#that does not mean that people who don’t subscribe to the specific one that you subscribe to is immoral and bad!!

[h2o2-and-baking-soda]

“there’s only one true religion/god” okay i see you didn’t watch kamigami no asobi at the age of 12 and understand that all of the gods are going to school together to learn the true meaning of love from a highschooler like damn ya don’t have to drag us all into this

[crtter]

You want to know the most notorious and successful example I can think of a person being dishonest about something being a fetish and involving random people in it?

Nikocado Avocado. 

I’ve never watched a video of his and I never will because I think this kind of deception is despicable, but by what I know of him, Nikocado Avocado presents himself as formerly thin mukbanger whose life “spiraled out of control” and made him gain weight to his audience. In his mukbang videos, he does stuff like cry on camera out of self pity and gets into fights with his boyfriend in which he berates him for being too fat and he denies being fat at all. This attracted a very specific audience: fatphobes and 4channer/kiwifarmers (tbh, I don’t think many of the latter AREN’T fatphobes). 

People watch him make a big show out of how he “has lost control of his life” and use it to confirm their biases about fat people and justify treating them like garbage or take one look at his apparent emotional fragility and  “refusal to believe he’s fat” and decide he’s the perfect lolcow to stalk and make fun of. So he gets thousands of views and subscribers and mean comments about his appearance and how he’s “unhealthy”. He even has an OnlyFans, much to the amusement of both of these kinds of people. You see, they think it’s funny when someone who isn’t conventionally attractive feels good about themselves because they have the emotional maturity of toddler cavemen.

Most sensible people can probably tell he’s playing a character and doesn’t act like that in real life. But basically every single person I’ve ever seen discussing him online doesn’t realize something that completely changes the context of every single video he’s ever made: Nikocado Avocado’s videos are fetish content. He acts the way he does in them and very specifically cultivated this kind of audience because being treated this way arouses him. Everyone who has ever sent a mean comment his way has helped him get off.

[percyposting]

I think a lot about the Ministry and how it works as such a psychological horror. To me at least. When I think about it through Percy’s eyes during the war, it’s definitely horror. With murderers running the departments, people going missing everyday, thousands of arrests being made in such a short amount of time. The fear of it hanging over his head, that one misstep might land him in Azkaban. Maybe people he worked closely with would go missing and he’d just have to move on.

I also think about what it’s like for him to be so close to the Ministers, specifically Scrimgeour and Thicknesse. I find those two very interesting as characters. Scrimgeour is a hypocrite, and he’s not even a very good Minister, but he does die for the good of the people, for Harry and for Dumbledore’s cause. I like to imagine what it was like for Percy to work for him. To know him, then one day he “disappears” and then the next day there’s a new man at the head, Pius, who Percy is just suddenly working for as well. I’ve always found it interesting that each Minister kept Percy on. I know both Fudge and Scrimgeour did it to spy on the Weasleys and possibly Dumbledore and Harry by connection, which was always so futile and silly and showed how desperate they both were because Percy wouldn’t even speak a word of for to his family. But they kept him for that purpose. But then he’s kept with Thicknesse as well. Is this to keep spying? Or is it not to raise suspicion about their silent coup? I don’t think it’s either of these because I firstly, the Death Eaters had different means of spying on the Weasleys. They would track their every move. They didn’t need him. So this is an obvious no to me. And in regard to keeping suspicions low, I feel there’s nothing suspicious about changing staff for a new head of government. It’s normal, even for wizards, I’m sure.

So then why was he kept on? I honestly don’t know. Maybe I’m bad at analyzing this, but some reasons I can think of would be a way to trap him without imprisoning him. They keep him stuck under an imperiused Minister and keep an eye on him. Maybe they’re waiting for him to slip up.

I don’t believe for a second the idea they keep him on because they see any actual value in him. Even if Percy denounced his family on every level, they would still see him as a blood traitor and a Weasley. I don’t think that he’d be the exception when it comes to their suspicion about the Weasleys. One of the biggest flaws the Death Eaters/blood purists have is that they assign a label to those they deem lesser then never view them as anything other than that label. Percy is a Weasley, and to be a Weasley is to be a blood traitor. No amount of personal denouncing will change that, in my opinion! So I don’t think they keep him on because they feel he’s chill, or something. I think it’s more of a, we keep you here, we keep an eye on you, kind of thing. They put him in the perfect position to be tracked and studied and they wait for him to slip up so they can imprison him as a traitor.

That leads me back to the whole psychological horror element. All of this feels like horror to me. Percy talks about trying to avoid imprisonment at the end of Deathly Hallows but I feel the truth is he was imprisoned. In the Ministry. I can’t imagine what it was like to serve under a Minister you must know is being controlled — I always liked and subscribed to the idea that Percy knew Thicknesse wasn’t himself. Does this make sense in terms of how he acts towards him at the end of Deathly Hallows? No! But I believe it anyway.

After all this thinking, it makes sense for one to come to the conclusion that Percy would never return to the Ministry again. There will always be something haunted about it to him. After Scrimgeour, especially. All it would be is a graveyard.

[bfpnola]

I am not Palestinian nor am I Jewish. Be that as it may, I hate settler colonialism, even more so as a brown, bi, genderqueer ‘Afab’ person. I just wanted to say. 1) your post on the topic is more empathetic and insightful than I’ve seen a lot of people be about this over my entire life and I’ve asked questions of both sides, I tend to stay out of the fray cause I don’t feel it my place to speak over Palestinians and Jews (who are critical of Israel). But, do you have any advice for being a better ally to Palestinians and combating anti-semitism and anti Jewish racism in the everyday?

hey sweetheart! thank you for your commitment to the movement and your earnestness. i am not Palestinian or Jewish either, so i did what is always considered best: i asked those who are! that's exactly why our Advocacy Committee within BFP exists :)

from one of our Palestinian youth volunteers:

if you have the money to do so, donate to the cause! the unfortunate truth is that to gain access to various resources, things cost money. more specifically, donate to humanitarian aid funds you've done the research for and are sure are doing work on the ground. even better if you can donate directly to those being affected! this includes Palestinians on the ground but also within the diaspora who need self care items, especially for all the work they've been doing educating others. for example, this is an organization this member volunteers with and trusts:

and these are two amazon lists of Palestinian youth within the diaspora:

share posts by Palestinians! the big thing is really just getting the word out, sharing their perspective. Zionist propaganda is hard to penetrate so the least we can do is uplift their voices by sharing!

