#by social media i mean the entities as a whole not the users

[kawee-chan]

@ social media: just say you hate artists and anyone with an ounce of creativity in them and be done with this..

[a-very-tired-jew]

Dropout Discord Keeps on Giving

You'd think with the server shutting down / freezing in a week or so that there would not be anything to report, but you'd be wrong.

In the past few days the current batch of users, specifically that one young Jew who believes all of us are brainwashed, have been posting some out there stuff.

I have the screen shots but at this point it can be summarized as Everyone is Brainwashed but Me still thinks their family is brainwashed and they can't be honest with them about the Truth™ without being labeled a "traitor". But they know the Truth™ that this is a Genocide and the worst thing ever and their family doesn't (remember this is someone in their early 20s). Their family gave them Noa Tishby's book to read and its full of Zionist lies and propaganda. In response another use recommended this link.

Fig. 1. User responding to Everyone is Brainwashed but Me with a video to "argue" back with.

This video features Dr. Lara Sheehi. If you don't know who that is, Dr. Sheehi has a history of antisemitic behavior and targeting of Jews in her classes. Dr. Sheehi has openly supported Hamas and her social media was the infamous Blackflaghag that posted such wonderful things as "FUCK YOU AND FUCK YOUR AID". Profiles on Dr. Sheehi repeat the same thing that much of her time as a professor was spent demonizing Jews and Israel and trying to recruit people to BDS and other causes.

She was a professor at GWU and the university's investigation "cleared" her. However, the Office of Civil Rights opened an investigation into her and suddenly she left GWU in January 2024 and is now a professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies in Qatar. Considering that Qatar has funneled billions of dollars into the USA collegiate system, was host to leaders of Hamas for years, and their state media acts as a mouth piece for Hamas, it's not surprising that she would end up there considering the amount of work she did for the Cause™ in the USA.

I doubt anyone will point out any of this to them, nor would they accept it as anything other than "Hasbara". Later, they tell us that they finished the book and that it's full of apartheid denial and denial that Israel is a colonial state (there's a collage of pictures in between the two comments that I won't include here).

Fig. 2. Everyone is Brainwashed but Me mentions finishing the book.

The apartheid argument is one I have seen come up a multitude of times by activists, and it makes no sense to me. Apartheid, as defined, is the discriminatory authoritarian ruling of the majority by a minority population that results in segregation based on race within a country. As many have previously established, Arab Israelis have the same rights as all other non-Arab Israelis. They are part of the government, military, businesses, and so on. If the argument is to be made that there is apartheid like laws regarding Palestinians...well that makes no sense. The Palestinian territories are their own separate entity with their own separate governments, laws, and structures. Meaning, Palestinians entering Israel from Gaza or the WB are foreign nationals, they will of course be subject to different laws. In fact, every country has a set of laws for foreign nationals that differ in some capacity from the laws that govern their civilians. So we either have the Palestinian territories actually being a part of Israel in the mind of activists, which only area C could be considered this, or they're separate entities entirely. Area C gets into a whole realm of murky politicking that is outside of my realm of expertise, but it's the only place where I can see this argument hold any weight (and yes, the settlement stuff is bullshit and the military laws get into a whole weird realm of things, I'm well aware of this). However, I have yet to encounter any Western Activists acknowledging the complexity of Area C and the international laws and regulations regarding it, let alone the average activist even knowing the difference between the Areas, Israel, and Palestinian territories. Now, I have seen the lack of a right of return for Palestinians be used as an argument that Israel is an apartheid state. And again, I have to ask how? This type of law is not characteristic of apartheid as we know and define it. But again, if we get into this territory then what happens? Do they become Israelis or are they Palestinian citizens? What laws are they subject to? If they're foreign nationals living in Israel due to a right of return then they have different laws that adhere to them, which is not part of an apartheid system. If they become Israeli citizens then they have all the rights given to them as citizens. Neither of these support the claim. Simply put, they insist Israel is an apartheid state and when you mention any form of the above they call you a racist spreading propaganda and then shut down any meaningful discussion (in Dropout's case they kick you from the server for pointing out how wrong they are about things). We have a clear definition of what apartheid means and what practices are involved, but like "genocide" it seems that this definition has gone out the window and is now defined as anything people want it to be. As for the colonial state argument, who is Israel a colony of? And don't say the USA or the UK, that would mean that they send resources back to those countries, are taxed by them, their government is controlled in every capacity by them, and so much more. Considering anti-Zionists like to say the USA's government is controlled by Israel, it's quite contradictory. It appears that so much of the Western Activist's antisemitism anti-Zionism is couched within just believing everything Jews Israelis Zionists say is lies while openly believing a terrorist organization's narrative (an organization that I, once again, need remind everyone is on record saying they would manipulate Westerns into believing their narrative regardless of its veracity).

[pb-dot]

Film Friday: Summer Wars

The Favorite Film Train continues chugging along. Today, I'm going to talk a bit about a movie that never fails to make me emotional. I was going to say "cry" because there's also a bit of that, but it feels like too general of a word since this film takes me on a cathartic journey that most films can't even do on first viewing. What's weird about all of this is that all of this is from a romantic comedy that also features a plot about an evil AI taking over "The Metaverse if it actually worked and was popular and interfaced with everything" I am of course talking about Mamuro Hosoda's Summer Wars.

After narrowly losing out on being the Japanese representative in the international Math Olympics, it looks like Kenji's summer is going to be largely uneventful as he does low-level moderation on the social media/metaverse Leviathan OZ. This all changes when a classmate of his Natsuki hires him for an untraditional summer job.

Natsuki wants Kenji to pretend to be her fiance as she goes home to meet and celebrate the birthday of her aging grandmother, a strong-willed matriarch of an old family rendered penniless by her deceased husband. As it turns out, Natsuki has been telling some slight mistruths about her love life to her family, and now wants to lend some credence to her swarm of white lies with an actual appearance just in case this celebration is her grandmother's last. Surely, no shenanigans of a personal or international nature will come to interfere with this plan.

To make matters worse, in a quiet moment between meeting Natsuki's robust, and more than a little kooky, extended family, Kenji solves what he believes to be a number puzzle that turns out to be encrypted with the OZ security algorithm. This allows a mysterious entity going by the name Love Machine to start a takeover of the whole platform that in good old-fashioned over-featuring tradition, holds everything from bank and card details to access codes to public and private systems for its many, many users. What follows is an honestly pretty impressive balancing act as Kenji has to try to undo his mistake in OZ through whatever limited means he has by outsmarting the increasingly unlimited and unhinged Love Machine, while also dodging whole generations worth of shenanigans when the cat comes out of the bag about Natsukis plan and his possible involvement in the OZ hacking scandal.

Where the film goes from good to great though, is when the two storylines start merging. Kenji seeks help from the young pro gamer Kazuma almost immediately, but as the problem with Love Machine escalates, he finds himself involving larger and larger parts of Natsuki's family to help. Natsuki herself does go through a somewhat more limited arc, but her untangling the relationships and loyalties around her half-uncle Wabisuke and his involvement in this sorry business, as well as standing up to her older and more skeptical relatives in order to buy Kenji some breathing room, and eventually even support, is also pretty impressive although it lacks the heft of the Kenji plot.

Where Natsuki really shines though is in the third act, where the plot, for reasons I will not spoil here, pivots on the most important game of Koi-Koi the world has ever seen, and Natsuki is good at Koi-Koi. The game is such a picture-perfect example of climactic pacing and plays with both hope and despair so effectively that I kind of want to do a shot-by-shot breakdown of the whole thing just to capture the sheer dramatic majesty of the thing. Watch this space for that whenever I feel up to it, I suppose. For now, though, suffice to say that it gets pretty intense.

The hardest part about writing about this movie is honestly how easy it is to forget all the really good quiet moments between the visual fireworks of Oz and the charged emotions and very human shenanigans of the real-world portion. Hell, I arguably forgot about mentioning how the "fake dating" scenario ends, as these things so often do, in an actually cute romance as Natsuki and Kenji grow to trust and depend on each other.

This movie has some fantastic moments of quiet, though, from the beats of rest after moments of high emotion that are almost painterly in their composition, to absolutely heart-rending visual storytelling in pivotal moments of character development, it's just hard to remember them when contrasted with the abovementioned spectacle or an 80-year-old woman swinging a naginata at a family member who has displeased her. Still, I believe these small quiet moments are part of why this movie gets to me. Every time the plot slows down even a little, it isn't just to rest, but to deepen the stakes and make us care for the characters.

There are also some historical parallels going on in this movie, the chief one being comparing the relative unimportance of Natsuki's family now compared to their relative glory days during the Warring States period, although their lot was still relatively humble even at that zenith. What is a bit spicier though are some parallels with WW2 history, although I haven't done quite enough research to be comfortable to say much more about those parallels other than that they're there. Chalk this one up to another one I'll get into if I have time and energy at a later date I suppose.

When all is said and done, writing about Summer Wars feels a lot like dancing about cooking. It's a deeply emotional journey for two characters that embody the best of the broad characterization I often criticize anime storytelling for using, and it pulls the viewer along. It's a beautiful, messy, chaotic movie about the beautiful chaotic mess that is family in both direct traditional form and the expanded "we are all one family" sense of the word. Check it out if you have the chance. Maybe bring some tissues just in case though.

