Mastodawn

Rainer Zufall

@rainerzufall_le

747 Followers

980 Following

7.9K Posts

mostly German stuff related to antifascism, sometimes English and increasingly Swedish, may contain traces of climate related things, thinks Half-Earth Socialism is an exciting proposal, semi-Luddite, day job: theoretical physics, tfr
was @rainerzufall_le on Twitter

pronouns	he/him
blog	http://purecoincidence.noblogs.org/

Rainer Zufall 8h ago

Natürlich hab ich vergessen, die Firefox-Addons zu syncen. Argh...

Rainer Zufall 9h ago

Ubuntu-Installation läuft. Tschüss Windows 10

Rainer Zufall 9h ago

Max Leibman 10h ago

Climate change has impacted many animals’ migration patterns. That’s why Christmas shows up earlier in stores.

Rainer Zufall 11h ago

Adrianna Tan 11h ago

When I graduated from college in 2007 (in Singapore) I already had a life traveling internationally, and I was already making money per story / photo essay / travel guide thing that I did. Back when journalism still paid real money.

I immediately got a job that moved me, expenses paid, to an international location. It was Dubai, but I was young, didn’t mind it, my then girlfriend lived in London, and it cut our distance by half (I would go see her, of course). 2008 happened. I saw the crash around me: the abandoned cars, the people fleeing. In Dubai, unpaid debt at the time was something that could land you in prison. I was fresh out of school and had no such problems, so that era was an interesting time for me. I saw many parts of that part of the world pre civil war, pre Arab spring. I made many friends, many of whom I still keep in touch with today.

It was easy to travel to northern India from Dubai (southern India was easier from Singapore) so I spent much more time in Delhi, than ever before. I spent time in London where I lived rent-free with my then partner who had a nice apartment in central London, company car, expense account, etc. When she was done with her job posting, we went back ‘home’: meaning I moved to Kuala Lumpur, where I would live for the next 5 years. It was my first adult apartment, adult relationship; it was where we got Cookie. We agreed that if we ever broke up, I would keep Cookie. I did.

Rainer Zufall 11h ago

The Intercept 11h ago

Graham Platner’s firearms trainings are only the most public example of the left’s efforts to arm themselves. https://theintercept.com/2025/11/01/left-gun-ownership

Inside the World of Leftist Gun Nuts

Graham Platner’s firearms trainings are only the most public example of the left’s efforts to arm themselves.

The Intercept

Rainer Zufall 20h ago

Heißt das Koala-Baby schon Mirko?
https://www.l-iz.de/kultur/lebensart/2025/10/leipzig-ist-total-verliebt-knuddel-koala-klettert-ins-leben-637987

Leipzig ist total verliebt: Knuddel-Koala klettert ins Leben! · Leipziger Zeitung

Große Freude über das kleine Kuschelwunder im Leipziger Zoo! Seit zwei Wochen blinzelte ab und zu ein neugieriges Näschen aus dem Jungtierbeutel von

Leipziger Zeitung

Rainer Zufall 20h ago

Neeeeiiin
#pastpuzzle 162
🟩🟥🟥🟥 (-337)
🟩🟩🟥🟥 (-75)
🟩🟩🟥🟥 (-53)
🟩🟩🟨🟨 (-9)

x/4 🟥
https://www.pastpuzzle.de

past puzzle

Errate das gesuchte Jahr mit Hilfe von 4 historischen Ereignissen. Ein von Wordle und Geschichte inspiriertes Spiel.

Rainer Zufall 1d ago

b9AcE is anti-fascist 1d ago

Well this is weird. Something seemingly just genuinely GOOD happened in this decade? There must be some trick.
"Australia’s first formal treaty with Indigenous traditional owners passed in Victoria"
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/oct/31/australia-first-formal-treaty-indigenous-traditional-owners-passed-victoria

Australia’s first formal treaty with Indigenous traditional owners passed in Victoria

Step towards reconciliation hailed as ‘a historic moment’ with premier Jacinta Allan saying it gives Aboriginal Australians the power to shape policies that affect their lives

The Guardian

Rainer Zufall 1d ago

Enno von Friedland 1d ago

Interessant, wie mein ursprüngliches Gefühl "Irgendwas stimmt hier nicht.." nun in einen ausführlichen Text gegossen wurde..

