jy3-1

[jy3-1]

The main consequence of the majority of autism research being led by allistic scientists is that none of the questions we actually want answered will get answered.

Why do so many of us have gastrointestinal issues and food allergies?

What do normal brains vs brains with sensory processing issues look like via brain scans?

Etc etc

But noooooo, instead we have 800 fucking dehumanizing studies about the “cause of autism” and “autistic people have emotions apparently????”

I’d also say that we need more autistic scientists, but that would also require my rant about how academia discourages and alienates autistic people and others who don’t fit into a certain metaphorical box, despite science being ABOUT THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX.

[jy3-1]

Strictly entry-level as far as this goes, but one thing I've started doing in my own designs is splitting the GM role into Referee, Scenario Writer, and NPC Wrangler, which can but don't necessarily have to be the same person.

Hi! Do you know of any TTRPGs that can (or must) be played with multiple DMs? Not DM-less systems, DM-More

Since you explicitly specified "not [G]M-less", I'm going to leave aside collaborative worldbuilding games like Microscope, as well as stuff like Belonging Outside Belonging/No Dice, No Masters hacks which do the "anyone can voluntarily step into a temporary GM-like role as needed" thing; one can argue that these are technically "multiple GM" games, but given that every participant has roughly equivalent narrative authority at all times, one could equally say that they simply decline to recognise a player/GM distinction – "if everyone is GM then no-one is", and all that.

So, then: games which have a formal player/GM distinction, but also explicitly require more than one of the latter. The first one that springs to mind is Polaris: Chivalric Tragedy at Utmost North. It's not the first of its genre, but it's certainly the most well known early example. In brief, it's a game for exactly four participants, one of whom takes on the role of the Heart, or player character; another takes on the role of the Mistaken, an antagonistic GM whose explicit goal is to kill or corrupt the Heart; and the other two take on the roles of the New Moon and Full Moon, co-GMs tasked with mediating between the Heart and the Mistaken and playing any non-antagonistic NPCs the Heart encounters. Each of these roles rotates scene by scene, so everyone will eventually have the chance to play all four roles.

(Interestingly, that last point isn't necessarily true in playtest versions of the game, which more narrowly required a group of exactly two men and two women, with the stipulations that the Full Moon must always be played by a man, the New Moon must always be played by a woman, and the Heart and the Mistaken must always be players of different genders. The published version omits these requirements.)

For a somewhat less esoteric take on the premise, you might instead have a look at Perfect (Unrevised). It's a game about heroic criminals in a quasi-Victorian dystopia, and features a similar rotating-roles setup, save that each player is specifically assigned to be a different player's GM; any time your character is the focus of a scene, your assigned counterpart steps into the role of GM. Like Polaris, it operates on the assumption that generally only one player character will be "on screen" at a time, in this case recommending a sort of anthology framing in which different player characters may indirectly influence each others' stories through the fallout of their actions, but may never encounter each other in person. It differs in that it features multiple GMs serially rather than simultaneously, with participants other than the active player and their assigned GM serving as a sort of semi-interactive audience.

Heroine poses a fun spin on the rotating-GM setup in that the GM role rotates while the player role doesn't. It's very blatantly designed around emulating Labyrinth (1986), with one player taking on the role of the titular Heroine, one player acting as Narrator, and the remainder playing as Companions; i.e., the Heroine's various weird muppety friends, rivals and hangers-on. The way it strays from a conventional one-GM-many-players setup is that the Narrator and the Companions are effectively on the same team, with the Companions functioning as co-GMs each assigned to a specific major NPC. (This might sound like a hair-splitting distinction, but you'll totally get what I mean when you see the rules that Companion play by.) The Narrator role rotates from scene to scene exclusively among Companion players, so the same player remains the Heroine from start to finish while everybody else gets a turn as both Narrator and Companion.

If what you're after is something which is simply built around the assumption or requirement of more than one GM, rather than this "everyone is a GM except for a single, possibly rotating player role" business, I'm afraid your options are much thinner on the ground. Trying to search for games of this type tends to yield results choked with a lot of worthless "well, this one time I was in a D&D group with a co-DM, so technically Dungeons & Dragons counts" anecdotes, which I suspect may be part of the reason you're asking me!

