“I told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think I’ve come close to defining it: a lack of empathy. It’s the one characteristic that connects all the defendants. A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.” - G.M. Gilbert
Considered by some to have invented tabloid photojournalism, Weegee (a.k.a Arthur Fellig) is known for his unflinching images of gangs, crime scenes, and street life in New York City, as well as his snapshots of glamorous Hollywood stars. With a reputation for being the first at the scene of a crime, Fellig cultivated his own mythology, claiming he had psychic abilities to predict crimes, and adopted the name Weegee—linked phonetically to séance-cum-boardgame Ouija—to highlight his predictive abilities. In fact, Weegee would sleep fully clothed with a police radio by his side, and kept a camera, typewriter, and darkroom equipment in the trunk of his car, enabling him to produce images with unrivalled speed. Murders and fires, Weegee once said, were his “best sellers,” his “bread and butter.” - from Artsy
i stopped the dental technician while he was applying fluoride to ask what the fuck the flavour was supposed to be. And he was like oh I was wondering that too. It says it’s walterberry.
Los Angeles, California. July 25, 2020. A peaceful woman is attacked by cops and subsequently protected by a Black protester and crowd of protesting women who grapple with the police to protect her.
I know this is what the Regime wants. I know they will use any violence as justification for martial law.
But I still admire the courage of unarmed people who rush to help someone, keep getting knocked down by armed police in body armour, and keep getting back up.
They don’t need any justification. Cops will use violence anyway
Of course the Regime will direct violence at protests regardless of whether they’re peaceful or not. That’s not the point of nonviolent protest.
The point is what the rest of the country, the rest of the world thinks when they look at what’s happening. Will they see a violent insurrection that has to be put down by force, like the Felon claims? Will they see “both sides” being brutal? Will people who may be anti-Tr*mp, but not ready to go out and shoot or be shot by their fellow Americans (ie, most anti-Regime Americans), feel that the protests are something they can participate in?
Also (and this is a fact that anarchists and accelerationists REALLY don’t want to hear, or for anybody to think about), police and military are NOT, in fact, a uniform block who will always side with the Regime no matter what. There have already been reports of individual soldiers standing with the protests, as well as police in Dallas. And that, historically, is how a Regime often falls- when its enforcers start to switch sides. That’s how the Goddamn Soviet Union fell- the only successful toppling of a nuclear-armed superpower in history.
That is more likely to happen if the protesters are peaceful, and aren’t beating/bombing/shooting at them, and there is actual statistical evidence to back this up (search the 3.5% rule).
Now, in the situation depicted in the video, I can sympathize with people fighting back against the cops, because they’re protecting someone else the cops were brutalizing. So I’m not trying to be harsh toward them. What they did was brave, and maybe right, under the circumstances. And that’s probably easier for others to see in a sympathetic light as well. But the general idea that “they’ll be violent anyway so we might as well be too,” and the assumption by many (in direct contradiction of volumes of historical evidence) that Real Change can only or most effectively come through mass violence, is something that I will push back on.
Because by ignoring all of the above, and actively trying to escalate violence, those who seek to initiate and escalate violence are not only endangering themselves and others, but are an active liability to the cause they claim to support. This isn’t just me talking: the Regime’s whole approach is based on painting the protests as a violent insurrection which requires martial law to suppress. The Proud Boys and their ilk are openly planning to infiltrate protests with violent agitators on June 14th to give them that pretext. THEY WANT THIS. And those who support more violent protest are handing it to them on a platter.
Don’t do what you enemy wants you to do.
Like, what do you think will happen if the protesters start beating or shooting at US soldiers? Most likely, most Americans will decide they want no part of it and stay home, and the protesters will be quickly arrested or killed, and Tr*mp’s precedent for using the military to crush dissent will be successfully established.
Or maybe more people do fight back- then what? If your premise is that all police and military will always engage in violence against us no matter what, and that the only recourse to that is violent revolution, then what you are advocating is a civil war. Against the most powerful military in the world.
Even if you win that, it will take years, if not decades, and the death toll will likely be in the millions. Syria on the scale of a continent.
Oh, and also the world’s first nuclear-armed civil war. Let’s not forget about that.
You guys are never gonna believe what I found online:
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A 3D-Printed, Comic Sans Mono Typeball for an IBM Selectric II Typewriter! Why does this font actually look so natural and fitting for a typewriter?? And it’s only $8! This guy is doing the lord’s work.
Holy shit. How come I never thought of 3d printing font-balls for my Selectric. That’s the coolest fucking thing. There’s unlimited possibilities with this.
I’m sure I don’t need to tell most of you why this is a horrible idea, that does away with much of the trust gained by the thus far great service that is iNaturalist. But, to elaborate on my point, to collaborate with Google on tools such as these is a slap in the face to much of the userbase, including a multitude of biological experts and conservationists across the globe.
They claim that they will work hard to make sure that the identification information provided by the AI tools is of the highest quality, which I do not entirely doubt from this team. I would hope that there is a thorough vetting process in place for this information (Though, if you need people to vet the information, what’s the point of the generative AI over a simple wiki of identification criteria). Nonetheless, if you’ve seen Google’s (or any other tech company’s) work in this field in the past, which you likely have, you will know that these tools are not ready to explain the nuances of species identification, as they continue to provide heavy amounts of complete misinformation on a daily basis. Users may be able to provide feedback, but should a casual user look to the AI for an explanation, many would not realize if what they are being told is wrong.