[celira]

rambling from an Internet Old on fandom engagement, or a brief argument for not centering your fandom on public social media platforms:

1. when your engagement is always public, it often loses nuance. people change how they act around different audiences: this is a fact of life. different people bring out different facets of you; you might have different work and home personas; you take different roles in different social circles. when your audience could be, plausibly, Anyone On Tumblr or even Anyone On The Internet, suddenly the question "what is their perception of me?" or "how am i showing up here?" takes center stage - so you may feel the need to Stand Your Ground or boil down your stances to simple takes that leave less room for misinterpretation by some faceless rando.

... which is how you not only get rigid adherence to identities (and policing that in others) but also passive virtue/discourse signalling that can quickly turn into fandom-wide dogpiling as people are desperate to avoid criticism.

2. on social media, you have limited means of control (you're subject to the whims of whatever functionality the platform has), but you also have a greater illusion of power (you can talk to or reach anyone!). so maybe you try to control what happens to you & your content by other means. maybe you're trying to go viral. maybe you're preemptively attacking other users. maybe you try to tell people what they can/can't tag your posts as!

it's very easy to lean into the defensiveness of the fear described in #1 above. it is never possible to be beyond misinterpretation (see also: it is never possible to please everyone!), but if you beat someone else to the punch in the court of internet justice, maybe you'll be safer! /s

this can make for a miserable race to the bottom.

3. on the other hand, self-contained communities foster more mutual support. people can default to taking actions out of fear on a public platform, which is easier to project outward on the faceless masses; call it vigilance, carefulness, paranoia, whatever you want - your performance on the internet changes when it takes "could be seen by anyone" into account.

smaller spaces give folks the chance to, instead, act out of care, which is similarly harder to impart to some abstract, unspecific entity, but easier to do when you know the person. you're more likely go to bat for the sake of your community; you're more likely to trust they'll show up for you.

& being in a more consistent environment gives you the chance to assume good faith in other people. you can get direct positive reinforcement from them! which is amazing, in the cold void of harsh takes & unspecific hate that's easy to take personally in the public internet.

4. smaller communities enable mindful conflict resolution. bluntly, it's easier to sling shit around on a public platform, and yell at faceless people who you can feel superior to, without thinking about the person behind the keyboard. it's harder to shit where you eat. you have a vested interest in working things out with people when you share a community space.

there's a whole spectrum of conflict that's good to navigate! polite disagreement is healthy, & exploring differences of opinion can help people learn! & above all, feeling okay potentially saying the "wrong" thing means feeling safer being vulnerable, and vulnerability is mandatory for deeper, longer-lasting connection.

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT FUCKING THING TO PRACTICE. life would be very grim indeed if your relationships with people didn't have room for awkwardness & growth. if it's "my way or the highway" all the time, with no in between, you're going to be walking a lonely fucking road.

---

(for that matter, on the subject of nuance - here's my ironic disclaimer out of awareness that this is posted publicly: all of these are generalizations. of course there are black-or-white circumstances where something shouldn't be debated or negotiated.

this isn't about that. this, my friends, was prompted by fandom "discourse", or as we called it back in the day, fandom wank.

because that's what it is: masturbatory shit-slinging masquerading under an academic theory term.)

i didn't feel the urge to look into a fandom until over a decade later (thank you TLT brainrot), this summer. by this point, Discord servers had become more common, and are a format that works with my brain: enclosed social spaces that have more individual community structure. so i've jumped back in. they've been amazing! a lot of those folks are on Tumblr, so i'm starting to wade back in here, too.

some self-indulgent backstory:

i fell out of fandom culture in the early 2010s when fandoms did an almost wholesale shift from LiveJournal to Tumblr. at first, at its most basic level, it was because the format felt impersonal to me: at the time, there was much less two-way interaction. it was a slightly longer-form Twitter, where you interacted with folks by flinging things into the void and hoping someone would engage with you. but plenty of people still found the format engaging, so i chalked it up to a me problem and left it at that.

but getting filled in on the volume of TLT Fandom Drama that's managed to drive Tamsyn Muir herself, who came up through similar eras of fandom as i did, off the internet through its toxicity, made me realize that it's not just a close-knitness that got lost in the format shift from self-contained fandom communities (forums, LiveJournal, individual websites) to public, open-feed social media networks - it's a wholesale approach to respectful, healthy engagement.

(& of course there was always fandom wank & shipping wars & goofy bullshit, but it was more the exception than the rule - & it didn't zing all the way up parasocial channels to slam into the author!)

somewhere along the way, becoming a fan started to get treated as a reflection of identity politics. one of the most-repeated phrases among my friends is "thank god I got to be a dipshit on the Internet before everything was dissected & immortalized forever", because we got to learn and grow and play and enjoy ourselves - & that last bit is something some people have seriously lost sight of.

we had spaces in which to be unlovely and awkward! we got to be idiots together! it was definitely not perfect but it was forgiving, and truly, we owe it to one another to have room for soft landings in a very harsh world. fandom is often an escapist release. applying everything from the real world to it all the time is both unnecessary & unreasonable.

[mercuriusgeorge]

reflections on twitter, the sun, saturn in aquarius, and the coming pluto in aquarius years

seeing twitter slip into a kind of solar death spiral, after falling into the hands of a single hyper-egoic figure, is making me reflect on the past couple years of saturn in aquarius, and the impending ingress of pluto into aquarius.

if leo is all about the symbol of the king, the figurehead around which all things organize, then aquarius, the sign opposing leo, is all about decentralization. it's still "concerned" with the individual, but rather than a single, elevated individual, it's the abstracted individual — seeing the value of each unique spirit that comprises the collective.

the past few years with saturn in aquarius have challenged the structure of social media platforms. if they are centralized entities with executive decision-making, then those decision-makers have to grapple directly with paradoxes and take on responsibility for their choices. the best example in the past few years might be vaccine disinformation. do you prioritize the individual right to free speech or the collective responsibility to save lives by restricting misinformation? either way you are upholding an aquarian ideal, but in so doing you are disregarding a different aquarian ideal. there might be ways to thread the needle with compromise, but ultimately you not only can't please everybody, you can't really do "the right thing," because there is no single right thing, it's just a question of setting priorities according to your own executive, solar authority.

the challenges of the pandemic forced these platforms to make tough decisions which in some ways entrenched their institutional power but may ultimately lead to a reduction in their autonomy, whether that comes through regulation, reduced popularity, financial challenges, etc. (we'll see, it will probably be a combination of all these things.) if nothing else i think these years revealed that it's tough to position yourself as a principled tyrant in a hyper-democratic space like the internet. you may be able to hold onto power but you won't be very popular.

pluto enters aquarius next year just after saturn leaves for pisces. surely pluto's 20 years in aquarius will bring radical new developments in this paradoxical space, the tension between centralized authority and decentralized, democratized social organizing. lest we forget, this is the transit that brought us the US constitution (i don't mean to deify that document, but it is nonetheless a huge and noteworthy development in our history).

the chaos at twitter is fueling an interest in decentralized social media platforms such as mastodon. and i'm finally coming around to seeing that twitter was always a strangely solar platform. as much as each user's timeline was individually crafted by elusive machines, and there have always been various subcultures and communities gathering on that platform, at the end of the day, the whole appeal of twitter was that we were all in one space talking about the main event of our respective sphere. there's even a whole joke about how the goal of twitter is to avoid becoming the main character of the day. hell, the chart of the very first tweet has the sun exalted in aries in the 10th house.

whether or not twitter dies, or we all get comfortable on some other platform, perhaps it's that solar impulse that we need to think more critically about. do we all need to be watching the same channel? why do our eyes drift so compulsively back toward a single point of visual interest? there may be a loss if we congregate in the "silos" of decentralized servers, but surely we've already lost something of ourselves by surrendering to the gravitational pull of The Timeline these past however-many years.

just an initial foray into this somewhat obvious line of thinking.

[sinkat-arts]

Semi-professional data-science-y thoughts from a UX designer re: 10% kudos to hits ratio ahead.

tl;dr: As everyone has already said, it's Not Great. Just read the tags and summary to decide if you want to read something.

tl;dr2: ... and I took that personally.

Alright, no one asked for this, but the post of someone saying they only read fics that have 1 kudos per 10 hits is floating around twitter. Since it's part of my job to pay close attention to analytics to evaluate the success of my designs and user flows, I figured I'd just... info dump. It's aggravating that at least one person is out here using a terrible metric based on a misleading piece of data to ignore whole swaths of amazing stories.

"Hits" is raw data, and that's pretty useless! In the case of AO3, it shows any entity accessing the fic, once per 24 hour period (so if you hit a fic 4 times in one day, it'll only count the first time as a "hit". It will restart your count the next day.). It does not weed out junk/irrelevant data. This includes: - People who keep the tab open for weeks at a time so it refreshes when the tab is focused. - People who visit often to reread. - People coming back every time a new chapter is released. - Authors visiting often to reread / edit. - People who were never going to read because they weren't the target audience based on the tags / summary. - Web crawlers. Bots. Etc, etc, and on and on. What you want are good faith hits from your target audience.

