CPO Test Instance

Elena worked for Novaya Gazetta, the last independent newspaper in Russia.

Her newsroom was systematically threatened and harassed. In fact, 3 of her colleagues were murdered right under her watch.

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the newspaper was forced to shut down.

She fled Russia and decided to report on war crimes committed against Ukrainian civilians. Then she was hospitalized. They poisoned her in an attempt to kill her

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/12/you-may-have-been-poisoned-how-an-independent-russian-journalist-became-a-target

https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/duke-university-elena-kostyuchenko-russian-journalist-in-exile-visiting-professor-poisoned-kremlin-20251124

Elena miraculously survived and kept reporting.

She now teaches at Duke University and was asked if she is worried. She said: "I'm not afraid of Putin and I won't be afraid of Trump"

https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-11-22/elena-kostyuchenko-im-not-afraid-if-i-wasnt-afraid-of-putin-i-wont-be-afraid-of-trump.html

She is one the bravest person I know.

Max Verstappen will be associated with a new driver number when the 2026 F1 season gets underway.

For example, is there a 'laws dot gov' kinda URL I can go to and type "importing raccoons to Northern Ireland to create a self-sustaining population" into the search bar?

Or maybe something like a multi-volume book series I can check at the library to see if "raccoon husbandry; N. Ireland" is mentioned?

Maybe an AI chatbot on the local council's website that I can ask "is it legal to raise baby raccoons by feeding them from miniature wheelie bins to teach them where food comes from and how to open the lids"?

I'm not about to do anything [potentially] illegal, I'm just curious.

Cheers! 🦝

Makers beware!

Much like with common household chemicals used for cleaning, such as bleach and ammonia, improper use of these can produce e.g. chlorine gas, which while harmful is generally not lethal. Things get much more serious with brake cleaner, containing tetrachloroethylene. As explained in the video, getting brake cleaner on a rusty part to clean it and then exposing it to the intensive energies of the welding process suffices to create phosgene.

The patch is small, about a fingernail in size.

Elsewhere on the packet they used two colors of ink: a very dark blue (this) and a lighter blue. I expected it to be some kind of alignment pattern, by only one of the inks seems to have been used here, so that's not it.

What is it for, why would they bother printing it? An ink+paper resolution/absorption test?

Hi. I'm using unofficial rom of the newest LineageOS for my Xiaomi Redmi Note 12S. I know it's not that secure to use unofficial rom as using official one because it might have malware but I think that I trust guy behind a rom and I even donated him for his hard work. Official firmware for Xiaomi is terrible and had a lot of spyware, I couldn't sleep with awareness of this.

For right now I'm planning to make my phone more private and secure. I heard that SIM Card is really big privacy issue and it can take control over device. I'm planning to don't using SIM Card on my main device and instead put in my old IPhone 7, then I will share internet from it or make calls if I will have to. I don't trust Apple too much but I think that their system is much better hardened than android when it comes to stuff like that. I don't planning to put any important stuff on IPhone, expect for proprietary software like banking apps etc. I think that ICloud account is huge privacy issue but I think that solution is better than what I have right now. So I'll have FOSS software only on my main Xiaomi Phone.

Then maybe I should root my LineageOS to harden it? It will give more control over my device and I could control it network traffic by firewall, add additional encryption if it's possible etc. What solutions can you recommend? Also I heard that opened bootloader is security issue but to be honest if I was able to do this by exploit avoiding doing this by manufacturer way I think that cops or hackers can do the same if they I will get my phone.

What can I do also for more privacy and security? I think that I should use work profile and private space which are great solutions. Also I can make some faraday cage which will also dull a sounds from environment, avoid holding sensitive data on my phone and have different accounts for messengers.

What do you think about this? How are you using your phone and what can you recommend for privacy?

...the conflict in Ukraine is unfolding similarly to others in Russia’s long history of failed or inconclusive imperial wars. Several times in the past few centuries, Russian leaders launched wars of conquest against foes they misunderstood and underestimated, and with little appreciation of the larger international context...

