Sombre

Sombre

@clairington.bsky.social

Militant Empathist

421 followers1.6K following1.5K posts

'A quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing' isn't really excusable in this context

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com

JD Vance says of the Middle East that it's "a region of the world made up of countries whose name I couldn't even pronounce"

Not quite. The world is now controlled by boys who recognised themselves as Gollum, and are now trying to rewrite the story to say it ain't so

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Thread from Brazil

Bruno Dies@brunodias.dev

Genuinely I don't know that it comes across to people who haven't been here to watch how almost unbelievable this was, just people taking something that looked impossible and dragging it kicking and screaming all the way to inevitability.

Actual lol

John Bull@garius.eurosky.social

"This could have been an email." Aragorn whispers. "He ALWAYS pulls this shit in 'Any Other Business" Boromir replies, quietly. "It's why Faramir marked himself as busy when the invite went out."

Am minded to push this slightly

Prem Sikka@premnsikka.bsky.social

The Duchy of Cornwall owned the by Prince of Wales is a giant business organization It is exempt from corporation and capital gains tax, uses infrastructure funded by others to make profit. Inevitably, leads to unfair competition and free-rider problem.

Sombre reposted

"They can start cutting people's faces up. They can stab someone. They can shoot someone." EXCLUSIVE: Our hidden cameras capture the leader of Turning Point UK organising a fake rally for a foreign government and helping arrange a murder-for-hire with loyalist paramilitaries.

Sombre reposted

Happy 4th anniversary to the night in Svalbard when my phone took this unedited photo of a giant lunar halo over the glaciers of Svalbard to which the only response was to fall into hysterical laughter, serially taken up by each shipmate, how else to respond to such outlandish, annihilating beauty

If things had turned out properly the technological accommodations for elderly people would be much like Wallace and Gromit's house, taking care of everything *except* the people who stop by for a cup of tea and a chat

Mic Wright@brokenbottleboy.bsky.social

I have just seen an ad for an “AI companion for your parents”. It’s such a grim prospect: “Yeah, I haven’t got time to come and see you, mum, but here’s a bot you can talk to that will offer the pretence of giving a fuck.”

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When Grammy-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens begins playing “Old Corn Liquor,” a traditional Black American folk tune, acclaimed Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man recognizes similarities to Chinese pentatonic music and spontaneously joins in. The joy on their faces says it all.

I think 'what will you give up' is going to become an increasingly important question

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social

It's just wild to see people going 'the geopolitical position is bad, so people have to eat tax rises, spending cuts or both. No, I will not be giving up posting on this website'.

I know that the barbarism of the US has been evident for a long time, and I equally know that there are good people there, many of whom are also being persecuted. This is just extraordinarily personal, vindictive and abhorrent

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Productivity as an adult is just an endless process of applying new psychological tricks and operant conditioning to yourself until an acceptable number of tasks are completed.

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Could the "LLMs can't do anything" crowd and the "LLMs can do everything" crowd go somewhere private to yell at each other so the rest of us can have a normal "this new tech can do things previous tech couldn't but is limited in various ways, let's figure out best uses and regulations" conversation?

It's possible that I'm the only person that finds hilarious robot videos also to be deeply unsettling

jamelle@jamellebouie.net

i have been laughing at this for 5 minutes straight

Sombre reposted

the tech titan backlash to “woke dei hr ladies” makes a lot more sense now huh

Faine Greenwood@faineg.com

Women trying to succeed in Silicon Valley AI and effective altruist spaces are reporting feeling serious social pressure to attend sex parties - where people have reported being sexually assaulted, like below. Events like Aella’s “Slutcon,” which is happening again this weekend.

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Replying to @dsquareddigest.bsky.social

after consideration, I have produced this necessary reference guide, perhaps @sundersays.bsky.social may be interested. If someone wants to provide funding after the fact, I can promise it won't constitute a donation in kind to Reform.

Might be time to retire the idea of England as a political entity and have it as a cultural historical concept instead

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social

There's much that can be criticised about Suella's mad position, but nobody who thinks this actually 'supports the England football team'.

Sombre reposted

The Lambert conformal conic projection is a conic map projection introduced by the Swiss mathematician Johann Heinrich Lambert in 1772. It is widely used for aeronautical charts because straight lines closely approximate great-circle routes over typical flight distances.

Things I was frightened of as a child: Daddy Long Legs The deep end of the swimming pool Freddie Krueger Car bombs Strangers Seaweed and jellyfish I came to an accord with the witch who lived in my wardrobe

Jonn Elledge@jonnelledge.bsky.social

oh, good game. Things I was frightened of as a child: Icebergs (thought they gave you AIDS) That episode of The Smurfs where they got ill and turned beige The possibility of turning into the Honey Monster or Bertie Basset due to poor dietary choices A benign family friend called Auntie Alice Bungle

Sombre reposted

It's just weird isn't it when the British Museum is running a sold-out exhibition, when The Odyssey reports $1billion at the box office, when the V&A has just opened the most innovative and accessible museum model in Europe....and this is what our minister for research comes out with.

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social

A cheery message from the new minister responsible for research funding for the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences (and the subjects that the majority of UK taught undergraduate and Masters students study).

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The cats graciously put on a magic show for us last night. I figured out how they did most of the tricks, but I didn’t say anything, because that would have been rude.

Sombre reposted

Rishi Sunak announced Teesworks as his flagship Brexit freeport as Chancellor in 2021. Over £600m in public money followed. The freeport is now effectively closed. The site is being repurposed as an AI Growth Zone. The named partner: Anthropic. europeanpowell.substack.com/p/sunak-buil...

europeanpowell.substack.comSunak Built Teesside Freeport. Now He Advises Anthropic, The Company Positioned To Take the Profit.In 2021, Rishi Sunak stood at Teesworks and announced his flagship Brexit freeport.