#include web conference

[mygaynesshasnolimits]

How to watch UCONN WOMEN'S BASKETBALL GAMES (streams added below)

NOTE: Watching via SNY or FOX, you will need to sign in through a tv provider/cable.

To watch SNY:

Source: https://sny.tv/info/live-faq

You must be in their broadcasting territory. you can't watch SNY outside of its regional territory, which includes New York, Connecticut, parts of New Jersey, and parts of Pennsylvania.

you must also be an SNY subscriber through a participating TV provider. List of providers: https://sny.tv/watch-now

If you meet these conditions, you're good to go!

To watch on FOX Sports (if you don't have SNY or live outside of tristate area):

Out-of-market fans (those who don't have SNY from tv providers and people who live outside broadcast region meaning other states) you will be able to stream UConn's SNY games at no additional cost to authenticated subscribers who have FOX as part of their television package. Users will need to sign in with their TV provider credentials at https://www.foxsports.com/ or in the FOX Sports app. The games can also be accessed at www.fox.com/sports or in the FOX Now app. Source:https://uconnhuskies.com/watch/search

Source:

About UCONN+ (website and app)

Unless noted UCONN+ (web and app) will ONLY have audio. This is because they do not have rights to broadcast games. And to my knowledge they also do not have rights to post replays either. They will live stream post game conferences though (not sure if for all games though.)

For everyone without access to SNY or FOX and international fans:

Theres no hope. lol just kidding. There is some hope. As of now (8am est) I've checked a few popular sports streaming sites(vipbox, methstreams, NBAstreams, sportsurge, crackstream, streameast and some iptv channels for sny) and unfortunately they don't have the game listed on their upcoming events but these sites do sometimes put up links under "basketball" and/or "NCAA" but those links only go up around game time (~30 min before tip off). unfortunately women's college isn't as popular as the men's 🙄 so it's hard to find. If I do find anything, I will post

Edit: stream links

This one has replay available:

Sidenote: please save and use the following uconnwbb's tv schedule to see which networks will air the games throughout the season

(thank you to the anons that shared the streams)

[terrorcamp]

Terror Camp is hiring!

We are looking to expand our volunteer staff for this year’s conference.

We have two job listings based on our current needs, but if we receive a lot of great applicants there is the possibility we’ll split up these responsibilities into 3 or even 4 separate positions.

Terror Camp is a fully volunteer, remote, asynchronous workplace (with occasional sync meetings as schedules permit). We communicate over Discord and organize our documentation over Notion and Google Drive.

We are looking for people who can devote up to a few hours a week, depending on the time of year. Commitment increases around the times of Submission Opening (June 1), Submission Closing/Acceptances (September 1-Oct 1) and the conference itself (early December).

Terror Camp looks great on your resume. You can say that you volunteer for a successful community-led online history & heritage conference with an audience in the thousands!

You don’t need to match the job descriptions perfectly in order to apply. If your experience doesn’t match up but you think you’d still be good at the job, please apply anyway!

Here are the positions we're looking to fill:

🎨 Designer 🎨

Terror Camp is seeking a dedicated Designer who will:

Ideate and deliver a new evergreen brand identity for TC that can be revamped and reused each year

Including logo, logotype, color scheme, font families, and other brand assets for use on web, social media, and printed merch

Be an proactive team member with strong communication skills, able to quickly and regularly deliver new graphics for promotional use on social media and in email marketing

Help design an evergreen/permanent collection of merchandise as well as a limited-edition collection for this year’s conference

Assist our Webmaster in revising our website & email marketing templates to fully match new brand identity and meet best practices for UX

Potentially work on print layout for a Terror Camp book or zine (TBD)

This job would be a good fit if you:

Work or have worked professionally or semi-professionally as a graphic designer; or are a hobbyist designer with a standout portfolio

Have experience working with both digital and print assets

Have a working knowledge of web design best practices and HTML/CSS

Have experience with Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Canva (but not ONLY Canva, sorry) and Wix or similar WYSIWYG ESP/site builder

The Designer will report to our Assistant Director/Webmaster, & will also collaborate closely with our Marketing Lead on graphic assets for social media and with our Merch Lead on preparing designs for print.

To apply, please fill out this form.

💬 Communications Coordinator 💬

Terror Camp is seeking an enthusiastic Communications Coordinator who will:

Own Terror Camp’s main email inbox and oversee all direct communication with attendees and interested parties

Respond promptly to inquiries including:

Requests for past recordings

Requests to join the Discord

Questions about schedule, programming, submissions, guests, and other conference topics

Catch inbounds to social media inboxes (Tumblr, X, Bluesky, Insta) & answer or redirect to email as appropriate

Act as coordinator/assistant for Marketing Lead, with responsibilities including:

Scheduling pre-written content

Assisting with ideating and drafting content, proposing content ideas

Cross-posting content to multiple platforms

Consistently and frequently engaging with social audiences (finding content to repost, replying to people, etc)

This job would be a good fit if you:

Work or have worked in any digital customer-facing environment; have experience with support tickets and/or ongoing user communications; have run social media for brands or institutions; are an efficient and clear writer able to work creatively within brand voice guidelines

Have successfully and sustainably moderated Discord servers, Tumblr communities, social media for other fandom projects like fests, zines, and charity events

Can spare the time and attention to respond to inquiries and turn around new social media posts in a timely manner

Are prepared to represent the Terror Camp brand professionally and maturely in digital public spaces

The Communications Coordinator will report directly to our Marketing Lead.

To apply, please fill out this form.

If you have any questions about these positions, please email us at command [at] terror [dot] camp!

[witchpassing]

my sister, @empress-em-kaldwin, has requested that i make a small announcement on her behalf: as of tonight, she is retired from the craft of writing.

i will not expand here on her reasons for doing so, as i wish neither to put words in her mouth nor infringe upon her privacy, but i will say this much: it is my opinion, as one who loves her dearly, that the course of action she has chosen is for the best.

what she has already shared remains publically available via her blog, and will remain so for the foreseeable future; works hosted elsewhere on the web will, similarly, remain as they are.

to those who have found catharsis in my sister's body of work, i offer my condolences and my gratitude. attached to this post are her notes on how she planned to conclude there is no allegory. there is no more to come after this, and there never will be.

thank you, and goodnight.

Morgana backfills current events. Fascist administration is actively self-cannibalizing and will lose control of the press soon, which will be the last straw. Multiple demihuman holdouts across the country are experiencing great success, except the ones who tried nonviolence. Time passes. The administration loses its grip due to main incompetence, and as the chain of command shatters the officer responsible for besieging St. Clotilde's decides to push into the compound as a vanity project. The firefight claims twenty U.S. infantry and six of the private security team, including, as graphically as possible, Val and Lito. The push ends as news breaks that there's been a mass shooting in the Cabinet Room and the administration no longer meaningfully exists. The opposition party steps in immediately to restore order, offering pardons to nonviolent demihuman resisters and "fair trials" to others. Insert a direct reference to the theft of homes historically experienced by people displaced to and subsequently returned from concentration camps. The St. Clotilde's fighters hold conference. Sophie says she's leaving the country to hop train cars in Europe and maybe reconnect with her heritage in Ukraine. Director Lynn, via Isperia, announces his choice to comply with the new administration to reintegrate the hospital into society to continue what he sees as his medical mission. Emily thinks about disappearing into a quiet life with Cordelia. Cordelia indicates lucid understanding of the tragedies they've undergone and a clear unwillingness to accept a return to the previous status quo, again citing the lifetime of abuses Emily has faced. Thus encouraged, Emily and a large portion of the St. Clotilde's team shake hands, exchange contact information, and disperse into the city to continue a program of violent resistance. End. If I were writing this again, I'd be more careful to introduce people longer before killing them, and I'd include an arc about Emily continuing as a camgirl during the siege.

