#features roundup

[righteous-r0de0]

Gavin and Freelancer’s House (apartment)

let’s just say the OF takes off. penthouse apartment for these freaks of nature. they live in the richy rich sector of downtown dahlia (their asses do NOT fit in!!!)(and neither do their friends!!). it’s 3 bed/2 bath but one of the bedrooms is gav’s “home office” wink wink nudge nudge. dami/hux and lasko/dear fight over who gets the guest room when they all stay over

the master bedroom! floor to ceiling windows baby! and thank god they’re high enough that you can’t see through those windows if you know what i’m saying lol. gavin definitely insists on giving fl the nicest things possible with his newfound riches since you know their ass was living off of ramen and cold poptarts at DAMN

what did i say?! floor. to. ceiling. windows. imagine game nights and dinner parties here!! and you know the entire crew has passed out on the couch and rugs before! ugh i’m so in love with all of them

balcony sex. need i say more?

main bath (white) and guest bath (green)! gav is all about luxury! the guest bath is always fully stocked with the nicest version of everything and the softest towels you’ve ever felt in your life. he definitely does target hauls/restocking asmr videos for his large tiktok following

if you haven’t noticed, there’s a touch of gold in everything. gav loves gold. do they use the kitchen or dining room very often? absolutely not. but there’s gold sinks, gold appliances. are you picking up what i’m putting down?

color palette!!

who next?

taglist and pinterest board below the cut

@zimix-whispers @milogreersleftdresssock @wilted-rose-posts @int3rtwiningh3artstrings @froggytimemachineinternet

[sysig]

Cards 👏 cards 👏 cards 👏 (Patreon)

[mlobsters]

listening to this while i work on gifs and it's a lot of atmospheric outdoor noises mixed in that sets a very particular mood and yeah.

[bookstackxyz]

Check out books by order

Best of October 2015!

Stuffed Crust Pizza

Roasted Vegan Thanksgiving Bowl

Minimalist Baker pumpkin cinnabuns topped with Oh She Glows salted pumpkin spice syrup made by yours truly :D

Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Roasted Teriyaki Mushrooms and Broccolini Soba Noodles

Smoky Black Bean Burgers with Guacamole and Plantain Chips

Balsamic Glazed Peaches and Black Bean Burger with Cheesy Cashew Sauce

Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake (GF)

Vegan Cheesy Chive Biscuits

Deep Fried Mac n Cheese

[esperanzapretila]

Noah’s Quest® Insights: Holiday Ideas that Spark a Child’s Imagination

Get ready to make the holidays extra magical with this instalment of the Noah’s Quest® Insights series! Part of our Holiday Quest Path, these fun and creative holiday activities are great for sparking your child’s imagination and having your family time.

Get ready to make the holidays extra magical with this instalment of the Noah’s Quest® Insights series! Part of our Holiday Quest Path, these fun and creative holiday activities are great for sparking your child’s imagination and bringing the whole family together for unforgettable moments. The Polar Express: A Magical Journey One of the best holiday-themed books to spark kids’ imaginations is…

[alpjandsons]

Noah’s Quest® Insights: Holiday Ideas that Spark a Child’s Imagination

Get ready to make the holidays extra magical with this instalment of the Noah’s Quest® Insights series! Part of our Holiday Quest Path, these fun and creative holiday activities are great for sparking your child’s imagination and having your family time.

Get ready to make the holidays extra magical with this instalment of the Noah’s Quest® Insights series! Part of our Holiday Quest Path, these fun and creative holiday activities are great for sparking your child’s imagination and bringing the whole family together for unforgettable moments. The Polar Express: A Magical Journey One of the best holiday-themed books to spark kids’ imaginations is…

[samwaverley]

Noah’s Quest® Insights: Holiday Ideas that Spark a Child’s Imagination

Get ready to make the holidays extra magical with this instalment of the Noah’s Quest® Insights series! Part of our Holiday Quest Path, these fun and creative holiday activities are great for sparking your child’s imagination and having your family time.

Get ready to make the holidays extra magical with this instalment of the Noah’s Quest® Insights series! Part of our Holiday Quest Path, these fun and creative holiday activities are great for sparking your child’s imagination and bringing the whole family together for unforgettable moments. The Polar Express: A Magical Journey One of the best holiday-themed books to spark kids’ imaginations is…

[sallymajors]

Noah’s Quest® Insights: Holiday Ideas that Spark a Child’s Imagination

Get ready to make the holidays extra magical with this instalment of the Noah’s Quest® Insights series! Part of our Holiday Quest Path, these fun and creative holiday activities are great for sparking your child’s imagination and having your family time.

