Cal Ryder
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calryder.bsky.social
Cal Ryder
@calryder.bsky.social
190 followers 360 following 110 posts
Much greater than my fear of the Giant Squid is my fear of the Colossal Squid.
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Reposted by Cal Ryder
miseryvulture.bsky.social
I believe in Newgrange supremacy. 5 millennia, zero bullshit. Older than Stonehenge and has a roof, get fucked. Solstice icon, no choice but to stan, etc. etc. etc.
December 21, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Reposted by Cal Ryder
tylerfromtheinternet.com
Fuck all of you saying "this is inevitable" or "it's here deal with it" or even "it's fine"/"it's not a big deal". Be antihuman on your own time. This is a moveable needle. It's ruining lives (mine included already), ruining the environment, ruining art and creativity, isn't needed and isn't wanted.
The AI Backlash Keeps Growing Stronger
As generative artificial intelligence tools continue to proliferate, pushback against the technology and its negative impacts grows stronger.
www.wired.com
December 18, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Reposted by Cal Ryder
starrdiver.bsky.social
Just really awesome how our financial elite just spent the last several decades admonishing people for pursing the humanities and creative fields, and are now suddenly pedaling the idea that "there are no good ideas anymore" after spending the last 5 years laying off everybody with a brain
December 16, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Reposted by Cal Ryder
athul.acharya.cc
TIL the original lyrics to Deck the Halls are awesome and “don we now our gay apparel” is temperance movement bullshit
Deck the hall with boughs of holly, Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la! "Tis the season to be jolly: a, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la! Fill the meadcup, drain the barrel, Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la! Troll the ancient Christmas carol. Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la!
December 13, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Reposted by Cal Ryder
robinince.bsky.social
Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.
This is the saddest day of my professional life. Today is not only the final recording of the latest series of The Infinite Monkey Cage, it is my last ever Monkey Cage. I never thought that I would have to leave the show. I always imagined going on until | dropped dead under the studio lights due to a brain aneurysm caused by my final attempt to understand notions of quantum gravity or the shock of being told about fly maggot infestations in the sacks of macaque monkeys. I resigned in September, after sixteen years of dedication to the show, A show that I named and helped develop over all those years. Unfortunately, my opinions outside the BBC have been considered problematic for sometime, whether it has been voicing support for the trans community, criticism of Donald Trump, numerous other outlandish opinions, including once gently criticising Stephen Fry. These things were considered to conflict with being a freelance BBC science presenter In a recent meeting where BBC Studio executives again voiced problems with me, I realised my choices. Obedience and being quieter to remain making Monkey Cage, or 'Resign and have the freedom to speak out against what I believe are injustices'. • I chose the latter. It broke my heart. I love this show and I love the audience, and it is because of the audience in particular, that this decision was so difficult to make. I kept thinking about all the extremist voices promoting hate and division. They are being given so many platforms, while voices that represent kindness, open mindedness, empathy seem to be scarcer and scarcer. I felt I couldn't pamper myself with the luxury of silence. One of my many privileges is that I am able to resign and I can speak out even if it is to the detriment of my career. I have thought a lot about my heroes, Sinead O Connor, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and so many more. I think of Sinead's words, "the job of an artist is to be themselves at any cost". James Baldwin said prejudice was really just a word for cowardice. Audre Lorde, viewing her life, wrote that her only regrets were her silences. I think of my father as I resign, he brought me up to believe in fairness , justice and kindness. Though my heart is broken, it is also full of fire. I apologise to our incredible listeners for my departure, your love of the show means a great deal. I am so sorry to let you down. I hope that you can understand my reasoning. I have to accept that I am not what the current BBC expects of their freelance presenters. Despite this I should add that I have always worked far more than my contracted hours to try and ensure the show was always the best it could be, as well as making myself accessible and responsive to the audience wherever and whenever I met them. Every night, we have recorded, I have been filled with determination to make the best show possible. This was not "just a job" I hope that with my departure I can be a better ally to the LGBTQ community, to the neurodivergent community, to activists fighting against those who aim to brutalise society, to those currently in prison on hunger strike, and to all those who fight for a more inclusive world. From many conversations, I know there are many Monkey Cage listeners who support these communities and activists too. The strawberry is dead. Long live the strawberry. B
December 13, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Reposted by Cal Ryder
alexvont.bsky.social
So love wobbegongs. Everything is good about the wobbegong. Its name. Its flattened Oscar the Grouch face. Its frondy bits. Its lazy life as a hungry rug. And it’s a shark. Outstanding animal 10/10
jeffyoungblood.bsky.social Jeff Youngblood @jeffyoungblood.bsky.social · 26d
The Tasselled Wobbegong is a master of disguise that can eat a fish almost as big as itself in one gulp. It's classified as a shark, but when it lays on the sea floor it looks like a harmless rug if you manage to see it. But with powerful jaws and sharp teeth they are no fish to mess with.
