Want a 2.5 minute primer on the ingenuity of randomised controlled trials? Of course you do.

It's interesting that, with their algorithms, the tech bros who design the most reprehensible parts of social media make a mirror of the shit that's destroying society. "Only big posts matter/get seen" is another version of "the obscenely wealthy get more obscenely wealthy and fuck all else matters"

Contrast this with how this same administration has revoked visas for researchers studying how information ecosystems are manipulated (including by foreign actors like Russia). Seems strange that they welcome back the manipulators and attack those working to identify and call them out.

One of the strongest justifications for the ECHR and the Human Rights Act is that they provide (some) protection when a government wants to take punitive action against people it decides it doesn’t like - including for politically expedient, even irrational, capricious or ephemeral reasons

Remember Starmer's "urgent" review into foreign interference after Nathan Gill? Well, there's already two ex-UK ambassadors working in Westminster on behalf of a pro-Russian foreign government whose de facto leader is under UK sanctions... New on D4S: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/ex-uk-amba...

A small (personal) example of this book’s intellectual dishonesty: My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media. Huh? When did I say that?!

Private Eye always hitting the mark with their Christmas covers. Many in the UK will already be aware of this dependable & credibility-driven media source but, if you want the truth minus any bias or malicious intent regarding misinformation & manipulation of facts & readers, then this is for you.

This is one of the most hopeful things I've read in a while from @graceblakeley.substack.com written a year ago but doesn't matter "what I saw in North Wales was one of the most profound examples of political transformation I had ever seen with my own eyes" graceblakeley.substack.com/p/what-can-w...

"Someone who's not bothered about torturing an animal is not bothered about the welfare of people either. Don't vote for them." Brian May

When it comes time to write the history of Europe in this period, there will be one area of consensus. One of the greatest errors European states ever made, was in trusting the USA.

🧵Have you ever heard of LLM-authored books being used as part of an disinformation operation? Well now you have! #AI #Disinformation open.substack.com/pub/marcowen...

THIS is one of the easiest ways to take action against Palantir EVER!! All done with a click & I urge you to do the same Thank you @goodlawproject.bsky.social notopalantir.goodlawproject.org/email-to-tar...

Number crunching: Telegraph editorial columns in December highlighting ‘the unreliability of social media’ v corrections the Telegraph has had to publish so far this year due to inaccurate reporting From the new Private Eye, out now.

#trump is .... I can't write what I think , I would be very rude

The shadow Russia casts over Europe has forced it to face the truth: the risk of war is once again real www.cnn.com/2025/12/25/e...

According to British intelligence, Russia’s losses since the beginning of the war have exceeded 400,000 killed and wounded. x.com/DefenceHQ/st...

Harsh but fair. (Source: www.ft.com/content/11a8...)

In 2023 I became obsessed with videos of dads in cargo shortswaiting in parking lots during Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. So when she came to town, I grabbed a camera and headed down to talk to them. I thought it'd be funny. It turned out to be something else entirely.

Letter to the FT that stingingly sums up Brexit and the shit creek we now find ourselves in. A terrible idea (naive, prejudiced and uninformed) that has deeply divided us and left us poorer and less secure… but unwilling to face up to the damage we’ve done to ourselves. While the EU moves on.

New substack: why so many people are content with economic stagnation: chrisdillow.substack.com/p/wallowing-...

THREAD. A collection of photographs of excellent trees I have met on walks. You will find the captions to each photo in the alt text.

This post isn't about archaeology, or the Anglo-Cymric border. It's the annual round-up of what went right in the world in 2025 from @positive.news.web.brid.gy Sometimes it really does feel like everything is going to hell in a handbasket, so here's a reminder that good stuff is happening too 👇

I've shared this before but it's bears repeating.

U-turn on inheritance tax for farmers, just another in the long list of u-turns Labour have seen fit to embark on since the 2024 GE. But their Brexit red lines? Those remain nice and solid for some mysterious reason. Anyone would think they don't want a second term.

"13 worst Reform moments of 2025 - from Elon Musk, racism scandals and Russian bribes" For a party on the rise and not even in power, 13 scandals in a year are a bit much, no? And this is just the 'Best of...' www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

Very impressed with this new viral promotion Streisand strategy that CBS have chosen for 60 Minutes. Bold from Bari Weiss to get such high viewing figures for this documentary on the Trump administration’s deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s CECOT prison by pulling it from broadcast

In my school mums WhatsApp group one of the Muslim mums is helping one of the other mums assemble a last-minute Christmas Eve box and this is the country I am proud to live in and share x

The UK’s largest planned data centre—a project by US firm QTS—is understating its true water consumption by a factor of 50, says new analysis by @watershed-i.bsky.social & @aiarmsracebook.bsky.social @digiconomist.bsky.social No mistake; AI is a heavy, polluting industry. shorturl.at/KXQxJ

Post Office had deal with Fujitsu to fix Horizon errors 19 years ago. They lied to courts, parliamentary committees. Postmasters knowingly wrongfully prosecuted, Lives destroyed. Compensation being paid from public purse, none by those who profited from the scandal. No one charged for conspiracy.

Between CBS accidentally leaking the segment it was trying to censor to Canada, and the Trump DOJ fucking up a bunch of the Epstein Files redactions, it's a great day for the "we are lucky they are very stupid" meme.

Story from Joolz Denby over on Facebook. A bad day at TotP in 1985 with New Model Army, and Chris Rea suddenly appearing and being compassionate and gernerally decent.

💯. Refusal is generative. Ask Audra Simpson

Do you Agree with Lord Sugar? #ExitBrexit

The complete Bayeux Tapestry has finally been released and proves that Bishop Odo had absolutely nothing to do with the illegal Norman invasion of England.

Share this with anyone planning to vote for Tories, Reform or Labour.

NEW Donald Trump v the British Broadcasting Corporation: the battle begins The president filed a claim this week more about exerting leverage than legal niceties By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

The managing director of Teesside airport is running the publicly owned business while holding a remarkable conflict of interest: he’s also on the books of an investor who tried to buy the airport and has snaffled up a large swathe of adjacent land. Full story in the new Private Eye, out now.

The story of Farage and Putin, told by British-Ukrainian soldier Shaun Pinner on a destroyed apartment block in Kyiv.

THREAD. My parents' cat Bridget vanished. As the weeks dragged on they became ever more worried, so to distract himself my dad began to paint Bridget's adventures, imagining her travelling through time and popping up at some of art & music's most important moments. I've collected his work here...

TL;DR: Russia has decided that the UK is Russia's enemy, and there's nothing we can do to change that as long as Putin is in power. The choice is whether to be an undefeated enemy or a defeated one. That's all the choice we get.

Things are going great over at X, The Everything App

Sub in "AI" for "THE MONEY MACHINE" and we're just about there. image via Robert Kaplan.

When is the government going to act to prevent sitting MPs such as Farage & Lee from presenting political programmes on mainstream TV channels? @lisanandymp.bsky.social

Entertaining thread. The Russian version is very on the ... nose.

Gove’s slippery hands in the pot

NCAR is the keystone in US atmosphere/weather/climate research. Physics doesn't care about politics, and floods, droughts, wildfires will continue to intensify. This is like sacking all of your doctors just as a pandemic gets started.