Geopolitical Analysis

"We lost the 20 rangs of soft power because of Drumpf, we need them ALL", says the geopolitical experts on ARR SLASH DRAMA @nuclearshill @JimieWhales

"We don't need ANY RINGS", says @Dude

You're both wrong.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

If one ring rules them all, the lesser rings are COMPLETELY USELESS!!

They're cuck rings, they literally bind you to the One Ring.

While we're wasting our taxpayer money on the 19 cuck rings, CHINA is taking the One Ring for herself. That's geopolitical suicide.

USAID knew this, so... why are they wasting our money?

Simple.

FRAUD

Rangs of Soft Power

Here's an accounting of the 19 lesser rings we WASTED our money on:

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky

1. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Musical in Ireland

2. Transgender Opera in Colombia

3. Peruvian Transgender Comic Book Series

Seven for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,

4. Electric Vehicles for Vietnam

5. Tourism Promotion in... Egypt.

6. "Condom" Purchases for Gaza

7. A Fish Farm in Afghanistan (That Was Immediately Abandoned)

8. A (Failed) Sesame Street Adaptation in Pakistan

9. A Mango Farming Initiative in Haiti (That Didn't Sell Any Mangoes )

10. DEI Advancement in Serbian Workplaces

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,

11. S*x Reassignment Surgeries in Guatemala

12. A (Failed) Program to Teach Kenyan Youth How to Use Instagram to Become Influencers

13. A Reality TV Show in Afghanistan to Promote Democracy

14. Training Mongolian Yak Herders to Use Social Media

15. A Gender Studies Degree Program in Bangladesh

16. A Climate Change Board Game for Young Activists in the Philippines

17. A "Hip-Hop Dance for Empowerment" Program in Senegal

18. A Workshop on Writing Feminist Poetry in Kyrgyzstan

19. A Program to Train Ukrainian Farmers to Write Grant Applications in English

Not only did they spend millions trying to acquire 19 worthless rings, but they LOST FIVE of them. The sesame street ring, the fish farm ring, the Mango ring, and last but not least, our Kenyan Influencer ring was pawned for a Dodge Hellcat.

All this to say we only needed the one ring TO RULE THEM ALL, we only need the AIDS ring for teaching Africans not to pound sand into their foreskin. Obviously Mordor refers to Africa because it's "Where the Shadows Lie". Shadows are black, what else is black? You guessed it. BIPOCs.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/08/viral-trend-sees-humans-simulating-bizarre-ai-video-glitches/

!asians !aichads !fellas !kino

Please thank @Kongvann for this or else

Also there's a new furry award in the shop, as you can see here on this post not limited to just the house! Now everyone can dabble in yiffing OwO

To discuss your weekly readings of books, textbooks and papers.

!bookworms

@Kongvann can you pls

Darklands Series

1 - Darklands LP Part I

2 - Darklands LP Part II: Charles Bronson Edition

3 - Darklands LP III: Nuns and Coins

4 - Darklands LP Ep IV: Introduction to Equipment & Combat

5 - Darklands LP Part V: We finally briefly go out into the dark lands

6 - Darklands LP VI: We actually start a quest!

7 - Darklands LP VII: We reach our destination

8 - Darklands LP VIII: Raubritter confrontation & learning how combat works

9 - Darklands LP IX: I'm not giving you my goddarn alchemical materials

10 - Darklands LP X: We actually do some alchemy!

11 - Darklands LP XI: The Main Plot

12 - Darklands LP XII: Halloween Edition

13 - Darklands LP XIII: Detour

Episode XIV

We're headed toward Denmark to attack the Fortress Monastery, but we're going to run into a few things along the way.

The Castle

I stop by a castle. Let's see what's going on here. (I love the artwork in this game so much it's unreal.)

Well I can't let this continue. I ain't Scheherazade but let's see if I can convince this wicked lord to change his evil ways.

These peepeeheads won't even let me in to confront him!

I guess we're gonna have to do this the hard way.

Note that there are other saints who can get you up there in different ways. Like levitation.

The castle guards like using their bows. Fine. I'll just shoot back. My guys need some practice.

Since we're in a fairly large castle, we go into non-combat mode until the next time one of them sees us. Time to search the place. These fights get kind of annoying because only one person can go through a doorway at a time. So you have to wait your first guy to get through before you send your second. But this will be of tactical importance in certain situations, like in the Fortress Monastery.

