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Skip Google for Research

As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse.  It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms 

As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable.  As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.

Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.

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Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.

www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free

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I’m sorry, but aren’t we collectively tired of all our clothes being made of polyester?

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Pin for survivors

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its official: tumblr is selling our data to Midjourney

we'd been hearing rumors about this for a bit but now its open and out there. some details from this article

it goes without saying, but if @staff goes through with this its going to be an utter shitshow and im all but certain the website will not survive it.

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hey all. i hate to make a post for this but i don't have any more options right now.

to put it simply, since last year i've been living with a friend after i became homeless. things were fine enough for a short while as i tried to recover and get back on my feet. unfortunately, turns out living here has made that task nigh impossible. i don't have a car, and there isn't anything in walking distance from where i live that i can go to for work or food, and as such i've been stuck here in an increasingly hostile environment. i've been stuck at the bottom at their mercy and it's finally gotten to the point where i have no more agency and it has become dangerous for me to be here.

I've been closeted while I live here (Texas), and in a situation where i can't leave and my only income being art commissions to feed myself, i feared being unable to properly leave and build some stability in my life.

i have so little time to finish my commissions with my internet and time being completely monopolized by them. if i do anything to frustrate them, even trying to defend myself costs me internet and food.

i really need help.

i didn't think i needed to make this sort of post, considering my original plan was to finish up my commissions and move out from this toxic situation in a couple months, but now i'm left with no choice but to leave now long before i'm ready.

a trusted and dear friend of mine offered to house me and help me get my life back in order, however she lives across the country and i can barely afford a ticket, let alone things like suitcases or transportation and such.

if it's at all possible, if anyone is able to help me be it by sharing this or buying a commission off me, it'd mean everything to me. i want to get my queue sorted out as fast as possible so i'm not leaving anyone waiting. i'm currently negotiating with my family to let me crash at their place for a week or two and prepare for the move, but with my history with my step-father i'm half-expecting to have that go up in flames.

if you can help, my ko-fi/paypal are below

Kofi:

PayPal: pikpikmania@gmail.com

i'm really sorry to be asking this, i feel pitiful but i'm at a loss. thank you for reading.

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If you showed this screenshot to someone who doesn’t play arknights do you think anyone could guess that this is the context:

Like oh yeah of course she was talking to her pet crabs she named after her favorite rappers and can communicate with in complex commands like Olimar to a Pikmin, how could anyone not get that?

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It’s like this

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re: tumblr

hello! I work in tech and here are some important things to know about "tumblr is going into maintenance mode." please note I do not work at tumblr, I've just worked at tumblr-adjacent sort of companies for my entire adult life and i've gone through this before.

what does maintenance mode mean?

literally what it sounds like -- Automattic is not going to be hiring new staff, investing in new product features, or doing anything new on tumblr. the staff that remains working on tumblr will be maintaining the status quo. most of the staff will be allocated elsewhere (or possibly laid off, though it looks like from that memo that's not what they're planning to do). it does not mean tumblr is shutting down. you should still buy premium, get merch, etc, because this is definitely step one of the shutdown process, but a maintenance mode designation is basically to see if tumblr will generate a revenue without putting more money into it than strictly necessary.

why did this happen?

obviously I do not know directly. from my observation, it's in part because Yahoo had absolutely no idea what to do with this platform, and then when Automattic bought it they also... struggled... but it is also in part because the user base has been so viciously anti-monetization that most attempts were killed outright.

yes, the user base is part of the problem. the absolute feral anti-premium, anti-ads, anti-tipping, anti-everything tumblr tried to do to make money is part of the problem. it's not the only part of the problem by a long shot, but I would be remiss not to mention it.

what do I do now?

use the platform. just like, keep using tumblr. do not abandon ship. buy premium, get yourself some badges, get yourself some merch, but use the platform. ad revenue is based on impressions and clicks. if a ton of the user base gives up, that revenue disappears.

--

tumblr is extremely special. I've never seen anything like it in my 20-odd years of being Very Online, and I was a minor BNF in WolfStar during LiveJournal days. I don't know that it can be recreated elsewhere. I don't know where fandom will go. I know that something else will exist after tumblr and that nothing gold can stay, but i don't think the specific kind of joy found here can be recreated. i say this not to be a downer, but to be realistic. I guess I should find a Bluesky invite.

I've been here since 2008. I'm not going anywhere as long as this site exists. hope you'll stay here with me.

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Ich auch, Bruder. Ich auch.

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reblog to bonk the person you reblogged it from with a hollow cardboard tube

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It's fun reading writers who clearly grew up in suburban/urban environments as someone who grew up on a farm because they're always like "oh it was so creepy, woods at night, eerily breathtaking, something was living in there..." and it's like yeah that'll be the deer.

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Japanese Tattoo Ladies II by Keibunsha (1991) Photography By: Akimitsu Takagi

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A lot of adulthood is shouting “AUGH MY LAUNDRY” hours after you put it in the washer/dryer and running to go fetch it