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David Hughes

@usernameerror.bsky.social
290 followers 219 following 320 posts

Glaswegian exile in Dublin. Librarian. Open scholarship enthusiast. Shill for Big Library. Power-hungry gatekeeper. King of infinite space. He/him/his. Personal account.

PostsRepliesMedia
David Hughes @usernameerror.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I have read this and can confirm that it is indeed an absolute banger.
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Duncan Hothersall @dhothersall.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The second attack in two weeks on an LGBT+ bookshop in Glasgow. STV posted this story on Facebook and there is an endless stream of comments underneath suggesting the answer is for them to stop using the word "queer", stop supporting trans rights, and stop being so visible. Mainstreamed hate.
news.stv.tv
Queer bookshop vandalised again two weeks after targeted attack
Category Is Books in Govanhill has been targeted twice within two weeks
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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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Julie S. Lalonde @julieslalonde.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The literacy crisis is not just referring to people's ability to literally read and write. It's also people's inability to read for context. I've been a public educator for over 20 years and I have never, ever seen it this bad.
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AP Stylebook @apstylebook.com · 23/09/2026
Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics.
apnews.com
https://apnews.com/article/openai-safety-ai-framework-089e75b95bc935af092da7b79d92706d
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flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Ten years of relentlessly hateful, comically elitist anti-democratic politics across the white people world, helpfully summarised. The wrong people are talking, the wrong people are deciding and it’s harming the careers of important people who actually matter. Smithers! Release the hounds
The incident fits a broader pattern in the discourse around 'free speech' and 'cancel culture': whatever comes from the top down is freedom; whatever comes from the bottom up is bullying and censorship. When Macklemore is dropped at the behest of the billionaire stadium owner Robert Kraft, it's an exercise of the freedom of businesses to 'demonstrate their values' by deciding whom to platform. But when Ed Sheeran's fans decide not to buy tickets to his performances, or even demand refunds, it's bullying, mob behaviour. Since most people are not billionaires and do not own stadiums, they can exercise meaningful power only collectively. The collective exercise of power must therefore be demonised.
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En Buen Ora @enbuenora.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is a fantastic brief essay in how news media & pundits turn upside down who is who is being punished for speaking freely--in the case of Kraft, Macklemore, & Sheeran--when rich elites want things to go one way, but unruly peasant masses refuse to go along. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/se...
lrb.co.uk
Lorna Finlayson | Public Positions
In much of the coverage of the Ed Sheeran-Macklemore debacle, the reality of the incident is turned on its head, as...
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 21/09/2026
"In a leaked document, the Irish Presidency proposes to EU Member States that the interest of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta and SpaceX to make profits should take precedence over the fundamental right to data protection" noyb.eu/en/ai-eu-mem...
noyb.eu
AI: EU Member States plan “digital expropriation” of Europeans in the interest of AI companies
In a leaked document, the Irish Presidency proposes to EU Member States that the interest of AI companies to make profits should take precedence over the fundamental rights of Europeans.
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Smooth Dunk @smoothdunk2.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
when ai leaves u behind
7 panel comic.

Panel 1:
A Red Guy with AI across his chest looks like he’s about to run away. A Yellow Guy stands next to him. Red Guy says “I’m the future, buddy. You comin’?”
Yellow Guy replies “Nah”

Panel 2: 
Red Guy is almost out of the panel. He leans in and says “Enjoy getting left behind, pal”
Yellow Guy replies “ok”

Panel 3:
Yellow Guy stands alone.

Panel 4: 
Close up on Yellow Guy, there is a quiet “huff-huff-huff” noise coming from behind him

Panel 5:
Yellow Guy turns to look behind him

Panel 6: 
Close up on Yellow Guy’s face as if from the point of view of an attacker.
Yellow Guy yells “Jesus Christ”

