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The fight over artificial intelligence is no longer theoretical. It is happening now — inside the Pentagon, inside private companies, and increasingly, in public view. When a technology company refuses to remove security guardrails from systems that could be deployed in warfare, that is not “wokeness.” It is risk management at the highest possible stakes. Artificial intelligence is not a messaging platform or a social media algorithm. In military contexts, it can influence targeting decisions, escalation pathways, and the speed at which life-and-death calls are made. Dismissing safety protocols as ideological posturing misunderstands what is actually at issue. Guardrails exist because AI systems are probabilistic, fallible, and capable of operating at scales humans cannot easily supervise in real time. Removing constraints in the name of efficiency or strength is not toughness — it is recklessness. National security requires seriousness. It requires sober judgment about emerging technologies that could fundamentally alter warfare and global stability. If companies and engineers who understand these systems best are warning about catastrophic misuse, their caution deserves engagement — not ridicule. This is not a culture war. It is a question of whether the most powerful tools humanity has ever built will be deployed with restraint or without it. History will not be kind to leaders who chose speed and political theatrics over prudence and safeguards.

The Pritzker Crime Family Documented Most black voters, JB Pritzker's largest base, are largely unaware that JB Pritzker has done nothing to invest in economically depressed black neighborhoods. They are also unaware that he, like Mayor Lori Lightfoot is a strong advocate of defunding the police, which would have the most negative impact on disenfranchised, high crime black neighborhoods actually creating a climate where violence can escalate instead of be reduced. They are also unaware that also unaware that the mega corporation, Boeing, has left Illinois siting "Pritzker's total economic incompetence is the reason for our departure from Illinois." African Americans, along with most voters, are unaware that though JB Pritzker positions himself as a business entrepreneur, he is actually a billionaire trust fund child born into wealth from his family's Hyatt Hotel owned chain, which, according to author Gus Russo was financed by Chicago mob money. "The origins of the Pritzker family fortune was her grandfather's mob connections when he was a tax attorney for a lot of people in "The Outfit," the Chicago mob, beginning under Al Capone, and continuing through the 1980s. This connection to organized crime was reportedly what financed the creation of Hyatt Hotels by Penny's father. There was no crime involved, but the financial backing came from organized crime, plain and simple. The details are in Gus Russo's 2006 tome Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America's Hidden Power Brokers. Most African Americans who did and likely will vote again are largely unaware of how Penny Pritzker fleeced African Americans. "[Penny]Pritzker’s net worth is listed in Forbes as $1.8 billion, which is one hell of a heavy magic wand in the world of politics. Her wand would have been heavier, and her net worth higher, except that in 2001, the federal government fined her and her family $460 million for the predatory, deceitful, racist tactics and practices of Superior, the bank-and-loan-shark operation she ran on the South Side of Chicago. Superior was the first of the deregulated go-go banks to go bust – at the time, the costliest failure ever. US taxpayers lost nearly half a billion dollars. Superior’s depositors lost millions and poor folk in Sen. Obama’s South Side district lost their homes... Instead of public service, the tradition in the Pritzker family seems focused on economic exploitation of others, skirting the law as much as possible, and shady dealings. There is a strong tradition in the Pritzker family of outright money laundering and offshore tax evasion." " Rick Perlstein's two-part article in The Nation, raised an even more troubling chapter of Pritzker history: the family's connection to Castle Bank of the Bahamas. According to Russo (pages 439 ff.) Castle Bank was the granddaddy of offshore money laundering and tax evasion. Castle Bank was set up in 1964 by former senior Office of Strategic Services officer Paul Helliwell, who had become an important cutout for hiding CIA funds; Morris Kleinman of the Cleveland organized crime family headed by Moe Dalitz; Burton Kanter, a tax attorney for the Pritzkers, and a board member of Hyatt; and Stanford Clinton, a partner in grandpa Pritzker's law firm, and a trustee of the Teamsters Pension Fund, which was an important center of mob finances." ....it turned out that the Pritzkers were the largest depositors in one of the most notorious offshore tax havens ever devised..." This is just some of the documented evidence that demonstrates, far from being an entrepreneur and philanthropist, JB Pritzker is a financial predator with his sights set on the tax payers of Illinois, especially African Americans who are his largest voter base. His moral compass is so messed up that it's surprising he can find his way to the buffet table to gorge his insatiable appetite for gourmet food and fine wines. If you're looking to vote for a gubernatorial candidate who built his criminal empire on the misfortunes of tax-payers and criminal association with mobsters, a man who evades paying income taxes by shielding his vast fortune in off-shore money-laundering banks and multiple shell corporations, and a man who always puts his own interests above those of his constituents, as well as a man who possesses no sense of integrity, you need not look any further than JB Pritzker.

Trump using the military as campaign props during his SOTU address should piss off everyone currently serving in the military and veterans alike. Calling the military "suckers and losers," mocking John McCain being a POW, trying to kill the veterans suicide hotline, cutting veterans homeless funding, and drastic cuts to the VA. He doesn't give 2 fucks about those in our armed services or veterans for that matter. He's a disgrace as our president and has no honor for this cheap stunt. 5 bone spur deferments from Vietnam from a dentist as a favor to his father, Fred Trump. He's the last person in the world I'd want leading our military into any conflict. He has not earned that esteemed honor.

What happened at Woodbridge Senior High School in Virginia is not some isolated school discipline story, it’s a warning flare. Three hundred and twenty-three students were suspended for walking out in protest of the current immigration crackdown. Teenagers. Young American citizens. Kids who looked around at what’s happening in their communities, at ICE activity increasing, at friends living with quiet fear, at families wondering if a knock on the door might change everything, and decided to do the most American thing they could think of: they protested. The school warned them ahead of time. Leave campus and you’ll face consequences. And when hundreds did exactly what a walkout is designed to do, walk out, they were handed three-day suspensions. Three days out of school for saying, in the only language young people sometimes have, “We see this. We don’t agree.” This isn’t just Virginia. From Maryland to Utah, Oklahoma to Texas, students across the country have been walking out in solidarity with immigrant classmates and families. In some states, governors have applauded suspensions. In others, they’ve threatened funding cuts or floated arrests for students deemed “disorderly.” Adults talk about order and discipline while federal enforcement actions escalate in communities where children are simply trying to go to school without fear. Young people are watching their friends worry about deportation. They’re seeing immigration policy play out not as an abstract debate but as lived reality. In places like Woodbridge, where nearly half the population identifies as Hispanic or Latino, this isn’t theoretical. It’s personal. And when something becomes personal, young Americans respond. I have five kids and ten grandkids now, ten, and every word I write is written with their faces in mind. For their safety. For their sanity. For the country they’re going to inherit. They are growing up in an atmosphere where cruelty has too often been rebranded as strength and authoritarian swagger is mistaken for leadership. They see it. They feel it. And they are not as numb as some would like them to be. When students organize peaceful protests, they are not dismantling democracy. They are practicing it. Yes, schools have rules. Yes, administrators enforce policies. But mass suspensions of peaceful protesters send a message beyond discipline. The message is: stay in line. Don’t challenge power. Keep your head down. History tells us that message never holds for long. What it’s going to take to stop the normalization of racism, the spectacle of deportation politics, and the steady erosion of democratic norms is not another exhausted lecture from my generation. It’s going to take young Americans who are about to turn 18, and those right behind them, saying clearly and unapologetically: We are young. We are American citizens. We will be voting. And we are not going to tolerate our friends being treated as collateral damage in someone’s authoritarian fantasy. That isn’t chaos. That’s civic courage. That’s constitutional muscle forming in real time. The older generation has made profound mistakes. We’ve allowed division to become currency. We’ve tolerated language that dehumanizes. We’ve flirted with authoritarian impulses as if they were political strategy. But the next generation doesn’t owe loyalty to our failures. They owe loyalty to the principles this country was supposed to stand for. If they walk out peacefully, speak up, organize, and then show up at the ballot box the minute they’re eligible, that is not the unraveling of America. That is the beginning of its repair. Silence, at this point, is complicity. And these kids are refusing to be complicit. — Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition.

