#usps is canceled

[stone-cold-groove]

U.S. Postage Paid

[anotherpapercut]

bro what the fuck are they doing with my package

[teruthecreator]

guess whose oliver plush got stolen because the delivery driver cant follow instructions or even bother looking at the address AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[raven]

Im probably not getting my debit card for another month because the mail is so fucked

[kyuponstories]

Finally got around to writing the script for the 1st video on my art channel! 🎉 Also randomly wrote a great amount in the BBA Ep 9 draft. My mind always goes to that episode bc it's so funny thinking about it, and the jokes that popped up today just had to be written down. 😂 Writing ahead is still weird to me, but it's so fun when I do. 💚

[kennexara]

guess who:

has had increased anxiety for the last few weeks because of a med increase to help other, non-anxiety problems

is out of the anxiety med that should've arrived two days ago and still has not arrived

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #27

July 12-19 2024

President Biden announced the cancellation of $1.2 billion dollars worth of student loan debt. This will cancel the debt of 35,000 public service workers, such as teachers, nurses, and firefighters. This brings the total number of people who've had their student debt relived under the Biden Administration to 4.8 million or one out of every ten people with student loan debt, for a total of $168.5 billion in debt forgiven. This came after the Supreme Court threw out an earlier more wide ranging student debt relief plan forcing the administration to undertake a slower more piecemeal process for forgiving debt. President Biden announced a new plan in the spring that will hopefully be finalized by fall that will forgive an additional 30 million people's student loan debt.

President Biden announced actions to lower housing coasts, make more housing available and called on Congress to prevent rent hikes. President Biden's plan calls for landlords who raise the rent by more than 5% a year to face losing major important tax befits, the average rent has gone up by 21% since 2021. The President has also instructed the federal government, the largest land owner in the country, to examine how unused property can be used for housing. The Bureau of Land Management plans on building 15,000 affordable housing units on public land in southern Nevada, the USPS is examining 8,500 unused properties across America to be repurposed for housing, HHS is finalizing a new rule to make it easier to use federal property to house the homeless, and the Administration is calling on state, local, and tribal governments to use their own unused property for housing, which could create approximately 1.9 million units nationwide.

The Department of Transportation announced $5 billion to replace or restore major bridges across the country. The money will go to 13 significant bridges in 16 states. Some bridges are suffering from years of neglect others are nearly 100 years old and no longer fit for modern demands. Some of the projects include the I-5 bridge over the Columbia River which connects Portland Oregon to Vancouver Washington, replacing the Sagamore Bridge which connects Cape Cod to the mainland built in 1933, replacing the I- 83 South Bridge in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Cape Fear Memorial Bridge Replacement Project in Wilmington, North Carolina, among others.

President Biden signed an Executive Order aimed at boosting Latino college attendance. The order established the White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity through Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) are defined as colleges with 25% or above Hispanic/Latino enrollment, currently 55% of Hispanic college students are enrolled in an HSI. The initiative seeks to stream line the relationship between the federal government and HSIs to allow them to more easily take advantage of federal programs and expand their reach to better serve students and boost Hispanic enrollment nationwide.

HUD announced $325 million in grants for housing and community development in 7 cities. the cities in Tennessee, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Nevada, New York and New Jersey, have collectively pledged to develop over 6,500 new mixed-income units, including the one-for-one replacement of 2,677 severely distressed public housing units. The 7 collectively will invest $2.65 billion in additional resources within the Choice Neighborhood area – so that every $1 in HUD funds will generate $8.65 in additional resources.

President Biden took extensive new actions on immigration. On June 18th The President announced a new policy that would allow the foreign born spouses and step children of American citizens who don't have legal status to apply for it without having to leave the country, this would effect about half a million spouses and 50,000 children. This week Biden announced that people can start applying on August 19, 2024. Also in June President Biden announced an easing of Visa rules that will allow Dreamers, Americans brought to the country as children without legal status, to finally get work visas to give them legal status and a path way to citizenship. This week the Biden Administration announced a new rule to expand the federal TRIO program to cover Dreamers. TRIO is a program that aims to support low income students and those who would be the first in their families to go to college transition from high school to college, the change would support 50,000 more students each year. The Administration also plans to double the number of free immigration lawyers available to those going through immigration court.

