Barold
@barrytsprout.bsky.social
Socialist, Scientist, Sophist.
Reposted by Barold
Sensible Moderates: And so this worrying escalation in Russian/Iranian/Chinese/Venezuelan aggression must be countered
The US President, live on TV every day: It’s about oil. O-I-L, oil. We’re gonna kill them and take the oil, it’s ours. Just watch.
The US President, live on TV every day: It’s about oil. O-I-L, oil. We’re gonna kill them and take the oil, it’s ours. Just watch.
December 21, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Sensible Moderates: And so this worrying escalation in Russian/Iranian/Chinese/Venezuelan aggression must be countered
The US President, live on TV every day: It’s about oil. O-I-L, oil. We’re gonna kill them and take the oil, it’s ours. Just watch.
The US President, live on TV every day: It’s about oil. O-I-L, oil. We’re gonna kill them and take the oil, it’s ours. Just watch.
Reposted by Barold
Hi. Court reporter here again. I can confirm about a third of local cases I see are domestic abuse of women and girls. Where do you think the men start? And almost every columnist tells you to look elsewhere.
This is the second story in three days The Times has carried arguing against misogyny lessons in schools, which it describes as "some weird feminist attack on male children".
December 21, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Hi. Court reporter here again. I can confirm about a third of local cases I see are domestic abuse of women and girls. Where do you think the men start? And almost every columnist tells you to look elsewhere.
Reposted by Barold
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A beautiful thing
A sweet to remember
"We are closer to Spring
than we were in September."
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
In the dark of December
A beautiful thing
A sweet to remember
"We are closer to Spring
than we were in September."
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
Happy Winter Solstice ❄️
Make sure to get outside today, make use of every bit of daylight we have and when the night comes, know that tomorrow will be that little bit lighter 🙌🏻
📸 Lesley Marshall
Make sure to get outside today, make use of every bit of daylight we have and when the night comes, know that tomorrow will be that little bit lighter 🙌🏻
📸 Lesley Marshall
December 21, 2025 at 9:54 AM
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A beautiful thing
A sweet to remember
"We are closer to Spring
than we were in September."
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
In the dark of December
A beautiful thing
A sweet to remember
"We are closer to Spring
than we were in September."
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
Reposted by Barold
I think this post nails the actual problem, for researchers at least—AI hallucinations would simply not be a problem in academic work if we’d not normalized citation-as-signaling rather than actual engagement—you can only cite a fake paper if you’re not in the habit of reading the papers you cite
Do not cite an academic paper unless you’ve read it
AI Is Inventing Academic Papers That Don't Exist -- And They're Being Cited in Real Journals
Academic articles from authors using large language model are creating an ecosystem of fake research that threatens human knowledge itself.
www.rollingstone.com
December 19, 2025 at 7:01 PM
I think this post nails the actual problem, for researchers at least—AI hallucinations would simply not be a problem in academic work if we’d not normalized citation-as-signaling rather than actual engagement—you can only cite a fake paper if you’re not in the habit of reading the papers you cite
Reposted by Barold
Posting this again because a lot of people said they found it helpful! Guide to ALT text: www.perkins.org/resource/how...
April 19, 2024 at 8:18 PM
Posting this again because a lot of people said they found it helpful! Guide to ALT text: www.perkins.org/resource/how...
The ratio on this. Truly a politician with his finger on the pulse of the population.
Farage and Polanski have something in common. They are both wrong about Britain.
Thread & link at the end 🧵
Thread & link at the end 🧵
December 20, 2025 at 12:06 PM
The ratio on this. Truly a politician with his finger on the pulse of the population.
Reposted by Barold
As water bosses keep getting bonuses ...
"It’s rained a lot over the last couple of weeks. Areas of the country where water companies are currently dumped sh*t into rivers and on to beaches.
Brown, currently dumping sewage.
