The SCA is way more fun than Ren Faires in my experience, but you typically have to play the part to experience the fun. So much so that Ren Faires seem boring to me these days.
The following info is dated to about 2004-2008:
I was fortunate enough to live in the Phoenix area, where the second largest gathering occurs in Feb, called the Estrella War (it since moved south to Florence). There are about 5k people that come out for the event, and a giant camp, marketplace, battlefield are all set up.
I spent my days fighting in giant battles, and the evenings were spent with friends and acquaintances. Nights brought parties, etc., but nothing beats falling asleep in a tent to the near-distant beating of drums and occasional bagpiper.
There are a variety of arts and sciences, crafts for children, and of course royal court proceedings. I had an absolute blast as a college student participating.
One day I hope to participate again and venture to Pennsylvania for Pennsic, the biggest which was about 16k folk when I played.
Who knows how the SCA is now; I've been out for so long with a shoulder injury. But I've considered getting back in for rapier combat which looked like a lot of fun but not nearly at the battle scale of hardsuit.
Plausible, but then people will use old computers and/or fab their own and/or import from adversarial governments and accept the risk of hardware backdoors.
But would that actually stop people? I can say with certainty a law such as this would encourage me to go out of my way to create and distribute such software.
For example, the US government is trying to label any posthumous criticism of Charlie Kirk "Hate Speech". You can see how dangerous this could be when the hate-mongers get to decide what is considered hate speech.
That has nothing to do with "hate speech" and is just sold to Americans like that. Critisism and hate speech are entirely diffferent things and US's adminsitration is just.. idk insane lately?
In EU, specifically Germany, its very different. You can critique publicly all day every day all politicians, dead or alive, as much as you want to and nobody is allowed to even give you a mean stare.
But you can't spread hate or directly specifically offend someone, but surely comment on their performance during their mandate.
Honestly, the current administration baffles me. There is so much activity that flies squarely against the constitution in a not at all subtle or clever way; just blatant, "I don't care."
It's one thing to be disruptive and enforce immigration law "by the books" but entirely separate to then go out of your way to not enforce it legally while at the same time violating or attempting to violate the constitution on pretty fundamental levels.
Most of the erosion is done through court challenges.
Historically, courts have maintained that legislation is pursued under "good faith". This was the justification for not overturning ACA on the grounds of it being an unconstitutional tax: the lawmakers didn't mean to make it an unapportioned tax, even though it effectively is, so it's okay yall. Washington St just did this with income taxes on capital gains in direct violation of their state constitution a year or two ago.
Where I live, you cannot open carry. That is a direct violation of 2A, but the courts have said it's okay baby because it's not an undue burden to pay a fee and waste a day of your life. Pure nonsense. Just change the constitution for goodness sake.
"Google, google everywhere.
It's attestation is gonna be a nightmare."
Idk I created this just right now lol.
But on a serious note, Maybe check out my comment on something known as the android_translation_layer with flatpak to see if that might help to run that app atleast in linux.
If you don't have a phone, you cannot create a new Google or Vk (social network) account today. I expect there will be more things you won't be able to do if you don't want to leak your information.
Then you can't use this method of identification, just like you can't use it now. Surely it won't be the only way to identify yourself online. If this provides a frictionless way to do this for 95% of people then it's already a huge win.
No, this is worse because it solidifies Apple/Google's duopoly over the smart phone market even more than it already is.
Not only that, but having this locked behind something that works for 95% of users means the other 5% will never have enough leverage for any other implementations to be approved. Which is absolutely unacceptable for such an essential feature like age verification.
Why can't we continue with an open web standard? We should have complete interoperability regardless of whether I'm using a google smartphone or a custom os I wrote in my garage or bsd or nixos. That is the entire point of web standards: to create the ability to communicate with one-another regardless of system design, so long as standards are properly implemented.
