“Francis appointed nearly 80% of the cardinal electors who will choose the next pope, increasing the possibility that his successor will continue his progressive policies, despite the strong pushback from traditionalists.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/pope-francis-has-died-vatican-says-video-statement-2025-04-21/
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I largely don’t agree with this, I played chess (Battle Chess) as a kid, I wasnt the best at chess but I had fun. I hadn’t played it in over 15+ years.
My coworker plays chess on a regular basis, against other players and against the computer at 1,700. He knows quite a few strategies that I never bothered to ask what they entailed, which is a part of your point, but I just play off of the moves I see on the board, I don’t know any technical moves or strategies other than checkmate the king, castling, and en passant.
I literally wing it every time and my opponent is always thinking about future moves to try and destroy me. Our matches include blunders and typically end up with only a couple pieces left on the board. Its such a fun experience when it’s played without expectation and you’re relying on pure personal strategy in real time.
I’ve won twice In a row now. Its usually back and forth
Unlike common talking points, crypto does rely on and follow the traditional markets. Its not really a hedge against them.
Referring to the episode where Professor Farnsworth created an alternate dimension in a box.
My recommendation for you would to be to ditch the iOS device and get a Google Pixel phone and immediately flash it to GrapheneOS which de-googles it entirely.
Regarding privacy and security it is literally the best option considering it doesn’t send any telemetry to the underlying OS host servers like Apple and Google do.
On top of that, F-Droid and Accrescent are app stores for open source software only available for the android ecosystem that has no equivalent on iOS. Accrescent is specifically aimed towards security and privacy.
First, the Google Pixel has a multi-user function that, when utilized, allows the user to create multiple profiles (I believe it’s up to 32 on GrapheneOS) on the device which ensures separation between apps that you don’t want to talk to each other.
Like if you have Telegram you can put it on its own profile so it doesn’t collect data from your other apps and send it off to data brokers. It’s like having a brand new phone for every user.
Second, Molly-Foss is a hardened fork of Signal that is specific to android and doesnt contain any of Google’s proprietary code available only in F-Droid and Accrescent. Molly has passphrase encryption (a feature that Signal removed), can be used with , and has RAM Shredding for securely deleting sensitive information.
Secondly, F-Droid hosts apps like:
1.) Exodus: An privacy dashboard that lists all of your apps trackers and permissions so you can make informed decisions on the apps you keep on your phone. (I currently don’t have ANY apps that have trackers on my device). It also details what those trackers collect and a percentage of your apps that have that tracker.
2.) TrackerControl: Gives you granular control over all the trackers that your apps interact with (and even websites you visit which is extremely helpful in browsing the web more safely). It categorizes trackers by their function such as Advertising, Analytics, Fingerprinting, Email, Essential, Social, and Uncategorized and allows you to block each of them individually and allow certain ones that are required for the app or website to function.
3.) Privacy Browser: The name says it all but its a web browser based off of the android webview that minimizes the data that is sent to the internet and minimizes the amount of data that is stored on the device. It has built in tracker control, toggles for DOM Storage, Cookies, and JavaScript. You can also stream it through TOR, I2P, or your own proxy.
4.) Aurora Store: A private frontend for Google Play Store for apps that you can’t get on F-Droid that you feel you must have on your device. You can use the anonymous log in feature so you don’t need to have a google account to install apps. You can filter out apps that are reliant on Google Play Services as well that don’t have trackers built into them.
5.) PipePipe: A private frontend for YouTube that doesn’t allow Google to track you (unless you log in)
F-Droid has a TON of Free/Libre Open Source Software apps that aren’t creepy and respect your privacy. It includes a large selection of apps that you can self host on a server at home to replace most big tech services.
Third, you should look into self hosting your own services to replace big tech, it allows you to take control of your data and privacy
https://openalternative.co/self-hosted
https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted
Nextcloud is an amazing self hosted cloud service. Bitwarden or Keepass are also amazing password managers you can self host Bitwarden.
Otherwise, all fediverse apps for services like: Reddit: Lemmy (of course) using an app like Raccoon from F-Droid that doesn’t have any trackers. Instagram: Pixelfed using an app like PixelDroid from F-Droid that also doesn’t have any trackers. TikTok: Loops from loops.video Facebook/Twitter: Mastodon
And I’d be remiss to not mention Mullvad and ProtonVPN as private choices for VPN’s. They are not based in the US and you can pay for Mullvad in cash.
Tuta and Proton both have solid Email and Calendars.
Telegram is not private at all. Its not even end to end encrypted unless you turn the feature on with direct messages. I would not recommend this as a private alternative especially considering they hand over messages to law enforcement after the creator was arrested and forced to.
If you use telegram just be aware it is absolutely not private.
The CEO said that Trump chose a great pick and sided with Republicans and there was a firestorm over it, he doubled down on his position through the official Proton channel.
That doesn’t change the fact that it’s insecure and will likely become even more insecure as more governments demand more of the same in the name of “protecting the children”.
Regardless if Apple’s actions were better than the alternative, devices devoid of such vulnerabilities such as degoogled phones are inherently more secure and private.
With the exception to GrapheneOS, compared to stock Android and Apple its much more secure and private since it removes everything connected to Google on it.
Then by using Free/Libre Open Source Software apps on F-Droid, as the replacement for Google Play, you can effectively eliminate trackers from your device using apps like Exodus that provides detailed breakdowns on app trackers and permissions.
As well as TrackerControl where you are given granular control over trackers on apps and even on websites you visit. It blocks analytic, fingerprinting, advertising, and other uncategorized trackers.
Then using Privacy Browser you can browse the web using TOR further enhancing your privacy. Whilst having built in tracker, cookie, javascript, and DOM storage controls.
Communicate through Molly (hardened version of Signal only available on android) or Threema and you can keep your communications secure and private.
Couple that with using a VPN like Mullvad or Proton and you can be very private on Android, that of which you cannot achieve on iOS where Apple has built in telemetry harvesting.
So I would say that compared to Apple, Android CAN be far more private and secure, I personally don’t trust that Apple users are private at all considering Apple harvests telemetry and most users use iCloud which, whilst having Advanced Data Protection for most users, they literally took this away from UK residents more recently effectively exposing all of their content.
Been saying it is a prophecy since it dropped. Mike Judge is a prophet.
That would be DHL lol