I hope this helps.

If you wanna watch it I cannot recommend it enough; I just warn that it covers a LOT.

While I'm at it.

^via LGBTQ Nation, September 2, 2025. They were playing Pink Pony Club on the kazoos, it was in Seattle, and yes, there is video.

^"Since the president took office in January, over 20 hostile shareholder resolutions were filed demanding companies shed their commitment to DEI, including Visa, Deere, Boeing, Goldman Sachs, Levi’s, American Express, Coca-Cola, Berkshire Hathaway, McDonalds, Amazon, Netflix, Walmart, Alphabet, American Airlines, Caterpillar, Best Buy, Mastercard, and Costco, according to Fortune...

But across those annual meetings, shareholders (representing over $9.8 trillion in value) have voted with management to continue DEI policies and programs.

Those decisions weren’t based on altruism alone, if at all: HRC’s study backs up previous research demonstrating that companies embracing DEI are more profitable than their peers that don’t."

-via LGBTQ Nation, August 27, 2025

"According to Jinsiangu, a Kenyan intersex, transgender, and gender non-conforming (ITGNC) rights group, the court recognised Chepkosgei’s right to self-identity and gender, declaring her “notably recognised as a transgender individual” to ensure her rights are guaranteed...

In a groundbreaking move, the court went beyond addressing the specific violations experienced by the petitioner.

Justice R. Nyakundi directed the Government of Kenya to initiate and table a bill addressing the rights of transgender persons, with Parliament instructed to take the necessary steps to enact protections and recognition in law.

The judge also awarded Chepkosgei 1,000,000 Kenyan Shillings (approximately R137,000 / USD 7,700) in general damages. [Note: And that stretches a LOT further in Kenya, where the average monthly after-tax salary is just $413, making the reward a bit less than 2 years of salary.]

-via Mamba Online, August 21, 2025

"The Advocate General for the European Court of Justice is recommending that all EU member states be required to issue identity documents reflecting their citizens’ “lived gender identity.”

The Court’s AG Jean Richard de la Tour argued that national rules that do not allow legal gender recognition may violate European Union law, including the right to free movement and residency across all EU member states...

While the Advocate General’s opinion is only advisory, the verdicts in about two-thirds of cases argued before the court align with an AG’s recommendation."

-via LGBTQ Nation, September 4, 2025

"A federal judge has sided with a sorority that inducted a transgender sister after several other members sued over the definition of the word “woman.”

“Having considered the issues presented (again), we find that the majority of the claims must be dismissed on the grounds that this Court still may not interfere with [the sorority’s] contractually valid interpretation of its own Bylaws,” U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson, a Ronald Reagan appointee, wrote in his ruling.

...the judge rejected their arguments again, noting that Kappa Kappa Gamma’s bylaws don’t define the words “woman” or “women” to be exclusively referring to cisgender women. He even noted that the sorority “published and distributed multiple texts” showing that its interpretation of those words is trans-inclusive, so the plaintiffs can’t claim that their contract with the sorority was understood to mean that trans women would be excluded."

-via LGBTQ Nation, August 26, 2025

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) announced a landmark free hotline for LGBTQ+ people in the state. Offered in both English and Spanish, the first-of-its-kind service launches today and will provide legal advice regarding housing, safety, health care access (including gender-affirming care), discrimination, identity documents, and more.

Pritzker announced the initiative, called Illinois Pride Connect, at an August 21 event with the Chicago Legal Council for Health Justice, which will run the hotline. “For us to be able to go on offense, and not be on defense, is what I love about this state,” he said.

“Building upon the state’s transgender and gender-diverse wellness and equity project that we launched at the beginning of 2024, we will be the only state in the entire United States that provides free legal advice to protect the LGBTQ community,” he said."

-via LGBTQ Nation, August 25, 2025

"A federal appeals court has ruled that West Texas A&M University’s ban on student organization drag performances violates the Constitution’s First Amendment protections of free speech. The court’s Thursday ruling overturns a 2023 district court ruling in favor of the university.

FIRE’s lawsuit also claimed that Wendler’s actions violated a campus free speech law signed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in 2020, which explicitly forbids universities from taking action against student organizations “on the basis of a political, religious, philosophical, ideological, or academic viewpoint expressed by the organization or [its] expressive activities.”

In its 2-1 decision issued last Thursday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Leslie H. Southwick (an appointee of former President George W. Bush) wrote that theatric performances and drag shows, “plainly involve expressive conduct within the protection of the First Amendment.”"