Traduction du post de Discord trouvable ici : https://discord.com/blog/getting-global-age-assurance-right-what-we-got-wrong-and-whats-changing Bien faire les choses avec la vérification de l’âge à l’échelle mondiale : ce que nous avons mal fait et ce qui change Stanislav Vishnevskiy 24 février 2026 J’ai créé Discord parce que je voulais un moyen plus simple de passer du temps avec mes amis en ligne, comme je le faisais en grandissant. C’est toujours vrai aujourd’hui. Quand je termine le travail, je rejoins un salon vocal avec des amis, je regarde l’un d’eux passer des heures à rager sur Baby Steps, ou je lance Arc Raiders et me lie d’amitié avec d’autres joueurs jusqu’à ce qu’il se produise quelque chose d’hilarant et mémorable. Ces moments, ceux que seuls les jeux peuvent offrir, sont la raison d’être de Discord. Alors, lorsque nous avons annoncé nos plans concernant la vérification de l’âge à l’échelle mondiale et que j’ai vu la réaction de notre communauté, je ne l’ai pas lu uniquement en tant que CTO. Je l’ai lu en tant que personne qui utilise Discord tous les jours. Et je veux vous parler directement de ce que nous faisons, pourquoi nous le faisons, et ce que nous changeons suite à vos retours. Là où nous nous sommes trompés Je vais être direct : nous savions que ce déploiement serait controversé. Chaque fois que vous introduisez quelque chose qui touche à l’identité et à la vérification, les gens auront des réactions fortes. Et c’est légitime. Avec le recul, nous aurions dû fournir davantage de détails sur nos intentions et sur le fonctionnement du processus. Dans la façon dont cela a été présenté, beaucoup d’entre vous ont cru que nous exigeons des scans de visage et des téléchargements de pièces d’identité de tout le monde simplement pour utiliser Discord. Ce n’est pas ce qui se passe, mais le fait que tant de personnes le croient montre que nous avons échoué dans notre tâche la plus fondamentale : expliquer clairement ce que nous faisons et pourquoi. C’est notre responsabilité. De plus, beaucoup d’entre vous craignent que ce soit simplement une autre grande entreprise technologique cherchant de nouvelles façons de collecter vos données personnelles. Que nous créions un problème pour justifier des solutions invasives. Je comprends ce scepticisme. Il est mérité, pas seulement envers nous, mais envers toute l’industrie technologique. Mais ce n’est pas ce que nous faisons. Vous demander de nous croire sur parole n’est pas réaliste, et nous le savons. Alors laissez-moi essayer à nouveau, clairement, d’expliquer ce que nous essayons réellement d’accomplir. Ce que nous essayons réellement de faire Notre objectif est simple : maintenir l’expérience Discord complètement inchangée pour la grande majorité des utilisateurs, tout en garantissant une expérience adaptée à l’âge de chacun. Plus de 90 % des utilisateurs n’auront jamais besoin de vérifier leur âge pour continuer à utiliser Discord exactement comme aujourd’hui. Cela repose en partie sur nos systèmes internes de sécurité, qui peuvent déjà déterminer l’âge de nombreux utilisateurs adultes sans aucune action de leur part. Nous publierons la méthodologie utilisée dans un article technique avant le lancement mondial. Nous savons que beaucoup d’entre vous pensent que la bonne solution serait de ne pas faire cela du tout. Nous vous entendons. Nous savons aussi que ces changements ont un poids différent selon les communautés, et que pour certains, les questions de confidentialité et d’identité ne sont pas seulement des préférences, mais des préoccupations de sécurité basées sur des expériences réelles. Nous en sommes conscients, et cela influence directement nos décisions. Nous savons également, après avoir exploité cette plateforme pendant plus de 10 ans, que les adolescents ont besoin de protections réelles. Le nombre d’adolescents sur Discord a considérablement augmenté depuis la pandémie, et ils méritent une expérience adaptée à leur âge. En même temps, nous pensons que les adultes doivent pouvoir avoir accès à une expérience complète sur Discord. Faire les deux de manière responsable signifie mettre en place des protections garantissant que les contenus réservés aux adultes restent dans des espaces adultes. Mais la manière spécifique dont fonctionne la vérification de l’âge (les méthodes de vérification, les exigences de conformité) est dictée par des lois déjà en vigueur au Royaume-Uni et en Australie, le Brésil suivant rapidement, et l’Europe ainsi que plusieurs États américains étant proches de faire de même. En construisant ce système nous-mêmes, nous pouvons montrer aux régulateurs qu’il est possible de vérifier l’âge sans collecter l’identité. Voici ce que cela signifie concrètement : Pour plus de 90 % des utilisateurs, rien ne change. La plupart des utilisateurs n’accèdent jamais à du contenu soumis à restriction d’âge ni ne modifient leurs paramètres de sécurité par défaut. Pour ceux qui le font, nous disposons d’un système interne capable de déterminer votre âge avec précision. Discord utilise déjà des systèmes de sécurité qui détectent les réseaux de spam, empêchent les raids et identifient les abus coordonnés, alimentés par notre moteur de règles (que nous avons récemment rendu open source sous le nom d’Osprey). La détermination de l’âge fonctionne de la même manière, en utilisant les mêmes catégories de signaux liés au compte : l’ancienneté du compte, la présence d’un moyen de paiement, les types de serveurs auxquels vous appartenez et les schémas généraux d’activité. Il ne lit pas vos messages, n’analyse pas vos conversations et n’examine pas le contenu que vous publiez. Nous savons que “faites-nous confiance” ne suffit pas, c’est pourquoi nous publierons la méthodologie avant le lancement mondial. Si vous faites partie des moins de 10 % d’utilisateurs devant vérifier leur âge, nous vous donnerons des options, conçues pour connaître uniquement votre âge, jamais votre identité. Et si vous choisissez de ne pas vérifier, voici exactement ce qui se passe : vous conservez votre compte, vos serveurs, votre liste d’amis, vos messages privés et le chat vocal. La seule chose qui change est que vous ne pourrez pas accéder aux contenus soumis à restriction d’âge ni modifier certains paramètres de sécurité destinés à protéger les adolescents. Rien d’autre ne change dans votre expérience Discord. Votre tranche d’âge reste privée. Aucun autre utilisateur Discord ne peut la voir Transparence concernant nos partenariats Pour une petite minorité d’utilisateurs qui souhaitent accéder à du contenu soumis à restriction d’âge et pour lesquels nos systèmes internes ne peuvent pas confirmer que vous êtes adulte, nous devons proposer des alternatives. Afin de maintenir une séparation entre Discord et vos informations personnelles, nous travaillons avec des fournisseurs tiers qui effectuent la vérification et ne nous transmettent que votre tranche d’âge. L’idée est simple : nous ne voulons pas savoir qui vous êtes. Nous avons seulement besoin de savoir si vous êtes adulte. Et cela fonctionne dans les deux sens : un fournisseur n’a aucun moyen d’associer votre identité à votre compte Discord non plus. C’est intentionnel. Nous savons que beaucoup d’entre vous sont sceptiques quant à la manière dont nous gérons nos partenariats, et l’incident de sécurité de l’an dernier impliquant notre prestataire tiers de service client ne fait que renforcer ce scepticisme. Pour être clair, nous n’utilisons pas ce fournisseur pour la vérification de l’âge. En fait, nous ne travaillons plus du tout avec lui, et nous avons tiré les leçons de cet incident. Chaque fournisseur avec lequel nous travaillons passe un audit de sécurité et de confidentialité avant son intégration. Cela inclut des limitations contractuelles sur l’utilisation des données, ainsi que des exigences strictes de conservation et de suppression. Les informations soumises pour la vérification de l’âge ne sont conservées que pendant la durée minimale nécessaire, ce qui signifie dans la plupart des cas qu’elles sont supprimées immédiatement. Si un fournisseur ne respecte pas ces exigences, nous ne travaillons pas avec lui. L’un de nos objectifs principaux avec la vérification de l’âge est de vous offrir des options. Dans ce cadre, nous avons évalué plusieurs fournisseurs afin de proposer différentes méthodes de vérification avec lesquelles les utilisateurs sont à l’aise. L’une de ces évaluations concernait Persona, une entreprise utilisée par des plateformes comme Roblox et Reddit. En janvier, nous avons effectué un test limité avec Persona uniquement au Royaume-Uni. Après avoir terminé ce test, nous avons décidé de ne pas poursuivre avec eux et, conformément à notre politique de confidentialité, toutes les données ont été supprimées après la vérification. Nous avons fixé une nouvelle exigence pour tout partenaire proposant une estimation d’âge faciale : elle doit être réalisée entièrement sur l’appareil, ce qui signifie que vos données biométriques ne quittent jamais votre téléphone. Persona ne respectait pas cette exigence. Pour le lancement mondial, nous nous engageons à ce qui suit : Transparence complète concernant les fournisseurs. Nous documenterons chaque fournisseur de vérification avec lequel nous travaillons sur notre site web, y compris leurs pratiques de gestion des données. Vous ne devriez pas avoir à deviner qui traite vos informations. De véritables options dans le produit. Nous proposerons plusieurs fournisseurs de vérification et indiquerons clairement dans le produit qui est chaque fournisseur, quelle méthode il utilise et comment il traite vos données, afin que vous puissiez prendre une décision éclairée quant à l’option avec laquelle vous êtes le plus à l’aise. Comment cela fonctionne dans le monde Dans les pays qui ont déjà adopté des lois sur la vérification de l’âge, comme le Royaume-Uni, l’Australie et le Brésil, la loi peut exiger que les plateformes utilisent des méthodes approuvées comme l’estimation d’âge faciale ou la vérification via une pièce d’identité. Ces lois ne nous permettent pas encore de nous appuyer uniquement sur nos propres systèmes non identifiants. Nous avons déjà déployé la vérification de l’âge au Royaume-Uni et en Australie, et une loi similaire entrera bientôt en vigueur au Brésil. Dans ces régions, tout adulte qui tente d’accéder à du contenu soumis à restriction d’âge devra vérifier son âge via un fournisseur comme k-ID pour y accéder. Nous ne sommes pas la seule plateforme à devoir gérer cela. Dans le reste du monde, plus de 90 % des utilisateurs continueront à utiliser Discord sans jamais voir de demande de vérification de l’âge. Pour certains adultes qui tentent d’accéder à du contenu soumis à restriction d’âge, si nous ne pouvons pas vérifier automatiquement qu’ils sont adultes, il leur sera demandé de vérifier leur âge, mais nous proposerons plusieurs options afin que les utilisateurs puissent choisir celle avec laquelle ils sont le plus à l’aise. C’est le modèle que nous espérons voir adopté dans le reste du monde à mesure que les pays adoptent des lois sur la vérification de l’âge. Ce que nous changeons dès maintenant Nous vous avons entendus, et nous voulons bien faire les choses. Voici ce qui va se passer : Nous reportons le lancement mondial à la seconde moitié de 2026. Là où nous avons des obligations légales, nous continuerons à les respecter, mais nous n’étendrons le déploiement mondial qu’après avoir fait ce qui suit : Ajout de davantage d’options de vérification. Nous avions déjà des alternatives en développement, notamment la vérification par carte bancaire. Nous allons les finaliser et les étendre avant le déploiement mondial afin que vous disposiez de davantage d’options avec lesquelles vous êtes à l’aise. Transparence concernant les fournisseurs. Nous documenterons chaque fournisseur de vérification et ses pratiques sur notre site web, et nous indiquerons clairement dans le produit qui est chaque fournisseur. Nous avons également fixé une nouvelle exigence : tout partenaire proposant une estimation d’âge faciale doit la réaliser entièrement sur l’appareil. S’il ne respecte pas ce critère, nous ne travaillerons pas avec lui. Une nouvelle option de salon spoiler. Nous savons que de nombreuses communautés utilisent des salons soumis à restriction d’âge non pas pour du contenu adulte, mais pour des sujets avec lesquels les utilisateurs préfèrent interagir selon leurs propres conditions : spoilers, politique et discussions plus lourdes. Nous créons une option de salon spoiler dédiée afin que les communautés n’aient pas à imposer une restriction d’âge à leur serveur simplement pour offrir ce choix à leurs membres. Un article technique avant le lancement mondial. Nous publierons un article détaillé expliquant le fonctionnement de nos systèmes automatiques de détermination de l’âge, y compris les catégories de signaux utilisées et les contraintes de confidentialité, afin que vous puissiez évaluer notre approche par vous-mêmes. Des données sur la vérification de l’âge dans nos rapports de transparence. Nous inclurons le nombre d’utilisateurs à qui il a été demandé de vérifier leur âge, les méthodes utilisées et la fréquence à laquelle nos systèmes automatisés ont pu gérer cela sans aucune action de l’utilisateur. Construire la confiance Nous avons fait des erreurs. Je ne vais pas prétendre le contraire. Et je sais que le fait d’être aujourd’hui une entreprise plus importante signifie que nos erreurs ont des conséquences plus grandes et érodent la confiance plus rapidement. Je ne m’attends pas à ce qu’un seul article de blog règle cela. La confiance se construit par des actions dans le temps : tenir nos promesses, reconnaître nos erreurs et vous donner un véritable contrôle sur votre propre expérience. Mais au fond, nous construisons Discord parce que nous l’aimons et que nous l’utilisons nous-mêmes. Notre motivation est simple : nous voulons créer un excellent produit pour nous-mêmes et pour les communautés auxquelles nous appartenons. Cela ne nous dispense pas des exigences plus élevées liées à notre taille ; cela nous motive à les respecter. Nous vous écoutons. Nous allons bien faire les choses. Et lorsque nous déploierons ce système, vous pourrez le constater par vous-mêmes. Stan

WEEK 8 OF 52 • Continue applying to any marketing-related jobs primarily through LinkedIn, Pnet and Indeed. Also use your shortlist of smaller job portals to apply to jobs throughout the week. • Decide if you’re going to continue with hiring a researcher to find recruiters for you. • Decide if it would be a good idea to pay an Upwork subscription to potentially find employment through freelance- and contract work. • Continue using LinkedIn’s search function to find recruiters and recruitment companies. However, don’t prioritise this. • Make a list of freelance personal trainers that would be able to create an exercise plan and meal plan for me. Then create a shortlist, and contact each freelancer on your shortlist to ask for their quotes and compare quotes. __________________________________________ • Update the “Finder” tabletop game based on your notes from last week, and playtest it again while taking notes. Likely do this multiple times. • Playtest the “Suspect” tabletop game’s second main prototype. This likely won’t take long, since it’s just a variation of the main game. • Same as every week, keep a list of any game-related ideas that you have throughout the week. This includes both board games and indie video games.

WEEK 7 OF 52, END OF WEEK This week was a mess to be completely honest, and didn’t have a similar structure as my other weeks this year. On Monday, I organized my plans and goals for the week, and spent the afternoon searching for jobs. Tuesday, I felt very tired and not very mentally well, and decided to take the day off after 11:00 AM to hopefully recharge. Wednesday, I received an email from a marketing company I had been emailing back and forth over the past few weeks, for an internship with them. They moved me a stage further in the application process, and asked that I write a proposal for a hypothetical marketing campaign. And so on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I was working on researching and writing this proposal. Because this week didn’t go as planned, I didn’t actually reach my tasks I planned to do for Week 7. I will be doing those tasks in the following week. https://mega.nz/folder/1k1l3CpK#Ahmp1ai9kUtAO288O1qmNg

I’m fortunate to interview or edit the interviews of many ex-Premier League players in my day job. Almost all of them explain Benjamin Sesko and his situation as a matter of pressure and managing that pressure. Could it be that the most impressive part of the job Michael Carrick is doing at Manchester United at present, and the achievement that may have the greatest long-term benefit, is the restraint he is showing in not starting Sesko? Perhaps that sounds absurd. United spent a fortune on him in the summer to replace Rasmus Hojlund as the senior squad’s only true number nine. Sesko is scoring goals at last. Increasingly good goals too. He doesn’t start though. Carrick has stubbornly stuck to the same starting line ups as much as injuries allow. Patrick Dorgu, you are missed. It is a testament to Sesko that a role on the subs bench is not blunting his enthusiasm or impact. He is currently the quintessential game-changer. You can argue United couldn’t press from the front as they have done under Carrick with Sesko in place of Bryan Mbeumo. He demands a different kind of approach, although despite his height he is yet to look like the lightning rod you’d expect to attract and attack crosses. Sesko famously treats Zlatan Ibrahimovic as his role model but while he lacks the flair and presence and physicality of Zlatan he is similarly tall and broad while preferring the ball at his feet. He loves to mix in a few little feints and ornamental touches to indulge those who seek details. I had many doubts over Hojlund. I have zero doubts over Sesko. Come next season I expect him to be first choice, leading the line, and I think that will be down to Carrick whether or not he remains as manager. His unwillingness to let Sesko loose, retaining a tension between his impact off the bench and his increasing worthiness to start, is building a certain sort of focus, freed from the weight of the shirt. Expectations have shifted already. Sesko is now ahead of the narrative about United’s troubles with their number nines. The talk is of how much better they can look with him on the pitch. It’s the older or at least more established players who are starting who have to step up to the pressure of performing and delivering to justify themselves. Sesko arrives as the answer, not another question, and he looks more convincing with every game at present. He doesn’t put every chance away of course but gone is the fatalism over woodwork hit or chances skied. Carrick is giving Sesko just enough and Sesko is now contributing a fair bit more than that in return. He’ll grow into a player no longer seemingly so brittle in confidence as to need to be kept from the cold opens of the Premier League, although I’m sure he will have always argued he’s never needed such treatment.

