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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 18h

Despite the violence of the Tigray and Ethiopian war that many of the women of the Baltna Women’s Group have suffered, they continue to mill and process traditional spices in Aksum.

Solace and Community in a Tigray Spice Mill

The ancient work is an act of resilience for this women’s collective, preserving identity in the aftermath of war

newlinesmag.com

Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 1d

Reminder that Mastodon has starter packs (you can opt out of) and quote posts (you can opt out of), and post editing is available and all without the stench of executives who are embracing racism and transphobia.

Mastodon snags Bluesky’s starter packs feature and includes the ability to opt out

Starter Packs, but for Mastodon.

www.theverge.com

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 1d

It can seem overwhelming with fascists crawling into government and legacy media, but this isn't because of widespread conversion, merely the failure of both systems to fight off a minor infection that the main body politic despises.

MAGA can't expand its base — and Christian music tells us why

The songs from Charlie Kirk's memorial exposed a serious problem

www.salon.com

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 1d

Private broadband was a mistake, and the billions in give-aways the telcos received to modernize and upgrade (which they didn't do) instead go into lobbying fascists and fascist sympathizers to remove even mild consumer protections.

ISPs created so many fees that FCC will kill requirement to list them all

ISPs complained about Biden-era rule, said listing every fee was too hard.

arstechnica.com

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 1d

The idea that A(trained on stolen art)I democratizes filmmaking when it has historically never been cheaper or easier to start with a phone and open source tools is a garbage argument, and it's verbatim what Sam Altman has claimed, so one wonders how much Miller was paid to ruin his legacy.

Mad Max: Fury Road director George Miller disappoints everyone by taking part in an AI film festival: "AI is here to stay"

Fans are not happy about George Miller's involvement with the AI event

www.gamesradar.com

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 2d

David Cross' comment: “All of your bitching about ‘cancel culture’ and ‘freedom of speech’ and all that shit? Done. You don’t get to talk about it ever again. By now we’ve all seen the contract you had to sign.” is perfect. These people aren't comedians, they're wallpaper to power.

Human Rights Watch ‘Cannot Accept’ Donations From Aziz Ansari and Other Comedians Who Performed at Riyadh Comedy Festival

Human Rights Watch says it 'cannot accept' donations from Aziz Ansari and other comedians who performed at the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia.

variety.com

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 3d

He's produced an amazing run of films to choose from for almost every taste. My favorite is "Crash" but that's not really horror.

Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 3d

10 horror movies to get to know me by

The Castle of Purity (1973)
Phantasm (1979)
Wolfen (1981)
The Thing (1982)
The Keep (1983)
Videodrome (1983)
The Company of Wolves (1984)
In The Mouth of Madness (1994)
Cure (1997)
Land of the Dead (2005)

Vera @veraglaeka.bsky.social · 3d

Horror movies to get to know me by

Pumpkinhead
Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Alien
The Thing
The Ritual
Under the Skin
Killer Klowns
Return of the Living Dead
The Fly
Creepshow
Demon Knight
Dead Alive
The Void

💀🐺🌱ArtofMaquenda🍄🩸 @artofmaquenda.bsky.social · 4d

13 (can't choose) horror movies to get to know me by

The Ring (both Japanese and the remake)
Ju-on/The Grudge (also both)
Dark Water
A Tale of Two Sisters
Babadook
The Ritual
Hereditary
Annihilation
The Relic (1997) As a kid I loved that beast!
Pan's Labyrinth
The Devil's Backbone
Coraline xD

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 3d

The article describes how the alleged arsonist worked himself up with ChatGPT prompts for images of burning cities and between this and the suicides and the racist slop it'd be swell if all the AI companies were shut and the executives [redacted]

NPR @npr.org · 3d

Authorities have charged a 29-year-old man in connection to starting the Palisades Fire, which killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,800 homes and buildings. (via @laist.com)

Uber driver charged in connection with starting the Palisades Fire

The Palisades Fire erupted on Jan. 7 and went on to kill 12 people and destroy more than 6,800 homes and buildings.

n.pr

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 3d

That person is absolutely on my special list.