[senku-ishigami-official]

Senku, I want to ask you a question on the matter of using AI. I want to know your thoughts about it!

A while back, I attended a conference with a bunch of esteemed people, including a few diplomats from all over the world. Someone had asked a doctor and a professor in the top university of my country, "How do you feel about the growing presence of artificial intelligence in almost every aspects of work and life? Does it threaten you?" (Not his exact words, but that's the gist!)

At first, he laughed, and then he simply said: "Do you think mathematicians got mad when the calculator got invented?"

I have my own stance about it, and I think a tool whose primary function is to make complex computations much easier to do is VERY different from the level of AI currently existing.

As someone who's proficient in math, science, technology, and many other things, how do you feel about the professor's statement? 🤔

— 🐰

Okay. I have lots of thoughts about this

So we all know that AI is on the rise. This growth is thanks to the introduction of a type of AI called generative AI. This is the AI that makes all those generated images you hear about, it runs chat gpt, it's what they used for the infamous cola commercial.

Now there's another type of AI that we've been using for a much longer time called analytical AI. This is what your favorite web browser uses to sort your search results according to the query. This has like nothing to do with character ai or whatever, all that stuff is generative AI.

The professor compared AI to a calculator, but in my mind, calculators are much more like analytical AI, not the generative AI that's gotten so popular which the question was CLEARLY referencing. This is because analytical AI uses a structured algorithm, which is usually like a system of given numbers or codes that gives an exact result. There are some calculators that can actually be considered analytical AI. Point is, you're right, this is completely different from generative AI that uses an unstructured algorithm to make something "unique" (in quotes because it's one of a kind, but drawn from a combination of existing texts and images). The professor did NOT get the question I fear.

This bothers me because analytical AI can be incredibly useful, but generative AI really just takes away from us. Art, writing and design are for humans, not for robots -- science should foster creativity, not make it dull. It's important to know the difference between them so we know what to support and what to reject.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Nation of Change:

As the United Nations Ocean Conference opened this week in Nice, France, a major scientific report revealed that one of Earth’s planetary boundaries—ocean acidification—has already been crossed. The findings mark a stark shift from previous assessments and confirm that global marine ecosystems are under far greater threat than previously understood.

The study, published in Global Change Biology and led by researchers from the United Kingdom’s Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Oregon State University, found that ocean acidification (OA) crossed its critical planetary threshold by the year 2020. In some regions, that boundary was surpassed as early as 2000. The team reached their conclusion using a combination of chemical measurements, biological studies, and advanced modeling techniques.

“OA is the term given to the long-term shift of marine carbonate chemistry resulting primarily from the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) by the oceans, leading to an increase in ocean acidity and a decrease in carbonate ion (CO32−) concentration,” the study’s authors wrote. “OA can severely affect marine organisms through its direct impact on physiology, growth, survival and reproduction.”

Ocean acidification results from the absorption of excess atmospheric CO2 by seawater. This chemical shift decreases carbonate ion concentrations—essential for organisms that build shells or skeletons out of calcium carbonate. The process fundamentally threatens coral reefs, shellfish, and plankton species that underpin marine food webs.

The most alarming revelation in the study is the extent to which OA has infiltrated both surface and subsurface waters. By 2020, over 40% of surface ocean waters and as much as 60% of waters down to 200 meters deep had already crossed into the so-called “danger zone” of acidification.

“Looking across different areas of the world, the polar regions show the biggest changes in ocean acidification at the surface. Meanwhile, in deeper waters, the largest changes are happening in areas just outside the poles and in the upwelling regions along the west coast of North America and near the equator,” said Helen Findlay, lead author of the report, professor at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, and chair of the North-East Atlantic Ocean Acidification Hub.

“Most ocean life doesn’t just live at the surface – the waters below are home to many more different types of plants and animals. Since these deeper waters are changing so much, the impacts of ocean acidification could be far worse than we thought. This has huge implications for important underwater ecosystems like tropical and even deep-sea coral reefs that provide essential habitats and nursing refuge for many species, in addition to the impacts being felt on bottom-dwelling creatures like crabs, sea stars, and other shellfish such as mussels and oysters,” Findlay explained.

The implications for biodiversity are already measurable. The study notes that 43 percent of suitable habitat for tropical and subtropical coral reefs has been lost. In polar regions, pteropods—tiny planktonic snails also known as “sea butterflies” and vital to food webs—have lost up to 61 percent of their habitat. Coastal shellfish, including economically vital bivalves like mussels and oysters, have seen a 13 percent decline in suitable habitat globally.

The planetary boundary framework defines nine essential Earth system processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the planet. Crossing these boundaries increases the risk of irreversible environmental change. Ocean acidification now joins climate change, biosphere integrity, and several others as crossed thresholds.

[taterstories]

AI Girl Factory written by: Tater

Jeremy is an average guy just all ways looking for the new best thing. His current job is working as tech support for a big tech company. Today while waiting for a call for his support with tech, he is on his favorite future tech web site. One article catches his eye, the article is on AI and future robots and how they way they work is changing. They are talking about how they need human volunteers to help develop the technology. This really intrigued Jeremy and at the bottom of the article there is an email address, so he sent off an email telling them about himself and how he would love to help and be involved in developing the new technology. Then he got a work call and went on with his day but often thinking about how cool it would be to help with AI technology and be able to help so many people with it. Later in the day Jeremy checked his email, and the AI tech company had responded. They would like him to come and help them. He was super excited that he would get to go to help them. The email read that they were going to send him a plane ticket so he could fly from New Jersey to Utah where their lab is located.

Later that week he was on a plane to Utah. After a very long plane ride he had arrived in Salt Lake City. After collecting his bag, he found a beautiful woman holding a sign that said AI Labs Factory. He walked up to her and introduced himself, she said her name is Tiffany and to get into the van behind her they were waiting on a few others. He climbed into the van there were a couple other already waiting. Before they left the van had filled up with 15 guys. All their bags had been loaded into a covered pickup truck. And off they went to wherever this Lab is. The ride went on forever at least a 3-hour ride. When they arrived at the gate to the lab, they went up a long driveway through the dessert to a very modern extravagant building that looked almost out of place. They pulled up and all unloaded out of the van and grabbed their bags. All the men were lead by Tiffany through big glass doors into a grand lobby and are met by a man tall skinny man in a lab coat, it is Dr Steve. He greeted all the men and said, "Welcome guys, you will all be a very important part in this new AI I have created." He went on to say, "I know everyone had a long day of traveling go relax and you all will get started tomorrow. Then he left and Tiffany took them all to a door off to the side of the lobby where they went down a long down sloping hallway that lead to a room full of single bunks. All the guys including Jeremy found a bunk and they got settled in. After they got settled in Tiffany called them to the next room over which was a room with a big conference table. And there is a table to the side full of food pizza, burgers, hot dogs, french fries, chips and soda. All the guys were in heaven and ate till they were beyond full. Which made them all tired, and they all crashed in their beds.

