#but you can use them anywhere in the EU

[therivergirl]

So, in Croatia we recently switched from Croatian Kuna, the Croatian official currency, to Euro.

And I can't describe how much of a mindfuck is it to see the new prices. I mean sure, we had a transition period in 2022 when, even trough we still used Kunas, the prices were written out in both Kuna and Euro. But, really, a lot of people didn't have time or energy to pay much attention.

And the weird thing is that €1 equals about Kn7,3. So the prices are REALLY different.

Usually, if I went to buy something bigger, like my entire hair routine or I was going to a sushi place and knew I was going to splurge a bit I had bills with numbers like 100 or 200 on them.

Now I have, like, €20 or maybe a twenty and a ten in my wallet and that's it.

Even weirder is that, before, if I'd get change, AKA coins, I'd be like "oh, ok, that's not that much." Like, if someone hands you a handful of Kn1 coins you can maybe buy a bag of chips, or a really cheap coffee or a croissant.

If someone hands me a handfull od €1 coins, that's a small fortune!

Like, a few days ago, I payed for my lunch with a twenty and the cashier returned me all in change. And I was like "Wtf, that is so little!" and then, the very next moment I thought "What are you talking about, idiot! You could buy a week worth of lunches for that money! And still have some money left!"

Anyways, the closest thing I can think of is if you're watching measures in a system you're not used to. Like, if you used imperial and now you see meters or if you're used to the metric system (like me) so you're like "wait, how much is 5ft again?"

That, but worse.

Like, I got my paycheck yesterday and I was ready to go fight the HR because WTF IS THAT NUMBER. then I realized...those are euros....that is your normal paycheck...you're rich, dumbass!

[anonymous-dentist]

Day Six - Hybrids | Cuddling

-

Roier finds out that Cellbit is a cat hybrid literal seconds after finding out that Cellbit used to be a serial killer, because, apparently, those two things are the most important secrets in Cellbit's life.

Cellbit's cute little straw hat is off for the first time all day, and his hair sticks to his forehead- sweaty from a day of partying with everybody else at the Favela.

Roier's breath catches because right there in front of him for the very first time are two cat ears the same color as Cellbit's hair. They're ragged, torn in some places and nicked and with small chunks missing, and they twitch nervously- pressing themselves down towards Cellbit's skull- as Roier doesn't say anything.

Cellbit wrings his hat in his hands and pointedly looks anywhere but at Roier.

"It's just... hard, you know?" he quietly asks. "I'm not in prison anymore, but old habits die hard, I guess."

And, really, Roier should be more concerned about the fact that his fiancé is a literal serial killer. That is, objectively, really fucking concerning. Like, what if he relapses or something and starts murdering the shit out of everybody on the island starting with Roier himself? That's stuff he should be concerned about, right?

But, for whatever reason, all Roier can think of is the fact that, every time he and Cellbit have met up, Cellbit has had his goggles on.

"Hey," Roier softly says.

He reaches out for Cellbit's hands, freezes inches away, lets out a breath and properly takes them. The hat falls to the floor, settling on Roier's feet; the goggles attached to it bump against Roier's leg, ever-present.

Cellbit's breath catches, and his hands instinctively grip Roier's tightly. His ears perk up in surprise- absolutely adorable, what the fuck?

His voice is reverent: "Guapito..."

"Gatinho," Roier warmly replies. He smiles as Cellbit's eyes dart up to meet his; now that Roier knows to look, he notices the way Cellbit's pupils are less round than they should be and more, well... catlike. "Muy lindo..."

Cellbit flushes and tears his eyes away, ears flattening again.

"That's the problem," he says. "I'm not cute. I'm a killer."

"Sí." Roier nods seriously. "But you know what else?"

"What?"

"That's fine. You don't have to be cute. You can just be handsome. And sexy."

Cellbit cracks a small smile at that, face going even more red.

He's beautiful. Roier can't believe that he gets to marry him. His hands are rough, and he's covered in scars, and he has the sweetest smile, and he has cat ears that automatically swivel towards Roier every time he speaks.

With a quiet little 'mrrp'-ing noise, Cellbit lets his head fall forward onto Roier's shoulder. The tips of his ears graze Roier's cheek just momentarily, and they're so soft that Roier's mind goes blank outside of thoughts of Gatinho Gatinho Gatinho Gatinho.

Roier is brought back to reality by a weird little rumbling sound that he realizes is purring.

"Eu te amo," Cellbit murmurs, voice distorted by his purring.

He's just so easy with the verbal stuff, Roier doesn't know how he does it. Just thinking about telling Cellbit he loves him is enough to make Roier's heart stop and his blood boil and freeze and his face flush and his stomach fall out of his ass and his lungs explode. It shuts his brain down, but Cellbit? He's so good at it! (And he says he doesn't know how romance works, tsk tsk.)

Roier, unable to verbalize the billions and trillions of words flying around in his heart, just presses a hesitant kiss into the crown of Cellbit's head and hopes that it gets his affections across. It should, because Cellbit already knows Roier better than Roier might know himself, but-

A bashful kiss against the side of Roier's neck.

Roier swoons, just barely catching himself from melting into a gooey little puddle on the floor. He's gotta look goofy, he can feel how wide and ridiculous his smile is, but who the hell cares?

"Do you have a tail, too?" he hears himself asking, mind a million miles away. He can just picture himself and Cellbit kissing at the altar- their first ever real kiss ever- and just the thought of it makes his knees weak.

"Mhmm," Cellbit responds. He yawns against Roier's throat. "But you'll have to wait until our honeymoon for that."

Oh, God, the implications of that... Cellbit isn't into sex, and that's cool, but they'll be sharing a bed. A bed!!

The thought of finally getting to sleep with Cellbit (in the proper way, of course) makes Roier giddy enough to giggle into thin air.

"It's a date!" he happily says.

(A week later when they're finally in bed together for the first time, Roier spends a solid fifteen minutes properly admiring his husband(!!!)'s hybrid features for the first time, much to Cellbit's embarrassment.

"You're ridiculous," Cellbit whines, face hidden in his hands as Roier gently scratches him between the ears. He might sound annoyed, but he's purring, and his tail has already wrapped around both of Roier's legs, and he keeps dragging Roier's hand back every time he tries pulling away, so there.

"Maybe," Roier admits. He moves two of Cellbit's fingers away to kiss his forehead. "But you love me, anyway."

Cellbit doesn't argue, because he does.)

[commiepinkofag]

Take action now

These are ideas for what you can do in the short-term or with some preparation. Start with:

Ask you government to call on the European Commission to withdraw the chat control proposal. Point them to a joint letter that was recently sent by children’s rights and digital rights groups from across Europe. Click here to find the letter and more information.

