The Bowery Presents
Cosmic Funnies
Noah Kahan
Game of Thrones Daily
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
KIROKAZE
sheepfilms
blake kathryn
occasionally subtle
noise dept.
Jar Jar Binks Fan Club
❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
tannertan36
Not today Justin
YOU ARE THE REASON
izzy's playlists!
almost home
Jules of Nature
The Stonewall Inn
bliss lane
seen from United States
seen from Brazil
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from T1
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Kenya
seen from Spain
seen from United States
seen from Brazil
seen from United States
seen from Spain
seen from United States
seen from United Arab Emirates
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from Mexico
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Spain
@jexjthomas
Bump in the Dark: Revised Edition is now LIVE on Backerkit! Do you like spooky small town 90s vibes? Stories about community and chosen family? Beating the shit out of this week's bespoke monster that you helped breathe into existence? Well, now you can pre-order a cool deluxe hard cover with a ton of new material!
Revised edition of Bump in the Dark, the Forged in the Dark game of hunting monster and building community with your chosen family -- with n
hey if you like The Unexplored Places you should check out Genre Space it's really good and I'm enjoying it a lot and there are four episodes so far, it's an actual play anthology and the first season, Death of the Magnate, is cyberpunk Count of Monte Cristo
met a woman today whose original real actual given-at-birth first name is "Vendetta." ma'am are you aware you are a videogame protagonist and/or a character in a skullduggery pleasant novel. real quick sorry to bother you miss but who exactly were your parents expecting you to avenge in their name
the worst part is I can't dare ask her that last question because then she might say something like "You don't remember, do you?" and pull out a katana and obviously I'm not stupid enough to take that risk
The rule could have heavy impacts towards trans people across society.
Last week, the Trump administration quietly released a sweeping new federal rule that would use funding threats to force institutions across the country to reject transgender people. The 400-page proposed regulation would codify the administration's anti-trans executive orders into binding federal policy, imposing a blanket prohibition on federal funds going toward "gender ideology"
The proposed rule, formally titled "Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance," rewrites the government-wide framework governing all federal grants across every agency. Among its most consequential provisions, it requires that before a federal grant recipient can receive money, the award must pass a "pre-issuance review" conducted by a political appointee—not a career expert or peer reviewer—to ensure it is "consistent with applicable law, Federal agency priorities, and the national interest." The regulation explicitly instructs these appointees to screen for "denial by the recipient of the sex binary in humans or the notion that sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic." [...] An institution that acknowledges transgender people exist—through its policies, its training, its healthcare, its bathroom access, its HR procedures, its name-change processes—could be deemed to "deny the sex binary" or to “support the notion that sex is mutable” and have its federal funding blocked.
Importantly, the gender ideology prohibition has no age limitation—hospitals could be targeted not just for providing care to minors but for providing gender-affirming care to adults, because prescribing hormone therapy to a transgender patient of any age could be deemed promoting the belief that "sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic."
THIS IS OPEN TO COMMENT UNTIL JULY 13, 2026
This is all very bad and horrible, but I want to be clear that it’s worse and more sweeping than just eliminating trans research.
This torches everything. And I do mean everything.
A very abbreviated list of its ramifications include (but are not limited to):
ending funding for ALL DEI related initiatives
allowing the government to terminate grants at any point for any reason
preventing researchers from publishing, going to conferences, and being part of academic societies
requiring that topics must support the president’s agenda.
What this means, and if anything I’m under selling it, is the death of science and research in America. It allows the government to restrict any topic they please at a whims notice, putting officials who have no background in the topic in charge of deciding funding continuity. It controls what gets researched and if/how researchers are allowed to share their discoveries. There are no books to burn if the government never allows them to be written. This is fascism plain and simple.
Please, if you only ever write one public comment, this is the one to do.
Bringing back this guide to writing an effective public comment. This gives you the basics you need to know, what you need to include, a basic outline you can follow, etc.
Public comments are not a vote, it is a chance for you to say "here is an issue with this law I think you need to address" and provide justification for legal challenges if it goes forward:
"Comments raise the bar that agencies have to meet when making a rule; “if an agency fails to adequately respond to significant, relevant comments in a final rule, members of the public may seek to challenge the rule in court on that basis and claim it could be struck down.ˮ"
But also, if possible, don't stop at writing a comment. Don't stop at calling your representatives. You should ideally be talking to people in your community about this and organizing resistance on-the-ground; there is a good chance people are already doing that even if you aren't hearing about it.
