Bodhipaksa

Scotland's most prolific Buddhist author? Living in New Hampshire. Author of books on meditation and Buddhist practice. Dad. Vegan. FakeBuddhaQuote-ologist.

Main Website: https://www.wildmind.org
Other Website: https://www.fakebuddhaquotes.com
Yet Another Website: https://www.bodhipaksa.com
Recent Book: "This Difficult Thing of Being Human"

Public Key

npub1arctujurnrqen3l6tmt62fw2kt0heddg9wphsqegp47tewvc73rs837dmm

NIP-05 Address

bodhipaksa_at_mastodon.scot@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsw3u97fwpe3svecla9a4a9yh9t9hmukk5zhqmcqv5q6l9uhxv0g3cpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dswljsqc

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1arctujurnrqen3l6tmt62fw2kt0heddg9wphsqegp47tewvc73rs837dmm

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Last Notes

2026-05-30 15:50:52 UTC

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I had the same thought.

2026-05-03 23:52:02 UTC

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The real AI hallucinations are not those generated by computers, since they do not have minds and do not hallucinate.
The real AI hallucination is people's belief that when they are interacting with Claude, ChatGPL, etc., they are communicating with a conscious being; people hallucinating that there is a mind inside their computer.

2026-05-03 14:21:18 UTC

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I came here to say exactly the same thing!

2026-05-02 18:02:43 UTC

Theists look at the world and believe that such complexity and beauty can only come from some kind of intelligence.
Richard Dawkins looks at the words Claude produces and believes such complexity and beauty can only come from some kind of intelligence.
Dawkins is making exactly the same mistake as the theists he scorns.
https://www.dailygrail.com/2026/05/the-claude-delusion-richard-dawkins-believes-his-female-ai-chatbot-is-conscious/

2026-05-02 17:10:28 UTC

It's an odd thing when someone says, "Well, you're allowed your opinion," as happened this morning.
Allowed by whom? And if "they" are allowing me to have my opinions now, might they revoke permission in the future?
I sense a subtext along the lines of "You're allowed your opinion, but I wish you weren't."

2026-05-01 15:48:37 UTC

Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of Defense, argues that the greatest enemy of the United States is not Russia, China, or Iran, but any elected representative who opposes Donald Trump.
“The biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans.”
This is what fascism looks like.

2026-04-19 22:10:14 UTC

I've had literally hundreds of fake sign-ups for a newsletter I run. Every one of them has the username "mxihuuwfnxxpjea." They all have email addresses in the format first.last+characterstring@gmail.com. Unlike with the username, the text after the plus sign isn't always the same.
I've just been manually deleting them every few days. But I'm curious what the angle is here. How does someone benefit from doing something like this?
Anyone know?

2026-04-15 13:34:27 UTC

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This part of Gormenghast took me by the throat in 1978 and has never let go since.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/116/408/973/462/212/166/original/4f0762e5cded57d2.png

2026-04-15 12:04:48 UTC

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In the 1970's edition of Gormenghast I had, Dr. Prunesquallor began as an Alfred, became Albert for a while, and then reverted to Alfredhood.

2026-04-10 20:33:16 UTC

Up to 777 people have been held at an Arizona ICE facility designed for 157. There are no beds, no showers. People sleep on concrete floors and have been held there for up to 18 days — that we know of.
The treatment of these people is utterly inhumane. After we take power back from the fascists there's going to have to be a reckoning.
https://azmirror.com/2026/04/10/ice-overcrowding-like-sardines-congressional-oversight-arizona/

2026-03-30 18:14:41 UTC

Lifted from an account that doesn't use alt text.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/116/319/475/958/221/149/original/5140343d8b36dd9a.png

2026-03-29 15:01:47 UTC

#SilentSunday
#SeelintSinday
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/116/313/060/074/471/162/original/fbe6ca70f22aadd8.jpeg

2026-03-09 17:19:42 UTC

No need for further comment...
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/116/200/338/914/909/058/original/0951aaff9deceece.jpeg

2026-03-07 17:48:26 UTC

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Yes, that style of writing is just ... no.
It always reminds me of one of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes cartoons. I'm sure you know it.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/116/189/135/853/615/918/original/906110fd2180fb46.png

2026-03-07 17:32:26 UTC

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Wow! I had always just assumed it was a double-sided bar and there were two barmaids! I hadn't recognized it as involving reflections.
I remember being fascinated by mirrors when I was maybe three or four. I have a very clear memory of looking into one that hung on a hallway wall, looking into it at an angle and being amazed by how much imagery was in the reflection. I wondered how so much could fit into one piece of glass. It seemed magical.

