Ch👍

why is religious Christmas imagery all so joyful and pleasant? where is the inherent horror of the birth of Christ? A mother is handed her newborn child, wailing and innocent. Her hands come away sticky. Red. Simply by giving her son life she has already killed him. He is doomed from the beginning. Her love will not save him from suffering. Because the thing cradled in her arms is not a baby, it is a sacrifice: born amongst the other bleating animals whose blood will one day be spilled in the name of what demands it. the night is silent with anticipation. Mary, did you know? That your womb was also a grave?

New Things to Beware on the Internet

On May 3rd, Google released 8 new top-level domains (TLDs) -- these are new values like .com, .org, .biz, domain names. These new TLDs were made available for public registration via any domain registrar on May 10th.

Usually, this should be a cool info, move on with your life and largely ignore it moment.

Except a couple of these new domain names are common file type extensions: ".zip" and ".mov".

This means typing out a file name could resolve into a link that takes you to one of these new URLs, whether it's in an email, on your tumblr blog post, a tweet, or in file explorer on your desktop.

What was previously plain text could now resolve as link and go to a malicious website where people are expecting to go to a file and therefore download malware without realizing it.

Folk monitoring these new domain registrations are already seeing some clearly malicious actors registering and setting this up. Some are squatting the domain names trying to point out what a bad idea this was. Some already trying to steal your login in credentials and personal info.

This is what we're seeing only 12 days into the domains being available. Only 5 days being publicly available.

What can you do? For now, be very careful where you type in .zip or .mov, watch what website URLs you're on, don't enable automatic downloads, be very careful when visiting any site on these new domains, and do not type in file names without spaces or other interrupters.

I'm seeing security officers for companies talking about wholesale blocking .zip and .mov domains from within the company's internet, and that's probably wise.

Be cautious out there.

I really want to reiterate how this can go wrong frequently and fast, folks.

A malicious actor sets up a page with an auto-downloader squatting on a domain name that matches a common zip file name like photos DOT zip. This website is set up to start an auto downloader upon being visited, downloading a zip file with the same name as the URL which contains malicious software (virus, worm, keylogger, etc).

Scenario.

Someone you know well sends you an email or text with promised photos attached. The email even reads something like this.

Because .zip is now a TLD, that plain text is automatically formatted into a link to malicious actor's website without them having to send you anything.

Folk with family with iPhones or iPads that are sent multiple photos in one go might be familiar with iCloud's tendency to automatically compile them into zip file for the sender and less savvy tech users have trouble NOT doing that.

These same less savvy users, or even just someone just not thinking in the moment, will click that .zip link, not realizing it isn't the the same as clicking on the promised attachment.

They download a file that matches the name they expected. They open it because they were expecting that file and it's from a trusted source. Except the file they downloaded isn't the one that was sent by their trusted source and now they have malware.

Another Scenario.

An IT person tries to send you an email with instructions on how to resolve a problem with a commonly used filename like install-repair DOT zip or to install new software like microsoft-office DOT zip.

The email may start with instructions of where to go get the legitimate file to do the install or repair, but now a line later in the instructions is also has a link to a .zip URL. A user, already frazzled by IT problems, may click it to ensure they have the right file. Again, they download malicious code from a squatting website or it prompts them with a fake login and now the squatting website has stolen their login credentials for a legitimate site. All due to an expected email from a trusted source.

Above you can see microsoft-office DOT zip is already out there with a fake Microsoft login screen waiting to steal your credentials.

These risks are already out there now because the TLD has been activated.

Plain text on old post are already being resolved into links to the new websites.

Here you can see a tweet from 2021, long before .zip was a domain name, now resolves that plan text into a clickable link. You'll start seeing this everywhere, and malicious actors do not have to lift a finger to send it to you.

Yes, a lot of users aren't going to click that, but a lot of folk will. Whomever is squatting on photos DOT zip domain name has made a one time payment to have access to anyone that ever sees that file name typed out.

In an example of an existing squatter site, clientdocs DOT zip is exactly one such pre-setup .zip domain name that initiates an automatic download. This one may be harmless, but the set ups are already out there and waiting to catch folk.

It's an unnecessary and risky can of worms that's been opened up.

Holy Unforced Errors, Batman.

I'm a gay man and not a lesbian but I just love how there are certain videos I can look at and say "I know the 'not to be a lesbian but oh my god' tags must be in the notes" and then I look and there they are

I love lesbians and I love videos that make lesbians go "oh my god". mlm wlw solidarity

Same thoughts as a gay man

dropping in here to quickly announce that the heartstopper guest comic I worked on drops on the 21st of August! <3

“Our side concocted the ‘bathroom safety’ male predator argument as a way to avoid an uncomfortable battle over LGBT ideology, and still fire up people’s emotions.”

COLOUR ME FUCKING SURPRISED

I want people, in particular cis people, to read this and understand what it means.

It means that these groups, these organizations, are so Hellbent on getting trans people outlawed, hurt, and killed, that they will openly lie and admit to lying to stir up emotions. They have no qualms with actively lying and distorting reality. 

They have no qualms about misleading people. Actively lying to people. 

They don’t care how immoral their actions may be, how much their rhetoric flies in the face of reality, as long as it reaches their end goal of the destruction of “transgender ideology.” 

MassResistance and all their ilk want us dead, and should never be trusted, not even for the most trivial of matters. They should be rejected, reviled, despised, because nothing they do is in service of anything but hatred and evil. 

