I have decided to stop using BlueSky and switch entirely to Mastodon - not just because I don't feel aligned with BS (look at their recent $100 million investment from "Bain Capital Crypto") - but I get more engagement over there with less than 1/10th of the follower count. (continued...)

"much dumber than you think it is" 🤔

Jason Koebler@jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 5mo ago

New: Researchers have quantified how easy AI search is to manipulate. Just 13 words buried in a random Reddit comment can poison AI search results. They suggest this is not easy to stop: "The way you can attack these systems is so much dumber than you think it is" www.404media.co/it-is-trivia...

Learned of this great quote today. Should be seared to the forehead of any such white "liberals" who claim to care about ideals around freedom and liberty. "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will." 💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯

Anyone got any good music recommendations? This is what I have been listening to recently (maybe it helps!...) - Kneecap (Fenian) - Shame (Cutthroat) - Murder Capital (Blindness) - Fontaines DC (anything....) - Wunderhorse (anything...) Any suggestions? 🙂

Kids have been banned from Facebook to stop them seeing harmful content. In totally unrelated news, my 60 year old neighbour on Facebook has just AI'ed a video of himself throwing a woman in a burqa into the back of a bin lorry.

The UK should face sanctions from the rest of the world over its proscription of Palestine Action

If anyone is wondering what that yeasty, fruity smell is that is emanating from my office - it is not me - I tried making some elderflower "champagne" a few days ago 🙂 All you need: - Approx 15 flowerheads - Sugar (700g) - Lemons (4) - Water

Terrible news: the Court of Appeal has just ruled that the Government’s ban on Palestine Action is lawful. PA is now likely to lodge an appeal before the Supreme Court. So the mass arrests of peaceful people sitting with cardboard signs will continue. Because that is what terrorism looks like ...

Sad but true - this is the real point of the whole "social media ban for kids" - nothing to do with preventing harm, everything to do with building more surveillance tech. If they were serious about tackling this, they wouldn't ban it.

Heather Burns@heatherburnstech.bsky.social · 5mo ago

It's almost as if the whole point of the past seven years of law and policy on this issue was neither protecting children nor fixing social media nor curbing big tech, but building both a domestic surveillance tech sector and a captive market for it. internet.exchangepoint.tech/the-dog-that...

Ryan isn't guilty of this - but can we all (please) stop with the simpleton "let's just tax the billionaires!" mantra. A system which allows 1 man to hoard wealth ($1 trillion?) is not fit for purpose and needs rebuilding from the ground up. Let's not avoid the hard work.

Ryan Mac 🙃@rmac.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I've reported on Musk for around 8 years. I've co-authored a book on him. I don't think folks understand the rate of his wealth accumulation. Shortly after he helped elect Donald Trump in Nov 2024, his net worth was around $350 billion. That net worth has nearly tripled in less than two years.

The demand for consumer AI adoption is not coming from consumers or their markets. Instead, it is coming from speculative investors. I feel like this exposes a bigger and much deeper problem with our economy.

Unpopular opinion: this framing (good vs bad, right vs wrong) is bad and will only make things worse. If you turn this into a battle against the far right - you (paradoxically) end up emboldening and strengthening them. This is what they all want. We need to stop this pretentious posturing.

Owen Jones@owenjones.bsky.social · 5mo ago

You see these scenes from Belfast? That's our future if Reform, Restore, the Tories, GB News, Elon Musk and the right-wing media get their way. Except this will be on a much bigger scale. We have to decide: do we want those inciting hatred to destroy our country?

I have a nice little scam I have been sitting on for a while. Today I am happy to share it with you. Sometimes I find myself short of elastic bands. What do I do? I go to the local supermarket and buy a bundle of asparagus (bear with me). - Why do I do this? It comes with a free elastic band!!!!

This post is dedicated to anyone who woke up today asking themselves "I wonder what a pollinated female Kiwi flower looks like when it begins to turn to fruit?" Quite happy as this is the first time I've seen kiwis (planted the vines around 4 or 5 years ago...)

This is good - might not be perfect (what is?) - but it is getting us closer to the direction we need to be taking. Needs to be more talk of this, more honest confrontation of the causes of growing inequality, and what needs to happen to start to fix it.