2026-03-01 23:45:34 UTC

#SilentSunday
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/116/156/575/653/008/323/original/060838786310907c.jpeg

2026-02-25 14:24:42 UTC

I've always been suspicious of Deepak Chopra. He's a businessman who presents himself as a spiritual teacher. A lot of what he says is quantum technobabble, designed to manipulate the unwary into thinking he has depths.
So OF COURSE he's in the Epstein files. And OF COURSE half the time he's emailing with Epstein he's repeating his mantra, "bring the girls."
May the news spread wide and far about this shyster. A fall from grace might make him a better person.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2026/02/23/deepak-chopra-jeffrey-epstein-emails/88821384007/

2026-02-16 22:08:26 UTC

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Titus Groan and Gormenghast are absolutely magnificent. The third book wasn't up to the same standard.

2026-02-12 03:11:10 UTC

Love this image of Epstein victims looking at Bondi with all the respect she deserves.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/116/055/456/518/241/274/original/98d5d230241c2ae2.png

2026-02-10 15:22:12 UTC

I'm fascinated by doubled words in ordinary¹ English sentences, such as:
…the company I worked for for ten years…
…I noticed that that man is tall…
…they had had their dinner…
…I do do that…
The words aren't technically duplicated since they have different functions, but it's still cool. I wonder if anyone's catalogued all the words this naturally² happens with.
1. Not sentences constructed to duplicate a word.
2. Words in quotes not allowed (…this "this" is in the wrong font… etc)

2026-02-06 03:32:00 UTC

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Okay, I'm very interested in hearing more about Dracula as an anti-imperialist novel. Can you say more?

2026-02-04 11:58:02 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@frameadvance/116010633604560454
Genuine horror here: many institutions in Britain (and other parts of the world) used to provide only hard toilet paper. Imagine wiping your tender anus with tracing paper. Yes, it's unbelievable. But here's the photogaphic evidence.
#note1gcv…k2f8

2026-02-03 21:38:57 UTC

Right! Hard toilet paper!
People of a certain age from Britain (and maybe elsewhere) will remember with horror having to use toilet paper that resembled tracing paper. It was hard and crinkly, not at all absorbent, and you could literally use it for tracing.
I'm curious how many people remember the trauma of using this appalling invention.
If you did encounter it, please state the offending country in the comments.
[Boost for larger sample, please!]

2026-02-01 01:09:43 UTC

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Yes, adverbs tend to weaken writing.
The other best thing is to read your writing out loud. You pick up things that way that you miss when you're reading silently. Silent reading doesn't let you hear repetition or awkward phrasing as easily.
I try to do that when I'm writing a book, but it takes a lot of time, especially when you keep stopping to edit.
Alternatively, "hear" your writing being narrated by your favorite NPR host. That can teach you a lot.

2026-01-31 17:38:34 UTC

Every time I'm writing a book I'm grateful to Benjamin Dreyer, who suggested that every writer should try going a week without using:
* very
* rather
* really
* quite
* so
* of course
* in fact
It's astonishing to search through a draft to find these words. In almost every case a sentence is better off if you just delete them. On rare occasions they serve a purpose, but it's possible to reword in order to get rid of them. But I'd like to train myself not to use them in the first place!