...The Crimean War (1853-56), the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), World War I (1914-18), and the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-88) offer the most relevant analogies. All were wars of choice for territorial aggrandizement or other imperial interventions, which ended in military defeat followed by political upheaval.

Russia’s failure in these wars stemmed from common mistakes and shortcomings that also afflict Putin’s war in Ukraine. One common failing was to underestimate their foes’ military capabilities and societal resilience. Emperor Nicholas I expected the Ottoman Empire to quickly give way on his demand for a protectorate over Orthodox Christians in what is now Moldova and part of Romania, while Emperor Nicholas II and his commanders believed that the Japanese military could never stand up to a European great power. Similar hubris colored their assessment of the Ottomans in 1914-15, when they settled on seizing Constantinople and the Black Sea Straits as a war aim. Nor did Soviet commanders have much respect for the ragtag mujahedeen in Afghanistan.

Second, Russian leaders frequently downplayed the risks and impacts of foreign (i.e., Western) involvement that ended up prolonging the war and increasing the costs Russia was forced to bear. The landing of French and British troops in Crimea in 1854 forced Russia to fight on multiple fronts against better-equipped armies. British intelligence support enabled Tokyo to remain a step ahead of Russian plans throughout the Russo-Japanese War. While Russia declared war against Austria-Hungary in August 1914, it soon found itself at war with Germany, the Ottomans, and Bulgaria as well. A German-Ottoman blockade of the Black Sea Straits choked off Allied support, exacerbating the tsarist government’s inability to mobilize defense production. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan prompted the United States, in uneasy alliance with Saudia Arabia and Pakistan, to arm the mujahedeen forces that ground down the Soviet army until General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev ordered their withdrawal nearly a decade later.

With an economy far less dynamic that those of its Western rivals, Russia in each case found itself at an increasing disadvantage the longer these wars went on. As economic burdens and personnel losses mounted, so too did opposition not just to the war, but to the regime prosecuting it...

It's funny, I went to college and got my degree in mechanical engineering. I'm glad I went and it's definitely made my career easier. However, as a power plant operator, in my state a degree isn't needed, just licensing.

Is it when you use capital letters properly?

So, my school I went to has a German exchange program available for students learning German, of course. My friend, who is still in school (we're only two years apart) is planning on taking German. She really likes Germany now. It used to be Peru, then France, but she tends to hyperfixate on different countries as she is neurodivergent like me.

So, when it's available in 2027 (she'll start taking German in the 2026-2027 school year), I plan on telling her parents and surprising her by having them sign her up for the trip.

However, a lot could change in two years and she might not even like Germany or German as much by then but yeah.

Tchüss!

cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/43814573

One of the leaders of the pro-Russian Koos party and Estonian citizen Aivo Peterson was sentenced to 14 years in prison for treason by Harju District Court on Thursday.

Web archive link

The trial, which began in November 2023, dealt with allegations of treason against Estonian citizens Peterson and Dmitri Rootsi, as well as claims that Peterson and Russian citizen Andrei Andronov acted to undermine Estonia's independence.

The charges were connected to meetings with Russian politicians, aligning policy positions, the organization of an independent civil defense organization, and a Russian-funded press trip to occupied Ukraine.

According to the indictment, Peterson and Rootsi, based on instructions received from Russia, knowingly and in an organized manner assisted Russia and people acting on behalf of Russian authorities in non-violent activities directed against the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Estonia from October 2022 to March 10, 2023.

...

New Zealand, probably

The best way I can explain it is like how the back of a Playstation or other console when it gets hot and the air coming out of it is hot. Combined with a slight armpit smell. As long as I have been on the internet, I keep reading about how women smell "fishy" down there, and I was always confused by that. Am I just weird?

I have a 4K 120Hz TV that I have blocked from internet access on my router (because it is spyware with no way to turn off the built in microphone) and I have a desktop that supports 4K but I don't want to run my desktop into the ground streaming on it all the time.

I'd like one that isn't American I guess if that really matters (seems like it kind of does) but I noticed options are limited unless you want to spend $600 on a mini PC which I don't.

I'd like to spend like $200 max if possible for this if possible.