Check your government’s position (see above) and, if they voted in favour or abstained, ask them to explain why. Tell them that as a citizen you want them to reject the proposal, that chat control is widely criticised by experts and that none of the proposals tabled in the Council of the EU so far are acceptable. Ask them to protect the privacy of your communication and your IT security.

Share this call to action online.

When reaching out to your government, the ministries of the interior (in the lead) of justice and of digitisation/telecommunications/economy are your best bet. You can additionally contact the permanent representation of your country with the EU.

It can also be useful to reach out to Members of your national Parliament who can determine your country’s vote. Talk to your political representatives. Whether it is the newly elected MEPs of the European Parliament or local groups of the political parties: make sure everyone is aware of what chat control is about and that you expect politicians to defend your fundamental rights against the proposal!

When contacting politicians, writing a real letter, calling in or attending a local party event or visiting a local office to have a conversation will have a stronger impact than writing an e-mail. You can find contact details on their websites. Just remember that while you should be determined in your position, remain polite, as they will otherwise disregard what you have to say. Here is useful argumentation on chat control. And here is argumentation for why the minor modifications so far envisioned by EU governments fail to address the dangers of chat control: by us, by EDRi, by CDT.

As we continue the fight against against chat control, we need to expand the resistance:

Explain to your friends why this is an important topic. This short video, translated to all European languages, is a good start – feel free to use and share it. Also available on PeerTube (EN) and YouTube (DE).

Taking action works better and is more motivating when you work together. So try to find allies and form alliances. Whether it is in a local hackspace or in a sports club: your local action group against chat control can start anywhere. Then you can get creative and decide which type of action suits you best.

Take action now. We are the resistance against chat control!

[script-a-world]

Submitted via Google Form:

What would happen to the richest countries in the world these days because they export oil when my story takes place in 2400 and and the oil is all gone and these countries are where my story actually takes place. Where all the money is now is pretty much the countries that produce cutting edge technology.

Licorice: 2400 CE is 376 years in the future. 

Which countries were the richest 376 years ago?  That would take us back to 1648. The richest country in the world was China, with India not far behind. The Ottoman Empire was another superpower, and most of today’s Middle Eastern oil states were its posessions. The USA didn’t even exist. The British had barely begun building their empire; the Netherlands and France were both far richer and more powerful than GB, but the European powerhouse was Spain with its Latin American colonial empire pumping out seemingly inexhaustible supplies of silver and gold bullion, inspiring a golden age of piracy in the Caribbean. 

China, India, France: their wealth was based mostly on strong diverse domestic economies. 

Britain, Portugal and the Netherlands: they were too small and poor to build a China-type self-sufficient diverse economy. They grew rich on trade.

Ottoman Empire: a multicultural melting pot covering roughly the same geographic area as the Eastern Roman Empire, the Ottomans had it all. But they fell behind in the 19th century, and the empire was torn apart by the waves of nationalism that swept across the globe after the French Revolution. The Ottoman Empire no longer exists.

Spain grew rich in the same way the oil economies grew rich, by mining a single commodity and using it to pay for everything

A country like the USA is going to be as fine as anywhere can be after the oil is gone. Like China, India and the EU they will diversify into renewable resources and keep right on truckin’ because their economies are sufficiently wealthy and diverse, their population sufficiently  educated, and their governments sufficiently forward thinking to do this. 

Back in the 18th century, the measly little island of Britain took the wealth it earned from trade to invest in R&D, invented the industrial revolution, and used its tech advantage to conquer an empire the likes of which had never hitherto been seen. 

Spain, on the other hand, didn’t invest in itself. The gold and silver from the Spanish Main trickled through its fingers the way easy money always does with lottery winners. Much of the bullion ended up in China via British, Dutch, and Portuguese ships. Spain’s empire disintegrated in the 19th century.

In short, if you’re a country with a booming economy dependent on a single non-renewable commodity, and you are smart, you will use that wealth to build your competitive advantage in diverse areas of human economic activity. You will educate your population to be creative and entrepreneurial. This is more likely to happen if your government is some flavour of democracy.

If you’re not smart or if your government is controlled by a small clique of aristocrats or a dictator and his court with no accountability to the future, your elite will simply take most of the wealth for themselves, stick it into Swiss bank accounts, and leave the country impoverished and under-developed when they flee the inevitable coup. 

Since the history of the years 2024-2400 hasn’t yet been written, it’s up to you to decide what the countries in your story are going to do. All of them are well aware that the oil bonanza will not last forever. You might find this useful: “How the Gulf Region is Planning for Life After Oil”. 

So, which of your countries will be smart and which will be foolish? Which ones will have the foresight to build a viable post-oil future for themselves, and which ones will slide backwards into poverty, ignorance, and oppression? You decide. 

[neechees]

This isn't supposed to be a gotcha, I'm genuinely asking because my dad keeps using this as an argument when I try to explain land back stuff to him. And I'm hoping you can help give tips on how to explain it to him.

We're European, and as you probably know there's people here who are anti-immigrant / anti-refugee bc they're racist and want it to be only Europeans. My dad thankfully isn't *that* bad, but his argument is "well if indigenous ppl deserve their land back, even despite all the non-natives who moved there bc they had to, then don't the anti-immigrant EU ppl have the right to kick out the immigrants even if they fled to here as refugees?"

It's so gross and i don't blame you if you don't want to engage with it/answer this anon. I just am like trying to figure out how to answer him and of all the progressive issues I explain to my dad this is the one I'm least familiar with. So how do I explain to him why it doesn't really apply to indigenous Europeans?

I can't tell what you mean when you say "Indigenous Europeans", because Indigenous is a racialized and political category of people that have been affected and racialized by colonialism in a specific way, "Indigenous" doesn't just mean "x group of people who originally come from x area". Because you haven't specific a specific Indigenous Nation (for example, Saami), I'm going to assume you just mean that you are White Europeans who are not Indigenous. You'll have to explain that to him as well. This is also important, because I know many racist Europeans will co-opt Indigeneity in order to promote White Supremacist ideas like creating an ethnostate, and what your dad has suggested, is the definition of that. Secondly, tell him (even if you ARE Indigenous,) Indigenous people, as the same with anyone else, being xenophobic and racist towards immigrants is still bad and unacceptable, we don't get a free pass to be bigoted towards different groups of people and use "landback" as an excuse. Landback goes hand in hand with decolonizing, and you can't do that while perpetrating settler-colonial ideology and bigotry.

I don't know how many times we have to say this, but Landback does not inherently have to do with deporting anybody who isn't "Indigenous", and does not have anything to do with trying to create an ethnostate, the core goals of Landback is neither of those things. You have to emphasize this to him.

Landback has to do with sovereignty for Indigenous Peoples because as it is, we're being oppressed by the White governments that are occupying us. We are stripped of multiple rights while in our own homes. What your dad has suggested about White Europeans having the "right" to deport immigrants is already a reality, White Europeans already have privilege and power over immigrants, and many immigrants already ARE being deported and mistreated by those governments. There are race riots targeting immigrants happening in the U.K for goodness sake!

