#web site operators

[raecaw]

my friend is getting a C section and apparently they lift the curtain if you want, so you can see the baby being lifted out, and apparently immediately countering that with "i wouldnt want a curtain at all id be interested to watch myself be dissected" wasnt the normal response

[pileofpawns]

spent a good 20 minutes yesterday daydreaming about what a hypothetical personal website for myself would look like

[reality-detective]

THIS IS THE STORM — OPERATION LIBERTY SHIELD UNLEASHED

The silence has shattered. The war is no longer hidden. On May 10, 2025, the full force of Trump’s restored military alliance launched Operation Liberty Shield — a classified global takedown targeting the heart of an elite child trafficking and human experimentation network that spans continents, corporations, and crowned bloodlines. This is not a sting. This is an extinction-level purge. Over 20,000 elite forces — SEALs, Marines, Delta, and global white hats — are storming underground strongholds once believed untouchable. The goal is simple: annihilate the infrastructure of enslavement, expose the handlers, and rescue every last stolen soul.

Nevada. Alaska. Rome. Antarctica. Tunnels that were once Cold War secrets are now battlegrounds. SEAL units uncovered thousands of children locked in cages beneath camouflaged mining sites and AI-operated labs. Evidence of MK-Ultra abuse, hormonal harvesting, and genetic weaponization has been retrieved — all tied to biotech firms, fake NGOs, and even Area 51. These were not experiments. These were rituals. Each child was a data point in a demonic system designed to feed the beast and blackmail the world. From the Vatican to Silicon Valley, the currency was always the same: human lives.

Digital forensics teams under Space Force command have decrypted petabytes of dark web data — exposing blockchain-funded trafficking routes masked as "development grants." Names once praised as philanthropists are now exposed as financiers of evil. Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Gates are directly tied to AI-managed procurement contracts and smart-chain auctions. Military raids on media hubs have confirmed "Operation Obscura" — a coordinated propaganda system created to bury these operations, discredit Trump, and destroy whistleblowers before truth could reach the surface.

Now it’s all unraveling. Gitmo is overflowing. Military tribunals are active. Blackmail files once used to enslave nations are being burned. Trump’s alliance is not just winning — it is rewriting history.

The storm is no longer a warning. It is here. It is righteous. And it will be remembered forever. Stay alert. Stay grounded. The final act has begun.

I can't make you understand or believe me, but this whole thing has been about saving the children and then to clean up the top three branches of the government. This is happening in every country NOT just in the United States. You Decide 🤔

[blueiscoool]

Naples Welcomes Exhibition of Ancient Stolen and Looted Artifacts

The National Archaeological Museum of Naples is showcasing 600 recovered objects, which date to between the Archaic period and the Middle Ages.

For more than half a century, a specialized Italian police unit has been confiscating valuable artifacts from the black market. Some 15,000 recovered items are housed at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples—and now, the museum is displaying 600 of them for the first time.

Titled “Treasures Rediscovered: Stories of Crime and Stolen Artifacts,” the exhibition focuses not only on ancient artworks, but also on the “often complex dynamic” of illegal trafficking that brought these items to the museum, according to a statement.

“It is a beautiful exhibition that tells a beautiful story, a story also of redemption for our stolen archaeological artifacts, which often find their way into private property or even international museums,” exhibition co-curator Massimo Osanna, director of national museums at Italy’s culture ministry, tells the Associated Press’ Francesco Sportelli. “Thanks to the work of the public prosecutor’s office and the police, together with the ministry, [these artifacts] are finally coming home and to light.”

Strict laws govern the ownership of archaeological artifacts in Italy. Looting has been happening for centuries, but today’s criminals have turned to advanced technologies—including sonar, drones and underwater metal detectors—to pluck treasure from shipwrecks and other ancient sites beneath the Mediterranean Sea, per the AP.

The exhibition begins with a history of collecting, which has long fueled illegal excavations and trafficking. Visitors learn about international markets and law enforcement, important court cases and the stories of looted items that haven’t yet been recovered.

Artifacts on view include coins, marbles, bronzes, weapons, armor and pottery. They come from all over southern Italy, and they date to between the Archaic period (roughly 650 to 480 B.C.E.) and the Middle Ages.

The show highlights several stories of illegal exchange: In one case, a man from Naples used archaeological finds to pay his pharmacist. In another, a French archaeologist bought sculptures from the ancient city of Pompeii off a local farmer for the equivalent of about $28. Three frescoed slabs from a fourth-century B.C.E. tomb were found in the private collection of 20th-century opera singer Maria Callas.

Also on display are “the classic tools of grave robbers, spilloni [soil probes] through which gravediggers pierce the ground,” says Pierpaolo Filippelli, deputy prosecutor of the Naples prosecutor’s office, in an AP video, per a translation by Euronews. “But today, art traffickers operate on a more advanced level, using tools like the dark web to sell stolen works.”