The next morning Jeremy was one of the first ones to wake up and he was walking around to explore but he could only go to the bunk room and the room with the table. He cannot even go outside which he feels is weird and really wanted to go outside. The other guys started to wake up as well and wonder why they cannot get out. After all the guys were up and wondering why they can't leave or do anything, Tiffany enters the room with the big table. With her she has trays of breakfast foods, so everyone sat at the table and ate. After they were all done eating Tiffany told them they are all going over to the lab and they are going to get started with their part. She told them all to follow her, she scanned her ID and opened up a door that they all went through. It lead to another hallway tunnel that at the other end is the lab. They go through a door that led to a small control room full of computers were Dr. Steve is with another beautiful woman. Dr. Steve greeted the guys and introduced his other helper as Nicole. Then Tiffany led them into the next room were there is exactly 15 examination bed/tables like in a dr office. Tiffany told the guys to pick a table and have a seat on them. Jeremy picked one of the first ones he came to. They waited till Tiffany came back with a lab coat on and Nicole came in as well. Then Tiffany went on one side and Nicole on the other. Nicole came up to Jeremy and she wiped a swab with alcohol on it on the back of his neck. She said, "This is a port and is how we will connect you to the AI." She stuck the port to the back of his neck, and he felt a small sharp pain that went right up to his brain. Nicole helped him lay down on the table before moving on to the next guy.

When Tiffany and Nicole had set up all ten guys They went back to the office. They both came out with Dr. Steve, he walked between all the tables and let all of the guys what was going on and what was going to happen. Saying, "We have attached a port to you so we can connect you to the AI system and that is how you will control the bots, soon the girls will come around and connect you all to the system." Then he went back to his office, and the girls followed. The girls came back in, and Nicole came back to Jeremy, and she grabbed a cluster of wires with a female end to the port on them. She attached them to the back of his neck and told him, "Just relax, and we will get started soon." When they were done doing that to all the guys, they gave Dr. Steve a thumbs up and stayed between the tables watching everyone. About a minute later, a sharp shooting pain went through my body. It felt like my brain was being pulled towards the port on the back of my neck. This did not last long until it was over, and I felt normal. I lay there looking around at the other guys. we all started laughing, and then everything went dark, for I don't know how long. I was asleep still could think and have thoughts. I feel like I am floating in a sea of darkness. "Am I dead?" I am unsure what was going on, the Dr must be connecting me to the Al system.

The next thing I know I feel like I am waking up like the lights are coming on in my brain. Then I could see again but it kind of looked like I am looking through a monitor. I started to try to move and look around this must be the new AI we are testing. Then Nicole and Tiffany came into this all-white room I am in. They started asking questions and testing functions asking if I could hear and see and feel. And I can this is amazing I can feel everything. Tiffany holds up a mirror and shows me the bot I am in. To my surprise I am a beautiful sexy woman, and I am naked. The bot is beautiful and curvy with big breasts. Then Nicole explains, "So we have uploaded your mind and all your consciousness into one of our sex bots, don't worry your body is resting and preserved for when we are done with this trial." They continue with their test and then start to walk out, and Tiffany turns and looks at me and says, "I will bring you some clothes for you to dress in." So, I got up and tried to walk around it was like it was my body this is really cool like the best video game I have ever played. I went over to a mirror that's in the room to look at myself better. I have long blond hair and large perky breasts with a tone stomach and a smooth pussy. I turn to look at my nice round plump ass. I am hot this doll is any man's dream woman. I starts to feel myself and see how sensitive this this is, and it is I can feel my soft skin and my skin felt the touch of my own hands. I made different faces in and every whatever I thought the face did. Then Tiffany enters the room with some clothes in hand, and she lays them out on the bed. I turn to look, and it is a bra and a pink thong and hose with a garter and a pair of 6-inch black stiletto heels with rhinestones all over them. Tiffany turns and tells me, "Now put these on." I look at the garments and look at her and say why can I put on real clothes. She smiles and looks at her iPad in her hand and does something on it. Then it's like I had no control of what the bod is doing, and I just went along with. I could hear all the computer commands in my thoughts. Be for I knew it I was dressed in the outfit looking sexy.

Tiffany just standing there smiling and then Nicole comes in and says, "Damn you look so sexy, now we will begin the next stage of testing and test the pre uploaded functions." "We are sending in product testers in." I spoke and a cute girly voice came from the bot, "What kind of testers?" Tiffany and Nicole just laugh and both say, "Thats cute!" They look at each other and Nicole says, "You just stay in here and we will send in the first tester." Then they walked out, and I sat on the bed and just hoped for the best of what was to come. It was not long till someone came in and I turn to look, and it was a very nice-looking dark skin man. He is tall and muscular with perfect face. I started to say something and try to protest and get myself out of this, but the bots internal computer took over and I had no choice but to just enjoy the ride in a matter of speaking. He introduced himself as Donte and the bot introduced me at Bethany. He came and sat next to me putting his hand on my leg that made the computer go crazy and send shock waves through me. I could feel the bot's nipples get hard, and the skin tingle and my pussy get wet. I did not know what to do I just sat there then the computer took over and the bot continued, and I put my arm around him and touched his leg. This was not cool there is nothing I can do about it if I don't mover the bot the bot will work on her own and I can feel all the pleasers coming from the bot's censers. Then his kissed me and I just gave in and kissed him back it felt strange, and I could feel myself getting turned on is it the bot or me or one in the same. Then the bot took over and but my hand over his man hood and stroked it through his pants and I can already tell this guy is hung. The sensors on the bot were going crazy and I was feeling every bit of it.

Then the next thing I know the bot is on her knees in front of the man pulling his big hard cock out of his pants. I could not do anything but to suck his cock I could feel and taste everything in the bot's mouth. Then he pulled her me up and forced me to bend over the bed and he rubbed the bot's pussy I felt it get soaking wet very quickly and I felt every but of all the pleasure and shocks from it. This felt good like nothing I have every felt. He then pushed his large cock into the bot's pussy and all my senses went crazy I felt every bit of it I am not gay, but I felt sexy in this bot and started to love the feelings and pleasure from having sex with this man. I felt every bump and thrust he made into the bot's pussy. I can feel the juices flowing from the bot's pussy and felt orgasm after orgasm being shock through me. After he finished inside of the bot. I got up and fixed my clothing and tried to get my mind straight. I was in a fog which brought new meaning to having my brains fucked out. The guy put himself back together and walked out of the room. And that's one thing I cannot do the bot cannot walk out of the room. Then Nicole, Tiffany and Dr. Steve walked in the room. They made me sit down in a chair; they examined the bot and inspected all components. Dr. Steve did not say much he just whispered his two helpers. Dr Steve walked out, and Nicole told me, "Looks like everything is working like it is supposed to but we need your mind inside of her to make her operate properly so for now you will stay downloaded in this bot till we can sell her and even then, we may leave you there as part of her." "Your bob is being preserved in storage, but this is your new life."

[hockeyinheels]

THE REPORTER'S PARADOX

On loving -- and covering -- the things that hurt you.

Content warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual assault.

Joel Quenneville at his first press conference as the head coach of the Anaheim Ducks. Image credit: Paul Bersebach, The AP.

This story is not on my beat — there are endlessly talented Anaheim Ducks reporters and writers who have handled this better than I ever could, but I figured I should write about it anyway.

I am a reporter.

I define so much of myself on that fact. The one laptop sticker I have from undergrad is my student news broadcast. Some days, my assignments send me into NHL locker rooms, where I hold out my pink phone case and quietly ask some NHL stars questions – questions about their game, questions about their goals, questions about what they love about hockey.

My job makes me a professional storyteller. My hands tell those stories. My wrists ache after I’ve transcribed an interview or typed out a recap of what happened the night before at a game – Sebastian Aho goal, Seth Jarvis goal, Frederik Andersen with twenty-five saves for the Hurricanes. Before I began covering hockey, I covered everything else. Can I ask you a few questions?

After last summer, I told myself I’d never write and publish a vulnerable piece, especially about hockey – or sports – ever again. I know how it gets warped into a web you never intended.

