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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 5h

Hilarious. Should we be surprised that quite a few MAGAts and right-wing influencers fell for this? Such credulous nitwits. 🙄

Featuring a Guest Appearance from... Measles. LOL

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 5h

Well, that’s confusing, considering it was, presumably, labeled “Adult Content” by Bluesky moderation precisely because it *does* include nudity, albeit of the most tame and innocuous sort. Go figure. 🤷‍♂️

Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 5h

Wish they’d stuck w/ the “No Tyrants” label here in Canada, but whatever… Should be interesting to be at the scheduled protest in solidarity w/ our pro-democracy friends south of the border on Saturday in front of the BC Legislature.
#CdnPoli, #NoTyrants, #NoKings

More here: tinyurl.com/4uj7u7yh

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 6h

“The Dream of Ossian” (1813) by Ingres.

Ossian was the purported author of epic poems published by Scottish poet James Macpherson in the 1760s. They were widely admired in the early 1800s, including by Napoleon and Thomas Jefferson, who thought him “the greatest poet that has ever existed”.
#art

Ossian is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems allegedly drawn from “ancient sources” and published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson in the 1760s. They were widely admired in the early 1800s, by no less prominent figures than Napoleon and Thomas Jefferson, who thought Ossian “the greatest poet that has ever existed”... Voltaire wrote parodies of them (of course) while others were skeptical about their dubious authenticity. The English author Dr. Johnson (he of dictionary fame) was convinced that Macpherson was “a mountebank, a liar, and a fraud, and that the poems were forgeries”.

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 7h

A deep dive into the racist AI “slopaganda” of the Trump regime and the unfunny meme culture of MAGA, which draws from the hate-fuelled, nihilistic brain rot of incels, misogynists, homophobes, and the neo-Nazi denizens of 4 & 8chan, among other online deplorables.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=np0z...

Most Brain Rotted Presidency Ever

YouTube video by The Bitchuation Room (with Francesca Fiorentini)

www.youtube.com

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 8h

Perhaps the ONE truthful thing he’s said so far this year. 😉

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 8h

Always a pleasure to see the rare “Three Arrows” video essay. Here, he discusses the consequences of of influential Christian Nationalist hate merchant Charlie Kirk’s rhetoric, the myth-making surrounding his murder and its cynical exploitation by the right-wing.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh0e...

The Myth of Charlie Kirk

YouTube video by Three Arrows

www.youtube.com

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 8h

Some blue-veined grandiflora (or floribunda) Petunias.
#flowers

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 9h

Played this on the weekend (seemed timely, somehow) while the Internet was down (Telus upgrading the wi-fi, apparently). Good grief, what a deeply frustrating, dismally bleak, often tedious, utterly depressing game. Glory to Arstotzka! 😱
#gaming

That guy... again! He either comes with no papers, or badly forged ones.

Things get increasingly complicated and invasive.

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 9h

This was such an amazing collaboration by two amazing guitarists. Title track from the Andy Summers and Robert Fripp 1982 album “I Advance Masked”.
#Musicsky
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg4o...

Andy Summers & Robert Fripp - I Advance Masked (Official Video)

YouTube video by Robert Fripp

www.youtube.com

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 10h

Interesting question: Why do farm animals in Victorian-era paintings look so unnaturally weird, often absurdly grotesque even? Plus, a digression on why images of racing horses from the same time made no sense prior to the invention of photography & motion pictures...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcNk...

Why 19th century farm animals look so weird. | VICTORIAN LIVESTOCK ART

YouTube video by Peter Austin

www.youtube.com

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 11h

ICYMI: Not that it matters in the political scheme of things these days, but Factcheck.org recently published a fairly thorough compilation of statistical indicators from Biden's “disastrous” four years in office. 😉
www.factcheck.org/2025/10/bide...

Biden's Final Numbers - FactCheck.org

Statistical indicators of President Biden's four years in office.

www.factcheck.org

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 12h

The old Hudson Bay building, Victoria, BC. Built between 1914-1921, the HBC department store occupied it from 1922-2003, when it moved down Douglas Street to replace Eaton’s after its rival went out of business... as it too has recently done.

More about HBC’s iconic buildings: tinyurl.com/mnwjcdes

The old Hudson Bay building on Douglas Street, Victoria, BC. Since redevelopment now home to the Victoria Public Market on the main floor. The upper three floors are condominiums, part of The Hudson residential complex of apartments/condos.

