#first post of new year yahoo

[addlepine]

holy guacamole skwisgarr and toki, my favorite vocaloid

[a-daks]

bringing this cake to The People is the single most important act of service I've done in my life tbh

I see this headline:

As a former cakewrecks lover, I figured sure, I’ll bite. Let’s see this cake. Literally nothing could have prepared me for this cake. 

They paid $49 for this “frog-themed” cake and honestly no amount of money in the world could be put on this masterpiece:

Keep reading

[ridenwithbiden]

"Native Americans across Indian Country shared mixed emotions this week after President Biden apologized for the U.S. government’s role in running Native American boarding schools across the country.

During the 150-year practice, at more than 400 schools where the U.S. partnered with various religious institutions, Indigenous children were separated from their families and stripped of their language and customs in an effort to assimilate into white culture. There were also documented cases of abuse and death.

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, who is a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe and has been instrumental in bringing these issues to a wider audience through her Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, applauded Biden’s move.

“I'm so grateful to [Biden] for acknowledging this terrible era of our nation's past,” Haaland, whose grandparents were taken to boarding schools, posted on X.

ederal Indian boarding schools have impacted every Indigenous person I know. These were places where children - including my grandparents - were traumatized. I'm so grateful to @POTUS for acknowledging this terrible era of our nation's past.

“I would never have guessed in a million years that something like this would happen,” she told the Associated Press.

At the Gila Crossing Community School near Phoenix, Biden celebrated Haaland’s historic role and apologized today for America’s “sin.”

“It’s an honor, a genuine honor … to right a wrong, to chart a new path,” he said. “I formally apologize as president of the United States of America for what we did. I formally apologize. It’s long overdue.”

However, Indigenous leaders and citizens across the country stressed that this is only the first step.

“This is one of the most historic days in the history of Indian Country, and an apology of this size must be followed by real action,” Nick Tilsen, who belongs to the Oglala Lakota Nation and is president and CEO of the Indigenous rights organization NDN Collective, told Yahoo News.

Tilsen believes that there are specific, actionable steps that need to accompany any apology. For him, that means passing the U.S. Truth and Healing Commission bill in Congress, rescinding medals of honor for those who participated in the Battle of Wounded Knee, releasing “longest living Indigenous political prisoner in American history Leonard Peltier, who is also a boarding school survivor” and “unprecedented investment in Indigenous languages and education.”

Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation Chuck Hoskin celebrated the move, calling out Haaland’s role in particular, and echoed the sentiment of following any apology with action.

“The [Department of the Interior’s] recommendations, especially in the preservation of Native languages and the repatriation of ancestors and cultural items, can be a path toward true healing,” Hoskin said in a statement.

While many Indigenous leaders are calling for action, Tilsen stressed that this is also a time to hold boarding school survivors and their families close.

“At this moment in history, we have to remember many of the survivors of the boarding schools are still alive,” he said. “It's in every household and it's in every community. And it's directly tied to the struggles that our people have today.”

Dylan Rose Goodwill, who is Diné (Navajo), Hunkpapa Lakota and Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota, was visiting Sherman Indian High School in Riverside, Calif., on Thursday when she heard the news about Biden’s forthcoming apology. It’s a place that is part of her family history, as her grandmother (or másáni) was sent there when it served as a federally run Native boarding school.

She told Yahoo News that hearing the news there was “complicated.”

As the senior assistant director of undergraduate admissions at the University of Southern California, Goodwill was visiting the school as a college recruiter.

“I've always had these kinds of mixed feelings because it's been weird to be the admission counselor for the schools that my own grandparents attended,” she said.

“It was already a tough morning to go and then to receive the news on site was really a mixture of feelings because I felt anger mostly, where it was like disbelief that this was happening, excitement that at least it was happening, but also feeling like this isn't enough,” Goodwill added.

Sitting where her grandmother sat in the 1930s and '40s, Goodwill asked herself, “What is that gonna really hold for her now? She passed in '04.”

Biden’s statement comes 16 years after former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized for Canada’s role in the Indigenous residential school system — a topic filmmakers Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie document in their film Sugarcane, about St. Joseph’s Mission School near the Sugarcane reserve in British Columbia.

NoiseCat is a member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen and a descendant of the Lil’wat Nation of Mount Currie and whose grandmother attended the Catholic Church-run residential school and gave birth to his father there. He told Yahoo News that this moment was important for a “continentwide conversation about what happened to Native families and Native children at Native American boarding schools and Indian residential schools.”

Joining Biden and Haaland for the event on the Gila River Indian Reservation along with Kassie, NoiseCat continued, “The fact that the president has chosen to formally apologize to survivors and their families is a real testament to the significance of this story, which needs to be understood as a foundational story to North America.”

However, Kassie echoed that actionable steps must follow sentiment.

“As momentous and important as this day is, it's important that it's followed up with action,” she told Yahoo. “It's important that the records of what happened at these institutions that are held by the U.S. government and the Catholic Church are opened to Indigenous communities who are looking for answers. And it's important that those communities also have the opportunity to hold to account those institutions and individuals who abused them.”

For Tilsen, it’s also a time to “center the survivors.”

“As we sort of politically dissect this moment,” he said, “I also want to recognize the pain that is being resurfaced, and that our people deserve the right to have pain and they deserve the right to have rage in this moment while we lean towards moving forward in action.”

NoiseCat, who has a deeply personal connection to the residential school history, said, “I'm probably going to call my dad today after the apology and just check in with him.”

[olderthannetfic]

You've encountered site changes over time as a fan elder, what do you make of Tumblr potentially being put out to pasture? Tumblr was my coming of age fan site, and im looking for advice to transition to the next thing with grace and less bitterness than I feel now.

--

Ahaha. God, you should have heard the howling about LJ. "Fandom is over!" "Never again shall we dwell in fandom's True Home!" etc.

