Spring

$680,000 Homes in Wales “Llandovery’s train station offers National Rail connections throughout Britain, including to London’s Heathrow Airport.” Really! www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/r...

Grail’s Cancer Detection Test Fails in Major Study “Getting an answer, she said, “requires a great deal of transparency on their part,” adding, “it requires revealing all of the news, not just the good news.” Quite! www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/h...

People Loved the Dot-Com Boom. The A.I. Boom, Not So Much. “Tech leaders are beginning to worry about the public’s underwhelming enthusiasm for their plans to remake the world with artificial intelligence. Will that burst the bubble?” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/21/t...

Really! “The trust said engaging with the inquiry was an “absolute priority” for Majid. It added that his use of the phrase “fed up” should be seen in the context of the time needed to prepare for the inquiry, rather than a lack of commitment.” www.thetimes.com/article/43b5...

“The data shows relentless increases of transcription because AI has made this free and accurate and more valuable,” he told me last week. “I see this only rising and likely spreading beyond video calls to phone calls and in-person meetings.” giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

WTF! Half time. Wales 17-5 Scotland www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2...

Oh joy … “With England currently getting a pasting from Ireland,” www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/f...

The public scrutiny/peer review of this complex study is to be welcomed. But I wonder whether there is now an opportunity to move forward in a constructive way with a “public effort” to design a study that would prove acceptable to the many critical voices ? www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Observing what others read, setting of reading themes, an end of year reading review & ranking all help. My wife & her sister avid readers both are a huge inspiration for my reading. Be curious & take pleasure in your choices whether they agree with you or not. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f...

My heart goes out to the staff and students - when courses, esp ones as complex as med/vet clinical courses, become dysfunctional it takes a toll. Got to mention that the RCVS noted improvements in 2025 - not easy. This period must be incredibly difficult for them all.

“The word “gaslighting” is much overused these days, but there’s no better way to describe PEN’s behavior. Refusing to defend “controversial speech” that is “anathema to our personal or organizational values” is precisely what PEN has just done.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/o...

Anyone with an interest in #meded should read the RCVS Nov 24 report to understand how a med/vet school can go to the wall - two ways, as Hemingway might have said, gradually and then suddenly. The RCVS details the gradual part. www.rcvs.org.uk/news-and-vie...

Making choices is hard - from UKRI to Cambridge you have to build your case! “Privately, some senior academics warn the university could be plunged into bitter infighting if the closure is pushed through. “There is absolute apoplexy in the colleges about this” giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Supreme Court torpedoes Donald Trump’s tariff regime in check on executive power “The clear limits imposed on Trump’s power will bruise his ego, just as he seeks to put his personal stamp on Washington.” Time to keep on “punching” that bruise! www.ft.com/content/d05f...

Why are so many academics in the Epstein files? It’s not just about money | Christopher Marquis “In a university ecosystem that breeds hunger for status, Epstein made scholars feel like celebrities” Attention = Status www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The 2028 Democratic Presidential Contenders, Ranked by Nate Silver As important as the NFL draft .. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/o...

“This is kiss-it-better government. Let’s not speak of the trade-offs.” “This goes deeper than fiscal considerations. The diminishing readiness to confront voters with difficult choices or trade-offs is one of the factors making the UK so hard to govern.” giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Here’s What I Just Figured Out About the Way Trump Talks “He is verbally letting it all hang out wherever he goes, the linguistic equivalent of wearing his Mar-a-Lago golf togs to deliver the State of the Union.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/19/o...

Picking winners is hard! “Orbex had raised £138.5 million of funding including £33.3 million of grants and £105.1 million in equity. The UK government put in £26 million in 2025 while the Scottish National Investment Bank provided £29 million.” www.thetimes.com/article/69ba...

Not sure these products will help me 🤔😂 Best men’s grooming buys for silver foxes www.thetimes.com/article/c539...

Alzheimer’s researchers find ‘clock’ for onset of symptoms “Researchers from Washington University built a model that forecast the onset of cognitive impairment to within “three to four years” www.thetimes.com/article/41ce...

“It is what this fragility reveals about how we value scientific labour. It amplifies doubts about whether the structure beneath British medical research is robust enough to sustain the middle on which it depends.” www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/ukri...

Oddly this review doesn’t appear to have attracted much attention … www.gov.uk/government/p...

Why nothing will change - “it will take political courage” See social care etc. www.thetimes.com/article/e355...

My column Everyone loves progressive tax changes in theory but seem to hate them when they face the consequeuences One for UK graduates on Plan 2 loans to read... as.ft.com/r/d9c65a3c-1...