According to the statement, the exhibition is a “journey of collective memory” that highlights the importance of protecting cultural heritage. The Italian police’s cultural heritage protection command recovered over 100,000 artifacts in 2023 (the most recent year with available documentation), as the AP reports. Officials estimate that the haul is worth about $299 million.

By Sonja Anderson.

[flawseer]

Jade Mountain Academy students

#Bonus - Faculty chapter

And here, as has been requested, we have the ones in charge of the operation. And so I am left pondering that, over the course of this project, I have drawn essentially all of the arc 1 and arc 2 protagonists... with the exception of Glory. That's pretty weird.

Anyway, here goes:

Sunny

Teaches subject(s) - Art, Cultural Exchange

Additional responsibilities- Founder, chief administrator, student admission, teacher-student relations, Silver winglet guardian

Tribe - Sandwing (partial Nightwing heritage)

Color - Sunrise gold

Relatives - Stonemover (father)

Physical characteristics - bright golden color; green eyes; no venom barb; small stature with slim to average build

Tsunami

Teaches subject(s) - Exercise

Additional responsibilities- "Head of School", security chief, Jade winglet guardian

Tribe - Seawing

Color - Cobalt blue

Relatives - Prince Turtle (brother), Princess Anemone (sister)

Physical characteristics - bent horns; royal wing markings; small burn scar on right side of neck, small cut in wing membrane; large build, long and burly

Clay

Teaches subject(s) - Anatomy

Additional responsibilities- Chief healer, student counselor, Copper winglet guardian

Tribe - Mudwing

Color - Bronze

Relatives - Umber (brother), Sora (sister), Marsh (brother)

Physical characteristics - curly horns; diminished mobility in right hindleg, walks with a limp; very large stature, muscular, heavy, broad

Starflight

Teaches subject(s) - Science, Literacy

Additional responsibilities- Chief librarian, chief accountant, Quartz winglet guardian

Tribe - Nightwing

Color - Midnight blue gray

Relatives - none on site

Physical characteristics - severe burn scarring across face, neck, and chest; blind in both eyes; average size and build

Fatespeaker

Teaches subject(s) - Science, Literacy (assisting)

Additional responsibilities- Assistant librarian, assistant student counselor, inventory

Tribe - Nightwing

Color - Dark violet black

Relatives - none on site

Physical characteristics - curved horns; small silver scales near eyes and along body; smallish stature, slim, slightly underweight

Webs

Teaches subject(s) - History

Additional responsibilities- Assistant healer, assistant accountant, Gold winglet guardian

Tribe - Seawing

Color - Teal green and blue

Relatives - none on site

Physical characteristics - blotty, luminous markings across body, luminous birthmark on left front talon; small puncture scar on tail; medium to large size, gaunt frame

Stonemover

Tribe - Nightwing

Relatives - Sunny (daughter)

Additional notes - Stonemover is neither a member of the Jade Mountain Academy faculty, nor a student, but remains on site as a consultant on various animus-related matters (and also because he is stuck to the floor).

[probablyasocialecologist]

The cache feature historically let you view a webpage as Google sees it, which is useful for a variety of different reasons beyond just being able to see a page that’s struggling to load. SEO professionals could use it to debug their sites or even keep tabs on competitors, and it can also be an enormously helpful news gathering tool, giving reporters the ability to see exactly what information a company has added (or removed) from a website, and a way to see details that people or companies might be trying to scrub from the web. Or, if a site is blocked in your region, Google’s cache can work as a great alternative to a VPN.

As the Google cache feature is being taken away, I'd recommend using the Wayback Machine, Cached Pages, or archive.today to find cached links of webpages, especially if you want to get past firewalls.

[muddypolitics]

(via Nice Time: MacKenzie Scott Pissing Off Elon Musk With The Billions For The DEIs And Abortions)

plot twist: a billionaire that IS a hero?

Billionaires are mostly despicable Montgomery-Burns type people. But then there’s MacKenzie Scott, one of the few ultra-rich who doesn’t deserve to get tarred and feathered in the coming revolution! She’s the third-wealthiest woman in the United States, 38th in the world, and has now given away $19.25 billion (with a B!) in 2,524 charitable gifts, with a focus on racial equality, LGBTQ+ equality, democracy, and climate change.

She and her small team seek out nonprofits operating in communities facing high food insecurity, high measures of racial inequity, high local poverty rates, and low access to philanthropic capital. And then she gives away the money with no strings attached. Which is unusual in philanthropy! Also unusual, she’s pretty quiet about it. She has a web site that shows what she has donated to, but there’s no MacKenzie Scott ribbon cuttings, or buildings with her name on them when she drops a check. She donates, then she dips. And she plans to “keep at it until the safe is empty.”