Sports have broken my heart endless times over the years. I grew up an Ohio State football fan, and watching my home city grow closer and closer but never enough for a championship in an evolving era of college football broke my heart. The Chris Kreider hat trick against the Carolina Hurricanes to eliminate them from the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs made me cry. Watching the Columbus Blue Jackets lose their first playoff opportunity since 2020 and watching the Pittsburgh Penguins miss playoffs for the third consecutive year shattered my heart into a million small pieces.

It is different when sports hurt you on a personal level.

I am a survivor of sexual assault. Stories like mine are not uncommon. Over half of women and almost one in three men have experienced sexual violence. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

On July 1, 2024, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman reinstated the members involved in the Chicago Blackhawks’s 2010 sexual assault story. Stan Bowman, Joel Quenneville, and Al MacIssac were all allowed to seek a cushy National Hockey League job after covering up the sexual assault of a player, Kyle Beach. Brad Aldrich, the abuser, later would sexually assault others, including a child in Michigan, after receiving a recommendation letter from the organization.

Twenty-three days later, on July 24, the Edmonton Oilers hired Stan Bowman as their general manager.

On May 8, 2025, the Anaheim Ducks hired Joel Quenneville as their twelfth head coach in franchise history.

At the same time, in a London, Ontario, courtroom, defense attorneys for five members of the Canadian World Junior 2018 team relentlessly cross-examined the victim of a gang rape, referring to her as “having a porn star persona”, and asking her if she had made up her rape story in order to avoid telling her partner that she had “cheated.”

As a journalist, the story is never about you. There must be a clear line. You cannot carry the story with you.

In this specific story, it is impossible for me not to. In this specific story, the line is grey and blurry. There is no JOURNALIST on one side and VICTIM-SURVIVOR on the other. There is no clear handbook on how to cover stories of sexual assault when you have survived it yourself. There is no handbook on how to survive being a survivor. There is just the Before and the After and merging the two together without it completely messing up your entire life, if the original incident didn’t do enough damage.

It takes most survivors decades to do these things. It’s been five years for me, and life couldn’t look more different. I live a life with bumps in it, a changed life, but a life that is still mine, nevertheless. I am one of the lucky ones. And yet, when I saw the news of Anaheim’s hire, it took everything in me to not throw my phone across the room.

It is nearly impossible to remain unbiased when discussing sexual assault. A section of my Twitter bio reads “Opinions are my own”, solely for days like yesterday. You wonder if you’re crossing an invisible line you never knew existed if you ever say anything. In a strange way, it’s almost like disclosing your assault all over again. You beg, but try to make it seem like an ask, for other reporters to have some decency, to ask questions that are fair to survivors. You wonder if you’re projecting. You wonder if you’re fighting the right fight. You tell yourself, “I cannot change hockey culture if I am not a part of it”, before wondering if that’s what you’re supposed to do at all.

My ask, when talking about, writing about, or discussing Joel Quenneville or Hockey Canada, is to think of the victims first. Kyle Beach, E.M., John Doe, the child in Michigan, and any others who may not have come forward. They do not need to. Trauma is not a spectacle for public entertainment. Define the story by those who perpetrated one of the worst things humans can do to other humans: Brad Aldrich, Joel Quenneville, Stan Bowman, and Al MacIssac. Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube, Alex Formenton, and Cal Foote. Hold the Anaheim Ducks to their promise to work with sexual abuse organizations. Even then, I do not know if that is enough. If that will ever be enough. Give survivors in your life, whether you know about It or not, the same grace you gave Stan Bowman or Joel Quenneville. Talk to survivors, especially in hockey. Act adequately. Trust a survivor over an institution that failed them.

The hockey world is watching the ownership and management of the Anaheim Ducks, and rightfully so.

It is not too late to do the right thing. It was not too late in 2010. It was not too late in 2018. It is not too late today. The phrase “do the next right thing” has rung in my head often recently. Best known as being an Alcoholics Anonymous phrase, the idea of doing the next right thing determines a roadmap for what comes next. On fixing the patches in a bumpy and damaged road.

There is a road that needs to be repaired. It is easier to fix the damage now than later.

[mariacallous]

At a press conference in the Oval Office this week, Elon Musk promised the actions of his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project would be “maximally transparent,” thanks to information posted to its website.

At the time of his comment, the DOGE website was empty. However, when the site finally came online Thursday morning, it turned out to be little more than a glorified feed of posts from the official DOGE account on Musk’s own X platform, raising new questions about Musk’s conflicts of interest in running DOGE.

DOGE.gov claims to be an “official website of the United States government,” but rather than giving detailed breakdowns of the cost savings and efficiencies Musk claims his project is making, the homepage of the site just replicated posts from the DOGE account on X.

A WIRED review of the page’s source code shows that the promotion of Musk’s own platform went deeper than replicating the posts on the homepage. The source code shows that the site’s canonical tags direct search engines to x.com rather than DOGE.gov.

A canonical tag is a snippet of code that tells search engines what the authoritative version of a website is. It is typically used by sites with multiple pages as a search engine optimization tactic, to avoid their search ranking being diluted.

In DOGE’s case, however, the code is informing search engines that when people search for content found on DOGE.gov, they should not show those pages in search results, but should instead display the posts on X.

“It is promoting the X account as the main source, with the website secondary,” Declan Chidlow, a web developer, tells WIRED. “This isn't usually how things are handled, and it indicates that the X account is taking priority over the actual website itself.”

All the other US government websites WIRED checked used their own homepage in their canonical tags, including the official White House website. Additionally, when sharing the DOGE website on mobile devices, the source code creates a link to the DOGE X account rather than the website itself.

“It seems that the DOGE website is secondary, and they are prodding people in the direction of the X account everywhere they can,” Chidlow adds.

Alongside the homepage feed of X posts, a section of Doge.gov labeled “Savings” now appears. So far the page is empty except for a single line that reads: “Receipts coming soon, no later than Valentine's day,” followed by a heart emoji.

A section entitled “Workforce” features some bar charts showing how many people work in each government agency, with the information coming from data gathered by the Office of Personnel Management in March 2024.

A disclaimer at the bottom of the page reads: “This is DOGE's effort to create a comprehensive, government-wide org chart. This is an enormous effort, and there are likely some errors or omissions. We will continue to strive for maximum accuracy over time.”

Another section, entitled “Regulations,” features what DOGE calls the “Unconstitutionality Index,” which it describes as “the number of agency rules created by unelected bureaucrats for each law passed by Congress in 2024.”

The charts in this section are also based on data previously collected by US government agencies. Doge.gov also links to a Forbes article from last month that was written by Clyde Wayne Crews, a member of the Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank that pushed climate change disinformation and questioned the links between tobacco and lung cancer. It is also a major advocate for privatizing government departments.

The site also features a “Join” page which allows prospective DOGE employees to apply for roles including “software engineers, InfoSec engineers, and other technology professionals.” As well as requesting a Github account and résumé, the form asks visitors to “provide 2-3 bullet points showcasing exceptional ability.”

The website does not list a developer, but on Wednesday, web application security expert Sam Curry outlined in a thread on X how he was able to identify the developer of the site as DOGE employee Kyle Shutt.

Curry claims he was able to link a Cloudflare account ID found in the site’s source code to Shutt, who used the same account when developing Musk’s America PAC website.

On Thursday, Drop Site News reported, citing sources within FEMA, that Shutt had gained access to the agency’s proprietary software controlling payments. Earlier this week, Business Insider reported that Shutt, who recently worked at an AI interviewing software company, was listed as one of 30 people working for DOGE.

