Katherine Kane
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epigrammatickat.bsky.social
Katherine Kane
@epigrammatickat.bsky.social
290 followers 590 following 390 posts
It all fits together. Linguistically driven, writing since pre-K, aphantasiac, student older than my profs. mobility challenged, Comp. Sex-Ed advocate.

https://linktr.ee/katherinekane
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epigrammatickat.bsky.social
Am I the only person who saw a promo image like this, and thought:

"Ooh, did they actually get Jason Patric to star in new Lost Boys TV show and... is... wait...

Is Lost Boys part of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and I never knew that?!! Because I know WTF #Talamasca is!"
A 2025 still browser-based ad image for the TV show Talamasca: The Secret Order, centered with a sliver of the lead character in the series, played by actor Nicholas Denton. A cropped version of the "Talamasca" promo, beside a still of Jason Patric in "The Lost Boys, on a black background, with white text across the top which reads, "Admittedly, Jason Patric and Nicholas Denton generally don't look that much alike, but..."
October 27, 2025 at 6:30 AM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
Were? WERE?! My ass. Your search system is entirely non-functional right now!

aje.io/4s0ns5

Figures, happens the moment I'm researching neck braces after the surgeon suggested it as a method of managing some pain issues I'm having - there are negatives to using this method that have me hesitant.
Screencap from the attached article, which reads: Amazon's cloud services unit AWS has said it has resolved the issue behind a major outage that had led to connectivity issues for a large number of popular web-sites and apps around the world. In an update on its status page on Monday, Amazon Web Services (AWS) said the "underlying DNS issue has been fully mitigated, and most AWS Service operations are succeeding normally now." Screencap of article which reads: Amazon's shopping website, Prime Video and Alexa were also facing issues, according to the site.
October 20, 2025 at 3:55 PM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
The pics show some of my first ideas for creating a safety list to share with the #disabled community, if they are participating in protests.

Please feel free to add other suggestions. [2/2]

substack.com/@epigrammati...
Screenshot from my Substack reads "I'm trying to think of useful things to add or tweak this (extremely useful) list with, for people with disabilities or chronic conditions who do find safe and accessible ways to protest. For example: -If you EVER need rescue inhalers, bring at least 2 with you so there will be one with you and a backup with your buddy. - (Along with printing a paper map) Make a one-page doc of relevant medical concerns and print at least 2 copies (1 for arresting officer and 1 for jail processing); like if you have a history/high risk of DVT that could make leaving you lying on the floor of a bus for a few hours fatal, of if you're on blood thinners or a hemophiliac who could bleed out from an apparently minor wound, even include if your claustrophobic. - If you have a medical-alert bracelet or similar device, make sure you're wearing it securely - if you don't have one but you've been considering it, this would be a good time to revisit that idea. I'd even add some suggestions to… -Use you're legitimate health concerns to make police or NG worried about being too aggressive with you and anyone you're arrested with, because they risk being singled out in the after-protest press for abusing a disabled person or getting a protestor killed via indifference to their physical comfort. Would love to hear other ideas which could be added. Maybe we could create a companion list and ask organizers of protests to share it along side other Preparedness lists. Considering my complete inability to stand or walk (even with my rollator) for the time it takes to travel a single block, I see no rational way I can participate in certain protests - short of begging someone to loan me a mobility scooter. But if I did there are definitely extra precautions I'd take to insure I survived it without damaging myself further. Maybe gathering those ideas can allow those of us in similar situations to help the more ambulatory others stay safe. :)
October 13, 2025 at 5:28 AM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
I admit, I'm quick to get annoyed when entertainment writers get a major story detail or dialog point fundamentally wrong
But whoa nelly did this one, from the now retired "Mel Magazine," piss me the fuck off.

melmagazine.com/en-us/story/...

Though the context of both Now and Then matters. [1/9]
October 13, 2025 at 3:11 AM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
Screen/silk printing has taken the world of premade costumes to dizzying places - you can be a taco or a burrito. You can be an inflatable eagle, an inflatable dinosaur, or a person riding an inflatable eagle or dinosaur.

You can be cats & dogs living together - mass hysteria! :)

Whereas my youth.
Mannequin in front of blank wall, wearing a 1980s kid's Halloween costume, consisting of a black vinyl smock over the shoulders and a big, vinyl, blow-up head of a bat on its head. The front of the smock is decorated with images of cartoon cats of varying colors and the words "Kooky Spooks" written in neon green at the bottom.
October 8, 2025 at 7:44 AM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
Moranis & Zuniga - plus Bill Pullman & his kid, who was Bob the Void in Thunderbolts, which knocked me flat in ways I'm still searching struggling to fully articulate. Even Sandurz is back!

I'm in a geek spiral, but how could I not be?

Holy.
Mother.
Forking.
Schwartz Balls.

