#June 2018 Edition

[thewales-family]

The Princess of Wales June 2024 Photo Challenge

14. Favourite photo(s) of Catherine in 2017 or 2018.

[fiercynn]

poetry outlets that support a free palestine

after finding out that the poetry foundation/POETRY magazine pulled a piece that discussed anti-zionism because they "don't want to pick a side" during the current genocide, i decided to put together a list of online outlets who are explicitly in solidarity with palestine where you can read (english-language) poetry, including, except where otherwise stated, by palestinian poets!

my criteria for this is not simply that they have published palestinian poets or pro-palestine statements in the past; i only chose outlets that, since october 7, 2023, have done one of the following:

published a solidarity statement against israeli occupation & genocide

signed onto the open letter for writers against the war on gaza and/or the open letter boycotting the poetry foundation

published content that is explicitly pro-palestine or anti-zionist, including poetry that explicitly deals with israeli occupation & genocide

shared posts that are pro-palestine on their social media accounts

fyi this is undoubtedly a very small sample. also some of these sites primarily feature nonfiction or short stories, but they do all publish poetry.

outlets that focus entirely on palestinian or SWANA (southwest asia and north africa) literature

we are not numbers, a palestinian youth-led project to write about palestinian lives

arab lit, a magazine for arabic literature in translation that is run by a crowd-funded collective

sumuo, an arab magazine, platform, and community (they appear to have a forthcoming palestine special print issue edited by leena aboutaleb and zaina alsous)

mizna, a platform for contemporary SWANA (southwest asian & north africa) lit, film, and art

the markaz review, a literary arts publication and cultural institution that curates content and programs on the greater middle east and communities in diaspora

online magazines who have published special issues of all palestinian writers (and all of them publish palestinian poets in their regular issues too)

fiyah literary magazine in december 2021, edited by nadia shammas and summer farah (if you have $6 usd to spare, proceeds from the e-book go to medical aid for palestinians)

strange horizons in march 2021, edited by rasha abdulhadi

the baffler in june 2021, curated by poet/translators fady joudah & lena khalaf tuffaha

the markaz review has two palestine-specific issues, on gaza and on palestinians in israel, currently free to download

literary hub featured palestinian poets in 2018 for the anniversary of the 1948 nakba

adi magazine, who have shifted their current (october 2023) issue to be all palestinian writers

outlets that generally seem to be pro-palestine/publish pro-palestine pieces and palestinian poetry

protean magazine (here's their solidarity statement)

poetry online (offering no-fee submissions to palestinian writers)

sundog lit (offering no-fee submissions to palestinian writers through december 1, 2023)

guernica magazine (here's a twitter thread of palestinian poetry they've published) guernica ended up publishing a zionist piece so fuck them too

split this rock (here's their solidarity statement)

the margins by the asian-american writers' workshop

the offing magazine

rusted radishes

voicemail poems

jewish currents

the drift magazine

asymptote

the poetry project

ctrl + v journal

the funambulist magazine

n+1 magazine (signed onto the open letter and they have many pro-palestine articles, but i'm not sure if they have published palestinian poets specifically)

hammer & hope (signed onto the letter but they are a new magazine only on their second issue and don't appear to have published any palestinian poets yet)

if you know others, please add them on!

[infiniteglitterfall]

this is my most autistic half-birthday ever!

I gave myself the day to pursue a special interest and fulfill an offer I'd made last year.

The Jewish Virtual Library has a page listing all the rocket and mortar attacks on Israel since 2001 (which was when they first started). But it's incomplete. Last fall, I noticed it stopped in August, so I wrote to them offering to help update it. They thanked me and gave me some places I could look.

Today, I finally did it. I ended up cross-referencing with the lists on Wikipedia, digging through multiple Twitter accounts and outside news sources and NGOs, and sending them an email with my updates... plus an html file where I'd updated the code on the page so they could just check it and upload it instead of typing in all the data themselves.

I am such a huge nerd.

There's definitely more research to do. But I think I found a strong stopping place that let me actually send what I found and post about it. Which is always the hardest part. As my drafts folder could tell you.

I have more than two thousand drafts on here.

Anyway, I'm going to put my findings under a cut tag. Before you read on, I want you to try to guess.

Because one of the things I've been told most often by people who wanna Argue About Palestine Without Having To Learn Anything About Palestine (Or Israel Or History Or Imperialism Or Fact-Checking Or ?????) is that the reason for October 7, the reason for literally anything in fact, is that "Israel bombs Palestine constantly."

I want to put together a list of Israeli airstrikes next. I would love to reblog this with that information. But first, I want you to guess:

Note that this DOES NOT include terrorist car rammings, mass shootings, mass stabbings, bus bombings, suicide bombings, etc. It therefore excludes almost the entire Second Intifada.

After correcting the most recent four years and sending in my corrections, I made a list of the totals using the most complete collection I could find for each year. (Sometimes it was Jewish Virtual Library, sometimes it was Wikipedia, and sometimes they matched.)

2024: 12,629 (an average of 35 per day)

2023: 12,295 (34 per day)

2022: 1,180 (only 3 per day)

2021: 4,425 (12 per day)

2020: about 203

2019: 798+

2018: 348+, 0.95 per day

2017: Only 47!!! Why, it's almost like living in Canada!! 0.1 per day.

2016: Wow, only 20. See, if you go through the years backwards, it looks like progress is being made.  Very exciting. Until I get to the Second Intifada, probably. 0.05 per day.

2015: 58.

2014: oh right, that war. 4,778. (Wikipedia's 2015 list claims " In August 2014, Operation Protective Edge was ended after 4,594 rockets and mortars launched toward Israel. From the end of the operation came into force an unofficial cease-fire between Israel and Hamas." but there were three more after that, and 181 before it, listed on wikipedia alone. so like. 4,778 actually, for 13 a day.)

2013: 70 total. Wikipedia notes this was the lowest number since 2001.

2012: 2,442, or 6.7 per day.

2011: 680, for 1.9 a day.

2010: 365, for exactly one a day.

2009: 858, or 2.4 per day.

2008: 3,107! that's 8.5 a day.

2007: 2,807: 7.7 a day.

2006: 1,275, or 3.5 a day.

2005: 858. An average of 2.4 per day.

2004: 1,158.

2003: 637.

2002: 472.]

2001: "These attacks commenced in April 2001, although the first rocket to hit an Israeli city was on 5 March 2002, and the first Israeli fatality was 28 June 2004." I count 173 mortar attacks in 2001, however. Which makes the first fatality a critically-injured baby in 2001. And as soon as I make 250+ more edits and have the power to edit Wikipedia articles on "controversial" topics, I'll make it say so.

Grand Total: 51,685.

An average of SIX PER DAY.

FOR 24 YEARS.

I've been saying four.

But there were actually thousands that weren't listed on the Virtual Library site yet. It really cranked up that average.

Now consider this: between 10%-30% misfire and either crash into the sea, or hit Gaza.

A surprising number of Gazan casualties in every "conflict" have been from Hamas & Co's own missiles.

And they know this. And not only do they not care, but they keep using everything from mosques to humanitarian zones as rocket launch sites.

And why shouldn't they? You have to really dig to find information on how many Gazans die that way. Almost everyone just attributes the deaths to Israel. Hamas is never going to get any actual flak for accidentally killing its own civilians. It barely gets any flak for intentionally killing Israeli civilians, for pete's sake.

[lokisasylum]

Things Armys/Ot7s have STOLEN from Jimin & PJMS

1-EVERY.SINGLE.TITLE.HE'S BEEN GIVEN IN HIS CAREER.

"Main dancer" - Stolen and gaslighted others to think it belonged to Jhope even though Jimin is the 1st BTS member that debuted as Main Dancer on KoreanTV MNET’s show Dancing 9 in 2013. (there's literally a video of that performance)

"IT Boy" - Stolen and gaslighted others into thinking that it belonged to JK or V (even though the title of "IT Boy" was given to JIMIN by Kmedia).

"Idol of Idols/Rookie's Bible" - Stolen and gaslighted others into believing that Taehyung is regarded like that by kmedia and rookie groups when AGAIN this title was given to JIMIN by Kmedia.

