“The Play’s the Thing” (Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2), adapted by Binah Q. For this year’s Graphic Shakespeare Competition.
TVSTRANGERTHINGS

Origami Around
Show & Tell

❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
noise dept.
Misplaced Lens Cap

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祝日 / Permanent Vacation
trying on a metaphor

oozey mess

#extradirty
Jules of Nature
occasionally subtle
wallacepolsom
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
Cosmic Funnies
hello vonnie

pixel skylines

Kaledo Art
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seen from Malaysia
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@mercurialcomet
“The Play’s the Thing” (Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2), adapted by Binah Q. For this year’s Graphic Shakespeare Competition.
someone: prohibition in the united states was largely ineffective, cost millions, tried to force a religious belief on the entire country, only ever resulted in the increase in consumption of alcohol, as well as the increase in police violence, and ultimately failed
people: okay yeah that’s true
someone: the war on drugs is the exact same thing except this time because of the militarization of the police and private prison interests, is much, much more deadly and specifically exists to justify and widely reinstate slavery within the united states
people: what? but drugs are #bad, and we can’t let people use them. obviously this is the only way to deal with this situation
ed zitron, a tech beat reporter, wrote an article about a recent paper that came out from goldman-sachs calling AI, in nicer terms, a grift. it is a really interesting article; hearing criticism from people who are not ignorant of the tech and have no reason to mince words is refreshing. it also brings up points and asks the right questions:
if AI is going to be a trillion dollar investment, what trillion dollar problem is it solving?
what does it mean when people say that AI will "get better"? what does that look like and how would it even be achieved? the article makes a point to debunk talking points about how all tech is misunderstood at first by pointing out that the tech it gets compared to the most, the internet and smartphones, were both created over the course of decades with roadmaps and clear goals. AI does not have this.
the american power grid straight up cannot handle the load required to run AI because it has not been meaningfully developed in decades. how are they going to overcome this hurdle (they aren't)?
people who are losing their jobs to this tech aren't being "replaced". they're just getting a taste of how little their managers care about their craft and how little they think of their consumer base. ai is not capable of replacing humans and there's no indication they ever will because...
all of these models use the same training data so now they're all giving the same wrong answers in the same voice. without massive and i mean EXPONENTIALLY MASSIVE troves of data to work with, they are pretty much as a standstill for any innovation they're imagining in their heads
the 'what if you played it a little risky' post literally Changed my life but i cant fujkign find it in my blog because its. a tiktok screenshot
is this it?
Not socialist in a “I won’t have to work” type of way but socialist in a “I’ll still be working but I won’t be worried I won’t make the rent” type of way. In a “billions won’t be hoarded by one person” type of way. In a “janitors, fast-food workers, child care workers, preschool teachers, hotel clerks, personal care and home health aides, and grocery store cashiers, will live comfortably” type of way. In a “the sick and elderly will be cared for” type of way. In a “no child should work” type of way.
In the "my illness won't condemn me to an early, ignominious death" kind of way.
Well I'm sure you tell me you got nothing to say
But our voices shook hands the other day
If you can't see the thin air then what the hell is in the way?
the name "theresa" is so funny like. theres a what
de naam 'eris' is zo grappig. er is wat?
Navnet "erik" er så spøgst. Han er ik hvad?
الإسم فيفي مهضوم كتير. في في شو؟
Nomen, "Est", alienus. Estne quid?
making an oc for Fabula Ultime bc it's cool
Keffals just doxxed a transwoman on her stream. Here I thought she couldn't get any lower
My name is Althea and I have recently been the target of false and defamatory allegations by Clara… Althea McIntosh needs your support for
Please do not let debt collectors play in your face.
I am super busy so I honestly don’t even know if I should be taking the time to write this, but hopefully this will help those of you who may find yourself in a similar situation.
Earlier this year I received a letter of notice from a debt collector stating that they had acquired a debt supposedly belonging to me and that, per law, I have 30 days to dispute the debt. I immediately drafted a letter and sent it to both disputing the debt and request validation of the debt as well as possible settlement arrangements had they actually been able to validate said debt
