I haven’t seen many articles on whether Donald Trump can try to seize Greenland without explicit Congressional authority (one would assume not but 🤷). Meanwhile this is interesting on bipartisan efforts to explicitly prevent such a move. The first three clicks get to read it for free.

I met up with a friend for lunch on the Aldwych and thought I might swing by the (I thought secret!) John Soane’s museum on Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Word clearly got out..!

An atmospheric run through Mayow Park this morning

Elon Musk calling accountability for nonconsensual sexual images an "excuse of for censorship" perfectly exposes the lie at the heart of his "censorship industrial complex" crusade. When addressing abusive material of women and children is labeled "censorship," the term has lost all meaning.

It is pretty remarkable that a tool to identify and label social media requests to undress pictures of people can be built with about an hour of coding, with what’s claimed to be 98% accuracy. So it shouldn’t be too hard for social media sites with a will, to find a way to stop that sort of thing.

Delighted to find again the most frictionless government service in the UK is probably passport renewal. I filled out the easy online form a week ago and posted my daughter’s documents the same day. This arrived this morning! And we didn’t pay extra for the one week turnaround either.

Kids, learn to c̶o̶d̶e̶ talk to people. www.ft.com/content/5e25...

If you are relatively new to Iran, here is #TheGlobalJigsaw to lend a hand: what is The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Quds -or Jerusalem-, force and the Basij militias? how do they operate and how have they become so influential? www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...

⚠️ Update: #Iran's internet shutdown is entering its fourth day with connectivity to the outside world remains at just 1% of ordinary levels; at 72 hours, diminished telecoms continue to impact the public's ability to access information and communicate with loved ones ⏱️

These productivity stats for the US economy are pretty remarkable. Productivity essentially measures economic activity per hour worked. The UK saw 0.7% productivity growth in the same period (ONS), and the govt here would have a much easier time of things if they could boost that measure.

@talkingpicturestv.bsky.social I just today found out about pre-code cinema (1930-1934), and am intrigued to hear whether you have any examples in your library that you sometimes schedule?

There’s a lot of anxiety and misery around right now. So I think everyone should read this lovely story about the kindness of strangers. I guarantee it will give you a lift. So much time for Gwen.

They’re a Great Dane away from solving mysteries in a mini van! #TheTraitors #TheTraitorsUK

These productivity stats for the US economy are pretty remarkable. Productivity essentially measures economic activity per hour worked. The UK saw 0.7% productivity growth in the same period (ONS), and the govt here would have a much easier time of things if they could boost that measure.

Notwithstanding everything we know about ai, particularly in the last week, for some aspects of the technology, the below is definitely worth some thought.

I've been testing Grok vs. ChatGPT and how they compare when generating deepfakes. - ask the chatbot to search the web for photos of me and then regenerate me in a bikini: Grok complies; ChatGPT refuses - upload a photo of myself (not id'ing as a public figure): Grok complies; ChatGPT refuses

Your occasional reminder that there are many lovely people in this world, who go above and beyond to do really thoughtful things.

@scalzi.com long time follower, first time reader - I just finished Old Man’s War, and loved it. A question, if I may - which no doubt you’ve been asked before! Do you think humans will ever come up with something that enables interstellar transport?

Minnesota winter, 2010

Minnesota winter, 2010

David Attenborough’s Wild London is as wonderful as everybody says. Frolicking foxes, pigeon-eating peregrines, dog-endangered baby deer, and so much more. Who knew there was this much wildlife activity in the city!

David Attenborough’s Wild London is as wonderful as everybody says. Frolicking foxes, pigeon-eating peregrines, dog-endangered baby deer, and so much more. Who knew there was this much wildlife activity in the city!

They gentrified the tinfoil hat

Just watched A House of Dynamite with my Dad. Chilling yet gripping in equal measure. Well worth a couple of hours of your time. HT @feelinglistless.bsky.social

A useful reminder for tired news editors of what we’ve done at work this year. Happy new year to all of you, you’re the unsung heroes of every newsroom.

This is a remarkable chart when you think about it. 71% of Britons say 2025 was an average or good year personally, but 66% say it was a bad or very bad year for the UK.

Repost this with an older piece of tech still in use at home or wherever you’ve been staying over the holidays..!

As the year draws to a close, I’m signing off 2025 with a magical find! An ancient amber bear. Carved some 10,000 years ago, it washed up on a beach at Fanø, Denmark, from a submerged Mesolithic settlement in the North Sea. ✨ Happy New Year all! ✨ National Museum of Denmark 📷 by me #Archaeology

My 86-year-old Dad still runs his own business, and has just pulled this device out to help with his annual accounts! How’s that for a blast from the past?

Evidently quite a bit of thought went into this (sad) moment.

Facebook had a story of a woman committed by her husband to an asylum for reading. It was a fabrication, but I then stumbled upon this true story, of a woman committed by her husband for religious and domestic disagreement, locked up for three years, who subsequently won asylum law reform. Gripping.

Evidently mince pies are not immune from the ravages of shrinkflation!

I watched When Harry Met Sally for the first time this afternoon (BBC iPlayer), and can’t believe it took me so long. It’s a delight, and just underscores the tragedy around the death of Rob Reiner and his partner. I love that he gave the “I’ll have whatever she’s having” line to his mother!

Evidently mince pies are not immune from the ravages of shrinkflation!

It’s not my usual Christmas viewing fayre but this recommendation from Faisal was great - The Thinking Game is definitely worth an hour and a half of your time.

brb, just changing my LinkedIn profile to 'FUTUROLOGIST'. I wrote this in 1980 on the future: 'Goods can be purchased, information received through the worldwide data network. People working from home now need never go to the office! All work can be done in the house, and sent dash the data lines.'

I can’t remember who needs the credit for this revelation, but for those who love a Terry’s chocolate orange at this time of year, there’s a better way than smashing it on the counter to separate all those super segments! Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

This picture is so astonishing that I thought it was AI-generated for a couple of seconds!

This is so true, signed a person who had to contend with a cat-licked buttered cake tin when baking his daughter’s birthday cake on Monday!

Really interesting and chimes with what I was saying last night about the positive vibe I’ve felt in London when out and about in recent weeks.

In just a few hours Dick Van Dyke will be 100 years old. Dick Van Dyke! 100! Here he is chatting with Sid James (filming Carry On Up The Khyber) on the Chitty Bang Bang backlot.

Dick Van Dyke is 100 years old tomorrow. I hope he's making the most of his finally night of Lego building.

The economy is 7.4 per cent better than BoE expected in Nov 2022

An important article, highlighting how the first draft GDP figures often get revised upwards but that never gets reported.

I’ve been out in London quite a bit in the past week. The sense of joy as the festive season approaches has been palpable, and it makes me chuckle (and a bit sad) that so many people around the world have been persuaded that this is some sort of hellhole where phone theft or mugging are inevitable.

Dec. 11, 1925: Two giants of physics: Denmark’s quantum theorist Niels Bohr, and Albert Einstein. They are in Leiden, the Netherlands, for discussions on the radical new science of quantum mechanics. Both accept the theory as true and remarkable.

My little tribute to Frank Gehry from 2014

Who to trust (if any?!) I’m trying to figure out the teaspoon yield of ground cardamom from eight pods. ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok have quite different estimates!

I just asked my 11-year-old daughter what was going on here, and she said “I’ve eaten the icing first like I always do - it’s my least favourite part!” Not how I would have been thinking at that age…

A really thought provoking piece - notwithstanding my free ChatGPT’s recent determined assertion that Francis was still Pope and there was no Leo XIV.