Mark Goody @marramgrass@nitech.online

I'm worried by this story: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/11/fujitsu-repay-post-office-scandal-horizon-it-software

Yes, Fujitsu must shoulder some blame for the faulty technology, and possibly more for being in denial. But Fujitsu did not choose to pursue the users for the "missing" money and prosecute them. There is a considerable human side to this story. We must not let the Post Office offload all the financial responsibility onto Fujitsu.

"We only acted like complete bastards because their software fucked up." won't cut it.

One of the most beautiful things in the world remains the moment in one of the final Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 cutscenes where Tim Curry _barely_ holds it together. Both that it exists, and that that's the take they went with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_U59u69tys

You know when people are at a gig and they have their phone out all the time?

Well that's fine. People can do whatever they like. They paid for their ticket so it's up to them how they enjoy the gig. 😊

The AI strategies of both main UK political parties: "Let a thousand Post Office Horizon IT scandals bloom!"
1) the opacity of deep learning erases due process
2) the harms caused when these brittle systems fail will fall on the least powerful
3) politicians believe AI can solve social problems

Horizon was raised in Parliament in 2012.

CW report in 2014. PO discontinued prosecutions in 2015. Civil litigation in 2017—2019.

Inquiry was set up in 2020. In 2021, Court of Appeal quashed a large number of convictions.

Turns out, the combined power of investigative journalism, Parliament, the courts, and public inquiries aren't enough to prompt the government to actually do anything about the biggest miscarriage of justice in English legal history—that requires an ITV drama, apparently.

Seems the only way to get our government to actually do anything useful is to broadcast a dramatisation of it on ITV.

Seriously, the miscarriage of justice around the Horizon / postmaster scandal has been known for… years? And yet it’s top priority now just because it got a drama on TV?

OK then; if that’s how it works, let’s have some dramas for climate change, treatment of refugees, and corrupt fucking Tories chasing the latest headlines.

Take care of yourself this holiday season.
- close your eyes
- take a deep breath
- give your old bones a rest
- wander the trackless moors at midnight and follow ghosts to the crumbling ruins of forgotten kings and magic untold
- have some tea and cake

Petition to make it so that any gig you buy tickets for has to publish all 3 times:

1. doors
2. support (if any)
3. main act

STOP CONFUSING US. 👍

As we get the yearly influx of Spotify’s Wrapped, Apple’s Replay, etc in our social feeds, a reminder:

Please support those artists you love by buying albums (or concert tickets, or merch) if you're in a position to do so. Streaming royalties are *terrible*.

And if you need a tool to help with buying albums, here, I built Support Act for this very purpose: https://supportact.app

James Dyson loses Libel Case.

Not too many fans in the courtroom, then?

I guess nature abhors a vacuum.

And so it begins. #Whamageddon

Proud British patriots demand Elgin marbles be ‘sent back where they came’ from after learning they came here illegally on a small boat https://newsthump.com/2023/11/29/proud-british-patriots-demand-elgin-marbles-be-sent-back-where-they-came-from-after-learning-they-came-here-illegally-on-a-small-boat/

Chancellor is going to cut NI, saving me a couple of hundred quid a year.... I can't get a call with a GP in anything under four weeks, but I'll be two hundred quid a year better off. Go Tories!

Tell you what... keep the 200 quid. Fix the NHS. And for pity's sake, be honest with us about the correlation between the tax we pay and the level of public service we enjoy!

The Tory ideology is that tax is a punishment. It's not. It's the price you pay to live in a functioning society!

#ukpolitics

Shamelessly stolen from @byelacey.bsky.social; caption of photo is "Link in bio".

Share my misery!

So, Mr Beast made a YouTube video where he dug 100 wells in impoverished areas of Kenya and other African countries. CNN did a story on how he was being criticized for his good deeds. They quoted Saran Kaba Jones, a Black woman who has been building wells in Africa for 15 years, and a single Twitter commenter.

But... The Black woman praised Mr. Beast? She only asked that we consider maintenance, because many of the wells she digs are because existing wells weren't maintained.

#BlackMastodon