Stefan Popenici
@popenici.bsky.social
Author, reader, researcher, academic. Antifascist. Human. Recent books: - Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence https://bit.ly/4h31oQO - Artificial Intelligence and Learning Futures http://bit.ly/4yQFZ3G 📍Gadigal Land
The ‘AI revolution’ instituted the age of barbarism and darkness. Just find out who intentionally destroyed books in modern history and see how that ends. #AI #abrutisation #books #antiliteracy
‘More than just objects’: Australian booksellers raise alarm over ‘horrific’ destruction of rare titles to feed AI
Secondhand booksellers believe they may have been caught up in the AI supply chain that sees old books scanned then destroyed
theguardian.com
"On its 150th anniversary, the university doesn’t even have the courage of its own platitudes. Maybe its motto shouldn’t be “America’s First Research University,” he thinks, but: “We Suck Up and Punch Down.” #highered #motto
The Misuses of the University - Public Books
Have the funds that might have trained the next generation of scholars at the nation’s first research university have been blown on ostentatious new buildings?
publicbooks.org
It's both disturbing and fascinating to see the US from afar: give it a few more months and Trump will say that woke democrats and Antifa(scists) attacked Pearl Harbour. Many Americans will believe him.
CtObserve@ctobserve.bsky.social · 5d agoTrump accusing Minnesota of cyberattacking 7 states, is the same as taking sides with Iran. All indications are that Iran is into, or getting close to 'fouling up' water systems. What makes it heinous is FBI data. Gift Article🎁 www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/u... www.fbi.gov/investigate/...
"The US used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore. Today, it stands alongside North Korea, Nicaragua, Mali & Russia, isolated. And the world no longer listens to it" Well, at least they love the Russian and North Korean leaders and ambassadors. Great new allies, right?
Nomination of France's new Washington ambassador jeopardized by Trump's mood swings
Originally scheduled for September, Aurélien Lechevallier's departure for the US could be postponed or blocked by the US after a diplomatic dispute over the non-renewal of Volker Türk as United Nation...
lemonde.fr
“reports suggest more than $US13 billion ($18.6 billion) has been collected by the US from Venezuelan oil sales, but Mr Trump has said he thinks it is "even more than that". …more than half the Venezuelan population is believed to be living in extreme poverty.”
How the Trump administration runs Venezuela and takes its money
Amid the fallout of devastating twin earthquakes Donald Trump says the US has been taking "billions and billions of dollars from Venezuela". So who is running the country and what is happening with th...
abc.net.au
Useless idiots: "The Economist has boosted the case for Russia’s global rehabilitation far more effectively than the Kremlin’s friends on the American or European far right could have done." The Western Myth of Russian Greatness
The Western Myth of Russian Greatness
There is a long history of foreigners idealizing Russia and exaggerating its power.
foreignpolicy.com
They bankrolled MAGA, voted for Trump and now... leave USA due to their newly discovered ‘Trump unease’: "a 10% rise in Americans investing in Britain" to live there. #sociopaths
Ultra-rich are buying up $49 million mansions in London, with ‘Trump unease’ generating a 10% rise in Americans investing in Britain | Fortune
In the first half of this year, Americans accounted for 30% of London’s luxury home sales above $20 million. A real estate expert blames unease over Trump.
fortune.com
Timely reminder: "The Nazis made their stance against the queer community clear from early on. Throughout their campaign, and especially after they gained power, Nazi politicians used homophobic rhetoric to unite the different factions of the right wing.." www.pinktrianglelegacies.org/learn/history
Nazi Persecution of Queer People | Pink Triangle Legacies Project
Learn how and why the Nazis targeted queer and trans people in Germany.
pinktrianglelegacies.org
Senator David Shoebridge@davidshoebridge.bsky.social · last wk.It’s honestly outrageous that META continues to ban queer accounts across Facebook and Instagram. On the face of it a very obvious breach of discrimination law that the Government should be looking to enforce.
"I guess someone has to get the #Fifa peace prize next year, and what better way to build on the optics triumph of its inaugural recipient than by keeping it in-house, and awarding it to Infantino himself? The first creator-president surely deserves nothing less." #read #corruption #sociopaths
Who dares ridicule Gianni Infantino as the World Cup boss creates global peace? Not me: is it you? | Marina Hyde
If you thought he was just a shady rule-dodging reprobate, the Fifa boss’s latest 15-page Instagram rant might make you think again, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde
theguardian.com
Just another proof that climate crisis deniers cannot be moved even when the climate crisis actually sets their own house on fire. We entered the era of glorified idiocy.
