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Rorie Gilligan

@roriegilligan.bsky.social
280 followers 213 following 798 posts

PhD. in hydrometallurgy. Research metallurgist based in Western Australia mostly working with raw materials for batteries. I've published papers on the metallurgy of vanadium, lithium, and uranium.

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Reposted by Rorie Gilligan
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 07/10/2026
Up until very recently indeed, airlines were the only businesses that I dealt with regularly that practiced "price discrimination," charging different customers different prices for the same seats.
A 1970s Air Canada ad depicting a man in a brown velour pullover with a large collar sitting in a book-lined study, assembling model Air Canada jets on his desk. His head has been replaced with the blue, metallic head of a 1950s pulp robot and his skintones have been shifted blue to match.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I wonder how many people reading the Daily Mail will be aware of Avi's true stance on the issue.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Revenge was part of the reason George W. Bush wanted Saddam Hussein dead.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Also, to answer the question: no
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Reposted by Rorie Gilligan
Parkscope Joe @parkscopejoe.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This is insane.
Christopher Hale w @ChristopherHale
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NEW: According to a bombshell report in the New York Times, Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah threatened to walk out of Pope Leo XIV's Al encyclical launch in May because the pope rejected the idea that machines can be conscious.
Olah's team then privately lobbied the pope's advisers "to take the possibility of model consciousness seriously." Pope Leo XIV held firm.
For months, Anthropic has wined and dined theologians and religious scholars under nondisclosure agreements, hoping they would bless the idea that Claude has moral standing.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Two journalists I only know about from appearing in Chapo Trap House reading series and the Silicon Valley vampire with a peculiar fixation on the Antichrist.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Relevant graph
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Not sure what the logic is there. Maybe something to do with gas stabilising the electric grid? Which it's contributing less and less to now that we're building large-scale batteries.
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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
AP Stylebook warns against anthropomorphizing AI systems: “Avoid language that gives them human characteristics… Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.”
APStylebook @APStylebook
X.com
Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics. This is called anthropomorphizing, when we ascribe human traits, emotions or behaviors to non-human things, such as animals or inanimate objects.
Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.
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Doctor Memory @blank.org · 16/09/2026
I believe it was @dsquareddigest.bsky.social who noted that the only way to survive an argument with Milton Friedman was that when he said “let us assume” to immediately interject “no, we will not assume that” and it’s an equally valid approach to discussing “AI risk”.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Lich McConnell
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Monday's Manul @manulmonday.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Happy Manul Monday!
A manul climbing up a rock and looking over it at the camera with a direct, assessing stare.
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Reposted by Rorie Gilligan
Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Alright. Time to read the new Amodei essay.
static.klipy.com
Alonzo Mourning Reacts to Miami Heat Loss
ALT: Alonzo Mourning Reacts to Miami Heat Loss
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Whatever happened with his pivot to being a right wing podcaster anyway? This is the first thing I've heard of him since the widely criticised Robinson interview.
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Billy Domineau 🇵🇸 @billydomineau.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
9/11 is a great day to reread my viral Seinfeld spec and to remember I’m one of the most talented TV writers available to write for your show. I have $225k in student loans and my family is about to pay OOP for my dad’s post-stroke rehab, so you’d better believe I’m gonna give you my best!
avclub.com
Read This: A darkly comedic Seinfeld spec script set days after 9/11
Read This: A darkly comedic Seinfeld spec script set days after 9/11
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Buchanan
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I remember when this guy wrote a whole column about some unknown university professor with maybe a hundred followers calling him a bedbug on twitter.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
They didn't want to admit that it would be a bad bet
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Better Things Are Possible @internethippo.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
If you want a rational conversation about tradeoffs you should start by demanding honesty from the industry that has been lying about this technology since its inception, not to mention one of the common talking points being "You're getting this whether you like it or not"
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Wombat Every Day @wombatmylove.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
person carrying a very large chunky wombat like a giant furry sack of potatoes (credit: sayoko214)
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Nick Evershed!? @nickevershed.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
‘Scary’: how misinformation and AI hallucinations are infiltrating Australia’s parliament - Guardian analysis reveals that dozens of policy submissions from across the political spectrum incorrectly summarise real research and invent or wrongly cite sources www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
theguardian.com
‘Scary’: how misinformation and AI hallucinations are infiltrating Australia’s parliament
Exclusive: Guardian analysis reveals that dozens of policy submissions from across the political spectrum incorrectly summarise real research and invent or wrongly cite sources