Get ready to make the holidays extra magical with this instalment of the Noah’s Quest® Insights series! Part of our Holiday Quest Path, these fun and creative holiday activities are great for sparking your child’s imagination and bringing the whole family together for unforgettable moments. The Polar Express: A Magical Journey One of the best holiday-themed books to spark kids’ imaginations is…

[rachellepryce]

Noah’s Quest® Insights: Holiday Ideas that Spark a Child’s Imagination

Get ready to make the holidays extra magical with this instalment of the Noah’s Quest® Insights series! Part of our Holiday Quest Path, these fun and creative holiday activities are great for sparking your child’s imagination and having your family time.

Get ready to make the holidays extra magical with this instalment of the Noah’s Quest® Insights series! Part of our Holiday Quest Path, these fun and creative holiday activities are great for sparking your child’s imagination and bringing the whole family together for unforgettable moments. The Polar Express: A Magical Journey One of the best holiday-themed books to spark kids’ imaginations is…

[spotlyts]

Renewable Energy Innovations Boosting Green Economy

Here’s a roundup of leaders and thinkers' insights on how renewable energy innovations are boosting the green economy.

As the world grapples with climate change and environmental degradation, the push toward a greener economy has never been more crucial. Renewable energy innovations are at the forefront of this shift, driving the transition to sustainable practices and shaping the future of energy consumption. From solar and wind to emerging technologies, these advancements are not only transforming the energy…

[techgeeksite]

The Best QLED TVs of 2023

QLED TVs promise to offer fantastic picture quality, but in a market full of televisions with quantum dot technology, it can be hard to choose the best. To help, we have handpicked the best QLED TVs you can buy. UPDATE: 02/13/2023 We’ve updated our buying guide with some of the newest QLED TVs. Take a look! What to Look for in a QLED TV in 2023 While QLED TVs are essentially LED TVs with an…

[rinkmason]

XGIMI Elfin Mini Projector Review

Are you searching for a portable projector that combines powerful performance with compact design? Look no further than the XGIMI Elfin Mini Projector. This innovative device is here to solve the problem of enjoying a big-screen experience on the go. With its exceptional features and versatility, the XGIMI Elfin Mini Projector is a game-changer in the world of portable projection. Let’s delve…

[ezrazone]

picture roundup for the al manasra family featuring art by friends and by me. fundraising on social media is so bleak at the moment; every day more and more people are screaming for help. none of this is fair. i made a promise to this family and cannot make any new promises. please at the very least help prevent these babies from losing their mother. every day counts.

the Al Manasra family is vetted #192 here by El-Shab Hussein and Nablusi.

mohamed’s Tumblr page is @save-mohamed-family here is a post about their current goal that links to an additional FAQ you can alternatively donate to Mohamed’s still-active GOFUNDME page if you have an issue with Chuffed.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Thinking the unthinkable

On SEPTEMBER 24th, I'll be speaking IN PERSON at the BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY!

Time and again, I find myself thinking about radium suppositories: specifically, I get to thinking about the day that the consensus shifted from "radium suppositories are great" to "stop putting radioisotopes up your ass."

The thing is, people really liked radium-based quack remedies. They drank radium-infused water, smeared radium cream on their faces and bodies, and yes, rammed radium suppositories up their assholes:

https://maximumfun.org/episodes/sawbones/radium-girls/

The fact that this made whatever ailed you sicker didn't deter the radium true believers: if you're getting sicker, then you must need more radium.

When I think about the debate over radium, I imagine that the people who understood that radium was really bad for you must have run up against critics who told them they were being unreasonable. "You can't tell people to stop using radium. Tell them to use suppositories with less radium. Tell them to use them less frequently. But you can't just tell people, 'stop putting radium up your asshole.' They won't take you seriously."

About 20 years ago, I started pitching various institutions that reviewed consumer tech policy on the idea that they should reject any product that had DRM. After all, DRM didn't just restrict how you used a gadget today, it provided a facility for nonconsensually, irreversibly field-updating that gadget to add new restrictions tomorrow. How could a reviewer in good conscience say, "Go ahead and buy this device if you need this feature," if they knew that at any time in the future, the gadget's maker could take that feature away and leave the buyer with no recourse?

