Sign in

Sarah

@sarahskeeter.bsky.social
788 followers 1.7K following 558 posts

Curiouser and curiouser, and increasingly militant

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Sarah
Lynn O'K @lynnok.bsky.social · 3h
Jim O'Callaghan has shown such distain for women as victims of men's violence. He insisted on continuing the right of abusers to access the therapy notes of their victims to use against the victims in court. And now this is the result of his collapsing of the free legal aid and family law system.
0167
Reposted by Sarah
Ronald Hartz @ronaldhartz.bsky.social · 2h
👇
035
Reposted by Sarah
Running Dog @runningdog.bsky.social · 6h
Strikes me that when the hacks all went to Reform conferences and declared it very professional and detoxified, either the UK’s largest grouping of pub uncles somehow maintained best behaviour for a whole weekend, or the UK’s finest political journalists just weren’t very observant
113046
Reposted by Sarah
Dr. Johnathan Flowers, Bisexual of the Blade (Alt-text or DIE) @shengokai.blacksky.app · 6h
This isn’t so much wild if you think about the political situation of higher-ed. When I was doing advocacy as an early scholar, advocacy which proceeded from my scholarship, I was constantly told I needed to choose between being a scholar or an activist.
2317
Reposted by Sarah
Sam Bergman @violanorth.bsky.social · 7h
Absolutely wild that this is considered a *bad and risky* quality for a human person to possess while holding a job.
0213
Reposted by Sarah
Metal Gear Summer '27 ☀️🥀☠️ @mgearsolidarity.bsky.social · 12h
This is an incredible vibe and everybody should remember this.
55510
Reposted by Sarah
Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 12h
It's. A. Piece. Of. Software. It. Was. Designed. To. Trick. You. Into. Thinking. This.
65510
Reposted by Sarah
John Wiswell @wiswell.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
The only people who think book banning is good publicity are authors who sell so many copies they wouldn't notice. Okay, cool, the ban didn't sink Stephen King's career? Try interviewing a queer author whose book hasn't hit four digits.
1400145
Reposted by Sarah
KosmicKris @kosmickris.bsky.social · 14h
In this @phillipspobrien.bsky.social makes the excellent point, that Starlink dependency is as much as a threat to the US as it is globally. A malevolent operator, making political donations in the hundreds of millions, could easily use the on/off switch to impact domestic political opponents.
21574204
Reposted by Sarah
Orla Hegarty @orla-hegarty.bsky.social · 16h
‘€43bn should have been enough to build 110,000 homes. Only 27,000 were built many [councils] are buying new housing from the market – such purchases totalling 44% of their overall output in 2025 (1,257 dwellings) This is expensive and deals are opaque’ www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2026...
irishtimes.com
Lorcan Sirr: €43bn should have been enough to build 110,000 homes. Only 27,000 were built
Another €9.4 billion was allocated to housing last week. There are questions to be asked about the effectiveness of housing budget spending
01711
Reposted by Sarah
Climate News @climatenews.bsky.social · 17h
Socialists understand economics and investment far better than capitalists.
25319
Reposted by Sarah
Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 14/10/2026
Am seeing a large number of these 'ethical use principles' or some variant cropping up, many with reference to UNESCO's principles. Extremely vague, loose, and clearly intended as a post-hoc rationalisation for unlimited use Akin to a 'sustainable private jet use' guideline document
OLICY AREA 5: ENVIRONMENT AND ECOSYSTEMS84.Member    States    and    business    enterprises    should    assess  the  direct  and  indirect  environmental  impact  throughout  the  AI  system  life  cycle,  including,  but  not  limited to, its carbon footprint, energy consumption and the  environmental  impact  of  raw  material  extraction  for  supporting  the  manufacturing  of  AI  technologies,  and  reduce  the  environmental  impact  of  AI  systems  and  data  infrastructures.  Member  States  should  ensure  compliance  of  all  AI  actors  with  environmental  law,  policies and practices.
