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pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 11h

No, I refuse this

pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 1d

I'm using my English degree to provide access services for people with disabilities but Badenoch thinks I'd be more of a contributor to society if I was marginally increasing the profits of some international trillion-dollar corporation

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รℓσαɳε ℓყรɓεƭɦ 🏳️‍🌈 @sloanelysbeth.bsky.social · 1d

this’s wild. the british government will do it for free.

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 1d

UK universities offered to monitor students’ social media for arms firms, emails show

Loughborough, Heriot-Watt and Glasgow corresponded with companies concerned about campus protests Universities in the UK reassured arms companies they would monitor students’ chat groups and social media accounts after firms raised concerns about campus protests, according to internal emails. One university said it would conduct “active monitoring of social media” for any evidence of plans to demonstrate against Rolls-Royce at a careers fair. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 1d

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 1d

NEW | On the latest story about students (and sex):

THE KINK IN THE TIMES’ POSITION ON UNIVERSITIES AND FREE SPEECH

Why is a national newspaper obsessing about student societies and quoting extreme pressure groups? I think we all know the answer...

brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/the-kink-i...

The kink in the Times' position on universities and free speech...

Why is a national newspaper obsessing about student societies and quoting extreme pressure groups? I think we all know the answer...

brokenbottleboy.substack.com

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Gabby HC, but a ghost, hiding in a corner @scriblit.bsky.social · 2d

I feel like we're mentioning this about once a week as the gvt, shadow gvt & Unofficial Shadow Gvt all stick their fingers in their ears & go 'AH LA LA LA LA WE ARE A PROUD COUNTRY OF HOARY HANDED FISHERMEN, METAL BASHERS AND CYBER GUYS AND NOTHING ELSE'

Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 2d

feels like yet again time to mention that the *videogames* industry (that's a creative industry, which people do creative degrees in) brings in more than twice the amount to the British economy as the fishing and steel industries *combined*

Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 2d

I cannot understand what these people think the purpose of human life is?

It is *not* "pursue joy, deal justly, love well, try to understand as much and see as much of this beautiful world and of the deepness, richness and variety of human culture and experience as you can before you die"?

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pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah this sounds fine

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 1d

UK universities offered to monitor students’ social media for arms firms, emails show

Loughborough, Heriot-Watt and Glasgow corresponded with companies concerned about campus protests Universities in the UK reassured arms companies they would monitor students’ chat groups and social media accounts after firms raised concerns about campus protests, according to internal emails. One university said it would conduct “active monitoring of social media” for any evidence of plans to demonstrate against Rolls-Royce at a careers fair. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 1d

There's posters for the I Swear movie all over town so I keep getting earwormed by the classic 1994 song of the same name by All-4-One

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pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 2d

No matter how many weird centrists I piss off

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pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 2d

Never gonna give up on my fight to teach people the difference between pseudonymous and anonymous

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pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 2d

They always say they'll block for rudeness and then they instablock you for polite disagreement lol. So fucking predictable that I was screenshotting even as I sent the reply.

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pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 2d

Just so you know, this attitude to "anonymous" accounts betrays an awful lot of unthinking privilege.

(also, they're pseudonymous, actually)

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pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 2d

RIGHT

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pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 2d

Also "if done right" is a hell of an if when you're talking about a/ this govt and b/ big govt projects in general and IT ones in particular

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pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 2d

Naturally ours would be on the severe end of the scale when it comes to the amount of information held on a central database

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pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 2d

Every time you see "other countries use it" as a defence of a digital ID card you know they're tryna sell you something - there's huge variation in what data is on the card, how much of it is stored online vs on your device, how secure and siloed the central database is, etc

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pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 2d

"an era of joined up data" so that anyone who hacks it has ALL your personal info. Sounds great!

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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.bsky.social · 2d

for those of you who are serious about understanding the eugenic lineage of the whole AGI movement, on the other hand, you can peruse some of the resources at www.dair-institute.org/projects/tes...

The TESCREAL Bundle

The array of utopian ideologies that power Silicon Valley's elite is ultimately bleakly eugenicist.

www.dair-institute.org

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pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 2d

To me saying "I would never under any circumstances support political violence" is the same as saying "I wouldn't try and stop my friends and family being dragged off to the gulag, if it was the government doing it"

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pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 2d

I think this is my probably neurodivergent problem with surveys coming out again lol, I don't think I'm more pro violence than the average person

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pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 2d

Luckily I've never been polled about whether I would ever support political violence, because I would have to say yes?? Because if, say, I was in a city where the government had sent the army in to beat up people of colour and queer people, I would absolutely commit violence in their defence??

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pickwick @pickwick.bsky.social · 2d

This is really good

G Elliott Morris @gelliottmorris.com · 2d

Why most polls overstate support for political violence
www.gelliottmorris.com/p/most-polls...

Why most polls overstate support for political violence

Misperceptions about the popularity of violence increase public support for it — but you can help change that.

www.gelliottmorris.com

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Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 2d

I don't want to get all Chesterton's Fence here, but if you don't understand that a "microscopic snail" is an indicator species that's protected for the health of the entire ecosystem, you probably shouldn't be forming "good relationships" with developers
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Rachel Reeves clears planning blockage amid ‘good relationship’ with developer

Exclusive: Chancellor says 20,000 homes were being held up due to ‘some snails that are a protected species or something’

www.theguardian.com

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Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 2d

This is how propaganda works. They slapped an image on this from Los Angeles in 1992 during Rodney King riots.

Winchell's
Donut Hors
Open
Winchell's
Donut House
Two National guardsmen stand guard outside a burning donut shop in Los Angeles on April 30, 1992.
The National Guard was called in to aid police during the second day of rioting in the city. (Mark
Elias/AP)

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Rhianna Pratchett @rhi.bsky.social · 2d

Dad’s books are full of empathy, common sense, and a healthy suspicion of the powerful. But at its heart his work is also about how systems keep people poor while pretending it’s their own fault. So I hope Kemi’s taking notes as well as reading the jokes.

Paul Haine @paulhaine.bsky.social · 3d

Kemi Badenoch claiming Terry Pratchett as her favourite author is wild

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