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Ted Byfield

@tbfld.bsky.social
644 followers 454 following 482 posts

Ex-academic, ex-artist, editor/writer (EU research network grants 🎯), Open Syllabus co-founder, nettime mod 25 yrs. I “worked at the intersection of” when it was a red-light district not a venn diagram. Deep South 🔁 Deep North. More: counter.ink

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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
On the left: A [Toronto] Globe and Mail Headline, “Trump threatens tariffs on Canada over wildfire smoke.” On the right: a screenshot from The Simpsons of a hand holding a newspaper with a picture of an old man and the headline “OLD MAN YELLS AT CLOUDS.”
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Permanent Daylight Savings Time is for losers. The US should DSTMaxx by jumping ahead three hours — maybe more. Let’s show those globalamers what True American Innovation looks like.
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
No idea, but from now on I’m 💯 thinking Kojève when I think of Mamdani
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
💯 — I’ve tried some of its competitors and they all kinda suck. But if there’s a way to adapt this software (see my follow-ups) to generate playlists on less vile platforms, I’m all for it. Also: 💋 ✊🏼 🌈
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
[3/x] And here’s the vibe-coded Python contraption. I’d like to see it evolve into a one-stop shop where you type someone’s name in and it spits out a credible chronodiscography. If you’d like that too and have the skillz, it’s on Github too. 👍🏼 github.com/tbfld/playli...
github.com
GitHub - tbfld/playlist-gen
Contribute to tbfld/playlist-gen development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
[2/x] Made with a vibe-coded Python contraption for converting a JSON listing of every track into a Spotify playlist. It’s on Github, so you can do whatever you like with it — improve it, extract it, build on it. github.com/tbfld/abdull...
github.com
GitHub - tbfld/abdullah-ibrahim-chronological-discography
Contribute to tbfld/abdullah-ibrahim-chronological-discography development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
[1/x] I cobbled together a chronodiscography of pretty much everything Abdullah Ibrahim ever recorded, or at least as close to that as you can get on Spotify. open.spotify.com/playlist/092...
open.spotify.com
Abdullah Ibrahim, chronodiscography
Playlist · otherorsomeone · 315 items
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
1971 anti-war spot by Clergy & Laymen Concerned, excerpted from Help Unsell the War — 13 TV Spots on the Internet Archive ( archive.org/details/moti... )
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Trump doesn’t behave erratically to distract *us* — we don’t even exist. In his mind there’s only one person, which is why he’s the audience of one. He’s desperately trying to distract *himself*.
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Let it be known from this moment on as the ARC DE TRIOMPHALOS
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
🤯
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
That’s presumably why the DNC released a draft document rather than the final version. To be fair, though, there are only a few mentions of *any* foreign country or region: IIRC no Europe, Canada, Mexico, or China. The only two mentions of Russia both involve hackers attacking Democratic resources.
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
It is! Won’t fly, tho. In voir dire for a med malpractice case, I said “OT1H I hate our culture of litigation lotto, OT0H it’s pretty much the only way normal people can stick it to the man.” The lawyers for both sides were like GET HIM OUTTA HERE RIGHT NOW 😹
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
The email contact on their website is mlogan[at]midaic[dot]com. Across the street, at 864 S. Mississippi / State Hwy 3 is another business, Logan & Sons Co, Lawn and Rental Services. Its principal address is also at the DQ. cc @atrupar.com, @juddlegum.bsky.social
Google Maps screenshot of Logan and Sons Lawn and Rental Services in Atoka OKGoogle streetview screenshot showing Logan Lawn and Rental on the left and, facing it, the Dairy QueenBizapedia screenshot showing Logan and Sons LLC’s business address as 853 S Mississippi Ave — the DQ
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
The subcontractor that’s actually painting the Reflecting Pool, Mid-America Industrial Coatings, uses a Dairy Queen as its business address. cc @atrupar.com, @juddlegum.bsky.social
Cropped image of the partially painted Reflecting Pool, showing a contractor's equipment in the foregroundPhoto showing four workers standing in front of a Mid-America Industrial Coatings trailerDetail from the Mid-America Industrial Coatings website, showing their contact info as Mid-America Industrial Coatings
853 S. Mississippi Ave.
Atoka, OK. 74525
Phone: (580) 239-8479
Email: mlogan @midaic.com
https: //coatings.rhinolinings.comScreenshot of a Google Maps search for 853 S. Mississippi Ave.
Atoka, OK. 74525, showing a Dairy Queen
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Someone brought ole Dick down from the attic and plugged him — and he still worked! If that ain’t Made in the USA quality, I don’t know what is.
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Reposted by Ted Byfield
Kirkdale Bookshop @kirkdalebooks.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
A young chap has just been in asking about William Gaddis and Robert Musil. a) Nature is healing b) it was like meeting 1990s me
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
There isn’t an emoji for that, but it’s a great idea — you should propose it! www.unicode.org/emoji/propos...
unicode.org
Guidelines for Submitting Unicode® Emoji Proposals
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
What other emojis can you name? 😹