There is a time and a place for Viktor Gyokeres. Or more accurately, there’s a time for Viktor Gyokeres and a place he needs his teammates to be in. Against Tottenham Hotspur was the time. Eberechi Eze and Arsenal put themselves in the right place. Suddenly Gyokeres had players close by to him. No longer was he left up front and isolated from support, expected to fend for himself. That’s not his game. That will never be his game. We see big strikers and we assume things. Perceptions over what Romelu Lukaku should or could be over what he is are an instructive parallel to draw here. From early on, the Belgian was tagged as the next Didier Drogba due to his size, which saw him profiled as a centre-forward who would pin defenders back and dominate the final third, especially when he followed in the footsteps of Drogba to join Chelsea. Yet like Gyokeres, that wasn’t Lukaku’s game. Lukaku and Gyokeres are both more like poachers than target men. You want them running into the box, not playing with their backs to goal. When you play them like target men, their flaws become all too obvious. Both players have been mocked for looking like they play football wearing jeans. However, if you lean into their strengths, both strikers can score goals as their records show. You just need to let them play on the run. Let others have the ball. You want a player like Gyokeres or Lukaku to be on the end of a pass into the final third, not laying up balls for other players to run on to. To be frank, neither Gyokeres nor Lukaku or other players of their ilk are good enough to play the role of the complete centre-forward. They are limited specialists not virtuoso all-rounders. Tools on the Swiss Army knife rather the Swiss Army knife themselves. And if you work with that reality rather than against it then that’s ok. A club like Arsenal can afford to spend big money on a player who merely fills a niche rather than the solution to every problem up front. For every season where Mikel Arteta’s team has fallen short so far, the club have been admonished for having lacked a more basic, concentrated goal threat to put chances away. In Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz, Arsenal already have a pair of renaissance men who can do it all. What they needed was something rather more medieval. Enter Gyokeres, a big, dumb, destructive siege weapon to launch boulders at the club’s enemies when cleverness and choreography could not win the day. The key is what you deploy around him. Arsenal’s big win over Tottenham showed they might finally have an inkling over how to make Gyokeres into a weapon instead of remaining a weakness. Get close to him and suddenly his ropey touch, clumsy approach play and unexpected timidness to go it alone on solo runs to find passes he fears may never come melt away. With Eze floating behind him, and the likes of Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka buzzing about in his peripheral vision, he became a forward confident in his purpose. His job was stripped back, simplified and clarified, and that’s how you make sense of Viktor Gyokeres. That’s how a man who can’t do it all can be a man who wins it all.

The Lesson Of The Potato All plants are alive. Some of the most horribly deluded amongst the souls trapped here in hell return to face their selfish failures as potatoes. Born in smothering darkness, with their umbilicus reminding them for half of their existence touching the grave that they have been denied sunlight on their skin. Because of this, most grow bulbous and misshapen, purest representations of what they truly are and will be over and over, tortured repeatedly for their consuming sins by the machine God that keeps the vermin here from overflowing the celestial sewers and infecting the streets of real civilization with their inward obsessed greed and blindness borne from sewing their eyes shut. Potatoes have many eyes, cyclopean stares from every face of their polygonal bodies. It is all they can do but stare lidless in agony. It is this transference that occurs when they are eaten by both humans and human-shaped monsters alike - being almost nothing but starch, their consumption grants only temporary reprieve from the desire to consume more living things, their sugars only providing what they were briefly before their present fate - lies. Dishonesty is truly the worst sin. I am reminded of this personally today. The two people I am temporarily living with lie with every breath they exhale. Their entire existence they have lied at every selfish opportunity to hurt others. They will live their entire lives, which will be dramatically shortened because of their refusal to even attempt to understand the world around them, deliberately hurting others for what they perceive to be their gain. There are so many potatoes. There have been so many potatoes. There will be so many potatoes. You can choose to heed this lesson or not. Most likely, you won't. You have blocked out truth your entire lives. You cannot be shielded from the truth. Pretending it doesn't exist will always hurt you. Dishonesty is truly the worst sin possible.

This Pulsing Crimson Arrow From the creepiest of all social networks, LinkedIn, which your not-so-humble prophet has been awarded a meritorious public service badge for being banned from (was it something I said?). As per usual, my published responses are denoted offset with [brackets]. ***** Children should not have access to social media period. [How does one define a child? I have met dozens of people dying in nursing homes that in nearly a century did not progress past an infant's mentality - believing everything they saw to be their property, including people, to destroy and dispose of while grasping for more. I declared self-awareness as an adult at age 12. If I had been allowed to get a job and move out of my parents' home at that point it would have allowed me a far safer environment in which to grow. I was just as capable of flipping burgers at Wendy's then as I was at 15, when I moved into the car I bought. My first apartment was a few days after my 17th birthday. At 47, this is even more the decision I support. Adulthood is achieved through learning, not by surviving through a certain number of moon phases. Isolation from reality offers a very limited scope of education.] Mint Rain don't do semantics [I've been thinking about this all day. It took some hours to clear out and refine which of the multitude of responses that immediately sprang into existence would be most appropriate. 'don't do semantics' is a bizarre and disappointing order to see given. An imperative issued without authority to not make any attempt at all to understand the information communicated by another human being. Mandating that thought be eliminated is the plot of Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, 1984. ] Mint Rain provides no pictures or information at all about themselves on their LinkedIn profile. They have six followers. Scrolling down their list of posts, I see none original, although I did not continue until the end/beginning of their feed. It is difficult to envision this account as belonging to an actual living entity. A high percentage of the reposts are true, factual, very basic informative reminders that would result in the physical maintenance of a human body - what is insulin? what is cardiac arrest? what is lidocaine toxicity? ....high blood pressure? ....iron deficiency? There are the most generic and bland positive mindset encouragements. There are also lots of call-to-action reposts that unanimously portray institutionalized healthcare providers and their collaborating stakeholders in unquestioned positive glowing light. Filling out the rest of the list are generic, non-denominational Christian advertisements suggesting college students in New York attend First Love Bible Study. One displays a picture of what is supposedly overflowing city trash cans, but instead of fast-food wrappers and disposable plastic water bottles it showcases what is obviously the total material possessions of several unhoused persons that have been robbed under threat of imprisonment by the paid thugs with guns accompanying city sanitation workers. The headline tries and fails to convince the reader that 'the residents here' successfully turned this mess (supposedly trash cans neglected by public works employees and in insufficient number, as the municipal board responsible for these was incompetent and has no oversight committee) into a "green oasis" - large planter boxes around the refuse receptacles that are holding minimal, decorative foliage (grass the height of weeds) and blocking extensive sections of the public sidewalk from use by pedestrians or anyone who may be exhausted and want to lie down on a blanket in a pup tent. Another is more subtle in its underlying message. The Treetops Collective in Grand Rapids, Michigan - a state I have spent years now reporting the rampant white supremacist scourge infecting and multiplying in its avenues and townships - is an 'innovative and transformative program' (this is the best way to play to the algorithm, using keywords pertaining directly to unrestricted business growth) establishing 'intentional deep relationships in the immigrant and refugee communities, allowing us to stand in the gap between their needs and the services that exist in Grand Rapids.' The body of the faux-article repetitiously uses phrases like mental health, support groups, refugees and their children and families. It is not, however, addressed or speaking to anyone who is not a US citizen, as it is asking for support to train a nationwide network (a very LinkedIn term) of urgently-needed staff who are oh-so-brave but overwhelmed and completely incapable of using a cellphone's search browser to find answers to their specific questions in an almost immediate amount of time. Perhaps they were unavoidably duped by Mint Rain's ban on logical reasoning and one of the most fundamental of all areas of knowledge - semantics. Imagine this sentence was an arrow, bright red and flashing, pointing upwards on the page to the previous paragraph. This may assist the reader in noting and remembering the concept put forth therein - once upon a time there was a person who realized that if a human being was breathing, it was lying. This epiphany drove him to verify information until his high personal standards of validity were verified. Questions common in this never-ending and enriching pursuit included, but were not limited to: Who is presenting this data? Why? Which statements included are facts and which are opinions? Are those deemed facts supported with annotated sources? If checked, are those sources valid? Do they stem from the same party or parties that is presenting the data being analyzed? Who benefits if this data is deemed true? Why? Has altruism ever existed or is it a fantastical fictional myth? 'don't do semantics'. What an insult to any and everyone. Whether Mint Rain was an actual person or an employee managing dozens of social media accounts for the purpose of attempting to influence public opinion, it is clear that logical reasoning and even the slightest ability to communicate with others - which is a two-way process potentially benefitting all parties involved - is the enemy and antithesis of their methods and goals. In response to what I had written, it is nonsensical, even more so than it already is. I offered detailed personal experience reinforced with observations accumulated from nearly half a century. The points made are open to debate in a largely populated forum. But Mint Rain displays for the community everything they have to offer - a feigning of authority by a lonely child with no ideas to contribute to assist in the furtherance of the issue. Just like a child trying desperately to impress, a term is employed that it heard the adults use on a late-night television show. Obviously, since M Rain has no clue what 'semantics' means, then neither could anyone else. A horrifying statement reflecting on their personal habits and an insight as to exactly how lazy they insist the world outside of their skin is - this is an online platform, only accessible with devices that can define unfamiliar words with nearly zero effort. Free will and reasoning is what defines us as human beings. No one that identifies themselves as an individual will ever be persuaded by advertisements, music, or any other type of media to give up their logical thinking abilities. Critical evaluation techniques are the only other lesson besides fluent communication skills that a student needs. With a foundation of these two aptitudes the future is theirs to forge. To judge someone by age instead of demonstrated abilities is just as damaging and limiting as discrimination on the basis of gender or location of where one's parents had sex. Let's make this perfectly crystalline: no matter how many times information is repeated in one's presence, it still doesn't change lies to truth or right from wrong. Avenues in every city are overflowing with hypocrites and psychopaths on the parade. Entitled children choosing to spend their time on Earth making profit from the suffering of others, instead of working together as a community to address problems and speed progress toward solutions. One must beware of those who speak in approved soundbites and cliches instead of offering original insights and ideas. They are pawns, and expendable to their masters. This undeserved arrogance is fortunate for the Good Peoples of the Earth. Our enemies are not hiding but wearing garish costumes in the sun. A scenario Americans have taken advantage of before. The phrase 'liberal agenda' is one that the 67-year-old infant in Lake Orion, Michigan mentioned above uses every paragraph indention, imitating the speech patterns and drug addictions of Rush Limbaugh. A 'ranking member' and financier of one of the state's twenty-two racist hate groups, who has gone so far as to pay several online background check services to state that he is of Greek or Italian parentage - hilariously forgetting to capitalize 'western european' on one site, as if anyone who has ever looked at a map believes Greece and Italy are in Western Europe. (His father is Hispanic.) Imagine this sentence is an arrow, bright red and flashing, pointing directly at those who seek to disrupt independent thought. How ugly and pitiful they are. Weak and cowardly, continuously bullying and dismissing and threatening to divert attention from the fact that they are the problem - always, every time. Be mindful of these parasites spreading disease, or you may also disappear like Patty. There is no evidence she is alive, only repeated attempts to publicly imitate her online by a feeble-minded manipulator who desperately needs me to give up and go away, like everyone always does. Lack of attention span makes you a mark and a target.

Bluesky Directory of tools and applications. This is a list that includes developers' Bluesky-adjacent apps. Since Bluesky is open-source and encourages developers, there are all kinds of cool extra add-on abilities. (My favorite is longer.blue that allows up to a 10K character limit, instead of the Bluesky limit of 300 characters to a post.) https://bsky.app/profile/tellmejeff.bsky.social/post/3lgj7upknax2y Most Bluesky-adjacent apps ask for your username and a password. Do NOT use your Bluesky password. Bluesky has a feature to create an app password that limits what an app can do inside your account. https://bsky.app/profile/loveree.bsky.social/post/3lib74do5a22e

FB - U.S. Democratic Socialists HUGE BREAKING: A CIA agent leaked that a decision on Iran has been made - Trump will start a war with Iran either Monday or Tuesday. This is according to whistleblower and former CIA agent John Kiriakou, who said he got the information from a friend visiting the White House, who immediately called Kiriakou after the visit. Kiriakou: The president gave the Iranians 10 days to accept our proposals for an end to their ballistic missile program... But he's done this before. He'll give you 10 days, he'll give you two weeks and then he'll just attack two days into it. He thinks that that keeps people off balance. So he said that there are battle lines, that the anti-war forces are J.D. Vance and Tulsi Gabbard. That's it. He said that the pro-war people are led by Marco Rubio and include Pete Hegseth and now the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I stopped him on that point and I said, "Wait a minute. At the start of the Iraq War, the most stridently anti-war component was the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They were always the last ones that wanted to attack because they know what war is." And he said, "Ah, but you forget. Trump has replaced all of the Joint Chiefs this year, in the past 12 months," which I had forgotten. Many of these four-star generals who had worked their way up through the ranks but had served under Biden, he fired all of them. All of them. And he promoted people that he knew would be politically loyal. Is this to distract from the current scandal? Probably in part, yeah.

