Nikon Z50ii - 12-28mm (ISO250, f4.5, 1/100s)

Playing Need for Speed: Most Wanted on my PS2 and Sony Trinitron, even the calendar is form 2009

The room at my parents house seems permanently stuck in mid 2000s, too bad I can't take the TV with me

Yekaterina Chudnovsky, online biographies say, is a mother-of-four who “enjoys spending time with her family and teaching them the importance of giving back and helping others”. They add that Ukrainian-born Chudnovsky, known as Katie, finds sanctuary in walks on the beach.

In interviews, Chudnovsky has spoken warmly about her commitment to philanthropy, her dedication to support cancer research and her work as a lawyer for an unnamed global technology firm. Pornography is never mentioned.

Now, it may become unavoidable. After the death of Chudnovsky’s husband, Leonid Radvinsky, from cancer last week at the age of 43, she is now understood to have a controlling interest through a family trust in the London-based adult content site, OnlyFans.

Chudnovsky is set to have a crucial role in deciding what happens to the business that made her husband a billionaire before he turned 40. The family stake is valued at about $5.5bn (£4.1bn).

Chudnovsky’s views on pornography will determine the site’s future business model, and whether it continues to generate huge sums of money by taking a 20% cut from the earnings of about 4 million content creators globally, a large proportion of whom generate money for the business by undressing and performing explicit content on the platform.

OnlyFans has tried to position itself as one of Britain’s greatest tech success stories, preferring to be seen as a social media platform than as an adult business. It employs only 42 people, and yet managed to generate $7.2bn in 2024.

Research.

• Hacker News.

“The Saga Begins” (Parody of “American Pie”) by “Weird Al” Yankovic

[Intro]
A long, long time ago
In a galaxy far away
Naboo was under an attack
And I thought me and Qui-Gon Jinn
Could talk the Federation into
Maybe cutting them a little slack
But their response, it didn't thrill us
They locked the doors and tried to kill us
We escaped from that gas
Then met Jar Jar and Boss Nass
We took a bongo from the scene
And we went to Theed to see the Queen
We all wound up on Tatooine
That's where we found this boy...

[Chorus]
Oh my, my, this here Anakin guy
May be Vader someday later, now he's just a small fry
And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Sayin', "Soon, I'm gonna be a Jedi"
"Soon, I'm gonna be a Jedi"

[Verse 1]
Did you know this junkyard slave
Isn't even old enough to shave?
But he can use the Force, they say
Ah, do you see him hitting on the queen
Though he's just nine and she's fourteen?
Yeah, he's probably gonna marry her someday
Well, I know he built C-3PO
And I've heard how fast his pod can go
And we were broke, it's true
So we made a wager or two
He was a prepubescent flyin' ace
And the minute Jabba started off that race
Well, I knew who would win first place
Oh yes, it was our boy

[Chorus]
We started singin' "My, my, this here Anakin guy"
May be Vader someday later, now he's just a small fry
And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Sayin', "Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"
"Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi""

[Verse 2]
Now we finally got to Coruscant
The Jedi Council we knew would want
To see how good the boy could be
So we took him there and we told the tale
How his midichlorians were off the scale
And he might fulfill that prophecy
Oh, the Council was impressed, of course
Could he bring balance to the Force?
They interviewed the kid
Oh, training they forbid
Because Yoda sensed in him much fear
And Qui-Gon said "Now listen here
Just stick it in your pointy ear
I still will teach this boy"

[Chorus]
He was singin' "My, my, this here Anakin guy"
May be Vader someday later, now he's just a small fry
And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Sayin', "Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"
"Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"

[Bridge]
We caught a ride back to Naboo
Cause Queen Amidala wanted to
I frankly would've liked to stay
We all fought in that epic war
And it wasn't long at all before
Little hotshot flew his plane and saved the day
And in the end, some Gungans died
Some ships blew up and some pilots fried
A lot of folks were croakin'
The battle droids were broken
And the Jedi I admire most
Met up with Darth Maul and now he's toast
Well, I'm still here and he's a ghost
I guess I'll train this boy

[Chorus]
And I was singin' "My, my, this here Anakin guy"
May be Vader someday later, now he's just a small fry
And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Sayin', "Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"
"Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"

[Outro]
We were singin' "My, my, this here Anakin guy"
May be Vader someday later, now he's just a small fry
And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Sayin', "Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"

Viktor Orban's Fidesz government in Hungary stands accused of mass voter intimidation in a film released on Thursday ahead of 12 April parliamentary elections, in which the ruling party is trailing in the opinion polls.

The Price of the Vote documentary film, which aired on Thursday evening at a Budapest cinema and on YouTube, presents the results of a six-month investigation by independent filmmakers and reporters.

