#Real time war updates.

[girlactionfigure]

ISRAEL REALTIME - late night Nov 4

— EMBEDDED REPORTERS… the Israeli news channels were allowed to ride-along into the war zone - up to 300 meters from active battle.  Here’s Kaan 11’s report, but it is in Hebrew without subtitles - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkhQSJdsO-A

— NIGHT ROCKET BARRAGE… from Gaza - Tel Aviv area, Ness Ziona, Rishon LeZion, Holon, Bat Yam, Rehovot, Be'er Yacov, Lod, Ramla, Gan Raveh, Gezer, Sdot Dan.

— DRONE ATTACK FROM LEBANON… intercepted.  Drone intercepted in the Metula area and in addition another interception in the area of ​​the Hermon outposts. There are no casualties.

— IDF ATTACKS… extensive attacks by the naval, land and air forces on targets throughout the Gaza Strip - literally lighting up the sky as viewed from southern Israeli cities.

— US AND FOREIGN CITIZEN SEMI-HOSTAGES DEPARTURE STOPPED… Evacuation of dual nationals, foreigners from Gaza to Egypt suspended: border official (AFP).  

— MDA AMBULANCE SERVICE SAYS… to UN chief… Our paramedics were found still wearing their treatment gloves when the Hamas terrorists murdered them.  Our ambulance drivers were murdered in cold blood in the driver's seat on their way to save lives.  Our ambulances were burned and damaged by fire from Hamas terrorists to prevent our teams from saving lives with them.  If so, why does a barbaric attack on Israeli medical teams of Magen David Adom, the Israeli Red Cross, not make you feel the same way?  We will forever remember you as the UN Secretary General who helped terrorists, but refused to condemn the murder of Israeli civilians and medical staff.

— IT’S A GOOD LINE… President Herzog in a column for the New York Times: History has taught us that evil ideologies are often first aimed at the Jewish people, but tend not to stop there. We find ourselves at the forefront of this battle, but all nations face the same threat and must realize that they may be next in line.

[tossawary]

One of my favorite parts of the original "Star Wars" trilogy is when it cuts to Imperial officers and troopers just having... really shitty days at Evil Work. Love watching some guy obviously desperately rethinking his career path and struggling to stand still as Darth Vader Force-chokes the guy standing next to him over a video call. (They clearly Did Not Know that he could do that.) I get to imagine people within the Empire getting the email that Darth Vader is visiting their workplace and everyone immediately trying to book their vacation days through some crappy bureaucratic portal.

[zrllosyn-art]

I miss them lmao

[r0semultiverse]

Hey, Jake & Jack fans, is this anything?

Both men imprisoned (literal & metaphorical).

Both offered an out from their current predicament by an outside force (arguably in the case of Brain Ghost Dirk).

Both have loose ties to Lord English visually.

Yellow initial glow & Gamzee involvement too.

Sometimes a guy just needs to explode (same pose too).

Both dual wielding weapons.

That same said weapon type (for Jack Noir) having killed Jane Crocker.

It's really looking like Jake is going to do her in.

I would also like to point out that we've had interactions involving these three (Jane, Jake, and Brain Ghost Dirk) before that consisted of similar topics & themes.

Brain Ghost Dirk implying that he's just there as moral support, a manifestation of Jake's powers, and as a coping mechanism. Jane also talking about ruling an empire with him while talking down to him, similar to how she saw and/or still sees him in Beyond Canon's Candy timeline. Jake also being uncertain about doing anything to harm her despite all the bad things she's doing.

Brain Ghost Dirk going away tells us that Jake's more hopeful than he's ever been. This is the moment where he is the most sure of his decisions than he's ever been in his life, whatever those decisions may be in regards to Jane and how to handle this situation.

He is probably going to shoot Jane down, quite literally. I would also argue that after all this time, the lad isn't beating the Lord English allegations. We might as well have a parallel of him killing Jane much like how Jack Noir killed her right before he got possessed by Lil Cal & given some of Lord English's immense power.

Alternatively maybe we'll get to see what the power of hope or hope bullets can do to someone whose done so much wrong & come so far off the deep end in terms of moral wrongdoings. Maybe with every shot that hits her, she'll begin to be swayed to the side of good & start to self-reflect.

