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Bad_Engineering @fedia.io
Posts 2
Comments 39
Observing American politics feels really strange at the moment
  • Over 50% of our population reads below a 6th year education and our school system has been steadily defunded and dumbed down over the past 40 years. A large portion of Americans only have 2 brain cells and they're both busy fighting for 3rd place. Ignorance and a lack of critical thinking skills is what has gotten us into this situation and I don't know if we have what it takes to get us out of it.

  • The executive orders passed yesterday are a declaration of transgender inhumanity. More is coming. We must resist. We must defend our most vulnerable. They cannot take our community away from us.
  • While it's true that his executive orders are unconstitutional, what does it matter if the people who are supposed to enforce those rules of law instead comply with Trumps orders? While I certainly hope that those in power will reign him in , I have very little faith that they will. We all know that the SCOTUS is firmly in his pocket and while not a super majority there is certainly a plurality of supporters in the two houses of congress. I've also seen very little push back from the democrats in office aside from some token efforts. They threw us under the bus after they lost the election and I don't see them actually standing up for us anytime soon.

    Sadly it would seem that we are on our own. Find what help you can from supportive friends and family. Allies are the only real protections we have left. But I would encourage all LGBT folk and especially trans people to make real solid plans for any new policies they might enact.

    Find alternative sources for your meds, a good resource is Transgendermap.com If your doctor will agree to it have them change your diagnosis to something that won't be regulated against. Millions of cis people have low testosterone or estrogen, spiro is sometimes used as a diuretic. Anything you can do to ensure your continued health and wellness in case gender affirming care gets banned.

    Find secure methods of communications. Encrypted email accounts and chat apps. Use a vpn when online and use good security practices. coveryourtracks is a good resource to learn about your digital footprint. Security focused software and operating systems for devices is a smart move for security. I use GrapheneOS on my phone, it sandboxes all apps so that they cannot communicate between each other and can also spoof gps data, most notably it sandboxes or disables google play services which harvests more data than anything else on your phone. CalyxOS is another good option for android users but I don't know of anything for apple products.

    You should also make concrete plans to run if it comes to it. Get together some cash if you can afford to save, get jewelry that can also be traded or sold in an emergency. It draws less attention than a stack of cash and is easier to hide. Pack a go bag with all of your essentials. Find where your nearest border crossings are and get your papers in order. It's a good idea to get travel visas arranged ahead of time, many countries have short term visitor visas that can be used anytime in a 2 year window once you've registered for it. It's also not a bad idea to look at a map and decide where you might jump the border outside of the official crossing points.

    Lastly, learn to defend yourselves. Take self-defense classes, learn a martial art. Kravmaga was created with rapid training and maximum effectiveness in mind. Take a firearms safety class and arm yourselves. .380 is a good caliber for beginners, it has low recoil and decent energy transfer, 9mm is better but has more recoil. Once you've taken a class and procured a weapon practice with it, go to a range and practice regularly, a tool is only ever as good as its user. Be prepared to defend yourself but never be the aggressor, they will use any excuse they can to crack down.

    This all may sound alarmist to you but the phrase "better safe than sorry" strongly applies to situations like these. I know the fascist label gets thrown around a lot, but so far the maga playbook closely mirrors the actions of Germany's government in 1938. I sincerely hope that I am wrong about all of this but if you don’t prepare, you could lose everything. If you prepare for the worst and nothing happens, you’ve lost nothing.

    Edited to add info about communications

  • Trump Live Updates: US To Sign Orders Banning Transgender Service Members, Gutting DEI

    President Donald Trump is set to sign three executive orders on Monday involving the U.S. military, including banning transgender service members, eliminating military DEI programs, and reinstating service members discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.

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    Considering immigrating to New Zealand

    Hey all, I hope I'm posting to the right place. My gf and I are both trans women considering immigrating to New Zealand from the US. We both have green list careers so we're not too worried about eligibility but we are wondering if we would be welcome/fit in in NZ.

    Everything I've seen or heard in media makes NZ look about 1000 times better than the US. Every country has their problems but from my limited viewpoint NZ looks pretty great. We'd appreciate any advice or perspective you'd care to share. Thanks in advance.

    0
    The PC is Dead: It’s Time to Make Computing Personal Again
  • I think the point the author was trying to make is that the "personal" part of PC is what is dying. the profit model for modern tech is no longer about supplying the best or most useful product but instead exploiting users, either to manipulate them into buying more crap or harvesting their data to sell off to someone else who wants to sell them more crap. Even many of the products we buy these days we don't really own. Steam just released a policy statement saying that users don't actually own the games they've purchased, but are merely buying a license to access them. If Steam decides not to support a particular title anymore than poof, it's gone forever from your account. For the most part it seems that if you aren't running strictly FOSS software or pirating, you can't really own anything on your PC aside from the hardware. I think the gist of their argument is not that computing has gotten worse, but that while software, hardware, and user experience have massively improved, the exploitation of the user has greatly tainted that progress.

  • Vistra's battery storage facility goes up in flames, spurs evacuation orders
  • It would be very useful if you were asking the right question. The storage facility from the article has a 750 MW storage capacity (energy) which it can deliver at a max output (power) of 3000 MW/hr Power plant and storage facility capacities are measured in MW since what they are intended to do is supply power at a steady rate. Who cares if you can store a billion TW of power if you can only output it at 5mW/h. It does no good if you can't get it out. Supply is what we really care about here.

  • Facebook and Instagram ads push gun silencers disguised as car parts
  • I think you're thinking of oil filter suppressors. They do require an adapter, but the ones the article is talking about are straight up firearm suppressors, they just don't drill the hole in one end. Otherwise its a complete purpose built suppressor.