from one of our Jewish youth volunteers:

understand that not all Jewish people are Zionists and not all Zionists are Jewish. saying the two are equivalent is not only antisemitic but ignores the blatant statistics, like the growing number of anti-Zionist Jewish young adults in the united states for example, or the fact that the biggest supporters of israel are actually evangelicals.

to that same point, know that israel has been purposefully trying to conflate the two in order to then label anyone who does critique the state as automatically antisemitic. it is a tool.

additionally, be careful with the rhetoric you choose to spread & subscribe to (i.e., watch how they describe israel. do they refer to the people as Jews or Zionists? it can tell you a lot about how educated they are and their vague stance on the matter)

my own additions as a longstanding ally and friend of those involved:

learn your history! there is a clear attempt to distort the history of Palestine. learn what Palestine was like before israel's occupation. learn about the way pioneering Zionists openly called Zionism "colonialism" and didn't even try to hide it. learn about how discussions of the Zionist project were discussed roughly 80 years before the Holocaust ever happened. this does not mean that some Jews did not, in fact, move to Palestine in response to such a horrific event, but in the words of a Jewish mutual of mine, israel's rhetoric literally weaponizes Jewish trauma by conflating these two dates in history.

BDS movement! stands for boycott, divestment, and sanctions!

when possible, actually speak to people of Palestinian descent. like seriously. posts are great, but actually speaking to people who are knowledgeable in real time can be so helpful for getting your questions addressed, so long as you are respectful, of course. a great place to do this, not even to advertise, is actually our Discord server linked in our bio @bfpnola

know that language matters, as inconsequential as it may seem. in the words of my Palestinian, Kashmiri, and Artsakhi friends and/or mutuals, when speaking of occupations, we capitalize the occupied people's country (ex. Palestine) while not doing so for the occupier's (ex. israel) to delegitimize them.

learn about Hamas and its history/purpose. here are my notes on two podcast episodes let by Palestinians:

thank you for your ask! im sure i may think of other things later but these are my answers for now.

-- reaux (she/they)

[whoishotteranimepolls]

Shanks. Oh Shanks…

Yes he is kinda the guy on the beach who wasn’t lying about knowing karate.

When we meet him he’s relaxing/chilling/taking a breather in a little hidden away port to get away from the Navy. This is in a world where stories about Pirates (and many actual Pirates) are about how much chaos and pain and destruction they bring simply looking for treasure. But not Shanks and not in Foosha.

He puts people at ease because there is no reason to antagonize or bully the locals. He spends his days flirting it up at the bar. When someone does come looking for a fight, he’s not easily baited either. Some things aren’t worth it, a message he teaches Luffy. It takes a kidnapping for Shanks to step up and remind everyone that not only is he a real pirate, but a dangerous one at that.

He also has scars. Very sexy scars. And they don’t seem to turn him bitter or spur him on life. His facial scarring is a lesson about how there are people who will never fight fair and if you’re going to get anywhere you should recognize and respond appropriately. And they really give some character and contrast to him. I really can’t explain why. He also SCARIFICED HIS ARM FOR A CHILD. This man jumps into the ocean knowing full well there is a legit sea monster waiting for a snack and swims out to save a boy who had idolized him, acted out, and eaten Shanks’ treasure. What kind of Pirate risks life and limb for a kid who took their most powerful possession? THEN!! Then this man is able to TURN BACK THE SEA MONSTER WITH A LOOK. That’s all! Just a very intense look saying “you may be called a Sea King but I am an Emperor so get!” (Ps he’s not an emperor yet) And it works!!

Now yes, he is a total slut. I personally subscribe to a specific endgame ship where such behavior changes when he falls in love but man is always going to have his manwhore vibe. But they are the best? Like he’s not creeping or forceful about it. He knows he’s attractive and he knows what parties interested in a night (or so) of fun look like. And if he were in this world now or back during the golden age of piracy, I would be like “yeah walking STD” but it seems like everyone whose anyone in One Piece has a capable doctor. If he did catch something he’d appropriatly take care of it.

Shanks is also not completely irresponsible. Man is captain of a ship with a crew and fleet who like him and believe in him. He makes world altering decisions on the regular. He has been granted audiences with the 5 elders. He fights other Emperors. He’s been playing a long game. His first teacher was the Pirate King. Yes, Beckmann definitely keeps things on track at times but Shanks isn’t like a toddler running in all the directions at once. He’s got a plan and he’s been sticking to it. And it’s been working really well.

As for the showers: I personally never thought about it but…in the world of One Piece every ship is complete with all the luxuries of life. This means Red Force is bound to have baths/showers. Shanks isn’t a DF eater so he can take baths and I assume while he might not everyday he does regularly. Plus with a man whose identity/brand is tied to his hair, he’s not letting that get grimy and greasy and dirty. I do believe there is some dependable vanity here which Zoro would lack.

TLDR; Shanks may initially look like a scary threat based on reputation, build, and scaring, but he has a gift for putting people at ease so they see him as some beach bum. But right below that his dangerous aura is ready to burst out when needed (usually in aide of a friend/ally or for his plan). He is an intelligent man who knows what is happening in the World and a very talented swordsman. And the layer below is someone who clearly loves life and all the wonderful things it can offer.

In summary: he has a genuine peacefulness about him that makes him feel safe (when not actively fighting as I mean “peaceful” in relation to being capible of great violence.) and he’s just sexy as sin.

For context, they're responding to this post about Shanks

That's the dichotomy of shakes. He goes from complete dork

To the absolutely terrifying Emperor of the Sea.

People like to talk about the yesification and glow-up of most of the characters post-time skip. The most prominent glow-up to me was the dedorkification of shanks. That man was a complete dork for most of the pre-time skip. Now in Wano. What happened?

He's got a whole new jawline and everything

But at least he still has his dorky moments

[therumpus]

Mini Interview with Jami Attenberg

By Denise S. Robbins

Jami Attenberg’s A Reason to See You Again (Ecco Press, 2024) is funny and quick-moving with a strong emotional core that explores what it really means to be family, through thick and thin. The novel revolves around the complicated family dynamics of a mother and her two daughters as they grow up and live through the cultural and technological changes throughout the 20th century, moving deftly between the thoughts of the characters in surprising ways. It’s wide-ranging, delving into various women’s relationships with work—or the absence of it. 

When she’s not writing books, she manages the highly popular Substack newsletter Craft Talk and its yearly challenge, “one thousand words of summer,” where she motivates thousands of subscribers to write a thousand words a day for ten days straight. 

We spoke over Zoom about her writing process and how this latest book fits in with her life’s work.

