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Brett Callacher

@bcbluesy.bsky.social
76 followers 169 following 22 posts

Bluesman, gourmand, cook, sausage obsessive, problem solver, IT developer. English/European

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Reposted by Brett Callacher
Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 3h
This has got to be one of my favourite Grok replies after it blamed Ukraine for the Russian invasion. After allegations of intellectual theft, Musk’s LLM is asked does it paraphrase user data? Grok goes…. No, blah blah blah blah, actually yes
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Rhodri Marsden @rhodri.biz · 4h
From Anthropic’s own report, the models were completing tasks which they’d been given by Anthropic, and while doing so circumvented restrictions which Anthropic failed to make sufficiently strong, so how exactly were they “acting on their own”? 🙄
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Jock Rutherford 🌻🇨🇦 @jockr.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16h
Just seeing this now. 😢 -- It’s true: this is my final column. You have exactly 24 hours to complain before my inbox self-destructs | Marina Hyde | The Guardian www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2…
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Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 13h
Zelenskyy says Trump has betrayed Ukraine.
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Brett Callacher @bcbluesy.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
🤔 HS2 still needed.
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Leonardo Carella @leonardocarella.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
In other words, a 10 percent contraction in one of Britain’s most successful exports. If it were steel or fish or other infinitely less profitable sectors, people would be having a meltdown.
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Daniel Sugarman @danielsugarman.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Well, on the bright side, at least he'll have AI to visit him in the nursing home one day
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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Hats off to the Eye (as ever), for flagging the Conservative hypocrisy over our conference ban
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Simon Kuestenmacher @simongerman600.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
How sheepish is Europe? This map shows the distribution of sheep across Europe. Source: buff.ly/dSfHDOe
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I get the appeal of nostalgia, I really do, but I find it specifically funny to get a leaflet from Reform's candidate talking about how when he was in the Met 31 years ago, he would never have dreamed of lawlessness like the kind we now see in Kings Cross.
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Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Just comparing last week's pensions discourse with this week's £100k childcare discourse. In both instances, you have groups who are generally deemed "wealthy". For one, it's unthinkable to contemplate taking their state benefits away. For the other, there is outrage if you try to give it to them
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Prof Colin Talbot (and the late Rory) @colintalbot.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The creators of any AI, however autonomous they claim it is, should be legally responsible for any damage or law breaking it carries out. Simple.
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Adam Macqueen @adammacqueen.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Just as a counterpoint to some of the obituaries this morning, here's the start of the Archer chapter in my history of political lying, The Lies of the Land:
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Pascal @pascallth.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The UK does need to rethink its air defences, but given the likely direction of any missiles, an integrated effort with other European countries would make more sense
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Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
If The Times’ political editor didn’t challenge Kemi Badenoch on her banning of @bylinetimes.bsky.social can the newspaper of record just make this simple correction?
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Dr Dean Burnett @drdeanburnett.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
"By using AI, tasks like essays that used to take hours can be completed in minutes!" Sure, like how if I arrive at the gym and immediately go for a shower, my workout is done in record time. And if I throw my sandwiches straight in the bin, I can finish my lunch in under 10 seconds.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Useful things are happening recently on the right, with prominent figures drawing a line under the racism: Jacob Rees-Mogg, Nadhim Zahawi, now James Cleverly. Tentative sense of a social and moral norm being re-established.
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Daniel Walzer, Ph.D. @danielwalzer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I don't normally post political things but this is awful. Young children forced to make a decision on something they don't understand, and without legal representation.
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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 04/10/2026
Sends a real message to the terrorists! That message being: make enough threats and you'll get your way. Am sure that will have no unintended consequences whatsoever.