The EPA announced $160 million in grants to support Clean U.S. Manufacturing of Steel and Other Construction Materials. The EPA estimates that the manufacturing of construction materials, such as concrete, asphalt, steel, and glass, accounts for 15% of the  annual global greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA is supporting 38 projects aimed at measuring and combatting the environmental impact of construction materials.

The US announced $203 million in humanitarian assistance for the people of Sudan. Sudan's out of control civil war has caused the largest refugee crisis in the world with 11 million Sudanese having fled their homes in the face of violence. The war is also causing the gravest food crisis in the world, with a record setting 25 million people facing acute food insecurity, and fears that nearly a million will face famine in the next months. This aid brings the total aid the US has given Sudan since September 2023 to $1.6 billion, making America the single largest donor to Sudan.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau put forward a new rule that would better regulate popular paycheck advance products. 2/3rds of workers are payed every two weeks or once a month and since 2020 the number of short term loans that allow employees to receive their paycheck days before it’s scheduled to hit their account has grown by 90%. the CFPB says that many of these programs are decided with employers not employees and millions of Americans are paying fees they didn't know about before signing up. The new rule would require lenders to tell costumers up front about any and all fees and charges, as well as cracking down on deceptive "tipping" options.

[itstheinktank]

Hey folks, Kuro here! It’s time for another update. Here’s everything you need to know about what we’ve been up to, and where we are going from here. 

DWAYNEMCDUFFIE.COM The biggest news of all is definitely Dwayne McDuffie’s website relaunching. A surplus of scripts, production information, and series bibles were posted, and it’s literally a dream come true for me. Reading through the forums was part of my daily routine for years growing up, and after his passing, losing the website really hit home. I’ve been waiting a decade for it to relaunch, but when it did, I had already planned to go out of town for a few days, so the timing was terrible on my end.

Let me tell ya, watching everyone dig through the website while I couldn’t participate in the madness was tough, but now that I’m back, I can’t wait to dig into it as well and see what I can find. We’ll definitely be doing at least one video on the subject. As for when that’s coming out, I couldn’t say. But please feel free to let us know if there’s anything specific you’d like us to address, and you can guarantee I’ll be taking notes! Thank you Dwayne for still keeping our world turning after all this time.

UPCOMING VIDEOS & COLLABS

In previous updates, I’ve announced another upload hiatus. This means that we won’t be posting weekly/ bi-weekly for the time being. We will be releasing videos irregularly, such as the recent MultiVersus video, and the previously-mentioned Dwayne McDuffie Website video, but we can’t make any promises as to when we’ll resume regular uploads. There’s just too much going on for us at the moment, which I will get into further into this thread. In the meantime, I’ve been making a lot of guest appearances on other channels, and still have a few more lined-up. So keep your eyes peeled! I’ll do my best to pop up around the fandom where I can. 

5 YEARS LATER & AND BEYOND

These are our two biggest projects, and thus, have the most updates already, so I’ll keep it brief. 5YL Episodes 10 and 11 will be releasing together, and are quickly escalating down the pipeline. Patrons and YouTube Members have frequent check-ins, and we’re thrilled that the series has come so far. Even if you’ve already seen the webcomic version, you’re not gonna believe what we’ve pulled off for this version of the series!

Unfortunately, Ash was hit with an illness that kept him out of commission for a few weeks. But the cogs are now turning again for AB Episode 13. We’re happy he’s back on his feet, and we’ll be on another extraterrestrial adventure before you know it!

BEN 10 BREAKDOWNS

Breakdown production has obviously halted due to our hiatus, but I still feel the need to address it again, as it’s one of the biggest hits and longest-running series of our channel. I may sound like a broken record to those that keep up with our posts, but for those that don’t, I want to reiterate my love for making the Breakdowns. These other projects taking priority does not conclude that I dislike making those video anymore, or that the Ben 10 Breakdowns are canceled. One way or another, I am determined to finish this series, and I’m looking forward to sharing more of my thoughts on Omniverse and the Reboot with the community.

STREAMING & COMMISSIONS

Recently, I have been streaming on multiple platforms during my Drawing with Kuro broadcasts. You can still find me every Tuesday on Twitch @ 2:00pm EST, but I am also broadcasting to Instagram and Facebook, too. For the time being, our second channel, The Rust Bucket, will be included in that line-up, with the goal to eventually move the streams right here on the main channel, too, but we still got some kinks to figure out before taking that plunge. 

