Writer/Researcher🔸ABC's Hard Quiz🔸The Whippet, a newsletter of science, history, language & weirdness: thewhippet.org🔸mckinleaf@bsky.social
Joined May 2011
- Tweets 6,254
- Following 530
- Followers 4,230
- Likes 30,803
Photos and videos
12 Jun 2025
I haven't actively used twitter in ~a year, but I get email notifications for DMs which I check. For the past few days tho I've been added to dozens of crypto scam conversations every day. So it turned out there was still another big drop in service for twitter to take
2
248
McKinley Valentine retweeted
6 Oct 2024
pretty much every time someone says that some experience or understanding is impossible to describe in words i'm like i bet you have not spent 5 minutes trying. try it first! words are incredibly powerful actually. reach deep into your core
15
21
385
12,611
16 May 2024
Kind of a niche recommendation, but if you like pagan prayers, @RevJanglebones 's collection of prayers to the 7 classical planets is fantastic. They're adapted from a 15th century grimoire called the Hygromanteia or Magical Treatise of Solomon
1/2
1
2
8
1,470
16 May 2024
I'm kind of a hobbyist collector of planetary invocations, and these are by far my favourite, in terms of being the most emotive and poetic without being flowery and faux-archaic and in line with my understanding of the traditional meanings and correspondences of the planets
2/2
1
4
699
15 May 2024
@m_ashcroft this quote reminds me of the Expanded Awareness cues
(from a philosopher/mystic on the idea of 'diaphany' - transparency, seeing through - as the root of... okay i can't summarise it in a tweet)
1
1
524
15 May 2024
"Diaphany, for Gebser, is a matrix for the rational structures of consciousness (wakeful logos and light) as well as the pre-rational structures of consciousness (myth, dream, darkness)."
If context needed, but the screenshot was the strikingly EA part
aaron-cheak.squarespace.com/…
327
McKinley Valentine retweeted
11 Feb 2024
Outrageous. A dedicated team tries to make a hard quiz show, and all we get is awards for the “comedy” and “entertainment”. It’s like no one takes us seriously. Still, congratulations to everyone involved. It’s no big brass mug, but we must be doing something right.
The AACTA Award for Best Comedy Entertainment Program goes to Hard Quiz
#AACTAs #AACTAAwards #thisisqueensland #playgold #screenqueensland #experiencegoldcoast
2
3
40
8,715
10 Nov 2023
The text at the front makes it really clear that it's not a memorial to soldiers or war dead, but only to the civilian victims of genocide and atrocity.
In Ray Bramham Gardens, Preston (Melbourne, Australia)
ALT Memorial inscribed with "In Honour of All the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and All Other Atrocity Crimes"
8
754
McKinley Valentine retweeted
19 Oct 2023
Before I moved to Montana I thought tumbleweed was made-up
18 Oct 2023
WHAT A MESS! Homes in Montana were buried under tumbleweed as some piles rose so high that they flowed over the roofs of homes. #mtwx
242
1,236
45,500
3,295,023
McKinley Valentine retweeted
17 Oct 2023
I think I imagined that, as I got older, I'd become wiser and kinder and more patient and more warm and carry this sort of worldly, supportive sageliness. Instead I feel like I've become a person with far less tolerance for bullshit, carelessness and dishonesty.
Is this normal?
20
1
62
6,075
17 Oct 2023
Named by someone who hopes you've never been to an onsen
ALT Onsen scented candle
1
7
563
17 Oct 2023
(If you haven't: they smell sulfuric, from the volcanic gases that heat the water. It's not unpleasant in context, but you wouldn't choose it for a room scent) (ps I'm only vague on how onsens work, don't @me)
1
2
374
5 Oct 2023
I started posting to twitter a little bit over the past week, and every comment I make instantly gets multiple likes from different sexbot accounts with the same name and bio
1
8
572
McKinley Valentine retweeted
19 Oct 2022
Indie bands naming themselves 2002-2008:
531
12,662
88,513
4 Oct 2023
This is a continuation of what twitter, facebook etc have always done: de-promoting external links, because they don't want you promoting your own work if it means people leaving twitter to go to a different website
Twitter/X has officially removed article headlines on links shared to the platform, now just displaying the image and website.
2
4
645
4 Oct 2023
I'm not saying it's fine, I'm just saying they've ALWAYS punished writers who want to share their work, but it's been under the radar, so artists were just like "why do I get 100 likes on a dumb joke but no one ever likes the work I think is important?" bc twitter buried the link
5
240
4 Oct 2023
this phenomenon went viral a while ago and we actually got an organic chemist to run tests and spoke to a linguist expert in how language shapes our experiences etc - i was so proud of this bit, legit answering something that the internet had not yet found an answer to
4 Oct 2023
Who knows what I’m talking about?
I get to the bottom of this mystery about language, culture and the senses 9pm tonight on #WTFAQ
2
4
30
9,788
28 Sep 2023
from this week's WTFAQ, go watch on iview
28 Sep 2023
Just to be clear @stupidoldandy tracked down the original music. And then @mckinleaf hunted down the composer and convinced him to take part in our extremely silly segment. And then I took my shirt off and screamed out Seal for an hour. This reflects our respective skillsets well
1
6
1,385
McKinley Valentine retweeted
5 Sep 2023
this is the way
25
1,795
7,800
166,276