This is the main gate. If we had blasted our way through with a potion we would had have started out here. We could also retreat through it if we wanted to, but we're doing fine.

Frick this. I've searched almost every room and I can't find the castle lord. I'm getting bored. (This virtually never happens btw, this is just incredibly bad luck.) I'm out of here.

Back on the road. I run into another one of those corrupt Dominican friars peddling indulgences. Remember how last time I had St. Dominic himself set him straight? This time I'll use another saint, one who is against church corruption in general.

It's incredible how much content there is in this game. I'm still finding new stuff that I've never seen before.

A Mid-game Quest

Uh oh. WTF is going on here? Suddenly the normal travel music is replaced by something really ominous.

It's probably some MMO tard who likes flying around on dragons in Guild Wars 2 or whatever.

Goddammit this is gonna cost me so much.

old hags cackle as they stuff carrion into a filthy leather sack

That's just an ordinary thing you see every day in Portland.

Pagans. I hate these guys... er... girls.

Dammit! I'll definitely need to go replace my equipment after this.

This is what happens when you piss off /r/witches_vs_patriarchy.

Notice how many choices this game gives you when you run into a problem.

Finally we found him. I think we've got him now.

I try to reason with the dragon. I doubt this will work as dragons are satanic beings. But who knows? Maybe they just got a bad rap?

I knew it. Okay, we're dealing with a dragon here so when combat starts it's time for everyone to take a Flamewall potion for protection. Also Hardarmor and Strongedge to improve the weapons of Sasha and Nathan. (Since Yuna and I use impact weapons we would need Greatpower instead and somehow I neglected to make any of those.)

Just to make sure we're protected from flames I also implore St. Polycarp for some help. (He was burned at the stake for refusing to burn incense for the Roman Emperor.)

Or as we call him in Marseyese:

I have everyone take a missile shot and then just charge this bastard.

Redactor is getting the heck beaten out of him. Better take an Essence o' Grace potion just to be sure he isn't killed. And a New Wind to restore some endurance since he was about to fall. That 19 point hit must be Nathan using his alchemically enhanced halberd. Normally it's not great at penetration, but with Strongedge it is and it inflicts massive damage.

We cut through him pretty fast. I dunno if that's a bug or we're really that good. I guess I did do everything possible to prepare for fighting a dragon. St. Polycarp especially gives you a huge advantage. Just pretend that was a really epic fight.

Fame 216: Good reputation!

We're gonna have to stop singing this song now:

And we've got 100 florins now if we need to buy anything.

Meta

Next time I really will go to the Fortress Monastery. I just wanted you to see one of the more complex mid-game quests, but it was a bit disappointing. There's a lot more dragon-related encounters you can have while searching for it. We just happened to run into him early.

I had to go all the way from Bohemia to the outskirts of Koln to bring this quest to you. The things I do for you people.

@kaamrev

bottom text

ok so why even live

Bad Nazi - musk for his arm movement and trump for attacking DEI

Good Nazi - actual swastika wearing neo Nazis in Ukraine fighting hecken ebul fascist Russia

Now you know!

pic.twitter.com/WdW0e8ZOL8

— 게게겍 (@GeGeGek_) February 10, 2025

https://old.reddit.com/r/Wellthatsucks/comments/1ik9krr/i_just_learned_that_i_have_aphentasia/

I'd ask why would brainlets publicly admit they are brainlets... but I then remember they are, in fact, brainlets . !nooticers !pings

@Kongvann can you make a chatgpt pull that autopopulates relevant reddit comments, as a phone poster that is difficult and I'm lazy enough . !codecels

Guardian gave it 100/100 we can throw that review in garbage can

Author of the review made a whole big butt article where he bitching about cutscene

https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/23/press-x-to-skip-its-time-we-retired-the-video-game-cutscene

Any one who played video games know a cutscene is better than an in-game cute scene where you can control your character because those are unskippable.

Mote bs reviewers and here it comes

https://n4g.com/news/2652490/civilization-7-review-ign#comments

IGN 7/10 basically the lowest score they could give

https://www.eurog*mer.net/civilization-7-review

Eurogaymers 4/10

So the game ain't that good.

