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Bob McMeeking

@luddchem.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
22 followers 15 following 294 posts

Isolated northern chemist and embarrassing elderly relative. Looking into cultivating things other than just sour grapes. One time magnetochemist - a core […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ mastodon.social/@luddchem, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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Reposted by Bob McMeeking
Ed Davies @edavies.functional.cafe.ap.brid.gy · 17h
I have now reached the point in my mental decline where I not only have to rely on notes to remind me to do anything but I can't actually remember what the more cryptic of those notes are about.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 20h
No one who has seen and heard these accounts can ever unsee them. The absolute, inhumane, psychopathic barbarism of the people making these decisions beggars belief. #Gazagenocide www.theguardian.com/film/video/2...
theguardian.com
NAZA: the film Israel does not want you to see - video
Oscar-winning filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor discuss their documentary NAZA, which exposes the AI systems the Israeli military uses to rain down strikes on Gaza, killing thousands of civilia...
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Tim Bray 🇨🇦 @timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026
Today is FORTRAN’s 70th birthday; its reference manual “appeared in a glossy cover, handsomely printed, with the date October 15, 1956.” softwarepreservation.computerhistor… (The actual software wasn’t released till the following year) No longer […]
cosocial.ca
Original post on cosocial.ca
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SellaTheChemist @sellathechemist.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026
@SusiArnott Gist: we live in a world where the ultrarich have cornered the media and politics & where science is under threat because it reveals inconvenient truths about the world that the likes of Koch, Musk, Gates and others want to hide. That strategies include bait and switch, clumsily […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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ploum @ploum.mamot.fr.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026
People who find LLMs useful when "used correctly" don’t understand that they manage to use them correctly because they spent 20 years of there life learning their craft without LLMs. LLMs is the only tool where the less you use it, the better you become at using it.
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Jason Parker (he/they) @handle.invalid · 14/10/2026
Forgetting somebody's name: "How do you pronounce your name again?" "Bob."
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Birmingham Green Party @brumgreens.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Reform figures see social media engagement drop after strikes on Russia data centres www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/ref...
thelondoneconomic.com
Reform figures see social media engagement drop as bot accounts 'fall silent'
The social media engagement on posts from Reform UK figures appears to have dropped in the wake of Ukrainian strikes on Russian data centres.
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Bob McMeeking @luddchem.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026
PM says it is 'clear' Russia interfered with Brexit vote - www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6jdm3z…
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Paul Wermer, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 @paulwermer.sfba.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026
In short: "So for the moment the twin Trump strategy – to park the Iran and Yemen conflicts while blaming Zelenskyy – is now so transparent, so morally craven, and in its own terms so ineffective, that it looks unsustainable." […]
sfba.social
Original post on sfba.social
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Reposted by Bob McMeeking
Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
"Whatever we call it, Bashford says, the eugenicists of a century ago “would undoubtedly be delighted at contemporary possibilities for reproductive selections.”" Good to see @danfalk.bsky.social digging into the ugly return of eugenic thinking. nautil.us/the-return-o...
nautil.us
The Return of a Discredited Pseudoscience
The Return of a Discredited Pseudoscience: Eugenics is rearing its ugly head again in today’s crucible of politics and culture
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Reposted by Bob McMeeking
Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
NEW: Prime Minister Andy Burnham finally breaks a decade of UK govt silence…& reveals there was ‘clear’ Russian interference in the Brexit vote. 1/
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Heidi Li Feldman @heidilifeldman.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026
What a superb rebuke to Trump, who is determined to make the U.S. a wholly lawless state. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/…
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Bob McMeeking @luddchem.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026
All this is currently lost. Very sad...
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
“EU drops sponsorship of disinformation conference at Trump officials’ request. Lithuania/Canada were also pressured to withdraw…days before #Disinfo2026, logos were wiped off website.” So the US used disinformation to undermine a disinformation conference telling the truth about US disinformation.
