iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I last saw Death Cab for Cutie at HQ in Adelaide in February 2012, and it was a brilliant show, and now 40 year-old Bodie is waving to 25 year-old Bodie and wondering if the setlists will have any overlap at all.

The entrance to a concert hall, the Columbiahalle, announcing tonight’s act: Death Cab for Cutie.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Help I’ve so fallen in love with how beautiful Lucerne is that I’m in serious danger of saying “Grüezi” and calling chocolate “Schoggi.” Swiss German is really charming.

A view of the covered Kapellbrücke over the Reuss, which is perfectly turquoise. The bridge is covered in pink flowers. A mountain looms behind it.

Another angle of the bridge, also with a church in the background.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

When you’re subbing for a trans girl who doesn’t know it yet.

A street sign that says “Unter der Egg.”

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

And yet it can’t even do that! When told to recreate the US president it seems to have taken its cues from the guy who played Butch Cassidy and then came up with a line of salad dressing. If it fucks up *that much of a gimme*, what chance does it have for things that need nuance and interpretation?

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Yep, that’s them. And curiously too: without his peci, Suharto is also balding here, much like Ford, so he looks EVEN LESS like the AI likeness.

An actual photo of Suharto shaking Ford’s hand at the 6 December 1975 meeting.

Ford, Kissinger, Suharto and others at the reception for the meeting.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

And finally, when does this take place? We have a handy calendar to tell us: 7, apparently. Because as we know all calendars can only ever show us one day scrawled in enormous print over the whole month. Extremely practical.

A wall calendar, dominated by the number 7.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Maybe it’s the omnipresent threat of the singular flying boot that causes Suharto to simply say the word: “Understand”. The caption tells us that in fact it was Ford who told Suharto that “the US would understand”, but maybe this was prefaced by Suharto just blurting it out or something.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Suharto seems to be under a lot of pressure, as there is a disembodied combat boot hovering over his head. Who does it belong to? I guess it could be Kissinger’s but combat boots don’t seem his style to wear, only to lick. Maybe this is a metaphor of the shadowy…leg?…guiding Indonesian imperialism.

A boot floating over Suharto’s head for some reason.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

But what happened at this meeting? Well, apparently these two leaders played chess with three (?) black pieces (a king and two pawns) on a disembodied and unrecognisable map of East Timor. One of the pawns appears to be being absorbed by the map for some reason.

A red blob on a table, inscribed “East Timor.” There are three black chess pieces, which seem to be a king and two pawns, but one of the pawns is partially being swallowed by the Timor blob.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Indeed they DID meet personally as Ford was flying back from meeting the Chinese leadership in Beijing. It took place in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. They also weren’t the only ones present, as Henry Kissinger was there too. But needless to say, neither of the two men depicted is Kissinger.

A genocidal ghoul…I mean, Henry Kissinger, in a black and white portrait, wearing square glasses and neat, dark hair.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

“Suharto” is no better. Suharto was a decade younger than Ford though you wouldn’t know it from the AI. His jowl-heavy face is unrecognisable from his actual features. He’s also not wearing the peci, the traditional black velvet hat he usually wore, but he seems not to have worn it at this meeting.

The portrait of Suharto, a smooth-faced man wearing his customary peci, the black velvet hat.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

(This isn’t dunking on Ford, though there are plenty of reasons to do so! Just: the man in the AI picture is not the sexagenarian former footballer the president actually was. In fact, were I to guess I’d say the picture is based on Paul Newman—even if the pic I have here is of him as a silver fox.)

A photo of the actor Paul Newman, handsome and with plenty of hair (albeit grey) and a straight nose.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

So first: Ford. In the AI picture he’s comfortably middle-aged with a lush blonde hair, a straight nose, and slim figure. This contrasts with Gerry Ford himself, who at the time was 62, balding with grey hair, a much bigger rounder nose, and a physique more reminiscent of his days as a linebacker.

A close-up of “Ford”, showing a slim man with a full head of blonde hair.

The official portrait of Ford, older and with a more bulbous nose, balding, and with thinning grey hair.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

A history account over on Facebook that uses a load of AI slop posted this monstrosity about US-Indonesian relations in the 1970s and the longer I look at the picture the less it makes sense.

An AI-generated image of two men talking. One of them is supposed to be Gerald Ford. The other is supposedly Suharto. There are many details in this picture that will be looked at in more depth in the following posts. The caption reads “On December 7, 1974 President Ford told dictator Suharto the US would understand an invasion of East Timor.”

