#Indigenous people in tech

[crytidsprinkles]

Alt: the inventor vs the invention. a language revitalization robot that speaks my Indigenous language Anishinaabemowin pic.twitter.com/ydo88kMzT9

Photo of inventor Daniel Boyer holding language bot. Hair in large buns with braids going down and wearing cream shirt with colorful abstract design on it.

— Danielle Boyer🤖 (@danielleboyerr) February 1, 2024

[dandelionsresilience]

Dandelion News - January 15-21

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my Dandelion Doodles!

1. Landmark debt swap to protect Indonesia’s coral reefs

“The government of Indonesia announced this week a deal to redirect more than US$ 35 million it owes to the United States into the conservation of coral reefs in the most biodiverse ocean area on Earth.”

2. [FWS] Provides Over $1.3 Billion to Support Fish and Wildlife Conservation and Outdoor Access

“Through these combined funds, agencies have supported monitoring and management of over 500 species of wild mammals and birds, annual stocking of over 1 billion fish, operations of fish and wildlife disease laboratories around the country, and provided hunter and aquatic education to millions of students.”

3. Philippine Indigenous communities restore a mountain forest to prevent urban flooding

“Indigenous knowledge systems and practices are considered in the project design, and its leaders and members have been involved throughout the process, from agreeing to participate to identifying suitable land and selecting plant species that naturally grow in the area.”

4. Responsible Offshore Wind Development is a Clear Win for Birds, the U.S. Economy, and our Climate

“[T]he total feasible offshore wind capacity along U.S. coasts is more than three times the total electricity generated nationwide in 2023. […] Proven strategies, such as reducing visible lights on turbines and using perching deterrents on turbines, have been effective in addressing bird impacts.”

5. Illinois awards $100M for electric truck charging corridor, Tesla to get $40M

“The project will facilitate the construction of 345 electric truck charging ports and pull-through truck charging stalls across 14 sites throughout Illinois[…. E]lectrifying [the 30,000 daily long-haul] trucks would make a huge impact in the public health and quality of life along the heavily populated roadways.”

6. Reinventing the South Florida seawall to help marine life, buffer rising seas

“[The new seawall] features raised areas inspired by mangrove roots that are intended to both provide nooks and crannies for fish and crabs and other marine creatures and also better absorb some of the impact from waves and storm surges.”

7. Long Beach Commits to 100% All-Electric Garbage Trucks

“[Diesel garbage trucks] produce around a quarter of all diesel pollution in California and contribute to 1,400 premature deaths every year. Electric options, on the other hand, are quieter than their diesel counterparts and produce zero tailpipe emissions.”

8. ‘This Is a Victory': Biden Affirms ERA Has Been 'Ratified' and Law of the Land

“President Joe Biden on Friday announced his administration's official opinion that the amendment is ratified and its protections against sex-based discrimination are enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.”

9. A Little-Known Clean Energy Solution Could Soon Reach ‘Liftoff’

“Ground source heat pumps could heat and cool the equivalent of 7 million homes by 2035—up from just over 1 million today[…. G]eothermal energy is generally considered to be more popular among Republicans than other forms of clean energy, such as wind and solar.”

10. Researchers combine citizens' help and cutting-edge tech to track biodiversity

“Researchers in the project, which runs from 2022 to 2026, are experimenting with tools like drones, cameras and sensors to collect detailed data on different species, [… and] Observation.org, a global biodiversity platform where people submit pictures of animals and plants, helping to identify and monitor them.”

January 8-14 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[indigofyrebird]

Wrecker baked a berry pie and a fresh loaf of bread.

Echo helped by hovering over him, making sure he didn't leave anything out.

Hunter cleaned up the kitchen.

Omega played "Lula is my baby".

Crosshair set the table, and Tech found a most interesting article on the origins of indigenous peoples that he shared with everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[psychhound]

worldbuilding in spiritkeep

okay howdy again :) the second place winner of the spiritkeep poll was to talk about worldbuilding!!

for new folks, spiritkeep is a multiplayer campaign ttrpg designed around inducing therapeutic emotional growth

if you want to learn more about the playbook options you can find the write up here and the deep dive into the lonesome playbooks and the minder playbooks here

so … worldbuilding!!

collaborative worldbuilding is actually the first stage of play, even before you make your characters. i took inspiration from yarnspinner by edda mendes and spool by jade ravens especially, as well as the community building aspect of songs for the dusk by kavita poduri

there are a few things about the world of spiritkeep that always stay the same:

1) this is a fantasy world with low/no tech, and medium-high magic (i think some people would call it low magic because the pcs aren't terribly powerful, there isn't a spellcasting system, and also because they're used to thinking of high magic as looking specifically like medieval european fantasy. but there is actually a lot of magic in this world even if a typical human isn't particularly high powered)

2) there are various lineages of human, but all the pcs are human. (a notable exception is the othered archetype, which includes paragons for werecreatures, changelings, and ghosts. these characters are still humanoid though!) the lineages include what we would think of as regular humans and then various kinds of people, diverse in appearance and beliefs, who are descended from humans blessed or cursed by spirits. we'll get more into that next time!!

3) the world is inhabited by humans, animals, and spirits. the worlds of spiritkeep are animist and inspired by nature religions. in particular, i took a lot of inspiration from slavic paganism, shintoism, and various indigenous american religions but most specifically diné religion. in spiritkeep, many aspects of nature and daily life have spirits, from homes to rivers to trees. many spirits have minor magical abilities, and most will stay fairly hidden or out of the way, but there are rarer spirits who are quite powerful. parties will have to interact with spirits sometimes, such as doing favors for or solving problems for them to get boons

4) humans also have their own spirits. there are times when these spirits become independent & tangible enough to interact with. this is how pcs get advancements, boons, and can change playbooks. your spirit can also be harmed, though, so watch out!

5) the game always takes place in a community that is struggling and in need of repair

the rest of the world is up to the players to flesh out during the session zero!!

the session zero includes worldbuilding and community building. players will decide on details about the major cities, cultures, and geographic features in the area. they'll also work together to decide on more thematic elements like conflicts between groups of people, spiritual traditions, or the presence of bigotry within the world (yes, there can definitely be explorations of bigotry in spiritkeep. i am not an ascriber to cozy game escapist fantasy culture and i dont think those work well for the purpose of this game)

after a broad sketch of the world is laid out, the group turns to building the community. here, they'll focus on a few aesthetic features of the community, community values, and a few major features (does the community have a doctor or no? do they have a post office? is this a farming community or do they trade textiles? what are people's houses made of? etc)

i have a general idea on how to make the collaborative worldbuilding process approachable, cooperative, and safe, but it definitely needs playtesting before i explain :) im approaching this with the mindset of 1) players hard no's will have already been discussed in a separate process 2) players might be strangers to each other and might have never played a ttrpg before. i also want it to be feasible both in person and on a vtt. so i'm still working that out :)

so that's the basics! a baseline that all games follow, while the cultures and settings within the world are still pretty flexible

next up i'll be talking about the lineages, or the different kinds of human you can be!!

i also have a bunch of stuff on sale right now to fund spiritkeep in its early stages!!

you can support this sale to fund more promo material like art, and this sale to help me pay to become a certified therapeutic gm!!

thanks for reading :)

[rederiswrites]

Read this one. Read it carefully. Read it thoroughly. Yes, it's long. Take the time.