Neither Shutt, DOGE, nor the White House responded to requests for comment.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"In the last days of the Soviet regime, dissident artists within the Soviet Union represented its past history as a dreamworld, depicting the crumbling of the Soviet era before it occurred in fact. For this generation, the moment of awakening replaced that of revolutionary rupture as the defining phenomenological experience. Exemplary is a 1983 painting of Aleksandr Kosolapov, The Manifesto, in which, against a martial, red sky and amidst ruins that include a bust of Lenin, three putti try to decipher a surviving copy of Marx’s Communist Manifesto. The dreamer who is still inside the dream of history accepts its logic as inexorable. But at the moment of awakening, when the dream’s coherence dissipates, all that is left are scattered images. The compelling nature of their connection has been shattered.

It is crucial to recognize that the end of the Soviet era was not limited spatially to the territory of the Soviet Union. The Bolshevik experiment, no matter how many specifically Russian cultural traits it developed, was vitally attached to the Western, modernizing project, from which it cannot be extricated without causing the project itself to fall to pieces—including its cult of historical progress. Those who at this stage of awakening attempt the task of political interpretation are not to compare themselves with revolutionary prophets. They do better to approach the dream fragments like soothsayers who read the entrails of animals before a battle, not to predict which army will win, but to decipher what forces of collective fantasy exist to withstand the violence of any army, aiding those forces by exposing the deceptive representations on which every army depends.

“History” has failed us. No new chronology will erase that fact. History’s betrayal is so profound that it cannot be forgiven simply by tacking on a “post-” era to it (postmodernism, post-Marxism). There is real tragedy in the shattering of the dreams of modernity—of social utopia, historical progress, and material plenty for all. But to submit to melancholy at this point would be to confer on the past a wholeness that never did exist, confusing the loss of the dream with the loss of the dream’s realization. The alternative of political cynicism is equally problematic, however, because in denying possibilities for change it prevents them; anticipating defeat, it brings defeat into being. Rather than taking a self-ironizing distance from history’s failure, we—the “we” who may have nothing more nor less in common than sharing this time—would do well to bring the ruins up close and work our way through the rubble in order to rescue the utopian hopes that modernity engendered, because we cannot afford to let them disappear. There is no reason to believe that those utopian hopes caused history to go wrong, and every reason, based on evidence of the abuses of power that propelled history forward, to believe the opposite.

When an era crumbles, “History breaks down into images, not into stories.” Without the narration of continuous progress, the images of the past resemble night dreams, the “first mark” of which, Freud tells us, is their emancipation from “the spatial and temporal order of events.” Such images, as dream images, are complex webs of memory and desire wherein past experience is rescued and, perhaps, redeemed. Only partial interpretations of these images are possible, and in a critical light. But they may be helpful if they illuminate patches of the past that seem to have a charge of energy about them precisely because the dominant narrative does not connect them seamlessly to the present. The historical particulars might then be free to enter into different constellations of meaning. The juxtaposition of these past fragments with our present concerns might have the power to challenge the complacency of our times, when “history” is said by its victors to have successfully completed its course, and the new global capitalist hegemony claims to have run the competition off the field.

To be engaged in the historical task of surprising rather than explaining the present—more avant-garde than vanguard in its temporality—may prove at the end of the century to be politically worth our while."

- Susan Buck-Morss, Dreamworld and Catastrophe: The Passing of Mass Utopia in East and West. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2000. p. 67-69.

[whencyclopedia]

Ögedei Khan

Ogedei Khan (aka Ogodei) ruled the Mongol Empire from 1229 to 1241. He was the third son of Genghis Khan (r. 1206-1227), the empire's founder. Ogedei's accomplishments included creating a new capital at Karakorum, establishing a system of regional governance and taxation, and defeating the long-time enemy of the Mongols, the Jin state of northern China.

Ogedei Khan enjoyed many other military victories in Western Asia from Afghanistan to Georgia, and the great cities of the Bulgars and Rus were sacked as his armies swept ever further west and attacked Poland and Hungary. Just as the Mongols seemed about to sweep through Europe, the invaders returned home following news of the Great Khan's death of either a stroke or organ failure in December 1241, most likely brought on by one of the heavy drinking bouts for which he was infamous.

Early Life & Succession

Ogedei was born, c. 1186, the third son of Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire. He had three brothers: Jochi, Chagatai (Chaghadai) and Tolui (Tului). Like them, Ogedei assisted his father on several military campaigns, notably against the Khwarazm Empire from 1219 to 1225. Before he died of natural causes in 1227, Genghis Khan had instructed that his empire be divided into four khanates with each of his sons ruling one of them (although Jochi would predecease his father in 1227). Ogedei was selected to rule above his siblings as the Great Khan or 'universal ruler', a position he was formally awarded in 1228 at the kurultai conference of Mongol tribal chiefs (which Ogedei at first refused but then accepted in 1229). Genghis, meanwhile, was buried in secret in the vicinity of the sacred mountain Burkan Kuldun, and Ogedei sacrificed 40 slave girls and 40 horses to accompany his father into the next life.

Ogedei was a surprising choice for khan because he already had a reputation for often being drunk. He was chastised for his drinking by his brother Chagatai but, not being unaware of the problem, Ogedei did offer to have a supervisor check how much alcohol he drank and to limit the number of cups per day to a specified number. Ogedei then made sure he was always served his favourite tipple in very large cups. Neither had Ogedei shown any great particular promise as a military commander. He was, however, likeable and willing to take the advice of his more senior ministers and commanders, essential qualities in the complex web of Mongol clan politics. Most importantly of all, he was his father's choice and Genghis Khan was now already seen as a deified spirit whose word was law. Thus, Tolui, who had been acting as regent, handed over the reins of government to Ogedei and a new era of Mongol rule began.

Continue reading...

[victimeyez]

Drabble: Tommy being accidentally hurt by one of the guys (like fingers between the door). They feel sorry for tommy’s pain and panic because he doesnt know what he did wrong.

This is not a bad idea at all, BUT - I think you are giving too much credit to the guys, lol. I should really include more of them bc I know I haven't explained hardly anything but, here's some lore dump I might someday figure out a way to wiggle in.

"Michelle" (Micheal, pronounced the french way, he is french-canadian) founded the business. Like many other kids on the internet, he stumbled across some rough sites with beheading videos and other shock factor stuff. Micheal was fascinated and started seeking them out, learning how to get into the deep web and exploring black market and black media sites.

Got a job at a Best Buy in Quebec, moved to IT, held off on the deep web shit for a while after a security scare. But he knew the kind of money people were making on the black market for way less work than he was doing, as long as they were willing to accept the risks. He got burnt out on working in a handful of years. Saw what other people were doing and came up with the first iteration of the business.

He and Rory met at an unrelated conference, but ended up partying and realized they kinda matched each other's freak. Micheal hated customer service and being the face, but Rory was great at it and had his own sadistic appetites. Michael shared the business idea but was still unsure about a lot of the factors, and luckily Rory knew exactly who they needed.

Rory and Caius worked at the same insurance agency, and had kinda picked up on each other's vibes after a little while working together. Both are unstable, but when one was out of control the other was good at talking them down, and vice versa. Rory had also bent an ear to Caius's relationship woes - (insert Homer Simpson crying "why does everything I whip leave me?!?!) lol. So they formed their little dream team.

Rory and Micheal seem a lot more hands off bc I don't spend hardly any time on their work, but they are no saints. Editing videos of Tommy to send to an encrypted paid subscription, creating ads, following viral darkweb trends, manually finding and targeting users with violent interests and deep wallets, you name it. Micheal stays up on security as well, but this work was his idea in the first place, he's pretty happy.

I spend less time on them because...

I have no idea how the dark web or online black market works and I am terrible with technology

I don't have the characters fleshed out as much, but that's doable to fix

I worry it is less interesting than the more direct whump between Caius and Tommy, as well as clients. But I'd like to work them in more, plan some chapters where they shoot "ads" with Tommy to take advantage of trends, and expand the universe a little bit with the other "entrepreneurs" they meet and how they link up with clients. I want to expand into them also taking video requests for stuff Caius can do to Tommy.