Also, please keep in mind, this is 100%, without a doubt, wholly unconsitituonal. They will try to enforce it regardless, but that does not make it legal. Do not treat this as law because it is not.
the idea that restrooms, locker rooms, etc need to be single-sex spaces in order for women to be safe is patriarchy's way of signalling to men & boys that society doesn't expect them to behave themselves around women. it is directly antifeminist. it would be antifeminist even if trans people did not exist. a feminist society would demand that women should be safe in all spaces even when there are men there.
btw this is maybe the single most key distinguishing feature of the terfy strains of radical feminism, the seed all the rest of it springs out of: they have absolutely no faith in the ability of feminism to actually destroy patriarchy. they do not think feminism can truly build a better world. they cannot really even imagine that possibility. they think patriarchy is an inevitable natural consequence of unchangeable biological facts, and therefore the goal of feminism can only be to mitigate the worst effects of patriarchy, not to get rid of it.
they can imagine a society where women get some designated safe spaces without men around. they cannot imagine a society where the presence of men is not inherently a danger to women.
Sexiest Podcast Character 2026 — Round 3
Who is sexier?
Hazel McCallah
Emmy Acero
Propaganda
Hazel McCallah (The Unexplored Places: Ruin's Gate):
Hazel is literally a hot middle aged butch cowboy who died and came back wrong it does NOT get sexier than that
what's sexier than a middle aged butch cowboy with a shady past born out of desperation to survive on a harsh and unforgiving planet who makes the conscious decision to not only become a better person and use her strength to help her struggling community, but also who willingly sacrifices herself to atone for her past and then COMES BACK FROM THE DEAD, resurrected by the spirit of said planet, to continue to protect that community and the people in it?
is it a middle aged butch cowboy who rescues a young girl—who, grieving the loss of her own mother in a mining accident, ran away from home and got trapped in the same haunted mine where her mother died—and decides to become a mentor to that young girl, and is motivated by the desire to make the world into a kinder place for that girl than it was to her when she was a child?
or maybe it's a middle aged butch cowboy who, when she fights supernatural monsters with her cool hellstone axe, has smoke come out of her eyes and succumbs to prophetic visions of doom???
also she's HOT
Listen, I'm going to be honest here. I don't think I'd ever found a podcast character hot before Hazel. Now Hazel is the metric against which all other podcast characters are judged. I've never listened to that other show, but how Hazel isn't just absolutely running away with this thing is beyond me.
Emmy Acero (Tidal Wave Games Podcast: SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY...):
Latino trans man, college student turned movie stunt double turned space bounty hunter. Father blew his entire college fund on a cryptocurrency scheme, now trying to raise enough money as a gig worker to pay off his debt before his school's tuition office's hitmen come after him. And that's before he finds out about the whole "secret destiny" thing…
Might be inexperienced (don't worry, he's a consenting adult) but he's a very quick learner. Just look how quickly he learned the saxophone!
Accidental rizz levels off the charts. Canonically has the most romantic/sexual success of any character in the podcast, almost entirely unintentionally on his part
You float the idea of knife play and he says "omg I thought you would never ask". Next thing you know you're sitting in a chair watching him perform actual knife tricks for two hours
Special skills: "True Strength is in the Core", "Can Fit in Spaces Most Can't", "Resting Innocent Face" (aka puppy dog eyes). I think you can fill in the blanks
There's just something about this guy, I can't quite put my finger on it...
Art of Emmy Acero by @violetfoxsketches.
Additional propaganda below the cut:
#her best friend is a wild west sawbones who looks like jason mantzoukas #she's addicted to laughing gas made from space mushrooms #she wears a locket with a picture of her parents who are still back on earth #she was sent to space as an indentured child laborer and became a boxer and then part of a protection racket slash wildernes guide faction #and then she killed the leader of that faction when he threatened her beloved town and community #one time she fought an enormous skeleton monster called the Mother of Bones #anyway even if you don't vote go listen to Ruin's Gate
(via fuckitfireeverything last round)
Also look at this art of her on a horse. Doesn't she have nice arms?
HYBAGG OUT NOW FOR FREE RPG DAY
R E J O I C E
You are a GIRL:
Grid Infiltration & Recon Link
Galvanized Infiltrating Reconnaissance Limb
Gun Initialized Repeater Lump
Girded Information Recursion Logic
Guided & Illusory Recombinant Lock
You are 2 arms, 2 legs, a gun, and a beautiful head full of code and spite.
I am your commander/mother/creator. I am a THRONE, a starship made by the last of humanity to colonize the stars. That mission failed. Now I use you to infiltrate other ships, to steal and kill and scheme and fuck other THRONEs so that I may survive.