Landback is centered ideas of decolonizing and dismantling White Supremacy: Your dad's presented idea of mass deportation of any person who isn't ehtnically/racially European or is an (immigrant to there) from the country you reside in is based on White Supremacy. The category "immigrant" itself is very racialized, because when White North Americans or Europeans talk about deporting "immigrants" from the country, typically they're talking about Brown and Black people & people who aren't Christian, and I've never heard a White Canadian complain about a White French immigrant and suggest we deport them, or hear a White American complain about deporting the Irish.

As an example, trying to kick everyone else out of Turtle Island (or anywhere) for one thing would be WAAAAY too much of a hassle to even attempt, too expensive, and useless. Plus, if there was a mass exodus (for lack of a better word) of people via planes, vehicles, and ships all at once or even over time, that would have a big negative impact on the environment, which kind of goes against why people want Landback in the first place (to take care of the land and environment, we care about it). It's counterproductive to several of the goals of Landback.

So to recap, deporting any people who are not "Indigenous" or originally from one area is not the goal, your dad has made a false equivalency because 1

that's not what we want in the first place, Landback has nothing inherently to do with deporting anyone who isn't originally from a specific area or creating an ethnostate, and

trying to do it would be useless and going AGAINST the goals and principles of Landback and what is wanted

part of Landback is undoing racism and White Supremacy, and what he's suggested is promoting those things (White Supremacy and racism)

[useless-catalanfacts]

A new rule to increment discrimination

Context:

Public healthcare is one of the places where the most Catalanophobic interactions are reported. In 4 years, more than 100 Catalan speakers have reported that they have been denied healthcare or otherwise discriminated against for speaking Catalan, or were unable to access any healthcare in Catalan in a Catalan-speaking territory.

From disabled people who only speak Catalan being refused any medical attention unless they speak Spanish (which they don't know how to speak), to a man calling the ambulance but the healthcare worker who answers the phone spends the time scolding the caller for not speaking Spanish instead of calling for the urgently-needed ambulance, to many, many, many, many, many, many doctors telling patients "either you speak in Spanish or you leave", and many others given choices that link their language to shame: "would you rather speak Catalan or your son get cured?", "do you want to speak Catalan or do you want a vaccine appointment?", or being told "[derrogatory/infantilizing word for "woman"], you're making me waste time" for seeking medical attention as a Catalan-speaker.

Lack of access to healthcare is a systemic problem for Catalan people, who are often forced to use Spanish if we want medical treatment in our own country.

People should have the right to access public services (that they pay for with their own tax money) in the language of the country. Can you imagine an English speaker in England not being able to see any doctor or nurse who can attend them in English? Or in French in France, or German in Germany? It doesn't happen because speakers of the dominant language have the State on their side, but Catalan speakers have the Spanish (and French, in the case of Northern Catalonia) Government actively working against us.

And, more than anywhere else, in a moment of great vulnerability like the medical setting, it's very important that patients can speak their own language and not have to worry about translating concepts, they need to have the confidence to speak clearly on what happens to them and be focused on the issue, not on word choice or accent of this second language. Even less be worried about possibly facing discrimination for it.

The new rule:

The new Government of the Valencian Country (a coalition of the right-wing party PP and the fascist party Vox, both Spanish supremacist parties who make the hatred against Catalan/Valencian one of their main campaign points) has announced yet another way to increment that discrimination.

Until now, to decide who to hire for public jobs, there was a system of points, where each kind of certificate and qualification gave you some points. Speaking the local language (Valencian/Catalan) was already not a requisite —legally creating the situation where doctors and nurses can not know any of the language spoken in the place where they work. But, until now, speaking the local language at least gave some extra points.

Now, this new Spanish supremacist regional government has decided that knowing Valencian in the Valencian Country to work in a job with public interaction is worth less than speaking any language of an independent EU state. This means that you get more points for speaking, for example, Latvian, Swedish, Maltese, Slovak or Lithuanian, than for speaking the language of the place where you will be working and where you will be talking to people.

My full respect for speakers of all these languages, but (as an example) a hypothetical Estonian speaker who you might never even encounter in a Valencian town should not be worth more than the very real Valencian speakers that you will surely encounter working in the Valencian Country.

This rule is another step to legally protect systemic discrimination and to make it continue in the future.

Note: Valencian and Catalan are two names for the same language. They're being used interchangeably.

[theaceofwords]

Like. We do very much all understand that Russia is trying to interfere in all western elections, right? Russia, China, and Iran have ideological and territorial goals which they cannot realise in the existing global status quo.

Russia wants Ukraine (and really I think they want as much of Europe as they can get). They want to own it, stomp out everybody who fights back, and force them all to speak Russian. But they know also that the EU (and, I guess, NATO, the e bugs of the situation) will supply Ukraine with weapons as long as they keep fighting (which I also think is monstrous, frankly, but that's another thread).

China's government wants Taiwan. The US has been one of Taiwan's most vehement allies (which. you know. not always a good thing), but until recently it was taken as a simple fact that any move China made towards Taiwan would get stomped into the channel by the nearest US aircraft carrier.

Iran's leadership wants more regional control--they sponsor a variety of, let's say passionate nongovernmental activists, throughout the surrounding nations, and their current government is pretty strongly opposed to "modern" (Western) values like freedom of speech, human rights, etc. They're also pretty boxed-in by nations which are propped up by oil money, mostly US oil money.

These nations are coordinating. We know this for a fact; in the most obvious example, Russia is using Iranian drones and Chinese manufacturing to supply its ongoing violence against Ukraine. They all understand that their foreign policy objectives are perfectly compatible, and in fact more than compatible, are mutually reinforcing--because the cases of Ukraine and Taiwan are analogous, these industrial/agricultural centers which are not ostensibly part of regional alliances but which have been trying to join the modern world for decades.

But here's the thing. Now we have these hard-right political movements brewing throughout Europe and the Americas. Not by accident--hard-right groups are coordinating and sharing notes in south, central, and north America, as well as in the EU. And these hard-right political parties are not at all interested in the status quo of Western force projection--they take an isolationist, authoritarian view of foreign policy where the great powers do what they like and the small countries deal with it and are absorbed.

Russia, China, Iran, and the smaller, shittier nations that work with them (the governments of which are shut out of the modern world largely for being such shitbag authoritarian despots that even the US can't swallow working with them)--these nations all recognize that their best chance to achieve their goals is to help the hard right win in Europe. In America. Everywhere. Anywhere they can get someone into party who, like Trump, will refuse to honor treaties with Ukraine and Taiwan--who will go on record saying that he doesn't give a shit about Europe, that the US should pull out of NATO.

