AI mostly

'We cannot run away from the fact that the human being, as a dignified human being, is defined by certain rights, that can be set down in non-abstract terms.' Our patron, the Nigerian humanist and author Wole Soyinka, on good and evil and the inherent dignity of every human being. Beautiful.

We are making a further €1.4 billion of them available to Ukraine. This will support Ukraine's continued resistance against Russia's illegal war. link.europa.eu/k7fw88

EU receives €1.4 billion in revenue from immobilised Russian assets to be used for supporting Ukraine

On 3rd of August, the European Union received €1.4 billion in windfall profits generated by the interest on the cash balances originating from immobilised assets of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) he...

link.europa.eu

Once again we wake up to the news of horrible atrocities by Russia through its aerial attacks on Ukraine. Russia must pay for the destruction it has caused. And we are using the proceeds from the immobilised Russian assets to make sure it does.

8 people called in sick last week, and 4 people this week. This is just in my little circle of people I need to get jobs done… No one has tested for COVID-19 or anything else. Just endless sick leave which will go down as another mystery I expect.

I did think there was a problem that you can't pronounce "E484K" or "del69-70" which were associated with vaccine escape and S gene target failure in PCR although I also think nerds should generally be banned from naming things the public may want to discuss.

What, you mean it’s not helpful to call a variant Tarrasque or Gormenghast or similar? Shocked Pikachu face.

Two fictional (presumably AI) stories in recent X posts, now repeated as a Google summary. No need to tell tall tales about your achievements when the AI ecosystem will now do it for you…

“Animal dewormer and a drug used to treat scabies are being sold and promoted as unproven cancer treatments, a BBC investigation has found.” Disinformation at work again.

Undercover reporter offered fenbendazole and ivermectin as cancer treatment

A terminally ill man was offered the drugs by a stair lift salesman claiming they could shrink tumours.

bbc.co.uk

🤯🤯🤯 “Steven Quay, a pharma executive known for his books making the case Covid came from a Chinese lab, is on the verge of getting Anthony Fauci’s old job” A Big Pharma executive & lab leaker, what could possibly go wrong? www.politico.com/news/2026/08...

A lab-leak proponent is in line for Fauci’s old job

Steven Quay is in final vetting to run the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

politico.com

Maze xkcd.com/3280/

If we carry on going down this road, I do not expect things to get better. In fact, I expect things to get worse. And you all know exactly how often I’ve been wrong.

As for the kids we have already given a life changing diagnosis of severe long COVID to… we are all responsible for that injury… Just sit with that for a bit and then consider taking up wearing a well fitted mask or respirator… and teaching kids in your life to do the same.

As you know, I’ve been saying PROTECT KIDS FROM COVID-19 since the very beginning… and despite the fact that these kids are superficially looking like they are just being kids… what we are doing to them is NOT OK.

Other things like epilepsy etc… was expecting an increase too… and oh look… pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Honestly When you consider the fact that kids are being repeatedly infected by COVID-19… a virus that we have seen histological evidence of nerve damage… I’m relieved the kids are doing as well as they are… 😟

Dr Noor Bari@njbbari3.bsky.social · 23h ago

Yeah but if you don’t test then you don’t have a problem. I have no idea what the fuss is. /s

I have an annual reminder in my calendar to do these tasks, in addition to the usual cleans that happen monthly (approx) to keep the intake filter clean.

Home AC don’t usually have water cooling, but if you live or work in a building that has commercial grade air conditioning you might want to keep an eye on the strata or similar responsible persons schedule for cleaning the cooling towers.

While I’m at it, I might do the range hood filters. We’ll see how we go for time.

I’m going to clean the intake filter, and outlets… and get a professional to clean the other bits… and my one has a U bend that needs flushing.

Safer air is not just about air filtration. Today I am going to service and clean the air conditioner. I haven’t used it in ages, so I’m getting it ready for summer. I don’t fancy starting it up and getting some fantastic fungus from it, or allergies if it’s dusty.

And of course to hear about Todd Blanche is to hear about Jeffrey Epstein and all the ways the Trump Administration is dancing around Trump's long association with the serial rapist/trafficker.

This is another way we live in rape culture; we live in a culture where we have to hear about monstrosity all the time. Sometimes I look at those top stories lists and wonder if I'm the only one who notices that two or three or four of the ten are about violence against women.

This just in: more than four thousand sexual assault lawsuits.

Uber’s Strategy for Fighting Sexual Assault Suits: ‘What Were You Wearing?’

The ride-hailing giant promised to handle legal claims “in a way that is best for the survivor.” Its lawyers are pursuing a far more aggressive strategy.

nytimes.com

Springtime was Eric Swallwell and Tony Gonzalez, and Congress seems to have an inexhaustible supply of abusers.

It's demoralizing living in a nonstop Abuse-a-thon: we've had to learn the sordid details of so many men's abhorrent behavior; I mean this summer has been Graham Platner, Andrew Tate, Jared Leto, Max Miller, plus the horrific L.A. rape-murder of the child by the rapper, to name a few lowlights.

I think partly assumed Twitter is so off the scale because of algorithm/ownership, but yeah...there is no herd immunity to nonsense.

Yikes. I really wasn't expecting covid denialism redux to replay in such a big way on bluesky. Maybe that was too optimistic of me. The whole 'was covid even that bad', 'long covid isn't really real', and 'covid lab leak blah blah'.

Yeah but if you don’t test then you don’t have a problem. I have no idea what the fuss is. /s

Meanwhile: "3 Lions Die at Tokyo’s Tama Zoo, Possibly from Extreme Heat; 3 Other Lions Remain Unwell"