You can only leave kudos ONCE, regardless of how many times you visit.

Which means that a better measurement to get accurate conversation would take into consideration only UNIQUE visitors who spent a significant amount of time on the page, indicating that they read at least enough of the fic to indicate that they are actually part of the target demo. THAT'S the number you compare to the number of kudos received. (Note that this is still a bit of a gray area since someone can open the story and just leave it open without reading. Short of looking over someone's shoulder, this is the best you can do... unless AO3 adds heatmaps to our stats page, which I don't see happening any time soon, haaa.)

EVEN IF the data itself were good, a 10% conversion rate is astronomical as a KPI (key performance indicator, a measure of success). So we're clear, a "conversion" is an instance of a person seeing the thing (your fic) and doing what you want them to do (leaving a kudo). Not that you can really compare fic satisfaction to an ecommerce funnel, but your average conversion rate on, say, a marketing splash page is LESS THAN 3%. If you hit 5% on your campaign, you're having a pizza party in the office, guys. And marketing campaigns can be incredibly sophisticated affairs, fueled by massive research efforts, seo work, algorithms based on user behavior and all kinds of creepy ass data collection, etc. Fic promos are... you know. We chuck them up on social media and pray people see them.

So not only are hits as shown in AO3 a very poor metric to calculate conversion, a 10% conversion rate as a MINIMUM bar for entry is just ridiculous.

Clearly, I've thought about this a lot. I've gotten stuck watching my "conversion rate" go down as hits increased but the kudos didn't move. I've felt badly - so badly - about my proudest moment (where writing is concerned), go nowhere after I finished it. Thinking about it in terms of realistic conversion rates helps me, so I'm mostly sharing this information for anyone else out there it may help.

Super cool that that person is happy with their method of finding fics to read. They're depriving themselves of some really awesome stories, though. A far better way to decide whether or not to read something is to use the search function and filters to narrow things down and then simply read tags and summaries.

And if you start reading and don't like the style... nothing is keeping you there. You can bounce (which, hey, a bounce rate is another metric that would be far more handy than a raw hit counter).

Anyway... behold, my absolute failure of a fic (which resulted in wonderful comments that have made me cry because folks were moved or took the time to leave interesting related information or drew things for me or still periodically send me really cute bears).

[gloopytits-chaosmod]

I've interfaced enough with anime fans to know that watching anime comes from a place of weakness, of refusing to engage with media, to seek the absolute lowest denominator of storytelling where there's nothing challenging and every character only exists though the trope you can discern from a glance.

Anime as an industry degenerates art itself. Twitter is filled with artists putting their whole pussy into making spunky colourful character designs of the same female to exist only for users to briefly acknowledge then discard from their brain forever. Spot, like, scroll. Fulfillment.

Anything that doesn't give an immediate dopamine release at the moment of impact between visual stimuli and the interpretation cortex is thrown out for being too challenging. Anime is the new medium by which people who understand they understand very little and refuse to do something about it express the world; through total and complete rejection of complexity, depth, personality, passion or meaning. Through the endless consumption of colour and voice acting throw together into a slop and churned through the corporate grinder.

What remains is a deeply political, radicalised cell with no awareness of the social values they embody as they allow conservative corporate culture define what is and isn't, only to turn around on the burner account to ask why the fuck they feel like shit all the time, why the dysphoria is so bad, why it's so hard to live with what you have. The state of anime is a race to the bottom to hack the human mind and create consumers that become dependent on their media like addicts to heroin.

from this we get idol industries and the toxic parasocial nature of Vtubers and their community. To a person adjusted to deal with reality as is these entities are off putting because they emulate a more infantile moment of life, but to the people whose malfunction is the lack of synchronicity between real life and their favourite media these are safe spaces where they can be groomed into ideal whales, ideal citizens, defenders of slop and Catholic, the isolation of the make believe social structure they've come to depend on further alienating them from the world they've lost track of.

For money.

If Axis Infinity is capitalism in its most raw form for the digital era, bourgeois dividing the means labour between workers recieving the bare minimum to go on living, then the Anime Industry is the late capitalism of the digital era, a mind numbing anaesthetic for coping with the radicalising political reality, praising your passivity and rewarding you for never challenging yourself and your peers. It's the makings of fascism, of a loyal herd, of an environment where critical voices are unwelcome. We know this because Anime communities are the most welcoming of sexists, racists and other bigots. It appeals to losers who need online communities to validate their reactionary political beliefs because as an inherently and deeply conservative industry it consciously chooses to suppress the reality of whatever conservatives dislike.

It's a safe space for the world's biggest fucking losers.

Not to mention shit fucking forums like reddit's "anime circle jerk" where they consume the exact same garbage but with a wink to the camera, with the authenticity of an ex smoker going "drunk cigs don't count haha". I don't care if you're performatively leftist, if you have no standards, if you have no boundaries, if corporate anime still appeals to you despite how uncomfortable it ought to make you as a queer person, as a woman, as anything that Japanese and western conservative culture wishes was either dead or repressed, your leftism is for naught and you'll justify anything as long as it appeals to what you want to like.

So no, I'm not fucking watching Chainsaw Man. Stop calling things peak just because it's the last thing you watched.

[metamoonshots]

[ad_1] Bitcoin Twitter has been an thrilling place over the past yr because the Nostr and Ordinals protocols grew to become the brand new up-and-coming protocols on the scene.Ordinals uncovered a fault line beginning to type inside the Bitcoin neighborhood. The ossifiers class that desires to maintain Bitcoin the way in which it's versus the builders that need to discover and create new use circumstances for Bitcoin has became two distinct camps that can by no means reconcile their variations.This has but to occur with the NOSTR protocol. Capital has been pouring into improvement from a few of the most well-known entities in Bitcoin. Primal, a nostr-focused consumer, recently secured $1 million in funding from Ten31 and Hivemind. Jack Dorsey, the previous CEO of Twitter, has pledged $10 million to spur the development of the nostr protocol. Regardless of these optimistic developments, there hasn't been a mass exodus of Bitcoiners from X, previously referred to as Twitter, to the liberty protocol. Why is that? I am shocked that the majority Bitcoiners have determined to remain behind the barbed wire fence of mass surveillance and have their knowledge frequently harvested for the good thing about Elon Musk.The door to freedom is true earlier than us, but many resolve to remain, however why? For all of the discuss incentives matter, the common Bitcoiner has fallen into the identical social media lure that each different nocoiner has discovered themselves in. Listed here are a number of causes I imagine Bitcoiners on X resist leaving the platform. Community Results Are A Hell Of A Drug source This is among the fundamental the explanation why probably the most outstanding voices on Twitter have but to make the leap to being nostr solely. X has been round for much longer than the nostr protocol and is utilized by tens of millions of individuals across the globe. If you're a Bitcoiner who has spent years constructing a large Twitter following, it should be powerful emigrate to a brand new platform with a a lot smaller person base and requires some technical information to arrange. It's straightforward to know the rationale for staying on Twitter. There may be an excessive amount of to lose from a enterprise perspective to make the leap.By making this choice, they're lacking a possibility to introduce their viewers to nostr and the thought of freedom tech on the whole. Staying on Twitter would not advance the mission of hyperbitcoinization as a result of it perpetuates the utilization of centralized communications platforms and undermines the message of freedom. Twitter may need a extra in depth person base than Nostr, however while you look deeper on the numbers, it doesn't suggest something. According to Pew Research, 23 percent of Americans use X, which puts it in the middle of the pack of other social media platforms Americans use. Facebook and YouTube are favored by Americans more than Twitter. In the identical survey, 25 p.c of customers stated they might not be on the platform a yr from now. That is lots of people who won't find out about Bitcoin from X. Utilization of the app continues to say no yr over yr endlessly. Worldwide visits to Twitter.com dropped 7.3 p.c yr over yr. Monthly active users on Android and iOS are down 15 percent for Android and 14 percent for iOS. X is on a slow-motion decline, so the argument that Bitcoiners ought to keep on X as a result of it is simpler for orange pilling nocoiners would not maintain water. Nocoiners are fleeing X in droves.We additionally know social media corporations are used to regulate and affect society worldwide. How can we advocate for separating cash and state once we can’t even depart our Twitter accounts behind? Listed here are a number of examples of the state utilizing centralized social media platforms to its benefit:https://therecord.media/ukraine-police-raid-social-media-bot-farmhttps://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/despite-western-bans-putins-propaganda-flourishes-spanish-tv-and-social-mediahttps://www.

