xkcd #3219: Planets and Bright Stars

Title text:

An old astronomer trick for distinguishing the Sun from other stars is to take multiple photos a few minutes apart and overlay them, making the Sun stand out due to its high proper motion.

Transcript:

Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com

Source: https://xkcd.com/3219/

explainxkcd for #3219

I've accumulated enough self hosted stuff that I feel like I want a dashboard now so I don't have to remember which IP & port I need for which service (not all my services are exposed to the WWW).

I looked at some dashboard solutions already but there is a huge amount of them. I also use Home Assistant as the dashboard for my home.

So I'm looking to bounce some ideas off this community. Should I add one more service to my servers in the form of a dashboard, or should I maybe create a dashboard in Home Assistant?

If going with a standalone dashboard service, which one?
If going with Home Assistant, is there some good add-ons or something I can use to make managing my services easier?

Let me know what you guys think and thank you!

PDF.

“Palantir is here to disrupt…and, when it’s necessary, to scare our enemies and, on occasion, kill them.” – Alex Karp, Palantir CEO, 2025^[1]^

Palantir is a US-based data analytics firm specialising in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and software commonly used by states in surveillance, border enforcement, policing and warfare. Palantir’s Federated Data Platform (FDP) aims to sit across NHS Trusts, ICBs and NHS England in order to connect and analyse pre-existing data on a national and local scale.

This report is prepared for NHS Trust Boards, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), Health Scrutiny Committees, and Health Data Governance Committees to outline key concerns of the authors, endorsers and supporters regarding the involvement of Palantir Technologies in NHS data infrastructure and operations, including via their delivery of the FDP. It is intended to inform and empower Trust decision making about engagement with Palantir. At the time of writing, the FDP is not mandatory, and local health bodies are able to both raise concerns and decline to implement the FDP at the local level. It is the view of the authors, endorsers and supporters that, for the reasons explained in this document, there are many more suitable options for data management solutions for Trusts and ICBs.

NHS England can also choose not to extend the national contract with Palantir beyond the initial 3-year contract. The contract’s review is upcoming in early 2027 at which point it could be terminated. In 2021, the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care terminated a data deal regarding adult social care with Palantir following criticism, and the concerns regarding Palantir’s presence in public services have only grown since then.^[2]^

cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/61830990

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7732735

Download the report: Cybersecurity Advisory - Phishing via messaging apps Signal and WhatsApp (pdf, 9 pages)

Russian state hackers are engaged in a large-scale global cyber campaign to gain access to Signal and WhatsApp accounts belonging to dignitaries, military personnel and civil servants. The Dutch intelligence and security services MIVD and AIVD can confirm that targets and victims of the campaign include Dutch government employees. The Dutch services also believe that other persons of interest to the Russian government, such as journalists, may possibly be targeted by this campaign.

...

• The actors primarily make use of phishing and social engineering techniques to take over accounts or to link their devices.

• The advice of the Dutch services is that sensitive information should not be communicated using messaging apps which are neither intended nor suitable for this purpose.

• It is important to remain alert to messages that appear to be sent by Signal. The Signal customer service department never makes direct contact via a Signal message.

• Users are also advised to ignore requests via QR codes or links unless the legitimacy of the QR code or link has first been verified through contact with the purported sender.

• If a user discovers that their account has been compromised, they should inform all their contacts via another channel.

• Users can check for compromised contacts themselves; if a contact appears twice in Signal chat groups or has an unusual name, this may indicate a compromise.

• The Dutch services wish to stress that they are referring to the compromise of individual accounts and are not suggesting that Signal or WhatsApp themselves have been compromised.

...

Joplin doesn't seem fully FOSS.
Logseq seems nice but I won't be able to hit it at notes.mydomain.works

What are good options? Ideally for keeping recipes and things

Edit: I'm on Linux Edit 2: B550 AMD chipset

I am seeding from an AMD Ryzen 7 5700G system and with all the peripherals turned off and disconnected, instantaneous load was about 65 watts, until I undervolted it (negative 30, all cores), after which it has been fluctuating around 60 watts.

