#primary investigation

[doomspaniels]

[jinxedshapeshifter]

I genuinely might have to analyze the similarities between Sholmes's dynamics with Ryunosuke and Yujin. There's no way elements of his dynamic with Ryunosuke aren't also present in his dynamic with Yujin. Thinking about the why of the similarities is genuinely heartbreaking too

[adrianicsea]

reading more of men women and chainsaws and for a book that purports not to deal too much with homoerotic/queer readings of the slasher subgenre, there sure is a lot of homoerotic and queer reading of the slasher subgenre in this first chapter

[radicalrobotz]

ohh dont think i ever posted these two on here yet they were just made up on the spot back when i doodled em.. and you might be able to guess which one i liked the most

[hyperfixatinator]

I'm tempted to make Sebastian work for Interpol during the AAI3 game in my head.

[quillvice]

"was there a reason you didn't cancel this" honestly I thought I had so no there wasn't a reason but also if clients are going to have Your personal number and reach out to You about canceling (when they Should be reaching out via email per our cancelation policy) then You should be canceling the appt anyway imo. all the other trainers cancel their appointments AND add their appointments to the system 🤪

[formosusiniquis]

okay but what if I did a vandal rewatch and wrote about them having to deal with the approach of their 30s??

[gay-jesus-probably]

Also speaking of my Fallen London OC's pls look at these picrews I made of the disaster lesbian polycule, because I'm very pleased with how they turned out

From left to right, Professor Izora Gay, unsure how she got involved in the drama but in too deep to quit now, Josephine Knight, creating 90% of the drama with her refusal to chill the fuck out, and Nova Porter, very much aware of the drama but an expert at pretending to be oblivious to it. Don't worry about the candle she's holding, I'm sure it doesn't imply anything ominous about her character arc.

Not pictured: Ezra Hart, the very creatively named protagonist for Heart's Desire, who finds the disaster polycule morbidly fascinating, but you couldn't fucking pay him to get involved. My man is way too aroace for this, he did not survive polio to put up with people's relationship drama. Who needs romance when you have a Victorian Yugioh tournament?

[existentia1dread]

my dad has a career in accident reconstruction and i think this is a big part of why i am a decent driver

[juny-in-the-citycounty]

Which gods "canonically" had dark skin and can you provide sources?

Search for this: Zeus: ‍Σκοτιτας ‍Skotitas, it might be more related to the darkness of the skies that he brings but it is interesting that he is related to the dark as well. https://lsj.gr/wiki/%CF%83%CE%BA%CE%BF%CF%84%CE%AF%CF%84%CE%B1%CF%82

List of all Epithets of Dionysus:

You can see mentioned: Oenops (wine-faced) or Oinops (wine-dark/wine-faced). Yes, dark wined like the dark sea.

For more linguistic discussion of the word: https://kosmossociety.org/searching-for-oinops/

Here it is mentioned that they called the same tone the bulls in relation to Dionysus: https://docta.ucm.es/rest/api/core/bitstreams/968a302d-54ae-4b52-b59c-c7c7a6f22978/content

well, the bulls in the mediterranean area: https://s3.abcstatics.com/abc/www/multimedia/opinion/2024/05/03/toros-tribuna-abierta-U55606351246OZe-1024x512@diario_abc.jpg

From the cult of Heroes we have the epithet of dark-faced Pelops. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/intranets/students/modules/greekreligion/database2/template-copyb

And also referring to pre-greek, Fenician and other deities that merged with Greek ones. Let’s not forget that there are so many local representations of the deities because the greek people had colonies all around the Mediterranean.

actually the cult of goddesses that had dark skin is typical throughout the Mediterranean area and even in my country Catalonia, we have a patron who used to be a mountain goddess (Christianized now is another Mother of God: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgen_de_Montserrat

Hm...this statue of La Verge de Montserrat seems familiar...Oh yes!: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hen-magonza/48061547101/

Artemis of Ephesus was also represented dark skinned.