I'm still not fully convinced that Gamzee actually cured Tavros' peanut allergy, I mean just look at the panel.

This could absolutely be interpreted as Jake injecting his hope power into the epipen and by proxy injecting both his power & the epipen into his son! If younger Jake is strong enough to defeat Grimbark Jade, then adult Jake might just be strong enough to defeat a peanut allergy is all I'm saying! In fact, now that I'm rambling about it, this seems like the more likely outcome is Jake's hope power swaying or (in the very least) confusing Jane mid-fight. Hope bullets, they would look cool & would be pretty strong!

The power of believing in others & wanting things to change can be a strong tool indeed, Mister English.

If there's one person who still believes in changing Jane's mind (or bringing her back to proper canonicity depending on how you interpret the recent lore), it would be Jake English, the believer.

Okay, maybe this is something! Tally ho!

[spotaus]

Finally making a timeliness design-guide for Geno from ec-4o.verse! (Just a wip tho)

[kemendin]

Update - Chapters III-V

Reaching // Remnants // Rescue

Jedi Knight Caspian Serapis is at last reunited with his missing crewmates, Kira Carsen and Lord Scourge, when the two make an unexpected appearance on Corellia to rescue him from the wreckage of the Meridian Complex. As Cas recovers and reconnects with his companions in the quiet aftermath of the battle, it isn’t just his own long-lost yearnings that are pushed to light. Now, after so many years apart, both Cas and Scourge must decide - does the path ahead lie again in their curious bond as allies, or as something more?

MAIN POST | Read from the beginning

Read on AO3 (short excerpt below cut)

Far, far below, at the base of the spire, a bulky, grey-armoured figure hurtles past squads of Republic troops towards the entrance. The soldiers are too startled to do more than fumble with their weapons as the blaze of a scarlet lightsaber flashes past, too disoriented to do more than stare after him and wonder at the idea that they have, somehow, just escaped the wrath of an obvious Sith.

An auburn-haired Jedi is in swift pursuit; but oddly, her double lightsaber is sheathed on her belt, and she makes no move to attack. Her only gestures are frantic flappings of her hands, motioning for anyone nearby to get back, out of the way of the Sith now charging into the body of the spire.

“He won’t hurt you! Let him through, just let him through!”

She is partially correct. The Republic soldiers, the CorSec forces, the Green Jedi - they are not his enemies, and he won’t hurt them - unless they stand in his way.

His chest heaving, his lungs seared with smoke, Scourge barrels out of the corridor linking to the monorail and into the spire’s core. His senses are flinching under the barrage of warning slamming at him through the Force. For three hundred years, he had felt it with the clarity of someone reaching through a sheet of transparisteel - muted, yet immediate, the luxury of drawing on its energies without fearing to be overcome by it. But now there is no such barrier, and the Force is driving at him, churning through his emotions like boots losing their purchase in the mud of a battlefield. Telling him that he must go faster, that there is danger, and he cannot afford to falter for even an instant -

The screech of collapsing metal assaults him the moment he’s inside. He is forced to pull up sharply and dive out of the way as a twisted length of durasteel crashes down near the entrance. Rolling to his feet, he jerks a wild glance upward - and his heart stops.

An immense piece of broken machinery is plummeting from the height of the spire, accompanied by an array of structural debris. And falling in the midst of it all, small and fragile and frighteningly limp, like a child’s toy cast away by an uncaring hand -

“CASPIAN!”

There’s no time to move, no time to act, no time to do anything except bellow the Jedi’s name, before the echoes are lost in the devastating impact of the generator as it crashes into the bottom floor of the spire.

Even within his hastily erected Force shield, Scourge is driven back into the nearest wall as the resulting shockwave slams into him. Smaller, still-significant chunks of the Meridian Complex rain down, crushing a dozen or more unlucky individuals not quick enough to get away. 

The entire structure of the spire trembles violently around Scourge as he struggles to regain his footing. The air is thickening again with smoke, even as the fire suppression systems tamp down on the flames sputtering within the wreckage.

“CASPIAN!” he howls again, clawing at the wall behind him for balance, his throat and his chest tearing as one.

