Reposted by David SmithAnthony Camber @anthonycamber.com · 21hI'm looking for more reviews for Between Two Worlds. It's on Booksprout if you're a member there - free to join and review. "Everything I want and need from a sci-fi story" "I loved this book" "Clever, touching and engrossing" Claim a review copy here: booksprout.co/reviewer/rev... 📚👀🌈📚💙📚🌈🚀💫 034
Reposted by David SmithRobert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 23hIt’s a mark of the corruption of our whole way of thinking about the world that trying to meet a planetary emergency is routinely described as “ideological”, while continuing to accelerate it is presented as “pragmatic” and “economic”. 181098393
David Smith @avaragado.org · 27/09/2026Ah yes, such weighty questions as “Who should we believe, you or Nigel Farage?” and “Will you raise taxes?” 010
Reposted by David SmithGabby HC @scriblit.bsky.social · 26/09/2026The British Opinion Columnists make sense when you realise they're a clique of Year 10 girls who've all decided to call Kelly From Maths a bitch and a crybaby and a virgin and a slag until she leaves school (one way or the other), except they're 55. 423763
David Smith @avaragado.org · 26/09/2026There was a time when this would've been a major story. Now it's the kind of thing that barely gets noticed. www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...bbc.co.ukHow we know this is an altered photo Trump posted with XiPresident Trump posted an image of himself welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping that appeared different from other images taken at the event. BBC Verify compared the post with verified images from... 000
Reposted by David SmithJW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 25/09/2026This is the master key to deciphering contemporary debates about free speech. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/se... 3233871259
Reposted by David SmithJames Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Congratulations to Meta, I guess, on failing to take reasonable measures to protect its trade secrets, and on authorizing extensive access to a protected computer. 38326
Reposted by David SmithCaræsten 🇵🇸 @cara.city · 24/09/2026guys please stop falling for this, this is not “rogue AI” it’s “environments with lax cybersecurity controls” 431651428
David Smith @avaragado.org · 24/09/2026Roddo Spode latest www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukDaniel Thomas arrested over video of dinghy slashingPolice had been looking into footage appearing to show the man, also known as Danny Tommo, slashing at a boat in the English Channel with a knife. 000
Reposted by David SmithSMD's pension @anothersmd.bsky.social · 23/09/2026The whole "small boats" issue is a problem created out of thin air by successive right wing governments and amplified by a racist media who don't want a single brown person in this country. It's so simple it fits in one post and I can add this sentence too. 1382119
David Smith @avaragado.org · 23/09/2026Or indeed, imagine if a non-white person was slashing an RNLI lifeboat today. 010
Reposted by David SmithJames Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 23/09/2026And what did he do on that livestream, huh, BBC? What did he do? 15470103
Reposted by David SmithCharlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 22/09/2026literally thousands of jobs in higher education were cut *last year alone* and there's been almost no media coverage and no government action 8698219
Reposted by David SmithTom Freeman @tomfreeman.bsky.social · 22/09/2026I mean, any time now would be good. If it's not too much trouble 331460372
Reposted by David SmithHistory and Heritage Yorkshire @handhyorkshire.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Laura Kuenssberg's question at the weekend "Is it for people who are singers, songwriters, artists to be taking public positions on very very controversial, difficult, complicated issues" was the most insulting, patronising, appalling question I have had the misfortune to have heard in years. 2929949
Reposted by David SmithSte Jormur @stejormur.bsky.social · 10/09/2026I'd never seen this Roy Lichtenstein painting before, but it's incredible how he manages unfailingly to make his copies worse than the original comics he's ripping off. 25908187
David Smith @avaragado.org · 20/09/2026Just saw one of those all-in-black masked teens slouching towards McDonald's. What are we calling them? Tweenjas? Winjas? Bruce Wee? 000
Reposted by David SmithNash @radiodeadair.com · 20/09/2026So Netflix is using "AI" to upscale old movies and shows, with obvious results. Using an algorithm to upscale old video isn't a terrible thing, but to do it right you need to have someone willing to go over every frame. Trouble is, dipshits think it's magic. 24472183
David Smith @avaragado.org · 19/09/2026Today: Trump announces an "AI force" and will anoint an "AI czar" Given that he destroys everything he touches, I guess the bubble's about to pop. 020
Reposted by David SmithClaire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 19/09/2026every day of my life I think about the people using “she” to describe this computer program who still need to be convinced to use it for trans women 6138743684
