SCOOP: 404 Media placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it. What did we find? It ended up at an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books. Yes. This is literally the logo outside the Amazon warehouse door. Read now:

We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility

We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.

404media.co

Climate breakdown will shape our country for decades to come. Bold climate action can show whose side Labour is on - by protecting ordinary people, putting fairness at the heart of the changes we need and making the biggest polluters pay. My new article: labouroutlook.org/2026/08/14/r...

Excellent news! Tl;Dr, the government has just temporarily banned the sale of disposable BBQs during the current apocalypse 👏 www.gov.uk/guidance/sta...

Statutory Guidelines On Disposable BBQs

In response to the current droughts and heatwave, the Government has introduced statutory guidelines in relation to the supply of disposable BBQs.

gov.uk

The more I ponder what Mary said here, I think it is VERY important for those who don't like this EVEN IF YOU DON'T STREAM and want to send a message to Amazon on where the Twitch community falls in the genAI discussion to go in their settings and turn this off. The metrics are what speaks to them.

AnEternalEnigma@aneternalenigma.com · last wk.

Nobody knows how much energy AI data centres actually use, because no tech company is obliged to say. What surfaces does so by accident: Google’s annual energy consumption is up 38%, and court filings in Virginia projected water use of two to eight million gallons a day.

www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202... #CofEPeeps Wow!!

Middle-earth and Silicon Valley

The worlds that J. R. R. Tolkien created have been misunderstood by modern power brokers, says Giuseppe Pezzini

churchtimes.co.uk

We've received another five requests this morning for our School Uniforms Appeal. 🎒👕 Your support can help children start the new school term feeling confident, prepared and ready to learn. 👉 Make a difference: www.acts435.org.uk/appeals/scho...

Congratulations to all the children getting results today! If you passed, you are guaranteed the bright future you earned! And if you failed don’t worry, I left school at 14 with no qualifications and am now a multimillionaire, so exams are worthless anyway.

University of York Library@uoylibrary.bsky.social · 7d ago

Great to see so many pearls of wisdom on here for people getting their A-level results today... We just hope they reach all three of the Bluesky users young enough to be doing A-levels.

My tomatoes are doing really well - tonight we were able to enjoy a chicken sofrito made with 100% homegrown tomatoes, alongside homegrown garlic and oregano. It's always satisfying to cook with multiple ingredients from the garden!

London Churches Refugee Fund Annual Speaker Meeting 17 September 2026, 6:30pm 'Roots and Refuge' Brother Johannes Maertens is a Monk of the Good Shepherd and a member of the Catholic
Worker. Wesley’s Chapel EC1Y 1AU ctbi.org.uk/event/lcrf-a...

oh that explains why we have an eclipse booked in tomorrow.

Nat Guest@unfortunatalie.bsky.social · last wk.

The only way the heatwave can end is by turning the sun on and off again to reset the whole system.

Do you want to hazard a guess at what this “jaw-dropping” list of freebies included? What luxuries asylum seekers might be being given “for free” in Thetford? Xboxes? Plasma TVs? iPhones? Ferraris? Let's take a look👀 🧵 1/22

If you use AI to design your poster or leaflet or advertising I will simply not come to or engage with or purchase your thing. I'd rather your poster look like it was drawn by a dog with a series of sharpies than made by AI thanks.

Pilot’s flight path draws bin shape above Clacton days before Farage v Count Binface by-election. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Pilot’s flight path draws bin shape above Clacton days before by-election

It is not known who piloted the plane, which spent around half an hour drawing the flight path on Saturday

independent.co.uk

Woke up to a very strong smell of smoke this morning. That would explain it. 😷 www.westyorksfire.gov.uk/incidents/fi...

The UK will experience a partial solar eclipse on Wednesday 12 August. The extent of the Sun's coverage and the timing of maximum obscuration will differ across the country. Never look directly at the sun; use a pinhole projector or certified eclipse glasses to view it.

Evri: You were out when we didn’t ring your doorbell so we diverted your parcel to the wheelie bin. SpaceX: Your parcel experienced a rapid unscheduled redelivery to the Mariana Trench.

