Sounds like you did pretty much the same bit of googling I did, because I also ended up there and ctrl-f’d “Taliban” and only found the one result

For anyone who doesn’t go down the rabbit hole themselves, that result is “Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP)” or the “Pakistani Taliban”

Which is a group that mostly seems to be active in Pakistan (duh) and in Afghanistan near the border. TTP pledges allegiance to the Afghan Taliban, but the Afghan Taliban, at least publicly rejects that allegiance (though you can certainly make some arguments that they’re probably in cahoots, just keeping things off-the-books)

Yeah, security updates are a big sticking point for me too.

That’s another reason I’m not rushing out to buy one. If they actually stick to their 5 year plan, that’s pretty solid, but that’s a big unknown right now.

And with almost anything there’s some 1st generation bugs that will probably need to be worked out. If they stick around for a couple years and keep up with their updates I’ll give them a little more consideration.

Also we’re now starting to see some brands come out with color e-ink devices, I wouldn’t mind one of these with a color e-ink screen.

So maybe I’ll be getting a minimal phone 2 or 3.

I haven’t personally played around with rooting and custom ROMs and such in honestly probably a decade, but an unlockable bootloader would be nice, even if I don’t necessarily see myself using that feature at this point in my life.

And not for nothing, since a flagship smartphone can pretty easily cost $1000+ these days, $500-ish for this phone sounds oddly reasonable. Not that it’s got flagship specs, but for something that’s filling a specific niche with some (for many) desirable features, that’s not a bad price IMO.

Or, you know, the device we’re discussing

E readers don’t generally make calls, texts, do navigation, or fit comfortably in the zippered hip pockets of my hiking pack

I’m kind of considering getting one, probably as a second phone to swap my sim card into for occasional use

The e ink is a big draw for me, as is the physical keyboard, not to mention the headphone jack and expandable storage.

With the e-ink comes good battery life, they’re claiming potentially 4 days from what I can see. I like the idea of that for travel, where I might be spending long hours on a bus, train, plane, car, walking around town all day, maybe even camping somewhere where it may not always be convenient to charge my phone.

E-ink is also easier to read in direct sunlight without a glare, as someone with a lot of outdoor hobbies that appeals to me. (Although for the same reason I do also wish it had a higher IP rating, and maybe an impact resistance rating as well)

I dont tend to play a lot of games or watch movies on my phone to begin with, so I’m not so much interested in that aspect of it encouraging mindfulness, but for people who do struggle with that temptation to spend too much time on tiktok forget hooked on stupid games, I can see this helping them to kick that habit since e ink isn’t really great for those kinds of uses, while not needing to totally unplug from the more utilitarian uses for a smartphone like navigation, different messaging apps, email, 2 factor authenticator apps, etc.

I’m not rushing out to buy one, but I might consider grabbing one if I get a good deal somewhere, or if it has some staying power I might consider picking up the next gen version of it.

Interestingly enough, the US doesn’t seem to regard the Taliban (at least not the main branch that’s currently running Afghanistan) as a terrorist organization.

When you said that I thought they might, I was actually pretty sure it was the case, but on looking into it that doesn’t seem like they do, at least not officially.

Some other countries do, and there are a couple other Taliban splinter groups and such that do make the cut.

And of course, the entire history of Afghanistan since the Cold war can probably be of best summed up as “an absolute fucking mess” full of different factions, shifting allegiances, and all of that geopolitical nonsense, but you can make a pretty compelling argument that the US sort of put the Taliban in charge there in the first place. The us backed the Mujahideen against Russia back in the day, and while they’re not exactly the same organization, there was a whole lot of overlap between former members of the Mujahideen and the people who formed the Taliban. So from one angle slapping the terrorist label on them would be kind of like admitting “we backed the terrorists”

You know, I’ve read your comment a couple times, and I can’t quite wrap my head around what you’re trying to say, I can kind of parse it in a few different ways, and none of them quite seem like they’re really a direct response to what I said either agreeing with me or disagreeing.

It’s certainly possible that I’ve got a case of the dumb tonight, but would you mind rephrasing and expanding on your thoughts a little bit?

Fuck Russia, fuck the Taliban

That said, all the other countries that haven’t recognized them just have their head in the sand.

Whether you like them or not, they’re the ones in power there and despite being a bunch of bumbling, backwards, violent, religious fanatics, they’ve actually done a better job of holding onto that power than anyone else has over the last half century.

Pretending they’re not is really just denying reality.

