Rant by Anand Giridharadas about turning people away from the pro-democracy movement

Found this article via a comment on Lobsters for a completely different article. It's not exactly the type of knowledge I see myself using in the immediate future, but I think it's still interesting and educational to think about.

Qaffīn (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – A guest house in the shape of a plane would stand out anywhere in the world, but in the occupied West Bank devoid of airports, Minwer Harsha's creation helps aviation dreams take flight.

"So many kids want to come," said 27-year-old Harsha, who built the guest house in the hills of the northern West Bank, within view of the separation barrier between Israel and the Palestinian territory.

"And that's the goal: since we don't have planes or airports, people come here instead," he told AFP.

Harsha said he designed the concrete plane himself, with a master bedroom in the cockpit and a children's bedroom in the tail.

The price tag, between 1,000 and 2,000 shekels (about $300-$600) per night, is out of reach for most Palestinians, particularly as unemployment soars due to the war in Gaza.

He has nonetheless been pleased with the reactions to his chalet, having initially faced scepticism.

"I wanted to bring something unique, something new to the area and to Palestine," Harsha said of the unit, which opened a month ago.

Since its launch, his red and white concrete plane has become a local landmark, featuring in local media and on social networks.

Harsha said he originally wanted to place a Palestinian flag on his chalet and call it the "Palestinian Queen", but avoided such signs out of caution.

The guest house is located in the West Bank's Area C, which covers more than 60 percent of the territory and is under full Israeli control.

"I just made it look like a plane. I avoided politics entirely because of the hardships our people are going through," he said.

"We're a people who are constantly losing things -- our land, our rights, our lives."

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and frequently demolishes homes it says are built without permission in the mostly rural Area C.

Though no airport currently services the Palestinian territories, both the West Bank and Gaza once had their own terminals, in east Jerusalem and the southern Gaza city of Rafah, respectively.

Both were closed during the Second Intifada, the Palestinian uprising of the early 2000s, and what remains of east Jerusalem's airport is now isolated from the rest of the West Bank by Israel's separation barrier.

Despite difficulties and threats of demolition, Harsha believes that Palestinians can find freedom and fulfilment in projects like his.

"I encourage everyone who has land to work on it and invest in it -- with creativity and ambition," he said, flanked by his two brothers who helped him build the unit.

Harsha himself has more plans for his land.

"After this aeroplane, we'll build a ship next year," he said.

"It will be something unique and beautiful," he said, pointing out that while many West Bank Palestinians have seen planes flying overhead, a large number of people from the landlocked territory have never seen a real ship at all.

But Paramount’s future aside, the end of Colbert signals a dark new chapter in Trump’s authoritarian slide. Though his second term has already produced a string of stunning capitulations by some of the most powerful forces in the country, one could argue that Trump’s attacks had yet to take down our actual culture. I’m talking about the literal content we consume—the television, art, movies, literature, music—no matter how much Trump complained. That it remained protected and free-willed, a rare area of control for a public that otherwise feels powerless to take action. Clearly, that was magical thinking. If this can happen to Colbert and a storied franchise, this can happen to anyone.

The only upside is that Colbert will soon be free to go scorched earth against a president he detests. Every other network stands to gain enormously right now. Here’s to hoping a spine emerges.

bluesky source

love this youtube creator

Before Tetris took over arcades and consoles, it was just a computer game.

Not even a Western one. It started on a Soviet mainframe.

What most people don’t know is that its first home versions were for DOS. The very first DOS port came out in 1986, made by Vadim Gerasimov—a Russian developer who adapted Alexey Pajitnov’s original concept for IBM PCs.

Then came the flood. Lots of other DOS ports followed, some barely licensed, others “licensed” in the Cold War handshake sense.

But the first official DOS release made specifically for the West? That was Spectrum Holobyte’s version in 1988. It beat the NES. It beat the arcade version.

And yes—this version was still based on Gerasimov’s DOS design.

Now, I don’t think it’s the best home version of Tetris. But it’s easily the strangest—and maybe the most interesting.

For starters, Spectrum Holobyte leaned hard into the Cold War theming. One of their print ads straight-up asked: “What are the Three Greatest Things to Come Out of the U.S.S.R.?” The answer? The Bolshoi ballet. Stolichnaya vodka. And Tetris. That was the pitch. The ad featured dancers in mid-leap, a frosty bottle of Stoli on ice, and a red game box with Cyrillic text and Saint Basil’s Cathedral slapped right on the cover. It was less a software ad than a cultural export campaign—equal parts kitsch, nationalism, and Cold War tourism. You didn’t just buy a puzzle game. You bought a Russian moment.

