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czedwards.bsky.social
CZEdwards
@czedwards.bsky.social
10K followers 1.3K following 38K posts
Nontheist Quaker. PsyD: CBT/PTSD. SJCleric. She/they
I write #hopepunk fantasy: Rien’s Rebellion 1st book free @ czedwards.net
https://linktr.ee/czedwards
discord: czedwards or https://czedwards.dreamwidth.org/
Tumblr: https://galantier.blog/
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czedwards.bsky.social
This is just delicious.

From the SF Chronicle (I use my apple news subscription, so no link except to apple news): Cryptobro wants a Fuck You Peons statue on Alcatraz, proposed the project over a year ago, set up a funding platform.

Cryptobro has raised $5. Yes, 5. 500 pennies. 20 quarters.
An AI generated image of supposedly Alcatraz Island, with San Francisco and the Golden Gate bridge in the background. A Humongous statute of a naked man holding a torch is on the top of the island, as a proposed sketch of a Promethian Collosus. The text reads: =49% More than a year after announcing plans to build a 450-foot statue of the Greek Titan Prometheus on Alcatraz Island, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur has raised just $5 toward the project. Ross Calvin, founder of the Denver-based bitcoin-mining firm Parhelion and head of the American Colossus Foundation, launched the campaign on Geyser Fund, a Bitcoin-based crowdfunding platform, in March 2024. The project, called "The Great Colossus of Prometheus" on Alcatraz, seeks $450 million to build what Calvin describes as "a monument to American manifest destiny." The nickel-bronze statue and an underground Prometheion Museum aim to celebrate technology and human ingenuity.
November 11, 2025 at 1:49 AM
czedwards.bsky.social
And preserving for posterity:
Text of post: Feelingantsy 🇬🇧🇩🇪. Maker of Puns‬ ‪@feelingantsy.bsky.social‬ · 2h OK Wil’s point simplified. An e.g. Back in the day a pair of shoes would cost a week’s wages. Let’s call it $1000 Today shoes are cheaper approx $100. So today you could buy 10 pairs of shoes for a week’s wages. Someone who can afford 10 pairs of shoes is richer than someone who can afford one. November 9, 2025 at 1:04 PM Everybody can reply
November 9, 2025 at 8:46 PM
czedwards.bsky.social
Actually…

One century ago, standard, mid-range, catalog shoes went for 2025 $30-50 per pair, were repairable (glued soles hadn’t become common yet), were made of leather, would last for several years and could be Ship of Theseus’ed on soles, fasteners and heels.

They were better shoes for less.
A two-page catalogue spread from the National Cloak and Suit Company, a major competitor to Sears that focused on clothes. Founded in 1888, it eventually merged with Bellas, Hess & Company and became National Belles Hesse and was active as one of the top 5 mail order companies until the 1970s. $250 million dollar years were common until the end. (There’s a Supreme Court case about sales tax that’s still influential.) This is the 1925-1926 spread of ladies’ shoes. These are working shoes, designed for middle-income women with jobs (very common in the 1920s). They are all leather — pleather did not exist. There are several pairs of lace up, leather boots for $1.99 to $2.98 ($37 to 55 in 2025 dollars), an assortment of ladies; heeled oxfords for $1.98 to $2.49 ($37 to 46.50), and various Mary Jane, T strap and loafer styles for $1.19 to $2.59 ($22-48) and a pair of flats/house shoes for $1.00($18.50). None of these shoes are glued; that is a late 30s-40s invention because earlier glues were not durable (technically, the first patent is 1910, but they needed waterproof, flexible glues that didn’t yet exist). It was mostly the domain of cheap sneakers/plimsolls and slippers into the late 1960s. Gluing as the primary shoe production process is latter 20th century. All of these shoes shown were sewn so all of them could be repaired. They have low to mid heels, which could also be repaired. There are no stilettos here, those are a later invention. Most of these shoes would likely last 3-7 years of heavy use with routine care (shoe shines, sole and heel repair) and much longer if they weren’t daily worn. Even the slippers/flats/ballet pumps could be repaired.
November 9, 2025 at 8:04 PM
czedwards.bsky.social
They were at the shelter at the same time, but they’d been fostered separately. Spouse has dander allergies, so we can’t go to traditional shelters. I happened to be at Petsmart for rabbit bedding (it makes great stuffing for sewing hams) and they were both there.
They *started* as friends.
Both kittens asleep together in Spouse’s giant brown recliner. They’re facing each other with paws entertwined.
November 8, 2025 at 11:49 PM
czedwards.bsky.social
I missed it yesterday, but yesterday was JingleCat and NinaCat’s Gotcha Day, so here are their most recent and their first pictures. Ninacat was probably around 10 months when we got her, and had borne her first and only trio of kittens. Jingle was about 6 months old.
NinaCat, a mostly white, Siamese mix cat, in her most recent box. She’s staring at the camera and the box is barely big enough for her. She is very happy, despite the look of on her face. JingleCat, a fluffy, mostly white Calico cat, asleep on her Favorite stool while I was moving things around in my workspace. There is junk around her. The first picture of NinaCat we ever got, about two weeks after we got her, because she was very stressed out. She is asleep on the cream, carpeted steps. JingleCat, in her first photo at home. She is on my be-jeaneds lap, wearing her first collar, and this would be right before her first bath. (She came to us with shelter-funk.)
November 8, 2025 at 11:29 PM
czedwards.bsky.social
Seriously, the battery thing is an overlooked part of a late 20th century childhood. Batteries sucked, and cost a lot.

