whiteredrose13

[whiteredrose13]

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS

WHO IS USING THIS

AN APP??? THEY HAVE A FUNCTIONING WEBSITE

THE LAST FUNCTIONING WEBSITE

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Imagine waking up every morning to devastation—a world where safety is a dream, and hope feels just out of reach. Vetted by: 1) gazavetters my number verified on the list is ( #89 ) 2) a-shade-of-blue Here or Here 3) 90-ghost Here or Here 4) dlxxv-vetted-donations Here

Dear Friend,

My name is Ghazi Al Amoudi, and I am reaching out to you from Gaza, where my family and I are living through an unimaginable nightmare. Our home, once a place of warmth and safety, has been destroyed. Now, we are left to endure freezing nights and hunger in a makeshift shelter, clinging to hope amidst relentless uncertainty.

Each day begins with the same crushing reality—fear, loss, and the struggle to survive. Yet, even in this darkness, I believe in the power of compassion and the kindness of strangers to help us find a way forward.

I am humbly asking for your support. Your donation, no matter the size, can provide my family with the essentials we desperately need—shelter, food, and the chance to rebuild our lives. If you cannot donate, please consider sharing our story. Spreading the word can connect us with others who might be able to help.

Here is the link to my campaign: https://gofund.me/8a2c70d7. Your generosity could transform our lives and bring us closer to safety and dignity.

From the depths of my heart, thank you for standing with us. Your kindness is a beacon of hope in our time of need.

With profound gratitude, Ghazi Al Amoudi

30% of my long-term goal

3,041€ out of 10,000€

Donations are protected by GOFUNDME

Alright, friends, you know the drill! Share, donate, keep talking about and free Palestine!

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Source

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Cover Reveal for A Truth Universally Acknowledged: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”

HAPPY COVER REVEAL DAY! Duck Prints Press’s next anthology, A Truth Universally Acknowledged: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, will be crowdfunding starting November 20th, 2024. We’ve been hard at work on this collection for a loooong time and we are thrilled to finally be making it available for y’all. The gorgeous cover art, made by artist Aceriee, was inspired by the classic 1898 “peacock edition of Pride and Prejudice – but of course, we made it queerer. The spectacular full cover is wrap around.

(spoilers: this art will be offered a postcard as one of the Kickstarter campaign backer rewards!)

This awesome book features 21 stories each up to 5,000 words long and 20 full-page color artworks. Our campaign features six merch items, too, with peacocks standing proud on much of the art.

Want to be sure you don’t miss the campaign? Follow our Kickstarter pre-launch page now!

Become a Patreon backer to get behind-the-scenes access to sneak peeks and more!

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Avian flu in North America: What we know as of Nov 16, 2024.

This post will have a west coast USA focus as that is where I live and currently a hotspot. Canadians are welcome to add on if they know more about their government response.

H5N1 is zoonotic. We do not know to what extent fully, but dairy cattle can carry it asymptomatically and pass it through their milk. The virus is killed by pasteurization (which you can do at home!). Do not drink raw milk right now (or ever maybe, but that’s another can of worms). Source: https://www.fda.gov/food/alerts-advisories-safety-information/investigation-avian-influenza-h5n1-virus-dairy-cattle

Cats can also get avian flu. It can be lethal to them. Source: https://www.woah.org/app/uploads/2023/07/qa-avian-influenza-in-cats.pdf

A teen in British Columbia is currently infected and in critical condition. We do not know the source of the infection. Source: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza-bird-flu/canadas-national-lab-confirms-h5n1-hospitalized-teen

Oregon just had its first confirmed human case. Source: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4993916-cdc-detects-first-human-bird-flu-case-in-oregon/amp/

Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle just had an avian flu death of a not-on-display bird and is locking down all birds. Source: https://blog.zoo.org/2024/11/confirmed-avian-flu-case-at-woodland.html?m=1

H5N1 is being monitored in wastewater and is notably detected throughout California. Source: https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/wwd-h5.html

CURRENT BEST PRACTICES FOR SAFETY:

As previously mentioned, do not consume raw dairy products.

