It's #Monsterdon time. Rolling!

Mute me if yer gunna.

I think far too many people are being critical of @defcon for doing events outside of the US. The reality is, DEF CON is impossible to access for far too many people outside of the US because of US visa restrictions. This has always been a problem, but it has become a much bigger one lately.

For starters, the US has one of the world's most expensive visas. It now costs $424 per person (since the addition of the new "Visa Integrity Fee"). Additionally, the US requires in-person interviews to issue a visa, and these take place at a US embassy or consulate. Unless you live in your country's capital, you'll have travel expenses on top of it.

Then, of course, there are the delays for interviews. These can take months or even years. It was starting to get better, but the federal government laid off a large number of people who process visas, immediately resulting in extended delays. If you want to speak at DEF CON, and you're a foreigner, it's highly questionable whether you'll get a visa in time.

Finally, there is "extreme vetting" which is taking even more time. Suppose you're selected for "additional visa processing." What triggers this? The criteria are a secret, but there is a strong correlation with things like being a known hacker traveling to DEF CON.

Finally, the US is denying visas for what they perceive as political speech (or expected political speech) that opposes the Party. This isn't unique in the world; other authoritarian countries like China also do this, which made it difficult for DEF CON to operate there.

DEF CON isn't unique in facing these challenges. The United States is closing the door to foreigners, limiting international collaboration, and limiting political speech. The only question is how to respond. Hosting DEF CON events in other locales, which guarantee research freedom and welcome international collaboration, is an entirely reasonable response.

How would you have done it?

#ObliqueStrategies

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#nsfw #nudes #erotic #girls #hotgirls #porn #wataa

Budapest will not agree to open the first round of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter #Szijjarto said on Aug. 30.

kyivindependent.com/hungary-co…

#Ukraine #Russia #EU #Hungary

Hungary continues to veto Ukraine's accession to EU, negotiations

As an EU member, Hungary has veto power over further progress.

^{Yuliia Taradiuk (The Kyiv Independent)}

Indonesian leader pledges to revoke lawmakers' perks after protests leave 6 dead
https://apnews.com/article/indonesia-protests-subianto-privileges-32d253883d107fcfe7f17752bc46b7d9?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into International News @international-news-AssociatedPress

Good Evening

#Moon #Photography

Giuliani Hospitalized Following Car Crash in New Hampshire
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/giuliani-injured-hospitalized-car-crash-new-hampshire-1235419511/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into All News @all-news-RollingStone

Giuliani Injured and Hospitalized Following Car Crash in New Hampshire

Rudy Giuliani was hospitalized following a car crash in New Hampshire on Saturday.

^{Althea Legaspi (Rolling Stone)}

Looking for some hidden gems in the Play Store? 📱 From decision-making tools to privacy protection, we've curated 5 lesser-known Android apps that deserve a spot on your device. Read the article to discover these unique apps that might just transform your smartphone experience.

#AndroidApps #PlayStore #AppDiscovery #TechNews #MobileApps

true-tech.net/5-best-android-a…

5 best Android apps you should try in September 2025

We see so-called best Android apps all over the place, however, we pick our best for September 2025 that you should really check out.

^{Aadil Raval (TrueTech Technology Magazine)}

Can't believe this just took me an afternoon and works so well, instead of becoming another multi-month/year side-project.

(Probably because I just copied together a bunch of stuff and didn't let my perfectionism get in the way.)

#couchcoop codeberg.org/drakulix/local-ma…

Via #RawStory @ 8:18pm ET on Aug 31, 2025

An independent journalist issued a dire warning on Sunday about President Trump's future plans for the #military

#MarcWortman, independent #journalist, joined #MSNBC's "#TheWeekendPrimetime" to discuss Trump's efforts to deploy #NationalGuard troops to cities other than #Washington. Wortman argued that deploying troops to other cities was a plan #Trump concocted long ago, but ran into too many roadblocks during his first admin

rawstory.com/trump-2673944498/

'It's in the offing': Analyst issues dire warning about Trump's plans for the military

An independent journalist issued a dire warning on Sunday about President Donald Trump's future plans for the military.

^{Robert Davis (Raw Story)}

Portret van Caspar van Baerle, Willem Jacobsz Delff, 1625

engraving, h 237mm × w 160mm
rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/R…
#rijksmuseum #musea #collection #art #mastodonart #mastoart #random

Watermelon-Shaped Atom Seen Breaking Apart in a Most Unusual Way
https://www.sciencealert.com/watermelon-shaped-atom-seen-breaking-apart-in-a-most-unusual-way?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Physics @physics-ScienceAlert

Watermelon-Shaped Atom Seen Breaking Apart in a Most Unusual Way : ScienceAlert

An international team of researchers has discovered a new configuration of nuclear particles that decays by kicking out individual protons.

