#public utility post

[dodorimo]

quick, barely comprehensible guide on how to set checkflags

You can use this method if you want to enable additional dialog options in cutscenes (including the ones that are currently inaccessible in the game)

You're going to need:

1 - BG3ModManager

2 - Script Extender

3 - Script Extender Console

4 - This pastebin link with all flags + their ID

5 - Dialog reader such as this one

To enable the console, open BG3MM, go to preferences > script extender and check this box. Now, whenever you open the game, it'll open the console in another window

Open the dialog tree and search for the line you want to play and the correspondent flag:

Copy it and use control+f to find it in the pastebin link I mentioned earlier:

Now you know the flag's ID. The basic command to set a flag is:

Osi.SetFlag("FLAG_ID")

And to clear is:

Osi.ClearFlag("FLAG_ID")

So, for this example, the command would be:

Osi.SetFlag("LOW_HouseOfHope_State_RaphaelAlerted_f83c3d6b-d6cf-41a1-a03d-c31df5ea44fe")

Copy and paste the command into the console and press enter (don't forget to clear it when you're done!)

[potato-lord-but-not]

WAIT DID THE MALEVOLENT TUMBLR ACCOUNT BLOCK ME ???????????????????????

[misscammiedawn]

In the long journey of healing there will come obstacles that knock you off your horse. Moments where you backslide, regress or hit a wall.

Don't be discouraged.

Distress tolerance gets better. Recovery windows get smaller. Set-backs become less devastating.

But there'll still be days where you're at square one. Moments where someone makes you feel small and without any semblance of control, where the pain floods in and reminds you it's always been there; you just got better at filtering it out.

Don't let it get you down.

In your weakest moments, remind yourself of how long its been since it last felt like this. Remind yourself it used to always be this way.

Then when you're ready you can get back on the horse.

Relapses happen and it's hard to ignore the shame. Especially when it's been so long since you last fell off.

But that's worth celebrating. That's encouragement.

No one said you'd never feel these things again.

Take heart that it has been a long time since you last did.

[themirokai]

now I wanna know- why isn't drinking water free in the US?

Hi there friend! Thanks very much for taking the bait from this post. Buckle up, this is a long one.

If you want to put out a cistern and collect rainwater and use that, congratulations! Your water is free! Plus the cost of maintaining your cistern and keeping it clean. If you’re lucky enough to live somewhere with a high enough water table to have a well, then your water is also free + the cost of the well and well maintenance.

But if you want water to come out of your tap on demand and you can’t or don’t want to maintain a cistern and you can’t or don’t want to have a well… you need public water!

How do we get public water? Well, a government entity (usually. there are some private utilities, but that’s a different post. I have strong feelings) has rights to take water out of a river or a lake, or they have a reservoir, or they have access to an aquifer. Then they have to transport the water out of the source. This generally requires aqueducts or massive pipes, which are expensive and need to be maintained, which is also expensive. The pipe leading out of one of my utility’s reservoirs is 12 feet in diameter.

Does the water go directly from the source to your home? Nope! It gets piped to a water filtration plant! The process of modern water filtration is complicated but it involves both physical and chemical treatment to make sure the water isn’t carrying any parasites, harmful bacteria, or pollutants and it has the right pH. Not only are these filtration plants extremely expensive to build and maintain but the process of operating them is extremely expensive, both in terms of hiring skilled staff and having appropriate materials for the filters and chemical treatment.

After the treated water (called “finished water” in the biz) is ready it does get piped to your house.

If you use public water, do you know where your local water filtration plant is? No? That probably means it’s not in your immediate neighborhood, which probably means it’s several miles or more away. To get to your house, the water needs to travel through an extensive pipe network. These pipes are smaller but they have to remain pressurized so that no contaminants can get into the water on its way to your house. But pipes break! Especially if you live somewhere with a freeze/thaw cycle. Maintaining this pipe network is, you guessed it, expensive! It requires materials and extremely skilled workers who perform in very very difficult conditions. Plus lots of engineering to keep the whole system pressurized even when one part of it breaks. Oh, and you know what lots of pipes were made out of in the early 20th century? Lead! So all around the country utilities need to make extensive and costly infrastructure upgrades because now we know lead pipes are really freaking bad.