(my music producing box was a second-hand, very cheap, all in one bookshelf system, the record player didn’t work. wall power, similar to this, but no CD player or remote.)
An old, black aiwa all in one sound system, with two speakers, a radio, a dual tape deck, a CD player, and a remote. Mine lacked the latter two. They were common 1980s/90s gifts for teenagers in families with moderate incomes.
November 8, 2025 at 9:18 PM
czedwards.bsky.social
New version of Girl Yelling In Guy's Ear at Concert Dropped:
A pair of leopards on a rock, with trees in the background. The leopard on the left has a paw draped over the leopard on the right's shoulder, and has its mouth open, as if yelling in the one on the right's ear. The one on the right looks skeptical, and mildly annoyed. A finalist in the 2025 Comedy Wildlife image contest, by Hikkaduwa Liyamage Prasamtja Vinod named “Bad Mouthing”
November 7, 2025 at 12:16 AM
czedwards.bsky.social
Ink wells. I really don’t have room for another one. Currently running the mystery purple in the far left Morriset, red with the red pen, teal (Diamine aurora borealis) in the other side of that double well, and Pelikan blue in the USNavy Esterbrook.

All Esterbrook pens, with my inherited nibs.
A corner of my desk with a grey leather desk pad, a bronze lamp, then a single Morriset ink well that works by turning a bottle upside down inside the housing, then a double Esterbrook well, where each well has a Bakelite top that keeps the ink level exactly right for the nib of a fountain pen, and a single Esterbrook ink well made for shipboard use for the US Navy. All inkwells have desk pens parked in them, and a well-less desk pen laying on the desk bad. A computer monitor on a stand to the far right and a stack of notebook stuff on the fore-left corner.
November 6, 2025 at 1:17 AM
czedwards.bsky.social
New Box.
Best Box.
A mostly white, Siamese mix cat curled up inside her brand-new box.
November 5, 2025 at 9:20 PM
czedwards.bsky.social
Good galloping gertie, iOS Photos can do the job! What’s this hot garbage software? And why doesn’t it feel shame it was lapped by a photo storage app on 4 year old consumer tech?
Direct copy paste of the text iOS Photos captured from the image. This sample intent specification for TCAS was produced by Nancy Leveson (Levels 1 and 2) and Jon Reese (Levels 3 and 4). We have built on the RSML specification produced by ourselves, Mats Heimdahl, and Holly Hildreth for the FAA, but we have changed the notation and modeling language and have expanded the specification to include the entire MOPS Volume 1 and 2 (published by the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics) along with additional information. This specification is an example of an Intent Specification and should not be used to provide information about any real implementation of TCAS or any current version of the official FAA specification of TCAS.
November 1, 2025 at 7:38 PM
czedwards.bsky.social
Mangled cartridges removed from vintage bodies. Alas. A learning experience.
An ink stained paper towel with the remnants of three mangled ink cartridges that were all stuck inside the pen body and the seller was unaware. One cartridge is twisted up like it was exposed to heat, one is caked in leaked ink on the far, unpunctured end.
November 1, 2025 at 7:02 AM
czedwards.bsky.social
Looked it up on Maps, and good lord, is that an ugly, badly designed intersection of stroads designed to encourage speeding and with depraved indifference for pedestrians. A 6 lane to 5 lane T intersection. If this is the first pedestrian fatality at that intersection, it’s a miracle.
A screen grab of a satellite map, showing a T intersection of Park Ave (running right to left) and Getwell Road, running up-down from Park. Park is six lanes — two travel lanes in each direction and both a center turn lane and right turn lanes. Getwell is 5 lanes, two travel in each direction and a center turn lane. There are two zebra marked crossing paths, but the sidewalks are in poor condition on every side of this intersection. It has lights, but it’s a classic stroad intersection — two low speed, high access streets inexplicably designed as high speed, low access roads, which encourages high speeds and reckless driving.
October 31, 2025 at 3:34 AM
czedwards.bsky.social
The Potomac at DC is freshwater, even in the tidal basin (which starts below DC), since the Potomac connects to Chesapeake Bay, which is itself brackish in its lower middle, not seawater. The tidal basin is protected by the bay.