Andromeda: https://www.theroot.com/gateway/black-actors-and-films-that-shouldve-won-oscars-but-di-1851766836

This is just a quick search of 15-20 minutes, since I have little time in between my two jobs and trying to write a doctoral thesis...Sorry I can’t be of much help here. I suggest talking with classicists, I'm unfortunately not one of them. I'm just a mere polytheistic practitioner that's all. And next, this is just my personal opinion since I was born here in the Mediterranean and this is just the religion that was practiced here (the ruins of an Apollo-Diana temple are just 10 minutes away from my building in fact) The thing is, the Gods as seen and represented are originally from the Mediterranean area, I mean ALL of it, including parts of Africa. If they weren’t black skinned then they were ‘golden skinned’ like one of the Hekate's epithets if you need to know what kind of skin tone I’m talking about I suggest you visit either the south of Italy or the South of Spain. Real living people have this skin tone. The most typical feature you can find here is people who have dark hair and this type of skin tone.

[ranger-danger]

Okay yeah the first chapter of the film noir au is going to be pretty damn long. A lot of editing to make sure the pacing and flow works, might have to split it up into two chapters and release them at the same time. It probably needs a prologue too. Also I need to make Lae a girlfriend.

But! I have the playlist done. Not that that does anything.

[forensicfield]

What is Cyber Forensics?

Continue reading What is Cyber Forensics?

[ai-art-thieves]

It's Time To Investigate SevenArt.ai

sevenart.ai is a website that uses ai to generate images.

Except, that's not all it can do.

It can also overlay ai filters onto images to create the illusion that the algorithm created these images.

And its primary image source is Tumblr.

It scrapes through the site for recent images that are at least 10 days old and has some notes attached to it, as well as copying the tags to make the unsuspecting user think that the post was from a genuine user.

No image is safe. Art, photography, screenshots, you name it.

Initially I thought that these are bots that just repost images from their site as well as bastardizations of pictures across tumblr, until a user by the name of @nataliedecorsair discovered that these "bots" can also block users and restrict replies.

Not only that, but these bots do not procreate and multiply like most bots do. Or at least, they have.

The following are the list of bots that have been found on this very site. Brace yourself. It's gonna be a long one:

@giannaaziz1998blog

@kennedyvietor1978blog

@nikb0mh6bl

@z4uu8shm37

@xguniedhmn

@katherinrubino1958blog

@3neonnightlifenostalgiablog

@cyberneticcreations58blog

@neomasteinbrink1971blog

@etharetherford1958blog

@punxajfqz1

@camicranfill1967blog

@1stellarluminousechoblog

@whwsd1wrof

@bnlvi0rsmj

@steampunkstarshipsafari90blog

@surrealistictechtales17blog

@2steampunksavvysiren37blog

@krispycrowntree

@voucwjryey

@luciaaleem1961blog

@qcmpdwv9ts

@2mplexltw6

@sz1uwxthzi

@laurenesmock1972blog

@rosalinetritsch1992blog

@chereesteinkirchner1950blog

@malindamadaras1996blog

@1cyberneticdreamscapehubblog

@neomasteinbrink1971blog

@neonfuturecityblog

@olindagunner1986blog

@neonnomadnirvanablog

@digitalcyborgquestblog

@freespiritfusionblog

@piacarriveau1990blog

@3technoartisticvisionsblog

@wanderlustwineblissblog

@oyqjfwb9nz

@maryannamarkus1983blog

@lashelldowhower2000blog

@ovibigrqrw

@3neonnightlifenostalgiablog

@ywldujyr6b

@giannaaziz1998blog

@yudacquel1961blog

@neotechcreationsblog

@wildernesswonderquest87blog

@cybertroncosmicflow93blog

@emeldaplessner1996blog

@neuralnetworkgallery78blog

@dunstanrohrich1957blog

@juanitazunino1965blog

@natoshaereaux1970blog

@aienhancedaestheticsblog

@techtrendytreks48blog

@cgvlrktikf

@digitaldimensiondioramablog

@pixelpaintedpanorama91blog

@futuristiccowboyshark

@digitaldreamscapevisionsblog

@janishoppin1950blog

The oldest ones have been created in March, started scraping in June/July, and later additions to the family have been created in July.

So, I have come to the conclusion that these accounts might be run by a combination of bot and human. Cyborg, if you will.

But it still doesn't answer my main question:

Who is running the whole operation?