Okay, so you get the basic picture. And I haven’t even gotten into Safe Drinking Water Act compliance, but most of that happens at the filtration plant. Oo! Or desalinization because some utilities pull their water from the sea and need to take the salt out. I know basically nothing about this except that it is likely complicated and expensive to do at scale.

This is essentially why I get frustrated by people who argue “why should we pay for something that falls out of the sky?” Because finished water doesn’t fall from the sky and it sure as hell doesn’t fall from the sky into your faucet. (Side note: as a public utility official I have been screamed at by the “it falls from the sky” people. A thing I like about the private sector is that people scream at me a lot less.)

Now, there is a very strong argument to be made that because water is necessary for human life, it should be provided by the government for free to everyone. And just like the costs of roads or public education, this should be part of the public budget and paid for by taxes and no one should have a water bill. I don’t disagree with this. I’m sure that’s how it’s done in some countries.

I don’t have a well-researched answer on the history of water utilities but I do have some facts and some (very) educated conjectures. Water rights in the US are complicated (another separate post!) but they’re based on private ownership. Ever since white people came to this country people have been claiming ownership over water and charging each other money for taking water out of rivers or lakes or the ground. You can measure how much of it someone uses and charge them for it. Water is treated like a commodity because unlike other public goods, it *can* be treated like a commodity and then, you know, capitalism. Again, I’m not saying that’s right.

But as a society, if we believe that no one should have a water bill, then we need to figure out how to pay for all the very expensive steps in the process I outlined at the top. Could that just be taxes? Sure, if you have a system that supports taxes at that level. Do I believe that public funding of water infrastructure would be a fuckton better than a lot of things we use taxes for now? Absolutely! But that requires massive institutional change and this isn’t generally an issue that people know enough about to demand change.

If you read this far, congratulations! You now know more stuff about drinking water!

[sxldierselfship]

Hey, I'm sxldier! I'm 25, white, fem. This is my selfship blog lovingly dedicated to my sweetheart, Tavish/The Demoman of Team Fortress 2. We've been together since February 7th, 2024. This blog is a companion account that is not tied to my main account, this way I can keep track of tags and what not. I am Tumblr and minor friendly! If you are under 18, please do not cause any drama/bring any problems here. If you are under 16, please don't follow or interact. I have a DNI, a BYF, and tags that you should check out first! Not following these boundaries will result in blocking. This place will be neat, friendly and clean. It's going to be a place for me to write, gush, post photos and other such things about or related to my dearest. I consider this a serious relationship so if you're someone also selfshipping with him, please just be mindful of that! Tav and I hope you enjoy your stay here!

[pastlight]

i'd truly love to read if there's some sort of like. sociology study on not just de decline of the middle class, but what people are willing to consider middle class. and i don't mean just in the USA.

i just watched a clip of a newscaster/commentator from my country talking about all the "small" sacrifices people will have to make in the upcoming crisis, and she told the anecdote of a middle class family considering doing "one big meal a day" for the kids. and like, even if that anecdote is real, even leaving aside the pure evil of that segment equating cancelling your netflix subscription to eating once a day, trying to normalize this... in what universe is that middle class. how do you say that and not immediately implode.

and worse of all, im sure there were people watching and nodding along.

idk Marx probably predicted it or smth but there's something fascinating about how people will cling to the label of "middle class" in the modern economic climate when upwards mobility feels progressively less attainable. how do we redefine a luxury year after year. how much are you willing to give up for your pride, to the point when your only hope month after month is "not starve and pay rent" but you have a big tv bought with your hard earned cash! so you still believe you're a step away from living comfortably like your parents did.