Hell, this endless "only LJ was good" crap turns up in replies here on posts where I as OP have very clearly laid out why that's rose colored glasses nonsense and you can so make friends on tumblr, have a conversation on tumblr, etc.

I had my crabby phase about this during the transition from Yahoo Groups to LJ. A lot of the real olds had it over paper zines and the transition to the internet.

I don't know if reading these hilariously samey old posts would help. It does give perspective, I think.

--

As for what you should do, do what I did with Tumblr:

1.

Look around to identify the Next Thing fandom is going to camp out on.

It may take a few guesses and some time to figure this out. You will likely not be an early adopter. Fandom was well established here by the time I joined at the end of 2010. Of course, by now, all those 2009 and before accounts are long gone, but at the time, I was a n00b joining other people's space despite having been in fandom for ages.

2.

Don't expect to enjoy it

I didn't join tumblr because I liked it. In fact, I despised it. I kept right on despising it until a brief stint in Sherlock fandom, a fandom that was so active here at the time that I was able to finally see the good aspects of the site's structure and features.

This is the mistake a lot of people make. They give things a cursory try, don't enjoy them, and go "not for me", forgetting that the last site also had a steep learning curve that was either difficult or that they didn't notice because they were in a different phase of their life.

Bitterness and grief are, frankly, an inherent part of the process. You can try not to be a debbie downer in your public comments, but you can't just not feel those things during the awkward part of the transition. Sometimes, acting positive and cutting off excessively negative thoughts can make you feel less negative overall, but it doesn't happen immediately.

3.

Accept that feeling cranky and old is both a you problem and a state of mind, not a property of the new site

Relatedly, the way we remember fandom platform X feeling usually has more to do with us being in college with fandom friends down the hall or having discovered Our People for the first time or some other time when we had a lot of energy and positive emotions. Often, we were in the throes of a first or new fandom love too, probably for some megafandom that other people also cared about at the same time.

When fandom is leaving some site, there's a grieving process anyway, but we're also often in a worse part of our lives for starting new things. We're busy. We're tired. We're between fandoms. We feel like we already paid our dues to build up our community. Why should we have to start again?

But let me tell you, you always need to start again eventually. I go to a weekly vidders' zoom chat, and a lot of the people in there are old as balls, including Kandy, the person who invented vidding back in the 70s. She's a lot of decades and a few cancers in, and she had to relearn how to vid on a computer after transitioning from slideshows to VCR vidding back in the day. If bad health, platform changes, and dead friends were going to stop her, she'd be long gone.

It's like sharks: you stop swimming, you die.

This isn't just about fandom, obviously. It's about avoiding a midlife crisis and, later, about avoiding feeling emotionally geriatric even when your body is falling apart.

Change gets us all, but being mentally old is a choice. The real reason I gave tumblr such a try was that I had been so resistant to getting on LJ. I was 20. Even a year later, it was fucking embarrassing to have been a crotchety old hag as a college student. I promised myself I'd soldier through the next change instead of dragging my feet about it. And it totally worked in the end! But boy did it not make the transition any less unpleasant emotionally!

4.

Find your joy

As is obvious from the above, the vast majority of the problem is just emotions. Fandom has been on a million broken sites with shitty features. We go where the people are, regardless of whether it has the technological aspects we liked at the last place. The actual shape of that platform is largely irrelevant.

What does matter is whether we as an individual fan are still excited and happy about something. I was between fandoms recently and went looking around for BL series I hadn't watched yet. People kept suggesting things set in the present day with too-cheesy production values and too many banal schoolboys in modern day settings without even anything spicy going on. I realized that the BL/danmei scene wasn't really cutting it for me and I should go for production values and genre and non-canon ships. You probably scrolled annoyedly past the picspams that resulted.

(Of course, hilariously, someone has now shown me the trailer of Red Peafowl, so someone may be making BL that feels like it's for me after all. Look at all that badwrong and very dark color grading.)

When you're in a good place emotionally, it's a hell of a lot easier to weather any change, and when you have a new fandom, it's a lot easier to connect with other fans.

A lot of people wait around for lightning to strike twice. They found their first fandom by accident, and they expect it to happen seamlessly again. For me, it's far more productive to brute force it: collect up a big list of what's popular or what's new and go through it till you find things you might like, then try them all.

And part of this, obviously, is not waiting for other fans to make the party happen. The more you need to join something other people are already doing, the less choice you'll have in fandoms or in platforms. If you aren't picky and just go where the tropey longfic is, that can work, but even then, favorite authors disappear or go to fandoms you hate and former megafandoms dry up. If you're the one bringing the party, it's a lot easier to find a new fandom or platform or community to have fun in.

[elennemigo]

★ Let´s start with more press junket for Eric!

Cinescape / Buzz / NME / Heart / Yahoo UK / Splash

2

★ Benedict Cumberbatch breaks down Eric's twists and turns: “It's about the mess of being human” - (GQ Interview.)

4

★ Eric Duo Benedict Cumberbatch, Gaby Hoffmann on Exploring Parental Guilt and Grief - (THR Interview.)

★ Kate McKinnon And Andy Samberg Join Benedict Cumberbatch And Olivia Colman In The Roses At Searchlight.

★ Benedict Cumberbatch Battles Inner Demons in Eric. - Netflix Tudum Interview (including new photoshoot! my post)

5

★ Eric's Benedict Cumberbatch breaks down making of Netflix series puppet .

★ Eric promo played in Times Square, shared by Abi Morgan.

Made by Create Advertising Group

6

Benedict joined the cast of next Wes Anderson film, The Phoenician Scheme.

7

★ Benedict and Olly Tylor rehearsing the dance scene for Eric.

8

★ Benedict Cumberbatch: My family, going grey and the joy of playing miserable roles.

★ Collider´s article about one of Benedict best performances, Patrick Melrose.

