Jack Strong

[Jack Strong @omgljl10]

@KobeissiLetter Would Russian crude not be easier and cost-effective to pipe in rather than ship via tankers? Why didnt they get more from Russia before?

[الجوهرة @G5II11]

موظفون تسببوا في إتلاف بضائع قيمتها 80 ألف دولار، وعندما اكتشفت الشركة ما حدث.........

[Jack Strong @omgljl10]

@Morrigan7070 @CharlotteCGill Agreed its a joke what some money is spent on, but JB costs tax payers about £5mil a year as well. Not sure that is money well spent. If what it does is that useful it should be able to find private funding.

[Jack Strong @omgljl10]

@mattletiss7 @supreme_cbd Gummies, do they help sea sickness on a cruise in 3 weeks

[Jack Strong @omgljl10]

@Tommy_Oldham1 Burnley??

[Jack Strong @omgljl10]

Watching spain win surrounded by argies in miami with England's biggest fan. @Tommy_Oldham1 @gwalker86

[Jack Strong @omgljl10]

@pb81fl2 Dave mc looking distraught

[Taya Bass @travelingflying]

Christopher Hitchens: ”In 1786, when the United States was barely a country, it was having its sailors taken as slaves by the Barbary states, the states of the Ottoman Empire and North Africa. Tripoli, shores of Tripoli. Ships stopped, its crews carried off into slavery. We estimate 1.5 million European and American slaves taken between 1750 and 1815.

Jefferson and Adams went to their ambassador in London and said, why do you do this to us? The United States has never had a quarrel with the Muslim world of any kind. We weren't in the crusades. We weren't at war with Spain. Why do you do this to our people and our ships? Why do you plunder and enslave our people? The ambassador said very plainly, Mr. Abdul Rahman said, because the Quran gives us permission to do so, because you are infidels, and that's our answer. Jefferson said, well, in that case, I will send a navy which will crush your state, which he did.

Islamic fundamentalism is not created by American democracy. It's a lie to say so. It's a masochistic lie, and it excuses those who are the real criminals, and blames us for the attacks made upon us.”

[Freddie New @freddienew]

I had intended to put out this series of posts on @bitcoinpolicyuk’s Privacy Toolkit on a more regular basis, but I hope you’ll realise that I’ve been rather distracted on quite a relevant subject this week.

I was intending to review the section on VPNs, and if you’ve been paying attention to what’s been happening in the UK, you will know that VPNs are right in the cross hairs of the government and Parliament right now.

Since the Censorship/Personal Data Mining Act (aka the Online Safety Act) has proved to be an abject failure in either of its aims – preventing access to pornography and collecting data on anyone who tried – the government is now taking aim at the very tools which have been responsible for this failure, namely VPNs

What is a VPN?

Short for Virtual Private Network, it is quite simply a service that creates a secure tunnel between your device and the internet, hiding your IP address and routing your traffic through a remote server.

Why should you use one?

As you can choose the geographical location of that remote server, you are easily able to circumvent geoblocking as in the case of adult material accessed by people from the UK. Additionally, they should as a matter of good practice always be used when connecting to public wifi, to prevent bad actors from intercepting or viewing your traffic, and they improve your privacy even at home, by reducing the ability of your ISP to log the websites you visit (and then sell that data).

What’s been happening in the UK?

Quite a lot - @leicesterliz let us all know to expect VPN sanctions soon (details as yet undisclosed) and lawmakers are already tabling amendments to legislation that if enacted would require all VPN providers to age verify aka ID all their customers to ensure that children don’t get hold of one (see relevant posts in the thread); effectively banning kids from using one and requiring providers to identify you before you get one - something many providers do not do. Details in thread.

What can I do?

I strongly suggest that if you don’t already have one, you research, download and install a VPN on all your devices today, while you still can. I personally favour @mullvadnet, but there are many good alternatives – h/t to @roxananasoi for the very interesting comparison table that is linked below.

What if the government do ‘ban’ them or age gate access?

In short, don’t panic. Anyone is now able to code their own rudimentary VPN, as I did with my @openclaw agent as demonstrated in the thread. If you are able to go to the next level, you can even run one on your own router at home, so that all your family’s traffic is automatically protected – post from @ben_dewaal in the thread.

What does all this mean?

I am very much afraid that what we are seeing at the moment are symptoms of a system that is losing control of its ability to control what its populace thinks and says, and is lashing out like a wounded animal in response.

Governments across the world do not, bluntly, want a highly-informed, articulate and intelligent population, as such populations are harder to control and to coerce. Thus the global attempts to fetter access to the internet, to platforms that support free speech and open dialogue, to monitor, track and analyse the behaviour of every single one of us

This may seem like a dark time, but I have never been more confident that they will not win. Those of us who believe, like @halfin, that the computer can be a tool to liberate and protect people, rather than to control them, are many. We are motivated, and we will not give in.

And neither should you.

[Jack Strong @omgljl10]

@Tommy_Oldham1 Awesome

[Jack Strong @omgljl10]

@Tommy_Oldham1 @henrywinter That looks like a prison

[Jack Strong @omgljl10]

@Tommy_Oldham1 Thats why the trip was so cheap

[Jack Strong @omgljl10]

@gwalker86 more chicken and games

[Jack Strong @omgljl10]

@gwalker86 the amazing sound wave. Half time at the game. Gay as. Cant uait till the pride game eygpt vs iran

[Jack Strong @omgljl10]

@gwalker86 5 weeks of chicken and world cup starts today.

[Jack Strong @omgljl10]

@JaymieIcke @ickonic Did these lads turn up?

[Jack Strong @omgljl10]

@Tommy_Oldham1 Bin those two

[Jack Strong @omgljl10]

@Tommy_Oldham1 Suprised how emoty the ground looks empty. I have tickets for 2 games in seattle that I got on visa pre sale. What are the ticket sales looking like for the other games. Pitch doesn't look great either

[Daily Romania @daily_romania]

Ursula von der Leyen tells a man he is lucky to live in the EU, where there is free speech, while he is being arrested for protesting against her