David N. Ross 🏳️‍🌈

Screenshot of lawmakers' names & phone numbers Mark Kelly (AZ): DC office, 202 224 2235. Phoenix office, 602 671 7901 Elissa Slotkin (MI): DC office, 202 224 4822. Detroit office, 313 961 4330 Jon Ossof (GA): DC office, 202 224 3521. Atlanta office, 470 786 7800

Readers in Arizona, Michigan, & Georgia!

Your senators have been getting a LOT of dedicated pressure to end the shutdown, without fixing healthcare.

If you have a minute, go ahead & give them a call!

Their job is to respond to constituents & they're mostly hearing from GOP voters rn.

How Scientists Can Stand Up for Democracy The Union of Concerned Scientists invites you to a virtual science advocacy training on how the scientific community can push back against the growing authoritarian threat and stand up for our…

How Scientists Can Stand Up for Democracy

Rude Rude or impolite, including crude language and disrespectful comments, without constructive purpose. Highlighted Off, darkened Warn, and darkened Hide buttons.

If you aren't seeing skeets from some of your fave people, they might have been labeled "Rude" by bsky mods. Idk what they are thinking, I don't need a mommy to tell me who to be buddies with. Anyway, go into Settings > moderation > bluesky moderation (advanced) and turn Rude off.

Time. Although there exist many satisfying one-shots, especially in purpose-built games, many folks aren't aware of them. Hobby newbies seem to often have the misconception that long-form D&D campaigns are all there is.

Australia has so much solar that it's offering everyone free electricity Australia's extensive solar power penetration makes so much energy that the government wants to offer free electricity at peak hours.

Australia has so much electricity from solar power that it is going to start offering free electricity to everyone for at least three hours during the day as the wholesale price of power goes negative

electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...

Uninstall Grammarly NOW. They've partnered with an AI company and actively scrape your writing to train its models.

Support Rockstar Workers Fighting Unfair Dismissals! Last week over 30 members of staff at Grand Theft Auto VI developer Rockstar were fired en masse in a “calculated attack on workers”. The IWGB described Rockstar’s actions as ‘the most blatant and rut...

Rockstar union workers have set up a solidarity fund to help our fight after 30 of them were fired in an attempt to destroy the union.

Help us fight back! Anything you can donate will massively help our efforts to hold Rockstar to account.

actionnetwork.org/fundraising/...

I strongly recommend everyone do research sometimes 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘶𝘯.

Look something up on Wikipedia. Go to the little citation. Follow it. Read the article it's referencing. Follow links to the original interview. Read the paper written by the interviewee

It genuinely makes you appreciate journalism

These whales were hunted to 150 individuals. Now there are 50,000 of them Once hunted almost to extinction, the population of humpback whales currently migrating down Australia's east coast has bounced back and is now greater than before whaling.

Australia's humpback whales are doing so well that their population is expected to reach carrying capacity and plateau in the near future--they have not just reached but exceeded pre-whaling numbers. For this to happen with such a long-lived, slow-reproducing species is near miraculous. #goodnews

Go to your local No Kings rally this Saturday, 10/18! - gregpak.net I frequently say you don’t need to protest to make a difference in 2025. You don’t! There are a thousand other ways to push back on fascism if protesting doesn’t … Continue reading Go to your local No...

#NoKings is today! Absolutely not too late to find your local rally and show up! Have fun and stay safe! gregpak.net/2025/10/17/g...

TOMORROW is #NO_KINGS_DAY!!! Give me your Tired, your Poor, your Huddled Masses of Frogs, Unicorns, Pandas, T-Rexes, Mushrooms, Sharks, SpongeBobs & everyday Folks yearning to peacefully protest a clownishly incompetent buffoon of a Prez who, if there were any justice, would be in jail. 🤡
#BeThere

stand\DELIVER: Adventure and Toolkit for Mothership RPG stand\DELIVER is an adventure in The Dek, Prospero’s Dream’s seedy entertainment district. Play as Pirates or Security Agents caught in a tainted drug conspiracy. Features new gear, cybernetics, perso...

Happy to be the 52nd backer 👻 on @BackerKit Crowdfunding for stand\DELIVER: Adventure and Toolkit for Mothership #RPG from @suffety.com
www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...

"Non-Binary Passport Designations: Passports issued with “X” or other non-binary markers will be rejected by CBP systems, requiring resubmission with valid documentation showing “M” or “F” designation."

Nonbinary people will not be able to travel internationally 🙃

This pitiful monarchist loser knows Americans hate kings, and that is good.

Find a #NoKings protest near you and GO on 10/18, friends. It'll be inspiring and fun and it will help.

(And no, you don't have to RSVP if you don't want to - just show up!)

www.nokings.org

CRINGE WIZARD: A TTRPG Isekai Light Novel A light novel about a guy forced to live through the terrible TTRPG campaign he ran when he was a teenager.

