“…all the AI systems were “oversensitive to linguistic features”: giving out higher marks based on essay length, vocabulary range and sentence complexity, which are often unrelated to academic standards.” Good academic work has clarity and simplicity in language. Overcomplexity is a red flag.

New campaign launched in response to Bucks Council's controversial planning portal change www.bucksherald.co.uk/news/politic... (England) ePetition: Allow Public Planning Comments to be viewed by all buckinghamshire.moderngov.co.uk/mgEPetitionD... #localgov #opengov #dataprotection

Anyone who can look across the Pond and think ‘yeah, we need more of that’ is either an idiot or has money in it. Or both.

Rupert Lowe's Restore are campaigning heavily in Makerfield, and it's obvious that's now pushing Reform further right in their messaging. It's the first time they've talked about "mass deportations" in paid ads.

I've been warning about this moment for two decades over at Techdirt The U.S. is too corrupt to regulate data brokers (and their exploitation and sale of location data) and the check has come due

New in PN: Trump has no way out on Iran "To sum up, if Trump escalates, people are going to hate him. If he surrenders, people are going to hate him. If he dithers, people are going to hate him. He has no good options, which is why he’s spinning in place, hoping someone, anyone, will rescue him."

I've written something about why banning kids from social media could be a terrible idea. paulbernal.wordpress.com/2025/12/03/b...

Oura has announced a new wearable ring. This is a good time to remind you that Oura receives government demands for users' sensitive data stored on its servers, but won't say how many demands it gets — or how often it gives that data to authorities. From me, last week:

A PhD student at Stanford noticed her classmates were asking Al to write their breakup texts. So she ran a study. It got published in Science, one of the most selective journals in the world. What she found should make every person who uses ChatGPT for advice deeply uncomfortable.

We can start to take any comments from the government about youth-bans on social media seriously the moment they withdraw from X. Not one second before.

Growing up in the online world: a national consultation www.gov.uk/government/c... Last chance to contribute today #R4Today

One of the things that has surprised me from wastewater surveillance is just how much cocaine Americans are still consuming. It's everywhere, and there is a lot of it. No real decrease with all of the increased border security either. Who knew?

Today is the day our pied wagtail chicks took their first flight. Not suprised as the nest is under a solar panel and would have been very warm. Doing all we can to keep the kitty girl indoors so they have a good chance.

No matter who you are, if you are running a platform or a making a product that collects user data, you need to have a plan for what happens when the government shows up and asks for it, you need to share that policy with that users, and publish a transparency report.

Reform: the party of the worst guy you've ever met.

What now?

Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...

please, i need a gift link to read this www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...

I have heard stories about tenders for cloud SaaS including wording around loading bays and site access

Think tank to UK government: You can't build the future on systems from the past

Revealed: #Palantir’s #NHS tech is ten times slower than current system - democracyforsale.substack.com/p/revealed-p... "NHS leaders privately told that “clunky” £330m platform built by Trump donor Peter Thiel’s firm is “slow” and has “poor user experience”, new documents show" it's rubbish

Madness. Good article by the way, worth a read. And the conclusion is that Treasury should help with rescheduling the Covid related loan taken by British Council.

I wonder how those targeted by ICE, including violently, using Palantir technology feel about the company's alignment with "public safety". And honestly, the British business secretary should devote far less time to delivering Palantir's sales pitch. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

What could possibly go wrong? (Security-breach-as-service).

Went to Woottens at Wenhaston today. Both the plants and the proprietors were lovely. 🌱 www.woottensplants.com

📸 Whatever the Weather 🌦️ there’s always something to capture at Cambridge University Botanic Garden. From moody skies to sunlit blooms and rain-soaked leaves, our latest photography competition invites you to see the Garden through a different lens 🌿 Enter now https://bit.ly/4wZqVzQ

Reform are again saying this. BBC were clear it is a drop in immigration today. Broadcasters should challenge/correct inaccurate versions of claims the fall is about emigration

From 13 June, 2024. (One of the *41* Reform candidates at the last general election who was Facebook friends with a leading British fascist is now....their candidate in Makerfield.) www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Not if it knows what's good for it, it won't.

Watched this evening’s BBC2 broadcast from #RHSChelsea and much as very recent years, I found it somewhat uninspiring.

Greenhouse is busting a gut also both cold frames. Hoping to start bringing plants out soon. It was too windy today. #gardenshour

Every homeowner should read this story. Unlike the other Andrew Milne horrors, this one wasn’t aimed at leaseholders. The victims were free holders, oblivious to the dangers. If you have a piece of open land next to your house, it can be weaponised against you. And it’s really easy to do.

Do journalists always do voxpop interviews of voters in Northern towns at a time when you only find pensioners, teens skipping school and the unemployed at Costa because they want to get on the 5:15pm train back to London?

Today, the University of Maine's Vice Chancellor for Finance and Strategic AI Integration (who made $243,000 last year) sent UMaine campuses an announcement that we have partnered with OpenAI with a contract for ChatGPT Edu. I sent him the following questions:

Yes! Now do it for other pre-print servers, grant applications, social media posts and wedding speeches.

Could Farage afford to be prime minister, or would he ignore the rules as Trump does? One of the first things a new prime minister gets to do is rewrite the ministerial code. #R4Today

Today in "which lying liar is lying to me?"

BBC reporting on AI generated anti-immigration Facebook & Instagram posts have been traced back to Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Who is paying for these? Why is the emphasis on Meta taking them down rather than finding the people promoting them?

New blog post: UK Government Kicks Out Palantir https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/05/uk-government-kicks-out-palantir/ The UK Government, for all its faults, is pretty good at publishing contracts it has awarded. That's why I get depressed when I see rage-bait nonsense about how companies have been …

This story is becoming absolutely devastating for Farage.

Fiore is one of at least 15 former elected officials and their co-conspirators who were either charged with or convicted of corruption offenses — and then pardoned by Trump after he returned to office last year... www.npr.org/2026/05/13/g...

"How do we build support for facial recognition among liberal types, boss?" "How about we use it to lift a chunk of the Tommy Robinson rally people for unrelated offences." www.thetimes.com/uk/article/m...

CVE-2026-44470 - Claude Desktop: Local Privilege Escalation via Directory Junction in CoworkVMService CVE ID : CVE-2026-44470 Published : May 13, 2026, 4:16 p.m. | 4 hours, 8 minutes ago Description : The Claude Desktop app gives you Claude Code with a graphical interfac...

We’re at the stage where the President of the United States can call one of his predecessors a traitor and demand his arrest yet that not be worthy of mention when the BBC North America editor talks to the Today Programme #sanewashing

But he doesn't face questions. He evades them and the conversation just moves on. No accountability, no consequences. Just relentless polluting the democratic river. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I know there’s a lot going on with the Labour Party, but it is all in the bounds of democratic politics. This however, paid collusion between the leaders of two political parties in the run up to election, if true, is a scandal of staggering propositions

Them: Kids love technology! They think it's fun! Kids: “all hate it — it’s so boring and so monotonous" Them: Tech is the best way to engage kids! Kids: "punched the screen of his Chromebook" Them: It helps kids learn at their own pace! Kids: "I’m losing brain cells every time I do a lesson"