You can commission me here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i_H7yM9I2oTmPkfSpWSUwhpm8YdZ0OhmzK-_nYNGXBA/edit?usp=sharing

THE FUTURE OF THE INK TANK

5 Years Later & And Beyond have been a huge part of our journey. Even after those projects are completed, I don’t see us ever dropping Ben 10 content as a whole. Though naturally, we will gravitate more towards other projects, including original works and IPs. I am happy to say that production has already begun after receiving some exciting news. 

My plan was to plant the seeds for our future as 5YL comes to the end, and then only prioritize it when the timing is right. But unexpectedly, we’ve been given an opportunity to enter a new avenue that would be detrimental to let fall through the cracks, and thus, we’ve spent the past few months curating a super secret project that will now be a part of our regular work schedule going forward. If this sounds vague, that’s intentional, but my hands are tied! I don’t know when I’ll be able to let everyone in on the secret. 

I’m not a fan of stretching ourselves further than necessary, especially if it keeps ya’ll waiting on the projects we already have in the pipeline. Though “What will you do when 5 Years Later is over?” has been a popular recurring question for years, and now I finally have an answer - I just can’t tell you yet! But it’s important for me to let you know that despite the large amount of content we’re working on that you’re aware of, there’s much more going on behind the scenes. So rest assured, we are ALWAYS working on something, whether or not we’re able to give updates. 

That’s all I got to say for now. Thank you for reading! Until next time, Keep it Fizzy!

[essence-of-nothingness]

Airy is in his Mid-40s

I went ahead and wrote an entire doc about why I believe Airy to be in his Mid-40s. The full doc with the pictures and sources will be posted here uptop since I'm no sure if it uploaded correctly onto this post. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DGRKfef2HYAS1AXyLZcMtRNLAFZXK0E_ui6mIYxzdvM/edit?usp=sharing

In this doc, I will explain why I believe Airy from ONE is in his Mid-40s. All sources and stuff will be at the end. Before we estimate what Airy’s age is, we first need to find out the year the ONE takes place to set the bar. When does ONE take place?

Year

  I believe that ONE takes place in the great year of 2023. Why? Well first of all if you look in the calendar in Bryce's workplace (Episode 7: Starting Over) you will see that it's in February

       Not just any February, specifically one with only 28 days which means that it is not a leap year. Using this information we can immediately cancel out any year that is not a leap year because it only has 28 days. Using this information we can immediately cancel out all leap years.

Additionally the 28th is on a Tuesday, so using this we can rule out any year where Friday did not end on a Tuesday. Leaving us only 3 years that take place in the 2000s those years being:

2006, 2017, and 2023 

But why specifically these three years and not anytime in the future or the 1900s? Well, that is because of the Technology that is present throughout ONE.

Technology

Throughout the series of ONE, we get to see some of the technology that our fellow protagonists use. For example in Episode 5 “Rhetorical Molds” we get to see some of the modern technology that is being used. Those being Charlotte/Moldy’s new Phone. If you look closely at the scene where Moldy lifts the phone to show off the camera quality you will notice that the bottom of the phone does not have a home button. This is significant because it shows that the new phones that were in the model at the time of Moldy’s disappearance were phones that didn’t have home screen buttons. This shows that ONE couldn’t have taken place in 2006 because during that time we didn't even have the modern smartphone or if we did it was still a brand new thing and had physical buttons that you could press. By the time that 2017 and 2023 began coming around home buttons were becoming irrelevant and began fading away.

Another technology is the Flat screen T.V., 2006 The televisions that were being produced were still big and blocky and they weren’t like the flat screens that we have today. In 2017 t.v.s were more likely to be flat compared to the one from 2006. By the time that 2023, flat screen TVs are very commonplace and are basically the first types of TVs that you see when you enter an electronic store.

         Lastly, we have Texty or well Texty’s computer/laptop seeing that it is mostly likely their version of an Apple laptop, considering if you look at the top left corner you see the three colored dots which are more commonly seen in that of an Apple laptop. Seeing that laptops from 2006 were considerably more chunky and heavier and seeing how in the show Liam wasn’t having much trouble carrying Texty around and didn’t mind his presence. Also considering that Bradly mentioned how the laptop served him well for quite a few years, I deduced that Texty was a more modern laptop which makes me think that ONE is not in 2006 because laptops in 2000 looked way more different than the one that Texty lives in.

