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David Pick

@davidmichaelpick.net
468 followers 380 following 5.2K posts

Can't DM here so use Whitehall1212.05 on Signal or himself@davidmichaelpick.net. Love a good pun and truly relish a bad one. SFF Fan who followed a bunch of favourite authors and historians here. Worked in IT at a UK university since 1971, now IT Security.

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Reposted by David Pick
David Anderson @bricksilk.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Letter printed in The Times today
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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Oh my: LibreOffice just made "no AI" one of their official features: blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/09...
blog.documentfoundation.org
Yes, no AI is now a feature - TDF Community Blog
One of the comments on the announcement of LibreOffice 26.8 was a simple question: “So, no AI is now a feature?” LibreOffice does not reject artificial intelligence out of hand, but an office suite us...
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StrictlyChristo 🇺🇦🌻 @strictlychristo.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Sir Ian McKellen orates 'The Stranger's Case' from 'Sir Thomas More' by Shakespeare about the Evil May Day xenophobic riot of 1517 in London. This passage was written 400 years ago, but times never change. Humanity refuses to change its unwarranted bias against 'others'.
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Massimo (mirror) @rainmaker1973-m.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
A family of cheetah sleep with the forest guard every night. This is what the camera recorded. [📹 Dolph C. Volker / Cheetah Whisperer] Original post
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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
This, presumably, helps explain why so few universities right now want to call getting AI to do your assignment as cheating.
ft.com
Students turn to lawyers to fight AI misconduct accusations
Legal cases rise as universities struggle with approach to technology
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Kirsty McTear 🏳️‍⚧️ She/Her @kirsty-mctear.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
ONLY THOUGHT OF THE DAY… You know ParkRun could save themselves a lot of bother by just ditching the recording of peoples sex… When signing up, people could opt to run on blue team, pink team or purple team, for example. Obviously, most people know what blue and pink may represent 🙄
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Alan @gammacounter.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Someone took an xray of a bunch of USB drives and it came out kind of menacing.
Xray 5 usb dives
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Secrets & Spies Podcast: Global Affairs | Intelligence @secretsandspies.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
MI5 issues spy alert to UK universities over Chinese ‘front company’ stealing research www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
MI5 issues spy alert to UK universities over Chinese ‘front company’ stealing research
Security service says academics should stop taking grants from and working with firm backed by China’s intelligence service
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Queen Mary University of London @qmul.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Queen Mary’s world-leading research excellence and international footprint have been recognised in the 2027 @timeshighered.bsky.social World University Rankings. The University is ranked 32nd in the world for research quality and 15th in the world for international outlook. shorturl.at/0CseE
Image of the Queens' Building, a white, stone, multistory building, on Queen Mary University of London's Mile End campus
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Tom Freeman @tomfreeman.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I was just about to shoot the mother superior's plane down, but she fired a rocket at me first. It turns out that when you lock on to the abbess, the abbess also locks on to you.
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Massimo (mirror) @rainmaker1973-m.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Professor Eric Laithwaite shows what happens when a very heavy wheel (20 kg) is spun up to 2,500 rpm. Original post
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Vintage Computer @vintage.computer · 29/09/2026
🖥️ Tech Spec Tuesday: Meet the Acorn Risc PC 600! Launched in 1994 with a 30 MHz ARM610, it offered a clever party trick: add an x86 “guest” CPU and run Windows or MS-DOS alongside RISC OS. Two architectures, one very unusual desktop. #VintageComputer
Tech Spec Tuesday — Acorn RISC PC 600. The Risc PC was a range of personal computers launched by Acorn Computers in 1994, showcasing its ARM-based RISC architecture. The Risc PC 600 ran RISC OS and supported optional x86 guest processors for running Windows 95 or MS-DOS natively. Specifications shown: ARM610 CPU at 30 MHz; 2–16 MB memory; 210 MB hard drive; color display via VIDC20 controller; serial port and optional network card. The ARM610 was a 32-bit RISC CPU. Image shows a beige Acorn Risc PC 600 desktop computer against a blue panel, over a background of electronic schematics, with vintage.computer branding.
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MicheleMuse 💙🌈🦋🇺🇦 @michelemuse.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
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George The Station Cat @george-station-cat.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
🔔 BING-BONG! 🔔 May I have your attention, please… There may be a rather important announcement coming your way around the middle of October. That is all. Absolutely nothing else to report. Please go about your business and, most importantly, do not look too closely at the photograph. 👀
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Charlie Stross @cstross.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I long for a back-to-basics web: Markdown for text, JPEG images, no video, no Javascript or other client-side scripting, writable by a human being with a text editor. Make it as advertising/corporate hostile as possible. And above all keep it *small*. In other words, web like it's 1996 again.
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Adam Weinstein @adamweinstein.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
When enough people fail the Turing test, it won't matter whether machines still fail it
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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
will say it again: the most effective way to curb far right agitators like Lowe, "Tommo" et. al. would be to stop their ability to earn money for it from social media or live streaming. So much of it is grifting for revenue, not attention.
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Ash Oro @ashoro.co.uk · 22/09/2026
1/23 Sorry, this will be long... There is a lot of shouting about what happened in the Channel yesterday. So I want to go back to basic law. Not immigration policies or political rhetoric. At sea, the starting point is simple: Preservation of life comes first under all maritime conventions.
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Steffen Hope @hopesteffen.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Generative AI is a homogenising technology, which is also one reason why it is particularly beloved by authoritarians. Resisting homogenisation of one's own voice is crucial to creating the kind of variety that keeps society healthy. To do this, we must resist generative AI. Fin.
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Ryan Boyd @ryanboyd.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
NEW BRAIN DROPPED
med.stanford.edu
Human brain is two separate organs, Stanford Medicine-led research finds
Stanford Health Care delivers the highest levels of care and compassion. SHC treats cancer, heart disease, brain disorders, primary care issues, and many more.
