#Conductivity tester

[susanlabnic]

The Labnic Conductivity Meter is a compact, water-resistant device with a built-in stand and a large LCD. screen that displays all measurements and temperatures. The conductivity meter has an accuracy of ± 1.0% FS for the electrode. and ± 1.5% FS for the instrument. The conductivity meter features a large LCD screen with a white backlight.

[labequipments]

Conductivity Tester

The platinum sensor in the pocket conductivity tester and the one-point push button calibration technique are also standard features. The pocket conductivity meter is easy to use and includes waterproof properties to keep it safe in harsh environments. To assess the conductivity of drinking water, waste water, brine water, and liquids with high and low conductivity, a conductivity meter with low, mid, and high conductivity measurement ranges can be employed.

[labotronicsscientific]

Thermal Conductivity Tester

Labotronics thermal conductivity tester is designed with ASTM C518-04 standard to measure the thermal conductivity of materials 0.00001 to 3 W/mk with 0.01mw accuracy by utilizing flat plate consists of heat and cold surface .A controlled heat is applied which induces a temperature gradient across the material from the heated side to the cool side.The temperature sensors measure temperature difference across the material and detects heat flow rate .Using value of heat flow,speciman thickness,area and temperature difference generates test result automaticaly.

Read more

[sofiyalabtronus]

Pocket Conductivity Tester

Pocket Conductivity Tester Measures the electrical conductivity of water. Conductivity is related to the ability of water to conduct an electric current. measures conductivity in microsiemens per centimeter (μS/cm) or millisiemens per centimeter (mS/cm). Used to assess the total dissolved solids (TDS) and overall ion concentration in water. It's commonly used in aquaculture, hydroponics, environmental monitoring, and water quality testing.Conductivity calibration points-1 point;Sensor type-Platinum sensor;Normalization temperature-25 °C;Display-LCD screen for more visit labtron.us

[simp2537]

You don’t have request for the Darkling? Let me fix that (:

Someone wants to hurt Alek by kidnaping the reader so, Alek saves her and he’s mad AF

Touch her and die

a/n: I love writing over protective partners and stuff so I loved this. Also reader is a bit chaotic cause why not. Also made reader a Tidemaker.

Warning: kidnapping, language, blood, grisha hate, kinda bratty reader? Aleks goes psycho mode, injuries, drüskelle, mentions of Aleks and readers age gap

Aleksander Morozova x fem! Reader

It was an unspoken rule for all grisha, for all ravka, for everyone to not hurt his lover. It was no great secret that the Darkling, the Black general himself was absolutely smitten by his favorite Tidemaker. With her pretty e/c eyes and a pout on her rose colored lips she could get anything she wanted from her general.

His Tidemaker had grown up in a village boardering Fjerda, so grisha testers weren’t common to go there. In secret her older brother, also a Tidemaker taught her the ways of the grisha. Unfortunately a little ways after her nineteenth birthday drüskelle invaded her village and he brother died saving her life.

She ran through the thick forests of ravka with no idea where to go as they chased her when he appeared. His shadows cut through the drüskelle and not long after that the darkling infatuation with his Tidemaker became apparent.

Now his Tidemaker strut into the meeting he conducted, she was late. She walked right up to his side with a smile and adjusted some of the toy soldiers as he spoke. Then she walked right over to Zoya, who shock her head at her friend’s brazenness.

“You’re late, L/n.” Zoya muttered as she drew over the Ravkan maps. Y/n giggled softly as he began to help Zoya. Aleksander would glance back over at the pair every so offten. His Tidemaker clad in a black kefta with teal embroidery. He loved that she so proudly wore his color.

Her and Zoya began to giggle about something, probably a comment she’d made when one of the king advisors cleared his throat.

“Miss L/n have you something to add?” He asked cutting off the girls chatter. The room went quiet as she went stiff. Ivan and Fedyor shared a quick look as their generals eyes darkened. His tone was snobbish and rather rude.

He spoke as if he was better than she was, and it made her almost want to laugh as she turned. Slowly she made it back to the main table with the toy soldiers, this was a different plan than the one she’d just arranged. It was horrible and would lead to the deaths of many grisha.

Y/n would not sacrifice her soldiers when she could do better. Quickly she fixed up the arrangement with an empty look, Aleksander watched her in awe. As she finished she turned to the advisor with the same snobbish looked he’d given her.

“It seems you needed some assistance, don’t worry sir for I will always be there to fix the mistakes.” Y/n mocked as she bowed her head slightly. Aleksander chuckled slightly and moved a stray hair behind her ear. Such an open act of affection for his Tidemaker was nothing new, but for him to do it after she’d humiliated one of the king’s advisor was a risky move.

“Although Miss L/n was late she has fixed this plan to ensure the safety of all the grisha going into this battle. For that I am most grateful.” He amused as he stared at her. She smiled cheekily as she returned to Zoya’s side, a confident sway to her hips.

This was the last time Aleksander had seen her that day.

……………………

It was no secret that the darkling had a great many enemies, but as the fist collided with her face for the hundredth time, Y/n was growing tired. The kings advisor, whatever his name was had hired drüskelle of all people to kidnap her.

Of course her hands were bound apart and she was tied to the chair. She was surprised they hadn’t just killed her but she didn’t care. She was growing bored of all the punches. Her face was bruised, the right side more then the left, her lip busted, and she was sure at least one of her ribs were broken.

“It’s not to late to get me go you know.” She mumbled as she dropped her head back. Her hands quietly attempting to undo her cuffs.

“Drüsje your pleading for your life will not work.” The tallest announced. She sighed softly, he would come for her. If she was dead by the time he found her she knew all of Fjerda would pay.

“It would just be in your best interest.”

They all laughed and she joined in. Let them laugh, it’ll probably be the last time they do. She though softly.

“We will end you, and then we will break the darkling.” Y/n nodded softly at there words as they smashed their fist into her side. She groaned as she felt a rib snap.

“Then kill me, what is it you are afraid of?” Y/n taunted. They all froze, one of them brought there axe dangerously close to her neck.

“Will you not beg for your life?”

“Take it if it pleases you. It is not me who suffers when I’m gone.” They didn’t know what to say to that. They had heard the talks of the darkling whore. How she could boil the blood, pull the water from your body, freeze your nerves. But the women in front of them didn’t look the dangerous type.

“You aren’t the confident whore of the darkling we’ve heard tales of. You are just his pet he plays with from time to time.” Her face hardened at those words. She was not dressed in his color to be watered down to a simple whore. She smiled charming as she began to un click the cuffs.

“Most women aren’t as crude as you, they are modest.” Y/n giggled softly. She saw the shadows begin to move.