Heather Cox Richardson 

March 9, 2025 (Sunday)

Lately, political writers have called attention to the tendency of billionaire Elon Musk to refer to his political opponents as “NPCs.” This term comes from the gaming world and refers to a nonplayer character that follows a scripted path and cannot think or act on its own, and is there only to populate the world of the game for the actual players. Amanda Marcotte of Salon notes that Musk calls anyone with whom he disagrees an NPC, but that construction comes from the larger environment of the online right wing, whose members refer to anyone who opposes Donald Trump’s agenda as an NPC.

In The Cross Section, Paul Waldman notes that the point of the right wing’s dehumanization of political opponents is to dismiss the pain they are inflicting. If the majority of Americans are not really human, toying with their lives isn’t important—maybe it’s even LOL funny to pretend to take a chainsaw to the programs on which people depend. “We are ants, or even less,” Waldman writes, “bits of programming to be moved around at Elon’s whim. Only he and the people who aspire to be like him are actors, decision-makers, molding the world to conform to their bold interplanetary vision.”

Waldman correctly ties this division of the world into the actors and the supporting cast to the modern-day Republican Party’s longstanding attack on government programs. After World War II, large majorities of both parties believed that the government must work for ordinary Americans by regulating business, providing a basic social safety net like Social Security, promoting infrastructure projects like the interstate highway system, and protecting civil rights that guaranteed all Americans would be treated equally before the law. But a radical faction worked to undermine this “liberal consensus” by claiming that such a system was a form of socialism that would ultimately make the United States a communist state.

By 2012, Republicans were saying, as Representative Paul Ryan did in 2010, that “60 Percent of Americans are ‘takers,’ not ‘makers.’” In 2012, Ryan had been tapped as the Republican vice presidential candidate. As Waldman recalls, in that year, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a group of rich donors that 47% of Americans would vote for a Democrat “no matter what.” They were moochers who “are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.”

As Waldman notes, Musk and his team of tech bros at the Department of Government Efficiency are not actually promoting efficiency: if they were, they would have brought auditors and would be working with the inspectors general that Trump fired and the Government Accountability Office that is already in place to streamline government. Rather than looking for efficiency, they are simply working to zero out the government that works for ordinary people, turning it instead to enabling them to consolidate wealth and power.

Today’s attempt to destroy a federal government that promotes stability, equality, and opportunity for all Americans is just the latest iteration of that impulse in the United States.

The men who wrote the Declaration of Independence took a revolutionary stand against monarchy, the idea that some people were better than others and had a right to rule. They asserted as “self-evident” that all people are created equal and that God and the laws of nature have given them certain fundamental rights. Those include—but are not limited to—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The role of government was to make sure people enjoyed these rights, they said, and thus a government is legitimate only if people consent to that government. For all that the founders excluded Indigenous Americans, Black colonists, and all women from their vision of government, the idea that the government should work for ordinary people rather than nobles and kings was revolutionary.

From the beginning, though, there were plenty of Americans who clung to the idea of human hierarchies in which a few superior men should rule the rest. They argued that the Constitution was designed simply to protect property and that as a few men accumulated wealth, they should run things. Permitting those without property to have a say in their government would allow them to demand that the government provide things that might infringe on the rights of property owners.

By the 1850s, elite southerners, whose fortunes rested on the production of raw materials by enslaved Black Americans, worked to take over the government and to get rid of the principles in the Declaration of Independence. As Senator James Henry Hammond of South Carolina put it: “I repudiate, as ridiculously absurd, that much lauded but nowhere accredited dogma of Mr. Jefferson that ‘all men are born equal.’”

“We do not agree with the authors of the Declaration of Independence, that governments ‘derive their just powers from the consent of the governed,’” enslaver George Fitzhugh of Virginia wrote in 1857. “All governments must originate in force, and be continued by force.” There were 18,000 people in his county and only 1,200 could vote, he said, “[b]ut we twelve hundred…never asked and never intend to ask the consent of the sixteen thousand eight hundred whom we govern.”

Northerners, who had a mixed economy that needed educated workers and thus widely shared economic and political power, opposed the spread of the South’s hierarchical system. When Congress, under extraordinary pressure from the pro-southern administration, passed the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act that would permit enslavement to spread into the West and from there, working in concert with southern slave states, make enslavement national, northerners of all parties woke up to the looming loss of their democratic government.

A railroad lawyer from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, remembered how northerners were “thunderstruck and stunned; and we reeled and fell in utter confusion. But we rose each fighting, grasping whatever he could first reach—a scythe—a pitchfork—a chopping axe, or a butcher’s cleaver” to push back against the rising oligarchy. And while they came from different parties, he said, they were “still Americans; no less devoted to the continued Union and prosperity of the country than heretofore.” Across the North, people came together in meetings to protest the Slave Power’s takeover of the government, and marched in parades to support political candidates who would stand against the elite enslavers.

Apologists for enslavement denigrated Black Americans and urged white voters not to see them as human. Lincoln, in contrast, urged Americans to come together to protect the Declaration of Independence. “I should like to know if taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle and making exceptions to it where will it stop?... If that declaration is not the truth, let us get the Statute book, in which we find it and tear it out!”

Northerners put Lincoln into the White House, and once in office, he reached back to the Declaration—written “four score and seven years ago”—and charged Americans to “resolve that…this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The victory of the United States in the Civil War ended the power of enslavers in the government, but new crises in the future would revive the conflict between the idea of equality and a nation in which a few should rule.

In the 1890s the rise of industry led to the concentration of wealth at the top of the economy, and once again, wealthy leaders began to abandon equality for the idea that some people were better than others. Steel baron Andrew Carnegie celebrated the “contrast between the palace of the millionaire and the cottage of the laborer,” for although industrialization created “castes,” it created “wonderful material development,” and “while the law may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it insures the survival of the fittest in every department.”

Those at the top were there because of their “special ability,” Carnegie wrote, and anyone seeking a fairer distribution of wealth was a “Socialist or Anarchist…attacking the foundation upon which civilization rests.” Instead, he said, society worked best when a few wealthy men ran the world, for “wealth, passing through the hands of the few, can be made a much more potent force for the elevation of our race than if it had been distributed in small sums to the people themselves.”

As industrialists gathered the power of the government into their own hands, people of all political parties once again came together to reclaim American democracy. Although Democrat Grover Cleveland was the first to complain that “[c]orporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters,” it was Republican Theodore Roosevelt who is now popularly associated with the development of a government that took power back for the people.

Roosevelt complained that the “absence of effective…restraint upon unfair money-getting has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power. The prime need is to change the conditions which enable these men to accumulate power which it is not for the general welfare that they should hold or exercise.” Roosevelt ushered in the Progressive Era with government regulation of business to protect the ability of individuals to participate in American society as equals.

The rise of a global economy in the twentieth century repeated this pattern. After socialists took control of Russia in 1917, American men of property insisted that any restrictions on their control of resources or the government were a form of “Bolshevism.” But a worldwide depression in the 1930s brought voters of all parties in the U.S. behind President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “New Deal for the American people.”

