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Doktor Archeville's Laboratory

@dr-archeville / dr-archeville.tumblr.com

Hi!  I am a fat 40-something white introvert in NC.  I worked in the NCSU Libraries for 13 years, then was an insurance agent working with Aflac (quack!) for about 9 months, and currently work as a substitute teacher in Roxboro & a repairer/maintainer of sewing machines out of my home. My preferred pronouns are he/him/his; my preferred nicknames are Doc or Dok, or Science Squid (or Jon). I am a fan of... things.  So many things. * Comics (DC Comics, Marvel Comics) * Tabletop RPGs (Dungeons & Dragons/D&D/DnD, Eclipse Phase, GURPS, Pathfinder, Shadowrun, World of Darkness) (My OCs, my games) * Video Games (Elder Scrolls series, Fallout series, Minecraft) * Podcasts (Binging with Babish, Critical Role) * Webcomics (Order of the Stick, Oglaf, SMBC, Schlock Mercenary, xkcd) * Geek Culture /  Geek Life /  Misc. Geekery (including memes) Basically, if it's got cosplay, fantasy, horror (esp. body horror and zombies), science (or SCIENCE!) & sci-fi, steampunk, or superheroes (or supervillains), I'll probably love it. I also try to keep up with actual science and technology, especially body modification and transhumanism. I also blog about libraries and library- & librarian-related things (including books), in part because I'd worked in a library for thirteen years, and about education (especially education in NC and education in America) due to my work in academic libraries and as a substitute teacher.  And about language and linguistics, as those fascinate me. Also about jobs and job hunting, since I've been unemployed or underemployed for an uncomfortably long time, and we could all use a little help there. I also enjoy cooking (and food), which is a type of science.  Here are some recipes I've collected. This being the internet, I also reblog posts with cute animals.  I'm especially fond of bats.  And squid, cuttlefish, and other cephalopods. While I'm listing animals, I may as well provide a link to my cat posts.  It is the internet, so there are a lot of them. I'm a big fan of/believer in people being themselves, and of consenting adults being able to do whatever they want however they want with whoever they want, no matter what others think.  (I.e., body positivity, sex positivity).  I try to keep this blog SFW -- the only porn I'll be posting here are food porn and technology porn -- but I do sometimes talk about sex (esp. sex education) and burlesque (there are some great burly troupes in the Triangle & Triad area). I struggle with mild depression and anxiety issues, so sometimes my blog may get a bit maudlin.  But I also try to give advice on dealing with those, too. ----------------------- Things I've Liked (Note: May contain some NSFW posts) My Tumblr Crushes My personal blargings About Me / It Me Getting To Know Me My TMI Tuesday blargings My Feels Conventions! * Animazement * ConCarolinas * ConTemporal * Cosplay America * Dragon*Con / Dragon Con My Face My Facebook Art-related blargings Music-related blargings Most Fridays nights I’m at the Retro Film shows at the the Carolina Theatre in Durham.  Come join me!

Remember children—this tactic is really annoying to the police, so YOU SHOULD NOT become floppy—it’s frustrating to them and makes them look bad and is a waste of resources and no one wants that…

"It turns out, he wasn't. In recent months, YouTube has secretly used artificial intelligence (AI) to tweak people's videos without letting them know or asking permission. Wrinkles in shirts seem more defined. Skin is sharper in some places and smoother in others. Pay close attention to ears, and you may notice them warp. These changes are small, barely visible without a side-by-side comparison. Yet some disturbed YouTubers say it gives their content a subtle and unwelcome AI-generated feeling.

There's a larger trend at play. A growing share of reality is pre-processed by AI before it reaches us. Eventually, the question won't be whether you can tell the difference, but whether it's eroding our ties to the world around us."

1. What happened YouTube admitted it’s been running AI processing on some Shorts — sharpening, denoising, smoothing — without asking permission. Creators noticed their own faces looked subtly “off,” like they were wearing AI makeup. And the altered version is what the audience sees.

2. Why this crosses a line

  • Ownership: Your video is your work. Your face is your image. When YouTube silently rewrites it, they are asserting that they—not you—own how you appear on their platform.
  • Trust: Creators like Rick Beato and Rhett Shull rely on authenticity. If the platform itself tampers with that, it erodes the bond between creator and audience.
  • Consent: On your phone, you can toggle filters. On YouTube, you aren’t asked. That’s the difference between a tool you control and a platform that controls you.
  • Reality creep: These changes seem tiny, but they normalize the idea that media is always pre-processed. Once you accept that, the very expectation of “realness” starts to vanish.

