#Web-hosting-Europe

[jamescalvinfr]

Big Bird Web Cheap VPS Hosting

Cheap VPS hosting solutions provide an affordable way to enjoy the benefits of VPS without breaking the bank. These plans are ideal for startups, small businesses, and personal projects. Despite the lower cost, cheap VPS hosting often includes essential features like root access, control panels, and scalable resources. It's important to compare different providers to find the best value for your money, considering factors such as uptime, support, and performance. With cheap VPS hosting, you can achieve reliable and efficient hosting without a significant financial investment.

[workmint]

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Title: Hostinger Review 2024: Affordable, Fast & Now 20% Off!

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[pulsaris]

As soluções de Web Hosting da Pulsaris caracterizam-se sempre por a simplicidade e por a proporcionalidade com as quais são delineadas. Para assegurarmos este propósito definimos vários planos de alojamento de Internet que se adequam a diferentes formatos de presença na Web e também a diferentes cenários de escalabilidade futura dos seus recursos no servidor.

Saiba mais em: www.pulsaris.pt ou em www.pulsaris.eu

[cheapwebhostinguk]

For High-traffic Website, a Dedicated Servers USA Service is the Best Solution

Dedicated Servers USA is a type of web hosting that provides you with a single physical server for your website. This means that you do not have to share resources with other websites, which can give you a significant performance boost.

For high-traffic websites, dedicated servers can be a great way to ensure that your website can handle the load. Here are some of the benefits of dedicated servers usa for high-traffic websites:

More resources: Dedicated Servers have more resources than shared hosting plans, so you can handle more traffic without experiencing performance issues. Better performance: Dedicated Servers USA are not shared with other websites, so you can get the full performance of the server. This means that your website will load faster and be more responsive for your visitors. More control: With dedicated servers, you have more control over the server configuration. This means that you can optimize the server for your specific needs. Flexibility: Dedicated Servers USA are more flexible than shared hosting plans. You can choose the amount of resources you need, and you can upgrade or downgrade your plan as needed.

If you have a high-traffic website, dedicated servers usa is a great way to ensure that your website can handle the load. It will give you more resources, better performance, more control, and flexibility.

[witchpassing]

my sister, @empress-em-kaldwin, has requested that i make a small announcement on her behalf: as of tonight, she is retired from the craft of writing.

i will not expand here on her reasons for doing so, as i wish neither to put words in her mouth nor infringe upon her privacy, but i will say this much: it is my opinion, as one who loves her dearly, that the course of action she has chosen is for the best.

what she has already shared remains publically available via her blog, and will remain so for the foreseeable future; works hosted elsewhere on the web will, similarly, remain as they are.

to those who have found catharsis in my sister's body of work, i offer my condolences and my gratitude. attached to this post are her notes on how she planned to conclude there is no allegory. there is no more to come after this, and there never will be.

thank you, and goodnight.

Morgana backfills current events. Fascist administration is actively self-cannibalizing and will lose control of the press soon, which will be the last straw. Multiple demihuman holdouts across the country are experiencing great success, except the ones who tried nonviolence. Time passes. The administration loses its grip due to main incompetence, and as the chain of command shatters the officer responsible for besieging St. Clotilde's decides to push into the compound as a vanity project. The firefight claims twenty U.S. infantry and six of the private security team, including, as graphically as possible, Val and Lito. The push ends as news breaks that there's been a mass shooting in the Cabinet Room and the administration no longer meaningfully exists. The opposition party steps in immediately to restore order, offering pardons to nonviolent demihuman resisters and "fair trials" to others. Insert a direct reference to the theft of homes historically experienced by people displaced to and subsequently returned from concentration camps. The St. Clotilde's fighters hold conference. Sophie says she's leaving the country to hop train cars in Europe and maybe reconnect with her heritage in Ukraine. Director Lynn, via Isperia, announces his choice to comply with the new administration to reintegrate the hospital into society to continue what he sees as his medical mission. Emily thinks about disappearing into a quiet life with Cordelia. Cordelia indicates lucid understanding of the tragedies they've undergone and a clear unwillingness to accept a return to the previous status quo, again citing the lifetime of abuses Emily has faced. Thus encouraged, Emily and a large portion of the St. Clotilde's team shake hands, exchange contact information, and disperse into the city to continue a program of violent resistance. End. If I were writing this again, I'd be more careful to introduce people longer before killing them, and I'd include an arc about Emily continuing as a camgirl during the siege.

[juliussilver25]

The Silver Collective

In a small, quaint town nestled in the hills, lived a man named Roxas. His ginger hair and beard often caught the attention of passersby, but it was his heart full of love and compassion that truly defined him.

Roxas' days were often filled with acts of kindness, his smile brightening the days of those around him. He would spend hours helping out in the community garden, lending a hand to anyone in need, and always ready with a listening ear. Yet, for reasons unknown to him, the townsfolk kept their distance. They whispered behind his back, casting sideways glances, and treating him like an outsider. Roxas felt a growing ache in his heart, a longing to be understood and accepted.

One crisp autumn morning, Roxas decided to host a small gathering in his modest home. He invited everyone in the town, hoping to bridge the gap and share his love for spirals. Roxas had a unique fascination with spirals—a seemingly simple shape that held profound meaning for him. To most, it was just a quirky obsession, but to Roxas, the spiral represented growth, continuity, and the interconnectedness of all things. In moments of solitude, he would sketch spirals, finding solace and peace in their endless curves.

He decorated his walls with his intricate spiral sketches, filled the room with the comforting aroma of freshly baked bread, and adorned the table with vibrant, spiraled flower arrangements.

As the townsfolk arrived, they cautiously entered his home, their eyes darting around in curiosity. Roxas greeted each guest warmly, offering them a slice of bread and a cup of tea. He shared stories of how the spiral had always been a symbol of hope and resilience in his life, explaining how he saw it as a reminder that life's journey was full of twists and turns, but always moving forward.

Despite his heartfelt explanations, many of the guests struggled to see beyond their preconceived notions. They viewed his fascination with spirals as an oddity, a peculiar quirk that set him apart. Some even found it unsettling, unable to grasp the depth of its meaning to Roxas. As the evening drew to a close, the guests bid their farewells, leaving Roxas alone in his spiraled sanctuary.

Feeling disheartened, Roxas retreated to his small studio. While surfing the web, Roxas stumbled upon an image that captured his heart—a unique silver spiral that shimmered with an otherworldly glow. Unlike anything he had seen before, the spiral radiated a sense of tranquility and peace. Roxas felt an inexplicable connection to the spiral, as if it understood the depths of his soul.

