General Advice
I'm seeing a lot of posts on my dash today encouraging folks to start archiving their favorite online resources, in case they might be at risk of disappearing in the near future. Since privacy and data ownership are major interests of mine, it seems like a good time to share a bit of what I know! I hope that some of this might be helpful--please feel free to reach out if there's a specific question that comes to mind! đź’•
(My bona fides, in case anyone wants to know: I do work in tech, with over fifteen years of experience in the same. Linux systems administration is a hobby of mine, and privacy, particularly as it relates to tech, is very near and dear to my heart. That said, I am not an infosec professional, so you may want to supplement this guidance with your own research, depending on your threat model.)
General advice
If you rely heavily on traditional cloud storage providers, like Google Drive and Dropbox, now is the time to start exporting your important files to a more secure location. Data stored with most online platforms is encrypted at rest, but the encryption keys are stored on the server's side, meaning that the contents of your files can still be accessed by the service providers themselves. This also means that your files and their contents are vulnerable to data breaches, DMCA takedown requests, subpoenas, and the oh-so-popular AI scraping that has wormed its way into nearly every tech product of note. (Including Tumblr! Lucky us!) Saving files on your own computer is one option, but if you want something closer to the Google Drive experience, Proton Drive is my recommendation. Free accounts get 5 GB of storage, and all data is end-to-end encrypted, which means even Proton can't read the contents of your files. A suite of document features were rolled out earlier this year, including rich text editing, collaboration, and sharing, so if you use Google Docs for writing, you can use Proton in pretty much the same way. I also use Proton for my email, and I'm happy to vouch for them--they are nonprofit-backed, EU-based, and all of their products are built on privacy from the ground up. If you have an Apple device, you can also turn on Advanced Data Protection for your iCloud account, which will enable end-to-end encryption for most services. (Notably, mail, contacts, and calendars will remain unchanged, to ensure compatibility with standard protocols.) This might be a good option for folks who already have iCloud services and who don't want to set up anything new. You can learn more about how to enable this feature here.
Archiving websites
There are a number of ways to archive specific webpages, depending on how much content you want to preserve and how tech-y of a solution you're willing to tolerate. A web clipper is probably the most straightforward option: install one of the listed notes apps, install the web clipper browser extension, open the page you want to save, and clip clip clip. The images and text (with formatting) will be stripped from the page and saved to a note in your app. Both Joplin and Obsidian's apps are available cross-platform:
Joplin + Joplin Web Clipper
Obsidian + Obsidian Web Clipper
Notes you create in Joplin are encrypted before being saved to your device, while Obsidian's notes are saved to a location of your choosing in plain-text Markdown format. If you aren't sure which to choose, choose Obsidian--it's a little easier to use right out of the box.
If you want to preserve the full context of the webpages you save, similar to what you'd see on archive.org, SingleFile is a browser extension that lets you save complete web pages as a single HTML file. You'll find links to the various browser extensions, as well as documentation, on the project's GitHub page:
Note that these files can get pretty big. In general, I'd recommend a web clipper for most cases, but it's good to have multiple options on hand!
Other tips
Even in the absence of major geopolitical events, it's worth remembering that anything you see online can change or be removed at any time. Keep backups of anything that's important to you. (And make sure you back up your computer, too!) Have an alternate contact method for your online friends, in case one platform goes down or otherwise becomes inaccessible.
Consider signing up for a Signal account, if you haven't already, and recommend that your friends and family do the same. It's a free end-to-end encrypted chat platform, and unlike some privacy-focused chat protocols (looking at you, Matrix), it's easily accessible to non-techies. Don't use email, DMs, Discord, Slack, etc. for any communication that you expect to keep private. Any platform that can access your messages will give them up to authorities if compelled to do so by a court order or subpoena. This is not a theoretical risk. It is happening to people in the US right now. I am being so, so serious about this.
If you're looking for a new creative hobby, why not teach yourself a little HTML and CSS? Neocities is a great place to build your own website, and it's free. And it's fun! (If you make something, please drop the link, because I want to see.)
Breathe. We have to survive this, somehow. Log off for today, if you have to. Drink some water. Pet a cat. Sit outside and watch the birds, just for a few minutes. Believe that we will be okay, however you can. ❤️
More Posts from Eternaljourneytmbr and Others
So I just found the most useful photo album in existence for tumblr arguments
The worst people who did not learn to love, read a book, meet a neighbor, leave their hometown, study in school, appreciate art, learn an instrument, travel abroad, seek knowledge, reflect on their shortcomings, ask for forgiveness, or work on their insecurities are using a silver-spooned liar and racist bully engorged on resentments to greenlight their cruelty towards people they don't even know.
Fcuk that.
Hoary Bat, unknown photographer, (source)
Neither did I! It's in the OP's last fact sheet; Tadarida brasiliensis (TABR) is the scientific name for the Mexican free-tailed bat. Or, rather, the Brazilian free-tailed bat, of which the Mexican freetail is a regional subspecies thereof (Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana).
Fun fact! TABR are the fastest flying animals, clocking in with a level flight speed of almost 100mi/h - or roughly 160km/h. While the peregrine falcon is capable of sustaining higher velocities, that is in a dive and thus gravity-assisted - not sustained level flight. (and if some fellows might want to banter on about that somehow counting against the Molossidae, well... an individual has the option to reference STS-119.)
