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Buttonwand

@buttonwand.bsky.social
250 followers 106 following 42 posts

🇱🇧 🇵🇸 Pretty good tatreez artist, OK writer, bad at guitar

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Reposted by Buttonwand
ceej @ceej.online · 04/10/2026
“how do we win back trump voters in 2026” we don’t. we create an environment where admitting to voting for trump is so socially embarrassing as to render them completely inert. you don’t “win back” trump voters. you demoralize them into staying home. you make it a dunce cap
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Elias Greig @eliasgreig.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Something that can't be unseen is the sheer popularity of racism in Australia— there's a massive slab of the electorate who are so deeply, reflexively AND consciously racist that they're perfectly willing to trash the economy, rule of law, and countless people's lives to see racist policies enacted.
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Iron Spike @ironspike.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Meanwhile, in Children-Are-Private-Property country....
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Sarah Clarke - Not your doll @damselindystopia.northsky.social · 03/10/2026
One thing I really hate about the way we talk about abusers and rapists is that the possibility of change and forgiveness is conflated with those things having actually happened.
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Matt Ford @mford.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Ezra Klein asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about AI making kids worse at math and reading. Huang’s reply: “Does it matter?” Then he said he doesn’t know his own address or phone number. “We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/o...
So the message of this research out of China, where you were seeing a lot of kids using A.I. to help them, was that when they were using the A.I., they were getting things done faster. But it turned out that the skills they were learning were not holding, that their actual personal performance, at least in the way we traditionally measure it, was degrading.

What do you think when you hear that?

The last part — I completely agree. Try to get a kid to do long division right now. The multiplication table is starting to be forgotten. Doing square roots, my goodness. Basic math is being forgotten. Does it matter?

That’s my question for you.

Yeah. I don’t think it does. I don’t think it does.

But there must be some set of skills that matter.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But maybe not those. We’re going to discover new ones. Just maybe not those.

There are a lot of skills that don’t matter. My first confession, I actually don’t know my address.And I ——

I don’t really believe that to be true.

It’s completely true. Janine will tell you and Lori will tell you.

One day I had to pump gas — it was a few years ago. They needed my ZIP code, and I panicked. I didn’t know my ZIP code. I don’t know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it.

But let me take the other side because I don’t want to fall into a thing where, because some skills can be safely offloaded ——

Yeah.

I also can’t get anywhere without a mapping system now. Never could, frankly. But I’m a big reader. And one of the skills I really value, one of the capacities I have that I really value is an attention span formed on physical books.

You’re a big reader. I’ve read about the kind of reading you do. And there is, prior to A.I., a lot of concern and noticing among college professors and others that the way people use the internet has probably shortened attention spans.
Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.

Yeah. Well, I think that we’re going to lose some finer intellectual dexterity, but we’re going to be better systems thinkers.

Today’s engineers are far better systems thinkers than I was when I graduated from school. But I was a much better transistor thinker.

What do you mean by systems thinker?

They think of large systems. Today’s computers have trillions, hundreds of trillions of transistors in them. When I first graduated from school, the first chip I worked on had 200 transistors. I knew every one of them by name. No engineer does that today. Most engineers now work well above the transistor, well above the functionality, and they’re cobbling things together to do things.

