Tarriffs are penne wise, pound foolish

Wonderful

Today in AI....

Incredibly powerful writing. The phrase 'must-read' is an overdone cliché, but you must read this. www.newyorker.com/news/essay/g...

"... with a baby in her placenta... "

Absolutely cracking article about AI, and how so far it has failed to replace radiologists. Despite consistent predictions that it will.

this blew my tiny mind

Bear stress

Let's hope they can see clearly now that Rayner's gone. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Please share this widely. There is simply nobody else doing what the Disability News Service does with such breadth, depth, regularity and rigour in the UK. There are so many stories of genuinely life-threatening import that would not have been told without its investigations.

Absolutely the best thing I've read about AI hype to date. (ht @mjrobbins.com) open.substack.com/pub/freddied...

Motherfucking wind farms…

He's one of Britain's richest men. So why does Asif Aziz's property company keep leasing London gift shops to overseas students based in abandoned offices or flytipped car parks — before vanishing without paying millions of pounds in taxes? www.londoncentric.media/p/asf-aziz-l...

I wrote about Trump, Epstein, TV, and why this scandal feels different johnpaulbrammer.substack.com/p/may-the-be...

New post just out: "Optimism of the will" In which I look at Labour's big plan for the NHS and why it's determination to wish problems away will undermine it. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/o...

What a day to be heading to Leeds for a patient data conference! #EngvInd

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH

The world is kind of bleak right now, so here's a Nice Thing to read: www.bmj.com/content/389/...

Go read Julio Cortazar's short story, The Axolotl. ambystoma.uky.edu/teachers_mat... If you're in Paris, go to Jardin des Plantes. And then read...

For @cancerresearchuk.org , @oh-henry.bsky.social spoke w @christophertape.bsky.social about how some bowel #cancer cells become "revival stem cells," driving relapse. Tape is using patient-derived tumor #organoids to understand & eliminate these cells. 🧪 news.cancerresearchuk.org/2025/05/09/s...

Not sure this comes across quite in the way they intended...

New post just out: "On the Brink" Why so many universities are in serious financial trouble. Why it's about to get worse. What the government could do about it. (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/o...

Wow: after 15 years, YouTube has taken down the original 'Rick Roll' video due to a "licensing issue," likely due to the acquisition of Astley's record lable. The metadata remains, but if you click through it goes to 'video not found': www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4...

Self-employed? Got kids? Then sign this petition: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/72...

One of the things I love most about cricket isn't the game itself, it's cricket writing. And @jonathanliew.bsky.social is one of the best there is. His recent piece about Virat Kohli's retirement is an absolute masterclass: www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/m...

OK this is starting to make a bit more sense. Still think they've ballsed up the framing though. Why not lean in to talking about care sector reform more explicitly??

"We’re going to find a way to kill these cells,” says @christophertape.bsky.social “We won’t stop until we do.” Loved working on this piece with Chris & his team - and with Sharon, who donated her bowel tumour to Chris's @cancerresearchuk.org -funded lab. news.cancerresearchuk.org/2025/05/09/s...

A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope

Watched Last One Laughing last night. Tonight, watching Conclave. Can't help thinking it'd be a great idea if they chose a pope by telling pope jokes then eliminating cardinals if they laugh.

Reluctantly, this.

Tree-form.

Incredibly frustrating. And a simple solution - make it easy for people to request changes to errors they spot in their own records. This shouldn't be hard in 2025!

Watched Last One Laughing last night. Tonight, watching Conclave. Can't help thinking it'd be a great idea if they chose a pope by telling pope jokes then eliminating cardinals if they laugh.

It certainly looks like Elon Musk’s henchmen stole all the data from the agency which protects workers rights, tried to cover it up, and then threatened to kill the guy who blew the whistle on it.

Christ I was joking 😳

DUCKS PEAS AND LEAVES was perhaps not the resounding sequel to EATS SHOOTS AND LEAVES the publisher was hoping for

Doing a little growl after I say "bear with me". Or muttering "not an actual [name of animal]", after the mention of anyone who's surname is a type of animal. eg, Garry Gibbon, Christopher Robin.

Absolutely fascinating.

Looks like the FADFO to FAFO transition is on. benansell.substack.com/p/fadfo

Cory Booker has earned an eel.

The world seems to be drowning in slightly lazy think-pieces about the end of NHS England. Thankfully, this piece in @bmj.com by Nigel Crisp, is actually excellent. (Crisp ran the NHS from within the Dept of Health during the Blair years). www.bmj.com/content/388/...

This is a tremendous website, I highly recommend a scroll. The Deep Sea Here's a fun fact from the site. neal.fun/deep-sea/

I've written a big feature piece for @cancerresearchuk.org's News site, about a cutting-edge new brain tumour trial they're supporting. It's aimed at the researcher community so a bit techier than usual, but was great fun pulling together. news.cancerresearchuk.org/2025/03/04/a...

Support trans people. Particularly if, like me, in the 90s you told anyone who would listen that the internet would be a powerful force for good.

Great piece by @marynmck.bsky.social on the interconnectedness of animal and human health www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/o...

@lawrenceodonnell.msnbc.com "No one in human history has blamed Poland for starting WW2" Except, you know, this guy: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

"They don’t care about actual freedom and security... because there’s frenzied stuff to say about largely imagined attacks on freedom of speech which will get 100k likes on Elon’s Twitter." Calm, rational yet clearly fucking furious. @lewisgoodall.com on *that* Vance speech.