A more lucid and appropriate vision for how to think about, regulate, and manage LLMs. (This is from Abundance by Ezra Klein)

I wrote about the Reform mayor's plans to remove ESOL training and restrict access to skills training. A Brexity move. If you live in #Lincolnshire please fill in the consultation. www.loutheye.co.uk/29-12-25-eso...

Greater Lincolnshire CC are planning to get rid of ESOL training, in case teaching people English leads to knowledge, scrutiny, or a functioning arts economy. www.loutheye.co.uk/29-12-25-eso...

If You’re Not Going to Engage with the Problems, Shut Up About GenAI says @shaunduke.net shaunduke.net/2025/12/if-y...

2026 will be a year for curated collectives as a way to find a way through the slop.

I've been reading Chris van Tulleken's Ultra Processed People, which is brilliant and you all should read it too. He frames food as an arms race, and lays out many of the tactics food corps use against us. You can't win a battle you don't even know you're fighting. #Booksky

I've been outed, and news is now widely known. There's no use pretending, this is who's been painting behind the screen all along!

I managed to work a reference to elder gods into my latest blog about Louth. www.loutheye.co.uk/21-12-25-rou...

The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue is a fascinating study of the evolution of English. It's full of words and phrases that have fallen completely oht of use, right next to those that have become so familiar they don't need explaining any more.

"“AI consumes art and media from across history, but it can’t actually make anything substantially new. It can’t invent new fashion trends or design interesting characters; it just amalgamates stuff it has absorbed with no real intention.”" thisweekinvideogames.com/feature/conc...

To nobody's surprise: www.theregister.com/2025/12/17/a...

I have downloaded Waterfox as a replacement for Firefox, to avoid the AI. 2025 has been a year of dodging slop.

I am in tears The Employment Rights Bill has passed the Lords and goes for Royal Assent this week Sick pay for everyone No more zero hours contracts No more trade union act 2016 years So much more Doing what you sent a Labour government here to do

No, you do not need "AI skills." "AI skills" refers to prompt engineering - being able to 'prompt the model correctly' to get anything approaching what you need. It is quite literally gaslighting you into doing the "intelligence" work for a so-called "AI." www.wheresyoured.at/ai-mythbuste...

I notice the BFI Player is offering gift subscriptions for £65, if you're stuck for gift ideas for film fans with no space for more stuff.

As Disney announces its AI slop era, I'm just going to link to the Internet Watch Foundation and encourage you to read their latest report. GenAI is evil, and it directly harms kids. www.iwf.org.uk

The government’s Employment Rights Bill will boost employee protections, but millions of self-employed workers risk being left behind. There are ways to stop this that won't cost the government much but would make a real difference says @lukeraikes.bsky.social of @thefabians.bsky.social

Seen an ad for AI business accounting software promising to do all that tedious stuff for you. (Saving on costs of paying a human implied) Shall we start a countdown to the first prosecutions for false tax returns, where 'but the AI said everything was correct' turns out to be no defence in court?

I'm glad someone has created this, don't get me wrong. It's just exhausting that it places more labour on website owners to tell techbros not to steal our work. rslstandard.org/guide/gettin...

DVLA's hold music isn't up to its estimated 90 minute wait time, unless the aim is specifically to drive people insane.

I'm trying to Xmas shop, but too much of the artwork looks like genai slop, even if it isn't. How do I buy nice things and support real artists, confident that it's human-made?

Zarah Sultana voted with the Tories in every vote on the Employment Rights Bill last night. That includes voting to keep the Lords' wrecking amendments on strike ballot thresholds and to keep the 2016 Trade Union Act's restrictions on unions' political funds.

Three backbench Tories asked questions on the child poverty statement. For most of the statement there were just two Tories in the chamber. No Reform at any point.

In case you had any doubts about Calibre's direction on GenAI, the creator clarifies his stance in this thread: www.mobileread.com/forums/showt... #Booksky

I will miss using Calibre, but if it's joining the Slopverse, I'll have to find something else. Such a tone-deaf move for a product used by many authors.

