#Research Reports Search Engine

[sheryasharmak1]

Elevating Your Digital Marketing with Expert PPC Campaign Management Services

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, the power of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising shines brightly as a beacon for businesses aiming to enhance their online visibility and drive more targeted traffic to their websites. This form of advertising, where businesses pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked, presents a golden opportunity to appear in front of potential customers precisely when they're searching for related services or products. However, the true essence of a successful PPC campaign lies not just in its execution but in its strategic management. This is where PPC campaign management services step in, bridging the gap between potential and success.

The Importance of PPC in Digital Marketing

PPC advertising is more than just an advertising channel; it's a strategic tool that offers immediacy and precision in reaching target audiences. Unlike traditional SEO strategies that take time to yield results, PPC campaigns can generate immediate traffic and offer quick insights into market behavior. However, navigating the complexities of PPC campaigns requires a blend of strategic insight, analytical skills, and ongoing optimization, underscoring the significance of PPC campaign management services. These services ensure that every dollar you spend is an investment toward achieving your business objectives, making efficiency and effectiveness the hallmarks of your digital marketing efforts.

Choosing the Right PPC Campaign Management Service

The marketplace is teeming with agencies and firms offering PPC campaign management services, but choosing the right partner is pivotal. A proficient service provider understands the nuances of different PPC platforms, whether Google Ads, Bing Ads, or social media advertising platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. They bring to the table a deep understanding of keyword research, ad copywriting, bid management, and conversion optimization, ensuring your campaigns are not just seen but also resonate with your target audience. The right service will work as an extension of your marketing team, fully aligned with your business's goals and values.

Key Components of Effective PPC Campaign Management

Effective PPC campaign management services delve into the heart of your business objectives, tailoring campaigns that speak directly to your target audience. They start with comprehensive keyword research, identifying the terms and phrases your customers are using to search for your products or services. This step is critical in ensuring your ads appear for the right searches.

Ad copy optimization is another crucial component, where the focus is on creating compelling ad texts that attract clicks. This involves A/B testing different headlines, descriptions, and calls to action to determine what works best.

Bid management is about finding the sweet spot where you're paying enough to get your ads seen but not overpaying for clicks. Expert PPC campaign management services use sophisticated algorithms and historical data to adjust bids in real time, maximizing your return on investment.

Lastly, conversion tracking and analytics are what turn data into insights. By understanding which ads, keywords, and landing pages are driving conversions, PPC managers can continually refine and optimize campaigns for better performance.

The Benefits of Leveraging PPC Campaign Management Services

The complexities of PPC management can be daunting, especially for businesses with limited digital marketing resources. By partnering with a specialized service, you gain access to expertise and technologies that can transform your PPC campaigns from an expense into a strategic investment. These services can significantly reduce wasted spend by targeting only the most relevant audiences and optimizing your campaigns for conversions, not just clicks.

Moreover, PPC campaign management services stay abreast of the latest trends, platform updates, and best practices, ensuring your campaigns leverage cutting-edge strategies. This proactive approach to campaign management can be the difference between staying ahead of the competition and playing catch-up.

Success Stories: PPC Campaign Transformations

Real-world success stories underscore the transformative power of expert PPC campaign management services. Businesses across various industries, from e-commerce to B2B services, have seen significant improvements in their campaign performance, achieving higher conversion rates, lower cost per acquisition, and improved ROI. These success stories not only serve as testimonials to the efficacy of professional PPC management but also offer insights and inspiration for businesses still on the fence about investing in these services.

How to Get Started with a PPC Management Service

Embarking on the journey with a PPC campaign management service begins with a comprehensive audit of your current digital marketing efforts and identifying your specific goals. This initial assessment helps tailor a strategy that aligns with your business objectives. From there, setting up and launching your campaigns is handled by experts, allowing you to focus on your business while your digital marketing works harder for you.

Conclusion

In the digital age, where visibility and engagement are the currencies of success, PPC campaign management services offer a strategic advantage. They enable businesses to navigate the complexities of PPC advertising, ensuring that every campaign is not just a shot in the dark but a calculated step towards achieving marketing objectives.

[adragonofthings]

Scam blogs (and how to spot them)

Unfortunately, scams do exist on tumblr. That is why it’s key to always try to search around when someone’s sent you a request for mutual aid. Not every account is trying to scam you and for the most part there is legitimate blogs who need your help. Sadly there are also scammers who pretend to be needing mutual aid as well so here is a simple guide to figuring out scams.

How old is the account? The pinned post usually is a good way to tell if the account contacting you is new or old. If you scroll the posts, you should see if they were made around the same time as the account.

How many posts are on the account? Most blogs will have more than just a few posts here and there. After all, a well used blog has thousands of posts for you to look at.

Are there more original posts? Usually someone needing help will have multiple posts of their own instead of a single post that’s pinned. They will also post updates regularly regarding their situation and answer asks clarifying details when necessary.

What does the link on the pinned post say? If it’s a linktree claiming to be a GoFundMe link, that’s something to be suspicious of because it’s likely not. If the link is an actual GoFundMe link that isn’t a linktree link then that usually means the account is legitimate and may have shared posts verifying who they are if you scroll a little.

Is the ask being mass sent to users? While this is done by legitimate accounts too, it’s unfortunately also commonly done by scammers. If you search the ask you got you may find it was sent to multiple accounts across several months and from several different senders with no changes to the overall text itself. Even the formatting errors are not fixed.

Are there any warnings out for the username? Try searching the senders username to see if anyone’s made a post claiming the account is a scam. There should at least be one post about them. If not, it’s likely that they are too new to have been reported yet.

Are you a well known account? How likely is it someone would find you without searching specific tags or posts for users to contact? Think about it. How often does someone send you asks for money that is a relatively new account with only a few reblogs and only one original post? If it’s almost daily, then you should be wary of the asks.

What do you find if you search part of the pinned post in your preferred search engine? If a fundraiser pops up using the same text and doesn’t mention using another mutual aid method, it’s highly likely the blog sending you the ask is impersonating a real person who needs support.

Does the mutual aid post make sense? Some scammers don’t know how medicine works and may list some that don’t work like claimed. They’ll just use whatever sounds ‘right’ without further research. Someone who needs medication will always know what their medicine does they don’t guess because they’ll usually have a doctors paper they go by.

If you have properly recognized a scammer and have fully been able to confirm that their a scammer with enough evidence, please report scam accounts and alert anyone whose shared the scam post.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Too big to care

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in BOSTON with Randall "XKCD" Munroe (Apr 11), then PROVIDENCE (Apr 12), and beyond!

Remember the first time you used Google search? It was like magic. After years of progressively worsening search quality from Altavista and Yahoo, Google was literally stunning, a gateway to the very best things on the internet.

Today, Google has a 90% search market-share. They got it the hard way: they cheated. Google spends tens of billions of dollars on payola in order to ensure that they are the default search engine behind every search box you encounter on every device, every service and every website:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/03/not-feeling-lucky/#fundamental-laws-of-economics

Not coincidentally, Google's search is getting progressively, monotonically worse. It is a cesspool of botshit, spam, scams, and nonsense. Important resources that I never bothered to bookmark because I could find them with a quick Google search no longer show up in the first ten screens of results:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

Even after all that payola, Google is still absurdly profitable. They have so much money, they were able to do a $80 billion stock buyback. Just a few months later, Google fired 12,000 skilled technical workers. Essentially, Google is saying that they don't need to spend money on quality, because we're all locked into using Google search. It's cheaper to buy the default search box everywhere in the world than it is to make a product that is so good that even if we tried another search engine, we'd still prefer Google.

