#transferring my twitter threads

[klance-dreams]

Okay but please imagine Keith’s reaction to seeing Lance after he’s finally spent some time at the beach again? In his natural element, bronzed like a literal god, burnished from the sun? freckles like constellations?? Lance with wavy, curly salt water-hair, eyes soft and relaxed.

+ Keith meeting back up with the paladins after too long away with the blade. 👀

He loves space of course, but even after his time in the quantum abyss, he’s still not used to the way all warmth & body heat was constantly leached away. Despite his memories of cursing his time in the relentless summer heat of the shack, he’s found himself beginning to miss the hot scorch of the desert sun against his skin.

The blade gave Keith a rare opportunity for downtime that somehow happenes to align with an impromptu holiday/break that Allura has planned for the paladins on a sunny, earth-like planet filled with tropical islands, flora & fauna.

To Keith’s surprise, Lance was the one to call and invite him to join them; sunshine already infused in his voice at the idea of seeing a beach again.

For Keith, the mere thought of getting to see Lance in his natural element? He wouldn���t miss it for anything.

He promises to Lance on the spot (he would promise Lance all the moons and stars if he could) to meet him there later in the day.

When he gets there, everyone has already been enjoying the sun & surf for hours. Pidge is sunburned and squinting at the glare against her datapad, glasses reflecting at a sleeping hunk whose legs have been covered by a crude sand castle. He’s spooning a large collection of fruits that look strangely similar to the ones Keith remembers from earth.

Shiro and Coran seem to be playing a complicated Altean beach game that Keith intends to avoid; Allura lays out on the sand, the mice resting in the shadow of her hair.

Keith thinks someone might have called out a greeting to him, but he can’t be sure, because the second he sees Lance? All thougts leave him, head empty.

It’s too soon to blame the redness in his cheeks on the sun, but he can feel how hot his face has gotten anyway.

Lance is sitting in the sand, waves lapping his ankles. His hair is wild & curling behind his ears from the salt water breeze.

The sight of him alone is enough to warm the cold ache Keith has been feeling.

Sand sticks to the bronzed slope of his back, glittering like flecks of gold, effervescent in the bright sun for Keith’s eyes to follow.

His shoulders are broad and already tanned and freckled where Keith knows his own would be red and sore.

His eyes sweep over the scar on Lances back, and the ones on his arms and sides that Keith wasn’t there to protect him from.

But here? With the blue of the ocean to rival his eyes? Lance looks untouchable.

Looks like a god, burning bright and warm and full of life, and when he turns around at the sound of Keith’s name being called out, Keith’s breath catches in his throat because this sight?

This is one he got to see in the quantum abyss. It was one of the visions into his future that he held onto like a lifeline, like a treasure.

The image of Lance’s smile, a true joyful smile, playing behind Keith’s eyelids and keeping him sane on the worst of those nights spent stranded in space.

Lance, eyes dancing bright and smile brighter as his wide mouth forms Keith’s name on a joyful laugh and he hops up to throw his arms around Keith in a hug that feels like /home/ in a way Keith hadn’t known before Lance.

For one delirious moment, the déjà vu is so strong that he’s afraid he and Krolia never made it back at all. That they were still stuck out there in the cold emptiness of the abyss. The way the vision blends with the Lance he has in front of him makes Keith want to hold on tight and never let go.

Especially when Lance leans back and their eyes meet and lock, electric.

Keith still hasn’t even said a word, but Lance only smiles brighter and knocks their foreheads together.

Says, “hey samurai, it’s been too long”

One traitorous hand drifts up against Keith’s will to trace the new freckles dotting Lance’s cheeks, which flush the lightest pink at the attention or maybe the intensity of Keith’s gaze as he floats into Lance’s orbit, pulled to him like the moon to the sun.

Lance’s leans into the hand Keith cups against his cheek, and finally, finally their lips meet; Keith’s cold and chapped and Lance’s, warm and soft, tasting of the ocean.

When he has to pull back to catch his breath, he finally murmurs back a warm and gravely, “hey sharp shooter,” lips pulled up into a crooked grin and eyes tracking the way Lance melts into him at the nickname like always.

They stay like that for a while, catching up on what they’ve both been up to when Lance says offhand, “hey where’s Kosmo?”

Before Keith can answer, they’re both knocked into the surf by 200 pounds of excited space wolf.

Keith wants to be mad, but the way Lance pops up from the water sputtering makes him grin through the hair plastered to his forehead.

Lance takes one look at Keith, waist deep and fully clothed down to the fingerless gloves, mullet drenched, and bursts out laughing at the sight

and Keith can’t even be mad. He pretends to be, crossing his arms and ‘sulking’. He tries to blow his bangs up and out of his eyes before he remembers it won’t work and that sends Lance into tears. Keith sits back watches Lance laugh for a minute, committing the sight to memory.

He’s gonna get revenge on Lance for laughing, but first he needs to level the playing field.

Lance’s laughter slowly winds down as he watches Kosmo run off to greet the other paladins, laughing again when the wolf shakes water all over Allura and Hunk.

While Lance was distracted, Keith had taken his shirt and gloves off, tossing them back onto dry sand and adding his soaked jeans to the pile for good measure.

Keith was slicking his hair back from his face when Lance turned back toward him and froze at the sight, suspiciously quiet.

// …tbc? transferring twitter treads. original thread here!

[pfeffermuhle]

Ivan Rakitić and Luka Modrić // The meeting on the turret stairs, Frederic William Burton, 1864

[steinpughhawke]

➳ ⧗ a MASTERLIST of all my bishova fafic rec threads 📚💜💚

all credits go to the rightful author. thank you to every single bishova author out there. you are appreciated so very much. thank you for feeding us!

