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Good news, fellow artists! Nightshade has finally been released by the UChicago team! If you aren't aware of what Nightshade is, it's a tool that helps poison AI datasets so that the model "sees" something different from what an image actually depicts. It's the same team that released Glaze, which helps protect art against style mimicry (aka those finetuned models that try to rip off a specific artist). As they show in their paper, even a hundred poisoned concepts make a huge difference.

(Reminder that glazing your art is more important than nighshading it, as they mention in their tweets above, so when you're uploading your art, try to glaze it at the very least.)

#help stop art theft #protect your art #Please share to help artists

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Happy Crowy Yule! It's a reall whose who of Yuletide.

#crow time #op is a constant delight #finest holiday traditions #go follow this artist

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“You need to believe in things that aren’t true. How else can they become” - Hogfather, Terry Pratchett

#terry pratchett #hogfather #holiday reading #tis the season #amazing quotes #some things just ingrain themselves in your bones

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Reblog to give the person you reblogged from the ability to finish their WIPs

#staring at my list of wips and things I want to work on #please help me #there is so much I want to do

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Cosmic latte

"Cosmic latte" refers to the average color of the universe as determined by a team of astronomers led by Karl Glazebrook and Ivan Baldry. In 2002, they conducted a study to determine the color of the universe by combining light from over 200,000 galaxies.

After analyzing the spectral data from these galaxies, the researchers calculated the average wavelength of light and determined that the color of the universe, when viewed as a whole, is a pale beige or light brown. They humorously named this color "cosmic latte" due to its resemblance to the color of milky coffee.

The color was arrived at by combining the light emitted by stars of different ages and colors in the observed galaxies. It represents a composite color that takes into account the distribution and intensity of light throughout the universe.

The discovery of the cosmic latte color provides an interesting perspective on the overall composition of the universe. It indicates that the combination of stars and galaxies across vast distances creates a uniform hue when viewed from a distance.

While the term "cosmic latte" is not an official scientific term, it has gained popularity in popular science discussions and has become a recognizable way to describe the average color of the universe. It serves as a playful and relatable way to conceptualize the vastness and complexity of the cosmos.

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It is with profound disappointment that we report the industry CEOs have walked away from the bargaining table after refusing to counter our latest offer. (1/11)

We have negotiated with them in good faith, despite the fact that last week they presented an offer that was, shockingly, worth less than they proposed before the strike began.

These companies refuse to protect performers from being replaced by AI, they refuse to increase your wages to keep up with inflation, and they refuse to share a tiny portion of the immense revenue YOUR work generates for them.

We have made big, meaningful counters on our end, including completely transforming our revenue share proposal, which would cost the companies less than 57¢ per subscriber each year. They have rejected our proposals and refused to counter.

Instead they use bully tactics. Just tonight, they intentionally misrepresented to the press the cost of the above proposal – overstating it by 60%.

They have done the same with A.I., claiming to protect performer consent, but continuing to demand “consent” on the first day of employment for use of a performer’s digital replica for an entire cinematic universe (or any franchise project).

The companies are using the same failed strategy they tried to inflict on the WGA – putting out misleading information in an attempt to fool our members into abandoning our solidarity and putting pressure on our negotiators.

But, just like the writers, our members are smarter than that and will not be fooled.

We feel the pain these companies have inflicted on our members, our strike captains, IATSE, Teamsters and Basic Crafts union members, and everyone in this industry. We have sacrificed too much to capitulate to their stonewalling and greed.

We stand united and ready to negotiate today, tomorrow, and every day.

Our resolve is unwavering. Join us on picket lines and at solidarity events around the country and let your voices be heard.

One day longer. One day stronger. As long as it takes.

- Your TV/Theatrical Negotiating Committee

[Oct 12, 2023]

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You are working the gate in the afterlife and for the first time ever, something the humans built has shown up to be processed. You’re not sure what to do, this… entity shouldn’t have a soul, but here it is in front of you, freshly dead and awaiting the next life.

