Mark Dowling
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markdowling.bsky.social
Mark Dowling
@markdowling.bsky.social
1.3K followers 480 following 2.6K posts
Toronto, ON. Originally from Cork with stops in Glasgow and Limerick.

IT Manager. Dad to a boy living with autism. Interested in urban development, mass transit, science fiction, politics.
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Reposted by Mark Dowling
youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com
lmao
November 26, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
brucearthur.bsky.social
If a whereabouts violation ban is the end of Penny Oleksiak as an elite swimmer - and people in swimming think it is - then her legacy is that she changed swimming in this country, and was the best swimmer we had produced, and then things slowly fell apart. www.thestar.com/sports/olymp...
Bruce Arthur: The sad truth to Penny Oleksiak’s two-year ban and the potential end to her meteoric swimming career
The 25-year-old Oleksiak formally accepted a two-year ban Tuesday for whereabouts violations related to drug testing.
www.thestar.com
November 26, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
bencollins.bsky.social
This is true. It is the best email I got this year.
I work as an elder and hospice caregiver, which I am oddly passionate about. I can love on them shamelessly and no one complains about my codependence. It's a win-win situation. Many of my caregiving colleagues complain about the repetitive questions and, sometimes reactions, of the elderly, especially when those patients happen to read the newspaper, especially with the current downward spiral of our country — as if these people haven't lived through enough horror... I love my dementia peeps, but sometimes wonder if there's a Guinness Book World Record for how many times an hour a dementia patient can repeat the same question — it's got to be in the hundreds. At least with small children, they ask different questions. Dementia patients will get stuck on one short question and ask it until you can interrupt their train(carousel) of thought and successfully redirect their attention. That carousel is pretty manic sometimes. A couple days ago, I picked up my mail from the post office and drove over to the nursing home to take (let's call her "Miss Daisy") Miss Daisy out for a drive. Before we took off on our road trip, to the end of The Road and back, in our landlocked little town (Juneau, Alaska), I set my copy of The Onion down in front of her. Over our two-hour excursion, tiny Miss Daisy read that front page at least a dozen times and each time she would snicker, giggle, and guffaw, then put it down on the dash board and, a minute later, discover it anew. I think it was the best afternoon of my life. We don't often hear them laugh and when they do, it's the sweetest thing you've ever heard. ... Thank you, thank you, thank you, for the really important work all of you do. You make the world a better place.
November 26, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
kenwhite.bsky.social
James Bond supervillains threaten to blow up the world with their big laser unless you pay them a trillion dollars.

Real American supervillains embed themselves in the economy and threaten to cause a depression unless you subsidize their sex robots and the weird chatbots they use to avoid humans.
November 26, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
oliver-moore.bsky.social
Oh geez, not this Vichy shit again. Were there a bunch of Dutch writers in 1939 penning just-asking-questions pieces on whether the Netherlands should join Germany?
November 26, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
ridley.bsky.social
The most effective peace plan in Ukraine is for russia to pack its shit and fuck off back to its own country
November 25, 2025 at 7:44 PM
markdowling.bsky.social
Introduce yourself with four spaceships
Eagle transporter from “Space: 1999” The battlestar “Galactica” from “Battlestar Galactica” (1978) The starship “Liberator” from “Blake’s 7” (1978-1981) “Thunder Fighter” starfighter from “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” (1979-1981)
November 26, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
amandawtwong.bsky.social
I will take this dumb take as a flimsy springboard to show the absolutely exquisite apple pie that my friend made of me and my husband for our wedding
An absolutely amazing and exquisitely detailed pie of me and my husband on our wedding day A piece of the apple pie my friend made in the shape of my husband, which I am eating.
November 25, 2025 at 9:22 PM
markdowling.bsky.social
U.S. governors - “hey foreigners our tourism sector is hurting please return”

Trump administration - “lol no, and if you do you will empty your wallets to us, not shops and businesses”
November 26, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
nashvillebanner.bsky.social
Nashville contractors walk off of Music City Loop jobsite, citing months of nonpayment, safety concerns and attempted “poaching” of employees by Elon Musk’s The Boring Company.