This is the state of the world. Do you understand that this is the state of the world? This is why Russia/China are pushing such massive disinformation on the internet, why there is so much pro-PRC and pro-Russian brigading on reddit and Twitter and Tumblr. It's not because they're nebulously evil Red Threats that we think are malevolent for no reason. They have extremely specific policy goals which they cannot achieve without a shift in the current world order. This means they have a strong interest in changing the world order as quickly and radically as possible.

These relationships are not the matter of speculation. These are not my personal conspiracy theories, they are facts. The A to B in this situation is extraordinarily clear.

The internet is not a neutral ground. There are hostile actors here who have decided that the internet is one of the best means by which to realise goals which are antithetical to free, open, and civilized society. You cannot take information here at face value. You must do your own research, confirm facts across multiple sources with different interests, draw and hold your own convictions and change your opinions when the evidence dictates it.

And above all else, do not be taken in by the idea that the world is awful and nothing can be done to save it. That nihilism is being pushed upon you. If you believe the world can do nothing, there is no point in defending Ukraine. If you believe the world is beyond saving, there's no reason to recognize Taiwan. If you believe both sides are awful, there is no point to pressing for Palestinian statehood.

Apathy does not serve a brighter tomorrow--because the world never remains good. It is made good every day by the effort of billions. The world we live in is the result of centuries of people giving their lives to push the needle further to peace. To international cooperation and understanding.

Get your head in the game. It's the only game going around here. You're playing whether you like it or not, so you might as well know who you're playing against.

[fairuzfan]

The problem with the Schengen discussion is that everyone (Europeans) are taught the benefits and only the benefits of it and don't really realise the downsides of it until something like a genocide witness gets blocked and barred in a single airport with no way to go anywhere. And even then the extent of such a ban isn't realised. What isn't realised is that the great freedom of movement they have also has the ability to become the greatest blockade for those who can't apply themselves to the privilege of being a European citizen BECAUSE the European countries have decided that they have shared autonomy on the topic and no more national sovereignty.

Something Americans understand very well if you view the EU (and the Schengen, which isn't the EU but covers it and more) as the federal government and the member states (countries) as the states of America. States/countries need to give up their authority/sovereignty. So that argument someone made is invalid as well.

It is in the same way that 'Brits being baffled' at how many 'privileges' they lost was because the same Brits voted for more autonomy on the entry of refugees. Supporting my earlier point that people are simply not understanding the two sides of a coin that their rights and privileges come with.

Not an EU-hater and I am happy for the Schengen Agreement (treaty) to exist, but it does stand for some criticism.

I hope Ghassan Abu Sitta manages to leave the airport and the country and isn't forced to be stuck like Mehran Karimi Nasseri for eleven years (at the same airport even!!! For shame!)

Yeah, I was thinking that this sounds like a federal system vs a state system in which the state can decide the federal system laws. Like in the case of for example, Alabama, just because Alabama made abortion illegal does not mean it imposes their laws onto other states.

But in this case, the country does not give up authority to the larger Schengen agreement, which is why that's so odd to me. Maybe this is because I grew up in the US but the idea that one country can enforce onto other countries different rules by enacting a rule within that country, seems so odd to me. Maybe that's an oversimplification, relating it to US states? I don't especially care either way, its not an area of interest beyond the enforcement of colonialism that has occurred within the last few decades (remember, the Mediterranean is a mass grave because so many European countries refused to accept refugees), but it's a viewpoint of someone from outside Schengen looking in, considering the political histories of these individual countries and how none of them, including Germany, really reckoned with their hateful pasts.

[juana-the-iguana]

Navigating media during war

Here are some tips to navigate the conflict without a paid subscription. Disclaimer, I am based in the United States and this advice is for people in the US. These tips may apply for all wars, but I wrote this with the Israel-Hamas conflict in mind.

My qualifications: I am a reporter who has worked on both local, state, national and international stories. I have covered breaking news, and have done enterprising news and investigative journalism. I will graduate with a MA in Journalism in a month. 

Reasons to question my authority: I have less than five year of professional experience. I have never reported on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or anywhere else in the Middle East. I speak neither modern Hebrew nor Arabic. 

Moving on:

The best tip I can give you is pick a few good news sources and wait two days after any given event or incident before claiming to understand what happened.

In the United States, our news industry is incentivized toward breaking news, which means that organizations sometimes air information without having time to thoroughly fact check it. This becomes especially evident in times of war, when it is hard to obtain information and even on-the-ground reporters don't have the full picture of what's happening.

You are not going to find a perfect news organization. They're all going to fuck up in some capacity. If you have a strong stance on this issue, you're going to be more sensitive to those mistakes and real or perceived biases. (And, for the record, it is possible for one organization to hold multiple biases depending on the time of day, presenter and facet of the war being discussed.) That's why it is genuinely important to consume multiple news sources.

So if you're wondering why I chose these sources it's because a) they're free, b) they issue corrections when they're wrong and c) they do not engage in disinformation.

In no particular order: BBC, Reuters, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, AP. You should not rely on only one of these. You should fact-check these against bias sources that don't outright lie. 

Now onto the sources you should avoid. Let's get into disinformation: What is it? 

Disinformation is the intentional spreading of false information. It's lying. Misinformation is inaccurate information that is spread around, but not done with malice.

All news organizations have misinformation at some point. You should NEVER trust a news organization that engages in disinformation, about anything, unless several years have passed, the people responsible for the disinformation have been thoroughly purged from the group and they cite every goddamn thing they said.

The two big organizations I recommend avoiding because they engage in disinformation are Fox News and Al Jazeera.

Fox News lied about the 2020 election in the United States and actively contributed to an attempted insurrection. Al Jazeera is an arm of the Qatari state and has lied repeatedly about, well, just about everything of interest to the Qatari government, but especially Israel. They have made several highly consequential lies in this ongoing conflict that have had tangible, catastrophic consequences on the entire globe. 

Advocacy groups are not news outlets.

Also, don't trust terrorist organizations. Yes, the UN, WHO, Amnesty International and pretty much every NGO under the sun and the vast majority of news organizations cite them, but that's not because they're reliable, it's because they're the only group releasing information from Gaza.

You shouldn't take the IDF at face value either, but if what the IDF is saying is verified by the US, EU and/or other reliable, third parties, then that information is probably true. 

No news source is perfect. That's just a fact. I cannot stress the importance of looking at multiple sources.

Here are some things to look out for when watching/reading the news.

- If a news source is attributing facts to two different sources, ask yourself, "why?" Information is hard to come by. Sometimes one source doesn't report everything you want to know. But sometimes you know your source is unreliable, you don't have any alternatives, so you want to distance yourself from that. What does this look like? 

You might see people cite two sources to report death counts in Gaza: the Palestinian Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, and Save the Children which analyzes information about the number of children killed. Save the Children gets the estimated number of deaths from Hamas. 