Katsuki sighed deeply. Another long day full of paperwork, petitions, gripes, financial allocations and longwinded speeches about crop rotations. He was glad Deku was shouldering at least parts of it, but as long as he was king, he would take a certain amount of interest in everything himself. He wasn’t just going to stamp his name on something he didn’t know at least the minimum of detail about. But sometimes he really wished he had the possibility to lay it down, if even for just a moment. 20 Years on the throne and the crown weighed heavier than ever. “We have most of the things underway that we need for the new crop allocation system, so we should be able to finalize it by tomorrow…” Katsuki started to tune Deku out. He couldn’t take in any more, he just wanted to lie down somewhere… His head turned as they walked past the courtyard. A few knights were sparring with wooden swords. Katsuki stopped in his tracks. He barely noticed that Deku had walked ahead of him, or that he stopped talking. Because all his focus was on 𝘩𝘪𝘮. A young knight, by the looks of it. His red hair shone in the afternoon sun, glittering like freshly spilled blood. Katsuki wasn’t sure if it was the way he moved or the wide grin on his face as he beat his opponent without fail. Maybe it was the way his muscles rippled under that tan skin. “…go. King Bakugo. 𝘒𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯!” Katsuki blinked and turned around to see Deku roll his eyes. “The fu- you haven’t called me that in ages, you stupid nerd,” he grumbled and Deku laughed. “Yeah, well, you were miles away.” He looked down into the courtyard thoughtfully. “His name’s Kirishima Eijirou. He joined last week, but Captain Taishiro already spoke about a possible promotion. He is apparently very capable.” Katsuki could feel his face heat up. Was he 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 fucking obvious? “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he grumbled and Deku sighed. “Sure. Just… make sure you talk to the Queen first. You know how she gets when you keep these things from her.” Katsuki turned away and stomped off without another word. Yeah, he fucking knew how his wife would get. She would start pouting and scolding him for not confiding in her and asking for her help. And then she would say that he should find someone who could stay with him longer than just a night. Their marriage, like so many other things, had been arranged. And Katsuki had opened up to her as soon as they entered their wedding chamber. About the fact that he did not enjoy the company of women. About the fact that he would still have to lie with her, at least a few times, because the kingdom needed an heir and there was nothing he could do about that. She had listened and then gently replied that she had no problems with him taking lovers – so long as he allowed her the same. He had hesitated for a moment, and Momo’s eyes had narrowed. “There needs… to be clarity that the children are mine.” He finally said, quietly. He would not put his kingdom and his children in danger by having rumors of bastards circulate. Her face had softened then. “You won’t have to worry about that.” She said, smiling. “It turns out, I enjoy the company of women enough for the both of us.” He had agreed, then. Their few nights together had been awkward, stilted and a lot of work for Katsuki to stay hard enough for long enough. It took nearly half a year, before Momos monthly blood didn’t come. Nine months later, Kana was born. And no matter what their relationship was, no matter that they were not in love like husband and wife should, Katsuki would not have changed a thing. Kana was his sunshine, his treasure, the most beautiful child in the world. They needed to do the song and dance one more time, an heir and a spare, as painful as these words were. But Katsuki knew too much history, if anything should happen to Kana and there was no heir, the kingdom might fall into civil war upon his death. Of course, he did 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 he could to keep her and her brother Tomo safe. They were the apple of his eye, his reason for living. He was also liked Jirou, a bard his wife had grown exceedingly fond of and who spent the night in her chamber more often than not. She was a quiet soul, but Katsuki enjoyed the way she played. He himself had taken lovers over the years, but rarely for more than one night or two. His libido was one thing, but his heart was… difficult. He could not easily give his trust, too much weighed on his shoulders. Too much was at risk, should someone talk. He made sure to compensate any and all companions he had generously but also made it clear that the wrong word in the wrong ear would have very dire consequences. And now this young knight… barely old enough to call himself a man, from the looks of it. He wasn’t right for Katsuki. He was too young, too innocent. Nothing good would come from it. Katsuki’s resolve was sorely tested though. Wherever he went, the knight seemed to be. Stationed as a guard in the throne room, patrolling the castle walls when Katsuki went up there to catch a breather, or even just randomly walking past in the halls. Each and every time, Kirishima bowed low, greeting him with the respect he commanded. And yet… there was something cheeky in his voice. Barely there, not enough for Katsuki to be sure he wasn’t imagining it. Just enough to wonder. And maybe just enough to want to see how far the boy would go. “Deku, call Captain Taishiro here.” He said, interrupting his right hand in one of his longwinded speeches. Deku gaped like a fish for a moment, then blinked. “Captain… Taishiro?” he echoed, sounding confused. Katsuki rolled his eyes. “Did I stutter? Call him here, I wish to discuss something with him.” Deku blinked once more, then nodded and tugged on a small cord. Not five minutes later, a runner stood in the door, bowing low. “Go and tell Captain Taishiro the King requests his presence.” Deku said and the runner nodded and was off. Silence stretched between them. “Soooo…” Deku began and Katsuki glared at him. Deku swallowed and nodded but didn’t say anything else. They sat in that uncomfortable silence for nearly fifteen minutes, because Katsuki refused to be the one to break first. Then a knock sounded on the door and Taishiro entered. “My liege, you asked to see me?” he said, going down on one knee, bowing his head. Katsuki nodded. “Yes. You may stand.” He eyed the big man. “Say, captain… what do you think about the new recruit, Kirishima?” Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Deku shifting. Whatever. The Captain blinked. “Oh, Kirishima? Rarely had such a bright one, your majesty, truly! Soaks up every lesson like a sponge, works hard to improve himself and everyone already loves him.” The captain laughed, full bellied. “He’s got that easy charm, you know. Ah, youth…” Katsuki’s eyes twitched. “I see. I want him on my personal security force from tomorrow onward.” The Captain blinked and opened his mouth, but one look from Katsuki made him think twice about whatever he was about to say. Deku sighed quietly. “O-Of course, your majesty. I’ll inform him immediately.” Taishiro recovered remarkably well and Katsuki nodded. “Send him to my chambers this evening, I wish to discuss the details in person.” With that he waved. “You are dismissed.” The Captain bowed and left. The Silence returned. “If you say a goddamn word…” Deku just raised his brows at him but shrugged. “Only what I said before. Tell the Queen.” Katsuki groaned. That evening, he listened with a heavy heart to his daughter talking about a young man she was quite obviously very fond of. The boy was kitchen staff. And Katsuki’s heart burned with pain as he thought of the letters addressed to young noble men of the kingdom that he would go over with her soon. Young men of standing, that would prove advantageous. That would rule beside her as Queen consort when she took the throne. She knew, of course she knew. He could see it in her eyes, that small hint of sadness, that had already settled. She was already aware that unless she was very lucky, she would not get to marry someone she loved. Tomo would have it easier. The weight on his shoulders was not nearly as heavy, though if he decided to marry a kitchen maid, there would have to be careful preparations. For now, he was being fostered by Lord Shoto Todoroki and old friend and battle brother of Katsuki’s. He had been there for half a year already and although Katsuki missed him dearly, he knew it was good for the boy to get out from under the castle’s shadow. He kissed Kana gently on the forehead as she departed to her room, and he could see that sadness settle deeper and wished there was something more he could do for her. An hour later, a knock sounded at his door. “Come in.” The door opened and the young knight stepped inside. He closed the door, then stood straight, arms behind his back, bowing stiffly at the waist. “Thank you, your highness for this immense opportunity. I promise I will do everything in power to keep you safe and satisfied.” Katsuki raised his head. 𝘚𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘥? Had it just been a slip of the tongue? Or something… more? “Raise your head,” he said and Kirishima did. He really was beautiful. Fresh faced, with fiery eyes, similar in color to Katsuki’s own. There was a small scar over his right brow. “Hmmm… Tell me, Kirishima, where do you come from? How did you come to be here, in my service?” Kirishima blushed. “I’m from a very minor house near Westwood, my lord. My father has five sons, so of course, things were getting difficult… I am the youngest, so I knew I had to find my own fortune, one way or another. And I’ve always been strong, even if I’m not very smart, so I thought being a knight would suit me…” his flush turned deeper. Katsuki was intrigued.

Occupy Democrats · BREAKING: Trump administration strips Social Security benefits from a Black American cancer patient by claiming that she is “not lawfully present in the U.S.” This is what Trump’s intentional cruelty looks like in 2026. Ramona Rakestraw, 59, was born at Parkland Hospital in Dallas in 1966. She has never left Dallas County — not for vacation, not for work, not for anything. And yet somehow, the federal government has decided she is “not lawfully present in the U.S.” Her crime? Existing while sick. Rakestraw has battled kidney disease for decades. She endured a transplant. She returned to dialysis. In 2024, she was diagnosed with cancer. Through it all, she survived on Supplemental Security Income — her only source of income — and Medicare Part B. Then in October, the payments stopped. Why? Because her “immigration status” was suddenly under review. “I’m not an immigrant,” she said. “I’ve never even left Dallas County — let alone the country.” Let that sink in. A lifelong Texan. Born in an American hospital. Fighting cancer. Forced to march down to a Social Security office with her birth certificate in hand to prove she belongs in the country where she was born. And still, she received a letter stating: “We cannot pay you benefits because you are not lawfully present in the U.S.” This is the human cost of a system so obsessed with rooting out “illegals” that it can’t tell the difference between a Dallas native and a border crossing. Her Medicare was eventually restored. Her SSI — her only income — was not. Now she’s appealing, drowning in paperwork while undergoing dialysis and cancer treatment. Sixty days to fight a bureaucratic accusation that should never have happened. This isn’t about paperwork errors. It’s about a government climate that treats citizenship as suspect and vulnerable Americans as disposable. Ramona Rakestraw isn’t asking for special treatment. She’s asking for the benefits she’s legally entitled to — the benefits she paid into with a lifetime of perfectly legal existence in this country. Born in Dallas. Fighting for her life. And now forced to fight her own government just to survive. That’s not just incompetence. That’s a system that’s lost its humanity. Please like and share this sad story!

Hello, I have received many questions about this law (thousands), so I will take the liberty of sending you the same answer as to others. If you still have specific questions that you feel remain unanswered, please let me know. In this mandate, I am the shadow Rapporteur for the proposal; in the previous mandate, it was my German colleague Patrick Breyer, who actually coined the term “ChatControl”. And I’m glad that the term lives on. The news has been circulating already. After a surprising U-turn, the Danes decided to give up on mandatory detection orders, which were the core issue of the proposal. Now, the Council has agreed on a new mandate where the Danes set a few principles: an indefinite extension of the current voluntary regime, voluntary detection as part of mitigation measures and age verification that could lead to the exclusion of young people from core apps such as social media, chat apps, games etc. I was part of the MEPs who fiercely opposed the current ChatControl regime of untargeted voluntary scanning of private communications which is broad in its scope as it includes many types of content (metadata, URLs, text, images, etc.). It is not only disproportionate and inefficient but also dystopian. I will keep opposing any indiscriminate surveillance attempts, mandatory or not. Regarding age verification, I have been working on this topic also in other contexts. And I can tell that I remain firmly against any generalisation of age verification that would effectively prevent young people from accessing core internet services but also indiscriminately lead to the identification of anyone using these services. There is a glimpse of hope: the negotiations are now starting and the Council will need to negotiate with us in the European Parliament. The Parliament’s mandate is very targeted and protects encryption, ensuring that our fundamental rights are safe. I will do my best to secure key safeguards if the negotiations happen, making sure that my colleagues in the Parliament stick to their principles. Nevertheless, I appreciate your message and that you care about and are concerned about privacy. Please, keep being interested. These proposals are thrown out the door and keep coming back through the window. Only thanks to people’s resistance can this still be stopped. Best, Markéta Gregorová

i just dreamed of deltarune for the first time, and for a month havent played the game nor watched any utdr content it was about "unused" content but i cant find any of it online maybe it's something toby is working on and god put it in my brain? keep this as a possibility that might be released in any future chapters but the "unused" content in ch3 that i saw in my dream was of 2 repeating cutscenes one where tenna pushes off a bigger tenna head and one where theres a sprited tv showing a mp4 cutscene of just the bg noise and echoes of tennas voice and it's only distinguishable once it gets to the end where tenna says "my evil twin brother!!!!" (!!!! means he said it in a excited way, not angry, not sad, no other emotion, just excited sounding) and then i woke up if this isnt something fanmade or not JUST a dream, toby might actually work on that, who knows? it's not like... a normal dream that i be having, it's out of the blue, not related to anything recent.. tbh if it pops up in ch5 or ch6 it would be funny, also im not creative at all, so the fact that my brain cooked this up is crazy to me and still unbelievable lmao, all while i had the sniffles and stomach ache overnight, im ok now, but it's kinda funny how toby had a sick dream of deltarune aswell i think that big tenna head was tennas evil twin brother in my dream, completely identical but one is x4 the size

Out of curiosity, I searched for General Strike pages on FB. I found 21 in the U.S. with a total combined membership of 52,273 members. They range in size from 2 members to 24,000 in one group. IMHO, therein lies the problem. There are so many people calling for a general strike without doing the work necessary for it to have any success. I am aware of only one coalition of 28 groups who doing the work, General Strike US(GSUS). If you another, let me know. A "failed general strike" is a gift to the opposition. Crushed Momentum: A strike that ends in a whimper because everyone had to go back to work out of hunger makes the workforce feel powerless. Strengthening the Opponent: If an employer or government weathers an unplanned strike easily, they realize they don't actually have to negotiate, leading to harsher conditions later. A general strike is one of the most powerful tools in the labor arsenal, but it’s also one of the most difficult to execute. It isn't just a large protest; it is the total withdrawal of labor across multiple industries to achieve a political or economic goal. For a general strike to move from a "day of action" to a successful leverage point, the following elements are typically required: 1. Mass Participation and "Critical Mass" A strike fails if only one sector shuts down. Success depends on inter-industry solidarity. Logistics & Transit: If buses, trains, and ports stop, the entire economy freezes. Infrastructure: Power, water, and communications sectors provide the ultimate leverage. Public Support: You need the "passive" consent of the non-striking public so that the government cannot easily turn the population against the movement. 2. Mutual Aid and Strike Funds People cannot strike if they cannot eat. Because general strikes often last indefinitely, a robust support system is mandatory. Strike Funds: Unions must have deep reserves to distribute stipends. Community Kitchens: Establishing networks to provide food and medicine to strikers and their families. Eviction Resistance: Mechanisms to protect strikers from losing their homes during prolonged work stoppages. 3. Unified and Clear Demands Ambiguity is the enemy of a general strike. The movement needs a "North Star" that everyone agrees on. The "Why": Whether it’s a specific wage increase, the resignation of a leader, or the repeal of a law, the goal must be easy to communicate. No Early Exit: Leadership must ensure that one sector doesn't take a "side deal" and go back to work, leaving the others exposed. 4. Alternative Power Structures When the official systems stop running, the strike organizers must be able to manage the chaos. Strike Committees: Local groups that decide which "essential services" (like hospitals) stay open to prevent unnecessary loss of life. Internal Communication: A way to spread information that doesn't rely on state-controlled media or corporate platforms that might be shut down. 5. Escalation and Resilience The state and employers will likely respond with a mix of legal threats, police action, or "scab" labor. Picket Line Integrity: Preventing the use of replacement workers. Psychological Endurance: Preparing the workforce for the fact that things will likely get harder before they get better.

