Reposted by Big WombatMicah @rincewind.run · 8hI appreciate bluesky's periodic dedication to reminding us of the purity of text-only posting by breaking all images on the site 201130128
Reposted by Big WombatG. Willow Wilson @gwillow.me · 28/09/2026This sums up my own experience in recent years. My theory is that there are so many genuine existential crises right now that people's instinct is to treat even low-stakes issues (movies! fandoms! personal preferences!) like existential crises. Makes having a normal conversation almost impossible. 17552105
Reposted by Big WombatElise Thomas @elisethomas.bsky.social · 28/09/2026I was chatting to a friend who is 23 and doing her undergrad degree. She was saying that she and all her peers are using AI for assignments, but they also all believe their tutors are using AI to mark them. AI is assessing AI. What even is the point at that stage? www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...theguardian.comAs more Australian universities use AI to mark students’ work, is it creating creating a ‘slop-cycle’?Educational institutions find themselves suddenly confronted with a fork in the road 22012
Reposted by Big Wombatevacide @evacide.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Meta Muse appears to read your Apple messages and upload them to the cloud even if you explicitly tell it not to: appleinsider.com/articles/26/...appleinsider.com 1001891964
Reposted by Big WombatBoak & Bailey (Jess & Ray) @boakandbailey.bsky.social · 27/09/2026BLOG POST: Does your AI-generated beer app actually contribute something? Is it meeting a real need, or providing new information? Or did you just get excited about being able to make something with zero effort? boakandbailey.com/2026/09/ai-h...boakandbailey.comAI has made it easier than ever to make apps nobody asked forWe’ve been inundated lately with AI-written press releases about AI-built tools and websites focused on beer and pubs. Who is asking for this? 43218
Reposted by Big WombatPeter Anderson @zerogeewhiz.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Incredible. The billionth example of AI doing what it's supposed to do because what it's supposed to do is incredibly poorly-defined and does not worry about basic identity concepts like consent and data security. 34113
Reposted by Big WombatRebecca @rebeccakell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Northwestern University's Nobel winner got a private bike rack. 214110
Reposted by Big WombatIron Spike @ironspike.bsky.social · 22/09/2026General reminder, gang: @cartoonist.coop has multiple pages of tutorials on building your own site. Do not sign your productive output over to corporations who consider you acceptable collateral damage in their pursuit of profit. cartoonist.coop/resources/cartoonist.coopRESOURCES – CARTOONISTS UNITED 0837548
Reposted by Big WombatAmy Hoy @amyhoy.bsky.social · 24/09/2026yeah. you can’t beat both being able to see information and controls and also directly interact with them without intermediation (mouse, voice) the idea that there’s a next Hot New Intertace is an illusion sorry yall. magic rectangle is here to say 4245
Reposted by Big Wombatmarshmele @michelegoo.bsky.social · 24/09/2026changing my name to chatgpt to see if i can hack into a govt website with zero consequences 05213
Reposted by Big WombatSato Juniper @satojuniper.bsky.social · 23/09/2026The Noongar people In the south-west of Western Australia described six seasons, Birak, Bunuru, Djeran, Makuru, Djilba & Kambarang. We're now well and truly in Kambarang, which brings lots of glorious flowers of every colour and texture you can imagine, everywhere, & animal activity. My favourite. 1154
Reposted by Big WombatDamon Young @damonyoung.com.au · 22/09/2026If you're a social media manager and you know nothing about the history of English, just say "Shakespearian English" when you're taking about Shakespearian English. Memorable. Simple. And technically correct. 11296
Reposted by Big Wombatdr. rich traditions, JD @helldude.bsky.social · 22/09/2026it's weird that ai got too dangerous to keep advancing right around the time money got more expensive to borrow 344705966
Reposted by Big WombatMicah @rincewind.run · 22/09/2026"emma frost thinks miss piggy is the most magnificent creature alive" completely tracks actually, this is perfect 7955188
Reposted by Big WombatJohn Timmer @jtimmer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Ok, this "there are two separate brains" thing appears to be making the rounds, and I want to be absolutely clear: this is a press office overhyping some perfectly reasonable science that won't come as a surprise to most developmental biologists. 32754237
Reposted by Big WombatAstronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 20/09/2026NASA picture of the day today is a real 🏴beauty! This is a composite image of the ~5000yo Callanish Stones on the Isle of Lewis. The amazing Giuseppe Petricca has only gone and photographed the Sun at noon there, every few days, for a whole year. #Dedication 🔭🧪👌 ℹ️: science.nasa.gov/image-articl... 6644051386
