Marc Sweeney
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marcsweeney.bsky.social
Marc Sweeney
@marcsweeney.bsky.social
52 followers 100 following 23 posts
A big believer in human spirit, creativity and collective good. A big doubter of capitalism and the unfounded promises of big tech.

Philosophically-leaning critiques of society and culture are my jam.
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Reposted by Marc Sweeney
newseye.bsky.social
BREAKING: One of the most important and prominent reporters on the ground in Gaza has been Anas Al Sharif.

He - and several other Al Jazeera journalists - have just been assassinated by Israelis forces whilst in their press tent in central Gaza.

Speechless.
A photo of Anas Al-Sharif and his Al Jazeera colleague Mohammad Qrere in their press bullet proof vests looking at their phones. Both are reported killed. Photo credit to Motassem A Dalloul.
August 10, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
tsof.bsky.social
92 badges ranked: 1. #Forest

50 yrs ago #NFFC designed an iconic image that's outlived its contemporary cultural touchpoints, yet remains so disarmingly 1970s.

Perhaps it’s that seductive kick of the “R”, or the understated dynamism of the River Trent.

Impeccable and faultless.

#NCFC #DCFC
February 28, 2025 at 7:45 AM
marcsweeney.bsky.social
'What $1tn problem will AI solve?'

Well, quite. Funny that nobody has an answer for that. Strange that barely anyone is asking the question.
edzitron.com Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · Feb 25
From Goldman Sachs' "Gen AI: Too Much Spend, Too Little Benefit?"

www.goldmansachs.com/images/migra...
February 25, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
badwwestats.bsky.social
Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous year of the snake!

#ChineseNewYear #LunarNewYear #恭喜发财
January 28, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
guyshrubsole.bsky.social
Remember, all public rights of way ultimately originated as desire paths - places where people walked because they wanted to, trespass or not. They’ve only since been legitimised through Acts of Parliament and furnished with gates, stiles etc

bsky.app/profile/chaz...
chazhutton.com Chaz Hutton @chazhutton.com · Jan 15
A little comic about desire paths.
Ok so… There’s a nice little park on a corner, and a path running directly to one edge of the park. That’s the first image, but there’s 12 other images here. In the second image, there is now a desire path running diagonally across the park. Next image, the path has been blocked by a park bench that the council has put in as a deterrent. Unfazed, in image 4 the path now deftly avoids the park bench. In images 5 and 6 the process is repeated, this time with a strategically placed bin which the desire path also avoids. Presumably in a fit of rage, the council plants an entire hedge to stop people creating new desire paths but eventually this too is defeated and a new path find a way. Finally, the council admits defeat and turns the desire path into a proper paved pathway. After a little while, a new desire path curving off this new paved pathway begins to emerge…
January 17, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
gralefrit.bsky.social
TOP TIP!

Men! Take regular “hard looks at yourself and your behaviour towards others” *before* you’re the subject of an investigation into a repeated pattern of coercive and inappropriate behaviour predicated on an abusive power dynamic.
January 15, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
caseynewton.bsky.social
I talked to 10 current and former Meta employees about the company's surrender to the right on speech issues. All were upset. One person called the changes "a precursor to genocide" www.platformer.news/meta-fact-ch...
But in its panicked retreat from the system it spent years building, Meta may now be putting billions of users at risk. Just because Meta deleted that line about hateful speech causing offline violence doesn't mean it isn't true. And now the company has all but declared open season on immigrants, transgender people and whatever other targets that Trump and his allies find useful in their fascist project. "I can't tell you how much harm comes from non-illegal but harmful content," a longtime former trust and safety employee at the company told me. The classifiers that the company is now switching off meaningfully reduced the spread of hate movements on Meta's platforms, they said. "This is not the climate change debate, or pro-life vs. pro-choice. This is degrading, horrible content that leads to violence and that has the intent to harm other people."
January 8, 2025 at 1:52 AM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
oisinmcgann.bsky.social
Let me tell you about the weird business that delivers art into our lives, and the impact it has on the long-term careers of artists. This is a thread prompted by yet another article on authors' incomes, and the inevitable reactions from the 'people-would-pay-if-it-was-worth-it-to-them' brigade. 1/
January 5, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
benjaminjriley.bsky.social
Who is up for a short thread on the intriguing parallels between OpenAI and Enron, as told by one of Enron's investment bankers -- that is to say, me? Here goes...
January 6, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
graceblakeley.substack.com
Elon Musk’s fascist turn isn’t puzzling at all.

