Calum Alasdair Young
@calumalasdairyoung.bsky.social
Lecturer in EU law at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. Interests include: law; the EU; politics, domestic and European; D&D; card games; boardgames.
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
If the US were a geopolitical rival the headlines would be like: US Secret Police Execute Second Dissident In the Streets As Militarized Occupation Enters Sixth Week
January 24, 2026 at 4:14 PM
If the US were a geopolitical rival the headlines would be like: US Secret Police Execute Second Dissident In the Streets As Militarized Occupation Enters Sixth Week
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage
January 15, 2026 at 1:47 PM
wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
It speaks to how broken MPs' media diet is that all parties didn't collectively go "pedophilia bad" at the first possible opportunity here
January 13, 2026 at 2:00 PM
It speaks to how broken MPs' media diet is that all parties didn't collectively go "pedophilia bad" at the first possible opportunity here
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
I cannot stress how distrubing it is to find out just how many peoples’ perfect partner is anything that can never disagree with them
The first point here is she isn't his girlfriend; she's a sycophantic computer programme he's set up to praise him.
We need to stop indulging this
We need to stop indulging this
January 11, 2026 at 10:20 AM
I cannot stress how distrubing it is to find out just how many peoples’ perfect partner is anything that can never disagree with them
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
Again, "I only make CSAM for money" would not help an ordinary person's defence, but would aggravate their sentencing.
Now only paying subscribers can make violent non-consenual sexual imagery of women and children -
Grok turns off image generator for most users after outcry over sexualised AI imagery www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Grok turns off image generator for most users after outcry over sexualised AI imagery www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Grok turns off image generator for most users after outcry over sexualised AI imagery
X to limit editing function to paying subscribers after platform threatened with fines and regulatory action
www.theguardian.com
January 9, 2026 at 10:04 AM
Again, "I only make CSAM for money" would not help an ordinary person's defence, but would aggravate their sentencing.
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
Every piece of reporting I've seen on this is drastically understating the scale. These are from Grok's replies within a single minute. Time-to-reply is degrading because it has such a backlog of NCII/CSAM requests to fulfill. Conservatively I estimate it is producing more than 5000 of these per day
January 6, 2026 at 9:33 PM
Every piece of reporting I've seen on this is drastically understating the scale. These are from Grok's replies within a single minute. Time-to-reply is degrading because it has such a backlog of NCII/CSAM requests to fulfill. Conservatively I estimate it is producing more than 5000 of these per day
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
2026: scrolling past the AI generated CSAM on the nazi pedophile app to see my favorite politicians' public anti-war statements
And here are those statements!
AOC: x.com/aoc/status/2...
Bernie: x.com/sensanders/s...
Zohran: x.com/nycmayor/sta...
Rashida: x.com/reprashida/s...
CVH: x.com/chrisvanholl...
AOC: x.com/aoc/status/2...
Bernie: x.com/sensanders/s...
Zohran: x.com/nycmayor/sta...
Rashida: x.com/reprashida/s...
CVH: x.com/chrisvanholl...
January 3, 2026 at 9:49 PM
2026: scrolling past the AI generated CSAM on the nazi pedophile app to see my favorite politicians' public anti-war statements
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
The case of the Twitter purchase shows the bad media strategy from Biden-era top Democrats.
They were “indifferent” to a far-right billionaire oligarch buying a key element of our information infrastructure.
www.semafor.com/article/12/1...
They were “indifferent” to a far-right billionaire oligarch buying a key element of our information infrastructure.
www.semafor.com/article/12/1...
Why The White House isn’t stressed about Elon Musk’s Twitter
Biden’s team has never cared much about the platform and isn’t about to start now.
www.semafor.com
January 3, 2026 at 7:54 PM
The case of the Twitter purchase shows the bad media strategy from Biden-era top Democrats.
They were “indifferent” to a far-right billionaire oligarch buying a key element of our information infrastructure.
www.semafor.com/article/12/1...
They were “indifferent” to a far-right billionaire oligarch buying a key element of our information infrastructure.
www.semafor.com/article/12/1...
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
No. *I* am following very closely the situation in Venezuela, because I am an EU citizen with no possibility to exercise any kind of political leverage. *You*, on the other hand, are President of the European Commission. So what are you *doing*?
Following very closely the situation in Venezuela.
We stand by the people of Venezuela and support a peaceful and democratic transition.
Any solution must respect international law and the UN Charter.
We stand by the people of Venezuela and support a peaceful and democratic transition.
Any solution must respect international law and the UN Charter.
January 3, 2026 at 3:42 PM
No. *I* am following very closely the situation in Venezuela, because I am an EU citizen with no possibility to exercise any kind of political leverage. *You*, on the other hand, are President of the European Commission. So what are you *doing*?
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
Unbelievably bleak to see journalists quoting an LLM bot's output as if it's an agent capable of making statements that mean something.
January 2, 2026 at 6:35 PM
Unbelievably bleak to see journalists quoting an LLM bot's output as if it's an agent capable of making statements that mean something.
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
The crossover I never knew I needed.