11

★ First look at The Roses from the set in Salcombe. (Galleries) (my posts 1 2)

★ SAG-AFTRA Foundation´s Q&A with the cast of Eric, from last month.

12

★ Benedict and Gaby Hoffmann broke down a chilling Eric scene

13

★ A short with Benedict doing voicework for Eric.

★ As its president, Benedict attended LAMDA gala as the host. (clip)

15

★ Benedict Cumberbatch & Gaby Hoffmann Break Down The Story Behind Eric.

16

★ New bts pics shared by Photography Director, Benedict Spence.

21

★ Benedict looked back to iconic roles.

(Confirming as you do, he's back as Doctor Strange bc he's gonna start shooting Avengers 5 next year!)

25

★ Benedict and his wife Sophie, attended the Serpentine Gallery Summer Party, in London. (my post)

Gallery. / Clips: x x x x

✧ ── ⋅ FIN ⋅ ── ✧

Happy to report another busy month! ☺

[marveltrumpshate]

★ AUCTION WEEK INFO ★

We’re 18 hours into the auction, and we’re absolutely thrilled by our progress so far. Thank you! Let’s keep the momentum going.

We have a few important updates to share:

As a reminder, creators who listed Discord as a preferred contact method on their sign-up form must allow everyone to send them friend requests during Auction Week so that interested bidders can reach them (go to User Settings -> Friend Requests -> Everyone).

If you have trouble accessing Tumblr creator posts from our creator list on your phone, please view them on your mobile browser or a computer. Alternatively, you can search for that creator’s name on mthofferings while on the Tumblr mobile app and find their post that way, but the app isn't always reliable.

We have a fantastic feature you should check out if you haven't already: the auction watchlist. You can add auctions to your watchlist once you make an account, and auctions you bid on will automatically be added to it. That way, you can see and keep an eye on all of them on one handy page instead of needing to bookmark separate links.

Bidders will receive outbid emails. Please choose a non-Yahoo email address that you check often to make your bids. Make sure to whitelist wordpress@marveltrumpshate.com and marveltrumpshate@gmail.com as well. This is how we'll contact you if you win an auction, and you'll need to be reachable throughout the next year. You can also add an alternate contact method when you make an account if you check another email or social media account more often. If you add a Discord handle, please refer to the first bullet point.

We’re over the moon about all of the wonderful creators who signed up for Marvel Trumps Hate! One thing to keep in mind when perusing auctions is that while we have some exciting established names on our list, we have a lot of creators who are new to the Marvel fandom (or new to creating works for the fandom) who are also amazing and deserving of bids.

We encourage you to take a chance on creators you discover while looking through our auctions because no matter what you bid on, you’ll be supporting worthy causes. This is your chance to get something for a rarepair you adore or a niche universe in the Marvel fandom, so browse through our extensive tag list and check out the creators offering them. You can also narrow down your search on our auction site by using specific keyword combinations; our search guide can help you there.

Thank you again for your support and patience so far. Let’s keep bidding and spreading the word about everyone’s auctions!

[spikemuths-heartnsoul]

my mum got me a phone cuz im startin' a new year of school soon. so now i got an account on here

name's not important cuz i don't like it. but call me rattata girl again n i'll kick you where it hurts (edit) someone on here asked to call me linoone, so. if you wanna use that, that works

i ain't got pokémon yet. soon as i catch one i'll update with my trainer card n whatever

here's a pic of me

sorry post's short. not much else to say. uh, i mean. i like music. like to sing. so there's that. an' i'm 13

thanks for reading i guess

(uughhhhh guess who. @coldslaws again hiiii

(themes/cws to look out for; struggling with gender identity (piers not mentioning pronouns was deliberate), child abuse/neglect & bullying, and poverty. all major triggers will be tagged as "(trigger) cw". not gonna be a total downer blog though! i'll try to balance the happy and sad)

so here's piers shortly before his trainer journey begins yippee!!! he's a sad little guy please be nice to him. or don't. yahoo! feel free to also check out my behind the scenes rp ramble blog, @coldslaws-gear-station

(anyone can interact! canon, oc, eeby, sapient pkm, etc. you don't have to ask before engaging with me! but if you want a story driven rp thread please dm me first)

(obviously piers is a minor, so dont be weird)

(ooc in parenthesis)

(pelipper mail: on

musharna magic/malice: on

magic anon: off

ic anon hate: on)

(tags to check out;

a humble song☆ - answered asks

shout☆ - posts with art

weeping - piers's venting)

[myconetted]

bah. i have a lot of nostalgia and warm fuzzies about tumblr as a social media platform. i mean, it's where i met my freaking husband. that's why i defend it a lot. but it's also not just that. i really do think tumblr is one of the last Big social media companies to actually put its users first.

which is why it makes me really sad to see people hooting and hollering for joy about photomatt saying the 3-year(?) experiment is over. they put the resources in, did a ton of frontend (and likely backend!) renovations, explored a bunch of different angles for growing the userbase and monetization strategies that don't optimize ad revenue or cater to adfluencer culture.

it was a huge bet and it didn't pan out.

the userbase really doesn't give them enough credit for this. i don't know if you've noticed, but there's a distinct lack of

detailed post analytics with audience demographic breakdowns, view counts, conversion metrics. tumblr blaze gives you the teeniest, tiniest taste of this

ads targeted to your age, race, gender, hobbies, ... it really looks like tumblr lets them target by coarse location and not much else

verified users, not even governments or non-profits. neil gaiman and cory doctorow post here just like any other shmuck. no special badge or display name

revenue share for content creators. there's tipping and posts+, but those are all about users choosing to pay rather than being funded by ads

automattic/tumblr really didn't take easy outs. that doesn't happen unless the user-first values are an integral part of the company's culture. i really truly respect tumblr staff that have been around since yahoo days. you guys didn't sell out. you probably went through a lot of shit, fighting top-down edicts from new owners trying to cash in on all the eyeballs here, and pretty much removed them when changing hands. i remember what that damn oath ad network privacy menu looked like.

so yeah this is just one more sign in a row that's like "TUMBLR IS NOT A FINANCIALLY SUCCESSFUL PLATFORM", and one of those signs might be at the end of the line. all i can do is hang tight, throw a few bucks at it, and enjoy the ride.