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

So this is pretty damning but this pull-quote is going to stick with me for a bit.

White text on black background:

"The classic is, it will get the side of the body incorrect and say right when you've said left...so you need to check things pretty closely, especially things like drug doses," he said.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Dad threw himself into everything with enthusiasm and joy. He always wanted to be part of it. And now, a year on, I desperately miss being able to call. I miss his terrible jokes. I miss him deciding that the solution to every household maintenance problem was a bracket. I miss his sausage rolls.

A man in a mustard jumper and jeans kneels next to a white Samoyed in the Bush.

A newly-wedded couple dance in front of trestle tables at their wedding.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

He loved being out on the water, which was something he shared with his father — and later was something he shared with me too. His boat, Om Shanti, is now tattooed on my forearm; if you wanted to know Malcolm, you went sailing with him.

On a boat, one man is at the tiller while an older man sits in front of him.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Dad was the best of any of us: kind and generous to a fault, and determined to do the best he could. People mistook him for reserved, and he could be! Get him a great Christmas present and you’d get a quiet “mmm”… the highest of praise. But he was always so passionately interested in everything.

A young lad in military uniform squints at the camera in front of a church.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Today it’s a full year since Dad died. That’s a fact I can’t quite get my head around. I couldn’t understand it then, so soon after Mum, and I can’t understand it now, twelve months later.

Two young people stand on a driveway. The young man is taller and sniping, with his arm around his girlfriend. There’s a car in the carport behind them.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Getting the classic Bluesky response is such a rite of passage. A thing of beauty. A moment of time.

In answer to my post making a joke about Trump redesigning aircraft carriers meaning that “he keeps coming up with new and creative ways to make sure the States won’t win a war”, another user chides me that “I share your disdain but can’t see it as humorous. Have fun.”

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Someone just called into question your theoretical framework and he’s NOT HAVING IT.

That same tuxedo cat is now yawning, showing off his teeth.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

He is sitting on your viva committee.

In front of a blurred background is a black and write tuxedo cat. He has very big ears, but he also looks very grumpy.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I’m into day seven of a fourteen-day window waiting for an announcement regarding a big grant I applied for last October. The stress is keeping me up at night and I don’t want to get pessimistic OR optimistic so I’m in a constant fugue. That’s academic life in the 2020s.

A person stands under a purple umbrella. They’re wearing big transparent glasses, a pink, green, and white vest under a linen jacket, and on the lapels a badge of pink, green, and brown frog cakes, and a white cat holding a trans flag.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Holy shit, Yuval Noah Harari is over on Facebook with the biggest boomer energy you can possibly imagine — both for the meme design and for the complete lack of any self-awareness.

A cartoon character yells “if you’re too busy to fact-check — you’re too busy to share.” This is supposedly a quote from Yuval Noah Harari, an author for whom the concept of fact-checking is fundamentally foreign.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

A combination of stress and the high summer means I have not been feeding myself properly but I’m pretty happy with this tonight: a watermelon and halloumi salad with soy lime dressing, topped with chilli and lemon-roasted pork belly.

In a blue bowl, watermelon and halloumi salad with soy lime dressing, topped with chilli and lemon-roasted pork belly.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Also an "essential feature" would be John Olday, a satirist and cabarettist, a fixture of Australian entertainment between 1950 and 1970. Olday was also a queer anarchist antifascist who married the socialist resistance fighter Hilde Meisel in 1938 so she had the protection of British citizenship.

A black and white portrait of a young man with a high forehead and swept-back hair, wearing a suit.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

But maybe this one has found a source that we don't know about? So I read it. There's one mention of "whore-filled eldorado." And when you read it, it might appear...familiar to you. (NB: Harris' book is readily publicly accessible; this BA isn't; for that reason I'm leaving off identifiers.) 12/

An excerpt from a BA thesis. The highlighted text reads: "Both men who fell 'into the clutches of whores' and 'upstanding women and girls', were the 'victims' of such prostitutes. Many citizens were forced to 'live within a whore-filled eldorado' as a result of 'the terrible housing shortages' in the city."

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

But if you know your German geography, this should've been obvious anyway, because St. Georg and St. Pauli (the "eldorado of the prostitute riff-raff", so Abel) are famous districts in Hamburg. St. Georg is nowadays the queer centre; St. Pauli is home to the Reeperbahn red light district. 9/

A street map of Hamburg. St. Pauli is to the west; St. Georg slightly to the northeast.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

That's right! Hermann Abel is back! (Evidently he was pretty thrilled to have used the word "eldorado" before and decided he couldn't have too much of a good thing.) Yes, that guy. The guy from Hamburg, who lives and publishes and campaigns in Hamburg and who writes about Hamburg. 8/

An expanded version of the same excerpt, making it clear that Harris is quoting from Hermann Abel and his "Nachtpost."

