You Should Know

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/53581443

YSK You can count past 1,000 on your fingers by using binary, instead of just 10

With just one hand, you can count to 31, and with both hands you can reach a whopping 1,023. This is because the placement of the held up fingers matters, rather than the amount.

It can be very useful in everyday use, being able to count to huge numbers when you don't have your phone or pen and paper nearby.

For fellow Americans living in cities where ICE is active, many people, especially those of Hispanic descent, are already carrying around passports on their persons at all times because they're rightfully afraid of being forcibly disappeared or deported to some random South American country.

A passport card can be obtained for $30 from the Department of State. It is considered exactly equivalent to a passport within the US, but it's the size of a credit card. It is a valid travel document for land and sea travel within North America and the Caribbean. It also counts as a Real ID. The card is good for ten years.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/need-passport/card.html

Do not do this if you are transgender or have an X gender marker. They will cancel your passport and tell you to apply for a new one with your sex assigned at birth.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/41402945

By "Erik Prince", I mean belligerently and dramatically overreact to an attack — actual, perceived, provoked, planted, or otherwise. They could do what Blackwater did in Fallujah in 2004. Or, in Nisoor Square in 2007. Or, in Kabul in 2009.

They ~~could~~ are terrorizing a population. At home. In Minneapolis.

They could kick-in home, school, and business-place doors, lurk in public buildings and streets, employ flash-bang grenades, tear gas, body-armor, fully automatic weapons, SUVs, trucks, and tanks in the streets, terrorizing a population into submission.

ICE is being funded at the same rate as the military of Poland. Or, the entirety of US military spending in 1917, on entering World War I. Nice work on that big, beautiful bill.

Btw, have you seen ~~Civil War~~? Yes, you have, yeah, that A24 movie.

They could prod a population into employing IEDs, RPGs, and assault weapons. From bats, to boards, to bricks, to and bottles alight. We've seen this before. Inside America, and outside America. This is a wavefront of a war.

The world, meanwhile, burns. Storms rage. Fires consume. Ice recedes, collapses, and melts.

Please. Prove me wrong. Peacefully, impeach, convict, jail, try, and imprison the President who is trying to have the American people pay — in taxes, tariffs, and blood — for his coup d'etat.

Please.

note: Erik Prince is the CEO and founder of the private security company Blackwater, now Akademi, once XE.

Never take health advice from individuals such as Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan, PewDiePie, Elon Musk, Doctor Oz, Doctor Huberman, Bill Gates, JD Vance, Barack Obama, Jensen Huang, Hassan Abi...

Some of these people are fools.

Some of these people are snake oil salesmen looking to sell you stuff.

Some of these people happen to be rich. And they think that because they are rich, they can figure out anything.

Even when they are well-meaning and very smart, they get things wrong.

The most reliable health advice is produced by top research universities.

• Harvard University
• Stanford University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Princeton University
• University of Pennsylvania
• Duke University
• Cornell University
• Technion
• Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Ecole Polytechnique Féderal de Lausanne
• École Polytechnique Fédérale de Zurich
• King's College London
• University of Amsterdam
• University College London
• Imperial College London
• Karolinska Institute
• KU Leuven
• National University of Singapore
• McGill University
• Tsinghua University
• Cambridge University
• Oxford University

I'm not saying scientists from the University of Hawaii aren't good, but these institutions excel in cutting-edge research and academic reputation.

Let's say you are interested in eating better. Where can you get reliable information about that?

KU Leuven:

https://www.kuleuven.be/healthy/en/students/physical/food

Stanford University:

https://med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2024/12/dietary-guidelines-nutrition-what-americans-should-eat.html

Let's say you are interested in fighting depression. Where can you get reliable information about that?

Cambridge University :

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/healthy-lifestyle-can-help-prevent-depression-and-new-research-may-explain-why

Let's say you are interested in better sleep. Where can you get reliable information about that?

Harvard University:

https://sleep.hms.harvard.edu/education-training/public-education/sleep-and-health-education-program/sleep-health-education-53

Stanford University:

https://med.stanford.edu/content/dam/sm/insomnia/documents/StrategiesforTroubleSleeping.pdf

Most of the claims you hear on social media are total non-sense. Usually, it's some doctor or some rich tech freak coming out with a new miracle stuff.

