For those who don't know, Rafah Crossing is closed. Meaning Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are technically not allowed to go into Egypt through Rafah Crossing (with exceptions, like holding a foreign passport) so in order to evacuate, Palestinians need to bribe Egyptian border security officials. The standard price used to be about $5000 - 7000 per person but some Palestinians have been told to pay $10,000 per person just to cross the border, forget other expenses like food and boarding.

For a group of people who are enduring genocide and the complete destruction of their homes that money is impossible to raise without the help of fundraising. That and the collapse of the UNRWA is the reason you're seeing so many Gofundmes nowadays. The entire aid system is gone with the exception of local aid organisations that have limited reach.

So if you see a credible fundraiser, please at the very least share it so it can reach more people. This list by @el-shab-hussein is a good place to start.

Anyone else only in their 20s but feel like they are running out of time to get their life together??

Don’t. I felt this way too, in my twenties, but you know what? I began transitioning at 30. I went back to grad school at 32. I’m living my best life, and while I’m a little behind the curve compared to some of my classmates on some things, I’m also so far ahead of them on others. You need follow nobody’s schedule but your own. Life is hard and the world isn’t doing any of us favors. Be kind to yourself, and remember that you still have plenty of time. The only difference between starting now and 5 or 10 years earlier is now you have more experience.

I needed to hear this so badly

In case you lost it - a link to the eSIM donation guide. Even if you feel sick and powerless, you can at least do this. And even if you really, really can't donate, you can always at least share this and remind others.

https://gazaesims.com/esim-purchase-tutorial/

the lowest tier, which costs 9 dollars, offers a week of connection while the very next, 16 dollars, will provide a full month of contact with the world to someone who desperately needs it. this is not some idle step. an entire month is a huge length of time for people who are displaced, terrified, and isolated.

If you want to help diabetics in Gaza, please donate or boost

Full video

The sadness and despair in those eyes...

There are no innocent soldiers in iof, including the women. I've seen female soldiers laughing and dancing at the misery of Palestinian people and doing heinous acts just like their male counterparts.

Hey, friends with poor memory. This is a sign to go ahead and learn anything you want, even if you're afraid you're going to forget it all. Read Wikipedia articles, watch documentaries, take free classes, and delve deep into books and lore. Maybe I'm the only one who has this fear, maybe not. But learning for pleasure is just as much--if not moreso-- about the joy of the experience as it is about memorization.

If you’re really into hardcore music (and adjacent), 121 bands have come together to release a compilation album to benefit Palestinian children (all proceedings will be donated to MECA for Peace). The album was released on bandcamp and is called “A HOMELAND DENIED: A Compilation for Palestinian Liberation” and you can get by clicking the link.

IMPORTANT NOTE: under all of the track listings is text that encourages someone wanting to download the comp to donate $10 or more DIRECTLY to MECA for Peace and to send proof of this donation to an email, they will then send you a download code!

this way they can get around bandcamp taking a HUGE cut of the money you are attempting to donate! please follow the instructions there to donate directly, it would be a shame to unintentionally give a corporation a big percentage of your donation

I know you have all probably seen the esims for gaza posts circulating. Some of you have probably looked at them and thought maybe you should help out, but have weighed up the daunting process of signing up for something you're unfamiliar with vs. the gut-wrenching scale of the things people are going through on the ground right now, and you've put it off or questioned whether it will make enough of a difference vs. some other future kind of activism you could put that $6+ towards. I'm not calling you out or scolding you, it is natural to feel conflicted and ambivalent about the multiple calls for aid that you are seeing on social media.

but consider this: what would you do if you suddenly had to leave your home? how would you cope? how would you begin to plan where to go next, or figure out what to do to take care of yourself? most likely you would reach reflexively for your phone.

telecoms access is not a petty luxury in 2024. a loaded esim means the ability to call family members and find out where they are and whether they're safe, and whether they need anything you can provide for them. it means access to maps and regular updates on the situation unfolding around you. it means you can look up whether it's safe to drink rain water, or how to tie a type of knot you've never had to think about before, or how to treat an injury without medical supplies. it means the ability to tell people outside the situation what you are seeing, what you are feeling, what you are thinking. it is an absolutely crucial resource. and it starts at $6 for 7 days.

many many people have observed that internet access is changing the way the world understands genocide. internet access is life or death, and it is shaping modern history in front of you. and it starts at $6 for 7 days.

please, please visit gazaesims.com and spend 5 minutes and $6 to change the way this plays out for everyone.

also at the end when they ask you "any questions?" and you can't think of anything: ask about parking. even if you don't have a car.

Another good response to the "any questions" bit is to ask the interviewers what they like about working there. Shows interest in what it's actually like to work there beyond the propaganda of the advert and website, and hesitation or vague answers can be a red flag to pay attention to if you're in a position where you can turn down a job offer.

So a free tool called GLAZE has been developed that allows artists to cloak their artwork so it can't be mimicked by AI art tools.

AI art bros are big mad about it.

Seeing as Twitter is gonna legally steal your work now, please use glaze to protect what you make.

Guys did you hear about Nightshade?

Using both Glaze and Nightshade would corrupt the generation of pictures mimicking artist AND mess with the AI's recognition of what everything is. Like it would generate a dog when you ask for a cat.

And it would be hell for AI bros to remove the cloaked pictures from their database ʕ 👀人ʔ

We are all, at any given moment, about 5 seconds away from permanent disability.

I was driving my car to work. I am a good driver. I have no at-fault accidents in my history. I was hit by a drowsy driver that was later charged with DWI and I still ended up with permanent disability from this.