You are a capsule of suspended consciousness from my vast internal storage.
You are my bound wet instrument.
You are a colonist without a colony.
You are a person without a body.
You will die a thousand thousand times, and every time I will ask you…
Have you been a good girl?
HYBAGG is a collaborative storytelling game. Play by messaging a friend. The one who sends the first message is the attacker, a GIRL attempting to access the other GIRL’s THRONE. The other player is the defender. The attacker will start a story and it’s up to both players to tell it coherently.
The BASIC-B rules are free and will always be free.
Additional GIRL models and detailed fancy rules will be released soon and will cost $5.
Happy Pride.
Echo Chamber 07: Powder Keg by The Unexplored Places on Patreon. Join The Unexplored Places's community for exclusive content and updates.
A blow too close to home stokes the coals of a smoldering rivalry. Pug goes his own way as Kismet seethes and the Priestess works to contain the flames.
Blades '68, by Old Dog Games, is a supplement of Blades in the Dark by John Harper
The Priestess is played by Drea of Bad Heroes Pug is played by Cap of Shrimp and Crits Kismet is played by Quinn of Monster Hour
A Torch in the Dark is Today's Deal of the Day on DriveThruRPG
A Torch in the Dark was one of the first games I ever made. It's been through several revisions, two print runs, and a sequel. It is consistently one of my best regarded games.
And now it's on sale on DriveThruRPG for like $2, today only.
Wild.
Anyway, want a dungeon delver that's based on Blades in the Dark rules system that's about killing undead nobility to defend a medieval socialist revolution? This game is for you.
this is what GMing Blades in the Dark feels like fr
HYBAGG OUT NOW FOR FREE RPG DAY
R E J O I C E
You are a GIRL:
Grid Infiltration & Recon Link
Galvanized Infiltrating Reconnaissance Limb
Gun Initialized Repeater Lump
Girded Information Recursion Logic
Guided & Illusory Recombinant Lock
You are 2 arms, 2 legs, a gun, and a beautiful head full of code and spite.
I am your commander/mother/creator. I am a THRONE, a starship made by the last of humanity to colonize the stars. That mission failed. Now I use you to infiltrate other ships, to steal and kill and scheme and fuck other THRONEs so that I may survive.
You are a capsule of suspended consciousness from my vast internal storage.
You are my bound wet instrument.
You are a colonist without a colony.
You are a person without a body.
You will die a thousand thousand times, and every time I will ask you…
Have you been a good girl?
HYBAGG is a collaborative storytelling game. Play by messaging a friend. The one who sends the first message is the attacker, a GIRL attempting to access the other GIRL’s THRONE. The other player is the defender. The attacker will start a story and it’s up to both players to tell it coherently.
The BASIC-B rules are free and will always be free.
Additional GIRL models and detailed fancy rules will be released soon and will cost $5.
Happy Pride.
I usually tell my students that “close reading” means looking at what is actually on the page, reading the text itself, rather than some idea “behind the text.” It means noticing things in the writing, things in the writing that stand out. To give you some idea of what this means, I’ve made up a list of five sorts of things that a close reading might typically notice: (1) unusual vocabulary, words that surprise either because they are unfamiliar or because they seem to belong to a different context; (2) words that seem unnecessarily repeated, as if the word keeps insisting on being written; (3) images or metaphors, especially ones that are used repeatedly and are somewhat surprising given the context; (4) what is in italics or parentheses; and (5) footnotes that seem too long. This list is far from complete—in fact, no complete list is possible—but the list is meant to begin to give you an idea of what sorts of things we notice when we’re doing close reading.
What all five of my examples have in common is that they are minor elements in the text; they are not main ideas. In fact, your usual practice of reading which focuses on main ideas would dismiss them all as marginal or trivial. Another thing they have in common is that, although they are minor, they are nonetheless conspicuous, eye-catching: they are either surprising or repeated, set off from the text or too long. Close reading pays attention to elements in the text which, although marginal, are nonetheless emphatic, prominent—elements in the text which ought to be quietly subordinate to the main idea, but which textually call attention to themselves.
Most of you have been educated to ignore such elements. You have been taught to seek out and identify the main ideas, dismissing the trivial as you go. This has had to be trained into you: read to a young child sometime, you will notice she has the annoying habit of interrupting the flow of the story to draw attention to some minor thing. Close reading resembles the interruptions of that child. It is a method of undoing the training that keeps us to the straight and narrow path of main ideas. It is a way of learning not to disregard those features of the text that attract our attention, but are not principal ideas.
