If it has the potential to generate clicks and revenue: Print it! /s

But I’m happy that they at least contribute to the awareness.

I appreciate the understanding tone - I easily lose my cool with topics as severe as these.

Regarding the interpretation of my comments, I completely agree with you. It was indeed unintentional to potentially give fuel to those who actually defend this stuff. I oftentimes write things directly off my mind, and it doesn’t necessarily convey the correct message.

I find conversations like these to be very engaging, and I find it constructive to discuss with people of conflicting opinions/perspectives. Nevertheless, it is indeed something that should be done with care. Talking AFK is probably a lot better in this regard, as there are elements like tone of voice, body language, etc. that contribute to an understanding.

Keep up the good comments - I think you made a perfect response to me here :-)

I even linked to the war crimes, and you’re accusing me of defending genocide? I even prefaced the comment with Russia not having any right (they are in the wrong).

“Misplaced” was a bad choice of words, as I did not mean to imply that they are orphans whose family is gone. But they are forcibly placed in an unfavorable place.

I didn’t see anything that would hint at their old society being bad, but there was indeed “here is good” present, which could imply the former, depending on the angle. And the angle being “Russia is a great country”, there’s easily the corresponding association of its enemies, I concur.

By trying to look at the “not so bad” aspects of things, I’m not defending the bad. Thoughts are not black and white, having to be either for or against. For example:
My grandpa dies, and I say “He lived a long and prosperous life”. I’m not implying that dying is not bad, therefore good. There are nuances, just like with this conflict. “At least the kids get to laugh” is not defending/encouraging them being stolen away from their families.

What I’m getting at, is that considering the dark times we live in, we should not ignore the nuances. There are many good things that have come from this conflict, like an unprecedented unity among nations, people standing up against heinous acts, and an incredible support system.
But let me capitalize the following, so it’s abundantly clear:

This does not excuse the villains nor their acts!

While consequences should be given to the perpetrators, we should try and not get consumed by the darkness. There are many people caught in the middle suffering - do not let them suffer just because they are part of a system that is failing them. This includes Russia, US, as well as the rest of the world.

Russia is definitely not the country that has any right of taking in these children, as the aggressor and the sole reason for their misplacement. But from what I can tell, it’s not as bad as it could’ve been. There are ordinary, non-military non-political people there who wish these kids well, who have their head on top of their body. At the very least are attempting to teach love and not hatred, which is arguably much more constructive in the long term, regardless of what side you’re on. Though a love for “your nation” and “your government” can be shoved up a certain place regardless of what country is in the talks.

Good on the anonymous child psychologist who try and treat their early development of PTSD though, when there are things like this happening:

“When the children were on a boat on the Neva River and heard the cannon fired from the Peter and Paul Fortress, they dropped flat on the deck, face down — no one had warned them it was just a ceremonial shot,” the psychologist recalled.

I still wish to believe in the good people that are not corrupted by the government and politicians (yet?).

Who knows though, it might all be smoke and mirrors to avoid further persecution of the atrocities that were committed in the first place.

Also, I’d love to get the source for this (couldn’t find it skimming through VK):

A few days later, on Russia Day, counselors asked the children, “What does Russia mean to you?” and filmed their answers.

Unsure why you’re getting downvoted (this is “No Stupid Questions”, after all), but I’ll give my 5 cents:

Reason 1:
The people is essentially the reason why a government has power. Without the people (and their support), the government governs a whole lot of nothing, and they will be forced to do labour themselves.

Reason 2:
Poisoning the water is not very accurate, and may lead to both the death of many whom already are supportive of the government (which will create distrust), and people only getting sick depending on the amount they drink (the dose makes the poison).

Reason 3:
Despite a population having a lot of dissidents, these people still work and contribute to society in some ways. It has to get pretty bad before it will be “worth it” to remove them from society.

Reason 4:
Even if it’s so bad that you’re looking at an open revolt against the government, poisoning the water will only really yield MAD, which is usually undesirable.

Ultimately, it’s unlikely desirable for any government to do this, as there are better ways (for the government). However, there have been some attempts at genocide through water supplies before, so it’s not completely unheard of. Check out Project Coast.

Yeah, a bit of an xy problem, I’ll admit. My ultimate goal would be invisible blocking/hiding from certain expected behaviors like the ones anti-adblockers employ. I’m not sure if what I have in mind specifically exists or not, but I find it fun to tweak and experiment with these kind of things. So I don’t necessarily have a problem I’d like to solve, it’s more an ask for directions/experiences.

