"History involves sorting and organizing hundreds of thousands of facts" I remain astounded by how loud and wrong people are about what history actually is.

If you’d like a wonderful antidote to those proclaiming that automated facts-mashing is historical practice I urge you to read this 2025 essay from @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social buttondown.com/surekhadavie...

Basement adventures showed me why ChatGPT can only ever be garbage.

In The British Library. Photo by Surekha Davies. Hallo readers, First, a news flash: Join me for a virtual book launch for HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY...

buttondown.com

At a loose end at 6.30pm UK time? You could tune in to Radio 4's comedy show Best Medicine to hear @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social and me discuss, inter alia, prostate cancer and scrotal tumours the size of a small child, with Kiri and an excellent panel of guests: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - Best Medicine, Series 3, 2 - Reformer Pilates, Persistence, Free Flaps

Jamie MacDonald’s Reformer Pilates faces stiff competition from Free Flaps and Persistence

bbc.co.uk

correct are you serious about beating fascism or not? get in, we’re beating them in november you can be mad, you can be disappointed, but at the end of the day having someone with D in any and all seats is better than having someone with an R in them

post malone ergo propter malone@proptermalone.bsky.social · 6h ago

I meant to post this last night but if you’re mad about any of the primary results you got 24 hours to bleed, try not to say anything you’ll regret in 48, and then it’s Blue No Matter Who.

Any cis women who are disgusted by the Burnham government's transphobic policy of segregation can sign the @nionwomen.bsky.social petition, which is now closing in on 110,000 signatures. notinourname.org.uk

Home - Not in our name

Not In our Name: Women in support of the trans+community

notinourname.org.uk

Tech oligarchs are saying people who make six figures are the only ones who can vote. The president is trying to restrict anyone from getting an art or education degree. But do continue to farm out your books and shows to AI and robots. I'm sure Orwell's 1984 would have had the same ending.

I published this in 2024 but I hear folks are craving reading lists, so here’s another.

Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 2y ago

If you work on anything related to visual culture & want a primer on major issues emerging from the implementation of AI in this realm, here's a syllabus I wrote, structured around 7 terms: bias, extraction, augmentation, operation, so-called, categorization, power. www.artnews.com/list/art-in-...

@abdulelsayed.bsky.social triumphing over something like $60 million, $32-ish million of it AIPAC money, is not a "narrow" victory, it's a people's earthquake. This kind of spending is oligarchy in action, to smother democracy through its formal channels, and is getting normalized. Still he won.

How old are they, FOUR?! OMFG humanity is like this?! No: this must be a plant.

Ayo@darrylayo.bsky.social · 19h ago

Guys like this don’t realize that they are the freak

A strong and correct opinion

Colin Dickey@colindickey.com · 21h ago

Society really started going to shit once restaurants normalized calling sandwiches “sandos”

"The impact poses no danger to Earth..." The rest of the Solar System isn't a resource & a garbage dump for billionaires; how long before one of their bits of junk lands in a inhabited part of Earth; and read to the end for a mic-drop aside about tardigrades supposedly dropped on the Moon in 2019. 🧪

Scott Smith@changeist.bsky.social · 8h ago

But is it art? www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

So deeply moved to see this news on my brief emergence from retreat — I’m honoured & thrilled to see THE RIVER HAS ROOTS is a finalist for the World Fantasy Award! Congratulations to everyone else on the ballot! & now back to the woods!

2026 World Fantasy Awards Finalists

The World Fantasy Awards ballot for works published in 2025 has been announced. The awards will be presented during the 2026 World Fantasy Convention, scheduled for October 22-25, 2026 in Oakland C…

locusmag.com

does anyone know of any work that’s been done on career trajectories of (UK humanities) academics who have been made redundant? eg information about how many go into school teaching, early retirement, independent research? appreciate this is complex, sensitive and much data is too recent

"The impact poses no danger to Earth..." The rest of the Solar System isn't a resource & a garbage dump for billionaires; how long before one of their bits of junk lands in a inhabited part of Earth; and read to the end for a mic-drop aside about tardigrades supposedly dropped on the Moon in 2019. 🧪

Scott Smith@changeist.bsky.social · 8h ago

But is it art? www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

So lets start the dive into #OTD for Some Like It Hot on the 4th August 1958 - the first official day of filming. This work order (preserved in the Margaret Herrick Library) is from MGM where Ashton Productions - Billy Wilder and Iz Diamond's company - had rented space on their famous Lot 2.