In that moment, he resolved not to let the misunderstanding and ostracism define him. Roxas decided it was time to share this sense of serenity with others. He would spread the message of love and unity. He envisioned a space on the internet where anyone seeking brotherhood, safety, and love could come together and feel valued. Inspired by the newfound peace the silver spiral brought him, the idea of the Silver Collective was born.

With unwavering determination, Roxas set out to create this digital haven. He designed an online platform that radiated warmth and welcoming energy. He posted positive images of unity and diversity with silver as a commonality while incorporating his other love for baseball.

Each post symbolizing the unique journeys of those who joined the collective. Word of the Silver Collective spread, attracting individuals from all corners of the globe—Japan, the Middle East, Europe, and America. People who had felt isolated, misunderstood, or lost found a sense of belonging within its virtual walls. The allure of the silver elements created an atmosphere of peace and unity, drawing people in with its calming glow.

Roxas, with his compassionate heart and understanding nature, became the guiding light for the collective, offering support and love to all who sought it. The silver spiral that had once brought peace to Roxas now radiated its tranquility to countless others, weaving a tapestry of connected lives and shared stories.

Over time, the Silver Collective became more than just a virtual space; it evolved into a symbol of unity and resilience. The shimmering silver drew people together, fostering a global community where men felt safe, cared for, and loved like family.

And so, the Silver Collective thrived, a testament to Roxas' unwavering belief in the power of love and compassion.

Join the Silver Collective! Reach out to @morphmastersilver !

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Matt Davies

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 3, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Jun 04, 2025

On June 1, Ukrainian forces struck deep inside Russia in “Operation Spider Web.” One hundred and seventeen drones, each operated by its own pilot, hit airfields in five regions. Ukraine says the drones hit 41 strategic bombers that had been attacking Ukrainian cities and destroyed at least 13 of them. Russia does not have the industrial capabilities to replace them.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) head Vasyl Malyuk emphasized that military airfields and the aircraft that are bombing Ukraine are “absolutely legitimate targets…[a]ccording to the laws and customs of war.” The SBU estimates the drones did $7 billion of damage, hitting 34% of the aircraft that delivered cruise missiles.

The operation took more than 18 months of planning. It apparently involved sending trucks loaded with wooden cabins that had detachable roofs that could be opened remotely. Unsuspecting truck drivers hauled the cabins to locations near airbases, where the drones launched.

Once the drones were in the air, the vehicles carrying the cabins exploded. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the people who helped with the operation from within Russia had been withdrawn and “are now safe.”

Russia denied that the damage was that extensive, but there is no doubt that the attack was a significant blow to Russia’s war effort, demonstrating as it does that Ukraine can bring the war home. As Kateryna Bonder of the Washington, D.C., think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies notes, June 1 was Military Transport Aviation Day in Russia, a significant holiday for the armed forces. Russian president Vladimir Putin frequently ties operations to significant dates—as when he hosted a number of American lawmakers in Moscow on July 4, 2018—and the choice of this date for an attack on military aircraft threw that habit back at him.

Analysts recognize the Ukrainian attack as a new moment in warfare. Using apparently unwitting civilians, the Ukrainians managed to get their drones close enough to their targets to avoid Russia’s air defense systems; then, Bonder explains, the drones relied on a system that allowed operators to pilot them to the planes’ strategic weaknesses. The drones themselves cost between $600 and $1,000 apiece���and by using deception, technology, and strategic surprise, the Ukrainians managed to destroy billions of dollars worth of aircraft.

Bonder notes that the attack heralds a change in modern warfare, in which technological agility will trump industrial capacity and advantage will go to those countries that can adapt quickly to changing conditions.

Some observers are calling the attack the Russian Pearl Harbor, a reference to the attack by the Japanese Navy on the U.S. Pacific Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, an attack that led to U.S. entry into World War II. But Russia has been attacking Ukraine since 2014 and launched a full-scale invasion in 2022. This attack illustrates extraordinary vulnerability at this point, rather as if Pearl Harbor had happened in early 1945.

A former commander of U.S. Army Europe, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, posted: “For months, some believed that Ukraine didn't 'hold any cards.' Many of us have refuted that claim, saying an inflection point—due to failing Russian war economy and continued lack of Russian leadership adaptation, but especially due to a continued strong Ukrainian government, military and population support and will mixed with their innovative use of Special Operations, un-crewed systems (various drones), and fiber optic capabilities to counter Russian EW—would soon be felt on the battlefield. The coordinated and synchronized attack today, which appears to have decimated much of the Russian air fleet that were based over 4,000 km from the front line, is showing that Ukraine certainly has many aces in the hole.”

Hertling’s comment that some thought Ukraine didn’t hold any cards is a reference to President Donald J. Trump, who ambushed Zelensky in the Oval Office on February 28, warning him that Ukraine must cut a deal with Putin because Zelensky didn’t “have the cards” to win the war. With that meeting, Trump signaled that U.S. policy, which has supported Ukraine since 1994, would change to favor Russia.

In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assistances, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security assurances from the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Russia that they would honor the sovereignty and borders of Ukraine, a promise Russia broke when it invaded Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014.

During the 2024 U.S. presidential election campaign, Trump vowed that he would end the war in Ukraine in a single day, maybe with a single phone call, and as other victories have slipped away from him, he has appeared frustrated that such an achievement has proved more difficult than he thought.

After the Oval Office meeting, the Ukrainians agreed to a 30-day ceasefire on March 11, but Russia has consistently refused to agree unless Ukraine accepts major territorial concessions and permits Russia to dictate that it not join the defensive North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Rather than negotiating, Putin has launched repeated attacks on Ukrainian civil targets. On Sunday, May 25, Russia launched the largest air attack on Ukraine since the war began, and the week before, it launched its largest drone attack.

Those attacks happened even as Trump was talking directly with Putin, allegedly about a ceasefire. The White House policy has skewed heavily toward Russia against Ukraine even to the point that Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff relied on Putin’s own translators during negotiations on February 11, March 13, and April 11. While Putin speaks English, Witkoff does not speak Russian.

Trump claims to be frustrated with Putin, at one point calling him “absolutely crazy,” which prompted Putin’s spokesperson to suggest that Trump was suffering from “emotional overload.” On May 27, Trump appeared to acknowledge his longstanding relationship with Putin when he posted on his social media site: “What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!”

And yet, although more than 80 senators from both parties have co-sponsored a bill to impose stronger sanctions against Russia, Trump has refused to back it, thus stalling it. Meanwhile, Benedict Smith of The Telegraph today covered State Department acting under-secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs Darren Beattie, who dismantled the office that countered disinformation from Russia, China, and Iran. In 2021, Smith notes, Beattie married a Russian national whose uncle has ties to Putin.