"Idol with unique vocals" - Stolen, criticized and gaslighted ppl into singing Jimin is a bad singer ('cause y'know, only jeykey can be a good singer)

Kmedia called Jimin a "Genius writer" for his work on FACE & MUSE - Armys got pissed and dragged him because "Rap Line exists, hello??" and "RM said he wrote some lyrics on LC, duh".

2- During FACE era a PJMs made a great and elaborated analysis of "Set Me Free Pt.2" and the post quickly gained attention and praise,

but what did army do the minute they saw it was a "Disgusting Jimin Solo"? STOLE her post and reposted it on to their page MOCKING her, throwing disgusting insults at her and inciting their thousands of followers to report her acc so when the acc got suspended they could claim the analysis was made by ARMY.

3- When Jimin was announced Global Brand Ambassador of DIOR, many armys AND solos tried to claim that it was a mistake and that DIOR never wanted Jimin, that they infact wanted Jungkook or Jhope, only for DIOR to state that they had been after Jimin since 2018 or earlier, but the company kept getting in the way since BTS were being "sold" as a group. (Even today, KTHs are claiming that Dior wants Th as soon as he comes out of MS, based on some prediction acc lol).

4- PJMS are the FIRST Solo fandom to be created as a response to taekookers constantly attacking Jimin and Armys ignoring the attacks, but demonizing anyone who wanted to support Jimin. But now every single member has Solo Fans, yet PJMS are the ONLY Solos who are actively haunted, harassed, reported, wrongfully accused of misdeeds that OTHER solos (and MANY armys) do (bullying, fan wars with blinks & other fandoms, s3xual harassment, editing PJMs selcas and uploading them to p0rn sites without caring that among them were MINORS).

5-Back in June 2023, PJMs had planned a Re-comeback for FACE and armys only accused us of "Trying to sabotage FESTA" & tried to get our fanbases reported, a week later they STOLE OUR poster/flyers that were made for the recomeback and used instead to do a recomeback for Jhope. When PJMs demanded answers we were told that "Solos don't deserve to celebrate anything, besides Jhope deserves it more and FACE era ended months ago".

6-After the AMAs ended and RM was (suspiciously) proclaimed "winner". MANY PJMs fanbases began to show proof that Jimin was LEADING this whole time on IG, the voting Polls and Web and our only real opponent there was ATEEZ or Stray Kidz.

Yet big "armys" accs claimed we had made up these numbers to "justify us using fraudulent methods for voting" and "they can't get over the fact that they lost and mean NOTHING".

But NOW? Those same armys are using OUR data to fight with Stray Kidz fans who are dragging RM, when the competition had been set between Jimin and them from the start. (EVERYONE in and out of the fandom KNOWS something sketchy went down with that voting and that BangPiggy had something to do with it)

And the whole fake groupchat they created recently to incriminate PJMS was made by the SAME fake RM fbs who claimed we stole those 5K accs. Why do you guys think they said they would show "proof of fraud" AFTER the winner was announced? Because they had been plotting this whole time in case Jimin did win.

[miyamiwu]

When the fuck is everything happening??? In 2018 (S1) or 2019 (Yingdu)?

EDIT (Mar. 28, 2025): Ignore everything in this post. LH0 has confirmed that 2018 has been retconned to 2019. No time fuckery going on 🫠

---

Picking up from the discussion in the replies under @kuschelkissen’s post...

The year Doudou was kidnapped, Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi spent their summer* break abroad—we now know this trip was to Yingdu.

*Summer months in China are June-August

The kidnapping and the Yingdu trip happened 3 years before the events in season 1, which took place in 2021:

(Date and time on Lu Guang’s watch right before they first dived into the Doudou case: 2021-10-13, 14:30.)

Three years ago would be 2018—which means ShiGuang should’ve already met by then and grown close enough to be on a trip together. But as we’ve seen in YE1, Lu Guang hasn’t moved in with CXS yet by the end of the Anime Con, which was on June 10, 2019:

(Throughout YE1, this is the only frame of Lu Guang’s watch where the year, 2019, is not blurred out)

The Vivian case started right after…which means that ShiGuang establishing their partnership also happened later since that took place afterward. Notably, throughout the Vivian case, the date was never once shown. But it’s safe to assume that it started on the same day/the day after Anime Con.

So, summing it up so far, ShiGuang has not yet met/formed a partnership in 2018, which they should’ve already done to be able to go to Yingdu together, as implied in S1.

I tried to look for frames showing the actual year Doudou was kidnapped, but guess what I found instead:

Translation of relevant part:

He went missing at around 3 pm on 201X, X month, X day.

If the entire date was in Xs, I could’ve just brushed this off as a design choice to show that the actual date doesn’t matter. However, they purposely revealed 3 digits for the year, leaving only the rightmost digit hidden: 201X

The year being 2021 is prominent throughout season 1:

(see date on monitors)

The kidnapping case taking place three years ago was also mentioned several times. Doing the math is easy, so why still hide the 8 in 2018? Why not just have the entire year in Xs to make it uniform with the month and day?

Did the kidnapping and Yingdu trip actually happen in 2018? If yes, then ShiGuang meeting and partnership should’ve happened much earlier. It doesn’t align with what we’ve been shown in YE1 (partnership established some time after June 10, 2019).

There’s still room for the first meeting date actually taking place in 2018, since the year it happened was never shown. We can only infer that it took place on an April 11 from the date on Cheng Xiaoshi’s phone (April 12) and the text he sent (which uses the word ‘tomorrow’):

However, I’m gonna trust the directors’ scene order choices here. Let’s just assume Yingdu Chapter has ShiGuang first meeting on April 11, 2019.

---

I’d like to think the confusion here over 2018 vs 2019 is simply due to an error in the anime. Maybe it’s actually just 2018. Or maybe they decided to change the kidnapping/yingdu trip to two years ago instead of three… But such discrepancy on a deliberate detail seems unlikely, especially for Link Click.

Did something happen that the events (first meeting and partnership establishment) are happening a year later than they’re supposed to be? Could Lu Guang be trying to prevent the Yingdu trip?

(Also, wasn’t it mentioned before that ShiGuang met in high school? Why is Lu Guang already a university freshman in the basketball match in Yingdu??? Why are he and CXS still wearing high school uniforms???)

I don’t know what the fuck is going on anymore

[yyh4ever]

Yu Yu Hakusho 30th Anniversary Commemorative Illustrations

The redraw in anime style of all the 15 covers from the Yu Yu Hakusho kanzenban edition (2004-2005) is over! Hirotaka Marufuji, chief animation director of the Yu Yu Hakusho OVAs (2018), was in charge of the illustrations.

This project began with the release of a 30th Anniversary logo, on June 3rd, 2022, and ended on October 10th, 2023, the day of Yu Yu Hakusho anime 31st anniversary. Many commemorative goods and action figures have been released so far.

I hope to see more surprises and Yu Yu Hakusho content in future!

[kuroshitsuji-wiki]

Today (February 28), the Kuroshitsuji Wiki turns 16 years old!

It was founded in 2009 by Soxrocker04 who made two edits (to their own profile page) before they vanished forever. Twocents adopted the abandoned wiki a few months later on July 27, 2009 and make more edits (2671) to more pages than their predecessor.

The wiki over the years:

March 2010 | June 2010 | November 2015 | September 2019 | April 2022

The wiki now:

Only four days ago, the wiki left Fandom and migrated officially to wiki.gg.

Since Soxrocker04's very early departure, many people have edited and contributed to the wiki. However, its editor count has decreased greatly in the last few years.

Do you want to contribute too?*

All you need is an account (if you had/have a Fandom account, go here), read the policies, and you're good to go!

Don't know how? Take a look at these useful links. (If you don't get the technical aspects, just edit according to the manual of style. Your edits will be fixed for you.)

Don't know what? Take a look at the wiki's to-do list.

Need help? Ask here, or on the wiki's Forum Discord server. (You can also send an ask through the askbox!)

*might help to fight off Kuroshitsuji Hiatus-Induced Withdrawal symptoms**

**No responsibility is taken for the correctness of this information. Please consult your doctor or pharmacist.

Bonus:

The wiki in March 2018. Wait, that can't be right...