It is believed to be airborne. Mask up - Covid and Avian Flu are threats still!

Wash hands before and after interactions with any birds.

Bring cats indoors.

If you have birds, do not allow people who have been in the area of recent outbreaks near birds. Require all visitors to step in diluted bleach foot baths. If possible, keep birds in limited and covered areas.

Any birds moving between areas should be quarantined for several weeks with zero cross contamination between them and other birds.

Please feel free to add further info I may have missed, or as it becomes known.

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hi, i’m your local laid off discord employee, here to talk about exactly how safe it may or may not be to talk about Political Activism on discord. my credentials here are that i was a senior member of discord’s trust & safety team, which is the team that handles bans, legal investigations, and legal compliance. (my speciality was in child safety, anti-grooming, and taking down CSAM, but i also worked occasionally in low level terrorism issues and assisted that team in investigations.) i also know most of the people still working there in these capacities.

the tldr and most important thing to know is: i do not recommend you plan, discuss plans, or use any kind of hyperbolic (or not) language about violence to government officials or anyone in that vicinity on discord. please use signal instead.

a discord trust & safety employee is technically able to see any message you’ve sent under your account, going all the way back to the beginning of your account. unless you have manually deleted a message, it is viewable to a tns employee. now: it is a tremendous part of being on a tns team that we did NOT invade user privacy without cause. cause was usually: another user reported something you said, and we thought the reported message indicated you might be doing something elsewhere that was illegal (for example: a user says “i’m talking to this girl but she’s in high school lol.” i would then try to find evidence as to whether or not there was a child safety issue there. in this example, we’d require clear admission of age from both the user and the alleged high school girl, and then clear evidence of sexual talk between them, and go from there.) finding evidence required looking though all of that user’s messages.

most of the tns team, as i know them, are pretty resolute about not going further in looking than would be needed for action. most of the tns team that i still speak to is very much on the side of blue. your general conversations are probably perfectly safe, and we were very good at figuring out quickly if someone has reported you maliciously. i don’t believe you need to worry too much about your porn and fanfic and all that.

HOWEVER: reported content must be investigated, and discord can, and has been, legally subpoenaed to turn over user information. again, this has nominally been in Very Evil cases (CSAM and grooming, school shooting threats, murder admissions, etc.) but that could change, either at the federal level, or at the discord policy level. discord, like any social media company, could easily be pressured or forced into taking on different internal policies that could get you in serious trouble if you are organizing violent or “illegal” resistance. if that happens, there is a scenario where this incoming administration is given access to your messages.

again: please do not organize your political or social resistance on discord from now on. please use signal to ensure your maximum safety. do not panic if you have already talks about things on discord: you can easily delete your messages, and that WILL remove from an employee’s view. do that and use signal from now on.

stay safe. i love you. 💕

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do you have any ideas about why so many students are struggling with literacy now? I know that illiteracy and reading comprehension have been issues for years and most americans read at like a 5th grade reading level but I’m curious why it seems to be worse now (pandemic? no child left behind?)

It is everything. There’s not one answer. I could talk about this forever so instead I set a five minute timer on my phone and wrote a list of as many of the many things that are causing this on a systemic level that I could think of:

It’s parents not reading with their kids (a privilege, but some parents have that privilege to be able to do this and don’t.)

It’s youtube from birth and never being bored.

It’s phasing out phonics for sight words (memorizing without understanding sounds or meaning) in elementary schools in the early aughts.

It’s defunding public libraries that do all the community and youth outreach.

It’s NCLB and mandating standardized tests which center reading short passages as opposed to longform texts so students don’t build up the endurance or comprehension skills.

It’s NCLB preventing schools from holding students back if they lack the literacy skills to move onto the next grade because they can’t be left behind so they’re passed on.

It’s the chronic underfunding of ESL and Special Ed programs for students who need extra literacy support.

It’s the cultural devaluing of the humanities in favor of stem and business because those make more money which leads to a lot of students to completely disregard reading and writing.

It’s the learning loss from covid.

It’s covid trauma manifesting in a lot of students as learned helplessness, or an inability to “figure things out” or push through adversity to complete challenging tasks independently, especially reading difficult texts.