Beattie was dismissed from the first Trump administration after attending a white nationalist rally. He has attacked the United States as the “globalist American empire” and said that Putin should infiltrate western institutions to fight “woke” ideology. In 2021, Beattie wrote that the “position [of the U.S.] in the global order [is] rapidly deteriorating” and that he looked forward to its “prestige and power” collapsing. Praising Putin as “brave and strong,” he said that Putin had “done more to advance conservative positions in the US than any Republican” and that “just about every Western institution would improve in quality if it were directly infiltrated and controlled by Putin.”

Beattie also wrote: “NATO is a far worse threat to the health, liberty, freedom, and flourishing of American citizens than Russia and China combined.”

Administration officials said the Ukrainians did not notify them before launching Operation Spider Web.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian forces detonated underwater explosives attached to the Kerch bridge connecting Russia to the occupied Crimean Peninsula. This is Ukraine’s third attack on the bridge since 2022. The SBU said the explosives “severely damaged” bridge supports, but the bridge reopened hours later.

The Ukrainian operations are only the most dramatic developments in ongoing stories today that show the Trump administration is not calling all the shots.

Trump’s vow to negotiate trade deals in place of his tariff walls has not yet produced any of those deals, and the White House today said it’s “likely” that a call will take place this week with China’s leader Xi Jinping. But Lingling Wei of the Wall Street Journal explained yesterday that Xi has made it clear China will play hardball with the U.S.

Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs in the Obama administration, told Phelim Kine, Daniel Desrochers, Megan Messerly, and Ari Hawkins of Politico: “Beijing has a sharp nose for weakness, and for all his bravado, Trump is signaling eagerness—even desperation—to cut a direct deal with Xi. That only stiffens Beijing’s resolve.”

Biden administration National Security Council deputy senior director for China and Taiwan Rush Doshi noted that Chinese officials see Trump as “unpredictable” and that Chinese diplomats don’t usually put the leader “at risk of a potentially embarrassing or unpredictable encounter.”

Jake Lahut of Wired reported yesterday that Trump advisors are themselves tired of right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who has Trump’s ear. Their comments to Lahut appear designed to put pressure on Trump to push her away, a sign that for now, anyway, she is entrenched.

Newark, New Jersey, mayor Ras Baraka, whom Department of Homeland Security agents arrested on May 9, 2025, has sued the acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, and the special agent in charge of the Newark Division of Homeland Security Investigations, Ricky J. Patel, for false arrest and malicious prosecution. He is suing Habba alone for defamation.

The suit outlines Habba’s public statements against Democrats in New Jersey and her vow to “turn…New Jersey red.” It says Habba acted “as a political operative” “in her individual personal capacity” “outside of any function intimately related to the judicial process” when she posted on her social media account that Baraka “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. He has willingly chosen to disregard the law.” After repeated similar public statements, Habba dropped all charges.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem took down her list of “sanctuary cities” she said weren’t cooperating with federal immigration authorities after the National Sheriffs’ Association demanded an apology.

Trump began today by attacking Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) for his opposition to the extraordinary cost of Republicans’ omnibus bill, insisting that the bill would create “tremendous GROWTH.” But this afternoon, billionaire Elon Musk took a firm stand against Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” posting on X: “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

Meanwhile, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) released a report showing that Musk’s net worth has increased by more than $100 billion since Election Day. The report listed the many ways in which he used his position in the federal government to stop investigations into his companies, undercut regulations, win federal contracts, gain access to data and sensitive information, attack his enemies, meddle in elections, and secure foreign deals, all without informing the American people of his conflicts of interest.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[black-arcana]

HALESTORM's LZZY HALE On Decision To Play Five New Songs On Current Tour: 'We Don't Like Depending On Our Past Hits'

HALESTORM, the Pennsylvania-bred and Nashville-based quartet, played five songs from its upcoming "Everest" album during the band's May 15 performance at the Welcome To Rockville festival at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Notably, nearly half of HALESTORM's 10-song set consisted as-yet-unreleased tracks from the group's sixth studio LP: "Fallen Star", "WATCH OUT!", "Rain Your Blood On Me" and "Everest", along with "Darkness Always Wins", which was made available as a single in late April.

Regarding the decision to play so many new songs that are unfamiliar to HALESTORM fans, HALESTORM, frontwoman Lzzy Hale told American Musical Supply (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We don't like calling it in and we don't like depending on our past hits. Our past hits are our past hits and they have moments, and these wonderful people that are in the audience will have that nostalgic [feeling], 'Oh, this is one of my favorite songs.' But for us, it's a feeling. We are so proud of this album and there are certain songs that have to be played today, like have to be. Before the album is out, our freaks need to know these songs. They need to start learning the lyrics. And it's because these are our anthems. New shit has come to light, man."

As for what fans can expect from "Everest", Lzzy said: "I dare say this is our new beginning. We closed a chapter at the end of our thirties. We are now in this beautiful midlife as a band. Arejay's [Hale, drums] 38. The oldest one is Grandpa Storm Joe [Hottinger, guitar]. He's 43. Josh [Smith, bass] and I are both 41. Oh, no — Josh just turned 42 last week… But anyway, we're going through this beautiful midlife as a band, so we want to reintroduce ourselves. This is HALESTORM right now, in the moment."

"Everest" is due out August 8 on Atlantic Records.

A North American tour in support of the LP, "nEVEREST", with Lindsey Stirling and APOCALYPTICA, will kick off on September 11 in Salem, Virginia and conclude on October 11 in Spokane, Washington.

"Everest" was produced by Grammy winner Dave Cobb (Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell),and it "dives deeply, both lyrically and sonically, into [HALESTORM's] mountainous climb over the last couple decades," according to a press release.

"Our album 'Everest' is a story of our journey as a band, full of beautiful endings and new beginnings," Lzzy previously said in a statement. "We weave a tangled web of melancholy, frustration, anger and the vast purgatory of love and love lost. It is a rollercoaster of epic musical detours, great songwriting and completely unhinged twists and turns. 'Everest' is an auditory representation of the four pillars of HALESTORM. Let us reintroduce ourselves and invite you into our world…if you dare."

Rolling Stone said of "Darkness Always Wins", "What the song has going for is its catchy, brooding, and dramatic in all the ways we love HALESTORM songs to be," and Revolver noted "The arrangement remains lean even as the amps begin to crank into the red, though 'Darkness Always Wins' still sports some exquisite minor-key melodicism, a metal-chunked bridge, loud-as-hell requiem bells and a classically rippin' rock guitar solo."

The newly announced "nEVEREST" tour follows an epic run first supporting IRON MAIDEN in Europe and dates with VOLBEAT in the U.S. with a one night-only-performance at BLACK SABBATH's final show in Birmingham, England.

