"So far 51 cases have been confirmed in the DRC in the northern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, including in the cities of Bunia and Goma, although we know the scale of the epidemic in DRC is much larger", says @drtedros.who.int at @who.int presser on #Ebola outbreak.

Data centres can be part of the solution instead of the problem but we need to TRY and EXPECT IT

I hope this isn’t true. There are times when it’s more important to put country before party. This is one of them. Burnham’s longstanding commitment to a fairer voting system could transform our democracy & counter the dire threat of a Reform UK government elected on a minority of the vote

Oh my *word*

Has the question moved from "Can AI write mission critical software?" to "how soon will it write all the mission critical software?"

Oh yeah, and by the way, it's a constitutional outrage that Labour members and affiliates should pay money to choose the Prime Minister. Only MPs should choose the Prime Minister.

The vital question: can AI produce the kind of mission critical software the world runs on? (Not could it - can it?) The subject of the latest episode of Asynchronous and Unreliable tech podcast. Available wherever you get your podcasts or links below

I started this thread on twitter back in 2017. I add to it occasionally whenever the opportunity offers itself, but want to start it again so I can add to it on here. So… Amazing how grater technology has developed. My current grater (left) and an original 80s grater, the size of a brick!

Same. HUGE gap between experts & everyone else. This was already expert consensus 2 years ago. Now? Trump's horrible & evil war have wrecked the perception of oil & gas as stable and cheap in the decade when solar, wind, batteries, EVs are SURGING worldwide www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/daw...

State structures are far more important than mere parties. They keep you safe, keep the lights on, keep the bureaucracy ticking over. People just take them for granted, which is why Faragism is in some ways a phenomenon of decadence. (1/2)

Pied avocet! (Husband managed to grab the photo from a kayak in our local Essex saltmarsh bird sanctuary)

Making new friends at Devoxx London yesterday.

Texas politicians hate renewables, but Texas can't get enough of them

What's that joke? "I hope I die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming in terror like his passengers"

In an exponential world, binary choices are an expensive disaster. In episode 5 of Asynchronous and Unreliable podcast, Jon Berger and I explore why people have no clue about exponential concepts like five nines resilience and the ways you can handle that.

In the latest episode of Asynchronous and Unreliable tech podcast, writer, author and editor Charles Humble and I discuss 30 years of change (progress or not?) in the communication of complex tech subjects. Links below

Europe's electricity: 29% fossil fuels in 2024, down from 53% in 2005. Progress. But transport is still 92% fossil. Buildings: 71%. Industry: 61%. And 95% of EU oil and 88% of gas imported. Switching suppliers doesn't fix this. Electrification and efficiency do. More here: rdcu.be/feOjc

Rare sighting of a column chart taking a dip at Hove Beach. #dataviz

Episode 2 of Asynchronous and Unreliable podcast is now live! Mission critical systems expert Jon Berger discusses the future of code efficiency www.asynchronousunreliable.com/asynchronous...

FFS. Nothing takes me out of a film faster than failure to even do the most basic research. The Statue of Liberty is on an ISLAND. It is not buried in a jaunty angle in the sand.

A good reminder that this is probably a good time to re-read The Phoenix Project

The big question is, is there a proper plan for DC design cooperation with the UK grid? Google is working with several grids in the US to build grid balancing AI DCs blog.google/innovation-a... (demand side response aka flexibility). These are the future. Gas powered is rushed, not strategic.

Cloud good/Cloud bad? It's not as easy as that as my @oreilly.bsky.social co-author Sara Bergman and I discuss on new tech podcast, Asynchronous and Unreliable. (links in the comment)

I wish Tussauds would fail and flood the market with cheap mannikins. I noticed a charioteer at Colchester Roman Circus Museum appeared to be Jackie Chan. The tour guide confirmed he was cheap from the collapse of a local waxworks. Only Jackie & Obama left & the latter was too tall for the costume

The first episode of Asynchronous and Unreliable weekly podcast is now live!!!! See comments for links. Sara Bergman & I discuss all the things, including efficiency in all its forms & whether you should run calmness retreats based on the principles of distributed systems. Hugely fun to record!!!

