Magpie-A

Voices for Truth at Newcastle City Library A new exhibition is opening at the Newcastle City Library, one which gives a voice to those fighting oppression across the world

Voices for Truth at Newcastle City Library

A new exhibition is opening at the Newcastle City Library, one which gives a voice to those fighting oppression across the world

northeastbylines.co.uk/culture/illu...

AI-fueled marketing algorithms are becoming increasingly good at influencing our behavior.

That raises concern about what governments might do with these tools for propaganda to stir up war fever, explains a security researcher.

buff.ly/b0Yn2J8

Photo of Yusuf at a lectern saying “shadow Home Secretary” (Wot?) Reform's plan for a 'British ICE' combines cruelty with stupidity

Project forward to 2036 under a majority Reform government and the picture darkens further. Britain would be smaller, older and whiter; more isolated from Europe; paradoxically, more vulnerable to foreign interterence and less able to fund its own defence. The welfare state would shrink to a skeleton. Charity would fill the gaps. Flags would proliferate; rights would not. The police and courts would be politicised. The BBC could disappear. The NHS would survive only as a minimal safety net. Protections against discrimination would erode - you might indeed be sacked for being disabled. Migrants and even their British-born children could find their rights curtailed unless they were deemed to "contribute" sufficiently. Meanwhile, the wealthiest would enjoy a generous, low-tax regime.

“Rarely has a British political party unveiled a programme that combines cruelty with impracticality on such an extravagant scale.”

Chilling on Reform’s increasingly confident fascism. High on viciousness and greed. Very low on wisdom. A ruinous combination.
www.independent.co.uk/voices/zia-y...

The EU is going to Ukraine empty-handed ― thanks to Hungary This is how Budapest spoiled EU’s carefully choreographed trip to Kyiv.

Four years to the day since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, the EU hoped to bring some comfort in the form of fresh sanctions against Moscow and a €90 billion loan to Kyiv.

Hungary has stopped that happening.

I'm old enough to remember when polio ripped through the globe and put my friends into iron lungs.

We dutifully lined up at school to get vaccinated. We eradicated the disease. We protected the common good and saved lives.

RFK Jr. is a disgrace.

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight Netanyahu: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

youtu.be/0_Bwix9IjOE?...

ICE whistleblower comes forward to testify before Congress Ryan Schwank, a former ICE academy instructor, is expected to testify that ICE “is lying to Congress and the American people” about its training program.

Breaking MS NOW:

An ICE whistleblower is expected to testify at a congressional forum today that the agency is "lying to Congress and the American people" about its training of new recruits.

Ryan Schwank was an ICE academy instructor for new recruits before he resigned earlier this month.

Ethnic Stereotypes and the Letters of Paul Cambridge Core - Biblical Studies - New Testament - Ethnic Stereotypes and the Letters of Paul

Available now in Open Access — free to browse and download. I’m thrilled that this book is finally seeing the light of day. It’s been quite the journey. Many thanks to all the friends and colleagues who helped me along the way!

Over two nights in early January, Iranian security forces crushed antigovernment demonstrations in a deadly crackdown.

Four witnesses share what they saw. 🔗: on.wsj.com/4rB7wlA

Monumental snake engravings of the Orinoco River Rock art of the Middle and Upper Orinoco River in South America is characterised by some of the largest and most enigmatic engravings in the world, including snakes exceeding 40m in length. Here, the authors map the geographic distribution of giant snake motifs and assess the visibility of this serpentine imagery within the Orinoco landscape and Indigenous myths. Occupying prominent outcrops that were visible from great distances, the authors argue that the rock art provided physical reference points for cosmogonic myths, acting as border agents that structured the environment and were central to Indigenous placemaking along the rivers of lowland South America.

Want to learn more about the extensive rock art of pre-Columbian South America and its role in Indigenous cosmology? Explore the monumental snake engravings of the Orinoco River (including some of the largest rock art motifs in the world) in Antiquity 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Archaeologists Discover Massive 8,000-Year-Old Petroglyph Complex in Venezuela A remarkable archaeological discovery in northeastern Venezuela is drawing international attention after authorities confirmed the finding of a major petroglyph...

📰 4,000-to-8,000-year-old petroglyph complex discovered in northeastern Venezuela may reflect the cosmology of the region’s earliest inhabitants

🏺 #ArchaeologyNews via ArkeoNews

arkeonews.net/archaeologis...