[anchorandrope]

Yahoo! is editing old articles about 1D, louis and harry. i noticed this yesterday in only two of them, but now they are A LOT. here are some pics that show they are being edited, they also appear on top when you search with the "published on the past 24 hours" tools on different web browsers, they also show the "edited" tag. more about this here.

Note: the second article and the fourth article that appears in the first picture are new (july 15, 2024) and they talk about euros! but below im listing some old edited ones.

Headlines of the articles they edited:

One Direction's Louis Tomlinson responds to Harry Styles gay fan fiction (posted july 2, 2019)

Harry Styles reminisces on One Direction days (posted july 2, 2024)

Niall Horan speaks out on Harry Styles' sexual assault (posted october 25, 2017)

One Direction's Louis Tomlinson Reveals Why Harry Styles' Success Initially Bothered Him (posted november 9, 2022)

Harry Styles Fuels Gay Rumours After Calling Patrick Dempsey 'Outrageously Handsome And Steamy' (posted november 27, 2014)

One Direction’s Security Aren’t Allowed To Touch Rainbow Bondage Bear (posted october 13, 2015)

One Direction get some Bondi Ink (posted november 28, 2014)

One Direction look hot covered with kisses, team up with Justin Bieber in the studio (posted april 6, 2012)

Here's Why Simon Cowell's Latest Comments On One Direction's Success Are Not Going Down Super Well (posted june 5, 2024)

Zayn Malik And Liam Payne’s Twitter Exchange On One Direction’s Five Year Anniversary Is Everything (posted july 24, 2015)

Simon Cowell launches search for 'new One Direction' (posted june 5, 2024)

[sapphia]

silicon valley had ai 15 years before they released it. everything we’re seeing is a decade old and scraped from the sites literally everybody uses. reddit has chat gpt 10 years ago. reddit had programmes to regurgitate arguments last time trump was elected. they tested it in New Zealand first and one of our journalists nicky hager wrote about it in a book all about political corruption and then those bots that were trained on what was good or bad with upvotes or downvotes or “likes” or “dislikes”. this self-selects which bots are most human-like and have the best ‘answers’. tumblr was the testing ground.

does anyone remember getting bogus asks that were made up of random punctuation and letters? bots. we taught bots to speak by replying to the ones that resembled words. then those bots went around messaging people and no one answered them except themselves. and these bots also had blogs that made posts to try and get upvoted (which told them they were a good tumblr human) and they’d send each other messages and their data centers would mine the messages they received and we’re all still using asks because staff won’t give us a chat for some reason but it’s mostly just porn bots mining data from other bots. silicon valley has to ban porn to deal with the rampant horny porn bots. it mostly works but some of the bots still carry on. yahoo sells us, the worthless userbase, at a massive loss. we laugh at them. they have all our data, hand-extracted.

they give us chat. they begin mining chat for data. it’s still pre-2016

they took the bots trained on our terfs and reddits dudebros and facebooks old people. and they used it in the 2016 election with full chat gpt capability and image generation so that when they released language bots in the future we are dazzled by the words ai and are impressed their at programmes who can by now fully impersonate a human, a thousand humans, but is just telling us wrong wikipedia facts. we laugh at the stupid ai. we continue to vaguely ignore the growing number of bot-like people infesting the internet.

trump just won an election over what the media tells us is a “culture war” while billionaires dripfeed us data mining tech to extract human traits for their ais. they learn through logic and iteration but can’t think for themselves. the right has stagnated, the left grow frustrated with people’s unbudging opinions. but most of the arguments being made are by bots. most people are arguing with bots, bots are arguing with bots. there is a disconnect where influence can be exerted politically.

no one irl wants to mention politics because it’s so divisive. the news talks politics, the bots talk politics. the people do not talk politics.

[cleolinda]

Weekend links

My posts

It was cold. I was under blankets. There were chickens.

What are the current covid vaccine effects like, so I can schedule some time to be laid out? I did not expect this many replies.

Reblogs of interest

Happy New Year! Naughty and delicious children go into the S O U P

Pantone Color of the Year 2024: Peach Fuzz

Tumblr Live is dead... as announced by Tumblr... on Instagram

This post about US tax-filing services has been... updated

“So apparently the pro-Tetris scene is exploding right now because a 13 year old nerd just reached the game’s true killscreen for the first time ever” 

Love a train: “Amtrak doesn’t build new tracks, we use existing tracks. We are not destroying protected lands, we are using land that has already been clear for a century.”

Creators punishing the audience they got for not being the audience they want is extremely real and I will die mad about it. 

While we’re talking about creative mindsets that ruin everything: the mystery box

What’s Clown Code, you ask?

Return of the Rat Gun

Are you a mind wanderer?

“Dangerous” “dogs” behind Beware of Dog signs

BIRD

Video

300 days in 60 seconds

“tarot version of L + Ratio + You Fell Off + Don’t Care + Didn’t ask #laugh.wav”

The sacred texts

Remember that time Yahoo decided to make the site safe for kids?

Always reblog: timeless memes

Personal tag of the week

Apo Whang-Od, the last and oldest living Kalinga tattoo artist, and the posts about the Miss Universe Philippines 2023 gown designed in her honor. So much went into the symbolism of the homage and I am obsessed. 

[real-life-senshi]

Keiko had an interview posted on Yahoo!JP News! - June 24 7am JST due to her voice casting in Sailor Moon Cosmos Part 2! With the help of some translation tools and contextual edits, here's the full interview translated to English!

