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On 7 January 2025 Meta made sweeping changes to its policy on Community Standards – Hateful Conduct the (“Standards”). This article examines how these changes put marginalised groups at serious risk and how they, in the context of the Online Safety Act 2023 (the “Act”) are in breach of their duties to prevent and protect these users from harm. In particular, these changes allow LGBTQ+ persons to be called mentally …

I recently finished reading Blake Butler's memoir Molly. I've not been so taken aback by a memoir in a long time. Butler tells the story of his life with Molly Brodak. I highly recommend the book as a deeply emotive and insightful look into a person whom Butler obviously loved and as a mirror into oneself. The abyss certainly stares back. Blake Butler's latest book is Void Corporation, published in …

This week’s theme: Ella Sings From the Songbook Series. Featured artists include Ella Fitzgerald, Buddy Bregman, Billy May, Nelson Riddle, Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, Rogers and Hart, Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, and many more.The post Podcast: Ella, Songbooks first appeared on jazzcollector.com.

Following up from my previous posts (Part 1, part 2) , I'm headed back into the realm of my own observations. PART 5: GET THIS SHIT OUT OF MY DRAFT DOC** Observation: Wraiths, Vengeful Spirits, and HexesThis is just one of those weird minor things where the pieces have fit together somewhat nicely (how about that for a change?)“Wraith” is used only three times in the corpus, in the descriptions …

There’s far too much going on in this winter photo of the Avon river. A background of trees in haze, then a bridge with vehicles. Closer, more skeletal trees against reflected ripples on the water of a river. Across it, just visible behind blurred briars and wood smoke that drifts across the whole scene, cuts a racing boat with eight – nine? – rowers. The colours are weird: blues and …

Speaking of Mark Zuckerberg, Nick Heer did an excellent job compiling a series of news stories on Facebook Meta’s “free speech” changes that demonstrate the cruelty is the point: If anybody is still committed to the idea that Meta changed its policies for principled speech reasons, this ought to shatter that belief. It created explicit carve-outs to permit discriminatory speech based on gender and sexual orientation, and Meta — as …

India's POEM-4 has successfully germinated cowpeas in space, and is also growing spinach tissue.

Anyone knows who were behind June Evenings? There is the one song I am aware of, just one… called “I Wasted All My Wishes On You” and as you might notice it is really great. Problem is that even though it rings a bell to me, I can’t remember anything about them. My thinking is that it is not an old song. Not older than 15 years at least. Has …

In 2006, a high school student from Ontario named James Hobson started posting to a new platform called YouTube. His early videos were meant for his friends, and focused on hobbies (like parkour) and silliness (like one clip in which he drinks a cup of raw eggs). Hobson’s relationship with YouTube evolved in 2013. Now a trained engineer, he put his skills to work in crafting a pair of metal …

The fourth volume of Fantology is probably the weakest volume overall, but there's still plenty of interesting material in there. A lot of it felt strangely rushed; there were numerous spelling errors and the margins were so tight that I couldn't read some of the stuff toward the middle. Some of the pieces were so sloppy that I was surprised they were published, and the sequencing of the stories also …

. . . to walk alone in London is the greatest rest. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

It’s a New Year and I have plans of writing yearnotes, and liked the idea of making plans for the quarter, but then I remember I still can’t write weekly notes and its already the 12th of January, so I should accept who I am, get out of my own way and write a note already. I’ll just go backwards in time until we have enough content. I bought Rina …

Session 6 was played on 9/12Io the thiefGizzard Wannabe the WizardTheiss of Gond, clericTiptoe the thiefBoots the rangerAmnyuthist the halflingThe party hires Garwood and Kask and head back to the swamp, aiming to finish off the lizarmen mound. On the way, they meet a dozen warriors headed to the keep. They’d just come from the mound, and report that they’ve looted and burned it. The 2 groups continue on their …

I have mentioned both here and on the podcast that I worked at Suncoast Motion Picture Company for many years. Not to brag, but I was Employee of the Month countless times, and I have pins to prove it.When I would mention Suncoast to people, they didn’t always know what I was talking about. Suncoast had lots of locations in malls across North America and the company existed during the …

Hawkworld (Originally called Hawkman Winged Warrior) First Group Banner by Joe Prado January 15, 2025 is the Nth anniversary of Hawkworld! I started Hawkworld on Facebook back in 2016 and what a ride it has been. When I was a kid reading comics, I sent out a few letters to the comics, but my letters were never published. I could only dream about interacting with the creators of the characters …