goingTiny

unconsume - sustainability - resilience - community - solarpunk

[doomtribble73]

[chirasul]

we got a full redbox and now we're playing go fish with the redbox movies

[chirasul]

I would never pay money for a redbox. if you ask politely and are very very persistent (i.e. annoying) they will let you take it away

here's my dad and i taking it away

a redbox makes a wonderful addition to your patio

[fishmech]

for those wondering why they're free to take now, it's because the company that made those "chicken soup for the soul" books bought them a few years ago and then completely collapsed so bad they couldn't afford to dispose of or even take the blu rays and dvds out of their kiosks all over.

so any of them is free game because they're all located on other business' property and they usually don't want to have to pay to get rid of them either. so asking the store manager usually gets you the ok to pull it out and keep it.

[chirasul]

there was a period of time right after their bankruptcy where you could put in any debit or credit card and it would spit out movies without charging you. you could even put in like an expired or deactivated card, or a visa gift card with a $0 balance, didnt matter, they'd just start spitting discs out. a lotta people raided redboxes for movies for a couple months, with some people doing what me and my brother and my dad did here, taking the whole box and signs and marquees as well. because managers sure as hell don't want a big abandoned piece of trash on their sidewalk disappointing customers. BUT they're also often too cheap to pay someone to remove it. so they just sit there.

luckily there are no shortage of freaks like us who will just take them away on our own volition. we did it all "by the book", too: we set up cones and caution tape, disconnected electricity properly, used an angle grinder to grind down the bolts in the concrete so nobody would trip on them, then cleaned everything up afterward and sealed off the electrical panel so the store would know everything is safe and tidy. though they were hesitant when we were first contacting them, they were honestly very relieved and grateful when we finally took it away, especially once they saw that we "knew what we were doing" (we don't) and look like we've "done this before" (we haven't).

the fun part: the reason why this redbox, in particular, was completely full and unraided is because the computer hardware inside had failed some months before the bankruptcy, and a failing company sure as hell wasn't gonna send a tech out to our podunk dipshit city to fix it, so it was impossible to rent movies or take any discs out. plus, for who knows how long, people were returning old redbox discs to this machine and not taking any out, leading to a much higher variety of movies than your average redbox.

there is a thriving community of redbox hackers and modders out there, as well, creating open-source software for repurposing the machines and not letting their very interesting and robust disc-management hardware go to waste. this one belongs to my brother (who was very annoying persistent and did all the legwork of contacting managers and securing permission) who is a programmer by trade and will be hacking it into a family-access movie library, with whatever discs we want. i mean the machine is completely weatherproof and has a built-in AC unit, it would be such a waste to not try to turn it into something cool.

if we get another one, i'm gonna try to mod it into some sort of art or zine vending machine. the disc boxes are just the right size for small print art or stickers. would make a great "little free library" too.

remember: the rules are made up. act like you belong there and you can get away with anything. this applies to your own life

[alagaisia]

Hey. Why isn’t the moon landing a national holiday in the US. Isn’t that fucked up? Does anyone else think that’s absurd?

[alagaisia]

It was a huge milestone of scientific and technological advancement. (Plus, at the time, politically significant). Humanity went to space! We set foot on a celestial body that was not earth for the first time in human history! That’s a big deal! I’ve never thought about it before but now that I have, it’s ridiculous to me that that’s not part of our everyday lives and the public consciousness anymore. Why don’t we have a public holiday and a family barbecue about it. Why have I never seen the original broadcast of the moon landing? It should be all over the news every year!

[alagaisia]

It’s July 20th. That’s the day of the moon landing. Next year is going to be the 54th anniversary. I’m ordering astronaut shaped cookie cutters on Etsy and I’m going to have a goddamn potluck. You’re all invited.

[watermelon-converse]

Hey. Hey. Tumblr. Ides of March ppl. We can do this

[emi--rose]

Hell yeah moon holiday

[hello-delicious-tea]

Ooh coming up we should celebrate

[ariaste]

PITCH: We call it Moon Day, and then every 7 years when it falls on a Monday, that's an even BIGGER deal and we call that Moon Day Monday and go absolutely apeshit about it (the next Moon Day Monday is in 2026 so we have a couple trial runs first)

[sarostheghostcat]

MOON DAY MOON DAY MOON DAY

[wafflebloggies]

moon day is 20th July!!!

[silly-jellyghoty]

Scheduling this a day earlier to remind you all and myself about the Moon Day tomorow!

[kedreeva]

I scheduled this in 2025 to give you all a week to make Moon Day Monday preparations! I think I will order a little rocket cake or bake some moon phase cookies!

[dduane]

It's coming, cousins. ...This could be as big as March 15th if we made it that way...

