Qobuz is the most ethical alternative to spotify and even tidal (tidal is just pandora radio in a different font; you can’t curate playlists, which i absolutely fucking hate, but you can curate playlists on qobuz, and the royalties they pay to their artists are far larger than spotify) that i’ve been able to find, thanks to this post on instagram by singer-songwriter laura burhenn. the post also lists other alternatives, including tidal, but qobuz is by far the best of the lot. they even have a free feature called soundiiz where you can transfer all of your playlists from spotify to qobuz!
[ID: headline reading: “Pregnant Mother in Tennessee Denied Care for Being Unmarried. The 2025 Medical Ethics Defense Act allows physicians to deny care to patients whose lifestyles they disagree with.” End ID]
“Last Thursday, at a town hall in Jonesborough, Tennessee, a 35-year-old woman shared her story: she was denied prenatal care by her physician because they objected to the fact that she wasn’t married, nor did she plan to be. She’d been with her partner for 15 years and they have a 13-year-old child.
While going through her medical history, the physician told her that because she was unwed, they didn’t feel comfortable treating her, because it went against their values and she should seek care elsewhere. At the time of the appointment, the woman believed she was about four weeks into her pregnancy.
Now, she’s traveling out of state to Virginia to receive prenatal care.
This is the first reported case of a woman being denied prenatal care for being unmarried in the state of Tennessee.
On April 24th, Tennessee’s 2025 Medical Ethics Defense Act went into effect. It gives physicians, hospital systems and insurers, among others, the legal right to deny healthcare to patients based on religious, moral or ethical beliefs. There are no protections for people in rural areas with limited options. There’s no requirement to refer patients elsewhere. And there’s no legal recourse. The woman at the town hall explained that her representatives are not responsive to her questions, even as she repeatedly calls Sen. Marsha Blackburn. When she reached staff at Sen. Bill Hagerty’s office, they told her, “he’s not obligated to listen to his constituents.””
Hey everyone are you ready for yet another round of AI BULLSHIT well I’ve got a doozy for you: YouTube has decided to automatically “upscale low-quality videos” with AI, fundamentally altering your viewing experience as a consumer and hobbling your freedom as a creator.
How to opt out as a creator:
Go to YouTube Studio, click on Settings, then click on Channel
Click on Advanced Settings
Uncheck “Let YouTube enhance visual quality”
Uncheck “Let YouTube enhance audio quality”
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How to opt out as a viewer:
Click on Settings
Go to Quality
Make sure the AI-enhanced option (dubbed ‘Super Resolution’) has been switched to “original resolution”
Why this matters:
Aside from adding an incredible amount of energy burn to content without the creator’s knowledge, a lot of content was made to be viewed at their original resolution for a reason. No one wants to watch Marble Hornets on 'Super Resolution’. A number of creators have noticed this already happening to YouTube Shorts, where AI-upscaling has led to inaccuracies in technical demonstrations and odd visual distortions.
By hobbling a creator’s ability to control what their final product looks like, creators cannot rely on the platform to present their work as intended. It should be an outrage, frankly, to anyone who relies on YouTube to share their work or enjoy the works of others.
“The state came to massacre, it wasn’t a [police] operation. They came directly to kill, to take lives,” one woman in Penha Complex told the AFP news agency.
“There are people who have been executed, many of them shot in the back of the head, shot in the back. This cannot be considered public safety,” said 36-year-old resident and activist Raul Santiago.
Brazil’s Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is “horrified” by the scale of fatalities and surprised that such an operation went ahead without prior knowledge of the federal government.
I’d sincerely appreciate it if non-Brazilians reblogged this. Media outlets all over the world (and especially in my homeland) will try to sweep this under the rug but the horror has spread nationwide. We call it chacina for a reason.
It would be of great help if other countries and their citizens held Brazilian politicians/figures of authority accountable. Or, at least, acknowledge very publicly that there’s an ongoing effort by the Brazilian police force to exterminate black and brown people, especially in Rio.
“there is no way you’re not using chatgpt for at least a few things here and there no matter your stance on it” what the FUCK are you talking about
Every now and then messages of this kind hit my inbox, and normally I just delete them and (in severe cases) block the sender.
But other people are getting these too? Sheesh.
…And the sheer witlessness of them astounds me. (eyeroll) Yes, at my age of course I would absolutely start purposefully dulling down my general mental acuity, and allowing the writing skills I’ve accrued over nearly fifty years of sweat and toil to atrophy, so that I can be permitted to pay somebody else to use a tool built by stealing my own work (and that of thousands of my colleagues) and prostituting it to make some billionaire vulture capitalist richer! Why do you ask?
Okay okay okay I’m roughing out ideas for a sculpture that’ll have a sword in one hand and the other sheltering a little oil flame. So I was taking hand pose reference pictures during my lunch break, as one does
But Malice has decided that actually. Is Meatball time
I am but a humble gundam for the Meatball Supreme to pilot where she pleases
hi, this is your gentle reminder and PSA: there are ELECTIONS happening in November 4th. PLEASE GO VOTE. Trump is the most unpopular he has ever been, but does that mean your average independent, or republican will vote for a dem this time around-likely no- they probably will just skip the process entirely if they don’t have a candidate they feel strongly about. this is why i’m asking YOU SPECIFICALLY to make sure to go vote. and i don’t wanna hear any doomerism shit about how voting is a waste of time bc of whatever, guys voting is the last of anything we have it is clear most of these people who represent us do not actually care, HOWEVER trump currently has the house, senate and courts and making it even slightly harder to do anything or having a large enough group to speak out against what he’s doing will help hundreds of thousands of people in the US. now more than ever is it important to make sure that they know that we do not stand for this
Hey!
THERE ARE FUCKING BALLOT PETITION PROPOSALS ON THE BALLOT THIS YEAR.
THINGS LIKE WEED, CENSORSHIP, VOTING RIGHTS ETC. GIVE A SHIT AND LOOK IT UP ON YOUR STATE’S ELECTIONS/ SECRETARY OF STATE PAGE.
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