This is enshittification. Google is shifting value away from end users (searchers) and business customers (advertisers, publishers and merchants) to itself:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/05/the-map-is-not-the-territory/#apor-locksmith

And here's the thing: there are search engines out there that are so good that if you just try them, you'll get that same feeling you got the first time you tried Google.

When I was in Tucson last month on my book-tour for my new novel The Bezzle, I crashed with my pals Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden. I've know them since I was a teenager (Patrick is my editor).

We were sitting in his living room on our laptops – just like old times! – and Patrick asked me if I'd tried Kagi, a new search-engine.

Teresa chimed in, extolling the advanced search features, the "lenses" that surfaced specific kinds of resources on the web.

I hadn't even heard of Kagi, but the Nielsen Haydens are among the most effective researchers I know – both in their professional editorial lives and in their many obsessive hobbies. If it was good enough for them…

I tried it. It was magic.

No, seriously. All those things Google couldn't find anymore? Top of the search pile. Queries that generated pages of spam in Google results? Fucking pristine on Kagi – the right answers, over and over again.

That was before I started playing with Kagi's lenses and other bells and whistles, which elevated the search experience from "magic" to sorcerous.

The catch is that Kagi costs money – after 100 queries, they want you to cough up $10/month ($14 for a couple or $20 for a family with up to six accounts, and some kid-specific features):

https://kagi.com/settings?p=billing_plan&plan=family

I immediately bought a family plan. I've been using it for a month. I've basically stopped using Google search altogether.

Kagi just let me get a lot more done, and I assumed that they were some kind of wildly capitalized startup that was running their own crawl and and their own data-centers. But this morning, I read Jason Koebler's 404 Media report on his own experiences using it:

https://www.404media.co/friendship-ended-with-google-now-kagi-is-my-best-friend/

Koebler's piece contained a key detail that I'd somehow missed:

When you search on Kagi, the service makes a series of “anonymized API calls to traditional search indexes like Google, Yandex, Mojeek, and Brave,” as well as a handful of other specialized search engines, Wikimedia Commons, Flickr, etc. Kagi then combines this with its own web index and news index (for news searches) to build the results pages that you see. So, essentially, you are getting some mix of Google search results combined with results from other indexes.

In other words: Kagi is a heavily customized, anonymized front-end to Google.

The implications of this are stunning. It means that Google's enshittified search-results are a choice. Those ad-strewn, sub-Altavista, spam-drowned search pages are a feature, not a bug. Google prefers those results to Kagi, because Google makes more money out of shit than they would out of delivering a good product:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/2/24117976/best-printer-2024-home-use-office-use-labels-school-homework

No wonder Google spends a whole-ass Twitter every year to make sure you never try a rival search engine. Bottom line: they ran the numbers and figured out their most profitable course of action is to enshittify their flagship product and bribe their "competitors" like Apple and Samsung so that you never try another search engine and have another one of those magic moments that sent all those Jeeves-askin' Yahooers to Google a quarter-century ago.

One of my favorite TV comedy bits is Lily Tomlin as Ernestine the AT&T operator; Tomlin would do these pitches for the Bell System and end every ad with "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company":

https://snltranscripts.jt.org/76/76aphonecompany.phtml

Speaking of TV comedy: this week saw FTC chair Lina Khan appear on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It was amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaDTiWaYfcM

The coverage of Khan's appearance has focused on Stewart's revelation that when he was doing a show on Apple TV, the company prohibited him from interviewing her (presumably because of her hostility to tech monopolies):

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/apple-got-caught-censoring-its-own

But for me, the big moment came when Khan described tech monopolists as "too big to care."

What a phrase!

Since the subprime crisis, we're all familiar with businesses being "too big to fail" and "too big to jail." But "too big to care?" Oof, that got me right in the feels.

Because that's what it feels like to use enshittified Google. That's what it feels like to discover that Kagi – the good search engine – is mostly Google with the weights adjusted to serve users, not shareholders.

Google used to care. They cared because they were worried about competitors and regulators. They cared because their workers made them care:

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/4/18295933/google-cancels-ai-ethics-board

Google doesn't care anymore. They don't have to. They're the search company.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

[beesmygod]

in an astounding twist of fate, im looking into what is actually going on with google adsense. they're in hot fucking water right now actually.

this summer, an enormous and scathing review by adalytics (an independent media research website) came out criticizing google for a myriad of things which could be politely summed up as "fraud". we're talking like. theye were taking money to serve ads on pages that got 0 views regularly. thats not what people pay for lol.

as a result google mysteriously issued some refunds (""credits"", because "refunds" sounds bad) but insists it was all normal. adexchanger has a summary of an adage.com article

Google vehemently denies the report’s findings and that the credits are in any way related. “Issuing credits to advertisers is not uncommon,” a Google spokesperson says, adding that “Adalytics used a flawed methodology to make wildly inaccurate claims about GVP.”

so over the last four or so months, google has been making core updates to its adsense network with, apparently, very little warning to the people using it. and everyone's numbers tanked. hard. oct 2023 appears to have been esp brutal. both the search engine journal and lily ray from amsive, apparently a huge name in marketing, released reports that are completely nuts. the lily ray one is esp detailed and has a timeline of updates

73% of overall respondents indicated that they have seen their Google Discover traffic drop to 0 during the past 3 months. Among websites that lost Discover traffic, the most common complaints were dramatic traffic declines; dropping to 0 impressions and clicks; extreme percentage decreases in clicks ranging from 50-99%, and massive losses in revenue from AdSense and other ad networks.

50 to 99%?! yeah that's a small sample size but that's a fucking hell of a swing and a trend.

according to the search engine journal google appears to be saying "well, we''ll see what we can do" the same way that you would say "let me look in the back" when you know full and well its not in the back. like this reads to me as "them's the breaks". which is uhh. i think a really big problem.

[musings-ofthe-unamused]

Professor's Best Stress Relief (Zayne X f!Reader)

A/N: Imagining Professor Zayne with his messy hair and glasses... ugh <3

Warnings: 18+, MDNI, slight power imbalance, cunnilingus, fingering, desk sex, size difference, squirting, unsafe sex

Word Count: 3.1k

Ask Box: Open

Masterlist | Ko-Fi | VGen | Patreon | Twitter | Archive of Our Own

Being a graduate student was a pain. You were buried in research papers, a thesis, finding internships, and being a teaching assistant. The field you were studying, biomedical engineering, required long and sleepless nights. It wasn’t odd for you to be constantly buried in books or grading papers from students in the professor’s office.

Class had just gotten out. You finished helping a student find the right resources to search for when writing the term paper. Your mind flitted as you went over your checklist for the day. You needed to grade assignments and then head to the lab to see if your slides were ready to be examined.

”You’re good at teaching.”

You blinked, getting pulled out of your thoughts. You looked upwards at the man speaking to you. “Thank you, Professor Zayne.”

He gave you a curt nod. “Of course. You’d even do good at my job.”

”Oh, please.” You snorted and rolled your eyes. “You’re the best professor in Linkon. I wouldn’t be as good as you.”

Zayne was nothing short of a genius. One of the greatest minds in the biomedical engineering field, he made great contributions through his groundbreaking research as well as his amazing ability to teach even the most complicated theories in a way that everyone understands. He was the best of the best and you strived to be as good as him. That’s why you had to work as hard as possible.

You walked over to the desk and grabbed a stack of papers. Zayne followed you. “You can let me grade those.”

”It’s fine. I need something to do as a TA.” You gave him a brief smile.

”You’re already busy.” Zayne grabbed the stack out of your hands. He leaned down, his eyes studying yours. “I don’t mind.”

”I’m getting paid for this, Professor. I’d rather do something than nothing at all.”

