Just a random person

;)

[digitalkiddo]

If you're writing anything involving cons, scams, heists, or morally questionable characters who are very good at lying, here are some free resources I've been using for research. Saving you the "why is this in my search history" anxiety.

1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.

2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.

3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.

4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.

5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.

Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.

Reblog to save for later. Your WIP will thank you.

[bethanydelleman]

Important research for a story I'm writing! Not real life, never real life.

You are transported back in time and into the body of a young noblewoman in the 1400s. Your parents have married you off to an awful, abusive, rapist husband whom literally no one else would marry despite him being very high nobility because he's that terrible. You successfully produce a baby boy and then plan to murder this man for the good of everyone and yourself. Here is the question: do you think you could murder him in a way that is undetectable to the historical people around you? Note: they aren't stupid, you are the prime suspect as the battered wife AND you can't just say poison. Where are you going to buy poison? Do you know anything about poison actually? NO GOOGLING! You were sent back without a plan!

Do you think you could murder someone in the 1400s and get away with it with your modern know-how?

Yes, I totally have a plan (tell me for research purposes)

No, I realize that I'm very uninformed about murder

I have some ideas but I'm not sure they would work

Remaining time: 41 minutes

Edit: my notes are full of murder. I love you all

Edit: to clarify about the poison, you can use poison if you actually know how to identify it, I'm saying you can't just go "Poison!" with no knowledge about poison. Buying it probably means they know that poison and you're caught. Your personal knowledge when you read this post is all you have.

Another point of clarity: You went through all that trouble to have a baby without modern medicine so you could get the sweet house after your husband died. That's why you can't be caught. No disappearing.

Edit again: Air embolisms are going on a high shelf because the syringe won't be invented for 350 years. Prove to me that you could make one from scratch, lol

I promise to stop making edits (lol): I left the country vague because I just wanted to see ideas for modern vs. past. Whatever place you are most knowledgeable about

[danielkahndyke]

the op linked the study in the replies & i’ve been skimming it & it’s actually rlly rlly interesting to think abt

https://e1.nmcdn.io/assets/pushkin/wp-content/uploads/imported-files/Wait-theres-torture-in-Zootopia_-Examining-the-prevalence-of-torture-in-popular-movies.pdf

[danielkahndyke]

like this sentence from the introduction alone is fucking crazy. “approximately half of adults in the united states think that torture can be acceptable in counterterrorism.” what!

[digitalkiddo]

If you're writing anything involving cons, scams, heists, or morally questionable characters who are very good at lying, here are some free resources I've been using for research. Saving you the "why is this in my search history" anxiety.

1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.

2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.

3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.

4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.

5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.

Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.

Reblog to save for later. Your WIP will thank you.

[deathcomequickly]

May your Paths be safe, your Floors unbroken and may the House fill your eyes with Beauty.

I read Piranesi again...

I had to compress the hell out of this gif to upload. If you want to see a nicer, bigger version you can do so here on my AO3.

Ko-Fi | Carrd

[spiteswallow]

I humbly suggest that true crime freaks should get into learning about scammers instead of serial killers. I LOVE reading about fraud and grifts and pyramid schemes. true crime ppl have all this paranoid energy about murder, which is rare in the grand scheme of things.....maybe instead that could be channeled into some productive rage toward capitalism.

[spiteswallow]

And u know a side effect of learning about scam artists is that you start to understand certain things about economics, and just how STUPID these systems are and how easily they are taken advantage of....and I'd much rather people gained a passing familiarity with economics than whatever armchair psychologist shit these true crimers get on. We need fewer people who think they're experts on "sociopaths" and more people who understand how people like Elizabeth Holmes and the WeWork guy were able to do what they did

[lindstromm]

Here are some of my favorite books about financial scams:

The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust by Diana B. Henriques.

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis (about the 2008 stock market collapse).

The Caesar's Palace Coup: How a Billionaire Brawl Over the Famous Casino Exposed the Corruption of the Private Equity Industry by Max Frumes and Sujeet Indap. (I admit I've never finished this one; the writing is hard to read.)

The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute, by Zac Bissonette. I bought this book because of the subtitle and I have never regretted it. You must read it.

Catch Me If You Can by Frank Abagnale. They turned this one into a movie! The book was very different and is worth reading.

The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion, by Elliot Brown and Maureen Farrell. I haven't read this one yet, but it's on my tbr pile!

Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy Inside the Catholic Church, by Gareth Gore. I'm reading this one right now. The author is a financial journalist who stumbled onto this story by unraveling a bank failure in Spain.

And here's a list of more non-fiction books about fraud and financial scams. The first book on this list is about Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes, which I also haven't read yet.

Enjoy!

[mossdftba]

Atomic Shrimp on youtube is a fun watch to learn about different kinds of scams!

[toytulini]

Scam Goddess

Scam Goddess is an award-winning comedy podcast dedicated to fraud and all those who practice it. Every episode, the Scam Goddess herself La

theres even podcasts!

https://pca.st/podcast/05a4a460-b5dc-0137-faef-0acc26574db2

[motherfuckingshakespeare]

A HANDY CHART FOR THOSE OF YOU WONDERING WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THESE. NOTE THAT THESE ARE ALL THE INFORMAL AND YOU IS THE FORMAL SO LIKE YOU WOULD ALWAYS ADDRESS YOUR SUPERIOR/ OLDER PERSON/ SOCIAL BETTER WITH YOU BUT WITH YOUR BUDS YOU CAN USE THESE. 

[greentrickster]

Bonus mnemonic I came up with to remember ‘thy’ and 'thine’ back when I not only had to learn all this, but be casual conversation fluent in it when I worked at the Renaissance Faire for a couple of years:

'Thy sky blue eyes.’

'Thine alpine slopes.’

Worked like a charm, and was easy to remember (as you can tell by the fact that I can still remember it off the top of my head four years later).

[dogwise]

PRACTICE URGE SURFING

[dogwise]

[teumessianandlaelaps]

Huh, didn't know there was a term for it. This explains why I haven't been drinking as much lately.

[its-halloween-night]

Personal scans of some new old cds I picked up the other day

[bringcal]

fuck killing a victorian child by making them listen to hyperpop all you gotta do is make a white tumblr user listen to rap

[pc-nk]

LMAO

[wylde-space]

People who think rap is ONLY about sex/wealth/violence have never stopped to consider that rap branches out into a hundred different subgenres. I basically solely listen to metal and "emo" music covers and anime/video game songs and let me tell you I absolutely still have rap in my playlists.

Give this a listen and tell me that rap isn't beautiful and inspiring. Your problem isn't with rap as a medium it's with a certain tone and you can very easily find an artist you actually vibe with. Don't read into the bad propaganda doled out by people who don't know better. It's like saying metal is ONLY about being angry and rock is ONLY about drugs and country is ONLY about loving America. It's only true if you go out of your way to be a music snob.

[ranidspace]

i think if you can only handle rap music made by white people about anime and video games this post is still making fun of you

[p0rk-guts]

HOW DOES THIS POST KEEP GETTING WORSE

[doubleca5t]

[annabelle--cane]

I think one of the ultimate thesis statements of tma is that, even if it doesn't matter, it matters. your life may be controlled by forces beyond your comprehension, the outcomes may more or less be decided already, and you may be doomed to ultimately fail whenever you try to enact good, but it still matters that you tried. or, that you didn't try. or, that you stopped trying. your suffering and your joy and your kindness and your cruelty still have meaning and value, nothing can be defined by its ultimate fate alone, and submission to a predetermined path is as much a choice as resistance. sure, you're on a journey to tragedy, but on that journey you might fall in love, or you might become a better version of yourself, or you might betray people's trust, or you might decide to take up serial killing, the options are as endless as they are worthless as they are vital. you are cosmically insignificant, but you aren't living on a cosmic scale, you're living on a human one. so tell me: the train's coming down the tracks, and the lever is right in front of you. you know you could turn and run and not have to watch, and you know the lever's probably jammed up with spiderwebs, anyway. you know that it might just give way if you slam your whole body into it, and you know that even if you succeed you'll still be responsible for a tragedy. do you try?

[pinehutch]

Like the man says: "our experience of the universe has value. Even if it disappears forever."

[ID: screenshot from the unofficial transcript of MAG 151, "Big Picture." MARTIN is saying "I think our experience of the universe has value. Even if it disappears forever."]

(it's so funny to me that Simon Fairchild immediately calls this "a lonely way to look at things." To me, it's always seemed anything but. What matters is that you — we — were here, experiencing, making meaning. Even if it's lost, it matters that it happened.)