2027 is far far away.
Screenshot of the top of the Wikipedia page for upcoming film Spaceballs 2.
October 7, 2025 at 10:56 PM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
I also commend their ability to address so many absurd & surreal events in every ep. this season. It'd be a lot for anyone to properly mock and skewer, but they're managing splendidly. Meanwhile #Paramount saves them time by skewering themselves. Just a little more #SelfCareBroughtToYouBySouthpark
A photo of a TV playing the 09-29-2025 episode of South Park showing, paused on the Paramount Plus app, with a BetMGM ad overlayed on the right of the screen, in an episode that mocked the proliferation of such betting apps.
September 26, 2025 at 12:28 AM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
I think variations of this line are going to become my new signature, of sorts. Because I like being who I am and I have no interest in changing it - or pretending I should.
white text on a purple background, reads "I'd apologize for how long this is, but I'm verbose AF, and I see no reason to be sorry for that. :)"
July 13, 2025 at 3:54 AM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
A great example of how Large Language Models are simply the 21st Century's answer to a Ouija Board.
Long description of how a person discussing database software with ChatGPT, asked it to draw conclusions about them from their discussion, and it summed them up by saying "You like are a relational database with a constraint resolution engine wrapped in a visual UX interface, occasionally interrupted by an event listener for social scripts."
April 4, 2025 at 5:11 AM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
You are talking about human beings who deserve to be treated with basic respect. And there is ZERO evidence to support ANY part of your bigoted statement.

Being ambidextrous is anomalous too - doesn't make ambidextrous people mutants.

Grow a conscience, some humility and a firmer grasp of biology.
March 26, 2025 at 1:59 AM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
Some people want to keep up statues honoring men who started a war to keep slavery and lost. But encouraging national pride through accountability & humility is a more rational way to avoid repeating our mistakes

Our failure to do so is what will always keep us from being legitimately "Great!" 4/4
In Germany, the debate about when to teach followed the country’s reunification in 1990. In the end, it was decided that the Holocaust should not be taught in primary schools. Decision-makers were concerned that children would either not understand the Holocaust, would be traumatized by it, or both. But researchers like Isabel Enzenbach suggest that the Holocaust is often unofficially taught much earlier. This is because the topic is essentially unavoidable. The Holocaust Museum sits at the center of Berlin, and tens of thousands of small brass plaques — called “stumbling stones” — commemorate where Nazi victims lived before they were deported. In a culture so deeply informed by its history, it’s not surprising that children bring their questions to class. Those who wish to explore the uncomfortable past are sometimes accused of hating their country. In post-war Germany, the young people who insisted on talking about the Holocaust were called Nestbeschmützer, or “nest-foulers.” Yet facing the discomfort of the past can reflect and create deep national self-assurance. The philosopher Susan Neiman compared it to having a grown-up relationship with your parents. “As a kid, you believe everything they tell you,” she explained, “As an adolescent, you may be inclined to reject everything. But having a grownup view involves sifting through with some distance, and saying, ‘O.K., I’m glad that my mother had those values, and that’s what I’m going to pass on to my kids. Not the other stuff.’” But one thing stands out in all three examples; difficult history is not used to stifle the present with remorse. Instead, it becomes a tool to think about how the future can be better. In this regard, we can all learn something from Susan Neiman: “Shame can be the first step toward responsibility, and with that, toward genuine national pride.” Natasha Robinson, Ph.D. is a research fellow at the University of Oxford, Department of Education.
February 18, 2025 at 3:33 AM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
Why on earth would we wait until then to begin teaching them about Emotionally complex topics like US slavery, SA Apartheid, Human Sexuality?!

By the time kids are Grade 5 some of them will also be starting puberty. It's irresponsible to pretend we're raising informed & educated kids this way. 3/4
In Hamburg, for example, students are introduced to the Holocaust through novels. In Grade 6, they read “When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit,” covering the most basic understanding that Hitler “took away” the Jews from Berlin. Only later do they discuss more graphic content. In Canada, some teachers find that conversations around the loss of indigenous languages are a good place to start when learning about the horrors of residential schools.
February 18, 2025 at 3:33 AM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
It ALSO illustrates the importance of K-12 comprehensive coverage of MOST educational topics.

Which is such a DUH, if you unpack it. We don't hold back on teaching them math until their early teens, then throw algebra at them and expect them to be properly educated on the topic in a semester. 2/4
In South Africa, teachers are explicitly trained to facilitate difficult conversations. While a guest lecturer at the University of Cape Town, I frequently observed teachers discussing what students were likely to find distressing about apartheid and how to manage that distress in a way that was educationally valuable while avoiding trauma. Organizations like Shikaya also bring racially diverse groups of teachers together in workshops so that they can unpack their own experiences of apartheid, before teaching about apartheid to students.
February 18, 2025 at 3:33 AM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
Superlative essay! It not only outlines why failing to teach kids about slavery (and every other racial atrocity in our history) is bad for them and society as a whole, it begs some hard questions about just how much US students are learning about SA Apartheid. 1/4