[faillen]

the fact that marvel villains have valid causes is not the win you think it is when the entire franchise operates under letting its heroes uphold the existing status quo just because they disagree with the villains’ means. there is an absolute refusal to actually engage with the structural questions that each movie/tv show brings up, and it is critical to recognize that before you praise it for being groundbreaking—they’re not trying to tell you that the villain’s issues are valid. they’re trying to convince you that the structural issues can’t be meaningfully solved without utter destruction of the current way of life, which is just so incredibly insidious.

any indication of incremental change that exists in the mcu never, ever, carries over into generative conversation and ends at the end credits of the given piece of media. the hero never truly takes up the responsibility of pushing for the villain’s objectives without utilizing the villain’s means. whatever the resolution is, it is always token and it never has true lasting ramifications for the foundational political and societal realities of the universe it’s built, and that is intentional.

[randomthoughtsdissociating]

Shoutout to @amtrak-official @ceske-drahy @regiojet @zssk, ALL other railway companies I neglectedto mention and ESPECIALLY local public transport systems like @dpmb or DPMP.

You provide real freedom of movement to cities and nations for comparatively low prices.

Cars and Independence

My Patreon

[aesadraws]

Oh hey, a feature I kinda forgot was a thing. Kinda sad to see it go even though I never used it.

[getvalentined]

An open letter to @staff

I already submitted this to Support under "Feedback," but I'm sharing it here too as I don't expect it to get a response, and I feel like putting in out in public may be more effective than sending it off into the void.

The recent post on the Staff blog about changing tumblr to an algorithmic feed features a large amount of misinformation that I feel staff needs to address, openly and honestly, with information on where this data was sourced at the very least.

Claim 1: Algorithms help small creators.

This is false, as algorithms are designed to push content that gets engagement in order to get it more engagement, thereby assuring that the popular remain popular and the small remain small except in instances of extreme luck.

This can already be seen on the tumblr radar, which is a combination of staff picks (usually the same half-dozen fandoms or niche special interests like Lego photography) which already have a ton of engagement, or posts that are getting enough engagement to hit the radar organically. Tumblr has an algorithm that runs like every other socmed algorithm on the planet, and it will decimate the reach of small creators just like every other platform before it.

Claim 2: Only a small portion of users utilize the chronological feed.

You can find a poll by user @darkwood-sleddog here that at the time of writing this, sits at over 40 THOUSAND responses showing that over 96 percent of them use the chronological feed*. Claiming otherwise isn't just a misstatement, it's a lie. You are lying to your core userbase and expecting them to accept it as fact. It's not just unethical, it's insulting to people who have been supporting your platform for over a decade.

Claim 3: Tumblr is not easy to use.

This is also 100% false and you ABSOLUTELY know it. Tumblr is EXTREMELY easy to use, the issue is that the documentation, the explanations of features, and often even the stability of the service is subpar. All of this would be very easy for staff to fix, if they would invest in the creation of walkthroughs and clear explanations of how various site features work, as well as finally fixing the search function. Your inability to explain how your service works should not result in completely ignoring the needs and wants of your core long-term userbase. The fact that you're more willing to invest in the very systems that have made every other form of social media so horrifically toxic than in trying to make it easier for people to use the service AS IT WORKS NOW and fixing the parts that don't work as well speaks volumes toward what tumblr staff actually cares about.

You will not get a paycheck if your platform becomes defunct, and the thing that makes it special right now is that it is the ONLY large-scale socmed platform on THE ENTIRE INTERNET with a true chronological feed and no aggressive algorithmic content serving. The recent post from staff indicates that you are going to kill that, and are insisting that it's what we want. It is not. I'd hazard to guess that most of the dev team knows it isn't what we want, but I assume the money people don't care. The user base isn't relevant, just how much money they can bring in.

The CEO stated he wanted this to remain as sort of the last bastion of the Old Internet, and yet here we are, watching you declare you intend to burn it to the ground.

You can do so much better than this.

Response to the Update

Under the cut for readability, because everything said above still applies.

I already said this in a reblog on the post itself, but I'm adding it to this one for easy access: people read it that way because that's what you said.

