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Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 9h

Oh I hadn't really thought about that. Either he's on the outs, thinks this is doomed, some combination or a secret third-fourth thing maybe?

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Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 9h

It's wildly irresponsible but the guy is almost eighty. YOLO seems to be the mantra...

Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 9h

The thought is that he's already gotten the best headlines he can hope for and what's going to follow is gonna be bloody, boring, complex and it's gonna involve lots of insubordination. "Phase two" is just question marks (to me). Maybe walk away now and try to run the same scam again in nine months?

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Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 10h

The sobering thought that it might be in the Trump administration's short to medium term interest for this ceasefire to fail fast and hard, but with highly unpredictable long-term effects...

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Reposted by Geoffrey Hughes

Paul Fischer @pfischer.bsky.social · 10h

Choosing Marilyn Monroe as an example for this is a prime -- and dark -- demonstration of how AI slop's core purpose is the erasure of consent for everyone, from the artists whose work has been stolen to the performers the user turns into lifeless puppets

Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social · 1d

Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies

Want to See Marilyn Monroe in Game of Thrones? AI Could Make It Soon

Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies

www.scientificamerican.com

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Reposted by Geoffrey Hughes

Drop Site @dropsitenews.com · 11h

🚨In blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement, Israel has announced it will slash agreed aid shipments in half and keep the Rafah crossing closed, after Hamas returned four of the 28 bodies of Israeli captives believed to be in Gaza.

Hamas officials had repeatedly told mediators...

Video below⬇️

According to Reuters who cited three Israeli officials, the Rafah crossing will remain closed through Wednesday, and aid deliveries will be sharply reduced. And Israeli outlets are claiming Hamas violated the deal, with Channel 12 citing an official alleging Hamas is “in severe breach” by not releasing more bodies. Egypt has reportedly deployed teams in Gaza to help locate them.

In a formal COGAT communication, Israel tied humanitarian aid directly to the return of bodies — a move amounting to collective punishment of a famine-stricken population:

“Yesterday, Hamas violated the agreement… As a result, political leadership has decided to impose a number of sanctions related to the humanitarian agreement. Starting tomorrow, only half of the agreed number of trucks — 300 — will be allowed to enter, all belonging to the UN and humanitarian NGOs. No fuel or gas will be allowed into the Strip, except for limited humanitarian needs.”

Senior Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzouk told Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill last week that a prisoner exchange “would be impossible” while Israeli forces remain in Gaza’s population centers:

“We don’t know exactly where the prisoners are. Even the negotiators don’t know their locations. There cannot be an exchange if Israeli forces remain.”

Marzouk warned that Israel’s refusal to withdraw proves it “does not want Trump’s ceasefire plan to be implemented.”

As early as October 3, when Hamas first delivered its response to Trump’s plan, Marzouk said on television that locating remains “would take months” after Israel destroyed and blocked off delivery of desperately needed heavy machinery. It would be “impossible” in 72 hours.

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Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 10h

Regretfully, I suspect that for a not insignificant number of people who are into the "theory canon" that is like the second most notable thing about him (first is grounding politics in the friend/enemy distinction). Really makes you think!

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Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 12h

I blame Agamben. Maybe an early sign that he was a wrong'un...

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Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 12h

Friend of mine was a German historian who had someone approvingly drop a Schmitt reference in her grad seminar and then was incredulous when she said he was a card carrying member of the Nazi Party and literally refused to believe her.

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Reposted by Geoffrey Hughes

aohsu @aohsusometimesy.bsky.social · 13h

my contrib to the sapiens discourse

aohsu @aohsusometimesy.bsky.social · Nov 15

Hatereading Harari's _Sapiens_ in graphic novel format, because it's good to Know Your Ideology. So far it takes the form of Harari traveling the world, mansplaining his book to his niece, and outsourcing some arguments to other scientists. It often leans into the comic book medium.

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Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 14h

I mean, if the Islamic Republic of Iran can manage it...

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Reposted by Geoffrey Hughes

Christos Lynteris @visualplague.bsky.social · 16h

So great to see my new book How Plague Got Rats:
Mastering a Zoonotic Pandemic, published OA @hopkinspress.bsky.social next May, has got a cover! www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

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Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 16h

Sources might "bear witness" if you're approaching things from a naive and logocentric perspective and lack familiarity with the practice of source criticism, but it's easy to cast doubt on contemporaneous written denunciations as bad faith, ideologically motivated or driven by personal vendettas.

Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 17h

Seems like all the manacles and chains are a strong clue!

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Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 17h

The preferred strategy seems to be to hire someone who then immediately begins applying for their next job instead of doing what they were hired to do while the PI chases them trying to guilt extra work out of them instead of doing whatever they're supposed to be doing.

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Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 17h

Modest proposal that all university employees be required to wear overalls and carry a metal lunch pail so Keir Starmer will see us as workers...

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Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 17h

Not an original observation but this really smacks of gender. If education wasn't female-coded, the implications of so many job losses and mid-sized towns losing their anchors would be immediately obvious, but here we are.

PoliticsHome @politicshome.bsky.social · 1d

Universities in the UK are heading for a financial calamity like the 2008 crash, the head of @ucu.org.uk has warned

@drjogrady.bsky.social told @matildamartin.bsky.social: "The people who should be either governing from government or governing institutions are asleep at the wheel"

Universities Are Heading A Financial Crisis Like The 2008 Crash, Warns Union BossBoss

The head of the University and College Union, Jo Grady, has warned that universities face a financial calamity similar to the 2008 banking crisis, ...

www.politicshome.com

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Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 17h

Again...

Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 1d

You really don't have to hand it to Trump yet. If food is still entering Gaza a month from now, by all means. Please do. But for now you should definitely not be out there auditioning for the 'fell for it again award'...

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Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 17h

My expectations were low but Jesus Christ...

Picture of the destruction in Gaza with thousands of desperate people in the foreground

Headline: Five Palestinians Killed by Israeli forces in Gaza despite ceasefire

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Reposted by Geoffrey Hughes

Fabio Chiusi @fabiochiusi.bsky.social · 18h

"we should not assume that technological revolutions are productivity revolutions. The rate of productivity growth has been in sharp decline since 2003, and today sits where it stood before the widespread adoption of the personal computer"

www.techpolicy.press/generative-a...

Generative AI’s Productivity Myth | TechPolicy.Press

People may be using artificial intelligence, but that doesn’t mean it’s useful, writes Eryk Salvaggio.

www.techpolicy.press

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Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 18h

Hilariously, Wiley's website is down, but the whole thing is here...

rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 19h

The part that really struck me is the observation that rackets are one of the rare forms of economic predation where obtaining the victim's "consent" is a key part of the crime. It raises the question of why coercive attempts to extract such displays of "consent" have become so central to politics.

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Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 19h

A very useful looking article just showed up on my doorstep. Seems widely applicable!

Picture of a journal article:

Racket sociality: Investigating intimidation in North India

Lucia Michelutti, UCL

This article is an ethnographic investigation into acts of intimidation and threats. Theoretically, it dialogues with ‘racket’ – a key analytical term in the sociology of domination, state‐making, and mafias. The anthropology of power, violence, and crime has paid scant attention to the morphology of threats and the ways interpersonal intimidation intertwines with economic and political forms of coercion. Drawing on ethnographic insights from North India, the article examines the way (criminal) intimidation is normalized, consented to, and socially embedded in everyday life. It shows how racketeering is routinized beyond clandestine organized crime. Ultimately, ‘racket sociality’ is proposed as a new method of ethnographic inquiry into theorizing authority and legitimacy in an age of populist strongmen politics and predatory forms of capitalism.

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Reposted by Geoffrey Hughes

wendy copium @alicebennett.bsky.social · 1d

one thing LLMs have revealed is that the belief that there is a magical incantation that will give you what you want is not just confined to pick-up artists and freemen on the land

Des Fitzgerald @desfitzgerald.bsky.social · 1d

Seeing people nonchalantly post stuff like makes me feel like I'm going crazy honestly.

A post from an academic on blue sky that says: "I'm learning about "prompt engineering" when asking LLMs to extract data. I now add this to all instructions:

Style
Be concise, analytic, and specific (cite page/figure if provided). If essential info is missing, keep going but flag Unclear and exact data needed. Never invent data.

#academicsky"

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Geoffrey Hughes @geofffhughes.bsky.social · 1d

Folks: Would you buy a ceasefire from this man?

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 1d

Trump greets the delegate from UAE, which put $2 billion into Trump’s crypto company: “They got a lot of cash. Unlimited cash.”

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