Reposted by David SmithAnil Dash @anildash.com · 17/09/2026David Heinemeier Hansson called for the extermination of Romani people, comparing them to animals. An entire roster of tech tycoons responded by each personally giving him $1 million for his open source software project, even though he’s already wealthy enough to have a personal race car team. 5653138
Reposted by David SmithSmall Robots @smolrobots.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Hard to imagine a more emblematic fracturing of the British social order than people turning on the lifeboats, the most conservative-coded, traditional charity we have. If these scumbags will attack the RNLI, they'll attack anyone or anything. Absolutely feral. 524886
David Smith @avaragado.org · 18/09/2026"Here's what not looking at LinkedIn for two months taught me about product management" 030
David Smith @avaragado.org · 18/09/2026Oh yes, that'll help. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukUK's 'dismal' Eurovision song choices to be examined by MPsIt comes after the UK's entry Look Mum No Computer came last in May's final, scoring just one point. 020
Reposted by David Smithflyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 17/09/2026I remember outrage about Just Stop Oil blocking a street, just in case an ambulance had to drive down it. Not because an ambulance was prevented from doing so, you understand. Just the abstract idea that one might have to. 5798298
David Smith @avaragado.org · 17/09/2026Strange New Worlds this season has been a depressing set of gimmick episodes (Black and white! Puppets! US soaps!) and then they drop last week’s which was the best in years. The theme seems to be “go mad, we’ve been cancelled”. The good eps, no surprise, are about the people not the gimmick. 000
David Smith @avaragado.org · 17/09/2026I have a mantra: “you can’t solve social problems using technology” and I can’t help thinking this problem is related to that. 061
David Smith @avaragado.org · 17/09/2026AI man: it's seeding a new silicon species BBC: *transcribes gullibly* Man: … with hydroplastic knees BBC: *scribbles* Man: … and underthermal marshmallow bags BBC: *nods pensively* Man: … and eight-pointed manticules BBC: *taps pen on chin* Man: … BBC: And what do they think about immigration? 011
David Smith @avaragado.org · 17/09/2026Can someone wake up the ~1 journalist in BBC News with a science degree and ask them to remind their colleagues that CLIMATE AND WEATHER ARE DIFFERENT. Lead story in the Climate section: "getting a bit parky innit" Much farther down: "Climate change played role in Nepal-Tibet flood, study finds" 031
Reposted by David SmithRaquel 🌈✨ @aistear.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Blumineck lo ha vuelto a hacer 🥹 le aplaudo hasta que se me caigan las manos, bravo. "Be masculine, be feminine, be neither, or be both. But be kind." 6597653914
Reposted by David SmithMike Smith @blogshank.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Very pleased to have been an early reader for this novel, which has now been published. I’m a sucker for weird and wonderful sci-fi written in a future dialect. 033
Reposted by David SmithRoger @rogger.bsky.social · 14/09/2026My copy of @anthonycamber.com's new novel Between Two Worlds showed up! One for the SF folks. YA-ish queer romance on a far future generational colony starship with more than a hint of creeping dystopia, and a really interesting idiom. 022
David Smith @avaragado.org · 14/09/2026Roger and I were talking about this the other day. It's electric motors all over again: one per factory with loads of belts to individual workers' machines -> everything has its own motor. Also, photographic studio -> box brownie -> instamatic -> polaroid -> smartphone etc etc. 020
Reposted by David SmithJess Miers 🦝 @jmiers230.bsky.social · 13/09/2026I did a somewhat deep dive into the recent OpenAI and Anthropic "hacks" for an upcoming interview. IMO, the AI companies are better off running with the "rogue AI" story because the real story is actually pretty embarrassing. Like making your Wi-Fi password "wifi" embarrassing. 🧵 341835794
David Smith @avaragado.org · 13/09/2026The advertiser pays Meta to advertise, so Meta has zero incentive to police the ads beyond the absolute minimum, and every incentive to encourage the advertiser to advertise more. 000
David Smith @avaragado.org · 13/09/2026Things I was frightened of as a child: (not shown: my bedroom wallpaper) 001
Reposted by David SmithJess O'Thomson @jessothomson.co.uk · 12/09/2026To be clear – I would argue this is almost certainly unlawful discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, even under the Code of Practice. 943091
Reposted by David SmithRicardo Autobahn @ricardoautobahn.co.uk · 12/09/2026Good lord exactly what everybody said would happen happened 213169
Reposted by David SmithIan Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 12/09/2026"don't you care about fairness in sports?" No actually, I don't. Nobody does 1134704702
Reposted by David Smithflyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 11/09/2026An entire politics and worldview animated by a lively terror that somewhere, somebody might be eating a free cheese sandwich 2993951701