iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 3h

yeah ive been reading letters to the editor on various topics from the 1950s on and boy oh boy... and these were the letters that where chosen to be published...

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 3h

posts keep popping up on reddit gaming threads of someone whos had ChatGPT play the game for them and... just... why...

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 3h

supposed to do it for the love of the game, cause you know that puts food on the table, oh wait...

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 3h

But the state of the force is strong, yes sir, strong! youtu.be/7BfYkIJVFy0?...

youtu.be

The State of the Force is STRONG.

YouTube video by Department of War

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 3h

So Im guessing the Green Party of England and Wales will be boycotting the UN?

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 9h

This is your occasional reminder that generative "AI" in particular could have been developed on public domain materials and/or licensed and compensated works but the major players intentionally, methodically and systemically chose to steal labor from working creative folks instead

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Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 8h

The original Google search algorithm that was wizard magic was machine learning. Same with videogame enemies learning flocking techniques and figuring out how to beat you based on your tendencies. LLM stans fucked this up just let the scam artists define what AI is now because they are dumb.

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 9h

indeed - the nazis will hit you the communists will just call you a liberal

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 9h

one of my fundamental issues is this - where the does the Green Party of England and Wales, of all bloody places, get off dictating what the future of another part of the world should be a 'single Palestinian state'

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 10h

and this has been coming for over a year now but the party leadership has been ignoring the anti semetic entryism so my decision isnt a spur of the moment thing but the final straw

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 10h

i didnt think ZP would be this shit of a leader but i am glad i didnt vote for him

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 10h

yep, ill be resigning my membership particuarly given the extent party leadership is trying to pretend this motion doesnt say what it says and that jewish members (and others) are overreacting

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 16h

uber this morning was a tesla, first time in a tesla and wow so on top of everything else it just feels like a really cheap car, the doors felt like plastic

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

yep, a change that seems wholly out of touch with the actual state of UK academia

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

the right of self determination requires no approval of what that looks like, I support the Israeli government no more than I suppprt Hamas or Iran, the principle is the foundation of an international order which the only possible system in which a palestine can exist

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

condemn the wars, the genocide, the crimes, 1000% yes, but not this, this motion doesnt do that

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Israelis have a right of self determination, and a conference motion cannot and should not challenge the right of Israelis to self determination, Israel should and must respect Palestine as defined by int law but 'historic palestine' is a bad phrase that erases israelis from the conversation

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Jess O'Thomson @jessothomson.co.uk · 04/10/2026

Going to piss off everyone I do not believe any ethnostate of any kind should exist. AND Much of the driving motivation behind this specific motion is in fact rooted in antisemitism. Lots of the people involved here are not acting in good faith. The horrible situation will be damaging to Greens.

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Princeton University Press @princetonupress.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

"An eye-opening study of the intimate ties between religion, science, & the human search for extraterrestrial life."—Kristine Morris, Foreword Reviews Paul C. Gutjahr's Faith in Space is out now in North America & available worldwide on 27 Oct. Read a free sample: buff.ly/qJh6Ujm

Faith in Space: American Religious Belief in Extraterrestrial Life by Paul C. Gutjahr. A cultural history of the American faith in alien life, from the Puritans to Heaven’s Gate.

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Turing Police Andúnië Branch 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇵🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @dov.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

It is not reasonable to debate whether people have the right to "attend Zionist synagogues". A supermajority of Jewish people in the world cannot help but engage with /some/ aspect of Zionist politics, regardless of whether they are that themselves. This can make you unhappy but it is fact.

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Turing Police Andúnië Branch 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇵🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @dov.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

This is why actually it is a bad idea to allow certain motions to come to conference at all.

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

The Green Party conference has concluded its debate on this motion, titled 'Zionism is Racism'. The result will be announced shortly. Well informed observers anticipate it is likely to pass.

Green Party Motion A105
Proposer: Lubna Speitan
Title: Zionism is Racism
Type: E Motion (Policy)
ZIONISM IS RACISM
SYNOPSIS:
This motion defines Zionism, recognises its continued harm to Palestinians, and seeks to clarify
that the Green Party is opposed to Zionism. It further affirms the right to self-determination and
liberation of the Palestinian people and supports the establishment of a single democratic
Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine.
MOTION TEXT:
Zionism is a political ideology which called for the creation – and, now it exists, the continuity –
of an ethnonationalist Jewish State in historic Palestine to the exclusion and/or domination of
the non-Jewish population. The real, material manifestation of Zionism has been the historic and
ongoing dehumanisation, displacement, dispossession, disenfranchisement and destruction of
Palestinians. This is based upon European settler-colonial systems of domination and
oppression, which has also created racial hierarchies between Jews of different ethnicities in
Palestine.
The practice of Zionist ideology, promoting ethnonationalism, privileges one ethnic group on the
basis of the subjugation of others. Zionism is Israel's foundational ideology.
Zionism has created and seeks to maintain – and where possible – expand, an apartheid
regime between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, designed to cement the
supremacy of one group, Jews, over another, Palestinians. As such, Zionism is racist.
This motion is aimed at the political ideology and practice of Zionism, as defined, and not at the
religious or ethnic background of those who may identify as Zionists. Not all Jews are Zionists
and not all Zionists are Jews.
Rejecting Zionism and supporting the liberation of the Palestinian people is not discriminatory
against Jewish people. Nor is it discriminatory to support the establishment of a single
democratic Palestinian State between the Jordan river and the Me…

