This is an absolutely outstanding tweet in a great thread, do read up and down. People with tech backgrounds who are newly encountering a problem do tend to think themselves the first ever to really think about it.

Joe Bak-Coleman@jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 18h ago

I don’t mean this to be cruel, but there’s just too much air being taken up by people with media or tech backgrounds who think their hot take on consciousness with LLMs is new, and lord it has all been done before and we’re past that. Christ, half the news cycle is yud refusing to read a book.

Speaking with my photographer hat on, there is absolutely no chance - none whatsoever - that any aspect of this was accidental. This would have been carefully conceived and executed, which I think is the correct word here, to achieve precisely this effect.

Caroleeena@caroleeena.bsky.social · 3d ago

As a long, long, long, long, long time Converse buyer, I will never buy a Converse product ever again. I am sick of the virtue signalling to racists. I see this and I see a man hanged, a white robe that could be a klansman's robe and light shaped like a KKK hat. What the actual hell!?!

I see Cadbury is trying to make Christmas eggs happen.

Everybody is making fun of this but bear in mind that in those days "patent medicines and soothing syrups" included stuff like laudanum and heroin.

Twlldun@twlldun.bsky.social · 2d ago

Tag ur step, I’m mexicanised dishes and pepper sauces

(1) ask the White House for a big list of all the things that make it hard for them to get things done; (2) implement as many similar things as possible.

PoliticsHome@politicshome.bsky.social · 5d ago

🚨 Exclusive: The British ambassador requested help from the Trump White House on dealing with the radical right in the UK, PoliticsHome understands https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/uk-seeks-help-trump-white-house-radical-right

"Floundering is the worst of all possible worlds" is a great motto. You can't get by on loss aversion alone, in politics as in life.

Dr Stylite@columnist.bsky.social · 5d ago

Carney, by contrast, is doing rather well, politically. He’s being forthright, he has a cogent analysis of the situation and he is making some pretty major bets. Now all of that may go badly wrong but floundering is the worst of all possible worlds.

Of course every court in the world is always overwhelmingly packed with supporters of the home player, but my word the crowd on Arthur Ashe is insufferable.

Zverev just plays the best American style tennis around at the moment, which makes it hard for American players trying to beat him.

*cinema trailer voice* thsi summer how will fare nect whis

The Times and Sunday Times@thetimes.com · 3w ago

Britain’s new king of tennis is the 5ft 9in son of French multimillionaires who had to cancel a lads’ holiday when he reached the semi-finals at SW19 thsi summer. How will fare nect whis first US Open?

I vaguely remember hearing a presenter on some older-demographic radio station coming out with something along the lines of "...and that was a new song by a nice young lady called Taylor Swift". Anyway, let's check in with cinema news from The Economist.

The Economist@economist.com · 3w ago

In “Coyote v Acme”, an amusing new film, the calamitous canine is not merely a hapless hunter. He has a new foe: corporate America

100% agree. Maybe I'm out of touch, but everything popular on Roblox is the absolute dregs of empty-calories number-goes-up engagement-bait mobile game design, with meaningless "rewards" flashing everywhere instead of gameplay.

Anon Opin@anonopin.bsky.social · 4w ago

As a 40 year old former gamer, watching my kid on Roblox baffles me. How is it a success? Gameplay on everything looks boring as shit, horrendous music and horrible repetitive sound effects. And they're addicted to the shit. Fuck Roblox.

So... are we all migrating to Twitter, then? Maybe register your handle just to be on the safe side?

Ars Technica@arstechnica.com · 4w ago

We need to consider the business model and financial situation of OpenAI with as minimal residue of sentiment as possible. Really sit with it, you know? Stare it coldly in the face.

Sam@samd.bsky.social · 4w ago

The “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

As a schoolboy I was very Discworld and *extremely* They Might Be Giants, and yet somehow it took me decades to catch on to the 'We're Certainly Dwarves' joke in Soul Music.

Micah@rincewind.run · 4w ago

Discworld QOTD, from Soul Music “Chrysoprase had been a very quick learner when he arrived in Ankh-Morpork. He began with an important lesson: hitting people was thuggery. Paying other people to do the hitting on your behalf was good business.”

Stephen is of course entirely correct. There certainly was a time when the Proms were Tory-coded, but the arts parted company with the Conservative Party some time ago and these days they're not really on speaking terms.

