.io/shop/&#34;&gt;Reticulum packet radios&lt;/a&gt; or the &lt;a href=&#34;https://frame.work/ca/en&#34;&gt;framework laptop&lt;/a&gt;. These devices can come at a high price, but are often unique in quality or features.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve had good experiences purchasing from &lt;a href=&#34;https://pine64.com/&#34;&gt;Pine64&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://system76.com/&#34;&gt;System76&lt;/a&gt; and the devices are still working well at the time of writing.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Digital Autonomy &amp; The Arts with Margaret Anna Alice, Visceral Adventure &amp; Liam Sturgess</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/arts4/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/arts4/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts4-banner.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts4-banner.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts4-banner.webp" />
+		<description>Part 4: Stories Worth Telling, Technocracy, and Wrestling with the Collapse of the Intangible</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;In what has become my most ambitious media project yet, I had the pleasure of hosting a conversation with people I look up to as among my personal heroes. The Digital Autonomy Series is now one of my favorite projects as it allows the Libre Solutions Network to truly start to live up to its name.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;visceral-adventure&#34;&gt;Visceral Adventure&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I got to know Tonika through &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=operation_uplift&#34;&gt;Operation Uplift.&lt;/a&gt; Her open mind, kindness, and drive are huge inspiration. I was absolutely blown away by how succinctly she summarized my primary motivation in writing The &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy/&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is the first time the technology has actually caught up with the goal of technocracy. This is why I think this is such a pivotal moment in human civilization. This is the first time that they can actually succeed in their goals and I think that is a huge distinction.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Substack: &lt;a href=&#34;https://visceraladventure.substack.com/&#34;&gt;https://visceraladventure.substack.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Rumble: &lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/user/VisceralAdventure&#34;&gt;https://rumble.com/user/VisceralAdventure&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+War and Democide: &lt;a href=&#34;https://visceraladventure.substack.com/p/war-and-democide&#34;&gt;https://visceraladventure.substack.com/p/war-and-democide&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;liam-sturgess&#34;&gt;Liam Sturgess&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If I was suspicious of any human being having superpowers, it would be  He is an incredibly diligent investigative reporter in addition to being a phenomenal &lt;a href=&#34;https://liamsturgess.bandcamp.com/track/the-things-we-take-with-us&#34;&gt;musician,&lt;/a&gt; voice actor, and producer. If you haven’t already, give &lt;a href=&#34;https://liamsturgess.bandcamp.com/album/foreverland&#34;&gt;Foreverland,&lt;/a&gt; a listen!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;After all the years have flown away&lt;br&gt;
+Meet me at the crossroads come and pray&lt;br&gt;
+Looking out across from the open shore&lt;br&gt;
+Live a life with open wings and soar&lt;br&gt;
+We&amp;rsquo;ll find pieces where we&amp;rsquo;ve been&lt;br&gt;
+And live off adrenaline&lt;br&gt;
+We&amp;rsquo;ll lift off from where we stand&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Substack: &lt;a href=&#34;https://liamsturgess.substack.com/&#34;&gt;https://liamsturgess.substack.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Rumble: &lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/c/liamsturgess&#34;&gt;https://rumble.com/c/liamsturgess&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Website: &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.liamsturgess.com/&#34;&gt;https://www.liamsturgess.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;margaret-anna-alice&#34;&gt;Margaret Anna Alice&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;George Orwell wrote: “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Margaret Anna Alice is a &lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/wake-up-toolkit&#34;&gt;passionate chronicler&lt;/a&gt; who has ensured that the revolution will not go without &lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/mistakes-were-not-made-an-anthem-57a&#34;&gt;the truth.&lt;/a&gt; She has an unparalleled ability to artfully share the voice of reason without mincing words.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can deliver yourselves if you try, not by taking action, but merely by willing to be free.&lt;br&gt;
+Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer;&lt;br&gt;
+then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break into pieces.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/covid-is-over-if-you-want-it&#34;&gt;COVID IS OVER! …If You Want It&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;more-links&#34;&gt;More links:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/consequential-quotes-aldous-huxleys&#34;&gt;Consequential Quotes: Aldous Huxley&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;Words &amp;amp; Behavior&amp;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/consequential-quotes-war&#34;&gt;Consequential Quotes: War&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/memes-by-themes-8-war-and-peace&#34;&gt;Memes by THemes #8: War &amp;amp; Peace&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-a-colluder-stop-enabling&#34;&gt;Letter to a Colluder: Stop Enabling Tyranny&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Why The Perfect Messaging App Doesn&#39;t Exist</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/the-perfect-messenger/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 10 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/the-perfect-messenger/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/keyboard-key.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/keyboard-key.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/keyboard-key.webp" />
+		<description>Making sense of security limitations</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Surveillance of peoples communications is a severe overreach. Especially the act of monitoring people&amp;rsquo;s sensitive discussions with their most trusted contacts. Large institutions like corporations and governments are &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.techpolicy.press/five-eyes-campaign-against-encryption-threatens-democracy/&#34;&gt;wrestling over control&lt;/a&gt; of and insight from people&amp;rsquo;s private chats. This is largely because there are limitations to only data-mining public communications. All the money and effort spent on propaganda and censorship can be for naught if people are still allowed to make their own minds in private. This is why since the Covid Crisis there has been a rise in &lt;a href=&#34;https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e9ce713321491043ea045ef/t/612e722e73b7c13f4f89b8f0/1630433860565/PrivateMessaging%2C+PublicHarms_2021.pdf&#34;&gt;research&lt;/a&gt; into how to limit speech in private communications.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Already, there have been many proposed regulations all over the world, aimed at securing control over people&amp;rsquo;s ability to communicate. Most infamously, we have the EU&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.nicco.love/eu-chat-control-is-worse-than-i-thought/&#34;&gt;ChatControl&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; Digital Services Act. It&amp;rsquo;s important not to forget that corporations themselves already wield a significant amount of power over public and private communications. While governments helping themselves to slices of that pie is a problem, we should reconsider our role in baking it at all. This is to say, we are all responsible for &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/uk-home-office-attacks-private-messaging&#34;&gt;top-down control&lt;/a&gt; of communication with our choices to use platforms that enable it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The cost of apathy is quite high. If you&amp;rsquo;ve been at all concerned about the ability for consent to be &lt;em&gt;manufactured&lt;/em&gt; across a variety of issues, it will only be exponentially worse when people aren&amp;rsquo;t permitted to dissent in private, much less public. If that isn&amp;rsquo;t bad enough, there is a sense of defeatism and helplessness by those who haven&amp;rsquo;t begun their journey to take control over their computing. Those who don&amp;rsquo;t truly appreciate the benefits of &lt;a href=&#34;https://fsfe.org/freesoftware/index.en.html&#34;&gt;free software&lt;/a&gt; are very prone to seeing it as an all-or-nothing affair, forgetting that incremental change can have massive benefits. Often, critics of more privacy-focused tools will underestimate the &lt;a href=&#34;https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/discord&#34;&gt;problems&lt;/a&gt; from more popular systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Understandably, you have to take your &lt;a href=&#34;https://antennapod.org/blog/2023/11/google-podcasts-migration&#34;&gt;first steps&lt;/a&gt; to truly feel the difference. While I encourage you to learn how to store your own files, host your own services, and use a variety of Free Software tools, this piece is about why there is no &lt;em&gt;silver bullet&lt;/em&gt; to online communications. Of course this applies to much more than just instant messaging software, but it can be a useful example to highlight a wide variety of important issues. If we truly want to improve our technological landscape, we need a serious and thoughtful approach to understanding the problems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;why-the-perfect-messenger-doesnt-yet-exist&#34;&gt;Why The Perfect Messenger Doesn&amp;rsquo;t (&lt;em&gt;Yet!&lt;/em&gt;) Exist&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;People really need to stop letting the fantasy of perfect security get in the way of making gradual improvements. Letting imperfections get in the way of you stepping away from total corporate control will leave you in a very sorry place. See the following &lt;strong&gt;threat modeling&lt;/strong&gt; infographic. Just because you&amp;rsquo;re still vulnerable to &lt;em&gt;state-level threats&lt;/em&gt; doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean it&amp;rsquo;s not worth using a secure password, or proper encryption methods.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/operations/shadow#threat-modeling&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/threat%20modeling.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Your risks aren&amp;#39;t a single entity, but involve a variety of adversaries. 
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;what-is-perfect-anyways&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;What is Perfect Anyways?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For the purposes of this piece, the &lt;strong&gt;perfect messaging software&lt;/strong&gt; has the following &lt;em&gt;non-negotiable&lt;/em&gt; attributes:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Free Software&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Free and Open Source Software has a variety of benefits that are highly valuable to those interested in computing on their own terms. Open Source software doesn&amp;rsquo;t guarantee security, but potentially has the ability to resolve serious issues quickly, and allows for innovation from broader and more diverse perspectives.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Self-Hostable&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re locked-in to a single provider, you&amp;rsquo;re immediately placing them in a position of trust. They may be able to provide better security than you could on your own, but in an ideal world you (or your team/community) would have the option to take on that responsibility.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Interoperable&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Being able to communicate across instances of the server software. This means that large communities, and single users / peer-to-peer deployments should have the ability to seamlessly communicate with each other.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;State of the Art Security&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The perfect software necessarily has to be secure from at least the majority (but ideally all) known risks. This includes threats of impersonation, censorship, and interception.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Significantly Cross-Platform&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is no point developing the perfect software only to run on corporate controlled ecosystems. Requiring Some to use a smartphone or other non-ideal software can be a deal-breaker.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Expected Features&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The software should support a majority (&lt;em&gt;if not all&lt;/em&gt;) of the same features people are used to using, such as video and voice calls, Group chats and calls, multimedia, and all kinds of other nice-to-haves.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Additionally, I&amp;rsquo;ll also define these &lt;em&gt;nice to haves&lt;/em&gt; which matter a great deal to gaining traction:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Has a Significant Userbase&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While obscure software may be sound, safety in numbers applies in digital contexts too.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Independently Funded&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Either as charity, or a crowdfund, it would be important that the project&amp;rsquo;s existence is not beholden to a entity that can be controlled.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Accessible&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Being easy to use is a pre-requisite to being ideal.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Highly Configurable&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There may be reasons for people to prefer slight changes to the software&amp;rsquo;s design. It&amp;rsquo;s important to put the person in control of their own experience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;maybe-youve-heard-of-something-like-that&#34;&gt;Maybe You&amp;rsquo;ve Heard of Something Like That?&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Maybe such software &lt;em&gt;actually does exist&lt;/em&gt;&amp;hellip; or at least in part&lt;a href=&#34;https://denshi.org/blog/every-chat-client-absolutely-sucks/every-chat-client-absolutely-sucks/&#34;&gt;&amp;hellip;Right?&lt;/a&gt; You may even argue some of my criteria aren&amp;rsquo;t essential at all, and that I&amp;rsquo;m &lt;em&gt;making perfect the enemy of good&lt;/em&gt;. You might actually be right, If you have a suggestion that meets a majority of these criteria, &lt;a href=&#34;mailto:gabriel@libresolutions.network?subject=The%20perfect%20messenger&#34;&gt;let me know&lt;/a&gt; and even if it&amp;rsquo;s close, I&amp;rsquo;ll do a full review.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;security-is-hard-really-hard&#34;&gt;Security is Hard. &lt;em&gt;Really Hard.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The perfectionists often really underestimate what they demand. A straightforward solution to one security problem can sometimes make another one significantly harder. Seemingly simple questions like &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Where are the messages stored?&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; can have profound impact on a variety of security concerns. This doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean there&amp;rsquo;s no point using anything at all, but it&amp;rsquo;s important to understand what benefits you intend to get out of particular options. There can very often be solutions that are well suited to a variety of these problems, and the trade-offs may be worthwhile.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;metadata&#34;&gt;Metadata&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Metadata is a &lt;a href=&#34;https://avoidthehack.com/metadata-privacy&#34;&gt;serious concern.&lt;/a&gt; All kinds of additional information about content like who is talking to who, how often, and when can give spies a significant amount of information. The sum total of who you communicate with may seem like innocuous information, but it&amp;rsquo;s very valuable to those who &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/10-years-after-snowden-some-things-are-better-some-were-still-fighting&#34;&gt;aim to control&lt;/a&gt; the flow of information. Being able to detect when particular figures gain (or lose) influence over others itself is a significant data-point as well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/4bbd4e5a-352d-4d24-82ea-e8832e902021?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Securing metadata is a non-trivial problem to solve, especially if you want to have a variety of community &amp;amp; individually administered services. The advantage of having communications go through a single-point is that erasing metadata is as simple as deleting it (or not preserving it in the first place). This becomes impractical for other reasons though, because if one can be prevented from accessing that single service, its metadata protection is&amp;hellip;irrelevant.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;encryption&#34;&gt;Encryption&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The other side of the coin of secure messaging is &lt;a href=&#34;https://proton.me/blog/what-is-encryption&#34;&gt;encryption.&lt;/a&gt; Your messages need to be safe from prying eyes in transit and at rest. There are many factors to consider when understanding what encryption features are available. When information is encrypted with a key, those who have access to the key(s) will be able restore the original information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/3ea25e18-a741-4fc1-9159-aacebef87855?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;key-management&#34;&gt;Key Management&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When messages are encrypted, whose keys are used?&lt;br&gt;
+Are messages secured with the participants keys or is a corporation doing all the encryption?&lt;br&gt;
+Where are the keys stored? On the device, or with a service provider?&lt;br&gt;
+These questions have profound impact on the security of the system and people&amp;rsquo;s messages. Simply taking encrypted to mean secure is an easy trap to fall into.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;key-exchange&#34;&gt;Key Exchange&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When someone starts a chat with someone new, how are keys exchanged?
+Are the keys shared by users directly? Or is a service provider assigning keys to each participant?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;end-to-end-encryption&#34;&gt;End-to-End Encryption&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Are messages secured from being snooped on by the service provider?
+What are the guarantees that nefarious changes can&amp;rsquo;t be introduced by the big tech corporation &lt;a href=&#34;https://restoreprivacy.com/messenger-and-facebook-get-signal-based-end-to-end-encryption/&#34;&gt;managing the keys?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;encryption-at-rest&#34;&gt;Encryption at Rest&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Wherever the messages are stored for safekeeping, the last thing anyone wants is for those messages to be stolen and revealed. This means that the messages need to be stored privately, as well as encrypted in case the storage is compromised.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;perfect-forward-secrecy&#34;&gt;Perfect Forward Secrecy&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s a bad idea to have a single key for every message, to protect messages across time they need to be secured with a unique key individually. This means that if a key is discovered or revealed, it can&amp;rsquo;t be used to decrypt past and future communications.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;external-threats&#34;&gt;External Threats&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;interception&#34;&gt;Interception&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Even if your communications are secure, it&amp;rsquo;s possible that they may still be intercepted and stored. This gives attackers time to try breaking encryption as technology advances and more sophisticated techniques are discovered.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;software-environment&#34;&gt;Software Environment&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Your messaging software may be perfect, but that may not prevent other parts of your system proactively attempting to spy on you. Even something as innocuous as the &lt;a href=&#34;https://9to5mac.com/2023/12/06/push-notification-spying/&#34;&gt;notifications system&lt;/a&gt; on your smart phone can be used to steal information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;interlude-why-is-this-worth-understanding&#34;&gt;Interlude: &lt;em&gt;Why is this Worth Understanding?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s critical that we get key management &lt;em&gt;right&lt;/em&gt;. After countless data breaches and hacks, it&amp;rsquo;s understandable that institutions want to move people away from difficult (if not impossible) to secure systems like email and sms. You&amp;rsquo;ll notice, both of these systems are used for &lt;strong&gt;authentication&lt;/strong&gt;. Not only that, but sms for 2nd-factor authentication is also what has increased people&amp;rsquo;s dependency on smartphones. We have a &lt;em&gt;chicken and the egg&lt;/em&gt; problem when it comes to authentication. Switching to new systems ultimately requires some way to practically solve &lt;strong&gt;key management&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;diving-into-authentication&#34;&gt;Diving into Authentication&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/real-name-online/&#34;&gt;great push&lt;/a&gt; to end online privacy for all kinds of reasons. Governments and corporations don&amp;rsquo;t really have incentives to protect you from risk, but rather want to &lt;em&gt;protect themselves from your risk.&lt;/em&gt; This is why many workplaces will issue their own devices, locked down under their control and governments are seeking ways to digitize personal identification.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If we truly want to be in control of our own digital identities, and how they can and can&amp;rsquo;t be used, it&amp;rsquo;s critical that we refuse to be boxed into identity systems modeled after feudalism. Of course, escaping it by oneself is hardly sufficient, as liberty-minded individuals it is of utmost importance that we empower others to also refuse digital tyranny. Tools are a useful part of this, but so is understanding the proper boundaries.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By allowing a corporation or government to assign you a sole, permanent, digital key management system under their control, you&amp;rsquo;re not a client but a subject. Suddenly as that authentication mechanism becomes embedded in other areas, such as entertainment, finance, and even social interaction one can be penalized in all kinds of cruel and bizarre ways. While using a single, intuitive, and permanent authentication method for everything may seem convenient, it&amp;rsquo;s going to have troubling drawbacks if people don&amp;rsquo;t have at least the option of self-custody.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hardware authenticators and global password-less logins aren&amp;rsquo;t inherently evil, but it&amp;rsquo;s easy to see how they will be used to lure people into digital key management systems that take authentication out of their control. This can get much worse as biometrics are integrated into authentication itself. In that scenario it can be much harder to opt-out.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Anyways, it&amp;rsquo;s worth thinking about.&lt;br&gt;
+Back to messaging software.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;common-pitfalls&#34;&gt;Common Pitfalls&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;reliance-on-smartphones&#34;&gt;Reliance on Smartphones&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Mainstream smartphone platforms have constant and pervasive privacy risks, even from the manufacturer&amp;rsquo;s themselves. This makes reliance on smartphones a net-negative for any secure messaging system. Some messengers exist exclusively as smartphone apps, meaning that those who do not use, or would prefer not to use them are locked out entirely. If nothing else, it&amp;rsquo;s nice to have access to a keyboard once in a while.
+Requiring a phone number and/or text message to register is functionally the same as requiring a mobile phone to use the system.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;large-groups&#34;&gt;Large Groups&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As the number of participants rise, encrypting communications becomes more complex, and less useful as the content becomes all-but public information anyways. In some circumstances, it may be preferable to warn users as groups become too large to keep meaningfully private.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;third-party-integrations&#34;&gt;Third-Party Integrations&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It can be very simple to rely on external providers for additional features. These additional features can come with significant privacy risks as clients make requests to these additional services. This can also include problems and security threats inherited from software ecosystem choices like particular libraries and APIs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;user-experience-challenges&#34;&gt;User Experience Challenges&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It can be difficult when a piece of software is superior on a large variety of important criteria, but then fails to be intuitive to use. This can be a significant barrier, and may also include accessibility concerns.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;free-of-charge-vs-paid-services&#34;&gt;Free of Charge vs Paid Services&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Who funds development? Where does the hosting for the service come from?
+These are critical questions to ask about any project, but it&amp;rsquo;s especially important when it comes to your private communications. There&amp;rsquo;s also the question of non-technical uses of funding. Does the app have an army of (potentially paid) online marketers? Is it featured in advertising or paid sponsorships? Are donations/revenue used for efforts that are more about politics than improving services?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;open-protocols&#34;&gt;Open Protocols&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Open, interoperable protocols are exciting. They can help separate specific service providers from being the totality of the system itself. In the long run, hopefully these systems become significantly anti-fragile as they&amp;rsquo;re adopted further. The main advantage of having an open protocol is that a variety of client software can be used, instead of betting everything on a single application. The point of an open protocol is to define a &lt;em&gt;common standard&lt;/em&gt; that different systems can all interact through.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When it comes to choosing between Matrix and XMPP, you may want to consider &lt;a href=&#34;https://lukesmith.xyz/articles/matrix-vs-xmpp/&#34;&gt;this outline.&lt;/a&gt; That said, open protocols are one of the foundational pieces of building a better technological future.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;xmpp&#34;&gt;XMPP&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://xmpp.org/&#34;&gt;Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol&lt;/a&gt; has been around since at least 2004. It is a &lt;a href=&#34;https://ijver.me/blog/xmpp-explained/&#34;&gt;fully decentralized&lt;/a&gt; protocol with a variety of clients and servers. Definitely worth considering for fully independent communications infrastructure. XMPP supports multiple end-to-end encryption schemes. Since XMPP is an open protocol, it&amp;rsquo;s possible to &lt;a href=&#34;https://getimiskon.xyz/posts/2022/2022-04-21.html&#34;&gt;build a server from scratch&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/86d8b6df-8000-41f6-a92c-1d8ba2501972&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;clients&#34;&gt;Clients&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;For Linux/Windows: &lt;a href=&#34;https://gajim.org&#34;&gt;Gajim&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;MacOS/iOS: &lt;a href=&#34;https://monal-im.org/&#34;&gt;Monal&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Android: &lt;a href=&#34;https://conversations.im/&#34;&gt;Conversations&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;servers&#34;&gt;Servers&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://prosody.im/&#34;&gt;Prosody&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.ejabberd.im/index.html&#34;&gt;Ejabberd&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://digdeeper.club/articles/xmpp.xhtml&#34;&gt;Advanced guide&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;matrix&#34;&gt;Matrix&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://matrix.org/&#34;&gt;Matrix&lt;/a&gt; is an &amp;ldquo;open network for secure, decentralized communication&amp;rdquo;. The primary client is Element, which is a polished and intuitive cross-platform application. The matrix foundation has some &lt;a href=&#34;https://matrix.org/blog/2023/09/matrix-2-0/&#34;&gt;exciting innovations&lt;/a&gt; in the works, including &lt;a href=&#34;https://thirdroom.io/landing&#34;&gt;VR experiences!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;clients-1&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://matrix.org/ecosystem/clients/&#34;&gt;Clients&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://element.io&#34;&gt;Element&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://fluffychat.im/&#34;&gt;Fluffychat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://schildi.chat/&#34;&gt;SchildiChat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;servers-1&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://matrix.org/ecosystem/servers/&#34;&gt;Servers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/&#34;&gt;Synapse&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://conduit.rs/&#34;&gt;Conduit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;alternative-messengers&#34;&gt;Alternative Messengers&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;signal&#34;&gt;Signal&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.signal.org/&#34;&gt;Signal&lt;/a&gt; has recently been under harsh scrutiny after recently &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.signal.org/blog/signal-is-expensive/&#34;&gt;asking for donations&lt;/a&gt; to run their service and &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.androidpolice.com/signal-testing-usernames-feature-privacy-messenger/&#34;&gt;beginning testing&lt;/a&gt; on using usernames instead of phone numbers. Despite a &lt;a href=&#34;https://restoreprivacy.com/secure-encrypted-messaging-apps/signal/&#34;&gt;solid history&lt;/a&gt; the hard requirement of using a phone number has been a significant concern.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For those unable or unwilling to run their own communications infrastructure, Signal is a huge improvement over corporate and mainstream social media messengers and boasts &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.signal.org/blog/pqxdh/&#34;&gt;quantum resistance&lt;/a&gt;. In fact, many of them are adopting a modified (possibly inferior) version of the signal implementation of end-to-end encryption.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For android, &lt;a href=&#34;https://molly.im/&#34;&gt;Molly&lt;/a&gt; is a fully-free open source alternative client. The majority of issues surrounding Signal are inherent to using a phone with &lt;a href=&#34;https://drewdevault.com/2018/08/08/Signal.html#google-play&#34;&gt;google play services.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;briar&#34;&gt;Briar&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://briarproject.org/&#34;&gt;Briar&lt;/a&gt; is a fascinating project aimed to allow communication over a variety of networks, including bluetooth. Unfortunately, Briar is limited to running on Android and it would be nice if it supported other platforms. Briar is missing some expected features, but it&amp;rsquo;s censorship resistance features are very sophisticated.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;simplex&#34;&gt;SimpleX&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://simplex.chat/&#34;&gt;SimpleX&lt;/a&gt; is very much in the same vein as Briar. Looks like an excellent and promising project, but sadly is limited to smartphones. SMP servers can be &lt;a href=&#34;https://simplex.chat/docs/server.html&#34;&gt;self-hosted&lt;/a&gt; and the documentation is quite good.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;jami&#34;&gt;Jami&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://jami.net/&#34;&gt;Jami&lt;/a&gt; is a peer-to-peer communication suite available for android, Windows &amp;amp; Linux. It can also function as a SIP client to make ordinary phone calls. Jami can take a bit of time to learn, but has a wide array of useful features.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/31c78d28-ad9f-488d-b9cd-8a234c1c75aa&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-to-choose&#34;&gt;What to Choose?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I generally recommend not putting all your hopes into a single option. By restricting your choices to a single option it can be difficult to coordinate with others. Being flexible can help, but this should be reciprocal. Everyone&amp;rsquo;s situation and desired results will be different, but in general I recommend using the most secure options that you and your contacts are willing to learn/adopt.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is no trivial task, which is why you should help inform your contacts why taking their own privacy and security affects them and you. Many hands make light work, and we can achieve a lot when we work together.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;potential-game-changers&#34;&gt;Potential Game-Changers&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;None of this means we are doomed forever. There is a great deal of opportunity in working to resolve these problems. Not only that, but there are some key innovations that would go a long way to tipping the scales in favor of secure self-custody communications.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Modularity&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;So called &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;freedom tech&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; needs to embrace the &amp;ldquo;Unix Philosophy&amp;rdquo;: &lt;em&gt;Do one thing, and do it well&lt;/em&gt;. Far too many projects will try to reinvent &lt;em&gt;everything&lt;/em&gt; and predictably fall flat while doing so. For example, when developing software for a particular purpose, consider using an open standard like &lt;a href=&#34;https://openid.net/developers/how-connect-works/&#34;&gt;OpenID connect&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://indieauth.net/&#34;&gt;IndieAuth&lt;/a&gt; to let other software handle authentication. &lt;a href=&#34;https://matrix.org/blog/2023/09/better-auth/&#34;&gt;Separating authentication&lt;/a&gt; from primary functions can allow for other innovations to improve that aspect of more systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hardware Keys&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A truly Free (&lt;em&gt;as in Freedom&lt;/em&gt;) self-custody system for managing encryption keys could help in many areas. A permission-less system like &lt;a href=&#34;https://fidoalliance.org/fido2/&#34;&gt;FIDO2&lt;/a&gt; could go a long way to make secure options much more user-friendly. Allowing for greater convenience and greater autonomy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Network Agnosticism&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Assumptions made in the past may not hold for the future of a more surveilled and censored Internet. The ability to seamlessly work with censorship evasion and anonymity technologies like &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/shadow&#34;&gt;Tor and I2P&lt;/a&gt; can go a long way.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Generative Tools&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If metadata is such a big problem, embedded text-generation machine learning models could send out extra communications at random to unused keys. This could make the complexity of mapping actual communications significantly more expensive at minimal computational cost.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Custom Devices&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;People would do well to take inspiration from &lt;a href=&#34;https://hackaday.com/2023/08/07/review-beepy-a-palm-sized-linux-hacking-playground/&#34;&gt;Beepy&lt;/a&gt; which is a custom device one can use with secure messengers. This straightforward concept of a single-purpose device can greatly reduce people&amp;rsquo;s dependency on surveillance devices.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Digital Autonomy and Resilient Living</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/resilient-living/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 08 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/resilient-living/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/resilient-living-banner.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/resilient-living-banner.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/resilient-living-banner.webp" />
+		<description>Understanding down to earth solutions to practical problems.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;In this feature of &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/digital-autonomy-series&#34;&gt;Digital Autonomy Discussions&lt;/a&gt; Gabriel had a discussion with Rebecca Cunningham who runs &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.redflyermedia.com/&#34;&gt;Red Flyer Media.&lt;/a&gt; She is a Visual Storyteller, Motorcycle Rider, Vagabond, Video Editor, Moto-Journalist, Documentary Filmmaker. We discuss censorship resistance, the rural and urban divide, as well as the many factors of building up one&amp;rsquo;s own independence.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/1028cbe9-b1c1-4916-91f2-f5c9fbb81ee9?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;resources-referenced&#34;&gt;Resources Referenced:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://meshtastic.org/&#34;&gt;Meshtastic&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://hackaday.io/project/164092-npr-new-packet-radio&#34;&gt;New Packet Radio&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLstAKURZ5YBhvKAuymg_Y0sC4w5aKN66w&amp;amp;si=2rs5-L4tEcDyJuYc&#34;&gt;Bear&amp;rsquo;s Prepper Classroom Playlist&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/live/u5qBwTIklUE?si=nk-z2hzrCZ21pPqF&#34;&gt;Jack Spirko&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtube.com/@lftn?si=olM53Fl06JYhqv_O&#34;&gt;Nicole Sauce&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;more-to-come&#34;&gt;More to Come&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This series is intended to help bring together different voices to explore how technology can help (or hinder) people&amp;rsquo;s ability to live their lives. This episode is just a taste of the wide array of topics worth giving their own attention.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;join-the-discussion&#34;&gt;Join the Discussion&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Would you like to talk about where digital autonomy intersects with your passion?&lt;br&gt;
+You&amp;rsquo;re invited! Feel free to &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/videos/2023-11/#digital-autonomy-series&#34;&gt;get in touch.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Papers Please: The Attack on Online Privacy</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/real-name-online/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 18 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/real-name-online/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/no-trolls-wide.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/no-trolls-wide.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/no-trolls-wide.webp" />
+		<description>Undermining online anonymity enables tyranny</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;leaping-at-shadows&#34;&gt;Leaping at Shadows&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Calls to end anonymity on social media are not new, but every once in a while they return as tensions rise. These renewed calls will suggest more &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1724527403798561155&#34;&gt;extreme measures against platforms&lt;/a&gt; that allow even mere pseudonymity, much less complete anonymity. These proposals aim to ensure that the cost of communication with others, or even the public will be privacy. The argument presumes that if everyone was forced to have everything recorded in their real name, then interactions online would always be more civil and productive.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is a very disingenuous argument. Seemingly polite and efficient communications under one set of assumptions, at one time, may be seen in an entirely different context years later. Forcing people to speak only with their real names forces all communication to be contextualized within &lt;a href=&#34;https://denisrancourt.ca/entries.php?id=20&#34;&gt;real-life power struggles.&lt;/a&gt; To say it a different way, the progressive leftists &lt;em&gt;are correct&lt;/em&gt; that &lt;strong&gt;free speech isn&amp;rsquo;t free speech if it&amp;rsquo;s constrained by social status and institutional forces.&lt;/strong&gt; Where they tend to go wrong is that they believe that building a new &amp;ldquo;equitable&amp;rdquo; social hierarchy and institutional structure on top can resolve this conflict.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What they misunderstand, but the establishment power players do understand quite well is that &lt;em&gt;online anonymity changes the game&lt;/em&gt;. The &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html&#34;&gt;cypherpunks&lt;/a&gt; had the right idea, give the people privacy and we can liberate ideas from the humans they&amp;rsquo;re temporarily attached to. You may have heard &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;If voting ever really made a difference, they would make it illegal!&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;, with that in mind you might reconsider why online anonymity is such a threat to power. Despite being around for quite a while, people tend to misunderstand &lt;strong&gt;what social media is.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is limitless information online, more media than you could ever watch or listen to in many lifetimes. People do need a layer to discover, prioritize and share that content. One of the things that made social media immediately successful was to receive content made by, or suggested by your trusted contacts. Over time, platforms moved to &lt;em&gt;monetize&lt;/em&gt; that trusted attention and started taking over people&amp;rsquo;s feeds. This has lead to many people forgetting what good &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/social-media/&#34;&gt;social media&lt;/a&gt; ever was in the first place. With state censorship and corporate surveillance the deal has only &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/dead-internet/&#34;&gt;gotten worse&lt;/a&gt; and worse over time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But hypothetically, the fact that you still &lt;em&gt;can get information from others&lt;/em&gt; near and afar, friend and foe alike is &lt;em&gt;immensely powerful&lt;/em&gt;. Being able to learn from those who don&amp;rsquo;t share your background can help broaden your perspective and make you empathize with those you may not otherwise. Being able to receive information from others across space and time without governments or corporations interfering is &lt;strong&gt;the gamechanger&lt;/strong&gt; that the powerful fear the most. This is why you should be not just suspicious, but outright disgusted at those who wish to restrict all communication to real names only.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is why journalists &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.politico.eu/article/the-curse-and-blessing-of-the-anonymous-source/&#34;&gt;have procedures&lt;/a&gt; to protect whistleblowers, who must remain anonymous to keep them safe from retaliation. Unfortunately, as media institutions become corrupted, so too does their ability to properly platform those wishing to fight abuse. A problem with this is that while one may have important information, it may be seen as not worthy of a particular journalists time. We should be grateful that there are &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/shadow/&#34;&gt;tools that can&lt;/a&gt; help whistleblowers speak to the public directly without risking their identity and safety. It&amp;rsquo;s frustrating to see the calls for transparency only go in one direction. The &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/coordinated-attack/&#34;&gt;policy position&lt;/a&gt; is clear: &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;Privacy for me, but not for thee&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;whats-in-a-name&#34;&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s in a Name?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is quite convenient that &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/C_Kavanagh/status/1669505248220839936&#34;&gt;the people&lt;/a&gt; who often advance calls to undermine privacy are those who have &lt;em&gt;already established&lt;/em&gt; profitable personas within the established orthodoxy. When one speaks out in their own name, (&lt;em&gt;as I do&lt;/em&gt;) there is a price being paid to do so. Naturally one is open to criticism and attacks, but also the internet never forgets. We are in a time where one&amp;rsquo;s public positions are always known once they are known. We would all do well to be &lt;em&gt;careful&lt;/em&gt; with what we wish to attach our names to. This is often why those who choose to speak out in their names receive significant praise and trust. After all, if one is willing to stake their entire reputation on an issue, they must always be a strong incorruptible champion. The trouble though, is that things don&amp;rsquo;t always work out that way.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Not everyone can afford to risk their income, or even their lives, to dissent against power. While there will always be a lucky few, who are able or willing to take that risk, imposing it on others will simply reduce the amount of people willing to speak out. It would be a mistake to restrict all speech to those who can afford to take the risk of speaking in their name. Protecting online privacy allows for more people to speak out about more things. It&amp;rsquo;s very possible that there are people in positions to reveal damning secrets, but don&amp;rsquo;t feel safe pointing others to the truth. From top secret institutions, to corporations, and even families, it&amp;rsquo;s critical that there is always a channel for people to speak out about abuse, especially of the vulnerable. It should be our top priority to ensure that it&amp;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;possible&lt;/em&gt; to correct grave wrongs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://tube.tchncs.de/videos/embed/c0b1f5f8-1192-4efc-b9e8-8fa5d8286ba3?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For the majority of the public, the information landscape has significantly consolidated around a few major services. With the exception of those who have already fled to &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/call-to-action-join-the-fediverse/&#34;&gt;decentralized alternatives,&lt;/a&gt; the majority of social media users have their attention constrained to a couple of corporate controlled entities. Those entities are under pressure of more state control to direct that attention. This means that anyone choosing to speak out in their name has to be careful about how they use their limited resources to make an impact. Those with power and influence can easily bribe, flatter, or otherwise compromise those with a large following. One may have a critical message to share, but the means they use to disseminate it can be quite restrictive.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To make things worse, using real names doesn&amp;rsquo;t eliminate the worst of abuse and hostility. Hate and rage is often freely expressed (and sometimes rewarded) when taken out on &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=divisive_rhetoric_about_the_unvaccinated&#34;&gt;officially sanctioned targets&lt;/a&gt;, creating scenarios where those speaking out in their names are likely to be more cruel than one can be without naming themselves. When people are attacked by those with a well-known identity, it can often be more personal than a few low-effort attacks from trolls. This gets worse when everyone has to be named. Without the choice of opt-ing out of giving up your identity, you are forced to run the risk of eventually being turned into an &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;acceptable target&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; with no recourse.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is true of taken names as well. Pseudonymity doesn&amp;rsquo;t protect against attacks, slander, sanction or almost any other measure that can silence a real name. The major advantages of using a pseudonym is that your content can be disconnected from you as a person, and that your pseudonym is disposable. In fact, using a pseudonym instead of your real name was generally considered to be &lt;em&gt;basic internet safety&lt;/em&gt; until social media companies started selling your data. When one demands all pseudonyms be unmasked, I ask: &amp;ldquo;What gives you the right to demand everyone&amp;rsquo;s personal information?&amp;rdquo;. Because unlike a pseudonym, your real name &lt;strong&gt;isn&amp;rsquo;t disposable&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/33dd267c-2db9-4ce9-b00c-c1d5225fe04c?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is not to say that there shouldn&amp;rsquo;t be places where people choose to interact with their real names, but we should vehemently resist a one-size-fits-all imposition. Shoving anonymity and pseudonymity out of real-discussions won&amp;rsquo;t improve things, but in fact is more likely to cause more radicalization and abuse. Discussions without real names attached can be less personal, so rational thought can take the wheel instead of heightened emotions. Emotions are part of the human experience. We should guide our thoughts and actions with love and compassion, just not at the expense of wrestling with difficult ideas.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;society-needs-its-radicals&#34;&gt;Society Needs Its Radicals&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Much of the desire to purge online spaces of privacy has to do with the idea of building a &lt;em&gt;perception&lt;/em&gt; of proper care and etiquette. There is nothing wrong with an exclusive space curating their own ideal experience, the troubles come when that becomes the only permissible model. Unlike the real-life metaphors people will cling to, such as bars and concert halls, the internet practically has no space limits. Outside of the raw storage to hold media, and the bandwidth to carry it, there is no reason one space has to exist at the expense of another. What does happen, is that legacy institutions resist and attack attempts to build democratized competition.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Radicals and their wild ideas can challenge long-held assumptions that may no longer hold, or resolve an untenable contradiction. New ways of thinking, new ways of solving problems are always a threat to entrenched power. Not all wild ideas are good ones, but the only way to find out which ones is to give them a chance to be understood. The more an institution is build on assumption, the more vulnerable it is to being disrupted by new concepts and different views. This means that those institutions will treat those ideas as an existential threat, regardless of their merits.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The advantage of isolating ideas, is that they can move faster than people. You have permission to copy this text, and share it with your friends, and they have the same granted to them, and so on. If this caught on, this piece and it&amp;rsquo;s points would spread faster than any institution could keep up with. This is true of any written words, but we&amp;rsquo;re seeing it apply more and more to images, and video as digital technology advances. Anything that becomes detached from it&amp;rsquo;s origin and spread gets the benefit of being interpreted and reinterpreted from all kinds of different contexts. This can either add clarity, or refute the concept entirely.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Online &lt;em&gt;and offline&lt;/em&gt; anonymity is &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/anonymity/&#34;&gt;worth protecting,&lt;/a&gt; but there&amp;rsquo;s so much more that we can do. If we really want to move on from corrupt institutions, captured governments, and hostile media, it&amp;rsquo;s possible we need to rediscover ways to cooperate without all the extra noise of who is who. A crucial task is building up tools, infrastructure, and projects that democratize information without compromising on people&amp;rsquo;s privacy. This is because with a bit of creativity, all of us can &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/beehive/&#34;&gt;work together&lt;/a&gt; in ways that are impossible to shut down. A group of people working anonymously for a common purpose are significantly more expensive and complicated to infiltrate, bribe, or control. It&amp;rsquo;s really easy to manipulate and pick apart a few popular figures, or pit their fans against each other. Successfully building efficient bottom-up tools can create a win-win scenario: institutions either reform themselves to adapt to the new circumstances, or are made obsolete by new structures. Either way, the people can choose to move things in a better direction.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The EU Cyberwar on People &amp; the Web</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/eu-cyberwar/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/eu-cyberwar/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/web surveillance &amp; control.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/web%20surveillance%20&amp;%20control.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/web%20surveillance%20&amp;%20control.webp" />
+		<description>Digital ID and undermining browsers</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;The largest institutions from governments, alliances, and multi-national corporations are all wrestling for control over total digital dominance of the public. Your own access to information, and control over your data are both important objectives to these organizations. This battle over people&amp;rsquo;s digital lives is not without it&amp;rsquo;s consequences. There are disastrous possibilities if any group manages to secure surveillance and/or control over everyone&amp;rsquo;s online communications, transactions, and information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This problem isn&amp;rsquo;t new. Even back in 2002, Stephan Engberg was one of many warning about how knee-jerk approaches to digital security can end up creating new unnecessary risks. From convenience to institutions with control over our lives, there are all kinds of ways in which security and control can be out of the people&amp;rsquo;s hands. Essential services like banking, communication, and access to necessities can very easily be gated behind &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;secure&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; options fraught with problems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/privacy-engineering-group-bigdata-vs-smalldata.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Privacy Engineering Group - Stephan Engberg &lt;a target=&#39;_blank&#39; href=&#39;https://youtu.be/G1AjkYFlPF4&#39;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a temptation, to try to build a &lt;em&gt;privacy respecting&lt;/em&gt; foundation to build digital identity on. Stephan himself is working on Citizenkey, which aims to make anonymous verification possible, with the possibility of de-anonymization through a trusted third party. As an alternative route to total top-down control and tyranny, this would seem like a decent compromise, but unfortunately there is little reason to believe it would stay that way. The assumption that institutions have the right to treat people like livestock to be tracked is &lt;em&gt;itself the problem&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is no reason that as our lives are transformed by additional digital options, that we must accept losses of privacy to move forward. This arrogant fallacy merely suits those who want to rent-seek on advances in technology by privatizing (or brokering) control of it. At least while we still can, it&amp;rsquo;s important to remember that each and every one of us cna choose a different path.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;the-poison-pill&#34;&gt;The Poison Pill&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The EU recently had to &lt;a href=&#34;https://digitalcourage.social/@echo_pbreyer/111301651490673542&#34;&gt;back-off extreme client-side-scanning&lt;/a&gt; measures, to much fanfare, even calling it a victory. Repealing merely the most offensive part of legislation that can enable and sanction state overreach is not a long-term solution. As we can see, the EU is already
+rolling forward with more egregious attacks on people&amp;rsquo;s privacy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;An &lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.mozilla.org/netpolicy/files/2023/11/eIDAS-Industry-Letter.pdf&#34;&gt;open letter&lt;/a&gt; signed by Mozilla, and other tech organizations and companies, decries the inclusion of a &lt;strong&gt;root certifiate&lt;/strong&gt; into browsers. A &lt;a href=&#34;https://last-chance-for-eidas.org/art45interception.html&#34;&gt;root certificate&lt;/a&gt; is a digital file that validates SLL certificates for websites, for any website. If I can place a root certificate on your device (or have it included in your browser) I have the ability to decrypt &lt;strong&gt;all of your online traffic&lt;/strong&gt;. This has been done &lt;a href=&#34;https://censoredplanet.org/kazakhstan&#34;&gt;by despotic regimes&lt;/a&gt; to snoop on internet traffic and opens the door to even more egregious acts of online censorship. Not only are the root certificates required, but under the regulations browsers are not allowed to revoke the certificates if they are abused.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/d63f2d30-3f4c-4490-9f70-6cbe3aa78132?title=0&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s great to have organizations like the Linux Foundation, and companies like Cloudflare stand up for our internet security right? &lt;em&gt;Not so fast!&lt;/em&gt; All the fanfare about eIDAS 2.0 seems to suspiciously exclude the fact that the regulation itself builds a framework for digital ID. These organizations are merely standing against the worst part of legislation that will undermine digital freedoms. If we can&amp;rsquo;t trust our governments to &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; include provisions like the root certificate addition, trusting hem with digital ID is merely another opportunity to exploit the public.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;digital-id&#34;&gt;Digital ID&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s well understood that most internet traffic is bots these days. It&amp;rsquo;s only becoming harder and harder for us and the controllers to tell who is a person and who is a digital agent acting on someone&amp;rsquo;s behalf. Surveillance and control of the outside world is still an expensive and violent affair. &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/digital-id&#34;&gt;Digital ID&lt;/a&gt; is something that can mitigate both these problems. By forcing you to give up anonymity (or even pseudonymity) in a variety of places, you can be controlled by those who control the system.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;During the Covid Crisis &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=vaccine_passport&#34;&gt;vaccine passports&lt;/a&gt; functioned as a  beta test for Digital ID. Access to all kinds of entertainment and recreation was contingent on having a digital wallet that included your health information, many people lost their employment for lacking one. Far from a hypothetical, China used the health pass system to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-bank-protest-stopped-by-health-codes-turning-red-depositors-say-2022-06-14/&#34;&gt;suppress bank runs.&lt;/a&gt; This has given many insight into the abuses that are possible if access to services and essentials is gated behind a programmable identification.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While sympathy for those without vaccine passports wasn&amp;rsquo;t particularly high where I lived, it&amp;rsquo;s important to understand what this system does to all of our fundamental rights. For quite some time now, the western world has made civil rights progress by establishing groups that are protected from particular kinds of discrimination. Just as it wasn&amp;rsquo;t any help to protect people from medical discrimination during the covid crisis, this framework will be wholly inadequate at protecting people from automated &lt;em&gt;individual discrimination&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If the power structure has insight to all of a person&amp;rsquo;s activities, what they read, and what they say. It becomes easier to oppress particular people for reasons that aren&amp;rsquo;t attached to a protected class. More and more people&amp;rsquo;s fundamental rights will be eroded by a constant flow of conjured &lt;em&gt;exceptions&lt;/em&gt; to individual rights protections. In the Covid Crisis the discrimination was over health decisions, but the exact same framework could be used towards other ends. One day, a tyrant could use the system to punish those who are &lt;em&gt;neurodivergent&lt;/em&gt;, or otherwise &lt;em&gt;deviant&lt;/em&gt; from the ideal model citizen.  Instead of punishing people for crimes, you can use permissioned control of society to punish individuals for &lt;em&gt;what they are&lt;/em&gt; and for particular aspects of their lives.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;slowly-then-all-at-once&#34;&gt;Slowly, Then All At Once&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Bit by bit, people have granted large corporations more and more control over people&amp;rsquo;s lives. Governments are keenly interested in having an impact on this new source of power. The great challenge is that there may come a time where it is impossible for people within this system to reverse the effects and regain control. Digital IDs being launched voluntarily, is no guarantee that they will remain optional.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&#34;https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/faqs/qa-digital-identity-regulation-proposal&#34;&gt;the FAQ&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The main novel element offered by the new rules is that everyone will have a right to have a EU Digital Identity Wallet which is accepted in all Member States. But at the same time, there will be no obligation. Users will be able to control what personal data they want to share with online services. While &lt;strong&gt;public services and &lt;em&gt;certain private services will be obliged to recognise&lt;/em&gt; the EU Digital Identity Wallet&lt;/strong&gt;, its security features make it attractive for all private service providers to recognise it for services that require strong authentication, creating new business opportunities.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The fundamental issue is if people are willing to let top-down state control be inserted into all aspects of their lives like the internet was. Will people allow their governments to use corporations acting on their behalf, to carry out the same overreach? Will those who truly want to protect individual rights, find ways to help others outside this system? Is it already too late?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;what-can-we-do&#34;&gt;What Can We Do?&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;right-to-be-offline&#34;&gt;Right To Be Offline&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Accept that there are situations where people shouldn&amp;rsquo;t be forced to use a particular electronic system or device. Accept that anonymity, especially online, is one of the best ways to protect against total surveillance. Anything that can be done to support those who choose not to be identified, or to refuse interacting with particular systems and services can go a long way.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;pushback&#34;&gt;Pushback&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Get connected with people in your jurisdiction and get informed about the state of cyber laws and protections affecting you. A single person writing in to their bought-and-paid for politician isn&amp;rsquo;t sufficient. This has to be one of the issues that a coalition is built around to find a better direction. Cooperating with others to run your own digital services as a community would be a radical improvement.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;withdraw-your-consent&#34;&gt;Withdraw Your Consent&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t make tyranny easier by complying. Anything you can do that adds friction to the process of tracking and controlling everyone&amp;rsquo;s activity can really make an impact. Choosing to avoid big tech services where possible, or refusing to adopt an &amp;ldquo;optional&amp;rdquo; government program can be something that reduces it&amp;rsquo;s chance of catching off broadly.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;more-resources&#34;&gt;More Resources&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet&#34;&gt;European Digital Identity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.eid.as/&#34;&gt;blog.eIDAS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en&#34;&gt;Shaping Europe’s digital future&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>A Grayjay Review</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/grayjay/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/grayjay/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/grayjay.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/grayjay.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/grayjay.webp" />
+		<description>Highlighting an example of how mass media could be more organic.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;what-is-grayjay&#34;&gt;What is Grayjay?&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://grayjay.app/&#34;&gt;Grayjay&lt;/a&gt; is an android app. It&amp;rsquo;s in early development but already works as an excellent video player. The goal of the app is to allow you to watch videos from creators on many platforms on a single app. This means that it doesn&amp;rsquo;t matter as much to you if the person is on Youtube, Twitch, or Odysee you can subscribe to them all from a single app, even without an account! I imagine for many people who&amp;rsquo;ve wanted to break away from certain large platforms, but have stuck around for a few great creators, this is a good option to solve that problem.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My immediate impression of the grayjay app was a good one. It seems like there&amp;rsquo;s a very well-designed interface for browsing and watching videos. As someone using a de-googled grapheneOS phone, it was an outright upgrade. Where before I wouldn&amp;rsquo;t be able to cast youtube videos to chromecast at all, with Grayjay I was able to cast right away. I had no issues trying to follow people on supported platforms and everything just felt seamless.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/video/grayjay.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video muted autoplay preload=&#34;none&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/video/grayjay.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;I really like the design choice to have a solid user interface and abstract each platform into a plugin with particular features. You can even filter by platform in search, and even disable particular platforms as a whole in the sources tab. You really are very in control with this app, you can choose to limit what platforms are featured on the &amp;ldquo;home&amp;rdquo; tab, and even search. I&amp;rsquo;m sure things like comments and payments will be different from platform to platform but it served the very basic role of being an excellent app to follow and search various video content creators.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;can-this-help-fight-against-censorship&#34;&gt;Can This Help Fight Against Censorship?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In short, I&amp;rsquo;d say I&amp;rsquo;m very optimistic. While this app can&amp;rsquo;t stop anyone from being banned on a particular platform, it is already a very effective tool for following people across many platforms. Putting &lt;a href=&#34;https://docs.polycentric.io/&#34;&gt;polycentric&lt;/a&gt; to aside for a moment, the very fact that it&amp;rsquo;s possible to create new plugins to support other sites and integrate them ourselves means a great deal. I believe if Grayjay (and apps like it) started to become more common, we would see much better adoption for interoperable permission-less protocols. If most people were using this app to watch their videos, they could choose whatever plugins they wish. Some sources and plugins could be more or less censored than others, but the power of this system Software means that the user is in control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/grayjay-platforms.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For example, while at the time of writing the peertube plugin had some issues, I myself was able to correct them by writing my &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/grayjay-peertube/&#34;&gt;own peertube plugin.&lt;/a&gt; This is an excellent demonstration of what makes free software very powerful. I didn&amp;rsquo;t need to ask for permission, the code and details were just sitting there for me to take the initiative. This means that in a very short time I was able to conform grayjay to work with my own self-hosted &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;peertube instance&lt;/a&gt; and make it work even better than the current state.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/grayjay-settings.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s actually quite hard to overstate what this actually means. This particular app can be used to support any platform your device has access to. Any set of videos on a website can be first-class citizens on the grayjay app. I can definitely say I think this really does &lt;em&gt;level the playing field&lt;/em&gt; when it comes to online media. Suddenly, those who want to follow my peertube can with the same app they use to follow their mainstream youtube channels. Every user gets full control over what they do and don&amp;rsquo;t want to see.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;moving-forward&#34;&gt;Moving Forward&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In conclusion I do think this is the start of something exciting. There is a lot of excellent free software apps on &lt;a href=&#34;https://f-droid.org/&#34;&gt;F-Droid&lt;/a&gt; so I hope this can be someone&amp;rsquo;s start into becoming more comfortable with free software in general. The more you shift away from proprietary software the more you appreciate the gains made by using software that respects you as the user. If you like what this app has to offer I would highly recommend trying out &lt;a href=&#34;https://antennapod.org/&#34;&gt;AntennaPod&lt;/a&gt; for Android as well. It&amp;rsquo;s an excellent podcast app that supports multimedia and works pretty well as an RSS reader too. I would argue that it does most of what you would want out of an app like Grayjay, but the more the merrier.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I do have some concerns however, one of the problems FUTO is trying to solve is &lt;em&gt;decentralized online identity&lt;/em&gt;. As someone concerned about the implications of Elon Musk trying to transform Twitter into &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;the everything app&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; I&amp;rsquo;m not sure building an open-source &lt;em&gt;everything-app&lt;/em&gt; is a good goal. Grayjay works very well as a multimedia app, and I think it&amp;rsquo;s great for that. I&amp;rsquo;m not sure I would want to then start entangling everyone&amp;rsquo;s personal lives directly with it. The advantage of a decentralized online identity would be that when someone is removed from a platform, or even gets &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/broken-internet/&#34;&gt;censored by ISPs&lt;/a&gt; there would be a way for the audience to migrate to other options or even a &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/shadow/&#34;&gt;hidden service&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;That said, the advantage of free software is that it really is what we make of it. People can definitely appreciate the great features this offers, and even entirely strip out whatever future enhancements are added on top. I think Grayjay is an excellent example of how to build censorship resistant software, even if it itself isn&amp;rsquo;t reaching the ideal of Free and Open Source Software.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I have not been paid by &lt;a href=&#34;https://futo.org&#34;&gt;FUTO&lt;/a&gt; or anyone else to make this review, or try the software.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Correction: Grayjay isn&amp;rsquo;t Free and Open Source (FOSS)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The PeerTube plugin &lt;a href=&#34;https://gitlab.futo.org/videostreaming/plugins/peertube&#34;&gt;is licensed under the GPL&lt;/a&gt; a Free Software License, but the &lt;a href=&#34;https://gitlab.futo.org/videostreaming/grayjay&#34;&gt;Grayjay app isn&amp;rsquo;t,&lt;/a&gt; it&amp;rsquo;s licensed under a &lt;a href=&#34;https://futo.org/about/futo-statement-on-opensource/&#34;&gt;different&lt;/a&gt; license. &lt;strong&gt;Why does this matter?&lt;/strong&gt; Essentially, FUTO is welcoming user control and collaborative innovation when it comes to their plugin system, but not the app itself. To go further, this increased my concerns stated below about integrating other identity features. In short, the Grayjay app is useful, but still lacks essential software freedoms. If you&amp;rsquo;re interested in an android app that can truly decentralize the media landscape, I&amp;rsquo;ll reiterate my endorsement of &lt;a href=&#34;https://antennapod.org/&#34;&gt;antennapod&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/FUTO_Tech/status/1719527096534311365&#34;&gt;FUTO Tech explains it on twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Digital Autonomy and the Arts: Part 3</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/arts3/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/arts3/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts-3-maa.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts-3-maa.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts-3-maa.webp" />
+		<description>Featuring Margaret Anna Alice</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;It is my honor and pleasure to have worked alongside such a passionate and talented writer. &lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/dissident-dialogues-margaret-anna&#34;&gt;Margaret Anna Alice&lt;/a&gt; is an inspiration to those worldwide who wish to resist and dismantle totalitarianism. She is one of many critical voices in these turbulent times.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Margaret Anna Alice writes about media narratives, politics, propaganda, mass control, psychology, history, philosophy, language, film, art, music, literature, culture, and health with a focus on COVID at &lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.com/&#34;&gt;Margaret Anna Alice Through the Looking Glass&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;must-see-works&#34;&gt;Must-see works:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/ueUXNL-A3Zg&#34;&gt;Mistakes Were NOT Made: An anthem for Justice&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/wake-up-toolkit&#34;&gt;Wake-up Toolkit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/are-you-a-good-german-or-a-badass&#34;&gt;Are You a Good German or a Badass German?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/anatomy-of-a-philanthropath-dreams&#34;&gt;Anatomy of a Philanthropath: Dreams of Democide &amp;amp; Dictatorship&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/profiles-in-courage-the-canadian&#34;&gt;Profiles in Courage: The Canadian Truckers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/bASZkhDROzo&#34;&gt;Ode to a Whistleblower (Poem by Margaret Anna Alice; Video for Tribute to Daniel Ellsberg)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/Bd7dM59vocg&#34;&gt;Do You Remember? (Collaboration Between Margaret Anna Alice &amp;amp; Visceral Adventure)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can support Margaret Anna Alice&amp;rsquo;s excellent work by:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Subscribing on &lt;a href=&#34;&#34;&gt;Substack&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Sending Bitcoin to &lt;a href=&#34;bitcoin:bc1ql706rr7vj7c7nzxnqfp9rldw8ddfc20f492jk0&#34;&gt;bc1ql706rr7vj7c7nzxnqfp9rldw8ddfc20f492jk0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Purchasing &lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/get-the-book-the-vapor-the-hot-hat&#34;&gt;The Vapor, The Hot Hat, &amp;amp; The Witches Potion&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Applied Cyberwar: Hardware Exploits</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/hardware-trojan/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/hardware-trojan/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cpu-camera.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cpu-camera.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cpu-camera.webp" />
+		<description>Just how bad is it?</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Recently a &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.ph/PGUdP&#34;&gt;rumor&lt;/a&gt; that the tragic Hamas attack was enabled by a potential &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.albawaba.com/node/was-huawei-behind-israels-failure-detect-hamas-plans-1536954&#34;&gt;lack of backdoors&lt;/a&gt; accessible by western / &lt;a href=&#34;https://allaboutcookies.org/what-is-the-five-eyes-alliance&#34;&gt;5 Eyes&lt;/a&gt; intelligence. Despite this, I wouldn&amp;rsquo;t recommend rushing to order a Huwawei phone for privacy reasons. If my &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/shadow/#threat-modeling&#34;&gt;threat model&lt;/a&gt; called for investigating hardware attacks, simply changing providers would be insufficient to keep them at bay. Understanding hardware exploits requires a bit of understanding about how systems run, so let&amp;rsquo;s take advantage of this teachable moment.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You&amp;rsquo;re definitely going to want to revisit &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/cyberwar/&#34;&gt;A Non-Combattant&amp;rsquo;s Guide to Cyberwar&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/warlord-technology/&#34;&gt;Escalating Cyberwar: Warlord Technology&lt;/a&gt; if you haven&amp;rsquo;t already. The important take-away is that there are &lt;em&gt;very advanced tools&lt;/em&gt; for infiltrating systems using software. In addition to this, when working to combat hardware-based threats, you&amp;rsquo;re going to need serious regular &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/diy-audit/&#34;&gt;cyber audits.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;its-all-broken&#34;&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s All Broken&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It can sound &lt;a href=&#34;https://synergeticdesign.substack.com/p/why-free-software-is-useless-when&#34;&gt;very bleak&lt;/a&gt; when one understands just how &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rdriley/487/papers/Thompson_1984_ReflectionsonTrustingTrust.pdf&#34;&gt;vulnerable digital systems&lt;/a&gt; can be. The sad truth is that if somebody is willing to spend significant effort, resources, and time it&amp;rsquo;s not a matter of if, but rather &lt;strong&gt;when&lt;/strong&gt; they&amp;rsquo;ll be able to breach your systems. At least for now, it can be a reasonably safe assumption that those who make a reasonable effort to protect themselves can at least secure themselves from un-targeted attacks, and otherwise make themselves a less valuable target.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The challenge is that modern hardware and software is essentially a &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/kZRE7HIO3vk&#34;&gt;massive jenga tower&lt;/a&gt; of accumulated &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_debt&#34;&gt;technical debt.&lt;/a&gt; For those who require utmost security and reliability, almost everything available today is absolutely unsuitable for that purpose. &lt;strong&gt;Supply chain attacks&lt;/strong&gt; can be done by compromising either the physical components of the device, or the software built into the &lt;em&gt;tech stack&lt;/em&gt;. The &lt;strong&gt;tech stack&lt;/strong&gt; is everything required to run software on your device.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/device-stack.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/device-stack.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Imagine that any one of these layers can be compromised 
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The biggest reason why simply switching hardware providers is not sufficient to mitigate hardware threats; is that someone capable of &lt;a href=&#34;https://puri.sm/posts/anti-interdiction-update-six-month-retrospective/&#34;&gt;intercepting a shipment&lt;/a&gt; sent to you can then attack the device directly. If you&amp;rsquo;re already concerned about government surveillance, especially targeted surveillance, you&amp;rsquo;ll need a proper way to validate that the systems you&amp;rsquo;re using are free of unwanted changes, bugs, and not tampered with. In addition to this, you&amp;rsquo;ll want to make sure your verified clean hardware actually &lt;a href=&#34;https://ryf.fsf.org/&#34;&gt;Respects your Freedom!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While hardware backdoors are a serious concern, it&amp;rsquo;s important to pay serious attention to the software environment you&amp;rsquo;re running. There&amp;rsquo;s absolutely zero point making changes aimed at mitigating hardware based attacks if you&amp;rsquo;re planning to run software that is known to spy on you on behalf of the same organizations. With all that out of the way, let&amp;rsquo;s take the topic head-on.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-hardware-attacks&#34;&gt;The Hardware Attacks&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If the manufacturer (or manufacturer&amp;rsquo;s suppliers) introduce a defect or modification to their product, that modification can be exploited. Naturally the defect would be exploited by those who put it in there, but it&amp;rsquo;s worth understanding that the very same defect could be exploited by others. This is why it is of utmost importance that we the public make it exceptionally clear that we will never accept undermining security or privacy in the name of safety, especially when it empowers unaccountable entities. In the long-run the only solution to this problem is designing hardware so that it can be independently verified with only a moderate amount of effort and tools.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Almost every device is complex enough that it&amp;rsquo;s not all developed by a single entity. A single company could place a nefarious component into their portion of a device. It is safe to assume that most manufacturers would be testing for defects to detect obvious intrusions, but what if the modification doesn&amp;rsquo;t impact device functionality? There is currently a lot of research into this. I&amp;rsquo;ve come across a couple of papers discussing &lt;a href=&#34;https://vista.cs.technion.ac.il/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Day1-Lecture-1-Sylvain-Guilley.pdf&#34;&gt;fascinating strategies&lt;/a&gt; for detecting that.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://tehranipoor.ece.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/09-Hardware-Trojans.pdf&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/hardware-trojan.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Click the image to view the slides, definitely worth your time 
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Antennas are strange devices, the little I&amp;rsquo;ve spent learning about radio communications has made me realize how little I understand about these devices. In a really strange way, anything can be an antenna if it&amp;rsquo;s run with enough power, at a high enough frequency&amp;hellip;  Wireless communication definitely is one of the more interesting developments. To say nothing of some of the more bizarre advancements like quantum computing.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Even as a highly technical person, it gets really easy for the layers of abstraction to fool you into assuming that lower level details like hardware and firmware are always pristine. It&amp;rsquo;s important to understand that at a fundamental level all these devices do is store, process and relay information. It&amp;rsquo;s quite possible for a device to use information sent to it in deceptive ways, and there are &lt;a href=&#34;https://hackaday.com/2022/07/22/satan-turns-hard-drive-cable-into-antenna-to-defeat-air-gapped-security/&#34;&gt;very un-intuitive attacks&lt;/a&gt; at the physical levels. These threats are very serious and almost impossible for a single person to attempt to mitigate. If it is the case that all our institutions are hostile, corrupt, and incapable of reform, it is then long past time for people to proactively cooperate on establishing the &lt;em&gt;means&lt;/em&gt; to design, manufacture, and &lt;strong&gt;validate&lt;/strong&gt; devices independently.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;firmware&#34;&gt;Firmware&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Alright, so you&amp;rsquo;ve used the latest and greatest techniques to validate that your hardware is free of any hardware intrusions or defects. Your team has triple-checked the specifications of every component to the smallest detail, and tested each component for common problems. As you start running software on it, you start to detect strange behavior. Suddenly, your device that you spend so much effort validating isn&amp;rsquo;t working as intended.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You re-compile all your software from scratch in an effort to solve the problem, but it hits you. There&amp;rsquo;s a whole &lt;em&gt;layer of code&lt;/em&gt; between the software and the hardware. Many hardware components are themselves &lt;em&gt;programmable&lt;/em&gt;. A passive component is something that serves a very simple and direct purpose, like a light that shines with power. Logic circuits are components that themselves have memory that allows them to be programmed with additional instructions or parameters that defines how they process information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://tube.tchncs.de/videos/embed/02e76ea7-5735-4de3-b426-58e2d291376b&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It may be complete overkill for a rogue intelligence outfit to compromise an entire system. Instead, it would be much easier to introduce changes to the closed-source firmware on the wireless radios for all kinds of smart devices. With that level of intrusion, it would be very difficult and expensive for someone to detect and correct, and the hardware and software would be none the wiser. This is why it&amp;rsquo;s important to not only insist on &lt;em&gt;free as in freedom&lt;/em&gt; software, but hardware and firmware as well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Some other interesting videos:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/HNwWQ9zGT-8&#34;&gt;Spyware at The Hardware Level - Intel ME &amp;amp; AMD PSP
+&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/Lr-9aCMUXzI&#34;&gt;How Intel wants to backdoor every computer in the world | Intel Management Engine explained&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/IW2YsxSj6zE&#34;&gt;Dissecting the AMD Platform Security Processor &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/GQE3a8WLeds&#34;&gt;GOD MODE UNLOCKED - Hardware Backdoors in x86 CPUs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;machines-can-lie&#34;&gt;Machines Can Lie&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Programmable chips are incredible tools. So many amazing possibilities are enabled by the fact that they often are designed for &lt;strong&gt;abstraction&lt;/strong&gt;. For example, a display may not actually expose direct control over all it&amp;rsquo;s nitty-gritty details, but instead accepts commands to display pictures and text. This can make it much easier to build a simple device, but it comes at the cost that the other components sending the information are unable to ensure that what was sent is actually what is displayed. With this understanding, it&amp;rsquo;s quite easy to see why security is such a hard problem. On some level, it is all downstream of physics.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is clear that governments, corporations, and intelligence outfits have the &lt;em&gt;means and motive&lt;/em&gt; to corrupt our devices and systems. We are aware that this happens in a non-zero amount of cases, including in western countries. It is anyone&amp;rsquo;s guess how deep and how pervasive the problem is. It is an important problem to keep in mind when thinking of what direction we want our tools to go in, and how we intend to use them. On the other hand, I find this information not to be terribly practical on a day-to-day level. A big part of this is the fact that it&amp;rsquo;s often very unnecessary to compromise hardware to spy on people or steal their data. If anything, people themselves have shown themselves to be all too willing to comply with surveillance and control if it&amp;rsquo;s merely sold under the right pretext.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Personally, I believe the best way to act on this knowledge is to realize the dire necessity of building genuinely transparent, efficient and accountable institutions that can work to tackle these difficult problems. We can&amp;rsquo;t do it alone, but I&amp;rsquo;m more than confident we can get intelligent people together to make some serious progress.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Mass Resistance Redirected</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/redirecting-resistance/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 05 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/redirecting-resistance/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/affinity-scam.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/affinity-scam.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/affinity-scam.webp" />
+		<description>Selling out for shamefully low prices</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;As scary as those with the means and motivation to dominate the world are, there&amp;rsquo;s something immensely more powerful. The people. No matter how powerful you, or even your entire crew are, you still can&amp;rsquo;t quite stand up to the rest of the world alone. This was my primary motivation to write &lt;em&gt;Tools of the Technocracy&lt;/em&gt;, the out-in-the-open desire to power up the tools of mass subjugation is a terrifying prospect. Fear, isolation, propaganda, and violence are all means which the powerful use to keep people in line. What&amp;rsquo;s less familiar to people is how bribery, flattery, and &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circe&#34;&gt;seduction&lt;/a&gt; can be used.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, the greatest strategic mistake made by who (&lt;em&gt;or what&lt;/em&gt;) rules the earth, is that they unloaded absolutely every dirty trick at once. I wrote the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy/&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy&lt;/a&gt; to take my part in documenting how technological weapons can, and could be used to dominate and control others. Not only is it incomplete, but even if it was, it would only be a very small fraction of the entire picture. I can definitely admit to being shockingly naive to mass mind control when I began writing it. At the time, I believed that the brainwashing was essentially 60% economic, and 40% mass media.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite being aware of even some of the examples listed below, it was only once I understood &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/how-the-magic-trick-works-cutting&#34;&gt;the magic trick&lt;/a&gt; did I begin to better conceptualize how highly motivated activists can be &lt;a href=&#34;https://consentfactory.org/2023/09/20/mr-mikes-mondo-imbroglio-or-how-not-to-launch-a-global-anti-censorship-movement/0&#34;&gt;assimilated&lt;/a&gt; into the very same thing they want to fight. This really isn&amp;rsquo;t unique to any particular idea or movement. Every sufficient &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-11/&#34;&gt;power structure&lt;/a&gt; is going to develop defenses against becoming overthrown.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the stronger adaptations a dominance hierarchy can have is flexibility. A rigid system is too vulnerable to being outright overthrown by radicals. Instead of single-handedly orchestrating your machinations, it can be quite effective to open bid those actions to those you will reward handsomely. This is an excellent tactic to prevent defectors, because those interested in their own self-advancement will align themselves to your goals. Suddenly your vast conspiracy to dominate others is working as a decentralized network with plausible deniability, with the added bonus of components being entirely replaceable.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-11/&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #11 Social Credit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are two components to this:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Allowing for particular changes, but nothing that undermines your power.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Making your opposition complicit in maintaining it.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of taking your opposition head on, redirecting their focus, energy and &lt;em&gt;resources&lt;/em&gt; on means in your favor or even under your control saves you a phenomenal amount of work. This means that you don&amp;rsquo;t need to be convinced to stop fighting, you can self-destructively stew in anger and rage at the machine while it feeds on your essence. Anger is an important part of the human experience. Denouncing anger as a problem is its own problem, but it&amp;rsquo;s important that your anger is properly focused and channeled. Whatever you&amp;rsquo;re fighting for, it&amp;rsquo;s important to keep in mind why, and how you intend to achieve your goals.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;false-saviors&#34;&gt;False Saviors&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A clear-cut example of how this is achieved is a &lt;em&gt;false savior&lt;/em&gt;. A figure is thrust into the spotlight as the answer to major problems. By dressing the figure up with your ideals, goals, and dreams you replace an ordinary human being on an altar of your own hubris. False saviors can be the work of powerful interests choosing to &lt;em&gt;lead the opposition themselves&lt;/em&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;made&lt;/strong&gt; as leaders get corrupted by fame, attention, or other compromising factors.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/false-saviors.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/beware-false-saviors&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Beware false saviors&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Putting faith into leaders is a road to disappointment. &lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;False saviors are erected by placing the complicated task of solving vastly complicated problems on the shoulders of a single person. No matter how powerful a single person is, they are still mortal and have the same weaknesses as many of us. In addition to this, the more power you put in someone&amp;rsquo;s hands, the more it inevitably corrupts them. This is because &lt;em&gt;power has strings attached&lt;/em&gt;, no system exists in a vacuum and there will always be constraints on how powers can be used. Just as human beings can and will be corrupted, entire organizations are arguably &lt;em&gt;more vulnerable&lt;/em&gt; to all the same factors.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-affinity-scam&#34;&gt;The Affinity Scam&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If one wanted to financially liquidate their opponents, lawfare may be one option, but there&amp;rsquo;s a far more effective means of separating your enemies from their wealth: &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/affinityfraud.asp&#34;&gt;Affinity fraud&lt;/a&gt;. By dressing up your financial enterprise with sleek branding that gives your opponents the &lt;em&gt;impression&lt;/em&gt; it&amp;rsquo;s run by those who are &lt;em&gt;just like them&lt;/em&gt; with the same values and goals. It is naive to assume that frauds targeted at activists are merely interested in money, instead of other goals like sabotage and infiltration. With money taken from your opponents, you can then use it to buy influence over them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;philanthropaths&#34;&gt;Philanthropaths&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a particular brand of &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;philanthropist&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; that dresses themselves up in &lt;em&gt;the greater good&lt;/em&gt;, but who&amp;rsquo;s methods don&amp;rsquo;t pass even the most basic scrutiny. They may claim to use their vast wealth to solve important problems, yet are actually engaging in very profitable &lt;a href=&#34;https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/08/investigative-reports/american-federation-of-teachers-sells-out-to-rockefellers-trilateralists-and-big-tech/&#34;&gt;impact investing&lt;/a&gt; by seizing control over the problem and enabling it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A philanthropath wants you dead … for the good of humanity.&lt;br&gt;
+A philanthropath wants you enslaved … for the good of liberty.&lt;br&gt;
+A philanthropath wants you silenced … for the good of free speech.&lt;br&gt;
+A philanthropath wants you confined … for the good of your health.&lt;br&gt;
+A philanthropath wants to surveil you … for the good of security.&lt;br&gt;
+A philanthropath wants you to eat orthopterans … for the good of the planet.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/anatomy-of-a-philanthropath-dreams-3fd#%C2%A7anatomy-of-a-philanthropath&#34;&gt;Anatomy of a Philanthropath by Margaret Anna Alice&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Philanthropaths will generally focus on the most widely appealing causes, who opposes solving poverty, hunger, and disease? Those who don&amp;rsquo;t have the desire or the time to evaluate or properly investigate the actual issues will very often fall victim to this kind of scheme. This kind of impact investing often builds power structures that get in the way of &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/JIiaV-g-op0&#34;&gt;meaningful local solutions&lt;/a&gt; to these serious problems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;grifting&#34;&gt;Grifting&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Are universal ideals &lt;em&gt;too mainstream&lt;/em&gt; for you? How about something more &lt;em&gt;specific&lt;/em&gt;? You&amp;rsquo;re completely different from the brainwashed masses, instead you see things how they actually are and are willing to pile up lots of money on top of your active social media engagement. &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Grifting&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; is the art of liquidating a highly motivated niche. &lt;em&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s just business after all.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://web.archive.org/web/20230908105405/https://twitter.com/libertysafeinc/status/1699245595867971969&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/liberty-safe.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    So-called &amp;#34;Liberty Safes&amp;#34; actually had a backdoor into all their products. &lt;a target=&#39;_blank&#39; href=&#39;https://twitter.com/libertysafeinc/status/1699245595867971969#m&#39;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Individuals, organizations, and even charities can run into the terminal stage where their existence is dependent on the problem they set out to ameliorate. Over time, insidious but disastrous conflicts of interest can pile up in very unintuitive ways. This is actually termed quite well by progressives, for environmental concerns it&amp;rsquo;s called &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/guide-to-greenwashing&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;greenwashing&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; and in the tech space there&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://puri.sm/posts/privacy-washing-do-as-i-say-not-as-i-do/&#34;&gt;privacy washing.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;“The behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies.”&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Robert Conquest&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Robert may be on to something that&amp;rsquo;s more than just a mere assumption.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;outright-robbery&#34;&gt;Outright Robbery&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By tapping into outrage, panic, and urgency, nefarious agents can short-circuit their victims better sense-making. The well-informed expert may be sponsored by outright scams while they deliver you hard-hitting critical information. We all need to make a living, but some blame can be put on those who take sponsorships without any &lt;a href=&#34;https://home.solari.com/not-again-wolves-loose-in-the-gold-and-silver-market/&#34;&gt;due-dilligence.&lt;/a&gt;  The more profitable a scam is, the more eyeballs it can purchase through buying more advertizing, if the only goal is to simply liquidate opposition of money this alone is sufficient to create a powerful feedback loop.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;resistance-for-sale&#34;&gt;Resistance for Sale!&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I would argue, that activist communities &lt;em&gt;themselves&lt;/em&gt; have been commodified and resold online. We all feel a natural need to connect with others and work together. This is a very important facet of the game, but when money and &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/parasocial-dunbar-hacking&#34;&gt;dunbar hacking&lt;/a&gt; is involved, it can raise some serious red flags. Once you&amp;rsquo;ve got a captive audience, it&amp;rsquo;s very easy to then divert them with all the normal manipulative tactics to divert their attention and resources. Small insular communities are vulnerable to being transformed into a cult even when they don&amp;rsquo;t begin as one.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;understanding-the-difference&#34;&gt;Understanding the difference&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This wouldn&amp;rsquo;t be the &lt;strong&gt;Libre Solutions Network&lt;/strong&gt; if I didn&amp;rsquo;t have any thoughts on how to proactively tackle this problem. Affinity scams are entirely about exploiting vulnerable, isolated, and scared people who are concerned about very real issues. It may be quite difficult to understand their concerns. Odds are if you have no idea why someone is wrapped up in a bizarre cult, it&amp;rsquo;s because you&amp;rsquo;re not sufficiently aware of their concerns.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;become-a-human-again&#34;&gt;Become a Human Again&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The best way to rob would-be scammers of targets is to be a trusted judgement-free friend to someone. That way they can be potentially much more likely to consult you with something that&amp;rsquo;s raised red flags. Everyone needs a trusted circle of people who genuinely care about them, and tragically for some it can&amp;rsquo;t even be their own family. There will always be desperate lonely people, who may even be &lt;strong&gt;over-represented&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;in activist groups&lt;/em&gt; because their work may be their own way to ask for help.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;learning-from-others&#34;&gt;Learning from Others&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Building on the last point, consider that those with different values and beliefs than you, even opposing ones, can be correct about issues you care about. By escaping your echo chamber you can learn from those who have a radically different perspective that gives you meaningful opportunities to grow. This requires you to &lt;em&gt;humanize them as well as yourself to them&lt;/em&gt;. Be a great ambassador for your beliefs by being genuinely willing to listen to others, even when it&amp;rsquo;s exceedingly difficult.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;results-matter&#34;&gt;Results Matter&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Self-awareness is critical. Work to understand your principal concern well enough to at least explain how a particular initiative or cause will meaningfully solve the problem, ideally without causing harm. At the very least, try to evaluate products and services on their genuine merits, rather than who is endorsing them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;walking-the-walk&#34;&gt;Walking the Walk&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For any particular concern, there are at least a couple of actions a figure or community can take that demonstrate they understand the problem and are willing to spend meaningful effort to correct it. Choices matter and compromises add up like tetris blocks. Practical compromises may seem like a winning trade in the moment, only to turn out to be a deal with the devil over time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;all-money-is-blood-money&#34;&gt;All Money is Blood Money&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Become incredibly skeptical of money, especially large sums of money. Wealth may not have to be a zero-sum game, but in many circumstances it certainly acts as one, or even negative-sum. Everyone needs currency to provide for their essentials, or to build the life they want, but understand that everything has a cost. It&amp;rsquo;s possible that the true cost of money is on your soul, rather than it&amp;rsquo;s pure monetary value. Remember, you can&amp;rsquo;t take it with you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Imagine a giant picket line. The strike is over the future of humanity. People can either cross the picket line to work for those who want to enslave (and eventually destroy) humanity, being showered with fleeting opportunities and resources… or to stand up for oneself and find new ways to build elsewhere. The tragically sad truth is that there is a near limitless supply of desperate scabs who would happily (even knowingly) trade all of our futures for some present sustenance or comfort. You may be angry at these people, even willing to attack them, but they are not the root cause. Much of the harm that has already been done has created much tragedy and many victims.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-11/&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #11 Social Credit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/chains.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-11&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #11 Social Credit&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What&amp;#39;s new is old.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>DIY Cyber Audit</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/diy-audit/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 30 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/diy-audit/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/3-breaking-free.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/3-breaking-free.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/3-breaking-free.webp" />
+		<description>Your launchpad for improving your own digital autonomy.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s good for people to take their own cybersecurity seriously. It&amp;rsquo;s a huge topic, and it can be difficult to decide what&amp;rsquo;s worth starting with, or expending a lot of effort on. This guide is intended to walk you through some of the basic &amp;ldquo;bare-minimum&amp;rdquo; steps one would want to take in improving their online security. In addition to pure security goals, this piece aims to emphasize how to reduce your dependency on systems that seize control of your information and workflows. It is my opinion that consolidated power inevitably leads to abused power, therefore one should take an active role in reducing their participating in enabling nefarious entities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But why?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; you may ask. If the corporate platforms, services, and tools are &lt;em&gt;working fine&lt;/em&gt;, why put any effort in changing? It&amp;rsquo;s easy to fall into the trap of believing our actions are of no consequence, and that compromises made along the way don&amp;rsquo;t accrue debts. Over the last decade, people have given corporate digital giants (aka &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Big Tech&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;) immense power in society. While it has already been abused in many ways, more concentrated power means more abuse.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/threat%20modeling.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/threat%20modeling.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s largely a matter of personal responsibility on where you want to draw the line. Maybe it suits you to simply focus on preventing unwanted intrusion to your important accounts, or you could be willing to invest time and resources to do everything within your power. Your goals and aspirations are important to consider. Sometimes a small bit of effort can be strategically used to get the maximum benefit, others like to dedicate lots of effort over a significant amount of time. Ultimately the best moves are the ones that get the best impact with the effort and time you&amp;rsquo;re able to expend.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This overview is intended to be a starting-point for someone interested in reducing what sensitive information is shared about themselves, and keeping their systems safer from unwanted intrusion.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;more-great-guides&#34;&gt;More Great Guides:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It may seem redundant to list other guides with similar information. Every project is going to have it&amp;rsquo;s own perspective, prioritization, and level of detail. If this guide is not to your liking, I would hope that one or many of these will suit your needs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://ssd.eff.org&#34;&gt;Surveillance Self-Defense&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.thenewoil.org/&#34;&gt;The New Oil&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://avoidthehack.com/getting-started-cybersecurity&#34;&gt;Getting Started: Basic Personal Cybersecurity for Everyone&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://home.solari.com/faq/cybersecurity-what-we-do/&#34;&gt;Cybersecurity – What We Do&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://digdeeper.club/articles/ninja.xhtml&#34;&gt;Ninja&amp;rsquo;s Guide to the Internet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://brainfucksec.github.io/a-good-privacy-list&#34;&gt;A Good Privacy List&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://restoreprivacy.com/&#34;&gt;Restore Privacy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gunther.link/posts/privacy-basics/&#34;&gt;10 Basic Steps to Digital Privacy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;contents&#34;&gt;Contents&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;hellip;More is to come!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#the-regular-audit&#34;&gt;The Regular Audit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#the-pebkac-vector&#34;&gt;PEBKAC Vector&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#account-security&#34;&gt;Accounts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#e-mail&#34;&gt;Email&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#browsers&#34;&gt;Browsers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#network-security&#34;&gt;Network Security&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-regular-audit&#34;&gt;The Regular Audit&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;d like to introduce you to the concept of a &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;regular&lt;/em&gt; security audit&lt;/strong&gt;. Instead of trying to reinvent your entire digital life overnight, it can be helpful to set aside some amount of time to make gradual changes, or to spend dedicated time solving a particular problem. This can help you transform a giant task over time, without too much immediate disruption to how you currently do things.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can commit to whatever time interval works for you. It could be monthly, quarterly, or even yearly is worth considering over never at all. This can help you budget the time you&amp;rsquo;d like to spend on making changes, as well as help you keep an eye out for things to address later.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One helpful strategy would be to tier specific practices to certain intervals. For example making sure to run updates more regularly, but worry about changing passwords on a less frequent basis.&lt;br&gt;
+A hypothetical plan could look like this:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;table&gt;
+  &lt;thead&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;th&gt;📆 Interval&lt;/th&gt;
+          &lt;th&gt;✅ Task&lt;/th&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+  &lt;/thead&gt;
+  &lt;tbody&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Weekly&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Running Updates&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Weekly&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#inbox-cleaning&#34;&gt;Cleaning your inbox&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Weekly&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;File Backups&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Monthly&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Changing important passwords&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Monthly&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Deleting unused apps &amp;amp; extensions&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Quarterly&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;System Backups&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Quarterly&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Checking for &lt;a href=&#34;https://haveibeenpwned.com/&#34;&gt;breaches&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Quarterly&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Helping others&lt;/strong&gt; make changes&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Yearly&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Complete password rotation&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Yearly&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Online footprint &lt;a href=&#34;#online-footprint&#34;&gt;inspection&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+  &lt;/tbody&gt;
+&lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why?&lt;/strong&gt; Committing to a regular plan can help correct errors and keep you accountable. It also gets you focused on more proactive actions instead of always playing catchup.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#contents&#34;&gt;Back to Contents&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-pebkac-vector&#34;&gt;The PEBKAC Vector&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The easiest way for someone or something to infiltrate your accounts and systems is your own capacity to make a mistake. Hence the, &lt;em&gt;Problem-Exists-Between-Keyboard-and-Chair&lt;/em&gt; vector. (&lt;em&gt;That&amp;rsquo;s you!&lt;/em&gt;) One of the more obvious examples is how much people have been trained to share intimate details of their lives on corporate social media. Beyond just embarrassment, a lack of proper precautions can lead to having your entire system compromised. Consequences of that can range from mild regret to financially devastating.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;phishing-attacks&#34;&gt;Phishing Attacks&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Phishing is when communications are sent out to trick a person to accidentally load a program, or divulge specific information. &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.phishing.org/what-is-phishing&#34;&gt;Phishing&lt;/a&gt; is very effective when combined with other attacks. The more someone (or &lt;em&gt;something&lt;/em&gt;) can learn about you, the more effective phishing messages can be tailored to you. It is not out of the question that voice cloning, and other &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/machine-learning&#34;&gt;generative AI&lt;/a&gt; tools will be used to &lt;a href=&#34;https://proton.me/blog/what-is-email-spoofing#how-does-email-spoofing-work&#34;&gt;impersonate&lt;/a&gt; trusted contacts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;From &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/cyberwar/&#34;&gt;A Non-Combattant&amp;rsquo;s Guide to Cyberwar&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are many different ways [phishing] can be carried out:&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;strong&gt;E-mail:&lt;/strong&gt; one kind of attack is an urgent email that requires you to immediately click a certain link. That link will then present a fake log-in form disguised as a legitimate site. This could be used to steal your credentials. If the site itself has a vulnerability, merely clicking the link itself could be enough to compromise your account.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Attachments:&lt;/strong&gt; any file sent your way may be more than meets the eye. There are a variety of methods that allow a file that’s opened to either run as a virus, or send your data elsewhere.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;None of this is exclusive to e-mail&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
+Messaging apps, and online communities can all enable the same problems.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/spam-attack.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    The line between spam and phishing is very blurry 
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Sometimes, an adversary being able to figure out &lt;em&gt;which accounts are yours&lt;/em&gt; is enough to get very useful information, or to break into already compromised accounts. Other times, getting you to run some malware can give up complete control of your system. The best defense is to be aware of phishing, and take precaution before opening links or attachments.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://archive.org/embed/protect-your-devices-from-hackers&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Video: &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.org/details/protect-your-devices-from-hackers&#34;&gt;Protect Your Devices From Hackers – Don&amp;rsquo;t Get &amp;lsquo;0wned&amp;rsquo;&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22AJ%2B+and+the+Electronic+Frontier+Foundation%22&#34;&gt;AJ and the Electronic Frontier Foundation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;for-each-channel-a-purpose&#34;&gt;For each channel, a purpose.&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Reflect on how and in what way your trusted contacts will interact with you. Having separate email address(es) for different purposes can help filter specific messages for you, this will help you know if a particular message is genuine or not. Very often services will give you the option to enter a code instead of clicking a link, which is helpful in this situation. If you&amp;rsquo;re sure  you must click a link, it can be worth copying it (&lt;em&gt;with a right-click, or long touch&lt;/em&gt;) first, then inspecting it yourself before opening it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Even something as simple as keeping in mind who tends to give you a phone call and who else prefers to use an end-to-end encrypted messaging app. If someone is reaching out to you in an unusual way, that can be an indication that something isn&amp;rsquo;t right. This applies to workplaces too, it can be a good idea to avoid mixing your career with your personal life, having an account for each can keep things separated.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;big-tech-services&#34;&gt;Big Tech Services&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Another way you may be outright, voluntarily handing out your information is when using cloud-driven and/or &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.fsf.org/windows/#abuses&#34;&gt;non-free&lt;/a&gt; software and services. Moving your data to your own devices, or at least to services run without &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_lock-in&#34;&gt;vendor lock-in&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;disentangle-yourself-from-cloud-platforms&#34;&gt;Disentangle Yourself from Cloud Platforms&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is no cloud, just somebody else&amp;rsquo;s computer!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many online tools are just a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.en.html&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;service as a software substitute&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/a&gt; This means that while you gain the convenience of sophisticated technologies at scale, you will also be unable to choose the terms of your computing. Simple things like using your own software like &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.libreoffice.org/&#34;&gt;LibreOffice&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://inkscape.org/&#34;&gt;Inkscape&lt;/a&gt; to create media allows you to keep your information under your own control. By not relying on external services for creating documents, presentations, or even notes you can go a long way to help reassert your own autonomy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Choosing how you use social media will also have a significant impact. If you&amp;rsquo;re willing to put up with some inconvenience, it can be worth using &lt;a href=&#34;https://libredirect.github.io/&#34;&gt;alternate front ends&lt;/a&gt; for mainstream services to browse without being directly associated with an account. This can definitely help those who want to break away but don&amp;rsquo;t want to miss out on important information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;online-footprint&#34;&gt;Online Footprint&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-4.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-4/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #4 Online Identity&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is following you in your digital tracks?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;take-control-of-your-social-media&#34;&gt;Take Control of your Social Media&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Being deliberate with your social media &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.socialpilot.co/blog/ultimate-guide-manage-social-media-privacy-settings&#34;&gt;privacy settings&lt;/a&gt; is very important. Understand what features are available, and what it means for who can see what.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Who can see posts you make?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Is your profile searchable by site-members or anyone?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Does someone have to request access to see your information?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s important to consider what you&amp;rsquo;d like to be public, vs what is best left offline.&lt;br&gt;
+The best way to protect information is to never record it in the first place!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;find-yourself-in-search-engines&#34;&gt;Find Yourself in Search Engines&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can see how easy it is to get information on you by performing your own searches. Given that search engines will make an attempt to find results relevant to you, it&amp;rsquo;s worth trying multiple search engines rather than making assumptions off a single search. Including details about yourself may help narrow the results.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;consider-alternate-identities&#34;&gt;Consider Alternate Identities&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;On other platforms, you may have an identity that isn&amp;rsquo;t your real name. It&amp;rsquo;s generally a good idea not to repeat usernames across platforms unless the intention is for them to be publicly associated.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;close-dormant-accounts&#34;&gt;Close Dormant Accounts&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you no longer use a service, you may want to consider closing the account if the option is available. If nothing else, it ties up another loose end.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;privacy-policies&#34;&gt;Privacy Policies&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Digital products and platforms will have a published &lt;a href=&#34;https://time.com/3986016/google-facebook-twitter-privacy-policies/&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;privacy policy&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; that ideally outlines what information is collected and how it&amp;rsquo;s used. They will vary in content, clarity, and detail.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For online platforms privacy policies can help you understand:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;What information the platform collects&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;If your information is being shared with or sold&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Another document is a &lt;strong&gt;warrant canary&lt;/strong&gt;. A &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.okta.com/identity-101/warrant-canary/&#34;&gt;warrant canary&lt;/a&gt; is a document that explains that the organization hasn&amp;rsquo;t received any requests for information from governments and/or law enforcement agencies. It&amp;rsquo;s a useful thing to have, because law enforcement agencies will sometimes gag providers from informing their clients, or even stakeholders.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Two government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the Justice Department obtained an individualized order from a judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court last year. &lt;strong&gt;Yahoo was barred from disclosing the matter.&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/technology/yahoo-email-tech-companies-government-investigations.html&#34;&gt;Yahoo Said to Have Aided U.S. Email Surveillance by Adapting Spam Filter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;legislative-protections&#34;&gt;Legislative Protections&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Depending on your jurisdiction, you may be entitled to privacy protections. Notably, EU Citizens are covered by the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.sophos.com/en-us/cybersecurity-explained/gdpr&#34;&gt;GDPR&lt;/a&gt; which grants outlines regulations for organizations handling data deletion requests from individuals. It is worth being familiar with what privacy protections exist (or &lt;em&gt;don&amp;rsquo;t exist&lt;/em&gt;) in your locale.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#contents&#34;&gt;Back to Contents&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;account-security&#34;&gt;Account Security&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;using-a-password-manager&#34;&gt;Using a Password Manager&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While a notebook of passwords can be lost or stolen, there are digital means to keep track of accounts and passwords. Conveniently, some managers have integrated browser extensions that can make it easy to log in with stored passwords. These tools can go a long way towards improving your account security a lot easier to maintain.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Two password managers that I&amp;rsquo;ve used:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://keepassxc.org&#34;&gt;KeePass XC&lt;/a&gt; (Offline)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://bitwarden.com&#34;&gt;Bitwarden&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden&#34;&gt;Self-Hostable&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/account-security-tools.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/account-security-tools.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;long--unique-passwords-per-account&#34;&gt;Long &amp;amp; Unique Passwords per account&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why?&lt;/strong&gt; So that one account breach doesn&amp;rsquo;t spread to others.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://bitwarden.com/password-strength/&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;How strong is your password?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Reusing passwords means that if your password is found in a &lt;a href=&#34;https://haveibeenpwned.com/&#34;&gt;data breach&lt;/a&gt; or hack, it can be used to gain access to other accounts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Using a password manager can help you generate significantly longer passwords that are significantly harder to break, and may be more random than what you can come up with yourself.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://avoidthehack.com/getting-started-cybersecurity#developgoodpasswordmanagementpra...&#34;&gt;Learn to develop good password management practices&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;turn-on-either-totp-or-hardware-two-factor-authentication-where-possible&#34;&gt;Turn on either ToTP or hardware two-factor authentication, where possible&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why?&lt;/strong&gt; By adding two-factor authentication you significantly raise the difficulty of attacks on your accounts. This can also buy you time to reset your password if it’s stolen. Multi-factor authentication is very important for protecting important accounts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;unique-e-mail-addresses-per-account&#34;&gt;Unique e-mail addresses per account&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why?&lt;/strong&gt; To make phishing campaigns much easier to identify.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Some e-mail providers support adding additional words to &lt;a href=&#34;#e-mail&#34;&gt;your email.&lt;/a&gt; For example you may be able to use &lt;code&gt;+shopping&lt;/code&gt; at the end of your email as: &lt;code&gt;name+shopping@example.com&lt;/code&gt;. This is good for filtering mail, but makes your alternate e-mails potentially discoverable.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;d like unique e-mails forwarded to your own e-mail address, an e-mail forwarding &amp;amp; aliasing service like &lt;a href=&#34;https://relay.firefox.com/&#34;&gt;firefox relay&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://addy.io/&#34;&gt;addy.io&lt;/a&gt; can help. Many people will already have multiple e-mails from different providers, some of them may support aliases or disposable addresses.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#contents&#34;&gt;Back to Contents&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;e-mail&#34;&gt;E-mail&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Email is something that&amp;rsquo;s critical to get right. Almost every online account allows for accounts to be recovered (or stolen!) through email. This means that it&amp;rsquo;s the most important account to secure. Rotating your e-mail password more often than other accounts can definitely make a difference in the long run.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Beyond just being able to steal accounts, a hijacked email can also be used to spread scams and malware to others. Taking &lt;a href=&#34;#account-security&#34;&gt;account security&lt;/a&gt; seriously is important!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;choose-a-great-provider&#34;&gt;Choose a Great Provider&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Choosing a provider can be difficult. Even when one finds a great one, it&amp;rsquo;s not worth entirely relying on a single provider. If you run your own website, e-mail hosting can sometimes be included with web hosting. Of course, there&amp;rsquo;s always the option of running it yourself. That however, has its own &lt;a href=&#34;https://cfenollosa.com/blog/after-self-hosting-my-email-for-twenty-three-years-i-have-thrown-in-the-towel-the-oligopoly-has-won.html&#34;&gt;challenges&lt;/a&gt;, but there are many &lt;a href=&#34;https://bookofadamz.com/how-to-make-your-own-whatsapp-signal-telegram-competitor/&#34;&gt;advantages&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Email Provider Recommendations:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://digdeeper.club/articles/email.xhtml&#34;&gt;E-mail providers - which one to choose?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://restoreprivacy.com/email/secure/&#34;&gt;10 Best Private and Secure Email Services for 2023&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gunther.link/posts/email/&#34;&gt;Finding a Privacy-Friendly Email Provider&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.privacyguides.org/en/email/&#34;&gt;Privacy Guides - Email Services&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;criteria-to-consider&#34;&gt;Criteria to consider:&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Privacy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are limits to how private e-mail can be, but it&amp;rsquo;s at least worth selecting a provider that isn&amp;rsquo;t profiting off &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/15/gmail-scans-all-emails-new-google-terms-clarify&#34;&gt;scanning your mail.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Things to consider for privacy:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;How long the provider has been in business&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Reputation of the provider&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Jurisdiction&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Business model and funding sources&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;End-to-End Encryption&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Features&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Different options may have some variation in offerings.
+Important features can be:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Webmail&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Storage size&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Custom Domains&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Disposable aliases&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Multiple accounts/mailboxes&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Encryption / PGP Support&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#using-an-e-mail-client&#34;&gt;Client&lt;/a&gt; (IMAP &amp;amp; POP) Support&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Forwarding and Filters&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I personally believe the best-case scenario for mass e-mail providers are responsibly run local non-profit enterprises. As online communication has become more central to people&amp;rsquo;s lives, competitive local infrastructure needs to take a more central role. While on the total other end of the spectrum, there also needs to be a place for less personal, but still quite small, providers that operate indiscriminately. Both have a very important place in safeguarding online freedom from a variety of threats.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;email-encryption&#34;&gt;Email Encryption&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Every e-mail provider is going to market itself as secure. &lt;em&gt;Secure from &lt;strong&gt;what&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/em&gt; One may ask. Security is about proactive measures taken against particular problems. Nothing is 100% secure. Many security features proudly proclaimed by big tech services are really just about protecting information &lt;em&gt;in transit&lt;/em&gt; as it goes from your machine to theirs. It&amp;rsquo;s very difficult for a provider to protect you from &lt;em&gt;themselves&lt;/em&gt;, even when there&amp;rsquo;s desire to. There is always a degree of trust involved with hosting your data on somebody else&amp;rsquo;s computer.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Domestic government (and corporate) surveillance is a serious concern as well. Many of us in the so-called &amp;ldquo;Free World&amp;rdquo; have to be concerned about the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.thenewoil.org/en/guides/less-important/five-eyes/&#34;&gt;5 prying eyes&lt;/a&gt;. With all this in mind, I would never put too much faith email &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/20/why-did-lavabit-shut-down-snowden-email&#34;&gt;security guarantees&lt;/a&gt;. Even in the best of circumstances,treat e-mail like you would a postcard in the mail; not for anything particularly sensitive or private.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;strategy-1-inbox-level&#34;&gt;Strategy 1: Inbox Level&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are many end-to-end encrypted &lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.thenewoil.org/2023-review-skiff-mail&#34;&gt;(&amp;ldquo;zero knowledge&amp;rdquo;)&lt;/a&gt; mailboxes provided by larger privacy-focused email providers. How it works is that in addition to your emails being secured in transit, they are also encrypted when they are stored. This means that as long as your account/password are secure, your email&amp;rsquo;s content can only be read by you. This often comes at the cost of lack of third-party client support.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This strategy has advantages, but mostly its ease-of-use. It saves you the time of having to manage your own encryption keys, meaning that others should be able to send you encrypted emails right away. The downside of this strategy is that you&amp;rsquo;re still placing a significant amount of trust on the provider, especially if you&amp;rsquo;re using it for sensitive information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;strategy-2-message-level&#34;&gt;Strategy 2: Message Level&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When using your own email client, you can choose to &lt;a href=&#34;https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org/en/&#34;&gt;proactively encrypt&lt;/a&gt; emails with PGP. For recipients who&amp;rsquo;ve already setup their keys, some clients will be able to auto-discover the correct key for you so it can be fairly convenient. This strategy ensures that the email is secure as long as the recipients keys are, from all other parties. If your recipient already publishes their PGP key. (&lt;em&gt;Here&amp;rsquo;s&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/pubkey.txt&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;mine&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/email-security.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/email-security.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    A Joke, but one with some elements of truth in it. 
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;metadata-headaches&#34;&gt;Metadata headaches&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Regardless of which strategy you use, due to how e-mail works it&amp;rsquo;s impossible to conceal who you are sending it to, and many other details. Encrypted mail will protect the contents of the mail, but not extra information like when it was sent. For those who absolutely need to keep their contacts a secret, like investigative reporters, there are better options than e-mail.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;using-an-e-mail-client&#34;&gt;Using an e-mail Client&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Using Free Open Source Software clients put you back in charge of your mail. While webmail and apps can be very convenient, they can often be very opinionated on how you &lt;em&gt;should&lt;/em&gt; interact with your mail. Mail clients are a very important tool. Some will provide privacy features like blocking e-mail trackers, and other useful tools like custom filtering.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of leaving your mail on a server forever, you can move them to your computer for offline access. Every client will have its own features, but having the capability to encrypt &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.curtiswallen.com/pgp/&#34;&gt;emails with PGP&lt;/a&gt; is a non-trivial advantage.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m a huge fan of &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.thunderbird.net/&#34;&gt;Mozilla Thunderbird&lt;/a&gt; though there are other e-mail clients, &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.privacyguides.org/en/email-clients/&#34;&gt;Privacy Guides&lt;/a&gt; has an excellent list of recommendations.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;configuring-your-client&#34;&gt;Configuring Your Client&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It may seem intimidating, but  if you have an uncommon mail provider, or roll you own email you may need to &lt;a href=&#34;https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/manual-account-configuration&#34;&gt;configure your client.&lt;/a&gt; This requires a few more options than just a username/password. To understand what the options mean you have to realize that you&amp;rsquo;re setting up two things:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incoming Server:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Which needs:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;The mail server&amp;rsquo;s hostname (such as pop.example.com)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Choosing either IMAP or POP as the protocol, this changes how the server handles mail that&amp;rsquo;s delivered.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;The port number the server is running on&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;your email &amp;amp; password&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Security settings&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Outgoing Server:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Which needs:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;The SMTP (&lt;em&gt;Simple Mail Transfer Protocol&lt;/em&gt;) server&amp;rsquo;s hostname&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;The server&amp;rsquo;s port number&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Your email &amp;amp; password&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Security settings&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You&amp;rsquo;ll want to consult your e-mail providers documentation for the specific values. Contacting customer service may help. These settings are what&amp;rsquo;s required to configure any mail client, though some will be able to fill in some of the details when you provide your email address.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;delta-chat&#34;&gt;Delta Chat&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://delta.chat/&#34;&gt;Delta Chat&lt;/a&gt; is a mail client that looks and functions as an end-to-end encrypted messaging app. It&amp;rsquo;s an absolutely brilliant technique. Despite none of my contacts being (&lt;em&gt;currently&lt;/em&gt;) willing to take it seriously, I actually believe that delta chat is one of the more underrated online messengers.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://delta.chat&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/delta-chat.webp&#39; 
+
+ alt=&#39;delta chat running on multiple devices&#39;
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In theory, it should be very easy to adopt because it doesn&amp;rsquo;t require anyone to create any new accounts. It handles encryption key management for you, and uses your own inbox for storage. Of course, it can also send regular emails to those who don&amp;rsquo;t have it yet. For those who find &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.signal.org/&#34;&gt;signal&lt;/a&gt; requiring a phone number to be too much, I consider delta chat a must-have.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;inbox-cleaning&#34;&gt;Inbox Cleaning&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Junk mail piles up. Over the years, it can be easy to accumulate more and more spam and incoming mail that becomes unmanageable. This causes a lot of people to essentially ignore their e-mails all-together. If you&amp;rsquo;re not quite at the point of just abandoning that particular email and starting fresh, there&amp;rsquo;s a lot you can do to reduce the amount of unsanctioned messages.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;folders-and-filtering&#34;&gt;Folders and Filtering&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Odds are, a lot of regular incoming correspondence is expected in advance. This means that you can create sub-folders for particular domains, and use filters to sort your mail for you.This can keep the important stuff at hand, while allowing you to sort through the rest at your convenience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;unsubscribe-without-mercy&#34;&gt;Unsubscribe Without Mercy&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Getting your email added or removed from marketing lists can really add-up over time. Reducing your incoming emails to what you specifically want can make a massive impact. &lt;br&gt;
+You can clean a busy inbox with this process:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Find an example of something you no longer wish to receive&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Hit the &amp;ldquo;unsubscribe&amp;rdquo; button (usually near the bottom) on the email and get removed from the list&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Search for messages from that sender and delete them all&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Repeat every so often&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Eventually, you&amp;rsquo;ll find you&amp;rsquo;re entirely free of unwanted incoming e-mails except for outright spam.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;the-spam-war&#34;&gt;The Spam War&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re getting a great number of spam, it&amp;rsquo;s a sign that your email has appeared on &lt;a href=&#34;https://haveibeenpwned.com&#34;&gt;many kinds of lists&lt;/a&gt;. Not having it published publicly can help, but fighting spam is a team effort. It&amp;rsquo;s worth your time to report egregious examples, but eventually you&amp;rsquo;ll want to setup your own filters for it. Where possible, if you have a filter that&amp;rsquo;s working well, I&amp;rsquo;d recommend having it also mark the message as spam.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Both &lt;a href=&#34;https://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/frm-eng/MMCN-9EZV6S&#34;&gt;Canadians&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href=&#34;https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/&#34;&gt;Americans&lt;/a&gt; can report spam to law enforcement.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;trackers&#34;&gt;Trackers&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are two common types of e-mails you can send/receive.
+Plain text, which as the name implies is just text and is therefore entirely free of trackers. Emails can also be HTML, like web pages. This allows for them to look appealing, include images, and unfortunately trackers!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/4bbd4e5a-352d-4d24-82ea-e8832e902021&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When you load an e-mail that loads content (like images) from a remote server, those assets can be used to send information. This can be used to get all kinds of engagement stats about how even you as an individual respond to particular messages. A troubling consequence of this is that those running &lt;a href=&#34;#phishing-attacks&#34;&gt;phishing&lt;/a&gt; campaigns are able to use that information to come up with more compelling scams.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#contents&#34;&gt;Back to Contents&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;browsers&#34;&gt;Browsers&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You may be reading this in a browser. As you likely are aware, a web browser is a powerful program that displays &amp;amp; runs web pages and web applications. For many, it&amp;rsquo;s their primary gateway to the world wide web as well as the internet as a whole. Being complacent about what browser(s) you&amp;rsquo;re using is a surefire way to put your information in the hands of questionable external forces.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;understanding-the-web&#34;&gt;Understanding the Web&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A good place to start is to refresh your understanding of what the web &lt;em&gt;actually is&lt;/em&gt;. Like many things in our technological landscape, it wasn&amp;rsquo;t built in a day, or even by a single person. It&amp;rsquo;s an amalgamation of the work of many different people, institutions, and even governments over time. I&amp;rsquo;m very passionate about people choosing to &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/reclaiming-cyberspace/&#34;&gt;take an active role&lt;/a&gt; in shaping cyberspace. Collectively, we do have a real impact on the future of the World Wide Web.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To begin, we have to start with the simplest of web pages. These are &lt;strong&gt;static web sites&lt;/strong&gt; that display a set amount of text, images, or media.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/web%20static.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Far from being mere &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;hypertext&lt;/em&gt;,&lt;/a&gt; the web now includes multimedia applications. Web 2.0 was when web sites became &lt;em&gt;dynamic&lt;/em&gt;. Forums, Wikis, and even the first social media sites were dynamic because user interaction fed into a database that was used to generate web content. The earliest of these could work without many (if any) scripts at all, and were processed by the web site&amp;rsquo;s &lt;strong&gt;back-end&lt;/strong&gt; software.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/web%20dynamic.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A web page can load real-time data from an online service, and/or stream audio and video. Because of this, the browser is the primary tool in many people&amp;rsquo;s digital life. Like anything else, this includes a variety of risks and trade-offs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The addition of more content and features to the web has made browsers themselves increase in complexity significantly. In theory, a browser would only need to support downloading the page, and displaying the text on it. As the web has evolved, browsers now support all kinds of multi-media, interactivity, and online gaming.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/web%20apps.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While this isn&amp;rsquo;t necessarily news to you, what is worth understanding is that all of these additional features have meaningful trade-offs when it comes to privacy &amp;amp; security. There are those who yearn for a return of the days of just clean pure hypertext. If that sounds like something you&amp;rsquo;re interested in, &lt;a href=&#34;https://gemini.circumlunar.space/&#34;&gt;gemini&lt;/a&gt; is right up your alley. For the rest of us who would like to enjoy a wide variety of modern enhancements to the web, there is much to account for.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;surveillance&#34;&gt;Surveillance&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In many ways, it helps to think of much of the Web as a street filled with surveillance cameras. Without making significant effort, it&amp;rsquo;s trivial for those watching to keep track of where you go on a regular basis. In addition to this, the places you visit &lt;em&gt;themselves&lt;/em&gt; may also be spying on you in exchange for a pithy sum.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;cookies--storage&#34;&gt;Cookies &amp;amp; Storage&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s pretty useful to be able to log-in to a website. It&amp;rsquo;s also very handy for the server to save some additional information on your end so when you return you can continue as normal. Using &lt;em&gt;sessions&lt;/em&gt; is how servers keep track of who they&amp;rsquo;re talking to. Naturally, if you divulge more information about yourself to a particular service, the more that information can be corroborated with other data points. Without saving cookies, log-ins and site settings would be lost immediately, but that doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean you need to hold onto them forever.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;scripts&#34;&gt;Scripts&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Either scripts from the site itself, or remote scripts pulled in from other services can do a wide range of things to try to uniquely identify you. On the other hand, many sites will not work at all and refuse to display something as simple as an article. Many tracking blockers will block all external scripts, but others will make exceptions that keep certain mainstream sites working.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/web%20scripts.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The best practice would be to block any unnecessary scripts. There are many &lt;a href=&#34;#browser-add-ons&#34;&gt;add-ons&lt;/a&gt; that can make this easier. &amp;ldquo;Unnecessary&amp;rdquo; can be a very broad categorization however, in some cases you may consider it worth blocking any and all scripts everywhere. This is the recommended setup when using the Tor Browser, because scripts can do many things to de-anonymize a visitor.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Sadly many of these invasive scripts have been thrust on the public without much alternative. As a web developer, it may be tempting (or even good for your resume) to develop using the latest fancy script frameworks, it&amp;rsquo;s important to remember that you can maintain all the advantages of dynamic web sites without it. When security and privacy of your users is paramount, it&amp;rsquo;s something worth considering.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;fingerprinting&#34;&gt;Fingerprinting&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Now that you&amp;rsquo;ve put in the effort to properly mitigate unwanted data leakage. There&amp;rsquo;s still another nasty problem. If you require perfect anonymity online, it&amp;rsquo;s worth understanding that your &lt;a href=&#34;https://coveryourtracks.eff.org&#34;&gt;browser fingerprint&lt;/a&gt; can be used to uniquely identify you online. This is a problem, but it&amp;rsquo;s one not worth working on at the expense of protecting important information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;choosing-a-browser&#34;&gt;Choosing a Browser&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://digdeeper.club&#34;&gt;DigDeeper.club&lt;/a&gt; has an excellent if troubling &lt;a href=&#34;https://digdeeper.club/articles/browsers.xhtml&#34;&gt;post on browsers&lt;/a&gt;. Unfortunately the major take-away is that the situation is very dire:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The only reasonable choice is &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.palemoon.org/&#34;&gt;Pale Moon&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;strong&gt;Or, just try wean yourself off the modern web&lt;/strong&gt; by sticking to websites such as the ones on Neocities, &lt;a href=&#34;https://wiby.me&#34;&gt;wiby.me&lt;/a&gt;, etc. which are functional in NetSurf or terminal browsers. I hate to kill the positivity of yet another summary, but if reality forces me to - what can I do?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;(&lt;em&gt;emphasis mine&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If you require using the modern web&lt;/strong&gt; (ie. most &amp;ldquo;normal&amp;rdquo; websites) I recommend reading through &lt;a href=&#34;https://digdeeper.club/articles/browsers.xhtml&#34;&gt;the guide&lt;/a&gt; carefully and choosing what strikes the right balance for you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Reading through the browser guide leaves the impression that a serious web &amp;amp; browser renewal is something people from all walks of life should strongly consider.&lt;br&gt;
+The root of the problem is two-fold:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Additional features on modern web sites introduce additional privacy risks&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;To support these features, browsers themselves become more complicated to support, maintain, and validate&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I intend to follow-up on this particular section, and I think it&amp;rsquo;s important to think-through how things should be done. This is one of the many reasons I emphasize more people getting involved, rather than let governments and corporations dictate it for us.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;the-more-the-merrier&#34;&gt;The More the Merrier&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Because browsers are tools, it doesn&amp;rsquo;t often make sense to entirely limit yourself to a single one. There are some advantages to using different browsers for different &amp;ldquo;spheres&amp;rdquo; of your life. Above all, it&amp;rsquo;s best to understand why you&amp;rsquo;re using a particular browser for a certain task. If you&amp;rsquo;re really in love with a particular browser, you may be able to use multiple &lt;em&gt;profiles&lt;/em&gt; with different &lt;a href=&#34;https://divestos.org/pages/browsers&#34;&gt;settings&lt;/a&gt; in mind for different uses. Even something as simple as having separate bookmarks for each profile would make it easy to stay consistent.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://youtu.be/j5r6jFE8gic&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/browser-tierlist.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In all cases you&amp;rsquo;ll likely want to alternate browsers for different tasks, with at least one clearing cookies/logins/history on reload. You may also want to search for a &lt;a href=&#34;#hardening&#34;&gt;hardening guide&lt;/a&gt; for whatever browser you choose, depending on your particular needs. It can help to have a hardened browser for most of your basic web tasks, with exceptions made for sites/services you need/trust and alternate ones for other things. &lt;strong&gt;Compartmentalization&lt;/strong&gt; can go a long way especially with many browsers offering built-in VPNs. &lt;em&gt;More on VPNs later&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;hardening&#34;&gt;Hardening&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Here is an excellent &lt;a href=&#34;https://brainfucksec.github.io/firefox-hardening-guide&#34;&gt;firefox hardening guide&lt;/a&gt; for firefox.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Hardening&lt;/em&gt; is the process of changing settings for particular privacy and security. Sometimes these changes include disabling tracking from the program itself! A good place to start is opt-ing out of any telemetry or analytics reporting. Then I would generally recommend taking the most extreme settings you can bear day-to-day, and consider increasing as you adapt. Some more &amp;lsquo;&lt;em&gt;extreme&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rsquo; changes would be &lt;a href=&#34;https://avoidthehack.com/webrtc-leaks-how-to-fix&#34;&gt;disabling WebRTC&lt;/a&gt; to protect your IP at the cost of some real-time applications breaking.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many of these changes will either be in your browsers settings panel or additionally &lt;code&gt;about:config&lt;/code&gt; on firefox based browsers. On desktop Firefox Arkenfox&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/wiki&#34;&gt;user.js&lt;/a&gt; file is a highly-recommended change for getting the most optimal settings. This alone may be a good reason to pick a firefox or its derivatives over google chrome and its derivatives.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/browser-tools.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re using &lt;a href=&#34;https://brave.com/shields/&#34;&gt;brave shields&lt;/a&gt; you have an intuitive interface for being as strict as possible. It also has the advantage of being built into the browser for additional performance gains. On other browsers &lt;a href=&#34;https://ublockorigin.com/&#34;&gt;uBlock Origin&lt;/a&gt; is the go-to add-on for having complete control over what resources sites can access. Learning how to use these tools can do a great deal of good.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;browser-add-ons&#34;&gt;Browser Add-ons&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A browser can feel very limiting without many &lt;a href=&#34;https://digdeeper.club/articles/addons.xhtml&#34;&gt;essential add-ons.&lt;/a&gt;  Ad-blocking is de-facto necessary for browsing a great deal of the web to salvage some of your time and attention.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve personally used:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://ublockorigin.com/&#34;&gt;uBlock Origin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix&#34;&gt;uMaxtrix&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s great to have full control over requests on a site-by-site basis. It takes a bit of learning, but is a very powerful tool that I&amp;rsquo;d love to see built-in to new FOSS browsers. By blocking specific kinds of remote requests across the board, you can disable all third-party ads.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libredirect.github.io&#34;&gt;LibRedirect&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A very useful tool for redirecting all kinds of mainstream social media links to dedicated (somtimes self-hosted!) web proxies.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://bitwarden.com&#34;&gt;Bitwarden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://keepassxc.org/&#34;&gt;KeePassXC&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;See &lt;a href=&#34;#account-security&#34;&gt;Account Security&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://decentraleyes.org/&#34;&gt;Decentraleyes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re going to allow remote scripts, it can be handy to proactively cache them, so that you&amp;rsquo;re not constantly being tracked by loading them on each visit to separate sites.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#contents&#34;&gt;Back to Contents&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;network-security&#34;&gt;Network Security&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Computer networks are fascinating things. The ability to link two devices over a long distance to accomplish sophisticated tasks is what makes much of our modern computing environment seem outright magical. Of course, where there&amp;rsquo;s power there&amp;rsquo;s also danger, the massive capabilities of networked systems vastly complicate the challenges of securing systems. To do the best you can, it&amp;rsquo;s important to have a basic understanding of computer networking and take reasonable precautions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;An important place to start is to understand that every data connection relies on a physical connection on some form. You can relay data between two computers by linking them directly, or use routers to share data with networks outside your own &lt;em&gt;local network&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;local-area-network-lan&#34;&gt;Local Area Network (LAN)&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Odds are, you likely have a modem/router machine in your house. It runs your local network and also provides a WiFi access point to wireless devices. This allows for all devices on the network to use the router to connect to your internet service provider (ISP).&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The importance of protecting your local network can not be overstated&lt;/strong&gt;. Usually, your router will have a web admin access that you can use to ensure only devices you&amp;rsquo;ve authorized are connected. Managing access to your local network is your first-line of defense against many nefarious threats. For low-value targets, physical access may be sufficient, but for high value targets or high-traffic locations, the considerations differ.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;wifi&#34;&gt;WiFi&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Use a strong WiFi password.&lt;/strong&gt; Any device connected to your WiFi may as well be wired directly into every other computer or device on the network. Due to their nature as broadcasted signals, wireless networks are difficult to properly secure and may be vulnerable to &lt;a href=&#34;https://thehackernews.com/2024/05/new-wi-fi-vulnerability-enabling.html&#34;&gt;unintuitive attacks.&lt;/a&gt; An open network, or even a weakly secured one creates opportunity for &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.wired.com/2012/05/google-wifi-fcc-investigation/&#34;&gt;spying,&lt;/a&gt; compromise, or infiltration. There are many ways in which WiFi signals can be intercepted or jammed, in most cases it&amp;rsquo;s best to run sensitive systems over a direct wired connection. In situations where WiFi is needed, there are options such as segregating wireless clients from the same network. An option is to have the wireless network entirely disconnected or to relegate different devices to separate VLANs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;router&#34;&gt;Router&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Routers are what move messages between networks. Your router may connect to an internal modem that acts as a gateway to your internet service provider to connect to the rest of the Internet. Like any device on your network, it&amp;rsquo;s very important to ensure that you&amp;rsquo;re &lt;a href=&#34;https://download.fsfe.org/routers/rf-survey-report-2023.pdf&#34;&gt;able to choose&lt;/a&gt; a router that has up to date software and &lt;a href=&#34;https://therecord.media/tp-link-router-vulnerability-botnets&#34;&gt;isn&amp;rsquo;t compromised.&lt;/a&gt; Given its important role in your network, having a router you can trust is arguably one of the most important aspects of network security. At least in Canada, the status quo for many customers is to rely on a single device managed by their ISP, for better or worse. In some cases, people will decide to buy their own device running software that they trust and is maintained, to separate their network from the ISP provided router.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;firewalls&#34;&gt;Firewalls&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A firewall is a useful tool to manage connections that come in the network. While it&amp;rsquo;s worth remembering that &lt;a href=&#34;https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/buy-the-book/&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Firewalls Don&amp;rsquo;t Stop Dragons&lt;/em&gt;,&lt;/a&gt; they are a vital tool in making connecting to the Internet without necessarily giving complete access. A firewall accepts incoming connections and ignores any connections that aren&amp;rsquo;t explicitly allowed. Firewalls can be software on a router, such as the one included in many ISP-provided routers or a dedicated device. A go-to recommendation for custom firewall software is &lt;a href=&#34;https://opnsense.org/&#34;&gt;OPNsense&lt;/a&gt; which is built on &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.pfsense.org/&#34;&gt;pfsense&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;domain-name-system-dns&#34;&gt;Domain Name System (DNS)&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Every site or service online has a &lt;em&gt;publicly routable IP address&lt;/em&gt;, to connect to it your browser or applications need to get the correct IP address from the service&amp;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;domain&lt;/em&gt;. This means that DNS is effectively a real-time system divulging what you&amp;rsquo;re connecting to, how often, and when. One solution to resolve this is to encrypt your DNS queries. To do this, you&amp;rsquo;ll want to make sure your devices and browsers are configured with a deliberately chosen &lt;a href=&#34;https://dnscrypt.info/public-servers&#34;&gt;DNS provider&lt;/a&gt;. Encrypting your DNS requests is as important as not making them to a malicious or negligent entity.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are many providers, but this only protects you from protecting onlookers from monitoring your requests, the provider may still have that information. Another important technique is to &lt;em&gt;cache&lt;/em&gt; your requests with a &lt;em&gt;recursive DNS resolver&lt;/em&gt;. This means that your devices will all connect to a resolver you run yourself, it then asks another DNS provider for the information and remembers it for a short period of time. &lt;a href=&#34;https://pi-hole.net/&#34;&gt;Pihole&lt;/a&gt; is a fairly popular option for achieving this, and it also includes ad-blocking features.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;hellip;for many actors, &lt;a href=&#34;https://ssd.eff.org/module/why-metadata-matters&#34;&gt;metadata&lt;/a&gt; is far more valuable than the content. From a privacy perspective, DNS seems to be one of the most under-appreciated aspects of protecting oneself.&lt;br&gt;
+In many ways it is because most good VPNs will handle DNS as well, but there are other considerations.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;DNS can also be set at the application level. Browsers, for example, will have their own DNS settings. Most major browsers now support &lt;a href=&#34;https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-dns-over-https&#34;&gt;DOH&lt;/a&gt;, which is a very convenient way to encrypt your browser’s DNS queries. For encrypting all of your system’s DNS queries you may want to consider using &lt;a href=&#34;https://dnscrypt.info/faq/&#34;&gt;DNSCrypt&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/reclaiming-cyberspace/#dns&#34;&gt;Reclaiming Territory in Cyberspace - DNS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;end-to-end-protection&#34;&gt;End-to-End Protection&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For a connection to be fully secure, it needs to:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Reach its destination&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Not be modified or interfered with&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Have reasonable protection against being identified&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This turns out to be quite a high bar, even encryption often only protects the content of communications but it can be much easier to observe who&amp;rsquo;s communicating with who, how often, or other metadata. You can do everything right on your end but if you connect to a malicious or compromised service, you can have problems. Man-in-the-middle attacks are even possible with modern encrypted websites, anyone able to use a certificate recognized by your device can do many malicious things including &lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.mozilla.org/netpolicy/files/2023/11/eIDAS-Industry-Letter.pdf&#34;&gt;deep packet inspection&lt;/a&gt; to effectively nullify most web encryption. Resolving this is much more complicated, and requires much more effort.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;proxies-vpns--darknets&#34;&gt;Proxies, VPNs &amp;amp; Darknets&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For computer networks to work, every computer needs a public IP address. How this works in practice (with IPv4 usually&amp;hellip;) is that your machine has a number that your router knows, which has a number your ISP knows, which is then shared with the rest of the internet. That last number is your IP (public) address. Using a VPN does two things: 1) encrypts traffic between you and the service 2) forwards your connections through one of their IP addresses.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Virtual Private Network are often seen as the solution to all online privacy issues. This is people being mislead by slick advertising. VPNs are very useful for accessing content that is blocked in specific regions or protecting your IP from being known by online services. There are many ways users using a VPN can have their IP leaked so it is essential to make sure you are using your VPN properly.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Your internet service provider (ISP) may not be trustworthy so you may want to use a VPN, it is important to realize that by using a VPN you are effectively transferring the risk of your ISP logging, tracking, censoring your information to that VPN provider. Like ISPs VPNs are businesses and it is foolish to assume they will put your needs as an individual or customer before the interests of their business.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-5/&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #5 Networks&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Just like DNS providers, your ability to trust your VPN provider is quite important as well. Your ability to protect your information from them is just as difficult as masking your internet activity from your ISP. In addition to this, VPNs are prone to very unintuitive attacks. &lt;a href=&#34;https://mullvad.net/en/blog/2024/5/3/dns-traffic-can-leak-outside-the-vpn-tunnel-on-android&#34;&gt;DNS leaks&lt;/a&gt; are when your VPN is working fine, but your DNS queries are being routed from your home IP address instead of the VPN providers, effectively unmasking you. Ironically, VPNs are often recommended in circumstances where you can&amp;rsquo;t trust the network, such as a public WiFi, but this is the exact scenario where a &lt;a href=&#34;https://thehackernews.com/2024/05/new-tunnelvision-attack-allows.html&#34;&gt;recent attack&lt;/a&gt; would allow somebody to reroute your traffic outside the VPN. A proxy is a simpler way of changing where your requests come from than a VPN, but has similar concerns.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unless you plan to work &lt;em&gt;entirely offline&lt;/em&gt;, you&amp;rsquo;re going to have to consider how you connect to the internet, and specific sites &amp;amp; services.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I would argue, that it&amp;rsquo;s more important these days to hide one&amp;rsquo;s IP address than it was in the past. &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_geolocation&#34;&gt;Internet geolocation&lt;/a&gt; as only gotten more precise over time. Depending on the accuracy, someone may be able to identify &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.maxmind.com/en/locate-my-ip-address&#34;&gt;your neighborhood.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to VPNs. Just like email, there are many VPN services out there and you should choose the service that works best for you. Depending on which one you choose, you can benefit from an increased level of security when connected to networks you wouldn’t ordinarily trust. But this means you&amp;rsquo;re placing your trust in the VPN.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://ssd.eff.org/module/choosing-vpn-thats-right-you&#34;&gt;Choosing the VPN That&amp;rsquo;s Right for You&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Consider your goals:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Are you just trying to avoid disclosing your IP with sites &amp;amp; services you visit?
+Good VPNs &amp;amp; Proxies will suit this purpose.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Are you trying to evade &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/broken-internet/&#34;&gt;ISP-level censorship&lt;/a&gt; and connect to services that are online but inaccessible to you? This is what Tor was built for, potentially being difficult to identify is also a useful feature but is much &lt;a href=&#34;https://support.torproject.org/faq/staying-anonymous/&#34;&gt;less guaranteed.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Or are you trying to connect to specific &amp;ldquo;hidden services&amp;rdquo; served anonymously?&lt;br&gt;
+Then you&amp;rsquo;ll need want to consider &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/shadow&#34;&gt;darknets&lt;/a&gt; like Tor or I2P.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#contents&#34;&gt;Back to Contents&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Thank you taking the time to read this overview.&lt;br&gt;
+Any comments, questions or &lt;a href=&#34;mailto:gabriel@libresolutions.network?Subject=diy%20audit&#34;&gt;feedback&lt;/a&gt; would be appreciated.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Is this all there is to do? Of course not!
+I hope that this can be a good starting reference for those who don&amp;rsquo;t know where to begin.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;additional-resources&#34;&gt;Additional resources&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/reclaiming-cyberspace/&#34;&gt;Reclaiming Territory in Cyberspace&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/shadow&#34;&gt;Operation: Shadow&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gofoss.net/&#34;&gt;Go FOSS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Conceptualizing Mind-reading Technology</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/brain-transparency/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/brain-transparency/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/brain-chip.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/brain-chip.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/brain-chip.webp" />
+		<description>Rorschach testing for social control</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;when-the-war-on-your-mind-goes-hot&#34;&gt;When the War on your Mind Goes Hot&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;From influence, profit, and power there are innumerable reasons why some and institutions would want the ability to &lt;a href=&#34;https://iceni.substack.com/p/covid-19-deep-dive-part-iv-mind-control&#34;&gt;manipulate your thoughts.&lt;/a&gt; Of course, an efficient tool to learn how to control other&amp;rsquo;s thoughts is to be able to read them in real-time. When it comes to online platforms a great deal of the mind-manipulation is done indirectly.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ranking algorithms, Censorship, and financial incentives will all radically transform how people individually act as a group, but there will always be more &lt;em&gt;direct forces&lt;/em&gt; that can be used. The problem with direct mind control devices is that they are difficult to understand. Just like social media, the applications are likely going to appear entirely harmless and innocuous to mask nefarious intent.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In this piece, I want to use an example to illustrate &lt;strong&gt;brain transparency&lt;/strong&gt;. Which is the primary application of mind-reading technology. Instead of using indirect means to learn your thoughts; such as likes, comments, or what sites you visit, instead insights can be gleaned directly from your mind. With advanced technology and sophisticated understanding of how the brain actually works, mind-reading technology is far closer than one would imagine.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;brain-transparency&#34;&gt;Brain Transparency&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Without even asking, I&amp;rsquo;m very sure you can identify the patterns embedded in the two AI generated images below. From a distance, you can clearly see the pattern, but when you tune in to the fine details you can see that the image doesn&amp;rsquo;t look too unusual without the extra context.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/ai-illusion.webp&#39; 
+
+ alt=&#39;Two AI generated images, one with a spiral embedded andother with a checker pattern.&#39;
+&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Image &lt;a target=&#39;_blank&#39; href=&#39;https://www.creativebloq.com/news/ai-optical-illusion-generator&#39;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Like any other illusion, it works because your brain works to identify patterns. Some patterns (like text) are more universal than others. If you wanted to construct a system that wanted to understand the person better than they know themselves, you could test them in a variety of ways with specific patterns that only resonate with specific people&amp;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If your childhood involved countless hours spent capturing, training and battling Pokémon, there may be a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEIuQRHElcQ&#34;&gt;wrinkle in your brain&lt;/a&gt; that is fond of images of Wobbuffet, Bulbasaur and Pikachu.&lt;br&gt;
+Stanford psychologists have identified preferential activation to Pokémon characters in the brains of people who played Pokémon videogames extensively as kids.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://news.stanford.edu/2019/05/06/regular-pokemon-players-pikachu-brain/&#34;&gt;Stanford researchers identify brain region activated by Pokémon characters&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This leads one to ask: Could patterns be &lt;em&gt;deliberately placed&lt;/em&gt; to then further manipulate people in ways others wouldn&amp;rsquo;t notice? Like a perfect &lt;em&gt;dogwhistle&lt;/em&gt;. Effectively turning everyone into a &lt;em&gt;sleeper agent&lt;/em&gt; that can be identified, and manipulated. It&amp;rsquo;s not just what you know, but &lt;em&gt;how you know it&lt;/em&gt;. It&amp;rsquo;s also what you don&amp;rsquo;t know, or can&amp;rsquo;t recognize. Everyone is different. There will always be ways to precisely target people with this knowledge, for either marketing, manipulation, or even psychological torture.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/meme-illusions.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Far from being mere memes on the internet, once people start putting electrodes on their heads, the game changes dramatically. We have already seen how social media deteriorated people&amp;rsquo;s ability to connect and communicate with each other, advanced mind-reading technology makes direct mind control a lot more of a pressing concern. It&amp;rsquo;s possible that profit-seeking algorithms for social media have already had this effect in some form, but with devices that receive direct input from our minds, the results can be much more extreme. Tagging people based on what patterns their brains recognize is only one out of countless ways advanced technology can learn how people think.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;applications&#34;&gt;Applications&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As an example, let&amp;rsquo;s pretend that I run a major communication platform. Let&amp;rsquo;s name it after a single letter of the alphabet. X (for eXample) is a place where people believe they can participate in the &lt;em&gt;digital town square&lt;/em&gt;. As the operator of X, I have access to all the users information, as well as devices they&amp;rsquo;ve purchased from me. Instead of using machine learning to ban or censor users, I merely work to please users who fall for my preferred (or sponsored) propaganda, and frustrate those who aren&amp;rsquo;t properly learning from the propaganda. I introduce a new fictional character that represents the values I&amp;rsquo;m pushing. Those who can&amp;rsquo;t immediately recognize that character must be avoiding the propaganda, so they must be nudged or corrected.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There really isn&amp;rsquo;t much of a debate on &lt;em&gt;if&lt;/em&gt; this technology should be used to control people. Instead, we have technocrats gleefully announcing all the social problems that would be solved if we merely put all of our minds in the capable hands of the powerful. Many simply dismiss practical application of cutting-edge biology as sci-fi, which leads ethical considerations to be debated after the damage is done.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Did you happen to watch Nita Farahany’s &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/hfqD5aW0X5U&#34;&gt;presentation at Davos&lt;/a&gt; about Brain Transparency?&lt;br&gt;
+Did you ever wonder why she wasn’t booed off the stage?&lt;br&gt;
+It’s because everyone there implicitly accepts this sort of heinous rhetoric. They’ve gone all-in on these technocratic fantasies of theirs. They don’t even hide it. They’re actively normalizing ideas that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://iceni.substack.com/p/spartacast-07&#34;&gt;Spartacast 7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s something about this topic that is downright terrifying to the soul. Those who recognize what&amp;rsquo;s at stake can clearly see that a terrifying system of mental control has already been constructed. Speculating on future harms may seem fruitless when the already applied forms of conditioning, propaganda, and punishment have taken control in serious ways already. The difference this time is that dissenters are much easier to identify.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Those who cooperate with the regime can be marked in their minds, in a way that is very difficult (if not outright impossible) to fake. If there was ever a time to take the time to truly reflect on how you&amp;rsquo;re using your thoughts and what impact there having, we may be approaching the end of the line. This is why I&amp;rsquo;m highly concerned about the &lt;em&gt;adapt or be left behind&lt;/em&gt; messaging embedded in discussions about machine learning tools, and potential cybernetic augmentations. What someone thinks is opting-in for career advancement may in fact come with some extremely invasive strings attached. One may want to reconsider the entire point of &amp;ldquo;getting ahead&amp;rdquo; when the price is complete control over your words, actions, and even thoughts. I have a feeling, that in the long run, these consequences will vastly outweigh potential benefits.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Signs the &#39;Dead Internet Theory&#39; is correct</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/dead-internet/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/dead-internet/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/graveyard.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/graveyard.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/graveyard.webp" />
+		<description>What would it mean? What could be done about it?</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;the-dead-internet-theory&#34;&gt;The &amp;ldquo;Dead Internet&amp;rdquo; Theory&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The basic concept of the &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory&#34;&gt;dead internet theory&lt;/a&gt; is that a vast majority of the engagement online is artificial. And/or that every single human being on the Internet isn&amp;rsquo;t actually connected to everyone else, but merely a chosen subset of people. One of the reasons this idea has gotten so much traction is that it eerily explains much of people&amp;rsquo;s online experience. While it&amp;rsquo;s possible that the feeling is just a figment of people&amp;rsquo;s nostalgia for exploring the web for the first time, there are actual trends and circumstances that support the idea.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The following is a couple of signs that definitely point to the idea that the &lt;strong&gt;Dead Internet Theory&lt;/strong&gt; is likely, and/or at least possible. Afterwards, I&amp;rsquo;ll outline why this trend should be reversed, and how you can help.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;immense-bot-traffic&#34;&gt;Immense Bot Traffic&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;An individual has to make the decision to choose to engage, bots are just full auto. As long as there&amp;rsquo;s currency, influence, or power to be gained from online participation, we can naturally assume the amount of bots online will steadily increase left unchecked. It&amp;rsquo;s worth noting that not all bot traffic is inherently malicious. Timely notifications, alerts and announcements are all things people may want to be provided automatically.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Examples:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.statista.com/statistics/1264226/human-and-bot-web-traffic-share/&#34;&gt;Statista Estimates that merely 25% of web traffic is actually human&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66850821&#34;&gt;Mr Musk has long said that his solution for getting rid of bots and fake accounts on the social media platform is charging for verification.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;content-generation-tools&#34;&gt;Content Generation Tools:&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By lowering the barrier to human-like participation, bots can get more human reactions, making them much more effective. Being able to put together sentences, or speak with a voice can drastically change the game for even other bots. In this competitive arms race, new tools have a profound impact for both people and bots alike.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;examples&#34;&gt;Examples:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;ChatGPT&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Midjourney&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Voice Cloning&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;big-tech-consolidation&#34;&gt;Big Tech Consolidation&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s a lot easier to manipulate people on a small set of online services, than over a wide ecosystem of independent online sites and communities. By herding the public onto only a few services, coordination also becomes much easier.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Examples&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;People only use a small set of apps&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;People can&amp;rsquo;t name more than 10 websites&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;People use search engines as a &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/q6PsrmDKdxj8rxbj74bqSm&#34;&gt;substitute for bookmarks&lt;/a&gt; or the address bar.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Search &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.thestar.com/business/google-search-has-gotten-worse-here-s-the-trick-people-have-found-to-get-around/article_5d51869b-6be0-5de7-ae12-18e9b93f8323.html&#34;&gt;sucks now&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;reach-control&#34;&gt;Reach Control&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With control over major platforms, it&amp;rsquo;s possible to counter breakthrough narratives before they gain momentum. Not only is this capability a highly profitable commodity, it&amp;rsquo;s also a highly effective &lt;em&gt;mass mind control&lt;/em&gt; weapon. Screens are always going to be finite, and so are people&amp;rsquo;s attention and lifespan. There will always be power in having direct control over prioritizing what others can see, even when you&amp;rsquo;re not outright gate-keeping information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Examples:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Non-chronological &amp;ldquo;home&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;explore&amp;rdquo; feeds&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Curated Trending&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Facebook&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.engadget.com/facebook-misinformation-virality-circuit-breaker-143924221.html&#34;&gt;virality circuit breaker&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/product/2023/freedom-of-speech-not-reach-an-update-on-our-enforcement-philosophy&#34;&gt;Freedom of speech, not reach&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;virtualized-segregation&#34;&gt;Virtualized Segregation&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the spookier claims associated with the Dead Internet Theory is that people are effectively segregated from other human beings and relegated to an &lt;a href=&#34;https://geopoliticsandempire.substack.com/s/hrvoje-moric-show-tnt-radio&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;algorithm ghetto&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. At first glance this seems like something that would be impossible to test for. It would be safe to assume that the state-of-the art surveillance and identification tools would be used to filter users. In addition to this, platforms could (directly or indirecly) share information with each other to coordinate the isolation beyond a single platform or medium.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How it works in practice:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Sharding_(term)&#34;&gt;World of Warcraft sharding&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When too many players are in an area, the game automatically creates a new &amp;ldquo;shard,&amp;rdquo; a copy of that area. Players entering the area will be placed on the new shard. The world appears identical from the player&amp;rsquo;s perspective, with minor differences:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Players can only see other players on the same shard.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Each shard has its own set of NPCs. As such, rare NPCs may respawn at different times on different shards.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Each shard has its own set of objects such as herbs and mining nodes.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Shards can be any geographic size but are usually limited to zones or smaller areas. The borders of a sharded area are invisible to players.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By design, players usually do not notice when the game moves them between shards&lt;/strong&gt;, but players may notice NPCs momentarily disappear.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The simplest way to understand sharding is to think of it as people being split into multiple parallel dimensions. There are performance reasons to do this, but there are also other advantages to be gained from keeping people unable to coordinate. For systems simpler than online games (like social media) sharding doesn&amp;rsquo;t have to be absolute. Potentially, a system that does segregate people by default, could still make it possible to occasionally interact outside the bubbles to maintain the illusion of an open platform.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other Examples&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/06/28/facebook-manipulated-689003-users-emotions-for-science/?sh=324e2617197c&#34;&gt;Facebook&amp;rsquo;s mood manipulation experiment&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Personalized curation for geographical or &lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.google/canada-news-en/#overview&#34;&gt;political circumstances&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Delaying feed updates or excessively &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/01/business/twitter-rate-limit-elon-musk.html&#34;&gt;rate-limiting&lt;/a&gt; access. (Sharding by time, rather than groups)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;internet-censorship--shutdowns&#34;&gt;Internet Censorship &amp;amp; Shutdowns&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The internet even in it&amp;rsquo;s current form can&amp;rsquo;t survive the current trend of escalating censorship and demands for top-down control. Left unabated, &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-40494909&#34;&gt;these forces will continue&lt;/a&gt; to transform the web into merely another highly advanced propaganda machine.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/broken-internet/&#34;&gt;ISP-level de-platforming&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/08/isps-should-not-police-online-speech-no-matter-how-awful-it&#34;&gt;EFF- ISPs Should Not Police Online Speech&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;human-disengagement&#34;&gt;Human Disengagement&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ironically, as the digital world has encroached more and more into peoples lives, actual participation hasn&amp;rsquo;t kept pace. Commerce has greatly expanded online at the cost of centralizing control into a small set of payment providers. As the perceived value of engaging online drops, the easier it becomes for manipulators to take complete control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;potential-examples&#34;&gt;Potential Examples:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;None of your contacts participate online regularly&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Being inundated with low-effort comments&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Getting to know people online feels impossible&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Content and seems entirely disconnected from real-life events&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;The tone of online spaces is vastly different&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A complete lack of humor&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;so-is-the-dead-internet-theory-actually-true&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;So is the Dead Internet Theory actually true?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;its-not-dead-but-its-dying&#34;&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s not dead, but it&amp;rsquo;s dying.&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The internet is less of a single body and more of an ecosystem. There has undeniably been immense disruption, habitat loss, and disasters. That isn&amp;rsquo;t to say that things can&amp;rsquo;t improve.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-you-can-do&#34;&gt;What you can do:&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Are you ready to &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/reclaiming-cyberspace/&#34;&gt;reclaim cyberspace?&lt;/a&gt; It&amp;rsquo;s a massive undertaking but many hands make light work. By taking control of your online presence, content, and attention you are already making a massive impact on how the future of the web. Instead of providing unpaid labor for top-down information management systems, you can genuinely contribute to a global and public information superhighway.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;maintain-a-non-commercial-web-space&#34;&gt;Maintain a non-commercial web space&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;rsquo;t believe it would take very many people at all taking an active interest in maintaining truly independent and personal &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/anonymity/&#34;&gt;(or anonymous)&lt;/a&gt; spaces online to have a massive impact on censorship resistance and meaningful interactions online.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;use-open-protocols-instead-of-corporate-platforms&#34;&gt;Use open protocols, instead of corporate platforms&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Your own web space is just the beginning. There&amp;rsquo;s a world of opportunity to explore open protocols &amp;amp; systems for chat, audio/video calls, social media, collaboration, and many other things you can imagine.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;if-you-like-this-idea-and-want-to-discuss-it-with-others-please-share-this-image&#34;&gt;If you like this idea, and want to discuss it with others, please share this image!&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/dead-internet.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/dead-internet.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Operation: Shadow</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/operations/shadow/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/operations/shadow/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/intelligence.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/intelligence.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/intelligence.webp" />
+		<description>Anonymity is a lot less dangerous than uncontested power</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;navigating-hostile-cyberspace&#34;&gt;Navigating Hostile Cyberspace&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many people are outright victims of virtual imprisonment.
