One more fundamentally broken way we do things. Much discussion in the press of banning social media for under 16s. The government does its usual thing of putting out a consultation to ask the country about this and, of course, almost no-one knows it exists. www.gov.uk/government/c...

Another close to pointless government consultation that would be much better handled by citizens’ assembly #CitizensAssembly

FYI: AIs are happy to launch nukes in simulated combat scenarios

You sound like an unhinged person if you in plain words describe what’s happening, but the Trump admin demanded Anthropic’s AI be able to kill things for it w/out human approval and also do mass surveillance. Anthropic said no, and now the admin is trying to destroy the company in retaliation.

Yay?

“For Russia, the consequences of its war on Ukraine are now harder to ignore.” We drive 350km from Moscow to see how four years of war have changed Russia.

Given all the discourse today about Bluesky vs. X... seems like good timing for @lastweektonight.com's latest video on just how bad X has become... www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7ZG...

Updated version of the "Grand Old Duke of York" - as of 8.30pm on Sunday 22nd Feb, charting this week's royal #PrinceAndrew news - with ukelele, violin, and djembe for some 🎶 variation. youtube.com/shorts/DHLi8...

Dear ChatGPT, please construct me an optimal portfolio ft.trib.al/smhwJFZ | opinion

A new book buries the Obama-era idea that small shifts in personal behavior can greatly improve the world, Rob Wolfe writes.

Three smart folks talking about the Internet: the aspirations of 20 years ago, and the reality now. How things could be better and what to do… Cory Doctorow / Tim Wu / Ezra Klein @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy @superwuster.bsky.social @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social

Ukraine has learned to mass-produce cheap, brutally efficient weapons—but it may have opened a Pandora’s box, Simon Shuster reports:

Powerful stuff.

On the nature of growth and novelty #complexity

Streets of Minneapolis (Radio Mix) Directed by Thom Zimny Edited by Thom Zimny and Samuel Shapiro Production Footage: Pam Springsteen and Thom Zimny

I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself! bluesky-map.theo.io I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail

NEW The constitutional significance of what happened to the Prime Minister last week Members of parliament moved for a parliamentary committee to decide what is prejudicial to national security instead of the government By me. emptycity.substack.com/p/the-consti...

I see we are now at the ‘explaining constitutional principles and precedents of scenarios that really aren’t likely to happen’ stage of political crisis.

Since #bbclaurak is trending, let’s remind ourselves that ONE MONTH ago, the BBC invited Mandelson on for a soft-ball interview on her show. While HIS CLIENT , Palantir’s Louis Moseley appeared as a pundit Both, as I wrote at time, were ‘abject failures of journalism’ 1/

Last night there was a vigil for the first cycling fatality of the year on London's streets. I was there. Here are some thoughts (no paywall). If this strikes a chord with you, please comment on the post and share. open.substack.com/pub/nedboult...

Ian McKellen performs “The Strangers’ Case” speech from “Sir Thomas More” on Colbert.

Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice Singing through the bloody mist We’ll take our stand for this land And the stranger in our midst Directed by Thom Zimny Edited by Thom Zimny and Samuel Shapiro Production Footage: Pam Springsteen and Thom Zimny

Citizens Assemblies. We should experiment. What’s to lose?

Carney’s Davos speech. Impressive articulation of what needs to be done. Best we get on with it

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

Use Signal.

…and ensure there is competition amongst social media firms. Excellent piece by @jay.bsky.team bsky.app/profile/fina...

Federal agents are pulling over off duty cops based on the color of their skin. This is not a serious operation to enforce immigration law. It’s a performative show of force and it’s gotten way out of hand.

"One of Us" was ABBA's final parting single - so we've adapted it into a 🎶 parody we're calling "Exodus" to reflect on the urinary trickle of Tory departures to Reform UK, most notably two driplets this week from the very bottom of the last government's barrel. youtu.be/GRQrQr198to

Solid Eurovision bop, douze points

Jerry has been working on digital government reform for decades - books, talks, posts, consultancy. That successive governments have mostly ignored his work, only to recycle the same largely wrong-headed ideas again and again, is a serious failure

Agree. A ban on children’s social media use is unlikely to work. Better to regulate engagement algorithms, restrict risky features and require age-band based advertising. Crucially, design the legislation for experimentation, learn what works and do more of it. This is complex: there is no big lever

This makes me unreasonably delighted

Relevant to #ukgc26

New this week! The latest in our work mapping public sector reformers. 👏👏👏 @gavinfreeguard.bsky.social has pulled together the amazing responses we got to a shoutout before Christmas. He’s shared an update here: 1/n medium.com/kinship-work...

"My Fiona said, 'Do you think the world would be any worse if Twitter didn't exist' and I said, 'No I don't think it would'" @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social If he (or anyone else bleating about X/Twitter) wanted to make a difference he should leave and use his position to persuade others to leave

The quotes and replies to this are an absolute joy.

I booked 4 non-straightforward dental appts today. I was greeted by an AI expecting to be handed off to a receptionist. No. Entirely human voice. Slight pauses. A bit scripted. I challenged it about a technical matter. Long pause. Thoughtful answer. I’d have preferred a human. But… #AI

Another mechanical metaphor. They are endemic.

Meanwhile Starmer (and the Labour Party) continue to post on X and havent even bothered to set up an account here despite their own MPs telling them it’s the obvious alternative. Weird. Makes it hard to take any of this seriously.

“Rewiring” is an engineering metaphor States aren’t machines: they’re complex, bubbling soups of human interaction Headlines are important: they frame how problems are seen and solutions chosen Persisting with machinery-of-government thinking constrains what can be imagined Metaphors do matter

Video message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KckG... www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/s...

A great example of government reducing a complex problem to a simple one and pulling its lever - I will put on my tin helmet and hide under the stairs www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

"Battle Hymn of the Republic" is not a song to be taken on lightly ... but in light of this New Year Trumpian news onslaught, we're sharing this adaptation, called "Battle Hymn of the Empire" - as Trump goes marching on, and dragging us all back to the nineteenth century. youtu.be/8saU0WeocP0

“…the government will keep on posting on X, has not said it has any plan to reduce its reliance on X and won’t even undo the prioritisation of X given in places like the Home Office’s social media policy” Which is barmy, right? A great question in the Lords - via @pollymackenzie.bsky.social

The way out of the box… is written on the outside of the box

“[Trump's] supporters have a tendency to say that he’s playing five-dimensional chess, only to discover too late that he has eaten half the pieces”

Cults economist.com/internationa...

If you’re in an abusive relationship, the best thing to do is leave it. No? “The government has so far resisted calls to stop using the social media platform, focusing instead on the powers that the media regulator Ofcom has to take action” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...