“Unfortunately for everyone I will keep doing whatever the fuck I want.”

Y/n snapped her cuffs and rolled her chair causing it to hut the ground. The shadows form into the cut and swore through the air above her. The shadows surrounded her till the familiar frame of her Sasha towered over her.

“Would mind untying these ropes?” Y/n uttered softly slumping against the grounds, her confident persona gone. The ropes were off and Aleksander pulled his Tidemaker to her feet. His hand clutched her face as he brought her in for a messy and passionate kiss.

She moaned softly into the kiss as he held her face. His hands slowly began to trail down and she pulled away with a wince.

“What is it?” Aleksander whispered as she clung to him.

“I think they broke a few ribs.” She whined as she lean into his frame for support. From the outside of the cabin she heard a few grunts, a scream or two and then silence. Aleksander placed his cloak around her shoulder in hopes of warming her.

“My healers will attend to you when we get back.” He placed a kiss to her head and began to pepper her hairline with kisses. The fear was evident in his eyes at her body. His eyes scanned her bruised face and body, her busted lip, the blood dripping down the side of her arm.

He hated that she’d gotten hurt so badly before he could save her. By the looks of her cuffs she was half way there in her own. With a slight waddle she made it to the door, with protest from her lover she pushed them opens, her jaw hit the ground.

Blood and carnage surround the cabin where she was kept. She limped her way through the bodies as Aleksander trailed behind her. Ivan, Fedyor, Zoya, and the twins were there.

“What happened out here?”

No one answered as Zoya hugged Y/n, attempting and failing to be cautious of her ribs. Aleksander pulled Y/n away after allowing Zoya to hug her, he didn’t want her to far.

“I thought they’d killed you… I lost my temper.” Aleksander admitted as he picked Y/n into his arms. Y/n stared at him for a moment.

“If this is what you do when you’re out of control, I’d hate to see what you do when you are.” Fedyor laughed softly as Ivan swatted at his husband. Y/n’s words were true. There wasn’t a thing in the world there general wouldn’t do for his precious Tidemaker.

[seireiteihellbutterfly]

Bleach Headcanons : Oddities Part 2

More weird stuff that members of the Gotei 13 do. Part 1 can be found here.

Genryusai Yamamoto

Enjoys knitting and spends his evenings creating intricate scarves and blankets for his squad members. He considers it a form of meditation and finds solace in the rhythmic clicking of the knitting needles.

Has a hidden stash of adorable cat-themed trinkets in his office, gifts from squad members over the years. 

Has a peculiar habit of conducting morning exercises with his subordinates, insisting on leading synchronized stretching sessions that include overly enthusiastic jumping jacks and cartwheels, much to everyone's surprise.

Shunsui Kyoraku 

Composes dramatic, overly poetic love letters to his favorite sake brands, expressing his undying devotion and appreciation for their taste.

Is known to challenge squad members to bizarre competitions, such as a haiku battle or a contest to see who can take the longest nap. He always claims victory, regardless of the actual outcome.

Keeps a stash of disguises in his office and occasionally infiltrates other squads just for fun, but he's always caught due to his distinctively lazy demeanor

Izuru Kira

Has a secret collection of adorable plush toys hidden in his office. Whenever he's stressed, he takes a break with these plushies, assigning different voices and personalities to each one. 

Creates a mini zen garden in his office and spends hours meticulously arranging the sand and tiny rocks, finding solace and inner peace in its careful maintenance.

Collects unusual stationery and spends his downtime experimenting with different types of ink and quills. 

Toshiro Hitsugaya

Develops an unexpected fascination with ice sculpting and spends his free time sculpting intricate, mini ice replicas of notable Seireitei landmarks. He insists they're just practice, but secretly cherishes them in his office. 

Unintentionally is a magnet for lost animals in the Seireitei, and his squad often finds him shooing out stray cats and birds from his office.

 Becomes overly protective of the squad's refrigerator, labeling each item with his name and fiercely defending his snacks from any potential thieves within the squad, even going as far as setting up "ice traps" to catch unauthorized snack bandits

Zaraki Kenpachi

Pretty sure he’s adopted a pet kitten that he secretly dotes on in his spare time. He refuses to acknowledge its existence in front of anyone and grumbles about "just tolerating its presence," but his squad members catch glimpses of him sneaking it bits of fish and milk.

Started a food stall called "Kenpachi's Cooking Corner" where he attempts to teach his squad how to cook. The sessions usually end in chaos and burnt food, but everyone participates out of fear of upsetting him.

Enjoys reading shoujo manga in secret and has a vast collection stashed away in his office, fiercely denying their existence whenever someone accidentally discovers them, insisting that he got them for Yachiru. 

Mayuri Kurotsuchi 

Holds "Bring Your Weirdest Invention to Work" days in his lab, encouraging his subordinates to create the most outlandish and impractical gadgets imaginable. However, he always mysteriously makes his own invention vanish right before the judging, claiming it was too advanced for everyone else to comprehend

Holds a weekly "Fashion Forward Friday" where he experiments with unconventional clothing designs, resulting in outrageous outfits that his squad members struggle to comprehend

Has a peculiar habit of meticulously organizing his lab by arranging test tubes and equipment according to their color gradients, which nobody dares disturb for fear of incurring his wrath

Becomes obsessed with perfecting the art of making perfectly shaped and flavored jelly desserts. His squad members often find themselves unwilling taste-testers for his latest bizarre jelly concoctions

[pocket-gems]

Clay Sketchdump!

Tried to do Clay types, most are finished and some just aren't. None of them have hands on the finished version (per example the Sepiolite group).

Skipped the Medicinal Clay group because I was unsure if it was worth doing. Here's the rundown for those interested:

Clay

This is where Clay would have had more members but it be like dat sometimes. Their job is to model small prototype builings.

Other (Clay Minerals)

Thissss turned out to be messed up and I had to reorganize it.

-Pyrophyllite and Talc make the Pyrophyllite-Talc group (don't look at me, I don't make the name) wich I have finished and did not save the 3 sketches of. Oops.

Pyro/Talc group are more in charge as to keep "the elements" when utilized under control. By elements I mean material, to not create clouds of dust/cremated.

-Sepiolite turned out to have a group but I have the sketches!

Sepiolites are in charge of designing the structure of a fancier building. Falcondoite for aerial, Ferrisepiolite for the ones that need a second evaluation to be re-charged and Loughlinite for pattern-centred buildings.

Ribbon Clay (Attapulgite) was made just for fun, a fancier, sea-centred clay, maybe.

