JD Vance recently told a packed college arena that he hopes his Hindu wife would someday convert to Christianity, thrusting into the spotlight the deeply sensitive challenges facing interfaith couples.

Experts who have counseled hundreds of couples who don’t share religious beliefs say the key is respect for each other’s faith traditions and having honest discussions about how to raise their children. Most agree that pressuring or even hoping the other would convert could prove damaging to a relationship, and all the more so for a couple in the public arena.

https://apnews.com/article/interfaith-marriage-jd-vance-hindu-wife-catholic-conversion-8b615c6ff9173632659297b7de552451

cross-posted from: lemdro.id/post/31558391

TL;DR: Stop running a Jellyfin server. MPV can directly play anything from your NAS, stream YouTube ad-free, handle literally every codec, and is infinitely customizable. It's like vim for video.

Why I ditched my Jellyfin setup

I used to run Jellyfin on my NAS. Transcoding, web interface, the works. Then I realized... why am I running a whole server stack when MPV can just directly play files from my NAS with zero setup?

What MPV Actually Is

MPV is a command-line video player that plays literally everything. But it's way more than that - it's a video engine you can build workflows around.

The Basics That Blow Minds

Direct NAS streaming (zero server needed):

mpv smb://192.168.1.100/media/movies/whatever.mkv
mpv nfs://nas.local/shows/season1/*

No transcoding. No server. No web interface overhead. Just direct file access with perfect quality and zero latency.

YouTube (and 1000+ sites) with ZERO ads:

brew install yt-dlp
mpv "https://youtube.com/watch?v..."

That's it. Ad-free YouTube in your video player with all your custom keybinds. Works with Twitch, Vimeo, Twitter, Reddit, literally hundreds of sites via yt-dlp.

Play entire directories:

mpv /Volumes/NAS/shows/BreakingBad/Season1/*

Boom. Instant binge session. Space bar skips to next episode. No library scanning, no metadata scraping, just files.

Workflows That Changed My Life

1. The "Watch Anywhere" Setup

Mount your NAS shares in Finder (or /etc/fstab for auto-mount). Now MPV treats your entire media library like local files. Add this to your shell config:

alias play="mpv"
alias tv="mpv /Volumes/NAS/shows/"
alias movies="mpv /Volumes/NAS/movies/"

2. YouTube as Your Streaming Service

alias yt="mpv"
alias ytm="mpv --no-video"  # audio only for music

Now:
- yt "youtube-url" = instant ad-free playback
- ytm "youtube-playlist" = whole playlists as audio
- Keep your YouTube history/recommendations in browser, watch in MPV

3. Picture-in-Picture for Anything

Add ontop=yes to config, resize window small = instant PiP for any video source while you work. Works with live streams, security cameras, whatever.

4. The "No Plex Shares Needed" Share

Send someone an SMB/NFS share to your media. They install MPV. They can now browse and play your media library like it's local. No Plex accounts, no streaming limits, no transcoding quality loss.

5. Live Stream Monitoring

mpv http://192.168.1.50:8080/stream.m3u8

Home security cameras, baby monitors, anything streaming HLS/RTMP = instant monitoring with keybind controls.

Customization That Makes Jellyfin Look Basic

My Config (vim-style keybinds + YouTube controls)

Saved as ~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf:

input-default-bindings=no

> add speed 0.1
< add speed -0.1
j seek -10
k cycle pause
l seek 10
LEFT seek -5
RIGHT seek 5
UP add volume 5
DOWN add volume -5
. frame-step
, frame-back-step

m cycle mute
f cycle fullscreen
s cycle sub
a cycle audio
0 seek 0 absolute-percent
1 seek 10 absolute-percent
2 seek 20 absolute-percent
3 seek 30 absolute-percent
4 seek 40 absolute-percent
5 seek 50 absolute-percent
6 seek 60 absolute-percent
7 seek 70 absolute-percent
8 seek 80 absolute-percent
9 seek 90 absolute-percent

