Zandy
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iskandarv.bsky.social
Zandy
@iskandarv.bsky.social
software developer, science fiction fan, Quaker, somewhat distracted by family life, he/him
Perth, living on Whadjuk country, Australia
Mastodon @[email protected]
Reposted by Zandy
December 20, 2025 at 12:07 AM
Reposted by Zandy
Great analysis of the narrative frame of "The Muppet Christmas Carol."

I JUST saw the film for the first time. I'm glad I saw this afterwards; it has spoilers.

reactormag.com/the-secret-w...
The Secret Weirdo Underbelly of The Muppet Christmas Carol - Reactor
Holiday fun, or a roleplay gone wrong? You decide!
reactormag.com
December 20, 2025 at 2:25 AM
Reposted by Zandy
Reeves and Mortimer as Valdimir and Estragon. Jonny Vegas as Lucky.
December 19, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Reposted by Zandy
Es ist perfekt.
December 19, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Pistachio gelato with pistachio and amaretti crumb topping from a gelato stall at Fremantle Markets
December 19, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Reposted by Zandy
"Within days, Claudius had given away nearly all its inventory for free—including a PlayStation 5 it had been talked into buying for “marketing purposes.” It ordered a live fish. It offered to buy stun guns, pepper spray, cigarettes and underwear.

Profits collapsed. Newsroom morale soared."
We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars.
An AI agent ran a snack operation in the WSJ newsroom. It gave away a free PlayStation, ordered a live fish—and taught us lessons about the future of AI.
www.wsj.com
December 18, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by Zandy
Here's me. "Weaponising the Bondi tragedy is a betrayal of all our children"
Weaponising the Bondi tragedy is a betrayal of all our children - The Shot
Breathe, slowly. It helps.  Cry if you need to. All of this hurts. But please understand, before we go any...
theshot.net.au
December 19, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Reposted by Zandy
This sounds like . . . at least one movie in recent memory. And I *just* read this article today - check it out at @flaminghydra.com
December 18, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Reposted by Zandy
To all marveling at photos of NYT columnist David Brooks dining with Jeffrey Epstein, 2 years after Epstein finished his sentence for procuring a child for prostitution, here's what it was: the 2011 "Edge Billionaire's Dinner". Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos were there too. 1/
www.edge.org/event/the-ed...
December 18, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Zandy
Focussing on this from a pure security perspective, it’s wild that an IS-linked attack was just carried out in Australia and we’re barely talking about it - the focus is on protestors and universities.

www.afr.com/policy/forei...
December 18, 2025 at 10:55 PM
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🚨 PM Albanese announces new Australian gun buyback scheme for "surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms - the largest buyback since the Howard government in 1996" after Bondi massacre

Expecting "hundreds of thousands of firearms will be collected and destroyed"
December 19, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Reposted by Zandy
I wrote about Bondi for @slate.com

slate.com/news-and-pol...
What’s Coming in Australia Is Unimaginable
This isn't supposed to happen here. Except now it does.
slate.com
December 18, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Reposted by Zandy
Me: Up a ladder, hanging Christmas lights.

My daughter: Holding the ladder.

Also my daughter: Sings “I’m FREEEEEE!! FREE FALLING!” 🎶

😳
December 18, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Reposted by Zandy
Absolutely nobody asked for this BUT

English Anglican cathedrals that have burned down, fallen over, and sank into the swamp: a thread.
December 18, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Reposted by Zandy
This is a delicious and insightful analysis of those Vanity Fair photos.
The Vanity Fair photographer, Christopher Anderson, is one of the most respected portrait photographers currently on earth, with an incredible body of work. Everything he and the creative team did with That Article was intentional. Your reactions were provoked by artists making art. Human artists!
December 18, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Reposted by Zandy
Here's @ronnisalt. "Don't look back in anger"
theshot.net.au/uncategorize...
Don’t look back in anger - The Shot
I’m angry. We’re all angry. Perhaps that’s part of the problem. At the moment, we’re angry at two twisted individuals...
theshot.net.au
December 18, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Reposted by Zandy
I know all this stuff is massively undignified and demeans his office, but it's also comically insecure.
Trump has just added this vindictive plaque below Obama’s White House portrait and it bears all the childish pettiness and chaotic capitalisation of his 4am Truth Social rants.
December 17, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Reposted by Zandy
for patreon i wrote about getting stranded in tomorrowland as an 8th grader, michael sorkin's classic essay "see you in disneyland" and the legacy of 1990s disneyfied architecture and urbanism today
www.patreon.com/posts/see-yo...
"See You in Disneyland" | McMansion Hell
Get more from McMansion Hell on Patreon
www.patreon.com
December 17, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by Zandy
TODAY: @todseelie.bsky.social with a photo essay on Santacon's slightly less-obnoxious past. "There were participants and an audience, and it was for one as much as the other. Be the surrealist moment you want to see in a city." flaminghydra.com/ten-thousand...
Ten Thousand Santas
With the arrival of the SANTACON documentary from Seth Porges, the acclaimed director of Class Action Park, I thought it was a good time to dig up my old photos from the 2007 and 2008 NYC SantaCons. I...
flaminghydra.com
December 17, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Reposted by Zandy
Something seasonal - for 30+ yrs NSA, then later the CIA, DIA and NRO have been putting out Christmas decorations.

Here's some of NSA & CIA's greatest hits - including Enigma, U2 and portraits of Donovan, Dulles, Helms and Tenet.

Thoughts are with all of you over the break, we'll see you in 2026.
December 17, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Reposted by Zandy
Mozilla has a new CEO and he just announced that Firefox will evolve into a modern AI browser. This is a good example of how management doesn’t understand its own user base and why they go out of their way to install Firefox on Windows, Android, iOS and other devices blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/l...
December 16, 2025 at 8:00 PM
If you see this, we IMPLORE you to post a picture from whatever device you're using without explanation.
December 16, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Zandy
This is incredibly important. If you read one thing this week: marcusolang.substack.com/p/im-kenyan-...
I'm Kenyan. I Don't Write Like ChatGPT. ChatGPT Writes Like Me.
I'm calm. I'm calm. I promise.
marcusolang.substack.com
December 16, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Reposted by Zandy
“For ecologists, the Covid-19 pandemic represented a remarkable natural experiment, an opportunity to study what wild animals did when humans stayed home, en masse. During what has become known as the “anthropause,” mountain lions crept closer to cities and sea turtles ventured closer to shore”
How the Pandemic Lockdowns Changed a Songbird’s Beak
www.nytimes.com
December 16, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Reposted by Zandy
This might be construed as a tedious 'awareness raising' thread, but Xmas can be a decidedly mixed bag for autistic & ADHD children & adults. The change in routines, the amped-up sensory stimuli, the flood of semi mandatory social gatherings, the unusual food, the unpredictability around gifts...
December 16, 2025 at 12:16 PM