[exopelagic]

cue screaming abt legends Z-A

[lilcommander]

"It's been a year"

Those words have been swarming around Marriac all day, every hour or so the thought would pop in before she brushed it aside. It wasnt until the sun was setting, its orange glow illuminating the former Pact Commander as she was finishing up laundry when it finally hit her.

"It's been a year" A year. A year since she travelled to Cantha, a year since the damn near end of the world, a year since she was able to see Aurene as just her daughter. And here she was, in a quiet corner of Lion's Arch, home, folding laundry.

It felt...nice, she thought, noticing that she was wiping a tear away. No world ending threats, no power hungry liches, no crazy creatures dragged from the mists that she felt compelled to stop on her own.

"It's been a year" Well, six months really, to work on her own projects that have been collecting dust for Alchemy knows how long. A year to just....Be.

"Gods, its been a year"

It's quiet. Save for the soft sound of sniffles and ruffled clothes. Marriac doesnt even notice the sunset going past the cliffs. After a few minutes she takes the tear-stained shirt away from her face. It's gonna need another wash, now.

"It really has been a year, has it?"

[lemedstudent2021]

y'all aren't in israel either and you're just repeating the nuclear garbage they're spewing without a second thought

The murder of almost 100 Palestinian journalists serves the West almost as much as it serves the Israeli occupation government because it allows Western media to obscure the genocide we're witnessing on social media

[mostlysignssomeportents]

“If buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing”

20 years ago, I got in a (friendly) public spat with Chris Anderson, who was then the editor in chief of Wired. I'd publicly noted my disappointment with glowing Wired reviews of DRM-encumbered digital devices, prompting Anderson to call me unrealistic for expecting the magazine to condemn gadgets for their DRM:

https://longtail.typepad.com/the_long_tail/2004/12/is_drm_evil.html

I replied in public, telling him that he'd misunderstood. This wasn't an issue of ideological purity – it was about good reviewing practice. Wired was telling readers to buy a product because it had features x, y and z, but at any time in the future, without warning, without recourse, the vendor could switch off any of those features:

https://memex.craphound.com/2004/12/29/cory-responds-to-wired-editor-on-drm/

I proposed that all Wired endorsements for DRM-encumbered products should come with this disclaimer:

WARNING: THIS DEVICE’S FEATURES ARE SUBJECT TO REVOCATION WITHOUT NOTICE, ACCORDING TO TERMS SET OUT IN SECRET NEGOTIATIONS. YOUR INVESTMENT IS CONTINGENT ON THE GOODWILL OF THE WORLD’S MOST PARANOID, TECHNOPHOBIC ENTERTAINMENT EXECS. THIS DEVICE AND DEVICES LIKE IT ARE TYPICALLY USED TO CHARGE YOU FOR THINGS YOU USED TO GET FOR FREE — BE SURE TO FACTOR IN THE PRICE OF BUYING ALL YOUR MEDIA OVER AND OVER AGAIN. AT NO TIME IN HISTORY HAS ANY ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY GOTTEN A SWEET DEAL LIKE THIS FROM THE ELECTRONICS PEOPLE, BUT THIS TIME THEY’RE GETTING A TOTAL WALK. HERE, PUT THIS IN YOUR MOUTH, IT’LL MUFFLE YOUR WHIMPERS.

Wired didn't take me up on this suggestion.

But I was right. The ability to change features, prices, and availability of things you've already paid for is a powerful temptation to corporations. Inkjet printers were always a sleazy business, but once these printers got directly connected to the internet, companies like HP started pushing out "security updates" that modified your printer to make it reject the third-party ink you'd paid for:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

Now, this scam wouldn't work if you could just put things back the way they were before the "update," which is where the DRM comes in. A thicket of IP laws make reverse-engineering DRM-encumbered products into a felony. Combine always-on network access with indiscriminate criminalization of user modification, and the enshittification will follow, as surely as night follows day.