***

The Rumpus: A Reason to See You Again is your tenth published book. That’s a lot of books! Is there something you're trying to accomplish that you haven't in your earlier works?

Jami Attenberg: I wanted the book to cover more time. My last few novels were much more compact. Then when I wrote my memoir, I enjoyed how it spanned so many years and so many cities. It gave the story the chance to breathe. So, I wanted to apply that to the novel. I was also interested in having family members be separate from each other as opposed to being intimate and involved in each other’s lives. They were more spread out and spaced out. It’s also possible this desire to span more time and space came as a response to that particular claustrophobic feeling I had in the pandemic.

Rumpus: What seeded the idea behind this novel? 

Attenberg: I actually wrote about this in my newsletter [Craft Talk]. During the pandemic, I was looking at a lot of vintage clothes on Etsy and kept seeing these white puffy shirts. I started thinking about a woman wearing it and being somebody's cool aunt. Generally, characters show me the way into a book. And so, the cool aunt, Shelly Cohen, was the first character for me. I pictured her at a kitchen counter in the suburbs talking to her family, with all of them leading different lives, interested in each other but also always a little annoyed with each other.

Rumpus: Does that dynamic have any resemblance to reality? How much of yourself is in this book and these characters and their relationships?

Attenberg: None of these characters are like anybody that I know, really. But they’re adjacent to people I know. They feel like they live in a neighborhood I’ve lived in before. Or maybe they’re a third cousin. Someone you met once and feels familiar, even if you can’t say exactly who they are. 

Rumpus: How do you find the central core of a story with multiple main characters? What are they all hovering around? 

Attenberg: The way time moves forward in this book is the core, and how the characters are impacted by time. Time is both the structure and the thrust. For example, the way they communicate at the beginning of the book has changed by the end of it, often expressed in terms of technological advancements. And those kinds of changes are ones that can only emerge specifically over the passage of years or decades of time.

Rumpus: So, technology changes relationships in this book. But you could say it just provides your main characters with new ways of ignoring each other. 

Attenberg: There’s one scene near the end of the book where two characters are driving in a car and a third one calls them on a cellphone. And they really don’t want to talk to this person, but there’s no way of ultimately avoiding it: we live in an era where you can track people’s locations all the time. It’s vastly different than earlier in the book, when it’s Nancy’s twenty-first birthday and she desperately wants to talk to her family, and she has to leave her house, walk down to the corner payphone, put money in it to make a long-distance call, and hope that somebody's there and picks up at this specific moment in time. In a way that phone call is so much more meaningful. But their communication still has meaning at the end of the book, when they finally do break through to each other. 

Rumpus: A lot of important life events in this story aren’t actually in the book but are referenced offscreen or obliquely. How did you decide what to put in the story versus what to reference offscreen?

Attenberg: These people are not confrontational until it’s too late. They’re trying to figure out how to exist with a problem without actually dealing with it. So, these things feel far away to the reader because they feel far away to the characters. They don’t like dealing with things head on. But there are still feelings that are very much present. 

These things trigger other issues down the line, though. If you don’t deal with something in the moment, eventually it’s still going to show up. One of my characters doesn’t tell another character something very important, and when the other finds out, she is furious with her. It impacts their relationship forever. By choosing to avoid conflict, she created another conflict in the process. And a lie by omission is still a lie, and that’s certainly a plot point. 

Rumpus: I also wanted to highlight one particular line: “He thought it would be easier to explain themselves to the world if they lived in the same place, when actually they only had to explain themselves to themselves and no one else.” It feels like the heart of this story.

Attenberg: I wouldn’t say that line is the heart of the book, but it’s a touchstone line, one I hope people highlight on their Kindles, ha. The characters in this novel grew up during a certain time and place where they felt like there was a path for them with specific milestones they had to achieve to please the world in a certain kind of way. I think most people understand now that we don’t have to stay on that conventional path, that we don’t have to abide by anyone else’s rules. I think the characters in the book are happiest when they figure that out. Even if it takes a long time. 

Rumpus: On top of writing novels, you also run Craft Talk and the yearly “one thousand words of summer” challenge, with daily letters of encouragement from various authors. Does this community enliven your own novel writing? 

Attenberg: It keeps me on track. And every year there’s a letter from one of the contributing writers that hits the right chord and comes at the right time. That’s the beauty of these letters of writing advice. You never know when you’re going to need it. This year, that letter came from Jennine Capó Crucet. It was about writing from a place where you know you can throw it all away. So that’s what I did. I gave myself permission to just write something I could throw away. Then I loved everything I wrote, and now I’ve written thirty thousand words this summer, the new beginning of the book, and it's great. I definitely feel the accountability. Every year. We're doing it together. It's equalizing.

Rumpus: Even somebody who's written ten books needs that accountability sometimes.

Attenberg: People need it, and it works. It really works. But also, you don't need it. We can write all the time on our own. But during one thousand words of summer, it feels like a friend is there with me. 

Rumpus: So, you’re working on another novel now. How many more novels do you have inside you?

Attenberg: I’m not planning to stop writing. Will my next novels get published? Who knows. Does it matter? Probably not. How many books do I have in me? A million. I’m in my fifties now. I’ve slowed down a bit but know more of what I want and can look back at what I’ve done. And I don’t have to prove anything to anyone. 

[strawberrystepmom]

kendall idk if I’m late but I want your opinion: I’m a gemini with gemini sun, gemini moon (gemini venus, mars and mercury) and scorpio rising. people have told me it’s bad but I don’t understand any of it. how bad is it kendall??? how long do I have left???? djakskdkdf no but seriously what does it mean? please help

rumi!!!! smiled so big seeing you here. i hope you've been doing well <3333

i firmly subscribe to the logic that there is no one bad or good placement or combination of placements. you may have some difficulties communicating in yourself and with others or maybe emotional strife but it's nothing that makes you a bad or good person or even speaks to the placements, yk? it's just something else to work through. i think that's good perspective to have.

there is a lot of gemini in your chart (5/6 big six is a record i've never seen anything like it before and if anything it makes you really special at least to me) and honestly this is telling me that you are a person that is good at kind of breezing through things. i know that may read as negative but it's not because the ability to just sort of float by is one of the best aspects of gemini. it means you don't take shit too deeply. you can roll with the punches. this is impressive.

you are likely a person who is easy to talk to with a genuine curiosity for the world and everyone you meet. you probably ask people questions they remember like years down the line after hanging out with you because that's the impact of a gemini. they leave really lasting impressions and people like them. don't ever underestimate your own likability because i think a lot of prominent air placement holders (gemini and aquarius specifically) let self doubt rule over the genuine evidence of how liked they are, which hey, don't we all do that but don't let it paint your self image blue when it doesn't need to be.

scorpio rising being the outlier here is delicious to me. people are already drawn to you because of allllll that gemini energy but there is a deep desire people have when it comes to scorpio. it stokes something inside of all of us that's like "hm. i need to know more." and can be almost a little siren-y which again, hot. you're probably pretty emotional as all prominent water sign holders are but my one piece of advice or thing that may be an issue for you is distrust of yourself stoked by scorpio. it will do that to person (scorpio moon holder hi nice to meet you). trust in the lightness of gemini to keep you from sinking because it will.