Kaolin

Being more paper-like gems because that totally makes sense. Only 1 missing from the sketches. Instead of paper, they create their own version of paper for signal instructions that can be plastered into other materials/buildings.

Kaolinite makes the most thin version, closer to paper. Dickite makes tube-like shapes, Nacrite makes heavier square shaped ones and Halloysite has the hability to make them shine in the dark (Hidrohalloysite can make it submergible).

Illite

She's literally a mistake, should not be there. It's a Muscovite variety. Shame 😔

Smectite

I have re-made these ones when finishing them because they didn't look to me like they were from the same group + 2 were missing.

They're focused on being more materialistic gems, having the hability to change and purify material for other gems to work with (like Bismuth).

Smectite works with pure-clay material, Beidellite with charcoal, Hectorite with more make-up like material, Montmorillonite with humified material, Nontronite can touch electrified material to work with, Pimelite can work with water conducts, Saponite works with poisonous material (and un-poisons it), Sauconite works with wood, Stevensite is the strongest of all and is also able to work underwater, Swinefordite works with reflective material, Vermiculite works with electric material, Volkonskoite works with iron material and Yakhontovite with rusted material (and can fix it).

Chlorite

The most complex of the clay gang because I already had one designed and I didn't realize dwkfdekgj I had to simplify her design.

They are maintenance workers, analizers and managers. Their hands work like this:

They don't use technology/extra limbs. As clay, they can mold themselves for their task. I wanted to make that clear. Anyway:

-Chlorite, Baileychlore and Clinochlore (or Kämmererite) are the most basic of the group. They focus on analizing building cracks/holes. They can separate their fingers to form wings to better adjust.

-Cookeite and Borocookeite are able to spell fire to cook any small parasite destroying the building.

-Chamosite and Orthochamosite are transport rail fixers as well as testers, since they can use their fingers to mold themselves to have wheels.

-Donbassite can mold and expand their fingers to create tools to put any falling plate into place.

-Franklinfurnaceite is able to create hot clay to fill any hole made by the passing of time.

-Glagolevite is able to levitate and to manipulate liquid obstructing the way.

-Gonyerite is able to create small incinerators to destroy any dust created.

-Nimite is able to fix any scratch on screens.

-Pennantite penalizes any gem if they were the source of any building's destruction (screen broken, cracked wall...). They're also able to manipulate magma to place it (it them becomes solid and can be fixed later).

-Sudoite is able to fix glass and also manipulate liquid to replace glass.

I'm not going too into detail about each gem's personality because you know, this is still a draft and if I'm going to, at least I could share it on indivitual posts for each group. You're free to still ask or to tell me if I missed anyone, or else I think I did many types if not all of Clay Mineral (I'm not counting variations, I want my hand to live).

If you have read this far, thanks!

[usafphantom2]

The D-21 Drone and project Senior Bowl: i.e. the SR-71 Blackbird was not the Most Secret Program ever developed by famed Lockheed Skunk Works

The D-21 Drone and project Senior Bowl

At Beale Air Force Base (AFB), in California, you would think that the SR-71 Blackbird program would be the biggest blackest deepest secret.

But you would be wrong.

The biggest secret was Project Tagboard/Senior Bowl.

CLICK HERE to see The Aviation Geek Club contributor Linda Sheffield’s T-shirt designs! Linda has a personal relationship with the SR-71 because her father Butch Sheffield flew the Blackbird from test flight in 1965 until 1973. Butch’s Granddaughter’s Lisa Burroughs and Susan Miller are graphic designers. They designed most of the merchandise that is for sale on Threadless. A percentage of the profits go to Flight Test Museum at Edwards Air Force Base. This nonprofit charity is personal to the Sheffield family because they are raising money to house SR-71, #955. This was the first Blackbird that Butch Sheffield flew on Oct. 4, 1965.

Project Tagboard/Senior Bowl is a relatively unknown project in the history of Area 51 reconnaissance A-12 aircraft. This project was Top Secret from its inception and during the Senior Bowl part of the project, there were less than 100 personnel cleared to work on it.

According to Air Force Test Center History Office documents, all manned flights over the Soviet Union were discontinued by President Dwight Eisenhower after Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 spy plane was shot down May 1, 1960. However even if the US government was planning on using satellites for reconnaissance, the technology was still a few years away and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) determined unmanned drones could fill the gap until satellites became viable.

For this reason, in the 1960s the famed Lockheed “Skunk Works” developed the D-21 a highly-advanced, remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) designed to carry out high-speed, high-altitude strategic reconnaissance missions over hostile territory.

The D-21 Drone and project Senior Bowl: i.e. the SR-71 Blackbird was not the Most Secret Program ever developed by famed Lockheed Skunk Works

M-21 and D-21

Launched from the back of the M-21

According to the document Project Tagboard/Senior Bowl Overview by Road Runners Internationale, Project Tagboard/Senior Bowl was the brain child of Lockheed’s Skunk Works’ Kelly Johnson. It consisted of a drone (D-21) mated to a modified A-12 aircraft (M-21), the combination known as MD-21 (mother/daughter).

The project was first conceived in 1962 when Lockheed’s Kelly Johnson got approval from the CIA to add two aircraft to the existing A-12 assembly line. Known as M-21’s, these aircraft were built with a second crew station for the Launch Control Officer (LCO) and structurally enhanced aft fuselage with a large dorsal pylon to carry the new drone atop the rear fuselage. When attached, the wingtips of the D-21 would have only six inches of clearance with the tops of the vertical stabilizers of the mother ship. This combination was known as the MD-21 (mother/daughter).

The D-21 would be launched from the back of the M-21. Ideally, after conducting its reconnaissance mission it would eject a hatch with photo equipment to be recovered either mid-air or after the hatch landed.

The D-21 Drone and project Senior Bowl: i.e. the SR-71 Blackbird was not the Most Secret Program ever developed by famed Lockheed Skunk Works

B-52 – D-21

However, on the fourth flight test, the D-21 experienced an “asymmetric unstart” as it passed through the bow wake of the M-21 causing the mothership to pitch up and collide with the D-21 at Mach 3.25. Crewmembers Bill Park and Ray Torick ejected from the M-21, but Torick opened his helmet visor by mistake and his suit filled up with water causing him to drown.

After the accident and after the death of Ray Torick, a test flight engineer, the M-21 launch program was cancelled but testers still believed the D-21 would make a valuable reconnaissance vehicle and decided to launch the drone from B-52Hs under a top-secret test program named Tagboard. The new code name for the D-21 project became Senior Bowl.