[fallloverfic]

S-Classes that I Raised/My S-Class Hunters information post

내가 키운 S급들 | S-Classes that I Raised (“SCTIR”) is a completed 1,165 chapter Korean fantasy webnovel on Munpia, Naver, Ridibooks, and Kakao by 근서 | Geunseo that has been adapted into an ongoing manhwa/webcomic (My S-Class Hunters) (though the manhwa is on hiatus at the moment after the conclusion of season 1). The second cover art is by onlyraii. The novel is published by 제이플미디어 | JAYPLEMEDIA.

Manhwa adaptation summary: "Yoojin is an F-ranker overshadowed by his little brother, an S-ranker. All he does is get in his brother’s way, causing trouble wherever he goes. When a seemingly routine dungeon raid goes wrong and costs Yoojin his brother’s life, Yoojin decides to use the wish granted by clearing the dungeon to reset his timeline. The plan was to lead a quiet life from now on… but now it turns out he can help other people become S-rankers?! Maybe this is Yoojin’s chance at building his own entourage of powerful metahumans… but it may be easier said than done." - Naver Webtoon

SCTIR the webnovel has an 858-episode main story, a 14-episode Epilogue [1], a completed 167-episode Side Story (sequel) and a 128-episode Epilogue [2] (sequel). It was first published on June 29th, 2018 (Munpia), and the final episode of Epilogue [2] was released on May 8th, 2025.

The main story and epilogue were reformatted into 35 ebooks (Naver, Ridibooks, Kakao), which began publication on May 1st, 2020, and the ebooks have interior illustrations from 비완 | Biwan for volumes 1-14 and a few other artists for the other 21 volumes. Here's a post on some of the interior art that JPLE has shared online.

The ebooks also have extra scenes in various places and possible revisions, which differs from what is available in the individual episodes. The Korean ebooks also began being released in paperback in November 2024.

A guide for reading SCTIR on Munpia and Naver (this is meant for another fandom, but it's also designed to work for anyone who wants to read any similar works on Munpia and Naver).

This is meant to be a collective post for information on the novel and manhwa, as well as translations, which will update as new information comes up.

Geunseo

Geunseo is the author of the webnovel. Back in mid-2022, Geunseo replied to questions from readers in a very long Q&A, which folks shared on various platforms.

Translations of the webnovel

There is no official English translation of the webnovel, though there are a few fan translators, but most are just people putting the episodes through machine translators ("MTL") and sharing those online, or doing modified/partial MTL, which involves MTL most/all of the episode and doing partial translation/editing on the results. There is also a lot of confusion because people tend to MTL the individual episodes, not the revised ebooks, so folks reading one but not the other one are going to have different understandings of the story.

Side Stories/Sequels

There are two side stories for SCTIR, both of which are sequels to the part that came before. The order is main story (not an official name, it's just the regular story) > Epilogue [1] > Side Story > Epilogue [2]. Side Story and Epilogue are only available on Naver for some reason.

SCTIR manhwa, My S-Class Hunters

SCTIR's manhwa adaptation is published on Naver Comics / Naver Series, began publication on November 15th, 2021, and is 153 episodes long. There's a trailer from right before it released on YouTube.

The manhwa is adapted by 제이플미디어 | JAYPLEMEDIA, with principle art by 비완 | Biwan, and the head of storyboard is seri. Other crew on the team include 징개 JINGGAE | JING_GAE (assistant direction), 김피로(KPR) | tired_kim, and 한흔 | hanheunhan. A lot of the crew share previews and behind the scenes material on their twitters. Although the manhwa is very far behind the novel, the crew are generally novel fans (Biwan did art for the ebooks, after all), and they will also sometimes do fanart for recent episodes of Side Story/Afterward, so be wary if you want to avoid spoilers. The manhwa currently stops in volume 7 of the novel, around episode 168.

The manhwa also differs in many ways from the novel, which is normal for an adaptation. Changes include some chronological reorganization of events, expansion of certain characters and relationships, some modifications to skills, additional scenes, etc.

The original Korean updates weekly on Naver on Tuesdays around 10:30-11:00 AM ET, though it's currently on hiatus after the conclusion of season 1. Most translations are currently some ways behind the original Korean, so they have a bit to catch up on during the hiatus if they're ongoing.

The English translation updates weekly at 9 PM ET on Wednesdays on Webtoon, and at 00:00 ET on Wednesdays on Tappytoon. The Webtoon version is free to read, but the last several episodes are paywalled, and these episodes can be accessed by cookies (the currency on Webtoon). Guide for how to read for free on Tappytoon. SCTIR's manhwa is also available online in French (though it seems to be on a hiatus since 2022), German, Japanese (俺が育てたS級たち), Spanish (Los clase S que crié), and Thai.

April Fool's Day Jokes

Both the novel and manhwa teams, like a lot of Webtoon manhwa teams, usually do a joke post for April Fool's Day.

The 2022 joke post for the novel was seemingly a parody of the then-unreleased novel cover by onlyraii. The 2022 joke post for the manhwa was a magical girl Yoohyun parody.

The 2023 joke post for the manhwa was Yoojin, Yerim, Yoohyun, and Peace making heart signs.

The 2024 joke post for the manhwa was to have most of the cast become dinosaurs.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How to design a tech regulation

TONIGHT (June 20) I'm live onstage in LOS ANGELES for a recording of the GO FACT YOURSELF podcast. TOMORROW (June 21) I'm doing an ONLINE READING for the LOCUS AWARDS at 16hPT. On SATURDAY (June 22) I'll be in OAKLAND, CA for a panel (13hPT) and a keynote (18hPT) at the LOCUS AWARDS.

It's not your imagination: tech really is underregulated. There are plenty of avoidable harms that tech visits upon the world, and while some of these harms are mere negligence, others are self-serving, creating shareholder value and widespread public destruction.

Making good tech policy is hard, but not because "tech moves too fast for regulation to keep up with," nor because "lawmakers are clueless about tech." There are plenty of fast-moving areas that lawmakers manage to stay abreast of (think of the rapid, global adoption of masking and social distancing rules in mid-2020). Likewise we generally manage to make good policy in areas that require highly specific technical knowledge (that's why it's noteworthy and awful when, say, people sicken from badly treated tapwater, even though water safety, toxicology and microbiology are highly technical areas outside the background of most elected officials).

That doesn't mean that technical rigor is irrelevant to making good policy. Well-run "expert agencies" include skilled practitioners on their payrolls – think here of large technical staff at the FTC, or the UK Competition and Markets Authority's best-in-the-world Digital Markets Unit:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/13/kitbashed/#app-store-tax

The job of government experts isn't just to research the correct answers. Even more important is experts' role in evaluating conflicting claims from interested parties. When administrative agencies make new rules, they have to collect public comments and counter-comments. The best agencies also hold hearings, and the very best go on "listening tours" where they invite the broad public to weigh in (the FTC has done an awful lot of these during Lina Khan's tenure, to its benefit, and it shows):

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events/2022/04/ftc-justice-department-listening-forum-firsthand-effects-mergers-acquisitions-health-care

But when an industry dwindles to a handful of companies, the resulting cartel finds it easy to converge on a single talking point and to maintain strict message discipline. This means that the evidentiary record is starved for disconfirming evidence that would give the agencies contrasting perspectives and context for making good policy.

Tech industry shills have a favorite tactic: whenever there's any proposal that would erode the industry's profits, self-serving experts shout that the rule is technically impossible and deride the proposer as "clueless."

This tactic works so well because the proposers sometimes are clueless. Take Europe's on-again/off-again "chat control" proposal to mandate spyware on every digital device that will screen everything you upload for child sex abuse material (CSAM, better known as "child pornography"). This proposal is profoundly dangerous, as it will weaken end-to-end encryption, the key to all secure and private digital communication:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jun/18/encryption-is-deeply-threatening-to-power-meredith-whittaker-of-messaging-app-signal

It's also an impossible-to-administer mess that incorrectly assumes that killing working encryption in the two mobile app stores run by the mobile duopoly will actually prevent bad actors from accessing private tools:

https://memex.craphound.com/2018/09/04/oh-for-fucks-sake-not-this-fucking-bullshit-again-cryptography-edition/

When technologists correctly point out the lack of rigor and catastrophic spillover effects from this kind of crackpot proposal, lawmakers stick their fingers in their ears and shout "NERD HARDER!"

https://memex.craphound.com/2018/01/12/nerd-harder-fbi-director-reiterates-faith-based-belief-in-working-crypto-that-he-can-break/

But this is only half the story. The other half is what happens when tech industry shills want to kill good policy proposals, which is the exact same thing that advocates say about bad ones. When lawmakers demand that tech companies respect our privacy rights – for example, by splitting social media or search off from commercial surveillance, the same people shout that this, too, is technologically impossible.

