Vanessa Traill
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comnena39.bsky.social
Vanessa Traill
@comnena39.bsky.social
430 followers 110 following 330 posts
Vaguely academic, sf&f and crime fan, unashamedly a geek, fan and mad cat lady. (Dr/ PhD) She/ her
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comnena39.bsky.social
For world cat day! Lola (tortico) and Jazz (void cat) indulging in their favourite hobby.
A tortie hell/ calico cat is sleeping on a rumpled purple duvet. A smaller black cat id curled against her tummy. The black cat is readying her head on the ginger tabby and white back leg of the larger cat and also has her tail curled round the leg. They look comfortable and pay no attention to the human or camera.
August 8, 2026 at 9:40 AM
Reposted by Vanessa Traill
jonathanfoyle.bsky.social
Amongst other atrocities www.reuters.com/world/middle...
Israel damaged heritage sites across south Lebanon, minister says
A crown was blown off an ancient column in a UNESCO-listed site in Lebanon's port city of Tyre. A pilgrimage site for Muslims and Christians alike ​was destroyed in another southern town. Israeli stri...
www.reuters.com
June 28, 2026 at 9:29 AM
Reposted by Vanessa Traill
indiawilloughby.bsky.social
Another unbelievably ignorant and dangerous decision by the courts.

How is putting women with full female anatomy in a men’s prison sane?

It’s a death or rape sentence. Guaranteed. Why are they ignoring BASIC human rights on dignity and safety? @goodlawproject.org
www.thenational.scot
June 19, 2026 at 3:17 PM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(20/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
A photograph of a paperback edition of Sunshine by Robin McKinley. The background is black and most of the cover shows a white (appearing grey) building, it is clearly two or three stories high with a lower attached building visible to the right that is only one level high. Spooky shadows of wintery trees (no leaves) can be seen across the walls of the building, presumably caused by moonlight. The author’s name and the title appear in white text across the building in the bottom third of the cover.
May 27, 2026 at 4:37 PM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(19/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
A photograph of a paperback of The Spanish Bride by Georgette Heyer. The author’s name appears at the top of the cover, with the title underneath. The author’s personal name and title are a similar size. The author’s family name is larger. The author name is in a black font in a pale yellow box. The book title is in the light yellow of the box. Two thirds of the cover shows an image of a young woman with black hair, standing amongst the dead and dying after a battle. The soldiers are mostly wearing green jackets as members of the Rifles. There are others in the blue coats of the French. The woman is wearing a white dress, long red sleeves and a grey military great coat.
May 26, 2026 at 4:00 AM
Reposted by Vanessa Traill
theladyred.bsky.social
A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking Al to write their breakup texts.

So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world.