I have to confess it's not really my area; I don't have a great deal of interest in that particular strand of the genre. I was going to plug Pantheon – a game where participants are divided between GM-like gods and player-like mortal champions – here, but when I checked I noticed that the author seems to have withdrawn the downloadable version from publication, so that's my top rec here off the table. Perhaps this blog's followers will have better suggestions?

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention @jennamoran's Wisher, Theurgist, Fatalist, which at first blush seems to fall into the same "if everybody is GM then no-one is" category that disqualifies Belonging Outside Belonging and such, save for the very amusing twist that it supports mechanically mediated adversarial play to resolve GM-type rulings: that is, if you and another player disagree regarding what the rules of the game actually are, you can roll dice at each other to determine who's right! It also has a more conventional GM-esque facilitator role in the Weaver, but includes formal procedures for other players to depose the Weaver and usurp their authority, so whether it meets our criteria or not raises some pointed questions about exactly how we're defining both "multiple" and "GM".

[jy3-1]

AI isn't good enough to do your job. Your job is in danger because AI salespeople are tricking your boss into thinking it is.

Likewise, AI isn't good enough to replace your brain. Your brain is in danger because AI salespeople are tricking you into thinking it is.

[jy3-1]

"Scientists in Singapore have broken a long-standing limitation on the ability to generate electricity from flowing water, suggesting that another elemental force of nature could be leveraged for renewable electricity: rain.

With the simplest and smallest scale test setup, the team could power around 12 LED lightbulbs with simulated rain droplets flowing through a tube, but at scale, their method could generate meaningful amounts that could rival rooftop solar arrays.

Singapore experiences significant rainfall throughout the year, averaging 101 inches (2581 millimeters) of precipitation annually. The idea of generating electricity from such falling water is attractive, but the method has long been constrained by a principle called the Debye Length.

Nevertheless, the concept is possible because of a simple physical principle that charged entities on the surface of materials get nudged when they rub together—as true for water droplets as it is for a balloon rubbed against the hair on one’s head.

While this is true, the power values thus generated have been negligible, and electricity from flowing water has been limited to the driving of turbines in hydropower plants.

However, in a study published in the journal ACS Central Science, a team of physicists has found a way to break through the constraints of water’s Debye Length, and generate power from simulated rain.

“Water that falls through a vertical tube generates a substantial amount of electricity by using a specific pattern of water flow: plug flow,” says Siowling Soh, author of the study. “This plug flow pattern could allow rain energy to be harvested for generating clean and renewable electricity.”

The authors write in their study that in existing tests of the power production from water flows, pumps are always used to drive liquid through the small channels. But the pumps require so much energy to run that outputs are limited to miniscule amounts.

Instead, their setup to harness this plug flow pattern was scandalously simple. No moving parts or mechanisms of any kind were required. A simple plastic tube just 2 millimeters in diameter; a large plastic bottle; a small metallic needle. Water coming out of the bottle ran along the needle and bumped into the top section of the tube that had been cut in half, interrupting the water flow and allowing pockets of air to slide down the tube along with the water.

The air was the key to breaking through the limits set by the Debye Length, and key to the feasibility of electricity generation from water. Wires placed at the top of the tube and in the cup harvested the electricity.

The total generation rate of greater than 10% resulted in about 100 watts per square meter of tube. For context, a 100-watt solar panel can power an appliance as large as a blender or ceiling fan, charge a laptop, provide for several light bulbs, or even a Wi-Fi router.

Because the droplet speeds tested were much slower than rain, the researchers suggest that the real thing would provide even more than their tests, which were of course on a microscale."

-via Good News Network, April 30, 2025

[jy3-1]

WHAT TO DO AT AN ICE CHECKPOINT, ESPECIALLY IF YOU’RE A WHITE CITIZEN

(please, please, please copy, paste, and share widely):

-Border Patrol can verify citizenship within 100 miles of a border or “external boundary.” This includes coastlines so NYC is within the 100-mile zone.

-Border patrol can only ask brief questions about citizenship, and they cannot hold you for an extended time without cause.

-You always have the right to remain silent. You do not need to answer their questions.

-***WITH THAT SAID, IF YOU ARE A BORN CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES AND ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE WHITE, YOU NEED TO SPEAK THE FUCK UP.***

-The most important acts of resistance are the small ones. Make it difficult and uncomfortable for ICE agents to do their jobs. They are counting on citizens to turn a blind eye and allow them to deport undocumented citizens without challenge. Disabuse of that notion.