That's a lie, though. Facebook started out as the anti-surveillance alternative to Myspace. We know it's possible to operate Facebook without surveillance, because Facebook used to operate without surveillance:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3247362

Likewise, Brin and Page's original Pagerank paper, which described Google's architecture, insisted that search was incompatible with surveillance advertising, and Google established itself as a non-spying search tool:

http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf

Even weirder is what happens when there's a proposal to limit a tech company's power to invoke the government's powers to shut down competitors. Take Ethan Zuckerman's lawsuit to strip Facebook of the legal power to sue people who automate their browsers to uncheck the millions of boxes that Facebook requires you to click by hand in order to unfollow everyone:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/02/kaiju-v-kaiju/#cda-230-c-2-b

Facebook's apologists have lost their minds over this, insisting that no one can possibly understand the potential harms of taking away Facebook's legal right to decide how your browser works. They take the position that only Facebook can understand when it's safe and proportional to use Facebook in ways the company didn't explicitly design for, and that they should be able to ask the government to fine or even imprison people who fail to defer to Facebook's decisions about how its users configure their computers.

This is an incredibly convenient position, since it arrogates to Facebook the right to order the rest of us to use our computers in the ways that are most beneficial to its shareholders. But Facebook's apologists insist that they are not motivated by parochial concerns over the value of their stock portfolios; rather, they have objective, technical concerns, that no one except them is qualified to understand or comment on.

There's a great name for this: "scalesplaining." As in "well, actually the platforms are doing an amazing job, but you can't possibly understand that because you don't work for them." It's weird enough when scalesplaining is used to condemn sensible regulation of the platforms; it's even weirder when it's weaponized to defend a system of regulatory protection for the platforms against would-be competitors.

Just as there are no atheists in foxholes, there are no libertarians in government-protected monopolies. Somehow, scalesplaining can be used to condemn governments as incapable of making any tech regulations and to insist that regulations that protect tech monopolies are just perfect and shouldn't ever be weakened. Truly, it's impossible to get someone to understand something when the value of their employee stock options depends on them not understanding it.

None of this is to say that every tech regulation is a good one. Governments often propose bad tech regulations (like chat control), or ones that are technologically impossible (like Article 17 of the EU's 2019 Digital Single Markets Directive, which requires tech companies to detect and block copyright infringements in their users' uploads).

But the fact that scalesplainers use the same argument to criticize both good and bad regulations makes the waters very muddy indeed. Policymakers are rightfully suspicious when they hear "that's not technically possible" because they hear that both for technically impossible proposals and for proposals that scalesplainers just don't like.

After decades of regulations aimed at making platforms behave better, we're finally moving into a new era, where we just make the platforms less important. That is, rather than simply ordering Facebook to block harassment and other bad conduct by its users, laws like the EU's Digital Markets Act will order Facebook and other VLOPs (Very Large Online Platforms, my favorite EU-ism ever) to operate gateways so that users can move to rival services and still communicate with the people who stay behind.

Think of this like number portability, but for digital platforms. Just as you can switch phone companies and keep your number and hear from all the people you spoke to on your old plan, the DMA will make it possible for you to change online services but still exchange messages and data with all the people you're already in touch with.

I love this idea, because it finally grapples with the question we should have been asking all along: why do people stay on platforms where they face harassment and bullying? The answer is simple: because the people – customers, family members, communities – we connect with on the platform are so important to us that we'll tolerate almost anything to avoid losing contact with them:

https://locusmag.com/2023/01/commentary-cory-doctorow-social-quitting/

Platforms deliberately rig the game so that we take each other hostage, locking each other into their badly moderated cesspits by using the love we have for one another as a weapon against us. Interoperability – making platforms connect to each other – shatters those locks and frees the hostages:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/facebooks-secret-war-switching-costs

But there's another reason to love interoperability (making moderation less important) over rules that require platforms to stamp out bad behavior (making moderation better). Interop rules are much easier to administer than content moderation rules, and when it comes to regulation, administratability is everything.

The DMA isn't the EU's only new rule. They've also passed the Digital Services Act, which is a decidedly mixed bag. Among its provisions are a suite of rules requiring companies to monitor their users for harmful behavior and to intervene to block it. Whether or not you think platforms should do this, there's a much more important question: how can we enforce this rule?

Enforcing a rule requiring platforms to prevent harassment is very "fact intensive." First, we have to agree on a definition of "harassment." Then we have to figure out whether something one user did to another satisfies that definition. Finally, we have to determine whether the platform took reasonable steps to detect and prevent the harassment.

Each step of this is a huge lift, especially that last one, since to a first approximation, everyone who understands a given VLOP's server infrastructure is a partisan, scalesplaining engineer on the VLOP's payroll. By the time we find out whether the company broke the rule, years will have gone by, and millions more users will be in line to get justice for themselves.

So allowing users to leave is a much more practical step than making it so that they've got no reason to want to leave. Figuring out whether a platform will continue to forward your messages to and from the people you left there is a much simpler technical matter than agreeing on what harassment is, whether something is harassment by that definition, and whether the company was negligent in permitting harassment.

But as much as I like the DMA's interop rule, I think it is badly incomplete. Given that the tech industry is so concentrated, it's going to be very hard for us to define standard interop interfaces that don't end up advantaging the tech companies. Standards bodies are extremely easy for big industry players to capture:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/30/weak-institutions/

If tech giants refuse to offer access to their gateways to certain rivals because they seem "suspicious," it will be hard to tell whether the companies are just engaged in self-serving smears against a credible rival, or legitimately trying to protect their users from a predator trying to plug into their infrastructure. These fact-intensive questions are the enemy of speedy, responsive, effective policy administration.

But there's more than one way to attain interoperability. Interop doesn't have to come from mandates, interfaces designed and overseen by government agencies. There's a whole other form of interop that's far nimbler than mandates: adversarial interoperability:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

"Adversarial interoperability" is a catch-all term for all the guerrilla warfare tactics deployed in service to unilaterally changing a technology: reverse engineering, bots, scraping and so on. These tactics have a long and honorable history, but they have been slowly choked out of existence with a thicket of IP rights, like the IP rights that allow Facebook to shut down browser automation tools, which Ethan Zuckerman is suing to nullify:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

Adversarial interop is very flexible. No matter what technological moves a company makes to interfere with interop, there's always a countermove the guerrilla fighter can make – tweak the scraper, decompile the new binary, change the bot's behavior. That's why tech companies use IP rights and courts, not firewall rules, to block adversarial interoperators.

At the same time, adversarial interop is unreliable. The solution that works today can break tomorrow if the company changes its back-end, and it will stay broken until the adversarial interoperator can respond.

But when companies are faced with the prospect of extended asymmetrical war against adversarial interop in the technological trenches, they often surrender. If companies can't sue adversarial interoperators out of existence, they often sue for peace instead. That's because high-tech guerrilla warfare presents unquantifiable risks and resource demands, and, as the scalesplainers never tire of telling us, this can create real operational problems for tech giants.

In other words, if Facebook can't shut down Ethan Zuckerman's browser automation tool in the courts, and if they're sincerely worried that a browser automation tool will uncheck its user interface buttons so quickly that it crashes the server, all it has to do is offer an official "unsubscribe all" button and no one will use Zuckerman's browser automation tool.

We don't have to choose between adversarial interop and interop mandates. The two are better together than they are apart. If companies building and operating DMA-compliant, mandatory gateways know that a failure to make them useful to rivals seeking to help users escape their authority is getting mired in endless hand-to-hand combat with trench-fighting adversarial interoperators, they'll have good reason to cooperate.

