SDF Chatter

(ignore the above massive preview text if you are using the shitty stock Lemmy client)

The bombshell is that Elon exfiltrated the social security records of all Americans and shared it with Cloudflare, DOGE, and an outside advocacy group seeking to overturn election results.

The fuckup is not just SSNs (slave surveillance numbers), it’s the whole 9 yards:

“DOGE team members were given access to databases containing:

• Social Security numbers
• medical and mental health records
• bank and credit card information
• tax details
• work histories
• and home addresses for millions of Americans.”

I suppose getting a new SSN is futile, even if permitted, because all this data is aggregated into the data breach. So change your name, move your residence, new SSN, switch banks... fuck, just leave the country perhaps.

(edit) I accidentally updated an older version of my post and lost a paragraph where I conjectured that the databreach was legal since it only violates the 4th Amendment, which the US tends to brush aside as we know from the Snowden revelations. Hence the correction from @ReptilianCleric@lemmy.zip below. Sorry! No version control on Lemmy.

29 minute track warning. you will be subjected to half an hour of heartstoppingly beautiful piano

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 stick of butter, melted
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 whole eggs
• A tablespoons of White wine vinegar
• A splash of White vinegar
• Smoked salmon
• A tablespoon of Lemon juice (or to taste)
• 2 English muffin slices
• Water
• Salt & pepper to taste

PREPARATION:

1. Melt your butter
2. In a pan, on the lowest heat setting your stove can handle (or do the fancy double-boiler thing, but I've had better results this way), place 2 egg yolks and your white wine vinegar. Whish together
3. Slowly whisk-in the melted butter. The mixture should become thick and custardy
4. Mix-in lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste. Your Hollandaise sauce is now ready.
5. Get a decently sized pot almost full of water and a splash of white vinegar. Heat to a simmer.
6. Use a spoon or ladle to stir the water, forming a gentle whirlpool. Add your 2 whole eggs (out of the shell) and poach until the yolks are set.
7. Toast your English muffin
8. With the English muffin as a base, top with smoked salmon, poached egg, then finish with Hollandaise.
9. Fall in to a food coma of ecstasy

I feel like I'm kind of alone in this. I was born in 2004 so the two retro computers I tinker with the most (a C64 and a 486 clone) are way older than I am. Are there any other younger retro enthusiasts who never grew up with the hardware but are into it now?

Also this is my first post on Lemmy, so I'm sorry if this is out of place here.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/50976930

Jimmy Lai and countless others in China are paying the price for a West too eager to compromise principles for profit.

Archived

Just about two weeks before Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai was handed a 20-year prison sentence, the harshest under the city’s National Security Law, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Beijing. He walked the red carpet at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, met President Xi Jinping, and attended a lavish welcome ceremony. It was widely hailed as a “break-the-ice” visit, the first by a British prime minister in six years, aimed at normalizing relations with China.

The timing, however, spoke volumes. On the eve of Lai’s sentencing, Starmer signaled that British diplomacy was prioritizing friendship with Beijing over the fate of a British citizen, Jimmy Lai. The message was unmistakable: no matter how China treats Jimmy Lai, the normalization of China-U.K. relations will carry on.

[...]

Starmer later told reporters he had raised Lai’s case with Xi, but offered no details, leaving the public to wonder if Beijing even blinked. The answer came swiftly: Lai, 78, was sentenced to what is effectively a life term. To put it bluntly, this is almost a death sentence. Lai now faces a fate akin to Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who perished in detention.

The severity of the sentence shocked observers. Compared with the 2024 trial of 47 pro-democracy activists, Lai’s 20-year term is twice as long as that handed to Benny Tai, who was accused of masterminding the 2020 primary legislative election. Editors, publishers, and editorial writers involved in Lai’s publications were regarded by the court as masterminds and handed sentences of up to 10 years, punished for simply doing their jobs as journalists.

[...]

Ironically, the imposition of such harsh sentences has unfolded against a backdrop of Western governments seeking to normalize relations with China. The reshaping of global politics under U.S. President Donald Trump has nudged allies to engage China. Over the past year, Western leaders who once condemned Beijing for human rights abuses – from France to Germany, Canada to the U.K. – have queued to shake Xi’s hand, sign trade deals, and signal goodwill.

As international pressure eases, the Chinese Communist Party has intensified its crackdown on dissent, acting with a level of impunity not seen in previous years. Beijing’s calculation is clear: if Western powers are eager to deepen economic ties, the diplomatic price of jailing dissidents has all but disappeared.

[...]

Now Jimmy Lai and countless others in China are paying the price for a West too eager to compromise principles for profit. Their suffering is a mirror reflecting the cost of a diplomacy that prioritizes access to China’s market and money over freedom, human rights, and justice.

[...]

Story: https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/fox-kits-rescued-from-lake-minnetonka-taken-to-wildlife-rehabilitation-center/89-3ee6ed27-5fa6-4515-88e3-2a7d1794ff0e

While this site is still updated and maintained, I appreciate that the aesthetic and source likely hasn't changed much since 2004. Additionally, Claw is a fucking awesome game, and more people should discover it in 2026.

In order of when I bought them.

Andrew W.K. - Tear It Up

Slipknot - Disasterpieces

System of a Down - Toxicity (Limited edition) comes with both the album CD and bonus DVD

Avenged Sevenfold - All Excess

I started hunting down DVD copies of music videos I originally watched on YouTube over 10 years ago. But YouTube's re-compression over the years hasn't been kind to most of them if they were even decent quality uploads in the first place. This video in particular I watched a lot as a teen and has been mangled over time...

The DVDs also contain a lot live performances from the time, which are cool in their own right but I mainly do it for the music videos.