2026-01-29 00:55:50 UTC

A friend send me this, and it resonated...
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/975/633/040/113/708/original/7a2a6b4f6b99d3f8.jpeg

2026-01-26 14:51:07 UTC

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I don't think these questions adequately reflect what America is. There have always been two competing tendencies There's a tendency toward democratization, and one toward (white, male, christian) oligarchy. Both those tendencies can be seen in the founders, who wanted the American people to govern themselves, but who had a very narrow view of who was fit to govern. We're seeing the oligarchic tendency very nakedly revealed in Trump, and the democratic tendency on the streets.

2026-01-26 00:39:06 UTC

Dear lord. It's snowing so hard. I've shoveled the whole driveway several times now. Each time I get to the end I look back and see it's already heavily covered again. I dread to think how much we're going to wake up to tomorrow morning.

2026-01-23 13:31:19 UTC

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He was still advocating leaving Nato three days ago. I only hope the Green Party doesn't adopt that as an official policy.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/20/uk-should-consider-expelling-us-forces-from-british-bases-says-zack-polanski

2026-01-23 13:04:36 UTC

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This article was good to read, especially this part:
"I've been here 24 hours, but already with what I've seen, well, I genuinely believe we're going to win. People here are well aware that what happens here impacts the entire country, that it sets the tone for resistance. ICE is angry, ICE is terrified, of how deeply unpopular it is."

2026-01-22 02:06:56 UTC

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Plato is a crater on the moon.

2026-01-16 19:15:44 UTC

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I'm going to have to tell my son to stay at his mother's place so that I don't have to drive him to school. This is not just for my safety, but for his. He's black, and could end up being assaulted or killed. He's adopted from one of the countries that Trump is no longer allowing immigration from, and they could easily make up an excuse to strip him of his naturalized citizenship.
My father-in-law is a die-hard MAGA supporter, BTW. He voted for this.
2/2

2026-01-16 19:12:48 UTC

This is insane. I just got a warning that ICE is coming to my area in the next week to two weeks. I'm a Green Card holder, but they could still put me in a detention camp or deport me without warning — e.g. because I make social media posts critical of the government.
So until ICE have gone I'm going to have to hide indoors and avoid driving in case I encounter road blocks or get stopped on the street. 1/2

2026-01-14 15:15:52 UTC

Damn, I upgraded to Mac OS Tahoe, and I'm not happy with some of the changes.
Spotlight used to be a quick way to find a file. Hit command-spacebar, type the name, hit "enter" and up popped the file I was after. Now I type in the file name and up pops a list of unrelated apps and tools. Far down the list is "search in finder," but when I click on that it doesn't even search for the term I just entered.
This was one of my main ways of opening files, so that's another habit to unlearn.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/894/089/601/783/247/original/15e7ded1fe02e356.png

2026-01-13 16:58:39 UTC

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I wonder if you'd like The Original Mirrors' self-titled first album? It's very muscular new wave/post-punk. It was one of my favorite albums at that time.
They brought out two albums (1980 and 1981) and then went their separate ways.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuS7VfCgOTA&list=PLkAk6zSMKPBAh1eJB2JdjHjfkY14_UcJO

2026-01-13 16:51:50 UTC

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I've only listened to a couple of these songs on Tidal, but it's good. Bit of a 60's vibe.

2026-01-10 17:16:41 UTC

Renee Good was a "fucking bitch" because she was not afraid. She had the temerity to talk kindly to Jonathan Ross & to say that she wasn't mad at him.
This infuriated him because his ideal is a fascist world where he is the man with the gun and the power, and where the rest of us are terrified.
Renee Good turned the tables. She terrified him, because his reason for existing is negated by love. So she was a fucking bitch who had to die.

2026-01-07 14:23:40 UTC

Trump is planning to cancel the midterms.
“They had the worst policy. How we have to even run against these people—I won’t say cancel the election they should cancel the election, because the fake news will say, ‘He wants the elections canceled. He’s a dictator.’ They always call me a dictator. Nobody is worse than Obama. And the people that surrounded Biden.”
This is how Trump operates. First it's "I'm not going to say…" Then it's "You know, a lot of people are saying…"
Then it happens.