Inside the game, every screen drips with Soviet vibes: fishing vessels, space cosmonauts, Russian folk music, even a reference to the “Miracle on Ice.” The high score list? Labeled “Top Ten Comrades.” That kind of commitment.

This was deliberate. Spectrum Holobyte’s CEO literally asked the devs to preserve the “Soviet spirit,” not tone it down. He wanted Americans to want to buy a Russian product. Which, in 1988, was a pretty wild ask.

There was also a plane that flew across the title screen—an easter egg referencing Mathias Rust’s illegal flight into Red Square, which had humiliated the Soviet military the year before. Elorg, the Soviet licensing agency, didn’t love that. It got patched out. Along with a bunch of other Cold War touches. Fighter jets? Gone. Submarines? Replaced with a man on a horse.

Pajitnov himself insisted that Tetris be “a peaceful game heralding a new era in superpower relations.” Apparently, that meant fewer tanks.

Technically, this version of Tetris is barebones—but in a foundational kind of way. It’s missing a lot of what we now take for granted. There’s no hold piece. No wall kicks. No 180° rotation. Some versions don’t even give you bonus points for clearing four lines. Which, let’s be honest, kind of defeats the point of a Tetris.

Instead, scoring is mostly about how fast you drop pieces and whether you survive. That’s it. There is a hard drop, though. And you can set the starting height and level. Which was a nice touch.

Rotation is basic. Just clockwise and counterclockwise. No fancy adjustments. If a piece doesn’t fit, it just doesn’t. There’s no wall-kick logic to save you. And once a piece touches down? It locks immediately.

No second chances. No little delay. You either commit or you stack badly and panic.

Even visually, it’s oddly compelling. Only CGA and EGA are supported—VGA was still too new—but the artwork is stylized in a way that sticks with you. The backgrounds are moody and distinct. It doesn’t feel like it’s trying to be flashy. It feels… ideological.

I know the Mac, Amiga, and Atari ST versions had more colors. And some fancier music. But the DOS version has character. It’s a cultural time capsule disguised as a puzzle game.

Also worth noting: this version sold like crazy. Over 100,000 units in its first year. The average player? Mid-30s, probably an engineer or middle manager. Half were women—which, for a PC game in the ’80s, is almost unheard of.

And if you’re running this today? You’ll probably get a divide overflow error. You’ll need a patch just to launch it.

This wasn’t just a game. It was a diplomatic artifact. A licensing mess. A Cold War curiosity. A version of Tetris that, for all its simplicity, tells you more about 1988 than most history books.

One of the legs of my sofa broke. Thinking about repairing but not sure the best way to do that. I have a very limited amount of tools

I'm thinking of unscrewing the other legs, then resting the frame on something. What should I rest it on? I'm thinking of just getting some wood form Lowes or something like that. Is that totally stupid?

Is there a way to check the strength of the frame? Am I just delaying the inevitable?

Appreciate any advice you can offer!

"I almost wanted to post my thoughts and concerns over lemmy, until I realized that it was way too fucking long, so I got really angry and crushed a bottle of water that was near me, I wanted to punch a wall, but the bottle came in clutch. I am so fucking angry right now, I am fucking, RAGE."

There's no hope left for me. My health is in rapid decline, I have fibromyalgia, my limbs hurt every time I try to move them, my neck and shoulders hurt all the time too. I can't open my mouth all the way to the end, because my jaw would get stuck. I cannot speak for more than 20 minutes or so, because my throat will start to ache for hours. My eyesight is in decline, my glasses are so strong that I am starting to see edges being blurred or light behaving in strange ways. And that's only my physical health. If I was to start to talk about my mental health, paragraphs upon paragraphs would not even begin to describe my experience. In every waking second, I am in extreme pain.

For context, I live in the middle east, seeking help is not an option, making friends is not an option, I have tried many times, and decided not to. It would take about 5 or 6 years for me to even begin to see a chance of escaping this, this sickness, this place, this wasteland. So why hope? Hope for what? Everyday, my health is playing dice with me, one day I will snap, and I have snapped many times. I do not know what I will do. I have tried many ways to alleviate my "problems". I have tried meditation, and it works for a certain degree, I have tried music, and it works for a certain degree, I have tried journaling, and it is possibly the reason why I still haven't killed myself. If not for my journal and my music, I would be dead. But tonight, tonight, I have the overwhelming urge to end it. I joke many times by saying that the only reason why I haven't killed myself is because I do not have the means to do. There aren't high buildings around me, using a knife would be dumb as I would just bleed and cry, because oh no survival instincts. Pills are dumb too, as I might just throw up. I can't tie a noose, plus there's a chance of failure that I don't want to deal with.

