randomgeekchild

[randomgeekchild]

http://www.randomgeekchild.com/hold-please/

[randomgeekchild]

Happy Easter if you celebrate!! (or happy discounted-chocolate-egg-day tomorrow if you don't!!)

[randomgeekchild]

tfw you find out your peaceful jedi boyfriend uses slurs

(commission info // tip jar!)

[randomgeekchild]

[ID: A digital illustration of Fire Lord Zuko holding a golden egg, his cheek against it. The atmosphere is dark, the egg lit up gold, along with Zuko's eyes and scar. End ID]

found a wip from a year ago ill definitely never be touching again

[randomgeekchild]

Have you ever considered a character role-swap AU for either the Clone Wars era or the Rebels era?

i drew a sith padme ages ago and more recently did that cal-trilla swap au, but let's make MORE of one!!!

(commission info // tip jar!)

[randomgeekchild]

Marcille relearning her native language takes a turn

[randomgeekchild]

Pack it up lads. I've officially found the prettiest boy. The competition's over.

[randomgeekchild]

the fuegian steamer duck is a large, flightless species of duck found in south america living along rocky coasts and coastal islands from southern chile and chiloé to tierra del fuego; during the breeding season, they move further inland for shelter. they are a hefty duck known for their size; individuals range from 7.7lbs on the small end to over 15lbs (for reference, a wild mallard duck weighs up to 3.5lbs). the steamer-duck family is not closely related to ‘true’ ducks, and their weight actually surpasses many species of geese. the sexes look similar, but females have a darker gray-brown on the head, and reddish-brown on the throat, and they are noticeably smaller than males. while during winter they are typically docile and may join mixed-species flocks, males are incredibly aggressive during the breeding season.

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http://www.randomgeekchild.com/the-gift-of-la-vina/

[randomgeekchild]

a single andes chocolate mint from the olive garden can fully nourish an adult human for up to 96 hours

[randomgeekchild]

Yay, my favourite potato! Who would give Din the scariest shovel talk: Leia, Chewbacca or R2?

droids and angry wookies are no problem for a seasoned bounty hunter like din! the first one though...

(commission info // tip jar!)

[randomgeekchild]

I've seen a number of people worried and concerned about this language on Ao3s current "agree to these terms of service" page. The short version is:

Don't worry. This isn't anything bad. Checking that box just means you forgive them for being US American.

Long version: This text makes perfect sense if you're familiar with the issues around GDPR and in particular the uncertainty about Privacy Shield and SCCs after Schrems II. But I suspect most people aren't, so let's get into it, with the caveat that this is a Eurocentric (and in particular EU centric) view of this.

The basic outline is that Europeans in the EU have a right to privacy under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), an EU directive (let's simplify things and call it an EU law) that regulates how various entities, including companies and the government, may acquire, store and process data about you.

The list of what counts as data about you is enormous. It includes things like your name and birthday, but also your email address, your computers IP address, user names, whatever. If an advertiser could want it, it's on the list.

The general rule is that they can't, unless you give explicit permission, or it's for one of a number of enumerated reasons (not all of which are as clear as would be desirable, but that's another topic). You have a right to request a copy of the data, you have a right to force them to delete their data and so on. It's not quite on the level of constitutional rights, but it is a pretty big deal.

In contrast, the US, home of most of the world's internet companies, has no such right at a federal level. If someone has your data, it is fundamentally theirs. American police, FBI, CIA and so on also have far more rights to request your data than the ones in Europe.

So how can an American website provide services to persons in the EU? Well… Honestly, there's an argument to be made that they can't.

US websites can promise in their terms and conditions that they will keep your data as safe as a European site would. In fact, they have to, unless they start specifically excluding Europeans. The EU even provides Standard Contract Clauses (SCCs) that they can use for this.

However, e.g. Facebook's T&Cs can't bind the US government. Facebook can't promise that it'll keep your data as secure as it is in the EU even if they wanted to (which they absolutely don't), because the US government can get to it easily, and EU citizens can't even sue the US government over it.

Despite the importance that US companies have in Europe, this is not a theoretical concern at all. There have been two successive international agreements between the US and the EU about this, and both were struck down by the EU court as being in violation of EU law, in the Schrems I and Schrems II decisions (named after Max Schrems, an Austrian privacy activist who sued in both cases).

A third international agreement is currently being prepared, and in the meantime the previous agreement (known as "Privacy Shield") remains tentatively in place. The problem is that the US government does not want to offer EU citizens equivalent protection as they have under EU law; they don't even want to offer US citizens these protections. They just love spying on foreigners too much. The previous agreements tried to hide that under flowery language, but couldn't actually solve it. It's unclear and in my opinion unlikely that they'll manage to get a version that survives judicial review this time. Max Schrems is waiting.

So what is a site like Ao3 to do? They're arguably not part of the problem, Max Schrems keeps suing Meta, not the OTW, but they are subject to the rules because they process stuff like your email address.

Their solution is this checkbox. You agree that they can process your data even though they're in the US, and they can't guarantee you that the US government won't spy on you in ways that would be illegal for the government of e.g. Belgium. Is that legal under EU law? …probably as legal as fan fiction in general, I suppose, which is to say let's hope nobody sues to try and find out.

But what's important is that nothing changed, just the language. Ao3 has always stored your user name and email address on servers in the US, subject to whatever the FBI, CIA, NSA and FRA may want to do it. They're just making it more clear now.

[randomgeekchild]

a comic about fix-it fanfics

[randomgeekchild]

Twitter thread by Melissa Caruso about a labyrinthine magical bookstore in Syracuse, NY. Link to the first tweet in the thread; most pictures have image descriptions! Now here are the screenshots of that thread:

And then a hero of the labyrinthine magical bookstores of the world put all the bookstores that people listed in the replies on a map! (Google Maps link)

[randomgeekchild]

American Marten (Martes americana), family Mustelidae, Quebec, Canada

photograph by Philippe De-Bruyne

[randomgeekchild]

Plum blossom in green tea hill.

Kochi, Japan.

[randomgeekchild]

May I request some house finches? I have recently become overjoyed that a pair of them have chosen our porch light as a nesting spot (on the side of the house we don't use so they shouldn't be disturbed thankfully!) - we've spent a lot of years with non-native birds being dominant in the area and the abundance of native finches this spring is making me happy.

Our male was so red that until I heard him sing I thought he was a purple finch, so I have high hopes for the health of their chicks!

Why yes of course!

House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus), male, family Fringillidae, order Passeriformes, NC, USA

photograph by Martina Nordstrand

House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus), male, family Fringillidae, order Passeriformes, OH, USA

photograph by Matthew Plante

What’s the difference?: House Finch vs. Purple Finch

https://www.reconnectwithnature.org/news-events/the-buzz/difference-between-house-finch-vs-purple-finch