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Hugh Barnard

@hughbarnard.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.2K following 2.2K posts

Ecology, local democracy, FOSS, AI, ethics, radical financial reform/alternative currencies, music:http://tinyurl.com/4btpysvm, miscellaneous mischief. Pic is Umi&me at the Grand Soleil in Gruissan @hughbarnard@post.lurk.org and hughbarnard.org

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Reposted by Hugh Barnard
Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 1h
American WaPo veteran photojournalist Heidi Levine was severely beaten by Israeli “settlers” in the West Bank, along with Palestinians harvesting olives. Story: www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/1... Here she is in the ambulance:
Woman with gray hair lying in an ambulance appearing stunned

Photo by Jasper Nathaniel
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Sapling 🌱 @sacredsapling.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
One of my good friends in DR Congo and I have organized a fundraiser to feed 20 Congolese families, and provide care for malaria and ebola. Please share and give if you can! Even $30 (25€) is lifesaving! www.gofundme.com/f/help-feed-... #MutualAid #FreeCongo
gofundme.com
Donate to Help Feed & Provide Medical Care to 20 Congolese Families, organized by Felix Winter
DR Congo is facing an ongoing crisis of forced labor, deadly st… Felix Winter needs your support for Help Feed & Provide Medical Care to 20 Congolese Families
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Hugh Barnard @hughbarnard.bsky.social · 53m
Good. Political economy rather than 'maths'.
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Isabella M. Weber @isabellamweber.bsky.social · 1h
“Fascism is rising from frustration, born out of a crisis of livelihoods. So, we need to reclaim these essentials now.” I spoke to the @theguardian.com's Michael Segalov about ANTI-FASCIST ECONOMICS and making life affordable for all. 🗞️ Read online now. Link below.
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Hugh Barnard @hughbarnard.bsky.social · 56m
dadart.com/dadaism/dada... just sayin'. Maybe they're Dada?
dadart.com
Dada and dadaism : Coeur à barbe (1)
History of Dada, bibliography of dadaism, distribution of Dada documents
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Nadine Batchelor-Hunt @nadinebh.bsky.social · 2h
“Why aren’t you Twitter anymore” I dunno, man - maybe because these are the comments I get when a clip of me on LBC is shared on there of me talking about racism? I’m past caring now, most of them are probably bots - but Twitter is a cesspit
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 1h
British food and drink exports to EU collapse by more than a third since Brexit
theguardian.com
British food and drink exports to EU collapse by more than a third since Brexit
NFU analysis of official data shows falls in exports to UK’s largest trading partner since 2019 include 70% for sugar and 74% for egg products Exports of British food and drink to the EU have collapsed by more than a third since Brexit with eggs, chicken and potato producers badly hit, new figures show. Analysis by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) of HMRC data shows a sharp fall in exports in the year to July compared with the same period in 2019, with sugar dropping the most, down 70%. Continue reading...
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 1h
never heard this zinging PJ O’Rourke quote before
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Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 3h
🟣 SUBSTACK Will the ‘Real America’ Please Stand Up By alexandra hall hall 🇺🇦🌻 Read below. ↓
bylinesupplement.com
Will the ‘Real America’ Please Stand Up
Many Americans keep insisting that “this is not who we are as a country”. But, declares Alexandra Hall Hall, the truth is that right now, it is
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Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 17h
George Monbiot explains why the UK should rejoin the EU, "There's a reason why Russia tried to intervene in the Brexit vote, they knew that it would harm the UK and the EU if we left" "They were very clear about that and boy have they been proved right"
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Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 3h
Praise be! For it is the 157th anniversary of the discovery of the Cardiff Giant, when (in the Cardiff that’s in New York State, just south of Syracuse, rather than Wales) definitive proof was found that giants once roamed the Earth, just as it says in the Bible
A banner advertising the Cardiff giant, calling it ‘genuine’, ‘original’, and “the most valuable single exhibit in the world today”. There are people milling about
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 3h
The order to limit the Starlink system used by Ukraine for battlefield communications and drone operations came from inside the White House, according to two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter, Reuters reports.
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Sir Michael Take CBE @sirmichaeltake.bsky.social · 5h
At least in The Conservative Party we have a better class of idiot, racist, misogynist and extremist. 🇬🇧
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Barbara Waxer 🌈 @barbara-waxer.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
When Grammy-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens begins playing “Old Corn Liquor,” a traditional Black American folk tune, acclaimed Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man recognizes similarities to Chinese pentatonic music and spontaneously joins in. The joy on their faces says it all.
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Tracey Thorn @traceythorn.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
Posh sausage rolls are too meaty. It’s the pastry we like. Stodge basically, like what we grew up on
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 15/10/2026
my horrid little opinion is that I believe this to be most true when it comes to British pastry items, obviously a warm, huge, preposterously expensive sausage roll from a wanky pub made out of poncy pork is a million times better than a Greggs one, don't lie to me, be serious
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 6h
We're now at the point where one the biggest environmental prizes on the planet features language created and promoted by Donald Trump: comfortably the single most environmentally destructive individual we'll see in our lifetimes Feels like maybe there needs to be some reflection on this fact
Super Intelligence can bring solutions to humanity's greatest challenges within reach—and
help create a future where humanity and our planet thrive together. Through our
partnership with The Earthshot Prize, we will put accelerated computing and Sl in the
ands of extraordinary scientists and innovators to discover new sources of sustainable
energy, invent materials that require fewer resources, and turn scientific breakthroughs into
the technologies and industries that make sustainable prosperity humanity's future.
Jensen Huang
CEO of NVIDIA
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 15/10/2026
This is so so nuts: the @earthshotprize.bsky.social is partnering up with NVIDIA. By my calcs: just 1 yr of NVIDIA's AI climate emissions undo Earthshot's total avoided emissions todate, several times over. No other company getting away with it quite like this one ketanjoshi.co/2026/09/16/n...
I think today is my proudest day at NVIDIA so far.

