Kid Pix just became pubic domain, so the remade (but pretty much exactly the same) version is now available here. It’s uh, wild, highly recommend checking it out not only for the wonderful nostalgia but you can legit make some incredible looking stuff!
i’ve done it! like a fucking idiot, i’ve done it! i split the alt black babe mixtape into ten mini-tapes. no one asked me to do this. i did not need to do this
Hey gamers since everyone’s talking about security & I fix computers for a living I wanna make a post about PGP encryption, why you should be using it for anything you want private, a bit about how it works, and hopefully a good starting place for using it to encrypt your own stuff.
—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
Hash: SHA512
If you wanna learn more about secure private online correspondence that no government actually has the ability to limit, read on!
*To avoid tumblr’s hatred of links, I will be reblogging this with a few links after posting that may be mentioned, but you can get through the whole thing without reading any of them if you wanna go back for them later.
Most people think of encryption as a lock and a key; you give someone the key at some point, and then later when you need something unlocked by only them and you you lock it with the key that they use to open it. That’s fairly useful for things like WiFi where it isn’t really the end of the world if you’re a little careless, but for some correspondence it just isn’t enough.
Along comes PGP.
See, most encryption is of a type called Symmetric encryption, where one key is shared by the sender and recipient to both encrypt and decrypt data, but PGP works completely differently using something called Asymmetric Public Key encryption.
Asymmetric Public Key encryption is a system in which rather than having one key for every lock, every user has two keys for them: a private one that they never give to anyone else, and a public one that they give to as many other people as they can. Any time they want to lock up a message for someone, they create a new lock that is locked with the recipient’s public key.
Through some dark, arcane magic involving prime numbers and algebra that I invite the reader to pursue on their own if they really want to know how it works [1], this process generates a lock that, while locked with these two keys, can crucially only be unlocked using the receiver’s private key!
This obviously has a few uses. Number one, you can encrypt a message to someone very easily in such a way that there is no way anyone else (even you or someone who steals your computer) can ever open again, and due to how complicated these private keys are there’s next to no chance of a brute force decryption.
Number two, you can sign messages to other users to prove that you are actually the originator of the message, in such a way that it’s nigh impossible to fake without actually getting ahold of a user’s private key. This can be used to verify nobody is impersonating you in an online space or to verify a message, even unencrypted, is coming from who you need it to come from.
There’s always the issue of trust, of course. How do you know you’re actually getting the public key of who you need to send things to? Well, for that there is the trust system.
There exist large-scale databases of public keys [2] that can be browsed, fetched, queried, and submitted to that work to help you trust that you are talking to who you need to, and furthermore if you trust a public key you can generate what is effectively a document that says “I trust you are you” with your private key and submit it to one of these databases.
Alternatively, you can always trust a trusted friend of a trusted friend of a trusted colleague of a trusted blah blah blah and so the web of trust is constructed.
Finally, there are a few more minor things I want to add.
- This technology has been the standard for 30 years because of how reliable it is
- This technology’s source code has been available for 30 years now, so there’s not really any way any government could effectively ban it
- I won’t be going through how to set it up and do it yourself right here because there are as many implementations for as many levels of computer prowess as there are stars in the sky, however take [3] a look [4] at some [5] of these [6] and see what you like!
A lot of Northerners were very kind during the freeze in Texas this winter with tips on how to stay warm for people who had lost heat. This is an attempt to repay that favor for people in the Pacific Northwest and other northerly locations who are facing dangerous heatwaves without built-in A/C. My qualifications to give this advice are that I was a summer camp attendee and counselor with no A/C for many summers in humid-ass central Texas with highs over 100F basically every day. Hopefully some of it will be of use to somebody who isn’t used to the heat.
1) PUT ICE WATER IN YOUR BODY. Ice water is your best friend and the #1 way to drop your body temp. Drink more than you think you need (like, at least a half-gallon a day and closer to a gallon or more if you have to be outside doing manual work all day) to cool your insides down and stay hydrated. Have some bananas, trail mix, or a sports drink to help replace the electrolytes you’re sweating out and keep you from getting cramps, but try to have most of your fluid intake be water. I used to take a giant water bottle, fill it part way with water, and freeze it on its side so the ice would slowly melt over the course of the day and my water would stay cold longer.
