Well at least he was never political

OMG - it’s happening! #speirgorm, assemble!

The 250th anniversary of the American Revolution is an occasion to question whether the people really do rule, and whether the law is still king. But under the threat of censorship, some civic institutions are afraid to ask. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/bG9WLR

Elon doesn't want to admit he just read Henry Kuttner's "Two-Handed Engine," which ran in ASTOUNDING in [checks notes] 1955. Everything old is new again!

a few months ago I said "having generative AI handle absolutely anything with regards to healthcare is a nightmare and should be banned" and a bunch of people made fun of me and called me stupid. anyways,

SUPERB and angrily unvarnished response, by former BBC chairman, Lord Patten. "I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA

this is brilliant satire: “Given what I took to be the anti-Trump nature of the Sketch, I of course assumed there would be a similar, balancing Sketch discussing the possibility that the Capitol building had attacked the rioters....."

What a thread. Explains why the Black soldiers concerned warrant special recognition.

I’m old enough to remember when I got scolded on this here website by people who claimed a 3% false positive rate was good actually and well now it turns out to be an order of magnitude bigger! Still good guys?

This podcast ep, on freedom of speech, is excellent. And concludes with my dear pal and cricket buddy of 34 years, the Prof - Anshuman Mondal - actually giving some sage advice on how to deal with the weaponisation of free speech by people pushing racist (etc) agendas. www.npr.org/podcasts/510...

Such a key point about cutting back on language provision - it’s not good for science and it’s not good for growth www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

‘Al could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points’ Well that’s the best chart of the year in this @johnthornhill.bsky.social column and basically sums up where we are on.ft.com/4qMMkJd

🎯🎯

Agree.

This really the cracking of speeches: a banger. Worth reading in full.

Dear Lord - the kerning!

Dan is right. This is extremely good from @geoffmulgan.bsky.social

What happens when you distill 2025 into a single social media post? This. This is what you get.

Enshittification, again. Although BJ makes a very valid point in parentheses.

Mind-boggling.

One of the best threads I’ve ever read. Such a smart, thorough debunking that the bunkers should just admit defeat, go home and never bunk again.

Outstanding, no notes

Der dänische Außenminister überreicht seinem ägyptischen Amtskollegen zur Eröffnung des Grand Egyptian Museum in Kairo ein Lego-Pyramiden-Set, und der freut sich wie ein Kind darüber, und alles daran ist schön.

🕯️ 26-year-old Kyiv native Serhii “Afrika” Matiyasevych was killed by Russian occupiers near Predtechyne, Donetsk region. A combat medic and scientist, he worked at the Institute of Gerontology, held a patent, and once climbed Kilimanjaro in a day. 🇺🇦 Eternal memory to the Hero

The HPV vaccine has been a public health triumph. Very depressing to see this potentially unravel while we're on the verge of essentially eradicating cervical cancer. As the article says, the problem is as much about the service as it is about parental attitudes.

Awesome show

Arne Slot and Geert Wilders tonight:

I read that as - *fascist salute* *hey, you* *on me* *turn around* Not sure what he’s trying to say. Are these dance moves?

I have a very bad feeling about this...

💯

Of course it was just an oversight, so I went to check that they had changed it, but couldn’t find it. Of course it is under the UK news section, so as you were.

Bloody hell. In the dispute (if there is one) about this species of ignorance: case closed.

This is the perfect read for a Sunday afternoon when it’s getting dark too early. And yes, it’s also very good. 👇

“Memory entrepreneurship” - great term

🕯️ Russian attack on Kyiv killed Anastasiia Maslii along with her mother in their home, high school where Anastasiia studied reported on their Facebook page. Anastasiia was 19 years old.

Wonderful but sad thread. Evocative artefacts, described here with respect. Also amounts to a lifestyle tip: don’t declutter, as your stuff provides future inhabitants of your house evidence of your existence after the Russians have booted you out of it.

Wonderful.

william hockett was a forcibly conscripted nc quaker willing to face a firing squad before helping slavers. the last line in his diary entry after deserting goes so hard the captain ordered two men to take me to the ranks forty or fifty yards away, but I did not feel free to walk in that direction

Very effective use of short-form video to tell a front page story. www.nytimes.com/video/us/pol... www.nytimes.com/video/us/pol...

The fact that this "expert" is arguing on @pbsnews.org that it's OK for Trump to blow up innocent fishermen under the guise of "the war on drugs" with a set of Imperial Storm Trooper armor in his office is too on the nose, even for these absurd times in which we live.

Apropos the man threatening canvassers - there are more and more radicalised men wandering around Ireland these days, and the Irish state is not prepared for what is going to happen. Someone is going to get hurt. I've been covering the far right for more than 20 years, and they never just go away.

Perfect.

Dr Chris Parry on Irish radio saying that the Royal Navy would struggle to operate in the Irish Sea in the event of a united Ireland. Whatever about your views on a UI, Chris Parry is a proven blowhard and shouldn't get so much attention for his ridiculous views.

"Am I going to die?" the child asks quietly. "No, no, everything will be fine," the police officer reassures him. A Russian drone directly hit a daycare in Kharkiv yesterday. The kids were in the shelter, thankfully, and evacuated quickly. Many had acute stress reactions.

Coincidence? Amazon fired hundreds, at least, from their cloud computing and units, replacing them with AI. Fast forward a few months and a relative straight forward DNS issue took down much of the Internet. In a nod to irony, the outage also took down ChatGPT. futurism.com/artificial-i...