Game probably will be in decent state after like 5 years and 100 paid dlc's

Sad but I guess only monster hunter and yakuza pirates for me in February and then in March butt shadow, atelier yumia, dead or alive prism

https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/33202183/pregnant-polyamory-husband-helps-me-shave-down-before-dates/

https://tiktok.com/@remodeledlove/video/7198954472423410986

The fishies look so anatomically incorrect and you can sort of see how they would one day evolve into the more common designs we are used to now. Evolution is so cool what's crazy is that those lifeforms took 100s of millions of years to get from what is in the animation to the life we see around us today.

Based on how much more complex life is today I believe the current era is the most complex in terms of the amount of diversity of life on the planet at a time. In my opinion evolution is also speeding up because look at how much more simpler life forms get the further back in time one goes.

I bet if humans went extinct, it would barely take 10 million years for the planet to evolve another life form as smart as humans.

I think that is a fascinating theory that most sci fi does not pursue often. That maybe there is a time period in a planet's evolutionary history where it can produce intelligent lifeforms, and once it gets there, it keeps pumping out smarter life forms over time forever until the death of the planet.

Like humans took 100s of thousands of years to evolve from their ancestor species. Perhaps the other apes that are still around will take far less time to get to our level, and the next group after them take ever less time, because evolutionary complexity and adaptability keeps going up the longer you leave a life form running till the heat death of the universe.

That's just a theory on my part though. Still cool.

ITT: Janny cries to his mopping buddies that users treat him the same way he treats them

[–]soulself 11 points 4 days ago

I think you may be engaging too much. It's easy to get caught up in fray and try to mitigate situations, but perhaps you should be more of an observer and just enforce the rules.

Nobody understands what it's like to be a mod until they live it. You are going to piss people off no matter what you do.

If you "live" being a janny you shouldn't

[–]CitoyenEuropeen💡 Skilled Helper 4 points 4 days ago

Yes, you have to escalate each report individually. No, you cannot fire them from the feed or the mod queue with your own account.

I use a very simple auto moderator script to alert the whole team when one mod is under attack, so that we can cover for each other.

is_moderator: true

report: 1

modmail: BRIGADING ALERT

You can also add your alt account to the mods. Switching accounts is faster than navigating to reddit/report in my experience.

Beware of cross-fire! When mod A files a report such as, say, HATE or HARASSMENT, and mod B hits REPORT ABUSE under the same content, AEOT bots will whack mod A.

When a janny "is under attack"

I moderate /r/veteranpolitics. As you can imagine, everything you do is a lose/lose. Unfortunately, I have had multiple reports on my account for hate based speech across the sub. You guys are more than welcome to crawl through it and make judgement, but it's just on moderation comments. I've had people putting me in a position where rule 3 is possibly being violated as well as actual hate speech that I'm removing. It's happening over multiple posts at this point and is consistent. I know it's suggested to send a report through the report feature, but do I need to send every post/comment individually or can I send a report in general. The issue is I'm at about 10-15 hate based reports so I know I'm gonna get clapped by AEO at some poi

Proof that reportmaxxing jannies works. Even if they don't get banned they spend the whole day that someone dared defy the mop

[–]Eclectic-N-Varied💡 Expert Helper 3 points 4 days ago

Had nothing but good luck once we've used the Report Abuse button -- never had either the positives or denials been laid at our doorstep.

What the fuck does this even mean

My hands look like this

so hers can look like this

Since this is being discussed more lately thanks to a thread was started on the less fun site that is worth a read to avid trainspotters.

Here is some info i could scrape together on this story to rival alpacashwitz :

The leader

https://kiwifarms.st/threads/ziz-jack-amadeus-lasota-zizians-sinceriously-fyi-wip.210782/

The Cult

https://zizians.info/

https://medium.com/@sefashapiro/a-community-warning-about-ziz-76c100180509

Their Victims

https://openvallejo.org/2025/01/27/suspects-in-killings-of-vallejo-witness-vermont-border-patrol-agent-connected-by-marriage-license-extreme-ideology/

https://openvallejo.org/2025/01/27/man-killed-in-vallejo-was-main-witness-in-upcoming-murder-trial/

The Site's Archive

https://sinceriously.blog-mirror.com/

https://sinceriously.blog-mirror.com/glossary/

These have in no particular order:

Impaled a landlord with a katana

Got shot for impaling said landlord

Got arested for threatning a rationalist meetup in guy fawks masks

Started and abandoned a houseboat fleet to avoid paying rent

Induced schizophrenia transness and other trough sleep hemispheric deprivation and mind hacks

Plotted to kill some random spegs for reasons i can't be botherd to look into

Organised murder of a members parents for being abusive (telling them to get a job)

Faked their death certificate to evade enemies

Extra:

Google doc IP GRABBER!!! containing detailed info (probably, )

https://xcancel.com/kenthecowboy_/status/1884393311827550716#m

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RpAvd5TO5eMhJrdr2kz43dxT3nNm0XtuPcaW9kBIZL8/edit?tab=t.0

Interview with someone who is part of the cult (but totally not they pinky promise )

Screenshot of the thread for the accountles

Florence Spurling is a moderately popular knitwear designer who made her Scout Shawl pattern in 2021. It uses different color work designs "patchworked" together to form a shawl.