nashvillebanner.com/2025/11/25/b...
Local contractor employees stop Music City Loop work - Nashville Banner
Willie Shane and his crew walk off the Music City Loop project, citing safety concerns and payment issues with The Boring Company.
nashvillebanner.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
kriswernowsky.com
A package hasn't "shipped" if you've only "created the label"
The Norman Rockwell guy standing up to give a speech at a town hall meeting. He looks like a youngish Abe Lincoln.
November 25, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
npr.org
Landlords could no longer rely on rent-pricing software to quietly track each other's moves and push rents higher using confidential data, under a settlement between RealPage Inc. and federal prosecutors. n.pr/3XiBDAJ
New limits for rent algorithm that prosecutors say lets landlords drive up prices
Landlords could no longer rely on rent-pricing software to quietly track each other's moves and push rents higher using confidential data, under a settlement between RealPage Inc. and federal prosecutors.
n.pr
November 25, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
jon639.bsky.social
When running a country gets in the way of Trumps PRIORITIES... Trump announced that golf courses managed by the fed govt at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland will be restored — a development that comes as millions of Americans are in the depths of an affordability crisis. truthout.org/articles/tru...
As Americans Grapple With Affordability, Trump Announces Joint Base Andrews Golf Course Remodeling Project
The Trump administration hasn’t provided any details on how the project will be paid for.
truthout.org
November 25, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
philipoconnor.bsky.social
The fact that he was found guilty of criminal damage doesn't make the headline, and the person whose property he damaged is described as a "transgender activist" but Linehan has "well-publicised strong views on gender issues". 🙄
This is not journalism failing trans people - it's failing EVERYONE.
November 25, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
canadianborder.bsky.social
Yeah, no shit
November 25, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
davelevitan.bsky.social
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
kattenbarge.bsky.social
Another good reason to avoid being on X is that Isaac Chotiner could start asking you questions there at any time
November 25, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
fleetadmiralj.bsky.social
This is how Trump merely suing people influences their behavior, and he knows it. Which is why he keeps doing it.
gregsargent.bsky.social Greg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 1d
Today @rutgerbregman.com posted a transcript of his Reith Lecture showing that the version that BBC aired removed the line about Trump's world-historical corruption.

BBC emailed me: "we made the decision to remove one sentence from the lecture on legal advice.”

newrepublic.com/article/2036...
November 25, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
ldcork.bsky.social
I’m always fascinated that these articles re: planning objections rarely carry much detail as to what the nature of the objection(s) are and who precisely is doing the objection. There should be no expectation of privacy here.
November 25, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
rutgerbregman.com
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
propublica.org
8/ So why are children being left to languish in federal shelters?

Advocates for immigrant kids believe it's to pressure them to self-deport. Last week, lawyers obtained a document the government provides to kids in the shelter system:
Document in both English and Spanish. The English section (top) reads: You have been identified as an unaccompanied minor. This information is intended to provide clarity about the steps involved. You have the option to voluntarily return to your country of origin, and you can return to your country within 72 hours. If you choose to voluntarily return to your country, there will be no administrative consequence, and you will still have the opportunity to apply for a visa, through legal means in the future. If you choose to seek a hearing with an immigration judge or indicate a fear of returning to your country, you can expect the following: -You will be detained in the custody of the United States Government, for a prolonged period of time. -If your sponsor in the United States does not have legal immigration status, they will be subject to arrest and removal from the United States. The sponsor may be subject to criminal prosecution for aiding your illegal entry. -If you cannot substantiate your claim of fear of returning to your country, you can be barred from legally applying for a visa. -If you turn 18 years of age while in U.S. Government custody, you will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for removal (deportation) from the United States. This can result in being barred from applying for a visa in the future.
November 25, 2025 at 2:19 AM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
jsrailton.bsky.social
Hotel toilet privacy is disappearing.

Glass doors.

Or no door.

Or a big window into the room.

Or frosted glass so that the light spills out.

Who is asking for this?
November 25, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
deadder.bsky.social
The Globe and Mail
November 24, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
atrupar.com
absolutely incredible -- CNN host introduces a segment about Trump's "new healthcare proposal," but less than two minutes later breaks into her script to announce "breaking news" that Trump's healthcare proposal is being postponed
November 24, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by Mark Dowling
jowolff.bsky.social
Twitter accounts are based in Russia. BlueSky accounts are based in homes with, frankly, too many books, plants, obsolete cables, and pieces of rustic pottery, that could do with a bit of a tidying up, to be honest.
November 23, 2025 at 8:29 PM