2) PUT ICE WATER ON YOUR BODY. Cold water, ice, or a damp rag on your head and neck, the backs of your knees, the insides of your elbows, and under your armpits will help you cool down the best, because your blood runs close to the surface in those places. Cold packs designed for injuries or lunchboxes, bags of frozen vegetables, etc. can substitute for ice water as well. Even room-temp water will pull heat away from your body better than body-temp sweat will, especially if it’s humid, so if you don’t have enough ice, the sink, bathtub, or hose will do fine. Dipping your feet into cool water helps a ton as well if you have to sit and work and don’t want your clothes to be wet.
3) WHERE AM I SUPPOSED TO GET SO MUCH ICE?
To make sure you have enough ice to last you the weekend, especially through a potential power failure, I recommend getting a cooler (even one of the cheap styrofoam ones is fine in a pinch) and ~10lbs of ice from the big coolers at most gas stations, drug stores, or grocery stores. Try to do this now, before anybody loses power, and store as much in your freezer as you have space for to keep it from melting. You can use it for drinking or to keep your food cold in a power failure. You can use it for a party later if you don’t end up needing it during the heat wave, but you will probably be very happy you had it.
4) AIR FLOW. Being inside a room with the windows closed is the worst possible place to be if you don’t have A/C, because glass windows create a greenhouse effect and the hot air can’t escape. If at all possible, find a shaded place outside where you can catch any possible breeze. If not, open all your windows and, if it’s safe, doors so you can get a cross-breeze. Hopefully you have window screens to keep pets and kids in and bugs out. If not, you’re gonna have to do your own risk assessment. Fans of all sizes and descriptions are your friend; ceiling fans should be set to spin counterclockwise in summer. Even if you have A/C, finding or making a handheld fan will be worthwhile for when you have to venture outside. If you aren’t in a situation where you need to conserve ice, blowing air over a cooler full of ice will give you a makeshift A/C.
5) SHADE. You will probably immediately notice that direct sunlight is a miserable place to be when it’s super hot. Find or make a shaded location, and don’t be afraid to move around to avoid the sun as the day goes on. Stay on the shady side of the sidewalk whenever you walk someplace. Try to shade your windows as best you can without obstructing airflow using blinds, curtains, shutters, etc. especially if they’re directly in the path of the sun.
Do not be a jerk to your neighbors if their shade solutions are ugly.
If you can get a shade for your car windshield, I highly recommend it, as the steering wheel, dashboard, seatbelts, and even seats can quickly become too hot to touch in a sealed car and will hold that heat for a long time.
6) CLOTHING. Light-colored, loose clothing that is as close to 100% cotton or linen as you can find is your friend. It doesn’t necessarily have to be short as long as it’s breathable. You will sweat through anything you wear, so I personally prefer only wearing machine-washable stuff. Sun hats, sunscreen, sunglasses, aloe gel for sunburns, mosquito repellent, anti-chafing supplies, etc are all worth looking into if you aren’t used to spending time in the heat.
7) TIMING. Try to stay out of the sun and avoid doing anything strenuous in the middle of the day when the heat is the worst. If you have a choice, plan to be more active early in the morning and late at night when the temperature is more bearable, and take a break in the middle of the afternoon.
Here’s a graphic from the CDC about how to recognize heat-related illnesses and what to do about them. I will add to this that if it’s hot and you stop sweating, you are getting to a dangerous level of dehydration and need to drink something BEFORE you start having more serious problems.
american leftists seem extremely focused on anti imperialism (good) but rarely- if at all- discuss decolonization in their own fucking country, despite acknowledging that it is a settler colonial state.
im serious about this though. as an urban indian, i definitely cant speak on this as much as a rez indian could. but i know from talking to rez friends i have and from what the american indian movement has screamed for over the years that we need land we can grow on, we need clean water, we need to allow the wildlife that once lived in this land to live here again (meaning you need to listen to us before building those high speed rails you all get so hard over).
you cant drool over the zapatistas while ignoring people in your own country who have a similar goal
silly me I never provided things to read on the topic of decolonization! I’d personally suggest the following as “beginner level” essential reading to understand decolonization:
Discourse on Colonialism (Aimé Césaire) - this is more a focus on colonization, but I feel it’s a necessary read in my opinion as in order to understand decolonization I believe it’s important to first understand colonization.