December 8, 2025 at 9:49 AM
Reposted by Cal Ryder
bobsmyusername.bsky.social
Who has made this 🤣
Buster from the tv show ‘Arrested Development’ holding an arm full of plushies while he looks at his mother Lucille, saying, “these are my awards, mother, from FIFA.“
December 7, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by Cal Ryder
netw3rk.bsky.social
Couldn’t Sam Altman just ask ChatGPT how to make itself profitable
December 6, 2025 at 4:38 AM
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seamas.bsky.social
Cruelty is anhedonic. It rarely delivers the euphoria promised because, in the abstract, what feels righteous and joyful inevitably reveals itself to be sordid and small. Then it's "No not like that". "No not enough". "No the real battle, the forever war to make this feel good starts now". Forever.
flyingrodent.bsky.social flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 27d
Note how these awful people are getting exactly the exclusions of children that they demanded and *that still isn’t enough for them*: they demand everyone be delighted about it and kiss their arses for being brilliant.
Johann Lamont @JohannLamont• 1d X Girlguiding decision important yet it all makes me sad. The Guides meant so much to me but the announcement is so grudging, so reluctant, so concerned about the impact on boys, I wonder if it can ever again give girls the brilliant, confidence building space in which I thrived. • 93 {7 316 O3.1K I|41K •
December 4, 2025 at 10:59 AM
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moreperfectunion.bsky.social
If you want people to spend more, pay them more.
WSJ headline: Gen Z shoppers aren't spending like retailers need them to
December 1, 2025 at 5:12 PM
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djbyrnes1.bsky.social
Yesterday my partner and I counted all the ads along Chicago's Brown Line for "Friend," a company selling an AI chatbot pendant, and tallied how many of those ads were defaced.

Still working on a longer piece on this, but here's the quick and dirty: we counted 104 "Friend" ads total, 42 defaced.
Sign for a "Friend" ad defaced with graffiti reading "AI doesn't care if you live or die." Sign for a "Friend" ad defaced with graffiti reading "talk to humans" Sign for a "Friend" ad defaced with graffiti reading "Fuck this!" Sign for a "Friend" ad defaced with graffiti reading "you don't have to accept this future."