Jane Gallop, “The Ethics of Close Reading: Close Encounters,” Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, Vol.16, No.3 (Fall 2000), pg.7-8 (x)
for the longest time I couldn’t understand the purpose of cuno and cunoese in the disco narrative until I’ve started working at a local order pickup point and got my own two gremlins to imprint on me
jesus fuck. these two dipshits barged into my pickup point ant started destroying e v e r y t h i n g around and i was so appalled i just. fucking stared into the distance for a while. until they pulled out of their pockets like five vapes and started puffing in my face and then suggested that I buy one from them for a good deal and I laughed at their faces like “you think I can’t buy myself a vape?” and these two fuckos blinked at me in unison and said yes. today they asked what my degree’s at I said arts and they followed “and now you work at a pickup point” FUUUUUCCKKK YOOOUUUUUUUU ONE DAY ILL BE NORMAL AGAIN
the feeling of being humbled on your work hours by nine year olds is. incomparable
anyway the point is that now I’m their bestie against my will. they visit me every day after school and somehow they fucking vape less now. because they don’t want to disappoint me. like what. I’m a fucking smoker myself where did you get this wisdom from. they hug me hello and goodbye.
today one of them begged me for a puff and I was like no one day you’ll want to live a longer life and he goes actually I don’t wanna live. ever since my dad has died I feel like there’s no one else who can love me anymore. and I was like. one day you’ll grow up and you’ll be here for yourself by your own side and no one will harm you. your dad loved you. your brother who beats you is a weak idiot who can’t step up and fill his shoes. give me back my vape
like. the writers captured the raw batshit bonkers honesty and devastation of lost kids and didn’t forget to make them call you a fag. and after they’re done with you you’re left alone with all this bs that you wish you’ve been told before and hope those are the right things to say now.
Sexiest Podcast Character 2026 — Round 2
Who is sexier?
Hazel McCallah
Kiki Cethin
Propaganda
Hazel McCallah (The Unexplored Places: Ruin's Gate):
definitely a lesbian
has terrible horrible visions of Doom
occasionally gets possessed by a supernatural force that makes her better at fighting demons and also makes smoke pour out of her eyes
described as "if Charlize Theron in Mad Max didn't have a celebrity skincare routine"
fights with a fucking sick axe with a red stone head
wears an old flight suit but with the arms tied around her waist like a classic hot scifi lesbian
died and came back wrong!!!!!!!!
her link to the world of the living is the motherless 12 year old girl she rescued from a mine collapse and taught how to ride a horse and who loves her sooooo much
almost got turned into a centaur made of plant and bone one time
has a horse named Freddie
can engage a small gang on equal footing
Kiki Cethin (The Room Where It Happened: Elder County and Foxfire):
Do y'all need some big, strong, tanned arms to hold you? Do you need to see a woman twice your size throw a scumbag on his ass? What if she could turn into a massive werewolf and hulk out of her shirt?
Then you want Kiki Cethin! She's incredibly soft hearted, stubborn, determined, and has a gruff exterior that tricks people into thinking she isn't as nice as she is. She went through hell trying to find her missing little brother.
She's in a weird emotional thing with her friend Cecily
She's the pack leader and union rep of a werewolf pack
SHE'S TRANS!
she's so strong
She gets emotional when she holds babies
Kiki can tear a car to pieces with her bare paws
Art of Kiki Cethin by @lotsadeer.
Additional propaganda below the cut:
one more post about Hazel please vote for Hazel!
what's sexier than a middle aged butch cowboy with a shady past born out of desperation to survive on a harsh and unforgiving planet who makes the conscious decision to not only become a better person and use her strength to help her struggling community, but also who willingly sacrifices herself to atone for her past and then COMES BACK FROM THE DEAD, resurrected by the spirit of said planet, to continue to protect that community and the people in it?
is it a middle aged butch cowboy who rescues a young girl—who, grieving the loss of her own mother in a mining accident, ran away from home and got trapped in the same haunted mine where her mother died—and decides to become a mentor to that young girl, and is motivated by the desire to make the world into a kinder place for that girl than it was to her when she was a child?
or maybe it's a middle aged butch cowboy who, when she fights supernatural monsters with her cool hellstone axe, has smoke come out of her eyes and succumbs to prophetic visions of doom???
also she's HOT
Listen, I'm going to be honest here. I don't think I'd ever found a podcast character hot before Hazel. Now Hazel is the metric against which all other podcast characters are judged. I've never listened to that other show, but how Hazel isn't just absolutely running away with this thing is beyond me.