4 days to go, 94% funded, only 18 backers needed, like 10 USD to back... we got the nice numbers

Image text reads: Do you teach board games? We invite you to complete a short survey for academic research into people’s experiences of teaching boardgames, at home and elsewhere. The survey takes about ten minutes to complete. To find out more, please use the QR code, visit go.unimelb.edu.au/45qp or email hybrid-games@unimelb.edu.au (University of Melbourne Human Research Ethics Approval 33778) There is also a decorative image of game pawns and dice, with a magnifying glass on top, as well as a QR code which points to the given link.

Do you teach boardgames? We have just launched a survey asking about your experience! It takes about ten minutes to complete - please share!
Survey link: go.unimelb.edu.au/45qp

Worth pointing out that Kickstarter United is NOT currently calling for a public boycott of Kickstarter's platform.

The work strike encompasses 59 "community support specialists, trust and safety analysts, marketing professionals, software engineers, and other tech workers" under the old contract.

Calls: Made. Messages: Left. Today's topic: Thanking my senators for holding the line on the CR and encouraging them to keep it up!

Our reps need to hear when we approve of what they're doing, too, and right now the Dems really need to know that showing some spine is long-term good for them.

Mass Deportations Do Not Make Us Safer “FBI agents reassigned to round up immigrants have had to walk away from investigations into violent predators who target and exploit children online,” a new report reveals.

I repeat:

‼️Mass Deportation Do Not Make Us Safer‼️

Another excellent piece from @tusk81.bsky.social

Cartoon character with text bubbles that talk about why making art matters in these challenging times

This cartoon by artist Frank Ape grounded me today #artmatters

Can't overstate this! It feels wonderful to know that someone had a good time with your game. It's not just that they appreciate your work. Someone's day, maybe a day with their friends, got better because of something you put into the world. It's a special feeling.

National Defense Ministry Honors 11 Soldiers for Refusing Illegal Orders National Defense Ministry Honors 11 Soldiers for Refusing Illegal Orders Honored for rejecting illegal orders during martial law, Marine death probe

The South Korean Ministry of Defense has awarded medals of merit to 11 officers for disobeying direct orders of superiors during the martial law fiasco, orders that they deemed to be contrary to the constitution and endangerment to democracy.
www.chosun.com/english/nati...

Carved in Stone A storyteller's guide to Pictland. Available now for pre-order!

I wrote a massive TTRPG setting guide encyclopaedia about the ancient Scotland and the Picts who lived in it. It covers everything scholars currently know about life in the 7th century, from landscapes to kingdoms to faith, magic, settlements, and so much more.

Check it out!
carvedinstone.scot

Why universal COVID-19 vaccine guidance offers stronger protection than high-risk-only policies The US Scenario Modeling Hub’s nine-team ensemble projected COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths for April 2024 to April 2025 under six policy and immune-escape scenarios. Burden was similar to the pr...

Routine vaccination for COVID-19 reduces hospitalization and deaths much more than vaccinating only high-risk groups.
www.news-medical.net/news/2025092...

Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM/NSPM-7 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE                THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

This is really bad. It won’t get the popular opposition the Kimmel incident did, but it’s way more sweeping and authoritarian. This is an effort to bring the full force of government down on any and all opposition to this administration.

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1965: 20-1

CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1990: 75-1

CEO-to-worker pay ratio today: 280-to-1

Trickle-down economics was always a sham.

Nothing has ever trickled down.

A 12-foot statue of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein frolicking and holding hands appeared on the National Mall in Washington, DC on Tuesday, September 23.

A plaque under the statue states that it has been erected “In Honor of Friendship Month."

A graph of monthly solar generation in the US

Official data is in today, and America set a new record-high for solar power in July, with generation up 30% compared to last year!

Rascal CULTURE Fat People Belong In Fantasy, Including TTRPGS The power fantasy doesn't have to mean being thin. Samantha Puc May 14, 2025 — 5 min read

"I tend to make my characters look similar to me face-wise, and they are all short and fat, and also have my features (resemble my Mexican-Filipino heritage) because I want to see more of this!" she explained. "Being able to show a fat character doing entirely normal things, I believe, helps destigmatize some of the ways people see fat folks. For example, being a normal person doing day-to-day things, sweet (or spicy) romances, awkward flirting, being successful, being a chaos gremlin, being a good friend, etc... are, in my opinion, good ways to normalize fat bodies."

"My characters have, and always will be, fat."

As a fat content creator I’ve received hate for simply existing.

So you can imagine how PROUD I am to share my perspective on representing fat bodies in fantasy #ttrpg settings! Article by @theverbalthing.com @rascalnews.bsky.social

Read 💖🥹 www.rascal.news/fat-people-b...