Staff considers the main feed as it exists to be "outdated," to the point that you literally used that word to describe it, and the main goals expressed in this announcement is to figure out what makes "high-quality content" and serve that to users moving forward.

People read it that way because that is what you said.

*The final results of the poll, after 24 hours:

136,635 votes breaks down thusly:

An algorithm based feed where I get "the best of tumblr." @ 1.3% (roughly 1,776 votes)

Chronological feed that only features blogs I follow. @ 95.2% (roughly 130,077 votes)

This doesn't affect me personally. @ 3.5% (roughly 4,782 votes)

[misscammiedawn]

Ok but like aren't you just promoting further dissociation by treating DID like your own personal character sheet of online personas? Can you explain why that's a legitimate thing to support people doing instead of seeking professional help to stop the dissociation in the first place?

(Edit: we never implied people should not seek treatment. Do not understand why you thought this. We are heavy advocates of mental healthcare and write about that often)

That is a fair and valid question and one that is personal to every person who receives care and treatment.

The ISSTD guidelines specifically caution against treating parts/alters as individuals in the very first words of their section on treatment and care:

Although the DID patient has the subjective experience of having separate identities, it is important for clinicians to keep in mind that the patient is not a collection of separate people sharing the same body. The DID patient should be seen as a whole adult person, with the identities sharing responsibility for daily life. Clinicians working with DID patients generally must hold the whole person (i.e., system of alternate identities) responsible for the behavior of any or all of the constituent identities, even in the presence of amnesia or the sense of lack of control or agency over behavior (see Radden, 1996).

This is often quoted in support communities as a way of invalidating alters/parts and imply that treating the parts as individuals is unhealthy.

The unhealthy thing is not acknowledging that we are the same person. As the writing above states, we have collective responsibility for our shared life.

There is only one name on our driver's license.

In fact with our own treatment it took over 3 months of consistent work for the parts in denial to accept we had the condition. The first step was acknowledging that there was a divide.

In Janina Fischer's book Healing the Fragmented Self there is an entire unit on befriending dissociated parts that covers this important step in the healing journey:

“Befriending” one’s parts is not simply a therapeutic endeavor: it also contributes to developing the practice of self-acceptance, one part at a time. When Learning to See Our “Selves” clients pause their reactions to “befriend” themselves, to be curious and interested rather than dismissing and reactive, they slow time. Autonomic arousal settles; there is a relaxing of the sense of urgency to do or be anything different. They feel more at peace because their parts can be more at peace. Self-alienation, that is, disowning of some parts and identifying with others exclusively, does not contribute to a sense of well-being, even when it is absolutely necessary in order to survive. Self-alienation creates tension, pits part against part, communicates a hostile environment (often much like the traumatic environment), and diminishes the self-esteem of every part. Befriending means that we “radically accept” (Linehan, 1993) that we share our bodies and lives with these “room-mates” and that living well with ourselves requires living amicably and collaboratively with our parts. The more we welcome rather than reject them, the safer our internal worlds.

In a therapeutic setting for recovery one needs to accept that the parts exist and that contradicting desires and impulses are happening within the patient. Accepting and acknowledging parts is essential to that and getting to know them, or befriending them as Fischer puts it, is part of understanding these desires.

We are a fairly neat and tidy system as far as many dissociative systems go. Over the course of our therapy and in allowing our parts to have agency, autonomy and individual expression we have come to learn that as a single unified being there are aspects of our personality which we cannot accept as part of who we see ourselves or allow others to see ourselves as.

The big one that many people know is Dawn. We are terrified of erotic intimacy to the point of pre-diagnosis shutting down completely if we were touched in certain areas. We still had our drives, impulses and intrigues though and so Dawn was a version of us that would create online accounts and exist in kink communities and frankly push us beyond the point of comfort which caused us to have meltdowns, delete accounts and try to deny our sexuality entirely. The same is true of our gender expression.

We were married for 11 years and there is not a single erotic encounter that Dawn did not handle for the body. We have no memory of any of it.

