Lachlan the Sane
LightNews LightNews
banner
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
Lachlan the Sane
@lachlanthesane.bsky.social
790 followers 1.4K following 1.1K posts
I am Lachlan. Fear me if you dare.

Full-time job: Going to the doctor and learning new things that are wrong with me
Unionist with Australian Unemployed Workers Union
He/him or they/them
Posts Replies Media Videos
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
An author who was probably Shakespeare understood this basic fact in the 1590s. (From "Sir Thomas More", a play heavily edited by multiple hands, where Shakespeare is believed to have written this section).
An extract from the play "Sir Thomas More", Act 2 Scene 4. It reads: SIR THOMAS MORE Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise Hath chid down all the majesty of England; Imagine that you see the wretched strangers, Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage, Plodding tooth ports and costs for transportation, And that you sit as kings in your desires, Authority quite silent by your brawl, And you in ruff of your opinions clothed; What had you got? I’ll tell you. You had taught How insolence and strong hand should prevail, How order should be quelled; and by this pattern Not one of you should live an aged man, For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought, With self same hand, self reasons, and self right, Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes Would feed on one another. DOLL WILLIAMSON Before God, that’s as true as the Gospel.
November 17, 2025 at 2:28 PM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
By Helio this theatre is huge

(We are in the absolute back row, near the centre. Still got a decent view though).
A photo of an enormous arena-style theatre, taken from the very back row. Projection screens above and around the stage read "Brennan Lee Mulligan's Endless Dungeon".
October 15, 2025 at 8:11 AM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
My "Do not feed me aioli no matter what I say" shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt.
A photo of the full shirt from the previous picture. It is black with very large orange text that reads "DO NOT FEED ME AIOLI NO MATTER WHAT I SAY". It also has a picture of three mason jars labeled with "Truffle aioli", "Garlic aioli" and "Chipotle aioli".
October 15, 2025 at 8:03 AM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
In Sydney to see Brennan Lee Mulligan and friends playing some D&D

I hope our outfits are sufficiently nerdy and their references are completely incomprehensible
A selfie of me and my wife in front of a window in Sydney. My wife is wearing a denim jacket with a number of nerdy pins. I am wearing a shirt that says "DO NOT FEED ME AIOLI" in enormous font.
October 15, 2025 at 7:54 AM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
This image, reportedly made by IBM in 1979 -- that's NINETEEN SEVENTY NINE -- disproves your entire article.

We cannot allow robots to control decisions over welfare. It doesn't matter how shiny the AI driving those robots is.

HUMAN LIVES ARE AT STAKE. SOMEONE MUST BE ACCOUNTABLE.
A printed page with the text: "A COMPUTER CAN NEVER BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE "THEREFORE A COMPUTER MUST NEVER MAKE A MANAGEMENT DECISION"
September 26, 2025 at 10:28 AM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
A screenshot of "The Toot Oriole" page from the Kingdom of Loathing wiki. The screenshot is mostly text, with two pictures of the Toot Oriole character. The pictures are simple, cartoonish inkpen drawings of a bird standing on top of a mountain. The text reads: The Toot Oriole This article is about the in-game NPC. For the player, see Toot Oriole. Upon entering the Kingdom of Loathing for the first time, a new Adventurer sees the message: "You might want to check out Mt. Noob, in the Big Mountains." There, the Toot Oriole sends you on a series of tasks for which he rewards you with useful items. When you have completed your training, the Toot Oriole won't be able to help you any longer on your quest: "You're all done here! Now head to the Council of Loathing, in the center of Seaside Town. They'll tell you if there are any tasks required of enterprising Adventurers like yourself. Good luck!"
September 14, 2025 at 10:48 PM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
His wrongness is so blatant that I don't need "professional evidence". It can be easily disproved with meme images I found in Google Image Search. It's a very simple question of passenger density.
A series of photographs showing the space needed to transport 60 people along an urban street. In the first image, labelled "car", 60 cars fill the entire street. In the second image, labelled "bus", a single bus is on the street. In the third image, labelled "bicycle", 60 bicycles take up a modest amount of space on the street. A series of photographs showing the space required to transport 48 people along an urban street. The three photographs are labelled "Car", "Electric car", and "Autonomous car". All three photographs are identical, as all of them show cars completely filling the street.
August 5, 2025 at 1:40 PM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
A four panel comic divided into two parts. The top two panels are labelled "Journalist visits Twitter". In both of these panels a journalist skips happily along, while behind him people yell "Black people suck!", "Gay people suck!", "Trans people suck!" and "Immigrants suck!". The bottom two panels are labelled "Journalist visits Bluesky". In the third panel the journalist is still skipping along, but the person behind him yells "You suck!", and the journalist's expression is confused. In the last panel, the journalist is curled up in a sad little ball, writing a letter that begins with "Today, I went to hell."
June 30, 2025 at 10:32 AM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
This was outside my house and I'm fairly sure it is a bird, please advise
An Australian Magpie standing on a concrete step
June 5, 2025 at 11:28 PM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
A screenshot from the Star Trek Deep Space Nine episode "Bar Association". It is a close-up of Miles O'Brien, a white man with short curly hair wearing a yellow uniform, looking past the camera and winking. The subtitles show O'Brien's dialogue: "He was more than a hero. He was a union man."
April 18, 2025 at 11:04 PM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
I received a brief response from the Queensland Leader of the Opposition's office. I hope it translates to action.
A screenshot of an email from the office of Steven Miles, the Opposition Leader of Queensland. The text of the email reads: Thanks for sending this through Lachlan. As the person who was the Minister responsible for opening the Gender Clinic Steven is appalled by the LNP’s decision. Warm regards Peter Office of Steven Miles – Member for Murrumba 1/15 Goodfellows Rd,QLD. 07 3448 9300 | murrumba@parliament.qld.gov.au PO Box 538 Kallangur 4503 I acknowledge our First Nations People on whose land I live and work, and pay my respects to elders past and present."
January 31, 2025 at 6:18 AM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
I have written a follow-up to this email to the Queensland Shadow Health Minister and the leader of the Queensland Greens, urging them to fight against this regulation and force the murderous Queensland Health Minister to resign from his seat in the Parliament.