theguardian.com
EU drops sponsorship of disinformation conference at Trump officials’ request
Lithuania and Canada were also pressured to withdraw, and days before #Disinfo2026, logos were wiped off website
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Piotr Walicki 📸 🦅 @zvrt.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026
Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis, 🇩🇪 Stieglitz, 🇵🇱 szczygieł). #birds #birdphotography #birdsofmastodon #birdwatching #nature #naturephotography #vogelflausch #ptaki
A goldfinch is perched on a sunflower leaf agaisnt tbe background composed of blurred vegetation
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Mike Taylor 🦕 @mike.sauropods.win.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026
So, so important to understand: "The model is not lying to you. Lying would require it to have a concept of truth. It is bullshitting you. It produces plausible-shaped text with total indifference to whether the world matches. When it’s right, it’s right as a side effect of its training data […]
sauropods.win
Original post on sauropods.win
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Reposted by Bob McMeeking
Pottery by Osa @potterybyosa.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026
I just sent this pot to a collector in Brooklyn. I'm so grateful. The form of the vessel is inspired by Gwari water pots made by Ladi Kwali (Nigeria's most renowned potter) and other women potters of that region whose names we do not know. The surface design […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
A stately voluminous vessel with a tall, ringed neck. The exterior is intricately carved with geometric patterns and an abstracted roselle calyx design. It is painted in deep iron red tones with accents of light blue and olive green. The interior is glazed glossy aqua. The background is plain, dark brown.A stately voluminous vessel with a tall, ringed neck laying on its side at a diagonal with the opening toward the front right. The exterior is intricately carved with geometric patterns. It is painted in deep iron red tones with accents of light blue and olive green. The interior is glazed glossy aqua. The background is plain, dark brown.A stately voluminous vessel with a tall, ringed neck laying on its side at a diagonal with the bottom visible at the left of the frame. The exterior is intricately carved with geometric patterns and an abstracted roselle calyx design. It is painted in deep iron red tones with accents of light blue and olive green.  The foot of the vase is also carved with a geometric pattern. The background is plain, dark brown.A closeup of my hands holding the vessel shown in the other photos with the roselle side facing the camera. I'm standing outside in my backyard and greenery can be seen in the background. I'm wearing a beige t-shirt with the words "Acoma Pueblo Sky City" partially visible with a black geometric pottery motif above it.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
It's not just that we had two wasted years under Keir Starmer - years in which, with a vast majority and quite a lot of goodwill - he could have turned this country around. On crucial issues, we had two years of spiralling backwards, towards a very dark place. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Ed Miliband to acknowledge Labour’s former stance on Palestine fell short
Foreign secretary will tell party’s conference ‘we are not here to accept the status quo but to change it’
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Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.eu · 26/09/2026
I love this @xkcd.com comic. So accurate.
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Bob McMeeking @luddchem.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/04/2026
Today's #365Minerals entry is Wutrzite. It looks quite pretty cds.dl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/cw_page/exampl…
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Egon Willigh☮gen 🟥 @egonw.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026
RE: mastodon.online/@mastodonmigration/… I wish this notion did not require some extra attention
mastodon.online
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Dr Susi Arnott @susiarnott.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026
"The attempt to control the message amplified the message itself" aje.news/miya2q
aljazeera.com
The pro-Israel censors are starting to lose
The Macklemore controversy demonstrates that the cost of speaking up for Palestine is diminishing.
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Third Green leaflet of the campaign. Notable evolution from leaflet one’s ‘it’s a two horse race between us Labour here’ to leaflets two and three ‘vote Green for a better class of Labour backbencher”.
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Joakim Melin @joacim.mastodon.melin.org.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026
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Bob McMeeking @luddchem.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026
Trump says he is banning CNN and Politico from White House - www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6e3058…
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Mike Taylor 🦕 @mike.sauropods.win.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2026
"In 1989, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sold off our then publicly owned water and sewerage industry for £5.2 billion. … Private companies have paid out, in 2024 prices, around £83 billion—an average of £2.4 billion a year—as dividends, while loading the companies in debt. Often, those loans […]
sauropods.win
Original post on sauropods.win
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Reposted by Bob McMeeking
Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
And this one. theconversation.com/could-ai-rea...
theconversation.com
Could AI really kill off humanity within the decade? Expert Q&A
It’s not the first time AI researchers and companies have issued such warnings.
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Bob McMeeking @luddchem.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026
A logical end point starting with Ascension?
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Bob McMeeking @luddchem.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026
RE: mastodon.social/@luddchem/117257573… Coltrane distilled
mastodon.social
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David Penfold :verified: @davep.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026
@futurebird I'm not sure it's academics who are feeling this the hardest. Any attempt at, say, getting information on how to fix IT issues also becomes a trawl through poor sources. I've been using search engines for IT troubleshooting as part of my job since the nineties and it's suddenly […]
infosec.exchange
Original post on infosec.exchange
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Vicky Veritas @vickyveritas.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
“The Earth smiles in flowers.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson White sprays of acicular calcite crystals that look like calcite flowers. Picture by Ray Tan. Vote #Calcite #MinCup26 ⚒️ sci-fi 🧪 🖖🏼 scifi Geosciences #WomenInSTEM geology #geosky #GIS 🍎 🪐 🔭 🌋 📚 🌿
White sprays of acicular calcite crystals that look like calcite flowers. Picture by Ray Tan.
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Chuck Darwin @cdarwin.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2026
Trump cut down all the remaining cherry trees in Washington that were a gift from Japan in 1912 The trees were cut down without approval, to build a golf course, along the Potomac biking & running pathways […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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Bob McMeeking @luddchem.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026
Miliband rejects chief rabbi's claim British Jews in greater danger after sanctions move - www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce9e3dj…
bbc.co.uk
Miliband rejects chief rabbi's claim British Jews in greater danger after sanctions move
The foreign secretary disagrees that sanctions on Israeli settlements could put British Jews at greater risk.
