Derry Sketcher
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derrysketcher.bsky.social
Derry Sketcher
@derrysketcher.bsky.social
820 followers 770 following 1.1K posts
Near-Derry based artist-illustrator. Mainly work with pet and animal portraits.
Email: [email protected]
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derrysketcher.bsky.social
Derry Sketcher @derrysketcher.bsky.social · Feb 14
My friend has finally received her portrait of the wonderful Katie. So here she is. I hope I did her justice as she was the best of cats 🐈
A coloured pencil portrait of a tortoiseshell cat called Katie. Sadly this is a memorial portrait and honestly, she was the best cat. I personally am a dog person and I’d have stolen Katie in a heartbeat. She’s sadly missed.
derrysketcher.bsky.social
One of the biggest warning signs for me when it comes to new tech, it’s to see whether the people creating and selling it, use it themselves or would allow their own children to use it. AI is only good for pattern recognition. It’s not a human substitute
disabilitystor1.bsky.social Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 1d
A genuinely alarming piece in the NYT about how the developers, scientists and assorted techbros behind "AI companions"/"synthetic care" do not even know or understand the potential harms of the tech they're developing but they're too greedy to stop themselves from developing it.
“Confusion” doesn’t begin to describe our emerging predicament. Seventy-two percent of American teens have turned to A.I. for companionship. A.I. therapists, coaches and lovers are also on the rise. Yet few people realize that some of the frontline technologists building this new world seem deeply ambivalent about what they’re doing. They are so torn, in fact, that some privately admit they don’t plan to use A.I. intimacy tools. “Zero percent of my emotional needs are met by A.I.,” an executive who ran a team mitigating safety risks at a top lab told me. “I’m in it up to my eyeballs at work, and I’m careful.” Many others said the same thing: Even as they build A.I. tools, they hope they never feel the need to turn to machines for emotional support. As a researcher who develops cutting-edge capabilities for artificial emotion put it, “that would be a dark day.” Developers I spoke to said the same incentives that make bots irresistible can stand in the way of reasonable safeguards, making outright abstention the only sure way to stay safe. Some described feeling stuck between protecting users and raising profits: They support guardrails in theory, but don’t want to compromise the product experience in practice. It’s little wonder the protections that do get built can seem largely symbolic — you have to squint to see the fine-print notice that “ChatGPT can make mistakes” or that Character.AI is “not a real person.” “I’ve seen the way people operate in this space,” said one engineer who worked at a number of tech companies. “They’re here to make money. It’s a business at the end of the day.” But even if companies can curb serious dependence on A.I. companions — an open question — many of the developers I spoke with were troubled by even moderate use of these apps. That’s because people who manage to resist full-blown digital companions can still find themselves hooked on A.I.-mediated love. When machines draft texts, craft vows and tell people how to process their own emotions, every relationship turns into “a throuple,” a founder of a conversational A.I. business said. “We’re all polyamorous now. It’s you, me and the A.I.”
February 13, 2026 at 3:12 PM
derrysketcher.bsky.social
@daraobriain.bsky.social I desperately need @daraobriain.bsky.social to know that the Irish have a history of spinning people around to get them going again. Check out Dr Hallaran‘s Circulating Swing #Cork #StandUpInDerry
February 11, 2026 at 8:54 PM
Reposted by Derry Sketcher
dannyrobins.bsky.social
BLOODY HELL, BELFAST👻😱

What a night - Haunting #53 of the Uncanny: Fear of the Dark tour in the lovely Grand Opera House! Can you spot yourself in last night’s #HauntedSelfie?

Our next tour date is Glasgow on Thursday at @kingsandroyal.bsky.social🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scottish #UncannyCommunity hope to see you there?
February 10, 2026 at 11:16 AM
Reposted by Derry Sketcher
kattenbarge.bsky.social
I have yet to see any evidence that there is a market for AI-generated books outside of people being tricked into thinking they are not AI-generated books. AKA, it is a project of scamming and deceiving people, and really should be treated as fraud
February 8, 2026 at 6:55 PM
Reposted by Derry Sketcher
histoftech.bsky.social
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.

Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology
She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.
www.nature.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:09 AM
Reposted by Derry Sketcher
pantibliss.bsky.social
It's going to be "but helmets are good!" all day from people who don't cycle and won't read anything about it, isn't it?
People who'll tell you the Dutch and the Danes etc got it all wrong and they should listen to the guy who is thinking about it today for the first time
February 5, 2026 at 12:57 PM
Reposted by Derry Sketcher
lalahaenzy.com
Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue
February 5, 2026 at 11:50 AM
Reposted by Derry Sketcher
jennharknee.bsky.social
Happy #KidLitArtPostcard Day to all who celebrate! I’m Jenn! I love to work. And we need some stupid fun art right now. Stupid and fun is my specialty.
Elephant riding Tricycle
February 5, 2026 at 3:39 PM
derrysketcher.bsky.social
Awww man, not John Virgo. Who’s going to cry ‘where’s the cue ball going?’ when the snooker’s on now?
February 4, 2026 at 11:23 AM
Reposted by Derry Sketcher
keithbrymerjones.bsky.social
Great work from our wonderful potters this week . Who knew sea side souvenir sets could be so wonderful. 😊 @potterythrow.bsky.social
February 1, 2026 at 9:20 PM
derrysketcher.bsky.social
Not a huge thing but it actually is to me. After living for decades in my home, I have never seen bullfinches in the garden and this morning I wake up to find two in my cherry tree. Two!!
Two bullfinches sit in a barren cherry tree. This is the first time I’ve seen these birds in my garden after living here for over twenty years.
February 1, 2026 at 8:37 AM
Reposted by Derry Sketcher
whimsicalmuse.bsky.social
Remember, if someone tells you that your dream of having a bookshelf with a rolling ladder is "unrealistic", they were never your friend to begin with.
January 29, 2026 at 5:55 PM
derrysketcher.bsky.social
Post the television character with whom you most identify…
January 28, 2026 at 7:55 PM
Reposted by Derry Sketcher
iotechris.bsky.social
Before sunrise on 25th January and the Moon over Ireland tonight 28th January.
Pre-dawn orange glow on ragged clouds, with purple shadows and pale blue sky showing through gaps in the layers. Trees and rooftops are silhouetted, almost two-dimensional. Waxing Gibbous Moon over Ireland 28-01-2026 seen against a dark sky. Waxing Gibbous Moon over Ireland 28-01-2026 seen against a dark sky. Waxing Gibbous Moon over Ireland 28-01-2026 seen against a dark sky.
January 28, 2026 at 6:54 PM
Reposted by Derry Sketcher
taryndevere.bsky.social
I think poverty is the cause of 90% of problems. Living in poverty causes trauma.
January 28, 2026 at 5:49 PM
derrysketcher.bsky.social
Woo hoo! It’s #Shrinking season 3 day!!!
a man in a suit and white shirt says now we 're cooking
Alt: Harrison Ford says ‘now we're cooking’ in a scene from Shrinking. This is a series on Apple TV about three cognitive behavioural therapists who work together. They all have different personal issues that they’re struggling to deal with while they attempt to help their patients, work together and ultimately find family with each other. It’s a brilliant show. Five minutes into the first episode and I’m already laughing and crying, at the same time.
media.tenor.com
January 28, 2026 at 5:39 PM
derrysketcher.bsky.social
This is a complete waste of public money! It has already been established that AI is grossly inaccurate and has an astronomical cost to the environment. It’s not the job of the UK public to prop up the failed ‘revolutionary’ ideas of tech bros. This whole enterprise reeks of desperation.
peterstefanovic.bsky.social Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 17d
BREAKING: Free AI training will be offered to every adult in the UK, with short courses to teach people how to use simple AI tools effectively in the workplace.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall tells #BBCBreakfast about the scheme
January 28, 2026 at 1:58 PM
Reposted by Derry Sketcher
alisonsampson.bsky.social
i resent my tax money being used for this trash, to prop up tech bros.
peterstefanovic.bsky.social Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 17d
BREAKING: Free AI training will be offered to every adult in the UK, with short courses to teach people how to use simple AI tools effectively in the workplace.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall tells #BBCBreakfast about the scheme
January 28, 2026 at 1:18 PM
Reposted by Derry Sketcher
bentheillustrator.bsky.social
3 days left to pick up my classic Back to the Future print from Cover-Versions.com!

Orders close 31st January!
January 28, 2026 at 6:24 AM
Reposted by Derry Sketcher
jconnollybooks.bsky.social
As has our no-less-beloved No Alibis Bookstore in Belfast, although they're not on BlueSky: noalibis.com/product/pre-...
*Pre-order 7 May 2026* John Connolly – A River Red With Blood – No Alibis Bookstore
noalibis.com
January 26, 2026 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Derry Sketcher
jconnollybooks.bsky.social
UK readers! Our beloved @goldsborobooks.bsky.social has posted a preorder link for signed copies of A RIVER RED WITH BLOOD, on sale May 7: goldsborobooks.com/products/a-r...
A River Red with Blood
The players call it the Game, and its aim is simple: to abduct and kill a stranger without getting caught. They're very good at it. They've been playing it for a long time. And they can keep playing s...
goldsborobooks.com
January 26, 2026 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Derry Sketcher
stevemaythe1st.bsky.social
Posters out in the wild for Cult Figures next gig Cult Figures / Bona Rays / Dominic Silvani - Live @ The Waiting Room on Saturday 31st January tinyurl.com/5emnzncc
January 23, 2026 at 9:29 AM
Reposted by Derry Sketcher
rha-arts.bsky.social
Marking his first Dublin exhibition in seven years, Belfast-born artist Colin Davidson brings us Stranger, an innovative collection of three-dimensional works that redefine the possibilities of paint as a sculptural medium.

Colin Davidson - Stranger
O’hUiginn Gallery

Ends THIS Sunday, 25 January.
January 21, 2026 at 3:22 PM
Reposted by Derry Sketcher
whimsicalmuse.bsky.social
It’s the perfect day to find a secluded cottage in the Scottish Highlands and go off the grid for a few years.
January 21, 2026 at 2:47 PM