I have tried Fiddler before, and it almost has the capabilities I’m looking for (it replaces an entire file; nothing granular), but it was a bit of a hassle to get working well last time I tried it, with the CA certificate, decrypting the TLS and stuff.

I haven’t heard of ZAP before, so this is new and intriguing! Thanks!

uBlock Origin I very much like, and I think it’s near-impossible for me to use a browser without it installed anymore. But as far as I know, it’s only used for blocking (dropping network requests) and hiding (CSS-like rules), but no manipulation?

The monkeys I’ve also used a little bit of, but I wasn’t aware that they supported being run ahead of the rest of the page like how I wanted, so this is definitely worth looking into, I appreciate it!
For reference, I found this answer on StackOverflow, which is promising.

I most likely am going a bit to the obscure/convoluted solution, yes.

My goal is to do something to the effect of uBlock Origin, but instead of just blocking/hiding, either replace with local files, or intercept req/res in order to manipulate them favorably, without being detected. I don’t know what uBlock does under the hood though, apart from its resource blocking and CSS-derived hiding.

Example:
Watching a video on youtube, an ad is about to get loaded, but instead of the hiding/blocking strategy uBlock uses, intercept the GET/POST, save the important flags that are uniquely served to your device that would indicate that you have successfully been served the ad, drop the rest, and then answer with what would be a valid response for “I have watched the ad in its entirety”.
So the server basically saying “Here, I give you this page and this script with both vital and ad contents. I now expect you to provide the corresponding hash that these two files will create through a series of functions. If you don’t, I will assume you’re blocking me, and I won’t provide further contents.”, and I’ll simply respond with “Here’s your hash! *wink*”.

Essentially, I wish to experiment with trying to be completely invisible in the blocking, by providing responses as if I have loaded and watched the ad, with all anti-adblock implementations through scripts and dynamic loading “intact” and unaware.

You’re quite right, I should include my goal in the post - editing it in now.

Depends on the conditions, I’d say. If you have an area that has low oxygen and high saline concentration, one could potentially preserve large parts of the carcass. A big challenge though is the substances brought by the carcass itself, like enzymes and bacteria that are not directly exposed to the oxygen-deficient saline-abundant water, which can thrive and remain active for a long period of time. However, if this carcass sinks to incredible depths, where the pressure is really high, temperature is a constant 4 degrees, very low concentration of scavengers or thriving organisms, and potentially sinks a bit into the sediment for a long time, you’ll essentially get pickle juice fossil fuel.

They only recently made it mandatory for three visa types, but since introduced in October 2016, it’s always been an optional field when applying for an ESTA.

Edit:
Not that not providing your social media handle will benefit you, of course.

Do you often (if at all) run into conflicts with the .. alias? I can’t think of any case on top of my head, but it feels a bit sketchy. The more than 2 dots however I imagine is pretty safe.

I’d say Linux Mint, ZorinOS, and Manjaro Linux are all viable options for Windows users who want an easy transition. Although I don’t think any distro will ever be considered a “plug-and-play” experience. There are varying degrees of user-friendliness, but if one wants user-friendliness like not having to do root/sudo actions even once, I think one might be better off with MacOS…? Though from what I’ve heard, the main reason Windows users are looking towards Linux and not MacOS is exactly because of the ability to customize more than just the wallpaper (and also the entire boycott US movement).

I love the blunt title of “… for Windows 10 Exiles”, though I wonder if it will rub people the right or wrong way when reading it.

Now, don’t get me wrong, but all the hype around the so-called “apocalyptic” October 14 feels a little overblown.

I agree somewhat - the date itself is not that big of a deal, as it’s just a date that Microsoft has set in order to have a spesific time to keep as a reference for when they have their last support push for Windows 10:

Windows 10 will reach the end of support on October 14, 2025. At this point technical assistance, feature updates and security updates will no longer be provided.

This doesn’t mean that it will immediately be defunct or a serious security risk. But from this point on, the more time that passes, the higher is the likelyhood of security holes being found (and used), that will not be patched.

Windows 11 has proven itself to have - a - lot - of - anti-features. Being forced to choose between having to deal with those, or change the entire system which you’ve grown so very used to, can be a rather difficult decision for many. KDE trying to ease the transition I think is appreciated by many who find themselves stuck in this choice. Or at least to give Linux a try.