Modified B-52s

It was Kelly Johnson, President of Skunk Works, who suggested to use the B-52. As a result of Johnson’s advice two B-52’s were modified: 61#0021 and 60#0036. Both B-52’s are still in the US Air Force (USAF) inventory. The ultra-secret 4200 test squadron was formed at Beale.

The D-21 Drone and project Senior Bowl: i.e. the SR-71 Blackbird was not the Most Secret Program ever developed by famed Lockheed Skunk Works

D-21 drone.

+Only a few of the men that flew the SR-71 had been read into the program: out of necessity one of the few included my father Richard “Butch” Sheffield, SR-71 RSO who had already been read into Oxcart in 1965. In his unpublished book he writes that on the flightline he was with Bob Spencer, SR-71 pilot. They were taxing out when they saw the B-52 with a drone underneath it. Spencer asked ‘What is that under that B-52?’ My Dad responded ‘I have no idea.’ He couldn’t tell Bob Spencer the truth.

These two B-52‘s were kept away at the end of the runway apart from any other operations.

The D-21s were used on four flights over communist China but none of these missions fully succeeded.

Two flights were successful; however, the imagery could not be recovered from the D-21’s hatch. The other two operational flights ended with one being lost in a heavily defended area and the other D-21 simply disappeared after launch.

D-21 over China and Senior Bowl

The main mission of the D-21 was to fly over China and take pictures of its nuclear weapons test facility in the remote west central of the country near Lop Nor.

An Omega KDC-10 is the first commercial tanker to refuel USAF B-52, MC-130J over Pacific Ocean

This print is available in multiple sizes from AircraftProfilePrints.com – CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. B-52H Stratofortress 2nd BW, 20th BS, LA/60-0008 “Lucky Lady IV”.

The pictures were supposed to be dropped in the ocean and recovered by the Navy. During the Cold War this information was necessary for the defense of the US.

The fourth and final mission of the D-21 drone took place on Mar. 20, 1971 and was undertaken by D-21 #527. Experts at the 4200th Support Squadron and at Skunk Works concluded that #527 must have malfunctioned. It was thought to have gone down near Lop Nor. This drone is on display in China at their national aviation museum. So, we know that it got close to the target.

Senior Bowl lasted from January 1968 until Jul. 15, 1971. Interestingly, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Ben Rich (then retired president of Lockheed’s Skunk Works) finally had an opportunity to tour Russia himself. While in Moscow, the KGB presented Rich with a gift of what they thought were the remains of a stealth fighter that had crashed in their territory. As it turned out, the wreckage was actually pieces and parts of the lost D-21 Drone!

Be sure to check out Linda Sheffield Miller (Col Richard (Butch) Sheffield’s daughter, Col. Sheffield was an SR-71 Reconnaissance Systems Officer) Twitter X Page Habubrats SR-71, Instagram Page SR71Habubrats and Facebook Page Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder Habubrats for awesome Blackbird’s photos and stories.

@Habubrats71 via X

[blues824]

Hello, there. May I have Obey Me brothers with a sporty tomboy reader who's very skilled and baking and making confectionery (sweets, candies, etc)?

Mammon’s scenario has reader dressing up in a feminine way as a prank, but no gender-specific pronouns are used.

Lucifer

He’s glad that you found something harmless to do in your free time, and will always make sure that you stay hydrated while you’re at practice for whatever sport you want to compete in. He shows his support by clearing his schedule to walk you to and from practice, and to be there at every game or competition you have.

The eldest brother honestly doesn’t mind you being a tomboy. As long as you don’t partake in his brothers’ shenanigans, he doesn’t care! You just need to have manners and act responsibly as well as respectfully.

As for the baking part, I see him as someone who prefers savory foods. However, that does not mean that he doesn’t get a slight craving for something sweet every now and again. He appreciates it whenever you bake something for the HoL, better yet when you bake something only for him to enjoy. It makes him feel appreciated.

Mammon

He would probably try to show off his nonexistent athletic abilities because he wanted to impress you, so he tried to challenge you to a race. You, however, beat him so badly that this man was nearly about to cry from embarrassment. However, since the terms were you would be able to get anything you wanted if you won, you asked him on a date. You lifted his spirits with one question.

He also doesn’t mind you being a tomboy. However, this is one way to prank him. If you have been with him for a while, and one day you decide to dress as completely feminine, it will throw him off as he asks who you’re dressing up for. This got him concerned, until you tell him it’s a prank.

This dude probably tries to act like he doesn’t have a secret sweet tooth, but he’s also the type to act emotionally hurt when he isn’t the taste tester or the person that you give the spoon to so that he could lick off the batter. If you bake something specifically for him, he would try his hardest not to blush or be flustered, but it never works.

Leviathan

He’s the type to set up cameras and everything to get good shots of you running, jumping, exercising, etc. and put the footage to some epic music and upload it to his Devilgram. He makes your public image look good, and the edits go viral.

I think you remind him of a bunch of anime characters by being a tomboy. You weren’t like the character from I Saw My Mom Get Eaten By a Titan in the First Episode (referring to Mikasa), but more like the main character from I Broke A Vase and Now I Am A Member of a Host Club (referring to Haruhi).

He loves to help you in the kitchen whenever you are baking something, especially if you are making an anime-themed dessert. As he’s whisking the wet ingredients, he would totally be geeking out about the plot and the characters. You took this as an opportunity to take some whipped cream on your thumb and smear it on his nose. He was taken by surprise and just froze up.

Satan 

He doesn’t really enjoy athletic activities aside from walking from place to place, but he will be there to cheer you on for anything. If he doesn’t understand a sport that you enjoy, he will conduct research and ask questions to you and your teammates.

None of the brothers really care that you’re a tomboy, as long as you aren’t rowdy. Same goes for Satan. In many different books, there have been cases where characters dress up in a more masculine way, and for a multitude of reasons. Take Jo from Little Women. She was a tomboy just as you are.

He enjoys a sweet treat every now and again, and he loves to research different recipes for you to try and make. He likes to help you in the kitchen since it allows the two of you to get closer to one another. Slow dancing in the kitchen is a must.

Asmodeus

I feel like he works out to stay in shape, but he doesn’t do any other athletic activities. He will be there to cheer you on, though. He will be the loudest person in the bleachers, and you won’t be able to hear anyone else because this guy is straining his vocal chords.

He is the more feminine one in the relationship, so yeah. He will help you style your clothing in a more masculine way, and in a way that matches his own outfit because he thinks matching with your significant other is absolutely adorable.

He definitely loves sweets but always tries to refrain himself so that he eats healthier, but how could he resist when his beloved Y/N made those treats just for him?? Especially if you make them look cute or pretty. Most of his Devilgram contains pictures of food you made for him.