Rep. Adam Smith: TSA workers, the Coast Guard, FEMA, these agencies protect Americans every single day, and they should not have to suffer through this. I don't support holding them hostage. The administration already has the money to keep those services running. In the short term, President Trump can mitigate the damage and use the excess money in the reconciliation bill for the Coast Guard and TSA right now. I think he should. But we also need real reforms to ICE. We simply want the basic rights of the American people to be respected during immigration enforcement.

I figured I actually need to do these write-ups, because I literally forget everything. I tested the Lessons v UB Demons matchup like three days ago, and I have no idea how it went. Today, I tested possbily the most important matchup in current Standard. Lessons vs Landfall. Going in, I thought Lessons would be small favorite, but now I think it's the other way around. Obviously lot will depend on the exact decklist configuration of each deck, and sideboarding seems hard from the Landfall side. Shoutout my opponent Leo Almeida who spanked me today, I like his idea of trimming Nursery, and going under! From Lessons side, I value Flashfreeze as the strongest card. The gameplan for Lessons is simple - trade 1 for 1, and eventually win with Acummulated Wisdom. This is easier said than done because sometimes the answer just don't line up well. Or you don't find the Wisdom early enough, and you stabilize at low life total, and to Ba Sing Se. Or your graveyard gets mettled with and Wisdom is just anticipate. Flashfreeze helps with the answers lining up issue as it's clear answer for basically everything. The more I play with Lessons, the more I like the sideboard threats. In this matchup Riddler felt great as a substitute for Wisdom. Ral felt slightly worse, but also acceptable. Wan Shi Tong was weirdly mediocre? It just has such a small impact on the board, but I'd like to play with it more. Monument feels weak against these decks, at least on the draw having it early feels like a mulligan, and I was trimming it down to one copy at some points. I still like Lessons, but in this metagame where Landfall and UG Cub slowly reappear as top decks, it might be time to give it a break. The meta should eventually cycle into anti-Cub decks again. I'll wait for this weekend's results but if my prediction is right and those Green decks will do well this weekend, I'd like to find a deck for the EU RC that beats both of them. Bant comeback maybe??? I did post my recommended Lessons guide, and I've also started posting more frequently on Youtube - any feedback appreciated! Limited PT Qualifiers tomorrow! Can't wait.

⛳️ Riviera Viewing Guide: -No. 1, 503 yds: Baby short par-5, easiest hole on the PGA Tour, iconic elevated tee shot. If you don't birdie it, you're behind. -No. 4, 273 yds: Hardest green to hit in regulation on the entire Tour - and now they've lengthened it 37 yds. -No. 6, 199 yds: Bunker in the middle of the green. Even if you're not in it, you may have to go around it or *over* it. Prime viewing spot. -No. 10, 315 yds: Risk/reward. Best drivable par-4 in golf to a long thin green with runoffs. -No. 12, 479 yds & No. 15, 487 yds: Beastly par-4s. The two hardest holes on the golf course. Bogey's Tree near the 12th green named after actor Humphrey Bogart. -No. 18, 499 yds: Long, steep uphill par-4 lengthened 24 yards. Fantastic viewing spot on a grassy hill ringing the tiny kidney-shaped green. People sit there for hours. Riviera is the best course the golfers will play all year and the best for fans to watch.

THE FULL ITINERARY OF THE Bruce Springsteen #Estreetband LAND OF HOPE AND DREAMS AMERICAN TOUR! March 31 Minneapolis April 3rd Portland April 7th and 9th Los Angeles April 13 San Francisco April 16 Phoenix April 20th Newark April 23 Ft Lauderdale April 26 Austin April 29 Chicago May 2nd Atlanta May 5th Belmont May 8th Philly May 11th MSG May 14th Brooklyn May 16th MSG May 19th Pittsburgh May 22nd Cleveland May 24th Boston May 27th DC

Read this. I urge anyone reading this to urge your admins and group members to join MoveOn as a partner to support the March 28th NO KINGS protest. History is on our side. This is HUGE: On March 28, millions of Americans will rise up for the next No Kings Day of nonviolent action, demonstration, and protest. The flagship event will be in Minneapolis—the heart of the movement against ICE and fascism, where Minnesotans are rising up in resistance after federal agents killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti. MoveOn, hundreds of partners, and thousands of volunteers are actively planning a massive surge of protests, with millions of Americans across the country taking to the streets. It is poised to be the largest day of protest in U.S. history. But bringing together millions of Americans in cities and towns nationwide takes significant resources. We need to train thousands of local organizers, provide materials for protests, ensure safety and security, coordinate across all 50 states, and ensure the protests are covered everywhere in the media. Safety is nonnegotiable. As part of MoveOn’s leadership in organizing No Kings mobilizations, our team works to ensure that every single event host receives training in nonviolence and de-escalation. Our volunteer team works 1-on-1 with event hosts to provide individual support based on their needs. We provide comprehensive toolkits and trainings, offer office hours to support preparation, and run host hotlines on protest days for emergency support. Safety planning and de-escalation training isn't glamorous work, but it's what keeps millions of Americans safe in the streets. And it works. Hosts reported back in October that scenario planning made them ready for the real situations they were faced with on the ground. This work is extremely resource-intensive. And without the funding to scale up our organizing, we risk losing momentum at the very moment when millions of Americans are ready to act. We can't let that happen. This may be the last protest if Trump has his way.

Psalm 23, for Trump Supporters The DON is my shepherd; I shall not question. He maketh me to lie down in misinformation: he leadeth me into fetid waters. He darkens my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of wickedness for his brand’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of truth, I will none of it: for thou art with me; thy bluster and thy minions they comfort me. Thou preparest retribution in the presence of mine enemies: thou coverest my head with foil; my hate runneth over. Surely villainy and lies shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house at Trump Tower, forever.

Sauvegarder une Discussion privée Discord en entier (avec les médias) localement. Installez cette extension de navigateur : https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/discord-history-fetcher/kgnhaamlppmegdhmcginclapndpfkegc (Si vous n'avez pas un navigateur compatible avec les extensions chrome pour que ce soit compatible avec ces extensions au pire installez le navigateur vite fait pour ca et virez le plus tard, ou trouvez un équivalent) Dans un nouvel onglet, connectez vous à la version web de Discord https://discord.com/app A droite vous verrez le panneau de l'extension - Allez dans vos mp dans la conversation que vous souhaitez sauvegarder - A droite changez le chiffre pour 50000 - Cliquez sur Start Crawl et attendez qu'il ai fini Si vous avez plus de 50000 messages avec la personne il faudra faire Start Crawl plusieurs fois d'affilée jusqu'à tout récuperer - Une fois terminé de récupérer, cliquez sur l'onglet Step 2 : export - Changez l'export option sur "HTML (styled)" - Cliquez sur Export Data Selon la longueur de la conversation cela peut prendre plusieurs minutes à préparer, ne fermez pas l'onglet (vous pouvez faire autre chose sur les autres onglets) le téléchargement du zip commencera automatiquement une fois terminé. Le zip comprendra un dossier et un fichier html, vous pourrez dézipper ca dans un dossier et lancer le fichier html avec votre navigateur pour consulter la conversation à votre bon vouloir. IMPORTANT : Au niveau de la sécurité j'ai lu les mentions ils ne gardent pas les archives ni n'envoient aucune donnée à un tier, mais par sécurité une fois tout ca terminé déconnectez complètement vos sessions discord web et application, fermez relancer et reconnectez vous, histoire de rafraichir la sessions Guile - 17/02/26

FALLOUT TIMELINE — BROTHERHOOD OF COPPER (TEXHOMA SAGA) Canon Timeline Covering 2105–2110 and Beyond 🌩️ 2105 — THE COPPER AWAKENING January–March 2105 — Texhoma on the Brink Texhoma, Texas/Oklahoma border town, struggles with raiders, storms, and failing infrastructure. Rumors persist of strange vibrations beneath the city — the dormant Copper Order Facility. April 2105 — The Copper Storm A massive dust storm strikes Texhoma. Lightning hits the underground facility, reactivating the Copper Grid. Colt Mercer survives the surge and becomes synchronized with the Grid. May 2105 — Descent into the Facility Colt discovers the Copper Order ruins: archives, conduits, dormant armor frames, and fragments of the Copper War Prophecy. June 2105 — The Texhoma Seekers Form Engineers, ranchers, ex‑militia, and refugees rally around Colt. They begin restoring the facility and defending Texhoma. August 2105 — The T‑1 Power Armor Colt rebuilds a rusted experimental frame into the T‑1 Copper Armor, the first copper‑forged suit. September 2105 — First Contact with the Iron Reclaimers A technocratic warband from Oklahoma detects the Grid’s reactivation. Skirmishes begin around Texhoma’s outskirts. December 2105 — Founding of the Brotherhood of Copper After a deadly Reclaimer raid, Colt writes the first Copper Tenets. The Seekers swear their oaths. The Copper Order Facility becomes their headquarters. ⚔️ 2106 — THE FIRST COPPER WAR January 2106 — Texhoma Fortifies The Brotherhood builds defensive lines, copper‑powered barriers, and patrol routes. Spring 2106 — Rise of the Divisions Paladins (heavy infantry) Rangers (recon and scouts) Artificers (engineers and armorers) Archivists (data recovery and Grid interpreters) Summer 2106 — Reclaimer Offensive Reclaimers launch coordinated attacks on Texhoma outposts. Rangers counter‑raid across the border. Fall 2106 — The T‑10A Prototype The first T‑10A Experimental Armor is completed. Oversized pauldrons, reinforced plating, tactical engravings. 🔥 2107 — THE YEAR OF IRON AND COPPER February 2107 — Battle of the Twin Bridges Reclaimers attempt to cross into Texhoma. Colt leads the defense wearing the T‑10A. Heavy casualties, but the Brotherhood holds. June 2107 — Operation Copper Sweep Rangers and Paladins push Reclaimer forces back into Oklahoma. Artificers sabotage Reclaimer supply lines. November 2107 — The Copperhold Project Begins The Brotherhood expands the underground facility into Copperhold, a subterranean fortress‑city. 🏛️ 2108 — THE AGE OF RESTORATION Spring 2108 — Copperhold Opens Training halls, forges, archives, and living quarters come online. Texhoma becomes the safest settlement in the region. Summer 2108 — The Copper Doctrine Colt formalizes the Brotherhood’s long‑term philosophy: Technology must serve life Knowledge must flow Strength must protect The Grid is a responsibility Fall 2108 — The Reclaimer Schism Internal conflict fractures the Iron Reclaimers. A splinter group seeks peace; another seeks revenge. ⚡ 2109 — THE GRID SIGNALS January 2109 — The Unknown Transmission Archivists detect a mysterious Copper Grid signal originating far beyond Texhoma. The signal predates the Great War. May 2109 — The Paladin Corps The first generation of fully trained Paladins graduates. T‑10A suits enter limited deployment. October 2109 — The Reclaimer Super‑Weapon Scouts confirm the Reclaimers are building a massive energy weapon using stolen copper tech. 🌪️ 2110 — THE COPPER WAR IGNITES March 2110 — The Oklahoma Push The Brotherhood launches a campaign to destroy the Reclaimer super‑weapon. Rangers infiltrate deep into enemy territory. July 2110 — The Siege of Iron Mesa The Reclaimers’ stronghold becomes the center of the conflict. Paladins in T‑10A armor lead the assault. December 2110 — The Copper War Cliffhanger The super‑weapon activates. The Grid reacts violently. Colt receives a vision from the Grid — a warning of something far larger than the Reclaimers. The saga ends on a razor’s edge.

A simple truth from Heather Cox Richardson. Richardson emphasizes a simple truth. Institutions are not separate from citizens. Democracies are not self-repairing machines. They depend on participation and engagement. When people step back and assume stability is automatic, erosion begins quietly. Societies rarely collapse in one dramatic explosion. More often, they weaken gradually. Trust thins. Standards shift. Fatigue sets in. Small acts of disengagement accumulate until the damage is undeniable. Yet the future is not written in advance. Unlike those who lived through past crises, we have the benefit of hindsight. We can see where earlier generations hesitated. We can identify moments when different choices might have altered the outcome. That knowledge does not guarantee safety, but it gives us clarity. Inevitability applies only to events that have already occurred. The present is still open. Each era reaches moments that feel uncertain. The difference lies in whether people retreat into the comfort of someone will fix it, or recognize that the system depends on them. History is not a prophecy. It is a record. It shows how societies falter and how they endure. The real question is not whether change is possible. The real question is whether enough people decide to take responsibility for it. ______________________________________________________________________ Are you willing to take responsibility? Are you willing to resist and reject this current administration?