"You need to inject peptides guys I also eat raw meat. It will be significantly boost your biomarkers. The science is clear"

- Jake, CEO and software developer from San Francisco

"My advice to listeners is to take a dose of Ketamine mixed with L-Theanine and BPC 157. The science is clear"

-Doctor Phil on Joe Rogan

(He just happens to sell that 😂)

This is all junk science that is likely to send you straight to the hospital.

"I got the basics. I want to stay up to date. Where should I get recent reliable knowledge?"

First, recent knowledge is rarely super reliable.

Second, most of the cutting edge health research is actually done by top universities. And they are careful to not overhype things. Look at the bold parts.

Our digestive tract contains some 1.5 kilograms of bacteria. This gut microbiome, long overlooked by doctors, has been gaining attention in recent years as scientists discover that its role extends well beyond digestion: these bacteria can influence our immune system, metabolism and even mental health. Yet a lot remains to be learned about how they function.

The gut microbiome, also known as the human body’s “second brain,” can affect mental-health conditions such as anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder as well as neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Some of these bacteria produce dopamine, serotonin and other neurotransmitters that interact directly with the brain and nervous system. “These neurotransmitters create feelings of happiness, contentment and well-being. If they aren’t produced properly, our mental health can suffer” says Goemans

“Probiotics are living bacteria found in fermented foods and available as supplements,” says Goemans. However, their efficacy hasn’t been scientifically proven and can vary depending on the bacteria strains and patient in question

https://actu.epfl.ch/news/gut-microbiome-serves-as-a-second-brain-regulati-3/

In the future, eating citrus could perhaps be part of a strategy for managing depression that also involves these more traditional pharmaceuticals. But more research is needed before we can conclude that.

I would love to see a clinical trial done to definitively show that eating citrus can lower the risk of depression, or maybe even alleviate the condition in some cases. There’s such a huge unmet need for depression treatments, and eating citrus doesn’t really have any major side effects, so it would be great to see how much this simple treatment can help

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/02/eating-citrus-may-lower-depression-risk/

Listen to universities. You really can't go wrong with their advice.

They are usually a lot more reliable than ANY of the stuff that Jordan Peterson/Joe Rogan/Jeff Bezos/Hassan Piker may claim ###

Why YSK: if you don’t have the ability or time to devote your visual attention to reading, you can still engage your mind the same way as you do while reading by listening to an audiobook. Virtually any modern audiobook player will also let you select the play speed, so you can listen to books at whatever rate you’re comfortable with.

Personally I know as I’ve gotten older the number of hours I’m physically able to read tends to no longer be able to match my desire to read, so it’s nice to be able to keep going even if my eyes are sore.

Historically, this is somewhat analogous to the late 19th century lectors that worked in some factories, paid by donated workers’ wages, to read/perform popular books for bored workers. Predictably in the US factory owners tended to have a problem with their workers listening to ‘communist literature,’ leading to firings, strikes, and violent crackdowns.

You can use uBlock Origin to block certain keywords in posts!

Why

If you're like me, you're really tired of seeing the lemmy homepage and every community fill up with really bad news from the US.

How

First, open the uBlock Origin dashboard, navigate to My Filters tab and add the appropriate line.

# lemmy.world
# thanks to /u/zkfcfbzr
lemmy.world##article.row:has-text(/Trump|Musk|ICE|Vance|slop|Microsoft|Grok|Republican|Democrat|Republicans|GOP|Democrats/i)

# lemmy.zip
lemmy.zip##article.row:has-text(/Trump|Musk|ICE|Vance|slop|Microsoft|Grok|Republican|Democrat|Republicans|GOP|Democrats/i)

Because the Lemmy HTML is generally the same on each instance, the above should work if you change the first part to the Lemmy domain. Then replace the | pipe separated keywords with your own list.

Here are some other things you can do:

# filter comments
# thanks to /u/Free_Opinions@feddit.uk
lemmy.world##article.comment-node:has(div.comment-content:has(p:has-text(/trump/i)))

# filter posts with certain words, with exceptions
# thanks to /u/zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world
lemmy.world##article.row:has-text(/word1|word2|word3/i):not(:has-text(/word4|word5|word6/i))

Originally posted a year ago.