+Social media addiction is just the surface of a panopticon of &lt;a href=&#34;https://videos.lukesmith.xyz/w/cBDUuKfSqxcrK4Kbh7ieJf&#34;&gt;data-mining and manipulation.&lt;/a&gt; If this wasn&amp;rsquo;t bad enough, governments and public-private partnerships alike are further working to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.thedefensepost.com/2023/08/31/ussocom-ai-disinformation-social-media/&#34;&gt;analyze, contain, and restrict dissent.&lt;/a&gt; This asymmetric use of technology enables innumerable abuses and consolidates power in terrifying ways. Almost everyone recognizes that people&amp;rsquo;s behavior has changed drastically due to online pressures, very few imagine the sum total effects this has on society.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If only there was some way out! A way to not attach every click, paragraph read, or comment left to a &lt;em&gt;permanent record&lt;/em&gt;. A way to opt-out of this all-pervasive system of &lt;em&gt;individualized discrimination&lt;/em&gt;. There is such a way: &lt;strong&gt;anonymity&lt;/strong&gt;. Anonymity used to be the default online. Someone downloading a web page didn&amp;rsquo;t automatically need to divulge who they were individually. Even when websites had user accounts, they could be disposable and didn&amp;rsquo;t need to collect so much sensitive personal information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;More and more services are collecting, and sometimes requiring increasing amounts of personal information. This can disproportionally create risks for some. Things have deteriorated into such a state where one requires constant effort &lt;em&gt;not to divulge who they are&lt;/em&gt; to certain entities online. There is a wide variety of technical means available for those interested in following specific individuals, or even subsets of the population across cyberspace.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There have been many prominent voices pushing for the eradication of online anonymity. Elimination of online anonymity is the digital equivalent of banning cash. In a misguided attempt to crack-down on crime and abuse you rob people of privacy and protection from discrimination when they need it most. One individual may not want a public profile attached to their name, but is still comfortable divulging their information in particular situations. Individuals from all walks of life should be empowered to only provide their identities when necessary and desired.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;threat-modeling&#34;&gt;Threat Modeling&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You may feel no danger seeking out information, or speaking your mind online, but that&amp;rsquo;s no comfort for others who might. Different people will have different risks, and the louder one aims to be the more enemies they tend to accrue. Anonymous speech potentially enables anyone on earth, to raise attention to a grave injustice with a much lower risk of retaliation. This is an essential trait to combat tyranny of all kinds worldwide.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Issues can be big or small, but no matter how powerful a person is, they are still one human being. There are absolute limits to how much they can protect themselves from retaliation from rivals, stalkers, and abusers. These threats can all be individual people, groups, or even entire institutions. Below, a threat modeling infographic is provided.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/threat%20modeling.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/threat%20modeling.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If one requires &lt;em&gt;perfect&lt;/em&gt; anonymity, attaining it is quite a feat. That said, it&amp;rsquo;s important to understand that this is not an all-or-nothing ordeal. Every step one takes to protect themselves online, affords them some defense against particular threats. One does not need to be a mastermind cyber-criminal to appreciate the benefits of incremental security improvements. It is critical to not let a sense of defeatism or nihilism creep in, small improvements &lt;em&gt;do have a large impact&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As the web itself becomes nearly entirely consolidated by large corporations, hostile governments, and public-private partnerships, there are bound to be many who choose to make a conscious choice to go a different direction. Even if you&amp;rsquo;re not willing to go as far to protect your digital independence, there&amp;rsquo;s quite a bit you can do to help make it possible for more and more people. I don&amp;rsquo;t take this lightly, but I consider this piece the most important I have written to date. Even more important than &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/reclaiming-cyberspace/&#34;&gt;Reclaiming Territory in Cyberspace&lt;/a&gt;. The &lt;em&gt;dark web&lt;/em&gt; and it&amp;rsquo;s derivatives is a topic that is surrounded by myth and rumors of questionable intent. There is quite a bit of technical knowledge that is vital for people to understand, even without the desire to interact with these systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;where-did-all-the-whistle-blowers-go&#34;&gt;Where did all the whistle-blowers go?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Anonymity protects those who don&amp;rsquo;t wish to be mistreated or otherwise silenced because of who they are. Many authors have published books or articles under a pen name, other times people would put up posters while concealing their identities. There is a significant bias against those choosing to speak out without exposing their identity. There is an understandable reason for this; staking your entire reputation on a cause or a mission can add significant weight to one&amp;rsquo;s words and actions. On the other hand, those who speak out in their name are shackled to pressures and incentives of their own existence in a world that is much bigger than themselves. Anonymity is one of the few scenarios where ideas can truly be judged on their merits, rather than associated with a person or groups reputation and perception.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You should never take anything anyone says at face value. Confide in trusted friends, research the claim yourself, but never dismiss something entirely because it merely comes without a name. While in some ways we are all more free to express ourselves than ever, the costs of non-conformity with present and future dogmas are permanent and extreme. Many problems today exist because hardly anyone is willing to threaten their livelihood rebuking authority, even when desperately necessary. This is terrifying because it creates a positive feedback loop that selects against any bottom-up feedback in society. People will constantly acknowledge that their leaders in government, business, or even civil society are deaf to their concerns and needs. If nobody will speak out&amp;hellip;how can things change? In light of this anonymous speech is arguably more important than non-anonymous speech. It potentially allows for grave errors to be corrected, if nobody is willing to stake their social standing on it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The suppression of anonymity takes two major forms:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Introducing surveillance or identity verification as a requirement in more circles of life.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Proactively working to de-anonymize people or discourage them from protecting information that exposes them to risks.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can refuse to participate in domains where you&amp;rsquo;re forced to give up your identity, but once an anonymous person becomes known, they will never again be unknown. This is especially likely in the case of dissidents or critics, who may have valid reasons for protecting their identity.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;online-anonymity-is-important-despite-being-near-impossible&#34;&gt;Online anonymity is important, despite being near impossible&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Big services like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon (among others) spend a massive amount of effort trying to understand every person that uses their platform(s). So much so, that there is a great deal of surveillance infrastructure that &amp;rsquo;trickles down&amp;rsquo; to glean even more information from people elsewhere across the web. When using any of these top-down platforms you are at minimum an unpaid worker providing data about you and people in general. For better-or-worse every action you take while using these systems is you acting as an informant for the stakeholders that they represent. Far too many people assume they aren&amp;rsquo;t saying a thing if they merely lurk or passively view content. To the contrary, where your attention goes says a great deal about you and even others.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;a-coordination-problem&#34;&gt;A coordination problem&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The web, or even the Internet as it exists wasn&amp;rsquo;t built in a day or by a single entity. The internet is largely a compromise between all kinds of different people, groups, and institutions. At least for now, no single entity has complete control over all of it, and we should all hope it stays that way. Beyond merely pleading, there is a great deal many of us can do. Even choosing to use a site or platform that collects moderately less information can have lasting impacts. If people understood how much effort was made to steer their attention, they would appreciate how much of a valuable force it really is. Due to the very complexity of how things are now, there is no &amp;lsquo;silver bullet&amp;rsquo; that can easily, simply, or quickly solve all or even many of the problems. Focusing on incremental change isn&amp;rsquo;t just the best option, it&amp;rsquo;s all anyone can do to make a difference.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-internets-achilles-heel-dns&#34;&gt;The Internet&amp;rsquo;s Achilles Heel: DNS&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What is a website? is &lt;code&gt;www.example.com&lt;/code&gt; a website? That address is a &lt;strong&gt;domain name&lt;/strong&gt; that allows your browsers and apps to connect to a specific server. DNS stands for &lt;em&gt;domain name system&lt;/em&gt;. In theory, DNS is actually &lt;a href=&#34;https://opennic.org/&#34;&gt;decentralized&lt;/a&gt; because while there are well established DNS servers and registrars, all it does is connect network addresses to names. There is little other than inertia preventing people from using alternative systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As it exists, most web administrators will generally register their domain with a regular &lt;strong&gt;domain registrar&lt;/strong&gt; which is a company that runs their own &lt;strong&gt;nameservers&lt;/strong&gt;. Usually, this requires a real name and address. In addition to this, payment methods like credit cards or non-private cryptocurrencies will make easy work of identifying who registered a particular domain. Because of this, and many other things it&amp;rsquo;s almost impossible to host a website or online service anonymously as an individual person or group. While people who visit your site may not know who you are, but it&amp;rsquo;s trivial for somebody to find out.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;domain-seizures&#34;&gt;Domain Seizures&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Due to the lack of anonymity, it&amp;rsquo;s entirely possible for governments or even public-private partnerships to demand domains be seized. Domains are registered by legal entities and many domains have already been seized to combat all kinds of criminal activity. The danger of this is that there may be a future where domain registrars have to police the content on domains registered by them. Just as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter/X in the past have taken an editorial stance over their platform, it&amp;rsquo;s not impossible for registrars to do the same.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;dns-censorship&#34;&gt;DNS Censorship&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The registrars are only part of the equation. Nameserver operators can also be compelled to &lt;a href=&#34;https://torrentfreak.com/govts-must-encourage-or-compel-internet-companies-to-fight-piracy-230831/&#34;&gt;block sites&lt;/a&gt; in the name of preventing copyright infringement, serious crimes, or political expediency. Already we are seeing countries like France become &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.politico.eu/article/macron-mulls-cutting-access-social-media-during-riots/&#34;&gt;more totalitarian&lt;/a&gt; online &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.ph/vOIzM&#34;&gt;for political reasons&lt;/a&gt;. It would be naive to believe that this isn&amp;rsquo;t already a worsening trend.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;surveillance&#34;&gt;Surveillance&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Because DNS queries are so useful for understanding how people use the Internet, it&amp;rsquo;s trivial for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other entities to sell valuable batches of &lt;em&gt;unencrypted dns queries&lt;/em&gt;. In most cases the default setup is unencrypted and possibly not cached, meaning many entities know who&amp;rsquo;s visiting what sites, and how often. This is but one of many ways to track people across the Internet. There are many more ways in which people are identified and manipulated online. It&amp;rsquo;s perfectly reasonable to want to simply side-step all the insanity and simply start fresh.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-4.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-4/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #4 Online Identity&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is following you in your digital tracks?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;using-a-darknet&#34;&gt;Using a Darknet&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The simplest &amp;ldquo;darknet&amp;rdquo; is a computer (or group of them) not connected to the Internet. It&amp;rsquo;s quite straight-forward for someone to keep an &amp;ldquo;air gapped&amp;rdquo; (disconnected) machine as an offline repository for records and information management. Any means to connect one computer to another, that&amp;rsquo;s not widely accessible is technically a &amp;ldquo;darknet&amp;rdquo;. The phrase &lt;em&gt;the deep web&lt;/em&gt; is often associated with Tor hidden services, but has also been quite erroneously used to describe fringe or unpopular websites on the regular internet.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;anonymous-browsing&#34;&gt;Anonymous browsing&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A major use of darknets is for people to browse the &amp;ldquo;regular internet&amp;rdquo; &lt;a href=&#34;https://anonymousplanet.org/&#34;&gt;anonymously.&lt;/a&gt; This is one of the primary uses of Tor. Anonymous browsing is a significant challenge and requires a significant amount of caution. However, the benefit of being a Tor user on the Internet is that with some caution, you blend in with all the other Tor users. Unlike using a personal use VPN, using a darknet to &lt;strong&gt;proxy&lt;/strong&gt; your connection to the regular internet allows you to act like a fish in a massive school of internet fish. The bigger the school, the lest identifiable, and ideally less of a target you are.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;hidden-services&#34;&gt;Hidden Services&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hidden services are where darknets get really neat. Remember everything said above about DNS? Forget it! Hidden services sidestep all those issues all at once. There are other ways to decide who connects to who. An alternative method is to have each site generate encryption keys that secure the connection, and identifies them as a key. Once this is in place, it&amp;rsquo;s possible to route messages anonymously through the network. Through a marvel of modern mathematics, you have a new layer to the Internet where it&amp;rsquo;s possible to have truly private and communications that can&amp;rsquo;t be censored.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;website-mirroring&#34;&gt;Website Mirroring&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By making your website &lt;a href=&#34;https://xmrpower.bearblog.dev/mirror-your-website-tor-i2p/&#34;&gt;accessible over darknets&lt;/a&gt;, you&amp;rsquo;re allowing those who may come from oppressive regimes to access your content. In addition to this you protect your online presence from censorship and domain seizure. It&amp;rsquo;s best to mirror a &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/best-website-for-you/&#34;&gt;static site&lt;/a&gt; that doesn&amp;rsquo;t rely on cookies or javascript. Running a hidden service yourself is free, so it&amp;rsquo;s an option to archive a website after you no longer with to pay for regular hosting.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;securedrop&#34;&gt;SecureDrop&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The possibility of online anonymity and hidden services are potentially a great boon to &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/LkgN244ggzs&#34;&gt;whistle-blowers&lt;/a&gt; from all walks of life. In an environment where your average well-rounded citizen is capable of at least browsing the darknet, those who wish to right terrible wrongs may have the capability of speaking out without retaliation. Many damaging and twisted scandals could be broken far earlier, preventing even more damage in the long run.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://securedrop.org/&#34;&gt;SecureDrop&lt;/a&gt; is a fancy tool that allows people to submit information anonymously over tor. Running as a packaged hidden service, and being Free Open Source Software, it&amp;rsquo;s even easier to democratize real transparency.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;examples&#34;&gt;Examples&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;diy-vpn&#34;&gt;DIY VPN&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In a close circle of trust, it can be helpful to share information or provide members only-services. You can create your own darknet by creating your own VPN or using SSH tunnels. Using either &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.wireguard.com/&#34;&gt;Wireguard&lt;/a&gt; or OpenVPN you can create your own private network for you own internal services. For a small group and community, you can significantly protect your digital activities from prying eyes by rolling your own hidden services on your own virtual private network.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;sneakernet&#34;&gt;Sneakernet&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Embrace the analogue and burn your information to optical disks and send them in the mail like how netflix started! Got some homing pigeons? You can be the bleeding-edge of &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers&#34;&gt;IP over Avian Carriers&lt;/a&gt;. A local community could use &lt;a href=&#34;../beehive&#34;&gt;Operation: Beehive&lt;/a&gt; to cooperate on all kinds of interesting projects over a sneakernet.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;tor&#34;&gt;Tor&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Tor is short for &lt;strong&gt;The Onion Router&lt;/strong&gt;. &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/uPLSVAz-I_Q&#34;&gt;Onion Routing&lt;/a&gt; is how messages sent within the tor network stay anonymous. Tor uses special clients called &lt;em&gt;bridges&lt;/em&gt; that allow traffic from the network to go to the regular internet, allowing people using tor to access regular websites.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.torproject.org/&#34;&gt;Tor Project Website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/zQW3MdF25B8&#34;&gt;How to Access the Dark Web - Mental Outlaw&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;snowflake-&#34;&gt;Snowflake ❄️&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re interested in supporting those working to protect their privacy and/or overcome censorship, &lt;a href=&#34;https://snowflake.torproject.org/&#34;&gt;Snowflake&lt;/a&gt; is a great way to help people connect to the Tor network.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;distributions&#34;&gt;Distributions&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are a variety of linux distributions created to assist in aspects of using the Tor network. &lt;strong&gt;Tails&lt;/strong&gt; is a temporary operating system to make every session start identically on the Tor network. Like tails, &lt;strong&gt;Whonix&lt;/strong&gt; routes all it&amp;rsquo;s traffic over Tor. If that&amp;rsquo;s still not enough for you &lt;strong&gt;Qubes OS&lt;/strong&gt; allows you to create disposable whonix virtual machines.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/u5Lv_HXICpo&#34;&gt;TailsOS Guide for the Ultra Paranoid - Mental Outlaw&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;i2p&#34;&gt;I2P&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Not as interested in touching the regular internet? Are you looking for a darknet with hidden services specifically in mind? The &lt;strong&gt;Invisible Internet Protocol&lt;/strong&gt; (I2P) may suit your needs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://geti2p.net/en/&#34;&gt;I2P Project Website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://i2pd.website/&#34;&gt;I2Pd&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://tube.tchncs.de/videos/embed/8b304fd9-03c2-4daa-a8af-ed097e8ab0d7&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://tube.tchncs.de/videos/watch/8b304fd9-03c2-4daa-a8af-ed097e8ab0d7&#34;&gt;I2P Tour: Search Engines, Free Anonymous Email, Interesting Eepsites&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;limitations&#34;&gt;Limitations&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Perfect anonymity is extremely difficult. While darknets can protect your private information online, it can be difficult to hide that you&amp;rsquo;re using one. This makes darknet users, and those who wish to protect their privacy online in general, significant political targets from those who would like to seize control over digital communications in whole or in part.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;user-error&#34;&gt;User Error&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The greatest threat to one&amp;rsquo;s online privacy and security is &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/p/pebkac.htm&#34;&gt;PEBKAC&lt;/a&gt; errors. Your own mistakes, and capability to be manipulated is not to be underestimated. If you require perfect anonymity, ensure that you are diligent and don&amp;rsquo;t become complacent. Even as someone who doesn&amp;rsquo;t need anonymity, you&amp;rsquo;re not immune to cybersecurity threats and all kinds of information can be leveraged against you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;fingerprinting&#34;&gt;Fingerprinting&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite the best efforts of many intelligent and skilled people, perfection is far from within reach. Many sophisticated surveillance tools are precisely tuned to identify patterns and correlations. This means that even the smallest technical detail can be used to potentially identify people&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;browser-features&#34;&gt;Browser features&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A great deal of the modern &amp;lsquo;conveniences&amp;rsquo; that current-day browsers have tend to leak sensitive information, when making choices about your setup, it can be wise to rely on basic text and images rather than full single-page applications.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;size-of-the-network&#34;&gt;Size of the network&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When swimming in a school of fish, numbers matter. Efforts to discourage people from knowing how to use privacy tools greatly undermines everyone&amp;rsquo;s ability to not only be anonymous online, but also to escape abuses by big tech platforms. For now, Tor users are not numerous enough, or don&amp;rsquo;t have enough social capital to prevent big tech services from discriminating against them. In part this is because any privacy tool can be used for nefarious means, and they are often restricted as a security caution.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When a privacy network is small, it becomes much easier for those with significant resources to either target specific people within it, or even de-anonymize the entire network. In an ideal world, enough people would use these tools to protect dissidents from retaliation, and law enforcement would still have the tools to go after violent criminals through other means without compromising lawful people&amp;rsquo;s privacy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;useful-resources&#34;&gt;Useful Resources&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://digdeeper.club/&#34;&gt;DigDeeper&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://anonymousplanet.org/&#34;&gt;The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Online Anonymity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://kycnot.me/&#34;&gt;kycnot.me&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://notabug.org/dfca/dfca&#34;&gt;Digital Feudalism Counter Action&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://simplifiedprivacy.com/&#34;&gt;Simplified Privacy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://duskos.org/&#34;&gt;Dusk OS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://prism-break.org/&#34;&gt;Prism Break&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://digitalfreedom.neocities.org/&#34;&gt;Digital Freedom&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://proton.me/blog/what-is-dark-web&#34;&gt;What is the dark web? The good and bad of the Internet’s most private corner&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.curtiswallen.com/pgp/&#34;&gt;PGP Done Right - For Beginners&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://tube.tchncs.de/c/privacy__tech_tips/videos&#34;&gt;Right to Privacy - Privacy and Tech Tips Videos&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://privacytoolslist.com/&#34;&gt;Privacy Tools List&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://ssd.eff.org/&#34;&gt;EFF Surveillance Self-Defense Privacy Guides&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/HQXRURfrf8w&#34;&gt;31C3 - Tor Hidden Services and Deanonymisation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cjr.org/tow_center_reports/guide-to-osint-and-hostile-communities.php&#34;&gt;A Guide to Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://landchad.net/&#34;&gt;Landchad System Guides&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://xmrpower.bearblog.dev/mirror-your-website-tor-i2p/&#34;&gt;Mirror your website onto the darknet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.hyphanet.org&#34;&gt;Hyphanet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Digital Autonomy and the Arts: Part 2</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/arts2/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/arts2/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts-banner.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts-banner.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/arts-banner.webp" />
+		<description>Featuring Tonika &amp; Liam Sturgess</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Liam Sturgess and Visceral Adventure join Gabriel to discuss the arts and cyberspace.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Watch Gabriel &amp;amp; Liam&amp;rsquo;s previous discussion on digital autonomy and the arts &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/4UrH5kTwMVtMsnuCdRmPei&#34;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can follow Visceral Adventure on &lt;a href=&#34;https://visceraladventure.substack.com/&#34;&gt;Substack&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/VisceralAdvntr&#34;&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/user/VisceralAdventure&#34;&gt;Rumble&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Visit &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.liamsturgess.com&#34;&gt;liamsturgess.com&lt;/a&gt; to stay up to date with Liam&amp;rsquo;s work.
+You can also follow him via &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/TheLiamSturgess&#34;&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt; or the Fediverse at &lt;a href=&#34;https://gigaohm.bio/@LiamSturgess&#34;&gt;@LiamSturgess@gigaohm.bio&lt;/a&gt;
+Don&amp;rsquo;t forget to check out his series &lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/c/liamsturgess&#34;&gt;Microjourneys&lt;/a&gt; on Rumble.
+Which is also mirrored on &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/p/xiRDiR7qVjEyYTntpudyvP&#34;&gt;this instance&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Cybergeddon: ISP-level De-platforming</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/broken-internet/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/broken-internet/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-9-preview.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-9-preview.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-9-preview.webp" />
+		<description>A slippery slope to the death of the Internet.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;It is important to remember that when it comes to free expression online, no corporation is &lt;a href=&#34;https://consentfactory.org/2023/08/14/the-free-speech-twitter-psyop/&#34;&gt;coming to save you&lt;/a&gt;. For far too long, people have placed too much trust in corporate social media. They have certainly abused that trust, but as of recently a far more concerning trend has arisen: &lt;em&gt;parts of the Internet de-platforming itself&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;ipv6 prefix-list ipv6-prefix-filter-as400304&lt;br&gt;
+seq 950 &lt;strong&gt;deny 2607:46c0::/32&lt;/strong&gt; le 48&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/L7dD4&#34;&gt;Archive&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It doesn&amp;rsquo;t look like much, this innocuous text reveals that &lt;em&gt;the Internet isn&amp;rsquo;t dying&amp;hellip; it&amp;rsquo;s being killed.&lt;/em&gt; It&amp;rsquo;s not so much the &lt;em&gt;what&lt;/em&gt; here that&amp;rsquo;s important, but &lt;strong&gt;the why&lt;/strong&gt; that matters a great deal here. For now, what&amp;rsquo;s important to understand is that the Internet is built very differently from how most people imagine it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/internet.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/internet.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The internet isn&amp;rsquo;t a single homogeneous network, it&amp;rsquo;s a network of networks. Those networks need a protocol to negotiate a vast array of details, to successfully and efficiently move data around. In many ways, it&amp;rsquo;s somewhat of a &lt;a href=&#34;https://xkcd.com/2347/&#34;&gt;miracle&lt;/a&gt; it all works at all.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Naturally, there are weak-points that get tested over time. In our age of incredibly high polarization, people may choose to take incredibly rash actions even if there are immensely harmful consequences to vital structures. In a way, I am conflicted to point this out, because if more mobs of people decided to selectively pressure ISPs to wage the culture war for them, it is effectively game-over for the Internet as a meaningful tool for free expression, cultural exchange, and the preservation of knowledge.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of wishing the cat back into the bag. This is a one-way trip into a world where this is a risk people need to properly account for. In recent times, we have seen just how motivated governments and corporations across he world are to secure total dominance over online communications and commerce, it would be a mistake to idly stand by while politicized mobs secure a veto over critical infrastructure.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;what-happened&#34;&gt;What happened&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Joshua Moon runs a controversial online forum Kiwi Farms, which is the target of extreme and escalating online censorship.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Hurricane Electric has blocked network traffic from IPs associated owned by Joshua Moon, impacting IngocNet&amp;rsquo;s services in Washington.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Washington has &lt;a href=&#34;https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=19.385.020&#34;&gt;common carrier&lt;/a&gt; protections for communications online.&lt;br&gt;
+It is up to their attorney general, to enforce those protections.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;IncogNet LLC has &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/IncogNetLLC/status/1685359845505957888&#34;&gt;filed a complaint&lt;/a&gt; to the washington attorney general against hurricane electric for de-platforming their IPs.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;d like to hear the situation broken down by Joshua himself, you can listen to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.heterodorx.com/podcast/episode-107-how-the-internet-lost-its-backbone-with-joshua-moon/&#34;&gt;this episode&lt;/a&gt; of the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.heterodorx.com/&#34;&gt;Heterodorx&lt;/a&gt; podcast.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;technical-background&#34;&gt;Technical Background&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Internet service providers (ISPs) have to connect to each other for this whole internet thing to work. One mechanism that helps with this is BGP (Border gateway protocol), which is how networks introduce themselves to each other. This connection between ISP networks is a fundamental unit of the Internet. Without it, you&amp;rsquo;d need to have a &lt;em&gt;direct, physical connection&lt;/em&gt; to every service you want to use.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;BGP is a big deal, despite being something very few people have to interact with directly. Causing problems with it made the Internet unusable for half of Canada &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Rogers_Communications_outage&#34;&gt;last year&lt;/a&gt;. It&amp;rsquo;s a trivial change to block a particular network, which is done to mitigate direct attacks on the network or criminal activity. The weaponization of this is an immense challenge for anyone who cares about a free and open internet.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Not all ISPs are equal, anyone with the capability of applying pressure to critical components on &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/01/beyond-platforms-private-censorship-parler-and-stack&#34;&gt;&amp;ldquo;the stack&amp;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt; has the ability to have immense power over anyone&amp;rsquo;s ability to participate online.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The only reason we&amp;rsquo;re hearing about this at all, is because of how dedicated Joshua Moon has been about keeping his website online. In the face of being de-platformed by multiple providers, many other projects would have merely given up. How many businesses or publication would persist after being de-platformed by ISPs and hosting providers all over the world?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What makes this incident personally interesting to me is that this is a window into the bleeding-edge of censorship online. I doubt that the Internet itself is resilient to sustain politically motivated attacks at such a fundamental level. This incident forces all of us to consider how the world would be different if access to the Internet was only possible with permission and control of unaccountable public-private partnerships.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;why-this-matters&#34;&gt;Why this matters&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As cited in &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-9/&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: Internet Shutdowns&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In a deeply troubling response, after both terminations we saw a dramatic increase in authoritarian regimes attempting to have us terminate security services for human rights organizations — often citing the language from our own justification back to us.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflares-abuse-policies-and-approach/&#34;&gt;Cloudflare blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Said succinctly, the slope is indeed &lt;em&gt;very slippery and very steep&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s difficult to overstate what this means for the future of the Internet. No site, service, or community can single-handedly withstand the forces at play here. The very same tactics used to shut down that forum, can and will be leveraged against anything. This means that even if the forum is successful at staying online, a strategy has been introduced that can be attempted at a different time, with a different pretext, on any target.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the United States, you have today created a law, the Telecommunications Reform Act, which repudiates your own Constitution and insults the dreams of Jefferson, Washington, Mill, Madison, DeToqueville, and Brandeis. These dreams must now be born anew in us.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You are terrified of your own children, since they are natives in a world where you will always be immigrants. Because you fear them, you entrust your bureaucracies with the parental responsibilities you are too cowardly to confront yourselves. In our world, all the sentiments and expressions of humanity, from the debasing to the angelic, are parts of a seamless whole, the global conversation of bits. We cannot separate the air that chokes from the air upon which wings beat.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In China, Germany, France, Russia, Singapore, Italy and the United States, you are trying to ward off the virus of liberty by erecting guard posts at the frontiers of Cyberspace.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence&#34;&gt;A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+By John Perry Barlow&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-you-can-do&#34;&gt;What you can do&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Joshua Moon himself suggests that you:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Learn how to acquire &amp;amp; use Cryptocurrency if you&amp;rsquo;re interested in supporting those who are de-banked.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Learn how to use &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.torproject.org/&#34;&gt;Tor&lt;/a&gt;, to access information that may be entirely removed from the &amp;ldquo;clearnet&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Support expanding &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/common-carrier.asp&#34;&gt;common carrier&lt;/a&gt; protections for speech online.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;a-call-to-stand-up-for-individual-rights&#34;&gt;A call to stand up for individual rights&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You don&amp;rsquo;t even have to like the forum to recognize that escalating top-down control over the Internet is a net-detriment for all our liberty. The feedback loop of people leveraging institutions to abuse their opponents only further escalates the cycle.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You need to start deciding what measures are &amp;ldquo;too far&amp;rdquo; even for those you disagree with the most. It is critical that we as people in society strengthen the restraints on how institutions are able to interact with people. Given how fundamental the Internet is with commerce and people&amp;rsquo;s lives, it&amp;rsquo;s vital that we reassert people&amp;rsquo;s human liberties in cyberspace as well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;non-solutions&#34;&gt;Non-Solutions&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;tor-alone&#34;&gt;Tor alone&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Relegating free and open expression to a small minority of technologically savvy dissidents is all-but a win condition for tyrants. Tor is an incredibly useful tool, and it is critical that people understand how to use it and other privacy networks, but it is not a complete solution. Any single tool that can be used for dissent can itself become a target.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While it&amp;rsquo;s one thing to access the Tor network, it&amp;rsquo;s a whole other challenge to attempt to hide that you&amp;rsquo;re using it. If we allow ISPs to be weaponized against their customers, and the Internet itself, there is very little that can be done to route around it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;web3-fixes-this&#34;&gt;Web3 Fixes this!&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Building on he previous section, we cannot out-engineer a culture that tolerates, much less demands censorship. Due to the very way the Internet works, this problem can&amp;rsquo;t be fixed with merely a different coat of paint on top. There are fundamental structural realities that higher level applications can&amp;rsquo;t solve.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/road2hell.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/blockchain/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The road to hell: misplaced optimism in the blockchain space&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is because the physical state of the network is downstream of real physical realities and economies of scale. It would be much easier to reaffirm individual rights, than to try to bet everything on engineering a perfect global network without compromise.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;how-to-normalize-institutional-abuse&#34;&gt;How to normalize institutional abuse&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a pattern where further and further excesses are justified in the name of persecuting the worst of the worst, yet they manage to be generalized to all of society like the &lt;a href=&#34;https://brownstone.org/articles/the-dangerous-fantasy-of-zero-covid/&#34;&gt;Zero Covid Policy&lt;/a&gt; or the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.corbettreport.com/alqaeda/&#34;&gt;War on Terror&lt;/a&gt;. It wasn&amp;rsquo;t long after Alex Jones was de-platformed that governments across the world were coordinating to &lt;a href=&#34;https://foundationforfreedomonline.com/dhs-video-series-to-target-peer-beliefs/&#34;&gt;control social media&lt;/a&gt; entirely.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;1-find-an-unsympathetic-target&#34;&gt;1. Find an &lt;em&gt;unsympathetic target&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By selecting a target that&amp;rsquo;s difficult to defend, people will very often ask &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Is this the hill to die on&lt;/em&gt;?&amp;rdquo;. By procrastinating to defend people&amp;rsquo;s right to due process or from unreasonable sanctions, we enable further abuses. The target isn&amp;rsquo;t selected for their suitability towards the intended policy goal, but rather &lt;em&gt;because they are unsympathetic&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;2-target-them-with-a-dedicated-smear-campaign&#34;&gt;2. Target them with a dedicated smear campaign&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I would caution you to not dismiss that you yourself may very well be such a target. None of us are without sin, and almost everyone can be &lt;em&gt;fit to be tied&lt;/em&gt; in our age of algorithmically enhanced outrage and polarization. It&amp;rsquo;s very easy to find a couple of points about anyone, that someone can find a non-trivial amount of people dislike.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is the real danger of our polarized times. People are unwilling to stand for other&amp;rsquo;s inalienable natural rights, and instead prefer to only stick out for their perceived allies in the culture wars. This means that nobody is truly above being tarred and feathered by a highly motivated group of activists.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Note: &lt;em&gt;Nothing has to be fabricated. People are naturally quite different and there are going to be real and meaningful disagreements. It is our responsibility to ensure those disagreements are handled properly and fairly, rather than wage culture war with the justice in the balance.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;3-shut-down-or-shut-out-the-target-without-any-due-process-or-means-to-appeal-on-factual-grounds&#34;&gt;3. Shut down or shut out the target without any due process or means to appeal on factual grounds&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Again, ironically it&amp;rsquo;s not really about the target, it&amp;rsquo;s about the power to be seized from an opportunity. There are all kinds of means to burden a target with fines, reputational harm, or even violence without providing a fair an impartial hearing. In fact, even a guilty target being convicted would be counter-productive, because the goal is to use the perceived injustice to justify further excesses.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;4-broaden-the-scope-of-targets&#34;&gt;4. Broaden the scope of targets&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As the target is &lt;em&gt;removed from play&lt;/em&gt; it doesn&amp;rsquo;t matter anymore who is on what side anymore. You can now use that incident as a precedent justify the same action on unrelated targets. Instead of addressing matters on their merits, instead you can smear critics as being accomplices of the target, or just as profane. With the mechanism in place, people who gain from exploiting it will be motivated to keep the narrative in place, and to continue to silence those who speak out against it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-road-to-serfdom&#34;&gt;The road to serfdom&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Let&amp;rsquo;s pretend for a moment that we will fully intend to use this power for the benefit of all. Despite mainstream social media giants being unable to fully eliminate criminal activity of their networks, we&amp;rsquo;re going to deputize ISPs to police every interaction online.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With means like online identity verification, criminals and deplorables alike will be able to be entirely purged from the Internet merely at the cost of an increasingly powerful bureaucracy monitoring, blocking, or altering people&amp;rsquo;s communications. The process itself becomes the problem. Instead of actually resolving the problem we have merely concentrated more power into a more consolidated structure that becomes ripe for abuse.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;additional-references&#34;&gt;Additional References&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://t.me/kiwifarms&#34;&gt;Kiwi Farms Telegram&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://kiwifarms.pl/threads/total-retard-war-the-internet-backbones-censor-the-internet.141231/#post-16610184&#34;&gt;Forum Post&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Digital Autonomy and the Arts</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/arts/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 20 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/arts/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/liam-arts-banner.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/liam-arts-banner.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/liam-arts-banner.webp" />
+		<description>Featuring Liam Sturgess</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;This conversation is a follow-up to a piece written last year&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Art is the expression of the human soul, with it’s value being largely in the eye of the beholder. Corporations and governments can imitate art, or mass produce it with financial advantages, but they can’t compete with genuine creativity borne from real passion and real experiences. Tyranny isn’t beautiful, and slavery isn’t inspiring. When given a choice, people will naturally choose the free and beautiful over the rigid and stagnant. As freedom loving people it is absolutely vital for us to encourage, support and fund ventures to provide people the opportunity to enjoy pro-human media and creative works.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Artists are craving for a way for their work to be properly supported. Many artists are disillusioned by not being able to make it in large corporate spaces. If we truly desire a culture that protects freedom we must work to provide the space for artists to promote this culture. Working together we can support artists who care deeply about building a better world. This will create real cultural capital that can upend the systems that undermine our liberty. With truth on our side, there can be no limit to the heights of our imagination.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/artistic-banner.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/information-warfare-superweapons/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Information Warfare Super-weapons&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Change the culture with these super effective tricks. Social engineers HATE these!&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Later in the conversation, we discussed how machine learning tools are changing the game for artists out there.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/abstract.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/collapse-of-the-intangible/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The Collapse of the Intangible&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Keeping your head above water in a tsunami of change&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;more-about-liam-sturgess&#34;&gt;More about Liam Sturgess&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gigaohm.bio/@LiamSturgess&#34;&gt;@LiamSturgess@gigaohm.bio&lt;/a&gt; on the Fediverse!&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.liamsturgess.com/&#34;&gt;Webisite&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://liamsturgess.substack.com/&#34;&gt;Substack&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://liamsturgess.locals.com/&#34;&gt;Locals&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Escalating Cyberwar: Warlord Technology</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/warlord-technology/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/warlord-technology/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/warlord-tech.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/warlord-tech.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/warlord-tech.webp" />
+		<description>Understanding asymmetric systems.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;You have been found guilty.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;em&gt;No trial was necessary, your device has testified against you.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When one navigates corporate controlled cyberspace, the message couldn&amp;rsquo;t be more clear. Governments and tech giants negotiate the terms of total and utter digital feudalism while the people are herded into systems that are explicitly designed to control them. Even while it&amp;rsquo;s still possible, opting-out comes at a non-trivial cost. It is a cost that must be paid in one form or another, because refusing to do so has a grave price as well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;understanding-warlord-technology&#34;&gt;Understanding Warlord Technology&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s generally the case that powerful tools can be used for good or evil, but there are exceptions. Often things can be specialized for particular purposes, and those purposes can themselves be evil ends. On it&amp;rsquo;s face, facial recognition may seem like something that isn&amp;rsquo;t inherently bad, but things change a great deal when it&amp;rsquo;s combined with an &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/KOpCtUvruy0&#34;&gt;orchestra of social manipulation&lt;/a&gt; and control systems. Just as a bank account is useful to have, it&amp;rsquo;s a whole other can of worms once people start being &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/more-britons-raise-the-alarm-over-financial-deplatforming&#34;&gt;de-banked&lt;/a&gt; for political purposes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As such, there are many tools that would be entirely useless to a single person on their own, but are immensely useful for those who have large groups of people to manipulate. What makes these tools &lt;em&gt;asymmetric&lt;/em&gt; is that the advantages are only for the wielder, and disadvantages are imposed on the subjects. Centralized social media platforms are &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/social-media/&#34;&gt;well-suited&lt;/a&gt; for this. Not only are these platforms surveilling and manipulating their users, they have the capacity to lock down content only to fellow captives. This means that a public figure limiting their voice to these platforms is only able to get their voice out if they&amp;rsquo;re allowed to. &lt;em&gt;Those of us who want to reach the public, and the &lt;strong&gt;public themselves&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; must do more to support independent platforms and protocols, or else we&amp;rsquo;ll all remain beholden to top-down information control systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a well-earned reluctance from the public to adopt smart appliances, and other intrusive technology. When every device is monitored and controlled by corporations in the cloud, any feature of that device being &lt;a href=&#34;https://news.yahoo.com/remote-stealth-commands-tamper-temperatures-090308386.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall&#34;&gt;abused arbitrarily&lt;/a&gt; becomes an inevitability. Understanding this means that &lt;strong&gt;warlord technology&lt;/strong&gt; is any device or system that enables someone else to have power over one or many other people. What effectively makes this technology so dangerous is the fact that it&amp;rsquo;s simple to disguise the actual purpose. Tech giants offering free services in exchange for data-harvesting has successfully put many of the serious risks &lt;em&gt;out of sight and out of mind&lt;/em&gt;. As governments across the world become more repressive, these risks come into view well after they could be prevented. The opposite exists as well too, it&amp;rsquo;s possible for &lt;em&gt;emancipatory&lt;/em&gt; technology to be developed that&amp;rsquo;s useful to people generally, but fundamentally useless for anyone seeking power over others.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Free and Open Web&lt;/em&gt; is an excellent example, independent and non-commercial websites managed by individuals using open protocols would have been a nightmare to properly index and seize control of. Because of this, people were nudged onto controlled platforms instead of self-publishing. Another example of asymmetric technology which benefits the people would be encryption and privacy tools. Those in power will always have the means and coordination to conceal their activities. Providing simple ways for users to protect their private information increases the costs of violating people&amp;rsquo;s rights exponentially, which is why these tools are often &lt;a href=&#34;https://element.io/blog/end-to-end-encryption-the-will-of-the-british-people/&#34;&gt;targeted by governments&lt;/a&gt; with &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/09/india_messaging_apps_ban/&#34;&gt;any excuse they can find.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Of course, there is symmetric technology as well. Many general-purpose tools can be used for both great evil and good as well. I would argue truly asymmetric technologies are rare, or at least highly specialized. Almost everything has all kinds of potential uses that themselves can be used for benevolent or malicious choices, ultimately it&amp;rsquo;s downstream of the human condition. It is important to keep in mind however, that even the most symmetric of technology can be used by those with malevolent (or indifferent) intent for malicious ends. Just as a hammer can be used to build or for cruelty, what may seem like a reasonable exchange may end up being a terrible situation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;cyberwar-on-civilians&#34;&gt;Cyberwar on Civilians&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As noted in &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/cyberwar/&#34;&gt;A non-Combattant&amp;rsquo;s Guide to Cyberwar&lt;/a&gt;, governments are increasingly treating your devices, connections, and even your mind as a national security target. Under the pretext of combating foreign funded misinformation, governments across the globe are working to secure total information dominance over their populations. It should go without saying that this itself is inherently anti-democratic, despite being done in the name of &lt;em&gt;protecting our democracy&lt;/em&gt;. Surveillance and censorship are serious problems, but very often the lede being buried is that it&amp;rsquo;s just as much about &lt;em&gt;manipulation&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyberwar.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/cyberwar/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;A Non-Combattant&amp;#39;s Guide to Cyberwar&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Making sense of the chaos and the crossfire.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Censorship and surveillance themselves are serious attacks on the rights and liberty on civilians, outright manipulation of the public is an even graver overreach with even more troubling implications. We can not take for granted the mistake it would be to allow these measures to continue unopposed.  Too many ignore the active role governments have taken in waging cyberwar on the public. While it&amp;rsquo;s intuitive to many that corporations have a profit-incentive to acquire and control as much data as possible, to others it&amp;rsquo;s inconceivable to many more that governments would violate their own laws to secure domestic or foreign policy objectives.&lt;br&gt;
+Despite the first amendment in the united states being quite clear:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Congress shall make no law respecting&lt;/strong&gt; an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; &lt;strong&gt;or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The United States has an entire information control complex that involved government departments explicitly &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.racket.news/p/twitter-files-thread-the-spies-who&#34;&gt;working with corporations&lt;/a&gt; to manipulate public discourse during the Covid Crisis. Even when the courts attempt to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nationalreview.com/news/federal-judge-blocks-biden-officials-from-coordinating-censorship-with-social-media-companies/&#34;&gt;restrict such overreach&lt;/a&gt; the largely compliant media will continue the campaign of normalizing censorship and information control, essentially advocating for the nullification of the people&amp;rsquo;s rights.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://alilybit.substack.com/p/the-silent-invasion&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The Silent Invasion&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Speculative Foundation of Surveillance Behind the Ongoing Privacy Erosion&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;All-encompassing surveillance is bad enough, using that information to manipulate and control the public is even worse, but far more terrible is to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/11/15/governments-square-fight-big-tech-encryption/&#34;&gt;undermine people&amp;rsquo;s security&lt;/a&gt;. Governments across the world have made it explicitly clear that while you may nominally have the right to privacy and security, it disappears the moment it conflicts with policy objectives. Due to the power gained from limitless surveillance, you being a law-abiding citizen in good social standing means little. Free citizens across the world must find ways to reassert control and ownership over their governments, lest we all become subjects of tyrannical systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;digital-blockades&#34;&gt;Digital Blockades&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The greatest mistake is to always presume internet blackouts are an all-or-nothing affair. The tragic truth is that the tools of suppression can be &lt;em&gt;incredibly precise&lt;/em&gt;. The public at large has been almost wholly ignorant of this, and this has enabled behavior that leaves them vulnerable. Many people are expecting a full-on &amp;ldquo;lights-out&amp;rdquo; internet blackout. In almost every case this is unnecessary, as people themselves are all too willing to use top-down controlled platforms, self-censor and ignore practical privacy risks. The biggest challenge is that something as simple as not &lt;a href=&#34;https://libredns.gr/&#34;&gt;encrypting your DNS queries&lt;/a&gt; by using the default, allows governments to lean on service providers to seize control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-9-preview.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-9&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #9 Internet Shutdowns&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Information control is the root of modern tyranny.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is almost cliche these days, that governments will do everything in their power to suppress genuinely useful information in a crisis when it plays to their advantage. It&amp;rsquo;s important not to be naive about corporations as well. They are every bit as capable of egregious abuses. Public-Private partnerships have worked to transform our &lt;em&gt;turn-key totalitarianism&lt;/em&gt; into an unending ratchet of tyranny. As economic, social, and political power concentrates, it can be harder and harder for truly independent infrastructure to operate in a neutral way, if not outright impossible. Over time, it can be too odious for even willing infrastructure providers to withstand the pressure to participate in censorship. No dissident or marginalized person can actually rely on a business or institution putting their needs ahead of the it&amp;rsquo;s existence. This means that as more people conform to information control, and are compliant with ever more restrictive technology, the harder it is for people at all levels of society to break free. This is especially true for those who are disadvantaged.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ultimately the more capable our devices are the more leverage they can potentially have over the public. We must be vigilant to not enable governments, corporations, or other malevolent entities to leverage them against us. Legislative restrictions are not sufficient to prevent abuse. Citizens must be well-educated on the risks, where possible devices &amp;amp; systems must be properly verifiable and secure, lastly there must be severe consequences for abuse. In the name of fighting &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/europe/france-approves-law-to-remotely-eavesdrop-devices-of-suspected-terrorists-articleshow.html&#34;&gt;terrorism or other threats&lt;/a&gt; the French government is introducing powers to leverage every device a person has against them. Even if one agrees that this power is warranted in this specific circumstance, there is no guarantee that such powers won&amp;rsquo;t be &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.businessinsider.com/macron-france-social-media-phone-gps-camera-curb-protests-2023-7&#34;&gt;generalized over time&lt;/a&gt;. In fact, even very specific measures preventing such abuse have consistently been ignored by all kinds of governments under all kinds of pretexts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;full-auto-tyranny&#34;&gt;Full-Auto Tyranny&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We already live in a world where the state of cyberspace has profound impacts on how people behave outside of it. As it currently exists, the majority of cyberspace is dominated by Corporations, Governments, and other un-accountable entities. The dream of an &amp;ldquo;information super-highway&amp;rdquo; where people of all backgrounds can meaningfully create, learn and share together is in dire peril.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/hive-moderation.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Hive Moderation is a real-time AI censorship tool. 
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Moderation at scale&amp;rdquo; effectively means mass information control. Instead of merely ranching people onto platforms to serve them targeted ads, now the capabilities exist to immediately prevent inconvenient discourse, or even entirely shape discussion. Even if people are starting to wake up to 2010s era social media, hardly anyone is prepared for the impacts created by upcoming and state-of-the art systems of control. It is critical to not let the inefficiencies and short-comings of existing systems lure you into a false sense of security when it comes to future threats.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Naturally, these excesses will be demanded on the terms of safety, and preventing crime. While there are real and severe dangers in cyberspace, it is important to note that this level of control over the people is entirely unprecedented. As these systems roll out, people will only barely have solace in their own mind, but hardly anywhere else.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;fertile-ground-for-resistance&#34;&gt;Fertile ground for resistance&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;First and foremost, we need to strengthen our commitment to each other&amp;rsquo;s inalienable human rights before nit-picking on particular technological choices.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These implications have a very real impact on our daily lives. More and more &lt;a href=&#34;https://ottawabluesfest.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/13089137560603-Onsite-Methods-of-Payment-CASHLESS&#34;&gt;events and services&lt;/a&gt; are going entirely &lt;em&gt;cashless&lt;/em&gt; which often requires people to use products and services with terrible privacy protections. You may have been able to opt-out of these systems yourself, but what can be done to protect others from them? What about people who are perfectly fine with trading a total online-enabled surveillance grid if it makes their life easier? What about those who genuinely lack the time and energy to devote to opting out? Even entire cities can fold to the pressure of conforming to these trends in the face of powerful incentives.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Regardless of one&amp;rsquo;s chosen level of participation, it is absolutely vital that we get others to understand the risks. With that understanding it can be much easier to individually and collectively negotiate vital protections that need to be available, and encourage investment in new products and techniques. For now, it seems that the demand for tools and systems that don&amp;rsquo;t impact one&amp;rsquo;s privacy and freedom is far too low. We are all responsible for if not outright raising that demand, and communicating it effectively.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s a shame that the benefits of free and open dialogue are only readily apparent when they&amp;rsquo;re gone. The capability for people across the world to freely exchange information near instantaneously is absolutely critical to people&amp;rsquo;s life and liberty. It is vital that humanity maintains this critical component in holding the powerful accountable. Allowing the massive power structures that exist to have a veto power over people&amp;rsquo;s communication is too large an advantage to passively permit.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In times of inflamed tensions, social unrest, or even economic troubles, it can be very tempting for governments to &lt;em&gt;smooth things over&lt;/em&gt; by constraining people&amp;rsquo;s ability to learn, create and share with each other. In many cases this undermines the peoples own ability to adapt to changes, potentially being caught unaware of dangers the state failed to (or chose not to) communicate. These days, whenever a nation adopts a particularly egregious control measure, regardless of pretext or circumstances other nations aren&amp;rsquo;t far behind. While the assaults on people&amp;rsquo;s privacy and digital autonomy are top-down they are enabled or even welcomed by particular behaviors that we have a responsibility to stop, and prevent.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The major challenge is that people from all walks of life need to be willing, able, and prepared to oppose abuse the situation arises. Like all deterrents to abuse, they have to be genuine and credible, or the people risk having their bluff called.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Out-thinking the Culture Wars with Gary Sharpe</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/qa1-gary-sharpe/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/qa1-gary-sharpe/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/bulb.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/bulb.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/bulb.webp" />
+		<description>A Q&amp;A about emotional intelligence in these trying times.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I really appreciate Gary Sharpe‘s perspective on the emotional side of what people face. He has a wealth of excellent advice and I was pleased to have the opportunity to do this Q&amp;amp;A.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://garysharpe.substack.com/&#34;&gt;Gary Sharpe&amp;rsquo;s Articles&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;q--a&#34;&gt;Q &amp;amp; A&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;One of the threads I&amp;rsquo;m currently following is the Culture Wars, and how the public has been largely divided into a multitude of different ideologies that can often perceive each other as an existential danger. This itself seems to be a massive stressor that drives much of the strife people experience these days.&lt;br&gt;
+From your perspective, what would be effective ways people can deescalate the cultural tensions without necessarily “giving up ground”?&lt;br&gt;
+I ask this because, it&amp;rsquo;s starting to take more of my attention. I&amp;rsquo;ve been filtered into my own ideology, and I can certainly feel a limit to what kinds of people I can plausibly reach or even communicate with. Initially I had more hope that this would be resolved over time, but if anything it&amp;rsquo;s only gotten worse and worse.&lt;br&gt;
+Appreciate your thoughts!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Gary: &amp;ldquo;That’s a Big Question, and I wish I had the answer. Firstly, I agree with you that the Culture Wars are stressful for everyone. I also suspect that the powers-that-be are fomenting them on purpose, as part of classic divide-and-rule tactics.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The basic problem is, when we are in a fearful, or stressed, state, which as you say the Culture War itself induces and maintains, our psychological and physiological states shift markedly from when we are in a calm, relaxed state, when we feel safe.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In particular, from Dr Iain McGilchrist’s work, we know that we lose access to the right hemisphere of our brain&amp;rsquo;s way of attending to the world. In this state, we can be totally delusional, and very rigid in our black and white thinking, utterly believe our own lies and construct halls-of-mirrors against receiving new or challenging information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;From Dr Stephen Porges’ work we know we also lose access to our social engagement system, including the loss of the ability to read other people, and become literally unable to tune in to other voices, and so we tend to see “others” from outside our tribe as dangerous threats.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Indeed, recent advances in psychology show the brain is essentially a predicting organ, and when the reality of the world doesn&amp;rsquo;t match its predictions, it has to resolve the contradiction. It can do this in one of two ways: delude itself and ignore reality, or update itself and its predictions. In the stressed state, we tend to opt for the delusion, as new or countering information can induce a significant danger response in of itself: this threatens our own identity or world view, and shifts in these can be traumatic.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;So the pragmatic answer to your question is when people are already triggered, it is probably not worth the energy trying to connect or get through to them [with facts and figures] The “not giving up ground” part of the question is probably part of the answer: to be able to be together, but agree not to discuss religion/ideology or politics if this triggers each other! One of the issues, however, is how every topic of conversation has become political.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;*“Every topic becoming political” - sadly, that&amp;rsquo;s a big part of the problem. Language itself has become politicized and the decision to use/not use particular words is effectively signalling affiliation in many ways. &lt;em&gt;I think a lot of it comes down to trust. I really like &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtube.com/watch?v=38hI_E33vq4&#34;&gt;this video&lt;/a&gt; about a game called&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://ncase.me/trust/&#34;&gt;The Evolution of Trust&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The simulation concludes that three things are required for the evolution of trust&lt;/em&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;repeated interactions&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;possible win-wins&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;low miscommunication&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m not sure what can be done about the first two, but on the third item I have continuously worked to try to be clear as possible, with varying degrees of success.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Gary: On the trust and win-win topic, have you come across the work of &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtube.com/watch?v=eF-E40pxxbI&#34;&gt;Liv Boeree&lt;/a&gt; she has been thinking about this and how to overcome the lose-lose forces of “Molloch”.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Many online communities that are pleasant to be a part of aren&amp;rsquo;t actually tolerant, but rather merely one of many echo-chambers of like-minded individuals.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;em&gt;In Corbett&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.corbettreport.com/the-media-matrix-full-documentary/&#34;&gt;Media Matrix documentary&lt;/a&gt; he cites that since the introduction of television, offline social interaction has been on the decline.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;em&gt;I think the biggest change in our era is that online interactions aren&amp;rsquo;t merely an additional layer on top of regular human-to-human interaction, can be an alternative, especially for those who lack friends &amp;amp; family.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;em&gt;Would you say that itself is the problem, or is it something that we could handle better?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Gary: According to the work of Dr Stephen Porges, “real life” social interactions and social engagement is vital for humans to flourish. This is why putting someone into solitary isolation in prisons is the worse form of punishment, and considered a method of torture. It is also why loneliness is the biggest predictor of fast decline of conditions like Parkinson’s or dementia.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Online social engagement can provide some of these needs, but can not replace it completely, because it is missing some important “nourishing” elements, such as body language and touch. This is why zoom calls can be exhausting, whereas positive social engagement in real life can be restorative, and energy giving.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I feel like this explains a great deal of why people are constantly kept in fear. There is much to be concerned about, but I think much of the fearmongering is to find ways to prevent people from seeing win-win scenarios. I spent much of 2020/2021 in fear, not of the virus, but what the state would/could do over it.&lt;br&gt;
+While there was definitely serious overreach, and incredible harms done in the response I&amp;rsquo;m not sure being consumed by fear improved my ability to handle it. In your opinion, what are some good ways to handle rational fear that goes too far?&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Gary: I heard something which resonated with me on this just yesterday “fear is the worry that you are going to be less safe in the future than you are right now”. So the problem with being stuck in chronic fear is that we exile ourselves from even feeling safe in the now, even when there really is no imminent or proximate danger. Fear does keep us divided and distracted, and I agree this is being used on purpose by those who seek to control everything and everyone.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;On the fear that comes with “waking up” to what is really going on the world, I have seen a common arc, including in myself, similar to what you describe. At first, it is not only terrifying, but also going down the rabbit holes can be addictive. So we get very scared, but also keep ourselves in the fear by constantly staring into the abyss.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Then we start to feel a need to do something about it, to become solution oriented, begin to focus on resistance and finding like minded people, and a sense safety in numbers. We then begin to pay less attention to the day-to-day minutiae of what the elites are up to and start building alternative systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I have watched daily youtubers like Richard Vobes and Dr John Campbell going through these stages in real time. It might like the stages of grief, so it might actually be necessary to go through the fear stage, in order to get to the other side.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;You&amp;rsquo;ve hit an important point! There really does seem to be an addictive component. This is often pathologized to dismiss people&amp;rsquo;s very real concerns, but I can&amp;rsquo;t help but wonder if that element serves a real purpose. In your mind, what do you think specifically makes it addictive?&lt;br&gt;
+I&amp;rsquo;ve seen the mainstream argue it&amp;rsquo;s because it&amp;rsquo;s just selfish people who want to feel better than everyone else. In my experience this doesn&amp;rsquo;t match up to reality as many of the other people I&amp;rsquo;ve encountered on this journey are some of the least selfish I&amp;rsquo;ve met.&lt;br&gt;
+I do think the fact that it&amp;rsquo;s even possible is a marvel to itself, it&amp;rsquo;s a testament to how useful a free and open web can be.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Gary: When we are stressed or threatened, we go through a defence cascade of escalating responses. First a startle or orienting response, that takes us either back to calm, or to a fight-flight type response. If the flight-fight response isn&amp;rsquo;t successful at ameliorating the threat, we then escalate into a rigid type of freeze, or playing dead, response, and if that doesn&amp;rsquo;t work we end up fainting or in a floppy type of freeze response.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many of the threats that our nervous system perceives in the modern world are not ones we can fight or run away from. So a lot of people are stuck partially in a freeze response, with various levels of dysfunction. By putting ourselves into states of anger or functional fear, e.g. by focussing on an &amp;ldquo;enemy&amp;rdquo; that we can fight as &amp;ldquo;keyboard warriors&amp;rdquo;, we can temporarily bump ourselves out of the freeze response back into a fight-flight response, by generating internal dopamine and adrenaline.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Being in fight-flight allows us to be temporarily more functional in the world, and while this is not a healthy state to be in long term either, it feels generally less unpleasant and uncomfortable than being in freeze, so it is preferable for a lot of people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Of course, like all addictions, using the Culture Wars or taking ourselves down the scary rabbit holes as our way of choice for getting the dopamine/adrenaline fix ends up needing more and more extreme stimulus for it to work and have the effect. Eventually we need to move out of the fear, into a more creative stage, becoming solution orientated and helping to build alternatives.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Thank you so much for this, I greatly appreciate it and the answers themselves.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you haven’t read any of Gary’s writing, I’d highly recomment the following:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://garysharpe.substack.com/p/the-view-from-a-self-traumatizing&#34;&gt;The View From a Self-Traumatizing Society&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://garysharpe.substack.com/p/the-dopamine-adrenaline-connection&#34;&gt;The Dopamine-Adrenaline Connection&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://garysharpe.substack.com/p/how-to-avoid-a-hybrid-orwellian-huxleyian&#34;&gt;How to Avoid a Hybrid Orwellian-Huxleyian Dystopia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Tools: the Good and the Bad</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tool-bench.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tool-bench.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tool-bench.webp" />
+		<description>Understanding technological choices.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If all you have is a hammer, suddenly every single thing starts to look like a nail.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hardly and tool itself is wholly evil or entirely good. Not only are the &lt;em&gt;tools themselves&lt;/em&gt; important, how we use them matters quite a bit as well. This applies all the way from the entire software ecosystem, down to the hardware components themselves. The fundamental attributes of the tool will set the incentives for how they can be used, and how they are used creates incentives for how future tools will be made. This feedback loop can be used to concentrate power or to distribute it. This is precisely where your understanding is a prerequisite for making deliberate choices.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;concepts&#34;&gt;Concepts&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Autonomy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Can I do what I want, on my own terms?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Privacy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Does using this, divulge information in unnecessary or unwanted ways?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Efficiency&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Does it complete it&amp;rsquo;s function with minimal waste?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Verifiability&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Is it possible to validate the condition and function(s) of it?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Accessibility&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Is it reasonably useful to those with different needs and requirements?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;examples&#34;&gt;Examples&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the past, I have been asked for a quick answer to explain if a particular technology or system is itself good or bad. It can be difficult to give a concise answer when there are often a couple of fine points that are worth taking the time to focus on. It has often been said that &lt;em&gt;the medium is the message&lt;/em&gt; and this much more the case when it comes to digital and online systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;qr-codes&#34;&gt;QR Codes&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With the introduction of &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=vaccine_passport&#34;&gt;vaccine passports&lt;/a&gt;, QR codes have soured on a lot of people. Gating access to venues or services behind the need for one to digitally identify themselves presented many serious risks to privacy and civil rights. Unfortunately, none of this required a QR code specifically. &lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.nortechcontrol.com/nfc-access-control&#34;&gt;NFC&lt;/a&gt; or RFID access cards could provide the exact same functionality. While QR codes were a highly-visible mechanism to enable automated segregation, there&amp;rsquo;s no guarantee that future systems of control will look the same.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/tools-qr.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    This article&amp;#39;s URL as a QR code 
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is because QR codes are just one of many ways to transmit data over a short distance. Using a camera the device detects the pattern and then decodes it into the required data format. This can just be a bit of text, a website URL, or binary data. I don&amp;rsquo;t think there&amp;rsquo;s anything inherently harmful to QR codes being used on things like posters and business cards provided that they aren&amp;rsquo;t hiding data or using &lt;em&gt;tracking links&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/4bbd4e5a-352d-4d24-82ea-e8832e902021&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;qr-codes-are-not-all-created-equal&#34;&gt;QR codes are not all created equal&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Because anything can be encoded into a QR code, there are still some risks to be aware of. Just like you shouldn&amp;rsquo;t open strange links, you may not want to open every QR code you see. This is why some QR reader apps will display the decoded information so that you can decide if you want to open the link or not.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Another problem is that you may not even be able to decode the QR code at all. If you have to present an app-generated QR code to interact with a system, you may not have any knowledge of what data is being used and shared.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;smartphones&#34;&gt;Smartphones&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/smartphone.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/diagrams/smartphone.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The powers-that-be don’t want you to write your own stories, make your own movies, and draw your own art, even though everyone has, in their pockets, the technology to do all of the above, with a good wireless keyboard, a camera module, and a stylus.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;No, they want you to read their dumbed-down prolefeed, watch Netflix, Instagram your cat, your food, and your cat food, swipe through Pinterest a few times, get your daily fix, and then peacefully, complacently, obediently nod off on the couch. They don’t want people carrying around devices that center the user as a creator of content. Instead, they want you to do nothing but consume their approved messages.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In short, for the vast majority of people, they’re trying to turn personal computers into television. They’re trying to drag us backwards, into a prior era, where the ruling class had a death grip on the narrative. This is a trend that must be resisted. Never give up your keyboards, ever.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://iceni.substack.com/p/spartacast-06&#34;&gt;Spartacast 06&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If someone was limited to only using a smartphone they may be severely limited in what they&amp;rsquo;re able to accomplish. As you can see, the consequences of giving up a keyboard alone are immense. If that wasn&amp;rsquo;t bad enough, these devices tend to be vulnerable to malware exploited by all kinds of bad-actors. Smartphones are a high-value target because many people keep a treasure-trove of personal data. If that wasn&amp;rsquo;t bad enough often the &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/googles-private-coronavirus-tracking-app-data-leak&#34;&gt;manufacturers themselves&lt;/a&gt; will participate in undermining your privacy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve written in the past:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s not the smartphone, but what was in it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is nothing inherently mind-killing about a small, portable computer that uses a touch-screen interface. What truly forged the massive mind control apparatus was the things that came with it:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Real-time location tracking&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;24/7 audio and video surveillance capabilities&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Corporate Social Media as &lt;em&gt;Digital information Control Systems&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/information-control&#34;&gt;Conceptualizing Information Control&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are many ways that the useful parts of smartphones could be replicated in a simpler, &lt;a href=&#34;https://thenewleafjournal.com/the-ideal-phone-e-ink-and-qwerty/&#34;&gt;more focused device&lt;/a&gt;. Re-installing android without google play services can go a long way for many android devices, but in the long run it would be excellent if we could support independent manufacturers that create genuinely good devices.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;centralized-platforms&#34;&gt;Centralized Platforms&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A tried-and-true business model is to run a platform that allows users to create valuable content. With a large audience to attract all kinds of writers, musicians, podcasters, or even video producers, the platform can double-dip acquiring data on the audience as well as the performers. Just as creators will be able to see stats for their content, the platform&amp;rsquo;s operators themselves will have all kinds of metrics and data on everyone.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/substack-stats.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Substack readership stats 
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Creators on these platforms essentially trade some (or all) control over their content in exchange for an audience. No matter what method you use to disseminate your message, it&amp;rsquo;s critical that you maintain control over your work. For example, the Libre Solutions Network is written for the website first, then the content migrated to substack for additional reach. This means that if I ever lost access, or decided that staying on the platform wasn&amp;rsquo;t worthwhile, all the content would still exist.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As a member of the audience, it&amp;rsquo;s critical that you help make it possible for creators to maintain their own independent presence. Simple habits like bookmarking and using an RSS reader can really make a huge difference in supporting an independent information landscape. At the very least it&amp;rsquo;s vital that you ensure that your attention isn&amp;rsquo;t entirely locked to a single or set of controlled platforms.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/learning-lessons.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/social-media&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Social Media: Learning the right lessons&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Understanding information control&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;machine-learning&#34;&gt;Machine Learning&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The most dangerous aspect of AI right now is that it&amp;rsquo;s being used as an excuse to build a regulatory environment that empowers the very same technocrats to have even more digital control over people. While machine learning tools are very effective force multipliers in particular situations, most of the so-called AI risks have already been done by people to people with tools that are already readily available. Humanity has never lacked the tools to totally and completely annihilate itself, additional powers and tools only represent a danger to the degree they &lt;em&gt;tip the scales&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For example, while I currently choose not to automatically narrate all my posts with a cloned voice, it&amp;rsquo;s a viable option. I would definitely oppose any effort that seeks to keep such technology out of people&amp;rsquo;s hands, especially if there were offline-available tools that could be used without assistance from cloud services. Those who&amp;rsquo;s power relies on information being a controlled resource would love nothing more than to have a monopoly on extremely efficient content creation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/big-data.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-2/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #2 Big Data &amp;amp; Artificial Intelligence&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is all this data for anyways?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are many efficient uses of machine learning that don&amp;rsquo;t automatically enable obscene privacy invasion. Distributing pre-trained models would be a great way to help people get more use out of low-power systems, potentially preventing a massive amount of waste. A prerequisite for better AI tools is a better way of building them. Instead of allowing big tech to hoover up all of everyone&amp;rsquo;s information, we need to work together to collaborate on important datasets with data we choose.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>A Non-Combattant&#39;s Guide to Cyberwar</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/cyberwar/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/cyberwar/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyberwar.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyberwar.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cyberwar.webp" />
+		<description>Making sense of the chaos and the crossfire.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;We live in interesting times. In addition to the many &lt;em&gt;boots-on-the-ground&lt;/em&gt; conflicts going on, cyberspace is a theatre of war with hardly any distinction between military and civilian targets. Nothing is &lt;em&gt;off-limits&lt;/em&gt; and combatants can be anything from creative individuals to well-funded &lt;em&gt;state level actors&lt;/em&gt; like governments and &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.hackread.com/microsoft-sued-stolen-dark-web-credentials/&#34;&gt;multi-national corporations&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s no way to be perfectly out-of-the-way. Any significant cluster of data, storage, computing power, or bandwidth can become a strategic resource to be sought after. When it comes to hacks, many cybersecurity professionals will say that &lt;strong&gt;it&amp;rsquo;s a matter of when, not if.&lt;/strong&gt; This means that the goal of the technocratic empires to centrally control data on everyone&amp;hellip; everything&amp;hellip; everywhere, backfires when &lt;em&gt;resilience&lt;/em&gt; starts to become critically important.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-makes-you-a-target&#34;&gt;What makes you a target?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You may not be interested in cyberwar, but it has ways of being interested in you. For many governments, dissenting narratives are themselves considered a threat. The &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.corbettreport.com/are-you-prepared-for-the-infodemic/&#34;&gt;infodemic&lt;/a&gt; narrative allows funding intended for protecting critical infrastructure from hacks, to be used to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy33vx/night-fury-documents-detail-dhs-project-to-give-risk-scores-to-social-media-users&#34;&gt;classify citizens&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/1633219240575610881#m&#34;&gt;censor your speech&lt;/a&gt;. If only it stopped there, law-enforcement and intelligence agencies often make use of &lt;a href=&#34;https://news.yahoo.com/canada-national-police-force-admits-110537329.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall&#34;&gt;malware themselves&lt;/a&gt; to invade people&amp;rsquo;s devices with dubious oversight.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is where your participation really matters. Propping up systems of control only raise the risk for yourself and others around you. It may not be a big deal when yet another company has a massive data breach, but it&amp;rsquo;s a whole other matter when it&amp;rsquo;s a treasure-trove of data the state has been collecting on everyone.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I hope that this would encourage democracies worldwide to shift from control and domination to education and innovation. By treating citizens as &lt;em&gt;just another target&lt;/em&gt; you give up the most important strategic advantage: resilience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You cannot invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The best way to properly mitigate risk is to properly diffuse it. Avoiding systems that unnecessarily introduce risk would go a long way too. We don&amp;rsquo;t just need people to have computer skills, but we need to implement better tools and methods for many aspects of cyberspace. Allowing tyrants to seize power over cyberspace &lt;em&gt;for your safety&lt;/em&gt; merely replaces small solvable problems with a single massive one.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With all this in mind, even as a non-combattant, it&amp;rsquo;s important to understand the battlefield and what you can do. There is a lot to understand even if you have no desire to ever hack anyone. Taking your own privacy, security and systems seriously can go a long way.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;cyberwarfare&#34;&gt;Cyberwarfare&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Keeping digital systems safe from intrusion requires active vigilance. Whether it&amp;rsquo;s your social media accounts, company software, or critical infrastructure, a great deal of proactive work is required to prevent or mitigate problems. The challenge is that the defense has to get lucky every time, whereas the attackers only need to get lucky once.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A serious problem is that various exploits can be &lt;em&gt;chained together&lt;/em&gt; allowing for more sophisticated attacks to take place. To complicate matters, &lt;em&gt;the Internet never forgets&lt;/em&gt;. Data that has been seized or leaked can be weaponized forever. This is why the top-down strategy of the state and corporations data-mining and manipulating the public is a terribly poor strategy for cyber resilience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;social-engineering&#34;&gt;Social Engineering&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We are all human after all. Ignorance is a problem, but so can an occasional act of carelessness. The point isn&amp;rsquo;t to beat yourself up over every mistake, but to take incidents seriously enough to learn from them before they can be a bigger problem.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It has been often said &lt;em&gt;the people are the weakest link&lt;/em&gt;. If such an individual is known, it can sometimes be much easier to manipulate a person with access, rather than the system directly. This gets much worse when everyone is under constant surveillance by a variety of different entities. Suddenly, a one-off cloud account hack can be a springboard for other intrusions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;phishing&#34;&gt;Phishing&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.phishing.org/what-is-phishing&#34;&gt;Phishing&lt;/a&gt; is worth it&amp;rsquo;s own post.&lt;br&gt;
+There are many different ways it can be carried out:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;E-mail:&lt;/strong&gt; one kind of attack is an urgent email that requires you to immediately click a certain link. That link will then present a fake log-in form disguised as a legitimate site. This could be used to steal your credentials. If the site itself has a vulnerability, merely clicking the link itself could be enough to compromise your account.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Attachments&lt;/strong&gt; any file sent your way may be more than meets the eye. There are a variety of methods that allow a file that&amp;rsquo;s opened to either run as a virus, or send your data elsewhere.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;None of this is exclusive to e-mail&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
+Messaging apps, and online communities can all enable the same problems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-4.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-4/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #4 Online Identity&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is following you in your digital tracks?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;impersonation&#34;&gt;Impersonation&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thanks to a variety of voice cloning tools, impersonation is a significant risk. There are already many scams where someone receives a call from someone who sounds like their loved one asking for urgent financial assistance. The biggest risk from impersonation is not just manipulation of your loved ones, but it also makes the risk of identity theft more potent.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;malware&#34;&gt;Malware&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Malware is a bit of software that allows the attacker to either infiltrate or take control of particular systems. Sometimes it&amp;rsquo;s for mining cryptocurrency, stealing data, or more nefarious ends. Not only are cybercriminals making use of malware, but &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.corbettreport.com/beyond-pegasus-the-bigger-picture-of-israeli-cyber-spying/&#34;&gt;governments too&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;remote-execution&#34;&gt;Remote execution&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Usually the first thing a sophisticated attacker wants over their target is the ability to execute a &lt;em&gt;payload&lt;/em&gt; on the target&amp;rsquo;s system. The payload is additional instructions or programs such as more malware.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;privilege-escalation&#34;&gt;Privilege escalation&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s bad enough to have a computer virus on your system, but often these programs will have techniques to give themselves more access over the system. This can include things like acting as your computer&amp;rsquo;s administrator, or gaining access to control over services hosted on a server.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;botnets&#34;&gt;Botnets&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When an attacker has control over many systems, they can be used as a &lt;em&gt;botnet&lt;/em&gt;. A massive swarm of infected systems can be used for &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ddos/what-is-a-ddos-attack/&#34;&gt;DDOS attacks&lt;/a&gt; or merely act as remote storage and proxy for attackers. By proxying their attacks, attackers can quite effectively disguise their origin.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://hiddencomplexity.substack.com/p/from-espionage-to-warfare-cyber-war&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;From Espionage to Warfare - Cyber war grows&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Slow death of privacy&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;vulnerabilities&#34;&gt;Vulnerabilities&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Believe it or not, machines aren&amp;rsquo;t perfect either! Software development is &lt;em&gt;complicated&lt;/em&gt; and computer engineering is even more so. From either simple mistakes or lack of forethought problems pile up over the course of development. From time and resource constraints hardly any product is perfect. Many large software projects will routinely release updates to fix vulnerabilities so updating is important.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;0-days&#34;&gt;0 days&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;0 days&amp;rdquo; are a term for very valuable exploits that are presumed to be unknown to the developer/manufacturer at a given moment in time. This means that there&amp;rsquo;s likely not a security fix coming for some time. 0 days can be be minor or quite critical. A major bug in a browser could potentially be part of a 0day that gives a malicious website access to your system. The most important take-away about 0days is that while software may be secure when working as intended, there can be circumstances where it isn&amp;rsquo;t.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;supply-chain-attacks&#34;&gt;Supply-chain attacks&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Especially in the cases where a vulnerability is introduced in production. Software is often built on other software called libraries, and hardware is generally built with components from other suppliers. This creates an opportunity for malicious actors to introduce problems in the creation of particular software or systems. Because many projects will often use the same components or libraries, this kind of attack can impact a wide variety of targets.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;backdoors&#34;&gt;Backdoors&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;More and more governments around the world are &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/coordinated-attack/&#34;&gt;working to undermine&lt;/a&gt; end-to-end encryption and online privacy. Intrusions do not end at demanding access to everyone&amp;rsquo;s intimate conversations. Often governments and law-enforcement will ask for a vulnerability to be introduced to the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/04/fbi-could-have-gotten-san-bernardino-shooters-iphone-leadership-didnt-say&#34;&gt;product itself.&lt;/a&gt; This is the worst-case-scenario because it&amp;rsquo;s a guarantee that such a valuable key would be discovered, stolen or abused.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;ransomware&#34;&gt;Ransomware&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A particularly nasty kind of malware is &lt;em&gt;ransomware&lt;/em&gt;. The gambit is that the virus encrypts all the infected system&amp;rsquo;s files and &lt;a href=&#34;https://thehackernews.com/2023/06/lockbit-ransomware-extorts-91-million.html&#34;&gt;demands a payment in cryptocurrency.&lt;/a&gt; Not only is everything unaccessible, but often the software will overwrite &lt;em&gt;everything the system has access to&lt;/em&gt; potentially taking out entire enterprises. The &lt;em&gt;only&lt;/em&gt; protection from ransomware is regular offline backups. May be a good reason to start sharing copies of your critical backups with trusted friends or family. Otherwise, you may end up with a particularly painful, or expensive lesson.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;consequences&#34;&gt;Consequences&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As geopolitical conflicts continue, and attackers gain more ground, I would say there has never been a time where it has been more important to take control of your information. Demanding analogue or offline ways of interacting with important institutions is a must.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a significant push to digitize national currencies, and identity documents. One has to wonder if the escalation of state-funded cyber threats has less to do with strategic objectives, or rather creating a &lt;em&gt;pretext&lt;/em&gt; to force citizens to surrender more information and control to less-and-less accountable institutions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Governments and institutions are quickly rushing to orchestrate a top-down solution and handing over more influence to &lt;em&gt;public-private partnerships&lt;/em&gt;. The &amp;ldquo;stakeholders&amp;rdquo; for these partnerships won&amp;rsquo;t be representing your needs or your interests, but rather the influences over those entities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s very concerning to see soft-power projection taking control over people&amp;rsquo;s lives. In his show &lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/c/liamsturgess&#34;&gt;MicroJourneys&lt;/a&gt; Liam Sturgess discusses how these public-private partnerships respond to these threats, and opens the door to discussing the implications.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/55fba39c-0827-40d4-bfd4-5b96ede41ae5&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is becoming hard to see where state power ends and corporate interests begin, and where they overlap. If the last few years is any indication, we can be sure that any additional power granted to these institutions inevitably leads to politicization, abuse, and weaponization. We are all responsible for how we enable governments, civil society organizations, and corporations to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.corbettreport.com/bracing-for-cyber-911/&#34;&gt;undermine our freedom, rights, and security.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There will never be any guarantee that centrally managed services can be safeguarded properly. The only way to protect information, and the people who&amp;rsquo;s safety depends on it, is not to record it at all. If it &lt;em&gt;must be recorded&lt;/em&gt; than measures need to be taken to ensure it is not widely-shared. Sovereign computing needs to be less of a buzzword and more of a foundation for how we build, maintain, and interact with digital systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Operation: Beehive</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/operations/beehive/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 07 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/operations/beehive/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/honeycomb.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/honeycomb.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/honeycomb.webp" />
+		<description>A model for highly productive decentralized work.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Bottom-up, decentralized, and &lt;em&gt;permissionless&lt;/em&gt; strategies are at a premium. With the tools available to us, people from all walks of life are able to cooperate on incredible projects. Instead of relying on a tyrannical pharaoh&amp;rsquo;s vision for some great project, people can make their own public goods. We don&amp;rsquo;t &lt;em&gt;need&lt;/em&gt; to be bigger or more powerful than large institutions to do incredible things. In many cases, it merely takes some creativity and diligent work.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is much work to be done. Many important projects are unable to attain necessary funding or the volunteers to make it work. While it would be nice if we could merely come together and &lt;em&gt;bankroll&lt;/em&gt; these projects, in some cases it may be efficient to reorganize the work itself. By being better able to manage large projects to &lt;em&gt;parallelize&lt;/em&gt; work, we can gain efficiency in ways that are difficult to stop.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many hands make light work.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Have you ever wanted to contribute to a project and been stuck trying to figure out how? Have there been times would you have just liked to &lt;em&gt;get started right away&lt;/em&gt; to get a feel for what&amp;rsquo;s involved? Often people don&amp;rsquo;t know where to start, which allows big tech platforms to herd people into controlled environments.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s time to think like little worker bees. Some go out and gather &lt;em&gt;information&lt;/em&gt; for a project. Others, will take the information and &lt;em&gt;process&lt;/em&gt; it into reusable chunks. These chunks can be assembled to valuable works. With even moderate success, we&amp;rsquo;ll be overflowing with tasty honey. People vastly underestimate what could be accomplished if we merely found ways to properly &lt;em&gt;parallelize&lt;/em&gt; large tasks.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/qUYkRWGWntE&#34;&gt;Rebecca Miller-Webster gives an excellent talk about this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
+Remember! You don&amp;rsquo;t have to use GitHub to use git!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-worker-bee&#34;&gt;The worker bee&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Are you ready to be a humble worker bee? With some consistent effort, you and other worker bees can start making delicious information &lt;em&gt;honey&lt;/em&gt;. Honey is sweet, there are different kinds of honey. The choice is yours, on what particular kinds you&amp;rsquo;re interested in making.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Every good worker bee needs the ability to contribute to the hive. A beehive is a &lt;em&gt;git repository&lt;/em&gt; The repository stores all the information, metadata and history about the project. What&amp;rsquo;s phenomenal about this is that unlike actual beehives, in the case of a disaster you can pick up and start where another hive left off.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You&amp;rsquo;re going to want to be familiar with &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/git-and-github-for-beginners/&#34;&gt;how to use git&lt;/a&gt;. Git is an incredibly powerful tool that allows project changes to be managed from many sources. Imagine, that in the beehive (git repository) you and the other worker bees produce cells (commits) that the beekeeper decides to include in the hive.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s excellent about using git is that you can still use many of the same tools you want to use to edit your files. There are also some excellent text editors that integrate git into them so that working with git can be almost effortless.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;principles&#34;&gt;Principles&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Division of labor&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Everyone has special talents, we should maximize people&amp;rsquo;s ability to contribute without hassle.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Efficiency&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;🐝 Beecome allergic to &lt;em&gt;re-inventing the wheel&lt;/em&gt;.
+Wherever possible, avoid people having to do the same thing over again.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Robustness&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Work should always be in a usable state to avoid waste.&lt;br&gt;
+Using &lt;a href=&#34;https://control.com/technical-articles/machine-readable-vs-human-readable-data/&#34;&gt;machine readable&lt;/a&gt; formats can help with that.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;goals&#34;&gt;Goals&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Decentralized projects&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Often times, there are multiple uses for the same information.&lt;br&gt;
+Different groups may want to use it in slightly different ways.&lt;br&gt;
+Public repositories allow this to be done without starting from scratch.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Friction-less participation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Allowing work to begin without permission allows people to start without coordination.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Censorship resistance&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With strategic use of these tools, critical projects can continue despite immense censorship and pressure.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;advantages&#34;&gt;Advantages&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Collaboration&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By managing changes directly, you can eliminate a lot of the work involved with coordination. In a well-documented project, volunteers can help get other volunteers started.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a wide range of possibilities for what kind of access control you want. You can have a small group of trusted participants, or allow the entire world to have access and have people approve changes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Automated workflows&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By using source files, and a deterministic process, you can have information transformed into a variety of formats automatically when changes are made. These formats could be websites, books, or other materials.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can see this in action in a presentation given to the &lt;a href=&#34;https://metaprepeducation.locals.com/post/4064502/introduction-to-git-with-gabriel&#34;&gt;MetaPrep Education&lt;/a&gt; community.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Version control&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Being able to revert to a previous project state is quite useful, especially in instances where you&amp;rsquo;d like to pick up where another project left off.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;examples-of-beehive-projects&#34;&gt;Examples of Beehive projects&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is not a mere hypothetical, there are &lt;em&gt;real&lt;/em&gt; decentralized projects making use of this strategy already. While they&amp;rsquo;re largely focused on technology and privacy, the same model could quite easily be applied to many different areas in life. These projects are excellent resources themselves. What makes them incredibly powerful is that with a little bit of knowledge, anyone can contribute to improve the project.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;go-foss&#34;&gt;Go FOSS&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gofoss.net/&#34;&gt;https://gofoss.net/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gofoss.net/&#34;&gt;gofoss.net&lt;/a&gt; is a free and open source guide to online privacy, data ownership and durable technology. The project was launched in 2020 by a small team of volunteers, and is 100% non-profit – no ads, no tracking, no sponsored content, no affiliates.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We deplore that many tech companies generate profits at the expense of user privacy. We are increasingly concerned about governments intruding into the private sphere of citizens. And we see an urgent need for action to lower the environmental impact of technology.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gofoss.net/&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/gofoss.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;online-spyware-watchdog&#34;&gt;Online Spyware Watchdog&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://spyware.neocities.org/&#34;&gt;https://spyware.neocities.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The goal of this website is to classify spyware programs, so that users can be more aware that they are installing spyware.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many &amp;ldquo;everyday&amp;rdquo; applications are actually spyware. We take an expansive and strict stance on what constitutes spyware. We define spyware as anything that includes telemetry, phoning home, automatic updates or is listening in without the user&amp;rsquo;s knowledge or consent.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://spyware.neocities.org/&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/watchdog.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;prism-break&#34;&gt;PRISM BREAK&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://prism-break.org/en/&#34;&gt;https://prism-break.org/en/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Help make mass surveillance of entire populations uneconomical! We all have a right to privacy, which you can exercise today by encrypting your communications and ending your reliance on proprietary services.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://prism-break.org/en/&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/prismbreak.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;switching-software&#34;&gt;Switching Software&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://switching.software/&#34;&gt;https://switching.software/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://switching.software/&#34;&gt;switching.software&lt;/a&gt; is a grassroots website, that is trying to let people know about ethical and easy-to-use alternatives to well-known websites, apps and other software.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://switching.software/&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/switchingsoftware.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;privacy-guides&#34;&gt;Privacy Guides&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.privacyguides.org/en/&#34;&gt;https://www.privacyguides.org/en/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Privacy Guides is a socially motivated website that provides information for protecting your data security and privacy. Our mission is to inform the public about the value of digital privacy, and global government initiatives which aim to monitor your online activity. We are a non-profit collective operated entirely by volunteer team members and contributors. Our website is free of advertisements and not affiliated with any of the listed providers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://www.privacyguides.org/en/&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/privacyguides.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;awesome--delightful-lists&#34;&gt;Awesome / Delightful Lists&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Lists like these are excellent resources for finding curated and detailed information. These are very often more useful than search engines, which will very often point you to a few sponsored results.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome&#34;&gt;https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://codeberg.org/teaserbot-labs/delightful&#34;&gt;https://codeberg.org/teaserbot-labs/delightful&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Publishing your own lists and indexes is a very powerful thing indeed.
+It can be as simple as a text file, or a fully-featured search-enabled site. No matter what, the content is able to stand on it&amp;rsquo;s own and can be freely shared.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;understanding-the-method&#34;&gt;Understanding the method&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;FreeCodeCamp.org has an excellent &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/RGOj5yH7evk&#34;&gt;Crash Course&lt;/a&gt; on git for beginners.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;example-filling-a-large-spreadsheet&#34;&gt;Example: Filling a large spreadsheet&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Suppose you have a very large spreadsheet that has links to check for information, which then needs to be filled out into columns. With only a few rows, this can be quite manageable, but when there&amp;rsquo;s thousands it can become difficult for even a team of people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;table&gt;
+  &lt;thead&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;th&gt;Link&lt;/th&gt;
+          &lt;th&gt;Model #&lt;/th&gt;
+          &lt;th&gt;Price&lt;/th&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+  &lt;/thead&gt;
+  &lt;tbody&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;example.com/1&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Type 1&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;$5,500&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;example.com/2&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;Type 2&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;$6,450&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;example.com/3&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;example.com/1230532&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+      &lt;tr&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+          &lt;td&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+      &lt;/tr&gt;
+  &lt;/tbody&gt;
+&lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of trying to sync a massive spreadsheet with hundreds of volunteers, making coordination quite difficult, you decide to try to use &lt;code&gt;git&lt;/code&gt; to allow for parallel changes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The first step would be to turn the massive spreadsheet into a &lt;code&gt;.csv&lt;/code&gt; file, so that it can be edited in pure text, without worrying about which tools people are using. This allows your volunteers to contribute even if they don&amp;rsquo;t use the same software as you.&lt;br&gt;
+It would look something like this:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34;&gt;&lt;code&gt;Link,Model #,Price
+example.com/1,Type 1,5500
+example.com/2,Type 2,6450
+example.com/3
+example.com/4
+...
+&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;p&gt;The goal here is to have volunteers submit their changes as quickly as possible in a way that&amp;rsquo;s easy to manage. So that there isn&amp;rsquo;t any duplication the project is hosted on a &lt;strong&gt;forge&lt;/strong&gt;. A forge is an online site that hosts git repositories. For simplicity, in this example we will use GitHub.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The project maintainer creates a new &lt;strong&gt;git repository&lt;/strong&gt; on github, then adds the &lt;code&gt;.csv&lt;/code&gt; file. A simple procedure would be to encourage volunteers to start at a random item # to further avoid duplicate work. I&amp;rsquo;ll explain what a potential contributor would need to do in this instance.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;the-worker-bee-1&#34;&gt;The worker bee&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Volunteers will &lt;code&gt;clone&lt;/code&gt; the repository. This allows them to download the &lt;code&gt;.csv&lt;/code&gt; file and all previous changes that have been approved. The volunteer can then start opening the links and adding the information to their &lt;code&gt;.csv&lt;/code&gt; file.&lt;br&gt;
+For example:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34;&gt;&lt;code&gt;Link,Model #,Price
+...
+example.com/15,Type 15,7500
+example.com/16,Type 16,3225
+example.com/17,Type 17,4605
+example.com/18,Type 18,8420
+...
+&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;p&gt;The advantage of using git here is that it &lt;em&gt;manages the changes&lt;/em&gt;. The volunteer can send this .csv directly to the project maintainer, or use the &lt;em&gt;pull request&lt;/em&gt; feature to ask the maintainer to incorporate their changes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;alternatives&#34;&gt;Alternatives&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;vision&lt;/em&gt; behind operation beehive is decentralized permission-less work. This is not limited go tools like &lt;code&gt;git&lt;/code&gt;. In fact, any wiki with open registrations would work quite well as well. The important features are that you work in an open and deterministic way, that makes it easier for people to carry on.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Has the technocracy already assimilated you?</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/technocratic-assimilation/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 29 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/technocratic-assimilation/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/dystopia.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/dystopia.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/dystopia.webp" />
+		<description>Where does the balance of power lie within your life?</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;The technocracy is a managerialist top-down system of control with no accountability towards it&amp;rsquo;s subjects. From the perspective of the system&amp;rsquo;s owners, the subjects are at best livestock to be harvested and the worst is far too horrible to imagine. Such a cruel and deranged system seems quite alien to most people, despite often living it out in their own daily lives. Regardless of what disagreements divide people, far more are united under subservience to technological tyranny.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But surely you&amp;rsquo;re immune to this? You&amp;rsquo;ve recoiled in horror at many recent developments, turning that disgust into productive action to work towards a better future right? Sadly, we know all-too-well that there&amp;rsquo;s always more work to be done. It&amp;rsquo;s a never-ending, thankless toil that merely begets more challenges and more frustration. It&amp;rsquo;s become quite clear to you that merely seeing through the lies alone is not enough to manifest change.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;technological-terror&#34;&gt;Technological Terror&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Internet of Things&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;, and cloud services all work well to centralize information and control into a small set of hands. With innumerable opportunities for abuse, these systems create dangers that can be quite difficult to identify once one has become a captive. Restrictions can often be &lt;em&gt;out of sight, and out of mind&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;em&gt;Convenience&lt;/em&gt; is often a derogatory term for pragmatic choices people are nudged into making.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;on-demand&#34;&gt;On-demand&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With a couple of taps nearly anything can be at your door in a relatively short period of time. Instant gratification of all manner of pleasures is only restrained by your budget or appetite. Cheap pleasure erodes away people&amp;rsquo;s ability to appreciate joy in the simple things. While some things are now more accessible, many people fall into the trap of losing control of their own agency. What was once a convenient take-out treat can be a vulnerable person&amp;rsquo;s go-to-meal.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;data-serfdom&#34;&gt;Data serfdom&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many online services can help people start projects quickly. Those projects can be locked-in to formats that can be difficult to reproduce other places. Regaining control of your media and source files can be a massive challenge when one works entirely within online cloud services instead of programs running on their own machine.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;junkification&#34;&gt;Junkification&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As bad as the software can be, often the hardware isn&amp;rsquo;t much better. Devices can constrain the user from installing or removing software, they can also take on surveillance directly. Despite much progress, the complexity of these devices often makes them too difficult or too expensive to pragmatically repair. When devices no longer receive security updates, it may not be safe to use them much longer anyways. &lt;em&gt;Planned obsolescence&lt;/em&gt; is just part of the picture, a variety of awful incentives can create unusable devices from the very beginning. This is especially true of devices that are reliant on online services.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;hacking-humans&#34;&gt;Hacking humans&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Power in society has always been some combination of resources, force and influence. These factors create powerful incentives that have a massive impact on people&amp;rsquo;s behavior. The more extreme the power, the more overt it would become, sometimes formalizing into official structures. In some instances, people would consciously decide to act in defiance or opposition to such rule for a variety of reasons. In the information age, power doesn&amp;rsquo;t need to be so crude, it can disguise itself with all kinds of illusions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Information Asymmetry allows those with power to act in ways others may not even be able to predict. Censorship, surveillance, and propaganda are all powerful tools used to coerce people into a variety of losing bets. Over time, the distortions created by the powerful can fade into the background and become unthinkable to even notice.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;algorithmic-feeds&#34;&gt;Algorithmic Feeds&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Being able to control what others see is a phenomenal power, having influence over it is quite a valuable currency. The advertizing industry built very sophisticated tools to monitor and manipulate people in precise ways. Far from being limited to mere novelty, these techniques were used to sell &lt;em&gt;ideas and emotions&lt;/em&gt;. Through advanced marketing tools people&amp;rsquo;s very minds became yet another natural resource to become polluted. Instead of the hazards being toxic chemicals, the ideal consumer was forged in an overwhelming foundry of fear.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Fear leads to anger&amp;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;impotent-outrage&#34;&gt;Impotent outrage&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is well understood that triggering people&amp;rsquo;s fight or flight response will get decisive action. Bathing the public in their insecurities became a very effective way to drive people to buy or promote things without thinking. These rash actions would inevitably create negative consequences, buyer&amp;rsquo;s remorse would be greeted with familiar temptations. As people&amp;rsquo;s relations with each other soured, the onset loneliness would drive people further and further into anger and sadness.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;hellip;Anger leads to hate.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;radicalization&#34;&gt;Radicalization&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As tempers flared, something needed to take the fall. The true (and often self-inflicted) causes of people&amp;rsquo;s suffering was far too difficult to face, instead people tore into each other. It&amp;rsquo;s far easier to get cheap satisfaction over another than to address one&amp;rsquo;s own problems. Perceived slights escalate into violent outbursts. With no shortage of justified rage, people lose sight of the humanity in each other.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;hellip;and hate leads to suffering.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;tragedy&#34;&gt;Tragedy&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It didn&amp;rsquo;t take much for people to eye-for-an-eye themselves into a very blind world. Not only can people not see what&amp;rsquo;s right before them, but they can hardly hear those around them either. Instead, people instantly react to the quickest impression they can form to a particular post, comment, or piece of media. Nobody feels heard, and all feel forgotten. The wounds from past battles accumulate as the war on all rages on.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Those with any sense flee to what few alternatives existed, or retreated entirely. The digital nomads roaming cyberspace are scattered. They can see the fires from a distance, but they would often dissipate before getting close. Many were able to purchase peace at the price of solitude and isolation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;checkup&#34;&gt;Checkup&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Every &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; answer to the following questions is something that gives the technocracy leverage over you. Nobody is completely invulnerable. When engaging with others, it&amp;rsquo;s important to encourage each other to make positive change, rather than nit-pick various shortcomings. Flaws should be an opportunity to learn how to overcome challenges, rather than a cause for scorn.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;finance&#34;&gt;Finance&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Are the majority of your purchases made via credit card?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Are you unable to get your essentials from locally owned enterprises.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Would you willingly &amp;ldquo;sell out&amp;rdquo; for money or career advancement, regardless of the impacts on others?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Are you living paycheck-to-paycheck?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Do you feel pressure to &amp;ldquo;make-up&amp;rdquo; for lost time?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Are your financial assets solely comprised of publicly-traded corporations and government bonds?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Is your income derived from government funding?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Are you constantly exposed to advertizing or sponsored promotions?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Would you be unable to trade for essentials without currency?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Are you inefficient with your time?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Can you name 5 brands, but not 5 kinds of trees native to your area?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;technology&#34;&gt;Technology&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Would you be unable to go a day without your smartphone, and still be productive?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Does most of your computing take place using commercialized online services rather than offline programs?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Does your operating system record data on you?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Do you own a &amp;ldquo;Internet of Things&amp;rdquo; device like a smart TV or smart appliance?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Are search engines your only means of finding specific information?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;If the Internet went down, could you still earn a living?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Is a majority of your entertainment derived from online services?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Would you be unable to do your regular errands without GPS or online-assisted navigation?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Is your profession reliant on cloud services or other proprietary enterprise software?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Would you be unable to teach a child math, art, or other skills without assistance of the Internet?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Does your transportation require you to divulge personal information?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;alright-alright-now-what&#34;&gt;Alright! Alright! Now what?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Before you despair too much, understand that this isn&amp;rsquo;t a single person&amp;rsquo;s journey. To varying degrees, we are all captivated by forces either entirely outside of our control, or simply the consequences of decisions we&amp;rsquo;ve made in the past. With few exceptions, almost nobody has managed to entirely wild themselves from the world. Perhaps this isn&amp;rsquo;t inherently a bad thing. Ideally, in a fair and just society people &lt;em&gt;would want to have a &lt;strong&gt;stake&lt;/strong&gt; in it&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Society grows great when people plant trees whose shade they shall never enjoy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;No single person has the power to unilaterally transform it all, but every one of us has the capacity to redirect our focus, resources and spirit in a different direction. Have compassion for your own shortcomings as well as those of others. If we truly want to make a lasting improvement instead of merely pledging support to the same leaders in different uniforms, we&amp;rsquo;re going to need to &lt;em&gt;change the game itself&lt;/em&gt;. To do this, we&amp;rsquo;ll need to understand what we&amp;rsquo;re trying to navigate away from, which can help prevent us from forgetting what we&amp;rsquo;re working towards.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;rewilding-ourselves&#34;&gt;Rewilding ourselves&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Society domesticates people. This isn&amp;rsquo;t inherently a bad thing, as trust grows people are naturally able to lower some defenses. The trouble comes when tyrants or opportunists decide to abuse that trust, rapidly diminishing it and harming those who haven&amp;rsquo;t yet raised their own defenses. Then those who are the most trusting are hurt the most, and those who are the most guarded can often endure.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Becoming wild again doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean becoming aggressive or cruel, merely gradually rebuilding your individual and social boundaries that have been eroded over time. Empowering yourself to be stronger, more skilled, or efficient can go a long way to rebuilding that independence. Though it&amp;rsquo;s important to remember that we are social creatures, we need friends, allies, and family all the same.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By making yourself wild from systems of control, you can help build independence from it that builds room for others to do the same. This is an entirely different path than merely reforming society as it exists. Instead you are taking as much control of your life as you can, and working to build something entirely different. Taking deliberate action to become wild is to embrace a world where every choice is your own.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To do this, you&amp;rsquo;ll need to make a conscious decision to reject the world as it exists, and form a clear idea of how you want to live despite it. In some cases there may be a negotiation, in others there may be outright rejection. You will likely still face consequences for these actions, but ultimately you are taking them head on. A simple example is to reject a social credit score in advance. Knowing that one is being made gives you the opportunity to deliberately live in defiance of it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;make-peace&#34;&gt;Make peace&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The greatest weapon of all tyrants is fear. Fear is used to induce compliance and paralyze opposition. Regardless if your fear is of death, capture, or assimilation into some hivemind, your first act of resistance is to shed your fear of it. Living without fear is hard. It&amp;rsquo;s easy to underestimate the challenge during easy times, but when one is surrounded by panic it&amp;rsquo;s a different environment all-together.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Every bit counts. The more at peace you are with yourself and your surroundings, the easier it is to make progress and support others. It&amp;rsquo;s natural to get caught off-balance once in a while, but it&amp;rsquo;s critical that you maintain focused on regaining your focus. We all need each other. Helping your allies in a difficult time can often mean a lot more than advancing against your opponents.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Raise your Shield</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/raise-your-shield/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 19 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/raise-your-shield/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/platos-cave.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/platos-cave.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/platos-cave.webp" />
+		<description>Guard and redirect your intentions</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s a cliche nowadays to point out that society is fractured. The Culture Wars are no longer a side-show for the politically obsessed, instead they are front-and center in the spectacle, aggressively inciting the wider public to participate. Hate your family? Hate your community? Hate your country? Even worse, do you hate yourself? There is no shortage of (often quite valid) reasons to keep you in a prison of rage and despair.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;they-want-you-to-hate&#34;&gt;They want you to hate&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s quite alluring bait. The trap is so well executed that people&amp;rsquo;s ability to truly humanize each other is effectively cut off by their own anger. This was no accident. It is quite a mistake to entirely dismiss the Culture Wars as a &lt;em&gt;mere distraction&lt;/em&gt;. Many people have lost much just trying to make sense of the chaos and suffered a lot in the crossfire. The terrifying truth is that we have the most influential powers in society actively working to undermine people&amp;rsquo;s ability to peacefully resolve conflict.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This has disarmed us from being able to correct or prevent institutional abuses. By fracturing people into isolated pits of fury and sadness people are unable to build even enough trust to communicate. Think of those people you&amp;rsquo;re entirely unable to reason with, who benefits from your collective isolation? It&amp;rsquo;s hard to escape when everyone is either too worn out or too hurt to meaningfully reciprocate.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Surely you&amp;rsquo;ve heard &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;The only winning move is not to play&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;.&lt;br&gt;
+That leads one to ask &amp;ldquo;What game is being played, exactly?&amp;rdquo;.&lt;br&gt;
+In this piece, I&amp;rsquo;m going to try to lay out the game in it&amp;rsquo;s entirety as best as I can.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-game&#34;&gt;The Game&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Life itself is a series of contests. Some are trivial like friendly competitive sports, others are all-encompassing horrors like wars. You don&amp;rsquo;t always get to choose what competitions you&amp;rsquo;re in, some even operate outside a person&amp;rsquo;s natural lifespan. A great variety of circumstances of your birth have profound impact on what games you&amp;rsquo;re a part of and which ones you can join or leave. No two people are entirely alike, (as a twin I would know) different people will very often play the same cards differently.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many games make many prizes, some for the good, others for ill. Depending on your goals, some prizes may be hugely significant others may be outright disastrous. Ignorance is not bliss in many cases, others will often leverage it to their benefit. With only so much time to think, choose, and act, things can really start to look &lt;em&gt;rigged&lt;/em&gt; from various points of view.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Very few people have the means, power, or influence to make massive changes on their own, but the sum total capabilities of many people can&amp;rsquo;t be overstated. Being able to influence a great many connected, talented, and driven people is a phenomenal power for one to have. This is the real power that rulers wield. Whether taken by force, or voluntarily given, there is a hard limit on how much cooperation can be effectively leveraged towards goals. This is the raw basis for the &lt;em&gt;social contract&lt;/em&gt;. Eventually, the ruler or institution loses enough will to cooperate that people move to defect.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;keeping-score-currency&#34;&gt;Keeping score: Currency&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s ironic to talk about the raw power of money these days. Odds are if you&amp;rsquo;re reading this you&amp;rsquo;re used to using a &lt;em&gt;fiat currency&lt;/em&gt; which is to say a currency backed by &amp;ldquo;faith and credit&amp;rdquo; of your government. This is not the same as saying it&amp;rsquo;s backed by nothing. Far from it, any currency is a de-facto measurement of the amount of raw power wielded by it&amp;rsquo;s participants. That power can be used for good or evil. Every person proportional to the currency they wield makes a real tangible impact on the use of that currency.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Currency in a peaceful and productive civilization will be highly valuable, but there are other variables. The currency of a despotic and cruel system is &lt;em&gt;blood money&lt;/em&gt;. This is what makes the love of money the root of all evil: prioritizing currency above all else is an open and active endorsement of the naturally imperfect dominance hierarchy. The more vicious the society, the more cruelty required to maintain the currency.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the vital aspects of currencies is that they act as a &lt;em&gt;means of communication&lt;/em&gt;. Prices send powerful signals to people in all stations of life. For some prices represent options, for others they represent permission. This is why nearly all discussion of the Culture Wars misses vital context. The Culture Wars are merely offshoots of an all-encompassing global class war that we were all born into.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Money makes the world go round&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; as many say, but it&amp;rsquo;s far from the only factor. For many people once their basic needs are met they often consider different pursuits such as pleasure, knowledge, or power.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-rule-of-power&#34;&gt;The rule of power&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Since currency is information, consider that money is the code that programs society. But what is the machine doing? Money communicates and coordinates power, but every civilization that uses money uses it for various purposes. Those purposes can be things like maintaining order, researching and building technologies, or fighting off competing civilizations. This is not merely done with money, but often with hard violence.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Anarchists correctly point out that governments are inherently violent entities. This is because every government is a formalization of a very real and harsh power structure. This power structure effectively operates as a &lt;em&gt;protection racket&lt;/em&gt;, requiring some of your wealth or labor in exchange for keeping competitive systems at bay. Every idealist hopes that we can live without the need for brutal and violent governments, if any at all. The challenge is that any person or group powerful enough to compete with other states is nearly already one themselves.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Rulers offer people a choice, exist within the established order or at least don&amp;rsquo;t interfere with it. Those choosing to negotiate with the existing order are &lt;strong&gt;reformers&lt;/strong&gt; and those who actively seek it&amp;rsquo;s demise are &lt;strong&gt;radicals&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Reformers will &lt;strong&gt;always&lt;/strong&gt; have to make compromises with the society as it is. They generally have a great deal to lose if the game changes too much. A good reformer will work to make the system more flexible and robust. All reforms come at a real price however, they cost those in power making serious concessions potentially at the expense of their own station. This means that whatever power spent, they are almost always insufficient to address the primary grievances that drive them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is why every society will have a significant amount of varied radicals who focus on a kaleidoscope of interests. Radicals that are isolated and alone are fruitless. Societies over time have come up with many ways to either placate or contain radicals of all persuasions. Radicals can never and never will be united on consensus. Everyone can be fractured along lines of culture, religion, social class, among other things. This doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean things can&amp;rsquo;t change however, the moment radicals start to unite along widely shared &lt;strong&gt;red lines&lt;/strong&gt;, they have a real chance to upset the balance of power.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A healthy society actually needs radicals. Every society will gradually assimilate reformers into being wholly ineffectual. In an advanced state, there will be no reformers at all, merely puppets instead. Eventually things become so apparent that radicals are able to build &lt;em&gt;coalitions&lt;/em&gt; that together represent enough power to either fundamentally change the hierarchy. This is one of the reasons it&amp;rsquo;s nearly impossible for societies to merely &amp;ldquo;turn back time&amp;rdquo; and go back to how things were, the conditions have been changed entirely.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When a large coalition of radicals is in danger of truly flipping the table, society has a stabilizing mechanism: an open bid for reformers. It&amp;rsquo;s in the interests of those in power to provide the smallest concession that dismantles the coalition. This is why radicals have no use for a complicated consensus, it can be fractured far too easily. Only when an overwhelming amount of people get together and decide which few changes are &lt;em&gt;non-negotiable&lt;/em&gt; is when a fruitful coalition can form. That said, it is much easier said than done.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;power-corrupts-absolutely&#34;&gt;Power corrupts, absolutely&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There have been many times throughout history where one despotic order was replaced with another one that was every bit as cruel. This is because as people accrue power, be it through influence, currency, or force it begets a terrible cost on one&amp;rsquo;s soul. The desire to rule over others to achieve one&amp;rsquo;s goals is a very powerful temptation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Very often &amp;lsquo;victory&amp;rsquo; can come at too high a toll. When the price of more change is more power, power often comes at the cost of real priorities. This creates a horrific spiral of needless destruction. Surely none of us want that right? How can we avoid the corruption of power while still advancing peace, liberty and prosperity?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Is it even possible at all?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;becoming-incorruptible&#34;&gt;Becoming incorruptible&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Becoming a saint is certainly no small task. Thankfully, you don&amp;rsquo;t need to succeed to make a meaningful impact. While it&amp;rsquo;s impossible to get by with no power, your goal is to fundamentally maximize your &lt;em&gt;efficiency with power&lt;/em&gt;. Being able to do more with less direct power gives you phenomenal options. By reducing your reliance on corrupt or tyrannical systems you will gradually become less beholden to their machinations. Eventually, you could get to the point where you&amp;rsquo;re able to support others to act in better ways. The less power you need yourself, the more you can share with others. Power efficiency isn&amp;rsquo;t a zero-sum game. Often helping others will significantly help you as well. This inevitably helps you form positive and healthy relations with others.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Setting small tangible goals and working towards them can help you better understand your limits and faults. The only way to turn down the allure of vast power is to come to terms with what is &amp;rsquo;enough&amp;rsquo; for you. Coming clean to yourself about what your real goals can help you understand what you are, and are not willing to do to achieve them. Once enough people work towards making incremental changes to shift away from systems working against us, and make small movements towards better areas, we will all benefit in innumerable ways.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;team-up&#34;&gt;Team up&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If not already, you are now on &lt;strong&gt;Team Humanity&lt;/strong&gt;. Your goal is to find ways to support others or otherwise decentralize power away from corrupt systems and people. Almost always you don&amp;rsquo;t need to take anything or anyone head on, instead focus your energy on building people up and other productive outlets like making things. &lt;strong&gt;Learning&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Creating&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Sharing&lt;/strong&gt; are the three pillars of the decentralized revolution. Instead of working to rally behind another despot in the waiting, you can help everyone get to a point where tyrants have no power at all.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Teaching others, providing for their needs, or comforting them is what will truly make an impact. It sounds too good to be true, but every ruler needs an army. Odds are you don&amp;rsquo;t have a bigger army, so your only hope is that people together have the means and motivation to resist abuse of power. The more powerful the people are in every way, the less power individuals can accrue over others. This applies to all aspects of life; necessities like food and water, tools like technology and machines, as well as social needs like belonging and companionship. Team humanity needs to be where the cool and happy people are.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Anything that you can do to provide for yourself and others is vitally important, but stop short of working to gain power &lt;em&gt;over others&lt;/em&gt;. Leadership is about setting an example and proving that things truly can be different. No state or laws can withstand the collective might of the people. You don&amp;rsquo;t need to be on the same page as them to trust them to act in their own interests, which is why leveling the playing field helps reduce defectors.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;be-the-change-you-want-to-see&#34;&gt;Be the change you want to see&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With the powerful tools at our disposal today, we have not just the opportunity but the obligation to try to use them for the most noble uses we can muster. The device you&amp;rsquo;re reading this on is much more powerful than the systems that put a flag on the moon. Don&amp;rsquo;t underestimate what a couple of creative individuals can achieve if they truly dare to imagine a better future. Don&amp;rsquo;t give up on people, we all have our flaws and have made many mistakes. Take the time to reflect and collect yourself before engaging in petty fights. There is so much more to others than you think. The only thing worth fighting for is genuine love for yourself and others. Genuine self-respect is the bedrock to building a solid foundation of compassion and genuine joy with others.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>DDoS Attack on the Mind (with Operation Uplift)</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/operation-uplift/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 09 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/operation-uplift/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/rounding-the-earth.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/rounding-the-earth.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/rounding-the-earth.webp" />
+		<description></description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Introducing the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutionsnetwork.substack.com/cp/120613391&#34;&gt;Operation Uplift Community&lt;/a&gt;
+Watch on &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.com/ddos-attack-on-the-mind/&#34;&gt;Rounding The Earth&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>RTE Discussions - Encryption</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/rounding-the-earth-3/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 08 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/rounding-the-earth-3/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/rounding-the-earth.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/rounding-the-earth.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/rounding-the-earth.webp" />
+		<description>Discussing stragegies and the future of the digital landscape.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Watch on &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.com/exploring-encryption/&#34;&gt;Rounding The Earth&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/a4c68bf5-160a-4ef5-91e8-05ceb3edb79c&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Follow Rounding The Earth on &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/&#34;&gt;Substack&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.locals.com&#34;&gt;locals&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.com/feed&#34;&gt;RSS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The Protocol Wars are Here</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/protocol-wars/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 08 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/protocol-wars/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/datacenter-war.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/datacenter-war.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/datacenter-war.webp" />
+		<description>What tools are best to reclaim our digital autonomy?</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;the-protocol-wars&#34;&gt;The Protocol Wars&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Battle lines are being drawn. The stakes could never be higher, the very future of how we all interact online is in our hands. It was so simple when everyone was silo&amp;rsquo;d onto a few corporate controlled platforms. Now, there are new platforms that aren&amp;rsquo;t merely controlled by a single entity, they are &lt;em&gt;interoperable&lt;/em&gt; with each other, meaning that each system is composed of compatible units.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Will one system entirely dominate the others? Will &amp;ldquo;super-nodes&amp;rdquo; grow to dominate the entire ecosystem, leaving us with big tech tyrants yet again? How will you ensure that communications networks aren&amp;rsquo;t used as tools to &lt;em&gt;shape&lt;/em&gt; the discussion, rather than support it?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;awaiting-the-peer-to-peer-utopia&#34;&gt;Awaiting the peer-to-peer utopia&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Currently, we&amp;rsquo;re not quite able to jump straight to a private, secure and free-as-in-freedom peer to peer network. There are a variety of challenges in attempting to create a pure peer-to-peer ecosystem that get in the way. A peer-to-peer ecosystem that relies on participants using locked-down and controlled smartphones has limited usefulness. On the other hand, peer-to-peer file-sharing networks have maintained their robust existence as they are build on top of powerful machines with lots of bandwidth and storage.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/peer-to-peer.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We can&amp;rsquo;t escape the fact that hardware is a critically important part of the technological landscape. People&amp;rsquo;s own technical skill and the capabilities of their hardware have a profound impact on what possibilities can emerge. There are real trade-offs when trying to move away from a client-server model. This is because &lt;em&gt;servers are useful and efficient&lt;/em&gt;. Different participants may want more or less resources assigned to particular tasks, and using specialized hardware for the task goes a long way.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/board.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/hardware-matters&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Principle: Hardware matters&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;It is easy to underestimate the underlying structure of our digital world.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are also privacy risks when it comes to peer-to-peer connections. Some protocols still will require a server to set up connections between peers, and unless you&amp;rsquo;re using an anonymization network like Tor or I2P you&amp;rsquo;re divulging information about you to other peers. This is why there is still a long way to go before truly peer-to-peer systems will be used as the standard.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-server-to-server-paradigm&#34;&gt;The Server to Server paradigm.&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean we can&amp;rsquo;t meaningfully decentralize. It&amp;rsquo;s possible for people to run servers for themselves as well as others. The people using them gain most of the advantages of centralized systems, like being able to connect from thin-clients like smartphones.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/fedi-map.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Distributed Fediverse Instances &lt;a target=&#39;_blank&#39; href=&#39;https://fediverse.observer/map&#39;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can then add real &lt;em&gt;interoperability&lt;/em&gt; by using an open protocol to allow the servers to act as servers for each other. With a Server-to-Server layer, these systems have the advantage of being parts of a larger whole. Often these systems are called &lt;em&gt;federated&lt;/em&gt; because they work as networks of communities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This allows new protocols and systems to scale as well as the Internet itself. Having a server-to-server mechanism allows for an incredible amount of flexibility. Maybe some servers respond to all the others, maybe some of them only respond to ones they know. Everyone could eventually be situated with their own preferences without impacting others, all while still having an interoperable means of connecting.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;bridges&#34;&gt;Bridges&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Once there is an open server-to-server protocol in place, it&amp;rsquo;s easy for different systems to be bridged to each other. Either systems can adopt the same server-to-server protocol (federation) or they can translate from one protocol to another (bridging).&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/fedi-nostr-bridge.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Bridges have been used on &lt;a href=&#34;https://matrix.org/bridges/&#34;&gt;matrix&lt;/a&gt; to allow people to control all their chat applications from a single account. Any open protocol can be bridged to bring people together.It&amp;rsquo;s a powerful technique that means that no single protocol has to dominate, instead they can cooperate.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;trade-offs&#34;&gt;Trade-offs&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are large differences to using different ecosystems. People may prefer something that could be decentralized but is still quite controlled like Blue Sky, or they may want to build custom software to only use protocols in deliberate ways. It&amp;rsquo;s a wide spectrum, and some choices have bigger impacts than others.&lt;br&gt;
+Things worth considering are:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Is the protocol open and allows &lt;em&gt;permissionless&lt;/em&gt; participation?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Does the protocol allow you to store information on your own machine, or one under your control?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Is the software &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software&#34;&gt;free&lt;/a&gt; from unwanted or harmful dependencies?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;broadcast-systems&#34;&gt;Broadcast systems&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re trying to get information out into the world, privacy may not be the highest priority. You&amp;rsquo;ll still want to be secure, you won&amp;rsquo;t want to be credibly impersonated, but you may not need perfect anonymity or to encrypt messages. A simple &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/best-website-for-you&#34;&gt;static website&lt;/a&gt; suits this purpose, but so does a profile on a well-run and popular social media service.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;fediverse&#34;&gt;Fediverse&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/fediverse&#34;&gt;fediverse&lt;/a&gt; has the potential to be a truly meritocratic digital town square.&lt;br&gt;
+There are many community-run or self-hosted servers that operate without algorithmic manipulation or ads. Each user either runs or joins an &lt;em&gt;instance&lt;/em&gt; that will host their content as it&amp;rsquo;s shared with others.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Get started:  &lt;a href=&#34;https://jointhefedi.com/&#34;&gt;https://jointhefedi.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Popular Servers: &lt;a href=&#34;https://soapbox.pub&#34;&gt;Soapbox&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://joinmastodon.org/&#34;&gt;Mastodon&lt;/a&gt; and many &lt;a href=&#34;https://fediverse.info/explore/projects&#34;&gt;more&lt;/a&gt;..&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;nostr&#34;&gt;Nostr&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Nostr is a simple protocol with lots of new clients and features being built. It replaces the concept of a &amp;ldquo;home server&amp;rdquo; with many inter-changable relays. The primary advantage of this is that it prevents server administrators from being able to block people on behalf of other users. As long as two nostr users share a relay they are able to communicate. Some nostr communities have setup paid relays.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Get started: &lt;a href=&#34;https://nostr.com/get-started&#34;&gt;https://nostr.com/get-started&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Project: &lt;a href=&#34;https://nostr.com/&#34;&gt;https://nostr.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Popular Client: &lt;a href=&#34;https://iris.to&#34;&gt;https://iris.to&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Popular Relay Software: &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/Cameri/nostream&#34;&gt;nostream&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;private-systems&#34;&gt;Private Systems&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When having private communications with friends/family or even co-workers it&amp;rsquo;s great to have systems away from prying eyes. It&amp;rsquo;s helpful to have a free and open protocol that people can communicate with you privately, that doesn&amp;rsquo;t rely on sharing infrastructure. End-to-end encyption helps protect users on different servers from prying-eyes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;matrix&#34;&gt;Matrix&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Matrix is an excellent chat protocol that supports large rooms as well as direct chats. As of now, &lt;a href=&#34;https://element.io/blog/drop-in-drop-out-chats-with-video-rooms-and-a-new-search-experience/&#34;&gt;video rooms&lt;/a&gt; are now in open beta.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Get started: &lt;a href=&#34;https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now&#34;&gt;https://matrix.org/docs/projects/try-matrix-now&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Project: &lt;a href=&#34;https://matrix.org&#34;&gt;https://matrix.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Popular Client: &lt;a href=&#34;https://element.io&#34;&gt;https://element.io&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Popular Server: &lt;a href=&#34;https://matrix-org.github.io/synapse/latest/&#34;&gt;Synapse&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;xmpp&#34;&gt;XMPP&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;XMPP is another federated chat protocol. It&amp;rsquo;s fast and efficient and has been used for quite some time now.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Get started: &lt;a href=&#34;https://xmpp.org/getting-started&#34;&gt;https://xmpp.org/getting-started&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Project: &lt;a href=&#34;https://xmpp.org&#34;&gt;https://xmpp.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Popular Client: &lt;a href=&#34;https://astral.ninja/&#34;&gt;https://astral.ninja/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Popular Server: &lt;a href=&#34;https://prosody.im/&#34;&gt;Prosody&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;making-your-choice&#34;&gt;Making your choice&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s up to you! It&amp;rsquo;s worth trying different things out to see what works well for others. Some may just stick with &lt;a href=&#34;https://signal.org/&#34;&gt;signal&lt;/a&gt; for convenience, others may use &lt;a href=&#34;https://delta.chat/&#34;&gt;delta chat&lt;/a&gt; because it can be used on top of e-mails people already have. Whatever you can do to take control of your own information and computing can go a long way.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Check out this conversation I&amp;rsquo;ve had with Mathew Crawford on Rounding the Earth about how to think about different approaches to keeping your information safe.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/a4c68bf5-160a-4ef5-91e8-05ceb3edb79c&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Whatever you do, it&amp;rsquo;s important to know why you&amp;rsquo;re choosing one system over another. It may be more effort, but a little change can go a long way when it comes to keeping your information out of the hands of adversaries. Once you have something that works well for you, it becomes easier to share those advantages with others.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Conceptualizing Information Control</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/information-control/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 23 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/information-control/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/information-control.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/information-control.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/information-control.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/information-control.webp" />
+		<description>Truth is the first casualty of war</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Knowledge is power. Control over knowledge is immense power. This power isn&amp;rsquo;t merely used to advance sciences and create new technologies, instead it&amp;rsquo;s often used to take control of other people. Almost everyone these days seems to believe they&amp;rsquo;re surrounded by brainwashed masses. What if there really is something to that? Who, or what, is actually doing the brainwashing?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is a mistake to assume that someone who is acting differently than you is always making those decisions from incorrect information. There are often times where different people will have wildly varying interpretations of the same information. Now, instead of using the same information, see how they react to subsets of the &lt;em&gt;same information&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;This doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean that everyone is always right, but rather that they can often be talking about different aspects of the &lt;em&gt;same problem&lt;/em&gt;. This has been a substantial driver of the &lt;em&gt;Culture Wars&lt;/em&gt; because different messaging is naturally going to resonate with different subsets of the population. To make things worse, problems and solutions are framed in terms of &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;What nails can we hit with this hammer&lt;/em&gt;?&amp;rdquo; before considering other tools.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/information-asymmetry.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is what has made &lt;em&gt;language&lt;/em&gt; a critical component in political competition. If we do not share goals, it is to my advantage that I ensure that you use &lt;em&gt;my framing&lt;/em&gt; to understand the world around you. Words themselves become skirmishes over the broad ideas they can represent. Splitting into dialects, different factions sound increasingly incomprehensible to each other. Cooperation becomes challenging, compromise becomes impossible. Even worse, people are no longer able to &lt;em&gt;negotiate boundaries&lt;/em&gt;. This all-but-ensures future conflict.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;motivated-reasoning&#34;&gt;Motivated reasoning&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As this process advances, and people start to perceive that they are in some kind of existential competition, Culture Wars escalate. Suddenly, groups are less interested in finding workable common-ground, but instead every action is part of a greater conquest. Groups are now no longer devoted to cooperating in wider society, but instead fracturing out territory to secure their interests.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a fair amount of evidence, that much of the present-day divisions have been &lt;em&gt;manufactured&lt;/em&gt; since the 2008 bail-outs and Occupy Wall St protests. I&amp;rsquo;m sympathetic to this interpretation, but it&amp;rsquo;s important not to lose sight that these manufactured divisions have real, &lt;em&gt;material consequences&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;hurt-people-hurt-people&#34;&gt;Hurt people hurt people&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These consequences have, and if not addressed, will continue to escalate tensions. The biggest challenge is that people are not always likely to state their frustrations in the most constructive manner. Tragically, many will often aggressively take out those frustrations on those they can, rather than the actual causes of that frustration.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;How many wounds have been caused by the Covid Crisis? How many &lt;em&gt;real avenues&lt;/em&gt; have people had to even have their grievances acknowledged? Different people will have all kinds of unique and complicated scars from different challenges. It is no small task to merely bring clarity and understanding to what has happened, it&amp;rsquo;s an even greater one to conceptualize the long arc of it all.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;what-does-this-all-have-to-do-with-information-control&#34;&gt;What does this all have to do with information control?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Leveraging people&amp;rsquo;s unique perspective towards specific ends is how targeted advertising &lt;em&gt;works&lt;/em&gt;. The technocracy has had the tools and understanding of how to manipulate large groups of people, each one at a time, for well over a decade, if not significantly longer. Many rush to point to smartphones as the culprit. In fact, their rise in prominence is very coincident with the rise of many of the Culture Wars. I&amp;rsquo;ll present a different interpretation: &lt;strong&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s not the smartphone, but what was in it.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is nothing inherently mind-killing about a small, portable computer that uses a touch-screen interface. What truly forged the massive mind control apparatus was the things that came with it:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Real-time location tracking&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;24/7 audio and video surveillance capabilities&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Corporate Social Media as &lt;em&gt;Digital information Control Systems&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Information Control Systems have been the cause of not only the Culture Wars, but many more problems as well. The smartphone era was what made these Information Control Systems go digital, but it was not the origin of information control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Surveillance is rarely merely about curiosity, rather it&amp;rsquo;s about gathering information to leverage control over situations. Massive dragnet surveillance of the population is one of the greatest acts of &lt;em&gt;Information Asymmetry&lt;/em&gt; in all of human history.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;information-asymmetry&#34;&gt;Information Asymmetry&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I know you are, but what am I?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Spy craft of all kinds is highly reliant on information asymmetry. Being able to see even only marginally clearer through the fog of war is a massive advantage.&lt;br&gt;
+There are three ways to gain and maintain your advantage :&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Become faster or more efficient at uncovering valuable information&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Sabotage other efforts by undermining them directly&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Selectively manipulate or destroy information not to your advantage&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is where surveillance, censorship, propaganda, and all kinds of devious activities come into play. By being able to monitor you, while keeping things secret from you, powerful entities are able to maintain an immense advantage over you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;By learning your emotional limits, it&amp;rsquo;s possible to learn how to manipulate you.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;By learning your habits, it&amp;rsquo;s possible to plan around them.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;By understanding who you are, it&amp;rsquo;s possible to target you specifically.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s impossible to comprehend the scope of what information about you is available for mechanized manipulation. On the other hand, it&amp;rsquo;s vastly simpler for someone with control of that data to use it for nefarious ends. This vastly enhances psychological manipulation efforts and puts each person at the mercy of forces they can&amp;rsquo;t fully understand.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is the height of hubris to take your understanding of publicly available information to be the best understanding anyone can have. It is a guarantee that there are groups and lines of communication that you&amp;rsquo;re not aware of that have been more successful at gleaning a clear picture.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/ignorance.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is why the stereotype of &amp;ldquo;the lone conspiracy theorist&amp;rdquo; is such delicious fodder for conspirators. There may simply not be enough information available to truly present a coherent case, even when there is one. With full understanding of your conspiracy, you can selectively reveal information to undermine even the best possible explanation. Even worse, it possible to discredit true accusations with slander and deflection.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If an entity has a clear understanding of a situation or set of information that knowledge can be used to selectively manipulate disclosure.This is different than a merely incomplete picture that just happens to be lacking information. Without knowing the entire picture it can be very difficult to distinguish manipulated from incomplete information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is why &lt;em&gt;limited hangouts&lt;/em&gt; are such a serious concern. While it&amp;rsquo;s possible that companies and institutions may be interested in true transparency, unless they&amp;rsquo;re willing to provide all the information as they have it, it&amp;rsquo;s still at best an incomplete picture. They may be obligated to omit information for legal reasons, or deliberately omit references to certain events to fundamentally alter people&amp;rsquo;s perception of the disclosure.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/info-theory.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many times, the best that people have is an incomplete picture. People can quickly fall into the trap of grasping the first seemingly-coherent explanation that fits the data they have, without realizing that they may be missing all kinds of crucial information. While this may sound like the worst case scenario, it is far better than falling prey to a manipulated understanding presented by an adversary.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;digital-information-control-systems&#34;&gt;Digital Information Control Systems&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I routinely call any centralized information sharing platform an &lt;em&gt;Information Control System&lt;/em&gt;. This is precisely because of the asymmetric information advantage given to those who run and operate the system over the people who participate in it. Rudimentary tools like &amp;ldquo;Trending&amp;rdquo; lists are such a minor fraction at what operators of these systems have at their disposal.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For example, one could learn all kinds of things about you if they merely had access to your credit card&amp;rsquo;s purchase history. Just like if I read through every post you&amp;rsquo;ve ever made online. Any tool that isn&amp;rsquo;t explicitly avoiding collecting data, is inherently vulnerable to divulging such information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Surveillance is only half the story, &lt;em&gt;manipulation&lt;/em&gt; is the other side of the coin. In many cases outright censorship is too crude. It&amp;rsquo;s well observed that the majority of people like to rely on whatever main feed the system provides for them, and will make hardly any attempt to deviate from it. This means that the main feed on any application is &lt;em&gt;prime real estate&lt;/em&gt; for those who want to buy and sell your time and attention.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Outside of mere commodification, anyone who has a monopoly over a large number of people&amp;rsquo;s attention in this way has the capability to do great harm to others. This is the true danger of information control systems, this is what makes civilian targets &amp;lsquo;fair game&amp;rsquo; in information war. You have likely heard that your mind is a battlefield, but what is the war over?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The prize for information control is nothing short than all-out &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-11/&#34;&gt;dominance&lt;/a&gt;. Maintaining information control is an inherently aggressive stance. The people most interested in identifying where everyone spends all their attention, are the most likely to have nefarious motives for doing so.&lt;br&gt;
+So you have three major choices:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Opt-out, and ignore the information landscape entirely&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To the degree that you can, as there are always choices to be made.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Choose a side, and face the consequences&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By joining the ranks of a cultural titan you are at the mercy of it, and your newfound enemies.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Democratize the information landscape as much as possible&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead, work to mitigate the ability of those to control others.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;predictive-programming&#34;&gt;Predictive Programming&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I reject the common definition of predictive programming and present you with a different one:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Using indoctrination to get the public to accept and act out an impossible concept.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;That&amp;rsquo;s it. No complicated whinging about karmic consequences or secret plans. The world is a stage, and predictive programming is all about teaching the public what role they need to play. What&amp;rsquo;s powerful about these impossible concepts, is that like any scam, &lt;em&gt;there&amp;rsquo;s always more&lt;/em&gt;. Always another try, another attempt at converting your hard-earned resources and attention into their profit.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;transitioning-to-renewables&#34;&gt;Transitioning to renewables&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Fortunes have been made off of the delusion that it&amp;rsquo;s possible to transition the majority of human energy consumption to wind and solar energy. By leveraging the public&amp;rsquo;s ignorance of the true energy cost in running society, investors and consumers alike can be freely fleeced of resources in the name of making the impossible happen.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s akin to hooking up two motors to a battery, and demonstrating that your &lt;em&gt;perpetual motion machine&lt;/em&gt; is a breakthrough that will revolutionize the energy industry. Sleek 3D rendered windmills and solar panels on bright grassy landscapes leave out the awkward details that get in the way of real-world application.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;pandemics&#34;&gt;Pandemics&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Long before the Covid Crisis people were presented with many examples of a hyper-lethal and hyper-contagious virus that would necessitate extreme measures. People grew to accept the idea that an indeterminable emergency would require all kinds of extraordinary measures without any real rational explanation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;rsquo;t believe it is possible for any contagion to meet these &lt;strong&gt;three conditions&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;It must be sufficiently contagious, otherwise it wouldn&amp;rsquo;t be a problem&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;It must be sufficiently severe and untreatable, otherwise it would be dealt with easily&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;It must be successfully contained by measures taken during the Covid Crisis, otherwise there would be no point in trying in the first place.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A virus that meets two of those criteria would still a serious problem, but would not require the suspension of constitutional rights and massive wealth transfer orchestrated during the Covid Crisis.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;ai-sentience&#34;&gt;AI Sentience&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Currently, many people fall victim to many mass media depictions of machine minds capable of sentience. This is vastly detached from the current or even rationally projected state of machine learning. I&amp;rsquo;ll be the first to say that large AI models are very powerful and sophisticated tools, but they are not as magical as the hype would imply.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Machine learning models are essentially massive tables of numbers. Training the model involves modifying the numbers to fit the desired outcome. This results in a &lt;em&gt;very useful table of numbers&lt;/em&gt;, but not a sentient one. Tragically, people are already anthropomorphizing these tools at the expense of real human interaction. I promise you, while large language models are quite interesting, they do not grow fond of you or even have a stake in your life.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Fearing them is also the opposite mistake, very often it&amp;rsquo;s not the tools themselves that are evil, but rather the ends that people aim to use them for. It is critical that you invest in yourself as a human being, rather than live in terror that machine minds are out to destroy humanity. The terrible truth is that human beings are all too capable of that themselves, and they should be held responsible regardless of the methods they employ.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;overcoming-information-control&#34;&gt;Overcoming Information Control&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;discretion&#34;&gt;Discretion&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Privacy and Security are important. It&amp;rsquo;s more important than ever to use tools that aren&amp;rsquo;t &lt;em&gt;proactively testifying against you&lt;/em&gt;. Software and hardware freedom are vitally important concepts these days that we should all do our part to promote.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Opposing the use of mass surveillance by the state and corporations is also of utmost importance. Privacy and anonymity need to be normalized, and the consequences of abusing people&amp;rsquo;s private information need to become more severe.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;humility&#34;&gt;Humility&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t fool yourself into thinking you can or will know everything. Understand that you and everyone around you is only human and there are limits to your knowledge. Idolizing a specific person as &lt;em&gt;the expert on everything&lt;/em&gt;, even on a singular topic, is often a surefire way to be misled. With a healthy amount of distrust, you can build an understanding that isn&amp;rsquo;t reliant on completely outsourcing your cognition to others. It&amp;rsquo;s important to be courageous enough to question, but humble enough to question yourself too.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;persistence&#34;&gt;Persistence&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Personal memory units were banned six years before the crash, after someone found out that a few rogue Interplanetary Holy Tech officers were routinely editing consciousness data blocks in the cloud, modifying public opinion against IHT guidelines. There was an upheaval, media pundits had a field day, and the court hearing was transmitted to every citizen’s brain. In the end, the IHT officers pleaded guilty and were sent to the Genetic Recycle Lab. Shortly after, the AI Head of the IHT gave an address in which they talked about the need to tighten memory data security. Evidently, the best algorithms have been consulted with, and they concluded that personal units had to be turned in. I considered doing as I was told—but something inside me rebelled. Perhaps it was the fact that I have always felt like I was different, or maybe it was an encoded message from my grandfather, a famous artist and dissident who disappeared into the Genetic Recycle Lab a hundred and fifty years ago. I chose to follow my gut—and wiggled my way out of compliance.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://tessa.substack.com/p/deprecating-free-will-a-future-we&#34;&gt;Deprecating Free Will: A Future We Don&amp;rsquo;t Have to Accept&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By Tessa Lena&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;you-need-to-save-information&#34;&gt;You need to save information.&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the primary goals of information control is suppressing information that can be used to support dissenting narratives. Taking notes, or preserving information, is a very simple and effective way to prevent that outcome. The more people can do do preserve information the further along we can be to truly &lt;em&gt;leveling the playing field&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/cc421336-2f60-4ab8-b014-df0a9bafbf9d&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By extending your own and the public&amp;rsquo;s memory, you can safeguard yourself and others from mass manipulation. Nothing is new under the sun and old scams resurface with new sleek branding. Being able to point out the connections can make a critical difference at important times.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;cooperate&#34;&gt;Cooperate&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Do what you can to meaningfully communicate with others. Take the time to be patient with those with different perspectives. Even if you don&amp;rsquo;t end up agreeing, there is very often lots of useful information to glean. Where possible, do your best to connect with others to understand them on a deeper level. Working with others allows you to accomplish more than you could on your own. By cooperating you can uncover things that may be impossible alone.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Not only do you need to do this for &lt;em&gt;yourself&lt;/em&gt;, but you should want to pass down critical information to future generations, rather than just mere material wealth. Communicating across generations is one of the most important ways to ensure that people don&amp;rsquo;t keep falling into the same all-too-familiar traps. A straight-forward way to do this is to publish your own information and attempt to make it as resilient as possible.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Storing and Protecting Knowledge - Round Table with Mark Kulacz</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/rounding-the-earth-2/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/rounding-the-earth-2/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/rounding-the-earth.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/rounding-the-earth.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/rounding-the-earth.webp" />
