Towards a socially-just creative technology culture. #convivialtech
From the FT.
January 4, 2026 at 12:47 PM
From the FT.
Seems like ~90% of the ads on YouTube are AI generated.
January 2, 2026 at 12:56 PM
Seems like ~90% of the ads on YouTube are AI generated.
Reposted by Niall Winters (also: @[email protected])
still pisses me off that haiti had to pay reparations to france for its freedom, paying the equivalent of half a billion dollars from 1825 to its last payment in 1947... to suggest this plays no part in haiti's economy today would be childish (or colonialist).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian...
January 1, 2026 at 2:22 PM
still pisses me off that haiti had to pay reparations to france for its freedom, paying the equivalent of half a billion dollars from 1825 to its last payment in 1947... to suggest this plays no part in haiti's economy today would be childish (or colonialist).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian...
Saudi Arabia executed 356 people in 2025 and 338 people in 2024. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
Executions in Saudi Arabia hit highest number ever in 2025
Analysts attribute increase to kingdom’s ‘war on drugs’ as authorities kill 356 people by death penalty
www.theguardian.com
January 1, 2026 at 2:27 PM
Saudi Arabia executed 356 people in 2025 and 338 people in 2024. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
@playingwithdust.bsky.social Did you see this? www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/c...
NASA’s Largest Library Is Closing Amid Staff and Lab Cuts
www.nytimes.com
December 31, 2025 at 6:43 PM
@playingwithdust.bsky.social Did you see this? www.nytimes.com/2025/12/31/c...
Videos I would have chosen are already in the replies! A nice trip down memory lane on #nye 😀👇😀
MTV is officially ending all of its music channels.
In honor of that, what's your favorite music video?
In honor of that, what's your favorite music video?
December 31, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Videos I would have chosen are already in the replies! A nice trip down memory lane on #nye 😀👇😀
Tried to get my road reduced from 50km/h to 30km/h and gave up. This was after a car rammed through a neighbour’s garden wall. Plus, there are primary schools at both ends of the road but you know 50km/h is grand. Granted there are speed ramps (far apart) but SUVs fly over them.
This government abandoned lower speed limits and abandoned reforms to the RSA. Is this what "deeply concerned" and "doing everything" looks like?
Red light cameras were supposed to be installed early this year. Where are they?
Red light cameras were supposed to be installed early this year. Where are they?
December 31, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Tried to get my road reduced from 50km/h to 30km/h and gave up. This was after a car rammed through a neighbour’s garden wall. Plus, there are primary schools at both ends of the road but you know 50km/h is grand. Granted there are speed ramps (far apart) but SUVs fly over them.
Stripe and some dude from The Free Press wish to fund/determine “the aesthetic of the twenty-first century”, in which they’re “neutral on the use of AI.” 🤦♂️ Cc: @eryk.bsky.social @bildoperationen.bsky.social
newaesthetics.art
newaesthetics.art
A Call for New Aesthetics
A Call for New Aesthetics
newaesthetics.art
December 29, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Stripe and some dude from The Free Press wish to fund/determine “the aesthetic of the twenty-first century”, in which they’re “neutral on the use of AI.” 🤦♂️ Cc: @eryk.bsky.social @bildoperationen.bsky.social
newaesthetics.art
newaesthetics.art
Horrific stuff from Riss at Charlie Hebdo. No need to repost. Instead engage with @rokhayadiallo.bsky.social work ✊. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Footballer, journalist, fashionista: whatever French Muslims do, we’re treated as the enemy within | Rokhaya Diallo
Ministers have accused us of ‘infiltration’ and posing ‘a threat to national cohesion’. They’re old racist tropes given a dangerous new life, says Guardian Europe columnist Rokhaya Diallo
www.theguardian.com
December 25, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Horrific stuff from Riss at Charlie Hebdo. No need to repost. Instead engage with @rokhayadiallo.bsky.social work ✊. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Niall Winters (also: @[email protected])
Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Tyson Cole. #NewYorkerCartoons
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December 23, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Tyson Cole. #NewYorkerCartoons
Sign up for our humor newsletter to get the Daily Cartoon right in your inbox: newyorkermag.visitlink.me/id1RS8
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Photos of the year? The Vanity Fair shoot by Christopher Anderson.
December 23, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Photos of the year? The Vanity Fair shoot by Christopher Anderson.
Reposted by Niall Winters (also: @[email protected])
I wish we pushed for research on the political economy of academia more. It's what takes us beyond "oh why did this one person cite a fake journal article?" into "why do we have a system that rewards people who do not engage with prior research and simply churn out pubs?"
December 21, 2025 at 7:52 PM
I wish we pushed for research on the political economy of academia more. It's what takes us beyond "oh why did this one person cite a fake journal article?" into "why do we have a system that rewards people who do not engage with prior research and simply churn out pubs?"
A pretty perfect take on the AI in Education push.
In other words, vested interests have figured out a rhetorical trick: the flaws of the tech justify the need to teach it more thoroughly. How convenient.
December 21, 2025 at 7:16 PM
A pretty perfect take on the AI in Education push.
Reposted by Niall Winters (also: @[email protected])
This makes a lot of sense! Even if you're an introvert, knowledge-making puts you in conversations that can go many different ways. People can point you to what you are missing. LLM sycophancy is a social problem because it cannot be critical.
