TIL that the olympic torch relay was invented by the Nazis at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin as a way for Hitler to spread Nazi influence to other countries. It is a tradition that has taken place at every game since. [source, comments]

Swiss Song of the Day 🇨🇭🦁🔫:
https://open.spotify.com/track/6pVGzLVct8E5LqT9LDSYBx

Warum Musk (laut Musk) rechts abgedriftet ist:
https://www.watson.ch/leben/usa/894516136-elon-musk-erklaert-seine-trans-tochter-fuer-tot

"Our dreams will never fit into their ballot boxes"
Poster seen in Coolangatta, Queensland

Good Idea: protect privacy!

https://robindoherty.com/2016/01/06/nothing-to-hide.html

The idea that privacy doesn't matter if you have "nothing to hide" is misguided. Privacy is a fundamental right that supports freedom of expression, association, and assembly, which are crucial for democracy. Surveillance threatens these freedoms by making us self-censor and restrict our activities. Even innocent bits of information can be pieced together to form a detailed profile, leading to misuse and misappropriation of data. The erosion of privacy happens gradually, but its impact can be profound. It's essential to protect our privacy to maintain a free society and prevent misuse by governments or other entities. Privacy should be defended actively to ensure that technological advances benefit society rather than infringe on our freedoms.

#privacy #freedom #humanRights

“We must resist the IMF, World Bank, Britain, and the US”, say protesters in Kenya as mobilizations continue over a month after they first erupted over a neoliberal tax measure that punished the poor.

Protesters have blocked key highways around the country as calls grow for the Prime Minister’s resignation. Though the Finance Bill pushed by the government has been withdrawn, protesters are continuing their mobilizations against the government’s subservience to foreign powers.

At least 50 protesters have been killed by regime forces so far. Kenya’s Prime Minister Ruto has been hailed as a close American ally and was recently in Washington for a state visit to discuss the deployment of Kenyan troops to Haiti to secure US interests.

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The truth ... is that spending at least some of your leisure time “wastefully,” focused solely on the pleasure of the experience, is the only way not to waste it—to be truly at leisure, rather than covertly engaged in future-focused self-improvement. In order to most fully inhabit the only life you ever get, you have to refrain from using every spare hour for personal growth. From this perspective, idleness isn’t merely forgivable; it’s practically an obligation.

— Oliver Burkeman,
Four Thousand Weeks (chapter 9)

“Any life directed toward money is a death. Renascence lies in disinterestedness.”

— Albert Camus,
Notebooks 1942–1951 (IV)

Promises to breach news paywalls... https://12ft.io/
You can also use this classic: https://web.archive.org/

Song of the Day 🎤🔫: https://open.spotify.com/track/6UAFvSKQd81V0fFlC8bHEW

Good idea: end government purchase of single use plastic

https://phys.org/news/2024-07-phase-federal-plastics.html

President Joe Biden's administration on Friday announced plans to phase out single-use plastics in all federal operations by 2035, as part of a broader effort to combat what it deemed a rising global crisis.

Since the US federal government is the single largest buyer of goods and services in the world, the decision could have a significant impact on global markets, spurring industries to develop new products and reducing the planet-warming emissions associated with plastic manufacturing

#plastic #greatgarbagepatch #pollution #recycling