#auspol #qldpol #transrights
A screenshot of an email that has been sent to the Queensland Shadow Health Minister (miller@parliament.qld.gov.au), the leader of the Queensland Greens (maiwar@parliament.qld.gov.au), and the Leader of the Opposition in Queensland (TheLeader@opposition.qld.gov.au, Murrumba@parliament.qld.gov.au). The email address that the email has been sent from is censored. The subject line of the email reads, "Please fight for the rights of transgender Queenslanders and block Minister Nicholls' discriminatory regulations". The body of the email reads: "Dear Shadow Minister Bailey and MP Berkman, On Tuesday the 28th of January, Timothy Nicholls, the Queensland Minister for Health, passed a regulation which blocked access to hormone treatment for transgender children all across Queensland. I am writing to you today to urge you to fight against this regulation with every tool that you have available. There are three grounds on which this regulation should be opposed. Firstly, it goes against best medical practices. Secondly, it violates the human rights of children. Thirdly, it will lead to a substantial increase in the youth suicide rate and will leave Minister Nicholls with blood on his hands. On the matter of medical practices, multiple medical authorities from around Australia and the world have found that hormone therapy is the best practice for treating gender dysphoria in children. These include the World Health Organisation, the Cochrane Collaboration, the Australian Medical Association, the Australian Professional Association for Trans Health, and the Queensland Government's own Children's Gender Service review. It is deeply irresponsible for a Health Minister to pass a regulation that goes blatantly against universally acknowledged healthcare advice." The body of the email continues in the second image of this post. A continuation of the email from the previous picture. The text reads: "On the matter of human rights, while I am far from an expert, even in my brief reading of the Queensland Human Right Act 2019 I was able to spot at least two human rights that are blatantly violated by Minister Nicholls' regulation. The first was the right to access to health services without discrimination in s37(1): the offending regulation clearly discriminates against the healthcare access of the transgender community. The second was the right to child protection in s26(2): as I will discuss further below, the offending regulation will directly cause specific harm against children. No government minister should be allowed to pass a regulation that blatantly violates the human rights of a minority group. On the matter of causing an increase in the suicide rate, in addition to its role in treating gender dysphoria, hormone therapy is also an essential form of suicide prevention. Untreated gender dysphoria is a leading cause of suicide among young LGBTQ+ people. If Minister Nicholls keeps this regulation in place, there will be a measureable increase in the rate of youth suicide in Queensland, and that blood will be on his hands. No Minister should be allowed to cause mass suicide as the solution to a political problem. As the Queensland Opposition, I believe it is your collective duty to oppose this vile and cruel regulation. You must fight to see this regulation reversed and to ensure that the rights of transgender Queenslanders are protected. Once the regulation is reversed, you must also ensure that Minister Nicholls resigns from the Parliament for daring to pass something so contrary to medical science, human rights, and common decency. Yours sincerely, Lachlan McGowan."
January 31, 2025 at 3:07 AM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
I have written a very angry letter to the Queensland Health Minister urging him to reverse his anti-trans health care decision and resign from his seat in the Parliament.