Kitagawa Keiko, the live-action Sailor Senshi team who she has continued to interact with for 20 years, is her "comrades-in-arms" and "the only place where [she] can open [her] heart."

Surprised by the [anime film voice acting] offer, consults frankly with all the live-action Sailor Senshi

Keiko Kitagawa has been announced as the voice actress for "Sailor Cosmos" in the film version of "Sailor Moon Cosmos," the final chapter of the "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" series. For Kitagawa, who has played the lead and heroine in many dramas and movies, the "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" series is also the starting point of her acting career, as she played the role of Sailor Mars/Hino Rei in the live-action version of "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" (2003-2004). We asked her to talk about her thoughts on returning to such a starting point after 20 years, the role she played, her interactions with the Sailor Senshi, and what she cherished on the 20th anniversary of her debut. (*This article contains some spoilers about "Sailor Cosmos. Please be warned.)

--Keiko Kitagawa-san, you are returning to "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" for the first time in 20 years, and when you were offered the opportunity to voice the character in the anime movie version of "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Cosmos," what were your thoughts? What were your thoughts when you were offered the opportunity to voice the character in the movie version of "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Cosmos"?

Kitagawa: In the year of the 20th anniversary of my debut, and 20 years after the live-action version, I was very happy to be asked to be involved again in a work that I had a connection with. However, when I received the offer, I was very surprised and for a moment I couldn't understand what it meant, so I had to think about it for a while. It is because I also appeared in the live-action version of "Pretty Guardian Sailor" that I have a strong feeling that "Sailor Moon" for us Sailor Senshi has to be Sawai (Miyuu)-san. The character Sailor Cosmos that I will be playing this time is the ultimate form of Sailor Moon in the distant future, so I was really questioning myself "Am I the right person to play the role?". So I contacted all of the live-action Sailor Senshi (Sawai Miyuu, Izumi Rika, Azama Mew, and Komatsu Ayaka) and asked, "What do you guys think I should do?" "Does it feel weird/off for me to take this role?" I openly and honestly shared my thoughts and consulted them on this, and everyone basically responded saying ""Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" is very important to all of us, and would be very happy to see any one of our own live-action Sailor Senshi involved in the anime film. We definitely want you to take it!" Sawai-san said she is really looking forward to it, and with everyone's support, I decided to take on the challenge.

--What did you keep in mind when playing the role?

Kitagawa: Sailor Cosmos is a Sailor Moon from the distant future, and I think there were times when I berated myself, wondering if I had made the wrong choice taking on this role, and I had fought a very long and painful battle. This role is the culmination of all the Sailor Senshi who have fought so hard in past comics, animations, and musicals, including the live-action Sailor Senshi, so I was worried about what kind of voice I should use to make the audience feel this history. This time, I received guidance from Mitsuishi Kotono-san (Tsukino Usagi/Sailor Moon)'s voice acting as an example. I was able to go into the recording session thinking that I wanted to use a soft voice that would gently/warmly embrace everyone, rather than thinking too hard about "transcendent" or "far into the future".

--How did you feel when you saw the completed film?

Kitagawa: Aside from myself, it looks like a collection of eminent legendary voice casts, and I think it is a very exciting work for voice cast (seiyuu) lovers, and the animation technique is amazing and the visual is beautiful. Besides, the story also reminded me of the months that we, the live-action Sailor Senshi, spent together for 14 months.

One of the themes of this film is "I can do my best because of my friends." I have been able to continue this work for 20 years because all the other [live action] Sailor Senshi have been working hard in this (entertainment) world, in each of our own places. There have been times when things didn't go as planned, times when people around me thought things were going well but I wasn't convinced, etc., but even so, all five of us have remained in this industry without quitting. I have always been supported by the thought that since everyone else is giving their best in the entertainment industry, I should do my best as well.

--It's rare for people to stay in touch with their fellow debutantes for 20 years.

Kitagawa: We are all 35 to 37 years old now, and have spent more than half of our lives together, so we no longer feel like mere friends. During filming, we were rivals, and I didn't want to lose, wondering who would stand out, who would get the most main scenes, and so on. But I also felt that we were like comrades-in-arms who had devoted all our energy to the same goal of producing good work.

--What kind of relationship/dynamic do the five of you have?

Kitagawa: In our minds, Sailor Moon Sawai-san is in the center and the other four support her, and the feeling of "I'm going to support and protect this person" grew naturally during the 14 months of filming. The reason why I still call her "Sawai-san" (instead of her first name or nickname) is because of the imagery that we are all protecting and supporting Sawai-san and that she is the center of the team, and the relationship has not changed even today. We respect each other so much that there is almost nothing we don't know about each other, and I feel that this is the only place where I can be completely open and honest.

--No matter how busy you are, it is amazing that you remain always cherishing the work "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" and your relationship with the Sailor Senshi, isn't it?

Kitagawa: No, not at all. (OP clarification; Keiko is disagreeing in the sense she doesn't think this is exceptional.) For example, even if there are times when we don't see each other for 3 or 4 months, everyone is always there, very understanding, and getting along well as usual. They always call me at any gatherings. Everyone encounters good times and not-so-good times, and even if things seem to be going well, maybe the person doesn't feel the same or isn't up for a gathering. But we are still friends just as we were 20 years ago, and because we have each other, it's why I have been able to continue. The amazing thing is that everyone has remained friends with me all these years. Now that I have a child, they sometimes change the timing of our gatherings to lunch or come to my house because I can't go out much at night.

--Women, in particular, often reset their relationships every time they change stages of their lives. It seems that some things are even more so difficult for celebrities.

