shuffering & shmiling

Reviews of podcasts, ewetoobers, magazines and so on from a vaguely leftist vantage point.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Yellow Vests of the Maritime Alps

Sunday, March 24th, 2019

Translation of the original from Facebook posted by Priscilla Ludosky

Mrs. Geneviève Legay was brutally thrown to the ground by police forces on Saturday, March 23rd, 2019, at Garibaldi Place's southern entrance.

She suffers from several fractures of the skull, broken tympanic bone (inner ear), and subdural haematomas. She was in a coma for several hours. Her condition was so worrying that her doctors waited all day to make a prognosis. Today, her loved ones await a report on the extent of the permanent injuries that Geneviève will endure for the days, months, and years to come.

We, Yellow Vests from the Maritime Alps, accuse the politicians, local and national, the leaders of the top-down hierarchies: prefectures, police, and the rest – we accuse them all of fomenting violence, tensions, and causing countless tragedies that now affect the population as a whole.

Geneviève, to whom we express our support, gratitude, and hope for a full recovery, is unfortunately one more victim in this long procession of debauched, mutilated, disfigured, physically and emotionally traumatized people. This horror has marched on, out of the media spotlight, since November 17th.

This Saturday, the police were guilty of many crimes:

• It is illegal to use grenades and flashballs as offensive weapons. At no time has anyone seen a protester try and attack a law enforcement official.

• Flashballs were again fired at head-height. An ear cut in half this Saturday in Nice proves it.

• The police dispersed protesters in the St. Philippe district, and then pursued them through the small streets outside the “forbidden” area. They used flashballs, truncheons, etc. to injure several people without legal necessity – several were hospitalized.

• Many peaceful protesters were arbitrarily arrested.

Recall that for nineteen weeks, no damage has been reported in Nice due to the Yellow Vests. Not even a single broken glass from some café’s terrace.

This shows how absurd the police operation on Saturday, March 23rd was. It was disproportionate, exaggerated, and extreme. The goals were clear: increase social tensions, instill fear, and use the Yellow Vests as instrumental means for media, political, and electoral ends.

Like Geneviève, we have always demonstrated peacefully. To brave official decree under these conditions in no way justifies violent use of force. Proportional response to “offenders” is an absolute rule in the streets, military, courts, and elsewhere.

Faced with all this, the Yellow Vests find the various powers supposed to govern the republican and democratic order have failed in their mission and now irrationally exercise their mandate.

The Yellow Vests are concerned about the disappearance of the social contract that guarantees the conditions of democratic life in our country. Obscurantism has taken precedence over enlightened thinking that must promote the common good.

The Yellow Vests find our demands totally refused, despite what the government would have us believe.

The only response we've received for months is the government's brutal violence.

The only weapons we carry are opinions contrary to the government’s.

Unfortunately, Geneviève joined the all too many victims of excessive power. We wish her all the best as she recovers. We wish the same for all victims brutalized by police forces at the behest of a government whose legitimacy we challenge.

It is our right to challenge this government – unless we no longer live in a democracy. Day after day, week after week, the government cynically claims democratic power to justify their crimes.

– Yellow Vests from the Maritime Alps

Even the largest of changes start from the smallest of actions. No one goes from zero to having a fulfilling social life in an instant. A fulfilling social life is composed of smaller pieces that create the whole. It's as simple as saying hello to someone you haven't seen in a while as you pass by. This could be once a day, or even less frequently. You could have one conversation per week with someone you don't usually talk to that much. Over the course of a year, that compounds to 52 meaningful conversations. If that's 52 different people, then that's a lot of people to know at a casual level. If fewer, then you probably made some deeper connections that will last a long time.

The same goes for the meditation practice. You might read of monks meditating all day and all night, or meditation retreats where people sit for hours upon hours. Though there are benefits to intensive meditation courses, small amounts of meditation every day compound to developing samatha (a calm mind) and vipassanā (insight).

At the minimum, 5 minutes per day is enough. I usually split my time between walking and sitting meditation, so that is a total of 10 minutes. It's not that hard to find 10 minutes per day (if it is, you might need to rethink your schedule), but the results of a consistent meditation practice are noticeable. Although I started with 10 minutes per day, I now average around 20 minutes per day. Throughout the rest of the day, I feel mental clarity as I recall the experience of the morning meditation.