They also smell like corn chips / tacos. No, that's not a joke. https://batworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/free-tails-smell-like-tacos.pdf
A zine i made for my art class talking about bats and all the facts i know about them!
Lil Frosty Boy
...Made all the more heart-wrenching by how borderline hopeless the future of chiroptera is. Between significant heat events frying megabat/flying fox camps in Australia, white nose syndrome wiping out significant numbers of (certain species of) cave-dwelling bats in North America, and wind farms killing thousands of bats (hundreds of thousands in regards to a certain species; Aeorestes cinereus) per year, a cull that could be drastically - and readily - reduced in mortality if certain protocols were implemented. (Unfortunately, it seems that the hoaries of the American supercontinent are doomed to be sacrificed to the dollar by the wind-energy sector.)
Eyes full of hope, yet little of that remains in the world. And not just for these lil'fluffy nuggets.
Eyes full of Hope
Survival Tip
Pay attention to where the Trump flags are flying. Note the lawn signs, especially in front of businesses. Those places may not be safe to enter over the next four years, especially if you are in any way not cis/white/Christian-hetero-standard.
They like Trump because he says the quiet part (hate) out loud. Many will feel entitled to follow in his footsteps. They voted him to get the right to discriminate. So please be careful and don't feel bad about changing up your habits to avoid openly hostile people and places.
x.x
to be honest, I think the author missed an opportunity here. In the passage after the party recovered from the wild currents; Gregor making a joke potentially might not have been enough to snap Thalia out of her spiral, which heightens the urgency of the party to help the lil'bat.
Cue Hazard hugging Thalia, and then reciting the bonding oath, holding her thumb claw, providing extra stability which she could latch onto. Significant emotional moment... And then, later, she perishes. And Hazard can't help her. None of the party can help her. Maybe she even dwells on that tiny glimmer of hope that she'd wake up again, emerge from the state of intense panic that must have infused her final moments, similar to that the wind chamber experience... Hazard helped her recover from that, he'll be there to guide her through this, right?
Marks of Secret, pretty much
they shoulda just gone on that dang picnic
Ok so this post is extremely long and I put it all together for my blogs Feeling sad page but as I don’t have a huge amount of followers I realize so many people are not seeing this information so I’m posting it here too!
alternatives without harming yourself:
holding/squeezing ice.
splashing your face with water.
getting a rubber band and snapping it against your skin (this could hurt, though it’s better than other ways that people usually choose to self-harm).
take a hot shower or bath.
eat something sour. it will take your mind of the urge. (lemon, sour lollies)
massage where you want to self-harm.
get a red pen or red paint and draw/paint over where you usually self-harm.
remind yourself as to why you shouldn’t do it. (scars, harms organs, leave memories etc…)
describe what you are feeling. (is the urge/pain in your chest, fists, legs, arms, head).
killing yourself will not help. it is not a solution.
you have your whole life ahead of you. you have so many more years that you can accomplish things in. for example;
having a family.
getting married.
to watch the sun rise.
to watch the sun set.
to save someone else’s life.
finish school.
get your dream job.
to laugh.
to smile.
to go camping.
travel to new places.
to wake up every morning to the person you love.
friends.
family.
to keep that promise you made.
to accomplish a goal.
to meet your idol.
to listen to new music.
theme parks.
video games.
chocolate.
to be able to look back and say “i made it”.
what you’re going through is temporary.
in case you need to hear this:
you are loved.
you are wanted.
you are needed.
you are beautiful.
you are handsome.
you are important.
you are not alone.
you are okay.
you are strong.
you are worth it.
you are smart.
you are not a failure.
you are useful.
you are going to be okay.
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exhale: after abortion hotline/pro-voice: 1-866-439-4253
Thumbless Bat Skull (Furipterus horrens)
Since there weren’t many good reference photos of the thumbless bat available (a tragedy!!), I took a shot at its bizarre-looking skull. Evolution has done to many bats what man has cruelly wrought on domestic dogs- though the difference is that it actually works for the bats.
The thumbless bat, as you might imagine from looking at this skull, has a very squished-in face, with fur and skin obscuring the extreme bend above the eyes. This might aid it in echolocation by turning its head into a radar dish, similar to an owl’s. There are definitely a lot of bats that seem to have converged on the flattened-face design. But that isn’t an Official Scientist’s Opinion, just mine.
I should mention that despite their common name, thumbless bats actually DO have thumbs, just reduced ones with tiny, functionless claws. This brings up the question of how they crawl, since most bats use their thumbs like pitons while moving around on their roosts. The answer may be that they just don’t crawl that much- a creature thoroughly adapted to life in the air.
Another fun fact about thumbless bats: their nipples are located on their abdomen, rather than under their armpits like most bats. This means the babies have to orient themselves head-up on their mothers (who are hanging upside-down, of course) to nurse. But how do they do this without functional thumbs to hold on with? I have so many questions that the internet cannot answer.
Finally, please enjoy this thumbless bat art by famed naturalist Ernst Haeckel, circa 1904:
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