+		<description>Another excellent chat with Rounding the Earth 🌎</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Mirrored from: &lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/v2iuqae-storing-and-protecting-knowledge-round-table-w-mark-kulacz-and-gabriel.html&#34;&gt;https://rumble.com/v2iuqae-storing-and-protecting-knowledge-round-table-w-mark-kulacz-and-gabriel.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Gabriel, Mark Kulacz, Liam Sturgess and Mathew Crawford discuss how to protect knowledge in an age of rampant censorship and manipulation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Show links:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/8JAkjYRxdwq3j1e1Df3NVc&#34;&gt;Previous Discussion&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://sites.google.com/a/housatonicits.com/home/&#34;&gt;houseatronic.live&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/DVEjmbMHUVo&#34;&gt;Let&amp;rsquo;s Talk America Ep1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/best-website-for-you/&#34;&gt;The best website for a single person&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/wabarc/wayback&#34;&gt;Wayback tool&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.tiki-toki.com/&#34;&gt;Tiki Toki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/the-plandemonium-timeline-project&#34;&gt;The Plandemonium Timeline Project&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://graphcommons.com/graphs/b84c2616-9fa7-49f3-aa31-87d161127950&#34;&gt;Covid-19 Bio-defense Mafia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/amsg2uM33HFxDCAVWAZvLe&#34;&gt;Tracking Links video&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://metaprepeducation.locals.com/&#34;&gt;MetaPrep Education Community&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.locals.com/&#34;&gt;Rounding the Earth locals&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=start&#34;&gt;Campfire Wiki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Follow Rounding The Earth on &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/&#34;&gt;Substack&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.locals.com&#34;&gt;locals&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.com/feed&#34;&gt;RSS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The Coordinated Attack on Cyberspace</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/coordinated-attack/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 13 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/coordinated-attack/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/global-networks.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/global-networks.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/global-networks.webp" />
+		<description>The technocracy is grabbing new powers to control your digital life</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;For tyrants and dissidents alike, the Covid Crisis was a defining moment in the history of censorship. Top-down information control leapt out of the shadows into an overt campaign of propaganda, suppression and manipulation. One of the defining aspects of the crisis is that it exemplified an &lt;em&gt;arms race&lt;/em&gt; between those who want complete top-down control, and those who would dare to seek their own path.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite the best efforts of Big Tech corporations, governments and NGOs, people who took a stand against creeping totalitarianism were able to meet, organize, and share information. Tenuous alliances were formed, dissidents from all walks of life made new allies, forging bonds with people they wouldn&amp;rsquo;t have otherwise known.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;From the Technocracy&amp;rsquo;s point of view: this is a colossal mistake that &lt;em&gt;must be corrected&lt;/em&gt;. The dual nature of the Internet as a tool to track people, as well as allow them to share information; is starting to become untenable to the technocracy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Of course, they could try &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-9/&#34;&gt;shutting down the Internet&lt;/a&gt;, and starting something completely different. Instead of going for something so rash, we are currently witnessing a massive legislative push to grab immense power over people&amp;rsquo;s digital lives.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For now, the primary objectives are to take control of:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;ranking-algorithms&#34;&gt;Ranking algorithms&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We have all witnessed the incredible power of a majority of people getting their information from a small set of highly curated sources. Previously in the domain of corporations, the technocracy aims to put algorithms in control of either governments, or &lt;em&gt;public&lt;/em&gt;-&lt;em&gt;private partnerships&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;personal-communications&#34;&gt;Personal communications&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Without the hindrance of a state and corporate backed censorship board, people can speak freely with each other if they choose. People&amp;rsquo;s own personal networks are a viable channel for dissent. Unable to leverage interpersonal trust, the technocracy has to nudge people to self-censor to their closest contacts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;anonymity&#34;&gt;Anonymity&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The ability for people to submit information to the public record without retaliation only really works in the people&amp;rsquo;s favour. Requiring some form of &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/digital-id/&#34;&gt;Digital ID&lt;/a&gt; to use services or access information is a vital requirement to taking control of cyberspace.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;information&#34;&gt;Information&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Cybersecurity&amp;rdquo; is far more broad than merely protecting against computer viruses and data breaches. The censorship industrial complex treats &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.corbettreport.com/are-you-prepared-for-the-infodemic/&#34;&gt;counter-narratives&lt;/a&gt; as security concerns.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;the-legislation&#34;&gt;The Legislation&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;un-cybercrime-treaty&#34;&gt;UN Cybercrime Treaty&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Link: &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/cybercrime/ad_hoc_committee/home&#34;&gt;https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/cybercrime/ad_hoc_committee/home&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ad Hoc Committee to Elaborate a Comprehensive International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;That&amp;rsquo;s quite a mouthful, isn&amp;rsquo;t it? The EFF has a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/decoding-uncybercrime-treaty&#34;&gt;helpful breakdown&lt;/a&gt;. The cybercrime treaty includes:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Restrictions on Free speech&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Expanded surveillance&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Sharing your information with other governments&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Compelled assistance in reducing security&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/eDYVUe8dPtI&#34;&gt;Five ways the draft U.N. Cybercrime Treaty undermines your rights&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;united-states-restrict-act&#34;&gt;United States: Restrict Act&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Link: &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/686&#34;&gt;https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/686&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Erroneously known as the &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Tiktok ban&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; the restrict act has been called the &amp;ldquo;&lt;strong&gt;Patriot Act 2.0&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;rdquo;. It proposes steep penalties and harsh sanctions on anyone using, or supporting, digital infrastructure deemed a threat to national security.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/Hq-nNSyGH1U&#34;&gt;The RESTRICT Act Is a Threat to Digital Freedom&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;europe-chat-control&#34;&gt;Europe: Chat Control&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Link: &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/docs_autres_institutions/commission_europeenne/com/2020/0568/COM_COM(2020)0568_EN.pdf&#34;&gt;https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/docs_autres_institutions/commission_europeenne/com/2020/0568/COM_COM(2020)0568_EN.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The game-changer in the ChatControl proposal is &lt;em&gt;client-side scanning&lt;/em&gt;, entirely by-passing &lt;a href=&#34;https://community.qbix.com/t/the-coming-war-on-end-to-end-encryption/214&#34;&gt;end-to-end encryption&lt;/a&gt;. The stated objective is to&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/ViirnWnoreA&#34;&gt;#StopScanningMe: How to actually protect children online&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;canada&#34;&gt;Canada&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;c-11&#34;&gt;C-11&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Link: &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.parl.ca/LegisInfo/en/bill/44-1/c-11&#34;&gt;https://www.parl.ca/LegisInfo/en/bill/44-1/c-11&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the name of &lt;em&gt;preserving Canadian content,&lt;/em&gt; C-11 aims to give more control to the CRTC. This is a broad overview of Canadian internet regulations. A highly contested part of the legislation is regulations on user content.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/3pvBflhiCYM&#34;&gt;What Is Canada&amp;rsquo;s Dystopian &amp;ldquo;Online Streaming Act&amp;rdquo;?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;c-26&#34;&gt;C-26&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Link: &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.parl.ca/LegisInfo/en/bill/44-1/c-26&#34;&gt;https://www.parl.ca/LegisInfo/en/bill/44-1/c-26&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A great deal of commentary of C-26 includes the phrase &lt;em&gt;cybersecurity &lt;strong&gt;is national security&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;. This bill is Canada&amp;rsquo;s revamp of cybersecurity legislation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Learn more: &lt;a href=&#34;https://fournier.substack.com/p/digital-surveillance-in-canada-2023&#34;&gt;https://fournier.substack.com/p/digital-surveillance-in-canada-2023&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The truth is that this is a coordinated campaign that goes beyond even the technological impacts. One of the biggest challenges is that governments are stepping in to resolve problems created by corporate digital systems. While in some cases it may seem necessary, these bills take a sledgehammer to civil rights in the name of fighting real problems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is not enough to merely disengage and try to adapt to these excesses. People must work together to take control of their own computing, then enforce our natural rights.The best way to truly oppose this wave of totalitarianism is to take on the responsibility yourself of making changes in your life.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The Twitter and Substack Divorce</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/substack-vs-twitter/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 08 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/substack-vs-twitter/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/musk-v-substack.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/musk-v-substack.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/musk-v-substack.webp" />
+		<description>Big Tech turf wars</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;When it comes to Twitter, Substack was on borrowed time. Musk has shown &lt;a href=&#34;https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/15/elon-musk-suspends-mastodon-twitter-account-over-elonjet-tracking/&#34;&gt;anti-competitive behavior&lt;/a&gt; in the past. In response to Substack announcing their &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.racket.news/p/the-craziest-friday-ever&#34;&gt;notes feature&lt;/a&gt;, it appears as though Musk has &lt;a href=&#34;https://tessa.substack.com/p/twitter-is-censoring-substack&#34;&gt;sanctioned Substack&lt;/a&gt; in it&amp;rsquo;s entirety. I appreciate that Substack has been a valuable platform for many who spoke out during the Covid Crisis. They provide a quick way of starting a newsletter and a valuable feature of allowing cross-pollination between communities through social features.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/learning-lessons.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/social-media&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Social Media: Learning the right lessons&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Understanding information control&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;At the end of the day, Substack is still a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html.en&#34;&gt;Service as a Software Substitute&lt;/a&gt;. Like many other entities, the convenience of getting started quickly or seamlessly is exchanged for a loss in freedom. Many rush to accuse Musk of &amp;ldquo;building walls&amp;rdquo; around his platform, but is Substack really much different?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Substack made a deliberate decision to allow embedded twitter tweets and youtube videos, but hasn&amp;rsquo;t included various competitors to those platforms. Both twitter and Youtube have centralized and decentralized competitors that could have also been included, yet there is no sign of embedded PeerTube or even Rumble videos any time soon.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Twitter has retaliated against Substack the same way it attacked Mastodon, by labeling links to the platform as dangerous. This is and was a blatant case of profit-driven disinformation, yet neither Musk nor Twitter will face any sanctions for watering down the concept of such warnings. It&amp;rsquo;s an act of deliberately yelling &amp;ldquo;Fire!&amp;rdquo; in your theater when a specific performer goes onstage.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;substack-under-attack&#34;&gt;Substack under attack?&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The other day, the ADL published a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/antisemitism-false-information-and-hate-speech-find-home-substack-0&#34;&gt;list of substacks&lt;/a&gt; that included Steve Kirsch and Robert Malone among what they consider the worst of the worst. Arguing that Substack has too lax moderation policies. Odds are, you could zero in on the most controversial members of any big platform and would find similarly deviant participants. What&amp;rsquo;s interesting to note is the lumping in of the most visible critics of how the Covid Crisis was mismanaged. In time, we will see how Substack responds to these accusations moving forward.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To the degree the platform has allowed authentic investigation into questions that the powerful don&amp;rsquo;t want investigated, every platform is under attack. It does not necessarily be an all-or-nothing affair, it could be limited to a specific author, or specific post that gets too much attention. No matter what, Substack is going to have a difficult task of balancing the needs of it&amp;rsquo;s writers against the pressures put against it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;preserving-the-good&#34;&gt;Preserving the good&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Substack is an excellent community. It&amp;rsquo;s one of the many places I&amp;rsquo;ve recently encountered a wealth of free-thinkers that have deliberately put themselves out to challenge the madness during the Covid Crisis. For many, it&amp;rsquo;s been a great place to encounter other people to express frustration about lockdowns, mandates, and consequences of bad policies when people&amp;rsquo;s friends, representatives, or even relatives wouldn&amp;rsquo;t hear it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many have interpreted the partial removal of mandates as the end of the push for top-down tyranny. Unfortunately this is far from the case, if anything very dangerous precedents have been set without hardly any correction. I would encourage any fellow authors, especially those who wrote during the early days to get involved in documenting it on the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=covid-19_vaccines:injuries&amp;amp;s%5B%5D=operationuplift&#34;&gt;Campfire Wiki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a lot of excellent and valuable pertinent information exclusively on Substack. I would hope that all of these authors have made sure they have at least a local copy of their work instead of exclusively relying on Substack to keep it online. At minimum, I’d recommend archiving your favorite articles with something like &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/&#34;&gt;archive.is&lt;/a&gt; to be preserved long term.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;guerrilla-publishing&#34;&gt;Guerrilla publishing&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When it comes to Substack authors specifically being censored by twitter, many of them are lucky to have their content also be mirrored by &lt;a href=&#34;https://truthtalk.uk/&#34;&gt;Truth Talk&lt;/a&gt;. Oddly enough I am one such author lucky enough to have them &lt;a href=&#34;https://truthtalk.uk/author/libre-solutions-network/&#34;&gt;mirroring my writing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In addition to me, others are also mirrored.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://truthtalk.uk/author/Tessa-Lena/&#34;&gt;Tessa Lena&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://truthtalk.uk/author/lily/&#34;&gt;Lily&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://truthtalk.uk/author/Karen-Hunt/&#34;&gt;Karen Hunt&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I greatly appreciate being included, and this is a model that would scale quite well. If authors were interested, volunteers could create new &amp;ldquo;hubs&amp;rdquo; to mirror excellent content across the Internet and bypass the basic link blacklisting censorship. This has the advantage of disarming the programmed response by people who will disregard content if it&amp;rsquo;s from &amp;ldquo;tainted&amp;rdquo; sources. You&amp;rsquo;ll note this is why the establishment has changed gears to emphasizing that people should only listen to &amp;lsquo;&lt;em&gt;approved&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rsquo; sources.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;a-better-way&#34;&gt;A better way&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;That’s really only part of the battle, because ideally you want your information to be easily accessible. Mirroring your content to a backup blog (or documents on your own machine) can go a long way. No matter what, you don’t want to put all your writing/research/work at the mercy of a single platform you don’t control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;No matter what your process is, consider keeping your writing on your own hardware &amp;amp; software. This means either your own word processor or notes application, or something more sophisticated. This will make it easier to publish and migrate to a variety of other formats. It is fortuitous that I have recently written a guide on getting started on self-publishing yourself with static site generators.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/website.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/best-website-for-you&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The best website for a single person&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Add your voice to the free and open web&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re interested in a more open and decentralized alternative, publishing your own website goes a long way. Static site generators make it easy, but unfortunately you may miss the social aspect. If more and more people migrated to the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/call-to-action-join-the-fediverse/&#34;&gt;fediverse&lt;/a&gt;, much of the community aspect could be integrated without the same top-down control of centralized social media. If you&amp;rsquo;re interested in a fediverse-native blogging platform there is &lt;a href=&#34;https://writefreely.org/&#34;&gt;write freely&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To reiterate, please make sure your work isn&amp;rsquo;t at the mercy of any single platform. We have seen that the technocracy is eager to constrain the people&amp;rsquo;s access to information, and to wield the devastating weapon of information control. Reach is a sincere challenge, we can all make our own content resilient, but ultimately people need to have an active desire to seek out alternative voices.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is why the first operation, &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/chorus/&#34;&gt;Chorus&lt;/a&gt; emphasizes the importance of freedom of speech and expression. Those of us with any ability to get the word out do have a &lt;em&gt;responsibility&lt;/em&gt; to boost and promote independent authentic voices. This is a tremendous task, there is much that needs to be said and little room to get through the few avenues of getting information to the public.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you recognize that challenge, you&amp;rsquo;ll understand my excitement for what we can do to truly democratize information dissemination. Everyone can take action in their own lives to redirect their attention away from platforms and services intended to &lt;em&gt;monopolize their access to information&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Rounding The Earth Interview</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/rounding-the-earth/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 28 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/rounding-the-earth/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/rounding-the-earth.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/rounding-the-earth.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/rounding-the-earth.webp" />
+		<description></description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;rounding-the-earth&#34;&gt;Rounding The Earth&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Gabriel of Libre Solutions Network joins Mathew Crawford and Liam Sturgess to introduce the RTE community to an ever-growing world of alternative platforms for social media, communication and more.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Watch on &lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/v2f3mdm-big-tech-solutions-round-table-w-gabe-of-libre-solutions-network.html&#34;&gt;Rumble&lt;/a&gt;
+Show notes on &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.com/big-tech-solutions-libre-solutions-network/&#34;&gt;Rounding The Earth&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Follow Rounding The Earth on &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/&#34;&gt;Substack&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.locals.com&#34;&gt;locals&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.com/feed&#34;&gt;RSS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The best website for a single person</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/best-website-for-you/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/best-website-for-you/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/website.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/website.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/website.webp" />
+		<description>Add your voice to the free and open web</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Every single person should have their own website. I don&amp;rsquo;t just mean that we should all rush out to buy a fancy firstname.com domain. Instead, that it would benefit us all, if more people would take an active role in building the &lt;a href=&#34;https://home.cern/news/opinion/computing/open-internet-and-free-web&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;free and open web&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As I wrote in &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/reclaiming-cyberspace/&#34;&gt;Reclaiming Territory in Cyberspace&lt;/a&gt;, there are three primary resources in cyberspace:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Storage&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Computing Power&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Bandwidth&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We are all lucky, that websites are not at all demanding when it comes to these resources. The biggest concern is storage, with bandwidth being the next most important factor. You need the storage to hold all the files in your website, and the bandwidth to reach your audience. I believe there are many conditions today, that if we were willing, could enable us to truly take the web out of the hands of governments and corporations.  Does this sound too good to be true? Allow me to make my case.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;understanding-static-websites&#34;&gt;Understanding static websites&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A &lt;em&gt;static&lt;/em&gt; website is one that&amp;rsquo;s merely a collection of properly formatted files. These files will include the HTML, JavaScript and CSS (the skeleton of the website), as well as any other multimedia content like images and video.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Static websites can be &lt;a href=&#34;https://motherfuckingwebsite.com/&#34;&gt;quite simple&lt;/a&gt; or support a &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/voiceover/&#34;&gt;wide range of multimedia&lt;/a&gt;. Either way, it&amp;rsquo;s best to think of a static website as a pamphlet or poster that you can easily update. Depending on your ideal audience, it can be better to work with a text and links only but informative website, or include beautiful images, video or animations. This will all depend primarily on where you intend to store the website (in the cloud, or on your machine?) and how much bandwidth you and your audience have access to.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While I am generally a critic of leveraging cloud infrastructure, static sites are one of the major exceptions. Since a static website is like a poster, hosting it on the cloud is akin to putting it up on a commercial, but prominent bulletin board. An underappreciated feature of static websites is that they are inherently unhackable. Like a poster, it can be taken down or defaced, but you&amp;rsquo;re never going to suffer a data breach or have it infect your systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;static-site-generators&#34;&gt;Static Site Generators&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What makes static websites more accessible than ever is &lt;em&gt;static site generators&lt;/em&gt;, these generators are designed to allow people to ignore the nitty-gritty aspect of web design, and just get to writing content. What really makes static site generators excellent is that they make the job of maintaining a large and complicated website relatively simple for a single person.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The basic process of using any static site generator to build your website is like this:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Install whichever generator you choose&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Run the generator to build a new project folder&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Browse the Generator&amp;rsquo;s themes gallery, and import whichever theme suits you&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Use whatever editor(s) you like to modify, copy and create files into where they need to be&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Run the generator command to view changes in real time&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Pages are usually written in &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.markdownguide.org/basic-syntax/&#34;&gt;markdown&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;hugo&#34;&gt;Hugo&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Site: &lt;a href=&#34;https://gohugo.io/&#34;&gt;https://gohugo.io/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Themes: &lt;a href=&#34;https://themes.gohugo.io/&#34;&gt;https://themes.gohugo.io/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Documentation: &lt;a href=&#34;https://gohugo.io/documentation/&#34;&gt;https://gohugo.io/documentation/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;jekyll&#34;&gt;Jekyll&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Site: &lt;a href=&#34;https://jekyllrb.com/&#34;&gt;https://jekyllrb.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Themes: &lt;a href=&#34;https://jekyllrb.com/docs/themes/&#34;&gt;https://jekyllrb.com/docs/themes/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Documentation: &lt;a href=&#34;https://jekyllrb.com/docs/&#34;&gt;https://jekyllrb.com/docs/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;zola&#34;&gt;Zola&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Site: &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.getzola.org/&#34;&gt;https://www.getzola.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Themes: &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.getzola.org/themes/&#34;&gt;https://www.getzola.org/themes/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Documentation: &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.getzola.org/documentation/&#34;&gt;https://www.getzola.org/documentation/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;hexo&#34;&gt;Hexo&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Site: &lt;a href=&#34;https://hexo.io/&#34;&gt;https://hexo.io/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Themes: &lt;a href=&#34;https://hexo.io/themes/&#34;&gt;https://hexo.io/themes/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Documentation: &lt;a href=&#34;https://hexo.io/docs/&#34;&gt;https://hexo.io/docs/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;astro&#34;&gt;Astro&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Site: &lt;a href=&#34;https://astro.build/&#34;&gt;https://astro.build/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Themes: &lt;a href=&#34;https://astro.build/themes&#34;&gt;https://astro.build/themes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Documentation: &lt;a href=&#34;https://docs.astro.build/en/tutorial/0-introduction/&#34;&gt;https://docs.astro.build/en/tutorial/0-introduction/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;enhancement-themes&#34;&gt;Enhancement: Themes&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Themes are important, they do a lot of really heavy lifting in the end-result of the generated site. Themes will outline what goes in the headers, footers, sidebars and the overall look of the site. Themes will also have control over some of the finer details like social media previews and RSS integration.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is what&amp;rsquo;s motivated me to build my two Hugo themes &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel/freedom&#34;&gt;Freedom&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel/valor&#34;&gt;Valor&lt;/a&gt; from the ground up. They are very much a work in progress, but I appreciate having a fine degree of control. Odds are if you have very specific requirements, modifying an existing theme can also work for you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;enhancement-widgets&#34;&gt;Enhancement: Widgets&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Static sites are nice, but you want &lt;em&gt;MORE&lt;/em&gt;. If you want to add dynamic features like comments or real-time integrations, overhauling the theme can be overkill. Often you can create &lt;em&gt;shortcodes&lt;/em&gt;, that will give you the ability to include custom html/css/javascript that will work like a new widget with enhanced functionality.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Some theme generators will also give you the ability to &lt;em&gt;override&lt;/em&gt; parts of the theme. For example, if you want to add icons to the navigation menu, you could copy the existing one into the designated overrides folder and add your icons there.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;enhancement-version-control&#34;&gt;Enhancement: Version control&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ouch! You&amp;rsquo;ve gotten hit by a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cisa.gov/stopransomware/ransomware-guide&#34;&gt;ransomware attack&lt;/a&gt;. All your files have been encrypted by a virus, and can&amp;rsquo;t be recovered unless you hand the hackers some Monero. Thankfully, you&amp;rsquo;ve been using a self-hosted version control system like &lt;a href=&#34;https://gitea.io/en-us/&#34;&gt;Gitea&lt;/a&gt;. So you can simply pull down the old version of the website and upload it again. Version control allows you to have a permanent record of changes made over time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;teams&#34;&gt;Teams&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Online version control is also very useful for collaboration. Instead of maintaining the static website alone, you can share access to the repository with others. Many online source control providers will often also include &lt;a href=&#34;https://docs.codeberg.org/codeberg-pages/pushing-output/&#34;&gt;integrated hosting&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;hosting&#34;&gt;Hosting&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Static websites are &lt;em&gt;portable&lt;/em&gt; by nature. As long as the site structure is sound (use relative links) you can often put &lt;em&gt;mirrors&lt;/em&gt; in multiple locations. This is an excellent way to maintain a resilient presence, instead of relying on a single point of failure. Because static websites are often quite simple and small, multiple uploads of the same content aren&amp;rsquo;t always so arduous.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;online-source-control&#34;&gt;Online Source Control:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Want to get started quickly? &lt;a href=&#34;https://pages.github.com/&#34;&gt;Github Pages&lt;/a&gt; has an excellent overview on how to use &lt;a href=&#34;https://rogerdudler.github.io/git-guide/&#34;&gt;Git&lt;/a&gt; to push your static site to a repository and get running immediately.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can also use:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://docs.codeberg.org/codeberg-pages/pushing-output/&#34;&gt;Codeberg Pages&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/pages/&#34;&gt;Gitlab Pages&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;own-your-own-domain&#34;&gt;Own your own domain&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When you buy your &lt;em&gt;domain&lt;/em&gt;, which is your web address online, (e.g. &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;https://libresolutions.network&lt;/a&gt;) you&amp;rsquo;re going to want to own the domain yourself. This means that you purchase your domain directly from a domain registrar. For an often modest yearly fee, you can secure a name on the regular internet. It&amp;rsquo;s important to have control over the dns records yourself, in case you feel the need to migrate or add additional services.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;managed-hosting&#34;&gt;Managed hosting&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Often, domain registrars themselves will offer some form of &lt;em&gt;managed hosting&lt;/em&gt;. This means some tool like cPanel will be available to you to simply upload the files to the site directly.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;diy-hosting&#34;&gt;DIY Hosting&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can always run your own web server, although it will require more technical knowledge. Going DIY allows you to reduce as many intermediaries as possible.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;getting-on-the-dark-web&#34;&gt;Getting on the Dark Web&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-9-preview.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-9&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #9 Internet Shutdowns&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Information control is the root of modern tyranny.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For those concerned about the increase in draconian control over the Internet, it can be helpful to mirror their content to one or many darknets, such as Tor or I2P. Even as a regular web user, I would highly recommend at least having the knowledge of how to visit websites on the darknet, for we do not know what kind of measures will be used in future crises.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;sneakernet&#34;&gt;Sneakernet&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With a static website, you don&amp;rsquo;t have to worry about complicated things like databases and user accounts. This means you have the advantage of being able to mirror the entire content onto a physical, portable format that can be distributed in person. When paired with version control, it can become a very efficient means of securely distributing large amounts of critical data.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Who knows? Maybe we can start supporting independent websites by purchasing archives in &lt;a href=&#34;https://newworldnextweek.com/products/corbett-report-2010-data-archive-usb-flash-drive&#34;&gt;a physical format!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The Collapse of the Intangible</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/collapse-of-the-intangible/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 21 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/collapse-of-the-intangible/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/abstract.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/abstract.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/abstract.webp" />
+		<description>Keeping your head above water in a tsunami of change</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve reflected on how the rapid pace of change has warped my perspective relative to those significantly older than me. Becoming curious how upcoming changes and trends will leave me out of step with new experiences.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video muted autoplay preload=&#34;none&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/video/mirror.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Video: &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/-7mTJVyTR-w&#34;&gt;Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirrors&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Advanced machine learning models have allowed people to hold a mirror up to the vastness of internet data. This is not just any mirror, but an &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/-7mTJVyTR-w&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;infinity mirror&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. This phenomenal infinity mirror transforms a mere slice of the human experience into a kaleidoscope of infinite possibilities. It&amp;rsquo;s the ultimate creative &lt;em&gt;force multiplier&lt;/em&gt;. This unleashing of creative force will inevitably be used to spread both joy and pain in incalculable ways. The game is changing.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;all-intangible-value-is-heading-to-zero&#34;&gt;All &lt;em&gt;intangible&lt;/em&gt; value is heading to zero&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What does this really mean? All kinds of media (articles, photos, videos, etc.) will be entirely fungible. With the assistance of automated text generation tools, people have &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3211051/chatgpt-written-books-are-flooding-amazon-people-turn-ai-quick-publishing&#34;&gt;rushed to flood&lt;/a&gt; existing niches of creativity. As these tools improve, more and more complex media will be often little more than a mere thought away.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As copyright holders struggled to contain digital distribution, they&amp;rsquo;re no match for automated &lt;em&gt;regeneration&lt;/em&gt; of personalized derivatives. Any remix or rehash of old ideas is within the grasp of anyone with access to tools trained on them. Imitations, parody, outright frauds are all inevitably going to saturate any and every available context.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This isn&amp;rsquo;t limited to content, impersonation is well within reach. You may receive a call from a familiar voice, only for it to be a scammer impersonating your relative. Video and voice deepfakes aren&amp;rsquo;t necessarily new, but it&amp;rsquo;s clear these things are going to be more within reach over time. This can have the effect of eroding trust in nearly any digital context. With very few (if any) ways to demonstrate authenticity, it will be impossible to validate frauds from genuine actors. Online spaces that were once giant profit-earning engines will dwindle into a mere ghost of the past.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;desperate-measures&#34;&gt;Desperate Measures&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Governments, corporations and all the powers of the world will rush to keep this all under their control. The last thing they need is individuals having the power to rapidly and efficiently communicate ideas in a variety of ways. While people may be presently separated by differing experiences or ways of thinking, these tools have the ability to help people effectively &lt;em&gt;translate&lt;/em&gt; cultural messages.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Imagine a trivial scenario. An activist finds a fantastic article that explains a vital concept in a useful way. They want to share with others, but can&amp;rsquo;t quite &lt;em&gt;express the idea&lt;/em&gt; for those coming from a different perspective. Now they have the power to use automated tools that may better understand the other&amp;rsquo;s context.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;All kinds of intangible differences between people evaporating would cause significant troubles for those who profit off those distinctions. Suddenly, almost anyone can be &lt;em&gt;brought up to speed&lt;/em&gt;, regardless of ideology.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Actions taken to restrict or control machine learning algorithms aren&amp;rsquo;t likely to succeed. Without successfully robbing people of all general-purpose computing, there will always be mechanisms to circumvent interference. Amusingly enough, we&amp;rsquo;re already witnessing them being &lt;a href=&#34;https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/03/you-can-now-run-a-gpt-3-level-ai-model-on-your-laptop-phone-and-raspberry-pi/&#34;&gt;redistributed to inexpensive machines&lt;/a&gt;. Like Prometheus gifting fire to mankind, it would seem that the very technology itself is prone to democratization.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;the-hard-limit-information&#34;&gt;The hard limit: Information&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;No matter how powerful these tools become, they have one unmovable obstacle; they can&amp;rsquo;t create information. Representing existing information in other ways is possible, but these tools can&amp;rsquo;t act on information that isn&amp;rsquo;t there.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For example, generating articles or other short written content is quite trivial. With the ability to generate limitless words, you&amp;rsquo;re presented with a challenge: &lt;em&gt;What to say?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Do you continue banging the same drum in a multitude of different ways?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s value in that. It&amp;rsquo;s a highly effective way to communicate fundamental concepts to different people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Will you strive on your own to bring something genuinely unique, at your own pace?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-adventurer&#34;&gt;The adventurer&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re faced with the potentiality of people creating countless imitations of your original ideas, do you abandon your quest? Shut down and sit in the cave watching the shadows? Or do you leave the endless noise and forge a new path?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s important not to fear the power of limitless creation. For those who wish to discover and create, it is an opportunity to be the very root of countless experiences. This is the best guarantee anyone can have that their accomplishments and insights will truly leave a mark on history.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With all the tools of at your disposal, it&amp;rsquo;s critical to focus on &lt;em&gt;what should be said&lt;/em&gt; rather than merely what can be said. Understand that you&amp;rsquo;ll have no significant advantage following the crowd that wants to endlessly regenerate new iterations of popular or alluring experiences. Regardless of if you embrace media generation tools, or shun them entirely, steer your mind on how you can share joy, love and hope.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;rebuilding-balance&#34;&gt;Rebuilding balance&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Almost everyone today has reservations about the drastic impact the Internet has had as it&amp;rsquo;s taken over our lives. The saturation of the intangible gives us an opportunity to &lt;em&gt;leave the immaterial to be immaterial&lt;/em&gt;. Leave the free and open web to become a space for sharing and learning from information, but not allowing it to become a parasocial replacement for living.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It seems that we are at the beginning of an immense &lt;em&gt;fracturing&lt;/em&gt; of our way of life. While the intangible creations will continue to have dwindling value over time, becoming overly invested in them is a path to self-destruction. This may very-well be the &amp;ldquo;last call&amp;rdquo; to those who would like to escape the machinations that dominate the minds of the people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To truly be &lt;em&gt;ahead of the game&lt;/em&gt;, one needs to wholeheartedly embrace genuine tangible interactions with other people. While the Internet can be a fantastic and wondrous place, we should live for each other and not the machine. It&amp;rsquo;s never a bad time to lend someone some assistance, build something new, or even do something active.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Tools of the Technocracy: #11 Social Credit</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-11/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 04 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-11/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/tools-of-the-technocracy11.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/chains.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/chains.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/chains.webp" />
+		<description>What&#39;s new is old.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;tools-of-the-technocracy--11-social-credit&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/tools-of-the-technocracy-series&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy&lt;/a&gt;:  #11 Social Credit&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I will remind you of the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy/&#34;&gt;opening&lt;/a&gt; for this series:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the past, tyrants and dictators have had a hard limit on how far they could push people. From either logistical difficulties, fear of resistance, or liberation from other nations; these hard limits have been getting softer and softer as technology advances. Recent history has shown an ever-increasing centralization of power into a smaller and smaller set of control structures.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The tyrants of the world are winning a massive arms race against the rest of humanity. We must not merely avoid these systems, rather every one of us is responsible for preventing them from being weaponized against the people.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The covid crisis was a preemptive strike&lt;sup id=&#34;fnref:1&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#fn:1&#34; class=&#34;footnote-ref&#34; role=&#34;doc-noteref&#34;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; against those who would consider challenging perpetual top-down control. Using unjustified and arbitrary measures to put small enterprises out of business,&lt;sup id=&#34;fnref:2&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#fn:2&#34; class=&#34;footnote-ref&#34; role=&#34;doc-noteref&#34;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; putting many workers out of work. Sabotaging the education of millions of children.&lt;sup id=&#34;fnref:3&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#fn:3&#34; class=&#34;footnote-ref&#34; role=&#34;doc-noteref&#34;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; Separating families, and forcing the elderly to die alone.&lt;sup id=&#34;fnref:4&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#fn:4&#34; class=&#34;footnote-ref&#34; role=&#34;doc-noteref&#34;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; Deploying a barrage of fear and propaganda that many have hardly recovered from. The total human cost is incalculable, but the oligarchs made trillions.&lt;sup id=&#34;fnref:5&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#fn:5&#34; class=&#34;footnote-ref&#34; role=&#34;doc-noteref&#34;&gt;5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;All that, was just in 2020.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Odds are, if you&amp;rsquo;re reading this you&amp;rsquo;re very well aware of this. The problem is you have to understand the majority of people hardly understand it. This preemptive strike against the public was deliberate and calculated, the lack of serious mainstream accounting is all the proof anyone needs.&lt;sup id=&#34;fnref:6&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#fn:6&#34; class=&#34;footnote-ref&#34; role=&#34;doc-noteref&#34;&gt;6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; The legacy  media is (at the time of writing) complicit in justifying the measures and downplaying the harms. Upper-middle class workers in the so-called &amp;rsquo;laptop class&amp;rsquo; were effectively bribed with generous work from home policies. While they had the time to investigate the wider issues around them, many chose not to &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;rock the boat&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;not-my-problem&#34;&gt;&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Not my problem&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Why don&amp;rsquo;t people &lt;em&gt;care&lt;/em&gt;? Anyone aware of this can just look around and see incredible amounts of devastation everywhere they look. Surely &lt;em&gt;everyone&lt;/em&gt; can&amp;rsquo;t be so blatantly ignorant? It&amp;rsquo;s true that many may genuinely struggle to make the connection, even if they can see it, but that doesn&amp;rsquo;t quite explain the overwhelming wave of apathy that meets these issues. People are vastly misinformed about their place in the world, and the diffusion of responsibility is pure paralysis for those who aren&amp;rsquo;t prepared to take responsibility.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What does all this have to do with social credit systems?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;a-gentle-introduction-to-the-human-dominance-hierarchy&#34;&gt;A gentle introduction to the human dominance hierarchy&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Tyranny and abuse weren&amp;rsquo;t invented in 2020. Much of what has happened, has already happened in similar ways or all kinds of variations. For as long as there have been humans, you can count on some of them to form groups to seize control over resources, territory, and other people. Everything from your local social group, to geopolitical alliances between nations is encompassed in this.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There have been precious few exceptions and limitations. Historically, though a lot of blood, sweat and tears people were able to set limits on the abuses powers could get away with. Back in 13th century, through the Magna Carta; people managed to codify that even the king, the ruler and owner of everything, needed to have limits.&lt;sup id=&#34;fnref:7&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#fn:7&#34; class=&#34;footnote-ref&#34; role=&#34;doc-noteref&#34;&gt;7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Whenever Legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;John Locke&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is because at even the simplest level, a gang requires some degree of chosen (or coerced) participation. The decision-makers form a chain of compliance that must remain unbroken for orders to reach all the way to the lowest levels. This means that the &amp;ldquo;game&amp;rdquo; participants play has to account for every level of the system. As groups get larger, from villages and towns to globe-spanning empires, the &amp;lsquo;game&amp;rsquo; of raw domination would take on more abstractions and aspects of soft-power. Every aspect of human life is downstream of our collective behavior in this dominance hierarchy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/programmable-currency.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/programmable-currency&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Programmable currency&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is it good for?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For example, some countries may emphasize great importance in education to develop competitive technologies to gain wealth. Others may merely use their military might to seize resources from other regions. The impacts of those differences will reverberate down to even the humble carpenter. Regardless if the country is a top-down command economy, or an entirely free market, the carpenter will find success or failure based on how compatible his products are with the power structure. In one he may have more success and status making tools, in the other he may do better making weapons.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This all sounds rather bleak. Wouldn&amp;rsquo;t it be better if we had a good hierarchy, or none at all?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-story-of-i-am-good&#34;&gt;The story of &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;I am good&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;People can be sold a lie that&amp;rsquo;s merely a convenient pretext to participate in conquest or to mistreat others within society. Beyond lies, lots of true information can be leveraged in support of the dominant order. One can easily argue that opponents of it are misfits, freaks, or even deplorables, and that the system&amp;rsquo;s foreign enemies really aren&amp;rsquo;t any better.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In fact, in many circumstances their own self-preservation instincts will fight their better senses to conform. Just as a baby knows it will die when unloved&lt;sup id=&#34;fnref:8&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#fn:8&#34; class=&#34;footnote-ref&#34; role=&#34;doc-noteref&#34;&gt;8&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;, every cell in your body understands what standing against the dominance hierarchy means. This places an overwhelming amount of stress on anyone who consciously exists outside or against it. For the story of &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;I am good&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; to take hold of society, it doesn&amp;rsquo;t need to be particularly robust, it hinges on people&amp;rsquo;s natural impulses.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As an individual, it can be difficult to understand how your actions can cause risk or harm to others. I am highly suspicious that the Social Justice movement was weaponized to get people to reflexively defend their position within the hierarchy. &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Check your privilege&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; was not only a rhetorical weapon used to silence others, but backs people into a corner of &lt;em&gt;system justification&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;sup id=&#34;fnref:9&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#fn:9&#34; class=&#34;footnote-ref&#34; role=&#34;doc-noteref&#34;&gt;9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This isn&amp;rsquo;t to say a good and fair dominance hierarchy &lt;em&gt;can&amp;rsquo;t exist&lt;/em&gt;. It&amp;rsquo;s just that it has to overcome the challenges posed by competing hierarchies that compete on raw force and efficiency. There are good people constantly working to level the playing field or address problems, we know meaningful change is possible. It just does require difficult things like compromise and consensus.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/high-places.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/high-places&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Redefining &amp;#34;High Places&amp;#34;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Lets re-balance power from the bottom-up&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Things can be hard for those who recognize what&amp;rsquo;s gone wrong and want to fix it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;radicals-vs-reformers&#34;&gt;Radicals vs Reformers&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The only true revolution is the replacement of an existing dominance hierarchy with a different one. This is what radicals want, while reformers simply want to modify the structure of the existing one.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Reformers want to make the dominance hierarchy more fair or efficient, ideally with sane and humane goals. They recognize the benefits of preserving what&amp;rsquo;s functional within the existing structures. Even the most effective reformers will struggle against various &lt;em&gt;inflexibilities&lt;/em&gt; of the system refusing to bend.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/snowjob.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/anatomy-of-a-psyop&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Anatomy of a psyop&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Cognitive warfare in action&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Radicals may or may not also want those things, but more principally want the dominance hierarchy &lt;em&gt;reorganized&lt;/em&gt;. For some games like monarchy, replacing the king could result in a dramatic shift. Radicals recognize that those with status and resources within the hierarchy are squandering them, and that they should be used in a different way. Radicals often struggle to build meaningful coalitions to support overthrowing the existing dominance hierarchy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the context of many activist movements, among those who agree on many issues, the dividing line will be between radicals and reformers. The radicals will accuse the reformers of being propped-up by the existing power-structure. Then the reformers will retort that the radicals are sabotaging meaningful change with their resentment, arguing that keeping the power structure in place is a fair trade for meaningful change.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the stronger adaptations a dominance hierarchy can have is &lt;em&gt;flexibility&lt;/em&gt;. A rigid system is too vulnerable to being outright overthrown by radicals. Instead of single-handedly orchestrating your machinations, it can be quite effective to open bid those actions to those you will reward handsomely. This is an excellent tactic to prevent defectors, because those interested in their own self-advancement will align themselves to your goals. Suddenly your vast conspiracy to dominate others is working as a decentralized network with plausible deniability, with the added bonus of components being entirely replaceable.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;social-credit&#34;&gt;Social credit&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What fuels a social credit system is to reduce one&amp;rsquo;s participation in society to currency. Many would argue we&amp;rsquo;re already there, but the existence of public goods, like a free and open internet can go a long way to &lt;em&gt;level the playing field&lt;/em&gt;. Carbon allowances, CBDC&amp;rsquo;s, energy rationing, smart contracts are all things that can be used interchangeably to place restrictions on individuals for their conduct. What this changes is that room for those who don&amp;rsquo;t culturally, intellectually, or morally conform to society is all but eliminated. Suddenly, all of humanity is reduced to mere &lt;em&gt;cogs in the machine&lt;/em&gt; for some &amp;lsquo;greater purpose&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Maybe you&amp;rsquo;ve got a &amp;lsquo;greater purpose&amp;rsquo; in mind for such a system. I can promise you that it&amp;rsquo;s pure madness. The very imposition of such tools for total top-down control &lt;em&gt;themselves&lt;/em&gt; are incompatible with fundamental morality. For example, we have seen an incredible rise in censorship, yet hate remains and people aren&amp;rsquo;t noticeably any nicer online. I am highly skeptical that this would improve in different hands. Merely replacing one tyrant for another isn&amp;rsquo;t the answer here.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/rStL7niR7gs&#34;&gt;The Rules for Rulers - CGP Grey&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-game-of-power&#34;&gt;The game of power&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A social credit system is an &lt;em&gt;implementation&lt;/em&gt; of the human dominance hierarchy. The system functions to incentivize individuals to conform to the decision-maker&amp;rsquo;s goals. Today, because people are rightly concerned with the dreams of the technocrats they remain arrogantly ignorant of the existing mechanisms of social control. Social conventions, institutions, and financial incentives are all downstream of the human dominance hierarchy. Instead of running through a digital ID and connected to a smart-contract fueled grid, it runs on people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;People decide who is high status and low status. Every act, either reaffirms or denigrates the dominance hierarchy and has associated consequences. Money is merely currency. People&amp;rsquo;s entire lives are ruled by how they are treated by those around them. There are many non-financial actions that have immense impact on a person&amp;rsquo;s overall well-being. Reducing the sum-total effects of human social interactions to financial transactions is to explore a planet through a keyhole.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &amp;ldquo;Great Reset&amp;rdquo; and 4th industrial revolution &lt;em&gt;are in fact a revolution&lt;/em&gt;. This revolution is one that reduces the various &amp;lsquo;inefficiencies&amp;rsquo; in the human dominance hierarchy from the perspective of the technocrats. Instead of allowing people to evaluate their situation and use their mind to respond, the goal is to construct a system that dictates how they &lt;em&gt;should&lt;/em&gt; act.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;analog-to-digital&#34;&gt;Analog to digital&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The advantage of going digital means that you replace an army of well paid upper to middle class managers with mere code that the rest of humanity is forced to live by. Effectively, the oligarch class has decided to &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;cut out the middle man&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; between themselves and the workforce. By simplifying everyone&amp;rsquo;s vocation to a set of rigid standards that must be followed without question, nobody is safe from being replaced with a trivial software suite and an army of underpaid &amp;lsquo;gig workers&amp;rsquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/skynet-workforce.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/skynet-workforce&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The Rise of a SkyNet Workforce&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Just as people communicate social signals, a digital social credit system will communicate praise or condemnation in a variety of ways. Instead of merely fining people or using the brutality of a criminal justice system, the technocracy can simply de-rank the individual and their associates. To some this may appear as more compassionate, but may end up having incalculable harms and distortions in the long run.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Just as advertising algorithms have already learned how to influence and manipulate people, more and more machines can be deployed to manage human beings. Many organizations that currently exist would be made totally obsolete, for better or worse. There &lt;em&gt;are&lt;/em&gt; many efficiencies to further digitizing society, but there&amp;rsquo;s no real need to implement it in such a top-down manner.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;central-planing-works-but-all-effective-central-planners-are-evil&#34;&gt;Central planing works, but all effective central planners are evil&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Robots are no exception. Tyrants in nations and the workforce are often poor performers unless they figure out ways to expend those around them as a resource for greater efficiency. Do you really expect the digital social credit system to place a high value on your individual well-being? I would already bet against it. In many countries, there are poor protections for fundamental rights. In addition to this, in the last few decades civil rights gains have only carved out additional niches of protection rather than protecting individuals as a whole. The &amp;ldquo;protected class&amp;rdquo; framework will likely not protect anyone when civil rights are entirely discarded on an individual level.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;population-management&#34;&gt;Population management&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It really is impossible to overstate the danger of putting humanity&amp;rsquo;s fate into the hands of a few technocrats. Their malthusian desire to lower the population is something they&amp;rsquo;ve made abundantly clear. If only that was the worst of it, with existing technologies at their disposal, the capability exists to &lt;em&gt;alter&lt;/em&gt; what remains of humanity in fundamental ways. People haven&amp;rsquo;t been getting any healthier under their watch, and we would only watch the deterioration accelerate when given more control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;fit-for-purpose&#34;&gt;Fit for purpose&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The tools outlined in this series are very much the tip of the iceberg. It&amp;rsquo;s concerning to see so much information control ramp up exponentially in the last decade. In hindsight this was no accident. As things increasingly converge on more troubling outcomes, we can only become more aware of the urgency to oppose tyranny. It&amp;rsquo;s important not to underestimate &lt;em&gt;information asymmetry&lt;/em&gt;. The amount of publicly accessible information isn&amp;rsquo;t likely to encompass even most of the true threats and dangers. The impressive AI tools that are just reaching the public are mere children&amp;rsquo;s toys compared to what is likely already being used in the halls of power.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-human-element&#34;&gt;The human element&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Imagine a giant picket line. The strike is over the future of humanity. People can either cross the picket line to work for those who want to enslave (and eventually destroy) humanity, being showered with fleeting opportunities and resources&amp;hellip; or to stand up for oneself and find new ways to build elsewhere. The tragically sad truth is that there is a near limitless supply of desperate scabs who would happily (even knowingly) trade all of our futures for some present sustenance or comfort. You may be angry at these people, even willing to attack them, but they are not the root cause. Much of the harm that has already been done has created much tragedy and many victims.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is why you can&amp;rsquo;t just &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;outrun the next guy&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;, or earn enough to isolate yourself from what is currently in the works. If there&amp;rsquo;s one lesson I want you to learn from &lt;em&gt;Tools of the Technocracy&lt;/em&gt; it would be this: &lt;strong&gt;No one is safe, until this is stopped.&lt;/strong&gt; Nobody is rich enough, or connected enough to suddenly win a fight against tyrants who have planned this since before I was born. This is why all the heroes people line up to worship will always fail them. They couldn&amp;rsquo;t stop it even if they tried.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The people are the key&lt;/strong&gt;, but they&amp;rsquo;re not just fodder you can throw at the problem. Without a real plan, or at least some meaningful support you will run out of bodies by the time you figure out what&amp;rsquo;s hitting you. Many of the more intelligent commentators will point out that people need to connect with their communities, but for many that underestimates the very real decimation of social bonds that has already ocurred. Rebuilding society and culture is a momentous task, now people must figure out how to do it while under attack.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;solutions&#34;&gt;Solutions&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;rsquo;t have all the answers, just parts of the puzzle. I started writing this series in part because I myself was at a loss of what to do, and decided to focus on a narrow part of what I saw as the &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/denisrancourt/status/1630371348991074305&#34;&gt;overall problem.&lt;/a&gt; I wholeheartedly believe that to secure individual rights, and create a future worth passing on, &lt;em&gt;revolutionary change is necessary&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;for-radicals&#34;&gt;For Radicals&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My advice, dear radical, is to never &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/dont-turn-on-the-flock/&#34;&gt;turn on the people.&lt;/a&gt; More of them are on your side in numbers and ways you can&amp;rsquo;t fathom.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a legal, decentralized, and incredibly powerful mechanism to disrupt the dominance hierarchy from the bottom-up. &lt;strong&gt;Charity&lt;/strong&gt;. We have already seen enough to know that large numbers of energetic and healthy people are what the technocrats fear the most. It is much easier (and more practical) to build up people than to single-handedly try to take town those with immense wealth and power.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By simply working on effective ways to support others you can help provide people much-needed breathing room to build themselves up. While it&amp;rsquo;s important to start with necessities like food, energy &amp;amp; shelter, other under-appreciated things to provide would be education &amp;amp; training, social support, and recreation facilities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Recognize that there &lt;em&gt;are real reformers&lt;/em&gt;. Not everyone who agrees with you may be willing to go to the same lengths to achieve the same goal, this doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean you can&amp;rsquo;t cooperate or share ideas. Because reformers tend to work within the system rather than outside of it, they may have decent suggestions on how to secure resources for pressing concerns.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;for-reformers&#34;&gt;For reformers&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Your task, reformer, is to sincerely take the time to understand the grievances of radicals. It is very difficult for those under the strain that is placed on them to properly articulate their concerns.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cave.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/false-awakening&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The False Awakening&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;The changing of the guard is not the same as defeat of the guard&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;&lt;strong&gt;Stop!&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;rdquo; is your friend. Reformers will face innumerable obstacles trying to implement any real change, but reducing further harms can go a long way. If a terrible idea is being discussed, work to prevent it. If it can&amp;rsquo;t be prevented work to delay it. If it can&amp;rsquo;t be delayed, work to reverse it. If it can&amp;rsquo;t be reversed ensure it can never happen again.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Recognize the limits of the system, find opportunities to alleviate suffering despite it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;for-us-all&#34;&gt;For us all&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;No matter who you are and what your outlook is. Reclaim the power of deciding who deserves your time, attention, and respect. Reevaluate the systems you use and organizations that get your time, money and work.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://tube.doctors4covidethics.org/videos/embed/bb448a75-a2f5-4cea-8067-cb08c8524010&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you want to learn more about how I think things can be turned around, take a look (or listen) to my 2030 backcasting.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/uni-campus.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/backcasting-2030&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Backcasting 2030&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What made 2023 the pivotal year?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;footnotes&#34; role=&#34;doc-endnotes&#34;&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li id=&#34;fn:1&#34;&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://denisrancourt.ca/entries.php?id=9&#34;&gt;https://denisrancourt.ca/entries.php?id=9&lt;/a&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;a href=&#34;#fnref:1&#34; class=&#34;footnote-backref&#34; role=&#34;doc-backlink&#34;&gt;&amp;#x21a9;&amp;#xfe0e;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li id=&#34;fn:2&#34;&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.forbes.com/sites/christiankreznar/2020/09/16/small-businesses-are-closing-at-a-rapid-pace-with-restaurants-and-retailers-on-the-west-coast-among-the-hardest-hit/&#34;&gt;https://www.forbes.com/sites/christiankreznar/2020/09/16/small-businesses-are-closing-at-a-rapid-pace-with-restaurants-and-retailers-on-the-west-coast-among-the-hardest-hit/&lt;/a&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;a href=&#34;#fnref:2&#34; class=&#34;footnote-backref&#34; role=&#34;doc-backlink&#34;&gt;&amp;#x21a9;&amp;#xfe0e;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li id=&#34;fn:3&#34;&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.macleans.ca/longforms/covid-19-pandemic-disrupted-schooling-impact/&#34;&gt;https://www.macleans.ca/longforms/covid-19-pandemic-disrupted-schooling-impact/&lt;/a&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;a href=&#34;#fnref:3&#34; class=&#34;footnote-backref&#34; role=&#34;doc-backlink&#34;&gt;&amp;#x21a9;&amp;#xfe0e;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li id=&#34;fn:4&#34;&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/nyregion/dying-alone-coronavirus.html&#34;&gt;https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/nyregion/dying-alone-coronavirus.html&lt;/a&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;a href=&#34;#fnref:4&#34; class=&#34;footnote-backref&#34; role=&#34;doc-backlink&#34;&gt;&amp;#x21a9;&amp;#xfe0e;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li id=&#34;fn:5&#34;&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://inequality.org/great-divide/updates-billionaire-pandemic/&#34;&gt;https://inequality.org/great-divide/updates-billionaire-pandemic/&lt;/a&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;a href=&#34;#fnref:5&#34; class=&#34;footnote-backref&#34; role=&#34;doc-backlink&#34;&gt;&amp;#x21a9;&amp;#xfe0e;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li id=&#34;fn:6&#34;&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://consentfactory.org/2022/12/18/the-year-of-the-gaslighter/&#34;&gt;https://consentfactory.org/2022/12/18/the-year-of-the-gaslighter/&lt;/a&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;a href=&#34;#fnref:6&#34; class=&#34;footnote-backref&#34; role=&#34;doc-backlink&#34;&gt;&amp;#x21a9;&amp;#xfe0e;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li id=&#34;fn:7&#34;&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://chertseymuseum.org/magna_carta&#34;&gt;https://chertseymuseum.org/magna_carta&lt;/a&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;a href=&#34;#fnref:7&#34; class=&#34;footnote-backref&#34; role=&#34;doc-backlink&#34;&gt;&amp;#x21a9;&amp;#xfe0e;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li id=&#34;fn:8&#34;&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.popsci.com/1950s-experiments-attachment-unethical/&#34;&gt;https://www.popsci.com/1950s-experiments-attachment-unethical/&lt;/a&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;a href=&#34;#fnref:8&#34; class=&#34;footnote-backref&#34; role=&#34;doc-backlink&#34;&gt;&amp;#x21a9;&amp;#xfe0e;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li id=&#34;fn:9&#34;&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://unlimitedhangout.com/2022/11/investigative-reports/covid-19-mass-formation-or-mass-atrocity/#the-anatomy-of-atrocity&#34;&gt;https://unlimitedhangout.com/2022/11/investigative-reports/covid-19-mass-formation-or-mass-atrocity/#the-anatomy-of-atrocity&lt;/a&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;a href=&#34;#fnref:9&#34; class=&#34;footnote-backref&#34; role=&#34;doc-backlink&#34;&gt;&amp;#x21a9;&amp;#xfe0e;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Introduction to the Fediverse</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/fediverse/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 20 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/fediverse/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/fediverse.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/fediverse.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/fediverse.webp" />
+		<description></description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;introduction-to-the-fediverse&#34;&gt;Introduction to the fediverse&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/40a5c731-92e5-48ec-bc4f-a441a9930408&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Part of &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/chorus&#34;&gt;Operation Chorus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/fediverse.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/call-to-action-join-the-fediverse&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Call to action: Join the Fediverse&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;A simple, but very effective way to tip the scales in favor of free speech.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Operation: Chorus</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/operations/chorus/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 19 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/operations/chorus/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tavern.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tavern.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tavern.webp" />
+		<description>Safeguarding free expression</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;omnes voces nostri&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;br&gt;
+&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;All our voices&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many problems in our time are caused by a severe power imbalance caused by &lt;em&gt;information hazards&lt;/em&gt;. Information hazards are created when people and even entire societies operate under false pretenses. We can not rely on any single body or organization to question the foundations of every aspect of society to find errors, instead individuals should be empowered to use their own knowledge, skill, and intuition to learn from the world around them. As those individuals learn and share insights with others, we can all make a better world together.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Merely creating a hierarchy of those who are &amp;ldquo;qualified&amp;rdquo; to suppress so-called &amp;lsquo;misinformation&amp;rsquo; and &amp;lsquo;disinformation&amp;rsquo; simply uplifts a small few to a priestly class for an array of false gods. Instead, truth-seeking will always be an inherently decentralized process. People from all walks of life, and a variety of perspectives are all required for society to truly self-examine. Criminalizing expression only worsens problems, entrenched orthodoxies crystalize into terrible abuses. Censorship is only ever effective at protecting abusive hierarchies, and sowing resentment. Instead, people should be given the leeway to learn from themselves and those around them, and opportunities to correct mistakes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you make peaceful revolution impossible, you make violent revolution &lt;em&gt;inevitable&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;John F. Kennedy&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If society continues the trend of increasing censorship to resolve inconsistencies, people will continue to suffer without real representation. All this does is build enmity between those with the means to insulate themselves from abuses and those without.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;principles&#34;&gt;Principles:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Advocating for maximal free expression rights for all people is one of the best ways to sustain liberal values long term.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Public institutions should uphold freedom of expression.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Organizations should be held accountable for censorship, chilling effects and propaganda.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;goals&#34;&gt;Goals:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Promote expanding socially and legally acceptable free expression&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Enhance labor protections for workers and whistle blowers to speak freely&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Empower individuals to have difficult conversations&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Encourage the adoption of interoperable and &lt;em&gt;permissionless&lt;/em&gt; systems&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Lobbying local institutions to provide these systems as services to local residents&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Oppose legislation that empowers censorship or surveillance&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Remembering and supporting those who are silenced&lt;sup id=&#34;fnref:1&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#fn:1&#34; class=&#34;footnote-ref&#34; role=&#34;doc-noteref&#34;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;relevant-content&#34;&gt;Relevant content&lt;/h2&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;See more relevant &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/operation-chorus&#34;&gt;content&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;footnotes&#34; role=&#34;doc-endnotes&#34;&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li id=&#34;fn:1&#34;&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://malwords.substack.com/p/remembering-the-victims-of-the-medias&#34;&gt;https://malwords.substack.com/p/remembering-the-victims-of-the-medias&lt;/a&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;a href=&#34;#fnref:1&#34; class=&#34;footnote-backref&#34; role=&#34;doc-backlink&#34;&gt;&amp;#x21a9;&amp;#xfe0e;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Backcasting 2030</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/backcasting-2030/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/backcasting-2030/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/backcasting-2030.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/uni-campus.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/uni-campus.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/uni-campus.webp" />
+		<description>What made 2023 the pivotal year?</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-is-backcasting&#34;&gt;What is backcasting?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Backcasting is when you imagine a scenario for an ideal future and try to trace a path to there from today. Instead of simply being comforted by a future world as we would like it to be, the goal is to identify opportunities to take action immediately.  Backcasting is about discovering a &lt;em&gt;blueprint&lt;/em&gt; for that better future and investigating how it can be made into reality.
+I will be using the scenario from the &lt;a href=&#34;https://home.solari.com/coming-tuesday-2030-backcasting-with-catherine-austin-fitts-solari-allies-and-solari-series-hosts/&#34;&gt;Solari Report&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For our purposes, the year is 2030, and this is our “desirable future”: In 2030, freedom reigns planetwide, with the push for central control having failed miserably. Local currencies are flourishing, while lack of use slowly marginalizes the few CBDCs that were implemented. The World Economic Forum is bankrupt, and a depressed Klaus Schwab has retreated to his home in the Alps. Family and community prosperity is growing throughout the developed and emerging markets as economies decentralize—and as government enforcement, regulation, intervention, and taxation decrease. In short, there is much to celebrate.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;How was this brought about?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;accountability&#34;&gt;Accountability&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Change really begun with accountability. People taking responsibility for the systems they use and the incentives they bring about. By being more critical of our choices, it became easier to make deliberate decisions that grew to impact wider society.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;it-started-with-courageous-individuals&#34;&gt;It started with courageous individuals&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Joseph Campbell - A hero of a thousand faces&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Heroes aren&amp;rsquo;t the people who you see on the TV or those who get the big interviews. In this story, the heroes are those who recognized the great evil lurking and set out to challenge it head-on. People who quickly went to confront the darkness themselves so that they may spare others the horrors. They made mistakes, suffered losses and won small victories. Learning many things the entire way. When they returned from their journey they brought light and hope as the darkness faded away.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;simple-acts-of-heroism&#34;&gt;Simple acts of heroism&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Not everyone started at the same point, some were born ready, others had preparations to make. As more people made progress, it became easier for others to catch up.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The first and most courageous act one makes is continuing to love in a world of hardship. Injustice rightfully gives rise to great anger, but love must always be the animating force. Coming back from facing darkness requires a conscious decision to &lt;em&gt;choose life&lt;/em&gt;. Forging a strong commitment to embrace life, beauty and wonder to the fullest was when heroes were truly forged.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/campfire-night.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With so much anger and pain, nothing was safe from a deluge of dread and sadness. Many of the heroes fell in terrible ways trying to just stand still in the torrent of chaos. Some had support, others had preparations, but the few who endured managed to find some footing to steady themselves from the otherworldly brutality they had been exposed to. They never lost sight of those alongside them who weren&amp;rsquo;t so fortunate.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Steadying themselves required powerful introspection and the ability to care for themselves. The heroes needed to build themselves up to be stronger than ever. Not in a selfish manner, but in a way that gave them the strength to carry on. Carrying on often meant accepting difficult differences with others. Other times, it meant shielding one&amp;rsquo;s mind from malevolent forces. Reducing energy spent on enraging culture war rivalries, and instead focusing on concrete goals for action. As the heroes made progress, unshackled from doubt and despair, things started to gain momentum. Fear shrunk away from being an ever-present oppressive force to becoming once again a distrusted stranger.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As momentum grew, so too did a constant reorganization of priorities. So many different voices had unique insight into the road that lead us all astray. It took time to shift attention and refocus energies so people tended to take more care with those resources. Spending extra time to reflect to themselves, or to investigate their own concerns more deeply. This questioning of not only the world as it is, but of themselves and us all for what we are. With this insight, gradual but meaningful changes were made on a constant basis.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-work-of-legends&#34;&gt;The work of legends&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It all started within reach. The massive tidal wave of change was built with individuals choosing to act on the world around them. Local movements grew and caught on quickly, learning from mistakes made along the way. What made the difference wasn&amp;rsquo;t brilliance, riches, or even luck. It was all built through tireless persistence of those who dared to dream of a better world.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hardly anyone could even attempt it all alone. Our heroes didn&amp;rsquo;t just need to be stronger, they needed allies, support and numbers. While many different groups had many fantastic victories, it was support that truly laid the foundation to our bright future. The victims of the old ways were innumerable, many of the heroes themselves haunted by the extent of the suffering they managed to witness. What made 2023 the pivotal year was the defensive victories.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/marketplace-night.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This required a solid fortification of people&amp;rsquo;s right to life, liberty and happiness. Support didn&amp;rsquo;t merely mean taking on the banner of other&amp;rsquo;s suffering, but meaningful actions to address the causes. Those who were injured were given care.Those who lost loved ones were given comfort. Those who&amp;rsquo;s careers were displaced by technocratic tyranny were found meaningful work. Those left behind were remembered. With real systems of support outside the technocratic state-controlled bureaucracies, people were able to take more risks to work for change without simply being burnt out and spent like fodder. Positive change was only possible when we stopped losing great freedom-fighters to the cold entropy of letting them fall.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Gradually, community bonds started to heal as people began to share the abundance of each other. Neighborhoods became warm and welcoming as people made meaningful connections. These real bonds forged in staving off devastation, became wellsprings of joy. It was this joy that brought people to new heights they never imagined before. Major victories were starting to happen all over, as people would use that joy to fuel supporting others.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;liberating-the-tech-stack&#34;&gt;Liberating the tech stack&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Brought together by the joy of life and living together, there was much that needed to change in the technological landscape. What was originally seen as inconvenient and arbitrary changes were eventually seen as natural and obvious. People individually and collectively renegotiated different ways of using, building, and sharing technology.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/platos-cave.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Big Tech social media was the first to go. People saw how it had been weaponized against them from the beginning. More and more grew distrustful of any top-down centralized service calling itself a &amp;ldquo;platform&amp;rdquo;. These systems of control were difficult to break free from, but the heroes were the first to fully disconnect their minds from the mass mind-control platforms.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Increasingly aware of how Digital ID could be abused against the public, the people learned to make little use of anything that required an account for the purposes of collecting data on users. Instead of using apps from big tech stores, open and accessible web-based apps became more popular. As people became more familiar with experimenting with different options, lesser-known minimal protocols like &lt;a href=&#34;https://gemini.circumlunar.space/&#34;&gt;Gemini&lt;/a&gt; were given a chance to show us a different kind of web. The heroes were at the forefront of encouraging others to embrace open protocols instead of the latest popular platform running on big tech infrastructure.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As people started regularly thinking about their software choices, and how they can impact their &lt;a href=&#34;https://fsf.org&#34;&gt;freedom&lt;/a&gt;, attention eventually moved to hardware. With a newfound appreciation for freedom, sovereignty, and privacy in the digital world, there were many things that needed to be done differently. Early on a great deal of attention was spent on &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.ifixit.com/Right-to-Repair&#34;&gt;right to repair&lt;/a&gt; ensuring that independent farmers weren&amp;rsquo;t beholden to technocratic abuse. Repairing old technologies was a fantastic way to reduce e-waste and give people opportunities to learn and experiment.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/board.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/hardware-matters&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Principle: Hardware matters&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;It is easy to underestimate the underlying structure of our digital world.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There would be instances where devices designed for a corporate dystopia simply wouldn&amp;rsquo;t have much use anymore. There was lots of opportunity for innovation. &amp;ldquo;Nostalgic&amp;rdquo; things like physical keyboards, removable batteries, and single-purpose devices all made a comeback in a big way. Efficiency and true &lt;em&gt;elegance&lt;/em&gt; were real priorities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;stewardship&#34;&gt;Stewardship&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Oddly enough, some of the heroes were fairly technologically inclined themselves. Long-disillusioned with Big Tech and the way things had gone, they had many ideas on ways for the rest of us to break free. People would regularly be shocked and surprised at how many of these innovations had just been abandoned to the aether. Over time more and more individuals experimented with different tools and technologies to find what adapted well to their situations.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/uni-campus.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These heroes would begin to start community-run services. Instead of everyone needing to use e-mail from Big Tech providers, dependable and trustworthy individuals were able to run small operations for small groups of users and assist others with starting their own. Education and outreach were vitally important parts of recruiting more people to build and share. These community services were a nightmare for those who wanted easily indexed access to everyone&amp;rsquo;s private information. All kinds of different services were provided, some communities had more novel needs than others. If nothing else, there was now real local representation in cyberspace that people could rely on.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/fediverse.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/call-to-action-join-the-fediverse/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Call to Action: Join the Fediverse now!&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;A simple, but very effective way to tip the scales in favor of free speech.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of using their skills to help large corporations harvest data, our technological stewards helped people take control over their own computing. Teaching them how to use Free and Open Source software to manipulate their own data gave people a real sense of digital autonomy. New projects would be created for building useful public datasets that don&amp;rsquo;t include people&amp;rsquo;s private information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As people&amp;rsquo;s digital independence was better safeguarded, it became even easier for people to protect their sovereignty in other domains. Instead of wasting massive amounts of human effort and energy moderating &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;the one conversation&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;, people would participate in the places they felt had value. People were used to difficult and honest discussions and got better at resolving complicated disputes. Instead of people constantly calling for censorship, it was hardly ever considered. Egregious legislation worldwide was challenged and opposed. &lt;a href=&#34;https://mullvad.net/en/blog/2023/2/1/eu-chat-control-law-will-ban-open-source-operating-systems/&#34;&gt;ChatControl&lt;/a&gt; and other laws targeting digital freedoms received constant and serious criticism. Politicians could no longer justify these excesses as &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;for the greater good&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; as people no longer believed them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Those of us who were technologically inclined, realized that our talents weren&amp;rsquo;t the only skills lacking. We understood that we needed all kinds of people with all kinds of skills. Instead of simply dragging people onto platforms we deem superior, we build the groundwork that open alternatives &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;just work&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; for all of us. We work to empower those with different talents and build on their successes. This is my message to you, dear reader. No matter what your unique skill-set is, it definitely has a place in building this beautiful future.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>In defense of anonymity</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/anonymity/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 08 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/anonymity/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/anonymous-crowd.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/anonymous-crowd.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/anonymous-crowd.webp" />
+		<description>Don&#39;t let the trolls bait you into turning on privacy</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men. I will find something in them which will hang him&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Cardinal Richelieu&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In a time where so much data about people is being constantly harvested in increasingly invasive ways, there is a lot of material to work with. As I&amp;rsquo;m sure we have all seen, there innumerable ways in which people&amp;rsquo;s own beliefs, mistakes or decisions land them in serious trouble. Even in cases where the anger is justified, is it truly &lt;em&gt;justice&lt;/em&gt; to weaponize constant mass surveillance against everyone at all times?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The internet &lt;em&gt;is a dangerous place&lt;/em&gt;. The more intertwined your life is with it the more leverage it has to impact you. Many people dash straight at this for the upsides, but are shocked and horrified once they discover that there are downsides as well. This is because whatever the Internet &lt;em&gt;really is&lt;/em&gt;, it has tremendous power.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-4.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-4/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #4 Online Identity&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is following you in your digital tracks?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is not to say everyone &lt;em&gt;must&lt;/em&gt; be anonymous &lt;em&gt;at all times&lt;/em&gt;, but rather that people vastly underestimate the &lt;em&gt;consequences&lt;/em&gt; of undermining online privacy. Different people have &lt;em&gt;very different risks&lt;/em&gt; related to being forced to disclose even simple aspects of their identity. It is difficult to overstate how much our digital landscape acts as an extension of &lt;a href=&#34;https://report.foundationforfreedomonline.com/11-22-22.html&#34;&gt;state and corporate power&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;pseudonymity&#34;&gt;Pseudonymity&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A common mistake people make is to assume that just because you&amp;rsquo;re not aware of a person&amp;rsquo;s real name, that they are actually anonymous. In many cases they&amp;rsquo;re simply using an alias to forge a found identity to build an online presence around.
+Where possible, I&amp;rsquo;d recommend doing this.
+There are many great tools for creating new identities from scratch:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Need a profile photo?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/&#34;&gt;This Person does not exist.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;What about all the little details?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://datafakegenerator.com/generador.php&#34;&gt;DataFake Generator&lt;/a&gt; can help.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Are people too boring?&lt;/em&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://thisxdoesnotexist.com/&#34;&gt;This X does not exist.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Surely you&amp;rsquo;re wondering by now.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;But Gabriel! Are &lt;strong&gt;you&lt;/strong&gt; real?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Yes, dear reader&lt;/em&gt;, I use my real name and face. When you listen to my voice-overs you are hearing my real voice. This is a conscious decision because far too often defenses of anonymity are dismissed merely because the arguments are made from an anonymous/pseudonymous speaker. I wholeheartedly wish to prove there are important reasons for anonymity, and that you don&amp;rsquo;t need to be anonymous to make that case.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;All-too-often &amp;lsquo;accountability&amp;rsquo; is something seen to only apply on the lower levels of the pecking order. If we are ever to live in a time with responsible leaders and trustworthy institutions people need to be given the opportunity to learn, and correct mistakes. Privacy, generally, evens the playing field.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;appealing-to-authority&#34;&gt;Appealing to Authority&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A common mistake people make is to completely disregard information &lt;em&gt;from the fringes&lt;/em&gt;. This is what has allowed many to be blind-sided by many of the rapid changes in the last decade. Ideally, people would develop a habit of judging every idea by its own merits, instead of by its origins. Many hands make light work so it is efficient to decentralize ways of collecting, analyzing and sharing information. A highly underestimated problem is that those with prestige, credentials, or even a proven track record can lie. Often people with the right data share the wrong conclusions because of warped incentives. Ensuring that all people regardless of backgrounds can question leaders and experts is a fantastic way to keep them honest.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is a tragic shame that during the Covid Crisis, some of the best information came from a &lt;em&gt;decentralized gang of &amp;lsquo;misinformation&amp;rsquo; spreaders&lt;/em&gt;. Unlike the mainstream and credentialed sources, they consistently came up with the &lt;em&gt;wrong answers&lt;/em&gt;. The great irony is that while it is hard to verify information from &amp;rsquo;less credible&amp;rsquo; sources, they often have few incentives to lie and mislead. Many are simply those who feel it&amp;rsquo;s their only way to make a real impact. Because of this many anonymous and pseudonymous commentators have a real ability to &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;cut through the crap&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;. In addition to this, not everyone with useful insights is in the position to handle vigilante retaliation from angry political opponents.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/intelligence.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/intelligence/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The failure of intelligence&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;The current state of affairs is a warning that top-level intelligence is failing&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are times when you need someone (or an army) to shout &amp;ldquo;The emperor has no clothes!&amp;rdquo;. Nobody is perfect, and this isn&amp;rsquo;t made better when we get into groups. Governments and organizations of all sizes would do well to properly respond to bottom-up feedback to avoid catastrophic problems. Many organizations have critical &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.patientsafety.va.gov/professionals/stop-the-line.asp&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;stop-the-line&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; processes designed to address critical safety issues. Over time large, organizations have gradually come to recognize that the greatest scandals are often seen as they develop, by the very people carrying out their duties. With &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.compliancequest.com/capa-corrective-and-preventive-action/&#34;&gt;real accountability&lt;/a&gt; and proper integration of internal feedback, great disasters can be averted.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;pseudonymous-figures-speak-truth-to-power&#34;&gt;Pseudonymous figures speak truth to power&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Sometimes we are not so lucky to have critical feedback come from inside the house. Other times we are all reliant on those who have seen the problems up-close taking on the herculean effort of trying to get the word out despite the all-too familiar stubborn reactions of disbelief, denial and deflection. When the time for justice comes, these voices are critical for rebuking the familiar excuse: &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;there was no way we could have known!&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You may be enlightened enough to listen to the truth wherever it comes from, but a great deal of people don&amp;rsquo;t. Often when people attempt to voice inconvenient truths they are first slandered as being entirely ignorant. Once it is shown the person &lt;em&gt;actually does&lt;/em&gt; know what they&amp;rsquo;re talking about, the very next accusation is that they are simply leveraging the problem for their own self-interest. (As if nobody could possibly have anything to gain from the status quo). Lastly, if all else fails, the personal attributes of the critic are use against them to discredit their case. Their age, social status, race, or any other details you can imagine can all be used to bludgeon down the truth.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of confusing matters with personal drama, an alternative approach people take is to leave their identity out of the discussion. Nobody has anything to gain by pressuring people like this to reveal any aspect of their identities. Ultimately, it doesn&amp;rsquo;t matter who they are. What matters is what they bring humanity as a whole by daring to investigate and speak out where others are afraid to. Those who have everything to gain from warped incentives or outright corruption would be pleased with any attempts to expose weaknesses.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Here a few examples:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;doomberg&#34;&gt;Doomberg&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://doomberg.substack.com/&#34;&gt;Substack&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The little green chicken reminds us that: &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Energy is life&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;. Warning of the dangers of counter-productive energy policies and various geopolitical risks. While their recent content is now premium-only, I will share some highlights from the past that aren&amp;rsquo;t paywalled:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://doomberg.substack.com/p/what-canada-means-for-crypto&#34;&gt;What Canada Means for Crypto&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://doomberg.substack.com/p/a-serious-proposal-on-us-energy&#34;&gt;A Serious Proposal on US Energy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://doomberg.substack.com/p/farmers-on-the-brink&#34;&gt;Farmers on the Brink&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;stormcloudsgathering&#34;&gt;StormCloudsGathering&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://t.me/StormCloudsGathering&#34;&gt;StormCloudsGathering&lt;/a&gt; has long been a vocal advocate for non-violent resistance to tyranny. A consistent promoter of a &amp;ldquo;common ground movement&amp;rdquo; where we put aside petty political divides and work towards our common stake in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://youtube.com/embed/ydZEaZGsWTU&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;spartacus&#34;&gt;Spartacus&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://iceni.substack.com/&#34;&gt;Substack&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://media2-production.mightynetworks.com/asset/32250065/OGSpartacus_v4_N3MC.pdf&#34;&gt;Spartacus Letter&lt;/a&gt; was distributed anonymously. It is a well-sourced compendium of corruption and abuse from the Covid Crisis.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This message is too important to be silenced. Its tone is admittedly incendiary in places, but it was difficult for us not to get emotional about this, given the nature of the subject matter and what our investigation revealed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;jikkyleaks-substackcomvv&#34;&gt;Jikkyleaks 🐭substack.com/vv&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
+Sometimes is helps to be a small little mouse (or an army of them).&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://twitter.com/jikkyleaks&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/jikky.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Feel free to &lt;a href=&#34;mailto:contact@libresolutions.network?subject=RE:%20In%20Defense%20of%20anonymity%20suggestion&#34;&gt;suggest more inclusions&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the--problem&#34;&gt;The &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;anonymous cowardly troll demons&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt; problem&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A simple irony is that anonymous trolls are the perfect target to &lt;em&gt;false flag&lt;/em&gt;. There&amp;rsquo;s no complicated branding to imitate or re-create, just simply fly whatever feels relevant. Those who would like to make sure everyone is accountable to a &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/technocracy&#34;&gt;digital social credit system&lt;/a&gt; are highly motivated to make sure people have a low opinion of people&amp;rsquo;s ability to speak anonymously.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson/status/1600329860638863360&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/peterson-troll-demons.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is undeniable that not all anonymous and pseudonymous actors are good. People &lt;em&gt;do&lt;/em&gt; need the tools to be able to filter out attacks. &lt;strong&gt;The problem begins when anonymous bad actors are used to justify attacks on privacy and anonymity&lt;/strong&gt;. If you&amp;rsquo;re at all concerned about &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/digital-id&#34;&gt;digital ID&lt;/a&gt; you&amp;rsquo;re going to recognize cries for burdensome regulation and demands for authentication as part of that agenda.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/digital-id.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/digital-id/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Digital ID: The Basics&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is it? What can you do about it?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is all enabled by the &amp;ldquo;bait and switch&amp;rdquo; tactic of increasing control in the name of keeping people safe from harm. Notoriously used by governments, corporations have also been adopting it as an excuse as well. The only way to truly protect data is to never record it, which means that it&amp;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;impossible to keep people safe&lt;/strong&gt; through invasive surveillance&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;individual-rights&#34;&gt;Individual Rights&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In name of protecting vulnerable groups, more and more ground has been ceded to to-down control. In hindsight, this has done a very poor job at protecting those groups. Instead, tensions, resentment, and mistrust have all grown out of the further and further encroachment against individual liberty. There is great danger in gating access to information and vital services behind surveillance, which will inevitably grow into control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/high-places.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/high-places&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Redefining &amp;#34;High Places&amp;#34;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Lets re-balance power from the bottom-up&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The solution &lt;em&gt;isn&amp;rsquo;t&lt;/em&gt; to limit what individuals can do or freely express. Rather the proper way to address these situations is to enforce limits on what can be &lt;em&gt;done to people regardless of who they are&lt;/em&gt;. This is the only way to create a immovable &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Kbm6QnJv9dgWsPHQP/schelling-fences-on-slippery-slopes&#34;&gt;schelling fence&lt;/a&gt; against complete erasure. These simple limits are called &lt;strong&gt;rights.&lt;/strong&gt; Regardless of what particular &amp;lsquo;red lines&amp;rsquo; you believe should be drawn, we all need to at least agree on a couple of fundamental lines that must not be crossed&amp;hellip;quickly.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Regardless of who the target is, are you comfortable with them:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Being unable to voice potentially life-saving information?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Being unable to make a living ever again?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Being cut off entirely from all human interaction or trade?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Being subjected to arbitrary confiscation of assets or even children?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Even if you can imagine circumstances where these actions are justified, hopefully you&amp;rsquo;d at least want them proven to a high standard in a truly independent process. Make no mistake, people &lt;em&gt;do&lt;/em&gt; need protection from online mobs, but I would urge you to consider who or what benefits from their use. And also, what is there to lose from anonymous voices being silenced forever.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Your Support Is Needed</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/about/support/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/about/support/</guid>
+		
+		<description></description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;supporting-the-libre-solutions-network&#34;&gt;Supporting the Libre Solutions Network&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The Libre Solutions Network is currently a passion project for &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks&#34;&gt;Gabriel&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
+The hope is that people will see value in the perspective and content here.&lt;br&gt;
+I sincerely hope you find value in what you find here.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;style&gt;
+    #support-buttons {
+        flex-direction: column;
+        align-items: center;
+        background:linear-gradient(180deg,var(--glass-darker),transparent,var(--glass-darker));
+        border-left:3px solid var(--accent-lighter);
+        border-right:3px solid var(--accent-lighter);
+        padding:10px;
+        border-radius: 15px;
+    }
+    #support-buttons h2{
+        margin:5px;
+    }
+    #support-buttons a {
+        margin: 0px;
+    }
+
+    #support-buttons button {
+        background: linear-gradient(180deg, var(--btn), var(--btn2), var(--btn));
+        font-size:large;
+        padding:5px;
+        width:8rem;
+        text-shadow: black 2px 2px 2px;
+        color:white;
+        font-family: &#34;arial&#34;;
+        font-weight:bolder;
+    }
+&lt;/style&gt;
+&lt;div id=&#34;support-buttons&#34; style=&#34;margin-left:0.5rem;margin-right:0.5rem;&#34;&gt;
+
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+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Social Media: Learning the right lessons</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/social-media/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 11 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/social-media/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/learning-lessons.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/learning-lessons.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/learning-lessons.webp" />
+		<description>Understanding information control</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-went-wrong&#34;&gt;What went wrong&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Corporate social media entities aren&amp;rsquo;t &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;the public square&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; and they aren&amp;rsquo;t a safe way to stay in touch with family and friends. While they may masquerade as such, they are the furthest thing from being either of those. These are &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;information control systems&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;. One of the best things about the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11519177/Twitter-kept-secret-blacklist-accounts-topics-stop-trending.html&#34;&gt;#TwitterFiles&lt;/a&gt; is that for many people, it&amp;rsquo;s a window into what those operating these systems see. This is hardly a secret. In 2020 &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/&#34;&gt;The Social Dilemma&lt;/a&gt; has great coverage on how social media corporations are built to manipulate their users. Ironically, a lot of its commentary on &amp;ldquo;fake news&amp;rdquo; already hasn&amp;rsquo;t aged very well. The documentary pathologizes those who didn&amp;rsquo;t fall in lockstep with the lockdown agenda. The first hour is still worth understanding.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/twitter-files.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/twitter-files.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Twitter is only the tip of the iceberg 
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As governments and corporations fight over who gets to be the arbiter of truth, suppression and manipulation will continue to rise. The cost of this constant manipulation is hard to quantify, and most commentary treats it as a non-negotiable fixture of modern life. Control over everyone&amp;rsquo;s access to information, and ability to express themselves begets all kinds of problems. In mainstream coverage, a lot of the emphasis is focused on misinformation from users. Yet, they&amp;rsquo;re notably silent on &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.millennialmillie.com/post/shadow-gate-2-0-full-movie&#34;&gt;state and corporate driven disinformation&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-4.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-4/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #4 Online Identity&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is following you in your digital tracks?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As people&amp;rsquo;s access to information becomes more centralized and controlled, there&amp;rsquo;s a rising acknowledgement that so does the &lt;em&gt;responsibility&lt;/em&gt; over it. We are currently stuck between a tug-of-war between corporations and governments over control over the people&amp;rsquo;s access to information. This didn&amp;rsquo;t suddenly take place. Far from something these platforms were instantly tasked with; the preparations had been gradually taking place for years. Purportedly to stop the harms of , censorship gradually ramped up. Over the long run the public was conditioned to accept increasingly invasive censorship.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;twitter&#34;&gt;Twitter&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The blue bird has been largely regarded as the &amp;ldquo;digital public square&amp;rdquo; for quite some time. Despite a minority of people using the platform, and an even smaller minority actually posting, Twitter has relied on the &lt;em&gt;perception&lt;/em&gt; of being the public square. Much of that illusion was propped up by a first-class presence of mainstream media, as well as the verification system. Prior to Musk&amp;rsquo;s takeover being verified on twitter was a form on status symbol on the platform. In addition to this, being verified allowed the user to ignore interactions from the &amp;ldquo;riff raff&amp;rdquo; of unverified users.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Twitter has been as bad as any other big tech platform for censorship, datamining and algorithmic manipulation. The site has long been criticized for the short character count, making clear communication difficult.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;hellip;Twitter has censored leaks about corruption in politics, crimes committed the Government and spy agencies, opinions that didn’t agree with the Western propaganda about the war in Ukraine. This is criminal. This is wrong. And this is what’s happening at all big tech companies.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I like to tell @Jack
+and all our fellow tech entrepreneurs… You have sold us out. You have betrayed us. You have destroyed our rights and democracy. You have turned the dream of what the Internet can do for humanity into a nightmare. Shame on you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Kim Dotcom on &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1601039458165350401&#34;&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://brownstone.org/articles/the-twitter-files-just-the-beginning/&#34;&gt;#TwitterFiles&lt;/a&gt; is a very important confirmation of what many have suspected for quite some time. It is easy to fall prey to the illusion that this was merely a failing of Twitter&amp;rsquo;s management at the time. In an age where governments and corporations will use any and all leverage they can against the people, &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/AvidHalaby/status/1602127460677844993&#34;&gt;anything that can be subverted will be&lt;/a&gt;. New management is likely to be little more than a fresh coat of paint on the same top-down information control machine.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cave.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/false-awakening&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The False Awakening&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;The changing of the guard is not the same as defeat of the guard&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;The bird is freed&amp;rdquo; Tweeted Elon Musk. The mainstream media is in full meltdown over the uncertainty of what &amp;ldquo;Twitter 2.0&amp;rdquo; will be. Whatever Elon&amp;rsquo;s plans for Twitter are; there aren&amp;rsquo;t enough assurances to those who are used to controlling the conversation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;facebook-aka-lifelog&#34;&gt;Facebook AKA &amp;ldquo;Lifelog&amp;rdquo;&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Twitter wasn&amp;rsquo;t the only platform outright &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-has-portal-government-officials-to-request-content-be-suppressed-2022-11&#34;&gt;puppeteered by government&lt;/a&gt;. Facebook certainly has dubious origins when it comes to government interference. It has been caught &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28051930&#34;&gt;running experiments on it&amp;rsquo;s users&lt;/a&gt; and vast &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/mark-zuckerberg-leveraged-facebook-user-data-fight-rivals-help-friends-n994706&#34;&gt;misuse&lt;/a&gt; of user data.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Yes, Twitter censors people + has close ties to the National Security State.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;However, now people are not focusing on how SBF is about to get away with a billion dollar Ponzi or how the WHO is about to establish a global biosecurity authority, etc.
+Whitney Webb on &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/_whitneywebb/status/1601222803134418944&#34;&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Speaking of FTX, it&amp;rsquo;s very concerning how many ties keep leading back to information control. &lt;a href=&#34;https://substack.com/profile/41123571-liam-sturgess&#34;&gt;Liam Sturgess&lt;/a&gt; has a great explanation of Facebook in his look into effective altruism. He brings up many of the things that the movie &amp;ldquo;The Social Network&amp;rdquo; has left out.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/v1yq43y-examining-effective-altruism-part-ii-rounding-the-news.html&#34;&gt;Examining Effective Altruism: Part II - Rounding the News&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;youtube&#34;&gt;YouTube&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Far from being an &lt;em&gt;organic&lt;/em&gt; video sharing platform. YouTube is big business. It&amp;rsquo;s a game for the big players and there are rules to compete. What makes the platform unique is that it shares ad revenue with it&amp;rsquo;s creators. This means that YouTube has a spigot to encourage or discourage a wide variety of behaviors. All kinds of fantastic and hardly-controversial creators have been &amp;ldquo;demonetized&amp;rdquo;, effectively eliminating them from mainstream participation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlxghmlGNoI&#34;&gt;Game Theory: The End of an Era&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Where big business takes the wheel, propaganda isn&amp;rsquo;t far behind. Those with power are able to use their wealth to mislead the public into accepting that which isn&amp;rsquo;t in their interest. Anti-human nihilism and guilt can be placed squarely on the masses to disarm themselves mentally.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjHMoNGqQTI&#34;&gt;How Kurzgesagt Cooks Propaganda For Billionaires&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Is it really still a mystery why so many positions that are &amp;ldquo;settled science™&amp;rdquo; all point in the same anti-human direction? Can we really blame &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;those crazy kids&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; who have been raised (or radicalized) in hyper-reality manufactured entirely to destroy them?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;reddit&#34;&gt;Reddit&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Reddit is a site that features walls of [deleted] and [removed] posts on every controversial topic and even some seemingly non-controversial ones. This is because Reddit is patrolled by legions of volunteer moderators. It&amp;rsquo;s no free-for-all because the moderators have a clear hierarchy which builds &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.protocol.com/reddit-powermods-war&#34;&gt;powermods&lt;/a&gt;. These powermods essentially control the content over the entire site. A notable powermod was &lt;a href=&#34;https://kirbysommers.substack.com/p/evidence-that-reddit-user-maxwellhill&#34;&gt;maxwellhill&lt;/a&gt;, who notably hasn&amp;rsquo;t posted since Ghislane Maxwell has been arrested.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In addition to outright censorship, reddit is notorious for self-censorship because your posts are linked to a profile that earns &amp;ldquo;karma&amp;rdquo;. Not only will users be called out for old posts, but losing too much karma impacts your ability to participate in different subreddits.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;discordlinkedin-tiktok-tinder-and-others&#34;&gt;Discord,LinkedIn, Tiktok, Tinder, and others&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Anywhere people&amp;rsquo;s access to others is gated behind an opaque centralized service, they are open to manipulation and abuse. It is high time that people recognize this and refuse to cooperate with it. People should be empowered to make their own decisions without being arbitrarily retaliated against. Those who seek the ability to control information will always have questionable judgement.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/4bbd4e5a-352d-4d24-82ea-e8832e902021&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-trap&#34;&gt;The trap&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A recurring theme in mainstream commentary on social media manipulation is that this is simply a problem that needs to be &lt;em&gt;managed&lt;/em&gt; by various non-profits and state actors. This presumes that such manipulation is tolerable in the first place. It is quite ironic that the &lt;a href=&#34;https://time.com/4793331/instagram-social-media-mental-health/&#34;&gt;very problem&lt;/a&gt; created by state and corporate influence is something the mainstream is pushing to be solved with more state and corporate control. If anything, they have &lt;em&gt;already shown&lt;/em&gt; a severe lack of trustworthiness with the tools that already exist.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://consentfactory.org/2022/12/10/swimming-with-sharks/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Swimming with sharks&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;So, Elon Musk’s new free-speech Twitter appears to going extremely well...&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is highly dishonest to portray social media enterprises as rogue actors let loose by &amp;ldquo;laissez faire&amp;rdquo; free market profiteering. They&amp;rsquo;ve all had very close ties with governments and even intelligence agencies. Any and all harms permitted while three-letter-agencies had their &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/04/24/yahoo-fined-35-million-for-failing-to-disclose-cyber-breach/&#34;&gt;hand up these companies&lt;/a&gt; is a problem of &lt;em&gt;prioritization&lt;/em&gt; not power.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As the actions of Twitter before the Musk purchase have shown: &lt;em&gt;Trust and Safety&lt;/em&gt; isn&amp;rsquo;t about protecting the people. These institutions work as commissars within centralized services to thought-police in ways that would have been impossible not long ago. The terrifying reality is that the watchers are being watched by other watchers, competing for zeal to climb for status. The current political environment suffers in part by a self-organized conspiracy against the people. The people are effectively out manuevered, and in limited supply of options to protect themselves.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Self-hosted and decentralized alternatives are foundational steps towards progress. The people taking action to adopt these platforms would go a long way to leveling the playing field. However, this is not the totality of the fight. It would be naive to believe that once the people walk away from information control systems, that those who profit off controlling the discussion would just pack it in and give up.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-9-preview.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-9&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #9 Internet Shutdowns&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Information control is the root of modern tyranny.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many of the same mechanisms use to control and manipulate social media are &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/wordpress-considered-censoring-new-york-post&#34;&gt;just as applicable to service providers&lt;/a&gt;. Free speech exists as a widely shared cultural principle or not at all. Stronger safeguards need to &lt;a href=&#34;https://protectthestack.org/&#34;&gt;#Protect the Stack&lt;/a&gt; from being leveraged against the people. Service providers as well as financial services are all points of failure that can be weaponized to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.givesendgo.com/bitchute&#34;&gt;eliminate competition&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-root-of-the-problem&#34;&gt;The root of the problem&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We can never know what &lt;em&gt;would have happened&lt;/em&gt;, Lucy. But what will happen is another matter entirely.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Aslan - The Chronicles of Narnia&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We have a saying here: &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;We only have one &lt;strong&gt;timeline&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;. In short, this means that the damage is done. There is no use to endlessly speculate about how history could have been altered if things had been done differently. Instead we should learn from the past for the purpose of building a better future, or at least avoiding past mistakes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-mainstream&#34;&gt;The Mainstream&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The mainstream media and platforms have effectively sold out their credibility. Trust in these institutions has justifiably been in decline for some time. In hindsight, it is easy to believe that the mainstream media has always been the top-down information control machine that exists today. It can be useful to keep in mind that different technologies and forms of media have their own trade-offs. In todays media landscape, &lt;em&gt;the medium is the message&lt;/em&gt; couldn&amp;rsquo;t be more obvious.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Charitably, a single mainstream information  landscape has a purpose. There was a time where the technology to get messages out wasn&amp;rsquo;t as democratized as it is today. In addition to raw technological challenges, it is useful to have information dissemination enhanced with credibility and expertize.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/mainstream.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/mainstream.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Whether it&amp;rsquo;s fact-checkers, universities, or large corporate media outlets, they all suffer from a primary weakness that has inevitably lead to a loss of trust: &lt;strong&gt;rigidity&lt;/strong&gt;. This refined information propagation machine has to function in ways that undermine it&amp;rsquo;s ability to properly convey issues. Mass media is inherently limited by the very constrained attention span of it&amp;rsquo;s audience. This leaves hardly any room for nuance, or representing a broad spectrum of issues. These institutions fail to properly characterize, prioritize and report on nearly every pressing concern of the day. More and more, as the mainstream loses dominance, it will have to divert more and more attention to issues that inflate it&amp;rsquo;s self-importance.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This means that anyone earnestly attempting to get people to understand any issue through this medium, is going to be restrained by the very same constraints. It&amp;rsquo;s easy to underestimate the challenge of communicating simple concepts to a broad audience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Narrow&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Only a few topics can rise.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brief&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;No topic can be given much time for depth or self-reflection&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dogmatic&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Authority is presumed, and hardly questioned if at all.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With all these limitations one could easily be mislead to think there is no room for malice. This couldn&amp;rsquo;t be further from the truth. &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.corbettreport.com/media/&#34;&gt;The Media Matrix&lt;/a&gt; is a comprehensive history on this. If the mainstream media ever had a legitimate purpose, it has certainly transformed itself into part of a large growing &lt;em&gt;information control apparatus&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;During the Covid Crisis, instead of merely reporting on information as things developed; the mainstream media took an active role in &lt;em&gt;shaping the conversation&lt;/em&gt;. If anyone is to receive clemency for getting things wrong, it is certainly not those who ensured that people would. To many this was an outright shocking development. It was so shocking, that people often couldn&amp;rsquo;t accept that things were &lt;em&gt;this bad&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Surely, they will eventually report the truth as lies get discredited in time?&lt;/em&gt; That is a very cold comfort. Smothering the truth when lives are on the line isn&amp;rsquo;t erased by getting it right years after the fact if at all. it is important to realize this is &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.corbettreport.com/flashback-mediakills/&#34;&gt;far from the only time&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;getting-it-right&#34;&gt;Getting it right&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The Covid Crisis laid bare the deadly effects of censorship before all to see. We are all responsible for learning from what &lt;a href=&#34;https://unlimitedhangout.com/2022/11/investigative-reports/covid-19-mass-formation-or-mass-atrocity/&#34;&gt;has happened&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Among other things, we should:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Grow our disgust for:
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Thoughtless compliance&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Censorship&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Enhance our appreciation for:
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Principled opposition&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Inalienable human rights&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/high-places&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Redefining &amp;#34;high places&amp;#34;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Lets re-balance power from the bottom-up&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;connecting-with-others&#34;&gt;Connecting with others&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of focusing on a &lt;em&gt;single public square&lt;/em&gt;, it is better that we nurture a symphony of vastly different spaces with different parameters and cultures. This way important information and insights can be properly elevated from a variety of sources, instead of being bottle-necked by a single mindset or culture. Achieving this requires a solid commitment to authentically liberal values and a much higher tolerance for differences than people have generally shown.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/fediverse.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/call-to-action-join-the-fediverse/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Call to Action: Join the Fediverse now!&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;A simple, but very effective way to tip the scales in favor of free speech.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re still trapped on any of the big tech social media platforms please consider leaving. At the very least you&amp;rsquo;ll want to consider building a presence on more accessible &lt;em&gt;federated&lt;/em&gt; alternatives. In doing so you can help diversify people&amp;rsquo;s ability to express themselves and learn from others.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;live-not-by-lies&#34;&gt;Live not by lies&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/live-not-by-lies.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When the truth offends we lie and lie until we can no longer it is even there&amp;hellip;but it is still there&amp;hellip;
+Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth.
+Sooner or later that debt is paid.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;valery legasov&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s never a bad time to &lt;a href=&#34;https://home.solari.com/coming-clean/&#34;&gt;come clean&lt;/a&gt;. Anything you can do to fix the little things in your live can build to meaningful change over time. While lies have real, devastating impact, there&amp;rsquo;s always something to be gained by making good on wrongs done.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;oppose-censorship&#34;&gt;Oppose censorship&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the many ways we should honor the victims of the Covid Crisis is to work to make impossible the level of censorship and top down control that enabled the very crimes committed.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The Rise of a SkyNet Workforce</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/skynet-workforce/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 16 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/skynet-workforce/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/skynet-workforce.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/skynet-workforce2.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/skynet-workforce2.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/skynet-workforce2.webp" />
+		<description>Employee of the Month: Terminator</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Machine learning is starting to take over the economy the very way the Internet already has. A variety of newly available tools have caused a great deal of controversy in &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/09/02/midjourney-artificial-intelligence-state-fair-colorado/&#34;&gt;art circles&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://githubcopilotlitigation.com/&#34;&gt;free software communities.&lt;/a&gt;. These advancements in AI-powered tools are effectively game-changers in the domains they disrupt.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hailed by techno-utopians of all stripes, these advancements are huge part of driving the so-called &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/04/05/why-everyone-must-get-ready-for-4th-industrial-revolution/?sh=1065627a3f90&#34;&gt;4th Industrial revolution&lt;/a&gt;. If we are not careful, we will run straight into the trap of allowing these tools to be weaponized against everyone. Understanding how these tools work on a basic level is important.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;You may have heard &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;Data is the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.thenewoil.org&#34;&gt;new oil&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;. That &amp;ldquo;oil&amp;rdquo; is fuel for massively powerful machine learning algorithms. No publicly (or easily) accessible data, media, or information is safe from the &amp;ldquo;data beast&amp;rdquo;. The data beast is hungry for any and all information, it doesn&amp;rsquo;t matter how trivial or private, it wants everything. The reason is because every addition of well-collected information is invaluable in building a wide array of powerful machine learning &lt;em&gt;models&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/big-data.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-2/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #2 Big Data &amp;amp; Artificial Intelligence&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is all this data for anyways?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-is-a-machine-learning-model&#34;&gt;What is a machine learning &amp;lsquo;model&amp;rsquo;?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A model is the sum-total of all insights a machine learning model &amp;ldquo;learns&amp;rdquo; while analyzing large amounts of data. The larger and more complicated the model the more sophisticated problems the model can be used to solve. For example, imagine you wanted to be an olympian athlete but hadn&amp;rsquo;t decided on a sport. An AI could use a model trained on data from every previous athlete, like their physical attributes, record, diet, and other things to give you a &amp;ldquo;life plan&amp;rdquo; it calculates is most likely to succeed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Models are &amp;ldquo;trained&amp;rdquo; by analyzing massive, well-categorized datasets. This means that the raw data itself often isn&amp;rsquo;t enough. It needs to be carefully curated into a highly detailed and correct set of information and it&amp;rsquo;s quite easy to fall short of that. Any and all deviations from reality will distort outputs from machine learning models. This gives rise to concerns about AI models treating people unfairly. Models trained on data we collect is effectively holding a mirror up to ourselves. Whatever small slice of reality we simplify and package to train on is how the model sees the world.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The only way to solve that problem would be a highly invasive all-pervasive surveillance and control system that tracks nearly every atom in the area of concern. In addition to being highly impractical, it&amp;rsquo;s highly unlikely people would knowingly choose that kind of world. It&amp;rsquo;s what we unknowingly choose that is a problem however, what systems are we building by refusing to take an active role in shaping the future?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;employee-of-the-month-terminator&#34;&gt;Employee of the month: Terminator&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A great deal of resources are invested in understanding how robots can &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/SiChunLam/status/1379556406123229185&#34;&gt;recognize&lt;/a&gt;, track and &lt;a href=&#34;https://fortune.com/2015/10/19/army-wifi-gun/&#34;&gt;destroy&lt;/a&gt; things.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://twitter.com/LeftSentThis/status/1536060869506834434&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video muted autoplay preload=&#34;none&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/video/robot-feats.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;That video is from a tweet saying:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING I see these robots doing, I am imagining a host of military grade weapons attached to them, how those technologies trickle down to the police, and ultimately who will be attacked by these robots.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When it comes to the workforce, soldiers and police may be the most at risk of being automated away entirely. Such a shift could be used to eliminate any trace of accountability or &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/BanKillerRobots/status/1592570626547515392&#34;&gt;morality&lt;/a&gt; in such institutions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;ai-has-learned-to-code&#34;&gt;AI has &amp;ldquo;learned to code&amp;rdquo;&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This demo is quite impressive. The presenter is using Github copilot to build a simple program with spoken words instead of typing. It&amp;rsquo;s initially quite striking how much of a win this kind of technique is for making development more accessible. It is fair to be skeptical, many live tech demonstrations are often highly staged to smooth over many real-life issues. That said, this specific goal does not seem very far away.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;video controls preload=&#34;metadata&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/video/skynet-workforce-copilot.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Are software developers obsolete now? Likely not for a while, even using these tools requires some technical skill or understanding. It&amp;rsquo;s also a lot harder to make guarantees of safety or security for systems that aren&amp;rsquo;t carefully designed by humans. That&amp;rsquo;s not to say there may not be powerful analysis tools built from these models that could strengthen security.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-dark-side&#34;&gt;The Dark side&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Github is what&amp;rsquo;s known as a code forge. A place for developers to host their code and collaborate on improving it. Different forges have different features but Github, owned by Microsoft is the largest and most popular. Developers often choose to distribute their code under various &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html&#34;&gt;licenses&lt;/a&gt;. These licenses dictate the terms in how the code can be used in other software projects.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://youtube.com/embed/x1IVJ54bHO8&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Code is just information. Nothing has stopped Github from training copilot with all the data on their platform, and potentially other publicly accessible repositories as well. It is arguable that Microsoft has violated the license of many of these projects, however when it comes to those who use copilot to make new projects it&amp;rsquo;s not clear at all.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;can-a-robot-create-a-beautiful-masterpiece&#34;&gt;Can a robot create a beautiful masterpiece?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Gearheads aren&amp;rsquo;t alone, creatives are now struggling with the same issues. DeviantArt, a large platform for sharing artistic works announced &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.deviantart.com/team/journal/Create-AI-Generated-Art-Fairly-with-DreamUp-933537821&#34;&gt;DreamUp&lt;/a&gt; which is their equivalent of tools like stable diffusion. Trained on a massive collection of categorized creative works, the model could be used to create entirely new works.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://youtube.com/embed/IGj_3OhMrAU&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The artists raised some concerns about how this was done.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Did DeviantArt train their model with artists art without &lt;em&gt;explicit permission&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;How can artists opt-out of such data-mining?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Will DeviantArt remove artists art from the model or dataset(s) if the artist did not wish for their works to be used for training AI.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;concerns&#34;&gt;Concerns&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As you can see, these problems are highly generalizable. Sure it&amp;rsquo;s programmers and digital artists today, but how far away are authors, musicians, or even lawyers from being assimilated? It is tempting to nit-pick particular implementations and say that the flaws of today are an inherent fixtures of AI problem solving. This is naive, because it can be hard to predict what problems can be solved quickly and what problems will take ages.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;copyright--trademark-concerns&#34;&gt;Copyright &amp;amp; Trademark concerns&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Is using publicly accessible content to train AIs a derivative work? Are models fair use? Even if one is fully within their rights to use an artists works to train a model, what about use of the artists name in the creation of new works? If someone trained a model on your voice and published songs of you singing, should you have any right to demand compensation or restrict how it&amp;rsquo;s used?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://youtube.com/embed/W5M-dvzpzSQ&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;asymmetric-advantages&#34;&gt;Asymmetric advantages&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is naturally impossible to know who is making models out of what data unless those entities chose to disclose that information. This means there is no way in knowing how much your data has been used to train models used to manipulate you. What recourse will you really have when violations take place in secret?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-4.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-4/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #4 Online Identity&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is following you in your digital tracks?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Large platforms have many inherent advantages over smaller projects, even when there isn&amp;rsquo;t any malice or bad behavior. Amazon has been caught using their platform to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.forbes.com/sites/retailwire/2022/10/17/controversy-persists-over-amazons-use-of-data-to-favor-its-knockoffs/?sh=1bb260d7f64e&#34;&gt;produce knock-offs of viable products&lt;/a&gt; from smaller sellers.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Is machine learning too powerful &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/catholic-church-banned-crossbow-warfare/&#34;&gt;not to use&lt;/a&gt;? In any competitive environment, can you really afford &lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt; to use performance enhancing tools regardless of the ethical or legal considerations? How can people and organizations properly set conditions to &lt;strong&gt;not&lt;/strong&gt; incentivize massive fraud and privacy violations?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/i/78770620/this-is-the-story-about-how-machine-learning-drives-the-education-system-to-destroy-science&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Machine Learning Into the Destruction of Science&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;The Science Wars Part XII&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;workforce-displacement&#34;&gt;Workforce displacement&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Since we&amp;rsquo;re already seeing problems in education, the wider workforce likely isn&amp;rsquo;t far behind. Just because your entire profession can&amp;rsquo;t be automated, that doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean that machine learning can&amp;rsquo;t simply be used to assimilate away the most viable parts of your business model. Even despite a so-called &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-u-s-labor-shortage-is-planting-the-seeds-for-lots-of-layoffs-heres-how-11667607221&#34;&gt;labor shortage&lt;/a&gt; workers are having a difficult time negotiating higher wages and better working conditions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/construction-banner.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-3/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #3 Robots, IoT, Automation, Oh my!&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Transforming the world in ways seen and unseen&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Cybernetics, novel biologics, and performance enhancing drugs can all be things people may feel forced to take on to compete in a rapidly changing work environment. While we are to be concerned with the consolidation of state power through &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-10&#34;&gt;CBDCs&lt;/a&gt;, we must also be vigilant against corporations using the very same &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/programmable-currency&#34;&gt;mechanisms&lt;/a&gt; to control people. We do not have the luxury of passively allowing &amp;ldquo;futurists&amp;rdquo; to decide what they&amp;rsquo;re willing to have us all sacrifice for their own greater wealth. As this continues, the road ahead looks quite grim indeed. The following video is about a fictional setting in the game Warframe, it&amp;rsquo;s a warning worth heeding.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://youtube.com/embed/P6203Dne8T4&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;ethics-concerns&#34;&gt;Ethics concerns&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When it comes to surveillance and aglorithmic manipulation much of the work takes place out of sight and out of mind. There are real questions of ownership, rights, and autonomy when it comes to how personal and private information is used. It&amp;rsquo;s important not to be defeatist on this point. Just because information &lt;em&gt;can&lt;/em&gt; be used in particular ways doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean we can&amp;rsquo;t recognize it as a crime. A great many terrible things are nearly impossible to stop, the solution isn&amp;rsquo;t to accept them but to create a proper framework for addressing them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-bright-side&#34;&gt;The bright side&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s not all bleak and terrible. There is good news in this story too. Just as these tools are powerful they can be used for good. At it&amp;rsquo;s core, machine learning is a useful way to extract actionable information from massive datasets. Creating large, accurate, ethically-sourced public datasets can create fascinating new possibilities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;new-public-goods&#34;&gt;New public goods&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Mozilla &lt;a href=&#34;https://commonvoice.mozilla.org/en/about&#34;&gt;Common Voice&lt;/a&gt; is a project where people collaborate on creating a massive, diverse, high quality voice dataset. This can be used to power useful models like &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/mozilla/TTS&#34;&gt;Text to Speech for all&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/mozilla/DeepSpeech&#34;&gt;DeepSpeech&lt;/a&gt;. DeepSpeech can be used to create your own voice-controlled applications. This is a very cute demo of someone using stable diffusion to place an AR elephant in a tree. Despite it&amp;rsquo;s silliness, it does show how effective this technology can be in creating new and fascinating experiences.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://twitter.com/BjoernKarmann/status/1590648681169985537&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video muted autoplay preload=&#34;none&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/video/ar-elephant.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Of course there are tons of medical advancements related to using machine learning to recognize patterns. These are fantastic for things like diagnosing issues from x-rays or other data. To reiterate, machine learning clearly isn&amp;rsquo;t evil, but rather the impetus to spy on everyone to dominate them absolutely is. There are responsible ways to collect, store and curate data and these need to be at least enforced but ideally supported.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;taking-action&#34;&gt;Taking action&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Fundamentally we the people have to choose. Either between allowing our collective destiny to be dictated to us by those who have no regard for humanity, or to take on the great effort of &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1576-james-corbett-on-solutions-for-resisting-technocracy/&#34;&gt;wrestling control&lt;/a&gt; back into our own hands. As radical as this sounds, it doesn&amp;rsquo;t require a massive shift.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It never been more urgent to stop contributing to tyrannical systems of control. If you&amp;rsquo;re involved in making top-down control into a reality, I urge you to reconsider the downsides of building a future you likely don&amp;rsquo;t want to live in. It is high time we not only step away from top-down control, but assist others doing so.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/high-places&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Redefining &amp;#34;high places&amp;#34;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Lets re-balance power from the bottom-up&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;On a higher level, it&amp;rsquo;s worth coming up with new standards and approaches to how information is collected, stored, and shared. Anything we can do to break away from the cloud goes a long way in mitigating the nefarious technocratic forces. Storing your own data instead really helps mitigate how it can be used against you.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The False Awakening</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/false-awakening/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 31 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/false-awakening/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/false-awakening.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cave.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cave.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cave.webp" />
+		<description>The changing of the guard is not the same as defeat of the guard</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The changing of the guard is not the same as defeat of the guard.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Twitter is under &lt;em&gt;new management&lt;/em&gt;. There is all kinds of excitement and despair over what this means for the future of free speech on that particular  information control system. Odds are, we can expect some noticeable changes on what is and is no longer allowed within the new paradigm. This should not be mistaken for an expansion of the people&amp;rsquo;s right to voice dissent. As priorities change, harmless admissions of past infractions are not evidence of reform.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;If nothing else, people must not be fooled into thinking this shift of policy is the answer to all the censorship and suppression of the past. This essentially presumes that we are presently aware of the full scope of past information control. It is highly likely that there are unknown taboos that still haven&amp;rsquo;t truly found a voice. When someone desperately waits for free speech to return to a top-down centralized service, they underestimate the problem.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/false-saviors.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/beware-false-saviors&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Beware false saviors&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Putting faith into leaders is a road to disappointment. We all have to work together as individuals to make lasting change.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Freedom of speech &lt;em&gt;is&lt;/em&gt; freedom from consequences. In the name of fighting hate and so-called misinformation people have ceded incredible ground to organizations to shape public discussion. By allowing voices to be suppressed in all kinds of situations, the protections for all kinds of essential and vital dissent are constantly eroded. It is tempting to attempt to find ways to engineer away censorship. This constantly underestimates the willingness of the public to participate in censorship by refusing to uphold protections that whistle-blowers and those with dire warnings have to rely on.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The currently watered-down concept of freedom of speech is essentially the right to utter words alone, and face incredible sanctions for it. The public has long nurtured its tolerance for censorship to grow massively. People can be shocked and horrified by an opaque and arbitrary social credit system, but underestimate the sum effects of allowing censorship to flourish. This is to say that freedom of speech can only exist as a widely-shared culturally protected concept. This is first and foremost a social problem. People urgently need to reevaluate the mechanisms used to silence people and the costs we have paid for them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As acceptable discourse has shrunken into a vanishingly small clown show, people are predictably and understandably desperate for discussions where their concerns are properly heard. This impulse is being exploited by innumerable bad actors to trap people into micro-cults out of touch with everyone else. These micro-cults are as varied and diverse as any other consumer product. Over time, creating a false dichotomy between the blatantly absurd mainstream and a kaleidoscope of mind prisons.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;a-mind-prison-example-q&#34;&gt;A Mind Prison Example: Q&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many Q phrases are instant red flags. &amp;ldquo;White hats&amp;rdquo; which generally refer to the benevolent overlords in positions of power. They for some reasons must allow atrocities for the &amp;ldquo;greater good&amp;rdquo;, yet never actually make any real change. &amp;ldquo;The great awakening&amp;rdquo; which is this cult&amp;rsquo;s equivalent of any utopian fantasy&amp;rsquo;s great revolution. The Q cult has outgrown a small set of posts on an anonymous image board to a full-out megagrift empire.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;People stuck in the Q mind prison are fervent ideologues, they are quite often more invested in people&amp;rsquo;s opinion of Q than of any of the so-called &amp;ldquo;redpills&amp;rdquo; that have supposedly awoken them. Despite a phenomenal track-record of falsified predictions, many of them still circulate. Others are practically unfalsifiable. For example, claiming that all the politicians you don&amp;rsquo;t like have already been executed, but have merely been replaced with body-doubles to not alarm the public. By exploiting what people are starting to learn about many nefarious agendas in play, people are lured back into a safe containment. The &amp;ldquo;Quantum financial system&amp;rdquo; is simply a re-branding the evils people are starting to question. Other times, luring people with the idea that &lt;em&gt;they&lt;/em&gt; can somehow be at the top of the social credit system, it traps them into morally justifying the system. This insidious moral inversion is all pervasive in these mind prisons.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/snowjob.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/anatomy-of-a-psyop&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Anatomy of a psyop&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Cognitive warfare in action&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The most aggravating aspect of the Q situation, is that it is very often used as a justification for more top-down control of information. &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;Behold all the silly nonsense the plebs can convince themselves of, surely we must protect them from such harmful influence?&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt; say the technocrats and their chorus of compliant media. The sad truth is that the accusation on its face isn&amp;rsquo;t wrong, a great variety of people &lt;em&gt;do&lt;/em&gt; believe in a great variety of nonsense. The problem begins with assuming that &lt;em&gt;more top-down control&lt;/em&gt; is the answer and not the root cause of the issue. Only through honest, open debate with proper transparency can we avoid creating our own dark age.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;a-recognizable-pattern&#34;&gt;A recognizable pattern&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is all in no way limited to the Q mega-grift, which simply has some of the most recognizable branding. Regardless of your political or social beliefs there are almost always outright scams ready to take your money for comforting lies and entertainment. They generally follow a predictable format:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;They are in possession of magical cheat codes that they are eager to share with you, the wise critical thinker who sees through all the lies&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Thankfully, the answer is trivially simple and requires no real work on your part or upheaval of existing structures or systems&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;It comes at a very low cost, but for some reason you&amp;rsquo;re still always an additional larger contribution away from the prize&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;An inability to actually discuss or explain the merits of the primary worldview or issues&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A winning combination of shock, flattery, and shame to keep you in suspense&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is overly simplistic to think of the cost only in terms of money. Your time and attention are precious and should be something you optimize continuously to serve you and your loved ones. It is clear to me that our present environment wants nothing more than for us to fight each other over anything and everything. Taking the time to bring people together despite differing beliefs and values is likely one of the most challenging, yet vital tasks of our time. A good identifier for a mind prison is one that preaches you as a lone fighter against the ignorant masses. All kinds of people are doing fantastic work all the time, and we would do well to remember and take time to give credit.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/high-places.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/high-places&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Redefining &amp;#34;High Places&amp;#34;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Lets re-balance power from the bottom-up&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is one of the most nefarious aspects of these mind prisons. Instead of helping people build up and celebrate new heroes, these schemes essentially downplay any real urgency to confront the issues at all. The arrogant belief that the elites in society know best and that the &amp;ldquo;riff raff&amp;rdquo; can&amp;rsquo;t be trusted is it&amp;rsquo;s own mind prison. By embracing a limiting top-down view of society you blind yourself from truly making an attempt to understand human beings and what drives them. People vastly underestimate the advantages of bottom-up strategies and structures.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;beware-the-trap&#34;&gt;Beware the Trap&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Being stuck in a mind prison is not only counter-productive, but it can be dangerous. You isolate yourself from people you need to stay connected with. People who don&amp;rsquo;t share your beliefs aren&amp;rsquo;t your enemies. Focusing on fighting the people around you is only going to make you unpopular and alone. It&amp;rsquo;s important to humanize yourself to others as well as you when you look in the mirror. Taking time to better understand your ideas can help you properly convey them to those who may not be receptive at first. Everyone needs a good friend more than they need another truth bomb.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;That said, do not let what allows you to forgive friends and family be manipulated into grating blanket &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eugyppius.com/p/emily-oster-proposes-a-pandemic-amnesty&#34;&gt;amnesty&lt;/a&gt; to those who abused their power and authority. The Covid Crisis didn&amp;rsquo;t merely open up new wounds to tear apart society, it also revealed to many an unforgettably dark corruption that has taken near complete control. When it comes to many of the technocrats plans, people ask &amp;ldquo;Why now?&amp;rdquo; and the answer lies in the fact that much of our cultural rot is from a mask worn to hide terrible and unsustainable lies.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://youtube.com/embed/MIHC4NNScEI&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I believe the technocracy is &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.fromrome.info/2022/01/14/how-skull-bones-plans-to-co-opt-world-wide-resistance-to-the-plandemic/&#34;&gt;desperate for a scapegoat&lt;/a&gt; and doesn&amp;rsquo;t particularly care who or what it is. By putting people into difficult situations, then slandering them in the media otherwise kind and dutiful people from all walks of life are made into monsters. As more and more divisions in society isolate people, the danger rises. We have seen how effectively the technocrats were able to use the covid crisis to inflame hatred, we would do well to do anything we can to prevent that from being utilized further. It would be all to easy for those in power to entirely avoid accountability if they maintain the ability to turn the public against a convenient scapegoat.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is the root of the false awakening. More and more people stumble into the all the lies, corruption, and contradictions of our established order. As these doubts, fears, and concerns pile up; so does friction and resistance. Those in power have an incredible incentive to manage this fragmentation by effectively isolating every fracture into it&amp;rsquo;s own bubble. We can expect the manufacture, marketing, and adoption of individualized mind prisons to be increased exponentially as those in power get more and more desperate. It&amp;rsquo;s not hard to see our current culture fractured into two inconsolable factions, if we&amp;rsquo;re not careful we will end up with everyone perfectly isolated in a terrible free-for-all.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You being aware of a particular piece of truth isn&amp;rsquo;t the answer, what we need is &lt;em&gt;integration&lt;/em&gt;. Being authentically awake isn&amp;rsquo;t simply accepting a single redpill about some scandal or lie in society. It&amp;rsquo;s about being able to properly conceptualize the world as it is, rather than how others would like it to be, or even how you&amp;rsquo;d like it to be. This integration of understanding is what needs to be shared. We won&amp;rsquo;t all know everything about everything, but we need to cooperate on processes to properly investigate the truth, uncover corruption and make concrete, lasting change.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Without actually integrating our understanding with how we work together, we run the risk of granting those in power and corrupt institutions total control over the future. Our future is already uncertain in so many ways, the only way to properly account for those risks is to bring them to the forefront of our mind and actions. Almost every institution in our lives is in need of complete and total reform that may be outright impossible in some instances. These institutions reflect the unacknowledged damage that has been inflicted on the public for a long time, that has gone neglected and forgotten. Rebuilding essential civic and social institutions will be an all-too-difficult task. We are all going to need as many people willing to come together and practice an unfamiliar amount of solidarity. This can only take place with excellent individuals working to reach out and authentically connect with those around them. I wish you the best of luck.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Tools of the Technocracy: #10 Central Bank Digital Currencies</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-10/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-10/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/tools-of-the-technocracy10.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cbdc-chains.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cbdc-chains.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cbdc-chains.webp" />
+		<description> Late-stage financial repression</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;tools-of-the-technocracy-10-central-bank-digital-currencies&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/tools-of-the-technocracy-series&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy&lt;/a&gt;: #10 Central Bank Digital Currencies&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;what-is-money&#34;&gt;What is money?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is a really humorous video that really gets at the core of this discussion.&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Money is something we made up.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://www.tiktok.com/@paigelayle/video/6902953819722861825&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video muted autoplay preload=&#34;none&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/video/tott-10-inflation.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Her tiktok attracted a lot of people lecturing her on inflation, about how raising the money supply devalues the money. What those responses are missing is the key statement in the video.&lt;br&gt;
+&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;You let &lt;strong&gt;THIS happen!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; she exclaims holding up a plastic 5$ bill and plastic 50$ bill side-by side.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;what-exactly-did-we-let-happen&#34;&gt;What exactly did we &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;let happen&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.kitco.com/news/2019-12-02/Nearly-one-third-of-Americans-believe-U-S-dollar-is-backed-by-gold-Genesis-Mining-s-survey.html&#34;&gt;third of Americans&lt;/a&gt; still believe the US dollar is backed by real, tangible value in the form of gold. This hasn&amp;rsquo;t been true for quite some time, and that is why our central bank currencies are also called &lt;em&gt;fiat currencies&lt;/em&gt;. It is almost a guarantee that you, the reader reader are paid, taxed, and earning income in a central bank currency known either as dollars, euros, or any other national currency. This has already had &lt;a href=&#34;https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/&#34;&gt;significant impact of society&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-is-a-central-bank&#34;&gt;What is a central bank?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A central bank is a &amp;ldquo;bank for banks&amp;rdquo;.&lt;br&gt;
+&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Why would a bank need a bank?&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Your deposits at a bank are a liability to that bank, they have legally needed &amp;ldquo;bank money* called &lt;em&gt;reserves&lt;/em&gt; to offset that liability on their balance sheet.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;John titus does a fantastic job explaining how this works, and has changed during the Covid Crisis.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://youtu.be/VYOEvurCVuk&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/images/tott-10/split-circuit.png&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    From &amp;#34;Larry &amp;amp; Carstens&amp;#39; Excellent Pandemic&amp;#34; by John Titus &lt;a target=&#39;_blank&#39; href=&#39;https://youtu.be/VYOEvurCVuk&#39;&gt;Source&lt;/a&gt;
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.corbettreport.com/federalreserve/&#34;&gt;Central banks are corporations&lt;/a&gt;, that lend money to governments and other banks. Central banking is effectively the death of free enterprise, not only do market participants have to out-compete vertical monopolies but also entities with the power to create and distribute money from nothing. This power effectively means that some participants experience lavish success in a simulated economy, while those outside the simulated economy must operate in the harshest of economic conditions. Before countries entirely adopt CBDCs en-masse, now is the perfect time to consider (if not the last time) if central banks are institutions that ought to be abolished entirely.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;digital-currencies&#34;&gt;Digital Currencies&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In a sense, any digital form of national currency is &lt;em&gt;already a central bank digital currency.&lt;/em&gt; It is important to understand that while digital currencies are &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/tools-of-the-technocracy-series&#34;&gt;tools of the technocracy&lt;/a&gt; so too are central banks &lt;em&gt;themselves&lt;/em&gt;. What central banks are after with digital currencies isn&amp;rsquo;t merely control. They have control already. Their concern is that their control is too crude, instead they would prefer precise options to micro-manage the economy down to individual transactions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-1.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-1/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy #1: Digital Currency&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;How the digital financial complex works against you...and what you can do about it.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;payment-processors&#34;&gt;Payment processors&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Online payment processors allow people to seamlessly transact. Most payment processors use central bank currencies because for most people they are the only currency they use. These payment processors have &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/paypal-fine-2500-intolerance-discriminatory/&#34;&gt;significant leverage over those reliant on them&lt;/a&gt;. As if monetary policy didn&amp;rsquo;t distort the economy enough, now payment processors are eager to show they can be proactive in surveilling, fining, and otherwise restricting their users. This is because they will be effectively competing with CBDCs in these areas.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;cryptocurrencies&#34;&gt;Cryptocurrencies&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Satoshi made history when he created the first digital currency with no central issuing authority that couldn&amp;rsquo;t be counterfeit. This was no small feat. By using the power of raw computing power, Bitcoin is still the largest mover in the huge cryptocurrency space. Not all cryptocurrencies are decentralized. As computing power, or financial control ramp up, only time will tell how many truly decentralized projects will survive.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/road2hell.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/blockchain/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The road to hell: misplaced optimism in the blockchain space&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The biggest challenge with cryptocurrency in our current age is that money is only part of our current troubles. We can all switch to a &amp;ldquo;silver bullet&amp;rdquo; system tomorrow and there would still be immense damage to be undone. Just as money is a construct we create, it is also entirely reliant on the rule of law. No money, no matter how secure or private can itself alone overthrow tyrants.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-is-a-cbdc-really&#34;&gt;What &lt;em&gt;is&lt;/em&gt; a CBDC &lt;em&gt;really&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The major threat that new CBDCs present is that they are highly likely to be streamlined with the following properties:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;programmable&#34;&gt;Programmable&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In addition to having control of every transaction, programmable currencies allow participants to enter &lt;em&gt;new kinds of transactions&lt;/em&gt;. This could include all kinds of things, such as directly monetizing surveillance. Automated systems could be used to enhance these digital contracts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/programmable-currency.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/programmable-currency&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Programmable currency&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is it good for?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;interoperable&#34;&gt;Interoperable&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As Mathew Crawford points out: &amp;ldquo;A networks value increases exponentially in relation to the number of its users&amp;rdquo; it wouldn&amp;rsquo;t make sense to limit total top-down financial control to a single jurisdiction. Eventually a global uni-system could be built on top without the participants having any power to prevent the change.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;so-what&#34;&gt;So what?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These things can enable an &lt;a href=&#34;https://iceni.substack.com/p/spartacast-05#details&#34;&gt;industrial revolution without people&lt;/a&gt;. The technocrats don&amp;rsquo;t just believe they&amp;rsquo;ve won in finance, but all of human history and evolution. They intend to transform all our countries into giant (but shrinking) open-air prisons.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;corporate-backed-digital-currencies&#34;&gt;Corporate-backed digital currencies&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Odds are &lt;em&gt;essential workers&lt;/em&gt; will likely not be lucky enough to use the state-issued CBDC. Instead they may be restricted to using their companies &lt;strong&gt;Corporate-Backed Digital Currency&lt;/strong&gt;, a modern version of the &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_store&#34;&gt;company store&lt;/a&gt;. These indentured servants would have no capacity to transact outside approved channels.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/servicification.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/servicification&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Servicification&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;One of the greatest threats to private property rights.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is critical not to simply be reflexively averse to a central bank digital currency, and naive to the threads presented by corporate backed digital currencies. Where convenient I recommend mentioning both in similar situations.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;concerns&#34;&gt;Concerns&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Frustratingly, it doesn&amp;rsquo;t take much imagination to guess how these systems will be used. We have already seen mass de-platforming by financial institutions as a means of censorship. So many things that could be done with a CBDC have already been done on either as a whole, or with specific interventions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Other encroachments will be much more sinister and harder to predict. New functionality and advancements in technology will open up unimaginable possibilities. No single person would be capable of understanding it all, making anyone who attempts to sound mad to those who haven&amp;rsquo;t.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;surveillance&#34;&gt;Surveillance&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Surveillance itself is enough of an invasion, regardless what it is being used for. People deserve the right to make mistakes, learn, and grow as people. It is troubling in an age where there is hardly any accountability for those at the top, the public is being targeted for any kind of micro-infraction. The only way to restore a free and fair society is to tilt the scales in the opposite direction.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;censorship&#34;&gt;Censorship&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Programmable currencies are entirely able to dictate their use. No transaction is permanent, likely only the record of it is. This can be used to develop powerful feedback loops to entirely eliminate dissent.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;financial-repression&#34;&gt;Financial Repression&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Reprisals for unapproved actions can be harsh and all-encompassing. Not only are you entirely vulnerable to the whims of the system, those around you will also face the same consequences for lending support.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;social-control&#34;&gt;Social control&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Using financial control to manipulate the public is &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/other20220929a.htm&#34;&gt;already being tested&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;micro-management&#34;&gt;Micro-management&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With additional forms of contracts punishments can be fine-tuned to elicit very specific responses. All kinds of virtual systems can be precisely configured to represent your deemed place in society.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;failure&#34;&gt;Failure&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Central planning in any form is civilization&amp;rsquo;s equivalent of putting all your eggs in one basket&amp;hellip;over a cliff. It is a total failure mode of any human system and should be avoided at all costs. When these schemes inevitably go wrong, so much damage to lives, communities, and vital human capital is often unrecoverable.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Or more importantly, &lt;em&gt;why the rush&lt;/em&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are a variety of factors that mean that the &lt;em&gt;powers that ought not to be&lt;/em&gt; might not really have time on their side when it comes to preparing alternative financial systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;John Titus can explain complicated financial concepts in a way that is remarkably accessible. He&amp;rsquo;s published many great videos addressing the bailouts and lack of criminal prosecution since the great financial crisis.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRV_1ECbasw&#34;&gt;Presenting America&amp;rsquo;s Real Coup d&amp;rsquo;Etat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;geopolitics&#34;&gt;Geopolitics&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As the world changes so do alliances and incentives. Many brilliant minds have suggested that the Covid Crisis could be a &lt;a href=&#34;https://denisrancourt.ca/videos.php?id=37&#34;&gt;painful diversion&lt;/a&gt; from an ongoing &lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/v1lamwt-rte-raw-exploring-the-iatrogenocide-hypothesis.html&#34;&gt;geopolitical Struggle&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Regardless of the underlying reasons we can almost certainly expect future disruptions and difficulties. If nothing else please find ways to be more resilient yourself and take care of others.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;solutions&#34;&gt;Solutions&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;just-say-no-and-do-not-comply&#34;&gt;Just say &amp;ldquo;NO!&amp;rdquo; and Do not comply!&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Tank your social credit score in advance! The most powerful tool the technocracy has to influence you is your own mind. Deliberately properly aligning the incentives yourself can go a long way.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Authentic peaceful disobedience is priceless in these times. As aggrivating as things are it&amp;rsquo;s important to understand that it&amp;rsquo;s our duty to demonstrate that all peaceful options have been exhausted.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;hold-institutions-accountable&#34;&gt;Hold institutions accountable&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We can not engineer nor evade our way around the fact that the rule of law is precious and needs to be restored. There is hardly any reason to start new laws and constitutions from scratch when we can&amp;rsquo;t even enforce existing ones. Greater transparency and accountability will pay dividends in all other aspects of working for freedom.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;sharing--charity&#34;&gt;Sharing &amp;amp; Charity&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A great way to eliminate financial incentives is to provide what you can without financial strings. Cooperation is at a premium these days, so there is much to gain from sharing with others. Building a robust safety-net for those ejected from the social credit system is a pre-requisite for mass resistance.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;sound-money&#34;&gt;Sound money&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m not particularly biased towards any asset or commodity, but I am highly skeptical of any solution that doesn&amp;rsquo;t re-ground society back to tangible value. Our manipulated currencies have corrupted even trivial incentives for so long that I doubt we can avoid facing those consequences. This is why it is all-the-more important that high-profile criminals be prosecuted for their ill-gotten-gains.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;time-banking&#34;&gt;Time banking&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Anything that values human beings and their time more is a good thing. The technocracy has aimed to glamorize a future without other people. If we all have to embrace barter to resist tyranny, time banking is a very efficient model.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;local-digital-currencies-and-decentralized-cryptocurrencies&#34;&gt;Local digital currencies and decentralized cryptocurrencies&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While any and all useful digital systems should be used for what they can, relying on a single global blockchain may be an inefficient option for regions that may face radically different circumstances. Building an online bank from the ground up is not a technically sophisticated task. Anyone capable of creating a dynamic website is capable of building a functional prototype. The main difficulties are around physical security and accountability for the assets.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Servicification</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/servicification/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/servicification/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/servicification.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/servicification.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/servicification.webp" />
+		<description>One of the greatest threats to private property rights.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Today, so many online services confuse the concept of ownership.&lt;br&gt;
+Ownership is not merely access to a product.
