I, for real, want to know if there are any religious/spiritual people here commenting because yikes. I think a lot of people also interpreted your question to be about organized religion, and specifically christianity of the US variety. Please seek out other religious thoughts - I've found much Jewish thought on religion to be of interest. For myself, I'm not christian and not Jewish.

I'm religious because growing up, I adopted the values of the religion I was taught - values of kindness, openness, and inclusion. It's as core a part of my being as my ways of cooking or socializing. To not be religious would feel like hiding parts of myself.

The routine of following the practices, as well as religion/spirituality being able to help us face the unknown we still have in our lives. It can provide internal strength and belief in our ability. I also find the routine a way to connect to my family, my culture, and to my day-to-day. My religious time is more a time of internal reflection on my own actions and if they align with my values. Do folks without a routine religious/spiritual practice do the same?

The community aspect some touched on is huge. I read a book, Palaces for the People, where it mentioned that those with strong social connections fare better in times of crisis. While there are institutions that are getting to the same influence of religious institutions, they are still far less impactful.

I guess this is all less a belief and more why do people still engage with religion. But why do we believe, what is the act of believing? I don't have to believe that the sun will rise every morning, but, I do still believe it will rise every morning. Belief is a whole area of study alone I'm sure.

As a user at a big company that needs to lock down its security, we get quarterly phishing emails that would tell you that you failed the test so to speak if you click the link. It shows how easy it is to everyday users of how easily an entire system can get compromised.

Having a "test" like this might not be bad if you run it by boss first?

Lots of great conversation here, I also work somewhere where this is required. If I didn't need my phone for access to chat, I just wouldn't use it for work. Alternatively, my phone has a work profile so I use that for any work related or non-FOSS apps. My IT guy even approved of my methods and said do the minimum and never more with tech.

I don't care much for Biden, but I gotta admit, all the policies that could make a significant difference keeps getting blocked by...the republican congress! So yeah, not blaming Biden for the failure of policies and will vote for him

I understand on a current technical side why this is not possible, but the post still has some merit in that misuse of original posts can lead to legal action.

Right now, all content posted online is generally accepted as unlicensed, free to use however one pleases, works. This was fine at the beginning, but as the internet grew, control of one's data increasingly got more difficult to control - once social media became the dominate form of communicating, it was all over.

Early blogs still have copyrights posted on them that, legally, can be enforced and respected. So if each user was able to indicated in meta data their choices, with most defaulting probably to a free license, then there is some level of control returned to the user, regardless of protocol and how things get replicated on servers.

Licenses include reproduction, and the way activitypub works can make that quite murky (its being republished on servers) but that is not all it covers.

OP, I think this is a very interesting topic to discuss, thanks for bringing it up!

These kinds of lists always make me laugh, because it takes a very specific world view and experience and assumes all must be like that. Atomic Habit I do agree partially on, but you know two books that have recently changed my life? Certainly not on the list here.

4,000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman and The Little Book of Listening by Donna Duffey et. Al.

As someone who feels outside the domimate traits of society, Sensitive: The Hidden Power and The Power of Quiet are also books that changed my life in that I am embracing my own traits and talents, rather than struggle to adopt those more commonly sought after.

I use Zorin OS for my laptop that's gotta be at least 15+ years but still kicking it. Outlasted the newer laptop I bought that was only 5 years old.

As someone who is only mildly into tech, Zorin is certainly familiar and I would probably recommend it to people.

I downloaded Gallium OS for my mom on her Chromebook, that's perhaps another important consideration to make...what laptop someone has.

"Home Depot said in a recent press release that it plans to make its gas-powered tools relatively obsolete in the next several years, instead replacing them with battery and electric powered upgrades.

Most of its gas tools are outdoor equipment; think weedwackers, lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and trimmers. It aims to replace these with battery power by the end of 2028. At that point, Home Depot wants to see 85% of its outdoor lawn equipment sales to be driven by rechargeable battery power in the U.S. and Canada."

If this is for rentals, I gotta say that's a big win then for the environment.

If you let go of the feeling that you were owed something (love, friendship, etc) in a relationship and just enjoy the time you spent together and what you learned from it, loss becomes a lot easier to deal with.

Also, people change, maybe you left the relationship before that happened. The relationship you remembered is not the relationship you'd be in now. I find that helpful to remember too.

Tbh in a sense this is the way tho...In the way that no singular event should be a defining victimization but instead to self-determine a better future. Complaining keeps you in the past, but having hope propels you forward into a future of possibilities.

Feel sad, feel upset, but don't settle into the feeling. It is only a moment, and the way you respond will lead you down the path you choose with that response.

BMI is a bad metric because the data it was based off of was racist.

https://scrippsnews.com/stories/citing-racist-origins-american-medical-association-deemphasizes-bmi/

I've grown up underweight my whole life into adulthood, got on birth control, and now carry weight despite eating the same fruit/veggie based diet and less food (cause inflation hurts) PLUS regular access to the gym. Tbh thanks to the person who posted the articles because the cognitive dissonance was getting too much to handle!

Human connection is a need just as strong as hunger or rest, like it'a almost an accepted medical issue that loneliness causes early death. If anything, having such a low rate of marriage only further harms the low income group more than it would higher income groups

So from my understanding, methane is produced solely in the decomposition of the matter, so yes it does bring down methane emissions. The second part about carbon is, from my understanding, just saying that, as plants do, remove carbon from the air and convert to oxygen.

But I was actually coming here to check about lomi composting. Since moving I've had some trouble keeping up with composting since my city does not deal with waste from large apartment complexes, so no curbside composting. I have plants too so this actually might be helpful if I can find it used...

Bold to assume that it's an instinct and not a taught and learned behavior.

I suppose, but isn't it enough to see the boys hanging out and running around? Must we always have a plot to follow?

(Haha I'm just incredibly not picky when it comes to art, so as long as there is something good I'll enjoy, I know this isn't the case for everyone tho)

Why hate something animated THAT good!?

Your write ups are fantastic and I refer to them quite often when talking about privacy for activist! If you have one geared towards those concerns, such as locking down communications and ensuring a phone is as secure as possible would be good. There is talk about patterns and metadata that I would love to hear your take on.

I'm dabbling in getting rid of windows on my laptop and so far just used Debian since it seems like a safe starter distro, but with a recent OS failure (windows, not linux) I finally tried booting from a USB and kinda love that? So maybe more privacy focused linux information since I have trouble finding stuff on trusted sites and using searx to find information.

I guess last topic I can think about is having some good points about why it matters? Most people I talk to don't seem to care much, and of course it won't change anyone's mind immediately, but just having a good line of logic to get people thinking might be good? I was talking to a coworker over our frustration that our job forces us to download an app just to access our email in the name of "security" but it feels more like "invasion", especially since it's our personal phones.

Oh, actually; is there anyway for people willing to learn how to tell if an app has trackers or is a breach of privacy?

I've been slowly implementing steps from this guide, but I just don't understand changing the default SMS app to a different app...is it a case of using open source applications? I guess in Silence case, that provides some level of encryption, but wouldn't there still be metadata? Also, I have a VPN that works on my phone always, and I noticed both Blokada and Netguard require the one port used for the VPN...should I drop the VPN on my phone and use Blokada instead? Thank you for making this guide by the way, I have a Samsung device and can't find any open source OS that support it so I have to keep using it as is and wanted to find ways to secure it.