He let out a small sigh as you took the stack again. His eyebrows furrowed. You ignored and grabbed your bag. You would have to hurry up with grading if you wanted to make the lab while it wasn’t busy. You walked out of the classroom, noticing that Zayne was following you. 

“Do you want to get something to eat?”

You shook your head. “No, thank you. I have to get these graded as quickly as possible and then get to the lab.”

“You need to eat.” Zayne sighed. “You’ve been in the classroom since eight in the morning.”

”I’ve had snacks.”

”That’s not enough. Let me take half. That way you can get it done faster and then-“

”I’m sure you’ve done just as much as me when you were a graduate student. I’m seriously fine with my workload.”

Zayne closed his eyes and sighed. "I'm going to get us some food."

You didn't fight his words. Despite Zayne's cold and unapproachable exterior, he was attentive and caring. You've heard tales that despite Zayne's natural aptitude in teaching, he was a difficult person to please. He gave hard deadlines and hardly allowed for makeups or extensions unless the circumstances called for it. You even heard that his last TA had to talk him into making some exceptions. And yet, he always made sure everyone passed his class. He always made sure everyone understood every single concept.

You were nervous when you first started working for him. But surprised when he didn't even hesitate to make you feel comfortable and welcome. That was the real Professor Zayne. You've heard horror stories of how other professors treated their TAs. You had gotten lucky.

ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ

Three nights. Three nights of working nonstop. Grading, lab reports, thesis research, and helping out during classes. The irritation was building inside of you until every single little thing got on your nerves. You weren’t proud of how you were acting, but you were frustrated that no one else seemed as rushed as you were.

Professor Zayne was taking his sweet time. He shuffled slowly through the stack of papers. He glanced up at you every so often. He always did a quick second check of your grading. Quick. For some reason, Zayne was taking his sweet time. Your arms were crossed as you tapped your foot anxiously. Your eyes kept flickering over to the clock hanging on the wall above his head. 

“Professor Zayne, can you just email me to let me know if I made any mistakes?”

”No.”

You started tapping your finger against your arm. “I need to go to the lab.”

”Again?” He lifted his head. “Didn’t you go there yesterday?”

”Yes. And I need to go again today.”

Zayne sighed, and to your dismay, set down the stack of papers. “When’s the last time you got a full night of sleep?”

”Uhh…” You shrugged.

”Have you been eating well?”

”That’s–“

Zayne stood up and slowly made his way around the desk. “When’s the last time you took a break? Went out with friends? Had fun?”

You frowned and looked away. “I don’t have time for fun. In fact, I don’t have time to be lectured like this.”

Before you could step back, Zayne moved in front of you. “You will make time.”

”I can’t!” You sighed in frustration and uncrossed your arms. “I’m so close to finishing the research part of my thesis. If I go to the lab tonight-“

”Absolutely not.”

You stared at Zayne in disbelief. “Excuse me?”

”Sit.”

”Professor, I really don’t have time-“

”I said sit.”

Zayne shoved you down so you were sitting on the edge of the desk. He then pushed your hips backwards, sliding you further onto the desk. Your eyes were wide as you watched him loosen his tie. His breathing was heavy and looked almost angry. You’ve never seen him angry. The fact that it was pointed towards you sent a shiver down your spine.

”You’re going to sit here and listen to me. Am I clear?”

”Y-Yes, Professor.” You whispered.

He let out a harsh breath. He leaned in, his hands placed on both sides of you. “I’ve been trying to get you to look at me for more than three seconds the whole time you’ve been my TA.”

Your eyes automatically flicked away at his words.

”Look at me.” He hissed, roughly grabbing your chin and tilting it back. “I am tired of seeing you run yourself thin. I’m tired of seeing you too stressed to even take care of yourself. I’m tired of you not paying attention to me.”

”I’m sorry.”

He scoffed and shook his head. He leaned in until his lips were ghosting against your neck. “Sorry isn’t enough. You’re going to need a better apology.”

“What…” A sigh left your lips as he kissed your neck. “What do you want me to say?”

”I want you to say that you want me.” Zayne licked up your neck before nibbling your earlobe. “That you need me. And you can’t stand another minute without feeling my touch.”

His words made you want to melt into a puddle. You would have never ever expected any of those words to come out of Zayne’s mouth. The most you thought he would do is force you to eat and then go home and sleep. Not force you to admit how badly you wanted him.

And you wanted him bad.

It was no secret that Professor Zayne was one of the most attractive people on campus. Students didn’t just want to take his class because he was good at teaching. It’s because he was complete and total eye candy. But you’ve been too preoccupied with your own path that you barely gave it any mind. You’ve been so preoccupied that you didn’t notice he’s been vying for your attention— for you this whole time.

You swallowed thickly. “I…want you.”

”And?” He started to push your skirt up your legs.

”And…” You were staring at his hands. “Touch.”

He had a ghost of a smirk on his lips. “Use full sentences.”

”I want- no, I need your touch.”

“Good girl.”

This was happening. This was actually happening. Professor Zayne was actually pushing your skirts up around your hips. He was staring up at you with a darke gaze filled with hunger. And you were sure your expression had just as much hunger. Screw all the work you needed to do. This was way more important. The lab would be open tomorrow anyway. 

He moved up and cupped your cheek with one hand. His lips were passionate yet firm as he pressed them against yours. You found your eyes fluttering closed as you melted against his touch. The stress started to slowly melt from your muscles as Zayne continued to make you focus on him and only him.

”You taste like coffee.” He murmured against your lips.

You let out a breath, looking away shyly. “That's all I've been drinking."

"You need to relax.

You didn't answer. Your eyes focused back on him as he slowly went back down on his knees. Zayne's hands were freezing cold against your thighs as he spread them apart. His breath wasn't any warmer. It brushed against your skin, his mouth getting closer and closer to your panties. Your hands gripped the edge of the desk tightly. His nose brushed against the fabric. You jolted in surprise. 

"You're soaking wet." He murmured. "I haven't done anything yet."

You swallowed nervously. "K-Kissing is doing something."

"And it made you like this?"

You didn't say anything for a moment before speaking in an embarrassed whisper. "I haven't had sex in almost a year."

His eyes only grew dark with hunger. "It looks like I need to change that."

Zayne obviously didn't want to waste time. He tugged down your panties, his cold breath now tickling your bare skin. A whine left your lips as his tongue slowly swiped up your wet pussy. Your cheeks flushed at the desperate sound. Zayne smirked before going back in more eagerly.

"Z-Zayne, slow-" You closed your eyes and leaned your head back. "Fuck."

"Just relax and focus on the pleasure."

You nodded and let your shoulders drop. Zayne's tongue focused on your clit while he slowly inserted one finger inside of you. It was almost embarrassing how easily you just sucked him in. He hummed in satisfaction before adding another. No one's ever eaten you out like this before. The icy feeling of his tongue mixed with the slow curl of his fingers had your mind reeling. You reached down with one hand and carded your fingers through his soft hair. You pulled him closer.

It wasn't going to take much to make you come undone. You've admittedly been dying to masturbate to relieve at least some of the stress you've been accumulating, but you haven't had the chance. You felt the pent up damn inside of you slowly start to crack as Zayne sucked on your clit and plunged his fingers even deeper inside of you. Your eyes rolled in the back of your head. His fingers brushed against you, making you moan out.

"Close?" He murmured against you.

"S-So… just a l-little more."

Zayne hummed. The vibrations made your hips move forward, seeking out his touch. He started to move his fingers even more, his tongue moving back to your clit. Your lips parted as if to say something, but all that came out were desperate moans. A buzzing spread through your body. Your toes curled and your hand pulled at Zayne's hair. He looked up at you as you came undone, his glasses slipping down his nose. He didn't look away for a single moment.