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 3d

During the Gulf War, none of the networks allowed a single Iraqi (except Chalabi and other US government-backed ghouls) on television. When Peter Arnett interviewed civilians suffering from the bombing, he was savaged in the American press (and SNL) as an Iraqi propagandist. #israel

In 2 Years of Gaza Genocide, Sunday Shows on NBC, ABC and CNN Have Not Featured a Single Palestinian Guest

In a microcosm of the U.S. coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, since Oct. 7, 2023, influential Sunday news shows have not seen fit to book any Palestinians.

inthesetimes.com

Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 3d

Anyone who supports Israel should be made to read the names of every single child killed and look at every photograph. If we had a decent world, every Israeli official and IDF soldier would be in the Hague facing life sentences. #israel

Young lives cut short on an unimaginable scale: the 18,457 children on Gaza’s list of war dead

Every name on a list compiled by health authorities in Gaza of the child victims of Israel’s offensive

www.theguardian.com

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 4d

Jets Pizza is just Detroit-style, that's nothing perverted by that. You will go to jail for the nutter butter thing.

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 6d

Hit dogs holler, and apparently also throw about bans to silence critics. It's telling that for all the talk of the ATprotocol being decentralized, despite Link being on BlackSky he's still banned because of it still uses the central AppView.

Miriam @miriamboosh.bsky.social · 6d

Let me get this straight: Link, a Black user, got banned for calling out the Bluesky CEO for following a racist. That’s not a good look, especially given Bluesky’s historical treatment of Black users here on bluesky.

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 6d

Jessie wished J.K. Rowling ill, and this mild desire for someone who wishes trans people dead was considered a threat. Juni wrote a fabulous program that tracked official Bluesky accounts and saw that Aaron had favorited a barely legal adult model, whereupon he freaked out and banned her.

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 6d

So Bluesky is doing outright censorship to protect the fragile feelings of its executives in what appears to be a Musk/Lowtax speedrun, except more incompetent.

Drastic Actions @drasticactions.dev · 6d

The actual post is still available in the repo. Normally, when a post is deleted, it's removed outright with no way to get it back. pdsls.dev/at://did:plc...

It doesn't appear in the timeline feed or the post thread API. They may be actively blocking it in the most stupid way possible, lol.

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 7d

"We're training robots to replace humans in a city almost entirely empty of humans." seems like a short story William Gibson would have binned for being too obvious.

China’s most infamous ghost town is now training ground for driverless trucks

The empty boulevards that once symbolized the mainland’s property bust now serve as testing grounds for hundreds of autonomous vehicles.

restofworld.org

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 7d

A searing take-down of liberal opportunists who, having helped neo-liberalism dismantle the welfare state, claim women, people of color, and queer people should be sacrificed to appeal to the working class; embracing hate instead of fixing capitalism.

Beyond the Classism of Defeat

A Left asleep at the wheel of a long-gone industrial proletarian dream.

communispress.com

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 8d

Who's taking bets on when Jay shows up wearing an exact copy of Zuckerberg's t-shirt to an interview?

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 8d

"I'm not moving to Mastodon, its not as cool and its full of scolds." Yeah, enjoy having the entire site turned into Twitter-lite by a handful of executives until all the cool trans people migrate and this place dies by inches.

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 8d

The meltdown isn't just embarrassing and unprofessional, its needlessly antagonistic and wantonly damaging to the core users who built literally contributed to the code base but also the cool factor that got this site noticed in its desperate early days. www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

'It's a Huge Relief': Trans 'Shitposters' on Bluesky Feel Safer Away From Twitter

Trans and queer shitposters say it's a "relief" to be on Bluesky, describing it as a far safer and more joyous alternative to Twitter under Elon Musk

www.rollingstone.com

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 8d

The active defense of Singal, the banning of Juni and Jessie Gender, along with dozens of other trans people by Aaron, and now this meltdown by Jay, demonstrate that the executives here at Bluesky have been transphobes for a while.

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 8d

Look at this delightful site, which is entirely devoted to identifying buses and coaches seen in movies and television.

Buses on Screen [Buses on Screen]

www.busesonscreen.com

Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 8d

This is pure, but still destructive, virtue signalling, considering the coal industry is in full collapse. It might please conservatives in Alabama, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming, but everything is shifting to natural gas and renewables, no matter what the right wants. #environment

Trump to open more federal land for coal mining, provide industry $625M to boost coal plants

The Trump administration said it will open 13 million acres of federal lands for coal mining and provide $625 million to recommission or modernize coal-fired power plants.

www.pbs.org

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Vaska Raeca @vaskaraeca.bsky.social · 8d

Another case where the Trump administration is ignoring the law, hoping to make a devastating extraction project a fait accompli. More projects are now using the disingenuous rationale that we have to compete with China, similar to the rationale for uranium mines during the Cold War. #environment

In Alaska, a graphite mine races toward approval without the required tribal consent

A project in Alaska is being fast-tracked in a process that has not yet included legally required consultations with Inupiaq communities.

grist.org