"Das trojanische Pferd des deutschen Kabaretts - Vince Ebert macht schlampiges Kabarett, das auf schlampigem Denken fußt. Und der Deutschlandfunk lässt ihn seine Kulturkampf-Rhetorik als mutige Wissenschaft verkaufen."

https://setup-punchline.de/vince-ebert-deutschlandfunk-querkoepfe-kabarett-wissenschaft/

[EDIT: Das "Gefühl" ist gar nicht auf den DLF-Beitrag bezogen, sondern auf meine bereits vor Jahren gemachten Beobachtungen..]

Vince Ebert: Reaktionäres Kabarett im Deckmantel der Wissenschaft

Vince Ebert macht schlampiges Kabarett, das auf schlampigem Denken fußt. Und der Deutschlandfunk lässt ihn seine Kulturkampf-Rhetorik als mutige Wissenschaft verkaufen.

Setup/Punchline

Rainer Zufall 1d ago

danmcquillan 1d ago

The insane financial and ideological all-in-ness around AI is inexplicable by models of capital & profit alone. This is a war on racial and gender equality and on the Second Law of Thermodynamics. White male privilege must prevail to the heat death of the universe, and beyond!

×

Joshua A.C. Newman Feb 7

Do a bad job for the Fascists.

Stefan Bohacek Feb 7

@JoshuaACNewman No idea if this story is true, but absolutely love its message!

Joshua A.C. Newman Feb 7

@stefan Here's some substantiation: https://fbindependent.com/when-my-daddy-went-to-war-mystery-of-unexploded-shells-p11053-89.htm

WHEN MY DADDY WENT TO WAR...: Mystery of unexploded shells

Fort Bend county community news

Stefan Bohacek Feb 7

@JoshuaACNewman Thank you!

@stefan @JoshuaACNewman On Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff, Margaret Killjoy reported that Polish people sabotaged Nazi munitions, too. Part One: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising & Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust

Episode webpage: https://omny.fm/shows/cool-people-who-did-cool-stuff/part-one-the-warsaw-ghetto-uprising-jewish-resista

Media file: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/45bcda9a-4724-45c0-82ca-ae7f00e1dd18/a3884e6f-9f59-46f6-a6b3-aeda0168f8e7/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=f21245f2-a297-42f7-a016-ae7f00e390c4

Part Two:

Episode webpage: https://omny.fm/shows/cool-people-who-did-cool-stuff/part-two-the-warsaw-ghetto-uprising-jewish-resista

Media file: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/45bcda9a-4724-45c0-82ca-ae7f00e1dd18/9624373c-599f-45bd-848f-aede013c5ea0/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=f21245f2-a297-42f7-a016-ae7f00e390c4

Part One: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising & Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust - Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff

Margaret talks with Miriam about the desperate last stand of the Jews of Poland and the fight to preserve Jewish culture from extermination.

@stefan @JoshuaACNewman
In "Softly Tread The Brave" which is an account of the Mine Disposal unit of the Royal Navy there is an anecdote about how they were able to discover the inner workings of the new German acoustic mine because one was dropped over land with its safety pins still in place which needed the collusion of al least one armourer on the ground and at least one crew member on the plane.
There is also physical evidence from the late war jet fighters, which were all assembled by slave labour, that they had to shift from drilled holes to punched slots in the body panels so that the plane could still be assembled when the holes where mislocated.
The story of the Citroen dipsticks has been retold recently here as well.

Stefan Bohacek Feb 7

@Steveg58 Love hearing stories like this. Really shows that sometimes it takes little to make a big impact. It's important to resist, even in small ways. ✊

@JoshuaACNewman

@Steveg58 @stefan @JoshuaACNewman #Ohm :)

Bess 🇵🇸Feb 7

@JoshuaACNewman reminds me of a quote that I heard in a theatre play once: "every train to Auschwitz had a driver, every station had a dispatcher."

(In the context of "all these people could have done something, don't you ever feel too small to make a difference.")