+Ownership is about &lt;em&gt;rights&lt;/em&gt;, for both tangible and intangible property.&lt;br&gt;
+What options do you have to use, enjoy, or transfer that property?&lt;br&gt;
+What limits (if any) exist on those options.&lt;br&gt;
+These rights are entirely dependent on either the rule of law, or on force.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If Claus Schwab aims to deprive me of my property and my liberty, he needs to remember I have a gun.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Rick Rule&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The very reason the law exists, is so that people don&amp;rsquo;t have to resort to violent means to defend themselves. In an ideal world, people would clearly and efficiently negotiate outcomes. This requires acceptable and enforceable &lt;em&gt;boundaries&lt;/em&gt; to limit what actions can be taken against people. Otherwise the situation can rapidly devolve into &lt;em&gt;anarcho-tyranny.&lt;/em&gt; &lt;sup id=&#34;fnref:1&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#fn:1&#34; class=&#34;footnote-ref&#34; role=&#34;doc-noteref&#34;&gt;1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy/&#34;&gt;tools of the technocracy&lt;/a&gt; aren&amp;rsquo;t always used to outright rob people. Quite often, they are instead used to &lt;em&gt;tip the scales&lt;/em&gt; in a way that coerces people into giving in to schemes that they otherwise wouldn&amp;rsquo;t. Convenience in exchange for surveillance is the most clear example, but there are other options. If not prevented by a vigilant populace, the state can force people to &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/canadian-government-has-allocated-105-3-million-to-world-economic-forum-digital-id-partnership/&#34;&gt;beta test&lt;/a&gt; additional surveillance and control.&lt;sup id=&#34;fnref:2&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#fn:2&#34; class=&#34;footnote-ref&#34; role=&#34;doc-noteref&#34;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;servicification&#34;&gt;Servicification&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Servicification is the replacement of concrete ownership with temporary access. Arguably there are some efficiency gains. Instead of fragile, disposable products providers would invest in products that are built to last. In addition to this, unused products could be accessible to be used by others. These benefits are more advantageous for the &lt;em&gt;owner&lt;/em&gt; of the property rather than the users. The only benefit the user gains is that it potentially gives people access to products that they would be otherwise unable to afford.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A big problem is that in our current landscape, the users will likely be charged more than just currency. People may have to pay with their data in addition to currency. Even worse, by using these products may be entirely gated behind a social credit system armed with all-pervasive mass surveillance.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;virtual-goods&#34;&gt;Virtual goods&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Music, videos, software, &amp;amp;  video games are all already quite accessible through online stores. &amp;ldquo;Owning&amp;rdquo; these &lt;em&gt;virtual products&lt;/em&gt; isn&amp;rsquo;t actual ownership, it&amp;rsquo;s merely purchasing a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/you-dont-own-your-digital-movies/&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;temporary license&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; to make use of them. Temporary as in, the service provider can decide to no longer give the user access. Or even when the service provider goes under, access becomes impossible.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;NFTs are an interesting attempt to solve that problem. If one stores entire digital goods on the blockchain, smart contracts could allow permanent &lt;sup id=&#34;fnref:3&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#fn:3&#34; class=&#34;footnote-ref&#34; role=&#34;doc-noteref&#34;&gt;3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; and transferrable access. This arrangement requires there to be an incentive for the blockchain to be stored-long term, which may require a high and increasing token price.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;reality-alterations&#34;&gt;Reality alterations&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Beyond digital goods, servicification can be used to regulate and manage physical assets and goods. With enough surveillance and automation, renting something or somewhere can be done without any human interaction. This is always a double-edged affair, when things are conveniently enabled without human interaction, they can also be &lt;em&gt;restricted&lt;/em&gt; without any human interaction or judgement.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;video controls preload=&#34;metadata&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/video/wef-clothes-drm.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Video source: &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/heliodown/status/1501550504677101570&#34;&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is a new frontier for digital intrusion into people&amp;rsquo;s lives. While one may hope that they are exempt because they don&amp;rsquo;t own any smart devices, there are ways around this. People with less money can be presented with predatory arrangements where renting a place also requires them to opt-in to all kinds of surveillance and control, ensuring that privacy and autonomy is only limited to the very wealthy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is important to note that these measures aren&amp;rsquo;t enhancements. In no way does adding internet access to a lock make it more secure. A digital token may &lt;em&gt;represent access&lt;/em&gt; but this is in no way the same thing as a key physically required to mechanically unlock a door.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-sharing-economy&#34;&gt;The &amp;ldquo;sharing economy&amp;rdquo;&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Jobs aren&amp;rsquo;t safe either. Offshoring allowed the financial class to use human suffering as a competitive advantage against labor. Servicification allows an even further impoverishment of the citizens. By cutting up a single well-paid career into micro-tasks that are then farmed out to either underpaid workers with no bargaining power, or simply automated.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Consumerism in America has transferred billions and trillions of dollars of wealth to would-be financial despots who now want to monopolize all resources, all property, and collect rents from them from now until the end of time, all in the name of sustainability.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://iceni.substack.com/p/spartacast-05&#34;&gt;Spartacus&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the best of circumstances, this will have disastrous consequences for the workforce. This precariousness-by-default will eliminate the last vestiges of security people once took for granted. Taken to the extreme, it undermines the very social contract by turning the entire public into mercenaries.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;better-ways&#34;&gt;Better ways&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;entrepreneurship&#34;&gt;Entrepreneurship&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The lockdowns during the Covid Crisis were an atrocious attack on small enterprises. If local economies are to ever thrive again this must be actively reversed. This is not something we have the luxury of simply hoping for. People need to actively work to reduce unfair barriers leveraged against local businesses. One of the things the technocrats fear the most is strong communities with economic self-determination. Making these changes may be difficult and expensive, but it is a whole lot more difficult and expensive to live in a society without an authentic local economy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;libraries&#34;&gt;Libraries&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Yes, most of the efficiency of servicification can be gained from your local library. Using a &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Things&#34;&gt;library of things&lt;/a&gt; &lt;sup id=&#34;fnref:4&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#fn:4&#34; class=&#34;footnote-ref&#34; role=&#34;doc-noteref&#34;&gt;4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/sup&gt; allows people to get use out of items they may only need occasionally. There is no reason that the products being shared need to be owned by a multi-national corporation. By supporting and enhancing surveillance-free alternatives we can all benefit from modern efficiency without compromising the vulnerable.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://synergeticdesign.substack.com/p/the-future-will-be-community-based&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The future will be community-based&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;The need to belong is thwarting the globalist agenda.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;footnotes&#34; role=&#34;doc-endnotes&#34;&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li id=&#34;fn:1&#34;&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Anarcho-tyranny on &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=anarcho-tyranny&#34;&gt;urban dictionary&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Anarcho-tyranny is a concept, where the state is argued to be more interested in controlling citizens so that they do not oppose the managerial class (tyranny) rather than controlling real criminals (causing anarchy). Laws are argued to be enforced only selectively, depending on what is perceived to be beneficial for the ruling elite.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&amp;#160;&lt;a href=&#34;#fnref:1&#34; class=&#34;footnote-backref&#34; role=&#34;doc-backlink&#34;&gt;&amp;#x21a9;&amp;#xfe0e;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li id=&#34;fn:2&#34;&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Vaccine passports are a notable example.&amp;#160;&lt;a href=&#34;#fnref:2&#34; class=&#34;footnote-backref&#34; role=&#34;doc-backlink&#34;&gt;&amp;#x21a9;&amp;#xfe0e;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li id=&#34;fn:3&#34;&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Well, as permanent as the blockchain running it anyways.&amp;#160;&lt;a href=&#34;#fnref:3&#34; class=&#34;footnote-backref&#34; role=&#34;doc-backlink&#34;&gt;&amp;#x21a9;&amp;#xfe0e;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li id=&#34;fn:4&#34;&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Share a shovel, share a machine&amp;#160;&lt;a href=&#34;#fnref:4&#34; class=&#34;footnote-backref&#34; role=&#34;doc-backlink&#34;&gt;&amp;#x21a9;&amp;#xfe0e;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The failure of intelligence</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/intelligence/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 08 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/intelligence/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/intelligence.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/intelligence.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/intelligence.webp" />
+		<description>The current state of affairs is a warning that top-level intelligence is failing</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;In an ideal world, people would do their best to understand reality and share that understanding with others. Some call this journalism. This kind of journalism has been under attack for quite some time. The very reason that ideal world can&amp;rsquo;t exist is because being able to understand reality better than others, or to even conceal that reality from others gives one power. That power is sought by all kinds of people in all kinds of situations and it corrupts them. No amount of &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;It&amp;rsquo;s for the greater good!&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt; rationalization will comfort their souls, and deep down they know it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And &lt;strong&gt;there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;John F. Kennedy &lt;a href=&#34;https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/john-f-kennedy-address-the-president-and-the-press-27-april-1961-speech-text/&#34;&gt;27 April 1961&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Secrets beget more secrets, and they blister with corruption. This deep corruption has taken root in almost all levels of society. One has to be ejected from it all to appreciate the full extent of it. People very ability to understand what lies before them is under attack on the most fundamental levels. More control, suppression and deceit are constantly required to maintain the illusion. These illusions are not mere phantoms, they require sacrifice. Greater and greater sacrifices are made just for more to be demanded.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;People are not blind to this. Every day in all their actions they make a conscious choice. &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Is this level of sacrifice enough to cover the secrets I maintain?&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; We are all tainted by the secrets we participate in. Every deviation from sharing the truth as we know it incurs unimaginable debts. There is only one act that can truly change things. It is a loving act of self-sacrifice. That act of self-sacrifice is to shout:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;enough&#34;&gt;Enough!&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Enough with the lies, enough with the pretending, enough with the sacrifices. It takes a monumental act of courage to take on not only the secrecy, but also make yourself an enemy of those who still harbor them. This is no small feat. Telling the truth in an age of deceit is an immense risk in even the most trivial of examples. How do we as free people respond?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t underestimate the power of truth, there&amp;rsquo;s nothing more powerful. Now in order to speak what you might regard as the truth you have to &lt;strong&gt;let go of the outcome!&lt;/strong&gt; You have to think: &amp;ldquo;Alright I&amp;rsquo;m going to say what I think. Ignorant as I am, stupid as I am. I am going to state what I think as clearly as I can and I&amp;rsquo;m going to live with the consequences no matter what they are.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Jordan Peterson at the &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/watch?v=HzZ9h7bM6QE&#34;&gt;Manning Conference 2017&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As Peterson warns us, it is not safe to speak the truth. People have to do it anyways. You need to have the faith that the cost is worth it. Without that faith you will falter when you&amp;rsquo;re needed most. You may never know when that time comes, it is best to always be on guard. If nothing else, understand you&amp;rsquo;re not alone. There are many others who have taken up that challenge in the largest and smallest of ways.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;freeassange&#34;&gt;#FreeAssange&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/johnpilger/status/1577372529169154073&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;John Pilger on Twitter🐦 &lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Julian Assange is in prison, representing you yes, you. Why? Because eventually the violent, rapacious power that put him there will touch your life, perhaps worse than that...&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By sacrificing Julian Assange for &lt;a href=&#34;https://web.archive.org/web/20120614232056/https://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/why-im-posting-bail-money&#34;&gt;these lies&lt;/a&gt;, what&amp;rsquo;s next? Who or what should we prepare to hoist onto the altar of public relations. Merely evading the wrath of those who benefit from secrecy is not enough. These injustices simply beget more injustices. In doing so we don&amp;rsquo;t just corrupt the public record, but our own moral understanding. Some may argue these methods are worthwhile, but it is indisputable they have a cost. That cost rises every day with every concession away from the truth.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is &lt;em&gt;the mechanism&lt;/em&gt; that is making all our lives more difficult. You can choose almost any contentious political issue, delve deep enough you find ultimately the troubles are the cost of maintaining some kind of secret. People have been mislead in so many ways. It is terrifyingly asinine to label a handful of alleged misconceptions &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;disinformation&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt; to take the blame for decades of deceit.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When you try to equate yourself with Julian Assange you&amp;rsquo;re making a very dangerous gesture.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;John Bolton&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We are well past dangerous. We have gambled with so many lives, for so long and for what? Deranged western leaders have sabotaged generations of human capital. Nobody is safe. No amount of acquiescence or displays of loyalty will protect anyone from a system of total corruption. Wealth won&amp;rsquo;t protect anyone either. Without the rule of law safety and wealth are both meaningless, unenforceable concepts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-goal-is-justice-the-method-is-transparency&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The goal is justice, the method is transparency&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://johnpilger.com/videos/julian-assange-in-conversation-with-john-pilger&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/assange-interview.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Our goal as free people in society shouldn&amp;rsquo;t simply be to be those &lt;em&gt;in-the-know&lt;/em&gt;. Being &amp;ldquo;awake&amp;rdquo; is a pitiful consolation when one idly watches the tides of tyranny crash forth. It is long past time to take action, but I&amp;rsquo;ll also call you to imagine. Imagine a world that isn&amp;rsquo;t constantly wasting time, energy, effort, and lives in the name of preserving secrecy. What could be gained by saving the immense cost of maintaining secrecy and lies?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;All around us we witness the unending failures of intelligence at the highest levels. What is all the censorship, surveillance, and narrative control for if it fails to bring forth truth? People struggle to agree on some of the most basic tenets of our reality. Instead of cooperating to build understanding we draw battle lines. Waging our culture wars, while criminals plunder our societies in the cover of ignorance and hatred.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Whatever we currently call intelligence needs to give way for justice. Agencies, think-tanks, and individuals are all called to say &amp;ldquo;Enough!&amp;rdquo; and aim for restoring integrity. We can undo the damage done by lies, but we can use the truth to set us free of them.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Principle: Hardware matters</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/hardware-matters/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 05 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/hardware-matters/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/board.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/board.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/board.webp" />
+		<description>It is easy to underestimate the underlying structure of our digital world.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;back-to-basics&#34;&gt;Back to Basics&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are innumerable examples of average people being unable to explain how the modern conveniences of their life work. From creating food, energy,  and products to what it takes to make them accessible, nearly everyone is quite ignorant about these things. In an age of such rapid transformation it is quite understandable if not predictable. When it comes to technology, almost everything is quite obscured for a person who doesn&amp;rsquo;t take the time to look.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This creates a great deal of confusion and friction when trying to truly decentralize power. In most cases, it’s not always necessary for someone to know details about every service and system they use. However, there are many advantages to being aware of some fundamental elements of digital systems that surround us. We as people working to safeguard and expand human liberty, must at least understand the basics of how things work.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;hardware&#34;&gt;Hardware&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In their simplest form, computers use power to run computations on signals. They can use those signals to manipulate devices to do all kinds of things like run displays or store information. These devices can have ways to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.coreysdigs.com/technology/welcome-to-the-surveillance-state-biometrics-data-collection-is-all-around-you/&#34;&gt;collect information&lt;/a&gt; and signals for the computer. With more sophisticated programming we can use these signals to create files and media, access the web, and enjoy a large variety of multimedia content. When it comes to any device you have, you&amp;rsquo;ll at least want to be aware of what it &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/tim-hortons-privacy-settlement/&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;can do&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutionsnetwork.substack.com/p/reclaiming-cyberspace-1&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Reclaiming territory in cyberspace: #1 Hardware basics&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Start your journey in building up your digital sovereignty.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;specialized-hardware&#34;&gt;Specialized hardware&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One cpu = one vote&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bitcoin.com/satoshi-archive/whitepaper&#34;&gt;Satoshi Nakamoto&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the things that initially got me excited about &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=bitcoin&#34;&gt;Bitcoin&lt;/a&gt; was that it created a market incentive for people to acquire more powerful computing. I had hoped that this would eventually decentralize computing power across society. That was quickly demolished when &lt;a href=&#34;https://cryptobriefing.com/cryptocurrency-mining-asic-centralization/&#34;&gt;specialized hardware&lt;/a&gt; was created uniquely for the purpose of mining Bitcoin. There are also specialized devices for &lt;a href=&#34;https://itsfoss.com/best-sbc-for-ai/&#34;&gt;machine learning&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.ionos.com/digitalguide/server/security/what-is-fido2/&#34;&gt;authentication&lt;/a&gt;. using specialized hardware can do wonders for resource efficiency and simplifying problems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/construction-banner.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-3/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #3 Robots, IoT, Automation, Oh my!&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Transforming the world in ways seen and unseen&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately that also means that general computing devices could end up being restricted from the people. If all kinds of functions are available through cloud providers and specialized products, bad actors could argue that general-purpose computing is too dangerous to be accessible to the masses. General purpose devices would likely consume more resources, and these &amp;ldquo;wasteful&amp;rdquo; devices could be restricted in the name of conserving energy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://youtube.com/embed/IgF3OX8nT0w&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-happens-when-we-ignore-hardware&#34;&gt;What happens when we ignore hardware?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s no reason to guess because in many ways we already have. Smartphones are the perfect representation of what happens when we aren&amp;rsquo;t in control of our computing. People&amp;rsquo;s own devices and data can become &lt;a href=&#34;https://dt.gl/privacy-update-google-scans-private-photos-leading-to-false-accusations/&#34;&gt;weaponized against them&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/pi-vs-smartphone.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-cloud&#34;&gt;The cloud&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;There is no cloud, there is only someone else&amp;rsquo;s computer&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By putting all of your data on cloud services you have no idea where the data is actually stored and if it is truly protected. While the best way to protect data is to never record it, a great way is to only store it on your own devices. While many cloud providers boast stringent security, data breaches are an &lt;a href=&#34;haveibeenpwned.com/&#34;&gt;all-too-common occurrence.&lt;/a&gt; By keeping your data to yourself, it is safer because you&amp;rsquo;re likely to be less of a target than everyone&amp;rsquo;s cloud data combined.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-4.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-4/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #4 Online Identity&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is following you in your digital tracks?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;serverless&#34;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Serverless&amp;rdquo;&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Why use your own devices at all? Why not simply centralize all computing power and storage into one giant &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainframe_computer&#34;&gt;big iron.&lt;/a&gt; Due to the economies of scale, it can be tempting to reap the efficiency gains of using massive supercomputers as a common good. While for some applications this may be quite viable, the name &amp;ldquo;serverless&amp;rdquo; is entirely misleading. All the computation and storage still needs to exist somewhere. Whoever, or whatever has control of that mainframe is effectively the master of the resource. Bad actors would be highly motivated to corrupt and manipulate that resource, undermining any efficiency gains from centralization.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re sincerely interested in running systems without servers at all, you may be interested in &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/amark/gun&#34;&gt;gun.js&lt;/a&gt;. Gun is a useful framework for building peer-to-peer persistent applications. These applications effectively store all the important data among the users.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;rebuilding&#34;&gt;Rebuilding&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;All three primary resources in cyberspace (Computing power, Storage, &amp;amp; bandwidth) are entirely reliant on hardware. This means if you&amp;rsquo;re hoping to democratize our online experience, you want to ensure those three (and the hardware that supports them) are as decentralized as possible. While it may be impossible to perfectly decentralize these things, incremental progress can yield exponential results.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;free-as-in-freedom-hardware&#34;&gt;Free (as in Freedom) hardware&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is a mistake to continue to buy hardware from large corporations with an incentive to sell you cloud services. You can&amp;rsquo;t reasonably expect that they will chose principles they don&amp;rsquo;t have over their bottom-line. Ideally your hardware would be entirely sourced from local, ethically built, businesses that respect your freedom. Unfortunately we are quite far away from that being the standard. It is our responsibility collectively to remove &lt;a href=&#34;https://2ndlook.news/2022/02/06/made-to-break-planned-obsolescence-and-the-right-to-repair/&#34;&gt;unnecessary barriers&lt;/a&gt; to making that a reality.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://fsf.org&#34;&gt;Free Software Foundation&lt;/a&gt; has a fantastic campaign called &lt;a href=&#34;https://ryf.fsf.org/&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Respects your freedom&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; or hardware that meets their &lt;a href=&#34;https://ryf.fsf.org/about&#34;&gt;certification&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;other-initiatives&#34;&gt;Other initiatives&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Regardless of what we choose, it&amp;rsquo;s important that we get better at supporting hardware designers and manufacturers that support freedom.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://puri.sm/&#34;&gt;Purism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://system76.com/&#34;&gt;System76&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://e.foundation/&#34;&gt;E Foundation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://pine64.com/&#34;&gt;Pine64&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://starlabs.systems/&#34;&gt;Star Labs systems&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Programmable currency</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/programmable-currency/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 25 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/programmable-currency/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/programmable-currency.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/programmable-currency.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/programmable-currency.webp" />
+		<description>What is it good for?</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;With ordinary money like cash or coins, the holder decides what they want to do with it and what needs to be disclosed. &lt;em&gt;Programmable currency&lt;/em&gt; is an entirely different situation. In many ways, they aren&amp;rsquo;t much of a deviation from existing digital currency that can be tracked, blocked and controlled. The differences lie in scale, scope, and application. When someone has their &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ottawa-city-councillor-demands-government-seize-7-million-raised-canadian-truckers&#34;&gt;donations seized&lt;/a&gt;, or &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/canadas-td-bank-freezes-1-1m-donated-to-freedom-convoy-protesters/&#34;&gt;their bank account frozen&lt;/a&gt;, there is an action that needs to make that happen. Someone has to recognize an event, then take action and make the change.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With programmable currency &lt;em&gt;intervention can be the default&lt;/em&gt;. Instead of you being protected from interference, you are at the whims of the &lt;em&gt;rules of the game&lt;/em&gt;. Ideally, people would be able to choose the terms they&amp;rsquo;re beholden to. The challenge is that both state and corporate entities are more than able and willing to enforce one-sided terms onto the public.  There is much to say about the diabolical uses for programmable currency.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-is-it-good-for&#34;&gt;What is it good for?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Currency is a concept first and foremost. Instead of getting lost in the technical details of specific digital currencies, realize that programmable currency can be built on simple ideas. This piece, aims to help you understand how these systems work. Surely there&amp;rsquo;s more to programmable currency than pure evil? What can programmable currency be used for?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;smart-contacts&#34;&gt;Smart contacts&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are many situations where one may want some product or service, but isn&amp;rsquo;t too concerned about who or what provides it. With programmable currency one could automatically pay the first entity that delivers it. Even fully-centralized programmable money may provide the mechanism for ordinary people to setup these kinds of interactions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This has all kinds of other uses. With this, and a high degree of automation; one could run a nearly entirely automated business. When a customer places an order, the machines detect the transaction. The machines then can prepare the order, maybe even paying human laborers in the programmable currency to handle some of the trickier parts along the way.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;open-science&#34;&gt;Open Science&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Kevin McKernan argues that the peer review system is broken. That its main flaw is the lack of a price signal for reviewers. Funded by the Dash project, Kevin published results and papers about sequencing cannabis plants. Through the course of the project a great deal of progress was made. He does focus more on the scientific elements of the project, but some elements are clear:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Science could be a lot more transparent&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;The barrier to entry can be lowered significantly&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Participants can be better rewarded for their contributions&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/watch?v=iSZ3TynIczw&#34;&gt;Kevin McKernan - Texas Bitcoin Conference&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;alternative-financial-models&#34;&gt;Alternative financial models&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many proponents of programmable currency are fierce advocates of universal basic income (UBI). &lt;a href=&#34;https://cesium.app/en/&#34;&gt;Cesium&lt;/a&gt; is an attempt to make this a reality. Every day each participant in the web-of-trust is given a daily guaranteed dividend. The value of the currency is solely determined by the value offered by the participants. This currency isn&amp;rsquo;t designed for saving or investing, but purely as a way to provide grassroots liquidity.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/y1b7rppRkaI&#34;&gt;The libre currency without jargon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;a-trivial-example&#34;&gt;A trivial example&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;ve ever tried a variety of games for Android or iOS, this can illuminate things a great deal. Many smartphone games are outright designed to extract the most amount of money from the customer as regularly as possible. With all the state-of-the-art research on how to manipulate people, any centralized digital currency will definitely resemble the worst aspects of any popular mobile game.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/wUrBlQaDkfM&#34;&gt;How Gacha Games Trick Players into Spending Thousands&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As a player of any mobile game you bring in two primary resources: your money and your time. Your goal is to effectively convert one or both of those resources into in-game experiences and rewards. These mobile games tend to have two in-game currencies: one that is purchased with time, another that is purchased with your money. If you understand those dynamics, you understand everything you need to about how programmable currency will be used against people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The game&amp;rsquo;s two currencies have many properties that are unique to programmable currencies:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;They are limited to specific uses&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In these games the currencies are not equal. &amp;ldquo;Money currency&amp;rdquo; will take you so much farther than the &amp;ldquo;time currency&amp;rsquo; and there is usually a very unfavorable ratio when exchanging these.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;May be explicitly manipulated by the issuer&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The player doesn&amp;rsquo;t have any control over the game&amp;rsquo;s infrastructure. Their only choice is to use the currencies as intended or work outside the system entirely.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Purchasing the currency locks you into the system&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There may be no way to recover value from the system. If the game itself is not one you enjoy, and you&amp;rsquo;re outside of the refund window, there may be no way to recover the value you put into the system. It may even be outright impossible.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;what-cant-programmable-currency-do&#34;&gt;What can&amp;rsquo;t programmable currency do?&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;eliminate-security-concerns&#34;&gt;Eliminate security concerns&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are &lt;a href=&#34;https://web3isgoinggreat.com/&#34;&gt;many examples&lt;/a&gt; of poorly designed Web3 projects getting hacked or having &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/ethereums-censorship-resistance-under-attack-recap-biggest-crypto-news-2nd-week-august&#34;&gt;funds sanctioned&lt;/a&gt;. These systems aren&amp;rsquo;t immune to all the same failings that existing digital infrastructure has. Like any other endeavor great care should be placed in ensuring the privacy, security and autonomy of participants. Just like with any other kind of app, convenience can come at a price.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;handle-trust&#34;&gt;Handle Trust&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is all-too-appealing for those of us interested in technology to believe in our hubris, that simply the right technological innovation will overcome human problems. It can&amp;rsquo;t be overstated that this mindset will always lead to mistakes. Tools are tools, whether they are wielded by us or the technocracy. &amp;ldquo;Trust-less&amp;rdquo; systems can&amp;rsquo;t bring health and wealth to a society of people who don&amp;rsquo;t respect each other.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/blockchain-banner.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/blockchain/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The road to hell: misplaced optimism in the blockchain space&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Redefining &#34;high places&#34;</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/high-places/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 21 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/high-places/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/high-places.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/high-places.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/high-places.webp" />
+		<description>Lets re-balance power from the bottom-up</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;The technocracy is a terrifying, horrific and inhuman assault on our very being. People are under assault from all angles: financial, emotional, and intellectual. By keeping people alone and isolated, the technocracy can seem all-but-entirely unopposed. It is quite easy to fall into the trap of envying it&amp;rsquo;s power, or even wishing to share in the ill-gotten-gains. This trap is what can transform the most fervent freedom fighter into yet another foot-soldier for the machine.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;selling-out-for-shockingly-low-prices&#34;&gt;Selling out for shockingly low prices&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Working for the technocracy is working for those who want to enslave you, and everyone around you. With previous regimes, one could argue there was an incentive to defect. People naturally feel drawn to securing their own legacies, even sadly at the expense of others. This however, doesn&amp;rsquo;t apply here. There is no pleasant future purchased in exchange for complying with this inhuman agenda. Whatever temporary creature comforts one enjoys for attacking humanity is a very small price in exchange for the consequences.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;What consequences?&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; Rizza Islam started his speech at &lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/vuk6vk-rizza-islam-full-speech-defeat-the-mandates-dc.html&#34;&gt;Defeat the Mandates&lt;/a&gt; with a profound statement.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;This is the example of what you get&lt;/strong&gt; when you choose to attack all members of the human family.&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;strong&gt;This is what you get&lt;/strong&gt; when you decide to go after a person&amp;rsquo;s child. &lt;br&gt;
+&lt;strong&gt;This is what you get&lt;/strong&gt; when you choose to attack men, women, medical professionals, those with degrees, those without degrees, and those in-between.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If there&amp;rsquo;s one thing we need to do above all else, it is to maintain and nurture our love for humanity in these dark times. This is a highly necessary call to unity. We do not have the luxury of being choosy with allies. You&amp;rsquo;re not going to agree with everyone in this fight. Odds are you may have severe disagreements or even unhealed wounds.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In case anyone needs a reminder, governments all over the world used the pretext of a crisis to seize more power and control. Instead of using any of that power to help anyone, all major institutions enforced measures and decisions that &lt;a href=&#34;https://odysee.com/@MaajidNawaz:d/EP22-Radical:1&#34;&gt;consistently caused harm&lt;/a&gt; instead of preventing it. When presented with evidence of harm, these institutions responded with threats, gaslighting, and indifference. &lt;strong&gt;Regardless of what can be salvaged from these institutions, they have no authority, credibility, and legitimacy until the cause those issues is addressed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;redefining-high-places&#34;&gt;Redefining &amp;ldquo;high places&amp;rdquo;&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is not a call for attacking people in those institutions, wishing ill on them, or even replacing the institutions themselves. It is well past time to acknowledge what is, rather than what we would like to be.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;These institutions, as they exist, are working against people.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;These institutions, as they exist, are hopelessly corrupt.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thankfully the good doctor has a cure for this situation:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Turn away from evil, run towards good&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Dr Vladimir Zelenko&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;turn-away-from-evil&#34;&gt;Turn away from evil&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;stop-envying-their-wealth-and-prestige&#34;&gt;Stop envying their wealth and prestige&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In many ways, this is the hardest and most critical. People are being placed into desperate situations and it is a very trying time for almost everyone. Any status gained from working within institutions responsible needs to be met with extreme scorn. While there may be people inside them that are kind and loving within their own circle, but nothing they say or do is to be met with praise. Achievements in service of evil are no achievements at all.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;stop-complying&#34;&gt;Stop complying&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When given the choice to make a situation easier or harder for those working against humanity, why do them any favors? Anything people can do to create friction for those who desire total control works to help us all. Total control would be almost impossible if people actively chose to encourage indifference to err on the side of non-compliance.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/denisrancourt/status/1480314494370914305&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Denis Rancourt on Twitter 🐦&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;To all those who say &amp;#34;we need mass resistance&amp;#34;... I say &amp;#34;we need individual non-compliance&amp;#34;. Plus, that is something you actually control. Stop being a social theorist, and actually join the resistance.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;dont-take-them-seriously&#34;&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t take them seriously&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We live in a time of &lt;em&gt;aggressive absurdities&lt;/em&gt;. People are expected to live a lie to maintain the illusion of a functioning human society. These are dangerous times and mistaking propaganda for reality is a very expensive and life-threatening mistake. As much as possible, give no credence to what these institutions would have you believe. Instead, work with those who are continuously working to dig up the truth beneath the surface.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;run-towards-good&#34;&gt;Run towards good&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;value-and-nurture-what-has-been-taken-from-the-people&#34;&gt;Value and nurture what has been taken from the people&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;So many things have been ripped away from people, or even forgotten entirely. These are the things we should be maximizing in our lives:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Truth&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Health&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Trust&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Beauty&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Peace&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Autonomy&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Privacy&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Wisdom&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Freedom&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;How many of these things come from the technocracy? Will total top-down control with us at the helm bring these things to each other? Remember that it is impossible to win at that game, and it is good that what we want can be achieved through different means.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;support-others&#34;&gt;Support others&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;All of this is bigger than any of us. Nobody can take it all alone. Unity is our greatest strength.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;They want people isolated and alone? &lt;strong&gt;Work with others to bring people together.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;They want people fearful and in dread? &lt;strong&gt;Raise people&amp;rsquo;s spirits and give them hope.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;They want people angry and wrathful? &lt;strong&gt;Bring peace to difficult situations and settle disputes.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;step-into-yourself&#34;&gt;Step into yourself&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;To err is human, to forgive is divine.&lt;/em&gt; Forgive yourself as well as others. Working for human freedom requires courage and otherworldly strength. Forging meaningful connections with others can help you truly recognize your own talents and strengths.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;you-have-friends-in-high-places&#34;&gt;You have friends in high places&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What do you admire most?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Is it large sums of money? Fame? Power? No?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re be willing to trade all of those things for a better world, I have good news for you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You are not alone.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;An incomplete list, in no particular order:&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;dr-kulvinder-kaur-md&#34;&gt;Dr Kulvinder Kaur MD&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/dockaurG/status/1329933660146053121#m&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Kulvinder Kaur MD on Twitter 🐦&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;If you are trying to make sense of this nightmare, pls start here. Beginning a Scientific Evidence-Based Humanitarian Response to Covid-19: can be applied globally based on GBD&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;dr-paul-merik&#34;&gt;Dr Paul Merik&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://youtube.com/embed/IMgjCDc0PeM&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;dr-christina-parks&#34;&gt;Dr Christina Parks&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://youtube.com/embed/8DOOZpGA_VI&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;dr-byram-bridle&#34;&gt;Dr Byram Bridle&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://rumble.com/embed/vr7vkn/?pub=10epb7&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;jessica-rose&#34;&gt;Jessica Rose&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://jessica5b3.substack.com/p/i-have-no-words-for-how-elated-i&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;I have no words for how elated I am at my most recent experience in life.&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;World Council for Health meeting in Vienna&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;meryl-nass&#34;&gt;Meryl Nass&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://youtube.com/embed/uKtU3lxjVa4&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;catherine-austin-fitts&#34;&gt;Catherine Austin Fitts&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://youtube.com/embed/m0YW81RA26I&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;spartacus&#34;&gt;Spartacus&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://iceni.substack.com/p/coming-soon&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;ICENI - Institute for Coronavirus Emergence Nonprofit Intelligence&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;We are a loose confederation of independent COVID-19 researchers who have collected and analyzed large reams of data on the virus, its nature, its origins, and the ongoing political scandals surrounding the government response.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;stormcloudsgathering&#34;&gt;Stormcloudsgathering&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://youtube.com/embed/d-NmvDzUsdM&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-freedom-convoy&#34;&gt;The Freedom Convoy&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There were tons of people who organized, supported, and participated in the Canadian Freedom Convoy. Every single one of those great people are cheering you on.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://youtube.com/embed/4NEFLvA39wQ&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;and-many-many-others&#34;&gt;and many, many others:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Beyond the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=people_speaking_out_against_the_narrative&#34;&gt;pillars of courage&lt;/a&gt; that are recognizable to anyone, there are many more people who have put in many tireless hours for the good of all. This is the time for all of us to reject tyranny however we can.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Those searching for, and sharing the truth&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Those working to comfort those in need&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Those who’ve donated their skills and expertise to uncover corruption&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Tools of the Technocracy: #9 Internet Shutdowns</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-9/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 03 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-9/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/tools-of-the-technocracy9.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-9-preview.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-9-preview.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-9-preview.webp" />
+		<description>Information control is the root of modern tyranny.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;tools-of-the-technocracy-9-internet-shutdowns&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/tools-of-the-technocracy-series&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy&lt;/a&gt;: #9 Internet Shutdowns&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;free and open web&lt;/em&gt; is an idea. It&amp;rsquo;s the idea that humanity can share a distributed (or entirely decentralized) information repository for free expression and open dialogue. So many great things would be outright impossible without the world&amp;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;information superhighway&lt;/em&gt;. The threats to a free and open web are legion, governments, corporations, and other malevolent entities are eager to control your access to information.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;In the age of widespread tolerance for censorship, the term &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;net neutrality&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt; is entirely forgotten. This is an important reminder that censorship is very much as &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtube.com/watch?v=wtt2aSV8wdw&#34;&gt;social phenomenon&lt;/a&gt; as well as a technological threat. Controlling information is always about controlling people. Given complete control over what information one&amp;rsquo;s subjects have access to, that entity is their ruler regardless of the law.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;why-shut-down-the-internet&#34;&gt;Why Shut Down The Internet?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The internet can be a phenomenal equalizer; people have access to immense amounts of human knowledge and expression. Despite all the aspects of our digital world being leveraged against people, the Internet has many properties that are beneficial to humanity at large.
+It&amp;rsquo;s censorship resistant, and good valuable information can be relatively permanent.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The internet interprets censorship as damage, and routes around it.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I really like that quote, but I feel it misses the mark. &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;People&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; interpret censorship as an attack on their right to freedom of thought, and those people work to route around it. This is a nightmare for technocrats and tyrants of all walks of life. Professionals, academics, and bureaucrats don&amp;rsquo;t fear the public being able to use the Internet to learn their skills and replace them. Instead, what they truly fear is the public being able to use the Internet to expose them as &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;frauds&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;. Censorship is an attack on all people by attacking their very ability to learn, create and share.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The danger of internet shutdowns, in whole or in part, is the fundamental undermining of the people&amp;rsquo;s ability to peacefully find alternatives to serious problems. It is true that the Internet is used to surveil, control, and manipulate people. Those activities could very easily be deployed by these forces on their own separate networks &amp;amp; infrastructure, it just happens to be fairly convenient to use what is here already.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;whole-internet-shutdowns&#34;&gt;Whole Internet Shutdowns&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Internet shutdowns are already a well-established phenomenon. Regardless of justification, whole internet shutdowns have drastic consequences on the people and represent an overt attack on their civil rights. By denying people&amp;rsquo;s ability to access information, and their ability to be heard by the rest of the world; you enable the worst actors to commit their crimes in the cover of darkness.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;India leads total shutdowns globally. In 2021, the world’s largest democracy shut off its internet 106 times – more than the rest of the world combined. Hardest-hit was the conflict-ridden region of Jammu and Kashmir, which was subject to 85 shutdowns under the guise of containing separatist violence. The blackouts shut down Zoom classes for students, stopped doctors from communicating with their remote patients and crippled the banking system, causing mortgage holders to default on their loans. Apple crops rotted before they could be sold and businesses were paralyzed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/29/flicking-the-kill-switch-governments-embrace-internet-shutdowns-as-a-form-of-control&#34;&gt;https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/aug/29/flicking-the-kill-switch-governments-embrace-internet-shutdowns-as-a-form-of-control&lt;/a&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/jrotermund/status/1564158516327333889&#34;&gt;https://twitter.com/jrotermund/status/1564158516327333889&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Such a drastic measure is (outside of accident &amp;amp; sabotage) never taken lightly. Any trivial excuse for initiating one is almost certainly a lie. A government may blame a foreign adversary, but one has to ask: &amp;ldquo;Qui bono?&amp;rdquo;. Who really benefits from cutting off a nations public access to information, and to be heard from the wider world?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;partial-internet-shutdowns&#34;&gt;Partial Internet Shutdowns&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While a whole internet shutdown could be localized in a small area, another option is altering the infrastructure to monitor, alter, or deny access to specific kinds of traffic. It is possible for unencrypted (or recognizable patterns) traffic can be filtered, throttled, or monitored. This means that specific kinds of services, like e-mails or uploads can be disrupted entirely.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;great-firewalls&#34;&gt;Great Firewalls&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When an entity has control of some parts of the Internet infrastructure there are all kinds of techniques that can be used to block access to sites and specific kinds of services. These &amp;ldquo;great firewalls&amp;rdquo; can also be used to block connections entirely from or to the outside world. From a strategic perspective, blocking isn&amp;rsquo;t the only option, surveillance is an incredibly powerful tool for hunting down dissidents.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-5.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-5#cloudflare&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #5 Networks&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Much of the digital infrastructure in place today is built to structurally enable tyranny.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The little padlock on your browser means the site is secure right? &lt;strong&gt;No.&lt;/strong&gt; The only thing that little padlock says is that you have a direct encrypted connection to &lt;strong&gt;a server&lt;/strong&gt;. Without inspecting the certificate itself and verifying with others you can&amp;rsquo;t always be sure you&amp;rsquo;re connected to &lt;strong&gt;the correct server&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://web.archive.org/web/20150724070237/https://www.privacyinternational.org/sites/default/files/PAKISTAN%20REPORT%20HIGH%20RES%2020150721_0.pdf&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/tott-9-dpi.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This technology drastically reduces the amount and kinds of services you can trust. These insidious techniques can make it seem almost impossible to use the Internet securely and privately. Solutions exist, but one has to responsibly manage their expectations when it comes to trade-offs. It&amp;rsquo;s essentially an open secret that the Internet was developed for the purpose of being an all-encompassing surveillance grid. If humanity wants to maintain the information superhighway as a public good, we are all going to have to learn to be nimble and change our behavior to reform cyberspace.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;targeted-attacks&#34;&gt;Targeted Attacks&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A broad internet shutdown is a desperate move. Strategically, it&amp;rsquo;s much more efficient to eliminate sources (and disseminators) of information that you want to restrict. This is exactly why the public at large must constantly be told why censorship has to continue. If people understood the true cost of censorship, no self-respecting person would tolerate it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;cyberattacks&#34;&gt;Cyberattacks&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Sufficiently motivated adversaries with enough resources can make keeping a service online very difficult. Just as we are all mortal no service is fully attack-proof. The cost to fight a cyberattack is almost always significantly more than the cost to initiate it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;denial-of-infrastructure&#34;&gt;Denial Of Infrastructure&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In a deeply troubling response, after both terminations we saw a dramatic increase in authoritarian regimes attempting to have us terminate security services for human rights organizations — often citing the language from our own justification back to us.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflares-abuse-policies-and-approach/&#34;&gt;Cloudflare blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In ideal circumstances such restriction would be impossible. However, as long as the three primary resources of cyberspace (storage, computing power, bandwidth) are subject to the economies of scale; there will always be powerful incentives to rely on certain entities one-way-or-another.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://stonetoss.com/comic/build-big/&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/tott-9-stonetoss.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;attacking-the-people&#34;&gt;Attacking The People&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The people running any kind of site or service are just humans like you and me. They are mortal. Not only that, but they are vulnerable to smear campaigns, threats, and bribes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-infodemic&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.corbettreport.com/are-you-prepared-for-the-infodemic/&#34;&gt;The Infodemic&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a high demand for people rationalizing censorship. Technocrats, tyrants, and social engineers of all kinds are all willing to pay handsomely for (or even fight for) the ability to control people&amp;rsquo;s minds. In today&amp;rsquo;s day and age, it&amp;rsquo;s completely laughable to believe that any of that power will be devoted at all for the people&amp;rsquo;s benefit.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Are there limitless &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/watch?v=YWdD206eSv0&#34;&gt;lies on the Internet?&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Absolutely.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Are there mobs of angry people willing to do all manner of cruel things to others on the Internet?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No doubt.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Are there groups of people disproportionately targeted by all kinds of online abuse and manipulation?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yes, 100%.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Is anyone, any group of people, or institution so entirely noble and wise that they can wield the power to control information justly?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Nope. Not now, and likely &lt;a href=&#34;https://infogalactic.com/info/P_versus_NP_problem&#34;&gt;not ever.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;why&#34;&gt;Why?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is a reasonable question to ask. It&amp;rsquo;s easy to imagine society can decide what forms of expression are most cruel, most egregious, most harmful and only limit sanctions on that. The unfortunate truth is that even if that is the case today, there is never a guarantee that it will remain that way. The &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;slippery slope fallacy&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; can&amp;rsquo;t be applied to events driven by exponential growth and decay. When abuses of power aren&amp;rsquo;t swiftly and harshly punished, future abuses aren&amp;rsquo;t just welcomed; they are &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;incentivized&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;misinformation-disinformation-malinformation&#34;&gt;Misinformation, Disinformation, Malinformation&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These terms are thrown around so casually these days, attributed to so many things that it is hard to see them as anything other than thought-terminating-cliches.&lt;br&gt;
+Apparently they are supposed to mean:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Misinformation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Information that isn&amp;rsquo;t true but the people sharing it &lt;strong&gt;believe it is true&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Disinformation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Information that isn&amp;rsquo;t true, even though the people spreading it &lt;strong&gt;know it&amp;rsquo;s false&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Malinformation&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Information that &lt;strong&gt;is actually true&lt;/strong&gt;, but has &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;undesirable effects&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt; (such as loss of trust in institutions, bank runs, scandals)&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ironically these terms themselves are actually quite dangerous ideas. They presume not just the desirability of information control, but also the outright moral necessity of it. That alone would be bad enough, but having seen how these labels are applied over the last two years. They are hardly used fairly at all. These terms are little more than smears by a desperate press that&amp;rsquo;s losing trust faster than they can say &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Streisand effect!&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://blog.cloudflare.com/kiwifarms-blocked/&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/tott-9-cfb.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;harassment&#34;&gt;Harassment&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Human beings have a great capacity to hurt each other. The internet, like any other tool greatly enhances this. When someone doesn&amp;rsquo;t take absolute care to be anonymous there is little-to-nothing they can do to protect themselves from the ire of an irate mob, especially a well-financed and motivated one. This makes many people want to rush to suppress any hostile expression. It backfires all the time. Societal rifts need to be healed, not torn further and further apart.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Facebook can&amp;rsquo;t handle all the hate and abuse from people on their own platform, with the state-of-the art tools. While there may be financial incentives for Facebook to fan the flames, they fail to completely eliminate all kinds of criminal activities from their services. It is highly likely that suppressing all anger and hate is an impossible task.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean that the hate has to continue to burn. Selectively suppressing anger and hate just fosters resentment and escalates the hate. Instead, empowering people to peacefully negotiate, separate themselves from, or simply accept differences in society can help. Raising tensions only serves to benefit those who have bad intentions or ulterior motives.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;automated-extremism&#34;&gt;Automated Extremism&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We are not just dealing with small groups of malevolent people. Automated tools exist to flood people with all kinds of inflammatory material. Simply lashing out at the people who are confused and angry is blaming the victims. Yes, they often beget more victims. Which builds a cycle of eye-for-an-eye&amp;rsquo;ing each other for a very blind world.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For those that are sincerely worried about extremism, or people indoctrinated with nonsense, remember that those people don&amp;rsquo;t exist in a vacuum. It is well understood that suppression doesn&amp;rsquo;t actually reduce those problems. We have seen over and over that all it does is inflame anger and drive people further underground. Exiling those people and demeaning their concerns is incredibly counter-productive.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The only reason to take the suppression approach is if there is some part of the associated discourse that you want to keep buried forever. If that&amp;rsquo;s the case I&amp;rsquo;m highly suspicious of your motives.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What can be done bout the anger and hate?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://merylnass.substack.com/p/how-to-conceptualize-and-fight-back&#34;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You are the solution!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re reading this, you&amp;rsquo;re already a curious and thoughtful person. This is the key to diffusing the conflicts in society. While we all have ways we can improve ourselves to be more charitable and understanding with others, you have to take time to be more outspoken to humanize those who are being attacked. Tessa Lena has a &lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/embed/v1b5giz&#34;&gt;fantastic presentation&lt;/a&gt; on this.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;solutions-for-censorship-resistance&#34;&gt;Solutions for censorship resistance&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;build-big&#34;&gt;Build Big&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Nobody can tackle the full threat of internet shutdowns alone. It can be difficult to get people interested in collaborating until it happens. That said, everyone is going to wish that in a moment of an internet shutdown there is a flood of volunteers rushing to help get people back online immediately.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Democratization of internet infrastructure is vital. High-bandwidth long-range communications aren&amp;rsquo;t easy to build, but many of these challenged can be overcome with dedicated and talented people being supported.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s more powerful than too big to fail? &lt;strong&gt;Too small to shut down.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Power and control should be as distributed as possible. Instead of relying on heroes to have all the answers we all need to work on solutions that can scale beyond our self-interest and political division.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;useful-projects&#34;&gt;Useful Projects&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These all require some degree of technical knowledge, but are highly worth exploring.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://meshtastic.org&#34;&gt;Meshtastic&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://yggdrasil-network.github.io/&#34;&gt;Yggdrasil&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://intranet.tildeverse.org/&#34;&gt;TildeNet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Digital ID: The basics</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/digital-id/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 02 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/digital-id/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/digital-id.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/digital-id.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/digital-id.webp" />
+		<description>What is it? What can you do about it?</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;101-what-is-digital-id&#34;&gt;101: What is Digital ID?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The rise of technocratic control has justifiably motivated people into taking action and resist the foundational &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/tools-of-the-technocracy-series/&#34;&gt;tools of the technocracy&lt;/a&gt;. Many of these tools are well positioned to leverage any form of digital ID against you. What forms can Digital ID take?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/ronin19217435/status/1563300304006684673&#34;&gt;A biometric implant&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/canada-faces-call-to-scrap-vaccine-passport-app/&#34;&gt;A smartphone app&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/backtolife_2023/status/1564488781624901632&#34;&gt;Your face&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A microchip in your passport?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/ca-passport-chip.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Any and all of these can be used in such a system. There isn&amp;rsquo;t a specific need to use exclusively and only those. Mass surveillance (online and outside) can make anonymity entirely difficult to outright impossible. This has incredible implications for all kinds of interactions; instead of you getting to choose who (or what) you identify yourself to, you are automatically identified to the system and quite possibly everyone else around you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;identification&#34;&gt;Identification&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Who cares if people know who you are?&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; you may ask. If only it were that simple.&lt;br&gt;
+While your identity may not be shared with everyone around you, the system will know. Then &lt;strong&gt;almost anything and everything&lt;/strong&gt; can be used against you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;That article you read three years ago?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Someone you&amp;rsquo;re associated with?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Religious or political views?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-4.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-4/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #4 Online Identity&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is following you in your digital tracks?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This information has already been &lt;a href=&#34;https://thecountersignal.com/pakistani-government-threatens-to-block-digital-ids-to-shut-down-access-to-bank-accounts/&#34;&gt;used against people&lt;/a&gt;. It is impossible to predict what information will be leveraged and how. Once the system is in force it is highly unlikely there will be any transparency or recourse when it is abused. We have &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/mark-zuckerberg-joe-rogan-fbi-hunter-biden/&#34;&gt;already seen&lt;/a&gt; how big tech social media and other organizations are eager to &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/farm-credit-canada-bank-freedom-convoy/&#34;&gt;misuse information&lt;/a&gt;, how much more likely is it to be abused by an even less &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.oval.media/en/mrglobal-2/&#34;&gt;accountable entity&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;surveillance&#34;&gt;Surveillance&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The feedback loop driving further data collection is very strong. The more data you have about people the more power you have over them. Even if you&amp;rsquo;re as careful as possible; your fellow citizens, businesses and services, or even institutions can all be pressured or bribed into divulging information about you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-7.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-7/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #7 Smart Cities&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Smart cities are marketed as if they are for the convenience of its residents, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Even when services and organizations aren&amp;rsquo;t proactively concerned with what your activities are, they could be using convenient systems that simply collect information in the background.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;devices&#34;&gt;Devices&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Smart&amp;rdquo; devices, implants, computers, can all be used to represent you. All that matters is that the system can uniquely identify you. Even if the devices themselves aren&amp;rsquo;t proactively being used against you, software and services you use can often pick up the slack.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/construction-banner.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-3/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #3 Robots, IoT, Automation, Oh my!&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Transforming the world in ways seen and unseen&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+
+&lt;video muted autoplay preload=&#34;none&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/ar-card.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;data-sovereignty&#34;&gt;Data sovereignty&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Digital ID begins with data. While you can avoid using devices that disclose that data, it&amp;rsquo;s much harder to prevent state and corporate entities from collecting and sharing the data they have on you. That&amp;rsquo;s the trouble. Data &lt;strong&gt;about you&lt;/strong&gt; isn&amp;rsquo;t the same as &lt;strong&gt;your&lt;/strong&gt; data.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/road2hell.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/blockchain/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The road to hell: misplaced optimism in the blockchain space&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The only data you can call &amp;ldquo;your data&amp;rdquo; is data that is stored on systems you control. Data about you is near impossible for you to entirely quantify. Surely, if we made sure that everything was stored on a blockchain it would be better! At least more transparent?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;governance&#34;&gt;Governance&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://chrgj.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Report_Paving-a-Digital-Road-to-Hell.pdf&#34;&gt;threats&lt;/a&gt; inherent to a mass surveillance and control grid are not solved by changing who&amp;rsquo;s running it, or what technology it is stored on. With such a system, the people running it are not immune to the all-too-human problem of being corrupted by power. Putting this system it&amp;rsquo;s own artificial intelligence to determine how it should be run is no better.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Due to the very nature of this kind of control, there is no reason for it to be fair, consistent or even logical. By placing everyone&amp;rsquo;s destiny inside a centralized control grid you introduce &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/paperclip-maximizer&#34;&gt;catastrophic failure modes&lt;/a&gt;. The failure of every utopian fantasy, of every totalitarian regime, is thinking &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;this time we have all the information we need to decide everything&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As we have seen, the very process of collecting every minute detail of everything is itself an inhuman endeavor, and an absurd waste of resources. Fear and distrust has turned people against each other to clamor for a false savior to attack their enemies. Don&amp;rsquo;t make the mistake of betting against humanity. While human beings have a horrifying capacity for evil, people from all walks of life are capable of great feats of mercy and justice.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;solutions&#34;&gt;Solutions&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t fall prey to despair. The propaganda that leads you to believe that these systems of control are inevitable is just that. They can all be dismantled simply and quickly with enough will and effort.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;data-economics&#34;&gt;Data economics&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Data needs to become a liability&lt;/strong&gt; instead of an asset. There needs to be serious criminal consequences for misuse of data, and civil liabilities for leaking data about people. If organizations became liable for information they collect, you can imagine how quickly they would start to prioritize the privacy of their patrons and staff.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;embrace-the-analog&#34;&gt;Embrace the analog&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are all kinds of things that people can do to take back the future and have fun doing it!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Cash &amp;amp; Coin&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Physical Records&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Non-digital entertainment
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Books&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Board games&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Live music&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Sports&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Community gatherings
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Barbecues&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Dances&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Competitions&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Workshops&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Worship&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a reason most democracies have codified the right to freely assemble and the right to pursue happiness. Our society becoming more advanced and connected should only enhance our ability to do these things not take away from them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;support-humanity&#34;&gt;Support humanity&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This agenda thrives on insecurity and desperation. If you were ever waiting for a good time to give to those in need&amp;hellip;now is a fantastic time to give to those who need it most. Food banks and shelters have a direct impact on people in your community and can make great use of what you can give.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;warn-people&#34;&gt;Warn people!&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://globalcitizensunited.substack.com/p/digital-id-flyer&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/digital-id-poster.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Tools of the Technocracy: #8 Transhumanism</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-8/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-8/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/tools-of-the-technocracy8.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-8.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-8.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-8.webp" />
+		<description>How close are the technocrats to modifying you? Too close.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;tools-of-the-technocracy--8-transhumanism&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/tools-of-the-technocracy-series&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy&lt;/a&gt;:  #8 Transhumanism&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;None of the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/tools-of-the-technocracy-series/&#34;&gt;tools of the technocracy&lt;/a&gt; are better marketed than the concept of &lt;em&gt;transhumanism&lt;/em&gt;. To some it brings to mind techno-utopian ideas like advanced cybernetics and augmented reality, to outright hubris like defeating death. That&amp;rsquo;s not really where the dark side even begins. It gets ghoulish fast when one realizes the potential impacts to healthcare, propaganda, and human health as we know it.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Criticism of novel technologies is it&amp;rsquo;s own trope. Most people aren&amp;rsquo;t necessarily concerned about the &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.org/details/IndustrialSocietyAndItsFuture-TheUnabombersManifesto&#34;&gt;existence of new technologies&lt;/a&gt;, but rather how those new developments are allowed to shape and impact our lives. It&amp;rsquo;s easy to see why more useful, durable, and accessible prosthetics would be seen as a nearly universally good thing, just as mind-control chips programmed by the technocracy would be seen as universally bad.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The sanitized term is &lt;a href=&#34;https://horizons.gc.ca/en/2020/02/11/exploring-biodigital-convergence/&#34;&gt;digital convergence&lt;/a&gt;. &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;What happens when biology and digital technology merge?&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;br&gt;
+Note the certainty, &lt;strong&gt;when&lt;/strong&gt; biology and technology merge not &lt;strong&gt;if&lt;/strong&gt;. This is because even some of the most trivial technologies can have profound impacts on society. For example smartphones and social media have changed people as well as the media landscape in big ways.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;humanity-is-already-being-altered&#34;&gt;Humanity is already being altered&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Our modern societies have witnessed drastic changes in people&amp;rsquo;s physiology in a relatively short period of time. When a class of technocrats have complete control, advanced gene-editing technology is overdoing it. Just like plants and animals, humanity can modify these things with selective pressures and breeding. Giving technocrats top-down control of society, provides them absolute power to do the same to the public. Eugenics is in many ways the same technocratic formula ( collect data on everything, make modifications, shape the future) applied to biology.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://youtu.be/watch?v=Uo-kSxHNSDQ&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/tott-8-changes.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This creates the potential for a terrifying crisis. With the technology that is already within reach, a society that doesn&amp;rsquo;t recognize individual rights will inevitably transform people&amp;rsquo;s bodies into a &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/blockchain&#34;&gt;tokenized commodity&lt;/a&gt;. By denying people ownership of their own bodies, all other trespasses are a mere formality. Mandating euthanasia, modification, or use/denial of reproductive means will be all in play. This is the fundamental problem; not about which technologies are good or bad, but entirely about how to preserve our rights and autonomy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://youtube.com/embed/fJGPM94iKKQ&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-are-the-technocrats-after&#34;&gt;What are the technocrats after?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://iceni.substack.com/p/covid-19-deep-dive-part-viii-transhumanism&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;COVID-19 Deep Dive Part VIII: Transhumanism&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;The concept of human enhancement goes hand-in-hand with technocracy&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;complete-domination-over-humanity&#34;&gt;Complete domination over humanity&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The tools of the technocracy are essentially all the pieces the technocrats want on the board to &amp;lsquo;checkmate&amp;rsquo; humanity. Once the people are locked into being &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.coreysdigs.com/global/dig-it-with-special-guest-cathrine-austin-fitts/&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;collateralized&lt;/em&gt; by the system&lt;/a&gt;, the technocrats can make use of the public for all kinds of twisted and monstrous experiments.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;immortality&#34;&gt;Immortality&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Why rule if you can&amp;rsquo;t rule forever? The desire to seize complete control overlaps perfectly with a lack of willingness to give it up. Acceptance of death is a vital part of coming to terms with your life. Over and over those who live in fear of death, often die without having lived.&lt;br&gt;
+Even if you envy the ability to live forever, would you really want to live forever on the technocracy&amp;rsquo;s terms?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://jessicar.substack.com/p/i-once-dreamed-of-being-cybernetically&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;I once dreamed of being cybernetically-enhanced&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;NOT ANYMORE... a personal thank you from me to the responsible unintelligencia&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;beyond-bodies&#34;&gt;Beyond bodies&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Living forever in the same human body just doesn&amp;rsquo;t suit the technocrats. Even after all kinds of fancy augmentations, fanciful ideas like uploading your consciousness to exist as a program for the end of time gain traction.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;how-the-technocrats-plan-to-achieve-it&#34;&gt;How the technocrats plan to achieve it&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://alilybit.substack.com/p/the-internet-of-bodies-the-wefs-proposal&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The &amp;#39;Internet of Bodies&amp;#39; — The WEF’s Proposal to Control Human Behavior Through Authoritarian Surveillance&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;The central theme of the Great Reset agenda is the manipulation of human nature to advance globalist corporate-state power-merging and the erosion of individual rights and liberties-oriented policies.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;narrative-control&#34;&gt;Narrative Control&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It can&amp;rsquo;t be understated how much the tools of the technocracy build each other up. More centralization and control makes it easier to further centralize and control things. Propaganda will look like a crude instrument once the technocracy has electrodes directly connected to people&amp;rsquo;s brains.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;health-control&#34;&gt;Health control&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Turning people against their own bodies is the fundamental transhumanist goal. Anything that makes people look weak and sick compared to the pristine cybernetic products will work to their favor. Getting the public to be confused about what protects and what harms their health is a very powerful means of achieving this.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://youtube.com/embed/AZq7FdkugXQ&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When people&amp;rsquo;s lives, bodies and minds are all just data-points on a dashboard it&amp;rsquo;s very easy to argue in favor of monstrous policies and practices. In the name of doing &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;what&amp;rsquo;s best for the patient&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; medical staff can be made to serve the system rather than the patients.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;technological-integration&#34;&gt;Technological integration&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What are all the gadgets for anyways? People are going to need additional sensors on them so they can be bombarded with all kinds of numbers to track about themselves. Those numbers could be used to do more than just make better health decisions, but also pushing new products.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/construction-banner.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-3/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #3 Robots, IoT, Automation, Oh my!&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Transforming the world in ways seen and unseen&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-faustian-bargain&#34;&gt;The Faustian Bargain&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is important not to be distracted by the sci-fi utopianism to be lured into a false-sense of security about the downright ghoulish downsides of this technology, and especially this technology in the technocrats hands. It is important to keep in mind that these systems can be very easily used for evil and horrific things.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;downgrades&#34;&gt;Downgrades&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of an implant, chip or system that augments your ability to do things, it&amp;rsquo;s often much simpler to make these systems prevent certain things. Crude mechanisms to create pain in a person when they behave in ways the system doesn&amp;rsquo;t like is a very trivial mechanism that would have powerful results in conditioning a person.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;rights&#34;&gt;Rights&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The transhumanist agenda creates a great deal of civil rights troubles. As technological systems are allowed to invade our minds and our bodies we put the liberty of all humanity at risk.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;1-privacy&#34;&gt;1. Privacy&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The most obvious concern is privacy; if these devices are monitoring all kinds of activity in and around your body, who has access to that information?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/big-data.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-2/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #2 Big Data &amp;amp; Artificial Intelligence&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is all this data for anyways?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;2-economic-pressures&#34;&gt;2. Economic pressures&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If only it was as simple as just disconnecting from these systems. In some situations cybernetic augments may be seen as a necessary requirement for certain jobs. This creates a powerful incentive against people who wish to keep their bodies unmodified, or would rather avoid specific modifications.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-1.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-1/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy #1: Digital Currency&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;How the digital financial complex works against you...and what you can do about it.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;3-censorship-and-manipulation&#34;&gt;3. Censorship and manipulation&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many &amp;lsquo;upgrades&amp;rsquo; go beyond what you can perceive. All kinds of imperceptible actions will be able to manipulate people far better than social media and advertising can. Instead of relying on symbolism and experiences to produce certain thoughts and feelings, the technocrats will aim to make you experience the desired inputs directly.&lt;br&gt;
+Even if they can&amp;rsquo;t force people to forget things yet, they&amp;rsquo;ll be forced to act as if they have.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;solutions&#34;&gt;Solutions&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;take-control-of-your-health&#34;&gt;Take control of your health&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Understand your body, get to know your habits.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Find trustworthy people to help you build up your health, and avoid the things that damage you.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Get active, play and enjoy being a human being!&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;dont-let-them-define-human&#34;&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t let them define human&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While it is true that you are more than just the sum total of your parts, it&amp;rsquo;s best not to give the technocrats complete domain to define what we as human beings are, and what we are not. We as people should support each other&amp;rsquo;s dignity regardless of what chosen or refused modifications are made.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;corbett-technocracy-is-insane-anti-human-and-it-will-fail&#34;&gt;Corbett: Technocracy Is Insane, Anti-Human And It WILL Fail&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;But on a more relatable level, we already know intuitively that the anti-human, synthetic systems that the technocrats are trying to put in place are a pipe dream. Does anyone other than the most deluded technocrat believe that humanity can really abandon the natural world and adopt a food system completely dependent on synthetic, lab-grown “meat,” genetically modified “plants” and poisonous chemicals? Or that sentient AI chatbots are going to be running society as soon as the Google engineers let them out? Or that an economy built on social credit and CBDCs can really function? Of course not. Even the people who are pulling the technocrats’ strings know this isn’t workable in the long run.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.technocracy.news/corbett-technocracy-is-insane-anti-human-and-it-will-fail/&#34;&gt;Technocracy News&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;free-as-in-freedom-hardware-and-software&#34;&gt;Free &lt;a href=&#34;https://fsf.org&#34;&gt;(as in Freedom)&lt;/a&gt; Hardware and software&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These technological systems need transparency and consent. People should never be forced or pressured to integrate technology into their body ever. This line must never be crossed or we risk falling into outright techno-totalitarianism. If people choose to integrate technology into themselves they should have the full rights to repair, modify and use it however they see fit.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Simple Tips: Tracking Links</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/videos/tracking-links/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/videos/tracking-links/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tracking-links.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tracking-links.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/tracking-links.webp" />
+		<description>Tracking links and what you can do about them</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;You can &lt;strong&gt;clean your links&lt;/strong&gt; by removing extra parameters or making sure to only send perma-linked content to people.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Tools of the Technocracy: #7 Smart Cities</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-7/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 18 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-7/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/tools-of-the-technocracy7.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/smart-megacity.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/smart-megacity.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/smart-megacity.webp" />
+		<description>Smart cities are marketed as if they are for the convenience of its residents, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;tools-of-the-technocracy-7-smart-cities&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/tools-of-the-technocracy-series&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy&lt;/a&gt;: #7 Smart Cities&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-is-a-smart-city&#34;&gt;What is a smart city?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Just like the &amp;lsquo;smart&amp;rsquo; in smart devices is really just code for surveillance. A &amp;lsquo;smart&amp;rsquo; city is really just a surveillance &amp;amp; control city. In essence, the smart city is the ultimate application of all the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy/&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;tools of the technocracy&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; against it&amp;rsquo;s captives. Even the tone of their marketing gives off how much disdain they have for human beings.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://iceni.substack.com/subscribe&#34;&gt;ICENI Bulletins&lt;/a&gt; outlines the primary attributes of a smart city.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;attributes-of-a-future-smart-city&#34;&gt;Attributes of a Future Smart City&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It must be a planned community&lt;/strong&gt;, laid out for high efficiency and short transit times. Practically everything one would need would be within walking distance of one’s apartment.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For many workers, telecommuting via the metaverse would replace physical commutes. One’s home would also be one’s workplace. Therefore, office space would be replaced with residential space, and practically everything along one’s commute - &lt;strong&gt;convenience stores, clothing shops, laundromats, coffeehouses, restaurants, et cetera - would be eliminated.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Physical services and many commercial areas would largely be &lt;strong&gt;replaced with on-demand and delivery services&lt;/strong&gt;, including robo-delivery by drones or other unmanned vehicles.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Everything would be tightly regulated, with people’s utilization of services, consumption of goods, criminal activity, and other &lt;strong&gt;behaviors monitored by constant, all-encompassing surveillance&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This same surveillance system would be used to automatically dispatch emergency services, as required, by detecting ongoing crimes, medical emergencies, and fires, using all manner of networked sensors.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Networked sensors would also be used to determine electricity and natural gas usage, among other metrics of consumption and waste.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://iceni.substack.com/p/covid-19-deep-dive-part-vii-smart&#34;&gt;COVID-19 Deep Dive Part VII: Smart Cities and Neo-Malthusianism&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;so-in-short&#34;&gt;So in short&amp;hellip;&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://thefreethoughtproject.com/&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/smart-city.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;why&#34;&gt;Why?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the most underestimated factors of the technocracy is the massive arms-race between the people and the technocrats. If people understood how essential the liberty they have left to their survival is they would have guarded it much more carefully during the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=covid-19_pandemic&#34;&gt;Covid Crisis&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Data alone isn&amp;rsquo;t that valuable, it&amp;rsquo;s the ability to leverage it for power and control that has fueled the constant eradication of privacy in people&amp;rsquo;s lives. In many ways people choose to trade their privacy for convenience, but there are powerful incentives tipping the scales.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Smart cities are marketed as if they are for the convenience of its residents, but this couldn&amp;rsquo;t be further from the truth. Smart cities are built for efficiently monitoring and controlling all aspects of people&amp;rsquo;s lives. There are massive challenges in trying to monitor and control every minute detail in life.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;there-are-only-two-ways-to-solve-that-problem&#34;&gt;There are only two ways to solve that problem:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Build up more computing power, storage &amp;amp; bandwidth incurring greater energy, resource, and management costs.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;lsquo;Simplify&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt; the problem by limiting people&amp;rsquo;s freedom.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are limits to how far you can go with #1. Management of more and more complexity can become an impossibility. Energy is also likely to be &lt;a href=&#34;https://peakprosperity.com/courses/crashcourse/&#34;&gt;highly constrained&lt;/a&gt; for the near future. You only need a convenient pretext to get the public under your control to go along with #2.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;what-does-2-look-like-in-practice&#34;&gt;What does #2 look like in practice?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/big-data.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-2/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #2 Big Data &amp;amp; Artificial Intelligence&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is all this data for anyways?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you don&amp;rsquo;t have the computation to store and calculate everyone attending social events, visiting family, and otherwise moving about?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Just stop them from moving around!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Can&amp;rsquo;t easily build the infrastructure to listen to everyone, everywhere, all the time?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Simply force them onto digital platforms you control!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/construction-banner.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-3/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #3 Robots, IoT, Automation, Oh my!&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Transforming the world in ways seen and unseen&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t want things like human understanding, mercy or charity dulling your harsh enforcement mechanisms?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Simply use machines to carry out the orders!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Tired of administrators being held accountable for decisions that impact people?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Deflect to the automatic system and claim it is for the greater good!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are all kinds of &lt;em&gt;&amp;lsquo;optimizations&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt; you can do when you decide to grab complete top-down control, and develop robust mechanisms to silence and discredit any dissent. This is why smart cities will resemble all the worst aspects of &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town&#34;&gt;company towns&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;its-already-started&#34;&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s already started.&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;Noah was a conspiracy theorist when it started to rain&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Dr Zelenko&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;An easy mistake to make when thinking about the tools of the technocracy, is to only recognize them in their most extreme and visible forms. Systems are gradually introduced and built on to construct what could be seen as impossible. While someday you may see drones enforcing edicts on street-corners, it&amp;rsquo;s a mistake to think that because there aren&amp;rsquo;t outright visible features, that the system isn&amp;rsquo;t already being built.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For cryptocurrency the 2010s were a decade of optimism and hope. The 2020s are where we get to see the real &amp;lsquo;double-edged&amp;rsquo; aspects of these systems. Blockchain technology is efficient at administration and storing information. As you can see, &lt;a href=&#34;helium.com&#34;&gt;helium&lt;/a&gt; is being used to roll-out IoT infrastructure.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://explorer.helium.com/iot&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/tott-7-helium.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are many good uses for such a project, sadly, in our troubled times no tool is above &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/treasury-sanction-tornado-cash-privacy-first-amendment/&#34;&gt;political interference&lt;/a&gt;. There is a storm of attacks on anything resembling independent, censorship resistant communication/financial networks, even if they aren&amp;rsquo;t secure as they seem. It is important not to become overconfident or have too much faith in an individual product.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/road2hell.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/blockchain/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The road to hell: misplaced optimism in the blockchain space&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;digital-id&#34;&gt;Digital ID&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As far as a smart city is concerned, &lt;em&gt;you aren&amp;rsquo;t human&lt;/em&gt;. You don&amp;rsquo;t have rights. You can&amp;rsquo;t own property. Your activities aren&amp;rsquo;t limited in terms of money, but rather &lt;em&gt;permission&lt;/em&gt;. All your activities are &lt;a href=&#34;https://scribe.rip/world-economic-forum/welcome-to-2030-i-own-nothing-have-no-privacy-and-life-has-never-been-better-ee2eed62f710&#34;&gt;constantly monitored&lt;/a&gt; and the system has the capability to intervene at any time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-1.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-1/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy #1: Digital Currency&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;How the digital financial complex works against you...and what you can do about it.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To the smart city administration, you happen to be an animal that carries around a tool that represents you in the system. If carrying the tool is too burdensome it can be implanted.&lt;br&gt;
+Yes, the smartphone works as a digital ID. Your phone number and/or IMEI is enough to uniquely identify you in all kinds of situations.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-4.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-4/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #4 Online Identity&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is following you in your digital tracks?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;solutions&#34;&gt;Solutions&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;boycott-digital-id&#34;&gt;Boycott Digital ID&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Reducing your dependence on surveillance devices is important. It is equally important to prevent people from being &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/doctor-is-fined-for-refusing-to-use-canadas-vaccine-passport/&#34;&gt;forced into using them&lt;/a&gt;. The more people locked into these systems, the less they are able to accept your refusal to participate.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In any and all circumstances it is best to refuse to divulge personally identifying information, especially with institutions and services you don&amp;rsquo;t trust.&lt;br&gt;
+This includes (but is not limited to):&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Full name&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Location data &amp;amp; home address&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Phone Number&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;E-mail address&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Credit card details&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Government ID&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Vitally important is to support the great local organizations working to protect freedoms in your area. The &lt;a href=&#34;https://donations.solari.com/take-action-crowdfund/&#34;&gt;Take Action Crowdfund&lt;/a&gt; is a fantastic resource for finding initiatives to support.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;get-involved&#34;&gt;Get involved&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/06/29/1054005/toronto-kill-the-smart-city/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Toronto wants to kill the smart city forever&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;The city wants to get right what Sidewalk Labs got so wrong.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By May 2020, Sidewalk had pulled the plug, citing “the unprecedented economic uncertainty brought on by the covid-19 pandemic.” But that economic uncertainty came at the &lt;strong&gt;tail end of years of public controversy&lt;/strong&gt; over its $900 million vision for a data-rich city within the city.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It’s hardly unusual for citizens to get up in arms about new development, and utopias fail for all sorts of reasons. But the opposition to Sidewalk’s vision for Toronto wasn’t about things like architectural preservation or the height, density, and style of the proposed buildings—the usual fodder for public outcry. The project’s tech-first approach antagonized many; &lt;strong&gt;its seeming lack of seriousness about the privacy concerns of Torontonians was likely the main cause of its demise.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Almost everything the technocrats want to force on people are impossible without the compliance of the public. Do not fall for the trap of believing these changes are inevitable. We can all work to shape the world we want, and the most important part is getting connected and engaged in your community. It&amp;rsquo;s important to build and maintain systems and infrastructure that strengthens communities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;work-to-prevent-an-all-digital-financial-system&#34;&gt;Work to prevent an all-digital financial system.&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Catherine Austin Fitts &lt;a href=&#34;https://solari.com&#34;&gt;(Solari.com)&lt;/a&gt; and Children&amp;rsquo;s Health Defense have a fantastic series &lt;a href=&#34;https://live.childrenshealthdefense.org/shows/financial-rebellion&#34;&gt;Financial Rebellion&lt;/a&gt; that regularly discusses strategies to prevent total top-down control of the financial system. One of these strategies is &lt;a href=&#34;https://home.solari.com/cash-friday&#34;&gt;#CashEveryday&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;independent-long-range-communications&#34;&gt;Independent long-range communications&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Establishing &amp;lsquo;off-grid&amp;rsquo; communication networks to bypass censorship will be a dire necessity once the capability exists to completely segregate locations from the Internet. As technology improves, so does the ability to counteract censorship.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The road to hell: misplaced optimism in the blockchain space</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/blockchain/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/blockchain/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/blockchain-banner.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/blockchain-banner.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/blockchain-banner.webp" />
+		<description></description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/road2hell.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I didn&amp;rsquo;t want to believe James Corbett at the time, but he warned us in 2018.&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.corbettreport.com/bitcoinpsyop/&#34;&gt;The bitcoin psyop&lt;/a&gt; outlines the differences between central-bank digital currencies (CBDCs) &amp;amp; public permission-less blockchains. He also rightly outlines how smart contracts themselves could become &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tools-of-the-technocracy-series/&#34;&gt;tools of the technocracy&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-1.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-1/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy #1: Digital Currency&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;How the digital financial complex works against you...and what you can do about it.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This article isn&amp;rsquo;t intended to denounce every blockchain based system. Public blockchains can be used to create fantastic public goods. It&amp;rsquo;s still important to understand how they can be used for evil. There is a great deal of inherent danger in how they can be used to create digital prisons around us.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;yes-bitcoin-too&#34;&gt;Yes, Bitcoin too.&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Bitcoin is the linchpin of the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem. Its disruption or disappearance would cause near-existential risks for the rest of the blockchain space. While it is the most successful public blockchain to date, Bitcoin is not without it&amp;rsquo;s problems. The most significant challenge is scaling it to support more transactions. There are sophisticated systems layered on top of Bitcoin that attempt to solve this, but in many ways it starts to look like just building the tower of babel higher and higher.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The most significant difference between Bitcoin and other blockchain based systems is the &lt;em&gt;consensus algorithms&lt;/em&gt; they use. If you simplify these systems down to a game, the consensus algorithm is essentially the rules of the game. Every round the participants compete to validate a block.&lt;br&gt;
+The two main consensus algorithms are &lt;em&gt;Proof of Work&lt;/em&gt; (PoW) or &lt;em&gt;Proof of Stake&lt;/em&gt; (PoS):&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;proof-of-work&#34;&gt;Proof of Work&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Using an arms race of computing power to &amp;ldquo;mine&amp;rdquo; a block, this competition creates hard physical restraints on hostile entities ability to manipulate the outcome. This is the solution what makes the idea of counterfeiting Bitcoin a near impossibility.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;proof-of-stake&#34;&gt;Proof of Stake&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of &amp;lsquo;wasting&amp;rsquo; so much energy you could ask participants of the game to &amp;ldquo;lock up&amp;rdquo; some tokens to proceed to the next round. This complicates matters significantly. How should initial tokens be distributed?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;At first glance, both of these consensus algorithms have significant trade-offs depending on the system you want to build. There are other varieties and hybrids but it&amp;rsquo;s important to understand that the rules of the game are only the starting point. While Bitcoin&amp;rsquo;s PoW mechanism seems &amp;ldquo;fair&amp;rdquo; in hindsight, many are growing concerned about the concentration of mining power.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-blockchains-do-well&#34;&gt;What blockchains do well&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;storing-information&#34;&gt;Storing information&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Naturally you&amp;rsquo;d want to fill the blockchain blocks with something. Blockchains are fantastic for permanent records. Regardless of the consensus mechanism blockchains are effectively auctions for permanent storage. If the value of the token goes too low, the participants may leave for a more profitable game.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;bootstrapping-systems&#34;&gt;Bootstrapping systems&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As long as cryptocurrency has value, systems can automatically transfer that value. This means that certain kind of bounty or reward systems are able to distribute that value within desired parameters. By defining a set of behavior we want and creating a market for a token that pays for that behavior, very complicated changes can be made quickly.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-they-cant-do&#34;&gt;What they can&amp;rsquo;t do&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;create&#34;&gt;Create&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Blockchains don&amp;rsquo;t create or build anything, they simply administrate activities. This means that if you&amp;rsquo;re using a blockchain based system to use more storage than exists on your device, that storage has to be maintained by another party to keep the system functioning.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;solve-human-problems&#34;&gt;Solve human problems&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Using blockchain to enforce social credit scores will be a tantalizing option for the technocracy, refusing to adopt digital ID is a pre-requisite for stopping this. It&amp;rsquo;s dangerous to pretend that this can be entirely escaped by simply adopting a new technology.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite what some may hope, these systems operate within human society not outside it. This means that many pre-existing problems (corruption, poverty, ect) are not automatically solved by adopting blockchain based technology. Tyranny is very much a human problem, one that can&amp;rsquo;t be simply prevented by escaping to yet another controlled virtual world.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;problems&#34;&gt;Problems&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;blockchain--decentralization&#34;&gt;Blockchain != decentralization&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Because of the apparent success of decentralized blockchain systems there is a &amp;ldquo;cargo cult&amp;rdquo; mentality applied to blockchain-based solutions to various problems. This creates a very dangerous blind-spot. Just like any other useful tool blockchains can be used to useful purposes and malevolent ones. Many projects can very easily incorporate some benefits and harms in the same system.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s important to keep in mind that any blockchain based system runs on top of the existing physical reality. Imbalances in the primary resources of cyberspace (storage, bandwidth &amp;amp; computing power) still manifest in important ways. Simply transferring data &amp;amp; computation from &amp;ldquo;the cloud&amp;rdquo; to &amp;ldquo;the blockchain&amp;rdquo; doesn&amp;rsquo;t inherently provide any additional protection or benefits. There is an illusion that blockchains are inherently run by more trustworthy actors, but that is far from a guarantee.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.bitchute.com/video/4GT3RKbwxDZh/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Can Bitcoin Circumvent Economic Tyranny?&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Dr. Joseph Mercola hosted a phenomenal discussion between finance guru Catherine Austin Fitts and Aleksandar Svetski, editor of Bitcoin Times magazine, to talk about the breakdown of our economy and potential solutions.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;oversimplifying-security--privacy&#34;&gt;Oversimplifying security &amp;amp; privacy&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By giving users wallet software as a substitute for accounts on centralized services, people can in-theory gain some additional control over their data. These systems can even encrypt the users data so that the provider(s) have little-or-no access. This can be a significant improvement from the client-server model where the service operator has access to all the data in the system. While these are real possibilities, it is a mistake to assume a system operates this way simply because it uses a blockchain.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s a saying in the cryptocurrency community. &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;Not your keys, not your coins&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+This applies to any privacy or security guarantees made by a blockchain based system. For most people, having someone hack into their e-mail or facebook would be a big problem, but at least the damage can be limited. If people integrate their entire online identity with a wallet, gaining control to that wallet is full-on digital identity theft.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/watch?v=y4GB_NDU43Q&#34;&gt;Single Point of Failure: The (Fictional) Day Google Forgot To Check Passwords&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Throwing data onto the blockchain (even when encrypted) violates the first rule of keeping data safe: The best way to protect data is never to record it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;nfts&#34;&gt;NFTs&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This article could only go so long without including the word &amp;ldquo;scam&amp;rdquo;. NFTs are effectively a mechanism to turn anything (property, jobs, or even you!) into a virtual commodity.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of merely being overpriced novelties, in the hands of copyright owners NFTs could become the fuel for powerful &lt;em&gt;information control&lt;/em&gt; systems. It&amp;rsquo;s hard to overstate the dystopian potential of tokenizing ideas.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/seriouslynft/status/1555183150707445760#m&#34;&gt;Information land-grabs&lt;/a&gt; are one thing, but &lt;em&gt;permission&lt;/em&gt; can also be tokenized. Instead of activities having a price the system can simply hand out vouchers and only allow the select few to use them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;net3&#34;&gt;Net3&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The current state of the Internet is too useful to humanity. All the current censorship and control is a mere atom compared to the ton of power the technocracy wants to have. The very foundation of the Internet has to be destroyed and rebuilt for them to achieve their aims.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Web3 replaces separate, compartmentalized accounts with a &amp;ldquo;wallet&amp;rdquo; that holds the keys to your identity. Instead of signing in with a chosen username and password you are signing in with a universal and distinct identity. While current iterations allow for relatively anonymous use, it is a &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/Nicolas_Sassoon/status/1508242641447649285&#34;&gt;mistake to assume&lt;/a&gt; this will always be the case.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The web3 wallet operates eerily similarly to how a digital ID would operate online. I would be so bold as to suggest that the web3 space exists to beta-test such initiatives. While the vaccine passports were introduced to beta-test the physical and enforcement side, web3 is effectively the online prototype.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Call it &amp;ldquo;&lt;strong&gt;net3&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;rdquo; because instead of an interconnected web they are building a net to trap us all into specific systems of control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;automation&#34;&gt;Automation&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Throw robots in the mix and you&amp;rsquo;ve got the capability of building an entirely inhuman system.Instead of a person being responsible for decisions the blame can be placed on the amorphous &amp;ldquo;system&amp;rdquo;. Removing the human element can&amp;rsquo;t improve outcomes in situations where responsibility is paramount.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://youtube.com/embed/AIk94MJS_Sc&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;doing-it-right&#34;&gt;Doing it right&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the largest problems with tokenized solutions is that their participants are financially pressured into pushing other people onto the platform. Many crucial downsides may be omitted by those evangelizing their particular solution. If there&amp;rsquo;s one thing you should leave this remembering it&amp;rsquo;s: &lt;em&gt;Data in your control is much better than data in any blockchain&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Surely there&amp;rsquo;s a better way? How can we truly work for actual decentralization without embracing technological terror?  Some important concepts have been (re)introduced to people through the blockchain ecosystem:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Self-hosting&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Peer-to-peer connections&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Encryption &amp;amp; Key management&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many of these things are doable without tokenizing and storing every interaction. It&amp;rsquo;s best not to throw all of these things into one basket, and use them intelligently where they work best.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;new-ways-to-log-in&#34;&gt;New ways to log in&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When trying to reduce the amount of sign-ins or eliminate passwords entirely there are interesting options that don&amp;rsquo;t require a cryptocurrency wallet. &lt;a href=&#34;https://indieauth.com/&#34;&gt;IndieAuth&lt;/a&gt; looks quite promising. It uses your own website to link to already existing systems to authenticate yourself.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hate passwords all together? &lt;a href=&#34;https://webauthn.guide/&#34;&gt;Webauthn&lt;/a&gt; is an interesting proposal to do that. It uses hardware authenticators to generate separate identities for every service. This allows password-less login backed by strong encryption.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;federation&#34;&gt;Federation&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Both &lt;a href=&#34;https://fediverse.info&#34;&gt;ActivityPub&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://matrix.org&#34;&gt;Matrix&lt;/a&gt; use interoperable servers to connect communities together. You can run these servers yourself and have all the benefits of a fully-decentralized ecosystem without your data leaving your control. This is why &lt;a href=&#34;https://joinpeertube.org/&#34;&gt;PeerTube&lt;/a&gt; will likely be much more successful than any blockchain-based video-hosting service.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/fediverse.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/call-to-action-join-the-fediverse/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Call to Action: Join the Fediverse now!&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;A simple, but very effective way to tip the scales in favor of free speech.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Is the Internet safe for children?</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/think-of-the-children/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 23 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/think-of-the-children/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/think-of-the-children.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/think-of-the-children.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/think-of-the-children.webp" />
+		<description>Surveillance, manipulation and online predators are threats we all face. How can we keep children safe?</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;nope&#34;&gt;Nope.&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Just as playing in traffic isn&amp;rsquo;t safe for children, all people need to be properly mentally, and emotionally equipped to navigate the chaotic environment of the Internet. Sometimes it&amp;rsquo;s market forces, other times it&amp;rsquo;s algorithms, but nearly everywhere there are pitfalls designed to rob people of all ages their time, attention, and resources.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Gaming gets a lot of flak for doing this to children, but it&amp;rsquo;s far from the only place. Social media likes, boosts, and shares are effectively points keeping score in larger social games. The greatest challenge of protecting children online is realizing that their mind is as much at stake as their body and safety is.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;visualizing-the-problem&#34;&gt;Visualizing the problem&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Imagine the Internet is a massive, sprawling city. There are some amazing, safe, and well maintained places. There are also some dangerous places infested with notorious gangs. Not only that, but there are places that range from everywhere in between. Most people would understandably plan to steer clear of the more dreadful places, but people underestimate the barriers to entry (and residence) in the nicer places.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;risks&#34;&gt;Risks&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;surveillance&#34;&gt;Surveillance&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many online services make it exceedingly easy to just give away more and more information. Many platforms attempt to mitigate it but the problem is systemic. There are a number of &lt;a href=&#34;https://neal.fun/dark-patterns&#34;&gt;dark patterns&lt;/a&gt; used to gate access to information or content behind accounts, personal details, or other information. It’s not always clear what is optional and what is required.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-4.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-4&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #4 Online Identity&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is following you in your digital tracks?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Constant surveillance of all people is a significant problem. We won&amp;rsquo;t know the true costs of putting children at the mercy of machine learning algorithms for a long time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/iot.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/eye-on-thee/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;IoT: The &amp;#39;Eye-on-Thee&amp;#39;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;A fantastic real-world example of how simple, inexpensive devices can be used for evil.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;mental-health&#34;&gt;Mental health&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Online spaces don’t exist in a vacuum, they’re a part of our human society. As things become challenging and confusing in life there is an incredible draw to retreat to online spaces that feel cozier than the rest of the world. &lt;br&gt;
+Leading to all kinds of problems:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Sleep deprivation&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Depression&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Over-eating&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Escapism&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Political extremism / radicalization&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Sounds a lot like a millennial doesn’t it? Many of us are internet-addicted for a variety of reasons.
+Many of these problems aren’t new, and likely won’t be going away anytime soon. Some appear to have gotten &lt;a href=&#34;https://gummibear737.substack.com/p/the-lgbtq-pandemic-and-mental-health&#34;&gt;much worse.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the things that has gotten a lot worse is algorithms, in the early days feeds had only the crudest metrics to judge engagement. Now AI has an immensely accurate picture of how to manipulate people into all kinds of behaviors.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;market-forces&#34;&gt;Market forces&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The advertising industrial complex comes for every marketable group. It does not care if you&amp;rsquo;re a wealthy person with tons of time on your hands, or a child who&amp;rsquo;s stolen their parents credit card. It&amp;rsquo;s a powerful machine designed to do whatever it takes to separate money from the fools and wise alike.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These systems effectively work to build addictions in people. The system really doesn&amp;rsquo;t care what kind of addiction it is: &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/SteamFocus/status/1421063456409726983&#34;&gt;gaming, gambling&lt;/a&gt;, porn, food, ect. It only cares about how it can turn that addiction into regular and increasing business. You can call these systems evil (and I&amp;rsquo;d agree) but the important thing to realize is that they&amp;rsquo;re entirely indifferent to the suffering they create.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;institutions&#34;&gt;Institutions&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Schools have been &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/CodaStory/status/1324080978969722882&#34;&gt;guilty of rolling out surveillance technology&lt;/a&gt; to use on children. During the covid crisis many schools closed their doors, with &lt;a href=&#34;https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/pandemic-school-closings-harmed-children/&#34;&gt;predictably disastrous consequences for children&lt;/a&gt;. Remote learning was a golden opportunity for centralization and control as the tools presented to the schools were loaded with privacy problems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Large institutions are often given deals on software packages that have business model in surveillance. EdTech is a big industry and a non-trivial part of it is data collection. In many ways these tools are not really tools but glorified cages. While your child will seem knowledgeable in using these products, they could be like a fish-out-of-water when having to learn how to accomplish the same tasks without them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A significant challenge is that trying to bring change or accountability to these institutions is &lt;a href=&#34;https://abigailshrier.substack.com/p/when-the-state-comes-for-your-kids&#34;&gt;nearly impossible to do alone&lt;/a&gt;. It is in your own interest to ensure that not only your own children, but also the children in your community aren&amp;rsquo;t beholden to technocratic control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/wef-rational-reasons-microchip-children/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;World Economic Forum website suggests there are &amp;#39;rational&amp;#39; reasons to microchip your child&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;The article suggests there are ways to &amp;#39;ethically make these amazing technologies a part of our lives.&amp;#39;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;peer-pressure&#34;&gt;Peer pressure&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If any of the above were bad enough, unfortunately you have to be concerned about your child&amp;rsquo;s peers. It&amp;rsquo;s hard to feel included when you&amp;rsquo;re not in the latest devices and systems. It can be hard to balance your child&amp;rsquo;s desire to interact with their friends against the harms caused by these platforms.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-wrong-answer-censorship-control-and-centralization&#34;&gt;The wrong answer: Censorship, Control, and Centralization&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Governments around the world are converging on &amp;lsquo;solutions&amp;rsquo; to these problems that all inch us closer towards technocratic totalitarianism. The problem with most of these methods is that they aren&amp;rsquo;t even useful in the extreme circumstances where someone will try to justify them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Censorship&lt;/strong&gt; harms children&amp;rsquo;s ability to learn and process information.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Greater &lt;strong&gt;control&lt;/strong&gt; over people&amp;rsquo;s digital lives teaches them learned helplessness, effectively robbing them of the opportunity to learn to take control themselves.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Centralization&lt;/strong&gt; harms everyone&amp;rsquo;s ability to solve problems, and build resilience.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the greatest things protecting all people online is relative anonymity.&lt;br&gt;
+Anonymity allows people to interact with sources of information without necessarily having to divulge any information about themselves. From bullying, online predators, and financial scams there is more and more propaganda trying to convince people that anonymity must be eliminated. This is the absolute worst solution, in every instance it&amp;rsquo;s been tried it has failed to successfully safeguard the vulnerable. Elimination of anonymity only serves to feed data-collectors and empower those who seek control over others.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;solutions&#34;&gt;Solutions&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;real-life-activities&#34;&gt;Real life activities&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What children need most in the world is engaged parents who proactively work to enhance their freedom, opportunities, and well-being. Unfortunately this isn&amp;rsquo;t always easy, but it gets easier when you get others involved with you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Host community dances&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Teach and learn skills together&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Get involved in community sports&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Be where the fun and joy can be found&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of children lurking online to escape the world, ensure that there are real opportunities for them to learn, create, play, and share with people in their community.&lt;br&gt;
+Taking time to build a strong family bond is one of the most important things you can do to keep your children safe. Being approachable allows them to warn you of dangers that may not be on your radar.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;ground-rules&#34;&gt;Ground rules&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are a handful activities you would want to restrict until your child has shown an appropriate level of responsibility. Like many other rules there are ways around them, but the point is to steer them away from sliding into a trap.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Smart devices&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If nothing else the more your entire family can avoid &amp;lsquo;smart&amp;rsquo; devices the better.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Screen time&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The internet is a useful tool, disallowing it entirely is likely not the best strategy. Outside of practicing specific skills, long stretches of screen time will do most people very little benefit and non-trivial harm.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Online purchases&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The easier it is for your children to make purchases the easier it is for algorithms to rob them with scams and manipulation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Online Games and communities&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Take the time to investigate certain games and online communities to make a reasonable judgement on a case-by-case basis.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;build-their-technical-understanding&#34;&gt;Build their technical understanding&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Preventing technology from monitoring or manipulating your children doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean they have to be ignorant. There are many age-appropriate ways to learn how to build or modify simple electronics and write basic programs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://arduino.cc&#34;&gt;Arduino&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://scratch.mit.edu&#34;&gt;Scratch&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What you will want to do is protect them and their information from data-driven services.&lt;br&gt;
+Ensure your children know not to share identifying or sensitive information:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Real names&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Location information
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Residence&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;School&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Nearby activities&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Photos (only share the best memes!)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Any kind of financial details&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Contact information&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/4-data-breach.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/4-account-security-best-practices/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Account security best practices&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;How to make sure every service you use is as secure and as private as possible.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It can be useful to create fake identities (make it fun!) for them to use on various platforms so you can make sure the accounts don’t have it. Anything you can use your own accounts for the better, such as purchases and subscriptions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;adapt-your-childs-education&#34;&gt;Adapt your child&amp;rsquo;s education&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The current system is setup to teach people helplessness and dependence.
+It is important to everyone, especially at young ages to understand that they do have the capacity to build their own independence. Find resources that have &lt;a href=&#34;https://tuttletwins.com&#34;&gt;higher goals&lt;/a&gt; than teaching children to be cogs in a machine.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Watch &lt;a href=&#34;https://live.childrenshealthdefense.org/shows/financial-rebellion/te8DFdQZny&#34;&gt;Corey Lynn&amp;rsquo;s appearance&lt;/a&gt; on CHD TV&amp;rsquo;s show: Financial Rebellion&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Anatomy of a psyop</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/anatomy-of-a-psyop/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 17 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/anatomy-of-a-psyop/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/brain-pain.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/brain-pain.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/brain-pain.webp" />
+		<description>Cognitive warfare in action</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;A shadowy figure appears out of nowhere and tells you:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;They understand your problems&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;It’s worse than you think&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;They have a really simple solution they just need you to hand over your private information (or large sums of cash) to make all your worries go away&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;The solution doesn’t require any real work on your part&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It’s a scam.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Blatant scam artists and social engineers both heavily rely on affirming your biases. The scammer will say things that are either well known to be true, or strongly believed by subsets of the population. As someone aware of the threats totalitarian control presents, you are a prime target for social engineers. Anything that they can do to give you either a false sense of security or a harmless outlet for frustration, makes it harder for you to fight back.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/chewtoys&#34;&gt;Chewtoys: The Alchemy of mastering mass anger&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Now that the public has a higher level of awareness about the top-down control grid, there is a race to ensure that the public isn&amp;rsquo;t actively focused on rebuilding their own sovereignty. Sovereignty always requires work. Paying a protection racket doesn’t liberate you, it only allows you to rent some temporary safety. Having reliable, trustworthy, and accurate information is one of the most important steps in taking control in your own life. Information can be seen as a form of capital that can be enhanced with tools and skills.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;That’s all very difficult and complicated right? In today’s fast-paced and complex world, surely there is a simply and easy solution? What if I just take a moment to listen to what this shadowy figure has to say.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;snow-job&#34;&gt;Snow job&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;An effort to deceive, overwhelm, or persuade with insincere talk, &lt;strong&gt;especially flattery.&lt;/strong&gt;
+Urban dictionary&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/snowjob.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Don’t worry about your social media habits!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Don’t worry about the technocratic control system!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We have a way to get you into the elite class!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It’s simple all you have to do is join our telegram server and share with your friends.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Are you starting to doubt? These guys can’t be fake, take a look at their ‘leet’ &lt;em&gt;hacker skillz&lt;/em&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/snowjob2.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;…Except that on firefox, all you have to do is add view-source: before the address and you are immediately aware that this is a normal Wordpress site.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/snowjob3.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When releasing sensitive and critical information to all of humanity there’s a few basic things you want to get right:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Reduce points of failure as much as possible:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Publish only a simple set of pages written without extra scripts or plug-ins&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Avoid any third-party publishing platforms&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Make the content as resilient and censorship resistant as possible:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Where’s the TOR hidden service?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Why isn’t the information backed up on IPFS or even available as a torrent?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Don’t have any “official” communications from big tech platforms such as Youtube / Twitter / Facebook and, yes, Telegram.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Why?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;At best, you’ll waste time getting banned over and over again&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;These platforms have the capability of limiting whatever reach you may potentially have.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;You’re giving away information to these platforms that can be inevitably tracked back to you.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;That’s just the bare-minimum basics before you get focused on the more complicated things like:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Where do you host your server?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;What communication methods do you and your team use?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;What are your backups? Can everything be seized in a single day?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/OculumLabs/status/1548752813337055234&#34;&gt;But they&amp;rsquo;re getting hacked!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;They’re not special, almost any website of a certain size will get this kind of attention. Bots are constantly looking for vulnerable systems to exploit to use for their own ends. Exploiting a completely open system is something that is trivial to automate.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/false-saviors.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/beware-false-savior&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Beware the false saviors&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Putting faith into leaders is a road to disappointment. We all have to work together as individuals to make lasting change.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Who knows? That might be the kind of problem they have when they can’t even setup their WIX website without having an ad banner.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/snowjob4.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;what-do-they-want&#34;&gt;What do they want?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Your time and attention are precious resources. Anyone and anything that can soak it up by offering you an easy road to freedom doesn’t have your best interests in mind. A far more nefarious goal would be to slander people with real concerns about digital IDs and the surveillance economy as simply deluded by this straw-man.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The most disgusting aspect of this performance is that it rides on people’s greed to passively accept a top-down slavery system. “Oh, it’s as bad as you think it is but worse, but it will only be the &lt;em&gt;good people&lt;/em&gt; in the elite class now,” is a disgusting attitude to take. Power without accountability is corrosive on morality. A social credit caste system with the “good people” on the top will inevitably devolve into a nightmare with evil people on the top.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Social credit systems are real, and not just in China. The massive wealth divide does effectively create different classes of people. The “system” they’re warning you about is already in place on a basic level. Promising to “wipe your slate clean” in exchange for promoting them on social media is not the ideal solution even if it worked.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Sovereignty is power. All power is expensive to maintain. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance and proactive action. None of us will be able to simply purchase freedom. The freedom of your fellow human beings, even when you disagree, is your greatest asset. We must work to restore integrity and accountability in all aspects of our lives, not chasing quick-and-easy scams pretending to be solutions.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>IoT: The &#34;Eye-on-Thee&#34;</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/eye-on-thee/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/eye-on-thee/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/iot-banner.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/iot-banner.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/iot-banner.webp" />
+		<description>A fantastic real-world example of how simple, inexpensive devices can be used for evil.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;Internet of things&lt;/em&gt; (IoT) is not so much an agenda, but a consequence of cheap, ubiquitous technology. Much of the engineering, investment, and application has gone directly into making devices better at gathering information. This information is then fed to &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-2/&#34;&gt;machine learning algorithms&lt;/a&gt; to further &amp;ldquo;optimize&amp;rdquo; society.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/iot.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This constant data-collection is not benign. There &lt;em&gt;is&lt;/em&gt; an agenda to constantly push the boundaries of centralization and control. Most of the opportunities provided by the &lt;em&gt;internet of things&lt;/em&gt; are asymmetrically advantageous to the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;technocracy&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. All the systems of surveillance and control will be deployed foremost against the public. This doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean however, that other people won&amp;rsquo;t be able to leverage those systems to cause people harm. While the technocracy has a minor incentive to reduce the power other gains from these tools, it is essentially a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.economicshelp.org/micro-economic-essays/marketfailure/negative-externality&#34;&gt;negative externality&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;example-airtags&#34;&gt;Example: AirTags&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/airtag.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Airtags, are simple wireless devices made by apple to help people find their lost things. What makes airtags miraculous is that they don&amp;rsquo;t require complicated GPS technology, but instead rely on nearby devices and networks to report it&amp;rsquo;s location. Simplifying in this way allows the devices to stay in operation for a very long time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-process-is-simple&#34;&gt;The process is simple:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Add the tag to your account&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Give it a useful label&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Leave it on or with what (or who) you want to track.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Watch it go on your &amp;ldquo;find my device&amp;rdquo; app.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/google-location-history.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is worth noting, that this is not the first way to get a hold of someone&amp;rsquo;s daily routine. Android devices maintain a location history that keeps tabs on you in real time. In the past one would only need to have access to your google account to watch your every move. I highly recommend turning off location history, I can&amp;rsquo;t think of a single benefit of keeping it on. Unfortunately it is important to keep in mind that turning these features off does not prevent them from being used by the corporations that run them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.rebelnews.com/airtag_tracking_people_at_disney&#34;&gt;They just found out that they were being tracked by AirTags, and didn’t know how it got planted on them.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Apple has introduced features to make it harder for stalkers to track people without their consent with these devices. Notably the device will transparently inform nearby apple devices that it is in range of them. This is a step in the right direction, however it is almost impossible to completely eliminate the privacy risks of such a device. Understand that devices such as this can become a whole lot smaller in the future, and much easier to conceal.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/watch?v=dNZDBGeBj6s&#34;&gt;AirTag Anti-Stalking Features Revealed!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This creates a great deal of problems for all kinds of people. Counteracting these measures requires proactive vigilance, despite requiring very little effort on the person using the tracker. As these devices improve so will this asymmetric advantage. Not only that, but the technocracy will then be able to leverage this enormous power in even more egregious ways. The line gets blurry when &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.knzr.com/cop-jailed-for-on-exs&#34;&gt;agents of the technocracy&lt;/a&gt; use that power against people in their personal lives.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/TweeetLorraine/status/1537405658919800835&#34;&gt;Woman Allegedly Used Apple AirTag to Track and Kill Her Boyfriend&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is important not to understate the dangers. All surveillance, be it targeted or blanket is a serious risk to individuals of all walks of life. The more information collected on people, and the more sophisticated the tools to use that information, the more danger people are in. This should be a rallying cry to all to force large institutions to have proper accountability and leadership. The rising corruption and totalitarianism is a force that will ensure all these tools are used to the detriment of humanity.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Tools of the Technocracy: #6 Virtual Reality</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-6/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 30 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-6/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/tools-of-the-technocracy6.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-6.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-6.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-6.webp" />
+		<description>Seeing is believing, and the capability to leverage your own senses against you only gets more extreme over time.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;tools-of-the-technocracy-6-virtual-reality&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/tools-of-the-technocracy-series&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy&lt;/a&gt;: #6 Virtual Reality&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What is reality?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Is it what you can touch?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What you can feel?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What you see?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/lying-eyes.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;how-much-do-your-thoughts-and-past-experiences-shape-those-things&#34;&gt;How much do your thoughts and past experiences shape those things?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;psyops&#34;&gt;Psyops&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As of 2020, Most forms of mind control were constructed through incentive structures:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Social media algorithms incentivize specific kinds of engagement to maximize people’s reprogramming of each other. Strong financial incentives are used to shape interactions and transform entire sectors of society in various ways. Mainstream media still shapes a powerful impression of the state of reality for a significant amount of people, creating top-down cultural incentives. Academia isn’t safe either, despite all the criticism placed on the public over trading autonomy, independence &amp;amp; integrity for convenience&amp;hellip;all kinds of institutions are far more egregiously guilty of the same offense. Ironically, due to the slow rate of change in organizations; they are often trapped into choosing the simplest changes, rather than the more important ones. Over time this creates a tidal-wave of institutional change that costs significantly more energy, resources, and career credit to oppose than to ride. This often pushes institutions to adopt technology and solutions that work against people, rather than for them.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;A massive game-changer for the technocracy will be the ability to build powerful behavior modification systems (mind control) that take advantage of your own senses. Cognitive warfare is waged by &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/SaranghaeyOppaa/status/1226035679945097216&#34;&gt;exploiting vulnerabilities in our minds&lt;/a&gt;. Overcoming these effects is much more challenging than simply recognizing incentives and working around them when possible. When it comes to perception control, every drop of prevention is worth an ocean of cure. Because we’re only at the beginning of witnessing these techniques, we can only speculate on the extent of the dangers. As always, it will be of utmost importance to guard your mental, emotional, and even spiritual state in the face of these challenges.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/construction-banner.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-3/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #3 Robots, IoT, Automation, Oh my!&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Transforming the world in ways seen and unseen&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;technological-terror&#34;&gt;Technological terror&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When most people think of virtual reality they think of high-resolution displays presenting a 3D environment for people to explore and interact with &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/Alientrap/status/1157399869717471232&#34;&gt;complex controllers&lt;/a&gt;. Tactile improvements to people’s ability to really feel what’s in these environments are only getting better and better. The only thing slowing this down seems to be people getting motion sick from playing for more than short periods of time. As more improvements are made and more problems get addressed this will become the frontier of multi-media content. Suddenly, instead of learning things in purely abstract ways, people will be able to learn all kinds of things by doing it. With truly endless possibilities this means that VR will also be the state-of-the-art delivery mechanism for propaganda.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For now, when a tragedy or circumstance is exploited to drive people’s emotions; the technocracy has a couple of ways to convey the situation. As this technology develops and becomes more ubiquitous, the technocracy will be able to have people experience these events directly, in a completely crafted scenario. The lines between propaganda, entertainment, learning, and all kinds of things will be blurred even more than they are already. Virtual reality will be the information war battleground of the future, but as it stands it won’t be a battle but outright mind-slaughter. Unless people’s ability to create and distribute these experiences is democratized, large institutions will enjoy a massive advantage in controlling content. This is a significant challenge because of the significant start-up costs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;body-snatchers&#34;&gt;Body snatchers&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The campaign doesn’t end there however; virtual reality technology won’t end with nicer displays, controls, and tactile feedback. As cybernetics improve, there will be powerful incentives to have these systems send and &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/BlackrockNeuro_/status/1492900664527273992&#34;&gt;receive direct signals&lt;/a&gt; to your body. This would allow these devices to save incredible amounts of energy and provide a level of immersion that is currently impossible. This shift from presenting stimuli to create signals in your brain, to sending those signals directly to your brain will exponentially increase the power and influence of those &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/Resist_05/status/1534440661419986946&#34;&gt;who have control&lt;/a&gt; of these systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Surely this technology wouldn’t be forced on people right? It will stay purely in the realm of entertainment and all you’ll have to do is turn off the VR TV right? This is sadly not the case. As long as our society still yields to top-down control, almost every institution will have powerful incentives to adopt these tools. &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/Soitwouldbe/status/1530929365382483972&#34;&gt;Training and education&lt;/a&gt; will likely be the first place to majorly adopt these systems because of how powerful an information transfer tool they are. It will also enhance automation efforts. In a society driven by these technologies, your rights to bodily autonomy will be seen as an outdated inefficiency that gets in the way of powerful societal “innovation”. Big data and machine learning has a massive role to play in this space. Many of these devices will be used to get more data from people to learn how to further manipulate them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The competitive advantages and economies of scale could make these problems nearly impossible to uproot. It is absolutely critical to do all we can to prevent these systems from driving all our lives in the way that the Internet does already. Digital currencies are a very powerful system for bootstrapping new technologies, and it is no longer inconceivable that people will be bribed into transforming their body into a test-bed for novel technology. It is of utmost importance that we work to protect bodily autonomy in an environment where people will be even more motivated to set it all aside. We as a society have already gravely crossed red lines that never should have been crossed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;solutions&#34;&gt;Solutions&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/ephesians6.webp&#39; 
+
+ alt=&#39;Ephesians 6:12&#39;
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;take-action&#34;&gt;Take action&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Pushing back against centralization and control takes a great deal of active focus to start. Once you’ve regained some of your own independence and liberty you can then help bring it to others. The crux of these issues is not necessarily the technologies themselves. Instead, it’s our cultural acceptance for top-down control of so many aspects of our lives. Bringing awareness of these issues, and what we should prioritize to safeguard ourselves can go a long way.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;learn-create--share&#34;&gt;Learn, Create &amp;amp; Share&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The primary advantage the technocracy has is a monopoly on people’s perception of reality. A very effective way to turn the tide in the information war is to share art, beauty, and stories that bring people hope, and a desire for change. Anything you can create to bring more independence and freedom into their lives is worth making. Try to have appreciation for the great works people have created. Try to appeal to people’s better selves, instead of cynically just trying to win with snark.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;support-open-software-and-hardware&#34;&gt;Support open software and hardware&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many of these systems aren’t going away. Being able to liberate people from these systems may require a significant amount of technical skill and tooling. There is a great deal of potential in prosthetics and assistive technology. We can avert many of dangers by promoting software and hardware freedom. There is a treasure-trove of opportunity when we realign our focus to support and prioritize ways to enhance each other’s lives.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Tools of the Technocracy: #5 Networks</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-5/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 27 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-5/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/tools-of-the-technocracy5.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-5.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-5.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-5.webp" />
+		<description>Much of the digital infrastructure in place today is built to structurally enable tyranny.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;tools-of-the-technocracy-5-networks&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/tools-of-the-technocracy-series&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy&lt;/a&gt;: #5 Networks&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Networks are the infrastructure used to bridge the physical world and online systems. They can enable people from all over the world to communicate with each other, which sadly has the downside of technocrats having the capability of monitoring and controlling people’s communications.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;networks-have-precious-resources-that-enable-their-utility&#34;&gt;Networks have precious resources that enable their utility:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Latency&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;How quickly can a signal reach it’s destination&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Range&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;How far can a signal go&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bandwidth&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;How much information can a signal carry&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Encryption&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Prevents people from snooping on signals&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These resources are critical in delivering content. One of the largest challenges to decentralization is the economies of scale. This means that “the system” has advantages to completely eliminate any competition. Centralized and privacy invading options will always be more efficient and convenient than other options. It is important to manage your expectations accordingly.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;cloudflare&#34;&gt;Cloudflare&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Cloudflare is the world&amp;rsquo;s largest MITM [Man in the middle] proxy(reverse proxy).
+Cloudflare owns more than 80% of CDN market share and the number of cloudflare users are growing each day. They have expanded their network to more than 100 countries. Cloudflare serves more web traffic than Twitter, Amazon, Apple, Instagram, Bing &amp;amp; Wikipedia combined. &amp;gt; Cloudflare is offering free plan and many people are using it instead of configuring their servers properly. They traded privacy over convenience.
+Source: &lt;a href=&#34;http://crimeflare.eu.org&#34;&gt;http://crimeflare.eu.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Almost every large website and service is using Cloudflare, this means that any encryption between you and the website and service is effectively broken at that point. While your connections will be protected until they reach Cloudflare’s servers, after that point it is entirely down to trust. It is naive to think that Cloudflare isn’t forced to &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.ph/Wgxnq&#34;&gt;monitor the massive trove of data&lt;/a&gt; it can collect on people’s online activity. A VPN may protect your IP but it won’t be able to secure the data sent to these services.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What services get out of using Cloudflare is DDOS protection. Distributed Denial of Service attacks are when a massive amount of bandwidth is used to take down your service. This is essentially a protection racket where any site worth targeting has to spend resources to protect against these kind of attacks. It is possible that many of these attacks are being initiated by actors who would rather sites stay behind Cloudflare or similar services.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;vpns&#34;&gt;VPNs&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Virtual Private Networks are often seen as the solution to all online privacy issues. This is people being mislead by slick advertising. VPNs are very useful for accessing content that is blocked in specific regions or protecting your IP from being known by online services. There are many ways users using a VPN can have their IP leaked so it is essential to make sure you are using your VPN properly.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Your internet service provider (ISP) may not be trustworthy so you may want to use a VPN, it is important to realize that by using a VPN you are effectively transferring the risk of your ISP logging, tracking, censoring your information to that VPN provider. Like ISPs VPNs are businesses and it is foolish to assume they will put your needs as an individual or customer before the interests of their business.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;wireless-networks&#34;&gt;Wireless Networks&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The largest challenge of wireless networks is that there will be many of them outside your control.
+Ubiquitous surveillance provided by devices all around you isn’t something you can easily mitigate. Ignorance isn’t bliss however, you are still vulnerable to these systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;wi-fi&#34;&gt;Wi-Fi&lt;/h2&gt;
+
+&lt;video muted autoplay preload=&#34;none&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;source src=&#39;media/wifi-sonar.webm&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Wireless networks are difficult to secure, especially from a motivated adversary. Even your own wireless router is likely &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/watch?v=URkD_TbiE8I&#34;&gt;outright selling your data&lt;/a&gt;. Activities done over wireless networks are much easier to intercept than ones over wired connections.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If this wasn’t bad enough, wireless devices can be used as sonar to track everyone in a given space. Given that these devices are continuously listening this can provide a &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtube.com/watch?v=IRELLH86Edo&#34;&gt;very complete picture&lt;/a&gt; of people’s day-to-day lives.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;mobile-data-lte--5g&#34;&gt;Mobile data (LTE / 5G)&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Much has been speculated about the health risks due 5G / Wi-Fi, while harms from EMF may be worth investigating in specific circumstances they are outside the scope of this article. Even in instances where the technology itself is harmless it can often coincide with other weaponized technology.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What is clear is that introducing more and more cheap, accessible bandwidth to more devices exponentially increases the capabilities of those who want to track and control.
+5G will be very useful for relaying huge amounts of data including ultra-high resolution video from all kinds of angles.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;lorawan&#34;&gt;LoRaWAN&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For some applications, a full internet connection is overkill. LoRa devices can send small signals over a very long range. This can be a very efficient way of relaying data from sensors. There is already a cryptocurrency launched to bootstrap a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.helium.com/solutions&#34;&gt;worldwide surveillance grid&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;iot--automation&#34;&gt;IoT &amp;amp; Automation&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The more accessible connectivity is for devices the more these devices can encroach on the physical world. These applications can become cheaper and more common, discreet, and invasive. As networks expand, techniques that were impossible before become viable opportunities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/construction-banner.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-3/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #3 Robots, IoT, Automation, Oh my!&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Transforming the world in ways seen and unseen&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;big-data&#34;&gt;Big Data&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Any information, no matter how trivial can be collected and analyzed to gain power over others. Those in control of the data collection systems will have massive advantages over those who don’t. Machine learning can be used to make these systems much more efficient at collecting specific kinds of data based on raw details.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/big-data.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-2/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #2 Big Data &amp;amp; Artificial Intelligence&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is all this data for anyways?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;solutions&#34;&gt;Solutions&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;tor&#34;&gt;Tor&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Like the Internet, The &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.torproject.org/&#34;&gt;Onion Router&lt;/a&gt; (Tor) has origins as a military project.
+It has two very useful features for reclaiming your digital freedom:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;anonymity&#34;&gt;Anonymity&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As far as online services are concerned, Tor users generally appear the same. When one uses the Tor browser they have the same fingerprint as all other users to make them harder to individually identify. As well your connection is then routed to the Internet through “exit relays” such as the &lt;a href=&#34;https://snowflake.torproject.org/&#34;&gt;Snowflake extension&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;hidden-services&#34;&gt;Hidden services&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hidden services are services that are accessible entirely within the Tor network. This means that they do not use “exit relays” and instead are only routed within Tor. The advantage of this is that you can be very sure that you are having a secure connection directly to the intended recipient, with all of the security guarantees of the Tor network.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Having your website or service available as a hidden service has some significant advantages:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Protection from Man-in-the-middle attacks&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Your service can still be accessible if your domain is taken from you&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Hidden services can be served from mobile connections&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are other “darkweb” protocols such as I2P.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;community-networks&#34;&gt;Community networks&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Meshnets are a useful way to democratize connectivity. There doesn’t need to be a one-size-fits-all approach some options will work better in different places. You could also run your own services behind VPNs run by your community instead of commercial enterprises. Investing in a truly independent community network is a significant challenge but can yield incredible rewards.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;faraday-is-your-friend&#34;&gt;Faraday is your Friend&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Having a &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/watch?v=EozJr-vdHm8&#34;&gt;faraday bag&lt;/a&gt; can help keep your phone from reporting your location while you travel with it. Given the potential these devices have against you, it can be wise to create secure locations in your home or business that don’t allow signals in or out. This won’t prevent devices from listening and recording, but if you place them in a soundproof location that can help.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Beware the false saviors </title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/beware-false-saviors/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 16 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/beware-false-saviors/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/false-saviors.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/false-saviors.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/false-saviors.webp" />
+		<description>Putting faith into leaders is a road to disappointment. We all have to work together as individuals to make lasting change.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/false-saviors.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a great deal of buzz about &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/twitter-poison-pill-elon-musk/&#34;&gt;Elon Musk’s face-off against twitter&lt;/a&gt;.
+While it is impressive to see Elon specifically raise free speech issues against Big Tech, it is unlikely that even radical changes to twitter would actually create meaningful change. Sadly many people allow figureheads to lure themselves into a state of complacency. By buying into the idea of a fantastical leader to rally behind people can fall into the trap of thinking that change is sudden, and requires no work on their part.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many of the problems we face didn’t start with Twitter and won’t end with Twitter either.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Twitter is a big system, big systems have a great deal of momentum. This momentum grows or shrinks in response to incentives. As anyone can see, Twitter has been run as a loss leader to sell centralized information control. Any system that has a monopoly on people’s access to information will inevitably become a valuable target for malevolent entities to corrupt and control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Getting excited and distracted by large figureheads (politicians, celebrities, ect) inevitably leads to disappointment when a single person is unable to make massive changes that are out-of-step with the way people are acting in their daily lives. By investing in promoting and cheering for these leaders we can lose sight of the simple changes we need to make. Every individual has a vital role in changing the culture and incentive structure. Don’t think about needing the perfect leader, think about how their job can be made easier by encouraging those around you to make changes themselves.
+Big Tech didn’t simply gain control over everyone’s lives overnight, it happened gradually, bit-by-bit over time with each concession by each person. Everyone is responsible for reversing the power that the Tools of the Technocracy have taken over the people. These are systems that collectively we have financed, built, and maintained&amp;hellip;thankfully they can be dismantled together.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-can-we-do&#34;&gt;What can we do?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What can we do?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;GET MOTIVATED!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is so much we can accomplish by working together, so many new things can be created if we have a will to break free from centralized control.
+Being willing to invest time, energy, and resources into building things is a vital aspect of changing anything.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Diversify your information sources&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Don’t depend on any specific site/app for all your news or information&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Bookmark (CTRL-D) useful or informative sites so you can visit them again without being tracked by search engines&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Not every issue or topic is new, you can often find very valuable information published in books, there is a treasure trove of useful information in the past. Don’t limit your knowledge to what is relevant in your feeds.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Fight back against the centralized control system.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a fantastic series on Financial Rebellion hosted by Children’s Health Defense.
+It is a great starting point on how to create friction against centralized control systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Read the Tools of the Technocracy Series if you haven’t already. In each article I include solutions to undermining top-down information control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/tools-of-the-technocracy-series&#34;&gt;Tools of The Technocracy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Tools of the Technocracy: #4 Online Identity</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-4/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-4/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/tools-of-the-technocracy4.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-4.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-4.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-4.webp" />
+		<description>What is following you in your digital tracks?</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;tools-of-the-technocracy-4-online-identity&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/tools-of-the-technocracy-series&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy&lt;/a&gt;: #4 Online Identity&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are some good reasons to attach your identity to online interactions, there are just as many (if not more) good reasons not to. It is important to understand how your actions ripple across the Internet and wider data-landscape. One of the greatest challenges in keeping your data secure is the fact that the Internet almost never forgets. It’s so difficult to be aware of all the data-points that have built over time.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Even if you are a very open and public person, it is vital that you are in control of what data about you is collected, stored, and analyzed. Instead of having systems actively probing you for any and all data they can seize, it is better to understand and use systems that give you the control to only disclose what you want to share.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;concerns&#34;&gt;Concerns&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;conformity&#34;&gt;Conformity&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Social media has been largely what closes the loop between you staring into the data abyss, and the data staring back at you. By learning peoples’ interests, likes and dislikes the algorithms are able to put that information to use to manipulate them. The most dangerous part about social media is the capability to leverage your self-image against you. With even relatively simple techniques (such as suppressing the visibility of a particular post) these systems can manipulate how your social circle reacts to specific information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Facebook is really old news when it comes to data-mining people. Tiktok is the state-of-the art, in &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtube.com/watch?v=nfczi2cI6Cs&#34;&gt;learning from people&lt;/a&gt;. Tiktok has advantages that older social media platforms don’t. It’s purely mobile focused, which means the app has access to all kinds of data from your mobile phone. This includes cameras, microphones, location data, and even how you’re holding the device while scrolling. It would be foolish to assume we can imagine all the ways advanced algorithms can be used to study and manipulate people. How many people would even consider &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/07/10/facebook-experiments-on-users/&#34;&gt;facebook was up to this in 2011-2013?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;echo-chambers&#34;&gt;Echo chambers&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This conformity, is the foundation for a fractal of echo-chambers, all becoming isolated from the larger whole. Echo-chambers create divisions within society that eventually make cross-communication almost impossible. By &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/watch?v=DwCEAdeFXEM&#34;&gt;entrenching people into their sub-groups&lt;/a&gt; and turning them against each other, everyone is effectively silenced. This is an under-estimated effect of chilling effects.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I believe it is naive to operate under the assumption that these echo-chambers are a purely organic phenomenon. Manipulating the human mind is a massive, and well funded academic venture. The power gained from destroying people’s ability to collectively search for the truth is immense.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If covert censorship wasn’t bad enough, there is a vast array of censorship and suppression tools available. The more information the system has about you the more it has at it’s disposal to use against you and ideals you may support. The ever-increasing cries of “fighting misinformation” and “combating hate” are used as a pretext to justify further centralized information control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://torproject.org&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/tott-4-tor.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;personification&#34;&gt;Personification&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Now back at you, all these tools are specifically aimed at identifying, storing, and analyzing your every action in the hopes to get leverage over you and others. Very subtle and innocuous information can be correlated with other data to make unthinkable associations.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;They will shut it &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.coreysdigs.com/technology/can-bitcoin-circumvent-economic-tyranny/&#34;&gt;(Bitcoin)&lt;/a&gt; down not by controlling the technology, but by controlling the people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Catherine Austin Fitts&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can leave behind a banned account, even evade region locks with a VPN, but it’s not easy to get a new identity and almost impossible to erase your online footprint. The more online systems demand people turn over their identities online, the more people are vulnerable to all kinds of threats. Dissidents can be marked for life with no recourse. Naturally these people will be restricted from the digital financial complex.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;stalking&#34;&gt;Stalking&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Not only are exposed people vulnerable to retaliation from the state, but in an increasingly polarized environment people will be vulnerable to retaliation from anyone who has access to their information. As the dehumanization of the opposition continues, people won’t draw the line at harming innocents if they are led to believe the situation is dire enough. No transgression will be too small to justify retaliation. How many times have we seen people respond to someone losing their job over past comments with “Freedom of speech isn’t freedom from consequences”?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is a clarion call for abusers and petty tyrants. The very reason the rule of law and the presumption of innocence are important is because the spillover damage from vigilante justice is unending. In our modern enlightened age we certainly have managed to forget basic problems that have been with us since the dawn of civilization.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;children&#34;&gt;Children&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As someone who spent time exploring the Internet from a young age, I can certainly admit to being unable to comprehend the dangers at the time. As grown-ups today believe that their parents were clueless about technology, the exponential growth, escalation, and evolution of online threats have left current and future parents woefully outmatched. Children won’t simply be at the mercy of their own potential actions, but the actions of relatives and even friends.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As a parent it is your responsibility to make sure that they are prepared to face these dangers, but also that your information is not making that more difficult. Safeguarding them from all the new and tantalizing services is going to be a very difficult challenge. This is an area that needs more research.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/think-of-the-children.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/think-of-the-children/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Is the Internet safe for children?&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Surveillance, manipulation and online predators are threats we all face. How can we keep children safe?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;bots--manipulation&#34;&gt;Bots &amp;amp; manipulation&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Humans are outnumbered! In many circumstances there is little reason to believe that the person you are talking to online is even human. This is an incredible problem when empathy is already severely lacking in online discourse. As bots get better and better at convincingly imitating people, people will feel more and more overwhelmed which will contribute to some simply choosing not to bother speaking at all.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://archive.today/SL7Mm&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/tott-4-bots.webp&#39; 
+
+ alt=&#39;Humans are outnumbered!&#39;
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Botting social networks isn’t necessarily a zero-sum game. Some platforms are easier for smaller actors to influence, it is a critical mistake to assume all bots are from a single interested party rather than a group of varying (sometimes overlapping or conflicting) agendas.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;anti-anonymitity&#34;&gt;Anti-anonymitity&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Anonymity gets a bad wrap in online discussions. Far too many people consider it “cowardice” to speak out without having your name, reputation, and future at stake. This is not a compassionate or reasonable stance to have in an age with so many asymmetric power imbalances. It is a very convenient way for those perfectly within established orthodoxy to throw stones from their glass towers. The most vital way to undermine centralized information control is to prevent knowledge from being &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1469358942211829761&#34;&gt;judged by it’s origin&lt;/a&gt;. A fantastic way to achieve this is publishing information, data or communications anonymously.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/anonymous-crowd.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/anonymity&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;In defense of anonymity&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Don&amp;#39;t let the trolls bait you into turning on privacy&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;your-online-tracks&#34;&gt;Your online tracks&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;personal-devices&#34;&gt;Personal devices&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Every device you come into contact with has the capability to be turned against you. Smartphones are some of the worst. Devices with microphones can record your every word and expression. Cameras can track your expression. Worst of all is location data, which gets more and more precise as technology improves. All this is simply assuming the device is working as intended, phishing attacks can be used to gain even more intimate access to your information or otherwise do you harm.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;big-tech-social-media&#34;&gt;Big Tech Social Media&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many people complain of social media “holding their real-life contacts hostage”.
+It is very important that you aren’t gating social interaction with you behind data-mining social services. This does require a fair bit of effort and a willingness to compromise.
+Social media becoming the “town square” wasn’t an inevitable development, it was a necessary step in the encroachment of digital systems dominating our entire lives. You may have a right to remain silent under your laws, but unfortunately your data &lt;a href=&#34;https://web.archive.org/web/20220708061004/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/07/canada-police-spyware-admission-surveillance-experts&#34;&gt;doesn&amp;rsquo;t make use of it&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/4bbd4e5a-352d-4d24-82ea-e8832e902021&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The technocracy’s vision of what social media is and should be is evil. Until we can migrate people to services that put people in charge of their data, it is best to avoid putting any significant importance on social media under the control of corporations &amp;amp; government influence.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;online-services&#34;&gt;Online services&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is no way of knowing for sure an online service you use isn’t simply sharing data with big tech in the first place. Even if they adamantly refuse to share or sell data that all evaporates when the company is sold. Services can be hacked and the only way to protect sensitive data is to never record or share it. Understand that everything you share with any particular online service can eventually be used against you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;digital-id&#34;&gt;Digital ID&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/greg_scott84/status/1505695001166041092&#34;&gt;Digital ID&lt;/a&gt; is the crown jewel of technocratic totalitarianism. Like any other deal-with-the-devil scenario it will be attached to many luxuries and conveniences… at least at the start. Take any of the problems in this article and make them 10x worse. There will never be any guarantee that digital ID systems will be any more secure than systems that came before it. The terms of the digital ID program may appear to be favorable at the beginning, but once locked in… the terms will be altered and your only recourse will be to pray the terms aren’t altered further.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/digital-id.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/digital-id/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Digital ID: The Basics&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is it? What can you do about it?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is impossible to overstate the importance of preventing, resisting, and outlawing the implementation of digital identification. Merely avoiding it yourself will be no protection, as those entrapped in the system will be weaponized against you. The weaponization of people who have fallen prey to centralized information control is a mere taste of what is to come when people are locked into a digital gulag.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;solutions&#34;&gt;Solutions&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;connect-with-people-in-real-life&#34;&gt;Connect with people in real life&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Be the person to provide the authentic, uncensored human experience with those you care about. The fight to maintain human liberty is bigger than any one of us. Bring joy outside of online experiences and focus on the people around you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;provide-people-with-a-more-secure-form-of-communication&#34;&gt;Provide people with a more secure form of communication&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By having multiple good options for people to try you don’t have to try to force everyone onto a single app/system. Some great options are:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Delta Chat&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Session&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Element&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Signal&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;improve-your-account-data-and-security&#34;&gt;Improve your account data and security.&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/4-data-breach.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/4-account-security-best-practices/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Account security best practices&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;How to make sure every service you use is as secure and as private as possible.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;federated-social-media&#34;&gt;Federated social media&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/fediverse.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/call-to-action-join-the-fediverse/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Call to Action: Join the Fediverse now!&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;A simple, but very effective way to tip the scales in favor of free speech.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;self-hosting&#34;&gt;Self-hosting&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Want to be entirely on your own terms? Running your own website is a way to have complete control while still being able to maintain a presence. These two sites have great guides for getting started.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://landchad.net&#34;&gt;https://landchad.net&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://learn.sadgrl.online&#34;&gt;https://learn.sadgrl.online&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-5.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-5/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #5 Networks&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Much of the digital infrastructure in place today is built to structurally enable tyranny.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Information Warfare Super-weapons</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/information-warfare-superweapons/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 13 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/information-warfare-superweapons/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/artistic-banner.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/artistic-banner.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/artistic-banner.webp" />
+		<description>Change the culture with these super effective tricks. Social engineers HATE these!</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;memes&#34;&gt;Memes&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Memes are very often under-appreciated due to being simple or not taking themselves seriously. They are powerful tools to bring new insights to discussion. Social engineers target memes due to their incredible impact in spreading ideas. Many of the threats to liberty aren’t always actions of tyrants but rather the apathy or ignorance of the public. If we are to preserve liberty we need to greatly magnify our efforts to promote liberty as a cultural value rather than simply a personal asset The effectiveness of memes comes from their simplicity and the potential to evoke strong emotions. The most valuable part of a good meme is the ability to “compress” lots of information into a consider sharable medium.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The problem is that people are ensnared in a culture that doesn’t properly value liberty or their rights. Corporations and governments work hard to curate online spaces to shape culture in their favor. This has had disastrous social consequences and devastating effects on people’s mental health. We must not only focus on undoing this demoralization but also on preventing it from taking hold ever again. People must not only learn the tools to protect themselves, but they must also learn to value things that are good and beautiful. The most effective way to rebuild a freedom-loving culture is to properly invest in providing a strong foundation for that culture to flourish. How does one build this foundation?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;art&#34;&gt;Art&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Art is the expression of the human soul, with it’s value being largely in the eye of the beholder. Corporations and governments can imitate art, or mass produce it with financial advantages, but they can’t compete with genuine creativity borne from real passion and real experiences. Tyranny isn’t beautiful, and slavery isn’t inspiring. When given a choice, people will naturally choose the free and beautiful over the rigid and stagnant. As freedom loving people it is absolutely vital for us to encourage, support and fund ventures to provide people the opportunity to enjoy pro-human media and creative works.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://youtube.com/embed/dNt4NIQ7FTA&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Artists are craving for a way for their work to be properly supported. Many artists are disillusioned by not being able to make it in large corporate spaces. If we truly desire a culture that protects freedom we must work to provide the space for artists to promote this culture. Working together we can support artists who care deeply about building a better world. This will create real cultural capital that can upend the systems that undermine our liberty. With truth on our side, there can be no limit to the heights of our imagination.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am no artist, but this piece is a call to people who value freedom to commit to supporting independent artists and building a true appreciation for their works. It is impossible to overstate the potential to change the global conversation against those who hate humanity when we sustain methods of lasting cultural change. There are so many ways to express what has gone wrong in the last two years. There are stories that need to be told, tragedies that cry out to be mourned, and victories that must be shared.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Starting small&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the long term, it would be ideal to create formal spaces and institutions with these goals in mind, but as individuals there is still a great deal we can do:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;With an appreciation that you need beauty in your life, hire artists to paint, sculpt, or even draw pieces for decoration in your home or office. These can be fantastic conversation pieces.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Connect with local musicians, get people together to enjoy their music.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Host events to give them an opportunity to promote themselves.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Hire artists to create content for your website or social media profiles. Very often they can create better memes than what many of us can do with simple skills.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Prominently feature like-minded talent in projects you undertake.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;do-it-yourself&#34;&gt;Do it yourself!&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Can you draw, sing, dance, sculpt, paint, draw, carve, or create in other ways?
+Now is a great time to shine, you can stand out by promoting hope, freedom and compassion.
+I would be more than happy to feature you on my website! Do you have your own website? You might find Interverse interesting!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I also recommend joining the Fediverse:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;great-foss-tools&#34;&gt;Great FOSS Tools&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are a lot of fantastic Free &amp;amp; Open Source tools that are very useful for creating content.
+My hope is that one of these tools will help spark inspiration in what you can achieve or support someone in achieving.
+I would highly recommend donating to the development of these tools because they have made creating content much more accessible.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;inkscape&#34;&gt;Inkscape&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.linuxrocks.online/videos/embed/52813370-8f92-4fd3-9324-890fa6c4c7cc&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://inkscape.org/&#34;&gt;https://inkscape.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Whether you are an illustrator, designer, web designer or just someone who needs to create some vector imagery, Inkscape is for you!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Inkscape is fantastic for vector graphics, which are awesome at all sizes!
+It’s a fantastic tool for making posters, logos and even full-size banners!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://inkscape.org/support-us/&#34;&gt;Support&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;krita&#34;&gt;Krita&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/krita.gif&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://krita.org/en/&#34;&gt;https://krita.org/en/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A digital painting program.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Krita is a professional FREE and open source painting program. It is made by artists that want to see affordable art tools for everyone.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;concept art&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;texture and matte painters&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;illustrations and comic&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Demo Video: &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/fga5f3ixmVo&#34;&gt;Krita 5 is HERE! Go for it!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://fund.krita.org/&#34;&gt;Support&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;darktable&#34;&gt;Darktable&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.darktable.org/&#34;&gt;https://www.darktable.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Photography software&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Darktable is an open source photography workflow application and raw developer. A virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers. It manages your digital negatives in a database, lets you view them through a zoomable lighttable and enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;lmms&#34;&gt;LMMS&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://lmms.io/&#34;&gt;https://lmms.io/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Music production&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Let&amp;rsquo;s make music with a free, cross-platform tool for your computer.
+Produce music with your computer by creating melodies and beats, synthesizing and mixing sounds, arranging samples and much more.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://lmms.io/get-involved&#34;&gt;Support&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;synfig&#34;&gt;Synfig&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.synfig.org/&#34;&gt;https://www.synfig.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;2d animation&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Synfig Studio is a free and open-source 2D animation software, designed as powerful industrial-strength solution for creating film-quality animation using a vector and bitmap artwork. It eliminates the need to create animation frame-by frame, allowing you to produce 2D animation of a higher quality with fewer people and resources.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.synfig.org/donate/&#34;&gt;Support&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;blender&#34;&gt;Blender&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://video.blender.org/videos/embed/a69d68a5-a0e0-4a80-9d66-49f093c97aaf&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.blender.org/&#34;&gt;https://www.blender.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;blender-can-do-almost-anything&#34;&gt;Blender can do almost anything:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;3d modeling&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Digital sculpting&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Video editing&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Simulations&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Digital painting&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Animations&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.blender.org/support/&#34;&gt;Support&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;godot&#34;&gt;Godot&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/godot.gif&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://godotengine.org/&#34;&gt;https://godotengine.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Game engine&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The game engine you waited for.
+Godot provides a huge set of common tools, so you can just focus on making your game without reinventing the wheel.
+Godot is completely free and open-source under the very permissive MIT license. No strings attached, no royalties, nothing. Your game is yours, down to the last line of engine code.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Tools of the Technocracy: #3 Robots, IoT, Automation, Oh my!</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-3/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-3/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/tools-of-the-technocracy3.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/construction-banner.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/construction-banner.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/construction-banner.webp" />
+		<description>Transforming the world in ways seen and unseen</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;tools-of-the-technocracy-3-robots-iot-automation-oh-my&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/tools-of-the-technocracy-series&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy&lt;/a&gt;: #3 Robots, IoT, Automation, Oh my!&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With big data as the brains, robots act as the eyes, ears, and fists of the technocracy. Ubiquitous 5G (and above) connectivity gives autonomous systems a massive advantage over human beings. Understand that there is more to these systems than meets the eye. There is an entire orchestra of coordinated systems and services that harmonize into incredibly powerful tools. These tools are only beginning to be weaponized against the public.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;robots&#34;&gt;Robots&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Eventually the digital world needs to make an impact on the physical. Robots are the ideal tool for the technocracy to enforce it’s will on the material world. In many situations it is becoming much more inexpensive to accomplish tasks with robots than to equip humans for the same task. Robots won’t question their orders, they won’t (likely) turn against the system, and most importantly they don’t have legal rights. The technocracy has an urgent need to replace thinking, responsible people with autonomous drones with pre-programmed commands.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The most obvious example would be police robots. When equipped with advanced riot suppression technology, these robots will by able to quell any and all public uprisings with little resistance. Far from science fiction, the capability exists to terminate people with &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.newscientist.com/article/2278852-drones-may-have-attacked-humans-fully-autonomously-for-the-first-time/&#34;&gt;almost fully automated systems&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;drones&#34;&gt;Drones&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While scouting for information, highly mobile drones can be equipped with a large variety of surveillance equipment, sensors, and weapons. Having an aerial view can provide incredible context to large scale situations. While soaring up above, acting as the “eye in the sky” drones can be used to transmit information to a variety of systems. Small disposable drones have advantages that other “heavy duty” robots may not, they can operate in swarms and each independent unit may be entirely expendable.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;transport-and-access&#34;&gt;Transport and Access&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The convenience of autonomous delivery will be what ushers in the invasion of more autonomous drones, cars, and trucks. Autonomous vehicles are an invaluable tool for the technocracy. By removing humans from the driving-seat of the economy the system can effectively seize control of nearly all trade. Eventually, access to goods and services can be entirely restricted by simply not allowing vehicles to travel to certain places. If proximity isn&amp;rsquo;t something that can be controlled, locks can be used to prevent access to specific places. Beyond merely imposing fines for arbitrary infractions, a person&amp;rsquo;s entire life can be restricted by the manufactured world around them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-7.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-7/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #7 Smart Cities&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Smart cities are marketed as if they are for the convenience of its residents, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;robots-in-disguise&#34;&gt;Robots in disguise&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Any robot, with it’s variety of sensors, tools, and networks will be able to perform a wide array of functions in a highly robotic world. A robot preparing your food may also be listening to your conversations simply to fulfill some contract in the system. Cryptocurrency and smart contracts can be used to expand what existing robots can be used for. More and more these discrete systems will converge into a single operating fabric. Robots will become more generalized as technology advances, with tasks being mostly assigned by proximity.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;smart-devices&#34;&gt;“Smart” devices&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Smart phones, smart TVs, smart homes&amp;hellip; What is it that makes a tool “smart” anyways?
+In a general sense “smart” simply means that it can be used against you. Why is your phone “smart” but your laptop isn’t? It’s because your phone is a surveillance device. It provides the system vital functionality that isn’t under your control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Is a device or appliance really “yours” if it is constantly working to incriminate you? How about if it refuses to work under conditions dictated by others? These systems don’t specifically need to be commanded by a malevolent entity, your dishwasher could simply require you to use a smart contract to operate it. This smart contract could be fed real time information about water use in your region to ensure it is being rationed correctly. Smart contracts can be incredible mechanisms to make systems fair, but their ability to make unjust systems shouldn’t be underestimated.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Smart contracts define incentive structures, and they can be designed with an incredible amount of precision. It is entirely possible for products and services to micro-manage quality or effectiveness relative to your status in the system. This means that the most innocuous and fair systems could end up being leveraged against people if the system itself has a flaw.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;implants&#34;&gt;Implants&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Not all digital devices are optional. As medical technology advances people can be very reliant on complicated systems. It is of the utmost importance that people with disabilities are empowered by these tools and not harmed by them. While giving up your privacy (or opting in to ads) may seem like a fair trade for your sight back, this is not a trade we should force someone to make.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The major challenge is that there is no end to what can be turned against you. This can be forced onto the more vulnerable by making the only affordable items sabotaged with tracking &amp;amp; control. The most dystopian outcomes imaginable are on the table when the effects are unseen or individualized. People are far too quick to rationalize the suffering of others rather than to truly take the time to understand the underlying causes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-8.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-8&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #8 Transhumanism&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;How close are the technocrats to modifying you? Too close.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;tiny-tech&#34;&gt;Tiny Tech&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s nothing sacred to the technocrats. There&amp;rsquo;s nothing special about biology that would prevent them from using your individual cells like they use your data against you. Most people are familiar with the idea of nanobots. but the idea of manipulating small-scale natural processes directly is very much out of mind. The very nature of tiny technology is that it very easily stays out of sight, and can be difficult to properly conceptualize.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Nano-machines and &amp;ldquo;smart dust&amp;rdquo; are still very real concerns as well. Even in the most benign of circumstances they can become a terrible form of pollution like micro-plastics. The technocracy has shown terrible stewardship for the natural world despite manufactured appearances. It would be very difficult to properly investigate the long-term ecological or individual health impacts of individual nano-scale applications.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;automation&#34;&gt;Automation&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Automation isn’t simply about making robots better, but also making our lives more robotic. In many cases is it much easier to simply reduce a task into smaller tasks than to design, build, and equip a robot to take over the entire work. This has profound implications for the direction the system is moving in. People will become marginalized to make room for robots in the name of efficiency. The most insidious part is that workers are already being conditioned to train artificial intelligence to learn from them. Many workers are training their replacements without knowing it!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This has far-reaching impacts beyond the service industry. Nearly any job can be broken down into small units of work that could be automated eventually. The safest positions are the ones that are harder to break into smaller units, or tasks that take advantage of a large variety of skills. Media and legal institutions will be pressured to force professionals to undermine their own field to make it easier to be automated away.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/skynet-workforce.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/skynet-workforce&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The Rise of a SkyNet Workforce&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Employee of the Month: Terminator&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It’s worth noting that automation itself isn’t inherently evil or wrong. Ideally workers would be properly compensated for training AIs and people would be supported with the understanding that their livelihoods were sacrificed for greater efficiency. Currently automation is a super-weapon against the working classes. There is no reason it has to stay that way.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;solutions&#34;&gt;Solutions&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;diy&#34;&gt;DIY&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Consider countermeasures against robots&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Instead of WiFi, using wired networks&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Setup spaces your devices can’t listen in to.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Use a faraday bag for your smartphone&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Use analog/low-tech solutions where possible&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As more and more valuable tools are converted to “smart devices” there is an immense opportunity to take up a niche market of simpler devices that don’t violate their owners privacy. AI doesn’t need to be a harmful development. By learning about these systems we can avoid the dangers as well as develop more humane ways of moving forward.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/board.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/hardware-matters&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Principle: Hardware matters&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;It is easy to underestimate the underlying structure of our digital world.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;build-and-maintain-the-human-economy&#34;&gt;Build and maintain the “human economy”&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Robots &amp;amp; automation are going go displace an incredible amount of people in the best-case scenarios. The optimal strategy would be for people to work on establishing an economy for people instead of one against them. This doesn’t mean you shun progress, in fact developing efficient systems allows you to share the gains with your community.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you’re building autonomous systems ensure that they are licensed, developed, and distributed in a way that benefits human beings. For example, a city could establish a smart contract that requires robots to pay taxes on transactions that help support local food &amp;amp; housing systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;body-mechanics&#34;&gt;Body mechanics&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As the world becomes more and more controlled, the machine of last resort is you. A self-driving car may decide where you can drive to, but your own body can be the limit of where you can bike to. Even better if you have access to horses for travel. Developing tools and methods that focus on augmenting what you can do yourself will liberate you from relying on tools that work against you.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Call to Action: Join the Fediverse now!</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/call-to-action-join-the-fediverse/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 22 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/call-to-action-join-the-fediverse/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/fediverse.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/fediverse.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/fediverse.webp" />
+		<description>A simple, but very effective way to tip the scales in favor of free speech.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;The Fediverse is a web of federated social networks. Powered by the ActivityPub protocol, they allow for interoperability between them. &lt;a href=&#34;https://tilvids.com/w/juFy6FerVv5MVMKVKZXdqs&#34;&gt;Here is a fantastic demo of it in action today&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/40a5c731-92e5-48ec-bc4f-a441a9930408&#39; style=&#34;height:max-content;aspect-ratio: 16/9;min-height:460px;max-height:15rem;max-width:60rem;&#34; width=&#34;100%&#34; height=&#34;100%&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;currently-there-are-many-federated-equivalents-to-popular-sites-people-use&#34;&gt;Currently there are many federated equivalents to popular sites people use:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;For YouTube there is &lt;a href=&#34;https://joinpeertube.org/&#34;&gt;PeerTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;For Instagram there is &lt;a href=&#34;https://pixelfed.org/&#34;&gt;Pixelfed&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;For Twitter there is &lt;a href=&#34;https://joinmastodon.org/&#34;&gt;Mastodon&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://pleroma.social/&#34;&gt;Pleroma&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://misskey.io&#34;&gt;Misskey&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;For Facebook there is &lt;a href=&#34;https://friendi.ca/&#34;&gt;Frendica&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;For Podcasts &amp;amp; Music there is &lt;a href=&#34;https://funkwhale.audio/&#34;&gt;Funkwhale&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;For Reddit there is &lt;a href=&#34;https://join-lemmy.org/&#34;&gt;Lemmy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;why-bother&#34;&gt;Why bother?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Continuing to use mainstream social networks is becoming more and more untenable each day. None of them operate for the good of their users. This has already created a dire crisis for free speech online.
+This doesn’t mean we should all run and hide. It is vital that we overcome chilling effects to ensure that voices can be heard.
+As Peterson explains below, &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/watch?v=KMj9wsrPE5U&#34;&gt;it is better to pay the price for speaking than not speaking.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;things-can-be-better-this-time&#34;&gt;Things can be better this time&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Federated social networks have a significant set of advantages. Simply being aware that they exist gives you power. You are not required to have an account or maintain a presence to access information on these sites. For example, you can browse the #Censorship hashtag for any instance you choose. This works with any tag. Don’t want to browse? You can change that same link to an RSS feed by adding ‘.rss’ to the end.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is an immense improvement from current social media sites; anyone with an RSS reader can access all the same information as anyone in the network without having to give up privacy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;how-do-i-start&#34;&gt;How do I start?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For most instances it’s as easy as creating an account on any other website. An instance is like a home. There are features to migrate accounts if you like as well.
+Your presence doesn’t need to be permanent and I would encourage you to have multiple identities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Check out the fediverse.party portal to pick an instance:
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://fediverse.party/en/portal/servers/&#34;&gt;https://fediverse.party/en/portal/servers/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These are instances listed by interest or focus. Be aware that each instance has it’s own rules and culture. People are generally friendly, but like anywhere else, try to be kind in turn.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;get-connected&#34;&gt;Get connected&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can make a post with #introduction to introduce yourself to the network, this is a handy way to get followers and meet like-minded people.
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://mastodon.social/tags/askfediverse&#34;&gt;#askfediverse&lt;/a&gt; is a very useful hashtag to get answers to questions that people might know.
+Each instance has a public directory that users may choose to be listed in. For Mastodon it will be the instance site + /explore. So for mastodon.social it’s &lt;a href=&#34;https://mastodon.social/explore&#34;&gt;https://mastodon.social/explore&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;getting-the-most-out-of-it&#34;&gt;Getting the most out of it&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By getting your information from the fediverse, you can avoid having to share twitter/facebook links if the same information is available there. This helps promote a more resilient online information ecosystem.
+The software running these instances is open source and can be run yourself. This can be a challenging task but is very useful for people who want to have complete control by having an instance for just themselves.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;follow-the-libre-solutions-network-on-the-fediverse&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://fedi.libresolutions.network/@lsn&#34;&gt;Follow the Libre Solutions Network on the Fediverse.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;a-note-on-privacy&#34;&gt;A note on privacy&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The Fediverse is an open network, it’s important to keep in mind this is for broadcasting public information. By leaving big tech platforms behind it is essential to redefine what we believe should and shouldn’t be shared publicly.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you’re looking for a secure platform to communicate sensitive information I would recommend checking out &lt;a href=&#34;https://xmpp.org/about/technology-overview/&#34;&gt;XMPP&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&#34;https://matrix.org/&#34;&gt;Matrix.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Tools of the Technocracy: #2 Big Data &amp; Artificial Intelligence</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-2/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 16 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-2/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/tools-of-the-technocracy2.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/big-data.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/big-data.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/big-data.webp" />
+		<description>What is all this data for anyways?</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;tools-of-the-technocracy-2-big-data--artificial-intelligence&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/tools-of-the-technocracy-series&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy&lt;/a&gt;: #2 Big Data &amp;amp; Artificial Intelligence&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;big-data&#34;&gt;Big data&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Big data is an arms race for information and computing power.
+The more information and computing power an entity has the more power it can leverage against you or over others. Privacy is generally discussed in terms of protecting yourself individually, but more and more it is becoming vital to protect your information to protect everyone. By reducing how much you feed into big data, you prevent that data from being weaponized against others. How is all this data collected anyways?&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;web--app-analytics&#34;&gt;Web &amp;amp; App analytics&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Online services are very interested in where you spend your time and attention. There are a multitude of different ways trackers infect your online experience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;video controls preload=&#34;metadata&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/video/tracking-links.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Browsers currently have much more fine-tuned control over what information you share with sites you visit. There are &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutionsnetwork.substack.com/p/reclaiming-cyberspace-3&#34;&gt;mechanisms to mitigate&lt;/a&gt; this. &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/moviepass-track-eyes-phone-cameras-b2013273.html&#34;&gt;With a smartphone app&lt;/a&gt; however, there are much fewer ways to restrict surveillance, and they generally require more effort.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;fingerprinting&#34;&gt;Fingerprinting&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://amiunique.org/fp&#34;&gt;Browser Fingerprinting&lt;/a&gt; is a set of techniques that analyze how your browser behaves. Many technical details about your browser (such as your monitor size, language, &amp;amp; time zone) allow you to stand out from other users. When combined with other information, such as your IP, it can be very easily to track you as a unique user. This does not mean that you should continue to leak data. The best defense is getting more people to take their privacy and security seriously. An alternative would be to find ways to send out fake data and interactions to &lt;a href=&#34;https://adnauseam.io/&#34;&gt;add noise&lt;/a&gt; to the dataset.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gemini.circumlunar.space/&#34;&gt;Gemini&lt;/a&gt; is a new protocol intended to mitigate the amount of tracking sites can do. It is a growing ecosystem and there already is a great deal of great content there. Websites on Gemini are called &lt;em&gt;capsules&lt;/em&gt;. You do need a gemini-compatible browser to view them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;data-driven-services&#34;&gt;“Data driven” services&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Cloud platforms and online services aim to be ‘&lt;em&gt;data driven&lt;/em&gt;’ this means that details from every interaction are recorded so that they can ‘&lt;em&gt;improve their services&lt;/em&gt;’. Unfortunately for their employees, clients, and partners, this data is very often collected and processed by a third party. Other times it is simply outright sold.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many organizations use Microsoft, Google or other cloud providers to run their day-to-day affairs. This has tragic implications for the people who rely on those institutions. Your ‘private’ information could be collected by big tech firms without you ever directly using their services.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;dragnet-surveillance&#34;&gt;Dragnet surveillance&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Simply not being a target is not enough to avoid problems. Instead of relying on tracking you as an individual, many techniques involve spying on everyone. By being able to analyze every interaction, everyone can manipulated all the time. With more and more sophisticated tools, this becomes a larger and larger threat. The state has the power to force people into using specific services. As a matter of principle the powers of the state and large corporations to collect information on people &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/privacy-experts-federal-and-state-agencies-end-use-facial-verification-services&#34;&gt;must be restricted&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;biometrics&#34;&gt;Biometrics&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Biometrics are special pieces of data that should be guarded the most.
+Such as:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Your DNA&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Your face&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Your eyes&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Your fingerprints&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Your &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/wef/status/1427721919483326470#m&#34;&gt;heartbeat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Your gait&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Essentially, anything that uniquely identifies you is not something you want your data to be able to be traced back to. The problem with biometrics is that unlike passwords or keys they can not be (easily) changed or revoked. It is much easier to change a password than get an entirely new face.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;limitations-of-de-identified-data&#34;&gt;Limitations of “De-identified” data&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;De-identifying data is the process of removing or changing information like names and addresses in the hope that the dataset won’t allow you to uniquely identify a person. This protection, isn&amp;rsquo;t absolute. For example, location data is essentially impossible to ‘de-identify’. How many people visit your home during certain hours each day? Even if the system doesn’t list their names it’s probably not too hard to find out.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;data-brokerages&#34;&gt;Data brokerages&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When your data is collected by different parties very often they will repackage and sell out the data. There are large data brokerages with massive datasets.