Beelzebub

He understands the struggles and victories of both working out and playing a sport. You both are cheering each other on. If you both have a game on the same day, then you will FaceTime each other for a few minutes while you’re both on the bench.

This man doesn’t care if you’re a tomboy. Again, as long as you aren’t too rowdy and don’t eat his snacks, then he is a-okay with it. Here is another boy you can prank in the same way as Mammon’s scenario, but he’ll just ignore it until you wear something similar the next day.

If you decide to make this guy sweets and treats, you will become his favorite person in the entirety of the three realms. However, you need to bake a lot because he’s the Avatar of Gluttony, and he’s always hungry. Don’t even ask him to help you because he will end up eating the ingredients.

Belphegor

If you think that this man has any athletic ability at all, you are sorely mistaken. He’s the Avatar of Sloth, so there is no way that he is exercising with you. Instead, he will be there to cheer you on (think of that episode where he’s cheering on Beel when he selects Fists in Levi’s video game).

He also doesn’t care if you’re a tomboy. Just please take a nap with him because you are comfy and smell nice. You don’t even have to sleep, just let him sleep on you. He’s a sleepy boi who needs his Y/N to sleep, and how dare you deprive him of that??

When you bake treats for him, his heart flutters but he won’t admit it. Especially if you don’t allow any of the other brothers a bite of whatever it is because that means it’s just for him. He would totally do the thing where he smears whipped cream on your cheek and licks it off to make you flustered.

[francisofgotham1]

Bruce Wayne Can Cook 3

Since Bruce would be genuinely good at "foreign" food, I think he would definitely take an interest in aline cuisine. So, after getting to know the Justice League a bit better, Bruce would definitely ask the more non-human members for family recipes or for food from their planets/societies.

And, as is with most things, it all started with Clark and Diana (I mean, those three are basically triplets separated at birth for how close they are). They are immediately on-board because honestly, they are just as curious about Kryptonian food as Bruce is. The next several hours are comprised of these three (with Dick, Jason, and Donna tagging along) going through the entire Fortress of Solitude archives and storage looking for recipes, ingredients, equipment, just about anything related to food. Once all of that is gathered, the actual cooking process begins, complete with kitchen chaos (aka the Bats, Wonders, and Clark shouting suggestions across the kitchen).

Slowly but surely, it evolves from cooking to a borderline science experiment:

Whatever they don't have, Bruce substitutes it with a close Earth equivalent.

Hoping that Earth and Kryptonian ingredients don't cause conduction chemical reactions (cut to the Bats dropping salt with some Kryptonian something and then running behind the Wonders and Clark).

Dick, Bruce, Jason, and Donna saving some of the more reactive ingredients for later.

Bruce and Clark really squinting at some of the Kryptonian translations.

Results are recorded with an insane amount of detail.

Maybe a full-on food fight breaks out.

The final result is a messy kitchen/laboratory, everyone exhausted but happy, and an interesting combination of dishes that are 90% Kryptonian and 10% Earthling. It's not their favorite, but they definitely enjoy it.

Once Kara shows up, she becomes the official taste tester of the group because she's the only one that actually remembers what this stuff is supposed to taste like. They also search her ship for more ingredients.

This turns into a tradition/hobby for the JLA: every time a new out-of-world hero joins the team, the DC Trinity go over and ask for ingredients/recipes, and then experiment for hours on end. Accidentally, Bruce ends up becoming the "comfort food" guy for the whole League (but mostly for the Supers and the Martians). While it is not a perfect replica, it's filled with something extra that helps them remember home and become calmer.

[proseka-card-hcs]

May i have akito and nene for the card aus?

Hello! It's been a while since I've answered anything, and I come to you with your cyberpunk akinenes .... -- but not the right ones in their matching sets, hehe. Akito as a freelance graffiti artist working on rebellion through his art (with the rest of vbs, using neon paints to throw off technology and sensors to conduct themselves) ; and mistaking Nene and crew as WxS as working against them because of their reliance on technology. It would get on Nene's nerves, having her eyes in the city (or more, nene-robo) getting spraypainted to obscure her cameras, and the culprit who can get away. Probably about misunderstandings being patched, and figuring out you were never against us the whole time!? Akito recognising her from that weird robot looks like you and Nene who's like oh you're the vandal. -_- ... ... hopefully they can learn to work together to overthrow the vice grip of the higher ups on the city's freedom. Though, probably they just end up being rivals of their way is the best, alright? You could take it platonic or romantic as you wished. … bonus: chocolatier and taste tester ...and then being aghast at each other for bluntness in critique or that his talent for chocolate making.

[thedancingemu]

Here's a post a started writing up maybe a year ago - I'm still not happy with it but I guess I can post the rough idea now and revise/add to it later!

Worldbuilding post - Divers!

Adventurous folk who “Dive” into ruins and other magically active areas in search of relics, herbs, creatures, minerals and other useful items.

Lost technology is often preserved and infused with magic properties after soaking up magic for years. A lightbulb that's always on and never needs a power source, a door that leads to an interdimensional broom closet (or, rarely, somewhere nicer), a metal lunch box that features odd characters and always has a hot grilled cheese sandwich inside, a radio that can be tuned to intercept telepathic communications, a colorful and cheap looking "gun" made of plastic that fires a devastating beam of energy.

Unaltered items like books and lost technology are also valuable and sought out.

The job is lucrative but dangerous. Monster attacks, mutations (due to high levels of magic) and other hazards make for a high risk high reward occupation with a high death toll. Most hope to make it rich and retire before they’re eaten, maimed or seriously mutated, but some enjoy the chaotic freedom of the lifestyle enough to stick it out long term. Divers generally wear masks and breathing apparatus as well as covering the skin to prevent contamination and slow the mutagenic process. Most divers are covered in good luck charms (prayer beads, evil eye, mirrors, grotesques, ofuda, etc). Prevalence of specific protective symbols and charms is determined by the Diver's personal beliefs, as well as the diversity of the local merchant offerings.

Usually Dives are conducted in small groups of five to ten individuals. Some groups bring a dedicated priest or similar individual to pray / burn incense etc for extra protection during a dive. Beliefs differ, some groups swear by making an offering before a dive, others practice a variety of rituals for appeasement / good luck / protection.

"Dive Towns" tend to spring up on the outskirts of magically active areas, driven by trade demand for recovered items. Hosting trading posts, bars, brothels, dedicated artefact appraisers/testers, and wholesaler merchants with connections to wealthy merchants in far off cities.

Most are fairly rough frontier towns, a magnet for mercenaries, misfits and merchants.