[eowynstwin]

It’s going to sound mean but you seem so pressed over Umiko’s alleged earnings, it’s worrying. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that seeing what she probably earns could make you feel hurt, but you sound jealous and not in a ‘I wish her well and I hope I’ll be able to earn as much or even more’ but more like ‘why the hell people pay her for her art if they don’t pay me for mine?’. And mentioning her specifically couple of times in your recent posts??? It almost sounds like you have a problem with HER and that SHE is being paid for her art and not you. I both write and draw, I know how much work, effort and time it takes and I am happy for Umiko and other artists, because it seems that people are willing to pay for what we create, you just have to know how to sell your product and it is not Umiko’s fault that it took you this long to figure something out. I’m happy her success motivated you and you decided to talk to your friend who can help you with your art, but seriously your recent posts made me feel like you have a serious problem with that girl. One more thing, you mentioned that she earns more in whatever amount of time than your mom in a year like what about it? Is it Umiko’s fault? People per her because they want to support her and they want to have access to her art, and I guess she wouldn’t earn as much in a normal job.

So first of all, I welcome you to quote directly (not paraphrase--highlight, copy, and paste) where I said or even implied that I think that Umiko should not be paid as much as she is.

Second of all, I mentioned Umiko as often I did because she is one of my favorite artists, not because I dislike her. I adore her work and believe she deserves every dollar she has made. She works very hard and is one of the few artists who I think is actually getting adequate compensation for that work. In addition, she seems to be a very kind person, and I will never resent the success of good people.

Thirdly, am I like not supposed to be jealous of someone making nearly $1million a year off fandom work????????????????????????? Sorry, but I think I'm allowed to feel envious that someone in my community is making more than twenty-four times the money I make, especially considering that I've been making fandom work for cod for about as long as she has. Maybe not as much, but I've been pretty consistent for the past year, despite the fact that I've been doing it for free.

I'm allowed to be salty that fandom culture permits her to ask for payment but fanfiction is just taken for granted as free content. Fandom does not bat an eyelash when artists ask for a subscription fee to access fanart porn, but writers can barely get readers to kick them an occasional $5 through ko-fi. Umiko didn't "figure something out" before I did--she has been allowed to monetize her work every step of the way because fandom has collectively agreed that it is acceptable for her to do so.

Umiko is not the only artist, either--Bluegiragi and Wombywoo are both making a significant amount of money off of their fanart. This is not guesswork on my part; the number of these artists' paid subscribers is available publicly on their patreon pages, and if you went to fourth grade math you're probably able to multiply that by the average fees of their tier lists. It is not hard to figure out that these artists are making a very comfortable living, or at least an extremely lucrative side hustle, off of work they produce for the Call of Duty fandom.

And I'm not saying they shouldn't! I never did! My beef with this fact is that this mode of income is not available to fanfiction writers! I have known writers who have written full length novels of carefully crafted stories that will never see even a fraction of a penny for their work, because fandom insists that fanfiction should not be monetized!

And knowing what I know now, I reject that notion entirely. It is beyond ridiculous, it is exploitative. My work, and the work of my friends, is just as labor-intensive, just as time-intensive, and just as skill-intensive as the work Umiko and the rest produce. If these artists deserve compensation for their fanwork--and I reiterate, they do--then how can we say that fanwriters don't?

As a postscript, I think you took my arguments in very bad faith, and I don't appreciate the finger-wagging you came into my inbox to do. I don't have to simper about other people's worth for my assertions about my own to be valid.

[esther-dot]

is it just me or did the jonsa works count drop from like 8015 to 7967 on ao3... thats so many deleted fics :(

Sadly, the total does periodically drop. It takes a lot of courage to post fic publicly, and a lot of fortitude to withstand the negative feedback. Jonsas used to routinely get hateful comments on their work and after a while, it’s tiring. I’ll also go ahead and say, there’s a fair amount of complaints from readers who don’t like specific story developments which can lead writers to conclude posting isn’t worth the aggravation. Just click the X and express your disappointment / frustrations to a fandom friend in private DMs—don’t complain to writers. You don’t know what they’re going through in real life.

Let’s not leave this on a negative tho. Let me explain why you should get an AO3 account. Right now, you can’t see all the fics! What you see:

What I see when I’m signed in:

There’s an option to only make your fics available to logged in users, not guests, so you aren’t seeing all the available fics right now. Accounts aren’t only for writers, there are many reasons to get one if you’re an avid fic reader!

I can favorite the Jonsa tag (any tags I like) and have it appear on my home screen when I go to AO3:

I don’t have to search for it each time, it’s right there!

And there are wonderful features like these:

I can subscribe to authors or specific fics, so I get wonderful things like this in my inbox:

The history feature means never despairing of finding a fic because I can’t remember the name. If I’m signed in, I’ll always be able to just scroll through my history and voila!

We can also mark a fic for later if we don’t have time to sit down and read it right away

And of course, I love bookmarks because you can add notes to yourself to help you remember which fic is which. I used to remember specific moments but no plot details and it’s a nightmare to try to track down a fic without any info, so I always post a quote to help jog my memory, some people write their own little summaries or use tags as an organization system for their bookmarks.

I hope you get an AO3 account, anon! So many helpful tools for readers. 💗

[talenlee]

Do you want to DO Magic though?

Not Magic: The Gathering. That’s something with a lot of very clear onramps, and if you want to try that, go check out Magic: The Gathering Arena and refuse to spend any money on it. No, I mean if you want to pick up magic tricks, what’s your approach?

I learned my first magic tricks from books. I learned these tricks when I was a child and for the most part left that skill lie fallow. These books were always full of names like ‘100 magic tricks for kids,’ but the thing with a lot of those tricks is that fundamentally they’re still just simplified versions of things that other magic tricks want to do as well. You’re always engaging with the control of attention.

Then we got Youtube which is full of ways to learn about magic, and while they’re not nearly as procedurally exceptional (like the iconic text The Expert At The Card Table), the youtube space is still full of magic tutorials that are parcelled out, individualised and handy for making some things seem less intimidating. I’m gunna share now some I like and use.

