Umbra-Lumen

Via @antifadundee on Instagram

This is a selection of the racist bile quoted from the St Andrews University Reform Society president, Preston McSherry, in student newspaper "The Saint" yesterday. We note that he chose to make such remarks anonymously, likely because Preston knows his nazi views on "DNA" won't be accepted in Scotland. It is abhorrent that such overtly fascist rhetoric has been allowed by St Andrew's University Student Association, who are granting the Reform Society official affiliation on the 15th of this month rather than expelling them. Preston McSherry's continued enrolment in the University, nevermind the granting to him of a platform to spread far-right extremism, is an obvious danger to other students. So long as St Andrews University continues to grant the Reform Society such a platform, it cannot reasonably claim to provide a safe environment for students of diverse backgrounds. We encourage all students to put pressure on the student association's affiliation officer to reverse this horrendous decision. Their email can be found here: [email protected]

A declassified World War II-era government guide to “simple sabotage” is currently one of the most popular open source books on the internet. The book, called “Simple Sabotage Field Manual,” was declassified in 2008 by the CIA and “describes ways to train normal people to be purposefully annoying telephone operators, dysfunctional train conductors, befuddling middle managers, blundering factory workers, unruly movie theater patrons, and so on. In other words, teaching people to do their jobs badly.”  Over the last week, the guide has surged to become the 5th-most-accessed book on Project Gutenberg, an open source repository of free and public domain ebooks. It is also the fifth most popular ebook on the site over the last 30 days, having been accessed nearly 60,000 times over the last month (just behind Romeo and Juliet). 

Link to the Guide at Project Gutenberg can be found here

A Wikisource entry can be found here.

A declassified World War II-era government guide to “simple sabotage” is currently one of the most popular open source books on the internet. The book, called “Simple Sabotage Field Manual,” was declassified in 2008 by the CIA and “describes ways to train normal people to be purposefully annoying telephone operators, dysfunctional train conductors, befuddling middle managers, blundering factory workers, unruly movie theater patrons, and so on. In other words, teaching people to do their jobs badly.”  Over the last week, the guide has surged to become the 5th-most-accessed book on Project Gutenberg, an open source repository of free and public domain ebooks. It is also the fifth most popular ebook on the site over the last 30 days, having been accessed nearly 60,000 times over the last month (just behind Romeo and Juliet). 

Link to the Guide at Project Gutenberg can be found here

A Wikisource entry can be found here.

"No, but continue."

"A want tae feel lik that aw the time."

"You're never really going to beat those Scottish stereotypes, are you?"

"Hawl, a've never used anyhin in ma life. The only heroin needle a've ever seen is the wan we fun at ma school bus stoap."

It would be a shame if the protesters began making their signs out of quarter-inch-thick plywood to stop rubber bullets, forming a tight shield wall to prevent police from singling out and mobbing individual protesters. It would be a shame if the people behind the shield wall held up umbrellas so that tear gas canisters fired over their heads on the front line will be bounced away. It would be a shame if protesters began constructing improvised armor vests out of duct tape, hard-backed books, and ceramic tiles.

It would be a shame if protesters started wearing safety glasses, hard hats, respirators, and gardening gloves, all of which can be found at the same hardware stores as the plywood. It would be a shame if they started using traffic cones (the kind without the hole in the top), upside down buckets, or other improvised lids to contain teargas by placing them over the canisters.

It would be a shame if protesters learned that police scanners are legal to own in the US, allowing them to learn where police are moving, and what routes they intend to take. It would be a shame if they discovered that these scanners can be used to send as well as receive, allowing them to flood the scanner frequencies with noise.

All of this would be a terrible, terrible shame.

*It would be an awful shame if you copied and pasted this, so that they couldn't delete the original and all linked posts (again).

**An even worse shame would be to start donating these items to protesters.

But while cancelling Nitro and boycotting Discord CAN be a form of protest, it sadly may not be effective. Why? Bc their hands are tied due to the recent trend in age verification bills worldwide.

Discord is obeying in advance, which is the worst thing to do when dealing with encroaching authoritarianism.

And yes, age verification laws are a form of authoritarianism, using the power of government to quash free expression under a pretext, in this case the pretext of protecting children.

also, on web, we just launched an advanced search dialog that should help folks use all the new operators we added.

Hit the “thumbs down.” It’s like, what’s wrong??? Was our summary wrong? Were there offensive words? Thank you for helping us improve our AI tools :)

I selected “other.”

Text box popped up. Please elaborate!

Wrote in “I can fucking read” submit comment

Then had to spend several minutes torching all my settings with a flamethrower. Let me be clear: I’m (a lawyer) notoriously picky with my words FOR GOOD REASON (lawyering) so I overwhelmingly reject Gmail’s “helpful” little assistance. My privacy settings were set to “full paranoia” a little less than a year ago when I saw the writing on the wall and knew public defenders could become a target in the future. Better to lock it all down now.

Gemini had crept in there and turned ALL that shit back on. And showed itself by saying “Jane Doe says she’s so sorry for your loss and offers to reschedule for Thursday at 3” over an email from Jane Doe saying “I’m so sorry for your loss. We could reschedule for Thursday at 3?”

Why would I possibly need this. In what universe would I need this. I have eyes and a brain and a reading speed that twenty years ago was measured at 1500 wpm with full comprehension on dense scientific text. Furthermore! If I read a summary, I’m not reading what they actually wrote. If I’m not reading what they actually wrote, I’m not using my own judgment on the words and phrases that they used.

I literally don’t understand why this is helpful at all. This is just avoidance. Using LLMs to write is specifically Not Writing. Using LLMs to summarize is Not Reading. Using them to make art is Avoiding Making Art. Just READ! Just WRITE! I was not put on this fucking planet to not read and not write and not make art! Avoidance is an anxiety symptom and indulging it gives it more power.

If I had an AI to do my most dreaded task, answer the phone for clients, I wouldn’t use it. Because an AI cannot help them. An AI cannot hear the facts of their case, make appropriate noises, be thoughtful and insightful, and then give them a realistic estimate of what could happen in court. I am unique. I cannot be replaced by machine learning. I have style. I have expertise. I don’t hallucinate unless I’m having a really great Friday night and I’m off the clock.

When I need to outsource tasks from my own brain, I give them to people I know can do them and that I trust to do them right.

The United States actually had open borders until 1924

The Immigration Act of 1924 had an overall negative impact on the economy and foreign relations with Asia, but Hitler praised it.

ICE didn't exist until 2003

Illegal immigration is not actually classified as a crime. If it was, cases would be handled by the judicial branch, and defendants would receive the benefits of due process. But because it isn't, it is handled by the executive branch, and defendants do not get due process. That means no lawyers, no jury, and no real judge.

Immigration "court" processes about 30 people at a time, including children, and the "judges," who are not required to have any experience or education in law, face no consequences for wrongful deportation, they are only evaluated based on how many people they process.

Before 2025 there were an estimated 20,000 wrongful deportations, with many confirmed and several reported on in mainstream media. That number skyrocketed in 2025.

The US had open borders before 1924. (which is not to say everyone was permitted, they excluded people based on race and disability, but 1924 is when the US was first considered to have closed borders)

Negative economic impact from the 1924 Immigration Act (fewer patents) (economic harm to US-born workers)

Department of Homeland Security, formed in 2002, created ICE in 2003

Hitler praised it, because it was openly just eugenics.

Wrongful deportations (sources within sources)

Other things? Job, Food, Car, Home, Health, Money. Plus a request form.