If you think about it, 10 minutes per day equates to about 60 hours per year. That's more than 2 straight days of meditation! And that's on the low end.

I used to carefully plan in order to select the best strategy given available information.

My new practice is more meditative, where I find myself setting intentions instead of goals and seeking progress instead of benchmarks. This creates more space for flexibility and adaptive leadership.

Instead of solving for “what to do” with a single answer, suddenly I am capable of holding space for multiple options. Such an array of possibility arrives with less attachment to outcome and more awareness of truth. The opportunity it generates is full of creative and generative energy.

Where are you solving for the answer when you might be capable of moving forward with flexibility?

Welcome to this week's edition of the Monday Kickoff, a collection of what I've found interesting, informative, and insightful on the web over the last seven days.

Today's a special day for me: this evening, I officially become a citizen of New Zealand. It's been a while in coming, but the wait has been worth it.

Let's get this Monday started with these links:

History

The people’s prince, wherein Catherine Zuckert argues that Niccolo Machiavelli's reputation as a ruthless schemer might be the wrong impression of the man.

Pottery reveals America's first social media networks, wherein we dip into the What's new is old again files and learn that yet another ancient culture had its own social network and social media, one that was physical and not digital.

Did ancient cave artists share a global language?, wherein we're exposed to the possibility that early cave painters may have shared a common (or at least similar) symbolic language.

Productivity

Creating some slack, wherein we learn that households (and individuals) can find the time and energy to do what they wnat, but that it's not easy and requires discipline to create and maintain the necessary slack.

Connecting Your Work Tasks to Meaning, wherein Leo Babauta explains how to make what you do more joyful by suffusing it with meaning and relevance.

Should You Target the Minimum?, wherein we learn three different ways to get things done and discover their strengths and weaknesses.

Crime

The Expat English Teachers' Murderous Triangle, wherein we learn how a Canadian English teacher in Taiwan got involved in the drug trade in Taipei, and the price he paid for that.

Isidore Zimmerman: The Man the System Couldn't Break, wherein we hear the story of a man sentenced to life imprisonment for a crime he didn't commit, and how his belief in his own innocence prevailed.

TAKEN: How police departments make millions by seizing property, wherein we learn how police in South Carolina are using asset forfeiture laws to summarily seize cash and property from people not accused of, nor guilty of, crimes. People who are, predominantly, black.

And that's it for this Monday. Come back in seven days for another set of links to start off your week.

— Scott Nesbitt

The Monday Kickoff is licensed under CC0 Public Domain.

A cold 'n golden lager, when a busy week is done.

A glug of wine and recline, to serve a loved one.

A day of no drinking to make me feel clean.

A homely sharp dose of gin, vodka, rum then whiskey.

A second day of no drinking to make me feel cleaner.

Another cold 'n golden lager.

A G, a T, the sun, some ice and lime.

Toast.

Five Shots of Gin

#lechodesliens est une proposition d'articles à lire, en français et en anglais. Dans cette liste, vous trouverez des informations plus ou moins organisées par thèmes. Dans cette édition, sont abordés l'écologie, la publicité, GNU/Linux, l'économie, le numérique et même un peu de porn (sfw)... Bonnes lectures.

En français

Web / Internet

• Censure : le numérique, “un moyen de rendre accessibles les livres interdits”
• Lettre ouverte aux députés afin de défendre le droit à l’anonymat
• Dossier Les caméras publicitaires, pur fantasme ?
• Les musées numériques: un succès qui dérange
• «L’amour sous algorithme» dévoile le côté obscur de Tinder
• Votre internet est en danger. Voici pourquoi vous devriez vous intéresser à la Réforme européenne du droit d’auteur

Écologie / Climat

• RÉTRO 2018 : 10 chiffres pour comprendre l'évolution dramatique du réchauffement climatique
• Réchauffement climatique : les engagements internationaux ne suffiront pas
• Le réchauffement climatique pourrait condamner les deux tiers de la Grande barrière de corail
• Le thiaclopride est un pesticide dangereux pour les abeilles et les humains, interdisez-le !
• Et si l’océan devenait notre nouvelle source d’énergie renouvelable ?
• Allergiques, le réchauffement climatique va vous pourrir la vie
• Au Havre, une adolescente achète un billet SNCF plus cher qu’elle n’aurait dû : elle doit payer une amende !

