I noticed Google also changed Maps recently for multi-stop directions so it only calculates routes once you’ve added all the stops instead of after adding each stop. The only rationale I could think of for doing that would be to reduce computation costs.

Seems like they’re going around and trimming compute and network costs wherever they can without significantly impacting user experience.

But you can upvote and comment. OP didn’t specifically say posts, just increases in upvotes and socialization

Centrism is, by definition, fence sitting. Someone who is a centrist will often reach a conclusion along the lines of “the left is too extreme, the right is too extreme, therefore whatever is halfway between them must be right.”

This obviously causes some problems. Someone on the left might say gay people are human beings who deserve dignity and respect, while someone on the right might say gay people are icky and unnatural and shouldn’t exist. A centrist would naturally conclude that both positions are too extreme, so how about we treat gay people with dignity as long as they stay in the closet and pretend they aren’t gay? Then everyone’s happy!

Centrists are like libertarians. Their ideology sounds really enlightened and appealing, but in practice, it usually ends up screwing over a lot of people, especially the most vulnerable, and benefiting social conservatives and the wealthy.

That’s what I said though.

Your ISP can’t see what you’re downloading if you encrypt, but the IP (intellectual property) enforcers still can if they’re participating in the torrent. Then they find out which ISP that IP (address) belongs to and sends them a letter saying “we caught your subscriber downloading XYZ illegally.”

However, at least one US district court has ruled that just catching an IP address downloading a torrent illegally isn’t proof that any particular person illegally downloaded the IP (intellectual property). As a result, some ISPs simply ignore the letters the IP enforcers send, while some of the bigger ones count “strikes” against the subscriber with that IP address.

If you use encryption (I always change the settings from “prefer” to “require” encryption on every install), the ISPs literally can’t identify what you’re downloading.

So the IP enforcement companies send the ISP a letter saying “this IP was illegally downloading our stuff. We don’t actually have proof, but trust us and punish them.”

Big surprise, a ton of ISPs just ignore them.

Edit: to be clear, I’m only saying encryption prevents your ISP from seeing what you’re downloading. IP (intellectual property) enforcers who participate in the torrent are the ones who inform your ISP, but their letters to the ISPs have no teeth. Some ISPs care, but a lot just ignore the letters. You still definitely want to use a VPN for all public trackers.