Historical Events

In the very first episode of ONE “Freefall” when Amelia/Scenty is balancing on the pole she mentions how there were around 8 billion people on Earth. “No, I don’t think so but then again any normal person would find it safe to assume that this host picked us 6 specifically out of nearly 8 billion people on Earth….” This could mean that their planet has already reached the 8 billion population.  On our Earth, the human population had already reached the 8 billion point by the beginning of 2023, before February, which is when the Contestants got kidnapped.

But how do we even know if any of this applies to Airy’s Earth? Well, knowing from the show that Bryce lives in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Liam lives in San Francisco, California, and Jullian (toothpaste man) lives in France. We know for a fact that the characters (at least Airy and the 1st batch) live on an Earth that has the same geographical locations and countries as our world except humans are nonexistent. Additionally, we also know that the characters have names, jobs, and hobbies just as humans do. I think that it is safe to assume that they share the same technology and calendar year as us. 

Now that we have settled about the year that ONE takes place in now to get into the evidence I piled up as to believe why Airy is in his Mid-40s.

Truck Driving

First of all, considering that it has been around a decade since Airy died that leaves a 10-year buffer. Additionally, if we look at the ending screen in the series, we finally see that Airy is riding a Truck which many people believe to be a delivery truck considering the size of the steering wheel and the size of the seats. Here are two pictures of Airy’s truck and a delivery truck:

Another thing to consider when looking at these two pictures is that the seat that Airy is in is on the left side, which can also be seen if you look at his arm which is on the door window. This means that Airy drives on the right side of the Road and considering that he speaks English means that he most likely lived in the United States. According to United States law, you have to be at least 18 years old to drive a delivery truck but only in the state (Dot Transportation) most places won’t hire you unless you are 21 and you also need to provide a 10-year driving history of/record, for driving out of state (Prime Inc). Additionally, the age demographic for truck drivers is between the ages of 22-55. (Statista). So with all of this information, we could say that by the time 2023 came around at the bare minimum Airy was 28-31 years old. 

Though I don’t believe that Airy was 18 or 21 when he died and that is because in the scene when he does eventually die, he doesn’t look nervous about driving the truck. I guess you could argue that he was used to the experience of driving a truck but I don’t think that Airy would be that nonchalant about driving a truck if he was a brand new driver like if he were an 18-year-old or a 21-year-old. Additionally,, the article mentioned, if he wanted to drive out of state in the truck, he would have needed a lot of years of driving history which I don’t think that an 18 or 21-year-old has. So I'm adding 10 more years to it making it to be that Airy was 38-41 when ONE happens.

Cassette Tapes and Music Taste

One last thing that I would like to mention before I conclude as to why I believe that Airy is in his Mid-40s is his taste in music and Cassette Tape. Now let me explain what I mean. For starters Cassette players and tapes were a big thing in the late 1900s from the time they were introduced in the 1960 up until they began losing popularity thanks to the invention of the CDs in 1982 and their eventual rise in popularity in 1991. (Wiki and The Guardian) Although Cassette players did have theri time to shine in the 1980s.

Secondly For a lot of people the main age range when they end up picking their taste in music is in their teens, the ages can vary depending on the gender but for the sake of this lets just say ages from 11-16. (The Verge) In Fact since during our teen years we are discovering who we are we tend to begin experimenting with what type of music we enjoy. Once we reach adulthood we tend to stick to the music we listened to when we were younger because that's the music we grew to love. We begin to experiment with music less and less, especially since we have less time to ourselves to listen to music due to the business of adult life. (Put this on). 

Now to put all of this information together, let's propose that Airy was born in 1978, this could mean that in the 80s his family could have owned a cassette player like the one that he has in the show. Since cassette players were a big thing in the 80s there's a high chance that his parents could have owned one and gave it to him once he began entering his teenage years, which would you know would be when he turned 13 in the year 1991. 