[transferred from twitter]

Green - Completed

Purple - Ongoing

100k stories

high school/college au

jealous!yelena

5+1

fake dating au

underrated stories

underrated oneshots

soulmate

haven’t been updated in year(s)

outsider’s POV

pitch perfect crossover

sad/angsty

enemies to lovers

18+ stories

top!yelena

top!kate

omegaverse

recent completed (9/28/24)

[linkhundr]

So NFTgate has now hit tumblr - I made a thread about it on my twitter, but I'll talk a bit more about it here as well in slightly more detail. It'll be a long one, sorry! Using my degree for something here. This is not intended to sway you in one way or the other - merely to inform so you can make your own decision and so that you aware of this because it will happen again, with many other artists you know.

Let's start at the basics: NFT stands for 'non fungible token', which you should read as 'passcode you can't replicate'. These codes are stored in blocks in what is essentially a huge ledger of records, all chained together - a blockchain. Blockchain is encoded in such a way that you can't edit one block without editing the whole chain, meaning that when the data is validated it comes back 'negative' if it has been tampered with. This makes it a really, really safe method of storing data, and managing access to said data. For example, verifying that a bank account belongs to the person that says that is their bank account.

For most people, the association with NFT's is bitcoin and Bored Ape, and that's honestly fair. The way that used to work - and why it was such a scam - is that you essentially purchased a receipt that said you owned digital space - not the digital space itself. That receipt was the NFT. So, in reality, you did not own any goods, that receipt had no legal grounds, and its value was completely made up and not based on anything. On top of that, these NFTs were purchased almost exclusively with cryptocurrency which at the time used a verifiation method called proof of work, which is terrible for the environment because it requires insane amounts of electricity and computing power to verify. The carbon footprint for NFTs and coins at this time was absolutely insane.

In short, Bored Apes were just a huge tech fad with the intention to make a huge profit regardless of the cost, which resulted in the large market crash late last year. NFTs in this form are without value.

However, NFTs are just tech by itself more than they are some company that uses them. NFTs do have real-life, useful applications, particularly in data storage and verification. Research is being done to see if we can use blockchain to safely store patient data, or use it for bank wire transfers of extremely large amounts. That's cool stuff!

So what exactly is Käärijä doing? Kä is not selling NFTs in the traditional way you might have become familiar with. In this use-case, the NFT is in essence a software key that gives you access to a digital space. For the raffle, the NFT was basically your ticket number. This is a very secure way of doing so, assuring individuality, but also that no one can replicate that code and win through a false method. You are paying for a legimate product - the NFT is your access to that product.

What about the environmental impact in this case? We've thankfully made leaps and bounds in advancing the tech to reduce the carbon footprint as well as general mitigations to avoid expanding it over time. One big thing is shifting from proof of work verification to proof of space or proof of stake verifications, both of which require much less power in order to work. It seems that Kollekt is partnered with Polygon, a company that offers blockchain technology with the intention to become climate positive as soon as possible. Numbers on their site are very promising, they appear to be using proof of stake verification, and all-around appear more interested in the tech than the profits it could offer.

But most importantly: Kollekt does not allow for purchases made with cryptocurrency, and that is the real pisser from an environmental perspective. Cryptocurrency purchases require the most active verification across systems in order to go through - this is what bitcoin mining is, essentially. The fact that this website does not use it means good things in terms of carbon footprint.

But why not use something like Patreon? I can't tell you. My guess is that Patreon is a monthly recurring service and they wanted something one-time. Kollekt is based in Helsinki, and word is that Mikke (who is running this) is friends with folks on the team. These are all contributing factors, I would assume, but that's entirely an assumption and you can't take for fact.

Is this a good thing/bad thing? That I also can't tell you - you have to decide that for yourself. It's not a scam, it's not crypto, just a service that sits on the blockchain. But it does have higher carbon output than a lot of other services do, and its exact nature is not publicly disclosed. This isn't intended to sway you to say one or the other, but merely to give you the proper understanding of what NFTs are as a whole and what they are in this particular case so you can make that decision for yourself.

[cuddlytogas]

there was some Twitter madness recently where someone left a comment on someone's art to the effect of, "Ed shouldn't wear a dress, he's a man!" which I do disagree with on principle, but unfortunately, it brought out one of my least favourite trends in the fandom

so, naturally, I had to write a twitter essay about it. and I already largely argued this in a post here, but the thread is clearer and better structured, so I thought I'd cross-post for those not on the Hellsite (derogatory). edited for formatting/structure's sake, since I no longer have to keep to tweet lengths, and incorporating a couple of points other people brought up in the replies

so

I want to point out that the wedding cake toppers in OFMD s2 aren't evidence that Ed wants to wear dresses. Gender is fake, men can wear skirts, play with these dolls how you like, but it's not canon, and that scene especially Doesn't Mean That.

People cite it often: 'He put himself in a dress by painting the bride as himself! It's what he wants!' But that fundamentally misunderstands the scene, and the series' framing of weddings as a whole. I'd argue that Ed paints the figure not from desire, but from self-hatred; it's not what he wants, but what he thinks he should, and has failed to, be.

(Yes, I am slightly biased by my rampant anti-marriage opinions, but bear with me here, because it is relevant to the interpretation of the scene, and season two as a whole.)