Thet destroyed it so they could sell it off. The people who live there don't matter.

Academia.edu - Find Research Papers, Topics, Researchers Academia.edu is the platform to share, find, and explore 50 Million research papers. Join us to accelerate your research needs & academic interests.

FYI, Academia.edu has changed its terms of service to give an irrevocable worldwide license for anything uploaded to its site to be used for generative AI. I do not consent to this and have pulled all my papers.

Einstein - AI Homework Agent Einstein logs into Canvas and does your homework automatically. He has his own computer — he can watch lectures, read essays, write papers, and participate in discussions.

Is this bad

What this technology is going to do is not end higher education, but it is going to undo so much of the baseline work on accessibility by pushing overworked professors to take things back to offline modalities, in person timed exams, keeping tech out of the classroom, etc.

TN bill would allow death penalty for women who have an abortion SBC President Clint Pressley endorsed the effort saying it would “provide preborn children with equal protection of the laws.”

I don't know what the chances are this passes, but this is horrific.
www.yahoo.com/news/article...

All pregnant migrant girls sent to Texas shelter where abortion is banned: report Children as young as 13 are ‘trapped’ in a state with no access to abortion, lawyers and advocates say

there is literally no low too low for this fucking administration.
www.the-independent.com/news/world/a...

Bird-Watchers Flock to Montreal to Catch a Glimpse of Canada's First Known European Robin Experts don't know how the little songbird traveled across the Atlantic Ocean

#Birding
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/b...

Last month, University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin approved a proposal to establish a College of Computing and Artificial Intelligence funded by private corporations and philanthropy. Mnookin said the move was a response to the inevitable creep of artificial intelligence into all disciplines of academia. Rather than reject AI, she envisioned a university that capitalized on this change by making artificial intelligence a "hub" connecting the humanities to computer science.

On the first day of my economics elective this spring, my professor said we would be expected to use NotebookLM to pass his class. He had lengthened the coding assignments so that they would be doable only with the help of AI. The reading assignments were longer, too: ten 40-page papers per week, which he asked us to feed into AI for a summary rather than read ourselves. When it came to lectures, he told us to simply upload the slides to AI and ask it to teach us whatever he failed to explain properly in class.

BLEAK. Bleak. I’d been paying attention to Columbia selling out its governance to the Trump admin, not so much its stance on AI.
www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2026...

The Foos should play Cork, fecking cowards!
COWARDS!!
Lol
Play the Sin è ye feckers,sure didn't old Springsteen himself manage it!!!

Twitter screencap: Robert Jenrick v @RobertJenrick England, and the United Kingdom, are built upon and in the Judeo-Christian tradition. We should treasure that inheritance. A magnificent speech from @danny__kruger ® Danny Kruger @ @danny__kru... •2d I gave a speech today in an empty chamber. It's about the need for a Christian restoration.

In 1290, Edward I issued an edict expelling all Jews from England, becoming the first European state in history to do so. The law was issued on the ninth of Ab, just to be an extra asshole about it, and land and property were forfeited to the crown.

judeo-christian, my ass

I've done a quick write-up on this cute abandoned house

shrewsburyfromwhereyouarenot.blogspot.com/2026/02/cide...

#abandoned #urbex #urbanexploring #Shropshire #Shrewsbury

"Nicotine delivery system"

While Tech Bros are able to medicate themselves for optimal performance, women across the country are in prison because they use meth and opioids to deal with the trauma of poverty, medical neglect, and abuse.

This must be an American thing. Extremists here couldn't care less about people or animals.

Yes. No "could" about it.

DoJ cases against protesters keep collapsing as officers’ lies are exposed in court String of embarrassing defeats for prosecutors as experts condemn DoJ effort to cast people as ‘violent perpetrators’

"In Chicago, of 92 people arrested for assaulting or impeding officers last fall, 74 cases have resulted in no charges; in 13 cases, charges were filed and dismissed; and five charged cases were still pending *** As of the end of January, there have been no convictions."

How Nazgul the wolfdog made his run for Winter Olympic glory in Italy Nazgul isn't talking, but his owners come clean about how he got loose, got famous, and how they feel now

NPR continues to bring you all the news you can use about Nazgul.

Saint Francis of Assisi’s skeleton goes on public display for first time Hundreds of thousands of visitors expected for month-long display of 13th-century saint’s remains

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...