DOJ is now 0-20 in cases to obtain state voter files. Here is the list: Arizona California Colorado Connecticut Illinois Kentucky Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island Virginia West Virginia Wisconsin

An essential thread to share widely!

Greg Pak@gregpak.net · 22h ago

The underlying fantasy of consumer-facing "A.i." is slavery. "A.i." billionaires want to create pliant, submissive, attentive slaves. That's why they've instilled such repulsive levels of sycophancy into their chatbots. That's not ESSENTIAL to LLMs. That's HUMAN-CREATED. Because they want slaves.

History of science meets forensic mysteries: what's not to like? I've pre-ordered mine and can't wait! #histsci #histmed 🗃

Dr Lindsey Fitzharris@drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · last wk.

Also, please note that the UK cover is different than the one I'm holding in the video! If you are in the UK and you want something extra special, you can now preorder SIGNED and DEDICATED copies from @foxlanebooks.bsky.social: www.foxlanebooks.co.uk/product-page...

History of science meets forensic mysteries: what's not to like? I've pre-ordered mine and can't wait! #histsci #histmed 🗃

Dr Lindsey Fitzharris@drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · last wk.

Also, please note that the UK cover is different than the one I'm holding in the video! If you are in the UK and you want something extra special, you can now preorder SIGNED and DEDICATED copies from @foxlanebooks.bsky.social: www.foxlanebooks.co.uk/product-page...

“If we were really becoming an immune compromised society there would be signs.”

Craig Pittman @craigtimes.bsky.social · 2w ago

Leprosy is still spreading in #Florida, to the point that the CDC says it's becoming endemic. These 2 women want that to change. www.theledger.com/story/news/h...

Evidence of the great benefits of AI: it used to take a huge amount of time and effort to make yourself look this stupid; now AI allows you to humiliate yourself almost instantly.

PBS News@pbsnews.org · 6d ago

The State Department said ​it takes "full responsibility" for "hastily" altering and then presenting a map of Africa at a global AIDS conference that mislabeled every single country it highlighted. An analysis by Reuters found a watermark in the map image that suggests it was made with OpenAI.

Bluesky is a "liberal bubble" because fascist chuds can't get traction without algorithmic assistance and because people here trained themselves to block "debate me" trybois the instant they roll up

The Verge@theverge.com · 2d ago

Bluesky's new CEO Toni Schneider on the platform's reputation for being a liberal bubble: "Yes, we definitely want that to change. It is already changing. It certainly wasn’t designed to attract one specific group of people."

Quite literally the reason most of us are here - the robust muting and blocking tools. This isn't about being in an "echo chamber", it's that this is NOT my fucking job and NOT my fucking duty to be here. This is RECREATION. I don't want to deal with bullies and assholes while having fun.

I seem to be reaching fewer and fewer people on social media thanks to AI slop and algorithms, so I did the one thing I dread more than a deadline: got on camera. My new book SLEUTH-HOUND is up for pre-order now. It would mean the world if you grabbed a copy👇 Preorder: linktr.ee/drlindseyfitzharris

In case you missed this gem of civic bravery.

Soraya Nadia McDonald@soraya.press · 5d ago

"WE THE FUCKING JUDGE SON" New York, I love you. I love you so fucking much. Via wali_talks on IG

Christians should be banned from playing sports. Jesus provides them with additional strength, which gives them unfair advantage.

When your avocado toast looks like a Leonora Carrington painting! Lunch at Mademoiselle Angelina at the Musée du Luxembourg (Paris), after the Carrington exhibition a couple of weeks ago. I loved it so much I visited twice. Also pictured: 1/ #art

As a professional fact checker I would never *in a million years* use AI for research and fact checking. It lies! It makes things up! It plagiarizes! And I also have an obligation to the authors I work for not to do shoddy half-work.

Addendum- the eminent @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu wrote a story in the Atlantic about this exact thing. It looks as though I was on point: Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

The Far Right Is Distorting Ceuta

We’ve seen this before.

theatlantic.com