The show is not subtle. It keeps telling us that the institution of marriage is a prison that suffocates everyone involved. Ed's parents' cycle of abuse is passed to their son in both the violence he witnesses then enacts on his father, and the self-repression his mother teaches, despite her good intentions ("It's not up to us, is it? It's up to God. ... We're just not those kind of people. We never will be."). Stede and Mary are both oppressed by their arranged marriage, with 1x04 blunty titled Discomfort in a Married State. The Barbados widows revel in their freedom ("We're alive. They're dead. Now is your time").

But even without this context, the particular wedding crashed in 2x01 is COMICALLY evil. The scene is introduced with this speech from the priest:

"The natural condition of humanity is base and vile. It is the obligation of people of standing ... to elevate the common human rabble through the sacred transaction of matrimony."

It's upper class, all-white, and religiously sanctioned. "Vile natural conditions" include queerness, sexual freedom, and family structures outside the cisheteropatriarchal capitalist unit. "The obligation of people of standing" invokes ideas like the white man's burden, innate class hierarchy, religious missions, and conversion therapy. Matrimony is presented as both "sacred" (endorsed by the ruling religious body), and a "transaction" (business performed to transfer property and people-as-property, regardless of their desires), a tool of the oppressive society that pirates escape and destroy. That is where the figurines come from.

When Ed, in a drunk, depressive spiral, paints himself onto the bride, he's not yearning for a pretty dress. He's sort of yearning for a wedding, but that's not framed as positive. What he's doing is projecting himself into an 'ideal' image of marriage because he believes that: a) that's what Stede (and everyone) wants; b) he can never live up to that ideal because he's unlovable and broken (brown, queer, lower-class, violent, abused, etc); c) that's why Stede left. He tries to make himself fit into the social ideal by painting himself onto the closest match - long-haired, partner to Stede/groom, but a demure, white woman, a frozen, porcelain miniature - because, if he could just shrink himself down and squeeze into that box, maybe Stede would love him and he'd live happily ever after. But he can't. So he won't.

The fantasy fails: Ed is morose, turns away from the figurines, then tips them into the sea, a lost cause. He knows he won't ever fulfil that bride's role, but he sees that as a failure in himself, not the role. It's not just that "Stede left, so Ed will never have a dream wedding and might as well die." Stede left when Ed was honest and vulnerable, "proving" what his trauma and depression tell him: there's one image of love (of personhood), and he'll never live up to it because he's fundamentally deficient. So he might as well die.

This hit me from my very first viewing. The scene is devastating, because Ed is wrong, and we know it! He doesn't need to change or reduce himself to fit an image and be accepted (as, eg, Izzy demanded). Stede knows and loves him exactly as he is; it's the main thread and theme of season two!

(@/everyonegetcake suggested that Ed's yearning in these scenes includes his broader desire for the vulnerability and safety Stede offered, literalised through unattainable "fine" things like the status of gentleman in s1, or the figurine's blue dress. I'd argue, though, that these scenes don't incorporate this beyond a general knowledge of Ed's character. Ed is always pining for both literal and emotional softness, but the significance of the figurines specifically, to both Ed and the audience, is poisoned by their origin and context: there is no positive fantasy in the bride figure, only Ed's perceived deficiency.

Further, assuming that a desire for vulnerability necessarily corresponds with an explicit desire for femininity, dresses, etc, kind of contradicts the major themes of the show. OFMD asserts that there is nothing wrong with men assuming femininity (through drag, self-care, nurturing, emotional vulnerability, etc), but also that many of these traits are, in fact, genderless, and should be available to men without affecting their perceived or actual masculinity. It thematically invokes the potential for cross-gender expression in Ed's desires, especially through the transgender echoes in his relieved disposal, then comfortable reincorporation, of the Blackbeard leathers/identity. It's a rich, valuable area of analysis and exploration. But it remains a suggestion, not a canon or on-screen trait.)

Importantly, the groom figure doesn't fit Stede, either. Not just in dress: it's stiff and formal, and marriage nearly killed him. He's shabbier now, yes, but also shedding his privilege and property, embracing his queerness, and trying to take responsibility for his community. In a s1 flashback, Stede hesitantly says, "I thought that, when I did marry, it could be for love," but he would never find love in marriage. Not just because he's gay, but because marriage in OFMD is an oppressive, transactional institution that precludes love altogether. All formal marriages in OFMD are loveless.

So, he becomes a pirate, where they reject society altogether and have matelotages instead. Lucius and Pete's "mateys" ceremony is shot and framed not like a wedding, but as an honest, personal bond, willingly conducted in community (in a circle; no presiding authority, procession, or transaction).

That is how Stede and Ed can find love, companionship, and happiness: by rejecting those figurines and their oppressive exchange of property, overseen by a church that enables colonialism and abuse. Ed is loved, and deserves happiness, as he is, no paint or projection required.

ALL OF THIS IS TO SAY: draw Ed in dresses! Write him getting gender euphoria in skirts! Write trans/nb Ed, draw men being feminine! Gender is fake, the show invites exploration, that's what 'transformative works' means! But please, stop citing the cake toppers as evidence it's canon. Stop citing a scene where a depressed Māori man gets drunk and projects himself onto a rich, white, silent bride because he thinks he's innately unlovable and only people like her can find happiness, shortly before deciding to kill himself, as canon evidence it's what he wants.

(Also, please don't come in here with "lmao we're just having fun," I know, I get it. Unfortunately, I'm an academiapilled researchmaxxer, and some of youse need to remember that the word "canon" has meaning. NOW GO HAVE FUN PUTTING THAT MAN IN A PRETTY DRESS!! 💖💖)

[diardri]

Dia's FFXIV Art Reference Notes, A possibly long post

Hello! I made this as a thread on my twitter but I might as well post a version of it here. For the record this will be a thread linking to the resources I use when drawing commissions or fanart, I have not made Any of these and whenever I can I will note the creators and link directly to their resources.