[vague-humanoid]

Transgender woman faces two felony charges after drawing a firearm during an altercation.

A Wyoming transgender woman is facing two felony charges after drawing a firearm during an altercation she says began with anti-LGBTQ+ and a

Ríhanna Kelver, a bartender and trans rights advocate in Laramie, has been charged with aggravated assault and possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent after a 13 September 2025 confrontation outside the Crowbar & Grill, whereshe worked. Kelver could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison if convicted on both charges.

Kelver says one man in a group of men across the street from her started shouting homophobic and transphobic insults at her before the man allegedly shoved her to the ground in a downtown crosswalk, as reported by The Laramie Reporter.

[el-shab-hussein]

There's more, as it pertains to Black trans people's right to self-defence:

Despite Wyoming’s “Stand Your Ground” statute, which allows people to use reasonable force in moments of self defense, Kelver faces up to 15 years in prison for both charges, as well as up to $11,000 in fines, per Cowboy State Daily. Kelver faces an additional year and $1,000 fine for a charge of interference with a peace officer. [...]

As pointed out by Slate, self-defense laws are often put into question when people from marginalized communities, especially trans people, use them, including Cece McDonald, a Black trans woman who served time in a men’s prison for defending her friends during a racist and transphobic attack. Ky Peterson, a Black trans man from Georgia, was also arrested and imprisoned for killing his rapist in self-defense.

[resiliencebeast]

I wrote a short explanatory piece on how gun control (in the USA, specifically) has always been a tool of oppressors against marginalized folks. You can find it on Tumblr here. Kelver needs assistance with her legal fees fighting these charges. Her crowdfunding sites keep being removed so here's her Venmo:

Please help her.

[featuringbees]

In September, a man pushed a trans woman to the ground in downtown Laramie. Antifascists identified him as a member of Patriot Front.

When Scott Durham pushed Ríhanna Kelver to the ground, she drew a gun in response. Kelver, a trans woman now facing two felony charges, said

Hope you don't mind me adding to this, i live in laramie and ive known ríhanna personally for several years and this incident has been so difficult for her, and additionally the attack exacerbated health issues for her.

a local reporter posted this article this morning that delves into her attacker's affiliation with the fascist patriot front org and the fact that since he moved to laramie in 2023 there has been a significant uptick in hateful activity and propaganda being spread throughout the town. this man was prevented from walking at his high school graduation by his own admission due to his racist, queerphobic, and antisemetic behavior.

one of the things that has been infuriating to me is that her attacker is not the one pressing charges. not the literal man she pulled a gun on, it is the police who are threatening her with 15 years in prison.

please help ríhanna if you can, she doesn't deserve this and it is depicting the increasing danger for trans women and other queer people in this city and state as a whole.

[slipping-into-madness]

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

[slipping-into-madness]

[goingtiny]

The Graph That Should Be Front-Page News

Every so often the Earth produces a signal that is impossible to ignore. This graph is one of them. It shows sea-surface temperatures in the

This is why graphs like this matter. Not because they prove that catastrophe is inevitable, and not because they predict the precise sequence of events over coming years. Science rarely deals in absolutes. What they show is that Earth is moving beyond the range within which modern human civilisation developed. We’re entering climatic conditions that our infrastructure, ecosystems, economies and institutions were never designed to accommodate.

The question is whether we're willing to pay attention and act before the changes become too large, too rapid and too interconnected for us to manage.

[espanolbot2]

Bosses Horrified as "AI Native" College Graduates Hit the Workplace

"AI native" college graduates are hitting the workplace -- and, as experts warned, bosses are finding their performance disappointing.

As one New York financier told Financial Times journalist Gillian Tett, new hires who were seen as “AI natives” are turning out to have alarmingly shallow ideas. So much so, the anonymous finance worker admitted, that his firm now actively avoids seeking out AI-literate STEM graduates, and opts to comb through humanities students instead. “We want critical thinking, not just AI,” the financier told the FT.

[goingtiny]

‘As if a hurricane had passed’: Puerto Ricans at breaking point after weeks without water

Shortages triggered by pipeline rupture drive up costs and deepen frustrations, as pressure grows on water utility

The water shortages are unfolding as parts of the archipelago face drought conditions linked to prolonged rainfall deficits, adding another layer of strain as Puerto Rico enters hurricane season, which runs from June to November.

[s-sonneveld]

Republicans are sociopaths. There is no redeeming that party.

[whosurisold]

scotus needs to be investigated! Follow the MONEY!

John Roberts scotus is full of corrupt judges

When will Congress investigate?

[merinnan]

[libraford]

I am becoming aware of the effect a lack of trust in the media has had on people, paired with a dearth of research skills.

[libraford]

I'm thinking about the argument I got caught in yesterday- the subject of it doesn't matter.

