Curiosity Is Underrated

Typing this from Graphene now, in fact. But, both of those take the Android Open Source Project, without all the bloatware--and largely de-Google the whole thing. They give you much more control over privacy and what the apps you choose to install can do and access on your phone.

I know Graphene sandboxes everything, including the optionally installed Google Play Services which a lot of apps unfortunately require to run. (Lineage uses an alternative to Play Services instead.) So, you can install what would normally be unacceptably intrusive apps and just lock them away from pulling any funny shit with your data, or phoning home. Including the couple of Google things I do still keep around.

I also prefer running much more transparent, privacy-respecting open source apps where possible. Besides the transparency, I'd rather avoid the shitty tech corps entirely where I can. There are pretty good alternatives available for a lot of the usual suspects.

An alternative app store:

I listened to Andy Kim talking on the Senate floor, that 18 year old in Delaney hall is there alone, her mom comes to see her when she can, even though she's there alone she's translating for other detainees who don't speak English.

I have student in one of my classes, I have known him for 3 years and he's so smart and works so hard, he's 17 and his lawyer moved his asylum case up because they want to have it before he turns 18 and can be snatched off the street.

Guards at these detention centers have said, the cruelty is the point, I have to make your life miserable so you'll agree to leave the country. But even the ones who agree to leave are stuck waiting because we don't have deportation agreements with every country.

I'm glad Kilmar Abrego Garcia won his selective and vindictive prosecution case but ICE goons are threatening prisoners who try to organize for better conditions that they'll be deported to Uganda or the Congo, where there's an active Ebola outbreak.

Whatever you would have done during Nazi Germany, the concentration camps, is what you are doing right now. These atrocities are happening right in front of us. And for what? I watched a right wing video where the speaker said, we'll deport so many of them that we'll never have to press 1 for English again.

"... "We are contending with the most serious security situation since the Second World War," Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said as he and French President Emmanuel Macron announced in Paris that the two countries had signed a defence pact.

"... The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) and other pro-Israel groups have sponsored such trips for years, and both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have joined. But the continued participation of Democratic lawmakers and their staff on recent trips is particularly noteworthy given how much sympathy for Israel has ebbed among Democratic voters, and the pains that some Democratic politicians have recently taken to distance themselves from the lobby group.

"... Kushner’s remarks point to a direct system of incentives behind the Abraham Accords: countries that normalise relations with Israel can expect investment packages, political backing and access to US-linked capital. ... Senator Ron Wyden and Rep Robert Garcia also demanded answers from the White House in March over reports that Kushner was soliciting billions of dollars from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds while simultaneously helping lead US negotiations in the region. Garcia warned that Kushner’s role raised concerns that he could be “profiting by selling access to influence US policy to foreign investors.' ...'

Who Really Designed the Pantera?

In this edition of Automotive Revolution, Rick DeBruhl explores the origins of the Pantera and features a 1973 De Tomaso Pantera L that is part of the Martin Auto Museum collection.