Today's film challenge is well known, but not too easy. 🟪🟪🟪🟨🟨🟨🟨 www.warpcoresf.co.uk/wcsf-guess-t...

GenAI raises the cost of living on everyone's computing, just as incomes are falling due to it. We should tax it for its societal harm. www.theregister.com/2025/12/04/s...

I talk to a lot of people involved with community groups. There's a growing realisation that social media sites, and FB Group pages especially, are no longer serving them. Instead, they have become slaves to the algo. The tipping point is near.

Spotify Wrapped, but it shows you how much each artist earned from your streams this year.

I signed this letter, I hope you will too.

Could we run out of water? “People would be shocked if they knew just how close we’ve come", a former Environment Agency officer told me. To many on this damp little island, the idea’s preposterous. But it’s a very real threat. Here's what I know... watershedinvestigations.com/day-zero-is-...

Australia just recorded zero cervical cancer cases in women under 25 for the first time since records began in 1982. The amazing result of HPV vaccination.

✍️NEW on the Mainstream blog: As the Budget looms, Labour have lost the art of making the moral case for policy - but this could change with the two-child benefit limit, writes @chrleft.bsky.social Director Hannah Rich (@hannahmerich.bsky.social). Read it below:

Delighted to have been invited to take part in the launch of this timely - and excellent - report by Dr Clementine Collett

The first recommendation of Dr Collett's report on the Impact of AI on the Novel concerns a review of copyright law. It's obviously not up to the strains of GenAI, so I'm fully behind having it reviewed to protect our cultural industries. www.mctd.ac.uk/wp-content/u...

I attended the launch of Dr Clementine Collett's report on the Impact of GenAI on the Novel. There's lots to consider, all of it bleak unless we regulate this tech properly. www.mctd.ac.uk/impact-of-ge...

We should stop the boats because it's dangerous, and we should stop the scapegoating of immigrants because it's wrong and cruel. Controlled migration is good for the country, helps build our economy and diversity strengthens our communities. (1/6) 🧵

The murder rate in London is now the lowest in decades, perhaps centuries. (The Times)

Using these newfangled lightbulbs creates zombies, but what can do? There's a lot of money in newlight. The industry is robust. Sure, the zombie throngs are growing every day, and scientists project that 98% of all non-zombie life will be wiped out by 2055 but scientists aren't always correct.

It is, I am reliably informed, International Red Squirrels week. And it’s working. I am aware of red squirrels.

Calls have been made for the press regulator to investigate “systematic failings which lead publishers to keep running fake, likely AI-generated, PR content.”

I'm hearing from more and more friends that they rarely use Facebook any more because it's so much more fascist, unusable, and slop-clogged.

Can anyone recommend an opensource/ shareware/cheap alternative to Adobe Acrobat, please and thank you?

If your AI datacentre needs a SMR to power it, it's poorly coded and too general to be of any use. There's no point brute-forcing this software to try to do everything. This is part of why GenAI is such destructive garbage.

Buried news of the day IMO "Government vows to phase out animal tests as alternative methods come on stream with new strategy welcomed as ‘ambitious’ and ‘timely’ by animal welfare & life sciences organisations." Plus new £75 million funding to bring forward new testing methods for health products

Pinch of ground ginger, 1 1/2 spoons cocoa powder, whole milk not semi-skimmed, NO added sugar. Heat and stir until smooth, don't let it boil over. That's what this wet and windy November night calls for.

Sign here for quieter fireworks. My dog says you should: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

I'm listening to Cage of Souls on audiobook, and the narration is great. For all that it's set in the darkness and cruelty of the end of the world, it's engrossing. #Booksky

Generative AI: built on illegal scraping, so it's no surprise that it's crime all the way through. This is just one example of its serious harm. Until this is fixed it should be banned in the UK.

Wake up, babe. New horrors from the deep sea just dropped oceancensus.org/press-releas...