@cstross@wandering.shop
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

cstross

@cstross@wandering.shop

Scottish resident SF/F author (he/him/they/them). Three times Hugo Award winner. Does not play well with Nazis. Abolish the monarchy!

@cstross.bsky.social on Bluesky

blog at: https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/

Follow requests: I may reject follow requests from accounts with no profile, posting history, or that appear to be spammers.

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cstross, to random
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An Adam West Batman reboot in which Batman is camp because Batman (and all his adversaries) are overtly queer-coded would be AMAZING
https://muenchen.social/@fnordius/112537718138970471

cstross,
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@mark Can't watch that, it's covered in advertising ick (you'll have to describe it to me)

Lazarou, to UKpolitics
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The UK is not the US, we do not need our politicians flying around in jets and helicopters all the time.
This is vanity

#GE2024 #Labour #Tories #RishiSunak #KierStarmer #UKPOL #Ukpolitics

cstross,
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@Lazarou It's also stupidly bad scheduling. (There are sleeper trains! And tour buses! And routing software has been around for decades!)

cstross, to random
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Going to a wedding reception this evening then the Cymera SF festival tomorrow seems like a good excuse to use up a couple of lateral flow tests. First test result: negative.

(NB: I have no symptoms and no reason to think I have COVID19: just being prudent before public events.)

klepsydra, to random
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Local museum has a portrait of a relative of @cstross (per Wikipedia). Charlie has him beat on style.

cstross,
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@klepsydra To be fair, I never made it to Cabinet Minister!

cstross,
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@klepsydra A bit late to start now!

(To my great-uncle's credit he was Minister for Health for a couple of years under Harold Wilson … and he'd started out as a GP. Imagine Starmer or Sunak appointing a doctor to run the NHS!)

cstross,
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@klepsydra Dark lining to that story: Peter Wright (the Spycatcher guy—MI6) was convinced that Barnett was a Czecheslovakian spy and the international meetings he attended for the memorial were to talk to his communist controller: in the end, he was hounded out of office (by the same maniacs who tried to run a coup against Wilson a couple of years later because they thought he was a KGB mole).

nickperks, to random
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Poor politics and poor climate literacy by Starmer. One of the few things that cuts through with public about Sunak is his excessive use of helicopters and jets. Sure, politicians sometimes need to fly to do their jobs, but not around mainland UK, and not by private jet.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/31/starmer-admits-he-flew-by-private-jet-to-clean-energy-jobs-rally-in-scotland

cstross,
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@nickperks @hannu_ikonen From Wales to Scotland in a hurry his best route would have been a fast train to Birmingham Airport then a scheduled airline seat to Glasgow International. Multiple flights per day, no bizjet required.

As with Sunak it's not about speed, it's about not being exposed to the public without a wall of SPADs and bodyguards in the way.

cstross, to random
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I am certain any new friends Trump makes in prison can only be examplars of upright citizenship who will be a good moral influence on him. I mean, it's not like they can make him any more of a depraved scofflaw, is it?
https://mastodon.social/@GoatRoper/112536348434763135

Illuminatus, to random Spanish
@Illuminatus@mstdn.social avatar

The "elites" are a bunch of degenerate, deranged, sociopaths who should be shipped to Mars without a return ticket. Good fucking gods. https://newrepublic.com/article/182008/erik-prince-secret-global-group-chat-off-leash

cstross,
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@Illuminatus Perhaps we could ask Russia for the K-429? Which has the dubious distinction of being the only nuclear-powered submarine to have sunk TWICE:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-429

cstross, to random
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Hmm—those ear rims look more than slightly somewhat uncanny-valley! And the hairpiece, of course, is just plain surreal. But at a glance, from a distance ...
https://mastodon.social/@wedontexisthere/112535470276621216

cstross, to random
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This figures.

Peter Thiel is exactly the sort of lunatic billionaire who fantasizes about dressing up in rubber fetish gear and beating up poor people at night.

(Hint: Batman is not a good guy, that's just copaganda …)
https://someone.elses.computer/@lilianedwards/112535860372266376

cstross, to random
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That thing where your publisher sends you a congrats card for making an award shortlist. And it comes with a gift box full of amazing artisanal macaroons.

Which would be great if not for the fact that (a) I'm diabetic and (b) my spouse is vegan (hint: macaroons contain eggs, which are not vegan) and (c) spouse is also allergic to eggs.

(This is a subset of the "my aunt always sends me a pair of socks she knitted for Christmas, and they don't fit" etiquette problem!)

cstross,
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@mdione Yes, I would trust my publisher with "do not feed this to Charlie, it will make him ill". It's not like they want to make me ill!

cstross,
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@Digger_71 I will probably devour them—but v-e-r-y v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y!

cstross,
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@zip You will have to pry them from my cold, dead stomach!

cstross,
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@GinevraCat Slightly nibbled …

cstross, to random
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The ironic bit is that in England the train probably travels faster than the helicopter point-to-point (although admittedly the train stops more often).

The real story is just that Sunak didn't want to rub shoulders with the public. Taking the sleeper train down means he got a compartment to himself.
https://mastodon.ie/@bullivant/112534909096649542

cstross, to random
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WHY IS THERE NO EMOJI FOR GIBBON?

I WANT TO BE ABLE TO SIGNAL "tangerine shitgibbon" UNAMBIGUOUSLY!

SAYING "🍊💩🐒" IS OPEN TO MISINTERPRETATION!!!

(Although I'm okay with 🍊💩🐒🚔⛓️‍💥)

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Given the Trumpenführer's reported incontinence and burger-heavy diet, I'd hate to be the prison officer tapped to give him an intimate body search. They'd probably end up drawing lots then issuing the loser with rubber gloves, waders, and a gas mask.

cstross,
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@BigJackBrass It'd be in New York. They're wise to him there.

cstross,
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@JamesPadraicR To Trump, that would be a reward not a punishment.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Hmm.

  1. Receive annoying email from Facebook about training AI using my content

  2. Log into FB for the first time in six months to file an objection per the opt-out

  3. Cat promptly comes over and slaps me silly until I back away from the keyboard

Yup, I think it's clear that @Menhit has the right opinion of Facebook!

cstross,
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@Nicovel0 @utterfiction @Menhit FB tracks people without FB accounts because FB users interact with them (post photos, or mention them). At least if you have an FB account you get notified of their bullshit. (You don't have to post anything, or interact with anyone there.)

cstross, to random
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Putting the tangerine jumpsuit on the tangerine shitgibbon

cstross,
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@khleedril @bellinghman @JdeBP @wolfsbruder Er, John Bellingham was hanged just a week after he assassinated Perceval. The trial was rushed through four days after the murder: it took less than eight hours, and the jury took just 15 minutes to consider their verdict.

cstross,
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

@SteveBellovin @JdeBP @wolfsbruder To be fair, attainder went out the same window as Charles I's head (Chuckles the First had trouble funding his court so used Acts of Attainder to garnish the wealth of his political enemies—a major contributory factor to the civil wars).

cstross,
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@JdeBP @SteveBellovin @wolfsbruder Hopefully some time before our species finally goes extinct we'll figure out how to draft a bulletproof and equitable constitution for a republic that can't be gamed into tyranny.

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