Divers, Société

• 350 universitaires se déclarent « complices » des gilets jaunes
• Pourquoi les prédictions sont souvent fausses (et quelles leçons en tirer)
• Le futur n’a que faire de votre opinion
• “Berlin, 1933” de Daniel Schneidermann, Prix du livre du journalisme 2019 (Interview de Daniel Schneidermann par Thinkerview – Youtube)
• Pourquoi maintenant ?

En Anglais

Linux

• Linux Exploit Suggester 2 (github)
• 40 Linux Server Hardening Security Tips 2019 edition

Techno

• Data from HSE website users ‘leaked to commercial actors’
• Is ad blocking past 2 billion worldwide?
• Facebook stored hundreds of millions of user passwords in plain text
• Building a Voice-Controlled Front End to IoT Devices

Society

• The U.S. May Soon Have a De Facto National DNA Database
• The European Copyright Directive: What Is It, and Why Has It Drawn More Controversy Than Any Other Directive In EU History?
• 5G is not Green!
• The Definitive Guide to the Digital Economy Act and the UK Porn Ban

original

Комментарии

# Это первый комментарий
number = 1    # Второй
string = '#А это уже строка!'

Пайтон как калькулятор

>>> 2 + 2
4
>>> 3 / 5 # Авто-приведение до float
0.6
>>> 11 // 2 # Округление до большего
5
>>> -11 // 3 #По модулю!
-4
>>> width = 20 # Ширина
>>> height = 5 * 9 # Высота
>>> width*height # Поддержка перемножения переменных
900

Строки в Пайтоне

>>> 'змеиное яйцо'  # еденичные скобки
'змеиное яйцо'

# используйте \' что бы в строке отобразить еденичные кавычки...
>>> 'doesn\'t'  
"doesn't"

>>> "doesn't"  # или используйте вместо этого двойные
"doesn't"

>>> print('C:\some[\n]ame')  
C:\some
ame
>>> print(r'C:\some\name')  # Сырая строка
C:\some\name
>>> print("""\
Usage: thingy [OPTIONS]
     -h                        Display this usage message
     -H hostname               Hostname to connect to
""")

>>> 3 * 'az' + ' shkolnik'
'azazaz shkolnik'

# Способ отображения длинной строки
>>> text = ('hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh'
...         'hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh')
>>> text
'hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh'

# Конкатенация строк и/или переменных
prefix = 'Спа'
>>> prefix + 'сите'
'Спасите'

# Обращения к индексам слова
>>> word = 'Стипендия'
>>> word[0]  # символ в позиции 0
'С'
>>> word[8]  # символ в позиции 4
'я'
>>> word[-1]  # последний символ
'я'
>>> word[-2]  # предпоследний символ
'и'
>>> word[-8]
'С'

# Срезы строк:
# Символы с позиции 0 (включительно) 
# по 2 (невключительно)
>>> word[0:2]  
'Ст'
# Стоит отметить, что длина среза это модуль разницы
# a и b в выражении [a:b]
>>> word[2:6]
'ипен'
>>> word[:2] + word[2:]
'Стипа'
>>> word[:4] + word[4:]
'Стипа'
>>> word[:2]
'Ст'
>>> word[4:]   # characters from position 4 (included) to the end
'а'
>>> word[-2:]  # characters from the second-last (included) to the end
'па'
>>> word[4:42]
'а'
>>> word[42:]
' '

# Так заменять символ нельзя
>>> word[2] = 'ё'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: 'str' object does not support item assignment

# Вот так правильно
>>> word[:4] + 'ендия'
'Стипендия'

# Узнаём длинну строки
>>> s = 'хочукушатьдайтееддыыыыы'
>>> len(s)
23

Почему пайтон?

Он везде. Какой проект не возьми, везде используется этот скриптовый язык общего назначения. Следует отметить, что я долгое время недолюбливал пайтон, да и сейчас я отношусь к нему с некой опаской, однако он экономит очень много времени разработки, и ещё его очень просто изучить. Так почему же недолюбливал? Смотрите начало. Стремление везде писать на одном языке я считаю некоторой ошибкой (посмотреть опять таки со стороны юниксовости), так как невозможно оптимизировать язык под любую нужду без потери качества. Я почитал пару статей от гугла и размышления на хабре, где описывается, что в вебе всё упирается далеко не в производительность машин, а в другие, независящие от ЯП вещи. Так же на нем можно писать различного рода скриптики для unix, что считаю очень даже полезным. Не говорю о том, что вроде как и на рынке труда востребован. Однако использовать его для десктопа ни в коем случае не надо! В первом посте будет, соответственно туториалу, небольшие заметки.

