The working class Welsh mining ancestors of my children loved knowledge, wisdom, manners, compassion, education When did working class begin to mean sexist, boorish, racist, rude That’s an upper middle class Farageist construction

JFC Just open censorship, siccing the cops on scientists, intimidation, and sycophantry. These aren't just signs of fascism, it's a goddamned neon explosion.

It is 1933 all over again.

Fascinating read. It shows how Plaid Cymru has become the party of the young, the educated, the pro-European; The party of progressive Cymru.

I don’t like it when politicians like Gove, who are guilty of some of the biggest policy disasters in a generation, try to rehabilitate their reputation and pop up on panel shows, making a joke of all those crazy things they did in office as if it is a reality TV spinoff show.#HIGNFY

Just launched at Public Spaces in Amsterdam, The European Social Stack Open Declaration! A set of common principles agreed by complementary technology leaders 🫶 Read the declaration, add your signature, and share: european.social #EUSocialStack #Europe

City AM issues broadside against flood of AI slop being submitted by writers for its pages: "if you can’t be bothered to write it, why should anyone be bothered to read it?" www.cityam.com/there-should...

There're gooduns & bad among all & plumbers. The span's betw Greens' Hannah Spencer & Reform's Robert Kenyon. No profession guarantees qualification or decency. It's the whole person, their knowledge, intention, trustworthiness. And while life experience is a plus,pub experience isn't (necessarily)😉

I’ve still got this idea that most of the AI hype is down to the fact it is being championed by a specific neurotype that struggles with creativity/synthetic thinking. For them it’s a miracle. For actually creative people it’s just a pig with lipstick.

At this point it's basically pathlogical. The site is once again being used to whip up race riots and people with responsibility for national security are on it merrily whistling away.

Hello! I'm on the lookout for Welsh arts journalists. Yes, I know a few well, and a few not so well, but who am I missing? People interested in classical music are a plus. Thanks!

This is great. "If you can’t be bothered to write it, why should anyone be bothered to read it?" is spot on.

And the good examples are always like "AI correctly diagnosed a disease once." Wow, one time it copy/pasted from the right person instead of the just as likely scenario of saying their midichlorians were off so they should drink bleach.

The people who follow Reform, MAGA, AfD don't care whether their policies are working. Look at it. Trump's every policy failed, most admit Brexit was a mistake. Still Trump & Farage have substantial support. Bc they stand for xenophobia, deportations, anti-migration. That's what people vote for.

I find myself weirdly excited... 😊 Office EU – launching 9 June Built by a coalition of Euro-tech companies on open-source infrastructure as an alternative to Microsoft 365/Google Workspace Thanks to Trump 2.0, digital sovereignty has rocketed up the European policy ladder. 🪜 office.eu/consumer

Nobody who has ever spent more than ten minutes around actual cows could possibly want anything to do with raw milk

Lots of talk about cost of Palantir, founders’ troubling values, risks to data sovereignty. But the thing you don’t hear enough is that it’s nothing special. Talk to industry or users and they’ll tell you that loads of companies can do what Palantir does - better - at a fraction of the cost. 1/2

Ah yes, the "Thdpsssps"

www.theguardian.com/environment/... So if you were wondering how we are going find our way out of the polycrisis of inequality, climate change and the dystopian tech bro future, this is it. Some really smart people have laid out the revolutionary road map. Taxing the Rich is a big part of it.

Sent out my free midweek update. US weakness is accelerating as both Israel and Iran are defying the USA in the Middle East. Trump is raging privately and lying publicly. He is also preparing. His decision to opt for total loyalty is not ego, it is about control. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

Stephen Lawrence was killed by six men. It took 19 years for two of them to face justice. Four never did. Henry Nowak's killer has been convicted and jailed within six months of his death. The two cases *are not the same*. www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-o...

Those fucking racists who’ve spent the last fifteen years demonising Poles, complaining about Polski Skleps on high streets, demanding their deportation, now trying to use the murder of Henry Nowak for their own racist purposes can fuck right off.