And if lawmakers charged with administering the DMA notice that companies are engaging in adversarial interop rather than using the official, reliable gateway they're overseeing, that's a good indicator that the official gateways aren't suitable.

It would be very on-brand for the EU to create the DMA and tell tech companies how they must operate, and for the USA to simply withdraw the state's protection from the Big Tech companies and let smaller companies try their luck at hacking new features into the big companies' servers without the government getting involved.

Indeed, we're seeing some of that today. Oregon just passed the first ever Right to Repair law banning "parts pairing" – basically a way of using IP law to make it illegal to reverse-engineer a device so you can fix it.

https://www.opb.org/article/2024/03/28/oregon-governor-kotek-signs-strong-tech-right-to-repair-bill/

Taken together, the two approaches – mandates and reverse engineering – are stronger than either on their own. Mandates are sturdy and reliable, but slow-moving. Adversarial interop is flexible and nimble, but unreliable. Put 'em together and you get a two-part epoxy, strong and flexible.

Governments can regulate well, with well-funded expert agencies and smart, adminstratable remedies. It's for that reason that the administrative state is under such sustained attack from the GOP and right-wing Dems. The illegitimate Supreme Court is on the verge of gutting expert agencies' power:

https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2024/05/us-supreme-court-may-soon-discard-or-modify-chevron-deference

It's never been more important to craft regulations that go beyond mere good intentions and take account of adminsitratability. The easier we can make our rules to enforce, the less our beleaguered agencies will need to do to protect us from corporate predators.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/20/scalesplaining/#administratability

Image: Noah Wulf (modified) https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thunderbirds_at_Attention_Next_to_Thunderbird_1_-_Aviation_Nation_2019.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

[mikyapixie]

🌸🌸🌸

The Pizza Hut franchise announced a delicious and magical collaboration with Cardcaptor Sakura. It is a special pizza to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the anime, and the future sequel to Clear Card. The special edition of Pizza Hut "Key of Dreams" will be available from June 4 for diners in Taiwan. In a promotional video, other delicious products are announced, such as a bun filled with matcha and red beans, but with the appearance of Kero-chan.

In addition, for the purchase, fans of the CLAMP series will be able to take a special edition pizza box, which is shown in the advertising video. There are also four collectible keychains as exclusive gifts for purchases. Pizza Hut revealed on its official blog that an activation will be organized on a Sakura bus. The 48 winners of this promotion will be able to travel on this bus decorated with the illustrations of the anime. Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card began on Nakayoshi's pages in July 2016 as a sequel to Cardcaptor Sakura. The series follows Sakura in new magical adventures during high school. The anime adaptation aired from January 7 to June 10, 2018, under the direction of the director of the original series Morio Asaka for MADHOUSE.

This is the synopsis of the anime that is available on Crunchyroll:

Guided by the Key to Dreams, Sakura embarks on a new adventure. Sakura managed to capture all the Clow Cards that could have caused a cataclysm in the world and turned them into her Sakura Cards. Now spring has arrived, the cherry trees are in bloom and Sakura is about to start a new stage in high school. His beloved Syaoran has returned from Hong Kong and Sakura is very excited to be able to go to class with him again. That's when one night something strange happens to your letters...

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hello ☺️ first of all, I'd like to THANK you for all those ficrecs, thanks to them I've discovered many awesome stories!

I know it may be early for some,but do you happen to have a Christmas fic rec list? I am desperate for some bitter sweet Christmas stories 👀

Hey Lovely!!

NEVER too early! This is the perfect time to start is early December if you want a month of fuzzy feels!!!

Check out these lists of mine to please you!

Christmas Fics (Dec. 2017)

Christmas: Oblivious That One or The Other is In a Relationship

Christmas 2019 Part 1 (All Bookmarks XMas and New Years)

Christmas 2019 Part 2 (Marked for Later)

G / T / K+ Rated Christmas Fics (Dec. 2018) (Updated Dec 2021)

Community Recs: Christmas 2020 (Updated Dec 2021)

Christmas Trees / Decorating

Christmas-Time Love Confessions

Christmas & NYE 2023 Pt 1: Bookmarks & WIPs

Christmas 2023 Pt 2: Marked For Later

New Year’s Fics (Jan 2018)

New Year’s Fics (Jan 2023)

Hot and Cold Fics (June 2022)

And if anyone has a NEW fic this year that they or wrote or want to promote, please let us know!!!!

EDIT: AND just for shizz and giggs, here's some other people's lists I've reblogged in the past:

SilentAuror’s Fics 2019

Johnlock Comes A-Wassailing (Chriscalledmesweetie)

bluebell’s Sherlock Winter Holiday Bingo Contest 

apliddell’s Christmas fics

ineffable husbands Christmas fics (additions to my lists)

favourite johnlock christmas fics by starfleetholmes

Non-Christian Winter Holiday Fics

A J. Baillier Christmas Fic Package

A Very Johnlock Christmas by a-different-equation

Some Christmas Fics by discordantwords

Five Festive Fics Friday by 7-percent

calaisreno’s Christmas Fics 2021

Silent Auror’s Christmas Fics

Khorazir 2021

Calaisreno 2022

Berty’s Festive Fics 2022

helloliriels holiday list

thegildedbee 2023

Christmas Advent Pt 2 (swissmiss)

Mystrade Holiday Collection 2024

Enjoy!

[reyaint]

WILD ALICE | intro

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

date: june 8, 2025

the group concept, name, and the debut album name came from someone on wattpad who deleted the book (sadly) but the lore is mine and discography .

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

--edited by me

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑭𝑨𝑳𝑺𝑬 𝑨��𝑮𝑬𝑳𝑺

WILD ALICE (야생의 앨리스) is a 6 member idol girl group under ATE Entertainment. the group consists of members; naran, min, madi, shiwon, yafei, and artemis. the group officially debuted on august 18, 2018 with the mini album "FALSE ANGELS" and title track “illusion: feed the desire” and promoted beside “reborn.” the group is best known for their art direction and disturbing lore.

.ೃ࿐INTRODUCTION: “ leaders of teenage rebellion, ! we are wild alice ! ”

.ೃ࿐FANDOM NAME: rebels (레벨스)

ೃ⁀➷FANDOM NAME MEANING: “rebels” are the ones who saw through the illusion — those who refuse to follow the system that made WILD ALICE. they are co-conspirators in the unraveling.

.ೃ࿐LIGHTSTICK: mixture of these two

.ೃ࿐LOGO: a mixture of all of this bc i'm indecisive

.ೃ࿐LORE/BRAND LOGO

.ೃ࿐OFFICIAL COLORS: *ೃ༄ . deep crimson red: symbolizes passion, rebellion, and danger beneath the surface *ೃ༄ . frost white: balances the darkness with purity and innocence, the mask they wear *ೃ༄ . midnight black: represents mystery, darkness, and their hidden truths

𝑫𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒇 𝑰 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅

ೃ⁀➷NARAN

leader, main dancer, lead vocal, visual

february 7 2000

aquarius

japanese

Rep Emoji; 🦢❄️🩰🪶

Rep Colors; bone white, ice blue, liquid gold, oil-black, opalescent ivory

Rep Symbols; old ballet shoe with a hidden blade, cracked porcelain mask, feather knife, swan feathers, snowflakes, tuning fork, lace ribbon that frays into razor wire

Rep Archetype; Perfect Grace Gone Feral. “The Gilded Blade”

Special Enhancement; heightened proprioception and combat efficiency

Virtue Program; Grace - designed for perfect movement, poise, and leadership

Sin Suppression; Wrath - contains dormant capacity for righteous fury

Watcher File; “Subject A‑1: Purity Matrix.”

White Rabbit Item; Tuning‑fork pendant that can shatter tempered glass when struck

MBTI; ENTJ

168 cm (5'6″)

VC: n/a

ೃ⁀➷SHIWON

lead dancer, lead rapper, vocal

april 3 2000

aries

korean

Rep Emoji; 🦊🪞🌙🎭

Rep Colors; silver, mirror chrome, deep blue, midnight navy

Rep Symbols; pocket mirror cracked in an X, deck of tarot‑like cards, vixen mask, crescent moon jewelry, theatrical masks, black halos, chess queen missing its crown

Rep Archetype; Strategist & Trickster. “The Mirror Fox”

Special Enhancement; empathic absorption and illusion creation

Watcher File; "Subject A3: Deception Algorithm.”