HALESTORM's music has earned multiple platinum and gold certifications from the RIAA, and the band has earned a reputation as a powerful live music force, headlining sold-out shows and topping festival bills around the world, and sharing the stage with icons including HEAVEN & HELL, Alice Cooper, Joan Jett and JUDAS PRIEST. Additionally, Lzzy was named the first female brand ambassador for Gibson and served as host of AXS TV's "A Year In Music".

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Gargantuan black hole jets are biggest seen yet

Astronomers have spotted the biggest pair of black hole jets ever seen, spanning 23 million light-years in total length. That's equivalent to lining up 140 Milky Way galaxies back to back. 

"This pair is not just the size of a solar system, or a Milky Way; we are talking about 140 Milky Way diameters in total," says Martijn Oei, a Caltech postdoctoral scholar and lead author of a new Nature paper reporting the findings. "The Milky Way would be a little dot in these two giant eruptions."

The jet megastructure, nicknamed Porphyrion after a giant in Greek mythology, dates to a time when our universe was 6.3 billion years old, or less than half its present age of 13.8 billion years. These fierce outflows—with a total power output equivalent to trillions of suns—shoot out from above and below a supermassive black hole at the heart of a remote galaxy. 

Prior to Porphyrion's discovery, the largest confirmed jet system was Alcyoneus, also named after a giant in Greek mythology. Alcyoneus, which was discovered in 2022 by the same team that found Porphyrion, spans the equivalent of around 100 Milky Ways. For comparison, the well-known Centaurus A jets, the closest major jet system to Earth, spans 10 Milky Ways.

The latest finding suggests that these giant jet systems may have had a larger influence on the formation of galaxies in the young universe than previously believed. Porphyrion existed during an early epoch when the wispy filaments that connect and feed galaxies, known as the cosmic web, were closer together than they are now. That means enormous jets like Porphyrion reached across a greater portion of the cosmic web compared to jets in the local universe.

"Astronomers believe that galaxies and their central black holes co-evolve, and one key aspect of this is that jets can spread huge amounts of energy that affect the growth of their host galaxies and other galaxies near them,” says co-author George Djorgovski, professor of astronomy and data science at Caltech. "This discovery shows that their effects can extend much farther out than we thought."

Unveiling a Vast Population 

The Porphyrion jet system is the biggest found so far during a sky survey that has revealed a shocking number of the faint megastructures: more than 10,000. This massive population of gargantuan jets was found using Europe's LOFAR (LOw Frequency ARray) radio telescope. 

While hundreds of large jet systems were known before the LOFAR observations, they were thought to be rare and on average smaller in size than the thousands of systems uncovered by the radio telescope.

"Giant jets were known before we started the campaign, but we had no idea that there would turn out to be so many," says Martin Hardcastle, second author of the study and a professor of astrophysics at the University of Hertfordshire in England. "Usually when we get a new observational capability, such as LOFAR's combination of wide field of view and very high sensitivity to extended structures, we find something new, but it was still very exciting to see so many of these objects emerging."

Back in 2018, Oei and his colleagues began using LOFAR to study not black hole jets but the cosmic web of wispy filaments that crisscrosses the space between galaxies. As the team inspected the radio images for the faint filaments, they began to notice several strikingly long jet systems. 

"When we first found the giant jets, we were quite surprised," says Oei, who is also affiliated with Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands. "We had no idea that there were this many."

To systematically search for more hidden jets, the team inspected the radio images by eye, used machine-learning tools to scan the images for signs of the looming jets, and enlisted the help of citizen scientists around the globe to eyeball the images further. A paper describing their most recent batch of giant outflows, containing more than 8,000 jet pairs, has been accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. 

Lurking in the Past

To find the galaxy from which Porphyrion originated, the team used the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope(GMRT) in India along with ancillary data from a project called Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument(DESI), which operates from Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. The observations pinpointed the home of the jets to a hefty galaxy about 10 times more massive than our Milky Way.  

The team then used the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawai‘i to show that Porphyrion is 7.5 billion light-years from Earth. "Up until now, these giant jet systems appeared to be a phenomenon of the recent universe," Oei says. "If distant jets like these can reach the scale of the cosmic web, then every place in the universe may have been affected by black hole activity at some point in cosmic time," Oei says.

The observations from Keck also revealed that Porphyrion emerged from what is called a radiative-mode active black hole, as opposed to one that is in a jet-mode state. When supermassive black holes become active—in other words, when their immense forces of gravity tug on and heat up surrounding material—they are thought to either emit energy in the form of radiation or jets. Radiative-mode black holes were more common in the young, or distant, universe, while jet-mode ones are more common in the present-day universe. 

The fact that Porphyrion came from a radiative-mode black hole came as a surprise because astronomers did not know this mode could produce such huge and powerful jets. What is more, because Porphyrion lies in the distant universe where radiative-mode black holes abound, the finding implies there may be a lot more colossal jets left to be found.

"We may be looking at the tip of the iceberg," Oei says. "Our LOFAR survey only covered 15 percent of the sky. And most of these giant jets are likely difficult to spot, so we believe there are many more of these behemoths out there."

Ongoing Mysteries

How the jets can extend so far beyond their host galaxies without destabilizing is still unclear. "Martijn's work has shown us that there isn't anything particularly special about the environments of these giant sources that causes them to reach those large sizes," says Hardcastle, who is an expert in the physics of black hole jets. "My interpretation is that we need an unusually long-lived and stable accretion event around the central, supermassive black hole to allow it to be active for so long—about a billion years—and to ensure that the jets keep pointing in the same direction over all of that time. What we're learning from the large number of giants is that this must be a relatively common occurrence."

As a next step, Oei wants to better understand how these megastructures influence their surroundings. The jets spread cosmic rays, heat, heavy atoms, and magnetic fields throughout the space between galaxies. Oei is specifically interested in finding out the extent to which giant jets spread magnetism. "The magnetism on our planet allows life to thrive, so we want to understand how it came to be," he says. "We know magnetism pervades the cosmic web, then makes its way into galaxies and stars, and eventually to planets, but the question is: Where does it start? Have these giant jets spread magnetism through the cosmos?"

The Nature study, "Black hole jets on the scale of the cosmic web," was funded by the Dutch Research Council, the European Research Council, the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council, the UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship, and the European Union. Other Caltech authors include graduate student Antonio Rodriguez. Additional authors are Roland Timmerman of Durham University; Reinout J. van Weeren, Huub J.A. Röttgering, and Huib T. Intema of Leiden University (Timmerman is also affiliated with Leiden University); Aivin R.D.J.G.I.B. Gast of the University of Oxford; Andrea Botteon and Francesco de Gasperin of the Institute for Radio Astronomy of Italy's National Institute of Astrophysics; Daniel Stern of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech for NASA; and Gabriela Calistro Rivera of the European Southern Observatory and the German Aerospace Center.