#dang it #now im crying #I havent even finished my first cup of tea yet #this was beautiful

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mmm soob

#soup #op this is brilliant #exactly what happens when posting recipes on tumbler

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Long, long ago, before Twitter descended into its end-stage hellscape, I ran a few iterations of a weird little choose-your-own-adventure game there, where I used the poll functions to offer options as we traversed a strange concrete labyrinth. I’d like to do that again. But as the shortest poll I can run is one day, this is more like a play-by-mail than a real-time on-the-fly. Fewer choices, but hey, you do get much longer descriptions!

The Rules

- Your choices are by majority poll (though if there are two identical options, they may be weighed together)

- If y’all choose to do something boneheaded, you WILL die, and the game will begin again with a new adventurer (who may someday find your corpse!)

- If y’all choose to retire and raise cabbages, by god, I will send you home to raise cabbages, which is sort of a happily ever after

- If you played on Twitter, please be kind and don’t spoiler too hard for the new players! Also, don’t assume the maze is still the same…

- Life being what it is, I cannot promise every update will land as soon as the poll closes—I love you guys, but y’know

Let’s begin, shall we?

You, friend, are the latest graduate of the Wentworth School Of Exploration and Adventure (Goooo Fighting Codfish!) the second-best explorer’s school in the city. You left behind your grandmother’s cabbage farm in pursuit of higher, better, possibly more fatal things.

It was at Wentworth that you first came across a reference to the works of Eland the Younger, that wandering naturalist, historian…okay, occasionally out-and-out liar…and his great fragmentary work, the Book of the Gear. It detailed his descent into a great clockwork labyrinth, filled with strange creatures and stone gears. Even for Eland, it’s a bit weird. Most scholars dismiss it outright as a fabrication, and the few professors who would talk to you about it strongly suggested that it was dangerous and you should ignore any rumors about its location and do something else. (Possibly on one of their projects! For course credit, obviously, not money.)

You didn’t listen. It was all just more academic cabbages as far as you’re concerned. It took a lot of research and guesswork and a lot of slogging, but after cutting your way through the overgrown woods, miles from any town, you find yourself standing before a stone wall with an immense crack in it. The edge of a stone gear taller than a man is just visible inside.

A small finch sits on a branch nearby, waiting.

Wentworth students are highly trained in the arts of adventuring, including Hiking, Skulking, Orienteering, and deciphering avian interpretive dance. Which brings us to the first question!

#gearworld #ursula vernon #t kingfisher #choose your own adventure

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heartbreaking:

girl has sooooooo many ambitions and ideas for projects but can only get 1.5 basic tasks done per day

#my life #this just makes me want to put my head in my hands #ah yes my old enemy... my inability to do everything i want to accomplish

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Extremely excited to announce these official Sirrus and Achenar prints that I did for Myst's 30th Anniversary! MY BOYS. My heraldic boys.

(They should be available soon, though there's a chance to win a set of the limited foil-embossed editions over on Cyan's twitter 👀📕📘)

#myst #sirrus #achenar #I should replay that series.... its been so long #OPs art is so gorgeous 😍

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That’s right!

Hopper’s plushie is now available, so you can have your own personal menace storming around your home, hoarding your valuables and being really-really cute!! (Don’t mention that last part though)

Bring her home here!

#Aaaaaaaaaaaa! #so cute #i love them #dragon plush #little and fierce #plushie

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Or just go to browse and hang out! I promise it will be inspiring :)

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(source)

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I've been rolling something around in my head.

If everyone receives Minimum Basic Income, what happens to all the relationships where one of the individuals no longer has to depend on the other(s) to survive?

Just let that marinate for a moment.

Not just the economic landscape but the social landscape could be transformed.

#just imagine #a UBI would change so much for the better

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I’ve been looking for this really helpful post about artist growth… where you get to these points where your skill doesn’t match your knowledge of what SHOULD look good, and then it flips… it looked like a double helix on the graph, if that helps. If anyone happens to have that pic I’d love to see it again!