White Rabbit Item; foil‑backed tarot cards; she keeps the Fool card taped inside her practice mirror.

Virtue Program; Loyalty - Unwavering dedication and support programming

Sin Suppression; Envy - Hidden desire to possess what others have

MBTI; ENTP

167 cm (5'6″)

VC: n/a

ೃ⁀➷ARTEMIS

main vocal, main dancer, rapper, center

november 17 2000

scorpio

haiqinian

Rep Emoji; 🦋🐈‍⬛ 💿⛓️

Rep Colors; twilight purple, iridescent black, opal

Rep Symbols; broken wing cuff, butterfly under glass, scratched vinyl single, broken halo, broken chain, candle flame that burns cold blue, constellation string art with missing pins

Rep Archetype; Dreamwalker and Oracle. “The Stray Prophet”

Special Enhancement; precognitive capabilities and dream manipulation

Watcher File; “Subject A5: Dream Conduit.

White Rabbit Item; a candle that burns with cold blue fire; flame height matches her heart rate.

Virtue Program; Truth - Perfect recall and inability to lie (initially)

Sin Suppression; Deception - Hidden capacity for ultimate manipulation

MBTI; ISTJ (formerly INTJ)

177cm (5’9)

VC: 96neko, rubyeye

ೃ⁀➷MIN

main rapper, dancer, vocal, fog

april 25 2000

taurus

korean

Rep Emoji; 🕷️🌹🕸️🪡

Rep Colors; blood scarlet, charcoal, neon magenta, deep red, gun-metal gray

Rep Symbols; red thread binding her wrists, graffiti‑tag spray can, rose petals, spiderweb lace, barcoded neck, steel muzzle ring

Rep Archetype; Voice of Wrath. “The Crimson Echo”

Special Enhancement; mind influence capabilities and sonic manipulation

Watcher File; “Subject A2: Resonant Wrath.”

White Rabbit Item; black‑rose brooch containing a hidden micro‑drive of Watcher data

Virtue Program; Wisdom - Enhanced cognitive processing and analytical skills

Sin Suppression; Pride - Dormant superiority complex and manipulation capacity

MBTI; ESTP

165 cm (5′5″)

VC: n/a

ೃ⁀➷YAFEI

lead vocal, dancer, visual

august 8 2000

leo

chinese

Rep Emoji; 🌹💧🕊️🖤

Rep Colors; crimson velvet, dusty rose, hemlock green, soft pink, matte black, primrose gold + bruised lilac

Rep Symbols; heart‑shaped locket that won’t open, velvet ribbon tourniquet, drooping white lily, dove feathers, black heart pendant, stitched toy, tear-shaped vial

Rep Archetype; Programmed Empath. “The Velvet Mercy”

Special Enhancement; emotional manipulation and healing/harm duality

Watcher File; "Subject B4: Compassion Override.”

White Rabbit Item; heart‑shaped locket sealed shut; engineers still can’t open it

Virtue Program; Purity - Aesthetic perfection and innocence projection

Sin Suppression; Lust - Dormant capacity for intense desire and attraction

MBTI; INFJ

170 cm (5′7″)

VC: n/a

ೃ⁀➷MADI

main vocal, dancer, visual, maknae

december 2 2000

sagittarius

korean

Rep Emoji; 🦇🧸🔑🍭

Rep Colors; dark purple, flame orange, sun‑bleached peach, antique ivory, static white

Rep Symbols; broken mirror shards, flame motifs, doll chains, wind‑up key lodged in her back, music‑box ballerina cracked at the waist, paper plane, candy wrapper folded into a star

Rep Archetype; Corrupted Innocence. “The Doll of Dawn”

Special Enhancement; energy absorption and redistribution

Watcher File; "Subject C6: Curiosity Hazard.”

White Rabbit Item; a wind‑up key (titanium) that fits only the scar slot in her back plate and key‑shaped USB containing a single file: “DAWN.EXE”.

Virtue Program; Innocence - Perpetual youth and trust inspiration

Sin Suppression; Gluttony - Hidden insatiable hunger for experiences

MBTI; ENFP

166 cm (5′5″)

VC: n/a

𝑨𝒓𝒆𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒆? 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒆

✧˖*°࿐the lore:

.ೃ࿐the watcher society

founded in 1903 by James Walker, a brilliant scientist and occultist who discovered ancient texts suggesting humans could ascend to godhood through specific rituals and scientific manipulation. what began as an eccentric belief system evolved into a powerful secret society with branches in major world governments, entertainment industries, and scientific institutions.

*ೃ༄ . core belief. humanity can be transcended through the perfect fusion of science and spirituality to create "living gods."

*ೃ༄ . methods. the Watcher combines cutting-edge technology with ancient ritual practices. they've conducted numerous experiments throughout the 20th century, with the ALICE Project being their most advanced and ambitious yet.

structure. a hierarchical organization with: *ೃ༄ . the Eye (Leadership Council) - 12 members *ೃ༄ . the Seers (Upper Management) - high-ranking officials in various industries *ೃ༄ . the Observers (Field Agents) - monitor and collect specimens *ೃ༄ . the Architects (Scientists) - create and manage the experiments

the ALICE PROJECT was initiated by the secret society known as the watcher, a cult-like organization obsessed with ascending human consciousness to godhood. through a blend of psychological conditioning, ritual science, and bioengineering, they created six prototype beings: the false angels. they were meant to embody perfection—emotionless, obedient, powerful—but instead developed fragmented consciousness and emotions.

after decades of failed attempts to artificially enhance human consciousness, the Watcher developed Project EVE-06 (codenamed "ALICE") to create six perfect beings from scratch rather than modify existing humans.

project EVE-06, also known as ALICE, was the watcher’s magnum opus—an experiment meant to create vessels for transcendence. through invasive memory implantation, trauma-induced obedience training, and biomechanical engineering, six “girls” were crafted as icons of perfection: emotionless, obedient, beautiful. but something went wrong.

the six "False Angels" were not born but made through a combination of; advanced genetic engineering, spiritual/ritual "awakening" ceremonies, consciousness programming using quantum technology, supernatural element infusion (classified as "Ethereal Essence")

each subject was designed to embody a specific angelic virtue while containing a suppressed "sin" that could be activated when needed. the Watcher believed this duality was essential for transcendence.

these six girls escaped the facility after a catastrophic experiment during their “awakening,” and now hide as normal high schoolers. outwardly sweet and dazzling idols… inwardly fractured, haunted, and fighting to stay free.

.ೃ࿐the escape.

during the final "awakening" ritual intended to fully activate their powers while maintaining control, something went catastrophically wrong. dr. Jiwoo Kim (later known as "White Rabbit"), a scientist who had grown attached to the subjects, sabotaged the procedure by modifying the consciousness integration algorithm. the ritual partially succeeded, awakening the girls' powers but also giving them free will and fragmented memories of their creation. in the ensuing chaos, Dr. Kim helped the six escape the facility. the Watcher classified the incident as "The Alice Breach" and immediately issued termination orders for all subjects and Dr. Kim.

now fugitives hunted by the Watcher, the six girls disguise themselves as normal high schoolers—wearing false smiles and angelic innocence like armor. they live in liminal spaces—empty classrooms, quiet train stations, white-walled corridors—places between reality and dream, safety and threat.

on the surface, they are sweet, dazzling idols—“perfect girls next door.” but beneath the smiles lie fractured souls, haunted by their origins, battling the pull of darkness and violence in their veins.

they began to dream.

cracks formed during a pivotal stage called the “Awakening Sequence,” where their consciousness was meant to be fully overwritten with Watcher doctrine. fragments of self—flickers of real emotion, memory, and pain—surfaced.

one by one, they began to resist.

the White Rabbit, a rogue scientist once loyal to the Watchers, saw their awakening not as failure, but as evolution. he sabotaged the compound’s systems and led the girls out. the world thinks they were “terminated.” but in truth, they are hiding—fractured, hunted, and struggling to be human.