He and the Democrats created a government that regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, and promoted infrastructure in the 1930s. Then, after Black and Brown veterans coming home from World War II demanded equality, that New Deal government, under Democratic president Harry Truman and then under Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower, worked to end racial and, later, gender hierarchies in American society.

That is the world that Elon Musk and Donald Trump are dismantling. They are destroying the government that works for all Americans in favor of using the government to concentrate their own wealth and power.

And, once again, Americans are protesting the idea that the role of government is not to protect equality and democracy, but rather to concentrate wealth and power at the top of society. Americans are turning out to demand Republican representatives stop the cuts to the government and, when those representatives refuse to hold town halls, are turning out by the thousands to talk to Democratic representatives.

Thousands of researchers and their supporters turned out across the country in more than 150 Stand Up for Science protests on Friday. On Saturday, International Women’s Day, 300 demonstrations were organized around the country to protest different administration policies. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is drawing crowds across the country with the "Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here” tour, on which he has been joined by Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers.

“Nobody voted for Elon Musk,” protestors chanted at a Tesla dealership in Manhattan yesterday in one of the many protests at the dealerships associated with Musk’s cars. “Oligarchs out, democracy in.”

[urautismdiagnosis-wistie]

LANGUAGE HEADCANONS

including the vegimals, also some pirate culture lore for kwazii ig

@calamaroo

BARNACLES

Barnacles learned basic English as an extracurricular when he was younger, but he only really learned it (and gained the accent) when he went to university in Manitoba (polar bear capital of the world and the university works by, with, and for indigenous people with a lot of foreign people coming to study). he's got a similar thing with the speaking Russian and I'm gonna steal the specific language of inuktuk from you.

Also because the Arctic has so many different countries in it (although everyone in the Arctic considers themselves as just "the Arctic because wtf are u gonna do about borders? come through the snow storm and take me to another snowy white spot that looks exactly the same (to you) as the other snowy white spot I was in? FCK borders in the Arctic no one there gives a sht)

Anyways they do have a common sign language because I LOVE SIGN LANGUAGE AND WILL INSERT IT EVERYWHERE I CAN

------------------------------------------------------------

KWAZII:

Kwazii did grow up with a very mixed pirate crew, although A LOT of members were either English speaking or Japanese speaking predominantly , he also watched a lot of old kids anime as a kid in Japanese as well lol. not to mention the native island cultures they often interacted with including my very fictional "meowri" (they're sphinx cats with ttattoes and very loosely inspired by Polynesian cultures)...

Because of the general culture of the pirate crew being diverse (esp cuz of interactions on ports/other crews) there was also a lot slang and terms that was known shared and sort of used as a basic communication system for everyone.

so there'd be random Spanish and Arabic terms from the most niche origin points just being used commonly, and that includes a lot of outdated ones, cultural sayings, or words that just don't exist in a lot of other languages, and etc

not to mention that because of how old the pirate clan he was a part of was (founded in 1920s) and because of the different crews there's genuinely like hundreds and hundreds of them being in these isolated communities and even being born and raised in them. so there's a lot of words that cant even be found anywhere else, so kwazii does get frustrated when he cant express what he wants to say but he just... cant even translate the word

OR the words everyone else uses for it doesn't make any sense! it... it kinda makes him feel stupid sometimes

also because his clan did work with a lot of wild animals as non tech sources of information (you feed them and then they get u good info!! for strategy, spying, whatever! and no one even blinks an eye cuz its just a crow (an extremely intelligent bird)!) but uh... the problem with that is that well alot of animals uhhhh misunderstand stuff

so that means that all the names of locations, descriptions of wild animals, ways of naming ships, and all the information would've have to have been animal comprehension friendly. not to mention be more coded cuz of non-friend pirate clans and G O V E R N M E N T S- so I'd get some wacky name replacements for all sorts of things.... its really a mess XD, a beautiful mess but still

also explained why so many of the pirate tales about *insert scientific name of the episode's animal* was often over exaggerated with strange details... including ones pirates shouldn't even known. Like how could they know about sword fish making the water around them warm?

its because a lot of that info CAME from the animals... animals who... don't understand numbers and say things like "and it was 20 feet tall!" even if it was only 5.... because it FEELS that tall to the small animal yk? also not understanding science on a deeper level so its all explained in a strange way. Ofc the pirates DONT help the issue because they be exaggerating the hell out of their own stories-

yeah sure the snake was "long as the river itself" Cj and SURE it was 20 sharks or whatever and not THREE that chased you kwazii

lying in story telling is just a form of pirate love actually, so is pranks and pickpocketing but kwazii refrains lol... this turned into me yapping about the blorbo

-----------------------------------------------------------

BASIC COMMUNICATION SKILLS:

Speaking of the basic communication thing, the octonauts crew was trained on the main words for rescue related communication in more common languages like Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, etc and will take time to learn (or just refresh) before heading to a new location.

Because in my own au the communication abilities of the wildlife is a lot more limited based on their level of intelligence. so an orca would technically be bi lingual in their own orca language and be able to speak nearly identical to a humanoid person

also like I said before about sign language, BASIC PIRATE SIGNS THAT ONLY OTHER PIRATES KNOW AYYYYYYYYY

-------------------------------------------------------------

DASHI:

Australian Dashie my beloved<3 honestly she WOULD have learned several languages and learned more for/from her friends shes so capable and incredible fr. also FCK it MORE sign language! I headcanon shes CODA, which means you're the child of one or two parents who are both either hard of hearing or Deaf! so she actually was learning sign very VERY young from her mom <3 and well the rest of her family cuz they all knew it lol

--------------------------------------------------------

PESO:

peso is obviously bilingual and he's the BEST at the basic communications skills thing and most well versed cuz he deals with the most animals one on one, so he actually can communicate with pretty much all the animal creatures, even taking the time to learn some slang terms the animals might have learned so that they'll feel safer and more comfortable around him!

he also picks up on a lot of dialects especially since his cousins are so diverse

-----------------------------------------------

TWEAK:

as for tweak she knows a lot of Spanish actually because hey! Miami has A LOT Spanish speakers, so much that's its actually made an entirely new developing dialect unique to the area!

tweak actually understands a decent amount of Japanese and Russian but.... not for normal conversations, more like because of all the engineering studying she did! research papers, studies, articles, lectures, books etc etc... so she could probably have a full conversation about the physics and math of submarines in those languages but if you wanted to talk about like... how you're feeling today or what you want for dinner she can not answer that LMSO

INKLING:

inkling would absolutely know like SO many languages, I have the headcanon that the reason he actually met barnacles in that university was actually because he studied LAND SPECIES for years (and continues to enjoy observing his crew and doing behavioural experiments on them without anyone noticing, esp since they're so diverse and they're in such a unique social environment on the octopod! but shhhh don't tell the others it would ruin the natural response they have! he does this with love btw)

hes also literally mega brained so I'd be surprised if he didn't at least understand the basics of any language the octonauts knew purely based on his own curiosity....

