unrepentant tiktokers who haven’t thought critically since 2019 will hear a criticism of tiktok and be like “how are you gonna hate a whole app 😂😂💯🤡” I do hate tiktok. yes all of it. I don’t care about whether the content is good or bad, I hate the fundamental function of that app which is to get you addicted to the zero-effort dopamine hit you get from consuming shortform content algorithmically tailored to you, erode your attention span, and promote consumerism. this is true regardless of whether or not you “found your community” on tiktok or use it as an escape or a coping mechanism. this does not add nuance to the discussion the way you think it does. i do not care and i am not obligated to care and I hope that app one day gets class action lawsuited into oblivion
villain going to the goon shelter to pick out a new henchman
this energetic and diabolical boy was rescued from a goon hoarding situation… he loves pulling levers, gloating, and turning cranks with great abandon. prefers to be the only goon. needs an active lair with plenty of enrichment.
now this fella comes with some baggage. his previous villain was going to have put down when he refused to perform unsedated human vivisection as a form of torture. one of our agents intercepted the execution and brought him to the goon shelter. would thrive in an environment of G or PG-rated villainry.
on the other hand, if you’re looking for something a little more… advanced… then this fine lady over here would make a great challenge for an experienced villain able to set firm boundaries. she will NOT be released to first-time villains; proof of prior henchpeople must be demonstrated before adoption approval. high prey drive. under no circumstances should she be left alone with children or small animals. must sign waiver releasing the goon shelter from responsibility if her behavior is deemed excessively depraved.
These two are pair-bonded and may only be adopted together. Up for anything, they are fiercely loyal to their employer provided their needs are met and they are permitted to hold hands. They look alarmingly similar to one another but it is undeterminable whether they are close blood relatives or lovers who choose to dress and style themselves in identical ways. Habit of finishing each other’s sentences with rhyming couplets; we have not attempted to train this out of them. Will answer to whatever names or titles you give them so long as they are complimentary and/or rhyme.
Will you help this goon find his forevil lair? He’s been returned to the goon shelter six times now but we refuse to give up on him. A vile little rat of a man, he’d be the perfect accomplice to someone willing to overlook his unfortunate heterosexuality. If gay-coding is not your style and you don’t expect it from a henchman, please consider giving this little guy a good home in your dastardly schemes.
This guy is not your typical goon. He was rescued from a high-kill shelter after being deemed unfit for henching. His deep baritone voice, his darkly handsome good looks, and his flair for the dramatic have made prospective employers pass over him time and time again, making him the longest resident of the goon shelter. But don’t judge a book by its cover—while his appearance and demeanor suggest “villain”, his real passion is taking orders and faithfully serving a master. If you’re secure in your villainry and not prone to jealousy, he may just be what it takes to turn your base into a lair.
Jesus, I hadn’t even thought of this, but of course.
This is something that historians have been warning about for a couple of decades. How much of our history was not just on Twitter, but on MySpace, on blogs and web sites that came down after a few years, on e-mail, on texts. None of that leaves a record. Once the file is deleted, the server shut down and scrapped, the backup disks decay into being unreadable junk, that history is gone.
Does anyone remember when Obama and Clinton each held town hall campaign events on MySpace? Good luck finding anything about those now other than some news articles that say they happened. How many business zoom calls have formal meeting minutes taken? We are not saving histories. We aren’t even writing letters. I’m as guilty as anyone. My art is online and kept in the cloud. I make my Christmas Card every year, but I haven’t printed and mailed one in over a decade. It’s all sent electronically. Meaning that a generation from now no one will remember.
So the problem is bigger than Twitter. We are now a couple of decades into an age that will not leave any detailed historical record.
It’s thought this might just be a black spot of knowledge, there are organizations working to stop this — archival websites primarily, but these are not able to penetrate all these corporate gated gardens, where paywalls, sign up walls, and more block access to. There is an ongoing campaign by megacorps to shutdown as many archival sites as possible.
This coupled with the fallibility of hard drives, CDs (make sure to back them up! They only have a 20-30 year lifetime!), and more and there is a chance that even though there is more information than ever before, more primary and secondary sources than ever, we may become just a strange blank spot in societal and cultural history. Digital decay is a terrifying concept that we are already beginning to live through.
This is exactly what I’ve been saying. It’s a loss of history. And, given how important it has been for activists of all sorts, it will be a loss for the future as well.
a sitting senator who is on basically every committee in charge of regulating the industries elon musks companies work in put out a statement on the checkmark impersonation issue and elon responded by Epic Ratioeing him online. this will surely have positive repercussions in his future
of all the US Senators you could pick on, you chose the dude who’s on all the committees relevant to your companies.
The linked article includes to the detail that the reporter didn’t just choose to impersonate this senator; he asked and was granted permission to do so by Senator Markey.
I think it’s Ed Markey who is, in fact, king shit.
‘Iapetus: The Monolith Waits’ (2016) by Steve Dodd. A
brand new painting from Steve Dodd, his first new space/scifi painting
in nearly 30 years. It is based on Arthur C Clarke’s book of 2001 rather
than the movie.
Steve Dodd is a
US artist who was at his most prolific in the 1980s with works
featured in Starlog, Omni and Future Life magazines along with European
book covers, art exhibitions with the Hildebrandt brothers and a commendation
from Arthur C Clarke. For various reasons Steve stepped back from the
rough and tumble of the scifi art scene which was hyper-competitive and
he eventually stopped painting. Over the last few years he has shared
some of his work with me, most never seen outside his studio. With this
spectacular painting Steve is most definitely back in business!