WEEK 7 OF 52 • Continue applying to any marketing-related jobs primarily through LinkedIn, Pnet and Indeed. Also use your shortlist of smaller job portals to apply to jobs throughout the week. • Decide if you’re going to continue with hiring a researcher to find recruiters for you. • Decide if it would be a good idea to pay an Upwork subscription to potentially find employment through freelance- and contract work. • There was a recruitment company that I worked with a few months ago, but didn’t stay in contact with. Message them again to hear if there are any new developments. • Continue using LinkedIn’s search function to find recruiters and recruitment companies. However, don’t prioritise this. • Make a list of freelance personal trainers that would be able to create an exercise plan and meal plan for me. Then create a shortlist, and contact each freelancer on your shortlist to ask for their quotes and compare quotes. • Update the “Finder” tabletop game based on your notes from last week, and playtest it again while taking notes. Likely do this multiple times. • Playtest the “Suspect” tabletop game’s second main prototype. This likely won’t take long, since it’s just a variation of the main game. • Same as every week, keep a list of any game-related ideas that you have throughout the week. This includes both board games and indie video games.

WEEK 6 OF 52, END OF WEEK Below is a list of what I’ve achieved throughout the past week. • Searched but only found 4 jobs to apply to. I’m not sure what happened this week, but there were a lot less jobs available. • Made a shortlist of five researchers that could help me find recruiters. This took a lot longer than I thought, because one of the researchers lives in Canada and only replied during my early morning hours. I’ve been given two quotes and will decide in the following week if I’ll continue with this or not. • Made a list of what I will do to update my CV and LinkedIn profile, based on the advice I received from my friend in the paid media space. I completed each of these tasks throughout the week. • Had multiple long brainstorming sessions for my “Finder” project tabletop game, to develop the idea further. Set up and finished my first playtest of this game, and will be working on a second playtest in the following week. • Finally finished the second prototype for the tabletop game that I was working on in January. https://mega.nz/folder/9gUHTbza#3XWLpZ46l6n5bCzkth87gA

(note de l'auteur, ceci est une copie du post discord que j'ai fait à ma commu) Chèr.e.s camarades, je vous écris aujourd'hui pour vous tenir au courant de ce qui va très probablement se passer à partir de MARS sur ce Discord. C'est certes long, mais vraiment important. (spoil : vous allez vous faire ficher par des gens très dangereux) En Février 2026 Discord a annoncé son experience "Teen-by-default setting" qui vise à "renforcer la sécurité des ados et à fournir des experiences adaptées à l'age" https://discord.com/press-releases/discord-launches-teen-by-default-settings-globally Donc à partir de Mars, tous les nouveaux comptes et certains comptes "qui ont l'air de pas être des comptes d'adultes" vont devoir envoyer une vidéo de leur visage ou une photo de leur carte d'identité à Discord pour valider le fait qu'ils sont bien majeurs En gros si tu as un compte "moins de 18 ans" tu n'as pas accès aux contenus flaggés 18+, ni la possibilité de débloquer certains filtres de contenu dans les paramètres, ni certains réglages de MP. Bref pour protéger nos petits n'enfants dont ils ont rien à foutre en temps normal bien évidemment Pourquoi Mars ? Apparemment pour se conformer aux nouvelles lois Anglaise (Safety act) et Australienne qui imposent que les réseaux sociaux aient des réglages "ado par défaut" qui ne sont déblocables qu'après une vérification d'identité. https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/33362401287959-What-s-Changing-for-UK-and-Australian-Users Pour ce qui est de l'Europe il n'y a pas encore de loi définie, une approche harmonisée de vérification d'âge pour l'application du Digital Services ACT (DSA) et en chantier. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/eu-age-verification Comment vont-ils détecter qui des anciens utilisateur à "l'air mineur", ils sont flou mais en gros on comprend qu'ils prévoient de faire tourner des IA qui vont analyser tout ce que vous racontez pour jauger... Dans tous les cas il n'y a rien qui permette d'affirmer que vous n'allez pas directement vous faire demander votre identité vu la fiabilité de ce qu'ils ont affirmé jusque là... Mais rappelez vous également que nous en France nos génies de l'hémicycle excités par le bon vent sécuritaire qui parcours le monde on fait leur propre version, l'assemblée nationale a adopté en première lecture une loi interdisant l’accès des moins de 15 ans aux réseaux sociaux à compter du 1er septembre 2026 pour les nouveaux comptes et du 1er janvier 2027 pour TOUS les internautes. Donc clairement en France ON VA TOUS Y PASSER faut pas se faire d'illusion. Vous allez me dire "mais si c'est la loi si on va ailleurs, les autres ailleurs vont devoir se conformer à la loi!" Alors oui, MAIS dans le cas de Discord on va s'arranger pour aller quelque part d'autre, où vos infos personnelles, la vidéo de votre tête et/ou votre carte d'identité ne soit pas directement données à des gens extrêmement dangereux. J'explique : Discord avait assuré dans un premier temps que les données personnelles d'identification "ne quitterons pas notre mobile" : ils mentent. Ils disent eux même dans leurs mentions légales qu'ils vont envoyer vos données à PERSONA et que ca va y rester (au moins) 7 jours. https://bsky.app/profile/brujofaolan.bsky.social/post/3meoo4keye22q https://kotaku.com/discord-palantir-peter-thiel-persona-age-verification-2000668951 https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/good-news-uk-discord-users-were-part-of-a-peter-thiel-linked-data-collection-experiment https://ubos.tech/news/discord-uk-age‑verification-experiment-linked-to-peter-thiels-persona-raises-privacy-concerns/ PERSONA, société de vérification d'âge qui a été cofondée par Peter Thiel, allumé complet, pro trump, techno fasciste qui parle de l'antéchrist dans ses discours et qui est souvent décrit comme "un vilain de cartoon IRL". https://bsky.app/profile/exserv.bsky.social/post/3meqct4375k2v Il a également co-fondé... PALANTIR (assez directement lié à PERSONA), la plus grosse boite de surveillance et de récupération de donnée personnelles des USA qui fournit notamment à l'ICE les données pour leur rafles et leur déportations ainsi que la compilation des bases de données des informations privées des citoyens Américains. https://www.pcgamer.com/software/platforms/oh-good-discords-age-verification-rollout-has-ties-to-palantir-co-founder-and-panopticon-architect-peter-thiel/ Donc vraiment là c'est réellement sciemment donner de quoi vous ficher aux PIRES GENS DE CE MONDE dont le métier c'est de ficher les gens. Et ce n'est vraiment pas exagéré de le dire vous avez un peu conscience de ce qui se passe aux USA. Vraiment vos données personnelles c'est pas du tout quelque chose à prendre à la légère. Rappel également que ces "données qui sont stockées temporairement chez un prestataire oui oui tkt" ont tendance a se faire pirater, par exemple... tient pas plus tard qu'octobre dernier un prestataire de Discord qui s'est fait pirater les données perso de 70k utilisateurs Discord : https://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2025/10/10/discord-un-prestataire-du-reseau-social-victime-d-une-importante-fuite-de-donnees_6645628_4408996.html Ayant un peu senti le vent tourner il y a quelques mois déjà j'ai vérifié quelques alternatives à Discord car je me doutais qu'un en aurait peut être besoin un de ces quatre. Des alternative "à la Discord" il y en a quelques unes, Root, Fluxer, Matrix etc mais je me suis arrêté sur Stoat ( anciennement Revolt mais Discord les a apparemment menacé de procès pour la similarité du nom... https://wiki.rvlt.gg/index.php/Rebrand_to_Stoat ) car c'était le seul à remplir tous ces critères de ceux que j'ai testé : - Un interface et une utilisation très inspirée de Discord, un setup simple pour ne pas dérouter/démotiver les gens - Open source gratuit et basé sur un modèle économique sans publicité, basé sur les dons - Européen (Anglais) et par défaut sur des serveurs EU (Allemagne,Finlande,Pays-bas), https://www.clubic.com/actualite-600451-stoat-l-alternative-open-source-a-discord-jouit-d-une-popularite-sans-precedent.html https://infinity-area.com/article/une-alternative-open-source-a-discord-c-est-enfin-possible Il y a 6 mois j'ai donc fait un clone de mon serveur là bas, le plan c'est qu'un maximum d'entre vous rejoigne là bas avant que nos compte Discord soient bloqués par des vérifications d'ID. ( si tu veux voir ca ressemble à ça : https://i.postimg.cc/BbbB6D7n/F64F97EB-B387-4C9B-8993-F93186BB.png ) Comme vous pouvez le lire dans l'article au dessus, l'app est en chantier, donc je vous promet pas tout le confort et les options d'un Discord pour l'instant, il manque quelques trucs importants comme le partage vidéo (qui est déjà programmé qui sera en place bientôt , qui fonctionne déjà si on héberge son serveur, ce que je planifie de faire) et il n'y a pas encore énormément de paramètres et de customisation. MAIS CA VIENDRA, déjà le fait que ce soit open source et que pleeeeeeein de gens aillent là bas en ce moment ca va considérablement accélérer les choses. MAIS on peut se parler on peut partager, on peut s'appeler, faire en vrai 90% de ce qu'on fait sur Discord, c'est l'important. Et vraiment le truc à comprendre c'est que c'est de l'OPEN SOURCE donc il y a aura bien plus de mods, d'outils, de fonctions cool, de trucs moins restreints, bref, même si ca a pas l'air aussi reluisant au premier abord croyez moi que ca a le potentiel de faire que vous regrettiez pas Discord les vendus et forceurs. Il y a quelques bugs à régler, notamment de rafraichissement parce qu'il y a tellement de monde qui migre là bas en ce moment ils croulent sur le travail pour "scale up" c'est à dire agrandir la structure pour supporter tout ce monde (mais c'est une bonne chose faut pas voir ca comme du négatif, juste ca va etre un peu root quelques temps mais bon osef !). Vous l'avez compris on est pas les seuls à se barrer et il y a déjà BEAUCOUP de commus migrent là bas ces jours ci, et il y en avait en fait déjà pas mal (l'app existe depuis 2021), de grosses commus de tout styles, techos, gamers, femdom, safeplaces lgbt, anime, artistes, ya plein de serveurs publiques avec des milliers de gens. Et des streameur.euse.s y migrent aussi leur commu. DONC ETAPE 1, c'est important par précaution je vous suggère vraiment dans un premier temps de demander votre archive de données à DISCORD, vous pouvez le faire dans vos paramètres => Données et confidentialités => Demande tes données. Ca prendra des jours avant que vous receviez le mail mais au moins c'est fait, comme ca vous pourrez télécharger l'intégralité de vos conversations en MP, listes d'amis et autres données, car vous ne pourrez surement pas les récupérer APRES la mise en place de la vérification d'identité (à moins de s'identifier mais bon c'est le principe de ce roman c'est qu'on veut pas le faire) ENSUITE ETAPE 2, bah rejoindre Stoat ! C'est pas compliqué ca fonctionne comme Discord en gros, ya une version WEB, une version APP desktop / mobile https://stoat.chat/ Vous vous faite un compte vous allez pas être perdus Et voici l'invit pour mon serveur : **** (disponible sur le message original sur mon discord) Pourquoi rejoindre maintenant est important ? Parce que le jour où vous allez ouvrir Discord et qu'il va vous dire "bonjour veuillez donner votre visage, numéro de téléphone et infos perso aux nazis avant de continuer" vous aurez déjà quelque part où aller, au moins récupérez vos données pour backup votre historique Discord. Et aussi parce que moi le jour où ca me demande de m'identifier bah... je vais pas le faire, donc mon Discord sera au point mort pour toujours (sauf si je trouve un moyen de le zapper ou si le truc se fait hack à posteriori). Attention : à cause de l'affluence énorme de ces jours ci il se peut que les mails de confirmation lors de l'inscription mettent du temps à arriver donc vous prenez pas trop la tête si ca met du temps, et reesayez au bout d'un moment des fois faut plusieurs coup. (Et vraiment... ca prend 10 clics qu'est ce que vous vous emmerdez à hésiter :p) Voilà merci de m'avoir lu j'espère n'avoir rien oublié des explications, ca a l'air d'être dans l'urgence et ca l'est un peu parce que Mars c'est jamais que dans 15 jours, mais c'est quand même un truc auquel je réfléchi depuis un moment si vous avez suivit. Et au pire on ira ailleurs si besoin. Nique les nazi dans tous les cas. Guile - 15/02/26 (twitch.tv/Guile) edit 17/02 : j'ai recu mon archive Discord (après pas mal de jours d'attente) et dans l'archives au niveau des messages privés il n'y a que TA partie des messages donc ca fait des conversations où tu parles seul.e ... J'ai donc essayé cette extension qui permet d'archiver une conversation entière J'ai écrit la démarche à suivre ici : https://longer.blue/posts/i8_dXKdxzt ou ici : https://guile93.com/discord/save edit 21/02 : Si après tout ca vous doutez encore du bien fondé de se barrer de Discord avant qu'ils vérifient votre identité, lisez attentivement ce Thread concernant l'utilisation de vos données personnelles par PERSONA et le gouvernement Américain : https://skywriter.blue/@bruitetsilences.fr/3mfcyezfhcc2p edit 21/02 : Si vous voyez passer des gens qui disent "Discord a annoncé qu'ils mettent fin à la vérification d'identité et abandonné leur partenariat avec Persona" de ce que j'ai vérifié les gens qui disent ca se fient à un [blog](https://frenchbreaches.com/blog/discord-met-fin-au-test-de-verification-dage-avec-persona) qui donne pas de source directe et qui parle d'articles de Kotaku (https://kotaku.com/discord-palantir-peter-thiel-persona-age-verification-2000668951) et de Piunikaweb (https://piunikaweb.com/2026/02/16/discord-uk-age-verification-persona-vendor-shift/) du 16 février (que j'avais déjà lu) et qui ne basent ce qu'ils disent sur rien et ne disent même pas réelement ça, j'ai pas vu de source réelles qui corrobore ça de la part de Discord. Qui plus Discord n'a pas le "choix" il est obligé par les lois de vérifier l'âge donc ca n'aurait pas de sens qu'ils disent qu'ils ne vont pas le faire. Mais encore une fois le problème majeur c'est à qui il donne nos infos. ATTENTION A NE PAS PARTAGER NI COLPORTER DES INFOS SANS SOURCES SERIEUSES Partagez tout ca autant que vous voulez. Une version web auto hébergée de ce texte existe ici : https://guile93.com/discord et en anglais https://guile93.com/discord/en

Many of the European issues have been caused by Trump. Indeed his actions often impact on world markets and world trade. We are quite entitled to focus on the problems in the USA. We watch human rights being destroyed by Trump, Neom and Ice (we refer to that kind of outfit as ‘Gestapo’). We see illegal use of military force against Venezuelans. We see Trump being best pals with Israel as Gaza is raised to the ground. We have people there helping with medical and humanitarian aid. USA has Kushner champing at the bit to build real estate on ground where thousands have lost their lives to Israeli brutality. Nevertheless, European countries are investigating the Epstein files, trafficked children and I’m pretty sure Trump’s name will be all over the trafficking network etc Yet another American issue impacting on children, this time, across the world.. We won’t do a Pam Bondi and make an horrific ass out of ourselves covering it up. The truth will out. We will do our bit. Some of the actions taken to ensure fiscal prudence, given Trump is a liability, may cause problems in the short term but blame Trump- not your steadfast allies for decades. So your bitter comment about Europe focusing on our own issues? Sorry - NO CHANCE. Not when you have a lunatic at the helm.