This is the root of all the right to repair shenanigans. Sure, companies withhold access to diagnostic codes and parts, but codes can be extracted and parts can be cloned. The real teeth in blocking repair comes from the law, not the tech. The company that makes McDonald's wildly unreliable McFlurry machines makes a fortune charging franchisees to fix these eternally broken appliances. When a third party threatened this racket by reverse-engineering the DRM that blocked independent repair, they got buried in legal threats:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/20/euthanize-rentier-enablers/#cold-war

Everybody loves this racket. In Poland, a team of security researchers at the OhMyHack conference just presented their teardown of the anti-repair features in NEWAG Impuls locomotives. NEWAG boobytrapped their trains to try and detect if they've been independently serviced, and to respond to any unauthorized repairs by bricking themselves:

https://mamot.fr/@q3k@hackerspace.pl/111528162905209453

Poland is part of the EU, meaning that they are required to uphold the provisions of the 2001 EU Copyright Directive, including Article 6, which bans this kind of reverse-engineering. The researchers are planning to present their work again at the Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg this month – Germany is also a party to the EUCD. The threat to researchers from presenting this work is real – but so is the threat to conferences that host them:

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/researchers-face-legal-threats-over-sdmi-hack/

20 years ago, Chris Anderson told me that it was unrealistic to expect tech companies to refuse demands for DRM from the entertainment companies whose media they hoped to play. My argument – then and now – was that any tech company that sells you a gadget that can have its features revoked is defrauding you. You're paying for x, y and z – and if they are contractually required to remove x and y on demand, they are selling you something that you can't rely on, without making that clear to you.

But it's worse than that. When a tech company designs a device for remote, irreversible, nonconsensual downgrades, they invite both external and internal parties to demand those downgrades. Like Pavel Chekov says, a phaser on the bridge in Act I is going to go off by Act III. Selling a product that can be remotely, irreversibly, nonconsensually downgraded inevitably results in the worst person at the product-planning meeting proposing to do so. The fact that there are no penalties for doing so makes it impossible for the better people in that meeting to win the ensuing argument, leading to the moral injury of seeing a product you care about reduced to a pile of shit:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/25/moral-injury/#enshittification

But even if everyone at that table is a swell egg who wouldn't dream of enshittifying the product, the existence of a remote, irreversible, nonconsensual downgrade feature makes the product vulnerable to external actors who will demand that it be used. Back in 2022, Adobe informed its customers that it had lost its deal to include Pantone colors in Photoshop, Illustrator and other "software as a service" packages. As a result, users would now have to start paying a monthly fee to see their own, completed images. Fail to pay the fee and all the Pantone-coded pixels in your artwork would just show up as black:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/28/fade-to-black/#trust-the-process

Adobe blamed this on Pantone, and there was lots of speculation about what had happened. Had Pantone jacked up its price to Adobe, so Adobe passed the price on to its users in the hopes of embarrassing Pantone? Who knows? Who can know? That's the point: you invested in Photoshop, you spent money and time creating images with it, but you have no way to know whether or how you'll be able to access those images in the future. Those terms can change at any time, and if you don't like it, you can go fuck yourself.

These companies are all run by CEOs who got their MBAs at Darth Vader University, where the first lesson is "I have altered the deal, pray I don't alter it further." Adobe chose to design its software so it would be vulnerable to this kind of demand, and then its customers paid for that choice. Sure, Pantone are dicks, but this is Adobe's fault. They stuck a KICK ME sign to your back, and Pantone obliged.

This keeps happening and it's gonna keep happening. Last week, Playstation owners who'd bought (or "bought") Warner TV shows got messages telling them that Warner had walked away from its deal to sell videos through the Playstation store, and so all the videos they'd paid for were going to be deleted forever. They wouldn't even get refunds (to be clear, refunds would also be bullshit – when I was a bookseller, I didn't get to break into your house and steal the books I'd sold you, not even if I left some cash on your kitchen table).

Sure, Warner is an unbelievably shitty company run by the single most guillotineable executive in all of Southern California, the loathsome David Zaslav, who oversaw the merger of Warner with Discovery. Zaslav is the creep who figured out that he could make more money cancelling completed movies and TV shows and taking a tax writeoff than he stood to make by releasing them:

https://aftermath.site/there-is-no-piracy-without-ownership

Imagine putting years of your life into making a program – showing up on set at 5AM and leaving your kids to get their own breakfast, performing stunts that could maim or kill you, working 16-hour days during the acute phase of the covid pandemic and driving home in the night, only to have this absolute turd of a man delete the program before anyone could see it, forever, to get a minor tax advantage. Talk about moral injury!