GPose Reference First and foremost, if you're drawing a WOL or ordering a commission of your WOL the most important thing is to take a proper reference GPOSE. I use the method in this post, to make sure I got all the angles. Clean refs are super important when drawing armor/intricate outfits so take care to take simple standing poses like the one in the tweet above. Cool dynamic poses might be fun but they're not really useful for referencing.

Gear/Weapon Reference

If you need good references for a weapon/outfit that you don't have a GPOSE for, I recommend using the attire website

This is a japanese website maintained by @/chiyo_asa on twitter and if you've ever looked up a piece of gear in the lodestone you've almost definitely come across their pictures.

This is a super rough translation in english of the menu of the website. While it is in Japanese it's very easy to navigate and all the pictures in the site are super high quality and very useful for referencing.

This is my number one source for gear references I haven't taken myself

The "mirapuri" button afaik is for glams they made themselves that they want to showcase.

An important note about this site specifically is that I believe it's currently undergoing an overhaul so Some weapons/gearsets might not be completely transferred in yet.

That being said, the majority of sets from dungeons/crafting/alliance raids/job gear sets etc are sorted like so, which makes it super easy to look for.

There IS also a search function but I'm pretty sure it works only for japanese input.

NPC reference sheets

@xivrefsheets Offers really detailed resources of npc models. They also occasionally accept requests on their ko-fi (closed at the time of writing this)

These are super useful and really high quality, especially for some of the boss refs they've done. As someone who doesn't use anamnesis I go back to their refs very often

Convocation of the Fourteen refs

Maintained by @/Igeyorhm on twitter this site has a nice list of Ascian refs per character in addition to some lore bits for each of them. Also some very useful closeups of the Ascian clothes.

Even more NPC and Boss Refs

I believe maintained by @/MlNRATHOUS on twitter, this site has a really nice array of major NPC and boss references in various angles and with colourpicks for skintone and hair which is super useful. I use them a Lot

Lalafell centric refs

Norirow Note is a super cute blog that showcases glam items/ weapons/ chocobo barding and more.

It is NOT meant to be an art reference, however if you play a lala like me, I find their showcases useful when drawing gear on lalas.

Even if you don't use it as an art ref it's a super cute blog that's just fun to go through AND fully translated in english so I recommend just having a fun time reading through it anyway.

Bonus- Au Ra Scales.

I literally found out about this today but @/saficchi on twitter has made a super detailed angled ref sheet for both male and female au ra scales and I love them for it

Bonus 2 electric boogaloo- TextTools

I use this to import 3d models of specific weapons into CSP if I'm drawing them.

I don't know how useful this is for other art software but it's saved my ass from freehanding titania weapons so in the thread it goes

That's the full list of refs I personally use, if there's more that people want to add please feel free to do so in the comments. I hope it helps people out in their creative endeavors!

[sophietv]

All Of The Kaylor Lore Table Of Content:

Here's a list of all my Kaylor content in a way that is easy to find! (I'll update it everytime I post something new)

The goal here is to explain most of the important Kaylor Lore to help you better understand.

I also do a LOT of Threads on Twitter explaining Kaylor theories. You can find them all here: (X)

Kaylor Lore:

The Love Blackout (It's all part of the f*cking story)

Kaylor Timeline BEFORE the 2013 VSFS

Their "Breakup", Folkmore and William Bowery

Why I Think They Are Still Hiding

My Thoughts About Them Having Kids

The Ultimate LSK Thread Of Koincidences (Fall of 2019)

The Ultimate LSK Thread Of Koincidences (2020) Part 1

The Ultimate LSK Thread Of Koincidences (2020) Part 2

The Ultimate LSK Thread Of Koincidences (2021) Part 1

The Ultimate LSK Thread Of Koincidences (2021) Part 2

The Ultimate LSK Thread Of Koincidences (2021) Part 3

Midnights IS about Karlie Kloss:

Those are threads I did on Twitter. I'll transfer them here when I have a minute (I'm not done, I still have a lot of songs to do but got distracted by other threads 😅):

Snow On The Beach

Anti-Hero Music Video

Maroon

Bejeweled Music Video

Lavender Haze Music Video

Glitch

Songs Analysis:

The Great War

You're Losing Me

Dancing With Our Hands Tied

Don't Blame Me

Delicate

End Game

...Ready For It?

Reputation Prologue

Other Kaylor Theory/Threads:

Kaylor: The Eras Tour

Other Gaylors Theory:

Karma On The Wall Update

Everything About The Failed Coming Out 2019

[onecornerface]

New study finds cash-transfers didn't have some expected benefits- But why??

A new study (NBER Working Paper) seemingly finds that a monthly cash-transfer ($1000 a month over a few years) to poor people in the US failed to benefit recipients’ mental and physical health or food security in a bunch of ways after the first year. It’s apparently more ambitious than some previous studies of cash transfers in the US. This may be some evidence that UBI doesn’t have all the benefits we’d like it to have for helping poor people or some subsets of them, which could impact future debates on UBI. There may still be consequentialist and/or deontological reasons to support UBI, but we need to ensure they’re aligned with the best evidence on the (good and/or bad) results (or lack thereof).

I’ve read the Twitter summary thread, and skimmed several sections of the paper (especially intro sections and Discussion), but haven't fully read the paper.

