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im so funny

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For real your cellphone and your computer should 100% NOT be backing up your photo storage or anything else to any variety of icloud or onedrive.

I'm aware that in some ways I'm a weird luddite but this is one of the major, major problems that I have with so much of the modern technology landscape existing as tools that allow you to access your data rather than tools which allow you to store your data.

Look at the data that you have. Look at what you are storing. Ask yourself "if the internet stopped working tomorrow, would I be able to access this information?"

If the answer is "no" you have 2 problems:

1 - You don't actually have that information and can easily lose access to it.

2 - You may not know who DOES have access to that information. If it's encrypted storage you're probably somewhat secure, but IS it encrypted storage? Or is it stored in plaintext on someone else's server?

So my deal with the EARN IT Act is that I don't super duper trust any of our government systems to do fuck all. I think it's worthwhile to contact your representatives, but I don't know that it will actually DO anything.

However YOU can do something.

If you don't want your data accessible to companies that will scan it and test it and pass it on to the government, don't give those companies your data.

Store things locally. Learn how to send and share encrypted files. If you have to store things online, store them with encryption that *you* have set up.

Honestly I'm pretty sure this is going to be bad. I'm pretty sure there are going to be significant security compromises as a result of the EARN IT Act and that we're going to get so buried in breached data that it's going to fundamentally alter how we have to identify ourselves in ways that will be more difficult to use while making people easier to track.

It's shit, and I hate it, and the internet is getting smaller and more fenced in and the big fun platforms that were easy to use and that let people of all technical skill levels share and collaborate that we had a couple decades to explore are now things that will just be a means of exploitation.

It fuckin' blows, friends.

But it also means that NOW is the time to fundamentally re-think how you interact with the internet. Ask yourself how you send data, and where you keep it. Ask yourself who has your information and how it is secured. Ask yourself what would happen if someone who hated you had access to your primary email account for a day, and ask yourself how you would try to fix what they fucked up.

EARN IT sucks, but this is NOT one of those instances in which you are helpless if it passes. Right now, before it passes, talk to the non-internet people in your life about why it is bad:

- It will mean that the government can see all your stored files - It will mean the websites you store files on will not be allowed to encrypt those files - It will mean that any asshole hacker who can access those systems can access all that data that will now be unencrypted.

This shitty act will make EVERYONE who uses the websites that are subject to the EARN IT act more vulnerable to data breaches, ID theft, and exploitation from hackers while ALSO enabling effortless surveillance by our own government.

This is bad, so tell your relatives and friends and co-workers to tell their representatives WHY it is bad by using this site: https://act.eff.org/action/stop-the-earn-it-act-to-save-our-privacy

The site is very easy to use and literally you do not even have to navigate to a separate page to contact your representatives.

And in case that doesn't work, in case it passes anyway, ask yourself what you're doing. Ask yourself who has your data. Ask yourself who can see what you've stored online, and learn what you need to do to make sure the answer is "*I* own my data, and I control who has access to it."

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Kogahara Izumi, Borzoi

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source: motherthemountain

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trump supporters across the U.S:

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welcome to the party, acrylic, 2014

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Please, please be gentle and think about what you’re saying when you’re talking to children. I met a woman in her 60s-70s the other day who was nervous about her new haircut not having bangs because someone told her she had a large forehead way back when she was 12 and she still felt self-conscious about it not being covered up. Your words really can affect a kid’s life that far into their adult future.

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Get used to thinking about it anywhere it is safe to think about it. Not while driving. I’ve solved big math problems while sitting on the toilet.

Machine learning professor (via mathprofessorquotes)

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A Russian zoo is home to a unique animal - the liger. It is half-lioness, half-tiger. Mother Zita is pictured licking her one month old liliger cub 

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Guys.

My dudes.

You have no idea

how satisfying it is

to be the only girl at a table with five dudes

who are all hitting on the waitress

and you’re the one who gets her number

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If the media stopped saying “hacking” and instead said “figured out their password”, people would probably take password security a lot more seriously

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Friends: Help me understand how I'm being problematic. (asking for some educational labor)

A neighbor has a dog that has bit me pretty bad. This dog has also bit my dog pretty bad. Another time, the dog bit a strange dog, and the people trying to break up the fight.

This dog is a pitbull, presumably a rescue. Very cute and sometimes very sweet, but has been growling a lot lately. The owner is absent because they just had a baby and their partner (the mother) does not want it around her because of her allergies.