Furthermore, while the data is not entirely my concern, as the service has been using our data for years to train its 'computer vision’ model into what it is today, and they claim to have ways to credit people in place, it does make it quite concerning that Google is involved in this deal. I can’t say for certain that they will do anything more with the data given, but Google has proven time and again to be highly untrustworthy as a company.
Though, that is something I’m less concerned by than I am by the fact that a non-profit so dedicated to the biodiversity of the earth and the naturalists on it would even dare lock in a deal of this nature. Not only making a deal to create yet another shoehorned misinformation machine, that which has been proven to use more unclean energy and water (among other things) than it’s worth for each unsatisfactory and untrustworthy search answer, but doing so with one of the greediest companies on the face of the earth, a beacon of smog shining in colors antithetical to the iNaturalist mission statement. It’s a disgrace.
In conclusion, I want to believe in the good of iNaturalist. The point stands, though, that to do this is a step in the worst possible direction. Especially when they, for all intents and purposes, already had a system that works! With their 'computer vision’ model providing basic suggestions (if not always accurate in and of itself), and user suggested IDs providing further details and corrections where needed.
If you’re an iNaturalist user who stands in opposition to this decision, leave a comment on this blog post, and maybe we can get this overturned.
[Note: Yes, I am aware there is good AI used in science, this is generative AI, which is a different thing entirely. Also, if you come onto this post with strawmen or irrelevant edge-cases I will wring your neck.]
[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source. The launch of the next season of Minnesota Historia has been postponed, perhaps until September.]
Minnesota Historia is a PBS North web series dedicated to Minnesota’s quirky past. It is hosted by Hailey Eidenschink and produced/edited/written by Mike Scholtz.
I mean I’ll go for it either way, let’s be honest. I just kind of prefer the locally harvested stuff because it’s all single origin. Not just from a fap vat or whatever.
Sorry for the image there. But not so sorry that I’m deleting it. Just reminding you to shop local, very local, ideally free-local too (but support your local Oh! Boy Syrup workers, definitely) when it comes to Oh! Boy Syrup.
“Oh! Boy Syrup workers of the world unite! No, not like that, please put your clothes back on, I want to talk to you zeriously about forming a worker’s collective, no, not that kind of collective, ok, you know vhat, I’ll come back tomorrow.”-Freddy Engels, probably.
Actor Jonathan Joss was just murdered for being gay and married to a trans man. On the first day of pride 2025. He was best known for playing John Redcorn on King of the Hill.
I had no idea he was gay but he was married to a man named Tristan Kern de Gonzales (on valentines day 2025!)
They lived in San Antonio Texas where his family is from and he grew up. He was 59.
In Janurary 2025 his home was burned down which made news. It killed some of his beloved dogs. He didnt elaborate beyond he believed it was arson (gofundme is still up and i suggest donating to help his funeral costs and his husband
Update: de Gonzales says hes fine he just wants justice but i still think its nice)
Now we know he and his husband had been threatened by several neighbors for being queer. They told pigs, pigs being pigs did nothing before or after it happened.
Yesterday Joss and his husband went to check their mailbox wherein they found one of their dogs skulls (statement from his husband
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As they weeped and mourned in shock, a neighbor, Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja, came out and aimed at de Gonzales…but Joss jumped in front of the bullet and was instantly killed.
Ceja, homophobia murdering coward, tried to take off but de Gonzales had called pigs who vaguely tried to do something. He was arrested and his bail set for $200k. Or as my sister said who the fuck sets bail for a murderer?
San Antonio.
De Gonzales is clearly mourning, posting pics on Hoss’ fb page. This one really struck me
This is why we need pride people, and not rainbow capitalism. Please donate to the gofundme and let san antonio cops knows what you think. De Gonzales said multiple neighbors had threatened them…id like to see those people investigated for arson.
Go into pride with rage and knowing. Have joy, kiss puppies, dont bow to homophobes. And maybe enjoy a little king of the hill.
UPDATE
Jonathan Joss’ husband Tristan kern de Gonzales identifies as trans on his facebook page.
Which explains the ramp up of hate and why the murderer shot at de Gonzales (Joss pushed him out of the way). So this is also a transphobia related murder
For being NATIVE and gay, and married to a trans man.
It is extremely important not to leave out that he was an openly gay NATIVE man. Native LGBTQ+ people, and frankly even cis het Natives face very high rates of violence.
If you’re gonna tag his death with homophobia and transphobia, you need to be talking about the racialized aspect of this hate crime as well.
I wasn’t expecting much. Maybe Vader’s baritone with hints of melody. I was *not* expecting it to be a masterpiece, what the fuck, this is a million times better than I was expecting and it’s unironically really good. Turn on that volume button.
My whole life I’ve known that you must leave at least one mistake in your knitting or crochet or tapestry, because spirits/demons can get lost in the perfection of the stitches and be unable to find their way out.
If you don’t want a haunted scarf, you have to leave a mistake as an exit point.
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