Today I ended up on the wrong side of the Google bot algorithm
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    Yep. I have access to everything else, just can't view Youtube while signed in.

    I disabled my adblock for YT, but I still use privacy badger and occasionally a VPN.

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  • Today I ended up on the wrong side of the Google bot algorithm
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    Good to know. Even if it does get unsuspended, I'm taking it as a wake up call. If that was my gmail account I would've been in a bad situation. I use it for almost everything.

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  • Today I ended up on the wrong side of the Google bot algorithm
  • "Initials" by "Florian Körner", licensed under "CC0 1.0". / Remix of the original. - Created with dicebear.comInitialsFlorian Körnerhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearBL
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    Better late than never lol. They really are a shitty company. Bots run the show over there. I just never thought it would be this bad until it was...

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  • Just about an hour ago, I received an email informing me that my YouTube account was terminated for violations of their "scams, spam, and deceptive content" policy. The email was long winded about how I must've uploaded something or other, or commented spammy/scammy content. Just one problem: I have never uploaded a video in the 10 years I've had my account. I comment maybe twice a year when I actually have an answer to a question someone asked in the comments. I even paid for Premium for me and my family. Well, guess I'm screwed because I doubt the appeal robot or whatever actually changes its mind when you submit one. Glad I at least started deGoogling. This is a very close-to-home reminder of how dependent I am on them for their services.

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    Arkansas Supreme Court Denies Bid to Get Abortion Measure on the Ballot
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    The other shenanigans was that the secretary of state allowed other petitioners with the same issues to proceed on the ballot, namely marijuana and gambling referendums. The organizers should have been on their best behavior because the state was always going to selectively enforce the rules here.

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    US colleges are cutting majors and slashing programs after years of putting it off.
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    The schools doing okay financially aren't the ones cutting these programs for cost-saving reasons. In bigger state universities eliminating programs, the cuts are largely political. School admins are worried that state legislators will target school budgets in the near future if cuts aren't made to "useless" subjects in the humanities and social science.

    In regional state universities and private liberal arts schools, however, the situation really is dire. They're cutting to survive. The US has started to experience a decline in college enrollment. Universities have known it would happen since the late 2000s, but not in the way it has.

    Big universities are growing or maintaining class sizes, which is putting tremendous pressure on the regional and liberal arts schools as the available students evaporate. It's pushed the timeline for change up at many universities and it's only going to get worse.

    Do I feel sorry for university admins? No, they should've taken action sooner, with real wind-down plans for students. But we're going to continue to see cuts to small programs for decades to come; it's unavoidable.

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  • Harris picks Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate
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    Shapiro has a sexual harassment coverup allegation (for a close aide, not himself) and what appears to be serious mismanagement of a stabbing case, where a woman's death was initially ruled a murder, but ultimately his office refused to re-examine the case. It's going before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and might be heard before the election. Harris doesn't need an October Surprise to derail her momentum if it makes Shapiro look bad.

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  • Paradox CEO admits company made "wrong calls in several projects" in wake of Life By You's cancellation
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    I have to imagine the game was a disaster for them to abandon it like they did. Given what Cities Skylines 2 was like at release, their standards must be in the basement.

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  • Using your own domain for email?
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    I see some providers support DANE. Is that different than either DMARC or DKIM? I looked it up, but the description was very technical and didn't clear up the differences for me.

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  • I'm pretty far into the degoogling process, and I'm thinking about purchasing a domain and using it for email. I realized I don't want to be stuck with any one email service, so this is pretty much a necessity for me. I wouldn't self host though, because I understand that's very hard to do. For people who have already done this: are there any pitfalls or things I should take into consideration before I purchase a domain? Also, does the tld matter? Are my emails more likely to be sent to spam with a custom domain vs an email provider's?

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    ‘Rust’ Case Against Alec Baldwin Is Dismissed Over Withheld Evidence
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    I don't think she planned on getting caught. This was a once in a lifetime case for her. Securing a conviction would elevate her career substantially. It's not unprecedented for prosecutors to engage in this kind of misconduct.

    That said, most Brady violations are from incompetence rather than malice. Tons of evidence--not just exculpatory--has been lost by poorly trained or lazy investigators.