Zayne pulled back. He licked his lips and used one hand to push up his glasses. He licked your juices off of his fingers. You were breathing heavily. You leaned back and tried to catch your bearings. Your legs felt weak. You couldn't even remember the last time you felt that good. 

"That was…" You started to pull your skirt back down. "Amazing."

Zayne suddenly reached out and grabbed your wrist. "What are you doing?"

You blinked. "Uhm… A-Aren't we done?"

"You've only cum once. That's not enough to get rid of all your stress."

"B-But–"

Zayne let go of your wrist and reached down, unbuttoning his pants. "What did I say? Relax and focus on the pleasure."

Your eyes moved down to the very obvious bulge in his pants. You've never cum more than once before. That said more about your partners than you, but you guess you didn't have a choice. You needed to listen to your professor. So you pulled the fabric of your skirt back up. Zayne smiled. He unbuttoned his shirt.

Your hand reached out, trailing along his abs. "I didn't know you worked out."

"Mmmh." He grabbed your hand and moved it up to his chest before placing your palm on his face. He moved in between your legs. "I like to keep my stamina up."

Your whole body felt hot. Your legs wrapped around him, and your finger brushed against his bottom lip. His green eyes shone with lust. You pulled him down and kissed him passionately. He moaned softly, pressing his hips against yours. You were practically dripping at the feeling of his large bulge. His tongue pushed into your mouth, cooling down the heat that you felt pulsing through you. His hands moved down to his pants, tugging them down along with his boxers.

"Ready?" Zayne pulled back.

Your mind was hazy. You blinked and nodded your head. "G-Go ahead."

"I'll start slow."

He leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss on your forehead. The sudden softness had your heart pounding. But before you could even think about it, Zayne's cock eased into you with an embarrassing squelch. Your arms wrapped around his broad shoulders. You were so wet, so aroused, that it was like your pussy was drinking him in. You clenched around him and bit your lip. Your sensitive body shivered as he adjusted the angle.

"Good?"

"No~" You whined, looking up at him. "I c-can't last long like this."

He chuckled and placed his hands on your hips. Your eyes shut as he slowly started to move his hips. HIs cock was thick and long. It stretched you out, hitting you in the right spot to have you whimpering with each thrust. You panted heavily and tried to hold on. You didn't want to cum so early, not when it looked like Zayne was doing this with ease.

He nudged your chin up with his fingers. "Let go for me, darling."

Your body reacted to his words like you were wrapped around his finger. Darling. It repeated in your mind over and over. You let out a cry of pleasure and buried your face in Zayne's neck. The scent of his cologne along with the hint of sweat made you go insane. Your hips started to buck against his as you came again. Your pussy was throbbing, each thrust driving you more and more over the edge.

"Fuck~" Zayne hissed, his nails digging into your hips. "You're sucking me in."

"Ngh… feels… it feels good."

"You can cum one more time, right?" His thrusts started to speed up. "Can you do that for me, darling?"

"Mmh!"

"Good girl. So good."

Zayne's face was flushed. His breath came out in short, cold puffs. His eyes kept flitting to your face down to where his cock pounded into you. His eyebrows were slightly furrowed as if he was hanging on by a thread. You left kisses and small bites all along his shoulder and neck. He grunted and reached down. A loud moan echoed in his office as his fingers rubbed small, firm circles against your clit.

"I'm gonna cum." He breathed.

That was about as much warning you got before he pushed you down so you were laying on his desk. His hips pounded into you relentlessly. You couldn't take it anymore. The feeling of his cock hitting your g-spot constantly along with the feeling of his fingers against your sensitive clit had you seeing stars. All the air left your lungs as you came for a third time. You felt something wet pool beneath your legs. The sounds of Zayne fucking you only got louder. With several quick thrusts, Zayne came inside of you. You felt his seed spread through your hot walls.

"Oh, fuck." He groaned. 

His hips slowed down to a sensual roll. Your body was completely weak. You opened your eyes and propped yourself up on your elbows. When you looked down, you realized what happened. You squirted. That was new. Zayne was fixing his glasses. His whole body was flushed, sweat dripping down his chest. His hair was all tousled, his normally neat clothes wrinkled. He met your gaze.

"Uhm-" Your voice was hoarse. You cleared your throat. "I feel much better."

He chuckled and leaned over you. He brushed your hair away from your face. "Good. We'll do this again next week."

"Again?!" Your eyes widened in surprise. 

He nodded. "We can't let your stress get so high again. To perform at your best, you need a low stress level."

"Is this how you relieve your stress?"

"I read. But I do this too."

"With…" You trailed off, suddenly curious.

"Alone." He kissed your forehead and then your nose, and then your cheek. "Imagining you exactly like this."

You shivered. "I never knew."

"Because you were too caught up in your work. So from now on, pay attention to me too. I'm only here to help."

"Or you just want to bend me over your desk again."

He raised an eyebrow. "Are you offering?"

You snorted. "I can't go another round. I think I'll die."

"Then next week. This time exactly."

"Yes, professor."

ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ

The cool spring air felt nice against your skin as you happily walked across campus. There was a small bounce in your step. Things have been going well recently. Your thesis was finished and ready to be proofread. Everyone enjoyed you as a TA. And you found that you had more time for yourself. To think that two months ago, you were on the brink of a breakdown. Now you were thriving.

"Professor! I'm here!"

You knocked on his office door before opening it. Sitting at his desk, he looked up from his papers and gave you a soft smile. Your relationship with Professor Zayne changed completely. It was obvious you were more than just his TA. There wasn't a label for it. But you didn't need one. You liked the way things were. Because of him, you didn't have the weight of the world on your shoulders. Professor Zayne stood up.

"Just on time. Ready to begin?"

[knitmeapony]

Thinking about starting a subreddit for people who want to find furniture, sports equipment, etc (anything but clothes) for people who are fat or tall or otherwise don't fit standard dimensions.

Basically 'consumer reports for people who are more than 250lbs and/or 6ft tall'

Reasons why subreddit:

allows people to post their own questions

allows for reasonable moderation already

gives pretty good SEO out of the gate

allows for tagging so people can filter posts

has decent search engine built in

allows for NSFW/18+ content with tags so questions about sex toys, etc can be asked

Rules I'm already thinking of:

Recommendations and questions both allowed, but no self-promotion on individual posts or maybe on one day a month or something (keeps down the spammers!)

Related: no surveys/market research

No diet talk at all

No judgement (about things that are usually disability related but get shamed, like 'best way to put on my socks when I have trouble bending over')

This is generally for goods, not services, so no asking about therapists, doctors, etc.

This is not a complaint forum, but you can post your personal negative experiences as an anti-recommendation on a question. (What I don't want: a post that's just 'I hate this company because of a single bad experience!' What I would be OK with: a post about yoga equipment where someone shares that their foam blocks from X company collapsed after a few uses)

Anyone else on Reddit interested in helping? Is this something that already exists elsewhere I can just join?

[pokemon-ash-aus]

Has there been a moment where some people try to "cancel" Ash in the streamer au? Because I like to imagine it's the guys who abandoned Charizard and Pignite( their names are Damian and Shamus I think??) try to claim that Ash "stole" their pokemon and Ash's response to that is showing Charizard and Pignite the claims and Charizard just does a middle finger on camera while Ash laughs.

Oh absolutrly, but Ash is so not in the online forums, he never really finds out until he get's a bombardment of questions his next Stream.

"'When are you gonna address the Pokemon Stealing that you've done? And the emotional trauma that-', Whoa, wait a second, you guys actually think i stole a Pokemon? Hold on a sevond, i need to see this." Ash looks absolutely goddy, his prior laid back look now taught with excitement.

