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ftrain.bsky.social
Paul Ford
@ftrain.bsky.social
24K followers 1.8K following 1K posts
Bureaucracy enjoyer. So cringe it’s meta. Aboard.com and Ftrain.com.
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ftrain.bsky.social
Paul Ford @ftrain.bsky.social · Oct 21
Do a teamwork, not a screamwork.
ftrain.bsky.social
Trying to write a few things every day and put them not on social. ftrain.com/warp-and-woof
Warp and Woof, by Paul Ford
A trip to see the breeds; digressions on breeding.
ftrain.com
February 9, 2026 at 7:56 PM
ftrain.bsky.social
Shit this is a good halftime show.
February 9, 2026 at 1:32 AM
Reposted by Paul Ford
ruhee.ca
No Kings includes Draft Kings
February 8, 2026 at 11:49 PM
Reposted by Paul Ford
rahaeli.bsky.social
OMFG Green's is now available online for free
February 7, 2026 at 6:30 AM
Reposted by Paul Ford
simonwillison.net
The CIA just stopped publishing their World Factbook and took every page, including the archived copies of previous versions!

This sucks. It was public domain, so I recovered the 2020 edition (the last one published as a zip file) and shared it to GitHub simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/5/t...
Spotlighting The World Factbook as We Bid a Fond Farewell
Somewhat devastating news today from the CIA: One of CIA’s oldest and most recognizable intelligence publications, The World Factbook, has sunset. There's not even a hint as to why they …
simonwillison.net
February 5, 2026 at 12:25 AM
Reposted by Paul Ford
pbump.com
I wrote about Minnesota and ICE and how average Americans are reclaiming the power that the administration is abusing.
www.pbump.net/o/this-is-wh...
What's been weird to learn is that other leaders of institutions act the same way. Some of them hoard and protect their influence like it's money because they, too, are rich. You don't get rich by giving your money away and (they seem to believe) you don't get powerful by exercising your power. But, in fact, that is often how power works: using power can help build power. At the very least, power holds no value unless it is exercised, which alone is a valid reason to exercise it. If you are powerful but never use your power, you are not powerful. I'm talking here primarily about the huge, obvious loci of power — the centers of power that exist in part to serve as checks on other centers of power. Congress vis-a-vis the presidency. The media relative to the government. Higher education in contrast to misinformation. But they often aren't serving as checks on what's unfolding, or are obviously and bizarrely using their power only sparingly, garden hoses aimed at protecting their own homes from the wildfire. So it's left to individuals, who have stepped up where institutions have not.
February 4, 2026 at 3:57 AM
Reposted by Paul Ford
propublica.org
A note from our editors:
Note from the editors: ProPublica is publishing the names of the two federal immigration agents involved in the fatal shooting of Minnesota protester Alex Pretti. We believe there are few investigations that deserve more sunlight and public scrutiny than this one, in which two masked agents fired 10 shots at Pretti as he lay on the ground after being pepper-sprayed. The Department of Justice said it is investigating the incident, but the names of the two agents have been withheld from Congress and from state and local law enforcement. The policy of shielding officers’ identities, particularly after a public shooting, is a stark departure from standard law enforcement protocols, according to lawmakers, state attorneys general and former federal officials. Such secrecy, in our view, deprives the public of the most fundamental tool for accountability.
February 1, 2026 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by Paul Ford
hadro.bsky.social
There is a finely choreographed ballet of industrial machinery and infrastructure that, against all apparent odds, keeps this city from descending into chaos
thecity.nyc THE CITY @thecity.nyc · 9d
Here's how this 64-foot tugboat is keeping your home warm during NYC's cold spell.