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    ‘Rust’ Case Against Alec Baldwin Is Dismissed Over Withheld Evidence
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    If Baldwin provided all the ammo used, it increases the likelihood he is convicted by a jury. This ammo would've been provided to the Armorer by a third party, without his knowledge. At trial, the defense could have made any number of arguments that Baldwin had no way of knowing live ammunition was on set because an outside individual brought it to the set.

    In any case, it's a clear Brady violation. The prosecutor has a constitutional duty to provide exculpatory evidence to the defense. It's not up to them to decide if it will be enough to establish reasonable doubt.

    What the prosecution did was place this evidence under a new, case & number for a non-existent crime. They never had any intention of investigating the case that ammo was assigned to. The only reasonable conclusion one can draw was the prosecution deliberately obfuscated the relationship that ammo had to Baldwin's case to avoid providing it.

    In an already highly attenuated case, and with overwhelming evidence that Baldwin's rights were violated, there can be no fair trial going forward. From the perspective of the law, once the prosecution has been found to have violated Brady deliberately, there can never be due process for the defendant.

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  • Proton launches privacy-focused Google Docs alternative: Docs in Proton Drive is an open-source, end-to-end encrypted collaborative document editor
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    I did the same thing. The first privacy-oriented service I heard about was Proton. And, to be fair, they're quite good. But the email search issues and struggles I had with their bridge eventually turned me off.

    I left for mailbox(.)org and haven't looked back. It's great Proton has so many cool services, but the last thing I want is to get dependent on one company again, not after how hard it was to get away from Google.

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  • Russia's LGBTQ+ community is turning to Telegram as the government cracks down on them
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    I kinda don't want to dip my toes in this, but here goes:

    I agree that it's occasionally a breath of fresh air. The issue I've always had with Hexbear is they've more or less replaced one version of American (and to a lesser extent European) exceptionalism with another. Where American nationalists consider America to be exceptionally great, Hexbear considers it to be exceptionally evil. They routinely attribute domestic incidents in different countries to American meddling--regardless of evidence--even when those events either achieve nothing for American geostrategic goals or actively harm them. America as the "great Satan," etc.

    Just an example because I remember it: Imran Khan lost an internal power struggle in Pakistan. He was probably the most west-friendly candidate left there, but Hexbear blamed a CIA coup https://hexbear.net/post/186331

    In the same vein, they permit or even encourage Chinese aggression against the Philippines, within the Philippines' own exclusive economic zone. You can't substitute one form of imperialism for another. It's a trap I see a lot of leftists fall into.

    I think most of 'em are alright. Just growing into leftist thought still and grappling with the moshpit that is international politics. Also they're funny lol

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  • What everyone gets wrong about the 2015 Ashley Madison scandal
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    Thank you so much for this information. Your passion is contagious. I'm going to dive into all of these sources in the morning!

    Have a wonderful day/evening/night!

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  • What everyone gets wrong about the 2015 Ashley Madison scandal
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    So, as someone who has used the Internet since its very earliest days, what would you say about what the Internet is like today versus back then? Was it better? Worse? Any major online events that you can recall from that period?

    I grew up at the very tail end of the old forums and certainly after the decline and death of old school chat rooms. Most of them died or went inactive while I was in high school/college. The version of the internet older adults used is almost alien to me.

    Hell, today's Internet is on its way to being alien too.

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  • xkcd #2948: Electric vs Gas
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    EVs are also a major issue for firefighters. Lithium ion battery fires following an accident are ridiculously hard to put out and present a significant safety hazard in confined spaces, like tunnels or narrow streets. It takes close to 6 times the water to control EV vehicle fires.

    And while it's a more minor issue, EVs are heavier than ICE vehicles in the same class, which causes more road wear and more tire wear (and more micro plastics to enter the environment).

    And, I guess, finally, there's no established break-even point for carbon emissions over ICE vehicles. The estimates provided in the literature vary wildly--from 13,000 miles to 94,000.

    I love the technology, but I hope solid state batteries become a viable option for EVs.