Kitagawa: That's true. Among my friends from elementary school, junior high school, high school, and university, I only have about one friend other than the Sailor Senshi who I keep in touch with regularly. With most people, we hardly get together anymore as our careers and marital status change and our interests and directions change. It's easy to pause and wonder "Who was it that was my best friend?" In that sense, the Senshi team is really special. They were really happy for me when I got married, everyone came to the wedding reception, and we all sang the song "Friend," which was only included in the (live-action) album.

--That was a truly wonderful event! What kind of existence does "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" mean for you, Kitagawa-san?

Kitagawa: It is my life itself. I've loved "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" since I was 3 or 4 years old, and I collected all the goods I could get my hands on. That my first audition was for "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon," I didn't only find friendships with my fellow Senshi, but also the producers would invite me to work with them again, and it's always so fun to bump into any staff from that time at a different job again. For me, the most fortunate thing in my life was that I was able to make my debut with "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon". It was the beginning of my career, and I don't think I would be where I am now if I hadn't debuted with "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon".

--What are the strengths that you have developed in the 20 years since your debut?

Kitagawa: I think my strength is the fact that I never change. I think it is because I am not that skilled, but it is easier for me to be myself all the time, rather than switching from one persona to another because of work or because of someone else. What I have valued for the past 20 years is the desire to stay true to myself. (OP note: I think Keiko's response is alluding to how in Japanese culture, the ability to switch persona like a chameleon is heralded as a skill of success given their more hierarchical and conservative culture. Also, this is such a badass Hino Rei response???? Keiko I adore you.)

I debuted at the age of 17, and all the while there are people of the same age who have already had 10 years' worth of career experience as child actors, so no matter how smart I pretend to be or how much I pretend to know, I am still a newcomer, and I can't do what I can't do. When I don't know something, it's much better for me to admit and say that I don't know it, and if I don't try to make myself look self-important, and just be myself, I would earn the trust of others. I believe that you cannot be an actor if you are not a proper human being first, so I think that being true to myself and always staying the same is a weapon I have developed over the past 20 years.

(Reporting and writing by 田幸和歌子; Photographs by 小川遼)

The two-part theatrical version of "Sailor Moon Cosmos," "Part 1" is now in theaters, and "Part 2" will be released on June 30.

[nitronine]

Weird Al fandom history tidbits for new(er) fans:

I kinda realized a lot of people on here may not know some of the stuff I’ve found out from my deep dive into the history of the weird Al fandom, and I would really like to just share it.

Alcon 98: Alcon 98 was the first ever weird Al convention! It was set up and run entirely by fans who had met on a yahoo group online, and it was a MAJOR success. Activities at Alcon included a Look-AL-like contest, a lip sync contest, and a general costume contest. Some of Al’s old shirts were auctioned off for charity, and fans set up booths to sell handmade merch and rare collectibles. The guest of honor was Bermuda (Al’s drummer), but he brought Al along too (unbeknownst to the con organizers)! The con went on to have two more iterations (ALCON 2000 and ALCON III) before dying off, unfortunately. If you want to learn more, Dysequilibrium has made a really good documentary about it!

The WOWAY forums: the World of Weird Al Yankovic forums (WOWAY for short) is a general forum for weird Al fans that’s been running for well over 20 years now. While it’s pretty dead nowadays, it’s still up and you can still read all the discussions! Everyone from fans to Al’s band (Bermuda especially) to Al’s college buddies have shown up on the forums, and reading through them can be a really fun experience.

The Yankochicks/Drooling over Al: The Yankochicks were a group of people, primarily women, who were infatuated with Al. The group was a lot more active before he was married, but they didn’t die out after it happened. They had their own forum initially but they moved over to the WOWAY forum to post under a topic called “Drooling Over Al”.

We Got It All On UHF: This website is probably the last remaining “active” Weird Al fansite from back in the day. It’s run by one of the WOWAY mods, Dave Rossi (who also uses the screen name Elvis). Dave is undoubtedly the biggest big name weird Al fan. He has tattoos of all the band members, a GIANT collection of Weird Al tchotchkes and oddities, and co-hosts a Weird Al podcast, one that’s had weird Al on several times. He’s been on TV with Al, as well.

That’s really all I can think of right now, I’ll make another post if I think of anything and if ppl are interested.

[ms-m-astrologer]

The Week Ahead: January 15-21, 2024

Lunar Phases

Thursday, January 18, 03:53 UT - First Quarter Moon, 27°32’ Aries

The key phrases for the First Quarter lunar phase are “take action,” and “build new structures to support our intentions.” We may feel some self-inflicted pressure - or feel cornered - or both. Wait for the Moon to enter Taurus (Thursday the 18th at 08:12 UT) for a smoother, steadier course.

Sunday, January 21, 20:02 UT - Gibbous Moon, 16°16’ Gemini

The key phrases for the Gibbous lunar phase are “tweak and adjust plans as necessary,” and “pour more energy/effort into our intentions.” We’re chatty and not very focused - again, waiting for the Moon to enter the next sign will be helpful. (Monday the 22nd, 21:51 UT).

Void of Course Moon

Tuesday, January 16, 04:33 UT (Pisces) - 04:49 UT (Aries)

(Sixteen minutes….)

Thursday, January 18, 08:03 UT (Aries) - 08:12 UT (Taurus)

(Nine minutes….)

Saturday, January 20, 13:56:56 UT (Taurus) - 13:57:42 UT (Gemini)

(Forty-six seconds….)

Enjoy these brief ones while you can - next Friday/Saturday the 27/28, we get a 22-hour marathon.

Retrograde/Direct/Etc.

Pre-retrograde shadow: Pallas Athene/Scorpio

Retrograde: Juno/Virgo, Vesta/Cancer, Uranus/Taurus

Post-retrograde shadow: Mercury/Capricorn (until Sunday the 21st), Jupiter/Taurus, Saturn/Pisces

Transiting Mercury exits its retrograde zone on Sunday, January 28, 04:03 UT, at 8°29’ Capricorn. Yahoo! The next Rx Zone begins March 18.