Some initial thoughts & questions I’m wondering about—

My main concerns are about the mechanisms, by which I mean how the cash-transfers impacted people’s behavior or psychology in ways that would bring about the measured results (assuming the metrics/results are valid). One of the most puzzling results is on food security.

“We also find that the transfer generated large and highly statistically significant improvements in food security in the first year. However, mirroring our results for mental health, these improvements were short-lived and, by the end of the program, participants in the treatment group reported no better ability to meet their food needs than those in the control group.” (Page 3)

If cash-transfers indeed fail to improve food security for a lot of people after the first year (yet apparently did help during the first year), why? What are the mechanisms by which it would fail?

From my armchair speculation, I can kind-of-sort-of imagine how psychological adaptation (or suchlike) may explain how cash may fail to improve mental health or stress after the first year, leading to something of a return to baseline (albeit with many reservations).

And some of the physical health results also might not be too baffling, since the relationship between income, medical care access, and health results, may well be complex and wonky. Medical access may be reduced by non-income factors, effective medical advice may not be taken up, and many medical practices may be ineffective. That said, there are still a lot of very plausible mechanisms as to how poverty would worsen health—it’s not all specious correlation (even if some is), and it’s not all the result of third-factors causing both poverty and illness (even if some is) and/or illness causing poverty. So there’s still some more explanation needed as to how a lot of these wouldn’t be impacted much, or would be impacted only temporarily, by cash transfers.

All that said, I’m still more puzzled by the food-security results. People’s food needs are a lot more consistent and predictable than their physical healthcare needs, and seem less likely to change due to any return to baseline.

Do the recipients develop a bigger appetite or altered metabolism after the first year? Do they start making worse (or at least, less food-focused) spending decisions, resulting in less money to spend on food? Or what? Was there something else they preferred to spend their money on, besides food, after the first year? Did they not have enough money to spend on food? Did rent take up so much they didn’t have money for food?

Maybe some of them spend more money on drugs or suchlike, resulting in less money for food—but the study seems to find mixed results as to whether drug use increased or not (see Page 36, and search the document for “drug” to see variations of the same claim throughout), and I assume a large chunk of the recipients didn’t spend a lot of money on drugs (even if there was also a large chunk who did). So, in any case, I don’t think very much of the food security result can be easily explained by “recipients spent the money on drugs instead of food.”

So… what gives? Why did food insecurity go down and then back up again??

I’ve skimmed the paper, and it looks like most of it consists in arguments that their statistical methods and suchlike are valid and not confounded, or suchlike. I probably don’t have the expertise to evaluate any of those arguments. But it doesn’t look like there’s much, if any, discussion on the mechanisms. Maybe it’s in there somewhere, I don’t know.

The results wouldn’t be magic. If they’re valid, they should be happening as a result of the recipients changing (or failing to change) their consumption patterns or other decisions or circumstances in various sorts of ways. So what are those? If there aren't any plausible mechanisms (which admittedly would be very hard to show), this could also be reason to question the validity of the results.

It sounds like the lead author, Sarah Miller, is in favor of cash transfers. So the negative results can’t be readily explained by a lead author’s bias against the policy.

Some of the failure may be explained by the fact that the study was only three years, and some benefits may take many years of cash transfers to achieve. However, this doesn’t address why the study did find a bunch of benefits in year 1 which then ceased in year 2. This pattern of benefits appearing and then disappearing also seems to count against the possibility that the study’s method was simply unable to detect the benefits. Apparently it did detect the benefits in year 1, which makes it puzzling why they disappeared in year 2.

A bunch of twitter commenters seem to think the study confirms UBI sucks actually, because poor people are just intrinsically shitty and make bad decisions that keep themselves poor and in bad health completely regardless of what the government does—as the critics had been saying all along.

I’m certainly open to the possibility that poor people tend to make bad decisions, and I want to guard against any politically-correct bias that wrongly rules it out. If and insofar as poor people make decisions that contribute to keeping themselves poor and in bad health (whether these decisions are bad or defensible, which is a further question), then we should want to know what those are, so we can work with them to improve their situations more effectively and ethically.

Many progressives are likely too biased toward underestimating the agency of some poor people, and may well underestimate how many poor people could somewhat improve their situation by making different decisions. I think we can concede a lot of these points without drastically undercutting the position that poverty is obviously extremely bad and unjust, that some forms of government intervention & redistribution are effective, and that the main in-principle objections to government redistribution are weak.

I’m also pretty confident that most of the critics are ideologically committed to the “poor people make bad decisions” hypothesis for biased and unempirical reasons—and also seemingly haven't put forward any detailed hypotheses for how exactly the “poor people make bad decisions” view actually explains the evidence.

Arguably, even if poor people make bad decisions, this isn't enough to explain how and why their consumption or lifestyle decisions (etc.) were impacted by cash-transfers in the right sort of ways to explain any of the main interesting data.

My ideas on the study here are all very provisional. But the study seems worthwhile for UBI proponents to get ahead of, and develop a well-thought-out empirical analysis as to what it does or doesn’t imply for UBI.

[ingravinoveritas]

Just saw a post as well as a thread on Twitter about an incident that occurred at the stage door of Nye tonight and I am so sad and sickened to hear about this "fan's" behavior, both toward Michael and toward other fans. I've done many stage doors in the past (the most recent was going to see Ink on Broadway just before the pandemic) and seen a lot of entitled/unruly behavior from fans, but this woman and her mother barging into the bar, demanding a meet and greet, and then coming out and being horrific to other fans really takes the cake.

