Wandering Adventure Party

@NatureMC @futurebird @elduvelle Come to think of it, it's sort of odd that the popular names for them in Nordic countries (in Swedish it's "dammråtta" / dust rat) aren't based on the nisse/tomte (the former is the Danish and Norwegian word, the latter the Swedish). There's a *very* rich folklore about little creatures that live in the usually-unseen places of human homes and who are responsible for things like socks and small change "disappearing" ... which sort of sounds like what you'd expect an animist dust bunny to do.

The classic nisse/tomte can usually work minor feats of magic (like turning invisible whenever someone is looking at them!). In modern Scandinavia they're often associated with Christmas, and they sometimes have part of the role that Santa Claus does in the Anglosphere (eg. parents will tell small children that smaller presents are from the nisse who lives in the attic - and who you can get on friendly terms with by leaving him a small bowl of rice porridge).

(Stories about them can actually be traced back to Pre-Christian Norse mythology!).

@futurebird @NatureMC @elduvelle (singular of "wollmäuse" is "wollmaus" ).

In Danish they're called "nullermand" ("lint-man") ... and in Norwegian they're called "hybelkanin" ("hovel bunny").

@ajroach42 I live in Denmark. It is very hard to get by in daily life without an Android or Apple device. I tried, for many years, until my current employer gave me a work phone (which runs Android).

There is an ubiquitous payment app that has largely replaced cash. It won't run on anything but an Apple or Android device.

If you use public transit (which I do), you can currently use a plastic card with readers mounted in buses, trains and stations. But this will be phased out next year and replaced with an app that only runs on Apple or Android devices. You will effectively no longer be able to use public transit unless you own an Apple or Android device.

There is a national authentication system (used by banks, public authorities, etc.) which *can* currently be used with a little token you can have in your pocket (one which displays numbers, and one which reads them aloud, for blind citizens) ... but you can't set it up without using an Apple or Android device. There have been talks about phasing out the code tokens entirely, so the only option to authenticate yourself with public authorities requires owning an Apple or Android device.

And all of this won't run on eg. a Fairphone with /e/OS, because all the Android versions use Google's "authenticity verification" features, effectively locking out anything not fully controlled by Google.

It feels like living in a kind of digital vassal state fully colonized by two foreign tech giants.