boke

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

While we're here, might I interest everyone in an account of the artifacts Napoleon III and Eugenie stole from China?

Away from the crowds of tourists moving through the grand rooms of the French castle Fontainebleau is a quiet, darkened treasure room that houses a bizarre and exquisite collection of Asian artifacts. It is here that France keeps the Qing dynasty artifacts that Napoleon III’s troops looted from the Chinese emperor’s summer palace, Yuanmingyuan, in Beijing in 1860.

A jewel-encrusted golden stupa flanked by two elephant tusks, bronze dragons, fine porcelain, carved jade, cloisonné vases that French Empress Eugénie had French craftsmen make into a chandelier and candlesticks and bejeweled gold jewelry vie for space in crowded Chinese-style cabinets. On the ceiling are Tibetan thangkas taken from Yuanmingyuan. The items are in pristine condition, as though they had just been shipped from Chinese imperial workshops.

...

As the Anglo-French forces neared Beijing, Chinese officials detained and imprisoned an advance party sent to negotiate under a prearranged flag of truce. The foreign armies advanced to Beijing and French forces on October 7 broke into Yuanmingyuan, which the emperor and his entourage had vacated and which was guarded only by a few eunuchs. Soldiers lost control, running around in an orgy of indiscriminate looting. They lifted everything they could and destroyed objects that were too heavy to be removed. The British joined in. Priceless treasures were carted out of the palace and crated for shipment to Europe, where they now reside in some 47 museums and in private collections.

Today, the people of Gaza have returned to erased cities, desolate neighbourhoods, and ruined homes. They are facing a reality stripped of basic necessities: no mosques, no schools, no universities, no hospitals, and no usable roads. Even bakeries, markets, and essential services like water and electricity are gone.

Blessed are those who stand with Gaza, who offer support, and who do not turn their backs. Do not abandon them, even with the weakest form of faith: by sharing their story and offering your prayers."

$17,794 / 30K

this fundraiser is #55 on @/gazavetters's list of vetted fundraisers. [ link to Google Sheets ]

Us foxes, the kitty cats, and then those seagulls. It took aaall three of us to finally bring that monster down.

The setting that prevents your work being used to train AI models is turned off by default! I had no idea about this until now! Artists, go to your settings, click “visibility”, and turn on this setting! Protect your work!

Go to your blog (you have to do this for each individual blog) and the visibility tab

It's this last option here

And THAT is one of the most valuable skill sets a human being can have. THAT is the skill set that unlocks soooooo many others.

A LOT of people I see with anxiety and depression do not have this skill set. To suck at something is a threat. Proof that they are doomed to suck at it forever. And then, often, that either THEY suck forever or the task must be stupid/useless/pointless (whence we get AI art fans who have decided actually making art is pointless and degrading the labor and skills of others is fine because these are useless skills).

Or you get the freeze- the inability to try things in case you fail. The sudden lancing shame and humiliation or hopelessness. The sense that anything you haven't learned by now you can't learn. Which is so heartbreaking and so untrue.

I just hate it.