For our own hearts always exceed us.

Why are you so afraid of success? angelica, 24 (she/her), a procrastinator with the visions of an overachiever. ✎ TFC-NET

[dramyhsturgis]

Octavia E. Butler's must-read masterpiece Parable of the Sower (1993) begins its first chapter on July 20, 2024.

[pandemic-info]

5th person confirmed to be cured of HIV

Researchers are announcing that a 53-year-old man in Germany has been cured of HIV.

Referred to as “the Dusseldorf patient” to protect his privacy, researchers said he is the fifth confirmed case of an HIV cure. Although the details of his successful treatment were first announced at a conference in 2019, researchers could not confirm he had been officially cured at that time.

Today, researchers announced the Dusseldorf patient still has no detectable virus in his body, even after stopping his HIV medication four years ago.

[stereotype-embodier]

Unbelievably fucking cool

[carrieneuman]

A twice-yearly shot could help end AIDS, but only if it can get to everyone who needs it

A twice-yearly shot has shown to be 100 percent effective in preventing HIV infections in a study of women, and published results show it wo

Between that and new preventative shot, we might be able to eradicate HIV in the near future.

[jam-does-audio]

Do not forget this. No matter what happens do not forget we’re this close to finally ending this awful virus

[block]

reblog if you need a hug

[northerlygale-deactivated202307]

Reblog to give the person you reblogged this from a much needed hug

[theartofangirling]

I’ve been waiting a year to post this

[theartofangirling]

it’s that time of year again

[ojibwa]

i rlly hope it gets easier soon bc i am fucking losing my mind

[pinkcatminht]

[squidcrimes]

"don't go grocery shopping when hungry" doesn't work for me because Not Hungry Me cannot conceive of a universe in which food is needed so she buys like a cup of pomegranate seeds and some fancy cheese and thinks that'll get us through the week.

[twofingerswhiskey]

FUN FACT the scientist who said that made it the fuck up! he's also the same dude who said that if kids made eye contact with the character on food boxes they wanted it more. so now all the cereal mascots/kids mascots look downwards to a child height. but THEY MADE IT UP and it's allllllll bullshit and bad science to the point cornell deleted the fuckin cereal eyes study from the face of the earth and modern research is saying you SHOULD shop when ur hungry because it makes you put more value on food that would give you more nutrition and actually sharpens your ability to feed yourself well

[squidcrimes]

So I think the cereal box guy was Brian Wansink and honestly that tracks. If Wansink thinks we should be grocery shopping when full then we should definitely be doing it when hungry. Bruh is an absolute joke.

[twofingerswhiskey]

THAT'S THE BASTARD

[twofingerswhiskey]

IT'S HIM

imagine being so bad at science that your university forces you to stop

things he also came up with that are BULLSHIT:

eating around fat people makes you eat more junk food??? (wtf?)

portion sizes affecting how hungry you feel

"if you are served second portions you are more likely to take seconds"

the entire concept of mini and fun-sized portion sizes (based in fatphobia btw!)

the idea of boredom eating and stress eating being bad for you and not normal

the idea of eating in front of a screen being terrible for your digestion

that julia child's cooking was trying to make you fat (based on 18 of 4500 recipes...)

the idea of western food being unhealthy

the cereal eyes thing

the shopping while hungry thing

and much much more!

also he committed kickstarter fraud in 2018 and is a massive fatphobe who thinks fat people recruit others to become fat by just existing. fuck him lmao

[genderkoolaid]

Sliced And Diced: The Inside Story Of How An Ivy League Food Scientist Turned Shoddy Data Into Viral Studies

Brian Wansink won fame, funding, and influence for his science-backed advice on healthy eating. Now, emails show how the Cornell professor a

Food Scientist Brian Wansink Gets Another Retraction

Cornell University food behavior scientist Brian Wansink has retracted another paper — his fourth this year. “There is no empirical support

“This Seems Like A Quite Remarkable Coincidence.” Why Did So Many Of This Food Researcher’s Surveys Have Exactly 770 Responses?