Reposted by Big WombatNat Guest @unfortunatalie.bsky.social · 19/09/2026"My house and his house are two different houses, territories overlaid and overlapping. Our topographies don’t yet mesh; we are both creeping around each other’s edges, living together but apart." My first few weeks with a cat. nothingbutawordbag.substack.com/p/where-a-ca... 1619163
Reposted by Big WombatNaomi Kritzer @naomikritzer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026No one is disposable, including the canary ❤️🦜✊ 131978674
Reposted by Big WombatJohn Holmes @jhaue.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Sydney cockatoos reveal how animal culture helps them adapt to city life phys.org/news/2026-09...phys.orgSydney cockatoos reveal how animal culture helps them adapt to city lifeSulfur-crested cockatoos are surprisingly smart. In Australian cities such as Brisbane and Sydney, they've learned how to turn on drinking fountains by twisting the handle with their feet. In Sydney, ... 093
Reposted by Big WombatAsher Wolf @asherwolf.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Absolutely! Canberra currawongs sing differently to Melbourne currawongs 5468
Reposted by Big WombatThey Might Be Giants @tmbg.bsky.social · 22/09/2026People ask “Do you still play Don’t Let’s Start?” And the answer is YES. 23680118
Reposted by Big WombatAlex Holcombe @alexh.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Consequences of the flood of AI manuscripts: "An early-career researcher at an unbranded institution loses the one mechanism that ever let them be read on merit — anonymous review of the work itself, however badly it functioned in practice. 410823
Reposted by Big WombatCourtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 21/09/2026I have an AI booster in family circle who has explained to me that AI could lift the “drudgery” of writing… and then proceeds to list the fun parts of writing. Which leaves me to like format the book and do intense copy editing on some shit I didn’t even write? 2061275
Reposted by Big Wombatjenny tightpants @jtp.bsky.social · 21/09/2026"i have created the machine that thinks." you fucked up a perfectly good graphics card is what you did. look at it. it's got anxiety 3569951620
Reposted by Big WombatJoe Bak-Coleman @jbakcoleman.bsky.social · 20/09/2026We can simulate fish schools or ants in ways that solve complex problems (gradient detection, bridge building, nest selection) but no one would create this weird soul/no-soul dichotomy to argue they these that multi-agent swarms of extremely simple rules are “thinking”. 14504169
Reposted by Big WombatThe Spaceshipper 🚀 @thespaceshipper.com · 20/09/2026Elite was released 42 years ago. This space trading open world game is considered to be the forerunner of many modern games, as well as being an important milestone in the history of space sci-fi. Art by Philip Castle🔽 1519535
Reposted by Big WombatFade In @fadeinpro.com · 20/09/2026When I was a little kid, I dreamed of one day just constantly fucking selling people stuff. www.tomshardware.com/video-games/...tomshardware.comMicrosoft patents system to freeze games and inject ads during downtimes — watching commercials earns ad-free playtime creditsIs this patent a sign of things to come? 491
Reposted by Big WombatSmooth Dunk @smoothdunk2.bsky.social · 20/09/2026when ai leaves u behind 74251149342
Reposted by Big WombatChris Adamson @invalidname.me · 19/09/2026The Ford app just added AI. This is the greatest thing ever. 382315425
Reposted by Big WombatSandy Horne @sandyhorne.bsky.social · 20/09/2026A cockatiel seen in the Quorn area. 537438
Reposted by Big WombatPavel @spavel.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Every chatbot prompt box says "check answers for accuracy." But increasingly, "humans in the loop" refuse to do that. Instead, they become complicit in the AI industry's project of destroying the provenance of information. But you are person, and it is an app. It can't take responsibility for you.productpicnic.beehiiv.comAssigning agency to AI means surrendering your ownClaude is not a colleague, collaborator, or sentient being. It is a SaaS product. 825385
Reposted by Big WombatPatrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 18/09/2026I've spent a lot of years studying a lot of collapses, and the truth of the matter is that they're always mundane: mild climatic shifts that reduce crop yields, a dumbass in power who makes some terrible decisions, neglecting things that obviously matter but the will to fix them can't be summoned. 302563610