The Conversation U.S.@us.theconversation.com · 2w ago

SpaceX wants to use rockets to transport cargo across Earth in a fraction of the time required by ships or planes, potentially reshaping global cargo networks. theconversation.com/spacex-aims-...

Please don’t be that person that challenges someone’s sex or gender in the toilets. It’s rude, cruel and unnecessary. Just let people use the loo in peace.

💙 Thank you to everyone who has supported our 2026 School Uniform Appeal! Not only are you helping out with the costs of uniforms and school supplies, but you are giving children the confidence they need as start a new school term. 👉🏻 Help a family today: www.acts435.org.uk/appeals/scho...

Microsoft wants to build three massive AI data centres in Leeds. It’ll drain thousands of litres of water from the River Aire and become the city's biggest carbon emitter. We can still stop the council's final sign-off, but we need more voices. Add your name: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/pr...

Stop the Microsoft AI megasite in Leeds!

Microsoft want to build three huge AI data centres at Skelton Grange. It would drain the River Aire and become the city's biggest carbon emitter. We can still stop it - add your name to the petition.

you.38degrees.org.uk

53,800 of these bad boys are landing in Clacton. Ain’t they beauts? #VoteBinface

Man arrested after dressing up in 'Grim Reaper' costume on hospital roof and staring at patients. (Thanks @jennymckinnon.bsky.social!) www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...

Man arrested after 'dressing as Grim Reaper' at hospital and staring at patients

A 26-year-old man climbed on a hospital roof dressed as a 'crow' which resembles a Grim Reaper outfit, as he flaunted a long knife has now been fined for his nuisance behaviour

mirror.co.uk

Just finished reading this short book from @churchofengland.org. Nothing groundbreaking for anyone who pays attention to these matters, but it provides a good summary of where we are and a theological framework to sit it in. 💙📚💡 ✝️

Super useful. I figure a lot of us here in the Sky know this stuff already, but it might be handy to hand to parents, grandparents and pals who are less technically minded. www.librarian.net/NoToAI/

ㅤ Paestan red figure fish plate [detail] — attributed to the Binningen Painter, third quarter of 4th century bce ㅤ

If a church excludes people based on their sexuality, gender, age, ability, race, social status, or lifestyle then they are ‘hating’ them and, as John puts it, they are still in the darkness, unable to see, and going in the wrong direction. fab.church/relationship...

Relationship

If a church excludes people then they are ‘hating’ them and still in the darkness.

fab.church

I and many of my friends stream on Twitch. I say, *absolutely the fuck not*. Friends who stream on Twitch, there is a comment thread here where you can make your voices heard: twitch.uservoice.com/forums/92338... This is the *least* they can do.

Zach Bussey 🍁@zachbussey.tos.gg · 3w ago

Twitch and Amazon are apparently planning to use streams to train Generative AI. Multiple sources tell me it will be announced in the coming months, despite some internal friction against it. Creators may be able to opt out of some training data.

Everyone's comparing Nolan's Odyssey to Homer, but I think there's much more richness The ancient Greeks adapted the Odyssey into ART While these images might appear static to us, I want to walk through how an ancient Greek saw art: AS DYNAMIC STORYTELLING like our films 1/13

With a church fire in Leicester the racists are out and I'd like to note that most of the congregation of the church in question isn't white British, & the 'illegals in hotels' they're blaming for 'destroying heritage' have been some of the best volunteers at Leicester's oldest church for months now

Just checking, are you hating AI enough? "AI Companies Are Buying Antique Books, Ingesting Their Contents to Train Models, and Then Destroying Them at Incredible Scale" futurism.com/artificial-i... #SarahConnorLeadTheWay

AI Companies Are Buying Antique Books, Ingesting Their Contents to Train Models, and Then Destroying Them at Incredible Scale, Even If Almost No Copies Remain

AI companies are quietly obtaining rare books, ingesting their contents, and then destroying them -- even if they're exceedingly rare.

futurism.com