Ingresses

Saturday, January 20 - transiting Sun enters Aquarius

Happy Aquarius season! Not the most eventful transit, with few major aspects. What there is, though, whew.

Sunday, January 21 - transiting Pluto enters Aquarius

Everybody is screaming about this, but I’m more concerned with Pluto going back to Capricorn one last time, later this year.

Et Cetera

There are two Opportunity Periods this week:

Monday, January 15, 21:03 UT - Tuesday, January 16, 04:49 UT. “This is a great time to develop and implement ambitious and far-reaching projects.”

Friday, January 19, 18:11 UT - Saturday, January 20, 13:58 UT. “Highly productive time, excellent to invest in what you want to see grow.”

The time when the Moon is in Taurus (Thursday the 18th, 08:12 UT - Saturday the 20th, 13:58 UT) can be tremendously productive - provided we don’t sleep through it. The Moon makes several flowing aspects to the Capricorn and Pisces placements, and we’ll find it very easy to get things done.

[orange-demons-deactivated2024]

Avatar Voice 3

Buckle your seats, everyone, this post is gonna be a doozy.

So I was in the process of making a post of the VAs behind avatar's voice and I stumbled upon this one. In the Credits, they're credited as 'KIMO' with no last name, so I went to the Behind The Voice Actors to find more information about them.

Turns out their full name is Kimo Leopoldo, at least according to IMDb and behind the voice actors website. He didn't have any other works besides this game so he struck my interest.

KIMO (Kimo Leopoldo) is an American retired mixed martial artist and actor. He made his MMA debut at UFC 3 in 1994. A professional from 1994 until 2011, he also competed in the PRIDE Fighting Championships, Cage Rage, and the World Fighting Alliance.

He was credited with a black belt in taekwondo in his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut at UFC 3.

He was most known for carrying a cross with him to the ring.

Leopoldo has worked since 1996 as an actor in independent productions. He starred in the Femme Fatales  episode "Family Business", the direct-to-video production R.I.O.T.: The Movie, and the films The Process, The Dog Problem, In the Closet, Bullet and Avengers Grimm

Although Leopoldo isn't new to acting, this was his first Voice Acting gig according to www.behindthevoiceactors.com.

Also, I think it's kinda cool that he's one of the VA that Voices Avatar in Street Fighter 6.

But here's the weird thing I found:

(Source 1) (Source 2) (Source 3)

All of them mirroring the same thing:

"The former UFC fighter Kimo Leopoldo reportedly died due to complications from a heart attack at the age of 41."

And that it may be due to "having tested positive for anabolic steroids at the end of his career, and later being charged for possession of marijuana."

He was reported to be dead on July 21, 2009. But as you all know, Street Fighter 6 was released on June 2, 2023.

(Source 1)

But doing some further digging, some websites provided an update retracting their original statements or pulling their articles off the internet.

And in during a phone Interview with Yahoo! Sports, he said "I knew I wasn't dead, So when I was reading this I wondered if I was jinxed or something was going to happen."

Leopoldo even appeared at the Orange County Sheriff's office in Santa Ana, Ca. to put an end to rumors of his death that spread rapidly across the Internet.

"It was really strange," Leopoldo said. "I was surprised at how nasty it was. I guess it wasn't a good thing. … I've always had strange things written about me but nothing this bizarre. I couldn't believe it when I searched for my name and I wrote in 'Kimo Leopoldo' and it added the word 'death.' "

Rumors of Leopoldo's demise first appeared on MMA.tv's popular forum, "The Underground." The post reported that Leopoldo died in Costa Rica "of complications from a heart attack."

The report quickly was picked up by the celebrity website TMZ.com, which "confirmed" the death. It later pulled the story without comment. 

But despite this, Leopoldo ended up returning to his life as normal.

I'm not going to go in-depth about Leopoldo's use of certain drugs like Stanozolol or methamphetamine because there's enough information about his business online. So if you want a more in-depth explanation, you're free to look yourself.

Now even though he was listed in the credits, I was still wondering if Kimo Leopoldo is the actual VA. Mostly because the last name wasn't included in the end credit. And there are no other sources that linked to Kimo even mentioning it on his platforms or in previous interviews. Nor any mention of the Street Fighter games in general.

In the game, he is supposed to be voicing a Young (Age) Normal (Tone) Avatar. And Kimo is now 56 years old.

The videos I found of him talking are Here and Here

The first video is 5 years old around the same time that Street Fighter 6 was in production. And his voice slightly resembles Avatar's, a little bit, especially when you're fighting.

Then in the second video, it's a scene when Kimo was on the show Cyborgs which was released back in 2020.

The most recent video of him I could find on YouTube was from 3 years ago in a Video interview. His voice has definitely gotten more raspier. So I think he probably would have done his lines about 4-5 years ago, but who knows.

I personally think it may be someone else, mostly because of how young the VA sounds compared to Kimo. And with new content dropping the VA has a consistent tone to their voice.

But it's possible for Takayuki Nakayama to know of Kimo.

Because Kimo was a pro wrestler who took jobs out in Japan and was undefeated. And since the Street Fighter devs are so well-versed in different styles of fighting, it wouldn't be surprising that they would've heard about Kimo when he signed a contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW).

The Street Fighting devs know about the NJPW because the New Japan Pro Wrestling superstar Kenny Omega stared in the Street Fighter 5 Cody reveal trailer.

But, this is just my theory and speculation. And I wanted to know the VAs behind the Avatars in SF6. I didn't think I would be doing such a deep dive here because my post with the other VAs is nothing like this.