-via LGBTQ Nation, August 19, 2025

"Five Virginia school districts are refusing to revoke their transgender-inclusive policies that allow trans kids to use facilities matching their gender identity [and other policies about pronouns and sports teams], even though the current presidential administration has frozen the districts’ congressionally approved federal education funding over the matter.

The school districts — Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William — say that their policies are required by Title IX, the federal law prohibiting educational discrimination based on sex. But while the previous presidential administration interpreted the law as requiring schools to maintain trans-inclusive policies, the current one has claimed that such policies harm cisgender female students.

...The letter [from a local LGBTQ regional coalition] notes that over 3,000 Virginia families, teachers, and residents signed letters supporting the districts’ pro-trans policies in the face of “unprecedented federal pressure,” adding, “These policies and practices foster a culture that affirms the dignity of each student and celebrates our diversity as individuals.”

Printers are notorious for claiming they’re out of ink when they haven’t come close to the suggested number of prints, and their cartridges literally still have ink in them. So after a bit of googling I found out how to ‘reset’ a cartridges automatic stopping system (its literally 1 physical wheel on the cartridge that you gotta turn back). The only downside is that I don’t get a digital ink monitor, but since it told me it was empty when still half full, I don’t mind. 

Like, you can just jiggle with some shit and solve one of the biggest money making scams in the post-industrial world and I don’t think people realise its that easy. 

Or, like, repairing your own technology. A few months ago, I swapped out my sister’s laptop screen. Did it myself, I removed maybe 4 screws, no vital parts were exposed and it cost me $40. I even got a choice of matte or glossy. 

1) ThePirateBay is still functional. (It’s not the same pirate bay that it was back in the day, but let’s not get into Theseus’ ship territory. It’s still here and it still works, that’s all that matters.) There are plenty of torrent sites around, more than there were 10 years ago – although overall traffic has plummeted. Now as then, it’s a whack-a-mole game.

2) Why was it “leagues easier” a decade ago? Some countries, not all (not north America, for example), now mandate ISP blocking of torrent sites, but this new complication can be bypassed with one (1) step: a google duckduckgo search for proxies. No government agency or ISP can possibly keep up with proxies, it’s yet another whack-a-mole game. So yes, it was technically easier before, but I don’t see “leagues” anywhere.

3) It was safer before? Are you shitting me? Have you lot forgotten that the legal departments of MPAA and RIAA sued torrent sharers (not even uploaders) and asked for millions of dollars for damages? AND GOT THEM? (By which I mean they didn’t actually get millions since the people they sued didn’t have any, but said people were convicted and ruined and that was the goal in the first place. It was a deeply amoral and cynical scare tactic.) Well they stopped doing that at some point, and focused on hunting P2P and torrent sites. Running a site is certainly less safe today. Using one, though? Depending on where you are, the ISP may be allowed to block you after repeated instances, and that’s it. You’re not getting in trouble with the law or into crippling debt. And either way there’s only a minuscule chance that any of this will come to pass, which becomes zero (0) with a VPN. (Safety of course depends on the country, and in some cases piracy is the least of your concerns. Let’s not get into that.)

4) Ten years ago there was no Sci-Hub, and Library Genesis was in its infancy. If today it’s harder to find PDFs on google, it is orders of magnitude easier and more reliable to find them elsewhere. People just have to unstick their minds from the notion that stuff is either on google or doesn’t exist at all. Geez.

5) P2P still exists. IRC (the sharing channels in particular, #bookz and the like) still exists. Torrenting functions like it always did. All these methods are exactly as easy to use as before, i.e. not necessarily a piece of cake, there’s a learning curve. But it’s the same learning curve it was 10 years ago.

6) So what have we lost? Only YouTube (meh, the film/tv quality was appalling anyway, and music is still there) and direct downloads (at least the permanent ones: there are plenty of them still around, but files expire and you need to keep track of what goes up when. So this goes beyond knowhow, it’s about internet communities. Let’s not get into that either, it’s a huge subject.) It’s a loss, sure, but I wouldn’t call it a terrible blow.

7) And in exchange for that loss, we got streaming sites. This is piracy, too, and it’s much much easier than torrents, and tons of people do it. Any “piracy has declined” narrative either implies that we’re excluding streaming from the discussion for some reason, or is flat out wrong. Ten years ago, grandpa couldn’t possibly torrent a film, and it’s debatable if he even knew how to open the file you helpfully sent him. Now, as long as someone has set up kodi or similar, grandpa can watch it on his tv and it just feels like cable.

