May I interest you in £10k for humanities or social science research? Our small grants scheme is open. Apply by 3rd June. We allocate through partial randomisation - awarding randomly between all applications that meet our quality threshold www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...

Weird that having a set of negotiations in which there are no proper diplomats leads to a situation in which no one has a clue what's actually been agreed.

‘Altman has continued to compare the quest for AGI to the Manhattan Project… Depending on the audience, Altman has used this analogy to encourage either acceleration or caution.’ This is the core thing that comes across in this profile - he’ll just say whatever www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Dynamic pricing is on the rise. It will make it harder to measure inflation, and even where average prices don’t rise it may lead to higher perceptions of inflation www.ft.com/content/9ac2...

Antonia Romeo has published her objectives and they seem at the right level to actually create a more well functioning government. This is well worded: ‘Leading an impartial, curious & engaged Civil Service.’ Each of those qualities has some bite assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69d4f7...

I listen to an unhealthy amount of history podcasts and like the worst thing is when brilliant, knowledgeable historians feel compelled to “make it current”, and it’s often with the most banal platitudes. I’m here for the Bronze Age Collapse I don’t give a shit about social media echo chambers.

Antonia Romeo has published her objectives and they seem at the right level to actually create a more well functioning government. This is well worded: ‘Leading an impartial, curious & engaged Civil Service.’ Each of those qualities has some bite assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69d4f7...

How do we govern the moon? Our topical discussion paper www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/60...

‘Altman has continued to compare the quest for AGI to the Manhattan Project… Depending on the audience, Altman has used this analogy to encourage either acceleration or caution.’ This is the core thing that comes across in this profile - he’ll just say whatever www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Wow so the Pope reached out to set up a meeting with the guy who wrote a book investigating Opus Dei, and had cameras there to send a signal to the group. If you haven’t already, it’s worth reading the piece by @antoniacundy.ft.com in the previous post www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

‘The recent waves of attacks show that Kyiv’s long-range drone industry is outstripping Moscow’s, despite Russia’s constant air strikes against Ukrainian drone producers, according to a person close to the Russian defence ministry.’ www.ft.com/content/d49e...

Must be a contender for best ever letter to the Times

‘Treating this technology as another software deployment is like receiving a mysterious alien artefact and immediately using it as a paperweight.’ @emollick.bsky.social on why organisations should hold the uncertainty of what AI can do, and leave room to experiment economist.com/by-invitatio...

This is good from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com on how AI will impact on the labour market - two different effects pulling in different directions. Which will be more powerful? www.ft.com/content/becb...

What a treat to have sunshine on a bank holiday Monday. It let me momentarily forget about <gestures>

This is good from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com on how AI will impact on the labour market - two different effects pulling in different directions. Which will be more powerful? www.ft.com/content/becb...

ICYMI this is a great read for the bank holiday weekend

Must be a contender for best ever letter to the Times

FT headline writers are allowed a little more latitude on bank holidays

It has ‘a literacy rate of more than 90% for 35 years. It has a robust healthcare system, with infant mortality rates of just 5 per 1,000 live births. The US average is 5.6 & the Indian national average is 25. It enjoys strong food security and is… the easiest state in India in which to do business’

‘In 1792, during the French Revolution, the tapestry was identified as a potential cover for military wagons, only for it to be rescued at the last minute by a local police commissioner’ A great read on the Bayeux Tapestry from @georgewparker.bsky.social and Leila Abboud www.ft.com/content/03dd...

‘According to my parents, by the time I was three I had learned to recognize plainclothes cops and F.B.I. agents in a crowd. You had to look at their shoes (cheap leather loafers, well shined)’ Disturbing portrait of growing up a fugitive www.newyorker.com/culture/the-... @newyorker.com

‘Here we all are, our minds fizzing and popping, our lives spent on screens. Cooking is a way of establishing ourselves as bodies in the world… You need to let your intelligence escape the confines of the mind & take up residence in the senses’ @nigella.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/4819...