[labotronicsscientific]

Thermal Conductivity Tester

Thermal Conductivity Tester is a high precision and intelligent machine adopted with flat plate heat flow meter method to detect thermal conductivity and thermal resistance. Features imported sensors and advance computer technology for high measurement accuracy with reliability. Designed with ASTM C518-04 configuration standards, it can provide measurement of low thermal conductivity with in 15 to 20 min.

[ketrindoll]

Olympic disinformation and how ruzzians are behind it AGAIN

So, just for context, this post will be about the recent firehose of falsehoods about the boxing match between the Italian Angela Carini and Algerian Imane Khelif.

First of all, it's clear that Imane is no man. Algeria posted her childhood photos, her own father was against her boxing for it being unbecoming for girls, and Algeria itself is not exactly a liberal paradise full of LGBTQ athletes. Besides, Khelif got eliminated after the quarterfinal during the last Olympics, so clearly, there are plenty of those who punch harder. Meanwhile Italian participating in the "who can punch harder" sport had a breakdown over being punched hard. Truly surprised Pikachu face.

But you're going to say "hey, you Baltic russophobe, what does Russia have to do with this??" Well, buckle-up, because I'm about to serve you a huge scoop of russo-realism.

Just for context, I like to track russian media. It helps me find easy arguments why ruzzians are degenerate pieces of shit and proof of their imperialist genocidal mentality. So I learned about supposed trans-athlete beating the crap out of poor Italian from their media channels first, before I saw it spread like wildfire everywhere else. Ruzzians currently have a trend of jumping on every story that could discredit Paris Olympics, so they're now apparently against "men beating women". Which is ironic, because domestic violence is legal in ruzzia, so they would totally participate in "beat tf out of your wife" Olympics, but probably get disqualified for doping.

Of course, these news proved to be false, to the embarrassing shame of every bigot and their mother JK Rowling, who recently proved that her every braincell has successfully made an exit. But then new falsehood popped up, the one that even trans-supporting people shared as an argument why Khelif should be allowed to participate in women's sports. The lie was that she is a hermaphrodite, born with XY chromosomes.

This lie was, of course, fully spread in the russian media. I'd even argue they spread it first. But what is it based on?

Well, take a bowl of popcorn, because I'm about to drop my main argument.

The lie about Imane Khelif being of neutral sex first spread after she and South Korean boxer got disqualified by the International Boxing Association (IBA, not to be confused with IBF(federation)). And who is the head of this association? Certain ruzzian Umar Kremlev. Due to his leadership IBA has been involved in several controversies. Including the supposed DNA test that they took of the Algerian boxer that apparently proved that she's a man. Of course, no official record of such test exists. Not to mention, no sports federation/association normally conducts such tests, at least I never heard of it. When questions started pouring about the legitimacy of this disqualification argument, IBA quickly changed their tune, now stating that "a special test was conducted, the nature of it cannot be revealed due to data privacy reasons". Lolol so now when it was time to produce proof, ruzzians suddenly care about GDPR. It's fair to say, all of it was bogus.

But why would ruzzians have beef with Algeria? Who knows. They genuinely dislike everyone, and given that ruzzia is a mafia state, maybe the South Korean and Algerian athletes would mess up their rigged games and sports bets. Ok, but let's play the devil's advocate and assume that Umar Kremlev is the only ruzzian in a position of power who cares about fairness and doing things by the book. Then the only reason why Imane got disqualified would be over-the-norm testosterone levels. It could very much be that IBA has stricter standards for substance use than IBF or Olympics.

The arguments I'm about to present are based on the knowledge of three people that I know: a professional basketball player, a former sports official for the government, and ye humble pee collect... ehm, professional doping tester.

Essentially, every athlete uses substances. Vitamins, certain performance drugs, protein, etc etc. Think of it as that one mate of yours who drinks protein powder after every gym session. Testosterone is a common substance for female athletes, because it enhances strength by improving muscle build and retention. That is why men are objectively physically stronger. So, testosterone is one of the substances that is heavily limited for female athletes. Additionally, sports federations and associations really do have different, sometimes stricter, normatives than Olympics. But that's where Kremlev-lead IBA argument is so fake: if Khelif really was over the limit of performance-enhancing substances, they could've simply stated that she used doping. Clearly, she did not.

But let's assume again that disqualification and prior Olympic failure caused her to pump herself with testosterone and beat her way to the gold. Her norm-breaking testosterone levels would soon get proved by regular doping tests that all athletes go through after every game. And she would get disqualified. Because even if she naturally produces more testosterone, that's still breaking the Olympic normatives and giving her the unfair advantage that other countries would soon Pterodactyl-scream over to protect the chances of their own athletes. This is why ruzzia cannot compete anymore - they doped too much and too often. Being genocidal war criminals is just a cherry on top. Their state-enforced pumping of doping was so severe and open and annoyingly bold, even slightly corrupt Olympic committee couldn't ignore it anymore.

So, if the Algerian boxer is overdoing with performance enhancing drugs, she will soon get disqualified and case will be closed.

But given the fact that russians have lied about her in the past and are now flooding social media with even more propaganda, and the fact that there is no proof whatsoever that she's not 100% biologically female, and the fact that this isn't even the first time that Italian boxer pulled "owie owie, it huwts" stunt during a match, it's fair to say that Imane Khelif is just a good boxer. Even Italian boxer's coach tried to justify her dying swan stunt by saying she has sinus issues, and that's why it hurt more. But I guess bitch had sinus issues for years, cause Imane is not her first victim.

So, to summarise, there are many falsehoods. Many of those are created by ruzzia, others are just spread by them to discredit the West, the Olympics, or the decent part of humanity in general. Ruzzians are doping-gulping, cheating, women-hating, propaganda-spreading assholes. Angela Carini should be banned from boxing for being unable to handle boxing itself. And Imane Khelif, a 100% biological woman, deserved that win.

[sourapplesauces]

HEYYY YOUR AU. IDK IF ANYONE HAS SENT YOU ASKS BUT!! WHAT IS GREG AND NESSAS RELATIONSHIP LIKE?? Like did it start off tense or did they hit it off right away speak your truth bestie 🫶 ALSO. NESSA AND TAPE GIRL. HOW DID THEY START DATING WHAT WERE THEY LIKE SPILL THE TEAAAA

HI JAS :}}} SOOOO Gregory and Vanessa’s relationship definitely started off a bit rough. I mean a murder attempt isn’t something you can just put behind you that easily 😭😭… And neither of them trusted each other at the beginning.