December 21, 2025 at 6:12 PM
This makes a lot of sense! Even if you're an introvert, knowledge-making puts you in conversations that can go many different ways. People can point you to what you are missing. LLM sycophancy is a social problem because it cannot be critical.
Reposted by Niall Winters (also: @[email protected])
Professional societies keep beclowning themselves buying into a lie about what an LLM "summary" is. They are inherently counterfeit: not an epistemic product of the ideas in the source, but summary-shaped text linguistically based on *other* works (in the training corpus) that use related language.
This is one of the reasons I remain horrified by seeing @historians.org suggest "ways to use gAI" that included this:
December 21, 2025 at 3:23 AM
Professional societies keep beclowning themselves buying into a lie about what an LLM "summary" is. They are inherently counterfeit: not an epistemic product of the ideas in the source, but summary-shaped text linguistically based on *other* works (in the training corpus) that use related language.
“[S]port has always reflected society – boxing most of all – and we probably didn’t like what we saw in the mirror on Friday night.” www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/d...
Jake Paul’s artless spectacle robbed boxing of its democratic dream | Bryan Armen Graham
Netflix’s 300 million global subscribers got just what they wanted: to see a former YouTuber knocked out brutally
www.theguardian.com
December 21, 2025 at 9:45 AM
“[S]port has always reflected society – boxing most of all – and we probably didn’t like what we saw in the mirror on Friday night.” www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/d...
Reposted by Niall Winters (also: @[email protected])
Why do Apple’s software interface designers hate us?
Today’s designers think you get extra cool points for hiding everything
Stop hiding scrollbars for crying out loud! Snd put some information about storage and file numbers in the Finder. Just basic quality of life stuff
Today’s designers think you get extra cool points for hiding everything
Stop hiding scrollbars for crying out loud! Snd put some information about storage and file numbers in the Finder. Just basic quality of life stuff
December 20, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Why do Apple’s software interface designers hate us?
Today’s designers think you get extra cool points for hiding everything
Stop hiding scrollbars for crying out loud! Snd put some information about storage and file numbers in the Finder. Just basic quality of life stuff
Today’s designers think you get extra cool points for hiding everything
Stop hiding scrollbars for crying out loud! Snd put some information about storage and file numbers in the Finder. Just basic quality of life stuff
“What is health without freedom?” - Teuta Hoxha #supportthehungerstrikers www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
‘It feels like being suffocated’: Palestine Action activist vows to continue hunger strike
Teuta Hoxha says she remains determined despite growing fears for her health and five other prisoners staging protest
www.theguardian.com
December 20, 2025 at 7:55 PM
“What is health without freedom?” - Teuta Hoxha #supportthehungerstrikers www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reposted by Niall Winters (also: @[email protected])
UN’s top court to hold Myanmar genocide hearings in January https://aje.io/tzf6iu
December 20, 2025 at 7:00 AM
UN’s top court to hold Myanmar genocide hearings in January https://aje.io/tzf6iu
“He and his friends were tied to a tree and left there for two days until local villagers untied them and told them to run. Three survived and made it to the camp. Mustafa stayed in Oure Cassoni. His two friends went on to Libya.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/w...
Escape From the Abyss: Surviving the Atrocities in El Fasher
www.nytimes.com
December 20, 2025 at 6:23 AM
“He and his friends were tied to a tree and left there for two days until local villagers untied them and told them to run. Three survived and made it to the camp. Mustafa stayed in Oure Cassoni. His two friends went on to Libya.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/w...
Reposted by Niall Winters (also: @[email protected])
The End of Herstory
If we are banning cell phones for kids we need to be talking about banning chatbots for boomers
www.persuasion.community/p/my-chatgpt...
www.persuasion.community/p/my-chatgpt...
December 17, 2025 at 5:03 PM
The End of Herstory
Big Tech are renting AI data centre capacity to: 1. Spread the large financial risk across other companies, 2. Hedge against poor uptake of AI in the coming years & 3. Record data centres as an operating cost, not as debt. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/t...
How Tech’s Biggest Companies Are Offloading the Risks of the A.I. Boom
www.nytimes.com
December 17, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Big Tech are renting AI data centre capacity to: 1. Spread the large financial risk across other companies, 2. Hedge against poor uptake of AI in the coming years & 3. Record data centres as an operating cost, not as debt. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/t...
Reposted by Niall Winters (also: @[email protected])
Dans les Alpes françaises, «les glaciers pourraient disparaître bien plus vite que ce que nous avions estimé» ➡️ bit.ly/44wn8xi
December 17, 2025 at 6:22 AM
Dans les Alpes françaises, «les glaciers pourraient disparaître bien plus vite que ce que nous avions estimé» ➡️ bit.ly/44wn8xi
Sanctuary Runners are absolutely right here 👏👏👏. I’d no idea the Minister promoted such a far right view but it does align with US foreign policy whichUS Embassies have been asked to promote. Did the Minister have discussions with them on stronger alignment with US/far right EU party policy? 🤔
Sanctuary Runners reject Justice Minister’s claims of a breakdown in social cohesion caused by people seeking international protection
December 16, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Sanctuary Runners are absolutely right here 👏👏👏. I’d no idea the Minister promoted such a far right view but it does align with US foreign policy whichUS Embassies have been asked to promote. Did the Minister have discussions with them on stronger alignment with US/far right EU party policy? 🤔