*banned 4 MarkDown love* @design_RG@qoto.org

A good Opinion piece at the NY Times. 👍

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/07/opinion/coronavirus-trump.html

A good article on The Guardian, talking about how older people prefer boring but safe when things look uncertain.

Last paragraph says some of Trump's supporters could take the same option if things get worse economically, they have little savings to weather a slow down or partial shutdown of the economy.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/07/biden-older-voters-safety-super-tuesday-coronavirus

Ben Jenning's Cartoon today at The Guardian... 😜

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2020/mar/08/ben-jennings-on-britains-coronavirus-composure-cartoon

'It isn't Mad Max': women charged after fight over toilet paper in Sydney

Two women, aged 23 and 60, will face court over a brawl at a western Sydney supermarket

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/mar/07/it-isnt-mad-max-police-warning-after-shoppers-brawl-over-toilet-paper-in-sydney

Pretty sad to see people posting "jokes" about the likely candidate for the Democratic party in the US election.

And who is being served by those "jokes" and "memes"?

Yes, you bet, the opposition, lead by a despicable man, unqualified and unstable, widely perceived as a narcissist and worse by mental health professionals.

The "jokes" end up on some of the hash tags included in their posts, in company of assorted Twitter bot reposts here, all working for the same opposition team.

US pol is disgusting.

Don't be Played by these people.

A company video with more info, images from their pilot plant in Australia.

Watch “Licella” on #Vimeo https://vimeo.com/210531589

From : https://www.intelligentliving.co/australian-scientists-recycle-all-types-of-plastic/

* Australian Scientists Might Have Found a Way to Turn the World’s Plastic into Oil *

"A pair of Australian scientists claims to have come up with a circular solution to the world’s plastic waste problem: by developing a technology that effectively melts polymers down into reusable oil. For the past 12 years, Len Humphreys and Sydney University professor Thomas Maschmeyer have been working on the creation of the Catalytic Hydrothermal Reactor (Cat-HTR), which uses a chemical process to recycle plastic by turning it back into the oil from which it originally came. It’s thought that such technology could be used to make all plastics recyclable."

https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/gyzavw/australian-scientists-found-a-way-to-recycle-worlds-plastic-into-oil

So Right.

Still Winter, fresh little snow powder overnight.

A Nice read at the NY Times.

"Cambridge Mask Company, a British company that uses what it calls “particulate filtering layers and military-grade carbon,” has seen demand for its $30 masks spike 20 to 30 times normal levels, said Christopher Dobbing, its founder.

The rich are sparing no expense when it comes to minimizing their experience with the coronavirus."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/style/the-rich-are-preparing-for-coronavirus-differently.html

A public service announcement, to clarify once again that "Public" posts, are, as the name implies, "Public".

As in, people can see them. Anyone, from anywhere. Dooh, if you don't like that idea, Mastodon has a number of Privacy settings for posts that might offer more control if desired.

Noelle has an excellent Guide to Mastodon, and the image on this post is a screencap of the part of it which clarifies this.

RSS feeds are created by default for everyone's Public and Unlisted posts. The noise some people were making about the Misskey feature, now present here at Qoto.org, which allows easily subscribing to anyone's public and unlisted posts is just the same as using an RSS feed reader to subscribe to that user's RSS feed.

Disinformation, paranoia and rancour have caused some to de-federate with Qoto.

Maybe it's for the best, if they are that obtuse.

Noelle's Guide is at : https://github.com/joyeusenoelle/GuideToMastodon/#so-if-i-lock-my-account-only-approved-people-can-see-my-posts

A really interesting story on The Guardian; how a couple of homeless people in London, UK, managed to build an underground bunker and live on it for almost two years undetected. Right inside Hampstead Heath park, adjoining a very expensive neighbourhood.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/mar/05/invisible-city-how-homeless-man-built-life-underground-bunker-hampstead-heath

"An Oregon Mill Town Learns to Love Facebook and Apple"

"PRINEVILLE, ORE. — A decade ago, when five shuttered sawmills and 20 percent unemployment defined Crook County, Ore., nobody envisioned that the path to recovery would be tied to Facebook and Apple.

But on the rimrock summit overlooking this city, the county seat and home to 10,000 residents, Facebook is sinking the footings for the first of two 450,000-square-foot data centers that together will cost $1 billion when completed in 2021. "

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/06/business/apple-facebook-data-center.html

Long read investigative article, excellent, published at Wired UK.

The scum operating companies renting out whole buildings as "shared accommodation" is atrocious to people living in many world cities with tourist demand.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/airbnb-scam-london

It is so rare to have someone writing up the truth -- housing prices raising are not good for anyone (other than speculators and commission earning realtors).

British situation is one of the worst in this aspect, but in many countries property markets are inflated dangerously. Governments are to blame for keeping interest rates artificially low for too long (it's been 10 years now from our Quasi-Depression of 2008. Credit is too easy, assets are inflated in various markets (real estate, shares, bonds, etc).

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/21/housing-property-market-young-rising-prices

"If this election turns out to be just between a self-proclaimed socialist and an undiagnosed sociopath, we will be in a terrible, terrible place as a country. How do we prevent that?

That’s all I am thinking about right now. My short answer is that the Democrats have to do something extraordinary — forge a national unity ticket the likes of which they have never forged before. And that’s true even if Democrats nominate someone other than Bernie Sanders."

EXCELLENT article on NY Times by Thomas Friedman. I would love to see what he is suggesting.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/25/opinion/democratic-primary-candidates.html

This is probably the BEST written and explained article about real world WiFi usage, how it works, frequencies, attenuation by obstacles, etc I have ever seen.

#QOTOJournal

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/02/the-ars-technica-semi-scientific-guide-to-wi-fi-access-point-placement/

Small towns in Italy selling old homes for 1 Euro each - the ones in the photos here were the first ones sold in one of them - Cantiano.

Read the details (you will need to pay for a renovation, it has to be done within a certain time) here : https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-for-one-euro-in-cantiano-italy-you-can-buy-a-coffee-or-you-can-buy

The Washington Post has a tremendous article detailing a long standing Intelligence operation by the NSA.

Recommended reading, it's incredible for anyone interested in intelligence work, encryption, geopolitics. Article came up a couple of days ago.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/national-security/cia-crypto-encryption-machines-espionage/?itid=pm_pop

From the Toot linked at the end of previous post...