But without Sony's complicity in designing a remote, irreversible, nonconsensual downgrade feature into the Playstation, Zaslav's war on art and creative workers would be limited to material that hadn't been released yet. Thanks to Sony's awful choices, David Zaslav can break into your house, steal your movies – and he doesn't even have to leave a twenty on your kitchen table.

The point here – the point I made 20 years ago to Chris Anderson – is that this is the foreseeable, inevitable result of designing devices for remote, irreversible, nonconsensual downgrades. Anyone who was paying attention should have figured that out in the GW Bush administration. Anyone who does this today? Absolute flaming garbage.

Sure, Zaslav deserves to be staked out over an anthill and slathered in high-fructose corn syrup. But save the next anthill for the Sony exec who shipped a product that would let Zaslav come into your home and rob you. That piece of shit knew what they were doing and they did it anyway. Fuck them. Sideways. With a brick.

Meanwhile, the studios keep making the case for stealing movies rather than paying for them. As Tyler James Hill wrote: "If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing":

https://bsky.app/profile/tylerjameshill.bsky.social/post/3kflw2lvam42n

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/08/playstationed/#tyler-james-hill

Image: Alan Levine (modified) https://pxhere.com/en/photo/218986

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[girlactionfigure]

ISRAEL REALTIME - noon updates - Oct 30 

— TERROR ATTACK, STABBING, JERUSALEM… by the gas station near the Shivtei Yisroel light rail station.  Terrorist shot, stabbing victim is a police officer - seriously wounded.

— HOSTAGE FOUND MURDERED IN GAZA… Shani Louk, 23, was last seen by the world as Hamas monsters kidnapped her, beat her, & paraded her through the streets of Gaza w/all the “innocent Gazans” celebrating. Contact was made to the terrorists, who said she was in serious condition in the hospital.  IDF soldiers who entered Gaza for the ground operation have found and identified her body (or parts, some bones, another report says).  HY”D, may G-d avenge her blood. (Former MK Dov Lipman)

— IDF ON THE MOVE… IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari: "Additional forces have entered the strip. We move on the ground, identify terrorists - and attack from the air”.

— IDF REACHES MID-GAZA… The Palestinians report that our forces have now reached Saladin Street, an axis that crosses the entire Gaza Strip. (Video of a car finding a tank and quickly driving away - not shared here.). According to Gazans, the video was filmed near what used to be called Netzer Junction.

— ROCKETS from GAZA.. Ashdod, Ashkelon.  Hit in Ashkelon, no casualties.

— US ATTACKED… At least 15 rockets were fired at the American base located in the El Amr oil field.  At least three strikes against this base alone in less than 24 hours

— THE WORST HORROR… ( WARNING - extreme horror but reality )  We share a link to a description from a reporter who saw the videos from the terrorists via the IDF briefly describing severe torture and infanticide.  We need to know and to understand the completely and total inhumanity of these “people”.  No quarter, no aid, no succor until all hostages are returned, all weapons are abandoned, full complete total unconditional surrender — and then direct to war crimes trials and execution and reeducation for the ‘innocent’ public.  THE LINK -> HERE

[mbrine]

I have hacked the mainframe (Inspect Element) (UPDATED FOR HALLOWEEN BOOP WAR)

MAX - 1000

LOL - 1500

OMG - 2000

WOW - 4000

*-* - 5000

WHY - 6000

PLZ - 7000

AAA - 7500

;_; - 8000

0_0 - 8500

T_T - 9000

MAX - ~9200? (Hard to tell, I've overshot this twice already)

BOO - 9500

TUM - 10000 given

BLR - 10000 received

How to Super Boop

On desktop, hover your mouse over the Boop button for around 5 seconds, and it will do 2 spins.

Once the button is done spinning, click on it and you can send a Super Boop!

EVIL BOOPS can be accessed by allowing the animation to play 3 times before clicking

One way to get Super Boops on mobile is using a web browser to access tumblr. Use "Desktop Site"/"Desktop Mode", then click and hold the button to send the boop. That'll convert it to a Super Boop button. It seems pretty inconsistent though.

