Fragments

Call me Mel. skitzofreak on AO3

[ahno-nimus]

you won't believe the weather we've been getting [remembers to avoid giving away my location] the sky was turned to darkness and the moon to blood, and the stars fell from the heavens.

[uncle-beanbag-mojave]

Detroit

[peachvers]

imagine if the oceans were replaced by forests and if you went into the forest the trees would get taller the deeper you went and there’d be thousands of undiscovered species and you could effectively walk across the ocean but the deeper you went, the darker it would be and the animals would get progressively scarier and more dangerous and instead of whales there’d be giant deer and just wow

[chandrar-nalaar]

you have a beautiful imagination

[iguanamouth]

[peachvers]

obsessed with tumblr giving me a banner to celebrate ten reblogs on my post with *checks notes* …a million notes

[ralfmaximus]

At last, a pill that can prevent COVID after exposure to infected people

Drug arrives years after pandemic’s peak, but could still offer protection to vulnerable populations.

An antiviral pill has, for the first time, been shown to prevent COVID-19 in people exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus at home, according to trial results published today in the New England Journal of Medicine1. The drug could be a lifeline for those who still face real danger from the virus, such as care-home residents or transplant recipients on immune-suppressing medication.

There are good things happening in the world.

[meret118]

You can read about it here without a paywall.

Households exposed to COVID-19 now have an oral drug specifically cleared to prevent infection after contact with a sick person. The FDA listed Xocova, the brand name for ensitrelvir, as a 2026 novel drug approval for post-exposure prophylaxis of COVID-19 following contact with an infected individual. The decision fills a gap that has persisted since the pandemic’s early years: until now, no oral antiviral carried an FDA-approved indication for prevention rather than treatment.

[andmaybegayer]

> looking at a new popular collectible

> ask the people if it's objects or gambling

> they don't understand

> pull out illustrated diagram explaining what is objects and what is gambling

> they laugh and say "it's a good collectible sir"

> look up how to buy a collectible

> its gambling

[andmaybegayer]

> #wait are labubu's blind bags?!

Labubus are blind bags but they're also blind bags with some of the most insane dark patterns stacked on top. The online store for them has a thing where they tell you what you got the second you order it online so that you can immediately try again if you didn't get the thing you wanted.

There's also a shake feature that is designed to encourage you to buy more than one by narrowing down the possibility space on a crate of options so that if you're hunting a specific model you can verify that it's guaranteed to be in one of these three IF you buy all three right now!!!!!

[girlishgamine]

You can read more about what dark patterns are and how to spot them here.

Deceptive Patterns (aka Dark Patterns) - spreading awareness since 2010

The original website about deceptive patterns (also known as “dark patterns”) - tricks used in websites and apps that make you do things tha

[ralfmaximus]

That is a fucking awesome site everyone should visit. Don't skip the Hall of Shame.

[dailymanners]

I just thought of this post, which was actually how I learned what Dark Patterns are, because I tried to cancel my Adobe Acrobat subscription, and it took much longer than I anticipated because several times throughout the process it felt like it was intentionally trying to trick me into thinking I'd cancelled my subscription when I actually hadn't yet.

Please read up on Dark Patterns and learn how to recognize them.

[lonelyvampx]

Anastasia Trusova

[tiktoks-i-enjoyed]

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Sam Handwich.

[sufficientlylargen]

If Pikiwedia says it it must be true.

[zooperdoopers]

I made Pikiwedia real. Works for any Wikipedia page. Use this wisely :)‌

[sufficientlylargen]

Oh, wary dell vone

[zooperdoopers]

Goodmorning to the Anthropic Claude AI training scraper that suddenly decided to request 660 thousand pages (exactly the number I had remaining on the starter plan) and brought Pikiwedia down. 

Sudden switch from diverse user agents like chrome, safari, messenger preview to Just Claudebot. I'm not even mad though, this is maybe the funniest thing possible, because I've inadvertently poisoned their training data with thousands of fucked up articles with normal urls. 

Pikiwedia perseveres, back up with a better robots.txt. I hope Anthropic has a gery vood time with Pikiwedia's data :))

[helenvaughans]

Johnny Depp is playing Scrooge? I am not here for his big Hollywood comeback

‘It’s good to be back,’ says the actor in a new trailer for the forthcoming Ebenezer. Has everyone forgotten about the ghosts of his past?

[beardedmrbean]

[assortedcrackers]

I am losing my shit right now

[thetimetostrikeislater]

[bebewrites]

genAI companies are now buying up rare and antique books so they can scan them and use them to train their AI. then they're destroying the books afterward.

AI Companies Are Buying Antique Books, Ingesting Their Contents to Train Models, and Then Destroying Them at Incredible Scale, Even If Almos

AI companies are quietly obtaining rare books, ingesting their contents, and then destroying them -- even if they're exceedingly rare.

they've had to face settlements against stealing from current authors, so they'll just go for the old books now. they're also doing this so they have the only copies of rare books.

they're taking water, power, natural resources for their data centers. they steal. they're book burning, essentially. i'm just so angry, i'm at a loss right now.

[twizzlersandvanillacoke]

From the article:

"One small book seller said that in April, he suddenly went from selling no more than 20 books a week to hundreds, and he’s almost certain that the customers are AI labs, noting the random selection of the books and how they all have ISBNs. He added that his inventory is full with rare and out of print books, meaning that an AI company could be destroying some of the few remaining copies that can be found.