Cornell University scientist Brian Wansink is facing yet another formal correction — his eighth this year, along with three full retractions

Emails Show How An Ivy League Prof Tried To Do Damage Control For His Bogus Food Science

Brian Wansink of Cornell University publishes headline-friendly studies about food psychology and oversees a $22 million federally funded pr

Here's a few articles by Stephanie M. Lee about Wansink's multiple p-hacking scandals. Initially I just found these looking for more information but now I'm also extremely amused by how much she was on this guy's ass for his shitty science.

[azuremist]

Google is going to start scraping all of their platforms to use for AI training. So, here are some alternatives for common Google tools!

Google Chrome -> Firefox

If you’re on tumblr, you’ve probably already been told this a thousand times. But FireFox is an open-source browser which is safe, fast and secure. Basically all other browsers are Chrome reskins. Try Firefox Profilemaker, Arkenfox and Librewolf! Alternatively, vanilla Firefox is alright, but get Ublock Origin, turn off pocket, and get Tabliss.

Google Search -> DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo very rarely tracks or stores your browsing data (though they have only been known to sell this info to Microsoft). Don’t use their browser; only their search engine. Domain visits in their browser get shared. Alternatively, you can also use Ecosia, which is a safe search engine that uses its income to plant trees! 🌲

Google Reverse Image Search -> Tineye

Tineye uses image identification tech rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks to find you the source of your image!

Gmail -> ProtonMail

All data stored on ProtonMail is encrypted, and it boasts self-destructing emails, text search, and a commitment to user privacy. Tutanota is also a good alternative!

Google Docs -> LibreOffice

LibreOffice is free and open-source software, which includes functions like writing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, formula editing and more.

Google Translate -> DeepL

DeepL is notable for its accuracy of translation, and is much better that Google Translate in this regard. It does cost money for unlimited usage, but it will let you translate 500,000 characters per month for free. If this is a dealbreaker, consider checking out the iTranslate app.

Google Forms -> ClickUp

ClickUp comes with a built-in form view, and also has a documents feature, which could make it a good option to take out two birds with one stone.

Google Drive -> Mega

Mega offers a better encryption method than Google Drive, which means it’s more secure.

YouTube -> PeerTube

YouTube is the most difficult to account for, because it has a functional monopoly on long-form video-sharing. That being said, PeerTube is open-source and decentralized. The Internet Archive also has a video section!

However, if you still want access to YouTube’s library, check out NewPipe and LibreTube! NewPipe scrapes YouTube’s API so you can watch YouTube videos without Google collecting your info. LibreTube does the same thing, but instead of using YouTube servers, it uses piped servers, so Google doesn’t even get your IP address. Both of these are free, don’t require sign-ins, and are open source!

Please feel free to drop your favorite alternatives to Google-owned products, too! And, if this topic interests you, consider checking out Glaze as well! It alters your artwork and photos so that it’s more difficult to use to train AI with! ⭐️

[yomikoreadsbooks]

Helpful internet stuff!! ✨

[kitchen-light]

In case you're looking for more reading materials on Sudan, here is a google doc compiled by Razan Idris (and under the hashtag Sudan Syllabus).

I sourced it via X here

[staff]

Hi, Tumblr. It’s Tumblr. We’re working on some things that we want to share with you. 

AI companies are acquiring content across the internet for a variety of purposes in all sorts of ways. There are currently very few regulations giving individuals control over how their content is used by AI platforms. Proposed regulations around the world, like the European Union’s AI Act, would give individuals more control over whether and how their content is utilized by this emerging technology. We support this right regardless of geographic location, so we’re releasing a toggle to opt out of sharing content from your public blogs with third parties, including AI platforms that use this content for model training. We’re also working with partners to ensure you have as much control as possible regarding what content is used.

Here are the important details:

We already discourage AI crawlers from gathering content from Tumblr and will continue to do so, save for those with which we partner. 

We want to represent all of you on Tumblr and ensure that protections are in place for how your content is used. We are committed to making sure our partners respect those decisions.

To opt out of sharing your public blogs’ content with third parties, visit each of your public blogs’ blog settings via the web interface and toggle on the “Prevent third-party sharing” option. 

For instructions on how to opt out using the latest version of the app, please visit this Help Center doc. 