Michael works his ass off for endless hours to put on an amazing show every day/night. He gives 110% to every line, every step, every note in that musical number. Nye is a physically demanding play/role, and to get a show of that caliber from someone who is a master of his craft is more than anyone could ask for. Stage door--as lovely as it is, as fun as it can be--is not something he is required to do, especially when he's already feeling exhausted or under the weather. One thing the last several months have made clear is that Michael loves meeting fans--taking pictures, giving hugs, signing stuff, and just connecting with people. But the fact that this is not even the first time we've heard about fans going into the bar to bug him should be more than enough to give us all pause.

No one is entitled to Michael's time or attention. This particularly reminds me of an incident on Twitter a few years ago where one fan and their friends would not stop tagging Michael and demanding that he say something they wanted him to say. He'd been so incredibly giving and generous of his time with fans up until that point...and yet the second he drew a boundary, that fan and some others turned on him. Amazingly, that alone didn't put him off of engaging with the fandom entirely, but I have been in enough fandoms in my life to know that it is exactly behavior like this that will ruin things for everyone.

It also seems that Michael did come out following this incident tonight but had to leave, and he actually apologized to the nice fans who were still waiting (while apparently looking visibly upset himself). I know he apologized once before as well after a different fan went into the bar to get him, but we're beyond absurdity at this point. That Michael feels compelled to apologize for something that was not even his fault and especially after what that fan did absolutely breaks my heart, and is something that just should not be happening.

The run of Nye at the NT is nearly over, and I hope this won't put him off of doing stage door in the future (either for the remainder of this run or when it transfers to Cardiff), but I honestly would not blame him one bit if it did. What a loss it would be, though, both for the fans and for Michael...

[bbongwater]

PREPARE FOR IMPACT!

I've cooked up a "comic" over the weekend! A comic in the style of a lost Pokemon CGI film!

Read from top to bottom, left to right!

I always wanted to do a comic in this style. And, this is special because this actually has a bit of a story behind it!

I'll keep it brief. When I was going to post this on Twitter, I was going to pass it off as a piece of lost media that was uncovered, make a thread of the comic and have a sort of "just kidding!" post at the end. Nothing too serious.

I got halfway done with these renders when I hit up my bud @maidensflowergarden (who does VHS transfers) and that's when we started talking about more ways to take people for a ride. The result was posting the images on her account, making a fake cover for a VHS case, and having the thread end in a bait-and-switch video.

So basically, people thought a long lost 3D Pokemon film was uncovered, when in actuality, it was just my silly little renders! Oh, how evil of me!

You can check out the full Twitter thread here:

https://x.com/snowwood_/status/1749859149213782300?s=20

Of course, thanks again to @maidensflowergarden for transferring these over to tape! You're the bomb.

[bonebirds]

Winter Hibernation Fund for Bear 🐻

Hello, everyone!

I am again here to fundraise on behalf of my friend Bear, aka thesyc66 on Twitter.

He’s a disabled trans activist in Toronto who does a lot of street outreach, and all around good guy who spends his time trying to help other people while looking for a more affordable place to live. He’s trying to raise enough money to help see him through the worst of winter.

His thread on his winter survival fund is here:

His total goal is $1500CAD ($375 x 4 months) to cover the bare essentials like rent, groceries, and medication.

Any help goes a very long way.

Thank you so much for any boosts, etc.

If you're in Canada, DM me and I can send you his e-transfer/interac email instead of PayPal, too!

[klance-dreams]

Whatever you do, don’t imagine Keith purposefully making Lance blush whenever they see each other in the halls of the castle ship...

Don’t think of Keith dripping wet from the pool, or with his shirt off after training or in his tight BOM suit smirking and winking at Lance... 😏

Also definitely don’t think of Keith, older, taller, bigger — (after coming back from the space whale) — all sleep ruffled with his hair up. Only sweatpants on and answering the door when Lance knocks. Fondly saying, “Lance?” in that deeper, gravely voice he gets after sleeping ...

And don’t think about the way Keith might lean against the doorframe, taller than Lance now, lean and fit and wow have his eyes always been that pretty?

The smirk he’d get when Lance just stands there, forgetting what he was going to ask Keith in the first place

Keith looking down at Lance through his lashes and murmering, “wanna come in?” stepping back — grinning when he sees Lance gulp and nod, following Keith back into his room like he’s in a trance.

(Was it always like this? Eyes so magnetic... Was Keith always this bold?)

And lance still hasn’t spoken but that’s okay because Keith is taking his hand - not nervous about the contact because he missed Lance for those two years. He figured some important things out. Realized the importance of taking a chance while you had it...drawing Lance into a hug and Lance thinks, he doesn’t care what he came for because this is what he needed - this was what the two of them had been dancing around since that first day...

Whatever you do, don’t think of Keith tracing his eyes and hands up Lances arms, shoulders, neck — to his cheek, tracing Lances cheekbones with his thumb — noticing how he still looks the same. Still has the same freckles, eyes like the ocean and a blush Keith had always liked teasing out of him. Two years for Keith and Lance is just as pretty, as strong, just as much a force of nature as the last time they’d seen each other.

Don’t think about Lance leaning into it, closing his eyes and thinking finally as time turns to syrup and they finally, finally meet in the middle - lips finding each other, bodies fitting like puzzle pieces, finally at rest.

