watch this.

I have Doctor Worm as my morning meds alarm, and my friend overheard it and was trying to figure out if it was "that same guy who did re: Your Brains" (which they were newly obsessed with, having discovered it last week). I had to take a moment to process that combined age gap and nerd unity.

Gentle reminder that in the late '50s, the U.S. government did not censor comics. Comics companies censored themselves. Not sure why that crossed my mind today but there it is...

text and word balloons can be treated with just as much craft and character as the rest of the comic page

So, because I assume that Bluesky will not be listening to the outpouring of artist objections to their problematic TOS and agreeing to eliminate their policies of censorship... Where are artists headed next? Is there already an alternative? I really don't want to wait out another slow exodus.

i'm against the new TOS because no matter how uncomfortable you are with certain subjects, it's very easy to see how bad-faith interpretations of art could be weaponized, especially against marginalized artists, who are more likely to be targeted for harassment #bskycensorship

Things that always work all of the time, with studies to prove it, boosting the economy and productivity, and increasing quality of life and public health, and that will never, ever be implemented within my lifetime: 1. UBI 2. 4-day working week

Restricting the expression of sexuality through fiction and art made by adults, for adults – including those you find personally disturbing or offputting – is conservative censorship, full stop. When that censorship disproportionately affects subgroups, that's also discrimination. For shame.

there was a large enough pro-life Dem caucus in the House that it almost sank Obamacare! basically all of them lost their seats in the Tea Party wave, and we’ve only seen congressional races get more nationalized since then shitty policy stances aren’t enough to win over these voters

They have this button on the right hand column that in addition to public shaming, lets you shame them in other useful ways

Many media outlets hid the full truth of Trump -- his background in organized crime, his Epstein ties -- out of fear, only to be obliterated by him in the end. Had they not self-censored then, they might not be state-censored now. When you hide the truth, you face the consequences.

Addendum: Also, what about stories where highlighting the abusive aspect of an interaction *is the point*? Not every depiction of nudity or sex is something you're meant to get off to. Does that content and those stories just no longer have a place on this site?

I used to be pretty preachy against noncon in fiction & I regret it. Here's the thing: -AGAIN, people are allowed to fantasize about whatever depraved thing they want. -BAD FAITH ACTORS WILL GREATLY EXPAND THEIR DEFINITION OF NONCON IF IT MEANS THEY GET TO BE ASSHOLES TO PORNOGRAPHERS.

The drafters of this policy have failed to examine two key questions: 1) What harm does this policy actually prevent? 2) What harm could the curtailment of individual agency through censorship cause? If you can't prove #1 but can demonstrate plenty of #2, then the policy is harmful and wrong.

We can have better. We can have universal healthcare. We can have tuition-free college. We can have universal childcare. We can have affordable housing. We can have livable wages. We can have affordable food. We have to stick together & demand better for the working class.

I think we may have to give up on the verb 'faze'. It's being subsumed under 'phase'. Formerly-distinct words merge all the time (look up 'cleave' sometime), so this shouldn't faze me. But it looks like 'faze' is being phased out.

I'm sorry, worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable permission to my voice and likeness? For what now? In any manner for any purpose??? This is in academia/.edu's new ToS, which you're prompted to agree to on login. Anyway I'll be jumping ship. You can find my stuff at hcommons.org.

So, this just came up in conversation again, so it bears saying publicly: AI companies are touting their software's utility for proofreading. COPY EDITING IS MORE THAN JUST PROOFREADING! Copy editors also check for continuity errors, consistency, style guide conformity, and formatting errors.

ME: *writing in my journal with the sole aim of pissing off future historians and archaeologists* I returned to my home - which is built in the usual style - by the normal way, and prepared and ate dinner in the way I often but not always do

Found out the hosting service Poe was using for the comics for the last 20-ish years has added a clause to their TOS giving them the right to unilaterally censor anything they want. Looking into alternatives now, but since Poe cannot make comics anymore, it's a bittersweet problem to have to solve.

A reminder that one of my favorite ways to frame the economy for most people is that they are *never* three good months away from being rich, but *always* three bad months from being homeless.

Instead of a public retraction, the Wall Street Journal quietly adjusted its headline. Neither Emma Tucker, the editor-in-chief, nor the two reporters who wrote the original piece responded to my requests for comment. www.advocate.com/news/wall-st...

ATTN FELLOW CANADIANS: An actual MP has created a petition to stop financial discrimination against adult creators by payment processors. You have to confirm your email but thats because its something that can actually be shown to parliament.

My feed is full of people who have quoted wwxwashere's timeline cleanse, and while I am enjoying the resulting wave of glorious human nonsense, I would like to just gently point out that she's constantly doing good things for online community this way and she has a Ko-Fi you COULD use to thank her.

When I was a kid, my father (a phd) told me his secret to research: start by finding the leading expert, and then write them a letter to ask. Experts have spent years, even decades, exhaustively researching their specific interest! Most likely, they will be delighted to convey that interest to you.

