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Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 1h

The alt texts are lovely and informative!

Following Hadrian @followinghadrian.bsky.social · 8h

Happy #WorldOctopusDay! 🐙

Fresco from Rome with an octopus clutching a moray eel and a lobster in its tentacles. Dated to the 2nd quarter of the 2nd century AD.
Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome.

An octopus on the early 4th-century mosaic floor in the Basilica of Aquileia, Italy.

Mycenaean terracotta stirrup jar with octopus 1200-1100 BC.

An octopus battling with a lobster on a mosaic from Pompeii.

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Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 1h

Awww, thank you 😊

Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 1h

Down's Syndrome Awareness Day is also on a delightfully geeky date: the 21st of March. 21 for the 21st chromosome, and March is the 3rd month ... Down's syndrome is when someone has 3 instead of the usual 2 copies of the 21st chromosome. Incidentally, that means they get a triple dose of loveliness.

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Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 1h

Husband has just realised why today is World Octopus Day. 8th October. 8 limbs, Oct ....ober/topus.

Beautiful 🥰🐙

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Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 10h

World Octopus Day!

My octopus "fact": we've got a family joke that my daughter is an octopus because her limbs are so so busy that she always seems to have considerably more than 4 of them. So we started getting her octopus toys, choosing octopus clothes ... & our flat is now full of octopus stuff.

Adam Sharp @adamcsharp.bsky.social · 11h

As today is World Octopus Day I’ll again mention that a Spanish equivalent to “like a fish out of water” is como un pulpo en un garaje. It means “like an octopus in a garage.”

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Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 10h

From 2 months ago, but I missed this. YUCK.

Taylor Lorenz @taylorlorenz.bsky.social · Jul 29

SCOOP: Substack sent a push alert promoting a Nazi blog.
The alert contained a swastika and prompted users to subscribe to newsletter featuring opinions and news important to the "white nationalist community." The most recent post was about the necessity of building a white-only America

Substack sent a push alert promoting a Nazi blog | Taylor Lorenz

Get more from Taylor Lorenz on Patreon

www.patreon.com

Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 11h

Sounds like she wants us to think a) nothing else was happening in either country b) trans people don't exist anywhere but the UK c) the redefinition was more progressive rather than less

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 11h

Badenoch: "While Britain was redefining what a woman is, China built five nuclear reactors."

A perfect summary of conservative idiocy. Glorifying authoritarian post-communism for its efficiency while vilifying democracy for seeking nuance and respect.

It is the Right who hate their own countries.

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Reposted by Alice Sheppard

Amelia Clark - Lover of Flagons @gingertotty.bsky.social · 13h

London is a joyful place to be. Full of all the diverse people, all the things to learn, all the foods to eat, all the different experiences to share. It’s like a people library. And I, for one, enjoy to share smiles and experiences with all of the sections of the library

Just ‘One book’? No thanks

Kath Barbadoro @kathbarbadoro.bsky.social · 22h

I love living in a city full of immigrants and tons and tons of people who are not at all like me and not like each other. It makes us all better and it makes our city better. I know I’m preaching to the choir by saying this on the lib app but I sometimes just get so overwhelmed by how special it is

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Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 23h

Also said seagulls sound terrifying 😂

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Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 23h

Is it just me or do American birds tend to have bigger heads than European birds?

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Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 1d

Yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikes. I don't know anything about the behaviour of seagulls in any particular US place unluckily - I take it the Hawaiian (and San Diego?) ones then are like the Brighton ones but more persistent, which sounds pretty petrifying!

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Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 1d

Wow, your name spelled backwards is SO different from spelled forwards (is that even a way to describe it ...). I am already slightly terrified of a kitchen unit's potential.

Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 1d

OMG, please send him to Brighton. Seagulls regularly divebomb people for their food - I've seen one snatch an entire baguette out of a student's hand. A little speed and agility and I bet said tenor would manage it.

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Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 1d

oh what a lovely robin!

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Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 1d

Your IKEA product is your name, spelled backwards, with an umlaut.

Hehehe. I'm Ecilä, which I think is a somewhat darkened but very shiny range of forks.

