BeardyPaulH
@beardypaulh.bsky.social
Miniature painting, submission grappling and music.
The ‘miraculous/scary part’ is the number of AI evangelists who have effectively cargo-culted themselves into thinking predictive text on steroids is equivalent to human cognition. It’s like the nutcase transhumanists who claim that minds and bodies are analogous to software and hardware.
Anyone advancing the claim that Gen AI is sentient as a serious proposition needs to have a good response to Searle’s Chinese Room that isn’t pure handwavey dismissal. An understanding of and serious consideration of the anthropomorphic fallacy would also be useful.
Nearly got my arm broken in sparring last night and it’s a struggle processing that this morning. This was not because I wasn’t tapping, but because my training partner wasn’t stopping despite me tapping and shouting at him to stop. Jiu Jitsu relies on trust and it’s traumatic when that’s broken.
Interested to hear that Nobilis is getting a fourth edition. I’ll have to wait and see if JM has an editor who is more interested in an accessible and use-friendly text for the average RPGer over fanboying. Glitch had some interesting ideas, but quests were a self-indulgent, impenetrable mess.
I’d like to read Naomi Klein’s and Astra Taylor’s new book, but I don’t think I’ve got the resilience to handle it. I don’t think I can look the future they are discussing in the face. That and I can’t handle the week long hangover from the vars of booze I’d have to drink to numb myself reading it.
£72m for Reform over the weekend could be just the tip of the iceberg There's nothing to stop Elon Musk giving, via a UK X subsidiary, £300m to Restore Britain today Or a Trump ally giving £500m to Farage via a UK-registered firm There's a v narrow window to tackle big money in the elections bill
We seem to have crossed the line, very sadly, from Information Technology to Disinformation Technology.
Daniel José Older@djolder.bsky.social · 2d ago"The University of Chicago’s undergrad social-sciences division will go “analog” this fall, implementing a blanket policy banning technology in class and AI assistance on coursework across the division’s core courses." www.chronicle.com/article/u-of...
Your regular reminder: If the Russians stop fighting, the war ends. If the Ukrainians stop fighting, their land will be occupied, their leaders will be killed, their history and language will be erased, their children will be kidnapped to serve Russia.
I’m just a person on my fucking knees begging the government to use its absolutely massive majority to do something extremely fucking popular: save our democracy.
Labour’s position these days: ‘ow noes, we are but tiny smol beans. We can’t stand up to the dreadful Farrage and the protesters on our stweets, oh noes’. It’s fucking pathetic.
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@labouruk.bsky.social Instead of sending begging e-mails to your members and playing at being completely powerless to defend our democracy from dodgy crypto grifter billionaire, you actually use your majority to do something about it. You’re the government for fucks sakes. Do something.
Yet another begging bowl email from the Labour Party this morning. ‘There is no pretending about the scale of what we’re up against.’ If only you guys had a massive majority in Parliament and could pass legislation to protect our democracy from ‘what we’re up against’.
Trees work harder than you think. They cool our streets, clean our air and provide us with shade. We’re planting 5,000 more where heat risk is highest - growing London’s tree canopy for future generations. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Drought devastation: How to save London's parched trees
Heatwaves and drought make planting native trees and maintaining the existing canopy more and more difficult.
bbc.co.uk
Dotted around the multi-storey car park near Cathedral Walk you may notice mini sections of walkways, ladders, doors and railings. “Secret Industry” is a 2006 installation by artist John Pym and is intended to evoke the idea of a tiny, secret city hidden inside our own.
Are we still pretending that we don’t need to cap political donations?
Harborne has given Reform £36 million to match Delo's £36 million. The Telegraph describes it as a "show of force" from Reform's donors. The two men's £72 million is greater than all of the spending by all political parties on the 2024 GE www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...
telegraph.co.uk
A serious democratic society simply cannot allow this. That's £72 million from just two men. (Both, until lately, based overseas). The average UK earner (full-time) would have to work for over 1,800 years to raise that much. It's a nuclear strike on any pretence at the equality of political power
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 3d agoHarborne has given Reform £36 million to match Delo's £36 million. The Telegraph describes it as a "show of force" from Reform's donors. The two men's £72 million is greater than all of the spending by all political parties on the 2024 GE www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...
The BBC groups "Patriot Patrol" with "Britain First, Turning Point and the neo-Nazi Patriotic Alternative" as having the shared feature of "activists campaigning against immigration" The claim that was is most distinctive about Patriot Patrol is talking about a "voting bloc" is not accurate
As Ben Delo's record £36m Reform donation is headline news, I can't emphasise enough that the media ought to be reporting on Delo's heinous funding of antisemitic conspiracy theorists in the High Court – anonymous contributors to the horrifying neo-Nazi account shown below. bsky.app/profile/luke...
Luke Turner@luketurner.com · 6mo agoI can now reveal that crypto billionaire Ben Delo—pardoned by Trump after a conviction for anti-money-laundering violations—privately funded the failed libel action brought against me by neo-Nazi conspiracy theorists Nina Power and Daniel Miller to the tune of at least £300,000.
NEW Why holding a placard is a terrorist act, while causing disruption in a balaclava is not The mess caused by ministers and the police not taking terrorism law seriously By me at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...
It is completely right to treat the far right mobs roaming our streets as a national security issue. Government has been far too complacent about this for over two years now. This is interlinked with failures to regulate social media platforms and the collapse of domestic policing and intelligence.
Chris Grey@chrisgrey.bsky.social · 5d agoA picture of post-Brexit Britain. New post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog on a fortnight of ugly political scenes, why a government-led counter-narrative on asylum is needed, and why these domestic political events are a national security issue: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/09/a-pi...
Started dropping by the Thursday night BJJ class on the other side of town. It basically an hour of eco games, debriefs and problem solving with a class of three, led by a super technical brown belt. I’m kicking myself wishing I’d have gone sooner. My half-guard is vastly better after two classes.
give tilly sixfingers the oscar for "worse acting than gal gadot", congratulations to the fifteen lakes it boiled in an unprecedented drought to realise this incredible achievement
CNN@cnn.com · 6d agoTilly Norwood has been billed the first AI "actor" in Hollywood which raises questions about what awards synthetic performers should be nominated for. In an exclusive chat with CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister, Tilly Norwood responded to questions about winning an Oscar.
Winston Churchill (inevitably) presented welfare policy in explicitly military terms. Here he is in 1909, when he was a Liberal battling for the "People's Budget".
This German comedy sketch (with English subtitles) perfectly captures so much of what is going on right now in the UK, the US, and across Europe. "Playing the 'Nazi Card' in the Third Reich", by Browser Ballett.
Police investigating Reform over potential foreign donations after channel 4 sting. I make that now *four* live police investigations into Reform over political finance. Which must be a record www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Police launch criminal investigation into Reform UK donations
The investigation, which follows a broadcast by Channel 4 News, is being folded into the inquiry that has been underway into other donations.
bbc.co.uk