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/more-governments-ever-are-using-social-media-push-propaganda-report-n1076301X actually would not free humanity from the clutches of the surveillance state in any means; it traps us in a digital panopticon with no escape. If the aim is hyperbitcoinization, we must always do every little thing doable to erode the state's energy. Staying on X empowers the federal government by giving them limitless entry to our knowledge. You would possibly lose followers and cash within the quick time period, nevertheless it's value it. Brief-term ache for long-term achieve ought to be the precedence. We're doing this for the youngsters, proper? Dopamine Hits Feelz Good Picture source Who would not like posting a tweet and watching it go viral on Bitcoin Twitter? It offers you the huge dopamine rush that social media was designed for. Because of this most of us preserve coming again to Twitter within the first place. We wish that dopamine mang! Consider Twitter because the drug vendor on the nook supplying you with all of the dopamine you need. It is accessible in your cellphone 24 hours a day, seven days per week.It has been clinically confirmed that while you obtain a notification or retweet, your mind experiences an elevated stage of dopamine, additional positively reinforcing the necessity to use social media. Do you know nearly 40 percent of those aged 18-22 reported feeling addicted to social media?The engineers at X clearly perceive this difficulty and have designed their platform to encourage individuals to remain there so long as doable. They're no fools. That is how they earn a living. I'm responsible of scrolling away on X, however all of us ought to take heed to what they're attempting to do.Not saying nostr is the panacea to this downside, however the protocol would not have the mind-altering algos which are attempting to maintain you hooked on the protocol. Is it truthful to say that nostr is healthier to your psychological well being? Simply throwing that on the market.We Want To Dwell Our Values source This image is the one which hit me probably the most and impressed me to jot down this text. As Bitcoiners, how can we rail towards massive tech and the surveillance state if we proceed to make use of the instruments the state makes use of to suppress free speech? How will we rally individuals to the reason for Bitcoin if we do not reside by the very concepts we espouse to the world? Utilizing Twitter is, however one compromise, however one results in one other and one other. All of us reside in a world of trade-offs. We should always all try for a world the place freedom tech is the norm and never an exception. Typically, Bitcoin and freedom tech have allowed us to remake the world and orient it in direction of peace and cooperation and away from the warfare, dying, and destruction that the psychopaths in political workplace need to inflict on the frequent man. Do not forget that the wealthy and highly effective usually are not on our aspect. I urge all Bitcoiners to make use of nostr and slowly transition away from massive tech since you by no means know when you'll lose entry to your knowledge and all of your onerous work.Right here is my pubkey if you wish to chat utilizing freedom tech! I stay up for seeing you over there! Escape to freedom.npub1cl4deuxsxk2ldqgq85q9xfn898253qjyfcrcnkqd2wdks7ppu43qn0gu8k [ad_2]

[ailtrahq]

The much-hyped Milady NFT project has fallen victim to an exploit in which a developer siphoned off $1 million of fees and absconded.  Developer Absconds With $1M In early May, Milady NFTs gained significant attention following a tweet from Elon Musk. The project's Trading volume soared, and its community grew. However, recent Developments have cast a shadow over the NFT and its investors. NFT analyst Tyler D has reported a troubling incident within the Milady ecosystem. A developer allegedly absconded with approximately $1 million in fees intended for the project. This rogue developer also targeted and compromised the Twitter accounts of Milady and Remilio Baby, which is a popular NFT collection available on the Milady platform, as well as the Remilia account. Co-founder's Response The co-founder of Remilia Corporation, the entity behind the Milady collection, who goes by the pseudonym Charlotte Fang, addressed the situation by tweeting on X. Fang confirmed that the developer had diverted $1 million in fees generated by Remilia. She reassured the community that the Bonkler reserves, main contract, and NFTs remained Secure. In response to the incident, Fang temporarily halted Bonkler's daily minting process but outlined plans for a future upgrade. She emphasized the Safety of all Remilia NFTs, metadata, and domains.  The rogue developer also attempted to gain control of the project's social media accounts and demanded a significant portion of their treasury. However, swift identification led to the promise of legal action against them. Securing the Community The team addressed the matter of the compromised social media accounts by creating new official handles and accounts to keep the users apprised of all Updates.  Fang reiterated that Remilia's reserves remained unaffected, and Assets remained Secure. The co-founder expressed unwavering determination to pursue those responsible through legal means, highlighting the harm done to their team and the community that had faith in their vision. Fang wrote,  “Needless to say those who threatened the blessed kingdom of Remilia for mere financial gain will face a dramatic and just retribution without sympathy…This was violence not simply on my team, but on my world and my people…For such viciousness, I can give no quarter—the individuals involved have been terminated from Remilia Corporation, and will now be dealt with through the heavy hand of the law.” The individuals involved have been removed from Remilia Corporation, and legal proceedings are underway, with a link to the lawsuit provided in the replies. NFT Sector Impact At the time of reporting, the floor Price of Milady Maker had plummeted by 12.1% within the last 24 hours. A substantial sell-off of the collection was witnessed, with sales surging by 333.9%. The NFT sector as a whole also faced challenges, with daily volume on various exchanges like Open Sea and Blur experiencing significant declines. It also affected other blue-chip NFT collections, with Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) seeing floor prices drop by 7.4% and 3.7%, respectively, within the last 24 hours.

[valofaxwords]

Blog Post Week 2 due 9/2

Is Information a product?

We tend to think of a product as a good or service. We can even simplify it even more as something that is desirable whether that be an object or a service that needs to be done. But in a more modern world of social media and the exchanging of data, does that make information itself a product (Fuchs, Christian 2014). By the above-simplified definition, something desirable, we can define it as a product as companies on a large scale do desire information that aids them in particular ways. Information for them could mean a multitude of things for them and can be used in a variety of ways to turn that into profit. For example, companies need the information to better regulate their products, how people want them, how people feel about their product, what they can improve, or what isn’t working for them. To corporations, information is a commodity that is as important as the raw materials they need to create a sellable product. 

But is Information a product that an individual desires?

Consider when you are thinking of buying a new phone or going to a new restaurant, what is the first thing you are inclined to do? For the majority, it would most likely be to see a review. Whether that means going online and checking reviews on blogs or simply asking a friend what their feeling on something is, the bottom line is you require information that you don’t have or can produce yourself. This is just one example of how information is desirable, but not exactly why it is a product. Besides the free advice you can get from a friend or family member when searching for information online, one always wants the opinion of someone they believe is credible. That could be a famous vlogger who reviews and unboxes phones or something as older fashioned as looking in a newspaper for as publicized critic's opinions on the latest blockbuster movie. While the information itself isn’t being sold to you, the revenue the vlogger gets from the advertisement from the interview is being accrued and you most likely had to buy the newspaper to read the critique. So that is to say that information does exist as an important product that it outright desirable to the average person. 

Is Facebook exploitative?

Considering that Facebook’s roots stem from the desire of college boys for a new way to rate and objectify women, it’s not a reach to consider if Facebook is an exploitative entity. Now advertised as a way to stay connected to your friends and family, Facebook has become one of the pillars of social media. With no outright product to sell you, Facebook derives its income mainly from the advertisements strewn across the platform (and also the data they sell to third parties) that are seen by its users. So how is that exploitative? Advertisements have been everywhere for decades now, how is Facebook any more exploitative than say, the highway billboards we always notice to and from work? In the case of highway billboards, you can’t even avert your eyes from them because they are usually in your view when driving, at the very least you can choose not to open up Facebook. While it’s true you can simply avoid opening the website, if you have had use of their platform before, you’re most likely being exploited for their benefit. Again, Facebook defines itself as a platform for social networking, but what is a platform without users? For Facebook to survive, it must constantly be fed new, relevant information as a reason for users to continue accessing their platform. Without frequent and new users entering and using the platform, Facebook might as well be as profitable as an unlit billboard in the dark. So with only providing the platform, Facebook profits off the work of its users as they are the draw of the service, and with no compensation for the work of their user’s which in turn helps create money for Facebook, you could define Facebook with textbook exploitation. 

Is performative activism still activism?

The answer to this question depends on what your definition of activism is. Is activism the attempt at getting the most attention and eyes on a certain subject or idea on a subject? Or is activism the promotion of an idea so that it instills in others the desire to act? If your definition of activism follows the first question, then yes, even performative activism is still activism. By that definition, it must mean that the attempt at getting the most eyes on your ideas is the most important part of activism. So whether the activism is performative or not, as long as it reaches the masses, it still counts. Those that follow this definition might say, “The more people know about it, the better,” or “ A bigger net always catches the most fish.”

If you defined activism by the second question, then you may define activism as a whole based on its concrete results rather than perceived possibilities. “Quality over quantity,” maybe one way to look at it. Along with this definition, it may be that with performative activism, the word gets out, but is the word being sent out what you truly want people to know or a muddled sentence that has lost its meaning like a game of telephone? You could point at things like the ice bucket challenge, which was originally designed as a way to promote donations for ALS research. It was everywhere at the time, and everyone knew what the ice bucket challenge was, but not everyone knew it had anything to do with donations to a disease. Or even if you did know, how much did you know about it besides the word ALS? Did you know what the acronym stood for or even who is most at risk to develop ALS? Did you know that the whole conception of using ice water was to mimic the symptoms of ALS? Symptoms of the condition are mainly the degradation and loss of muscle control, somewhat similar to the feeling of being exposed to freezing water. 

So I haven’t given a definitive answer to this question because the answer lies in the individual. Personally, I tend to lean towards the second definition. It may be a more cynical take on activism, but I couldn’t say it's anymore valid than the other choice. I do concede that performative activism does have its benefits and would be acceptable in certain instances, but for the most part, I believe that a message will always spread farther if behind genuine feelings.

