Paul Harrison @snuffleorc@qoto.org

Today's random #Tarot card from the Druid Craft Tarot deck is the Four of Swords.
A man rests by a tree in Winter, 3 Swords lain pointing in the same direction, one on his lap. He appears in thought.
If this card comes up in a reading, I see it as a time for respite and thought.
If it appears in the Thoughts/ Decisions row then it suggests the solution can be seen (the three Swords) if you just think about it a bit more.
If it appears in the Feelings and Emotions row then it suggests to take yourself away from the hubbub for a while. Have some quiet me time.
If it appears in the Physical and Material world row then it is not a time for new enterprises. Look into things more deeply, but don't make any decisions now.
(You may interpret the card differently)

Crow Clan Druid - I loved working on this illustration, really felt like I knew from the start how I wanted it to turn out 🥰 #illustration #gameart #fantasy #fantasyillustration #artist #art #fantasyart #magic #cardgames

I just doubled-down on the head of lettuce

Today's random #tarot card from the Druid Craft Tarot deck is the Queen of Cups.
The Queen stands at the water's edge, one foot dipped in it, holding a cup with the moon above it.
When this card comes up in a reading, I see it as an indication to follow your dreams but keep them grounded in reality.
If this appears in the Thoughts/ Decisions row then it can refer to making plans with the heart rather than the head.
If this appears in the Feelings and Emotions row it can mean doing something big with a loved one or friend.
If this appears in the Physical and Material world row it can refer to a large purchase you have wanted rather than needed. It's a good time for that, but keep it grounded in reality.. be sure you can afford it.

(You may interpet the card differently)

Until now I hadn’t appreciated that were very serious structural problems at Twitter. I thought Elon would make it messy, but it would robustly continue. This below, however, is starting to make me much more concerned.

I came across to Mastodon out of curiosity, fun, sense of opportunity & respect for the concept. Now I’m thinking it’s a vital hedge for us all against serious Twitter risks, including collapse.

When Elon Musk founded SpaceX, did he think he could do all the orbital dynamics calculations himself, or did he hire experts?

Then why did he think he could make all the expert-level decisions about social networking better than experts?

It really is the most extraordinary display of hubris.

Today's random #tarot card from the Druid Craft Tarot deck is the Five of Swords.
A warrior appears to have beaten another who retreats in the background. The victor has all 5 swords.
When this card comes up in a reading I see this as a warning. You may have your little victories, but at what cost?
If this comes up in the Thoughts/ Decisions row then I see it as thinking of what any success was at the expense of. Did you not spend time on something else that could now do with your attention?
If this comes up in the Feelings and Emotions row then I warn to be careful of whose nose gets put out of joint. Did someone else try the same and fail? Did they lose because you won? Think of the feelings of others in your actions.
If this comes up in the Physical and Material world row, then consider if it's a good thing to cling onto any succesees or to share good fortune with others. Could some of a little windfall go to help others?
Of course you may interpret the card differently.

One of my passions is the game, Blood Bowl.
I have played this since it was ceated in the mid-80s by Games Workshop, it is a humorous mix of fantasy tabletop battles with American Football. I even briefly worked on the game when I worked for GW some 30+ years ago.
I have probably about 40 teams of all available races with some duplicates. I paint my own miniatures which come unpainted and unassembled.
I occasionally attend tournaments and play in a league at a local club.
#BloodBowl
#GamesWorkshop

I mentioned this in a private message to someone recently about why a small handful of servers block qoto. I wanted to reiterate it here for the new comers on QOTO who dont know the history:

So there are some servers out there that demand every server int he network block every instance they do, and if a server doesnt block an instance they block then they block you in rettatliation.

Their reason for this is quite flawed but it goes like this.. If we federate with a bad actor instance and we boost one of their posts then their users will see it and defeat the purpose of the block. The problem is, this isnt how it actually works. If they block a server and we boost it, they wont see the boost, thats how blocks work.

The issue becomes even more complicated when you consider the fact that these servers, by virtue of their policy, have huge block lists where they block tons of major servers. So in order to satisfy them we too would have to block a huge number of servers.

This means you have a choice, you either join a server that isnt blocked, but has a huge block list themselves, or, you join a server that doesnt block and be blocked by a small handful of servers. Obviously that means on QOTO you will have bigger view of the world than you would on any of these others servers. In fact QOTO has onne of the largest federation footprints of any server in the network.

I want to also explain why we choose the decision we did. Years ago when this controversy started and servers across the fediverse started blocking there was a divide of people taking sides. WOTO was one of the few servers that didnt take sides and allowed people read content from any server (but with strict hate speech rules). This caused a huge influx of people,s pecifically from the LGBTQ community, onto our server. It turns out many people relied on us not-blocking for their physical safety. There were big name biggots (like milo yanappolus) who were on the network. They used their accounts here to watch his account for doxing so they could warn themselves and their community and protect themselves accordingly. In fact we added a feature just for them called subscriptions which allowed them to monitor accounts without following them so they could do so anonymously.

In tthe end for the safety of the LGBTQ community here we refused to engage in mass server blocking and instead encouraged our users to block servers on an individual basis and provided access to block lists for them to do so. But some really misguided servers blocked us anyway.

Thankfully the servers blocking us are few and far between and are limited to only the most excessive and aggressive block lists. As I said, QOTO has one of the largest federation footprints on the fediverse,

#mastoadmin

After 350 years, astronomers still can’t explain the solar system’s strangest moon
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/strange-moon-iapetus/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1zXRnj9SQB8qKw4wHQFCC-946aI7_Kjje0nFYpiwA6VAMPpXSVQ39CZ6Q#Echobox=1667977925

A midsized black hole in a dwarf galaxy a million light-years away announced its presence to astronomers by violently ripping apart a star. #Space #Astronomy #SciComm #BlackHole https://www.space.com/black-hole-announces-itself-star-death-tidal-disruption-event

Antelope Island harbor on the Great Salt Lake. This used to be full of water and boats, as harbors usually are. Now the water is so far back you can barely see it in the far corner of this photo. This year the lake hit another record low level. #GreatSaltLake #utah #drought #waterconservation