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

That, of course, doesn't mean the AI is wrong though! Hamburg is one of the "other German cities", after all. Maybe there's mention elsewhere. So I went hunting. Harris uses the term "eldorado" once more in her book. It's here: 6/

Excerpt from Harris' "Selling Sex in the Reich", pp. 123-4. Highlighted text: "He lamented that in the neighbourhoods of St. Pauli and St. Georg, the 'eldorado of the prostitute riff-raff', the children had learned what he termed the 'whore's alphabet' instead of normal, correct vocabulary."

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

So, all good so far? Well...not quite. The summary isn't necessarily wrong in most instances; this is because it's paraphrasing directly a passage from Victoria Harris' "Selling Sex in the Reich: Prostitutes in German Society, 1914-1945" (Oxford University Press, 2010) — a great book by the way. 3/

An except from Harris' "Selling Sex in the Reich", specifically p. 119. Highlighted is one sentence: "Many citizens were forced to 'live within a whore-filled eldorado' as a result of 'the terrible housing shortages' in the city."

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

I wanted to see who else has used it, so I did a quick Google search. Google provided this handy summary: 3/

A screenshot of a Google search AI summary:

The phrase "whore-filled eldorado" is a historical reference used to describe the rampant prostitution and severe housing crises in Berlin and other German cities following World War I, particularly during the Weimar Republic. It highlights how desperate economic conditions and extreme housing shortages forced many women into sex work, transforming parts of the city into unregulated red-light districts. The phrase is frequently cited in historical analyses of Weimar-era society and cinema, such as in the book Selling Sex in the Reich and studies on the Representation of Prostituted Women in Weimar Cinema."

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Oh no! Cap and Bucky send their best!

Two cats, Cap and Bucky, snuggle on a quilt.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

My cats now have passports and therefore possess the only good ID photos on the planet.

The identification page in a pet passport, with the details of the black and white tuxedo cat, Cap. His picture has him wearing a red bow-tie.

The identification page in a pet passport, with the details of the grey and white cat, Cap. Bucky picture has him wearing a multicoloured neckerchief.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

It’s a Farmers Union iced coffee, or it’s nothin’

A person stands in front of white cupboards. They are wearing large-framed transparent glasses, and an off-white linen blazer. Their lapels have two badges: one shows a Farmers Union iced coffee carton, and the other is a cat holding a bisexual flag.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Even more gloom than usual recently but Cap is here to save the day.

A tuxedo cat lies on his back and stretches his paws over his head.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

University job portals, please find ways to be less embarrassing about your institutions of higher learning. This one includes eccentrically-placed apostrophes, a table that refreshes and deletes the information you've included, and this gem, in which three = two:

A screenshot from a job portal includes the text "Please advise us of three professional references?" The options are "Yes I will do this now", "Yes they will be available upon request if successful in gaining an interview", and "No I will not be able to provide two references."

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

First Mother’s Day without mum, and the second on which I haven’t been able to call or send a card. A weird, empty feeling.

A woman with short dark hair reclines in a red velour chair with a toddler in blue overalls standing on her lap.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

I have never been more South Australian than I am in this moment.

In a blue bowl, a bright green soup is the base surrounding an upside-down pie with tomato sauce.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

G’day Gadigal, you’re looking a bit lovely.

From altitude, a photo of the Sydney cityscape including the harbour, the Harbour Bridge, and the Opera House.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

My (now ex) boss really knows me though

Sitting on a table, a tubular white pencil case with a unicorn face and pink hair.

The same pencil case but with the head unzipped.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

…because this is the other guy. (He was snuggled up until the neighbour’s dog went berserk at 5am and he was startled awake. He spent the rest of yesterday a bit shy; I think he must’ve felt bad for accidentally scratching me!)

A tuxedo cat, Cap, stares with huge eyes at the camera. He sits on a felt-covered cat tree.

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Bodie A. Ashton @manwithoutatan.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

So I love my new glasses, which I got when I was in Newcastle at the end of last month. They’ve just come back with my new lenses. Also, yes those are scratches on my face. You should see the other guy…

A person wearing a tan cord overcoat looks at the camera. They’re wearing bisexual-coloured glasses and a pin that says “FUCK TERFS.”

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