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C Shepherd

@embraboffin.bsky.social
198 followers 367 following 159 posts

IT boffin in sunny #Leith. Mainly here for TTRPG stuff, politics and news. My journey from the DarX Side is complete

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Reposted by C Shepherd
Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 19/07/2026
Could Excel be conscious? We surveyed more than Jan 1 1900 people to find out.
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Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Yesterday the Telegraph reported on my comments about air conditioning. The comment section is quite something. I have apparently become a hero of the anti net zero crowd by saying something what I think is sensible about air con. Allow me to point out three ironies in this 🧵
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General Boles @generalboles.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
"all children will be issued with a state-funded Sanyo personal cassette player, orange foam headphones and a selection of TDK90 mixtapes"
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Me and a small nugget of love. 🇸🇪♥️🇺🇦 @mnotme.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
The human circulatory system, before and after proper cable management.
two images of the human body's circulatory system. One of them with good cable management
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Forbes @forbes.com · 13/04/2026
Google’s Latest Pixel Update Is Bad News For Android
forbes.com
Google’s Latest Pixel Update Is Bad News For Android
Android has a serious problem — and it's now getting worse.
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Mike Small @bellacaledonia.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Is this just clickbait, massive self-delusion, or an accommodation with fascists? Or all three? bellacaledonia.org.uk/2026/01/30/p...
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Captain Howdy @captainhowdy.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
And from this day in 2014.
A two panel image. The top panel shows the scene from 'The Wicker Man ' (1973) where Sgt. Howie first glimpses what's waiting for him as he crests the ridge of the hill he's being led up, but Howie is now the red-headed kid from 'The Snowman' (1982). The bottom panel shows the islanders standing around the wicker man, but there's snow on the ground, they're all wearing bobble hats and scarves and the wicker man is now the snowman from 'The Snowman'.
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RedScharlach @redscharlach.bsky.social · 21/12/2025
Rare footage of St Paul’s Cathedral testing its giant flamethrower
The sun rising over the London skyline this morning, only it’s a very cloudy sky and the sun is visible only as an orange streak of fire that coincidentally seems to be emanating from the spire on the top of St Paul’s dome
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Edwin Hayward @edwinhayward.com · 14/12/2025
Daily Mail tragedy in 3 acts 22 June 2016 (day before referendum): Pro-Leave editorial. One reason: too many immigrants from Eastern Europe. 24 June 2016: Brexit vote outcome means many Poles will decide to return home 13 December 2025: Oh no, where have the Poles gone? All the signs were there!
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Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
Sign and share if you're a UK citizen or UK resident! petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...
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HappyToast @happytoast.co.uk · 20/11/2025
For fucks sake, no part of a cow or pig is called a burger or sausage, it's a shape. Desperate attempts from animal farmers to damage vegetarian food sales. What's next Cadbury's not being able to sell chocolate fingers because that's what Captain Birdseye sells fish as?
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Chaminda Jayanetti @cjayanetti.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
Friend of mine momentarily forgot what Bonfire Night is called and renamed it "terrorism party"
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Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
New print in my shop for the philosophically inclined! (Shop link in bio)
Print of a cartoon by Stephen Collins. Script as follows:

[Scene is ANCIENT GREECE - where SOCRATES and PLATO and others are sitting round, thinking]

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SOCRATES:
Plato..

PLATO:
Yes Socrates?

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SOCRATES:
Can you tell me, are you human?

PLATO:
Why… yes, Socrates

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SOCRATES:
And would you agree, Plato, that a human knows what a chariot is?

PLATO:
Um, yep

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SOCRATES:
So you can tell me, then

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[Socrates produces a papyrus, showing a drawing of the corner of a chariot wheel]

SOCRATES:
*Is that a chariot*?

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PLATO:
Well
that’s more just a bit of wheel 

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SOCRATES:
So not a *chariot*.

PLATO:
No.

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SOCRATES:
[Producing another papyrus with the full drawing of the chariot, chopped into boxes]

So if a man were challenged to “tap the boxes containing chariots to prove you’re human” when he was just trying to check his ClubCard points... *where could he tap*?

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PLATO:
Well you can’t tap any of them really

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SOCRATES:
So are we not human?

