Here is a well-written summary of why it is important to keep things about you hidden to other entities.

No, you have something to hide

The text ist written is in Dutch. You can translate the website via Firefox to English.

“I’m sorry that you…”

… feel offended by my point of view.

That one was indeed disturbing.

Try velcro zip ties. They are reuseable. For example: https://www.amazon.com/velcro-zip-ties/s?k=velcro+zip+ties

Of course many comments in this threas are exaggerated; there won’t be played any ads into your brain.

But there are some implications for the usage of Neuralink that are worth thinking about it - especially when it comes to privacy:

Given that it “just” runs with firmware, so that the implant can function in a way most stable and reliably, and also given that there will be no subscription model involved into all of that, will the user (patient) be able to control the functionality of the implant (e.g. controlling the intensity of the eletric signal sent out from the implant to counteract the intensity of a tremor)?

And how will that happen? One thing I could think of is to control the implant with a smartphone app. How good will that smartphone app be? Will it be programmed sloppily like these apps we know from Internet-Of-Things-Apps and have a ton of bugs? Are those (medicinal!) apps secure in terms of privacy? What is with the product support? Will the implant be discontinued after a few years (and also the app)? What if your smartphone fails (no power or hardware failure, or after an update it doesn’t work)?

A friend of mine has an app to monitor her blood sugar. She is not qute satified with the app. Luckily the provider of those diabetes sensors provided a separate device, so that the app is just an addition for measuring when you are travelling, for example. But in their last iteration they tried to omit the separate device, probably in order to save costs. My friend had to explicitly ask for it.

With that in mind I’m not keen on having control on such medicinal devices with a smartphone only. If the smartphone fails, there would be no backup. Will such similar things be the case regarding Neuralink?

Thank you for clarifying.

Never been a Twitter - or “X” - user, but:

Isn’t it the whole point to show everyone your blue check mark that you have been approved or something like that? How else would one know that you are the real deal?

This will have a huge impact on free speech in Russia. Also, information we receive from Russia may not be genuine after this measurement will be implemented, as it will be politically in terms of Russia - as we know it from China right now. In order to spread the REAL things that are going on, people will need to risk their freedom.

I’m sure these implants will give much needed ease to patients who suffer frem tremors like parkinson and other neurological diseases. But the things I’m mostly concerned about are:

• Will health insurance pay for the implant in a one-time-payment? Will it be a subscription model? What happens when you can’t pay your subscription? Will it be shut off?
• Will the implant be operated through firmware (like a pacemaker) or software, which reqires frequent updates? If so, will there be - like computer software - “new features” implemented (“With version 2.0 you will be able to share your Neuralink experience with other Neuralink users. Your data may not be leaked, pinky promise.”
• What if a certain mentally unstable CEO throws a tantrum that will affect the performance of the Neuralink implant negatively? Will there be any legal protection from such thing?

Good point. I never thaught about it this way. Maybe these nematodes will not introduce diseases. But will they suppress recent fauna? Will these worms displace current worms or other species on a microbiological level? Or maybe these worms have a cure for recent diseases?

On first glance it seems that this worm was brought back to life with scientific intervention exclusively. But with the disappearence of permafrost these worms will thaw on their own and will resume living and procreating. What I want to say is, that many species of these ice-aged worms may be alive already without anyone noticing, trough permafrost has been thawed away. Who knows what impact these worms will have on our recent fauna and flora?

In addition to my comment I leave this article here:

https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/post/723755486547181568/autoenshittification

This article sums up the ongoing enshittification with cars and other devices, backed up with further sources.

It’s always a good advice to be on good terms with the surveillance officers. I do it too and sometimes they even look in the other direction when I did wrong ;-)

Things I do what give me a percieved sense of privacy/ security:

• use Firefox with Add-ons (Ublock origin, Idontcareaboutcookies, Istilldontcareaobutcookies, Consent Blocker)
• browser set up to block third party cookies and to delete any cookies after closing
• not allowing to store any credentials in the browser
• using different passwords for different services (not one password for all)
• using Two-Factor-Authentification on services which are connected with banking account
• not using freemail providers for email
• using a temporary email where possible if registration is required
• encrypted hard drive and encrypted backups
• do not use cloud storage (I rely on old school portable hard drives and thumb drives)
• using an additional firewall to stop certain not-quite-legally-obtained programs from phoning home (these programs can’t be replaced through FOSS at the moment, or are too ridiculously overpriced to buy them right now)
• restrict/ forbid operating system to collect anonymous data and to phone home (as if that helps…)
• don’t do online banking with an android 8 device

The password storage thing sometimes seems to be a hassle. I have stored my passwords in a physical moleskin, written with a pen, like an old person would do. When I have that book not availiable (when travellling), I have to guess my credentials.

At work I have the browser stored all the credentials. It’s so much faster and easier. But since it’s at my job I don’t have to worry about my own private stuff.

