Tootfinder

After discussing the possibility for several months, European nations are finally forming a unified barrier of insurance checks and enforcement around areas where Russia's shadow fleet operate... a very important development, as it either will deprive them from the ability to keep evading sanctions, or significantly increase the costs and risks of doing so.
Big ramifications. This could have a major impact on Russia's recent long term oil delivery deal with India, i.e.

Twelve European countries to jointly counter Russia's shadow fleet exporting oil
Twelve European countries have agreed to jointly counter the shadow fleet used by Russia to export oil, bypassing the G7-imposed price cap. Ships will now be checked for valid insurance documents.

[ February 3, 2025] CFP for conference or similar: Digital Worlds Workshop https://philevents.org/event/show/129302

Digital Worlds Workshop
The philosophy departments at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and The University of North Dakota invite submissions for a virtual workshop to be conducted remotely on April 25-27 2025 . We seek papers that interrogate the way modern digital technology enhances, hampers, or alters our experience of our lived worlds. The distinction between “being on the internet” and “being in the real world” is eroding. People can increasingly be said to “live on their phones” or other dev…

Having picnic with @… at Jardin d’Essai Hamma.

2/
Spice level increasing by the minute.
#PoliceDontKeepUsSafe

One obvious reason this could be the case, despite the stimulus impact of the war, is that a lot of dotcoms / tech companies are highly sensitive to the stock market, VC funding, etc.
IOW, revenue from the stock market & VC funding suddenly disappeared, leaving them at the mercy of high rate loans, due to the historically high Russian central bank key rate.
And so, huge swathes of high tech are at risk of debt spirals and ever-increasing rates on loans.

There is a long and storied history of whistles for protection. Ancient Egyptian guards used to place a blade of grass between the thumbs to alert other guards of issues that were transpiring. Later, shells were used to the same end. In China, acorns with holes drilled in them were used similarly.
As a dedicated instrument, whistles have been made of wood, bone, metal, and later, plastics. British bobbies have used whistles to communicate over distances since the 1880s. They are a commonly used tool for boatswains, crossing guards, and referees.
I wish I knew more about rape whistles, but they seem similar in functionality to hikers taking whistles with them in case of injury, as the sound carries much further than yelling, and is much less tiring.
As someone regularly stalked by a large creepy harasser, I am grateful for the whistle I was given for self-protection, even if the creeps who it was given to defend against resent the fuck out of it.
Fin.

[ April 10, 2025 - April 11, 2025] Conference or similar: AI and the Ends of Humanity: Thinking Theologically after ChatGPT https://philevents.org/event/show/125022

AI and the Ends of Humanity: Thinking Theologically after ChatGPT
The advent of increasingly sophisticated and potentially autonomous forms of artificial intelligence poses a challenge to understandings of the human place in the cosmos in ways perhaps as profound as the Copernican Revolution.  And while artificial general intelligence is not yet and may never be a reality, digital technologies are already introducing powerful new possibilities for deception, surveillance, and bias, exacerbating polarization, and changing the meaning of intimacy, care, creati…

[ April 25, 2025 - April 27, 2025] Conference or similar: Digital Worlds Workshop https://philevents.org/event/show/129298

Digital Worlds Workshop
The philosophy departments at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and The University of North Dakota invite submissions for a virtual workshop to be conducted remotely on April 25-27 2025 . We seek papers that interrogate the way modern digital technology enhances, hampers, or alters our experience of our lived worlds. The distinction between “being on the internet” and “being in the real world” is eroding. People can increasingly be said to “live on their phones” or other dev…