The @tomgauld.bsky.social cartoon - Easter egg hunts in the style of great detectives. Smiley is chef’s kiss

Great piece on Kerala - India’s miracle state www.thetimes.com/article/ce95...

Glad to see the digital generation embrace our traditional bank holiday weekend pastimes www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I’m especially taken by this 1947 sketch ‘A fish seller in Bombay’ by Chittaprosad. Feels like it could have been drawn today

‘Here we all are, our minds fizzing and popping, our lives spent on screens. Cooking is a way of establishing ourselves as bodies in the world… You need to let your intelligence escape the confines of the mind & take up residence in the senses’ @nigella.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/4819...

Great piece on Kerala - India’s miracle state www.thetimes.com/article/ce95...

OpenAI doing ‘no more side quests’ with the same spirit as me doing ‘no more chocolate’ www.ft.com/content/4fe4...

Great looking exhibition (in Mumbai) of the evolving city www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

‘The IRGC has caused extensive damage to many of the 13 US bases in the region… The cost of the destruction after the first month is estimated to be nearly $1.5 billion (£l billion) and more than 300 US service personnel have been injured.’ www.thetimes.com/article/9d7b...

‘According to my parents, by the time I was three I had learned to recognize plainclothes cops and F.B.I. agents in a crowd. You had to look at their shoes (cheap leather loafers, well shined)’ Disturbing portrait of growing up a fugitive www.newyorker.com/culture/the-... @newyorker.com

‘In 1792, during the French Revolution, the tapestry was identified as a potential cover for military wagons, only for it to be rescued at the last minute by a local police commissioner’ A great read on the Bayeux Tapestry from @georgewparker.bsky.social and Leila Abboud www.ft.com/content/03dd...

To see that Classics is essential you just need to scroll through social media, she says. "What a humanities degree teaches you is about arguing with responsibility & sharpness. It teaches you what it would be not to think like you." @wmarybeard.bsky.social interview www.thetimes.com/article/d2d8...

Glad to see the digital generation embrace our traditional bank holiday weekend pastimes www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

‘For the first time since the war began, western intelligence services believe, more Russian soldiers are dying than are being recruited’ www.thetimes.com/article/61e8...

I was reading this again yesterday and I want to stress how good it is. Should be read by archivists, librarians, historians for sure - but I also think it can be usefully read by journalists, commentators, policy wonks etc. It’s short, but it’s thoughtful and gives a really useful framework.

👀

It would later be known as the @gsoh31.bsky.social manifesto www.ft.com/content/5032...

At a time when everything seems bad, here’s a bit of good news. In 1991, lithium-ion batteries cost around $9,200 per kilowatt-hour — 33 years later, they cost just $78. This helps us move towards electrification of transport and energy storage in homes ourworldindata.org/battery-pric...

Iconic 19th Century painting sets Indian art record with $17.9m sale www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

At a time when everything seems bad, here’s a bit of good news. In 1991, lithium-ion batteries cost around $9,200 per kilowatt-hour — 33 years later, they cost just $78. This helps us move towards electrification of transport and energy storage in homes ourworldindata.org/battery-pric...

Many thanks @hetanshah.bsky.social and The British Academy; more details about the conference, including registration, coming next week.

“Using the word ‘doctrine’ to describe this is incredibly generous,” said a second former Israeli official. “Wherever there’s a problem he sends the military in, and there’s no doubt that more damage was done to our enemies than us, but that’s not the goal.” www.ft.com/content/6d0e...

Your sign is causing me offence

‘One German IT blogger compared Schleswig-Holstein to the French comic-book hero Asterix and his “small village of indomitable Gauls” holding out against Roman invaders.’ Did the blogger not understand that’s a good thing? Asterisk always wins! www.ft.com/content/95bd...

Enjoyed this on the rarity of India importing a CEO. TLDR India’s aviation market is a heavily regulated duopoly and Willie Walsh has the muscle memory for this. He’s only 64 - I must confess I thought he’d be in his 70s by now www.ft.com/content/5be4...

This is a soothing start to the long weekend. Especially tracks 7 and 9 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...