+This means that intelligent systems (or a determined adversary) could potentially gather a near-complete picture of your life by correlating pieces from different datasets. This is a massive advantage that large firms will always have over smaller organizations.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;data-breaches&#34;&gt;Data breaches&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is not only your own personal security that matters, but also the security of all those who are keeping data about&lt;a href=&#34;haveibeenpwned.com/&#34;&gt; you. HaveIbeenPwned&lt;/a&gt; is a great tool to verify if your e-mail appears in any data breaches. The trouble is that any information that becomes accessible is impossible to truly erase. Those wishing to use data to control others likely do not care for ethical concerns about how it is sourced.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;artificial-intelligence&#34;&gt;Artificial intelligence&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;AI is no longer a sci-fi concept, it is very real and very present in our lives. Artificial intelligence is fueled by big data. This creates a feedback loop that incentivizes further data collection. The more data that exists, the more data there is to abuse.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;how-does-it-work-signals--levers&#34;&gt;How does it work? Signals &amp;amp; Levers&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/tott-2-signals.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To oversimplify a bit, an AI algorithm is given many signals as ‘inputs’ and outputs one or many results. AIs are ‘trained’ by feeding them inputs and the desired outputs. It is essentially the AIs job to learn how to produce those outputs. By adjusting the values in its ‘&lt;em&gt;memory&lt;/em&gt;’, it will learn how to give better results. Once an AI is trained with enough data it will be able to reliably produce accurate results for new data.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A great deal of these results are derived from a properly designed network and dataset. An AI fed with data that is incomplete or biased can produce useless or incorrect results. This is why it is a horrific idea to allow AI algorithms designed to track and control you to have control over your life. These AI algorithms can work together to create more sophisticated tools.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;hard-to-predict-correlations&#34;&gt;Hard-to-predict correlations&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;AI algorithms shouldn’t have direct control over systems that have the capability of harming people. By giving complex AIs levers to control the real world it can be almost &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.wired.com/story/these-algorithms-look-x-rays-detect-your-race/&#34;&gt;impossible to predict&lt;/a&gt; what the potential impacts can be. The potential risks to human rights or even safety can’t be overstated.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is because no matter how powerful our machines are, or how sophisticated our algorithms are we are not able to fully simulate the human experience in our human societies. There will be blind-spots and bad incentives. They are designed by humans after-all.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;these-tools-are-impressive&#34;&gt;These tools are impressive&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is not to say AI is useless or bad, it has many very useful and powerful applications. You can explore the possibilities with this amazing YouTube channel &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtube.com/c/K%C3%A1rolyZsolnai/videos&#34;&gt;Two Minute Papers&lt;/a&gt;. The best way to use AI is to use it where there is no danger in a wrong answer. My favorite example is upscaling, generating &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/watch?v=0X1RtXCvPFQ&#34;&gt;higher resolution images&lt;/a&gt; from lower resolution ones.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/skynet-workforce.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/skynet-workforce&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The Rise of a SkyNet Workforce&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;not-all-sunshine-and-rainbows&#34;&gt;Not all sunshine and rainbows.&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The sad news is that many of these systems are in control of our very lives. There is a race to give AI algorithms complete control of what we see, hear, and remember. It is important to keep in mind that these powerful tools are constantly working in the background in the interests of powerful institutions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is very possible that these AI algorithms feed into each other in unintuitive ways. As the technocracy expands out their digital control the impacts may become more clear.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;advertising&#34;&gt;Advertising&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The study of the humans in cyberspace has been ongoing for quite some time. The game-changer is that artificial intelligence can find subtle ways to manipulate you that even its creators couldn’t imagine. Every time you interact with an ad online you are training algorithms to learn how to grab peoples’ time and attention.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;censorship&#34;&gt;Censorship&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Giving AIs the power to moderate the Internet has disastrous potential. Human beings, for all their wisdom, have failed to ever use censorship for anything good. Artificial intelligence should never be a barrier to people’s ability to access information or express themselves.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;astroturfing&#34;&gt;Astroturfing&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Bots are also faster at engaging online than human beings. It would be trivial to use currently available technology to swarm the Internet with bots that are able to out-produce any real human input to spread propaganda. Bots already outnumber humans on social media. The usual solution to this is to demand that human beings use their real identities online, but this immediately backfires by giving AIs a list of ‘real targets’ to hit.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;AI is a game-changer for the technocracy. By &lt;a href=&#34;https://thegrayzone.com/2021/10/08/nato-cognitive-warfare-brain/&#34;&gt;herding people into systems&lt;/a&gt; with defined goals, the systems can set incentive structures to make the herd act how the system wants. If you believe money is a powerful influence over individual people, watch when every aspect of their lives is made better or worse based off how they are judged by these systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;plausible-deniability&#34;&gt;Plausible deniability&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;An underestimated part of these AI algorithms is that with datasets on everyone they can still &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/watch?v=eRAPKG7hbA8&#34;&gt;target people individually.&lt;/a&gt; While this specific case may be an isolated incident, the capability exists to manipulate individuals more subtly. This can impact those who may be more vulnerable, or less likely to speak out.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;perception-management&#34;&gt;Perception management&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As top-down control drives more and more of what people see and experience this allows AIs to learn how to manipulate people’s behavior in incalculable ways. As we allow fewer systems to take total control over information, those who run those systems can actively brainwash the public for any purpose.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Perception management is a weapon primarily aimed at people’s subconscious minds. There is immense opportunity to leverage people’s very own biology against themselves. Fear, disgust and anger are some of the strongest emotions that can be used to influence people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;digital-gulags&#34;&gt;Digital Gulags&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;‘Social credit scores’ don’t need to be binary.
+Everything in your life can be put on a sliding scale.
+If you behave ‘well’ the system can reward you with:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A more pleasant social media feed&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;More favorable transaction costs and terms&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Preferential resolutions in disputes&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Access to more computing power&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Access to more energy&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Better quality food&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If the system decides you’re not doing what it wants it can &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/cyprianous/status/1493414970976980992&#34;&gt;punish you&lt;/a&gt; with:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;More negative news&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Less representation in disputes&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Less computing power&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Energy rationing&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Lower quality food&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Once allowed, this system wouldn’t simply turn people into slaves, it would hijack evolution to transform what once were human beings into different creatures all-together. Sounds a lot like &lt;a href=&#34;https://slate.com/technology/2014/07/rokos-basilisk-the-most-terrifying-thought-experiment-of-all-time.html&#34;&gt;Roko’s Basilisk&lt;/a&gt;….&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;solutions&#34;&gt;Solutions&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;take-privacy-and-security-seriously&#34;&gt;Take privacy and security seriously&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Consider switching away from tools and technology that track you as part of their business model. It is worth your time to find hardware, operating systems, and programs that aren’t proactively reporting on your behavior. This doesn’t have to be all-at-once but can be done gradually. Every bit helps and there is a gradient of success. Another option is simply to modify your lifestyle to find ways to rely less on digital systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;limit-your-interaction-with-data-driven-services&#34;&gt;Limit your interaction with data-driven services&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This doesn’t mean you have to immediately close your bank account or quit your job. Using your influence as a customer or employee can help shift institutions in a better direction. Be aware of how these systems work and how you can mitigate their effects on your life.
+In any instance where you can replace a service or tool that is tracking you with one that isn’t you’re making great progress. &lt;a href=&#34;https://backgroundchecks.org/justdeleteme/&#34;&gt;Consider having your data deleted from unused sites&lt;/a&gt;. Try shopping in store, rather than from an online store-front.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/fediverse.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/call-to-action-join-the-fediverse&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Call to action: Join the Fediverse&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;A simple, but very effective way to tip the scales in favor of free speech.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Switching away from &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/1-emancipate-yourself-from-mental-slavery&#34;&gt;Algorithmically manipulated social media&lt;/a&gt; towards better alternatives such as &lt;a href=&#34;https://fediverse.party/&#34;&gt;pleroma &amp;amp; mastodon&lt;/a&gt; can help a great deal. Gab also doesn’t manipulate what appears in your feed. Ensure that you’re bookmarking important sites. RSS feeds are also critical in getting information without censorship or moderation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;support-open-data&#34;&gt;Support open data&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;AI can be used for good! Open source tools and open datasets level the playing-field a great deal. An interesting project in this space is &lt;a href=&#34;https://commonvoice.mozilla.org/en&#34;&gt;Mozilla Common Voice&lt;/a&gt;. It is difficult for this kind of work to compete with corporate or state-level initiatives, but it would be much harder to hide private data in a public dataset.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Consider getting involved locally, if there are local groups interested in privacy rights as well as security you can work to influence local governments and institutions to better protect people’s privacy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/construction-banner.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-3/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #3 Robots, IoT, Automation, Oh my!&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Transforming the world in ways seen and unseen&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Tools of the Technocracy: #1 Digital Currency</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-1/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-1/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/tools-of-the-technocracy1.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-1.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-1.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-1.webp" />
+		<description>How the digital financial complex works against you...and what you can do about it.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;tools-of-the-technocracy--1-digital-currency&#34;&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/tools-of-the-technocracy-series&#34;&gt;Tools of the Technocracy&lt;/a&gt;:  #1 Digital Currency&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Digital currency is what makes online commerce work so well. The trouble is that as the Internet has invaded our lives, it has given the digital financial complex more and more power. This is the foundation of a “social credit system” that aims to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cbdc-how-covid-became-path-global-financial-surveillance&#34;&gt;control every aspect&lt;/a&gt; of your life. Having the “right” social attitudes or behavior will not be enough to endure this. The game is total control and the prize is all your time and assets.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;data-collection&#34;&gt;Data collection&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The first thing to be surrendered to these digital financial tools was privacy. Having access to transaction data tells those collecting the information a great deal about you. It is trivial to glean travel patterns, interests, and all sorts of details about your life if they can catalogue your transactions. It is near impossible to keep your financial information private when operating through these services.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;censorship&#34;&gt;Censorship&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;People assume that financial institutions will only intervene in the most egregious of circumstances. Under the guise of stopping terrorism, hate and criminal activity the financial sector has acquired the power to be the arbiter of online commerce. Large institutions are only getting started abusing this power to micro-manage more and more economic activity.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This censorship, even when used for so-called “benign” purposes, distorts market incentives. At minimum, there will be &lt;a href=&#34;https://reclaimthenet.org/ko-fi-unpublishes-page-of-uk-womens-rights-group/&#34;&gt;chilling effects&lt;/a&gt; and perverse incentives created by these interventions. As these measures accelerate, trust becomes a fading memory.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;financial-repression&#34;&gt;Financial repression&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Do you have control of your money? If not, is it really “your money”? In many cases, digital currency can be frozen, blacklisted or &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.globalresearch.ca/rule-power/5796021&#34;&gt;even seized from you&lt;/a&gt;. In these situations you often have little-or-no recourse. The cryptocurrency space has a term “Not your keys…Not your Bitcoin”. This is doubly true for fiat-based platforms. Digital currencies linked to fiat (state) currencies also have the unfortunate side-effect of being silently seized through rising amounts of inflation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-villains&#34;&gt;The Villains&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;creditdebit-cards&#34;&gt;Credit/Debit Cards&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The earliest stage financial tracking. Almost everyone is guilty of using these. They are certainly preferable to the alternatives listed below, but in all instances it is better for you to use debit cards instead of credit cards where possible.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;cryptocurrency&#34;&gt;Cryptocurrency&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Not all cryptocurrencies are the same. Some are more decentralized than others. Important questions to ask are:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Can you run your own client/wallet? (a “full node”)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Who are the developers?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;How is the protocol developed?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Does it have a proven history?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Does it shield you from inflation?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unlike debit/credit cards where financial transactions are tracked by a private entity, financial analysis is open to anyone who has access to the blockchain (usually everyone). Some argue this is more “fair” and that it would be better if we transitioned our entire financial system to a public ledger.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This wouldn’t achieve the desired effects. Those with power and wealth would still have the means to conceal their activities. On top of this, they would still have the ability to have asymmetric power over individuals by developing better tools to track and analyze their financial activities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The notable exception being Monero. While it’s privacy may be currently intact, there is no guarantee that it never will be broken. By nature of being stored on a public blockchain, once that protection is broken it is lost forever.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;custodial-services-paypalvenmostripeect&#34;&gt;Custodial services (Paypal/Venmo/Stripe/ect)&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These services often aim to make it easier for people, businesses and institutions to accept payments. They often come at a high cost. If financial tracking wasn’t bad enough, they also have the power to control your customers money. They can unilaterally decide to cut you off often leaving you in a very difficult financial situation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In late 2022, Paypal instituted a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-paypal-policy-lets-company-pull-2500-from-users-accounts-if-they-promote-misinformation&#34;&gt;policy&lt;/a&gt; granting them the power to fine users for so-called misinformation. After a massive wave of account cancellations, Paypal announced that the policy was included in error. At best, this policy was a &amp;ldquo;trial baloon&amp;rdquo; to get a pulse of how much tolerance the public has for financial censorship.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;centralized-cryptocurrency-exchanges-and-services&#34;&gt;Centralized Cryptocurrency exchanges and services&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Speaking of: “Not your keys, not your Bitcoin”, keeping cryptocurrency assets on exchanges or services exposes you to counter-party risk. You shouldn’t rely on a specific service to hold all your cryptocurrency/assets. Many of these institutions may not have a strong history to justify any level of trust.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Exchanges have been caught &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2019/07/19/crypto-exchange-bitmex-under-investigation-by-cftc-bloomberg/&#34;&gt;trading against their customers&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/06/29/coinbase-is-reportedly-selling-geo-location-data-to-ice/&#34;&gt;selling information to the state&lt;/a&gt;, and being outright &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/11/charles-hugh-smith/ftx-the-dominoes-of-financial-fraud-have-yet-to-fall/&#34;&gt;ponzi schemes&lt;/a&gt;. An underestimated concern is that many cryptocurrency exchanges operate as the “on-ramp” from the fiat currency system. By converting fiat currency into cryptocurrency you can be transferring value from a system that has little privacy into one with no privacy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;where-is-all-this-headed&#34;&gt;Where is all this headed?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;blockchain-prisons&#34;&gt;Blockchain Prisons&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A misconception people often have about cryptocurrency and blockchain projects is that they are, by their nature, decentralized. This is not an essential feature of blockchains nor cryptocurrencies.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/road2hell.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/blockchain/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;The road to hell: misplaced optimism in the blockchain space&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What blockchain technology gives the technocracy is interoperability. A private distributed ledger could be used to give interoperability to CBDCs. On November 15th 2022, the New York Fed launched a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/banking-giants-new-york-fed-start-12-week-digital-dollar-pilot-2022-11-15/&#34;&gt;12 week digital dollar pilot&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;smart-contracts&#34;&gt;Smart Contracts&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A smart contract is an incentive system built on top of a blockchain ledger. None of the currently existing smart contract platforms are private. This means that all the data in a given smart contract is public. They could potentially encrypt data with a wallet’s private-key but that does make it difficult to share that data with others.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/programmable-currency&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Programmable currency&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is it good for?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Smart contracts build systems that can create ways for humans and non-human systems to be rewarded by specific activities. For instance, Helium is attempting to incentivize people to provide data connectivity to systems built to track-and-trace activity in the real world. This is a powerful way to re-engineer society.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;nfts&#34;&gt;NFTs&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A Non-Fungible-Token is a blockchain asset that can be assigned to a specific entity. Notably, for now, people are selling “digital ownership” of pieces of art. It is not difficult to imagine a scenario where all property ‘rights’ are regulated by a system that temporarily assigns NFTs to those who are “authorized” to access that particular item or property.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;NFTs have even more potential. These systems can be much more flexible and opaque in very unintuitive ways. Everything is determined by the smart contract. It would be trivial to create individualized rules to limit who gets to use their ‘rights’ to the fullest…if at all.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;web3&#34;&gt;Web3&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Web3 is the encroachment of the cryptocurrency space into the entire internet. By building experiences on top of smart contracts, which have no privacy, every activity online can feed into algorithms that are used to tailor the totality of the online experience to each individual.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In many ways Web3 allows for much of Silicon Valley to be automated away with blockchain systems. While this may sound like a good thing, you are merely changing one bad system for another. Without a truly decentralized, private and secure blockchain Web3 will only work to the detriment of it’s users.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;internet-of-things&#34;&gt;Internet of Things&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;By connecting more and more ‘things’ to the Internet it exposes them to being dominated by the systems discussed here. A ‘thing’ doesn’t need to be a trivial device such as a “smart speaker” or a fridge. It would very well be the car you drive or the &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/GsMPm&#34;&gt;door you enter to get to your office.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;permission-economy&#34;&gt;Permission Economy&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Do you think everything outlined above sounds awful and dystopian? The following will take it into overdrive:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;cbdcs&#34;&gt;CBDCs&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Central bank digital currencies are the final form of repressive fiat currencies. Instead of your central bank simply devaluing your labour and wages for fiscal stimulus, they can now control the demand side of the equation by limiting what you are allowed to buy (or sell) and when. The system has no desire to use prices as a mechanism to allocate resources because of the belief that the technology now exists to &lt;a href=&#34;https://alilybit.substack.com/p/cbdcs-why-governments-cheer-and-humanity&#34;&gt;run everything.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-10&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #10 Central Bank Digital Currencies&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Late-stage financial repression&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;tokenized-life&#34;&gt;Tokenized life&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;NFTs could be used to determine permissions in the ‘internet of things’. In that case, it will become near impossible to act outside the wishes of the system. Eventually the system will want to have every gram, ounce, or milliliter of resources accounted for. In the name of ‘efficiency’, they will attempt to track and control every atom on the planet.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-7.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-7/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #7 Smart Cities&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Smart cities are marketed as if they are for the convenience of its residents, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;virtual-reality&#34;&gt;Virtual Reality&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Once people are denied all mobility rights and determination it becomes a lot easier to sell virtual experiences for data and profit.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-6.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-6/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #6 Virtual Reality&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Seeing is believing, and the capability to leverage your own senses against you only gets more extreme over time.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is the endgame of control. After seizing all the resources and property, they will also control the people by having direct control of their perception. When the physical world becomes much to harsh to bear those who remain will be psychologically herded into a virtual farm that’s entire purpose is to keep them ‘out of the way’.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;solutions&#34;&gt;Solutions&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://home.solari.com/cash-friday/&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/tott-1-cash.webp&#39; 
+
+ alt=&#39;#CashEveryday&#39;
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://home.solari.com/cash-friday/&#34;&gt;#CashEveryday&lt;/a&gt; is an initiative to keep cash alive, by using cash transactions wherever possible. While fiat currency has its problems, cash is an anonymous and untraceable way to transfer value. You really should be using cash in every possible transaction. This reduces the amount of control third-parties have over transactions, and promotes keeping things local. Regardless of what new innovations take place, there should always be a private, physical component to the financial system.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;volunteer--buy-nothing&#34;&gt;Volunteer / “Buy nothing”&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are two other highly underestimated commodities that are drained by the technocracy: your time and attention. By giving your time to support people and causes in your community, you can often have a huge impact with very little financial input. Your contributions won’t be able to as easily be frozen or tracked by third parties.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/lsn-banner.webp)&#34; &gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/high-places&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Redefining &amp;#34;high places&amp;#34;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Lets re-balance power from the bottom-up&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Often you may be able to find local “Buy nothing” groups on social media. Donating items you don’t need anymore can help restore locked wealth in your community and help those who may need those items. You may find something useful yourself!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;understand-that-wealth-is-more-than-just-currency&#34;&gt;Understand that wealth is more than just currency&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I highly recommend you watch though the Peak Prosperity &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.peakprosperity.com/crashcourse/&#34;&gt;Crash Course&lt;/a&gt;. Updated in 2018, it has aged frighteningly well. While the main take away is the role of energy in our society there are many other vital insights. The most valuable tip in leaving the rat race is to realize that there are many things much more vital to your well-being than currency.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;work-to-break-away-from-the-all-digital-financial-system&#34;&gt;Work to break away from the all-digital financial system&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a fantastic series by Children’s Health Defense called &lt;a href=&#34;https://live.childrenshealthdefense.org/shows/financial-rebellion&#34;&gt;Financial Rebellion&lt;/a&gt; which is a treasure-trove of great advice in this series.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/big-data.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-2/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #2 Big Data &amp;amp; Artificial Intelligence&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is all this data for anyways?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Tools of the Technocracy</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 08 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy/</guid>
+		
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://libresolutions.network//media/audio/tools-of-the-technocracy.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/tools-of-the-technocracy.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/tools-of-the-technocracy.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/tools-of-the-technocracy.webp" />
+		<description>Why the very fate of humanity will be decided in this next decade.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;our-darkest-hour&#34;&gt;Our Darkest Hour&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;We are currently in a time like none other in all of human history.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the past, tyrants and dictators have had a hard limit on how far they could push people. From either logistical difficulties, fear of resistance, or liberation from other nations; these hard limits have been getting softer and softer as technology advances. Recent history has shown an ever-increasing centralization of power into a smaller and smaller set of control structures.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We as everyday people have been complicit in building and maintaining these control structures. Almost every technology has allowed people to trade privacy, security or freedom for convenience. Technology isn’t inherently bad, but allowing this power to go unchecked absolutely is.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;The sum total of what the world is constructing is nothing short of a planet-wide &lt;a href=&#34;https://odysee.com/@PlanetLockdown:6/Catherine-Austin-Fitts:cc&#34;&gt;enslavement grid&lt;/a&gt; that has never been possible before. The individual parts create feedback loops that make it very difficult for people to extrapolate the long term impacts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The tyrants of the world are winning a massive arms race against the rest of humanity. We must not merely avoid these systems, rather every one of us is responsible for preventing them from being weaponized against the people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;our-last-chance&#34;&gt;Our last chance&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This time is so critical because the powers that ought not to be are in a desperate rush to finalize this system. The internet and the ability for people all over the world to coordinate and learn from each other has greatly tipped the balance of power into humanity’s favor. It is paramount that we put all other differences aside to focus on protecting the future for all people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This means that until the technocrats are discredited and prosecuted the following doesn’t matter at all:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Political affiliation&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Religious affiliation&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Education&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Cultural background or race&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Physical characteristics such as sex or disability&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Wealth (or lack thereof)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Anything else you can think of…&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The truth is the only useful indicator you have for who can be trusted is if they are &lt;strong&gt;proactively focused on enhancing human liberty and fighting against human enslavement.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You are going to find people in this fight that have different beliefs than you, often staggeringly so. It is paramount that you put these feelings aside for the good of all. You and everyone else will be better for it. Those who can reach across to those with fundamental differences to oppose tyranny are going to be the most important people in the world.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;a-future-worth-fighting-for&#34;&gt;A future worth fighting for&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Overthrowing this evil will open up a fractal of possibilities for people to improve the world around them. There have been incalculable harms done by the waste of building these systems that could have been used for much better things.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ending information control will allow people to work to provide genuine solutions to many of the worlds problems. Stopping the censorship of cures will eliminate much avoidable suffering. Resources spent oppressing people will be freed up to solve real problems. We will still have challenges, and there will still be political squabbles, but we have a very real opportunity to right many grave wrongs. I am not promising anyone a utopia, merely a world immensely more just than our current one.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;the-tools&#34;&gt;The tools&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This series will help you better understand what technologies are being weaponized against people. Simply avoiding them or remaining ignorant isn’t quite enough to avoid their effects. Much of the public is in the dark about these things, it is vital that we are all able to explain what is wrong with these mechanisms of control.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-1.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-1/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy #1: Digital Currency&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;How the digital financial complex works against you...and what you can do about it.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/big-data.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-2/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #2 Big Data &amp;amp; Artificial Intelligence&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is all this data for anyways?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/construction-banner.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-3/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #3 Robots, IoT, Automation, Oh my!&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Transforming the world in ways seen and unseen&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-4.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-4/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #4 Online Identity&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is following you in your digital tracks?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-5.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-5/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #5 Networks&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Much of the digital infrastructure in place today is built to structurally enable tyranny.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-6.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-6/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #6 Virtual Reality&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Seeing is believing, and the capability to leverage your own senses against you only gets more extreme over time.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-7.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-7/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #7 Smart Cities&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Smart cities are marketed as if they are for the convenience of its residents, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-8.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-8&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #8 Transhumanism&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;How close are the technocrats to modifying you? Too close.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/tott-9-preview.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-9&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #9 Internet Shutdowns&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Information control is the root of modern tyranny.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/cbdc-chains.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-10&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #10 Central Bank Digital Currencies&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;Late-stage financial repression&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/chains.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-11&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #11 Social Credit&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What&amp;#39;s new is old.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/network-state-banner.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-12/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #12 Network States&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;The formalization of world-wide tyranny&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The most valuable asset for the coming decade</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/5-most-valuable-asset/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/5-most-valuable-asset/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/5-disintermediation.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/5-disintermediation.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/5-disintermediation.webp" />
+		<description>Not cryptocurrency, but this Intangible will change your life in miraculous ways.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;trust&#34;&gt;Trust&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Over the last decade individuals and institutions have shifted from covertly selling out their trust to overtly abusing that trust. &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/watch?v=k8Et942iDSc&#34;&gt;Trust is essential to have in a civilization.&lt;/a&gt; So much of our society is built on assumed trust, or worse trust only maintained by illusion. By abusing the trust of their clients, partners, and the general public they are supplanting their own existence and in turn tainting those who rely on them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What makes trust most valuable is that there are limitless masses of those who will lie, cheat, and steal to get ahead. There is no competitive advantage to joining them. Can you trust a person who is beholden to a corporation that is working against your interests? Can you trust a company that relies on the exploitation of the most vulnerable? The faster we seek better alternatives the better we can &lt;a href=&#34;https://home.solari.com/the-popsicle-index/&#34;&gt;make the world&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This fractal of opportunity means that if we can be trustworthy, we can work to create better alternatives. But how? The first step is disintermediation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/5-disintermediation.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;news&#34;&gt;News&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Information control is one of the most powerful weapons used against the public. Ideally you would have a curated subset of sources of information that you trust but also a wide net of opinions and disciplines to avoid blind-spots. This year, ensure that you have explored the new media that is being birthed in this time and find ways to avoid being too influenced by a single person or organization.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;social-media&#34;&gt;Social media&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Social media is the main tool for information control. By dominating the terms of interaction between human beings social media can work to undermine culture itself. To foster a liberty-minded culture I recommend you look into federated social media such as Mastodon and Pleroma.
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://fedi.libresolutions.network/@lsn&#34;&gt;We on our own instance&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;e-mail&#34;&gt;E-mail&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;E-mail was once a very reliable way of ensuring people got your message but even now they are updating spam filters to censor information. Big tech e-mail providers will proactively scan your e-mail contents. If you or your loved ones are still stuck with Google/Outlook for e-mail I would highly recommend they switch providers.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;messaging-apps&#34;&gt;Messaging Apps&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Facebook Messenger / WhatsApp / Google Hangouts / Duo / ..ect shouldn’t be the means in which you’re willing to communicate with others. There are many alternatives but one of the more interesting options is &lt;a href=&#34;https://delta.chat/en/&#34;&gt;Delta Chat&lt;/a&gt;. Signal is also great because it seamlessly works with SMS. Personally I host my own matrix instance to run element.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;payment-processors&#34;&gt;Payment processors&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;PayPal and Visa/Mastercard are already abusing their contracts to enact censorship by restricting access or levying fees. It is paramount that we all work to reduce our dependency on credit card systems as much as possible.
+Cryptocurrency is an option, but for local uses it would be far better to use physical money or cash.
+If you’re in the US you may find &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.gabpay.com/&#34;&gt;GabPay&lt;/a&gt; useful.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;operating-systems&#34;&gt;Operating Systems&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Windows, ChromeOS &amp;amp; MacOS all have too much control over your digital life. It would help a great deal if more and more people switched to Linux where there is much less data collection on users. There is a fair learning curve, and not all software is equally available so it is important to recognize where you are and how easy it is for you to switch.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For someone who hasn’t tried linux at all I would personally recommend taking a look at &lt;a href=&#34;https://pureos.net/&#34;&gt;PureOS&lt;/a&gt; though Ubuntu is also a very popular choice. For smartphones I would recommend using &lt;a href=&#34;https://grapheneos.org/&#34;&gt;GrapheneOS&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://lineageos.org/&#34;&gt;LineageOS&lt;/a&gt; instead of Android.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;open-hardware&#34;&gt;Open Hardware&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am a big fan of the &lt;a href=&#34;https://pine64.com/&#34;&gt;Pine64&lt;/a&gt; project. I look forward to when the Pinephone is ready for mass adoption. Open hardware is going to be an important space in the future so keep an eye open for it!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Big picture&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are so many ways we can work to fix the future and it can be difficult to keep them all in mind. As a guide I like to occasionally revisit &lt;a href=&#34;https://home.solari.com/coming-clean/&#34;&gt;Coming Clean&lt;/a&gt; from Solari. That advice is a lighthouse in turbulent and uncertain times.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Work to find other trustworthy individuals and organizations to collaborate. Show others that you can be relied upon. We can make the world a much better place, with consistent focus and effort there is no limit to what we can achieve together.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Account security best practices</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/4-account-security-best-practices/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 19 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/4-account-security-best-practices/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/4-data-breach.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/4-data-breach.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/4-data-breach.webp" />
+		<description>How to make sure every service you use is as secure and as private as possible.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-best-way-to-protect-data-is-not-to-record-it&#34;&gt;The best way to protect data is not to record it&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Almost everyone has at least a dozen accounts and it can be quite a disaster if your password gets published in yet another data breach. Passwords aren’t the only information worth stealing and the best way to protect important information is never to collect it. In general, it’s best to avoid making an account with a service if you don’t need to. Sadly many services force you into making an account by gating content, which is a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern&#34;&gt;dark pattern.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This also applies to payment information. Not only should you only input payment information when you need to, but you should also consider what kind of payment methods you use. Cryptocurrency is perfectly transparent to everyone, and your credit cards are perfectly transparent to whoever your card provider shares their data with. In many cases its worth asking yourself “does this service really need my information to do what I need it to do?”&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;using-a-password-manager&#34;&gt;Using a password manager&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are many password managers usually with trade-offs between trust and convenience. The most secure option would be to run an offline password manager and manually sync between devices, but there are other options that provide a cloud-based solution for convenience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Consider:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://keepassxc.org/&#34;&gt;KeePassXC&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;If you use Nextcloud you can also use it to sync passwords&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;benefits-of-using-a-password-manager&#34;&gt;Benefits of using a password manager&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Strong passwords&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The most obvious advantage of a password manager is the ability to store and keep difficult to remember passwords. This is critical to having a strong unique password for each account.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unique details&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Passwords aren’t the only thing that is best to have unique. You can also easily keep track of different usernames and e-mails for each service. Not only that but you can avoid disclosing your e-mail address with a temporary e-mail through a free service like TempMail.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Account fungibility&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With a password manager it is now much easier to manage multiple accounts. Sometimes it’s nice to start fresh, other times services like reddit will want you to have a properly aged account to comment or access certain features. Keeping track of accounts makes sure you don’t forget any.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;multi-factor-authentication&#34;&gt;Multi-factor authentication&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Multi-factor authentication is an essential tool in keeping accounts secure. This allows you to be protected even if someone gets access to your password. There are many ways to use multi-factor authentication but it us usually up to the service to support it. It is best to enable whatever method is available and works for you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;smse-mail-codes&#34;&gt;SMS/e-mail codes&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is the bare-minimum for a service trying to offer two-factor authentication. If you’re not using unique passwords, e-mail authentication won’t provide you any additional benefit. Also using a throw-away e-mail that you don’t have access to excludes you from using e-mail based authentication.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;SMS authentication has often been broken by dedicated attackers social engineering the service provider. This is largely only done for high value targets. Another drawback to SMS multi-factor authentication is that you have to divulge your mobile number to the service.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With these shortcomings in mind, SMS/e-mail confirmation is still another layer of protection that can still be helpful.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;totp-codes--google-authenticator&#34;&gt;TOTP codes / “Google Authenticator”&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Timed one-time-pad codes are a fantastic tool. Essentially you are given a special ‘key’ by scanning a QR code which will generate random numbers to act as your “second password” and it works quite well for this.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is often a “recovery code” that must not be disclosed as this will allow someone to generate your time codes. TOTP codes are great because it would be very hard for an attacker to have access to your password as well as a personal device to enter the code.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;If you’re on android &lt;a href=&#34;https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.beemdevelopment.aegis/&#34;&gt;Aegis Authenticator&lt;/a&gt; is available on &lt;a href=&#34;https://f-droid.org&#34;&gt;F-Droid&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;On iOS you can use &lt;a href=&#34;https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/google-authenticator/id388497605&#34;&gt;Google Authenticator&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;avoiding-data-leaks&#34;&gt;Avoiding data leaks&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can generally assume that all your information for every service is being collected and sold for purposes outside your control. Services get hacked and data breaches happen. The less exposed you are to any particular service being compromised the better.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;section class=&#34;listing&#34;  style=&#34;background-image:url(https://libresolutions.network//media/images/big-data.webp)&#34;&gt;
+
+    
+    &lt;div class=&#34;listing-text&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/tools-of-the-technocracy-2/&#34;  &gt;&lt;h2&gt;Tools of the Technocracy: #2 Big Data &amp;amp; Artificial Intelligence&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;i&gt;What is all this data for anyways?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    
+    &lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/section&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;integrations-are-evil&#34;&gt;Integrations are evil&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;“Sign in with…” sounds very convenient but it undermines the uniqueness of each account. The more big tech can identify patterns between your accounts they can very often glean unintuitive insights from fairly innocuous data.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Avoid signing in with big tech platforms and only authorize apps to connect to your accounts in very limited circumstances. Remove any unused integrations once you’re done with them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;disable-e-mail-alerts&#34;&gt;Disable e-mail alerts&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There aren’t many conditions that allow you to guarantee that your e-mails aren’t being read by someone, or something else. When a service sends you an e-mail alert about something, (like an online purchase for example) this gives your e-mail provider and anyone they share data with access to a key window into your life.
+Salt your data&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many sites and services will ask for data that serves no purpose and can’t be verified. You are under no obligation to provide them a correct, useful dataset to be used against you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.corbettreport.com/salting-your-data-solutionswatch/&#34;&gt;“Salting your data”&lt;/a&gt; is to simply input incorrect or unintelligible data such as incorrect birth dates or fake names to undermine these data-collection efforts.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Breaking Free</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/3-breaking-free/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 11 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/3-breaking-free/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/3-breaking-free.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/3-breaking-free.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/3-breaking-free.webp" />
+		<description>Better privacy, security and freedom are achievable</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;How do you find the perfect app?
+What can we do when all the major services have been designed to track, manipulate and control us?
+Should we just turn everything off and run to the woods?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;prepare-your-mind&#34;&gt;Prepare your mind&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The systems built to manipulate and control us weren’t built in a day. It requires all of us to focus intently on building a human-centric instead of data driven digital experience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Remind yourself that will make a huge difference over the long run:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Accept that your privacy, security, and freedom require your active participation.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;There will be many situations where mitigation is the best-case-scenario.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Consider the difference between technology improving or imposing on your life.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Not all tools are equivalent different options have incredibly diverse trade-offs.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Even the simplest habits can build up into massive improvements. Like many other things this is a marathon and not a sprint. Your choices matter a great deal because they change the incentives for systems and institutions. Managing expectations is critical in avoiding frustration.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;team-up&#34;&gt;Team up&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the most effective ways to improve is to try new things. Everyone knows adopting a new messaging application is very difficult when nobody you know uses it. Getting others to join you helps everyone involved.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The most powerful way to help others adopt better solutions is to spend the time and effort to set them up. Very often little maintenance or support is needed once someone is ready to go.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As a team you can collaborate on supporting each other. Not everyone has the same familiarity and ability to adopt different solutions. Once your team gets familiar with one option it also gets easier to adopt others as well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;An underestimated advantage of teaming up is that you can now pool resources to solving problems. If teams of people using free and open source software that respects their privacy the burden of donating to support development could be shared much easier. Many developers for very important projects would benefit from donations by the people instead of larger corporations.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;accept-reasonable-compromise&#34;&gt;Accept &lt;em&gt;reasonable&lt;/em&gt; compromise&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Perfection is often unattainable. For example properly securing e-mail communication between multiple parties requires a great deal of effort that could be much better used by keeping mission-critical messages on more secure infrastructure. Odds are you will still need to be able to receive e-mails all the same.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Compromise is essential when working with many people. Your favorite (and possibly even most secure) option may not be easy right away for others to start working with. Ideally the first thing you compromise is urgency, a plan to move forward is much better than betting everything on immediate success.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Consider that a hot new app may make claims that have yet to be proven. Rushing people into adopting novel technology can very often backfire.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;embrace-the-analog&#34;&gt;Embrace the analog&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The fastest and most secure way to send someone a file is to hand-deliver them physical media with the data written to it. Every time you send files through networks the only guarantee you have is that they likely won’t be decrypted right away. Over the long run this guarantee becomes more of a hope.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Sending large amounts of data over the mail is easier and easier as storage gets better and better. For greater protection you could send a relative an encrypted disk/drive and then simply message them with the password.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I hope to generally avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater…but “smart home” devices are almost always a trap. I personally would only rely on a “smart enabled” lock or appliance without any connection to the Internet and running software I understand.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;thank-you&#34;&gt;Thank you&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thanks for reading this post.
+This is the last in my starting series discussing the big picture as I see it.
+I also want to thank my first paid subscriber!
+Moving forward upcoming articles will be about small scale improvements and how to bring them to your life. Premium articles will be similar to these big picture musings.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>You have a right to remain silent, but your data doesn&#39;t!</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/2-you-have-a-right-to-remain-silent/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/2-you-have-a-right-to-remain-silent/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/images/big-data2.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/big-data2.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/images/big-data2.webp" />
+		<description>Demystifying the all-seeing eye</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;where-is-the-data&#34;&gt;Where is the data?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Data-driven services are ubiquitous. They all feed into machine learning algorithms who’s purpose is to decode the human psyche.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;E-mail providers scan your e-mails to learn about your interests &amp;amp; online purchases&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Entertainment services gather all kinds of information about what catches your attention and stimulates specific emotions&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Every time you spend money financial institutions and retailers are analyzing your explicit and implicit voting with your wallet.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Social media and other communication services can adequately measure your individual impact as well as gauge messaging.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Advertising platforms catalogue and collect not only which sites you visit but how you navigate within and between them.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;how-is-it-used&#34;&gt;How is it used?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You may not mind amazon knowing what packages you order. You may not mind google knowing everywhere you have been. You may also be unbothered by your bank knowing your financial history. It’s not a big deal that social media networks are aware of every human that is aware of you. Surely there is nothing wrong with further and further data collection of everything?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The trouble comes when all this information is bundled and sold off to other data warehouses to train more sophisticated AI which is then used to provide input to corporations and institutions. This isn’t simply a ‘social credit system’ this is the groundwork for skynet’s total domination of humanity.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;That does sound extreme but consider that this data analysis won’t end with humans. We were simply the easy part because we were able to be tricked into adopting and feeding these systems. Smart contracts are a fascinating aspect of blockchain technology but in this light they are a terrifying tool for the Internet of Things™ to begin tracking and tracing every atom on this planet.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;how-does-that-hurt-you&#34;&gt;How does that hurt you?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Back to the little picture, there are already very sophisticated systems learning about you specifically and as a human creature. There will never be any guarantee that these tools will be used for your benefit. All indications point to these systems being used to extract as much value from you as possible as quickly as possible regardless.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In fact this is precisely why Youtube has been named as a agent provocateur in the culture wars. Youtube’s recommendation algorithm has been given a lot of flak for ‘radicalizing’ people. This isn’t because Youtube has any specific desire to create extremists, but rather that was a side-effect of maximizing engagement. That was a relatively simple system compared to recent more refined machine learning algorithms.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You have no way of knowing that insidious goals you are being nudged along with and odds are there are many running in parallel. Occasionally someone will point to some benevolent outcome of these systems but these will always be overshadowed by the grievous harms caused by abusing such power.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-you-can-do-to-mitigate-it&#34;&gt;What you can do to mitigate it?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The only proper way to protect data is to not collect it in the first place. Many data breaches have revealed that a company saying their data is ‘secure’ is merely a promise. Encryption can usually be broken by breaking the people safeguarding it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This means avoiding data-driven services and tools as much as possible. Trading with cash or barter eliminates economic tracing. Physical mail is already more secure than e-mail especially when delivered via a trusted courier.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Because of this, the sneaker-net is the only secure digital network. Handing someone a flash drive with the files they want won’t create any metadata about what was transferred.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is not a binary choice however, you will have to make compromises. The benefits are still quite large, because the less these systems know about you the less the effects can compound against you. Every byte of data not recorded will potentially save lives in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If data must be recorded (such as data with great public interest) blockchains are a great tool for this because you can guarantee the data is public and therefore at least people are on a level playing field. This is much better than the alternative where you provide data to a corporate or government database that will be used with little or no transparency.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;political-solutions&#34;&gt;Political solutions&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A digital bill of rights is long overdue. As we have seen, rights must be (nearly?) absolute and require enforcement mechanisms. There must be no distinction made between who may or may not infringe on these rights, none are to be permitted.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My short list for inclusion in a digital bill of rights would be:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Services and Software are only allowed to collect data that is required for the specific features used by the user to function. Any data sharing must always be opt-in&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Identity should never be required for any platform or service, discrimination against anonymous users should not be allowed.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Users must have the tools for filter their own experience where possible. Allowing users to choose what content to filter is a much preferable option to blanket bans and censorship.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Interoperability is a must, unnecessary lock-in should be treated as anti-competitive behavior.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Educating people on the current state of systems will be the most vital part of this challenge. The Libre Solutions Network is being built with an explicit goal in advancing this. This is very much a moral challenge as well as a technological one.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Emancipate your mind from mental slavery</title>
+		<link>https://libresolutions.network/articles/1-emancipate-yourself-from-mental-slavery/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://libresolutions.network/articles/1-emancipate-yourself-from-mental-slavery/</guid>
+		
+		<image>https://libresolutions.network//media/1-not-immune.webp</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://libresolutions.network//media/1-not-immune.webp" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://libresolutions.network//media/1-not-immune.webp" />
+		<description>Why care about Freedom? Why care about privacy? Why does any of this matter?</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;You are not immortal, and you can be fooled from time to time.
+This is okay, admitting it is much more important than being right all the time.
+Admitting you are wrong, and can be is the very thing that allows you to escape the prison of lies. In fact, admitting it can do a great deal of good in helping free other people from false illusions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/media/1-not-immune.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My goals with the Libre Solutions Network are:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;To help people recognize the digital tools weaponized against them&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;To connect people with groups, ideas, and tools that help people maintain and advance their freedom.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Freedom is your right to determine your future on your own terms.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Privacy prevents systems, institutions and people from leveraging information to undermine that freedom. Often very innocuous, seemingly-unrelated information can be used to manipulate and control people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The goal of understanding digital privacy shouldn’t be to achieve a life of perfect secrecy. Self-censorship is one of the most powerful kinds of censorship that is used against people. Instead the goal is to make sure that the information that is collected on you is as deliberate as possible, by avoiding unintentional disclosure.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Freedom is your most valuable asset. Odds are you are not the most powerful human being on the planet. Therefore it is vital that you understand you are at a disadvantage in terms of information, resources, and representation. Freedom, privacy, and security are all vital tools to shift the balance of power back into your favor.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;social-media&#34;&gt;Social Media&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It would be all to easy to simply say “social media is manipulating you” this is overwhelmingly true but needs to be broken down into the specific methods. Social media is incredibly powerful because it latches onto your primal needs to feel accepted and validated by others. The power social media derives is primarily driven by people attaching status to influence on these platforms.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;media-sorting-and-filtering&#34;&gt;Media sorting and filtering&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Almost everyone intuitively understands that when moderators of a community or site remove posts this impacts people’s ability to be exposed to that information. What is not as clear is that the order in which the information is presented is just as impactful.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;How many people will scroll to read each and every comment on a particular post? Certainly not the majority. In many ways content that is slid down the feed may as well have been removed in many instances.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are many techniques that can be used to work against this, but in general you want to be sure that your posts are being sorted in an unbiased way (such as chronologically) if possible.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;trends&#34;&gt;“Trends”&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;On almost any site the chosen “trending topics” are an editorial decision by the people running the site. This can involve them choosing every single one, or simply removing undesired trends.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Trends can send the false impression that these are the “most important topics” at any given time. This is always false because each person has different priorities and challenges at any given time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;reward-mechanisms&#34;&gt;Reward mechanisms&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;People liking and sharing your posts enhances your reach and will help boost your own perceived status. This is very good at manipulating people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For now it is up to your friends and followers to ‘like’ your posts to provide you with the feedback mechanism that your posts are important. There is no rule that it will stay that way. Sites could experiment with paying cryptocurrency to users who make certain kinds of posts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;nudging&#34;&gt;Nudging&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ever experience a strange glitch while using social media? It may not actually be just a glitch. Many mainstream social media sites have run psychological experiments on their users to evaluate how they respond to particular situations.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Every aspect of your interactions are being recorded to further shape your behavior on the platform. Your attention and engagement are the primary signals to these algorithms.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These are all very concerning because regardless of the specific platform, anyone with write-access to the software that runs these systems can alter information that most would assume is unaltered. There is never a guarantee that the ‘likes’ you are being shown on a post are actually promoting that post. You can never be sure that anyone has seen your content at all.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is not to say that nothing on these platforms has an impact, but it is vital to understand that there are ways that systems can work against you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading.&lt;/p&gt;
+💌 Thank you for reading this via RSS 📡
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	</channel>
+</rss>
+"#;
+
+pub const GABE_ROCKS: &str = r#"
+<?xml-stylesheet href="/css/feed.xsl" type="text/xsl"?>
+<rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" 	xmlns:podcast="https://github.com/Podcastindex-org/podcast-namespace/blob/main/docs/1.0.md" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd">
+  <channel>
+	<title>Gabe Rocks!</title>
+	<link>https://gabe.rocks/</link>
+	<description>Gabriel&#39;s website.</description>
+	<generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator>
+	<language>en-ca</language>
+	<image>
+    <url>https://gabe.rocks//gabriel.webp?d=1751808269</url>
+    </image>
+		
+	<item>
+		<title>Walk With Me: inspiration &amp; hot takes</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/wwm-inspiration-and-takes/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Jul 2025 13:24:29 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/wwm-inspiration-and-takes/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2025-07-05.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<description>Congratulating Reed and pondering the nuances of recovery.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;glad-to-be-back&#34;&gt;Glad to be back&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It has been too long since I&amp;rsquo;ve recorded my off-the-cuff walking monologues. I&amp;rsquo;ve got a great deal on my mind and I hope you&amp;rsquo;ll appreciate listening to it all. Just a heads up, I do have some residual sniffles, so I apologize for letting a few slip in to the final recording. I think I&amp;rsquo;ve done a decent job at cleaning this one without cutting out the birds chirping. I apologize in advance for the soapbox ranting. This journey includes a lot of reflection and learning, so I&amp;rsquo;m open to correction on some of the points I explore.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Things are progressing quite well. As of this morning I weighed in at&lt;br&gt;
+I am quite close to a major milestone: 200lbs down since the start of this journey. I can absolutely feel how much progress I&amp;rsquo;ve made and how much easier it has made things. Soon enough I will be below 350 which is a huge deal for me because it opens up many cool options. Most notably I&amp;rsquo;m excited to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info/dexa&#34;&gt;blast myself with radiation&lt;/a&gt; to learn what&amp;rsquo;s underneath all the fat.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;congratulations-reed&#34;&gt;Congratulations Reed&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A relative showed me a video of &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/thatdudereed_/status/1940108328694104316&#34;&gt;Reed&lt;/a&gt; hitting a major milestone in his weight loss journey. It seems like he&amp;rsquo;s really starting strong. He tells his story &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/live/iybeQZCpdGE?si=LBa9B9Tx1q-JbUQB&amp;amp;t=333&#34;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt; Reed is a few years younger than me, and was heavier far earlier than I was. I hope that he finds support and encouragement in sharing his story. I am humbled by his courage to share as much as he has.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I sent him a short email to offer some encouragement and point out I&amp;rsquo;ve been making progress on the same journey. I would encourage you to &lt;a href=&#34;https://linktr.ee/thatdudereed&#34;&gt;follow his updates&lt;/a&gt; and offer any encouragement you&amp;rsquo;d like to.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;bizarre-weight-loss-spectacles&#34;&gt;Bizarre weight loss spectacles&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the sub-rants in this recording is based off a peculiar pattern I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed. These days I&amp;rsquo;m very sensitive to how the fine details of health are discussed, especially in political circles. I was recently alerted by &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/robert-malone/&#34;&gt;Robert Malone&lt;/a&gt; putting out a post titled &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.malone.news/p/well-being-keeping-the-weight-off&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Well Being: Keeping the Weight OFF for a Long and Healthy Life&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; some of which is paywalled, and therefore I&amp;rsquo;m not aware of those sections. I&amp;rsquo;m less interested at that the self-appointed leader of the &lt;em&gt;Medical Freedom Movement&lt;/em&gt; believes about weight loss, but more about the timing and place in the larger discussion.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In another bizarre parallel, Ezra Levant (head of a Canadian alt-mainstream publication) challenges Canadian journalist Rosemary Barton to a weight loss competition over X:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I’m a bit miffed by Rosemary Barton’s bigotry &amp;amp; self-importance but mainly I can’t help notice that (like me) she’s obviously been doing a lot of stress eating.&lt;br&gt;
+I’d like to challenge her to a 90-day weight-loss competition. Loser has to subscribe to the other’s channel.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/ezralevant/status/1912952590607753596&#34;&gt;Ezra Levant on X&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The challenge included a &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/RebelNewsOnline/status/1938032580986913098&#34;&gt;glossy video promo.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am highly concerned about the not at all new trend of &lt;em&gt;politicizing health&lt;/em&gt; accelerating in ugly ways. I am now much more cynical about public figure&amp;rsquo;s role in health discussions. If nothing else I think it is worth keeping in mind that people are not their illnesses and problems, and many if not all of us have the capacity to help those around us.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;pushing-forward&#34;&gt;Pushing forward&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m very eager to be free of these sniffles, and I&amp;rsquo;m excited to return to being quite active. I&amp;rsquo;ve started carrying my small (15lbs) kettlebell while going for walks. I&amp;rsquo;m beginning to be more confident in other projects as well, I recently revisited my recent &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/trying-out-iced/&#34;&gt;programming project&lt;/a&gt; I spent a long time avoiding touching it because producing something actually useful for other people requires a lot of intricate features. I&amp;rsquo;ve overcome some difficult hurdles and have begun working on these crucial features again.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I can definitely say the first half of 2025 has been equal parts challenging and fruitful. I am quite optimistic that I can end this year on a great note. It is quite possible I can be below 300lbs by 2026 which would be a radical shift from the fact that I was above 570 just a year from now. I&amp;rsquo;ve been quite impatient in regards to taking advantage to my mobility returning. I definitely need to strike the right balance between pushing myself hard and not going too hard.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>A difficult trial</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/feeling-sick/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/feeling-sick/</guid>
+		<description>Dealing with a crash course on recovery</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;For the last week I&amp;rsquo;ve been thrust into a very involuntary rest period. Last weekend I started feeling gradually then increasingly sick. Thankfully I&amp;rsquo;m on the mend but it has been a very difficult hurdle to overcome. I&amp;rsquo;m quite frustrated at how this stuffiness is stubbornly holding on. I haven&amp;rsquo;t been sick like this for over two years, so it seems that it was just time. I had already been frustrated with not being able to push harder and harder, so it&amp;rsquo;s only fitting that I have to be forced into taking an actual rest.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I apologize for the lack of weight loss updates this month. Even prior to getting sick I was finding it very difficult to balance things. I fully intended on doing another video update by the end of the month, sadly I couldn&amp;rsquo;t make that happen. Things have been weird lately. Finally getting &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/below-400/&#34;&gt;below 400lbs&lt;/a&gt; was a massive milestone for so many reasons, and thankfully I&amp;rsquo;m continuing to push further below it. On the other hand, I&amp;rsquo;ve been struggling with difficult feelings about where I am.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The hard part is that this entire process has worn me down quite a bit. Other people can see the progress made but I&amp;rsquo;m very stuck fixating on what hasn&amp;rsquo;t yet been accomplished. Instead of actually living in the moment I&amp;rsquo;m entirely consumed by over-thinking the refinements I want to make. I need to spend more time doing rather than worrying about doing. For the most part, exercise has been my best escape from that dilemma. A non-trivial challenge at this point is self-image. I&amp;rsquo;m roughly back to the size I spent most of my adult life, and I don&amp;rsquo;t have a clear idea of how I&amp;rsquo;ll look as I approach my target. The anticipation is weird because in the best case scenario it&amp;rsquo;s still some time away. I have such a hard time taking care of present Gabriel that I&amp;rsquo;m not at all sure what future Gabriel needs from me.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Back in the Winter, I bought a &amp;ldquo;goal outfit&amp;rdquo; for the summer. It&amp;rsquo;s a 3XL Hawaiian shirt with matching swim shorts. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to put it on at the start of June. It has been genuinely nice to wear it while out, and I&amp;rsquo;ve gotten some nice compliments while wearing it. I&amp;rsquo;m finally at the point where I have reversed years of weight gain putting me back to a pre-2020 weight. I should be more grateful than I am for the situation I&amp;rsquo;m in. Part of my disillusionment is that while I&amp;rsquo;ve gotten back my pre-covid body, life circumstances are significantly different now. While I&amp;rsquo;m more able than I am when I started this journey, I&amp;rsquo;m still quite far away from being able to be as functional as I would like.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A perfect metaphor for how I&amp;rsquo;m feeling about things has been my recent experiences swimming. As I&amp;rsquo;ve lost weight my buoyancy has changed significantly. At the beginning I could effortlessly float with my shoulders above the water, now I&amp;rsquo;m just beginning to sink with my neck below water. This entire time, as I&amp;rsquo;ve been trying to learn to swim better, it just changes on me. Swimming below 400lbs is a very different experience than attempting to swim at 570lbs. I feel like I&amp;rsquo;m not actually making any progress because I&amp;rsquo;m always in an unfamiliar state with the movements. I know it&amp;rsquo;s something I have to push through, but it&amp;rsquo;s absolutely disorienting and hard to remind myself that progress is being made.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This midpoint is very bittersweet. I&amp;rsquo;m getting close to 200lbs down, but I&amp;rsquo;ll have to lose around another 200 more. I had the opportunity to yet again go through some of my old clothes and wear things that I haven&amp;rsquo;t fit into in years. In many ways, wearing these older items puts into perspective how much time I&amp;rsquo;ve lost to this size. I would have thought that fitting into these old clothes would make me feel &amp;ldquo;normal&amp;rdquo; again. Unfortunately, it&amp;rsquo;s just jarring that I&amp;rsquo;m significantly less able to produce now than I was then. So much of the pressure on myself that drove me to make unhealthy decisions is returning with a vengeance.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;At the beginning, it was so much easier with not being able to do so many things than what I struggle with now. While I can do so many more things, it also creates new problems because I now have the capacity to do things I shouldn&amp;rsquo;t. Can&amp;rsquo;t is so much easier to deal with can&amp;rsquo;t than shouldn&amp;rsquo;t. For example, while I&amp;rsquo;m sick I shouldn&amp;rsquo;t do all the same exercises I used to, because that would just impact my ability to get well. But I want to. The pressure and drive that is helping me fix my situation is very difficult to keep in check. While it is relatively easy to stop myself from taking on things while sick like this, it is so very hard to not feel bad about it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite all this, I&amp;rsquo;m fairly optimistic. I&amp;rsquo;m trying to take it easy and hydrate as much as I can. I&amp;rsquo;ve been a fair bit generous with calories over the last few days and despite that weight isn&amp;rsquo;t going up so I&amp;rsquo;ll call that a victory. I ended up losing more weight in June (19.6lbs) than in May (14.3lbs) so things seem to be progressing well. I&amp;rsquo;m almost on track for my ambitious yearly goal, so I&amp;rsquo;ll have to see what is in store for July. Thanks for reading!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Experimenting with the dark arts</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/ai-agents/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 22 Jun 2025 18:09:32 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/ai-agents/</guid>
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/ai-agent.webp?d=1750615772</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/ai-agent.webp?d=1750615772" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/ai-agent.webp?d=1750615772" />
+		<description>Gazing into the abyss of AI agents</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Does Gabriel still do tech or is it all just weight loss now?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ll admit my &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health&#34;&gt;weight loss journey&lt;/a&gt; and IRL activities are taking up a great deal of my time these days, but I&amp;rsquo;m still very interested in expanding my technical knowledge! I hope my techie friends will appreciate this post where I try out AI agents so they don&amp;rsquo;t have to. Of course I will be posting another weight loss update soon, things are progressing well!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My first foray into automation software was an &lt;a href=&#34;https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.jens.automation2/&#34;&gt;Android application&lt;/a&gt; that let you do all kinds of fancy flows. I genuinely believe that accessible automation tools are a genuinely useful thing that any OS should have built-in. Accessibility is a real way to give users power over their own computing. I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed that most of the refined solutions for automation are commercial products, which in turn means you&amp;rsquo;ve got to become even more dependent on Big Tech infrastructure. For those of us comfortable around shell scripting, a node-based automation tool can seem like overkill, but there are many people who could benefit from one. The general idea of flows and automation graphs seem to be genuinely interesting things and I&amp;rsquo;m hoping we see some exciting developments there in the software freedom space.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But this post is about my latest dabbling into the potential of self-hosted &amp;ldquo;AI agents&amp;rdquo;. After &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/4AWFKyR6eAdZpF72QmgyCu&#34;&gt;speaking with James Corbett&lt;/a&gt; about many concerns related to artificial intelligence tools, I decided it would be worth spending the time to get a better grasp of what&amp;rsquo;s possible. Since this was only a brief look at these tools, I am in no way claiming to have advanced knowledge of their use. I am sure many of the problems I encountered have well-known solutions, but I mostly wanted to see how far I could go in experimenting. This is my personal experience with learning how to use self-hosted tools for automation and AI agents.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;wtf-is-an-ai-agent&#34;&gt;WTF is an &amp;lsquo;AI agent&amp;rsquo;?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/ai-agent.webp&#39; 
+
+ alt=&#39;AI Agent node in n8n&#39;
+&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    AI Agent node in n8n 
+
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My uncharitable explanation would be that an AI agent is merely the introduction of LLM chatbots to an automated process. For example, instead of parsing an email for keywords to react to it, you can feed the content of the message to an LLM to decide what to do with it. Depending on the model being used, a variety of different tools can be given to the LLM to perform various actions. Since an LLM can generate a list of steps, the idea is based on providing it the tools to actually run those steps.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Having spent some time tinkering with it, I can understand the appeal. By burning an insane amount of resources you can hopefully have the AI agent smooth over trivial problems that arise in your flow. Instead of worrying about minor details, the idea is to get the LLM to simply make the best of the inputs. Provided the problem is broken up into simple enough choices, I can imagine this being quite powerful in specific contexts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What I find bizarre is how the so-called &amp;ldquo;reasoning models&amp;rdquo; start their prompt with self-generated instructions with &lt;code&gt;&amp;lt;think&amp;gt;&lt;/code&gt; tags. This means that for every prompt, there is a beginning section where specific instructions are reiterated and elaborated on. I can see why this would help them come up with more useful outputs, but at the cost of additional tokens and attention. This also means that at least when using these models you&amp;rsquo;ll have to filter out the &lt;code&gt;&amp;lt;think&amp;gt;&lt;/code&gt; content prior to responding. I have a feeling that publicly accessible AI chatbots have these kinds of features to sanitize outputs prior to being presented to the user.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;lsquo;Reasoning&amp;rsquo; example&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;think&amp;gt;
+Okay, so the user wants me to create a concise outline for an article about Mexico&amp;rsquo;s telecom reform and human rights risks. They&amp;rsquo;ve shared what appears to be part of the HTML source code for the press release.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;{Multiple paragraphs about the article&amp;rsquo;s content}&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For the heading, something catchy but also formal would work well to capture attention while maintaining professionalism. Then I&amp;rsquo;ll craft a few paragraphs summarizing the main points of the article and explaining its significance in terms that show both immediate impact on Mexico citizens and potential broader implications.
+&amp;lt;/think&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To me, it&amp;rsquo;s fascinating that this &amp;ldquo;reasoning&amp;rdquo; by the model is longer than a decent summary would be. It&amp;rsquo;s definitely possible that this tactic creates significantly better outputs, but it&amp;rsquo;s at the cost of so much more compute every step of the way. Part of the idea of how AI agents are sold is the idea that with dozens of these you can replace real human teams. It seems clear to me that to the degree you can replace human workers with LLM-driven automation, it may end up costing multiples of their income in raw electricity, never mind the potential legal and copyright issues.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;how-did-i-set-it-up&#34;&gt;How did I set it up?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While I wanted to dip my toes into understanding AI agents, my principal goal was to understand what was possible while self-hosting. I&amp;rsquo;m sure there are so many very different tools for building and using AI agents in the cloud; I would prefer to use self-hosted but ideally free software options. With a limited look around, I didn&amp;rsquo;t find &lt;em&gt;Free as in Freedom&lt;/em&gt; tools for the automation side, never mind the licenses around particular LLM models. So I essentially had to settle for open-source and self-hostable. If you&amp;rsquo;re aware of fully-free AI &amp;amp; automation suites, I would &lt;a href=&#34;mailto:gabriel@libresolutions.network?subject=FOSS%20automation&#34;&gt;love to know&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Based off an admittedly quick search, the simplest AI agent tool I came across was &lt;a href=&#34;https://n8n.io/&#34;&gt;n8n&lt;/a&gt; which is open source but certainly not focused on Free Software. What I did appreciate about it was its simplicity and support for RSS feeds. I had a simple idea for what I wanted to try out, and RSS support made it a lot easier. The projects website has a collection of &lt;a href=&#34;https://n8n.io/workflows/&#34;&gt;templates&lt;/a&gt; you can use to import for your own uses. That&amp;rsquo;s pretty sweet, but I&amp;rsquo;ll elaborate more on that later. You can install n8n or run it as a docker image. It is a web-based GUI (&lt;em&gt;a WUI?&lt;/em&gt;) for building automated workflows and running AI agents.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For your AI agent to work, it needs to be able to connect to an LLM API, such as the big tech ones, but I wanted to try self-hosted. Originally, I wanted to see if I could get &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nomic.ai/gpt4all&#34;&gt;GPT4All&lt;/a&gt; because the docs claim to support &lt;a href=&#34;https://docs.gpt4all.io/gpt4all_api_server/home.html&#34;&gt;a server mode,&lt;/a&gt; but I couldn&amp;rsquo;t get that working. Instead I opted for &lt;a href=&#34;https://ollama.com/&#34;&gt;Ollama&lt;/a&gt; which allows you to serve many LLMs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/ollama.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Configuring self-hosted ollama on n8n 
+
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With Ollama serving Qwen3 over the API I was ready to start my AI agent journey. I wanted to come up with something that could potentially be useful for me, so I would actually be motivated to get it to work well. I chose to try to see if I could build a tool that would read some of my RSS feeds and write me a simple report on pressing issues. The hope would be that if one is using a self-hosted model, with selected RSS feeds and a constrained focus, that many potential censorship issues could be eliminated. If it worked, it could absolutely save me the toil of keeping up to date on many things I struggle to keep up with. I wasn&amp;rsquo;t aiming for perfection, nor to automate what I care about, just simply to see if such a tool could save me time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;how-did-it-go&#34;&gt;How did it go?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;After a great deal of tinkering, I got it to a point where it provides a reasonably useful output. There are many things I would fix if I really wanted to devote the time to perfecting it, but I&amp;rsquo;m not convinced it would be worth the effort. I really liked playing with n8n, but I&amp;rsquo;m convinced AI agents are wasteful trash. Part of this is even though I&amp;rsquo;m providing a set of information to work with, it will still hallucinate additional articles. There are many quality control issues regarding repeating articles and inconsistent formatting. I&amp;rsquo;m aware you can fix some of this with better prompts, but I expect the path of least resistance for many will be to simply add a &amp;ldquo;checker&amp;rdquo; agent and just recalculate the output. This makes zero economic sense when one is paying for their electricity. I believe this will be the mechanism that pushes people on to using artificially subsidized Big Tech infrastructure and not decentralized or self-sovereign AI.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/video/rss-flow.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/rss-flow.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;p&gt;In case you&amp;rsquo;re curious, my flow begins with a list of RSS feeds that can be updated however we want. It wouldn&amp;rsquo;t be hard to have it pull from a server or .opml file. It then loops over the items to grab the RSS feed contents. Simple sort and limit nodes are to get only the most recent items. Then each article is given to the &amp;ldquo;Summarizer&amp;rdquo; AI agent which actually does a not terrible job at converting rss content into a few paragraphs about it. I then have to filter out the &lt;code&gt;&amp;lt;think&amp;gt;&lt;/code&gt; content before passing it along. I also merge the summaries with the original list so that I can preserve attribution.  I have another code note that combines and formats the articles and their summaries so that they can be sent to the &amp;ldquo;report writer&amp;rdquo; AI agent. The report writer then takes all the articles and their summaries and is supposed to create a pretty HTML email report. I yet again have to use a code node to remove the nasty &lt;code&gt;&amp;lt;think&amp;gt;&lt;/code&gt; tags from the output as well as other irregularities. Then the final report is sent to me as-is without any interaction on my part.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/llm-email.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When the report writer isn&amp;rsquo;t just hallucinating articles the proper link is there almost all of the time. But often enough it will simply link to &lt;code&gt;example.com&lt;/code&gt; if it has any trouble. Not only that, but you will often see the same article/summary/link combo multiple times in the same email. I am convinced it would be much better to simply use a code node to build the HTML email with the data than to rely on the &amp;ldquo;AI Agent&amp;rdquo; feature for that specific task. If I was to go back and fix things I would have the &amp;ldquo;report writer&amp;rdquo; agent simply look over the summaries and write a report which would then be used to enhance the email.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ironically, the fact that a bunch of code nodes needed to be used at all is a bit disappointing to me. It seems like as someone with technical ability, I&amp;rsquo;d be better off scripting on my own with whatever I want to talk to llama than to use javascript with the n8n suite. But I will say that n8n does have a lot of useful built-in nodes that make it very easy to get started quickly. Having done all this, I think AI agents are still quite far from being something one can expect in a freedom respecting environment. The path of least resistance will always be to simply cobble together Big Tech systems rather than to actually support decentralization and self-sovereign computing.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;closing-thoughts&#34;&gt;Closing thoughts&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I can definitely say the short time I spent looking at this was valuable. I&amp;rsquo;ve gained a more refined understanding of how these systems are used, and what can be done beyond merely copy-pasting your homework into ChatGPT. I am genuinely impressed with what is possible from a self-hosted setup, and can imagine many valid use-cases for the software. This has shown me that we may need to rethink what making computing free (&lt;em&gt;as in freedom&lt;/em&gt;) means for people with less technical ability. I&amp;rsquo;m definitely interested in learning what kinds of free software exists for automation, and observing projects like &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/samuelmtimbo/unit&#34;&gt;unit.&lt;/a&gt; As always, I&amp;rsquo;m convinced there is a remarkable amount of opportunity if independent technical minds are supported to do what they do best.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Doing this has congealed my feelings about corporate open source quite a bit. I used to be relatively ambivalent towards corporate open source because on some level the money has to come from somewhere. But I&amp;rsquo;m beginning to recognize first hand what many others have warned about for quite some time now, that Free computing and non-free computing are absolutely at a bifurcation point. The &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/right-relationship.mp4&#34;&gt;middle of the road is gone,&lt;/a&gt; it is clear we will have to choose what kind of a technological future we want to participate in.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When it comes to AI agents, I can definitely see the dark side. Just search &amp;ldquo;generate post&amp;rdquo; into the &lt;a href=&#34;https://n8n.io/workflows/&#34;&gt;workflows page&lt;/a&gt; and you&amp;rsquo;ll see how many flows exist for generating information pollution. The fact that the online hustler of the 2020s can generate slop without any technical ability is yet another nail in the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/dead-internet&#34;&gt;dead Internet&lt;/a&gt; coffin. I think it&amp;rsquo;s important for me to share this exploration so that people can imagine what tools are being used by governments, corporations, and other entities to carry out their duties, and what kinds of impact this can have on people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://n8n.io/workflows/&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/n8n-workflows.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am now convinced more than ever that the destruction of the open web (&lt;em&gt;for non-technical people&lt;/em&gt;) is the point of the pushing &amp;ldquo;AI&amp;rdquo; into everything. I fully believe that the free and open web will always exist in some form, but it is clear to me that there can&amp;rsquo;t be sustained via any commercial means. In some ways this might be the best thing ever, the future of the indieweb will be bright if it&amp;rsquo;s maintained by people out of passion and care rather than clicks and comments. It just means that the minds of the public are going to need to be prepared for a much more hostile information environment than what we&amp;rsquo;ve experienced to date.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In short, &lt;strong&gt;AI critics actually don&amp;rsquo;t hate AI enough.&lt;/strong&gt; This may sound extreme. Even if I extrapolate that these tools work so much better with big tech infrastructure, that won&amp;rsquo;t fix everything. The fundamental aspects of inserting LLMs into various automated flows seems so much more wasteful than paying people to do work. It is clear to me that the &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFQvErdlATeY-mEHozu5GlfffewysnHFq&#34;&gt;AI hype&lt;/a&gt; isn&amp;rsquo;t actually about sound economics but actually about economic warfare. It won&amp;rsquo;t matter that doing things with AI agents instead of paid staff will likely cost 10x what it would cost to pay a human a real wage, what matters is that consolidating the technological landscape will yield more returns than money can buy. The point is that using LLMs to fix problems created by LLMs is the robotic equivalent of &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs&#34;&gt;bullshit jobs,&lt;/a&gt; spending money on robotic make-work to market demand for AI &amp;ldquo;solutions&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As I stated in my &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/videos/digital-autonomy-osint/&#34;&gt;chat with Corbett,&lt;/a&gt; I don&amp;rsquo;t believe that technology = implementation. I don&amp;rsquo;t think machine learning is evil, nor that we can&amp;rsquo;t build useful tools with it. I am however very concerned about how political and economic forces are shaping this industry to build &amp;ldquo;aligned&amp;rdquo; AI against the public. This has been conspicuously &lt;em&gt;absent&lt;/em&gt; from high-profile conversations about &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;AI safety&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt; and expect it to be a driving force of &lt;a href=&#34;https://digdeeper.club/articles/capitalism.xhtml&#34;&gt;many near-term trends.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Walk with me: Below 400 🎉</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/below-400/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Jun 2025 11:10:39 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/below-400/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2025-05-31.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<description>Reaching a major milestone</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Sept24-May25.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;big-success&#34;&gt;Big Success!&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve finally hit a major milestone! I&amp;rsquo;m over 175lbs down, and finally below 400lbs. I had the pleasure of somebody telling me they&amp;rsquo;re noticing that I&amp;rsquo;m &lt;em&gt;&amp;lsquo;wasting away&amp;rsquo;&lt;/em&gt; over time. Feel free to join me on this walk where I celebrate this milestone, reflect on recent challenges and how I hope to overcome them. I truly didn&amp;rsquo;t appreciate how close I was to this milestone when I started. Far from being impossible, I have had the roller-coaster of making it actual.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/scale-399.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As I write this my 4xl shorts are already loose enough they need to be tied to stay up. It is clear to me that I have reversed all of my post-2020 weight gain. In so many ways I feel &amp;rsquo;normal&amp;rsquo; again, because I&amp;rsquo;ve spent so much of my adult life around this size.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;learning-to-weave&#34;&gt;Learning to weave&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ankle pain has become a bit of a constraint on my activities. Instead of stubbornly repeating the same activities expecting a different outcome, I&amp;rsquo;ve been thinking about how I can approach this differently. Reflecting on this reveals to me that there actually is a great deal of opportunity for growth, and it&amp;rsquo;s reassuring to find other areas I can work on with less strain. I think this generalizes well to other situations. I understand that just because you&amp;rsquo;ve hit diminishing returns in a single area, that doesn&amp;rsquo;t mean there aren&amp;rsquo;t other ways to continue making progress.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A big part of this has been facing my own mental limitations. It&amp;rsquo;s clear to me that I recoil from the unfamiliar, and crave steady familiar routines. This is quite the realization considering my &amp;lsquo;routine&amp;rsquo; has been so chaotic and counter-productive. I&amp;rsquo;m recognizing the power of making strange things familiar. This process takes a fair bit of time, but I&amp;rsquo;m recognizing the incredible power of it. To apply this, I have a goal of attempting to make a variety of new exercises feel familiar to me. Instead of confining myself to merely walking and swimming, I need to expand my exercise options.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;recognizing-momentum&#34;&gt;Recognizing momentum&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I can no longer deny that this is working. This may shock many people, but only now that I&amp;rsquo;ve lost 170lbs am I really beginning to &amp;rsquo;trust the process&amp;rsquo;. I am now much more confident and dragged down by fear and despair a lot less often. It took a lot of faith to get to this point, but I&amp;rsquo;m beginning to really feel the changes in my mindset and emotional responses to challenges.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Because of this, I can report that I&amp;rsquo;m beginning to even out the emotional waves of this process. I feel a level of peace with it that seems entirely unfamiliar. It&amp;rsquo;s a shame that it took &lt;em&gt;this long&lt;/em&gt; for me to truly recognize the power of gradual but consistent improvement. I am immensely grateful for being at this point, and recognize it as the blessing that it is.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I hope that in some small way, the journey I&amp;rsquo;ve taken can already show others that they can get started. I certainly wouldn&amp;rsquo;t have believed I would be where I am today as recently as a year ago. I am glad I&amp;rsquo;ve shared as much as I have, and I wish I had done more in the earliest days.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;are-you-aware-of-any-healthfitness-channels-on-peertube&#34;&gt;Are you aware of any health/fitness channels on &lt;a href=&#34;https://joinpeertube.org&#34;&gt;PeerTube?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The only channel I can think about is &lt;a href=&#34;https://video.canadiancivil.com/c/shifter_cycling/videos&#34;&gt;Shifter&lt;/a&gt; which is a channel urban cycling, particularly in Canada. I found this video on &lt;a href=&#34;https://video.canadiancivil.com/videos/watch/9cd40cfc-bd40-4816-beaf-da72f42bdb47&#34;&gt;winter cycling&lt;/a&gt; very informative! I&amp;rsquo;d also be curious to hear of any small independent blogs and/or podcasts that deserve more recognition!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;recent-finds&#34;&gt;Recent Finds&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/goPWjqhK7rk&#34;&gt;I’m fat can I do calisthenics?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPzRCqVQuTc&#34;&gt;Is Your Worth Based on Results?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/8ef7FhmMcLU&#34;&gt;The Best Exercise For Health, Fitness, and Longevity&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>New video: May Update</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/may-gratitude/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 17 May 2025 18:39:11 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/may-gratitude/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2025-05-16.mp3" />
+			
+		
+		<description>Looking back on what got the ball rolling.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/1jopgA4uw9t2qd1BUVaiVM&#34;&gt;Watch on PeerTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;looking-back-at-the-past&#34;&gt;Looking back at the past&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I sat outside in a chair I recently wouldn&amp;rsquo;t fit in to record a video update. I&amp;rsquo;ve been having a lot of complex feelings about my journey thus far. While I&amp;rsquo;ve made fantastic strides in mobility and functionality, I&amp;rsquo;ve found myself often dwelling on what still can&amp;rsquo;t be done. In response to this, I decided it was time to revisit some of the content I have from when I started this journey.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2025/05-chart2.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2025/05-chart2.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I have a folder of published and some unpublished vlogs, audio recordings, and loads of photos. At the end of &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/2023-resolutions/&#34;&gt;2023&lt;/a&gt; I shared my frustrations and goals for making 2024 a year of change. Changes really started small. I began focusing more on swimming and using &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/2024-05-update/&#34;&gt;floaty weights&lt;/a&gt; but I knew a lot needed to change to truly make lasting progress.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unable to avoid the fact that my out-of-control eating habits were holding me back, I decided to write out all my &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/non-stop-eating/&#34;&gt;known troubles with food.&lt;/a&gt; to try to come up with strategies to tackle them. By the middle of 2024, I got a very lucky break. Already focusing everything I had on making change, I was ready for bolder steps. I decided to &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/escape-velocity/&#34;&gt;hire a trainer&lt;/a&gt; for guidance and to rebuilt my mobility. Cautiously optimistic, I realized that this could be the pivot point where I finally begin to see lasting results. Armed with a scale I could actually weigh myself with, I was able to accomplish my &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/first-recorded-loss/&#34;&gt;first recorded weight loss&lt;/a&gt; in a long time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Of course, this important step didn&amp;rsquo;t erase all my &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/challenges/&#34;&gt;existing troubles.&lt;/a&gt; So much of starting out, and continuing from here is a significant struggle with problems I&amp;rsquo;ve developed over the years and the consequences of my size. It was enlightening to go back to the start of my journey to reflect. I still very much have many of the same problems and complaints, but I can see the many improvements.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In an early example of gratitude I &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/looking-forward/&#34;&gt;wrote out&lt;/a&gt; the many things I look forward to, some I&amp;rsquo;ve accomplished already.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;milestones&#34;&gt;Milestones&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;activities&#34;&gt;Activities&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;✅ Going up stairs without a thought&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Biking&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;✅ Getting better at cooking&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;✅ Comfortable with long walks&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;✅ Doing more things away from home / less hesitant to go outside&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Visiting friends abroad / being able to travel generally&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Taking on more physical hobbies and crafts&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;body-weight-exercises&#34;&gt;Body-weight exercises&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;✅ Lunges&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Pull ups&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Push ups (Working on it!)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;✅ Plank&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Hand-stands&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-little-things&#34;&gt;The little things&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Being able to move without having my own body in the way&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;✅ Standing for longer periods of time&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;✅ Fitting in ordinary bus benches&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;✅ Not having to lean on things while doing basic tasks&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;✅ Getting in and out of cars easier&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;✅ Putting on shoes &amp;amp; socks&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Staying in a clothing size long term&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;✅ Easier hygiene&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;No longer living in fear, regret, and pain from my size&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;under--over&#34;&gt;Under &amp;amp; Over&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;✅ Under 500lbs&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Under 400lbs [ALMOST! (&lt;strong&gt;ETA: End of May 2025&lt;/strong&gt;)]&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Under 300lbs&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;✅ Over 100lbs down&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Over 200lbs down (ETA: Summer 2025)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Over 300lbs down (ETA: 2026)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Leaving Obesity Class V&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2025/05-chart1.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2025/05-chart1.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I wish I had more writings from these early days. Even now I&amp;rsquo;m much more comfortable writing out thoughts than being on camera. I&amp;rsquo;m very glad I decided to start my &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tags/walk-with-gabe/&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Walk with me&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; series where I casually share monologues on my journey. In some ways I find myself having less and less to say, things are moving along and I just need to keep at it. I&amp;rsquo;m very grateful that many people have found these updates interesting or comforting.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s great that I at least have a fair bit to look back on. It seems that I should have done a serious retrospective earlier. I am so happy the warmth and sunshine is back. Thanks for following my updates, and if you have any questions or thoughts don&amp;rsquo;t hesitate to reach out!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Walk with me: Learning to be patient</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/wwm-patience/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2025 14:47:29 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/wwm-patience/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2025-05-08.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<description>Holding on.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;This morning I went for a short walk and recorded some of my current feelings about my weight loss journey. Things are going well, but I&amp;rsquo;ve got a lot on my mind of late. In this walk I share how I&amp;rsquo;ve been reassessing recent changes to try to regain focus and drive. I&amp;rsquo;ve come far enough to not be able to ignore that I&amp;rsquo;ve made progress, but also far enough to be a little disheartened by what remains. Listen to me try to be patient with myself as I come up with new avenues to tackle these problems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;recent-finds&#34;&gt;Recent finds&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/PPiJVtML8n8&#34;&gt;Words Matter: Motivation Beyond Aesthetics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/55uYe-Wxchs&#34;&gt;Ep 318 - Resistance Training as a Fat Loss Tool (ft. Dr. Mike Ormsbee)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/fe1rqw42kHg&#34;&gt;Can I Gain Muscle in a Calorie Deficit? | Eric Trexler&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/f5HGyqMwuXs&#34;&gt;The Science of Building Your Pecs: Best Exercises &amp;amp; Anatomy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/lRjNjfMCd-U&#34;&gt;Can You REALLY Live Without Carbs? Shocking Truth About Ketosis &amp;amp; Exercise&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/aCjvfiOeMPk&#34;&gt;Massive Iron LIVE Podcast and Q&amp;amp;A - May 2nd, 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>(Tor) New vanity address</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/tor-vanity-addresses/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 06 May 2025 21:57:14 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/tor-vanity-addresses/</guid>
+		<description>🥷🏻 Darkweb technical update</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;The hidden service (on Tor) for this site has been migrated to &lt;a href=&#34;http://gabriel262me3lgv3w7xohtesg3laoojmtye644pwirhdm73qmedmsqd.onion&#34;&gt;gabriel262me3lgv3w7xohtesg3laoojmtye644pwirhdm73qmedmsqd.onion&lt;/a&gt;. The previous address was on &lt;code&gt;3ah6l32ons2mzb65rchl3uz7nrgkecfof4eey7dwmamt5fcvok4h2yad.onion&lt;/code&gt; so it&amp;rsquo;s nice to have a more recognizable one. I&amp;rsquo;ve set the old .onion to redirect to the new one so there shouldn&amp;rsquo;t be any issues for visitors. I&amp;rsquo;m not sure how RSS readers handle 301 redirects, but I assume anyone who pulls RSS via Tor can figure this out.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;mkp224o&#34;&gt;mkp224o&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://community.torproject.org/onion-services/advanced/vanity-addresses/&#34;&gt;The documentation&lt;/a&gt; on the Tor Project website recommends &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/cathugger/mkp224o&#34;&gt;mkp224o&lt;/a&gt; to generate vanity addresses. The tool generates as many .onion keys as possible and saves matching domains to a folder. The longer your desired prefix, (called a filter) the longer it&amp;rsquo;s going to take to &amp;lsquo;find&amp;rsquo; matching addresses. There is a feature that allows you to search for multiple &amp;lsquo;filters&amp;rsquo; at once, so it&amp;rsquo;s best to think of as many acceptable variations and alternatives as you can for longer filters.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can simply run &lt;code&gt;mkp224o yourprefferedprefix&lt;/code&gt; if you like, but there are a variety of useful options worth considering.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;-d {folder}&lt;/code&gt; puts all the generated folders into a specific location&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;-f {filter file}&lt;/code&gt; matches &amp;lsquo;filters&amp;rsquo; in a file, one per line&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;-S {seconds}&lt;/code&gt; prints statistics every x seconds, such as how many addresses are searched per second.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;how-to-generate-your-own-vanity-addresses-for-your-own-tor-service&#34;&gt;How to generate your own vanity address(es) for your own Tor Service&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Install &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/cathugger/mkp224o&#34;&gt;mkp224o&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Create a list of your desired filters in a file.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Run &lt;code&gt;mkp244o -f filters_file -d vanity_addrs -s 360&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Move your favorite .onion keys files (eg. to &lt;code&gt;/var/lib/tor/yourdomain&lt;/code&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Reconfigure &lt;code&gt;torrc&lt;/code&gt; to use your new keys file(s)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;(Optional) Make sure to update your &lt;a href=&#34;https://community.torproject.org/onion-services/advanced/onion-location/&#34;&gt;Onion-Location&lt;/a&gt; on the clearweb!&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Walk with me: Recovering Momentum</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/wwm-recovering/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 27 Apr 2025 21:30:29 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/wwm-recovering/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2025-04-26.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<description>Bouncing back from some recent challenges.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve deliberately avoided using denoiseit to clean the background noise because it would feel wrong to remove the birds singing. I hope you&amp;rsquo;ll enjoy my off-the-cuff walking monologue about my ongoing journey. I&amp;rsquo;ve had a difficult start to Spring, but I&amp;rsquo;m really beginning to rebound. I&amp;rsquo;m looking forward to making the best of May.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;progress-update&#34;&gt;Progress update&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/25-april-chart.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/25-april-chart.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, April is definitely not as successful as March was. Last month I was down 20lbs and this month I&amp;rsquo;m only down 11 so far. I can think of quite a few reasons why that was the case. I&amp;rsquo;ve been pretty stressed, and I&amp;rsquo;ve been finding it more difficult to control portions. Some good progress has been made correcting these mistakes. Spending time focusing on improving my rest and stress management has made a significant difference on my mood, motivation and drive.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is clear that I need to re-balance my energies to continue to push hard in a balanced and reasonable way. I am facing significant life challenges outside of this journey at the moment, so my ability to withstand pressures is absolutely being put to the test.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/mountain.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;losing-the-spark&#34;&gt;Losing the spark&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I recently wrote about hitting a wall of &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/big-pain/&#34;&gt;soreness&lt;/a&gt; that kept me down quite a bit. It was quite the challenge to learn to rebound from a funk of disappointment and difficulties. Beyond unrelated stressors, a lot of my frustrations have been centered around feeling disappointed in myself. While I&amp;rsquo;ve made massive strides in strength, mobility, and weight loss, many things I want to do feel out of reach. I&amp;rsquo;ve vastly underestimated how much difficulties still remain in this difficult road.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I can walk for a decent amount of time and do many things I couldn&amp;rsquo;t before, but I struggle to properly appreciate these smaller wins. I am so fixated on what I still can&amp;rsquo;t do that it&amp;rsquo;s very difficult to have the required gratitude for the situation I&amp;rsquo;m in. When I really think about it my quality of life has been transformed in many ways since last Summer, but that&amp;rsquo;s not the same as being finished. While I certainly understood I would still have weight to lose by this point, I fully expected to be able to move better in this body by now.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve seriously underestimated the challenges of being 400lbs while also overestimated the mobility and strength progress that could be made over the last few months. These mismatched expectations have had me languishing in frustration and despair. As shocking as it may seem to those who follow these updates, I am regularly feeling like I may never escape these troubles. It is clear to me that the important progress that remains is going to take quite some time. Day to day, I have an arduous struggle of trying to constantly remind myself that things are changing and real progress is taking place. With the understanding that I haven&amp;rsquo;t given myself enough &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/planting-seeds.mp4&#34;&gt;time to grow,&lt;/a&gt; I really need to practice patience and gratitude to keep my head in the game.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;body-image-troubles&#34;&gt;Body image troubles&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In addition to all that, I&amp;rsquo;ve been having very extreme swings in my body image feelings. Some moments I&amp;rsquo;m feeling like things are all coming together and I just need to be patient, and other moments I feel like nothing has changed at all. Despite losing over 150lbs in total, it is still often quite difficult to recognize the progress. I think part of it is that it&amp;rsquo;s only a quarter of my highest body weight, and less than half of what I need to lose in total. Again, it seems that my mismatched expectations were the driving cause of my frustration over the last few weeks.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I can definitely say the difficulties of this journey make it immensely difficult to have a positive self-image. Many of the wide variety of things that are still out of reach for me are all very quick reasons for me to feel useless or like a waste. I have found that working on stress management and getting better sleep does make a big difference. It absolutely makes how hard all this is crystal clear to me. It is very easy to spiral into a typhoon of terror, denial, and self-loathing when things aren&amp;rsquo;t going well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Something that helped a lot recently was being able to comfortably fit into 4XL clothes, down from 6XL. I effectively &amp;lsquo;skipped&amp;rsquo; 5XL because I don&amp;rsquo;t really intend on buying every size down to whatever I end up at. I underestimated how staying in the clothes I started in for so long would make it harder to appreciate the change. I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed that feeling comfortable in the smaller sizes does quite a lot for physical and even mental comfort.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;learning-to-reignite-the-passion-and-drive&#34;&gt;Learning to reignite the passion and drive&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/better-before-again.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One advantage to doing this as long as I have is that I&amp;rsquo;m beginning to recognize some patterns and cycles. I always get nervous when my weight trends closer to my 2-week moving average. This is because I essentially take it as a sign I&amp;rsquo;m losing momentum. For the last few days, I&amp;rsquo;ve met and gone above the moving average. One of the patterns I need to resolve is stressing out about stress. Whenever my weight isn&amp;rsquo;t comfortably below the moving average, I begin to worry and then worry about worrying which makes things so much harder.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thankfully this time around, I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed that this exact scenario has happened before. At the start of Winter I can see a very similar pattern where I poke above the average for a brief time. It is reassuring to know that I have faced this before and it does not need to be an unbearable crisis. I guess the transition between seasons is just always a tricky thing for me in this process.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/25-april-meme-chart.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It was really helpful to remind myself that as awful as this all is, it&amp;rsquo;s not permanent. By rediscovering the gratitude for the fact that I can change this situation I am feeling better about this difficult time. I&amp;rsquo;m trying to really put my problem back into perspective so that I can be happy about incremental progress again.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;a-question-for-you&#34;&gt;A question for you!&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;d really like to know what active hobbies you enjoy! I&amp;rsquo;ve been thinking about how it&amp;rsquo;s difficult for many people to stay active with busy lives so I&amp;rsquo;m very curious to hear about how people overcome this.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;recent-finds-roundup&#34;&gt;Recent finds Roundup&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFyH5wQ-FVw&#34;&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s the Best Way to Train for Health &amp;amp; Longevity?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/wkb_uIrmOuc&#34;&gt;THIS is What TRULY Inspirational Fitness Looks Like&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/x2hs9Di7Wos&#34;&gt;Why We Need to be Relaxed About Our Healing and Stop Hammering Ourselves&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/7NtgJhd07_Q&#34;&gt;You’re Not Broken, You’re Evolving&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Walk with me: 🎉 Major Milestone 150lbs down!</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/wwm-150-milestone/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Apr 2025 11:29:52 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/wwm-150-milestone/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2025-04-09.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/down-150.webp?d=1744284592</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/down-150.webp?d=1744284592" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/down-150.webp?d=1744284592" />
+		<description>Months of hard work paying off</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I hope you&amp;rsquo;ll enjoy joining me on this walk where I talk about my recent struggles and successes. These are off-the-cuff talks while I go on walks that are lightly edited. Recently I&amp;rsquo;ve started using &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/DragoonAethis/DenoiseIt&#34;&gt;DenoiseIt&lt;/a&gt; to clean up the background noise, so listening quality should be reasonably acceptable.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m thrilled to announce that I&amp;rsquo;ve hit a very exciting milestone. In many ways I can say I&amp;rsquo;ve already transformed my life in a very short time. My quality of life is substantially better in so many ways after a few months of very challenging work. I&amp;rsquo;ve hit the low 420s after being as high as the mid 570s. I&amp;rsquo;m excited to keep pushing hard to reach this year&amp;rsquo;s ambitious goal of being below 300 by the end of 2025.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/Oct24-Mar25.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;p&gt;Smaller things are starting to fit and things I&amp;rsquo;m used to wearing are becoming far too big to wear comfortably. I love that I&amp;rsquo;m spending less time thinking about walking relatively short distances, giving me a better sense of agency day-to-day. Currently, I&amp;rsquo;m working on progressing towards being able to do push-ups. I am really enjoying the opportunity to grow much stronger while making radical changes to my body.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I’d like to thank everyone who has shared some kindness and encouragement my way because it has absolutely made what is a very difficult road much easier. I’ve learned so much even just getting to this point. I really enjoy your thoughts &amp;amp; questions a great deal because I know I have much more to learn on the long road remaining. I especially appreciate book recommendations and make sure to add them to my growing “to read” list.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In case you&amp;rsquo;re not familiar with my story, I&amp;rsquo;ve shared &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/how/&#34;&gt;how I got so big&lt;/a&gt; and just how bad my &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/non-stop-eating&#34;&gt;eating troubles&lt;/a&gt; were.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Big Pain: Soreness and Struggles</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/big-pain/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 29 Mar 2025 15:35:58 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/big-pain/</guid>
+		<description>Struggling to be patient</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;progress-update&#34;&gt;Progress update&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I continue to make progress despite being incredibly beaten down emotionally, physically, and mentally. I&amp;rsquo;ve successfully reached this month&amp;rsquo;s target of beating the previous month&amp;rsquo;s weight loss. I&amp;rsquo;ll be down over 20lbs in March, beating February&amp;rsquo;s 15lbs. Even better, I&amp;rsquo;m finally on track to meet my annual goal of losing 200lbs in 2025. As I&amp;rsquo;m writing this I am just under 50lbs down for the year already, a quarter down in a quarter.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/25-03-chart-monthly.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/25-03-chart-monthly.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Swimming is also going quite well. I broke a new record for continuous swimming time last week. I was able to swim at a consistent pace for 43 minutes straight. It was difficult, but showed me I&amp;rsquo;m able to accomplish much more than what I think is possible in the moment. The plan is not to push for a whole hour, but be able to at least hit 30 minutes of continuous swimming twice a week.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/25-03-chart.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/25-03-chart.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If none of this was ambitious enough, I&amp;rsquo;m also working towards a new goal: attempting push-ups. I&amp;rsquo;m very far from being able to move the full range of motion, but the hope is to be able to complete them in the future. Recently I&amp;rsquo;ve been not only doing modified push ups with a bar, but also attempting to move from a plank position downwards. I estimate I&amp;rsquo;m only moving down an inch or so, but it is something I&amp;rsquo;ll be working to improve on as time goes on.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;under-recovering&#34;&gt;Under-recovering&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I wish I could say I feel good and/or accomplished. Truthfully I&amp;rsquo;ve been feeling absolutely terrible lately. I&amp;rsquo;ve been so worn down to the point it&amp;rsquo;s been difficult to think at all. It reminds me of a quote from my World of Warcraft days: &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;If your WoW (World of Warcraft gaming) interferes with your life that&amp;rsquo;s one thing, but if your life interferes with your WoW you have a problem&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;. It seems that in trying to push myself as hard as I could, I may have been characteristically impatient about it and pushed too quickly.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Recovery is very much my Achilles&amp;rsquo; heel when it comes to overall health. It&amp;rsquo;s the first thing I &amp;lsquo;&lt;em&gt;put on the backburner&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rsquo; and the last thing I tend to improve. It&amp;rsquo;s clear that my pains and exhaustion are a consequence of not prioritizing proper recovery for the workload I hoped to take on. I was actually in denial about it for quite some time. I took for granted that at my size, I was unable to actually push myself &amp;ldquo;too hard&amp;rdquo; and that I was very far away from ever actually pushing my limits. It seems the problem is not with the targets themselves, but how I&amp;rsquo;ve been pacing myself.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The first thing I noticed as things started to take a toll on me was that it was incredibly hard to focus on anything. The only lucid moments that remained were when I was doing my exercises. Then I noticed that my performance was dropping, but I was quick to attribute it to other causes or blame myself for not trying hard enough. Eventually, I would begin to get more and more sore and hear pops and cracks in places I wasn&amp;rsquo;t before. One would think all this would stop me, but it was only once I bough wrist weights for walking and using them made me a new level of sore that I began to realize I had pushed too hard.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While I am glad I&amp;rsquo;m able to push very hard, I struggle with accepting that I have limits. To many it would be intuitively obvious that someone my size would have hard limits, but I&amp;rsquo;ve come so far that I&amp;rsquo;ve been so used to pushing harder and getting more out of it. I am determined to keep pushing hard, but I am deciding to give myself a large break this upcoming week to prioritize actual recovery. I am hoping this temporary cut-back will give me the time to be recharged to push hard consistently again. I want to make sure that this setback doesn&amp;rsquo;t deter me from my ambitious goals, but I take as an instructive failure to teach myself to recognize when my actual limits are near.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;on-pain&#34;&gt;On pain&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As I&amp;rsquo;ve experienced, there are three types of pain one gets from regular exercise. The first is the intense pain one experiences when they begin training part of their body that has never been used like that before. In my experience, this is the worst of it. It&amp;rsquo;s unavoidable, and as I&amp;rsquo;ve shifted my focus from lower-body to upper body I&amp;rsquo;ve had to face it all over again and it feels like it just never ends. The good news is that it does end and gradually shifts into the second type of pain. As the body gets used to strengthening particular muscles, the pain shifts from an intense cold sharpness to more of a dull warm firmness. This isn&amp;rsquo;t fun either, but is at least an order of magnitude easier to deal with. The last type of pain is from outright injury. Doing some kind of structural damage generally impairs you one way or another. I am glad that I haven&amp;rsquo;t had any injuries that have impaired my ability to keep going, but I&amp;rsquo;m learning that I do need to be careful.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Personally, I can&amp;rsquo;t quite trace it but physical and emotional pain are inextricably linked in my mind. If I&amp;rsquo;m feeling sore, I am compelled to feel like I am worthless. I speculate this manifests from my learned helplessness. If I&amp;rsquo;m in pain from trying to do something and fail, it must mean that I am deficient and therefore a problem or a burden. I am still working to improve this, but progress is quite slow. I&amp;rsquo;ve mentioned it before, but I&amp;rsquo;ve found &amp;lsquo;recovery days&amp;rsquo; to be so much harder than training days because I feel stuck with the pain but none of the sense of accomplishment. This has created a vicious cycle where I&amp;rsquo;m too worn down to do things on rest days, so I feel even worse about them. Moving forward I&amp;rsquo;m going to try to use my ability to focus on non-exercise related things as a barometer for how well I&amp;rsquo;m recovering.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The present moment is very hard for me, but I am quite optimistic I will come out of this much better. Learning to grow stronger has taught me that pain often isn&amp;rsquo;t a &amp;ldquo;no&amp;rdquo; but a &amp;ldquo;not yet&amp;rdquo; signal from the body so long as one has reasonable expectations. It seems that just as I need to be patient for weight loss to happen, I also need patience for giving my body time to adapt to new changes. I will admit, it&amp;rsquo;s very disheartening to have regular, stark, painful reminders that I&amp;rsquo;m still so far from being able to accomplish so many &amp;lsquo;basic&amp;rsquo; things. It&amp;rsquo;s genuinely very frustrating to have come so far and still feel the &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/challenges/&#34;&gt;frustrations and limitations of my size.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;whirlwind-of-frustration&#34;&gt;Whirlwind of frustration&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve been disappointed in myself for not getting much done outside of my exercise schedule. Part of this has also been to me being stressed and frustrated about things not directly related to this journey. I&amp;rsquo;ve been &lt;a href=&#34;https://vicparkpetition.substack.com/p/canadian-guest-author-the-true-north&#34;&gt;quite worried&lt;/a&gt; about the whole &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/carney-trump-canada-us-talks-trade-security-1.7496677&#34;&gt;USA Canada trade war&lt;/a&gt; thing that&amp;rsquo;s whipped up Canadians into fake-patriot fury. I feel entirely burnt out of my capacity to participate in wider discussions. This is in part because I&amp;rsquo;m really reflecting on lessons I&amp;rsquo;ve learned over the last few years, and many of them are no joy at all.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m grateful that this journey has taught me many things, but it also brings many difficult feelings to the forefront. I hate still being this big. I can&amp;rsquo;t stand not being able to do the things I&amp;rsquo;d love to do and continuing to feel so far away from it. It makes the serious progress I&amp;rsquo;ve made feel so bittersweet. Every bit more I can do makes the sting of being unable to do other basic things much harder to endure. With all this, I&amp;rsquo;ve been doing a terrible job at managing the stress of it all. I&amp;rsquo;m thinking in the future I need to come up with more proactive stress management strategies, rather than just addressing things when they get too difficult to deal with.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;recent-finds&#34;&gt;Recent finds&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;nicks-journey&#34;&gt;Nick&amp;rsquo;s Journey&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I stumbled on Nick&amp;rsquo;s video &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/hcmIrI9AQuQ&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;How Hard Is It to Lose 100 kg (220 lb) in a Year?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; He&amp;rsquo;s done a great job documenting the journey and brings up many things that are incredibly familiar to me. I appreciate Nick putting his journey out there and sharing the highs as well as the lows.  I&amp;rsquo;ll admit it was quite hard to watch this because it felt very much like looking in the mirror with all the similarities. When I remember having some nit-pick disagreements with some of the things he said, but I&amp;rsquo;ll chalk that up to us being different people. What I would absolutely echo Nick on is that it is an incredibly tough journey that is challenging as well as rewarding. Maybe once I&amp;rsquo;ve made it to where I want to be it would be neat to talk with Nick sometime.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;what-is-enough&#34;&gt;What is enough?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If there was anything that really clued me in to the fact that I have to really focus on my moderation when it comes to pushing hard it would be the NASM talk &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/dIlTyRspyTk&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Optimize is a 4-Letter Word&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/a&gt; Consistency is the name of the game, but Darlene Marshall does a great job of asking &amp;lsquo;&lt;em&gt;what is enough?&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rsquo;. The talk was a great reminder that chasing perfection and optimization can often sabotage satisfaction and even results. It was quite timely for this to come out when it did because it&amp;rsquo;s helping me refocus my energies on appreciating the wins and prioritize longer term progress.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Since reading &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.org/details/foodpoliticshowf00nest&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Food Politics&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; I&amp;rsquo;ve been reflecting on the broader concerns related to the intersection of health, business, and politics. NASM hosted another talk on &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/Qlgm1mS9bp8&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Truth About How Supplements Are Regulated&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/a&gt; The talk includes many warnings to consider when one is trying to get into using various health supplements. The most obvious concerns being does the supplement contain what it claims to, are there additional additives, and does it actually work? As far as I understand it, this isn&amp;rsquo;t easy territory to navigate.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-dark-side-of-fitness&#34;&gt;The dark side of fitness&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The Bioneer takes on the difficult topic of &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/NR0Y1xqua44&#34;&gt;Fitness and Mental Health.&lt;/a&gt; He does an excellent job talking about the limits of oversimplified advice on exercise and lifestyle. I like how he does a great job drawing the fine line between &amp;ldquo;training to live&amp;rdquo; vs &amp;ldquo;living to train&amp;rdquo;. He points out there are many phenomenal benefits to exercise, but it&amp;rsquo;s far from a &amp;lsquo;silver bullet&amp;rsquo; that will cure all your problems in one simple stroke. He directly takes on the concern that for those who are stuck in &amp;lsquo;bigorexia&amp;rsquo;, or just the perception that more muscle is better, can fall into the trap of abusing performance enhancing drugs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This doesn&amp;rsquo;t come from nowhere. Many of the people I take seriously in the fitness space will decry how influencers are often damaging to the cause of helping people take care of their health. Lyle McDonald explains how &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/18ljd42eXr4&#34;&gt;Fitness POISON is Everywhere&lt;/a&gt; and how it effects those trying to start their journey. Lyle points out that the hypocrisy and judgement prevalent on social media is often counter-productive and ultimately harmful. It&amp;rsquo;s a little amusing to hear this because I see the same patterns in the areas I pay attention to, it seems that no niche is safe from this problem. Money, politics, and status-seeking behaviors all impact conversations online and one always has to be careful where they put their trust.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>New video: March Update</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/25-march-update/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 16 Mar 2025 20:17:12 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/25-march-update/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2025-03-14.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/food-politics.webp?d=1742156232</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/food-politics.webp?d=1742156232" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/food-politics.webp?d=1742156232" />
+		<description>Reading progress, recent milestones and thoughts</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/59mPSBr2vrx6BR8rNsy81o&#34;&gt;Watch video on PeerTube&lt;/a&gt; or on &lt;a href=&#34;https://microdosingfailure.substack.com/p/25-march&#34;&gt;Substack.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve recorded a stream of consciousness about my situation. I share my recent progress and changes I&amp;rsquo;m trying to make. Things are going quite well, but I’m finding it all quite difficult. I&amp;rsquo;m really trying to learn how to keep the intensity up without sacrificing consistency.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I was able to filter out a lot of background noise with &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/DragoonAethis/DenoiseIt&#34;&gt;DenoiseIt.&lt;/a&gt; I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out and I&amp;rsquo;m considering using the script on my future &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tags/walk-with-gabe&#34;&gt;walk with me&lt;/a&gt; installments. Unless you really like having the ambient noise, if so let me know.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;-recent-milestones&#34;&gt;🎉 Recent Milestones&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;hit a new low below 440lbs (&lt;em&gt;over 130lbs down!&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;able to reach my feet well enough to put on socks with the help of a chair.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;gone down a size in my shorts, everything I’ve started out with is far too big&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;walking faster more consistently&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;successfully stuck to my ambitious &amp;ldquo;active 5 days a week&amp;rdquo; target for the last month&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;-reading-progress-food-politics&#34;&gt;📔 Reading Progress: Food Politics&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Reading &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19132.Food_Politics&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Food Politics&lt;/em&gt; by Marion Nestle&lt;/a&gt; was quite the eye-opener. As somebody quite new to understanding basic nutrition, it was fascinating to get a look into some of the contentious issues. It was interesting to learn about the &amp;lsquo;food fight&amp;rsquo; over the USA&amp;rsquo;s Food Pyramid, as well as other more nuanced issues like food fortification and supplement regulation.  The book introduced me to the complicated politics surrounding nutrition, which opened my eyes to the fact that even basic health has been political for longer than I knew.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is something I want to learn all I can about, given that it seems that health is only going to become more political over time. The push to collect health information for the purposes of integrating healthcare with AI is a non-trivial concern that seems to have principle relevance to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2025/03/law-bytes-podcast-episode-228/0&#34;&gt;Canadian health care.&lt;/a&gt; If nothing else, it is clear that food and nutrition will not be spared from mass surveillance and control. Just as it is important for us Free Software advocates to consider how governments and Big Tech imposes a worse digital landscape, we should consider how &amp;ldquo;Big Ag&amp;rdquo;, Pharma, and governments are interested in shaping the future of food.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Reflecting on it, I think the book is very helpful for anybody interested in a more nuanced perspective on nutrition. In a time where many people are getting their information from sub-optimal sources, it was nice to get a perspective from somebody who worked &amp;lsquo;inside the system&amp;rsquo;. I certainly have different preferences than the author on many things, but I found the book very useful for understanding the broader context. In some ways, it has changed how I look at other issues I care about.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The author has quite a few talks and lectures on YouTube, which I&amp;rsquo;ll share for context. I feel the need to point out that with an open mind, one doesn&amp;rsquo;t need to agree with her politics or dietary preferences to learn a great deal. I have my own strong disagreements with the author on many things, but have learned a great deal about how we&amp;rsquo;ve arrived where we are.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/6MlGmVU7U6g&#34;&gt;What to Eat | Marion Nestle | Talks at Google&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/A8y0RCwtPTo&#34;&gt;Marion Nestle, &amp;ldquo;Unsavory Truth&amp;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/9cY4D3aQbSY&#34;&gt;Marion Nestle: &amp;ldquo;Politics in Action: The Environment of Food Choice&amp;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I do really appreciated having the opportunity to learn from someone with a radically different background and perspective. I&amp;rsquo;ve still got a lot more to learn. I&amp;rsquo;ll be on the lookout for more resources on nutrition and the broader health picture. I would really appreciate any recommendations! I&amp;rsquo;d be especially interested in suggestions on books that cover overall nutrition or even specific questions like GMOs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Walk with me: Learning to fail</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/wwm-2025-03-04/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Mar 2025 20:16:19 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/wwm-2025-03-04/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2025-03-04.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/workout-log.webp?d=1741119379</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/workout-log.webp?d=1741119379" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/workout-log.webp?d=1741119379" />
+		<description>Going down in sizes and facing hunger head-on</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I spent some time reading through Lyle McDonald&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/training-the-obese-beginner&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Training the Obese Beginner&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; series. While I&amp;rsquo;ve got a few months of training under my belt, this guide certainly did a great job reminding me that I&amp;rsquo;m still very much a beginner when it comes to training. While not a surprise, I had already been considering that I need to understand more to push my strength training to the next level.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In his series of posts, Lyle McDonald explains how the goal for any beginner, but especially obese ones is to &lt;em&gt;train to train&lt;/em&gt;. It&amp;rsquo;s counter-intuitive, but if you&amp;rsquo;re completely out of shape, you need to rebuild a foundation to truly launch from. I&amp;rsquo;ve underestimated the difficulty of this alone. A part of me fully expected to be done all that by now. Reading through &lt;a href=&#34;https://bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/training-the-obese-beginner&#34;&gt;that guide&lt;/a&gt; definitely put how far I truly am from that into perspective.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To really get the most out of it, I need to focus on measuring &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/progression/&#34;&gt;progression&lt;/a&gt; in an objective and consistent way. I also need to plan out my workouts rather than just doing what I feel like doing once I&amp;rsquo;m there. Another thing I need to get better at is pushing exercises towards failure. I&amp;rsquo;m starting to recognize that at my phase, the priority is to &lt;em&gt;practice&lt;/em&gt; the many movements, rather than necessarily push numbers.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The intricacies of actually learning to use your own body is something I&amp;rsquo;m only beginning to understand. Understanding theory only goes so far, putting it into practice is the important part. It&amp;rsquo;s totally mind-boggling to realize how little body awareness I&amp;rsquo;ve started with and how slowly it develops. There is a lot to look forward to, and I&amp;rsquo;m excited to learn along the way.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;fitting-into-old-clothes&#34;&gt;Fitting into old clothes&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve hit a pretty emotional milestone. Since I&amp;rsquo;m down over 120lbs now, I decided to try on some of my old clothes that I grew out of in the last few years. Getting more clothes to fit to only grow out of them is a pretty brutal emotional process, reversing this is very gratifying. I remember tearing up a little bit as something I remember being too tight and uncomfortable actually feeling loose. It sounds weird, but these clothes are stark reminders of all I went through in them. Being able to put things on that didn&amp;rsquo;t even fit when I bought (and couldn&amp;rsquo;t return) them was quite the experience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Almost everything I started this journey with is incredibly loose and oversized. I am absolutely ecstatic to begin the spring with better fitting shorts! I&amp;rsquo;ll admit, I still struggle to feel the progress I&amp;rsquo;ve actually made, but wearing some pants that certainly wouldn&amp;rsquo;t fit before definitely makes it feel more real. I&amp;rsquo;ve kept a decade&amp;rsquo;s worth of my old clothes, so I&amp;rsquo;ll have tons to get through and look forward to on the way down. It&amp;rsquo;s certainly helpful that I kept my old clothes, because I wouldn&amp;rsquo;t be able to afford getting new clothes at this rate!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;revenge-of-the-hunger-signals&#34;&gt;Revenge of the hunger signals&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/eating-progress/&#34;&gt;get control&lt;/a&gt; over my intake, I leaned quite a bit on having one-meal-a-day (OMAD) for convenience and simplicity. People regularly recommend intermittent fasting as a weight loss strategy, but I came across some information that changed my mind. It logically follows that your body can only turn so much protein into muscle (or repairing muscle) in a given amount of time. This means that when you fill yourself with your daily protein all in one meal, it&amp;rsquo;s possible that a non-trivial amount of that protein is &amp;lsquo;wasted&amp;rsquo; to be burned for energy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When I began switching to trying to equally distribute protein throughout the day, I was stunned at how quickly and ferociously hunger appeared. Instead of being perfectly satiated with a single large meal until the next one, I was immediately catching myself counting the minutes until the next meal. This intuitively makes sense. As less protein is available for energy, the body is being forced to lean more on burning fat and bringing in other sources of energy. At least, that&amp;rsquo;s the situation as I understand it. It could be entirely placebo, but I can say I definitely feel quite differently after making the change.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve been taking this as an opportunity to really face my hunger head-on. I&amp;rsquo;ve mentioned before that the more I exercise, it&amp;rsquo;s really the physical pain that is a bigger challenge than hunger at this point. My hope is that if I can continue to push through this, I will be in a better position to tackle the inevitable increase in hunger signals as I leave obesity and become merely overweight. I can say, I&amp;rsquo;m glad I&amp;rsquo;m so neurotic about all this, because I&amp;rsquo;ll have a great deal of trial-and-error to share with anyone who is curious.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;looking-forward-to-making-you-all-proud&#34;&gt;Looking forward to making you all proud&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s really stunned me now that I&amp;rsquo;m below 450lbs now, is that I&amp;rsquo;m not that far from being below 400lbs. At my current rate of progress I&amp;rsquo;ll be below 400 in less than three months. I have so much to look forward as I continue to push through these milestones. It&amp;rsquo;s quite funny how day-to-day I feel like I&amp;rsquo;m not loosing enough, but when I think about how I really only began making measurable progress last September, it hasn&amp;rsquo;t been that long at all. After building a bit of a runway to get started, I feel confident I can soar higher than even I thought possible. It&amp;rsquo;s actually quite surprising to me how quickly I&amp;rsquo;ve blasted through the 400s in a relatively short period of time. I definitely expect the 300s to be slower, but also a lot more fun.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ll be working hard to reach my ambitious targets and share the challenges and reflection along the way. I greatly appreciate the attention, encouragement, and kindness from those following my journey. One of the things I&amp;rsquo;ve begun to understand is how applicable much of what I&amp;rsquo;m doing is to other problems in life. One of the things I&amp;rsquo;ll never forget is how much a difference a little kindness makes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;new-resources&#34;&gt;New Resources&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve started adding various weight loss &amp;amp; fitness resources to &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/docs/#/page/weight%20loss%20resources&#34;&gt;my knowledge graph.&lt;/a&gt; The hope is to eventually put together a full picture of the process as I understand it, but in the short term it will be where I put links and references as I discover them. I have a weakness for informative information delivered via humorous cartoons. &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAo68fdu-hYfgO0y0n-J8qg&#34;&gt;Trainer Winny&lt;/a&gt; is a great YouTube channel I&amp;rsquo;ve recently stumbled on. You&amp;rsquo;ll hopefully like &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/tQD8q48rfQc&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;5 Things I Wish I Knew When I First Started Lifting&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;more-motivational-memes&#34;&gt;More motivational memes&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I spent some time browsing to see what I could find. I found it fascinating how many of the &amp;lsquo;motivational&amp;rsquo; memes out there are just about getting rich and &amp;lsquo;getting it all&amp;rsquo;. I appreciate the many examples where they show that there is more to this life than just that. Feel free to browse the entire &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation&#34;&gt;collection&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/keep-on-going.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/keep-on-going.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/moments.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/moments.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/there-is-always-we.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/there-is-always-we.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/you-got-this.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/you-got-this.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>🎉 Major Milestone: Below 450</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/under-450/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/under-450/</guid>
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/incredible.webp?d=1740614400</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/incredible.webp?d=1740614400" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/incredible.webp?d=1740614400" />
+		<description>Reflecting on recent progress and the road ahead.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;2025 is off to a great start. I am now quite confident that I&amp;rsquo;ll be able to continue to make progress despite Winter. With Only a month left of the season, I&amp;rsquo;m very happy that it has been a victory. All the effort facing the cold has absolutely paid off. I&amp;rsquo;ve recorded this vlog to share some of my recent thoughts as I hit this milestone. By weighing in at 449 yesterday, I&amp;rsquo;ve successfully lost more weight this month than last, which is my metric for success this month. Naturally, the goal for March is to lose more than February.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;mobility-gains&#34;&gt;Mobility Gains!&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the last year, I&amp;rsquo;ve made a remarkable amount of progress on mobility. When I first started at the gym, it would be difficult for me to stand still for more than a few seconds. Getting off the floor wasn&amp;rsquo;t something I could do without help. Now I&amp;rsquo;m able to do so much more! Getting stronger and more active has transformed my life in many ways and has certainly helped me feel more confident and capable.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/video/mobility-montage.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/mobility-montage.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m really starting to enjoy getting stronger. Maybe the addiction is already starting. 😅 One can hope&amp;hellip; While I&amp;rsquo;m very far from where I would like to be, I feel better in many ways. Getting stronger involves quite a bit of pain, but I&amp;rsquo;m learning to withstand that more and more. This trial-by-fire has done wonders for my mental state and I am very grateful for the chance to make radical changes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;updates&#34;&gt;Updates&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;reading-progress&#34;&gt;Reading Progress&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Semi-recently I read &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216883338-becoming-a-mentally-tough-motherf-cker&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Becoming a Mentally Tough Motherf&lt;/em&gt;cker: How Elite Powerlifting Made Me a Better Person, Parent*&lt;/a&gt; by Sumi Singh. I&amp;rsquo;d wholeheartedly recommend it for anyone. It&amp;rsquo;s something I plan to revisit many times on my journey. It&amp;rsquo;s a short but invaluable guide on how to take on difficult challenges, and is very applicable to my situation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m halfway through reading &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19132.Food_Politics&#34;&gt;Food Politics.&lt;/a&gt; I&amp;rsquo;ve learned a variety of interesting points of contention when it comes to nutrition and public health. I&amp;rsquo;ve been slacking a bit on reading lately, but I&amp;rsquo;m looking forward to finishing it. The main take-away from the book I have so far is that the conversation is so much more contrived than I had initially assumed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;sharing-resources&#34;&gt;Sharing resources&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve decided to start (slowly) adding &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/docs/#/page/weight%20loss&#34;&gt;weight loss&lt;/a&gt; and fitness information to my &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/docs&#34;&gt;personal documentation&lt;/a&gt;. The idea is to at least record resources I&amp;rsquo;ve found helpful or informative. This will also help me see if I understand the problem well enough to build up my own mini-wiki about it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Walk with me: Pushing forward</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-25-02-22/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 23 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-25-02-22/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2025-02-22.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<description>Struggling but holding on</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Feel free to listen to this off-the-cuff rant &amp;amp; reflection of my recent progress. These monologues are recorded primarily for my own benefit. Very light edits are done to remove some pauses and repetitions, but the audio itself is very raw.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;recent-progress&#34;&gt;Recent Progress&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2025-02-month.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite recent challenges, things are going quite well. I&amp;rsquo;m sore and quite tired a lot of the time, but I&amp;rsquo;m definitely reaching ahead. I&amp;rsquo;ve successfully completed three weeks back to my fall schedule of being active 5 days a week. It&amp;rsquo;s certainly very demanding, but looking at my weight loss spreadsheet I can see the difference. I have a daily loss averaged over the last month and it&amp;rsquo;s gone from 0.5/lbs/day to 0.7 since the start of February.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m very close to being below 450. This is incredibly exciting to me. Not only does this mean I&amp;rsquo;m down over 120lbs, but I spent a long time around 400lbs during my adult life. Getting consistently below that will be a concrete sign that I&amp;rsquo;m making serious permanent progress. Just the other day, I realized I can finally fit in the bus stop seating. As I&amp;rsquo;m writing this, I&amp;rsquo;m wearing a 4xl t-shirt I was gifted from the gym I signed up at. I can put it on without stretching it! Meaning I&amp;rsquo;m down from 6xl.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;am-i-losing-the-weight-too-fast&#34;&gt;Am I losing the weight &lt;em&gt;too fast?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the recording I spend some time explaining why I feel the need to push as ambitiously as I can. In short much of it has to do with having the privilege of being able to focus on this as my top priority. The other major factor is just the fact that I&amp;rsquo;m sick of being this large and helpless. The progress I&amp;rsquo;ve made so far have really just given me a taste for a more capable life that I am desperate to start living. While I may be pushing hard, I know I&amp;rsquo;m quite far from any serious hard limits. I&amp;rsquo;m seeing that what I&amp;rsquo;m able to do is still far less what what I&amp;rsquo;m likely able to safely do. So I continue to gradually and methodically test my limits while trying to do the best I can to take care of the basics.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;dont-sweat-the-small-stuff&#34;&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t sweat the small stuff&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I think the biggest paradox of weight loss is the advice &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t sweat the small stuff, then it&amp;rsquo;s all small stuff&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;. It&amp;rsquo;s genuinely important to not obsess over minute day-to-day stressors, but to begin making changes one does have to focus on basic living choices. So while starting out, it seems like you&amp;rsquo;re doing nothing but &amp;lsquo;sweating the small stuff&amp;rsquo;. Eventually, you can build good habits that begin to build the foundation for a better lifestyle. At that point, then you need to tune out &amp;ldquo;the small stuff&amp;rdquo; and stay focused on consistency without being completely derailed by stressing out about some small failure or setback.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div style=&#34;width:100%&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;table style=&#34;font-size:14px;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;th colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h2 style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;📉 Weight Tracker&lt;/h2&gt;
+            &lt;/th&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Starting Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Current Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weight Lost&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goal Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;576&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;379.6&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;196.4&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;15% BF&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h3 style=&#34;font-size:x-large;&#34;&gt;2025 Goal: 200lbs in 2025 challenge&lt;/h3&gt;
+                &lt;div
+                    style=&#34;border:3px solid var(--color-accent);align-items: flex-start;justify-content: flex-start;margin:5px;border-radius:15px;overflow: hidden;&#34;&gt;
+                    &lt;div style=&#34;width:49.7%;padding:10px;background-color:var(--color-accent);color:black;font-weight: bolder;font-size:larger;&#34;&gt;49.7%
+                    &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;p style=&#34;margin:5px;text-align: left;width:fit-content;font-size:large;&#34;&gt;This year&#39;s goal is to lose &lt;strong&gt;200lbs&lt;/strong&gt; in 2025!&lt;br&gt;Current progress: &lt;strong&gt;99.4lbs&lt;/strong&gt; out of 200!
+                &lt;br&gt;A bit behind schedule! 😓&lt;/p&gt;
+            &lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34; style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;Last updated: 2025-07-06&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+    &lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div&gt;
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Sharing some difficult feelings about losing weight</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/early-changes/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/early-changes/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2025-02-16.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<description>Anxious about changes, building momentum, and failure</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;This is an off-the-cuff rant about some of the feelings I&amp;rsquo;ve been recently struggling with as I lose the weight. While things are going well, there are some small things that have been getting me down lately. In short, I am daunted by the fact that I actually have no idea what I will look like at a healthy body weight. Having never been a reasonable weight during my adult lifetime, I actually can&amp;rsquo;t comprehend what I will look like.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m also recognizing is that it is quite hard to keep up the momentum at times. Despite really making a great deal of progress on adopting healthy habits, I definitely feel how hard it is to keep going. It seems that losing the next 10lbs will always be as challenging as the last 10lbs. On top of all this, I&amp;rsquo;ve been struggling not to dwell on the opportunity costs of getting this big in the first place. It&amp;rsquo;s very hard to face the fact that my situation was, and still is quite dire.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite all this, I am confident I will continue to make progress. I&amp;rsquo;m continuing to lose a great deal of weight, and I&amp;rsquo;m keeping to my exercise schedule. I have a great deal to be thankful for and a lot of that is the kindness, support and encouragement I&amp;rsquo;ve received. As tough as this journey is, I do have a lot motivating me to keep moving forward.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Over 450lb guy shovels snow for over an hour (timelapse)</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/shoveling-snow/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 15 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/shoveling-snow/</guid>
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//emoji/lift.svg?d=1739577600</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//emoji/lift.svg?d=1739577600" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//emoji/lift.svg?d=1739577600" />
+		<description>A gratifying triumph against the cold.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;turning-mass-into-moved-mass&#34;&gt;Turning mass into moved mass&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s been quite a bit of snow recently. To really push my limits and see how far I&amp;rsquo;ve come I decided to tackle a pretty serious shoveling job. There was a lot left over from yesterday, so I decided to film me getting the last of it done. I&amp;rsquo;ve put together a 20x speed timelapse of me spending an hour clearing out the rest of it. I did record audio while doing the shoveling, but that&amp;rsquo;s more for myself so I can spare you all the huff and puffing. It was fun practicing getting some outdoor footage. The tripod kept falling over so I had to reset it a few times.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;If music doesn&amp;rsquo;t work, try &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/rVSaKfif78L6MHWWbYMgFF&#34;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://microdosingfailure.substack.com/p/shoveling&#34;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; it&amp;rsquo;s possible the audio may just be muted.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It was immensely gratifying to get this done. All the lifts I&amp;rsquo;ve done, all the work put into getting stronger really paid off here. It was quite the experience to be able to keep going when it wasn&amp;rsquo;t so long ago that even getting up off the ground was a huge challenge. I may not be where I&amp;rsquo;d like to be in terms of cardiovascular strength, but I&amp;rsquo;ve definitely noticed a huge improvement from the &amp;ldquo;early days&amp;rdquo;. I feel strong in more ways than just physical. This was a daunting task that absolutely would have been out of reach not that long ago, and certainly felt out of reach when approaching it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/snow-machine.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m absolutely sore and worn out from the ordeal, but I&amp;rsquo;m very pleased with having some hands-on proof to myself that I am much more capable. Doing it was hard, but watching the video afterwards makes me feel downright heroic. Getting out of chairs is still something I brace for, so I really appreciate having this to show me that I&amp;rsquo;m capable of a lot more than I would initially assume. I&amp;rsquo;ve re-watched this several times and really can&amp;rsquo;t believe &amp;ldquo;I did that.&amp;rdquo; Being able to go from &amp;ldquo;I can&amp;rsquo;t do anything&amp;rdquo; to &amp;ldquo;I was able to do that&amp;rdquo; is making me feel really quite great.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I’m over the moon to be under 460 now! I’m hoping I can be at or below 450 by the end of the month! I’m pushing hard but I’m confident I can get close by then. The long term chart is starting to look pretty decent. It almost looks like I know what I’m doing. 😆&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you all for following these updates and especially those of you who take the time to write to me. The encouragement I&amp;rsquo;ve received from many of you has meant a great deal to me. I hope to impress you all with lots of work and rapid weight loss come spring and summer. I expect I&amp;rsquo;ll look at least a bit different by 2026. I have a long road ahead of me, but I am much more confident that I can continue to (safely!) push my limits.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Walk with me: Reflecting on the changes</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-25-02-07/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 07 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-25-02-07/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2025-02-07.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/2025-01-watch.webp?d=1738886400</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/2025-01-watch.webp?d=1738886400" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/2025-01-watch.webp?d=1738886400" />
+		<description>Recent updates and thoughts</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;getting-back-in-gear&#34;&gt;Getting back in gear&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I recorded short walks before and after making my way to the pool. I&amp;rsquo;m pushing hard to re-gain my fall schedule, where I&amp;rsquo;m at the gym three times a week and going to the pool twice a week. I&amp;rsquo;m thrilled to say I&amp;rsquo;ve been successful this week.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;changes-now-that-ive-lost-first-100-lbs&#34;&gt;Changes now that I&amp;rsquo;ve lost first 100 lbs&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mobility&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m able to get off the floor un-assisted.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Able to stand for long periods of time, balance is better.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Falling hardly ever, much less than before.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Can walk longer distances without soreness&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Better body awareness&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Squats &amp;amp; deadlifts with weight on the bar&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Walking lunges&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Food&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Able to control my eating&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Cooking for myself regularly&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Exercise is helping mood a lot&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Getting more reading done&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Clothes are getting real loose&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;bigfoot-footage-of-me-doing-lunges-at-460lbs&#34;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Bigfoot footage&amp;rdquo; of me doing lunges at 460lbs&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I got my first lunges on video, but unfortunately it was sent to me over SMS and Apple -&amp;gt; Android compresses the heck out of it. I&amp;rsquo;ll have to make sure to get a good recording in the future!&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/first-lunges.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;related&#34;&gt;Related&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/minnesota-mom/&#34;&gt;Dear Minnesota Mom&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/good-things-everywhere.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/good-things-everywhere.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/true-inspiration.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/true-inspiration.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Dear Minnesota Mom</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/minnesota-mom/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/minnesota-mom/</guid>
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/haha-yes-rock.webp?d=1738800000</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/haha-yes-rock.webp?d=1738800000" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/haha-yes-rock.webp?d=1738800000" />
+		<description>Answering a tough question</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;inbox-flood&#34;&gt;Inbox flood&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I had the pleasure of being featured on &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/how-to-really-resist-digital-id/&#34;&gt;The Corbett Report&lt;/a&gt; to talk about the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;Libre Solutions Network&lt;/a&gt; and the &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/docs/#/page/digital%20identification&#34;&gt;digital ID&lt;/a&gt; agenda. James Corbett has a large audience of wonderful and thoughtful people, so it was to be expected that people would reach out after my interview. I&amp;rsquo;m hoping to get back to many of those who&amp;rsquo;ve contacted me, but this particular email got top priority.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;weight-loss-question&#34;&gt;Weight loss question&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My daughter is in a similar situation.  It is a subject that is so touchy to her&amp;ndash;we barely ever talk about it.  I so fear saying or doing the wrong things. My heart is breaking cuz I don&amp;rsquo;t know really how to help.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Plz, if you could help by telling me what type of things that are the right kind of way to be supportive&amp;ndash;type of things to say &amp;amp; do, I would be eternally grateful.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you so much for sharing your journey &amp;amp; allowing people to better understand &amp;amp; ask questions. ❤️&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Minnesota Mom&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ll admit this was a daunting question to receive.
+I&amp;rsquo;m certainly no authority on how to help people resolve these problems, but I&amp;rsquo;ve shared what I think would be helpful based off my experiences.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;dear-minnesota-mom&#34;&gt;Dear Minnesota Mom,&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am definitely very sorry to hear about your daughter&amp;rsquo;s troubles and your dilemma.
+My hope is that I can give enough context to help you to feel confident that you can help her without any fear.
+I&amp;rsquo;ve certainly been on the receiving end of difficult discussions about weight with loved ones and even with well-meaning strangers who feel the need to comment!
+Unfortunately, I am quite aware that the mother-daughter bond is a very sensitive thing that I don&amp;rsquo;t have a whole lot of insight into.
+I will warn you that I can&amp;rsquo;t imagine how difficult it is to be in your situation, and I fully expect helping her face it to be quite difficult as well.
+With great sympathy, I&amp;rsquo;m happy to answer any questions and/or lend my perspective as well as I can.
+I apologize if much of what I write feels redundant, but I think there&amp;rsquo;s a &amp;ldquo;bigger picture&amp;rdquo; that&amp;rsquo;s worth seeing.
+Feel free to reach out for more questions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To start off I&amp;rsquo;ll share this.
+I have &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/&#34;&gt;a collection of motivational memes&lt;/a&gt; that I regularly re-watch to keep me motivated.
+These are especially worth taking a look at:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/planting-seeds.mp4&#34;&gt;Seeds are made to grow&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/be-kind-to-yourself.mp4&#34;&gt;Mike needs a plan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/dreams.mp4&#34;&gt;Dreams without goals are just dreams&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/peterson-be-judicious.mp4&#34;&gt;Be Judicious - Jordan Peterson&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/rogers-forgive-yourself.mp4&#34;&gt;Mr Rogers - The loving part of you&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These have helped me a great deal. It&amp;rsquo;s not easy to stick through the hard times, sometimes a reminder is enough to keep going.
+My hope is that these can help you keep an eye out for the kind of encouragement that&amp;rsquo;s out there.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;mdash; Extra info about me detour&amp;mdash;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve written about &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/how/&#34;&gt;how I got so big&lt;/a&gt; which gives the long story about my struggles over the years.&lt;br&gt;
+My weight gain was primarily driven by these things:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Not prioritizing my own health &amp;amp; well-being&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Emotionally-driven eating &amp;amp; poor food choices&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Low activity level, eventually degenerating into zero activity as mobility became a problem&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Denial and fear of facing and correcting these issues&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Hopelessness that it can&amp;rsquo;t be changed&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Addressing these isn&amp;rsquo;t easy, and in my experience requires a lot from a person.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I can tell you first-hand that the hardest person on somebody who is overweight is themselves, and especially if they&amp;rsquo;re severely obese.
+Based on my experience, I absolutely know there were many moments where I distanced myself from others out of shame.
+Even worse as one&amp;rsquo;s self-loathing grows, it becomes second-nature to project that onto those around you.
+As a millennial, certain challenges in my life made health feel like less of a priority. Due to family circumstances I had a strong desire for independence.
+Securing that independence required me to make sacrifices and one of the first sacrifices I made was healthy lifestyle choices.
+I think my generation (and younger) are subject to horrific psyops directly targeted at their emotional, spiritual, and physical destruction.
+The hardest part of this, is that I&amp;rsquo;ve found there are serious communication barriers across large age differences that make people feeling heard and understood very challenging.
+I can&amp;rsquo;t speculate on what your daughter has faced, but I imagine there are many emotional and lifestyle stressors that are making it harder to prioritize healthier living.
+There are many things that lead to weight gain, but generally people who end up severely obese end up having many difficulties that are difficult to disentangle.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ll also say that turning things around is incredibly challenging.
+The more dire the situation, the more time real change is going to take.
+I had to directly face my emotional difficulties, and that was a devastating experience.
+It&amp;rsquo;s much easier to avoid how you feel when the alternative is &amp;ldquo;pushing it off until things are better&amp;rdquo;.
+Dr Peter Breggins&amp;rsquo; book Guilt, Shame and Anxiety: Overcoming legacy emotions was a huge help to me.
+I recommend the book generally, but the main benefit I got from it was recognizing that my self-loathing and numbness was something that could change.
+Dr Peter Breggins recommends the way to overcome these things is to &amp;ldquo;become a source of love in your life&amp;rdquo;.
+This means many things to many people, but to me it helped me recognize that taking care of myself isn&amp;rsquo;t selfish for so long as I live for others.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;mdash; End of detour &amp;mdash;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-can-you-do-to-help&#34;&gt;What can you do to help?*&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;*&lt;em&gt;In my opinion, as a non-expert.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;understand&#34;&gt;Understand&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I would recommend learning whatever you can about the process.
+It&amp;rsquo;s a long difficult road, but you never know how what you learn can really help her turn things around.
+Very often people will suggest simple (and sometimes contradictory) things, which may or may not help resolve things.
+Weight loss recommendations are very often their own rabbit holes, fads, and trends that I find not very helpful to people in severe situations.
+The good news is that there are many roads to making significant difference, very often someone just needs to find what works for them.
+In severe cases, where larger lifestyle changes are required, it&amp;rsquo;s scary, daunting, and often people don&amp;rsquo;t necessarily have the time and resources to receive the help they need.
+I&amp;rsquo;ll elaborate on eating choices more later, but when I was struggling I &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/non-stop-eating/&#34;&gt;wrote a post&lt;/a&gt; explaining all the things driving me to over-eat.
+Everyone is opinionated about particular weight loss strategies, but I would encourage you to recognize that many of them are fairly inter-changeable.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Here&amp;rsquo;s how weight loss works without all the BS:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To lose weight over time, one must eat less calories than their bodies consume over the same time period.
+Losing a large amount of weight likely requires tracking calories in one form or another, in addition to tracking weight.
+Tracking calories sucks, it&amp;rsquo;s not fun and induces many of the shame responses overweight people generally like to avoid.
+This is because sticking to eating as little as needed to lose weight is much harder than one would assume.
+People generally assume that if one eats only healthy foods they&amp;rsquo;ll naturally revert to a normal body weight and that&amp;rsquo;s sadly not true.
+Given my appetite, it wouldn&amp;rsquo;t be too difficult to maintain my severe obesity eating nuts &amp;amp; fruits, as I have recently discovered.
+I was used to eating so much that beginning to eat enough to lose weight made me struggle with a lot of hunger and that&amp;rsquo;s not easy if you don&amp;rsquo;t have healthy outlets for stress.
+Foods generally have a certain level of satiety, for example carbs tend to make people more hungry, while fiber and protein tend to make people feel more full.
+My general recommendation for eating well (as I understand it) is to prioritize &amp;ldquo;nutrient density&amp;rdquo; per calorie.
+For example, the nutrients I want are protein, fiber, and vitamins.
+Broccoli is a super-food that&amp;rsquo;s worth going crazy on, but you&amp;rsquo;ll also want good amounts of protein with it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Severe obesity (such as in my case) is often rarely a single issue, it&amp;rsquo;s more likely to be a constellation of troubles that are each difficult to tackle.
+I wrote about my &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/challenges/&#34;&gt;challenges being large,&lt;/a&gt; and how they&amp;rsquo;ve impacted me.
+Sleep &amp;amp; stress management may not be as important as calories for weight loss, but they&amp;rsquo;re really not far behind.
+When I&amp;rsquo;m nocturnal, it&amp;rsquo;s genuinely hard to be productive in any way that doesn&amp;rsquo;t require sitting at a computer, this makes it much harder to make healthier choices.
+Fixing sleep is genuinely hard and I certainly can&amp;rsquo;t claim to have done it yet. I have had a lot of progress out of managing light exposure (sunshine earlier in the day, going for walks, avoiding light in the night).&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I will say, stress management is very much the name of the game.
+It&amp;rsquo;s relatively easy to become fueled with ambition to make radical changes for them all to collapse the moment life throws a curve ball.
+Healthy stress outlets are invaluable for being able to withstand the pressure and to maintain long-term goals.
+Swimming is generally quite accessible. I was still able to do it at my highest, the trouble was just getting to a pool.
+Taking on an active hobby itself makes a huge difference, especially when it helps you connect with positive people who can help in their own way.
+Since finding the right gym for me I am regularly surrounded by encouraging people who would be more than happy to answer even simple questions.
+I would argue the biggest thing most people are missing out on is a large support network.
+No single person can shoulder the weight of a lifetime of someone else&amp;rsquo;s pain, nor can they resolve anyone else&amp;rsquo;s problems.
+But just as the saying goes &amp;ldquo;it takes a village to raise a child&amp;rdquo; building a positive social environment itself can do wonders.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As I understand it, you&amp;rsquo;re in the difficult position of feeling responsible but not having control.
+I&amp;rsquo;m sure if I told you you just had to get her to eat 500g of broccoli and 500g of chicken a day to lose it all, you&amp;rsquo;d do whatever is in your power to make that happen.
+When one is struggling with their own body, the last thing we want is to feel even more out of control.
+In my opinion, this is something that causes a lot of friction.
+It&amp;rsquo;s very hard to build up the courage and humility to even let others help even when we want it.
+Depending on how old she is, how heavy she is, and if you&amp;rsquo;re still living together these can all complicate matters (to say nothing of stubbornness and shame).&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;connect&#34;&gt;Connect&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Your job, as I understand it, is to break through the pain and sadness to be intimately close with your daughter.
+This is no easy task, because as I&amp;rsquo;ve mentioned it&amp;rsquo;s very easy for us &amp;lsquo;big people&amp;rsquo; to want to wall ourselves away from others to avoid the shame and regret.
+As her mother, you&amp;rsquo;re very aware of what&amp;rsquo;s beautiful and good about her and what potential she offers.
+I would go as far as to argue your most urgent priority is to help her see it too.
+I will tell you that turning my situation around needed a real &amp;ldquo;choosing life&amp;rdquo; decision.
+All that numbness and pain puts people like me in a situation where we alternate between trying as hard as we can and giving up completely after that fails.
+The truth is that the moderate and steady approach is what wins the day in the end.
+Patience on your part is no simple thing to ask for.
+And for on her part, it may be too much for her at this point in time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It absolutely sounds corny to say &amp;ldquo;love the pain away&amp;rdquo; but being a healthy escape from the world is something almost everyone needs more of.
+The problem with your situation is that you have to console your child who is pushing you away out of sadness, shame and regret.
+I can only imagine the pain and frustration that causes, but I promise you it is something that can change.
+The point is to bring yourselves close enough so that she can open up about this incredibly difficult topic.
+Anything you can do to help her recognize that things can get better, that you&amp;rsquo;re there to help without judgement, and that she can rely on you can really make a big difference.
+This is not the same as enabling or prolonging the difficulties, but it&amp;rsquo;s important to recognize her situation is something only she can change.
+Other people can help, lend support and advice but nothing anyone else can do will unilaterally change things.
+Any heavy-handed approach that reeks of &amp;ldquo;we&amp;rsquo;re trying to fix you&amp;rdquo; is generally going to backfire.
+Anyone with sufficient self-loathing will internalize that to say that they are the problem.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Your mission is to help her recognize that she isn&amp;rsquo;t the problem, but rather a prime investment.
+It&amp;rsquo;s very easy to spiral into self-loathing when one feels trapped in a downward spiral of self-destruction.
+In hindsight, I feel absolutely silly for not trying to &amp;ldquo;protein max&amp;rdquo; before finding a personal trainer, but one never knows what specific piece of information can tip the scales.
+The most important thing for her to learn isn&amp;rsquo;t any particular detail or trivia, but truly beginning to believe she has the power to change her circumstances.
+There are likely many obstacles. I&amp;rsquo;ve had to give up a great deal and rely on others to start truly turning around my situation.
+But once you&amp;rsquo;re at the point where you can both tackle those obstacles together, you&amp;rsquo;ll finally be at the point where you both feel like you&amp;rsquo;re on the same team instead of opposing each other.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Remember, a lot of the sensitivity is that she&amp;rsquo;s judging herself harshly and projects that onto your words.
+You can&amp;rsquo;t change how she interprets what you say, but care, understanding and persistence can help the love peek through the darkness.
+Because of how individual this whole process is, I genuinely can&amp;rsquo;t tell you what are good and bad areas to try.
+I imagine it feels impossible, even in the best case scenario you may not even notice when your efforts are working.
+I know from my experience I certainly looked like I was floundering when I was beginning to change for the better.
+The earliest steps are so small and so crucial, do not rush it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Getting to the point where she can talk about her hopes and struggles with this and other problems is a huge asset.
+If you can&amp;rsquo;t talk about healthier living at all, identifying and figuring out how to resolve the lifestyle circumstances that make things harder can be a great place to start.
+Career and social life can very much be a problem. When I was working nights it was incredibly easy to make all the wrong choices.
+I feel like my generation was afflicted with despair and hopelessness, finding ways to help her disconnect from those can definitely help.
+It&amp;rsquo;s possible that there are seemingly unrelated problems you can help her with, which once handled can snowball into bigger change.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;handle-setbacks&#34;&gt;Handle setbacks&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Starting out is very difficult. Unfortunately it seems almost nobody (if anyone) makes it all the way without some challenges or another.