Whatever you do, don’t think about them falling asleep in each others arms, warm and feeling safe and hopeful for the first time in a long time. 😌💕

//moving over twitter threads and this version of keith makes my knees weak, lance is so toast 🥵 (original thread here)

[megaxard]

ive decided to start transferring over some of my kh text post edits from twitter, circa 2020-2022! the first batch is riku (feat. repliku)

[original thread] [#2, xigbar] [#3, xemnas] [#4, soriku] [#5, leaisa] [#6, roxas] [#7, kh1] [#8, axel/lea] [#9, demyx] [#10, CoM] [#11, DiZ hate] [#12, CoM/coded]

Below: Image IDs

[Start image ID]

1. The Master of Masters: i can see through the eyes of every Goku figurine (No Name)

Riku: This post made me promptly put all my DB figurines (Riku’s Keyblades, Soul Eater and Way to the Dawn) in a drawer and I’m not sure why

The Master of Masters: it’s so dark

2. Yuffie: A person I just met said “yeah I grew up loving the Percy Jackson books” and I accidentally responded “so you’re gay.” He was, in fact, gay.

Riku: “nobody’s ever said it that bluntly before but yeah.”

3. Riku: Remember when you were 15 and you were convinced you were evil and irredeemable and completely insane but it turns out you were just 15 (image of KH1 Riku)

4. KH1 Riku, with Ansem behind him: my gender is male as in Italian for evil

5. with images of Repliku and Chain of Memories Riku overlaid, they look very similar: I remember this one time the neighbor’s cat, Simba, broke into our house to fight our cat, also Simba.

reply: Kin drama

6. Riku: My DNA test results came back positive. I definitely have DNA.

Repliku: quit bragging

7. Repliku: life fucking sucks and has no purpose

Marina and the Diamonds: I’m miss sugar pink, liquor liquor lips, hit me with your sweet love steal me with a kiss,

Repliku: Actually I’m gonna go burn a cop car!!

8. Riku: Don’t ever lose sight of what’s important in life (being gay)

9. DDD Riku, looking at a hologram Sora: (falls in love with someone who was nice to me in my dream)

[End image ID]

[menouthis]

Buck and Eddie as Miami Vice characters

There are discussions on social media as to why Buck and Eddie, who are just friends at this point in the story, are the ones with matching outfits. People wonder if it's intentional that they match while Tommy wear something more casual. I don't think my answer is going to fit in Twitter or Threads since they have word limitations there. So I'll put it here instead.

The short answer is, of course it was intentional. In the land of TV series, every dialogue, interaction, outfit, positioning, facial expression are set for very specific purposes. But to begin with, you must remember that Buck and Eddie are 2 of the main characters of this series. Any supporting characters are there to support the development of the main characters. 

Having said that, it's usually rare for a main character to get entangled in another main character's love story with a supporting actor.... unless the first main character is supposed to be involved in said love story with the 2nd main character. There's no reason for Eddie to be this involved in Buck and Tommy's storyline if he wasn't meant to be a part of that storyline later on in the series.

At the moment, it's fair to say that the most desirable plot point of the show is that of Buck and Eddie. It's the very plot that the network use to hype up the series and it's the one that gets all the media talking about the show. It's their Golden Goose.  The lead actors in a show are usually aware of what is considered the prime plot point of the series. They usually want and the first to be offered the chance to partake in it. Sometimes they compete to be in that prime plotline.

From time to time an actor will refuse a plot thread because they recognize another plot point would serve them better (ie. JLH with Madney). In the case of Buddie, it really is up to Ryan whether or not he'd want to go there since Oliver already took the other offer. I don't know Ryan's decision but if he does want that prime real estate plot of Buddie, then the writers will facilitate that first and foremost, albeit in a way that makes sense. The writers are not going to take that prime role and give it to a supporting character if Ryan wants it. 

Going back to the 80s outfit. Of course they are not going to make the supporting character wearing the matching outfit with their lead, especially when their other lead is meant to be entangled in the storyline.  And yes, Eddie is meant to be involved in Buck's love story. There had been too many evidences that support this ever since 7x04: Buck's obsession with him, Eddie showing up in Buck's first date, Buck mostly concerned about telling Eddie his secret. Buck transferring his attraction for Eddie into Tommy, etc. 

Eddie being the one who suggested the Miami Vice outfits to match with Buck was needed for the plot. It serves to highlight that these two are in synch with each other. In fact both men chose the same queer-coded Crockett to cosplay as.  At the same time, Tommy choosing to dress casually was also intentional. It's meant to show that there's a gap between his and Buck's personality. At the moment the gap is miniscule and inconsequential but this kind of difference tend to snowball later on in the relationship.

In summary, they will not stick Ryan Guzman or Oliver Stark in alternative plot for their character if both of them feel that the best progression for their characters are with each other. Tim Minnear have said before that one of the things he had to consider while writing the story is the need of the lead actors. No writers will give the main actors a B plotline if the actors themselves want the prime storyline for their characters.

Buck and Eddie were the ones who got the matching outfits because the story needs to serve them first and foremost.

[kinodraws]

hello! I was wondering if you had any tattoo machine recs for a total beginner?

LOL i literally made a thread about this on twitter the other day!

Here's a bunch of stuff for someone who's learning to tattoo.