Scott’s given to community centers, the ACLU, historically Black colleges and universities, food banks, Planned Parenthood, YMCAs, dance theaters, Native American groups, legal aid centers, to paying off medical debt, legal funds for transgender people. It is truly an inspiring list!...

[krissiefox]

Somewhat long, so list is below the divider!

https://ms-dos5.tumblr.com/ Computer photos, old 3d renders, old PC games.

https://chunkycomputers.tumblr.com/ Pictures of nice chunky computers.

https://wwwtxt.org/about An archive of online writings from the early days of the internet

https://arconinternet.tumblr.com/ Internet archive fun!

https://opendirectories.tumblr.com/ Image directories from around the web.

https://www.tumblr.com/oldguydoesstuff Old arcade machines and computers.

https://webcoreparadise.tumblr.com/ Old internet gifs, pixel arts, photos of old tech, etc

https://gaywebcorenostalgia.tumblr.com/ Old LGBTQ web sites.

https://geocitiesdig.tumblr.com/ Old website art and cool 90s CGI stuff.

https://56k-modem.online/ Photos and screenshots of old computers/operating systems/software.

https://oldwindowsicons.tumblr.com/ Collection of old Windows UI graphics.

https://oldwebsurfing.tumblr.com/ Art and gifs from old web sites.

https://obscuritory.tumblr.com/ Obscure old pc games.

https://www.tumblr.com/oneterabyteofkilobyteage Old Geocities Web Sites.

https://never-obsolete.tumblr.com/ Old tech ads, Operating systems, computer gifs.

https://wirlds.tumblr.com/tagged/worlds.com Worlds.com is an old online game form the 90s that, from the look of it, let people make their own little rooms. Quite nice looking!

https://whatdiditlooklike.mementoweb.org/ See the looks of web sites throughout the years.

https://www.tumblr.com/compactdiscinteractive Screenshots from old cd-rom and multimedia games.

[autolenaphilia]

Why enshittification happens and how to stop it.

The enshittification of the internet and increasingly the software we use to access it is driven by profit. It happens because corporations are machines for making profits from end users, the users and customers are only seen as sources of profits. Their interests are only considered if it can help the bottom line. It's capitalism.

For social media it's users are mainly seen by the companies that run the sites as a way for getting advertisers to pay money that can profit the shareholders. And social media is in a bit of death spiral right now, since they have seldom or never been profitable and investor money is drying up as they realize this.

So the social media companies. are getting more and more desperate for money. That's why they are getting more aggressive with getting you to watch ads or pay for the privilege of not watching ads. It won't work and tumblr and all the other sites will die eventually.

But it's not just social media companies, it's everything tech-related. It gets worse the more monopolistic a tech giant is. Google is abusing its chrome-based near monopoly over the web, nerfing adblockers, trying to drm the web, you name it. And Microsoft is famously a terrible company, spying on Windows users and selling their data. Again, there is so much money being poured into advertising, at least 493 billion globally, the tech giants want a slice of that massive pie. It's all about making profits for shareholders, people be damned.

And the only insurance against this death spiral is not being run by a corporation. If the software is being developed by a non-profit entity, and it's open source, there is no incentive for the developers to fuck over the users for the sake of profits for shareholders, because there aren't any profits, and no shareholders.

Free and Open source software is an important part of why such software development can stay non-corporate. It allows for volunteers to contribute to the code and makes it harder for users to be secretly be fucked over by hidden code.

Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird are good examples of this. There is a Mozilla corporation, but it exists only for legal reasons and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the non-profit Mozilla foundation. There are no shareholders. That means the Mozilla corporation is not really a corporation in the sense that Google is, and as an organization has entirely different incentives. If someone tells you that Mozilla is just another corporation, (which people have said in the notes of posts about firefox on this very site) they are spreading misinformation.

That's why Firefox has resisted the enshittification of the internet so well, it's not profit driven. And people who develop useful plugins that deshitify the web like Ublock origin and Xkit are as a rule not profit-driven corporations.

And you can go on with other examples of non-profit software like Libreoffice and VLC media player, both of which you should use.

And you can go further, use Linux as your computer's operating system.. It's the only way to resist the enshitification that the corporate duopoly of Microsoft and Apple has brought to their operating system. The plethora of community-run non-profit Linux distributions like Debian, Mint and Arch are the way to counteract that, and they will stay resistant to the same forces (creating profit for shareholders) that drove Microsoft to create Windows 11.

Of course not all Linux distributions are non-profits. There are corporate created distros like Red Hat's various distros, Canonical's Ubuntu and Suse's Opensuse, and they prove the point I'm making. There has some degree of enshittification going on with those, red hat going closed source and Canonical with the snap store for example. Mint is by now a succesful community-driven response to deshitify Ubuntu by removing snaps for example, and even they have a back-up plan to use Debian as a base in case Canonical makes Ubuntu unuseable.

