The most perfect @financialtimes.com headline ever.

Headline in 2 years: “Meta to slash spending on AI as Zuckerberg shifts focus to beanie babies” giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

I wrote something for the @financialtimes.com about the importance of mathematics as a source of innovation for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. on.ft.com/442Mpiq

The Iris Affair is enjoyable tosh but absolutely worth watching because Tom Hollander is a genius actor.

This (from the FT) seems to suggest that tobacco duties already contribute £1 trillion to Treasury. Unless it’s a *total* of £8bn rather than a *extra* £8bn.

There is a word “nocent” which means the opposite of “innocent”. Rarely used now sadly.

Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪

FWIW: slow horses continues to be superb. A love poem to London.

Occasionally of variable quality, but @profgalloway.com really nails this. Gamblification of just about everything is destroying young men. Having once been a young man (no...really) I worry a lot about what we are storing up for ourselves with this.

Look, I know that there is a lot of stupidity in this exchange but I feel I have to <tap the sign> Power stations don’t *make* electrons. They just move them around.

Reeves should risk it all on one last roll of the dice. Raise income tax, break the triple lock, slay the deficit, spend the money on the things she believes in. It may not work - but better than waiting for doom to overtake her. open.substack.com/pub/edrith/p...

If you see this, post an album cover with a motor vehicle on it.

Time to watch some proper grownup telly you losers

Well…that’s pretty clear.

The costs of the UK’s Global Talent Visa looks a trifle high in comparison to competitor countries - largely through the Immigration Health Surcharge (which critics say is a form of double taxation as they contribute to the NHS through normal tax on their earnings)

So Microsoft uses AWS?

Still $10k too much

Who robbed the Louvre, Right answers only.

Still use mine pretty much every day. Easier than bringing up the calculator app for things I can’t do in my head.

Insightful and prescient from @thedailymash.bsky.social once again. www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/science...

<sigh>

Taps the sign (having search replaced AI with Quantum). www.ft.com/content/40c6...

Well, this is exciting. (Also, iPhone photography is really very good nowadays).

The even more unbelievable crime fact (which I learned relatively recently) is that burglary has fallen by more than 90% since the 1990s. Did anyone notice? Nope. Does anyone believe it? Nope. But is is true? It is!

I use this graph a lot.

Well, in really exciting news, I learned today that there is a word “benignant” which is the opposite of malignant.

What I was doing yesterday: Launching a centre to bring spatial learning to all of the children in Scottish Schools. A cheap and highly effective way to close the attainment gap (especially for girls and those from deprived backgrounds). www.twinkl.co.uk/news/univers...

Material deep inside Earth, near the planet’s core, has undergone a mysterious shift The discovery, possible because the geological shift altered the planet’s gravitational field, is a testament to Earth-orbiting GRACE satellites. Planetary science rocks! 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

All I saw was cheesecake boat and ocean for at least 5 minutes

The Turner Kirk Trust ( @turner-kirk.com) recently awarded a grant to the One Zoom Tree of Life project. This is a little off piste for us but it's a fascinating way to explore and understand the complexity and depth of the tree of life. Highly recommended. www.onezoom.org/linnean/@_oz...

This from @kevverage.bsky.social in the context of Scottish fiscal sustainability is interesting for a much wider set of reasons. E.g I would not have expected the Netherlands to be where they are.

Weird timeline coincidences.

I see that we’ve now got someone who is really knowledgable about STEM as Science Secretary… Oh wait… <sigh>

Aestivating snails in Mallorca.

At last. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Nigel Farage and the Reform Party’s Taliban Tax means sending hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money to an oppressive regime that British soldiers fought and died to defeat.

As always, absolutely 🎯 from @katie0martin.ft.com This is not going to end well. Remember how a relatively small part of the financial world (securitised sub prime mortgages) created 5 years of mayhem? This is worse. on.ft.com/4mu2VyW Tech stocks are sending a warning

Ottie walking down the Cam.

Old MacDonald had a theramin, OOOOeeeeeeeOOOOOOOeeeeOOOOOOOOO

Today I learned (from Cost Centre #1) that if you wish not to have the Google AI overview in your search, swear words in the search string turn it off. “What the fuck is the American Constitution” for example or “what is the value of the shitting Hubble Constant”. Changed my life.

I have been reading Lost Boys and...it makes me eternally grateful I don't have sons that I have to guide away from the horrors of the manosphere.

Day 14: In which UK cycling infrastructure lets itself down, it's a long hot and hilly day, friends cycle into Cambridge with us and we end. Also a discussion of bikes, routes and soft tissues. We're done. Thank you all for reading. blog.thekirks.co.uk/2025/08/day-...

Day 13: In which we reach the end of the Rhine, take a lighthoue selfie, I get obsessed with Vehicle Registration plates in the Netherlands and we get on a boat. Still got one day to go. blog.thekirks.co.uk/2025/08/day-...

Day 12: in which we eat fabulous breakfast, ride through the Netherlands on their world-beating cycling infrastructure, see a Miffy traffic light and experience Fresher’s week in Utrecht. Two days to go. One to the end of the Rhine and then one day to Cambridge. blog.thekirks.co.uk/2025/08/day-...

Day 11: We say a fond goodbye to Germany eventually. We unexpectedly cross the Rhine two more times. We eat our first food with spice in it for 12 days. blog.thekirks.co.uk/2025/08/day-...

Day 10: In which we see tiny horses, a giant ford factory, eat pork knuckles and visit the coolest park in Europe. blog.thekirks.co.uk/2025/08/day-...

Day 9: In which we cycle past a lot of industry, see the most amazing architecture in Europe, eat cheap food and muse on the economics of water borne transport in Europe. blog.thekirks.co.uk/2025/08/day-...

Day 8: in which we cycle through the Rhine Gorge, eat cake, see a lot of castles and generally have a good day. I make a rookie mistake with the hotel booking but recover it masterfully. Very few gravel factories unfortunately. blog.thekirks.co.uk/2025/08/day-...

Day 7: in which we take a ferry, eat (in) Worms, see the biggest chemical factory in the world and the sun shines all day. blog.thekirks.co.uk/2025/08/day-...