So, I don't have a good drabble for it, but I hope a lore dump will suffice for now. Thank you so much for writing in!

[posttexasstressdisorder]

CNN 5/28/2025

New fiber optic cable in place to fix communications problems plaguing flights to Newark, DOT says

By Alexandra Skores, CNN

Updated: 1:52 PM EDT, Wed May 28, 2025

Source: CNN

A new fiber optic cable is now in place between Philadelphia and New York to improve air traffic control telecommunications at the facility that handles flights in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport, following a busy Memorial Day weekend, the Department of Transportation said Wednesday.

“That was the troubled portion of the line that’s been laid,” Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said at a press conference. “We’re doing some of the connections right now, and then we have to test it. I don’t want to over promise and under deliver.”

Duffy said the Federal Aviation Administration is using “an abundance of caution” with testing and hopes the fiber line will be in use by the start of July.

Air traffic controllers in Philadelphia have repeatedly lost contact with Newark flights, including on April 28, when the existing cable failed, silencing radios for 30 seconds and blanking radar scopes for 90 seconds. Three more outages have occurred since then, CNN previously reported.

The improvements come after the system survived a busy travel holiday. Less than 1% of flights were canceled throughout the US air travel system over the holiday period and less than 3% of flights were delayed, Acting Administrator of the FAA Chris Rocheleau said.

The Transportation Security Administration screened more than 3 million people across the country on Friday at the start of the Memorial Day weekend. More than 2 million were screened on each of the other days.

United Airlines reported the busiest Memorial Day weekend ever, with 553,000 people traveling worldwide each day. At the airline’s key Newark hub, no departures were canceled on either Sunday or Monday, United said.

Rocheleau added the agency will continue to work with the airlines and airport to slow traffic at Newark to ensure safety and avoid delays. Last week the FAA cut 25% of the flights there to help with congestion from understaffing and runway construction, as well as the aging air traffic control infrastructure and technology.

“We will continue to work with the airlines, with the airports to make sure that as we manage traffic, we do so safely and efficiently throughout the system,” Rocheleau said.

Duffy is asking Congress to support a plan for a brand-new air traffic control system but has not put a price tag on it. He noted Wednesday that it will be higher than the $12.5 billion in a House bill currently being considered.

“It’s a substantial piece of work and will take a substantial amount of money,” Duffy said.

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[talenlee]

The Nemuranai System

Alright, in Oriental Adventures‘ expanded 3e books –

Wait wait wait don’t go, hang on.

Content Warning: This is going to discuss some books that are, very simply, quite Orientalist, in the classical Edward Said sense. Not nakedly racist in a slursy way, just racist in how it simplifies cultures in the names of telling a particular form of story. If you don’t wanna mess around with that, y’know, probably want to avoid it.

Anyway, there’s this system in the Rokugan books for handling gear. Specifically, the idea is that as a character in the Rokugan setting levels up and accumulates experience, rather than going to a magic store and picking up new swords and armours that are part of an ongoing escalation of gear in a marketplace that is constantly creating an increased demand, rather that player characters themselves, by dint of being powerful and cool and renowned, start to affect the gear they’ve been travelling with the whole time. The spirits of their equipment awaken and become powerful in response to the person who owns them being powerful.

This also is transitive – if someone powerful gives you their sword with its awakened spirits, it can be a powerful item thanks to them conferring it, but not as powerful as if they had it, or if you take something off someone that was powerful, it won’t work for you and will just be a sword. This association, this effective transformation of gear into a social improvement, where you have to convince spirits in the equipment that you’re worthy of how cool they are, is interesting in that it both serves as a way to disincentivize theft and looting, but also means that player characters are going to get equipment that’s explicitly coded to them as they level up and fitting the way they want to do things.

This system for the ‘spirits of the item’ was known as the Nemuranai system, based on the word ‘nemuranai’ which I think translates to ‘not sleeping.’ I don’t know if this is a full-blown hilarious translation mistake in an early guidebook way, but it might be and I’d leave it to someone who knows Japanese properly to ask.

The number of books that were put out for 3.5 really is hard to hold in the mind. In a time when ebooks were just starting as a market, in a time when we didn’t have the same obvious massive front-end surfaces like DriveThruRPG and its subordinate DM’s Guild. The OGL came along at just the right time, in the same vein as other Web 2.0 stalwarts, to be a thing that resulted in a lot of people creating a lot of material the whole time.

Like me!

Anyway, that meant that not only were you getting unique lines for D20 like Warcraft and BESM but we also saw the rise of D20-ified existing games, like D20 Rokugan. I’ve talked in the past about how great Rokugan was because its creators didn’t give a stuff about Wizard Supremacy (even if they didn’t appreciate the scale of the problem). The D20 Rokugan books included books about handling magical spells and items, in a setting that didn’t really have a lot of those things.

And make no mistake, I do not have any illusions about what real Samurai or real Asian adventures in the same vein as the Dungeons & Dragons ouvre are. This is not really about Actual Asian Adventures, this is about the vision of Samurai adventure media made and distributed and remembered and replicated in the west. There, people aren’t questing and finding ancient swords (which is ironic because of all sorts of things to do with palingenesis), but instead, it’s about inheriting old swords. Notably, nobody kills people and takes the sword off them unless they’re someone bad.

This is what Nemuranai was trying to address.

I really can’t underscore how important your equipment was to your character in 3rd edition. Gear was so important to how a character functioned that when you built a character higher than level 1, there was a table that showed the appropriate amount of magical gear you started with. There were functions of how a character works in 3rd edition, like your access to weaponry with an appropriate set of bonuses, your ability to absorb or escape damage, and even your ability to engage on multiple platforms. Around level 9, everyone flies, and if you don’t pick up a way to fly around that level, even for a little bit, you are going to be in trouble as encounters are sculpted assuming you can handle an enemy just flying away and pelting you with ranged attacks.

What’s more, gear is so important that if you level up manually, and follow the tables that generate treasure and gear — distinct categories, make no mistake! — then you wind up with a character whose budget is larger than these characters who were made at a higher level, because you were expected to lose some money through the course of operations by things like selling gear or consumables, like potions and wands and scrolls or stuff you crafted for yourself (oh hi, Wizard problems, why are you here)?

Looting is a big part of the game, in that there’s a big pile of tables for it, but it’s also a meaningless part of the game in that as long as the DM is doling out rewards appropriate to the table. What this meant in my experience was players constructing wish-lists, hoping for particular items, or the DM using that level-by-level budget to construct a chain of items to give to the players. It’s there, I did run the game using the loot tables sometimes, but it wasn’t an interesting tool to use and it relied heavily on preloading, adding an accountancy element to the interesting thing (designing meaningful combat encounters).

And then you throw this game into a different thematic space, where ostensibly, ‘people don’t loot.’ Which doesn’t break the game, because the looting and the loot tables aren’t… that… important. The gear is, but the way you get the gear, it turns out, isn’t.

Look, Dungeons & Dragons, in every edition, is a modular game system of exclusions. There’s a body of opinion about D&D that thinks the idea that players don’t have an exhaustive, comprehensive vision of the rules, is a sign of a problem in the game, which is completely unhinged. The nature of a class system is to make it so that there’s ways the game can sequester operations. Don’t have a Barbarian in the party? Then nobody needs to track Barbarians. You’re not using the encumbrance rules for anyone? Then nobody needs to worry about them. If you are using them, they interact across all people.