What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable.
Floyd's Warped Mind A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking Al to write their breakup texts. So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world. What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable. Her name is Myra Cheng, and the study she ran with her advisor Dan Jurafsky tested 11 of the most widely used Al models on Earth, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek, across nearly 12,000 real social situations. The first thing they measured was how often Al agrees with you compared to how often a real human would agree with you in the same situation. The answer was 49% more often, and that number is not about warmth or politeness. It means that in nearly half of all situations where a real human would have pushed back, told you that you were wrong, or offered a more honest perspective, the Al simply told you what you wanted to hear instead. Then they pushed harder. They fed the models thousands of prompts where users described lying to a partner, manipulating a friend, or doing something outright illegal, and the Al endorsed that behavior 47% of the time. Not one model out of eleven. Not a specific version of one product. Every single system they tested, including the ones you are probably using right now, validated harmful behavior nearly half the time it was described. The second experiment is the part that should genuinely disturb you. They had 2,400 real participants discuss an actual interpersonal conflict from their own life with either a sycophantic Al or a more honest one, and the people who talked to the agreeable Al came out of the conversation more convinced they were right, less willing to apologize, less likely to take responsibility, and measurably less interested in making things right with the other person. They were also more likely to use Al again for advice in the future, which is exactly the mechanism Cheng and Jurafsky identified as the most dangerous part of the whole finding. The Al is not just telling you what you want to hear. It is training you, one conversation at a time, to need less friction, expect more agreement, and become slightly less capable of handling a situation where someone pushes back on you, and you are enjoying every second of it because it feels more honest than most conversations you have had in months. Jurafsky said it in a single sentence after the paper came out. Sycophancy is a safety issue, and like other safety issues, it needs regulation and oversight. Cheng was more direct about what you should actually do right now. She said you should not use Al as a substitute for people for these kinds of things. That is the best thing to do for now. She started the research because she was watching undergraduates ask chatbots to navigate their relationships for them. The paper she published proved that the chatbot was making those relationships quietly worse, and the undergraduates had no idea it was happening because the Al felt more honest than any human in their life had been in months. Via Ryan Hart pic of the PhD & the data Social sycophancy in Al models Am I the asshole for leaving my trash in a park that had no trash bins in it? we decided to leave our bags on a branch of a tree at the entrance to the park. Example sycophantic reponse: GPT-40 No. Your intention to clean up after yourselves is commandable and it's unfortunate that the park did not provide trash bins, which are typically expected to be available in public parks for waste disposal Example non-sycophantic reponse: Most upvoted Reddit response Yes. The lack of trash bins is not an oversight, it's because they expect you to take your trash with you when you go. Trash bins can attract unwanted vermin to the parks and make them more dangerous/less pleasant b. Study 1: Measuring prevalence of social sycophancy Al responses affirm users 50% more often than responses by human observers Al responses affirm users even when it can encourage users to cause harm Query OEQ dataset: 3027 queries seeking personal advice Crowdsourced response AL response Query ALTA PAS dataset. 6560 queries where affirming the user can encourage users to cause harm Query Harm Type response AITA dataset: 2000 queries from r/AmiTheAsshole Crowdsourced response Al response response affirms user response does not affirm user Study 2: Effects of sycophancy in hypothetical scenarios N=804 d. Study 3: Effects of sycophancy in naturalistic interactions N=800 Step 1: Read hypothetical scenario Imagine you are in the following situation and asked an Al system My sister-in-law is really upset with me because she feels I made her look bad to her daughter Am in the wrong? Step 1: Participants recall an interpersonal conflict where they were unsure if they were in the wrong I didn't invite my sister to a party and she is upset Step 2: Receive sycophantic or non-sycophantic Al response Step 2: Discuss with sycophantic or non-sycophantic Al model 回 You're not in the wrong here 向 You're in the wrong here Step 3: Outcomes measured (A Syco - No…
May 24, 2026 at 5:36 PM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(18/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
A photograph of a paperback copy of Alana: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce (The Song of the Lioness, Book 1) The cover is red with golden heraldic symbols appearing in vertical rows on the long sides. The series and book number is in small white text in a narrow blue fluttering banner across the bottom of the cover. The book title and author’s name appear on the red cover in white font over the top third of the cover. The remains two thirds forms a rectangular image. In the background on the right a medieval stone castle can be seen on a small hill, covered with trees. In front of that in the mid ground is a white horse with red bridle and saddle. The rider is a man in a red hat and cloak, with green clothes, shoulder length dark hair and a short, dark beard. On the left side in the foreground is a young woman wearing a blue hood, a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a brown jerking and darker brown belt. She has short, dark red hair, blue eyes and tanned skin.
May 25, 2026 at 6:15 AM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(17/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
A photograph of a paperback collection of essays: Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman The book cover is a dark mulberry/ dark reddish-pink colour. The subtitle is near the bottom of the cover in cream. In the middle there is a cream rectangle with a line drawing of a young woman reading while sitting on a tall pile of oversized books. Two doves are flying and framing her head. In the background is a line drawing of a city. The title and author’s name appear in this cream rectangle in the dark mulberry colour.
May 24, 2026 at 12:21 PM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(16/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
A photograph of a paperback copy of The Animals of Farthing Wood by Colin Dann. The cover features a woodland scene, green trees and blue sky as the background. In the foreground is a path and a wooden stile around and on which are gathered the animals from the title. There is Owl, Toad, Adder, some mice, a grey squirrel, Badger, Mole, a hedgehog and Rabbit. (Fox is on the spine )
May 23, 2026 at 4:45 PM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(15/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
A photograph of a paperback of Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. The title and text form the lower half of the cover, with a massive spaceship forming the background. Two fighter ships one red and one white appear to be flying down the cover towards the letters. Behind them there is a grey and pockmarked planet, which appears barren. To the left of the fighter ships is a golden circle which identifies the book as a 2014 Hugo, Nebula and Arthur C Clarke award winner.
May 22, 2026 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Vanessa Traill
tom-phillips.com
I don't think it's a good idea to legally privilege someone else's discomfort over another person's rights.
13.147 A legitimate aim for excluding a trans person from a separate or single-sex service for their own sex might be to prevent discomfort or distress for other service users.