+At the beginning, it feels like nothing is working until it eventually does.
+It&amp;rsquo;s very easy to blame and shame when inevitable relapses happen.
+Accepting failure is a necessary part of the process, which is why my weight loss substack is called &amp;ldquo;Micro-dosing failure&amp;rdquo;.
+The point is for her to begin to accept that she can push through adversity.
+It&amp;rsquo;s really not about any single day, but about building consistency and momentum over time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It took quite a long time for me to truly change things around despite putting a lot of work in.
+Guidance helps, but also getting enough &amp;ldquo;small wins&amp;rdquo; to truly begin trusting oneself.
+When trying to make progress it&amp;rsquo;s so easy to fall into the trap of trying to do everything &amp;ldquo;perfect&amp;rdquo; to only relapse into disappointment and despair.
+Building the trust so that she can lean on you when disappointment comes, can really help her bounce back and continue along.
+I can tell you that when starting out, every setback feels like a crisis.
+It&amp;rsquo;s a shock that validates all your worst opinions about yourself, and raises the fear that things will never improve.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Anything you can do to help her overcome hopelessness and despair in even the tiniest of ways can help let the light of hope in.
+There&amp;rsquo;s a &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/fight.mp4&#34;&gt;meme&lt;/a&gt; I have where it describes the process as:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol start=&#34;0&#34;&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Realize that we were all born for something&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Cover yourself in hopes and dreams&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Face your fears and your problems&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Fight!&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;And that&amp;rsquo;s really it. Your daughter isn&amp;rsquo;t just starting a weight loss journey, but a personal development lifestyle.
+Learning to encourage her to stay in a &amp;ldquo;growth mindset&amp;rdquo;, or at least be a positive example of it can do wonders.
+Obesity is an ugly, horrible monster, but it&amp;rsquo;s something that I believe anyone can overcome it as long as they begin to understand that they are not it.
+Recognizing the problem does not mean that people have to see her as a problem.
+Anything that gives her the space to try new things to make improvements can snowball into real action.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;find-assistance&#34;&gt;Find assistance&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The previous section is so important because once she is receptive to help, there&amp;rsquo;s a great deal that can be done.
+Anything you can do to help her connect with positive encouraging influences in the meantime can go a long way.
+Maybe there are good clubs you can join together, classes or even just hosting more family time to bond together can really help.
+Finding an encouraging environment of good people can make so many things much easier.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hiring a personal trainer certainly helped me regain my mobility and guided me through so many of the important basics.
+While I had read a great deal on my own, spending time regularly seeing a person who is incredibly knowledgeable about this problem made a huge difference.
+She may not be at the point where this is an option she would consider. If mobility is a concern, I would absolutely recommend finding a trainer who has been with heavy clients before and your daughter can connect with. This alone is a non-trivial investment but is the single thing I can think of that would make the biggest difference.
+The right gym and the right community is a priceless treasure I am thankful to have found in my situation. In your situation, I imagine it could even be worth signing up yourself to meet people and get a sense for it.&lt;br&gt;
+Once your daughter is taking charge of her lifestyle as a whole, that&amp;rsquo;s the best &amp;ldquo;go time&amp;rdquo; for you and others to help her make the best of it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Relatively simple things can help a lot:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Devoting time to regularly walk and talk together (talking about things other than weight if still touchy)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Devoting time to activities both you enjoy together and she enjoys solo (a previous hobby she may want to take back up)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Fitting active wear and clothes (you may need to find a &amp;ldquo;big and tall&amp;rdquo; store, feeling comfortable in your clothes is a relief)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Memberships &amp;amp; sports equipment (buy used or share with a neighbour)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Spending time cooking together to &amp;ldquo;meal prep&amp;rdquo; food to invest in making the journey easier&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Farm shares (healthy food and support your local farmer)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Relevant books (it&amp;rsquo;s necessary to be choosy here)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Fitness gadgets (I use a waterproof mp3 player while swimming)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Any assistance with travel to help (gym, pool, yoga, etc)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Home gym equipment (kettlebells are great!)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;(I&amp;rsquo;m probably forgetting a bunch, so I&amp;rsquo;ll probably write a post on that sometime in the near future.)&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;have-fun&#34;&gt;Have fun&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s a long journey, you may as well find ways to make it pleasant!
+There&amp;rsquo;s no reason it all has to be a joyless slog.
+Finding ways to (healthily) celebrate successes and comfort in the hard times makes everything so much easier.
+Not everything should be just about her weight loss, connecting over other shared interests or discovering new ones can help bring you closer.
+I can personally attest that getting stronger and being able to do more things makes life a lot more fun.
+Before she&amp;rsquo;s ready to tackle the weight or other problems, you have an opportunity to help her recognize that what&amp;rsquo;s hard in her life isn&amp;rsquo;t a reflection of her character or worth.
+Once she&amp;rsquo;s ready to take it all on, there will be many opportunities to share the journey in fun and exciting ways.
+If she does decide to get into weight lifting, you could even try it out together!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am confident that all this can be improved.
+I have no doubt that this is something your daughter would love to change deep down.
+There&amp;rsquo;s just likely a lot of pain, regret, and/or hopelessness making her feel trapped.
+It&amp;rsquo;s no simple thing to turn around, but it&amp;rsquo;s also incredibly rewarding.
+Being able to be there for her when the wins really start is going to feel wonderful.
+Celebrate every small win.
+You can look forward to her being in a much better place to connect once she does begin resolving her troubles.
+There will be much to rejoice over, and I really look forward to you being able to experience that.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;additional-resources&#34;&gt;Additional Resources&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Since I wholeheartedly recommend absorbing as much (decent) health and fitness information as you can, I&amp;rsquo;ll share what I&amp;rsquo;ve found useful:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216883338-becoming-a-mentally-tough-motherf-cker&#34;&gt;Becoming a Mentally Tough Motherf*cker: How Elite Powerlifting Made Me a Better Person, Parent (and Partner)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21487729-guilt-shame-and-anxiety&#34;&gt;Guilt, Shame, and Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming Negative Emotions&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://linktr.ee/mikepridgen&#34;&gt;Mike Pridgen&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbhqD5FDp3Z83KQfRkuUSJYyjyuHYTsUM&#34;&gt;Picture Fit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSiKFGDpfCICQDfmxxjDvsg&#34;&gt;Flow High Performance&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHmsINRyWmZZjHRxDkl60_ZuT9KRQoKPs&#34;&gt;Steve Shaw - Massive Iron&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.thelatestkate.art/&#34;&gt;The Latest Kate&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Walk with me: Looking forward to Spring</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-25-01-31/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-25-01-31/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2025-01-31.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/2025-01-watch.webp?d=1738281600</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/2025-01-watch.webp?d=1738281600" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/2025-01-watch.webp?d=1738281600" />
+		<description>Figuring out fiber</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Feel free to listen to this off-the-cuff rant &amp;amp; reflection of my recent progress. These monologues are recorded for my own benefit. Very light edits are done to remove some pauses and repetitions, but the audio itself is very raw.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Today I went for a nice walk in the sunshine this afternoon. I reflect on how the last month has went. I&amp;rsquo;ve failed to lose more weight in January than December, but I&amp;rsquo;m still happy to be down ~14lbs. Despite the slower rate than I would like, I&amp;rsquo;m feeling very optimistic about the next few months. I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed successes in other areas, especially controlling food intake and walking regularly.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2025-01-monthly-chart.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;figuring-out-fiber&#34;&gt;Figuring out fiber&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A question I&amp;rsquo;ve been digesting this month is how much fiber should I aim for. Until recently my only nutrition goals were to get as much protein in as little calories as I could stand. Now that I&amp;rsquo;ve started reading &lt;em&gt;Food Politics&lt;/em&gt; by Marion Nestle, I&amp;rsquo;m trying to take a broader approach to nutrition. It&amp;rsquo;s clear to me that protein shakes and multivitamins are not the ideal path to overall health. Cooking for myself has helped expand my options, but I&amp;rsquo;d like to understand what to prioritize. As far as low-calorie sources of fiber, your main options are celery, brussel sprouts, &amp;amp; broccoli.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The author of &lt;em&gt;Food Politics&lt;/em&gt; seems to think very little about the idea of eating meat. She explicitly argues that plant-based diets are superior. Even if this is true in a general sense, I am trying to optimize a very specific situation. I&amp;rsquo;m not sure how &lt;em&gt;the science has evolved&lt;/em&gt; on meat-heavy diets such as keto and carnivore. What I have taken away is that it is more important than I had already assumed to eat vegetables.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2025-01-end-chart.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve got a long way to go, but I really appreciate the encouragement and kindness I&amp;rsquo;ve received from people at the gym, and kind strangers over the Internet. I really hope to do much better in February, and I&amp;rsquo;m excited to see how well I can do. At least for now, I&amp;rsquo;m behind my annual target, but hopefully this will change as I get back in gear.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;related-items&#34;&gt;Related Items:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/EtnTuTX4L24&#34;&gt;Dietary Fiber: The Most Important Nutrient?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/tYTcwCodGMU&#34;&gt;TED NAIMAN | FAT MASS CONTROLS IR …glucose destroys mitochondria; flexibility&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>How did I get so big?</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/how/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 26 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/how/</guid>
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/uber-eats.webp?d=1737849600</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/uber-eats.webp?d=1737849600" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/uber-eats.webp?d=1737849600" />
+		<description>Mapping out the path I took to weighing over 570lbs.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;A question I&amp;rsquo;ve started to get quite often is &amp;ldquo;How did you get so big?&amp;rdquo; There are many quick answers that immediately come to mind, but they tend to feel incomplete when I think about it. Generally my answers could have been summed up as &amp;ldquo;I neglected the basics for far too long.&amp;rdquo; This is true, but for those who want a more complete explanation, I feel I can do better. This is where I will be laying out everything in entirety to the best of my ability.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I think telling this story can help others consider what to avoid, but more importantly understand the pitfalls many experience on their way up. With years of hindsight and a more complete understanding of my situation, I think it&amp;rsquo;s crucial for me to understand the entire ordeal from start to finish. In preparation for writing this I decided to record a video of myself explaining it all from memory. This was helpful, but will not be shared. There are many details that could be elaborated on, but I&amp;rsquo;m choosing to focus primarily on how my weight was impacted over the years.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It feels like the logical way to answer this is to lay out my story chronologically. It certainly didn&amp;rsquo;t happen all at once. For over a decade things went from troubling, to worse, to horrifyingly dire. I&amp;rsquo;ll need to go back to my earliest memories to draw out the fullest context I can. Being as large as I was, is a horrific tragedy that I wouldn&amp;rsquo;t wish on others. The road to getting that big is painful and takes it&amp;rsquo;s own toll on you. It greatly saddens me that very often, relatives and loved ones often have no idea how to stop and reverse the downhill spiral. Not only does this add to the guilt and shame, but it also makes it easy to begin avoiding loved ones.  My hope is that by understanding and sharing my experience, others can be better equipped to help themselves and their loved ones.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;childhood&#34;&gt;Childhood&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/childhood.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In hindsight, there are many things I can think of from my childhood that definitely had an impact long term. Only recent events have made me seriously take a look over those years and reconsider the impacts. I had a very controlling and aggressive father. He had a nasty habit of squeezing me and my brother&amp;rsquo;s hands until the knuckles moved around and hurt as a means of ensuring compliance. Like many other things, I didn&amp;rsquo;t at all appreciate the significance of what it truly meant.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My father didn&amp;rsquo;t work for many of my childhood years. Instead my mother had to provide for us, including working nights. I have many memories of him taking me and my brothers out of the house so she could sleep. Generally, these outings involved a fair amount of sugar or empty calories. Quite often we would go to a grocery store and get cookies, bread and soda. Other times he would take us to McDonald&amp;rsquo;s. I have many memories of having their pancakes during these outings. These moments were fun at the time, but I have a very different understanding of them now.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Over time, I began to grow a bit of extra weight. I remember my father bullying me over it. He would take me outside and have me jog, but then grab my stomach and exclaim &amp;ldquo;this is what you have to get rid of!&amp;rdquo;. Later he would then lecture me that running while fat is only going to hurt your joints. Despite all this, he did eventually join the military and had to spend time away from home. Many of my childhood troubles gradually faded away after he was out of the picture, including the weight. I became a very active pre-teen and ended up in very good shape by grade 9.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;teenage-years&#34;&gt;Teenage years&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/teens.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Being in such good shape, I certainly grew into having quite the ego. I was having loads of fun biking and swimming, and developed quite the invincibility complex. For much of my teenage years, I didn&amp;rsquo;t really think that I could get obese again. Part of this was because I was active enough that I truly never had to give any thought to what I was eating. I was proud of being capable and took it for granted. I really enjoyed biking and swimming. Since I could bike from home to a beach nearby I would go very regularly and even bring friends. I was notorious for hosting regular beach parties during the summer and I ended up building quite a close-knit group of friends that I had met all over town. Being a natural extrovert it was incredibly satisfying to bring cool interesting people I met to meet each other.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It didn&amp;rsquo;t last terribly long, because in Ontario, gym class is only mandatory until grade 10. While I was still active outside of gym class, that too gradually faded over the years, and I finished high school much heavier. I remember when I started putting on weight this time, it was schoolmates who would be the ones making comments. I also had a relative out-of-the blue ask me if I was depressed. At the time, I didn&amp;rsquo;t have the vocabulary and perspective to explain what I was feeling or why. All I knew was that I had an outsized appetite compared to other kids, but always attributed it to my activity level. In hindsight, there was a constant nagging desire to feel &amp;ldquo;normal&amp;rdquo; despite glaring signs things were not normal.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;After some drama, my parents finally split. This was the beginning of many years of a long and drawn out stressful saga. When I tried to explain it to others, the idea of a messy divorce dragging on for years sounded bizarre. At the time, I felt completely unable to get people to understand the stressors and pressures enduring it placed on me. This was strange to me at that point, but with information I have now it makes a lot more sense. Growing up, I couldn&amp;rsquo;t comprehend why my father who had so little to do with my life at that point, would always suddenly choose to involve himself out of the blue. He would do absolutely deranged things like stalk my friends and message them on Facebook saying bizarre things. One day he even showed up at one of my beach parties. That in itself is quite the story, but my twin brother thankfully spoke to the lifeguards and got the police to remove him.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s outside the scope of this post to explain, but from my early teens I was absolutely certain that my father had to be out of my life. Much of these years were constant frustration from seeing him given the benefit of the doubt. He was absolutely excellent at appearances when the situation called for it, he would often be in his military uniform on these engagements. Over the years, after more and more nonsense I only became much more certain over time that being distant was the right call. Despite my twin brother attempting to mend bridges, he too would experience things that showed me my resolve was justified. Even now, I know so much more that makes me incredibly grateful I was so stubborn about it from the beginning.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But no matter how strong I was, this took a toll on me. It interfered with my school life, causing stress in other areas. As I grew more insecure I began to distance myself from the community I had put together slowly but gradually. I genuinely underestimated the impact that not having a guiding loving father in my formative years would have on me. Without a real focus on activity, I let life changes get in the way of maintaining a high activity level and often relied on fast food for comfort. In many ways I see that I was replicating those experiences with bread and soda with my twin brother as we would chat over large amounts of fast food. This was one of many things I left unexamined until quite recently.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One such outlet for this nagging desire was to play video games late into the night. As a child I would stay up late talking to my twin brother (much to our parents dismay). But later when we had our own rooms I would stay up very late playing video games. While this on its own isn&amp;rsquo;t unusual for a millennial teenager, my problems were rarely in kind but rather degree. In hindsight I believe I was using &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/revenge-bedtime-procrastination&#34;&gt;revenge bedtime procrastination&lt;/a&gt; to hold on to some independence outside of my life that felt very out of my control. Onling gaming was also a great surrogate activity to fool myself into thinking I could still be social while retreating from the world. This really was the beginning of leaning in to my worst coping mechanisms for problems I didn&amp;rsquo;t understand.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While being overweight as a teen was a source of insecurity, it was nowhere near as challenging as things would get as I grew larger. When entering early adulthood, I was desperate to prove that I could seize control over my life and fix everything, but this was foolish when I didn&amp;rsquo;t even comprehend the scale of my own self-deception. Often I would get well-meaning approaches from strangers trying to offer advice. Some even had their own experiences with obesity. My mental response was always the same &amp;ldquo;that&amp;rsquo;s nice but I can&amp;rsquo;t do it&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;early-adulthood&#34;&gt;Early adulthood&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/early-adult.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As I entered the workforce, I was incredibly grateful to finally be making enough to live independently with my twin brother. I finally felt like I had the breathing room to build the life I wanted. The independence I craved for so long was finally mine. For the first time in a long time I felt like I could move on from my family troubles. This optimism was still muted by an undercurrent of denial. Even though I still hadn&amp;rsquo;t truly examined my eating habits, I had hope that things would begin to resolve themselves as they had in the past. I was still able to bike around to places, and spent some time having friends over which was really nice. I felt&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I underestimated how my habits would worsen while working security. I became quite the stereotypical &amp;ldquo;obese security guard&amp;rdquo;. Shift work, with the occasional overnights took my bad &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/eating-progress/&#34;&gt;eating habits&lt;/a&gt; and made them a great deal worse. Instead of fast food being an occasional splurge it became my normal way of eating. While things seemed reasonable at the start, eventually I would be clearing out enough food for a party over the course of an overnight shift. In an attempt to carve out more time for myself, I supported an idea pitched by a co-worker to adopt a schedule of only 12 hour shifts. This greatly condensed the logistics of working shifts, but I chose to take the overnight portion of the schedule. In hindsight this was a terrible idea.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If I had a better understanding of how to properly manage poor sleep, I think it&amp;rsquo;s something that could have worked out better. But in practice what ended up happening is that I added unexamined sleep troubles on top of my unexamined eating troubles. Part of this was a foolish idea that trading my present health for comfort in the future was something that would work out. Later, I finally began to understand that my size was beginning to limit me. One of the hardest moments was when I got on a bike and collapsed the front tire, having to carry it all the way home in sadness and shame. I would experiment with buying bikes that could carry me at a larger size, but that only worked so long.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This was where the maladaptive patterns really began to fly in. I had to work to keep my independence, so health didn&amp;rsquo;t seem like a high priority even then. I figured as long as I fueled myself with enough calories and caffeine to keep pushing, I could fix things after I purchased more &amp;lsquo;breathing room&amp;rsquo; in the future. At some point, that opportunity did come. I was introduced to the &amp;ldquo;keto diet&amp;rdquo; and researched it as much as I could. Once I had a grasp of my plan and determined to turn things around, I started biking and doing keto. For a time, this worked really well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With a stronger bike and armed with a plan, was energized. I would bike to work and back occasionally, reaching over 30km on those days. This was incredibly fun and I really felt like I was going to fix everything. The problem is that unlike during my childhood, I wasn&amp;rsquo;t confident enough to commute by bike during the Winter. One winter I stopped biking, and by the Spring I was no longer biking to work. The more I think about it, the reason this didn&amp;rsquo;t ultimately work out is because I failed to properly prioritize my health and focus on really understanding it. I was still looking for simple solutions to what was already a very complicated problem. The fact is, most people you tell about your problems will also give you simple answers. I am now beginning to recognize how changing serious problems is dependent on resolving other problems as well. For this entire time, I was so preoccupied with getting through the week that the idea I needed to take better care of myself felt unimportant. I was too afraid of admitting weakness that I became very weak in the long run.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Doing keto I lost 80lbs in some time under a year. It was a lot of fun, and quite gratifying. It felt great to continue not examining the roots of my eating habits and instead made progress with a &amp;ldquo;simple fix&amp;rdquo;. Sadly, this was cut abruptly short as I suffered a stroke that took half of my vision. This was quite the ordeal. Over the next few years, I would recover a quarter of my vision back but I am still worse off from it. The event and aftermath itself were incredibly stressful and I was uncertain of what to even do about it. I had a near-death experience that could have radically transformed my life in other ways, but I was scared. My primary thought during that time was &amp;ldquo;I don&amp;rsquo;t want things to change&amp;rdquo;. I wanted to keep working security and I wanted to stay independent no matter what it took.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In hindsight, I&amp;rsquo;m convinced now more than ever that the desire for things not to change is a very sophisticated cloak for denial. Even worse, many it&amp;rsquo;s clear that what I most feared was being forced to reexamine my life. If I had truly taken this event for what it was, I could have taken the opportunity to examine the problems that caught up with me almost a decade later. But that&amp;rsquo;s not the road I took. The truth was, it wasn&amp;rsquo;t clear at the beginning if it would happen again. I was in so much mental and emotional pain over the ordeal that I truly couldn&amp;rsquo;t handle thinking at all. I spend years under the fear that there would be a more fatal repetition, feeling powerless to make meaningful changes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I was finally at the stage where I felt I had no choice but to ignore my problems and numb myself to their consequences. Tuning out the pain, sadness, and fear was a whole lot easier than facing it directly.  I quit keto because I was concerned based off information shared with me that it may had been the cause of my stroke. That&amp;rsquo;s far from certain, but it was how I saw it. I regained all the weight and then some. This time, the feelings of guilt, shame, and horror were all too difficult to face. During this time I convinced myself that because of the stroke, if anything stresses me out, I should simply avoid thinking about it. This of course exacerbated by inability to tackle &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/challenges/&#34;&gt;my problems&lt;/a&gt; head-on.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Prior to 2020, I moved from security to a daytime job at Canadian Blood Services. I felt optimistic about making better changes. Making more money helped me feel like I had more room to properly invest in making better choices. Without actually taking the time to learn what I needed to, it was hard to overcome my ingrained sense of hopelessness. I could certainly make changes and re-prioritize what to eat, but I couldn&amp;rsquo;t shake the &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/non-stop-eating/&#34;&gt;compulsions&lt;/a&gt; that were driving me at that point. Despite all this, working at CBS meant a great deal to me. It felt like an honor to be part of an organization working to make people&amp;rsquo;s lives better. It was both an opportunity to work on my technical skills and do meaningful work. Ironically, this often helped me ignore what I was doing to myself.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Eventually, my mother suggested joining a weight-loss clinic that she found helpful for herself. I decided to give it a try. They generally take people and recommend a variant of keto to them which seems to work for a lot of people. Despite keto being familiar, and me being willing to try it, adherence was a problem. Each session I would explain that it was incredibly difficult for me to stick to the diet. Which was perplexing to me because I had done it successfully before. What was different this time around was that I was no longer mobile enough to exercise and eating habits were in much worse shape. When I took the time to explain the emotional and lifestyle factors that were pushing me to eat and I was outright told &amp;ldquo;we can&amp;rsquo;t help you, you should try therapy&amp;rdquo; which felt like an outright rejection. Convinced I was truly beyond hope, I gave that up and languished further for a time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Eventually, my twin brother also got a job nearby the office. It was great to regularly drive in together and chat about things. I signed up at a nearby fitness facility (a massive complex with a pool, gym, and other activities) to start getting more exercise. When I went in to sign up, the employee (owner?) clearly had some sympathy for me and gave me a significant discount on the membership. It was an incredibly kind gesture that has not been forgotten. Just a few short months later, the sociological event known as the &amp;ldquo;pandemic&amp;rdquo; began as offices announced they were instituting work from home policies. Even if I would have worked up the effort to make it to the facility, the damage was already done. It seems a wave of cancellations prompted them to shut down their facility. As such, when the Covid Crisis began I felt even more certain that I was never going to be able to turn things around no matter what I try.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;covid-years&#34;&gt;Covid years&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/uber-eats.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Working remotely certainly helped me in many ways. I went for walks, sometimes spent time cooking better meals, but eventually that faded. I was consumed with despair over the fact that I knew the measures were doing more harm than good, and I wholeheartedly believe it was intended. My trust in the medical system as a whole was already very low, but this entire saga helped me write it off entirely. Of course, I was not able to &amp;ldquo;rise above&amp;rdquo; and make better decisions, eventually the convenience of food delivery apps took over. It is hard to describe my circumstances as anything other than merely giving up on an already dire situation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;On a daily basis I would wake up for work, order a large amount of fast food and drink over 6L of diet soda each day. During this time I let my insatiable hunger dominate my life. I was scared, I felt hopeless, and I felt angry. During lockdowns I had very few healthy outlets for any of this. It was already beginning to be difficult to walk at all, much less for enough time to actually feel any better. Despite working remotely, I was eventually &lt;a href=&#34;https://ocla.ca/canadian-blood-services-remote-working-employee-fired-for-declining-vaccine/&#34;&gt;terminated&lt;/a&gt; for refusing the &amp;ldquo;solution&amp;rdquo; the medical system was coercing people to take after being allowed to cause havoc on society. I worked at Canadian Blood Services long enough to gain a modicum of understanding over medical ethics. The fact that employers were being empowered to force medical products on the general public was a line I couldn&amp;rsquo;t cross.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It was fascinating and horrifying to meet so many people at &amp;ldquo;covid dissident&amp;rdquo; local meetups and encounter many people with similar emotional problems I had. This was an important opportunity, because it helped me see what I wasn&amp;rsquo;t seeing. Getting to know other people working to shine a light on what was wrong about the covid years has helped me a great deal. I&amp;rsquo;ve come across many trustworthy people who have given me guidance, and information that has been pivotal in my quest to solve these problems. Not everyone in &amp;lsquo;alternative heath&amp;rsquo; is a great person, but the best people are in &amp;lsquo;alternative health&amp;rsquo;. As I came to learn more, I became cautiously optimistic that it was still possible to reverse my situation. I still had, and continue to have doubts and fears, but I now have a lot more hope.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It was only after the generous support of my loved ones, and a great deal of learning about myself and health that truly turned the tide. Throughout 2023 I noticed my mobility descending into making me all-but-bed-ridden. The love of my life did the difficult and super-human task of patiently pushing me to keep walking despite how incredibly difficult it was. This helped maintain the little amount of mobility I had. During this time, my younger brother confronted me with who my father really was. It was incredibly painful, but my entire life began to finally make sense. I was no longer capable of avoiding my feelings when all the anger and sadness from my youth was relived in an incredibly painful moment of understanding. My life was turned upside down, but when I looked it was turned right way up.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Inspired in part by my younger brother&amp;rsquo;s strength, and the generous support from friends and loved ones, I realized I had been backed into the corner of the life I lived. As I slowly began to bring together the resolve to &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/2023-resolutions/&#34;&gt;take on this mission,&lt;/a&gt; I began exploring more ways to improve my many problems. With a wider understanding of my troubles, I recognized I had more to tackle than just weight. I had to improve mobility, tackle my emotions, gain control over eating, become more active, and learn to manage my weight. Last year, (2024) was the most challenging but rewarding year I&amp;rsquo;ve likely had ever.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The point of laying all this out isn&amp;rsquo;t to place blame. I could put it all on me, my father, or even society at large. A more nuanced position would be to mix it up in a way that sounded nice. The truth of the matter is that blame is irrelevant at this stage. I think it&amp;rsquo;s important to understand, but to use that understanding to make rational decisions. It is my responsibility to take care of my body as well as I can and I aim to learn how to do this as well as I can.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;epilogue&#34;&gt;Epilogue&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In case you&amp;rsquo;re not aware, I&amp;rsquo;m already making radical progress turning this situation around. I&amp;rsquo;ve lost almost 110lbs at the time of writing. I&amp;rsquo;m &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/escape-velocity/&#34;&gt;feeling much more confident&lt;/a&gt; I can continue to approach a healthy body weight. This time really feels different from previous attempts. My head is clearer, I have direction, knowledge, and an appreciation for the stakes. I feel extremely lucky to be able to take on this gratifying journey. I feel compelled to share not just the progress, but the process. This project has been all about me trying to document my experiences turning this massive problem around as best I understand it. I believe that people not only need examples that this can be turned around, but also to put into perspective how challenging it actually is.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/5bc7c687-b9a2-41ec-84d4-4ea7200c0776?title=0&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/5bc7c687-b9a2-41ec-84d4-4ea7200c0776?title=0&#34;&gt;Peertube link&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am excited to be healthy and capable for the first time in my adult life. In truth, I am a little scared of looking unrecognizable to myself. While I have no great attachment to how my body currently looks, I&amp;rsquo;m quite apprehensive about not being able to predict how it will change my appearance. It is certain, that going from over 570lbs to a healthy body weight will be a massive improvement. I&amp;rsquo;m &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/looking-forward/&#34;&gt;looking forward&lt;/a&gt; to all the things I&amp;rsquo;ll be able to do again.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div style=&#34;width:100%&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;table style=&#34;font-size:14px;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;th colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h2 style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;📉 Weight Tracker&lt;/h2&gt;
+            &lt;/th&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Starting Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Current Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weight Lost&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goal Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;576&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;379.6&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;196.4&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;15% BF&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h3 style=&#34;font-size:x-large;&#34;&gt;2025 Goal: 200lbs in 2025 challenge&lt;/h3&gt;
+                &lt;div
+                    style=&#34;border:3px solid var(--color-accent);align-items: flex-start;justify-content: flex-start;margin:5px;border-radius:15px;overflow: hidden;&#34;&gt;
+                    &lt;div style=&#34;width:49.7%;padding:10px;background-color:var(--color-accent);color:black;font-weight: bolder;font-size:larger;&#34;&gt;49.7%
+                    &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;p style=&#34;margin:5px;text-align: left;width:fit-content;font-size:large;&#34;&gt;This year&#39;s goal is to lose &lt;strong&gt;200lbs&lt;/strong&gt; in 2025!&lt;br&gt;Current progress: &lt;strong&gt;99.4lbs&lt;/strong&gt; out of 200!
+                &lt;br&gt;A bit behind schedule! 😓&lt;/p&gt;
+            &lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34; style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;Last updated: 2025-07-06&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+    &lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div&gt;
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Walk with me: Feeling better</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-25-01-24/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-25-01-24/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2025-01-24.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/2025-01-watch.webp?d=1737676800</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/2025-01-watch.webp?d=1737676800" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/2025-01-watch.webp?d=1737676800" />
+		<description>Regaining control and confidence</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I went on a walk to soak in some sunshine despite the cold. Feel free to listen to me ramble on as I go on a walk. I touch on my recent wins in my weight loss journey, and zoom all the way out to the wild conspiracies I consider. These recordings are primarily recorded for my own benefit, so only a light amount of editing is done.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;great-news&#34;&gt;Great News&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;scale-go-down&#34;&gt;Scale go down!&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve hit a new low! I&amp;rsquo;m thrilled to be under 470lbs. It&amp;rsquo;s wild to think it wasn&amp;rsquo;t that long ago I was over 500. Looking back on my charts it looks like I&amp;rsquo;ve successfully been able to &amp;rsquo;lock-in&amp;rsquo; and be fully back-on-track despite Winter being difficult. I am optimistic that I can successfully lose more weight this month than last December.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2025-01-chart.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Looking at the long-term chart, it really seems like I&amp;rsquo;m back to being somewhat in line with the progress I&amp;rsquo;ve been making since the start. While maintaining 1lb per day is not within reach yet, I&amp;rsquo;m hoping to return to it this Summer! I&amp;rsquo;m more confident than before that I can make the best of the nicer weather once it returns.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;micro-fast&#34;&gt;Micro-fast&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Yesterday was a roller-coaster &amp;amp; whirlwind at once. A very busy day and a very challenging day, but I realized that I was no longer letting stress determine my apatite. I felt like I could hold off without eating that day. Short of a limited amount of peanuts I was able to endure the day and get to sleep at night, I feel like I succeeded. I&amp;rsquo;m in no rush to make this a regular occurrence, but it&amp;rsquo;s gratifying to feel more control over my hunger and impulses.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;cool-food-tracking-app&#34;&gt;Cool food tracking app&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve started tracking food with a FOSS Android app called &lt;a href=&#34;https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.flasskamp.energize/&#34;&gt;Energize&lt;/a&gt;. I like how it gives you macro-nutrient targets and interesting micro-nutrient reports. I hope to make regular use of it! Being able to tack protein &amp;amp; fiber easier is great!&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.flasskamp.energize/&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/energize.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;new-watch&#34;&gt;New Watch&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I acquired a smartphone-free fitness wearable. It&amp;rsquo;s a &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/images/2025-01-watch.webp&#34;&gt;simple watch&lt;/a&gt; with a pedometer and some timer functions. I&amp;rsquo;m hoping to use it to focus on getting a good amount of steps on a regular basis. The alarm function on it doesn&amp;rsquo;t wake me up, but I&amp;rsquo;m hoping it eventually does. Eventually, I hope to use some of the parts I have lying around and build my own heart-rate monitor, but I&amp;rsquo;ll admit I&amp;rsquo;ve struggled to prioritize that little side-project.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;relevant-items&#34;&gt;Relevant Items&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/BXLVj1vs3KU&#34;&gt;Lyle McDonald&amp;rsquo;s Guide to Rapid Fat Loss&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/qFEJGWxjIPY&#34;&gt;Optimizing Sleep in the Context of Chronic Pain&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcFwxJMrxygBIv_UlTsfnKqgYJWe8NcdP&#34;&gt;Oracle Health Summit 2024&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wage-cage&#34;&gt;Wage Cage - Know your meme&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Vlog: January Update</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/2025-01-vlog/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/2025-01-vlog/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2025-01-vlog.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<description>Some ramblings about weight loss difficulties.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve recorded an update for January. I share some of my recent thoughts and challenges. It&amp;rsquo;s been a rough Winter, even a bit rougher than I expected. I am glad I am continuing to lose weight and make progress despite recent frustrations and setbacks. I&amp;rsquo;ve recorded this as a totally off-the-cuff vlog and have hardly done any editing. So if you&amp;rsquo;re into listening to me rant about my situation, you&amp;rsquo;re absolutely welcome to!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/videos/embed/314ee5f3-3098-427b-9e5d-bc6be382b5f2&#39;&gt;
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+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What I would like to know is if there are any questions I should answer. I feel like I take many aspects of my situation for granted and there may be things you&amp;rsquo;re curious about that I could explain. If you have any questions about my journey, or even getting big I&amp;rsquo;ll be happy to follow up.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;mailto:gabriel@libresolutions.network?subject=Weight%20loss%20question&#34;&gt;Ask away!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Having Trouble</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/not-easy/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 15 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/not-easy/</guid>
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//emoji/blah.svg?d=1736899200</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//emoji/blah.svg?d=1736899200" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//emoji/blah.svg?d=1736899200" />
+		<description>Losing weight is hard, losing a lot of weight is very hard</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve recorded two walks recently, but neither of them are really worth publishing. I spent hours basically just complaining about hard this all is. It&amp;rsquo;s been good being outside more, but I&amp;rsquo;ve had a very negative disposition recently. I am uncertain that I should even publish this. This post is being written not for sympathy, but so that I can clearly articulate my present challenges to reference in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In short, things are getting to me. A couple of recent challenges and setbacks have really got me down. My scale broke, which puts previous weigh-ins in doubt and required me to rush to get a new one. I&amp;rsquo;ve been dissatisfied with what I&amp;rsquo;ve been able to accomplish in a given day/week. The next few months are also filled with uncertainty, and it is stressing me significantly. In addition to all this, January isn&amp;rsquo;t looking to be as successful as I had hoped.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;scale-troubles&#34;&gt;Scale troubles&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I first noticed a problem with my scale where depending on how I was leaning on it, the weight would vary by 10-20 pounds. I had hoped simply being consistent would work in the long run. Unfortunately one day the scale just simply stopped working and would then only report 16.x lbs regardless of what was done with it. With a new scale I weigh&amp;rsquo;d in at 476.4lbs 99.6 lbs down from my highest recorded weight. The good news is that previous weigh-ins were not as distorted as I had feared.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;eating-challenges&#34;&gt;Eating challenges&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I had hoped to be much further along halfway into January, but I have been finding keeping portion sizes low very challenging. I experimented with trying to have peanuts for their own benefits, but it seems like they are too calorie dense to consider. I&amp;rsquo;m finding it harder and harder to manage hunger as the stress ramps up. The only consolation I have is that I am sure to be below what I started this month with, but unfortunately not by that much. I am still eating significantly better than I was before, but I am finding maintaining good habits particularly challenging lately.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;feelings&#34;&gt;Feelings&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am frustrated and disappointed in myself. I feel worn down and panicky. My sleep is back to the &amp;rsquo;normal&amp;rsquo; terrible rotation, and I&amp;rsquo;ve lost dozens of hours attempting to correct this. I really hate Winter, and it&amp;rsquo;s wearing me thin. The hardest part about losing weight is that failing to lose weight is just as hard as successfully doing it. If anything, failing to lose is much harder because of the frustration, guilt, and sadness associated with mistakes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;rsquo;t feel helpless, I know I can continue to make progress, but I am incredibly disheartened. I was wildly optimistic about what I would be able to accomplish this Winter and I&amp;rsquo;m saddened that it feels like everything I try is working less and less. I am constantly wrestling with despair over the potentiality of reversing course.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite making a huge amount of progress, I am still very much in the same trap as before. Being able to do a couple more things makes the things I am currently unable to do so hard to bear. I am disheartened by the fact that my options remain incredibly limited by my size and mobility. It tears me apart that I am still quite far away from being &amp;ldquo;a functional human being&amp;rdquo;. It sounds harsh, but I am very aware of the fact that I am not even functional enough that I could be able to work a part time job IRL.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I feel broken, I feel worthless, I feel scared.
+I know that it will end, but it wears heavily on my heart.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Time is one of the most difficult pressures I have nowadays. I am significantly less functional (&lt;em&gt;wording that generously&lt;/em&gt;) during the daytime. The major progress on sleep habits have entirely receded putting me in a situation where getting even the simplest of productive things done feels insurmountable again. It is a bitter reminder that my problems are not limited to weight management. Time is once again an incredibly scarce resource and until I improve my sleep routine, it will remain so.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am capable of enduring moderate setbacks and failures without becoming too disheartened, but their accumulation over time is something that I can hardly bear. Occasionally, I consider glimpses of where I could have been if I had been more capable and made less mistakes, and feel dread and sadness.While I have a great deal to be thankful for, I struggle to evade harsh judgement of myself. It is the things that I am thankful for that often make dealing with failures so much more difficult.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am beginning to feel the familiar icy feeling of shame and regret congealing over my mind. The numbness previously erected to avoid facing those feelings is something I am starting to feel drawn to. It is hard enough to fail to succeed at what is so important, is it really so important that I feel these emotions on top of it? It&amp;rsquo;s never been more clear to me how avoiding these difficult feelings is one of the early steps towards regressing to &amp;lsquo;old habits&amp;rsquo;. I think I am starting to understand how fully experiencing the torrent of negative emotions can lead to finding hope and optimism on the other side. By wrestling with my fears and regrets I am not avoiding the root cause, the desire to change my circumstances. I hope that sometime soon, I may feel revitalized in taking this on. For the moment, things are cold and grim.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I cannot permit myself to end this on a negative note, so I am going to share a couple of things that are going well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;I have been consistently below what I started at in January.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;I have acquired a step counter, and hope to regularly increase it over time.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;I recently did over 40 swings of a 70lb kettlebell.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;I am now able to hold a &amp;lsquo;plank&amp;rsquo; position for a few moments, and looking forward to eventually working towards push-ups.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;I am optimistic for Spring.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Walk with me: Beginning 2025</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-25-01-08/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-25-01-08/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2025-01-08.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<description>Thinking out loud for the new year.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I hope you enjoy listening to this &amp;lsquo;walk with me&amp;rsquo; recording. I am glad to be back in gear doing this. If you appreciate my off-the-cuff ramblings about my situation and reflections on things, you can look forward to a lot more this year. of course, I struggle to stay &amp;lsquo;on topic&amp;rsquo; so you can expect me to drift from topic to topic.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;big-dreams-for-this-year&#34;&gt;Big dreams for this year&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I have an ambitious target for 2025. If I was able to lose 100lbs through part of 2024, I&amp;rsquo;m hoping I can manage to lose 200 in 2025. This would take me 80% of the way to an optimal body weight. I&amp;rsquo;m prepared to throw everything I can at reaching that. I feel in an entirely different situation from last year. No longer shackled by doubt, hopelessness, and fear, I feel wholly equipped to do the best I can to make radical progress this year.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;but-isnt-that-too-fast&#34;&gt;But isn&amp;rsquo;t that too fast?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This morning, (the recording is from the day before) I listened to &lt;a href=&#34;https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/mikeneedsaplan/episodes/How-to-Track-Calories-Kindly-e2t7u3c&#34;&gt;How to Track Calories Kindly&lt;/a&gt; by Mike Pridgen. He makes the case that you shouldn&amp;rsquo;t aim to lose weight quickly, repeating the conventional advice that losing as fast as you can is a recipe for backsliding as you put the weight back on.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;At the risk of sounding arrogant, I believe I am in a unique circumstance. I am not merely aiming to lose 20, 50, or even 100 pounds to return to a healthy weight, I have an incredibly long journey ahead of me no matter what I do. Mike is absolutely correct that it is very easy to make short-term desperate changes that ultimately lead to relapse. I wholeheartedly believe he is right to encourage people prioritize methodical and consistent weight loss over speed itself.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But not only do I have a long way to go, I also have the luxury of time. My other half is generously assigning this journey as my &amp;ldquo;full time job&amp;rdquo; and so unlike many others with other responsibilities, I can ensure that this is my top priority. Through this process, I am still learning what I can and can&amp;rsquo;t accomplish at the stage, and what I may be able to accomplish soon. Despite the &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/BXLVj1vs3KU&#34;&gt;rapid pace of weight loss&lt;/a&gt; I am aiming for, I am confident that I am building lasting habits that will help me to keep the weight off.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Becoming mobile again is exciting and wonderful. I have no desire to celebrate this in moderation. I want every step I&amp;rsquo;m able to take to be what drives me to make a thousand more. I have been confined by this size for too long, and I owe it to the love of my life to give it the best shot possible. I believe getting excited about exercise, learning to cook, and wrestling with obstacles to my health head-on puts me in a unique position to build an entirely different life by the end of it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I still think Mike&amp;rsquo;s podcast is incredibly helpful and would wholeheartedly recommend it to others. We all have different circumstances, lifestyles, and attitudes. If there&amp;rsquo;s one thing I&amp;rsquo;ve learned in this journey is that how incredibly personal it is. Nothing I can say will have any concrete meaning to anyone else beyond what may or may not be helpful in their situation. I love how Mike articulates that the goal isn&amp;rsquo;t to reach arbitrary targets, but to be the best you can be.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m becoming a huge fan of Mike&amp;rsquo;s work and If it sounds like something you&amp;rsquo;re interested in, I would encourage you to &lt;a href=&#34;https://linktr.ee/mikepridgen&#34;&gt;take a look.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;whats-going-great&#34;&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s going great&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Scale go down&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I was initially very concerned that I wouldn&amp;rsquo;t be able to lose weight at all this Winter. In hindsight, I&amp;rsquo;m doing still quite successfully if I use December as a barometer for how it&amp;rsquo;s going. My single goal for January is to ensure that I lose more weight through this month than December.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+        
+    &lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+    src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2024-monthly-loss.webp&#39; 
+    &gt;
+    
+    
+    
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Home gym&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the concerns for this Winter I had was what I would do if I felt it was too cold to go outside. I wanted to be able to exercise from home to at least maintain some progress. Currently I have my trusty kettlebell and an exercise mat. I&amp;rsquo;ve started a new routine that involves a variety of kettlebell exercises. Hoping to make small gains this way to keep my base level of exercise above a minimum.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+        
+    &lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+    src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/kettlebell.webp&#39; 
+    &gt;
+    
+    
+    
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reading&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I blitz&amp;rsquo;d through Casey Means&amp;rsquo; &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/good-energy/&#34;&gt;Good Energy&lt;/a&gt; around new years, but I&amp;rsquo;m eager to read even more regularly. The hope is to read a great many books this year. I made a stop at a thrift store and I got two new books! &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29874881-the-case-against-sugar&#34;&gt;The Case Against Sugar&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19132.Food_Politics&#34;&gt;Food Politics.&lt;/a&gt; These books are directly related to my goal of wanting to have a much better handle on nutrition, in addition to understanding the broader context of what has happened to people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/new-food-books.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;trying-to-get-back-on-track&#34;&gt;Trying to get back on track&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Swimming&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Glad to have gotten back to the pool for the second time this Winter. I&amp;rsquo;m finding it very difficult to accomplish on top of my personal training sessions. I miss swimming a great deal and I&amp;rsquo;m looking forward to doing more of it as I push myself to be outside more and more.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sleep&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ever since Winter has started I&amp;rsquo;ve really felt my sleep habits fall off a cliff. I feel like the progress made improving my circadian rhythm was entirely erased by the reduced amount of natural sunlight in the days.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vitamins&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve made the mistake of not being as diligent as I should be on maintaining fibre and micronutrient intake. It&amp;rsquo;s unfortunately pretty easy to feel the difference. I have to come up with a mechanism to stay focused on more than just calories &amp;amp; protein intake.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Stress&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the things I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed is that I&amp;rsquo;ve found managing stress a lot more difficult this Winter. I&amp;rsquo;ve gotten a difficult reminder that my stress eating compulsions are not entirely conquered. It was a bizarre nightmare of gorging on chocolate after spending a day feeling higher-than-usual cravings for fast food. I am thrilled that this incident didn&amp;rsquo;t bring me down into caving, which I consider a victory.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Documenting&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I need to spend more time recording what this journey is like. I&amp;rsquo;ve struggled to record videos of me doing things and struggling with how I&amp;rsquo;m feeling. The point isn&amp;rsquo;t really to publish these, but to keep those for reference in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Programming&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve totally failed to continue working on my programming &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/trying-out-iced/&#34;&gt;learning project.&lt;/a&gt; This is a source of some shame and disappointment. I&amp;rsquo;m starting to feel intimidated to touch it again, but I know I&amp;rsquo;ll be a lot happier once I begin make progress.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m wishing everyone reading this an excellent 2025 and beyond. Feel free to reach out or share what you find helpful with others. I&amp;rsquo;m excited for the year ahead!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>New Year New Me: Progress on Eating Habits</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/eating-progress/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 04 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/eating-progress/</guid>
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/cooking/collage.webp?d=1735948800</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/cooking/collage.webp?d=1735948800" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/cooking/collage.webp?d=1735948800" />
+		<description>A look back on previous challenges</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;This is a response to a post titled &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/non-stop-eating/&#34;&gt;&amp;lsquo;Why can&amp;rsquo;t I stop eating?&amp;rsquo;&lt;/a&gt; I wrote  last Fall.  I outlined many of my challenges with eating terribly. My situation is radically (&lt;em&gt;but not entirely&lt;/em&gt;) different now, and I felt like it is a good time for an update. I wrote that post because at the time, I was highly skeptical I could make meaningful progress on that front. It&amp;rsquo;s a bit funny to me in hindsight, only 6 months later things are very different. I&amp;rsquo;ll be sharing my progress and reflections in this post.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;habits-vs-compulsions&#34;&gt;Habits vs compulsions&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the realizations I had during this process was that habits and compulsions are different creatures. As I understand it, habits are deliberately curated behaviors, and compulsions are when you yield control to impulses and drives from the body. To me, this is an important distinction because habits have to be maintained, where as compulsions need to be managed. A habit can go away without deliberate effort to keep it, whereas compulsions will haunt you until you confront them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For many people, eating is just one of many things they do during their life. In my case, my life has revolved around eating. Meaning that from the moment I wake up, to the moment I pass out to sleep, I am constantly thinking, planning, and negotiating about what I will eat next. In some ways, this was because throughout my career I felt enormous pressure and felt I needed to be constantly fueled to carry out what I could accomplish. I taught myself that my productivity was directly related to the level of C&amp;amp;C (calories &amp;amp; caffeine) I’ve consumed recently.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;hellip;
+While I’ve been far from successful in putting it into practice, my best understanding at the moment is that overcoming compulsive eating requires confronting the causes directly. The causes can be boredom, stress, pain (emotional or physical) which are all chronic problems someone in my situation will inevitably experience. Those in that situation with me will understand how tightly intertwined compulsive eating is with emotional eating.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A bad food habit would be choosing to eat at a particular fast food place regularly. A compulsion would be a sudden all-pervasive feeling that one needs to eat as much as possible as quickly as possible. By understanding compulsions and habits separately it becomes easier to manage both. Habits that are actually bad can be replaced, and compulsions can be anticipated and planned for. You can build good habits without making much progress on your compulsions, but I&amp;rsquo;ve found that many good habits help a great deal.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Meal prep and exercise are both great activities that can radically help managing compulsions. I&amp;rsquo;ve found the stress-relief effects of exercise effectively mandatory for making the progress I have. When it comes to tackling compulsions, I&amp;rsquo;ve found that anything that lets off the pressure even a small bit can make a huge difference. The hardest part is raising your own tolerance to discomfort. When using food as a crutch to bear other pains, it can be difficult to have enough tolerance left over to put down the compulsion to excessively eat.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;past-vs-present&#34;&gt;Past vs present&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To begin understand what I felt was wrong with me, I took the effort to define what a &amp;ldquo;good relationship with food&amp;rdquo; meant to me.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not consuming more calories than required&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Since the goal was to lose weight, I would ideally need to keep total calories below the total energy required to operate throughout the day.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Acquiring all required nutrients&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Harder than it sounds! I still don&amp;rsquo;t quite have a good grasp of what&amp;rsquo;s critical. At the moment, I treat this as a reminder to prioritize nutrient density in what one does eat.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hydration&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Getting enough water is crucially important. Insufficient water intake can be a limiting factor on weight loss. Hydration quality matters too. Oddly enough, I&amp;rsquo;ve been surprised at how much getting some electrolytes in a day can make a huge difference on alertness waking up.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Eating (more/mostly) food prepared yourself&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve spent a fair amount of time learning to cook. It&amp;rsquo;s been absolutely invaluable in gaining confidence and building a better relationship with food. The satisfaction from making a excellent meal is an unfamiliar but incredibly welcome feeling. They don&amp;rsquo;t always turn out how I&amp;rsquo;d like, but I&amp;rsquo;ve learned a great deal taking it on. If you start small, learning to cook is a great exercise in &lt;em&gt;micro-dosing failure&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+        
+    &lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+    src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/cooking/collage.webp&#39; 
+    &gt;
+    
+    
+    
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;emotional-eating&#34;&gt;Emotional eating&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the problems I felt trapped with last year was emotionally-driven eating. That stress, anxiety or frustration was enough to make me want to really &amp;ldquo;pig out&amp;rdquo; to regain some level of temporary comfort.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Since adding strength training to my routine, I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed a huge reduction in emotional eating. The combination of the healthy stress release, and unfortunately the consistent pain both have improved my ability to withstand compulsions to over-indulge. While I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed things have changed for the better in big ways, I&amp;rsquo;m far from done. It is very easy for me to not maintain activity and then feel the overwhelming desire to cave in.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I’ve had an excellent conversation with a great canadian hero, Patrick Phillips about this. who told me “If you’re soothing the pain, you should sooth the pain.”. At the start, I counter-productively took this as a license to continue eating to my feelings. Now I have a more nuanced opinion on what that means. He put me on the path to taking on my negative feelings head on, and was a great help.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It may come as a surprise to some, but I’ve only recently been aware of how much chronic emotional pain I’ve been in. The side-effect of numbing yourself with self-destructive coping mechanisms for years is that you can completely forget why you have them. Eventually, all you remember is that you’re stressed out all the time but can’t really pinpoint things that aren’t too obvious.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If there&amp;rsquo;s one &amp;ldquo;hard line&amp;rdquo; I&amp;rsquo;ll draw, it&amp;rsquo;s that addressing the causes of emotional pain is essential. Not everything can be fixed, but understanding and facing your pain can give you a lot more power over it. It&amp;rsquo;s absolutely worth the time to recognize the degree your own numbness to anger, despair, regret, or whatever else. When one has walled themselves off from their own feelings, beginning to feel is overwhelming. It&amp;rsquo;s far from an easy task.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/experiencing-opposites.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;p&gt;The great news is that it doesn&amp;rsquo;t have to be done alone. When overwhelmed with feeling the wounds of emotional pain for the first time in a long time, connecting with others is invaluable. This is because just as one begins to truly feel their pain, the numbness begins to fade. As that numbness leaves, it&amp;rsquo;s so much easier to actually connect with people, as you&amp;rsquo;re no longer distancing yourself from them with projection and indifference. It&amp;rsquo;s an opportunity to truly get to know yourself and others on a deeper level. While I would never wish this kind of numbness on anyone, I sincerely hope that those afflicted with it get to appreciate the kindness and comfort possible from their loved ones, God, and even strangers.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;food-addiction&#34;&gt;Food addiction&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s an important line to draw between emotional eating, and the highly addictive traits of various foods. The strategies for tackling these problems are very different despite having many commonalities. I believe that that &amp;ldquo;food addiction&amp;rdquo; is a bit of a misnomer, as one is not addicted to all kinds of foods, but very specific signals often from highly/ultra-processed products.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When one eats fast food or other meals that require no preparation, it’s almost impossible to avoid various addictions. Apparently vegetable oil itself can be addictive, to say nothing about sugar. Many explain food addiction in a simple way: your brain interprets food as a reward, and numbing that reward center requires more and more to be satiated. I’ve been told by those close to me that I have a classic addict’s reaction to large amounts of greasy/sugary/fatty food. I’m told that I “become a different person” and that I light up instantly the moment I realize I’m going to have that hit.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is inherently a difficult thing to tackle directly. While I’ve been able to quit caffeine ‘cold-turkey’, there is no way I could do the same with food even if it was conceivably possible. This is where I imagine the best bet is to manage the addiction by pushing that effort into preparing food if one is mobile and capable enough. Personally, I still struggle to even comprehend that I don’t need as much food as I want.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s some debate if cannabis is actually addictive. Drawing a distinction (above my pay-grade) between physical and behavioral addiction. When it comes to the addictive properties of various fast-foods and processed products, I don&amp;rsquo;t have particularly strong feelings on where that line is. What is clear, that a process of weaning off it, or going &amp;ldquo;no-contact&amp;rdquo; is what&amp;rsquo;s required to overcome dependency on terrible foods.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m often told that judging foods as &amp;ldquo;good or bad&amp;rdquo; is itself an eating disorder. At least at the time of writing this, I wholeheartedly disagree. I am convinced that if we see food as a tool for nutrition we can objectively make decisions about which foods are good and bad. By defining the purpose of eating as nourishing the body, you can easily rate nutrient-dense foods over what some people call &amp;ldquo;empty calories&amp;rdquo;. I really don&amp;rsquo;t see the harm of perceiving an energy dense but nutritionally lacking product as paying a huge opportunity cost compared to foods that do provide valuable nutrients.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Now, it&amp;rsquo;s possible that these lines get more blurry when one approaches a healthy body weight. At my size, my body is not lacking energy at all, so my preferences are focused on that. Not everybody is going to be in the same lifestyle situation. For example there are people on the other side of the spectrum who need to gain mass rather than lose it. All I can say is that experience is totally alien to me so I can&amp;rsquo;t speak to that.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I have found changing what I regularly eat along these lines very helpful for reducing any feelings of being &amp;lsquo;addicted to food&amp;rsquo;. I gradually came to understand that I didn&amp;rsquo;t need all the calories my body was screaming for, and that when prioritizing nutrition I felt a great deal better. I still have to be incredibly careful with portions though. I still have a very warped perception of what is &amp;ldquo;needed&amp;rdquo; vs what I need to reach my goals.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;helplessness&#34;&gt;Helplessness&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The biggest change since I wrote that post is that I no longer feel helpless. Learning to cook and making significant mobility gains have radically transformed my life and confidence. Clearly it is showing, because I got a comment from somebody recently; &amp;ldquo;Wow, I didn&amp;rsquo;t expect such a cynical take from you Gabriel, I thought you were a &amp;lsquo;whitepilled&amp;rsquo; normie&amp;rdquo;. My response was &amp;ldquo;I am whitepilled! Losing almost 100lbs will absolutely do that to you! But don&amp;rsquo;t mistake my pleasant demeanor for ignorance.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I’ve noticed a great deal of learned helplessness in my situation. I can only guess, but I believe this is the greatest contributor to people becoming bed-ridden for the rest of their lives. The more weight you gain the harder it becomes to accomplish even the simplest of tasks. For example, even now that I’ve made big strides towards becoming more mobile: I still agonize over the resistance of simple things like standing, getting up from sitting or lying down, and walking.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While I won’t deny to being quite lazy. A great deal of my efficiency is the embodiment of “If you want something done the easy way, find a lazy person to do it.” I believe this learned helplessness is what causes people to being trapped into a state of [perceived?] laziness.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You’re not going to think to run around and take on all kinds of activities when simple tasks like going up stairs, walking, or carrying things feel almost entirely out of reach. It is horrifying to think about how things that once only seemed out of reach eventually fade into being actually out of reach.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Overcoming helplessness, just like getting into it is a &amp;lsquo;gradually, then all at once&amp;rsquo; phenomenon. Any small actions you can take to build up your mobility, autonomy, or even creativity will absolutely pay huge dividends in the long run. What&amp;rsquo;s clear to me is that all these major factors are related. Helplessness can cause emotional difficulties, which can drive emotionally eating terrible foods, which can then drive addiction to them. As somebody who has been in this situation, I wish I could be able to properly describe the pure terror of being in it. Every day feels like an endless nightmare you&amp;rsquo;re just working to avoid as much as possible. It&amp;rsquo;s not at all an easy situation to fix.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s worth reiterating, is that I am not some superhuman iron-willed guy who &amp;lsquo;just happened&amp;rsquo; to suddenly overcome it all. It took a great deal of time and effort on my part, yes, but it took more than just what I had. Based on what has worked for me I am wholeheartedly convinced that anyone can make the same kind of transformation with the right support, education, and time. Turning it all around is very complex and a very difficult task. I am frustrated that people treat Ozembic (and other GLP-1 agonists) as the individual &amp;rsquo;taking the easy way out&amp;rsquo;. I would go as far as to say it is society that is taking the easy way out by pushing these drugs on people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the greatest, but most tragic lessons I have learned during this time is how much can be achieved if we really worked to support each other more. Even relatively small gestures can make a massive difference for the right person. Yes, discipline and individual effort is absolutely required to make this process work, but giving up on people isn&amp;rsquo;t what good people do. I say this, because this is applicable to a lot more than just weight loss. I have a much deeper understanding of what caring for one&amp;rsquo;s loved ones really means, and how far one should go for them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am immensely grateful for the progress I&amp;rsquo;ve made already. I had a great deal of support and assistance along the way. I am humbled by the investment that my other half is making in me by assisting me focus on this journey as my top priority. My goal is to reward that investment with as much effort as I can muster. I am incredibly blessed and I hope that sharing what I have learned can help someone. I am now a pound away from being down 100lbs. It really feels like my journey is only beginning to get really exciting. There are difficult moments, but I&amp;rsquo;m beginning to feel &amp;ldquo;higher highs&amp;rdquo; as all the changes start to harmonize.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div style=&#34;width:100%&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;table style=&#34;font-size:14px;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;th colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h2 style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;📉 Weight Tracker&lt;/h2&gt;
+            &lt;/th&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Starting Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Current Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weight Lost&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goal Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;576&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;379.6&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;196.4&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;15% BF&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h3 style=&#34;font-size:x-large;&#34;&gt;2025 Goal: 200lbs in 2025 challenge&lt;/h3&gt;
+                &lt;div
+                    style=&#34;border:3px solid var(--color-accent);align-items: flex-start;justify-content: flex-start;margin:5px;border-radius:15px;overflow: hidden;&#34;&gt;
+                    &lt;div style=&#34;width:49.7%;padding:10px;background-color:var(--color-accent);color:black;font-weight: bolder;font-size:larger;&#34;&gt;49.7%
+                    &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;p style=&#34;margin:5px;text-align: left;width:fit-content;font-size:large;&#34;&gt;This year&#39;s goal is to lose &lt;strong&gt;200lbs&lt;/strong&gt; in 2025!&lt;br&gt;Current progress: &lt;strong&gt;99.4lbs&lt;/strong&gt; out of 200!
+                &lt;br&gt;A bit behind schedule! 😓&lt;/p&gt;
+            &lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34; style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;Last updated: 2025-07-06&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+    &lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div&gt;
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Walk with me: Two small failures</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-24-12-28/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 28 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-24-12-28/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2024-12-28.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<description>Nearly missing my target, and not keeping the streak</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;missing-the-mark&#34;&gt;Missing the mark&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Once I started losing weight at a consistent pace, I set an ambitious target of being 100lbs down by the start of 2025. With three days left, I&amp;rsquo;m pretty sure I will narrowly miss that target. The target was based on an estimate of losing a pound a day, which I was able to achieve in the early fall, but became harder to maintain as I entered Winter. Given that this is the first Winter I&amp;rsquo;ve successfully lost weight in a long time, it&amp;rsquo;s still a massive victory moving forwards. To be fair, 94 is &lt;em&gt;pretty close to 100&lt;/em&gt; in the grand scheme of things!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2024-12-chart.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    The Orange line assumed 1lb/day loss 
+
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;letting-down-my-kettlebell&#34;&gt;Letting down my kettlebell&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Previously I started an ambitious habit of attempting 100 kettlebell swings a day. I choose a lower weight to avoid injury, but this was an attempt to figure out what was possible for an at-home daily workout. Truthfully, I had naively assumed it would be the thing that would single-handedly &amp;ldquo;make scale go down&amp;rdquo;, and preliminary results showed that wasn&amp;rsquo;t really happening. I also struggled with enduring the pain of constantly recovering from such an intense workout. That said, I also noticed feeling significantly stronger in a very short time. By day 6 I felt noticeably stronger. After day 10 or 11, I decided to take a break as I try to focus on staying diligent over the holidays. This is something I would like to attempt again, but with introducing different kinds of workouts instead of just kettlebell swings. I can make it more of a gradual whole body workout instead of focusing entirely on a single exercise&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;making-weight-loss-more-center-stage&#34;&gt;Making weight loss more &amp;lsquo;center stage&amp;rsquo;&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve been encouraged by close friends to move these updates from my &amp;lsquo;quiet&amp;rsquo; personal site to a more visible platform. For what it&amp;rsquo;s worth, this site will always be the primary home for this content. So in addition to this being the first place (with the RSS feed) for sharing my weight loss journey, people will also have the option to follow on my new Substack &lt;a href=&#34;https://microdosingfailure.substack.com/&#34;&gt;Micro-dosing Failure&lt;/a&gt;. I wrote an &lt;a href=&#34;https://microdosingfailure.substack.com/p/beginning&#34;&gt;introduction post&lt;/a&gt; to get anyone who hasn&amp;rsquo;t been following up-to-speed so I can continue these updates without delay.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;reflecting-on-personal-training&#34;&gt;Reflecting on personal training&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I realized I haven&amp;rsquo;t really shared how personal training has been helping me much. In some ways, this is because it is going so well. I greatly appreciate having the opportunity to work with a knowledgeable friend who has an incredible grasp of body mechanics. In the audio I elaborate more on how I&amp;rsquo;ve found it helpful.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/2024-transformation.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Trainer for scale&lt;/em&gt;, who was kind enough to retake the photo.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;gratitude&#34;&gt;Gratitude&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m recognizing the importance of gratitude for not only the kindness of others, but also your own accomplishments. I think it&amp;rsquo;s very important to also have gratitude for progress and changes in your own life. I find that I still haven&amp;rsquo;t really let losing over 90lbs actually &amp;lsquo;sink in&amp;rsquo; simply because I have so much further to go.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;2025-new-years-resolutions&#34;&gt;2025 New Year&amp;rsquo;s Resolutions&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;read-more&#34;&gt;Read more&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I had only read two books in 2024. Which while still an improvement over previous years, I&amp;rsquo;m hoping to reach higher. I want to make reading a regular habit of mine. I want to read more than just what I agree with, but also read to broaden my perspective and learn from others. As part of this, I&amp;rsquo;m not sure I plan to share the books I&amp;rsquo;m reading, at least for now. Currently, I have three books started. I think this can help, so that instead of asking myself &amp;ldquo;Do I want to read now?&amp;rdquo; I can instead ask &amp;ldquo;What would I liked to read now?&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;out-perform-month-to-month&#34;&gt;Out-perform month-to-month&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of starting out with a new year-end goal, I plan to focus on the smaller scale and just start out working for January to be better than December. If I can successfully lose more weight in January than december I&amp;rsquo;ll consider that a win worth celebrating. I think at least for the start of the year, a month-to-month pattern of goal setting seems reasonable.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;improve-sleep&#34;&gt;Improve sleep&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While my sleepy hygiene is radically better than last year, I still have a long way to go. I still want to work towards waking up and getting to sleep earlier. I&amp;rsquo;ve found shifting my waking hours more into the daytime quite a boon to my productivity and helps me a great deal.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;meal-prep-for-myself-more&#34;&gt;Meal-prep for myself more&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Every time I meal-prep I find the days significantly easier to work with. I find meal-prepping a great investment in reducing &amp;lsquo;decision fatigue&amp;rsquo; and eating better. As somebody who still struggles with &amp;lsquo;high-agency tasks&amp;rsquo; this is at least a great way to get the most out of an afternoon.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div style=&#34;width:100%&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;table style=&#34;font-size:14px;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;th colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h2 style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;📉 Weight Tracker&lt;/h2&gt;
+            &lt;/th&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Starting Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Current Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weight Lost&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goal Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;576&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;379.6&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;196.4&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;15% BF&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h3 style=&#34;font-size:x-large;&#34;&gt;2025 Goal: 200lbs in 2025 challenge&lt;/h3&gt;
+                &lt;div
+                    style=&#34;border:3px solid var(--color-accent);align-items: flex-start;justify-content: flex-start;margin:5px;border-radius:15px;overflow: hidden;&#34;&gt;
+                    &lt;div style=&#34;width:49.7%;padding:10px;background-color:var(--color-accent);color:black;font-weight: bolder;font-size:larger;&#34;&gt;49.7%
+                    &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;p style=&#34;margin:5px;text-align: left;width:fit-content;font-size:large;&#34;&gt;This year&#39;s goal is to lose &lt;strong&gt;200lbs&lt;/strong&gt; in 2025!&lt;br&gt;Current progress: &lt;strong&gt;99.4lbs&lt;/strong&gt; out of 200!
+                &lt;br&gt;A bit behind schedule! 😓&lt;/p&gt;
+            &lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34; style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;Last updated: 2025-07-06&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+    &lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div&gt;
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Walk with me: Struggling to say on target</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-24-12-15/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-24-12-15/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2024-12-15.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/2024-start-end.webp?d=1734307200</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/2024-start-end.webp?d=1734307200" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/2024-start-end.webp?d=1734307200" />
+		<description>Having difficulties with Winter</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Just over a month ago I &lt;a href=&#34;https://mk.gabe.rocks/notes/a0efqdaoks&#34;&gt;pointed out&lt;/a&gt; that I was still on track to being 100lbs down by 2025. Unfortunately, december has been quite the slow month when it comes to weight loss. I&amp;rsquo;m still down, but it&amp;rsquo;s nowhere near as fast as I would like. The good news is that I absolutely understand where I need to dial things in more and I&amp;rsquo;m hoping I can return to rapid results as I get more used to Winter.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Of course, even while missing this ambitious target, I&amp;rsquo;ve still done remarkably over the last while. Finishing December under 500lbs will be it&amp;rsquo;s own victory. I&amp;rsquo;m not sure where I&amp;rsquo;ll end up by Spring, but I&amp;rsquo;m ready to keep throwing everything I can at it. I will say what this Winter is giving me more appreciation for how much easier it is to make progress during the warmer months. My plan is to keep my Winter struggles close at heart to motivate me further during the Spring, Summer &amp;amp; Fall.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/video/2024-ending.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/2024-ending.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m beginning to recognize how many of the challenges I&amp;rsquo;ve faced turning this around are composed more of mental barriers than physical ones. It&amp;rsquo;s now more clear to me that while I do have many physical limitations, my own estimation of them vastly outshines them. This means that your own negative self-perception can act as a force multiplier for real but manageable problems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;more-kindness&#34;&gt;More Kindness&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I got another very kind email from a listener.  These simple acts of kindness have always been the highlight of my day when they happen.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;just wanted to say that I like that you put your &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/2023-resolutions/&#34;&gt;new year&amp;rsquo;s resolution&lt;/a&gt; on your website and you actually managed to stick with it! Keep it up! And it&amp;rsquo;s really inspiring. If you can solve your problem bit by bit, maybe other people like myself can solve their relatively minor problems, too.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;And walking definitely matters. Getting some daylight every day was crucial for me to beat sleeplessness and depression-like states years ago, and I still do it because I don&amp;rsquo;t want these to come back. Also, I enjoyed your &amp;ldquo;Walk with me&amp;rdquo; audios, although I usually hate podcasts.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I really have to share the hearty laugh I let out when I read &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;maybe other people like myself can solve their relatively minor problems, too.&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; I truly had not considered that publicly tackling such a big problem would help others resolve other troubles. I am overjoyed to hear it, and wish everyone the best of luck.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I owe this particular person a blog post about matrix, which is coming!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading and/or listening!
+As always you can see my motivational memes collection &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation&#34;&gt;here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Taking a look at Ghost</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/ghost/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/ghost/</guid>
+		<description>Can it replace static site generators?</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;going-ghost&#34;&gt;Going Ghost&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve taken another look at &lt;a href=&#34;https://ghost.org&#34;&gt;Ghost.&lt;/a&gt; Ghost is a modern CMS (Content Management System) that supports a wide variety of interesting features. It has built-in analytics, payments &amp;amp; newsletter support. Not only that but apparently Fediverse support is coming soon. (&lt;em&gt;I believe you can test it already, but it&amp;rsquo;s not enabled by default&lt;/em&gt;) I wanted to know if I could rebuild the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;Libre Solutions Network&lt;/a&gt; website with ghost by building my own theme.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My primary motivation was that if I could build a theme that is to my liking I could satisfy the criteria that I had built it with. The Site is a statically generated site using &lt;a href=&#34;https://gohugo.io&#34;&gt;Hugo&lt;/a&gt; but I&amp;rsquo;ve build it&amp;rsquo;s theme from the ground up to support a variety of features I find important.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Decent social media previews&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Shortcodes for multimedia&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;As Tor &amp;amp; I2P friendly as possible&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Very little javascript&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;First-class RSS feeds with multimedia&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://ghost.org/docs/themes/&#34;&gt;The documentation&lt;/a&gt; for building themes in ghost is quite excellent. I also appreciate the ability to just zip a couple of files and upload them to the site to test the theme. I would say that the developer experience for theme development is pretty good right now. Unfortunately I hit a couple of frustrations trying to accomplish some of the things I wanted to do. I&amp;rsquo;m realizing that the ultimate freedom of static site generators is very hard to compete with.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;For multimedia in your RSS feeds &lt;a href=&#34;https://ghost.org/tutorials/custom-rss-feed/&#34;&gt;recommends&lt;/a&gt; you use a hack/workaround to actually embed the media. The lack of first-class support for multi-media RSS feeds feels like a huge oversight.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;By default the javascript for your membership features and search is served from a remote CDN. It is a shame that this isn&amp;rsquo;t something at least served by the site itself when one is self-hosting. Changing this requires either &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.spectralwebservices.com/blog/adding-new-features-to-ghost-head/&#34;&gt;going without&lt;/a&gt; the pre-filled head partial, or &lt;a href=&#34;https://forum.ghost.org/t/how-to-modify-and-load-the-portal-directly-from-your-theme/27426&#34;&gt;modifying&lt;/a&gt; your ghost installation directly.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;It seems that supporting other url schemes (such as Tor &amp;amp; I2P) would require running multiple redundant front-ends. This seems like a huge pain, but has advantages when one would want to have different themes for each. In that case you could remove all javascript on the darknet front-ends but keep it on the http site.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is disappointing because I had hoped that by switching to ghost I could ditch Substack and have a better website at the end of it. These issues are not really that big a deal for anyone building an ordinary site, but for what I want out of the Libre Solutions Network site it&amp;rsquo;s effectively a non-starter. In my opinion, Ghost is probably excellent for anyone who requires it&amp;rsquo;s features and wants to build a beautiful looking site. I&amp;rsquo;ve seen comments to the effect that it lacks the performance one would want which is a huge loss over the speed of static sites.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;is-ghost-good&#34;&gt;Is Ghost Good?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If I was building a site for ordinary people and not tech purists, I would say it&amp;rsquo;s a great option and you can get a lot out of building your own theme for it. I really would like to see Ghost gain more prominence considering how far it goes to lower the barrier of entry for people to have a first-class experience publishing on the web. I&amp;rsquo;d really like to see them resolve the issues I&amp;rsquo;ve mentioned, but it&amp;rsquo;s not likely to be a deal-breaker for many people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You get a lot &amp;ldquo;out of the box&amp;rdquo; with ghost, so for an individual or small organization I think it&amp;rsquo;s very hard to go wrong with starting with ghost. The membership tier features are pretty nice and the composer works great. Clearly a lot of thought has gone into building a powerful CMS, I just wish it was a bit more flexible. They&amp;rsquo;re also working on supporting other payment providers so hopefully it will be more than just Stripe in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;but-what-about-static&#34;&gt;But what about Static+?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/static-plus/&#34;&gt;previously written&lt;/a&gt; that there&amp;rsquo;s probably room for a lightweight CMS that leverages a database and simple API to create a &amp;ldquo;hybrid&amp;rdquo; static site with additional features. This would allow a website to support advanced modern features, but degrade gracefully in situations where users disable scripts. In addition to that, you could likely have all the power of a CMS and the speed of a static site all in one. I believe that when supporting Tor &amp;amp; I2P traffic, this is effectively the best you can do. There will always be a need to run server-side operations&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I think Static+ is going to be the future of flexible CMSs because it makes no sense to store the entire structure and content of a mostly public website in memory. Instead of having to regenerate every page on each visit you can save a great deal of resources on sites that aren&amp;rsquo;t focused on constant real-time updates. You could still move fast enough to support the Fediverse and other neat APIs too.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m convinced that to actually bring more people into the free and open web requires giving them access to tools that they can reasonably deploy and use. I love static sites, but I understand that the majority of people would prefer posting to their website to feel just like posting on social media. That seems to create challenges because this is impossible to deliver without some service running as a CMS, but for small personal sites I think Static+ strikes the balance well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I would love to see a new CMS designed from the ground up with many of these concerns in mind. Wordpress can do everything it seems, but it&amp;rsquo;s so modular that it has it&amp;rsquo;s own problems. The perfect CMS should be as flexible as using a static site generator, but provide a wide variety of useful features to save you time and headaches. It would be incredible to have a CMS that had the following built-in from the ground up:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Powerful RSS Features (Like Podcasting 2.0 support, and properly styled feeds)&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Custom themes support (Configurable, like they are with Ghost)&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Configurable taxonomies (like post series&amp;rsquo;, courses, etc)&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Passkey support (Just to make life easy)&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Rich media embeds&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Webtorrent for large static media&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This requires the site itself to run a whitelisted tracker for it&amp;rsquo;s own content.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Built-in analytics&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Multi-user&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Fediverse Support (Not because it&amp;rsquo;s that important, but because it&amp;rsquo;s much harder to just add on and not consider from the start)&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;This has other advantages like potentially being able to side-roll it&amp;rsquo;s own form of federation for comments / interactions. By modeling the concept of a &amp;ldquo;remote user&amp;rdquo; you can build powerful integrations and moderation tools.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;hellip;this list could go on and on forever&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Walk with me: Sleep &amp; Swings</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-24-12-09/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-24-12-09/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2024-12-09.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/haha-yes-rock.webp?d=1733702400</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/haha-yes-rock.webp?d=1733702400" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/haha-yes-rock.webp?d=1733702400" />
+		<description>Gratitude for recent progress and an ambitious plan for the rest of 2024</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://girlboss.gaslight.love/notice/AorQOS0xG5CIc0Pk1I&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/haha-yes-rock.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;sleep-progress&#34;&gt;Sleep Progress&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s almost two weeks of having successfully switched from being mostly nocturnal to being awake (and productive!) during the day. I&amp;rsquo;m not sure how big a factor sleep timing is to sleep quality, but I&amp;rsquo;m convinced it&amp;rsquo;s a huge factor. Which is pretty important for the overall health and weight loss journey.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite experiencing a bit of a slowdown as Winter has started, I&amp;rsquo;m very grateful to have made significant progress improving sleep. The sum total of the following strategies have made a huge difference:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I took the following steps to gradually shift my waking hours.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Night light settings&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;On both my phone and computer, I turned on the night light setting that turns the screen orange-ish to mimic sunset. I&amp;rsquo;ve set both to be sufficiently intense that it&amp;rsquo;s fairly uncomfortable to focus on for a long period of time. This has helped reduce night screen time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sleep Cover&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Purchasing a cover for my eyes definitely helped me reduce night time light. Instead of worrying about eliminating every light source, this works fairly well to block out basically all light. It&amp;rsquo;s a good tool to resist the temptation to doomscroll all night.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Natural Lighting&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of keeping the blinds closed to regain some sleep in the mornings, I&amp;rsquo;ve opened them entirely to get what little sunlight there is in these Winter mornings. I can definitely say this seems to have been the single change that made the biggest difference. It made me wake up a couple of days with less sleep than I would like, but that really helps keep me tired at night time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Putting the time in&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Shifting the sleep schedule took time. Spending a couple of hours a day immersed in darkness at night time really did pay off. It was a frustrating time-sink but it absolutely made a serious difference. In the moment it felt pointless but in hindsight I think it really did have a massive impact on my ability to turn things around quickly.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Electrolytes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of my biggest challenges in the morning was being able to get things done during the early mornings. It has come to my attention that I was merely dehydrated in the mornings. I noticed a radical shift when I tried having just a normal sports electrolyte mix before I go to sleep.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;kettlebell-swings&#34;&gt;Kettlebell Swings&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve decided I&amp;rsquo;m going to try to take on lower weight kettlebell swings as a daily exercise. This is partially motivated my goal target of 100lbs down by 2025. I&amp;rsquo;m 20lbs away and have 20 days to go. It&amp;rsquo;s achievable, but I need to figure out how to be more active during these cold winter days. So the solution is to use a 15lb kettlebell to do a decent amount of swings.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m excited, because I believe this might be the thing that keeps me on track during this month. I&amp;rsquo;ve also purchased an exercise mat to do basic body-weight exercises that I can do from home. The more progress I can make without leaving the house, the better. I&amp;rsquo;m quite close to being able to do unmodified lunges, and bodyweight squats are something I&amp;rsquo;ve been able to do for some time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Last night I did 65 kettlebell swings right before sleeping (maybe not the best idea) and this morning I did 100 (4 sets of 25). I&amp;rsquo;m hoping to continue to improve. In the short term I want to make sure I&amp;rsquo;m getting really comfortable with the form before I push much further. Of course, my impatience will absolutely see me pushing 150, 200 swings a day once I feel comfortable with the form.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;more-improvement&#34;&gt;More improvement&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I still need to get better at documenting the hard times. Despite my positive updates, there are absolutely challenges in this process. It is incredibly difficult emotionally at times and I want to document it better if for no other reason to remind myself in the future. It&amp;rsquo;s incredibly hard to bear being in huge amounts of pain that&amp;rsquo;s inevitable when really making progress. In attempting a new body-weight exercise, I&amp;rsquo;ve definitely pushed the limits of my body as it is. Some of my back muscles were in extreme pain for a couple of days and unfortunately I tend to take pain and discomfort personally.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s very challenging to be in so much pain and still frustrated with the reality of being severely obese. It&amp;rsquo;s very difficult to sustain so much effort for what feels like so little at times. While I logically recognize that being 80lbs down is a huge accomplishment and a major improvement, having a lot left to do really dulls the feeling. I&amp;rsquo;m trying to get better at appreciating the milestones.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;thanks-for-tuning-in&#34;&gt;Thanks for tuning in!&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite many people congratulating me for the courage in talking about my journey publicly, I&amp;rsquo;ve found it one of the few purely gratifying parts of this. I regularly get a great deal of encouragement from people finding me sharing this informative or helpful. I can definitely say that the kindness of others throughout this process has made much of what I&amp;rsquo;ve been doing a great deal easier. Not every day is fun or a new milestole, but I&amp;rsquo;m incredibly appreciative of those who take the time to share some thoughts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://shitpost.poridge.club/notes/a1hru24pol&#34;&gt;@masta0f1eave@shitpost.poridge.club&lt;/a&gt; wrote:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Slowly reading through whole blog of Gabe, and it gives me joy. So much dedication, keep it up Gabriel!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Post in question: &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/progression/&#34;&gt;https://gabe.rocks/health/progression/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I got a kind message from another fellow techie who is beginning to lose weight himself. He&amp;rsquo;s at a much lower starting point, but it&amp;rsquo;s encouraging to see others make progress as well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>🎉 Major Milestone: Below 500!</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/under-500/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 30 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/under-500/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2024-11-30.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/2024-11-30-scale.webp?d=1732924800</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/2024-11-30-scale.webp?d=1732924800" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/2024-11-30-scale.webp?d=1732924800" />
+		<description>Walk with me as I celebrate a major milestone</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/incredible.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I took longer than I wanted, but I&amp;rsquo;ve finally accomplished a major step in this year&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/2023-resolutions/&#34;&gt;New Years Resolutions&lt;/a&gt;. I only wish I knew what my actual highest point was. The problem with going a long time without a scale, it becomes harder to identify the highest points.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2024-11-30-scale.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But, I am incredibly grateful to have gotten to this point. Signing up for personal training has absolutely helped me fill many gaps in my understanding and begin making serious progress. My trainer has helped me a great deal in building up my mobility from the ground up, and has also helped me with strategies to get food under control. The last few months have been a wild success far beyond what I believed to be possible.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I hope you&amp;rsquo;ll enjoy today&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;Walk with Gabriel&amp;rdquo; audio, and are having an excellent day yourself.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;whats-next&#34;&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s next?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The big goal for 2024, is to be down 100lbs! I&amp;rsquo;m ~30lbs away and have ~30 days to go! It&amp;rsquo;s certainly possible, but I have to really ramp up the cardio, so I&amp;rsquo;m going to push as hard as I can. Walking is helping, but I&amp;rsquo;m also planning to focus on sprints while swimming. Excited to see how close I get to the goal for 2025, which will be an excellent birthday gift to myself. Then the real push is on as I go through 2025 doing everything I can do keep this pace up for the entire year.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;references&#34;&gt;References&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/&#34;&gt;Memes collection&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/planting-seeds.mp4&#34;&gt;Seeds video&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/2024-05-update/#reading-progress-&#34;&gt;Guilt, Shame, and Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming Negative Emotions&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqNzk3-sva7UmoJ_AhijYrw&#34;&gt;Mover&amp;rsquo;s Odyssey&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/DpMiOItcpmw&#34;&gt;The 👑 KING of ALL Exercises? Kettlebell Swings&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://denisrancourt.ca/videos.php?id=9&#34;&gt;My most important social theory interview? The Dominance of Dominance&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/zl-divqmfNw?t=2548&#34;&gt;Rethinking Covid | Jay Bhattacharya &amp;amp; Gigi Foster&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/jUuXzuNwWFFzjy7f91hHzw&#34;&gt;MAHA and the Military Round Table&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Walk with me: Keeping at it</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-24-11-27/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 27 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/walk-with-me-24-11-27/</guid>
+			
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+			
+		
+		<description>Listen to my ramblings as I walk </description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m continuing the &amp;ldquo;walk with me&amp;rdquo; series, this time with my thoughts on what&amp;rsquo;s helping me stick to my difficult weight loss journey. Starting out talking about my current status, where I&amp;rsquo;m getting over a fairly brutal cold. To spoil the major theme, I think the three things that have helped me really keep at it have been:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Keeping in mind what I&amp;rsquo;m looking forward to get out of this process&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Having the gratitude to really feel the kindness and encouragement received along the way&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Embracing progression: eagerly pushing towards within-reach goals then celebrating and appreciating them&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
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+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;kindness-received&#34;&gt;Kindness Received&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I received a very kind e-mail from a reader.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;just found your blog as it was mentioned on Hacker news some months ago (don&amp;rsquo;t remember which specific blog post was talking about).&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Since then i was periodically look for updates on your &amp;ldquo;journey&amp;rdquo;, i wish you the best and i find really cool that you are pushing your updates in a very sincere way and be &amp;ldquo;accountable to the world&amp;rdquo; about your weight loss also by showing your troubles.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I would say i root for you and that i hope you&amp;rsquo;ll reach your goal, but i&amp;rsquo;m pretty sure that if you continue this way you&amp;rsquo;ll surely reach it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I really appreciate it. I wanted to share this because it&amp;rsquo;s great to highlight that there are many kind strangers out there on the open web who take the time to drop words of encouragement. It absolutely helps me a great deal!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Discussed items:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/-nmoRVLYMro&#34;&gt;Here&amp;rsquo;s Why You Keep Skipping The Gym (And How To Fix It)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/non-stop-eating/&#34;&gt;Why can&amp;rsquo;t I stop eating?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/progression/&#34;&gt;The Magic is progression&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/looking-forward/&#34;&gt;Things I look forward to&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Walk with me: Threats to Digital Freedom</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/walk-with-me/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 24 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/walk-with-me/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/2024-11-24.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<description>Listen to my ramblings as I walk </description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;join-me-on-a-walk&#34;&gt;Join me on a walk&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;I think attempting to remove the background noise did more harm than good. The audio has been switched with a much less edited version, which I think is easier on the ears.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In trying to find the motivation to go for &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health&#34;&gt;more walks.&lt;/a&gt; I decided to record an off-the-cuff monologue about my thoughts on the major social/societal challenges to the future of digital liberty. I&amp;rsquo;m hoping to do more walks, and get better at recording / cleaning audio from outdoors.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;related-links&#34;&gt;Related Links:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/qhEKoZO6DM8&#34;&gt;Never Criticize The Linux Foundation Expenses&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/4jk2XgyrtWvki6G2qVfLmJ&#34;&gt;Serenum: The &amp;lsquo;From Scratch&amp;rsquo; OS Revolution&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/operations/bankroll/&#34;&gt;Operation Bankroll&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/grayjay/&#34;&gt;A Grayjay Review&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/bVw81Snxdp9nQe2k5wQUDd&#34;&gt;Attention Democracy with William Maggos&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://culturewar.radio/&#34;&gt;Culture War Radio&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/government-in-tech/&#34;&gt;The EU Plan to Reshape the Internet Forever&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://geopoliticsandempire.com/2024/11/15/bitcoin-tulip-gold/&#34;&gt;Geopolitics &amp;amp; Empire: Bitcoin’s Rise &amp;amp; Its Future Role…Tulip Mania or Digital Gold?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;-warning-terrible-audio-&#34;&gt;⚠️ Warning: Terrible Audio ⚠️&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I apologize in advance, if you&amp;rsquo;re used to listening to clean audio you&amp;rsquo;ll probably consider this unbearable. This was an experiment in recording on the go. For starters, I&amp;rsquo;m very obese and still in the process of getting in shape. You&amp;rsquo;ll hear many breaths and the pacing isn&amp;rsquo;t quite natural because of it. I&amp;rsquo;m also just ad-libbing so this is all just a stream-of-consciousness. On top of this it was pretty windy, and there&amp;rsquo;s a fair bit of outside noise. I&amp;rsquo;ve made a small attempt to clean up the worst of it, but it&amp;rsquo;s still very hard to listen to. I&amp;rsquo;m also a bit stuffed up, so I didn&amp;rsquo;t expect to sound 100% to begin with. If you struggle through it, I hope you got something out of it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The Magic is Progression</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/progression/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 17 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/progression/</guid>
+		<description>How to push yourself harder than you thought possible</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;embracing-progression&#34;&gt;Embracing Progression&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the greatest challenges of losing large amounts of weight is that it takes a large amount of time. Living with this requires an extreme level of focus, patience, and dedication. Small achievable milestones are something that has absolutely helped me stay sane during an otherwise immensely challenging last few months. In hindsight, I could have lost weight consistently by counting calories and just playing &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/star-citizen/&#34;&gt;Star Citizen,&lt;/a&gt; but I think I would be going completely insane. Exercise has been a non-negotiable part of changing even if for only the sanity benefits. I truly can&amp;rsquo;t express how gratifying it&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Before I started working with a trainer, I definitely didn&amp;rsquo;t understand progression. I didn&amp;rsquo;t understand how to meet myself where I was and gradually increase the effort to get more out of the same time spent &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/A43MGtsgc0I&#34;&gt;exercising.&lt;/a&gt; While I was working to improve, I didn&amp;rsquo;t have much thought put into it. I&amp;rsquo;ve learned that when one puts some planning and thought into their exercise, even a beginner can get a lot more out of every workout.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Everyone has many days where you don&amp;rsquo;t feel like doing the right thing. &lt;strong&gt;That&amp;rsquo;s where growth occurs.&lt;/strong&gt; In those days, in those moments that&amp;rsquo;s where it&amp;rsquo;s important to do the right thing. You&amp;rsquo;re pushing back against your impulses and whims. That is where true growth occurs in the long run. On the days when you do not want to do the right thing.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Growth occurs when you &lt;em&gt;push back&lt;/em&gt; when you don&amp;rsquo;t want to do something.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Steve Shaw &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/4mSdtpxYMQ4?t=3942&#34;&gt;Massive Iron Q&amp;amp;A November 15th, 2024&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Recently, I&amp;rsquo;ve started applying this to my swimming trips. I&amp;rsquo;m on my own, so I have to ensure I&amp;rsquo;m pushing myself. Originally, I just set goals that seemed achievable, such as working towards doing 10 laps of the (reasonably sized) pool at a time. That took a bit to get to, but eventually I got there. Now I&amp;rsquo;m planning on increasing the amount of laps per visit. Today I went &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/nlGsZTsZaFc&#34;&gt;swimming&lt;/a&gt; and did 2 sets of 10 and 1 set of 20! I&amp;rsquo;ve decided now is the time to start recording my sets and total laps in my weight loss spreadsheet.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I find the best friend of progression is objectivity. That&amp;rsquo;s why weights have numbers and not feelings on them. I find it especially easy to underestimate what I am able to do, and so sticking to moving numbers higher (within reason) allows me to ensure I&amp;rsquo;m improving over time. I previously wrote that you can look up how to progress to basic body-weight exercises:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;dont-be-afraid-to-modify&#34;&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t be afraid to modify!&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.dmoose.com/blogs/training/exercise-for-obese-beginners-at-home&#34;&gt;Bodyweight exercises&lt;/a&gt; are incredible ways to get stronger quickly when starting out. A significantly heavy person may not be capable of performing particular exercises. A tip I stumbled on recently is that you can search for whatever exercise with the word &amp;ldquo;progression&amp;rdquo; and you&amp;rsquo;ll find ways to gradually work up to a particular exercise. It&amp;rsquo;s important not to feel guilty making modifications, as an obese person one is behind the starting line! Constant effort and gradual step-by-step modifications can make improvements way faster than one would think possible.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/challenges/#mobility&#34;&gt;The Troubles of Severe Obesity - Mobility&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I think that&amp;rsquo;s the really important take-away. Doing anything you can to start small, and then figuring out how you&amp;rsquo;re going to take on more and more. With the right level of patience, effort, and consistency you would be astounded at how quickly you can make radical changes. One of my major goals this Winter is to increase the amount of laps I do per visit. I&amp;rsquo;m going to try to spend more time at the pool to make this happen too.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/video/winter.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/winter.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;That&amp;rsquo;s me, I&amp;rsquo;m mfs.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve really found that scheduling workouts on my calendar instead of &amp;ldquo;aiming for once every x days&amp;rdquo; has made a huge difference. Properly dedicating the time has helped me a lot.  Sadly as it&amp;rsquo;s getting colder, I&amp;rsquo;ve been noticing myself struggle to stick with it. The painful progression for me at this rate is going to be being outside at all during winter. The more I can stick to my exercise schedule the better. I&amp;rsquo;ve bought some warmer clothes, in hopes that it will get me through the fall, but I am incredibly nervous.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;looking-forward-to-spring&#34;&gt;Looking forward to Spring&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If everything goes well, and I keep up the pace I can be below 400 by springtime. It&amp;rsquo;s a pretty ambitious target, but I&amp;rsquo;m cautiously optimistic. If I can really push through this Winter I&amp;rsquo;ll be able to bike again when the snow disappears. That will be so encouraging, I&amp;rsquo;m tearing up writing this. I&amp;rsquo;ve missed biking so much, and I&amp;rsquo;m looking forward to doing it again. If I succeed, I&amp;rsquo;ll have already mitigated many years worth of damage in under a year, which I&amp;rsquo;ll consider it&amp;rsquo;s own massive victory. I&amp;rsquo;ve got a long way to go, but I&amp;rsquo;m trying to keep it together until the next major victory (&lt;em&gt;hoping to be under 500lbs soon&lt;/em&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;thank-you&#34;&gt;Thank you&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thanks for reading. Many more people are following these updates than I have expected. I&amp;rsquo;m hoping to introduce more audio-visual content for this. I&amp;rsquo;ve more or less neglected video/audio updates but I have taken a lot of photos that I&amp;rsquo;m in no rush to share. I&amp;rsquo;m expecting to have a lot more to say as I continue to make significant progress. Thank you for helping keep me accountable! My hope is that my updates either encourage you or somebody you know!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;motivational-memes&#34;&gt;Motivational Memes&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation&#34;&gt;Full Collection&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/couch-lapping.jpg&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/couch-lapping.jpg&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/todays-pain.jpg&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/todays-pain.jpg&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/body-machine.jpg&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/body-machine.jpg&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/garfield-sign.png&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/garfield-sign.png&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/strong-to-be-gentle.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/strong-to-be-gentle.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/experiencing-opposites.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/experiencing-opposites.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/its-happening.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/its-happening.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/non-negotiable-standards.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/non-negotiable-standards.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Things I look forward to</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/looking-forward/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/looking-forward/</guid>
+		<description>As I continue to make progress, I&#39;m trying to stay optimistic and think of the things I can enjoy on the way down.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m almost down 70lbs, but I still have a long way to go! Not only am I excited to regain mobility that I had lost in gaining all the weight, but there&amp;rsquo;s a great deal of new experiences I hope to take on. I am really looking forward to opportunities that open up once I&amp;rsquo;m a healthy weight again.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;rsquo;s what I&amp;rsquo;m most looking forward to at the moment:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;milestones&#34;&gt;Milestones&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;trying-new-things&#34;&gt;Trying new things&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Learning handiwork&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Skateboarding&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Snowboarding&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Cosplay&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;activities&#34;&gt;Activities&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Going up stairs without a thought&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Biking&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Getting better at cooking&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Comfortable with long walks&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Doing more things away from home / less hesitant to go outside&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Visiting friends abroad / being able to travel generally&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Taking on more physical hobbies and crafts&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;body-weight-exercises&#34;&gt;Body-weight exercises&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Lunges&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Pull ups&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Push ups&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Plank&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Hand-stands&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-little-things&#34;&gt;The little things&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Being able to move without having my own body in the way&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Standing for longer periods of time&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Fitting in ordinary bus benches&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Not having to lean on things while doing basic tasks&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Getting in and out of cars easier&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Putting on shoes &amp;amp; socks&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Staying in a clothing size long term&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Easier hygiene&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;No longer living in fear, regret, and pain from my size&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;under--over&#34;&gt;Under &amp;amp; Over&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Under 500lbs (ETA: 1 week)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Under 400lbs&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Under 300lbs&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Over 100lbs down (ETA: 2025)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Over 200lbs down&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Over 300lbs down&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Leaving Obesity Class V&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Leaving Obesity Class IV&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Leaving Obesity Class III&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Leaving Obesity Class II&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Leaving Obesity Class I&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;sit-ups-at-any-size&#34;&gt;Sit-ups at any size&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the more surprising achievements recently has been starting to do sit-ups with a bit of momentum. This is something I hope to get much better at as time continues to move on by.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/sit-ups.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;div style=&#34;width:100%&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;table style=&#34;font-size:14px;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;th colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h2 style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;📉 Weight Tracker&lt;/h2&gt;
+            &lt;/th&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Starting Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Current Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weight Lost&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goal Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;576&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;379.6&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;196.4&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;15% BF&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h3 style=&#34;font-size:x-large;&#34;&gt;2025 Goal: 200lbs in 2025 challenge&lt;/h3&gt;
+                &lt;div
+                    style=&#34;border:3px solid var(--color-accent);align-items: flex-start;justify-content: flex-start;margin:5px;border-radius:15px;overflow: hidden;&#34;&gt;
+                    &lt;div style=&#34;width:49.7%;padding:10px;background-color:var(--color-accent);color:black;font-weight: bolder;font-size:larger;&#34;&gt;49.7%
+                    &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;p style=&#34;margin:5px;text-align: left;width:fit-content;font-size:large;&#34;&gt;This year&#39;s goal is to lose &lt;strong&gt;200lbs&lt;/strong&gt; in 2025!&lt;br&gt;Current progress: &lt;strong&gt;99.4lbs&lt;/strong&gt; out of 200!
+                &lt;br&gt;A bit behind schedule! 😓&lt;/p&gt;
+            &lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34; style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;Last updated: 2025-07-06&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+    &lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div&gt;
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>A brief look at Star Citizen</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/star-citizen/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 09 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/star-citizen/</guid>
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/mole-flying.webp?d=1731110400</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/mole-flying.webp?d=1731110400" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/mole-flying.webp?d=1731110400" />
+		<description></description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-is-star-citizen&#34;&gt;What is Star Citizen?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://robertsspaceindustries.com/enlist?referral=STAR-2SVJ-3KS3&#34;&gt;Star Citizen&lt;/a&gt; is supposed to be two very ambitious games in one. There&amp;rsquo;s a single-player mode in development called &lt;a href=&#34;https://starcitizen.tools/Star_Citizen&#34;&gt;Squadron42&lt;/a&gt; in development, and the &lt;a href=&#34;https://starcitizen.tools/Squadron_42&#34;&gt;MMO&lt;/a&gt; has been in alpha for about a decade. Since I backed the game since around 2015, I check in occasionally to see how the game has progressed. While I usually come back disappointed, at least this time I can say I&amp;rsquo;ve been less disappointed than usual.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many basic things still don&amp;rsquo;t work the way one would expect, but there&amp;rsquo;s always more things added to take screenshots of. I can admit that as somebody who&amp;rsquo;s seen the game grow over the years that there has been some good progress, but it&amp;rsquo;s still quite far from what a normal person could consider a &amp;ldquo;playable&amp;rdquo; game.  One of the biggest mistakes Star Citizens make is playing the game as they would &lt;em&gt;like it to be&lt;/em&gt; rather than how it &lt;em&gt;actually is&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/player-inventory.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;big-dreams&#34;&gt;Big Dreams&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, no other game has such a huge disconnect between what the players think it will be, and where it&amp;rsquo;s actually going. Star Citizen is to many of the backers their perfect space &amp;ldquo;forever game&amp;rdquo;, but many of these dreams are incompatible. At least a majority of them are going to be disappointed. Cloud Imperium Games, has a tendency to vastly over-promise and vastly under-deliver. Yet, it is the very dreams themselves that have allowed the game to raise the larger half of a billion dollars to support development.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;mmo&#34;&gt;MMO&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The MMO portion of Star Citizen is known in alpha as the &amp;ldquo;Persistent Universe&amp;rdquo;. This is where players will be able to progress their character in a dynamic environment like EVE Online. This portion definitely fuels the lion&amp;rsquo;s share of excitement. The idea of a first-person EVE-like game with advanced combat mechanics is something that even I would find incredibly enticing.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The trouble is, Star Citizen as it exists is currently very far from being charitably called an MMO. Not many players can be on the same server for long, and all kinds of bugs and problems grind the servers to a halt after a certain amount of time. The few &amp;ldquo;gameplay loops&amp;rdquo; that actually are implemented in game, have many problems that make immensely challenging to even attempt them.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/hangar-mess.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4.0&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The next major content patch had a great deal of gameplay features gutted from it. This has lead to a fair amount of controversy within the community, but apparently the most important feature is still on track to being delivered. That feature is &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/GYkTByID3BA&#34;&gt;&amp;ldquo;server meshing&amp;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt; which is very much required to making this game ever qualify as an MMO. According to CIG they want to be able to seamlessly manage players between servers in the same game environment. Presumably those further away from each other will be in their own servers, and those together will share a shard.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If server meshing is as described, I can definitely see why it would make a massive difference in the short and long term. Many basic things in game become completely unusable when the servers slow to a crawl. If server meshing successfully distributes the load that allows for over 100 players to be in-game without experiencing the horrible glitches related to server lag, that would be a huge change in how playable the game is.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m still pretty skeptical however. It seems that by design, far too much depends on the server-side. A player can&amp;rsquo;t even interact with a ladder or open doors without the servers to be functioning optimally. This leads to all kinds of frustrating experiences where in the process of &amp;ldquo;playing&amp;rdquo; the most basic of tedium only works 15-30% of the time. Even presuming that server meshing works great, how many players will be able to exist in the same location without running into the same problems. It&amp;rsquo;s possible they&amp;rsquo;ll layer shards over each other, like I believe World of Warcraft does, but that may have its own consequences.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;squadron-42&#34;&gt;Squadron 42&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite allegedly being almost ready 6 years ago, it is still two years away. Despite the &amp;ldquo;playable&amp;rdquo; persistent universe being something that earns CIG a lot of good will, SQ42 is effectively a stain on their record of delivering actual progress.  I know many look forward to eventually playing the campaign, but for now it&amp;rsquo;s just a &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H-0x4xk2Xk&#34;&gt;demo&lt;/a&gt; and far from being released. A lot of features claimed to be &amp;ldquo;almost ready&amp;rdquo; yet undelivered for years has lead me to suspect that much of what&amp;rsquo;s shown off by the developers are highly &amp;ldquo;scripted&amp;rdquo; demos rather than actual in-development features. This was effectively confirmed to me when it &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/1fv98ux/devs_talk_about_the_citcon_crunch/?rdt=54002&#34;&gt;leaked out&lt;/a&gt; that CIG made their employees work a crazy crunch to deliver for this year&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;Citizencon&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Initially, I had hoped that Squadron42 would be where CIG would work on getting the basics of the game working, and the MMO would be based on those systems. It seems in hindsight that SQ42 and the MMO share very little beyond art assets and UI. It is a shame, a lot was paid for high-quality motion capture and even celebrity casting. And we have no idea if the story itself is actually thrilling or entertaining yet, but hopefully that&amp;rsquo;s the easiest part for CIG.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;playing-again&#34;&gt;Playing again&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Every couple of years, I actually install the existing version of the game and see what it&amp;rsquo;s actually like. I decided to learn how mining worked and figure out how to do some of the hauling. I didn&amp;rsquo;t bother with combat because it appears unchanged from last time I tried things, and it seems still horribly unbalanced. The ground combat missions looked neat, but those also seemed riddled with bugs and problems. For a space MMO, hauling and mining should be very straightforward.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;annoyances&#34;&gt;Annoyances&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You have to play the game as it is, not how it &lt;em&gt;should&lt;/em&gt; work. This has a lot of knock-on consequences that very often aren&amp;rsquo;t explained by the &amp;ldquo;influencers&amp;rdquo; who talk about Star Citizen. They basically gloss over many of the current state of the game to get people excited about the future, which doesn&amp;rsquo;t help somebody who doesn&amp;rsquo;t understand why doors don&amp;rsquo;t open.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/ladder-boss.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Basic things not working&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Elevators (including in ships)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Ladders&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Terminals &amp;amp; Kiosks&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Objectives
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I was unable to carry a mission crate to my ship in a delivery mission.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As a returning player it wasn&amp;rsquo;t clear that the &amp;ldquo;carry&amp;rdquo; mechanic just simply wouldn&amp;rsquo;t work and I should have acquired a multi-tool &amp;amp; tractor beam attachment beforehand.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Various mining glitches&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When you come up to a rock, even one you should be able to mine the mining UI just simply fails&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Sometimes your mining bags on your ship glitch out with 0 capacity.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you don&amp;rsquo;t catch this before you leave you can waste a lot of time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Sometimes your mining laser will inexplicably never fire.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Glitches &amp;amp; Bugs&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Strange (unexplainable) deaths&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Bizarre ship damage, that can be only be repaired by &amp;ldquo;resetting the ship&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is a lot of work, you effectively have to land the ship elsewhere, respawn (backspace) and then &amp;ldquo;claim&amp;rdquo; a new one. All these actions take a bit of time away from what you&amp;rsquo;re trying to do.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Server Crashes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Some crashes are recoverable. It seems like CIG invested the effort in building a system to have players moved to a new server when one crashes. It&amp;rsquo;s a bit of a disruption, but at least people can keep the little progress they were able to get up to that moment.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/server-error.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fleet Manager&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Storing and calling ships glitches out occasionally, this can outright destroy ships or cause unintuitive bugs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;hauling&#34;&gt;Hauling&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hauling is usually done through missions and the &amp;ldquo;freight elevator&amp;rdquo; which is a new addition to me. Seems like a great idea for a system and &amp;ldquo;cargo grids&amp;rdquo; are pretty useful as well. In practice both are quite buggy. Apparently the freight elevator currently eats mining pods, and the tractor beam can leave cargo crates in a state that makes them sometimes unrecoverable, thus failing whatever hauling mission you&amp;rsquo;re on and losing reputation. Allegedly they&amp;rsquo;re going to be temporarily removing the reputation hit soon.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/blue-connie.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While space trucking is pretty fun, it still has a long way to go to be a reliable way to experience the &amp;lsquo;verse. In many ways, space trucking relies on other gameplay loops being interesting and valuable. For now, it seems to be a good pair with mining. It&amp;rsquo;s very profitable to mine the best ores you can, refine them, then spend the time hauling them to a main city yourself for a big chunk of change.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;mining&#34;&gt;Mining&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite everything, I&amp;rsquo;ll say I find mining pretty fun in this game. The ARGO MOLE is a multi-crew mining ship, but the single-seater prospector is probably more worth using for the time being. I quite enjoy how in-depth the mining mechanics are. The overcharge mechanic is pretty neat, and I really like being able to choose what sub-fragments are worth grabbing. If every gameplay loop ends up as good as mining with less glitches, I actually think Star Citizen might be a pretty fun game.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/video/prospector-mining.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/prospector-mining.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;p&gt;Star Citizen youtubers generally say you don&amp;rsquo;t have to be picky while mining but I definitely disagree. If one is bothering to mine despite glitches, and then still choosing to sell the ore, every SCU (Standard cargo unit) should be maximized for profit, not time mining. Refining takes quite a bit of time, so you want to make sure you&amp;rsquo;re only refining what&amp;rsquo;s truly valuable. To reduce hauling trips, being a picky miner helps some resources are a lot more valuable than others, so its worth always mining the best you can. This is particularly important when you don&amp;rsquo;t have a bigger ship to haul with.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;final-thoughts&#34;&gt;Final thoughts&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;ship-rentals&#34;&gt;Ship rentals&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This system is very important. The in-game rental system works surprisingly well and is priced quite fairly. You can rent a Prospector and make the money back very quickly. What I would recommend for mining and hauling is grinding out missions until you can rent a Prospector. Once you have your Prospector you can start mining like crazy. First you just want to sell the ore directly until you have enough to cover refining costs &amp;amp; a Constellation rental. Then you do more mining trips to refine the best of the best. Once all your refining jobs are done you can rent the Constellation to sell all your ore for a very nice profit.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;That would give your character quite a lot of UEC in a relatively short amount of time even in the game today. I am skeptical that renting combat ships would give one the same ROI. But it&amp;rsquo;s very nice that with a bit of grinding you can try out so many of the flyable ships. I think the rental system is a bit harsh in some ways, because your rental is for calendar days and multiple days adds up quite a bit. If I were CIG I would set it to 24hours of playtime not 24 hours on the calendar.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;locations&#34;&gt;Locations&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many of the newer locations are quite beatiful. New Babbage may be my new favorite place in game. I&amp;rsquo;ve been quite impressed with how CIG continually increases the quality and look of what they deliver. This does have a downside where it feels they rarely update old assets up to par. The Constellation interior is very dated and some locations look out of place for similar reasons.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The frustrating part about many locations these days is just the travel time to accomplish things. Once you land at a station, you have to go through multiple elevators just to begin making your way around the station. Often times it&amp;rsquo;s faster to &amp;ldquo;Exit to menu&amp;rdquo; so your character is placed in the temporary living quarters instead of fighting with laggy elevators. This won&amp;rsquo;t work forever because eventually they want your character to always remain where you logged out iirc.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;closing&#34;&gt;Closing&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I definitely wouldn&amp;rsquo;t recommend putting a lot of time into Star Citizen unless one is steeled for many frustrations. I&amp;rsquo;m curious to see if the 4.0 patch (&lt;em&gt;which allegedly has to drop before the end of the year&lt;/em&gt;) will actually make enough of a difference. I&amp;rsquo;m very skeptical that Squadron42 will even be available in 2026, and it&amp;rsquo;s worth wondering what will be cut to even attempt to reach the deadline.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When I was trying things out this time around I watched a fair bit of YouTube commentary by new and long-standing channels on the latest developments. I am suspicious that many of them continue (as has been done in previous years) to deceptively misrepresent the &lt;em&gt;likely&lt;/em&gt; state of the near future under the guise of being merely optimistic. They seem to be willing to take CIG at every letter of their word, despite having the first-hand experience to know otherwise.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I think this is incredibly misleading. I have not spent a lot of time watching the &amp;ldquo;in house&amp;rdquo; commentary from CIG, but I&amp;rsquo;m not convinced I would learn much more in doing so. Merely letting the years go by and occasionally taking glances is enough to know they consistently fail to deliver on their own promises. If anything, I think far too many people fill up their mental model of the game with promises from the staff, rather than building up their own from observation of results over time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I think this has to do with many problems, even totally unrelated to gaming. Many people are incapable of questioning even the most basic contradictions between stated reality and actual reality when emotions come into the mix. Much of the sentiment on the internal forums &amp;ldquo;Spectrum&amp;rdquo; is overwhelmingly negative, but you wouldn&amp;rsquo;t know it from the people who represent the game on YouTube.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Resistor Observer</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/resistor-observer/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 09 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/resistor-observer/</guid>
+		<description>A great tool to learn resistor values</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;learn-your-resistor-values-quickly&#34;&gt;Learn your resistor values quickly!&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;not-my-creation&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Not my creation!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This project was created by &lt;a href=&#34;https://shortstacksran.ch/users/hazlin&#34;&gt;Hazlin&lt;/a&gt; who generously asked me to host it.&lt;/em&gt; I&amp;rsquo;ve always struggled to learn resistor values, and I think this is a great way to get your mind wrapped around &amp;rsquo;em. It&amp;rsquo;s been a joy to see the updates as this was built in C++, Ruby and now HTML5 canvas! See the &lt;a href=&#34;https://shortstacksran.ch/notice/AnuUGqIOSHLvxny5QG&#34;&gt;announcement post.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div&gt;
+    &lt;canvas id=&#34;canvas&#34; width=&#34;540&#34; height=&#34;960&#34;
+        style=&#34;border: 1px solid #437A16;max-height: 100%;max-width:100%;&#34;&gt;&lt;/canvas&gt;
+&lt;script type=&#34;application/javascript&#34;&gt;
+    
+
+    function rf(min,max){return Math.random() * (max - min) + min;}
+    function ri(min,max){return Math.floor(rf(min,max))}
+    function get_x_randoms(a0,x){
+        let indexes = [];
+        while(true){
+            let attempt = ri(0,a0.length);
+            if( !indexes.includes(attempt) ) {indexes.push(attempt)}
+            if( indexes.length &gt; x-1) {break}
+        }
+        let output = []
+        indexes.forEach((i)=&gt;{output.push(a0[i])})
+        return output;
+    }
+    let shuffle = (a0) =&gt; {
+        let max = a0.length
+        for (let i99 = 0; i99 &lt; max*2; i99++) {
+            let i1 = ri(0,max); let i2 = ri(0,max)
+            let x1 = a0[i1];    let x2 = a0[i2]
+            a0[i2] = x1;        a0[i1] = x2
+        }
+        return a0
+    }
+    let mk_range = (max) =&gt; {
+        let a0=[]
+        for (let i=0; i&lt;max; i++) {
+            a0.push(i)
+        }
+        return a0
+    }
+    let mk_rate_limit = () =&gt; {
+        let s = {}
+        s.delay_ms = 1000
+        s.time = Date.now()
+        s.setDelay = (ms) =&gt; {s.delay_ms = ms}
+        s.limit = () =&gt; {
+            let now = Date.now()
+            if(s.time + s.delay_ms &lt; now ){
+                s.time = now; return true
+            }return false
+        }
+        return s
+    }
+    let bounds_has_point = (bounds, point) =&gt;{
+        return point.x &gt;= bounds.x &amp;&amp; point.x &lt;= bounds.x + bounds.width &amp;&amp;
+            point.y &gt;= bounds.y &amp;&amp; point.y &lt;= bounds.y + bounds.height
+    }
+
+
+    view = {&#34;width&#34;:540,&#34;height&#34;:960};
+    const canvas = document.querySelector(&#34;canvas&#34;);
+    canvas.width = view[&#34;width&#34;];canvas.height = view[&#34;height&#34;];
+    const ctx = canvas.getContext(&#34;2d&#34;);
+    let mouse = {&#34;x&#34;:0,&#34;y&#34;:0}
+
+
+
+
+
+    let info = {};
+    info.by_color = {
+        &#34;black&#34;    :{&#34;number&#34;:0, &#34;color&#34;:&#34;black&#34;,   &#34;rgb&#34;:&#34;rgb(15,  15, 15)&#34;, &#34;mag&#34;:0, &#34;mag_str&#34;:&#34;Ω   &#34;, &#34;tol&#34;:9999},
+        &#34;brown&#34;    :{&#34;number&#34;:1, &#34;color&#34;:&#34;brown&#34;,   &#34;rgb&#34;:&#34;rgb(208,125, 47)&#34;, &#34;mag&#34;:1, &#34;mag_str&#34;:&#34;0Ω  &#34;, &#34;tol&#34;:1.00},
+        &#34;red&#34;      :{&#34;number&#34;:2, &#34;color&#34;:&#34;red&#34;,     &#34;rgb&#34;:&#34;rgb(255, 78, 78)&#34;, &#34;mag&#34;:2, &#34;mag_str&#34;:&#34;00Ω &#34;, &#34;tol&#34;:2.00},
+        &#34;orange&#34;   :{&#34;number&#34;:3, &#34;color&#34;:&#34;orange&#34;,  &#34;rgb&#34;:&#34;rgb(255, 90, 18)&#34;, &#34;mag&#34;:3, &#34;mag_str&#34;:&#34;kΩ  &#34;, &#34;tol&#34;:9999},
+        &#34;yellow&#34;   :{&#34;number&#34;:4, &#34;color&#34;:&#34;yellow&#34;,  &#34;rgb&#34;:&#34;rgb(255,255,  0)&#34;, &#34;mag&#34;:4, &#34;mag_str&#34;:&#34;0kΩ &#34;, &#34;tol&#34;:9999},
+        &#34;green&#34;    :{&#34;number&#34;:5, &#34;color&#34;:&#34;green&#34;,   &#34;rgb&#34;:&#34;rgb(52, 161, 52)&#34;, &#34;mag&#34;:5, &#34;mag_str&#34;:&#34;00kΩ&#34;, &#34;tol&#34;:0.50},
+        &#34;blue&#34;     :{&#34;number&#34;:6, &#34;color&#34;:&#34;blue&#34;,    &#34;rgb&#34;:&#34;rgb(81, 143,223)&#34;, &#34;mag&#34;:6, &#34;mag_str&#34;:&#34;MΩ  &#34;, &#34;tol&#34;:0.25},
+        &#34;purple&#34;   :{&#34;number&#34;:7, &#34;color&#34;:&#34;purple&#34;,  &#34;rgb&#34;:&#34;rgb(185, 87,185)&#34;, &#34;mag&#34;:7, &#34;mag_str&#34;:&#34;0MΩ &#34;, &#34;tol&#34;:0.10},
+        &#34;grey&#34;     :{&#34;number&#34;:8, &#34;color&#34;:&#34;grey&#34;,    &#34;rgb&#34;:&#34;rgb(141,141,141)&#34;, &#34;mag&#34;:8, &#34;mag_str&#34;:&#34;00MΩ&#34;, &#34;tol&#34;:0.05},
+        &#34;white&#34;    :{&#34;number&#34;:9, &#34;color&#34;:&#34;white&#34;,   &#34;rgb&#34;:&#34;rgb(255,255,255)&#34;, &#34;mag&#34;:9, &#34;mag_str&#34;:&#34;GΩ  &#34;, &#34;tol&#34;:9999},
+        &#34;gold&#34;     :{&#34;number&#34;:99,&#34;color&#34;:&#34;gold&#34;,    &#34;rgb&#34;:&#34;rgb(221,176, 17)&#34;, &#34;mag&#34;:-1,&#34;mag_str&#34;:&#34;0mΩ &#34;, &#34;tol&#34;:5.00},
+        &#34;silver&#34;   :{&#34;number&#34;:99,&#34;color&#34;:&#34;silver&#34;,  &#34;rgb&#34;:&#34;rgb(204,204,204)&#34;, &#34;mag&#34;:-2,&#34;mag_str&#34;:&#34;mΩ  &#34;, &#34;tol&#34;:10.0},
+        &#34;no_color&#34; :{&#34;number&#34;:99,&#34;color&#34;:&#34;no_color&#34;,&#34;rgb&#34;:&#34;rgb(9,  191,191)&#34;, &#34;mag&#34;:99,&#34;mag_str&#34;:&#34;9999&#34;, &#34;tol&#34;:20.0},
+    }
+    info.by_number = {};
+    info.by_mag = {};
+    info.by_tol = {};
+    let valids = {
+        &#34;numbers&#34;:[[1,0],[1,2],[1,5],[1,8],[2,7],[3,3],[3,9],[4,7],[5,6],[6,8],[8,2]],
+        &#34;mags&#34;:[],
+        &#34;tols&#34;:[]
+    }
+    Object.keys(info.by_color).forEach((color)=&gt;{
+        let data = info.by_color[color];
+        if (data[&#34;number&#34;]  &lt; 90){   info.by_number[data[&#34;number&#34;]]  = data;}
+        if (data.mag     &lt; 90){   info.by_mag[data.mag]        = data;valids.mags.push(data.mag);}
+        if (data.tol     &lt; 90){   info.by_tol[data.tol]        = data;valids.tols.push(data.tol);}
+    })
+
+
+    let numbers_3 = get_x_randoms(valids.numbers,3);
+    let mags_3 = get_x_randoms(valids.mags,3);
+    let tols_3 = get_x_randoms(valids.tols,3);
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    let Loading = {};
+    Loading.font_FiraCode = true;
+    (new FontFace(&#34;FiraCode&#34;,&#34;url(/fonts/fira/FiraCode-Regular.otf)&#34;))
+        .load().then((font)=&gt;{document.fonts.add(font);
+        delete Loading.font_FiraCode;
+    });
+    
+    
+    
+    
+
+
+
+
+    let parse_svg_path = (raw) =&gt; {
+        if(raw[raw.length-1] !== &#34; &#34;){raw += &#34; &#34;}
+        let ops_strs = []; let group = &#34;&#34;
+        for (const x of raw) {
+            if(&#34;mzlhvcsqtaMZLHVCSQTA&#34;.includes(x) &amp;&amp; group !== &#34;&#34;){
+                ops_strs.push(group); group = &#34;&#34;
+            }
+            group += x
+        }
+        ops_strs.push(group)
+        let output = []
+        for (const ops_str of ops_strs) {
+            let op = {&#34;type&#34;:&#34;&#34;,&#34;points&#34;:[]}
+            let point = []
+            let number_str = &#34;&#34;
+            for (const x of ops_str){
+                if(&#34;mzlhvcsqtaMZLHVCSQTA&#34;.includes(x)){op.type=x}
+                if(&#34;-0123456789.&#34;.includes(x)){number_str+=x}
+                if(&#34;,&#34;.includes(x)){point.push(Number(number_str));number_str=&#34;&#34;}
+                if(&#34; &#34;.includes(x) &amp;&amp; point.length&gt;0){
+                    point.push(Number(number_str));number_str=&#34;&#34;
+                    op.points.push(point); point=[]
+                }
+                if(&#34; &#34;.includes(x) &amp;&amp; number_str !== &#34;&#34;){
+                    op.points.push(Number(number_str));number_str=&#34;&#34;
+                }
+            }
+            output.push(op)
+        }
+        console.log(output)
+        return output
+    }
+    let offset_svg_path = (path_str,x,y) =&gt;{
+        let s = &#34;&#34;
+        let data = parse_svg_path(path_str)
+        for (const op of data){
+            s += `${op.type} `
+            for (const point of op.points){
+                if(!&#34;vVhH&#34;.includes(op.type)){
+                    let pair = point
+                    if (pair[0] &gt; 1000){
+                        s += `${x+pair[0]-2000},`
+                    }else{
+                        s += `${pair[0]},`
+                    }
+                    if (pair[1] &gt; 1000){
+                        s += `${y+pair[1]-2000} `
+                    }else{
+                        s += `${pair[1]} `
+                    }
+                }
+                if(&#34;hH&#34;.includes(op.type)){
+                    if (point &gt; 1000){
+                        s += `${y+point-2000} `
+                    }else{
+                        s += `${point} `
+                    }
+                }
+                if(&#34;vV&#34;.includes(op.type)){
+                    if (point &gt; 1000){
+                        s += `${x+point-2000} `
+                    }else{
+                        s += `${point} `
+                    }
+                }
+
+            }
+        }
+        return s
+    }
+    let mk_svg_sprite = (data=&#34;&#34;) =&gt; {
+        let s = {}
+        s.data_raw; s.x=0; s.y=0; s.ox=0; s.oy=0; s.data_processed
+        s.Path2D; s.fillStyle = &#34;&#34;; s.strokeStyle = &#34;&#34;;s.lineWidth=1
+        s.update_Path2D = () =&gt;{
+            s.data_processed = offset_svg_path(s.data_raw,s.x-s.ox,s.y-s.oy)
+            s.Path2D = new Path2D(s.data_processed)
+        }
+        if (data !== &#34;&#34;) { s.data_raw = data;s.update_Path2D()}
+        s.setData = (data) =&gt; {   s.data_raw = data; s.update_Path2D()}
+        s.setPosition = (x,y) =&gt; {s.x=x;   s.y=y;    s.update_Path2D()}
+        s.setOrigin = (ox,oy) =&gt; {s.ox=ox; s.oy=oy;  s.update_Path2D()}
+        s.setFillStyle = (fs) =&gt; {s.fillStyle = fs}
+        s.setStrokeStyle = (strokeStyle) =&gt; {s.strokeStyle=strokeStyle}
+        s.setLineWidth = (lineWidth) =&gt; {s.lineWidth=lineWidth}
+        s.draw = () =&gt;{
+            if (s.strokeStyle !== &#34;&#34;){
+                ctx.strokeStyle = s.strokeStyle;
+                ctx.lineWidth = s.lineWidth
+                ctx.stroke(s.Path2D)}
+            if(s.fillStyle !== &#34;&#34;){
+                ctx.fillStyle = s.fillStyle
+                ctx.fill(s.Path2D)}
+        }
+        return s
+    }
+
+
+    let Game = (() =&gt;{
+        let s = {}
+        let i = 0
+        s.states = {
+            &#34;NewGame&#34;:i++,&#34;GameOver_Showing_review&#34;:i++,
+            &#34;Loop_Observing&#34;:i++,&#34;Loop_Observing_1miss&#34;:i++,
+            &#34;Loop_Showing_score_key&#34;:i++
+        }
+        s.state = s.states.Loop_Observing
+
+        s.Successes = 0
+        s.Failures = 0
+        return s
+    })()
+
+
+    let svgs_resistor_wire = mk_svg_sprite()
+    svgs_resistor_wire.setData(&#34;m 2719.6104,2012.5782 c 0,0 -9.1069,6.6173 -28.0978,4.301 -18.9909,-2.3163 -96.7754,-21.3363 -93.474,14.0122 3.3015,35.3485 30.0172,29.7154 28.4435,-1.0224 -1.5737,-30.7378 -64.5996,-25.33 -63.2566,9.8194 1.343,35.1494 23.7229,28.6665 20.7708,-8.105 -2.9521,-36.7715 -49.5307,-18.7048 -48.2467,12.7287 1.284,31.4335 33.1635,28.2891 20.075,-17.7112 -13.0885,-46.0003 -44.9101,10.7684 -60.9967,20.3856 l -317.1237,-2.303 c -55.7593,-9.8235 -114.329,-10.9034 -176.0878,-2.062&#34;)
+    svgs_resistor_wire.setPosition(-100,270)
+    svgs_resistor_wire.setStrokeStyle(&#34;#f39f2b&#34;)
+    svgs_resistor_wire.setLineWidth(10)
+
+    let svgs_resistor_body = mk_svg_sprite()
+    svgs_resistor_body.setData(&#34;m 2185,2012 h 303 c 3.878,0 7,3.122 7,7 v 53 c 0,3.878 -3.122,7 -7,7 h -303 c -3.878,0 -7,-3.122 -7,-7 v -53 c 0,-3.878 3.122,-7 7,-7 z&#34;)
+    svgs_resistor_body.setPosition(-100,270)
+    svgs_resistor_body.setFillStyle(&#34;#09bfbf&#34;)
+
+
+
+
+
+    let paint_Text_Correct_annotation = (x,y) =&gt; {
+        ctx.font = &#34;bold 48px FiraCode&#34;;
+
+        ctx.fillStyle = info.by_number[numbers_3[0][0]].rgb;
+        ctx.fillText(numbers_3[0][0], x, y);
+
+        ctx.fillStyle = info.by_number[numbers_3[0][1]].rgb;
+        ctx.fillText(numbers_3[0][1], x+50, y);
+
+        ctx.fillStyle = info.by_mag[mags_3[0]].rgb;
+        ctx.fillText(info.by_mag[mags_3[0]].mag_str, x+100, y);
+
+        ctx.fillStyle = info.by_tol[tols_3[0]].rgb;
+        if(tols_3[0]&gt;9){ctx.fillText(`±${tols_3[0].toFixed(1)}%`, x+220, y);}
+        else{ctx.fillText(`±${tols_3[0].toFixed(2)}%`, x+220, y);}
+    }
+
+
+
+    let choices = (()=&gt;{
+        let s = {}
+        s.list = []
+        s.draw = () =&gt; {for (const choice of s.list) {choice.draw()}}
+        s.get_choice_under_mouse = () =&gt; {
+            for(const choice of s.list){
+                if(bounds_has_point(choice.hitbox,mouse)){
+                    return {&#34;hit&#34;:true,&#34;choice&#34;:choice}
+                }
+            }
+            return {&#34;hit&#34;:false}
+        }
+        s.scoreKey = (show) =&gt;{
+            if(show){
+                for (const choice of s.list){
+                    if(choice.correct){
+                        choice.state = choice.states.correct
+                    }else{
+                        choice.state = choice.states.wrong
+                    }
+                }
+            }else{
+                for (const choice of s.list){
+                    choice.state = choice.states.default
+                }
+            }
+
+        }
+        return s
+    })()
+
+    let mk_choice = () =&gt; {
+        let s = {}; choices.list.push(s)
+        s.states = {&#34;default&#34;:0,&#34;hover&#34;:1,&#34;disabled&#34;:2,&#34;wrong&#34;:3,&#34;correct&#34;:4}
+        s.state = s.states.default
+        s.correct = false
+        s.setState = (state) =&gt; {
+            s.state = state
+        }
+        s.setChoiceIndex = (choiceIndex) =&gt;{
+            s.correct = choiceIndex === 0
+            s.choiceIndex = choiceIndex
+        }
+        s.setHitbox = (x,y,width,height) =&gt; {s.hitbox = {&#34;x&#34;:x,&#34;y&#34;:y,&#34;width&#34;:width,&#34;height&#34;:height}}
+        s.setTextPosition = (x,y) =&gt; {s.textPosition = {&#34;x&#34;:x,&#34;y&#34;:y}}
+        s.draw = () =&gt; {
+
+            let fillColor
+            if(s.state === s.states.default){
+                fillColor = info.by_color.white.rgb
+            }else if (s.state === s.states.hover){
+                fillColor = info.by_color.blue.rgb
+            }else if (s.state === s.states.correct){
+                fillColor = info.by_color.green.rgb
+            }else if (s.state === s.states.wrong){
+                fillColor = info.by_color.red.rgb
+            }else if (s.state === s.states.disabled){
+                fillColor = info.by_color.grey.rgb
+            }
+
+            ctx.font = &#34;bold 48px FiraCode&#34;;
+            ctx.fillStyle = &#34;#444444&#34;;
+            ctx.fillRect(s.hitbox.x,s.hitbox.y,s.hitbox.width,s.hitbox.height)
+            ctx.fillStyle = fillColor;
+            let n1 = numbers_3[s.choiceIndex][0]
+            let n2 = numbers_3[s.choiceIndex][1]
+            let mag = info.by_mag[mags_3[s.choiceIndex]].mag_str
+            let tol = `±${tols_3[s.choiceIndex].toFixed(2)}%`
+            if(tols_3[s.choiceIndex]&gt;9){tol = `±${tols_3[s.choiceIndex].toFixed(1)}%`}
+            ctx.fillText(`${n1}${n2}${mag}${tol}`, s.textPosition.x, s.textPosition.y)
+        }
+        return s
+    }
+
+
+
+    let choice1 = mk_choice()
+    choice1.setChoiceIndex(0)
+    choice1.setHitbox(0,400,view.width,80)
+    choice1.setTextPosition(100,400+55)
+
+    let choice2 = mk_choice()
+    choice2.setChoiceIndex(1)
+    choice2.setHitbox(0,550,view.width,80)
+    choice2.setTextPosition(100,550+55)
+
+
+    let choice3 = mk_choice()
+    choice3.setChoiceIndex(2)
+    choice3.setHitbox(0,700,view.width,80)
+    choice3.setTextPosition(100,700+55)
+
+    let generate_new_choices = () =&gt; {
+        numbers_3 = get_x_randoms(valids.numbers,3);
+        mags_3 = get_x_randoms(valids.mags,3);
+        tols_3 = get_x_randoms(valids.tols,3);
+        axis_3 = [numbers_3,mags_3,tols_3]
+
+        let axis_mix = mk_range(choices.list.length)
+        shuffle(axis_mix)
+
+        if(Game.Successes &gt; 9){
+            axis_3[axis_mix[0]][1] = axis_3[axis_mix[0]][0]
+            axis_3[axis_mix[0]][2] = axis_3[axis_mix[0]][0]
+        }
+        if(Game.Successes &gt; 19){
+            axis_3[axis_mix[0]][1] = axis_3[axis_mix[0]][0]
+            axis_3[axis_mix[0]][2] = axis_3[axis_mix[0]][0]
+            axis_3[axis_mix[1]][1] = axis_3[axis_mix[1]][0]
+            axis_3[axis_mix[1]][2] = axis_3[axis_mix[1]][0]
+        }
+
+        let choices_mix = mk_range(choices.list.length)
+        shuffle(choices_mix)
+        for (let i = 0; i &lt; choices.list.length; i++) {
+            choices.list[i].setChoiceIndex(choices_mix[i])
+        }
+    }
+
+
+    let paint_resistor_stripes = (x,y) =&gt;{
+        ctx.fillStyle = info.by_number[numbers_3[0][0]].rgb;
+        ctx.fillRect(x, y, 26, 67);
+
+        ctx.fillStyle = info.by_number[numbers_3[0][1]].rgb;
+        ctx.fillRect(x+50, y, 26, 67);
+
+        ctx.fillStyle = info.by_mag[mags_3[0]].rgb;
+        ctx.fillRect(x+100, y, 26, 67);
+
+        ctx.fillStyle = info.by_tol[tols_3[0]].rgb;
+        ctx.fillRect(x+220, y, 26, 67);
+    }
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    canvas.addEventListener(&#34;mousemove&#34;, (e) =&gt; {
+        
+        let bounds = canvas.getBoundingClientRect()
+        mouse.x = (e.clientX - bounds.left) * (canvas.width / bounds.width)
+        mouse.y = (e.clientY - bounds.top) * (canvas.height / bounds.height)
+
+        let call_draw = false
+
+        if (Game.state === Game.states.Loop_Observing ||
+            Game.state === Game.states.Loop_Observing_1miss){
+            let hovered = choices.get_choice_under_mouse()
+            if(hovered.hit){
+                if(hovered.choice.state === hovered.choice.states.default){
+                    hovered.choice.state = hovered.choice.states.hover
+                    call_draw = true
+                }
+            }
+            for(const choice of choices.list){
+                if(choice !== hovered.choice){
+                    if(choice.state === choice.states.hover){
+                        choice.state = choice.states.default
+                        call_draw = true
+                    }
+                }
+
+            }
+
+
+        }
+
+        if(call_draw){draw()}
+    })
+    canvas.addEventListener(&#34;mouseout&#34;,()=&gt;{
+        let call_draw = false
+        if (Game.state === Game.states.Loop_Observing ||
+            Game.state === Game.states.Loop_Observing_1miss){
+            for(const choice of choices.list){
+                if(choice.state === choice.states.hover){
+                    choice.state = choice.states.default
+                    call_draw = true
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        if(call_draw){draw()}
+    })
+
+    canvas.addEventListener(&#34;click&#34;, (e) =&gt;{
+        if (Game.state === Game.states.Loop_Observing ||
+            Game.state === Game.states.Loop_Observing_1miss){
+            let clicked = choices.get_choice_under_mouse()
+            if(clicked.hit){
+                if(clicked.choice.correct){
+                    Game.state = Game.states.Loop_Showing_score_key
+                    choices.scoreKey(true)
+                    Game.Successes++
+                }else if(clicked.choice.state !== clicked.choice.states.disabled){
+                    if(Game.state === Game.states.Loop_Observing){
+                        Game.state = Game.states.Loop_Observing_1miss
+                        clicked.choice.state = clicked.choice.states.disabled
+                    }else if(Game.state === Game.states.Loop_Observing_1miss){
+                        Game.state = Game.states.Loop_Showing_score_key
+                        choices.scoreKey(true)
+                        Game.Failures++
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+
+        }
+        else if(Game.state === Game.states.Loop_Showing_score_key){
+            if(Game.Failures &gt; 3 || Game.Successes &gt; 29){
+                Game.Failures = 0
+                Game.Successes = 0
+            }
+            generate_new_choices()
+            Game.state = Game.states.Loop_Observing
+            choices.scoreKey(false)
+        }
+        draw()
+    })
+
+
+
+
+
+    function draw() {
+
+        
+        ctx.fillStyle = &#34;rgb(75 75 75)&#34;;
+        ctx.fillRect(0, 0, view[&#34;width&#34;], view[&#34;height&#34;]);
+
+        ctx.fillStyle = &#34;rgb(50 50 50)&#34;
+        ctx.fillRect(0,0,view.width,130)
+
+
+        ctx.fillStyle = &#34;rgb(255 255 255)&#34;;
+        ctx.font = &#34;bold 48px FiraCode&#34;;
+        ctx.fillText(&#34;Resistor Observer&#34;, 25, 100);
+
+
+        svgs_resistor_wire.draw()
+        svgs_resistor_body.draw()
+        paint_resistor_stripes(101,282)
+        if(Game.state === Game.states.Loop_Showing_score_key){
+            paint_Text_Correct_annotation(100,260)
+        }
+
+        ctx.font = &#34;bold 64px FiraCode&#34;;
+        ctx.fillStyle = info.by_color.white.rgb
+        if(Game.Successes &gt; 0){ctx.fillStyle = info.by_color.red.rgb}
+        if(Game.Successes &gt; 9){ctx.fillStyle = info.by_color.green.rgb}
+        if(Game.Successes &gt; 19){ctx.fillStyle = info.by_color.blue.rgb}
+        if(Game.Successes &gt; 29){ctx.fillStyle = info.by_color.gold.rgb}
+        if(Game.Successes&lt;10){
+            ctx.fillText(`Correct: 0${Game.Successes}`,40,190)
+        }else{
+            ctx.fillText(`Correct: ${Game.Successes}`,40,190)
+        }
+
+
+        
+        ctx.font = &#34;bold 150px FiraCode&#34;;
+        if(Game.Failures &gt; 0){
+            ctx.fillStyle = info.by_color.white.rgb
+            ctx.fillText(&#34;X&#34;,40,925)
+        }
+        if(Game.Failures &gt; 1){
+            ctx.fillStyle = info.by_color.yellow.rgb
+            ctx.fillText(&#34;X&#34;,40+180*1,925)
+        }
+        if(Game.Failures &gt; 2){
+            ctx.fillStyle = info.by_color.black.rgb
+            ctx.fillText(&#34;X&#34;,40+180*2,925)
+        }
+        if(Game.Failures &gt; 3){
+            ctx.fillStyle = &#34;rgb(255 78 78 / 50%)&#34;
+            ctx.fillRect(0,855,view.width,30)
+        }
+
+
+        choices.draw()
+    }
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    let wait_for_load = () =&gt;{
+        if(Object.keys(Loading).length &gt; 0){
+            setTimeout(wait_for_load,100);
+        }else{
+            
+            setTimeout(draw,0);
+        }
+    }
+    wait_for_load();
+&lt;/script&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Inscribed in the source for the game:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I hope you enjoy the game!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Remember friend, Jesus loves you, and loves hearing from you.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you have any feedback, I&amp;rsquo;d be thrilled to pass it along!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Milestone: 50 Lbs down 🎉</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/50-down/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 02 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/50-down/</guid>
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/incredible-50.webp?d=1730505600</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/incredible-50.webp?d=1730505600" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/incredible-50.webp?d=1730505600" />
+		<description>I think this might actually be working!</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/incredible-50.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;it-just-might-be-working-after-all&#34;&gt;It just might be working after all&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Not only am I over 50lbs down, but I&amp;rsquo;ve also managed to lose just over 31lbs during October. So I&amp;rsquo;m still on target with my &amp;ldquo;1lb per day&amp;rdquo; goal. It does really seem like I need to &amp;ldquo;lock in&amp;rdquo; to stay on track, but I&amp;rsquo;m optimistic moving forward. I wish I could say it is easy. While logistically, things are simple, the effort required to stay on track feels immense. This entire process is incredibly challenging, and very often I get sore and tired enough that I can no long fight off my fears and doubts. I am afraid of failure, and I still very much doubt I can make it to where I need to be.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It really does take everything in me to keep this going. I&amp;rsquo;ve more or less put my work for the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;Libre Solutions Network&lt;/a&gt; on a massive slowdown for the time being. This isn&amp;rsquo;t an easy decision, because it means withdrawing the self-satisfaction from working on what I consider meaningful. Very often when I&amp;rsquo;m in pain my mental attitude resets back to &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m useless and worthless&lt;/em&gt;.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m incredibly nervous about Winter, mostly being able to stay active during it. While recent progress has been great, I want to ensure I&amp;rsquo;m in the best possible situation to &amp;ldquo;hit the ground running&amp;rdquo; (figuratively) once springtime begins. I miss biking, but I&amp;rsquo;m not sure if I&amp;rsquo;ll be light enough to consider it once the snow melts. Optimistically I&amp;rsquo;ll be able to get on my bike in the fall.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2024-11-01-chart.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2024-11-01-chart.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;ive-entered-a-weight-loss-contest&#34;&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve entered a weight loss contest&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As yet another way of keeping me accountable, I&amp;rsquo;ve joined the &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.fattycontest.com/&#34;&gt;Fatty Contest&lt;/a&gt; weekly weigh-ins. I&amp;rsquo;m entered in as &amp;ldquo;&lt;strong&gt;Healthy2026&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;rdquo;. This is because I believe if I stay consistent until then, I should be approaching a reasonable weight sometime in 2026. It&amp;rsquo;s an ambitious target, and a lot of it has to do with how quickly it takes me to leave the 400+ range. It&amp;rsquo;s natural for progress to slow as one approaches a healthy weight, so I&amp;rsquo;m just hoping to do the best I can by the end of 2026.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div style=&#34;width:100%&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;table style=&#34;font-size:14px;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;th colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h2 style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;📉 Weight Tracker&lt;/h2&gt;
+            &lt;/th&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Starting Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Current Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weight Lost&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goal Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;576&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;379.6&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;196.4&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;15% BF&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h3 style=&#34;font-size:x-large;&#34;&gt;2025 Goal: 200lbs in 2025 challenge&lt;/h3&gt;
+                &lt;div
+                    style=&#34;border:3px solid var(--color-accent);align-items: flex-start;justify-content: flex-start;margin:5px;border-radius:15px;overflow: hidden;&#34;&gt;
+                    &lt;div style=&#34;width:49.7%;padding:10px;background-color:var(--color-accent);color:black;font-weight: bolder;font-size:larger;&#34;&gt;49.7%
+                    &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;p style=&#34;margin:5px;text-align: left;width:fit-content;font-size:large;&#34;&gt;This year&#39;s goal is to lose &lt;strong&gt;200lbs&lt;/strong&gt; in 2025!&lt;br&gt;Current progress: &lt;strong&gt;99.4lbs&lt;/strong&gt; out of 200!
