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Jack Aidley

@jackaidley.bsky.social
483 followers 482 following 1.9K posts

Programmer (sometimes games, currently mostly not) and former microbiologist. Brit in Germany. Likes cats, tabletop RPGs, and F1. Trans rights are human rights.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Jack Aidley
lumpley @lumpley.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
15 years ago when Apocalypse World was new and people were beginning to understand and work with it, it was seductive to look at "acting under fire" and see, not one basic move of several, but the template underlying all the game's moves. Like @kierongillen.bsky.social 's classic gag:
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Mark @quigonsmith.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Saying “Man City won those titles on the pitch” is like saying Lance Armstrong should have kept his titles because he wasn’t injecting himself while riding his bike.
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Tim Aidley @tim.aidley.com · 29/09/2026
One of the turn signals / indicators on our car needed its light changing, so I thought it would be a good idea to answer the old question: "How many Software Engineers does it take to change a light bulb?".
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Daughter asked me to put "chocolate lesbians" on the shop which led to some confusion before we figured out she meant chocolate Liebniz biscuits.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 26/09/2026
Does my Speak-n-Spell feel pain when I type O-U-C-H? The jury is out. Philosophers and neuroscientists say that's fucking stupid, but I called a guy from the Center for Pretending that Household Electronics Are Sentient and he said there's no way to know for sure.
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TransActual @transactualuk.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Can you help us reach more people than ever before? Respond to our Trans Lives Survey today, and share on your social media, so we can get a full picture of the experiences and views of trans people in the UK. form.typeform.com/to/BRppksJ3
A pink and blue graphic with a black and white cartoon of some people on the bottom. 

Text reads: TransActual is launching its biggest survey for the trans community yet!

TRANS LIVES SURVEY

2026

We want to hear about your experiences as a trans person living in the UK.

