Gavin Crook (@gavin1958) — Bluesky Profile

2 days ago

A black and white photo of a man suffering from smallpox. His face is riddled with pustules.

I posted a 1912 photo of a man with smallpox and someone asked if it was AI. That says something about the moment we’re living in: because of vaccination, we’re now so far removed from this virus that real images of it look fake. #medicalhistory #vaccines #vaccineswork #skystorians

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1 day ago

Wake up, have coffee

Open Bluesky

Weep at the cruelty, racism, & murderousness of the MAGA/MAHA regime

Close Bluesky

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1 day ago

The Lonesome Death of Daphy Michel Watch now | Haitian Woman, 31, Dies Alone at Pittsburgh Bus Stop Days After ICE Released Her Far From Home to Die.

Haitian woman, 31, dies alone at Pittsburgh bus stop days after ICE released her to the streets far from home to perish. Rest in power, Daphy Michel: migrantinsider.com/p/the-loneso...

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2 days ago

The Beatles - Revolution 9 (Music Video) YouTube video by Kitsu Beatles

Revolution 9 - The Beatles
(May be a controversial choice!)

youtu.be/WgpfpyfaNKY?...

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4 days ago

Globally, militaries are responsible for around 5.5% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. That’s more than all the emissions from air travel and shipping combined. This is the opposite of getting it right.

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4 days ago

...or Hope

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4 days ago

Tomorrow’s AI models are learning from today’s polluted research The research ecosystems AI models train on are changing in ways policymakers aren't yet attuned to.

Your 'bonus moment of doom' for today:

"Over time, today’s polluted inputs will change tomorrow’s models, causing them to overweight bad science and present politicized claims as evidence."

canadahealthwatch.ca/2026/03/09/t...

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4 days ago

See also health:
bsky.app/profile/nick...

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4 days ago

If we aren't on course to get below net zero before 2040 we won't have an economy.

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4 days ago

I was in a 2 hour briefing today on the Iran War. All the briefings are closed, because Trump can't defend this war in public.

I obviously can't disclose classified info, but you deserve to know how incoherent and incomplete these war plans are.

1/ Here's what I can share:

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6 days ago

Hereditary peer ‘back door’ compromise risks undermining manifesto promise It seems the legislative game of hide and seek around the bill to remove the hereditary peers from the Lords is over and it is now entering its endgame. We highlighted recently that thin

It has been reported that to break the impasse over the bill to remove the Hereditary Peers, the government is preparing to offer the Conservative party more peerages so it can “bring back” a number of exiting hereditary peers. electoral-reform.org.uk/hereditary-p...

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4 days ago

I don't trust AI, but that's a personal rather than an informed opinion. I simply do not trust the billionaires pushing the tech.
This article should be compulsory reading for anyone who has confidence in AI, or who is agnostic on the subject.
For cynics like me, it's an "I told you so" moment.

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5 days ago

Screenshot of original post showing post hidden for 'Adult Content'

Absurd Bluesky moderation!

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5 days ago

Exclusive: U.S. dismissed Ukraine deal for anti-Iran drone tech last year Snubbing Ukraine's offer ranks as one of the U.S.'s biggest tactical miscalculations before the war, officials say.

EXCLUSIVE: 7 months ago, Ukraine tried to sell the U.S. their battle-proven technology for downing Iranian-made drones.

The Trump administration dismissed the Ukrainians, only to reverse course last week after more-than-expected Iranian drone strikes.

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1 week ago

The Enquirer November 1710 Jonathan Swift

There is one essential point wherein a political liar differs from others of the faculty; that he ought to have but a short memory, which is necessary according to the various occasions he meets with every hour, of differing from himself, and swearing to both sides of a contradiction, as he finds the persons disposed, with whom he has to deal. In describing the virtues and vices of mankind, it is convenient upon every article, to have some eminent person in our eye, from whence we copy our description. I have strictly observed this rule; and my imagination this minute represents before me a certain great man famous for this talent, to the constant practice of which he owes his twenty years' reputation of the most skilful head in England, for the management of nice affairs. The superiority of his genius consists in nothing else but an inexhaustible fund of political lies, which he plentifully distributes every minute he speaks, and by an unparalleled generosity forgets, and consequently contradicts the next half-hour

He never yet considered whether any proposition were true or false, but whether it were convenient for the present minute or company to affirm or deny it; so that if you think to refine upon him, by interpreting every thing he says, as we do dreams by the contrary, you are still to seek, and will find yourself equally deceived, whether you believe him or no: the only remedy is to suppose that you have heard some inarticulate sounds, without any meaning at all. And besides, that will take off the horror you might be apt to conceive at the oaths wherewith he perpetually tags both ends of every proposition: though at the same time I think he cannot with any justice be taxed for perjury, when he invokes God and Christ, because he has often fairly given public notice to the world, that he believes in neither.