And in case anyone actually doubts this, and wants to cry “fake news,” here’s MR’s actual article. Should it get deleted, here’s an archived version. Some choice bits under the cut, if you want to see how vile these people really are. 

Keep reading

@asymbina @thefingerfuckingfemalefury

Also worth reminding everyone that the lie doesn’t magically become true when it’s spread by putative feminists in stead of conservatives.

ELLIOT PAGE 2022 | Ruven Afanador ph. for Esquire

Next level skills..

Just in time for the anniversary

Harry ⚡

Out in the warm May night, a teenage white girl with "baby terf" in her bio opens her 2012 Dell laptop. It takes 5 minutes for it to boot up and another 5 to open Google Chrome. She checks her inbox hoping for anon hate. It's empty. She's sighs and checks her dash. She reblogs what she believes to be gender critical theory from user punished-nazbol-returns-88, without a single second thought. Cracking her fingers, she searches up the trans activism tag and comments on every single post she can find. Several hours later she's now transitioned to writing an essay about how Lady Dimitrescu is a terf and how she will fuck her once she's of age. She checks her inbox once more, hoping all those negative comments she wrote resulted in something. Empty once again. Deciding to end the night, she writes a post about how she's lonely and how trans people have made it impossible to find an epic terf gf with a tight as fuck vag and banging tits. She hopes to get a sympathy reblog from one of the many terfs that are currently grooming her. Finishing the night at 4am, she goes to sleep without showering or brushing her teeth and wakes up soon after, having to go to an 8am class. On her way to school she crosses the street to avoid passing by a black man.

I just realized all the kids growing up with Spotify don’t have to spend money on specific music anymore, so they probably won’t have the memory of saving up money to buy their first CD and having it be something super cringy…like I think I saved up $15 for three weeks to buy the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack at Barnes & Noble when I was 9 and I was really proud of myself for that. Add your first CD you were way too proud of buying in the tags

on the first day of class my astronomy professor asked us why the night sky was dark. if our universe is infinite, how can there be spaces between the stars? he didn’t answer the question until the last day– because our universe is relatively young, and is still growing. it is finite. not enough stars or galaxies have been formed to fill up the entire night sky.

but what that means to me is that somewhere, in an older universe, the night sky looks like a tapestry of diamonds. somewhere darkness is pale white and glittering. imagine being so surrounded. i haven’t gotten that image out of my head ever since– you could never navigate under such a sky but god it sounds lovely

Mrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Welp

AO3 Fics - Mind The Tags

Hello friends, and young ones of Fandom. I've got something to share today.

I was happily reading a lovely fic, a time travel AU, beautifully written, that I absolutely loved recently. So, of course, I wanted to leave a nice comment for the author, because that's what we do right? RIGHT?!

Apparently, some of you haven't gotten that message loud and clear. Because I came across a comment that wasn't super great. And kind of looked askance at the author for something they wrote about.

Nor have you gotten the message to mind the tags. Always, always read the tags before you read a fic, my dears. Why, you ask? Well, all of us have squicks and triggers.

Squick: Something that makes you go “ewwww” and wish you had never seen/read it. Something that makes you deeply uncomfortable. Something you’re not interested in reading/seeing/thinking about, ever.

trigger: Something that you associate with/reminds you of a past trauma (mental, emotional, or physical) and therefore triggers your personal reaction to trauma (be it flashbacks, panic/anxiety attacks, unhealthy behaviours, a crying jag, whatever). x

-just adding a note here that trauma doesn't necessarily need to be in the past it can be current trauma too-

So really if it's going to squick or trigger you, you shouldn't read the fic. Right?! RIGHT!

DON'T LIKE IT, DON'T READ IT!

BUT, the commenter I saw chose to continue to read, and didn't read the tags, nor did they read the summary, which also stated what they had a problem with in it.

Oooh boy, I was hot when I saw it! I wanted to descend like an avenging angel with a flaming sword in defense of the author, and slash this reader to bits! But I didn't, because really, what good would it do at that point, and how bad would it make me look as a Fandom Mom? And, unleashing when you're angry, and can't use words well is... just not good. So, so...

Here is my PSA to remind you, please, for the love of gawd,

read the tags, and if you don't like it, please don't read it.

If you do decide to then go ahead with reading a fic, after reading the tags, you're taking your experience in your own hands. It's your own responsibility to make sure you're taking care of yourself and your mental health.

Also, if you don't like what an author writes, please don't tell them in the comments how they can make it better. You can offer some headcanon, of course, as long as you state them as such. But otherwise, please keep your unhelpful critical opinions to yourself.

[image ID: screenshot of the top of the front page of AO3 that logged out users see]

I don't know the last time you looked at the AO3 homepage when you were logged out, but it's been probably... 7 years for me? I logged out for the first time today and I noticed these numbers. 42,340 fandoms. 3,470,000 users and 7,317,000 works and I did a double take.

Because I thought I remembered a fairly recent announcement about the Archive hitting 7 million works. And another recent announcement about hitting 3 million registered users.

I was right. There was a news post just in December 2020 about the 7 million works milestone. That means 300K+ works have been posted in just two months. That same news post mentioned the 3 million users milestone was reached the month before. That means nearly half a million people have signed up for accounts in three months. And that's only counting the registered users. There are even more people who read on AO3 without ever making an account.

The Archive continues to amaze me every day with not just the volunteers who keep the site going but also with the technical infrastructure that supports it. Kudos to you, AO3 volunteers. You're absolutely phenomenal.