This morning, we announced together with The Earthshot Prize that NVIDIA will be joining that ambitious initiative as a Global Alliance Founding Partner.

NVIDIA has long been working to solve the world's biggest challenges through technology. Today's announcement demonstrates--although not for the first time--that we believe sustainability and climate are included in those challenges.

I've been saying for a while now that I believe AI is the best tool for sustainability the world has ever seen. How tragic would it be if we didn't apply that tool deliberately to benefit humanity through sustainability? It's available and powerful, and we want to get it into the hands of people who will use it for good.

That's the most exciting aspect of this partnership:  NVIDIA will be directly supporting innovators and pioneers in The Earthshot Prize program with educational and computing resources, engineering support, and even donated DGX Spark supercomputers.

The Earthshot Prize is doing amazing work. I couldn't be prouder that NVIDIA will be helping that work scale with AI--and bringing the world closer to the sustainability solutions we may all soon be celebrating.

https://lnkd.in/gpvfJX5QThe Earthshot Prize
teams up with NVIDIA to
bring world-leading
technical expertise and
resources to Earthshot
Finalists
14 2026 - fNvidia's greenhouse gas emissions rising 725 percent since 2020 only for the supply chainNVIDIA's Scope 3 Product Used Emissions estimated to be between four and 21 megatons of CO2 for the year 2025
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AmeriKraut @inchargeofthegirls.bsky.social · 13h
y'all... 🤭😭
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Emma Monk @monkemma.bsky.social · 20h
So they're at it again 🙄 Torturing valid HMRC data to create wildly misleading headlines, designed to invoke fear and anger about immigrants. Same old, same old... (and you'll see just how old shortly!) 🧵1/28
Daily Mail Front Page headline:

4 out of 5 new jobs went to foreigners in the past decade. 

