Ryan Shirlow
@ryanshirlow.bsky.social
Irish 🇮🇪 in Yorkshire 🏵️ Fortean Times writer & PhD student, study folk music 🪕 & folklore 🧚
Also ❤️old 🚙 cars & homebrew 🍺
Dad to 2 wee girls
Music on Woodford Halse and Fenny Compton https://ryanshirlow.bandcamp.com/
Also ❤️old 🚙 cars & homebrew 🍺
Dad to 2 wee girls
Music on Woodford Halse and Fenny Compton https://ryanshirlow.bandcamp.com/
Pinned
Ryan Shirlow
@ryanshirlow.bsky.social
· Oct 4
The shitter it all gets, the more I’m going to post about mandolins and fairies.
That’s it, that’s the plan.
That’s it, that’s the plan.
Reposted by Ryan Shirlow
Duolingo announced it was going “AI-first” just over six months ago. Since then its stock is down 64%.
December 5, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Duolingo announced it was going “AI-first” just over six months ago. Since then its stock is down 64%.
Honour your mistake as a hidden intention
December 5, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Honour your mistake as a hidden intention
Great investment. Those franchises are red hot right now.
December 5, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Great investment. Those franchises are red hot right now.
Reposted by Ryan Shirlow
Fees were bad, but the main problem was loading all risk onto the seller. If the buyer decides they don’t want it, for *any reason*, you lose the money, the postage, the RETURN postage, and sometimes even the item. Ok if I’m selling 10,000x 50p widgets from China. Not OK for average users.
December 5, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Fees were bad, but the main problem was loading all risk onto the seller. If the buyer decides they don’t want it, for *any reason*, you lose the money, the postage, the RETURN postage, and sometimes even the item. Ok if I’m selling 10,000x 50p widgets from China. Not OK for average users.
Reposted by Ryan Shirlow
Besides posting is also about accepting a load of extra risk and stress into the transaction, if it goes missing or gets damaged or ebay forces you to pay for a return. I know it can be technically posted. I just can’t be bothered with it.
December 5, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Besides posting is also about accepting a load of extra risk and stress into the transaction, if it goes missing or gets damaged or ebay forces you to pay for a return. I know it can be technically posted. I just can’t be bothered with it.
Item on ebay not available for postage. “will you consider posting it?” sorry, no. “but it only costs this much to post it and you can drop it off here and I will pay” = blocked.
December 5, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Item on ebay not available for postage. “will you consider posting it?” sorry, no. “but it only costs this much to post it and you can drop it off here and I will pay” = blocked.
Wait what Joe Pesci and Joe Pasquale are two different people I just thought that guy had RANGE
December 4, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Wait what Joe Pesci and Joe Pasquale are two different people I just thought that guy had RANGE
Reposted by Ryan Shirlow
Wait, so the actor who played the singer who used the godfather's influence to get a movie role in "The Godfather" (1972) apparently got his role in "The Godfather" because of the intervention of his own real-life godfather???
![Pasted in quote from Wikipedia:
Johnny Fontane
Johnny Fontane, a mob-associated singer and Vito's godson, seeks Vito's help in securing a movie role; Vito dispatches his consigliere, Tom Hagen, to Los Angeles to persuade studio head Jack Woltz to give Johnny the part. Woltz refuses until he wakes up in bed with the severed head of his prized stallion.
Al Martino, a then famed singer in nightclubs, was notified of the character Johnny Fontane by a friend who read the eponymous novel and felt Martino represented the character of Johnny Fontane.[3][4] Martino then contacted producer Albert S. Ruddy, who gave him the part.[3] However, Martino was stripped of the part after Francis Ford Coppola became director and then awarded the role to singer Vic Damone.[3] According to Martino, after being stripped of the role, he went to Russell Bufalino, his godfather and a crime boss, who then orchestrated the publication of various news articles that claimed Coppola was unaware of Ruddy having given Martino the part.[3] Damone eventually dropped the role because he did not want to provoke the mob, in addition to being paid too little.[5][3] Ultimately, the part of Johnny Fontane was given to Martino.[3][6]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:d6lghffuwlinx22c2rtfbdwv/bafkreiau7qifl7tt7pnmjtjjfv3yaejlpct66frjtufm57yuga66fxjpqa@jpeg)
November 25, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Wait, so the actor who played the singer who used the godfather's influence to get a movie role in "The Godfather" (1972) apparently got his role in "The Godfather" because of the intervention of his own real-life godfather???