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I'm sympathetic to the argument in this piece that we should seek to find good uses for AI in education and child-raising, and not just recoil in horror. BUT... 🧵 www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
I’m a father of three who studies the impact of artificial intelligence: this is what parents need to know about AI
A Dr Seuss-style story written in seconds alerted me to the power – and perils – of the technology. But how can children embrace it without forgetting core skills?
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Bob McMeeking @luddchem.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/09/2026
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cmp8djn8983… - Israel to shut down UK consulate in Jerusalem, after UK sanctions Israeli settlements in West Bank - BBC News
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
80 year-olds with pro-Palestine signs: arrested as terrorists. Greens planning to block a road, to highlight an existential crisis: sent down for years. Masked far-right thugs blocking roads and ports, using intimidation, obstruction & threatening behaviour: no arrests. The real two-tier policing.
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Xamanismo Coletivo @eliasulrich.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 06/09/2026
#Harvard published a paper with a devastating title: “Large-Language Models as a #CognitiveVirus” "Think about how a #virus operates: It cannot replicate on its own. It requires a host cellular machinery to copy itself. An #LLM cannot execute, compute, or […] [Original post on hachyderm.io]
Abstract  Large-language models (LLMs) are rapidly becoming part of human culture, reshaping how information is produced, transmitted, and used. Here we propose that their diffusion can be understood through a viral analogy, with LLM use spreading through populations, becoming embedded in cognitive and cultural practices. We model transitions among uncoupled, coupled, and persistently dependent users, and show that the interplay between social transmission, recovery, and collective reinforcement can generate tipping points and technological lock-in. A central consequence is the possibility of runaway dynamics: once a critical threshold is crossed, small increases in adoption can trigger rapid population-level shifts toward persistent dependence, with abrupt losses in cognitive competence. The same framework, however, identifies conditions for cognitive immunization, based on reducing transmission and facilitating reversibility. Our results highlight how LLM adoption may involve nonlinear collective transitions with important consequences for cognitive autonomy.
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Bob McMeeking @luddchem.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/09/2026
'Miracle' eagle with broken wing spotted back above Scottish coast - www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crerw2n…
bbc.co.uk
'Miracle' eagle with broken wing soars over Scottish coast
A sea eagle that confounded experts by surviving with a broken wing has been spotted back above Scotland's west coast.
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Morgunin @morgunin.rollenspiel.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/09/2026
What Do you want to be, when you grow up?
Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin is standing on a sidewalk in front of a yard, looking pensive. He‘s saying „Becoming an adult is probably the dumbest thing you could ever do!“
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Bob McMeeking @luddchem.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/09/2026
Thieves steal 70,000 pints of Guinness in two lorries - BBC News - www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yjred…
bbc.co.uk
Thieves steal 70,000 pints of Guinness in two lorries
More than 800 barrels of the stout have been stolen from a depot in Runcorn, Cheshire, say police.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
In fact the entire food system has moved from warehousing towards logistics, creating a global just-in-time model that helps destabilise the system and will greatly accelerate any collapse. All the more reason for government intervention. But neoliberalism has made intervention taboo.
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neville park @nev.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026
Some of the researchers from this paper on how cockroach milk has 3 times more protein than cow milk are summarizing their findings in song. doi.org/10.1107/S2052252516008903 More on cockroach milk […]
flipping.rocks
Original post on flipping.rocks
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neville park @nev.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026
The #Economics Prize goes to Dr. Paul K. Piff & co. for this 2012 study showing that rich people steal more candy from a dish marked "for children" www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.… #IgNobel
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2 Spoopy 4 You @jcrabapple.dmv.community.ap.brid.gy · 02/09/2026
🧱 The secret ingredient holding the Great Wall of China together is sticky rice. Ming Dynasty masons (1368-1644) mixed boiled sticky rice soup into their lime mortar. The result was a tough, flexible, water-resistant binder that has held brick sections together for around 600 years. The […]
dmv.community
Original post on dmv.community
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Paco Hope @paco.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 01/09/2026
I've just seen this Peter Drucker management quote that I think encapsulates AI perfectly: > There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. A lot of people are using AI to automate processes that exist, instead of asking what the process accomplished in […]
infosec.exchange
Original post on infosec.exchange
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Bob McMeeking @luddchem.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/09/2026
Watch: Why is the US-Venezuela oil deal so controversial? - BBC News - www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c207kde49…
bbc.co.uk
Watch: Why is the US-Venezuela oil deal so controversial?
President Donald Trump announced the US has struck a deal to control more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
c.f. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/techno...
prospectmagazine.co.uk
DeepMind has predicted the shape of every protein known to science. How excited should we be?
The AI-based breakthrough, like the sequencing of the human genome, may not turbocharge the development of new drugs as some hope. But as a resource f...
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