I sent this letter via certified mail. Always certified mail.
About a week after the 30 day period for them to respond expired, I received a Phone call very specifically crafted in a way to invoke urgency and panic and suggest legal action. So, naturally, I called this number only to discover this was a different company that had only just recently acquired said supposed debt. I reiterated to them that I was disputing this debt and required validation in writing.
The initial conversation went smoothly, they then called me back the next day and became aggressive. They accused me of lying and did everything under the sun to try and trick me into validating this debt as mine so that they would not have to legally send me that validation. I, knowing my rights, insisted that I was disputing the debt and that they were required to send me validation despite them claiming that they were not and that they already had and many other number of lies. I refused to continue the conversation until someone had sent me validation to which they continually responded that they would be forwarding this to their legal department and blah blah blah blah blah.
Surprise surprise, I get a phone call today from yet another company, this one claiming to be in the process of forwarding my account to the county clerks office. That was an immediate red flag as the county clerk does not handle debt disputes. They would have to hire a lawyer in my state to handle this case. I asked what company this was as they had not stated initially, and when they told me I realized this was now another company who had purchased said alleged debt and we’re trying to collect on it. this one outright illegally threatening to take me to court knowing they weren’t.
Beyond that, he tried to lie to me and tell me that a debt validation was not what I thought it was and that a validation was actually just a notice that they had purchased a debt so when I received a letter stating that they had purchased this debt that would be a validation.
That is not true! Debt companies are legally required to send you notice of an allegedly acquired debt in writing and you have 30 days to dispute and request that validation. The company then has 30 days themselves to respond and validate your debt or the debt is forfeit. This man tried to lie to me and tell me that a notice was the same thing as a dead validation in order to trick me into paying a debt that he cannot validate that I am actively disputing.
This is now the fourth company that has attempted to collect on a debt they cannot validate. They know they cannot validate this debt and instead have relied on trying to trick me into paying it. These tactics would absolutely work if I did not have a sales background and or know my rights.
And this ladies and gentlemen is why you always always always dispute a debt. The last debt I disputed was immediately pulled from collections and that allowed me to get back in contact with the original creditor and work out a payment plan so that it would never hit my credit and keep my account with them current. This debt is invalid and therefore they cannot hit my credit with it nor can I collect on it or I will sue them.
If you guys have any questions about dealing with that collectors please ask me.
I'm not surprised they gave you the long ass run around on this.
For anyone that has a debt sold to a Collections Agency do exactly what OP did and request debt validation (Google-able). Most of the time, the Original company you owed debt to did not give them your Social Security Number or your date of birth; just a good phone number and address. In order to be held legally responsible for it and to be on your credit score, they need your SSN or DOB to prove it's yours.
Usually, they're initial call will say "Hey so before we can discuss your debt of $Xxxx, we need you to verify your SSN and DOB." They're lying. That means they want you to confirm it so they can legally pin that debt to you. If you send a Debt Validation letter VIA CERTIFIED MAIL, that Collections Agency has 30 days to prove you owe the debt and that it does in fact tie to you. Since in most cases they can't, they'll send a letter saying "We don't have the necessary information to collect on this debt. It is now null and void." Send copies of that to the credit bureaus, and they wipe it from your credit report.
With OP, they did the shadiest thing possible by constantly re-selling the debt, thus starting over that 30 day response period.
Never pay a debt unless you're certain that you owe it. Especially if it's for a deceased relative. Debt collection companies are especially predatory during the grieving period asking you to "Pay down the debt" or "Clear their good name". Unless you (co)signed, don't give them anything. The debt will get written off on their taxes. If you do pay, you're locked in on that debt. You basically showed "willingness and ability to pay" which is all they need.