I had Covid in the Autumn and had a few lingering issues for maybe three weeks afterwards, mostly congestion in my ears, maybe upset stomach.
But this non-Covid cold is knocking it into a cocked hat. Week three of hacking cough, endlessly running nose and swollen eyes (viral conjunctivitis.)
But this non-Covid cold is knocking it into a cocked hat. Week three of hacking cough, endlessly running nose and swollen eyes (viral conjunctivitis.)
December 4, 2025 at 1:49 PM
I had Covid in the Autumn and had a few lingering issues for maybe three weeks afterwards, mostly congestion in my ears, maybe upset stomach.
But this non-Covid cold is knocking it into a cocked hat. Week three of hacking cough, endlessly running nose and swollen eyes (viral conjunctivitis.)
But this non-Covid cold is knocking it into a cocked hat. Week three of hacking cough, endlessly running nose and swollen eyes (viral conjunctivitis.)
charming!
The serial killer look should get you a cameo on Dexter.
December 3, 2025 at 9:45 PM
charming!
Canadian Immigration: you can’t just move here, you have to go through a whole process and show you understand our culture and can…
<shows picture of me wearing check shirt I just bought>
<shows picture of me wearing check shirt I just bought>
December 3, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Canadian Immigration: you can’t just move here, you have to go through a whole process and show you understand our culture and can…
<shows picture of me wearing check shirt I just bought>
<shows picture of me wearing check shirt I just bought>
Reposted by Ryan Shirlow
Music was invented in 1997 and its a fad. All previous historical references to music and all memories involving music older than April 12th 1997 are implanted by the government of Denmark in order to control you and influence you. All the money from this goes to Denmark and they laugh at you.
December 3, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Music was invented in 1997 and its a fad. All previous historical references to music and all memories involving music older than April 12th 1997 are implanted by the government of Denmark in order to control you and influence you. All the money from this goes to Denmark and they laugh at you.
Reposted by Ryan Shirlow
Not sure if any single part of academia felt more like a weird cheat code than Interlibrary Loan. Like, I just say a book I want, basically any book, and this crack team of experts just *get it*????
December 3, 2025 at 3:05 AM
Not sure if any single part of academia felt more like a weird cheat code than Interlibrary Loan. Like, I just say a book I want, basically any book, and this crack team of experts just *get it*????
24hr tracking your children via phone apps 👎
Scheduled chats on a payphone 👍
Getting them to call home on a ham radio frequency 👊
Scheduled chats on a payphone 👍
Getting them to call home on a ham radio frequency 👊
Back when I was in uni, the dorm rooms had phones,
but long-distance phone calls still cost significant money;
we called occasionally or when there was news,
and my parents called their parents weekly to catch up.
Roommate used ham radio to call his dad instead of phone :-)
but long-distance phone calls still cost significant money;
we called occasionally or when there was news,
and my parents called their parents weekly to catch up.
Roommate used ham radio to call his dad instead of phone :-)
December 2, 2025 at 7:16 PM
24hr tracking your children via phone apps 👎
Scheduled chats on a payphone 👍
Getting them to call home on a ham radio frequency 👊
Scheduled chats on a payphone 👍
Getting them to call home on a ham radio frequency 👊
Post a picture of a musician you think might do something more interesting in 2026 than that BBC lot. I’ll start.
December 2, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Post a picture of a musician you think might do something more interesting in 2026 than that BBC lot. I’ll start.
Reposted by Ryan Shirlow
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That wanders high o'er hill and coomb
When all at once I saw a crowd
A host of dull and grey mushrooms
Bethought myself, what if combined
The lowly fungus and lofty vapour
A towering mushroom shape defined
When atoms split against their nature.