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Massimo (mirror) @rainmaker1973-m.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Fun fact. When Edsger W. Dijkstra, the famous Dutch computer science pioneer, was asked about his job during his marriage rite in 1957, he answered as "programmer". The municipal authorities did not accept it on the grounds that there was no such profession. Original post
Image 1
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Diane Messias @comedywriter.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The lone woman from #Piddington who is refusing to stand with racism has been doxxed by #PinkLadies and #TommyRobinson.
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𝑭𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒔 | 𝑴𝒐𝒐𝒏 𝒌𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 @farismoonknight.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
the wood wide web is so underrated, like trees literally paying mushrooms in sugar for gossip lol
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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
British lament: why can’t we do the same with the Channel? It’s tiny compared to the Atlantic…
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Aliette de Bodard @aliettedebodard.com · 18/09/2026
That's the Overton window moving. People always wanted to do this to RNLI, but now thanks to politicians and the media repeating what they say without question they feel empowered and entitled to do this
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Kirsty McTear 🏳️‍⚧️ She/Her @kirsty-mctear.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
FOURTH THOUGHT OF THE DAY… If these creatures, and also those standing by watching it happen ever wondered what they would’ve done during the period of the Third Reich… They are doing it now‼️
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Paul @fucktheracists.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
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J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 16/09/2026
"an ankle monitor for your mind" needs to immediately break containment and enter the vernacular
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Dr Vanessa @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
My understanding is that the evidence shows LLM-based assessment gives better 'marks' to LLM-written things (essays, grants etc). So by choosing to use LLM-based assessment, UKRI will likely penalise every academic who actually writes their own grants unassisted. Grim.
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Daniel C. Blight @danielcblight.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
***URGENT PLEASE SHARE*** University of Brighton management have announced today that they ‘give notice of termination of all collective agreements’. This is a fundamental erasure of workers' rights. Management have announced the termination of all contractual documents, which includes:
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William Gibson @greatdismal.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
I’ve now lived so much longer than I would ever have expected to that I feel I’m living in the future. This is when I imagined Neuromancer happening. And now the creators of today’s AI warn us that it threatens humanity.
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David Pick @davidmichaelpick.net · 13/09/2026
Just realised this explains the Cheshire Cat...
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Hassinator @hassinator.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
a great letter in the times today. perhaps worth sharing in these troubled times. #RNLI #heroes
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Theo Moudakis @theomoudakis.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Please enjoy my cartoon in today's Toronto Star
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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Had missed this - by @ellabaron.bsky.social
Cartoon: see no evil (Jukes?) speak no evil (Orr?) - and Farage 'I wasn't even listening'.
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 07/09/2026
Half a century ago, a group of lavishly financed economists from the University of Chicago (the "neoliberals") convinced governments all over the world to completely upend the way they treated monopolies.
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Ciaran Martin @ciaranm.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
From OpenAI “It’s past time for us to define standards for when and how we share misalignment incidents…we’re working on a framework” But at what point do the rest of us in wider society remember - and think about invoking - the ancient social and legal principle of commercial negligence?
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Damon Young @damonyoung.com.au · 04/09/2026
This Finnish guy has been teaching himself Sumerian, and sent a cuneiform tablet to the British Museum to check his progress. They just emailed him that they've sent him something in the post. I'm now thrilled and excited for a total stranger! Clay tablet mail! www.reddit.com/r/Cuneiform/...
a photo of a hand holding a cuneiform tablet
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rob pike @robpike.io · 05/09/2026
Sometimes error messages create endorphins.
Screen grab: Are you sure you want to delete "Twitter"?
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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
If I were a party strategist, I'd keep hammering at Reform's money. This isn't some "people's army". It's a party owned and paid for by some of the richest people on the planet, which is awash with cash but can't find "British resident donors that would support us". www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXut...
youtube.com
Undercover: Exposing Reform's secret donations plot
YouTube video by Channel 4 News
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Cat 🐈 @mrsbadcrumble1975.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
This is such fun!! #ReformUK #Nigelfarage
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Peter Smith @redpeter99.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Chris Mason watching Channel 4 News.
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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
At what point does a British by-election get awarded to the silver medalist, à la Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis? Asking for a friend of a friend, i.e. me. #Clacton
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
So it looks like Reform policy chief James Orr has straight up broken the law here. It's also exactly the same crime Farage has been accused of re: George Cottrell donating via his mother and which Parliament is currently investigating.
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Chris Addison @mrchrisaddison.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Somewhere in England, a tired man turns off Channel 4 news and wearily puts on a bin.
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mweinstock.bsky.social @mweinstock.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
British editorial cartoonist David Parkins illustrates the bottom line.
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Buck Frexit @beany.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Party which spent years condemning “unelected bureaucrats” now says unelected bureaucrats are the answer.
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Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
I made something stupid
Meowslow's Hierarchy of Kneads. It's all cats kneading.
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Chasbell 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇪🇮🇹🇨🇦 @chasbell.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Or the BBC.
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Landon🪶 @landonkat.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
;)
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