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Clever! For 1940s racial humor, that is, which is when Carlin was talking about. 🙄
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
If only there was a way to get companies to think and act in more diverse, equitable, and inclusive ways
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
In SF the billboards are all for AI, everywhere else they’re for personal injury lawyers. It’s as if…🤔…nah, that couldn’t be.
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Definitely. We’ll eventually learn the contractors are 💯 pwned. My bet: convincing him to demolish the East Wing was a jackass-level gambit by some foreign intel outfit: [bong bubbling] “OMG Vlad, if you make fun of his teeny little event tent maybe he’ll dig up the entire EOC!!!” 💨 🤪
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
I don’t think you missed it, I think you raised skipping it to a high art. Regrets? We all have a few. 😹 But new windows are opening and some will come to you. If you keep at it — for purely pragmatic reasons, not as a proxy for mainstream acceptance — I firmly believe you’ll get one.
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Other suggestions: Arc de Fête Morbide, Arc de Douche, Arc de Drump, Arc D’isgrace, Arc d'Imbécile, the Lost Arc, Arc That Bends Away From Justice, Arch Villain
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Most ppl I know who’ve gotten one and *deserved* it applied many times — a ~dozen isn’t uncommon. FWIW, obv. My sense is “career stage” (those are def scare quotes) is pivotal. Your persona is protean and work mercurial — one of many reasons we love you. If you keep at it you’ll get one, imo.
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
Let’s decide right now whether to call this the Arc de Défaite, the Arc de Débâcle, or the Arc de Déroute. If we work together, we can make that the name *everyone* uses.
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Chica Marx @mckenziewark.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Dems are devoted to the long term abolition of their own base.
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Sharon 🪳🌹 @sharonk.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Americans, this is going to sound like a meme, but please get the Dems to explicitly announce that Alberta will not get any deal from the US should they seperate and/or be annexed
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
I just made this for @jfisher.bsky.social, but I don’t understand how it hasn't been made a thousand times before
A Spiderman meme, in which four Spidermen are all pointing at each other. In this iteration, they’re all labeled “LEFT.”
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
I’m sure there are in the rank and file. For me, the question is more forward-looking: When the Dems take over (as they will sooner or later), what will they do about this? That shouldn’t wait on the whims of the candidate, it should be a PARTY platform the candidate commits to implementing.
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Julie Phillips @julie-phillips.com · 27/03/2026
@tbfld.bsky.social look who's becoming an umarell
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
On a certain level, it’s kinda funny that Trump *tried to start a world war* — by demanding that all our allies jump in — and failed. Kinda.
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Robert Evans (the Only Robert Evans) @iwriteok.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
i can't believe a representative of the Vatican openly pondering whether someone should be burnt at the stake in 2026 and my answer is, "Yes absolutely, do it slow." legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2026/03/1...
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Editing the Blue-Gray Lady @nytdiff.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Change in Abstract
Before: Amid a war with Iran, rising gas prices and a government shutdown, the president detoured on a trip to Memphis to visit the king of rock’s mansion.
After: President Trump mused about whether he could beat Elvis Presley in a fistfight and used a golden Sharpie to sign a replica of one of the singer’s guitars.
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Nice precedent for making Musk pay all the salaries / bonuses / bennies needed to make everyone whole who was fired by his DOGE shocktwerps.
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
I won’t justify cluster bombs *ever*, but note well: the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) was adopted in large part because Israel had used them a few years earlier in Lebanon — and Israel refused to sign it. Israel’s case would be much stronger now if it had made different choices then.
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Especially not insiders placing bets on Kalshi etc… 🥶
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Someone used the phrase “thinking the unthinkable” around him. Translation: Trump and his advisers are starting to debate nuking Iran as an exit strategy. My guess: it’ll take the form of a “surrender or we’ll nuke you” ultimatum.
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
I really like this. It reminds me of the one and only thing I’ll ever quote from Woody Allen — but, then again, everything reminds me of it.
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
I think we agree (fwiw) that the US *and only the US* is responsible for its own actions — so efforts to blame anyone else are wrong on many levels. But describing this as a myth and ‘predicting’ it doesn’t make it false. Trump is deceived by *everyone* around him, and that includes Netanyahu.
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Getting trippy
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
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Ted Byfield @tbfld.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
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