Without energy efficiency, the EU would need — and pay — 31% more for energy today. Since 2000, efficiency has removed 265 Mtoe of demand from the market entirely. The best protection against a price shock is not finding cheaper oil and gas. It's needing less of it.

I have a lot to say on this post, which means I'll need a thread @solarchase.bsky.social. I write scifi and non fiction about both the energy transition and resilient systems. I suspect what you're describing is somewhat analogous to Iain Banks' thoughts in The Player of Games...

What a hero image. I often feel the BBC has lost its way but its coverage of the Moon mission has been excellent. Positive, always the top story, loads of coverage. (for the non-retailers, the main image at the top of a site is called the hero. Rarely has that been more appropriate).

okay i change my mind, THIS is one of the best and most beautiful images from artemis ii

The sub headline on this Times piece struck me as encapsulating the issue with the current UK Lab gov. Starmer's job is not to please voters back home. It is to lead them.

Interesting article on the difference between autistic and no-autistic folk in their expressions www.bps.org.uk/research-dig...

This planet — with all its troubles — is worth caring for. That should be our single purpose, as a species: To be stewards of this magnificent world, ensuring it thrives long into the future.

Great article 👇 and free to read I believe the deciding factor is whether demand is low enough in southern GB for ZCO generation to be enough – but as I understand if it transmission demand needs to be at least 27 GW GB-wide for voltage management and the like. That's quite a narrow window.

The next tipping point in the energy transition is approaching. Overall, solar has already been cheaper than fossil power for a while, but upfront costs used to be higher. That's no longer the case. Solar is now competitive upfront AND has vastly lower operating costs (no fuel).

I've decided I need to embrace my identity as a folk artist! I was at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe last year and it reminded me how much better folk artist is as a name than naive artist.

The most entertaining article I've read this year. The links between Dr Who and Airplane!

Wish I could find all those students who I misled about the why bugs used to be so big www.science.org/content/arti...

In a world energy crisis it is not the job of government to allow everyone to carry on with unchanged behaviours. It's the job of government to ensure we all do our bit, and to help those in real need.

During the Ukraine energy crisis of 2022, my village organised a warm hub (in a local pub) where folk could spend a few days a week and warm up at no cost. It had a load of knock on positive benefits. Encouraging some demand side response is good for resilience.

I agree with @timharford.ft.com and the govt could help by promoting ways of saving energy as prices rise - me and @rosahodgkin.bsky.social for @instituteforgovernment.org.uk www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/gove....

University of Oxford : maximising oil and gas extraction here would only save UK households up to £82 (€95) per year. A UK fully powered by renewable energy, would save households up to £441 (€510) a year on energy bills. www.euronews.com/2026/03/27/e...

The battery situation is astonishing "More than 90% of California's battery fleet was built in the last five years. Total deployment is now over 17 GW, up from just 1.3 GW in 2020." Thats > 6 new Hoover dams billmckibben.substack.com/p/night-into... New read from @billmckibben.bsky.social

Captcha that says "how can you be sure you are not a robot programmed to believe itself to be human?"

People do not appreciate what a vast, fundamental sea change batteries are bringing to the electrical system.

If you want better productivity, focus on doing more of what's going well and behind which there is already plenty of momentum

#Scotland runs temporarily fully on #windpower, generating over 200% of its electricity demand, a remarkable milestone offering a real glimpse into a future where fossil fuels may no longer be essential. #Renewables cheaper then #oilandgas offering independence from stock exchanges and #DoanldTrump

This is the way... 🧪🔌💡☀️💨💧🔋 cleantechnica.com/2026/03/26/u...

I had to look up freshwater snails being deadly killers! theworld.org/stories/2016...

This doesn't look unreasonable. At first I balked at the selfconsumption numbers but of course with such a tiny system you are going to get high selfconsumption, and he did model it properly afaict. Overall a capacity factor of 11.7% in the UK seems a bit high but not wildly so.

"key elements of systemic resilience: diversity, redundancy (a systems spare capacity), modularity (its degree of compartmentalisation), backup (other ways of providing food), asynchronicity (which prevents shocks suddenly compounding) & circuit breakers (mostly in the form of effective regulation)"