Another thing about the 1990s and ONE, in ONE it is very well known during the finale of the series there is a song that plays Around the Bend. In the show itself, Around the Bend is a cover of the original song made by Pearl Jam. We know that Airy is somewhat a fan or to an extend enjoys their music since he has a cassette tape with the album “No Code” In fact in one of the Episodes (The Plug Dream) in the end credits scene you can hear him humming to the tune of Around the Bend. Well the band Pearl Jam formed in the year 1990 which is around the time that in my theory Airy was a teen. Later on in the year of 1996 the album No Code was released which was the album that Around the Bend came from, and Airy would have been around 18 at this time. 

Since people tend to stick to the music they listened to when they were in their teens and we see in the show that Airy still had the cassette player probably when he died, (considering that he had it with him when he ended up in the afterlife) I think it is fair of me to assume that Airy is at least 45 in the time of the show.

Conclusion/Timeline

1978: Airy is born

1980: His family buys/owns a cassette player

1990: Airy is 12; he cassette player is given to him or he just takes it; Pearl Jam releases first album

1996: Airy is 18; get the No Code album.

1996-2006: Airy spends his time training to be a truck driver; he gets a side hustle in carpenter stuff or  construction. Considering that Airy legit built an entire cabin all his own.

2006-2013: Airy becomes an official truck driver

2013-2023: Airy is Dead; works on ONE

All of the following information is why I firmly believe that Airy is in his Mid-40s. Of course I could be wrong since some of the stuff especially about Airy’s past is not told to us, but to me at least this makes sense. Thank you for reading my ramblings and have a good day. :)

[khaire-traveler]

How are ya doing mate?

This ended up being kind of venty, so I put it behind a read more. The long and short of it is that I'm doing terribly and do not feel well. Thank you for caring to ask; it does mean a lot and makes me feel a little less alone. Take care, Nonny. 🧡

In all honesty, Nonny, I'm not doing well at all. I've had an incredibly hard week. I found out that I can't get any financial aid for college (I'm ineligible, apparently), I've been struggling immensely in finding a job, I'm trying to get a replacement for my birth certificate that USPS lost in the mail, I'm trying to prevent identity theft for my social security number that USPS also lost in the mail, and now I've found out that my dog is struggling with some pretty intense health issues and apparently all the responsibility for booking his appointments and giving him his eye drops falls on me I guess. Oh, and on top of my dog's health issues, I am also having issues that I haven't been able to address throughout any of this because I don't have a doctor and can't find one. I'm doing terribly. What's worse is that it feels like I'm mostly alone in this. I don't blame my friends for this, obviously, but all of them are too busy to talk these days, and my online friends are the only ones I'm close enough with to talk about these kinds of issues. The few friends I've made in this new state (US) aren't close enough for me to be able to talk about this stuff without it being super weird. The whole friend things has also been a huge issue: I am crushingly alone right now. I haven't gotten the chance to hang out with anyone one on one, and not having a job means in basically spending the entire day with only seeing my pets and my parents. Walking to see people isn't an option here, and driving to see people is also not an option due to gas prices. Idk, there's a lot to it.

Anyway, yeah, I'm doing pretty bad. I feel like shit, and I also feel entirely alone and a little bit like no one cares, although I logically know that people do care and are just busy with their own lives (which is obviously completely ok). I feel exhausted. I even got woken up by a call from the vet, asking if I was going to cancel some appointment they had me schedule for my dog. I have to schedule something else for him later as well. Life is hell, and I am burning in the lake of fire. ✨

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

I'll be in TUCSON, AZ from November 8-10: I'm the GUEST OF HONOR at the TUSCON SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION.

#20yrsago Bhutan: World’s biggest book https://kottke.org/04/10/bhutan-book

#15yrsago Anti-vaccine fear versus science https://web.archive.org/web/20091022235649/https://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_waronscience/all/1

#10yrsago Sen Lindsay Graham promises a fine future for “white men in male-only clubs” https://www.politico.com/story/2014/10/sen-lindsey-graham-white-men-joke-112338

#10yrsago Hungary cancels proposed Internet tax in the face of mass opposition https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29846285

#10yrsago David Graeber and Thomas Piketty on whether capitalism will destroy itself https://thebaffler.com/odds-and-ends/soak-the-rich

#10yrsago USPS usage declines, but sloppy postal surveillance is way, way up https://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/snail-mail-snooping-safeguards-not-followed-108056