#auspol #qldpol #transrights #transrightsarehumanrights
A screenshot of an email that has been sent to the Queensland Health Minister and the Premier of Queensland. The email address that the email has been sent from is censored. The subject line of the email reads, "Reverse your decision on trans healthcare, or you will have blood on your hands." The body of the email reads: "Dear Minister Nicholls, I am writing to you today to accuse you of murder. Let me explain my reasoning. If the parent of a child who suffers from a treatable cancer decides, based on their own selfish whims, to refuse all chemotherapy for their child, and allows their child to die, the law and the media will rightly condemn that parent as a murderer. If a State Health Minister was to write a regulation which banned chemotherapy from being administered to children with cancer in their state, then that Health Minister would be murdering many children with cancer, as those children would be legally unable to access the medical aid that could potentially save their lives. Minister Nicholls, yesterday you signed a regulation which banned certain forms of hormone treatment from being administered to transgender children. Allow me to be very unambiguous here: if this rule remains in force, children will die, and their blood will be on your hands. Multiple medical authorities have found that hormone therapy is the best practice for treating gender dysphoria in children. These authorities include the World Health Organisation, the Cochrane Collaboration, the Australian Professional Association for Trans Health, and even your own government's Queensland Children’s Gender Service review." The body of the email continues in the second image of this post. A continuation of the email from the previous picture. The text reads: "In addition to its role in treating gender dysphoria, hormone therapy is also an essential form of suicide prevention. Untreated gender dysphoria is a leading cause of suicide among young LGBTQ+ people. If you keep this regulation in place, there will be a measureable increase in the rate of youth suicide in Queensland, and those suicides will be your personal fault. This is why I am judging you as a murderer: with one signature, you have potentially driven hundreds of young Queenslanders to their deaths. The coroner may list those deaths as suicides, but their ultimate cause of death will be a regulation that you passed which prevented them from obtaining essential medical care. I urge you in the strongest terms possible to immediately reverse this inhumane, cruel, and murderous regulation, and leave decisions on transgender medical care to actual experts in the field. You should then apologise to the LGBTQ+ community of Queensland in the form of a resignation letter from the Queensland Parliament, because a person who sees mass suicide as an acceptable political solution to a healthcare issue has no right to sit as a Health Minister or a Parliamentarian. If you immediately reverse this regulation, apologise to the LGBTQ+ community, resign from the Parliament, and spend the rest of your life working for the betterment of transgender rights in Queensland, there is some possibility that your God may forgive you. I know for a fact that I never will. Yours disdainfully, Lachlan McGowan."
January 29, 2025 at 4:47 AM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
Spending the day at the Illawarra Folk Festival. It is, of course, raining. Currently taking shelter in the worst seat in the house (hiding next to the speaker stack) listening to Eric Bogle.
A photograph of the outside of a heavy tent at a folk festival. The tent is decorated with a handmade sign that reads "Black Diamond Marquee" and is decorated with diamonds and treble clefs. Hippies are spilling out of the tent, wearing raincoats and carrying umbrellas. The sky above is grey. A photograph of a very oblique view of a stage. Most of the photograph is blocked by a stack of speakers, a metal fence with black fabric behind it, and paper flower decorations. The face of Eric Bogle is barely visible, framed in between the flower decorations and the power cord of one of the speakers.
January 18, 2025 at 12:52 AM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
Bar Association, obviously.
An image from the Star Trek: Deep Space 9 episode "Bar Association". It is a close-up shot of Miles O'Brien, a white man with short curly reddish-brown hair, looking just past the camera and winking. The subtitles read, "He was more than a hero. He was a union man."
January 3, 2025 at 10:03 PM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
The greatest official D&D illustration of all time
An illustration from the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, published in 1978. The illustration is an amateur, cartoonish, monochromatic pen drawing. On the left, a wizard is facing right and casting a spell. In the middle, a fighter is facing to the left, tripping over a banana peel and yelling "OOOOPSS!!!". On the right, a monkey is sitting on top of an abstract piece of furniture and eating a banana. It isn't clear if the banana peel that the fighter is tripping over was conjured by the wizard's magic or simply dropped there by the monkey.
December 1, 2024 at 10:09 AM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
Eyes up lads, lasses and laguz, got some Nazis trying to be sneaky