2026-01-04 21:36:39 UTC

I haven't commented on the utterly illegal "arrest" of a head of state (repulsive and illegitimate though he is) because right now I'm just overwhelmed by how strongly I do not want to live in this kind of world — a world where rules and laws don't matter, where might makes right, and where the world is carved up into Russian, Chinese, and US spheres of influence, with all other countries being client states of the big three. That's going to lead us into a World War.

2026-01-02 15:16:47 UTC

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Sometimes she reminds me a lot of Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins.

2025-12-28 14:28:09 UTC

I loved this, but the person who posted it had crappy alt text, so I'm re-posting.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/797/658/748/849/263/original/0a206c4e93512a47.png

2025-12-26 22:01:45 UTC

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Despite being a Bowie fan since the 1970's I only saw Labyrinth for the first time last year. It was a special version of the film accompanied by live music. It was quite an experience.
Yeah, it's only a so-so film, but hearing Bowie sing the title song was a huge thrill!

2025-12-25 17:31:16 UTC

Suki, Luna, and Pippa wish you a Merry Dogmass!
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/781/386/154/307/307/original/edc82136990085f4.jpeg
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/781/386/146/013/314/original/6cd820809b11092d.jpeg
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/781/386/161/230/854/original/45be39beeb69f47c.jpeg

2025-12-25 12:52:58 UTC

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I wondered that too, but it's a screenshot from a stock video.
Being on your phone is not exactly my idea of JOMO.

2025-12-22 21:51:28 UTC

I teach from time to time at a local Buddhist center which has a small administrative staff.
I just got an email saying that their employee health insurance premiums are rising by more than 400%, which is about $15,000. It's just a huge increase. This is terrifying for the people that run the place.
This is being repeated all over the US with small businesses, non-profits, and individuals. It's a massive drain on our collective services. A fully public system is the only answer.

2025-12-22 04:41:47 UTC

Sometimes you get a perfect conjunction of posts in your timeline.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/761/363/070/599/861/original/642a4d08c2def505.jpeg

2025-12-18 17:36:19 UTC

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I'll never forget hearing Autobahn on the radio in Scotland when it came out in 1974. I loved it! Strangely, that experience never motivated me to listen to any more of their music, though. I may crank up my streaming app in the car later today and see what they've been up to in the 51 years since then.

2025-12-17 15:35:37 UTC

Someone talked about LLM-generated text yesterday: "Look for the em-dash. No one uses them except AI."
I've heard people confidently say this. I've also heard of people being accused of using AI because they used em-dashes.
The thing is, AI uses em-dashes because human writers do. Picking up the nearest book (Zinsser's "On Writing Well") I see em-dashes on almost every page.
People will say "Em-dashes, therefore AI" because they just haven't noticed them when reading. They've been there.

2025-12-13 14:57:53 UTC

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I haven't seen any instructions. Here's an example of the notifications I get.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/712/839/179/934/657/original/0851f9e110840496.png

2025-12-13 14:51:41 UTC

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I get notifications that people on BlueSky have replied to posts of mine, but I can't see any way to continue the conversation, since they're not on brid.gy. Do you know of a way to handle that?

2025-12-10 18:26:29 UTC

Are you:
Opposed to mass deportations and the Gestapo tactics of ICE?
Tolerant of trans people?
Critical of the US?
In favor of immigration?
Critical of capitalism?
Critical of modern Christianity?
Surprise! You're a terrorist, and the government is coming for you!
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/leak-fbi-list-of-extremists-is-coming

2025-12-09 21:27:09 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.social/@rubenbolling/115691564369915601
By shifting to 98% renewable energy "The total cost of electricity production [in Uruguay] decreased by roughly half ... About 50,000 new jobs were created in construction, engineering, and operations, roughly 3% of the labor force … Its economy has been growing at 6% to 8% annually, and its poverty rate has fallen from 30% to 8%."
#note1c5g…73x9

2025-11-30 13:45:16 UTC

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I'm grateful you wrote that book. The world needs reminders about the importance of the Rule of Law. I'm British, but living in the US where that system is in the process of breaking down entirely.