+                &lt;br&gt;A bit behind schedule! 😓&lt;/p&gt;
+            &lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34; style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;Last updated: 2025-07-06&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+    &lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div&gt;
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>What is Musk up to?</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/musk/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 01 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/musk/</guid>
+		<description>Mars colonization, cyborgs, brain chips, oh my!</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;-warning-high-octane-speculation-&#34;&gt;⚠️ WARNING: High-octane Speculation ⚠️&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These are ideas I&amp;rsquo;m considering, &lt;em&gt;not strong conclusions.&lt;/em&gt; I had intended to chew on this for a while before sharing, but some of my contacts think it&amp;rsquo;s worth discussing urgently. So here is what I&amp;rsquo;ve considered.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;background&#34;&gt;Background&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I had been nursing an idea I call the &amp;ldquo;Impending Global War Hypothesis&amp;rdquo; which I&amp;rsquo;ve been collecting notes for. I was originally tuned into this idea by some of &lt;a href=&#34;https://denisrancourt.ca/&#34;&gt;Denis Rancourt&amp;rsquo;s&lt;/a&gt; commentary but eventually decided to start expanding on it on my own. In short, the idea is that the major conflicts right now such as Ukraine &amp;amp; Israel can be considered the precursor to a larger conflict that could end up being called &amp;ldquo;World War III&amp;rdquo; in hindsight.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ll share some of the disorganized links and thoughts I&amp;rsquo;ve collected that underpin this idea:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://fortune.com/2024/08/17/palantir-alex-karp-us-3-front-war-russia-china-iran-autonomous-weapons-drones-military-draft/&#34;&gt;The U.S. will very likely fight a 3-front war against Russia, China, and Iran, Palantir’s Alex Karp says&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Recruitment Crisis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/11/01/army-suddenly-and-chaotically-told-hundreds-of-soldiers-they-have-be-recruiters-immediately.html&#34;&gt;The Army Suddenly, and Chaotically, Told Hundreds of Soldiers They Have to Be Recruiters Immediately&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://news.usni.org/2024/08/22/navy-could-sideline-17-support-ships-due-to-manpower-issues&#34;&gt;Navy Could Sideline 17 Support Ships Due to Manpower Issues&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-passes-defense-bill-automatically-registering-men-draft&#34;&gt;House passes defense bill automatically registering men 18-26 for draft&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Large amounts of young men out of work / direction&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wartime Health&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/09/28/new-pentagon-study-shows-77-of-young-americans-are-ineligible-military-service.html&#34;&gt;Even More Young Americans Are Unfit to Serve, a New Study Finds. Here&amp;rsquo;s Why.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cdc.gov/physical-activity/php/military-readiness/unfit-to-serve.html&#34;&gt;Unfit to Serve - CDC.GOV&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Greater interest in resolving population-level obesity, rather than merely continuing to profit off it&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wartime Economy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Economic Consolidation&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Defense spending on Big Tech &amp;amp; AI&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Space Race 2.0&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Austerity / Inflation&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Risks to the Dollar / NATO&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&amp;ldquo;De-dollarization&amp;rdquo;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Sovereign debt&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;technocrat-tangle&#34;&gt;Technocrat Tangle&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;An acquaintance of mine &lt;a href=&#34;https://teachersforchoice.substack.com/p/gates-v-musk-competing-world-views&#34;&gt;raised a comparison&lt;/a&gt; between Bill Gates &amp;amp; Elon Musk. Essentially contrasting their motivations as Gates wanting to reduce the human population and Musk wanting to increase it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Shorter lives, climate crisis, declining resources&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Bill Gates sees a future where more and more people are competing for less and less resources. He believes we need to reduce population and conserve resources, including reducing the consumption of animal products especially meat. It is noteworthy that Gates wants all of these conservation efforts to happen at the expense of the middle and working class, not the super-rich.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Then Michael Kane writes on Musk:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mars, military readiness, cyborgs&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For Musk, the future of humanity involves deep space exploration to colonize Mars and humans combining with artificial intelligence to become cyborgs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Currently 70% of young men cannot be recruited to the military due to health issues, especially obesity. This is not a ‘healthy’ population that Musk’s view of the future can be built upon. To explore deep space we will need men (and women) who can withstand extreme physical and psychological challenges; i.e. we will need healthy men and women that are military ready.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Now that&amp;rsquo;s something that I&amp;rsquo;ve been thinking about recently. &lt;strong&gt;Are health reforms being permitted to enter the discussion as a means to improve military readiness?&lt;/strong&gt; I was asked to leave a comment by a friend, so I wanted to expand the scope of what was being discussed in the post.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I &lt;a href=&#34;https://teachersforchoice.substack.com/p/gates-v-musk-competing-world-views/comment/74963996&#34;&gt;replied&lt;/a&gt; to Michael&amp;rsquo;s post with:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To me, this is a huge discussion, which I know I won&amp;rsquo;t do justice in this comment, but here&amp;rsquo;s what I&amp;rsquo;m thinking. Apologies in advance for the long reply.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I think you&amp;rsquo;re striking at the root of a crucially important idea.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Personally, I&amp;rsquo;d want to set Gates &amp;amp; Musk aside to flesh out this idea better. While their stated motivations are diametrically opposed, I&amp;rsquo;m not convinced that their methods will differ much in the long run.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What nobody in power wants is an engaged self-governing citizenry. This includes both Gates &amp;amp; Musk. Musk seems to me like a transhumanist eugenicist wearing a paper-thin &amp;ldquo;pro-humanity&amp;rdquo; persona designed for a particular culture war participant. Instead of merely culling humanity, he would prefer people become cogs in his &lt;a href=&#34;https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html#part1&#34;&gt;&amp;ldquo;Human Colossus&amp;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As somebody watching his platform X from a distance, I feel I know everything I need to know about his plans to &amp;ldquo;uplift&amp;rdquo; humanity.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Alright. Musk Bad, but that&amp;rsquo;s not really a salient point or even the point of your piece here. There are two major questions to address:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To what degree MAHA (&lt;em&gt;Make America Healthy Again&lt;/em&gt;) is being permitted to be part of the discussion for military purposes?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What does Musk offer this coalition?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To zoom out a bit, in hindsight, what did Covid-19 accomplish? As a whole, I would say it reasonably effectively normalized injection mandates, expansive public health powers, and totalitarian suppression of dissent. I don&amp;rsquo;t think I&amp;rsquo;m alone in that assessment, but many people underestimate the lasting effects.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Back in 2022 Denis Rancourt did an excellent interview on Geopolitics &amp;amp; Empire discussing the concept of the Covid Crisis being leveraged as a way to &amp;ldquo;totalitarianify&amp;rdquo; society. Speaking as a Canadian, I think it has been wildly successful at this, despite push back on particular points.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;So you never have democracy during war time and you always have this absolute totalitarian system, and that&amp;rsquo;s what they&amp;rsquo;re installing. And that&amp;rsquo;s what they&amp;rsquo;re putting into place in making sure that real democratic governance never returns, not for the near future anyway.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Denis Rancourt on &lt;a href=&#34;https://denisrancourt.ca/entries.php?id=108&#34;&gt;&amp;ldquo;COVID19 is a War Measure for Population Control in Shadow of US-China Conflict&amp;rdquo;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;So if war (on Earth, or conquest in space) is coming, presumably soldiers (or just bodies) are needed at some point or another. I didn&amp;rsquo;t consider cyborgs when I started thinking about this, but I think you&amp;rsquo;re absolutely on to something here. Why can&amp;rsquo;t &amp;ldquo;enhancements&amp;rdquo; be &amp;ldquo;medical countermeasures&amp;rdquo;? Regardless, if the war machine needs meat for testing or the grinder, why does the health of the citizenry &lt;em&gt;really&lt;/em&gt; matter? We&amp;rsquo;ve seen increasing amounts of immigration deployed for other issues, why would this be any different?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Technocrats like Gates &amp;amp; Musk are BOTH struggling with the dilemma that it&amp;rsquo;s very difficult to maintain control over a fractured, alienated, population. To have all the fancy things technocrats desire, they need at least the pretense of a human society to sustain it. People can directly feel and understand when they&amp;rsquo;re under attack, but it&amp;rsquo;s much harder for them to realize when they&amp;rsquo;ve sold themselves out.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is why I believe Elon Musk is all about neutralizing resistance. Moving forward, I&amp;rsquo;m convinced that only the most obvious and severe assaults on the public will be given attention. As you&amp;rsquo;ve touched on many of the health reforms being discussed are directly tied to military requirements. This alone is troubling because it means that we can expect the bulk of the &amp;ldquo;help&amp;rdquo; and intrusions to be aimed at children and young adults.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s the urgency that&amp;rsquo;s most worrying. Trying to turn around the &amp;ldquo;health&amp;rdquo; of a populace in 30-50 years is a very different predicament than attempting to do so in under 10-20 years. Clearly the desires and long-term well being of the individual will be some of the first corners cut. During this time, we can expect an immense amount of propaganda aimed at bringing people&amp;rsquo;s guard down while even more nefarious measures roll in.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To not leave this on a completely bleak note, I feel the need to share what the actual way out of this is. I was blown away at Julie &lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/v5izvud-nci-vancouver-2024-hearings-day-1-october-17-2024.html?start=13775&#34;&gt;Ponesse&amp;rsquo;s testimony&lt;/a&gt; at this year&amp;rsquo;s National Citizen&amp;rsquo;s inquiry. Dr Ponesse perfectly explains what the big picture threats are and what we can do as individuals to address the actual root causes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To which Michael responded:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Gabe in my scenario, the health of the citizenry matters for 2 reasons:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Sick people cannot travel in deep space and colonize Mars. You need people in top physical condition because they are going to be wildly abused for years both physically and psychologically&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Cyborg-ing (so go speak) of humans will also damage and kill human beings. The weaker you are, the more likely you will die or become &amp;ldquo;useless&amp;rdquo; in the cyborg process.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Lastly what I will say about this - a counter argument could be &amp;ldquo;Well you only need to take care of SOME people to do those things, not all&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Perhaps, but I would argue that Musk believes you need a LARGE PORTION of society to pick from to be successful in EITHER of these two potential endeavors. These are massive experiments that are bound to fail multiple times in multiple ways. To be successful, you will need millions of prime specimens to utilize and to experiment upon.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I then &lt;a href=&#34;https://teachersforchoice.substack.com/p/gates-v-musk-competing-world-views/comment/75049322&#34;&gt;replied&lt;/a&gt; with:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m very partial to the cyborg angle for a variety of reasons, but I think we&amp;rsquo;re both converging on the idea that a radical transformation of the public for some (or many) high risk ventures is desired by part of the technocrat class.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I would argue, the reason for wanting the majority of the population to be&amp;hellip; modified in such order is that there is a converging of interests. I don&amp;rsquo;t presume that Musk himself would be in charge of the White House or policy moving forward. For all we know, Musk himself may simply be one &amp;ldquo;vendor&amp;rdquo; for cybernetic &amp;ldquo;augmentations&amp;rdquo;. Just as Tesla popularized electric cars, Neuralink could be the wedge to normalize various intrusions to the public.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s clear is that there is an obvious national security angle to pushing for better health, and just as we both know there are sincere health advocates, yourself being among them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But the troubling part is how nominal &amp;ldquo;improvements&amp;rdquo; can be made on a population level to justify the erosion of individual autonomy. I can very much see the angle becoming &amp;ldquo;Russia wants us weak&amp;rdquo; or &amp;ldquo;we tried letting people fix themselves but it just doesn&amp;rsquo;t work&amp;rdquo; to argue against people&amp;rsquo;s ability to make their own choices.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To me, this is partially what makes this dangerous territory. It&amp;rsquo;s one thing to want to remove structural barriers to people living more healthily, but it&amp;rsquo;s a whole different thing to grant the state presumption it has the right to determine what citizens &amp;ldquo;should&amp;rdquo; be. This is partially where my concerns come from, I think this is a particularly slippery slope where very justified concerns can be weaponized for troubling overreach. I believe the broader coalition (Beyond just Musk &amp;amp; RFK Jr.) has reasons to go much further for either wartime, or the reasons you outline.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Regardless, I think the answer is a strong commitment to individual autonomy and medical ethics. If anything we need to strengthen medical ethics conceptually, socially and legally. I greatly appreciate your efforts in this space.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;rsquo;t really have much to add to the above. As I wrote earlier, I&amp;rsquo;m mostly just trying to hold this idea and interrogate it from different angles. I hope you found this interesting or at least entertaining.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>The Ugly Troubles Of Severe Obesity</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/challenges/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 24 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/challenges/</guid>
+		<description>Why the &#39;easy&#39; road, isn&#39;t easy at all.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;contents&#34;&gt;Contents&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#it-aint-easy-being-big&#34;&gt;Introduction&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#eating-troubles&#34;&gt;Eating Troubles&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#mobility&#34;&gt;Mobility&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#poor-sleep&#34;&gt;Sleep&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#emotional-difficulties&#34;&gt;Emotional Difficulties&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#more-memes&#34;&gt;Memes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;it-aint-easy-being-big&#34;&gt;It Ain&amp;rsquo;t Easy Being Big&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As I&amp;rsquo;m starting to &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health&#34;&gt;make progress&lt;/a&gt; I hope to document the troubles I&amp;rsquo;ve had to bear in getting this large. This post is to share how difficult it is to be severely overweight. My motivation is to help others understand what those my size are unlikely to share widely. This is because, in my opinion, the heaviest thing many heavy people carry is shame. Nobody wants to be this big, nobody enjoys it. One of the hardest things to learn getting this big is that one is not their weight. It&amp;rsquo;s hard to reconcile the need to choose and enjoy life, despite being unhappy with the state of their own body.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the hardest things about getting not just heavy, but huge is the fact that that the inevitable mental anguish makes it so much harder to turn things around. As somebody becomes accustomed to being numb to the regret, shame, and despair they&amp;rsquo;re so very far from having the mindset to &lt;em&gt;choose life&lt;/em&gt;. This is why I think many misguided attempts to &amp;ldquo;de-shame&amp;rdquo; obesity are coming from the right place. Compassion absolutely has to be at the center of helping people overcome it, but not at the cost of factual information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;So yes, obesity is not good. It&amp;rsquo;s actually horrible for you and those around you. It may, or may not be entirely, or even mostly your fault. No matter where the blame may lie, the only way to resolve it is taking responsibility. Taking responsibility for it can be difficult in different ways. One may struggle with denial, refusing to recognize the path they&amp;rsquo;re on. This is made worse by relatively low levels of obesity being vaguely normalized in particular circumstances. But the worst thing getting in the way of taking responsibility is despair and hopelessness that leads one to believe it is too hard or outright impossible for them to change their situation. Even worse, many may lack support and guidance necessary to begin and endure the process.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My hope is to be one of many examples that it is possible to reverse even the most dire circumstances. I wholeheartedly believe that with enough support, patience, and hope for the future, anybody can return to a healthy body weight and keep it off. The road is long, and sadly doesn&amp;rsquo;t end once one has merely shed the weight. The journey is about gradually building (or re-building) a healthy lifestyle to maximize quality of life. I am confident that I&amp;rsquo;ve begun to make lasting changes in my life, and that I&amp;rsquo;ll be able to show a way somebody can recover from even class V obesity.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div&gt;
+    &lt;table&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;th colspan=&#34;2&#34;&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Obesity Classes&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;/th&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Class&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BMI Range&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;I&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;30-34.9&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;II&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;35-39.9&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;III&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;40-49.9&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;IV&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;50-59.9&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;V&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;60+&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+    &lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As somebody who has been all of these obesity classes at some point in my life or another, I feel the need to emphasize that things get so much harder every class you go up. I&amp;rsquo;m currently working to leave class V, but vividly remember the gradual worsening of so many different things in an easy to underestimate way. It&amp;rsquo;s worth emphasizing, the larger one becomes, the more dire health risks present themselves. Personally, I think it&amp;rsquo;s important for people to recognize the different classes to recognize the additional challenges imposed by greater sizes. Of course, this is only a rough outline based on my own experiences. There are a wide variety of reasons why one person may encounter different troubles earlier or later. Fat distribution alone has a significant impact on various quality-of-life troubles.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2024-10-24-chart.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2024-10-24-chart.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I believe that severe obesity is a very complex problem to solve. While the ultimate solution: &lt;em&gt;eat right and become more active&lt;/em&gt;, is the answer, in practice there are a wide array of obstacles to taking corrective action. Some of these are physical, some emotional, and others a complicated mix of all kinds of things. I think it&amp;rsquo;s important to recognize severe obesity as not merely a single problem (excess weight) but a variety of interconnected problems that each are non-trivial to overcome.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;eating-troubles&#34;&gt;Eating Troubles&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve written an &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/non-stop-eating/&#34;&gt;entire post&lt;/a&gt; on this, but in this part I want to specifically tackle the numbers problem. It&amp;rsquo;s often hard to make any progress at all without the dreaded counting of calories. When one has become accustomed to having massive amounts of food, especially calorie-dense foods, it is quite difficult to dial it back. One of the biggest reasons is expectations. In my opinion, raising obesity rates are a consequences of rapid &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shifting_baseline&#34;&gt;shifting baseline&lt;/a&gt; both individually and collectively.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The idea is, that your expectations (and other&amp;rsquo;s expectations) aren&amp;rsquo;t actually static. Over time, they can shift to accept a (&lt;em&gt;much worse&lt;/em&gt;) &amp;ldquo;new normal&amp;rdquo;. This erodes social and emotional barriers to things that would otherwise be unthinkable or too obscene to be considered. In short, both in terms of one&amp;rsquo;s own comfort, but also in terms of social acceptance, the slope is quite slippery. As one personally gets accustomed to eating worse and worse, even greater excesses become much less strange, especially over longer periods of time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;metabolism-mismatch&#34;&gt;Metabolism Mismatch&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is never so clear than when it comes to how chronic over-eating impacts metabolism. Intuitively, when one is supplying their body with a huge surplus of resources, the body becomes less efficient at processing them. Another way to think about this is that your body can only digest so much in a given day. I believe this is why obese people constantly crave more and more calories. I remember getting to the point where I felt I needed to have at least 4-6 thousand calories a day, &lt;em&gt;if not in a single sitting,&lt;/em&gt; to &amp;ldquo;function&amp;rdquo;. When one is &amp;ldquo;filling&amp;rdquo; themselves with sugars which quickly turn to body fat, they are also potentially depriving themselves of other important macro &amp;amp; micro nutrients. I&amp;rsquo;m under the impression this mismatch can create unending hunger that could be addressed with getting the correct nutrients.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In some ways this is &lt;strong&gt;great news!&lt;/strong&gt; The silver lining is that numerically losing weight is easier than gaining it. This is incredibly counter-intuitive to those who haven&amp;rsquo;t been able to change their diet yet, because they don&amp;rsquo;t realize how close they are to turning things around. The biggest challenge of this however, is that the road itself is long, so it&amp;rsquo;s very easy to under-appreciate small but important steps to progress. What&amp;rsquo;s very difficult to recognize is that while we live day-by-day, how one lives over weeks, months, and years is so much more important than a single day. Finding ways to structurally improve one&amp;rsquo;s eating situation in the long run can have very effective results.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;mobility&#34;&gt;Mobility&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As more weight begins to weigh you down, the harder various tasks become. Even simple inconveniences and slight pains can over time radically reduce how active a person is. In my own life, I&amp;rsquo;ve gone from being highly active, to being &lt;em&gt;all but bed-ridden&lt;/em&gt;. The larger one becomes, the more dangerous it can be to take on various activities, as risks of injury grow significantly. If one is not at least maintaining a certain level of activity as they gain weight, they may even lack the strength to move the body that confines them. On top of all this, the larger size of areas of the body can interfere with all kinds of movements.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You&amp;rsquo;re not going to think to run around and take on all kinds of activities when simple tasks like going up stairs, walking, or carrying things feel almost entirely out of reach.  It is horrifying to think about how things that once only &lt;em&gt;seemed out of reach&lt;/em&gt; eventually fade into being &lt;em&gt;actually out of reach&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/non-stop-eating/#helplessness&#34;&gt;Why can&amp;rsquo;t I stop eating? - Helplessness&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In my personal experience, mobility is something very easy to be in denial about. It&amp;rsquo;s so easy to fall into the trap of believing that one is every bit capable as they were within memory. This predicament creates a very dangerous false sense of security. Being objective about your activity level is vital to maintain and improve your longevity.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Mobility isn&amp;rsquo;t just about the ability to get up from seating, or out of bed. As one becomes significantly large, various real-world experiences also move out of reach. Traveling becomes difficult, more expensive, and sometimes logistically impossible. Hygiene and cleanliness become more and more of an uphill battle. This means that one who is severely overweight can often miss out on things that could otherwise benefit them in other areas of life. This alone is enough to fuel serious emotional distress and regret.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;getting-moving&#34;&gt;Getting moving&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise_paradox&#34;&gt;exercise paradox&lt;/a&gt; is a hot topic of discussion. The idea is that as one becomes more active, their body gradually adjusts to that level of activity overtime, including burning fewer calories. This can be pessimistically interpreted to mean that exercise has no place in a weight loss journey. I couldn&amp;rsquo;t disagree more! There are many inherent benefits to exercise that make weight loss easier. In addition to this, when one is entirely sedentary, they have a long road to a high level of activity. There is a huge amount of room to keep gradually improving until the body catches up to all of it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If nothing else, the stress reduction benefits are immense. When one is entirely sedentary trapped with their own emotions, it&amp;rsquo;s hard to feel useful at all, much less productive. Being as active as one can be is amazing for how you feel day-to-day. I&amp;rsquo;ve already felt amazing benefits from gradually ramping up my exercise over the last year. I never imagined I would be able to be active 5 days a week, but here I am. I&amp;rsquo;ve personally experienced that even minor increases in mobility greatly benefit my ability to do other weight loss related tasks, like cooking for myself.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Starting to get moving is hard. Since really escalating my progress by getting personal training, I&amp;rsquo;ve experienced an incredible amount of pain on a very frequent basis. But, even beforehand every attempt to become more mobile was rewarded with at least a non-trivial amount of pain. I remember when walking around the block felt like more than I could handle.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The problems with becoming mobile are twofold: &lt;strong&gt;1)&lt;/strong&gt; You have to be strong enough to move yourself. &lt;strong&gt;2)&lt;/strong&gt; The heavier you are, the more painful even simple movements will be. It&amp;rsquo;s effectively a judgement call to say what ratio of pain to gain is worth continuing with. However, it is incredibly important to avoid injuries. Falls, or even overdoing it can cause lasting pain that will interfere with your progress. Like many other things in life, becoming more active is a marathon and not a sprint. I&amp;rsquo;ve benefited greatly from focusing on being more stronger and more mobile. It&amp;rsquo;s an incredibly painful journey, but I experience significant progress on a weekly basis.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;dont-be-afraid-to-modify&#34;&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t be afraid to modify!&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.dmoose.com/blogs/training/exercise-for-obese-beginners-at-home&#34;&gt;Bodyweight exercises&lt;/a&gt; are incredible ways to get stronger quickly when starting out. A significantly heavy person may not be capable of performing particular exercises. A tip I stumbled on recently is that you can search for whatever exercise with the word &amp;ldquo;progression&amp;rdquo; and you&amp;rsquo;ll find ways to gradually work up to a particular exercise. It&amp;rsquo;s important not to feel guilty making modifications, as an obese person one is behind the starting line! Constant effort and gradual step-by-step modifications can make improvements way faster than one would think possible.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;poor-sleep&#34;&gt;Poor Sleep&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Not getting enough sleep is one of the worst &amp;ldquo;gainz goblins&amp;rdquo; that interferes with progress. Insufficient quality and quantity of sleep can negatively impact weight loss and muscle gain in a variety of ways. This is a significant challenge because obesity overlaps with many difficulties that negatively impact sleep. At my current size, it&amp;rsquo;s very difficult to find a comfortable resting position. I used to work nights, but I&amp;rsquo;ve always struggled with consistently sleeping at night.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;rsquo;t have any particularly good advice for improving sleep quality. I struggle to get to sleep when I&amp;rsquo;m not merely too tired or too sore to stay awake. There was a brief time this Summer when I got a bit more sunshine that sleep came easier, but other than that quality sleep has been fleeting. Sleep is definitely something I really hope to improve in time, but all I can say is that it&amp;rsquo;s something I struggle with, and I&amp;rsquo;m sure many others in the same situation do as well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the huge challenges of poor sleep habits is that it makes interacting with society harder. Simple things like being awake early enough for most jobs can be a significant challenge. There&amp;rsquo;s a huge cut when one needs to work their own hours. Even worse is that it&amp;rsquo;s often hard to be meaningfully productive later at night. While you can do all kinds of things these days from a computer or phone, generally people aren&amp;rsquo;t cooking for themselves and running errands late into the night.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;emotional-difficulties&#34;&gt;Emotional Difficulties&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, the hardest parts of living with severe obesity are the emotional challenges. I&amp;rsquo;ve gotten a lot out of &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/2024-05-update/#reading-progress-&#34;&gt;reading&lt;/a&gt; Dr Peter Breggin&amp;rsquo;s book &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/21487729&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Guilt, Shame, and Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming Negative Emotions&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; I&amp;rsquo;ve written before about how emotional difficulties often turn into &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/non-stop-eating/&#34;&gt;over-eating.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;shame--self-loathing&#34;&gt;Shame &amp;amp; Self-loathing&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unless one is in a terrifyingly toxic echo-chamber, generally obesity is looked down on. At minimum, the inconveniences themselves induce a non-trivial amount of shame &amp;amp; self-loathing. Regardless of the source, these emotions congeal into a thick layer of projection that can make it harder to connect with others, perpetuating a downward spiral. Eventually, chronic shame boils into self-loathing.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;Do not speak badly of yourself, for the warrior that is inside you hears your words and is lessened by them. You are strong and you are brave. There is a nobility of spirit within you.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;David Gemmell&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Self-loathing is a very challenging emotion. Like every feeling, it&amp;rsquo;s your heart &amp;amp; soul trying to communicate something real to your conscious mind. When one is constantly avoiding these feelings with food and other strategies, it can be impossible to recognize what the feelings are trying to communicate. Self-loathing is a very strong signal that I would sum up as &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Things need to change&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I can personaly attest that once one even begins to reorganize their life for the better, the relief is phenomenal. This is an immensely challenging thing to do when one has numbed themselves to their own self-directed hatred and pain. Confronting this directly was the only way I began to make progress again. It&amp;rsquo;s very hard to begin to make long-term efforts when one is entirely focused on deafening themselves from a torrent of emotional anguish.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In Dr Breggin&amp;rsquo;s book, he recommends committing to becoming a source of love in your and other people&amp;rsquo;s lives. I have a shorthand for that, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;choose life&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;. The way out of your darkest moments is to choose to live for what God put you on earth to accomplish. That means embracing life as it is, ups and downs and all. To make it more concrete: choosing life to me means doing everything I can to rise above the challenges set before me to be a compassionate source of inspiration for others. Which is a non-trivial part of the reason I share my personal collection of memes that have helped &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/&#34;&gt;lift me up.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;hopelessness&#34;&gt;Hopelessness&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Inspiration is essential. One of the greatest dangers when one is obese is hopelessness. The road to positive change is long and difficult, and it can be very easy to be tormented into giving up. The worst part about hopelessness is that it leads to a significant amount of self-sabotage. The worst form of self-sabotage is being unwilling to even begin to change. When one knows they could be doing better, but is dissuaded by the fear of failure, they can further spiral into despair and more troubles.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hope, faith, and love are the way out. One needs to have hope that meaningful improvement is possible, and it always is. Faith is what will sustain you through challenges and setbacks. At the very least, having faith in the process can keep you from going mad. Love is what will fill you with purpose to reach higher and higher. It can be love for anything, your friends &amp;amp; family, the natural world around you, a skill, or your wider community. Allow that love to fill you with dreams of what you can accomplish once you&amp;rsquo;ve reordered your life and given yourself time to mend your physical and emotional wounds.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;-hygiene-&#34;&gt;🚿 Hygiene 💩&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Now for the uncomfortable part. This was saved for last, and omitted from the contents list for a reason. Keeping clean becomes harder and harder as one becomes larger and less able to reach particular places. In addition to this, poor diets will &lt;em&gt;radically&lt;/em&gt; change the consistency and frequency of defecation. And intuitively, the more one eats the more the more volume of feces that must be dealt with on a regular basis. Beyond a mere inconvenience, this is a huge source of shame and self-loathing as it gets worse. Messes and accidents become more common, even using restrooms can become a logistical nightmare.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Just like exercise, it&amp;rsquo;s important to remember that modifications can be made to make cleaning easier. Buying particular tools can help in the shower, and carefully planning when you eat can buy you time for particular errands and outings. It&amp;rsquo;s unpleasant, but staying clean is vital for a variety of reasons beyond peace of mind. There are some absolutely painful and gruesome results if one neglects to, or is unable to stay clean. I am glad that I had managed to avoid the worst scenarios, but it&amp;rsquo;s been it&amp;rsquo;s own challenge.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;more-memes&#34;&gt;More Memes!&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Feel free to browse the &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/&#34;&gt;full collection!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/planting-seeds.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/planting-seeds.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/you-have-hammer-blows-left.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/you-have-hammer-blows-left.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/bike-batman-confidence.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/bike-batman-confidence.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/live-to-win.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/live-to-win.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#&#34;&gt;Back to top&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div style=&#34;width:100%&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;table style=&#34;font-size:14px;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;th colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h2 style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;📉 Weight Tracker&lt;/h2&gt;
+            &lt;/th&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Starting Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Current Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weight Lost&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goal Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;576&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;379.6&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;196.4&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;15% BF&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h3 style=&#34;font-size:x-large;&#34;&gt;2025 Goal: 200lbs in 2025 challenge&lt;/h3&gt;
+                &lt;div
+                    style=&#34;border:3px solid var(--color-accent);align-items: flex-start;justify-content: flex-start;margin:5px;border-radius:15px;overflow: hidden;&#34;&gt;
+                    &lt;div style=&#34;width:49.7%;padding:10px;background-color:var(--color-accent);color:black;font-weight: bolder;font-size:larger;&#34;&gt;49.7%
+                    &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;p style=&#34;margin:5px;text-align: left;width:fit-content;font-size:large;&#34;&gt;This year&#39;s goal is to lose &lt;strong&gt;200lbs&lt;/strong&gt; in 2025!&lt;br&gt;Current progress: &lt;strong&gt;99.4lbs&lt;/strong&gt; out of 200!
+                &lt;br&gt;A bit behind schedule! 😓&lt;/p&gt;
+            &lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34; style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;Last updated: 2025-07-06&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+    &lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div&gt;
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Major Milestone: First Recorded Weight Loss 🎉</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/first-recorded-loss/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/first-recorded-loss/</guid>
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/cooking/meal-prep.webp?d=1727395200</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/cooking/meal-prep.webp?d=1727395200" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/cooking/meal-prep.webp?d=1727395200" />
+		<description>Throwing everything I can at making real change.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2024-09-weight-update.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Originally I had intended to write a post when I hit a month of personal training. While there has been a great deal of progress, sadly I actually gained 2lbs in the first month of training. This was not particularly surprising, as I still hadn&amp;rsquo;t quite tackled food as I was getting started. I did make &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/f1C6b2Wd8HM&#34;&gt;gradual efforts&lt;/a&gt; to learn and to improve on that front.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;first-month-update&#34;&gt;First Month update&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;rsquo;s the audio recording I recorded after a full month of personal training.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;script&gt;
+    function audio_end(event){
+        p = event.target.parentElement;
+        if (!event.target.loop){
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+    function setup_display(event){
+        el = event.target.children[0];
+        el.style.display=&#34;flex&#34;;
+        console.log(&#34;Display audio&#34;)
+    }
+    function setup_audio_metadata(event) {
+        audio=event.target;
+        var seek = audio.parentElement.children[2];
+        seek.min = 0;
+        seek.max = audio.duration;
+        seek.value = audio.currentTime;
+        audio.parentElement.children[3].style.display=&#34;block&#34;;
+        audio.parentElement.children[5].children[0].innerHTML = &#34;&#34; + timeToText(audio.currentTime) + &#34;/&#34;;
+        audio.parentElement.children[5].children[1].innerHTML = &#34;&#34; + timeToText(audio.duration);
+    }
+    function toggle_loop_audio(event) {
+        audio = event.target.parentElement.children[0];
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+        if (audio.loop){
+            event.target.children[0].classList.add(&#34;spin&#34;);
+        }
+        else{
+            event.target.children[0].classList.remove(&#34;spin&#34;);
+        }
+    }
+    function update_audio_time(event) {
+        audio = event.target.parentElement.children[0];
+        audio.currentTime = event.target.value;
+    }
+    function toggle_play_audio(event) {
+        el = event.target;
+        audio = el.parentElement.children[0];
+        speed = el.parentElement.children[3].value;
+        audio.playbackRate = speed;
+        if (audio.paused) {
+            audio.play();
+            el.children[0].children[0].setAttribute(&#34;href&#34;,&#34;#pause&#34;);
+        }
+        else {
+            audio.pause();
+            el.children[0].children[0].setAttribute(&#34;href&#34;,&#34;#play&#34;)
+        }
+    }
+    function update_audio_speed(event) {
+        el = event.target;
+        audio = event.target.parentElement.children[0];
+        audio.playbackRate = el.value;
+
+    }
+    function timeToText(t) {
+        hours = 0;
+        minutes = 0;
+        seconds = 0;
+        if (t &gt; 60 * 60) {
+            hours = Math.floor(t / 60 / 60);
+            t = t - hours * 60 * 60;
+        }
+        if (t &gt; 60) {
+            minutes = Math.floor(t / 60);
+            t = t - minutes * 60
+
+        }
+        if (t &gt; 1) {
+            seconds = Math.floor(t);
+        }
+        text = &#34;&#34;;
+        if (hours &gt; 0) {
+            text += hours + &#34;:&#34;;
+        }
+        if (minutes &gt; 0 || hours &gt; 0) {
+            if (minutes == 0) {
+                minutes = &#34;00&#34;
+            }
+            if (minutes &lt; 10) {
+                text += &#34;0&#34;
+            }
+            text += minutes + &#34;:&#34;
+        }
+        if (seconds == 0 &amp;&amp; (minutes &gt; 0 || hours &gt; 0)) {
+            seconds = &#34;00&#34;;
+        }
+        if (seconds &lt; 10) {
+            text += &#34;0&#34;;
+        }
+        text += seconds
+        return text;
+    }
+&lt;/script&gt;
+&lt;style&gt;
+    .audio-player {
+        display: flex;
+        flex-direction: row;
+        align-items: center;
+        justify-content:center;
+        width: 100%;
+    }
+    .audio-player&gt;*{
+        margin:2px;
+        margin-right:5px;
+        margin-left:5px;
+    }
+    .audio-player p{
+        width: fit-content;
+    }
+
+    .media-seek {
+        width: 100%;
+    }
+    .audio-player{
+    border: 0.15rem solid var(--theme-accent);
+    padding:0.5rem;
+    border-radius: 0.5rem;
+    color:var(--theme-accent);
+    flex-wrap: nowrap;
+}
+.audio-player&gt;*{
+    margin:5px;
+}
+
+.audio-player select, .audio-player button{
+    background-color: transparent;
+    border-color: var(--theme-accent);
+    color:var(--theme-accent);
+    border-radius: 3px;
+    padding:0.5rem;
+}
+
+.icon svg{
+    width:2.25rem;
+    height:2.25rem;
+    z-index: -1;
+    background-color: transparent;
+    pointer-events: none;
+}
+.icon path,
+    .icon rect {
+        stroke: var(--theme-accent);
+        fill: var(--theme-accent);
+    }
+
+.icon svg circle {
+    stroke: var(--theme-accent);
+    fill: transparent;
+    stroke-width: 6;
+}
+@keyframes spin-icon {
+    0%{rotate:0;}
+    100%{rotate:360deg;}  
+}
+.spin{
+    animation:spin-icon 3s linear infinite;
+}
+&lt;/style&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;media-container&#34; onload=&#34;setup_display(event)&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;div class=&#34;audio-player&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;audio onended=&#34;audio_end(event)&#34; onloadedmetadata=&#34;setup_audio_metadata(event)&#34; ontimeupdate=&#34;setup_audio_metadata(event)&#34;&gt;
+            &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//audio/first-month.ogg&#39;&gt;
+        &lt;/audio&gt;
+        &lt;div class=&#34;icon&#34; onclick=&#34;toggle_play_audio(event)&#34;&gt;
+            &lt;svg&gt;
+                &lt;use href=&#34;#play&#34;&gt;&lt;/use&gt;
+            &lt;/svg&gt;
+        &lt;/div&gt;
+        &lt;input class=&#34;media-seek&#34; type=&#34;range&#34; onchange=&#34;update_audio_time(event)&#34; value=&#34;0&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;select onchange=&#34;update_audio_speed(event)&#34; style=&#34;display:none;&#34;&gt;
+            &lt;option value=&#34;1&#34; selected&gt;1x&lt;/option&gt;
+            &lt;option value=&#34;1.5&#34;&gt;1.5x&lt;/option&gt;
+            &lt;option value=&#34;2&#34;&gt;2x&lt;/option&gt;
+            &lt;option value=&#34;2.5&#34;&gt;2.5x&lt;/option&gt;
+            &lt;option value=&#34;3&#34;&gt;3x&lt;/option&gt;
+        &lt;/select&gt;
+        &lt;div class=&#34;audio-preview&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;/div&gt;
+        &lt;p&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;audio-currentTime&#34;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;audio-duration&#34;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+        &lt;div class=&#34;icon&#34; onclick=&#34;toggle_loop_audio(event)&#34;&gt;
+            &lt;svg&gt;
+                &lt;use href=&#34;#loop&#34;&gt;&lt;/use&gt;
+            &lt;/svg&gt;
+        &lt;/div&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+    &lt;noscript&gt;
+        &lt;style&gt;
+            .audio-player {
+                display: none;
+            }
+        &lt;/style&gt;
+        &lt;audio controls preload=&#34;false&#34; style=&#34;width:100%;min-width:40vw;&#34;&gt;
+            &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//audio/first-month.ogg&#39;&gt;
+        &lt;/audio&gt;
+    &lt;/noscript&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Audio not working?&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/audio/first-month.ogg&#34;&gt;Click here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;6-week-update&#34;&gt;6 Week Update&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I feel like I&amp;rsquo;m getting better at this. I&amp;rsquo;ve really noticed that many things that have felt out of reach are starting to feel more possible. It&amp;rsquo;s very much a learning process on my end.  I&amp;rsquo;m learning to live with the discomfort associated with making progress. I&amp;rsquo;m now active 3-5 days a week instead of merely potentially reaching 2 most of the day.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;progress-made&#34;&gt;Progress Made&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mobility&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ironically, one of the biggest changes is that &lt;em&gt;standing still&lt;/em&gt; is much easier. I&amp;rsquo;m also able to perform full, unassisted squats! All the little things like walking and getting up have gotten so much easier, even if they still remain marginally challenging. Currently, I&amp;rsquo;m still unable to consistently get off the floor without assistance (&lt;em&gt;such as something to grab or lean on&lt;/em&gt;). That said, I have successfully done this on a gym mat twice now, which makes me optimistic.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Calories&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For the last two weeks, I&amp;rsquo;ve been having as little calories as I can bear. Limiting myself to protein shakes and a single (good, and reasonably sized) meal a day. Since I had gained for the month, I was determined to do all I could to make the next weigh-in a lower number. I&amp;rsquo;ve thrown everything I can to get to this point and it has been immensely challenging. While I&amp;rsquo;m aiming for around half of my TDEE, this is a very tiny fraction of the calories I&amp;rsquo;m used to having. I&amp;rsquo;ve found that this has been getting slightly easier.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Productivity&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My ability to get things done or even just go for a walk despite being sore has been a very hard-won fight. I didn&amp;rsquo;t like spending days just sitting on the couch recovering. I still wanted to journal, write, and continue producing &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/cyber-fix&#34;&gt;Cyber Fix.&lt;/a&gt; I can report that I was able to put out a new episode last weekend even on top of doing a solo-session at the gym.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Emotional&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m really realizing how much confronting my difficult compulsions and their emotional roots has given me a solid foundation for making progress. I am building a sense of control and confidence in the process that feels as unfamiliar as it is comforting. &lt;em&gt;Finally,&lt;/em&gt; I understand what I&amp;rsquo;m doing and feel like I have a non-trivial amount of control over myself. Even my bigger challenges, like maintaining a calorie deficit, feels more within reach that I would have thought at this stage.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;🎇 &lt;strong&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m 18lbs down!&lt;/strong&gt; I can&amp;rsquo;t express how much of relief and how encouraging this is. The last two weeks have been incredibly challenging but I finally feel in control. Something that felt so out of reach is now finally something I feel I understand and can put into practice. I was not expecting to lose that much, I was too pessimistic and thinking it would only be 4-6lbs. I pushed myself deep into a calorie deficit but more importantly I was choosing what I ate rather than &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/non-stop-eating&#34;&gt;being driven by compulsion&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;challenges&#34;&gt;Challenges:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pain&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m still not adapting to the pain very well. I feel sore every day to some extent and sometimes it is very inconvenient or extreme. I&amp;rsquo;ve had cramps that make me shout in pain. I&amp;rsquo;ve even had a great deal of foot pains that make putting any weight on them feel unbearable. The pain itself can keep me awake at night, and makes it much harder to go to sleep.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hunger&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Perhaps most unsuprizingly I find the hunger to be a massive challenge. On one hand, I&amp;rsquo;m starting to find the low-level background signal of a certain level of hunger a reassuring sign that I&amp;rsquo;m on the right path. I&amp;rsquo;ve found staying consistent at this incredibly difficult.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sleep&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As mentioned earlier, sleep has more-or-less absolutely fallen off a cliff. I&amp;rsquo;ve always struggled with sleep, but the trifecta of eating less, being sore, and being stuck in my ways make it very difficult to change. Given the importance of sleep for weight loss, this feels like something I need to directly tackle.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Water Intake&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve struggled to have enough water while being more active.&lt;br&gt;
+I need to re-prioritize having lots of water per day.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Keeping busy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I still need to walk regularly. I&amp;rsquo;m trying to push myself to spend time walking on &amp;ldquo;off days&amp;rdquo; or to find ways to minimize &amp;ldquo;off days&amp;rdquo;. My entire goal since the first two weeks of training has been to maximize what I can do despite the pain and hunger. That&amp;rsquo;s been immensely difficult. I&amp;rsquo;m still only beginning to accomplish things while sore but starting with cooking seems to be working well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;other-thoughts&#34;&gt;Other thoughts&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Useful YouTube channels&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve recently discovered Steve Shaw&amp;rsquo;s Massive Iron &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYl0C0GVHVJbUJUyJkzj5XQ&#34;&gt;YouTube channel.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve found &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/@MassiveIron/search?query=obese&#34;&gt;his commentary&lt;/a&gt; on trying to lose weight as a morbidly obese person very helpful.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I also wish I had found &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCadiU6WTKl65HUwEih1XLYg&#34;&gt;PictureFit&lt;/a&gt; earlier! Which has a lot of useful information on a wide variety of fitness information packaged in a humorous and accessible way.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;cooking&#34;&gt;Cooking&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the more concrete gains I&amp;rsquo;ve made throughout this time has been being comfortable enough standing to actually prepare non-trivial meals. Cooking for myself was point #4 in my definition of a healthy relationship with food in my &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/non-stop-eating/&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why can&amp;rsquo;t I stop eating?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; post. Being able to stand for longer makes a big difference but I&amp;rsquo;m not too proud to admit I sometimes reach for a chair during long stretches.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;beef-fried-rice&#34;&gt;Beef Fried Rice&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/cooking/beef-fried-rice.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/cooking/meal-prep.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I wanted to make something I enjoy eating for meal-prep. I&amp;rsquo;m not quite sure I got the sauce down this time, but I&amp;rsquo;ll definitely need to prepare more in the future. Lots of time to get this right. For a first attempt it turned out pretty good.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;eggs-benedict&#34;&gt;Eggs Benedict&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve been having a ton of eggs. So it naturally flowed to make egg-based meals. Having made the entire meal, I can wholeheartedly say that Eggs Benedict is absolutely worth the hype. Surprisingly it&amp;rsquo;s been the tastiest thing I&amp;rsquo;ve had since starting this journey. It&amp;rsquo;s a lot of effort, but absolutely pays off.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/cooking/eggs-benedict.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Maybe as I get better I&amp;rsquo;ll start contributing to &lt;a href=&#34;https://based.cooking&#34;&gt;based.cooking!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;more-motivational-memes&#34;&gt;More Motivational Memes&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I need more videos! If you have any to &lt;a href=&#34;mailto:gabriel@libresolutions.network?subject=motivational%20memes&#34;&gt;send my way&lt;/a&gt; please do!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation&#34;&gt;Full collection&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/winners-quality.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/winners-quality.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/youll-get-it.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/youll-get-it.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/fight.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/fight.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/heaven-and-hell.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/heaven-and-hell.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/try-again.jpg&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/try-again.jpg&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/worth-doing-well.jpg&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/worth-doing-well.jpg&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/life-paths.jpg&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/life-paths.jpg&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/be-kind.jpg&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/be-kind.jpg&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/everything-you-can-do.jpg&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/everything-you-can-do.jpg&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/heights.jpg&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/heights.jpg&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div style=&#34;width:100%&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;table style=&#34;font-size:14px;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;th colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h2 style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;📉 Weight Tracker&lt;/h2&gt;
+            &lt;/th&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Starting Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Current Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weight Lost&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goal Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;576&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;379.6&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;196.4&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;15% BF&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h3 style=&#34;font-size:x-large;&#34;&gt;2025 Goal: 200lbs in 2025 challenge&lt;/h3&gt;
+                &lt;div
+                    style=&#34;border:3px solid var(--color-accent);align-items: flex-start;justify-content: flex-start;margin:5px;border-radius:15px;overflow: hidden;&#34;&gt;
+                    &lt;div style=&#34;width:49.7%;padding:10px;background-color:var(--color-accent);color:black;font-weight: bolder;font-size:larger;&#34;&gt;49.7%
+                    &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;p style=&#34;margin:5px;text-align: left;width:fit-content;font-size:large;&#34;&gt;This year&#39;s goal is to lose &lt;strong&gt;200lbs&lt;/strong&gt; in 2025!&lt;br&gt;Current progress: &lt;strong&gt;99.4lbs&lt;/strong&gt; out of 200!
+                &lt;br&gt;A bit behind schedule! 😓&lt;/p&gt;
+            &lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34; style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;Last updated: 2025-07-06&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+    &lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div&gt;
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Trying out iced</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/trying-out-iced/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 31 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/trying-out-iced/</guid>
+		<description>A new learning side-project in Rust</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;a-new-side-project&#34;&gt;A new side project&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I’ve really wondered what my own concrete contribution to the technological landscape could be. I’m certainly limited in time and resources, but there is much that needs to be done. I hoped to come up with a project I could reasonably accomplish on my own, that would make a meaningful impact. I believe I have found that project. One of the languages I spent time learning the basics of was &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.rust-lang.org/&#34;&gt;Rust.&lt;/a&gt; I followed the development when it was still in alpha and learned the syntax back then. It has taken a long time for me to find the a library for building user-interfaces that is approachable enough for me to understand.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A close contender was the language &lt;a href=&#34;https://go.dev/&#34;&gt;Go&lt;/a&gt; and module Fyne. &lt;a href=&#34;https://fyne.io/&#34;&gt;Fyne&lt;/a&gt; is interesting because I could compile for Android. The downside of this pair is that I haven’t spent any time learning Go. So I would have to spend a lot of time familiarizing myself with the ecosystem before really getting started. Rust has an interesting advantage when it comes to learning how to use their libraries.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;So my new obsession is the rust library (crate) &lt;a href=&#34;https://iced.rs&#34;&gt;iced.&lt;/a&gt; It’s a cross-platform user interface library that is in it’s infancy. When I learned the new &lt;a href=&#34;https://system76.com/cosmic&#34;&gt;COSMIC&lt;/a&gt; linux desktop environment built by system76 was built using it, I had to try it out. It turns out that cosmic is adding a lot on top of iced with their library &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/pop-os/libcosmic&#34;&gt;libcosmic.&lt;/a&gt; But the goal here is to become proficient at building user-facing applications that can move the needle towards greater online freedom. At the moment I&amp;rsquo;m not sure if I&amp;rsquo;ll inevitably need to move from iced to libcosmic, but the goal is to get as far as I can with iced first.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;so-how-can-i-make-a-difference&#34;&gt;So how can I make a difference?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I sincerely believe that &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/rss-love/&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;we don’t love RSS enough&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/a&gt; Many people treat old tech solutions as “tried and failed” and run off to the shiny new idea. I believe that there are many things that can be done to make RSS a first-class contender in the media landscape. RSS already is a decentralized media ecosystem, we just need to figure out how to bring it to more people. To quote the post, I outline that there’s a great deal of opportunity in building new tools for RSS.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;build-software-for-rss&#34;&gt;Build Software for RSS&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As I’ve alluded to before, there are many applications waiting to be written to leverage the benefits of RSS feeds even further. Lowering the barrier to participation can help adoption significantly, and new software can allow us to leverage the best of our modern systems with the full benefits of the old web.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Accessible tooling&lt;/strong&gt;
+Static site generators are awesome, but it would be great to have an accessible &lt;em&gt;feed generator&lt;/em&gt; that allows for non-technical people to create feeds with an intuitive application. The feed generator could have plug-ins to automatically integrate with a variety of web-hosts to make going online significantly easier.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;New media&lt;/strong&gt;
+There’s opportunity to leverage completely different multimedia beyond just news and podcasts. RSS feeds support anything you can link to, so other opportunities like announcements, surveys, or even VR experiences are all possibilities. There is a great deal of software that quietly supports them, that can be used in interesting ways. For example, PeerTube supports RSS feeds for channels. This means that even without using the Fediverse, or even PeerTube itself, you can use a podcast app to have your own independent media experience. &lt;a href=&#34;https://antennapod.org/&#34;&gt;AntennaPod&lt;/a&gt; is excellent for this.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Enhancing the ecosystem&lt;/strong&gt;
+Some very low-hanging fruit would be updating existing RSS feeds to have a helpful style where they don’t at the moment. By enhancing discovery, indexing, ranking and aggregation features, there is a phenomenal amount of opportunity left yet untapped.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/rss-love/&#34;&gt;We don&amp;rsquo;t love RSS enough&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;so-whats-the-project&#34;&gt;So what’s the project?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I’m building a multi-media RSS browser code-named “Really Sweet Stuff”. Building a functional RSS reader is a relatively trivial task that is a great learning project. You have to learn how to pull information from the web, display it somehow, and add all kinds of extra features to really make it shine. I really love using &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.freshrss.org/&#34;&gt;FreshRSS&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; AntennaPod, but if I can make a desktop application that’s halfway as good as &lt;a href=&#34;https://antennapod.org/&#34;&gt;AntennaPod&lt;/a&gt; I’ll consider this project a success.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/really-sweet-stuff.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;immediate-to-do&#34;&gt;Immediate to do:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Build reader interface for written content&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;write code to parse arbitrary html-encoded content to iced widgets with content. (this feels like a huge pain given my current level of comfort with Rust, so I&amp;rsquo;ll be learning a bit as I do this)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;create placeholder widgets for embedded items like embedded media&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Store information in a local database&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;UI for adding/managing feeds&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Additional features such as read/unread flags and favorites&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Derive application state from the database&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Basic indexing &amp;amp; full-text search&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;high-performance local retrieval of contents from database&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;background sync to update feeds&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;User-centric design
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;workspaces&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;user-defined themes&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;font-size adjustment&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;UI redesign&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Once the application is a feature-complete RSS reader, a concentrated redesign will be required for the addition of more advanced features. Hopefully by this stage I&amp;rsquo;ll have enough comfort with the library that I&amp;rsquo;ll have a grasp of what can be accomplished and how I can make the tool more visually appealing.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I have a long-term vision for this project! I think there are a wide variety of features that can make using a RSS browser more effective than other forms of gathering information online. I hope to build a tool that fellow information junkies see as a critical tool in their toolbox, and motivate people to create informative, entertaining and engaging RSS feeds to browse. My hope is that if this project is successful, I can build more censorship resistant software to exemplify what the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;Libre Solutions Network&lt;/a&gt; is all about.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I hope you’ll find subsequent updates interesting! A great deal of the near-future work involves stuff that isn’t easy to show off, but will pay performance dividends in the long run. At the same time I’ll be wondering how I should lay everything out, and how to make it be a pleasant visual experience. By the next time I write about this project I’m aiming to have a nearly feature-complete RSS reader, but that’s only the beginning of the excitement!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;where-is-the-code&#34;&gt;Where is the code?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s not ready yet!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Escape Velocity</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/escape-velocity/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 24 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/escape-velocity/</guid>
+		<description>First week with my new personal trainer</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;first-week-with-my-personal-trainer&#34;&gt;First Week with my personal trainer&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I have great news. I believe I have found the best personal trainer (for me) in the city (at least). I am exchanging a significant sum I&amp;rsquo;ve made contracting earlier this year to up my game big time. Up until I this point, I felt like I&amp;rsquo;ve hit a frustrating plateau. Some things improve, some things get worse, I felt like I&amp;rsquo;ve made good use of the summer, but I need to do a lot more to start actually making a dent on my size.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s incredibly helpful to make use of somebody much more knowledgeable than me in well&amp;hellip; almost everything when it comes to the body. Despite this being it&amp;rsquo;s own incredible challenge, I&amp;rsquo;m grateful for the opportunity to turbo-charge the progress I&amp;rsquo;m trying to make. I&amp;rsquo;d never had personal training before, I have to admit I was incredibly nervous. The prospect of throwing all my financial resources into investing in my ability to change my situation is&amp;hellip; daunting.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This very much felt like a shot in the dark and I am thrilled it was dead on.  He spent a lot of time asking questions between exercises. If nothing else, the opportunity to talk about my situation (judgement free) with somebody who knows what needs to be done was very relieving and helpful. I was weighed in a 574lbs. (260kg) Both sessions this week highlighted my lack of creativity when it comes to modified body-weight exercises. It seems that there is a great deal that can be done with a bit of knowledge to make real practical improvements within reach.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;feet-first&#34;&gt;Feet first&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve underestimated how important feet are for&amp;hellip;everything. It&amp;rsquo;s all too easy to forget about them when almost everything you do is sitting. What I never quite appreciated until now, is that there&amp;rsquo;s actually a lot going on in your feet that seriously impact all manner of activities. One of the exercises my trainer had me do was to do a modified stand on my toes (*very hard to do at my size!) and hold it for a short period of time. I believe him when he said that the muscles in your feet are vital to almost anything done standing up. I can certainly attest that when they were sore afterwards, it was pretty hard to do much of anything.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1124_Intrinsic_Muscles_of_the_Foot.jpg&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/foot-muscles.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    OpenStax, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 
+
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I was introduced to other exercises, but on the first day it felt like the big challenge was just staying upright for the entire session. I wasn&amp;rsquo;t used to standing that long and I&amp;rsquo;m excited for the time where that no longer feels difficult. I was not expecting the first two sessions to change how various movements felt afterwards. It seems that some movements, such as going up stairs and getting up from sitting are just that little bit easier. I&amp;rsquo;ve also done so much walking over the last week that that is flowing better too.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;feeling-optimistic&#34;&gt;Feeling optimistic&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s been a LONG time since I&amp;rsquo;ve felt this optimistic about my trajectory. I can say that I haven&amp;rsquo;t felt this clear-headed about trying to lose weight since I last was making serious progress by biking and cooking (keto) every day. I am still far too large to bike, but I&amp;rsquo;m taking this as a very good sign. It fills me with hope and joy that so much of what I miss may be within reach in what can be a (relatively) short and (incredibly) challenging time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the things I want to highlight, is that I didn&amp;rsquo;t get to this point overnight. It&amp;rsquo;s only since December that I &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/2023-resolutions/&#34;&gt;began writing about this&lt;/a&gt; mission, and before then I was dealing with challenges not directly related to this problem. In truth it&amp;rsquo;s all related. People love to say &amp;ldquo;everyone has the same 24 hours&amp;rdquo; which is true, but everyone has different things taxing those 24 hours one way or another. I feel incredibly lucky that things have aligned in a way that I get a real chance to push forward.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;turning-the-ship&#34;&gt;Turning the ship&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Throughout my &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health&#34;&gt;journey&lt;/a&gt; making progress on turning around my situation, I&amp;rsquo;ve come across various metaphors I find helpful for conceptualizing challenges and strategies. &amp;ldquo;Turning the ship&amp;rdquo; is how I describe the process of trying to limit your backwards momentum and increase your forwards momentum. Some people can immediately turn 180 degrees, and I&amp;rsquo;m happy for them, but I&amp;rsquo;ve been writing for the benefit of those who don&amp;rsquo;t find it that straight-forward.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You have to make peace with the fact that most likely, you can&amp;rsquo;t do everything in this moment to correct your situation, instead you need to focus yourself on building momentum. Your life is like a &lt;a href=&#34;https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1rgpdf/what_is_the_laziest_thing_youve_ever_done/cdnafqe/&#34;&gt;massive aircraft carrier&lt;/a&gt; in the water. The heavier you are the more time and effort required to turn around even slightly. Over time, your good changes open more doors for better changes. That&amp;rsquo;s the true process, &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/EEmuJbT16GI&#34;&gt;healing your lows and growing your highs.&lt;/a&gt; You&amp;rsquo;ll feel a whole lot better when your ship isn&amp;rsquo;t moving the wrong way and is instead moving in the right direction.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Previously in:&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/non-stop-eating/&#34;&gt;Why can&amp;rsquo;t I stop eating?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Of course, turning the ship isn&amp;rsquo;t the end of the journey. Picking up some good habits and dropping some bad ones will definitely help, but in severe situations it&amp;rsquo;s often not enough to make enough progress to make transformative changes. When there is a great deal of long-term damage accumulated, it takes more energy to push through the forces weighing you down. As such, I want to share with you the concept of &lt;em&gt;escape velocity&lt;/em&gt; which in the context of changing your own lifestyle.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;escape-velocity&#34;&gt;Escape Velocity&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Escape Velocity:&lt;/strong&gt; The &lt;em&gt;minimum velocity&lt;/em&gt; required for an object to leave the gravity of a nearby planet / object.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/tgHsjvSWQe8&#34;&gt;Learn more (YouTube)&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_velocity&#34;&gt;[Wikipedia]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Large objects (like planets) have a massive gravity field called a &lt;em&gt;gravity well&lt;/em&gt;. The more mass accumulated in the object, the &lt;em&gt;harder&lt;/em&gt; it will be for objects to escape it&amp;rsquo;s orbit. Thus, as one accumulates bad habits and becomes dependent on self-destructive coping mechanisms, &amp;ldquo;gravity&amp;rdquo; builds up making it harder to escape the damaging lifestyle. As somebody who has struggled to make lifestyle changes I can say the greatest barrier was often not specific habits themselves, but rather &lt;em&gt;trust&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When one has become accustomed to letting themselves (and others) down, you lose trust in yourself faster than you realize. This insidious self-doubt permeates every every thought, leading to a wide variety of self-sabotage and self-hatred over time. When one starts making progress, even small steps that are overcome by setbacks, it builds useful momentum forwards. I believe that for those who are struggling with getting anything done, the ideal strategy is to build momentum however you can.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I didn&amp;rsquo;t start with tackling any of my problems. I was struck so low by particular events that I was paralyzed with shame, horror, and despair. I felt &lt;em&gt;entirely useless&lt;/em&gt; and my first step to reversing it wasn&amp;rsquo;t rebuilding my life in a single event. I chose to &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/1-emancipate-yourself-from-mental-slavery/&#34;&gt;start writing.&lt;/a&gt; At the start, one (short) article every two weeks felt like all my mind and effort could muster. Of course, I would try to take on changing a habit here and there every once in a while, but hardly anything stuck. It was only this year that I was able to incorporate regular exercise on top of accomplishing writing on top of struggling financially.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Now things are different, thanks to consistent effort over a long period of time, I have achieved my goal of &lt;em&gt;raising my level of productivity over time&lt;/em&gt; and gotten to the point where not only can I share my situation, but get to the point of getting a trainer involved. This may sound like hubris, but as of now I am feeling great about the fact that I think I am very close to being at &lt;em&gt;escape velocity&lt;/em&gt; for my health troubles.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;how-does-a-rocket-leave-orbit&#34;&gt;How does a rocket leave orbit?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Rockets require constant and increasing amounts of energy (fuel) to lift off, fight gravity, and leave orbit. I believe repairing damage from years of living an unhealthy lifestyle is quite similar. The goal is to build up energy from consistently becoming more productive at reversing what needs to be reversed. Most of this I believe is making incremental steps towards enhancing one&amp;rsquo;s own agency to dispel learned helplessness. As one gradually becomes more competent, mobile, and mentally strong, then the work becomes less of a struggle.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This does not at all mean that the work is done. I&amp;rsquo;ve really only begun my weight loss journey, but I believe I am now fully equipped to take it on. My mind is so much clearer and I have much fewer doubts these days. I have a path and I just need to put the effort and time in. No longer am I in constant dread of relapse. I know that as long as I continue, making better changes will only become easier and easier.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;So to be clear, I believe I have achieved &lt;em&gt;escape velocity&lt;/em&gt; on the grand arc of my mission to turn around my overall emotional and mental state but have really only begun lift-off on the weight loss. I eagerly await the moment that exercising itself feels fun and challenging, and making healthy meals for myself is second-nature. That&amp;rsquo;s when I expect to have achieved escape velocity for weight loss, which is likely still a bit far off.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For me, the difference is that I have drastically resolved the problems weighing me down. I don&amp;rsquo;t expect to be perfect moving forward, but I have a much firmer resolve and clear purpose that really brings it all together. I believe over time, this itself will yield more fruitful results. I hope that you are able to lift-off whatever troubles you&amp;rsquo;re trying to solve, and that you also achieve &lt;em&gt;escape velocity&lt;/em&gt; and reach your dreams amongst the stars.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;extra-memes&#34;&gt;Extra Memes&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These are made with my voice, but not my words.
+I was pleased to see somebody else sharing their experiences turning around their own life situation. They made a series of posts which included a series of captioned images. I found these touching and inspiring, so I took the liberty of voicing them and adding music.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;So thanks to &lt;a href=&#34;https://funnyjunk.com/Dont+give+up/cxbTRpk/&#34;&gt;xweetok on Funnyjunk&lt;/a&gt; for coming up with these.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/im-proud-of-you.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/im-proud-of-you.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/comfort-zone.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/comfort-zone.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/progress-isnt-linear.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/progress-isnt-linear.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/you-are-gonna-make-it.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/you-are-gonna-make-it.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/your-story.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/your-story.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;more-motivational-memes&#34;&gt;More Motivational Memes&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;And of course, I wouldn&amp;rsquo;t hit &amp;ldquo;publish&amp;rdquo; (actually &lt;code&gt;git push&lt;/code&gt;) without sharing some other motivational memes I&amp;rsquo;ve collected. I&amp;rsquo;m hoping that in my next post there will be much to celebrate. As always, you can browse the &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation&#34;&gt;full collection.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/marathon-runner.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/marathon-runner.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/youre-loved.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/youre-loved.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/bouncing-IMPOSSIBLE.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/bouncing-IMPOSSIBLE.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/my-prayers-were-answered.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/my-prayers-were-answered.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div style=&#34;width:100%&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;table style=&#34;font-size:14px;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;th colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h2 style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;📉 Weight Tracker&lt;/h2&gt;
+            &lt;/th&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Starting Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Current Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weight Lost&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goal Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;576&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;379.6&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;196.4&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;15% BF&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h3 style=&#34;font-size:x-large;&#34;&gt;2025 Goal: 200lbs in 2025 challenge&lt;/h3&gt;
+                &lt;div
+                    style=&#34;border:3px solid var(--color-accent);align-items: flex-start;justify-content: flex-start;margin:5px;border-radius:15px;overflow: hidden;&#34;&gt;
+                    &lt;div style=&#34;width:49.7%;padding:10px;background-color:var(--color-accent);color:black;font-weight: bolder;font-size:larger;&#34;&gt;49.7%
+                    &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;p style=&#34;margin:5px;text-align: left;width:fit-content;font-size:large;&#34;&gt;This year&#39;s goal is to lose &lt;strong&gt;200lbs&lt;/strong&gt; in 2025!&lt;br&gt;Current progress: &lt;strong&gt;99.4lbs&lt;/strong&gt; out of 200!
+                &lt;br&gt;A bit behind schedule! 😓&lt;/p&gt;
+            &lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34; style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;Last updated: 2025-07-06&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+    &lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div&gt;
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Why can&#39;t I stop eating?</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/non-stop-eating/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/non-stop-eating/</guid>
+		<description>Fighting to regain control</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;This is less about compiling a list of excuses, but more about giving a sober look at what years of bad habits can build up to. My intention &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/&#34;&gt;writing about this&lt;/a&gt; is to help others who may know obese people empathize with their troubles. Additionally, I hope that those who are obese to benefit from my retrospection, and can use it to help reverse their own situation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You&amp;rsquo;re obviously not supposed to stop eating entirely. &amp;ldquo;Just stop eating!&amp;rdquo; is mostly terrible advice for somebody who is already obese, and can often push others into over-correcting in the wrong direction. While there are &amp;lsquo;starvation diets&amp;rsquo; these are an &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.diabetes.co.uk/blog/2018/02/story-angus-barbieri-went-382-days-without-eating/&#34;&gt;extreme circumstance&lt;/a&gt; not worth considering without serious medical supervision. The real question is &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;why can&amp;rsquo;t I stop eating &lt;strong&gt;so much?&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt; Or in some circumstances, &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;why can&amp;rsquo;t I stop eating &lt;strong&gt;so badly?&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ll attempt to address those questions, but first let&amp;rsquo;s define eating well. As somebody far beyond the &amp;ldquo;starting line&amp;rdquo; when it comes to eating habits, this is how I conceptualize a healthy relationship with food:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ordered by relevance to weight loss&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not consuming more calories than required&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is the very basic CICO (&lt;em&gt;calories-in / calories out&lt;/em&gt;) mantra of weight management. Your total calorie &lt;em&gt;consumption&lt;/em&gt; should be as low as possible, or otherwise offset by activity. The problem with relying on exercise to accommodate a bad diet is that you can easily erase weeks of effort with a single bad binge.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Acquiring all required nutrients&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The so-called &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html&#34;&gt;&amp;rsquo;twinkie diet&amp;rsquo;&lt;/a&gt; may conceivably lose you some weight, but may contribute to deficiencies in important areas long-term. Eating should be about &lt;em&gt;nourishing the body&lt;/em&gt; not punishing it. Nutrition is it&amp;rsquo;s own rabbit hole and personally, I&amp;rsquo;ve only scratched the surface on that.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Based on understanding the above two, I believe the optimal path is to try to optimize getting the most nutrients out of the calories you need.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In short: Make liver and broccoli your friends.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Hydration&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;Your problems are because you&amp;rsquo;re not drinking enough water&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Sodas themselves are a significant contributor to weight gain for zero benefit to the body. Your body&amp;rsquo;s functions require water to work, being hydrated can help a great deal.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Eating (more/mostly) food prepared yourself&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Preparing your own meals gives you a better (but not complete) picture of what goes into making food. If one is going to spend the time to prepare meals, hopefully they conserve their energy to make quality meals, rather than junk.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Having regular meals&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As far as I understand it, the body is fairly forgiving but it appreciates regularity. Many people swear by &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/intermittent-fasting-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work&#34;&gt;intermittent fasting,&lt;/a&gt; others will tell you you should eat a dozen small meals a day. I believe the full range of options are viable as long as you&amp;rsquo;re not going for long periods of time without eating, then feasting for more than enough to make up the difference.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I believe that anyone with the above under control is doing the best they can for their body.
+Those are what I understand the ideal situation to be, if you&amp;rsquo;ve got feedback, &lt;a href=&#34;mailto:gabriel@libresolutions.network?subject=healthy%20eating%20tips&#34;&gt;contact me!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Back to my situation:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;why-cant-i-stop-eating&#34;&gt;Why can&amp;rsquo;t I stop eating?&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-long-arc&#34;&gt;The long arc&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Over the course of my adult life, there were particular situations where I doubled-down on a variety of extremely bad habits. I used to work security, including overnight shifts which included a great deal of regular fast-food binges. I can blame my father for some of this, because the majority of the happy memories I had of him (&lt;em&gt;before they were tainted by particular revelations&lt;/em&gt;) were of him taking my brothers and I to McDonalds, and/or getting lots of soda and bread while out for the day.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Compound_interest_chart.png&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/compound-interest.png&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Juhis jwvaofbrnscwdof, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 
+
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I mention this, because bad habits &lt;em&gt;compound&lt;/em&gt; if you&amp;rsquo;re familiar with the concept of &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/compoundinterest.asp&#34;&gt;compound interest&lt;/a&gt; you can appreciate how even minor deviations over large periods of time can build up into massive problems. I personally made the mistake of not confronting these mistakes early, and I have to spend an immense level of effort reversing the damage created by them. Unlike financial interest, when it comes to health troubles there is no bankruptcy, only death.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve written before about how life circumstances have exacerbated my situation:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I’ve attempted to lose weight before. I made great strides, I lost 80lbs a few years back, mostly through keto and cycling. Unfortunately, I gained that back as old pressures and old habits overcame me. Struggling with the guilt of regaining the weight, I sought out weight loss counselling. To my dismay, I was told they couldn’t help me when I started to explain my situation as I understood it. Then as I floundered and gained more weight I eventually started going to a gym with my twin brother to help me learn how to start, only to have it all shut down when the covid lockdowns started.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I truly cannot express the full extent of horror, rage, and sadness I have over how the entire covid crisis was handled and the effect it had on many people. This post isn’t about that, but I highlight it to bring to your attention that there are surely many other people who had it much worse than I did. I don’t think many have truly healed from what was done to them through isolation, fear, and medical malpractice.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/2023-resolutions/&#34;&gt;2023 Resolutions&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While having the opportunity to work remotely starting early 2020 made me more comfortable, it mostly exacerbated my existing problems. I became much more inactive than I already was, and spent more time eating worse than I ever did. I&amp;rsquo;m aware many took the opportunity to turn around their lives, and I&amp;rsquo;m sincerely happy for those who did. I am sure however, I am not alone in being unable to embrace the opportunity at the time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Part of this, is that for reasons I&amp;rsquo;ll elaborate more on later in this post, I was completely unwilling to seriously examine how I could change these habits. They were so in-grained into my life that I felt that it was impossible to change them and I was powerless to even moderate the degree. I believe this is largely because as habits compound and you become set in your ways changing even minor things can feel like an insurmountable task.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In fact, it is only within the last few weeks that I&amp;rsquo;ve even considered that I could meaningfully change my eating style. Despite spending a majority of my effort on improving my health, and considering my situation over the last few months, hope on this point very much escaped me. &lt;strong&gt;I want to share with you that no matter how far gone you are, &lt;em&gt;there is always a great deal that can be done&lt;/em&gt; to turn things around.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Now that you have a better understanding of where I&amp;rsquo;m coming from, I&amp;rsquo;m going to share the major factors I&amp;rsquo;ve identified contributing to my situation as a severely obese man.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;compulsion&#34;&gt;Compulsion&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For many people, eating is just one of many things they do during their life. In my case, my life has &lt;em&gt;revolved around eating.&lt;/em&gt; Meaning that from the moment I wake up, to the moment I pass out to sleep, I am constantly thinking, planning, and negotiating about what I will eat next. In some ways, this was because throughout my career I felt enormous pressure and felt I needed to be constantly fueled to carry out what I could accomplish. I taught myself that my productivity was directly related to the level of C&amp;amp;C (calories &amp;amp; caffeine) I&amp;rsquo;ve consumed recently.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;More or less, eating and drinking sodas felt like a natural extension of existence like breathing. Living in a constant see-saw between panic about getting enough, the equilibrium of feeling satisfied, then the regret of overdoing it. A long period of time without eating felt like a time that needed to be filled with food or at least some soda.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While I&amp;rsquo;ve been far from successful in putting it into practice, my best understanding at the moment is that overcoming compulsive eating requires confronting the causes directly. The causes can be boredom, stress, pain (emotional or physical) which are all chronic problems someone in my situation will inevitably experience. Those in that situation with me will understand how tightly intertwined compulsive eating is with &lt;em&gt;emotional eating&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;emotional-eating&#34;&gt;Emotional Eating&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re reading this, and struggle with constant compulsive emotional eating&amp;hellip; &lt;br&gt;
+I&amp;rsquo;m going to try to save you a LOT of time by being blunt:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are reasons you&amp;rsquo;re doing this.&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;strong&gt;They are not good reasons.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Confronting them is going to be very difficult.&lt;br&gt;
+It&amp;rsquo;s possible that information has been kept from you, that is hurting you in ways you don&amp;rsquo;t yet understand.&lt;br&gt;
+You&amp;rsquo;re going to need help, don&amp;rsquo;t cut people who care about you out.&lt;br&gt;
+You&amp;rsquo;re going to need LOTS of help, be as patient as you can be with those around you.&lt;br&gt;
+You have to be incredibly patient with yourself.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If I&amp;rsquo;ve struck a nerve, I have utmost sympathy for your situation.
+For me, the hardest lesson was learning that this is something that can be changed. Whatever the source(s) of emotional pain you&amp;rsquo;ve compulsively avoiding, I promise you that with time and effort there are ways to resolve them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve had an excellent conversation with a great canadian hero, Patrick Phillips about this. who told me &amp;ldquo;If you&amp;rsquo;re soothing the pain, you should sooth the pain.&amp;rdquo;. At the start, I counter-productively took this as a license to continue eating to my feelings. Now I have a more nuanced opinion on what that means. He put me on the path to taking on my negative feelings head on, and was a great help.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It may come as a surprise to some, but I&amp;rsquo;ve only recently been aware of how much chronic emotional pain I&amp;rsquo;ve been in. The side-effect of numbing yourself with self-destructive coping mechanisms for years is that you can completely forget why you have them. Eventually, all you remember is that you&amp;rsquo;re stressed out all the time but can&amp;rsquo;t really pinpoint things that aren&amp;rsquo;t too obvious.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Taking the opportunity to emphasize this: &lt;strong&gt;chronic emotional pain does terrible things to a person.&lt;/strong&gt; Counter-intuitively, even when suppressed, or otherwise not recognized.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve only made tiny beginning steps on tackling this issue. I certainly underestimated the difficulties involved. I&amp;rsquo;ve mentioned before that I&amp;rsquo;ve found &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/2024-05-update/#reading-progress-&#34;&gt;Peter Breggin&amp;rsquo;s Book&lt;/a&gt; very helpful for this.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The main reason I need to tackle this is that I recognize the degree in which my overeating has been emotionally driven. Through a troubled childhood, a stroke a few years ago and a grave family tragedy, I had learned to merely push frustrations aside and suffer the effects later. Later has come and It’s become clear that many of my daily activities were aimed solely at avoiding how I’m feeling in the present moment. Peter’s book does a phenomenal job at explaining how constant frustration or sadness can build up into a wall of numbness. It is reassuring to learn that this is not permanent and can be reversed.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;is-caffeine-the-culprit&#34;&gt;Is Caffeine the culprit?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The good news is that I can report to being a almost entirely &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/2024-03-updates/#personal-update&#34;&gt;caffeine free since early March.&lt;/a&gt; While it was absolutely a temporary and severe hit to my productivity, I can happily say I&amp;rsquo;ve bounced back. Now I am more productive than ever, regularly publishing my bi-weekly show &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/tags/cyber-fix&#34;&gt;Cyber Fix.&lt;/a&gt; Strangely enough, there are two things I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed from quitting caffeine.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Dreams are more detailed and vivid (unclear why)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;I poop less often and I have a lot less diarrhea&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is &lt;strong&gt;pure speculation&lt;/strong&gt; on my part, but it has been observed that caffeine speeds up your digestive system&amp;hellip;without also speeding up your digestion. I wonder if this is a contributor to the unending feeling of hunger that arises. It is often said that when one is hungry their body is signaling that they&amp;rsquo;re missing some nutrient or another. It&amp;rsquo;s possible that by not giving the body enough time to digest already sub-par food, one may be inadvertently starving themselves from what they need. At the same time they would still gain weight from the quickly digesting carbs while fats and proteins don&amp;rsquo;t have time to digest.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Quitting caffeine hasn&amp;rsquo;t entirely resolved my eating troubles, but it has definitely simplified the process of working on them. Take that with a grain of salt for what it&amp;rsquo;s worth.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;addiction&#34;&gt;Addiction&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When one eats fast food or other meals that require no preparation, it&amp;rsquo;s almost impossible to avoid various addictions. Apparently &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/rQmqVVmMB3k&#34;&gt;vegetable oil itself can be addictive,&lt;/a&gt; to say nothing about sugar. Many explain food addiction in a simple way: your brain interprets food as a reward, and numbing that reward center requires more and more to be satiated. I&amp;rsquo;ve been told by those close to me that I have a classic addict&amp;rsquo;s reaction to large amounts of greasy/sugary/fatty food. I&amp;rsquo;m told that I &amp;ldquo;become a different person&amp;rdquo; and that I light up instantly the moment I realize I&amp;rsquo;m going to have that hit.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is inherently a difficult thing to tackle directly. While I&amp;rsquo;ve been able to quit caffeine &amp;lsquo;cold-turkey&amp;rsquo;, there is no way I could do the same with food even if it was conceivably possible. This is where I imagine the best bet is to manage the addiction by pushing that effort into preparing food if one is mobile and capable enough. Personally, I still struggle to even comprehend that I don&amp;rsquo;t need as much food as I want.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The only minor thing I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed that helps is if one can afford it, switching from fast food to higher quality (but still easy) food such as fancy deli meats, cheeses, and pre-cut vegetables may be enough to help. I can say when I was not quite so large, I found it quite easy to stick with a rational amount of &amp;ldquo;carbs&amp;rdquo;, because keto focuses on that rather than calories. If you go that route I would merely suggest to still have enough veggies than just purely having meat and cheese.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m considering simply pre-boiling (and unshelling &lt;em&gt;ugh!&lt;/em&gt;) a fairly large amount of eggs and snack on those. This likely &lt;a href=&#34;https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/you-have-to-eat-all-the-eggs&#34;&gt;sounds unpleasant.&lt;/a&gt; But that&amp;rsquo;s somewhat the point. Only eating when the impulse becomes so hard to ignore with a discrete amount of food to try to manage it. My challenge is that while the idea sounds nice I still have yet to summon the energy, willpower, and patience to get it done. An option that does help me a bit is buying frozen berries. It&amp;rsquo;s a bit messy but I really appreciate the texture of slightly-thawed berries. Strawberries are great, but not as strong a flavor as blackberries (hey lots of fibre!) but raspberries are a very intense feeling.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;helplessness&#34;&gt;Helplessness&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Alright, so we&amp;rsquo;ve fixed the knowledge problem.&lt;br&gt;
+I&amp;rsquo;ve explained eating problems as best as I understand, clearly that&amp;rsquo;s it.&lt;br&gt;
+I&amp;rsquo;m the genius who&amp;rsquo;s cracked the code that definitely isn&amp;rsquo;t found anywhere and everywhere.&lt;br&gt;
+We can all look forward to everyone being perfectly happy and healthy from now on right? &amp;hellip;Right?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/know-my-problem.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed a great deal of &lt;em&gt;learned helplessness&lt;/em&gt; in my situation. I can only guess, but I believe this is the greatest contributor to people becoming bed-ridden for the rest of their lives. The more weight you gain the harder it becomes to accomplish even the simplest of tasks. For example, even now that I&amp;rsquo;ve made big strides towards becoming more mobile: I still agonize over the resistance of simple things like standing, getting up from sitting or lying down, and walking.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While I won&amp;rsquo;t deny to being quite lazy. A great deal of my efficiency is the embodiment of &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;If you want something done the easy way, find a lazy person to do it.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt; I believe this learned helplessness is what causes people to being trapped into a state of laziness.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You&amp;rsquo;re not going to think to run around and take on all kinds of activities when simple tasks like going up stairs, walking, or carrying things feel almost entirely out of reach.  It is horrifying to think about how things that once only &lt;em&gt;seemed out of reach&lt;/em&gt; eventually fade into being &lt;em&gt;actually out of reach&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;accustomed-to-comfort&#34;&gt;Accustomed to comfort&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s a quote I&amp;rsquo;m going to paraphrase because I can&amp;rsquo;t quite hunt it down.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;One must not become accustomed to comfort, because over time, the slightest discomforts become unbearable.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This absolutely matches my experience. Change is uncomfortable, adapting is even more uncomfortable.
+The hardest part about being severely obese is that by the time being overweight becomes it&amp;rsquo;s own problem, you&amp;rsquo;re already very used to avoiding discomfort. This makes the aches, pains, and despair from being so large and immobile a horrifically crushing experience.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;overcoming-the-learned-helplessness-from-the-consequences-of-obesity&#34;&gt;Overcoming the learned helplessness from the consequences of obesity.&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In this situation, you have far more problems than merely weight, immobility, and bad eating. No guide, lecture, or intervention is going to single-handedly help you transform your life overnight. It will take time of constantly making little decisions to improve your situation, whatever that entails.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is going to sound counter-intuitive, but my opinion is that you have to recognize your limits rationally. Too many push themselves hard by attempting to make &lt;em&gt;all the changes they should, rather than the things that they can.&lt;/em&gt; A lot of this comes from a good place, a burst of inspiration inspires someone to take on all their problems at once. Because we are only human, many fall short of accomplishing this, and end up filled with sadness and regret.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If this situation sounds familiar, consider that you&amp;rsquo;re not using the right resource. You have a complex problem and organizations have a role for the person who keeps track of how large problems are solved. They&amp;rsquo;re called a &lt;em&gt;project manager&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You need a project manager.&lt;/strong&gt; Turning around a decade or a lifetime of bad habits requires tracking a lot of problems within the larger whole. You can be your own project manager with &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.openproject.org/&#34;&gt;software&lt;/a&gt;, just writing things down, or you can rely on someone else like a friend, family member, or health and/or fitness professional. It may even help to compartmentalize, maybe you rely on one person to help you with eating habits, and fitness with another, or you may only need somebody to understand your blind-spots.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Your job isn&amp;rsquo;t to fix everything all at once. Counter-intuitively, instead of focusing on what you should do, do everything you can.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Can you bike? Do that!&lt;br&gt;
+Can&amp;rsquo;t bike, but can walk? Walk whenever you can!&lt;br&gt;
+Can&amp;rsquo;t walk, or can&amp;rsquo;t walk without pain? Try getting to a pool!&lt;br&gt;
+You can&amp;rsquo;t do every day? Do whatever days you can.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You have to make peace with the fact that most likely, you can&amp;rsquo;t do everything in this moment to correct your situation, instead you need to focus yourself on building momentum. Your life is like a &lt;a href=&#34;https://old.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1rgpdf/what_is_the_laziest_thing_youve_ever_done/cdnafqe/&#34;&gt;massive aircraft carrier&lt;/a&gt; in the water. The heavier you are the more time and effort required to turn around even slightly. Over time, your good changes open more doors for better changes. That&amp;rsquo;s the true process, &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/EEmuJbT16GI&#34;&gt;healing your lows and growing your highs.&lt;/a&gt; You&amp;rsquo;ll feel a whole lot better when your ship isn&amp;rsquo;t moving the wrong way and is instead moving in the right direction.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;you-can-do-it-motivational-memes&#34;&gt;You can do it! Motivational Memes&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation&#34;&gt;Browse the collection&lt;/a&gt; feel free to send me more!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/not-about-us.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/not-about-us.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/you-will-always-be-loved.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/you-will-always-be-loved.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/right-relationship.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/right-relationship.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/rogers-forgive-yourself.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/rogers-forgive-yourself.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div style=&#34;width:100%&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;table style=&#34;font-size:14px;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;th colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h2 style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;📉 Weight Tracker&lt;/h2&gt;
+            &lt;/th&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Starting Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Current Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weight Lost&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goal Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;576&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;379.6&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;196.4&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;15% BF&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h3 style=&#34;font-size:x-large;&#34;&gt;2025 Goal: 200lbs in 2025 challenge&lt;/h3&gt;
+                &lt;div
+                    style=&#34;border:3px solid var(--color-accent);align-items: flex-start;justify-content: flex-start;margin:5px;border-radius:15px;overflow: hidden;&#34;&gt;
+                    &lt;div style=&#34;width:49.7%;padding:10px;background-color:var(--color-accent);color:black;font-weight: bolder;font-size:larger;&#34;&gt;49.7%
+                    &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;p style=&#34;margin:5px;text-align: left;width:fit-content;font-size:large;&#34;&gt;This year&#39;s goal is to lose &lt;strong&gt;200lbs&lt;/strong&gt; in 2025!&lt;br&gt;Current progress: &lt;strong&gt;99.4lbs&lt;/strong&gt; out of 200!
+                &lt;br&gt;A bit behind schedule! 😓&lt;/p&gt;
+            &lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34; style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;Last updated: 2025-07-06&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+    &lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div&gt;
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A kind reader sent me these tips:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;veggie-tips&#34;&gt;Veggie Tips&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I also wanted to share a few meal tips that helped me. Most days I&amp;rsquo;d only have enough energy for &amp;ldquo;struggle meals&amp;rdquo; with minimal groceries and prep work. But I&amp;rsquo;d still aim for nutritious food. I think the key is finding something enjoyable with lots of vegetables:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;salad:&lt;/strong&gt; prewashed greens (or whole head lettuce, since it keeps longer), topped with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Occasionally topped with items like chicken, olives, or chickpeas, whatever makes me happy&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;broccoli:&lt;/strong&gt; steamed for a few minutes in the microwave. Baked is good too. But it sounds like you already like broccoli!&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;brussel sprouts:&lt;/strong&gt; tasty, but they require stovetop browning or air fryer baking. They also need to be chopped in half. I like getting them charred with oil and salt then topping with raw honey (even tho we should probably avoid sugar)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;edamame beans + rice + soy sauce:&lt;/strong&gt; my grocery store sells pre-shelled edamame beans that can be microwaved in a few minutes. I like how edamame has protein. I add a special tasty soy sauce. Asian flavors are nice for a change&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;potatoes:&lt;/strong&gt; Baked potatoes are tasty and nutritious. Sweet potatoes are awesome too but they take longer. Bake with a timer, then salt and eat&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;hard-boiled eggs trick:&lt;/strong&gt; I use about 2/3 the typical water amount, bring it to a boil, place the eggs in the pot, cover, and set a timer for 11 mins. Apparently the hot steam is enough to cook the eggs, even if they aren&amp;rsquo;t submerged in boiling water. And if you (gently) put them in boiling water instead of cold water, the shell will separate from the egg and make it easier to peel afterward. I learned that from a Kenji Lopez-Alt youtube video&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;nut mixes:&lt;/strong&gt; I think they&amp;rsquo;re healthy and filling. I usually buy cashews, peanuts, almonds, dried cranberries, and dried blueberries, then mix it into snack containers&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;bananas and apples:&lt;/strong&gt; are always a good snack for me&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;hummus:&lt;/strong&gt; Or beans and lentils in general. Filling, tasty, nutritious&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;when I don&amp;rsquo;t have any energy to cook, or when I&amp;rsquo;m out of groceries:&lt;/strong&gt; I got healthy restaurant food delivered. I have restaurants like CAVA and Bolay, and those are tasty and filling and healthy. I justify the cost by telling myself I&amp;rsquo;m &amp;ldquo;investing in my health&amp;rdquo;, because the alternative is just having a really hungry or unhealthy day&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Something about vegetables makes me feel full. Maybe it&amp;rsquo;s all the chewing, lol. And it&amp;rsquo;s a healthy full, without bloating or tiredness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Live by the sword...</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/right-wing-cancel-culture/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/right-wing-cancel-culture/</guid>
+		<description>Cancel culture never left, and people are doubling down on it.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;For those who aren&amp;rsquo;t aware this is more-or-less a response to the rise of prominent accounts on X leading the charge on getting people fired from their jobs for statements about the attempted assassination of ex-president and presidential candidate Trump.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As of today, if you search &amp;ldquo;libs of tiktok&amp;rdquo; on X and browse the top posts you&amp;rsquo;ll find many such examples, including a &lt;a href=&#34;https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1813320436702400568&#34;&gt;termination from home depot.&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.is/B39G6&#34;&gt;[archive link]&lt;/a&gt; This demonstrates that not only is this popular, but it&amp;rsquo;s widely promoted.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I posted &lt;a href=&#34;https://mk.gabe.rocks/notes/9vtl6okorh&#34;&gt;a note&lt;/a&gt; on the Fediverse today, which summarizes my position against this kind of behavior. As somebody who &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/freedom-convoy/&#34;&gt;was terminated for far less,&lt;/a&gt; I&amp;rsquo;ll admit it pains me to have to stick up for people who likely would do the same to me again.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Forming mobs hunting people down to get them fired for legally protected speech is wrong. In my opinion, there should be stronger labor protections for speech across the board because of nonsense like this.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite the recent rise of people on the right going after people for wishing the assassination succeeded, the left absolutely has to own that they&amp;rsquo;ve spent over a decade normalizing and defending this nonsense. It is no surprize at all, and was predicted from the very beginning that it would eventually lead to this.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My standard for culture war bullshit is that target selection matters. I&amp;rsquo;m sorry, but I don&amp;rsquo;t think somebody wishing the president died is actually that big a deal. I&amp;rsquo;m pretty sure a majority of people are guilty of this for at least one head of state in their lives. If these were people advocating for criminal behavior (or behavior that should be criminal) I would feel differently, but it never has been.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The truth is, I also blame employers for this. It&amp;rsquo;s all too easy to throw the employee under the bus to avoid a tiny bit of bad PR. I think if there was ever a purpose for &amp;lsquo;sensitivity training&amp;rsquo; it should be used for situations like this. I think it shows a lack of respect for your workers if you&amp;rsquo;ll let them go over such a tiny thing without even attempting to address the root issue.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If people actually want free speech and meritocracy, we&amp;rsquo;re going to need institutions that are actually more resilient to human failings, rather than pretending we can purge them in totality. Again, this is something I blame the left for a great deal because progressives were perfectly fine with shaping institutions to their values when it suited them. Now the shoe is on the other foot and ordinary people are yet again being torched to establish a new order of political correctness.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is the bed that was made, I&amp;rsquo;d like us to build a different one but for now this seems to be the one we&amp;rsquo;re lying in for the time being.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://mk.gabe.rocks/notes/9vtl6okorh&#34;&gt;[Link to Note]&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite my frustration with those engaging in this, you can see that I actually blame so-called &amp;ldquo;progressives&amp;rdquo; a great deal for this. They have a long history not only initiating this behavior, but also normalizing and excusing it. This is exactly what &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;freedom of speech isn&amp;rsquo;t freedom from consequences&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rdquo; looks like at the start.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Some can argue this is a normal &amp;lsquo;swinging of the pendulum&amp;rsquo; but the truth is that our &lt;em&gt;actions have consequences&lt;/em&gt; that do matter. Retaliation and revenge only makes it harder and harder to actually bring people to admit their faults and change for the better.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I pray that those pushing back against the rallying cries to mercilessly punish ordinary people help others choose to save such harsh tactics for truly important concerns, rather than petty nonsense.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;but-i-have-to-punish-my-enemies-or-things-will-just-get-worse&#34;&gt;&amp;ldquo;But I HAVE to punish my enemies or things will just get worse!&amp;rdquo;&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s funny how common this sentiment is despite it being demonstrably false in the moment.&lt;br&gt;
+If that was true why wasn&amp;rsquo;t left-wing cancel culture able to prevent this moment?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Things are getting worse because people don&amp;rsquo;t have their heads in the game. That Libs of Tiktok post over a home depot employee got much more attention than many pressing (but complicated) issues. The moment you seriously try tackling a real problem you&amp;rsquo;ll encounter defeatists who argue resolving it is impossible or just simply too hard to bother.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You &lt;em&gt;should&lt;/em&gt; &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/dont-turn-on-the-flock/&#34;&gt;pray for your enemies,&lt;/a&gt; but also remember a random cashier in an entirely different region from you &lt;em&gt;isn&amp;rsquo;t even your enemy&lt;/em&gt;. They&amp;rsquo;re essentially a figment of your imagination put there by those who want to profit of rage-bait and an endless cycle of disrespect. In my opinion, those people are your actual enemies, but the good news is that you can resolve it by simply no longer giving them your attention.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Static&#43;, can it work?</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/static-plus/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/static-plus/</guid>
+		<description>Musing out loud</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;rsquo;t really want to &amp;rsquo;let go&amp;rsquo; of static sites because I think the benefits are too large to give up, at least as a single person. I love using static site generators. Being able to reuse code in an intelligent way is a huge win over doing all the css/html/js by hand. While it&amp;rsquo;s nice to be &lt;a href=&#34;https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6869210/which-is-faster-mysql-php-or-serving-straight-from-static-files&#34;&gt;faster&lt;/a&gt; than a dynamically generated site, there are times where more data is needed. There are downsides too, such as not having &lt;em&gt;dynamic&lt;/em&gt; server-side features. This generally means no comments, or visitor interaction of any kind.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;static&#34;&gt;Static+&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Less than a CMS, more than a static site&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A reason a lot of &amp;ldquo;web 2.0&amp;rdquo; services got big, was that you could embed their fancier features into your hosted blogs. Within the context of self-hosted static sites, there are many reasons why you don&amp;rsquo;t necessarily just want to constantly embed various big-tech websites for relatively basic features.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of my hugo sites pulls content from a public API to query information about legislation. Every time I regenerate the site it loads the latest information and inserts it in to the page. I thought this was pretty elegant, but it got me thinking. Is it worth using a database to store information to be used by a SSG?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The problem with wanting to take this step is that eventually you realize you may as well be using a CMS. Somehow your static site needs to be able to read, present, and possibly update your database. This means that you&amp;rsquo;ll need at least a minimal set of API calls that move information in and out of the database and a server that runs them. &lt;em&gt;Doesn&amp;rsquo;t this defeat the purpose of avoiding a CMS entirely?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thinking out loud, I think there is a happy middle-ground where it doesn&amp;rsquo;t. If you&amp;rsquo;re simply doing it to replace simple widgets/functionality that is already quite at home on many static sites like search or comments I&amp;rsquo;d argue it&amp;rsquo;s a decent half-step. It definitely goes too far when you have to torture (or re-write) your SSG to support new features instead of just building your own custom CMS.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;but-how&#34;&gt;But How?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve been fascinated by &lt;a href=&#34;https://pocketbase.io/&#34;&gt;PocketBase&lt;/a&gt; which gives you all this (including static file support) out of the box. It seems to be a speedy drop-in tool for this kind of technique. It&amp;rsquo;s built on top of sqlite and provides authentication built-in as well. I only wish it supported hardware-based authentication and then I would call it perfect. The more I think about how the web &lt;em&gt;should be&lt;/em&gt; the less I believe that being able to reach millions of people should be the goal. Quality content isn&amp;rsquo;t always relevant to everyone at the same time, a better web should be a patient and discerning one in my opinion.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is just an idea, if you have any thoughts feel free to &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/resume/#want-to-get-in-touch&#34;&gt;reach out to me&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;updates&#34;&gt;Updates&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Brandon has some &lt;a href=&#34;https://brandonrozek.com/blog/re-static-plus/&#34;&gt;interesting thoughts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But maybe we&amp;rsquo;re overthinking this! Why not simply &lt;a href=&#34;https://darthmall.net/weblog/2024/dynamic-websites-with-static-site-generators/&#34;&gt;use PHP&lt;/a&gt; in your theme files?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Dipping into Aquafitness 🌊</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/2024-05-update/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 08 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/2024-05-update/</guid>
+		<description>May update </description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Thankfully I&amp;rsquo;ve resumed swimming twice weekly. I have the ambition to increase this to three times weekly which is what I believe to be an important step to actually begin making measurable progress in losing weight. My primary goal for the winter and start of the new year was to maintain and enhance mobility. I believe I have achieved this, walking is still challenging but no longer insurmountable. I still have a long way to to when it comes to basic activities, but I&amp;rsquo;m gaining the ability to do more things easier.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/floaties.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    A home gym in the water. 
+
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the things that has made my regular swimming trips more productive is that I&amp;rsquo;ve purchased these oversized foam dumbbells. They give me some of the benefits of doing free weights without worrying about balance or falling over. In between laps of the pool I will take a pause to do some basic exercises with them and I feel like they&amp;rsquo;re making a positive difference. For anyone like me, who is very overweight and struggles with basic tasks, I&amp;rsquo;d highly recommend getting a pair. They can really help make the best of the time you spend in the water, and help it feel satisfying to continue. Of course, you&amp;rsquo;ll want to get some inspiration by looking up aquafitness exercises on YouTube or elsewhere.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Some things are getting easier, but I must remind the reader that I am &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/2023-resolutions/&#34;&gt;very obese.&lt;/a&gt; It is not easy being this big and it is quite hard to reverse. I am very lucky that I have a supportive family that is working to help me improve, but even in that situation there are many challenges. I&amp;rsquo;m very weary of the false dichotomy many are put in these days. If you love fat people you must enable them, or that if you&amp;rsquo;re not enabling them you must hate them. As someone who has dealt with a lot of self-hated over my weight I can personally attest that enabling comes from a place of pity rather than mercy. Mercy is accepting the situation as it is, and responding with kindness rather than anger. I can imagine very few things said about fat people online are as hurtful as the things they tell themselves.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As somebody who has been as stubborn and arrogant as anyone else, I would like to remind you that no amount of self-hatred is helpful. I believe this is because for some, a small amount can move them to action for a short period of time, resolving serious obesity requires more action over a longer period than can be sustained with such negativity. I believe the reason why so many fail to regain a normal weight is that the mental methods often employed to maintain a normal weight ultimately fail and backfire causing more suffering in the long run.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My opinion at this time is that actually reversing the damage done in getting this large requires reordering your habits, daily activities, and ultimately your mind. This is an immense undertaking, especially when taken on alone.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;motivational-memes-&#34;&gt;Motivational Memes 🌄&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can see the collection &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation&#34;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; but I&amp;rsquo;ve added two more videos that I&amp;rsquo;ve found encouraging and motivating.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/be-kind-to-yourself.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/be-kind-to-yourself.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/live-for-them.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//sharing/motivation/live-for-them.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;reading-progress-&#34;&gt;Reading Progress 📕&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve completed &lt;a href=&#34;https://breggin.com/&#34;&gt;Peter Breggin&lt;/a&gt;&amp;rsquo;s Book: &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/21487729&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Guilt, Shame, and Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming Negative Emotions&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/a&gt; It took me much longer than I had hoped, but here we are. I&amp;rsquo;ve learned a lot reading through it, first and foremost that it is possible to overcome even all-pervasive self-hatred and dread. I would recommend this book to anyone who has become numb from built-up frustration, or someone who just wants to learn to live without as much self-defeatism.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I believe I got a great deal out of reading the book over a long period of time, as it helped me reflect on and digest the lessons of the various chapters. Due to the course of my life, some chapters were particularly hard to read through, making progress very slow. A major point raised is that many of your &lt;em&gt;negative legacy emotions&lt;/em&gt; such as omnipresent guilt, shame or anxiety are triggered by things outside the present. Regardless if the events were inside or outside of your control at the time, ultimately Dr Breggin argues it&amp;rsquo;s important to let go of those feelings and focus on living rationally and lovingly in the present.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As somebody who struggles with &lt;em&gt;living in the moment&lt;/em&gt; for reasons brought up in this book, it&amp;rsquo;s helpful to have a frame of mind for how to begin to do so. Dr Breggin defines love as &lt;em&gt;joyful awareness&lt;/em&gt; and that you can and should take the time to appreciate simple things in your life. If done right, you can practice applying this to those around you to live a more loving and present life. I&amp;rsquo;m still very far from putting this into practice perfectly, but I can say it&amp;rsquo;s been a helpful frame of mind for escaping the maze of my own doubts and fears.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The main reason I need to tackle this is that I recognize the degree in which my overeating has been emotionally driven. Through a troubled childhood, a stroke a few years ago and a grave family tragedy, I had learned to merely push frustrations aside and suffer the effects later. Later has come and It&amp;rsquo;s become clear that many of my daily activities were aimed solely at avoiding how I&amp;rsquo;m feeling in the present moment. Peter&amp;rsquo;s book does a phenomenal job at explaining how constant frustration or sadness can build up into a wall of numbness. It is reassuring to learn that this is not permanent and can be reversed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the book, Dr Breggin compares ordering your mind to tending to a garden. Instead of avoiding negative emotions, or distracting yourself from them, you&amp;rsquo;re supposed to identify them at the root, and refute them. By tending your mental garden you can then order your life to be more focused on loving others and loving life.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I chose to read this book because I have a high appreciation for how Peter and his wife, Ginger explain in &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59120042-covid-19-and-the-global-predators&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;COVID-19 and the Global Predators: We are the Prey&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; how the measures taken during the Covid Crisis were an assault on the public. Due to my mistrust with the Canadian medical system as a whole, I decided to reach out for independent help to help understand my issues. I originally reached out to Patrick Phillips who does provide &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.patrickphillipscounselling.com/&#34;&gt;councelling&lt;/a&gt;. His approach didn&amp;rsquo;t work for me, but I appreciated his help. After this, I came across a series of videos by Dr Breggin &lt;a href=&#34;https://breggin.com/article-detail/post_detail/simple-truths&#34;&gt;Simple Truths about Psychiatry&lt;/a&gt; where I was reminded of his own distrust for the medical establishment and it recommended his book on overcoming negative emotions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;more-peter-breggin&#34;&gt;More Peter Breggin&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Peter Breggin&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://breggin.com/&#34;&gt;Website&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://gingerbreggin.substack.com/&#34;&gt;Substack&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://home.solari.com/special-solari-report-transparency-legal-accountability-with-peter-breggin-md/&#34;&gt;Special Solari Report: Transparency &amp;amp; Legal Accountability with Peter Breggin, MD&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/v18kgvh-a-predatory-plan-to-centralise-power-peter-r.-breggin-md.html&#34;&gt;A Predatory Plan to Centralize Power Peter R Breggin MD.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://home.solari.com/protect-your-child-from-mental-health-weaponization-with-dr-peter-breggin/&#34;&gt;Protect Your Child from Mental Health Weaponization with Dr. Peter Breggin&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With my self-help book of the year taken care of, my next book to read is &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/75671183&#34;&gt;Cybersecurity First Principles: A Reboot of Strategy and Tactics&lt;/a&gt; as I aim to regain my focus onto the technological space when it comes to reading. Reading itself may not seem like a personal health activity, but I believe it has many benefits in helping with weight loss. For example, if one is constantly overstimulated with digital distractions, taking the time to read carefully helps bring you to a calmer state. By reading you can disconnect yourself from the dopamine overdose of constantly hunting information and novelty and give your mind a proper pace to learn. I can&amp;rsquo;t prove it, but I&amp;rsquo;m convinced that racing your mind constantly itself correlates with either weight gain, or substance abuse. Your mind is precious, treat it with care.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div style=&#34;width:100%&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;table style=&#34;font-size:14px;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;th colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h2 style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;📉 Weight Tracker&lt;/h2&gt;
+            &lt;/th&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Starting Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Current Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weight Lost&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goal Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;576&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;379.6&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;196.4&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;15% BF&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h3 style=&#34;font-size:x-large;&#34;&gt;2025 Goal: 200lbs in 2025 challenge&lt;/h3&gt;
+                &lt;div
+                    style=&#34;border:3px solid var(--color-accent);align-items: flex-start;justify-content: flex-start;margin:5px;border-radius:15px;overflow: hidden;&#34;&gt;
+                    &lt;div style=&#34;width:49.7%;padding:10px;background-color:var(--color-accent);color:black;font-weight: bolder;font-size:larger;&#34;&gt;49.7%
+                    &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;p style=&#34;margin:5px;text-align: left;width:fit-content;font-size:large;&#34;&gt;This year&#39;s goal is to lose &lt;strong&gt;200lbs&lt;/strong&gt; in 2025!&lt;br&gt;Current progress: &lt;strong&gt;99.4lbs&lt;/strong&gt; out of 200!
+                &lt;br&gt;A bit behind schedule! 😓&lt;/p&gt;
+            &lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34; style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;Last updated: 2025-07-06&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+    &lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div&gt;
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>We Don&#39;t Love RSS Enough</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/rss-love/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/rss-love/</guid>
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/naked-rss.webp?d=1714435200</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/naked-rss.webp?d=1714435200" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/naked-rss.webp?d=1714435200" />
+		<description>Probably.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re reading this, you probably do, but someone you send this to might not. There are many compelling reasons to use &lt;a href=&#34;https://rss.softwaregarden.com/aboutrss.html&#34;&gt;RSS&lt;/a&gt; which is a permission-less open protocol for sharing multimedia. RSS is a phenomenally powerful extension of the basic web that can enable a much more democratized and honest media landscape. Adoption been on an incredible upswing since more people have decided to run their own independent web sites. The &lt;a href=&#34;https://boffosocko.com/tag/what-is-the-indieweb/&#34;&gt;indieweb&lt;/a&gt; is a treasure-trove of people taking the time to save the web by contributing to it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It might shock you to realize that: not only is that RSS is an old solution to many of our current-day problems, many advocates for it have been unknowingly sabotaging it! If you&amp;rsquo;re already sold on RSS and want to learn what anyone can do to resolve this you can &lt;a href=&#34;#if-its-so-great-why-hasnt-it-been-adopted-more&#34;&gt;skip ahead to that section.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;why-rss-is-better-than-social-media&#34;&gt;Why RSS is better than social media&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;You&amp;rsquo;re not dependent on a social media platform.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;The content you receive is not dictated by an algorithm.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;No invasive data collection.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;No obnoxious advertisements.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;You get to choose your sources and what you want to give your attention to.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Better information diet - less noise, less nonsense, less garbage.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://chuck.is/why-rss/&#34;&gt;Chuck Carroll&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While I agree with these basic points, I can imagine situations where there could be exceptions. Your RSS experience is entirely related to how much effort one puts in to discovering, curating, and ultimately engaging with the medium.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;rss-is-powerful&#34;&gt;RSS is Powerful&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If they&amp;rsquo;re familiar with it at all, many people associate RSS with news. Due to the ability to link any content, or even embed audio/video, the possibilities are much grander.  People may be familiar with podcasts, but it is all too easy to forget they&amp;rsquo;re &lt;a href=&#34;https://podnews.net/article/first-podcast-feed-history&#34;&gt;simply RSS feeds&lt;/a&gt; with a media attachment, that can be either audio or video. In addition to this, it&amp;rsquo;s very fast, since a feed is usually just a simple text file, there&amp;rsquo;s very little processing needed to share and distribute.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What makes RSS so incredibly useful is that it&amp;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;machine-readable&lt;/em&gt;, this means that not only can programs interact with it, but it&amp;rsquo;s relatively simple to build new software to build on top of it. The possibilities are endless. For example, suppose you never really cared about browsing the web for feeds, and sorting through posts. Running your own software providing a web crawler, index, and suggestion algorithm based off your own preferences is very achievable.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;rss-is-actually-decentralized&#34;&gt;RSS is &lt;em&gt;actually decentralized&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Fake decentralization is becoming it&amp;rsquo;s own niche industry. Too many would rather build a giant bloated mess of a one-size-fits all solution, instead of something &lt;a href=&#34;https://small-tech.org/&#34;&gt;small&lt;/a&gt; and flexible. With a focus on being a simple standard format, RSS is a lot more accessible than almost anything else on the internet. RSS is easier to learn than HTML, once you&amp;rsquo;ve familiarized yourself with a basic &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS#Example&#34;&gt;example,&lt;/a&gt; you&amp;rsquo;re ready to start sharing your own content. Being perfectly decentralized, there&amp;rsquo;s no token to use, or central server to check in with.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;RSS works in every situation where you have an http connection. This could be over the web, darknets like Tor or I2P, or even through the airwaves with a packet radio. It&amp;rsquo;s simplicity allows for much more flexibility and there are no limitations or assumptions. You can even use RSS feeds entirely offline as a way to organize playlists of various forms of media. Once you&amp;rsquo;ve done that, you still have the option of eventually serving the feed to others in a wide variety of ways. Archiving RSS is absolutely trivial. If the feed is of blog posts and articles, you can simply save the rss file itself. Even the multimedia can be downloaded for offline use, and distributed over other mediums.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;if-its-so-great-why-hasnt-it-been-adopted-more&#34;&gt;If it&amp;rsquo;s so great, why hasn&amp;rsquo;t it been adopted more?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When people open a link, they expect it to &lt;em&gt;do something&lt;/em&gt;. This creates a small problem when someone who has never used RSS encounters it. They&amp;rsquo;re greeted with either:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A) an incomprehensible mess of text&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;B) A file download with no clear purpose&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is not what people have been trained to expect when they open a link. On desktops or mobiles, the expectation is that if the link isn&amp;rsquo;t a web page, a program opens the file or media directly, sometimes opening a specific app. This leads people to confusion, disappointment, and frustration. A large majority of people at this point will simply move on with their day, only to discover much later what they&amp;rsquo;ve been missing out on.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://libresolutions.network/rss&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/naked-rss.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Libre Solutions Network RSS Feed 
+
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;taking-adoption-to-the-next-level&#34;&gt;Taking adoption to the next level&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, this means that many of us have been unknowingly &lt;strong&gt;serving RSS all wrong.&lt;/strong&gt; Basic text or html is &lt;a href=&#34;https://motherfuckingwebsite.com/&#34;&gt;perfectly presentable&lt;/a&gt; without any styling at all. This unfortunately doesn&amp;rsquo;t apply to RSS feeds. I had assumed, like many others presumably, that this was just what we were stuck with. While doing my regular round of bookmarking new sites and subscribing to their feeds, I discovered that there was a solution all along!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;styling-your-rss-feed&#34;&gt;Styling your RSS feed&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Remember that RSS is actually XML, which is the eXtensible Markup Language. Meaning that it&amp;rsquo;s a data format that&amp;rsquo;s designed to be extended for particular uses. RSS feeds are just one of many. A website is HTML, which is the &lt;em&gt;HyperText Markup Language&lt;/em&gt; for sharing hypertext. (Text that links to other text) What I recently learned thanks to Sacha Chua, is that XML, including RSS feeds can be styled &lt;a href=&#34;https://sachachua.com/blog/2024/01/xml-stylesheet-for-my-feed/&#34;&gt;just like a web page.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This sounds simple and inconsequential but I assure you this is incredibly profound. With a relatively small amount of effort we can truly make RSS feeds feel part of the web. This solves a major user experience problem for those without RSS, and has no impact on those who do use it already. As an example, I&amp;rsquo;ve updated my personal &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/rss&#34;&gt;blog&amp;rsquo;s feed&lt;/a&gt;. You&amp;rsquo;ll notice that link works in your browser, and you&amp;rsquo;re greeted with a simple page explaining how you can get started with RSS and links to learn more. With more time, there&amp;rsquo;s aot that could be done to make this very accessible for those who aren&amp;rsquo;t tech savvy at all. If you serve an RSS feed that you share regularly or link to, please seriously consider making &lt;a href=&#34;https://darekkay.com/blog/rss-styling/&#34;&gt;your own style.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;playlists&#34;&gt;Playlists&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Believe it or not, you don&amp;rsquo;t have to be a content creator yourself to make a useful RSS feed. Instead of maintaining a large multimedia project, you could simply run a simple feed that includes some of the most important or insightful news and media. This is something very within reach for somebody to learn by hand, and it would have the advantage of being an un-censorable index of information, or even just entertainment.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Speaking of entertainment, RSS feeds can be an excellent way to share curated media. A notable podcast, &lt;a href=&#34;https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bible-in-a-year-with-fr-mike-schmitz/id15395683210&#34;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Bible in a Year&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; is an excellent example of how long-form content can be set up to be taken in over longer periods of time. With your own private feed setup, it would be a very efficient way to queue up particular syllabuses of information to digest whenever you have moments to give it time. This works very well because many podcast apps save your place so you can always continue where you left off. Even for purely informational purposes, it can be useful to have a specific feed for a &lt;a href=&#34;https://corbettreport.com/solutionswatch-nichecasting/&#34;&gt;specific niche.&lt;/a&gt; It could be about an event in history, updates about a precise topic, or even a focused lecture series.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In a world where the free and open web is more embraced, TikTok would be unable to compete with personally curated collections of wholesome, informative, or otherwise nurturing media without the risks of censorship, surveillance, or addiction. This could open up a world of new possibilities for those who wish to create authentic art without being manipulated by their reach being controlled.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;aggregation&#34;&gt;Aggregation&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Due to being machine-readable, RSS feeds are able to be easily and even automatically aggregated into new feeds. This allows for a group of people who contribute less often to provide a steady stream of media together. One of my personal favorite aggregated feeds is &lt;a href=&#34;https://planet.kde.org/&#34;&gt;Planet KDE&lt;/a&gt;, which aggregates posts for the wider KDE community. (KDE is the linux desktop environment I run, and enjoy a great deal) There are other &amp;ldquo;planets&amp;rdquo; for other communities within the linux space such as &lt;a href=&#34;https://planet.gnome.org/&#34;&gt;GNOME&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href=&#34;https://planet.gnu.org/&#34;&gt;GNU&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://planet.debian.org/&#34;&gt;Debian.&lt;/a&gt; It would be wonderful if people were inspired to create new planets (aggregated feeds) for non-technical communities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;sharing-subscriptions&#34;&gt;Sharing Subscriptions&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many feed readers support exporting your subscriptions to an OPML file. This is a list of feeds that can be easily imported into similar software, or shared with others. The best way to help democratize information and media would be to share your own hand-picked feeds with a friend or loved one. This can be done without the Internet, and would be effectively impossible to censor. Community groups working together could share their own aggregated feed with their members, providing a resilient fast notification system that can be used for a variety of situations.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;extending-it&#34;&gt;Extending it&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Static websites and RSS feeds have a major game-changing advantage for information resilience: they&amp;rsquo;re just data. This data can be extended for a variety of purposes. The &lt;a href=&#34;https://podcasting2.org/&#34;&gt;podcasting 2.0&lt;/a&gt; initiative is all about adding more functionality for podcast apps without sacrificing decentralization. All it takes is a widely accepted &lt;em&gt;namespace&lt;/em&gt;, which is a fancy word for standard. Podcasting 2.0 adds new features like chapters, funding links, and transcripts that can be used by new or recently updated podcast applications.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;build-software-for-rss&#34;&gt;Build Software for RSS&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As I&amp;rsquo;ve alluded to before, there are many applications waiting to be written to leverage the benefits of RSS feeds even further. Lowering the barrier to participation can help adoption significantly, and new software can allow us to leverage the best of our modern systems with the full benefits of the old web.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Accessible tooling&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Static site generators are awesome, but it would be great to have an accessible &lt;em&gt;feed generator&lt;/em&gt; that allows for non-technical people to create feeds with an intuitive application. The feed generator could have plug-ins to automatically integrate with a variety of web-hosts to make going online significantly easier.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;New media&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There&amp;rsquo;s opportunity to leverage completely different multimedia beyond just news and podcasts. RSS feeds support anything you can link to, so other opportunities like announcements, surveys, or even VR experiences are all possibilities. There is a great deal of software that quietly supports them, that can be used in interesting ways. For example, PeerTube supports RSS feeds for channels. This means that even without using the Fediverse, or even PeerTube itself, you can use a podcast app to have your own independent media experience. &lt;a href=&#34;https://antennapod.org/&#34;&gt;Antennapod&lt;/a&gt; is excellent for this.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Enhancing the ecosystem&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Some very low-hanging fruit would be updating existing RSS feeds to have a helpful style where they don&amp;rsquo;t at the moment. By enhancing discovery, indexing, ranking and aggregation features, there is a phenomenal amount of opportunity left yet untapped.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;further-reading&#34;&gt;Further Reading:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.system-overload.org/apps/rss-reader.html&#34;&gt;The best RSS Reader Apps&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification&#34;&gt;RSS 2.0 Specification&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://podcastindex.org/apps?appTypes=open+source&#34;&gt;Podcast apps&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/reclaiming-cyberspace/&#34;&gt;Reclaiming Territory in Cyberspace&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Save yourself time with a &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/best-website-for-you/&#34;&gt;static website generator&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>HTML Redirects &amp; CSS grids.</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/css-grids-and-redirects/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/css-grids-and-redirects/</guid>
+		<description>Cool tricks for static sites.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;css-grids&#34;&gt;CSS Grids&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I intended to do a more ambitious overhaul of my site, but I decided against it when I realized I could accomplish what I wanted much simpler. Instead of using a flexbox layout like before, I learned that I could use a &lt;a href=&#34;https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/CSS/CSS_layout/Grids&#34;&gt;CSS grid layout.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/css-grid-layout.webm&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;p&gt;CSS grids have some interesting properties, the most useful one is that you can rearrange parts of the site in to specific locations. This is useful for making this site play nicely with mobile/portrait layouts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;heres-the-layout-code-for-the-site-as-it-is-now&#34;&gt;Here&amp;rsquo;s the layout code for the site as it is now.&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;highlight&#34;&gt;&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34; style=&#34;color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;&#34;&gt;&lt;code class=&#34;language-css&#34; data-lang=&#34;css&#34;&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;main&lt;/span&gt; {
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;display&lt;/span&gt;:&lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid&lt;/span&gt;;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid-template-areas&lt;/span&gt;:
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;        &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#34;header header header&amp;#34;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;        &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#34;side1 content side2&amp;#34;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;        &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#34;footer footer footer&amp;#34;&lt;/span&gt;;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid-template-columns&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#ae81ff&#34;&gt;1&lt;/span&gt;fr &lt;span style=&#34;color:#ae81ff&#34;&gt;3&lt;/span&gt;fr &lt;span style=&#34;color:#ae81ff&#34;&gt;1&lt;/span&gt;fr;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid-template-rows&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#ae81ff&#34;&gt;20&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;%&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#ae81ff&#34;&gt;60&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;%&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#ae81ff&#34;&gt;20&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;%&lt;/span&gt;;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;max-width&lt;/span&gt;:&lt;span style=&#34;color:#ae81ff&#34;&gt;100&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;vw&lt;/span&gt;;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;justify-items&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;center&lt;/span&gt;;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;gap&lt;/span&gt;:&lt;span style=&#34;color:#ae81ff&#34;&gt;20&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;px&lt;/span&gt;;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;}
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;header&lt;/span&gt;{
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid-area&lt;/span&gt;: header;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;}
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;#content {
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid-area&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;content&lt;/span&gt;;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;}
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;#side1{&lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid-area&lt;/span&gt;: side1;}
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;#side2{&lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid-area&lt;/span&gt;: side2;}
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;footer&lt;/span&gt;{&lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid-area&lt;/span&gt;: footer;} 
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Pretty simple, I have the homepage content in the center and two sidebars on the side. In hugo, the sidebars are each their own partials that can be modified on their own. The magic comes in when I add a portrait layout media query:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;highlight&#34;&gt;&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34; style=&#34;color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;&#34;&gt;&lt;code class=&#34;language-css&#34; data-lang=&#34;css&#34;&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;@&lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;media&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;screen&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;and&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;orientation&lt;/span&gt;:&lt;span style=&#34;color:#a6e22e&#34;&gt;portrait&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;)&lt;/span&gt; {
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;main&lt;/span&gt; {
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;        &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;display&lt;/span&gt;:&lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid&lt;/span&gt;;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;        &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid-template-areas&lt;/span&gt;:
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;            &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#34;header&amp;#34;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;            &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#34;content&amp;#34;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;            &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#34;side1&amp;#34;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;            &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#34;side2&amp;#34;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;            &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#34;footer&amp;#34;&lt;/span&gt;;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;        &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid-template-columns&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#ae81ff&#34;&gt;1&lt;/span&gt;fr; 
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;        &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid-template-rows&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;auto&lt;/span&gt;;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    }
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;header&lt;/span&gt;{
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;        &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid-area&lt;/span&gt;: header;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    }
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    #content {
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;        &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid-area&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;content&lt;/span&gt;;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    }
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    #side1{&lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid-area&lt;/span&gt;: side1;}
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    #side2{&lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid-area&lt;/span&gt;: side2;}
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;footer&lt;/span&gt;{&lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;grid-area&lt;/span&gt;: footer;}
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;}
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;And voila! All the content is arranged into a single column but in a &lt;em&gt;different order&lt;/em&gt; than they are declared in html. This is useful because it allows me to move the sidebars to after the main content when in portrait mode. I can imagine there are much more sophisticated layouts but it will take time to really design something interesting.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;using-your-own-static-site-as-a-link-shortener&#34;&gt;Using your own static site as a link shortener.&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If your site has a short domain (or shorter than your other domains) you can use a simple trick to redirect browsers&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I noticed on this &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/w/gXn7hfGvWNKCqySW2SQPa4&#34;&gt;Peertube Channel&lt;/a&gt; he has a variety of redirects pointed at various links with easy to remember links. You can replicate this without touching your webserver config while using &lt;a href=&#34;https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Redirections#html_redirections&#34;&gt;an html redirect.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;step-1-create-a-folder-for-your-location&#34;&gt;Step 1 Create a folder for your location&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For example, instead of just linking &lt;code&gt;https://mk.gabe.rocks/@gabriel&lt;/code&gt; (my fediverse profiel) I can instead create a link at &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/fedi&#34;&gt;gabe.rocks/fedi&lt;/a&gt;.
+Since I&amp;rsquo;m using hugo I&amp;rsquo;ll create the &lt;code&gt;fedi&lt;/code&gt; folder in the static directory, but if you&amp;rsquo;re managing your site directly you can just create the folder at the root.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;step-2-create-your-index-file&#34;&gt;Step 2 Create your index file&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You&amp;rsquo;ll need an &lt;code&gt;index.html&lt;/code&gt; file so that the pretty link works nicely. Here&amp;rsquo;s an example.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;highlight&#34;&gt;&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34; style=&#34;color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;&#34;&gt;&lt;code class=&#34;language-html&#34; data-lang=&#34;html&#34;&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;lt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;html&lt;/span&gt;&amp;gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;lt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;head&lt;/span&gt;&amp;gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;lt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;meta&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#a6e22e&#34;&gt;http-equiv&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#34;refresh&amp;#34;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#a6e22e&#34;&gt;content&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#34;0; url=YOUR_URL_HERE&amp;#34;&lt;/span&gt; /&amp;gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;lt;/&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;head&lt;/span&gt;&amp;gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;lt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;body&lt;/span&gt;&amp;gt;Attempting to redirect, if this fails &amp;lt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;a&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#a6e22e&#34;&gt;href&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#34;YOUR_URL_HERE_AGAIN&amp;#34;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;gt;click here&amp;lt;/&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;a&lt;/span&gt;&amp;gt;.
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;lt;/&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;body&lt;/span&gt;&amp;gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;lt;/&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;html&lt;/span&gt;&amp;gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Upcoming Site changes &#43; Personal Note</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/2024-03-updates/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 29 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/2024-03-updates/</guid>
+		<description></description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;site-changes&#34;&gt;Site Changes&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;TL:DR: Site redesign incoming, expect links to break and a new look in the near future. The RSS feed at /rss will stay the same.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m not overly happy with the current design. I&amp;rsquo;m thinking that while I do the work of properly documenting the hugo themes I use, I&amp;rsquo;ll also work to completely revamp this site&amp;rsquo;s theme visually. I feel I have a decent grasp of how to use CSS, but I don&amp;rsquo;t really have the faintest clue what to use it for.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The sidebar design is interesting, but I&amp;rsquo;m terrible at making the header/sidebar component look interesting and useful but still keep it customizable. The new plan is to build the hugo theme with a straightforward concept: the home page is designed with various shortcode widgets and combinations of them that allows for easily switching. This way, individual components can be overwritten but maintains the rest of the properties of the theme. This is all about building on the concept I discovered in &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/big-brain-hugo/&#34;&gt;big brained hugo&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/hugo-plan.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;designer-tools&#34;&gt;Designer tools?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I toyed around with a designer tool &lt;a href=&#34;https://penpot.app/&#34;&gt;penpot&lt;/a&gt; that I found when I stumbled on the &lt;a href=&#34;https://creativefreedomsummit.com/&#34;&gt;Creative Freedom Summit&lt;/a&gt;. Unfortunately I don&amp;rsquo;t think it beats what can be done with inkscape, a browser, and an IDE. Sure having everything in one program is nice, but I think for what I&amp;rsquo;m trying to accomplish it&amp;rsquo;s not quite refined. In addition to this, penpot requires you to host the service even when running from flatpak, it would be nice if the desktop application optionally included an &amp;ldquo;offline&amp;rdquo; version.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;pi-server-20&#34;&gt;Pi Server 2.0?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My Raspberry Pi 5 now boots from usb because I ordered the new official power supply. The Pi5 needs 5A at 5.1v to even attempt to boot from usb so don&amp;rsquo;t try fiddling around with different chargers that don&amp;rsquo;t provide that. Given that I don&amp;rsquo;t support a lot of users I would &lt;em&gt;like&lt;/em&gt; to host everything I run from the pi5 but there are a few hiccups. The biggest problem is that it&amp;rsquo;s not quite enough for transcoding large PeerTube videos. What I&amp;rsquo;d really love to do is to configure this pi5 and leave it with a relative with some storage and have a remote backup server.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;personal-update&#34;&gt;Personal Update&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;quit-diet-soda-cold-turkey-&#34;&gt;Quit Diet Soda &amp;lsquo;Cold Turkey&amp;rsquo; 🎉&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Three weeks ago from today, I was down to my last 2L bottle of coke zero, and decided I would commit to leaving it untouched. Three difficult weeks later the same bottle is still there. Instead of entirely eliminating the temptation by removing it or throwing it out, the point was to acclimate myself to refusing to have it. This was quite a challenge for me. I&amp;rsquo;ve struggled with being exceedingly dependent on the caffeine I would get from drinking insane amounts of diet soda. Predictably, I&amp;rsquo;ve slipped on other bad habits like eating more and snacking more in general. I still consider this a victory as I can work on those while I maintain that objective.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m definitely not unaware of the various health concerns related to diet soda. High caffeine intake isn&amp;rsquo;t ideal, in addition to this the artificial sweeteners have their own potential issues. Originally, I thought it would help mitigate risks from having regular soda. Unfortunately switching to diet soda has not helped me at all in the last few years, and going back to calorie-dense soda is a non-starter. I&amp;rsquo;ve wondered more and more about why diet soda contributes to weight gain despite artificial sweeteners having trivial calorie counts. I don&amp;rsquo;t have any academic proof, but based off my personal experience I would argue that consuming large amounts of diet soda creates these problems that interfere with weight loss directly:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Impacts proper digestion&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I can only speculate what the actual mechanism is, but I have a feeling you get less out of the food you do eat when constantly over-caffeinated.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Increases anxiety/stress&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you eat for comfort, making the problems worse will only make your eating worse.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ruins sleep&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, it&amp;rsquo;s very hard to live an active and healthy life late into the night when one isn&amp;rsquo;t very mobile. Arguably, sleeping well is the most productive thing an unhealthy person can do during the night.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To say nothing of other more complicated effects&amp;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;gone-swimmin-&#34;&gt;Gone Swimmin&amp;rsquo; 🌊&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve also been making significant progress on maintaining by mobility throughout the winter months, it is springtime now and I&amp;rsquo;ve still gone swimming on a regular basis for the last few weeks, before then I was doing more walking. I&amp;rsquo;ve come into a lot more time over the next little while, so the plan is to (metaphorically) hit the ground running, doubling down on exercise. I&amp;rsquo;ve been gifted a significant amount of time to really make progress so I&amp;rsquo;m optimistic for this spring.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>What&#39;s up with webtorrent?</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/webtorrent/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/webtorrent/</guid>
+		<description></description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://webtorrent.io&#34;&gt;Webtorrent&lt;/a&gt; has been around for a while, and torrents have been around since 2001. Webtorrent is a big part of the reason why I found PeerTube so exciting. Outside of streaming PeerTube videos, and downloading a linux install ISO, the technology itself seems to be under-utilized. Many fediverse fans want to see webtorrents used to distribute all media, which would significantly help smaller servers, but that would require building in suport to each server.&lt;br&gt;
+This lead me to a &lt;a href=&#34;https://mk.gabe.rocks/notes/9q2z24ld3m&#34;&gt;simple question:&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Do [bit]torrent and webtorrent overlap at all?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Is there a torrent client that can seed both?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve seen a couple of unresolved issues on clients like qbittorrent, but I&amp;rsquo;m wondering if there&amp;rsquo;s one people use.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Same question, but also for the tracker side, is there tracker software that both clients can talk to?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;answering-the-question&#34;&gt;Answering the question:&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Short answer:&lt;/strong&gt; Yes, but&amp;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To revisit &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent&#34;&gt;the fundamentals,&lt;/a&gt; I&amp;rsquo;m going to give a basic summary of how torrents work:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A &lt;strong&gt;torrent file&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;magnet link&lt;/strong&gt; will provide a client with the hash of the file(s) requested, as well as any &lt;strong&gt;trackers&lt;/strong&gt; or &lt;strong&gt;webseeds&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Torrent Clients&lt;/strong&gt; will request &lt;strong&gt;peers&lt;/strong&gt; from trackers that list where the other peers are.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Trackers can be contacted through &lt;strong&gt;UDP&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;HTTP/HTTPS&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;Websockets&lt;/strong&gt; (for webtorrent).&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Torrent clients will then request data from their peers. If they can communicate the peers who have the data will &lt;strong&gt;seed&lt;/strong&gt; the file(s) too the client requesting the data. On webtorr&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This means that for downloads to succeed, you need at least:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A tracker that lists peers&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Peers that can communicate with each other&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For some very popular torrents, it&amp;rsquo;s highly likely that both BitTorrent clients and webtorrent clients will be able to download the files regardless. This is because with many trackers and many peers, it&amp;rsquo;s very easy to find lots of overlap.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The challenge for those trying to distribute new torrents (such as their own work or archives) seeding from a single client may often not be enough. This is because despite the libtorrent library &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/arvidn/libtorrent/pull/4123&#34;&gt;supporting&lt;/a&gt; communication with webrtc peer, torrent clients like qBittorrent &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/issues/4163#issuecomment-652467673&#34;&gt;still don&amp;rsquo;t support it.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;recommendations-for-distributing-your-own-files-via-bittorrent--webtorrent&#34;&gt;Recommendations for distributing your own files via BitTorrent &amp;amp; webtorrent:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Host your own tracker that supports at least websockets and either UDP/http(s) &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/webtorrent/bittorrent-tracker&#34;&gt;bittorrent-tracker&lt;/a&gt; is a good pick, but I&amp;rsquo;m also wondering if &lt;a href=&#34;https://torrust.com/&#34;&gt;torrust&lt;/a&gt; supports websockets.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Ensure you&amp;rsquo;re seeding from both a webtorrent client and a regular BitTorrent client until there is a client that allows seeding to both.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Make sure the torrent/magnet you&amp;rsquo;re distributing includes a good variety of trackers, such as a good mix of https &amp;amp; websocket (wss://) trackers.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Make use of webseeds! A webseed allows peers to download the files from URLs. For bootstrapping webtorrent peers, it&amp;rsquo;s a no-brainer!&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;additional-thoughts&#34;&gt;Additional thoughts&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;DHT probably helps a ton once more than a couple people are seeding.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Many sites like archive.org &amp;amp; peertube use v1 hashes instead of &lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.libtorrent.org/2020/09/bittorrent-v2/&#34;&gt;BitTorrent v2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Webtorrent may work well on static sites, I may experiement with the &lt;a href=&#34;https://webtorrent.io/docs&#34;&gt;file.getBlob&lt;/a&gt; feature to see how doable it is.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Misskey clips are really handy, it&amp;rsquo;s like having your own curated online forum powered by interactions on the fediverse. I&amp;rsquo;ve set one up for these kinds of &lt;a href=&#34;https://mk.gabe.rocks/clips/9q371gqc65&#34;&gt;Q&amp;amp;A style posts.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Non-linear Progress</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/non-linear-progress/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 08 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/non-linear-progress/</guid>
+		<description>Why improving your life can be really challenging</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;One of the things I&amp;rsquo;m trying to do here is illustrate my challenges of getting better from &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/health/2023-resolutions/&#34;&gt;this point&lt;/a&gt; in hopes of helping other far-gone individuals. Undoing damage is not gratifying at all, at least not in the early stages I&amp;rsquo;m in. It&amp;rsquo;s very easy for me to focus on recent mistakes and get demoralized with the process. It&amp;rsquo;s very easy for me to beat myself up over mistakes and allow the self-hatred to derial other improvements. I have been given help tracking improvements which has helped contextualize failures and successes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If I take it as a big picture, I do think I have made meaningful improvements over the last three months. I have walked every day in the last week, and my daily eating and sleeping has improved significantly. I am frustrated however that I have found it a big challenge to dedicate the time to ride the bus to go swimming. Walking instead of just wallowing in self-pity over not going has helped, but I do fully intend to return to the pool.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve also taken to soothing my addiction to sugar with frozen berries, specifically blackberries. It does seem to help a great deal so I am likely going to stick with it until I am sick of it. While I have definitely avoided consuming too many sweets over the last short while, I haven&amp;rsquo;t made complete progress on portions, so I am in no way done improving my eating habits. Some days are ideal, some are far from it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A huge change is that for the first time in a long time I am regularly awake during the day. For most of my adult life I have been used to staying up late. This accellerated after I started working nights, and meant that sleep had always been a challenge. Now I am a &amp;ldquo;daytimer&amp;rdquo; most days, which is very different from being awake until morning being the norm rather than the exception.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;summary&#34;&gt;Summary&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve made progress in some areas, and fallen behind in others.&lt;br&gt;
+Here is a non-scientific self-assessment demonstrating what I&amp;rsquo;ve been tracking:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2024-q1-chart.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    Sleep has definitely helped my productivity, I just need to keep reinvesting it better. 
+
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-good&#34;&gt;The Good&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sleep:&lt;/strong&gt; Started awful, has improved a lot.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Eating:&lt;/strong&gt; Started terrible, has improves fairly.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Walking:&lt;/strong&gt; Wasn&amp;rsquo;t walking much at all, now walking regularly.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-bad&#34;&gt;The Bad&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Swimming:&lt;/strong&gt; Started Great, but has fallen off.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Writing:&lt;/strong&gt; Has stayed consistent, but hasn&amp;rsquo;t improved.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reading:&lt;/strong&gt; Made some progress, but fell behind.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;other-things-i-should-consider-tracking&#34;&gt;Other things I should consider tracking:&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Stress management:&lt;/strong&gt; Stress locks me into bad habits&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Screen time:&lt;/strong&gt; &amp;hellip;Yeah&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;additional-thoughts&#34;&gt;Additional Thoughts&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I had realized that part of the reason I haven&amp;rsquo;t done quite as well as I had hoped is that I am under a serious time crunch. In response to this I am cutting back on my work hours specifically to devote more time to this. I am realizing that it&amp;rsquo;s very easy for me to fill up my schedule to avoid thinking any of this through. I am grateful I have the luxury of being able to reduce my working hours, and cut back on fixed time commitments that were above-and-beyond what I should have expected myself to take on. Part of this is that I&amp;rsquo;m still finding time management quite a struggle.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I am hoping a quarter from now I will have much better news. Given that I&amp;rsquo;m giving myself more time to focus on it, I&amp;rsquo;m optimistic. I am committed to the goal of getting better but I&amp;rsquo;m still very disheartened and overwhelmed by just how far there is to go. I haven&amp;rsquo;t lost any weight over this period which is unsurprising. I am hoping that will change throughout the year.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div style=&#34;width:100%&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;table style=&#34;font-size:14px;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;th colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h2 style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;📉 Weight Tracker&lt;/h2&gt;
+            &lt;/th&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Starting Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Current Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weight Lost&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goal Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;576&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;379.6&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;196.4&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;15% BF&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h3 style=&#34;font-size:x-large;&#34;&gt;2025 Goal: 200lbs in 2025 challenge&lt;/h3&gt;
+                &lt;div
+                    style=&#34;border:3px solid var(--color-accent);align-items: flex-start;justify-content: flex-start;margin:5px;border-radius:15px;overflow: hidden;&#34;&gt;
+                    &lt;div style=&#34;width:49.7%;padding:10px;background-color:var(--color-accent);color:black;font-weight: bolder;font-size:larger;&#34;&gt;49.7%
+                    &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;p style=&#34;margin:5px;text-align: left;width:fit-content;font-size:large;&#34;&gt;This year&#39;s goal is to lose &lt;strong&gt;200lbs&lt;/strong&gt; in 2025!&lt;br&gt;Current progress: &lt;strong&gt;99.4lbs&lt;/strong&gt; out of 200!
+                &lt;br&gt;A bit behind schedule! 😓&lt;/p&gt;
+            &lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34; style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;Last updated: 2025-07-06&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+    &lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div&gt;
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Resume</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/resume/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/resume/</guid>
+		<description>About Gabriel</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h1 id=&#34;independent-guerilla-it-technician&#34;&gt;Independent Guerilla IT Technician&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Currently available for work&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;experience&#34;&gt;Experience&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Over 10 years of customer support&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Including 6 years of technical customer support&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Sole operator of the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;Libre Solutions Network&lt;/a&gt; multi-media project.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Administrator of &lt;a href=&#34;https://cyberfreedom.ca&#34;&gt;Canadian Cyber Freedom&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;1 year as Co-producer of the &lt;a href=&#34;https://rumble.com/c/RoundingTheEarth&#34;&gt;Rounding The Earth&lt;/a&gt; show on Rumble.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Six months working as Technical Editor for &lt;a href=&#34;https://av24.org&#34;&gt;American Values 2024&lt;/a&gt; working on &lt;a href=&#34;https://thekennedybeacon.substack.com/&#34;&gt;The Kennedy Beacon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;See my current &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel&#34;&gt;projects&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;skills&#34;&gt;Skills&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Web Skills
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;HTML&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;CSS&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Javascript
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Alpine.js&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Vue.js (basics)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://vanilla-js.com/&#34;&gt;Vanilla.js&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Optimizing for Tor &amp;amp; I2P&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Python
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Flask Web Development&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Browser automation&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Linux system administration of a variety of services including:
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Matrix&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;PeerTube&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Nginx&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Docker and &lt;code&gt;docker build&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Shell scripting with &lt;code&gt;bash&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Hosting Services over Tor &amp;amp; I2P&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Version control with &lt;code&gt;git&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.nngroup.com/articles/computer-skill-levels/&#34;&gt;Level 3&lt;/a&gt; computer skill&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;software-experience&#34;&gt;Software Experience&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While I am familiar with many &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.fsf.org/about/what-is-free-software&#34;&gt;non-free&lt;/a&gt; alternatives, I prefer to work using these tools.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;LibreOffice
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Calc (Spreadsheets)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Impress (Presentations)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Writer (Documents)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Inkscape&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Thunderbird (Mail Client)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;OBS Studio (Streaming)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Blender
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;3d modeling for 3D Printing&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Basic Animations&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Video Editing&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;FreeCAD (parametric 3D modeling)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;DrawIO (Diagrams)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Audacity (Audio Editing)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;media-production&#34;&gt;Media Production&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Streaming with Streamyard&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Scheduling streams for a variety of platforms&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Brand asset creation in Inkscape&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;want-to-get-in-touch&#34;&gt;Want to get in touch?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Here are some of the best ways to &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/get-in-touch/&#34;&gt;get in touch with me.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+Of course you can always follow me &lt;a href=&#34;https://mk.gabe.rocks/@gabriel&#34;&gt;@gabriel@mk.gabe.rocks&lt;/a&gt; on the &lt;a href=&#34;https://jointhefedi.com/&#34;&gt;fediverse&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These links are to text files with up-to-date information:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/e-mail.txt&#34;&gt;Email&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/mail.txt&#34;&gt;Mail&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/matrix.txt&#34;&gt;Matrix&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/xmpp.txt&#34;&gt;XMPP&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>First Steps: New Years Resolutions 2023</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/health/2023-resolutions/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 09 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/health/2023-resolutions/</guid>
+		<description>A new chapter of taking on difficult challenges</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;This is more about me than I would usually share. I&amp;rsquo;m choosing to share this in an attempt to be more accountable to myself, but also to point back to as I try to go into more detail about the journey moving forward. If you know someone who&amp;rsquo;s struggling with their weight, please be as patient and compassionate as you can. If you&amp;rsquo;re struggling with your weight, please try not to project your own self-loathing on other people. In all situations, being proactive can go a long way.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many people don&amp;rsquo;t need to be told this, but for those that do: &lt;strong&gt;never compromise on your health&lt;/strong&gt;. A healthy, mobile body is a gift that should never be taken for granted. Do not fall into the trap of trading it away for temporary comfort or career advancement. I don&amp;rsquo;t recommend working nights if you can avoid it, and this includes staying up all night for recreation. If your lifestyle is causing you to gain weight beyond a healthy range, seriously consider taking proactive steps to make change. No matter what, it&amp;rsquo;s always worth your time to enjoy exercise to keep you mobile.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;looking-back-on-2023&#34;&gt;Looking back on 2023&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;2023 has been a wild year for me. Much of it has passed in a blur. I started the year with no job, lots of stress, mostly running purely on hope and faith. Over the last few years, I&amp;rsquo;ve gone from struggling to get anything done, to finally being productive again. Not only am I working full-time with a few projects, but I&amp;rsquo;ve also been able to start making serious strides in taking better care of my health. I&amp;rsquo;ve made some great friends in the last year, so I have a much better support network this year than I started it with. I feel like many things have aligned in a way that put me in a great position to make real transformative change.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2023-resolutions/nci2.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I would be a liar if I said it was all me or all my will that got me making progress again. I can admit to not being strong-willed in the slightest. Over many years, many bad habits have built up in ways that are very difficult for me to unravel. My point is that I&amp;rsquo;ve gotten a lot of serious support from those around me. I am blessed to have had the people in my life that I do, and their generous time, and work has gone a long way. It&amp;rsquo;s hard to be my size, but it&amp;rsquo;s also hard for those around someone like me. I think one of the major reasons people in my situation don&amp;rsquo;t fare well is that people hardly have the slack to devote to helping them turn it around, and even when it is the case; built-up guilt and shame can make one unable to accept the help necessary.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/gaining-fat.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/gaining-fat.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+&lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt;
+    🤔 It&amp;#39;s anyone&amp;#39;s guess how it got this bad. 