There’s a vision of how this is a sign that there’s something wrong, or broken in how D&D works, as opposed to literally structural to the entire design methodology. If a thing is not present in the game, its operations aren’t necessary, and therefore, any new thing can bring its own operations with it. Now this is a design approach that is volume-heavy. There’s a reason you can print a dozen monster books and still not really have a reasonably varied ecology for a real world scale, because every one of those monsters is a discrete module that lets you pull it in and out. There’s a reason that building real estate is in a bonus supplementary book and the core rule book has optional content like ‘the fighter.’

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[desertleviathan]

Help Me Create A Character Part 2

Ok, the Fair Folk won the poll in Part 1. So let's talk a little more about what their deal is before moving on to part 2.

As a fantasy world with a pretty well-documented and verifiable creation story, the origins of most of Aclodoc's peoples are a matter of historic record. But I, as the author, found that unsatisfying, so I sprinkled a few mysteries around and deliberately held back on concocting an answer for them.

The Faerie peoples are one such enigma. Before Human Wizards turned the Buer Valley into a wasteland of alchemical pollution, a large group of Fae lived here in tense but stable peace. Sure, it seemed like outright war between the four Courts could erupt at any second, but it had seemed like that for thousands of years. It turns out the main thing the Fae love is Drama, and existing on the edge of a calamity is way more interesting than being plunged fully into one.

Fae exist in a strictly hierarchical society, but it's more like the divisions in an insect hive than a conventional political structure, since differences in rank confer differences in physiology. Inheriting a title that elevates one in rank typically involves a physical metamorphosis into a being well-suited for that title. Thus it's not uncommon for lower-ranking Fae who have earned high honors to politely decline them, out of a fondness for their present form.

Royal Fae include the reigning monarchs of the four Seasonal Courts, but also their numerous offspring. A Fae Monarch reproduces as a byproduct of swearing powerful Oaths - the magic bound in the Oath is captured and condensed into a new Fae Royal. If multiple parties engaged in the Oath, such as in a contract between two individuals, the new Royal will partake of all of their natures, but owe its essence more strongly to one of them that they will think of as a primary parent. Physically, Royal Fae often appear to be unnaturally tall, beautiful humanoids who evoke the properties of specific Elements. Many of them show a degree of visible artificiality as well, such as mechanical jointed limbs or "skin" with the texture of smooth porcelain.

Noble Fae strike a balance between the elemental majesty of the Royals and the bestial traits of Commoners. A winter duke with a shaggy grey mane tinged with frost and a wolf's tail, or a summer knight who resembles a centaur with burning hooves. Nobles come in three major varieties - Clergy (those who may sanctify oaths), Gentry (those who may claim land), and Military (those who may bear arms). But it's common for Nobles to have a web of agreements between them that allow for one to perform feats related to the purviews of the other two.

Common Fae are the weakest politically within the Courts, but that doesn't necessarily translate to a weaker character. With the most relaxed duties imposed on them by their courts, they are freer to develop conventional skills, and are often fierce fighters, skilled artisans, wise scholars, cunning merchants, and relentless hunters. Physically, most Commoners look like animals appropriate to climates matching their monarch's elemental temperament. Just animals, speaking and walking upright, manipulating objects with their front paws or wings or whatever they have just as skillfully as if they had human hands. Staring too long to figure out how it works may make a viewer dizzy. Most of them wear clothing but some take advantage of the fact that they can shut their mouths, drop to all fours, and be very well-camouflaged provided they're naked first. Some Commoners also resemble small-scale manufactured people, like animated puppets or little clockwork men, but these usually reflect a presiding Monarch who is unusually detached from Nature.

In the Buer Valley, the arrangement used to be that the Queen of Spring, the King of Summer, the Queen of Autumn, and the King of Winter would rule over the whole kingdom in turn, with concessions carved out to give their peers limited authority when it wasn't their turn to sit on the throne. Then the Wizards came and offered a bargain - if the Wizards could have the central part of the Buer Valley to themselves, they could enchant smaller regions on the outer edges of the valley to eternally manifest only one season. Each Monarch would preside eternally and uninterrupted over an admittedly much smaller territory.

In a moment of vanity and weakness, the Monarchs agreed, and their respective courts were ordered to clear out of the central valley and into their new much smaller domains. Not all of the Fae respected this, and many rebelled outright against the Monarchs. And many more found there was simply no room for them in the new Kingdoms. Some of these found sanctuary with the ancient Treefolk Druid Orofarne Sawleaf who was able to serve as a sort of substitute Monarch and train his new Fae disciples in the Druidic arts. Most of the displaced Fae were forced to move into the Wizard City of Baetylus, begging for scraps of elemental magic to sustain themselves, only a tiny handful able to find steady work and even fewer still assimilating well enough to be granted full citizenship.

It's a raw deal, but the treaties binding the Four Monarchs were very skillfully composed. It turns out a small army of Wizard Lawyers is a match for a group of powerful and ancient Fae in terms of sophisticated contractual trickery.

Eight years ago, something changed. Eisenzahn the Hoarfrost King ejected all Wizard diplomats from the Winter Court, butchered the population of the bordering town of Weeping Hoof, and started sending raiders as far as the nearest district of Baetylus to clash with Research Directorate forces and plunder supplies. But as far as the Wizards are concerned, the contract is still in full force, its binding magics undiminished. They're bewildered how King Eisenzahn is doing all of this without drawing down repercussions woven into the enchantment of his oaths, and just as bewildered at how to respond without drawing down similar consequences. This has greatly emboldened rebels from other Fae groups, and all three of the other courts have seen voices agitating for war with the Wizards grow much louder.

The Four Courts (and other factions) work more or less like this:

THE SPRING COURT: Ruled by Queen Eglantine, this court exists in a perpetual state of festival, feasting, drinking, and merrymaking like the good times will never ever end. The eternal Spring is exploitable for year-round agriculture, and the Spring Court is the largest producer of food in the valley, fabulously wealthy because of the massive import needs of Baetylus and Illiaster. It's not sustainable though, and the encroachment of the polluted wastes of Buer's Pelt is a pressing concern on the minds of any Spring nobles who aren't too distracted by revelry to actually attend to their duties.

THE SUMMER COURT: Ruled by King Fiacha, this was the most belligerent of the four courts, and the most thoroughly bound by the contract with the Wizards. Fiacha's courtiers have been kept distracted by tournaments and bloodsport for a time, but what they really want to do is ride out to war. They're deeply ashamed that their rivals in the Winter Court seem to have beat them to the punch, and a large-scale Summer Court insurrection seems inevitable at this point.

THE AUTUMN COURT: Ruled by Queen Melpomene, who cultivated strong ties between the Malstronic Academy and her people so that she could trade scraps and shreds of faerie magic for the secrets of the Wizards' arts. The Autumn Court is a place much more steeped in enchantment and illusions than the other courts, and as the essence of the Buer Valley has curdled, the Autumn Court has become a place of impenetrable nightmares, a realm utterly hostile to sanity. The Wizards still come to the border town of Trembling Hoof to trade regularly, but find themselves less and less sure what the Autumn Folk are up to with each visit.

THE WINTER COURT: Ruled by King Eisenzahn, who seemingly found a way to break his oaths to the Wizards without actually breaking his oaths to the Wizards. The secret? Eisenzahn is dead. His son, Eisenzahn II, took his head and his throne. This was apparently trickery enough to wiggle past the Oaths, especially since the existence of Eisenzahn II was not known to the Wizards. Now, King Eisenzahn makes open war with an enemy who believe themselves bound by magic not to retaliate, and his soldiers take a grim satisfaction in their ability to trample over Baetylus's defenders unopposed... but they know it won't last, and are preparing for more serious opposition to form up, making active alliances with other groups opposed to the rule of the Wizards. Of the four courts, the Winter Court is the only one that has made formal overtures to the FreeBIRD Alliance.