3185.Member   States   should   introduce   incentives,   when   needed  and  appropriate,  to  ensure  the  development  and  adoption  of  rights-based  and  ethical  AI-powered  solutions   for   disaster   risk   resilience;   the   monitoring,   protection  and  regeneration  of  the  environment  and  ecosystems;  and  the  preservation  of  the  planet.  These  AI   systems   should   involve   the   participation   of   local   and  indigenous  communities  throughout  the  life  cycle  of  AI  systems  and  should  support  circular  economy  type   approaches   and   sustainable   consumption   and   production  patterns.  Some  examples  include  using  AI  systems, when needed and appropriate, to:(a)      Support      the      protection,      monitoring      and      management of natural resources.(b)  Support  the  prediction,  prevention,  control  and  mitigation of climate-related problems.(c)   Support   a   more   efficient   and   sustainable   food   ecosystem.(d)  Support  the  acceleration  of  access  to  and  mass  adoption of sustainable energy.(e)    Enable    and    promote    the    mainstreaming    of    sustainable    infrastructure,    sustainable    business    models   and   sustainable   finance   for   sustainable   development.(f ) Detect pollutants or predict levels of pollution and thus  help  relevant  stakeholders  identify,  …
410229
Reposted by Sarah
Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 15/10/2026
At the same time it has tossed cash at non-labour expenses. (Insert here the Catechism of The Blessed Bike Shed and the Tale of the Tractor Lads) It simply cannot abide the thought of people who earn a salary, as opposed to dividends or rent or share options, getting paid more this year than last.
1319
Reposted by Sarah
Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
The State has, everywhere it purchases labour, sought to simply cut its own costs and expected to continue to receive the same services. This is, as those of us who have, for example, bought a weekly shop recently can testify, not how this works.
24611
Reposted by Sarah
Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
None of these are particularly useful responses to impending industrial action. But they are the various responses of a group of people who are reacting emotionally to discovering the limits of their power to dictate terms.
1417
Reposted by Sarah
Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Today saw a really significant strike- the biggest in, really, decades. It happened because the people in the Government (politicians and civil service management alike) had no experience with how to address a strike. It had never happened to them and they were all over the shop in responding.
310841
Reposted by Sarah
Endless Night @endlessnight.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Horrible news. The annual labor report that he helped make is one of the few and the most important worker inquiries into proletarian conditions in China today.
0197
Reposted by Sarah
MattTS @mattts.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Eating a meal? A succulent Chinese meal?
05120
Reposted by Sarah
Kevin O'Sullivan @kevinkosullivan.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Some context for colleagues outside Ireland: over 300,000 people are on strike today. That's over 11 per cent of *all* people working in the state.
27239
Reposted by Sarah
egg16z 🥚 @notlikewe.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
I think people assume it’s hyperbole when I say it is critical for national security that we nationalize spacex but it very much is not hyperbole, it is an imperative
4391109
Reposted by Sarah
flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
BlueSky is serving a lot of this stuff up to me now and I guess it works, in the sense that it’s a pleasing story for children
Crude AI Scooby Doo cartoon: they unmask a scary MAGA ghost, and it’s a bizarre computer bank with a weird moustached face. It’s got “Russian data centres” written on it, for any slow people who don’t get the point being made.
1514619
Reposted by Sarah
George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Palantir didn't have to evade the UK's controls on lobbyists to get astonishing, unminuted access to government ministers and officials, or even to hire them to lobby their colleagues. Why not? Because there aren't any. My column. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Palantir is worming its way into the British state – it’s time to curb this controversial US company’s influence | George Monbiot
Tom Watson has said ‘mob rule’ must not decide public contracts. Perhaps he should take a look at his new employer, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
571597818
Reposted by Sarah
ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
An answer to the question: ‘What happens when a nation’s ruling class is thirty-somethings who’ve learned about the world from comic book movies, Something Awful, video games & poorly digested cybernetics?’ Answer: It rationalises consuming the spectacle of violent cruelty as liberation.
067
Reposted by Sarah
flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Well, this makes more sense if you understand that Watson only start working for all these tech and gambling firms *officially* in the last few years, and that he was always working for them on the understanding there would be a sweet post-politics payoff.
