just out from @mitpress.bsky.social a new addition to the Engineering Studies series. lots for @engrstudies.bsky.social & especially @thatminesgirl.bsky.social mitpress.mit.edu/978026255335...

"When it comes to modernising government you don't really want to run it like a start-up," said Litobarski. "I’m all for experimentation but let’s do it in a controlled, evidence-based way." www.context.news/ai/albanias-...

How can Albanians get rid of their AI minister?

I wrote another opinion piece for @euractiv.com, this time about Albania's experiment with AI in government: www.euractiv.com/opinion/how-...

Quick thread on the BBC and the political and societal significance of recent developments: One of the main reasons the UK has historically been so much less polarised than the US, is that Britain has a shared source of information, consumed and trusted by most people regardless of their politics.

After a week in which Dems exceeded expectations in elections, Trump's popularity continues to tank, the GOP largely abandoned the task of governing (just as Thanksgiving travel approaches), I'm a bit surprised to see many more stories highlighting weakness in the Dem than in the GOP coalition.

one for @nanobubbles.bsky.social. do we at least get to keep Imaginary Friends?

"This is not literature as 'entertainment,' no. It’s literature as propaganda." Rachele Dini discusses OpenAI’s “A Machine-Shaped Hand” and an academic sector in crisis. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/literature-is-not-a-vibe-on-chatgpt-and-the-humanities/

Forget diplomatic niceties: it's beyond time Europe denounced Trump's trashing of democracy in the US | Paul Taylor

Lithuania plans to close its border crossings with Belarus indefinitely, after flights at the capital's airport were repeatedly disrupted by suspected sightings of balloons. PM Inga Ruginienė and her cabinet are expected to decide on Wednesday. ➡️ https://l.euronews.com/6nuk

What the history of tech bubbles can tell us about AI

I wrote an opinion piece in @euractiv.com about the history of tech bubbles and the political economy of AI: www.euractiv.com/opinion/what...

Nigel Farage's Reform UK is dealt crushing blow at Caerphilly by-election

Great piece by @joelitobarski.bsky.social in @ourkindredfuture.bsky.social ! ourkindredfuture.com/the-eu-shoul...

New blog post - "The #EU should unplug from US tech": joelitobarski.com/the-eu-shoul...

I enjoy the way people keep remembering that this is the plot of the movie *Elysium*. People literally saw a science fiction film a decade ago and decided it had to be real.

Pritzer gets the mechanics of authoritarianism – systemic intimidation, seizing control of elections, etc. – in a way others in national democratic leadership don't or won't say out loud.

I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again. Ignore the haters, London is the 🐐

Proud to announce our unnamed tech partners tracked the cell phone locations of hundreds of thousands of people without their knowledge or consent

BREAKING — Notices for the Disney+ price increase went out at noon ET today, confirming my scoop from last night. Details: www.vulture.com/article/disn...

Five years ago, they warned the River Cam was only ‘one or two dry summers from crisis.’ That crisis has arrived – sewage, pollution, abstraction, and a dying chalk stream. See why it matters. Kate Moore reports during #BigRiverWatch from @theriverstrust.bsky.social

The false 17th-C science of creating ghosts. PALINGENESIS. A fave topic. Take a living thing, burn it to ashes, grind it to the finest powder, then heat or nourish it. The image of the original would appear. Based on the idea that every molecule contained the imprint of the whole.

New article by me for @mitpress.bsky.social on the rise of "Nihilistic Violent Extremists" and why David Brooks is wrong to think that Church and "believing in belief" is the solution to nihilism rather than recognizing such empty rituals as the cause... thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/returning-to...

They are hiding behind their rage and grief to avoid looking at what they are doing Their grief and rage is real, and it very hard to hold space for that when our grief and rage is belittled and dismissed, every time Their feelings are treated as facts, ours treated as punchlines. For years

#BBCNews - Three arrested by the Met on suspicion of spying for Russia www.bbc.com/news/article...

like many old oil hands, in the 1970s Robert Redford became an advocate for solar energy:

Worried about Wikipedia as well. Easy to imagine a pretext post-Kirk: "refusal to remove claims our people are 'fascist' or 'far right'", "refusal to name far-left Antifa terrorist editors", etc.

Strong argument for moving Bluesky's data infrastructure to the EU

I cannot think of a democracy anywhere in the world where this sort of thing could happen. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/17/b...

superb column from @stephenkb.bsky.social “racism does not diminish through rising GDP but through the willingness of politicians to argue against it….” www.ft.com/content/fbbd...

"This is how reality and its representation online fall into a feedback loop. Phone videos show ever-increasing chaos, and people are convinced to join the massing forces who think the only answer is some kind of nativist authoritarianism." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I know Europeans don't want to hear it. I know it seems inconceivable to many here. But the US is headed toward a very dark place, and that will also shake the foundations of our continent here. Everyone needs to have their eyes open.

Charlie Kirk called me a ‘lunatic’ and a ‘prostitute’ and demanded I be deported. Nothing, *nothing*, justifies killing him, or robbing his kids of their dad. We don’t know the identity or motive of the shooter but murder can *never* be the response to political disagreements.

Larry Ellison dislodges Elon Musk as world’s richest person

“It’s been about six months since Schumer decided that it wasn’t the time for a fight. … Democratic leaders have had six months to come up with a plan. … If the plan is still nothing, then Democrats need new leaders.” Mm-hm.

We have a paper on how Labour's strategy is disastrous. There's an exclusive coverage in @newstatesman.com www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

This is it. Badenoch proves that it’s possible to work your way to the top, destroy the most successful political party in the western world in less than a year, and open the door to the radical right if you just believe in yourself

There's still a lot of "oh he'll fail to consolidate a full-blown authoritarian regime," as if that means the threat can be dismissed, let's just keep going like we'll get our turn back in power soon enough. But that's entirely contingent on what we do now. There's no guarantee it won't go that far.

The constitutional framework isn't one issue among others, something you talk about but then move on to the details of whatever normal legislative policies you'd prioritize if your party wins the next election. Nothing else matters when you're losing the laws and institutions that let you do that.

For so long, things we'd considered rote platitudes were so universal they could be taken for granted as the framework within which we have normal policy debates. To affirm American principles, the Declaration and Constitution and Liberty and Democracy and Rule of Law, *is* the policy debate now.

If Labour ‘phase 2’ can’t figure out how to go after Reform on this - they let Malhotra headline presumably being aware something like this might happen - then their political strategy is doomed. And even more so the Conservatives, who you would think would jump on the word ‘royal’.

It's quite hard to see how the Tories recover from being fifth with people under 40.

This thread by @sophieehill.bsky.social is a great illustration of why statistical literacy matters/is useful -she destroys this paper/the Guardian story without knowing anything about the underlying science...

The Snake Eating Its Tail Stage.

David Bowie’s final project was 18th century musical, new V&A exhibition reveals

The Fever Dream of Imminent ‘Superintelligence’ Is Finally Breaking @garymarcus.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/o...

Job: (Systems Thinking) Teaching Fellow – Birmingham Business School (£36-45k), deadline 30 September 2025 stream.syscoi.com/2025/09/03/j...

The story of how the federal government became an innovation evangelist in the 1960s is an account of fits, starts, and ideological ambiguity. Read an adapted excerpt from "Every American an Innovator" by Matthew Wisnioski: issues.org/nation-of-in... @issuesinst.bsky.social

I have an opinion piece in the New York Times today on how the labor movement has failed to step up to the moment in countering Trump, even as Trump unilaterally strips public sector workers of collective bargaining. Labor will die as a movement if this continues. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...