No one ever talks about how on the eighth day of Christmas your true love presumably also gives you eight cows.

We're looking forward to attending the @plaidcymru.bsky.social Conference next week, and to having the chance to share our work and ideas. If you’re at the conference, do come and say hello!

Music has so much to teach us about innovation and - by extension - how to do social change.

Every single UX upgrade to Google Maps over the past few years has made it slightly worse. It’s actually quite impressive.

Another role at Nesta Cymru is live now. My old job (!) looking after our work on decarbonising homes. www.nesta.org.uk/jobs/mission... Happy to chat to interested applicants.

👋 @andyregancdf.bsky.social, Jono and I will be in Llandudno for the Welsh Labour conference next week. Fancy a chat? 🌞 We like to chat about how to: 🍎 reduce obesity at pop. level ⚡ speed-up home decarb 👶 use data in the early years 💡 'do' policy differently! Innovation tools and techniques

I’ll do you a deal, internet… I’ll buy one of those small metal wallets that block RFIDs or whatever if you promise I will then never see an advert for one ever again.

Join the Nesta Cymru team! Mission Manager (A Fairer Start, Wales) Help us develop innovative, scaleable solutions to the factors that prevent children from disadvantaged backgrounds from thriving. www.nesta.org.uk/jobs/mission...

Join the Nesta Cymru team! Mission Manager (A Fairer Start, Wales) Help us develop innovative, scaleable solutions to the factors that prevent children from disadvantaged backgrounds from thriving. www.nesta.org.uk/jobs/mission...

My colleague @martinakavan.bsky.social has written a blog setting out Nesta's view on how a new DESNZ Fuel Poverty strategy can better address energy bills AND decarbonisation. www.nesta.org.uk/blog/we-need... Focus is UK policy, but many ideas that the next Welsh Government could adopt too.

Watching Conclave. Someone should tell them about Slido.

Had to explain to my 6yo what a sun tan was today. #wales

A bit of news.... I’m pleased to say that for the next few months I will be taking on the role of Interim Head of Nesta Cymru, whilst a replacement for the irreplaceable Rob Ashelford is recruited.

Sharing this late, but @andyregancdf.bsky.social and I wrote a thing about time-of-use electricity tariffs and heat pumps. We have a surprising finding: you can save a LOT of money running a heat pump by using a flexible tariff, even if you don’t use it flexibly www.nesta.org.uk/blog/can-tim...

New Nesta blog... Our HeatFlex trial has convinced us you can use heat pumps flexibly - but can doing so really save money? www.nesta.org.uk/blog/can-tim... with @acjsissons.bsky.social

I generally like David Gauke's writing, but this is really poor on energy prices and net zero I'm afraid. Not going to rebut the whole thing, but a couple of quick points... www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

The next Welsh Government will preside over a crucial period in Wales' pathway to net zero. We need a dramatic acceleration in the rollout of clean heat - and a focus on how to deliver the current heat pump targets. Read more about Nesta's proposals here: www.nesta.org.uk/project-upda...

Pinned tweet for the ages.

What has @nestauk.bsky.social been doing in Wales? As a devolved nation, there is a unique opportunity to develop, test and scale new ideas for social good, finding places where devolution allows us to go further and faster in achieving our aims. Find out more: www.nesta.org.uk/project/wales/

I had to raise an HMRC issue last year. It wasn’t possible to choose a route to an advisor by phone. So I filled in online forms, to which they replied by post. Overall it took around *nine months* to resolve. Is this counted in their waiting times data? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

No matter how long one spends in Wales the Mari Llwyd never quite becomes normalised.

A life spent on Zoom has created unrealistic expectations that in large groups there will only ever be one person speaking at a time.

Overheard in a deli “How much is the smallest panettone?” And now I have that in my head to the tune of “How much is that doggie in the window?”.

God help us if there’s a war.

Ed from @themooncardiff.bsky.social has put together a lovely compilation of tracks recorded at the venue - proceeds going to the staff crowdfunder. Pre order here: themooncardiff.bandcamp.com/album/live-a...

Is there a term / buzzword phrase that means something like "a situation where a series of individual decisions, which are reasonable / successful in themselves, cumulatively result in net negative outcomes"?

Levies currently account for 11% of a household's energy bill, but they are not allocated evenly. They are 16% of a electricity bill, but only 5.5% of a gas bill. Read Nesta's new analysis of what to do about this>> www.nesta.org.uk/report/cheap...

Oh good, a new era of being **emailed** about all the tweets I haven’t read on both BlueSky and Threads. 👌 #thedarkages

Hello Bluesky! I'm seeking research, evaluation, case studies on heat pumps in social/public housing - with focus on solutions (service/engagement/policy/technical/etc.) to accelerate uptake + improve tenant experience. Is there anything you recommend I look at? Suggestions and shares appreciated!

This feels a bit like a bereavement. Keep thinking "...but I was only there on Monday, how can it have shut down?". Liz and the team are absolute heroes for keeping it going over the last seven years. How much more relentless crushing of everything small and beautiful does Cardiff have to suck up?

IKR. Just get on with it.

I got ChatGPT to make up a Shakespeare quote on energy demand flexibility for today’s HeatFlex report launch. “Lo, as the tempest bends the bough yet breaks it not, so must man’s will in his uses of power yield and flow, shaping its course to the hour’s demand.” Sadly chickened out of using it.

Twitter started to die when it began the slow drift from funny people occasionally saying something serious to people trying to pass off their latest serious blog post as a ‘thread’.

Watching Lightning Seeds in Cardiff. Are they going to end with Three Lions? In Wales? Place your bets now…

Anyone know why @octopusenergy.bsky.social seemed to skip a bill in October and have just charged me for 2 months? Hasn’t caused any problems, other than a brief shock at what looked like a very expensive month. Just curious. 🧐

We're working @nestauk.bsky.social on how to help people switch to clean heating via neighbourhood schemes. There are many things we need to test, so we've put out today a call for collaboration on three problems we want to explore further www.nesta.org.uk/project-upda...

LinkedIn has added a section for those weird short videos like on Facebook. Except it’s full of dreary ‘having a job is lolle’ content instead of the ASMR Japanese omelette cookery content I am here for. 🤷‍♂️

Our upcoming report with the Centre the Net Zero investigates how automating heat pumps can shift demand away from the grid and help the UK get one step closer to a low-carbon future. We're hosting an online event to share our key findings with industry experts. Register to attend: bit.ly/3C7GUnz

Who wants to hear me talking to Adam Chapman of Heat Geek for 40 minutes about heat flexibility? www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlPL... The preview quote is maybe a touch 'I was taken out of context', but this was an enjoyable chat.

Excited to be hosting this event to showcase the results of @nestauk.bsky.social and Centre for Net Zero's collaborative HeatFlex project. Can you shift electricity demand from the peak by automating heat pump controls? Find out at our online event: www.nesta.org.uk/event/heatfl...

My latest anti-blog post: What can a Mark Twain novel from 1889 teach us about influencing net zero policy? medium.com/doing-things...

I’ve started something I shall misleadingly describe as ‘a blog about net zero’. ‘Blog’ implies a series of think pieces on a topic. Instead this is likely to become a network of oblique rants, which teases coherence without ever delivering it. Enjoy! medium.com/doing-things...

Me: Wonder what the weather will be like? BBC: The weather is moon.

The next person who tells me gov dot uk is an exemplar of user centric design may regret doing so.