SHELLINGTON:

hehe Gaelic go brrrrrr

also because I headcanon Shellie as being a a mix of Eurasian otters and small clawed Asian otters, I think he does have some Philippine heritage and knows some Tagalog but not that much and he's a bit sad about that in all honesty. his *ss would also know latin

VEGIMALS:

IVE BEEN PLANNING TO MAKE A VEGIMALESE LANGUAGE POST:

ok so basically their language is entirely unique and not just because of them being the only known vegimals:

the thing is that their vocal cords (or vegetable/fish equivalent) isn't really made for the languages they hear on the octopod... or English.

the thing is they are their own little pod, and during their earliest developmental years they spent the MAJORITY of their time only with eachother or with shellington, what this means is that while some of the verbal and auditorial cues they have is just innate to vegimal understanding- (and also had difficult time replicating sounds shellington made, while it being easier to replicate a word one of the other vegimals made)

they quite literally made their own words for a lot of things while talking with eachother, before shellington had even realized! a lot of their language development did formulate very similarly to english (and Gaelic) because that's what they were hearing from shellington!

as they continue to grow and get older (they're really only about like 11 to me) their English has actually improved a lot, because they've learned how to mimic the others better, that's how they learned that the vegimals still used a lot of the literal baby talk words that shellington used with them while they were growing up, but just in their own original language

not to mention a lot of their language does have a lot of the meaning derived from the enunciation, tone, rhythm, and etc... so that means its a bit harder for those who just.. don't have the built in brain biology to distinguish those sounds to understand them

ofc shellington did literally raise them so its much much easier for him to understand because (whether he realizes it or not) he was actually learning the language AS they developed it! ofc over the years the other octonauts have actually started to subconsciously pick up on the meanings of those more subtle language features of vegimalese, and combined with knowing the vegimals slang/phrases, and the vegimals learning how to replicate more and more English ones, their understanding of the vegimals only keeps increasing

but to anyone else who isn't an octonaut its.... kinda like hearing a lil guy yip yip a bunch of gibberish and then everyone else in the room going "oh yes of course! that's a great idea Tototofrit! and don't worry, well make sure our fish friends aren't scared as we perform your very clever and crafty plan!"

also my friend said I can pull off a decent vegimal accent so if anyone wants any tips lmk (I would stim in vegimalese in middle school btw LMSO but I did learn a decent amount on how they pronounce things and their speech patterns... still working on perfecting it but I got some starter tips LOL)

also the reasons halibeet and pikato don't show up as much as the other vegimals is because they're just genuinely more introverted, halibeet and pikato do enjoy each other's quiet company tho (as well as the other vegimals, but they're really more homebodies who just aren't as into the whole adventure stuff)

[ancient-rome-au]

The Celto-Nahuan Empire

For a stroll down memory lane, I've been playing some Civilization III lately. I started as the Celts on an archipelago map, hoping to be left alone as a I re-learn the game.

I discovered that I shared my starting continent with the Aztecs, whom I conquered over the course of three grueling wars that left us both in a tech deficit relative to several other larger powers on other continents. It's currently 1600 AD and I'm halfway through the Medieval Era. Persia is already in the Industrial Era and has a massive culture lead, too.

During one of my wars with the Aztecs, the Dutch hopped over and tried to plant a colony where I had just razed an Aztec city, but I stomped that out right quick. They never sent retribution, and accepted a peace treaty a few decades later.

Anyhow, I have role-played as a magnanimous conqueror who embraces the multicultural nature of his new empire. While I did have to raze a lot of Aztec cities in sub-optimal locations, I repopulated the new cities I founded with captured Aztec workers & settlers. Now that Montezuma is defeated, I don't have to worry about their disloyalty.

This all has me wondering what a cultural fusion of Celts and the indigenous peoples of Central Mexico would look like...

[lostinhistory]

Heritage News of the Week

Discoveries!

The ship was part of a Spanish colonizing expedition led by the conquistador Tristán de Luna y Arellano, who was voyaging from Mexico under the Spanish crown. In September 1559, a hurricane in Pensacola Bay wrecked several of the 11 ships, which had been anchored near the new Spanish settlement of Santa María de Ochuse. Researchers found one of these wrecks, known as Emanuel Point II, in 2006. This shipwreck holds the remains of an adult and a juvenile domestic cat (Felis catus), according to the new study.

'Overkill' injuries on Bronze Age skeletons reveal fierce feuding in ancient China

A unique Bronze Age cemetery in China has revealed a high frequency of injuries suggestive of intense, violent interactions.

Hikers make stunning discovery of $340,000 gold hoard in Czech mountains

The Museum of Eastern Bohemia in the Czech Republic city of Hradec Králové has announced the discovery of a 20th-century gold trove worth more than $340,000.

2,300-year-old sword unearthed at necropolis in France

Two 2,300-year-old swords discovered in a Celtic Iron Age necropolis in France "have few equivalents in Europe," and one is decorated with tiny swastikas, the French National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research reports.

Mummy mystery solved: ‘air-dried’ priest was embalmed via rectum

Intrigue had long swirled around the mummified body stored in the church crypt of St Thomas am Blasenstein. The remains were rumoured to be the naturally preserved corpse of an aristocratic vicar, Franz Xaver Sidler von Rosenegg, who died in 1746 at the aged of 37, gaining the mummy the moniker of the “air-dried chaplain”. Now experts say they have discovered the body was embalmed with the abdominal and pelvic cavities packed with wood chips, fragmented twigs, fabrics such as hemp and silk, and zinc chloride – materials that would have absorbed fluids inside the body.

Tw: Image of human remains at link

This facility once produced the ancient world’s rarest dye at a grand scale

Archaeologists in Israel have turned up the remains of a massive operation that once produced Tyrian purple.

'Groundbreaking' ancient DNA research confirms Pueblo peoples' ties to famous Chaco Canyon site

New genetic research confirms what the oral traditions of the Picuris Pueblo people of New Mexico have long described — that they're related to the Indigenous people of Chaco Canyon.

Ancient tomb of nomadic horse lord yields untouched treasures and weapons

A archaeological discovery near Grozny has unearthed an undisturbed Alanian tomb dating back over two millennia, revealing a wealth of exquisite artifacts including unique triple-edged weapons and elaborate horse adornments.

Egyptologist uncovers hidden messages on Paris’s iconic obelisk

Olette-Pelletier found seven crypto-hieroglyphs on the monument that could only be read by elites.

Unique lion-headed handles unveiled from a Roman-period cist tomb near Khirbat Ibreika

Beneath the ancient dust of Khirbat Ibreika in southern Israel, archaeologists have unearthed an unexpected enigma: four bronze discs, each adorned with powerful lion head reliefs and accompanied by functional rings, carefully extracted from a tomb dating back to the first and second centuries CE of the Roman Empire.

Neanderthals made the oldest bone spear tip found in Europe

The 3.5-inch object was made between 80,000 and 70,000 years ago and was likely fashioned out of a bison bone.

Mass grave of Black Union soldiers slaughtered during the Civil War may lie under a Kentucky soybean field, high-tech scans reveal

Archaeologists have identified two potential mass graves of Black Union soldiers who were targeted by Confederate guerrillas in the Civil War.

2,000-year-old garlanded sarcophagus unearthed in "City of Gladiators"

A remarkably well-preserved, 2,000-year-old sarcophagus adorned with intricate garlands has been discovered during ongoing excavations in the ancient city of Stratonikeia, in southwestern Türkiye.