I gotta say... even if you *are * "certain you owe it", get it validated. If someone forgot to make sure to dot all the i's and cross all the t's and didn't connect the DOB and SSN and everything... That isn't your fault. This whole capitalistic hellscape is fucking broken. don't pay *anything* that you legally can't be compelled to.
the last poem written by a Palestinian martyr
read the full poem here!! <3
being so fr when I say that transmisogyny has put feminism back like 50 years
what i thought we had distanced ourselves from was the reduction of women to vaginas and wombs and the ability to bear children. i thought we had progressed past ‘dresses are for women and pants are for men.’ i thought we progressed past the idea that someone is less of a woman if she does not adhere strictly to beauty standards. i thought we progressed past the idea that naturally being comfortable adhering to highly feminine standards is vulgar. but i (sarcastically) guess no one could have predicted that trans-exclusive feminism would be the downfall of all the progress we’ve made
“We’re in danger of losing what the entire second wave of feminism, what the entire second wave of women’s liberation was built on, and that was ‘Biology is not destiny’. ‘One is not born a woman,’ Simone de Beauvoir said, ‘one becomes one’. Now there’s some place where transsexual women and other women intersect. Biological determinism has been used for centuries as a weapon against women, in order to justify a second-class and oppressed status. How on Earth, then, are you going to pick up the weapon of biological determinism and use it to liberate yourself? It’s a reactionary tool.”
— Quote by Leslie Feinberg, from TransSisters: The Journal of Transsexual Feminism, issue 7, volume 1. 1995.
Al Jazeera reporter was just saying how the increasing number of bodies arriving at the hospital has made it really difficult to find spots to bury them. He said that the nearby cemeteries are full... and families cannot take them to other areas to bury them because they either don't have fuel for their cars or israel would target and attack them as they do any moving thing.
And don't even think of fridges, these are either not working due to the lack of fuel/electricity or are already full, if not completely destroyed as part of Israel's targeting of hospitals in Gaza.
There is an increasing fear of illnesses spreading in the besieged Gaza Strip due to this and to the many bodies still trapped under rubble who cannot be recovered due to lack of resources or fuel to work big machinery and the fact Israel positions snipers on top of buildings, so to reach these areas can be a death sentence on its own.
This is just a small segment of what the grim situation has been like in Gaza. People need to bury their loved ones but the terror of Israel had made even that an impossible mission.
Advocacy needs to be louder than ever. Israel can only continue to do this because it has never been held accountable for its crimes. Don't ever say this is a two sided conflict, this example alone can show the extent of dehumanisation Palestinians suffer at the hands of Israel and should be enough to tell you that it is not some fair 50/50 game. It's genocide.
Pink Prison, a comic I did for my color theory class this semester! we had to pick a color, research it, and do a piece related to it somehow. i chose pink :)
everyday yall are shocked to find out those iconic rich and famous brands got thru the holocaust by supporting and being nazis
an old jewish friend of mine told me he never bought volkswagens bcuz so many of his family members died building them
this isnt some call to boycott every business who funded sponsored and pushed genocide im just saying that no one shouldve ever forgiven those companies no one with power with money with ability should have let them continue after what they did
but they stayed icons of fashion of automotives and now what right do so many ppl have to say be better when we cant even stop wearing hugo boss or driving a car made by jewish child slaves idk
idk the point
im just tired of the shock and horror i want an actual never again and that includes not funding genocidal corporations and people
stick w the BDS boycott lists and honestly when palestinians are free when they can walk around and drink and eat AND PLAN without the constant death we need to continue those boycotts
genocide is not something to be forgiven this is not a mistake a bad choice among bad choices
they kno what theyre doing
This is what the Western world, the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, France, the entire West has been siding with. This is what it wanted to black out. This is the Ghazzah strip right now. It looks like Hell. I can't believe my eyes and ears. The world has abandoned us.
And this is the U.S. response:
I feel like I can't breathe. My heart has been pulverized.