ೃ⁀➷MEMBERS DESIGNATIONS

WA-01 (NARAN) - "the gilded blade". grace (obedient)

WA-02 (MIN) - "the crimson echo". rage (control)

WA-03 (SHIWON) - "the mirror fox". wit (strategy)

WA-04 (YAFEI) - "the velvet mercy". compassion (emotional suppression)

WA-05 (ARTEMIS) - "the stray prophet". voice (leader of the chorus)

WA-06 (MADI) - "the doll of dawn". curiosity (corrupted innocence)

ೃ⁀➷KEY LORE ELEMENTS

.ೃ࿐the white rabbit protocol

dr. Jiwoo Kim created a failsafe within the girls' programming—a hidden protocol that would help them regain their memories if triggered by specific stimuli. these triggers are subtly embedded in their music and performances, explaining the strange "glitches" that sometimes occur during their shows.

shown by

a visual cue in early MVs—when a member stares into the camera, the screen briefly glitches—suggesting they're breaking the illusion of their idol mask.

.ೃ࿐the feeding cycle

the girls discover they need to "feed" on specific human emotions to sustain their enhanced abilities:

Naran. feeds on courage and determination

Min. feeds on curiosity and intellect

Shiwon. feeds on loyalty and dedication

Yafei. feeds on desire and admiration

Artemis. feeds on wonder and revelation

Madi. feeds on joy and innocence

this need to "feed" explains their drive to perform and connect with fans, as concerts provide abundant emotional energy.

.ೃ࿐the false angel syndrome

as the watcher created more experiments following the ALICE formula, many began exhibiting similar signs of awakening and rebellion. the organization classified this as "False Angel Syndrome"—a "defect" in which the subjects develop true sentience and begin questioning their purpose.

ೃ⁀➷THEMES AND SYMBOLS

*ೃ༄ . themes

Innocence vs. Rot: pure visuals, stained intentions. white dresses with blood-tinted edges. polished music hiding fractured thoughts.

Duality: light and dark. human and weapon. girl and god. angel and demon.

Control and Liberation: from obedient dolls to wild hearts.

Fragmented Identity: they aren’t fully human, but they dream like one. each girl’s past self bleeds through.

Religious Corruption: angel wings turned metal and rusted, crosses cracked, halos scorched black.

*ೃ༄ . symbols

Mirrors & Broken Mirrors: reflecting fractured identities and shattered realities. sometimes they see themselves clearly; often, their reflections are warped or missing.

Wings: from delicate white feathers to broken mechanical appendages. the wings represent their lost divinity and reclaimed power.

Barcodes on Neck/Spine: the mark of ownership and dehumanization, often faint but never gone.

Black Halos: corrupted halos symbolizing fallen grace.

Stitched Mouths: representing forced silence, trauma, and the struggle to speak their truths.

Angel Wing Cuffs: restrictive bindings—both physical and mental.

Butterflies: symbols of transformation and fragile beauty amid chaos.

Dolls: their manufactured origins; beautiful, but fragile and controlled.

Liminal Spaces: train stations, empty classrooms, white rooms; thresholds between past and future, captivity and freedom, innocence and corruption.

ೃ⁀➷GROUP-WIDE MOTIF

layout: motif. interpretation. how to use visually

*ೃ༄ . Glass Garden Terrarium. origin lab—beauty in captivity. teaser posters framed like botanical slides; live‑stage prop with shattered glass shards on the floor

*ೃ༄ . White Rabbits (origami). trail left by the defected scientist. paper rabbits hidden in MV sets; album booklet folds into a rabbit silhouette

*ೃ༄ . Keyhole Halo. their missing piece to “perfection”. graphics: circular halo with a keyhole notch; light rigs form this shape above stage

*ೃ༄ . Surveillance Iris. watcher’s all‑seeing eye. background LED: spinning iris; choreography moment where members mimic cameras panning

*ೃ༄ . Static Butterflies. glitched freedom. animated MV overlay—wing beats stutter like corrupted GIFs

*ೃ༄ . Liminal Benches / Station Platforms. waiting for a train that never comes. concept photos in deserted train stations at dawn, fog rolling

*ೃ༄ . Barcode Rosary. faith rewritten as ownership. accessory: chain of resin beads, each bead etched with a tiny code

.ೃ࿐hidden messages

each album contains coded messages in lyrics, choreography, and music video imagery that form a larger narrative when pieced together. fans who decode these messages are actually helping the girls spread awareness about The Watcher's activities.

𝑪𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒆, 𝒍𝒆𝒕’𝒔 𝒈𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕, 𝑹𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒂 𝒈𝒂𝒎𝒆!

✧˖*°࿐ Pre-debut: in early 2018, a YouTube channel titled “Alice_FND” began uploading a series of cryptic videos without any formal promotion or direct affiliation to ATE Entertainment. the channel initially featured short, seemingly mundane clips—girls in school uniforms filming each other during lunch, sketching in notebooks, dancing in empty practice rooms, or riding the subway.

all videos were stylized with subtle VHS filters, timestamp overlays, grain, and light digital glitches, evoking a found footage aesthetic.

at first, the content appeared random and innocent. however, viewers who followed the uploads closely began to notice unsettling motifs:

*ೃ༄ . in one video, a girl hums to herself in a mirror before briefly staring directly at the camera as if aware she’s being watched.

*ೃ༄ . another features shaky cam footage of someone walking barefoot down a hallway at night while a distorted children’s song plays faintly in the background.

*ೃ༄ . certain clips would abruptly cut to a black screen with handwritten scribbles or numbers that flashed too quickly to read clearly.

*ೃ༄ . the same school hallway appeared in multiple videos, but with slightly different posters or lighting, suggesting time loops or alternate perspectives.

clips were titled in lowercase, often with cryptic names like “mirror_03-17”, “sheleftthewindowopen”, or “nocaller_id”.

while no faces were explicitly introduced, fans soon began identifying the members through frame-by-frame analysis—recognizing Naran’s ballet movements, Min’s voice, or Madi’s distinct handwriting visible in a classroom whiteboard shot.

*ೃ༄ . this campaign—internally referred to by ATE Entertainment as “Nocturne Sequence”—continued over several months and garnered viral traction in niche online circles. it was eventually revealed through insider leaks that the videos were deliberately constructed as performance teasers, intended to blur the lines between documentary and art installation.

the final upload, “lucidend_00”, dropped one week before debut. it included all six members walking into a fogged mirror room in school uniforms. the footage cuts abruptly before any of them speak. the only sound heard is a tuning fork resonating in the background.

*ೃ༄ . shortly after, WILD ALICE was officially revealed as ATE Entertainment’s upcoming girl group, with the announcement of their debut mini album, FALSE ANGELS.

*ೃ༄ . this pre-debut campaign remains one of the most distinctive in K-pop history, praised for its commitment to atmosphere, mystery, and unorthodox engagement with viewers.

[seilnakyle]

Hi!! I really want to start collecting Selina's physical comics but I struggle a lot finding actual collecting guides that dont give me a headache lol bcz 1) im kinda broke 2) i hate adding something to a wishlist and then realizing its out of print

What comics and editions do you recommend buying? Im thinking lf getting Life Lines and the Brubaker run but other than that I am genuienly clueless 😭 love ur account <3

Hi! Thank you I’m glad u like my stuff 💞

unfortunately, comic collecting ain’t cheap, and the options for physical comic collections all get a little pricey. I definitely recommend using this list as a guide but checking places like EBay, mercari, or any book thrift sites you know.

Dc is currently reprinting collections of Catwoman’s 80s/90s comics rn

Catwoman: Life Lines - Collects: Action Comics Weekly #611 / Catwoman (1989) #1-4 / Catwoman Defiant / showcase ‘93 #1-4 / Catwoman (1993) #1-12

Catwoman: Vengeance and Vindication (not available till June 10th) - Collects: Catwoman #0 / Catwoman (1993) #13-32 / Catwoman (1993) Annual #2-3

For her 2000s run, I recommend her Omnibus, but there are also 6 tpb volumes if you want the Will Pfeifer run too.

