Adrian Wilkins
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drbarnowl.bsky.social
Adrian Wilkins
@drbarnowl.bsky.social
120 followers 13 following 51 posts
Software engineer, public sector.
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Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
itsdanthomas.bsky.social
This is what Peak Male Performance looks like.
November 26, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
dramypsyd.rmh-therapy.com
PSA to neurotypicals - asking “why” is not arguing. “Here is how a thing is.” “Why?” Is not an argument. It’s a request for more information. Why is the thing that way? Teach me.
November 27, 2025 at 12:14 AM
drbarnowl.bsky.social
The take of Iain M. Banks was that language shapes the mind - which was why his fictional Culture civilization (which these days, would be called out for being woke as F for having transition at will built into the genome) had a language designed to be as flexible, open, and egalitarian as possible.
gwensnyder.bsky.social Gwen Snyder is uncivil @gwensnyder.bsky.social · 3d
I monitored these same sorts of white supremacists for years (to fight them), and let me tell you.

You have to CONSTANTLY, aggressively deprogram yourself.

Even just, the language. We are social creatures and we absorb the language we're around. Guess what words enter your mental vocabulary
victorerikray.bsky.social Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 3d
This is the correct take. Stewing in white supremacist propaganda is bad for your thinking. And if think you are so savvy that it won’t impact you, you are the exact kind of mark they are slowly converting (I’m looking at you, centrist pundits).
November 27, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
starrdiver.bsky.social
.
November 14, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
jonmarkhicks.bsky.social
I think about this a lot.
October 25, 2025 at 11:12 AM
drbarnowl.bsky.social
www.salon.com/2000/06/14/l...

Maybe this is something the fediverse could fix - musicians need a platform that techbros and "corrupt little pishers" can't control.

As do taxi drivers, take aways, etc, etc, etc.
October 26, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
swordsjew.bsky.social
to my mind the woman who dies of sepsis because of antiabortion laws, or the person who dies because they can't afford insulin -- these are just as much victims of political violence as the man shot through the throat while making a racist speech
September 11, 2025 at 2:20 AM
drbarnowl.bsky.social
I too deplore political violence - particularly when employed by the state - against people peacefully expressing their point of view.

Meanwhile, I need to deal with the donation of art supplies to my local community college - we've got a lot of Free Plasticine.
September 11, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
tristangrayford.scot
There have been 309 mass shootings in the US so far *this year*. 15,186 people killed by guns.

Did our Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister put out statements within hours for the anti-abortion assassination of Representative Melissa Hortman three months ago?

None of their feeds mention her name.
baneforyou.bsky.social Punished 'Woke' Bane @baneforyou.bsky.social · Sep 10
why is the foreign secretary of the united kingdom putting out a statement on this
Post from Twitter: @YvetteCooperMP Deeply shocked by the killing of Charlie Kirk in Utah. Political violence has no place in our societies. Our thoughts and condolences are with his family.
September 10, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
adamcsharp.bsky.social
In the UK, the bogeyman is a fictional monster that many parents use to scare their children into behaving. The bogeyman exists in Hungary also, but small children are more commonly threatened with a visit from Rézfaszú Bagoly, or “The Owl with a Copper Dick.”
Cartoon of the Owl with a Copper Dick (with copper dick censored out) sitting on a branch and looking menacing af
August 4, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
sazeracla.bsky.social
OK, so here’s my JJ Abrams story…

Before I started working in digital restoration one of my primary jobs in post-production support was running the in-house theater and screening rooms at work. Every now and again it would get booked for casting sessions, because it was perfectly suited for that…
sazeracla.bsky.social Chuck Taggart, Private Eye @sazeracla.bsky.social · Jun 27
Happy birthday to the composer of the theme music to the nonexistent 70s private detective TV series “Chuck Taggart, Private Eye!”

That’s one hell of a story. I suppose it’s about time I told it…
June 27, 2025 at 2:29 AM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
mckelvie.bsky.social
June 19, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
allwrongthink.bsky.social
in an ideal world there'd be consequences for "we just made it up"
shoaibmkhan.bsky.social Shoaib M Khan @shoaibmkhan.bsky.social · Jun 19
Amazing correction in the Telegraph.
June 19, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
maladroithe.bsky.social
This is a vital message: one of the larger reasons BlueSky is refreshingly free of alt-right shitlords is because in the early days we made a gentleperson’s agreement to starve these fuckos out and it worked. No likes, no quotes, no engagement. They got bored and left. Please keep the Old Ways.
yasharali.bsky.social Yashar Ali 🐘 @yasharali.bsky.social · Jun 18
Vice-President JD Vance confirms he has joined BlueSky.

