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Count Melancholia

@lillyh.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.2K following 11K posts

Working for a fascism-free, habitable Earth and for Scottish independence. #MECFS #BasicIncome WGB'er I spend more time on Mastodon, the ethical platform. You can follow my bridge from there at: @LillyHerself.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy BlueSky broke DMs.

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Catherine Clase @catherineclase.bsky.social · 9h
“Sulkowicz would carry the mattress, she said, for as long as her alleged attacker remained at Columbia. And so she ended up carrying it all the way to graduation … the university president refused to shake her hand, turning away from her instead.” www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
theguardian.com
The woman with the mattress: the radical, rage-fuelled history of anti-rape art
A performance piece from 2014 has gone viral in response to an allegation of rape at Cornell University. But with such defiant pieces stretching back hundreds of years, will things ever change?
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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 1h
Hark! heare the wynde blowe! Wacche the sonne ryse! Runninge yn the shadowes, Curse thy love, curse thy lies. And yf thou ne dost not love me now Thou wilt nevir love me agayne - Ich kan yet heare thee sayinge: Thou wouldst nevir breake the chayne #FleetwoodMac #OFMD
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@Above96th @above96th.bsky.social · 12h
Ran into a little gaggle of Palm Warblers in Central Park this morning and caught this one dancing along a fence. This little one is on its way from Canada to the Caribbean or even Central America! 🌴🌴🌴 #Warblers #CentralPark #birdsseenin2026
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Blake Leyh @earlofedgecombe.bsky.social · 4h
The most recent Adam Rudolph album is fantastic. This human-made music feels like medicine in the machine age we are all living through. Hands beating against drums, breath through flutes, people listening and sharing and living in real time. Really great.
adamrudolph.bandcamp.com
Invisible Threads, by Adam Rudolph
9 track album
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Steve Kopian @unseenfilms.bsky.social · 4h
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE MIDDLE EAST is the Chinese entry for the Oscar. The sort of film Unseen Films was set up to highlight, its uneven but an extremely emotional anti war film. Thank you @wellgousa.bsky.social for releasing a film that is not like others. Review soon Give it a try
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William Gibson @greatdismal.bsky.social · 4h
Having long been aware of those tech bros who read my work as utopian porn, where they’ve taken that doesn’t exactly surprise me.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 3h
This thing has made me go do a lot of reading tonight, and the Wikipedia page about the last public execution in the United States is well-written. It was Rainey Bethea, a Black man hanged in front of a crowd of 20,000 in 1936, a spectacle which embarrassed Kentucky enough that they ended hangings.
Hanna placed the noose around Bethea's neck, adjusted it, and then signaled to Hash to pull the trigger. Instead, Hash, who was drunk, did nothing. Hanna shouted at Hash, "Do it!" A deputy then leaned onto the trigger, which sprang the trap door. citation needed! Bethea fell 8 feet (2.4 m), and his neck was instantly broken.
Afterward, two doctors confirmed he was dead.
His body was taken to Andrew & Wheatley
Funeral Home. Icitation needed! He wanted his body to be sent to his sister in South Carolina so that she could arrange for him to be interred next to his father, but against these wishes, he was buried in a pauper's grave at Owensboro Cemetery (also known as City Cemetery and
"Potter's Field") in Owensboro. 14]It was estimated that a crowd of about 20,000 people gathered to watch the execution.!9! One man, 36-year-old Leonard A. Peters, was killed in a car accident while driving to Owensboro to witness the hanging. Three others, including his wife, were injured. 15. Afterwards, Hanna complained that Hash should not have been allowed to perform the execution in his drunken
condition. Hanna further said it was the worst display he experienced in the 70 hangings he had supervised. citation needed]
The spot where the scaffold stood
(approximately 37.775248° -87.116462°) is now part of a drop-off/pick-up lane in front of the Owensboro Convention Center. citation needed]へ
End of public executions in
Kentucky
As the Kentucky General Assembly had been meeting in its biennial sessions at the time, the media circus surrounding the Bethea execution embarrassed members of the Kentucky
legislature. In spite of the humiliation, they could not amend laws regarding executions until the next session in 1938. However, the trial judges in two separate Kentucky rape cases ordered that the hangings of John "Pete" Montjoy and Harold Van Venison be conducted privately. Montjoy, age 23, was privately hanged in Covington on December 17, 1937.On January 17, 1938, William R. Attkisson of the Kentucky State Senate's 38th District (representing Louisville), introduced Senate Bill 69, repealing the requirement in Section 1137 that executions for convicted rapists be conducted by hanging in the county seat where they raped their victims. The bill was promoted in the Kentucky House of Representatives by Representative Charles W. Anderson Jr., one of the attorneys who assisted Bethea in his post-conviction relief motions.
After both houses approved the bill, Governor Chandler signed it into law on March 12, 1938; it became effective on May 30 of that year.
Chandler later expressed regret at having approved the repeal, claiming, "Our streets are no longer safe." The last person ever legally hanged in Kentucky was Harold Van Venison, a
33-year-old African-American singer, who was privately executed in Covington on June 3, 1938.
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 2h