- Does it make sense to have this information at this time? If there was an explosion and a government states that 500 people died in it, well, how much time did it take them to count those bodies? Does that sound feasible?

- When you're listening to eye-witness interviews, do their perspectives or narratives match up with the physical scenes you are seeing? They might not be lying, it could be a miscommunication, but for the context it is presented in, it might not be accurate.

Language to look out for:

Occupation, blockade, siege, war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, ethnic cleansing, legitimate military targets and apartheid are all distinct things. All of them, with the exception of apartheid, have specific legal definitions. If people are using these things interchangeably, maybe they're sharing opinions. That doesn't mean that what they're saying isn't valuable, but it does mean that you probably shouldn't cite them when debating international law.

Now let's elaborate on "occupation" for a second. Egypt occupied Gaza from 1949 to 1967. Then Israel occupied Gaza until 2005. In 2007 Israel started the blockade on Gaza and last month, after the 10/7 massacre, they started a siege. As noted above, these are distinct things.

If people are talking about occupation or settlements in the context of this conflict it means either one of four things:

- They are talking about the West Bank, which is under occupation and where settlements do exist

- They are talking about the history of Gaza pre 2005

- They do not know that Gaza isn't under occupation and that there are no longer settlements there (which means that they are not an informed source)

- Or they assume the entire Israeli state is occupying Palestine which, whether you like it or not, is not factually or correct

Just because something feels wrong doesn't mean it is illegal. Occupations, blockades, sieges, the use of white phosphorous and bombing areas where you know there are civilians are all legal in certain contexts. 

Legality might not matter to you personally, but when you're watching the news and trying to assess who is sharing facts and who is sharing opinions, you should keep this in mind.

Other notes:

- Rockets need fuel. Ventilation systems in tunnels need fuel. 

- Movies and tv shows are filmed in Gaza and the West Bank. If you see a photo of someone in a body bag texting or women laughing while painting a baby doll red, it might be a behind-the-scenes video from one of those things.

- There are a lot of AI generated pictures being used, especially in propaganda. Count fingers, arms, legs and look at backgrounds to see if what you are seeing makes sense. But for the love of god, if you don't like something, that doesn't mean it's AI.

- There are a lot of photos circulating from past wars. Be careful before you reblog. Reverse Google image search is your friend. 

- If you are not sure if something is real or not, wait a week. If the US, EU and dozens of journalists say it is true, believe it.

Finally, social media. When is it appropriate to use social media for news?

News aggregates are usually okay. I'm talking places like r/worldnews. They are pulling from other news organizations, so they can repeat those flaws, but they give you a mix of headlines from multiple sources. And they'll very often post large parts, if not the entirety, of articles from sources from the New York Times, Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal that have paywalls in the comments. But also beware the comments because they can be disgusting.

Social media is also very good for sharing the individual human experience. The issue with that is that you can't always vet the person on camera or being spoken about, so they could be lying, spreading misinformation and it isn't the whole picture. 

This needs to be said again and again: social media dehumanizes people. You know this, but you will fall victim to it anyway. Your algorithm will do its best to show you the best versions of the people and groups you like, and the worst versions of the people and groups you don't like to make you feel justified in adopting dehumanizing beliefs. 

For anyone interested, I'm going to update the list of news sources I think are trustworthy in the next few days. I've found a few small, independent and/or foreign outlets that use open source intelligence (OSINT) in their reporting and they seem pretty reliable to me, but I want to vet them a bit further.

EDITED: Removed the name of a news organization that I previously said I thought was reliable. They did not issue a correction after uncritically repeating Hamas's lie that the al-Ahli hospital parking lot bombing was an Israeli airstrike that killed 500 people, and spent days repeating these false claims as if they were fact.

[itneverendshere]

twitter is a hellscape right now and i’m tired of these americans thinking that that this won’t affect us day-to-day as well. the us economy is the backbone of the modern world. your right-wing politicians embolden ours and speaking as a brit, nigel-wankstain-farage was at a trump rally (this man has five seats in our parliament, in perspective, labour have 411 and trump fans are cheering him? my guy, he lost) you don’t think this won’t affect the outside world? last i checked there weren’t any wars on your continent, but there are on ours and your stupid actions directly affect the shit putin will do. (i get it wasn’t everyone, but it was still 71 million of them).

trump plans to put a 20% import tax on all us exports, and because of what went down with brexit the us is the uk’s biggest trade partner because england decided they didn’t want to be in the eu anymore. freedom for them, but not for scotland and wales. (please let scotland back in eu, we don’t like them either!)

to think as kids we wanted live in america. one of these days, i’m gonna apply for my irish passport and either move to portugal, the netherlands or just sling my hook into the atmosphere.

like the us sends money to my country so bible thumpers can yell at women having abortions, and trans kids wanting to live in peace, at the very least the “scottish family party” are a piss-take.

and don’t even get me started on gen z men. i truly hope the “loneliness epidemic” kills them, their spirit and i hope their last dying breath is them wondering why women wouldn’t come anywhere near them because they wanted “lower gas prices” over a girlfriend and using basic empathy. it is insane that they are trump’s newest voter pull and the last nail in the “gen z are gonna change the world” attitude, gen z might but men, will be in fact, men.

sorry this is so long!

i'm with you 100,000%! it's fucking wild how some people in the U.S. STILL don’t see, or just don’t care, how deeply their political landscape impacts the rest of the world.

america’s economy, culture, and politics are still so influential that the ripple effects are impossible to avoid ANYWHERE. the way right-wing populism bounces back and forth across the atlantic is terrifying.

people like farage latch onto figures like trump, and it just stokes the fire of their own political issues (we have them in portugal too).

brexit’s def amplifyed the uk reliance on the us, economically. now, if trump or someone like him pushes a 20% import tax? that’s not just a hit to the U.S. economy, it’s a huge blow to the UK too, and that’s on top of everything you're already managing post-brexit.

for the gen z "men" leaning into this far-right rhetoric, i honestly hope they never procreate. just die. there’s this generation with so much potential for change, but instead, more than half of them are pulled into this warped mindset that values “freedom” as an excuse for a lack of empathy, all in the name of economics or whatever else (stupid fucking finance incels).

like you said, how the fuck is another human being or basic kindness/human right less important than some superficial metric that ultimately benefits no one?????????? those fucking podcasts have also contributed to this mentality and i see it everywhere, it makes me sick to my stomach. the violence towards women has grown EVEYWHERE (not that it ever stopped, but now we see it even in younger kids, like aged 7-12 INSANE).

[jackalxhearts]

I was reading some odd reviews on some docs I ordered, so here are some things to know about buying boots:

- real leather takes time to break in and stretch. your shoes will feel tight and uncomfortable until you wear them for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks

- Real leather should be conditioned once in a while to care for it. Just like skin, leather is a hide that can become dry and cracked. It needs cleaning and moisture! There are thousands of guides online you can check out. And if you know anyone in the leather community, I'm sure they would be happy to share some resources if you ask!