@jd-vance-1.bsky.social
JD Vance V @JDVance Just set up my page on @bluesky, hope to see you guys there! un valive @jd-vance-1.bsky.social Follow Hello Bluesky, I've been told this app has become the place to go for common sense political discussion and analysis. So I'm thrilled to be here to engage with all of you. States" supports this position). The implication of these arguments is that courts should defer to so-called expert con- There are several problems with appealing and deferring to the authority of the expert class. First, so-called experts have no license to countermand the "wisdom, fairness, or logic of legislative choices." FCC v. Beach Communications, Inc., 508 U. S. 307, 313 (1993). Second, contrary to the representations of the United States and the private plaintiffs there is no medical consensus on how best to treat gender dysphoria in children. Third, notwithstanding the alleged experts' view that young children can provide informed consent to irreversible sex-transition treatments, whether such consent is possible is a question of medical ethics that States must decide for themselves. Fourth, there are particularly good reasons to question the expert class here, as recent revelations suggest that leading voices in this area have relied on questionable evidence, and have allowed ide-logy to influence their medical guidand Taken together, this case serves as a useful reminder that the American people and their representatives are en- JD Vance @jd-vance-1.bsky.social • 47s To that end, I found Justice Thomas's concurrence on medical care for transgender youth quite illuminating. He argues that many of our so-called "experts" have used bad arguments anc substandard science to push experimental therapies on our youth. JD Vance @jd-vance-1.bsky.social • 46s I might add that many of those scientists are receiving substantial resources from big pharma to push these medicines on kids. What do you think?
June 18, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
darthbluesky.bsky.social
this is kind of bonkers tbh

the books have actual chatGPT prompts left in the text?
what the
bookspotlight.bsky.social Indie Book Spotlight @bookspotlight.bsky.social · May 22
So that now makes Lena McDonald, KC Crowne and Rania Faris leaving ChatGPT prompts in their ‘books’.

I’m so fucking tired, guys. If you don’t write, you’re not a writer. It’s that simple. Stop doing this to your readers, who PAY.

