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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖

@presenttense.bsky.social
128 followers 512 following 178 posts

Husband and father. Elder millennial. Foodie and gin enthusiast. Critter, Jedi, Pokémon trainer, AFOL, LLama. DMs closed by the state. He/him.

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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
There’s no reason to capitalize vice president unless it precedes a name as a title.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
With the caveat, of course, that the debt ceiling in general should be abolished, I don’t really mind using every arrow in the quiver, so to speak.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Is there anything preventing a new Democratic Congress from lowering the debt ceiling? It seems like it would be pretty easy to spin as a move to control the debt while also clamping down on Trump’s administration.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I like one session per current character level up through 10th (so play one session at 1st, two sessions at 2nd, etc.), then 10-12 sessions per level through 20th.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Ramaswamy’s negative ads are memorable for how awful they are. The dirt they have on Acton is that she has consumed alcohol, takes prescription medication, cried at a Covid response meeting, and once tripped over her dog.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I didn’t keep music on my phone at the time, and because my Music app was empty, it did not autoplay anything when first connected to my car’s entertainment system. Suddenly, I was getting blasted with U2 every time I wanted a map or a podcast.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
I went to a market at an orchard yesterday, and there were a couple of food trucks outside. I definitely picked the one with a marker board someone wrote “donuts” on over the eldritch mac and cheese.
An AI-generated ad for a food truck offering mac and cheese with oddly interconnected noodles and root beer topped with some sort of solid white bumpy growth.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
65,940 BCE! anyhumanever.com/life/1827514...
anyhumanever.com
A life, one of over 100 billion lives
In 65,940 BCE, a girl was born on the Ethiopian Highlands, near present-day Addis Ababa.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Found it! It was a video! Thanks @xptolevel3.bsky.social!
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Nice! I was a woman in 285 BCE China who lived to age 85. Matriarchs FTW!
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
OK, this is actually really cool. And a reasonably good life for my first draw! anyhumanever.com/life/1157965...
anyhumanever.com
Xiu, one of over 100 billion lives
Xiu came into the world in 285 BCE, in the countryside of the North China Plain.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Not directly burrito related, but now I want to see a pizza, candy corn, cake doughnut, orange and cherry tomato burrito.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I’m trying to find the source of a short story I read that used a magical orb as a metaphor for AI and the damage it can cause. I can’t find it because searching for anything, but especially anything tangentially related to AI, is hopelessly broken. :(
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
As a copy editor for 10 years, “no control” isn’t really right. We preferred, and requested, suggested headlines from reporters. These could be changed for accuracy, length, pithiness, or SEO, but full rewrites weren’t common, and we’d definitely hear from the reporters if they objected to a change.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
The batteries are loose again
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
The batteries are loose again
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
New mnemonic for the Great Lakes: SHAME. Seems fitting.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
There are a lot of tracks from the MMO Dungeons and Dragons Online that are great for this.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
I’m really confused why companies think I want to talk to their support bots. I bought a touchscreen phone for a reason. Let me press buttons! I don’t want to talk on my phone!
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Reposted by Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖
Julia Poe @juliapoe.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
When I think about trans people in sports, I don’t think about lobbies or legislation. I think about my friends. Wrote about pick-up hoops, queer community and love:
chicagotribune.com
Column: When I think about transgender people in sports, I think about my friends
Despite the rabid fixation upon the concept of trans women in sports, those who beat the drum the loudest for exclusive policies rarely seem to care about trans people themselves.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
I love both science fiction and RPGs. I have tried and failed twice to get into Mass Effect, once on the original release and again years later on the complete series bundle.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
By this standard, “jw wets their pants” is acceptable, regardless of how many years it has been since you were 3.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
The easy answer is sausage, pineapple, jalapeño But the real answer is peach, blackberry, honey
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
As a D&D player, I was always sure to append the edition “5e” to every search for things like “list of poisons,” “how long does it take to die of thirst,” etc.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Chili cheese Fritos have the structural integrity you need for this.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
static.klipy.com
Hiro Nakamura: Save the Cheerleader, Save the World
Alt: Time and space traveler Hiro Nakamura walks through a subway car in which time is stopped and says, “Save the cheerleader, save the world.”
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Reposted by Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖
Adam Conover @adamconover.net · 26/06/2026
This Friday News Roundup @brennanleemulligan.bsky.social & @edzitron.com try to dissect the golden goose slideshow. Watch the full episode wherever you get podcasts! » Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f... » Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/0fK8WJw... » YouTube: youtu.be/EGqCAmXTJBI
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Reposted by Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖
The Register @theregister.com · 27/06/2026
Microsoft extends extended updates for Windows 10 in the most muted way imaginable
theregister.com
Microsoft extends extended updates for Windows 10 in the most muted way imaginable
Tiny tweak to support page reveals consumers can purchase another year of patch protection
