Reposted by AndrewStephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 29mOne thing I find endlessly funny about the rise of AI is that it has revealed that there is a large number of people who believe that the reason they wrote essays at school or university is their teachers were desperately waiting for them to provide a definite answer to “Lear: what’s up with him?” 27774169
Reposted by AndrewJames Chalmers @jameschalmers.bsky.social · 8hMacron: I will lend the Bayeux Tapestry to the United Kingdom to celebrate the unique relationship between our countries. The United Kingdom: thank you so much for this spotlight you have shone on our national culture: queuing discourse will reach heights never before imagined. 13010
Reposted by Andrewtoilet bones @toiletbones.bsky.social · 12hFound the email I sent when I got accidentally added to the faculty listserv of an orthopedic surgery clinic and nobody would remove me so I sent this email to all faculty/staff/med students and they removed me almost immediately 12166891828
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 05/10/2026"the actual benefits are, of course, that I am now untouchably rich" 010
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 04/10/2026A couple of new details have emerged: * The "delineator" story was doing the rounds a month or more earlier than I thought * There does exist, *somewhere*, a detailed official report about this - someone recalled reading it in a war diary. But exactly where remains a mystery! 000
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Hobson (of the eponymous choice) seems to have become known for hiring out horses in Cambridge circa 1600, and it feels plausible that if that was a business model that worked OK there, then it might well also have been going on in London - not exactly direct evidence though! 041
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 03/10/2026two hundred years from now, we will either be taking weekend breaks to the moon or hoping the barley crop in the rubble of Camden doesn't fail again, and yet in both timelines somehow the government will still be putting off deciding whether to expand Heathrow www.theguardian.com/environment/...theguardian.comBurnham dodges questions on Heathrow third runway as project faces four-year delayAirport chiefs say 2035 deadline unachievable with 2039 more likely as critics say delay makes case for project ‘even more dubious’ 090
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 03/10/2026That said I suspect it could also be implemented quite informally - an editor that thinks a particular author is pushing things can always desk reject or say "we'll send that for review when we're finished with your last one" without having to make a statement of policy about it 010
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 03/10/2026I feel like it is rare, given the wide range of journals people use, but I've never seen numbers on it. 100
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Bell had some theories on that - seems a combination of "tampering with the original" and "wishful thinking by the end user" 110
Reposted by AndrewAndrew @generalising.bsky.social · 01/10/2026About a year ago I dug into the story of James Shearer, a corporal in a field hospital in WWI who thought he'd invented a revolutionary new medical device. He hadn't. But ... things got a little out of hand. Finally wrote it up: www.generalist.org.uk/blog/2026/ja...generalist.org.ukJames Shearer and the “delineator” – Andrew Gray 394
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Thanks! I think there seems to be some indication that contemporary rumour had cast it as a death-ray as well, though he himself never presented it as one. Difficult to say at this distance, though. 010
Reposted by AndrewBrett Holman @airminded.org · 02/10/2026A terrific deep dive by @generalising.bsky.social about James Shearer, a soldier and serial fantasist who in 1916 falsely claimed to have invented a new type of medical imaging device - something like an X-ray machine, but for soft tissue and internal organs rather than bonesgeneralist.org.ukJames Shearer and the “delineator” – Andrew Gray 121
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The original thread of trying to figure this story out bsky.app/profile/gene... 110
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Featuring, among other things, fraudulent impersonation of a clergyman, alleged death-rays, the first retraction in the BMJ (possibly), and the chair of the Flat-Earth Society. 110
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 01/10/2026About a year ago I dug into the story of James Shearer, a corporal in a field hospital in WWI who thought he'd invented a revolutionary new medical device. He hadn't. But ... things got a little out of hand. Finally wrote it up: www.generalist.org.uk/blog/2026/ja...generalist.org.ukJames Shearer and the “delineator” – Andrew Gray 394
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Wrote a 3000 word blog post last night. Trying to post it has got to "if I can get this server to stop thinking it's WinSCP when I ssh in, then I can get at the underlying configuration files and reset the password to the Wordpress admin account". self-hosting: endless enrichment! 150
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 30/09/2026My abiding memory of Waverley as a kid is those orange seats. Somehow more memorable than the actual trains. 111
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Greater Anglia doubling down on the inexplicable adverts. Are they randomly generating the numbers? Polling driving directions at different times? 120
Reposted by Andrewe.w. niedermeyer @niedermeyer.online · 26/09/2026always hilarious when stuff that people insist must be a signifier of an optimistic techno-utopia turn out to just kinda suck 1518131
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Getty Images is going under with $2bn in debt. How do you run a boring licensing company and yet lose that much money? octus.com/resources/ar...octus.comGetty Images Preparing Chapter 11 Filing as Soon as Month’s EndGetty Images is preparing for Chapter 11 filing amid financial issues and missed payment obligations. Find out more here. 210
Reposted by AndrewRachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 24/09/2026🍿 so, everything about this is the most interesting thing ever to me. If you think having to read other people's AI-generated documents is boring, at least you can skim those. What happens when someone gives a circuitous and overblown AI-generated speech? You just have to sit and listen. 89127
