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Roberta Ecks

@robertaecks.bsky.social

1.4K followers 300 following 6.2K posts

Writer, retrotchnologist, owner of many typewriters and yet fond of digital widgetry, too. An amateur monkey pusher in re human origins. Most of all, a friend of cats. I block AI.

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Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 2h

You're not wrong; but history does not always rhyme.

Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 2h

Unsuccessful cottagescrolling? Tsk, sir, tsk.

Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 2h

When you run the shuttle from one side to the other, that's loomscrolling.

Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 2h

If you're checking out examples of interior decorating online, one after another, it's roomscrolling.

Benjamin Dreyer @bcdreyer.social · 12h

If you’re in a disastrous Joseph Losey film with Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Noël Coward, it’s Boom!scrolling.

Andrew Robinson (no, not Garak) @andrewr.bsky.social · 12h

If you are in a graveyard, it's tombscrolling.

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Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 3h

Gaza on the Potomac!

Reposted by Roberta Ecks

Laura Hazard Owen @laurahazardowen.bsky.social · 10h

For the past few months, the Wayback Machine has been showing many fewer snapshots of news publishers' homepages than it used to. Something happened on May 16, but what?

@hanaatameez.bsky.social and @andrewdeck.bsky.social investigate

www.niemanlab.org/2025/10/the-...

The Wayback Machine’s snapshots of news homepages plummet after a “breakdown” in archiving projects

Between May and October 2025, homepage snapshots fell by 87% across 100 news publications.

www.niemanlab.org

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Reposted by Roberta Ecks

Tamara Keel, but spooky @tamslick.bsky.social · 9h

That’s because there’s not one consolidated regime. There’s one half-senile greedy grandpa in the driver’s seat and tiers of grifters, both individuals out for themselves and operatives trying to advance factions, below him, all working to their own ends.

Russia 1999, not Germany 1933.

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Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 13h

Aw, fuck this. "Maximize shareholder value" is just fancy talk for turning your precious IP out to whore on the streetcorners, hoping a bigger pimp will buy her from you.

Who remembers when studios made movies for a living?

Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 13h

In Indiana, the last third of October is often a time when the day's high and low temperatures pass each other closely enough to shake hands and catch up on gossip.

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Reposted by Roberta Ecks

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 1d

Planetary Rings

xkcd.com/3156/

Comic. Two-column table. Column A lists planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Column B has checkmark boxes for whether the planets have rings: the outer planets’ boxes are checked, and Earth has a red check. [Earth with a ring with an array pf points around it. An arrow labeled “Geostationary Satellite Bel”t points to the ring.] [caption] Astronomy fact: A century ago, Earth didn’t have rings, but we have one now! It’s where all the satellite dishes are pointed.

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Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 15h

Connections
Puzzle #863
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Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 15h

Wordle 1,585 4/6*

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Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 1d

I keep buying bugs and buying bugs, and they just keep eating the carapaces.

Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 1d

What part of "I block AI" is unclear to the AI users who try to follow me, do you think?

Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 1d

They help people understand, viscerally, that they are not standing alone, that their hopes and fears are widely shared, and that there are enough like minds to accomplish change. Many folks were feeling helpless, hopeless, and now have hope.

Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 1d

There's a pretty good chance that spider is actually French.

Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 1d

Connections
Puzzle #862
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Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 1d

Wordle 1,584 4/6*

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Reposted by Roberta Ecks

Tamara Keel, but spooky @tamslick.bsky.social · 2d

With that beer selection, I’d drink the Raid.

Denny Carter @dennycarter.bsky.social · 2d

A leftist's head would explode if they had to watch sports with such an incredibly shitty setup

X user: A leftists head would actually explode if they experienced this

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Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 2d

It amuses me that, after all these years, the rest of the world is surprised when the French turn out to be so incredibly French.

(Also found in French engineering: perfectly sensible solutions, which would not have occurred to anyone else, anywhere, ever.)

Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 2d

I think I'd listen to John Huston reading the phone book.

Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 2d

@tamslick.bsky.social this is relevant to your interests.

Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 2d

Connections
Puzzle #861
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Roberta Ecks @robertaecks.bsky.social · 2d

I don't think there were any facilities for the incarceration of women on Riker's island until 1971. She's probably headed for the old jail on Welfare Island or the only Art Deco prison ever built, the Women's House of Detention in Greenwich Village, brand new in 1932.

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Reposted by Roberta Ecks

Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 2d

Oh wow

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