However, sea salt is widely available. 35g/l. 2 heaping Tablespoons.
A map of Chesapeake Bay, showing the various rivers that feed into it, the impact crater from 35 million years ago that set in motion the creation of the bay, and the limits of salt water from the Atlantic into the bay. The Potomac’s tidal basin is visible in the northwest of the bay and upper left of the map, well above the 1000 mg/liter of dissolved solids that is a boundary line for when fresh water becomes seawater. The Potomac varies near the mouth from 100 mg/liter to approaching 500. The tidal basin is well below Washington DC. Map of the whole Potomac watershed, showing Washington DC at the tippy-top of the Tidal basin, and well above the 100 mg/liter dissolved solids line from the previous map.
October 28, 2025 at 6:19 PM
czedwards.bsky.social
Reposting with Alt-text:
The lady at the charity shop today told me that she wishes people would clear out their children's old toys in the lead up to Christmas rather than after because she always sees a number of parents in the days before Christmas looking for toys for their little ones who might be strapped for cash. She said there's very rarely anything in just before, but that they get inundated with toys in the days after. And it really made me think about it in a way I never would have before. If you know your child is going to get lots of presents from father Christmas this year, by clearing out your cupboards a few days early you could make another child's Christmas a lot more special too. Saw this & thought I'd repost
October 27, 2025 at 4:24 AM
czedwards.bsky.social
They’re usually in the refrigerator section. In the two I use, they’re both near the Not Deli lunch meat and the cream cheese/sour cream.

This is the brand they’ve been carrying for about 3 years now:
A package of Tortilla Fresca uncooked Flour tortillas, in the costco size.
October 27, 2025 at 3:55 AM
czedwards.bsky.social
NinaCat having a ball with her favorite blanket.
October 25, 2025 at 8:47 AM
czedwards.bsky.social
With complete alt-text.

(A reminder, if your image has text, you need to copy and paste that text into the alt, because the text and the meaning of the text are essential parts of the image. Modern browsers and operating systems capture text with a couple keystrokes. No transcription needed.)
A yellowed flyer from later in World War Two, printed in sepia ink, or faded to sepia. The flyer contains the head shot of a young, pretty Black woman with a moderate and neatly groomed Afro. Text of the flyer: THEY TRIED PUTTING A COLOUR BAN ON HARVESTS This is Amelia King. She was refused work on the land because of her colour. (Colour was obscured by a torn edge.) Colour doesn't prevent her father and brother fighting in the Merchant Navy. Press and public clamour exposed this shameful treatment of a Stepney-born girl. THAT IS ONE CASE, HERE IS ANOTHER. Leary Constantine, well-known broadcaster and sportsman, was turned out of the Imperial Hotel. [This happened in 1943, so this flyer post-dates 1943.] Why? Because of his colour. Coloured folk can die fighting for us, can help destroy Fascism, can help preserve our freedom, but they are not allowed to gather in the harvest or stay at certain hotels. How long is this vicious discrimination to continue ? That depends on YOU. Depends on whether you are prepared to add YOUR protest to the growing demand that racial discrimination be ended for ever. Issued by the Holborn Trades Council and printed by the London Caledonian Press Ltd. (I.U. all Depts.), 74 Swinton Street, W.C1 --15546
October 25, 2025 at 8:42 AM
czedwards.bsky.social
(With correct alt text:)
The deepfake video of Connolly is the kind of thing we should actually be focused on when it comes to Al, but that's not what people like Altman want to see or that Hinton will encourage us to think about. It's those present-day harms that show us the true nature of how generative Al interacts with our society and the type of social and political outcomes it enables. Generative Al is polluting the information environment such that many people can no longer tell if they're looking at Al slop or something real, leaving them open to manipulation by bad actors. When they do turn to generative Al for news, the information they receive misrepresents the story 45% of the time, according to the largest study so far on the subject. Companies like Google and Meta have proven they've never had much regard for the society they endlessly exploit to generate more profit in response to the generative Al wave. They've degraded their users' ability to get accurate information, whether through the introduction of Al Overviews or placing less emphasis on spreading actual news content. Instead, they've been more focused on foisting Al tools on the public, regardless of their reliability, and even flooding the domain with Al slop and chatbots meant to boost engagement, meaning more time on the platform, more eyeballs on ads, and more advertising profits at the end of the day.
October 25, 2025 at 12:57 AM
czedwards.bsky.social
Repost with alt text, no credit given to original screenshotter.
Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social JD VANCE: "My mother got the drugs that almost killed her from Mexicans." REALITY: JD's mother got the drugs that almost killed her from her hospital patients, whom she stole from. LIAR superimposed over a dark blue and white image of JD Vance, a doughy-faced white man with a patchy beard. October 4, 2025 at 8:05 pm
October 23, 2025 at 7:20 PM
czedwards.bsky.social
Finally finished the walls and got the $4 bookcases in place.