George Monbiot
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social
Quotes from his testimony to the PAC in 2008:
"my impression is we have a pretty good system in the UK"
"I have not seen evidence to show that there is a problem yet"
"My sense is we actually have a really robust system."
"My view is that it works pretty well."
But the system was & is total shite. 3/4 07:37 • 14 Oct 2026
8 reposts 1 quote 37 likes
2
①9
37
...
George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.b... • 13m
Anyone could see that, including MPs from across the parties who were questioning him in this evidence session. It must have taken superhuman efforts *not* to see it.
Why was Watson so determined, even back then, to defend a system of controls which hardly existed, let alone being "really robust"?
39623
Reposted by Sarah
Patrick Robey @pat-beauclerc.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
It is not just the global financial system that's failing developing countries: it is, equally, the decisions of gov'ts (Starmer's for one) to cut int'l aide; and the injustice of a world that allows some individuals to own more than they could conceivably spend in 7 lifetimes whilst others starve
012
Reposted by Sarah
Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
I, a member of the public, do not wish to see my fellow members of the public who teach my children, heal me if I am sick, who administer the state and so on left worse off due to inflation each year.
625291
Reposted by Sarah
21 Group @21group.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Notice something wrong at your university? Perhaps you witness bullying of a colleague, data fabrication or a randy professor having an affair with an undergraduate student? You do what you're supposed to do You report it, right. Right? nature.com/articles/d41...
064
Reposted by Sarah
Nandita Sharma @nsharma101.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Looks great! We need a history of fighting colonialism without resorting to the ruler’s game of “national sovereignty” Fingers crossed this book contributes to that history.
041
Reposted by Sarah
Lembas Eater @waybread.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
If you can get rich because your AI does stuff you can also go to jail because your AI does stuff.
1438
Reposted by Sarah
Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
“Perhaps the most relevant issue is that by releasing this trove of material in this manner, the companies are in the process of destroying the ecosystem that made it possible for this work” On the recent trove of math proofs released by the evil robots
nytimes.com
‘Breathtaking,’ ‘Devastating’: Mathematics Reels After New OpenAI Release (Gift Article)
Hundreds of new A.I.-generated findings moved the frontiers of higher math in a single day — dispelling any doubt that the field is forever changed.
4768117
Reposted by Sarah
J.M. Berger PRE-ORDER THE POPE'S HITMAN @jmberger.com · 14/10/2026
One weird trick to solve all your AI problems: Make the creators of AI legally liable for foreseeable problems their product causes, just like every other damn product in the world.
441143365
Reposted by Sarah
John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
The Original Sin of politics was the invention of the passive voice, when Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Vague Unaccountability. Wild how all those violent ICE agents just … got hired … and deployed … somehow. Who can possibly say how? It’s all a mystery.
1103760723
Reposted by Sarah
Carol Mc Sherry (SNAsSpeakOut) @carolmcsherry.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
I've put a statue of James Connolly outside in the garden so that we'll have good weather for the picket. ✊🏼
29625
Reposted by Sarah
Matthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
If you're wondering why Flock leaves cameras up after a contract end, part of their business model and marketing strategy is being able to advertise that their customers can access data from cameras all over the country. You may have canceled your contract, but the cameras still fuel the system.
16848416
Reposted by Sarah
Lucy Hamilton @lucyham.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
One reason Rupert Murdoch wages his long war against public broadcasting is that he & his cohort of media barons make the communal sense that we take as “normal.” This essay gives a very approachable explanation: linguistically.substack.com/p/antonio-gr... #Auspol take note below colonising 📺
linguistically.substack.com
Antonio Gramsci: How Language Makes Power Feel Like Common Sense
Why political language often works best when it stops sounding political
99245
Reposted by Sarah
Elizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
I have logged out of my email, shut my laptop, & closed my books. Solidarity with the teachers, nurses, firefighters, librarians, doctors, special needs assistants, administrators, prison officers, heritage workers, midwives ... We have strength together! ✊️🇮🇪 #Spéirghorm #Speirgorm jrnl.ie/7191256
jrnl.ie
The largest strike in 15 years is happening on Wednesday. Here's everything you need to know
Which services will be impacted, which won’t and why is the action happening in the first place?