8) On why torrents in particular have declined in recent years, see here. It’s a big subject and I didn’t cover all of it, but the main reason is that people had access to easier methods to get what they wanted (some legal and affordable, some illegal and free), so they didn’t need to learn how to torrent. Ergo, they never did. There’s more of course, and there’s definitely a cultural shift too, but that’s a very long story so let’s not get into it. The linked post also includes some thoughts on why torrents aren’t dead and doomed just yet, and ooh, I forgot a very important one: you can’t stream photoshop.

To summarise, internet piracy is NOT more difficult, unreliable, and unsafe today than it was 10 or 20 years ago. For reasons why people (young or otherwise) seem less versed in it, please look elsewhere. I have thoughts on that too, but this is already a very long post, so I’ll just leave you with the best kind of thought. I’ll leave you with a doubt:

Materpost: A curated Githup tutorial of links to more torrent sites, software, VPNs, uBlock origin filters, ect. Basically everything you could ever want starting out. Do be warned though it doesn’t appear to have been updated in awhile so a few of the links are dead.

GAMES:

Vimm’s Roms: NES era->ps3 era roms and emulators to play them. Has user ratings on games. Cons: slow download speeds.

NxBrew: Switch roms/game updates/dlc

nsw2u: More switch roms. Check here if nxbrew doesn’t have the game you’re looking for.

Hshop: 3ds games/updates/dlc. Very well organized and sorted by console region. Bonus ability to generate QR codes to scan with homebrew to begin download directly on your console.

Oldgamesdownload: Old 90’s-2000’s PC games and some gamecube games. Technically, all of the games here are abandon ware, meaning the original company/creator doesn’t sell nor make money from the games anymore period. If you’re into that.

Fitgirl repacks: Heavily compressed PC games, and other various consoles. Small downloads and faster speeds for the size of the games. Somewhat limited game selection.

Steam unlocked: Steam games with easy-to-use installers. Check here if fitgirl doesn’t have what you’re looking for.

Steam Underground: A user forum for piracy support, usually about installing cracked games. Does have some scattered PC game downloads.

Google doc of Skyrim SE creation club content.

Amiibo life: Amiibo bins, can be loaded with some homebrew to load in games without any external source, or, if you buy writable NFC cards, you can make your own free amiibos.

Books:

Library Genesis: a good all-in-one ebook finder. Has books, magazines, scientific papers, ect. Well organized and able to sort by Author, Genre, ect ect. Almost all books in .epub format

Calibre: Not piracy but a free software for reading said .epub files, and other ebook formats. Good for sorting your books.

Sci-Hub: Research papers, academic books, pdfs, ect. Helpful for collage students.

IT ebook: eBooks about learning programming languages.

audiobookbay: Audiobook downloads.

Booksonic: Audiobook streaming.

5e.tools: Dnd player’s manual, guide, ect.

Books on learning various languages.

Mangadex: Manga, Doujinshi.      

Headspace sleep audio.

Various books and manuals.

Streaming:

ustvgo: Free streaming of live tv, has most US cable tv channels.

tutturu: Spiritual successor to Rabbit, allows you to stream your screen with friends.

Yes movies: Movies

Kimcartoon: Cartoons/animated movies

aniwatcher: Anime

animedao: Anime

Computer software:

getintopc: Wide selection of pc (mostly windows) software of all sorts, and different versions. Can personally vouch for the site, I’ve gotten Photoshop, Maya, and Sony Vegas from here over the years.

Other:

the eye: An archive of old roms, OS systems, roms (non nintendo), comics, books, ect, ect. Cons: No search function and slightly hard to navigate.

1337x.to: Torrent site for movies, shows, games, comics, ect.

ThePirateBay: The classic.

the eye has been up since 2017 and in the last four years have accumulated 140TB of data (according to their own reports). Part of their growth is just their own work, part of it is absorbing other archives/open directories that were having issues: I know rpg.rem.uz used to be its own archive - gave way to The Trove, which is having its own issues right now unfortunately… - but now most-all of their content can also just be found on the eye. Same with a few dozen other archives.

And they have ‘old roms, OS systems, roms (non nintendo), comics, books, ect, ect’, but massively more than you might think just based off how this sounds. Like…

They have it all.

If you want to try and homebrew alcohol, go check their stuff. If you want to try and read books that are out of print or otherwise in public domain (and some that aren’t yet in public domain), go check their stuff. If you want to run a campaign and can’t pay for expensive print tabletop books, go check their stuff. If you want to fuck off into the woods to live off the land (or research how that would work for a writing project), go check their stuff. If you’re trying to learn shit about drugs - any drugs, almost - go check their stuff.