It’s all about labour 🧵
January 6, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
mrjamesob.bsky.social
Musk’s latest intervention is objectively hilarious but the problem of a hideous human using his enormous wealth & power to promote lies & liars in the U.K., despite having no links to or other interest in the country, remains acute.
January 5, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
parismarx.com
Appliances shouldn’t even have the internet, let alone built-in chatbots. Tech companies will keep forcing shitty tech on us to boost their bottom lines until we collective force them to stop.
hypervisible.blacksky.app Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · Mar 29
Hell. You are describing hell. Nobody wants an “interactive and engaging” dishwasher. They just want their dishes cleaned. www.forbes.com/sites/bernar...
Across all industries, organizations are rapidly embracing generative AI. Among them, makers of home appliances like fridges and ovens. Generative AI in your oven? Why not? Ater all, AI has been creeping into our homes for years (think smart lightbulbs and Alexa) – but thanks to generative AI, these interactions will become even more human and more personal. Imagine, for example, asking your washing machine whether it’s safe to wash a beloved item of clothing on a certain setting – literally, asking it out loud or via an app. Or you could say to your fridge, “Hey, when am I going to run out of milk?” and it’ll tell you. Integrating generative AI into everyday products could lead to a new era of smart appliances that are not only more adaptive to our needs but also more interactive and engaging.
January 5, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
janus.bsky.social
i will never get over how mark zuckerberg spent the GDP of several small nations trying to convince people to have zoom work meetings in Minecraft
papapishu.bsky.social Chris Person @papapishu.bsky.social · Dec 22
VR is for racing/flight/space sims, trans furries that play beat saber, and guys that require the porno equivalent of fentanyl. The idea of thinking it’s the next big thing is like Apple going all in on a HOTAS.
December 22, 2024 at 9:25 PM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
tsof.bsky.social
92 badges ranked: 69. #Oxford United.

Chicago Bulls? ❌️🏀
Cotswolds Bulls ✅️⚽️ 👌

#football #soccer #championship #efl #epl #nonleaguue #oufc #lufc #Leeds #stfc #cufc #qpr #ccfc #pfc #pompey #hull #hcfc #premierleague #Chicago #nba #basketball #reading #rfc #royals
December 22, 2024 at 5:19 AM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
tsof.bsky.social
92 badges ranked: 70. #Plymouth.

Blue Peter badges were never cool.

#pafc #Argyle #soccer #football #efl #epl #Rooney #ecfc #Devon #Cornwall #exeter #pfc #pompey #premierleague #nonleague #england #mufc #efc
December 21, 2024 at 5:13 AM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
ledbydonkeys.org
Huge thanks to everyone who’s chipped in to make LBD interventions happen this year. We’re 100% funded by small donations & refuse big donors to protect us from becoming reliant on any individual source. Wanna help? Link in bio👆
December 14, 2024 at 8:04 AM
marcsweeney.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