So you need to think much more about systems and interactions of systems. So some of the lower-level knowledge is gone.
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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
If you read the replies you’ll see that Pinker was always a race science supporter, it’s just that nobody paid any attention. Maybe we should start noticing when celebrity scientists are fans of pseudoscientific ideas, and adjust our opinion of their competence accordingly
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E z r a @bruit.eurosky.social · 24/09/2026
(sigh) there is nothing new under the sun [I'm highlighting every sentence]
presentation as statistics, newspapers, novels, and encyclopedias.  People who, thanks to statistics, &dquo;see&dquo; something intellectually they could not see sensually, are put in a curious position. They know something that they can never experience for themselves. They have a kind of knowledge that no mortal can have. Statistics offer a kind of gnosis, a mystic transcendence of  individuality, a tasting of the forbidden fruit of knowledge. But what a strange and ironically modem kind of gnosis! It is not a mystic insight into the nature of the universe, but a cross-sectional glimpse of a population’s behaviors at a single moment. The actuarial table is a kind of degraded mysticism, a form of secular  omniscience (checked, as always, by probabilities). This new kind of knowledge-knowledge that absolves individuals from the claims of deixis, of  existing at one place and at one moment is of course none other than information. Information is knowledge with the human body taken out of it.  Information, which in empiricism had meant the experience of an individual, with statistics came to mean the experience of the state, insofar as the state can  be said to have experience. Implicit in statistics is a kind of knower not subject to mortal limits. The nation poses starkly the problem of a collective subject of  knowledge (Khoo, 1988). Statistical data (information) are of course gathered by mortals, but the pooling and analysis of them creates an implied-1 that is disembodied and all-seeing. Information is a secular return of the Augustinian  God, a dispersed intelligence whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere, sustaining and giving order to the world. Computers  do efficiently and elegantly what the state already long was doing: they make vast invisible aggregates intelligible and manipulable. To use computer language, the &dquo;software&dquo;-the programs and practices-was already in place in the state long
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Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
“She nearly lost her home to foreclosure and her teenage daughter was entrusted with running her household. Her college-age son left a football scholarship to return home and help with costs around the home. Mason has three children and also raised four of her brother’s children.”
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Deepcut News @deepcutnews.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
For the first time, an Australian court has heard expert evidence linking Pine Gap to Israel's atrocities. Prof Richard Tanter tendered a 34-page report to the Alice Springs Local Court in a case involving two protestors. www.deepcutnews.com/p/pine-gap-l...
deepcutnews.com
Pine Gap linked to Israel’s atrocities, NT court told
Expert evidence was tabled in the defence of two protestors charged for an offence at the US spy base
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Adam Rogers @jetjocko.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A lot of things make me feel kind of dumb, including how to take at face value the logic of “we are a multibillion dollar transnational industry building a vengeful elder god, and we definitely won’t stop unless you regulate us the way we want, which is a secret.”
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CAMERON WILSON @cameronwilson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
An OpenAI spokesperson confirms that its models did access internal Australian government files, but say that it was only "aggregate health statistics and internal file names." They say the hack happened in June, was discovered in August, and they reported it Sept 10
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Lindsay Beyerstein @beyerstein.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Alex Karp of Palantir says the AI industry must be nationalized to protect it from lawsuits if it accidentally destroys the world. More likely, he sees the bubble about to burst and he wants to be bought out with our tax dollars before that happens.
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Puff the Magic Hater @mskellymhayes.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The media outlets that are breaking all of these Irregular incidents into separate headlines and making it sound like all of these companies are making Terminator film-like strides are participating in the political project of AI, just as many are participating in Trumpian fascism.
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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
We are not living through "an authoritarian impulse," we are living through actual AUTHORITARIANISM.
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Ette Media @ettemedia.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
In the US, the Trump administration has expressed support for OpenAI to be able to bypass copyright and train on protected material. It’s yet to be seen if Anthony Albanese will follow suit.
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Ali Velshi @velshi.com · 17/09/2026
In the new book “End Times Fascism,” co-author Naomi Klein argues that a far-right coalition of tech billionaires, Christian extremists, and ethno-nationalists are hastening and profiting from global catastrophe. “They’re not just building their own arks, they're also causing the floods.”
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onion person @junlper.beer · 11/09/2026
it’s wild that the heritage foundation wrote in text that the assault on trans woman particularly in sports is their first step in their efforts to completely abolish all Title IX protections and liberals still don’t believe it’s about more than trans women in sports
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disc horse bot @horsedisc.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Memes are fucking disgusting and won't exist under anarcho-primitivism
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elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
These fascist c-nts are everywhere because they’re no longer afraid and we need to make them afraid again. We outnumber them. By a lot.
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CAMERON WILSON @cameronwilson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
NEW: Dozens of AI data centre projects will escape Australia's proposed energy & water restrictions which aren't expected apply to green-lit projects. While the Prime Minister said they're "smaller", these projects are generally bigger and power hungrier www.abc.net.au/news/...
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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