DISCLAIMER

DO NOT TATTOO OTHER PEOPLE FOR MONEY IF YOU ARE NOT WORKING IN A SHOP

DO NOT TATTOO OTHER PEOPLE OUT OF YOUR HOME OR ANY PLACE THAT IS NOT A SHOP

TATTOO FRUIT, PIG SKIN OR SILICONE FAKE SKIN

TATTOO YOURSELF IF YOURE BRAVE AND CAN ACCEPT THE RISKS INVOLVED

That being said:

MACHINE PICKS: - high end: bishop power wand packer ($1200 for full set, $649 on sale at kingpintattoosupply.com rn for the machine itself which would require purchasing a separate battery) - midrange: FK Irons spektra xion ($574 on painful pleasures, requires power supply or battery) - beginner: MAST archer ($179 on Amazon) Be aware that with this machine, the battery is rechargable but NOT replaceable, so if the battery dies, the machine dies. IMO not a big deal at $179 tho. You can also get coil machines from just about anywhere but they're less foolproof and you need to know how to tune and maintain them, and they aren't cordless so there's much more risk of dragging the clip cord through contaminated material which is gross and dangerous

POWER SUPPLIES: - Critical is kind of my go-to for everything. If you buy an RCA compatible machine, you would need a critical RCA Battery which comes in two configurations, the regular one gives you about 10 hours of running tattoo time and the shorty gives you 5.

BLACK/WHITE INK PICKS: - Allegory BLAK - Dynamic black - Empire white COLOR INK PICKS: - Electrum (flows nicely, doesn't crust over if left exposed to air in the ink cap for a long time) - SOLID Ink - (flows nicely, highly pigmented, haven't used this much) - Eternal ink (good all rounder but most of their opaque highly pigmented colors tend to go thick over time and do not flow easily)

CARTRIDGE PICKS: - High end/best for very experienced artists - Black Claw - Midrange: Kwadron, Electrum - Budget: MAST

Other things you need to tattoo safely: - Tattooing/medical tray - Cling wrap - pen covers/clip cord covers - masking tape - ink caps - stencil printer - stencil paper - shaving razors - green soap - wash bottles - madacide/cavicide/opticide (NOT OPTIONAL) - Paper towels - vaseline - single use individually wrapped tongue depressors - Fake skin (get it at pound of flesh or amazon) - Scissors - Stencil transfer solution (I prefer Dynamic's stencil magic) - Wash bottle bags - Rubbing alcohol - Dental bibs - Laser/Inkjet printer - GLOVES

ALSO GET YOUR DANG BLOODBORNE PATHOGENS CERTIFICATE! IT's $30 on the red cross website and cheaper on other sites!

you also need like at least some cursory drawing skill and the knowledge of how deep to go in skin to prevent blowouts and faint lines! There are lots of folks on youtube who can give you the rudimentary knowledge you need to get started, but the best way to get into tattooing professionally (if that's what your after) is to build up a portfolio of flash pieces that you feel best express your style, and to start getting tattooed at local shops by artists you like & respect.

Anyway! Hope this helps!

[david-talks-sw]

Hey,

I saw your post in which you defended Mace Windu and it is such a good post. Thank you.

At the moment I debate with someone on twitter and it is super frustrating because they are saying Mace is a potential villain because he hates the Sith and wants to kill Anakin in episode I (even through he doesn't admit it).

I'm slightly shocked that someone thinks like this. Could you maybe help me to argue that Mace isn't a villain and a potential child killer?

Hey there!

I appreciate you asking me this, but honestly it looks to me like this is a debate you just won't "win" and you should quit while you're ahead.

Firstly, because those are two arguments so ridiculous and baseless that they have to either

be made in bad faith, AKA you're arguing with someone who's literally grasping at straws and making bullshit arguments for the sake of having the last tweet. In which case you can quit interacting with them because this is a victory in and of itself.

be made by someone completely insane and/or who has made their own headcanon about it. In which case, you might as well quit because there's no way you'll change this person's mind.

But, secondly, being pro-Jedi on Twitter is hell.

I'm not kidding, there's literally SO many people who think the point of the Prequels is the Jedi's failure that if you try to dispel the notion, a rain of (factually incorrect) anti-Jedi arguments falls floods your notifications, and it inevitably devolves into "this guy missed the point of the Prequels".

I'm training myself more and more to take a page out of the Jedi's book and just "let go" because the shit I see sometimes is just infuriating. Like this one, I saw last night:

Out of 154 collected quotes where George Lucas talks about the Jedi, their relationship with Anakin and their rules (namely the attachment one), he is only critical about them twice.

TWICE! OUT OF 154!

But I didn't reply to this.

I drafted the tweet, then deleted it because this is such a big subject that you're not gonna be able to dispel it with a single tweet (and fuck getting Twitter blue, are you crazy? but even if you did, you really think anyone will read your essay of a tweet?)

And also because last year, I got into an argument re: if Qui-Gon was a better master for Anakin than Obi-Wan (my opinion is "nope"). And I argued the hell out of my case. You know what I got in return?

Fucking nothing.

All I got was the people I was arguing against (who kept piling on on like the 5th tweet in a thread instead of reading everything from the beginning, which was messy in and of itself) just... stop replying.

At some point when you're in that deep, you think it'll inevitably end with your "opponent" going:

'well argued sir, you have completely changed my mind for I have now seen the truth; jolly good show'.

Instead all you get is... nothing. They stop replying.

You don't get the satisfaction of an admission of defeat and you don't wanna be the person spamming "WELL?! NOTHING TO SAY?!" because that's just pathetic.

So all you're left with is an hour of your life gone, WASTED proving "I know more about a fictional universe than you, Internet stranger".

My suggestion is: break the wheel, turn that outrage into creativity and instead of getting into debates with people whose minds you'll never change, write a fanfic/draw a comic/shoot a short film that will transfer the emotions you feel re: Windu to anyone witnessing it.

It's a much more productive approach than arguing with someone whose either grasping at straws or genuinely thinks MACE WANTED TO KILL A CHILD????!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