Fuchs, Christian. 2014. Social Media: A Critical Introduction. Los Angeles: Sage Publications

Gonzalez, Torres. 2012. News For All The People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media. SAGE Publications Inc.

[andmaybegayer]

Server Admins, Privacy and Ownership

A while ago while the Twitter Bitcoin Fandango happened, I mentioned that it’s absolutely sensible to assume that twitter staff could seize control of any account without needing access to any of your credentials (you don’t have to read that though).

It got me thinking about how people interact with the admins of the communication services they use, and how that differs in the current day from a few decades ago.

In Ye Olden Times, if you wanted to talk to people on the internet you went to a handful of social spaces. These could be Bulletin Boards, IRC Servers, Multi-user Dungeons, later this expanded to include web forums, whatever. In general being in one of these places meant you were acutely aware of who your Server Admins are.

Server Admins are the folks who own and operate the computers running the service. They may be running the service because people paid them to, as an offshoot of a larger business, or just because they want to. You need to know who they are, because they are often who you should report bugs or abuse to. They generally exist both as staff and as users, and you develop an interesting relationship to them. They’re simultaneously friends but also people at the end of a vast power differential.

By virtue of running the show, Server Admins have 100% access to anything that happens on the server, and you have no way to really check up on them. They can read your private messages to other users, find out your IP address, see when you log on, even impersonate you and delete the evidence if they want to. You have to trust them, or you have to take your own steps (PGP signing your messages, having other channels of communication you do trust) to make trusting them unnecessary.

(Yes, end-to-end encryption can resolve this but a) we’re talking about IRC and forums and b) while some new systems like Signal and Whatsapp do support it, by and large places like Twitter and Facebook do not, at least for the parts you care about.)

As I said earlier, they’re all-powerful but they’re also people who hang out. I’m a channel administrator for the xkcd IRC channel, and some of the channel regulars are server admins for the IRC server hosting the channel. I’m talking to one of them right now about politics. They notably aren’t channel admins, but at any time they could decide to demote every single channel admin, take control and lock us all out, and our only recourse would be to take what we can carry and move to another server. I have to trust them, and since I do I can go to them when we have problems only they can solve, like spammers hitting the whole network.

The server admins also have very real interests that may make them want to spy on their users. They are the ones liable for what happens on their servers, so if they don’t trust their users, they may wish to spy to ensure they are not liable for illegal activity. You can allay this fear and discourage spying by being trustworthy and letting the admins know when something suspicious is going on. It is a give and take.

This relationship is Horribly Dysfunctional under modern social media.

The core of this is that the Server Admins still exist, but you don’t know who they are. There are people at Facebook/Tumblr/Twitter who can read your DM’s, who can post as you if they want, who can see when you log on, all without being noticed, but you can’t decide if you trust them, and you can’t take your business elsewhere if you don’t.

If I distrust Charlie, my lovely server admin (although I do trust Charlie), I can tell some of my friends to meet me on a different IRC server and we can talk about that and he can’t find out, because it’s beyond his domain. We’re still using IRC, and everyone is happy with this. If you distrust Mark Zuckerberg’s faceless moderation team, and you want to discuss that with your friends, you have to move to a different platform. You can’t go to Facebook 2. Your options (if you want to use Facebook) are Trust Zuck or Perish.

That’s part 1

Part 2 is that big social networks are so large that you can’t EVER talk to the admins, you don’t know them what their interests are. You can’t suck up to them to get better treatment, and you can’t Trust them. Even if there’s only one BBS in your town and you can’t long-distance call to a different one, you can at least learn about the admin and make decisions based on how much you trust them. You have no idea who has admin access at Facebook, you don’t know if they have a vendetta against people like you, you cannot plan for this.

This works to your benefit in some ways. The chance that someone with Facebook admin powers has a beef with you is very low, so you usually don't have to worry about this from a social perspective. It does however mean that in the grand privacy perspective, you could have your personal information leaked and you wouldn't even know who might be responsible for it. You have very little recourse against a faceless administrator who is responsible for millions or billions of people, especially because this administrator possibly isn't a human, it's a computer system that sells adverts.

There's automatic moderation systems in many forums and chatrooms, but they are typically "owned" by someone. If they cause a problem for you, you can take that up with an individual. Individuals do not exist inside of Facebook and Twitter.

I'm a big fan of non-exclusive communication systems. I don't mind having the small scale hierarchies of the kind you get when using someone else's resources because they allow you to deal with problems socially. Being a Known Entity is a thing that can work in your favour in these small spaces but absolutely no one is a Known Entity on Facebook (from an admin or user side) and that means you have to rely more heavily on strict rules and sweeping policies, and you have to be careful not to run afoul of the rules or you become banned from the Entire System, not just one server. Small servers aren’t perfect, I have disagreements with my moderation team at times over bans, but at least that person is not removed from The World Of IRC At Large. It is much closer to how normal real life works, and I think that’s valuable when you’re trying to replicate social interactions on the net.

[nyadversary]

asking since your harry potter post was really interesting and made me wonder - are there any magic systems you really like or think are well-constructed and consistent? what are the traits of a good magic system?

oh i definitely don’t feel qualified to make any broad statements about what makes a magic system Good, it depends so heavily on what kind of story you’re trying to tell. i do want to say more about why i think the magic system in HP is ultimately bad though, and i have at least one example of a system i like to compare it with. under cut

very very early on in the HP series — i’m talking about the first few chapters of book 1 — we get the impression that magical ability does symbolize something? like think about how the series opens. the first chapter of the first book follows vernon dursley, a man who lives an extremely mundane life, likes it that way, and is highly perturbed by anything unusual happening or by anyone who seems out of the ordinary. he’s, what, CEO of a drill company or something? some comically boring but well-paying job. petunia is a housewife who passes the time spying on the neighbors. their infant son is already being spoiled and treated more like a prized possession than a human being. and these people hate anything they think is weird, which of course includes anything to do with magic. the dursleys know for a fact magic is real and it pisses them off and they hate it. 

when harry is left at their doorstep, mcgonagall protests and says the dursleys could not possibly have less in common with magical people like them. either she or hagrid says something to the effect that the dursleys are the biggest muggles around, which stuck with me because it implies that magical ability lies on a spectrum and the dursleys, who are outright opposed to anything the slightest bit unusual, are the furthest from magical anybody can be. this implies all sorts of things about what magic could represent for the series going forward — creativity, rejection of social norms, etc. — and, since these people are harry’s only living blood relatives but he winds up finding community for the first time once meeting other witches and wizards, it appears to be setting up a found family theme. which all sounds perfectly good, and people will still cite this as being a theme of the books. the main problem with that is it isn’t the intended theme going forward at all. 

JKR’s weird obsession with blood lineage honestly needs to be unpacked in a whole other post and i don’t think i’m the guy to do it but... obviously as the series goes on, the importance of blood family gets underlined again and again. it turns out harry is being protected by some sort of sacred maternal blood magic (which is never explained) and this is why he has to live with the dursleys, people he hates and has nothing in common with. the fact that they’re his blood relatives trumps anything else. magical ability generally is passed down within families, and in the later books much time is spent going over various magical lineages (voldemort’s family, dumbledore’s family, sirius’ family, the malfoy family, the hogwarts founders and their descendants, etc...). any notions of magic symbolizing creativity is undermined by the lack of actual creativity in how the magic is presented going forward (like i said in the other post, it winds up serving mainly utilitarian functions in the story) and as for rejecting the status quo, the series embraces the status quo. the happy ending the characters work 7 books to achieve just has everything “returning to normal” — voldemort is killed and the remaining death eaters dealt with, the ministry gets a new PM, hogwarts gets a new headmaster, and things continue on as they were before. issues of systemic injustice are left unaddressed, the subplots about magical beings fighting for full personhood status (centaurs, merpeople, house elves, etc) are left unresolved, slytherin house is allowed to continue on as an institution and presumably many wizards are still just as bigoted towards muggle-borns as they always were, and — oh yeah — the idea that muggles are innately inferior somehow? never explained or addressed. the takeway is just that if you can’t do magic, you suck. it’s so disappointing. all the pieces are there for a way better story (hey guys i think there might be some systemic problems with your magic school and your magic government do you wanna try fixing that maybe?) but JKR was never gonna write that story because it’s one she doesn’t believe in.

to summarize how magic works in harry potter just so i can really make it clear how boring it is:

magic ability is innate and the vast majority of people lack it. with relatively few exceptions, the ability runs in families — it’s rare for someone without magical ancestry to have the ability and it’s also rare for someone with magical ancestry to not have the ability

with only a few exceptions, all wizards are able to learn all spells. some wizards are stated to be unusually powerful but how much of this is due to raw magical potential and how much comes down to other factors like education, general intelligence and ability/willingness to learn, desire to cause harm in the case of the unforgivables, etc is unclear. some magical abilities, like being able to speak parseltongue or being a metamorphmagus (or whatever the fuck shapeshifters are called in this series) or being a seer, are innate and can’t be learned by most wizards. like magic itself, whether or not you have any extra ability seems to be genetic (these are all traits we know run in families)

in order to perform magic, devices like wands, cauldrons, etc are used as instruments or vessels to direct the user’s innate powers. there is no summoning, channeling, or ritual use involved and spells typically only go wrong if the wizard in question is inexperienced or something is wrong with their wand. with very few exceptions (the main one i can think of is divination, which is handled very ambiguously and most of what trelawney teaches is implied to be complete crap), magic works in very predictable and straightforward ways

so it all boils down to “you’re either a wizard or you aren’t, and you almost certainly aren’t unless you come from a magic family, but if you are — good news! you have basically the same abilities as any other wizard. don’t worry there’s nothing even vaguely pagan involved.”