As for social media, which I started with, I'm going to stay on tumblr for now, but it will definitely die. The closest thing to a community run non-profit replacement I can see is Mastodon, which I'm on as @autolenaphilia@chaosfem.tw.

You don't have to keep using corporate software, and have it inevitably decline because the corporations that develop it cares more about its profits than you as an end user.

The process of enshittification proves that corporations being profit-driven don't mean they will create a better product, and in fact may cause them to do the opposite. And the existence of great free and open source software, created entirely without the motivation of corporate profits, proves that people don't need to profit in order to help their fellow human beings. It kinda makes you question capitalism.

[yyh4ever]

Yu Yu Hakusho x Jalan CM

"I didn't see a hot spring for nothing!"

湯♨️湯♨️白書 (Yu Yu Hakusho) is a pun with the title! The kanji "湯"can also be read as "Yu" and it means "hot bath/spring", different from the kanji "Yuu" (幽, ghost) and "Yuu" (遊, play) of the original title 幽☆遊☆白書 (Yuu Yuu Hakusho). It seems Elder Toguro shapeshifted into that bucket where the cat is relaxing.

Jalan.net, a travel reservation site operated by Recruit, released a new web commercial with Yu Yu Hakusho. Many characters from "Yu Yu Hakusho" experience the limited time sale "Jalan Special Week", which is offering discounts and coupons for accommodations.

The content was exclusively drawn and recorded for this WebCM. The story, narrated by Nozomu Sasaki like a Next Episode Preview, depicts Yusuke Urameshi and his friends, exhausted from the fierce battles of the Dark Tournament, taking advantage of limited-time sales and enjoying luxurious inns and hot springs.

Yusuke is having fun with Puu...

...and taking Keiko out for dinner.

Daddy Youko is killing it!

It seems hot water changes Youko back into Shuuichi! And, we finally get to see some Kurama skin!

Hiei is also enjoying a good hot spring, boiling an Onsen Tamago with his black flames...

...and watching over Yukina.

Kuwabara is too cute! I don't think this cat is Eikichi, maybe it belongs to the onsen.

OMG, Elder Toguro is almost naked!!!

Additionally, to commemorate this collab, a campaign will be held on Jalan's official X account, where you can win special hand towels. The period is from January 31 until February 8, 2024. All you'll need to do is follow their account and repost the target campaign post.

This art is so beautiful, we need a remake of the anime!

[reality-detective]

Obama’s Global Spy Network Targeted Trump: Explosive New Evidence Revealed!

Barack Obama’s shadowy betrayal has surfaced, shaking the very core of America. He orchestrated a treasonous conspiracy, weaponizing global intelligence networks to attack Donald Trump—a man who dared to challenge the globalist cabal.

Project Fulsome: A Web of Treason

Obama, in collaboration with Britain’s GCHQ, bypassed U.S. laws to spy on Trump, his family, and his campaign. Trump Tower wasn’t just wiretapped—it was a surveillance fortress. Tools designed for counter-terrorism were turned against an American citizen. Financial records, emails, and private conversations were infiltrated, with the Deep State feeding this intel to fabricate scandals.

This was no ordinary operation; it was a globalist vendetta to preserve their crumbling grip on power. Secret satellites even tracked Trump’s movements during the 2016 campaign. Every action, every word—monitored.

The Russia Hoax: Manufactured Lies

The infamous Russia hoax wasn’t an accident. Phony dossiers, funded by Clinton’s allies and legitimized by Obama’s corrupted agencies, were part of this operation. The Steele dossier? Pure disinformation. Whistleblowers reveal it was a long-planned strategy to discredit any outsider who challenged their rule. Trump just happened to win, making him target #1.

Black Sites and Secret Courts: Deep State Tools

Beyond spying, Obama’s network used secret courts and black sites to crush Trump’s allies. FISA warrants based on lies enabled illegal surveillance. Black sites deployed rogue operatives to infiltrate Trump’s inner circle, feeding intel back to the cabal.

Why They Had to Stop Trump

Trump’s presidency represented a direct threat to their empire. He promised to end endless wars, dismantle corrupt trade deals, and expose their hidden agendas. The globalist pipeline funding their machine was at risk. Trump wasn’t a puppet—he was their worst nightmare.

The Awakening: Deep State on the Brink

The Deep State is collapsing. Whistleblowers are stepping forward. Leaks are surfacing. Patriots within the intelligence community are exposing the truth. Platforms like X and Telegram bypass Big Tech’s censorship, spreading revelations far and wide.

The Fight Isn’t Over

Obama’s betrayal exposed the elites’ desperation. Now is the time to act. Share the truth. Demand accountability. Stand with Trump. The Deep State is crumbling, but the battle for freedom continues.

You would think ALL that 👆 would be something you'd see in a spy/espionage movie like "Enemy of the State" with Gene Hackman and Will Smith.

