Our Lady of Immaculate Depression

Japanese Giant Salamander (Andrias japonicus), family Cryptobranchidae, endemic to Japan

One of the largest amphibians in the world, growing to a length of 1.5 m (~5 ft).

Vulnerable.

Today I'm starting a new newsletter, "The Internet is Good." If you like these words, consider subscribing over on my website! Otherwise, sit back and enjoy it here, natively on Tumblr dot com.

If you're like me, you spend hours scrolling through platforms on the internet, Instagram, TikTok, BlueSky, Tumblr, over and over and over again. And after awhile, the internet just feels kinda... Meh?

When I was younger, the internet felt fascinating. It felt like there were so many twists and turns, hidden website, niche fandoms, that I'd never run out of things to explore. But as I got older, and social media platforms proliferated, everything kinda started feeling same-y. Maybe it's just because of how much content I was consuming, or how it was delivered; in either case the result was the same. This cool fascinating pinnacle of human communication started to feel hollow.

Recently, I've tried to slow down and spend some quality time on the internet, actually appreciating just how special it is. Which is why I'm starting this new weekly newsletter. Each week I'll deliver a recap of the things on the internet that I appreciate, whether it be a bit of internet lore, an artist, a weird art project, or just something I found and thought "neat."

To kick us off, here are five things on the internet I found interesting that I wanted to share with you!

#5. Wikipedia's Wikipede

I love Wikipedia, it's an incredible internet resource, and in my opinion is one of the modern wonders of the world. I mean all of human knowledge in one place? That's actually mind-boggling! But we're not here to talk about the fantastic free encyclopedia– no, we're here to talk about the Wikipede!

In 2003, Wikipedia hosted an international logo contest to find their. Community members submitted dozens of designs, thousands of people participated, and in the end, the Wikipedia puzzle globe came into existence! Wikipedia is currently celebrating it's 25 anniversary, and has a wonderful write-up about their history here. But before a final form was settled on, the "Wikipede" was born. Look at him! He's gross, and pixelated, and he fills me with a deep unshakable fear. And I love him. I love him so much I bought myself a tote with his horrid depiction on it.

You can buy the Wikipede Tote here, and maybe even consider donating to the Wikimedia Foundation?

#4. Queer Cowboys

I love cowboys, and I love queer stories. Growing up I struggled to find a lot of queer stories that I could resonate with. While there are plenty more to be found now, I find that some of my favorite genres just don't have the stories I'm yearning for. Fortunately, a podcast colleague, @thelaurenshippen is currently working on a queer Western romance, "Desperate Hollow!" You can read the first two chapters as of writing on her Patreon! In her research for this story, Lauren found a very different history of the wild west than what I grew up with. She talks about it in a recent video, check it out below!

Note: In case this embed ever breaks in the future, as API's tend to do over time, you can also see Lauren's post here.

#3. Pringles Hot Dog Buns?

I don't know anything about this, but I love sending my friends stupid hot dog memes and this one takes the cake. Bun? I don't know. But if I see these on a shelf, I will be buying one, eating it, and reviewing it for you here.

#2. Patreon bans AI training crawlers

404 Media reported earlier this week that Patreon has partnered with Cloudflare to block web crawlers scraping the platform for AI training! This is a small win in an ongoing battle for creatives online, but in an otherwise harsh landscape, it's great to see the Patreon team taking steps to protect creators. But if you're an artist who posts work online, and you're looking for some extra protection, maybe consider using the University of Chicago's AI nightshade?

#1. Summer Eternal - Anthology

Last, and perhaps the one thing that I'm most excited for, is the debut of upcoming game studio, Summer Eternal. If you're not in the know, here's a really quick rundown of events: In 2019, ZA/UM released Disco Elysium, it's one of the best games ever, and is beautifully written. Unfortunately, after finding massive commercial success, the lead creatives Robert Kurvitz, Argo Tuulik, Dora Klindžić, and many others, were slowly pushed out of the studio. This resulted in many creatives going out and founding their own studios, and now there are four new "Disco-like" games on the horizon. And then ZA/UM recently published Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, which has stirred up a lot of mixed feelings for Disco Elysium fans. The Verge and Aftermath both have great write-ups exploring the complexity of a good game that exists in the shadow of its predecessor.

Amidst all this chaos, there's one studio I've been keeping my eye on: Summer Eternal. This is where several members of the original creative team have landed, and unlike the other studios, this one has been formed as a worker owned co-op. As an artist, an

And all of this leads me to the Summer Eternal: Anthology. As a debut project, the team has put together a combination development diary/cultural journal/game reveal. Within its pages are a series of essays from the team sharing an inside look at organizing a worker-owned game studio (which I'm incredibly eager to learn about for my own pursuits). Plus, it'll have the world's first look at "Project Red Rooster." Me? I've already pre-ordered the anthology (and its limited edition vinyl), which promises to ship this summer.