^{Russell McLendon (ScienceAlert)}

The worldwide, undisputed consensus among practitioners in the field of political data believe - indisputably - that if polls are accurate they will predict both the result and margin of victory of the election

My work:

1) Proves it's wrong
2) Proves why
3) Fixes it
4) Offers methods to teach it properly

two weeks ago this assemblage was inert, now we have its CPU singing at 48 mhz, peripheral clocks wired, the peripheral matrix configured for our task, the NVIC and a control timer initialized, and a mainloop that operates in between interrupts based on RAM-cached values of the interrupt flags (copied there by the interrupt handler shortly before marking it as handled) infosec.exchange/@atax1a/11507…

mx alex tax1a - 2020 (5)

2025-08-22 03:02:36

Presenting the toothpick towers of Billionaire’s Row (no sir I don’t like it)

#newyork #photography

l’astratto del segno / differx. 2025

youtube.com/shorts/r5PjjdQPaq8

#abstract #abstrasemic #asemic #astratto #differx #lAstratto #scritturaAsemica #segno

l’astratto del segno / differx. 2025 youtube.com/shorts/r5PjjdQPaq8 slowforward.net/2025/09/01/las…

slowforward

2025-09-01 00:48:25

l’astratto del segno / differx. 2025

youtube.com/shorts/r5PjjdQPaq8

#abstract #abstrasemic #asemic #astratto #differx #lAstratto #scritturaAsemica #segno

- YouTube

Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.

^youtube.com

“Trump wants to axe an affordable housing grant that's a lifeline for many rural communities”

“Maybe they don’t realize how far-reaching these programs are,” said Colley, who voted for Trump in 2024.

apnews.com/article/trump-home-…

Japan Shares Open Lower as Investors Steer Clear of Tech Stocks
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-01/japan-shares-open-lower-as-investors-steer-clear-of-tech-stocks?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Korea @korea-bloomberg

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#nsfw #nudity #nude #female #girl #bigtits #breasts #titsnthat #titjob #tits #cumshot

Check the profile for more 18+ content

Funny #mastodon search interaction. I was looking for something about MIT (the US University). But there’s a lot of German speakers who use the word “mit” a lot. (It means “with”)

No problem, right? I can search for “language: English”. And that’s when I find all the bilingual posters who post German language in a post labeled English. A lot more than you’d expect.

[Please boost for reach]

Please, there is still a little time left for us to go to the store and get something for dinner. Can anyone help us out? We have 2 kids and 2 adults to feed, but we only have $9.

Thanks for any help you can give. Please boost whether you can help with cash or not. Every little bit helps!

[Please boost for reach]

@mutualaid
#MutualAid
#MutualAidRequest

China Banks Pressured by Rising Loan Losses, Low Margins
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-01/china-banks-pressured-by-rising-loan-losses-low-margins?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Posted into Bloomberg Asia @bloomberg-asia-bloomberg

Hard to describe how much I appreciate that Mastodon can’t succumb to (fascist) laws like Mississippi’s internet age limits.

That’s freedom of speech, of info, of the ability to learn. That’s important. One of the few things I’d call myself a zealot about.

Le gouvernement espagnol annonce déployer « toute sa protection diplomatique » pour la flottille de Gaza.

Pendant ce temps @jnbarrot continue de regarder ailleurs.

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moje koty, kiedy ja cokolwiek

#kotekBazylek #kotYoda
#fedicats #catsofmastodon
#everydayIsCaturday

GNOME Shell & Mutter Land Last Minute Additions Ahead Of GNOME 49

Ahead of the GNOME 49 release candidate being announced in the days ahead, today marked the "49.rc" tagging of the GNOME Shell and Mutter compositor components. Some last-minute user-facing changes have landed along with other improvements for polishing ahead of next month's GNOME 49 stable release...
phoronix.com/news/GNOME-Shell-…

Granpa Goes Golfing!

You KNOW Donald Trump is having health problems when he took to Truth Social Sunday to post:

"I've never felt better in my life"
- Trump (Aug. 31, 2025)

The 79 year old Trump has been looking frail and ill in the recent past.
#AureFreePress #News #press #headline #GOP #Politics #uspolitics #uspol #Trump #BreakingNews #Breaking #golf

Oswald Prucker - Blog: Tröts mit Papiertüchern, Rock’n’Roll und ein paar unerschütterlichen Wahrheiten oswald-prucker.de/2025/08/troe…

#Blog

Oh, well this is bad. I lost my Kobo e-reader and there is no way to de-activate that device short of deleting my entire Kobo account and re-registering with a new email. So if someone finds my device and starts using it, they will be able to buy 10,000 books.

Just sheer ineptitude.

I loved Kobo, the company, up until now. Apparently no one ever considered that a user might lose their device?

#ereaders #kobo #reading

reddit.com/r/kobo/comments/1ef…

Vibe coding as a coding veteran: from 8-bit assembly to English-as-code

Link: levelup.gitconnected.com/vibe-…
Discussion: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4…

Vibe Coding as a Coding Veteran

A 40-year coding veteran explores AI pair programming with Cursor, finding 2X productivity gains, new challenges, and a synergistic human-machine alliance.

^{Marco Benedetti (Level Up Coding)}