mass surveillance is coming
> first 5 votes fail
> have another vote
> invoke technicality to require majority to vote AGAINST rather than requiring majority to vote FOR
> do it when everyone's on vacation so not enough numbers to vote against
demonic creatures
⚠️The Egyptian Relief Committee in Gaza had been organizing public screenings of World Cup matches for displaced families across the Strip. About an hour before today’s Egypt-Argentina match, Israel killed the committee’s public relations director in a strike on his vehicle. Two others, including a child, were also killed.
Physicians for Human Rights Israel has warned that Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, is now in immediate danger of being killed in Israeli occupation custody. His lawyer, Nasser Odeh, who visited him on 2 July at the underground Rakefet interrogation facility inside Nitzan Prison, said he barely recognized him. Dr. Abu Safiya was brought in shackled hand and foot, flanked by masked guards, his head, eyes, ears and neck covered in fresh injuries. He struggled to breathe and speak, could not sit upright without nearly collapsing, and seemed close to losing consciousness, too frightened to speak freely.
He told his lawyer that after his Supreme Court appeal was heard in June, guards entered his solitary cell and beat him with a hammer and batons, and that since his transfer to Rakefet on 24 June he has been beaten daily to the point of repeatedly losing consciousness, with no medical care. He said plainly: this is the last time you will see me, they brought me here to kill me. Held since December 2024 under the occupation's "Unlawful Combatants" law, without charge or trial, Dr. Abu Safiya saw his beatings escalate sharply only after he legally challenged his detention, and both his lawyer and PHRI are demanding his immediate transfer, an independent medical examination and his release, warning that any delay could cost him his life.
BREAKING (bones)
Why does "Bring Them Home" exist only for some hostages?
Because in Apartheid Israel, where only Jewish lives matter, brutalising the Palestinians isn't an anomaly - it is the system. And the silence around it is the exact measure of our collective hypocrisy.
From my perspective, Miyazaki is a rather unique, yet extremely serious game developer.
His career did not begin in the game industry. In fact, he didn’t become a game developer until he was almost thirty years old.
Even among developers of my generation (those of us born in the 1970s), I think it’s remarkable that someone who wasn’t even a game developer during the dawn of the polygon era eventually became one of Japan’s most representative game creators. (In other words, compared to the rest of us from the same generation—including myself—his career path is exceptionally unusual. Most notably, unlike many of us, he was not working at one of the major development studios that held a significant technological advantage during the early polygon era. That, more than anything else, is what makes his path so unique.)
Next, regarding my impression of Dark Souls.
People often focus on its difficulty as a game, but I believe Miyazaki’s true creativity shines through in the world he created. (By the way, I personally think Dark Souls has fairly simple action mechanics, and I don’t actually consider it to be an especially difficult game.)
If you look into my own career, you’ll see that I was personally involved with the Dark Souls series and Elden Ring as the General Manager overseeing both production and marketing (Just to clarify, I wasn't part of the development team itself. My involvement was simply as the General Manager of the publisher-side department overseeing production and marketing). From that perspective, I can say that Dark Souls didn’t suddenly become a massive success overnight. It was the result of everything Miyazaki and his team had built up through their previous titles.
Today, he receives offers from all over the world, but when I think back to the days when he and his team were struggling the most, many of those offers seem like they’re coming from people who only know who they are today. Some of them almost feel like complete reversals in attitude. Well, that’s just my personal perspective.
Personally, I had grown tired of people who would simply compare games by saying things like, “That title cost X billion yen to make and sold Y million copies,” and then use nothing but those numbers to judge them against other games. There were so many people who couldn’t appreciate the journey or the growth of the developers themselves. Anyone can look at the current numbers—they’re available to everyone. Whenever I heard those kinds of opinions, I always thought, “That’s exactly what you’d expect from someone who’s never actually developed games.”
What surprised me even more was that, even if people couldn’t properly evaluate that journey, almost nobody even seemed interested in trying to understand the process of how those developers gradually reached where they are today.
(I'm NOT talking about the fan community).
Now, going back to Miyazaki, there are two things about him that have always stayed with me.
The first was back when I was developing Summer Lesson for VR, around the time it was generating a lot of buzz.
One day, he came to try an early build of Summer Lesson along with people from several other game companies.
While everyone else was laughing, chatting, and having fun with it, Miyazaki alone played it with incredible seriousness. Then, after everyone had finished and started discussing their impressions, he remained completely silent, staring intently at the preview monitor, deep in thought.
Everyone became curious and finally asked him, “Miyazaki, what are you thinking about?”
He suddenly smiled and said,
“Oh… I got completely absorbed in thinking about what I would do if I were making this, and what kind of game I’d create.”
What he talked about after that was, in the best possible sense, completely insane.
It was one of those rare moments when I caught a glimpse of what I’d call his “mad scientist” side—his deeply serious, obsessive approach to creativity.
The other thing that left a strong impression on me was that he generally dislikes video interviews (including live streaming).
I once asked him about it by email, and he replied with quite a long explanation. After reading it, I completely understood where he was coming from.
Simply put, he doesn’t like watching himself moving around on video. (Psychologically speaking, it’s actually a bit more complicated than that.)
But there was another reason.
According to him, there are naturally many people in this industry who know games far better than he does. Whenever he listens to those people speak, he realizes that his own understanding is still shallow, and it makes him feel that he’s not yet in a position to be the one talking about games.
I mean… it’s common for well-known developers to say, “I still have a long way to go.”
But whenever someone like him says that, my reaction is always,
“Come on… if you say you’re still not there yet, then the rest of us won’t feel qualified to talk about games at all.” (laugh)
Anyway, that’s one of the reasons why video interviews with Miyazaki are extremely rare. And conversations with him on camera—especially long-form discussions with another developer—are even rarer. They almost don’t exist at all.
By the way, the other game developer in that photo is Masahiro Sakurai.
If you ask me, he’s basically:
“A Saiyan who genuinely believes he’s just another ordinary human.”
Every now and then, when the rest of us are struggling with some problem, he’ll say something that sounds exactly like Goku saying,
“Well… why don’t you just fly?”
And I’ll reply,
“Because we humans can’t use Flight Technique.”
Then he just stares at me with a completely puzzled look.
To put it in terms of Demon Slayer, I’d describe him as:
"Like Muzan Kibutsuji casually showing up at a drinking party where all the Hashira have gathered, genuinely believing he's just another ordinary guest".
That’s the kind of person he is.
This is what I was tweeting about yesterday. We can no longer rely on the assumption ai will be visually distinct or bad looking. Yesterday I heard an ai song that was horrifyingly good to where I was shocked it was ai. You must be against ai on principle, not bc of aesthetic
Article 13 of the Agreement Lebanon signed with Israel forbids Lebanon from ever pursuing legal action against Israel for any and all war crimes committed against our people. This is betrayal of the highest order.
They are so afraid of you realizing there are politicians who can and actually want to make your life better and not just collect checks from lobbyists and corporations.
Hillel Neuer, who denies zionist influence (control) in the US, brags about destroying Francesca Albanese's ability to conduct normal daily life transactions, and how they then went after her husband too.