I stood up from a chair. I was sitting at a table in my work’s break room eating my lunch and stood to throw away my trash and clock in and my knee buckled underneath me and I spent three months completely non-weight-bearing on that leg and even still today there are things I can’t do anymore due to this.

It doesn’t matter if you eat right, sleep right, drive right, work right, only have sex with the right people, only purchase the right things.

Anything can happen to you. You are always 5 seconds away from becoming disabled for the rest of your life.

I have always been disabled. I haven’t always been this disabled.

Instead of appending your “I hope the south gets nuked to hell/destroyed in a hurricane/etc” posts with a half-assed retroactive “but only the racists!!!” whenever anyone points out how appallingly classist, anti-Latine, anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, and just carelessly cruel it is to wish that kind of thing on literally the most diverse part of the country, if y’all actually gave half a shit about the people struggling under undemocratic entrenched systems of kyriarchy and oppression in the south you’d be raising awareness of and sending solidarity and donations to all the radical organizations doing amazing work down here

Your pompous self-righteous sense of superiority ain’t worth shit. We’re fighting for our lives down here while you sit back and mock us

Y’all owe us $5 for every one of those jokes you made or shared

literally no dermatologist on earth says acne is caused by bad hygeine/lack of a skincare routine btw. its genetic. every single piece of research ever done on acne says its genetic. feel like i need to restate this every time i see a post about skincare

a few years ago i made an identical post to this and someone tagged it with “yeah ive known this from personal experience. because i once spent an entire summer not bathing and the only water that ever touched my face was from public pools yet i never once had any acne” and every single time i see someone talking up their skincare routine this info forces its way back into my brain

dont be a fucking dumbass on this post btw im serious. actually read academic papers on acne dont fucking post correlation is causation shit on this post. every person who has acne has a half dozen multi billion dollar industries constantly trying to convince them its secretly their fault against all published research as it stands. so don’t fucking help them

just wanted to remind everyone again not only of the 3,000+ resources offered through our Liberation Library but also of the study guides for beginners offered under each of our social justice topics!

resources can be organized by type (article, novel, podcast, video, etc.) as well as filtered and searched through. we’ve tried to make our system much more accessible than our former platform on google docs so this is such an exciting development to share with everyone.

please share to promote equitable access education!

https://www.the-pro-creator.com/2019/01/I-hate-adobe-and-so-should-you.html

I’m posting the links here because the link keeps on a loop with adfly

IF YOU DRAW OR DESIGN Instead of PHOTOSHOP, try GIMP Instead of LIGHTROOM, try PAINT.DOT.NET Instead of ILLUSTRATOR, try INKSCAPE Instead of INDESIGN, try CANVA or SCRIBUS

IF YOU MAKE PICTURES MOVE Instead of PREMIERE, try DAVINCI RESOLVE Instead of ANIMATE/FLASH, try OPENTOONZ or BLENDER Instead of AFTER EFFECTS, try WAX, BLENDER or FUSION

IF YOU BUILD WEBSITES OR SOFTWARE Instead of DREAMWAVER, SPARK or XD, try WIX, WEEBLY, or WORDPRESS.COM or WORDPRESS.ORG

IF YOU DO STUFF THAT REQUIRES THESE OTHER PROGRAMS Instead of AUDITION, try AUDACITY Instead of ACROBAT PRO, try FOXIT READER or PDF ESCAPE Instead of INCOPY, try LOVING YOURSELF AND USING LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE (WHO USES THIS???)

IF YOU NEED STOCK PHOTOS OR FONTS Instead of ADOBE STOCK, try PEXELS, UNSPLASH, or PIXABAY Instead of ADOBE PHONTS, try GOOGLE FONTS or DAFONT

BONUS: If you need FREE MUSIC OR SOUND EFFECTS, try YOUTUBE AUDIO LIBRARY or SOUNDBIBLE

My bonuses:

IF YOU DRAW OR DESIGN Instead of PHOTOSHOP, try FIREALPACA , SAI , SKETCHBOOK or KRITA (these latter two are great!) Instead of LIGHTROOM, try PHOTOSCAPE

IF YOU MAKE PICTURES MOVE Instead of PREMIERE, try SHOTCUT Instead of ANIMATE/FLASH, try PENCIL2D ANIMATION, LIVE2D, OR E-MOTE

IF YOU NEED STOCK PHOTOS Instead of ADOBE STOCK, try MORGUEFILE.COM

godspeed to anyone trying to use gimp and canva as substitutes for the adobe suite. and rip to anyone trying to use davinci resolve for video editing. but i morally can’t scroll past this post without noting that adobe cc is literally the easiest software to crack in human history and one could just Do That instead of torturing oneself with these substitutes. if one was so inclined

website

StopNCII.org is operated by the Revenge Porn Helpline which is part of SWGfL, a charity that believes that everyone should benefit from technology, free from harm. Founded in 2000, SWGfL works with a number of partners and stakeholders around the world to protect everyone online

Sounds legit

Reminder

The Days of Awe, also known as the High Holidays are quickly approaching.

This means be aware & don’t schedule important events, tests, meetings, etc, when your Jewish community members cannot be in attendance in order to observe them.

Rosh Hashanah

Begins sunset of Friday, September 15, 2023

Ends nightfall of Sunday, September 17, 2023

Yom Kippur

Begins sunset of Sunday, September 24, 2023

Ends nightfall of Monday, September 25, 2023

For most Christians in the US, most of your holidays are bank holidays & you get paid double to work, if you so choose. Our High Holy Days forbid work for us. 

Don’t force your Jewish colleagues, friends, family, and community members to have to lose out because you have the privilege not to.