A list of things Rebecca Good says USG has never returned after seizing the car she owned with Renee. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
A list of items including last year's Halloween costume, 12-foot jumper cables, and a metal dog kennel.
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Count Melancholia @lillyh.bsky.social · 5h
Does this seem like a rational way to run things? sheets.works/data-viz/hol...
sheets.works
The people holding up the internet
Four billion phones ask one text file what time it is. One lecturer keeps it in his spare time. We counted the rest.
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Count Melancholia @lillyh.bsky.social · 5h
Death and Planned Obsolescence having a relationship. Norwegian humour? at its best. substack.com/@luizajarovs...
substack.com
Luiza Jarovsky, PhD (@luizajarovsky)
Norwegian humor is on another level. Here's how the Norwegian Consumer Council explained @Cory Doctorow's concept of 'enshittification':
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Steve Kopian @unseenfilms.bsky.social · 5h
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John Breen @breen.tech · 7h
Man, this answer from Ta-Nehisi Coates about how he felt about Kamala Harris saying that she wants to have “the most lethal fighting force in the world” is really good. He talks about why she might feel like she has to say that, but gives most of his response to the victims of that lethality
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billkittle.bsky.social @billkittle.bsky.social · 14h
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michael röbbins @alienvsrobbins.bsky.social · 14h
Lots of people will weigh in with thoughts on Anne Carson in the coming days, but I will just note that she wins the epigraph game
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Count Melancholia @lillyh.bsky.social · 5h
Some rather Gernsbackian radiators from the 1930s, found at Inverurie Hospital by a friend of mine. Flanges FTW!
A squat cast-iron radiator, with very strange "fins" - for directing the heat up into the room?Same radiator, wider view.
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Toula Drimonis @mtltoula.bsky.social · 5h
“It’s never been about the accumulation of great fortunes for me. I try to live simply. I never wanted private planes or yachts. I love art and music. I also love washing the dishes every night. That was my first job & that will be my last job,” Jarislowsky told The Gazette last year.” What a life!
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Lucie 💎 @elsicour.bsky.social · 5h
FYI J, any you would recommend for a first reading???
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Count Melancholia @lillyh.bsky.social · 5h
Heartbreaking.
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Micah @rincewind.run · 9h
the reason “AI will create so much abundance we will have a utopian society” rhetoric falls so flat is that the people building it will never, ever share their bounty unless it is taken from them and we all know it
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Count Melancholia @lillyh.bsky.social · 6h
As it is in Scotland; but there has been talk lately of a levying a fine if it is obvious that people have gone into an area without even the simplest precautions or equipment.
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Robin Reed @robinreed.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Swoon!
youtu.be
Sea Pictures, Op. 37: No. 1, Sea Slumber Song
YouTube video by Beth Taylor - Topic
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Conductor. Pianist. Music Communicator. @andreas-mildner.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
„We haven’t treated the world well. But we can turn things around.” „We need nature. Because, only when the earth thrives can we thrive.” “Biodiversity is bankable.” “Green is the new gold.” #HowToLiveOnEarth #BenedictCumberbatch youtu.be/h3mRsvFmWi0
youtu.be
How to Live on Earth | Feature Documentary | Presented by Benedict Cumberbatch
YouTube video by Open Planet
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Tom Walsh @tewalsh340.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
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◉●○•° @cosmoecology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
6 genuine forms of higher intelligence: pattern recognition, delusional optimism, quiet discernment, strategic detachment, deep curiosity, and metacognition.
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Robin Reed @robinreed.bsky.social · 23h
What if? Imagine a world where our Earth's vital ecosystems are legally protected from the severest harms.
stopecocide.earth
Top experts from 14 Latin American countries launch legal framework to prevent ‘ecocide’ — Stop Ecocide International
October 1 - Latin American environmental and legal experts unveil a Model Ecocide Law designed to provide a framework for countries across Latin America to criminalise severe environmental destructi...
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Robin Reed @robinreed.bsky.social · 7h
I’m reading that Anne Carson has won the 2026 Nobel Prize for Literature. 🇨🇦 The Glass Essay is my very favorite. Congratulations! www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48636/...
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pmamtraveller.bsky.social @pmamtraveller.bsky.social · 8h
Fabergé, Chick, 1899-1908
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fravery.bsky.social @fravery.bsky.social · 8h
Fading Facades. Noor Elden
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 8h
Crazy Rupert Lowe has a new angle. Ban folic acid in flour. Follows a mandate that all non-wholemeal wheat flour must be fortified with synthetic folic acid (vitamin B9) by the end of December 2026 to prevent upward of 200 neural tube birth defects including spina bifida and anencephaly each year
The official petition to end the mandatory
fortification of white flour with folic acid
has just hit 100k.


Great news.


It helps me take the fight to the
establishment in Parliament


Let's end it.