Texas: The absence of good things.

Hell.

Der Bussard fliegt auf Obwohl ich freundlich grüße. Ein Mensch! Recht hat er.

Pinky promise? Pinky promise.

An open letter to the boy i loved. Love. still love & will always love. We can do this all you gotta do is trust?

To my love, As our first conversation popped out of nowhere in the middle of the night. Totally unexpected but we continued talking. Every day every night. The whole night. Then i found myself confessing to you. Us confessing each other. I knew there were hardships to come in this relationship but was i ever gonna give up on you? Never. I love you. after then I met you, I never knew that I'd fall in love with you this hard. But right there and then, when your eyes found mine, my heart made movements I couldn't explain and suddenly didn't know what to do. You being the outgoing self you are hit me up with rather an awkward yet rather hysterical “ so what’s up” as i laughed and giggled to that random whats up of yours i wondered. Oh my gosh. This is the guy of my dreams. The guy i who i genuinely liked for 2 years. Is he really mine? Is he even real? Should I say “Hi”? Or should I just nod and give you a smile? That was me the first day I met you. Till date we never could really go on a proper date, but the more we talked I knew you that were something truly special. You were charming, kind and charismatic, and I couldn't help but be drawn to you. But, never I'm a million years would I have guessed that now, within this short period of time, you would mean so much to me. Of Course i liked you before. But love? I never expected you to be mine. The funny thing is, I wasn't looking for you, I just found you. Out of weird circumstances and total boredom in the middle of the night, we found each other. We got to know each other as some time passed. Then, we blossomed into something beautiful, something that I never saw coming. How do i say this. I'm extremely glad that you stumbled into my weird messed up life and that you became such a big part of it. There are so many wonderful things to thank you for that I don't even know where to begin. Words will never do its justice, but i can try, right? * forreAals i'll overthrow your competitive side* First of all, thank you for making me who i am right now. Before i was emotionally weak i couldn't handle much. But being with you i got to experience. Love. trust. Patient. Hurt. acceptance. Being independent. Hard Work. And so much more. Mainly you made me a strong person. A person who is understanding. Patient. Caring and mostly trust and love you. Being with you is without doubt one of the hardest things i have ever done and still am doing in my life. But i never second guessed it. As i think about it know it really shows how much i need you in my life that i am giving my all in. i know we changed a lot due to your work and you have so much to think about rather than our relationship. And it sucks it hurts alot to hear you say things like how hard it is for you. And asking me to drop the conversation as well but I always appreciate your honesty and opinion even if it's sometimes hard to hear. I really love you and we can go through this. Secondly, thank you for knowing how to handle me or at least pretending like you know how to, and doing an excellent job of it. I know I'm not always the easiest person to deal with, but you settle me down and make me smile in a way that no one else can. I tend to get jealous and sad over little stuff and pout at you like i'm diagnosed with severe pout disease .HAHAHAH. That i tend to do all the time. But you always reassured me. Thirdly, thank you for accepting me for who i am. Despite the busy schedule. Despite the meetings. You chose to take me out just on my stupid request only reason was you couldn't see me upset or sad. That one bridge ride. Our stupid pinky promises. Our first fight on “ can i jump “ AHAHAH. Okay our first fight was not even a fight just me being stubborn and wanting to jump off knowing you can't swim and you being the competitive stubborn self of yours who JUST WOULDN'T GIVE IN UGH. like the night you took me out in public. I Hope you won't be afraid to show me off to your friends, family, and even strangers. Cause I'm not. Fourthly, thank you for always supporting me – Honestly, nothing is more reassuring than knowing that you're right there to root for me in everything that I do. ( except jumping into the ocean cause you can't swim. I had to state it lmao ) but even my future plans and career. You always supported me. Also, thank you for all the compliments even tho i feel like absolute shit at days you always reassure me that I'm pretty just the way I am with my flaws ( you might be lying sometimes * insert intimidating tension face*). Also thank you for giving me the privilege to spam you – er i mean giving kufr aishath the privilege to spam you. Cause you and i both know how Gooood i am compared to your kufr haraam vaniaala side. Sheesh. * this is not roast. Spam more you useless* i liked how um november went. AHAHAHAH. And def I feel very honoured to receive snaps from you. Can we pls remember that smiley :’). Oh lord and the outta the blue tests you make me take… HAHAHA. God. Our relationship is pretty much kinda founded on us being weird yet haraam with zero shame and I have zero complaints cause you and i both know that i like to see you have a poker face :p. So for that. Thank you for being silly – yes, we are weirdos. No regrets. Thank you for being serious – despite our silliness, you know exactly when to put on the serious, caring, boyfriend roles. Whenever i get upset. And you getting annoyed at the dudes who catcall me. Even tho i seem moody I appreciate that you care. Ah, thank you for making me feel so happy. there are days that I just sit and wonder how I got so lucky. Sometimes I feel that I don't deserve someone as wonderful as you. But thank you for telling me that we deserve each other pretty equally. Thank you for opening up to me. Letting me know about the bad and unproductive days you have and I'll do my best to listen, help, and talk you through whatever it is that you're thinking about, and I know you'd do the same in return. You've allowed me into your heart and mind (I hope so). You opened up to me about some things of the ast and told me how unsure you were of commitment due to them factors. Still i accepted and chose you. And i will forever be grateful that i did. forever. Most importantly, thank you for being exactly who you are – every part of who you are amazes me. I feel absolutely blessed to be a part of your life. I'm not the first person you loved. You're probably the first person I looked at with a mouthful of forevers, pinky promises and i love you’s. We both known loss like no other. Our love came unannounced in the middle of the night. when we'd given up on asking love to come. I think that has to be part of its miracle. This is how we heal. How we heal from everything we have been through. Basically i love you. No matter these days. And more busy days ought to come. No matter how vulnerable i feel right now writing all my feelings down. All i have to say is. I trust the boy. The boy who told me he misses me. He loves me. He is real and he is here to stay. The boy who gave us hope. The boy who said we will figure something out cause in the end me and you are in the together. I can't lose you and i trust you when you said you can't lose me. Our relationship is based on trust now. Either you break it or we work it. All i know is i could wait days and months for you if this is genuine. Cause for me you are worth so much more than you think. I know i'm weak now but i will make myself strong each day. You say that I'm like your hope. Then i will be your hope. The insecurities in commitments and trust. I will write novels to those scars of you. I am sure that i can heal you out of them cause im here to stay. I used to think there would never come a person in my life that would make me feel to have that “ finally the perfect one” and i guess all this time i have been I have been trying to describe the way it feels to have that finally. Hello my love, i have so much things to learn and so many things i'm unsure of but one thing i'm sure of it is. This is my finally and you are going to be my final vaniaalalalala to this little messed up life of mine. Also can we talk about how sexy you look with the * i'm trying to have a poker face* ?