Hell, if you want to go read what looks like literally every research paper on coronaviruses from 1968 up to Feb 2020, you can do that too!

As chickenmcnuggies said its a mess and a half to navigate through their collections, partially with how large it is and the fact quite a few folders were once whole other archives since absorbed by the eye…

February 15, 2024 — We, the undersigned, strongly condemn the Government of Alberta’s planned changes to gender-affirming care, education, and sports in the province. These changes amount to an attack on trans people, and in particular trans youth. On January 31, 2024, the Premier of Alberta announced sweeping policy changes that will disproportionately impact trans, non-binary, and gender-diverse youth. The changes include restricting and/or blocking access to gender-affirming care for minors, requiring parental opt-in for sex education related to gender identity and expression, and requiring parental consent for name and pronoun changes at school.   As feminist and gender equality organizations, we recognize that feminism is deeply interconnected with trans liberation — supporting the rights of trans, non-binary, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse people is essential to protecting ALL women from violence and discrimination. 

Continue Reading

Here's the Alaska Native Studies Council Writing Style Guide which includes a lot of vocabulary relating to the Indigenous communities in Alaska (including names of groups, laws regarding Alaska Natives, geography, etc.).

Here's a more detailed map of Alaska divided by cultural/language groups. Here's a link where you can zoom in on the map and read the language family key.

Here are some more sources on Indigenous languages and cultures in Alaska.

Here's the introduction to The Alaska Native Reader: History, Culture, Politics which also has some maps.

Another book on Alaska Native cultures.

A film on endangered languages in Alaska and reclaiming culture.

A documentary on the Unangan people being put in concentration camps in Alaska during WWII.

via @sarworthman on Instagram

counter protest master link

This list includes doctors in the United States, Australia, Canada, and Europe!

Even if you're not the target demographic, please share for any of your friends who may be.

That’s 8% of transgender Americans. An additional 43% of transgender Americans are seriously considering moving due to laws criminalizing our existence and healthcare.

“So many people are completely helpless to get out, even with all the bumps and roadblocks, the fact is I'm still one of the lucky ones.” Said Sheena, a trans woman who fled from from Florida.

“it's evident that the United States is in the throes of a swelling crisis of internally displaced political refugees. Over a million people, themselves contemplating relocation in the coming months, remain in a state of apprehensive vigilance, awaiting the potential signal that they too must bid farewell to their homes.”

And for those fleeing FROM FLORIDA there is THIS resource compilation: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19kSzBLo_hjpiBjHN8tvK73sVHU25NKWjMau2vNl8uuM/htmlview#

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19kSzBLo_hjpiBjHN8tvK73sVHU25NKWjMau2vNl8uuM/htmlview#

Stop everything you’re doing and go download and install Firefox.

If you’re saying, “well, I need Chrome because I need such-and-such extension for my job”, the computer will not explode if you install another browser. Use Chrome ONLY for work tasks and use Firefox for everything else. If you’re concerned about losing your bookmarks, Firefox can import your Chrome bookmarks.

[ID: Firefox Library window. The “Import and Backup” panel is expanded, displaying the option, “Import Data from Another Browser”, which is also circled with a red MS Paint ellipse. ID end.]

Be sure to add the multi account containers extension to your firefox, which allows you to be logged in to multiple accounts on the same website at the same time in the same window but in different tabs.

look on my five open tumblr accounts (not sideblogs, accounts!) ye mighty and despair.

Firefox is super good, folks. It's good in a general "google shouldn't own everything in the entire fucking world" sense AND in a "this is an actual good product that does lots of cool shit" sense.

ALSO make sure to add the Ublock origin extension on Firefox - I haven't seen a youtube ad in five years and you don't have to either.

While you're at it, why not add the Wayback Machine extension so that if you go looking for a page that has been taken down the wayback machine will automatically offer you an archived version instead; also handy for documenting people's shitty takes and winning arguments after they delete the original post!

Worried that Firefox is going to slow down your computer? In benchmarks, modern versions of chrome and firefox are pretty much the same speed but you can still install the auto tab discard extension ANYWAY so that it will snooze unused tabs in order to keep your computer running faster. Set it to sleep, discard, close, and store tags at your discretion!

And while you're at it: install Firefox as your mobile browser for android and add those extensions to your mobile browser! Mobile adblock is here, baybee, save your data and enjoy a better mobile experience! And install it on iOS! iOS can't add extensions, but at least it's better than safari, and if you want a somewhat more private iOS browsing experience try firefox focus for iOS (which is also available on android but you can accomplish the same thing with extensions).