Stuff I See Around The old Interweb

It’s Romancing the Vote season, the increidble team that inspired our craft fairs!! This year, they’re fundraising for Vote Riders and The Southern Coalition for Social Justice, two organizations experienced in fighting to make sure every person's vote counts. Check out the whole auction here!!

I have two things in the auction to help raise money for their awesome causes:

1. A signed copy of Errant, the novella series that @feliciadavin and KR Collins and I wrote together! Featuring a tasty F/F romance, fun fantasy worldbuilding, a magic system that is DELICIOUS, and a stoic bi swordswoman/charming lesbian thief… and a map!

2. A progress pride mail sticker that i designed! holographic and cute as hell!!!

Man, I agree and I don't care if it's cringe to say so. My mom has been saying that she remembers the bicentennial when she was a kid, and people were hyped up. She said sidewalks and poles were painted with the colors of the flag. Now? You only see mentions of the 250th anniversary in advertisements trying to cash in on it, really. But among people, nobody’s heart is in it. It could've been great. This person is right and this was part of what was so gutting about 2024; it was the best of American ideals vs the worst of American society...and the worst won. It's still hard to sit with.

“100-percent AI generated music will be demonetized”

The policy for AI music has been released

“Tidal isn't banning AI music, but it won't pay people who upload it”

"Tidal's priority is ensuring royalties go to original works directly produced, written, and performed by people," the policy read. "We will therefore not knowingly attribute royalties to music we identify as wholly AI-generated."

They will put tags on music that have a “substantial amount” of AI, but only once they have better AI detection

“For now, Tidal said that it would hold AI content on its platform to "a higher standard of content integrity."

More specifically, Tidal said that any AI-generated music that "exploits an individual's or group's music, name or likeness, deceives listeners, or diminishes the quality of our service" would not be tolerated, along with any fraudulent activity like suspicious streaming or upload activity.“

Sherrill has shown little patience for the idea that she needs to articulate a grand philosophical vision. Instead, her pragmatic, slightly ruthless conception of the job recalls the “get shit done” campaign that got Josh Shapiro elected in Pennsylvania, and Gretchen Whitmer’s “fix the damn roads” in Michigan. When I asked Sherrill which state executives she saw modelling her preferred approach, she immediately pointed to Shapiro, noting how, in 2023, he’d led the reconstruction of a stretch of I-95 in less than two weeks, rather than the predicted six months. The Massachusetts governor, Maura Healey, had also caught her eye by fighting back against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,’s attempts to release insurance companies from paying for vaccines. In practice, Healy’s maneuver looked less like picking a national fight than taking advantage of local rules: she ordered insurance carriers operating in Massachusetts to cover vaccines recommended by the state’s own health department. “I think there are a lot of governors who are making movements in a pretty critical time in a way that feels to me very different from what’s going on in Washington,” Sherrill said.

*looks him up*