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

clause 3 in particular of that motion should be a bloody great red flag

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👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 04/10/2026

see also in 2026: the Greens

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

or maybe the use of specific language tells us something...

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

yeah exactly which is one of the problems with the motion and 'historic Palestine' is one of those 'abolish Israel' euphemisms - why not use 'borders recognized by international law'?

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

so what does 'historic palestine' in section 3 mean then?

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Evan @evansmithhist.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

A reading pile for those interested in the history of anti-fascism in Britain

A People’s History of the Anti-Nazi League - Geoff Brown
Physical Resistance - Dave Hann
Our Flag Stays Red - Phil Piratin
London Jews and British Communism 1933-1945 Henry Felix Srbernik
When We Touched the Sky - David Renton
Black Star - Anandi Ramamurthy
Racism, Class and the Racialized Outsider - Satnam Virdee
British Antifascism and the Holocaust, 1945-79 - Joshua Cohen
Never Again - David Renton
Say it Loud - edited by Brian Richardson
Beating the Fascists - Sean Birchall
No Platform - Evan Smith
The 43 Group - Morris Beckman
No Free Speech for Fascists - David Renton
Remembering Cable Street - edited by Tony Kushner & Nadia Valman
We Fight Fascists - Daniel Sonabend
Anti-Fascism in Britain - Nigel Copsey

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

they let the 'Discovery is Woke' nonsense constrain them too much

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Lucas Haasis @lhaasis.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Join us 8–9 October for "The Prize Papers of the American War of Independence" at The National Archives, UK, and online. Explore newly catalogued documents from captured ships that reveal wartime lives and a global conflict. Register: www.eventbrite.de/e/the-prize-... #Rev250 #earlymodern #history

eventbrite.de

The Prize Papers of the American War of Independence (Online)

An International Workshop on the UK Prize Papers and the American War of Independence: Wartime Lives, Capture, and Transnational Exchange

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

grandad was a bus driver, would have made a brilliant engineer

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

a lot of people will have been involved in this... and enough of them thought it was a good idea...

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

not really the pattern we saw in the UK, we had two major waves of expansion of UKHE, the 1960s and the 1990s, and then a third, slower expansion between 2000 and 2012

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

and it was very successful, which is part of why letting the sector collapse in the way that the government are currently doing is so bizarre

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

yeah I do think this is probably an American thing - there's always been snobbery about the 'post 92s' and the Russel Group have tried to market themselves as the natural research leaders but the whole point of the post 92 reforms was broadening research participation

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Im a federalist rather than anti-union although given how big England is I can certainly understand why even a more federal union would still stifle national ambitions

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

its funny ive become more comfortable with ID'ing as English as opposed to British because well British might be my nationality but i dont really have a connection to Scotland, Wales or Ireland, never lived there and spent more of my life in France than those three nations combined

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David Veevers @davidveevers.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Not to mention changing who produces scholarship and what kind is produced. Thinking of brilliant Welsh colleagues - often women - forced to focus on Welsh medium teaching to the cost of their superb scholarship on Wales.

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David Veevers @davidveevers.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The big but hidden impact of the implosion of smaller regional universities is the pressure on research academics to prioritise teaching or switch to teaching contracts and abandon research as a frivolous pursuit in this financially unstable crisis. This will dramatically shrink future scholarship.

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

yeah well shes wrong, its fine if she doesnt identify as English but shes wrong in general terms

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

while there is a clear link between how the Americans regarded Native Americans and hitlers thinking the difference lies that the Americans at least maintained that they wanted assimilation, which is still genocide but there is a not meaningless difference (at least to scholars)

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

yep the imperialist laments that the volence is necessary (albeit at thr least and perhaps most rhetorically), the fascist wants the violence and relishes it

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Universities cannot expect researchers to take risks if they are repeatedly at risk of redundancy while losing professional services support, grappling with the gratuitous vagaries of home and international student number swings and both teaching and assessing in an age of unregulated AI.

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Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

So the head of their military calls for holy war and their president threatens genocide and well continue to treat them as a normal country able to launch military operations from our soil

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