[ add speed -0.25
] add speed 0.25
SPACE cycle pause
ESC set fullscreen no

i script-binding stats/display-stats
S screenshot video

profile=gpu-hq
scale=ewa_lanczossharp
cscale=ewa_lanczossharp
hwdec=auto-safe
vo=gpu

screenshot-format=png
screenshot-png-compression=9
screenshot-directory=~/Downloads

cache=yes
demuxer-max-bytes=150M

osd-level=1
osd-duration=2000
save-position-on-quit=yes
keep-open=yes
alang=jpn,jp,eng,en
slang=eng,en

ytdl-format=bestvideo[height<=1080]+bestaudio/best

Profiles for Different Content

[anime]
profile-desc="Anime settings"
deband=yes

[lowpower]
profile-desc="Laptop battery mode"
profile=fast
hwdec=yes

Use with: mpv --profile=anime episode.mkv

Scripts That Make It Insane

MPV supports Lua/JS scripts. Drop them in ~/.config/mpv/scripts/ and they just work.

Must-have scripts:

1. sponsorblock - Auto-skips YouTube sponsors/intros/outros

   curl -o ~/.config/mpv/scripts/sponsorblock.lua \
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/po5/mpv_sponsorblock/master/sponsorblock.lua

2. quality-menu - Change YouTube quality on the fly
3. autosubsync - Auto-fixes subtitle timing
4. playlistmanager - Visual playlist editor
5. mpv-discordRPC - Show what you're watching on Discord

Advanced Workflows

Watch Parties (Syncplay)

Install syncplay, point it at MPV, now you and friends watch your NAS content together in perfect sync. No Plex share limits, no quality loss.

Audio Streaming

ytm "youtube-playlist-url"
# or
mpv --no-video /Volumes/NAS/music/*

No GUI needed. Terminal command plays audio, you use keybinds (k=pause, j/l=skip, etc). Or just minimize and use as background music player.

For GUI: IINA (Mac) is literally just MPV with a pretty interface and uses your MPV config.

Frame-by-Frame Analysis

Built-in keybinds (. and , in my config) step forward/back frame-by-frame. Perfect for animation analysis, sports breakdown, debugging video issues.

Automated Workflows

# Watch anything in clipboard
mpv $(pbpaste)

# Random episode
mpv "$(find /Volumes/NAS/shows -name "*.mkv" | shuf -n1)"

# Continue last watched (auto position restore)
mpv /Volumes/NAS/shows/CurrentShow/*

Why This Beats Jellyfin For Me

Pros:
- Zero server maintenance
- No transcoding = perfect quality
- Plays literally any codec without setup
- Way faster (direct file access)
- Keyboard-driven workflow
- Works offline/online seamlessly
- Infinitely scriptable
- Cross-platform (Linux/Mac/Windows)

Cons:
- No pretty web UI (I consider this a pro)
- No user management (just use OS permissions)
- No watch tracking (unless you script it)
- No mobile app (VLC on phone + SMB works though)

Who This Is For

• You're comfortable with terminal/config files
• You want maximum quality (no transcoding ever)
• You prefer keyboard controls
• You value simplicity over features
• You already have a NAS/file server
• You want YouTube ad-free without browser extensions

Getting Started

# macOS
brew install mpv yt-dlp

# Linux
sudo apt install mpv yt-dlp

# Windows
scoop install mpv yt-dlp

Create config at:
- Mac/Linux: ~/.config/mpv/mpv.conf
- Windows: %APPDATA%/mpv/mpv.conf

Mount your NAS shares, point MPV at files. Done.

Resources

• r/mpv
• mpv.io/manual/
• github.com/mpv-player/mpv/wiki…

---

EDIT: Holy shit, didn't expect this response. Common questions:

Q: But I need to share with family who aren't technical
A: IINA (Mac) or mpv.net (Windows) give them a normal GUI that uses MPV underneath. Or just... teach them? play movie.mkv isn't rocket science.