Often, pseudoscience and misinformation comes packaged with a lot of very important sounding words, and the jargon gets to the point where it seems like a lot of work to fact check it. Which makes the 'I encourage you to do your own research' statements real obnoxious. If it's phrased in a way that's impossible to navigate, good luck.

It sucks, but you gotta.

If you don't want to fact check individual words, that's fine. That's a lot to ask of someone that's just trying to figure out whether something is true.

This is where we get into something called 'lateral research.' Instead of trying to draw a map to a sentence, you check the credibility of their source material.

This is your Snopes, your Fact Check/Media Bias, your Follow The Money.

Knowing more context about what someone is saying will save you a lot of time and energy.

If you're not sure about something, question it.

[zetabrarian]

I feel like I've been throwing this around a LOT lately, but:

Practice SIFT! SIFT is based on lateral research and can be very helpful for these situations.

DON'T just share information without doing your due diligence.

[elizeshiro]

whyyy the fuck does this not have more notes please rb this more often qwq

[libraford]

Well, I mean... probably because I posted it like an hour ago.

[weaselle]

STOP

i have found this post and infographic and i want to share it

INVESTIGATE THE SOURCE

zetabrarian's blog says they are a socially progressive librarian monsterfucker, which a quick scroll through their blog seems to support. This makes them pretty cool but not necessarily the perfect source -- anyone can say they are a librarian, and surely not every librarian is correct about processing information

FIND BETTER COVERAGE

if i go to a search engine (in this case google via firefox) i see that several universities, libraries from large municipalities (like Los Angeles) as well as the BBC all agree that this is a real method experts in information fields recommend. I wouldn't necessarily take any single one of these sources as 100% credible, but they are individually reasonably reliable, and taken together indicate a high probability of factual information

TRACE TO ORIGINAL CONTEXT

A brief search reveals that the SIFT method was created by Mike Caulfield, who is a research scientist at the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, where he studies the spread of online rumors and misinformation. This is an extremely good source of information for how to process information on the internet. As the creator of the SIFT method, he has taught thousands of teachers and students how to verify claims and sources through his workshops.

I could not find a post or page about SIFT written by Mike Caulfield himself, so i went to the University of Washington's website for this page about it, since that is the university that employs him.

It corroborates the above information, though there are a few notable differences. For example, under the "trace to original context" section in the Washington U. source (again, as close to the original as i could find) this step contains advice to check the date. This seems very good to include, as in the fast moving world of internet information, things become outdated or get updated very quickly, and yet first takes and outdated articles hang around and get shared for a long time.

EXTRA CREDIT

I personally find that it is important to outright search for the opposite information. For example, I put in a few searches like "Mike Caulfield discredited" "Mike Caulfield wrong" "SIFT method bad" etc. I found nothing showing me any indications this method has any problems. Interestingly, somehow this did turn up an article about news literacy on Medium, which was actually written by Mike Caulfield in April of 2017

[thatwolfnamednyla]

[Image ID: An infographic with a title that reads "The Four Moves." Under the title is text that says, "Use the SIFT Method to help evaluate information found online." The following steps are listed:

"STOP:

You found something that may or may not be true! STOP yourself from sharing it right away and follow the next steps.

INVESTIGATE THE SOURCE:

Figure out where the information is coming from. A reporter? A scientist? A random person on the internet?

FIND BETTER COVERAGE:

Are there sources talking about this claim or issue? See what they're saying about it.

TRACE TO ORIGINAL CONTEXT:

Find where the information was originally published. There might be context that was removed by the cycle of sharing on the internet."

Another textbox is added with a bullet-point list:

"Reminders:

"Bad things can happen AND there could be false stories about it. Both can happen at the same time.

"Not sure if it's credible? Don't share it!"

At the bottom is a header labeled "REFERENCES," with text under it saying, "Adapted from library.nwacc.edu/lateralreading/sift"

/end ID]

[bowlby4]

[holy0ak6-deactivated20240421]

[squeeblr]

via bree newsome bass on twitter: 

“The widely circulated timeline created by @Zerflin does a great job in showing how recently slavery & segregation occurred & that they lasted longer than the modern era. 

“I'd like to offer this timeline as another way of viewing the same period of history to show the constancy of both Black resistance in US & efforts of the white power structure to maintain racial caste since 1619.”

https://twitter.com/breenewsome/status/986427881680228354

[queen-mihai]

This second picture is MUCH more accurate!

[queen-mihai]

I had the exact same experience the second time I looked at this picture as the first time. I was looking like "what is this green line? Like suddenly everything is OK? It's not. Racists are still trying to push us back to 1619. Nothing has been fixed. We still need to fight. Hard!

[bowlby4]