www.chalkbeat.org/tennessee/20...
Embrace discomfort. South Africa, Canada, and Germany all mandate the teaching of history that they know will cause discomfort. Holocaust education in Germany has been mandatory since the early 1990s. In South Africa, the slave trade, colonialism, and apartheid are taught in Grade 7, 8, and 9, respectively. As of 2015, following the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommendations, several Canadian states have made it mandatory to teach the history of “residential schools,” where indigenous children were abused and thousands died. Making difficult subjects mandatory is important because it results in resources and teacher training and because it gives teachers permission to tackle emotionally charged subjects. The UK Historical Association, for example, notes that emotional engagement is evidence of effective teaching of controversial issues. Professor Michalinos Zembylas further argues that discomforting feelings are essential for individual and social transformation since they are involved “in challenging dominant beliefs, social habits, and normative practices that sustain social inequities.” Prepare teachers. Managing difficult emotions in the classroom requires preparation, particularly when many teachers have lived through the difficult history they are now teaching. At its most basic, teachers need preparation to feel secure in their content knowledge before they can engage dynamically with students’ emotions. In Canada, most teachers did not learn about residential schools when they were students, and huge efforts have been made to provide resources and training. The work of organizations like the First Nations Education Steering Committee in British Columbia, or the First Nations, Métis & Inuit Education Association of Ontario, for example, have been invaluable in this regard.
February 18, 2025 at 3:33 AM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
Depends if they also regularly address men with "m'lord." If they do, and with a tone that is either in the ballpark of "Dustin Henderson" or Ed Byrne, I'm good. But if they don't sound they geeky normally, or like they come from the UK Isles area, they can pack that crap right up and move along.
Screencap of CPSC post, showing this is in reply to the question: "Where are we on guys who say m'lady"
February 1, 2025 at 7:46 AM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
And the example sentence that pops up, under the definition of that term right now, is so loaded that it's agonizing. 2/2
A screencap of a Google search result for the definition of the phrase coup de grâce. The second definition listed says: an action or event that serves as the culmination of a bad or deteriorating situation. Example: "the epidemic has been the coup de grâce for the airline crisis"
February 1, 2025 at 7:02 AM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
Dear @bsky.app , the fake Gerard Butler accounts are getting a bit absurd. You may need to start proactively watching for any new account with his name attached.
January 31, 2025 at 1:01 PM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
Just found out #MikeRinder has passed, and wanted to share my previously expressed thoughts here, at the social media outlet I now call home.
January 8, 2025 at 11:08 PM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
A RT on why it's a good idea to teach small children to "field strip a rifle." It is originally posted by, and RTd by, the 2 accounts I'm flagging as MAGA trolls. RTer of the post in the first image, retiredvetusn.bsky.social Original poster of the post in the first image, tacticalcivilian.bsky.social
January 3, 2025 at 1:13 AM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
Put off talking about this earlier because I didn't want to spoil the surprise. But I have now utilized the library's 3D printer for the first time, to finally give sis an affordable but kick-ass present - which looks awesome on her work desk!

My thanks to @cinderwing3d.bsky.social for the design.
January 2, 2025 at 10:37 PM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
Makes you wonder if it's different people just testing out what would happen if they dipped a toe in here - or if someone systematically looking for points of vulnerability, over the course of weeks and months.
December 25, 2024 at 11:06 PM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
You want a great example of how LLMs suck at telling reality from fiction...

For clarity, I was trying to figure out the origin of this weird rhyme sis and I know from our teen years, that starts with, "Fuck, fuck, fuck a duck" and it ends with the orangutan bit. Did not expect THIS result.
December 22, 2024 at 5:32 AM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
Before anyone bothers engaging with this person, it's a troll account determined to find as many ways to blame antisemitism on POC as possible. Reported and blocked.
December 19, 2024 at 1:38 AM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
Ooh I like that one.

The overlay reminds me of my proudest graphic design accomplishment ever.
A still from the TV show "Sense8," S01E02, of Nomi writing a blog post at home with her partner, Amanita, in the background. The image is overlayed with a text quote from the scene, that is colored to represent a rainbow. Quote reads: Today I march to remember that I am not just a me. I'm also a we, and we march with pride. So go fuck yourself, Aquinas.
December 15, 2024 at 1:18 PM
epigrammatickat.bsky.social
I beg you @haveigotnews, stop contributing to this BS!

It IS a hoax, b/c there was NO "convincing" & not one robot in that video acted with intelligent reasoning. They reacted to commands and protocols (another type of command).

B/c AI does NOT exist.

m.slashdot.org/story/435657
A comment from the article in the post, pointing out that the article text contradicts the headline, because it was a deliberate test being run that led the first robot to try and make the others leave, and that robot used existing input protocols programmed into the other robots, to make them leave. Headline about one "AI controlled" robot convincing a group of other robots to quit their jobs.
December 15, 2024 at 11:58 AM