Wretched of the Earth (Franz Fanon)
Decolonization is Not a Metaphor (Tuck, Yang)
also an “easy to process” read, to understand landback specifically here in Turtle Island, I’d suggest reading The Red Deal (there is a pdf, I don’t mean the article with the same title)
thanksgiving is a holiday based on a falsified narrative full of white guilt and the erasure of history so what are some good native organizations to donate to this coming thursday
please also consider looking into funding native/tribal food sovereignty projects if you have food to donate or money to spare. friends, please add more if you know of them and have links to provide:
you can also buy food/gifts from indigenous sellers or donate to gofundme fundraisers made by indigenous people who need help getting groceries, paying medical bills, or paying rent. do something to help us and our communities.
a lot of reservations are fucked over on water by illegal oil drilling, pipelines, or other breaches, like in the navajo rez’s case: contaminated by illegal uranium mining.
I’d like to add Feeding Nunavut, the cost of living in the isolated north for Inuit is up to and sometimes over 5x the prices the rest of Canada is used to.
In the wake of JK once more being a total jk, here’s a (non-exhaustive) thread of works by Black trans writers.
Don’t Call Us Dead - Danez Smith, poetry about Black masculinity, police brutality, gender and queerness. Probably the best book of poetry I’ve ever read. Smith has several collections available and you should read them all.
The Deep - Rivers Solomon, a speculative fiction novella about the descendants of murdered slave women. Themes of trauma and memory. Really beautiful writing. Their sci-fi novel An Unkindness of Ghosts is equally unmissable.
Redefining Realness - Janet Mock, the memoir of Mock’s childhood and adolescence as a trans woman before she transitioned. Mock’s second memoir, Surpassing Certainty, focuses on her life in her twenties.
Felix Ever After - Kacen Callender, a YA novel about a teenage trans boy (at the start of the book), Felix, as he further questions his identity, tries to find love, and works on his artistic future. Everything that makes YA novels great.
Reacquainted with Life - KOKUMO, a debut about Black trans womanhood and the power of her voice and body. This work is so hard to describe. Ferocious? Lively? Witty? Completely different to literally any poetry I’ve ever read? All of the above and more.
Mannish Tongues - jay dodd, a poetry collection about Black youth, queerness, religion, family, and gender. I hate how pretentious the word ‘visceral’ is, but it’s pretty accurate here. dodd’s collection The Black Condition ft. Narcissus is also phenomenal.
Pet - Akwaeke Emezi, a YA novel about a Black trans teenage girl and having to confront the existence of monsters. Emezi also has an acclaimed adult novel out, Freshwater, and I believe their new adult novel, The Death of Vivek Oji, is out in August
2020.
trigger - Venus Selenite, poetry about being Black, trans, queer, and unapologetic. This one is hard to get hold of, but worth it if you can. Selenite also co-edited and is featured in Nameless Woman, an anthology of writing by trans women of colour.
Surge - Jay Bernard, a poetry collection written in response to the 1981 fire at New Cross Road, as well as Grenfell Tower and the Windrush Scandal. Bernard is one of those poets who can use 10 words to say more than most of us can in 1,000.
Nameless Woman:
An Anthology of Fiction by Trans Women of Color - ed. Venus Selenite, Ellyn Peña and Jamie Berrout, this one includes several stories by Black trans women and is, as a body of work, completely invaluable. The stories here range from semi-autobiographical and romance to sci-fi and speculative fiction.
You can also financially support Black trans people through donating to organisations such as this and these.
Important addendum: I tried incredibly hard to find published works by Black trans women, because trans women are the focus of JK Rowling’s tweets and indeed an overwhelming amount of violence and bigotry in general, but I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone that Black trans women are enormously discriminated against by the publishing industry, and are routinely denied a platform for their work and their voices. Literally, when you Google ‘black trans woman author’, you just get Janet Mock’s author page. I think all of the books by Black trans women in the list above, with the exception of Janet Mock, are self/indie pub.
I have trawled through online indie and radical publishing magazines, message boards, and nearly 100 lists of ‘trans authors you must read now!’ and I would charitably say that about 1% of people featured in such lists are Black trans women. Obviously, Black trans women are writing, but the lack of available platform for their work is a huge barrier to their voices being heard. If anyone else has recommendations for work by Black trans women, whether it’s a physical book, an online chapbook, an Insta account of poetry, or anything else, please add it, because there must be so much more than I’ve managed to find.