His hair is still askew, and his clothes are wrinkled from waking up. It's clear to the stream that he probably woke up and hoped on stream.

"'Here is a Google Doc of all my interactions with Ash Ketchum, and how he stole my Charizard from me.' Woah, this guy did his research! Cause i have a Charizard." Ash's eyes are bright, and he's reading through the document without saying anything outloud.

His lips are parted and partially moving, sometimes a word will part through his lips, but not as if he were actually speaking to them.

But the document moves, the mouse hoveribg over particular words, and Ash's face grows more and more delighted as the document goes on. He's /too/ excited about this, and it makes all viewers uncomfortable. Even so, the Steeam's view count steadily rises, from a 2,000 viewer count to nearly 56k in the span of a few silent minutes.

"So," He says after a moment, reading the document for nearly 10 minutes in complete silence. "This is all utter Bullshit chat- oh hello new peeps- anyways, this is all bullshit and i'll show you why in one simple act."

And Ash pulls up a website, still grinning ear to ear as he types in his name.

It's a Reporting Website.

"This is a Trainer Report site for those that aren't trainers." And he taps the screen with his hand, to emphasize his point. "On here, you can report the misconduct of any trainer at any given time. Each one is looked over by a Nurse Joy and an Officer Jenny, to make sure that everything is kosher. Obviously, not every single thing is gonna be reported, but if you feel like a Pokemon has been stolen and have told an Officer or a Nurse, THEY will automatically add a report."

He hits search and there are quiet a few reports on there, the search engine only showing 15 at any given time.

He had at least 3 pages.

"Some people will use this as an attempt to slow other trainers down, and you see this here." The mouse sircles around a his name on the report, colored Green. "When my name is Green on the Report, it means I submitted it, if it's red, It means it was submitted against me."

Another filter, another tap and now theres a measley 5-6 Reports on him- the names are all red.

"Now, I know when I got my Charmander- yes- he was a Charmander when i got him and not a Charizard. Should be this one." The bottom most report get's tapped and a bunch of information is put on the screen. "As a Trainer, all my information is readily available, but things like my home address and Trainer ID, are hidden- even on here- for obvious reasons. But As you see-."

Ash highlights one phrase at the very top. CLEARED OF ANY MISCONDUCT

"I was proven innocent." He grins, and scrolls down. "You see, at the time Charmander had been left abandoned on the side of a road, about a kilometer or 2 away from the Pokecenter- my mind is a bit fuzzy on the distance- we had noticed him, figured his trainer was coming back and left. Until it started raining and we later learned that the trainer had abandoned the charmander on the side of the road. Raced out to go get him, and came back to get scolded by a Nurse for 'Leaving your poor pokemon out in the rain.'"

And Ash leaned back, just in time for Pikachu to hop onto his chest, curling on the crook of his neck like a sweet little pet.

"Pikachu," He sounded exasperated, but continued forward. "Guys, i was Ten at the time, i didn't know why she blamed me, i didn't know she couldn't tell, but eventually we convinced her later that he wasn't *My* Charmander and we found him in the rain. She does a check to see if he's registered- and Nope. Completed unregistered Chamander. Either way, he goes back to the rock, we go to leave and get caught in some trouble.

Next thing i know, Charmander is saving all our hides with a strong Ember and his prior trainer comes crawling back because he seems stronger. Obviously, Charmander doesn't want that, we let him decide who he wants as a trainer and he chooses me. End of story." Ash claps his hands and then gets a little cheeky, usong one hand to situate Pikachu more onto his shoulder as he leans forward. "Also, for any Allegations of absuing Pokemon or stealing Pokemon- Yada Yada, look at my Trainer Profile."

It's scarily fast how quick Ash pulls it up, like it was practiced time and time again.

"Boom." And he highlights the Status he has a trianer and the Notes just beneath his Profile. "'Ash Ketchum has Been a trainer for 7 years-' Holy crap- 'He has been a registered REHABILITATION Trainer for 6 Years. Currently, he has had several Abandoned Pokemon under his rehabilitation status and has thus been approved. His first year as a Trainer has 3 unaccounted for abandoned Pokemom that has been approved by a Nurse and Officer Jenny at that given time.' Boom Jams baby, for all of you that had this flown over their head, trust me, shit was dense when i went through it, It basically gives me an a-okay to handle abused and abandoned pokemon. I am the one they will give Pokemon to, to rehabilitate. So of a report comes up against me, like stealing Pokemon, it is IMMEDIATELY investigated because i can loose my license for one single true report. I still have my license, and mind you- i am put under higher scrutiny because I know several people. Yeah, for those that thought befriending gym leaders would give you a get outta jail free card for this? The answer is fuck no. They press on you like no ones business."

And finally he exits the page, doesn't even bother hiding where he looked up the information. Ash is back on the google doc, and he grins again. Sit's forward with his fingers loosely locked together, elbows on his dock and locked hands neatly tucked beneath his chin.

Ash is smug, look's like a Meowth that got the Pidgey, a shit eating grin strewn across his face, one that is mimicked by Pikachu's equally shit eating grin.

"So, Damien," Ash drawls and it's clear to everyone that he's name dropping the person who tried to call him out. "Do you /really/ wanna go down the road of claiming i took Charmander? What about your other confiscated Pokemon? Ya know, i took a long time to reabilitate your Dodrio, Rapidash and Seel. Sweethearts all of them, but do they not matter to you like Charmander did? Oh! What about your Raichu? Or your Vaporeon? Man, i remenber them well, Raichu is a spitfire for sure, but he takes under Professor Oak so well now. Runs up to give me a big ole hug everytime he sees me now. You wanna start shit again? I'll risk a suspension of my license if it teaches you a lesson. Now, fuck off and get out of my stream."

Needless to say, Ash is quick to shut it all down

[read-marx-and-lenin]

there's that post going around talking about 1 in 4 construction workers in the Soviet Union being a woman, but I can't really find anything to back that up. got any further insight into this?

I found through a quick Google search an article from 1971 titled "Soviet Women in the Work Force and Professions" by William M. Mandel of the Highgate Road Social Science Research Station in Berkely, California, which cites Soviet reports stating that in 1967, women constituted 28% of construction workers and 41% of construction engineers.

[mariacallous]

A prominent computer scientist who has spent 20 years publishing academic papers on cryptography, privacy, and cybersecurity has gone incommunicado, had his professor profile, email account, and phone number removed by his employer, Indiana University, and had his homes raided by the FBI. No one knows why.

Xiaofeng Wang has a long list of prestigious titles. He was the associate dean for research at Indiana University's Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering, a fellow at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a tenured professor at Indiana University at Bloomington. According to his employer, he has served as principal investigator on research projects totaling nearly $23 million over his 21 years there.

He has also coauthored scores of academic papers on a diverse range of research fields, including cryptography, systems security, and data privacy, including the protection of human genomic data. I have personally spoken to him on three occasions for articles here, here, and here.

“None of This Is in Any Way Normal”

In recent weeks, Wang's email account, phone number, and profile page at the Luddy School were quietly erased by his employer. Over the same time, Indiana University also removed a profile for his wife, Nianli Ma, who was listed as a lead systems analyst and programmer at the university's Library Technologies division.

As reported by The Bloomingtonian and later the The Herald-Times in Bloomington, a small fleet of unmarked cars driven by government agents descended on the Bloomington home of Wang and Ma on Friday. They spent most of the day going in and out of the house and occasionally transferred boxes from their vehicles. TV station WTHR, meanwhile, reported that a second home owned by Wang and Ma, located in Carmel, Indiana, was also searched. The station said that both a resident and an attorney for the resident were on scene during at least part of the search.