👇 This thread omg

"The tale of the dames de voyage ... has been passed from hand to hand in much a similar way [as the dames de voyage were said to have been], moving not between lovers but between authors." a genuine, heartfelt thank you to Ruberg for comparing bad citational practice to circle jerks

Beginning to seriously worry about whether Korea will even let me renew my visa in two weeks. Do I technically meet all the standards? Yes. But do they want to make it easy for Americans right now? Probably not, and I can't really blame them.

no joke this is why i throw letters in before i start drawing haha. they don't have to be perfect but it's a real good reminder to leave that space. i'd do it even if i wasn't responsible for the final lettering tbh (this doesn't save me from when i edit my dialogue after i've drawn the thing oc)

So the US begged, BEGGED Hyundai to build a factory in the US to provide jobs. They invested billions, and sent hundreds of their workers to get the factory ready and to their standards. Then the US pulled off the biggest single site Homeland Securit operation in history and arrested all 500 staff.

democrat melissa hortman was literally politically assassinated in her fucking home less than 3 months ago and now everyone wants to comment on how bad it’ll be now like ok

Visa and Mastercard reportedly coming for FAIRIES and CAT EARS Get on the phone and ask them wtf is up because this even made me double take bsky.app/profile/dark...

Another September, another deluge of social media posts from PNWers convinced they have fiddle, wolf, or recluse spider infestations. Comrades. It's just giant house spider mating season. You don't have an infestation. They've been there the whole time. Now they are risking death for girlfriends

Gen Z in Nepal burned down the parliament, burned down the homes of government officials, forced the prime minister to resign, and paraded the finance minister through the streets nearly naked.

Unless you registered the copyright on your comics, you may not be able to claim this settlement. Webcomics often run for YEARS. How often did you actually register your copyrights, and for what portion of the comic? Yes, it's your copyrighted work registered or not, but registration matters.

Oh gods. My university is trying to encourage students to accept metaverse counseling. Someone making decisions here has wholeheartedly bought into the idea of tech solutions for people problems and it is increasingly obvious that they either do not know or do not care about data exploitation risk.

An LLM chatbot's literal entire job— what it is designed, built, & trained to do— is to respond to you using words which, in tone & connotation, you are statistically most likely to accept, based on what you've said to it & how you said it. It's just stats & bullshit. (Original image w/ alt text)

Shocked and saddened to hear that Matt Haasch, founder of indie manga publishing company @starfruitbooks.bsky.social has passed away. His gofundme campaign for his medical and other expenses is still up - contribute if you can. www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-...

When people say "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear." the correct response is: "I need privacy, not because my actions are questionable, but because your judgement and intentions are."

BREAKING: ICE is sending Russian dissidents back to Russia. When the dissidents arrived in Russia, the Russian authorities were given documents relating to their asylum applications in the US which under US law are confidential. This seems to be part of a secret agreement between Trump and Putin.

I don’t think we should take this, y’all. 1. It’s the square root of fuck all 2. They offered it in a trice: scared 3. If they had asked me for licensing in advance, 10x this fee wouldn’t have been acceptable 4. This is more than just our jobs. It’s everybody’s jobs and the planet 5. We can *win*

Weird that it cost a TV production company £20k to license my books, but this company got to do it against my will and the will of my publisher for an order of magnitude less. And only *maybe* pay up because they settled out of court.

I think all companies should be worker-owned and run. The employees should vote every year or two for a new CEO, and candidates should include anyone who's worked at the company for at least three years. The CEO should be the person with a plan to keep the company profitable, ethical and humane.

Denmark is poised to grant citizens copyright control over their own faces, voices, and bodies The copyright amendment would give every citizen legal ownership over their physical likeness, allowing them to demand the removal of unauthorized AI-generated content www.myprivacy.blog/denmark-make...

Today I learned that people make sword display stand style storage for walking canes, and a little part of me desperately wants one. The rest of me is aware that storing them upright at grabbing height directly next to my front door is an effective system for my ADHD leaving the house routine.

Attempting to make a lamb stew in miniature... No more than two portions. Maybe even just one if someone is super hungry and used to eating a lot. This feels weird and wrong, because I grew up cooking for four people with healthy appetites and planned leftovers.

It feels as though I maybe slightly leveled up my Korean skills? The nurse called to discuss Michael's schedule next week, which is very full, and I just did the whole conversation taking notes in Korean rather than English. I translated them for Michael afterwards, but the THINKING was in Korean.

I will die on this hill: it isn’t hard to say “at the height of the pandemic” or “at the start of COVID” during a podcast interview. Producers, hosts, don’t let your guests say “during COVID” like this thing is over. Correct them. Ask them to say the sentence again. This is your job.

Just hire humans in the first place, and while you're at it, pay them what they're worth. Among other things, genAI works may or may not be able to be protected intellectual property. Human generated work always is.