@doctorow.pluralistic.net say what needs said: "What we call "age verification" is actually mass surveillance, so invasive and pervasive that it makes the ad-tech industry's commercial surveillance look like some kind of cypherpunk darknet pirate utopia" pluralistic.net/2026/06/23/d...

final point of this hits the nail really

Tradeoffs are already happening in healthcare but some are not so visible open.substack.com/pub/amcunnin...

New blog post: NHS Goes To War Against Open Source https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/nhs-goes-to-war-against-open-source/ The NHS is preparing to close nearly all of its Open Source repositories. Throughout my time working for the UK Government - in GDS, NHSX, i.AI, and others - I championed …

2026 now officially forecast to be permanent death-birth crossover year Gap will only get wider from now Migration only source of population growth - but a lot less of it than was projected last time

When radioactivity was discovered, there was a rush to market for all sorts of radioactive consumer goods. There were water jugs made out of uranium glass, for example. I think about that a lot these days whenever I see AI products being marketed to consumers.

An absolutely essential thread from Mark, who very much knows what he is talking about

I just want someone, anyone, to write down in plain English (ideally from the perspective of the service user) how this works; what it proves*; how it proves* it; what it will improve, and what some of the likely shortcomings might be. That's all. For some peculiar reason, this never happens.

Okay as the original publisher is long since gone, here is a version of the (award winning at the time!) thing I wrote on the Pristina Airport incident back in the day. Note Putin's role. Also worth it for this bit of sassiness by the Romanian Foreign Minister. authory.com/JohnBull/Pri...

Absolutely continue to be delighted with my ~3y old @frame.work 13 laptop. Managed to break my fingerprint reader (dodgy USB electronics from AliExpress 🤦). Painlessly ordered the replacement part and fitted it now good as new. Haven't owned any other laptop that this would have been possible on.

A group of volunteers have been running @nhshackday.com since 2012. In a crazy world, it is all about coming together with common purpose to solve problems in our health service. Please reshare this post about #30 in Cardiff Mar 21/22. We would love to have you join us. ti.to/nhshackday/3...

Tickets now available for the next NHS Hack Day! 🗓️ 21st and 22nd of March 2026 📍 In Cardiff 🎟️ nhshackday.com/tickets?src=... Not able to make it to Cardiff? Join our mailing list for notification about other events: nhshackday.com/subscribe

Still wondering. Particularly the "safety and security" section.

Opinion from Alphaville: Here's a look inside Elon Musk's big tent. ft.trib.al/NM1VE7i

In today's episode of #FixTheForms, I've finished writing up the workshop on #ErrorRates and #DataQuality that I ran #SDinGOV Extra thanks to @pixlz.com for help with prep - sadly, she couldn't make it due to a family emergency www.effortmark.co.uk/garbage-in-g...

The Framework forums thread got insanely unwieldy, so I wrote up a (somewhat shorter) summary post of the situation crimier.github.io/posts/Framew...

A country of racists who don't care about honoring a contract. That's before we get to the small minded ignorance of the impact removing these people would have on provision of services they rely on like healthcare. I am ashamed to be British.

This may seem cute but if you do this too much the cyclists may become reliant on cars feeding them, disrupting the delicate roadway ecosystem

One for the energy (electricity) enthusiasts. Nice real time visualisation of the UK generation sources by _individual site_ 🤓 www.energydashboard.co.uk/map

Possible causes of your problems. It’s a diagram that (sadly) still seems relevant in 2025, so reposting a year and a bit on.

Yet again wondering when the FCDO will update the travel advice for the USA given the "political situation is volatile, which may include situations involving authoritarian regimes or instability." AKA Fascism

There's no other way to put that. If you build something medical related, you can't just go "I'm probably smarter than the professionals, let me have a crack at it! Should be done by lunchtime." Quick and wrong is almost always more dangerous than slow and right.

Tickets now available for the next NHS Hack Day! 🗓️ 11th and 12th of October 2025 📍 In Belfast 🎟️ nhshackday.com/tickets?src=... Not able to make it to Belfast? Join our mailing list for notification about other events: nhshackday.com/subscribe

Here's a playlist of some of my Must Watch video recommendations - essential for understanding the technical, clinical, and (possibly most importantly) the political background to Digital Health. youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Save the Date for the next NHS Hack Day!! 🤓❤️🏥 🗓️ 11th and 12th of October 2025 📍 In Belfast 🎟️ Join our mailing list for a notification when tickets get released: nhshackday.com/subscribe

An interesting challenge for anyone who thinks LLMs have true general intelligence (nb they can still be really useful, just make sure you understand what they're actually good at!) www.extremetech.com/computing/ch...

America if the news covered it like those countries Over There

LA looks like a version of Andor S2E8 from here. Instigating protesters and inflaming the situation with deployment of troops. Once again wondering when UK FCDO will update travel advice for the USA.

LA looks like a version of Andor S2E8 from here. Instigating protesters and inflaming the situation with deployment of troops. Once again wondering when UK FCDO will update travel advice for the USA.

Andor 💔 absolutely brilliant finale. Firmly places Rouge One as the "feature length" final episode of the series. A spectacular show that without a doubt is the single best thing in the Star Wars universe by a clear margin.

"The EHRC is currently working on producing statutory guidance, which would make its proposed policies legally binding – this involves a two-week consultation period in May, which is a crucial time to intervene. “One of the most useful things that cis people can do is write to the EHRC""

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

So when is the FCDO going to update this page? www.gov.uk/foreign-trav... It appears to be missing a travel warning about state sponsored kidnapping and deportation without due process to - I'm struggling for words here - a 3rd country where you will face human rights abuse.

This is very good by @mattedgar.social.coop.ap.brid.gy (who knows what he's talking about) on creating the conditions for innovation in government blog.mattedgar.com/2025/03/29/b...

This is so incredibly wholesome. Absolutely love it!

"..travelling with “burner” phones or have minimalist laptops running browsers and not much else. In other words, they are equipped with the same kind of kit that security-conscious people used to bring 15 years ago when travelling to China." www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Trump Logic #signalscandal #trump

Intelligent transparency shouldn’t mean putting a spreadsheet several layers into gov.uk. It should mean making data on how the government is doing available AND understandable to the general public.

"See it, say it, sorted."

WTF?! Merseyrail. Clear perjury by your staff - who should be prosecuted by their own admission - and you facilitating it. Also shame on the magistrate. What escalator was being misused at Rock Ferry station? Please point it out on the map www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/roc...

Can't tell if sitting back with 🍿 to watch the USA burn is the right thing to be doing. What else is there that I can do 🤷? I don't think my mental health can take it if I let this escape the "it's a problem I can't do anything about" box.

I had forgotten what a North American statesman looks like.

Pang of guilt/ sadness/ remembrance just now as I did a quick sanity check on the data download from Twitter and the tweet I randomly landed on was a conversation with @henryhammerbeck from 2019. 🌳🌳🌳

I would have been using Twitter for 16 years next month 🤯 Finally logged back in and made my account private (as a step to deactivation & deletion) and did one last data download to use with github.com/marcomaroni-...

Nope. Nope. Nope. To think 4 years ago there was hope, yes the blond thing was still the UK PM but there light was at the end of the tunnel. We are lost.

Deep and meaningful sigh. 😔

SNAP3: We are delighted to share the first major publication from SNAP3: Characteristics of older patients undergoing surgery in UK @claireswarbrick.bsky.social @rcoanews.bsky.social @cri.bsky.social @uniofnottingham.bsky.social What does it tell us? 🧵 1/ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39765405/ #AnSky