30 incarcerated men presented a $4,267 donation to a northwest Kansas school district to pay down the district's unsettled lunch debt The donation was to be "utilized to help local children fuel their day and stay focused and energized this school year"
actionnews5.com
Prison inmates help to pay down school lunch debt
A school district's unsettled lunch debt was substantially paid down by a group of inmates.
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tunes to make you run away @whippoorwont.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
"people are anthropomorphizing LLMs because they are so astonishingly good at processing human thought and language" people will anthropomorphize a chair if you put the stitches in the right place.
chair with a "face"
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Ruth Pearce @notrightruth.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
This is the most fucked up and immediately harmful policy decision I think I've ever seen in adult trans healthcare in the UK, and that's saying something. The Welsh Gender Service is one of the best in the country. It is widely praised by the patients it helps. That is why it is being targeted.
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Death and Gravity @bushidosquirrel.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
cops don’t deter or stop or solve crime cops distribute crime
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roterote @roterote.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
A lot of people are asking me how Nathan Cofnas was hired, UGent professor Bouke de Vries invited him to UGent. Bourke and Cofnas are part of the same global network to mainstream eugenics and far right academics. Of course funded by Peter Thiel and other rich far right activists.
bylinetimes.com
The Peter Thiel-Linked Race Science Network that Penetrated Cambridge University and Targeted Jason Arday
The media's coverage of the academic's life was fuelled by the campaign of an established far-right network
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kristin (she/her) @kristin8x.antipovertycentre.org · 19/08/2026
the death warrants have been signed
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David Milner @davemilbo.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Here's me. "How the Labor Party sold out to vampiric oligarchs and authoritarian Zionist dickheads"
theshot.net.au
How the Labor Party sold out to vampiric oligarchs and authoritarian Zionist dickheads - The Shot
This week, the Albanese government, in goose-stepping sync with the Liberals and One Nation, will push into law the “ASIO...
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elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Yes, you read that write. The IDF marked Palestinians and gave them numbers in the West Bank. archive.is/2CylM#select... www.haaretz.com/west-bank/20...
haaretz.com
IDF marks detained Palestinians with numbers as northern West Bank raids expand
After a West Bank raid the IDF said targeted Palestinians involved in planning attacks, several Palestinians were released with numbers written in marker on their face or bodies
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Deepcut News @deepcutnews.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
🚨JUST IN🚨 A NSW Supreme Court judge has delivered a sweeping rejection of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, saying it is 'detached from reality'. www.deepcutnews.com/p/nsw-suprem...
deepcutnews.com
NSW Supreme Court criticises IHRA definition as 'detached from reality'
Justice Fagan says Zionism 'open to criticism' in decision on graffiti case
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Marie3Tulip @marietulip.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
The same stochastic terrorism the British media inflicted on Meghan Sussex. They amped it up when she said she had suicidal ideation. They need shunning. Meghan Markle And Prince Harry UK Royal Reporters Coverage Compared To Kate Middleton And Prince William share.google/0BwVmR4FHlgS...
share.google
Here Are 20 Headlines Comparing Meghan Markle To Kate Middleton That Might Show Why She And Prince Harry Are Cutting Off Royal Reporters
Over the years, Meghan has been shamed for the same things for which her sister-in-law, Kate, has been praised.
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Bruno Dies @brunodias.dev · 14/08/2026
This is a coordinated, suicide-baiting harassment campaign. They wanted to kill this guy; that was their goal.
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Bruno Dies @brunodias.dev · 14/08/2026
So that they targeted someone this time who did something actually serious (as opposed to amplified interpersonal drama or fully imaginary offenses) is basically just coincidental, unimportant. The point is that they wanted to kill him.
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Zera / Corey Jae 🏳️‍⚧️ @coreyjwhite.com · 15/08/2026
Now that Luigi has confessed, can we get back to turning him into a modern day folk hero? He did it, he was right to do it, hopefully he will not be the last. Remember, we can all attain heaven.
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I Liv, I Die, Oliviagain Hill @machineiv.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Remember this image every time someone tells you that protesters are "hurting their cause." Those people are the red bars. In 40 years, we'll look back at them the same way.
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Prism @prismreports.org · 16/08/2026
Gaza’s rubble is a graveyard, an archive of family memories & the final resting place of thousands of missing Palestinians. Israel is clearing truckloads of rubble out of Gaza that contain physical evidence that is vital for holding Israel accountable for genocide, Ahmad Abushawish reports.
prismreports.org
Israel clears evidence of Gaza genocide, rights group says
Israel removed 11 million U.S. tons of debris likely holding human remains and evidence of war crimes, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor says
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Wendy Harmer @wendyharmer.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
No idea why the Sydney Morning Herald is calling this a "sleeper" issue. The science has been in for decades and residents & activists banging the drums as loudly as they can! www.smh.com.au/environment/...
smh.com.au
‘Little by little cities will have to recede’: Coastal flooding is the sleeper climate issue
Up and down the NSW coast, suburbs and townships are built on low-lying land around coastal lagoons, lakes and estuaries. Sea level rises will make some areas uninhabitable.
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
A succinct verdict on the persecution of the poor young academic who just died by suicide. Plagiarism is common. Persecution of the kind he endured is uncommon, aka selectively applied. The reason why he was targeted seems as clear as it is ugly.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Wow. Proponents of the ICE taser gloves are openly saying that one reason they love the gloves is that they doesn’t leave any marks or proof that they were used, making it harder for people to sue when they’re shocked excessively.
Mother Jones