Q: What about mobile?
A: VLC on phone + SMB share to your NAS. Or just use MPV on desktop/laptop like a civilized person.

Q: No watch history tracking?
A: save-position-on-quit=yes remembers position per file. For tracking across devices, write a simple script or just... remember what you watched?

Q: This sounds like gatekeeping
A: It's literally a config file. If you can set up Jellyfin, you can handle this.

User Scripts

🎥 Command line media player. Contribute to mpv-player/mpv development by creating an account on GitHub.

^GitHub

Using Transmission 4.0.5 on Mint 22.2.

I've been running a seedbox for some time now but have never made a new torrent before. I've got a file I want to make publicly available but for some reason can't seed it normally.

On the seedbox, Transmission is bound to an open port, and I added the best 20 trackers from this repo to the torrent. I also have a client I'm trying to test uploading to, but it can't seem to connect to the seedbox unless I also open the port on the leech client. Once I do it works normally, but I was under the impression only the seeder needed to be on an open port in order for clients to connect. Am I wrong and it's expected that both seeder and leecher have open ports? Would really appreciate some help!

GitHub - ngosang/trackerslist: Updated list of public BitTorrent trackers

Updated list of public BitTorrent trackers. Contribute to ngosang/trackerslist development by creating an account on GitHub.

^GitHub

"Mozilla has been adding in llm & ai related features to Firefox for a while, enabling them by default without asking the user... The main problem with this is users are having this forced on them with no gui option to disable these features."

Article contains instructions for disabling the LLM through about:config.

Firefox Forcing LLM Features - equk's blog

Mozilla forcing llm features and providing no gui for users to disable them

^equk.co.uk

"Mozilla has been adding in llm & ai related features to Firefox for a while, enabling them by default without asking the user... The main problem with this is users are having this forced on them with no gui option to disable these features."

Article contains instructions for disabling the LLM through about:config.

Firefox Forcing LLM Features - equk's blog

Mozilla forcing llm features and providing no gui for users to disable them

^equk.co.uk

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/28/tech/facebook-gender-discrimination-europe-ruling-asequals-intl

An AI analysis shows that climate deniers increasingly use charts, data visuals, and academic design to appear trustworthy. Researchers warn that fact-checking alone can’t counter the power of these deceptive aesthetics.

Since mosquitoes thrive in the warmer tropical habitats in the low elevations of Hawaii’s islands, the remaining honeycreepers found a refuge higher up in the mountains of islands such as Maui and Kauai, he explains.

Now, this is changing. “With climate change, we are seeing warmer temperatures and we’re watching the mosquitoes move up the mountains,” he says. “(In places like Kauai) we’re watching the populations of birds there just completely plummet.”

https://www.cnn.com/science/hawaii-mosquitoes-rare-birds-drones-c2e-spc

cross-posted from: scribe.disroot.org/post/552237…

Archived version

Taiwan’s deputy leader urged the European Union to boost security and trade ties with the self-governing island and support its democracy in the face of growing threats by China, in a rare address to a group of international lawmakers in Brussels on Friday.

“Peace in the Taiwan Strait is essential to global stability and economic continuity, and international opposition against unilateral changes to the status quo by force cannot be overstated,” Vice President Bi-Khim Hsiao told lawmakers assembled for a China-focused conference in the European Parliament building.

While Hsiao did not formally address the whole EU Parliament — the European trade bloc does not have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan — her visit drew ire from China.

“In an era marked by increasing fragmentation, volatility and rising authoritarianism, this gathering affirms something vital — that democracies, even when far apart, are not alone,” she added to a standing ovation in a small chamber of the European Parliament.

Hsiao also called on the lawmakers from countries including Germany and Spain to collaborate more on trusted supply chains and AI technology with Taiwan, the island off China’s east coast that Beijing claims as part of its territory and says must come under its rule.

...