“Saturday” references to the planet “Saturn”.

Here is a video about the origin of the weekday’s names in different languages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gifimOF5a_U

I addition to that, here is a video which explains how the months got their names: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9iOt48bTw4&list=PL5x1QB-VRuDtHCWcuSx0DgJr2mnuNXkSB&index=4 This channel has very interesting videos about the ethymological origins of different things. It’s worth watching.

Edit: spelling

I’ll have to admit that you are right! However, the deadline for using gas or oil for the operation of heatings is Dec. 31st. 2044. From 2045 onward heating systems cannot be operated with gas or oil.

Years ago, Opera has been my main browser and I really liked it. Back then, it was the only browser (to my knowledge) that had tabs. It was a novelty back then. Over the time they added more features, like the conversion tool. Then they added more features I didn’t need or want, like the side bar, and it quickly became bloated. I switched to firefox, which offered a greater variety of add-ons. I still use firefox as my main browser. The only thing I miss is the conversion tool. There is nothing comparable like the one Opera has built in. I later learned that the original developers sold it to a chinese consortium. In hindsight, that explains the constant changes to the worse, which pushed me to another browser.

I’ll try to answer this, please consider that English is not my native language:

Yes the prices for energy have been decreased up to the point where it has been pre-war. But the energy providers don’t forward the now lower prices to the end-customer immerdiately, because customers often have contracts with a certain energy pricing which are still running (usually you can escape a contract after one year). Also, people pay an anticipated payment each month. At the end of each year this anticipated payment is matched with what you really have to pay. This can lead to a discount (you get money back) or, in most cases, you have to pay an additional ammount. This happened to a majority of people because the energy priced have increased over the last years. So people have to pay more money for the same amount of energy consumption.

With that in mind, it is also encouraged that people are supposed to stop using natural gas or oil for heating their homes and are supposed to use air-to-air heat pumps or long-distance heating (heat is tranferred through a pipe into your house). This comes with a full refurbishment of your heating system. Simplified: you can’t just throw out your old gas-heater and connect your pipes to a heat pump - you need to replace the heatings in your rooms among other things. This is very expensive. In the meantime the Gebäudeenergiegesetz or Heizungsgesetz (“Energy law for buildings” or “Heating law”) will be changed to this situation. Beginning from 2024 all heating systems shall not be using natural gas or oil. The law couldn’t be established before the parliament’s summer break, so this will be done after the summer break. Affected people can get a sponsorship from a governments bank (KfW-Bank) for fitting their homes - but the law has to be there first. That’s why people are hesitant at the moment. Also, people don’t like changes, especially those who are old. They often say that for the 10 to 15 years they still live, it is not worth changing.

In Scandinavia it has been proven that the usage of air-to-air heat pumps can even withstand severe winters. But they started the transition years ago.

In conclusion:

• People have contracts with their energy provider they can’t escape at the moment
• Law has to be fitted to the use of heat pumps or long-distance-heating
• with the law there are sponsorship programs but people wait for the law
• some people just don’t care because it doesn’t affect them in the long run
• Germany didn’t push the transition away from gas and oil and coal in the past. With the goal of being carbon emission free by 2045 now is the last chance to start the transition.

If you ask Berlin who is to blame, there seems to be just one answer: high energy prices sparked by Russia’s war against Ukraine. The AfD and far-left Die Linke are nostalgic for cheap Russian gas, while the opposing center-right CDU and the governing pro-business FDP blame the Greens for insisting on turning off the country’s last nuclear-power plants this spring.

Turning off nuclear power has been decided by both the CDU and the FDP in 2011, when the Fukusima nuclear power plant was hit with a tsunami. The remaining last nuclear power plants in Germany were supposed to be shut down in 2022. Because of the war in Ukraine it was decided that they were switched off a few months later than originally planned, to help to get through winter.

Edit: spelling

The car as a device to transport one from A to B has been developed to completion. Any car is capable of fulfilling that task. The next stange of developement is that the comfort features in cars are being replaced with a universal control unit: a touchscreen (-computer).

All physical buttons (air condition, radio, etc.) are being phased out and are accessible over the central touchscreen, hidden in menus. This way it is easier to get customers into subscribed services (e.g. for the ability to lock your car remotely or to use the heated seat feature you have to subsribe to this particular service in order to use it).

Also, when features are controlled over a software interface like those touchscreens instead of physical buttons, it it easier to give access to users - or restrict them from it:

IIRC at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Tesla remotely enabled their cars by allowing free supercharging as a helpful measure to help people to escape from Ukraine. Pretty nice of Tesla, isn’t it? Well yes, in this particular case, but this kind of remote software interference from the manufactor can also work in the other direction. They can easily restrict the functionality of your car. Functions your car still would have if they weren’t controlled remotely.

Cars become a Software-As-A-Service product.

Edit: spelling