Older essays from the blog, kept as historical record. They do not necessarily reflect the author's current views.
World
A February 2013 essay on the tension between corporate social media marketing and ethics, told through a small experiment: a GMO-labelling question posted on an organic chocolate brand's Facebook page, and how the brand quietly handled it. Kept as an archive record.
Culture
December 2012 vignette: Stratos' Sphere was defaced and recovered. Seventeen lessons follow; the plugin-specific advice is dated, the meta-lessons (don't panic, ask the host first, keep clean backups, treat hackers as a wake-up call) still hold.
Health
An October 2012 thank-you note marking that the author's Greek vitamin D3 article ranked first on Google for the term, two years on, and reflecting on the public awareness it helped raise. Kept in the archive as a record.
Culture
Verdict reversal: after bouncing off Ubuntu 11.04's Unity launcher and tiring of Mint Main's six-monthly fresh-install cycle, LMDE 64-bit (May 2011 edition) feels mostly indistinguishable from Mint Main. Part 3 of a three-post LMDE arc spanning Sep 2010 to May 2011.
Health
A January 2011 collection of hundreds of journal references on vitamin D and health, grouped by condition, reposted from a natural-health source to back the case for proper sun exposure. Kept in the archive as a record.
Health
A January 2011 repost of a Democracy Now! interview with physician Gabor Mate, arguing that emotions and stress are deeply tied to illness and healing through the mind-body connection. Kept in the archive as a record.
Culture
Fine-tuning LMDE 201012 64-bit into a usable daily driver: touchpad clicks, font fixes, the incoming repo, Iceweasel via squeeze-backports, Compiz on Nvidia, purging PulseAudio for ALSA, Cairo-Dock. Part 2 of a three-post LMDE arc spanning Sep 2010 to May 2011.
Health
A long December 2010 piece arguing the new US vitamin D intake recommendations were set far too low, reproducing a Mercola commentary and the dosage debate of the period. Kept in the archive as a record of that debate, not as medical advice.
Health
A December 2010 explainer on the Codex Alimentarius food-standards body, arguing from a natural-health view that its risk-assessment method treats nutrients as toxins and threatens access to supplements and herbs. Kept in the archive as a record.
Health
A December 2010 repost of a Mercola and Gaia Health alarm about the EU Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive, which it argued would push most medicinal herbs off the market. Kept in the archive as a record of that campaign, not as medical advice.
Culture
Day one with Linux Mint Debian Edition v1.0 (LMDE 201009): a four-attempt install on USB hardware, an /etc/fstab device-name workaround, and a Greek-keyboard locale lock-out. Part 1 of a three-post LMDE arc that turns from skeptical to enthusiastic by May 2011.
Culture
Part 2 of the August 2010 two-parter: the multimedia application stack on top of a Linux Mint 9 (Isadora) install. Shotwell, PiTiVi, WinFF, AcidRip, DVD::Rip, K9Copy, GRip, Audacity, Amarok, MKVToolnix. Mostly out of date now.
Culture
Part 1 of the August 2010 two-parter on a fresh Linux Mint 9 (Isadora) install: choosing the distribution, repositioning the MintMenu taskbar, adding Cairo-Dock. Snapshot of the early-2010s Ubuntu-and-Mint desktop ecosystem.
Health
The July 2010 English rewrite of the Greek vitamin D3 anchor post: the sunshine vitamin, deficiency in northern populations, and the bibliography as it stood then. Kept in the archive as a historical record, not as medical advice.
World
A July 2010 opinion piece on the EU agreeing to cover the ITER fusion reactor's funding shortfall, why abundant energy matters for a post-scarcity future, and the geopolitics of oil and research funding. With a 2015 update on China. Kept as an archive record.
Health
A short July 2010 post relaying a Finnish study that linked higher vitamin D levels to a lower risk of Parkinson's disease, set against the country's chronic winter sunlight shortage. Kept in the archive as a record of the reporting of its time.
Culture
A 2010 vignette: Googling my own name and finding my own seven-year-old Mandrake Linux forum question about CD audio under KsCD. A small piece in the early-internet self-archaeology genre that pairs with 'Η πρώτη ιστοσελίδα του κόσμου' and 'How laspas.gr came to be'.
World
An April 2010 post that takes a chain email about the annual pilot whale hunt in the Faroe Islands, checks it against a Hoax Slayer investigation, and finds the claims largely true, with the cultural and legal context. Kept as an archive record.
Health
A December 2009 note flagging the old worry that scratched non-stick teflon cookware could be unhealthy, and pointing to a newer ceramic alternative the author had just tried. Kept in the archive as a record.
Culture
The first post on the then-named Stratos' Sphere, October 2009. Fourteen words, no body, no claims. Kept as the sentimental head of the meta-self-positioning span that runs through to the 2024 Επανεκκίνηση reboot.