I have no idea what the state of play in Venezuela really is, but watch for: - Cuba, who have been Maduro's source of power and chief beneficiary of Venezuelan oil - Iran, who are at this very moment trying to repress a civilian uprising - North Korea, who will want to demonstrate having nukes as a warning against trying this there - China, who might choose to use a moment of distraction to move against Taiwan - Chechnya, which although unrelated is facing a post-Kadyrov moment at same time

There's a surprising variety of random stuff on @loops already even though it's not actually launched. I'm a text guy so unlikely to frequent it any more than I have visited @Pixelfed and even less likely to post, but there it is for those who like that sort of stuff. #loops

RE:

Mamot - Le Mastodon de La Quadrature du Net

Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic@mamot.fr)

Content warning: Long thread/33

I'm guilty of posting some long-ass threads myself, but I won't pretend to have bothered to read ll 100+ posts in Cory's latest. Just sharing this because he recognizes the best mobile hackers in the world are Finnish. View quoted note →

Welcome to 2026, the Year of the Bicycle The safety bicycle came to market 150 years ago in 1876. It developed into the modern chain driven design by 1879, and the basic structure has remained ever since.

"Across all low-Earth orbit mega-constellations, a "close approach," defined as two satellites passing by each at less than 1km separation, occurs every 22 seconds." That is, one incident away from a chain collision event every 22 seconds. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-days-disaster-earth-orbit.html