IMAGE: An artist's illustration of the longest black hole jet system ever observed. Nicknamed Porphyrion after a mythological Greek giant, these jets span roughly 7 megaparsecs, or 23 million light-years. That is equivalent to lining up 140 Milky Way galaxies back-to-back. Porphyrion dates back to a time when our universe was less than half its present age. During this early epoch, the wispy filaments that connect and feed galaxies, known as the cosmic web, were closer together than they are now. Consequently, this colossal jet pair extended across a larger portion of the cosmic web compared to similar jets in our nearby universe. Porphyrion's discovery thus implies that jets in the early universe may have influenced the formation of galaxies to a greater extent than previously believed.  Credit E. Wernquist / D. Nelson (IllustrisTNG Collaboration) / M. Oei

[mariacallous]

The global backlash against the second Donald Trump administration keeps on growing. Canadians have boycotted US-made products, anti–Elon Musk posters have appeared across London amid widespread Tesla protests, and European officials have drastically increased military spending as US support for Ukraine falters. Dominant US tech services may be the next focus.

There are early signs that some European companies and governments are souring on their use of American cloud services provided by the three so-called hyperscalers. Between them, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) host vast swathes of the internet and keep thousands of businesses running. However, some organizations appear to be reconsidering their use of these companies’ cloud services—including servers, storage, and databases—citing uncertainties around privacy and data access fears under the Trump administration.

“There’s a huge appetite in Europe to de-risk or decouple the over-dependence on US tech companies, because there is a concern that they could be weaponized against European interests,” says Marietje Schaake, a nonresident fellow at Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center and a former, decade-long member of the European Parliament.

The moves may already be underway. On March 18, politicians in the Netherlands House of Representatives passed eight motions asking the government to reduce reliance on US tech companies and move to European alternatives. Days before, more than 100 organizations signed an open letter to European officials calling for the continent to become “more technologically independent” and saying the status quo creates “security and reliability risks.”

Two European-based cloud service companies, Exoscale and Elastx, tell WIRED they have seen an uptick in potential customers looking to abandon US cloud providers over the last two weeks—with some already starting to make the jump. Multiple technology advisers say they are having widespread discussions about what it would take to uproot services, data, and systems.

“We have more demand from across Europe,” says Mathias Nöbauer, the CEO of Swiss-based hosting provider Exoscale, adding there has been an increase in new customers seeking to move away from cloud giants. “Some customers were very explicit,” Nöbauer says. “Especially customers from Denmark being very explicit that they want to move away from US hyperscalers because of the US administration and what they said about Greenland.”

“It's a big worry about the uncertainty around everything. And from the Europeans’ perspective—that the US is maybe not on the same team as us any longer,” says Joakim Öhman, the CEO of Swedish cloud provider Elastx. “Those are the drivers that bring people or organizations to look at alternatives.”

Concerns have been raised about the current data-sharing agreement between the EU and US, which is designed to allow information to move between the two continents while protecting people’s rights. Multiple previous versions of the agreement have been struck down by European courts. At the end of January, Trump fired three Democrats from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), which helps manage the current agreement. The move could undermine or increase uncertainty around the agreement. In addition, Öhman says, he has heard concerns from firms about the CLOUD Act, which can allow US law enforcement to subpoena user data from tech companies, potentially including data that is stored in systems outside of the US.

Dave Cottlehuber, the founder of SkunkWerks, a small tech infrastructure firm in Austria, says he has been moving the company’s few servers and databases away from US providers to European services since the start of the year. “First and foremost, it’s about values,” Cottlehuber says. “For me, privacy is a right not a privilege.” Cottlehuber says the decision to move is easier for a small business such as his, but he argues it removes some taxes that are paid to the Trump administration. “The best thing I can do is to remove that small contribution of mine, and also at the same time, make sure that my customers’ privacy is respected and preserved,” Cottlehuber says.

Steffen Schmidt, the CEO of Medicusdata, a company that provides text-to-speech services to doctors and hospitals in Europe, says that having data in Europe has always “been a must,” but his customers have been asking for more in recent weeks. “Since the beginning of 2025, in addition to data residency guarantees, customers have actively asked us to use cloud providers that are natively European companies,” Schmidt says, adding that some of his services have been moved to Nöbauer’s Exoscale.

Harry Staight, a spokesperson for AWS, says it is “not accurate” that customers are moving from AWS to EU alternatives. “Our customers have control over where they store their data and how it is encrypted, and we make the AWS Cloud sovereign-by-design,” Straight says. “AWS services support encryption with customer managed keys that are inaccessible to AWS, which means customers have complete control of who accesses their data.” Staight says the membership of the PCLOB “does not impact” the agreements around EU-US data sharing and that the CLOUD Act has “additional safeguards for cloud content.” Google and Microsoft declined to comment.

The potential shift away from US tech firms is not just linked to cloud providers. Since January 15, visitors to the European Alternatives website increased more than 1,200 percent. The site lists everything from music streaming services to DDoS protection tools, says Marko Saric, a cofounder of European cloud analytics service Plausible. “We can certainly feel that something is going on,” Saric says, claiming that during the first 18 days of March the company has “beaten” the net recurring revenue growth it saw in January and February. “This is organic growth which cannot be explained by any seasonality or our activities,” he says.

While there are signs of movement, the impact is likely to be small—at least for now. Around the world, governments and businesses use multiple cloud services—such as authentication measures, hosting, data storage, and increasingly data centers providing AI processing—from the big three cloud and tech service providers. Cottlehuber says that, for large businesses, it may take many months, if not longer, to consider what needs to be moved, the risks involved, plus actually changing systems. “What happens if you have a hundred petabytes of storage, it's going to take years to move over the internet,” he says.

For years, European companies have struggled to compete with the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Amazon’s cloud services and technical infrastructure, which make billions every year. It may also be difficult to find similar services on the scale of those provided by alternative European cloud firms.

“If you are deep into the hyperscaler cloud ecosystem, you’ll struggle to find equivalent services elsewhere,” says Bert Hubert, an entrepreneur and former government regulator, who says he has heard of multiple new cloud migrations to US firms being put on hold or reconsidered. Hubert has argued that it is no longer “safe” for European governments to be moved to US clouds and that European alternatives can’t properly compete. “We sell a lot of fine wood here in Europe. But not that much furniture,” he says. However, that too could change.

Schaake, the former member of the European Parliament, says a combination of new investments, a different approach to buying public services, and a Europe-first approach or investing in a European technology stack could help to stimulate any wider moves on the continent. “The dramatic shift of the Trump administration is very tangible,” Schaake says. “The idea that anything could happen and that Europe should fend for itself is clear. Now we need to see the same kind of pace and leadership that we see with defense to actually turn this into meaningful action.”

