i don't even know what to say anymore about these kinds of stories. what more does it take for AI enthusiasts to finally wince?

And, randomly, "you’re not allowed to discuss immigration because then you’re a racist". Immigration is all we ever discuss in this country, & most are not called racist. If you're routinely called racist, aggressive, a bully, etc then maybe you need to look at how you interact with other people.

Incredible stuff

Well, if it’s 23 September... YES, THAT’S RIGHT! It’s the 71st anniversary of the hunt for the Gorbals Vampire, in which hundreds of children aged from four to 14, armed with dogs, knives and sharpened sticks went looking for an urban myth

The BS asymmetry principle: The amount of energy needed to refute BS is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it. Thank you to every science communicator who is doing the almost impossible work of countering misinformation every day. Every single one of you is saving lives!

Just to be clear: - Paracetamol does not cause autism. - Sadiq Khan is not introducing Sharia law in the UK - We do not have a massive free speech problem here. - Britain is not on the verge of civil war. These are not controversial subjects or contested, they're just not true.

The Carbeth Huts, outside Glasgow, are a legacy of early twentieth century outdoor culture. Working people from the city sought, and in this case succeeded, in gaining a foothold in the countryside. www.thenational.scot/culture/2535...

It's instructive that a sizeable proportion of the ruling class in the UK appear to be looking at America and saying, "Ohh I'll have some of that."

The last time the U.S. hosted the World Cup, a ticket to the final was <$200 — in today's dollars. Next year, we're looking at *face value* tickets of $6,000. I joined Lina Khan on @pablotorrefindsout.bsky.social last week to talk about FIFA's absurd and greedy ticketing plans.

Happy #Bisibility Day to those who celebrate. 💙💜❤️

I agree with this – it has shock value, but isn’t that relevant to people in the UK. I understand why it’s the biggest story on Bluesky: this place pretty much selects for neurodivergence (complimentary)

Now that it is getting cold and rainy, not such good weather for rioting, the UK press finally realises they could actually report on conditions inside the buildings we're holding asylum seekers in, instead of just publishing far right fantasies. Imagine if they started reporting things more often

20 days. We have just overtaken the Lib Dems both in polling and in members. We're just getting started. Join.greenparty.org.uk

Welp here we are again, fresh out of Archaeologists for Skype a Scientist matches. This fall, we have matched 248 groups with Archaeologists for online Q&As. I have 38 more groups who need a match, but I'm out of Archaeologists! Archaeologists! Please volunteer www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html

If they're going to try and retcon Charlie Kirk, then we should try to retcon him too.

Really neat little thread about disaster and the opportunities that can come out of a horrible thing.

The fact that Reform hates the United Kingdom really does need to be made more forcefully by its political opponents.

Making the UK more like an authoritarian plutocracy based on fossil fuel wealth where women are second class citizens and foreigners have no rights is certainly pretty on brand for Reform

Retrospectively removing indefinite leave to remain would be immoral and economically damaging. It would tear families apart. Attacking it as ‘potentially illegal’ is completely beside the point. Argue with the (awful) idea. Don’t try ’well, actually you can’t do that’.

Also, while progressive parties, like the Greens can counter Reform. The responsibility lies with the party that spawned them. Reform is a Tory split, and the weakness of the Tory party is what feeds it. Decades of corrupt, weak, economically incompetent Tory leadership led us here.

Would gently remind all the people pointing at our potential next government and saying "but that's Illegal/impossible!" that things being illegal and incredibly stupid do not matter to fascists, see also: USA.

It looks like it was actually 11 kids out of 283 that they followed up with that stopped identifying as trans, or 4%—which is still wildly low! Meanwhile, 28 of 285 kids that entered the study as cisgender now identified as trans or gender diverse on follow-up—10% of the cis kids were really trans!

Only 1 person in the whole study went from identifying as trans to not identifying as trans. The 1/5 number came from youth going between the binary and non-binary spectrum. This headline and post are misleading on purpose to fit the economist's editorial bent on the political issue.