Catwoman of East End - collects: Detective Comics #759-762 / Catwoman (2002) #1-37 / Catwoman secret files #1 / Catwoman: Selina’s big Score #1

Tpb Catwoman (2002) Volumes

Selina’s big Score (comes in hardcover or paperback)

Dc also has a smaller paperback collecton here

Catwoman: Trial of the Catwoman: DC Compact Comics which collects: Selina’s big Score / Catwoman (2002) #1-9 / Detective Comics #759-762

Her New 52 run has 8 tpb volumes

Catwoman (2011)

And then her rebirth run has 10 tpbs, the first three are Joelle’s run, next three are Ram V’s, and it goes downhill fast after Tini takes over so if u want to read those just use a free site 😭

Catwoman (2018)

[burirammin]

Did I just find a really really good clip of marc with clear visor in slow motion? from a motogp game soundtrack video?? spectacular.

But what really caught my eyes was the fact that he was braking with FOUR fingers and that the video was from 2013, his first year in premier class. That made me paused a bit because he is pretty well-known (to me at least) for using just ONE finger in motogp, an index, just like casey. Here's an example with how vale does it for comparison.

So there I go, to do some research aka. googling session that ends with me having a beef with a six years old video for audio editing mistake so catastrophic it cut off parts of interview that could potentially give me more info... and it loops the same audio part again and again and again. Drives me nuts.

Found the same video on videopass yes yess thank you!!

Anyway! It was a video on braking techniques of different riders (with interviews. from 2018) and marc said that of course he use one finger to brake, has always done that. But he used to use all four fingers to do so when he was riding a 125cc bike and then when he pass to moto2 he start experimenting with his techniques and change from one to the other end of the two extremes, from four fingers to just one. Said the technique was a crossover from him training a lot on motocross, where he use just one finger to brake. (Not a word for word quote but close enough)

Here's how he brake in 125cc

And here's how he does it in motogp

left : four fingers (2013) right : one finger (2018)

This is interesting, he's still braking with four fingers in 2013 (though I am not sure when the footage was from. It was definitely from before mid june of that year so, at least before Catalunya) Maybe he was still trying out things even in 2013 despite him saying he start to change it all in moto2? So i took a closer look at his braking hand during one of his moto2 race and guess what?

He did use four finger still in the footages i found, like this one from Valencia 2012

I also look up those slow motion videos of the 2013 season and he's still using four fingers even in Jerez so that too (gif below).

By my limited research he would have change his technique somewhere between the end of 2013 season to before the start of 2015 season (because otherwise this reddit post would not exist and I reckon he’d not change mid-season, or maybe he would. Might look into it later)

Soooo yeah... this seems to be a case of him riding so much, for so long he FORGOT details about HIS OWN riding techniques. My silly cunty boy. Mister Marc 'I don't read' Marquez, maybe you should read btw it might help with your memory 😭

Note : If anyone have more info, please feel free to add on to the post. I'll eat it all up like cake I promise.

[katmaibearfan]

ITS BEAR CAM SEASON, BABYY!

Hello!! This is basically a niche special interest blog that I never expected to get 50 followers for, let alone more than 1k! I liveblog the Katmai National Park Brown Bear live cams (if you know what Fat Bear Week is, these are those bears) basically constantly from mid june to early november, because I love them so much I needed somewhere I could yell about them! I also write bigger posts sometimes about things like specific bears, bear family trees, and interesting events that have happened on the cams. Oh and to be clear, I'm just a fan -- I am not affiliated with KNP&P, Explore.org, or The Katmai Conservancy.

If you're new to the bear cams, start here!

About this blog:

Blog FAQ, Bear Terminology I Use, Tag System Explainer, Trigger Warning System Explainer

Specific Bear Content:

Fat Bear Week Finalists: 2014-2017, 2018-2024

Fat Bear Junior Finalists: 2021-2024

My Favorite Fat Bear Before/After Photos

Independent Bears

Family Trackers: 2024, 2025

Official Explore.org Content:

Bear Cams, Youtube Channel (includes non-bear content), Memorable Moments in Bear Cam History Playlist

Official Katmai Conservancy/KNP&P links:

Donate, Shop, Katmai Flickr Page

FAQs: Brown Bears, Sockeye Salmon, Other

Ebooks (links directly to download): Bears of Brooks River 2022, Bears Of Brooks River: Nostalgia Edition

Unofficial Katmai Highlights Channels on Youtube:

Cruiser, BrooksBears, JMcNature, McKate

Unofficial Bearcam Wiki:

Wiki Home Page, Unofficial Bear Book

Misc:

LunaCre's Daily Recap Gifs, 2021-present

Labeled map of the falls + the cams locations on the river

[patemi-pk]

ITALY - Part 3

100% Disney (2018-)

Yes, it's a collection of random stories linked by the theme on the cover.

Disney Comics (2022-?)

Yes, we must publish those Disney Global stories too and, after publishing some of those on Topolino, Panini decided to make a spin-off just for them (a bit like LTB Young in Germany). Its fate is unclear, because recent issues have been reprisals of older volumes, so it's probably dead.

Disney Hero (2019-)

Yes, it's a collection of random stories linked by the character on the cover. In 2024 it was dedicated all year to Donald Duck, for his 90th birthday, covering his interaction with other characters. It seems that this Donald-centric format will continue in the forst months of 2025 too.

Disney Love (2019-)

This is part of an effort from Panini to have more thematic comics to be published during the summer. Disney Love, in fact, it's published monthly only on July and August every year (except for 2019, when it had a Valentine's day issue and a June issue too). It collects mostly stories from the old female-centered publications of the past (Minni, Minni & co., Minni amica del cuore), plus a minority of stories from Topolino.

Topolino in Giallo (2021-)

This is part of an effort from Panini to have more thematic comics to be published during the summer. Topolino in Giallo, in fact, it's published monthly only on June, July and August every year. It collects Mickey detective stories, plus one Egmont Mickey story never published before, per issue. Contrary to most of these titles the covers are new and all done by Davide Cesarello.

Disney Team (2021-)

Yes, it's a collection of random stories linked by the theme on the cover. It is supposed to alternate between duck stories and mice stories, in fact the name changes every volume between Paperino in team and Topolino in team, but the divide may not be so clear.

Disneyssimo (2019-)

Yes, it's a collection of random stories linked by the theme on the cover. It has 7 issues per year: Invernissimo (for winter), Primaverissima (for spring), Risatissima (for April's Fool time), Estatissima (for summer), Vacanzissima (for the summer holiday season), Scuolissima (for back to school time), Natalissimo (for Christmas time).

Paper Mitologia (2024-)

This was supposed to be a miniseries, collecting that mythology Disney Global series and other mythology stories. The selection has been soon precarious, collecting early on stories with a weak connection to mythology, but appearently it has prove itself to be successfull, because they are extending it, making Le dodici fatiche e 1/2 di Pippercole the main series of the future issues.

Disney Play/Topolino Junior (2020-)

This is a title for younger readers, so featuring games, articles and shorter stories, some of those made for this magazine, others are reprints of older Topolino stories, others are foreign tales.

Disney Special Events (2019-)

I don't know how to describe it. This is the randomest of random titles, as much that I would say it's not a title per se, but a collection of different initiatives that did not meet the criteria to embark in a burocratic hustle to register a new publication. We need to publish those thematic hardcover small books attached to Topolino (i Topolibri)? Let's publish them here! We need to publish the new Darkwing Duck volume, but we don't want to revive the older Disney Premiere title where it was featured? No problem, toss it here! We need to publish a reprint of Epic Mickey? Say no more! We need to continue publishing the Definitive Collection edition of Fantomius because there are so many people who still collect it, but the Definitive Collection closed? Let's do volumes which are aestehically identical to those and publish them under this label! We need a volume of Area 15 because there is a fair event in Milan, but Topolino Extra had been paused at the time? Let's do a volume ina completely different format and publish it here! We need some books to exploit the UEFA European Championship, without naming it? We have some space here! A calendar? Here! A cover collection volume? HERE! A Snowhite book for the anniversary? Dont worry! A cheap edition of Life and Times? Again, we hare room! And I've not covered every random book this series features. The one thing about it it's that these are, generally more curated books, not really some cheap random ones, but still there is no coherent lineup.

Ok, it was quick.

An addition to this:

Le più grandi avventure Disney (2019-)

Can you forget that something exists? Yes, you can.

And, yes, it's a collection of random stories linked by the theme on the cover.