Stay vigilant. History will remember those who fought for truth. 🤔

[cringywhitedragon]

Heads up folks, NicoNicoDouga is currently down due to a large scale cyberattack

The attack happened on the 8th and the site is still down in terms of video streaming. Apparently there were reports of Ransomware being used during the attack.

The site is still “down” but the blog part is back up but from the report, videos and content posted are ok so do not fret. The site is still down as of this post (save for the blog) and it seems they are working their hardest to fix it and do damage control.

Here is a rough translation of their most recent post:

Report and apology regarding cyberattack on our services

As announced in Niconico Info dated June 8th, 2024, Dwango Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Takeshi Natsuno) has been unable to use the entire Niconico service operated by our company since the early morning of June 8th. It has been confirmed that this outage was caused by a large-scale cyberattack, including ransomware, and we are currently temporarily suspending use of the service and conducting an investigation and response to fully grasp the extent of the damage and restore it.

After confirming the cyberattack, we immediately took emergency measures such as shutting down the relevant servers, and have set up a task force to fully clarify the damage, determine the cause, and restore the system. We would like to report the findings of the investigation to date and future responses as follows.

We sincerely apologize to our users and related parties for the great inconvenience and concern caused.

Response history>

Around 3:30 a.m. on June 8, a malfunction occurred that prevented all of our web services, including our "Nico Nico" and "N Preparatory School" services, from working properly. After an investigation, it was confirmed that the malfunction was caused by a cyber attack, including ransomware, at around 8 a.m. on the same day. A task force was set up on the same day, and in order to prevent the damage from spreading, we immediately cut off communication between servers in the data center provided by our group companies and shut down the servers, temporarily suspending the provision of our web services. In addition, since it was discovered that the attack had also extended to our internal network, we suspended the use of some of our internal business systems and prohibited access to the internal network.

As of June 14, we are currently investigating the extent of the damage and formulating recovery procedures, aiming for a gradual recovery.

June 8, 2024

We have begun an investigation into the malfunction that prevented all of our "Nico Nico" services from working properly and the failure of some of our internal systems.

We have confirmed that the cause of the failure was encryption by ransomware. "Nico Nico" services in general and some internal business systems suspended and servers were shut down

A task force was established

First report "Regarding the situation in which Nico Nico services are unavailable" was announced

June 9, 2024

Contacted the police and consulted with external specialist agencies

Kabukiza office was closed

KADOKAWA announced "Regarding the occurrence of failures on multiple KADOKAWA Group websites"

June 10, 2024

Reported to the Personal Information Protection Commission (first report)

Second report "Regarding the situation in which Nico Nico services are unavailable" was announced

June 12, 2024

Reported the occurrence of the failure to the Kanto Regional Financial Bureau (Financial Services Agency)

June 14, 2024

This announcement

This cyber attack by a third party was repeated even after it was discovered, and even after a server in the private cloud was shut down remotely, the third party was observed to be remotely starting the server and spreading the infection. Therefore, the power cables and communication cables of the servers were physically disconnected and blocked. As a result, all servers installed in the data centers provided by the group companies became unusable. In addition, to prevent further spread of infection, our employees are prohibited from coming to the Kabukiza office in principle, and our internal network and internal business systems have also been shut down.

In addition to public cloud services, Niconico uses private cloud services built in data centers provided by KADOKAWA Group companies, to which our company belongs. One of these, a data center of a group company, was hit by a cyber attack, including ransomware, and a significant number of virtual machines were encrypted and became unavailable. As a result, the systems of all of our web services, including Niconico, were shut down.

This cyber attack by a third party was repeated even after it was discovered, and even after a server in the private cloud was shut down remotely, the third party was observed to be remotely starting the server and spreading the infection. Therefore, the power cables and communication cables of the servers were physically disconnected and blocked. As a result, all servers installed in the data centers provided by the group companies became unusable. In addition, to prevent further spread of infection, our employees are prohibited from coming to the Kabukiza office in principle, and our internal network and internal business systems have also been shut down.

The Niconico Video system, posted video data, and video distribution system were operated on the public cloud, so they were not affected. Niconico Live Broadcasting did not suffer any damage as the system itself was run on a public cloud, but the system that controls Niconico Live Broadcasting's video distribution is run on a private cloud of a group company, so it is possible that past time-shifted footage, etc. may not be available. We are also gradually checking the status of systems other than Niconico Douga and Niconico Live Broadcasting.

■ Services currently suspended

Niconico Family services such as Niconico Video, Niconico Live Broadcast, and Niconico Channel

Niconico account login on external services

Music monetization services

Dwango Ticket

Some functions of Dwango JP Store

N Preparatory School *Restored for students of N High School and S High School

Sending gifts for various projects

■ About Niconico-related programs

Until the end of July, official Niconico live broadcasts and channel live broadcasts using Niconico Live Broadcast and Niconico Channel will be suspended.