[laanirouche]

2025 Homevalley Global Entrepreneurs Competition

Registration Now Open

March 1, 2025 — The highly anticipated 2025 Homevalley Global Entrepreneurs Competition officially launched today, with global registration now open. Innovators and entrepreneurs worldwide are invited to participate, with registration available until May 10. This competition aims to build a global entrepreneurial ecosystem, offering a dedicated investment fund of RMB 300 million to recruit high-quality projects and accelerate technological innovation and industrial upgrades in Shanghai.

Key Highlights of the Competition

Expanded Global Reach

Five major competition zones across 18 Cities/Countries: Including ​North America （West/ East）, ​Europe, ​Asia, and ​Oceania.

Six Competition Tracks

New track: Advanced Equipment Manufacturing, joining Artificial Intelligence & Software Technology, Electronic Information Technology, Life Sciences & Health, Green Environmental Protection, and Cultural Innovation/New Consumer Trends.

Generous Awards & Funding

150 award slots across all stages, supported by a RMB 300 million investment fund.

Individual project funding ranges from RMB 3 million to RMB 10 million.

Post-Competition Benefits - Shanghai Incubation Program

Finalists gain access to a 1-6 month fully funded incubation program in Shanghai, covering flights, accommodation, workspace, and mentorship.

Policy support via integrated municipal and district-level resources.

Global Talent Scout Incentives

"Global Talent Scout Award" : Up to RMB 500,000 for individuals/organizations recommending outstanding projects.

Prize Structure

Regional Preliminary & Semi-Final Rounds:

Preliminary Awards:

First Prize: ​$1,000

Second Prize: ​$500

Third Prize: ​$300

Semi-Final Awards:

First Prize: ​$5,000

Second Prize: ​$3,000

Third Prize: ​$1,000

Special prizes include ​Amazon Web Services credits (up to $25,000).

Global Finals:

Gold Award: ​RMB 100,000

Silver Award: ​RMB 50,000

Bronze Award: ​RMB 30,000

Project Implementation Support

Funding: ​RMB 3–10 million for outstanding projects.

Talent Subsidies: Up to ​RMB 2 million based on qualifications and location.

Office Space: Free workspace up to 300 sqm in Shanghai.

Residency Support: Shanghai residency quotas for up to 5 core team members.

Credit Financing: Loans up to RMB 30 million.

Competition Timeline

Registration: March 1 – May 10, 2025

Regional Preliminary Rounds: May 11–31, 2025

Global Semi-Finals: June 2025

Global Finals: August 2025

Eligibility

Open to global innovators who are founders or largest shareholders of submitted projects, regardless of nationality.

Organizers & Partners

Hosted by Homevalley, with support from 100+ investors, angel networks, and media partners. The competition bridges startups with Shanghai and Yangtze River Delta industrial resources.

How to Apply

Scan the QR code below or visit the official website: 

www.homevalley.net （Home）

www.homevalleycapital.com (Abroad)

For details, follow the official WeChat account ​**"归心谷"** or email service@homevalley.net.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

#20yrsago Massive victory at WIPO! https://web.archive.org/web/20041011200804/http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/ip-health/2004-October/006997.html

#20yrsago Ballmer: iPod users are thieves https://web.archive.org/web/20050113051129/http://management.silicon.com/itpro/0,39024675,39124642,00.htm

#20yrsago Chinese Communist Youth host Disney promo tour http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3683894.stm

#20yrsago Canada IP “protection” protects nothing https://web.archive.org/web/20041012032024/https://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_10/murray/index.html

#20yrsago BBC News proxy makes the service more Web-like https://web.archive.org/web/20041009182027/http://www.whitelabel.org/archives/002248.html

#15yrsago US gov’t drops price of journals from $17k to $0, adds XML to Federal Register! https://public.resource.org/gpo.gov/

#10yrsago Sourcecode for “unpatchable” USB exploit now on Github https://www.wired.com/2014/10/code-published-for-unfixable-usb-attack/

#10yrsago Walmart heirs’ net worth exceeds that of population of a city the size of Phoenix https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/walmart-walton-heirs-net-worth-cities/

#10yrsago HK police arrest “triad gangsters” who attacked Umbrella Revolution camps https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-29488002

#10yrsago NSA conducts massive surveillance without ANY Congressional oversight https://www.aclu.org/news/national-security/new-documents-shed-light-one-nsas-most-powerful-tools

#5yrsago Brian K Vaughan and Cliff Chiang bring Paper Girls in for a perfect landing https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/04/brian-k-vaughan-and-cliff-chiang-bring-paper-girls-in-for-a-perfect-landing/

#5yrsago North Carolina’s new botanical “First in Fly-Eat” license plates https://ncbg.unc.edu/support/venus-flytrap-license-plate/

#5yrsago Even if you pay off your student loan, be prepared to spend decades trying to get bottom-feeding debt-buyers to acknowledge it https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/10/01/a-minneapolis-womans-bizarre-and-surreal-decadeslong-loan-dispute

#5yrsago Google will now allow you to set your data history to self-destruct https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/technology/personaltech/google-data-self-destruct-privacy.html

#5yrsago Nobody knows how to quit vaping https://www.wired.com/story/so-you-want-to-quit-vaping-no-one-actually-knows-how/

#5yrsago The Hippocratic License: A new software license that prohibits uses that contravene the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/04/the-hippocratic-license-a-new-software-license-that-prohibits-uses-that-contravene-the-un-universal-declaration-of-human-rights/

#5yrsago Next-level parenting: crocheting a freehand, glow-in-the-dark Alien Xenomorph kids’ costume https://twitter.com/crochetverse/status/1179852380243972096

#5yrsago Consumer Reports documents the deceptive cable industry practices used to hike real prices 24% over advertised ones https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CR_WhatTheFeeReport_6F_sm-1.pdf

#5yrsago “Martian Chronicles”: Escape Pod releases a reading of my YA story about rich sociopaths colonizing Mars https://escapepod.org/2019/10/03/escape-pod-700-martian-chronicles-part-1/

#5yrsago Europe’s highest court Facebook verdict hits a new low for technomagical thinking https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/04/europes-highest-court-facebook-verdict-hits-a-new-low-for-technomagical-thinking/

#1yrago For 40 years, Big Meat has openly colluded to rig prices https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/04/dont-let-your-meat-loaf/#meaty-beaty-big-and-bouncy

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

[b0ringasfuck]

Web tax, protocolli e OS liberi, vaffanculo DMCA e accordi contro il reverse engineering altro che altri dazi come ritorsione.

[topwebhostingservice]

How Server Location Impacts Your Website

Choosing the right web hosting service is critical to the success of any online presence. Among the various factors to consider, server location stands out as a key element. Server Location refers to the geographic location of the data centre where your website’s files and data are stored. While it might seem like a technical detail, its influence on website speed, performance, and user satisfaction cannot be overstated.

