I can’t follow you. Where is the connection between lockdowns (I assume you mean the Covid19 lockdowns?) and the war in Ukraine?

I’m by no means an expert in international relations. However, with respect to your last paragraph, I do think that China monitors the development carefully. I would even go so far and assume that they won’t act on Taiwan until the situation in the Ukraine is decided. Not because the cases are so similar, but because China and Russia seem to be important partners for each other. Right now, China is supporting Russia financially by buying resources from them (if I’m not mistaken) and also supporting them with equipment embargoed by the EU/US. China will probably know what it’s risking when they attack Taiwan and I doubt that they want to create that sort of situation while one of their most important partners (might be mistaken here) is in a war that binds their resources and weakens their support for China.

On the other hand, they could also try to start the war on Taiwan soon, hoping that NATO/US stretch their support too thin.

Tl;Dr: I don’t know either.

What bugged me and ultimately drove me to leave Instagram was the wording. In the prompt, they said something along the lines of “we will not use your data for advertising”. And I thought, wtf, I don’t want you to collect my data in the first place.

Ummm… What water filter?

I mostly second this. I have a mantra “Embrace the uncomfortable”. Not in a “work yourself to death for some number” kind of way, but in a “go outside, even if its raining” kind of way. It helps me to appreciate small comforts afterwards and reduces the amount of energy needed to do stuff.

And apparently, they also have eyes.

Companies would start to buy houses that they can rent for cheap, but never fix anything in that house. I confidently believe that this idea would worsen the situation.

I’m having some conflicts when it comes to lineage and similar OS. While, yes, they might be better from a privacy perspective (if you put the effort into it) and allow you to keep your phone longer, I simply do not trust that the OS can’t be tampered with. For many devices, there is a single person maintaining that version of lineage. Who guarantees that they don’t pipe important information to some server in a more or less clever way? This should not be misunderstood as an argument for closed source. The problems I’m having with this type of open source is that the code differs from device to device, it is (at least as far as I know) possible to change enough of the code to become malicious while adapting it to another device, I don’t have the capacities to make sure that the code is actually safe, and they are not regularly audited. Hell, in some cases they are even provided without checksums. So you trade the spying eyes against a possible barn door of insecurities.

Therefore, I much rather use audited ROMs like Graphene or Calyx, but they (mostly) require a device from the company that I am trying to avoid. It’s such a weird situation…

Seriously curious: why is that?

I was considering to switch to apple for this reason, but I’ve read that in terms of privacy, there’s no significant difference between a Pixel Android with Stock OS and an iPhone. This made me hesitant. I really just want things to go smooth and hasslefree without being spied on and coerced… Do you, by chance, have any reading material on the privacy of apple services I could read up on?

IIRC, the plan is to switch to LO. Linux is also planned, but not in the foreseeable future. So you might have some time left ;)

Afaik, it was the flag of the Third Reich from 1933 to 1935 (so before the Swastika flag).

I found that the melt-ability of most vegan cheeses drastically increases if you mix it with a little bit of water and oil before dispersing it.

Simple solution: sleep on the back seats if drunk.

Afaik it is allowed as long as its only to regain your driving capabilities and not for multiple nights I’m a row on the same place. The Straßenverkehrsordnung does not state otherwise.

I never heard of it, but reading their website I find it kind of strange that 2/3 testimonials are from online casino websites…

Which paywall-bypassing addon would you recommend?

Do you have experience with those? Especially the breathability to waters resistance ratio is much worse in all plant-based leathers I have tried. Would love to find a good alternative!

Just in case you are looking for a serious answer: it all depends on your living expenses and how much support you will receive in case something happens. Where I live, we have a good (but still improvable) state support system. Here, the general rule is to have 3 months of expenses on the side. It’s meant to cover your costs until you find a new job or be a buffer for unforseen expenses. Only you can determine how much you think you need.

I agree with you, that ecologically, this will probably be a good thing. Economically, we will need a different system as i doubt that any increase in consumption per capita could outweigh the increase in people we currently see. And our economic system is dependent on growth.