which, like. how utterly dull. there are so many other ways one can approach these issues and nearly all of them that i can think of / have seen done are more interesting than this:

you could have a magic system where magical ability is much more specialized. instead of all magic users being all capable of more or less the same stuff, let’s say person A, B, and C are all magic users but each has a unique magical ability (say A can fly, B can talk to animals, C can become invisible) and, while they might be able to develop their individual talents and become stronger, they can’t learn each other’s skills. charlie bone, which is a crap series overall but which i do think has a more interesting magic system, falls into this category, as does a lot of superhero stuff although it’s generally not called “magic” in those stories.

another, similar, approach would be to have more specialized branches of magic that characters train under — say pyromancy, necromancy, etc. — and so, while it might be possible for a water mage to learn a fire spell or two, characters have much more individualized skillsets. RPG magic tends to be this, obviously. harry potter kind of vaguely gestures in the direction of this trope in that the professors obviously specialize in their particular subjects, but it’s not as if snape doesn’t know charms or whatever — it doesn’t amount to much of anything in practice as all the adult characters are capable of performing a diverse range of spells.

how does one wind up with the ability to do magic in the first place? is it innate, and, if so, is it random or does it run in families? is it associated with any other traits? are there drawbacks to being a magic user? can non-magical people acquire the ability to do magic through some other means, and, if so, does this represent an irreversible change? are magic users really “human” or are they something more? are non-magic users lesser? is there any loss of humanity associated with magical ability? do magic users channel their own innate power or are they channeling something else — if so, is it a godlike entity, demonic, or does it defy moral classification? is there “good” magic and “bad” magic, and, if so, is the delineation clear? if these are different branches of magic, are they wholly distinct in how they work or is there overlap? etc, etc, etc.

ultimately i don’t think anyone should be worried about finding the most unique combination of these tropes, because they’ve literally all been done 10 billion times — if i started off listing popular examples of how these tropes are handled in other media pandemic will have ended before i’m done. what’s important is how writers choose to handle these questions when telling their story. like, what does magic mean to the characters? what does their use of magic say about them? what does magic symbolize? etc... these are opportunities for the story to have Themes and Meaning and impart something to its audience! tbh i think it really says something that the magic in harry potter is so ultimately unimportant to the story that people didn’t bother asking the usual questions about what magic itself / the magic system might symbolize... if you look at what rowling might actually be trying to say with any of that, well, it’s not good.

i guess to end off with an example i like. in the bartimaeus trilogy, which is an extremely good YA series and i highly recommend, magic ability isn’t innate at all. magic in this universe is all done via summoning “demons” (energy beings from another plane of existence basically) and binding them to one’s will, which as you might expect is very dangerous if you fuck it up and summoning is on such extreme levels of academic bullshit that you basically have to study your entire life to do it safely (learning dead languages, being able to draw elaborate pentacles with perfect accuracy, etc etc). in practice, this means magic is something only the ruling class does / can afford to do. anyone in any significant position of power is a wizard, while everyone else — the “commoners” — is a second-class citizen under the thumb of what are essentially superpowered politicians. while the fact that magic exists isn’t a secret, the majority of commoners have no idea how it actually works, that it’s really just summoning and anyone can learn it. they’re being encouraged to think of wizards as innately superior/gifted and to defer to them as their betters. yknow, Or Else. there’s much more i could say about this but it’d wind up being its own post and i’d probably have to just break down the entire plot of the trilogy, but i think from what i’ve said you get a sense of the themes / commentary here. 

this has run long but point being, magic systems Can be used to say something about the story and the characters and to make some sort of thematic point or provide social commentary perhaps, and i think it’s cool when they do. harry potter tries its best to avoid having the magic mean anything and when you do try and analyze what it means, you just get a story about how some people are just way better and cooler than others because of. uh. their blood. so rather than further unpacking that suitcase i say you could just throw it away and, as they say, read another book

[fettesans]

Top, screen capture from Kingsman: The Golden Circle, directed by Matthew Vaughn, 2017. Via. Bottom, photograph by Ugo Mulas, Christo and Jeanne-Claude with the 1964 collage “Store Front (Project)” in their one-room apartment at the Chelsea Hotel, New York City, 1964. Via. More.

--

I dreamed there was an enormous web of beautiful fabric stretched out. It was incredibly beautiful, covered all over with embroidered pictures. The pictures were illustrations of the myths of mankind but they were not just pictures, they were the myths themselves, so that the soft glittering web was alive. There were many subtle and fantastic colours, but the overall feeling this expanse of fabric gave was of redness, a sort of variegated glowing red. In my dream I handled and felt this material and wept with joy...  The colours are melting and flowing into each other, indescribably beautiful so that the world becomes whole, all one beautiful glittering colour, but a colour I have never seen in life. This is a moment of almost unbearable happiness, the happiness seems to swell up, so that everything suddenly bursts, explodes - I was suddenly standing in peace, in silence. Beneath me was silence. The slowly turning world was slowly dissolving, disintegrating and flying off into fragments, all through space, so that all around me were weightless fragments drifting about, bouncing into each other and drifting away. The world had gone, and there was chaos. I was alone in chaos. And very clear in my ear a small voice said: Somebody pulled a thread of the fabric and it all dissolved. I woke up, joyful and elated.

Doris Lessing, from The Golden Notebook, 1962. Via.

--

Microsoft has been granted a patent that would allow the company to make a chatbot using the personal information of deceased people.  

The patent describes creating a bot based on the “images, voice data, social media posts, electronic messages”, and more personal information.

“The specific person [who the chat bot represents] may correspond to a past or present entity (or a version thereof), such as a friend, a relative, an acquaintance, a celebrity, a fictional character, a historical figure, a random entity etc”, it goes on to say.

“The specific person may also correspond to oneself (e.g., the user creating/training the chat bot,” Microsoft also describes – implying that living users could train a digital replacement in the event of their death.

Adam Smith, from Microsoft patent shows plans to revive dead loved ones as chatbots, for The Independent, January 20, 2021.

See also, Kuyda continues to talk with the bot herself — once a week or so, often after a few drinks, and Researcher Marita Skjuve has been interviewing people who have a close relationship with a chatbot called Replika. Her conclusion is that such relationships offer value and meaning to the chatbot’s users, and can even be romantic.

[marswrigleyrules]

SKITTLES Merch Sweepstakes

Official Rules

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER TO WIN OR WIN

These Official Rules apply to the SKITTLES Merch Sweepstakes (“Sweepstakes”) conducted via one or more of SKITTLES social media accounts. The Sweepstakes will be announced via a post from SKITTLES social media on the applicable social media platform(s) (“Sweepstakes Post”). All information contained in a Sweepstakes Post is incorporated herein by reference.

1. ELIGIBILITY:  Open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. & DC, 18 or older. Employees, agents, officers & directors of Mars Wrigley Confectionery US, LLC (“Sponsor”) and its respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates & advertising & promotion agencies (collectively with Facebook, Inc., Twitter, Inc., Instagram, LLC, if the Sweepstakes is conducted via any such platform, “Released Parties”) & members of their immediate family (spouse, parent, children, siblings & their respective spouses, regardless of where they reside) & persons living in the same household, whether or not related, are not eligible. Void where prohibited. Subject to all applicable federal, state & local laws.

2. HOW TO ENTER: For entry on Twitter, entrant must RETWEET Skittles Sweepstakes Tweet; Tweet must include “#Sweepstakes” and “#WearTheRainbow” to be eligible for chance to win. Alternatively, you may enter by commenting on the SKITTLES Tweet with #Sweepstakes” and “#WearTheRainbow”. For entry on Instagram, entrant must comment on SKITTLES Sweepstakes post with “#Sweepstakes” and “#WearTheRainbow” to be eligible for chance to win. Entries must be submitted by the time and date stated in the Sweepstakes Post to be eligible. Entries generated by script, macro or other automated means or by any means which subvert the entry process are void.  Limit one (1) entry per person for any sweepstakes. Multiple entries will be void. Entries become the sole property of Sponsor. If you do not have a Twitter or Instagram account, establishing an account is free. All Facebook, Twitter or Instagram terms apply (as applicable). If run on Twitter or Instagram, your Twitter or Instagram account (as applicable) must be set to “public” in order for your entry to be eligible. You can return the applicable account to “private” anytime after the winner(s) have been announced.