PLATO:
‘Spose not.

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[Bleak pause]

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PLATO:
I’ll get the hemlock

SOCRATES:
Yeah

[ends]
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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Spooks on the BBC: “We have to climb onto the roof, through a skylight and plug this thumb drive into the Chinese server.” Spooks on Chinese TV: “We’ve just bought the British data centre. Job done.”
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the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
In 2004, Parisian police were conducting a training exercise in the french catacombs and found, after moving past a desk and a tape playing audio of snarling dogs, a fully functional movie theater and bar. When they returned 3 days later, the equipment was gone, with a note: “Do not try to find us.”
Members of the force's sports squad, responsible
- among other tasks - for policing the 170 miles of tunnels, caves, galleries and catacombs that underlie large parts of Paris, stumbled on the complex while on a training exercise beneath the Palais de Chaillot, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower.
After entering the network through a drain next to the Trocadero, the officers came across a tarpaulin marked: Building site, No access.
Behind that, a tunnel held a desk and a closed-circuit TV camera set to automatically record images of anyone passing. The mechanism also triggered a tape of dogs barking, "clearly designed to frighten people off," the spokesman said.
Further along, the tunnel opened into a vast 400 sq metre cave some 18m underground, "like an underground amphitheatre, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs".There the police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and tapes of a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers. None of the films were banned or even offensive, the spokesman said.
A smaller cave next door had been turned into an informal restaurant and bar. "There were bottles of whisky and other spirits behind a bar, tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous," the spokesman said.
"The whole thing ran off a professionally installed electricity system and there were at least three phone lines down there."
Three days later, when the police returned accompanied by experts from the French electricity board to see where the power was coming from, the phone and electricity lines had been cut and a note was lying in the middle of the floor: "Do not," it said, "try to find us."
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C Shepherd @embraboffin.bsky.social · 12/10/2025
"Automated BIOS patch corruption"
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🏰meg⚔️ @impavid.us · 09/10/2025
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.
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Ballot Box Scotland @ballotbox.scot · 10/10/2025
Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, candidate for SNP leader in 2023 and subsequently Alba leader in 2025, has now quit Alba citing it's "direction". She becomes an Independent and is re-standing as one next year. Alba's - never earned, only defected - parliamentary representation is ended.
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Ronnie Blakey @ronnieblakey.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
Grand Theft Fitba #SCOGRE
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C Shepherd @embraboffin.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
#SCOGRE we gave the Greeks a right Thracian. The biggest theft in their history since the Elgin Marbles
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William Duguid @williamduguid1.bsky.social · 04/10/2025
' I’m beginning to wonder if Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney is a sleeper agent for Nigel Farage, because at every turn he’s making Starmer look like a complete and utter fool.' @weegingerdug.bsky.social, via The National archive.is/iMU0G
Some people walking into the newly-renamed George Orwell pub in Wirral.  The external sign says 'established 1984' and there's an A-board outside with a picture of Keir Starmer and the slogan 'Big Brother is Watching You. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength'.
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Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 01/10/2025
One of my favorite anecdotes from THE PREHISTORY OF THE FAR SIDE: "That doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know."
A few days after this cartoon was published, my syndicate received a very indignant letter from someone representing the Jane Goodall Institute.
Not only did my syndicate and I both get read the Riot Act, there was a vague implication that litigation over this cartoon might be around the corner.
I was horrified. Not so much from a fear of being sued (I just couldn't see how this cartoon could be construed as anything but silly, but because of my deep respect for Jane Goodall and her well-known contributions to pri-matology. The last thing in the world I would have intentionally done was offend Dr. Goodall in any way.
Before I had a chance to write my apology, another complication arose.
The National Geographic Society contacted my syndicate and expressed adesire to reprint the cartoon in a special centennial issue of their magazine. My editor, aware of what had just occurred, declined, explaining why.
Apparently, whoever it was that sent the inquiry from National Geographic was shocked. They told my editor that "that doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know." They did some checking themselves, and an interesting fact was eventually discovered: Jane Goodall loved the cartoon. Furthermore, she was totally unaware that any of this "stuff" was going on. Some phone calls were made, and the cartoon was not only reprinted in the centennial issue of National Geographic, but was also used by her Institute on a T-shirt for fund-raising purposes.
I've since had an opportunity to visit Dr. Goodall at her research facility in Gombe. It's a wonderful place (sort of like right out of National Geographic).
"To refer to Dr. Goodall as a tramp is inexcusable even by a self-described 'loony' as Larson. The cartoon was incredibly offensive and in such poor taste that readers might well question the editorial judgment of running such an atrocity in a newspaper that reputes to be supplying news to persons with a better than average intelligence. The cartoon and its message were absolutely stupid." —Excerpt from the above-mentioned letter that started the ruckus
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James Morton @glesga-grognard.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
One step beyond
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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Two trials will be repeated endlessly despite always producing the same results: 1) Does UBI work? (yes) 2) Does AI improve productivity? (no)
theregister.com
M365 Copilot fails to up productivity in UK government trial
