This week's net.wars, "Undue process", watches Imgur depart the UK when the ICO threatens to fine it; 4chan and Kiwi Farms sue Ofcom in a US court over the Online Safety Act; and we wave goodbye to AOL dial-up: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/10/03/u...

At @skepticalinquirer.bsky.social , my piece on the UK's ONline Safety Act: skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/ch...

On the BritCard - in theory better government systems are a great idea, but implementing it requires very high levels of management competence to cope with the ambition and complexity; the costs will correspondingly be very high.

This week's net.wars, "The absurdity card", can't believe we're doing ID cards all over again: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/09/26/t...

This week's net.wars, "Blur", goes to #gikii 2025 and finds its surrealism struggling to keep up with the weirdness of real life: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/09/19/b...

My review of Ben Collier's biography of Tor: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/09/16/r...

This week's net.wars, "Dethroned", goes to #gikii and talks about restrospective doping controls that revise history: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/09/12/d...

This week's net.wars, "Remediating monopoly", ponders the future of AI versus search envisaged by the judge in the (first) Google case: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/09/05/r...

This week's net.wars, "Passing the Uncanny Valley", sees Sophie Nightingale deliver the news that training people to detect synthetic facial images has little effect; and we bid goodbye to Typepad (may its bloggers find new homes): netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/08/29/p...

New @plutopia.io: our conversation with pioneer James L. Wayman on the history of biometrics. "People never have what you think they're going to have where you think they're going to have it.", plutopia.io/james-l-waym...

This week's net.wars, "Email to OfGem", finds the US declaring victory over the UK Home Office's demand that Apple weaken its encryption, and emails OfGem to oppose Tesla's application to enter the UK energy market: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/08/22/e...

This week's net.wars, "Drought conditions", finds mad government advice and visit the decision in Wikipedia's case against categorization in the Online Safety Act: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/08/15/d...

In the latest episode of the @plutopia.io podcast, we talk to New Yorker writer John Seabrook about his new book, The Spinach King: plutopia.io/john-seabroo...

This week's net.wars, "Machine learning", chats about chatbots in education with a tiny unrepresentative sample of those dealing with them: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/08/08/m...

This week's net.wars, "Big Bang", finds a folk musician fighting to get back the rights over his long-ago recorded music, and chronicles the first week of age verification in the UK: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/08/01/b...

2500 words on a sandwich on.ft.com/4l4S5xM

With Tom Lehrer's passing, I suppose this is a moment to share the story of the prank he played on the National Security Agency, and how it went undiscovered for nearly 60 years.

This week's net.wars, "Magic math balls", marvels at the escalation of the US-UK-Apple case of the backdoored encryption and wonders at the surrealism of "woke AI": netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/07/25/m...

as always, petitions can't change the law and the government can just brush them off, but if this gets another 47k signatures (and it's 53k after just 2 days) they have to think about debating it down the road from the House of Commons

In its latest episode, the @plutopia.io Plutopia podcast talks with sf author Pat Cadigan about her latest book, UltraSeven: plutopia.io/pat-cadigan-...

In this week's net.wars, "Cautionary tales", I consider becoming a child for the purposes of age verification, and Substack becomes a unicorn. Dare we predict enshittification? netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/07/18/c...

This week's net.wars, "Conundrum", goes to a meeting on copyright's "existential threat" to generative AI: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/07/11/c...

The latest episode of the @[email protected] podcast talks with Brendan McNally, whose new book, Traitor's Odyssey, chronicles the astonishing life of Martha Dodd, an ambassador's daughter turned Soviet spy: plutopia.io/brendan-mcna...

btw i’m happy to be a resource for anyone considering making the switch from substack, as someone who’s been through it and has ~a year of experience since switching citationneeded.news to ghost. always happy to share my experience, including as someone for whom this is their primary income.

“A great deal of slow poisoning is going on in Great Britain,” wrote Birmingham doctor William Hinds in 1857. He was among a growing movement of people concerned about a toxic killer in their daily lives: namely, their wallpaper.