Red, has been dumping sewage within the last 24 hours."
via Dianne Drew
"It’s rained a lot over the last couple of weeks. Areas of the country where water companies are currently dumped sh*t into rivers and on to beaches.
Brown, currently dumping sewage.
Red, has been dumping sewage within the last 24 hours."
via Dianne Drew
December 20, 2025 at 8:05 AM
As water bosses keep getting bonuses ...
"It’s rained a lot over the last couple of weeks. Areas of the country where water companies are currently dumped sh*t into rivers and on to beaches.
Brown, currently dumping sewage.
Red, has been dumping sewage within the last 24 hours."
via Dianne Drew
"It’s rained a lot over the last couple of weeks. Areas of the country where water companies are currently dumped sh*t into rivers and on to beaches.
Brown, currently dumping sewage.
Red, has been dumping sewage within the last 24 hours."
via Dianne Drew
Reposted by Barold
David Walliams' reputation was an open secret, junior staff were told to meet him in pairs & never visit his home, yet HarperCollins only dropped him when a Telegraph investigation came out. The problem is not just him. HarperCollins knowingly promoted & funded a guy sexually harassing junior staff.
December 19, 2025 at 6:26 PM
David Walliams' reputation was an open secret, junior staff were told to meet him in pairs & never visit his home, yet HarperCollins only dropped him when a Telegraph investigation came out. The problem is not just him. HarperCollins knowingly promoted & funded a guy sexually harassing junior staff.
Reposted by Barold
"Why is everyone SO OBSESSED with the Epstein Files," whined the guy who is in the Epstein Files.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
New York Times columnist David Brooks appears in latest Epstein photos
Brooks, who dismissed Epstein scandal as ‘stupid story’, wrote column expressing lack of interest in developments
www.theguardian.com
December 18, 2025 at 9:00 PM
"Why is everyone SO OBSESSED with the Epstein Files," whined the guy who is in the Epstein Files.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Reposted by Barold
Again, the likes of Hodges are really useful because they will say out loud the stupid things their smarter colleagues also think, but are just savvy enough to keep to themselves
![((Dan Hodge...
@DPJHodg... • 17 Dec ›
It's right chanting "Globalise The Intifada" will now lead to arrest. By why did the authorities need to wait until Jews were being murdered before they acted. Were they genuinely not aware what the chant actually meant.
• • •
197
1] 437
3.1K
ıll 69K
Mr Young @Mr_Young • 17 Dec
•••
If only journalists who cared about anti-semitism could write articles about Farage and his vile background of anti-semitism.
5
39
ıll 2K
%
((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges
Follow
...
When he starts chanting "Globalise the Intifada" I will.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5hyjbx4hnlxe5il24ydnn4sr/bafkreidwriz4dbld4gzokx3uf7g7v3a4aiiwxocjeni7tnrbahzqjof6lq@jpeg)
December 19, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Again, the likes of Hodges are really useful because they will say out loud the stupid things their smarter colleagues also think, but are just savvy enough to keep to themselves
Reposted by Barold
The word we're looking for here is 'caste'.
Jake Richards MP "is engaged to Sky News political correspondent Liz Bates, with whom he has a daughter, and his sister serves as a Special Advisor to Yvette Cooper, while his brother-in-law is Labour MP Gregor Poynton"
MPs laughed when Jake Richards dismissed Jeremy Corbyn’s request for a meeting on the Palestine Action hunger strikers.
Laughed.
This is who we’re governed by, people entrusted to represent a nation, yet so insulated by power they respond to human suffering with indifference and mockery.
Laughed.
This is who we’re governed by, people entrusted to represent a nation, yet so insulated by power they respond to human suffering with indifference and mockery.
December 19, 2025 at 12:26 PM
The word we're looking for here is 'caste'.
Reposted by Barold
An analysis of X posts from the UK's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology suggests it is overwhelmingly pro-AI.
I analysed the sentiment of every X post from DSIT that mentioned "AI" this year. Of 122 posts, 110 were positive about AI, and only 7 mentioned its downsides.