[parkchanwoohoo]

[sexysilverstrider]

the group chat when i ask whos available to hang out next week

[ikimaru]

I finished uploading all my kl comics on Fanon a while ago so here's a reminder that you can read them on there as well, it's free! 💜

(if you prefer this format to reading them on tumblr I mean haha)

I also recently updated a bunch of pages from Fool Me Once, mostly art tweaks across the more recent pages and added a couple pages! I plan to update them on tumblr as well when I have the time but they're on there in the meantime! 👍

[thebibliosphere]

Opening my author email these days really is just some variation of "hello influencer, we have noticed your [product] and that you are very good at it. We would like to talk to you about a way you can expand your audience using our unique subscription service training people how to self publish there book," and that's great and all, but I'm doing that shit for free.

[thebibliosphere]

Anyway, in light of Draft2Digital implementing fees for new authors or authors who do not make the yearly threshold of sales (I get why they're doing it, and it's still less expensive than Ingram by a country mile. But it still sucks for the people affected by it and it will drive more people to Amazon :/), you can publish your digital media directly through Kobo.

They do not offer paperbacks or hardbacks at this time.

But their digital market has the same e-book and audio market reach as D2D/Ingram and allows for library lending. So if you are an indie author who was mostly using D2D for that library access, and for whom the maintenance fees would be prohibitive against your earnings, you can use Kobo for free.

I haven't used it, because I'm not affected by the D2D fees and I didn't want to mess up my market listings by having duplicates, but when I heard about the D2D fees, I started researching so I could hopefully find a free alternative with comparable market reach. And good old Kobo was there.

Anyway. Hope that helps someone.

[star-dragon-in-the-tardis]

I am having a moment of "Wait what do you mean there are people charging fees if an author doesn't hit a threshold of sales?" I am looking at Ingram right now and wondering if I need to pull my book or not. :-/

[thebibliosphere]

Ingram isn't currently charging you to host if you don't meet a certain royalty threshold.

D2D has implemented it to try and combat the fact that they're free access model means they've been getting hammered by AI slop uploads. (Barnes and Noble are also getting hammered, and they've chosen instead to restrict author accounts to 100 books per account.) They're hoping having a small fee will discourage those people.

The $12 yearly maintenance fee through D2D is still substantially lower than what Ingram charges to distribute through them every time you make an upload (the last time I looked it worked out at $75 per physical book + $25 every time you wanted to make a change to the files) but it's still enough of a barrier that some authors who don't make the $100+ a year threshold are looking for a different platform.

It's disheartening. I understand by D2D are doing what they are doing, but yeah. Not great.

[grimeclown]

 “hi welcome to mcdonalds what can i get for you?”

“yeah can i get a deluxe quarter pounder with cheese?”

“absolutely, do you want the meal or just the sandwich?’

“uuuuuh hold on”

*fishes something out of my pocket*

“mikey what do i do?”

“get the fries. youll need the energy in the coming days”

*stuffs it back in my pocket*

“uhh yes please  the meal would be great”

[texcritterspizzajamboree]

serious question: can anyone else see this post? am I hallucinating?

[meme-loving-stuck]

this is like Schrodinger’s fucking meme because half the time the pic is deleted and the other half it’s visible

[kaban-bang]

[musashi]

Hey can you guys reblog Cheeseburger so he can take a sunbeam nap on lots of blogs. No other reason I just want you guys to see him.

[musashi]

So, Cheeseburger died on November 21st after an unfairly short battle with an unfairly rare cancer that is rarely seen in cats. I only got to spend a month with him after his diagnosis, and losing him has been the greatest heartbreak of my entire life so far. He was my best friend and my soul cat, and he was there for me when I was completely alone, for twelve long years.

I made this transparent PNG the night he died in preparation for one of the many ways I was going to memorialize him--a surface rug in his likeness that I planned on laying directly in the line of his favourite sunbeam. And I uploaded that PNG here, because this is the website where people post their cats.

I was not expecting the reception I got. Many people have pointed out that this post has more reblogs than likes, and how insane that is in 2025 when reblog culture is at an all time low. I didn't even talk about the fact that Burger passed away in the original post, it wasn't a tearjerker reblog bait or anything like that. People just loved Burger that much, in the same way I fell in love with him at first sight. He was such an ugly kitten.

Anyways, it's really special to me that so many people have reblogged my best friend. I made this PNG to memorialize him in a completely different way, and you all wound up doing just that in ways I never even imagined.

Thank you. Wherever he is, I know the sun is shining.