On this day in 2003, Mars Express began its journey to the Red Planet. 🔴 Since then, it has given us stunning views of Mars, traced the history of water across the planet, and provided the most complete map ever of the chemical composition of its atmosphere. 🧪🔭

Repost from 4th August 2024.

Using AI to do stuff at your business is like hiring someone you would fire in the first week because they screw up all the time. And they’re more expensive and they ruin the environment and sometimes they tell people to kill themselves.

The result of a colossal, multi-decade, politics- & media-wide failure to place a people and parties who are very obviously xenophobic, racist, minority-hating and opposed to basic democratic values & rights behind a cordon sanitaire where they belong. A whole polity played right into their hands.

I am once again wondering whether "no, the legitimate concerns racists don't have a point, fuck off, they're racist" might have been a better way of combating the far right.

Italian railways plan to introduce German passengers to a punctual service

No idea if I have many German speaking followers, but this is now out and looking very handsome.

The really pathetic thing about the Speccy's far-right frottage, is the quaint belief that in such a nightmare the leopard they release would still avoid eating their own privilege-pinked faces.

On the one hand, the government has increased the minimum wage and improved workers rights to create a high-productivity economy, and on the other hand they have a higher education policy that seems to have given up on us being a modern economy www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Anthropic went from a distant #2 in the AI startup race to winning news cycles, sharing the stage with the pope, eclipsing OpenAI's valuation and barreling towards an historic IPO, all in a matter of months. How did Anthropic pull it off? By doubling down on its key export: AI ethics slop.

New reader Q & A is up! I answered question about the midterms, fiber arts, 9/11, martial law, TV comedies, AI data centers, and more! sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/weaving-an...

BBC News cut away from a war correspondent - an actual war correspondent - for some junior hack to tell us hasn't any Mandelson docs yet, but he's got the web page up, then speculate FOR 10 MINS what they may include. Instead of, I dunno, reading. And this is why we can't have nice things.

Palantir: awdurdodau yn y DU a’r peryglon i’n data ni. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

the only worker that will not be replaced by AI

Yesterday I witnessed something extraordinary: the author Sarah Wynn-Williams sitting silent on a stage at @hayfestival.bsky.social. And she got a standing ovation. I hope the attempt to censor her backfires magnificently. I have just ordered her book. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

The idea that the US & UK militaries are lobby that same technology that tells me “I’m absolutely right” on an almost daily basis as I point out its inability to follow instructions should be allowed to kill people’s without human oversight is nuts to me. This is biggest ethical crisis of our lives

This right here.

"I’m not proud to be an Israeli, to be a former soldier. It’s something I'm ashamed of. When I was in Europe I was jealous of people who could put their flag on their house, be proud and enjoy it. I think I will never be able to put the flag of my country on my home." archive.today/2026.05.29-0...

Watching The Industry, in which the worst and most venal arrogant amoral narcissists you can imagine manipulate markets and governments for personal gain, somehow did not change my belief that the world should be arranged so as to give the financial industry the minimum possible influence upon it.

I've moved from Ethiopia to Shetland - and I've brought the coffee with me

Spent a plane ride reading Pope Leo's Encyclical on AI. Many thoughts to share later, but this will stick with me: "The quality of a civilization is measured not by the power of its means, but by the care it is able to offer, by its ability to recognize the other as a face not merely as a function."

How Hookland Works – you all own it, fill you boots. Now updated to reflect how AI means Arseholes Involved. #Hookland

Reviewers in two groups were given identical resumes for Emily Clarke and James Clarke and told they had used AI. Emily's was 2x as likely to raise doubts about competence. "She can't even write a CV herself." But James "just needed a bit of help." fortune.com/2026/05/10/i...

the reality is that decline will come from instituting machines that regularly churn out biased and false information, and believing that government must trust and rely on them

omg