Reposted by Big WombatPatrick W. Reed @patrickwreed.bsky.social · 18/09/2026There's something to be said about how in the US CS Lewis is seen as a writer of Christian apologetics above all else & as a result Narnia is *only* seen as allegory, while in Britain he's seen as an author of beloved children's books, & we find the whole "the lion is Jesus" stuff a bit embarrassing 1940292
Reposted by Big WombatRobert Evans (the Only Robert Evans) @iwriteok.bsky.social · 19/09/2026This is a great example of one of the ways AI is actually going to endanger / kill huge numbers of people. Shitty chatbots cause their special sort of brain rot to the people who package intelligence for our shot-callers. They take the bad ideas from there. www.cnn.com/2026/09/18/p... 311492388
Reposted by Big WombatMike Batt @mikebatt.bsky.social · 19/09/2026A little conversation I had on Twitter 🙂 1231939317
Reposted by Big WombatElias Greig @eliasgreig.bsky.social · 19/09/2026I keep seeing articles about men worrying they won't pass on their genes, and I don't understand why the media won't tell the plain truth: as a man hoping to sire children, the most important thing to do is artfully assemble a bower and surround it with a collection of startlingly blue objects. 28629143
Reposted by Big WombatAlexander Laufer @alexlaufer.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Even just replacing "AI" by "software" paints such a different picture. "our software broke out and hacked some organisations". Who's reponsible now? 421569
Reposted by Big WombatKetan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 19/09/2026Journalists reporting on people who reject AI like they're doing a piece on some weird cult rather than the mainstream opinion among the vast majority of young people around the world www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09...abc.net.auYoung people pushing back against artificial intelligenceAI may be here to stay, but the generation that will inherit the results of the guidelines set for its use has something to say about that. 1236092
Reposted by Big WombatKristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 18/09/2026This is a good deep-dive into AI slop invading what used to be legit media sites. One thing I’m seeing more and more: slop outlets churning archaeology stories from 1-5 years ago and presenting them as news. 🏺🧪futurism.comHow Three Brothers Built an AI Slop Empire by Buying Legitimate News Sites and Turning Them Into Zombie Content Farms That They Say Get 50 Million Page Views per MonthBrown Brothers Media is a media empire raking in millions of clicks with AI, fake writers, and plagiarism. 21553226
Reposted by Big WombatWilliam Butler Yeets @yeets.biz · 19/09/2026i need to know what happened 309163033158
Reposted by Big WombatVictoria Strauss @victoriastrauss.com · 18/09/2026Guidance from the Anthropic settlement administrator for non-US authors on what tax documentation to provide 23931
Reposted by Big Wombatthe Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 18/09/2026This is almost certainly true btw. Addams Family pinball? You have a chance. Funhouse? You have a chance. Dr. Who? I will beat your ass 193153
Reposted by Big Wombatthe Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 18/09/2026I challenge the BBC to hire me as the showrunner: I whose only familiarity with the characters or the storyline is having played the pinball game a lot and almost certainly being better at it than anyone you know 3254031
Reposted by Big WombatJohn Wiswell @wiswell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Looking for a free way to support your favorite authors? 8339170
Reposted by Big WombatDan Hon @danhon.com · 16/09/2026This turned into today's newsletter episode! thingsthatcaughtmyattention.com/e/s21e30-dan...thingsthatcaughtmyattention.comDan, stop encouraging itThis newsletter covers the host Dan's podcast series "How People Work, Live," featuring interviews about workplace dynamics and professional skills, alongside a deep dive into an unsettling emerging… 181
Reposted by Big WombatJustin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 15/09/2026A "radical intentionalist," writes Eryk Salvaggio, treats an AI model as a 'mind' to be interpreted rather than a product that was designed. It is "a strange and dangerous relationship for designers to have with a product they are literally designing," he writes — and worse as a basis for policy.techpolicy.pressTo Make AI Rules, Policymakers Must Resist the Influence of ‘Radical Intentionalists’In industry rhetoric, a radical intentionalist stance dominates any interpretation of model behavior, writes Eryk Salvaggio. 16922
Reposted by Big WombatElizabeth Sandifer @eruditorumpress.com · 15/09/2026The problem is that "while you weren't looking the tech industry was comprehensively taken over by a cult based around a piece of Harry Potter fanfic" is self-evidently an absolutely ridiculous claim that can't possibly have happened, which is a real problem given that it 100% did happen. 4429451010