Considering that program production requires a preparation period and that Niconico Live Broadcast and Niconico Channel are monthly subscription services, we have decided to suspend live broadcasts on Niconico Live Broadcast until the end of July. Depending on the program, the broadcast may be postponed or broadcast on other services.

The date of resumption of Niconico services, including Niconico Live Broadcast and Niconico Channel, is currently undecided.

Niconico Channel Plus allows viewing of free content without logging in. Paid content viewing and commenting are not available.

■ About the new version "Nico Nico Douga (Re: Kari)" (read: nikoniko douga rikari)

While "Nico Nico" is suspended, as the first step, we will release a new version of "Nico Nico Douga (Re: Kari)" at 3:00 p.m. on June 14, 2024. Our development team voluntarily created this site in just three days, and it is a video community site with only basic functions such as video viewing and commenting, just like the early days of Niconico (2006). In consideration of the load on the service, only a selected portion of the videos posted on Niconico Video is available for viewing. The lineup is mainly popular videos from 2007, and you can watch them for free without an account.

■About the Niconico Manga app

We have already confirmed that many systems were not affected, and we are considering resuming the service with a reduced-function version that allows basic functions such as reading manga, commenting, and adding to favorites. We aim to restore the service by June 2024.

If any new facts become known in the future, we will report them on Niconico Info, Official X, our company website, etc. as they become available. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

Added 6/10]

Thank you for your continued patronage. This is the Niconico management team.

Due to the effects of a large-scale cyber attack, Niconico has been unavailable since the early morning of June 8th.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

As of 6:00 p.m. on June 10th, we are working to rebuild the entire Niconico system without being affected by the cyber attack, in parallel with an investigation to grasp the full extent of the damage.

We have received many inquiries from you, such as "Will premium membership fees and paid channel membership fees be charged during the service suspension period?" and "What will happen to the time shift deadline for live broadcasts?". We are currently in the process of investigating the impact, so we cannot answer your questions, but we will respond sincerely, so please wait for further information.

Our executive officer Shigetaka Kurita and CTO Keiichi Suzuki are scheduled to explain the expected time until recovery and the information learned from the investigation up to that point this week.

We will inform you again about this as soon as we are ready.

■ Services currently suspended

Niconico Family Services such as Niconico Video, Niconico Live Broadcast, Niconico Channel, etc.

Niconico Account Login on External Services

[Added 2024/06/10 18:00]

Gifts for various projects (due to the suspension of related systems)

■ Programs scheduled to be canceled/postponed (as of June 10)

Programs from June 10 to June 16

■ Current situation

In parallel with the recovery work, we are investigating the route of the attack and the possibility of information leakage.

No credit card information has been leaked (Niconico does not store credit card information on its own servers).

The official program "Monthly Niconico Info" scheduled for June 11 at 20:00 will be broadcast on YouTube and X at a reduced scale. During this program, we will verbally explain the current situation in an easy-to-understand manner. (※There is no prospect of providing additional information, such as detailed recovery dates, during this program.)

"Monthly Niconico Info" can be viewed at the following URL. YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@niconico_news X (formerly Twitter) → https://x.com/nico_nico_info

The latest information will be posted on Niconico Info and the official X (formerly Twitter).

We deeply apologize for the inconvenience caused to users and content providers who regularly enjoy our videos and live broadcasts. We ask for your understanding and cooperation until the issue is resolved.

Published on 6/8]

Thank you for your continued patronage. This is the Niconico management team.

Currently, Niconico is under a large-scale cyber attack, and in order to minimize the impact, we have temporarily suspended our services.

We are accelerating our investigation and taking measures, but we cannot begin recovery until we are confident that we have completely eliminated the effects of the cyber attack and our safety has been confirmed. We do not expect to be able to restore services at least this weekend.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

We will inform you of the latest situation again on Monday (June 10, 2024).

■ Suspended services

Niconico family services such as Niconico Video, Niconico Live Broadcast, and Niconico Channel

Niconico account login on external services

■ Current situation

In parallel with the recovery work, we are investigating the route of the attack and the possibility of information leakage.

No credit card information has been confirmed to have been leaked (Niconico does not store credit card information on its own servers).

Future information will be announced on Niconico Info and Official X (formerly Twitter) as it becomes available.

We deeply apologize to all users who were looking forward to the video posts and live broadcasts scheduled for this weekend. We ask for your understanding and cooperation until the response is complete.

[bloodlines-if]

I dunno if it's spoils so much, but can you tell us more about these main eleven bloodlines? Like some of their names are pretty straight forward and obvious, but some are harder to understand what lies behind them

I’m working on some cool lore posts for each Bloodline right now but until everything is ready here is a summary:

Not all individuals exhibit every trait, occupation or ability. Not all fit these roles. But most are somewhere near the pattern.