19223
Reposted by Sarah
Aurelien Mondon @aurelmondon.com · 13/10/2026
Sorry but "we want deadly borders and the inhumane treatment of migrants and asylum seekers but we draw the line at shooting them on sight" is not a sensible comment Considering it so plays in the hands of the far right who is consciously using the extreme right as contradistinction
17914
Reposted by Sarah
Aurelien Mondon @aurelmondon.com · 13/10/2026
Seeing Jacob Rees-Mogg seriously portrayed as the voice of moderation tells you everything you need to know about the stage of mainstreaming of far-right politics we are at and how little mainstream actors understand or care about it
525846
Reposted by Sarah
Teresa Collins @queen-crafty.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
He was more than a hero, he was a union man
071
Reposted by Sarah
Claire Mullaly @clairemullaly.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Instead of robust measures, Starmer appointed an interlocutor. The North has experienced three paramilitary takeovers of the province in three years. Pogroms are a flexing of paramilitary muscle, a mobilisation that sees PSNI hide in barracks. The violence was never spontaneous. [8/n]
werisetogether.ie
Pogroms, paramilitarism and policing | R.I.S.E
The PSNI are failing in their duties of detecting and investigating crime online from known extremists, even when they lead to intimidation, violence and threats on life.
185
Reposted by Sarah
Claire Mullaly @clairemullaly.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Paramilitarism isn't felt equally - it impacts working class and minority communities disproportionately. If people think that paramilitarism isn't a huge problem - that's privilege. [6/n]
irishnews.com
Almost half say paramilitaries still active in their area 28 years after Good Friday Agreement
Almost half of people say there is still paramilitary activity in their area, nearly three decades on from the Good Friday Agreement, according to new figures.
1135
Reposted by Sarah
Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
'Andy Burnham has been urged to “put his money where his mouth is” and provide more funding for his devolved research agenda, rather than putting further pressure on already stretched UK Research and Innovation budgets.'
timeshighereducation.com
Burnham’s ‘innovation nation’ plans heaps pressure on UKRI budget
Experts urge basic research funding to be protected as agency tasked with finding £1 billion to pay for regional clusters
021
Reposted by Sarah
Dara O'Reilly @daraor.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
The UK government, governed by the party of which Phillipson is chair, extended immunity for British soldiers engaged in extrajudicial killings in Northern Ireland yesterday. Yesterday.
116177
Reposted by Sarah
Atrios @eschatonblog.com · 12/10/2026
Everyone is out on bail and no one can say what the plot was and not a single journalist that i have seen has even arched an eyebrow. British journalism is hilarious
Beth rigby: BREAKING: PM tells MP that RAF plot was "almost certainly" directed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard and says UK will bring further sanctions to restrict the capacity or Iran and the IRGC to do us harm
26640170
Reposted by Sarah
Andrew Bloomberg @andrewbloomberg.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
The “a man of his time arguments” are always bullshit because if you were, say, a Taíno, you probably thought Columbus was terrible regardless of what people in Spain thought. But yeah, plenty of people in Spain thought he was too brutal too.
322352
Reposted by Sarah
Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Literally the same things my place has done. One consultancy is just changing the date on its letter and charging a fortune.
34821
Reposted by Sarah
Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 08/10/2026
My university released a statement that no materials used in the tenure and promotion process can be evaluated using an LLM, which is good, because I keep hearing about people using AI in peer review and what garbage that all is but haven’t seen much about banning its use in this domain
Recommenders are NOT to place any material they did not create into any artificial intelligence prompt, etc
34511
Reposted by Sarah
M a r c u s 🏳️‍🌈🇧🇧🇬🇧 @marcusjdl.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
I do think “Russians did Brexit” kind of simplifies and downplays the decades of “EU wants straight bananas” stories while ignoring any EU funded projects or consumer protection laws and platforming Farage in a “help him fake it till he makes it” way and also, the unchallenged xenophobia and racism
2531447