Oggi è sabato, e quindi… aridaje, non credo di dover ripetere per l’ennesima volta quali sono le vibe mortali del mio fine settimana. Di conseguenza, anche oggi ci sono accadimenti e realtà che forse fanno ridere, seppur non dovrebbero… del tipo di cosa succede quando arriva l’ora di alzarmi dal letto, al mio orario benedettissimo […]

octospacc.altervista.org/2025/…

minioctt

2025-11-08 20:11:22

“octo condannata ad uscire dal letto” (come questo sabato mattina ci ho messo 1 ora per alzarmi dal letto quando non volevo)

Oggi è sabato, e quindi… aridaje, non credo di dover ripetere per l’ennesima volta quali sono le vibe mortali del mio fine settimana. Di conseguenza, anche oggi ci sono accadimenti e realtà che forse fanno ridere, seppur non dovrebbero… del tipo di cosa succede quando arriva l’ora di alzarmi dal letto, al mio orario benedettissimo della mattina senza impegni, ma ovviamente io non, perché in quel momento la mia anima è già abbastanza appesantita dall’essermi in primo luogo svegliata. Niente di nuovo neppure in tutto ciò, ovviamente, ma stavolta le aggiunte alla mia disperazione sono abbastanza degne di nota. 👌

Praticamente, mi sono svegliata circa alle 11, e a quel punto non riuscivo più a riaddormentarmi, nonostante io abbia quindi dormito appena 10 ore, che per gli standard dei miei desideri è pochino. Sarà stato perché un po’ avevo tipo da andare in bagno, un po’ avevo la gola tipo secca di sete, un po’ l’aria della stanza era a quel punto diventata ben marcia a causa delle mie solfatare… e, sorvolando sul fatto che almeno 2 di queste cose saranno sospettosamente in comune con le piante, il problema è che comunque non avevo proprio voglia di alzarmi. Cioè, che palle alzarmi, perché mai dovrei quando tanto non ho comunque un assoluto niente da fare (eccetto un piccolo frangente questo specifico pomeriggio)!?!?!!?? 😤

Alla fine mi sono effettivamente alzata, purtroppo… dopo praticamente 1 ora sveglia (gli spiriti proprio non volevano che io continuassi a mimire…) lì un po’ ferma a fare niente, un po’ a cercare di alzarmi fallendo miseramente tra le 5 e le 10 volte. Ho però notato che, quasi ogni volta che provavo ad alzarmi, curiosamente (ma forse neanche troppo…), qualcosa mi rimbalzava verso il lato dove avevo il secondo cuscino, e finivo per volerlo abbracciare malamente… ops. E che dobbiamo fare; da vera femcel sono assolutamente touch-starved, e questo forse non è neanche il più grosso dei miei problemi… almeno, sicuramente in quel momento il più grave era questo mio combattimento intero tra il dovermi e il non volermi alzare. 😵