Attempts to locate Wang and Ma have so far been unsuccessful. An Indiana University spokesman didn't answer emailed questions asking if the couple was still employed by the university and why their profile pages, email addresses, and phone numbers had been removed. The spokesman provided the contact information for a spokeswoman at the FBI's field office in Indianapolis. In an email, the spokeswoman wrote: “The FBI conducted court authorized law enforcement activity at homes in Bloomington and Carmel Friday. We have no further comment at this time.”

Searches of federal court dockets turned up no documents related to Wang, Ma, or any searches of their residences. The FBI spokeswoman didn't answer questions seeking which US district court issued the warrant and when, and whether either Wang or Ma is being detained by authorities. Justice Department representatives didn't return an email seeking the same information. An email sent to a personal email address belonging to Wang went unanswered at the time this post went live. Their resident status (e.g., US citizens or green card holders) is currently unknown.

Fellow researchers took to social media over the weekend to register their concern over the series of events.

“None of this is in any way normal,” Matthew Green, a professor specializing in cryptography at Johns Hopkins University, wrote on Mastodon. He continued: “Has anyone been in contact? I hear he’s been missing for two weeks and his students can’t reach him. How does this not get noticed for two weeks???”

In the same thread, Matt Blaze, a McDevitt professor of computer science and law at Georgetown University, said, “It's hard to imagine what reason there could be for the university to scrub its website as if he never worked there. And while there's a process for removing tenured faculty, it takes more than an afternoon to do it.”

Local news outlets reported the agents spent several hours moving boxes in an out of the residences. WTHR provided the following details about the raid on the Carmel home:

Neighbors say the agents announced "FBI, come out!" over a megaphone.

A woman came out of the house holding a phone. A video from a neighbor shows an agent taking that phone from her. She was then questioned in the driveway before agents began searching the home, collecting evidence and taking photos.

A car was pulled out of the garage slightly to allow investigators to access the attic.

The woman left the house before 13News arrived. She returned just after noon accompanied by a lawyer. The group of 10 or so investigators left a few minutes later.

The FBI would not say what they were looking for or who is under investigation. A bureau spokesperson issued a statement: “I can confirm we conducted court-authorized activity at the address in Carmel today. We have no further comment at this time.”

Investigators were at the house for about four hours before leaving with several boxes of evidence. 13News rang the doorbell when the agents were gone. A lawyer representing the family who answered the door told us they're not sure yet what the investigation is about.

This post will be updated if new details become available. Anyone with firsthand knowledge of events involving Wang, Ma, or the investigation into either is encouraged to contact me, preferably over Signal at DanArs.82. The email address is: dan.goodin@arstechnica.com.

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

The Bad Batch with Modern-day Earth Careers

(Note: I have a TON of headcanons about the Bad Batch's hobbies and volunteer work. This post is specifically about what their day jobs/careers might be if they lived on Earth - I'd love to read your ideas too!!!)

✨ Hunter: what with his excellent leadership skills, tracking/observational skills, and strong protective streak, I can't help but peg Hunter as someone leading a search and rescue team.

Alternative: takes a 9-to-5 managerial job while Omega is growing up so he can be home with her more consistently and more often. (His leadership skills are too good for any job to overlook, hence the management position. Naturally he's the best manager any of his colleagues have ever worked under.)

✨ Tech: his love for knowledge/data and his teaching skills would make him an excellent researcher/professor.

Alternative: mechanical engineer (we've all seen how great Tech is at creating devices).

✨ Echo: computer analyst is his day job, but he's also a major activist and this is where his true passion lies.

Alternative: investigative journalist (Echo strikes me as the kind of person who has superb skills writing reports and this would also provide him opportunities to help people by uncovering corruption and intrigue).

✨ Wrecker: literally anything involving physical labor, since he likes to stay active. My first thought is construction work as long as he can avoid the tasks involving heights.

Alternative: athletic coach, primarily football. He does high school coaching for the salary but also loves volunteering as a Little League coach too.

✨ Crosshair: I can't help but picture him working in law enforcement, definitely prefers to be out in the field rather than a desk job.

Alternative: wildlife photographer (I wouldn't describe Crosshair as having much patience in general but he definitely has the specific strain of patience that would help with this kind of work, in addition to keen eyesight and attention to detail).

✨ Omega: with her medical background and deep empathy, she would make a fantastic doctor.

Alternative: pilot (I might be cheating a little here since she becomes a pilot in the show, but Omega does have a strong sense of adventure and she seems interested in flying from the get-go).

[academicfever]

This is a good starting point but its not exhaustive by any means...

#Research 101: Part 1

##    How to find a good research topic?

It’s best to familiarize yourself with a discipline or topic as broadly as possible by looking beyond academia

Tips:

Be enthusiastic, but not unrealistic. For example, you might be tempted to throw yourself into finding out to what extent an entire economy has become circular, but it may already be challenging and tricky enough to find out which building materials are being recycled in the construction sector, and in what ways.

Be open-minded but beware of cul-de-sacs. You should always find out first whether enough is known about a topic already, or you might find yourself wasting a lot of time on it.

Be creative but stay close to the assignment. This starts with the topic itself; if one learning objective of the assignment is to carry out a survey, it isn’t helpful to choose a topic for which you need to find respondents on the other side of the world. One place where you can look for inspiration is current events. 

Although professors and lecturers tend to be extremely busy, they are often enthusiastic about motivated and smart students who are interested in their research field. You do need to approach them with focused questions, though, and not just general talk such as: ‘Do you know of a good topic for me?’ In many cases, a good starting point is the scholar themselves. Do a search on them in a search engine, take a look at their university web page, read recent publications,

In most university towns, you’ll come across organizations that hold regular lectures, debates, and thematic evenings, often in partnership with or organized by university lecturers and professors. If you’re interested in transdisciplinary research where academic knowledge and practical knowledge come together, this is certainly a useful place to start your search.

If you want to do interdisciplinary research, it is essential to understand and work with concepts and theories from different research fields, so that you are able to draw links between them (see Menken and Keestra (2016) on why theory is important for this). With an eye to your ‘interdisciplinary’ academic training, it is therefore a good idea to start your first steps in research with concepts and theories.

##How to do Lit Review:

Although texts in different academic disciplines can differ significantly in terms of structure, form, and length, almost all academic articles (research articles and literature reports) share a number of characteristics:

They are published in scholarly journals with expert editorial boards

These journals are peer-reviewed

These articles are written by authors who have no direct commercial or political interest in the topic on which they are writing

There are also non-academic research reports such as UN reports, data from statistics institutes, and government reports. Although these are not, strictly speaking, peer-reviewed, the reliability of these sources means that their contents can be assumed to be valid

You can usually include grey literature in your research bibliography, but if you’re not sure, you can ask your lecturer or supervisor whether the source you’ve found meets the requirements.

Google and Wikipedia are unreliable: the former due to its commercial interests, the latter because anyone, in principle, can adjust the information and few checks are made on the content.

disciplinary and interdisciplinary search machines with extensive search functions for specialized databases, such as the Web of Science, Pubmed, Science Direct, and Scopus

Search methods All of these search engines allow you to search for scholarly sources in different ways. You can search by topic, author, year of publication, and journal name. Some tips for searching for literature: 1. Use a combination of search terms that accurately describes your topic. 2. You should use mainly English search terms, given that English is the main language of communication in academia. 3. Try multiple search terms to unearth the sources you need. a. Ensure that you know a number of synonyms for your main topic b. Use the search engine’s thesaurus function (if available) to map out related concepts.

During your search, it is advisable to keep track of the keywords and search combinations you use. This will allow you to check for blind spots in your search strategy, and you can get feedback on improving the search combinations. Some search engines automatically keep a record of this.