3. ENTRY REQUIREMENTS:  Entry must be entrant’s original work (if applicable), be in keeping with Sponsor’s image & not be offensive, obscene, hateful, harmful, tortious, libelous, slanderous or inappropriate or disparage Sponsor or any of its brands in any way, all as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion. Entry must not defame or violate or infringe upon the rights of any person or entity. Entry must not in any way, either visibly or otherwise, contain any brand names, logos or trademarks other than those of Sponsor, which Entrant has a limited license to use solely for purposes of this sweepstakes. Entry must not include personally identifiable information of any person other than Entrant. Entrant is responsible for obtaining, prior to entering, any and all releases and consents from any persons appearing in an entry that are necessary to permit the exhibition and use of the entry by Sponsor as set forth in these Official Rules. No photo or video entry submission, if applicable, may include anyone under the age of 13. If any minor child appears in any such entry, Entrant must have permission from that child’s parent/legal guardian Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any entry and remove any post that it determines, in its sole discretion, is not in compliance with these Official Rules.

4. RANDOM DRAWING:  One Hundred (100) winners will be selected in a random drawing from among all eligible entries received, to be held within five (5) days following the entry deadline unless otherwise stated in the Sweepstakes Post. Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received.

5. WINNER NOTIFICATION: Potential winner(s) will be notified via a comment on his/her winning post, @reply and/or direct message (as applicable) & he/she will have 48 hours from notification to respond to Sponsor. The failure to respond to such notification or a potential winner’s noncompliance with these Official Rules may result in disqualification, & at Sponsor’s sole discretion, an alternate winner may be selected. 6. PRIZE(S) & APPROXIMATE RETAIL VALUE (“ARV”): The one hundred (100) winners will receive one (1) SKITTLES branded crewneck sweatshirt (ARV $60.00 USD) and one (1) SKITTLES branded bucket hat (ARV $20.00 USD). Prizes are awarded “as is” with no warranty or guarantee, either express or implied. Winners are responsible for all federal, state & local taxes. Winners may not substitute, assign or transfer prize, but Sponsor reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to substitute prize (or portion thereof) with one of comparable or greater value. All prize details are at Sponsor’s sole discretion. Limit one (1) prize per person. Prizing will be fulfilled approximately thirty (30) business days following the response of winner to Sponsor.

7. GRANT OF RIGHTS: By submitting an entry, each Entrant grants to Sponsor and its licensees, successors and assigns an irrevocable, perpetual, unlimited, royalty-free, fully paid-up license to reproduce, distribute, display, exhibit, exploit, perform, edit, create derivatives of & otherwise use the entry & all elements of such entry, together with any other material, as well as the name, user name, city & state of residence, voice, image and/or likeness of Entrant (including, without limitation, profile photo), in any & all media now known or hereafter devised, in any manner, in whole or in part, worldwide, without compensation or notification to, or permission from, entrant or any third party, for any purpose whatsoever, including without limitation, for purposes of advertising or trade.

8. GENERAL CONDITIONS: By participating, each Entrant agrees: (a) to abide by these Official Rules & decisions of Sponsor & judges, which shall be final & binding in all respects relating to this Sweepstakes; (b) to release, discharge & hold harmless Released Parties from any & all injuries, liability, losses & damages of any kind to persons, including death, or property resulting, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from Entrant’s participation in the Sweepstakes or the acceptance or use of any prize; and (c) indemnify, defend and hold harmless Released Parties from and against any and all suits, claims or causes of action arising out of or in connection with any alleged or actual infringement of any third-party trademarks, copyrights or any other intellectual property whatsoever. Released Parties are not responsible for (i) lost, late, incomplete, damaged, inaccurate, stolen, delayed, misdirected, undelivered or garbled entries, tweets, retweets, messages or comments; (ii) lost, interrupted or unavailable network, server, Internet Service Provider (ISP), SKITTLES social media pages, or other connections, availability or accessibility or miscommunications; (iii) failed computer, satellite, telephone or cable transmissions, lines, or technical failure; (iv) jumbled, scrambled, delayed, or misdirected transmissions or computer hardware or software malfunctions, failures or difficulties; (v) other errors or difficulties of any kind, whether human, mechanical, electronic, computer, network, typographical, printing or otherwise, relating to or in connection with the Sweepstakes, including, without limitation, errors or difficulties which may occur in connection with the administration of the Sweepstakes, the processing of entries, the announcement of the prize(s) or in any sweepstakes-related materials; (vi) any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by users, tampering, hacking, or by any equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Sweepstakes; or (vii) injury or damage to any person's computer related to or resulting from participating in this Sweepstakes. Persons who tamper with or abuse any aspect of the Sweepstakes or a SKITTLES social media account, who act in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner or who are in violation of these Official Rules, as solely determined by Sponsor, will be disqualified & all associated entries will be void. Should any portion of the Sweepstakes be, in Sponsor’s sole opinion, compromised by virus, worms, bugs, non- authorized human intervention or other causes which, in the sole opinion of the Sponsor, corrupt or impair the administration, security, fairness or proper play, or submission of entries, Sponsor reserves the right at its sole discretion to suspend, modify or terminate the Sweepstakes & if terminated, at its discretion, select winner(s) at random from all eligible, non-suspect entries received prior to action taken or as otherwise deemed fair & appropriate by Sponsor. Information submitted in connection with this Sweepstakes will be used in accordance with Sponsor’s Privacy Policy, available at http://www.mars.com/global/policies/privacy/pp-english.

9. WINNERS LIST: The name(s) of the winner(s) will be posted via the applicable social media account(s) following the end of the sweepstakes.

10.SPONSOR: Mars Wrigley Confectionery US, LLC, 800 High Street, Hackettstown, NJ, 07840. This sweepstakes is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

[irenemschelll]

Terms and conditions

Please read these terms and conditions carefully before using Our Service.

Interpretation and Definitions

Interpretation

The words of which the initial letter is capitalized have meanings defined under the following conditions.

The following definitions shall have the same meaning regardless of whether they appear in singular or in plural.

Definitions

For the purposes of these Terms and Conditions:

Affiliate means an entity that controls, is controlled by or is under common control with a party, where "control" means ownership of 50% or more of the shares, equity interest or other securities entitled to vote for election of directors or other managing authority.

Company (referred to as either "the Company", "We", "Us" or "Our" in this Agreement) refers to Workout leggings.

Country refers to: Netherlands

Device means any device that can access the Service such as a computer, a cellphone or a digital tablet.

Service refers to the Website.

Terms and Conditions (also referred as "Terms") mean these Terms and Conditions that form the entire agreement between You and the Company regarding the use of the Service. This Terms and Conditions agreement is maintained by the Terms and Conditions Generator.

Third-party Social Media Service means any services or content (including data, information, products or services) provided by a third-party that may be displayed, included or made available by the Service.

Website refers to Workout leggings, accessible from https://www.exxtrawod.com/

You means the individual accessing or using the Service, or the company, or other legal entity on behalf of which such individual is accessing or using the Service, as applicable.

Acknowledgement

These are the Terms and Conditions governing the use of this Service and the agreement that operates between You and the Company. These Terms and Conditions set out the rights and obligations of all users regarding the use of the Service.

Your access to and use of the Service is conditioned on Your acceptance of and compliance with these Terms and Conditions. These Terms and Conditions apply to all visitors, users and others who access or use the Service.

By accessing or using the Service You agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions. If You disagree with any part of these Terms and Conditions then You may not access the Service.

You represent that you are over the age of 18. The Company does not permit those under 18 to use the Service.

Your access to and use of the Service is also conditioned on Your acceptance of and compliance with the Privacy Policy of the Company. Our Privacy Policy describes Our policies and procedures on the collection, use and disclosure of Your personal information when You use the Application or the Website and tells You about Your privacy rights and how the law protects You. Please read Our Privacy Policy carefully before using Our Service.

Links to Other Websites

Our Service may contain links to third-party web sites or services that are not owned or controlled by the Company.

The Company has no control over, and assumes no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party web sites or services. You further acknowledge and agree that the Company shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through any such web sites or services.

We strongly advise You to read the terms and conditions and privacy policies of any third-party web sites or services that You visit.

Termination

We may terminate or suspend Your access immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason whatsoever, including without limitation if You breach these Terms and Conditions.

Upon termination, Your right to use the Service will cease immediately.

Limitation of Liability

Notwithstanding any damages that You might incur, the entire liability of the Company and any of its suppliers under any provision of this Terms and Your exclusive remedy for all of the foregoing shall be limited to the amount actually paid by You through the Service or 100 USD if You haven't purchased anything through the Service.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall the Company or its suppliers be liable for any special, incidental, indirect, or consequential damages whatsoever (including, but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, loss of data or other information, for business interruption, for personal injury, loss of privacy arising out of or in any way related to the use of or inability to use the Service, third-party software and/or third-party hardware used with the Service, or otherwise in connection with any provision of this Terms), even if the Company or any supplier has been advised of the possibility of such damages and even if the remedy fails of its essential purpose.

Some states do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties or limitation of liability for incidental or consequential damages, which means that some of the above limitations may not apply. In these states, each party's liability will be limited to the greatest extent permitted by law.

"AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" Disclaimer

The Service is provided to You "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" and with all faults and defects without warranty of any kind. To the maximum extent permitted under applicable law, the Company, on its own behalf and on behalf of its Affiliates and its and their respective licensors and service providers, expressly disclaims all warranties, whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise, with respect to the Service, including all implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement, and warranties that may arise out of course of dealing, course of performance, usage or trade practice. Without limitation to the foregoing, the Company provides no warranty or undertaking, and makes no representation of any kind that the Service will meet Your requirements, achieve any intended results, be compatible or work with any other software, applications, systems or services, operate without interruption, meet any performance or reliability standards or be error free or that any errors or defects can or will be corrected.

