Radical interpretation of Frankenstein just dropped

Marcus@marcusjmerritt.com · 11h ago

Oh no! My creation! It’s more powerful than even I could have ever imagined! Wow guys you’re not going to believe this! You’re going to have give me more money to try to control it—it might even take more money than I could have ever imagined!

This is the culture Sam Altman has talked openly about creating. It seems entirely likely that it’s the only kind of culture tech billionaires is really capable of envisaging, because it’s the only medium in which they can exist. Why other people are still interested is for them to explain

Boston Review@bostonreview.bsky.social · 15h ago

“Mathematics only makes sense as a gift economy. It has no trade secrets. Substituting a monetizable ersatz culture for the one evolved through historical experience is a particularly insidious form of knowledge collapse.” Mathematician Michael Harris on the AI companies coming for math:

Really great bit from Ketan here. And that Bors shot is 🤌

Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · 7h ago

"Oh, you're criticising data centres? But you USED A DATA CENTRE to publish your post??? Hypocritical much????" Time to put this fossil fuel PR inspired talking point to bed forever. Why the 'Mr Gotcha' gambit is wrong in two very important ways:

I'm of the view that if stuff like this weren't a big deal, then the Israelis wouldn't be throwing an apoplectic fit about it, but it is funny that the substance of Andy Burnham's Guardian oped is effectively, "My government is taking bold steps: Recognising international law and following it."

flyingrodent@flyingrodent.bsky.social · 7h ago

Oh look, it turns out that successive British governments have been “feigning helplessness” over Israel’s criminality and have merely been “paying lip service” to a peaceful resolution. Exactly like we’ve been saying they were for years. And all it took to notice was the government doing something.

I woke up in a Soho doorway A policeman knew my name He said, "You can go sleep at home tonight If you can get up and walk away"

Afabulous50@afabulous50.bsky.social · 3h ago

Who are you?

I find it pretty disgusting that these ‘leaders’ see an open ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinians done by illegal settlers and their reaction was to claim - baselessly - that doing the bare minimum according to international law would put British Jews at risk. It’s just a lie.

Jack Mendel@mendeljack.bsky.social · 17h ago

Miliband: Why I rejected UK Jewish leaders’ pleas over Israel sanctions www.jewishnews.co.uk/exclusive-mi...

I find that the best way to not care about something is to just ignore it, rather than telling the world (well the Bluesky part of it) that I don't care

Dunno about the rest of 'us', but I always thought he was a criminal who hurt/killed people, also the subject of a much-copied parody after the Eric Bana movie

ABC News Australia@news.abc.net.au · 12h ago

Most of us remember Chopper Read as a loveable bogan, but revisiting his story is eye-opening

Fam, when we talk about normalisation, this is the sort of thing we mean

Sign the petition to support Arts Centre Melbourne workers: meaa.io/ArtsCentre

STOP ARTS CENTRE MELBOURNE GOING BACKWARDS

Currently, Arts Centre Melbourne union members are fighting for a fair pay deal. This is the first time ACM staff have ever taken industrial action. Industrial action is never taken lightly, but ACM…

meaa.io

Arts Centre Melbourne workers will go on strike this Friday in the fight for fair pay, secure working conditions and proper government funding for the sector. The action is expected to affect programming and venue operations, including Friday night's Macy Gray concert. meaa.io/3UJtirN

Young people are told democracy needs active citizens – then criticised when they walk out of school to protest. If we want political participation at 18, we cannot dismiss it at 14, Mario Peucker writes, with his son Sebastian. #auspol #Democracy #YouthVoice

“No one really wants to hear what kids think about this stuff”: Young people rely on public protest

This article reflects the views of the two authors, a father and his 'almost 14-year-old' son, Sebastian. It includes Sebastian's direct responses to some of the arguments raised.

pearlsandirritations.com

Fired Qantas workers receive $35 million penalty payment ordered by court

‘Nothing to retire on’: Fired Qantas workers get $35 million payout

Years after the airline illegally sacked them, workers received about $2000 for each full year of service. The payment marks the beginning of the end of a long and distressing saga.

smh.com.au

9/11/1973 - the US coups a democratically elected leader in Chile, ushering in a dictatorship that 'disappears', tortures and murders thousands

This isn't the first time Trump has landed himself in a 9/11-related controversy (and probably won't be the last).

A brief history of Donald Trump's 9/11 controversies

From claiming that Muslims celebrated the attacks in Jersey City to failing to back an effort to help first responders.

motherjones.com

FYI

Happy Star Trek day and a big hello to fans of long running depictions of US imperialism with a nice face and Tribbles

Good morning, especially to anyone else who's celebrated the day by feeding an irate Chiuahua before 6am

"We Have Achieved Judgement" Judge Dredd: The New Future. Coming 16th September.

Apropos this the Blondie 'For Your Eyes Only' was better than the Sheena Easton one they went with imo

Stephen Collins@stephencollins.bsky.social · 5d ago

I really want the Beatles films to be good but I keep thinking about when Sam Mendes heard Radiohead's Spectre and thought "I'd rather have Sam Smith" and then a year later saw Tim Minchin's Matilda and then went and made Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. IYKYK.

FYI - a @jewishcouncilau.bsky.social event coming up:

Shameful and saddening from Simon Schama. What is happening in Gaza is not the Holocaust. But it *is* genocidal, perpetrated by an explicitly and openly genocidal government, and he knows that. This denialism demeans him and his record as a great historian. www.jewishnews.co.uk/simon-schama...

Simon Schama: Anybody accusing Israel of committing genocide should be ashamed - Jewish News

In speech at HET appeal dinner, the historian and professor says 'We, the victims of the greatest genocide the world has ever seen, are being called perpetrators of genocide'

jewishnews.co.uk

Hồ Chí Minh never died. He remains with us, a force to emulate.

<Yankee Hindutva> Returning to a concept I had developed in the 1990s in my Peoples Democracy column, now on my substack. luciddialectics.substack.com/p/yankee-hin...

Yankee Hindutva Returns to New York

My People’s Democracy article

luciddialectics.substack.com

“A really fantastic proposal. A fantastic scheme.” No, that’s not a Donald Trump quote, but the CEO of a conservation group describing a new method for making carbon offsets from native forests. Read the full factcheck on The Point: thepoint.com.au/factchecks/2...

Such a refreshing change from the cover-your-face-with-your-coat approach to these pictures

ABC News Australia@news.abc.net.au · yesterday

Three child sex offenders charged in first eight months of Queensland online register

"Institutional actors see hostility everywhere they go but what they really mean is opposition, sometimes they even just mean advocacy. The public, on the other hand, is told that to ascribe hostility to the actions of an elected government and its bureaucrats is unfair[...]"

Rick Morton@squigglyrick.bsky.social · yesterday

Well, here goes. I tried to keep it contained. Ridicule is what we use to fight institutional hostility. Make no mistake, that's what this is. rick-morton.ghost.io/deliver-us-l...

If they don’t want to be accountable for their answers to parliament (as they are suggesting) they should resign immediately

Nick Feik@nickfeik.bsky.social · 2d ago

It’s not enough that they get paid a million a year and are completely unaccountable - now they also want to be protected from criticism. Rightio.

Adding Jesus Christ to the long and equally relevant list of people Barnaby Joyce is not: Elvis Presley, Isaac Newton, Friedrich Engels, Chiang Kai Shek, Imran Khan....

Nick Feik@nickfeik.bsky.social · 2d ago

Yes, Jesus was famously great at explaining superannuation policy under pressure