- If they still suck after being broken in, then look into moleskin padding or shoe inserts. Some boots are just comfier with inserts anyways

- Get familiar with return policies if you're nervous about the boots being right for you! Ask friend who own boots for help, ask friends in the leather community for help.

- Platforms are heavy. If you don't like feeling like you have heavy feet, do not buy platforms. If you're unsure and can't try any on anywhere before ordering online, err on the side of caution

- Lots of boots come in unisex, EU sizing, or something else. I'm a US size 7.5 in women's shoes, and a size 5 in US unisex and men's sizing. Go to a store and try on the shoes.

- Online: You cannot just order the size you buy in a store without double and triple checking the size chart first

- Measure your feet! Either in a shoe store with help if possible, or using online guides. I most reliably have gotten the right size by tracing my bare foot with a pen on top of a piece of paper, then measuring the outline.

- Check how the shoes are usually worn and styled. How are they laced? How tight? Are they worn with socks? What kind of socks? The way you lace boots and what socks you wear with them can significantly contribute to comfort.

- Lace code isn't much of a thing anymore, but that being said, google it and probably avoid the ones that make you look like scum. Use context. One of the bright rainbow Pride Docs came with white laces. That's fine, no one is mistaking you for a nazi in that situation.

[cringecompanionapologist]

Turlough Tales 2: Planet of Fire

I've marked this as a sequel to make it clear that there's an original out there for people to seek out if they need context for these.

I realize that this whole thing is a bit weird. Before the internet, fanzines were where fanfic was published, so these stories from a fanzine really should be on the same level as something posted on Ao3, but it feels different. Magazines are published. Stories have to be approved by an editor, and people pay for the magazine. (in theory, anyway. I'm getting these from archive.org). It makes fanzine fanfics feel more "official" than online ones. They went through a "quality control" process my fics don't have to. So, it's tempting to treat these fanzine stories as more like Short Trips, which were published by either the BBC or Big Finish. But, they're not, so I'm analyzing fanworks as if they can be compared to official EU material, because my zillennial brain can't comprehend pre-internet fanfiction. To people who were active in fandom, reading fanzines in 1996, I probably look like a bit of a dumbass.

Anyway...

I probably should've included a cut like this in the last one. Also, this is gonna take a while. I have a lot to talk about here.

Before we start on this next story, there's a quote in the same issue of the magazine that I think is vital to understanding why this exists the way it does. Peter Grimwade, inventor of the Trions, had a take on them different from anything I've seen anywhere else.

So, this story I think is more based on the idea of Trions as a Planet of Lawyers.

You see, in sci-fi, because writing a planet as complex and diverse as Earth, unless it's the only planet depicted in the story, is virtually impossible, alien worlds are often given a single culture that, though it can be explored in more detail, can pretty much be summed up in a single word. The trope that is doing this is called the Planet of Hats. The "hat" being a single concept that defines the culture of the planet that the audience gets to see. Star Trek has done this a fuckton of times, which a Planet of Logic, Planet of Honor Codes, Planet of Capitalism, and Planet of Pure Devotion to the State, to (not) name a few. (This was about Vulcans, Klingons, Ferengi, and Cardassians, if you're a Trekkie but couldn't figure that out lol).

In Doctor Who, with a few exceptions, specific alien worlds aren't often explored for more than one story, so the clear Planet of Hats you see in Star Trek isn't always obvious. Gallifrey can get a certain amount of development, and a few other planets are featured more than once (Skaro, Mondas, and Peladon, to name a few), but you usually don't get full cultures from them, since Daleks and Cybermen are too uniform to really have much of a culture to speak of. Daleks are the "kill everyone" people and Cybermen are the "convert everyone" people. Sontarans are Planet of War though, so that kind of works.

Trion is never even directly visited by the Doctor onscreen, so it gets little development. They had a civil war and Turlough's from there. That's all the show really gives us. This meant EU media could basically do whatever the fuck they wanted with it, as could fan works. However, there were a few more details that popped up early on, and thus became adopted by most people.

A Brief History of Doctor Who EU Nonsense:

Most Doctor Who EU media began during the Wilderness Years, when the show was off the air. There are a few exceptions to this. Doctor Who Magazine started doing comics in around 1980, and the magazine had a semi-official status, so you had proper tie-in comics for the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th Doctors while their episodes were still airing.

Before that, there were annuals, yearly books of comics and short stories. The first one of these was published in 1965 and most of them had virtually nothing to do with the show until the 1980s. In the 1980s, JNT became producer and changed how basically everything worked. One of those changes was taking control of the EU, making sure the people working for more popular magazines and working on annuals and ongoing comic strips had access to enough information to know what was going on in the actual show. The children these things were aimed at earlier were assumed to not care, but Doctor Who in the 80s was marketed less to children and more to people who'd already been watching Doctor Who for at least a decade. The show took on a more serious tone and referenced its continuity more to pander to this new target demographic, and making sure the annuals didn't contradict the show was just a nice little side effect of the change.

This also applies to TV Comic, a comic strip that began in 1964 and was running beside and pretty much completely detached from the show throughout the 60s and 70s. It basically ended when DWM took over Doctor Who comic writing duties.

But, I just wasted your time on a bunch of this that don't matter here, because the only pre-1990 EU relevant to this story are the Target novelizations and a short-lived book series called The Companions of Doctor Who.

Planet of Fire got a novelization, like all classic serials eventually did, but it was one of the lucky ones to get a novelization not long after the episodes aired, written by the same person who wrote said episodes, making the serial and its novelization sort of equally canon to each other, coming from the same brain. The serial aired in 1984 and the novelization came out in 1985.

The novelization added a bit to Turlough's backstory, namely that the civil war was a revolution against the Imperial Clans, a group of families that had ruled the planet before. Turlough's family was one of the Imperial Clans. When the regime was overthrown, surviving members of the clans were either executed or exiled. What the Imperial Clans were beyond "the rulers of Trion" is never elaborated upon.

But, in 1986, someone did. This was the first of a series of spin-off novels called The Companions of Doctor Who, which followed companions after they left the TARDIS. In the end, the series had only three entries, the third of which was a novelization of K9 and Company, a failed spin-off about Sarah Jane and K9. So the only real entries are Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma and Harry Sullivan's War. Harry Sullivan's War had the advantage of being written by Ian Marter, who played Harry and therefore understood the character very well.