I do not recommend blowing a knee in the middle of home DIY.
A view of 70% empty oak bookcases on top of file cabinets in front of freshly painted and plastered walls. Cleaning supplies still visible.
October 23, 2025 at 6:14 AM
czedwards.bsky.social
She is mostly white, and the primer is white, so it’s not visually interesting, alas. Just absolutely nerve wracking.

And oh, boy, did she cuss me out for going at her with a wet cloth. I am being pointedly ignored. (Sorry about the filthy window.)
A mostly white, fluffy, calico cat lays on her window perch slash human supervision throne with her back pointedly facing her human, to indicate her displeasure at being wiped down.
October 21, 2025 at 10:21 PM
czedwards.bsky.social
I think if anything’s going to get the thieves caught, it will be the emeralds. Natural emeralds— which these are — all have occlusions and natural fracture lines in their makeup, and that’s the fingerprint for any specific stone. None of them are alike. They’re documented as identification.
The stolen diamond and emerald necklace and earrings from the Louvre. It has 10 big tear shaped emeralds and a lot of smaller, square shaped ones. All are set in gold, surrounded by a lot of smaller, very white, old cut diamonds,
October 20, 2025 at 1:49 AM
czedwards.bsky.social
I am afraid those pearls will be a lost artifact, because those are natural (not cultured), and they’re huge, and pearls are soft, and they’re distinctive, even when they’re such a strongly matched set.

And that’s tragic, because pearls tell us a LOT about the climate they grew in…
The stolen Princess Eugenie tiara. It’s intricate gold and encrusted with diamonds and topped with 9 very large, baroque pearls, and one extremely large one front and center, that’s bigger than an almond. The rest of the body has pearls nestled in and around the gold and diamonds.
October 20, 2025 at 1:01 AM
czedwards.bsky.social
I love* a mystery ink. It’s living in a 60 ml aftermarket dropper bottle (mostly full), it’s not waterproof, no sheen, but past me is lucky present me can’t get at her.

Looks too red to be Noodlers Kung Te Cheng.

*I fear it is something I forgot will eat the pen or stain, and can’t figure out now.
A page of a notebook with a scrap of paper towel showing the stain of the purple ink. Text reads: Mystery Ink!! Currently living in an unlabeled, 2 oz aftermarket dropper bottle. Writing with a late vintage Esterbrook Venus fine nib, dip only (underlined) (so there’s hardly anything to eat. Maybe the feed but it only holds 2 paragraphs of ink) Then a purple square colored in. Written: No idea where this came from!! Bottle was mostly full. Smear 1 sec badly smeared Smear 5 sec less smeared but still smeared. Smear 10 sec: almost no smearing, but some Smear 15 sec: still a smear, but minor. A square in the lower right corner with cross hatching. It asks, Waterproof? The crosshatching is smeared. Nope!
October 18, 2025 at 4:16 AM
czedwards.bsky.social
No, I don’t need ink. (Or new pens. Or pencils.)
#FountainPens
The shelves behind my desk, with 37 bottles of ink lined up, and three racks of pens and pencils, with my favorites at the front. A power strip is visible on the wall below the shelves, and my monitor is most of the lower right corner.
October 17, 2025 at 2:24 AM