New evidence suggests Scots may have invented the game of soccer

In what may cause major ramifications for the history of sports, The Times reports that a team of researchers may have identified the world’s oldest known soccer field—not in England, where the “beautiful game” was purportedly invented in the mid-nineteenth century, but in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland.

Numerous statue fragments unearthed at lost Apollo sanctuary in Cyprus

The Sanctuary of Apollo at Frangissa, located near ancient Tamassos and lost for approximately 140 years, has been rediscovered through recent excavations.

Archaeological project maps historic boat sheds on Isles of Scilly

An archaeological project has highlighted just how crucial the agile, tough “pilot gigs” were for islanders by mapping 90 sites of sheds that housed the boats, the earliest believed to date back to the 17th century.

Unique column capital depicting a menorah unveiled in Jerusalem

The carved limestone block was originally discovered in 2020 in a 6th- or 7th-century CE. Byzantine house during excavations in Motza, outside Jerusalem. Yet archaeologists believe that the capital is centuries older, likely dating to the second or third century, and had been subsequently moved to this location.

Museums

A temporary restraining order was issued by the U.S. District Court to block the Trump Administration‘s dismantling of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Smithsonian Institution says it won’t remove anti-segregation exhibits

The Smithsonian Institution denied reports this morning, April 28, that its National Museum of American History and the National Museum of African American History and Culture intended to remove object displays documenting anti-segregation demonstrations during the Civil Rights Movement.

Vatican museums, including Sistine Chapel, closed indefinitely for conclave to elect the next pope

The Vatican Museums, which includes the Sistine Chapel, has been closed to the public as Vatican City prepares for the gathering of cardinals who will vote to elect a new pope following the death of Pope Francis on April 28.

‘The eighth wonder of the world’: China’s terracotta warriors to march on Australia for blockbuster show

Perth will host huge exhibition of ancient treasures from first emperor’s tomb in June, with 40% of the artefacts leaving China for the first time ever

Trump fires Doug Emhoff and others from US Holocaust Memorial Council

Husband of Kamala Harris calls move political and decries turning historical atrocity into ‘a wedge issue’

Trump names eight new appointees to US Holocaust Memorial Museum board

Eight new appointees for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum board were announced by President Donald Trump in a social media post on Thursday night. These trustees will replace the board members appointed by former President Joe Biden that Trump removed just a few days ago.

Edward II’s coronation roll goes on display alongside King Charles’s

The two rolls, part of a tradition dating back at least seven centuries, are on public display for the first time in an exhibition at the National Archives that also includes works of art commissioned by the government to mark the coronation.

The Getty’s Provenance Index makes more than 12 million records publicly available

The Getty Provenance Index (GPI) initially launched in the 1980s to keep track of the ownership history of each artwork in the museum’s collection. Since then, it has become an integral part of the Getty’s research on provenance, collecting, and art markets. Today, the records included in the GPI extend well beyond the Getty itself.

Repatriation

Ancestral human remains taken by a "grave robber" and brought to Belfast almost 200 years ago have begun their journey back to Hawaii. The human remains were repatriated in an emotional ceremony held at the Ulster Museum in Belfast, attended by representatives from Hawaii.

A looted Greco-Roman statue goes on display before its return

After a months-long legal battle, the sculpture is on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art ahead of its repatriation to Turkey, with newly added context about its provenance.

Heritage at risk

Ignorance appears to be no barrier as Trump seeks to grasp control of the US’s historical narrative in the run-up to next year’s landmark celebration of the 250th anniversary of the declaration of independence, also known as the semiquincentennial. Under an executive order issued in January, the president has started to churn out his own approved version of US history that professional historians fear will resort to the tried and tested authoritarian playbook of airbrushing out inconvenient and inglorious chapters that do not align with his vision of American greatness.

Famed Memphis church associated with Martin Luther King damaged by fire

A fire has severely damaged the historic Clayborn Temple in downtown Memphis, which is closely associated with the US civil rights movement and Dr Martin Luther King.

Odds and ends

Modern-day conclaves are steeped in mystery: cardinal electors swear an oath of secrecy – and so do the cooks, drivers, medics and others who support their deliberations. Before the conclave begins next week, the Sistine Chapel will be swept for electronic bugs, jamming devices will be installed, and special coatings will be placed on windows to stop laser scanners picking up anything audible. It wasn’t always this way: in the past, letters, diaries and other writings by cardinals and their attendants gave revealing accounts of what happened in the meetings convened in order to choose a pope.

How African popes changed Christianity - and gave us Valentine's Day

Now predominantly Muslim, North Africa was once a Christian heartland, producing Catholic popes who left their mark on the Church to this day.

The buried hoard: a story of treachery and greed

This is a story of treachery, secrecy and greed which led to two friends ending up in jail and a mystery about buried coins.

Pompeii aerial tour helicopters seized in safety investigation

Italian police have seized eight helicopters and are investigating four pilots associated with a company offering aerial tours of Pompeii’s archaeological ruins last week, alleging a laundry list of safety and operations violations.

Two men filmed felling of Sycamore Gap tree during ‘mindless’ act, court hears

Two men filmed themselves using a chainsaw to fell the famous Sycamore Gap tree on Hadrian’s Wall in an act of “mindless criminal damage”, a court has heard.

Titanic survivor's letter sold for £300,000 at auction

Colonel Archibald Gracie's letter was purchased by an anonymous buyer at Henry Aldridge and Son auction house in Wiltshire on Sunday, at a price five times higher than the £60,000 it was expected to fetch.Colonel Archibald Gracie's letter was purchased by an anonymous buyer at Henry Aldridge and Son auction house in Wiltshire on Sunday, at a price five times higher than the £60,000 it was expected to fetch.

How did Hitler’s film-maker hide her complicity from the world?

A new documentary delves into controversial German film-maker Leni Riefenstahl’s private archive to uncover a director who spent a lifetime covering up her central role in the Nazi propaganda machine

[thetombedspirit]

So... I could be totally wrong, but based on the new promo pictures for Avatar 3, I think the Ash People are going to be less of a tribe and more of a cult.

I mean, just look at this image for starters. The ones one surrounding Varang are wearing some freaky looking masks, and Varang seems to be wearing an outfit made entirely of Na'vi braids. That is insane and defiantly makes me afraid of this woman. So no wonder she and Quaritch team up at some point.

You can actually see glimpses of Lyle and Quaritch in the back here as Varang introduces a new kind of creature, which is also pretty dope.

In fact, you can see a LOT of Na'vi here weilding guns, like WHAT?!?!

Which brings me to another image that I think really proves that not only are these people a cult, but they're a cult that worships the Sky People.

Yep. They have air balloon ships. We literally have Na'vi Sky Pirates.

All jokes aside though, what I think is going on is that the Ash People are a Cargo Cult, a group of indigenous people who see bizarre looking strangers coming from a foreign land (or in this case, planet) and basically liken them to Gods (for better details, I recommend watching Game Theory's Minecraft Cult video.)

Anyway, what I'm getting at here is that Na'vi like Varang probably were inspired by the Sky People and their giant metal ikran that could fit more then one person, and their weapons and tried to recreate them, disregarding the way of Eywa, which likely didn't go over well with the other Na'vi. Especially after Grace's School; they were probably banished when those particular Na'vi still supported them after the fact.