Top 10 Most Difficult Card Moves According to Erik

Watch this video on YouTube

This may seem a ridiculous place to start but this isn’t a tutorial. It’s an introduction to the Youtube channel of Penguin Magic and particularly Erik Tait. I don’t know how good Erik Tait is, truly, because I’m an amateur non-expert, but he makes me think he’s very good. Particularly is his technique with what we call the Snap Deal, which is incredibly complicated and I only kind of understand how it works.

When I want to share tricks and demonstrations, it’s important to know that one of the things I’m showing are the kinds of tricks I know I can do and the kinds of tricks I’ve practiced. I don’t have a good audience and the magic tricks I do know and do are a little weak in general, but I do try and practice these methods. What that means is that rarely am I interested in tricks where material technique completely screws me. I find genuinely complex handling and top-tier execution impressive, so first of all, I want to show this video from Penguin Magic. Here, Erik Tait demonstrates a short list of fantastically challenging techniques which is unfortunately just too hard for me to really feel like I can ever get to that level, with how I practice.

But surprise, this is one of the sources. Penguin Magic are an extremely weird, kinda ropy-feeling website but they have free resources there. You can go, download some of them and you’re done if you want. I have not bought anything from them, and yes, the website looks shonky as heck, but the free introductory videos and five free forces are all really good videos.

Appear to Be a Genius with This Mind Blowing Trick by Lennart Green! + Giveaway & Announcement

Watch this video on YouTube

This is an example of a prepared trick, where you have a standard deck of cards that you set up in a particular way, and then show it off. The thing about this trick is that the method is reasonably simple once you understand it, but the effect doesn’t require you have any meaningful handling. In fact, Lennart Green, the guy who popularised this trick, is renowned for a sloppy, mis-mangled card style. Green does this as a way to conceal the way he is an absolute master at card handling, but it also means this trick works well for people who aren’t comfortable with challenging fine movements.

This specific trick is a good gateway to the rest of the channel. One of the hard parts of good magic tutorials, which 4suits is good at, is toning down obvious skills (like fans, shuffles and cuts) so that the result doesn’t look intimidating to new players. The channel has a lot of what I think of as ‘monetisation cruft’ – you know, calls to action, references to liking and subscribing, all that stuff. But the actual tricks shown are nice and clear, and it includes some self-working math puzzle tricks, that I think are a good place to start.

Learn this Simple 4 Ace Card Trick (Magic Tutorial)

Watch this video on YouTube

Jeremy Tan, I’m not going to lie, part of what I like about his tutorials is the editing is very, very clean. Single videos, captions and good strong blocking. This trick here is modestly more complicated than the above recommendations as starter tricks, but it involves one of the first skills you’re going to want to appreciate as a card magician, which is picking up extra cards while hiding that you’re doing it.

The other thing, and this is a small thing, but it’s frustrating, that I know for a fact a lot of the history of magic in the culture around me is from outsiders, weirdoes and outcasts, but a lot of the performers producing and sharing work on the internet are, well, white guys like me who have it as a hobby. Michael Vincent has an amazing set of tricks, but I can’t show you him demonstrating how to do them, because he doesn’t, but other white guys will show off his tricks and how to do them. There’s a bunch of really good artists performing out of all sorts of parts of Asia but I don’t know how to find them or understand their methods (because of the language barrier) I can’t connect a newcomer to that kind of space. Being able to front Jeremy Tan – who seems to credit work and be nice and clear about what he’s doing – is a nice way to connect to that thread of Not Just More White Guys.

I guess there’s also another channel I should mention here because I think it’s good as a resource. It’s Sankey Magic. Sankey’s big thing, which I am okay with, is that he uses a lot of prepped and gimmicked pieces, specialised components in his tricks. That’s not a bad thing! That’s not a problem at all! But it’s a different kind of trick.

I think, personally, for vibes, being able to prepare and be comfortable with tricks as just a performance thing, is a better place to start than with gimmicked components. I like gimmicked parts, I think they’re great, and I think part of what makes them great is the confidence and preparation they build. But I think that being able to build these tools is going to be easier when you know what you like out of magic performances.

Good channel, just not the best option here.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[calamitydaze]

Why did he crop the Snapchat logs before where the "ur gorgeous" comment would have been

Why did he use transcripts that could be edited and not upload the logs where it could be separately looked over (like, for example, Kwite did with his text messages)

Why did he not provide evidence that Jamie's statement was actually from Jamie herself

Why would Sam hang on to an edited video for three years and release it only to retract it again less than a month later

Why did he edit his screenshot of burner 22 in his final tweet to omit the far more likely possibility of Sam lying in his video

Why did he get fucking Keem "if you remember 9/11 I don't want you" Star of all people on board to announce shit

He just made everything even more sus. Ppl will really believe anything if a white man says it confidently and adds some snappy editing lmao

these are almost certainly not good-faith questions coming from a place of healthy skepticism and care for victims, but for the sake of discussion i’ll pretend they are and indulge you:

1. i went back and looked at when he showed the logs and it looks to me like they’re being shown in reverse, with the oldest at the bottom and the most recent at the top. in that case both “gorgeous as fuck” and “fine as hell” would be visible— in between “got that 500 snap score” and “congrats :)”— but they’re not. the logs are kinda hard to make sense of so tell me if i’m misinterpreting them. but in any case, it doesn’t really matter because as stated in the video, if they happened it was after she was 18 and he had no context towards her being a fan, and compliments aren’t evidence of grooming anyway. and if he’s lying about them not being there, amanda’s had a year to download her own data and prove it

2. assuming you’re talking about the instagram dms here since he did show the logs of the snaps, but i mean…… idfk?? again, it doesn’t really matter since dry ass instagram dms are also not evidence of grooming 😭 but fwiw, i read through the transcript and it matches up with what i remember from reading the actual screenshots that amanda herself showed (and as demonstrated in the video, screenshots don’t automatically mean something is trustworthy anyway)

3. genuinely, what do you propose he could show as “proof” that the statement came from jamie without further exposing her to unwanted attention? i understand being skeptical of its validity and i raised an eyebrow too, but it matches up perfectly with both what we know she wants based on her twitter bios and separate statement from her that was given to keemstar and nicholas deorio by dream, and dream’s offered to prove the authenticity to any creator who reaches out. and, even if jamie herself doesn’t want to speak on it, it would be very easy for anyone else actually involved to dispute it but yet no one has. occam’s razor

4. frankly i have no idea why any of these people did what they did! does it really matter?

