Nearly every computer built after 2008 or so is possibly backdoored on a hardware level due to the Intel Management Engine (and its AMD equivalent). But unless you’re committing computer crimes that could arouse interest from the FBI, you’re better off worrying about your password and email security than obscure and unproven methods of exploitation in my opinion.

Thanks for the good answer! I do have an advantage in that I’m privately insured – something I’m thankful for every time I get involved with doctors about trans stuff – so a private therapist sounds like an option. Would you happen to know if there any good ones in, like, Berlin or Hamburg or so? I always get quite anxious when contacting therapists so I’d rather not do multiple telephone calls just to get blown off because of the wait list.

I’ll get an appointment at one of the places in Munich. Incidentally, I’ve had a preliminary talk at Uniklinik Essen and the experience was uncomfortable enough that I decided against them – can’t actually speak about the quality of the surgeries though.

Need some advice from comrades in Germany: Is there any way to get GCS here without doing multiple months of therapy? I can’t see how I could manage to get a slot at a psychotherapist, given how overworked they all seem to be, and I’ve got everything else done, so to speak, so I’m not even sure there’d be much of a point in therapy right now. Thanks in advance!

Fuchsia Dunlop has a recipe by Buddhist monks in her Hunan cookbook that’s simple and vegan. You cut some celery and smoked tofu into strips, you fry the tofu in a wok, take it out, fry the celery, put the tofu back in and season with soy sauce and chili flakes. Serve the whole thing over rice et voilà.

What I don’t understand is why the German economy still hinges on heavy industry. That’s so 20th century. Shouldn’t it be all useless IT startups and financial services by now?

People say a lot of good things about Something Awful these days, but I think there was a real shift towards 4chan-style slur usage and shitposting that occurred a few years back. One of the last things Lowtax did, strangely enough, was close the subforums where a lot of that originated, and one of the first things the new owner did was reopen them and give them free reign of the forums. There was also a minor purge of trans users around that time, as I remember it. I really liked those forums once, but they’re completely unacceptable now safe for a few of the better-moderated megathreads.

Certain discussions of weight and eating habits might also merit a content warning – these might trigger people with eating disorders in some way and so I feel it’s better to be on the safe side.

I’m still nostalgic for the Saints Row 2 character creator because it was one of the only ones with a gender slider. If there’s just two (or even four, see BG3) body types, they’re usually still ultra-male and ultra-female in my view. The development of ever more realistic graphics has only served to cement this, I feel.

Suspended, then unsuspended, then labeled, then un-labeled. Bluesky mods are looking incredibly incompetent right now. On the plus side, he’s on his way to be among the most widely blocked accounts, so at least there’s that.

Removed: Tracking not fixed

I wish I loved anything as much as the writer loves quotation marks. So the “anti-imperialists” oppose the “Western world”, namely the “US”, due to “Marcyist” “Campism”. Wow, you really wouldn’t want to write this sentence without those scare quotes!

I need some geopolitical information on Western Sahara. From a quick read, it seems like a simple colonial situation where Morocco acts as a Western proxy against the nationalist Polisario Front. But there’s obviously some other complex factors, like the ambiguous position of the non-Western superpowers. Any informed opinions?

Once again reminding everyone that Politico was bought by Axel Springer three years ago, a German right-wing tabloid company that has support for the USA and Israel as its stated core values. Even if they have nominal editorial independence, they know what their employer wants to hear.

I’ve always wondered why people were so ready to convert. Like, if I was some ancient Roman and some guy came up to me offering a new god that’s even better than the old ones and much easier to worship, I wouldn’t just immediately fall for it. It just seems like a scam.

It’s not this one, is it?

My favorite memory of the two Pathfinder games, and I mean this unironically, is doing that infamous quest in Kingmaker right near the start where you have to fight swarms. Level 1 combat against enemies immune to weapon damage – you have to actually consider your options and possibly accept turning down the difficulty. That interplay of character options and enemy immunities is, in my opinion, the core gameplay of CRPGs.

I miss him. We could all do with some more hatred for mainstream popular culture. Otherwise, what’s even the point of being a communist?

I was about to say that this account cannot be real, it’s obviously fake for hitting so many stereotypes and controversies at once, and then I saw that she’s posting videos and everything. Sometimes reality is crueler than our imagination.

I hate you for showing this to me

Once again Substack provides space and publicity for the meanest kind of Internet bigotry. I don’t know why anyone would want their writings to appear next to this trash.