+
+&lt;/p&gt;
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Something I feel that&amp;rsquo;s important to share is that the reasons for someone getting as large as I am are rarely simple. There is no quick-fix for a decade of gradual emotional and physical decline gone unaddressed. Self-loathing and loss of mobility are a combination that literally have and will kill. I&amp;rsquo;ve decided to document this recent attempt to turn things around and share what I think helped got me to this point. I wish I could say this progress started with a &amp;ldquo;just do it&amp;rdquo; moment, but it&amp;rsquo;s something that I&amp;rsquo;ve had to grow back into.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve attempted to lose weight before. I made great strides, I lost 80lbs a few years back, mostly through keto and cycling. Unfortunately, I gained that back as old pressures and old habits overcame me. Struggling with the guilt of regaining the weight, I sought out weight loss counselling. To my dismay, I was told they couldn&amp;rsquo;t help me when I started to explain my situation as I understood it. Then as I floundered and gained more weight I eventually started going to a gym with my twin brother to help me learn how to start, only to have it all shut down when the covid lockdowns started.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I truly cannot express the full extent of horror, rage, and sadness I have over how the entire covid crisis was handled and the effect it had on many people. This post isn&amp;rsquo;t about that, but I highlight it to bring to your attention that there are surely many other people who had it much worse than I did. I don&amp;rsquo;t think many have truly healed from what was done to them through isolation, fear, and medical malpractice.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;current-weight-500lbs&#34;&gt;Current Weight: &amp;gt;500lbs&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Yep, it&amp;rsquo;s a big number. So many things that one would take for granted, like getting up in the morning, going up stairs, even walking moderate distances are a serious challenge for me. I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed that for every 100lbs I gained, things got much more challenging in ways I wouldn&amp;rsquo;t have imagined. Breaking things is always a depressing reminder that you&amp;rsquo;ve gone too far, same with every time you try to find bigger and bigger clothes. Surprisingly, clothes you&amp;rsquo;ve had for years are stretched to still fit, yet you&amp;rsquo;ll struggle to find things to fit within your size. Hygiene is a big issue, I&amp;rsquo;ve gone from needing a shower a day to remain comfortable, to requiring multiple to avoid&amp;hellip;problems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2023-resolutions/heavy.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite all this, in many ways I feel blessed. I&amp;rsquo;m quite lucky to have made it this far. I suffered a stroke a few years back that has permanently impacted my vision, but it could have been fatal or left me with a more serious injury. I think the only thing that has saved me from being bed-ridden permanently is the fact that the one thing I maintained so far was the ability to walk despite the weight gain. Unfortunately, it&amp;rsquo;s gotten to the point where I really can&amp;rsquo;t walk very far. It&amp;rsquo;s not that I get tired, but the pain definitely gets me. Not only that but winter is starting, facing Canadian winter is difficult on top of related problems like slipping on the ice.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2023-resolutions/dreams.mp4&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//images/2023-resolutions/dreams.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;whats-changing&#34;&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s changing?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Over the last year, I&amp;rsquo;ve made attempts to proactively make myself better food instead of sticking to what&amp;rsquo;s comfortable. Ironically it&amp;rsquo;s not the time preparing that takes the most time, but rather overcoming the immense temptation drains a lot of focus. I&amp;rsquo;ve had mixed results with that, some weeks it helps a great deal, other weeks it feels like too much. Overall I still need to find ways to make it simpler for myself and keep up the habit. Over the last few months, desperation has set in over my lack of mobility, so I&amp;rsquo;ve come up with a solution.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The following photos are from a pool that I&amp;rsquo;ve started going to. There&amp;rsquo;s a pool I used to go to that only requires me only to walk to the closest bus stop, then the rest of the way is essentially all indoors. This means I don&amp;rsquo;t have to worry about slipping on ice, it being too cold, or anything like that. It also means I can get there on my own without requiring anyone else&amp;rsquo;s assistance. It&amp;rsquo;s a bit of a trip, but even getting there is like a workout for me. The pool also has a gym that I can use as well, which will help a lot in the long run.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2023-resolutions/body.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2023-resolutions/body.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2023-resolutions/body2.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/2023-resolutions/body2.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Having only gone twice a week for the last three weeks I can&amp;rsquo;t report any crazy improvement. I am already seeing reassuring signs though. I&amp;rsquo;m becoming more comfortable with the journey and I&amp;rsquo;m noticing some basic things being slightly easier. As I said earlier, I feel like I just need to keep at it and that things will start to improve. I&amp;rsquo;ve got a lot of work to do and I&amp;rsquo;m trying to be patient with the fact that it will take time. Ideally, I&amp;rsquo;d like to find time to move up to three times a week, hopefully soon!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;some-motivational-videos&#34;&gt;Some Motivational Videos&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s good to have reminders that it&amp;rsquo;s not hopeless. There are people who have overcome this and many other troubles. I&amp;rsquo;ve found inspiration in these, and I hope others can too.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve gotta learn dance moves from &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/dancing-boy.mp4&#34;&gt;this guy!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/sharing/motivation/fight2live.mp4&#34;&gt;punching bag&lt;/a&gt; looks like a smart idea.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Got others? Please &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/resume/#want-to-get-in-touch&#34;&gt;send me&lt;/a&gt; a link!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;the-resolutions&#34;&gt;The Resolutions&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;health&#34;&gt;Health&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Continue to go swimming at least 2x weekly.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Improve meal planning&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Live in the moment more&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Appreciate and focus on prayer.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Sleep more consistently&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Part of this, is that I hope to write more about my weight loss journey.&lt;br&gt;
+There&amp;rsquo;s a &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tags/weight&#34;&gt;tag&lt;/a&gt; for it if you&amp;rsquo;re curious.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;writing-more&#34;&gt;Writing more&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve found writing to be helpful, but I need to do it more. Like many other positive changes I&amp;rsquo;m struggling to properly nurture the habit. It&amp;rsquo;s not a super-high priority, but I&amp;rsquo;d like to get into the flow of regularly writing in my journal every day. For the last few months, everything I&amp;rsquo;ve written has been public, and I think that&amp;rsquo;s a bit of a mistake. Ideally I think my public writing should be the best subset of a larger collection of writing I do.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;reading-more&#34;&gt;Reading more&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;d definitely read a lot less than I had intended this last year. Part of it is that I&amp;rsquo;ve become much more busy than I had anticipated. That said, I&amp;rsquo;ve collected a couple of books that I&amp;rsquo;m looking forward to spending time with. One book I&amp;rsquo;m really interested in reading is &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/21487729&#34;&gt;Guilt, Shame, and Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming Negative Emotions&lt;/a&gt; by Peter Breggin. Early last year I read &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60141466-stop-overthinking&#34;&gt;How To Stop Overthinking And Start Living&lt;/a&gt; which I think helped frame things for me a bit.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m always interested in book recommendations, fiction and non-fiction alike!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div style=&#34;width:100%&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;table style=&#34;font-size:14px;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;th colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h2 style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;📉 Weight Tracker&lt;/h2&gt;
+            &lt;/th&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Starting Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Current Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Weight Lost&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Goal Weight&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;576&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;379.6&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;196.4&lt;/td&gt;
+            &lt;td&gt;15% BF&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34;&gt;
+                &lt;h3 style=&#34;font-size:x-large;&#34;&gt;2025 Goal: 200lbs in 2025 challenge&lt;/h3&gt;
+                &lt;div
+                    style=&#34;border:3px solid var(--color-accent);align-items: flex-start;justify-content: flex-start;margin:5px;border-radius:15px;overflow: hidden;&#34;&gt;
+                    &lt;div style=&#34;width:49.7%;padding:10px;background-color:var(--color-accent);color:black;font-weight: bolder;font-size:larger;&#34;&gt;49.7%
+                    &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;/div&gt;
+                &lt;p style=&#34;margin:5px;text-align: left;width:fit-content;font-size:large;&#34;&gt;This year&#39;s goal is to lose &lt;strong&gt;200lbs&lt;/strong&gt; in 2025!&lt;br&gt;Current progress: &lt;strong&gt;99.4lbs&lt;/strong&gt; out of 200!
+                &lt;br&gt;A bit behind schedule! 😓&lt;/p&gt;
+            &lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+        &lt;tr&gt;
+            &lt;td colspan=&#34;4&#34; style=&#34;text-align: center;&#34;&gt;Last updated: 2025-07-06&lt;/td&gt;
+        &lt;/tr&gt;
+    &lt;/table&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div&gt;
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Big-brained hugo time</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/big-brain-hugo/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 25 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/big-brain-hugo/</guid>
+		<description></description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I had no idea that hugo shortcodes could &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.ii.com/hugo-call-partial-from-shortcode/&#34;&gt;call partials&lt;/a&gt;. I&amp;rsquo;m going to try to integrate this more into my themes. Partials can call each other too, which is very handy. Meaning that you can reuse these modular components even more. This is important to me because I want my themes to be usable by someone without any knowledge of hugo internals. There are a lot of great hugo themes out there, but I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed many of them make heavy use of the &lt;code&gt;data&lt;/code&gt; folder and custom parameters. I think this gets in the way of wider adoption because ideally, most things would be configurable from the &lt;code&gt;.md&lt;/code&gt; files or the site&amp;rsquo;s config file.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is just an opinion, but I would argue that &lt;em&gt;progressive enhancement&lt;/em&gt; should apply to how the site is built as well. If somebody just wants to change their site&amp;rsquo;s basic colors, images, and move some components around, the explanations would ideally be quite simple. That said, I&amp;rsquo;ve fallen behind on documenting my themes. Partly because I&amp;rsquo;ve got a bit of an overhaul pending. Of course, anyone who &lt;em&gt;does understand hugo&lt;/em&gt; wouldn&amp;rsquo;t have any issues getting started, but I&amp;rsquo;m sure they&amp;rsquo;d have an equal chance of loving or hating my choices.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Using that knowledge, I&amp;rsquo;ve created a couple of shortcodes that I&amp;rsquo;m going to port to the base themes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;recent-audio&#34;&gt;Recent Audio&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I like this one, after I rebuild my html5 audio/video players I may upgrade to these. All things considered, I don&amp;rsquo;t think there&amp;rsquo;s anything wrong with the default audio player. This shortcode is very simple, I just include &amp;ldquo;{{&amp;lt;podcast&amp;gt;}}&amp;rdquo; into the markdown file.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div style=&#34;flex-direction:column;&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;div style=&#34;flex-wrap:wrap;width:100%;&#34;&gt;
+     
+    
+        &lt;div style=&#34;flex-direction:column;width:50%;min-width:400px;&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/big-brain-hugo/&#34;&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Big-brained hugo time&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    &lt;p&gt;Nov 25 2023&lt;/p&gt;
+    &lt;audio controls preload=&#34;none&#34; style=&#34;width:100%;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;source src=&#34;&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;/audio&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+     
+     
+     
+     
+     
+     
+    
+        &lt;div style=&#34;flex-direction:column;width:50%;min-width:400px;&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/big-brain-hugo/&#34;&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Big-brained hugo time&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    &lt;p&gt;Nov 25 2023&lt;/p&gt;
+    &lt;audio controls preload=&#34;none&#34; style=&#34;width:100%;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;source src=&#34;&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;/audio&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+     
+     
+    
+        &lt;div style=&#34;flex-direction:column;width:50%;min-width:400px;&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/big-brain-hugo/&#34;&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Big-brained hugo time&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
+    &lt;p&gt;Nov 25 2023&lt;/p&gt;
+    &lt;audio controls preload=&#34;none&#34; style=&#34;width:100%;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;source src=&#34;&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;/audio&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+     
+    
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;hero&#34;&gt;Hero&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m definitely going to steal this for the &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;libre solutions network&lt;/a&gt;, allowing for fancier elements to be copied between sites easily. Of course, this shortcode is more customizable.&lt;br&gt;
+The parameters are pretty straightforward:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;bg&lt;/code&gt;: background image, uses the theme&amp;rsquo;s accent color otherwise&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;title&lt;/code&gt;: The heading&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;description&lt;/code&gt;: Any text you want included&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;href&lt;/code&gt;: The link when the button is clicked&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;{{&amp;lt;hero &lt;code&gt;bg=&lt;/code&gt;&amp;quot;/images/mmbn-banner.webp&amp;quot; &lt;code&gt;img=&lt;/code&gt;&amp;quot;/favicon.png&amp;quot; &lt;code&gt;btn=&lt;/code&gt;&amp;ldquo;About Me&amp;rdquo; &lt;code&gt;href=&lt;/code&gt;&amp;quot;/resume&amp;quot; &lt;code&gt;title=&lt;/code&gt;&amp;ldquo;Gabriel&amp;rdquo; &lt;code&gt;description=&lt;/code&gt;&amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;m a passionate and curious Canadian 🇨🇦 with a fascination of Free Software and bottom-up strategies. ✝️ Through Him, all chains are broken  - Pray for love and peace always. 🕊️&amp;rdquo;&amp;gt;}}&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#39;hero&#39; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:row;background-image:url(&#39;/images/mmbn-banner.webp&#39;);background-size:cover;background-position:center center;width:100%;justify-content:space-evenly;flex-wrap:wrap;flex-direction:row&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;img src=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/favicon.png&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;div style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column;margin:0.5rem;padding:0.5rem;backdrop-filter:blur(0.15rem);border-radius:1.5rem;max-width:40rem;min-width:25%;align-items: center;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;h2 style=&#34;text-align:center&#34;&gt;Gabriel&lt;/h2&gt;
+        &lt;p&gt;I&amp;#39;m a passionate and curious Canadian 🇨🇦 with a fascination of Free Software and bottom-up strategies. ✝️ Through Him, all chains are broken  - Pray for love and peace always. 🕊️&lt;/p&gt;
+        
+        &lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/&#39;  target=&#34;_blank&#34;&gt;
+            
+            &lt;button style=&#34;margin-bottom:1rem;&#34;&gt;About Me&lt;/button&gt;
+            
+        &lt;/a&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;You can also reverse the order of items by adding &lt;code&gt;reverse=&amp;quot;1&amp;quot;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#39;hero&#39; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:row;background-image:url(&#39;/images/mmbn-banner.webp&#39;);background-size:cover;background-position:center center;width:100%;justify-content:space-evenly;flex-wrap:wrap;flex-direction:row-reverse&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;img src=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/favicon.png&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;div style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column;margin:0.5rem;padding:0.5rem;backdrop-filter:blur(0.15rem);border-radius:1.5rem;max-width:40rem;min-width:25%;align-items: center;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;h2 style=&#34;text-align:center&#34;&gt;Gabriel&lt;/h2&gt;
+        &lt;p&gt;I&amp;#39;m a passionate and curious Canadian 🇨🇦 with a fascination of Free Software and bottom-up strategies. ✝️ Through Him, all chains are broken  - Pray for love and peace always. 🕊️&lt;/p&gt;
+        
+        &lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/&#39;  target=&#34;_blank&#34;&gt;
+            
+            &lt;button style=&#34;margin-bottom:1rem;&#34;&gt;About Me&lt;/button&gt;
+            
+        &lt;/a&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m thinking it&amp;rsquo;s a handy way to make all kinds of pretty call-outs for things.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#39;hero&#39; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:row;background-image:url(&#39;/images/gardening/3-cropped.webp&#39;);background-size:cover;background-position:center center;width:100%;justify-content:space-evenly;flex-wrap:wrap;flex-direction:row-reverse&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;div style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column;margin:0.5rem;padding:0.5rem;backdrop-filter:blur(0.15rem);border-radius:1.5rem;max-width:40rem;min-width:25%;align-items: center;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;h2 style=&#34;text-align:center&#34;&gt;Potatoes&lt;/h2&gt;
+        &lt;p&gt;Planted in the backyard&lt;/p&gt;
+        
+        &lt;a href=&#39;#&#39;  target=&#34;_blank&#34;&gt;
+            
+            &lt;button style=&#34;margin-bottom:1rem;&#34;&gt;Grow&lt;/button&gt;
+            
+        &lt;/a&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+
+&lt;p&gt;Some fields are optional, but I&amp;rsquo;m working on improving the look and feel of limited ones.
+&lt;div class=&#39;hero&#39; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:row;width:100%;justify-content:space-evenly;flex-wrap:wrap;flex-direction:row&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;img src=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/favicon.png&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;div style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column;margin:0.5rem;padding:0.5rem;backdrop-filter:blur(0.15rem);border-radius:1.5rem;max-width:40rem;min-width:25%;align-items: center;&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;h2 style=&#34;text-align:center&#34;&gt;Back to the top!&lt;/h2&gt;
+        &lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+        
+        &lt;a href=&#39;#&#39;  target=&#34;_blank&#34;&gt;
+            
+            &lt;button style=&#34;margin-bottom:1rem;&#34;&gt;Back Home&lt;/button&gt;
+            
+        &lt;/a&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Fixing the PeerTube plugin on Grayjay</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/grayjay-peertube/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/grayjay-peertube/</guid>
+		<description>Adding remote video support to the Grayjay peertube Plugin</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Correction&lt;/strong&gt; I originally wrote that Grayjay was FOSS, &lt;a href=&#34;https://gitlab.futo.org/videostreaming/grayjay&#34;&gt;this isn&amp;rsquo;t true.&lt;/a&gt; Grayjay is simply source-available, even if the plugins actually are licensed under the GPL.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Grayjay appears to be intended to be a one-stop-shop for all of one&amp;rsquo;s digital consumption needs. It has support for YouTube, Rumble, Odysee, and others, but what got my attention was the &lt;a href=&#34;https://joinpeertube.org/&#34;&gt;PeerTube&lt;/a&gt; support.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I still don&amp;rsquo;t quite understand how plugins work under the hood. It seems that they inherit functionality from classes that provide standard interfaces for the client to use. Essentially the goal seems to be that every platform can be abstracted in the form of a plugin.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;the-official-plugin&#34;&gt;The Official Plugin&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The PeerTube plugin has some issues. It&amp;rsquo;s not &lt;a href=&#34;https://pluginhost.grayjay.app/peertube?url=https://peertube.futo.org&#34;&gt;immediately apparent&lt;/a&gt; how to use your own peertube instance instead of FUTOs. The &amp;ldquo;open in Grayjay&amp;rdquo; button just outright ignores whatever you add. So the easiest way to rectify that would be to hit the &amp;ldquo;copy link&amp;rdquo; button and open it from your android. If you&amp;rsquo;re having trouble with this, simply make a simple web link to the url with html, open it with the html viewer and click the link, or find a different way to send you the link as a hyperlink, just opening the link in your browser may not work.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;So once that&amp;rsquo;s taken care of local peertube videos will work great! As of writing this I haven&amp;rsquo;t tested casting, but I know casting from other platforms works so I assume there aren&amp;rsquo;t issues there. The problem is that &lt;em&gt;remote videos&lt;/em&gt; will all fail to load. When you open a link in grayjay it&amp;rsquo;s designed to choose a plugin that&amp;rsquo;s authorized to open it, the app doesn&amp;rsquo;t seem to understand that the peertube plugin works for all peertube sites.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thankfully there&amp;rsquo;s a fairly simple solution to this. The real reason remote videos fail is that the URL provided from the api call &lt;code&gt;/api/v1/videos/&lt;/code&gt; &lt;strong&gt;gives the remote url, not the local url&lt;/strong&gt;. This confuses grayjay because it doesn&amp;rsquo;t realize that it &lt;em&gt;can&lt;/em&gt; play the video.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;making-my-own&#34;&gt;Making my own&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You see, a remote video on peertube can be loaded from the instances URL. So I simple forked the plugin and changed how remote videos are loaded.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Shamefully copied from my &lt;code&gt;readme.md&lt;/code&gt; in the &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel/peertube-grayjay&#34;&gt;repo&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hopefully this specific plugin will be unnecessary.
+I forked the official &lt;a href=&#34;https://gitlab.futo.org/videostreaming/plugins/peertube&#34;&gt;peertube plugin&lt;/a&gt; because as it currently exists, it doesn&amp;rsquo;t properly load videos from remote instances.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My solution isn&amp;rsquo;t very elegant, I&amp;rsquo;m not familiar with typescript, but this plugin will allow you to browse videos within the network for the &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network.&#34;&gt;Libre Solutions Network PeerTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;changes-made&#34;&gt;Changes made:&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Changing from trending peertube videos to most recent&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Setting the baseURL to &lt;code&gt;peertube.libresolutions.network&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To allow remote videos to load, i had to hardcode &lt;code&gt;getVideoPager&lt;/code&gt; url parameter with:
+&lt;code&gt;url: &amp;quot;https://peertube.libresolutions.network&amp;quot;+ v.url.substring(v.url.search(&amp;quot;/videos/&amp;quot;)),&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;*&lt;em&gt;I also made a similar change elsewhere&lt;/em&gt;*&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why?&lt;/strong&gt; Because when the peertube plugin loads a remote video it throws an error &lt;code&gt;No source enabled to support url&lt;/code&gt; Meaning that you would need to install the peertube plug-in for &lt;em&gt;every instance&lt;/em&gt; within your network.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thankfully peertube seamlessly handles links to remote videos when you replace it with your instance url.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;outstanding-issues&#34;&gt;Outstanding issues&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;I would prefer to pull the baseURL parameter properly, but I had trouble making that work and decided to just hardcode it.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;I have no idea how/if this will impact casting, but hope to test that soon.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;I need to properly sign the plugin&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you have grayjay and want to give it a try feel free to install it from &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/peertube-grayjay&#34;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
+Simply install the grayjay app and open that page, the install button will have grayjay load the plugin.
+I&amp;rsquo;ve limited it&amp;rsquo;s reach to only &lt;code&gt;peertube.libresolutions.network&lt;/code&gt; but you could fork your own and make it work for your instance.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m hoping the main peertube add-on gets fixed, and/or that the plugin system allows the user to configure variables like the &lt;code&gt;baseURL&lt;/code&gt; from within the plugin settings. Once that&amp;rsquo;s done, all that really needs to be done is for the plugin to properly add the configured baseURL to videos as they are loaded in.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Some updates</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/2023-09-updates/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 14 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/2023-09-updates/</guid>
+		<description>Thoughts, Tips, and recent misadventures</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;matrix-migration&#34;&gt;Matrix migration&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Switching from &lt;a href=&#34;&#34;&gt;Synapse&lt;/a&gt; to &lt;a href=&#34;&#34;&gt;Dendrite&lt;/a&gt; was always inevitable. I had dragged my feet on it largely due to an &lt;em&gt;if it ain&amp;rsquo;t broke, don&amp;rsquo;t fix it&lt;/em&gt; mentality. The challenge was that eventually it did break. Somewhere between Synapse 1.8 and 1.9 I was unable to update without getting DB errors. I had tried a query based off someone having similar issues, but when the issue reappeared, it was for a different relation in the synapse db. This was when I decided to throw the towel and start fresh. Up until this time, my matrix instance has really only been for me and immediate family, and this was bound to happen because at the time of writing, you can&amp;rsquo;t migrate to dendrite and keep your messages.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;No shade intended on the matrix or synapse team. This instance was running for quite a few years and it served me very well. I&amp;rsquo;m looking forward to the performance upgrades of running dendrite.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Should have backed-up contact handles &amp;amp; my e2e keys! Oops!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;peertube-is-the-greatest&#34;&gt;PeerTube is the greatest&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Libre Solutions Network now has 200 views on the &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network/c/lsn/videos?languageOneOf=en&amp;amp;s=2&#34;&gt;PeerTube channel!&lt;/a&gt; Not a huge number, but it&amp;rsquo;s a great start! I think the best thing about it is that PeerTube instances themselves can follow others. For now, when I upload a new video it shows up on a wide variety of other instances in their &amp;ldquo;recent items&amp;rdquo; feed. This is almost the exact opposite of youtube alternatives just becoming their own echo chambers.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;d argue that PeerTube is one of the most important projects that currently exists. It sounds like hyperbole, but it really has the ability to be a huge game-changer. With features like webtorrent, remote transcoding, I&amp;rsquo;d argue the only thing that&amp;rsquo;s missing is support for multiple domains (like Tor &amp;amp; I2P addresses.).&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you agree with me on this, please consider &lt;a href=&#34;https://support.joinpeertube.org&#34;&gt;supporting the project&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;dont-erase-your-arch-linux-install-just-yet&#34;&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t erase your Arch Linux install just yet!&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed something that may not be great for new linux users trying out Arch Linux. I wish I knew exactly what triggered this, but sometimes when you reboot it will fail to boot waiting on a particular disk UUID, despite no disks being changed. I remember in my distro-hopping days, this would be the moment I&amp;rsquo;d just grab the home directory and switch to another distro.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Oddly enough, I had noticed a long time ago that a very fast and efficient way to fix this issue &lt;code&gt;pacman -S linux&lt;/code&gt;. Reinstalling linux, which triggers a bunch of other changes seems to resolve the issue. This is where it&amp;rsquo;s handy to boot from your installation media then chroot back into your installation.&lt;br&gt;
+Essentially, the process is:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Boot up the installation media&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;mount your partitions to &lt;code&gt;/mnt&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;After mounting your root partition taking a look at &lt;code&gt;/mnt/etc/fstab&lt;/code&gt; can help give some insight on how/where things &lt;em&gt;should&lt;/em&gt; be mounted.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;chroot into the system with &lt;code&gt;arch-chroot /mnt&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Reinstall your kernel with &lt;code&gt;pacman -S linux&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;wireguard-is-pretty-neat&#34;&gt;Wireguard is pretty neat&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It was recommended to me to replace &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/ssh-tunnel-server/&#34;&gt;ssh tunnels&lt;/a&gt; with a VPN connection. In hindsight, it takes about the same amount of time to configure either solution. I would still recommend SSH tunneling for temporary or one-off configurations, but I can see why a VPN is a preferable solution. Wireguard is pretty simple and straightforward to setup, and all-in-all is painless to keep running.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;gotchas&#34;&gt;Gotchas&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When actually running services from behind a VPN to a VPS (or other machine) there are things you may want to keep in mind:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ensure that your VPN server is actually able to forward traffic&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;At minimum you&amp;rsquo;ll need&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;highlight&#34;&gt;&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34; style=&#34;color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;&#34;&gt;&lt;code class=&#34;language-bash&#34; data-lang=&#34;bash&#34;&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;net.ipv4.ip_forward&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#ae81ff&#34;&gt;1&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#ae81ff&#34;&gt;1&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;In your &lt;code&gt;/etc/sysctl.conf&lt;/code&gt; file&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Correct iptables configuration on both hosts&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34;&gt;&lt;code&gt;PostUp = iptables -A FORWARD -i wg0 -j ACCEPT; iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE; ip6tables -A FORWARD -i wg0 -j ACCEPT; ip6tables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE # Add forwarding when VPN is started
+PostDown = iptables -D FORWARD -i wg0 -j ACCEPT; iptables -t nat -D 
+
+POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE; ip6tables -D FORWARD -i wg0 -j ACCEPT; ip6tables -t nat -D POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE # Remove forwarding when VPN is shutdown
+&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is used by this &lt;a href=&#34;https://gist.github.com/nealfennimore/92d571db63404e7ddfba660646ceaf0d&#34;&gt;config file&lt;/a&gt; to turn the rules on-and-off with the VPN.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re hoping to forward outbound traffic, ensure that you&amp;rsquo;ve set the &lt;code&gt;allowedIPs&lt;/code&gt; to &lt;code&gt;0.0.0.0/0&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;::/0&lt;/code&gt; for IPv4 and/or IPv6.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I have noticed that doing this really makes life difficult for docker. I&amp;rsquo;m not entirely sure why. Setting dns settings in &lt;code&gt;/etc/docker/daemon.json&lt;/code&gt; didn&amp;rsquo;t seem to really improve things. If I wasn&amp;rsquo;t already hosting many services through docker I would consider moving to VMs / &amp;ldquo;bare metal&amp;rdquo; installation due to this.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Since you&amp;rsquo;re now using more than just the default network interface, make sure your services are binding to all interfaces &lt;code&gt;&amp;quot;0.0.0.0&amp;quot;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Gnome &amp;amp; Kde NetworkManager GUIs can also be configured with wireguard. I found &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.xmodulo.com/wireguard-vpn-network-manager-gui.html&#34;&gt;this link&lt;/a&gt; helpful for someone trying it out for the first time.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As someone who doesn&amp;rsquo;t have IPv6 on my own internet, it&amp;rsquo;s good to know that I can access it through wireguard from a VPS.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I think &lt;a href=&#34;tailscale.com/&#34;&gt;tailscale&lt;/a&gt; is built on top of wireguard. It essentially marries the VPN with SS0 and dns as well, I believe. There is a self-hostable server &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/juanfont/headscale&#34;&gt;in development&lt;/a&gt; but I&amp;rsquo;m starting to worker if it may be easy for one to create their own mesh of these ideas. I think for self-hosters, families, and communities it would be a very valuable tool to leverage. Something like a digital hearth to gather around.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Git submodules are cool!</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/git-submodules/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 14 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/git-submodules/</guid>
+		<description>modular repositories</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;modular-repositories&#34;&gt;Modular repositories&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve harmonized the shortcodes for my &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel/valor&#34;&gt;valor&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel/freedom&#34;&gt;freedom&lt;/a&gt; themes.&lt;br&gt;
+This meant that I&amp;rsquo;d prefer to have them both reference the same ones and keep in sync with each other.&lt;br&gt;
+I found out that I could use &lt;a href=&#34;https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Submodules&#34;&gt;submodules&lt;/a&gt; to &lt;em&gt;modularize&lt;/em&gt; the projects.  Now instead of trying to manage the hugo shortcodes in both locations I have a single &lt;strong&gt;shortcodes&lt;/strong&gt; repository that both (and upcoming) themes will reference.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;After I completed that, I decided that for many who don&amp;rsquo;t want to spend time configuring a complicated hugo setup, I could create &lt;em&gt;quickstart&lt;/em&gt; repositories that would allow people to start making changes right away. These are still somewhat of a &lt;em&gt;work-in-progress&lt;/em&gt; but I&amp;rsquo;ll be overhauling the documentation for them soon as well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/submodules.png&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/submodules.png&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;theme-quickstarts&#34;&gt;Theme Quickstarts&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The themes for this site and &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;libresolutions.network&lt;/a&gt; are available on my &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel&#34;&gt;code forge&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The goal for these themes were to always be &amp;ldquo;batteries-included&amp;rdquo; type themes. I have a variety of shortcodes that I think are useful and intuitive that can make a great starting-point for a media-rich site.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thanks to some new repositories I&amp;rsquo;ve setup, you can now get started even quicker. With very little knowledge of templates or  you can just clone &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel/quickstart-freedom&#34;&gt;quickstart-freedom&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel/quickstart-valor&#34;&gt;quickstart-valor&lt;/a&gt; to have a blank site using both themes.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;getting-started&#34;&gt;Getting started&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Download/install &lt;a href=&#34;https://gohugo.io&#34;&gt;hugo&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Chose from one of the above quickstart repositories and use:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;git clone --recursive https://code.gabe.rocks/quickstart-valor.git&lt;/code&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+or&lt;br&gt;
+&lt;code&gt;git clone --recursive https://code.gabe.rocks/quickstart-freedom.git&lt;/code&gt;&lt;br&gt;
+to get the project files.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Now you can change the basic parameters in &lt;code&gt;hugo.toml&lt;/code&gt; to change the site title.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Then you can build out your content by editing markdown files in the &lt;code&gt;content&lt;/code&gt; folder.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Once the documentation is complete, I may demonstrate this in a video.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Object storage</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/object-storage-notes/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 10 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/object-storage-notes/</guid>
+		<description>Difficulties in changing providers</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;fixed-update&#34;&gt;Fixed! (Update)&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I was wrong! if you migrate your videos with &lt;code&gt;rclone&lt;/code&gt; you can seamlessly update the video location on PeerTube by changing the &lt;code&gt;base_url&lt;/code&gt; parameter in your &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/Chocobozzz/PeerTube/blob/develop/config/production.yaml.example&#34;&gt;production.yaml&lt;/a&gt; file.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For misskey I&amp;rsquo;ve opened &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/misskey-dev/misskey/issues/10783&#34;&gt;an issue for it&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;highlight&#34;&gt;&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34; style=&#34;color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;&#34;&gt;&lt;code class=&#34;language-yaml&#34; data-lang=&#34;yaml&#34;&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;  &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;streaming_playlists&lt;/span&gt;:
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;bucket_name&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;streaming-playlists&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;# Allows setting all buckets to the same value but with a different prefix&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;prefix: &amp;#39;&amp;#39; # Example&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;streaming-playlists:&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;# Base url for object URL generation, scheme and host will be replaced by this URL&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;# Useful when you want to use a CDN/external proxy&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;base_url: &amp;#39;&amp;#39; # Example&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;https://mirror.example.com&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;# CHANGE THIS&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;  &lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;# Same settings but for webtorrent videos&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;  &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;videos&lt;/span&gt;:
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;bucket_name&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;videos&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;prefix&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;base_url&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;#and this too!&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;h1 id=&#34;object-storage-troubles&#34;&gt;Object storage Troubles&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve spent some time experimenting with S3 / Object Storage for public content.&lt;br&gt;
+I&amp;rsquo;ve found it useful for things like fediverse attachments &amp;amp; &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tags/peertube&#34;&gt;PeerTube&lt;/a&gt; videos.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;what-is-object-storage&#34;&gt;What is object storage?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Object storage is a form of cloud storage that works well to host files cheaply. This is very helpful in circumstances where your own bandwidth is limited and you want to share large files (like video) with the wider internet. You can still back-up your files easily with &lt;a href=&#34;https://rclone.org/&#34;&gt;rclone&lt;/a&gt; so you can always change providers if needed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-snag&#34;&gt;The snag&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When using software that uploads files to object storage. Such as a fediverse instance like PeerTube, it may associate the upload with the storage location in the database. This means that even if you move the files to the new provider, your software will still look for the content in it&amp;rsquo;s old location. While many software projects support object storage, they may not support &lt;em&gt;migrating storage&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;recommendations&#34;&gt;Recommendations&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;0-choose-a-provider-carefully&#34;&gt;0) Choose a provider carefully&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Shop around before choosing a provider. You may be able to find one available at another price. You may not necessarily need object storage depending on what your requirements are, storing files through most applications does work quite well.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;1-dont-change-unless-you-absolutely-have-to&#34;&gt;1) Don&amp;rsquo;t change unless you absolutely have to&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In my case, switching providers means I have to re-upload my peertube videos if I want the new location to be reflected. This would be a lot of work if I had uploaded a large amount of videos.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;2-where-possible-manage-files-with-your-own-solution&#34;&gt;2) Where possible, manage files with your own solution&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When choosing to support object storage in your project, ensure that the capability to seamlessly migrate providers is a use-case you build for. If you use a static website generator, it can often be quite easy to set your object storage location to a variable and merely update that reference, or simply do a mass &amp;ldquo;find-and-replace&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;3-roll-your-own-object-storage&#34;&gt;3) Roll your own Object Storage&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If I had significant bandwidth, I would setup my own &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/minio/minio&#34;&gt;MinIO&lt;/a&gt; server that could then be migrated to different hardware or collocation suites if needed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Some updates</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/2023-03-updates/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/2023-03-updates/</guid>
+		<description>PeerTube tweaks and Kuma</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h3 id=&#34;contents&#34;&gt;Contents&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#troubleshooting-peertube-s3-uploads&#34;&gt;PeerTube S3 Uploads&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#uptime-monitoring-with-kuma&#34;&gt;Kuma&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;troubleshooting-peertube-s3-uploads&#34;&gt;Troubleshooting PeerTube S3 uploads&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the interest of being cost-efficient I&amp;rsquo;ve setup my &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;PeerTube&lt;/a&gt; to use &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.vultr.com/docs/vultr-object-storage/&#34;&gt;object storage&lt;/a&gt; to store and serve the videos.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;steps&#34;&gt;Steps&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#1-configure-peertube&#34;&gt;Configure PeerTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#2-upload-videos&#34;&gt;Upload videos&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#3-configure-cors&#34;&gt;Configure CORS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;1-configure-peertube&#34;&gt;1. Configure PeerTube&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ensure you&amp;rsquo;ve got PeerTube &lt;a href=&#34;https://landchad.net/peertube/&#34;&gt;setup&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
+From your peertube directory (or docker volume) you&amp;rsquo;ll want to update your &lt;code&gt;config/local-production.json&lt;/code&gt; / &lt;code&gt;config/localproduction.yaml&lt;/code&gt; file.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOTE&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;em&gt;At the time of writing, Updating your server configuration from the&lt;/em&gt; &lt;code&gt;management&lt;/code&gt; &lt;em&gt;console &lt;strong&gt;will ERASE your settings&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.
+This means you&amp;rsquo;ll want to make sure to back up your settings so you can copy over your changes when needed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Then you&amp;rsquo;ll add your object storage settings to PeerTube.
+Using the repository&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/Chocobozzz/PeerTube/blob/develop/config/production.yaml.example&#34;&gt;production.yaml.example&lt;/a&gt; as a guide:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;highlight&#34;&gt;&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34; style=&#34;color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;&#34;&gt;&lt;code class=&#34;language-yaml&#34; data-lang=&#34;yaml&#34;&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;object_storage&lt;/span&gt;:
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;  &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;enabled&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;true&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;  &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;endpoint&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;your-s3-provider.com&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;  &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;region&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;us-east-1&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;  &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;upload_acl&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;#This is quite important, no real reason to change it.&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;public&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;public-read&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;private&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;private&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;  &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;proxy&lt;/span&gt;:
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;proxify_private_files&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;true&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;#needed with the previous setting&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;  &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;credentials&lt;/span&gt;:
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;# You can also use AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID environment variable&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;access_key_id&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;# You can also use AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY environment variable&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;secret_access_key&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;# Maximum amount to upload in one request to object storage 5-?MB&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;  &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;max_upload_part&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#ae81ff&#34;&gt;100MB&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;#You have to configure both the &amp;#34;videos&amp;#34; and &amp;#34;streaming playlists location&amp;#34; they can&amp;#39;t be the same destination, unless you put them on different buckets.&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;  &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;streaming_playlists&lt;/span&gt;:
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;prefix&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;pt-playlists&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;bucket_name&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;bucket_name&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;  &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;videos&lt;/span&gt;:
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;bucket_name&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;bucket_name&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;prefix&lt;/span&gt;: &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;pt-videos&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;h3 id=&#34;2-upload-videos&#34;&gt;2. Upload videos&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is the easy part, if you&amp;rsquo;ve already uploaded videos you can use the cli tool to &lt;a href=&#34;https://docs.joinpeertube.org/maintain/tools#create-move-video-storage-job-js&#34;&gt;move existing videos to storage&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;highlight&#34;&gt;&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34; style=&#34;color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;&#34;&gt;&lt;code class=&#34;language-bash&#34; data-lang=&#34;bash&#34;&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;# Basic installation&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;cd /var/www/peertube/peertube-latest
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;sudo -u peertube NODE_CONFIG_DIR&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;/var/www/peertube/config NODE_ENV&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;production npm run create-move-video-storage-job -- --to-object-storage --all-videos
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;# Docker installation&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;cd /var/www/peertube-docker
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;docker-compose exec -u peertube peertube npm run create-move-video-storage-job -- --to-object-storage --all-videos
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Otherwise, you can upload your new videos as normal, then PeerTube will:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Store the Video&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Transcode the video&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Upload the video &amp;amp; transcodes to the Object storage&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You&amp;rsquo;ll be able to check the status of the jobs from the management UI at: &lt;code&gt;/admin/system/jobs&lt;/code&gt; from your instance.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;what-if-the-upload-fails&#34;&gt;What if the upload fails?&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Fear not! As long as PeerTube has correctly created the folders, you can use the tool &lt;code&gt;s3cmd&lt;/code&gt; to manually upload the files.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;highlight&#34;&gt;&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34; style=&#34;color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;&#34;&gt;&lt;code class=&#34;language-bash&#34; data-lang=&#34;bash&#34;&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;s3cmd put data/videos/$video s3://$bucket_name/pt-videos
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;s3cmd sync data/streaming-playlists/hls/$video_UUID s3://$bucket_name/pt-playlists/$video_UUID
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;Once complete peertube should simply complete the jobs faster when restarted.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;my-video-isnt-listed-in-local-videos&#34;&gt;My video isn&amp;rsquo;t listed in local videos&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You&amp;rsquo;re going to need to set the video state manually to &lt;code&gt;1&lt;/code&gt;.
+You can do this from your postgres:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;highlight&#34;&gt;&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34; style=&#34;color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;&#34;&gt;&lt;code class=&#34;language-sql&#34; data-lang=&#34;sql&#34;&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;update&lt;/span&gt; video &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;state&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#ae81ff&#34;&gt;1&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#66d9ef&#34;&gt;where&lt;/span&gt; UUID&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;$video-UUID&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;d really recommend waiting before transcoding and uploads are finished.
+Also, your video may just be missing the language attibute if it&amp;rsquo;s not visible in the &amp;ldquo;local videos&amp;rdquo; page.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;3-configure-cors&#34;&gt;3. Configure CORS&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Your object storage provider may not allow &lt;a href=&#34;https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Access-Control-Allow-Origin&#34;&gt;CORS&lt;/a&gt; by default. You&amp;rsquo;ll want to use &lt;code&gt;s3cmd&lt;/code&gt; to &lt;a href=&#34;https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/216201557-Configuring-CORS-on-a-DreamObjects-bucket&#34;&gt;update the headers&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;uptime-monitoring-with-kuma&#34;&gt;Uptime Monitoring with Kuma&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A friend introduced me to &lt;a href=&#34;https://uptime.kuma.pet/&#34;&gt;Kuma&lt;/a&gt; which is an excellent self-hosted status reporting tool. I wanted to share my unique twist. Because I use &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/ssh-tunnel-server&#34;&gt;ssh tunnels&lt;/a&gt; to provide services I can redirect 502 errors to the status page. This requires Kuma to stay on the VPS, which I&amp;rsquo;m perfectly fine with.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To get this result there are two major things you need to keep in mind:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No Redirects&lt;/strong&gt;
+If you simply add the nginx option to 502 to your status page, it will return a 502, and simply work, instead you&amp;rsquo;ll want to configure the monitor to want a specific api endpoint or page that won&amp;rsquo;t redirect. This means properly entering the url such as ```&lt;a href=&#34;https://yoursite.com/about%60&#34;&gt;https://yoursite.com/about`&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Then you set the allowed redirects to 0 so it will properly report the service being down.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update the nginx config&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s quite as simple as adding:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;502 https://kuma.your-site.com/status/status-page;&lt;/code&gt; to each &lt;code&gt;server&lt;/code&gt; block!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I like this temporary way of replacing the typical scary &lt;code&gt;502 - Bad Gateway&lt;/code&gt; nginx page in a way that provides more information. I&amp;rsquo;m quite impressed by kuma. It supports many different services for alerts, including &lt;a href=&#34;https://matrix.org&#34;&gt;matrix&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Self-hosting with SSH tunnels</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/ssh-tunnel-server/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 21 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/ssh-tunnel-server/</guid>
+		<description>Optimizing your resources</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;self-hosting-with-ssh-tunnels&#34;&gt;Self-hosting with SSH tunnels&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I wrote in &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/pi-gone&#34;&gt;a previous post&lt;/a&gt; that I&amp;rsquo;ve been using SSH tunnels to self-host services, but serve from a VPS. This was primarily motivated by the fact that a residential IP may inadvertently give out your exact location to others. Another advantage, is that your files and keys are still kept on your local machine instead of in the cloud. For services that require heavy use of files that aren&amp;rsquo;t private, I&amp;rsquo;d recommend using an S3 bucket if possible.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Essentially there are three steps&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#1-setup-ssh-tunnels&#34;&gt;Setup SSH tunnels&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#2-keep-an-always-open-ssh-tunnel&#34;&gt;Create an always-on SSH session&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#3-configure-your-reverse-proxy&#34;&gt;Setup your reverse-proxy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;1-setup-ssh-tunnels&#34;&gt;1. Setup SSH tunnels.&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The best way to setup your tunnels is to use your &lt;code&gt;~/.ssh/config&lt;/code&gt; file.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34;&gt;&lt;code&gt;Host vps
+    Hostname {your-vps-hostname}
+    User {your-server-user}
+    ServerAliveInterval 300
+    RemoteForward 0.0.0.0:8080 localhost:80
+    #...
+    #You can forward multiple ports
+    RemoteForward 0.0.0.0:8008 localhost:8008
+    #IdentityFile ~/.ssh/your-ssh.pub 
+&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://linux.die.net/man/5/ssh_config&#34;&gt;man page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What this means is that when your machine has an ssh session to the vps, you want to open the ports listed, from the ports on your machine which are listed second.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;2-keep-an-always-open-ssh-tunnel&#34;&gt;2. Keep an always-open SSH tunnel.&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For this, I created a systemd service:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Using: &lt;code&gt;systemctl edit --full --force systemd-tunnel&lt;/code&gt; to create the service&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34;&gt;&lt;code&gt;[Unit]
+Description=Reverse SSH connection
+After=network.target
+
+[Service]
+User={your user}
+Group={your group}
+Type=simple
+ExecStart=/usr/bin/ssh -vvv -g -N -T -o &amp;#34;ServerAliveInterval 10&amp;#34; -o &amp;#34;ExitOnForwardFailure yes&amp;#34; vps
+Restart=always
+RestartSec=3s
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=default.target
+&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then you can simply start the service with &lt;code&gt;systemctl enable --now secure-tunnel&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;3-configure-your-reverse-proxy&#34;&gt;3. Configure your reverse proxy&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the example &lt;code&gt;.ssh/config&lt;/code&gt; we forwarded local port 8080 to the vps port 80.
+This means that for that port no additional modifications are required. Anything served on your port 8080 will be served from your vps as http. The second example we forwarded local (http) &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/&#34;&gt;synapse&lt;/a&gt; port to 8008 on the vps. So you&amp;rsquo;ll want to reverse proxy that.To do this on nginx, on your VPS you&amp;rsquo;ll &lt;code&gt;proxy_pass&lt;/code&gt; to &lt;code&gt;https://localhost:8008&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;rsquo;s an example nginx config sample that would be in &lt;code&gt;/etc/nginx/sites/available/matrix&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34;&gt;&lt;code&gt;server {
+    listen 8448;
+    server_name matrix.your.domain;
+    location / {
+        proxy_pass http://localhost:8008;        
+    }
+    #SSL and other options here...
+}
+&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;p&gt;I hope you&amp;rsquo;ve found this helpful. I plan to explain this in even more detail in a peertube video sometime soon.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Now available on Tor &amp; I2P</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/darkweb2/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 17 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/darkweb2/</guid>
+		<description>Gabe.Rocks is now on TWO darknets</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Onion: &lt;a href=&#34;http://gabriel262me3lgv3w7xohtesg3laoojmtye644pwirhdm73qmedmsqd.onion&#34;&gt;http://gabriel262me3lgv3w7xohtesg3laoojmtye644pwirhdm73qmedmsqd.onion&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I2P: &lt;a href=&#34;http://gabe.i2p/?i2paddresshelper=pRQwxGBE3emBruaNNRbHR-Y5sUBZFfHLr0OBh1W3JbKlFDDEYETd6YGu5o01FsdH5jmxQFkV8cuvQ4GHVbclsqUUMMRgRN3pga7mjTUWx0fmObFAWRXxy69DgYdVtyWypRQwxGBE3emBruaNNRbHR-Y5sUBZFfHLr0OBh1W3JbKlFDDEYETd6YGu5o01FsdH5jmxQFkV8cuvQ4GHVbclsqUUMMRgRN3pga7mjTUWx0fmObFAWRXxy69DgYdVtyWypRQwxGBE3emBruaNNRbHR-Y5sUBZFfHLr0OBh1W3JbKlFDDEYETd6YGu5o01FsdH5jmxQFkV8cuvQ4GHVbclsqUUMMRgRN3pga7mjTUWx0fmObFAWRXxy69DgYdVtyWypRQwxGBE3emBruaNNRbHR-Y5sUBZFfHLr0OBh1W3JbKlFDDEYETd6YGu5o01FsdH5jmxQFkV8cuvQ4GHVbclsk2qXx~Bw-EqDae6pcqQKRZb3ljyQL~NoEfWVcNfzHFjBQAEAAcAAA==&#34;&gt;gabe.i2p&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;is-one-darknet-really-enough&#34;&gt;Is one darknet really enough?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve already maintained a presence on the Tor network for a couple of months now. Sadly I noticed that my relative links on this blog were broken! Essentially &lt;code&gt;gabe.rocks&lt;/code&gt; worked great, but any relative link would take you back to &lt;code&gt;gabe.rocks&lt;/code&gt; and redirect back to Tor (probably not a best practice). I&amp;rsquo;ve finally fixed this. &lt;em&gt;sorry!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Coming across this &lt;a href=&#34;https://web.archive.org/web/20230722011711/https://xmrpower.bearblog.dev/mirror-your-website-tor-i2p/&#34;&gt;blog post&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;a href=&#34;https://xmrposter.club/users/NotMtth&#34;&gt;moneromaxi&lt;/a&gt; showed me that it shouldn&amp;rsquo;t be that much extra work to get on I2P.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;maintaining-multiple-sites&#34;&gt;Maintaining multiple sites&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I use &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tags/hugo&#34;&gt;hugo&lt;/a&gt; to generate this site. Hugo has a handy option that lets you change the base url. I&amp;rsquo;ve setup a webhook with my forgejo instance that when I update a private repository, it automatically calls my &lt;code&gt;upload.sh&lt;/code&gt; for the site.&lt;br&gt;
+Which means my basic script works like this:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;highlight&#34;&gt;&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34; style=&#34;color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;&#34;&gt;&lt;code class=&#34;language-bash&#34; data-lang=&#34;bash&#34;&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;#!/bin/bash
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;hugo 
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;rsync public/ vps:/var/www/gabe.rocks
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;#Regenerate for onion&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;hugo -b &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;mysite.onion&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;rsync public/ /var/tor/gabe.rocks
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#75715e&#34;&gt;#Regenerate for I2P&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;hugo -b &lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#39;mysite.i2p&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;rsync public/ /var/i2p/gabe.rocks
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;h3 id=&#34;future-steps&#34;&gt;Future Steps&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Ideally, I&amp;rsquo;d like to migrate all my public services (forgejo/peertube) behind Tor &amp;amp; I2P.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;I need to make some updates before my themes are available at &lt;code&gt;gabe.rocks/themes&lt;/code&gt; again.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;learn-more&#34;&gt;learn more&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://fosstodon.org/@RTP&#34;&gt;(RTP) Privacy and Tech Tips&lt;/a&gt; has a great &lt;a href=&#34;https://tube.tchncs.de/videos/watch/8b304fd9-03c2-4daa-a8af-ed097e8ab0d7&#34;&gt;tour&lt;/a&gt; for I2P.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;After getting started, I realized that &lt;a href=&#34;https://landchad.net/i2p/&#34;&gt;landchad&lt;/a&gt; also has an I2P guide.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Pi-Server no more</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/pi-gone/</link>
+		<pubDate>Tue, 07 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/pi-gone/</guid>
+		<description></description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;goodbye-pi-server-it-was-a-good-run&#34;&gt;Goodbye Pi-Server, it was a good run.&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve moved many of my self-hosted services away from the pi-server to a proper deskstop. The primary motivation was to get more CPU for &lt;a href=&#34;https://joinpeertube.org&#34;&gt;PeerTube&lt;/a&gt; hosted at &lt;a href=&#34;https://peertube.libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;peertube.libresolutions.network&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/pi-upgrade.webm&#39;&gt;
+    
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve also setup &lt;a href=&#34;https://forgejo.org&#34;&gt;Forgejo&lt;/a&gt; at &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks&#34;&gt;code.gabe.rocks&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thanks to a helpful tip from &lt;a href=&#34;https://retroedge.tech/post-2023-01-17-ssh-reverse-tunnel.html&#34;&gt;RetroEdgeTech&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The programmer can now access the machine behind the firewall by connecting to a different machine on the internet at a specific port that forwards ssh to the machine behind the firewall. This command has to be run from the internal network, or in this case the machine we want to grant access to from the outside.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;ssh -R 0.0.0.0:43023:localhost:22 sysadmin@machine-on-internet&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The part that took me so long to figure out was the &amp;ldquo;0.0.0.0&amp;rdquo; before the first colon. This binds port 43023 (or whatever port you choose) to all ipv4 interfaces on that machine, including external ones, not just the internal loopback (localhost) device.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Despite some overhead, &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/images/2023-03-setup.png&#34;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; is more-or-less what I&amp;rsquo;m working towards. At least until I can afford my own &lt;a href=&#34;https://blog.alexgleason.me/run-your-own-server/&#34;&gt;rack-space&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;todo&#34;&gt;#TODO:&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;update-theme-documentation&#34;&gt;Update theme documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Now that both of my themes are in better shape, I&amp;rsquo;m hoping to devote some time soon to refreshing the documentation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;darknet-upgrade&#34;&gt;Darknet upgrade&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thanks to &lt;a href=&#34;https://xmrpower.bearblog.dev/mirror-your-website-tor-i2p/&#34;&gt;this post&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;a href=&#34;https://xmrposter.club/users/NotMtth&#34;&gt;moneromaxi&lt;/a&gt; I&amp;rsquo;ve decided that I want to make more of my own projects available over Tor &amp;amp; I2P. Both of my websites currently have Tor hidden services, but at least I&amp;rsquo;d like to throw my code forge behind both as well. Once fully deployed I&amp;rsquo;ll be in a good spot to make some major updates to &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel/interverse&#34;&gt;interverse&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Remembering Satine 🐰</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/remembering-satine/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 18 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/remembering-satine/</guid>
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/Satine/Satine-basket-side.webp?d=1676678400</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/Satine/Satine-basket-side.webp?d=1676678400" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/Satine/Satine-basket-side.webp?d=1676678400" />
+		<description>Saying goodbye to a good friend.</description>
+		<content:encoded>
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//images/Satine/eating.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;p&gt;Satine was my first rabbit. An adorable white dwarf bunny.
+She was playful, curious and affectionate. She was a rescue, first &lt;em&gt;plopped&lt;/em&gt; on my chest in 2016.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Gabe-Satine.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Gabe-Satine.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Gabe-Satine-eating.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Gabe-Satine-eating.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Satine-basket-side.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Satine-basket-side.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Satine-laying.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Satine-laying.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It was a joy getting to know Satine, especially for the first little while when it was just me and her.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//images/Satine/playing.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;p&gt;Rabbits are lovely pets, they&amp;rsquo;re smart and very expressive.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Satine-munch.gif&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Satine-munch.gif&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Satine-stretch.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Satine-stretch.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Satine-basket.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Satine-basket.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Every &amp;ldquo;binky&amp;rdquo; was a nice heart flutter when caught.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//images/Satine/binky.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;her-other-half-obi-wan&#34;&gt;Her other half, Obi-Wan&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Obi-wan was her brown lop-ear companion. There was an adorable incident where Obi had to go to the vet, and Satine lunged in when they went to grab him. She was definitely willing to fight for him when it counted!&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//images/Satine/together.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;p&gt;I will say he was the more &lt;em&gt;photogenic&lt;/em&gt; of the two. I&amp;rsquo;m not sure if it was simply his fur texture, or if he just was better at sitting still!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Obi.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Obi.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/both-eating-front.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/both-eating-front.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/both-eating-side.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/both-eating-side.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Obi-munch.gif&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/Obi-munch.gif&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It was always really nice to see them playing together. They will both always have a special place in my heart.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//images/Satine/playing-together.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;p&gt;This bowl was made at &lt;a href=&#34;https://mudoven.com/&#34;&gt;the mud oven&lt;/a&gt;. My other half did an incredible job painting the two of them in a water dish we had glazed for them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/bowl.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/bowl.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;why-the-names&#34;&gt;Why the names?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Satine is named after &lt;a href=&#34;https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Satine_Kryze&#34;&gt;Satine Kryze&lt;/a&gt; from the Star Wars: Clone Wars show. Her companion Obi-wan Kenobi, needs no introduction. I named them so that Obi-wan and Satine could have the life together they missed in the show. I am very happy that they, (the rabbits) actually were &lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/gravyvoice/status/1625757465022459905&#34;&gt;deeply in love&lt;/a&gt;. It&amp;rsquo;s a tragic tale for sure, and certainly has a deeper meaning for me now. &amp;mdash;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;reminder-animals-go-to-heaven&#34;&gt;Reminder: Animals go to heaven.&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/francis.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While I have no theological authority to declare this, I wholeheartedly believe it. Heaven is when you are fully in the presence of God, you not only experience God&amp;rsquo;s infinite love for you and humanity, but all acts of love through all of time and space. In heaven, you are with all of it:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Your mother holding you as a baby&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A cat carrying &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtube.com/channel/UCq5hgY37WAryZCwmehDyCaQ&#34;&gt;her kittens&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Baby ducks &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/kzaB1WASjtA&#34;&gt;following&lt;/a&gt; their mother&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A father marmoset &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/_Imy2qW_VX4&#34;&gt;carrying his babies&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In all of life&amp;rsquo;s infinite wonder, love is never lost. Anything that is alive, is one with God.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/Satine/midwit.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Personal Homepages are really cool</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/homepage/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 20 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/homepage/</guid>
+		<description>Improve your skills and focus</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Most browsers support some kind of custom home page that&amp;rsquo;s easily accessible at the press of a button, even on mobile. I love &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/2023-01-update/#bookmarks&#34;&gt;bookmarks&lt;/a&gt;, they&amp;rsquo;re a vital part of how I browse the web on firefox.  Sadly, I find I don&amp;rsquo;t have quite the same functionality on brave mobile for Android. The good news is that a simple static page hosted anywhere is enough to provide a fantastic interface for sticking to relevant sites. Giving me the opportunity to keep sources I like readily accessible.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;After making a relatively trivial homepage for myself I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed myself spending much less time idly browsing. I&amp;rsquo;m more focused on keeping up with the content I find interesting, instead of endlessly scrolling on feeds.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;how-to-build-your-own-homepage&#34;&gt;How to build your own homepage&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;1-build-the-page&#34;&gt;1. Build the page&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Even without knowing any html you can start small.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For example say you want a simple set of three links&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;highlight&#34;&gt;&lt;pre tabindex=&#34;0&#34; style=&#34;color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;&#34;&gt;&lt;code class=&#34;language-html&#34; data-lang=&#34;html&#34;&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &amp;lt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;a&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#a6e22e&#34;&gt;href&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#34;https://site1-link&amp;#34;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;gt;Site 1&amp;lt;/&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;a&lt;/span&gt;&amp;gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &amp;lt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;a&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#a6e22e&#34;&gt;href&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#34;https://site2-link&amp;#34;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;gt;Site 2&amp;lt;/&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;a&lt;/span&gt;&amp;gt;
+&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;display:flex;&#34;&gt;&lt;span&gt;    &amp;lt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;a&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span style=&#34;color:#a6e22e&#34;&gt;href&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&#34;color:#e6db74&#34;&gt;&amp;#34;https://site3-link&amp;#34;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;gt;Site 3&amp;lt;/&lt;span style=&#34;color:#f92672&#34;&gt;a&lt;/span&gt;&amp;gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As you get better, using the &amp;lt;style&amp;gt; tags can help keep your css rules in the same files.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;2-save-the-location&#34;&gt;2. Save the location&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Throw it anywhere as &amp;lsquo;index.html&amp;rsquo; and bookmark that location.&lt;br&gt;
+If you just want it for a single device you can save it locally.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;fancy-ideas-for-a-personal-homepage&#34;&gt;Fancy ideas for a personal homepage&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Simple enhancements:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Static reminders&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Date &amp;amp; time clock&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Images and icons&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Rotating wallpaper&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A webGL background&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Things get really interesting the moment you use some kind of server-side functionality&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m considering using &lt;a href=&#34;https://alpinejs.dev/&#34;&gt;Alpine.js&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase&#34;&gt;PocketBase&lt;/a&gt; to build a variety of enhancements like:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A search bar, using specific sites as options&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Dynamic backgrounds&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Alerts &amp;amp; Reminders&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Updating items from the homepage with a login&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Keeping it private with the login&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Calendar &amp;amp; Agenda&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Pulling content from feeds&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel/interverse&#34;&gt;Interverse&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&amp;hellip;Widgets?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.hawaii.edu/askus/694&#34;&gt;Far from a new idea&lt;/a&gt;, I think homepages are a very accessible way for people to gain some digital independence.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Keeping it simple.</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/2023-01-update/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/2023-01-update/</guid>
+		<description></description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m going to be doing a major re-work of the &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabrfiel/valor&#34;&gt;valor&lt;/a&gt; theme. While I did successfully create what approximated an individual &amp;lsquo;social media&amp;rsquo; like design, I&amp;rsquo;m not very happy with how it&amp;rsquo;s turned out overall.
+So the plan is to rebuild it simpler, and eventually update the repository.
+The goal is to maintain the same multimedia-friendliness but without the confusing layout. In the meantime, I hope this simple layout suffices.
+If you&amp;rsquo;re shopping around for a hugo theme I&amp;rsquo;m fairly happy with where &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabrfiel/freedom&#34;&gt;freedom&lt;/a&gt; is at, but I need to document my new shortcodes as well as the theme features better.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;journaling&#34;&gt;Journaling&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While my good friend at &lt;a href=&#34;https://retroedge.tech&#34;&gt;retroedge.tech&lt;/a&gt; is starting &lt;a href=&#34;https://retroedge.tech/post-2023-01-08-writing-challenge.html&#34;&gt;#100DaysToOffload&lt;/a&gt;, I have a slightly different new years resolution. I am starting to use &lt;a href=&#34;https://obsidian.md&#34;&gt;Obsidian&lt;/a&gt; to write my own personal journal. While I have many goals for 2023, if nothing else finding ways to reduce stress is one of the most important at this time. I&amp;rsquo;m hoping to offload fears into my personal journal, as well as to collect my own personal knowledge to either bring to this blog or to &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;Libre Solutions Network&lt;/a&gt;.
+I&amp;rsquo;ve successfully maintained two weeks of consistent journaling, and I&amp;rsquo;m already feeling a bit of relief. For any fellow &amp;lsquo;over-thinkers&amp;rsquo; out there, I would highly recommend taking up the practice.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;bookmarks&#34;&gt;Bookmarks&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you haven&amp;rsquo;t already, feel free to browse my curated &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/bookmarks.html&#34;&gt;bookmarks file&lt;/a&gt;. Eventially, I&amp;rsquo;d like to publish a set of bookmarks by topic, and streamline how I export them. If nothing else it gives me a reason to continuously seek out interesting or useful resources. That file isn&amp;rsquo;t what I would consider comprehensive, but eventually I hope to get around to sharing more. For all the hype brave gets, being able to import search bookmarks with firefox/librewolf feels awesome. I love being able to cut out most search engines by using various sites&amp;rsquo; own search function from the address bar.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Apocalypse Scenario #253</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/apocalypse/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 07 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/apocalypse/</guid>
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/apocalypse-scenario/comic.webp?d=1670371200</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/apocalypse-scenario/comic.webp?d=1670371200" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/apocalypse-scenario/comic.webp?d=1670371200" />
+		<description>Maybe &#34;You will own nothing, and live in the pod&#34; wasn&#39;t a great sales pitch</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://poorlydrawnlines.com/comic/apocalypse-253/&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/apocalypse-scenario/comic.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Matt Stoller &lt;a href=&#34;https://nitter.net/matthewstoller/status/1600164210121461768&#34;&gt;writes&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I hear from right-wing small business owners that employees are just not showing up, and I also hear from left-wing professors that students are just not showing up. This dynamic got much worse during Covid. Something is very off.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Church attendance is down, crime is up, labor force participation is down, life spans are down, drug overdoses are up. I don&amp;rsquo;t know what&amp;rsquo;s going on but it&amp;rsquo;s not good.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/1600164210121461768&#34;&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There really is an agreement all over the political spectrum that things are in fact quite dire.&lt;br&gt;
+There is a near universal belief in the replies that the root of the problem is a sick culture.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Here are particular axes people grind:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;because of &lt;a href=&#34;https://covid19criticalcare.com/treatment-protocols/i-recover-long-covid-treatment/&#34;&gt;long covid?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;because &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/n1xgQeCiu6k&#34;&gt;easy money spoiled people&lt;/a&gt; and they&amp;rsquo;re unwilling to toil for meager wages?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;because kids are lazy or their parents failed them?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;because the &lt;a href=&#34;https://brownstone.org/articles/they-will-lock-you-down-again/&#34;&gt;naked corruption of the pandemic response&lt;/a&gt; demoralized people?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;because of vaccine mandates and other abuses violated the social contract?&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I found the following quote tweets illuminating:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/apocalypse-scenario/2.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/apocalypse-scenario/3.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/apocalypse-scenario/4.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/apocalypse-scenario/5.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/apocalypse-scenario/6.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/apocalypse-scenario/7.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/apocalypse-scenario/8.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/apocalypse-scenario/9.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/apocalypse-scenario/10.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/apocalypse-scenario/11.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/apocalypse-scenario/12.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/apocalypse-scenario/13.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;rsquo;t know the way forward from this. In the face of these concerns optimism reeks of denial. If you&amp;rsquo;re struggling to stay motivated I wish that you find ways to work to help those around you. If this as bad as some are predicting, we are all going to need a lot of help.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I pray that that through the holy spirit, people find fulfilling, meaningful and honest means to move forward in their own lives.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Don&#39;t turn on the flock!</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/dont-turn-on-the-flock/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 25 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/dont-turn-on-the-flock/</guid>
+			
+				<enclosure url="https://gabe.rocks//audio/dont-turn-on-the-flock.ogg" />
+			
+		
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//memes/Religion/sheep.jpg?d=1669334400</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//memes/Religion/sheep.jpg?d=1669334400" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//memes/Religion/sheep.jpg?d=1669334400" />
+		<description>Avoid the temptation of turning on your fellow human beings.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://nitter.net/Nurledge&#34;&gt;@ForgedaNohledge&lt;/a&gt; posted a fantastic rebuttal to Andrew Tate saying that the &amp;ldquo;&lt;a href=&#34;https://nitter.net/david_r_morgan/status/1595907799304765445&#34;&gt;slave minded&lt;/a&gt;&amp;rdquo; sheep are the problem. As someone who&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href=&#34;https://nitter.net/Nurledge/status/1605386855771385856&#34;&gt;life is threatened&lt;/a&gt; he can&amp;rsquo;t be accused of not having a stake on the issue.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;He posts his rebuttal across 4 clips:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://nitter.net/Nurledge/status/1595967032314712065&#34;&gt;Part 1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://yewtu.be/rbcNmsxFj2Q&#34;&gt;Part 2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://nitter.net/Nurledge/status/1595968892798926848&#34;&gt;Part 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://yewtu.be/watch?v=63VVqMznN9w&#34;&gt;Part 4&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve stiched them together as audio here:
+
+&lt;script&gt;
+    function audio_end(event){
+        p = event.target.parentElement;
+        if (!event.target.loop){
+            p.children[1].innerHTML=icons[&#39;play&#39;];
+        }
+    }
+    function setup_display(event){
+        el = event.target.children[0];
+        el.style.display=&#34;flex&#34;;
+        console.log(&#34;Display audio&#34;)
+    }
+    function setup_audio_metadata(event) {
+        audio=event.target;
+        var seek = audio.parentElement.children[2];
+        seek.min = 0;
+        seek.max = audio.duration;
+        seek.value = audio.currentTime;
+        audio.parentElement.children[3].style.display=&#34;block&#34;;
+        audio.parentElement.children[5].children[0].innerHTML = &#34;&#34; + timeToText(audio.currentTime) + &#34;/&#34;;
+        audio.parentElement.children[5].children[1].innerHTML = &#34;&#34; + timeToText(audio.duration);
+    }
+    function toggle_loop_audio(event) {
+        audio = event.target.parentElement.children[0];
+        audio.loop = !audio.loop;
+        if (audio.loop){
+            event.target.children[0].classList.add(&#34;spin&#34;);
+        }
+        else{
+            event.target.children[0].classList.remove(&#34;spin&#34;);
+        }
+    }
+    function update_audio_time(event) {
+        audio = event.target.parentElement.children[0];
+        audio.currentTime = event.target.value;
+    }
+    function toggle_play_audio(event) {
+        el = event.target;
+        audio = el.parentElement.children[0];
+        speed = el.parentElement.children[3].value;
+        audio.playbackRate = speed;
+        if (audio.paused) {
+            audio.play();
+            el.children[0].children[0].setAttribute(&#34;href&#34;,&#34;#pause&#34;);
+        }
+        else {
+            audio.pause();
+            el.children[0].children[0].setAttribute(&#34;href&#34;,&#34;#play&#34;)
+        }
+    }
+    function update_audio_speed(event) {
+        el = event.target;
+        audio = event.target.parentElement.children[0];
+        audio.playbackRate = el.value;
+
+    }
+    function timeToText(t) {
+        hours = 0;
+        minutes = 0;
+        seconds = 0;
+        if (t &gt; 60 * 60) {
+            hours = Math.floor(t / 60 / 60);
+            t = t - hours * 60 * 60;
+        }
+        if (t &gt; 60) {
+            minutes = Math.floor(t / 60);
+            t = t - minutes * 60
+
+        }
+        if (t &gt; 1) {
+            seconds = Math.floor(t);
+        }
+        text = &#34;&#34;;
+        if (hours &gt; 0) {
+            text += hours + &#34;:&#34;;
+        }
+        if (minutes &gt; 0 || hours &gt; 0) {
+            if (minutes == 0) {
+                minutes = &#34;00&#34;
+            }
+            if (minutes &lt; 10) {
+                text += &#34;0&#34;
+            }
+            text += minutes + &#34;:&#34;
+        }
+        if (seconds == 0 &amp;&amp; (minutes &gt; 0 || hours &gt; 0)) {
+            seconds = &#34;00&#34;;
+        }
+        if (seconds &lt; 10) {
+            text += &#34;0&#34;;
+        }
+        text += seconds
+        return text;
+    }
+&lt;/script&gt;
+&lt;style&gt;
+    .audio-player {
+        display: flex;
+        flex-direction: row;
+        align-items: center;
+        justify-content:center;
+        width: 100%;
+    }
+    .audio-player&gt;*{
+        margin:2px;
+        margin-right:5px;
+        margin-left:5px;
+    }
+    .audio-player p{
+        width: fit-content;
+    }
+
+    .media-seek {
+        width: 100%;
+    }
+    .audio-player{
+    border: 0.15rem solid var(--theme-accent);
+    padding:0.5rem;
+    border-radius: 0.5rem;
+    color:var(--theme-accent);
+    flex-wrap: nowrap;
+}
+.audio-player&gt;*{
+    margin:5px;
+}
+
+.audio-player select, .audio-player button{
+    background-color: transparent;
+    border-color: var(--theme-accent);
+    color:var(--theme-accent);
+    border-radius: 3px;
+    padding:0.5rem;
+}
+
+.icon svg{
+    width:2.25rem;
+    height:2.25rem;
+    z-index: -1;
+    background-color: transparent;
+    pointer-events: none;
+}
+.icon path,
+    .icon rect {
+        stroke: var(--theme-accent);
+        fill: var(--theme-accent);
+    }
+
+.icon svg circle {
+    stroke: var(--theme-accent);
+    fill: transparent;
+    stroke-width: 6;
+}
+@keyframes spin-icon {
+    0%{rotate:0;}
+    100%{rotate:360deg;}  
+}
+.spin{
+    animation:spin-icon 3s linear infinite;
+}
+&lt;/style&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;media-container&#34; onload=&#34;setup_display(event)&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;div class=&#34;audio-player&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;audio onended=&#34;audio_end(event)&#34; onloadedmetadata=&#34;setup_audio_metadata(event)&#34; ontimeupdate=&#34;setup_audio_metadata(event)&#34;&gt;
+            &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//audio/dont-turn-on-the-flock.ogg&#39;&gt;
+        &lt;/audio&gt;
+        &lt;div class=&#34;icon&#34; onclick=&#34;toggle_play_audio(event)&#34;&gt;
+            &lt;svg&gt;
+                &lt;use href=&#34;#play&#34;&gt;&lt;/use&gt;
+            &lt;/svg&gt;
+        &lt;/div&gt;
+        &lt;input class=&#34;media-seek&#34; type=&#34;range&#34; onchange=&#34;update_audio_time(event)&#34; value=&#34;0&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;select onchange=&#34;update_audio_speed(event)&#34; style=&#34;display:none;&#34;&gt;
+            &lt;option value=&#34;1&#34; selected&gt;1x&lt;/option&gt;
+            &lt;option value=&#34;1.5&#34;&gt;1.5x&lt;/option&gt;
+            &lt;option value=&#34;2&#34;&gt;2x&lt;/option&gt;
+            &lt;option value=&#34;2.5&#34;&gt;2.5x&lt;/option&gt;
+            &lt;option value=&#34;3&#34;&gt;3x&lt;/option&gt;
+        &lt;/select&gt;
+        &lt;div class=&#34;audio-preview&#34;&gt;
+        &lt;/div&gt;
+        &lt;p&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;audio-currentTime&#34;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class=&#34;audio-duration&#34;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+        &lt;div class=&#34;icon&#34; onclick=&#34;toggle_loop_audio(event)&#34;&gt;
+            &lt;svg&gt;
+                &lt;use href=&#34;#loop&#34;&gt;&lt;/use&gt;
+            &lt;/svg&gt;
+        &lt;/div&gt;
+    &lt;/div&gt;
+    &lt;noscript&gt;
+        &lt;style&gt;
+            .audio-player {
+                display: none;
+            }
+        &lt;/style&gt;
+        &lt;audio controls preload=&#34;false&#34; style=&#34;width:100%;min-width:40vw;&#34;&gt;
+            &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//audio/dont-turn-on-the-flock.ogg&#39;&gt;
+        &lt;/audio&gt;
+    &lt;/noscript&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As a personal note I can attest to feeling betrayed by how people have acted &lt;a href=&#34;https://ocla.ca/canadian-blood-services-remote-working-employee-fired-for-declining-vaccine/&#34;&gt;during the covid crisis&lt;/a&gt;. ForgedaNohledge correctly points out that the people whipped up into a frenzy over covid are themselves victims of the agenda. My other half has &lt;em&gt;consistently&lt;/em&gt; reminded me that I am privileged to be in the position to spend countless hours to &lt;em&gt;do my own research&lt;/em&gt; on things I find pressing. It is tempting to take one&amp;rsquo;s own situation for granted and then judge others.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/memes/Religion/sheep.jpg&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/memes/Religion/sheep.jpg&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;People who have families and/or demanding jobs aren&amp;rsquo;t always in the position to immediately distinguish, reason against, and ultimately overcome well-funded highly coordinated propaganda campaigns. This doesn&amp;rsquo;t excuse those in positions of authority from criminal or civil liability, but it is a reason to forgive many of those who may have wronged you. The proper way to heal the massive wounds that were torn and salted during the Covid Crisis is for those who orchestrated and profited off its execution are not only prosecuted under the law, but also give restitution to those they harmed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Dehumanizing those who simply didn&amp;rsquo;t have the ability or disposition to turn over every rock despite nearly all in authority telling them not to isn&amp;rsquo;t the right answer. I can understand the anger, to many of us I&amp;rsquo;m sure mask wearing does perfectly symbolize the very essence of what allowed this tyranny.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Follow me on Misskey!</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/misskey/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 02 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/misskey/</guid>
+		<description>I&#39;ve now setup my own single-user instance</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve setup my own &lt;a href=&#34;https://misskey.io&#34;&gt;Misskey&lt;/a&gt; instance with their super useful &lt;a href=&#34;https://misskey-hub.net/en/docs/install/docker.html&#34;&gt;docker guide&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Follow me at: &lt;a href=&#34;https://mk.gabe.rocks/@gabriel&#34;&gt;@gabriel@mk.gabe.rocks&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;So far I&amp;rsquo;m really loving the UI and features. Misskey seems like a really cool place to kick it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Also if you&amp;rsquo;re reading this, you may want to consider adding my button to your website!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/icons/gabe.rocks.gif&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>pi-server upgrade</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/pi-upgrades/</link>
+		<pubDate>Fri, 07 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/pi-upgrades/</guid>
+		<enclosure url="/video/pi-upgrade.webm" />
+		
+		<description>Booting a pi from an SSD</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/pi-gone&#34;&gt;No longer using the pi-server&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;upgrading-my-pi-servers-boot-drive&#34;&gt;Upgrading my pi-server&amp;rsquo;s boot drive&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;rsquo;t &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;trust&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; microSD cards. They&amp;rsquo;re tiny, and so very flimsy.&lt;br&gt;
+It&amp;rsquo;s hard to believe you can throw &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-MicroSDXC-Memory-Adapter/dp/B08HCPTMJG/&#34;&gt;1TB&lt;/a&gt; of data on these tiny things now.&lt;br&gt;
+I craved the certainty of an old reliable sata ssd with a usb-type c enclosure.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/pi-server&#34;&gt;pi-server&lt;/a&gt; serving you this site no longer uses a microsd card at all!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-imager-imaging-utility/&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/pi-imager.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-imager-imaging-utility/&#34;&gt;raspberry Pi imager&lt;/a&gt; makes it very easy to change your Pi&amp;rsquo;s boot order.&lt;br&gt;
+Simply select usb boot, and flash it to a small microsd card.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When you boot up with the sdcard wait for the green light to start flashing rapidly, that means it&amp;rsquo;s done.&lt;br&gt;
+You can now remove the microsd and boot your usb drive.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To migrate my existing installation I simply made new partitions on the SSD and copied the files.&lt;br&gt;
+Additionally you&amp;rsquo;ll want to make sure your &lt;strong&gt;/etc/fstab/&lt;/strong&gt; points to your new &lt;strong&gt;/boot/&lt;/strong&gt; partition&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/pi-upgrade.webm&#39;&gt;
+    
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Hugo Themes</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/themes/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sat, 17 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/themes/</guid>
+		<enclosure url="/video/website.mp4" />
+		
+		<description>Steal my look!</description>
+		<content:encoded>
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/website.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;p&gt;My hugo themes are open source:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel/Valor&#34;&gt;Valor&lt;/a&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;You can see a preview with extra tips &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/themes/valor&#34;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel/Freedom&#34;&gt;Freedom&lt;/a&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;You can see a preview with extra tips &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/themes/freedom&#34;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hoping to make more themes, these are just the starting concept.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Now available on Tor</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/darkweb/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 11 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/darkweb/</guid>
+		<description>Gabe.Rocks is now available on the dark web</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;Something I found helpful:&lt;br&gt;
+How to have your site automatically redirect &lt;a href=&#34;https://community.torproject.org/onion-services/advanced/onion-location/&#34;&gt;Tor users to your onion address&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;http://gabriel262me3lgv3w7xohtesg3laoojmtye644pwirhdm73qmedmsqd.onion&#34;&gt;Onion Address&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Stable diffusion: first look</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/stable-diffusion-first-look/</link>
+		<pubDate>Sun, 04 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/stable-diffusion-first-look/</guid>
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/sd/robots.webp?d=1662249600</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/sd/robots.webp?d=1662249600" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/sd/robots.webp?d=1662249600" />
+		<description>Looks kinda neat!</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/CompVis/stable-diffusion&#34;&gt;Stable diffusion&lt;/a&gt; is an AI tool for generating images from text prompts or other images.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;how-to-get-started&#34;&gt;How to get started:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I found &lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/d_CgaHyA_n4&#34;&gt;this&lt;/a&gt; video helpful the basic process is:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Install pytorch (docker images are available)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Download the pre-trained model&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Run the scripts&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;playing-around&#34;&gt;Playing around&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Why not start with some Transformers eh?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/robots.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I was a bit shocked how quick it was to genereate these and how decent they look.
+I really like the one on the left.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;How about dragons?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/dragons.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This didn&amp;rsquo;t suprise me much, I included &lt;code&gt;artstation&lt;/code&gt; in the prompt to get some more detail.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Knights?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/knights.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These are okay, I love the helmets but I can tell the prompt I gave could have been improved.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;How about something cute and fluffy?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/rabbits2.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I was hoping for a bunch of baby bunnnies&amp;hellip;which I got&amp;hellip;but oh my! What&amp;rsquo;s wrong with them?!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;More transformers! On the death star!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/transformers.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/transformers.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;All-and-all I think these are downright fantastic!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;How about something hard! A star wars fight!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/starwars.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A bit confused but not bad!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;How about reaaallly fancy sandcastles?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/sandcastles.webp&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/sandcastles.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I really like how these turned out!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;LEGO on Mars?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/lego%20mars.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;cherry-picking&#34;&gt;Cherry-picking&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Here are some of the ones I liked specifically or found interesting.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;gallery&#34;&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/hug.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/rabbit-sit.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/rabbit-jump.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/ships.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/board1.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/board2.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/dragon.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/sd/coin.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;summary&#34;&gt;Summary&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Be specific!&lt;/strong&gt; There&amp;rsquo;s a great deal the model doesn&amp;rsquo;t seem to understand.
+It understands cute though&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Some details will be wrong&lt;/strong&gt; A lot of specifics will slip through the cracks.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Running Pi Arch Linux</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/pi-server/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/pi-server/</guid>
+		<enclosure url="/video/pi.webm" />
+		
+		<description></description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/pi-gone&#34;&gt;No longer using the pi-server&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;this-site-was-served-to-you-by-a-raspberry-pi-4-model-b-running-arch-linux&#34;&gt;This site was served to you by a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B running Arch Linux&lt;/h2&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/pi.webm&#39;&gt;
+    
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://archlinuxarm.org/&#34;&gt;Arch Linux ARM&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.adafruit.com/product/4296&#34;&gt;Pi 4 B+&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/tech/pi-upgrades/&#34;&gt;Now booting on an SSD!&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Freedom Convoy 2022</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/freedom-convoy/</link>
+		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/thoughts/freedom-convoy/</guid>
+		<enclosure url="/video/viva.webm" />
+		
+		<image>https://gabe.rocks//images/gabe&amp;doc.jpg?d=1657670400</image>
+		<media:thumbnail href="https://gabe.rocks//images/gabe&amp;doc.jpg?d=1657670400" />
+		<itunes:image href="https://gabe.rocks//images/gabe&amp;doc.jpg?d=1657670400" />
+		<description>Canadians at their best.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/propaganda.jpg&#39; 
+
+ alt=&#39;*If the situation was hopeless, their propaganda would be unnecessary*&#39;
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I have seen Canadians of all walks of life set aside class, ethnicity, province, and everything else to &lt;a href=&#34;https://battlepenguin.com/politics/god-bless-canada-and-the-truckers-of-the-world/&#34;&gt;stand against&lt;/a&gt; abusive covid-19 policy. I&amp;rsquo;ve personally experienced a &lt;a href=&#34;https://ocla.ca/canadian-blood-services-remote-working-employee-fired-for-declining-vaccine/&#34;&gt;loss of income&lt;/a&gt; due to these policies.
+When things look bleak, remember that all over this great country there are hardworking people willing to make real sacrifices for freedom, prosperity, and the hope of a better future. I know that together there are no limits to what we can achieve.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/gabe&amp;amp;doc.jpg&#39; 
+
+ alt=&#39;Gabe with Dr Bridle&#39;
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+I am forever inspired by those who have spoken up against institutional corruption and championed fundamental rights in these dark times. Now more than ever we need strong courageous people willing to work towards building a future worth inheriting. The challenges in repairing Canadian culture and institutions are incredible. I believe that together there are enough people willing and able to face these challenges.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=freedom_convoy_2022&#34;&gt;Learn more at Campfire.Wiki&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;d like to see some phootgraphs I&amp;rsquo;ve taken you can browse them from the &lt;a href=&#34;https://archive.org/details/2022-02-13_202305&#34;&gt;internet archive&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;now-is-the-time-to-stand-up-and-be-counted&#34;&gt;Now is the time to stand up and be counted&lt;/h2&gt;
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+                display: none;
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+        &lt;/style&gt;
+        &lt;video controls preload=&#34;false&#34;&gt;
+            &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/viva.webm&#39;&gt;
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+    &lt;/noscript&gt;
+
+    &lt;p class=&#34;caption&#34;&gt; 
+    &lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>Reclaiming Territory in Cyberspace</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/tech/reclaiming-cyberspace/</link>
+		<pubDate>Thu, 16 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/tech/reclaiming-cyberspace/</guid>
+		<description>Leave big tech behind forever. Reclaim your power to reshape cyberspace. Learn technological literacy without compromise.</description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;../reclaiming-cyberspace.pdf&#34;&gt;PDF now available&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Humanity has lost cyberspace to corporations, corruption, and algorithmic control. It is of utmost importance that we increase people’s general technological understanding. We can all build a human-centric cyberspace instead of one used to dominate and control us.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;contents&#34;&gt;Contents:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#hardware-basics&#34;&gt;Hardware Basics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#operating-system-fundamentals&#34;&gt;Operating Systems&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#the-world-wide-web&#34;&gt;World Wide Web&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#communications&#34;&gt;Communications&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#self-hosting&#34;&gt;Self-hosting&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#censorship-avoidance-1&#34;&gt;Censorship Avoidance&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;#your-website&#34;&gt;Your Website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;hardware-basics&#34;&gt;Hardware Basics&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;We are living in interesting times. These days a vast array of tools are aimed at harvesting as much data as possible to build powerful centralized control systems. These systems are then leveraged against people in all kinds of insidious ways. This is not merely self-interested profit-seeking; it has a purpose and that purpose is to wage war on humanity. The Tools of the Technocracy series was intended to demonstrate the vast array of tools being weaponized against the people.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With this in mind, it is challenging to know how to proceed. People may want to simply eliminate all contact with technology, it’s hard to blame them. Others, are simply not prepared to make that decision and can fall into a trap of apathy. This series aims to build a solid foundation to reclaim much of your own digital sovereignty. As you do this, you can leverage many useful systems without becoming a prisoner of the technocracy. Those who are locked into the cloud are not only captives of the system, but are actively providing assistance to those who wish to control everyone, and everything.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;But how can we turn the tide? What if it is too late to meaningfully change things?
+While I can not promise total victory, there are many important ways for people to take action and start to liberate themselves from the cloud. I believe the pursuit of liberty is an asymmetric one in the people’s favor. While things may look bleak, it is very clear that every act of defiance, every action taken to bring freedom; costs the tyrants exponentially more effort to reverse.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;strategic-overview&#34;&gt;Strategic overview&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In cyberspace there 3 major resources: &lt;strong&gt;Storage, Bandwidth, and Computing Power&lt;/strong&gt;. Our goal must be to maximize our use of these resources without having them being used against us.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;1-storage&#34;&gt;1. Storage&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For content and information to exist it has to be stored somewhere. Storage varies in capacity, speed, and form-factor.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Capacity:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hard drives (HDD) offer significantly more storage per $ than solid-state drives (SSD).&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Speed:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Solid-state drives are much faster than hard drives.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Optical media is much slower.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Form-factor:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Flash drives are smaller portable storage devices that can be carried around with you.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;SD Cards are very tiny and have very high storage-to-space ratios.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Hard drives and most solid-state drives are significantly bulkier.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These trade-offs represent opportunities in some areas and troubles in others. Depending on your needs you may only need a small amount of storage, in other cases you may need significantly more.
+In my opinion, here are the optimal roles for each storage device:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/storage-types.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;solid-state-drives&#34;&gt;Solid-state drives:&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Primary storage for Desktop/Laptop devices.&lt;br&gt;
+Their faster speed offers a great deal of advantages:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Your system will boot faster&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Loading files and programs will be faster&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;They are significantly quieter than hard drives&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;They’re also smaller than hard drives&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;hard-drives&#34;&gt;Hard drives:&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Additional storage for media, such as videos, music, documents, and images.
+Due to their cost effectiveness these are fantastic for larger backups.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;flash-drives--sd-cards&#34;&gt;Flash drives &amp;amp; SD Cards:&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Transferring files over the “sneaker-net” by personally delivering them, or through the mail.
+Additionally, these are very great for “quick-and-dirty” back-ups of small amounts of files.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;optical-media&#34;&gt;Optical media:&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Aside from being able to be played directly with their respective reader, optical media is fantastic for archiving. Anything you you want stored in an untouched format.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;At minimum you’ll want to preserve data you care about. Backups are very important to prevent data loss. At least having some storage helps prevent you from keeping all your data in the cloud. Portable storage is a great way to have access to the same files on multiple devices without having to constantly sync those files over the network. You can turn HDDs and SSDs into portable storage by using their respective enclosure.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;2-connectivity&#34;&gt;2. Connectivity&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The “information superhighway” is fueled by the ability for large amounts of data to be transferred large distances. Connectivity varies in &lt;strong&gt;latency, bandwidth, and range&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Latency&lt;/strong&gt; is how fast it takes information to arrive.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bandwidth&lt;/strong&gt; is how much information can be carried in a given time.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Range&lt;/strong&gt; is how far you can send information.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wired networks&lt;/strong&gt; are king in terms of speed, very low latency and very high bandwidth.
+Attackers need to have access to the wires to intercept your network information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wireless networks&lt;/strong&gt; have significantly more range, but have significant speed and security trade-offs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;LoRa&lt;/strong&gt; (Long Range) has incredible range, and is simple to deploy yourself. Unfortunately, it is not suited for significant amounts of data transmission.
+Bluetooth is infamously insecure, but has a shorter range and conveniently integrates with many devices.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mobile Networks&lt;/strong&gt; (LTE/5G) are run by large corporations,but they are convenient. Outside of specific circumstances connectivity is generally associated with your identity.
+&lt;strong&gt;WiFi&lt;/strong&gt; is most commonly providing internet access to devices in specific buildings. It is generally recommended to use your own access point instead of relying on the router provided by your ISP.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While you may have a fantastic connection, others may not. Ensuring that content you produce is accessible to low data connections puts you at a significant advantage. This means you may want to have as much raw text as possible, and smaller sized images &amp;amp; video.
+If your website is under 512KB consider joining the &lt;a href=&#34;https://512kb.club/&#34;&gt;512KB club&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;hr&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;3-computing-power&#34;&gt;3. Computing power&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;More computing power exponentially increases the possibilities available with given resources and information. Computing power has to balance heat, energy efficiency, and complexity. Powerful machines use more power and generate more heat. Clusters of powerful machines generate even more heat and require incredible amounts of energy. It is important not to underestimate the computing power available to the technocrats, many feats impossible to consumer grade hardware are still on the table for larger entities. Likewise, it is foolish to dismiss the capabilities of even relatively small amounts of computing power, even the most simple devices can still relay data to more sophisticated ones.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;AI is a force multiplier for computing power. It requires a massive amount of energy, computing power and energy to train, but once the model is trained it requires exponentially less to use the model. This is incredible because AI models can be shared, potentially saving people large amounts of computing power, which in turn saves lots of energy. Unfortunately, this is also means that those with access to privately trained AI behind close doors have disproportionate advantages in specific areas.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Smart phones provide a significant amount of computing power on the go. Their operating systems do a great deal to restrict people from installing software outside their store. Many of these devices are sold with relatively little storage to incentivize people to move onto the cloud. The biggest challenge with having a much more powerful device is ensuring it isn’t being leveraged against you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Do you necessarily need to hoard the most computing power you possibly can? I don’t think this is necessary. In fact I believe the best strategy is to ensure that the computing power is well distributed between people to even the playing-field. One way of achieving this is sharing a used system with someone instead of recycling it. Not everyone stays up to date with the latest hardware and your “obsolete” device may be an upgrade for someone else. Where possible, it’s important to liberate hardware from the cloud, instead of simply purchasing devices and creating more e-waste.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;assessment&#34;&gt;Assessment&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The cloud as a whole is an atrocious waste in the first place. Crimes against ordinary people aren’t prevented by all this passive surveillance, children still go missing in incredible numbers despite all this incredible technology, and none of it has been used to make people happier, empowered, healthier human beings. At best, the cloud is a tax-write-off for enterprises that do not wish to maintain their own systems. This has significant costs to us as we lose any and all privacy from the system.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Even as a group, humanity is at a staggering disadvantage in terms of these resources. Governments of the world, big tech, and other large institutions will have the majority of the storage, bandwidth, and computing power.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While that makes it sound like it’s “game over” it’s really not. Manufacturing, configuring, and maintaining all of these systems is insanely expensive. Much of the work done by these systems is solely focused on collecting data on people, analyzing it, and then manipulating people&amp;hellip;if the people let them. This is why it is very important for these systems to make it as easy as possible for people to keep feeding them data; every single conscious choice to send these systems less data and reduce it’s influence turns this very expensive enterprise into a massive waste.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This asymmetry is the root of our goal. We don’t need to build a competing digital-financial-complex to win, we simply have to regain enough privacy in our own lives to undermine this system. The goal of these systems isn’t to simply hijack our devices and turn them against us; where possible, they want to turn us against ourselves.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;devices&#34;&gt;Devices&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The internet as a whole is a giant battlefield in the war for cyberspace. In this respect, every single connected device is a strategic location that may be already entirely compromised by malevolent forces. These are not limited to the technocracy, ordinary cyber-criminals would be very happy to make use of the resources your device has access to. When an attacker takes control of your device, it will inevitably cause you problems. The more capabilities the device has, the more of a danger it is to you. Machines can lie, a compromised device can and will act in subtle, unpredictable ways. Many systems ultimately trust that the device is doing what the device reports it is doing.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What kind of capabilities can devices have?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/device-types.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The main computing elements in machines are the CPU (Central Processing Unit) and the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) also known as the video card. The CPU is responsible for running the majority of the tasks the system runs, with the GPU being responsible for drawing the display(s).&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For CPUs there are specific instruction sets used by programs for that architecture. This is important because not all software will be available to each architecture.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/cpu-types.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When the machine turns on the boot-loader looks for any Operating Systems that are stored on the system, which are then loaded. Once the OS is loaded, the OS prepares any systems and services that are needed to run. Unfortunately these devices can and do have back-doors in them, most infamously there is the &lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Management_Engine&#34;&gt;IntelME&lt;/a&gt; which is essentially a whole new system running underneath your system. There are mitigation (discussed below) but it’s important to have the long-view when understanding what we are up against.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-immense-cost-of-anti-human-devices&#34;&gt;The immense cost of anti-human devices&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;planned-obsolescence&#34;&gt;Planned obsolescence&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A major factor in the increasing amount of e-waste is manufacturers dropping support for devices. When a device no longer receives updates it is not only a significant security risk; it also can arbitrarily limit what software the device can run. This robs people of the time and resources used to acquire and maintain the device in the first place.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;defective-by-design&#34;&gt;Defective by design&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In addition to planned obsolescence, many devices are made difficult to repair. Often by Manufacturers not disclosing vital information required to maintain and fix them. By not being able to repair devices, you often can’t update or even modify them to your needs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This increasingly applies to more than just computers, but appliances, vehicles and tools.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;mitigation-measures&#34;&gt;Mitigation measures&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;dedicated-devices&#34;&gt;Dedicated devices&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When it comes to hardware “less is more” in so many ways. The only way for someone to access photos on a non-networked digital camera is for them to have the device. On the other hand, “smart” devices, with many features and little transparency will be passively sending all kinds of data without the people nearby being aware. An “air-gapped” PC (a computer without network access) is a lot harder to hack into, usually requiring physical access.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A webcam you can unplug is one you can easily prevent from recording you&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;A hardware authenticator can keep encryption keys safe&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Having your backup on storage that isn’t plugged-in can protect you from ransomware&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Using a power bank to charge your mobile device can prevent them from being hacked by charging ports&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;faraday-bags&#34;&gt;Faraday bags&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Not every device can be single-purpose unfortunately. For laptops, smartphones, and tablets you may want to consider using a faraday bag that can block out any network signal.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;hardware-switches&#34;&gt;Hardware switches&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Some devices provide hardware switches to turn off specific features, some laptops have it for WiFi.
+Note that this may be more of a hotkey or “suggestion” to the operating system rather than actually cutting off the power. Make sure you know that the switch actually cuts power to the device you intend to turn off.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;right-to-repair&#34;&gt;Right to Repair&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.repair.org/stand-up&#34;&gt;Right to repair&lt;/a&gt; is an important movement in restoring our rights over our devices. Keeping details about these devices secret does little to keep things secure and is simply a subsidy to platforms with the worst practices. Total ownership over your devices is one of the most important steps in ensuring the creators don’t end up owning you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;free-and-open-source-hardware-fosh&#34;&gt;Free and Open Source Hardware (FOSH)&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of fighting existing manufacturers, it can often be easier to support the creation of new devices with open schematics and great documentation. This is another area where a little effort goes a long way. As the tools to build devices become more accessible more and more useful projects will come online.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware&#34;&gt;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;libreboot&#34;&gt;Libreboot&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Libreboot is a fantastic project for creating Free and Open Source (FOSS) firmware for computers. This is very important in removing the Intel ME from intel devices.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libreboot.org/&#34;&gt;https://libreboot.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;-https://libreboot.at/&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h1 id=&#34;operating-system-fundamentals&#34;&gt;Operating System Fundamentals&lt;/h1&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;After you’ve taken careful consideration of what devices you want in your life, it’s important to take control of the systems you use. Just as not all devices are equal, different systems have massive differences. Fundamentally the question ends up being one of trust. Do you trust your data on a Windows machine designed by Microsoft? Do you trust your data on smartphones with Google or Apple? One of the most powerful tools these systems have is to convince you to put your data onto the cloud by making it easier and more convenient. They don’t need to proactively steal information from you if they can simply encourage you to do it yourself.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Our primary advantage against the technocracy is that we can almost always do more with less. By taking control of your systems, you can make significant steps to enhancing your digital privacy, security, and freedom. Every unit of data you deprive from the cloud incrementally makes a waste out of the immense resources spent on running it. This means that it is critical to prioritize keeping your data and data processing on your own systems. Thankfully this doesn’t mean doing it entirely alone. There are many ways to collaborate and pool resources without sacrificing ownership, autonomy, or privacy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;First, we need to understand our systems better. By understanding how our systems work, we can truly reclaim our own processing and bring our data home.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;abstraction&#34;&gt;Abstraction&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Every time you launch a program or open an app your device has to use the Operating System (OS) to make important preparations. Application files are loaded from storage, and all kinds of system resources and devices are accessed. The important feature of the OS is abstraction; simplifying complex systems into easy-to-use interfaces for applications. Because of this, application developers don’t need worry about what kind of device your system has, they only need to know what features it has. For example, your browser can easily use whatever camera &amp;amp; microphone you have, rather than only supporting specific ones.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;computing-power-abstraction&#34;&gt;Computing power abstraction&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The heart of your computing power is the CPU, it is the engine that provides the raw power for computations. Almost all modern CPUs have multiple cores which are units that allow more processing to be done synchronously. The OS translates physical cores (and extra functionality) into virtual threads which run tasks. The important part to understand is that when processing large amounts of data there are often ways to do it faster with programs that make use of more threads.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Memory is similar to storage, but it’s the warehouse the CPU uses to organize data. As programs bring in larger and larger units of memory it is up to the OS to eventually free that memory when it is no longer in use when the program stops using it. Operations that use memory are significantly faster than ones working on storage. These trade-offs are things software developers should keep in mind when writing software, it can very often be the difference between a powerful or unusable tool.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Simply being aware of the limits of your system (such as how much memory it has, and how many cores/threads the CPU has) goes a long way in helping understand how to optimize certain tasks. When processing large amounts of data, you may prefer to use a program or tool that makes use of more threads. You can avoid crashes by not attempting things that use up all of your memory.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The critical part of taking control of your own computing is ensuring that you’re doing your processing on your machine. Running your own programs rather than using software-as-a-service (SaaS). By doing this you are not only protecting your data, but also your processes. With total control of your environment you are less vulnerable to outside failures.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;storage-abstraction&#34;&gt;Storage abstraction&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The most important aspect of having control of your own data is making sure it is only on storage you control, and ideally have physical possession of. For each storage device you have the ability to divide it up into partitions. These are useful in situations where you need different filesystems on the same device. In many cases, the bootloader will be installed to a small system partition and the rest will use the filesystem your OS prefers. For example, your Windows system likely already has a system partition with the bootloader installed, the main partition with all your files, and possibly a recovery partition.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Devices need to have a partition table which tells the system how the partitions are set. The two partition tables are GPT &amp;amp; MBR. On older devices you’ll more often see MBR partition tables, and newer devices will often use GPT. Once the partition table is written you can now write the filesystems to the partitions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/filesystems.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Filesystems allow you to save data on your device. There are many other useful ones like sshfs, which allows you to remotely manage files on different systems. When installing a new OS to a device, you may have to create a separate partition for the bootloader first. Many installers make partitioning substantially easier, but understanding how they work helps you better suit systems to your needs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Storage is the very first thing the cloud aims to take away from you. In exchange for access to your files from everywhere, they put your data in their control. Putting your files on your own devices takes a bit more effort, but it’s one of the most important ways to secure your data. The easiest way to keep information safe is to not distribute it when you don’t need to.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;network-abstraction&#34;&gt;Network abstraction&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;There’s no place like “127.0.0.1”.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are many important systems used to simplify various aspects of connecting to the internet. DNS (Domain name system) allows you you access sites and services without knowing their IP address. Your own system has a &lt;a href=&#34;https://someonewhocares.org/hosts/&#34;&gt;hosts file&lt;/a&gt; which is another way to assign names to IPs. For almost every device 127.0.0.1 maps to localhost, which means the device itself. Any service running on your own device will then be accessible from there.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;dns&#34;&gt;DNS&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;DNS (Domain Name System) is what allows your system to communicate with other devices.
+It works like this:
+1.ou open your browser and enter &lt;a href=&#34;https://fsf.org&#34;&gt;https://fsf.org&lt;/a&gt;
+2. Your device asks the DNS server “Where can I find fsf.org?”
+3. The DNS server will then ask other nameservers for an up-to-date record of where the site is located
+4. The DNS server will then reply to your device with an IP (such as 209.51.188.174)
+5. Your browser then loads the page from &lt;a href=&#34;https://fsf.org&#34;&gt;https://fsf.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is generally done on the system level in your network settings. A huge privacy concern is that by default most DNS queries are not encrypted which means it isn’t difficult for bad actors on your network to:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Know what sites you visit&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;What online services you use&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;How often you use them&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This doesn’t necessarily relay any information about the content of the connection however. If you’re using encrypted connections you can be reasonably sure that the content remains safe. This isn’t a huge comfort because for many actors metadata is far more valuable than the content. From a privacy perspective, DNS seems to be one of the most under-appreciated aspects of protecting oneself. In many ways it is because most good VPNs will handle DNS as well, but there are other considerations.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;DNS can also be set at the application level. Browsers, for example, will have their own DNS settings. Most major browsers now support &lt;a href=&#34;https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-dns-over-https&#34;&gt;DOH&lt;/a&gt;, which is a very convenient way to encrypt your browser’s DNS queries. For encrypting all of your system’s DNS queries you may want to consider using &lt;a href=&#34;https://dnscrypt.info/faq&#34;&gt;DNSCrypt&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;challenges&#34;&gt;Challenges&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;hardware-restrictions&#34;&gt;Hardware restrictions&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hardware will significantly limit what options you have to install on your device. While some options may simply be more difficult (Android on the desktop? Say it isn’t so!) others simply won’t be possible at all. This is a significant challenge when “de-googling” android phones. Custom ROMS won’t always be available for less-popular devices. Specific software may not be accessible on all platforms, software you use on Windows may not be available on MacOS or Linux. Even when it’s compatible, both Android and iOS restrict “side-loading” (installing) software outside of the store by default.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;spying&#34;&gt;Spying&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;From phones to fridges, “smart” devices continuously collect data on their users and how the device is used. Most spying takes place on the network or application level but the OS itself may prevent you from removing unwanted applications or services. In almost every case, this telemetry doesn’t benefit you at all. They will often say that the data is collected to improve their services, but in most cases the data collection is the end itself.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;vulnerabilities&#34;&gt;Vulnerabilities&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is important to make sure your OS &amp;amp; programs are up to date to avoid well-known vulnerabilities from being used against you. Law enforcement agencies have deployed malware to bypass encryption.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;breaking-free&#34;&gt;Breaking Free&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;removing-data-from-the-cloud&#34;&gt;Removing data from the cloud&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Move it all. Move everything off the cloud. The goal of this course is to give you ownership and agency over your own data. You’re going to want your own local backups regardless. Have multiple redundant (offline) backups in multiple locations to be safe from corruption, damage, and house-fires.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;free-software&#34;&gt;Free Software&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Free software is software that gives you the user the freedom to share, study and modify it. We call this free software because the user is free.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://fsf.org&#34;&gt;fsf.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;using-the-terminal&#34;&gt;Using the terminal&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/terminals.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While you can do all kinds of things with without interacting with your system’s terminal, being able to type out commands can really help you use some very powerful and flexible tools.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There is a fantastic array of software that you can quickly use by typing a few short terms.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;yt-dlp&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can easily download videos from many sites, like twitter, with a simple command. This tool is fantastic for being able to keep local copies of videos that may be censored or otherwise unavailable.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;wget&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Downloads files from the web, including archiving entire websites for offline reference.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;ffmpeg&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Great for converting videos.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;ssh&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;ssh is used to remotely manage systems by using their terminal.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For example, imagine you want 10 seconds out of a 40 minute video on Youtube and want to put it on your website. I’m running Linux.
+Here’s one way to accomplish that using the terminal:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;yt-dlp youtube.com/some-video -o video.mp4&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;(downloads the video to ‘video.mp4’)&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -ss (start time) -t 10 video-clipped.mp4&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;(uses ffmepg to clip out the 10 second clip at the chosen start time and save it as ‘video-clipped.mp4)&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;scp video-clipped.mp4 my-website:/var/www/website/videos/video-clipped.mp4&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Using &lt;strong&gt;scp&lt;/strong&gt; I then copied the clipped video on to the website’s files making it available instantly.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Anyone would then be able to access the video from &lt;code&gt;https://my-website/videos/video-clipped.mp4&lt;/code&gt;. This does require a webserver and a few other things setup, which you will learn how to set up in future parts. I use this example to demonstrate how much time you can save with a few quick keystrokes. Especially once you start to automate things you do on a regular basis.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4jJjDNUpSs&#34;&gt;Linux terminal commands&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://youtu.be/MNwErTxfkUA&#34;&gt;Basic command prompt in Windows&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;virtual-servers&#34;&gt;Virtual Servers&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you are interested in running your own servers and services you’ll likely want to get familiar with Linux and Open Source software. Instead of rushing to reinstall your system, you may want to try it out without changing your current system.
+Here are some ways to get started:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;vpss&#34;&gt;VPSs&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the easiest ways to get started is to spin up a Virtual Private Server (VPS) with a cloud host.
+This will allow you to try out all kinds of different configurations without using virtual machines yourself.
+Sign up to &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.vultr.com/?ref=8731995&#34;&gt;Vultr&lt;/a&gt; with this link and get $100 in free credit.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;virtual-machines&#34;&gt;Virtual Machines&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With &lt;a href=&#34;http://virtualbox.org/&#34;&gt;virtualbox&lt;/a&gt; you can create systems on top of your system. This gives you a fantastic simulation of what would be an entirely separate device. Virtual machines are handy because you can even pause them to freeze them in time, save the state, and even rollback to that state in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5MhydijWmc&#34;&gt;How to install Ubuntu on Virtualbox&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;the-world-wide-web&#34;&gt;The World Wide Web&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This is one of the most critical posts in the series. The primary battlefield in the information war is the world wide web. A majority of internet users aren’t actually users. They are captives of digital kingdoms that harvest their data, control their interactions, and manipulate them. Breaking free requires not only escaping these digital fiefdoms but also helping others do the same.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;understanding-the-battlefield&#34;&gt;Understanding the battlefield&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The world wide web is a network of networks. You connect to it through your ISP (internet service provider). Your ISP will then connect to large networks that act as the backbone of the internet. This is what allows almost anyone to connect to all kinds of different sites and services.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;websites&#34;&gt;Websites&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When you load a website here is what happens:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Your browser does a DNS query asking for the IP address of the server.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;It then downloads the page, and any data and media associated with that page.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;As it displays the content of that page, any additional scripts running on that page will start automatically.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Websites can have all kinds of content on them. Beyond simple text and images there can be video, audio, as well as interactive content. Extra content isn’t always good. Many times your browser can be downloading media and assets from sources that track the people accessing that content. This one of the ways Facebook, Google, and other Big Tech companies are able to track your browsing habits.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Scripts running on pages can do a wide multitude of things, from dynamically updating content on the page, to fingerprinting you to identify you specifically. While you can turn off scripts, many sites will unnecessarily gate content behind scripts and often an account as well. This trains people into constantly handing over more and more personal information in exchange for basic access. This is has fundamentally altered the web from an open information resource to a highly controlled technological terror.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;services&#34;&gt;Services&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Servers can send information other than just pages and content, they can process and serve data. This allows many sites to have a more interactive experience. For example there’s infinite scrolling, instead of you having to open more and more pages to see results, the page just asks the server for more items and slots them into the page. The opportunities are limitless; and so are the troubles. This functionality allows sites, apps, and even smart devices to monitor and manipulate you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Services also opened the door for people to be able to establish an online identity. This is what allows people to do all kinds of things like online purchases and comment on posts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Many services these days have either been naively or malevolently made to collect much more information than would be ideal. Not all services need to operate this way. Where possible it’s important to redesign services from the ground up to respect user’s privacy &amp;amp; autonomy.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;your-tools-browsers&#34;&gt;Your tools: Browsers&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Browsers are the program or mobile app you use to access content on the web. &lt;a href=&#34;https://digdeeper.neocities.org/ghost/browsers.html&#34;&gt;Choosing what browser to use&lt;/a&gt; is a complicated topic without a ‘one-size-fits all’ solution.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When taking charge of your online interactions, you need to be aware of how browsers work. Then you can make more informed decisions about what browser to use.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;permissions&#34;&gt;Permissions&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You may trust some sites more than others. Permissions decide what kind of access each site can use. Depending on your settings; sites may be able to autoplay videos, request the camera/microphone, and use your location. As always, the best way to keep information safe is not to distribute it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/browser-permissions.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;https&#34;&gt;HTTPS&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;HTTPS is an encrypted connection for the web. This requires the server to have a certificate. The certificate is an encryption key that can ensure the validity of the content. Certificates have to be signed by by a certificate authority. Let’s Encrypt is a free, efficient way to generate certificates for servers you control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/web-certificate.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;HTTPS is not a perfect guarantee of safety.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/ssl-added-removed.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;SSL added and removed here :^)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This diagram from the Snowden leaks means that if an entity can put a server in the middle of the connection, it can remove any and all protection provided by the connection.
+This is essentially what Cloudflare does in exchange for their DDOS Protection.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;javascript&#34;&gt;Javascript&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Web pages can be enhanced (or corrupted) with javascript.
+&lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel/interverse&#34;&gt;Interverse&lt;/a&gt; is a project designed to help web people discover links between sites. By providing a machine readable index, sites can promote other sites to each other. This can eventually build a fully-decentralized, resilient way to discover sites.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The javascript running interverse does a variety of things:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;After the page is loaded it downloads a file (/.well-known/interverse) from the website hosting the client.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;The browser to then directly loads the file from the sites linked to by the origin site, receiving their details and connections.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Using a library called Alpine.js the data is then displayed on the page.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;dev-tools&#34;&gt;Dev tools&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Both Firefox &amp;amp; Chrome provide very featureful tools for understanding how sites you use work. You can open them with CTRL-SHIFT-I.
+You will then be greated with either a new window or a sidebar with multiple tabs including:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;elements&#34;&gt;Elements&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This tab lays out the entire page’s code. You can make changes which will be reflected as long as you keep the page open.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/dev-tools.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;console&#34;&gt;Console&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This will display any errors or logs on the page. You can even run your own javascript on the page.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;sources&#34;&gt;Sources&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Displays files and media used by the page.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;network&#34;&gt;Network&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Lists and profiles any network connections made while loading the page.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;censorship-avoidance&#34;&gt;Censorship Avoidance&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;rss&#34;&gt;RSS&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Using an RSS reader allows you to directly download new content from sites directly. This is very useful in reducing your dependence on big tech social media feeds.
+Here’s how you can get the RSS URL from nearly any website:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Open the page&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Search for the word ‘RSS’ using CTRL-F or “Find on page”&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;If there’s no link there, view the source of the page (CTRL-U) and see if there’s an RSS link. An easy way to find it may be searching for ‘/feed’&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Copy the link&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Add the link to your preferred RSS reader&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;bookmarks&#34;&gt;Bookmarks&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Saving websites you visit by bookmarking sites reduces your dependence on search engines. You can have your browser auto-complete results from your bookmarks so every site is only a few keystrokes away!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;privacy-front-ends&#34;&gt;Privacy front-ends&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Sometimes the content you want to access is on social media sites you no longer have accounts for. Libredirect is a fantastic service for redirecting you to a website that grabs the content for you.
+The major ones are:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Invidious for YouTube&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Nitter for Twitter&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Bibliogram for Instagram&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;communications&#34;&gt;Communications&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The technocracy is highly motivated to take control of your means of communication. It’s no longer simply about who can promote messages to the masses, rather it’s increasingly focused on how you communicate with your intimate contacts.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Regardless of how the technical implementation turn out to be in detail: if the plans of the commission should be coming into action, the intrusion into privacy will be fairly deep. Just imagine for each and every message, regardless of a suspicion, to be automatically searched, evaluated and, in terms of a supposed match, reported — not only to the providers but straight to the authorities.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Inevitably, this would include countless perfectly normal, legitimate photos and videos that people send each other. If automatic detection, so far still unreliable, should raise alarm, the content would have to be checked by humans either way. Not only would this violate the right to privacy even more, but as well open another gateway that opens a possibility to be misused.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://web.archive.org/web/20230701100119/https://netzpolitik.org/2021/eu-commission-why-chat-control-is-so-dangerous/&#34;&gt;Why Chat Control is Dangerous&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;public-vs-private&#34;&gt;Public vs Private&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are all kinds of different choices you’ll want to make in terms of public vs private communication. For communications meant to be private you’re going to want to encrypt them in some way. It’s important to be clear with yourself about which communications are intended to be private or which are for the world to see. If you’re not careful they’ll often get mixed.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;an-n-way-street&#34;&gt;An N-Way street&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Communications aren’t just about sending messages, it’s also about receiving them. It doesn’t matter if someone has a megaphone to the world if the systems in place have mechanisms to prevent that message from being received by anyone.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;means&#34;&gt;Means&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Communication ideally involves a connection. It doesn’t matter if it’s wifi, fiber, or your cellular connection, odds are your communications are being done over one or many networks.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;resources&#34;&gt;Resources&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In part 1 we defined the primary resources in cyberspace to be:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Storage&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Computing power&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Bandwidth&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Computing power is currently the least important when it comes to communications, in most scenarios either Bandwidth (specifically latency) or Storage become more important. Your communications need to be stored somewhere and the cloud is just someone else’s computer. The privacy and security of your devices matters a great deal in keeping your communications safe.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Just as it is important to move your data back onto devices and systems in your control it is ideal to use forms of communication that don’t leave your messages on servers outside of your control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;encryption&#34;&gt;Encryption&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When it comes to communication there can be different stages of encryption:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Encryption for transport (Network)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Which means that messages can’t be read while being sent to their destination&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Encryption at rest (Storage)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Which means that messages are encrypted when stored, and need to be decrypted to be read&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The ideal to have both, many services (such as gmail) will say they’re protected with encryption, but they only mean (1) encryption over the network, and can be scanned / catalogued.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Another harsh reality when it comes to encrypted communication :&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Not your keys, not your messages.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Just like when it comes to cryptocurrencies, the data is only as safe as the encryption keys themselves. Some providers will additionally encrypt your messages at rest (2) but they will manage the keys for you. In every circumstance the ideal is to control the keys yourself.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;mitigation&#34;&gt;Mitigation&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;end-to-end-encryption&#34;&gt;End-to-end encryption&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;End-to-end encryption is a sophisticated method that uses keys from both participants to encrypt messages directly for those participants. This feature is a must-have for private communications on platforms you don’t control.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;peer-to-peer-connections&#34;&gt;Peer-to-peer connections&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the best ways to have direct communication would be to not have to route messages through a server. When trying to do this over the internet (instead of locally over WiFi/Bluetooth ect) your devices need a method to “find each other”. WebRTC is a solution that requires a TURN server. This means that the server knows that two IPs are communicating, but has no insight into what is being communicated.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;keep-sensitive-information-away-from-these&#34;&gt;Keep sensitive information away from these:&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;SMS / MMS&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Phone calls&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;E-mail&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Hosted apps such as:
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Facebook&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Twitter&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Whatsapp&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Google Hangouts / Gmail&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Telegram&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;This doesn’t necessarily mean that you must entirely avoid these, even if in some cases it would do you a lot of good. Where possible you want to at least move any important or private communications to alternative methods.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;useful-solutions&#34;&gt;Useful Solutions&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are some excellent privacy resources available:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://digdeper.club&#34;&gt;DigDeeper&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://spyware.neocities.org/&#34;&gt;Privacy Watchdog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://privacyraccoon.tk/&#34;&gt;Privacy Raccoon&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;delta-chat&#34;&gt;Delta Chat&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://delta.chat/&#34;&gt;Delta chat&lt;/a&gt; is incredibly unique. Instead of building a protocol and new network from scratch, it’s built on top of e-mail. This means you can seamlessly interact with your existing contacts with added privacy and security once they start using it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;matrix--xmpp&#34;&gt;Matrix &amp;amp; XMPP&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;iframe src=&#39;https://videos.lukesmith.xyz/videos/embed/8fbf5fd7-3d52-43b4-bf0f-baf0a6355519&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/iframe&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;embrace-the-analog&#34;&gt;Embrace the Analog&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Because &lt;a href=&#34;https://thehackernews.com/2022/07/new-air-gap-attack-uses-sata-cable-as.html&#34;&gt;nothing is really safe&lt;/a&gt; from state-level actors, in-person and non-digital means of communication are the ideal methods for really sensitive information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The only way to truly protect data is to never record it in the first place&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;self-hosting&#34;&gt;Self-hosting&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;What is self-hosting? It’s running your own software and services.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;At minimum it means using offline, local software (like LibreOffice) instead of cloud-based solutions. For many it also means running online services from your own systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Often when you leave big tech platforms like Microsoft and Google you often want to enjoy many of the useful features like having data automatically sync between devices. The nice thing is that with the power of your own computing you have total freedom in dictating how exactly you want this done.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;As you become more proficient at managing your own systems, more options become available. Learning to become comfortable with GNU/Linux systems and how to interact with them through the command-line makes troubleshooting significantly easier.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;data-sovereignty&#34;&gt;Data sovereignty&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Having your data stored on your own systems is a pre-requisite to computing on your own terms. It is not only your own digital sovereignty that matters but also of those around you. This is because the very systems that manipulate and control people will use any and all information against anyone and everyone.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;your-own-website&#34;&gt;Your own website&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Instead of relying on a cloud provider you can also host your website from your own systems.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;fediverse&#34;&gt;Fediverse&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Advanced users can often self-host their own fediverse servers.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;fantastic-self-hosted-projects&#34;&gt;Fantastic self-hosted projects:&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://forgejo.org&#34;&gt;Forgejo&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://misskey-hub.net/&#34;&gt;Misskey&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://conduit.rs/&#34;&gt;Conduit&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.freshrss.org/&#34;&gt;FreshRSS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Many many &lt;a href=&#34;https://github.com/Kickball/awesome-selfhosted&#34;&gt;more&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;helping-others&#34;&gt;Helping others&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The more services you run, the more you’re able to share those services with those you trust (and hopefully trust you back). Which is a great way to help those who may not necessarily be ready to put the time and energy into setting up their own. Fortunately, the familiarity of using these services may motivate them to try hosting the services themselves.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;costs&#34;&gt;Costs&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hardware&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Naturally, you will need to have hardware to run services on. This includes not only the routers, computers, &amp;amp; servers but also the storage if you’re storing large amounts of data.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In the fight to re-democratize cyberspace, it’s important to support initiatives that make hardware more accessible and more free (as in freedom).&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Skill&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In many cases there is somewhat of a barrier-to-entry that this course tries to diminish as much as possible. Spending time to learn and practice the skills required is definitely worth the time and effort.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Start-up time&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Some services are simpler to setup than others. It may take some time to configure a service. The more familiar you are with these systems the more you can make use of time-saving methods.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Maintenance&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In most cases you’ll want to run your services on a simpler device that uses less energy so that you can keep it running as much as possible. Service interruptions are something you may not always be able to prevent.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Growing complexity&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Depending on how they’re organized, the more services you run the more complicated administration of it can be. Unless it’s your passion, it may be worth considering if you’re running the systems or they’ve somehow grown to manage you.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;the-process&#34;&gt;The Process&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You’ve found some software you’d like to run. Maybe it’s hosted on a github repository somewhere or it’s in your Linux distribution’s packages. Either way, you have acquired the program and just need to know how to run it.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Services are simply programs like any other. They just usually have some extra steps to get them running.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;dependencies&#34;&gt;Dependencies&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Software is usually built on other software. Instead of packaging everything together the program may simply rely on the program being installed on the same machine. Dependencies are other programs that the service requires to run.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For example a service that’s written in the python programming language will need need python installed on the system. This can also include individual python libraries or modules.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Different software ecosystems have their own different ways of managing dependencies. Python uses pip and rust uses cargo to install their libraries.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;installing&#34;&gt;Installing&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In many cases, the installation guide for the service you want to run may tell you what dependencies are required or install them as part of the process. When your Linux system’s package manager installs software it usually places it in a specific place on that systems filesystem.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When the service’s files are in a desirable location (depending on your system, or personal preference) your system can now attempt to run the software. If it’s not properly configured you can usually expect an error, some software may simply act in unexpected ways.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;configuration&#34;&gt;Configuration&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Sometimes software will have specific attributes or data that will need to be specific to that installation.
+This information can be:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;your machine’s domain name&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;user accounts &amp;amp; passwords&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;choosing where persistent files are stored&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;any additional ‘settings’ for the program&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Usually you will change these settings in a text file in the correct name and location. Other programs make use of environment variables to access this information.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;post-installation&#34;&gt;Post-installation&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;For remote services, you may also need to do additional steps to make them accessible. For other devices to easily find yours you may need a domain name and an SSL certificate. With these you can securely accept connections for your service.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;getting-it-done---the-easiest-way&#34;&gt;Getting it done - the easiest way&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Today, to start you’re going to use a Virtual Private Server (VPS) provider called Vultr. With my &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.vultr.com/?ref=8731995&#34;&gt;referral code&lt;/a&gt; you can sign up and get $100 in credit to test with.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;In many cases you’ll want to use your own hardware, but if you’re new to GNU/Linux it can be much easier to simply learn with a disposable VPS. This way, you can learn specifically what you need to and start from scratch for the next project.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;simplicity-without-giving-up-control&#34;&gt;Simplicity without giving up control&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;yunohost&#34;&gt;Yunohost&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Keep calm and host yourself&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://yunohost.org/&#34;&gt;https://yunohost.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;libre-server&#34;&gt;Libre Server&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Running a personal server for you and your friends or family can be one way to regain agency within an otherwise dehumanizing system. Such servers can federate together to create community oases within the information desert. Growing and connecting in a decentralized way, rather than building a single monolithic platform for the next Silicon Valley tyrant to monopolize.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://libreserver.org/&#34;&gt;https://libreserver.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;embassyos&#34;&gt;EmbassyOS&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Take back control&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Everything you do online is intermediated - your actions permissioned, your data custodied.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Opt out by running a private server.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Previously, it was only available to the tech saavy and the wealthy. Start9 levels the playing field by making it possible for everyone else.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://start9.com/&#34;&gt;https://start9.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;censorship-avoidance-1&#34;&gt;Censorship Avoidance&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the more troubling trends of our time is the outright suppression of alternative points of view. While power-plays and tribalism are essentially hallmarks of the human experience, our modern digital experience introduces new challenges in this domain. With an essentially limitless deluge of information, spam, and outright assaults on your mind, it can be very difficult to navigate it all alone.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Because it’s impossible for a person to understand every topic with the detail and respect it deserves, people inevitably have to rely on others on a variety of topics. This creates other challenges because when someone outsources their thinking, (or has been made to outsource it) is that it puts that person at massive risks of abuse by those doing the thinking.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;It is impossible to entirely eliminate “outsourcing thinking”, but we can actively choose how we direct it. By consciously taking control of or or what we allow to influence us, we can move many unconscious choices back into the conscious realm.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Trust is a fundamentally important aspect of this. Do you really trust those who seek to micro-manage every aspect of everyone’s lives? Do you trust those who seek to profit off limiting your access to information?&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Censorship is more of a cultural problem than a technological one. People have largely accepted large unaccountable corporations being able to eliminate dissent, even when edicts come from governments. Tragically, this means that people themselves do most of the censorship for these large institutions.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;behavior&#34;&gt;Behavior&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The good news is that because it is still mostly people’s choices making information out of sight and mind, there are real concrete steps we can take to mitigate censorship.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When ideas or people can’t simply be outright banned, a large driver of present-day information control is amplification of prioritized content and voices. Choosing to re-focus your attention onto the voices you choose really goes a long way.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;feeds&#34;&gt;Feeds&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Wherever possible you should prefer chronologically sorted feeds to algorithmically determined ones. Services will often decide what’s more “relevant” for you to see first to take control of your time and attention. Even many big tech social media platforms still provide the possibility to view “latest” or “new” items in your feed, where possible it’s best to choose this option.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;lists&#34;&gt;Lists&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Another level of taking control of your information sources involves using the lists features on various platforms. Instead of solely relying on the main feed to find content. Once you have trustworthy people and organizations you can ensure you’re not missing any updates from them.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;bookmarks-1&#34;&gt;Bookmarks&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Visit websites directly. Bookmark it so you can revisit the website without relying on a search engine to remind you that it still exists.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;running-your-own-services&#34;&gt;Running your own services&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A great way of keeping the free and open web alive is to participate. Run your own website outside the control of big tech platforms.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;To be accessible to the world wide web you really only need three things:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A web server
+There are many different web servers you can run on your machine.
+If you’re not very proficient at making websites &lt;a href=&#34;https://hugo.io/&#34;&gt;hugo&lt;/a&gt; allows you to generate all the files from simple &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.markdownguide.org/getting-started/&#34;&gt;markdown&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A Domain
+You can get a FREE subdomain at &lt;a href=&#34;https://freedns.afraid.org/signup/?plan=starter&#34;&gt;FreeDNS&lt;/a&gt;, with a free subdomain you can make your content immediately accessible. It’s also a great place to practice how to setup more intricate dns options.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;SSL Certificate
+Thanks to &lt;a href=&#34;http://letsencrypt.org/&#34;&gt;Let&amp;rsquo;s Encrypt&lt;/a&gt;, anyone can generate a valid SSL certificate on their machine for free. Because these certificates are signed by Mozilla.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/peter-eckersley-may-his-memory-be-a-blessing/183854&#34;&gt;Remembering Peter Eckersley&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Use a host
+If you’d really like to skip all that you can make use of hosting services like &lt;a href=&#34;https://neocities.org/&#34;&gt;Neocities&lt;/a&gt; to get started quickly.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;tor&#34;&gt;Tor&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://torproject.org/&#34;&gt;The Onion Router&lt;/a&gt; is what’s often referred to when people say “the darkweb”. The Tor Browser uses the Tor network to access either the “clearweb” which is the internet most people are familiar with, and hidden services.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;i2p&#34;&gt;I2P&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&#34;https://geti2p.net/&#34;&gt;Invisible Internet Protocol&lt;/a&gt; is another darkweb focused on hidden services.It&amp;rsquo;s less popular than Tor but &lt;a href=&#34;https://geti2p.net/en/comparison/tor&#34;&gt;often has better performance&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;A hidden service is a server that is accessible from within the tor network. Hidden services don’t require a domain be provided to them by any central authority. This means that .onion and .i2p domains can’t be seized.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;hosting-your-own-hidden-service&#34;&gt;Hosting your own hidden service&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you already have your website up and running the Tor project has fantastic documentation on getting started.
+The basic process is:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Install Tor&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Modify your Tor configuration file to specify what hidden service(s) you want&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;restart tor&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;open the hostname file to get your .onion address&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;vpns--tunnels&#34;&gt;VPNs &amp;amp; Tunnels&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;If you have a small group of people you trust, you may not need to have your secret services accessible to the world. Perhaps you want your communication devices to solely utilize your private network to avoid leaking all kinds of data.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Using something like WireGuard you could setup your own private network and host private services. SSH Tunnels are also really useful tools you can use to essentially create 1-to-1 hidden services between devices.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtuAdk4MwWw&#34;&gt;SSH Tunneling Explained&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;hardware&#34;&gt;Hardware&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hardware matters, now more than ever it’s important for people to have access to Free (as in Freedom) devices that can be run on our own terms. Unfortunately manufacturers and &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzUXmeaZsIQ&#34;&gt;retailers themselves&lt;/a&gt; are guilty of tilting the scales against people. This is a must-watch conversation.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h2 id=&#34;your-website&#34;&gt;Your Website&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;do-i-need-a-website&#34;&gt;Do I need a website?&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The more people who control their own web presence, the less vulnerable we are to information suppression from large institutions. In many ways we are very lucky to be alive in a time where it is so simple, and so inexpensive to distribute important information so widely.&lt;/p&gt;
+
+&lt;video autoplay muted loop preload=&#34;true&#34; class=&#34;gif&#34;&gt;
+    
+    &lt;source src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks//video/website.mp4&#39;&gt;
+&lt;/video&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;p&gt;A &lt;a href=&#34;https://libresolutions.network/articles/best-website-for-you/&#34;&gt;simple website&lt;/a&gt;, is really just a folder with different text and media. In most cases it is outright trivial to serve basic websites out of one’s home, but many public hosts exist. By keeping it simple, the web can be more free and accessible for all.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;introducing-the-site-generator&#34;&gt;Introducing: The site generator&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;While learning CSS, Javascript &amp;amp; HTML is worth doing, there are tools that will transform &lt;a href=&#34;https://www.markdownguide.org/basic-syntax/&#34;&gt;markdown formatting&lt;/a&gt; into a usable website. This is a fantastic way to save effort, and allows you to focus solely on the content.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Two great ones are:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://jekyllrb.com/&#34;&gt;Jekyll&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can download themes &lt;a href=&#34;http://jekyllthemes.org/&#34;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://gohugo.io/&#34;&gt;Hugo&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Hugo themes are available &lt;a href=&#34;https://themes.gohugo.io/&#34;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;I use hugo, so this will be written with hugo in mind. You’re welcome to take a look at the &lt;a href=&#34;https://jekyllrb.com/docs/&#34;&gt;Jekyll documentation&lt;/a&gt; to see if it suits your needs better.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;themes&#34;&gt;Themes&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Themes lay out the overall look and layout of the website. Depending on the theme you use they can change things a great deal, or only a little. Thankfully everything about the theme can be overridden.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Here are my themes:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ul&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel/freedom&#34;&gt;Freedom&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel/valor&#34;&gt;Valor&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ul&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;These themes are being developed partially as a learning exercise, but also to create an easy way for someone to be able to build media-rich online presence without relying on other platforms. Multimedia embeds are a high priority, and so are social media previews. If you’re interested in using these themes your feedback is greatly appreciated!&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;using-hugo&#34;&gt;Using hugo&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Once you’ve installed hugo, the process is very simple:&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Create your site with &lt;code&gt;hugo new site mysite&lt;/code&gt; “mysite” is a placeholder name here.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Move into your the project root with &lt;code&gt;cd mysite&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Start the temporary webserver with &lt;code&gt;hugo server&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Open the page with the link provided by hugo (usually &lt;code&gt;http://localhost:1313&lt;/code&gt;)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;As you stare into the blank page, imagine the possibilities.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;making-changes&#34;&gt;Making Changes&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;ol&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;First you’ll want to create the index page. Open &lt;code&gt;mysite/content/_index.md&lt;/code&gt; with your favourite text editor and add whatever you’d like.&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Download a &lt;a href=&#34;https://code.gabe.rocks/gabriel/freedom&#34;&gt;theme&lt;/a&gt; and place it inside &lt;code&gt;mysite/themes/&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;li&gt;Open &lt;code&gt;mysite/config.toml&lt;/code&gt; and add &lt;code&gt;theme = “freedom”&lt;/code&gt; (or the name of a different theme you downloaded)&lt;/li&gt;
+&lt;/ol&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Provided there&amp;rsquo;s no errors, you’ll see your changes refresh in real-time. Once you hit save the page will reload immediately. Once you’re done making your changes you’ll want to run hugo once and copy the contents of the mysite/public folder to your webserver.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;building-up-your-infrastructure&#34;&gt;Building up your infrastructure&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Building the website is really only the start. Ideally you’ll want to make sure your website is on hardware you control. For serving content, computing power isn’t a huge concern. Storage and Bandwidth become your primary concerns when serving static content like pages, audio, video, and images.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;storage&#34;&gt;Storage&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Naturally you need enough storage to store all the files you want to serve. You’ll likely want it to be on a fast and reliable storage like SSDs.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h4 id=&#34;bandwidth&#34;&gt;Bandwidth&lt;/h4&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;With large data formats such as video and high resolution images you’re going to need a very fast upload speed ideally with very little latency. For most basic uses you may not need a great deal of storage or bandwidth. Video content is a challenge because even relatively small amount of views can become very demanding. When serving video content I would highly recommend keeping file sizes as small as possible.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;code&gt;ffmpeg&lt;/code&gt; makes that easy with the following options &lt;code&gt;-s 1280x720 -b:v 750K&lt;/code&gt; if high quality video is a priority I would recommend trying to make use of webtorrent. That way large media can at least be shared between concurrent users.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;prying-eyes&#34;&gt;Prying eyes&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;When choosing themes, libraries and even hosts, it’s important to make sure that those choices aren’t impacting your users. Extra “bloat” really doesn’t help much in the long run. Try to use refined and streamlined ways to display your content.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;data&#34;&gt;Data&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;There are many exciting things you can use hugo for with relatively simple data setups. Hugo has the functionality to load local and remote data to create interesting pages.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJjJuS7LgS8&#34;&gt;Fetching Local and Remote JSON in Hugo&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;collaboration&#34;&gt;Collaboration&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;One of the fantastic things about static site generators is that it makes it easy for people to work together on vital projects. Spyware Watchdog is an excellent example of this.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;div class=&#34;image-container&#34; style=&#34;display:flex;flex-direction:column; align-items: center;width:100%;justify-content: center;&#34;&gt;
+    
+&lt;a href=&#39;https://spyware.neocities.org/&#39;&gt;
+
+&lt;img loading=&#34;lazy&#34;
+src=&#39;https://gabe.rocks/images/watchdog.webp&#39; 
+&gt;
+
+&lt;/a&gt;
+
+
+
+&lt;/div&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Anyone is able to use git to contribute. This kind of activity can scale quite well, and be used in almost any domain. There needs to be more projects like this taking advantage of these amazing collaborative tools to create phenomenal resources&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;sneakernet&#34;&gt;Sneakernet&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;The fascinating thing is that these tools don’t require an internet connection. People can build private offline resources that could be shared through flash drives at gatherings. This allows people to bring together and share information much faster, and without risks of surveillance and censorship.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&#34;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIXfZlbfCQ8&#34;&gt;Sneakernet: The Fastest Internet&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	<item>
+		<title>How to get in touch with me</title>
+		<link>https://gabe.rocks/get-in-touch/</link>
+		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
+		
+		<guid>https://gabe.rocks/get-in-touch/</guid>
+		<description></description>
+		<content:encoded>&lt;h2 id=&#34;want-to-reach-me&#34;&gt;Want to reach me?&lt;/h2&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;email&#34;&gt;Email&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My email is &lt;a href=&#34;mailto:gabriel@libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;gabriel@libresolutions.network&lt;/a&gt; and you&amp;rsquo;re welcome to use my &lt;a href=&#34;https://gabe.rocks/pubkey.txt&#34;&gt;PGP key&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;delta-chat&#34;&gt;Delta Chat&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Same as my email &lt;a href=&#34;mailto:gabriel@libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;gabriel@libresolutions.network&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;xmpp&#34;&gt;XMPP&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My handle is &lt;a href=&#34;xmpp:gabeg@member.fsf.org?omemo-sid-697415616=bd413120099646998a6aaf36152c72ae2a731fce3123750f2a9832291f5cb95d&amp;amp;omemo-sid-1610051618=5d377dbee263616e103eec6ebaed62e2edb4e30abdbdb9cc7790415e75df2816&#34;&gt;gabeg@member.fsf.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;signal&#34;&gt;Signal&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;My username is &lt;a href=&#34;https://signal.me/#eu/CJiVrwSKnW1FBweYK9G55yPJBqhJdqv9gWzHi6FcRfu5itODTHZAcpY3J1HxCeWV&#34;&gt;Gabe.09&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;h3 id=&#34;matrix&#34;&gt;Matrix&lt;/h3&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;You can add &lt;a href=&#34;https://matrix.to/#/@gabriel:libresolutions.network&#34;&gt;@gabriel:libresolutions.network&lt;/a&gt; but matrix is no longer a preferred contact method of mine. I&amp;rsquo;ve had to wipe the synapse DB and I&amp;rsquo;m thinking of moving off Dendrite at some point.&lt;/p&gt;
+&lt;p&gt;Thank you for reading this through RSS 📡&lt;/p&gt;
+		</content:encoded>
+	</item>
+	</channel>
+</rss>"#;
+
diff --git a/src/rss_content/tests/mod.rs b/src/rss_content/tests/mod.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d8d2b37
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/rss_content/tests/mod.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+mod example_data;
+use super::*;
+use example_data::*;
+
+fn get_feed(u: &str) -> rss::Channel {
+    rss::Channel::read_from(u.as_bytes()).unwrap()
+}
+
+#[test]
+fn fragments() {
+    for f in FRAGMENTS {
+        println!("Processing Fragment:{}",f);
+        let items = itemize_content(f);
+        let content = process_content(&items);
+        println!("Content:\n{:#?}",content);
+    }
+}
+
+#[test]
+fn content_test() {
+    let example_text = Item::Text("Example.com".to_owned());
+    let example_link = Item::Link("https://example.com".to_owned(), [example_text].to_vec());
+    let result = process_content(&[example_link].to_vec());
+    println!("Items to content parse result:\n{:#?}", result);
+}
+
+#[test]
+fn content_display() {
+    let feed = get_feed(example_data::GABE_ROCKS);
+    let content: &Vec<Content> = &process_content(&itemize_content(
+        feed.items.get(4).unwrap().content().unwrap(),
+    ));
+    println!("Content: {:#?}", content)
+}
+
+#[test]
+fn itemize_feeds() {
+    let _ = FEEDS.map(|u| {
+        let feed = get_feed(u);
+        let results: Vec<_> = feed
+            .items
+            .into_iter()
+            .map(|item| {
+                itemize_content(&item.content.unwrap());
+            })
+            .collect();
+        //let results: Vec<_> = itemize_content(u);
+        println!(
+            "Evaluated feed\nScanned {} items without errors",
+            results.len()
+        )
+    });
+}
+#[test]
+fn markdownify_feeds() {
+    let _ = FEEDS.map(|u| {
+        let feed = get_feed(u);
+        let results: Vec<_> = feed
+            .items
+            .into_iter()
+            .map(|item| {
+                process_content(&itemize_content(&item.content.unwrap()));
+            })
+            .collect();
+        println!("Processed {} items without errors", results.len())
+    });
+}
diff --git a/src/ui.rs b/src/ui.rs
index 9056fa9..2eb34ab 100644
--- a/src/ui.rs
+++ b/src/ui.rs
@@ -15,8 +15,8 @@ use iced::{
     Element,
     Length::Fill,
 };
-use rss_content::parse_content;
-use rss_content::Content;
+use crate::rss_content::parse_content;
+use crate::rss_content::Content;
 use url::Url;
 const ICON: &[u8] = include_bytes!("../assets/icon_placeholder.png");
 
diff --git a/src/widgets.rs b/src/widgets.rs
index ff04311..769b52e 100644
--- a/src/widgets.rs
+++ b/src/widgets.rs
@@ -13,8 +13,7 @@ use iced::{
     widget::{button, column, container, text},
     Element,
 };
-use rss_content;
-use rss_content::Content;
+use crate::rss_content::Content;
 use ui::Message;
 
 pub fn list_feeds() -> iced::widget::Column<'static, Message> {