Umbra

Powers: Cloaking, becoming one with the shadows, shadow manipulation, fear aura, illusion

Traits: Cold-skinned, black-eyed, easy to forget… until they’re behind you

Weakness: Bright light burns them. Flash too fast, and they blink out hard

Common Occupations: Assassins, informants, covert operatives, cleaners, spies

Seraph (bloodborns of this Bloodline live hidden, known Serap's are very rare)

Powers: Healing, light projection, charisma, divine barriers

Traits: Glowing eyes, shimmering gold skin, hair that never dims

Weakness: Every miracle costs them life. Some age rapidly. Some burn out screaming

Common Occupations: Cult leaders, medics, healers, therapists. Either worshipped or hunted there is no in-between

Infernal – The Fire-Blooded

Powers: Fire control, heat resistance, pain-forged contracts

Traits: Heterochromia or eyes like live coals, hardened skin,

Weakness: Douse them. Freeze them. Once a pact is forged it can only be broken if the contractor or contractee dies. Some temper kills faster than the flame

Common Occupations: Enforcers, contract killers, smugglers, criminals

Draegon

Powers: Enhanced strength, elemental breath (fire, acid, ice), flying, wealth-sense

Traits: Scale-patched skin, slit eyes, bones too dense to break

Weaknesses: Greed and obsession make them easy to manipulate. Poison-sensitive

Common Occupations: CEOs, Syndicate heads, private security, vault managers, collectors

Fae

Powers: Nature manipulation, charm, minor shapeshifting

Traits: Glimmer hair, constellation freckles, smooth voices

Weaknesses: Cannot break promises or contracts without physical/mental pain

Common Occupations: Fixers, brokers, sex workers, con artists, liaison handlers

Manitou

Powers: Mediumship, spirit tracking, possession channelling

Traits: Cold skin, dead eyes, quiet or disassociative demeanor

Weakness: Prone to madness, possession, physical collapse

Common Occupations: Morticians, gravediggers, crime scene techs, spiritual consultants, black-market exorcists

Ifrit

Powers: Air manipulation, shifting appearances, granting dangerous “gifts”

Traits: Shifting hair, slight glittering bronze or gold-toned skin (this is the body of a killer Bella), angular facial structure

Weaknesses: Reliant on artifacts and contracts. Vulnerable to being bound.

Common Occupations: Negotiators, smugglers, underground lawyers, charm operatives.

Chronos

Powers: Precognition, temporal phasing, telepathy

Traits: Star-flecked eyes, faint glow in darkness, spiral birthmarks

Weaknesses: Disorientation, time-lag psychosis, extreme fatigue

Common Occupations: Informants, cult assets, surveillance analysts, codebreakers

Abyssal

Powers: Water manipulation, aquatic strength, breathing underwater

Traits: Webbed digits, always cool skin, persistent dampness

Weaknesses: Dehydrate rapidly. Extreme heat disables powers

Common Occupations: Dockworkers, deep divers, sewer runners, enforcers, extraction agents

Primordial

Powers: Raw elemental control (either earth, fire, air, water).

Traits: Glowing vein-like markings, unstable body temp, pressure-based presence.

Weaknesses: Extreme collateral. Mental and physical deterioration with use.

Common Occupations: Often isolated or used in black-site demolitions, high-risk extractions, last-resort muscle, pit fighters

Chimaera (only exists due to experiments and cross bloodline relationships)

Powers: Mutation-based — claws, senses, animal traits, hybrid abilities.

Traits: Textured skin patches, sharp teeth, monster features.

Weaknesses: Instinct loss, drug sensitivity, genetic instability.

Common Occupations: Pit fighters, bounty hunters, underground mercs, runaway test subjects.

[kenyatta]

AkiraBot is a program that fills website comments sections and customer service chat bots with AI-generated spam messages. Its goal is simple: it wants you to sign up for an SEO scheme that costs about $30 a month. For that low price it swears it can enchant Google’s algorithms to get you on the frontpage. But it’s a scam. A new report from researchers at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne documented how scammers deployed AkiraBot, the tool’s use of OpenAI generated messages, and how it avoided multiple CAPTCHA systems and network detection techniques. According to the report, the bot targeted 420,000 unique domains and successfully spammed 80,000.

Whoever runs AkirBot operates their SEO company under a bunch of different names, but they all tend to use the words “Akira” or “ServiceWrap.” SentinelOne says the tool finds websites crafted by third party software like Wix or Squarespace and spams comments sections and automated chatbots with a promise to get the site on the frontpage of various search engines. If you have a small business that exists on the web or have run a WordPress-based website in the last 15 years, you’ve likely seen messages like those AkiraBot crafts. 