Monk debunks Stamp over the headlne
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Hugh Barnard @hughbarnard.bsky.social · 6h
You heard it here first. Me from about 2020. www.androidauthority.com/google-auto-...
There are two additional points here. First, the data can be linked together, for example record A has the same telephone number (say) as record B, then we now have record C with the merged data. Second, this richer record C can be used for micro targeting (stuff just for 'you' or 'people like you'), because some organisation, often Facebook, knows your age, your voting preferences, your income, your car model and (pace Vonnegut1) on and on.
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 19h
Artificial intelligence is capitalism’s final destination -- Arundhati Roy www.equator.org/articles/aru... 🧵
equator.org
Apocalypse Now and Then • EQUATOR
Artificial intelligence is capitalism’s final destination
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Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · 20h
Employers worldwide are pulling back on AI as they navigate a flood of errors and low-quality work that sap employee time, raise privacy and security risks, and drive up costs
theguardian.com
Companies rushed in on AI. Now some are pulling back
Rapid AI adoption left workers cleaning up a flood of errors and low-quality work
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Gabriel Flynn @gabrielflynn.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
AI researchers warn technology 'months away' from being able to connect to wifi using eduroam
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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 23h
Ofcom rules say broadcasters cannot use politicians as newsreaders, interviewers or reporters in any news programmes. Sign our petition to demand that Ofcom takes immediate action: bestforbritain.org/petition/farage-…
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 20h
Trans women no longer to be placed on female-only wards under new NHS England guidance
theguardian.com
Trans women no longer to be placed on female-only wards under new NHS England guidance
Rules mean single-sex wards, toilets and changing rooms will now be used by people based on their biological sex Trans women will no longer be placed on female-only wards under new NHS England guidance on single-sex spaces. The new rules, published on Thursday, mean that single-sex wards, toilets and changing rooms will now be used by people based on their biological sex, not their gender identity. Continue reading...
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Hugh Barnard @hughbarnard.bsky.social · 19h
Harry Hill may be able to help with this: youtu.be/Np6gyUb0E7o?...
youtu.be
Harry Hill's TV Burp - The Fights
YouTube video by adamworthy2002g
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Xela Hart @xelahart.bsky.social · 23h
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Duke University Press @dukepress.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
Today would have been Michel Foucault's 100th birthday. In honor of his Centennial, and our own, we're offering a wide variety of free content related to the great philosopher on our blog. Books, chapters, & articles will be open access until Dec. 15, 2026. #DUP100 #Foucault buff.ly/H2nyiVZ
Black and white photo of Michel Foucault, a bald white man with glasses, wearing a dark suit, holding a sheaf of papers in his hand and looking to the right.
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Hugh Barnard @hughbarnard.bsky.social · 21h
'The creditors, collectively called the London & Valley Water company, are led by a group of American hedge funds such as Elliott Management and Silver Point Capital, and institutional investors including BlackRock and M&G.' Let the hedgies get trimmed.
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Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · 21h
CoreWeave’s credit risk climbed to an all-time high Thursday as its high-yield bonds extended declines, rattled by the AI cloud-computing company’s plans to ramp up borrowing
bloom.bg
CoreWeave Credit Risk Hits Record, Pricing 60% Odds of Default
A measure of CoreWeave Inc.’s credit risk climbed to an all-time high Thursday as its high-yield bonds extended declines, rattled by the AI cloud-computing company’s talk of tapping vast pools of capital from insurers.
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Jill Sargent Russell, PhD @jsargentr.bsky.social · 21h
I spend a lot of time thinking about "communications" as it relates to the unified development of the movement of goods and information. Communications - in both senses - are the foundations of civilization.
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Reuters @reuters.com · 21h
Thames Water seeks £2.4 billion more emergency funding reut.rs/3TGjejj
reut.rs
Thames Water seeks £2.4 billion more emergency funding
Britain's Thames Water said on Thursday it needed to increase its emergency funding facility by £2.4 billion ($3.2 billion), to £5.4 billion, to ​keep operating into autumn 2027.
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Hugh Barnard @hughbarnard.bsky.social · 21h
I'm not going to make a joke about 'someone breaking wind' (apophasis): news.sky.com/story/eerie-...
news.sky.com
Eerie orange smog shrouds Indonesian cities
The haze has also affected air quality in Singapore, East Timor and Malaysia. Experts say the El Nino weather phenomenon is making the situation worse.
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Will Lowe @conjugateprior.org · 22h
I was roughly as old as I am now, living in Berlin when Germany (mistakenly in my opinion) shut down their telegram service. Because that was 2022
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Reuters @reuters.com · 23h