🧵 1/2
I analysed the sentiment of every X post from DSIT that mentioned "AI" this year. Of 122 posts, 110 were positive about AI, and only 7 mentioned its downsides.
🧵 1/2
December 19, 2025 at 9:40 AM
An analysis of X posts from the UK's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology suggests it is overwhelmingly pro-AI.
I analysed the sentiment of every X post from DSIT that mentioned "AI" this year. Of 122 posts, 110 were positive about AI, and only 7 mentioned its downsides.
🧵 1/2
I analysed the sentiment of every X post from DSIT that mentioned "AI" this year. Of 122 posts, 110 were positive about AI, and only 7 mentioned its downsides.
🧵 1/2
Reposted by Barold
New view sent back from Mars by the Curiosity rover yesterday... love how she can see for miles and miles across the crater floor far below her now... 🙂
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S Atkinson
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S Atkinson
December 19, 2025 at 9:50 AM
New view sent back from Mars by the Curiosity rover yesterday... love how she can see for miles and miles across the crater floor far below her now... 🙂
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S Atkinson
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S Atkinson
Reposted by Barold
periodically I'll see a backlash that goes a little too far or seems kinda unfair. i never say anything because i think we need to be kinda unhinged and zealous in our response to this shit. I'd take an honest-to-God crusade against this stuff over letting it proliferate.
December 18, 2025 at 7:40 PM
periodically I'll see a backlash that goes a little too far or seems kinda unfair. i never say anything because i think we need to be kinda unhinged and zealous in our response to this shit. I'd take an honest-to-God crusade against this stuff over letting it proliferate.
Reposted by Barold
He never disclosed that he’d visited Epstein in that column and did a lot of hand waving to insist that he and his fellow elites had nothing, nothing at all to do with him.
December 18, 2025 at 5:46 PM
He never disclosed that he’d visited Epstein in that column and did a lot of hand waving to insist that he and his fellow elites had nothing, nothing at all to do with him.
Reposted by Barold
Deporting foreign criminals won't move the dial much at all because, where it's available, the data shows that the vast majority of VAWG is carried out white British men and (increasingly) boys known to their victims
Badenoch knows this, and it's despicable that she fails to make this clear
Badenoch knows this, and it's despicable that she fails to make this clear
Dog-whistle and factually incorrect. Ladies, raise your hand if you were sexually assaulted by a boy at school? I’d wager this or a family member is most women’s first experience of sexual violence
December 18, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Deporting foreign criminals won't move the dial much at all because, where it's available, the data shows that the vast majority of VAWG is carried out white British men and (increasingly) boys known to their victims
Badenoch knows this, and it's despicable that she fails to make this clear
Badenoch knows this, and it's despicable that she fails to make this clear
Reposted by Barold
The standard of political reporting in this country is *appalling* because of this. Actual politics- the relationships between state, labour, capital etc - are entirely invisible to these people. They can only see it in terms of "my team good".
It’s frustrating seeing journalists reporting on the Unison General Secretary election primarily in party political instead of trade union terms. Andrea Egan won promising to raise the expectations of public sector workers. That could well have a big industrial relations impact very soon.
December 17, 2025 at 11:14 AM
The standard of political reporting in this country is *appalling* because of this. Actual politics- the relationships between state, labour, capital etc - are entirely invisible to these people. They can only see it in terms of "my team good".
Reposted by Barold
Does anyone - anyone at all - have a plan to get us to a future where councils do have money to fix things again?
That old stick about the Roman Empire, and how the actual sign of the collapse was a bridge falling down and nobody coming to fix it.
Replacing collapsed bridge 'nigh on impossible' cost for council
The Spey Viaduct was completed in 1886 but partially collapsed into the Moray river at the weekend.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 17, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Does anyone - anyone at all - have a plan to get us to a future where councils do have money to fix things again?