"In today's society, you know, everybody's filming everything, everybody has a cell phone," Glueck said. If an officer punches someone on camera, that can go viral in an instant; even a standard taser leaves puncture wounds. But "the glove is low optic, and it looks better on camera, and it looks better to those witnesses. With a glove, there are no burn marks or scars."But local police across the country are still eagerly buying the gloves—in large part so that they can harm people and avoid being sued for it. It's been successful "from the patrolmen to the jailers," Lumpkin County Sheriff Stacy Jarrard said in a Compliant Technologies promotional video. "It's been a great tool as far as mitigating liability," according to Nelson County Jailer Justin Hall.
Bob Couey of the Floyd County Sheriff's Department sung the GLOVE's praises, too: "I highly recommend these gloves to anybody that's looking for a utility they can use that is conducive to not leading to lawsuits."
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Return of the Cmonstermacques @cmonmaque.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Sometimes I think about this post and it makes me laugh and laugh and laugh
Asha Rangappa
@asharangappa.bsky.social
Follow
Just a general FYI: I get that the CIA and
FBI did some shady and crappy things in the 50s-80s. But if you are using those examples as referents for their (legal) powers *now,* you are showing your ignorance of some major constraints that were placed on them by Congress*
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Damon Young @damonyoung.com.au · 07/08/2026
There are disability scholars and activists who’ll no doubt give this bullshit the criticisms it deserves, so I will merely ask: Is a requirement for being a terf that you simple *refuse* to recognise others’ embodiment?
KATHLEEN STOCK
Why are young women using walking sticks?
A disproportionate number of Gen Z females are affected by vague syndromes and may be victims of' social contagion
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Autumn Wolff | Lesbian Romance Author @autumnwolff.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
"Pronouns used to be a funny joke, Hank. Until the government tried to tell me I couldn't use them anymore. So now I'm adamant about making sure trans people are gendered right. Not for their sake. But because I'll be damned if the US government is going to tell me what words I can and can't use."
Dale from King of the Hill
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Dr Sophie Scamps MP @sophiescamps.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
www.afr.com/politics/fed... Aussies are the biggest losers to gambling in the world - $31B/yr - yet Peter Vlandys says it’s extremists who are trying to reign in the gambling corporations. Albanese has allowed himself to be led around by the nose by the likes of Vlandys for way too long.
afr.com
‘Shows his true colours, and it’s ugly’: Senators hit back at V’landys
After Senate hearings into Labor gambling ad laws, NRL boss Peter V’landys dismissed it as being run by “publicity-seeking extremists”.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 05/08/2026
jesusfuckingchrist
kptv.com
Oregon senators warn prediction markets allowing betting on wildfires could incentivize arson
A public report urges the CFTC to ban prediction market contracts on destructive wildfires, raising concerns over public safety and potential arson.
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News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
A year ago today. As resonant now as then.
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Deepcut News @deepcutnews.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
What ceasefire? One million Gazans live in tents, more than 265 Palestinian children have been killed in the last nine months and humanitarian aid continues to be restricted. www.deepcutnews.com/p/five-point...
deepcutnews.com
Five points that show the Gaza genocide hasn't stopped
It's just been recalibrated, says Médecins Sans Frontières
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The Liberal BoJack @thelibbojack.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
More cops have been arrested for using flock cameras to stalk women than there are transgender athletes in youth sports.
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Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Just so everyone knows, this is a tried-and-true mainstream media tactic. For progressives/leftist candidates, every election is a “crucial test” and any loss would serve as proof to the media that the latest left-side moment is at its end. Any win, though, just means it’s time to find a new test.
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stranger @strangerous.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Sarah Hanson-Young savages Sportsbet GM Jules Norton Selzer after he refuses to answer whether they've ever returned money to victims after it’s found to have been stolen. SHY “I have to take that as a No”💥 Is it because they thrive on criminal money? Shocking.
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Max P III @blackballer.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Its embarrassing how many grown ass adults live in these fantasies where people work for some nonsense like the artificial cultures oligarchs manufacture over survival.
Dumbass CEO of Anthropic thinks people should work for the "corporate mission" over survival.
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