@JoshuaACNewman likely the Chech person was not working from a factory in his home country, but in a weapoms factory in Germany where he had been adbucted to, or at least commandeered to, in order to do forced labour.

Bryan H. Rombough Feb 7

@Libby_ @JoshuaACNewman Possibly, but the nazis also took over weapon and vehicle factories in occupied countries, and used enslaved labour to run them.

Jiří Eischmann Feb 7

@Libby_ @JoshuaACNewman could have been, but Czechoslovakia had a massive military industry, that's why Hitler invaded it first, so most Czechs worked in local factories. Nevertheless, there was a capital punishment for such a sabotage, so it required a lot of bravery.

@sesivany @Libby_ @JoshuaACNewman The key lesson here is do not use forced labor in war!

The Germans were highly dependent on forced labor (instead of German women, who Hitler wanted at home raising more little Nazis) and as a result suffered from both sabotage and disease outbreaks. They produced more ammo in WW1 employing women, than in WW2 with slavery.

The Confederates relied on slaves to cook and clean in military camps. Several of those were Union spies.

Forced labor is not worth it.

Matěj Cepl 🇪🇺 🇨🇿 🇺🇦Feb 8

@sesivany @Libby_ @JoshuaACNewman

Yes, that what I want to add to OP’s “writing a note that they must have known would probably never be read” … they should be praying it was never read by their superiors, or they would be shot on the spot. It was absolutely an act of complete courage and willingness to sacrifice themselves for others (John 15:13).

Radomír Žemlička Feb 8

@Libby_ @JoshuaACNewman Czech! Not Chech! Our country (then Czechoslovakia, now Czechia and Slovakia) was occupied by Germans during the war and they used our factories to produce weapons.

@JoshuaACNewman
That also means, that the B-17 crew stayed in the air and was able to hit their targets, killing germans.

And as a german (who's great granddad was inmate in the KZ Dachau during that time) I'm absolutely fine with that!!

Geoff Berner Feb 7

@JoshuaACNewman Great story. Great sabotage, and great to point out that sabotage is great. But why ruin it by saying "it's all going to be ok"? That's gross. And just wildly immature.
These people who committed sabotage knew things were not going to be ok. They were doing their sabotage, living under Nazi tyranny because the UK sold them out. We are not in a movie with a happy ending here.

Geoff Berner Feb 7

@JoshuaACNewman people used sabotage against slavery, and against American expansion across the north american continent, too. Those people did not wind up ok.

I think the original poster understands some transhumanism in the sense that improving the human experience is at least as effective as self-preservation. And so even if locally there is much suffering, people in other places and here a long time from now will again thrive. It will be ok, even if it's not ok here and now for me and those who I know. The op is commenting on how humanity perseveres because of acts like this, and will do so as long as there are humans

bewilderbeast23 3d ago

@drdrowland Yeah, I read it as 'elmer' seeing something good and very courageous happening in the midst of evil, and that gave him hope

bewilderbeast23 3d ago

@Geoffberner @JoshuaACNewman I read it as *that person* 'elmer' trying to reassure *himself* that all would be OK.

@JoshuaACNewman @wakame

Lots of ww2 stories like that and then there's russians who just obey, no known attempts at sabotage in the modern day

@sichkovskyi @JoshuaACNewman @wakame it sounds like Nazis relied on punishments, whereas nowadays Russian leaders give incentives, at least for their hacking groups.

Nazis did plenty of incentives too. And afaik passionate nazis indeed lived good lives under nazi regime. Russian incentives are based on solving the issues the government itself has created and in the end the passionate russian still lives a remarkably poor life, just somehow believes that's how "good life" looks like.

@JoshuaACNewman @wakame

General Strike Feb 8

@sichkovskyi @JoshuaACNewman @wakame A suspicious number of recruitment offices have burnt down in Russia, for a start.

I've heard about mb 5 instances in 2022 but that's it.

@JoshuaACNewman @wakame

General Strike Feb 8

@sichkovskyi @JoshuaACNewman @wakame Given the gif you posted I find that unsurprising.

@GeneralStrike @sichkovskyi @JoshuaACNewman @wakame It certainly supports the truth of that gif.

