iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Also, of course, machine learning itself; from calculus through autograd, it was all basic science.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

She said, "Have you ever spat cum onto the carpet of a Travelodge" Dry Cleaning

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Reposted by Conor Houghton

Ellen Corbett @ellenfcorbett.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

So pleased to see my piece published! Based on my PhD thesis, my article looks at two Irish poets who have resisted translation in differing ways… Thank you so much to @wasafirimag.bsky.social for this opportunity!

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Not going for the obvious reason.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

A strong female lead who was also allowed to look strong and, so strong.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Which is all to say, that there is great joy to be had in learning the phonology of Irish and Scottish Gaelic and the subtly of our consonants and this is deflected by inexplicable and peevish pleasure people find in making fun of how we spell Saoirse.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I mean 23 obviously with fathas, but, beyond that there is the whole glory of the thin and wide consonants. The map allowed correctly for the doubled consonants in Welsh to count as different letters and seemed ignorant that we decorate consonants with the width of the vowels that surround them!

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

It's funny; the news feed on my phone showed me a map recently of counties coloured by the number of letters in their alphabets and, of course, marked Ireland and Scotland at 18.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

It would've killed them to draw a bar chart?

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

"epistemology" in contrast comes from French and originally meant the study of skiing down a slope; recently the term has broadened to include snowboarding.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

It isn't just a question of what the UK wants! I hope the EU doesn't readmit the UK while people here continue to think the whimiscal outcome some of post-imperial self-obsessed UK psychodrama of regret is the only criterion for membership.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Brexit was stupid but surely it is just another symptom rather than a cause: there is a childishness born of empire that refuses responsibility and seeks to externalize blame.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Roses are red Starmer is not You aren't Andy Burnham But I still think you're hot

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Reposted by Conor Houghton

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

the tragic thing is that it's really only the top twenty or thirty dads who make real money out of it, you can be the hundredth best dad in the world and you're mostly working as a dad coach.

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Emily✨ @emilyoram.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

I would like to see Iran (IRN) play Brunei (BRU)

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Roses are red Algae is green If you were a reflecting pool I'd pretend you were clean

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

I think it's Labour failing to articulate a positive vision for a progressive nation that's giving Reform a high chance of winning, here and across the country.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

I am also surprised how little neuroscience has helped, or how wrong-headed some neuroscientific discussion of consciousness is, when cognitive science, psychology and computer science / machine learning, is more likely to provide clues and paths.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

I amn't saying philosophy alone can lead us to consciousness, but I am saying that we shouldn't dismiss it, or, indeed, underestimate the influence of philosophy on early twentieth century physics.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

I agree philosophy may never have come up anything as surprising as quantum mechanics; I worry we are over-learning the lessons of early twentieth century physics.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

I buy some of that; I started my life in theoretical physics, believed Dirac's prediction of the positron from the mathematics of spinors was the height of human acheivement.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Only for no one to really watch it . . .

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Dogs are certainly responsive, they have interiority, personality, maybe even hope and dread. I have no idea how that maps onto what I think of as my own consiousness, but it seems qualitatively as well as quantitively different. Language models, in contrast, talk to themselves, as I do.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

It is interesting, I went to a talk by Michael Pollan recently, he's decided he's an expert, he talked about a "Copernican moment" transforming science as it extends consiousness to include animals. However, as far as I can tell, this "Copernican moment" is not matched by any scientific advance.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

I amn't sure neuroscience has much to say about consciousness, it is forever distracting itself with attention and alertness, things substantially removed from our experience of our own consicousness.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

It's by the pyramid isn't it?

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Essential for survival on Church Road!

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Now could you locate Johnny Cullen's Hill on a map?

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

In time of war people will be shown the Grattan Bridge and asked to name it, if they say "Grattan Bridge" and not "Capel Street Bridge" they'll be taken out back and shot.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

If they patronize you, it's real life.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Some days you're Andy Burnham, some days you're Josh Simons.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Well aren't you a grand man for the words.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

and isn't that how we translate it 'at all at all'.

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Reposted by Conor Houghton

Hanna Ní Lochnáin @nilochnain.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Tá a fhios agat go bhfuil tú (sách) Gaelaithe nuair a mbíonn ort an leagan Gaelainne d'fhocal a fheiscint chun an leagan Béarla a thuiscint i gceart! Benedict = Beannacht - ar ndóigh!! Comhartha deas DAS - an seana-cheann é n'fheadar?

Grianghraf de chomhartha sráide:
Garrdhaí Shan Beannacht
Saint Benedict's Gardens

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Reposted by Conor Houghton

Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

You really can’t overstate the significance of this diagram in understanding the U.K.’s political paroxysm. Also, having understood it, you are now better informed than every U.K. politician and media outlet. Check out the very detailed write up explaining how it was created.

Um, it’s a diagram where the lines in the left are 2024’s voting intentions and the lines in the right are the 2026 local election results.

It shows that more Labour voters left for the greens (16%) than for Reform (2%). The biggest bloc of Reform voters came from the group who didn’t previously vote for anyone.

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Reposted by Conor Houghton

Eoin Lettice @eoinlettice.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

I am absolutely here for @oliver.ie 's motion at tonight's Cork City Council meeting (referred to a relevant committee).

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

London is different, there all the seats were contested but Londoners are generally nicer so the far right did less well there.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

On the assumption they'll make a hames of actual adminstration this victory without power may be the worst possible result.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

It means the far right won in some northern areas all or most of the seats they could without it being possible to win the council.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 10/05/2026

Many of the councils only had electrons for a third of their seats; it's a peculiarity of local government here.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

It's all kicking off in Henrietta Park.

A sign in a park reads "No nude picnicking here, this isn't Keynsham!"

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Ah yes but I did the same, somewhere between the Guardian Quiz and lunch and I don't have much to show for it by way of being head of anything much.

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Oh the years, the pleasure of sitting in a cafe on a Saturday morning, drinking terrible coffee or milky sweet tea, drawing big blue rectangles about the things you'd like to see, adding a "*" beside some.

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Reposted by Conor Houghton

Medieval Illumination @medieval-illuminations.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/05/2026

LSD saints. Beatus of Liébana, Commentarius in Apocalypsin, Burgos ca. 1180. NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991.232.6. #medieval #MedievalArt

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Conor Houghton @conjh.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

This is one of the internet great failures; it killed the local listings papers you'd get in every big town but has produced nothing to replace them.

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