Meh...

yeah someone else reblogged this and said in the tags they’d noticed bot posts on their dash too… so it’s obviously a thing. i already knew bots regularly seize deactivated urls for use, but these blogs don’t appear to have been deactivated before being seized, which is somewhat concerning. part of me wonders if the massive droves of people leaving for other social media in wake of the 17th have just left unprecedented numbers of urls open for swiping, or if something more sinister is happening here. it seems possible that they’re actually taking over active and/or archived accounts, but it’s unclear how they’d go about that, so i’m not jumping to any conclusions yet.

definitely unsettling though. i hope this mystery gets solved soon. i’ll be keeping a much closer eye on my archived blogs in the meantime

okay so it seems the most likely culprit has been found (thanks to other users more bot savvy than i)

basically it’s what happens when people end up giving permissions to fishy linked accounts and services like “2mblr” promising to back up their blog or give them unfollow notifications or whatever, which inadvertently gives the service permission to make posts and hijack the user’s account for bot shit. if this happens to you, it’s actually a relatively easy fix as long as you still have access to your account

essentially you just need to remove the linked service and you should have full control of your blog again. to be super safe you could also change your password after regaining control of the account, but i don’t think that should be necessary.

anyway, if you (like me) don’t have any linked 3rd party accounts, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about at the moment. if anyone you follow starts posting bot shit, try to contact them to let them know what’s happening and how to fix it. always be wary of giving your info to any 3rd party services!

did-you-kno

Harvard has a pigment library that stores old pigment sources, like the ground shells of now-extinct insects, poisonous metals, and wrappings from Egyptian mummies, to preserve the origins of the world’s rarest colors.

A few centuries ago, finding a specific color might have meant trekking across the globe to a mineral deposit in the middle of Afghanistan. “Every pigment has its own story,” Narayan Khandekar, the caretaker of the pigment collection, told Fastcodesign. He also shared the stories of some of the most interesting pigments in the collection.

Mummy Brown

“People would harvest mummies from Egypt and then extract the brown resin material that was on the wrappings around the bodies and turn that into a pigment. It’s a very bizarre kind of pigment, I’ve got to say, but it was very popular in the 18th and 19th centuries.”

Cadmium Yellow

“Cadmium yellow was introduced in the mid 19th century. It’s a bright yellow that many impressionists used. Cadmium is a heavy metal, very toxic. In the early 20th century, cadmium red was introduced. You find these pigments used in industrial processes. Up until the 1970s, Lego bricks had cadmium pigment in them.”

Annatto
“The lipstick plant—a small tree, Bixa orellana, native to Central and South America—produces annatto, a natural orange dye. Seeds from the plant are contained in a pod surrounded with a bright red pulp. Currently, annatto is used to color butter, cheese, and cosmetics.”

Lapis Lazuli
“People would mine it in Afghanistan, ship it across Europe, and it was more expensive than gold so it would have its own budget line on a commission.”

Dragon’s Blood
“It has a great name, but it’s not from dragons. [The bright red pigment] is from the rattan palm.”

Cochineal
“This red dye comes from squashed beetles, and it’s used in cosmetics and food.”

Emerald Green
“This is made from copper acetoarsenite. We had a Van Gogh with a bright green background that was identified as emerald green. Pigments used for artists’ purposes can find their way into use in other areas as well. Emerald green was used as an insecticide, and you often see it on older wood that would be put into the ground, like railroad ties.”