5. i think you sent this before the burner reactivated, but they’ve now said that they’re certain sam lied to them, so 🤷‍♀️ moot point

6. regardless the kind of person keemstar is, he’s got a wide reach and dream clearly wanted as many as people as possible to see his video, including audiences who don’t follow or subscribe to him specifically. makes sense to me

[whisperwillyou]

Thanks so much for the fic list! There’s so many here I can’t believe it! You must have read a lot to find these and I super appreciate you taking the time!

I should have included this in my last post but now I’m curious are any of these dadrius? I joined the fandom late and missed why everyone like it- to me he seems actually kind of mean to Hunter and I don’t really like dadrius. The first one looks like it might be, but even if a few are you gave so many recs I think I can easily avoid it.

No problem at all, my friend!

And yes, I have read a lot of fics

A LOT

Consequently, I’ve also had the misfortune of being tricked into reading many a romance fic because they weren’t tagged properly, or weren’t tagged at all, or added the huntlow tag 10 chapters in when I’d already subscribed to the fic etc. 😒 but I ADORE Luz and Hunter, so just keep putting myself though it lol. I’m glad I can spare you the suffering!

“Your Hands do More Than Hurt” is the only one on there that’s specifically Dadrius centered.

I don’t really get dadrius either 😅 I can see why people enjoy it, but I’m apathetic to it at best. I think it could have been an interesting dynamic if they’d gotten to develop it properly, but like everything else it got rushed by the cancelation. Dude needs to apologize to Hunter tho before I can ever forgive him for being such a dick to a literal child lol “you’re very good at doing exactly as you’re told” HE’S 16, AUTISTIC, ONLY GETS TO LEAVE THE CASTLE ON WEEKENDS, AND WAS RAISED BY THE GUY WHOS BAD ENOUGH THAT YOU CURRENTLY PLOTTING A REBELLION. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT DARIUS???

He does have a significant role in “What We are is the Sum of a Thousand Lies” but in my opinion he’s very well utilized! this fic actually warmed me up to Darius and Hunter’s relationship. Overall it’s been more focused on Luz, Hunter, and Flapjack. Darius’s role in the fic is equal to Eda’s. Definitely worth trying in my opinion! I wasn’t sold on it either until chapter 3 dropped and i was like “OH THIS AUTHOR GETS ME-“ chapter 3 got me hooked 😂

[wingsdippedingold]

If it was really just about calling out sjm and her views then you would have included all of her characters in that statement instead of just the ones you have a problem with. This series was written by a Zionist and you think a character SHE wrote wouldn’t reflect her opinions. Nesta does just like rhysand or feyre or cassian or emerie or amren or Gwyn or any other character written by her. They ALL are born from her and her ignorance. No character can be separated from her when she created them. Nesta reflects her ignorance just as every other character does.

also that comment about Rhysand turning feyre into a zionist was just so ignorant I don’t even know what to say about it. Just WHY would you say that? I’m not trying to attack you I’m just so confused on why you or anyone would say something like this?

i definitely understand that what I said was wrong, and I’m not trying to justify it:

I focused on those three in the post because I’m mostly familiar with them, hence why I also mostly post about them. In the actual written part I also refer to ToG and partially CC. I mentioned the part about Feyre because from the first book her political views changed greatly to fit SJM’s ideologies. She was initially very caring of people on an individual basis and was pretty humanitarian, but after the shift she was more than happy to oppress people under the idea that they’re all “evil” a though SJM clearly subscribes to.

I didn’t mean to reference it to the characters specifically but to her narrative in writing where the people who carry out Zionistic actions and political movement are considered good by the story but anyone who goes against it aren’t, and how she uses weird ways to change characters from against it to for it while making it a part of the character “improving.”

The post itself is in my drafts and I might post it now at this point but Idk if that would make it worse. If was initially born of people who attacked people who’d criticized SJM for being Zionist when it’s all over her writing and aren’t aware what they’re consuming is all partly just propaganda

[asherlockstudy]

Very interesting albeit confusing EB with an even more confusing thumbnail because it simply had nothing to do with the anniversaries both claimed in the picture and in the title. The misleading / clickbait is strong with this one. Rhett and Link even prefaced their conversation with a statement that they won’t say anything about their anniversaries. Why do you make a title and then say “we won’t talk about the title”?! Just don’t mention the anniversaries at all if you don’t want to bring them up!

They did not have a topic, they just wanted to squeeze somewhere the actual topic, which was - once more? - the frustration with the views of the R&L videos. I don’t understand. Hadn’t Link specifically said in the beginning that this was a project they weren’t doing for the views (or that at least they would not let low views affect them)? That they were doing it as a form of self-expression?

But then Rhett insinuated that he was disappointed there was not a “breakthrough”? What does he mean by that? That he expected these videos to reach like 20 million views? And if so, why? What was what would achieve the commercial breakthrough in his opinion, the hole, the board game or the maps? Don’t get me wrong, I loved the videos but they are not deviating from what Rhett and Link standardly do so why would they lead to a breakthrough? Or did they think playing DnD one evening could make all studios in LA to beg them for a movie contract?

But then Rhett said he has been headaching over it, to find the right story. Right story for a breakthrough? Again, if it doesn’t work already, it’s not upon the specific story, it’s upon the concept, the format. But weren’t they already saying that the YouTube algorithm doesn’t work like that anymore and it’s better to go sure and steady? I don’t understand the breakthrough concept really; even if a next video goes really well and surpasses the rest in views, there’s no guarantee this will happen again in the following video or that all those extra viewers will subscribe or become dedicated fans. It also surprises me that people of their experience can not wrap their heads around the fact that an Internet breakthrough takes a lot of time, trial and error and a sheer amount of luck. You can’t just give up because three videos did worse than you expected (even though you had said you had no expectations).

Unless the breakthrough means something else? Like, getting the reception they expected from the viewers who watched anyway? And so, Rhett tries to find the story that will get them the reception and reaction they expect? I don’t know.

As a sidenote, it was a little strange how defensive Rhett got when Link urged him to advice Locke and Shepherd to come to Lincoln’s party. “It’s out of my control. I have stopped fathering(??????) Just so you understand, I am sure they have been told. (???????)”