[mariacallous]

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, a nearly 150-year-old law firm, bent the knee to President Donald Trump Thursday evening when it struck a deal to get rid of the president’s executive order apparently punishing the firm for once employing a lawyer who worked on a case targeting the president.

Trump’s executive order purported to ban the law firm from government contracts, restrict its lawyers from federal buildings and require clients to disclose their employment of the firm when seeking government contracts. It would have been an existential blow to the firm, which operates a broad multinational practice that encompasses everything from mergers and acquisitions to white-collar defense to civil rights and free speech litigation. The deal to make the order go away, as described in a statement posted by Trump on Thursday, requires the firm to restrict its diversity, equity and inclusion practices and provide $40 million in pro bono services to the administration. In effect, the firm has not simply paid off, but joined the administration.

Paul Weiss’ acquiescence is the latest example of a great menace stalking the country in the early days of Trump’s second term: cowardice.

Let’s be clear about what happened here, Trump’s mafioso government extorted the firm to give up its historic support for civil rights and join itself to enacting his autocratic agenda. The firm could have challenged this illegal extortion, as the firm Perkins Coie, also targeted by the administration, has done with success so far, but instead it chose Vichy-style collaboration.

“We are gratified that the President has agreed to withdraw the Executive Order concerning Paul, Weiss,” Brad Karp, Paul Weiss chairman, said in a statement included in Trump’s post. “We look forward to an engaged and constructive relationship with the President and his Administration.”

This is particularly galling from a firm with a laudable history of standing up for civil rights and the advancement of minority groups. Paul Weiss was the first mixed Jewish and WASP law firm in New York City. It was the first American law firm to employ a Black associate, a Black woman associate and first to make a woman a partner. The firm also worked alongside former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall on the Brown v. Board of Education case that ended formal segregation in schools, fought for more inclusive immigration laws during and after the Holocaust and defended free speech rights in a landmark case involving D.H. Lawrence’s novel “Lady Chatterley’s Lover.”

To protect its present pecuniary interests, the firm has now decided to throw that history in the gutter by accepting surrender to Trump’s anti-DEI initiatives.

Acquiescing to the Trump administration’s anti-DEI pressure campaign should not be seen in the light of the debate over the merits or demerits of DEI that preceded this administration. Instead, it should be understood as the Trump administration understands it: a frontal assault on civil rights law and desegregation.

Administration allies have all but admitted as much, as conservative activist Chris Rufo did in an interview with The New York Times’ Ross Douthat.

The administration’s actions are also very clear on this. Just look at what the Department of Defense is doing.

Links to web pages about Black, Latino and female military servicemembers buried at Arlington Cemetery have been deleted from parts of the cemetery’s web site. Web pages touting the accomplishments of Black servicemembers, including baseball great Jackie Robinson, were taken down and affixed with the label “DEI” in the page’s URL. (The administration reversed course and restored some pages, including Robinson’s, following outrage from sports media on Thursday.)

The General Services Administration also removed a requirement for contractors to not operate segregated facilities if they wanted to obtain contracts.

This is what eliminating DEI means to the Trump administration. And now, that’s what it means for Paul Weiss.

The firm has already begun to accept the Trump administration’s principles. Some time after the executive order came down, but before the firm allowed itself to be extorted, the firm took down a web page and links to its Center to Combat Hate. The firm launched the center in May 2024 to perform litigation alongside civil rights groups “to confront and redress hate-driven violence and intimidation” in order to “foster a more just and equitable society.” All links to it, including on the social media web site LinkedIn, are now dead.

Paul Weiss is not alone among elite institutions in choosing a whimper, not a bang when threatened by the Trump autocracy. Universities are largely bending over backwards to protect their own financial interests. Administrators at Columbia University are considering allowing itself to be extorted into giving up the university’s autonomy in order to keep $400 million in grants that the administration is using as leverage. The administration is also targeting the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University with similar extortion efforts to seize control of their operations, with dozens of others likely to follow suit.

Nonprofits are being cowed into deleting references to diversity and inclusion, transgender people and changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico, sometimes after facing direct threats from the administration.

Corporations are sucking up and paying up to the administration in pursuit of government contracts, protection from investigation or prosecution and any number of corrupt acts they can extract from the nation’s mob boss. In some cases, corporate leaders, particularly in Silicon Valley, have fully embraced autocratic theories of government as a way to further enrich and empower themselves.

This cowardice is exactly what the Trump administration counts on to succeed. It is also precisely how a liberal democracy can succumb to autocracy: Private actors are putting their private interests above the common good. They have forgotten that liberalism and democracy do not just provide rights that protect their private interests, but demand public duties of citizens to uphold them. Those who choose otherwise accept their own corruption.

These elite institutions cannot, and will not save liberalism. Nor will they save democracy. They can join the people or they can join the autocrats in the public and private spheres who wish to rule as kings.

It’s time to ask: Which side are you on?