As we accepted Dawn and made space for she has simmered down, no longer needing to tug on her leash in order to act and have her needs met. As a symptom we have evened out and are much more comfortable presenting as a sex-repulsed asexual, even when she is front.

The reason is, again, we are one person. Dawn is just a version of us that is not impacted by the terror we have towards eroticism.

Every part of our system exists for a reason. Forcing ourselves to accept the extreme reactions of our parts as "who we are" is as unhealthy as rejecting it outright.

There is nuance and gray.

Integration is finding where the lines are. What is combined and accepted behavior for the system and what is unique to individual parts. Finding these little bits of individuality has been healing. Particularly when each individual trait is something we have rejected and hated ourselves for at a point of our life.

We are healing by accepting the differences.

If we ever get to the point of Functional Multiplicity versus Final Fusion we will decide what to do next.

We are not at the point where we are willing to make those decisions. For now we are one and we are many. We are comfortable with that. Rejecting that and hiding under the knowledge that we are one is denial in another form.

[misscammiedawn]

Therapy is not one size fits all. Specialities and specialists exist for a reason.

It can take years of navigating and working with clinicians at cost to get things right and anyone who has barriers or objections should not be shamed into doing it. That said mental healthcare is still healthcare and it is vital to receive treatment if the need is great enough.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a useful tool when thought patterns are obstructing desired actions. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy is a useful tool when emotional disregulation is causing erratic and harmful behaviors that a client has identified and wishes to change.

Rogerian/Patient Lead Therapy and Motivational Interviewing techniques are good for when cognitive distortions are blinding a person to core beliefs that they carry in life that do not serve them well.

Unfortunately if there is trauma in the mix then Patient Lead Therapy can lead to a client retraumatizing themselves by talking about the distressing topics that brought them in to therapy without distress tolerance framework to aid in processing. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can lead to people justifying staying in abusive situations if a person's belief system is that they are responsible for the negative aspects of their life and they can only change their own behaviors and beliefs surrounding circumstances rather than the circumstances themselves. EMDR when applied to those who dissociate without grounding framework will lead to the client erecting further barriers and worsening their condition.

Not to mention clinician bias, agenda, belief system and exhaustion.

Mental healthcare is a difficult field to navigate and it is more about educating patients than it is directly treating them. Knowing what your goals are and holding firm to them is about the only way to succeed.

Advice for those searching (US Centric advice):

- psychology and psychiatry are different fields. If you are looking for or wishing to avoid medication then start the journey looking into the field appropriate to your requests and requirements.

- learn the different acronyms. A list with descriptions can be found here: https://www.verywellmind.com/psychotherapy-101-1067405

- if you are there for letters of recommendation for surgeries, gender care then ask up front. Search for "informed consent" when looking for providers. These people will handle your insurance and work you through the process. It's their job.

- in the US you will either work through private practice therapists (if they accept insurance they usually bill directly and receipt you for reimbursement), clinic workers (your treatment contract is with the clinic not the therapist themselves) or those who do not accept insurance at all. Annoyingly the ones who do not accept insurance tend to be the best providers and specialists in a niche.

- look for specialists in the fields you are needing help with but be cautious. Psychology Today allows therapists to click any speciality without accountability.

- trauma trained, trauma informed and trauma aware are all different things. Many therapists are trauma informed or aware but not trained on handling CPTSD symptoms or recognizing dissociation. If this is a concern ask about it in the intake phase.

- look up the different modalities and ask about them.

- have a treatment plan and request to see it every 3 months. You are permitted to ask for your medical records. Request them when you feel you are not making progress.

- ask for homework and see if the therapist follows up. Sessions should not be 50 minutes of talking to someone. There should be work happening. Ensure both you and clinician are aware of what the work is and if it is being done.

- ask for recommendations and transfer of care if you feel you need a specialist. If you work through a clinic they have office staff who can help navigate this. Though they tend to be swamped and typically refer you to whoever is available. Say you are willing to be wait listed if needed.

This is a long and difficult journey. It need not be made harder by professionals who are not compatible. Finding the right fit is a difficult but necessary step if therapy is to succeed.