2025-11-30 13:11:54 UTC

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The law can be misused by authoritarians, but then it ceases to be the Rule of Law and is simply authoritarian abuse. The Rule of Law by definition means that there's impartial justice that applies to all. When governments start misusing the law to punish their enemies and reward their supporters, the Rule of Law is no longer in effect.

2025-11-28 03:48:30 UTC

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It’s easier to belief that your country is the greatest at everything if you know nothing whatsoever about what other countries do.

2025-11-22 23:22:23 UTC

Dear Guardian journalists: do we even need to ask these bullshit "both sides" questions?
You wouldn't write, "Twenty witnesses saw a man they all knew well rob the bank. But he denies it. Who's telling the truth?"
There aren't two sides here.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/595/905/104/520/239/original/534d893784ad9d74.png

2025-11-22 01:03:37 UTC

I boosted something about this, but it seems to have vanished. So here is a very young Cory Doctorow (@npub1fdr…lvhs) explaining with great enthusiasm some of the things that were on the internet in 1995, like Usenet and the Internet Underground Music Archive. I have to say, we've lost a lot of really cool stuff!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0EXga2hEIs

2025-11-12 03:19:24 UTC

The #Aurora isn’t as bright here as it is in other places, but it is still clearly visible to the naked eye
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/534/561/723/903/173/original/aace8704dd994614.jpeg
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/534/561/734/287/114/original/2345656aa14362d9.jpeg

2025-11-09 18:42:51 UTC

This is where the US is right now.
A Jewish friend with a (US citizen) Latino husband is making a drive across several US states. They're having to plan their route to avoid areas where ICE is active, in case they get stopped and assaulted (and probably end up with smashed windows on their vehicle).
She compared it to the times of the Green Book, where Black Americans had to share how to travel safely around the country.
#Fascism

2025-11-09 14:02:49 UTC

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There are two of us and one car, and my partner has ADHD. Where will be keys be today? In the bathroom? In her purse? In the fridge? It's anyone's guess.

2025-10-30 13:46:21 UTC

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I can easily imagine that album having been inspired by much older movies, like Murnau's Faust and Nosferatu. The highly dramatic visuals and movements of silent movie–era horror films goes well with those early Black Sabbath songs.

2025-10-30 13:36:22 UTC

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I still find some 1960's scary movies to be chilling or scary: The Haunting, Psycho, Rosemary's Baby, for example.
The songs on that album are more about the atmosphere and even romance of horror movies, though, rather than their gruesomeness or scariness.

2025-10-28 12:01:52 UTC

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They pirated three of my books, but I won't get a penny because my publishers didn't officially register copyright with the Library of Congress. Even if I wasn't in that situation I would think it was absurd that copyright registration was required before authors could be compensated. Authors hold copyright over their books, period. That should mean something.

2025-10-22 14:20:25 UTC

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This was made not long after 1975's "Survivors" about those left behind after a man-made virus wipes out 99.9% of humanity. (The 2008 remake was pretty good.)
I remember a scene in the original where someone says, "Would you be able to make a table?"
– "I could probably knock something together."
– "But what happens when the last saw-blade has work out? Could you mine the ore? Smelt it? Make it into a tool?"
We underestimate how dependent we are on complex systems.

2025-10-21 17:02:26 UTC

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The incomparable Quentin Crisp said that if you describe things as better than they are, you are considered to be romantic; if you describe things as worse than they are, you will be called a realist; if you describe things exactly as they are, you will be called a satirist.
Our current reality is like bad satire.

2025-10-18 12:41:53 UTC

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The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with an encyclopedia. Or something like that.

2025-10-16 23:47:01 UTC

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Although the expression "motley crew" has old origins, it's still is a very common expression in English, even for people who've never read a book in their lives.

