Jon
@jonpoole.bsky.social
Social Research person. Currently #localgov data, also here for ttrpgs and Warhammer stuff.
I mean they're none of them hiding who they really are, are they?
Sam@samd.bsky.social · 5d agoThe “head of strategic futures” at OpenAI just went on an unhinged rant against social security sometimes I feel like these tech companies are actively trying to alienate as many normal people as possible
Found this recording of Rita Moreno performing “Fever” on The Muppet Show from 1976. 14/10
So, little thought experiment here. WHAT IF ignoring latest AI models actually increased productivity?
Lucy Fisher@lucyfisher.ft.com · 2w agoEXC: UK examines economic hit from potential loss of access to frontier AI models Urgent Whitehall assessment comes after Donald Trump blocked foreign national access to Anthropic’s Fable 5 www.ft.com/content/418e...
The difference in utility between the use of ML to tackle big data problems that would otherwise be intractable & the use of LLMs to produce pointless slop is so large they cannot both be usefully described as “AI“. The first is making real progress, the second is dragging us towards the abyss.
Dan Silverman@dmsilverman.bsky.social · 2w agoI‘m far from an AI doomer, but it is amazing how many serious voices — on LinkedIn, no less! — are sharing stories about how AI slop is quickly becoming one of the top problems they see in academic writing and research “AI will 10x our research!” doesn’t seem to be surviving encounters with reality
NEW SUBSTACK: The Government’s Rewiring the State is a serious statement of intent. I examine — briefly — five questions that it raises, from the future of PuFins and ALBs to the role of local authorities: substack.com/home/post/p-...
Five questions the Government’s Rewiring the State plans raise about the future of devolution
Devolution is moving into a new phase — but its institutional, practical and political implications are only beginning to emerge.
substack.com
Almost, full circle. Snowy Egret Bombay Hook NWR, 7 August 2026 #ECK #photography #birds #ClassicMono #BnW-Photography #reflection #water
I’m so tired of genAI apologists telling me I only hate it because I don’t understand it. I hate it *because* I understand it, you absolute toenail.
I recently learnt that Ian Miller (Games Workshop/Warhammer/Fighting Fantasy artist extraordinaire) did a short run of covers for Swamp Thing in the early 90s. I am glad to have learnt this.
One of my favorite rhetorical and analytical moves is joining things (showing that different, seemingly unrelated ideas are part of the same phenomenon) and taking them apart (resolving paradoxes by demonstrating that what appears like a contradictory thing is different things, lumped together). 1/
Goodnight from The Irons, where saloon bar talk is about the Long Owl hill figure revealed by the ghost lines of a land crying out in trauma of drought. Goodnight from Evie Meddon, taking one last walk of the tall fields before the blades of harvest come. Goodnight from Hookland.
Genuinely brilliant piece.
Will Davies@will-davies.bsky.social · 4w agoI've written about Neets for the LRB. It is odd listening to recent debates about this completely ignore the overwhelming fact of this current crisis, that it is one of inactivity, disability, mental ill-health and neurodevelopmental disorders (as I discuss) www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Solar eclipse coming up so here’s one of my favourite maps
And please, let's stop with "going rogue". Doing something unanticipated in service of an objective *you've set* in an environment *you've created* is not "going rogue".
I have a modest proposal for a new tax. It involves a deck of cards and a monkey throwing darts. Here are the rules:
"What does your Elf lore know of this "palantir"? "They're just a bit of fun, like Elven skimming stones, nothing to worry about, we'd love them" @the-one-ring-rpg.bsky.social @mytholder.bsky.social @adsomenk.bsky.social
I'm not posting Odyssey memes because one must be wary of GIFs bearing Greeks.
I've almost certainly peaked for the day. Maybe the year. www.maptap.gg July 15 100🎯 100🤯 100🎯 100🎯 100🎯 Final score: 1000
I have been expressing desire for an app that alerts me to the presence of pervert glasses in my vicinity. It exists and it's called Nearby Glasses! Immediate download.
A new app alerts you if someone nearby is wearing smart glasses | TechCrunch
A hobbyist developer's new app, which can detect nearby smart glasses, comes amid resistance to always-on recording and listening devices that invade people's privacy.
techcrunch.com
In winter, I spoke at a faculty event about AI. I was alarmed by the range of faculty awareness. Some believe our students are so "good" they'd never cheat. Yes, cheating's wrong. But systems that explicitly or implicitly incentivize cheating--AI does both--will produce cheating. 11/
Preparing to say goodbye to the mighty BBC Radio 4 Long Wave broadcast. The first service began 101 years ago. The transmitters at Droitwich, Westerglen and Burghead will be switched off at 0100 BST on Saturday. The 200 metre long AM signal at 198 Khz goes right through you and sounds fabulous!
Oxford, the longest running continuous weather station in UK history, with temperature observations stretching back to 1815, has preliminarily broken its maximum temperature record for May yesterday by OVER 3ºC with a temperature of 33.7ºC. Unprecedented in its 211-year history.
