Soo many random fandoms @downtherabbitholeshegoesagain - Tumblr Blog

Hey. If people aren't aware, Microsoft admitted they know who you and where you are at all times and will give your info to the police.

They have a Global Device Identifier (GDID) Tracker that functions as a fingerprint for your PC that can surpass VPNs, proxy servers and countries. Although it can't survive a clean reinstall of Windows (it can survive updates), because Microsoft forces you to go to the internet and log in into a Microsoft account, they will be able to get to you.

Microsoft kept it secret and it was only found out when the FBI tracked a hacker thanks to the information Microsoft gave them.

You should be paying attention to this, and possibly consider moving away from Windows. If a government, especially the US government, doesn't like you for some reason, this could be seriously concerning.

This article specifically notes:

For journalism, activism, or domestic abuse situations, skip Windows and use Linux routed through Tor instead of a commercial VPN. A GDID doesn’t care which VPN you use, only that it’s still the same Windows installation.

GDID is the persistent Windows ID that helped FBI trace a Scattered Spider hacker despite VPNs. Here's how it works and how to limit it.

Other important quotes:

What has researchers uneasy is everything else the case reveals. Costin Raiu, a well-known malware researcher, asked on the Three Buddy Problem podcast how much of this exists on other platforms, and whether it is linked more permanently to hardware. Matthew Hickey, another security researcher, called Windows “surveillance software”.

Two things back that up:

There’s no consent screen. A GDID gets assigned when you sign into a Microsoft Account. Apple’s advertising identifier needs an App Tracking Transparency prompt and a visible reset; Android’s works the same way. GDID has neither, and a Windows reinstall only gets you a new number Microsoft can still get back to the same account.

Then there’s activation. Massgrave, the group behind Microsoft Activation Scripts, notes that Windows setup sends hardware info to Microsoft and gets identifiers back, the same tokens later used for Store access and licensing: “It’s impossible to prevent Windows from getting a GDID without breaking activation and UWP app[s].” Anyone who lost a license after swapping a motherboard has already met a smaller version of this.

Here's the complaint filed to the court, the primary source for the case mentioned in the article. You can find mentions of GDID on page 30 of the document or 34 of the PDF.

Thank you @just-call-me-zinnia for finding it!

uss-edsall

Love seeing something from TikTok and going “girlie that is literally what led to the downfall of the Papal States”

uss-edsall

Jewish baby named Edgardo Mortara is seemingly about to die in Bologna, 1851

Catholic nanny secretly baptises him to save his soul, which she’s not exactly the kind of authority who can do that, but w/e, it’s interpreted by the church as valid later

Kid survives

1857 her secret gets out, a baptising makes a kid a Catholic according to the Church and a Catholic can’t be raised in a non-Catholic household in the Papal States, so the church authorises the police to kidnap Edgardo from his family

Raised personally by Pope Pius IX, Jewish family not allowed to take him back due to Church doctrine, this action destroys the family with grief and despair

This case gets international infamy with the Pope not understanding why everyone’s shiting on him for doing this, including allies

Emperor Napoleon III shifts from opposing Italian unification to supporting it as a direct consequence

Bologna falls the next year, 1859

Kingdom of Italy forms 1861

By 1870 Rome is lost to the Italians and the Papal States are no more

(Edgardo Mortara goes on to become Father Mortara)

(He dies in Belgium in 1940 three months before the Nazis occupied the nation, which if he’d have lived he would’ve been persecuted as a Jew)

communismlives

sztupy

Wikipedia confirms

bonyassfish

Fun fact: the Catholic Church did not stop doing this after Edgaro Mortara. During WW2, many Jewish children were put in convents or catholic-run orphanages for their own safety. Sounds nice right? Except after the war ended, when parents or surviving relative went back to claim their children, the church went, “uhhh, actually they’re catholic now, no take backs!”

The most infamous of these cases was the Finaly affair. Two Jewish children in France, Robert and Gerald Finaly, were placed in a Catholic nursery in 1944 in anticipation of their parents being deported to Auschwitz, where they were both murdered. Their aunt, Marguerite Fischel, survived the war and went to find the boys so she could take them to live with her. However, the nun who had custody of the boys, Antoinette Brun, adamantly refused to give them up, reportedly saying that “The Jews are not grateful”

What followed was a years long custody battle where despite being repeatedly ordered by courts all over Europe to return the boys, Brun took them to many different countries and hid them, with the support and help of other nuns and priests. It was suspected at the time, and later confirmed by documents released in 2020, that Pope Pius XII had supported the effort to keep the boys away from their surviving family and have them be raised Catholic.

Thankfully, after negotiations between a sympathetic cardinal in France and the chief Rabbi of Paris, the boys were finally recovered and reunited with their aunt.

Documents reveal the private discussions behind both Pope Pius XII’s silence about the Nazi deportation of Rome’s Jews in 1943 and the Vatic

I wish I could say that the phenomenon of the Catholic Church kidnapping children and keeping them away from their families for the purposes of forcefully raising them Catholic is unique to Jews, but it’s not. From the mid nineteenth century to the mid twentieth century, the Church ran hundreds of residential schools in the US and Canada where indigenous children were kidnapped from their homes and forced into these cruel and inhumane “schools”. The children were forbidden from speaking their own languages or practicing their own cultures and religions, their hair was cut, and they were subject to emotional, verbal, spiritual, physical, and sexual abuse. Many of the children died due to malnutrition or medical neglect, their bodies buried like dogs beside the schools. The Catholic Church was not the only Church to participate in this, but they’ve been the most reluctant to fully acknowledge and apologize for it. It was only in 2022 that Pope Francis apologized on behalf of the Catholic Church for their part, but some people found the apology inadequate.

