This thread is full of the luckiest people on the planet, I think. Also goes to show just how calm even venomous snakes are - coral snakes rarely bite unless you’re actively harassing them - and how important it is to make sure your ID as non-venomous is 1000% certain before picking up any wild snake.
Update: The fradulent titles were removed by Goodreads and Amazon under pressure from the author community. However, because there’s a chance this just happened due to the bad publicity, she also linked The Author’s Guild for other authors who might have their names stolen for fake books, but who might not have the connections she has or the luck to go viral.
When we started talking about AI being used to write entire books, this was a twist I honestly did not see coming. The things people come up with…
Author: hey I did not right this, could you not say I wrote this?
Amazon: sorry but you don’t have a copyright on the AI and your name isn’t trade marked so we can’t do that
We are moving into a dystopia and it isn’t even an interesting one(though atleast she was able to get it dealt with from fan backlash at this nonsense)
Important to note that ALL trans people are targeted by this ruling. Trans men will be stripped of all chess titles won, which can only be returned to them by “changing the gender back to a woman” (a direct quote from the ICF’s ruling). ALL transgender chess players will be marked as trans in their files.
Not trying to deflect from the blatant and virulent transmisogyny present here. Just giving a bit more info.
Erin Reed did a good breakdown of the ruling here:
The wildfires in Maui, Hawaii have displaced hundreds of families. Lahaina town is ash, and 80% of structures lost were multifamily housing. Though it’s getting less attention, families in Upcountry on the slopes of Haleakala have lost everything too.
Today (8/12/23) the fires are under better control, but all 3 are still active & the county has released water advisories for several neighborhoods. I am watching the helicopters dumping water on the fire nearest me.
We will be years rebuilding. Here are some reputable links for community organizations that are helping if you would like to donate:
Last night one of our major historic towns burnt down. The museum is ashes now. Major cultural centers burnt. The residential areas surrounding it have been destroyed, meaning hundreds of local families are now homeless and recovering from burn wounds. Nobody can afford to buy property on Maui these days, if they can’t recover their land and restore their homes, there’s no chance of just starting over unless they leave the state. And that’s just the worst fire.
Several parts of Haleakala mountain are on fire, extending into at least two major residential areas. Half my family had to evacuate, they’re all safe but I don’t know yet if my uncle still has a home, or where exactly he amd my sister are right now. All the places I used to spend my childhood are gone. Just overnight.
I don’t know where I’m going with this, sorry. I want people to know this is happening but I haven’t been able to find any donation resources or anything yet. Everyone has their hands full with evacuations and medivacs and trying to fight the fires that are still spreading, I don’t think there’s been a chance to even set up donations yet.
If anyone knows any resources please link them. I have no idea what else to do
[Edit]: There’s a mutual aid fund accepting donations at the moment. I know everyone’s broke, and I don’t expect everyone to be able to help out, but please at least spread this.
I may be too stressed to articulate this clearly but I am going to try.
While Hawai'i and Maui are trending I’m going to share this link. Its a FAQ about Hawai'i’s statehood and the situation Hawai'i is in at the moment. There are people who want to be part of the U.S in Hawai'i and there are people who don’t, but the people of Hawai'i were never, at any point, given an option to choose.
If you want to help Hawai'i and it’s people but can’t donate, spread this word. Help educate people. Make Hawai'i as the tropical paradise be replaced with the sovereign nation stolen by the u.s.
It is subtropical, meaning it is much more vulnerable to arid climates caused by climate change.
It has been systematically stripped of its native food harvesting practices and any ability to farm and self sustain. It has been systematically stripped of its previous industries. Maui used to export milk and cattle. That’s all been taken away.
The islands since the 1800s were exploited as plantations, burning sugar cane and growing pineapples which are not native, diverting the water and depleting the water table.
Lahaina burned because of these practices. Because the native people were no longer allowed to govern their lands.
We as local people know that tourism is bad because this systematic destruction has happened in living memory. Within my grandparent’s lifetimes, within my lifetime. I have watched this island crumble at the hands of mainland startups, hoping to take people on whale watching tours that cut the whales with their boats while people aren’t allowed to have a ferry between islands. People create ziplines and tours through lands that used to belong to local people for farming and cattle. Now they’re bought out for photos and hikes the local people can never afford. Hundreds of jobs have been lost in the past thirty years. Mass migrations to the mainland have been made by local people, myself included because we can no longer afford to stay on the island where we were born. Working three jobs is not enough to cover the rent because the houses are bought up by mainland people who then turn these houses into vacation rentals and charge hundreds a night. Right now these very homes are being paid for by the government so that Lahaina people have somewhere to stay and it’s costing the state millions that people in the mainland are reeping.
People ask why tourism is bad. Because there are people alive today on Maui that have watched the foreign industries destroy everything. Because people alive today know what used to be and knew how to take care of the ecosystem so that this kind of calamity didn’t happen. Lahaina was not just fertile. They had canals and waterways. Rivers that they would drive boats through to go from one part of town to another. It was more like Venice than this desert you see in pictures.
And do your own research. The information is out there. There are two Hawai'i’s. The one you see as a tourist, and the REAL one. The one we need to protect.
Let Hawaiians have their land back. Let them restore the water to the land so we can prevent further catastrophe. Tell people about REAL Hawaii.
ALT