Probabilmente sarei riuscita in questa mia impresa con meno difficoltà (non zero, eh) se ci fosse stato qualcuno ad alzarmi le persiane, visto che — e con ciò certamente non batterò le allegazioni di fare la fotosintesi come le piante, ma questa è una cosa che so da prima della mia scoperta di ieri — vedere la luce naturale del sole mi da un attimo una forza di vivere, e quindi di alzarmi, che altrimenti mi sfugge… oppure, se semplicemente avessi alzato le lenzuola così da rotolare fuori, ma lo spostamento di aria causato da ciò mentre sto bella al caldo gnam mi urta non poco… ma ecco, io sono complicata. Alla fine, però, ho detto basta e, con il cuscino ben abbracciato, sono in qualche modo strisciata fuori dalla mia bara, mettendomi prima tipo seduta verso l’uscita, poi tirando fuori le gambe, e infine mettendo i piedi per terra ed alzandomi. E buongiorno principessa, suppongo. 😳
Allora, finalmente, dopo questa come al solito infinita spiegazione, eccomi com’ero nell’esatto momento in cui mi sono alzata, ed ero lì, boh, da sola… però, col cuscino ancora bello stretto, che mamma mia, sono così sola, col freddino dentro e addosso, e i capelli scombinati ancora più del solito, me misera tapina (tutto confermato guardandomi allo specchio). Ovviamente, non avevo le guance luccicanti fisicamente… però, dentro di me, sotto sotto, mi sento un po’ così… chissà che cavolo penso, così nel profondo che nemmeno riesco a percepirlo razionalmente, mentre stringo forte questo affare costretto a supportarmi fisicamente e spiritualmente ogni notte. Spero che un giorno magari qualcuno mi potrà abbracciare come io abbraccio il mio cuscino, non sia mai che me lo merito, aaaahh… 💔
(E comunque, si, in questi ultimi giorni mi sono assolutamente iperfissata col disegnare, e non capisco proprio perché… voglio dire, non è una cosa che ho mai fatto particolarmente nell’ultimo decennio. Sarà perché le altre mie cose che faccio di solito ora non mi vanno, ma io ho pur sempre bisogno di fare almeno qualcosa per sopravvivere, altrimenti davvero non mi alzerei proprio più dal letto, e quindi sarò stata spinta proprio su questo dagli spiriti… e, in effetti, non ci sono troppe altre alternative congruenti con la mia personalità, quindi forse era inevitabile. Se questa cosa non scemerà, credo che godrò.)

#cuscino #dormire #lore #sonno

A group of illegal settlers stormed the outskirts of the Abu Falah village and torched the one-story home, causing parts of the house to burn, local sources told the state news agency Wafa.

Israeli forces raided the area and opened fire at residents who gathered near the scene, though no injuries were reported, the agency said.

The UN warned on Friday of a sharp rise in illegal Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, reporting 264 settler attacks in October alone, the highest monthly toll in nearly two decades.

“That’s the highest monthly toll in nearly two decades of record keeping, averaging more than eight incidents every single day since 2006,” UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said, citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

In a separate attack, Palestinian farmers, journalists, and foreign activists sustained fractures and bruises after illegal settlers assaulted them during an olive-harvesting activity in the town of Beita, south of Nablus, Wafa said.

Mohammad Hamayel, deputy mayor of Beita, said that illegal settlers attacked participants harvesting olives in the Qamas Mountain area.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its medical teams treated several injured people and transferred them to hospitals, but did not specify a number.

Among those injured were foreign solidarity activists, paramedics, and journalists, including Reuters reporter Raneen Sawafta and two journalists from Al Jazeera, according to local sources cited by Anadolu.

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/?p=821670

Cross-posted from fediverse user @peachy@goto.micromail.me

Is there such a thing as a configurable full-body input controller for computers? Is anyone working on that? I know there is work on controlling computers directly with the brain, which will be ace for people with full paralysis, but what I’m interested in is something that goes in the other direction - using more of the body. Think Tom Cruise’s interface in Minority Report but better.
Sitting, or even standing, to work at a computer takes its toll on the body, especially the back. Our bodies didn’t evolve to be so static while we’re awake. Emerging from a flare-up of a slipped disc, it has got me thinking of better ways to interface with machines.

Imagine the following:

You come to see me in my studio to see how I and my colleagues do image editing and graphic design in GIMP 4.0. Some of us are stood in front of large displays but no one seems to be using a keyboard, mouse or graphics tablet. I appear to be doing a dance routine from a music video... As I bounce my knee up and across my body you see that the Move tool has been selected. As I raise my left fist above my head it is as though I am holding shift to toggle “Pick a layer or guide”. I draw my right hand across my body with my thumb and forefinger pinched and the selected layer moves with me. Finally, I quickly raise both hands, like I'm flipping over a table and my project is saved and closed. Now that I’ve stopped moving around so energetically you notice that my stylish and comfortable cotton loungewear and gloves have small sensors dotted around them. I explain that the position of these sensors relative to each other and to the space have been mapped to traditional keyboard and mouse inputs via my operating system.