It’s covid normalizing cheating and copying.

It’s increasing phone use.

It’s damage to attention span exacerbated by increased phone use that leaves you without an ability to sit and be bored ever without 2-3 forms of constant stimulation.

It’s shortform video becoming the predominant form of social media content as opposed to anything text-based.

It’s starting to also be generative AI.

It’s the book bans.

what did I miss.

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You show up for your first day at Copyright-Free Magic School. As you're going through orientation, you're informed that all new students get a school-assigned familiar that they are responsible for housing and maintaining. The staff member assures you that your assigned familiar is appropriately chosen and reflects you in some way.

Spin this to find out yours. (Remember, you are responsible for maintaining this familiar in your dorm room.)

[whiteredrose13]

sleepy on main

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Just so you guys know, the net neutrality law is being blocked right now because the fcc wants to reclassify the electronics (that you are required to have for isp services) as class ii consumer products, and the isp corporations are trying to keep them considered class i business products (lowering taxes for isp companies through legal loopholes that currently allow them to pass the tax onto consumers through 'device rentals') but this is rarely mentioned in the few news posts I could find on the topic.

Please I beg you all to get this info out there.

sources I read and could find on the topic

https://tax.kenaninstitute.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/corptaxprice.pdf (pdf. study on how corporations pass taxes onto consumers)

https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/1/24211570/net-neutrality-sixth-circuit-stay-blocked-fcc

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-court-blocks-biden-administration-net-neutrality-rules-2024-08-01/

https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2024-10-31/us-appeals-court-questions-biden-administration-net-neutrality-rules

https://statescoop.com/court-blocks-fcc-net-neutrality-rules-2024/

[whiteredrose13]

Hey, USAmericans? Wanna save your country? Run For Something!

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This is going to fucking suck but I will not do my enemies’ work for them. I will not just roll over and fucking die.

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Ren faire AU where Qamar, Vince and Candi are all cast members. Their roles are pretty much what they are in canon (Candi and Qamar are royals, Vince is a deceitful duke, his father is still puppeteering him, etc.) The plot of the show every year is Candi and Qamar defeating him after he tries to usurp their throne. But they're all just cast members at the faire and everyone is fine.

Vincenzo is still childhood friends with Candi and Qamar and still in love, only he actually does keep trying to confess, only it gets derailed every time by shenanigans from other cast members and faire-goers. The plot is him, the actor who plays his dad, and other cast members trying to help him get a free moment to admit his feelings while also tending to the faire and make sure it's running well. Candi and Qamar are also trying to confess at the same time, with the help of the rest of the cast, including the actor who plays Qamar's mom. As such, the conflicting attempts keep accidentally derailing each other. (Two vendors get into a fight and Candi and Vince have to break it up, Qamar starts confessing and then one of the cast accidentally gets scenes switched up and starts a revolution early, Candi tries confessing during the joust but two of the jousters get injured and Qamar and Vincenzo have to tag in, etc.)

Finally they all get fed up and, in the middle of a scripted scene where they confront Vincenzo for his crimes against the kingdom, they just stop and spill everything. It's them and their characters and both and neither. They get so wrapped up in the joy and relief of it that they all share a kiss on stage.

The audience goes insane.

Viewers and actors alike are screaming and cheering like a war just ended. Meanwhile the three of them are blushing and smiling and panicking because "oh my god, oh my god, we just did that, people saw that, but it was real, they love me. Dear god, they love me!"

Word spreads life wildfire and so many people buy up the extra tickets for next year their site crashes. Meanwhile, Candi, Qamar and Vincenzo are all cuddling on Candi's couch, kissing lazily and writing a new story for next year.

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Tumblr, I haven’t seen any good posts about my history girlfriend, so I think you should know about her so you can love her too. This sassy cutie right here is Pamela “Pixie” Colman Smith.

