Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy This episode of Peoples & Things completely nerd sniped me. On recommendation from Biella Coleman, hosts Lee Vinsel and Paula Bialski interview Ben Collier about his new book Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy (available Open Access from MIT Press. I love ethnographic works on computing history and especially admire Biella’s book Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking.
MODERATOR: Are there things the Empire has done well?
HASK: Disintegrations. And I like that they’re decisive. You look at that battle station, and you think, Wow, that’s decisive engineering. People make jokes about the cost of it, but I see efficiency. They should make two.
🤣
Fleetwood Flyer with a snow-capped Mt Baker in the distance. The next station down the hill will be called Bakerview, I think you can see why 🤩 (cf. micro.chadkohalyk.com/2026/04/0…) #SurreyBC
Today is an Uposatha Day, a day of Buddhist Observance. People often wear white tops and black bottoms. Today was also the day I took our bikes out of storage, washed them, replaced inner tubes, cleaned and oiled the drive trains… I was EXTRA mindful 🪷 and my shirt is still white! 💪
Free Palestine protest in downtown #SurreyBC. Maybe about 20 people? Lots of horns honking. Counter protest across the street: Israeli flag paired with Iranian Monarchist flag 🤔
Beautiful afternoon for the bazaar at Nikkei Center. We also checked out their exhibition on the history of the Powell Festival, which is in its 50th year this summer! 🎏🎐🎋
Interview with Head of Products & Delivery at ZenDiS, the state-owned company bringing #digitalSovereignty to Germany
New Kit! Pebble Time 2 🪨⌚ arrived! I did not get on the first round of Pebble 10 years ago and always regretted it, so I backed it right away when it was first announced over a year ago as RePebble. Slowly increasing the number of eInk devices I have.
… and yes I am up at 3am scrolling due to jet lag
But it’s nice to be scrolling in my own bed…
Back in Vancouver 🇨🇦
Landed in Iceland 🇮🇸. It’s cold and foggy here 6°C 🥶 Getting a slice of NY pizza and whatever the hell this guy is 🤷♂️
Thanks Germany 🇩🇪 🙇♂️ I had a wonderful time at my friend’s wedding, was able to meet with someone I hadn’t seen for 25 years, and came to some interesting conclusions about history and the future. Next stop Reykjavik 🇮🇸 then on to Vancouver 🇨🇦
Final day. Did some souvenir shopping near city center then randomly ran into the Frankfurt Grüne Soße “Green Sauce” festival! There was a little jazz band, the mayor, a TV station and they threw bundles of herbs like wedding bouquets! After I walked the old star moat which is a giant park now.
Today I hung out with the German GOAT Goethe at his house, learned a bunch about the Romantics, meditated in a glass prism, and now it is time to say Gute Nacht to Frankfurt. Tomorrow is my last day before I fly back to Canada.
Have some journaling to do. What better pace than the warm platz at Römerberg, just a couple of blocks from Goethe House
A few more shots from Heidelberg 🏰 on a warm sunny day 🌞
Lovely warm spring day at Heidelberg Castle
Made it to the little southern German village where the wedding is happening. Lovely bucolic view from my top-floor (4) hotel window. My ears ring with the sound of music 🎶 but @expede.wtf says she hears the WinXP startup sound 🪟
As part of the pre-wedding I just did a West Coast Swing lesson in German! 🕺🏼 🇩🇪
Made it to Germany!
🤯 At the Frankfurt Airport Train station ⛲️ at the Wasserturm in Mannheim 🍟🌭 vegan currywurst
Off to Germany! 🇩🇪
Thanks London, was a blast.