Australia’s social media ban is a high-stakes experiment “Here’s what should concern all of us: compliance with the law does not guarantee that Australian teens will be safer or better off.” www.ft.com/content/45ed...

Excellent piece hard to see how to achieve this … podcasts, substacks ? “Sensationalist” is a word used by a broadcasting colleague to describe recent coverage. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if next time we were praising clever & calm analysis instead?” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“Wormald had felt secure in his job in large part because, when he had asked at the highest levels of Downing Street if there was indeed a problem with his performance, he had been reassured that the briefings were nonsense and unauthorised.” Remarkable! www.newstatesman.com/the-politics...

“We do not want our allies to be weak” “For the trans-Atlantic relationship to change in the way that he desires, that promise needs to be proved out. Because from the Eisenhower era to the age of Trump, we have often given Europeans good reason to think otherwise” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/o...

We all need an AI powered toilet. Japan’s largest toilet maker is undervalued AI play, says activist investor giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Beijing backs brain implant push to rival Elon Musk’s Neuralink   “The acceleration is visible across China’s neurotechnology sector. At least 24 financing rounds for BCI start-ups were completed in the first 11 months of 2025, up 30% from a year earlier” giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Maternity care is broken “One issue is that there are simply too many recommendations, creating the problem we call ‘priority thickets’ — action is paralysed by lack of clarity on the most important things to be addressed,” says Professor Mary Dixon-Woods,” giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

It took on the best features of the WRU and imploded ! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/d...

“we’ve had too many politicians that don’t know what it’s like to graft.” Yet they certainly know how to grift regardless of their politics! www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

More Parents Are Rejecting a Lifesaving Vitamin Shot for Newborns “For decades, hospitals have given babies a vitamin K injection to protect against bleeding. Now, the shot appears to be facing resistance.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/w...

Quite a statement! “As an A.I. researcher, I believe that when used appropriately, these large language models are the greatest tool for empowering patients since the invention of the internet. But they also carry new and barely understood risks” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/o...

Dinner Is Being Recorded, Whether You Know It or Not “The responsibility of using these devices ethically falls largely on the wearer.” Would could possibly go wrong ! Any tech out there that can disrupt their functioning… an opportunity surely? www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/d...

“People are “exactly like the pigeons,” says Peter Balsam, a professor of psychology at Columbia University. Because, he says, we carry around a device that elicits this bizarre behavior: our phones. Swipe, swipe, swipe. Scroll, scroll, scroll. Tap, tap, tap.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/o...

Decades of medical insight unlocked as UK Biobank gets GP records “After a years-long battle against bureaucracy, the initial promise of what was already a world-changing study has been fulfilled.” www.thetimes.com/article/f734...

Berlin Noir — a new rival to Slow Horses? Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther thrillers are being adapted for an Apple TV series starring Colin Firth and Jack Lowden — here’s why you should read the books Excellent news… www.thetimes.com/article/b04b...

Regardless of the actual truth this is peak mandarin ! Someone somewhere take ownership of the decision ! “Rupert McNeil, who was then head of HR for the government, informed those involved that “the process has determined that there is no case to answer” www.thetimes.com/article/cacd...

Robert Duvall, Apocalypse Now and Godfather star, dies aged 95 | Robert Duvall | “In 1955 he enrolled at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York (alongside James Caan, Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman)” a remarkable cast/class! www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...

Labour take note: the politics of home cannot be ceded to the nativist right | Julian Coman | “but on sensitive subjects the left too often prefers preaching to analysis.” One might also add an inability to speak plainly.. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The inability to get the fundamentals of being a good employer right is staggering! A spokesperson for NHS England said it had "immediately established a payroll improvement programme after hearing about these awful cases and the distress caused". www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

“Difficult choices have to be made, but they have to be good choices or we risk profound long-term damage to our research ecosystem. And making a good choice requires an attention to detail that seems to have been lacking from UKRI so far.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I don't think Starmer has any conception of the "teaching" role of the premiership: the responsibility (& opportunity) to talk to the public, to shape how they understand the world & the choices before them. All the most impactful PMs have been teachers. Starmer seems actively to repudiate the role

What French Romance Novels Could Tell Us About A.I. and Translation Jobs “Popular paperbacks are being translated with the help of machines, raising anxiety among professionals in the field.” The art of translation sadly, is poorly understood. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/15/w...

“A university vice-chancellor has warned of the “quiet disappearance” of sex as a recorded variable in academic research, likening pressure to abandon politically sensitive classifications to Stalin-era persecution of statisticians.” www.thetimes.com/article/4fb9...

hard policy choices will only get harder “Like many other countries, the UK confronts insoluble long-term challenges: it has inescapable obligations that impose painful trade-offs” Neither the public nor the politician are prepared to make tough choices! giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...