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    Research at the heart of a federal case against the abortion pill has been retracted
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    As someone who peer reviewed papers, and got familiar with the process, most reviewers do not take the time to seriously examine papers. I would compare my comments to other reviewers for the same paper, and holy shit they barely read it. I would spot pretty blatant omissions--bad methodology, incomplete sections that make a paper impossible to reproduce, poor quality figures, need for major revisions. The other reviewers would offer minor suggestions and leave it at that. And the chief editor will push it out the door with minor revisions that don't address any issues.

    I have seen some truly blatant shit get published. Like figures that have made up data, or that we're straight up copied from the authors' previous publication and presented as new. The for-profit publishing industry doesn't give a fuck. Those issues might get caught 10 years down the road, like in that case, but it's usually a slap on the wrist for tenured faculty unless it gets lots of attention.

    Prof in my department when I was a grad student blatantly copied work from another researcher, and the only sanctions he got were a moratorium on taking new grad students.

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  • I think the HVAC maintenance guy just destroyed my relationship
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    Thanks. I realize this is something only a professional can help with now. It's up to her if she follows through. As far as support goes, I am going to encourage her to reach out to other trusted friends and family members, and to cut out people who have been causing her so much grief.

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  • I think the HVAC maintenance guy just destroyed my relationship
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    Her reaction, and this is maybe me coping really hard right now, might be related to what happened last night. She attempted suicide last night and had the mindset to call my name before she did. Despite my pleas, she went to work this morning since she has no time off and doesn't want to get fired.

    We talked about what happened, and she admitted that she's felt like attempting for the past couple months, which kind of follows what I was feeling yesterday. The past 3-4 months have been more difficult than usual.

    I don't know what my next steps are. I'm feeling from it and using this forum to vent in a safe way. There's not much advice to give, I think. I'm just going to take this one step at a time.

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  • Edit: Last night she attempted suicide. I was in the living room while she was showering. She got out of the shower, went to the bedroom, and about 10 minutes later I heard her call my name. She was holding a large handful of her medicine in one hand, and the bottle in the other. She told me she almost took it, but decided to get help instead. Suffice to say, both of us are dealing with a lot right now. She asked me not to tell anyone, but I am trying to persuade her to get mental healthcare. So yesterday morning, while my girlfriend and I were sleeping in our new apartment, we heard some rustling at the door. This was around 8 AM or so. I heard him call out "maintenance" very faintly from the other side of the door. I was partially awake and called out to the guy after glancing my gf's way in a "is this guy for real?" look. Guy apologized and left the apartment after he heard me. At the time, she said she was "glad I was there". I spoke to him later and he apologized profusely and said he wasn't aware someone had moved in already. I figured that would be the end of it. No harm, no foul. Last night, my girlfriend informed me that I didn't handle that correctly. She said her dad would've been up and ready to fight the guy, and that by glancing her way I must've been asking her to protect me. Despite us discussing a proposal now that we're 2 years in, she let me know she doesn't think I should "this year, but that she may change her mind". I'm honestly baffled. Was I supposed to shoot the maintenance man or something? It has me reconsidering the relationship. One perceived mistake--that I honestly think I handled fine--and she's putting our plans on ice. She's been mean leading up to this. She blames her cycle (and apologizes each time), but it's a pretty extreme mood shift for a few days each month. So part of me wonders if these 2 things are related, and she'll regret saying that to me. Another part wonders if I should forgive her in the first place. What do y'all think? How big of a mess am I in?

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    Should I leave my credit union over account interest rates?

    TL;DR: Credit union account rates low, I moved, and even though the app and co-op network are great, not sure if I should leave. So, I've been with a certain credit union for years. But, to be honest, compared to some other credit unions out there (or even banks), it has pretty lackluster rates across the board. I moved recently and that's given me cause to think about closing it, despite the great app and co-op network basically working regardless of where I am. 0.2% on checking, 0.45% on savings, and about 0.9% on a money market account with a $1000 minimum. It's got great customer service. I'm on a first name basis with the people there, but I feel like, even with just checking and emergency savings, I'm leaving money on the table. Is it worth leaving for some of those advertised 4 and 5% checking and savings accounts other places offer?

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