Market selloff, rising rates test AI data centre deal boom reut.rs/4eaQWUQ
reut.rs
Market selloff, rising rates test AI data centre deal boom
A market selloff is forcing companies driving the global AI boom to delay fundraising plans or pay more for capital as investors demand proof they can absorb rising interest rates and computing-power costs.
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Hugh Barnard @hughbarnard.bsky.social · 23h
I was young, living in Paris when they (mistakenly, in my opinion) closed theirs: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_p...
en.wikipedia.org
Paris pneumatic post - Wikipedia
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The Great Pumpkin Papers 🎃🎃🎃 @professormusgrave.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
Everyone is getting elevated trains again. All skyscrapers will be art deco. We are redoing all cities to look like Gotham by night and Metropolis by day.
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The Great Pumpkin Papers 🎃🎃🎃 @professormusgrave.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
As part of the Woke Progress Administration, all cities will be issued leaky steam grates and lonely sax players to create the correct feeling of 10:19 pm
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Gaijin "Jiangshi" Rando @gaijinrando.bsky.social · 23h
French poster for the Technicolor swashbuckler flick ANNE OF THE INDIES (1951) Directed by Jacques Tourneur Starring Jean Peters - BOTD in 1926
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Hugh Barnard @hughbarnard.bsky.social · 23h
I don't. Be well.
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Hugh Barnard @hughbarnard.bsky.social · 23h
See also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA Couple of hundred lines of code, no 'hyperscalers', GPUs etc. etc. Fun too.
en.wikipedia.org
ELIZA - Wikipedia
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The Liberal BoJack @thelibbojack.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Zelenskyy might be saving our democracy. The mad genius is bombing Russian data centers linked to FAKE NEWS bot farms. Without them, Putin’s midterm influence will accidentally fall from a 30th floor window. I 💙 Ukraine 🇺🇦
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Invertex @invertex.xyz · 15/10/2026
PSA: The latest NVIDIA App update adds a Default-ON option that allows AI Agents to control the app... Might want to turn it off.. Even aside from being lame AI features, that feels like making security even worse by defaulting it ON.
Screenshot of the Nvidia app's "Settings > Features" section.
Showing the newly added "AI Agents and App Connections" section.
The option for "Allow Agents to control NVIDIA App" is enabled by default.
This happened in version 11.0.9.565
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Good Law Project @goodlawproject.org · 14/10/2026
I lost my career after refusing to keep quiet about the risks that Palantir poses to our NHS goodlawproject.org/forced-out-of-a-…
goodlawproject.org
Forced out of a job in the NHS for speaking out on Palantir | Good Law Project
I lost my career after refusing to keep quiet about the risks that a US spy-tech company poses to our NHS
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Charles Keener @charleskeener.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
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Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
Oh, OF COURSE those assholes use them.
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Alex Elizabeth Byrne McMillan @undeniablyalex.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
The BBC continue to make the bleakest possible choices www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...
Episode two follows Rowling as she steps out from behind her creation and becomes an increasingly powerful political voice. Amid the rise of social media and intensifying culture wars, her interventions on Scottish independence, feminism, free speech and gender identity place her at the centre of increasingly bitter online exchanges. Admired by supporters as a fearless defender of women’s rights and condemned by critics who call her an opponent of trans equality, she finds herself divided from some of the actors and fans who once championed her work.

Drawing on rare archive, Rowling’s own words, and interviews from people who worked with her along the way, this documentary series captures the rise and impact of the prolific author.

Simon Young, Head of Commissioning, History, said: “Thirty years after the publication of the first Harry Potter book, there feels like no better time for the BBC to explore one of the towering figures of British literature. No cultural history of Britain in the 21st century would be complete without the story of the boy wizard that J.K. Rowling created, the publishing and film-making phenomenon that she spawned, or the polarising public figure she has become.”
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Hugh Barnard @hughbarnard.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
'towering figures of British literature', my ****. 1950/60's public school adventure + magic, no 'lashings of ginger beer' either. Unreliable narration of her background too.
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
FT exclusive: The US has proposed that European countries unfreeze some Russian sovereign assets immobilised after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and transfer them to a vehicle overseen by Washington in an attempt to revive peace talks www.ft.com/content/5435...
ft.com
US floats unfreezing some Russian assets to restart Ukraine peace talks
European officials balked at proposal made by Donald Trump’s negotiators during meeting in Miami
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