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Reposted by Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖
The Monarch Diaries @monarchdiaries.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
HAHAHAhaha! they're making the world's biggest synthetic scum pond!!! The coating is a polyurea used inside pipes. It gels in about 3 seconds, making it non self-leveling. The texture is like an orange peel, the perfect substrate for biofilms. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/u...
nytimes.com
Manager at Trump’s N.J. Golf Club Helped Plan Reflecting Pool Repairs
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Reposted by Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖
Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 18/06/2026
The conversation I have had with each of my kids: "if you *ever* run into a problem online and you think you're in trouble, you can *always* come talk to me about it, and if you think I will be upset about a choice you made just start out by saying 'I may need some help.'" And I will take that...
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
It takes months and thousands of blocks, but you can defeat the algorithm! My feed consists entirely of posts from my friends, posts in groups I joined, and ads.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
I’m still the admin of half a dozen goofy groups, but Facebook kicked out all of the other members more than a decade ago.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
I enjoy colorful gin drinks such as an aviation, bramble, or last word. My wife enjoys an old fashioned. We have been served each other’s drinks more than once.
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Reposted by Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖
Laura Jedeed @laurajedeed.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
The AI boom is unsustainable because the entire thing is predicated on cannibalizing the future. Is this a better way to search? Maybe! Will there be anything new for the AI to search if no one gets web traffic from Google Search anymore? There will not.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
With the caveat that the writer of this piece is obviously partial to their side of the argument, I appreciated this explanation. www.americanprogress.org/article/the-...
americanprogress.org
The Corporate Power Reset That Makes Citizens United Irrelevant
By using their authority to define what corporations are—and what powers they hold—states can end the era of corporate and dark money in U.S. politics.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
A “lightning deal” black T-shirt with several pictures of horses that incorrectly reads, “Honse ridding.” Only $4.29 with one sold!
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
I had some DOS boot games on an old Tandy, but nothing so memorable. The ones that stick in my mind are from a bit later: Sim Park from 1995 and Star Wars DroidWorks from 1998.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
I guess my issue is that, from that starting point, many wellness influencers don’t get to: “Frying foods at home is also unhealthy, while pasteurized and fortified milk is healthy.” Instead, we get: “Raw milk is better and vaccines are poison!” (Not to say that’s your argument, of course.)
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
I may be getting too old for this, but the years of experience I gained decades ago in AOL Instant Messenger chat rooms still come in handy sometimes. :)
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
And that definitely makes them unhealthy. People should eat less of them; they have lots of fat and salt! But home cooks use mixed vegetable oil to fry things all the time. And those foods are unhealthy too! Teach people to make healthy choices, not avoid a bogeyman.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
OK, but now we’re back to potato chips are not, by that definition, ultra-processed. Are some of them? Sure! Are they unhealthy regardless? Yes! But amount of processing and healthy are separate metrics, and substituting one for the other serves no one.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
I think we are so far from the original post that the context has been lost. I’m not arguing that ultra-processed food doesn’t exist, or that it is healthy. I’m saying it’s not a synonym for healthy. Processed and healthy are separate metrics, and substituting one for the other serves no one.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
I think it’s analogous to someone saying “fire is bad because it can burn you or your house or whole forests” - that’s all true, and people should definitely burn themselves and their houses less. It’s bad! But telling people that as a shortcut to teaching fire safety would be silly.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
I think we are so far from the original post that the context has been lost. I’m not arguing that ultra-processed food doesn’t exist, or that it is healthy. I’m saying it’s not a synonym for healthy. Processed and healthy are separate metrics, and substituting one for the other serves no one.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
I think we are so far from the original post that the context has been lost. I’m not arguing that ultra-processed food doesn’t exist, or that it is healthy. I’m saying it’s not a synonym for healthy. Processed and healthy are separate metrics, and substituting one for the other serves no one.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
I understand the processes, and thy can sound scary if you don’t, which seems to be the goal. Just be honest with people! You don’t need modern techniques to be a bogeyman. There are many people who make unhealthy food in their home kitchens.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Are you suggesting that homemade fries are healthy? They are definitely not. Far too much fat and salt, just like chips.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
But you’re making my point! You’re saying those chips are unhealthy because of fat and salt. I agree! People should eat less of them, or even none at all! But that has nothing to do with how much processing they have undergone. Simple food can be unhealthy, and highly processed food can be healthy.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
I don’t buy the idea that lists of ultra-processed foods are not trying to be lists of unhealthy foods when every one of them seems to feature potato chips but they never call out decaf coffee, which requires significantly more processing to get from coffee cherry to store.
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Prestidigitator 🧙‍♂️📖 @presenttense.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
smartlabel.pepsico.info/028400355605...
The Smart Label for Lay’s Classic Potato Chips, which shows the entire ingredient list as potatoes, vegetable oil and salt.
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