3. Why YouTube thinks they can do this

  • Most people won’t notice.
  • Those who do notice won’t leave; there’s no real competition at YouTube’s scale.
  • With bigger global crises, this feels too trivial to fight. They know apathy and exhaustion keep most people quiet.

4. The deeper problem This isn’t about whether a shirt wrinkle looks sharper. It’s about power. YouTube doesn’t see itself as a neutral distributor of your work. It sees itself as the author of the experience, with full rights to “optimize” your content however it likes. Creators are just raw material. That’s why they didn’t ask: asking implies you could say no.

5. What can be done

  • Raise awareness. The only reason this surfaced was because creators with big audiences noticed. Keep amplifying it.
  • Demand control. A mandatory opt-out is the minimum. YouTube must not alter identity without consent.
  • Diversify. Explore Nebula, PeerTube, even Patreon-hosted video. Every bit of independence reduces monopoly leverage.
  • Frame the stakes. This isn’t “just a filter.” It’s a question of who owns your image, your work, your voice. If we concede that to the platform, we’ll lose the last trace of authenticity online.

6. The bottom line Google once said “Don’t be evil.” Now the motto is closer to “Don’t get caught.” They’re not testing video quality — they’re testing how much tampering people will tolerate before they resist. And if there’s no resistance, the platform’s ownership over your reality becomes the default.

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Reblogged

most recent windows 11 update is wiping SSDs

there's been multiple reports of people's computers not booting properly after the windows 11 24H2 KB5063878 update due to it essentially wiping the hard drives (specifically SSDs) on computers and laptops. users have reported their SSDs aren't able to be read/recognized and unable to be seen in bios settings either.

sources: - https://www.windowslatest.com/2025/08/20/microsoft-is-investigating-windows-11-kb5063878-ssd-data-corruption-failure-issue/ - https://www.nichepcgamer.com/archives/windows11-24h2-issue-with-writing-to-the-ssd-is-this-caused-by-kb5063878-kb5062660.html

it's safe to assume all SSDs can be potentially affected by this update, so if you haven't updated yet turn off autoupdates

the bug caused by this update is seemingly triggered by installing/moving/deleting large files (50+ gb), which as simmers is what a lot of us do very pften

if you're unsure what windows version you currently have:

  • go to settings > system > about (at they very bottom) > and scroll down to see the current OS version

if you do currently have windows 11 24H2:

  • in settings, click 'Windows update' > 'Update history' > and under 'Quality Updates' check to see if the KB5063878 update is in the list of recently installed updates

don't panic, you can uninstall this update!

  • while in 'Update History', scroll to the very bottom and click 'Uninstall updates', and click 'Uninstall' for 'Security Update for Microsoft Windows (KB5063878)'

from there, give it some time to remove the update and after pause updates for as long as possible (5 weeks is the longest i think), but it will force an update if there's a big/official update for the fix

if you've already been affected and your computer is not starting or giving errors regarding your hard drive, i recommend visiting small pc repair shops to try data recovery as some have reported placing their SSD in an enclosure seems to work to recover the data

hopefully this is helpful is any kind of way! friendly reminder to back up your data to an external drive routinely!

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My vampires CAN walk into the sunlight but doing so would reveal what they would look like if they aged normally

Younger vampires don’t have much to worry about but older vamps have reason to avoid sunlight as they age. They are still immortal, but their aged, sunlit selves are significantly weaker than their non-sunlit forms. Vamps over 100 years old run the risk of crumpling over, fully immobile, but still conscious

[kisses you tenderly on the lips while holding you like my lover] don’t eat any food with mold on it even if you cut the moldy part off ok?

seriously babe i’m not joking you won’t just get an upset stomach mold poisoning can literally shut down your liver. you also absolutely do not want listeriosis. i am autistic about foodborne illness

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media_file/2021-02/Molds_on_Food.pdf

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The last film I watched was Weapons so yes because I'm a simple soul at heart

If a weird creepy woman was doing weird things to try and put a spell on someone to kill me, I would respond the reasonable and sensible way

I would kill her

i think the last film i watched was Mary Poppins Returns

oh no im gonna have a delightful time. HORRIFYING

"if there's a job that must be done

Don't turn your tail and run!