#BookSky
#BookChallenge
💙📚
Day 14
December 12, 2024 at 11:39 PM
marcsweeney.bsky.social
I can vouch for the fact that I have tried Chat GPT a few times in the last week (for signposts to articles and thinkers that link to ideas I've been exploring) and it has produced made up stuff on at least two occasions. I only knew because I checked out each of the things it listed.
spavel.bsky.social Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · Jul 6
Well this is grim
weird interaction with a student this week. they kept coming up with weird "facts" ("greek is actually a combination of four other languages") that left me baffled. i said let's look this stuff up together, and they said ok, i'll open a search bar, and they opened... ch*tgpt and i was like "this is not a search bar" and they were like "yes it is, you can search for anything in here" the thing that made me feel crazy is like. every kid that's using this as a browser is getting new BESPOKE false "facts." this isn't "a widespread misconception about X that stems from how it's taught in schools." each individual kid is now hooked into a Nonsense Machine with the "widespread misconception about X" you can start at a baseline. like, ok, in tenth grade we all talk about X thing from history, and that leaves us with some misguided concepts about X, but we can correct that as students get broader understandings of the world but with this, each child is getting UNIQUE wrong facts they are SURE are correct... because they did what we told them to do! they "looked it up"! they got it from somewhere! it's not a kid making up a belief on hearsay and assumption... it's something they think they LEARNED this kid was extremely combative with me, and i understood why. i was sitting in front of him and telling him that the internet, a computer, technology, all these supposedly authoritative things... were wrong. and that i, one person, was right. he basically *couldn't* believe me. 8 135 3.8K 97K ... stillorangecrushed @stilloranged. 7h he decided that i was simply a teacher who'd made a mistake. he could check it, after all! he could look it up! he could find the REAL facts. i obviously hadn't done that, i was just an adult who'd decided i was smarter than him. hence the defensiveness. like i said: i understood 5 760 3.2K 82K stillorangecrushed @stilloranged. 7h ... it was so fucking rough. i did my best, but i am one person trying to work against a campaign of misinformation so vast that it fucking terrifies me. this kid is being set up for a life lived entirely inside the hall of mirrors
December 10, 2024 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
edzitron.com
I am once again using powerful, futuristic artificial intelligence and I remain astonished at the results
ChatGPT o1 output Let’s check each state name to see if it contains the letter “p”: 1. Alabama - no 2. Alaska - no 3. Arizona - no 4. Arkansas - no 5. California - p 6. Colorado - no 7. Connecticut - no 8. Delaware - no 9. Florida - no 10. Georgia - no 11. Hawaii - no 12. Idaho - no 13. Illinois - no 14. Indiana - no 15. Iowa - no 16. Kansas - no 17. Kentucky - no 18. Louisiana - no 19. Maine - no 20. Maryland - no 21. Massachusetts - p 22. Michigan - no 23. Minnesota - no 24. Mississippi - p 25. Missouri - no 26. Montana - no 27. Nebraska - no 28. Nevada - no 29. New Hampshire - p 30. New Jersey - no 31. New Mexico - no 32. New York - no 33. North Carolina - no 34. North Dakota - no 35. Ohio - no 36. Oklahoma - no 37. Oregon - no 38. Pennsylvania - p 39. Rhode Island - no 40. South Carolina - no 41. South Dakota - no 42. Tennessee - no 43. Texas - no 44. Utah - no 45. Vermont - no 46. Virginia - no 47. Washington - no 48. West Virginia - no 49. Wisconsin - no 50. Wyoming - no States that contain the letter “p” are: California, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. Total: 5 states have the letter “p” in their name . Let’s check each state name to see if it contains the letter “p”: 1. Alabama - no 2. Alaska - no 3. Arizona - no 4. Arkansas - no 5. California - p 6. Colorado - no 7. Connecticut - no 8. Delaware - no 9. Florida - no 10. Georgia - no 11. Hawaii - no 12. Idaho - no 13. Illinois - no 14. Indiana - no 15. Iowa - no 16. Kansas - no 17. Kentucky - no 18. Louisiana - no 19. Maine - no 20. Maryland - no 21. Massachusetts - p 22. Michigan - no 23. Minnesota - no 24. Mississippi - p 25. Missouri - no 26. Montana - no 27. Nebraska - no 28. Nevada - no 29. New Hampshire - p 30. New Jersey - no 31. New Mexico - no 32. New York - no 33. North Carolina - no 34. North Dakota - no 35. Ohio - no 36. Oklahoma - no 37. Oregon - no 38. Pennsylvania - p 39. Rhode Island - no 40. South Carolina - no 41. South Dakota - no 42. Tennessee - no 43. Texas - no 44. Utah - no 45. Vermont - no 46. Virginia - no 47. Washington - no 48. West Virginia - no 49. Wisconsin - no 50. Wyoming - no States that contain the letter “p” are: California, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. Total: 5 states have the letter “p” in their name.
December 10, 2024 at 6:54 AM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
sarareads.bsky.social
I love this podcast.
techwontsave.us Tech Won’t Save Us @techwontsave.us · Dec 9
💥 THE BATTLE BEGINS 💥

The tech industry has had quite a year with its billionaires revealing who they really are for all to see. Who will be the WORST PERSON IN TECH?

🗳️ Voting is now open: forms.gle/XYERvxNFTBV1...
Full bracket of 32 names for The Worst Person in Tech 2024
December 9, 2024 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
tsof.bsky.social
92 badges ranked: 82. @shrewsburytown.com A tin of Golden Syrup shows flies buzzing around a lions corpse. Perhaps this is the same creature, moments before death, releasing his final feeble breath. The weakest of many lions in English football.

#soccer #football #stfc #salop #efl #epl #shrewsbury
December 10, 2024 at 5:53 AM
Reposted by Marc Sweeney
tedgioia.bsky.social
If you're puzzled or disturbed by the response to the United Healthcare shooting, let me share these 6 observations on this new phase in cultural conflict (THREAD...)

These come from an analysis I published just 22 days ago.
December 10, 2024 at 6:15 AM
marcsweeney.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

#BookSky
#BookChallenge
💙📚
Day 13
December 9, 2024 at 6:27 PM
marcsweeney.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

#BookSky
#BookChallenge
💙📚
Day 12
December 9, 2024 at 6:25 PM