Here's the warning I (half-seriously) suggested magazines run alongside such products:

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

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

No one took me up on my offer. Over and over again, magazine editors, managers of nonprofit review outlets, and indie gadget reviewers told me that it was unrealistic to publish a roundup of, say, this year's portable music players with the recommendation, "Just don't buy any of these. None of them are fit for purpose."

In other words: No one wanted to publish, "The correct amount of radium to stuff up your asshole is zero."

But the correct amount of rectal radium for you to administer is "none" and the correct car for you to buy today is none of the cars:

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/

This isn't the first time the correct automotive recommendation was "don't buy any of these cars." Back before seatbelts came standard in cars, the correct car was "don't buy a car." Sometimes, the correct answer is "none of the above." Even if that makes you sound unserious, the alternative is that you counsel people to put radium up their asses in a bid to seem "reasonable."

Today, DRM-infected products are routinely downgraded and bricked:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/5/24236237/ftc-software-tethering-letter-consumer-reports-ifixit

Even when companies face public uproar over these disastrous decisions and vow to reverse them, they can't, because these downgrades are one way:

https://www.stereocheck.com/news/music/unfortunately-you-cant-revert-to-the-old-sonos-app-anymore/

That's bad enough when it's your smart speakers, but what about when the company bricks your wheelchair:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/06/when-drm-comes-your-wheelchair

Or your $100,000 exoskeleton:

https://paulickreport.com/news/people/paralyzed-jockey-michael-straight-wants-to-keep-walking-but-manufacturer-wont-repair-exoskeleton

The reality is that we're living at the end of a catastrophic experiment in deregulation and its handmaidens, corruption and regulatory capture, and there are lots of "normal" things that we just need to stop doing. Not do less of them – just stop.

Like, the correct amount of collusion between realtors representing sellers and realtors representing buyers is zero:

https://www.latimes.com/business/real-estate/story/2024-03-19/realtor-rules-just-changed-dramatically-heres-what-buyers-and-sellers-can-expect

We got that one right, but there's plenty more that we're still engaged in this pathetic, denialist bargaining over. What's the correct degree to which White House officials should cycle back into working at the industries they oversaw? Zero. How many times should such a person come back to work at the White House? Again: zero:

https://prospect.org/power/2024-09-19-next-administration-can-stop-ethics-scandals/

When the Biden admin dropped its executive order on ethics just hours after the inauguration, they trumpeted that it "went further than any other towards slowing the revolving door and limiting conflicts of interest while in office":

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-ethics-commitments-by-executive-branch-personnel/

And it did. But it was also full of loopholes, because banning these conflicts of interest altogether was viewed as politically unserious, so the correct amount of radium up the administration's asshole was set at non-zero. The result? Well, it's about what you'd expect:

https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/what-the-hell-is-anita-dunn-even-allowed-to-work-on/

Congress hasn't updated consumer privacy law since 1988, when it took the bold step of…banning video-store clerks from telling the newspapers which VHS cassettes you took home. Since then, a coalition of commercial surveillance companies and the cops and spies who treat their data-lakes as massive, off-the-books anaerobic lagoons of warrantless surveillance data has prevented the passage of any new privacy protections for Americans.

The result? Stalkers, creeps, spies (both governmental and corporate), identity thieves, spearphishers and other villainous scum are running wild, endangering every American's financial, physical and political wellbeing. The correct amount of commercial data-brokerage for America is zero:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy

In other words, we should order every data-broker, every tech giant, every consumer electronics company and app vendor to delete all their surveillance data. All of it. The correct amount of radium in that asshole is – as with every other orifice zero:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/07/revealed-preferences/#extinguish-v-improve

From the perspective of the radium pitchmen, the most shocking thing about the past four years has been antitrust enforcers – like Lina Khan, Rohit Chopra, and Jonathan Kanter – who refused to bargain about how much radium we needed to stick up our butts. Fearless of being branded as "unserious" and "unreasonable," they seriously, reasonably said the right amount is none, actually.

None. Which is why they're so mad at Khan and co. Which is why they're so bent on getting Kamala Harris to fire Khan – despite the fact that this would burn precious political capital in the senate. Some people just love the feeling they get from a radium suppository – especially the suppository salesmen:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-09-19-lina-khan-doesnt-need-to-be-confirmed-again/

The paperback edition of The Lost Cause, my nationally bestselling, hopeful solarpunk novel is out this month!