(As I live in Sweden I feel compelled to add that you can have ö, ä and å but not an umlaut over just any old thing.)

Nora Reed (they/them ze/hir) @nora.zone · 1d

Your IKEA product is your name, spelled backwards, with an umlaut.

I am Arön, a $6 fairly dim smart light bulb that only fits chandelier style fixtures, but is IFTTT compatible.

nonbinary cardinal copia @asterionhex.monster · 1d

I want to play this game but my name doesn’t have any Swedish letters

I’d be a weird coathook though

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Reposted by Alice Sheppard

James Dyke @jamesgdyke.info · 1d

Stories about people randomly saving owls are one of my favourite type of stories. Please share your owl saving stories.

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Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 1d

Good, because I bought some nice tasty drinks and sweets last time we went through Schiphol - thinking "oh, we bought them at an airport, it'll be fine!", whoops - and it annoyed me to think of them being binned. Nicer to think of the staff nomming them. Thank you for shepherding us all!

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Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 1d

"How dare you call us racist?" cried the racists. "It's bad to be racist, but calling someone racist is MUCH worse!"

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Reposted by Alice Sheppard

Marcus Chown @marcuschown.bsky.social · 1d

“It’s not racist to be racist,” say the racists

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Reposted by Alice Sheppard

Cedar Riener @criener.bsky.social · 1d

I really do appreciate Taiwo repeating the simple drumbeat of "lying is bad and we should be better at discouraging it" - sometimes it is just that.

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 1d

eventually politicians need to start advocating for criminal and civil penalties for people involved in fabricating stories to get citizens incarcerated.

or, put another way: a society that would like to keep functioning has to discourage baldfaced lying, especially by authorities

Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 2d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

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Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 1d

We just grow extra limbs and reservoirs of calm at such moments. And then feel very, very tired later.

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Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 1d

Yikes. So you were scrabbling around to find your glasses, hoping against hope they weren't actually broken, and also trying not to let thrashing tantruming screamypuss fall off the table and hurt herself ... Such peaceful things, toddlers.

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Reposted by Alice Sheppard

Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 1d

Those who build walls are their own prisoners.

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Reposted by Alice Sheppard

alison (she/her) FREE LINK @alisonborealis.bsky.social · 1d

Adding alt text to your images EXPANDS YOUR AUDIENCE.

More people will be able to engage with your posts. Not only because more people will share them, but becuase more people will be able to understand what your posts are about!

bsky.app/profile/alis...

alison (she/her) FREE LINK @alisonborealis.bsky.social · Aug 24

It's ok if you are new to alt text or aren't confident with how to use it yet. Just give it a try!

Alt text has been around for decades. It used to be popular on dial-up when pictures wouldn't load, instead of just having a blank square. It's the same thing now. Used by people with vision issues.

Why use alt text?
A series of 6 illustrated panels with different alt text uses and explanations.

Slow internet
Alt text is shown in place of unloaded images.
A cartoon of a blank square with some words where the picture should be.

Findability
Alt text helps to search content.
A cartoon of a search engine website pulling up photo results.

Screen readers
Alt is read out to people using text-to-speech software.
A cartoon of a black screen of text with a computer voice reading it.

Translation
Alt text can be translated.
A cartoon of a translator web app.

Readability
Text in images can be made legible.
A cartoon of a cartoon with illegible speech bubbles.

Disambiguation
Descriptioon helps clarify intent.
A cartoon of one of those visual puzzles - is it a rabbit or a duck? - and the description "my pet bunny."

A visual guide to writing alt text.

A sentence of instructions divided into colour-coded sections.
An example photo, and alt text for the example photo, colour-coded to match the instructions.

Writing alt text: identify who (green), expression (pink), description (blue), colour (yellow), interesting features (orange).

Alt text of photo: A capybara (green) looking relaxed (pink) in a hot spa (blue). Yellow yuzu fruits (yellow) are floating in the water (blue) and one is balanced on the top of the capybara's head (orange).

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Alice Sheppard @penguingalaxy.bsky.social · 1d

Can I sign my daughter up? She loves pulling glasses off people's faces and throwing them over her shoulder. (She broke my phone by doing much the same thing, minus the face part.)

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