James T. Harding
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empowermint.bsky.social
James T. Harding
@empowermint.bsky.social
510 followers 520 following 620 posts
Liable to tweet about books (SFF), RPGs, queer politics, Edinburgh, TypeScript, and my cats. Former publisher now working as a software engineer. He/him
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empowermint.bsky.social
Small brain: Support socialism and win votes Medium brain: Condemn socialism and win funding Big brain: Dogwhistle racism somehow? Galaxy brain: Pretend not to know New York exists
November 7, 2025 at 12:12 PM
empowermint.bsky.social
Scooby Doo mask reveal meme. The ghost mask reads ‘Literally any Labour Policy’. The man under the ghost mask reads ‘ID cards’.
September 25, 2025 at 4:33 PM
empowermint.bsky.social
Bart
Bart is a black and white cat sitting, improbably, regally, inside a cardboard box the size of a DVD cover.
September 14, 2025 at 12:12 AM
empowermint.bsky.social
When Windows 10 goes out of support in October, you can keep using your computer safely by switching to Linux.

Following our busy launch event on the 2nd, Edinburgh Linux Café is rolling out more install parties around the city: linux-cafe.eventbrite.com
Tux the Linux penguin mascot sits on the words 'Linux Café'. A strap line reads: 'Windows 10 expired this October, but don't throw your computer away... We can help you keep using it safely!' A link reads: linux-cafe.eventbrite.com
August 26, 2025 at 9:51 AM
empowermint.bsky.social
Support for Windows 10 ends in October and many will be forced to buy a new computer… I’m putting on an event next weekend to help people save money by switching to Linux: linux-cafe.eventbrite.co.uk

Please share with relatives/friends who use Windows 10 and would appreciate support in upgrading
Event poster showing the Linux penguin mascot sitting on the words ‘Linux Café’. Text reads: Windows 10 expires this October, but don’t throw your computer away… We can help you keep using it safely! Linux Café. Drop-in event at Leith Library on Saturday August 16th from 10am to 1pm. https://linux-cafe.eventbrite.com
August 8, 2025 at 10:04 AM
empowermint.bsky.social
The Penguin Classics cover for Night Watch is a true astonishment
An ugly Penguin Classics book cover for Night Watch by Terry Pritchett. The scene is a painting of Guy Fawkes put, inscrutably. through an infrared filter. The author’s name is pasted over in a light teal which is hard to read over the grey painting, and overlaps unfortunately with the book title, itself set in an inappropriate sans-serif font.
April 24, 2025 at 2:05 PM
empowermint.bsky.social
I am always like this
A dance show poster for Nikita Kuzmin. It has striking, beautiful white text on a bright red background. A zoomed in view of the same poster. There is something wonky with the writing… A very close up view of the same poster. Two of the letters are very nearly aligned but not quite.
March 6, 2025 at 11:33 AM
empowermint.bsky.social
The author:
X profile of Vinceno Barney. He wears an open-necked shirt and has ornate hair like the pirate on the cover of a romance novel
November 21, 2024 at 9:13 AM
empowermint.bsky.social
Show me your pet and what they’re named after
Lisa Simpson is giving Bart Simpson a piggy back. She looks pained. He looks delighted and is punching the air. Two black-and-white cats share the perch on top of a cat tree. The male cat (Bart) sits partially on top of the female cat (Lisa). Bart looks pleased with himself. Lisa looks directly into the camera like Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Fleabag saying ‘you see what I have to put up with?’
October 21, 2024 at 10:12 PM
empowermint.bsky.social
Get to know your bloomfies. List 10 things you’re into!

SFF 🦄
Ramen 🍜
My cats 🐈
Jazz 🎷
Graphic design 🎨
History of magic ✨
Yoga 🧘
Screenplays 📜
Ancient Mesopotamia 🔭
Code👨‍💻
A nerd in a tartan scarf poses in front of a statue of Desperate Dan from the Dandy
September 20, 2024 at 3:33 PM
empowermint.bsky.social
This fox has started visiting us regularly, early in the morning. Unfortunately it scratches loudly at the back door, wakes me up and riles up the cats. (Do foxes eat cats?)
A bedraggled teenage fox stares dolefully through a dirty window
September 19, 2024 at 7:39 AM
empowermint.bsky.social
I think professional translators might be safe from Apple’s automatic translation tools for a few more years yet. (Original article is from BBC Persia)
A screen cap of a right-aligned article reading: The Taliban visited the “order of it a favour and a denier” the Taliban, the Taliban in the length of your question, his goose, his “Bish if 31 hazars,” music is .between his cold
August 21, 2024 at 9:32 AM
empowermint.bsky.social
On the way back home from #Glasgow2024. I attended 23 hours’ worth of events at Worldcon… Wish I’d kept a running total so I could have hit a more satisfying 24
Me looking tired in a lanyard bedecked with badges, stickers and other science fictional detritus
August 11, 2024 at 5:09 PM
empowermint.bsky.social
My best PR yet
A GitHub changes readout saying '+19 -16,383'
July 16, 2024 at 12:59 PM
empowermint.bsky.social
I get Richard Osman all the time. I don’t think I look that much like him, but we do have similar energy. And we both have uncommonly
acrobatic eyebrows.
Richard Osman in thick black specs. His index finger is placed quizzically on one cheek.
March 31, 2024 at 11:00 AM
empowermint.bsky.social
Impressive acting from these two pretending it’s a hot summer day in this freezing Scottish drizzle
Actors pretend to be a mother and daughter at a summer picnic. They are surrounded by camera crew and rain.
March 16, 2024 at 3:09 PM
empowermint.bsky.social
Nearly time for slate 1!
A clapperboard for Faithful showing the details for slate 1 - the first shot of the day
March 16, 2024 at 12:38 PM
empowermint.bsky.social
The qualities that the study says make a good alarm are very similar to the common qualities of pop hits. I doubt this is a coincidence.
- Has an easy melody that you can sing or hum along to - Has a dominant frequency around 500 Hz or in the key of C5 - Isn't too fast or too slow (ideally 100-120bpm)
January 5, 2024 at 9:06 AM
empowermint.bsky.social
I want to know what happens if you call this number, but also I’m a millennial and incapable of making a phone call
A photocopied poster at a bus stop. I reads “Do you drive a 4x4, Jeep or Range Rover? You could be entitled to free penis enlargement therapy on the NHS. Call Megacorp: Profit before People. 0131 824 0432
November 23, 2023 at 10:50 AM
empowermint.bsky.social
Netflix advertising on the graffitied old shell of the Filmhouse. Did they really need to dance on the graves of the vanquished?
Scaffolding surrounds the once-great, now shuttered Filmhouse cinema. A two-floor high Netflix advert for The Crown has been erected right in the middle, Princess Diana’s face gazing balefully at the rainy street below.
November 18, 2023 at 2:11 PM