Website Speed and Latency

The closer the server is to your website visitors, the lower the latency or delay in data transfer. For instance, if your server is located in Europe but your target audience is in Asia, the physical distance can cause delays in loading time. Faster websites not only create a better user experience but also encourage visitors to stay longer. Research shows that users are more likely to leave a site if it takes more than a few seconds to load, making server proximity critical for reducing bounce rates.

Boosting SEO Performance

Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a vital role in driving organic traffic to your website. Server location directly affects page load speed, which is a crucial ranking factor for search engines like Google. Additionally, if your website is targeting a specific region, having a server in that region can enhance its visibility in local search results. This geotargeting benefit can give your site a competitive edge in regional markets.

Enhancing User Experience

Modern internet users expect instant results when browsing websites. A server closer to your target audience ensures they can quickly access content, stream videos, or complete transactions without delays. A smooth user experience not only improves customer satisfaction but also increases the likelihood of conversions, whether it’s a sale, a subscription, or another desired action.

Meeting Legal and Compliance Requirements

Different regions have distinct laws and regulations regarding data storage and privacy. For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union mandates strict control over the storage and processing of personal data. Hosting your website on a server in a compliant region helps you meet these legal requirements. This ensures your business avoids fines or legal complications while building trust with your users.

Data Security and Reliability

Server location also influences the security of your website. Data centers in certain regions are better equipped to handle threats, including cyberattacks and natural disasters. Locations with advanced cybersecurity infrastructure and disaster recovery systems provide an added layer of protection, ensuring your website remains operational even in adverse conditions.

Global Reach with Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

If your website targets a global audience, relying on a single server may not be sufficient. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) can help bridge the gap by distributing copies of your website across multiple servers worldwide. This ensures faster delivery of content to users regardless of their location. CDNs optimize the user experience and help businesses scale efficiently.

Conclusion

The server location in web hosting is a fundamental factor that impacts the speed, accessibility, and reliability of your website. It influences user experience, search engine rankings, data security, and legal compliance. When choosing a web hosting service, prioritize server locations that align with your target audience and business goals. By making an informed decision, you can ensure a faster, safer, and more successful online presence for your website.

[oaresearchpaper]

Taxonomic Analysis of Gastropod Snail Occurrence in Agroecosystems

Abstract

Gastropods have a very important position in our ecosystem as pest, intermediate host, food source and as bioindicators for environmental quality but the taxonomic work regarding snail species has not been carried out in this part of the world after 19th century. Total 19290 snails were collected from agro ecosystem of Faisalabad for their taxonomic characterization. The identification of the specimens was made on the basis of number of whorls, coiling of the shell, umbilicus, shape, colour, shape of the aperture, presence or absence of operculum, height (mm), diameter (mm) and the diameter of the aperture (mm) using vernier caliper. Microscopic identification was done by using recent identification keys and diagrammatic description provided in them. We found snails belonging to 2 orders 7 families 9 genera and 15 species. This is a baseline study to get the basic information about the malacofaunna of Faisalabad which will be important in various applied fields. However, new sibling species might be proposed of Zooctecus insularis after molecular characterization.

Introduction

Land snails are generally considered as typical herbivores, fungivores and detrivores (Burch and Pearce, 1990) that show intraspecific competition at weak levels (Cain, 1983, Barker and May hill, 1999). Annual litter input of about 0.5% per year can be consumed by land snail communities (Mason, 1970). They are designated as serious pests of ripening fruits i.e. tomatoes and strawberries as they are grown near the ground. However, they also depend on foliage and fruit of some trees like citrus (Flint, 2003).

It has an important position in the food webs of different ecosystems as snails are mostly consumed by fish, water fowl, crayfish, leeches and sciomyzid flies (SWCSMH, 2006). Most of the studies on the land snails have been carried out approximately a century before in the Indian subcontinent. Hutton (1842) collected and studied the land snails of neighborhood of Bolan pass, from Suliman range and the hills of south laying west to Indus. According to the Blanford and Godwin (1908), in the areas of Saw at, Dir or Chitral no terrestrial snails have been observed except Petraeus snails, while in the Kuram valley only very few species were found. They worked chiefly on the conchological side of the families Testacellidae and Zonitidae of Indian subcontinent.

Pokryszko et al. (2009) collected 3500 dry shells and described 22 species out of which 12 were new species from 77 localities. The specimens were preserved in alcohol. The shell variations in most species were described and nine species were illustrated with Figs of detailed reproductive system. In the Northern area of Pakistan there is highest diversity of Pupilliods due to wetter climate and wider altitudinal range. Ten out of twenty two species were considered to be endemic to Pakistan, while the distribution of the rest of species was extended to other regions i.e. Asia, Europe and Holarctic.

Pupilloid fauna showed great diversity of Palaearctic/Holarctic influence on general. Recently researches have been conducted on the biodiversity of soil macro inverteberate in the low and high input fields of wheat and sugarcane in District Faisalabad (Rana, 2012; Siddiqui, 2005) with the major focus on impact of chemical on the diversity of different macroinverteberates. Rana (2000) studied the ecological distribution of earthworm species along some water bodies in the agro ecosystem of Faisalabad Division. Khanum (2010) studied the taxonomy of the plant nematodes of sugarcane fields. 

Very less work has been done with reference to the taxonomy and ecology of snails in the agro ecosystem. Previously Ali (2005), Altaf (2006) and Rahman (2011) have attempted to study the diversity of snails in agro ecosystem of Faisalabad which has augmented the previous information of the malacofaunna in Faisalabad. The work of the Ali (2005) and Altaf, (2006) was just about the sugarcane fields and wheat fields near Gutti village area; however Rahman (2011) covered only few villages of Faisalabad focusing only one family of snails. The diversity index was found highly significant in agricultural fields however the results were non-significant in case of ditches. It can be concluded that due to environmental degradation and water pollution the snail diversity is non significant, in ditches however in the agro ecosystem it is a pest (Altaf et al. 2016).

This study is focuses mainly on the taxonomic account of the different species found in the agro ecosystem of Faisalabad, Pakistan.

Source : Taxonomic Analysis of Gastropod Snail Occurrence in Agroecosystems | InformativeBD

[guzscode]

Do You Want Some Cookies?

Doing the project-extrovert is being an interesting challenge. Since the scope of this project shrunk down a lot since the first idea, one of the main things I dropped is the use of a database, mostly to reduce any cost I would have with hosting one. So things like authentication needs to be fully client-side and/or client-stored. However, this is an application that doesn't rely on JavaScript, so how I can store in the client without it? Well, do you want some cookies?