But when the RDA was first defeated and sent away, Varang and those Na'vi, like the Cargo Cults of Earth, tried anything to get them to return. They wear masks over their faces, they recreated their ships, they teach themselves how to use their weapons and basically making menaces of themselves to other Na'vi.

And so, Varang become the Olo'eykte of a new clan. A clan that worships the innovations and technologies of the Sky People.

And I bet they would be very excited if they were ever to come across Miles and Lyle, humans that have been reborn into Na'vi, hence why they start working together, which would be a scary thought to think about.

But it would make sense too, because, before, when I still thought of the Ash People as a legitimate clan, I never understood why a clan would be supportive of what they're doing if they worshipped Eywa and help them attack other Na'vi. Like why side with Quaritch when he wants to help the RDA perform a hostile takeover and not Jake, who wants to preserve the Na'vi home and way of life. But it does make sense to me, if they were ostracized by their people for their continued adoration of their techniques.

In fact, if I was to really dig into this, this might explain Teylan and his fascination with human tech too. If others are just as intrigued by their tech, then so would he.

So yeah, that is my reasoning for why I think the Ash People are a cult and why they would align themselves with the RDA. Please let me know what you think and I can't wait to see this movie!!!💙

EDIT!!

So these airships...

What I may have misinterpreted as a Ash People replication of ships may actually belong to another tribe that's to feature in the film. The Windtraders.

And that makes sense with this image of Neytiri and her Ikran flying beside them. The Ikran's calm, Neytiri has no weapon ready, so I can only assume that the Windtraders are a tribe of nomadic merchants, who travel from place to place and, as the name implies, trade with other clans.

Maybe one such clan they trade with is the Metkayina, and that's how we'll get introduced to this clan and their way of living.

I still %100 believe that the Ash People are a cult, but I just wanted to clarify my mishap.

And who knows? Maybe the Ash People are scheming to steal their ships so that they can really imitate the Sky People and that's how the Sully's confront them.

Be a good way to kick start the plot is all I'm thinking.

[drdemonprince]

I understand why people love railways and all but I just can't buy into the sunny fantasy of a heavily infrastructured high speed rail covered socialist utopia or whatever given how much the development of national railways was central to the genocide of Indigenous people and theft of their lands. alongside the declaration of land grant universities and other supposed public works. i'm not anti civilization but im not exactly not either, and i dont think the high tech, still colonialist, yimby socialism a lot of white people dream of is it dog

[dandelionsresilience]

Dandelion News - April 1-7

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my Dandelion Doodles! Last month’s Doodles are free to the public, so go take a look :D

1. Galapagos tortoises at Philadelphia Zoo become first-time parents at nearly 100

“Mommy, the female tortoise, is considered one of the most genetically valuable Galapagos tortoises in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ species survival plan. [… T]he zoo said it is “overjoyed�� at the arrivals of the four hatchlings, a first in its more than 150-year history.”

2. Massachusetts home-electrification pilot could offer a national model

“In total, the program is providing free or heavily subsidized solar panels and heat pumps to 55 participating households, 12 of which also received batteries at no cost. […] It’s a strategy that program planners hope can help address the disproportionate energy burden felt by lower-income residents of the region[….]”

3. National Park Rangers rebel against queer erasure on Trans Day of Visibility

“[… A] group of over 1,000 off-duty, fired, and retired National Park Service employees launched Rangers Uncensored, an online archive that restores and amplifies LGBTQ+ stories quietly scrubbed from government websites since President Donald Trump’s second inauguration.”

4. World's largest wildlife crossing reaches critical milestone

“Over the next few days they'll be adding 6,000 cubic yards of specially manufactured soil to cover the crossing, a mix of sand, silt and clay inoculated with a bit of compost and hyperlocal mycorrhizal fungi, carefully designed and tested to mimic the biological makeup of native soils around the site.“

5. Bipartisan bill to boost green building materials glides through House

“[B]ipartisan legislation the House of Representatives passed in a 350-73 vote last week would give the Department of Energy a clear mandate to develop a full program to research, develop, and deploy clean versions of the building materials.”

6. Tribal Wildlife Grants Funding Announced

“Tribal Wildlife Grants are intended to help Tribes develop programs for the conservation of habitat and species of traditional or cultural importance[….] Typically funded projects include: conservation planning, fish and wildlife management and research, habitat mapping and restoration, inventory and monitoring, and habitat preservation. […] A total of $6.1 million is available for this round of funding[….]”

7. Germany adds another one million PV arrays to take solar total to 104 gigawatts

“Following a rapid rise in household solar panel installations, Germany’s total number of PV arrays has passed the five million “milestone[.…]” Solar systems already cover almost 15 percent of Germany’s electricity demand, BSW-Solar said. […] The total capacity of all PV systems installed in Germany surpassed 100 GW at the start of the year.”

8. Stronger together: Bilby conservation efforts enhanced by Indigenous knowledge

“Ms. Geyle said the results showed combining [conventional science and traditional tracking methods] more accurately estimated bilby abundance than using either technique individually[….] "[… ensuring] that Indigenous people remain central to decision-making about their lands and species that inhabit them," Ms. Geyle said.”

9. Lennar will build 1,500new Colorado homes with geothermal heat pumps

“The homebuilder is partnering with Dandelion Energy to install the tech, which is efficient but expensive — unless it’s built into new homes from the start. […] And by eliminating the need for new gas pipelines and reducing the peak electricity demands on the power grid, subdivisions built on this model could save a bundle on utilities as well[….]”

10. New strategy launched to protect Tanzanian biodiversity hotspot

“Conservationists have launched a 20-year-long project to protect what is arguably Tanzania’s most biologically rich landscape: the Udzungwa Mountains. The strategy places notable emphasis on communities living here, with more than half of its budget allocated to social and economic projects and managing human-wildlife conflict.”

March 22-28 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[fatehbaz]

hello fatehbaz dot tumblr dot com, I seem to recall that years ago you posted an article or articles about the construction of canals in Arizona & the threat it posed to desert cienegas. I tried finding it on your archive to no avail. I did find research about similar circumstances in chihuahua, but not specifically what you posted. i seem to recall that the specific canal was the CAP. does this ring any bells?

Thank you for sticking around and tolerating me for such a long time. Glad you're here. And thank you for remembering the posts (from August 2020) about Cuatro Cienegas in the Chihuahuan Desert.

---

Thinking of Arizona specifically, what you described sounds similar to an August 2022 post about ephemeral intermittent streams of the Agua Fria and canals to service Prescott/Phoenix? (Briefly describes progression from early water diversion to grow alfalfa for cattle; then the damming of Agua Fria to make reservoir in 1930s; then the construction of 16 copper mines. Cites an article from Rachel Howard at Edge Effects: "The history of the Agua Fria can be read not so much as a warning but rather a symbol of what happens to small bodies of water in Arizona. This is the state of the five Cs: cotton, copper, cattle, citrus, and climate.")