Idk what my point is here, just that there’s such a clean link between evangelizing, cultural/religious imperialism, and how damaging and horrifying a religion can be when it is thoroughly convinced of its own superiority. And that unless an institution is forced to change, it probably won’t change on its own.

ugagradlady

Also the Magdalene laundries in Ireland

#history

unbfacts

Gatewood finished her first successful hike in 146 days, reportedly wearing out several pairs of tennis shoes along the way. In 1957 she walked the entire trail again, and in 1964 completed it a third time in sections.

downtherabbitholeshegoesagain

She was also the first woman to through hike the AT.

werewolf-transgenderism

this is fucking killing me bro. computah, show me more hot hockey firefighters whaling on cops

beautifullittlefool1999

shamebats

afeelgoodblog

Best News of Last Week

Happy to see you back! I’ve gathered some fresh picks for this week’s Feel Good News — let’s spread some smiles together.

1. New York just delivered $189 million in summer food assistance to nearly 1.6 million children this summer, covering the gap left when free school lunch disappears every June

New York State has distributed $189 million in Summer EBT benefits to 1.6 million low-income children, with families able to apply through September 8, 2026.

2. The first 100% effective HIV prevention drug is approved and going global

An epidemic that’s been sustained for 44 years might finally be quelled, with the milestone approval of the first HIV drug that offers 100% protection with its twice-yearly injections. It’s a landmark achievement that stands to save millions of lives across the globe.

3. Portugal’s last circus elephant, Julie, has arrived at Europe’s first large scale elephant sanctuary and is already roaming free and enjoying her first mud bath

Julie, the first resident of the Pangea elephant sanctuary in Évora, Portugal, is enjoying her newfound freedom after being the last circus elephant in the country. Captured in Africa about 40 years ago, she joined the Victor Hugo Cardinali circus in 1988 and remained there until Portugal banned wild animals in circuses in 2018. Julie’s future is uncertain, as elephants born in captivity typically live shorter lives than those in the wild. However, she is adapting well to her new home, where she can choose how to spend her days.

4. Justice Dept. admits Reflecting Pool renovation was flawed, drops case against former Olympian

The Justice Department revealed that President Trump’s $14 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool was poorly executed and acknowledged that the damage was not due to vandalism, as previously claimed. The Department dropped charges against former Olympian David Hearn, who was accused of vandalizing the pool. This admission contradicts Trump’s assertions that vandals were entirely responsible for the pool’s deterioration.

5. More than 3,000 people in Trinidad and Tobago regained their sight through a free cataract and pterygium surgery mission, with hundreds arriving daily and extra tents set up to meet the demand

A lot of the patients had put off care for years because screening and surgery were too expensive, so pre-op screening became a big challenge—many arrived without assessments and the teams had to adapt on the spot. The surgeries were minimally invasive and people saw quick improvements—colors sharper, less night blindness—and they also treated pterygium, that “surfer’s eye” caused by UV, dust and wind. For those folks, this wasn’t just better vision; it was independence and the ability to get back to normal life.

6. Pakistan built 27 gigawatts of distributed solar in just two years, matching the combined capacity of every coal, gas and oil plant it has ever built

In just two years Pakistan’s power story flipped: national electricity use jumped 21% (about 33 TWh) and that growth was basically all from distributed solar — generation went from 15 TWh to 51 TWh while grid output actually fell a bit. Renewables First estimates around 38 GW of distributed solar by June 2025 (about 27 GW of that installed in two years), pushing solar’s share from ~10% to ~28% of generation (roughly 32% if you count avoided transmission losses). That rapid rollout happened because solar got cheap, net-metering and low import taxes made adoption easy, and people were desperate for reliable daytime power.

7. Zero roadkill as Amazon canopy bridges secure 15,000 crossings

In Alta Floresta, efforts to mitigate wildlife-vehicle collisions have been more successful since the installation of canopy bridges in 2024, which have allowed 15,000 safe crossings for arboreal animals without any recorded roadkill. The program, known as Projeto Reconecta, aims to enhance wildlife connectivity and reduce roadkill through further installations and collaboration with local stakeholders.

———-

That’s it for last week :)

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Also don’t forget to share this post with your friends.

#feel good

28dayslater

A ship — a magnificent ship — full of gay men.

And me.

When you stand for nothing, you will believe anything and follow idiots to fit in.

#us politics

anxietyproblem

ladytuarach

Where can l get the club membership card?

why-i-love-comics

Marvel's tribute to Gerry Conway

#gerry conway #marvel comics

liberalsarecool

Colonizers create gods in their own image.

beardedmrbean

Periscope up

birds-in-posts

Green heron (Butorides virescens)

flareonfloof

birds have secret bones we're not allowed to know about

#animals

wheelie-sick

link

ayronaught

Transcript

Everyone's talking about Artemis II, the first humans to travel to the moon in 50 years

Historic, right? BUT nobody's talking about the Deaf people who made it possible.

In the late 1950's, NASA had a problem.

They needed to understand what weightlessness did to the human body but every test subject kept getting violently motion sick

NASA needed to figure out FAST during the space race!

So, they went to Gallaudet University. They recruited 11 Deaf people.

Because a number of Deaf people had lost their hearing to spinal meningitis as children which also damaged their vestibular system.

Their inner ears couldn't be overwhelmed. They were immune to motion sickness.

NASA put them in centrifuges. Put them on zero gravity flights. A room for 12 straight days.

(All caps) It rotated the entire time.

One experiment on a ferry in choppy Nova Scotia waters, the researchers got so seasick they had to cancel it. The Gallaudet Eleven? They were playing cards.

Their bodies gave NASA the data and research it needed to send humans into space.

No Gallaudet Eleven? No Mercury. No Apollo. No Artemis II.

They stood on the shoulders of 11 Deaf people most people have never heard of.

Now you know!