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Mark Schaffer

@markeschaffer.bsky.social

653 followers 549 following 33 posts

Professor of Economics, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh

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Mark Schaffer @markeschaffer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

A classic from @leastactionhero.bsky.social - Einstein writes: bsky.app/profile/leas...

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Mark Schaffer @markeschaffer.bsky.social · 03/11/2024

Where does this fall? (Source: clipart-library.com) Closer to the word "cat", I think. The artist's intention matters - their cat or yours or some shared notion of a "cat"? (Obv related to the development of writing.)

A stick figure of a cat, from clipart-library.com.

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Mark Schaffer @markeschaffer.bsky.social · 16/10/2024

Truth be told, I first learned about the Black Hole of Calcutta when I was 10, via a MAD Magazine article on the upcoming 1969 college riot season [sic]. Had the joke below about the "Black Hole of Cal Cutter".

Cal Cutter, Pummeler, Virginia State Police
Cutter won national acclaim last season when he locked 89 rampaging Howard University students in a broom closet for three whole days. The tragic event is now referred to as "The Black Hole of Cal Cutter." When not playing Defensive Pummeler for the Virginia State Police, Cal keeps his weight down to a trim 275 lbs. by organizing and training crazed lynch mobs.

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Mark Schaffer @markeschaffer.bsky.social · 12/10/2023

Found it. Source is Krokodil, sometime in the 1960s (I think).

Cartoon from Krokodil showing a giant nail in a nail factory with the comment that the planned target (presumably set in tonnes of nails) has been achieved.

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