I can’t follow you. Where is the connection between lockdowns (I assume you mean the Covid19 lockdowns?) and the war in Ukraine?

I’m by no means an expert in international relations. However, with respect to your last paragraph, I do think that China monitors the development carefully. I would even go so far and assume that they won’t act on Taiwan until the situation in the Ukraine is decided. Not because the cases are so similar, but because China and Russia seem to be important partners for each other. Right now, China is supporting Russia financially by buying resources from them (if I’m not mistaken) and also supporting them with equipment embargoed by the EU/US. China will probably know what it’s risking when they attack Taiwan and I doubt that they want to create that sort of situation while one of their most important partners (might be mistaken here) is in a war that binds their resources and weakens their support for China.

On the other hand, they could also try to start the war on Taiwan soon, hoping that NATO/US stretch their support too thin.

Tl;Dr: I don’t know either.

What bugged me and ultimately drove me to leave Instagram was the wording. In the prompt, they said something along the lines of “we will not use your data for advertising”. And I thought, wtf, I don’t want you to collect my data in the first place.

I mostly second this. I have a mantra “Embrace the uncomfortable”. Not in a “work yourself to death for some number” kind of way, but in a “go outside, even if its raining” kind of way. It helps me to appreciate small comforts afterwards and reduces the amount of energy needed to do stuff.

Seriously curious: why is that?

“Underground” is mentioned in the text above. I know that some people are considering to store heavy blocks connected to ropes in the shafts (?) of old coal mines that go down hundreds of meter. Use a single, very heavy block and you’re good to go. Though I don’t think that it holds a significant amount of energy (too lazy to calculate and no feeling for the possible dimensions of such a block). Also, digging new shafts should be prohibitively expensive for energy storage.

IIRC, the plan is to switch to LO. Linux is also planned, but not in the foreseeable future. So you might have some time left ;)

Afaik, it was the flag of the Third Reich from 1933 to 1935 (so before the Swastika flag).

Just in case you are looking for a serious answer: it all depends on your living expenses and how much support you will receive in case something happens. Where I live, we have a good (but still improvable) state support system. Here, the general rule is to have 3 months of expenses on the side. It’s meant to cover your costs until you find a new job or be a buffer for unforseen expenses. Only you can determine how much you think you need.

I agree with you, that ecologically, this will probably be a good thing. Economically, we will need a different system as i doubt that any increase in consumption per capita could outweigh the increase in people we currently see. And our economic system is dependent on growth.