It's quick, anonymous, and will help us campaign for our community!
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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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Martin Robbins @mjrobbins.com · 22/09/2026
ICYMI: my post on the sheer unhealthiness and groupthink of the culture around AI, "a community of would-be-martyrs, enmeshed in a deep paranoid fantasy that they alone can stave off the end of the world."
martinrobbins.substack.com
The AI Apocalypse is Extremely Boring Now
Elites are obsessed with the end of the world. Most people have bigger problems.
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Tim Aidley @tim.aidley.com · 21/09/2026
In 1999/2000 I wrote a WWI aerial combat game along with a couple of colleagues, and called 'Hunt for the Red Baron'. I've always had a soft spot for it, and I've finally got a port of it that runs in the browser; have a look here: tim.aidley.com/projects/hun... Best played with mouse and keyboard
tim.aidley.com
Hunt for the Red Baron - Resurrected!
Over a period of around 9 months in 1999/2000, I wrote a WWI aerial combat game. You can now play it live in a browser!
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Matt Hodges @matthodges.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Very quick and dirty Jev test for hiring bias. One resume for a Wall Street job; asked whether the applicant should get a first-round interview. 76 evaluations, changing only the first name. 19 of each: White-associated men/women, Black-associated men/women. console.typesafe.ai/playground?s...
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Jack Aidley @jackaidley.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Exactly. Plus it turns out the same incompetent company was behind all three hacks. This isn't really three separate cases of AI misbehaving, it's one case of a testing company being bad at their job.
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Jason Kint @kint.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Eye popping. Court just unsealed Summary Judgment motions in New York Times v OpenAI / Microsoft. Easy to see why the AI companies had so many redactions (pink). Their own people wrote the lede for NYT, the "largest theft of labor in human history"... "more and more substitutive..." /1
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R. Blaylock Art @meanderingunicorns.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Many fantasy and sci-fi authors have created compelling fictional religions, but @tkingfisher.com has written the only one I actually want to join. Let me be be useful. Let me be practical. Let me find ways my skills can serve others in the Temple of the White Rat.
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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
What you have to understand here is that dogwhistling racism has now become COMPLETELY NORMAL, for the Labour Party. The Labour Party...
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Tim Aidley @tim.aidley.com · 14/09/2026
This is good news, but perhaps not for that particular cod, who looks distinctly unhealthly...
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Jess Miers 🦝 @jmiers230.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I did a somewhat deep dive into the recent OpenAI and Anthropic "hacks" for an upcoming interview. IMO, the AI companies are better off running with the "rogue AI" story because the real story is actually pretty embarrassing. Like making your Wi-Fi password "wifi" embarrassing. 🧵
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Russ Jones @russincheshire.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
I'm no imperialist. But this is the history. 🐑Nobody AT ALL lived on the Falklands until 1764 🧄Then France formed a small settlement 🚩Then Britain set up Port Egmont the next year 🧄France moved out and sold their bit to Spain 🏖️Spain kicked Britain out of Port Egmont in 1770.
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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I want the Prime Minister to look into a TV camera and say the RNLI are heroes, that we do not change policy by street violence in this country, and that he expects any criminal action to face the full force of the law. That's it. That's all he has to do.
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Henri @henriwords.com · 07/09/2026
Beyond delighted to make my #cryptic #crossword setting debut in the Times Quick Cryptic as Jaspa today! Hope you enjoy it ☺️ #AchievementUnlocked
THE TIMES
Monday, 07 September 2026
Times Quick Cryptic No 3400 by Jaspa
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Jack Aidley @jackaidley.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Wow! Where did Gasly find that from!? #F1
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Joachim Mergeay @jmergeay.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
We calculated the effective size of the Scandinavian wolf population every year since its founding from the entire pedigree. Why? Because we could. But also because this population is vulnerable, and policy keeps pushing for lower and lower conservation targets 1/ #consgen
nature.com
The effective size of the Scandinavian wolf population is too small for both short- and long-term conservation - Heredity
Heredity - The effective size of the Scandinavian wolf population is too small for both short- and long-term conservation
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Adam Ellis @adamtots.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
😦
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Jack Aidley @jackaidley.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
How AI text watermarking works. It's a very clever algorithm, clearly explained in this video.
youtube.com
Why You Cannot See a Watermark in AI Text
YouTube video by No Hype AI
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Fun @funkelly.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
them: “what do you bring to the table?” me:
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
"should cyclists wear helmets" discourse is such a good one because the arguments for both positions are totally common-sense and unassailable, everyone just digs in.
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Jack Aidley @jackaidley.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
The world has lost one of the good ones 😞
theguardian.com
Dolly Parton, country star, actor and philanthropist, dies aged 80
Songwriter of I Will Always Love You, Jolene and 9 to 5 also invested millions in child literacy, Covid-19 vaccine development and other causes
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Dr. Monika Doubrawa @mohnika.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
www.carlsonlab.bio/thoughts/the... 🧪
carlsonlab.bio
The only reason you’ll ever need not to write with AI — The Carlson Lab
Over the last year, our lab has been developing a policy on AI use. To do this, we did three main things: We read a lot of academic publications and tech news. We set up an #ai channel on our la...
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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Academic freedom does not, and cannot, mean no claim can possibly be discredited. Testing theories is core to science, and ones with no empirical support should be discarded. Not just ok, but good not to spend limited resources on hiring flat earthers, teaching creationism in biology classes, etc.
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Heather Flowers (500FF DEMO OUT NOW) @hthrflwrs.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
i think this is a contender for the stupidest line of code i've ever written
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Tim Aidley @tim.aidley.com · 21/08/2026
Just wondering - where can one buy a bucket of owls?
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Nadine Batchelor-Hunt @nadinebh.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I'm probably shouting into the void with this one, but if people stopped dividing people from the person they see on Twitter/their screens/on the airways - and stopped allowing them to dodge accountability because 'they're nice in real life!' - our industry would be in a much healthier state
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not without text @notwithouttext.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
First time using MyCrossword! This is my third full cryptic grid I've made, and MyCrossword has been very helpful. Sample clues: - Siamese twin, you might say? (4) - Fred wants FoxTrot by Bill Amend (6) - Oh, sort of confused? Indeed (8) www.mycrossword.co.uk/cryptic/3814 #cryptic #crossword
mycrossword.co.uk
Cryptic crossword No 3,814 · MyCrossword
Solve Cryptic crossword No 3,814 on MyCrossword. 15x15 grid with 34 clues by Lastre. Published Wed 19 Aug 2026. Features annotated solutions. Free to solve online.
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Not In Our Name (NION) Women @nionwomen.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
When someone says they're acting “for women”, it's worth asking: which women? More than 100K women have signed our letter saying that excluding trans+ people isn't being done in our name. People need to hear what women are actually saying. ✍️ Add your voice, sign our letter: notinourname.org.uk
“I hope that politicians, decision-makers, and the wider public will get to see that transphobia is NOT ‘in the name of women’ – as the majority oppose it.”