Don't pout!

Don't sob!

JUST DOOOO A HAAAALLFFF ASSSSEEEDDDDDDDD JOOOOOBBBBBBB"

So the last film I watched in its entirety was Terence Fisher's Dracula (1958) -- released in the USA as Horror of Dracula -- the first Hammer Horror Film to feature Christopher Lee as Count Dracula & Peter Cushing as Doctor Van Helsing. I feel I'd do okay in that one; I could at least keep myself safe.

But after I saw that, I caught the last ~30 minutes of George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968). On the one hand, I know about zombies (I've seen plenty of zombie movies), know that they're slow and can only be taken out by destroying the brain. As long as I can keep calm, and not get cornered/overrun, I'll probably be alright. But, one thing that a lot of folks forget about the zombie in Romero's original NotLD is that THEY CAN USE TOOLS! The pick up rocks and table legs and use those to bash in windows!

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becausebirds

Kiwi on a treadmill.

well you can tell by the way i use my walk i’m a flightless bird

i can only walk

got no keel on my breastbone

i’ve been on the ground since I was born

but it’s all right, it’s okay

ostrich grows real big this way

you can try to understand

they don’t bury their head in sand

whether you’re a kiwi or whether you’re an emu

you are staying ratite, staying ratite

see the cassowary disembowel the unwary

and they’re staying ratite, staying ratite

ah ah ah ah staying ratite, staying ratite

ah ah ah ah, staying ratiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiite

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Reblogged

People don’t understand chronic pain.

They think it’s like a pulled muscle or a bad headache — temporary, fixable, visible.

But chronic pain is like gravity: always there, always pulling, even when you smile or function or pretend it’s fine.

It wears you down in ways people don’t see. And when you try to explain it, you’re met with confusion, disbelief, or silence.

To everyone living in a body that hurts more than it should — I see you. You're not alone in this.

people who don't experience it often have an expectation that, really, you'll be better after some time passes.

And when you're not, that upsets and confuses them.

It's so outside of their experience and the world as they understand it that they often wind up believing on some level that you must have done something wrong—if not outright evil, then at least incompetent, that you fucked up somehow and this is the result. Depending on your perspective, they may even believe you've sinned.

They're convinced that there are ways to fix it, that your arthritis or your EDS or your fibromyalgia really means that you just need to make a change in your diet or exercise routine, they've got a chiropractor to recommend to you and have you tried acupuncture or fire cupping? They know this meditation practice that will make all the difference, give yoga a try and this will all be a thing of the past. The power of prayer can heal all ills. of course. You just need to make this one change, and you won't make them feel bad be in pain any more.

have you tried living without gravity affecting you?

It's even more fun if you're visibly younger than geriatric age.

Yes I'm in my thirties. Yes I have moderate osteoarthritis. No it's not cureable.

oh, absolutely. I've head rheumatoid arthritis pain since my mid-twenties.

🇨🇳

[VD: An incredibly well-edited beauty edit by user 宽宽Kwan of Chinese woman using rapid-paced and seamless transitions to flip through complex and elaborate makeup routines that result in multiple impressive cosplays including different traditional hanfu, Miao silver headdresses, and a warrior's armor. There are humorous beats in the video, and the woman sings to the Chinese pop song in the background. End VD]

[ID: A meme of Sailor J applying contour and saying, "If the men find out we can shapeshift, they're going to tell the church." End ID]

being anti ai is making me feel like in going insane. "you asked for thoughts about your characters backstory and i put it into chat gpt for ideas". studies have proven its making people dumber. "i asked ai to generate this meal plan". its causing water shortages where its data centers are built. "ill generate some pictures for the dnd campaign". its spreading misinformation. "meta, generate an image of this guy doing something stupid". its trained off stolen images, writing, video, audio. "i was talking with my snapchat ai-" theres no way to verify what its doing with the information it collects. "youtube is impletmenting ai based age verification". my work has an entire graphics media department and has still put ai generated motivational posters up everywhere. ai playlists. ai facial verification. google ai microsoft ai meta ai snapchat ai. everyone treats it as a novelty. every treats it as a mandatory part of life. am i the only one who sees it? am i paranoid? am i going insane? jesus fucking christ. if i have to hear one more "well at least-" "but it does-" "but you can-" im about to lose it. i shouldnt have to jump through hoops to avoid the evil machine. have you no principles? no goddamn spine? am i the weird one here?