#5yrsago How the British left should seize this moment to strip finance of its political clout https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/thatcher-had-a-battle-plan-for-her-economic-revolution-now-the-left-needs-one-too/

#5yrsago After suing NSO Group for hacking Whatsapp, Facebook kicks NSO employees off its services https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/10/facebook-permanently-deletes-the-accounts-of-nso-workers/

#5yrsago The right is bankrolled by self-interested one-percenters making long-term investments; the left, by one-percenters with “moral whims” https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/10/how-did-democrats-lose-the-states-money-money-money.html

#5yrsago Leaked document reveals that Sidewalk Labs’ Toronto plans for private taxation, private roads, charter schools, corporate cops and judges, and punishment for people who choose privacy https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-sidewalk-labs-document-reveals-companys-early-plans-for-data/

#1yrago The impoverished imagination of neoliberal climate "solutions" https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/31/carbon-upsets/#big-tradeoff

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

[mugiwara-lucy]

Wow just when you think Couch Boy can’t sink any lower:

So he’s not only applauding a woman for being trashy and crass but he’s also saying women voting for Harris are doing so on “Menstrual Madness”:

And DON'T forget, he admitted to LYING about Haitians eating dogs and cats just for clicks:

This guy is a disgusting piece of shit and with nine days until the election, I’d just like to say this serves as a reminder to NOT get complacent just because things are going great for us! If we take our feet off the brakes and stop now, not ONLY does that mean Trump wins but given his poor condition (the mother fucker has been canceling events and sways like a lost puppy), I have no doubt we’ll end up with PRESIDENT VANCE after a year or two. 🤢

And given his comments; DEFINITELY expect for the 19th Amendment to be repealed. If not outright repealed, I have no doubt it’ll be “sent back to the states” 🙄 And sadly that's best case scenario.....

BUT to AVOID that hell; Here is the link to register to vote along with the deadlines varying by state! Also, your own vote isn’t enough! Get as many people as you can to vote for Kamala be it your friends, cousins, parents, grandparents, old friends from high school and college, coworkers, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, stepchildren (if they’re 18 and over) and the list goes on and on but every vote counts! ALSO PLEASE check your registration DAILY because MAGA WILL purge your voter registration!!

And early voting has started! And if you don’t wanna vote on November 5th, Early Voting is another option! Like I said get as many people as you know and try early voting that way you can avoid MAGA fuckery on November 5th! Here’s the link down below listing the dates by state:

Mail in Ballots are ANOTHER option I highly recommend!! And like I said get as many people as you can to take advantage of this option! BUT if you decide to go with Mail In/Absentee Ballots; PLEASE mail your ballots at the ACTUAL USPS office!! That way MAGAts won't fuck with it.

And lastly voting abroad is something I’ve seen people take advantage of and i HIGHLY recommend it!! Here’s the link!!

I'll end this post with this:

If you get complacent AGAIN like in 2016, you WILL end up with PRESIDENT JD VANCE.

Choose Wisely.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

The never-ending debate on Brazil's university quota system

Alisson dos Santos Rodrigues, an 18-year-old student from the countryside São Paulo town of Cerqueira César, was set to be the first person in his family to study in Brazil’s prestigious public university system.

After passing a state-wide entrance exam, he was accepted to the medical school of the University of São Paulo (USP), receiving one of the places reserved for black, multiracial, and indigenous applicants as part of Brazil’s racial quota system.

But at the end of February, after traveling five hours to São Paulo on what was to be his first day of classes, he found out that his enrollment had been canceled. The university’s judging committee ruled that Alisson, who has always self-identified as multiracial, was not in fact black or multiracial.

A similar thing happened to 17-year-old Glauco Dalalio de Livramento, who lost his place in USP’s law program this year when another judging committee disagreed with his self-identification as multiracial.

The families of both students took the university to court. In Alisson’s case, a court in his home city gave USP a period of five days to explain why the 18-year-old was disqualified. Meanwhile, a state court issued an injunction to reinstate Glauco’s enrollment, which the school can appeal.

Racial quotas have existed in Brazilian public universities since 2002, designed as a way to help even out the country’s long-standing inequalities in access to higher education. However, the cases of Alisson and Glauco — two teenagers whose self-identification as multiracial appear appropriate — have sparked a nationwide debate about how quotas are allocated and the fairness of the system as a whole.