I have addictive personality disorder. I guess I always knew this. I've been smoking cigarettes since I was 11, am a recovering alcoholic, and used to be adidcted to amphetamines as a teenager. But I just looked up an article (the first DuckDuckGo search result), and the bullet point describe me perfectly (sadly). They go:

• Low self-esteem

• A tendency to impulsive behavior

• An antisocial personality

• Difficulty delaying gratification

• A disposition toward sensation seeking

• Someone who values nonconformity to an extreme

• Someone with a weak commitment to the goals for achievement that are generally accepted by “normal” society

• Someone who is tolerant of deviant behavior

• Someone who is socially alienated

• Having an increased sense of stress

Yes to all of the above, in my case. It is interesting to see all of these in particular points laid out before me in this article because I have been struggling a great deal with these exact symptoms for something like 5 years. Starting when I (re)joined Twitter. (I took a 9 months hiatus and used Facebook instead during that time).

So this article goes on to say that you can replace “bad” addiction with “healthy” addictions (that cease to make them addictions but whether, just good habits), but I am not terribly sure I want to replace anything with anything. I don't support that. I want to quit all impulsive behaviors, really. But first I have to quit Twitter. The least I could do.

More on this later.

idk what the blog post title indicates other than a word that describes my mood right now. just UN-interested in the world.

I just got slowed down to 2G speeds which makes my life significantly more boring and also a pain in the ass for me to do anything on the Internet , really, so I will just sit here and watch the paint dry, I guess.

Life sucks