But after the storm had settled, they began sharing more about their experiences, putting the puzzle back together… They found it was a lot easier with each other’s support. So they formed a support system and they gained an understanding of one another . 😭🥺

At first they treated each other like roommates but overtime they formed a sibling-like bond!!! SO CUTE?!. The blorbos 😭😭😭🤍🤍

AND VANESSA AND TAPE GIRL OOWHHH MY GOOd 😭😭 theyre so tragic sjxnsjsnd i’ll let you guys in on the secret i guess 🙄

So they sort of knew each other at different points of time. Valerie (tape girl) was like conducting a personal investigation on faz ent. because like- who isnt atp?! She used to work at Steel Parasol (the prev hw dev team), one fake name later, and she was working at the new studio. And she had one goal in mind, stop the next beta tester. And well thats when she came across her first roadblock, the next beta tester was irresistible!!!!! 😱😱😱🤯🤯🤯 (LMFAO BYE IM SO UNSERIOUS UHH 😭😭👎)

Yeah they started dating and it was cute for a while but uh something happened that made them break up 😇 its prob not important tho so.. YEAH thankss for the ask auejsndbd bye jas :}} 😇😇😇🤍🤍🤍

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Flickr to copyleft trolls: drop dead

Today’s a big day for users of Creative Commons images: Flickr has declared zero tolerance for copyleft trolls, predators who exploit a bug in out-of-date versions of the CC licenses in order to threaten good-faith users of CC images who make minor errors in the way they credit the images.

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/2023/04/01/pixsynnussija#pilkunnussija

First things first: Flickr’s new community guidelines prohibit copyleft trolling: “Failure to allow a good faith reuser the opportunity to correct errors is against the intent of the license and not in line with the values of our community, and can result in your account being removed.”

https://www.flickr.com/help/guidelines

If you are targeted by a copyleft troll who demands that you pay them because of minor errors in your Creative Commons attribution, here’s how to report them and get them kicked off Flickr forever:

https://www.flickrhelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/4404057906068-How-to-report-Community-Guidelines-violations

Now, some background. Early versions of the Creative Commons licenses have a bug, a clause that says that the permissions conferred by CC licenses “terminate automatically upon any breach” — that is, if you violate any term of the license, it ceases to be in effect:

https://doctorow.medium.com/a-bug-in-early-creative-commons-licenses-has-enabled-a-new-breed-of-superpredator-5f6360713299

Core to the CC licenses is the idea of attribution. When you use a Creative Commons image, you must name the creator and link to the original, and name the license and link to it. Many CC users don’t understand this; they use an image and add something like “Image: Cory Doctorow/Creative Commons” with no links or specific licenses.

Under the pre-4.0 versions of the license, this can be construed as a “breach” which “terminates” the CC license. That’s where the copyleft trolls come in.

Copyleft trolls post CC-licensed stock art and then wait for a naive person to make a minor attribution error, and then they pounce, sending a legal threat and a speculative invoice demanding hundreds or thousands of dollars, under the threat of a $150,000 statutory damages award.

This is deeply unethical conduct. As I wrote when I was targeted by one of these creeps:

If you put a CC license on your work, its explicit message is, “I want you to re-use this.” Not “I am a pedantic asshole with a fetish for well-formed attribution strings.” The point of CC is not to teach the world to write attribution strings: it is to facilitate sharing and re-use. If you are a good-faith user of CC licenses, then your response to an incorrect attribution string should be a request to correct it, not a threat to sue for $150,000 in statutory damages.

Unethical as this conduct is, it’s also big business. One company, Pixsy, is responsible for a long-running shakedown campaign, working with scammy photographers to send out demand letters to unsuspecting Creative Commons users.

And many of those photographers rely on Flickr to bait their traps.

There’s a reason for this. Flickr’s early years were a period of enormous innovation. Flickr was the first mobile photo-sharing site, and it invented numerous community features that turned it into a thriving hub for photographers, amateur and professional alike. Flickr was also an interoperability pioneer, offering an API that let any user move their photos to a rival service — a tacit pledge to keep your business by being better than the rest, not by locking you in.

I know all this because I was an early advisor to Flickr, and because, in a weird way, I am partially responsible for Flickr. You see, before Flickr, I was carrying on a long-distance relationship from San Francisco with a woman in London, and we were both alpha testers for a social game called GameNeverending.

One day over breakfast with GNE’s founder Stewart Butterfield, he asked me how things were going in my romantic life. I answered that things were great, but mentioned that my girlfriend and I were struggling to share the pictures we took in our daily lives with one another. Stewart said, “Well, there’s a photo-sharing feature for GNE on the roadmap — why don’t I bump it up and we’ll see if other people use it, too?”

They did. In fact, the feature was so popular that within a few months, GNE relaunched as Flickr, jettisoning the game entirely and focusing on just that one feature. I stayed on the advisory, and one of the things I encouraged was the plan to roll out Creative Commons licenses for Flickr images — and I made sure everyone knew about it when Flickr became the first CC-enabled image site.

(I also married the woman I was carrying on that long-distance relationship with and today we have a 15 year old daughter!)

But after Flickr was sold to Yahoo, it joined Yahoo’s haunted armada of Web 2.0 ghost-ships, tossed back and forth in the storms created by the dueling princelings of Yahoo’s bloated management layer, who spent more time sabotaging one another than they did making anything anyone else wanted to use. Yahoo eventually sold off all of those holdings at fire-sale prices to Verizon, who neglected them still further.

An abandoned ship is easy picking for the rats that live in its bilges. Pixsy and its photographers actually became official Flickr partners, pitching themselves as a way for photographers who didn’t want their images shared to hunt down infringers — even as they facilitated a revolting campaign of copyleft trolling that depended on Flickr as their base of operations.

The depravity of copyleft trolls is truly boundless. Take Marco Verch, a prolific copyleft troll who hosts nearly 47,000 photos on Flickr. Verch hires low-waged gig work photographers through platforms like Upwork to take photos, then harasses people who make minor attribution errors:

https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252488167/Automated-image-recognition-How-using-free-photos-on-the-internet-can-lead-to-lawsuits-and-fines

Verch boasts that his predation lets him work for four hours a week, leaving him with ample time to focus on his hobby, running. Verch is a truly prolific predator, and his attacks have made untold numbers of victims miserable — including the small Dutch charity that was forced to shut down after paying his ransom demand. Pixsy has been Verch’s US counsel and filed dozens of suits on his behalf.

Back in 2021, I got hit by Pixsy on behalf of a photographer named Nenad Stojkovic, with a claim that I had failed to attribute his image correctly. The email threat was truly vicious, calculated to strike terror into the recipient’s heart and prompt swift payment of $600, for using a freely licensed image whose market value had been set by its creator at $0.00.