The owner is a Latino person who is understandably, too busy to take proper care of their dog, and leaves it with housemates who are also very busy. The dog goes out 2x a day and gets food and some attention, so probably better than a shelter where she would likely be put down, unfortunately.

The dog regularly growls at me, when I asked if we could do an intro with treats, I was informed "in due time"/3 months from now. When I've asked if they're going to socialize their dog, I'm told the same. This is after animal control and the police were called. This is after we've had to break up 2 dog fights. The landlord does not know about their dog, because the dog is supposed to be removed from the premise. The dog also barks a lot, which gets my dog (an ESA) in trouble. The owner is very busy, so it’s understandable, but also challenging.

In another situation, the owner told me I couldn't do laundry because the landlord didn't want people in their garage when people are gone. I proceeded to do laundry, they send a moderately frustrated text to me when they found out. I made a copy of the spare key, and continued doing laundry, because fuck landlords. Laundry is in our lease, and our landlord had said nothing about us not doing laundry.

Turns out it was just they didn't want us in their garage, and the landlord wasn't involved. Had I known this, I defs wouldn't have made a copy of a key, though I still think it's absurd.

I told their other housemates about the copy of the key, asked them not to tell the dog owner, because I'm scared of them, and more so their dog. The housemates told them anyways, which is a good lesson in who runs their mouth and who doesn't, but is otherwise very annoying. The housemate that I told directly did not express any indication of finding this fear unreasonable, and told me that she wouldn’t tell them, and I could do laundry whenever. Of course, it’s possible she was doing the CA passive aggressive bullshit.  I then inform the dog owner that I'm scared of their dog (and by proxy, them), which is why I didn't tell them.

They're not letting me do laundry because I'm apparently being very racist. I probably shouldn't have made the key without telling them, tho I did so with the consensus of their other housemates and my housemates.  I fully understand how racialized masc presenting folks are often seen as dangerous. That's real, and not the reason I'm scared of them. Now a housemate has to do laundry for me, which she has generously agreed to do, but she really shouldn’t have to, and my house was “punished” by not doing laundry for 2 weeks.

To me, the key (And essential) difference is here, is that their dog has actually physically harmed me, and I have never gotten an apology. I couldn't use my wrist for a week after the first dog fight. Their behavior has led to cops being called on a black man who was taking care of their dog, and on a white transwoman who broke up the dog fight. It led to me being accused of owning the dog.  It has led to us dealing with so much landlord trouble (no one in my house is cishet, most of us are poor, some of us are POC, so altho it's probs easier to find housing than if we were all POC, it's still fucking hard in the bay area)

My first reaction is “fuck people who use social justice terms/ideas to justify shitty behavior”. I dealt with an actually abusive person in my prior house, and until they turned on everyone else, was accused of being racist for saying privately I felt they’re acting controlling and it reminds me of abusive shit. (once they had turned on everyone else, including other POC, it was agreed that I was right). Just because you’re queer and/or a POC doesn’t mean you can’t be abusive on a personal level, even as there are structural challenges you face.

On the other hand, maybe I am being problematic. This dog owner is apparently a kind person, though I find this out well after the fact (and through 3rdhand sources). Maybe I am reading aggression into their texts when it’s not intended. Maybe I shouldn’t be threatening to call them out for being absurd and unreasonable. I would fucking love to cuss them out, but I won’t. I do think they need to know what their dog has done if they don’t know, and if they do know and are having this reaction, I think my feelings are very valid. Folks that haven’t seen the dog fights seem to think I am overreacting because the dog owner is nice. Folks that have, tend to think my fear is based in reality and the dog should be rehomed.  I still have a scar on my wrist and couldn’t type for a week and a half after the time their dog bit my dog. It takes 3-4 people to break up these fights, they’re drawing blood(to the point of needing stitches on the dogs) and aren’t just little scuffles or rough play.

basically, halp, esp from white allies who have dealt with this shit (or friends who wanna do some emotional labor for me). how do I unpack this shit when someone’s response is “you’re being racist” and I feel I have valid concerns? Like I am absolutely trying to check the idea that a racialized masc presenting person is harmful, but it’s hard when their dog legit bit me and they’re not trying to stop it from happening again. Because to me, that is actual physical harm. If someone hurts me, I am scared of them, and I ultimately don’t think that’s wrong. Perhaps I’m more scared because of who they are, though I don’t feel that way. But I defs also need to know how to communicate better to avoid this sort of response if my fears are valid, and if they’re not, how to process them.

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