C Shepherd
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embraboffin.bsky.social
C Shepherd
@embraboffin.bsky.social
180 followers 370 following 150 posts
IT boffin in sunny #Leith. Mainly here for TTRPG stuff, politics and news.
My journey from the DarX Side is complete
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by C Shepherd
cjayanetti.bsky.social
Friend of mine momentarily forgot what Bonfire Night is called and renamed it "terrorism party"
November 1, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Reposted by C Shepherd
stephencollins.bsky.social
New print in my shop for the philosophically inclined!

(Shop link in bio)
Print of a cartoon by Stephen Collins. Script as follows: [Scene is ANCIENT GREECE - where SOCRATES and PLATO and others are sitting round, thinking] 1 SOCRATES: Plato.. PLATO: Yes Socrates? 2 SOCRATES: Can you tell me, are you human? PLATO: Why… yes, Socrates 3 SOCRATES: And would you agree, Plato, that a human knows what a chariot is? PLATO: Um, yep 4 SOCRATES: So you can tell me, then 5 [Socrates produces a papyrus, showing a drawing of the corner of a chariot wheel] SOCRATES: *Is that a chariot*? 6 PLATO: Well that’s more just a bit of wheel 7 SOCRATES: So not a *chariot*. PLATO: No. 8 SOCRATES: [Producing another papyrus with the full drawing of the chariot, chopped into boxes] So if a man were challenged to “tap the boxes containing chariots to prove you’re human” when he was just trying to check his ClubCard points... *where could he tap*? 9 PLATO: Well you can’t tap any of them really 10 SOCRATES: So are we not human? PLATO: ‘Spose not. 11 [Bleak pause] 12 PLATO: I’ll get the hemlock SOCRATES: Yeah [ends]
October 25, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Reposted by C Shepherd
wallaceme.bsky.social
Spooks on the BBC: “We have to climb onto the roof, through a skylight and plug this thumb drive into the Chinese server.”

Spooks on Chinese TV: “We’ve just bought the British data centre. Job done.”
October 15, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Reposted by C Shepherd
tylerhuckabee.bsky.social
In 2004, Parisian police were conducting a training exercise in the french catacombs and found, after moving past a desk and a tape playing audio of snarling dogs, a fully functional movie theater and bar. When they returned 3 days later, the equipment was gone, with a note: “Do not try to find us.”
Members of the force's sports squad, responsible - among other tasks - for policing the 170 miles of tunnels, caves, galleries and catacombs that underlie large parts of Paris, stumbled on the complex while on a training exercise beneath the Palais de Chaillot, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. After entering the network through a drain next to the Trocadero, the officers came across a tarpaulin marked: Building site, No access. Behind that, a tunnel held a desk and a closed-circuit TV camera set to automatically record images of anyone passing. The mechanism also triggered a tape of dogs barking, "clearly designed to frighten people off," the spokesman said. Further along, the tunnel opened into a vast 400 sq metre cave some 18m underground, "like an underground amphitheatre, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs". There the police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and tapes of a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers. None of the films were banned or even offensive, the spokesman said. A smaller cave next door had been turned into an informal restaurant and bar. "There were bottles of whisky and other spirits behind a bar, tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous," the spokesman said. "The whole thing ran off a professionally installed electricity system and there were at least three phone lines down there." Three days later, when the police returned accompanied by experts from the French electricity board to see where the power was coming from, the phone and electricity lines had been cut and a note was lying in the middle of the floor: "Do not," it said, "try to find us."
October 12, 2025 at 1:30 PM
embraboffin.bsky.social
"Automated BIOS patch corruption"
impavid.us 🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · Oct 9
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.
October 12, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by C Shepherd
impavid.us
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.
October 9, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Reposted by C Shepherd
ballotbox.scot
Ash Regan, MSP for Edinburgh Eastern, candidate for SNP leader in 2023 and subsequently Alba leader in 2025, has now quit Alba citing it's "direction". She becomes an Independent and is re-standing as one next year. Alba's - never earned, only defected - parliamentary representation is ended.
October 10, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Reposted by C Shepherd
ronnieblakey.bsky.social
Grand Theft Fitba #SCOGRE
October 9, 2025 at 8:45 PM
embraboffin.bsky.social
#SCOGRE we gave the Greeks a right Thracian.