First of all, even if he is done fathering for Locke, he is not done fathering for Shepherd, right? If he means he wants to give up on the strict father demanding you do stuff, I mean, suggesting that his sons go to a party isn’t that, right? I mean, throwing the idea for a party, I don’t think that’s inappropriate even towards your adult son. And I am sure Link didn’t mean that he should throttle his sons if they didn’t feel like going but just to make sure he suggests it. He also said “I am sure they have been told, just so you understand”. Told by whom? Lincoln himself? Or maybe Jessie, who has apparently not stopped mothering??? Perhaps it’s just me but I have never heard a more dramatic response to a “Tell your kids to come over to my kid’s party too!”. If Rhett’s kids have become THAT independent and apparently that indifferent towards Lincoln’s big day, well he could say “ah man I’ll tell them but I can’t guarantee they will be up for it”. That’s enough.

I am sure they have been told.

[cellarspider]

Oh boy I am poked

For those in need of context: I mentioned my desire to fight Noam Chomsky behind a Dennys, after reading The Atoms of Language: The Mind’s Hidden Rules of Grammar by Mark C. Baker (2001).

What follows is a 2000 word essay on why. Holy heck this took all night.

Top-level disclaimer: I am not a trained linguist. I am an enthusiastic amateur at best, thanks to my hobby of constructed language-making. If anybody would like to correct something or discuss the topic, feel free!

Because l have loud feelings about The Atoms of Language. I think the way it conceives of the world has a lot of parallels in how people view science in general. So despite its age, it’s worth giving it a bit of a kicking. Both for its specific claims, and the big picture.

To summarize: the shape of our languages aren’t hard-coded into our brain by genetics. Languages don’t fall into immutable, hard-edged categories based off of binary choices. The author presents only one alternative: random chance, unconstrained by any environmental factors, that each child must learn without pattern recognition. This is a false dichotomy, and one that cuts off far more reasonable means by which languages can evolve and be learned. Science is not a fight between absolute order and absolute chaos.

I have to begin with a two paragraph digression to set the scene.

The sciences are home to a perennial nerd squabble about whose field is the best and most pure, usually in a "physicists and chemists versus everyone else" divide. This is timewasting nonsense, but it's worth acknowledging that physics and chemistry allow for experiments where one can test universal truths to a ludicrously high degree of certainty. This cannot be done in other fields, because there are too many complicating factors. My chosen field of genetics deals with systems that have so many moving parts, they're impossible to fully predict. Social sciences study behavior, which is even harder to make generalized statements about.

Now, this does not mean physicists and chemists can explain everything about genetics or social sciences. Their tools are not suited to the problems tackled in these fields, and anybody who claims otherwise is a blowhard. But sometimes people can get jealous of the certainty of physical laws. They may try to legitimize their field or their pet theory by describing it in terms of physics and chemistry.

And so Mark Baker wrote The Atoms of Language.

You may be able to see where the problems start with this book.

So, what is this book trying to authoritatively explain? Well, a couple of big questions in linguistics are "how do babies learn languages when they are small and bad at everything?" and "why do so many unrelated languages share structures that function similarly to each other?"

Baker subscribes to Noam Chomsky’s theories on the subject, which can be summarized like this: The grammatical structures of all languages are formed from a limited and definable set of parameters, which are predefined by a “Language Acquisition Device” in the brain, found exclusively in humans, due to a single evolutionary event that no other organism has replicated.

In fact, Chomsky asserts that not only is this the root of all language, it’s also the only way that babies could ever learn a language. He posits that they don’t receive enough information to learn their language. Instead, they instinctively pick up on linguistic parameters that the Linguistic Acquisition Device is hard-coded to create, selecting those that are relevant to their first language and discarding the rest.

Using these parameters contained within the Language Acquisition Device, Baker posits a periodic table of language. One that could be used to describe and predict all possible grammatical constraints of language.

This is highly controversial on every level. I’m going to start with the Chomsky stuff and move on to what Baker does with these parameters.

The human exclusivity of syntactically complex language is currently up for debate, with Carolina chickadees and prairie dogs arguably being capable of the same feat in the wild.

Chomsky never tested this theory in a rigorous manner in humans either. However, its structure is similar to many experiments from the past few decades. There was a wave of neuropsychology studies that claimed “we found the brain region responsible for [behavior] via an FMRI study!”. These usually ended up being shaved down by later investigations into "actually that part of the brain does at least six things, and that particular behavior is split between at least fifteen different regions.”

To this date, no single region of the brain has been identified as the source of childhood language acquisition. While it’s hard to get a kid to sit still in an MRI machine, this is backed up by one of the oldest ways to study the brain: looking at what breaks when it’s injured. While there are many brain injuries that can affect one’s ability to speak or to comprehend language, none have been conclusively shown to abolish the ability to form grammatical sentences. Even ones you think really, really should: witness the man who had a key language center of the brain surgically removed, and somehow continued to speak pretty damn coherently all the same.

This is a problem, obviously, but one could argue that a circuit could form between multiple areas of the brain to create a Language Acquisition Module, right? Okay then. Let’s examine the parameters it supposedly contains. These are the fundamental categories that human languages are locked into, according to Chomsky and Baker. While Baker begins with the metaphor of the periodic table, what he actually describes is more of a flow chart: an increasingly specific pattern of choices that build up to form a unique language.

Baker admits he doesn’t have the complete periodic table of language. In fact, he backpedals in the last quarter of the book, and says well, we don't have a periodic table of linguistics yet, maybe we never will, but we could!

And he’s pretty sure of the chart that he does have. And he still considers it to demonstrate immutable categories of language. For example, he says there are two basic word orders: Subject Verb Object (“I eat apples”) and Subject Object Verb (“I apples eat”). He presents this as the most basic thing a child learns about their language’s structure. This is first, all else comes after.

…Except he then admits that actually, there are other word orders, but they’re really rare, so that proves him right anyway.  

This, as the astute in the audience may note, does not in fact prove him right. Language is not behaving like the perfect, hard-edged system he wants, it’s messy. And it doesn’t get any better from there. More and more exceptions pile up, perfectly reasonable in the context of their languages, but they’re problems to this model. Baker asserts that culture has no meaningful effect on the structure of language.

To Baker, these parameters cannot have evolved independently based on cultural trends. This must be set in stone, or everything would be chaos. He argues that two languages coming up with similar structures independently by means of culturally-influenced linguistic evolution would be like two people flipping a coin a hundred times and getting the same sequence of heads and tails.

How languages end up the way they do is still a topic of study and debate. But Baker is pulling out an argument often used by creationists, so we’re in my wheelhouse here. I will briefly use biological evolution as a metaphor to explain why he’s wrong.