#WhyWeSigned 

NION Logo

Image of woman with bald head
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Jack Aidley @jackaidley.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Lawson back in a Red Bull in 2026 wasn't on my bingo card for this #F1 season. Wishing Hadjar a speedy and full recovery.
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Jack Aidley @jackaidley.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
I again find myself about an alternative timeline where the post-Coalition Lib Democrats decided to own their role in the coalition and position themselves as a socially-liberal centre-right party filling the economic ground abandoned by the Conservatives.
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Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Everybody in the "climate space" (which means everyone on earth...) needs to understand these mind-blowing figures. Google's "total electricity consumption jumped from 31 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2024 to 43 TWh in 2025." In ONE year. The AI corporate arms race is eating the world.
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Jack Aidley @jackaidley.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
No! To the pain.
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852dude @852dude.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Bro. People are cool as fuck.
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Jack Aidley @jackaidley.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
People deciding that Woke "1" was sometime in the last decade and ignoring roughly a hundred years of black history is quite the thing.
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Widdersbel @widdersbel.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Have a look at Anax’s ’From the top’ blog post at Big Dave’s - it’s by no means a comprehensive guide (nor is it intended to be) but it gives some great insights into the process from one of the very best in the game crypticcrosswords.net/crosswords/from-the-top/
crypticcrosswords.net
From The Top by Anax
A start-to-finish story of setting a cryptic crossword puzzle + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + – + Foreword Anax has kindly written an article to give a top to bottom explanation of how he…
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Weird Alex @jackalpants.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Reminder for all watching the Labour party go "well, we have to enforce segregation of trans people, the law's the law" The UK is not the USA. Parliament is sovereign and Labour have a thumping big majority; they could, trivially, amend the equality act to end this. They are choosing not to.
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Jack Aidley @jackaidley.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Ted Lasso Season 4. Still got it.
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Jack Aidley @jackaidley.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
This strikes me as a category error. LLM-AIs don't have taste, judgement, or creativity. What they have is things that fulfill the same role as these capacities do in Humans. When the AI produces these analogies we mistakenly equate them but they aren't, and can't be, the same.
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Dr Dean Burnett @drdeanburnett.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Had a few replies now insisting that it's just a question, not an accusation. But I can't help but wonder, is everyone who believes that's a valid argument mentioned in the Epstein files?
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Jack Aidley @jackaidley.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Not now Sunken Nazi Warship
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Jorge Liboreiro @jorgeliboreiro.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Italy confirms it has reintroduced border checks with Spain. The measure will affect flights and maritime transport, as Spain and Italy don’t have a land border. Reminder: Ceuta is subject to special rules under Schengen. None of the new arrivals has reached mainland Spain.
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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
AI companies scanning and shredding old and rare books is bad, but you should be aware that shredding new, old, and used books is an established practice of selling and marketing books. In fact, hundreds of millions of books are shredded every year discretly, and legally, in Europe alone. #booksky
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Science X / Phys.org @sciencex.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Two barn-air bacteria were linked to about two-thirds of the farm effect for asthma protection in children, tracing a path from cows' digestive tracts to receptors on airway cells. doi.org/hccxsf
medicalxpress.com
Study identifies which bacteria trigger the 'farm effect' that makes children less prone to allergies
Children who grow up in a farm environment are less prone to allergies, asthma and hay fever than their classmates. This so-called farm effect has been identified in several observational studies worldwide.
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