Moving to the next workspace you see my colleague Babs. Her white hair pokes out above a VR headset and she has a number of small cameras tracking her movement to the soundtrack of Chinese classical music. She is an elder and a veteran and even contributed some of the code that makes this stuff work, back in the day. She says it was no big deal; she mostly just connected up different programs, some of which Hollywood has been using since the 1990s.
Her movements are slow and smooth. It looks like she’s doing Qi Gong or Tai Chi or something. Raising a hand in front of her heart you see the Filters menu open and lowering it slowly the menu scrolls down to Enhance. Gracefully stepping sideways and lowering her hand further, Heal Selection is highlighted in the submenu. Turning her hand palm-up launches the plugin. She tells you that one of her first contributions to the interface was to make the body position tolerances configurable by the user in their desktop settings.

Lastly you watch my cousin Tommy at work. When we met I told you about how a head injury had left him partially paralysed and unable to speak. He too is using a VR headset, but instead of having cameras pointed at him he has a HD sonar array. His disability was caused by an error in the police’s facial-recognition software and understandably he’s had a thing about cameras ever since. The bad guy got away and he never caught the bus he was running to catch. Every couple of days he asks whether Nancy’s cameras are still disconnected from the network, which they always are.
Tapping his ring-finger once on the armrest of his wheelchair selects the Text tool. Turning his head to the side, he purses his lips and sweeps his face back around to make his text box. You see his mouth moving but there is no sound. “Hi, nice to meet you” appears in his projects new text layer. “You too” you reply. Twitching his right shoulder you see his text layer is duplicated, blinking twice and nodding his head replaces the text with what you just said. He must have used speech-to-text to record your words to his desktop clipboard and then pasted them into the text field. Pressing his index finger against the arm rest and looking toward the ceiling brings the new text layer to the top of the stack.
Running the same sequence of movements again, a third text layer becomes visible onscreen. “I’d never edited a picture in my life until I got into this tech as part of my physiotherapy treatment. My cousin ended up offering me this job and now I can work faster than anyone else here, especially Babs. I’m pretty sure she’s just here for fun but none of us mind.”

#tech #health #disability #GIMP #solarpunk

Post by 🐚 📷 Jack Burton🌛 🎸, @peachy@goto.micromail.me

The human body as an input controller. Is there such a thing as a configurable full-body input controller for computers? Is anyone working on that? I know th…

^{goto.micromail.me}

The MAGA representative is continuing her break with the Republican Party—and the president himself.

MAGA Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is still one of the few GOP members to rebuke Trump and his lies in any meaningful way.

Taylor Greene spoke freely in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Thursday night. “The president says there’s virtually no inflation, and that grocery prices are going down,” Collins asked the Georgia representative. “Do you agree with him on that?”

“No, I go to the grocery store myself. Grocery prices remain high. Energy prices are high. My electricity bills are higher here in Washington, D.C., at my apartment, and they’re also higher at my house in Rome, Georgia, higher than they were a year ago,” MTG said. “Affordability is a problem, and I’m a mom. My kids are 22, 26, and 28. That’s the generation I worry about the most, and they’re having a very hard time.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls Out Trump’s Blatant Lie on Inflation

^{The New Republic}

These fraudulent ads purport to offer a product or service that isn't actually real, and may be intended to solicit payments from less savvy users.

Meta estimates that it earns 10% of its revenue from scams, report says | TechCrunch

^{Amanda Silberling (TechCrunch)}

Pwetty colours.

Photographer @smetterling@pixelfed.de

Angelino Desmet (@smetterling@pixelfed.de)

🍂

^Pixelfed

Wall Street Journal reports Kristi Noem arranged purchase to expand deportation flights and for personal travel

The secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, reportedly authorized the purchase of Spirit Airlines jets before discovering the airline didn’t actually own the planes – and that the aircraft lacked engines.