For all clicking enthusiasts, do click this too, trust me, it's just as satisfying

Omg thanks everyone for the boops, I've been butterfly clicking the boop button for so many different people for the past 6 hours and I'm exhausted

I'm pretty sure this is also my most engaged post on any platform I've ever used, thanks for all the RBs and likes <3 <3 <3

If anyone's crazy enough to try reaching 10k without an autoclicker, here's what I did

Ok, one more tutorial for the boops before I go to bed for real.

How do I check my exact given and received boop count?

NOTE: You'll need to refresh the page to update the counters, unless there's another method to check the live count

Chrome

Go to your dash ("home" tab).

Press f12, or right click and select "Inspect Element"

In the window that pops up, click on "Sources" then "dashboard" under "www.tumblr.com" (Pic below for reference)

In the window showing the code, press Ctrl+F and type in either "givenCount" or "receivedCount".

Ta da! (Pic below for reference)

Firefox

Go to your dash ("home" tab).

Press f12, or right click and select "Inspect Element (Q)"

In the window that pops up, click on "Debugger", then "Sources" and "dashboard" under "www.tumblr.com" (Pic below for reference)

In the window showing the code, press Ctrl+F and type in either "givenCount" or "receivedCount".

Enjoy formatting (Pic below for reference)

Gonna take a break from Tumblr for now, my fingers are in shambles and I'm pretty sure I can hear the mouse clicks echoing around inside my skull. Thanks to everyone for making this random Singaporean guy's day, mbrine signing out! ❤

Here's a link to A vetted Palestinian family fundraiser masterpost by @/el-shab-hussein and A masterpost on how you can help Palestine

Happy April Fool's Day!

October 31st changelog:

Removed "bait links", now the link actually says where it directs to

Updated some info regarding tiers

[buttercupshands]

That simulation try just turned into a tragedy play in the end with betrayal, revenge and.... Looping back in time.

Just casually becoming family with yourself and your God (and some random Sadnesses)

And then this happened

Siffrin casually avoided the Feast while Stylish one killed Loop again

And then Siffrin casually showed that looping is a Siffrin thing.

And won this round too

Also Universe still lead and some people followed

Playing hunger games simulator with 24 different characters and these two still insist on recreating In Stars and Time

[brightclearline]

Update!

[thedigitalbard]

Digital Art Raffle for Ahmad's Family

Hello everyone. I've decided to host a raffle to raise funds for my friend Ahmad (@ahmadwaleed55) and his family. His campaign is number 167 on the Vetted Gaza Fundraiser List by @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi. Ahmad has been fundraising for his family since April, and still hasn't even reached 50% of the total amount needed. Currently, $9,420 / $25,000 has been raised to support Ahmad's family.

In my previous post, I explained the current situation with Ahmad's family, and that they urgently need to raise enough money to purchase a new tent for winter.

The rules are as follows:

Every donation of at least $10 will count as one entry. If you donate $20, your name will be entered twice. If you donate $30, your name will be entered three times.

Send me proof of your donation by direct message.

I will draw full body or portraits of humanoids and animals. You can request a full color drawing, lineart, or just a sketch. Most of my drawings don't have backgrounds, but I'm happy to do simple backgrounds if requested.

I will set the raffle to run for two weeks. From September 23rd to October 7th. If I decide to do an extension, then I will update this post to reflect the new timeframe. (Raffle has been extended until October 31th)

Even if you don't win, please remember that your donation has the power to make a real difference in the lives Ahmad and his family.

DONATE HERE: Fundraiser for Alex Seeman by Ahmad Waleed : Support War-Affected Children's Future (gofundme.com)

Here are some examples of my art below:

Tagging for reach (please dm to be removed):

@magnus-rhymes-with-swagness @transmutationisms @buttercuparry @brutaliakhoa

@commissions4aid-international @turian @sylvianritual @appsa

@acepumpkinpatrick @malcriada @autisticmudkip @lesbianmaxevans

@fading-event-608 @heliopixels @abnormalicacid @schoolhater

@mothblossoms @girlinafairytale