This was all just useless rambling and I'm pretty sure no one really cares but I thought this was interesting and I wanted to talk about it. I also contacted Kimo through IG DMs to ask him personally about it, so I'm still waiting for a response from him. If he does ever get back to me I'll post an update. Thank you for reading to the end.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Ireland's privacy regulator is a gamekeeper-turned-poacher

This Saturday (May 20), I’ll be at the GAITHERSBURG Book Festival with my novel Red Team Blues; then on May 22, I’m keynoting Public Knowledge’s Emerging Tech conference in DC.

On May 23, I’ll be in TORONTO for a book launch that’s part of WEPFest, a benefit for the West End Phoenix, onstage with Dave Bidini (The Rheostatics), Ron Diebert (Citizen Lab) and the whistleblower Dr Nancy Olivieri.

When the EU passed its landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it seemed like a privacy miracle. Despite the most aggressive lobbying Europe had ever seen, 500 million Europeans were now guaranteed a digital private life. Could this really be?

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

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/15/finnegans-snooze/#dirty-old-town

Well, yes…and no. Despite flaws (Right to Be Forgotten), the GDPR has strong, well-crafted, badly needed privacy protections. But to get those protections, Europeans need their privacy regulators to enforce the rules.

That’s where the GDPR miracle founders. Europe includes several tax-havens — Malta, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland — that compete to offer the most favorable terms to international corporations and other criminals. For these havens, paying little to no tax is just table-stakes. As these countries vie to sell themselves out to giant companies, they compete to offer a favorable regulatory environment, insulating companies from lawsuits over corruption, labor abuses and other crimes.

All of this is made possible — and even encouraged — by the design of European federalism, which lets companies easily shift which flag of convenience they fly. Once a company re-homes in a country, it can force Europeans across the union to seek justice in that country’s courts, under the looming threat that the company will up sticks for another haven if the law doesn’t bend over backwards to protect corporate citizens from the grievances of flesh-and-blood humans.

Big Tech’s most aggressive privacy invaders have long flown Irish flags. Ireland is “headquarters” to Google, Meta, Tinder, Apple, Airbnb, Yahoo and many other tech companies. In exchange for locating a handful of jobs to Ireland, these companies are allowed to maintain the pretense that their global earnings are afloat in the Irish Sea, in a state of perfect, untaxable grace.

That cozy relationship meant that the US tech giants were well-situated to sabotage Ireland’s privacy regulator, who would be the first port of call for Europeans whose privacy had been violated by American firms. For many years, it’s been obvious that the Irish Data Protection Commission was a sleeping watchdog, with infinite tolerance for the companies that pretend to make Ireland their homes. 87% of Irish data protection claims involve just eight giant US companies (that pretend to be Irish).

But among for hardened GDPR warriors, the real extent of the Data Protection Commissioner’s uselessness is genuinely shocking. A new report from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties reveals that the DPC isn’t merely tolerant of privacy crimes, they’re gamekeepers turned poachers, active collaborators in privacy abuse:

https://www.iccl.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/5-years-GDPR-crisis.pdf

The report’s headline figure really tells the story: the European Data Protection Board — which oversees Ireland’s DPC — overturns the Irish regulator’s judgments 75% of the time. It’s actually worse than it appears: that figure only includes appeals of the DPC’s enforcement actions, where the DPC bestirred itself to put on trousers and show up for work to investigate a privacy claim, only to find that the corporation was utterly blameless.

But the DPC almost never takes enforcement actions. Instead, the regulator remains in its pajamas, watching cartoons and eating breakfast cereal, and offers an “amicable resolution” (that is, a settlement) to the accused company. 83% of the cases brought before the DPC are settled with an “amicable resolution.”

Corporations can bargain for multiple, consecutive amicable resolutions, allowing them to repeatedly break the law and treat the fines — which they negotiate themselves — as part of the price of doing business.

This is illegal. European law demands that cases that involve repeat offenders, or that are likely to affect many people, must be fully investigated.

Ireland’s government has stonewalled on calls for an independent review of the DPC. The DPC continues to abet lawlessness, allowing corporations to use privacy invasive techniques for surveillance, discrimination and manipulation. In 2022, the DPC concluded 64% of its cases with mere reprimands — not even a slap on the wrist.

Meanwhile, the DPC trails the EU in issuing “compliance orders” — which directly regulate the conduct of privacy-invading companies — only issuing 49 such orders in the past 4.5 years. The DPC has only issues 28 of the GDPR’s “one-stop-shop” fines.

The EU has 26 other national privacy regulators, but under the GDPR, they aren’t allowed to act until the DPC delivers its draft decisions. The DPC is lavishly funded, with a budget in the EU’s top five, but all that money gets pissed up against a wall, with inaction ruling the day.

Despite the collusion between the tech giants and the Irish state, time is running out for America’s surveillance-crazed tech monopolists. The GDPR does allow Europeans to challenge the DPR’s do-nothing rulings in European court, after a long, meandering process. That process is finally bearing fruit: in 2021, Johnny Ryan and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties brought a case in Germany against the ad-tech lobby group IAB:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/16/inside-the-clock-tower/#inference

And the activist Max Schrems and the group NOYB brought a case against Google in Austria:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/15/out-here-everything-hurts/#noyb

But Europeans should not have to drag tech giants out of Ireland to get justice. It’s long past time for the EU to force Ireland to clean up its act. The EU Commission is set to publish a proposal on how to reform Ireland’s DPA, but more muscular action is needed. In the new report, the Irish Council For Civil Liberties calls on the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, to treat this issue with the urgency and seriousness that it warrants. As the ICCL says, “the EU can not be a regulatory superpower unless it enforces its own laws.”

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

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

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/15/finnegans-snooze/#dirty-old-town

[Image ID: A toddler playing with toy cars. The cars are Irish police cars. The toddler's head has been replaced with the menacing, glowing red eye of HAL9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The toddler's knit cap is decorated with the logos for Apple, Google, Facebook and Tinder.]

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en