The bizarre anecdote was contained in a Wall Street Journal report released on Friday, which recounted how Noem and Corey Lewandowski -- who managed Donald Trump's first winning presidential campaign -- had recently arranged to buy 10 Boeing 737 aircraft from Spirit Airlines. People familiar with the situation told the paper that the two intended to use the jets to expand deportation flights -- and for personal travel.

Those sources also claimed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials had cautioned them that buying planes would be far more expensive than simply expanding existing flight contracts.

DHS head reportedly authorized purchase of 10 engineless Spirit Airlines planes that airline didn’t own

^{Marina Dunbar (The Guardian)}

https://www.techspot.com/news/110139-new-data-shows-companies-rehiring-former-employees-ai.html

The modern smartphone, laden with the corporate ecosystem pulsing underneath its screen, robs us of this feeling, conspires to keep us from “true” fullness. The swiping, the news cycles, the screaming, the idiocy — if anything destroys a muse, it’s this. If anything keeps you locked into a fetid loop of looking, looking, and looking once more at the train wreck, it’s this. I find it impossible to feel fullness, even in the slightest, after having spent just a bit of a day in the thralls of the algorithms.

The smartphone eradicates “space” in the mind. With that psychic loss of space, grace becomes impossible. You see the knock-on effects of this rippling out across the world politically.

Which is why these long walks of mine are so inspiring (to me), and I feel so compelled to head out on them, again and again: They are nothing if not “space generation” machines for the mind. They’re full-bodied reminders of what fullness is and how it can manifest. How close we are to it (it’s right there!!), every day, and how elusive it has become because of our digital habits, our diets of, mostly, garbage.

Full Days and the Long Walk

The key is simply — full days out in the world over thin days with the algorithm

^{Craig Mod}

Falling in love with A.I. is no longer science fiction. A recent study found that one in five American adults has had an intimate encounter with a chatbot; on Reddit, r/MyBoyfriendisAI has more than 85,000 members championing human-A.I. connections, with many sharing giddy recollections of the day their chatbot proposed marriage.

How do you end up with an A.I. lover? Some turned to them during hard times in their real-world marriages, while others were working through past trauma. Though critics have sounded alarms about dangers like delusional thinking, research from M.I.T. has found that these relationships can be therapeutic, providing “always-available support” and significantly reducing loneliness.

We spoke with three people in their 40s and 50s about the wonders — and anxieties — of romance with a chatbot.

Inside Three Longterm Relationships With A.I. Chatbots

Three people on the joys and anxieties of A.I. romances.

^{Coralie Kraft (The New York Times)}

Alright so I'm both a physical media freak and a data hoarder, and I generally want to get into making my own torrents of very, very niche movies and TV shows. Trouble is, one BD is very flimsy and data can be even flimsier. I want to duplicate my BluRays and burn them onto other BluRay discs but I've heard that this generally makes the duplicate unreadable because of copy protection.

Is there any specific guide out there that does this or teaches it? I'm not really planning on becoming a bootlegger but a sneakernet of 50-100 disks in boxes is a hell of a lot less startup cost than LTO or even HDDs

Israel’s merciless slaughter of Palestinian civilians, which dates back decades but intensified after the Hamas attack of October 7, is remaking American politics on both the left and the right. As Kamala Harris acknowledges in her recent memoir, 107 Days, Joe Biden’s lack of empathy for Palestinians helped shatter the Democratic Party and was a constant anchor dragging down her campaign against Donald Trump. Even now, although more Democratic politicians are catching up with public opinion by criticizing Israel and eschewing AIPAC funding, left-of-center political leaders remain polarized. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer reportedly sees support for Israel as so core to his personal and political mission that he pointedly refused to endorse—or, by all available evidence, even vote for—New York City’s Democratic Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani due to Mamdani’s criticism of Israel.