Hopefully this is a helpful list of information to put on the end of a little personal experience comic, which is well drawn and charming. OP did a lovely job and I wish them well on their mental healthcare journey.

I felt like I was in a freakin’ sitcom

[reasonsforhope]

Article | Paywall-Free

"The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule Tuesday [October 8, 2024] requiring water utilities to replace all lead pipes within a decade, a move aimed at eliminating a toxic threat that continues to affect tens of thousands of American children each year.

The move, which also tightens the amount of lead allowed in the nation’s drinking water, comes nearly 40 years after Congress determined that lead pipes posed a serious risk to public health and banned them in new construction.

Research has shown that lead, a toxic contaminant that seeps from pipes into the drinking water supply, can cause irreversible developmental delays, difficulty learning and behavioral problems among children. In adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lead exposure can cause increased blood pressure, heart disease, decreased kidney function and cancer.

But replacing the lead pipes that deliver water to millions of U.S. homes will cost tens of billions of dollars, and the push to eradicate them only gathered momentum after a water crisis in Flint, Mich., a decade ago exposed the extent to which children remain vulnerable to lead poisoning through tap water...

The groundbreaking regulation, called the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, will establish a national inventory of lead service lines and require that utilities take more aggressive action to remove lead pipes on homeowners’ private property. It also lowers the level of lead contamination that will trigger government enforcement from 15 parts per billion (ppb) to 10 ppb.

The rule also establishes the first-ever national requirement to test for lead in schools that rely on water from public utilities. It mandates thatwater systems screen all elementary and child-care facilities, where those who are the most vulnerable to lead’s effects — young children — are enrolled, and that they offer testing to middle and high schools.

The White House estimates that more than 9 million homes across the country are still supplied by lead pipelines, which are the leading source of lead contamination through drinking water. The EPA has projected that replacing all of them could cost at least $45 billion.

Lead pipes were initially installed in cities decades ago because they were cheaper and more malleable, but the heavy metal can wear down and corrode over time. President Joe Biden has made replacing them one of his top environmental priorities, securing $15 billion to give states over five years through the bipartisan infrastructure law and vowing to rid the country of lead pipes by 2031. The administration has spent $9 billion so far — enough to replace up to 1.7 million lead pipes, the administration said.

On Tuesday, the administration said it was providing an additional $2.6 billion in funding for pipe replacement. Over 367,000 lead pipes have been replaced nationwide since Biden took office, according to White House officials, affecting nearly 1 million people...

Environmental advocates said that former president Donald Trump, who issued much more modest revisions to the lead and copper rule just days before Biden took office, would have a hard time reversing the new standards.

Erik Olson, the senior strategic director for health at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said that the Safe Drinking Water Act has provisions prohibiting weakening the health protections of existing standards...

Olson added that the rule “represents a major victory for public health” and will protect millions of people “whose health is threatened every time they fill a glass from the kitchen sink contaminated by lead.”

“While the rule is imperfect and we still have more to do, this is by far the biggest step towards eliminating lead in tap water in over three decades,” he said."

-via The Washington Post, October 8, 2024

[buscaderonewvegas]

Fallout: New Vegas Buscadero Mod Pack Public Release

Buscadero: "Searcher" or "Seeker." 

This is the public release of a Fallout: New Vegas personal modding project that started roughly two years ago. I was initially inspired by the "Nolvus" project for Skyrim and decided to try my hand at the same type of Mod Pack using my initiative. 

This New Vegas Mod Pack contains over five hundred mods and two hundred and fifty plugins. It utilizes a packaged version of Mod Organizer 2 to deliver a modded game once uncompressed. There is a brief README text file that details the 10 steps for installation. It requires a legal Steam copy of Fallout: New Vegas and all of its DLC. It does not contain the necessary files for it to be played illegally. 