In the film, voters, mayors, former election officials and a police officer claim that large sums of money and even illegal drugs are being offered to pressure people to vote for Fidesz.

Fifty-three of Hungary's 106 individual constituencies and up to 600,000 voters are targeted, the film alleges – potentially 10% of the expected turnout of six million.

After 16 years of Fidesz rule under Orban, most recent polls indicate that the party is trailing Peter Magyar's centre-right opposition party Tisza by at least that margin.

...

All the constituencies involved are rural or small-town communities, increasingly dominated by Fidesz since 2010.

The film portrays a rural Hungary made up of a patchwork of poor villages, home especially to the country's large Roma minority.

Local mayors exercise an iron grip over daily lives, providing work, firewood, transport to polling stations and, in one case, even access to medicine, in exchange for the "correct" vote on election day, according to claims made in the film.

...

The sheer extent of the practice, and the similarity of the stories in villages tens or hundreds of kilometres apart led the filmmakers to conclude that the action is planned by senior Fidesz officials.

"In the beginning, we thought the key piece of this process is vote-buying. But then we realised that the money is just the icing on the cake. The key word here is dependency and vulnerability," Aron Timar, one of the filmmakers, told the BBC.

"The money comes in on a pretty serious scale, and with quite a large entourage," says one interviewee, a serving police officer whose face and voice is disguised, in the documentary.

"I didn't become a police officer to serve a corrupt system. To help cover things up."

...

For voters offered money, the sum mentioned is usually 50-60,000 forints (£110-£133) per vote - a significant sum in communities where child benefit is only £26-£43 per child per month.

But the filmmakers emphasise that what they describe is far more than a vote-buying operation.

At previous elections, some of the villages cited in the film have recorded votes of 80%-100% for Fidesz.

Practices alleged by characters in the film include the provision of cars and minibuses on election day, voters pretending to be illiterate in order to obtain a "companion" in the voting booth, photographs of voting slips to prove a vote for Fidesz, and chain voting.

...

Independent media, and the opposition Tisza party, allege Russian involvement in support of Orban, who is seen as Vladimir Putin's closest partner in the European Union.

...

Moscow plans to transfer the funds of 37 million citizens to a new state scheme. The money will be used to finance state projects amid sanctions and war.

...

"The main beneficiary could be the NPF "Blagosostoyanie" (Welfare), whose shareholders include Russian Railways, Gazprombank, and VEB.RF. That is, those structures that are under direct state control'" according to Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service.

...

The intelligence service reminded that in 2014 - immediately after the occupation of Crimea and the imposition of sanctions - the government "froze" the accumulative part of pensions. At that time, 6% of the 22% of pension contributions that were supposed to go to citizens' personal accounts were simply redirected to payments to current pensioners, plugging a hole in the pension fund. The freeze was declared temporary, but it continues to this day.

Web Archive link

Butter kernel one pot oriental chicken

1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoon cornstarch
3 tablespoon soy sauce
2/3 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 cups cut=up cooked chicken/turkey
1 can green beans (drained- save liquid)
1 can carrots (save liquid)
1 jar mushrooms (drained)
1 tablespoon diced pimento (optional)
hot cooked rice and/or chow mein noodles

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion untill tender. Combine cornstarch and soy sauce. Stir cornstarch mixture, chicken broth, 2/3 cup of juice from canned veggies, brown sugar, ground ginger, and garlic powder into saucepan. heat to boiling, stir constantly. boil and stir for a minute. add chicken, drained veggies, and pimento. Heath through. salt pepper to taste. serve with rice.

Archive link

• 2 oz gin
• 1 oz lemon juice
• 1/2 oz honey syrup
• 1/2 oz lavender syrup

Shake with ice and serve. Would look pretty nice with a piece of lavender on top, if I had planned this better ^^

A more floral variation of the bee's knees, the lavender smell is great. It could be interesting to try with elderflower or maybe violet liquor, now that spring is here!

Cross posted from https://piefed.social/c/buyeuropean/p/1929325/danish-app-udenusa-helps-consumers-identify-us-products-amid-greenland-tensions

A mobile application designed to help Danish consumers avoid purchasing American-made products is surging in popularity as anti-US sentiment rises in Denmark following the US's controversial interest in acquiring Greenland. The app, called UdenUSA ("Without USA"), was developed by 21-year-old Jonas Pipper and his friend Malthe Hensberg. The creators say the app responds to growing demand from consumers who wish to avoid US-made goods but struggle to identify product origins in supermarkets.

I'm not sure if I've posted this before, but it's good enough that I don't care

From US news | The Guardian via this RSS feed

Dmitry has released the first stable version of his engine after 7 years of active development!