Without limiting the foregoing, neither the Company nor any of the company's provider makes any representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied: (i) as to the operation or availability of the Service, or the information, content, and materials or products included thereon; (ii) that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free; (iii) as to the accuracy, reliability, or currency of any information or content provided through the Service; or (iv) that the Service, its servers, the content, or e-mails sent from or on behalf of the Company are free of viruses, scripts, trojan horses, worms, malware, timebombs or other harmful components.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain types of warranties or limitations on applicable statutory rights of a consumer, so some or all of the above exclusions and limitations may not apply to You. But in such a case the exclusions and limitations set forth in this section shall be applied to the greatest extent enforceable under applicable law.

Governing Law

The laws of the Country, excluding its conflicts of law rules, shall govern this Terms and Your use of the Service. Your use of the Application may also be subject to other local, state, national, or international laws.

Disputes Resolution

If You have any concern or dispute about the Service, You agree to first try to resolve the dispute informally by contacting the Company.

For European Union (EU) Users

If You are a European Union consumer, you will benefit from any mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which you are resident in.

United States Legal Compliance

You represent and warrant that (i) You are not located in a country that is subject to the United States government embargo, or that has been designated by the United States government as a "terrorist supporting" country, and (ii) You are not listed on any United States government list of prohibited or restricted parties.

Severability and Waiver

Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be unenforceable or invalid, such provision will be changed and interpreted to accomplish the objectives of such provision to the greatest extent possible under applicable law and the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.

Waiver

Except as provided herein, the failure to exercise a right or to require performance of an obligation under this Terms shall not effect a party's ability to exercise such right or require such performance at any time thereafter nor shall be the waiver of a breach constitute a waiver of any subsequent breach.

Translation Interpretation

These Terms and Conditions may have been translated if We have made them available to You on our Service.

You agree that the original English text shall prevail in the case of a dispute.

Changes to These Terms and Conditions

We reserve the right, at Our sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms at any time. If a revision is material We will make reasonable efforts to provide at least 30 days' notice prior to any new terms taking effect. What constitutes a material change will be determined at Our sole discretion.

By continuing to access or use Our Service after those revisions become effective, You agree to be bound by the revised terms. If You do not agree to the new terms, in whole or in part, please stop using the website and the Service.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms and Conditions, You can contact us:

By visiting this page on our website: https://www.exxtrawod.com/pages/contact-us

[lauraellewis-blog]

Terms and Conditions

Please read these terms and conditions carefully before using Our Service.

Interpretation and Definitions

Interpretation

The words of which the initial letter is capitalized have meanings defined under the following conditions.

The following definitions shall have the same meaning regardless of whether they appear in singular or in plural.

Definitions

For the purposes of these Terms and Conditions:

Affiliate means an entity that controls, is controlled by or is under common control with a party, where "control" means ownership of 50% or more of the shares, equity interest or other securities entitled to vote for election of directors or other managing authority.

Company (referred to as either "the Company", "We", "Us" or "Our" in this Agreement) refers to Toto Site.

Country refers to: New York, United States

Device means any device that can access the Service such as a computer, a cellphone or a digital tablet.

Service refers to the Website.

Terms and Conditions (also referred as "Terms") mean these Terms and Conditions that form the entire agreement between You and the Company regarding the use of the Service. This Terms and Conditions agreement is maintained by the Terms and Conditions Generator.

Third-party Social Media Service means any services or content (including data, information, products or services) provided by a third-party that may be displayed, included or made available by the Service.

Website refers to Toto Site, accessible from https://www.maximumfaith.com

You means the individual accessing or using the Service, or the company, or other legal entity on behalf of which such individual is accessing or using the Service, as applicable.

Acknowledgement

These are the Terms and Conditions governing the use of this Service and the agreement that operates between You and the Company. These Terms and Conditions set out the rights and obligations of all users regarding the use of the Service.

Your access to and use of the Service is conditioned on Your acceptance of and compliance with these Terms and Conditions. These Terms and Conditions apply to all visitors, users and others who access or use the Service.

By accessing or using the Service You agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions. If You disagree with any part of these Terms and Conditions then You may not access the Service.

You represent that you are over the age of 18. The Company does not permit those under 18 to use the Service.

Your access to and use of the Service is also conditioned on Your acceptance of and compliance with the Privacy Policy of the Company. Our Privacy Policy describes Our policies and procedures on the collection, use and disclosure of Your personal information when You use the Application or the Website and tells You about Your privacy rights and how the law protects You. Please read Our Privacy Policy carefully before using Our Service.

Links to Other Websites

Our Service may contain links to third-party web sites or services that are not owned or controlled by the Company.

The Company has no control over, and assumes no responsibility for, the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third party web sites or services. You further acknowledge and agree that the Company shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through any such web sites or services.

We strongly advise You to read the terms and conditions and privacy policies of any third-party web sites or services that You visit.

Termination

We may terminate or suspend Your access immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason whatsoever, including without limitation if You breach these Terms and Conditions.

Upon termination, Your right to use the Service will cease immediately.

Limitation of Liability

Notwithstanding any damages that You might incur, the entire liability of the Company and any of its suppliers under any provision of this Terms and Your exclusive remedy for all of the foregoing shall be limited to the amount actually paid by You through the Service or 100 USD if You haven't purchased anything through the Service.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall the Company or its suppliers be liable for any special, incidental, indirect, or consequential damages whatsoever (including, but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, loss of data or other information, for business interruption, for personal injury, loss of privacy arising out of or in any way related to the use of or inability to use the Service, third-party software and/or third-party hardware used with the Service, or otherwise in connection with any provision of this Terms), even if the Company or any supplier has been advised of the possibility of such damages and even if the remedy fails of its essential purpose.

Some states do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties or limitation of liability for incidental or consequential damages, which means that some of the above limitations may not apply. In these states, each party's liability will be limited to the greatest extent permitted by law.

"AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" Disclaimer

The Service is provided to You "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" and with all faults and defects without warranty of any kind. To the maximum extent permitted under applicable law, the Company, on its own behalf and on behalf of its Affiliates and its and their respective licensors and service providers, expressly disclaims all warranties, whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise, with respect to the Service, including all implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement, and warranties that may arise out of course of dealing, course of performance, usage or trade practice. Without limitation to the foregoing, the Company provides no warranty or undertaking, and makes no representation of any kind that the Service will meet Your requirements, achieve any intended results, be compatible or work with any other software, applications, systems or services, operate without interruption, meet any performance or reliability standards or be error free or that any errors or defects can or will be corrected.

Without limiting the foregoing, neither the Company nor any of the company's provider makes any representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied: (i) as to the operation or availability of the Service, or the information, content, and materials or products included thereon; (ii) that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free; (iii) as to the accuracy, reliability, or currency of any information or content provided through the Service; or (iv) that the Service, its servers, the content, or e-mails sent from or on behalf of the Company are free of viruses, scripts, trojan horses, worms, malware, timebombs or other harmful components.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain types of warranties or limitations on applicable statutory rights of a consumer, so some or all of the above exclusions and limitations may not apply to You. But in such a case the exclusions and limitations set forth in this section shall be applied to the greatest extent enforceable under applicable law.

Governing Law

The laws of the Country, excluding its conflicts of law rules, shall govern this Terms and Your use of the Service. Your use of the Application may also be subject to other local, state, national, or international laws.

Disputes Resolution

If You have any concern or dispute about the Service, You agree to first try to resolve the dispute informally by contacting the Company.

For European Union (EU) Users

If You are a European Union consumer, you will benefit from any mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which you are resident in.

United States Legal Compliance

You represent and warrant that (i) You are not located in a country that is subject to the United States government embargo, or that has been designated by the United States government as a "terrorist supporting" country, and (ii) You are not listed on any United States government list of prohibited or restricted parties.

Severability and Waiver

Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be unenforceable or invalid, such provision will be changed and interpreted to accomplish the objectives of such provision to the greatest extent possible under applicable law and the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.

Waiver

Except as provided herein, the failure to exercise a right or to require performance of an obligation under this Terms shall not effect a party's ability to exercise such right or require such performance at any time thereafter nor shall be the waiver of a breach constitute a waiver of any subsequent breach.

Translation Interpretation

These Terms and Conditions may have been translated if We have made them available to You on our Service.

You agree that the original English text shall prevail in the case of a dispute.

Changes to These Terms and Conditions

We reserve the right, at Our sole discretion, to modify or replace these Terms at any time. If a revision is material We will make reasonable efforts to provide at least 30 days' notice prior to any new terms taking effect. What constitutes a material change will be determined at Our sole discretion.

By continuing to access or use Our Service after those revisions become effective, You agree to be bound by the revised terms. If You do not agree to the new terms, in whole or in part, please stop using the website and the Service.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms and Conditions, You can contact us:

By visiting this page on our website: https://www.maximumfaith.com