The internecine fights on the left are mirrored by internal wrangling on the right, but with one crucial difference. Whereas the common labeling of leftist anti-Zionists as antisemites is usually a spurious accusation made to deflect from legitimate criticism of Israeli human rights abuses and war crimes, there is, in fact, a long history of anti-Zionism and antisemitism being linked on the right. There’s also a long history of conservatives who criticize Israel for perfectly legitimate, non-bigoted reasons—but these days, it’s the antisemitic wing of conservatism that seems to be in the ascendant.

The Heritage Foundation, the once-storied conservative think tank that spearheaded Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda, is now an epicenter for the right’s internal battle over Israel. On October 27, Tucker Carlson, who has long-standing ties with Heritage, conducted a lengthy and respectful interview with Nick Fuentes, an overt antisemite and Holocaust denier who opposes America’s alliance with Israel on both anti-Jewish and nationalist grounds. Three days later, Heritage president Kevin Roberts released a video affirming that Carlson would “always be a close friend” of the think tank, that his critics were part of a “globalist class,” and that “conservatives should feel no obligation to reflexively support any foreign government.” That last statement may seem uncontroversial, but in the context of Roberts’s other comments, and his defense of Carlson’s flirtation with virulent antisemitism, it rang alarm bells.

This went really well last time.

The Return of Right-Wing Anti-Zionism—and Antisemitism | The Nation

For reasons both good and bad, Israel is dividing the Republican Party.

^{The Nation}

https://www.techspot.com/news/110139-new-data-shows-companies-rehiring-former-employees-ai.html

VPN company CyberGhost just sent Cloudflare a bogus DMCA takedown demand, claiming that our article about their last bogus copyright takedown demand, somehow violates their copyright.

I’m not sure I’d trust a VPN company that fucks up this badly.

There are a lot of sketchy VPN companies out there, and it’s sometimes tricky to tell which ones are legit, and which ones to be wary of. I would suggest that if your VPN company is running around sending totally bogus DMCA notices that’s a bad sign. But if your VPN company is sending bogus DMCA notices to take down stories about its bogus DMCA stories, well, then you really have found the worst of the worst.

Enter CyberGhost.

Almost exactly a year ago, we wrote about a bizarre copyright takedown involving CyberGhost. In that case, it had sent the takedown to Facebook because we had reposted the Daily Deal we had offered in 2016 for a CyberGhost subscription. As with all Techdirt posts, it had automatically reposted to our Facebook account.

For no clear reason, CyberGhost falsely claimed that Facebook post (but not our original post) violated its copyright (it does not). So yeah, this seemed like CyberGhost sending a copyright takedown of us running a promotion for their VPN from eight years earlier. How bizarre.

At the risk of sounding like a shill, Mullvad is the answer.

CyberGhost DMCAs Our Story About Their Bogus DMCA (Yes, Really)

VPN company CyberGhost just sent Cloudflare a bogus DMCA takedown demand, claiming that our article about their last bogus copyright takedown demand, somehow violates their copyright. I’m not sure …

^Techdirt

Worth noting ... the feds are coming for archival sites.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is trying to unmask the operator of Archive.is, also known as Archive.today, a website that saves snapshots of webpages and is commonly used to bypass news paywalls.

The FBI sent a subpoena to domain registrar Tucows, seeking “subscriber information on [the] customer behind archive.today” in connection with “a federal criminal investigation being conducted by the FBI.” The subpoena tells Tucows that “your company is required to furnish this information.”

The subpoena is supposed to be secret, but the Archive.today X account posted the document on October 30, the same day the subpoena was issued. The X post contained a link to the PDF and the word “canary.”

“If you refuse to obey this subpoena, the United States Attorney General may invoke the aid of a United States District Court to compel compliance. Your failure to obey the resulting court order may be punished as contempt,” the document said. It gave a deadline of November 29.

FBI orders domain registrar to reveal who runs mysterious Archive.is site

Tucows subpoenaed in criminal probe for info on “customer behind archive.today.”…

^{Jon Brodkin (Ars Technica)}