The Green Party now has 78,000 members. Thats 10,000+ new members this month alone who want to draw the line. I know there are so many more people who want to take a stand. Join us: join.greenparty.org.uk

BBC spectacularly missing the point. It's none of our business who leads Palestine - that's the point of acknowledging that they are, in fact, an autonomous state. We can get frustrated by the politics of other sovereign nations (cough, USA) but we accept that it's None of Our Business

At the same time, this is the worst media coverage throughout the entire war: a whole city is being wiped out along with everyone in it, and the “lucky” ones (maybe) are the ones who manage to flee yet no one seems to care, no one is paying attention to any of this.

The headline is about the man but the photo focuses on the woman. Is Jessica Hynes in the new series or not?

“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” It costs a lot less to house people.

More than 4/5 transitioning children 'maintain stable gender identity' so without intervention before puberty 4/5 of those folks will need more invasive intervention to reach a stable identity. Surely the less intervention the better. With everything else we recognise that early intervention is best

Thank you to everyone who has read and shared our story about the allegations the President of the #EAA supported a campaign pressuring the Executive Board to reverse its Gaza vote. There is now a #WatchingBrief video with a discussion putting the story in context. Please Like Share and Subscribe.

Fascinating stuff! The history & class politics of England’s footpaths. “What I wasn’t expecting was to fall in love with the infrastructure I was walking on.” Saw Jack Cornish interviewed by our dear Jamie N last year but this was all new to me. @countrystride.bsky.social

I guess that folks opposed to pronouns may not be very good at using them. But I don't think the suspect in the Kirk murder is non-binary. Unless it's plural they being used, but there's only one suspect and no suggestion of accomplices. I guess it's some other 'they'

It's a European hobby to be aghast about the rise of authoritarianism in the US, but the protests outside immigration detention facilities in the UK are against the people being held there, while in the US the protesters are bringing love for those detained

“i used to journal, but now i save 15 mins every day by having chatGPT do it for me” - some guy probably

“It is unfair [building illegal settlements in WB] because the [occupied] West Bank has nothing to do with Hamas…This becomes a political project and his [Netanyahu's] aim is not to dismantle Hamas but to deny Palestinians the right to live in peace.” - Macron in an interview with Israeli Ch. 12.

I think he means Brexit was worth it even though it made OTHER people poorer. Twat.

You know you're 'cutting through' when the Telegraph is complaining about you

Green Party - Nationalise the water companies, tax the super rich, invest in our public services, stop the genocide, lower bills. The Telegraph - Greens are "hard left."

BREAKING: At least 71 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since dawn, including 56 people in Gaza City, hospital sources in the besieged enclave told Al Jazeera. 🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/nu10uv

Imagining a parallel world in which 22 billion was injected into the UK arts industry.

Things don't have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What's the function of a galaxy? I don't know if our life has a purpose and I don't see that it matters. What does matter is that we're a part.

Another typical morning in town after Culture Night, sean-nós singers left strewn around the footpaths, poets carelessly stuffed under park benches, a lone interpretive dancer being gently blown around the square

I was just reading an article that included a paragraph about how Israel is planning to set up a “humanitarian zone” in Al-Mawasi. Check my quoted tweet from Dec. 2023 to see how long they’ve been promising that.

Wonderful launch at @britishlibrary.bsky.social for their new digital archive ‘South Asian Britain: Connecting Histories’ site. A wealth of information, including original sources, oral histories and more, for schools, families, academics and writers. #edusky #academicsky southasianbritain.org

A capacious compendium of thoughtful reflection on generative AI. Good timing in the context of Oxford University's roll-out of ChaptGPT 5.0 to all its students and academics (announced with a flourish and apparently little advanced notice just before the start of term).

Perhaps the UK university system should be included on the ICH safeguarding list (only half joking)

Didn't they make James Timpson a minister, whose whole jam is education and training for people in prison?!

ROU Another Problem Eels Don’t Need

Racism and poverty are public health problems but if we fix poverty we don’t necessarily fix racism. We don’t talk enough about this. It’s becoming clear that we need population level interventions to tackle racism besides economic solutions. We can’t be too afraid to talk about this.

it's also really important to spread the "this is illegal" message as far as you can because the majority of people are not exposed to it! most people do not even know the government is doing the illegal thing it's doing, let alone that it's illegal. when they learn about it they get mad!