Reposted by Barold
Prisoner 4 Palestine Qesser Zuhrah is at imminent risk of death!
I've contacted people at HMP Bronzefield
They have 2 doctors with them trying to get an ambulance in to take her to hospital
The prison has refused to transfer her
Justice Secretary David Lammy you must step in. Show humanity
I've contacted people at HMP Bronzefield
They have 2 doctors with them trying to get an ambulance in to take her to hospital
The prison has refused to transfer her
Justice Secretary David Lammy you must step in. Show humanity
December 17, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Prisoner 4 Palestine Qesser Zuhrah is at imminent risk of death!
I've contacted people at HMP Bronzefield
They have 2 doctors with them trying to get an ambulance in to take her to hospital
The prison has refused to transfer her
Justice Secretary David Lammy you must step in. Show humanity
I've contacted people at HMP Bronzefield
They have 2 doctors with them trying to get an ambulance in to take her to hospital
The prison has refused to transfer her
Justice Secretary David Lammy you must step in. Show humanity
Reposted by Barold
Its always the ones you most suspect.
Interesting background on Paul Doyle, who drove his car into the Liverpool parade www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/art...
December 16, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Its always the ones you most suspect.
Reposted by Barold
Having to learn a skill isn't gatekeeping. The internet is literally filled with free resources for you to learn basically anything.
Y'know what is gatekeeping? Hoarding eye-watering amounts of wealth while the rest of the world struggles on...
Y'know what is gatekeeping? Hoarding eye-watering amounts of wealth while the rest of the world struggles on...
I have grown to believe that excessive wealth does something to your brain that is analogous to a serious head injury
December 15, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Having to learn a skill isn't gatekeeping. The internet is literally filled with free resources for you to learn basically anything.
Y'know what is gatekeeping? Hoarding eye-watering amounts of wealth while the rest of the world struggles on...
Y'know what is gatekeeping? Hoarding eye-watering amounts of wealth while the rest of the world struggles on...
Reposted by Barold
I do think that if the main public health message from the authorities to the population is get the flu vaccine then the flu vaccine should be free and readily available for all. That’s not the case at the moment.
December 14, 2025 at 12:01 PM
I do think that if the main public health message from the authorities to the population is get the flu vaccine then the flu vaccine should be free and readily available for all. That’s not the case at the moment.
If I had money and time, I would set up a single issue political party around banning the car.
My least popular (and most correct) view is that cars should be automatically limited to the local speed limit. Put the pedal to the floor and you still can't go over 25mph in a residential area.
(15 in Manhattan btw)
(15 in Manhattan btw)
There is no possible justification for limiting e-bikes to 15mph but not cars.
December 14, 2025 at 7:13 PM
If I had money and time, I would set up a single issue political party around banning the car.
Reposted by Barold
It’s wild how we’ve been getting all this insight into how Britain actually works and the extent to which the country is meaningfully democratic, and all that happens is the odd Guardian article. These hearings might as well be happening on Enceladus www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Police spied on group set up to expose wrongdoing in Met, inquiry hears
The HCDA, which sought to expose police corruption and violence, was secretly monitored for a decade
www.theguardian.com
December 14, 2025 at 12:49 PM
It’s wild how we’ve been getting all this insight into how Britain actually works and the extent to which the country is meaningfully democratic, and all that happens is the odd Guardian article. These hearings might as well be happening on Enceladus www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reposted by Barold
I do this every single semester. I take my phone to the bathroom in case I need to call my loved ones. I was tenured and i've never known a time before Columbine.
Each semester I go in my classroom and I try to figure out what we would use to block the doors, if it would be safe to crawl out the windows, where we could hide if there was a mass shooter in campus. It’s such an indictment of this country how we have normalized these preventable tragedies.
December 14, 2025 at 12:02 AM
I do this every single semester. I take my phone to the bathroom in case I need to call my loved ones. I was tenured and i've never known a time before Columbine.