Biological evolution keeps coming up with similar structures and adaptations across wildly different species. Birds and scallops have eyes, even though their last common ancestor didn’t. Bees and bats can both fly. How is this possible, if evolution is a random process and isn’t directed according to some plan? Because all organisms are dealing with similar environmental pressures. Why are snakes and ferrets and eels all long, thin, slinky tubes? Because hunting and hiding in small burrows is easier that way. Snails and turtles and beetles have hard shells because being chewed on is bad. The environment creates restrictions on what sorts of bodies can feasibly exist, and that results in convergent evolution.

Language is working within a more restricted environment: You have a vocal tract.* You are a social animal. It benefits you and your kin group to be able to communicate things about yourself and the world around you. What does that mean? Telling people about the location of things. The qualities of things. Describing actions that have a cause and effect. You need some way to say "There is food here" or "I hit it with a stick, and then bees came out."

These desirable qualities mean that languages are subject to massive environmental pressures to maintain a minimum level of ability to communicate specific kinds of information, regardless of how they change over time. And you're presenting the information through a linear medium, one word at a time. These physical and behavioral traits limit the possible things a language can do.

So while I do not have the technical knowledge to propose a detailed model of linguistic evolution, I do not find it unlikely that human languages could experience convergent evolution, producing highly analogous structures completely independently of each other. Are there components of human cognition that lead humans to prefer some forms more than others? Almost certainly. But again, they’ll be messy! And they will be very, very hard to tease apart from the social context of language.

So, why did I just spend 1500 words ranting about this? Because despite the fact that this book was published not long before most linguists rejected these premises, it still plays into a lot of misapprehensions people have about science. Can we come up with absolute, iron-clad laws for everything? No. Many systems are so complicated that with our imperfect knowledge, they resist the language of certainty.

Does that mean that science is useless in those cases? No!! You can still figure out restrictions on what can and can’t happen, what is and isn’t reasonable to expect. This is the language of probability. The more we rigorously study a subject, the more precise we can be. That’s what we do in science.** We describe the world as precisely and carefully as we can, using the resources we have. It’s not always elegant, but not everything will be.

And I think that’s a good excuse for me to end this without a neat little closing thought.

---

*and hands, but I am not qualified to discuss sign languages.

**The desire to be achingly comprehensive is strong. You have no many times I had to delete tangents in this thing. They would have made my points more precise. I could have talked about synaptic pruning in the developing brain. I could talk about multiple testing correction while calculating probabilities. I wrote a footnote ramble about Japanese serial verb constructions, but I deleted it! Go me!!!

[ajroach42]

Welcome to the new year! I’m glad you made the transfer without incident.

It is my Duty and Privilege to announce the public launch of a project I’ve been working on for the better part of a decade, This is Jupiter’s Ghost! It is a podcast set in the creative commons CC-BY-SA licensed universe of the Solar Federation. It’s a community initative, written and record by a small but growing group of contributors, which you are formally invited to join!

What is Jupiter’s Ghost?

Many things! Jupiter’s Ghost is a podcast (and possibly soon to be a cartoon from New Ellijay Television) set in the universe of the Solar Federation It’s a big universe against which lots of science fiction stories can be told, and it is my hope that Jupiter’s Ghost is the first of many.

Why is Jupiter’s Ghost?

The simple answer is that I’ve always wanted to tell hopeful stories about the future, and the crew of the Jupiter’s Ghost gets to exist in a world that, while still imperfect, is much better than our own. It gives me a chance to tell stories about how the world might be, if we work together, and how Freedom is a Constant Struggle, not something we reach, but something that we continue to reach for.

Basically, it gives me a chance to tell stories in a way that aligns with my values.

Please give it a listen, subscribe, review us on iTunes and Stitcher and Spotify and, eventually, when Google decides we’re worth indexing, Google Podcasts.

Share it with your friends, consider participating in the universe. Help us turn this in to something special.

That’s the meat of the post, but if you want to stick around I’m going to talk about what we’ve done, and why we’ve done it, and what we’re going to do next.

Like I said at the top, I started working on this thing nearly a decade ago. It before we closed Analog Revolution’s first physical location, before we moved across the country, before we moved back, and moved back, and moved back again. The current iteration of the thing entered the planning phases on the fediverse circa 2016, and then So Much life happened.

Thankfully, I have some great collaborators, and we’ve got it going. So let’s talk about what and why.

Why CC-BY-SA?

Jupiter’s Ghost is creative commons licensed, which means that anyone is free to share it, adapt it, remix it, or contribute to it. It’s specifically CC-BY-SA licensed, which means that if anyone does remix it, adapt it, etc. they are required to release their adaptation under the same terms. They don’t need my permission, approval, or support. They can, you can, just do it.

This was an intentional decision, and one carefully made to align with my values, but it has been a point of confusion for some folks so far, so let me unpack it.

I have written in the past about my appreciate of DIY Media and Fan Fiction, and the need for more creative works from normal people. I won’t rehash those things here, but the gist is that most of our modern collective folklore, the stories we tell one another and use to relate to the universe, are owned by Disney and a small handful of other companies and they use this position of power and control to harm us.

On this, Public Domain Day 2023, I invite you to consider the cautionary tale of Star Trek New Voyages. New Voyages should be a shining beacon of DIY Media. For those who are unfamiliar, it’s a fan series that imagines and recreates the rest of the Five Year Mission of the original Enterprise. It was a wildly ambitious project that dramatically improves in overall quality as it progresses, and it was made possible by the labor, skill, and creativity of a huge community of people.

and in 2016, Paramount decided it was illegal.

This is their prerogative as the owners of the “Intellectual Property” that is Star Trek under modern copyright law, but it stung. It stung even more when I discovered recently that there were Three finished episodes in post production and Crew on set Filming another episode when they ruling was handed down. Those episodes will never be released, they are lost, they are empty space in history. We are terrible stewards of history and Copyright makes it worse.

Now, I can imagine many of those reading this rolling their eyes at the idea that something of value was lost here. “Don’t want your project to be shut down? Don’t use someone else’s IP!” I can imagine you saying, and if our Copyright system was at all sensible, I could understand that argument, but it isn’t. Our copyright terms are too long, and they’re stifling and restrictive.

So, here’s Jupiter’s Ghost. Here’s The Solar Federation. Here’s a big open universe with Spaceships and Aliens and history and a future, in to which any number of stories can be positioned. You can use it however you want, as long as you credit us, and give back to the commons.

Now yes, it’s wildly optimistic to think that anything like Star Trek New Voyages would ever exist for our little old podcast, but it’s legal, it’s allowed, it’s possible, and it’s encouraged. That’s a better model for how copyright might exist and it’s a way we can live our values while producing media that reflects what we believe.