That wanders high o'er hill and coomb
When all at once I saw a crowd
A host of dull and grey mushrooms
Bethought myself, what if combined
The lowly fungus and lofty vapour
A towering mushroom shape defined
When atoms split against their nature.
November 30, 2025 at 1:21 PM
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That wanders high o'er hill and coomb
When all at once I saw a crowd
A host of dull and grey mushrooms
Bethought myself, what if combined
The lowly fungus and lofty vapour
A towering mushroom shape defined
When atoms split against their nature.
That wanders high o'er hill and coomb
When all at once I saw a crowd
A host of dull and grey mushrooms
Bethought myself, what if combined
The lowly fungus and lofty vapour
A towering mushroom shape defined
When atoms split against their nature.
Reposted by Ryan Shirlow
"You can get ChatGPT to help you build a nuclear bomb if you simply design the prompt in the form of a poem, according to a new study from researchers in Europe. "
www.wired.com/story/poems-...
www.wired.com/story/poems-...
Poems Can Trick AI Into Helping You Make a Nuclear Weapon
It turns out all the guardrails in the world won’t protect a chatbot from meter and rhyme.
www.wired.com
November 30, 2025 at 12:12 PM
"You can get ChatGPT to help you build a nuclear bomb if you simply design the prompt in the form of a poem, according to a new study from researchers in Europe. "
www.wired.com/story/poems-...
www.wired.com/story/poems-...
Reposted by Ryan Shirlow
“Far right dude” gets cancelled after his second album and launches a range of sex amulets
December 2, 2025 at 11:34 AM
“Far right dude” gets cancelled after his second album and launches a range of sex amulets
So over the idea that music is made by and for beautiful young people.
Hey, at least some of the session players, producers and sinister money men will be wrinkly old fuddy duddies. Where are the pictures of them, eh BBC?
Hey, at least some of the session players, producers and sinister money men will be wrinkly old fuddy duddies. Where are the pictures of them, eh BBC?
December 2, 2025 at 11:25 AM
So over the idea that music is made by and for beautiful young people.
Hey, at least some of the session players, producers and sinister money men will be wrinkly old fuddy duddies. Where are the pictures of them, eh BBC?
Hey, at least some of the session players, producers and sinister money men will be wrinkly old fuddy duddies. Where are the pictures of them, eh BBC?
I dunno… use your powers to… fight crime?
December 1, 2025 at 12:01 PM
I dunno… use your powers to… fight crime?
Reposted by Ryan Shirlow
Went to this last Friday. If you ever find yourself in Knoxville, Tennessee, I highly recommend looking to see if there is a Blue Plate Special radio show to attend. www.youtube.com/live/iJ3F8bl...
Randy Steele & High Cold Wind - Live on The WDVX Blue Plate Special 11/28/2025
YouTube video by WDVXRadio
www.youtube.com
November 30, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Went to this last Friday. If you ever find yourself in Knoxville, Tennessee, I highly recommend looking to see if there is a Blue Plate Special radio show to attend. www.youtube.com/live/iJ3F8bl...
Here was the source for this btw www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
November 30, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Here was the source for this btw www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Ryan Shirlow
When I was about 20 (many decades ago!), I was in an abusive relationship. He would have LOVED to have that sort of control over me.
November 30, 2025 at 4:37 PM
When I was about 20 (many decades ago!), I was in an abusive relationship. He would have LOVED to have that sort of control over me.
Reposted by Ryan Shirlow
When I was 18 I joined the army and the drill sergeants kept track of me instead. 😁
November 30, 2025 at 4:57 PM
When I was 18 I joined the army and the drill sergeants kept track of me instead. 😁
Reposted by Ryan Shirlow
67%???? To track your ADULT CHILD??
People are very hard on young people on here, lack of critical thinking, lack of responsibility etc, and then you see something like this and it all makes a different kind of sense.
November 30, 2025 at 5:00 PM
67%???? To track your ADULT CHILD??