The site itself gave us zero answers to work with.

No copyright, no link to the engine where the site is being used on, except for the sign in thingy (which I did.)

I gave the site a fake email and a shitty password.

Turns out it doesn't function like most sites that ask for an email and password.

Didn't check the burner email, the password isn't fully dotted and available for the whole world to see, and, and this is the important thing...

My browser didn't detect that this was an email and password thingy.

And there was no log off feature.

This could mean two things.

Either we have a site that doesn't have a functioning email and password database, or that we have a bunch of gullible people throwing their email and password in for people to potentially steal.

I can't confirm or deny these facts, because, again, the site has little to work with.

The code? Generic as all hell.

Tried searching for more information about this site, like the server it's on, or who owned the site, or something. ANYTHING.

Multiple sites pulled me in different directions. One site said it originates in Iceland. Others say its in California or Canada.

Luckily, the server it used was the same. Its powered by Cloudflare.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what to do with any of this information.

If you have any further information about this site, let me know.

Until there is a clear answer, we need to keep doing what we are doing.

Spread the word and report about these cretins.

If they want attention, then they are gonna get the worst attention.

[fortfried]

All my horrible core memories have some white woman attached to it. What's that about?

[fozmeadows]

There's a lot of conversations to be had around the current influx of Americans to Xiaohongshu (RedNote/Little Red Book) ahead of the TikTok ban, many of which are better articulated by more knowledgeable people than me. And for all the fun various parties of both nationalities seem to having with memes and wholesome interactions, it's undoubtedly true that there's also some American entitlement and exoticization going on, which sucks. But a sentiment I've seen repeatedly online is that, if it's taken actually speaking to Chinese people and viewing Chinese content for Americans to understand that they've been propagandized to about China and its people, then that just proves how racist they are, and I want to push back on that, because it strikes me as being a singularly reductive and unhelpful framing of something far more complex.

Firstly: while there's frequently overlap between racism and xenophobia, the distinction between them matters in this instance, because the primary point of American propaganda about China is that Communism Is Fundamentally Evil And Unamerican And Never Ever Works, and thinking a country's government sucks is not the same as thinking the population is racially inferior. The way most Republicans in particular talk about China, you'd think it was functionally indistinguishable from North Korea, which it really isn't. Does this mean there's no critique to be made of either communism in general or the CCP? Absolutely not! But if you've been told your whole life that communist countries are impoverished, corrupt and dangerous because Communism Never Works, and you've only really encountered members of the Chinese diaspora - i.e., people whose families left China, often under traumatic circumstances, because they thought America would be better or safer - rather than Chinese nationals, then no: it's not automatically racist to be surprised that their daily lives and standard of living don't match up with what you'd assumed. Secondly: TikTok's userbase skews young. While there's certainly Americans in their 30s and older investigating Xiaohongshu, it seems very reasonable to assume that the vast majority are in their teens or twenties - young enough that, barring a gateway interest in something like C-dramas, danmei or other Chinese cultural products, and assuming they're not of Chinese descent themselves, there's no reason why they'd know anything about China beyond what they've heard in the news, or from politicians, or from their parents, which is likely not much, and very little firsthand. But even with an interest in China, there's a difference between reading about or watching movies from a place, and engaging firsthand, in real time, with people from that place, not just through text exchanges, but in a visual medium that lets you see what their houses, markets, shopping centers, public transport, schools, businesses, infrastructure and landmarks look like. Does this mean that what's being observed isn't a curated perspective on China as determined both by Xiaohongshu's TOU and the demographic skewing of its userbase? Of course not! But that doesn't mean it isn't still a representative glimpse of a part of China, which is certainly more than most young Americans have ever had before.