Exploratory reading How do you make a selection from the enormous number of articles that are often available on a topic? Keep the following four questions in mind, and use them to guide your literature review: ■■ What is already known about my topic and in which discipline is the topic discussed? ■■ Which theories and concepts are used and discussed within the scope of my topic, and how are they defined? ■■ How is my topic researched and what different research methods are there? ■■ Which questions remain unanswered and what has yet to be researched?

$$ Speed reading:

Run through the titles, abstracts, and keywords of the articles at the top of your list and work out which ideas (concepts) keep coming back.

Next, use the abstract to figure out what these concepts mean, and also try to see whether they are connected and whether this differs for each study.

If you are unable to work out what the concepts mean, based on the context, don’t hesitate to use dictionaries or search engines.

Make a list of the concepts that occur most frequently in these texts and try to draw links between them.

A good way to do this is to use a concept map, which sets out the links between the concepts in a visual way.

All being well, by now you will have found a list of articles and used them to identify several concepts and theories. From these, try to select the theories and concepts that you want to explore further. Selecting at this stage will help you to frame and focus your research. The next step is to discover to what extent these articles deal with these concepts and theories in similar or different ways, and how combining these concepts and theories leads to different outcomes. In order to do this, you will need to read more thoroughly and make a detailed record of what you’ve learned.

next: part 2

part 3

part 4

last part

[scam-alerts]

So I just came back to tumblr after a few months and had lots of those copy pasted paypal scam faux gaza things. That's... whatever, I've disabled my ask box. No friend shaped people were using it anyways. But I don't know how they found me, since a lot were sent by anonymous posters (copy pasted with little emojis) and my account is only viewable by people who are part of tumblr and logged in, and not searchable by search engines. Do you know why this happens? How would a scammer be able to access an account that's behind a log in? And then why ask as an anonymous?

Hi there!

Thank you for sending me a message. :)

I sadly can't give you a definitive answer as to how/why this happens, I myself don't 100% know how they do it. But, I think I have an idea as to how it happens?

I myself have had it happen more than my fair share of times on my main blog, @slenbee, and every time I get an ask like that now I just report, block, and delete the DM (always report in a new tab first if on PC otherwise the ask will get shadow blocked in your inbox and it'll show you have an ask in the lower right hand corner ((on desktop)) and it'll be irritating lol.) BUT that's besides the point.

I've noticed, as someone who's been here since 2014, that a lot of people who send asks looking for help for their campaign in general (the non-anon kind mind you), will usually- in one shape or form- comment on or reblog popular posts with 10k>100k notes advertising their campaign.

A few examples are as follows:

My theory, is that they use the reblog list to then DM and send asks to people. The copy-paste anons probably do the same.

So, again, my theory is that- if you rebloged a popular post that has 1k,5k,10k, or even 100k+ notes, it's highly likely someone went through the list of reblogs or likes, found your name, and then sent you an ask.

Keep in mind that Gazavetters has openly stated that any kind of spam/bot activity will not be tolerated. This also includes threatening, guilt tripping, and begging people in asks/DM's to donate. Their statement can be found here:

I think it's safe to assume that if any mutual aid blog that's vetted by a trusted group other than gazavetters, like those supported and vetted by the user el-shab-hussein (who is highly reputable and is trusted amongst us scam bloggers!), starts sending you DM's/asks that try to manipulate, guilt trip, or threaten you into giving them money, you should let them know immediately with proof of such.

The same with if they spam your asks on anon if you blocked them, start making 50+ accounts and send you asks repeatedly after you've blocked 5-10 already, and/or use alt accounts just to @ you in the comments of a post constantly.

I'm pretty sure that kind of behavior won't be tolerated and is seen as spam/bot behavior and possibly even a scam-like tactic.

-----

Again it bares repeating: I will never, ever call a mutual aid blog with a campaign, be it gofundme, chuffed, ect, a scam.

I will never do this.

Why? Because a vast majority of mutual aid accounts, are not, in fact, scams. They're not. Whomever you 'heard' this from or 'saw' post about it saying "all mutual aid blogs are scammers!"? Is wrong.

If you think they are scams, then sit down, take an hour to do your own research like reverse image searching, contacting whom they're vetted by, or even contacting them. If you can do alllll that and prove it's a scam? Then you have a valid argument. Show proof to the vetters and the rest of tumblr it's a scam and people like me will make a post about it.

But do not go spouting nonsense like: 'all mutual aid blogs are a scam cause <website> doesn't work in gaza'. or 'how can they be on tumblr when they're at war', 'how can they hurdehur-'.🤓

Just stop. If you want to know how that rumor started? Here you go.

Anyways...

Repeated spam behavior or block evasion? If someone keeps dming or sending you asks after you've told them to stop or you blocked them? That shouldn't be tolerated by anyone. If it keeps happening, report it.

Spam is spam, it's literally in Tumblr's Guidelines when you sign up:

Don't spam people. Don't make spammy posts, don't post spammy replies, don't send people spammy messages. Be a regular human.

As far as the guilt tripping and threats go... I've experienced this myself first hand. Several times. And I've seen it happen to others too many times. It's why I don't share campaigns anymore on my main blog unless I know they're from a trusted source.

No one deserves to be threatened or guilt tripped if you told someone "no", "I can't donate but I'll share.", or "I can't donate at all, sorry.". No means no. If people can't respect that and they keep pushing, then that's harassment.

If it gets real bad? Report it to the right people.

Even if that means tumblr.

Sorry for going off on a rant there, I hope that answers your question!

Sadly all we can do is report, block, and delete for now for the anon spam. :(

Just remember to trust your gut, and be safe. <3

-Bee

[kenyatta]

AkiraBot is a program that fills website comments sections and customer service chat bots with AI-generated spam messages. Its goal is simple: it wants you to sign up for an SEO scheme that costs about $30 a month. For that low price it swears it can enchant Google’s algorithms to get you on the frontpage. But it’s a scam. A new report from researchers at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne documented how scammers deployed AkiraBot, the tool’s use of OpenAI generated messages, and how it avoided multiple CAPTCHA systems and network detection techniques. According to the report, the bot targeted 420,000 unique domains and successfully spammed 80,000.

Whoever runs AkirBot operates their SEO company under a bunch of different names, but they all tend to use the words “Akira” or “ServiceWrap.” SentinelOne says the tool finds websites crafted by third party software like Wix or Squarespace and spams comments sections and automated chatbots with a promise to get the site on the frontpage of various search engines. If you have a small business that exists on the web or have run a WordPress-based website in the last 15 years, you’ve likely seen messages like those AkiraBot crafts. 

[misfitwashere]

April 11, 2025

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 12

READ IN APP

On April 4, Trump fired head of U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) and director of the National Security Agency (NSA) General Timothy Haugh, apparently on the recommendation of right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who is pitching her new opposition research firm to “vet” candidates for jobs in Trump’s administration.

Former secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall wrote in Newsweek yesterday that the position Haugh held is “one of the most sensitive and powerful jobs in America.” Kendall writes that NSA and CYBERCOM oversee the world’s most sophisticated tools and techniques to penetrate computer systems, monitor communications around the globe, and, if national security requires it, attack those systems. U.S. law drastically curtails how those tools can be used in the U.S. and against American citizens and businesses. Will a Trump loyalist follow those laws? Kendall writes: “Every American should view this development with alarm.”

Just after 2:00 a.m. eastern time this morning, the Senate confirmed Retired Air Force Lieutenant General John Dan Caine, who goes by the nickname “Razin,” for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by a vote of 60–25. U.S. law requires the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to have served as the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief of staff of the Army, the chief of naval operations, the chief of staff of the Air Force, the commandant of the Marine Corps, or the commander of a unified or specified combatant command.