The target, which are the children who access "forbidden" websites without authorization is likely to be lower than amount of people who won't be able to access due to those narrow specs.
Don't other countries border Gaza? Why can't food flow through Egypt?
I see lots of blame on Isreal, but to me it seems Isreal was provoked into this fight, and the other countries bordering Gaza are unwilling to take refugees or help in any meaningful way. It is odd to me that Isreal is taking the blame for actions clearly endorsed by anyone that has to deal with Gazans. Is it because they are the ones taking action?
> Don't other countries border Gaza? Why can't food flow through Egypt?
Even the most simplest of research would give you the answer to that question. The main escape/aid route from Egypt to Gaza is the Rafah crossing. This is now de-facto controlled by Israel.
Israel requires that aid from Egypt go through security checks, customs clearances, etc. There have already been dozens of reported instances where food from Egypt has gotten spoiled waiting for clearance. It was sensational news earlier, but folks have mostly given up reporting on this now. It is clear that Israel wants Palestine to suffer.
> It is odd to me that Isreal is taking the blame for actions clearly endorsed by anyone that has to deal with Gazans.
Pardon me, but I didn't know that Egypt and other neighbours were bombing Gaza. Can you give me relevant citations ? I mean the nation-state bombing Gaza and controlling its access to food would logically take the blame for massive civilian casualties and famine right ? Or does your supreme logic lead to another interpretation ? Kindly explain your chain of reasoning for enlightenment.
> other countries bordering Gaza are unwilling to take refugees
My apologies, but this is unforgivable ignorance. Please be aware that Egypt has taken >100k Palestinian refugees since 2023. I don't have the recent figures for Jordan, but they have taken in millions of Palestinian refugees over the last couple of decades.
Why can't food flow through Egypt? Before the war started, Israel restricted all access to and from Gaza by sea and air and had land crossings under tight control. It had two functional crossings with the enclave: Erez, which was for the movement of people, and Kerem Shalom, for goods.
Gaza has a single crossing with Egypt, at Rafah, which was run by Egyptian authorities. As of July 2025 it is 'managed' by the Gaza Division of the IDF
Aid delivery via Rafah is hampered by the fact that the Rafah crossing is designed as an entry point for people, not goods, making it difficult for large convoys to pass through.
The Rafah crossing has been repeatedly bombed, causing disruptions in aid - not to mention deliberate bombing attacks as Israel forces Palestinians to flee via Rafah, and then bombs the crossing.
The war has prompted Israel to conduct more stringent checks on aid as it seeks to prevent the entry of what it calls “dual-use equipment,” products it says are “intended for civilian use but liable to serve military needs for the strengthening of Hamas.”
Trucks carrying aid must pass through three layers of inspection before they can enter the enclave, Griffiths, the UN under-secretary-general, has said.
This is further compounded by Israel's draconian 'dual-use' inspections which create intentional bottlenecks at the Rafah crossing, supposedly prevent the entry of what it calls “dual-use equipment,” products it says are “intended for civilian use but liable to serve military needs for the strengthening of Hamas.”
Among items deemed “dual use” by Israel are power generators, crutches, field hospital kits, inflatable water tanks, wooden boxes of children’s toys and, “perhaps most depressingly, 600 oxygen tanks.”
Provocation or any other citable action may explain, but in no way excuses, the war crime of collective punishment. No one other than Zionists have endorsed war crimes as the way to 'deal with Gazans'.
Israel are 'taking the blame' because they are committing war crimes with impunity, including the murder and subsequent coverup of journalists and aid workers.
As for the unwillingness to take refugees, that is simply facilitating the endgame of Israel - the depopulation of Palestine and contested territories.
This is my every day. "I suck and am worthless; I have no idea why I haven't been terminated yet." And this regularly builds to, "I've never achieved anything in life and, based on my past performance, likely never will. I probably should just kill myself now to save the trouble of doing it later."
I have two young kids though, so my wife thinks that's a bad idea.
