There is actually a rational basis for it. They have found that govt and establishment has lied to them about so many things, that when the govt says the earth is a globe, they assume that is a lie like everything else. (And the moon mission was lie too, and there is no base in Antartica - another lie.) I can respect that.

The problem is, they are too innumerate to do basic measurements to find out for themselves what kind of geometry they are moving around on. (Only 100 miles travel needed to pretty much rule out an overall flat geometry.)

The Bible does not say the earth is flat. Ask him for chapter and verse. "The Lord sits above the circle of the earth." That can mean globe or circle. "Firmament" is what we call "atmosphere". It separates the waters above (clouds) from the waters below (seas). "And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so."

The fact that the "firmament" (or "expanse") is also described as dome shaped is only consistent with a spherical earth. Otherwise, the clouds would be lower near the edge of the disk. Flat earthers deny that there is actually a base in Antartica or any Antartic at all - a govt fiction. The sky meets the earth at the ice wall in their view. There are tours around the edge of Antartica for about $10K - but not likely to convince them. Visits to the base are not generally granted to flat earthers - too much of a liability. Balloon enthusiasts report that you can see the curve from 30000ft (oxygen and extreme cold protection required), which you can't from the narrow view of an airplane window. That is about $900. They would probably interpret what they see as a disk.

The main proofs are metrical - shortest air routes become more and more circular the farther south you go. (Common polar routes look fairly straight on their artic centered map.) The problem is, they can't understand that kind of geometry. The key question is: if you write a sci-fi novel where the heroes are transported to a spherical world, what measurements do they make that makes them realize this astounding fact? But flat-earthers are too innumerate to answer this.

Is this the murderous younger brother Pygmalion when Elissa/Dido left Tyre to found Carthage in the 9th century BC? Or a different one?

My Mom and Dad did that for me.

My understanding from 19th century novels was that Britain shipped prisoners off to Australia to get rid of them (or give them a second chance, depending on how you look at it) - so the early colonists were not exactly voluntary.

I used to switch to incandescent desk lamps in the winter (and back to LED in the summer) to help keep my hands warm on the keyboard. Then Congress unconstitutionally outlawed manufacture of incandescent bulbs and washing machines around 2010. (Only "High Efficiency" washers are allowed, which makes sense in water scarce places like SoCal or AZ, but for people by rivers just means your clothes don't get clean. Yes, I've developed workarounds.)

For a while, a German company offered "indoor electric space heaters" that screw into a light socket and emit visible light as a by product. I loved these, but either not enough customers got the joke, or govt types didn't think it was funny. I haven't seen any replacements. I've tried laying a scarf over my hands, but although I can touch type, my fingers would get misaligned reaching for function keys, PgUp, arrow keys, mouse, etc. (Not a problem with vi/vim. Which is why vim is still my editor of choice.)

God clothes Adam and Eve in glory - despite lack of physical clothes. Satan strips and exposes "nakedness" - despite presence of physical clothes. Seems demonic.

"And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." Sounds like AI to me.

Raspberry Pi is a line of cheap ($25 or less) single board ARM computer very popular with hobbyists. There is a $5 model with 32-bit ARM and 256M ram. But I have the PI3 and PI4 64-bit models ranging from 1G to 8G ram. Three in production, one as a UPS monitor and Wifi router (connecting to clearnet through a mesh network), one as a Bitcoin miner, one with 8G ram as an ARM build machine and potential desktop (attach to back of monitor).

One of these days, I'll hook up a $5 Pi with a moisture sensor and a speaker so that house plants say "I'm Thirsty!" out loud. It's all about giving a voice to the voiceless.

You rely on internet connection for BTC. Very few people actually do p2p internet connections anymore, and rely on some kind of ISP. (I advocate for more p2p connections.) You rely on power generation.