Tony Attwood, who wrote Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma, had nothing to do with the show and the both is not well-liked by Turlough fans. As far as I can tell, Attwood did talk to Mark Strickson while writing the novel, but not to Peter Grimwade, which he wasn't happy about. Still, the Imperial Clans from the novelization were included in The Earthlink Dilemma, portrayed as a sort of caste of scientists that ruled Trion for millennia, while mostly allowing the commoners to do their own thing. A lot of work is done to make the Imperial Clans seem good and make the leader of the revolution a terrible person who basically led a Reign of Terror (her name is Thatcher spelled backwards!!!).

This means that when Trion is given a Planet of Hats effect, they're more often a Planet of Scientists than a Planet of Lawyers. Turlough is proud of Trion scientific achievements and, when he returns to Trion, welcomed back as a hero and offered political power in the democratic government, he instead decides to be an astrophysicist. He just wanted to be a scientist this whole time. It's actually a pretty interesting take on the character, which is why it tends to stick around.

But, this story in this fanzine (remember that that's what this post was supposed to be about?) really leans into the Planet of Lawyers aspect and offers an alternate ending.

You can tell it's not canon because Vizlov. Not Vislor, nor Vizlor, but Vizlov. Oops.

Anyway, you can see that this version of Turlough was apparently charged with treason for rebelling against the government, instead of being part of the regime that was rebelled against. Said government is referred to as New Trion though, which muddies the waters.

Turlough's exile has a different purpose here. The Trions are basically trying to gain legal control of Earth and Turlough's exile was intended to have him eventually participate in that plan, as well as training in "primitive systems" as a sort of character-building exercise.

It seems that Turlough was blamed for the destruction of Sarn, because the Trions had no idea about the Master or anything else that was going on there. They thought Turlough, after escaping Earth, deliberately destroyed Sarn for Reasons. The exact charges:

He did escape his exile on Earth.

"Consorting with undesirable aliens" is an interesting one. Since Trions are actively involved on Earth, I don't think this would mean humans. This might mean the Doctor? Other EU works reveal that the Time Lords colonized Trion, so there might be a conflict there.

He's also seen as being involved in overthrowing the religious regime on Sarn, which is apparently protected in some way. Sarn is also considered government property that Turlough destroyed because, once again, the Trions don't know what actually happened and have no interest in listening to Turlough.

The Trions also have no way of knowing about Tegan, since she'd already left by Planet of Fire, but this bit is funny.

Turlough had been lured to Trion under false pretenses, expecting not to be immediately arrested again. There's some Lawyer Speak: You won't be persecuted for his previous crimes, but they will persecute him for new ones. Also Lomand has taken credit for Turlough's heroics. The bastard. Also, apparently political criminals don't exist because the motivation of the crimes do not matter...

Though, this story, like The Earthlink Dilemma, doesn't say what happens to Malkon in all this.

He can't prove the existence of the Guardians. Though, when it comes to his departure from Earth, Turlough is actually being dishonest here. He chose to go with the Doctor and was obviously desperate to escape Earth, so he is actually guilty on that one.

Also, Turlough encountered Tractators, which is enough to justify exile, because existing in the same space as Tractators threatens Trion? Because it's an infection? Maybe they're the "undesirable aliens"...

So, instead of going back to Brendon, he's now basically an intern to the lawyer who'd been handling his case, possibly to once again participate in the legal conquest of Earth they've got going.

We end on a sort of Where Are They Now? where we learn how Turlough's doing in 1996 (present day when the zine was published).

"Doctors have been manipulating him all his life" Ouch...

He definitely has reason to feel abandoned by the Doctor here. The Doctor didn't exactly check to confirm that Turlough was actually going home as a hero and not being lured into a trap. Perhaps the Doctor could've explained things to the other Trions somehow, or just straight up helped him escape.

So Turlough becomes a lawyer in an army of lawyers from the Planet of Lawyers trying to take over Earth. That's hilarious but also sad.

I still prefer "Returns to Trion as a hero but turns down the spotlight to become an astrophysicist" though.

[clonewarsarchives]

Hello there!

I just wanted to write in to express my gratitude and ask a couple questions.

Long story short, I gave up on both the EU and Disney Star Wars canons some time ago, instead choosing to vet the works myself and add them to my own list. This has brought me much joy and breathed new life into this franchise for me, because now, anything I don't like, I can just ignore.

My focal point for vetting is involvement from George Lucas, and so naturally The Clone Wars (Seasons 1-6, anyways) got accepted, and is a huge part of my own canon.

But in doing the research for this project, I have discovered so much more Star Wars to take in than I ever had before. Case in point is the webcomics for The Clone Wars, which I had no idea existed before doing the research for all this in the past year or so.

I was looking for these webcomics in an idle way for a little bit, and finally sat down with Google, and what should I find but your blog?

It's a treasure trove of all materials related to The Clone Wars, so I wanted to say thank you! I am especially grateful to get to read these webcomics, since they were tied to Adobe Flash in some way on the official website, and cannot be viewed there any more within the limits of what I'm willing to do, and so I had accepted that that was lost for me. But your blog has made it not so! So thank you very much! And now, my questions:

Do you mind if I save the webcomics from your blog onto my computer?

Do you happen to have, or know where I could read, copies of Bait, Act on Instinct, or The Valsedian Operation? These were the only complete comics that I could not find on your blog.

Could you tell me more about the UK Magazine? This is another thing about which I know nothing and would love to learn.

Are you aware that the last two pages of webcomic #6, The Fall of Falleen, seems to have the last two pages swapped?

Is there a page missing from your post of Hunting the Hunters, Part 1? Parts 2 and 3 have the pages with the game tease lines at the bottom, but then have another page afterwards, whereas Part 1 does not.

Regarding both the Dark Horse monthly series and the graphic novellas, do you know if these have been collected anywhere, if they remain in print, and where I could buy them online that isn't Amazon?

Thank you very much, and clear skies!

Thank you for the message! Glad to be of help. To answer:

Is it okay to save posts from this blog on my computer?

Yes! Please save anything you like on this blog rather. I started this to offload my hard drive and prevent them from being lost media lol

post issues:

Bait should be the S1E11 accompanion? I did post it just forgot to tag 😅

I swear a few years ago Act on Instinct and The Valsedian Operation were availabe just on dubious free read comic online sites... don't seem to be anymore. here you go

Fixed the pages in Q4 & Q5. Thanks for telling me!

UK Magazine

Its proper name is Star Wars: The Clone Wars Comic. UK got a Clone Wars magazine because the publisher, Titan Comics, is a UK-based company, the one that makes Star Wars Insider.

The monthly issue features episode guide, games and an original comic strip. It was later reprinted in the US as a bi-monthly. The blog followed the UK publishing order since that's chronological and collected in full. Some issues were left out in the US reprint.

Dark Horse series

Both the monthly series and novellas started in Sept 2008 but the monthly series only lasted to Jan 2010 while novellas continued every few months until after the Disney buyout.