---

From August 2020, might be thinking of this post about the unique endemic Yaqui catfish, an icon of the desert; post described the drying of cienegas (and how the fish is functionally extinct in the US) due to progression of cattle rangeland, farms, and canal diversion? (About how despite popular conception of the desert as dry, "prior to European colonization, the region supported rich waterways and aquatic communities." Post described how, by the 1880s, to service agriculture, "meandering cienegas" were strongly channelized and became deep-etched arroyos. And by 1960s, the pumping of water had meant most cienegas were gone. And by 2016 it was estimated that maybe only 30 of the fish remained in Arizona, a fish sometimes described as the "only catfish native to US west of the Rockies." Which also brings to mind, for me, the 2016 edition of Inland Fishes of the Greater Southwest: Chronicles of a Vanishing Biota from University of Arizona Press.)

---

Also sounds similar to this one from July 2020? That one was about cienegas in Arizona, specifically the corridor of riparian habitat (cottonwood, mesquite, etc.) along the San Pedro. Post made criticism of Arizona agencies which managed surface water and groundwater separately despite their physical/ecological interconnectivity. Post made mention of Arizona eryngo (Eryngium sparganophyllum), which only survives at three-ish sites specifically at cienegas within borders of Arizona and one site in New Mexico; couple of years after that post, the US federal government formally recognized it as endangered.

---

But in 2020, I also made a series of several posts about Quitobaquito Springs (at Arizona-Mexico border, in the Sonoran Desert) and Indigenous efforts to protect it? (The springs are a rare freshwater ecosystem at Organ Pipe Cactus area. US border wall construction was extracting and pumping vast amounts of water every day. In 2020, major demonstrations were held by Akimel O'odha, Tohono O'odham, and Hia-Ced O'odham. Brings to mind how, in the same area in 2019, Indigenous people brought more widespread attention to how a major global surveillance tech company collaborated with US border security agencies to field-test new a surveillance "command and control center" on Tohono O'odham communities, like a laboratory; the "virtual wall" functions with multiple towers which continuously surveil personal devices, sound, physical movement, etc. In those posts, I also mentioned that the springs at Quitobaquito are also pretty much the only home within US borders to the endangered Sonoyta mud turtle and endangered Sonoyta pupfish. The entire subspecies/lineage of the turtle only lives in maybe 5 sites total.)

---

Somewhat related, also made many posts from 2019 to 2023 about Indigenous protection of Oak Flat Chi-chil Bildagoteel in Arizona?

Regarding more recent irrigation and water loss in Arizona, I've posted about Natalie Koch's work in Arid Empire on the impact of diverting water for alfalfa farms and how current Arizona agencies facilitate the "colonial technologies" and market "the desert as a narrative resource"; she also describes how, in 1940s/1950s, the US State Department had a hand in encouraging international petroleum investors to invest in hundreds of thousands of cattle for dairy farms, a network which still influences much water diversion today. Aside from the Sonoyta mud turtle, also brings to mind threatened amphibians in Arizona related to cienegas, like Sonoran tiger salamander (likes permanent or standing water, estimated to survive in about 50 ponds in Cochise and Santa Cruz counties) and Chiricahua leopard frog (also likes the standing water, which is often diverted for agriculture or overtaken by non-native bullfrogs, estimated to survive in maybe 80 to 100 ponds). (Vaguely related but fun: There were a couple of long effort-posts I did about historical distribution range of American crocodiles in mangroves and coastal marshes on far southern edge of the Sonoran Desert general ecoregion before lower Yaqui river was depleted by agriculture.)

---

Shout-out to Cuatro Cienegas in the Chihuahuan Desert.

An oasis. A "bacterial lost world." About 300 pools. More than 90% dried-up in historic record; agricultural canals drain tens of millions of gallons of water a year. Home to 38-ish endemic animal species. Not one, not two, but three endemic species of turtles: A slider, a softshell (I love softshells), and the planet's only "aquatic" species of box turtle (I also love box turtles). Home to some of planet's only terrestrial or freshwater populations of stromatolites (bacterial mats composing structures reminiscent of Precambrian era; usually found in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, but here have been isolated from the sea for millions of years). Also home to some of planet's highest diversity of Archaea (taxonomic order of lifeforms potentially "older than bacteria"?).

[odinsblog]

The underground shelter, which was revealed last year, prompted conspiracy theories on social media about wealthy tech moguls building doomsday bunkers.

Mark Zuckerberg is downplaying the massive 5,000-square-foot bunker beneath his Hawaiian compound that was revealed in WIRED last year and prompted conspiracy theories on social media about wealthy tech moguls building doomsday bunkers.

The billionaire Facebook co-founder pushed back when Bloomberg reporter Emily Chang, in a video published Tuesday that chronicled her visit to Zuckerberg’s Lake Tahoe property, asked him what he’s “worried about” — and if there’s something he knows “that we don’t” in regard to the bunker.

“No, I think that’s just, like, a little shelter,” he told Chang. “It’s a basement! It’s a basement.”

Zuckerberg said the “basic house” on Kauai is largely used for storage space and that he frequently works from there but admitted to the underground bunker there, referring to it as a “hurricane shelter or whatever.”

“I think it got, like, blown out of proportion, as if the whole ranch was some kind of doomsday bunker, which is just not true,” he added.

Back in February, Ron Hubbard, the CEO of Atlas Survival Shelters, and Robert Vicino, founder of underground survival shelter company Vivos, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how news of Zuckerberg’s bunker increased business for them.

Hubbard said that it had “caused a buying frenzy,” while Vicino said, “Now that Zuckerberg has let the cat out of the bag, that’s got other people who share his status or are near his status starting to think, ‘Oh God, if he’s doing that, maybe he knows something that I don’t, maybe I should seek this out myself.’”

Zuckerberg purchased the 1,400-acre estate, which is known as Koolau Ranch, in a series of deals beginning in 2014, WIRED reported in 2023. According to planning documents for the property reviewed by the outlet, the compound will have its own energy and food supplies.

Construction of the compound and purchase of the land was estimated to cost around $270 million. Zuckerberg told Chang that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, use the property for ranching and that he wants to “create the highest quality beef in the world.”

Along with Zuckerberg, other bunker-having tech moguls allegedly include Bill Gates, with Vicino telling THR in 2016 that Gates “has huge shelters under every one of his homes.”

PayPal CEO Peter Thiel had similar plans for a bunker-like compound in New Zealand, but those were thwarted in 2022 after backlash from local conservationists, according to The Guardian.

Zuckerberg’s property spawned similar criticism from locals and Indigenous groups in Kauai, with one former laborer on the compound telling WIRED, “It’s crazy that a man not from Hawaii comes here and purchases a bunch of land that limits the locals [from potentially buying] land. But it’s already happening.”

(continue reading)

[spot-the-antisemitism]

I recall plenty of complaints about Jewish erasure on Wikipedia, and I was reading their Manual of Style (MOS) which stated this:

Ethnicity, religion, or sexuality should generally not be in the lead unless relevant to the subject's notability. Similarly, neither previous nationalities nor the country of birth should be mentioned in the opening paragraph unless relevant to the subject's notability.

URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Biography#Nationality_examples

That said, they also noted how details of their ethnicity "can be introduced in the second sentence if they are of defining importance".

Isaac Asimov (c. January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer Per the above guidance, we do not add ethnicity ("Jewish-American") or country of birth ("Russian-born American"). These details can be introduced in the second sentence if they are of defining importance.