E.g. if the "value" field has something like: "value": "Bitmessage address: BM-2cVjyhb9jVFHpkkNhcH1Xbmm56Rh9vWS9s", then the name is owned by a squatter, and should be ignored. (Hey, they are paying the miners to maintain their squatted names.)

While it is inefficient in different ways, I run a full node, and use namecoin-cli name_scan 'd/start' (where start picks up last scan left off) to get the json for all names and convert to a BIND format DNS zone for BIT. Which reminds me, I need to update to handle new fields showing up as well as new garbage entries (yes America, blockchains have spam too).

For clearnet IPv6, that could be an issue. But just as with IPv4 - use a VPN if you want to obscure your IP. The Linux IP6 stack will listen on a stable IP, but make outgoing connections on a random one that changes periodically. So at least that obscures which machine on the LAN is making to connection.

She looks like a war pig. I'm not talking about her weight (pleasingly plump), but about the dark expression on her face that says she will stop at literally nothing to increase her power and wealth.

nostr:nevent1qyg8wumn8ghj7mn09eehgu3wvdez7qgewaehxw309aex2mrp0yh8xmn0wf6zuum0vd5kzmp0qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hj7qgawaehxw309ahx7um5wghxy6t5vdhkjmn9wgh8xmmrd9skctcpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wd68ytnzvuhsz9thwden5te0dehhxarj9ehhsarj9ejx2a30qy08wumn8ghj7mn0wd68yttsw43zuam9d3kx7unyv4ezumn9wshszyrhwden5te0dehhxarj9ekk7mf0qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq3wamnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwdehhxarj9e3xzmny9uqzphy274l7eve9278tpk253mt3qvql9s3feyqsf2xq4f6d3cxp2qzqs0lznd

"Hack" (ascii terminal game from BSD days) randomly distributes gold through the levels. Players and certain monsters take the gold when they find it (Leprechauns steal it right from a players pockets). When you kill a monster carrying gold, you can then take it. No new gold is generated.

It's only illegal for copyrighted material without written permission. E.g. Linux distros like Fedora distribute installers via torrent perfectly legally - because it is covered by FOSS licensing (written permission). Any song or video with a Creative Commons (or similar) license is perfectly legal.

You can make a very strong ethical case for distributing leaked documents exposing govt corruption (Julian Assange), but it is still technically illegal.

Clearnet IPv6 is a whole lot simpler than IP4 IMO. Right off the bat, there is no NAT nonsense. The only annoyance I've had is that too many devices (like network enabled printers) only support /64 subnets.

The IPv6 mesh is even simpler. The only thing you might configure are some remote peers (LAN peers are automatic).

What does "compromised" mean? Does it mean someone else knows it? (Duh, lots and lots of people do.) Does it mean someone can forge SMS from you? (They can anyway.) Forge calls from you? (Dunno - not surprised if they can anyway, I don't use telco) Forge emails from you? On a custodial email server? On self custody email? (that would be the worst)

In any case ICANN and the TLS cabal can forge your email anytime they want. (Constrained only by not wanting to give the game away. How many people are aware of this?)

Namecoin domains are another answer - more setup for normie users.

I also use raw IPv6 on Cjdns and Yggdrasil (permanent and authenticated) - only a bit longer than telephone numbers and easily stored in contacts in e.g. SIP client or p2p SMTP. No need for DNS or TLS at all.

Opennic.org provides non-gov TLDs, with fallback to ICANN. Easy for end users to switch to an opennic NS.

What problem do you have with it? What ISP or VPN?

Big Tech will never fully support IPv6 - IPv4 forces consumers to use centralized services.

I recommend IPv6 mesh VPNs like Cjdns, Yggdrasil, Pinecone. Every device gets a permanent cryptographically authenticated IPv6 that is also mobile. A SIP client can use the raw IP in the contact list - no need for telco, DNS, or TLS.

Where IPv6 is supported, the mobile IPv6 protocol (easily self hosted) lets an IPv6 on your net be anywhere that support clearnet (normie) IPv6.