Please note: If you’ve already chosen to discourage search crawling of your blog in your settings, we’ve automatically enabled the “Prevent third-party sharing” option.

If you have concerns, please read through the Help Center doc linked above and contact us via Support if you still have questions.

[sreegs]

I guess it's real:

Tumblr and Wordpress to Sell Users’ Data to Train AI Tools

Internal documents obtained by 404 Media show that Tumblr staff compiled users' data as part of a deal with Midjourney and OpenAI.

archive.is failing to get around the paywall, sorry. You can either register to read it for free, or read the pdf here. Feel free to reblog with a more permanent link: https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/e0b6eaf6-07d5-4a1e-a90c-50efd4f07157

Biggest takeaways are:

It's happening

There will be a switch to opt out

[jv]

What is this about the tumblr staff wanting to sell art data to midjourney?

An ex-colleague of mine mentioned yesterday that there may be contacts between Automattic and midjourney in that direction, but nothing is public yet and I don't have any more info. They probably won't have anything specific to share either, since they left the company weeks ago too. That being said:

I have no reason to doubt my ex-coworker word, they are a trustworthy person.

Tumblr's CEO has been absurdly enthusiastic (comically, even) about AI, and is a big fan of LLMs and 'AI' companies.

A deal with midjourney could solve tumblr financial issues (not the same company, but openAi is paying up to 5 million/year to news companies to use their content as training data... tumblr generates several orders of magnitude more content than any newspaper or any media company and it only would need a 20 to 30 million per year deal to be profitable)

So I don't have any extra info yet, but I'm keeping my ears open.

[jv]

And I just got confirmation from a second ex-colleague that a deal with midjourney has been brewing since months ago. Not any extra details, just that's a real thing.

Shit, I don't see any way for this to happen that doesn't make it an apocalyptic event the size of the porn ban. Fuck.

[jv]

Shit. This may be pure chance and coincidence, and it's not he is in a position to be able to talk about anything, but seeing prominent staff members announcing they are moving their original photography out of tumblr just two weeks ago seems a pretty significant cue of shit to be about to hit the fan.

[salora-rainriver]

Just tested. It’s possible to swap out pictures on already-published posts. So in that case, a solution:

Nightshade your photo posts now.

Even if you don’t post your own art anymore, go back to your old stuff and watermark it.

Do it ASAP, before the deal goes through and the scraping begins.

This will not only protect your art, but has the opportunity to fuck over this deal on a pretty large scale. The more of these posts that are glazed or poisoned, the less valuable this deal becomes for tumblr and midjourney.

Share this with everyone. And i do mean everyone.

[burningvelvet]

if the significance of the internet archive being threatened has been lost on anyone, maybe these quick comparisons will put it into perspective…

Banning the Internet Archive would be the equivalent of burning the Library of Alexandria hundreds of times…

[Image Descriptions in alt text]

[tbgkaru-woh]

SVSSS main boyos attempt was made! Please remember I know nothing about these characters but few fanart and fanons I've seen flying around :')

[tbgkaru-woh]

some more characters, now after watching the donghua! May upgrade the designs as I learn more

[tbgkaru-woh]

1st set of svsss characters done!

SJ - LQG - YQY - MBJ - GYX - LBH (OG) - young LBH

[candyspider-deactivated20230731]

that post about how its impossible to satirize masculinity without thousands of men earnestly idenitifying with it isn't wrong but ive also seen enough women cheer on the most rancid shit as long as its got a veneer of femininity to it so idk i think it might just be a human thing

[yaoist]

equality win: men and women both bad at media comprehension !!

[alexisraine]

for every Taxi Driver there's a Midsommar

[witchstone]

[aevios]

[ID= "#gotta know the difference between a 'god forbid women do anything' situation #and a 'do you think she effectively utilized girl power' situation" /end ID]

[intersectionalpraxis]

They're also censoring people who use these tags on X. Sudanese creators and activists who are talking about their experiences -and often not able to share extensive details about their sufferings because if they do, they could be killed for sharing information. Saying 'genocide' is getting their posts flagged and accounts banned too. We need to be talking about this too.

[sunsbleeding]