Although the Hudson’s Bay Company used a similar architectural design for the early 20th century department stores it built in cities across Canada, the design of 1701 Douglas Street is believed to have been based on the Selfridges department store, built in 1909 on Oxford Street in London, England.

Ornamental detail on the façade of the old Hudson Bay building.

Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 12h

Herald Street looking west towards Victoria’s historic Chinatown and the 1912 Hook Sin Tong Charity Association building designed by architect C. Elwood Watkins. Apparently, the third floor meeting room is quite fabulous looking.

More here: tinyurl.com/5n6v7sc3

Herald Street on a sunny autumn afternoon (literally not a cloud in the clear blue sky), looking west towards Chinatown and Vic West in the far distance. The crane is a new apartment building going up on the block.

The Hook Sin Tong building is an impressive three-storey structure. On the third floor, granite columns frame a recessed balcony. The association’s meeting hall on the third floor is distinct from other meeting halls in Victoria’s Chinatown since Watkins combined stained glass, mirrors and ivory white wood panels, a break from other association halls that tend to have a red, gold or gray colour scheme.

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 13h

Fun conversation with Joanna Coles writer & humourist Kurt Anderson (he of the infamous “short-fingered vulgarian” coinage back he was co-founder of “Spy” magazine in the 80s and who many years ago described Trump as the “patient zero of our national derangement”.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jcS...

What I Learned After RFK Jr. Sold Me Drugs: Author | The Daily Beast Podcast

YouTube video by The Daily Beast

www.youtube.com

Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 14h

Some delightful autumnal roses... 😊

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 14h

Sign of the times... Unfortunately, we have a persistent opioid drug problem here in Victoria, just like a great many places these days it seems. Sort of inured to it at this point, which isn’t exactly a good thing either.

Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 14h

Finally got around to reading Daniel Dale’s long overdue fact check of Trump’s ludicrous boast about having secured “$17 trillion” in investment so far (or more!).

But worth the wait… Seeing Donald’s fantastical fiction dismantled in such meticulous detail is very satisfying.
tinyurl.com/mwphp3sy

Fact check: Trump’s ‘$17 trillion’ investment figure is fiction | CNN Politics

President Donald Trump keeps claiming he has secured “$17 trillion” in investment this year – or even more than that.

tinyurl.com

Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 14h

While gushing all over Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt’s “very powerful” dictator, Trump claimed there is “no crime” in that country because, unlike clueless governors in the US, ”they don’t play games.”

Aside from being despicably inappropriate, it’s also BS.
ocindex.enactafrica.org/country/egypt

Criminality in Egypt - The Organized Crime Index | ENACT

The ENACT Organised Crime Index is a multi-dimensional tool that measures both the level of countries’ criminality and their resilience to organised crime.

ocindex.enactafrica.org

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 15h

President Know-It-All needs an atlas; also a dictionary so he can learn what “literally” means. 🙄

“You walk across a line and you’re there”… “They’re literally, you walk over from Iran to Qatar. You can walk it in one second. You go ‘boom boom’ and now you’re in Qatar, that’s tough territory.”

Map showing the actual proximity of Qatar to Iran.

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 15h

A thoroughly enjoyable and highly informative documentary from “Defragged History” about the Dutch colonial presence in the New World (a topic covered only lightly in most early American history) characterized by a lot of piracy and mercenary privateering.
#history
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DzV...

Pirates of New Amsterdam [BONUS] Early American History

YouTube video by Defragged History

www.youtube.com

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 15h

Half full or half empty?

Geez, talk about “shrinkflation”… The “daily” (a free joint given out by SOLID, a local drug outreach NGO), which used to be twice this size! Hardly worth the 5 km walk (there and back) any more. ☹️

Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 16h

“It is attempting to solve a problem that wasn’t a problem before AI showed up, or before big tech showed up,” said Greg Loudon, a certified beer judge and brewery sales manager.

Another judge said the introduction of AI was “enshittifying” beer tasting.
tinyurl.com/nhf55mv2

What Happened When AI Came for Craft Beer

A prominent beer competition introduced an AI-judging tool without warning. The judges and some members of the wider brewing industry were pissed.

tinyurl.com

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 18h

The word “could” is sure doing a lot of heavy lifting there, huh?

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Martin Rayner @martinrayner.bsky.social · 18h

Also, would other non-English street/place names be included in this daft notion? I once lived on Casa Marcia St. (not far from San Jose Avenue, for example). Would the Strait of Juan de Fuca & Cordova Bay need to be renamed? Also lot of places named after Don Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra. 😆

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