See my post last week on how we got into this position of dependence on US tech companies and how we can start extricating ourselves (with a section on Palantir). samf.substack.com/p/sovereignt...

Narratively having Ever Given getting stuck in 2021 to set up Hormuz in 2026 is great foreshadowing. You want your audience to understand the basics of international shipping in a lower stakes context so you drop the real plot without a lot of saggy exposition about the minutiae of cargo logistics.

What's My JND? 0.0028 Can you beat it? www.keithcirkel.co.uk/whats-my-jnd...

Oh boy! What a headline... Ask yourself: "What am I being asked to believe?" "Who am I being told to blame?" Take a few seconds to imagine what the Daily Mail (And Telegraph, GB News and Express) WANT you to think is going on. Let's see what's ACTUALLY happening...🧵 1/21

The House of Lords Digital & Communications Committee just published their report on AI, copyright & the creative industries, and their conclusions could not be clearer. 🧵 1/5

@doctorow.pluralistic.net This is incredible. www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Up...

I’m looking for speakers for a London event on the science of Star Trek. I’d really appreciate suggestions from underrepresented minorities in STEM, especially PoC/global majority. (10 min, central London, Sept, currently unpaid but I’m trying to fix that) Feel free to message

Exclusive: Since the war began, Russia has passed Iran the locations of U.S. military assets, including warships and aircraft. The assistance signals that the conflict now features one of America’s chief nuclear-armed competitors. https://wapo.st/47vAwD9

this photo leaves little to the imagination

Well, that explains the erratic delivery times.

When your cat has watched Die Hard too many times.

This week's cover @thelancet.com

Donald Trump canceled Direct File after giant tax prep companies spent millions lobbying. Why? Because Direct File let you file your taxes for free. So today, I’m introducing a bill to make Direct File the law of the land. And 160 members of Congress are joining me.

I wonder if anyone in Cabinet Office has read up on the Canadian Federal Government's outsourcing of its payroll? www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

This post is the single best advert for the fact that proper local journalism matters. If Jim’s team hadn’t put the pieces together quickly, this wouldn’t have been stopped.

So Epstein buddies Andrew and Mandelson have been arrested in the UK. And in the US? Zero, zip, nada | Marina Hyde

The first five words of this are enough to induce an anxiety attack in anyone who knows even a little bit about cobol and the systems that still run on it.

I enjoyed this too! And could follow some of the 1300s but then it just became snippets of random words I could follow! Love this kind of thing :)

Everyone is born curious. No one is born a good critical thinker.

I hadn't spotted the link between Claws (the new category of personal digital assistants that started with OpenClaw and is rapidly expanding from there) and Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2 but it's a pretty good one!

The Civil Service has a new Cabinet Secretary at a time where the bureaucracy faces a stark choice between reform and Reform. It needs a new story for state capacity, a Northcote-Trevelyan review for the C21st, and new institutions to break inertia. andrewgreenway.substack.com/p/in-permane...

Available today - our latest book “Shaping Technology For Transformation”: We've written a practical guide on building technological adaptability and resilience for leaders ready to strengthen their organisation's foundations. Get your copy here: public.digital/pd-technolog...

And another bites the dust? The BBC World Service will run out of funding in just seven weeks. Its funding arrangement with the Foreign Office finishes at the end of March. There is no plan for what happens next. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Obviously zero reflection in any of this on how operating the largest empire in human history may have turned us into a multicultural nation. We are here because you were there. #Empireland www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

If you haven’t quite yet found the time to do this, please scrape together a few minutes this evening - the consultation closes just before midnight UK time. If time is tight, skip the 200-word open answers. Your votes on closed answers matter. www.gov.uk/government/c...

I cannot give enough kudos to the We Rate Dogs account for their clear explanation of this issue and for using their *enormous* platform to educate people.

300,000 children face 10-year wait for settled status under UK plans, says IPPR The consultation closes on Thursday. What is being proposed is dreadful. Can I encourage you to engage with the consultation and put your dissent on record?

This is not heartwarming. This is eerie and creepy as hell and absolutely a warning

Great post, well worth a trial and read

"They all sell out women in the end". Brutal and excellent piece as always!

"I’ve not been brave enough to install Clawdbot/Moltbot/OpenClaw myself yet". If even Simon Williamson who is pretty much *the early adopter* since GPT days is hesitating, no normal layperson should even consider doing this. simonwillison.net/2026/jan/30/...

Since last year, we’ve been reporting on ICE extensively. But every week brings new information, and it’s getting harder to keep track of what’s happening, let alone remember what’s already happened. So here’s a quick thread to help.

I've written a piece for the @econ-observatory.bsky.social on the history of GDS. Notably, why you need change both top down and bottom up incentives if you're aiming to help a large, federated organisation adopt radical change.

Always been the major flaw in this theory. "Anywheres" might be more "cosmpolitan" but they still have a community orienation. I live in a very "anywhere-y" place but there's plenty of school fetes and local book groups.

that Farage and Badenoch want ICE-style action in the UK should be enough to end them

Sadiq Khan says integration matters. But making refugee status temporary "will leave people in a precarious state, suspended in limbo for years, their lives overshadowed with uncertainty” Doubling how long it takes people to settle "doesn't give people a stake in society, it takes that stake away"

Quite glad that the big story in British politics is whether Andy Burnham will apply to stand in a by-election and not people being gunned down by state militias. Solidarity with Minnesotans resisting this barbarity.

A big thank you to all our speakers, attendees, and organisers for such an insightful event. More content will be available soon, capturing all the great discussions from today. In the meantime, please do stay in touch, and let's keep the conversation going! #FWD50

If you see it you have to stop and watch it.

Tech sovereignty should not be a subscription model ft.trib.al/v2MPMD0 | opinion

This is a wonderful, and important piece of writing. As the granddaughter of immigrants I find the current rhetoric horrific and terrifying. This is not the country my grandparents came to and this next stage of fear driven policy making is so disheartening.

Stop scrolling & post two characters who bring you happiness.

Moving organisations along is hard. I did a talk on it last year and now it's here in blog form. public.digital/pd-insights/...

If you or someone you know can't afford an Internet connection, get in touch with the National Databank. They provide free SIMs for people who are eligible. https://www.goodthingsfoundation.org/our-services/national-databank

Just excellent and all they deserve. www.ft.com/content/ad94...

Went to check if this screenshot (posted by @aric.bsky.social) was real (it is) and then made the mistake of also scrolling through Grok's replies on X. Still constantly cranking out sexualised images of young girls. Beyond bleak.

This person went on a buying spree over the past 24 hours. Fresh wallet. Only existed since Dec 27th and has only bet on Venezuela-related markets. polymarket.com/@0x31a56e9E6...

This is true and I was the only one on set excited about it (and playing the song on my phone to blank stares)

My final newsletter of 2025: We're in The Enshittifinancial Crisis, the fourth stage of enshittification, where companies turn on their shareholders. Unprofitable, unsustainable AI threatens future of venture capital, private equity and the markets themselves. www.wheresyoured.at/the-enshitti...