JJ
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jaynegallaghe20.bsky.social
JJ
@jaynegallaghe20.bsky.social
Communications | Geopolitics | Humor
Huge fan of democracy.

Least favorite pastime: Watching things happen after being told they can’t possibly happen


*Banner quote: Lev Grossman
Reposted by JJ
Delighted to talk to Kori Shake about her excellent and timely new book, The State and the Soldier, about the history of civil-military relations in the US, when these relations are going through - to say the least - a testing time. (Free) samf.substack.com/p/the-state-...
The State and the Soldier
How should the US military react to a "unprincipled principal"?
samf.substack.com
December 21, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Reposted by JJ
Police in South Africa launch manhunt after nine killed, 10 injured in shooting
Police in South Africa launch manhunt after nine killed, 10 injured in shooting
Nine people were killed and 10 wounded in a shooting Sunday morning in a township in Johannesburg, South Africa. Authorities have launched a manhunt for the suspects, the South African Police Service has said.
rfi.my
December 21, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Reposted by JJ
“Rayons du Soleilen en Hiver” - Sunlight in Winter

Happy #Solstice!
The illustration below is from my copy of an early 19th century French textbook with an embossed College royal de Louis-le-Grand seal in its cover. Established in 1563, the school’s alumni include Voltaire & Victor Hugo.
📚💙
December 21, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Reposted by JJ
What else does an archaeologist do on 21 December but watch the livestream for Newgrange?

www.youtube.com/live/lRgumO6...

#NewgrangeSolstice
December 21, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Well worth the watch.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_For...
The Forgotten Battle - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
December 21, 2025 at 4:44 AM
Reposted by JJ
At first I thought this was another improvised MLRS which would have been way cooler
December 20, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by JJ
Henry David Thoreau is like “damn my vacation is so important to humanity”
December 20, 2025 at 2:51 AM
The choice to use animals can also emotionally disarm, leading to all sorts of potential issues. It’s NOT harmless by any stretch.

"When fake videos make rare species look common, or portray dangerous animals as harmless companions, the baseline for what nature looks like starts to drift."
"The reality is, now more than ever, what we see online shapes what we believe about the natural world. If AI-generated wildlife keeps filling our feeds, it becomes harder to remember how extraordinary real animals are & how vulnerable many of them have become."

#AILiteracy
In recent months, AI-generated wildlife clips have flooded social media, merging real animal behavior with playful fabrications.
December 19, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by JJ
1/ Recently, we've shared videos about new AI tools Sora & Nano Banana. The challenges these tools present & the responses to our posts confirmed what many of us already know:

People are struggling to separate what’s real & what’s not. This is why our free resources are more important than ever 👇🏾
Teach News Literacy - The News Literacy Project
Equip students with news literacy using our virtual classroom, interactive lessons, and educator resources, including PD, infographics, and quizzes.
newslit.org
December 17, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by JJ
Academics and technologists are sounding the alarm about a growing crisis in scholarship as we know it: AI-generated citations of nonexistent papers that have infested real journals. Despite being fake, the sources are widely assumed to be authentic the more they appear in published literature.
AI Is Inventing Academic Papers That Don't Exist -- And They're Being Cited in Real Journals
Academic articles from authors using large language model are creating an ecosystem of fake research that threatens human knowledge itself.
www.rollingstone.com
December 17, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Cheap and easy as it turns out.

"Additional analyses show global stocks of fake accounts are highest for platforms such as X, Uber, Discord, Amazon, Tinder and gaming platform Steam, while vendors keep millions of verifications available for the UK and US, along with Brazil and Canada."
How cheap is it to build a bot army? 🤖

Find out using the first global index to track real-time prices for verifying fake accounts on 500 platforms, from TikTok to Amazon 👇
https://bit.ly/44s9QSu
December 19, 2025 at 6:49 PM
What a soulless act
The russians have opened ticket sales for the Mariupol Drama Theater — the same place they bombed in 2022 w/ hundreds of people inside.

The first performance is scheduled for Dec 25. On the bones of Ukrainians, they plan to stage a "fairy comedy" titled A Gorgeous Wedding.

Via: Mariupol council.
December 19, 2025 at 6:37 PM
As she should be. You don’t mess with the Cobra Chicken.

"A woman said she was left "terrified" after a goose crashed through her front door as she watched television."
December 19, 2025 at 5:51 PM
What's the holiday song you've already heard too much? For me it's A Marshmallow World 🥴
December 19, 2025 at 7:05 AM
Reposted by JJ
EU to give €90bn loan to Ukraine ft.trib.al/usF4xdJ
EU to give €90bn loan to Ukraine
Money to be borrowed against bloc’s shared budget after leaders fail to agree ‘reparation loan’ proposal
ft.trib.al
December 19, 2025 at 1:59 AM
💔
ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus:

"What Christmas has taught me is, above all, to be grateful. Grateful that I can celebrate it in peace with my family. And that makes me think about all the brave Ukrainian men and women who are fighting tonight to defend their country against the ruthless Russian aggressor.
December 19, 2025 at 1:01 AM
"In contrast, a placebo group that was not assigned any creators to follow but was allowed to scroll social media as normal “showed significant rightward movement,” which researchers said was related to the right-leaning nature of social media networks.”

www.wired.com/story/the-mo...
December 19, 2025 at 12:53 AM
December 19, 2025 at 12:28 AM
December 19, 2025 at 12:11 AM
New click “bait” just dropped
cnn.com CNN @cnn.com · 2d
New research found certain kinds of cheese and cream were neuroprotective, but study limitations make that finding unlikely, experts say. https://cnn.it/4s3B5Nd
December 18, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Ukraine has sharply increased the daily supply of interceptor drones used to counter Russian Shahed-type uncrewed aerial vehicles, with average deliveries reaching nearly 950 units per day in December, according to information released by the Ministry of Defense.
December 18, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by JJ
This holiday season at OCCRP, we’re celebrating the joy of justice — swapping stories of how real-life monsters who destroyed other peoples’ lives are now finding their ill-gotten gains frozen.

Donate to OCCRP and give the gift of accountability: buff.ly/7SlfmQz
December 18, 2025 at 5:04 PM
What a staggering statistic.
Based on our analysis of 1.8 million Community Notes, only 10.9% are currently visible on X, while 89.1% are not yet visible and may never be made public. All notes, however, can be viewed here: notetracker.socialmedialab.ca/?start=2021-...
December 17, 2025 at 9:39 PM