It kinda explains why mentions of ethnicity are being removed, and it's not just Jews but other indigenous people as nationality takes precedence.

Dear Kang,

this is so NOT why

the reason why is because "Techs for "palestine'" vandalized and then locked all the pages and this one guy hell bent on Jewish erasure. the style guide is part of the problem but you can't blame malice on the style guide, that's like saying Kristallnacht happened because the way the Weimar republic was set up

yours,

Cecil

[transmutationisms]

okay so i’ve never really grasped this, might as well ask now — how exactly does the cyberspace & nft stuff mine resources? i’ve heard the basics (i.e. crypto mining uses energy and what not) but i’ve never been able to understand how internet connects to real resources. could you sort of explain that (along the lines with the spam email post) in a simpler way?

ok, put very simply: it's easy for people who only interact with the internet as users to treat 'cyberspace' or 'the virtual world' as immaterial. i type something out on my phone, it lives in the screen. intuitively, it feels less real and physical than writing the same words down on a piece of paper with a pencil. this is an illusion. the internet is real and physical; digital technology is not an escape from the use of natural resources to create products. my phone, its charger, the data storage facility, a laptop: all of these things are physical objects. the internet does not exist without computers; it is a network of networks that requires real, physical devices and cables in order to store, transmit, and access all of the data we use every time we load a webpage or save a text document.

this is one of google's data centres—part of the physical network of servers and cables that google operates. these are real objects made of real materials that need to be obtained through labour and then manufactured into these products through labour. the more data we use, the more capacity the physical network must have. google operates dozens of these data centres and potentially millions of servers (there is no official number). running these facilities takes electricity, cooling technologies (servers get hot), and more human labour. now think about how many other companies exist that store or transmit data. this entire network exists physically.

when you look at a server, or a phone, or a laptop, you might be glossing over a very simple truth that many of us train ourselves not to see: these objects themselves are made of materials that have supply chains! for example, cobalt, used in (among other things) lithium-ion batteries, has a notoriously brutal supply chain relying on horrific mining practices (including child labour), particularly in the congo. lithium mining, too, is known to have a massive environmental toll; the list goes on. dangerous and exploitative working conditions, as well as the environmental costs of resource extraction, are primarily and immediately borne by those who are already most brutally oppressed under capitalism: poor workers in the global south, indigenous people, &c. this is imperialism in action. digital technologies cannot exist without resources, and tech companies (like all capitalist firms!) are profitable because they exploit labour.

all commodities require resources and labour to make and distribute. digital technology is no different. these are material objects with material histories and contexts. nothing about the internet is immaterial, from the electromagnetic waves of wi-fi communication to the devices we use to scroll tumblr. it is, in fact, only by a fantastical sleight-of-hand that we can look at and interact with these objects and still consider the internet to be anything but real resources.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Beast goblin anon. How do you generally feel about the concept of “loads & loads of races”? Where fantasy & sci-if works cram as many sapient species into the world as possible? Often to the point that many of them kinda just become planet of the hats/ one trick ponies that they kinda don’t really add much to the world and feel cluttered together.

How do you generally feel about this trope & what do you feel to be an “appropriate” amount of sapient species for a setting?

For my urban fantasy project that my animal goblins are a part of I’ve undergone a massive change to kinda both use & subvert this trope. Having a set list of 12 core races & everything outside of that is either a magical mutant/ extinct/ one of the rare and mysterious “none human” sapients/ and indigenous population of the core races/ or made into animals rather than people (basically what I did with the goblins). I’ve found that this method really helped me narrow down clutter & focus more on giving those beings outside the core peoples more intreasting ideas & rolls in the world

The 12 core humanoid races, collectively referred to as “humanity” are all part of the human family tree, descending from hominid ancestor (called the Progenitors) via magical induced speciation. These are… Mensh (regular humans) / Elves/ Dwoves (Dwarves)/ Orcs/ Gnomes/ Therians (Beastmen)/ Ogres/ Fairies/ Giants/ Merfolk/ & as of now unnamed winged & multiarm folk. These being decided as the core peoples after after cutting down the roster to those I believe I can utilize for more meaningful WorldBuilding & conflict between them all.

As for the other fantasy beings outside them I’ve been able to focus on giving them some unique ideas and side content. Like goblins being proto-sapient animals that are commonly treated as pest as human civilization encroaches their habitats. Centaurs being a small community of magical chimeric mutants struggling to survive due to their dysfunctional mix of human & equine anatomy. Or the extinct Blemmyes being an ancient and cruel civilization that died out eons ago and are central to many in-world conspiracy theories. Tree-folk who are none human sapient plants who have started warring with invading humans who destroy their forest homes struggling to be heard.

the "appropriate" number of sapient species is however many the writer can manage to work with lol

I'm not good at trimming down those numbers myself, I've currently got about a dozen people species in my own worldbuilding and a few of those are only still part of it because I gave them integral roles in the history and function of the world, even though they're rarely shown on page or with any important named individuals.

like the pixies, my sapient bees. They're incredibly important because they have the most experience creating more advanced tech and have been able to give the world things like telegrams and radios, and their wax, honey, and pupating silk are all incredibly useful materials. I also think having such a blatantly non-humanoid people species is good for the narrative as it tackles the history of interspecies conflicts. but I am constantly forgetting to actually integrate them into the narrative and so they kinda end up feeling like a footnote! which sucks because i have put so much time into creating them.

same goes for my giant sloth ogres, the only species that has a natural lifespan longer than the elves, who will become more relevant only when they're needed for some mountainous search and rescue plot points. and the pinniped merfolk, who helped create and spread the interspecies sign language used by merchants and traders around the world.

not to even mention the people species I have actually had to cut from my roster entirely, or that I think would be fun to write about, but have no space for in any of my stories. It's just too much fun to come up with more and more fantasy people. It's one of my favorite things to do!

I think I've helped myself a little by clumping some groups together as related species. the elves, stroi, and drow, for example, as well as the orcs and gnomes. so there's five species there, but they're actually just two categories of people species, the sylvanids and urukin. And giving the various people groups some integral role in the world, especially regarding their dynamics with other people, also helps a lot.

pixies being my explanation for a lot of different technologies and materials that may not seem to fit the "time period". merfolk being the source of the interspecies sign language that's so important as characters travel to locations where there may be language barriers. ogres making yarn from their own shed fur, which allowed them to become allies with the nomadic gnomes, and also playing a role in search and rescue missions whenever people go missing in the mountains, or being helpful to others when the valleys get unusually harsh winter weather. or the goblins having such a major historical revolution that it even altered how the calendar years are counted.

as long as you can stick with a few distinct reasons for each of your people species to exist as unique groups and show that they bring something to the world in a way the other people don't, you'll be alright. it's okay if a few of them take a backseat to the narrative and don't get important named characters and major plot roles.

I mean if I'm reading a book set in one real life country, I'll be happy to see realistic levels of ethnic diversity, but I don't expect the author to create a giant cast of characters just to flesh out every possible human culture in full detail through these named characters, you know? Sometimes that's just not the focus. Honestly, going into too much detail on every single people group can be harmful to the narrative, but removing some of those people groups just because they're not represented by any named characters would also hurt the narrative. It's just a matter of being observant and figuring out how to edit your work.