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.
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
)
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.
so once me and my wife were watching a documentary where a snake ate like a million eggs. that snake just went to fucking town on eggs. and the snake made the eggs look so good that i kept thinking about it, and thinking about it, and thinking about it, and eventually it was 11pm and i ran out of willpower and decided to eat one (1) singular raw egg just to prove to myself that the snake was surely a liar.
the snake was not a liar. texture is like, super important to me and raw eggs are very Texture so i had another one, and then another one, and then another one, and eventually i ran out of eggs.
i had like, fifteen raw eggs.
i didnt really know how to explain this momentary madness to my wife, so my Plan was to put all the eggshells into a grocey bag, and then throw that grocery bag in the dumpster, and if she never noticed that would be Excellent and if she noticed immediately i could lie and say that the eggs went bad.
except i cant lie very good, and of course with murphys law being such, i got salmonella.
so i threw up a lot and my wife asked me what poisoned me so and i tried very hard to dodge the question but i was oozing shame like oil from a room temperature cheese and eventaully i gave in and told her everything and to her enormous credit she was more flabbergasted than actually upset. she did make me promise to not eat any more raw eggs, which i have stuck to, and she gives me weird looks during nature documentaries now as if desire was the only thing keeping me from eating thousands of pounds of krill
anyway i made a joke earlier about being able to eat my age in eggs and my sister in law in law made a drawing to comemorate the moment and also because it was my birthday. she’s excellent. thank you 10000000% @cintailed. you should all visit her page and admire her work.
I’m sleep deprived so I didn’t read the story. Apologies to my mutuals if it’s something evil or whatever
But this snake is literally fucking me. I eat so many eggs. This is me with 28 eggs. I don’t care if the cholesterol kills me. 28 fckuuin eggs
without reading the story, you embodied the story. amazing.
Payphones "were the only things that were built to last for decades and be out in the elements," says electrical engineer Patrick Schlott. He should know; as a hobby, he buys secondhand payphones, rewires them, then asks local businesses in rural Vermont if they'd let him install them. His goal is to offer, for free, public telephone service. (Schlott foots the bill himself.)
"It's assumed most folks own cell phones," writes Schlott. "Well, not everyone does, sometimes they don't work out on dirt roads, sometimes you forget your charger, and sometimes you just really need to make a phone call. We aim to provide a valuable public service to the community while teaching people about the US telephone system that has over a century of history behind it."
Schlott's company, RandTel, currently operates three phones in his neck of Vermont: One at the North Tunbridge General Store in Tunbridge, one at the Latham Library and a third—a rotary model from the 1950s--at the town of Randolph's information booth. He's particularly proud of that last one, as "This installation is 100% solar-powered, provided graciously by Catamount Solar," he writes. "Many thanks to the White River Valley Chamber of Commerce for hosting!"
Probably the prettiest bird I ever saw up there in the Northland...
I have visited Hawk Ridge on Duluth’s Skyline Parkway three times in the past week, and each visit has yielded three Indigo Buntings sightings, and I am convinced each sighting in the same exact bird. If you walk down the stairs from the road to the path along the ledges … proceeding to you left (NE) till you almost reach the trees, this bird loves the top branches of the two aspens. Use Merlin to call out once or twice and the bunting will come calling!
Art forgery is the best crime tbh. It requires absolutely incredible artistic talent, technical skill, and attention to detail to make convincing fakes. Does anyone get hurt from it? No! The only people who suffer for it are the extremely wealthy who want the prestige of having original paintings in their own homes. It’s full of international intrigue and mystery. Perfect.
Also… art forgers like van Meegeren sometimes become a kind of folk hero. A swindler, sure, but a gentleman’s swindler.
I liked this guy’s story, Mark Landis, who conned several dozen museums into displaying his forgeries, but when the FBI came after him they couldn’t do anything because he had always given them away as donations. They said if they could have found that he’d ever taken anything in exchange they would have prosecuted him, but all he wanted was get to out of the house and meet people.
“The first painting Landis “donated” was a copy of a work by Maynard Dixon, an artist well-known for his paintings of cowboys and Indians. It started as impulse, Landis says, but then “everybody was just so nice and treated me with respect and deference and friendship, things I was very unused to — I mean, actually not used to at all. And I got addicted to it.””
And it looks like all his forgeries are done with cheap materials, like markers and Hobby Lobby frames.
Ok, but Wolfgang Beltracchi is probably one of the best Fraud Artists in the world.
His career brought him millions upon millions of dollars and lasted almost 40 years. He finally admitted to painting fraudulent art after the white paint he used came under scrutiny.
In The interview with Beltracchi, he said that none of his forgeries are copies, they’re all original works that the famous artists could have painted.
His wife was also in on the scam, she would dress up in old clothing and take pictures holding the paintings with old cameras to fake proof of the paintings’ ages.
At the end of the interview with Wolfgang Beltracchi he was asked if he felt he had done anything wrong, his answer was “ Yeah, I used the wrong kind of paint”
Just … the levels of con there, the fake photos and … wow. That’s incredible.
That’s just rapscallionry.
This is what AI wants to take from us.
Let’s add Tom Keating to the mix, yeah?
Keating painted more than 2,000 forgeries by over 100 different artists in his sixty-six years. Many had fraudulently sold at auctions with the total profits estimated at over 10 million dollars. “I flooded the market with the work of Palmer and many others,” the artist said. “Not for gain (I hope I am no materialist) but simply as a protest against the merchants who make capital out of those I am proud to call my brother artists, both living and dead. It seemed disgraceful to me how many of them had died in poverty,” he defended in The Fake’s Progress, his autobiography. “All their lives they had been exploited by unscrupulous dealers and then, as if to dishonor their memory, these same dealers continued to exploit them in death.” […] Keating had a great respect and understanding of all the artists he imitated but was always reckless in his handling of the materials. He often used house paint and poster paint to mix in with his acrylics as a cheaper way to achieve the impasto works. At times he wouldn’t bother preparing his antique canvases he found at the junk shops out of laziness, so that in just a few years the paint would peel right off to reveal what was originally underneath. Keating often planted what he called “time bombs” like this in his paintings. Because of his understanding of the chemicals used in art restoration, Keating would purposely paint with layers of glycerin, which would destroy the painting once it was cleaned by a restorer, proving it was a fake. He often wrote obscenities under his paintings, like “Bollocks!”, in lead white so that it could be seen by the experts who x-rayed the painting to check its authenticity.
REMEMBER IF YOU HONK ALLYOU at me i will HONK HONK if you get any closer U HAVE TO HONK IF if you WILL IF I HONK myself WANT honk if you have ever been personally victimized by HONK