Spain's climate-skeptic right wing rejects Pedro Sanchez's 'national pact' to tackle the climate emergency
As the massive wildfires devastating the country are close to being brought under control, the Socialist prime minister says it is urgent to adopt prevention measures that were developed in 2025 in co...
lemonde.fr
He still wants to emulate Jonah from Veep. Next: Hannibal Lecter
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last wk.Trump: "Let's get rid of Daylight Saving time stuff, okay? We have a bill in. Hopefully the Senate is gonna approve that one. It's called the weave. But I had a father ... "
Hey Kylie Jenner, this Ray-Ban Meta glasses ad is better than your one x We don’t have to allow these pervert glasses to become normal. No one consented to this. LEGALLY OBJECT TO META USING YOUR FACE AND VOICE VIA THEIR PERVERT GLASSES HERE: ehe.movement-action.org/p/meta
“Heedless people, you will pay for what you destroy”
Opinion | Christopher Nolan Has Rebuked the Spirit of the Age (Gift Article)
This “Odyssey” takes us somewhere we didn’t know we were going.
nytimes.com
“We’re seeing the bifurcation of global energy systems. You have the U.S. and Japan on one side sticking to fossil fuel legacy, and the renewables case led by China that is growing at a rapid rate.”
Iran War Forces Energy Buyers to ‘Unshackle’ From Global Markets (Gift Article)
Developing Asian nations, scarred by Middle East supply shocks, are working to scale back their reliance on imported fuels, including liquefied natural gas.
nytimes.com
SpaceX and Tesla are basically copying Enron at this point. Economists realize that, right?
The radicalised Elon Musk has gone so far as to now be promoting both the racist philosophy (only traitors oppose remigration) + violence (fight back or die: traitors before invaders) which saw Brevik massacre teenagers and students at a social democrats summer camp www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-e...
This is going from horribly bad to really scary. When are we going to stop pretending that Trump isn’t a ridiculously insane, incoherent fascist on top of an evil administration that is set to plunge the entire world into irreparable, colossal disasters?
New front in US-Iran war escalates as Houthis fire at Saudi oil facilities
Conflict also spreads to Caspian Sea as Tehran accuses Ukraine of a deadly attack on an Iranian vessel.
aje.news
The editor in chief of The Economist referring here to the AfD’s leader as a “perfectly thoughtful person“ instead of what she truly is - a driver and enabler of German fascism - is a huge part of the problem.
Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social · 2w agoAt one point she notes that AfD, the German political party that Musk supports, has "real neo-Nazis." Musk literally just shrugs.
Isn’t this a wonderful platform? This chap was offended by my note and bravely blocked me after this… I love how people can engage in a conversation with someone who disagrees politely. A joyful narcissistic culture of self-adulation
Just an absolute shout out to everyone out there who helped manufacture doubt around the question of this guy being a Nazi, particularly after the Nazi salute.
Snigdha@snig.bsky.social · 2w agoTweet from Elon Musk: “Anyone who opposites remigration is a traitor” posted yesterday.
The good news is that data centres in the same area have no water problems. Priorities.
The Mirror@mirror.co.uk · 2w agoGatwick Airport has been left without running water across both terminals.
Musk was humiliated in his interview with The Economist editor Zanny Minton Beddoes. She called him out on his bullshit, pointed out his lies and ignorance and extreme prejudice. We need more interviews like that. This is the response of the world’s thinnest-skinned man.
Wow "traitor to the west," strong words, Elon, who are we talking about here... ah the editor-in-chief of The Economist
I'll vote for those able to stop this abysmal abuse, corruption and environmental vandalism & against those who made the current #datacentres disaster possible. Other people will do the same #auspol Pollution, 📈 energy costs, depletion of water resources: zero consultation with people affected. #AI
Council fears Sydney suburb risks becoming 'data centre wasteland'
Sydney is in the middle of a data centre boom fuelled by the global AI race. In Lane Cove West and Ryde, residents and councils say they are the ones paying the price.
abc.net.au
In the European view, the fact that Donald Trump could be elected president twice and still command over 35% popular support after engaging in depraved, reckless and corrupt conduct is stark evidence of long-term institutional disintegration inside the US. The country is no longer a desirable ally.
The legacy media sat there while Trump lied about the past elections and "joked" about running again in 2028. They did not boo. They did not walk out. They just sat there and ate their dinner. The journalists in that room will be remembered as the journalists in that room.