TLDR: Hobo Johnson did a musical rendition of some select quotes from the article. If the article is too cumbersome to read, listen to the song. It gets a lot of the point across.

This is happening online but with serious real-world consequences for people who don't support Israel or genocide.

Canary’s non-public websites promise expansion into new avenues to continue the group’s mission of punishing Americans for pro-Palestine speech via doxxing, pressure campaigns, and now arrests and deportations carried out by allies in the State Department.

BlackNest’s web development content reveals how Canary Mission thinks of its “wins” in its efforts to influence U.S. policy. The website categorizes the group’s impacts into categories: “Change of behavior,” job loss, denials of entry to the U.S., arrests, and “deportation/forced to flee.” The site also collects mentions of Canary Mission in media, mostly from U.S. news outlets, and celebrates mentions of their impact.

...

In the PDF, the group lists its core values as: Follow daas torah (a concept in Orthodox Judaism about rabbinical authority), integrity, passion for the cause, anonymity, no-ego team player, and rosh gadol (or Hebrew slang for someone “seeing the big picture”).

“Fight those who hate the Jewish people” is the listed purpose, and the group’s niche is “dismantle the anti-Israel network by attacking the messenger, not the message.”

The DHS testified in court that they use Canary Mission to choose targets for deportation, so this is a very serious threat.

Annual reminder: you may have unclaimed funds that are being held by your state (US) or other government.

There are many reasons you might have unclaimed funds: abandoned accounts, unclaimed deposits, uncashed checks, misspelled names, estate funds, incorrect addresses, misplaced inheritance and trusts, etc, and your government is required to hold your property until you claim it.

They will not seek you out, and most people are completely unaware they may have lost funds or property being held by the state.

Every state in the US and most governments have an official website where you can check whether you have unclaimed property and submit a claim. There are typically no fees, and you shouldn’t need an attorney or solicitor to claim them.

Just search ‘[my state] or [my country] unclaimed property’ (or ‘biens non réclamés’)

Make sure you’re at the official site for your government and not one of the many scam sites trying to get a cut by doing this for you. The official sites are typically easy and should not require a 3rd party. There should be no extra fees.

If you’re in the US, check every state you’ve lived in. Moving state is one of the major reasons this happens, and your unclaimed funds will not move to a new state with you.

e: Here’s my previous year’s thread on this, with more discussion. This isn’t sovcit bullshit. It’s real.

Also note that you’re unlikely to find life-changing amounts this way. Most people report a few dollars to a few thousand. Large amounts motivate lawyers to seek you out.

e2: I wonder how much this could change a government’s budget if enough people started claiming these funds at once? Would that basically do what the run on banks did? The money is hypothetically there, but it’s not really there at scale.

Also, they're sensitive to moving shadows. As with motion sensors, if you move slowly enough, they cannot sense you. Slowly circle behind them and they jump into your death mitts.

Anyway, this has worked out better for me than a Bic lighter and hair spray. But that works too.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telesur

Venezuelans who come to the US tend to be wealthier, in order to be able to get here, and have enough issues with their country in order to leave, issues that they will usually blame on the leadership.

None of this is to say Maduro has majority support, he doesn't by most accounts, or that they don't represent a sizable chunk of Venezuelans who don't like Maduro, but that his support isn't as non-existent over there as it is here.

It'd be like if Trump took over the US and you only got your views on what Americans think from expat communities in Canada. They would probably cheer his death, even if it was by a foreign empire, but that wouldn't be representative of average Americans who probably wouldn't like the foreign intervention, even if they don't like Trump.

The Way to Better Mental Health May Go Through Your Stomach

https://bcmp.hms.harvard.edu/news/getting-how-gut-bacterias-connection-depression

https://magazine.publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/gut-microbiome-and-brain

Personally I would suggest migrating away from Microsoft 365 by using Libreoffice and Thunerbird or SeaMonkey or your favorite email client rather than giving Microsoft any money. However if for some reason you're absolutely 100% locked-in with Microsoft Office 365 then the linked instructions will at-least save you a little money hopefully. I would still recommend trying to find a solution to why you're locked in as soon as possible because I'm not sure how long this will last.

Just buy another brand for less. They went so far as to Photoshop 'enhance' my warranty photos to increase contrast to support their claim, and they admit it.