November 23, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Reposted by Cal Ryder
sjoy.lol
Again with alt text:
Social media screenshot: Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand In a normal world, this should be an immense scandal in Europe. Le Monde has a long article describing the hellish life of Nicolas Guillou, a French judge at the ICC in The Hague, due to U.S. sanctions punishing him for authorizing arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant for war crimes in Gaza. Guillou's daily existence has been transformed into a Kafkaesque nightmare. He cannot: open or maintain accounts with Google, Amazon, Apple, or any US company; make hotel reservations (Expedia canceled his booking in France hours after he made it); conduct online commerce, since he can't know if the packaging is American; use any major credit card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex are all American); access normal banking services, even with non-American banks, as banks worldwide close sanctioned accounts; conduct virtually any financial transaction. He describes it as being "economically banned across most of the planet," including in his own country, France, and where he works, the Netherlands. That's the real shocking aspect of this: the Americans are: - punishing a European citizen - for doing his job in Europe - applying laws Europe officially supports - at an institution based in Europe - that Europe helped create and fund and Europe is not only doing essentially nothing to protect him, they're actively enforcing America's sanctions against their own citizen - European banks closing his accounts, European companies refusing him service, European institutions standing by while Washington destroys a European judge's life on European soil. Again, in a normal world, European leaders and citizens should be absolutely outraged about this. But we've so normalized the hollowing out of European sovereignty that the sight of a European citizen being economically executed on European soil for upholding European law is treated, at best, as an unfortunate technical complication in transatlantic [further text missing]
November 21, 2025 at 10:09 AM
calryder.bsky.social
Good. I taught RE in an NI secondary one year and genuinely, that shit was woeful for everyone.
November 19, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Reposted by Cal Ryder
rhidaneelolivaw.bsky.social
IT'S '6-7', COOPER. A GENERATION ALPHA TREND. WHAT THEY CALL A 'MAY-MAY'. IT'S AN ORPHANED SIGNIFIER, NO SIGNS ATTACHED. ONE COULD CALL IT DADAIST, BUT SOMME SAY IT'S TOO STUPID TO BE DADA. IT'S ANTI-MEANING, ANTI-HUMOUR, BUT DAMN IF THOSE KIDS DON'T FIND IT A CRACK-UP.
November 12, 2025 at 12:31 PM
calryder.bsky.social
Boosting this just because
lostcitymagic.bsky.social Neugin @lostcitymagic.bsky.social · Nov 12
Your Cherokee words for today.
The top word is English followed by how it is written in the Cherokee language followed by how it is spelled in English then how to pronounce it phonetically.

The Cherokee always had women warriors and more than once women have shown the men what the meaning of
Image is line paper with writing showing an English word followed by how it is written in the Cherokee language followed by how it is spelled and pronounced. The word is warrior and pronounced deetleehee
November 12, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Reposted by Cal Ryder
esherukweku.bsky.social
This needs amplifying
November 11, 2025 at 10:48 AM
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spavel.bsky.social
Tmnt logo that says Ai is a fascist project.
November 9, 2025 at 3:59 PM
calryder.bsky.social
Thread
lyndab08.bsky.social Lynda Lopez @lyndab08.bsky.social · Nov 7
A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.
November 7, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Reposted by Cal Ryder
lyndab08.bsky.social
A family friend was telling us about what her husband shared about his experience in Broadview before he was deported back to Mexico. She's been sharing to friends and family because she's just in disbelief & horror what her husband told her. She wasn't able to talk to him until he was in Mexico.
November 7, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Reposted by Cal Ryder
soozuk.bsky.social
The part of Mamdani's speech that I found most exciting was "you dismantle the conditions that allowed him to gain power. That's how we stop Trump — and the next one."

We need popular political figures to point out that Trump is not an anomaly and there are plenty more to take his place.
November 6, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Reposted by Cal Ryder
malaiseforever.bsky.social
reading slaughterhouse 5 for the first time and i was absolutely knocked senseless by this passage, which is so true and relevant that it feels like it was pulled from a history book
“America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, 'It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.' It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: 'if you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?' There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand – glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register. Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say Napoleonic times. Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves.”
October 26, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Cal Ryder
zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
As Toni Morrison said, "the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work." But she also reminded us never to lose our capacity to be shocked.

Part of my conversation on @ayman.msnbc.com earlier today.
October 25, 2025 at 11:42 PM
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lsam22.bsky.social
October 11, 2025 at 3:21 AM
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dbmaggi.bsky.social
Ms Rachel schools Obama on why he really should stop using dehumanizing language.
October 10, 2025 at 6:39 PM