-If you are on a train, bus, or anything else and ICE or CBP boards, you need to stand up and loudly let everyone know that they have the right to remain silent or only answer questions in the presence of an attorney, no matter their citizenship or immigration status. There have been numerous reports that confronting the agents in this way has caused them to leave without verifying citizenship. THIS CAN SAVE LIVES.

-If you see anyone being held up by immigration, loudly ask if they are being detained and if they are free to go.

-Immigration officers cannot detain anyone without reasonable suspicion, an agent must have specific facts about you that make it reasonable to believe you are committing or committed, a violation of immigration law or federal law.

If an agent detains you, you can ask for their basis for reasonable suspicion, and they should tell you.

-Always say no to a search and let everyone know that they can and should refuse consent to a search.

-They cannot search or arrest anyone without facts about that make it probable that they are committing, or committed, a violation of immigration law or federal law.

-Silence alone meets neither of these standards. Nor does race or ethnicity alone suffice for either probable cause or reasonable suspicion

-As white citizens, we have a level of privilege which protects us from retaliation from ICE for being “rude” and making a scene, which makes it our DUTY to speak up and make sure people without the same privilege know their rights. GET LOUD. YELL. YELL IN SPANISH IF YOU KNOW IT. LET PEOPLE KNOW THEY DON’T HAVE TO SAY SHIT. MAKE ICE UNCOMFORTABLE. THROW SAND IN THE GEARS OF WHITE SUPREMACY.

BONUS INFO:

-It is perfectly legal to record immigration agents as long as you are not on government property or at a port of entry. If your train/bus gets board, pull your phone out and start videotaping immediately.

-If you are detained or see someone getting detained, get the agent’s name, number, and any other identifying information. Get it on tape.

-Contact the ACLU if you see someone’s rights being violated.

[jy3-1]

Just because the clown car goes very fast does not mean it isn't full of clowns

[jy3-1]

People are trying to bring back 1880s-era anti-ASL sentiment. Worst timeline.

[jy3-1]

Call your reps in the House and just screech like a barn owl

[jy3-1]

Speaking from the perspective of someone who's worked in the tech industry for thirty years, the thing about personal data privacy policies for online services is that, nearly without exception, they contain provisos allowing your data to be shared with third parties to the extent that doing so is necessary to provide the service that's being offered – and, critically, unless they're literally forced to do so by law, who these third parties are and what constitutes "necessary" sharing will not be defined. This vagueness is routinely exploited by entering into sham partnerships with interested parties who, on paper, are providing the data holder with unspecified consulting services, thereby allowing the data in question to be shared with practically anyone while adhering to the letter of any relevant privacy policy.

All of which is to say that 23andMe has absolutely been selling your genetic data this whole time. The only reason they're asking a judge for official permission to do so now is because being in bankruptcy means they actually need to explain what it is that they're doing.

[jy3-1]

The grim reaper was initially illustrated as doing a mundane, regular job that everyone has seen done - a reaper swings his scythe and the hay falls, just as easy as people fall as death swings. Now many people who have never been to a farm only know the scythe as the weapon of Death personified, and farmers in most places of the world don't even use them anymore.

Imagine Death personified as someone doing a modern regular, mundane job. Imagine thinking "hoo boy, this is it for me. The Grim Bin Man is coming to collect, hauling my sorry soul into the trash compactor of his great eternal garbage truck."

[jy3-1]

One of the games I'm writing is about pretending to do this, from fragments of games you own and/or sentences generated randomly with a context-free grammar.

Hey, welcome to the ancient board game fandom. We've got "game speculatively reconstructed from surviving boards and playing-pieces which we're only about 60% sure actually go together", "game known from a single extant description whose various contradictions and omissions strongly suggest that whoever wrote it had never played the game they're describing", and "game which has weak evidence for being roughly two thousand years old but might also have been invented whole-cloth in the 19th Century". Enjoy your arguments!

[jy3-1]

Reads surface thoughts.

Changes the qualia of one creature or object.

Whispers into your mind.

Changes the phase of inert matter.

Makes you unlucky.

Attracts objects.

Gives you nightmares the next time you dream.