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social · 4w ago

Grow up. This is just objectively untrue! Tonight’s listening is a South African cellist, Beethoven’s ninth, and the UK premiere of a piece by a new composer, played by aforementioned cellist, who is an African-American woman.

Magnificent.

Gabby HC@scriblit.bsky.social · last mo.

The hill I will die on: post-launch content additions to games almost always end up feeling weird and unsatisfying, like if a film director kept going back to add extra scenes and change existing ones. Make the game and leave it be; improvements and additional content go into the sequel.

Rock Paper Shotgun@rockpapershotgun.bsky.social · last mo.

"We're not really sure what Big Walk's future looks like," say devs. https://bit.ly/4guaQM7

I feel like a class traitor for admitting it but the Dualit way really is the only correct approach: set the dial by hand from zero every time you toast something. Once you can intuit the various parameters, within two weeks or so, it's perfect toast without fail. Impossible to go back.

John Oxley@joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · last mo.

The two sets of slots on our toaster aren't even consistent. You put both on at the same level and one comes out signficiantly more done.

Well, I got the big camera out in case the sky cleared, and guess what, it didn't. Now lightening again here. See you again in 30 years, or whatever.

Captured the magical moment of maximum coverage.

Wonder whether we're going to get clear skies for the eclipse! Oh wait, no, I don't wonder, because I'm in Belfast.

"Our analysis reveals just how much higher education has relied on international fees." "The economic impact of the decline in foreign students is laid bare by Sunday Times research." Heck of a lot of preening considering everybody with the slightest interest has been shouting about this for years.

Simon Usherwood@simonusherwood.bsky.social · last mo.

The latest in "foreign students taking places from British ones" news www.thetimes.com/article/9ad6...

Funny how Anthropic are hiring human experts for a project that is going to take five years to get anywhere, while also constantly telling us that The Singularity (TM) will be upon us any day now.

Ars Technica@arstechnica.com · 2mo ago

Absolutely delighted that Big Walk, the new game from House House, is reviewing so well. It would have been tempting and probably profitable just to make Untitled Goose Game 2 but they've swung for something really unique and this is very much to be encouraged. www.eurogamer.net/big-walk-rev...

With upcoming PS Plus game Big Walk, Untilted Goose Game developer House House's co-op puzzle quest takes the hangout game to a new peak - here's our review

The Untitled Goose Game team returns with a funny, exciting and deeply rewarding multiplayer adventure. Our Big Walk review.

eurogamer.net

I was just out buying an overpriced baguette. In the newspaper racks, virtually every front cover other than the Guardian is running a variation of this idea.

Otto English@ottoenglish.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Among the very many dim takes around the Ceuta incident... the very, very dumbest must be the assumption in Reform circles that all those people were somehow trying to make it to Britain. How exceptionalist and indeed exceptionally stupid can you get?

Jenrick is not ignorant enough to believe that social care can be funded out of "benefit payments for migrants", but he's cynical enough to seek the votes of people who are.

Unofficial BBCNews (UK) Bot@bbcnews-uk-rss.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Jenrick urges Burnham to rule out tax rises to fund social care

Guys stop arguing about The Odyssey, there is an easy way to have it all: simply pick up Madeline Miller's 2018 novel Circe, which is wildly entertaining *and* you'll be smarter and better informed for having read it.

Not quite fulfilling the assignment, but an excuse for me to recommend to the curious the 1998 string quintet by the American bassist / composer Edgar Meyer. Meyer: Quintet - Emerson String Quartet - Spotify share.google/zwOr9gNDBkjI...

Meyer: Quintet . Rorem: Quartet No.4 - Emerson String Quartet - Album by Emerson String Quartet | Spotify

Emerson String Quartet · album · 1998 · 14 songs

share.google

Twlldun@twlldun.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I’m listening to Charles Mingus and he slaps but can you name me the last song featuring a double bass? No, no you can’t.

This is the correct take. Go and watch the film, which is great fun, if inevitably a bit sort of tonally confused. THEN, and only then, read Emily Wilson's article, which - even if you don't necessarily agree with every word - will help you understand why and how the film was tonally confused.

Joseph Rezek@rezekjoe.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Here we have a serious scholar taking this movie seriously as a response to Homer. It elevates the film in my view

Counterpoint: I use 120 Hz displays at home, and when scrolling a document or a web page, the 60 Hz monitors I use in the office feel like a slideshow by comparison.

Anon Opin@anonopin.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Anything above 24FPS in video games is unnecessary and wasted. Film runs at 24FPS, after all.