@su_liam @GeneralStrike

So were there more attempts? How many? When they happened?

I follow closely as my life kinda depends on it. I even hear regularly about various ethnic autonomy movements in russia but I didn't hear about any more burnings of commissariates in Russia

(yes they are commisariates and not recruitment offices as they exist for supporting the forced mobilization and are officially specifically named as such, same for Ukraine although at least they are reformed and are actually officially called "recruitment centers")

@JoshuaACNewman @wakame

@sichkovskyi @GeneralStrike @JoshuaACNewman @wakame I don’t know the answer to that. I do know of only one significant protest in Nazi Germany. German wives whose Jewish husbands were arrested to be hustled off to death camps. The Nazis wanted to maintain an appearance of absolute German unity which would be broken by noisily gunning down loyal wives. The husbands were quietly released.

@sichkovskyi @GeneralStrike @JoshuaACNewman @wakame Evidence that German resistance might have proved effective if it had been attempted. Perhaps Russia will follow a similar path to Germany once Putin is deposed and they allow themselves to express a capacity for shame and personal culpability.

Protests that are by the minorities while "the master race" just happily follows seem to be a pattern here.

@GeneralStrike @JoshuaACNewman @wakame

General Strike Feb 9

@sichkovskyi @su_liam @JoshuaACNewman @wakame Certainly fewer reports of things like this, presumably Russian state security clamping down on dissidence. Same with ethnic minorities agitating for independence. I remember reading that the Russian Army was disproportionately mobilising ethnic minority troops, which was leading to dissent, but haven't heard more on that for a while and presume the state has got involved.

Richard Webb Feb 8

@sichkovskyi @JoshuaACNewman @wakame
After the 2022 invasion and before today's drones; factories and railway tunnels deep in Russia went on fire.

This is actually a great reminder, thank you. I'm cautious to attribute it to either russian saboteurs or Ukrainian saboteurs tho. We will know after the war is over.

@JoshuaACNewman @wakame

SamuelJohnson Feb 7

@JoshuaACNewman Reminiscent of the story of the clever sabotage committed by French workers for Citroën forced to build trucks for the Nazi during WWII. They shifted the indicator line on the oil dipstick so it gave a false assurance the vehicle had sufficient oil (intended result: engine seizure a long way from the factory). Malicious compliance to a T.

Mikko Rintasaari Feb 8

@samueljohnson @JoshuaACNewman

Leopard tanks built by prisoner and slave labour also had things like a single tooth in the transmission broken off with a hammer, and the glued back on. The transmission would work for a while, but also be guaranteed to break down before long.

Fuel filters were also found to have cigarette stubbs pushed into them. Small acts of hard to detect sabotage.

Slave labour, you get what you pay for.

@JoshuaACNewman wow. I had no idea...

Sapphire Rubyant Feb 7

@JoshuaACNewman 😭

@JoshuaACNewman wow, that story is amazing.

enmodo ⚛️ 🧬 🇺🇦 🍉Feb 7

@JoshuaACNewman the saying goes "The road to Auschwitz was built by hate but paved with indifference"

But really it was built by people and the fascists in charge actually have very little labor of their own to do that - they are too busy swanning around being rich and cruel, not actually doing hard labor.

Go watch "The Bridge over the River Kwai" where the Japanese find their prisoners are not willing collaborators in their evil plans.

Do feed trolls and don't feed fascist!

biddy_sue 🏳️‍🌈Feb 7

@JoshuaACNewman and that is why, in the end, fascism and racism and hatred doesn’t win. By millions of small acts, decent people show that they know those beliefs are evil.

Panopticola Feb 7

@JoshuaACNewman @gerrymcgovern My grandfather was drafted as a mechanic and then motorcycle driver for officers in the fascist Italian military, and created various devious delayed mechanical failures and fed a lot of intel spoken in front of the 'dumb peasant driver' to the resistance.

As a blacksmith and engine maintenance worker you can really mess things up in a hidden way. He mentioned weak alloys and nicked springs and doped fuel.

Eventually he had to run off to work for the Alpini when he got worried about exposure.