• She is best known for being the artist of the Rider-Waite tarot deck, the most famous and widely sold deck in the world, a job for which she got practically no credit and “very little money,” in her words (she died penniless while Waite made bundles)

• Waite, the “designer” (tarot scholar that commissioned it) was very condescending and exacting about how he wanted the major arcana done (even though she ignored him sometimes anyway; they were on a tight schedule and she’d send him fully inked and watercolored designs without his approval so they didn’t have time to redo them). But Waite turned up his nose at using the tarot for divination rather than as a spiritual guide, so he didn’t really give a shit about the minor arcana

• The designs for those are therefore p much all her, inspired by the 15th century Sola Busca deck (the only other one at that point to feature fully illustrated pip cards) which was on display at a museum near her while she was working on the project

• I’ll pause to allow you to imagine her making trip after trip to the museum with her sketchbook, studying the cards and chewing on her pencil. You in love yet? Just wait

• She was a synesthete who would listen to classical music and draw beautiful “spiritual portraits” of the music

• She was a suffragette, and drew feminist political cartoons

• She was an actress and set designer for a while; you can see the inspiration in many of the stage-like cards in her tarot deck

• She was best bros with cool people like Edith Craig, WB Yeats, and Bram Stoker

• Although she faced a lot of condescension from the men around her since they considered visual art a much less valid and sophisticated form of spiritual and intellectual pursuits, she was by all accounts very smart and wickedly funny, and ridiculously sweet and kind

• She was almost definitely super gay (had a very gay social circle, never married, lived alone with another woman for years)

• In conclusion you should all love her and we should call it the Smith deck and not the Waite, thank you and goodnight

[whiteredrose13]

Ok, I've seen this sentiment before, but the amount of Kindle Unlimited ads I've been seeing is forcing me to repeat it-

Kindle Unlimited is offering two free months of unlimited ebooks. As a trial. Which will then become a paid subscription.

Your local library is offering unlimited ebooks all the time. Forever. No contracts, no predatory practices, no tracking of how long you spend on each particular page in the hopes that information about your habits can be sold for a profit.

Use your library. They want so badly to give you all of the things for free.

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Okay so this is a big deal

To me, and to a significant subset of Sir Terry's fans (including most of you who've found this by the tags), his writing is serious commentary on the human condition - politics, prejudice, self-control, revenge vs. justice, religion, idealism, faith in people vs. cynicism, and more - dressed up with fantasy settings and a hefty leavening of humor to make it fun to read. And it is WILDLY fun to read, actual laugh-out-loud or at least a snicker averaging about every page.

But there's this common idea among the "important literature" people that fun and funny books are not also worthwhile or important in the same way.

This is a Discworld book being released WITH ACADEMIC COMMENTARY and AS A PENGUIN CLASSIC. That's a HUGE amount of recognition.

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Calling a suicide hotline - How to & what to expect.

Yes I'm going to make this post. I understand that there are a lot of anxious people out there, and for some of them picking up the phone it's scary. I have written notes when i have to call my doc/the pizza place...so... So! picking up the phone to ask for help, to a hotline can be even more scary, I got you lovely people.

REMEMBER that the person on the other side of the phone will help you trough ALL THE TIME, and guide you trough the process of getting the help you need. Trust them, it's their job. This is an example of a conversation:

S.Hotline:Hello I'm Kia this is the S.H what has you reaching out? Person: Hello...I'm Zee I'm not feeling well... SH: Hi Zee, can you tell me more about that? P: I'm overwhelmed...feels like...(+ description) SH: Ok Zee,I understand that what have you tried to deal with it? P: X, Y, Z ... SH: How about we do W? Want to try with me? This is an example of providing a fast solution to lower the stress like breathing exercises. Then they'll proceed to ask you few questions about your sui.thoughts/past attempts/frequency of the thoughts or events/medications. They'll ask if you're alone, if you want to call someone (with their help) if you're willing/unwilling to stay safe, if you are willing to talk to a professional, if you have special needs and if you're willing/unwilling to stay safe.

If you call a hotline they won't send someone to your house immediately. They'll send someone only with your consent, OR if you're a danger to yourself/others (unwilling to stay safe). However, sending someone to your house, without your specific request/consent is an unlikely outcome.

THIS IS THE LIST OF HOTLINES YOU CAN CALLand there are also therapy chats.

One more time <3 Love You <3