That's it for now! I'll be back next Friday with another round up of five good things I found on the internet. But hey! This is a conversation, not a monologue (though I do love to monologue). I wanna hear from you! What do you think the most magical place online is? Tell me in the comments!

Recently, Nigel Farage (the Member of Parliament for Clacton, and the frog-faced leader of right-wing fascist party Reform UK) has come under scrutiny for receiving a £5 million "gift" from a crypto billionare, and being unable to give a consistent answer for why. He has denied any wrongdoing, he has threatened reporters for asking questions about the matter, and he is currently under investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Commission.

If the Standards Commission finds Farage in breach of conduct, he will likely face a recall election in his district in September. He is unhappy with this possibility, so he has decided to "resign" and trigger a special election now. I say "resign" in quotes because he is standing in said election, and intends to remain in Parliament. Theoretically, winning this election will demonstrate that he has a mandate from the people in his district to continue representing them in spite of the allegations against him.

This is idiotic for several reasons. First, resigning now does not permanently shut down the Standards Commission investigation; if he is re-elected, the Commission can still find against him later on and still force him to face a recall election, meaning the Clacton constituency might have to hold two elections in the space of a few months.

The other problem for Farage is that essentially nobody else is bothering to entertain this farce. No major party is running a candidate against him, arguing that Farage is throwing a tantrum and wasting public money in the process. Only one opponent of note has put their name forward: intergalactic space warrior and perennial satirical candidate Count Binface.

The above image gallery is, at time of writing, the entire slate of candidates for this election.

This gambit has backfired spectacularly on Farage. He thrives on media attention, but with no serious candidates standing, this campaign won't receive any. No journalist who does cover it will bother asking him policy questions, so they will have to ask him about the £5m "gift" instead, which he hates discussing. He cannot run his usual shtick of presenting himself as the "anti-establishment voice", because the only thing more absurd than running against a comedian with a dustbin on his head is referring to said dustbin comedian as an "establishment politician". He cannot even attack Binface for not being local to the district because, to quote Binface himself, Farage "spends more time in America than in Clacton". The whole process will humiliate Farage --doubly so if Binface (as the sole protest candidate) garners a significant portion of the vote -- and one of the few things that fascist politicians cannot stand is humiliation.

Good point. We should jerk off and *throws dart* eat some pork bao. Or if you're vegetarian we could *spins comically sized wheel* eat some samosas. What's truly important is we have to jerk off. Together.

At times, Gatwa’s casting in those projects has been dismissed as an exercise in ‘box-ticking’. Gatwa scoffs. ‘First of all, you don’t know anything about me. Secondly, tick fcking boxes! People need to be fcking seen. What are you going to do, tell the same stories? Have the same people fronting things for all of eternity? Representation and inclusivity and branching out… it enriches us all. How embarrassing. You people with your tiny mindsets – open a book, look out the window and then f*ck off.’ (source)

What do I mean by the Third Argument? Well, I'm not sure I've ever made a post about this directly, but as far as I can see it, there are three main arguments for greater diversity in popular media. The first two are the most common, and they go like this:

It is good for media to be diverse because it is good for people to see people like them on screen. That is, the beneficiaries are marginalized people.

It is good for media to be diverse because it is good for people to see and learn about people who are not like them through art. That is, the beneficiaries are non-marginalized people, who then (hopefully) pass on the benefit by treating marginalized people better.

These two arguments are the source of a lot of debate here on ye olde tumblr. Despite both being arguments for representation, they pull in different directions. What counts as 'good' representation for the purposes of Argument 1 often would not be good for the purposes of Argument 2, and vice versa. Authentic versus sympathetic. Ugly or over-sanitized. You see this debate play out constantly. It's really hard for a piece of - say - queer media to do both at once.

But these debates tend to leave out Argument 3, the one that Gatwa is making above. And that argument cuts through a lot of this debate.

3. It is good for media to be diverse because art needs variety. The beneficiary of representation is art itself, absent any social effects that may or may not be present.

For this argument, diverse stories are intrinsically good. It is good to make art that's not just the same thing you've seen a hundred times before. Putting the kinds of people who don't often make it into mainstream media into your art is an extremely efficient way to make that happen. It's not the only method, but it's a really good method.

For representation to be 'good representation' according to Argument 3, all it needs to be is interesting. A story you haven't heard before, at least not in that medium. That which counts as 'bad representation' by the lights of this argument are stock characters, like the Eternally Patient Mother, the Gay Best Friend, the Wise Black Advisor. Perhaps there was a time in which these characters were new, but that time has long passed. There's no art in pulling a bog-standard character trope off the shelf. Show us a new kind of guy. The world is infinitely diverse. You're not going to run out. Telling the same stories with the same voices for all eternity, as Gatwa says, is boring. Even if there was nothing else wrong with it, this would be. Art isn't supposed to be boring.

Alrighty then