7:21 pm. 08 0ct26. 271K Views
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c.c. o'hanlon @ccohanlon.bsky.social · 8h
Didn’t we all? [sigh]
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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 7h
Tens of thousands fewer students is hundreds of millions of pounds of lost export earnings, solely and wholly to appease racists.
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Blake Leyh @earlofedgecombe.bsky.social · 12h
Another angle of the demonstration in Place de Bastille, happening right now.
Huge crowd in the Place de Bastille, blue sky, puffy white clouds, tall column with gold angel. Flags as banners in the crowd.
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Count Melancholia @lillyh.bsky.social · 7h
I'd rather have it in Canadian hands than in the hands of the US vulture capitalists who have it now.
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cera @thegreatsarini.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
now this is a gowron
gowron, a klingon from star trek, is pictured on a billboard partially observed by a brick building. he peers menacingly over it and his eyes are, quite frankly, insane. so wide you can see white all around the irises. the brick building has a banner hung on it, presumably for easter, that has a christian cross over a sun. “HE IS RISEN” is written on the cross, which makes gowron all the more ominous.
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Smörhuvud (he/surprise me) @guncelawits.bsky.social · 11h
I would feel elated if Miller were gored by an ox and then set upon by vultures.
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Cheryl in Nova Scotia 🇨🇦🍁🍁 @minibubbly.bsky.social · 10h
The federal government is launching a $2-billion rebate program that it says will help homeowners in Canada lower their annual heating costs while reducing emissions when they install heat pumps in their homes. #Canada /1 thread www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
cbc.ca
Ottawa to provide $2B in rebates for homeowners who install heat pumps | CBC News
The federal government is launching a $2-billion rebate program that it says will help homeowners in Canada lower their annual heating costs while reducing emissions when they install heat pumps in th...
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Count Melancholia @lillyh.bsky.social · 7h
I'm always amazed when I see long-lens shots like this showing mountains practically in Glasgow city centre. I never have any feeling of topography when I visit Glasgow, compared to Edinburgh where you're constantly climbing up and down hills.
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Count Melancholia @lillyh.bsky.social · 7h
This is great news, and look at that *lovely extra news* in the chyron below - 2 billion CAD to retrofit homes w heatpumps!
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Count Melancholia @lillyh.bsky.social · 7h
static.klipy.com
Goofy in Concrete Boots: Just Saying
ALT: Goofy in Concrete Boots: Just Saying
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Charlie Angus @charlieangus104.bsky.social · 15h
Canadian poet Anne Carson has won the Nobel Prize for literature. What a great honour. Congratulations.
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 14h
Some thoughts I shared while in the UK, where Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has acknowledged that anti-genocide protestors "were right" but activists are still serving long prison terms for stepping in where their government failed. @astra.bsky.social
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Count Melancholia @lillyh.bsky.social · 8h
Well, that was one big middle finger up to the silly South African from the Canadian PM.
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 12h
If protesting didn't work, would those in power be doing everything they can right now to vilify protestors and crack down on free speech? Activist and author Annie Leonard offers an important history lesson on why protest is so important — and why it's needed now more than ever.
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Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · 11h
It's the 21st century and there is still no complete ban on whaling, or integrated ocean sanctuaries. Even worse, some countries continue to push to REOPEN commercial whaling. Shame on them. news.mongabay.com/2026/10/inte...
news.mongabay.com
International Whaling Commission rejects push to revive commercial whaling
A push to reopen the door to commercial whaling failed at the recent meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) after a controversial resolution was taken off the table on the last day. The...
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Declassified UK @declassifieduk.org · 14h
👉REVEALED -- The BP-linked oil spill leaving Angolans sick and hungry by Stéffie Banatvala & Giorgio Michalopoulos Satellite imagery shows how oil has been leaking off Angola’s coast for 13 years, sickening locals and polluting their environment www.declassifieduk.org/revealed-the...
declassifieduk.org
Revealed: The BP-linked oil spill leaving Angolans sick and hungry
Satellite imagery uncovered by Declassified shows how oil has been leaking off Angola’s coast for 13 years, sickening locals and polluting their environment
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Count Melancholia @lillyh.bsky.social · 12h
wow.
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Count Melancholia @lillyh.bsky.social · 12h
Thanks. I'll see if I can find it anywhere.
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Count Melancholia @lillyh.bsky.social · 12h
Full interview here: www.themarginalian.org/index.php/20...
themarginalian.org
Ray Bradbury on Libraries, Space Exploration, and the Secret of Life: The Lost Comic-Con Interview
“Don’t think about things, just do them; don’t predict them, just make them.”
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Count Melancholia @lillyh.bsky.social · 12h
Ray Bradbury near the end of his life, speaking with Sam Weller:
As reprinted on Maria Popova's blog:
SW: If you could time-travel to a moment in your life, what moment would you go back to?

RB: Every. Single. Moment. Every single moment of my life has been incredible, I’ve loved it, I’ve savoured it, it’s been beautiful — because I’ve remained a boy. The man you see here tonight is not a man, he’s a 12-year-old boy, and this boy is still having fun. And I remain a boy forever.
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Count Melancholia @lillyh.bsky.social · 12h
May she be safe!
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