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Hagen Blix @hagenblix.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
We need to rephrase the whole discussion in terms of hazardous products, instead of "minds". And then we need to make sure that there's liability. A model hacks someone? Put a C-suite guy in jail. A model produces sexual harassment material? Put a C-suite guy in jail. Watch how fast things get safe
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Daniel Sugarman @danielsugarman.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Green Party conference just voted in favour of this motion, and this time, in the hall itself, specifically voted against an amendment which would have removed the element about “Zionist Synagogues”. As a result, for most Jews the Green Party will now be considered to have a policy of antisemitism.
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
A Conservative leader who passes up an opportunity to free themselves of the triple lock is not “doing well”, sorry. The point isn’t just to make the map blue!
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Joanna Hardy-Susskind @joannahs.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Be under no illusion: this is a significant victory for everyone who stuck their neck out and defended jury trials, day after day, clause by clause. But it is not a comprehensive victory. Magistrates should not be allowed to send people to prison for two years.
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Kevin Maguire @kevmag.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
The Conservative Party is “authoritarian” and attacking the “free press” by banning journalists from its conference when Kemi Badenoch called Reform precisely that for doing the same. bylinetimes.com/2026/09/30/k...
bylinetimes.com
Kemi Badenoch's Conservatives Block Byline Times From Conference After Condemning Reform for Journalist Ban
The ban comes just weeks after the Conservative leader called Reform's barring of critical journalists from their conference an "authoritarian" attack on the free press
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
"I don't think you have to be white to be English - if you are born and bred in England, and you feel English, you have every right to be English". Nadhim Zahawi, came as an 11 year old, identifies primarily as British. He doesn't see English as closed to Marcus Rashford or Rishi Sunak
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Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Why you can’t trust Grok - or any other LLM which basically tells you what you want to hear and amplifies online echo chambers
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Mike D London @mikedlondon.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Years of extremist media using phrases like 'Sadiq Khan's hated ULEZ cameras' in their headlines surely contributes to people like this becoming radicalised to commit terrorist acts?
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Suella De-Vil Shadowy spokesdemon for learning stuff @suellade.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Nigel forgetting the riots that happened here in 2024 What did we call them again? Ah yes. The Farage Riots
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Parkscope Joe @parkscopejoe.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This is insane.
Christopher Hale w @ChristopherHale
Follow
NEW: According to a bombshell report in the New York Times, Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah threatened to walk out of Pope Leo XIV's Al encyclical launch in May because the pope rejected the idea that machines can be conscious.
Olah's team then privately lobbied the pope's advisers "to take the possibility of model consciousness seriously." Pope Leo XIV held firm.
For months, Anthropic has wined and dined theologians and religious scholars under nondisclosure agreements, hoping they would bless the idea that Claude has moral standing.
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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 02/10/2026
Great way to demonstrate the club isn't state owned and is a totally independent business, honest.
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Sidcup man gets 15 years for home-made bomb blowing up Ulez camera - luckily failimg to injure or kill anybody with damage in a 100 yard radius news.met.police.uk/news/man-jai...
news.met.police.uk
Man jailed for 15 years over ULEZ camera explosion
Kevin Rees, aged 63, was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday, 2 October.
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Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
For a long time I've wanted a sense of how trump has or hasn't interacted with chatbots (we know he posts a lot of slop sure). And this TIME anecdote about Grok arguably leading Trump into war is just extremely bracing
Since returning to office, Trump has marveled at AI’s capabilities. He is increasingly in thrall to the tech executives courting him. In December 2025, Elon Musk returned to the Oval Office for a clandestine meeting. Trump spent hours asking Grok, Musk’s AI chatbot, questions about his presidency and legacy, according to an official present. At the time, Trump was ordering missile strikes against Venezuelan boats he alleged were smuggling drugs into the U.S. He asked Grok how Venezuelans would react if the U.S. captured Maduro. According to the official present, the chatbot responded that Maduro was a repressive and deeply unpopular dictator and that many Venezuelans would likely celebrate his downfall. After Trump ordered the mission to seize Maduro, the following month, celebrations broke out in the streets. Trump, according to officials, came away thinking Grok was ingenious.