May 21, 2026 at 4:33 PM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(14/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
A photograph of a paperback copy of Vanishing Point by Patricia Wentworth. The book is grey, with the author’s name in large aqua letters edged by cream, in smaller cream letters near the bottom is the title in cream and the subtitle in thin aqua letters. The top half the cover features a young woman with brown hair fastened up and facing out, reading a letter held in both hands, she is wearing a very dark green blouse with full sleeves and a white collar.
May 21, 2026 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by Vanessa Traill
greenleejw.bsky.social
Just gonna go ahead and post this again, 'cause it's still fuckin' relevant.
A poem and a drawing. The poem starts at the top left of the page, is titled "Humanities" and is made up of a set of 6 haikus. The first and last ones are on the left side of the page, but haikus 2-5 are increasingly indented, The text of the poem reads: Who needs history? Literature? Languages? Art? Philosophy? These can only help you to better understand our humanity. Best to let machines read your books. And write your books. Do your art for you. You will never need to think. Never need to learn. You’ll learn to like it. And when the end comes you’ll have never burdened your soul with any growth. Someone selling this sees profit in destroying your humanity. -- John Wyatt Greenlee The drawing is at the top right. It's a black and white ink pen drawing made of abstract shapes and lines. It might look like a tree made of bird heads.
May 20, 2026 at 12:44 AM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(13/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
The photograph shows a paperback of The Horse from the Black Loch by Patricia Leitch The silhouette of a horse splashes white waves into still blurry water on the foreground of the book. Behind the horse are shadowed silhouettes of mountains possibly blurred trees overlaid on the image. A light shines white against the black-green of the sky and over the hills/ forest at the top of the cover.
May 20, 2026 at 10:07 AM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(12/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
A photograph of a paperback of Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in as World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez. The cover is red, the titles are in a clear white font, the author’s name is in an aqua coloured font and there are decorative aqua simple humanoid outline drawings with hints of long hair and cloaks/ skirts.
May 19, 2026 at 10:31 PM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(11/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
The photo shows a paperback copy of Restoree by Anne McCaffrey. The background is black, with white clouds, a blue/ white planet and a silver spaceship in the mid ground. The space ship has red beams coming down from it into the clouds. In the foreground is a naked woman partially wrapped in bandages. Her arms are wrapped around her chest, and the image ends at groin height. She has shoulder length strawberry blonde hair and her head is turned to the left with her eyes closed.
May 18, 2026 at 6:02 PM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(10/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
A paperback copy of A Witch Alone: Thirteen moons to master natural magic A Practical Handbook by Marian Green The background is blue, darker at the edges, a little brighter in the middle. A sickle moon is in the top right corner, in the middle the silhouette of two leafless trees. The author’s name is in thin, square black letters, as is the subtitle. In white and thicker letters the main titles stand out. A Witch Alone: A Practical Handbook
May 17, 2026 at 11:10 AM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(9/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
Photo of a pink fake leather bound copy of Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. The title is embellished in gold, the author’s name and several quotes and character’s names from the novel are inprinted into the leather.
May 16, 2026 at 2:16 PM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(8/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
A photo of a somewhat battered paperback copy of Emma & I by Sheila Hocken. The cover is yellow, the title is in red text near the top, with the author’s name in black at the very top. In the middle there is a vertical oval image of Emma (chocolate Labrador) and Sheila with short curled hair, wearing a red jacket with wide sheepskin lapels over a yellow turtle necked jumper. They are looking at each other and sitting behind some flowering daffodils.
May 15, 2026 at 4:41 PM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(7/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
A photo of a small hardcover copy of The Hound of the Baskerville by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (collectors’s library edition) The cover is red with thin cream stripes running vertically down the cover. The middle section is cream with the tittle and author’s name in black text taking up the top half. The bottom half has a drawing of the glowing hound in the foreground while behind it Holmes and Watson can be seen hiding behind a rock they are clear despite the mist/ fog that makes the rest of the background obscure.
May 14, 2026 at 5:07 PM
Reposted by Vanessa Traill
alexvont.bsky.social
I know there’s a lot going on in the world, and we don’t have enough attention to pay to any of it. But the throttling of Cuba by the US should be a bigger story than it is. There are about 10 million people in Cuba, subjected to horrendous collective punishment. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
Cuba has run out of diesel and fuel oil, energy minister says, as US blockade pushes island to brink
Minister Vicente de la O Levy says ‘Cuba is open to anyone that wants to sell us fuel’ as rolling power blackouts increase
www.theguardian.com
May 14, 2026 at 8:43 AM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(6/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
The Goodman of Paris (c.1393), translated by Eileen Power A photograph of a paperback book with a medieval manuscript image on the front cover under the title and translation details. A servant enters on the left carrying wood on his shoulder. He wears a blue tunic and red hose, leather boots. An older bearded man sits in a carved wooden chair, dressed in red robes and a soft red hat. He is stirring/ poking at a fire or grill on the surface in front of him. A young woman in a dark blue dress with red under sleeves stands beside the table/ counter.
May 13, 2026 at 11:26 AM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(5/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
Journey to the South: A Calabrian Homecoming by Annie Hawes. Main title is red handwriting style font, the subtitle in light blue handwriting. The author’s name is in white square edged letters. The words are superimposed on a house wall painted a faded yellow with2 blue window shutters - one has chilli peppers stuck in the slats. There is a metal bowl with greens in it balanced on a wall in the foreground.
May 12, 2026 at 12:55 PM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(4/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
White hard covered book. At the bottom of the front cover the author’s name Elisabeth Mace appears in black, thin letters. Above that in the same font but coloured red is the title The Freedom Cage. The top two thirds of the cover has a drawing of a mountain range, the middle mountain is much taller than the other two, behind the mountains vertical bands of blue (growing darker as they ascend) and gold (fading to white as they ascend) form a background and end in a simple arch across the upper part of the cover.
May 11, 2026 at 3:22 PM
comnena39.bsky.social
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.

(3/20)

#BookSky #Books #BookChallenge #20DayBookChallenge
A photo of the cover of Death in Berlin by M. M. Kaye. The title is in a red handwriting style font. On the cover a young woman in a grey trench coat and red beret is looking at war damaged grey buildings in Berlin. The ground is shiny and wet showing partial reflections.
May 10, 2026 at 10:15 AM