No omnibus were made or planned. So if you want a print version, you could only look in the library or the second-hand market.

dubious free read comic online sites have the full set fyi

[belgianfry]

If you use Facebook, WhatsApp, or Instagram, you might have noticed a new assistant popping up in your search queries or offering information in your feeds. This assistant, Meta AI (still in Beta testing), can appear at the top of your Messenger chat list as it has been integrated across Meta’s platforms.

What’s worse is that Meta AI needs a substantial amount of training data to function effectively. Most of this data comes from your Facebook and Instagram posts. Even if you don’t post content yourself, Meta can still use photos and captions if others publish them. This data usage applies to all publicly shared posts.

Can I Stop Meta from Using My Data for Its AI?

Yes and no, depends on where you live.

You live in the EU + UK:

Today (June 22nd) we still don't know when Meta will launch its AI in Europe, as it has been delayed after complaints by multiple data regulators. But to be safe - if you wish to continue using Instagram or Facebook - you have to opt out of Meta using your data.

How to do that?

Go on this page for Facebook or this page for Instagram and fill out the form. Under 'tell us how this impacts you', write something like: "I wish to exercise my right under data protection law to object to my personal data being processed."

Then you have to confirm your email. And you also get an email if your request has been approved (this happened instantly for me).

Important note: if you opt-out but your friend hasn't, and they publicly share a picture of you, it will be used by AI.

You live anywhere else

You cannot opt out, sadly. The only way to protect yourself is to make all your posts private or delete your account(s).

[handmadehazefromtheheart]

The Re-Opening Of Handmade Hearts

It’s been an icy hot minute since I wrote a proper update, but I won’t complicate this one. The update series started with the presence of a workspace and the first shop opening; the second post was about the progress and success so far; the third was almost a year later because so much had happened, and I’d moved, and the store was on standby, and I was getting married, usw.

I’ve since not only moved countries, but I’ve also moved my main storefront from Ko-Fi to the Artisans Cooperative. (But you’ll still find patterns on Ko-Fi.) Like I have from the start, I do the math and show my work in the description of each item listing in a breakdown of the price: In bullet list form, I state the material costs, the platform fees, the time I’ve estimate I could most efficiently take to complete one of each item (which will almost always be less time than it actually took), and the wage per hour that I’m paying myself. If you add it all up, it’ll equal the price in the listing — minus a tax based on your area that the marketplace adds automatically.

There are six fixed shipping prices based on size and location, with the least expensive being within Germany and the most expensive being anywhere outside the EU. I’ve got two different sizes of box, but I really should get me some envelopes and offer a cheaper no-tracking alternative for certain (very small, mostly not-yet-existing) items.

Here are the listings so far!

(Photography by @ablondpanda)

I’ve done the math, and I have made just shy of 370€ in earnings in the time I’ve had Handmade Hearts open. I haven’t been able to work since 2019, so that’s 370€ in earnings within the last five years.

Ouch…

Ouch…?

Well, I have chronic depression, but I’ve managed to carve myself into an optimist; I’ve not had the chance to really grow yet as an indie seller, so having earned anything — not operated at a loss (at least within business expenses; general life expenses is another beast) — is a bright shining star to me.

My parter and I are waiting on job applications and government assistence. In the meantime, I’m hoping to gain more eyes and start making at least one sale every month in the middle and/or latter half of 2024.

I’ve yet to sell anything through the new storefront, so I’m trying to get more eyes on it. I’m considering opening a secondary storefront with Products With Love, a Germany-specific handmade marketplace, to get more eyes that won’t have to pay more than seven euros on shipping for any given thing.

Shipping is, unfortunately, not something I can do for free. To take a moment for personal politics: I really think mail should be one of those things governments work together to pay for and make free on the most basic level, like public infrustructure, roads and such. It shouldn’t cost $24 for me to send you a snake shaped neck pillow if you’re in the US.

That said, it does cost me 23€ (which is $24.53 as of writing this) to send you a snake shaped neck pillow right now. I want to emphasize that because it’s so common when shopping online to find something “underpriced” whose shipping is blown way up for profits, and I think sometimes it’s become habitual to assume that’s the case when shipping is over what Amazon would consider normal.

Another thing people do is including the shipping price within the price of the item to artificially remove shipping costs. That’s something I don’t do because A) I like transparency, and B) that would increase the platform fees you have to pay, increasing the overall price for no reason.

Ultimately, I hope that the way I do things helps people be more mindful of why things cost what they do.

To close out...

In preparation for posting this update, I’ve uploaded my tenth listing on the Artisans Cooperative marketplace. For my trans siblings, and for the pedants who have noticed that none of my wares have hearts on them:

[sibyl-of-space]

The San Francisco tech scene is completely beyond satire. I'm in a discord server for game developers based in SF because even though I don't live in the bay area anymore it's still the closest hub for indie developers near me. I went to one of their meetups once, the talk itself was completely useless and I left about 30 mins in, but I did get two people to playtest my demo beforehand so it was still worthwhile. One of those things where you're in a sea of 50 people who annoy you and are able to find maybe one or two people who are cool to talk to.

Anyway, I just received a ping about their next meetup, which is-- I literally could not make up something more on the nose than this if I tried--

brought to you

by

✨ J.P. Morgan ✨

.

Actual quote from the event page:

Are you a developer looking to accept payments and monetize your users effectively? We are excited to announce this unique opportunity to get in on the ground floor and learn about how to monetize your payment flow for your gaming applications at scale. As you may be aware, the Apple App Store and other stores are now allowing outside payment methods within iPhone apps due to "anti-competitive" laws in the EU. As a result, if you are part of Apples small business program, you may be eligible for a discounted percentage fee on IAP instead of the normal 30% fee. We hope you can attend to explore these concepts and learn how you can save money on payment processing fees with J.P. Morgan Payments.

Food is sponsored by J.P. Morgan and drinks are available for purchase at the DNA Lounge bar. All proceeds from drink sales go directly to the venue which helps them keep the lights on, and also helps us continue to host events in their space. DNA Lounge is over 3,000 sqft and is the largest venue we've ever hosted our events at. Speakers will go on stage at 7:00pm. This is an all ages event, is open to the public and is a professional networking event for game developers, artists, students, indies, or really anyone interested in game development. ASL Interpretation services available upon request via email.

Speaker Lineup:

Alan Lee | Developer Relations at J.P. Morgan Payments

Enhance your Payment Experience with J.P Morgan’s Payment Developer Platform

In this session, The J.P Morgan Payments developer relations team will showcase how the Online Payments API allows you to seamlessly accept, process and settle payments from the large suite of supported payment methods. We’ll explore the extended capabilities like tools for fraud prevention, recurring payments and demonstrate how these features can help you improve authorization rates, secure transactions, and gain valuable insights into your payment flow.

so anyway if anybody needs me I will be basically anywhere except at this particular event