Intoxication ray.

Very slow matter duplication.

Fire ray.

Game design exercise: You've been tasked with creating a non-trademark-infringing version of the beholder. The design brief specifies that your version should have ten creepy eyestalks with ten distinct magic powers, like the standard beholder, but these powers must not overlap with even one of the standard beholder powers.

For the purpose of this exercise, assume that the forbidden list consists of exactly the ten magic eyeball powers that are present in the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Monster Manual. (i.e., you don't need to research every magic eyeball power that's ever been attributed to a beholder in every iteration of D&D ever published.)

For reference, these ten powers are:

Controls your mind

Paralyses you

Makes you afraid

Slows you down

Makes you weak

General purpose telekinesis

Puts you to sleep

Turns you to stone

Disintegration ray

Just fucking kills you

These are all off limits.

So:

What ten magic eyeball powers do you give your legally-not-a-beholder?

[jy3-1]

here's some more unsolicited adult advice as someone in her 30s who knows there are a lot of twenty somethings and teens that follow her: if you're trying to build a new habit you really want, and are struggling, you have to break it down to the smallest building block possible. If you're failing, you haven't thought small enough. I know it's possible to hear stories of people who just snapped into new life mode one day by "just deciding", but truly what's happening there is a confluence of events and experiences that force the brain into some sort of epiphany. You cannot will an epiphany. It'll never work. For most times of your life, you will need to build habits intentionally, and that means not working against yourself and to set micro goals. like laughably tiny goals. because once that easy tiny goal is met, you can build off it, tiny goal after tiny goal until you reach your big goal.

so for example, if you want to be a morning person that gets up at ass crack dawn so that you can work out, eat brekkie, shower, and get to work at a leisurely pace, and you're not that person because you will hit your snooze button 800 times, you have to get the big picture goal out of your head. think smaller. "I want to get up 15 minutes earlier than I normally do." If you can't do that, make it 5 minutes. "I want to cook breakfast every day" hell no too big. "I want to eat something, anything, before I leave the house" hell yeah, fantastic. When you go to the grocery store to make sure there are things in the house for breakfast, if you keep buying bagels and microwave sandwiches that you ignore, you gotta think smaller. SMALLER. What's something so easy to eat that you'll never say no to. Is it a yogurt? Is it a handful of grapes? Is it a hostess ho ho? is it hot cheetos? FORGET the big picture of the fantasy put-together woman preparing a full nutritious meal that you'd be proud to admit to. Think only of the smallest goal you can achieve. If you know you can't say no to an ice cream sandwich, put a ton of ice cream sandwiches in your freezer and have one for breakfast every day until it's so instilled in you that you gotta get up to eat something you can start diversifying.

It sounds like, from the lack of habit place, that must take forever. But really it doesn't take too long to form the habit once the discipline kicks in. the trick is that you have to give your brain something easy to become disciplined to. If it's too hard, think easier and smaller. No one has to know. Literally no one in the gd world has to know that for 4 weeks when you were 22 you had an ice cream sandwich for breakfast every day. who cares. If it gets you eating oatmeal with fresh fruit in a few months who cares. you did it, yay. smaller, easier. if you can't do it, think smaller and easier. smaller!! EASIER!!! You are not thinking smaller and easier enough. break your brain thinking how small and easy you can go. SMALLER. EVEN SMALLER, SIS.

[jy3-1]

before it gets bad I'm just gonna tell y'all certain rich people have literally only recently noticed Open Source software availability compromises the bottom line of their proprietary investments so if you see little chickadees on this website talking about the dangers of Open Source software all of a sudden it's cuz they accidentally sipped some koolaid mixed up by the far right yacht people to fuck with peoples software sovereignty and right to repair, modify, and redistribute robust codebases that become a problem when 30% of your portfolio is in, oh, say, adobe or openai.

This is your unfriendly neighborhood computer fucker telling you not to fall for it and to demand your right to digital sovereignty rather than trusting companies to make correct choices about what to do with the parts of your life they would very much like to have in the cloud to continue improving their products.

[jy3-1]

[jy3-1]

I believe the saying these days is "like to charge, reblog to cast?"

Abolish Tesla.

[jy3-1]

I wish we could teach each other how to love the way we can teach animals that aren’t supposed to be able to feel it.