One reason that the LLMs write like they do is that pre-GPT we filled up the internet with that kind of bland writing, and we did that partly because Google told people that clean, plentiful, SEO-optimised copy would improve rankings and because content meant traffic meant ad views

Calling Starmer the Chat GPM is inspired, up there with the best.

"Oh you're sniping at the comedians doing the Riyadh comedy fest? You think the US is any better?" I also wouldn't accept a gig paid for by the US government where they get me to sign a contract promising I won't cunt em off but ok.

Today I am thinking about ROK military members who slow-walked Yoon's attempted coup via paperwork and losing stuff -- such that the troops had no ammunition when they arrived at the National Assembly. www.chosun.com/english/nati...

Hey girl Hey boy Superstar DJ The three genders

Quelle surprise that the first plagiarized person is made to look like a young woman. Shame on Eline Van der Velden for this crap. variety.com/2025/film/ne...

Texas Tech isn't the only university system handing down chilling, verbal-only directives banning discussions about transgender identity. If this is happening at your institution, I want to know about it--reach me on Signal at emmawhitford.96 www.insidehighered.com/node/192421/...

IMPORTANT: When transporting a giant puffball mushroom you have recently foraged, it is absolutely crucial that you ensure the mushroom is firmly strapped into the passenger seat of your car to guard against sharp braking and potential whiplash.

Please - stop doing the screenshot no link thing on Bluesky. This platform does not punish you for posting a URL. You picked up the habit from Meta apps? Stop doing Mark Z's bidding. Link ESPECIALLY to authors, reporters, bloggers, etc. where you quote the work.

The US military is only 50% white (and it's 15% female) so Hegseth launched an attack on the majority of troops.

And honestly that is part of why I am so public about being trans - if knowing about me lets one other trans person know they don't have to move to a city, that we are *everywhere*, then living in a self-made fishbowl is OK.

new openai ads dropped and its use-caseisms all the way down - plan a trip - recipe suggestion - work out plan please consider how utterly fucking mundane this is

This photo of an ICE agent firing a pepper ball at a journalist clearly hiding behind a van should be everywhere

today in “a huge swath of America has completely lost its mind”

On the bright side, maybe the generals now know for sure not to follow any "shoot civilians" orders from this madman.

I'm certain all those career military folks will really enjoy flying across the world to be lectured by a Fox News host about the warrior ethos. I can think of nothing more likely to infuriate every officer involved more than a meeting on this this particular topic with these particular speakers.

This guy has more problems than just booze. Our entire government is being run by dementia addled, drug frenzied, paranoid, incompetent people. It's gotten worse than the music biz.

More importantly, if your objective is regime consolidation over the military, then bringing together 800 irritated top officers is the worst possible idea. They wouldn’t normally conspire electronically, but stranding them together during a govt shutdown gives them time to talk & compare notes.🚨

Just thinking about all those *very serious scholars* who told me that there's no place for studying gender in political science, but especially in public opinion about democracy and national security

Re-upping this evergreen reminder to add: if your class is long and there's a break in the middle, *take that break on time*. Learners start losing focus when they think a break is coming up! You are not getting the best out of your class time if everybody is dying for a cuppa and a wee!

Call me a prude if you want to, but I do think it's really weird to use your conference speech to list your favourite wanking euphemisms

No words

"Written by humans for humans" sounds exactly like the kind of bait an AI would use to get you to read a magazine 😑

One thing they are undoubtedly all aware of is that an American military that suddenly becomes openly hostile to black people is literally nonfunctional

Hegseth and the GOP continue to cling to the fantasy that the U.S. harbors a vast untapped reserve of lantern-jawed 6-foot-tall blonde, white, Christian heterosexual young men, all of whom will immediately join the military on the condition that it’s purged of queers, women, and non-white people

Hey why haven’t I seen an all-hands press conference from democratic leadership saying the president must be impeached for threatening to use troops on US citizens? Like why aren’t 25 key Dems in a room right now with every camera in the country? @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social ? @schumer.senate.gov ?

I don’t talk about this publicly, but hegseth drives me out of my silence. I attended West Point from 1998-2000. I left, along with about 5 other young women, as a direct result of the military’s then-shameful (non) policies addressing sex harassment and assault.

FFS

My main grievance in all this talk about tax cuts/rises remains 'why would I want to give the government more money when it doesn't seem like anything is actually getting better?'

Feeding the hungry, housing the unhoused, not bombing people; these are too easy! The *real* solution must be more complex, require more compromises, or why didn't we just do it already? (Because you didn't actually want to.)

New! Cassetteboy vs Keir Starmer. This took absolutely ages, so if you'd like to buy us a coffee at ko-fi.com/cassetteboy we'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

Oh finally! A tough home secretary, we've never tried having a vicious, cruel home secretary before.

"Not because we want war", says guy who renamed the department of defense into the department of war lol

This is so insane and embarrassing. I can’t even wrap my brain around it.

These generals are going to be so happy to be summoned from serious work around the globe to be told they’re fat and useless.

i genuinely love it when the internet shows me mysterious amateur animations with 173 views youtu.be/1WXNdneMBZM?...

counterpoint: no it's not

Quick reminder: 99% of what we call AI isn’t actually AI at all in the actual sense of the word. Calling ChatGPT “AI” is the same hyperbole as the suborbital tourism company being called “Virgin Galactic”. It’s branding, it’s hype and it’s embarrassing.

???? Did I miss the moment when AI became some kind of deity or something? The fucking audacity

FFS

AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations”

I realize I talk about this place a lot, but: there are some local authorities in Switzerland that require this sort of thing for *naturalization,* but NONE of them require it for permanent residency. What's being described here is profoundly extreme even in the context of absurd European xenophobia

Every time I walk through a village or town & see English flags - which is every time I walk through a village or town in England right now - I wonder why no other European flags make me think instantly of racism and threats of violence, but also "England has remarkably shit ugly flags, doesn't it?"

Labour have lost hardly any votes to Reform. The sizeable majority of vote transfers are within the two blocs of Lab-LD-Green or Con-Ref bsky.app/profile/brit...

One thing I forgot to say when we began our journey into the PMC hellscape is that this benighted group, to blame for all ills of the world according to the oddly popular Labour memo, accounts for just over half of all employed voters. The old working class occupations? About twenty percent. 21/n

And to reiterate, Labour voters who have gone to Reform are very different from rest of Labour AND are only 8% of 2024 Lab voters. 20% have gone to DK, 20% to LDs and Greens. The choice seems obvious to me. Though I am transgressing on Blue Labour orthodoxy. 19/n

In the post I look at the 2024 BES and the May 2025 BES panel to see where various occupational groups (like the PMC) and parties lie. Should Labour be going after those cool Reform voters they want so much..? You'll never believe the answer (TLDR: no, that's mad). 10/n

On the morning of Keir Starmer's conference speech here's a new post on an odd psychopathology in British politics - our main parties don't like the people who vote for them - the dreaded Professional Managerial Class. And so they are acting out like a divorced dad seeking cooler voters. 1/n

The Kubrick stare is a technique used to portray insane, evil or unstable characters