Panel 7:
AI Red Guy is now chasing the Yellow Guy. 
Red Guy: “Use me”
Yellow Guy “No”
Red Guy “USE ME”
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Luke Plunkett @lukeplunkett.com · 19/09/2026
this tweet is NINE years old and is still the best trans rights policy advice out there
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Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Anthropic employees: NEXT-GEN AI COULD WIPE OUT HUMANITY WITH A SUPERVIRUS! Normies: that seems like a big leap. How would this AI disseminate such a virus in the real world? Anthropic employees: oh, through the wet labs we built and hooked it up to, of course. Normies: …😬😤
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David Hughes @usernameerror.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
The 21st century in 21 words.
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Haus of Decline @hausofdecline.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I think AI has already exceeded the intelligence of the type of person that believes AGI is imminent, which is why they believe AGI is imminent.
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David Hughes @usernameerror.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The "defence" industry is such an obvious contranym.
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Irish Women's Rugby Supporters Club @irishwomens.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Zero tolerance, not quiet acceptance
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Douglas Ogg @dougogg.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I hate to sound like a Luddite, but I agree with this.
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s. e. smith @sesmith.lol · 08/09/2026
All else aside there is nothing I want or need genAI to do for me. I like reading. I like doing research. I like playing around in spreadsheets. I like interviewing people. I like writing. I like doing these things for myself because I take pleasure in the doing and they make me a better thinker.
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David Hughes @usernameerror.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Clarivate gave me a quote yesterday for a product that was 297% higher in price than the quote they gave me for the same product in 2023. For comparison something I have from one of their competitors has risen in cost 20% since 2022.
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zp-39a.bsky.social @zp-39a.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
From @tante.cc : Concerning the incursion of well-funded fascists into the FOSS word. tante.cc/2026/09/11/p...
tante.cc
Power grab
Omarchy should not matter. But sadly it does. As a power grab. If you don’t know what Omarchy is here’s the short summary. David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of RubyOnRails, owner of a software busines...
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Nate O @nateo.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Hell yeah. Hell yeah brother. Here we go. Hit me with this content. Hell yeah. I can feel it.
Lewis Page
The idea that Heinlein's Starship Troopers were fascists is a lazy Leftist smear
Just because you don't like an idea doesn't mean it's Nazi
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David Hughes @usernameerror.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Welp, we've all been renamed and instead of librarian, I'm now the "digital education resources" manager :(
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Daily Grail @dailygrail.com · 06/09/2026
Pretty sure the new deadlift world record holder was created by Jack Kirby….
An extremely heavy set man raises his arms in celebration as fireworks erupt behind him
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Anna Orridge @anna-orridge.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Pay very careful attention to the difference between the press's reaction to this and the actions of groups like XR and JSO, which also disrupted traffic sometimes.
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Robert Dallas Gray @robertdallasgray.com · 05/09/2026
I think the lesson to be drawn here is that neither the government nor the police are going to protect us from what’s coming
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Lupita Nihongo @otsumamiboy.blacksky.app · 01/09/2026
If buying isn't owning then piracy can't be theft. Any reasonable corporation knows that.
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Ashley @ashleysays.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Chefs kiss
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Charles C Roseman @evoroseman.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
RE: freedom of speech, academic freedom, and race science. In this (long) thread, I’m going to 1) establish my bona fides on academic freedom and race science, 2) show why academic freedom and freedom of speech are different and… 1/34
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David Hughes @usernameerror.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I knew plumbing was well-paid, but I never realised how well-paid.
An online job ad for plumbers and apprentices 
1st fix plumbers and apprentices €1100

    Mr plumber South East - 1.0
    Rathnew, County Wicklow

Job details

    Full-time
    €1,000,000–€100,000,000 a year

Benefits

    On-site parking

Qualifications

    No experience needed
    English
    Plumbing

Full job description

Qualified plumber with residential 1st fix experience only

Apprentices with 1st fix experience
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 26/08/2026
Friends, I think Ghent University should hear from us as the eugenicists are out in full force. This letter is from academics there to counter the ridiculous letter supporting the white supremacist now being called a "whistleblower" by his ilk You can add your name👇🏽 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
Open letter on the suspension of Nathan Cofnas at Ghent University
***Version française en dessous*** We, colleagues of Nathan Cofnas - supported by many colleagues internationally - want to respond to the negative and incorrect framing of Ghent University’s decisio...
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Mo Ryan @moryan.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
every billionaire & tech mogul, they all want to be adored & celebrated without doing the things Dolly did with a fraction of the power & money. What she had, she gave away. I'm sure she was comfortable (& that's good!). But she just relentlessly helped. It's not that difficult. Love. Care. Help. 💚🌸
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 25/08/2026
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Joseph Fasano @josephfasano.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Back to school. ❤️
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David Hughes @usernameerror.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Fucking hate living in Tory Northern Ireland, man
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David Hughes @usernameerror.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Microsoft built a dedicated app that forces Bing everywhere on Windows 11, including Chrome, Firefox, and Brave. www.windowslatest.com/2026/08/22/m...
windowslatest.com
Microsoft built a dedicated app that forces Bing everywhere on Windows 11, including Chrome, Firefox, and Brave
Microsoft built MicrosoftSettings.exe, an app that installs a Bing extension across Chrome and Edge, then redirects you to Microsoft Rewards.
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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 22/08/2026
They’ve turned the Waynes against us
Batman’s aff his nut
Robert Florence

