Already 30 responses within the last 12 hours. Keep it coming guys. 👍

@arstechnica Greedy fucks.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham's plan to collaborate with social media creators

Burnham is making creator collabs part of No 10’s media strategy

Downing Street wants a more “social-first”, less polished style built around Burnham’s personality

Creators are being used to reach younger audiences who rarely see official government content

Teenage Labour TikTok creators have generated millions of likes with memes, edits and trend-led political content

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy4k74xj9lyo
#andy burnham

Today's #Muppets GIF of the Day is...

@juergen_hubert @futurebird I just love the fact that the #raccoons in Germany were released on purpose "to enrich the fauna" in a unique act of well-documented stupidity, complete with official rubberstamp. More about it in my ancient feature on invasive species, which also includes something about #ants: https://proseandpassion.blogspot.com/2012/10/alien-invaders.html

The history books (at least, the ones I write) will note this as the high water mark of internet culture™️

https://youtu.be/votBDwhTu1E?si=d9p6KkoeIweBD_uZ

kappas sehän on meikäläinen aamulehdessä :D

https://www.aamulehti.fi/moro/art-2000012155208.html

maksumuuri ikävä kyllä, en pääse itekään lukemaan :P

#nyssehaaste

Lebanese shia families that fled the combat are turned away by other religious groups for fear of attracting attacks from the Israeli Defense Forces on their settlements and districts.

This plays into the hands of Hezbollah which needs to refill its ranks and stoke sectarian unrest in Lebanon and yes, it's absolutely by design. It's not like the Israeli leadership didn't know this would happen.

https://understandingwar.org/research/middle-east/iran-update-special-report-july-22-2026/

Today at Wikimania I found out about Terrence & Elizabeth Eden's OpenBenches project, and noted that three memorial benches I know of in Pukerua Bay are not listed. Photo trek when I get home!
https://openbenches.org/
@Edent #Wikimania2026 #OpenBenches #PukeruaBay #CreativeCommons #geotagging

As Thursdays go, this one isn't terrible. Yes, it's my mum's birthday and I saw her alive last on this day 9 years ago so that's bitter-sweet, but then having an app of mine on iOS feels kinda magical in a way, silly though that may sound.
It's also my granddad's birthday (my mum's dad) who passed away just a few months ago, and my wife's dad all on the same day.

The only variations of an ethical future which incorporates "AI" are ones where large AI corporations are unprofitable

Socialism Is Being Defended Too Narrowly

Socialism is having a moment — Trump can't stop saying "communism," Vance is fretting about it on Rogan, and DSA keeps winning primaries. But the defense being mounted by its friends is oddly small: our programs poll well, and unlike Trump we actually mean them. That makes socialism into competent, sincere liberalism — one honest Democrat away from redundant.

G. A. Cohen's camping trip is the corrective. Socialism isn't only a claim about who owns what. It's a claim about community — a thing the nineteenth-century theorists could take for granted and we can't, because it's been taken from us.

#SeizeTheMeansOfCommunity
#DSA
#TheCommunitariumProject

https://seizethemeans.communitarium.org/baslow/socialism-is-being-defended-too-narrowly

EU elevation map

(by @cstats)
https://www.instagram.com/p/DOrJw6DjKgl/

#theBeeAt3

Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.

9.

Bees are a #vegan evolution of wasps - feeding on #nectar and #pollen collected from #flowers rather than on prey.

‘Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it.’
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

#bees #bumblebees
#nature #environment
#worldbeesanctuary #wildflowers
#biodiversity #wildlife #insects
#education #science #summer

Senator, we don’t run ads

RE: https://social.coop/@cwebber/116841848684568048

How can fedi help fight bad internet bills? (1/N)

If you haven't read Christine's "What happened to the fight for the internet?" (linked in the quoted post), you really should. You can see some of my initial thoughts about Christine's excellent post in the replies, including an observation that people on decentralized social networks can potentially play a big role in pushing back on bad internet bills, but to date haven't had a lot of impact.

So let's make things concrete. What can fedi do to push back on KOSA and age verification bills that the US Senate is just about to vote on, C-34 in Canada, the social media ban in France, upcoming C. hat Control 2.0 in the EU, or whatever bad internet bills are in place wherever you are?

#fediverse @general

Clipman Beta is now available on Testflight. https://testflight.apple.com/join/HYReZKAk

@FranceskAlbs #BLOCKED

first talk today #cogsci2026 Judith Fan’s Gleitman Prize lecture - it was a beautiful overview of her work trying to understand the way humans build and use cognitive tools

here a recent, publicly available talk by Judith Fan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF3XJT9YKpM

https://cognitivesciencesociety.org/gleitman-prize/