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zach @extrafabulous.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
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Funranium (AKA Phil Broughton) @funranium.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Them: We want to start a fume hood back up. Me: Okay, not really my thing unless it was a former rad lab. [starts pulling contact info of the correct person] Out of curiosity, which room? Them: Seaborg's former space. Me: [hands freeze] I can already tell you that you don't have enough money.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I still listen to those soundtracks at work sometimes.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Last I heard of Dawkins, he'd developed AI psychosis.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Oh right, I watched it on patreon earlier in the week.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I hadn't paid any attention to him since The Glass House ended 20 years ago, so I missed all the intermediate stages of decomposition.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
What's the topic?
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
They're going to bury her with him
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
What bizarre reasoning led to that connection? I would've thought the people who rabidly hate cyclists would be the same ones who cheer when foreigners are rounded up.
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Rev. Poppy Haze 𓅋 @poppyhaze.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
French troops require wine or else they won't fight. The problem with wine is that glass bottles break and steel cans leak when hit by shrapnel and fouled the flavor. So they invented Vinogel, a 3x solid wine concentrate made with pectin that could be reconstituted or eaten.
A 25kg plastic jug of Vinogel, by virtue of being solid, even if the container broke, the substance would not leak and it was shelf stable so could be transported in ultra-light plastic.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
It does indeed increase the likelihood of a fatal crash
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EMILY WILSON @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
No professional accomplishment has ever made me happier than this. theonion.com/translator-o...
theonion.com
Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation
PHILADELPHIA—In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” ...
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Coming from a country with high skin cancer rates, wtf?
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Stephen Schwartz @atomicanalyst.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
When we talk about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we typically focus on August 6 and August 9. But August 8, 1945, is also one of the most important dates for understanding those unprecedented attacks. (This is an adaptation of a thread originally written by @wellerstein.bsky.social in 2020 on Twitter.)
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
I've been hearing about this one at conferences for years, I guess it's finally going ahead. Scandium forms durable and lightweight alloys with aluminium, with only small amounts of scandium needed. Hence the importance to aerospace.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Iron rich asteroids contain elevated levels of platinum and platinum group metals (PGMs) owing to the solubility of PGMs in iron. Most of the PGMs on earth are in the core. Very rare in the crust. I highly doubt that mining asteroids for PGMs will be economically viable any time soon, though.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
The way they talked about those supposed resources convinced me that they think that mining works like harvesting tiberium in Command and Conquer. There are apparently some amazing quality lithium-bearing pegmatites in Afghanistan as well, but good luck actually mining and beneficiating them.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
We can add mining and metallurgy to the list of topics he's completely clueless about.
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Asher Wolf @asherwolf.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Australia’s media nepo babies
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
I guess Drew isn't his type
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
A great read on soulless AI generated writing. samkriss.substack.com/p/if-you-let...
samkriss.substack.com
If you let AI do your writing, I will come to your house and kill you
Did you think I wouldn’t be able to tell? I can tell.
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Monday's Manul @manulmonday.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Happy? :| Manul Monday
A manul crouches on a branch and stares intently at something ahead, looking displeased.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Lithium hexafluorophosphate is used as an electrolyte in batteries. Battery innards are among the least pleasant substances I've worked with over the years.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Potential criticality incidents aside, the material is likely in the form of uranium hexafluoride, which is seriously nasty stuff. On contact with water it forms hydrofluoric acid which is capable of dissolving glass, sand, and bones.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
I'm sure there's a bunch of special forces people getting crash courses in chemical engineering and nuclear chemistry as we speak. Oh, the number of ways this can go horribly, catastrophically wrong.
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
People who brag about their education to win internet arguments are insufferable
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
theshovel.com.au/2026/07/20/l...
theshovel.com.au
Local Fuckwit Makes It All About Him — The Shovel
An emotionally deficient, validation-obsessed, narcissistic arseclown has once again shown he is psychologically incapable of conceiving of a situation that does not revolve around himself.
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donoteat @donoteat.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
now i'm a broken man on an ithaca pier the last of agamemnon's privateers
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Rorie Gilligan @roriegilligan.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Bill Coffee
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