So here I am, stuck in a limbo of suffering, as I am writing this my arms are begging me to stop typing, so I could stare at the ceiling and focus on their pain.

Here are some random copy and pastes from today's journal entry:

"Each day is more hopeless than the next. My health seems to take its toll more and more. I can't speak, move my limbs, or do anything really. My mouth starts to ache when I speak for more than 20 minutes, my limbs have been discussed extensively in many, many previous entries, my eyes are in decline, even my hearing is starting to show signs of decay. That leaves me with my brain, which is also fogged and clouded."

"I am in a very bad shape, I don't know what the future has for me. My only task right now is to survive one year of high school, I have to, I am not trying to agitate your anxiety, but the more you fail school the more years you will be stuck here. I am sick, like literally, physically, sick of this place. This place shall only bring suffering and ruin upon me.

"This place is like a void, the more I stay in it, the more it sucks out of me. I am certain that if I stay here any longer, I will kill myself."

"Chances are astronomically high, that the more I stay here, the more likely I am to kill myself."

"This place is a sickness, a plague, a fucking wasteland of carrion and decay."

"I am destroyed, I am spent, I have no energy left, no energy to think, no energy to listen, no energy to speak, no energy to plan my suicide. I wish, I wish... That all of this somehow goes away. It won't, I have to endure, decrease the pain, and cope in a healthy manner. And I am trying, trying really hard, with what little energy I have."

PS: You know what's funny? Compiling this was actually a very nice distraction, but that's what it is, a distraction, a very short one.

Art is by azaza0727

The original soundtrack by Magnus Pålsson was composed in 8 bit chiptune style and also slaps very hard.

Quick Facts:

• The changes to the bylaws follow similar changes recently adopted in Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
• Between May and June 2025, B.C. has received nearly 780 job applications spanning all health regions: 181 for Interior Health, 154 for Fraser Health, 121 for Vancouver Coastal Health, 112 for Island Health, 70 for Providence Health Care, 66 for Provincial Health Services Authority and 63 for Northern Health (some applicants may have applied to more than one health authority).
• The Province is taking a Team B.C. approach to recruiting health-care workers from the U.S., and is working in collaboration with health authorities, regulatory colleges and other partners.
• The Province launched a targeted U.S. marketing campaign on June 2, 2025, in Washington, Oregon and select cities in California.

To further improve recruitment, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. (CPSBC) implemented bylaw changes on July 7, 2025, that benefit doctors trained outside of Canada. Since then, CPSBC has received 29 registration applications from U.S. doctors.

From the description:

Own the short: https://www.rifftrax.com/chimp-the-fi...

In a world increasingly devoid of inspiration, firefighters are true heroes. Selflessly entering burning buildings, putting themselves in harms way to the ravages of wildfire, getting the occasional cartoon cat out of a tree. They are such heroes they make Captain America look like a mere Hawkeye.

So what this short puts forth is: A chimp can do their job. A chimp named Shorty. Just put him in a funny hat and let him rescue the old lady who’s screaming from a second floor window, the rest of us human firefighter have a poker game that needs our attention. Oh, and see if the chimp will pick up some Thai while he’s out!

They say to never work with children or animals, but to always riff monkeys. So we did. Please join Mike, Kevin, and Bill for Chimp the Fireman.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Salem1690s on 2025-07-19 01:48:02+00:00.

Original Title: TIL King George III had empathy for Native Americans and pushed the the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which forbade all new settlements west of a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains, which was delineated as an Indian Reserve. This angered many Colonists.

Unless you've been chilling under a rock, you've heard that Paramount cancelled the Late Show and effectively fired Stephen Colbert for his being critical of the Trump administration.

For many people, this act, on top of their similar decimation of 60 minutes, is the final straw. We cannot simply and silently allow the acquiescence of free press to billionaire fascists.

I've seen lots of talk on the internet about boycotting CBS, Paramount and Skydance. I haven't seen an exhaustive list of all their holdings, so here it is.