I asked the menswear guy what the ideal outfit for a magic tournament was. time for us all to step up our game
January 1, 2026 at 7:31 PM
The crossover I never knew I needed.
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
New, from me: Time for something fun - I wrote about themes and fashions of the Knives Out Universe (KOU). 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/exploring-...
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/exploring-...
Exploring the Knives Out Universe
Are they just entertaining murder mysteries or something more?
donmoynihan.substack.com
December 26, 2025 at 3:02 PM
New, from me: Time for something fun - I wrote about themes and fashions of the Knives Out Universe (KOU). 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/exploring-...
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/exploring-...
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
We talked about running these numbers at UM soc when it became so obvious that women TAs got more complaints for the same classes. Glad someone tested it formally.
Experimental evidence that students are more likely to contest grades when they are delivered by an evaluator with a female-sounding name.
"These findings suggest that women in evaluative positions face disproportionate resistance when delivering negative assessments."
"These findings suggest that women in evaluative positions face disproportionate resistance when delivering negative assessments."
December 25, 2025 at 3:30 PM
We talked about running these numbers at UM soc when it became so obvious that women TAs got more complaints for the same classes. Glad someone tested it formally.
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
Also we've fetishized "debate” in these spaces as some kind of civic good, when what matters is competence, trust, shared purpose. Medicine, engineering, boardrooms aren’t organized around debate or requirements of false balance. We've poisoned public discourse by insisting it be adversarial.
"Bluesky is an echo chamber."
"Bluesky doesn't have enough reach"
"Liberals must return to X to challenge the far right"
I'm not a tech bro or a journalist. Your priorities are not my priorities. Stop telling me I need to do anything other than chat about comics & telly with people who seem nice.
"Bluesky doesn't have enough reach"
"Liberals must return to X to challenge the far right"
I'm not a tech bro or a journalist. Your priorities are not my priorities. Stop telling me I need to do anything other than chat about comics & telly with people who seem nice.
December 15, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Also we've fetishized "debate” in these spaces as some kind of civic good, when what matters is competence, trust, shared purpose. Medicine, engineering, boardrooms aren’t organized around debate or requirements of false balance. We've poisoned public discourse by insisting it be adversarial.
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
retvrn to mystery stories based around the actual mystery and not whether the detective is sad and/or wet
my favorite thing about the benoit blanc movies is that they aren't really about benoit blanc. he is not grappling with demons from his past. we are not getting flashbacks to the husband whose murder he never solved. he just shows up and does his job like mary poppins for homicides
December 14, 2025 at 9:18 PM
retvrn to mystery stories based around the actual mystery and not whether the detective is sad and/or wet
Fairly legendary levels of hater energy.
An academic disliked an Oxford Very Short Introduction (145 pages) in his field so much that he wrote a 200 page book review attacking it. www.pierre-legrand.com/ewExternalFi...
December 11, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Fairly legendary levels of hater energy.
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
Everything I see from Lorwyn is my favorite thing from Lorwyn.
December 11, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Everything I see from Lorwyn is my favorite thing from Lorwyn.
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
I can’t help thinking that when, in future, people ask what UK political leaders said as it became undeniable that US saw European liberal democracy as its no1 strategic foe, Starmer and others will regret that the answer is “not much, shuffled awkwardly, looked at their feet”.
December 10, 2025 at 9:38 AM
I can’t help thinking that when, in future, people ask what UK political leaders said as it became undeniable that US saw European liberal democracy as its no1 strategic foe, Starmer and others will regret that the answer is “not much, shuffled awkwardly, looked at their feet”.
I have enough commander decks to participate in Internet Trends now!
December 8, 2025 at 9:06 PM
I have enough commander decks to participate in Internet Trends now!
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
If only there were a cautionary tale about being too eager to accept the apparent time-saving capabilities of new technology.
Aardman Animations will ’embrace AI’ while also being ‘cautious’, says Nick Park
Aardman Animations will ’embrace AI’ while also being ‘cautious’, says Nick Park
Aardman Animations will ’embrace AI’ while also being ‘cautious’, says Nick Park
www.independent.co.uk
December 8, 2025 at 1:05 PM
If only there were a cautionary tale about being too eager to accept the apparent time-saving capabilities of new technology.
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
The EU discourse is perfect because there's something in it for everyone. First of all, the European Union genuinely does have a lot of problems. But more importantly, a lot of people hate it for largely unrelated and often contradictory reasons. It's a great enemy
December 8, 2025 at 10:16 AM
The EU discourse is perfect because there's something in it for everyone. First of all, the European Union genuinely does have a lot of problems. But more importantly, a lot of people hate it for largely unrelated and often contradictory reasons. It's a great enemy
Reposted by Calum Alasdair Young
I think this is the most excited I've been to see a metagame spread for any tournament, standard is both so wide open and so possibly solved in the same way by all the teams right now, full range is possible
December 4, 2025 at 6:55 AM
I think this is the most excited I've been to see a metagame spread for any tournament, standard is both so wide open and so possibly solved in the same way by all the teams right now, full range is possible