@garius@mastodon.me.uk
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garius

@garius@mastodon.me.uk

Author of The Brexit Tapes. Historian. Strategy streamer. Tech/Transport Strategist. Editor of @lonrec. Orient fan. Made Neil Gaiman cry (in a good way). Business: business@longformist.co.uk

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garius, to animals
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Realised I've never shared Napoleon the feral kitty's story here, so here we go.

This is Napoleon, and this is the story of his nine-month journey from a hungry, desperate feral street cat to snuggly duvet monster. /1 🧵

kitty happily curled up in the nook of my arm on a bed.

garius,
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This is Not My Cat (Max). He lives next door and has always regularly popped in (with his owner's permission) when his they are out and/or their house is on fire.

Literally. I opened the door to him one day and as he strolled past, I heard alarms/saw smoke and rang the fire brigade. Still half convinced Max was trying to kill their dog /2

garius,
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In late July 2021 we noticed he was a bit annoyed. It soon became clear why.

Another, much smaller cat was following him around, in obvious awe. We christened her Also Not My Cat.

This was amusing. What WASN'T amusing was when we realised how ragged and hungry she looked.

Here she is trying to talk to him through their window. He's having none of it. /3

garius,
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Neither my wife nor I are cat thieves. But there are two MILLION stray and feral cats in the UK, most unneutered and most in London. Walthamstow (where we live) is a hotspot for this.

Her behaviour and desperate state worried us. We spoke to
Cats Protection. They talked us through obvious signs/checks we could do to see if she was feral. If so, they'd try to help us at least get her neutered. /4

garius,
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The problem: she was UTTERLY TERRIFIED of people. Whilst this suggested she was a full feral, and had probably been born wild, it also meant she ran at any approach.

But eventually, as she got even thinner and saw us giving the odd snack to Not My Cat, she clearly reached a point where she decided she needed to be brave and trust someone.

She came closer.

She asked for food. /5

stevestreza, to random

The dunking on Bluesky happening on Mastodon and the dunking on Mastodon happening on Bluesky is wild to me. Both things are attracting similar audiences, both protocols have their advantages and disadvantages, and both are recognizing some fundamental problems in the 2010 social model.

garius,
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@stevestreza but...but... my tribe is better than the other tribe!

garius, to random
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Excellent piece on the Comment is Freed Substack about the short and long term impact of sanctions on Russia. https://open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/the-impact-of-sanctions?r=3z6z&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

garius, to random
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After the death of Rudolf Hess, its final inmate, Spandau prison was demolished and a supermarket built on the site by the British army to serve troops in Berlin.

Officially this was called the Britannia Centre.

In true squaddie style, however, it soon became known as 'Hesscos'

garius, to random
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The problem with ticking things off my 'to do' list is that people keep responding to the done thing and creating new 'to dos'

garius, to random
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Important data

garius, to random
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Not helpful.

garius, to gaming
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So Napoleon has managed to break one of my gaming mouses.

Any interesting new companies out there doing decent mouses, or am I just off to look at Razer/Logitech stuff again?

garius,
@garius@mastodon.me.uk avatar

To give an idea of use:

I don't need lots of crazy buttons. I DO need it to run at very high speeds (I tend to have my mouse sensitivity way up high) and feel light in my hand.

I also have small hands, so nothing chunky.

The mouse it will replace is a razer ultimate.

garius, to random
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His plans for today are better than yours.

garius, to random
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I quite fancy a proper single player first or third person RPG. Any decent recent releases on PC or Xbox that AREN'T punishing souls-likes?

I'm too old for that shit.

garius, to random
@garius@mastodon.me.uk avatar

"On today's podcast we will be talking about THE HUMAN IN FRONT OF ME RIGHT NOW who didn't share his burrito. Sponsored by BetterHelp"

garius, to random
@garius@mastodon.me.uk avatar

A polite reminder to people on here who like to proclaim:

"At this point if you're still on Twitter you are [some variant of horrible person]"

If you are a small creator - artist, writer, whatever - then right now Mastodon DOES NOT deliver equivalent reach-based income. People do not tip as much and the lack of QT significantly damages creator reach.

Being able to forsake income is a privilege. Your options are not someone else's options. Please be open-minded to that.

garius, to history
@garius@mastodon.me.uk avatar

On 16th March, 1968 Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Jnr was flying helicopter reconnaissance for an attack on an alleged North Vietnamese-controlled village at My Lai.

As the ground attack developed below, Thompson realised he was in fact witnessing something something else:

A massacre.

He decided to act. /1 🧵

garius,
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The process of official acknowledgement and apology for My Lai remained frustratingly slow. But Thompson, now reinvigorated, became a key voice pushing for it to happen as part of "Veterans for Peace".

"My Lai…was no accident whatsoever." He would say. "Pure, premeditated murder. Are we too big to apologize?" /19

garius,
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In 1989 David Egan, a professor at Clemson University, launched a letter-writing campaign to encourage the government to honour Thompson’s heroism at My Lai.

Ten years later, they finally decided to award him the Soldier’s Medal, the highest non-combat award in the US army. /20

garius,
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When Thompson learned that he - and ONLY he - would be issued the Soldier's Medal he warned the US army that he would publicly refuse it.

He demanded Colburn and Andreotta (who had since died) both be awarded the medal as well, for their own actions that day. The crew stood together that day, he said, the crew should be recognised together.

Fearing a PR backlash, the army relented. All three were recognised. /21

garius,
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In 1998, Thompson and Colburn returned to My Lai. Unsure how they would be received, they felt mixed emotions when they were welcomed as honoured guests as part of a grand ceremony to commemorate those lost in the massacre.

Later Thompson and Colburn privately returned to the site of their stand-off with 2nd Platoon. They were approached by 2 women, who revealed they were people the men had saved.

“I just wish our crew that day could have saved more people than we did.” Thompson apologised /22

garius,
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As Thompson broke down in tears, one of the women told him that what had happened that day wasn’t his fault. She then asked him why the survivors of Charlie Company - those who had perpetrated the killings - hadn’t come back with them. Not to be subject to their anger, but so they could see, and be forgiven. /23

garius,
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Thompson would later confess to a journalist that what the woman said devastated him.

Not just because of the humanity and strength it showed, but because forgiving Charlie Company was something he felt he himself could never do.

“I’m not man enough to do that.” He said, tearily. “I’m sorry. I wish I was, but I won’t lie to anybody. I’m not that much of a man.” /24

garius,
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Hugh Thompson Jnr died of cancer at the Veteran's Affairs Medical Center in Pineville Louisiana in 2006, aged 62.

Lawrence Colburn was sat at his bedside.

He had travelled all the way from Atlanta to be there, at the end, for his former officer, friend, and fellow hero. /25

garius,
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Thompson remains, to my mind, one of the finest examples of leadership and courage, military or otherwise, you will find.

It is easy to just "follow orders", pretend you don't see what's happening or that you're just doing what your country needs you to do "for patriotism". /26

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