You will note that their kingdom is vast and you may find it difficult or troubling to give up every single thing here. Just remember that boycotts do not have to be all-or-nothing. Anything on this list that you can avoid and convince your friends to avoid is incredibly valuable.

Here we go.

Note: since some users may find this relevant, yes, I did consult AI to help me aggregate and format this list for readability.

📛 Boycott List: Paramount, CBS, Skydance – Media, Services, and Franchises to Avoid (as of July 2025)

🎬 Paramount Global / CBS

📺 Broadcast & Cable Networks:

• CBS (flagship broadcast)
• CBS Sports Network
• The CW (12.5% stake)
• BET, BET Gospel, BET Her, BET Soul, BET Jams
• VH1
• MTV, MTV2, MTV Classic, MTV Tres, MTVU, MTV Live
• Comedy Central
• Paramount Network (formerly Spike TV)
• CMT, CMT Music
• Logo TV
• Pop
• TV Land
• Smithsonian Channel

📡 Streaming Services & Digital Platforms:

• Paramount+ (formerly CBS All Access)
• CBS (website/app)
• CBS Sports HQ
• CBS News 24/7
• ET Live (Entertainment Tonight live stream)
• Pluto TV (free ad-supported)
• Nick+
• Philo (joint venture)

🏭 Studios & Content Production:

• Paramount Pictures
• CBS Studios / CBS Television Studios
• Showtime Networks: Showtime, The Movie Channel, Flix
• BET Studios
• Nickelodeon Studios
• Paramount Animation
• CBS Eye Animation Productions
• MTV Entertainment Studios
• Comedy Central Productions
• Paramount Players
• Awesomeness
• See It Now Studios

🎙 Radio & Local News:

• CBS News Radio
• CBS News and Stations (owned-and-operated TV stations in 17 markets)

🧠 Related Brands & Intellectual Properties (IPs):

• Nickelodeon IPs: SpongeBob, TMNT, Dora, Blue’s Clues
• Comedy Central IPs: South Park, The Daily Show, Key & Peele
• Showtime IPs: Billions, Dexter, Homeland, Ray Donovan
• Paramount Film/TV Franchises:
  • Mission: Impossible
  • Top Gun
  • Transformers
  • Star Trek
  • Yellowstone
  • Forrest Gump
  • Titanic
  • The Godfather
  • Grease
  • CSI, NCIS
  • Twilight Zone
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender

🚀 Skydance Media

🎥 Film & Television Production:

• Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Dead Reckoning Part One
• Top Gun: Maverick
• Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
• Without Remorse, Jack Ryan, Annihilation
• The Old Guard, The Tomorrow War, Ghosted
• Heart of Stone, Spy Kids: Armageddon
• The Family Plan, The Final Reckoning
• Series: Grace and Frankie, Altered Carbon, Jack Ryan, Foundation, FUBAR, The Big Door Prize

🎨 Animation (Skydance Animation):

• Luck (2022)
• Spellbound (2024)
• Upcoming: Pookoo, Ray Gunn, Jack and the Beanstalk, WondLa (Apple TV+), new Don Hall project (Netflix)

🎮 Gaming & Interactive:

• Archangel: Hellfire
• The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
• Behemoth
• Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra (upcoming)
• Untitled Star Wars games (Lucasfilm collaboration)

✅ Summary Table: Major Properties to Avoid

🛑 Note on Merger Status (July 2025)

Paramount Global and Skydance Media are in the process of merging (announced 2024). Full integration expected late 2025 pending regulatory approval. As a precaution, consider both brands as linked entities for boycott purposes.

###UPDATE: Bonus Boycott! If the above doesn't quite scratch your boycotting itch, consider also withdrawing your support from some of CBS' biggest advertisers (thanks u/Living-Release5437):

• Verizon
• Geico
• Bud Light
• Google Pixel
• T-Mobile
• Capital One
• State Farm
• Wingstop
• Toyota
• Pfizer
• Sanofi
• AbbVie
• GSK
• Target
• AstraZeneca
• Unilever
• Allstate
• Intuit/TurboTax
• Universal Pictures

And REMEMBER: if you can, whenever you cancel a subscription or in any way withdraw your support, try to tell them WHY this is happening (either in those surveys they give you after cancelling, a tweet, an email, anything. I work in UXR and I promise you that all of this feedback is aggregated and taken seriously.)

Originally Posted By u/QuantumLettuce2025 At 2025-07-18 12:15:06 PM | Source