My very expensive Tempur / Tempurpedic mattress is cracking all over on top after 8 years, and my wife can't sleep in it. Tempur quickly voided the warranty claim saying it's water damaged - after they 'enhanced' a single image, mostly highlighting shadows.

I think the memory foam bed is actually only good for 4-5 years depending how big you are and you local humidity. The warranty at 10 years is a total scam for anyone but tiny fairies living in a plastic bubbles. If they said "this lasts 5 year's" sales would crater or cheap alternatives would win out. Instead they say 'full 10 year warranty' but Don't honor it.

There is no water damage on my bed. Some slight soiling on the mattress cover where you lay (8 years, not washable) plus some shadows due to the window, and they say stained and water damage no warranty. 'Enhanced' my photo to make it look worse. Wouldn't even look at additional photos or send someone out.

Words cannot describe how good it feels to wrap yourself into one of these when you're cold.

I heat my house with just a heatpump but it can't quite keep up when it gets well below 10 degrees celcius and I'm too cheap to turn on electric radiators. I bought an electric blanket for 22 euros and I just heat that instead. Even just sitting on it makes a huge difference.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option

“Israel could "bring down the pillars of the world (attack Moscow and European capitals for instance)" as well as the "holy places of Islam." and that the "abandonment of proportionality is the essence" of the Samson Option.” - Ron Rosenbaum

”For the first time in history, a people facing extermination while the world either cackles or looks away—have the power to destroy the world. The ultimate justice?” - David Perlmutter

https://www.theinteldrop.org/2025/06/17/new-leak-reveals-israels-samson-option-includes-american-cities-on-nuclear-target-list/

 According to security analysts who have reviewed the leaked documents, cities identified in the alleged target list include New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and the NORAD command center in Colorado. Also named are Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option

In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Arab forces were overwhelming Israeli forces and Prime Minister Golda Meir authorized a nuclear alert and ordered 13 atomic bombs be readied for use by missiles and aircraft. The Israeli Ambassador informed President Richard Nixon that "very serious conclusions" may occur if the United States did not airlift supplies. Nixon complied. This is seen by some commentators on the subject as the first threat of the use of the Samson Option.

Here is a map showing countries that are within Israel’s nuclear targeting range:

Why?

If you're in the US, you should know this because if you want to apply for a passport, you'll be required to provide information about your parents such as birth dates and places. If you're divorced, you will have to provide the same info along with marriage and divorce date, even if it was decades ago. So if you have access to that info, make sure you record it somewhere safe for Future use.

If you're not in the US, you should know because this information can be difficult for people to get if they never knew one or both parents, or have a bad/non-relationship with them. Or if they had a contentious divorce or an abusive partner. Which is another reason why just leaving the country can be difficult for people who are already marginalized.

The vast majority of events (talks, hacking sessions, open discussions) are held inside "developer rooms" ("devrooms"), which are mini-conferences organized and managed by open source projects themselves.

It's also FREE !! 🥳

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/40904808

Russian students are being presented with an ultra-nationalist curriculum, full of militarism and hatred toward Ukraine. The young teacher Pavel Talankin filmed the indoctrination of Russian children and smuggled the footage abroad for a documentary.

With his camera, this teacher documents life at a school in the Russian provinces. He shows how, after the invasion of Ukraine, propaganda and nationalism gradually seep into education. He has now fled the country.

While recording how the school carries out the government’s directives, he realizes he now has unique footage. Through contacts he gets in touch with an American director. Together they decide to make a documentary: “Mr. Nobody Against Putin.”

Since the invasion of Ukraine, new textbooks have been written in Russia in which the war against Ukraine is justified and excused. President Putin is rewriting history and shaping a new generation of loyal Putin supporters.

Meanwhile, the performance of ordinary students is declining, as becomes clear during staff meetings.

Talankin films everything, including the visit from the controversial Wagner Group and the forced military drills, such as shooting practice and grenade throwing.

To make this film, he had to flee, because criticizing President Putin’s new education policy is simply not possible in Russia.

Coming to theaters on 2026-01-15

That includes great, great grandparents.

In order to obtain proof of Canadian citizenship, you would need to document your line of descent through historical documents and birth records.

This is sad.

https://www.museumoftheearth.org/