Absolute chills

This is scandalous behaviour by @greenparty.org.uk, and Rob is owed an apology. People look at this sort of stuff and think it's evidence of scholars engaging in a partisan fashion, and not only is that a slight on Rob's professionalism, it also damages the field more generally.

Still of the opinion that having a well educated population is a societal good and we should just pay for it through general taxation.

Time for immediate preventive and punitive action @oxfordshirecc.bsky.social @bradtbaines.bsky.social We are a sanctuary county, this cannot be allowed to continue. #StandUpToRacism #SUTR

it’s come to my attention that my tumblr post has been crossposted to bluesky, so I’m posting it on my account here #AntiAI #GenAI

Stop using AI.

Oxford people please sign!

The UK version of “Project 2025” by the Reform party includes a British ICE, a concentration camp for 24,000 people, mass surveillance and withdrawing from refugee, anti-torture and anti-trafficking conventions. It’s on their website. That’s how comfortable fascists are in the UK today.

A lot of self described Christians seem to be banking on there not actually being a hell.

Worth remembering when looking at the horrific scenes in the US right now that both Reform and the Tories have pledged to bring in ICE-style organisations to the UK if they win power

You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.

This is definitely the perception here in Germany. Minnesota is cutting through, but in a way that only accentuates the lack of any wider response. These are people courageously defending their neighbors and their community. But at the national level? Opposition politicians? Elites?

Too late, Bone-Spurs. We fucking hate you

A letter from Saint Paul to those last few friends and family who have somehow become indifferent to ongoing campaign of terror in the Twin Cities:

Liam’s mom dressed him in all those layers to keep her little boy warm and safe in this frigid weather, packed his book-bag w/ everything he’d need for a good day at school, and then our govt stole him out of their driveway. Used her little boy as bait. These people are monsters.

We Have AI Now www.youtube.com/shorts/8-lgJ...

New - Nigel Farage has been found by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to have made 17 standards breaches, adding up to over £380,000 in late declarations. He’s apologised, so no further investigation (which seems unusual for a breach this large)

incredible scenes as absolutely nothing of any consequence happens

*sigh* Of course a few days later when I listen back to the recording that I was reasonably happy with I find somehow without changing at all it's become intolerably awful and I will definitely have to redo a lot of it. At least I like the song enough to care.

Here's a conspiracy theory - the people who have fraudulently overextended themselves re: the AI bubble have asked Trump to tank the global economy to hide that the next big recession is going to be their fault.

In April 2024, Spotify implemented a new scheme: songs with less than 1k streams per year would no longer receive royalties. The data for 2025 was just released via Luminate, and 88% of songs have been demonetized. Read it again: 88% of songs on Spotify have been demonetized.

huge W

Any suggestions for a Google Workspaces alternative that (a) isn't going to try to ram genAI down our throats all the time, (b) isn't going to charge us for AI "features" that we don't want and won't use, and (c) ideally isn't American?

Read this pastor's account of his confrontation with ICE. It's horrific, from their pointing a gun at him and demanding he tell them whether he's "afraid now," to their letting him go because he's white and "won't be any fun anyway."

You'll notice this is the reasoning of abusers. That's not a coincidence.

This is also a field test. If the press lets them muddy the waters on executing a woman in Minneapolis despite multiple witnesses and video recordings clearly depicting what happened, the message they'll take away is that there's nothing they can't get away with. Nothing.

The BBC and NYT "both sides-ing" state murder by masked men is unfortunate. (CBC is much better).

@loremen.bsky.social since you've done a lot of local (to me) stuff again recently - are any of the stories mentioned here new to you? Stumbled across this when trying to find out which of the big old houses in Wilcote is actually the manor www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/co...

This piece on AI from @seamas.bsky.social is apt, cogent and pithy. I recommend it to you in its entirety. (I am also delighted to see another indepedent publication using @ghost.org, which @garius.bsky.social and I use for @theupfront.media — where we hold very similar views about the use of AI.)

OMG 😭 Huntington's is an inherited disease that's like Alzheimers + Parkinson's all in one. NOW: "once the gene therapy has been delivered into the brain... [it] injects a piece of DNA to reprogram the neuron to become a factory for its own cure." LIFE SAVING! www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhEx...

How about it @oxfordshirecc.bsky.social ? Their names are all over facebook, easy enough to track them down and send them a bill. Plus maybe a fine?

I’m a *lot* fed up with the constant gaslighting about what this Labour government has been like. I’d love a good Labour government. I’d be right behind it - if it stopped the xenophobic bollocks, started treating disabled people with respect etc etc. Currently, Starmer is Farage’s best recruiter

Flag knobheads have clearly been out in force today around Oxfordshire. My new year's wish is that local authorities can stop pretending this is "patriotism" and call it out for the far right intimidation tactic it really is. And take the fucking things down.

Fuck you people. Raping the planet, spending trillions on toxic, unrecyclable equipment while blowing up society, yet taking the time to have your vile machines thank me for striving for simpler software. Just fuck you. Fuck you all. I can't remember the last time I was this angry.

The Embassy staff of Germany, France and the United Kingdom sing Schedryk in the Kyiv underground. Wonderful!

Morning on the 20th of December in Oxfordshire and bumblebees are out foraging.

FT defends London, one of the greatest cities in the world www.ft.com/content/dd79...

SEASON'S GREASONS

What the fuck is this AI boosterism in the Guardian today. "It could happen in the next few years". Bollocks could it. No one has the faintest idea how to make an actual AI. Absolutely fucking inexcusable. No I'm not linking to it.

This question, "why would you want it to?", should be asked a lot more of gen AI

—I’ve been asked to baptise the King of Spain’s daughter —Infanta? —No, holy water as usual. Weird thing to ask honestly

Anti-racism norms matter. Really shouldn’t be too much to ask of a Labour government that they shun those giving platform to overt racism of a kind that has been unacceptable in the political mainstream of this country for generations.

AI has actively made life worse for literally everyone - tech is now more expensive - you cannot trust most media of reality anymore - programs barely function - energy prices - literal psychosis - your voice can be literally stolen for evil - more spyware but hey, you can avoid paying an artist.

Immigrants have helped, improved and enriched this country more than the likes of Farage and Yaxley-Lennon could do in a thousand lifetimes, so it would be quite nice if the government didn’t pander to feeble dickheads like them with rhetoric like this.

Retired ghost train animatronic Streeting said: “I’m so nervous. What if he picks up? What if he’s seen this ADHD thing and gone ‘Attaboy, Streeting! Why don’t you come to the White House and play a round of golf with me and my friends? They’re your friends now, too, Wes, and so am I’?”

In November an 18 month investigation into ADHD concluded. It found ADHD is massively underdiagnosed with less than 1 in 20 people over 40 receiving treatment. It said GPs need to be diagnosing it. Instead a review has been launched looking into it being 'overdiagnosed'

Yup. My wife is autistic. I'm ADHD. Our kids are both autistic and ADHD. I don't think them living in the UK caused that.

Great culture can save lives. Literally. Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

This is what happens when people have better housing, nutrition, hygiene, treatment for infections and long term conditions etc. Oh and vaccines.

Sought and found asylum in the UK