I'd like to keep seeding indefinitely - of course, my all time share ratio is at around 12 for now - but I'd like to use less energy and spend less money on it - even though the cost difference will be negligible, I guess.

Questions

1. Do you have any recommendations on what hardware to switch to?
2. Or any suggestions on further tweaking the power setting's in the BIOS? For now, I'm using AMD's AI solution for undervolting (PBO or Curve Optimizer or whatever it's called?), but there is for instance also the actual overclocking menu, which would force settings on the CPU.
3. What do you think about putting a single board computer inside my desktop (the chassi is HUGE) and somehow hooking up my four 4TB 2.5 inch torrenting SSDs to it? Possibly still powering them with my desktop's PSU? And running the client (qBittorrent) on the SBC?

Instagram appears to be stepping back from end-to-end encrypted messaging — a surprising move after years of Meta, its parent company, promoting strong encryption as the future of private communication.

A notice on Instagram’s help pages now says end-to-end encrypted messaging on Instagram will no longer be supported after May 8, 2026. The page instructs affected users to download any chat messages or shared media they want to keep before that date.

I could not find any articles with further information on the topic.

There seems to be a fork with tracking removed, but it only has about 2000 downloads, so proceed with caution.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/44446186

13 Mar 2026

Cuban ⁠officials have ⁠held talks with the United States government to seek solutions to the crippling ⁠blockade imposed by Washington, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said, as the Trump administration’s threats to take over the Caribbean nation escalate.

“These talks have been aimed at finding solutions through dialogue to the bilateral differences ‌we have between the two nations,” Diaz-Canel said in a video aired on national television on Friday.

Diaz-Canel said “international factors have facilitated these exchanges”.

He said no petroleum shipments have arrived on the island in the past three months, which he blamed on the US energy blockade.

All of this—doling out relatively cheap dress shoes to a group of people disproportionately populated by billionaires, signing the boxes, inspiring fear of reprisal for wearing your own wingtips instead—is strange enough. Stranger still, though, is that the shoes (in some cases, very obviously) do not fit.

I'm all of the above (gay, bi, trans, gnome)

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7731699

Archived version

Days of tension grip the Mediterranean, where an environmental disaster looms. In the Sicily Channel, the Russian methane tanker Arctic Metagaz drifts helplessly: a 277-meter colossus carrying over 60,000 tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and, according to reports, 900 tons of diesel fuel.

A genuine ticking time bomb that, if it were to explode, would cause a catastrophe. The vessel currently sits about 26 nautical miles from Linosa and roughly 39 from Lampedusa.

...

The Arctic Metagaz methane tanker, which departed February 24 from Murmansk, Russia, was struck in the Mediterranean by a series of explosions occurring between March 3 and 4. Maltese authorities intervened promptly to rescue the crew of about 30 people, but the damaged cargo vessel remained without control.

...

The Arctic Metagaz is reportedly part of the so-called “Russian shadow fleet,” a network of oil and methane tankers (operating through shell companies) used to transport Russian hydrocarbons while circumventing Western sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine.

...

As confirmed by Lampedusa and Linosa Mayor Filippo Mannino, the Italian Navy is monitoring the drifting cargo ship’s situation along with an anti-pollution vessel and a tugboat. Meanwhile, Maltese authorities have issued a navigation warning, recommending that vessels maintain at least a 5-mile distance from the drifting Arctic Metagaz.

In the event of a spill of 60,000 tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and 900 tons of diesel fuel, the scenario would be dramatic for the Mediterranean ecosystem, already compromised by plastic pollution and global warming. It would be extremely difficult to truly contain the damage from an environmental disaster of this magnitude.

...

Twenty-one people, including a 60-year-old British tourist, have been charged under the United Arab Emirates’ cybercrime laws for filming and sharing videos of Iranian missile and drone attacks, according to an organization that provides legal assistance to those arrested in the UAE.

Send this to all your baby leftist friends that insist this is Israel's war.

Today I was scrolling through the Reddit and I saw a lot of posts about how democrats are the best socialistic party and centrism is the best ideology. What should we do to achieve leftism through democrat centrism?