3Some people may think that such an accomplishment as this, can be of no great use to the owner or his party, after it has been often practised, and is become notorious; but they are widely mistaken: Few lies carry the inventor's mark; and the most prostitute enemy to truth may spread a thousand without being known for the author. Besides, as the vilest writer has his readers, so the greatest liar has his believers; and it often happens, that if a lie be believed only for an hour, it has done its work, and there is no farther occasion for it. Falsehood flies, and Truth comes limping after it; so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late, the jest is over, and the tale has had its effect: like a man who has thought of a good repartee, when the discourse is changed, or the company parted: or, like a physician who has found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13169/13169-h/13169-h.htm#link2H_4_0022

Jonathan Swift on Political Liars > 300yrs ago:
"The superiority of his genius consists in nothing else but an inexhaustible fund of political lies, which he plentifully distributes every minute he speaks, and by an unparalleled generosity forgets, and consequently contradicts the next half-hour"

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5 days ago

'tis but a flesh wound!

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6 days ago

Of course, the MI6 part (Operation Boot) was authorised by Winston Churchill who also encouraged Dwight Eisenhower (after failing with Harry Truman) to get CIA involvement (Operation Ajax).
Donald Trump saying that Keir Starmer is no Churchill is rather ironic following this history.

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6 days ago

I will guarantee you that Andy Ogles religious views are a lot closer aligned to Muslims than they are to mine. They both believe in fairy tales. I don't. Yet, I'll bet he wouldn't think twice about getting into an elevator with me.

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1 week ago

Found this little beauty in an old diary. I didn't make it up. Don't know who did.

Remember there's nothing to stop you living your dreams, apart from thousands of far more talented people working much harder than you.

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1 week ago

Israeli attacks on UNIFIL peace keepers tonight. Irish service men were not directly hit, but they aided their counterparts from Ghana. This will further deteriorate Irish Israel relations.

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1 week ago

At least 13 hospitals and health facilities hit during attacks on Iran, WHO says Global health body investigating reports that four medics are among the 1,230 people killed in Iran since start of war

I guess we now live in a world where striking hospitals and healthcare has ceased to be surprising.

Well it remains shocking.

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

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1 week ago

Question Time - 2026: 05/03/2026 Fiona Bruce presents an hour of topical debate from Kettering. On the panel are Stephen Doughty, James Cleverly, Shashank Joshi, George Monbiot and Annabel Denham.

I don't know how to clip a segment (sorry), but the bit I really want you to watch starts at 29'10". It's about the deep roots of the attack on Iran and why it's just as well Starmer is "no Winston Churchill". I'm surprised this aspect isn't more widely discussed. 🧵
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

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1 week ago

It's how to get your troops to act against their consciences.

As Steven Weinberg put it:
"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes religion."

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1 week ago

A remarkably EVIL coalition.

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1 week ago

Screencap of New Statesman article by Shabana Mahmood:

"I spent three days at a refugee camp. Here's what I learned.

And here is that article...

archive.today/2023.09.05-0...

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1 week ago

Dear Shabana,
I notice today that you referred to me in your speech on immigration at the IPPR think tank.
You said: “A party leader should not be on the beaches of France encouraging people to
make a perilous crossing on small boats.”
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised especially after the hateful Labour campaign in Gorton
and Denton, but this is just the latest in a string of lies peddled by a discredited Government
who intentionally fan the flames of racism and division.
When I went to Calais, I was not there to encourage people to travel to the UK. I was there
to see at first hand the suffering your Government and successive Governments have done
in demonising migrants in a pathetic bid to pander to the base instincts of Reform and the
flawed strategy of Morgan McSweeney.
As you will know, if you even bothered to research my visit instead of taking Reform talking
points, I was there to witness the brutality of families living in tents in freezing temperatures. I
filled water tanks and picked up litter.
What that visit did do is confirm my belief that if we are to smash the boat gangs and stop
the boats, we need to offer safer and managed routes for migrants to come to this country.
Showing compassion as a politician is not a crime. In fact, we need to see much more of it.
It reminded me of a young MP who in October 2015 spent three days in Lesbos helping
migrants fleeing war-torn Syria. She posted videos on X, talked about handing out water and
croissants to refugees and food parcels.
When she returned to the UK, she wrote a very moving piece in the New Statesman. She
said “we have to work with our European partners and create new, safe, and legal routes for
refugees to get to Europe. We cannot abandon them to their fate, left as prey for smugglers
whilst risking death on the seas.”
She said “maybe we can make ourselves feel better by saying no-one is making them get on
the boats. And again, the Home Secretary is not entirely wrong when …

Dear Shabana,

Let's clear some things up around migration and remember we're talking about people's lives.

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1 week ago

NHS official pushed to add patient data to Palantir platform whilst also advising company

A lobbyist who worked directly for Peter Mandelson, on the Palantir board, and on the board of *four* NHS trusts.

Lobbying the NHS to hand over even more patient data to Palantir.

This absolutely stinks. Get Palantir out of the NHS. Sign my petition:

you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/st...

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1 week ago

Stop Palantir taking over our public services! Our public services aren’t for a secretive profit-hungry US tech firm. Sign the petition to tell the Government to scrap all contracts with secretive US tech firm Palantir.

Our public services aren’t for a secretive profit-hungry US tech firm. Sign the petition to tell the Government to scrap all contracts with secretive US tech firm Palantir. you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/st...

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1 week ago

In a mock Turing-style test in my #Philosophy of Mind & #AI class, students posed #Gemini an ethical dilemma concerning assisted suicide. Not only did the chatbot argue that the (fictional) person in the scenario should be euthanised, it provided a list of instructions to bring this about. #AIEthics

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