This is an excellent article about how important (and surprisingly easy) it is to build yourself a community. A little effort goes a long way https://takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/this-might-be-oversharing

German minister calls for EU legal steps over Grok images on Musk's X reut.rs/4psY1Tw

More from @markpackuk.bsky.social on his question about the government use of X: government will carry on prioritising X for government comms, despite the evidence about X's promotion + protection of unlawful activity. It no longer pays to advertise there lordseyeview.substack.com/p/will-the-g...

For anyone who thinks “it’s just pixels and can’t hurt anyone”, of course it can. Deeply.

Not even the prompts. If you are a Twitter user in the UK and Twitter sticks a Grok CSAM image in your feed for WHATEVER reason, well congrats your device just downloaded child porn. And you are legally responsible for that.

Blow-in straw seems to be getting traction in some countries. Can you see why? #strawbuilding #strawhouse #biobased #renewables Foto: bioblow.com

University of York is going Geothermal baby! Another good story about UK investment into sustainable energy creating a win-win: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Went to check if this screenshot (posted by @aric.bsky.social) was real (it is) and then made the mistake of also scrolling through Grok's replies on X. Still constantly cranking out sexualised images of young girls. Beyond bleak.

Very useful explainer on what's going on.

Live now news: Al Jazeera reporting explosions in Caracas, Venezuela. livenow.news#aljazeera #venezuela

Scotland had its own version, decontaminated in 1990: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruinar...

In local French vending machine news: Arcs 1800 has introduced a new picnic area with two vending machines. 1. Locally roasted coffee and hot drinks. An very good long black: €1.50 2. A local cheese and snacks machine. Reasonably priced.

Chef’s kiss.

Reform UK's public reputation on racism *prior* to these renewed reports in Nov White: 47% generally racist, 36% generally not racist Black: 61% generally racist, 19% generally not Indian: 68% generally racist, 14% generally not Pakistani/B: 82% generally racist, 7% generally not (YouGov, Oct 2025)

As @stephenjacobsmith.com @shahidkhan.bsky.social @alonlevy.bsky.social and others are asking about why Paris-Barcelona takes 6 hours 45 mins by train, a quick thread

It’s worth mentioning, though it’s been said repeatedly: the Lizzie Line carries 1/6th of UK daily rail passengers (not including the Tube) and has already paid off its entire costs. And if HS2 had been committed to, without plans being tweaked every 5 minutes, Phase 1 would be opening next year.

Worked example of the crippling effects or Treasury brain here

Never gonna make you cry.

Anyone looking for the full map or wondering who made it, it’s the work of Matt Brown and it’s here. open.substack.com/pub/londonis...

Two prominent people in tech I know very very well (and know to be brilliant) have come up with polar opposite views on AI. One is all, “It’s powerful and interesting and the negatives are over-stated”. Another says it’s ruining the world, won’t work and will trigger the collapse of the economy.

💯

Firmly agree

I did not understand this: one of the five Europeans the US has barred from traveling to the United States...is a permanent resident who lives with his family in the US. Now he is worried about being arrested and deported for the crime of monitoring online hate. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/u...

This thread perfectly explains why AI has little value for qualitative research. Yes, large language models can find patterns in qualitative data. But, they're trained on what we already know. So, they won't find anything surprising. And, surprise is qualitative research's primary value-add.

Absolutely right. AI might be able to summarize (poorly) what we currently know, but a major goal of historical research is to find the hidden surprises out there. Let me illustrate …

If you were a passionate believer in sovereignty you'd be appalled by the implications of this. You would, wouldn't you? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I’ll just note that the US didn’t do this to China, which outright bans US social media websites

This is the way.

Tomorrow evening it’ll be my annual duty to vaguely shepherd the activity on the #duvetknowitschristmas hashtag and urge people to give small sums to charity. 7.30pm? Something like that?

#duvetknowitschristmas is open. The true spirit of Christmas. Room at the spare room/gym/study/floor in the children’s bedroom.

‘The Trump administration, citing “foreign censorship,” imposed travel bans on experts involved in monitoring major tech platforms.’

Pleased to see this piece. Personally, I find these uses of synthetic data v concerning and I find the traction and endorsements that this work has to be quite baffling, esp given the well-storied role of algorithmic targeting in undermining democracy

🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

“Traffic lights across the city were down, seemingly confusing the driverless cars —& halting them in their tracks. Riders and pedestrians posted videos of Waymos stuck at intersections, long lines of drivers behind them.” Less well known— driverless cars contribute to traffic congestion EVERY day.

Chef’s kiss.

Love this. Also waves. One ‘a’ and a ‘y’ not an ‘i‘, if you’ll have me.

Were classical statues painted horribly? buff.ly/fS78ULM It is often suggested that modern viewers dislike painted reconstructions of Greek and Roman statues because our taste differs from that of the ancients. This essay proposes an alternative explanation.

I’m hiring a reporter for London Centric, looking for someone smart who can use a phone, knock on doors and wants to cause trouble. Don’t care if you’ve got qualifications, just want evidence of caring about news. Initial six month contract, pay above national rates. www.londoncentric.media/p/jobs

This is utterly joyous.

Fortunately, there is still some good EV news from Brussels: Germany may proceed as planned with the tender for public fast chargers for lorries along the motorway, including the “Durchleitungsmodell” (passthrough model).

"The AI boom has caused as much carbon dioxide to be released into the atmosphere in 2025 as emitted by the whole of New York City, it has been claimed." The report author claims this is the first attempt to measure the specific effect of artificial intelligence rather than datacentres in general.

Wait what? The “already raised $60bn”? What’re you on about? Tens of billions? $100 billion?

Ready for a new night-time adventure? 💫 Bookings are now open for our Paris–Berlin #nighttrain.⁠ ⁠ Travel from Paris or Brussels, and wake up in Berlin, rested and ready to explore. 🌙⁠ Search tickets 👉 www.europeansleeper.eu/night-train-... #thegoodnighttrain #connectingeuropebynight

This is incredible. The company operating the scams is owned by Marc Andreessen who sits on the board of Meta. Ostensibly, the AI generated ad farm is violating Meta’s terms of service.

This article in The Lancet from May this year on "Artificial intelligence in public health: promises, challenges, and an agenda for policy makers and public health institutions", is excellent and full of good advice.

This is a fascinating thread. Bear in mind that in Wales, Labour has historically been the majority party, including since the establishment of the Senedd (Welsh Assembly).

I’m heading back to Oslo overnight with Vy except I’ll be doing it in their new and innovative accommodation “NattPluss”, aka a lie flat seat. This is currently the only sleeper train in Europe to have this concept, so quite curious to see what it’s like. Hopefully I get some sleep hey 😅

As I was grading the final essays for my class yesterday, I thought it was time to build “check if references exist” into Canvas. But that won’t help much if Google Scholar is going to be indexing hallucitations.

𝚄𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚑𝚝, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 "𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚎𝚜𝚝-𝚛𝚒𝚍𝚎 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛!" ICBF host-city Utrecht was recently named the most bike-friendly city in the world. But Utrecht isn't leaving it there; a new policy coming into effect on May 1st 2026 will restrict access for trucks and vans to the city's historic centre. 👇

My Firefox extension adding extra platform information to SNCF Gares & Connexions has just been approved by Mozilla 🎉 Grab it here https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/on-voie-tous/ - works on Android and desktop on pages like […] [Original post on masto.ai]