Las Meninas (Spanish for 'The Ladies-in-waiting') is a 1656 painting in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Baroque. It has become one of the most widely analyzed works in Western painting for the way its complex and enigmatic composition raises questions about reality and illusion, and for the uncertain relationship it creates between the viewer and the figures depicted.

The painting is believed by F. J. Sánchez Cantón to depict a room in the Royal Alcazar of Madrid during the reign of King Philip IV of Spain, and presents several figures, most identifiable from the Spanish court, captured in a particular moment as if in a snapshot. Some of the figures look out of the canvas towards the viewer, while others interact among themselves. The five-year-old Infanta Margaret Theresa is surrounded by her entourage of maids of honour, chaperone, bodyguard, two dwarfs and a dog. Just behind them, Velázquez portrays himself working at a large canvas. Velázquez looks outwards beyond the pictorial space to where a viewer of the painting would stand. In the background there is a mirror that reflects the upper bodies of the king and queen. They appear to be placed outside the picture space in a position similar to that of the viewer, although some scholars have speculated that their image is a reflection from the painting Velázquez is shown working on.

cross-posted from: https://toast.ooo/post/4031774

ROCKY START

WE'RE LIVE

place pixels, yeah

If anyone wants to do a little sh.itjust.works pixel art, now is your chance. I'll contribute to anything that people come up with. Still have >48 hours remaining.

The moderator of this community appears to be inactive. Please comment on this post if you would like to moderate the community.

This track is such a vibe. Always gets me into that Lain mentality.

A Distant Shout

Vocals/Lyrics/Composition: Nakaido 'Chabo' Reichi

Even though I shouldn’t have any sins
I’m accepting some sort of punishment
Even though they aren’t seeds that I sown
I’m made to pluck the flowers that bloomed prolifically

I can’t say that I don’t know about it
But I don’t recall having been an accomplice-in-crime
I feel that my freedom was costly bought
But I don’t recall having my heart sold cheaply

Hey Hey, until I die and bid farewell
Hey Hey, I won’t be caught by anyone
I wonder if you don’t know about the eternal ruffians
Who are prowling the distant night

It’s not even an unforgivable act
But wounds can’t be healed
On nights when I feel like crying, I make love to a woman
And take flight from this petty and corrupt world

Hey Hey, until I die and bid farewell
Hey Hey, I won’t be caught by anyone
I wonder if you don’t know about the eternal ruffians
Who are prowling the distant night

Even though I shouldn’t have any sins
I’m accepting some sort of punishment
I feel that my freedom was costly bought
But I don’t have the guts to sell my heart cheaply…

Cute animation of SCP-999, seemed appropriate for this community.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13087351

SCP-999

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/7026921

This sounds like something Lemmy would also really benefit from.

Threads will be implementing federation in the near future and many instances have been discussing whether they should be pre-emptively defederated to protect the fediverse. See below for our local discussion thread, which will remain active until this vote is complete.

Given that this is a time-sensitive issue and it's the holiday season, we decided to initiate the vote a few days early to make sure everyone gets a chance to vote. The vote will be tallied on Friday, December 29th.

https://sh.itjust.works/post/11011288

Only sh.itjust.works accounts may cast a vote

Vote by commenting either yes/aye/oui or nay/no/non

Any further discussion should be posted in the thread linked above

Additional Context/Discussions

Curent lemmy.world discussion

41% of instances have blocked Threads

Extensive discussion at [email protected]

This article has already been linked 10 trillion times in previous discussions, but in case you missed it

For the hard of hearing

IF YOU ARE NOT A SH.ITJUST.WORKS USER, YOU CANNOT VOTE IN THIS THREAD

VOTE RESULT

In favor (aye/oui/yes) : 200 votes

Against (nay/non/no) : 55 votes

Sh.itjust.works has voted in favor of preemptively defederating Threads.

Thank you for your participation, and happy holidays to everyone!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/4658537

Why This Award-Winning Piece of AI Art Can’t Be Copyrighted::Matthew Allen’s AI art won first prize at the Colorado State Fair. But the US government has ruled it can’t be copyrighted because it’s too much “machine” and not enough “human.”

I didn't want to make an announcement about this but since there seems to be some confusion (to say the least), I feel that I must.

You have almost certainly started seeing posts and comments from hexbear.net users in the past day or so. Long story short, when hexbear originally federated into Lemmy a few weeks ago, they left SJW off the list of instances they wanted to federate. A few days ago, hexbear users had a vote where they agreed to add SJW to their list of federated instances.

Myself and TheDude were informed of this vote by the hexbear admins while it was in progress. We agreed that if hexbear voted in the affirmative, we would be amenable to federation and seeing how it turns out. Now, here we are.

Hexbear is a Lemmy server that was created about 3 years ago as a new home for the former users of r/chapotraphouse. CTH was banned from reddit because they were openly calling for the deaths of slave owners, which reddit considered hate speech 🙄

Hexbear is composed of leftists of all shapes and sizes, and they also have a special sensitivity to the struggles of marginalized groups, including but not limited to LGBTQ folk, the disabled, and gingers.

Some things to know about hexbear: they removed downvotes from their platform. Therefore, they tend to make a lot of comments, because the only way to respond to something you disagree with is by commenting. This can give the impression of being brigaded, but that's not necessarily the case. Also, their custom emojis are displayed very large on other instances. This is a technical issue that will eventually be fixed.

Of the major instances, Lemmy.world, lemmy.ca, feddit.de, and beehaw.org have defederated hexbear.

SJW, Lemm.ee, and lemmy.ml are still federated with hexbear.

I hope we can all get along, but obviously that's not going to be the case. I recommend that users from either server make use of the block function as necessary. More importantly, don't intentionally go to communities on the other server and attempt to antagonize them because you have a differing political stance. Some political debate is well and good, but there is a time and a place, and if you're not sure, it's probably best to keep it on your own server.

We will be banning hexbears liberally if they come in here trying to start shit, and their admins will do the same regarding our users. Pun intended.

Bottom line: we will not be defederating from hexbear in the immediate future. I personally believe they are a valuable asset to this platform, and I urge you all to give them a chance to contribute positively. If you find them annoying, just block them and/or report them; they are subject to the same rules of conduct as everyone else.

Please direct any comments and concerns to this thread, or to the Agora.

https://sh.itjust.works/post/4188546