www.thecity.nyc/2026/01/30/n...
January 31, 2026 at 7:47 PM
ftrain.bsky.social
CBS News: A higher caliper of journalism.
January 31, 2026 at 9:57 PM
ftrain.bsky.social
What is Ethan Hawke...reading?
A smirking Ethan Hawke dressed all in military shades of green with boots on, in a hideous armchair upholstered with a bird and plants print, one of those things that is so relentlessly ugly it signifies sophistication and probably costs $9,000, in front of a bunch of books. He's reading a massive, marble-edged, leather-bound book that appears to be a dictionary. He pulls it off because he's just an earnest poetic sex angel and we all know it but literally anyone else would be dragged for eons through every tranche of hell.
January 28, 2026 at 3:57 PM
ftrain.bsky.social
RIP Uncle Floyd www.ftrain.com/uncle-floyd-...
January 28, 2026 at 5:37 AM
ftrain.bsky.social
I'm slowly building up an archive of past work and I had forgotten all about this one. www.ftrain.com/kinja-commen...
Kinja Commentary, by Paul Ford
THIS WAS ONLY GOING TO BE ABOUT 10 WORDS LONG BUT THEN IT KEPT UNFOLDING AS I WROTE IT, SO HERE IS A POINT I WANT TO MAKE UP FRONT BEFORE PEOPLE USE THIS TO
www.ftrain.com
January 28, 2026 at 1:15 AM
ftrain.bsky.social
hey guys let me get your attention for a minute...got something here I think we ALL need to see and think about
yellow hilited text: [VIDEO OF THINGS THAT MATTER]
January 27, 2026 at 6:14 PM
Reposted by Paul Ford
maureenflaherty.bsky.social
A few people have reached out to me this morning wanting to do something in community.
This instinct is amazing and what’s kept me okayish the past year.

I’ve shared this list from @prisonculture.bsky.social a few times already today. Be with other people. Do good.

docs.google.com/document/d/1...
January 24, 2026 at 5:17 PM
ftrain.bsky.social
Chatted with the kids about about turning off video autoplay on their devices and doing some filtering. It's going to be 200 million Americans trapped inside during a snowstorm, as nightmares fly out of their phones. Check in with folks....
January 24, 2026 at 4:55 PM
ftrain.bsky.social
I will never speak ill of Minneapolis in any way ever again.
January 24, 2026 at 3:26 AM
ftrain.bsky.social
I just bought 30 chairs for the office and somewhere in a six block trip we lost a chair and I’m now losing my mind.
January 20, 2026 at 8:40 PM
ftrain.bsky.social
Whenever I read @polgreen.bsky.social I am grateful for the care in her reporting and how she uses details (Marlboros in a truck cab) to make sure we see people as people, not just actors in a narrative. And also her ungoverned affection for Midwest weirdos. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...
Opinion | In Minneapolis, I Glimpsed a Civil War
www.nytimes.com
January 19, 2026 at 3:14 PM
ftrain.bsky.social
It’s been a year and I use them but I have absolutely no idea what a passkey is. Half the time login fails with them and I have to do something else that works (like a password). I refuse to understand more. I’m tired of computers and don’t care. This is what it’s like for every non-nerd, isn’t it?
January 18, 2026 at 12:54 PM
ftrain.bsky.social
January 17, 2026 at 5:12 PM
ftrain.bsky.social
I showed Gas Town to my business partner Rich and he said “oh it's SOAP/WSDL for agents” and I am still processing that.
January 16, 2026 at 6:44 PM
ftrain.bsky.social
not a lot of eye contact in the endoscopy office
January 14, 2026 at 12:33 PM
ftrain.bsky.social
@raf.eco is out here trying to figure it out.
January 13, 2026 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Paul Ford
gbbranstetter.bsky.social
On my way to the Supreme Court where I'll be proud to support 15-year-old Becky Pepper-Jackson, West Virginia's only transgender athlete, as she opposes the state's effort to ban her from playing as herself.

Win or lose, Becky and her family are heroes for standing up for what's right
January 13, 2026 at 12:10 PM
Reposted by Paul Ford
karenho.bsky.social
this still slaps youtu.be/ZQ_MEFVx5jM?...
January 12, 2026 at 11:45 PM