: AI tech shows promise writing emails or summarizing meetings. Don't bother with anything more complex
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Allan Faulds @afaulds.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Once again watching England with an archly raised brow from Scotland; we've had 15 years of scorn heaped on Independence supporters up here for being narrow, flag-obsessed nationalists, and now the whole UK Cabinet is lying about having loads of flags they shag all the time, mortifying behaviour
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MꙬse Allain @mooseallain.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
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World Bollard Association™️ @worldbollardassoc.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
Robot meets bollard. Nothing beats the #WorldBollardAssociation
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 23/08/2025
UK online safety law in practice.
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C Shepherd @embraboffin.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Mount Alvernia; Nuns who would not leave Liberton in life or in death tinyurl.com/threadinburgh1 I assumed at the outset that this story would be a historical one, but much of it is relevant now. I'm a devout atheist but I do have admiration for people who devote their lives to 'good works'
threadinburgh.scot
The thread about Mount Alvernia; the “Princesses of Poverty” who would not leave Liberton in life or in death
Every so often houses come up in the Edinburgh property listings in Liberton for a charming-sounding place called Mount Alvernia. You don’t have to look twice to guess that this development h…
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tomtremendous @tomtremendous.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
BREAKING NEWS Sunny Dunny 2025 #bloodbowl tournament is proud to announce a MAJOR new sponsor: Umbrage Sports, manufacturers of the finest bloodbowl equipment this side of Altdorf! Each team gets one 'special' match ball: The Umbrage Punt! Full details: talkfantasyfootball.org/viewtopic.ph...
Pro ball tokens
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 07/08/2025
Lynx could thrive in Northumberland with most in area supporting return, study finds
theguardian.com
Lynx could thrive in Northumberland with most in area supporting return, study finds
Release of 20 lynx over several years into Kielder Forest area would create population of about 50 animals Releasing just 20 lynx in Northumberland would be enough to create a healthy wild population, research has found, and most people in the area would support the practice. Northumberland Wildlife Trust has been working to see if the wild cats, which became extinct in Britain about 1,300 years ago as a result of hunting and habitat loss, could be returned to the area. Continue reading...
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C Shepherd @embraboffin.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
The big technological challenge of our times is going to be the ability to verify facts when AI generated content becomes the norm. As more people rely on this information while the way it was generated becomes more opaque, we could be in real trouble
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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
"I wonder, in my darker moments, if we’re going through something similar to Suez now – a less dramatic decline, perhaps, but a potentially more ruinous one." continuing my one man campaign to brighten up your summer
newstatesman.com
How Britain lost the status game
The country wants its leaders to deliver. What if they can't anymore?
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Kairin van Sweeden @indyanatomist.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
"The inalienable right of a people to be free is reduced to a crude bargaining chip, a chess piece on a board to be discarded for a greater strategic cause" notes @owenjones.bsky.social www.thenational.scot/politics/253...
thenational.scot
Owen Jones: History will judge monsters who enabled a genocide
WHAT words are there for a spectacle this grotesque?
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Andy Arthur💃🏰⚓🦌 Threadinburgh 🧵 @threadinburgh.scot · 17/07/2025
📢 I've given the old Threadinburgh website some attention and it has a new display theme. If you have 5 minutes could you take a quick look to debug anything? I'm aware the title and strap line aren't displaying fully on mobile, that sorta thing 🙏: threadinburgh.scot
threadinburgh.scot
Threadinburgh
The more obscure, unusual, and irreverent bits of Edinburgh and Leith local history
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Julie Irwin @jdirwinbooks.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Wouldn't like to be in their choux
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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
You'll be amazed to hear that Liz Truss does not understand basic public finance
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C Shepherd @embraboffin.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Remember Mechahitler is the name of the creator, not the monster
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Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now @understatesmen.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
I’m here in R’lyeth, where Barrister Douglas Green and his wife Judy want to build a house of cyclopean stone that came to them in a dream. Unfortunately, as this blighted land has risen from the abyss, so has the price of their build. Will this dream house become a nightmare?
Kevin McCloud, architect and tv host, stands in front of a stone wall
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waltydunlop @waltydunlop.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Spiceworld.
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Ruth Watson @ruthwatson.eurosky.social · 09/07/2025
Love your street trees. Give them a drink. They will return your love with cooler, leafy neighbourhoods in the hotter summers to come, Bring you quiet joy as you walk beneath their shade. #TreesForLife #Scotland
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HappyToast @happytoast.co.uk · 06/07/2025
Peter Benchley's Jaws (Eric Carle version) for @mitchbenn.bsky.social
some of the things Jaws ateFront cover of Jaws in the style of The Very Hungry Caterpillar
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Dr Doom @drdoomgrumps.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
Did you know every time you say “someone is toast,” you are paying homage to that great linguistic innovator, Bill Murray.
In the script, as the Ghostbusters train their proton blasters on Gozer, Murray's character says, "That's it! I'm gonna turn this guy into toast." By the time the scene was shot, the filmmakers had decided the human form of Gozer should be played by the model Slavitza Jovan. Murray improvised various comments about her, including changing the line in the script to "This chick is toast."