The biggest theft in their history since the Elgin Marbles
October 9, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by C Shepherd
williamduguid1.bsky.social
' I’m beginning to wonder if Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney is a sleeper agent for Nigel Farage, because at every turn he’s making Starmer look like a complete and utter fool.'
@weegingerdug.bsky.social, via The National
archive.is/iMU0G
Some people walking into the newly-renamed George Orwell pub in Wirral. The external sign says 'established 1984' and there's an A-board outside with a picture of Keir Starmer and the slogan 'Big Brother is Watching You. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength'.
October 4, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by C Shepherd
joshuajfriedman.com
One of my favorite anecdotes from THE PREHISTORY OF THE FAR SIDE: "That doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know."
A few days after this cartoon was published, my syndicate received a very indignant letter from someone representing the Jane Goodall Institute. Not only did my syndicate and I both get read the Riot Act, there was a vague implication that litigation over this cartoon might be around the corner. I was horrified. Not so much from a fear of being sued (I just couldn't see how this cartoon could be construed as anything but silly, but because of my deep respect for Jane Goodall and her well-known contributions to pri-matology. The last thing in the world I would have intentionally done was offend Dr. Goodall in any way. Before I had a chance to write my apology, another complication arose. The National Geographic Society contacted my syndicate and expressed a desire to reprint the cartoon in a special centennial issue of their magazine. My editor, aware of what had just occurred, declined, explaining why. Apparently, whoever it was that sent the inquiry from National Geographic was shocked. They told my editor that "that doesn't sound like the Jane Goodall we know." They did some checking themselves, and an interesting fact was eventually discovered: Jane Goodall loved the cartoon. Furthermore, she was totally unaware that any of this "stuff" was going on. Some phone calls were made, and the cartoon was not only reprinted in the centennial issue of National Geographic, but was also used by her Institute on a T-shirt for fund-raising purposes. I've since had an opportunity to visit Dr. Goodall at her research facility in Gombe. It's a wonderful place (sort of like right out of National Geographic). "To refer to Dr. Goodall as a tramp is inexcusable even by a self-described 'loony' as Larson. The cartoon was incredibly offensive and in such poor taste that readers might well question the editorial judgment of running such an atrocity in a newspaper that reputes to be supplying news to persons with a better than average intelligence. The cartoon and its message were absolutely stupid." —Excerpt from the above-mentioned letter that started the ruckus
October 1, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by C Shepherd
glesga-grognard.bsky.social
One step beyond
October 1, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by C Shepherd
petergeoghegan.bsky.social
Today people went around my neighborhood in north east London spray painting St George’s crosses onto people’s homes. Many of these houses have non British people living in them.

This is getting very dark, very quick.
September 13, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by C Shepherd
spavel.bsky.social
Two trials will be repeated endlessly despite always producing the same results:

1) Does UBI work? (yes)
2) Does AI improve productivity? (no)
M365 Copilot fails to up productivity in UK government trial
: AI tech shows promise writing emails or summarizing meetings. Don't bother with anything more complex
www.theregister.com
September 6, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by C Shepherd
afaulds.bsky.social
Once again watching England with an archly raised brow from Scotland; we've had 15 years of scorn heaped on Independence supporters up here for being narrow, flag-obsessed nationalists, and now the whole UK Cabinet is lying about having loads of flags they shag all the time, mortifying behaviour
September 2, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Reposted by C Shepherd
mooseallain.bsky.social
August 23, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by C Shepherd
worldbollardassoc.bsky.social
Robot meets bollard. Nothing beats the #WorldBollardAssociation
August 23, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by C Shepherd
davidallengreen.bsky.social
UK online safety law in practice.
binaryape.bsky.social Pete Birkinshaw @binaryape.bsky.social · Aug 21
Every time you walk around this gate, a sheep bites a random child
A gate in a field, there is no fence, just a gate.
August 23, 2025 at 7:45 AM
embraboffin.bsky.social
Mount Alvernia; Nuns who would not leave Liberton in life or in death tinyurl.com/threadinburgh1

I assumed at the outset that this story would be a historical one, but much of it is relevant now.
I'm a devout atheist but I do have admiration for people who devote their lives to 'good works'
The thread about Mount Alvernia; the “Princesses of Poverty” who would not leave Liberton in life or in death
Every so often houses come up in the Edinburgh property listings in Liberton for a charming-sounding place called Mount Alvernia. You don’t have to look twice to guess that this development h…
threadinburgh.scot
August 18, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Reposted by C Shepherd
tomtremendous.bsky.social
BREAKING NEWS

Sunny Dunny 2025 #bloodbowl tournament is proud to announce a MAJOR new sponsor: Umbrage Sports, manufacturers of the finest bloodbowl equipment this side of Altdorf!

Each team gets one 'special' match ball: The Umbrage Punt!

Full details: talkfantasyfootball.org/viewtopic.ph...
Pro ball tokens
August 16, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Reposted by C Shepherd
theguardian.com
Lynx could thrive in Northumberland with most in area supporting return, study finds
Lynx could thrive in Northumberland with most in area supporting return, study finds
Release of 20 lynx over several years into Kielder Forest area would create population of about 50 animals Releasing just 20 lynx in Northumberland would be enough to create a healthy wild population, research has found, and most people in the area would support the practice. Northumberland Wildlife Trust has been working to see if the wild cats, which became extinct in Britain about 1,300 years ago as a result of hunting and habitat loss, could be returned to the area. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
August 7, 2025 at 6:51 AM
embraboffin.bsky.social
The big technological challenge of our times is going to be the ability to verify facts when AI generated content becomes the norm. As more people rely on this information while the way it was generated becomes more opaque, we could be in real trouble
August 2, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by C Shepherd
jonnelledge.bsky.social
"I wonder, in my darker moments, if we’re going through something similar to Suez now – a less dramatic decline, perhaps, but a potentially more ruinous one."

continuing my one man campaign to brighten up your summer
How Britain lost the status game
The country wants its leaders to deliver. What if they can't anymore?
www.newstatesman.com
August 2, 2025 at 7:57 AM
Reposted by C Shepherd
indyanatomist.bsky.social
"The inalienable right of a people to be free is reduced to a crude bargaining chip, a chess piece on a board to be discarded for a greater strategic cause"
notes
@owenjones.bsky.social

www.thenational.scot/politics/253...
Owen Jones: History will judge monsters who enabled a genocide
WHAT words are there for a spectacle this grotesque?
www.thenational.scot
August 2, 2025 at 11:52 AM