Although Caine has 34 years of military experience, he did not serve in any of the required positions. The law provides that the president can waive the requirement if “the President determines such action is necessary in the national interest,” and he has apparently done so for Caine. The politicization of the U.S. military by filling it with Trump loyalists is now, as Kendall writes, “indisputable.”

The politicization of data is also indisputable. Billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) claims to be saving Americans money, but the Wall Street Journal reported today that effort has been largely a failure (despite today’s announcement of devastating cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that monitors our weather). But what DOGE is really doing is burrowing into Americans’ data.

The first people to be targeted by that data collection appear to be undocumented immigrants. Jason Koebler of 404 Media reported on Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been using a database that enables officials to search for people by filtering for “hundreds of different, highly specific categories,” including scars or tattoos, bankruptcy filings, Social Security number, hair color, and race. The system, called Investigative Case Management (ICM), was created by billionaire Peter Thiel’s software company Palantir, which in 2022 signed a $95.9 million contract with the government to develop ICM.

Three Trump officials told Sophia Cai of Politico that DOGE staffers embedded in agencies across the government are expanding government cooperation with immigration officials, using the information they’re gleaning from government databases to facilitate deportation. On Tuesday, DOGE software engineer Aram Moghaddassi sent the first 6,300 names of individuals whose temporary legal status had just been canceled. On the list, which Moghaddassi said covered those on “the terror watch list” or with “F.B.I. criminal records,” were eight minors, including one 13-year-old.

The Social Security Administration worked with the administration to get those people to “self-deport” by adding them to the agency's “death master file.” That file is supposed to track people whose death means they should no longer receive benefits. Adding to it people the administration wants to erase is “financial murder,” former SSA commissioner Martin O’Malley told Alexandra Berzon, Hamed Aleaziz, Nicholas Nehamas, Ryan Mac, and Tara Siegel Bernard of the New York Times. Those people will not be able to use credit cards or banks.

On Tuesday, Acting Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Melanie Krause resigned after the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security agreed to share sensitive taxpayer data with immigration authorities. Undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes, in part to demonstrate their commitment to citizenship, and the government has promised immigrants that it would not use that information for immigration enforcement. Until now, the IRS has protected sensitive taxpayer information.

Rene Marsh and Marshall Cohen of CNN note that “[m]ultiple senior career IRS officials refused to sign the data-sharing agreement with DHS,” which will enable HHS officials to ask the IRS for names and addresses of people they suspect are undocumented, “because of grave concerns about its legality.” Ultimately, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signed the agreement with Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

Krause was only one of several senior career officials leaving the IRS, raising concerns among those staying that there is no longer a “defense against the potential unlawful use of taxpayer data by the Trump administration.”

Makena Kelly of Wired reported today that for the past three days, DOGE staffers have been working with representatives from Palantir and career engineers from the IRS in a giant “hackathon.” Their goal is to build a system that will be able to access all IRS records, including names, addresses, job data, and Social Security numbers, that can then be compared with data from other agencies.

But the administration’s attempt to automate deportation is riddled with errors. Last night the government sent threatening emails to U.S. citizens, green card holders, and even a Canadian (in Canada) terminating “your parole” and giving them seven days to leave the U.S. One Massachusetts-born immigration lawyer asked on social media: “Does anyone know if you can get Italian citizenship through great-grandparents?”

The government is not keen to correct its errors. On March 15 the government rendered to prison in El Salvador a legal U.S. resident, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, whom the courts had ordered the U.S. not to send to El Salvador, where his life was in danger. The government has admitted that its arrest and rendition of Abrego Garcia happened because of “administrative error” but now claims—without evidence—that he is a member of the MS-13 gang and that his return to the U.S. would threaten the public. Abrego Garcia says he is not a gang member and notes that he has never been charged with a crime.

On April 4, U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis ordered the government to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. no later than 11:59 pm on April 7. The administration appealed to the Supreme Court, which handed down a 9–0 decision yesterday, saying the government must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release, but asked the district court to clarify what it meant by “effectuate,” noting that it must give “due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”

The Supreme Court also ordered that “the Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.”

Legal analyst Joyce White Vance explained what happened next. Judge Xinis ordered the government to file an update by 9:30 a.m. today explaining where Abrego Garcia is, what the government is doing to get him back, and what more it will do. She planned an in-person hearing at 1:00 p.m.

The administration made clear it did not intend to comply. It answered that the judge had not given them enough time to answer and suggested that it would delay over the Supreme Court’s instruction that Xinis must show deference to the president’s ability to conduct foreign affairs. Xinis gave the government until 11:30 and said she would still hold the hearing. The government submitted its filing at about 12:15, saying that Abrego Garcia is “in the custody of a foreign sovereign,” but at the 1:00 hearing, as Anna Bower of Lawfare reported, the lawyer representing the government, Drew Ensign, said he did not have information about where Abrego Garcia is and that the government had done nothing to get him back. Ensign said he might have answers by next Tuesday. Xinis says they will have to give an update tomorrow.

As Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently warned, if the administration can take noncitizens off the streets, render them to prison in another country, and then claim it is helpless to correct the error because the person is out of reach of U.S. jurisdiction, it could do the same thing to citizens. Indeed, both President Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt have proposed that very thing.

Tonight, Trump signed a memorandum to the secretaries of defense, interior, agriculture, and homeland security calling for a “Military Mission for Sealing the Southern Border of the United States and Repelling Invasions.” The memorandum creates a military buffer zone along the border so that any migrant crossing would be trespassing on a U.S. military base. This would allow active-duty soldiers to hold migrants until ICE agents take them.

By April 20, the secretaries of defense and homeland security are supposed to report to the president whether they think he should invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act to enable him to use the military to aid in mass deportations.

—

[v171]

This is so annoying, I work as an engineer is a division that collects education based data and trains models. We have been in the LLM space for literal decades, and most of the AI engineers, NLP scientists, and data scientists know EXACTLY the ways in which things like ChatGPT are lacking and the dangers of relying on them too heavily.

My boss asked me to write up a report to send to him. I spent a few hours doing my due diligence in researching then sent it off to him. He then asked if I ran this through AI to which I said "no, I only really use that for copy editing purposes." He says "You really should start to learn how to leverage it, it can streamline you work a lot. For example, this is what ChatGPT told me when I asked for a similar report."

And I don't know how to navigate this because I think it's wildly irresponsible to use LLMs as a search engine, and validating whatever ChatGPT spits out at me would take more time than just writing the damn report, but I don't exactly know how to say "Not only do I think that's poor advice, I think it is dangerous and unprofessional." So instead of that I was just like :thumbs up: and decided to not ever do that.

But now, after another draft, he is specifically telling me to run the whole thing through ChatGPT and share the output with some higher-ups. And I feel like I'm at a crossroads where I'm like... I think this is very very stupid and it's concerning that you don't know better.

[roseyboy]

I used to not really care about AI and AI photos. When AI was first coming onto the scene someone reached out to me on here making me aware that I had reblogged an AI generated photo. I didn't realize and at the time, genuinely didn't care. "It's just a picture" I thought "It doesn't matter." And then I learned how AI actively steals from actual artists to generate images. I learned how the servers use billions of gallons of water annually to provide power and cooling. How they use about 5x more electricity than a basic web search. How training ChatGPT can generate carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to those of nearly five average American cars over their lifetimes. I used to not care. I used to think it didn't matter. I am so vehemently against AI now. You really don't need to use AI. Write your essay or your email or report on your own. You don't need to generate an image of what your pet would look like as a human. Utilize a search engine and do actual research yourself. Please for the love of god stop using AI.