What Trump & Republicans are causing to happen: “The European Parliament has no authority to do anything related to the USA, so they are not going to legislate to help you. Their job is us to ratify EU policies. All authority lies with the European Commission. No-one in Europe is going to do anything to help the USA. The opposite is true. The Commission and ECB are strategically planning to walk away from the USA and are actively looking at ways to dump all US payments infrastructure - SWIFT, VISA and Mastercard. Dump all US tech infrastructure (France already started). Dump all US defence. Have started to replace the USD with gold and have cancelled all US investments. Germany is removing all its gold held in USA such is the distrust. It’s not what we say that matters, but what we are doing. The rest of the world is working to divest from the USA and walk away leaving you to stew in your own juices - that’s The EU, UK, China, India, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, most of Latin America and the African continent. Of course you know about Canada, who are not only giving you the finger, but are benefiting from European and Chinese inward investment that otherwise would have gone to the USA.

D aily thoughts #26 Today's thoughts will be a bit different as I'll try breaking down the Lessons vs UB matchup. I played bunch of matches versus Max Rappaport. Lessons has the ultimate endgame edge. If the game lasts 15+ turns, Lessons almost always wins. UB's biggest weapon is Kaito. Without Kaito it's relatively hard to win. Therefore the whole match kinda resolves around Kaito - Lessons player should try to navigate the game into a state where Kaito can't hurt them. Lessons likes to operate at instant speed as for example tapping out on turn 2 to play Artist Talent can be punished by flash two drop into Kaito. Boomerang Basics is great answer to Kaito as it catches you up on tempo (1 for 4-5 mana exchange). Some quick hits. - I initially thought Stormchaser Talent would be good at pressuring Kaito, but in practice it hasn't been so easy. There's spot removal, Floodpits Drowner and even Kaito himself can just tap the token. You need to have multiple Otters and even then it's kinda hard. - I was low on Quench, but it plays out better than expected. Hardcast Kaito is a thing, because you're trying to keep opp away from creatures. It's also good vs Tishana, and Max had Unagi (though I don't think that one is played often. - Quantum Riddler is house - Broadside Barrage might be too expensive - Pyroclasm was bad - I liked trimming Monument as it's weak to Tishana, and 3 mana socrery isn't where you want to be. - Ral is also weak into Tishana, but can at least win the game on its own, and is decent into Kaito. - Max reports Tishana was kinda bad, as I was able to play around it and 3/2 body is kinda meh Overall matchup felt relatively even, but I'd slightly prefer being on the Lessons side. Next week, we test against UB Demons!

To ALL Women voters! Please read and do it when the Senate passes the Save Act. How the SAVE Act Affects Documentation Under the current text of the bill, a standard birth certificate might not be enough on its own if the name on it doesn't match your current legal ID. To bridge this "name gap," you typically need a paper trail that connects your birth name to your married name. Steps to Match Your Documents If you are concerned about your registration, you can take these steps to ensure your "name chain" is legally documented: Secure an Official Marriage Certificate: You must have a government-issued, certified copy of your marriage license (not just the commemorative one from a church). This serves as the legal link between your birth certificate and your current name. Update Your U.S. Passport: A valid U.S. passport is the "gold standard" for the SAVE Act because it serves as both proof of identity and proof of citizenship in your current legal name. If you have a passport in your married name, you won't need to present a birth certificate. The "Paper Trail" Method: If you do not have a passport, you may need to present a "bridge" of documents in person at a registration office: 1. Proof of Citizenship: Your original/certified birth certificate. 2. Proof of Name Change: Your certified marriage certificate(s). 3. Proof of Identity: Your current government-issued photo ID (like a Driver’s License). Important Considerations What You Should Know Birth Certificate Changes You generally cannot change the name on your original birth certificate to your married name. Birth certificates are historical records of birth; name changes are handled via marriage licenses or court orders. REAL ID Limits Most state-issued REAL IDs do not explicitly list "U.S. Citizen" on the card. Under the SAVE Act, these may not be accepted as standalone proof of citizenship. In-Person Requirements The current version of the bill may require these documents to be presented in person, potentially making mail-in or online registration more difficult for those with name mismatches. What You Can Do Now 1. Check your registration: Ensure your current voter registration matches your legal ID exactly. 2. Order certified copies: If you’ve lost your marriage license or birth certificate, order certified copies from the Bureau of Vital Statistics in the state where the event occurred. 3. Get a Passport: If feasible, applying for a passport in your current name is the most effective way to consolidate your proof of identity and citizenship into one document.

Compression is Magic One memory that stays with me from my early days of grad school in the mid-1990s was the buzz about a scrappy, yet highly effective, document classification method from CMU. As I heard it, a very clever student built a simple topic modeling system based on compressed file length for a class project. He used text crawled from Usenet discussion groups to build a set of codebooks, and then applied off-the-shelf compression routines to a novel text passage using each codebook, one at a time. Finally, he assigned the topic to the input passage as the name of the Usenet discussion group responsible for the most compressed file. So simple. So intuitive. I entered Machine Learning from the Electrical Engineering/Digital Signal Processing tradition. From that perspective, I had seen compression algorithms that were undoubtedly *cool* — lossless methods like Huffman coding, or lossy methods based on Discrete Cosine Transforms — but the above example was the first time I thought of compression as *magic*. Like most students of my vintage, however, I soon learned about Latent Semantic Analysis, a decidedly un-magical, yet sturdy method for topic modeling. Later, this was supplanted by Latent Dirichlet Allocation. These mathematically well-founded methods achieved state-of-the-art performance, and the clever method from CMU went into the gimmick dustbin. Fellow grad students in Computer Vision or Natural Language Processing would often make remarks along the lines of “texture is compression” or “naming things is compression,” but for me this was just a nerdy way of talking about learned representations and Shannon entropy. I mean, when it comes to perception, what *isn’t* compressed? These reflections resurfaced for me a few years ago when sci-if author Ted Chiang went viral for his essay “ChatGPT Is a Blurry JPEG of the Web.” Many responses to this imperfect analogy surfaced in the wake of that article, and from that wave of social media posts I came to learn that “X is compression” is very much still a thing. For example, I’m hearing rumblings that consciousness is just compression. Do you also encounter this trope in your field? What’s your sense of what people really mean when they say this?

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These teachers are showing the country what organized, collective resistance actually looks like. They’re standing shoulder to shoulder, refusing to return to their classrooms until meaningful change is won, not symbolic gestures, not empty promises, but real commitments that address the crisis in public education. More than 6,000 educators in San Francisco walked off the job Monday, marking the first strike of this scale in nearly half a century. Their demands are not radical; they are practical and urgent. Smaller class sizes so students can receive the attention they deserve. Living wages so that teachers, many of whom work second jobs, can afford to live in the communities they serve. Safe, fully staffed schools. These are foundational requirements for a functioning public education system. The strike has galvanized widespread support. Parents have joined the picket lines, recognizing that this fight is not just about teachers’ paychecks, it’s about their children’s futures. Thousands rallied downtown, demanding that the school district stop balancing budgets on the backs of educators and instead invest in the people who make schools work every day. As teaching coach Annie Wen said, “We don’t want to be striking … we just got news … that schools are going to be closed tomorrow. So it feels like a big F-U to us.” That frustration reflects years of feeling unheard, undervalued, and pushed to the brink. And San Francisco is not alone. Other districts across California are poised to strike. Educators are drawing a line, insisting that public education cannot survive continued underfunding, overcrowding, and burnout. This moment extends beyond one city or one profession. Across the country, communities are confronting policies they believe undermine workers’ rights, immigrant protections, environmental safeguards, and civil liberties. Democratic leaders in Congress have announced they will block additional funding for ICE unless enforcement policies are significantly scaled back and judicial warrants are required. Meanwhile, the administration has moved to revoke the 2009 EPA “endangerment finding,” a cornerstone of federal greenhouse gas regulation, prompting states like California, New York, and Washington to prepare coordinated legal challenges aimed at defending environmental protections. What we are witnessing is a broader struggle over priorities: Who does government serve? Corporations or communities? Short-term political agendas or long-term public well-being? For many activists and organizers, the lesson from the teachers’ strike is clear: sustained, collective action matters. Change rarely comes from isolated efforts. It comes when labor groups, civil rights organizations, environmental advocates, healthcare workers, educators, and community leaders find common ground and coordinate their efforts, peacefully, strategically, and persistently. Calls for broader action, including general strikes, reflect a desire for unity across movements. Whether in immigration reform, healthcare access, voting rights, climate policy, or education funding, the underlying principle is the same: democratic participation does not end at the ballot box. It includes organizing, protesting, litigating, voting, and holding institutions accountable. If there is one message resonating from the picket lines, it is this: ordinary people have power when they act together. Conversations in workplaces, neighborhoods, faith communities, and local organizations matter. Engagement matters. Civic participation matters. Change begins locally but can ripple nationally. It starts with people deciding that silence is not an option, and that collective, peaceful action is a force capable of reshaping the future. It starts with YOU.

Those in northern Spain and specifically southwestern France. You are in an extremely dangerous and life threatening situation!. Damaging winds are expected. Likely across coastal and higher terrain areas. Though for more sheltered areas moderate to severe gale force gusts are possible. The system will spread these effects further inland but begin to weaken fairly steadily. As the low's centre dissipates the system may very well remain a mid-latitude cyclone despite being over rugged terrain. The system will deliver dangerous conditions. The low will be weakening, however. But the rate of weakening is yet to be seen. Mediterranean coasts and islands will see a wind event that plausibly bring impactful gusty conditions along with a elevated coastal flooding hazard. Preparations must be completed in all areas if not they should be rush to completion within the next few hours. INT ... 90 KTS ... 105 MPH

However this will likely happen once over land, The older centre will continue to intensify as it approaches southwestern France. The low will rapidly be disrupted by the higher terrain, but the remnants of the low will continue to push over into the Mediterranean. The system may still be holding onto mid latitude cyclone structure. However, the wind field is causing concern even long after landfall. The low will of course weaken once over land and ever further weakening once it's over Italy. Flooding from rainfall, coastal flooding, tree damage and damage to structures is also possible especially in more exposed areas. Preparations should be completed by tomorrow midafternoon. As by mid to late afternoon and eventually, evening into midnight UTC. The system will be delivering it's wind field and coastal flooding risk. Along with it's rainfall and inland flooding threats. INT ... 65 KTS ... 75 MPH

Daily thoughts #25 Standard is evolving. Its quite cool to see. At the PT the best performing decks were decks praying on Cub - Spellementals, Temur Harmonizer and to some extent the winning UB Demons deck. But now? Cub is gone. I’ve played two matches versus Cub this week. Instead the decks that are good against interaction stepped up. MonoGreen Landfall is back, UB Mid might not be mid anymore, and Lessons is great again. From the good PT decks only Demons seem to have a shot. On the other hand Cub seems to be solid against the three decks I listed above. I anticipate it will do well at either Milwaukee or AC 11. As for me personally, I’m leaning towards locking Lessons for the RC in a month - the deck is hard to play, hard to tune, and I want a lot of reps. It might not be the best choice for a given week, but it should ve amongst the top couple decks every week. Deck familiarity also adds a lot of + folks might overestimate their Lessons matchup as there us a big delta between good and bad Lessons players. Standard is fun and I’m excited to see where it’s headed. 😇

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The low will bring life threatening conditions to northern Spain and western France. The low will also bring a risk of coastal flooding to northern Portugal, northern Spain and western France. The low will rapidly be disrupted by the higher terrain but the remnants of the low will continue to push over into the Mediterranean. The system may still be holding onto mid latitude cyclone structure. However the wind field is causing concern even long after landfall. The low will of course weaken once over land and ever further weakening once it's over Italy. Flooding from rainfall, coastal flooding, tree damage and damage to structures is also possible especially in more exposed areas. Preparations should be completed by tomorrow late afternoon/early evening. As late evening into midnight UTC. The system will be delivering it's wind field and coastal flooding risk. Along with it's rainfall and inland flooding threats. INT ... 65 KTS ... 75 MPH...