Continue reading.

[roguekhajiit]

It's been a minute. I had some stuff going on in my life (a story for a different post), but I have a funny story to share.

Today, after I had finished my mail route, I was cleaning up my case. When I "clean up" at the end of the day, I sort the undeliverable first class mail (no such numbers, insufficient addresses, etc) from the undeliverable junk mail. One such piece of junk mail caught my eye. It was this:

[Image pulled from the internet]

I, of course, had a nice chuckle before I tossed it in with the rest of the non-returnable mail to be shredded. So this is how the NRA is brainwashing the cultists into believing; "Biden is going to take our guns away! Prepare your houses for a siege!"

The lie works because the NRA knows that the same people who are stupid enough to pay a membership fee just for a bumper sticker are the same ones who are too stupid to recognize a con when it's staring them in the face. I mean, they did vote for the biggest con man of our time, after all. They gave him the codes to our nuclear missiles and everything. Even after he was convicted on 34 charges, they still blindly believed everything he said. "The prosecutors are corrupt! The entire case was rigged!"

I mean, just look at this reddit post from an NRA member who received this very same letter.

If it's any consolation, we at the USPS know this is a fake. Also, I highly doubt that you would be sent a warning letter giving you ample time to hide your 500 guns and 50 crates of ammo.

But the best part about this is that he is actually contemplating canceling his membership. But it's not because the NRA is lying to him. No, the cult brainwashing is too strong for that. It's because the "left has infiltrated" their sacred club.

Even now, they refuse to see that their supreme overlords are lying to them. Anything they don't agree with is automatically the result of "leftist infiltration." The liberals are working from the inside to tear apart their sacred institutions.

[lesbianminou]

POST CANCELLED HES HERE!!!!

usps said my buttcat was delivered but he’s not here 😭

i’ve submitted a service request and i’m rlly hoping they can find him

[idollandhero]

How to get the best rewards in Idol Land Pripara

I wrote this in a google doc for discord (that I'll link at the end) but figured it works as a tumblr post too!)

You may have noticed that a lot of players are wearing the same coord in Idol Land! This is because the research of Twitter user @sio_mintsu + many others have found that one specific outfit is the best combination to get the most rewards.

From your closet pick this outfit!

Click the button on the top right to make your own Promise, note you need a Promise ticket for this

This is the menu that pops up. Click the red arrow button to pick a song, it’s not known if there’s a song that gets you more rewards so pick the song you think you’d play the best.

Click on the blue arrow button to set your parameters. 

Click on the red arrow button to set it so everyone must be wearing the same coord as you.

Click on one of the buttons under the blue arrow (they all do the same thing) to set tags.

Scroll to the bottom of the tag menu and pick the 5 gold ones.

If you did it right it should look like this. Hit the bottom button and then the right button to set your Promise.

Finally it’ll ask you what kind of promise you want. Pink is more iine (Likes, the in game name for XP) Silver is more Silver AiDollars, and Gold brings you to a special shop at the end. In general it’s recommended to pick pink or silver, and if you’d like a special shop you should join someone else’s gold promise.

Click the red arrow button to see your promises, and the blue arrow button to join once it’s full! Note if it isn’t full it’ll have an x and say ⅓ or ⅔ in the promises description (by the magnifying glass). The X will cancel it, or you can wait.

Here’s us all wearing the same coord! (I dropped my combo to take this screenshot and got less rewards because of it, oops!)

And finally here’s all of the tags on the rewards screen. If you play the song well (I did not here) you get a lot of rewards + the bonuses from the tags! Note that this was a pink promise.

Source: https://twitter.com/sio_mintsu/status/1694359732105163076

Additionally: Twitter user @cio_enbun has pointed out that if you have a LOT of promise tickets to go through, especially if you bought the pass, you get more for your time to run the photo promise (pasharing) with these same parameters. They recommend taking all 9 photos right away and then putting your phone down, and then repeating. The yield is slightly less than the above method, but it saves a TON of time.

Source: https://twitter.com/cio_enbun/status/1695204349407023424

The google doc I wrote if that's easier for you to share https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ds5cTJKevfDooet-nMN2OXyW3rUDkzeHIsDI5TZsXw8/edit?usp=sharing