i do birdwatching but in a I Dont Fucking Know What That Bird Is kind of way
like do i looke like the kind of person who knows the difference between a robin and a nightingale? no i look at tiny bird i go AWWW and that’s enough
ABCDEFGHI KL NOP RSTU W Y
20/26
that clip of the blues clues guy saying during the process of being hired to be on the show the kids were shown a "conventionally attractive" guys clip and his clip to some kids and they enjoyed him bc he looked like someone who would actually need help is how i feel about the main guy from that show the bear
i have to fucking help him and tell him where mr fox hid his spatula
Wow Tor really straight up released Christopher Paolini (Eragon author)'s new book without even hiding the blatant AI noodle arms on the cover. Disgraceful.
A bit more context for anyone that's new to this: Paolini is vocally against ai art. Unfortunately (by which I mean I am side eyeing the hell out of Tor right now) the publisher used a stock photo from what they called a reputable source (and did not credit the visual designer that tweaked it etc) (this is, to my understanding, a hell of a break in Tor's usual practice regarding cover artists)(open any other book published through Tor and there's usually multiple layers of credit given to all artists and designers involved) without realizing (the threads and news sources I was seeing about the cover when it was first released were written back in december of last year) (yes, I would think SOMEONE would notice that the stock photo was in fact ai generated)(ESPECIALLY since it is so clearly fucky)(however, we've also had 5-6 months of developing our eyes to spot ai art since then)(so)(you know)(it MIGHT have been an honest mistake)("might")(i reserve any judgement atm)(concern i do not reserve at all)(but judgement i'll reserve) that the stock photo was, in fact, ai generated.
Despite Paolini's uhhh distaste for ai art, and the lash back from fans and other concerned parties, the production schedule was already far enough ahead that to redo all the contracts, printing, etc. would have pushed back publication by at least a year. And, since it sounds like Tor wasn't exactly enthusiastic about making any changes, I would assume (and by assume i do mean assume)(someone correct me on this, i do not have many in's into publishing) the cost of making those changes would have been 1. high, and 2. pushed onto Paolini, who is, like every other author out there, not making anywhere near as much money as you might think.
Tor's lack of credits for the cover and use of ai art is concerning. I did just *skim* through some articles/threads, but I didn't see any reason for the lack of credit given. Cover artists are important. The number of folks in the notes jumping to conclusions about the ethics of the author + the quality of his work is proof enough of that, albeit maybe in a nontraditional way. I cannot stress this enough: even if there were no possible moral quandaries with using an ai stock photo, the people involved in turning the stock photo into a cover should have been credited. Additionally, one of the things Paolini pointed out is that eventually, we will have ai good enough to mimic passable fiction writing. Not good enough to be ~A New Modern Classic~ or whatever, but Good Enough. Good Enough to make pulps, or popcorn novels, or other forms of "Commercial Lit". Good enough to need only as much editing as An Actual Human Author.
And to me, if Tor is willing to forego giving credit + push using an ai generated cover now to save on costs, then I've gotta wonder:
what are they going to do when we get to "good enough"?
I want to say as an author that the excuses Tor has given for not changing the cover are extremely flimsy. I was able to get my publisher to make changes to the Iron Widow paperback 3 months before publication. My other publisher recorded a completely new audiobook for Zachary Ying with an actual Mandarin speaker when I discovered after the audiobook’s release that the original voice actor who they assured me could handle the Mandarin parts was in fact Japanese and definitely could not handle Mandarin. None of this came at any cost to me. There’s so much Tor could do if they wanted to remedy this, and I know Paolini could’ve pushed them harder. He’s one of the biggest names in fantasy, not a midlister with no leverage. Even if the first print was too far gone to be changed, they could promise to do a new cover for future prints. But they didn’t. They just don’t care.
MEN!!! it's spring. crop your shirts
No, we have hairy, pudgy bellies
no you don’t understand thats WHY you need to crop your shirts
“Sherlock Holmes is King Arthur.” Is that anything. Arthur returns in England’s greatest hour of need, and that’s why we keep getting modern retellings of Sherlock Holmes because he keeps coming back when shit starts looking dire, only for the past dozen or so incarnations he’s been choosing to be a private detective instead of a king
(“Because what the hell can a king do to help people these days?” he asks in 1979 to his Watson [in older days, distant days, he would have said “His Lancelot.”] “Better to be here on the ground floor, actually putting in the effort”)
Booby traps? Sure, I would easily fall into a trap if I saw boobs
despite being interviewed individually, all four gave the exact same response
“average person eats 3 spiders a year” factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted
An actual World Heritage Post
how does this post not have a million notes but anyone online can quote it
one week until ten years of Spiders Georg
Oh boy am I pissed off about having to participate in capitalist America
Ive got an idea
Mr Arson bestie, I'm excited to hear it
watching the 2018 milwaukee ballet production of dracula and y'all the dracula/jonathan pas de deux is amazing
it's beautiful and creepy and sensual and horrifying all at the same time
crap, i don't know enough dance terminology to make this coherent, but the way they've been utilizing going en pointe in act 2 is fascinating. like, aside from when they're doing turns and stuff like that, all the women are walking around on the flat part like regular people. but then dracula bursts in and everyone is down in the dark except lucy, who is now on her tippy toes and basically floating across the floor to him in a trance and the contrast is so eerie
also i just realized it was mean of me to talk about this without telling anyone where to watch it. here's a link to the official video from the milwaukee ballet account's @ Home series https://vimeo.com/469873929/5ee47dee00
continuing the trend of being both sensual and beautiful and horrifying, the drac+lucy pas de deux is also fantastic.
also, repeated theme the way dracula just kind of flings them around at times, like they're not dance partners but just toys to be played with and literally tossed aside. in the jonathan one he just like yote him 15 feet or something crazy across the stage, and in this one he's just positioning her like a ragdoll, the choreo is so good
agh no no no i hate this! D: lucy! :(((
looking forward to and dreading the drac+mina one if they're all gonna be this good but also upsetting lol
oh good, an ensemble mourning scene, that's cool that's fine i'm handling this gracefully
oh damn, though, she does feral really well too. cool thanks this is a great place for an intermission because i'm feeling totally emotionally stable (:
WHAT I MUST PUT THIS IN MY EYEBALLS
Wow Tor really straight up released Christopher Paolini (Eragon author)'s new book without even hiding the blatant AI noodle arms on the cover. Disgraceful.
if you feel comfortable please share your choice as well as whether you have ever experienced medical malpractice
not to be that person but please consider reblogging this, my tumblr don't have a ton of traffic and i'm genuinely interested in the results.
i think we should all get tomorrow off for no particular reason. the next day too. maybe all the days
You want a general strike. that’s what you want.
The Daily Times, New Philadelphia, Ohio, July 9, 1924
This is like the opposite of clickbait. The whole story is there. Behold it.
'He has that face you just want to punch': Matthew Tkachuk isn't about to change the way he plays | ‘It’s distinctly Matthew’: Tkachuk’s postseason presence drawing rave reviews | “kiss with a fist” by florence + the machine | jean-paul sartre, “the flies” | McRae sees Tkachuk as an impact player in the NHL | a leadership changeup might be exactly what the Calgary Flames need | “gemini feed” by banks | Matthew Tkachuk traded to Florida Panthers in huge blockbuster deal | The story of the Matthew Tkachuk-Jonathan Huberdeau trade: ‘Are you kidding me?’ | Tkachuk on first hearing of Panthers trade: ‘I was the happiest person ever’ | Panthers Forward Matthew Tkachuk Named Finalist for 2022-23 Hart Trophy | “i wanna be your dog” by the stooges