2025-10-14 13:35:51 UTC

Amazon sent me an email today. I heard it's good.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/372/772/246/119/884/original/5475b07275da9a21.png

2025-10-02 16:56:34 UTC

Still incredibly disturbed by this account of a 1 AM raid on an apartment building in Chicago, where Border Patrol and FBI agents in military clothing smashed in people's doors—even those of citizens—and dragged everyone out onto the street, including naked children. Citizens & others were zip-tied. Non-citizens were taken away. Citizens were left outside in zip-ties for hours.
Of all the fascisty things that I've heard of, this so far strikes me as the most fascist.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/10/01/massive-immigration-raid-on-chicago-apartment-building-leaves-residents-reeling-i-feel-defeated

2025-09-27 20:01:20 UTC

The US government has declared war on the United States.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/278/031/551/019/925/original/f87c5aff8d3b841a.png

2025-09-23 02:40:17 UTC

Dear Google News. The US government is not a news organization. By presenting their press releases as if they were news stories, you are 1) acting as propagandists, and 2) displacing actual news media from Google News.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/251/292/790/640/515/original/12047b9422457272.png

2025-09-20 11:34:02 UTC

Not surprisingly, Canadians no longer trust the United States, are happy to pay more if it means avoiding buying American products, and are reluctant to come here.
It takes a special kind of Stable Genius to destroy an international friendship so completely and so quickly.
https://globalnews.ca/news/11435168/ipsos-polling-canada-us-relationship/

2025-09-19 13:28:27 UTC

The Trump regime's security forces zip-tied and arrested more than a dozen New York lawmakers yesterday as they insisted on their right to inspect an ICE facility that's been accused of holding prisoners in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions.
I don't see how, at this point, anyone can fail to recognize that we're living under full-blown fascism.
https://www.amny.com/news/brad-lander-jumaane-williams-nyc-officials-arrested-ice/

2025-09-15 10:26:14 UTC

Taken from another account so that I could add alt text. Please don’t boost posts that lack alt text.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/207/823/106/560/849/original/fd6a898ffbf48c60.jpeg

2025-09-14 12:14:17 UTC

The GOP is planning to give the government dictatorial powers to designate any US citizen a “supporter of terrorism” (e.g. by expressing opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza) and to revoke their citizenship. There would be no due process.
https://theintercept.com/2025/09/13/marco-rubio-revoke-us-passports-terrorism/

2025-09-07 14:58:01 UTC

I'm reading Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Talents," which is the second (and final) volume of her Earthseed books.
With its "Make America Great Again" president (that's literally his slogan) forcing a Christo-Fascist agenda on the US through "re-education camps" (which are really slave-labor concentration camps) I think it's even more prescient than The Handmaid's Tale.
This description of the president is word-for-word applicable to Trump.
The book was published in 1998.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/163/578/836/310/503/original/0c25f7b585aa6675.jpeg

2025-09-06 16:35:46 UTC

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The fans go off when the car's electrics are turned off, and only come back on when the car is started again, so I've never seen the point of turning them off. I've also never had battery problems because of doing this.
But perhaps in some vehicles this is a problem, or perhaps some people fear it will be.
I'm curious because when I use the car I wonder why I'm suffocating, and discover that my partner has turned the air off. My ex-wife also used to do this.

2025-09-06 16:03:40 UTC

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It sounds like you leave the settings on the ventilation system in the on position when you switch off the car. Not everyone does that. When they stop the car, some people turn the fans to "off." even if their car has a thermostat.

2025-09-06 14:49:47 UTC

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Why is that?

2025-09-06 14:44:39 UTC

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Yes. I tend not to call it air conditioning because not all cars have the ability to cool the air and just have fans and a heating system.

2025-09-06 14:05:22 UTC

This poll is for drivers. Apologies for the options being starkly binary, but I'm only allowed four answer choices.
Q: When I am turning my vehicle off, I most often...

2025-09-04 16:41:35 UTC

This is the time. This is the hour. This is the declaration. Scotland will regain its independence and stand once again among other nations, as a proud equal and partner.
Please sign.
https://www.yes.scot/signup/
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/147/004/328/819/219/original/cc52468cf35b4dfe.png

2025-09-04 16:14:52 UTC

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Amazon needs to be split up. There are far too many conflicts of interest going on here, and their monopoly over the audiobook market is culturally and economically disastrous.

