Maybe it helps at the margins with the tax base and energy security, and maybe it helps neutralise some of the political attacks on net zero (which is why some green figures are backing a rethink), but the suggestion it meaningfully improves UK energy independence is wishful thinking.
Meanwhile, Spain's massive investment in renewables is paying dividends now: with prices for Spanish industry and consumers low and stable compared with other European economies.
www.ft.com/content/ac77...
'it’s interesting to compare how hard it was to differentiate a web browser with how hard it is today to differentiate a chatbot'
Fab piece from @thebenedictevans.bsky.social asking hard Qs of OpenAI when its tech is similar to other labs and has no network effects www.ben-evans.com/benedictevan...
Press Association comment from Quakers in Britain This evening, for the second time in a year, the Metropolitan Police raided a Quaker Meeting House and arrested a number of young nonviolent activists who were meeting there on the grounds that they were conspiring to commit a criminal act. The room in Westminster Quaker Meeting House was let to Take Back Power to hold nonviolent direct action training. Quakers support the principle of nonviolent direct action, which aims to protest without harming people. Oliver Robertson, head of witness and worship for Quakers in Britain, said: “For Quakers, faith and action are inseparable. Peaceful protest, prayer and nonviolent action are integral parts of many Quakers' religious life. “Whilst we take the planning of criminal acts very seriously, we believe that this incident is a deliberate targeting of committed young people who want to make our country a more equitable place. This raid is part of a systematic stifling of dissent. “That this is the second time in a year that the police have raided our meeting house dramatically illuminates the broader trend in the UK of cracking down on those who disagree with the government. The right to protest is fundamental to our democracy. It's a key part of how people make their voices heard between elections.”
Statement from @quaker.org.uk about tonight's police raid on Westminster Meeting House. Guys, I don't think they're buying the Met's line about it all being a cover for plotting "mass shoplifting"
An influential industry petition criticizing the European Union’s core climate policy implied its demands were supported by some 1,350 companies and associations.
Now some firms deny they signed up.
www.politico.eu/article/big-...
NEW ANALYSIS: UK emissions fell 2.4% in 2025 as coal fell to a 400-year low. Incredibly, we used less coal last year than than in 1600, when Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne and Shakespeare was writing Hamlet.
All the details in our article: www.carbonbrief.org/...
Common Peephole She came from Greece, she had a faulty socket. Her eye fell out, she couldn’t stop it. That’s when I caught her eye. Brian Bilston
Pulp poetry.
I agree with this. The mistake Labour are making is leap-frogging the centre to try to attract Reform voters. I think a more ‘median voter’ targeting strategy would be more socially liberal and more pro-business than the one they currently have.
Panic in the Gulf as Iran lashes out at US allies - as.ft.com/r/13b254c3-8...
so I think "the AI can write its own code, and therefore hockey-stick to superintelligence" is sort of... *less* likely if it's more like "it just tries something until something works". mostly what works is not "create a supermassive brain".
Written English has barely changed in 300 years. If you can read Harry Potter, you can read Robinson Crusoe (1719).
is there a technology that "the left" is excited about?
www.transformernews.ai/p/the-left-i...
🚨Behold, the story of the Fed balance sheet in a single chart
www.ft.com/content/cbe2...
Bucket theory is unglamorous but very important. @ersatzben.com is forensic here - a must read for those interested in UK research policy
www.ersatzben.com/p/the-bucket...
Nature, business, science & policy...a week of global collaboration and consensus at #IPBES12.
"Game-changing", "Inspirational", "A turning point" - an intergovernmental platform powered by experts, governments & stakeholders.
IPBES: Science and Policy #ForNature & People.
🔗 youtu.be/9895iTAMtLk
I don’t want to laugh at a small business but also VERY funny
These dynamics are clearly happening - seemingly creating larger oscillations / stupider decisions over time. But even if the stock market resets, there is also cumulative damage to America's international standing which is not reversed when trump steps back from the brink.
These are the icy mountains of Pluto. It took 9 years to get these magnificent images… and 4.8 billion kilometers.
Yes. One of my favourite energy efficiency stats is that 25% of UK economic growth between 1971-2013 was due to energy efficiency: ukerc.ac.uk/news/energy-... @jrbarrett.bsky.social
Germany, Sweden and Denmark are publicly debating conscription, food stockpiles and supply-chain resilience. We're still treating defence as a competing priority.
The PM's not wrong to focus on foreign policy so much- but he needs to be much more upfront with the country on why.
A Rush Hour Crush I got published on 7th January, 2015. To the sexy Spanish snorita on the No.30 bus to Highbury. I loved our heated chat on Friday but realise what I did was insensitive to your country. I'm mortified. Please let me make up for it, over tapas or paella or whatever. Bearded Man Who Used Discarded Burger Cartons As Castanets
Things are awful, so a little treat for the real Crush-Heads. It is now eleven years since I got this printed in the Metro.
Well that was dramatic. Although is it me or did Amanda not give the police a really bad name by being consistently wrong about everything #TheTraitors
The USA can withdraw from @ipbes.net but, IPBES Chair @davidobura.bsky.social observes, “unfortunately, we cannot withdraw from the fact that more than 1 million species of plants and animals face extinction.” 😞😠
It's all very well having a "weightless", digital economy, but that exists on a material base in semiconducting manufacturing that is far from intangible, & seeing diminishing returns on ever increasing capital investment.
Plot above from my blogpost from last year:
softmachines.org?p=3129
Useful thread of analysis on the US intervention in Venezuela
@pollymackenzie.bsky.social's substack makes this point well. This govt has not consciously chosen which political battles to fight. Combine that with a tendency to centralise, we are in a place where throughout government, ‘everything is a priority’, so nothing is.
How good is AI getting at CS? This is a Principal Engineer at Google speaking against interest on Claude Code.
Scene from the TV show MASH showing a conversation between two men wearing surgical masks. One is surgeon Hawkeye Pierce. the other, wearing a silver cross around his neck and a purple stole over his shoulders, is a Chaplain, Father Mulcahy Hawkeye: War isn't hell. War is war and hell is hell, and of the two, war is a lot worse. Fr. Mulcahy: How do you figure that, Hawkeye? Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell? Fr. Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe. Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell, but war is chock full of them: Little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for a few of the top brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.
Great thread about the demand-side for non-democracy. Jacob unpacks a lot here and provides useful literature. Gather, folks!