Batman’s aff his nut
Have you seen the way he cuts aboot
Dressed up as a mad fuckin bat
Batterin guys
I was lit at:
“Mate, I’m worried aboot ye
I know your ma and da died
But everybody’s ma and da dies
And we’re no aw runnin aboot
Hookin muggers and
Kickin psychopaths in the baws.”
And that was when Batman went
“Aye, but do ye ever feel like it?
Do you ever look at the world and feel like it?
Like having a big mad base under your hoose?
Do you ever feel like drivin a big mad motor
that turns intae a tank?
And leatherin fuck oot of guys aw night?
Scarin the fuckin shite oot of them?”
And that’s when I was lit at:
“Aye. Fuck it. Ah dae.”
And that’s the Secret Origin of Robin
And everyone else.
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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 22/08/2026
right inuff ma language is disgraceful ma maw tellt mi ma teacher tellt mi thi doactir tellt mi thi priest tellt mi… —Tom Leonard, “right inuff” published in GHOSTIE MEN (Galloping Dog Press, 1980) #poem #poetry
“right enuff”
by Tom Leonard

right inuff
ma language is disgraceful
ma maw tellt mi
ma teacher tellt mi
thi doactir tellt mi
thi priest tellt mi

ma boss tellt mi
ma landlady in carrington street tellt mi
thi lassie ah tried tay get aff way in 1969 tellt mi
sum wee smout thit thoat ah hudny read chomsky tellt mi
a calvinist communist thit thoat ah wuz revisionist tellt mi
po-faced literati grimly kerryin thi burden a thi past tellt mi
po-faced literati grimly kerryin thi burden a thi future tellt mi
ma wife tellt mi jist-tay-get-inty-this-poem tellt mi
ma wainz came hame fray school an tellt mi
jist aboot ivry book ah oapnd tellt mi
even thi introduction tay thi Scottish National Dictionary tellt mi

ach well
all livin language is sacred
fuck the lohta thim.
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Emma Monk @monkemma.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
One of the first "outrageous" claims I saw as Jason Arday's media hounding unfolded was that he ran 30 marathons in 35 days! Wow! What a thing to claim! And the newspapers all suggested there was no evidence he actually did it. Well, they clearly didn't look very hard 🙄 🧵 1/26
Photo after Jason's final marathon taken from his archived blog showing Jason surrounded by supporters in orange charity t-shirts
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Amanda Mull @amandamull.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Tech execs do not have, like, a theory of mind for people who aren’t tech execs. If they did, they wouldn’t be so frequently baffled by how repulsive normal people think their whole deal is right now
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Materialist Gnostic @walmsley.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Plato tells us that there is but one Jason Statham movie, which we perceive as many due to our inability to access true knowledge in the realm of the forms
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Daniel Solis @danielsolis.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
There are two wolves. One always lies. One controls the lever of trolley track. They're in a state of superposition inside a box. On the trolley are infinite monkeys at infinite typewriters going to an infinite hotel. The trolley must first travel halfway, but before that a quarterway, and so on...
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The Failed Anarchist Revival @failedanarchist.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
he wasn't the only plagiarising professor. this one passed by almost unnoticed, and kept his job I'm struggling to put my finger on why Dr William O’Reilly got a free ride, and Arday was vilified - especially by the Telegraph, which is busy deleting the 150+ articles www.varsity.co.uk/news/26105
varsity.co.uk
Plagiarising professor stays in post and threatens student journalists
More than twelve pages of an article published under O’Reilly's name had been lifted almost word for word from two essays by one of his students
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David Hughes @usernameerror.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun.
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Tarquin 'Howling Mad' Holmes @tarquinhh.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
In late 19thC Britain, anti-vivisectionists accused physiologists of having "blunted feelings" & a “greediness of sight of horrors”. GH Lewes defended physiology by saying that critical vivisection by journalists was similarly painful but without pity or anaesthesia. Feel Lewes was not wholly wrong.
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Dr Eleanor Janega @goingmedieval.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
This entire disgusting situation with Arday has shown the horrible priorities of a society built for the ruling class. Our press isn't free, and it is used solely and exclusively to pursue the interests of the ruling class which owns it.
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David Hughes @usernameerror.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
This is awful. Poor guy was basically hounded to death.
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Possum Acquainter @possumacquainter.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
just looked up where this Le Guin quote came from, and got a truly fantastic reveal
"The Creative result is the child who has survived" - Ursula K Le Guin"what the fuck is this shit"  - Ursula K Le Guin
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David Hughes @usernameerror.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I'm so pleased with myself for styling LibGuides Bootstrap 5 accordions the way I want them. Being a complete amateur it's taken me two days, but I don't care; not having my brain rotted by using LLMs, I didn't give up!
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Brett "Solidarity 2026" Banditelli @banditelli.org · 08/08/2026
Sometimes I see something in nature and then spend the next several years waiting for the shot. Sometimes I never get it. Sometimes you see it and a week later you land it: I give you tonight's murder of crows in front of the sunset. 🪶
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David Hughes @usernameerror.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Anyone know what's up with teanglann.ie ? Been down for a few days.
teanglann.ie
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Gav Maclean @gavmaclean.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Like all great writers, it's a time to pay tribute to the words they left us with
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