Screenshot of a Substack note by account 'JoJoFromJerz' that says: 'In a sane administration, the FBI Director doesn’t go on the morning news to prove he’s not a drunk, the Defense Secretary doesn’t quote Tarantino to prove he’s a man of God, and the President doesn’t take multiple cognitive exams to prove he’s not insane.'
None of this is normal.
Just for fun, let me tell you about somebody you've probably never heard of, but who was once one of the most famous people in England, a national hero, a disgraced fraudster, and an astonishingly accomplished piratical maniac.
He led quite a life. (1/53)
I love this so much!!
Despite its growth-including on the social media platforms X (Twitter), Telegram, the Russian-based VK, and Bluesky-the network remains user-unfriendly across all domains and subdomains. For example, it has no search function, a generic navigation menu, and dysfunctional scrolling on many sites and pages. Webpage layout issues and obvious mistranslations persist on the network's sites as well, contributing to appearances that the network is not primarily intended for human consumption. Given what appears to be its small human audience and the massive footprint of the network, we believe the network isn't targeting humans, but an automated audience: web crawlers involved with search engine optimization and scraping algorithms that collect data for training datasets such as those used for large language models. This targeting strategy is a stark departure from other pro-Russia information operations, and one with serious social, political, and technological consequences for the world.
Tricking AI chatbots by lying about hot dogs sounds fun! Now read about a Russian operation with an annual publishing rate of at least 3.6 million pro-Russia articles. It is not designed for access by human eyes which implies it is there to influence AI chatbots
thebulletin.org/2025/03/russ...
youtu.be/T4Upf_B9RLQ?...
Just England will do, this year.
well there’s an instant switch
The Office at Night, a homage to Edward Hopper, painting by Phil Lockwood, retired Sheffield art teacher.
Phil's paintings are wonderful.
Do you ever feel you’re being excluded?
From the new Private Eye, out now.
Sometimes, with sufficient wrangling and standing on people, you can open a window.
It's that or -5 degrees. They only have the two settings.
@ianbadcoe.itch.io
The way to actual tech sovereignty from the US? Extremely interesting talk by Cory Doctorow.
pluralistic.net/2026/01/01/3...
Fascinating. I hope the powers that be are listening.
Eyes Iike trilobite eyes?
Very much enjoyed reading all your newsletters this year. Thank you!
Obviously an educational toy.
Erudite Christmas.
Thanks. Best avoided!
Ah, thank you!
As someone not from the US, I've never understood what is meant by a cootie.
I like Calibri. Excitement is not something I want in a font.
I think I might just have to admit defeat and squeeze another bookshelf in.
Green and purple is series 1, surely? But yes B5 was excellent, especially G'Kar and Londo. Definite character development.
Interesting, but going to be undermined by receiving more books for Christmas. There's no catching up!