This week's net.wars, "Second sight", recounts the results of four months comparing the difference a cataract makes: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/07/04/s...

Would you like to write for The Economist’s Britain desk in London? If you’re an aspiring journalist with excellent writing and analytical skills, we’d like to hear from you

My notes from last weekend's Old Songs Folk Festival are up, for those who want details of what I sang, etc.: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/07/01/n... #FolkMusic #Folk

This week's net.wars, "Revival", ponders the purported death of Bluesky and the company town potential of large companies exploring stablecoins: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/06/27/r...

Was very excited when Last Week Tonight asked @404media.co to help out with research/fact checking for an AI Slop segment that ran last night. I thought it turned out very good! Here's a few mentions of our reporting, and the full segment: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWpg...

I’ve called The WELL home for 30+ years. This BBC piece shows how the WELL was born—and how Deadheads helped seed the online culture that went on to shape the Internet and social media. www.bbc.com/future/artic...

This week's net.wars, "A thousand small safety acts", talks to lawyer Neil Brown about the Online Safety Act's impact on the community Internet - the small web boards, forums, chat channels, projects, and volunteer services: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/06/20/a...

the Plutopia #podcast talks with @profchrisfrench.bsky.social about skepticism and weird shit: plutopia.io/chris-french... #skeptic

Trying to make sense of what the tube graffiti viral video really *means* and the Dom Cummings-backed group behind it. Plus a picture of Kemi Badenoch’s new personalised confectionery range, featuring her wit and wisdom as inspirational quotes. www.londoncentric.media/p/looking-fo...

This week's net.wars, "Negative externalities", watches Texas police use ALPR data to track a woman who might have self-managed an abortion; frets about period-tracking apps; and notes the UK's new data bill weakening citizens' rights over their data: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/06/13/n...

Today, the Data Protection Commission found that the Department of Employment and Social Protection (DEASP)'s collection of facial records for the Public Services Card was unlawful. This means that the DEASP unlawfully collected biometric data from 70% of Ireland's population over 15 years (1)

Also, the 5G icon on your phone is lying to you, with London being a particularly bad case of it due to our decaying network. www.londoncentric.media/p/real-5g-co...

"Hey, AI, do my spelling bee for me"

The @[email protected] podcast talks to Patrick Ball, leader of the Human Rights Database Analysis Group, which produces scientifically rigorous statistics about human rights abuses: plutopia.io/patrick-ball... #HumanRights #Databases

This week's net.wars, "Nephology", attends the US House Judiciary Committee's Thursday hearing on "Foreign Influence on Americans' Data Through the CLOUD Act", at which four experts expertly defended encryption: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/06/06/n...

Researchers have observed a group of cockatoos in Sydney using water fountains as their primary drinking source. They have to twist the handle using all of their body weight. The research was published today in The Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

The @plutopia.io podcast talks to Neal Baer, TV writer (ER, Law & Order SVU) and editor of The Promise and Peril of CRISPR: plutopia.io/neal-baer-th...

A definition of White British which, aside from everything else, includes Gerry Adams but excludes King Charles.

In the many discussions about the risks of AI, I hadn't seen "ChatGPT restarts the Troubles" on anyone's list

This week's net.wars, "Sovereign", signs an open letter to Keir Starmer advocating UK technological sovereignty, finds model collapse plaguing AI, and reads an unexpected clause in Starlink's terms of service: netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/05/30/s...

Britain has no idea - in terms of its self-image, not economists obviously - what economy it actually has One of my favourite facts to point out is: at over £8bn annually, the *videogames industry* is more than twice as valuable to the UK economy as fishing and steel combined.

Hard to believe they’re talking about the same event.

Yep. And...

This week's net.wars, "Dangerous corner", goes to CPDP and finds that privacy issues have expanded to include the electrical grid and farming. "Simplify!" says the EU. For whose benefit? netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/05/23/d... @cpdpconferences.bsky.social

The Plutopia podcast @plutopia.io talks to @eff.org EFF chair Cindy Cohn and EF Austin lead Kevin Welch: plutopia.io/cindy-cohn-a...