Does anyone know if any quality meltblown tissue is made here and if so where can I buy a roll?

Our tech map is European-centric so I thought this community would like to see it. Scroll down a bit on the linked page.

All suggestions for updates welcome!

Over the past few months, I embarked on a rewarding digital journey to move away from US big tech and towards more European [EU], open source [FOSS], privacy-oriented [P], and decentralized [D] alternatives.

I'm sharing my experience here in case it can be useful to others, as well as to gather any additional thoughts or suggestions:

• Desktop OS: Microsoft Windows 11 --> OpenSUSE Tumbleweed + KDE [EU][FOSS]
• Web browser: Google Chrome --> Brave --> Vivaldi --> Mozilla Firefox + Strict privacy settings, uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Conset-O-Matic [FOSS][P]
• Email: Gmail --> Infomaniak Mail [EU][FOSS]
• Calendar: Google Calendar --> Infomaniak Calendar [EU][FOSS] + OneCalendar [EU]
• Files: Dropbox --> Infomaniak kDrive [EU][FOSS]
• Photos: Google Photos --> Infomaniak kDrive [EU][FOSS]
• Notes: Google Keep --> Notesnook [FOSS][P]
• Social Media:
  • Facebook --> Nothing
  • Twitter/X --> Mastodon (mas.to) [EU][FOSS][D]
  • Reddit --> Lemmy (lemm.ee) [EU][FOSS][D]
• AI Chatbot: OpenAI ChatGPT --> Mistral AI Le Chat [EU]
• Videos: Youtube --> Unwatched [EU][FOSS][P]
• Podcasts: Apple Podcasts --> Spotify --> Pocket Casts [FOSS]
• Translate: Google Translate --> DeepL [EU]
• Maps: Google Maps --> Organic Maps [EU][FOSS][P]
• Weather: Apple Weather --> YR [EU]
• Online payments: PayPal --> Revolut [EU]
• Password manager: LastPass --> Mozilla Firefox --> Bitwarden [FOSS][P]
• Online shopping: Amazon --> Cdiscount [EU]
• Travel booking: Booking.com --> Direct booking

And here's the list of things I couldn't let go of:

• Mobile OS: iOS | I have a business iPhone which is also my personal phone
• Messaging: WhatsApp | The network effect is too big here: family, friends, local businesses, etc
• Streaming services: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ | These come basically for free with my ISP and are too convenient for the moment (esp. w/ kids)

Anyone willing to recomend a provider who offers #domainname #nextcloud, #email and #wordpress #saas ? Ideally #uk or #eu. Its for a sporting club. #google and #microsoft are too expensive for about 30 users.

According to an article from the EU Council the United States supplies 16.5% of all gas to the EU. For LNG it's a staggering 45% which makes the United States the top supplier of LNG to the EU.

Those fossil fuel companies then take those profits and give it to the Republican party and Trump. OpenSecrets has a webpage that displays the enormous amount of money contributed to the Republican party (labeled in red). The Republican party is mostly dependent on a few well off donors. If you take those donations away it will make a huge difference fighting the global far-right because American politics is driven by money. Money is what fuels the Republican party, without that fuel they will putter out. The reason I say global far-right is because those fossil fuel companies and the Republicans are not just hurting America, they are hurting the world. As an example Koch Industries is interfering with European politics as documented here and more recently here.

With Trump declaring economic warfare against Europe, U.S. politicians like JD Vance and Marco Rubio and oligarchs like Elon Musk interfering with Europe's politics, it's Europe's duty and right to fight back! I feel one of the most powerful ways to fight back is to fight against the U.S. fossil fuel companies who helped put Trump in power. Not only that but fossil fuels are hurting the planet so when you fight those companies you are saving the world both environmentally and politically.

Also it's not just U.S. fossil fuels that are problematic. Russia is funding their invasion of Ukraine using money from fossil fuels and countries in the middle east use fossil fuel money to fund terrorism. Defeating these companies will help bring peace to the world and save the planet.

The solution is electrification powered by renewable energy. No more will Europe be dependent on foreign nations who fund extremists, instead clean power will be generated locally.

Here is how you can help advocate for this:

1. The most important thing to do is demand faster electrification and switch to renewable energy from your politicians. Because of the situation in the U.S. and because the technology is getting so much better I feel there will be more political will for this so now is the time to strike. Please reach out to all the politicians you can and simply state that you want a much faster transition to renewable energy such as solar and wind to help save the planet and to prevent funding extremists and terrorists.

2. Spread the message. On other platforms you can either post a link to this or post something in your own words advocating for a faster transition away from fossil fuels. Also consider writing op-eds or letters to the editor to local news publications.

3. If you can consider getting solar and/or wind yourself if it's right for you. I personally feel that political advocacy is much more important than individual choices but if you can make the change yourself please do, every bit helps! The reason why politics matters more than individual choices is because they set the standards for lots of people so if for example you only have 30 minutes a day to devote to this your time will likely be way better spent on politics than personal choices or trying to get other people to make different personal choices.

One idea I had is the EU could issue an ultimatum to U.S. fossil fuel companies: either stop donating to the Republican party or we will immediately cease buying your fossil fuels.

Also I would recommend identifying who are the largest users of fossil fuels, of those who can most easily switch to renewable energy. Keep picking the lowest hanging fruit until everyone is no longer using fossil fuels. If everyone works together to focus on one low hanging fruit at the same time I think it will be powerful.

The new version of Qwant Next has just been released and adds a history system.

https://about.qwant.com/next/?pk_vid=f367a57af236bf831748246811bb0451

GNU Taler begins operating in Switzerland, distributed by the Taler Operations AG. Gnu Taler aims to be a "digital wallet" and has been used by the swiss national bank as well as the european national bank as a example for how a digital currency handed out by the state could work. It aims to be as privacy preserving as cash for the buyer while not allowing the seller to evade taxes.

Currently the Taler is brought out by a special organisation, the "Taler Operations AG", and not the national bank, although both the national bank as well as the Taler Team have shown interest in a official digial currency by the national bank based on the Taler. But we need to relativate as the national council has stated that the introduction of a digital currency would probably take relatively major legislative changes and therefore take a bit of time.

No Paywall

I know it's not an European service but I thought for those many who just ghost platforms when switching services instead of deleting their accounts when moving to European alternatives should be aware of this news

Archived URL (Wayback Machine) - Original URL (in case of Wayback Machine downtime)

A small portion of the article:

At the end of May, Meta will start using Europeans’ data to train its AI. Here is how you can exercise your rights and prevent it.

Instagram and Facebook users in Europe will soon have their data and posts used by parent company Meta to train its artificial intelligence (AI) models.

Europeans have until May 27 to restrict Meta from using their data, the date when the company will start using Europe’s data.

Cloudflare has a system called AI Labyrinth to fight against AI crawlers ignoring web recommended guidelines (Nofollow tag) and crawl without permission, is there any European alternative to Cloudflare with a similar mechanism to fight against AI crawlers?