I was recently reading some Wikipedia article on my phone and when I was scrolling I accidentally hit a button to edit it and was greeted by a message that my IP was banned from editing for the next 10 months.

I haven’t even attempted to edit Wikipedia in probably 20 years. Admittedly last time I did I was probably about 14 years old, and it may have been some juvenile vandalism, but somehow I don’t think that they managed to trace me from a computer in my high school library to my current cell phone, or that anything I did warranted a 21 year ban

So obviously it’s because phones using cellular Internet go through IP addresses only slightly less often than most people breathe.

It feels like that sort of IP ban really isn’t particularly useful. The vandals probably aren’t usually on that address and most of the time it’s getting used by random people who probably don’t even think about editing Wikipedia.

I’m way out of my element, and I don’t feel like doing the math right now, but I think it may be worth considering that helium is very light, I think last time I saw it brought up someone said that 1g of helium is like 5 or 6 liters at standard temperature/pressure. Not a huge quantity by any means, but significantly more than you’d probably imagine picturing a gram of water or whatever. I have no idea what kinds of amounts, pressures, etc. are needed for helium to be used in any of the applications we want it for, but I suspect it’s a lot more than that.

Also as far as mining goes, except for the fact that it’s on the moon, it seems like harvesting regolith is probably a fairly straightforward operation, it’s just moon dust, the stuff that’s covering pretty much the entire surface a few meters deep. Seems like all that’s really needed would be some space bulldozers and dump trucks (though of course I’m sure there’s a whole lot more challenges that I’m not thinking of)

To say nothing about whatever is needed to process the regolith, I wouldn’t even know where to begin with that.

But helium also isn’t the only thing we’d be looking to harvest from regolith. Let’s say it takes us 50 years to harvest enough helium for whatever we need it for (no idea if that estimate is over, under, or about right) over those 50 years we’d also be harvesting all of the iron and silicon and whatever else we need to build out the infrastructure to use the helium.

And of course the cost/benefit analysis can be all over the place depending on if you’re thinking about this as some sort of capitalist profit-seeking venture or if it’s more of a “for the good of all mankind” or “scientific research for its own sake” kind of thing.

Lot of things to consider. I’m not saying that mining the moon necessarily makes sense, I also don’t know if it doesn’t there’s a lot of factors at play.

I have a friend who used to work in a pet food warehouse. They had some massive blast doors and fire suppression systems

Sounds like overkill for a bunch of dog and cat food, but when you think about it food is absolutely packed full of energy, caloric content is kind of the main point of food. Most of it is dry kibble, so it’s not like you can count it having a hgligh moisture content to keep it from watching fire, and I can absolutely imagine a situation there where the right conditions might exist for a dust explosion like you hear about in grain silos and such.

I would assume that fireworks warehouses probably have about 1000X the fire safety measures than dog food does. Maybe I’m giving the powers that be too much credit though, because it does seem like every year I hear about some fireworks warehouse or factory somewhere blowing up.

Personally I would like a revolution resembling Ukraine

You want the US to be invaded by invaded by an even bigger piece of shit country for us to have to fend off?

I just recently built a computer, though truth be told it’s basically my wife’s old computer stuffed into a new case, we’ve been holding onto her old components as she’s done upgrades. So it’s basically a roughly 10 year old computer, it has one of the last AMD processors from before the ryzen era, but it was a beefy computer when she built it and it’s still managing to run most of what’s out there on acceptable (for me, I’m not exactly a graphics snob) settings.

Of course it’s not gonna be compatible with windows 11, so I’ve been figuring out what my next move is going to be. Most likely I’ll bite the bullet and build basically a whole new PC and recycle this one into a home server or something, it’s definitely still got a lot of life left in it, but I’d be lying if the idea of just going over to Linux isn’t really tempting

Also on iodine, there was a product out there called “Polar Pure” that I fucking love

Unfortunately, it was basically just a bottle of pure iodine crystals, so they got caught up in some new anti-drug regulations and got shut down because iodine can be used to make meth.

But it was a great product, and if you look around you can still find new old stock. It has an indefinite shelf life (iodine crystals don’t go bad) and one bottle was enough to treat something like 2,000L of water.

You filled the bottle up with water, some of the iodine would dissolve into it, and you’d use a capful or so of that concentrated iodine solution to disinfect your drinking water. It had a special bottle design to keep the iodine crystals trapped inside when you poured the liquid out.

Pure iodine crystals aren’t exactly an easy thing to get your hands on, but if anyone is able to that’s probably a good way to go.

Pretty much exactly what it sounds like, water that comes in blue cans. The manufacturer claims it has a 50 year shelf life or something.