There was just one problem: I hadn’t flubbed the attribution string. I helped with the launch of Creative Commons. I was CC’s first European director. What’s more, I have decades of experience fighting bullies and trolls and I knew their threat was bullshit — no court would award them the damages they were seeking.

So I wrote about it, publishing the text of my correspondence with Pixsy’s staff and management, and calling on Flickr to make changes to prevent their tools from being abused to victimize innocent people, like forcing users with CC 2.0-licensed images to relicense them as CC 4.0, which guarantees users the right to 30 days to fix attribution strings.

The reason I thought Flickr might take this in hand is that it is finally under decent, responsive leadership — since 2018, Flickr has been owned by Smugmug, a family-owned business that really cares about photographers and the open internet.

Flickr hasn’t taken all of my suggestions yet — my understanding is that they are laboring under enormous technological debt thanks to years of neglect by Yahoo and Verizon, and even small changes require weeks of all-hands technological work.

But what they have done is modify their policies to create a de facto CC 4.0 environment for their users, by promising to terminate the accounts of any user who repeatedly threatens legal action over bad attribution strings without first offering a 30-day grace period.

Flickr’s done more than that, actually. For one thing, they ditched Pixsy, severing their relationship with the company (Pixsy still lists them on its “partner” page). They also created the Flickr Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to providing long-term, responsible stewardship for their CC and public domain image respositories:

https://www.flickr.org/

For its part, Creative Commons published an excellent “Statement of Enforcement Principles” for its licenses that unequivocally rejected the way that Pixsy and other copyleft trolls abuse the bug in its older licenses:

https://creativecommons.org/license-enforcement/enforcement-principles/

In the months since I published my article detailing Pixsy’s attempt to shake me down, two things happened. First, I got a legal threat from Kain Jones, Pixsy’s CEO, who demanded that I get on the phone with him, the the alternative being “escalating things legally”:

https://doctorow.medium.com/an-open-letter-to-pixsy-ceo-kain-jones-who-keeps-sending-me-legal-threats-5dfc54558f2c

Jones also falsely claimed that naming the employees who’d threatened me violated the GDPR, which is extremely on-brand for this whole mess. While I don’t claim to be the world’s greatest expert on GDPR, I did lobby in Brussels for it, and I do have German specialist lawyers on tap who are happy to explain that Jones’s threat is absolute nonsense.

As I noted in my followup to Jones, he seems incapable of interacting with the public or his critics without making legal threats — and not just any legal threats, but legal threats that are grounded in an unhinged, and, in my opinion, deliberately deceptive theories of the law.

Pixsy continued to rattle its sabers for a while after this, tweeting that I’d made errors in my description of its business operations but declining to correct those records in response to my and others’ requests for further detail. It is my opinion that Pixsy failed to correct the record because my accusations were and are substantively correct.

But even after I stopped hearing from Pixsy, I continued to hear from its victims. I routinely receive distraught emails from everyday people who thought they were doing the right thing by using Creative Commons-licensed images in their work, and who now face a remorseless onslaught of threats from Pixsy’s team. Some of these people have been targeted on behalf of Nenad Stojkovic, just as I was.

These people beg me for advice — will Pixsy sue? Can they ignore Pixsy’s demands? I give them my condolences and tell them that I can’t promise them that a company as vindictive, greedy and morally bankrupt as Pixsy won’t bring a lawsuit. Every time, I wish I could offer them more.

Well, now I can: if you are targeted by a copyleft troll for using a Flickr-hosted image, narc them the fuck out. Tell Flickr about them. Flickr no longer tolerates copyleft trolling, and they will terminate repeat offenders’ accounts.

As I wrote this today, I went back and revisted Pixsy CEO Kain Jones’s letter to me and I was struck again by its absolute rank hypocrisy, the sheer sociopathic lack of self-awareness it displays. Jones presides over an empire of bulk legal threats, carefully drafted to frighten blameless people into sending him money they can’t afford and don’t owe. In this correspondence, his company tells its victims that they are liable “regardless of knowledge or intent.” Victims are told that correcting their error will not suffice, because it “does not resolve the period of unlicensed use.”

And yet, in this letter, Jones calls on me to show understanding because “people occasionally make mistakes.” He scolds me for my “vitriol” in my naming and shaming a senior executive who boasts on Pixsy’s website of having “overseen over 140,000 cases” — that is, who sent these outrageous letters to more than one hundred and forty thousand people and organizations.

Unlike Kain Jones, I am a working artist. I make my living from the sale of my creative works, not from tricking people who’ve made innocent, trivial legal errors into sending me hundreds or thousands of dollars. Unlike Marco Verch, I don’t pay anonymous randos small sums to create new works, slap my name on them, and then threaten blameless people in the name of defending artists’ rights.

And I sometimes have to police my copyrights. The world is full of quick-buck scammers who rip off my work, including my Creative Commons-licensed works, often with the assistance of some of the world’s largest corporations:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/25/can-you-hear-me-now/#acx-ripoff

These people are engaged in what Douglas Rushkoff calls “Going Meta.” They don’t do anything useful, but rather, they create a chokepoint between people who do useful things and people who want to pay for those things, and squatting there, collecting rent:

https://rushkoff.medium.com/going-meta-d42c6a09225e

This is the passive-income brainworm — a parasitic, end-stage capitalist hustle that cloaks itself in high-minded rhetoric even though it is the very lowest of bottom-feeders. Pixsy claims that it is primarily an artists’ defense tool, but the company conspicuously refused to tell me what share of its income comes from real copyright defense, and what share comes from copyleft trolling.

Whenever I think back on Kain Jones and his outrageous legal threats to me — first the one that falsely claimed I had violated a Creative Commons license, and then the one that insinuated that calling him out broke the law — the thing that outrages me most is his assertion that he is a defender of artists’ rights.

What an outrageous and grotesque claim that is. A man who presides over a powerful corporation that devotes its considerable energy to tormenting people who used Creative Commons licenses as they were intended to be used sends a legal threat to a working artist and he styles himself a champion of the arts? If I wrote that into one of my bestselling novels — which generate revenue by making people happy through artistic expression, and not by terrorizing people with deceptive and unethical legal threats — I’d be accused of absurd, overbroad parody.

Have you ever wanted to say thank you for these posts? Here’s how you can: I’m kickstarting the audiobook for my next novel, a post-cyberpunk anti-finance finance thriller about Silicon Valley scams called Red Team Blues. Amazon’s Audible refuses to carry my audiobooks because they’re DRM free, but crowdfunding makes them possible.

[[Image ID: John Milton's 'Fall of Lucifer,' modified so that God's light emanating from heaven is coming out of the Flickr blue-and-red-balls logo.]]