Gerry McGovern Feb 7

@Panopticola @JoshuaACNewman
I once interviewed a survivor of Auschwitz. He said he was forced to carry tiling slates, and he found a way that when he set them down, the center one would crack slightly.

robcornelius Feb 11

@gerrymcgovern @Panopticola @JoshuaACNewman

All of the artillery shells made in Oscar Schindler's factory were duds according to testimony in Kenally's book. Misalign a key component by a couple of mm is all it took.

Apparently by the end the Germans had cottoned on that this was happening on a massive scale but by then it was too late.

@Panopticola @JoshuaACNewman @gerrymcgovern I recently saw an article posted here that said Citroën has to supply the Germans with trucks, and they moved the marker on the oil dipper down a notch so that the engines would be under-lubricated and works fail early.

Maximilian Overdraft, Esq.Feb 7

@JoshuaACNewman

I particularly encourage people coding for AI to build a back door or three so you can go back in later and f*** around.

@aka_quant_noir You just need to make the backdoor, no need to f** around by yourself. Some hacker will figure it out. That is what the problem with chatcontrol is about. Or one of the problems. There is no way of making backdoors that only work for the government.

Dan Seitz Feb 7

@JoshuaACNewman My great uncle was forced into the Luftwaffe, bailed out over England on his first mission, gave them the location of his air base, and spent the war playing cards in a POW camp.

Nonya "Lethal Precision" Bidniss

@JoshuaACNewman For anyone interested in what WWII anti-aircraft rounds or "shells" were like, this article discusses them https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/proximity-fuse-world-war-2/

The revolutionary fuse that won World War II

Jet engines, air-to-air rockets, drones. World War II was filled with flashy technological breakthroughs that would change warfare, both during that

We Are The Mighty

@Nonya_Bidniss @JoshuaACNewman Putting vacuum tubes in a shell was awesome.

Firing the shell broke a seal and put electrolyte in the battery. The tube warm up provided a safety delay.

It had a free-running oscillator and an antenna. When the shell approached a target, the reflection came back at a slightly higher frequency due to Doppler, and mixed with the transmitted frequency.

This caused an audio frequency variation in the plate current. When that reached a setpoint the shell went off.

Maggie Maybe Feb 7

@JoshuaACNewman this made me sad. I remember when most of society refused to kill disabled people with Covid. Then they got bored with that I guess.

Judeau (EatTheRich)Feb 7

@JoshuaACNewman That is an awesome story. I had never heard this before but it is quite inspiring

I see that someone already provided a link but I found a slightly different one here.

https://charlesoheller.com/2014/01/30/czech-saboteurs-in-world-war-ii/

Czech saboteurs in World War II - Charles Heller

In my book, Prague: My Long Journey Home, I write about Czech collaborators with the Nazis and the Svejks–those who simply stood by and did nothing. But there were also many Czechs who resisted and who provided assistance to the Allies via clandestine activities. One doesn’t often hear about such resistance coming from those Czechs who…

Charles Heller

@JoshuaACNewman

Nazis had a name (a scream really) for it between 1939 and 1945: "SABOTAGE!" 🤣 👍

Richard Webb Feb 8

@VeroniqueB99 @JoshuaACNewman

They do it too. My countriy's economy has been sabotaged.
(the message was on a bus)

@Fasgadh @JoshuaACNewman

👍

plactagonic Feb 7

@JoshuaACNewman

I thjnk that in Výpustek factory there was really high failure rate mostly because they employed students that just didn't cared at all.

Gilberto Ficara Feb 7

@JoshuaACNewman I don't remember who recommended it, but I just finished reading John Steinbeck - The Moon is down ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_Is_Down ), the story of a small Swedish village during nazi occupation. It's short and to the point.
Resist nazis in any way *you* *can*.
Make their lives miserable.

The Moon Is Down - Wikipedia

@zompetto @JoshuaACNewman I loved that book so much

Matěj Cepl 🇪🇺 🇨🇿 🇺🇦Feb 8

@zompetto @JoshuaACNewman

Also, “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guernsey_Literary_and_Potato_Peel_Pie_Society). An awesome book!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Wikipedia

scabby lil pill 🎲Feb 7

@JoshuaACNewman @uhhuhthem this made me cry