Thirdly: I really need people to stop framing propaganda as something that only stupid bigots fall for, as though it's possible to natively resist all the implicit cultural biases you're raised with and exist as a perfect moral being without ever having to actively challenge yourself. To cite the sacred texts:

Like. Would the world be a better place if everyone could just Tell when they're being lied to and act accordingly? Obviously! But that is extremely not how anything actually works, and as much as it clearly discomforts some to witness, the most common way of realizing you've been propagandized to about a particular group of people is to interact with them. Can this be cringe and awkward and embarrassing at times? Yes! Will some people inevitably say something shitty or rude during this process? Also yes! But the reality is that cultural exchange is pretty much always bumpy to some extent; the difficulties are a feature, not a bug, because the process is inherently one of learning and conversation, and as individual people both learn at different rates and have different opinions on that learning, there's really no way to iron all that out such that nobody ever feels weird or annoyed or offput. Even interactions between career diplomats aren't guaranteed smooth sailing, and you're mad that random teenagers interacting through a language barrier in their first flush of enthusiasm for something new aren't doing it perfectly? Come on now.

Fourthly: Back before AO3 was banned in China, there was a period where the site was hit with an influx of Chinese users who, IIRC, were hopping over when one of their own fansites got shut down, which sparked a similar conversation around differences in site etiquette and how to engage respectfully. Which is also one of the many things that makes the current moment so deeply ironic: the US has historically criticized China for exactly the sort of censorship and redaction of free speech that led to AO3 being banned, and yet is now doing the very same thing with TikTok. Which is why what's happening on Xiaohongshu is, IMO, such an incredible cultural moment: because while there are, as mentioned, absolutely relevant things to be said about (say) Chinese censorship, US-centrism, orientalism and so on, what's ultimately happening is that, despite - or in some sense because of - the recent surge in anti-Chinese rhetoric from US politicians, a significant number of Americans who might otherwise never have done so are interacting directly with Chinese citizens in a way that, whatever else can be said of it, is actively undermining government propaganda, and that matters.

What it all most puts me in mind of, in fact, is a quote from French-Iranian novelist and cartoonist Marjane Satrapi, namely:

“The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same.”

And at this particular moment in history, this strikes me as being a singularly powerful realization for Americans in particular to have.

[gacorley]

There’s some common threads I see in the anti-voting posts going around, and I feel like I need to discuss some of them. Let’s start with the biggest one:

Voting to punish evil. I see lots of variations of this. Biden is supporting Israel, therefore we can’t vote for him. Is there any viable candidate who would stop the genocide? I don’t think the anti voting crowd actually cares. They are appealing to moral feelings rather than political strategy, because strategically, you have to realize that voting is not going to change foreign policy, and that change has to be pushed by other means. It’ll probably be something in the long haul.

Democrats should run someone else. First of all, this is a shit strategy. You don’t primary your president in the second term unless your party is falling apart. This may come from people from countries where replacing the head of government is easier, but the POTUS is the de facto party head. Also, going to the lack of thought to the goal — do you know someone willing to primary Biden and able to win who would do the things you want?

Biden hasn’t done anything anyway. This is just a way to bat away pro arguments. There’s plenty of lists of progress on lots of things. Student loans, insulin price caps, regulations, anti-trust.

Putting the entire Palestinian genocide on Biden. I’m not saying there’s not culpability there, but understand that the entire US government is in support of Israel, on both sides. It was a miracle we got a handful of Senators to call for investigations. We should cut off aid, absolutely. Who’s running to do that? And keep in mind that Israel chose to engage. US officials would have liked a more limited response, not out of care for Palestinians, but because they know from experience that it will come back to bite Israel in the form of newly radicalized Hamas recruits.

Liberals just have no hope for change. This is a new one. Just some idea that people are stuck in a rut and that’s the reason the two party system exists. The two party system is a mathematical consequence of the way we vote. There is reason to hope for change. The change, though, whatever means you choose, will take decades. Keep working at it. The hope is not that this election will fundamentally change things. The hope is that many small political actions over the years will push things forward.

Funnily enough, I haven’t seen a whole lot of third party promotion, just lots of this rhetoric aiming to punish. When voting, ask yourself:

Is this problem I have with this candidate something that the other candidate would be better on?

Are there other political actions I can take that will help?

What things can change with a different President or Congress, and what needs to be pursued by other means?

Withholding your vote as a punishment isn’t really going to help. Biden doesn’t know who you are or why you are not voting for him, and there is no one with a chance of winning that will do everything you want. But you have other means. Protest, organize, donate, build up alternatives, advocate for a different system.

Vote to give yourself space and get a little bit. Do other things to keep things moving.