(Yeah this counts as sneaky for a Nazi)
A screenshot of a blocked Bluesky account. The account has the username "ssfarmer88.bsky.social" (a reference to Hitler's SS secret police and the Neo-Nazi 88/HH/Heil Hitler code), and its username is "KiwiFarms.net" spelled out in unconventional characters (a reference to the stalking/doxing/hate website of that name, which hosts numerous manifestos by Neo-Nazi mass murderers). I highly recommend you search for, report, and block this account.
November 29, 2024 at 10:44 AM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
A very relevant analysis from @prokopetz.bsky.social
A screenshot of a Tumblr post that reads: "Broadly speaking, D&D's narrative comfort zone revolves around stories about small groups of highly skilled weirdos whose core competences lie somewhere in the vicinity of "hurting people and breaking things", trying to achieve a goal that can be accomplished by travelling from point A to point B (and hurting or breaking whatever they find when they get there). This journey will take the form of a picaresque series of set-piece encounters, characterised by the ever-present threat, if not necessarily the eventuation, of violence, in which various only-semi-avoidable horrible things will happen to the group – potentially up to and including death – and they will do horrible things to others in turn. Though the framing of this series of set-pieces may involve some sort of mystery or intrigue, the rules don't care about that dimension of the story's premise and offer few tools for engaging with it; rather, the spotlight lies on the logistical dimension of the journey – i.e., how the group marshals the limited resources available to them in order to accomplish the getting-from-point-A-to-point-B part. (Some folks reading this may be thinking "wait, you just described a completely standard RPG", and given the influence of D&D on the evolution of that standard, you're not wrong; however, if that was your reaction, it may be worthwhile to back up and count how many weirdly specific assumptions about the shape of the game's story I just outlined – there may be a few you didn't realise you were making!)"
November 17, 2024 at 2:44 AM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
Seeing a show #music #livemusic #hozier
A screen showing the program of artists performing at a music festival. The performers are Mia Wray, Jack Botts, Joy Oladokun, Angie McMahon, and Hozier.
November 16, 2024 at 7:05 AM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
This is not dad's first time feeding blueberries to a King Parrot on the back verandah

Another photo from January this year of a female blueberry enjoyer

(Female king parrots look pretty different to the males!)
A photo of a female Australian King Parrot (Alisterus scapularis) perching on the back of a chair on a verandah. The parrot has a medium green head, a pale green neck, a red stomach, dark green wings, a pale brown upper beak and a black lower beak. The verandah railing is behind the parrot, and through the railing a backyard with grass and plants is visible.
November 14, 2024 at 2:01 PM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
My dad has photographed a visitor. We tried giving him some blueberries but he wasn't sure about how to eat them.

(Male Australian king parrot, Alisterus scapularis)

#birds #parrots #wildbirds #photography #aussiebirds
A photograph of an Australian King Parrot (Alisterus scapularis) standing on a railing. It is a medium-sized parrot with a bright red head and stomach, dark green wings with a single light green stripe, an orange upper beak and a black lower beak. The parrot is walking forwards along the railing and has one leg in the air. The background of the photo is filled with leaves.
November 14, 2024 at 1:47 PM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
Sorry, forgot to wrap this one up. I did in fact arrive at Broadmeadow slightly behind time. Unfortunately there was basically no opportunity to take photos out of the windows, being both too dark and too rainy for any phone photography.
A sign at Broadmeadow train station depicting a knight on horseback, in reference to the Newcastle Knights rugby league team. The knight has red and blue feathers on his helmet and his horse is wearing a red and blue coat, referencing the Newcastle Knights' team colours. The words around the sign read "Newcastle Knights", "Home station" and "Pride of the Valley".
November 11, 2024 at 1:30 PM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
Our train to Broadmeadow is our old friend, and I do mean "old", the V Set. These things are extremely long in the tooth and I can't wait until the replacement sets are finally running.

At least the seats in the V Sets are nice.

(Also a 4-car consist? It's surprisingly full with only 4 cars.)
A photo of a NSW Trainlink V Set train, waiting in a platform at Central station A screenshot of the Wikipedia page for a NSW Trainlink V Set.
November 11, 2024 at 9:38 AM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
Sydney Central Terminal is looking very red tonight. Big banks of LED lights shining onto the ceiling. Not sure why.
A photo of the ceiling of the terminal building at Sydney Central station. The ceiling is arched and there are banks of red LED lights shining up the arches.
November 11, 2024 at 9:26 AM
lachlanthesane.bsky.social
Sydney light rail vehicle at Chinatown station. This is an Alstom Citadis -- or rather two Citadises coupled together. These are long boys.

(Travel on the light rail was free today! Hooray!)
A photo of a Sydney light rail vehicle pulling into a station.
November 11, 2024 at 9:18 AM