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/19/just-stop-putting-that-up-your-ass/#harm-reduction/a>

Image: Museum of the Health Sciences https://www.uab.edu/amhs/

[radliftist]

back/chest/arms roundup featuring @usefulandgay

[cha-melodius]

2024 Writing Roundup

This one went around last year but I don't THINK I've seen it turn up this year? If it has, please excuse me, especially if you tagged me. 😂

This month marks the 36th month in a row that I've published at least one fic—since January 2022. Insane, I know, but I'm very proud of this streak, especially keeping it going in the midst of writing/posting long fics. I published 17 fics this year, which was considerably fewer than my 31 last year, but my wordcount was almost the same (more stats coming in my year in review at the actual end of the year). Here they are, by month!

JANUARY

Trying My Patience (Try Pink Carnations) (RWRB, E, 5.7k) Florist!Henry and cake artist!Alex have to work together for a wedding last minute

FEBRUARY

Ain't No Place for a Better Man (Lokius, M, 3k) Old west AU, the notorious bandit Loki tangles with gun-for-hire Mobius

MARCH

False Dichotomy (RWRB, E, 62k) You've Got Mail AU, indie bookstore owner Alex and corporate bookstore heir Henry fall in love over email

APRIL

So Close to Something Better Left Unknown (RWRB, E, 20.2k) CIA agent Alex and MI6 agent Henry unwillingly collaborate a mission where Henry gets dosed with a sex pollen drug

The Hazards of Unsolicited Toy Advice (RWRB, T, 2.2k) Henry gives Alex dog toy advice at the pet store.

The Impossible Soul (RWRB, M, 7.2k) Westworld-esque AU. First Son Alex falls in love with an android named Henry at Kensington Palace

MAY

No Ordinary Friend (The Pairing, M, 3.5k) The Calums' story, from Monaco to Palermo

JUNE

Kiss Me Like You Mean It (Firstprince Edition) Kiss Me Like You Mean It (Lokius Edition) Various kiss ficlets from tumblr prompts

Body and Soul(mate) (RWRB, E, 39k) Soulmate bodyswap AU featuring MI6 agent Henry and lawyer Alex, who gets unwillingly pulled into the thick of a mission

JULY

Our Get Along Oodie (RWRB, E, 7.7k) Grad student AU; 3 times Alex and Henry were forced to share the couples oodie and 1 when they shared because they wanted to

AUGUST

Tonight, You're Gold (RWRB, M, 6k) Olympics AU feat. beach volleyball Alex and sailor Henry, accidental roommates in the Olympic Village

SEPTEMBER

Flowers Only Grow Where There Are Seeds (RWRB, T, 4.1k) FSOTUS Alex falls in love with a White House gardener

OCTOBER

Infinitely Late at Night (RWRB, T, 2.7k) Alex is pretty sure the man at the Waffle House in the middle of the night is a vampire

NOVEMBER

Desperate Measures (Lokius, T, 5.3k) When a mission gone wrong strands them on a hostile planet, Loki pushes himself to his limits in order to save Mobius' life

DECEMBER

Since I Memorized Your Face (RWRB, E, 24k) Alex and Henry hooked up in college and find each other 20 years later—oh yeah, and they're soulmates

Not the Hero (RWRB, E, 61k) Fall Guy AU. Stuntman Alex and Director Henry are exes who have to work together on a movie, until the lead actor disappears

[Redacted] (TMFU) My fill for the annual TMFU winter holiday gift exchange.

Ok! Tagging a bunch of folks! @cricketnationrise @rmd-writes @clottedcreamfudge @tintagel-or-cockleshells @firenati0n

@blueeyedgrlwrites @iboatedhere @pippinoftheshire @porcelainmortal @thesleepyskipper

@kiwiana-writes @justabigoldnerd @three-drink-amy @eusuntgratie @faketrex

@orchidscript @loki-is-my-kink-awakening @14carrotghoul @sparklepocalypse @too-young-to-fall-in-love

@welcometololaland @indestructibleheart @myheartalivewrites @ninzied @suseagull5914

@leaves-of-laurelin @nicijones @mirilyawrites @onthewaytosomewhere @getmehighonmagic