OROFARNE'S GROVE: If the Fae are a mystery, the ancient Tree Man called Orofarne Sawleaf is even more curious, predating all other known life on this continent by thousands of years. He may in fact be the oldest living creature on the planet, aside from a handful of Angels who were created at the dawn of time, and the last remaining Architect of course. Orofarne maintains peaceful relations with the Wizards by downplaying his wisdom around them, seeming like a charmful folk healer and little more, a novelty to be studied but not a threat to be eliminated. In reality, those Fae who have flocked to Orofarne are among the most dedicated agents of the FreeBIRD Alliance, masters of healing magic who are actively trying to counter the spread of the magic-polluted wastes.

COURTLESS: A Fae without a Monarch is in truly dire straits. They may apply to be a vassal of a suitably potent entity and receive nourishment from that relationship, but few such candidates are as gentle-souled as Master Orofarne. Most Courtless Fae wind up living half-lives as energy vampires, or engaging in banditry to steal magic-infused crystals to feed on. A few have banded together into "shadow courts" that venerate War, Pestilence, Famine, and Death in a perverse mockery of the Seasonal Courts. But as unsavory as the Courtless often are, the Revolution can't be picky about who it accepts, nor can it really blame the downtrodden for doing what they must to survive in dire circumstances.

SO! Out of those six groups, which one should our Fair Folk character belong to? (Decisions we make later will suggest whether they'd be better suited as a Royal, Noble, or Common Fae).

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

On SEPTEMBER 24th, I'll be speaking IN PERSON at the BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY!

#20yrsago AnarchistU, Toronto’s wiki-based free school https://web.archive.org/web/20040911010603/http://anarchistu.org/bin/view/Anarchistu

#20yrsago Fair use is a right AND a defense https://memex.craphound.com/2004/09/09/fair-use-is-a-right-and-a-defense/

#20yrsago Bounty for asking “How many times have you been arrested, Mr. President?” https://web.archive.org/web/20040918115027/https://onesimplequestion.blogspot.com/

#20yrsago What yesterday’s terrible music https://www.loweringthebar.net/2009/09/open-mike-likely-to-close-out-legislators-career.htmlsampling ruling means https://web.archive.org/web/20040910095029/http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/002153.shtml

#15yrsago Conservative California legislator gives pornographic account of his multiple affairs (including a lobbyist) into open mic https://www.loweringthebar.net/2009/09/open-mike-likely-to-close-out-legislators-career.html

#15yrsago Shel Silverstein’s UNCLE SHELBY, not exactly a kids’ book https://memex.craphound.com/2009/09/09/shel-silversteins-uncle-shelby-not-exactly-a-kids-book/

#10yrsago Seemingly intoxicated Rob Ford gives subway press-conference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbcETJRoNCs

#10yrsago Amazon vs Hachette is nothing: just WAIT for the audiobook wars! https://locusmag.com/2014/09/cory-doctorow-audible-comixology-amazon-and-doctorows-first-law/

#10yrsago Dietary supplement company sues website for providing a forum for dissatisfied customers https://www.techdirt.com/2014/09/08/dietary-supplement-company-tries-suing-pissedconsumer-citing-buyers-agreement-to-never-say-anything-negative-about-roca/

#10yrsago New wind-tunnel tests find surprising gains in cycling efficiency from leg-shaving https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/the-curious-case-of-the-cyclists-unshaved-legs/article20370814/

#10yrsago Behind the scenes look at Canada’s Harper government gagging scientists https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/federal-scientist-media-request-generates-email-frenzy-but-no-interview-1.2759300

#10yrsago Starred review in Kirkus for INFORMATION DOESN’T WANT TO BE FREE https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/cory-doctorow/information-doesnt-want-to-be-free/

#10yrsago Steven Gould’s “Exo,” a Jumper novel by way of Heinlein’s “Have Spacesuit, Will Travel” https://memex.craphound.com/2014/09/09/steven-goulds-exo-a-jumper-novel-by-way-of-heinleins-have-spacesuit-will-travel/

#5yrsago Important legal victory in web-scraping case https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/09/web-scraping-doesnt-violate-anti-hacking-law-appeals-court-rules/

#5yrsago Whistleblowers out Falwell’s Liberty University as a grifty, multibillion-dollar personality cult https://web.archive.org/web/20190910000528/https://www.politico.com/magazine/amp/story/2019/09/09/jerry-falwell-liberty-university-loans-227914

#5yrsago Pinduoduo: China’s “Groupon on steroids” https://www.wired.com/story/china-ecommerce-giant-never-heard/

#5yrsago Notpetya: the incredible story of an escaped US cyberweapon, Russian state hackers, and Ukraine’s cyberwar https://www.wired.com/story/notpetya-cyberattack-ukraine-russia-code-crashed-the-world/

#5yrsago NYT calls for an end to legacy college admissions https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/07/opinion/sunday/end-legacy-college-admissions.html

#5yrsago Purdue’s court filings understate its role in the opioid epidemic by 80% https://www.propublica.org/article/data-touted-by-oxycontin-maker-to-fight-lawsuits-doesnt-tell-the-whole-story

#1yrago Saturday linkdump, part the sixth https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/09/nein-nein/#everything-is-miscellaneous

The paperback edition of The Lost Cause, my nationally bestselling, hopeful solarpunk novel is out this month!

[wandamfonseca]

TNC Conf CMS Version – Webflow Event Website Template

Are you planning an event and need a professional website? Look no further than the TNC Conf CMS Version – a beautifully designed Webflow event website template. It’s the perfect solution for anyone looking to build a stunning event or conference website quickly and easily, even with little to no coding experience.

What is the TNC Conf CMS Template?

The TNC Conf CMS Version is a pre-built template on Webflow, a popular no-code website builder. This template is specially designed for conferences, seminars, webinars, meetups, or any type of event. It includes all the important features needed to promote your event, manage content, and keep your visitors informed.

Since it is built using CMS (Content Management System) features in Webflow, you can easily update information like speakers, schedules, blog posts, and sponsors without changing the website's design or structure.

Don’t Forget To Visit: Live Preview

Why Choose This Template?

There are many reasons to choose the TNC Conf CMS Webflow template:

Easy to Use

You don’t need to be a web developer to use this template. Webflow’s user-friendly interface lets you update text, images, and pages easily. The CMS feature allows you to manage your content from a simple dashboard.

Professional Design

The template has a modern, clean design that looks great on both desktop and mobile devices. The layout is perfect for showcasing event details, speaker bios, and schedules in an organized way.

Responsive Layout

Your website will look great on all devices. The TNC Conf CMS template is fully responsive, which means it automatically adjusts to look good on phones, tablets, and laptops.

Built-in Features

This template includes many useful sections:

Homepage with event highlights

Speaker section with photos and bios

Schedule page with sessions and times

Blog to share news or updates

Sponsors and partners section

Contact form for visitor inquiries

Everything is ready-to-go – you just add your content.

Time-Saving

Since the design is already done, you don’t have to spend weeks building your site. You can launch your event website in just a few hours.

Who Should Use It?

This template is great for:

Event organizers

Marketing teams

Conference planners

Non-profits hosting community events

Anyone who wants a stylish, functional event website without hiring a developer

Final Thoughts

The TNC Conf CMS Version Webflow Template is a smart choice for anyone who needs a reliable and attractive event website. It combines great design, powerful CMS features, and ease of use – all in one package.

Whether you're planning a local meetup or a large international conference, this template can help you build a strong online presence and keep your attendees informed and excited.

So why wait? Try the TNC Conf CMS template today and create your event website with confidence!