Earlier this month a smaller designer named Susan Chin released her Quilt Star Scarf pattern. It has a similar shape and patchwork construction to Spurling's design.

This has lead people to accuse Chin of plagiarism, which Spurling addressed in an instagram post see above and below

(I can't link to the post because Spurling later deleted it)

The scarves obviously have some similarities, but they also have some differences. Here's a list of what's the same and what's different that someone else wrote, speaking of plagiarism :

Both objects use Intarsia and Fair Isle/Stranded colorwork.

Both patterns have multiple blocks in different motifs, joined together as the finished object is worked.

Both patterns have colorwork charts. (Scout > Shawl is in full color; Quilt Star is in greyscale)

The border is not indicated on either pattern's chart.

Suggested Gauge for the two patterns; Scout Shawl suggests 28sts x 30rows for 10cm, using 3.5mm needles. Quilt Star suggests 28sts x 27 rows for 10cm using 2.5mm or 3mm needles.

Finished size for Scout Shawl is 181cm, 37cm deep

Finished size for Quilt Star is 150cm, 35cm deep

Scout Shawl relies on 5 colors and makes suggestions as to the color contrast if you don't use the same palette as the pattern. Color 1 is the garter stitch border.

Quilt Star relies on 8 colors. No contrast is suggested, only the colors recommended in the original pattern. Color 8 is the 1x1 rib border.

At least one motif in Scout uses 3 colors.

Each motif in Quilt uses no more than 2 colors.

Cast on is 8 stitches for Scout.

Cast on is 4 stitches for Quilt.

All sections on Scout meet at 90 degree angles.

Some sections on Quilt meet at diagonals, at ~45deg ish.

Scout has 10 distinct blocks and patterns.

Quilt has 7 (?) distinct patterns. There seems to be an error in the charts. I'm not sure my count is correct based on the charts alone. But it is certainly fewer.

Increases on Scout are M1L, Decreases are k2tog

Increases on Quilt are kfb, decreases are k2tog.

Scout's finishing has no special bind off for the remaining 8 stitches.

Quilt uses a seamed bind off for the 6 remaining stitches.

Motifs for Scout appear to be floral.

Motifs for Quilt appear to be star-them

Source

VERDICT: they're different patterns.

This didn't stop people from stirring shit, because obviously you need to have an MFA to be inspired by patchwork, and only one person is allowed to be inspired by a thing.

People (Spurling suck ups) went on social media to b-word, including leaving comments on the Ravelry page for Chin's scarf. (Ravelry is like letterboxd for knitting and crochet, and also a platform that many designers use to sell their patterns)

Source, but you need a Ravelry account to view

This lead to Chin taking the pattern down for sale. Satisfied with the results, Spurling deleted her post . And so ends another chapter in the ongoing saga of insecure designers accusing others of plagiarism.

A few I remember from the last year:

A designer put out merch with "Knit Club" on a baseball caps. Well some other pattern designer has a community by that unique name and also has baseball caps merch (but none that actually say "Knit Club"

Source

"Only I'm allowed to be copy 1950s dresses!"

Source

"omg why are you so obsessed with me, stop copying me" macrame. Except her product looks like something posted earlier by someone else on TikTok. (If they look similar it's because there's only so much shit you can make with macrame and there's probably patterns for something like this in a book from the 70s)

Source

One French company accused another French company of copying their, um… tailor clappers, test squares and pointer cowtools (these are pretty common cowtools that have existed for a long time, this like Milwaukee accusing Makita of stealing their idea of the hammer)

Source

I forgot to add that while I agree with most of the commenters on the craft snark thread, look at this b-word trying to turn it into a race thing

source

Literally crying.

!animalposters !cats

I just had a good call with President Trump. Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan — reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl. Nearly…

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 3, 2025

Shouldn't have created a party entirely of white mages