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Chris Terry-Enescu @cjterry.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
We don't actually need carve outs for either. Schengen is not required for EU membership (Ireland being the most notable non member) and while theoretically every EU country is supposed to join the Euro in reality there's no mechanism to actually force you. Sweden has simply not joined and won't EG
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Resolution Foundation @resolutionfoundation.org · 01/10/2026
The triple lock on the State Pension is a terribly designed policy that manages to both under-deliver and over-cost. The money saved from adjusting it could be far better spent elsewhere ⤵️ buff.ly/dviy5zU
David Willetts, President of the Resolution Foundation, said: 
“The Prime Minister deserves credit for announcing what many politicians have been saying in private for some time – that the triple lock is unsustainable and needs to go. Continuing with the policy into the next parliament and beyond could end up costing tens of billions of pounds a year – money that could be far better spent elsewhere.”
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Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
New Mystic Meg prediction by Daniel Hannan who famously predicted the ‘blue eyed Sheikhs’ of Iceland Banking would would save us in 2004, Brexit Britain would be booming in 2026, and that Covid wouldn’t kill anyone in 2020 In other words, we will be rejoining the EU
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Charles Fourier @charlesfourier.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
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Chris Grey @chrisgrey.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
And recall: “one piece of evidence of failure [of Brexit] would be if we are still debating this in five- or six-years’ time in the same way. I think [if] it is to succeed it needs to settle in the British polity.” David Frost (2022). Pretty clear we now have that evidence of failure.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Yeah. So that was the best conference I have ever seen. I never dreamed I would see a prime minister with the bravery to do what he just did.
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James Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This is excellent from @stephenkb.bsky.social on one of my biggest concerns: the slow erosion of our shared reality as media fragments and people operate entirely seperate bubbles. We see the consequences of this in the States. A framented polity that can't agree on first principles is ungovernable
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Brett Callacher @bcbluesy.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The IPO to end all IPOs.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
They're such self important clowns. It's increasingly clear their weird stop-me-before-I-kill-again message is some kind of weird hype strategy.
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Adam Rutherford @adamrutherford.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Remember: the hype IS the product.
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Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Saw something in the news, wanted to make the something about himself, inserted himself into the news cycle, and then when they were released is doubling down on that because it keeps him in the news. Classic Donald pattern tbh
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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Great piece - do have a quick read and then share. Essentially, Labour putting Rejoin in its next manifesto is the single move that gives Labour the best chance at winning (possibly with a coalition) at the next General Election. 🌹🇪🇺
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Tony Tassell @tonytassell.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Emailing a public email address to notify a government of an AI hack does not inspire confidence that OpenAI has the processes in place to deal with these issues - or that it treated it seriously www.ft.com/content/5613...
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Simon Usherwood @simonusherwood.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
But absolutely tosh to think negotiations as third country (even in an accession path) can shape the EU
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David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
UK politicians have spent much of the last 70 years fighting the European integration of their worst fears while the EU developed into the organisation that they claimed to want. Not helped by some appallingly bad commentary from the misinformed.
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Dan Snow @thehistoryguy.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
England is a made up thing. It has no basis in the ineluctable laws of nature. Its extent is defined by Edward II getting his arse handed to him. Athelstan conquering York. The Welsh of Cumbria were incorporated, the Welsh of Gwynedd were not. It is a political idea, an aspiration - not taxonomy.
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Its weird that 1) Nigel Farage has a Reform MP who says Marcus Rashford is in no way English! Too black! 2) That the main "defence" is that the MP concerned says she isnt English herself & can't be English due to race/ancestry [making her a weird non-authority on who the English think is English]!
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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
OpenAI hacks the Australian Government this time. I don’t quite understand why these hacks don’t result in criminal charges every time. Hacking is illegal, and these systems are owned and run by companies with responsibility for their tools. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
Australia news live: Anthony Albanese says OpenAI agent hacked Medicare
Follow the day’s news live
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