Please don’t be a Gate keeper in your hobby. For example: my sons started playing #warhammer. But warhammer age of Sigmar. They went to a comicstore where you can come together and paint your figures. But older WH players made joke about that „stupid new wh world“ in front of them for weeks. and now my sons stopped going there and lost some of the joy to play it.

For what, I ask? Why? You don’t like something? Okay. But other people like other stuff. Damn.

RE: https://writing.exchange/@hiisikoloart/117059611297916781

Please share this post and the one beneath it so I can prove to my fellow indie authors that Mastodon has the spirit and the community I have been telling them about.

They keep resisting coming here but maybe if they can see that you guys love art, whether it is written, drawn, knitted, or carved, they would join the wonderful communities here. (:

#FediHelp #Mastodon #Bookstodon #Fedibooks #Fantasy #FantasyBook #Preorder #BookPreorder #eBook #Anthology #DarkFantasy #GrimDarkFantasy #Fairytale

Oh look, Mark Zuckerberg is very sorry, yet again, for Instagram running "ads for the promotion and sale of child sexual abuse images in India."

I'm sure Mark really means it this time and Meta will change their ways and sin no more.

https://oligarchwatch.substack.com/p/zuckerberg-apologizes-for-child-sexual?r=88t8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

The sunk cost fallacy keeping millions of people on multiple websites that directly pay Nazis is one of the darkest fucking marks of the current epoch. https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/meta-caught-paying-nazis-to-post-on-facebook

I am a little shocked at the lack of solidarity I see between artists working in different mediums wrt genAI.

Musicians who would never use it to make music use it to make cover art

Graphic artists reach for it to make music over their videos

Writers use it to illustrate their articles

And, considering software development an art, many use it to create web sites or apps to host their art.

None of this is necessary. All of this is harmful to the other artists.

Collaborate ffs.

Stop it.

I sculpted and painted little mushrooms for the base of the dwarf’s #miniatures #miniaturepainting

”Here’s what…keeps me up at night… It’s the message to every scientist, every doctor, every public health official in America: this is what you get. …if you ever have the nerve to tell a powerful man something he doesn’t want to hear, we will spend the rest of your life making you regret it. …That’s the real cost, and it’s one we’ll pay in the next pandemic, when the best people have all decided that public service isn’t worth the firing squad.”
—D. Blundell
https://deanblundell.substack.com/p/what-trumps-revenge-tour-is-doing
#fauci #trump

🔴 A defense contractor is now selling technology that scans every electronic device in your car as you drive past a camera. It ties everything to your license plate. You cannot opt out.

It is called SignalTrace. Made by Leonardo, an Italian military contractor with existing U.S. Special Operations Command contracts. It sweeps your phone, smartwatch, Bluetooth headphones, your dog's RFID chip, tire pressure sensors, your car's infotainment system. Anything that broadcasts.

It bundles these into what Leonardo calls your "electronic fingerprint," timestamped and geotagged. Stored in an "Enterprise Operations Center for future queries and analysis."

Those are their words. Not mine.

You did not consent. You cannot opt out. Your devices broadcast by existing. In most places, this is perfectly legal.

If this sounds like something that will be abused: it already has been. Police have used existing license plate reader networks to stalk partners, verify school residency, run background checks, and monitor protests. At least 22 officers charged or resigned for ALPR stalking.

SignalTrace does not read your messages. It does not need to. It knows who you travel with, where you go, and when.

Sources: https://www.techdirt.com/2026/06/24/surveillance-tech-company-is-pitching-an-unholy-alpr-stingray-hybrid-to-law-enforcement/ and https://www.leonardocompany-us.com/lpr/elsag-signaltrace

#surveillance #privacy #ALPR

THE ONION STRIKES AGAIN:

In response to an independent United Nations inquiry concluding that Israel is committing an ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a defiant statement Thursday in which he criticized the commission’s finding, declaring that “these so-called genocide experts have probably never committed a genocide in their lives.” “Until you’ve killed countless civilians, the word ‘genocide’ shouldn’t even come out of your damn mouth,” said Netanyahu, arguing that the pampered intellectuals at the U.N. were nothing more than a bunch of armchair human rights abusers. “Name one ethnic group you’ve attempted to obliterate. I’ll wait. I mean, have you even bombed a single children’s hospital? Please, you’ve got no idea what you’re talking about. Maybe you read a book about the 1948 Genocide Convention?

https://theonion.com/netanyahu-these-so-called-genocide-experts-have-probably-never-committed-a-genocide-in-their-lives/

#Satire #Netanyahu #UN #Gaza #Genocide #TheOnion #Palestine

Not only do these dudes not understand science, they are embarrassingly insecure and cringey

RE: https://ohai.social/@dcoderlt/117058023861112124

In 30 years, you will either be a billionnaire or a climate activist that the billionaires have labelled a domestic terrorist. They seem hellbent on annihilating their own consumers. It's like a deranged cult. Fuck all of this datacentre shit sky high.

“Flock has already claimed that they have oversight, that they have guardrails," yet we still see police officers using these camera networks to stalk women, EFF’s @evacide told The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/08/02/how-police-officers-used-vast-network-cameras-spy-their-exes/

Preliminary data shows that we may have set a new all-time record high for the daily global average sea surface temperature. The warmth in the ocean has already been quite remarkable over the last several months this year.

Sign up for our next briefing to learn more: https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-briefings

Fuck my life. My country's social security system is the pits. I got survivors benefits because my abusive mother died. I didn't know social security counts that as extra income. I was getting the maximum amount on SSI. I was approved for survivors benefits but then they lowered my SSI payments because I'd have extra income. I know people don't like it when disabled people get things for free, but I wasn't going out and buying cars with it. Fuck.

> Your new amount will be $125 unless you appeal.

Firstly, that number is way disproportionate to what I was getting before. The fuck? That's a 95% reduction rate! I hate this system. You bet your ass I'll appeal. I'm lawyering up. Why is it okay for a billionaire to hoard multiple houses but I can't hoard an extra, say, $100 monthly? Explain why billionaires are applauded for stashing cash and poor people like me are spat on because we maybe want to stay at home and write Fan fiction. Oh, is it because I'm not working in your myopic view of work? You don't have a clue what living with a disability is like.

News flash. Billionaires don't work either. Billionaires exploit others labor.

If you wanna help,

If you are in the US, my Zelle is kingettr@gmail.com

Other one time ways to give can be found at https://sightlessscribbles.com/tip/

#SocialSecurity

#miniatures #miniaturepainting #fantasy

RE: https://musicians.today/@trinib/117051833421876023

Every so often my alter ego needs to let out some pent up political rage in the form of music

Oh guess what everybody? #Facebook (fuck off with stealing the word #meta) says their #AI escaped too. It did too! Uh huh! It really did! And it did bad stuff too! So there. We're a real AI company, just like #OpenAI and #Anthropic and anybody else who had their AI escape at conveniently timed funding or quarterlies. Our AI is real, just like #zuckerberg is a real boy. Honest!

Say, here's an idea....what if we don't. Like...let's just not. I will grant that machine learning is invaluable in vertical research channels, but we do not live in a culture responsible enough to contain this namshub. And it will kill us all if it is uncontained.

Water is a finite resource. There are droughts in places known for rain. We have no good way to recycle the components of the hardware that will age out every 18 months, creating literal mountains of toxic waste for 100s of thousands of years. Heat islands. Noise pollution.

Let's just not.

1/ #PSA for #writers : There is a new kind of #spam making the rounds on the #Fediverse.

Mention anywhere that you are working on a book, and these people will slide into your replies, feigning interest into your work while offering beta reading and editing services.

Report them.

#amwriting

Capital One has never been what I'd call an admirable financial institution, but when it all but calls Trump a mega money launderer, you'd think that would be a bigger deal deserving more than a few no-big-deal-right stories (like this): https://abcnews.com/US/capital-closed-hundreds-trumps-bank-accounts-2021-anti/story?id=135273257