“I personally have mixed feelings about all of this,” the bookseller told 404. “It benefits me financially as well as by clearing out old inventory that is otherwise unlikely to sell. I’ve been well-suited for these sales with inventory from overseas and foreign language books.

From a Google search:

PISBN allows publishers, retailers, and libraries to track and manage books more efficiently. Each ISBN corresponds to one specific edition of a publication, making it essential for smooth global circulation.

[melyzard]

Anthropic destroyed millions of print books to build its AI models

Company hired Google's book-scanning chief to cut up and digitize "all the books in the world."

The Court Ruling that brought some of this to light: Document here

[markscherz]

This may sound stupid but. How do you even begin to look for new tiny frogs???

[hydrachea]

> turns on my computer

> disables a new AI feature that was turned on by default

> opens my email

> disables a new AI feature that was turned on by default

> launches a software

> disables a new AI fea

[sluttygrandpa]

Honestly, at this point, if you're still bitching about AI but not moving to open-source and nonprofit software/tech/services, you deserve it. Shut up or stop using it. Those of us who've put in the effort to switch to non-evil tech are sick of the purposeless whining.

[hydrachea]

I've been nicely letting everyone suggest open source on this post because it might genuinely be useful to someone but because you've decided to be a condescending little bastard- this might be a hard concept to grasp, but some of us actually have jobs. Some of those jobs also provide us with computers equipped with an OS we have zero say over, to use software we also have zero say over. Kindly get off your high horse and suck my dick.

[sage-nebula]

As someone who has worked in IT for the past 17 years, I'd also like to say that there is often a higher barrier of entry for open-source software / operating systems when it comes to technical knowledge and ability, and those who can't jump that barrier still deserve to not have AI programs installed on their devices without their knowledge or consent. Someone who struggles with Windows is not going to be able to just hop into Linux, especially when they probably have other things going on in their lives and don't have the time to sit down and learn a brand new operating system. Someone who doesn't even recognize that there are different browsers, much less open-source ones that aren't Chromium forks, isn't going to be able to seek out one they can both a.) safely download, b.) install, and c.) use instead of the shortcut they know as The Internet.

And sure, you can dismiss these people as lazy, as stupid, as being elderly and so who cares. But from my 17 years of experience, I can tell you that technical instinct and ability varies widely across the entire adult spectrum. And I can also tell you that people have different strengths, and that just because someone isn't good with computers doesn't mean they aren't smart as hell.

And I can also say, again, that it really doesn't matter.

Companies like Microsoft and Google sneaking AI software into devices and software without the consent of those using the software or devices is wrong. It's invasive and raises major security concerns. People should not have to learn entirely new operating systems to escape this nonsense. It's an unreasonable expectation, and it fails to hold companies like Microsoft and Google accountable for their malicious behavior.

[secondlina]

KAPOW!!!!!

[tinyfirecrackershaw]

The strongest stars have hearts of kyber (instagram)

[montereybayaquarium]

Protect California's coasts!

No matter where you live, you can speak up and take action now to protect the coast of California from offshore drilling.

The Trump administration's plan for new offshore oil and gas drilling in federal waters is expected any day. If finalized, drilling could begin off the California coast as soon as next year.

We need you—our Aquarium Tumblr community—to act right now.

📣 California residents: Tell your lawmakers to vote YES on AB 1448—closing loopholes that let old infrastructure fuel new drilling. Submit by August 3.

📣 Everyone: Tell NOAA to keep California's coastal protections strong. NOAA needs to hear from everyone who loves the California coast, no matter where you live. Public comments are due August 22.

Our coast can't wait. Take action now:

Protect California’s coastline

Take two actions to stop federal offshore drilling off California's coast.

[montereybayaquarium]

Protect California's coasts!

No matter where you live, you can speak up and take action now to protect the coast of California from offshore drilling.

The Trump administration's plan for new offshore oil and gas drilling in federal waters is expected any day. If finalized, drilling could begin off the California coast as soon as next year.

We need you—our Aquarium Tumblr community—to act right now.

📣 California residents: Tell your lawmakers to vote YES on AB 1448—closing loopholes that let old infrastructure fuel new drilling. Submit by August 3.

📣 Everyone: Tell NOAA to keep California's coastal protections strong. NOAA needs to hear from everyone who loves the California coast, no matter where you live. Public comments are due August 22.

Our coast can't wait. Take action now:

Protect California’s coastline

Take two actions to stop federal offshore drilling off California's coast.

[reggiemess]

A lot of media these days wants to be The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny and the thing is that The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny already exists and would not be improved by realistic cgi and three hours of lore and self-aware smirking.

[reggiemess]

Disney wants SO BAD to have a moment where Gandalf the Grey and Gandalf the White and Monty Python and the Holy Grail's black knight and Benito Mussolini and the Blue Meanie and Cowboy Curtis and Jambi the Genie, Robocop, The Terminator, Captain Kirk, and Darth Vader, Lo-pan, Superman, every single Power Ranger, Bill S. Preston and Theodore Logan, Spock, The Rock, Doc Ock, and Hulk Hogan all come out of nowhere lightning fast and kick Chuck Norris in his cowboy ass but they can't. They will NEVER have that moment. So instead we're just going to have Avengers Lego Pixar Princesses crossovers forever.