Readers and authors deserve better than this. 📚💙
May 22, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
danximenes.bsky.social
This and
A series of tumblrs post by user 'skaldish': "Still bothered by the US cultural idea that men can only be non-romantically intimate with one another in war-like or competitive circumstances. skaldish Follow I'm pretty quiet about the fact I'm a transman usually, but holy shitl need to tell you about the culture shock I'm going through because it's blindsiding me. There's a huge sense of social isolation that comes with being perceived as male, because now people are subconsciously treating me as a potential predator. All strangers, no matter their gender, keep their guard up around me. It made me realize that there is no inherent camaraderie in male socialization as there is in female socialization-unless, of course, it's in very specific environments. And the fact I don't amnbiently experience this mutual kinship in basic exchanges anymore is an insanely lonely feeling. You know how badly this would have fucked my mind up if I had grown up with this? It is 4:30am and I'm mourning the loss of a privilege I didn't even know I had. skaldish Anyway, I'm going to figure out how to navigate this. Don't know how yet, but I'm gonna." Quote Repost of user 'azaloset' by 'Skaldish': "If you figure it out, can you share your insights? This is a fundamental as to why im in the closet" Answer: "Absolutely, because it's an extremely sticky issue. Frankly, this is something I would've never understood without living the experience. It's now blatantly clear to me that most cis men probably experience chronic emotional malnutrition. They're deprived of social connection just enough for it to seriously fuck with their psyches, but not enough for them to realize that it's happening and what's causing it. It's like they're starving, but don't know this because they've always been served 3 meals...except those meals have never been big enough. This deprivation comes from all sides of aisle, by the way. In the case of women: When I'm out in public and interact with women, all of them come off as incredibly aloof, cold, and mirthless. I have never experienced this before even though I know exactly what this composure is—the armor that keeps away creepy-ass men. As someone who used to wear it myself, I know this armor is 100% impersonal. Nobody likes wearing it, and I can say with absolute certainty that women would dump the armor in favor of unconditional companionship with men if doing this didn't run the risk of actual assault. (Trust me when I say women aren't just being needlessly guarded.) (cont.) Continuation of the post on the previous image: "But I only have a complete understanding of this context because I've experienced female socialization. If I hadn't, I would've thought this coldness was a conspiracy against me devised by roughly half of the human population. Even now, with all that I know about navigating the world as a woman, I'm failing to convince my monkey-brain that this armor isn't social rejection. And as for male socialization? Again, it seems taboo for a man to be platonically intimate with men for reasons I have yet to fully understand, but I think it boils down to a) the fact society teaches boys that it's not okay to be soft with each other, and b) garden-variety homophobia. Our media only shows men being intimate with one another when they're teamed up against a dire situation, and I'd bet real money it's a huge reason why men gravitate toward activities that simulate being teamed up against an opposing force. But men are not machines of war. Yes, testosterone absolutely gives you Dumb Bastard Brain, but that just makes you want to skateboard a wagon down a hill or duct-tape your friend to the wall, not kill someone. The human species looks so much colder standing from this side. I can see how men might convince themselves that their feelings of emotional desperation is personal weakness as opposed to a symptom they're all experiencing from White Imperialism. Because this human connection, this frith, is as essential for our wellbeing as water is. So sick. How sick. I want to destroy this garbage. #this is a certain perspective you gain from having crossed the gender barrier"
May 6, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
tranniehathaway.bsky.social
"Sydney Sweeney could have an entire career of choosing only hits, of never taking a break, and still not reach the kind of money the generation before her made more or less passively once their work was done."
You could be the most popular novelist in the world and not make $21/word to report. You could argue that no writer today is as good or popular as Hemingway was at his peak, but no writer today is even making half or a quarter of what he made, and writers only ever get so famous. If someone were paid $5/word in 2022—which is something I have never heard of happening and is a full $2 more than than anyone I know has ever been paid per word—that would be a quarter of what Hemingway was paid. That writer would be able to pay their rent and health insurance premiums and tuck some money away in savings off a standard-issue story per month, but again, that lucky writer does not exist. The money produced by art has not disappeared. The issue is not that the people of the world value television less than they did in the 1990s. The reality is that the people with the most money have devised, at every turn, new and more bulletproof ways for them to make and keep more money, and for the people who make things to make less. This is the eternal story of labor and management; it just has hot people in it, in this case. Here is the crux of the issue: If Sydney Sweeney cannot afford to take six months off, it is a safe assumption to make that no one in Hollywood without family money can. That means that even one of the most famous and in-demand actresses working right now is less secure than every nepotism baby who sauntered into an audition because their dad had been the legal counsel for Warner Bros. or whatever. It's easy to see how this makes the art those studios produce worse, but also easy to see how it persists. It's also not a world I want to live in. I don't want to exist in a place where the people who make the most money off art don't make it at all
March 9, 2024 at 12:53 AM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
handle.invalid
Word of the day is ‘quiddler’ (18th century): one who focuses on unimportant issues while avoiding the important ones, or who fiddles/plays golf while Rome burns.
April 4, 2025 at 5:20 PM
drbarnowl.bsky.social
Of _course_ the only group favouring it (with the accurséd 48:52 ratio) is the Tories.
yougov.co.uk YouGov @yougov.co.uk · Feb 3
49% of Britons support introducing proportional representation, with just 26% backing first past the post

PR: 49%
FPTP: 26%

By party voted for in 2024
Green: 72% PR vs 15% FPTP
Reform UK: 67% vs 20%
Lib Dem: 61% vs 20%
Labour: 53% vs 27%
Conservative: 39% vs 42%

yougov.co.uk/politics/art...
February 3, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
petergeoghegan.bsky.social
🚨SCOOP: Starmer's ‘AI opportunities’ advisor didn't publicly declare numerous AI business interests - while he was writing key AI 'action plan' he's now charged with delivering

Concerns gov't AI policy “could be directed by vested interests”

New: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/starmers-t...
Starmer’s top AI advisor did not declare role at Hakluyt AI investment fund
Exclusive: Concerns that government’s flagship AI policy “could be directed by vested interests”
democracyforsale.substack.com
January 25, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
artofcycling.bsky.social
#painting Stage 4 of #TourDownUnder now. Caregiving issues keep slowing me down. See all of my #TDU #cycling #art #watercolors at www.theartofcycling.blogspot.com #cyclisme #ciclismo #wielrennen
January 24, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
tomforth.co.uk
It's not finished. This is just the outline. But I wrote about why North England is poor. Which it really really is. tomforth.co.uk/whynorthengl...
Why North England is poor.
And why Thatcher is partly to blame, but not in the way most people argue.
tomforth.co.uk
January 23, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by Adrian Wilkins
birdrespecter.bsky.social
Announcing billions in veteran benefit cuts the day after a health insurance CEO was murdered with suspicious precision is the most Elon Musk “masterful gambit sir” bit I’ve ever seen
steverattner.bsky.social Steve Rattner @steverattner.bsky.social · Dec 5
Musk and Ramaswamy have already identified $516B dollars in government savings — it includes cutting all of Veteran’s Affairs health care, eliminating the NIH, and ending funding for federal prisons. @morningjoe-msnbc.bsky.social
December 5, 2024 at 10:51 PM