The Oxford English Dictionary recognizes Murray's ad-lib as the earliest known occurrence of "toast" with the modern meaning, calling the usage "proleptic." Prolepsis is a figure of speech in which a future state is represented as already occurring, so "You're toast" joined other proleptic expressions like "You're dead" or "You're history."

Searches on newspaper databases confirm this use of "toast" only took off after "Ghostbusters" hit it big at the box office in the summer of 1984. In September of thatThe 4 Ghostbusters from the 1984 movie
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Dreadnought Holiday @dreadships.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
Hear me out here: pangolins are nothing more than the Clangers' warrior caste...
A very fierce looking pangolin. The shared ancestry with the pink knitted space whistlers is undeniable
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Bex is WEAK on crime @bextraordinary.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
I made one that raided my pantry. 🧶
A brown crochet pangolin standing on a box on golden raisins to reach into a pantry.The brown crochet pangolin faces toward the camera, head tilted in curiosity.
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
Looking at Scotland: Reform are on 16% (one in six voters) for Westminster 14%/16% in Holyrood 2026. A breakthrough - but less dramatic than suggested, eg in the Hamilton byelection. Reform's rise is a challenge to Scottish exceptionalism. But lower support than in Wales or England. Why?
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gleñ mathews 🏳️‍🌈🍑🦈 @glenmaffews.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
I laughed so hard I dropped my phone into the abyss under the ottoman
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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
"James Rebanks remembers his grandfather’s tractor being mobbed by flocks of gulls as the plough turned over the rich earth to offer the gulls a feast of worms. Those days are past"
bylines.scot
Is regenerative agriculture the route to self-sufficiency?
By blending new and old farming methods we can improve resilience, food self-sufficiency, and restore nature all at the same time
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 30/06/2025
England wildlife regulator chair ‘enthusiastic’ about Lynx rewilding
theguardian.com
England wildlife regulator chair ‘enthusiastic’ about Lynx rewilding
Views on apex predator still polarised says Natural England head as activists apply for trial release in Northumberland The head of the government’s wildlife regulator has said he remains “enthusiastic” about reintroducing lynx to Britain and would be “absolutely delighted” if it could be achieved during his two-year term. But Tony Juniper, the chair of Natural England, added that debates over the animal’s release were “still quite polarised” and required “more engagement” to understand how communities would be affected. Continue reading...
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