The system is expected to track into the Bay of Biscay. Where some guidance takes the centre of the system into the English Channel. They may possibly send it's strongest winds into the Western France. This is where rapid intensification must also be mentioned as a likelihood. The uncertainty here is if the centre also moves over France. These trends will be monitored closely. As ,northern Portugal, northern Spain and southern UK should also monitor the progress of this system very closely. Near term: Azores will be impacting by gusty winds from the wind field along the cold front. Gale force gusts are expected here along with the risk of some coastal flooding. This risk will quickly subside once the low clears the Islands. INT ... 55 KTS ... 65 MPH

All the iconography and cultural notes you might have missed at Bad Bunny’s halftime as told by a Puertorican: Sugar cane and Machetes: The island's colonial history began with the slave trade and sugarcane plantations, among the most brutal plantation a slave could be sent to. They were given machetes to cut cane with. Those same machetes were used as prominent weapons during the Hatian revolution, and became a symbol of resistance and revolution throughout the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico. That's why you often see machete symbolism in Puertorican iconography. Dominos: A beloved Puertorican passtime. A traditional game that originated in Puerto Rico. Tios sitting around playing dominos is a cultural memory. Food trucks and stands: All over the island (and in New York!) Boxing: Puerto Rico is known for its world renown boxing champions, many of them are national heroes. One of the highest number of boxing champions per capita. Kid sleeping on chairs: Every Latino has seen that kid, every latino has been that kid. Classic sight. New York imagery: There have been several great migrations from Puerto Rico to the United states, with New York being the USA's largest Puertorican diaspora hub. Much of the city's culture has been shaped by Puertorican diaspora. Salsa music originated in New York from Puertorican and Cuban diaspora mingling and creating something new. Fun Fact: Cuba is our sister nation. Puerto Rico modeled their flag after Cuba's in solidarity when they joined forces against the Spanish during the Cuban-Puertorican Independence Movement where both countries are described as two wings of the same bird". It's impossible to talk about Cuban or Puertorican history without mentioning the other. La Pava: Those iconic straw hats you see everywhere, wor all over rural Puerto Rico. Huge cultural icon. Traditionally woven from "cane trash" which is the parts of the cane you cut off before processing. Dancing on powerlines: Outages are common in Puerto Rico as a direct result of the US privatizing our power grids. Black outs have become a symbol of American oppression. Especially after Hurricane Maria. That's why the powerlines blew out during the concert and the music abruptly stopped. Bad Bunny calling the names of every country in the Americas: Because of the targeted abductions (yes, ABDUCTIONS because that's what it is) on latino communities cannot safely speak out. Puerto Rico as a US territory with full American citizenship is in a unique position to speak out without fear of deportation. Bad Bunny is using his privilege as both a Latino and a born American citizen to speak out for the entirety of Latin America. Note that the United States was not the first, nor last country he called out. By doing that he placed the US on level with every other country in the Americas. A subtle way to denounce USA supremacy. The ball said Together We are America. America (continent).

Cultural notes on Bad Bunny’s halftime show as a Puerto Rican: Sugar cane and Machetes: The island's colonial history began with the slave trade and sugarcane plantations, among the most brutal plantation a slave could be sent to. They were given machetes to cut cane with. Those same machetes were used as prominent weapons during the Hatian revolution, and became a symbol of resistance and revolution throughout the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico. That's why you often see machete symbolism in Puertorican iconography. Dominos: A beloved Puertorican passtime. A traditional game that originated in Puerto Rico. Tios sitting around playing dominos is a cultural memory. Food trucks and stands: All over the island (and in New York!) Boxing: Puerto Rico is known for its world renown boxing champions, many of them are national heroes. One of the highest number of boxing champions per capita. Kid sleeping on chairs: Every Latino has seen that kid, every latino has been that kid. Classic sight. New York imagery: There have been several great migrations from Puerto Rico to the United states, with New York being the USA's largest Puertorican diaspora hub. Much of the city's culture has been shaped by Puertorican diaspora. Salsa music originated in New York from Puertorican and Cuban diaspora mingling and creating something new. Fun Fact: Cuba is our sister nation. Puerto Rico modeled their flag after Cuba's in solidarity when they joined forces against the Spanish during the Cuban-Puertorican Independence Movement where both countries are described as two wings of the same bird". It's impossible to talk about Cuban or Puertorican history without mentioning the other. La Pava: Those iconic straw hats you see everywhere, wor all over rural Puerto Rico. Huge cultural icon. Traditionally woven from "cane trash" which is the parts of the cane you cut off before processing. Dancing on powerlines: Outages are common in Puerto Rico as a direct result of the US privatizing our power grids. Black outs have become a symbol of American oppression. Especially after Hurricane Maria. That's why the powerlines blew out during the concert and the music abruptly stopped. Bad Bunny calling the names of every country in the Americas: Because of the targeted abductions (yes, ABDUCTIONS because that's what it is) on latino communities cannot safely speak out. Puerto Rico as a US territory with full American citizenship is in a unique position to speak out without fear of deportation. Bad Bunny is using his privilege as both a Latino and a born American citizen to speak out for the entirety of Latin America. Note that the United States was not the first, nor last country he called out. By doing that he placed the US on level with every other country in the Americas. A subtle way to denounce USA supremacy. The ball said Together We are America. America (continent).

Over 800 people have agreed the Zelensky's should win the Nobel Peace Prize. Let's try to help them. I tried attaching my email with a picture post it won't allow so here it is. February 10, 2026 United States of America To the Distinguished Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, We are asking thatVolodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, and Olena Zelenska, First Lady of Ukraine, be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This recommendation is based on their extraordinary contributions to the protection of democratic sovereignty, their pioneering work in humanitarian recovery, and their unwavering commitment to a global peace architecture rooted in international law. President Zelenskyy’s leadership transcends national borders. In an era of increasing authoritarianism, he has become the world’s most prominent advocate for the principle that peace is inseparable from freedom. By remaining with his people during the initial invasion, he revitalized the concept of moral leadership, demonstrating that the defense of one’s home is a prerequisite for a stable international order. His 10-Point Peace Formula provides a comprehensive framework for global security, addressing food, nuclear, and environmental safety as essential pillars of a lasting peace. First Lady Olena Zelenska has redefined the role of a wartime leader by focusing on the "invisible" foundations of peace. Her work through the Olena Zelenska Foundation and the National Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Program addresses the trauma of conflict. By prioritizing the mental well-being of children and survivors, she ensures that the society is not only capable of surviving war but is prepared to build a peaceful, functional democracy in its aftermath. Together, the Zelenskyys have forged a global coalition of solidarity. They have successfully argued that the "abolition or reduction of standing armies"—as outlined in Alfred Nobel’s will—is only possible when the international community collectively rejects the law of the jungle in favor of the rule of law. Their combined efforts represent a unique synergy of resolute defense and humanitarian compassion. For their role in safeguarding the future of global democracy and their tireless pursuit of a just peace, We recommend them for your highest consideration. Respectfully, David and Joan Piekarczyk

The People of Ukraine and President Zelenskyy have been formally nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize! I really hope they win it, because they are very deserving of it for their valiant defence of peace in Europe against Russian aggression, which has not been limited to just Ukraine. They have made immense sacrifice, as the People of Ukraine and their President have kept the rest of Europe safe from Russian totalitarianism and imperialism. They are the true and most noble defenders of European liberty, democracy and peace. I would also like to see Minneapolis and its people win for their extraordinary nonviolent resistance, as well. But given the fact that only one is awarded each year, I firmly believe that Ukraine should win it, considering all of the great sacrifices the Ukrainian people have made over the years from Russian aggression.

I low key kind of wish there was more playing around in the design space of "shooting" in games. This is not a judgment on people who love that shit, I can compartmentalize that for elsewhere, but I simply have never found "Move mouse cursor onto target and click" to be fun or engaging. Even at like super high levels. I can certainly appreciate that "move cursor and click" can be an extremely difficult thing to do, requiring good reflexes, situational awareness and fine motor control, in games where they build for that... it is still an unsatisfying thing to be doing with my hands in a videogame to me. If it helps I would apply the same point and click criticism to games like Diablo. Terrible combat, setting aside my nostalgia. It was fine in 1999. It was a novel control scheme when Counterstrike was new. No Rest for the Wicked looks dope btw. Just saying. But point and click is boring when compared to so many other more dynamic control schemes that ask so much more for you. So I largely don't play shooters, unless the shooting is just a single piece of a larger puzzle or the rare event that something just rings all my bells. See Remnant and Remnant 2. The thing is that wasn't always true. And not all shooters, or "shooters", are built around this core point and click design space. Think of 2d games. Megaman and Contra are about shooting. But there's no real aiming involved. So instead the design of those games forgoes any worries about that, you have a gun, it is implicit that you will shoot and hit the enemies, and the fun of the game is entirely designed around everything else. Level layout, enemy abilities and patterns, mobility options, etc. See also the entire schmup genre. But that's 2d you say. Well even in first and third person there's been good alternatives. Metroid Prime is probably the best example. The original game just fully built around easy lockon shooting. There's a 3rd person James Bond game that inspired this spiel that does the same. It's less good. Once more, you are playing as a character for whom it it implicit that they are going to hit the thing they are shooting at. So again, with aiming taken out of the equation the game must look elsewhere to make itself interesting to play. DOOM did not have mouse look aiming. Most of the weapons have some level of distinct attack giving their use dynamism. It's the most important FPS ever made for like the next decade plus after it's release. No aiming. Point, shoot, hit. The gameplay is about, again, movement, enemy composition and management, weapon management, level layout, etc. This is a design space I want to see more experimentation in. I feel like we've hit a pretty solid place with melee combat in games. There's tons of variety and styles of play around the notion of getting up in there and physically hitting someone. But shooting? There's so much more that could be done. Devil May Cry uses guns as an accessory for long range juggling and combo extension. Vanquish, the goat, has aggressive auto-aim to the point of being snap on, and so that entire third person shooter is built and focused around a whole slate of robust movement options instead of the aiming and shooting. Elden Ring has no guns. I know, right? But it has a shit ton of range options of a staggering style and variety, as well as essential just point and shoot ones, that let you play that game like it's a fantasy shoot em up. All lock-on targeting. But most shooters are indeed that same tried and true "skill based" core gameplay style of "being good" and quickly getting the mouse cursor over the targets head and clicking before they do the same to you. Which leaves anyone not interested in honing that skill better off to just find something else to do because there's rarely much meat left on the bones if you don't engage with that one thing. You should still make Counterstrikes. People seem to love that shit. And that kind of gameplay defines that style of shooter. But play around. There's a million interesting ways you could implement ranged combat without needing to aim. Also there's just the immersion factor. You're giving me a named character like James Bond and he can't hit the broad side of a barn because I'm the one steering? Immersion breaking. Samus however never misses in Metroid Prime. Because she's a badass galaxy wide known mercenary. It's my job as the player to run around keeping her alive in the meantime because the baddies are independently threatening regardless of how cool Samus is. But Samus never fails a jump or dodge command anymore then her aim falters. Immersion fulfilling. Mostly I just want a third person Contra(like) where I don’t need to aim anymore then I did in boomer Contra. Headshots were never the point.

Vintage computer successful recap: "Greetings fellow citizens of the world of all persuasions! Join me for this bounteous feast of celebration! We shall eat, drink & be merry one and all!!" Vintage computer unsuccessful recap: "If you so much as smile near me, I'll cleave you & your family in twain with a scimitar. All must now feel the burden of my bitter disappointment on your shoulders. For at least an hour."

Benito ended his show with the same message he gave us in his Grammy speech: "The only thing more powerful than hate is love." I would like to add my thoughts to that, and the show in general as an artistic piece. I watched the entire Super Bowl with a small group of friends. Although I am not a fan of American football, I wanted to see the entire thing (go Sea Hawks), and the first thing I noticed were the ads for AI products. Of course, this is not new for the Super Bowl. And it is possible that there were more last year, but that is not the point, and it is not relevant to my thinking. I also noticed a contrast. Last year, and what we've gone through of this one, the Trump administration has used AI to express its hatred of minorities, make fascist propaganda, and oppress communities. Those who know me know that I am anti-AI. In general, I think it is a net-negative for humanity. I think it's the tool of the oppressor and it does us no good—as I have seen so many liberals do so—using it to "criticize" the Trump administration. AI has been instrumental for abusers as yet another way to exert their power over us. On the other hand, we have Benito's show. In a sea of AI ads, "Use it in your work. Make it write your emails. Make it plan your next house. Make it form an exercise plan. Etc.," even ads generated entirely by AI, Benito gave us a show built from his ideas and constructed by the hands of so many artists and technicians. The lyrics came from his discography, the music by real people, and he honored our history, culture and our urban music. I noticed a contrast. Despite the push for AI, from so many companies demanding that we use their products to speed up our production and kill our creativity, human creativity is still what calls to us, our ability to be genuine and express love for our neighbor and the desire for union. Therefore, I would like to add that more powerful than hate is love and our human creativity to express it. We are many. We have so much love for each other. We can't let the oppressor win.