Reposted by AndrewRobert Hutton @roberthutton.co.uk · 23/09/2026Like Mike, I have a degree in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science (mine's a little older). Here he articulates what I've felt but not quite understood about why the new AI explosion doesn't excite me in the way I'd have expected. 115912
Reposted by AndrewSimon Kuestenmacher @simongerman600.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Kitty map! This is how cats migrated to Europe. Great little writeup in the post too: buff.ly/3ttaUWg 26223
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 20/09/2026you would bloody well hope not, surely www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukNot all AI workers think the tech could kill everyoneIn text exchanges and conversations, multiple people who have worked for leading companies are sceptical of the warnings. 011
Reposted by AndrewAssociation for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 19/09/2026Today, 19 September, is Batman Day. You’d think there would be a signal or something but Anyway, here’s “Batman’s Aff His Nut”, by Robert Florence #poem #poetry #Batman #BatmanDay mothdancepoetry.wordpress.com/2018/10/13/b... 23813
Reposted by AndrewKieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 18/09/2026Gentlemen! You can’t fight in here! This is the War Room! Good catch. You *can* fight in here. That’s on me. I’ve updated the list of rooms that it’s confirmed you can fight in. 16012
Reposted by AndrewAssociation for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 17/09/2026Happy #NationalFoxDay to all who celebrate! 🦊 #fox #poem #poetry Ian Hamilton Finlay FOX see me wan time ah wis a fox an wis ah sleekit! ah gaed slinkin heh an snappin yeh the blokes aa sayed ah wis a GREAT fox aw nae kiddin ah wis pretty good had a whole damn wood in them days hen 18652
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 17/09/2026LNER coming up with a strong contender in the baffling train advert stakes bsky.app/profile/cart... 160
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Sometimes, the big camera isn't quite the right tool for the job 050
Reposted by Andrew Comfortably Numb @numb.comfortab.ly · 13/09/2026So they realized they're in the gutter, no revenue in sight, operating at a tremendous loss, and suddenly decided to slow down "to save the humanity." 1063808873
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 11/09/2026(We also identified someone's entire secret second family through newspaper reports, a century later, but that's another story...) 010
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 11/09/2026A few years back, I used a similar UK phenomenon (exhaustive visitor lists in holiday towns) to successfully pin down the death of a minor Victorian MP - the families were named in enough detail we could confirm it was him by identifying his wife, her sister, her niece, various other relatives... 151
Reposted by AndrewDr Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Older U.K. readers will remember what happened to Ratners, and perhaps in that one way the eighties were a better time. 4489
Reposted by AndrewAlison Eales, Nerves of Steel @alisoneales.com · 09/09/2026me when I'm trying to choose a healthy breakfast 5948203
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 08/09/2026On the one hand, still a terrible advert. On the other, apparently they're... A/B testing it? 130
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 07/09/2026look, in retrospect, maybe yes, we could have thought to ask literally any questions at all about why we were suddenly getting a new PM and what might be different vis-a-vis the old one, but that seemed boring, so oh well here we go again. 050
Reposted by AndrewSteve Horton 🚀 The Comic Book Story of Space Exploration @mst3k.fan · 04/09/2026Lesser known Philip K Dick sequel! 27015
Reposted by Andrew👻 Jack Djinn Wail 🧞 @jacktindale.bsky.social · 01/09/2026One of the more interesting graphs I've seen, something that seems really counter-intuitive until you think about it. England only having about 15 percent forest coverage at the time of the Doomsday book (about half of what France and Germany have today) is wild, isn't it? 1818147
Reposted by AndrewNew-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Victorian author: In my book I invented Ebenezer Scrooge as a cautionary tale. Tech Company: At long last, we have created— Sci-Fi Author: Told you, Chuck. 2198
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 31/08/2026They even tweak the numbers for some reason, I spotted this version a week ago. 100
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 31/08/2026Congratulations to Greater Anglia, who are running the least compelling advert for public transport ever devised 3102
Reposted by AndrewSian Bayley @sleighbayley.bsky.social · 28/08/2026For the last five months the @fullfact.org team has been asking AI chatbots about false claims circulating online before we publish our fact checks. We found the LLMs often parroted the misinformation we're trying to combat. Read more about our experiment here 👇 035
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 28/08/2026I have given into the demon on my shoulder and sent an email back explaining why an AI-generated response has moved me from "mildly annoyed" to "offended by this disrespectful reply", and my goodness I am middle aged 180
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 27/08/2026Of all the many indignities of the LLM era, services that reply to a complaint email by summarising it back to you and promising they "understand your concerns" are the absolute worst. 280
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 26/08/2026"denies any wrongdoing" and "agrees to pay seventeen billion dollars" are quite the pairing www.theguardian.com/technology/2...theguardian.comMeta agrees to major changes to Facebook and Instagram as it settles US trial over teen addiction for up to $17bnUS tech giant agrees to establish further protections for teens such as daily usage limits and blocks on nighttime use 040
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Some former colleagues of mine did this, and then discovered they had forgotten to enquire about the seal's holiday plans. 05620
Andrew @generalising.bsky.social · 23/08/2026I turned up one of these (early 90s) at work a few years back which went on for several pages of technical detail and then provided troubleshooting advice in case it all got too hard. 111