Why Cookies

I never actually used cookies in one of my projects before, mostly because all of them used JavaScript (and a JS framework), so I could just store everything using the Web Storage API (mainly localstorage). But now, everything is server-driven, and any JavaScript that I will add to this project, is to enhance the experience, and shouldn't be necessary to use the application. So the only way to store something in the client, using the server, are Cookies.

TL;DR Of How Cookies Work

A cookie, in some sense or another, is just an HTTP Header that is sent every time the browser/client makes a request to the server. The server sends a Set-Cookie header on the first response, containing the value and optional "rules" for the cookie(s), which then the browser stores locally. After the cookie(s) is stored in the browser, on every subsequent request to the server, a Cookie header will be sent together, which then the server can read the values from.

Pretty much all websites use cookies some way or another, they're one of the first implementations of state/storage on the web, and every browser supports them pretty much. Also, fun note, because it was one of the first ways to know what user is accessing the website, it was also heavy abused by companies to track you on any website, the term "third-party cookie" comes from the fact that a cookie, without the proper rules or browser protection, can be [in summary] read from any server that the current websites calls. So things like advertising networks can set cookies on your browser to know and track your profile on the internet, without you even knowing or acknowledging. Nowadays, there are some regulations, primarily in Europe with the General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), that's why nowadays you always see the "We use Cookies" pop-up in websites you visit, which I beg you to actually click "Decline" or "More options" and remove any cookie labeled "Non-essential".

Small Challenges and Workarounds

But returning to the topic, using this simple standard wasn't so easy as I thought. The code itself isn't that difficult, and thankfully Go has an incredible standard library for handling HTTP requests and responses. The most difficult part was working around limitations and some security concerns.

Cookie Limitations

The main limitation that I stumbled was trying to have structured data in a cookie. JSON is pretty much the standard for storing and transferring structured data on the web, so that was my first go-to. However, as you may know, cookies can't use any of these characters: ( ) < > @ , ; : \ " / [ ] ? = { }. And well, when a JSON file looks {"like":"this"}, you can think that using JSON is pretty much impossible. Go's http.SetCookie function automatically strips " from the cookie's value, and the other characters can go in the Set-Cookie header, but can cause problems.

On my first try, I just noticed about the stripping of the " character (and not the other characters), so I needed to find a workaround. And after some thinking, I started to try implementing my own data structure format, I'm learning Go, and this could be an opportunity to also understand how Go's JSON parsing and how mostly struct tags works and try to implement something similar.

My idea was to make something similar to JSON in one way or another, and I ended up with:

Which, for reference, in JSON would be:

This format is something very easy to implement, just using strings.Split does most of the job of extracting the values and strings.Join to "encode" the values back. Yes, this isn't a "production ready" format or anything like that, but it is hacky and just a small fix for small amounts of structured data.

Go's Struct Tags

Go has an interesting and, to be honest, very clever feature called Struct Tags, which are a simple way to add metadata to Structs. They are simple strings that are added to each field and can contain key-value data:

Said metadata can be used by things such the encoding/json package to transform said struct into a JSON object with the correct field names:

Without said tags, the output JSON would be:

This works both for encoding and decoding the data, so the package can correctly map the JSON field "access_token" to the struct field "Token".

And well, these tokens aren't limited or some sort of special syntax, any key-value pair can be added and accessed by the reflect package, something like this:

Learning this feature and the reflect package itself, empowered me to do a very simple encoding and decoding of the format where:

Can be transformed into:

And that's what I did, and the [basic] implementation source code just has 150 lines of code, not counting the test file to be sure it worked. It works, and now I can store structured data in cookies.

Legacy in Less Than 3 Weeks

And today, I found that I can just use url.PathEscape, and it escapes all ( ) < > @ , ; : \ " / [ ] ? = { } characters, so it can be used both in URLs and, surprise, cookie values. Not only that, but something like base64.URLEncoding would also work just fine. You live, and you learn y'know, that's what I love about engineering.

Security Concerns and Refactoring Everything

Another thing that was a limitation and mostly worry about me, is storing access tokens on cookies. A cookie by default isn't that secure, and can be easily accessed by JavaScript and browser extensions, there are ways to block and secure cookies, but even then, you can just open the developer tools of the browser and see them easily. Even though the only way to something malicious end up happening with these tokens are if the actual client end up being compromised, which means the user has bigger problems than just a social media token being leaked, it's better to try preventing these issues nonetheless (and learn something new as always).

The encryption and decryption part isn't so difficult, Go already provides packages for encryption under the crypto module. So I just implemented an encryption that cyphers a string based on a key environment variable, which I will change every month or so to improve security even more.

Doing this encryption on every endpoint would be repetitive, so adding a middleware would be a solution. I already made a small abstraction over the default Go's router (the DefaultMuxServer struct), which I'm going to be honest, wasn't the best abstraction, since it deviated a lot from Go's default HTTP package conventions. This deviation also would difficult the implementation of a generic middleware that I could use in any route or even any function that handles HTTP requests, a refactor was needed. Refactoring made me end up rewriting a lot of code and simplifying a lot of the code from the project. All routes now are structs that implement the http.Handler interface, so I can use them outside the application router and test them if needed; The router ends up being just a helper for having all routes in a struct, instead of multiple mux.HandleFunc calls in a function, and also handles adding middlewares to all routes; Middlewares end up being just a struct that can return a wrapped HandlerFunc function, which the router calls using a custom/wrapped implementation of the http.ResponseWriter interface, so middlewares can actually modify the content and headers of the response. The refactor had 1148 lines added, and 524 removed, and simplified a lot of the code.

For the encryption middleware, it encrypts all cookie values that are set in the Set-Cookie header, and decrypts any incoming cookie. Also, the encrypted result is encoded to base64, so it can safely be set in the Set-Cookie header after being cyphered.

---

And that's what I worked in around these last three days, today being the one where I actually used all this functionality and actually implemented the OAuth2 process, using an interface and a default implementation that I can easily reimplement for some special cases like Mastodon's OAuth process (since the token and OAuth application needs to be created on each instance separately). It's being interesting learning Go and trying to be more effective and implement things the way the language wants. Everything is being very simple nonetheless, just needing to align my mind with the language mostly.

It has been a while since I wrote one of these long posts, and I remembered why, it takes hours to do, but it's worth the work I would say. Unfortunately I can't write these every day, but hopefully they will become more common, so I can log better the process of working on the projects. Also, for the 2 persons that read this blog, give me some feedback! I really would like to know if there's anything I could improve in the writing, anything that ended up being confusing, or even how I could write the image description for the code snippets, I'm not sure how to make them more accessible for screen reader users.

Nevertheless, completing this project will also help to make these post, since the conversion for Markdown to Tumblr's NPF in the web editor sucks ass, and I know I can do it better.