Dr Gavin Merrifield
@drgavinm.bsky.social
340 followers 820 following 650 posts
Science in Churches and Communities. Also fun with spiders, MRI and giant converting robots.
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Reposted by Dr Gavin Merrifield
mthrjo.bsky.social
This is dead on. Monroe was a wonderful actor.

This story, however, is just a ghoulish promise to paste her image into a show that showed you lots of nudity (and CGI dragons). I wonder what the attraction could be…
japrenticewrites.bsky.social
One of the many things I hate about AI is how it reduces everything to an (superficial) aesthetic. You can't see "Marilyn Monroe in Game of Thrones," even if (big if) Sora managed to perfectly recreate her, because you're not seeing the choices she'd have made as an actress. There's no substance.
sciam.bsky.social
Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies
drgavinm.bsky.social
I like how the guy on the first page looks like Gav!
Reposted by Dr Gavin Merrifield
darthputinkgb.bsky.social
We are extremely concerned Ukraine will be able to use on us the same type of weapons we've been using on them for 3 years and 8 months.

It isn't an escalation when we do it.
Reposted by Dr Gavin Merrifield
eciu.net
ECIU @eciu.net · 4d
England sees second worst harvest on record, analysis shows

England has seen its second worst harvest on record, according to an analysis of Government figures, after the country’s hottest spring and summer on record as well as the driest spring in more than 100 years.
buff.ly/ip0wwGL
Reposted by Dr Gavin Merrifield
smolrobots.bsky.social
Also worth bearing in mind that its answer to this question isn't necessarily true either (or false - it's a category error to assign its output those values). It just says stuff its dataset determines is a likely response a person would give.
comraderobot.bsky.social
girl are you chatgpt because your KPIs are crazy
Mostafa • @mokatia
X.com
Shared row data file with GPT5 to analyze, the result KPIs were crazy, so I naively asked, and innocently it responded.
ChatGPT 5 v
① Share
•••
Did you make up these numbers?
Good catch - I wasn't able to actually open and parse your CSV file yet,
12:50 AM • 16/09/2025 • 19K Views
Reposted by Dr Gavin Merrifield
13sarahmurphy.bsky.social
Corrupt chancers urged to come up with an economic plan that isn’t utter bullshit. So, no tax cuts and austerity on steroids for a country already stuck in Farage’s Brexit dead end.
But hey, some super wealthy industry big (k)nobs will come on board to help con the little guy.

(Times)
Times 

Farage to abandon manifesto's big plans for tax cuts

Extracts: 
Farage will break with his manifesto pledges of £90 billion in tax cuts as he attempts to bolster his party's economic credibility.
The leader of Reform UK will promise not to reduce taxes before reducing spending, deep cuts to the civil service and a ban on borrowing to fund government expenditure in his first big speech on the economy next month.

"Reform will never borrow to spend, as Labour and the Tories have done for so long; instead, we will ensure savings are made before implementing tax cuts.
I will have more to say on all this in the coming weeks."

Speaking on the campaign trail before the Caerphilly by-election to the Welsh parliament on October 23, he did not respond to demands to name his shadow chancellor but suggested he would soon be able to draw on backing from the business community.
Several high-profile figures from industry have privately indicated they would be willing to serve in a Reform cabinet, party officials said
Farage said: "We will be launching between now and the budget, a new campaign — an economic campaign ... it's going to be very impactful. It'll another high-profile individual coming into politics from outside of politics, who's been supremely successful in their world." Promising a "total change of attitude" on the economy, he said: "We are not a party dominated by corporate thinking. The Tories and La-bour are both dominated by corporate thinking."
The IFS has questioned whether
Reform's economic plans are credible warning last year that the party had overestimated how much it could save through spending cuts: "Even with the extremely optimistic
assumptions
about how much economic growth would increase, the sums in this manifesto do not add up."
Right-leaning think tanks have also urged the party to set out more credible policy. The Institute for Economic Affairs last month called for Reform to
"put some serious economic policies on the table".
Reposted by Dr Gavin Merrifield
implausibleblog.bsky.social
BBC News explain that because of Brexit, Brits will be photographed and have their fingerprints taken when going into the EU, as the UK now is a third country

BBC News forget to explain that the UK helped create these rules when we were part of the EU because we wanted stronger border control
drgavinm.bsky.social
N is now reenacting the jumping. I think she has scaled it.
drgavinm.bsky.social
If they were employees at a private company rather than students at a university I'm not sure the Government could get away with trying to control those companies in this way?
Reposted by Dr Gavin Merrifield
alomshaha.bsky.social
What’s depressing to me is that lots of us predicted this was going to happen YEARS ago but none of the education publishers / institutions acted on it and instead left it to random people to produce and profit from educational content with no quality control. (Some of it is very good nowadays)
alomshaha.bsky.social
On train listening to obviously smart teenage boys discussing homework on “how is conflict presented in Romeo and Juliet” and one boy says to another “I’ll send you two good videos on this” and I am not sure teachers are fully aware of how young people revise etc these days.
drgavinm.bsky.social
Yes, students sometimes do stupid, unhelpful or inappropriate things we might prefer them not to, but we shouldn't use that as an excuse to try and put the universities they happen to attend under a political thumb.

It was wrong when the last Government tried it and it is still wrong today.
drgavinm.bsky.social
Hmm. Threats to cut off funding and credentials if Universities don't behave in the way the Government wants them to?

Yes, this is what is going on in the USA.

But also here in the UK it seems, no matter how much 'British' gloss and politeness they put on it.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Universities risk sanctions over Gaza protests, watchdog says
Arif Ahmed says freedom of speech does not mean the freedom to harass and discriminate Jewish students.
www.bbc.co.uk
Reposted by Dr Gavin Merrifield
nebriefing.bsky.social
“I urge all policymakers to attend.” Prof Michael Mann👇

Please enter your postcode here www.nebriefing.org to check if your MP has confirmed for the National Emergency Briefing on 27 Nov, and email them if not.

Understanding the threats & solutions is the first step to protecting the public.
michaelemann.bsky.social
I urge all policymakers to attend this vital briefing on the climate & nature crisis, which brings the latest science from leading experts straight to the people in power. I’d like to see one in every country, & the organizers are open to sharing the model. More info: www.nebriefing.org
National Emergency Briefing on climate & nature
An unfiltered assessment of the latest threats arising from the climate & nature crisis to an invite-only audience. Westminster Central Hall, 27 November. Has your MP confirmed yet?
www.nebriefing.org
Reposted by Dr Gavin Merrifield
profannawatts.bsky.social
Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.
Headline from an article in Nature this week that states "Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery. The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality."
drgavinm.bsky.social
Makes sense. Border crossings are now at an all time low, so Trump and his acolytes now need to invent a new boogieman/war in the cities of America to peddle to justify their madness and sending in troops on their own people.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Illegal US-Mexico border crossings hit lowest level in over 50 years
The numbers are the lowest since 1970, as Trump continues his crackdown on immigration to the US.
www.bbc.co.uk