2025-09-04 03:34:22 UTC

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Bhag is Hindi for tiger/panther/leopard. Apparently Kipling made up the name Bhageera from that. Presumably this author was imitating Kipling. Incidentally, the Vedic Sanskrit for tiger is vyāghra, which is pronounced almost identically to the name of a certain little blue pill. I suspect that’s not an accident!

2025-08-23 12:12:26 UTC

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Thank you. Yes, it is horrible. I was summoned to an immigration office a couple of months ago (I'm a resident alien) and I spent the hour-long drive there memorizing my partner's phone number (a sign of the times that we don't know these things) in case I ended up being disappeared into a detention camp. Fortunately I just heard the other day that they're issuing a new green card. So I'm OK for now, but if they get desperate to fulfill their quotas I might be for the chop.

2025-08-23 11:12:03 UTC

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Please don’t joke about that! You probably don’t know, but my daughter is black and an immigrant. I live in terror that she will have her naturalization revoked and be deported. I’m in the middle of applying for a UK passport for her for that reason, and also just in case the country becomes unsafe for her. I’ll be doing the same for my son, but I can only do one application at a time.

2025-08-23 02:14:50 UTC

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I hope this kind of thing ends up pissing a lot of people off, so that there's more pressure for change. Otherwise we are indeed doomed.

2025-08-23 00:46:09 UTC

1. What my daughter posted on Instagram.
2. What Instagram put over her post.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/075/303/351/274/838/original/29ccce4ba950fd29.jpeg
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/115/075/303/926/369/188/original/7337a640e7738121.jpeg

2025-08-21 00:03:54 UTC

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No movie. Short story was written. Screenplay was written. New screenplay was written (copyright difficulties due to Reddit TOS). Development hell. Stasis. Probably now dead.

2025-08-19 02:22:32 UTC

UK warns Sally Rooney after novelist pledges to fund Palestine Action
British PM’s office says it is a crime to fund a proscribed group after award-winning author promises to back the pro-Palestine group.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/18/uk-warns-sally-rooney-after-novelist-pledges-to-fund-palestine-action

2025-08-18 11:53:52 UTC

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That's great! It's even better to hear the original live version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yszh_KxeUWU

2025-08-17 13:42:51 UTC

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Counterpoint: all the solutions are political solutions.

2025-08-16 20:00:27 UTC

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So when United Health's CEO was assassinated, the lesson they learned was not "let's be less shitty and actually help people," but "Let's continue to be shitty but hide our identities."
It's time to burn the whole fucking thing down to the ground and start over.

2025-08-16 19:15:03 UTC

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The novel promises: I will entertain you.
You say: Very well. In return I will give you my attention.
If the book does not fulfill its part of the bargain, you are automatically released from the contract.

2025-08-16 19:07:25 UTC

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There really is no obligation to finish a book you don’t find satisfying. You may feel a sense of obligation to finish something that you started, but it’s worth questioning that, since it can end up being self-punishing. I also don’t think that it’s a good use of the limited time you have available on this earth to stick with books that drain you. Find a book that gives you pleasure!

2025-08-16 03:11:41 UTC

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The guy’s hands are completely different in size! And I’m pretty sure he’s Jon Pertwee!

2025-08-12 17:57:09 UTC

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There's a growing trend of author impersonation. Usually it's someone claiming to be a famous author, and just wanting to say hi. Then after some nice chit-chat they'll ask about your work. And it just so happens that they know an excellent editor or publicist, whose details they're happy to share with you. The cost is very reasonable!
Usually it's done much better than this, though.

2025-08-12 16:21:14 UTC

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Not just an author, but "bestselling author in the world"!

2025-08-12 16:03:48 UTC

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Oh, you are such a spam bot!
I strongly suggest blocking this one, @npub1cqh…a0wq.

2025-08-05 11:45:58 UTC

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The sun had been orange all afternoon, all the way to sunset. The moon, which was ahead of me for the whole of my drive home from my friend's house, was also orange.
The photo was taken on my phone, and so is crappy. But it does show the color of the moon.
The smoke is coming from fires in Canada.
https://media.mastodon.scot/media_attachments/files/114/975/978/401/580/581/original/80cb25ee2d9f3018.jpeg