It costs several times what regular bottled water does, and it’s literally just water, not flavored or sparkling or enhanced with any vitamins or electrolytes or anything, just water in a can. It’s kind of a stupid thing to buy, and arguably you’d be better off just filling up some sturdy jugs from your tap and treating it with a couple drops of bleach and dumping it down the drain every so often, but I can also see the convenience of a buy-one-cry-once set-it-and-forget it prep like that.

I’m “lucky” (Also I’m overall very pro-nuclear, don’t let those sarcasm quotes give anyone the wrong impression) that I live in the evacuation zone for a nuclear plant, so my county distributes potassium iodide for residents in this area (for anyone paying enough attention to put their name on the list to have it sent to you or to stop by the office to pick it up) so that’s one thing I don’t really have to put any money or effort into stockpiling.

I’m not particularly concerned about the plant, and I’m not in an area that’s likely to get nuked if WWIII really gets going, though I may need to worry about fallout depending on the wind.

Definitely good advice and we are cycling things.

Our plan is focusing on dry goods that probably would last a couple years (maybe with some loss of nutrients/quality) just sitting in your pantry as long as it’s reasonably clean, dry, and no bug or rodent issues. I can’t say that I’ve ever had things like flour, rice, or beans go bad on me, and I’ve definitely pulled some out of my pantry that have been sitting there for a couple years.

And we’re further hedging our bets vacuum sealing them in mason jars with moisture and oxygen absorber packets.

For anyone doing the same, a paper cupcake/muffin wrapper in the top of the jar allegedly helps keep your vacuum sealer from sucking up any dust from your food. It didn’t seem like that was a major issue when we were doing it without, but I figure it can’t hurt either.

The thing we struggle with is cycling emergency water supplies. We don’t tend to use any sort of bottled water, water quality from our tap is actually pretty good (if a bit hard) and we put it through a filter anyway, so we never really think about cycling out whatever jugs or bottles we try to stockpile. I may have to bite the bullet and order a couple cases of that stupid blue can water or something.

I have a slight tendency towards paranoia and over-preparedness, it’s something I know about myself and keep in check, I don’t want to be the weirdo living in a bunker full of spam and guns. I keep it to a reasonable level of preparedness, a little extra food, a battery backup for my sump pump, some tools, blankets, water, etc. in the trunk of my car, etc. I’m seldom caught unprepared for anything that might come up, but I’m not actively stockpiling for the end of the world.

My wife tends to fly by the seat of her pants a bit more. I remember when I ran out to buy the backup battery for the sump pump before a big storm she asked if I really thought we’d need it. We ended up losing power for 16 hours, and while that battery didn’t last the whole time, it at least bought us a few extra hours of not having to bail out the sump pump with buckets to keep our basement from flooding.

So I definitely took notice when a couple months ago she started wanting to buy some rice and beans and such in bulk to vacuum seal so we’d have a bit of a stockpile on-hand if things started getting rough. If she’s starting to get worried like that, it usually means things are already pretty damn bad.

So I’ve been kicking my usual casual emergency preps up a notch, still holding myself back from becoming a full-on bunker weirdo, but fuck if that’s not starting to look kind of attractive.

So I did not read the article because of a paywall I’m too lazy to circumvent right now

But from OP’s summary, the main technology they’re talking about is concrete reinforced with steel or other fibers.

And that’s definitely more advanced than “pyramid age”

But it’s also pretty much a direct descendant of mud brick reinforced with straw which humanity has been using since well before the pyramids. Same basic concept, different materials.

So yes and no.

My dude, I think someone needs to tell you, Russia is part of the imperialist west now. Has been for a while. They’re maybe not always in agreement with the rest of the West, but the disagreement is only over who should be the top dog, not over any deeper philosophical/sociological/political/economic/etc. differences.

They’re not championing communism and haven’t for decades, arguably they haven’t since well-before the USSR officially fell apart.

They drank deep from the capitalist kool-aid, to the point that they’re almost a parody of crony capitalism taken to its most ridiculous extreme. You know all the talk of oligarchs and Putin’s yachts, and all of that? What part of that sounds like redistributing the wealth and seizing the means of production for the working class to you?

I’m sorry you have to find out this way comrade, I can only assume that you spent most of the last half century or so in a coma to not know this. I know the revolution must go on, but for now you should really focus on your physical therapy, and maybe catch up a bit on all that has happened. If you’re going around this uninformed, you’re not going to be able to advance the cause in any sort of meaningful way.