I have attempted to stay true to the themes, narratives, and aesthetics of vanilla Fallout: New Vegas while enhancing the visual fidelity and providing modern quality-of-life features. This Mod Pack does not contain any additional gratuitous content outside the scope of the Vanilla experience. There is no nudity, explicit sexual content, or content I would deem as beyond "Weird Wasteland" wackiness. 

There are new weapons, armor, and items. New quests, adventures, and fully featured companions. Wherever possible a new texture, mesh, or animation has been used to modify the visuals. Post-processing effects, A light Reshade, and full visual and gameplay reconfigurability are available and can be tweaked to any individual's liking. 

This has been and will remain a project of passion. I have decided to announce and publish this Mod Pack anonymously and with no expectation or desire for financial compensation. Fallout belongs to Zenimax/Bethesda and the mods, tools, fixes, and features all belong to their respective creators. I know Vortex Collections and Wabbajack Lists exist, but on a technical level, I was unable to deliver my desired goals with those tools. I have made individual edits and compatibility possible between disparate mods via the use of the Fallout: New Vegas Editor. I also believe this method of delivery is more effective and less difficult for players less experienced in using extensive mod lists. Installation is a matter of extracting and overwriting and using Mod Organizer 2 to direct itself to the correct file paths. 

I hope you enjoy this labor of love for one of the greatest 3D RPGs of all time. New Vegas awaits. Let it swing, baby! 

[illiath-the-fae]

I love using this exact idea back on people who whine about how much public transit "costs". "Oh, right, I forgot, how much money do highways make again?" "Oh, yeah, I forgot about that, how much money does sewerage treatment make again?" "Oh, that's a good point, how much money does the <local/state/federal> government make again?" "oooh. yeah, just like how much money we make off the military each year, right?"

[what-eats-owls]

This info was of some surprise to folks on Bluesky, so I'm going to repeat it here in light of the sheer number of "the Internet Archive was an uncomplicated good apart from this one weird move" posts I've seen...

Are we all aware that IA has been gradually pushing the dogma that generative AI is a net public good, and has been feeding books, music, and video into AI?

This article is about how IA is actively using AI in their archives. It's an interview with Brewster Kahle, founder and Board Chair of IA. Choice quote:

This is the blog post about the comments they submitted to the US copyright office arguing against any new copyright regulations for AI. Some more choice quotes:

You can guess how I feel about framing the writers and artists whose work BUILT generative AI as "workers" who just need to be "retrained."

Last year they hosted a zoom panel called "Generative AI Meets Open Culture: Opportunities, Challenges & Ethical Considerations." Multiple visuals were AI-generated art, the panelists were asked to avoid discussing copyright. It's an hourlong panel and I couldn't find a transcript, so I skipped around to see if anyone addressed the elephant in the room. I found at ~32 minutes, a vague gesture at acknowledging it wasn't great if you tried to replicate an artist's style, but fine if you just wanted generic art.

(If anyone finds a more concrete statement in there, and/or a transcript, I'd love to know! The tenor I got was overall "look at how cool these tools are and let's talk about how they're a public good.")

At the end of January 2024, they hosted "Public Domain Day," including a panel on incorporating Generative AI in art. They invited two artists who utilize Generative AI, and a publisher whose books go immediately into the public domain. More quotes from their own writeup:

This was an event in celebration of public domain, but as far as I can tell, they've more or less avoided even acknowledging that creators are actively being harmed by Gen AI. Again, if anyone can find a clearer statement, please share it.

Another wrinkle in this is that Kahle, on behalf of the Internet Archive, sued the US Government in 2004, challenging the law that automatically granted and renewed copyright to a creator. Previously, copyright was opt-in only, had to be regularly renewed by the holder, and cost money to do so. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court in 2007, but was dismissed. (Scroll down to Docket 07-189, Kahle v Mukasey, for court filings.)

To be clear, this is the law that means you automatically own your own work. It's not a shock that Kahle's suit failed. But if Kahle had won, artists who didn't pay to secure and maintain copyright over their work would be SOL right now in the lawsuits against generative AI image and text scrapers.

So yeah. My tiny violin for IA continues to shrink.