Thomas Piketty@thomaspiketty.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I am among the more than 350 signatories who have put their names to support the “roadmap for eradicating poverty beyond growth”. Read the opinion piece: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I recently received some glowing feedback on a blog post I wrote, which I will now share with you: "wow you write a cringe" As a reminder - you can read that piece here: matttutt.me/the-problem-... Thank you! 🙂

The Problem with Rutger Bregman and the School for Moral Ambition | Matt Tutt

I believe Rutger Bregman and his School For Moral Ambition is a nice metaphor for everything that is wrong within our society - find out why here.

matttutt.me

Super sad to hear about Trevor Dietz who was the manager of Fontaines DC (one of my favourite bands); sounded like an all round great person - passionate about standing up for Palestine and other causes and was a massive part of the music scene in Dublin 🙏🙏🙏 www.instagram.com/p/DZXfSEPCBC...

Just Rutger Bregman being Rutger Bregman 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Unpopular opinion but until the mainstream media are overthrown - the people will never be free. And the mainstream media are of course part of the establishment.

Zack Polanski@zackpolanski.bsky.social · 5mo ago

We're at the point where the Telegraph are literally making up quotes. I said when veg is sold for pennies in supermarkets, it's a sign someone's not being paid properly. Farmers being paid a pittance for their produce. Workers on less than a living wage in supermarkets.

Just heard about this elsewhere from good sources: Proton is funding the French far right on YouTube.

🏴‍☠️ MC Pablo ∴@p4bl0.net · 5mo ago

Proton sponsorise des influenceurs d'extrême droite. www.reddit.com/r/degoogle/s...

Literally insane to see what is being published on the website of the White House 😅 I am also enjoying the picture of Trump out in the fields, sun beating down on him "separating the wheat from the chaff" (as if he's ever done a proper days work!!)

I sent out invoice number 600 earlier... which feels like a big milestone??? I still feel like a bit of a fraud/imposter despite probably 15+ years doing SEO for a range of (fairly small) clients. Also, I should probably celebrate? 🤔

I only check X for LFC transfer news, but I'm still getting these ads. When you click, it takes you to this, which is exactly the disinformation we're fighting. Fagash is the most "elite"-proximate politician there is, but they want gullible working-class voters to think he's on their side.

David Waywell@davidwaywell.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I still monitor X and this "ad" is pernicious right now. It's the kind of dangerous media governments should block, promoted by dozens/hundreds of accounts with barely any followers. Block one and another takes its place. It's insidiously pumping pro-Farage propaganda. It's a brain worm...

Instead of demonising disabled folk, and reviewing (cutting) benefits, Labour should be fixing the foundations and making the DWP much more accountable. This story is too familiar by far. It’s NOT a one off. The DWP is not fit for purpose.

Disability News Service@johnpring.bsky.social · 5mo ago

An autistic circus skills teacher took his own life after becoming increasingly distressed by the bureaucratic chaos caused by migrating to universal credit, which led to him facing a new £500 monthly charge for his social care. #DWP #UniversalCredit www.disabilitynewsservice.com/universal-cr...

Mildly interesting - DuckDuckGo launched a No AI version of their search engine - but they are blocking all other search engines from their site. This is how it looks like in Google currently. Intentional... or an accident? 🤔 #seo

"An equal and habitable world is possible’: academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survival" I want to write a thread about this, but before that, there is something necessary to make clear. It was always known what the solutions were. www.theguardian.com/environment/... 1/🧵

‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survival

Global report provides an alternative to climate breakdown, political extremism and economic tensions

theguardian.com

I shudder at the thought of the energy cost of such tools... and I say this as someone working as an SEO consultant 🫠🫠🫠

Beth Woodcock@bethwoodcock.com · 5mo ago

this is why log file access matters :D

On a chat with Microsoft Ads support (yeah I know) - having gone through their AI support first and later selecting the live chat feature - I was doubtful about whether I was dealing with a human. I asked, they dodged the Q a few times, and finally said yes they are human... 🤔

Found one of my favourite flowers out on a walk yesterday - St John's Wort. Usually in flower around now (June) but a fairly short season at least where I am. Used as a treatment for anxiety and depression - two things clearly on the rise in a society obsessed with endless growth and consumption 🫠

This is interesting as from my own investigation I have found evidence of US based organisations that do the same - on the outside they track "predators" on platforms like TikTok etc - but actually they seek to (also) carry out surveillance for their masters.

Arrête Mark Carney ⚜️@lalegault.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Bill C-22 has been advertised as a national security imperative and one that creates digital sovereignty. That is misinformation. The Canadian government is patterning with the U.S. using Israeli-developed technology to surveil and control its citizens. fournier.substack.com/p/meet-coher...