Craig Norris

Stanhill, Lancashire, 1764. Wear and carpenter James Hargreaves invents the Spinning Jenny, the first practical spinning-frame, to make the tedious task of producing cloth a little bit faster. He doesn't know it yet, but this will destroy the world. Spurred by inventions like his, the industrial revolution will transform everything -- work power, the wealth of nations. Society as we know it began here, and it wasn't great for everyone. But a group of weavers and textile workers saw this future coming. And did their best to prevent it.

"Curse you spinning jenny, you ruined everything!" The standard narrative does that LUDDITES were foolish lunatics who, in fear of technology, decided progress was bad, and started hitting it with sticks. But the truth is entire ways of life were being destroyed. Previously, skilled craftsmen were respected for the time and effort it took to do their work. The entire family usit would form a cottage industry - creating something valuable, and command a decent living. But when a machine can work 10 times faster its owner can charge less for the prodcts- craftsmen couldn't compete and were left out of work almost overnight. And as factories became a fixture of the british landscape, these now unemployed labourers often ended up working the factories that had just destroyed their way of life. Britain was the most prosperous nation in history, factory owners became extremely wealthy and influential. But the people doing the actual work saw almost none of it.

Factory work paid little, since "the machines" did "the real work" human labourers were deemed unimportant and replaceable. FUN FACT!: Factory owners preferred to hire ORPHANS since less people would notice if they were maimed or killed on the job! Now the owners quickly realized the workers might notice they did all the work for almost no pay. If they went on STRIKE or ARGUED FOR HGHER WAGES, this would threaten their tremendous wealth. In 1799, Parliament passed the Combination Act, which made FORMING TRADE UNIONS, COLLECTIVE BARGAINING, AND GOING ON STRIKE ILLEGAL. Organizing against the rich became a crime.

If you were living through it, opposing the industrial revolution wasn't techno-phobia. It was SELF-DEFENSE. The combination act forced unions underground into secret societies. And the greatest secret of all was their leader - Ned Ludd. Ned had been a folk character for years. In one version after being whipped by his master, he smashed two knitting frames in a rage. In more fanciful versions, he then escaped to the Sherwood forest, here he lived among the animals as their king. Some versions specifically call him 'Much Better Than Robin Hood'.

Happy Labor Day!

Today we're bringing you The First Union, as told by HBomberguy (@hbomberguy.bsky.social) and illustrated by Skutch (@skutchdraws.bsky.social) It's the dawn of the industrial revolution, and of the way many of us work...

Have you ever heard of the term "Luddite" from an elder?

www.instagram.com/p/DNqX_ZJowUe/

This feels accurate.

I'm already napping. Pre-napping.

I so feel like the phrase "Our minds are writing checks our bodies can't cash" also applies. But, sometimes you just have to roll with "What would younger us do?", I agree. 😁

If the AI bubble really is bursting, please take this lesson from it:

Nothing marketed to you this relentlessly is ever worth it. If it was, they wouldn’t need to beg you.

A full month, for sure.

And another "rule": We don't have to see everything. We can be selective.

And for #4, try to buy the music at the concert from the merch table, but if that's not a thing, buy it from the local music store.

And the enterprise has had some notable surprises, both good and bad. There have been artists that we'd never have thought to listen to, and now we'd happily see them again.
And there's been at least one artist that was a worse experience than having to go to work.

FINALLY. THANK YOU.

As an Oregon constituent, I hope my senators @wyden.senate.gov and @jeff-merkley.bsky.social intend to participate.

alright stage 2 is starting, shamans get healers up, melee remember to GHPP and please try to stay out of cleave range

Cartoon depicts a postal worker holding an envelope. Text reads “the post office is a service not a business (just like the police and fire departments!) When they say it needs to turn a profit…Tell them to go fuck themselves”

Via mail carrier Bob Frantz

And that shirt and jacket required effort on your part. You earned those.

A Microsoft help menu from the early 90s shows an illustration of a computer connected to a printer. The computer's screen reads "I'm just not getting through to her these days!" The printer is printing out a piece of paper that says "I'm not helping until he asks me properly."

Sometimes I think it's good that technical and UX writing now exist as a practice if only so that programmers don't publicly work out their relationship problems via help flows

A gingham dress and some ruby slippers.

I think you also need to find another crafting item that needs flocking. 😋

Passed. Out.

And this is why AI and technical writing don't mix.

If it doesn't reflect reality, it's wrong.

Welcome to 2025. An "interesting" year to be sure, with some serious problems and issues to surmount... but it's also a year of opportunity. Especially for me. A new place, surrounded by friends, and charting my own course.

And kitties.

Well, if you WANT other things to do...

I've gotta say that both of these article titles are accurate, but one gets your attention a bit more. 😉

Those kits are great, and I need to make a space for that here to work on those. And I need to figure out how to protect it from kitties during construction.

But yours looks great!

Her first day out of the bedroom after I adopted her, and she does this? Time to put away the breakable things. 🙂

Eating too much cake is the sin of gluttony. However, eating too much pie is okay because the sin of pi is always zero.
🖖

Calico cat under a bed, coming out for an outstretched hand.

Tuxedo cat on a bed.

Okay. Let's give these two a try.

Everything I learned, I learned from Captain America.

Help others. People need a hand up and respect and understanding and care.

But punch Nazis.

I feel like you should ask the administration to set up a misting station in there.

But what about hedgehogs? Sure, they won't maul you, but you'll die of cuteness overload.

THE STAND 2: EVERYONE GOT THEIR FLU SHOTS AND IT WAS A FEVER DREAM.

As writers, we're used to editing, which literally includes making fixes to items we may have gotten wrong. It's fascinating how non-writers don't regularly realize that.