Part of my Xmas reading is ‘Chip War’ by Chris Miller. Excellent book on incredible, world changing technology & business story. This description of how to produce Extreme Ultraviolet light for lithography of modern chips is truly mind blowing.

Found in a 2nd hand book and curio shop

Our NYT piece examines Hamm's determined, 15-year campaign to reshape US energy policy. Why? He wanted to extend out the life of fossil fuels to allow his family-controlled company to keep drilling. He argued this is essential to US. energy security. A free link: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/b...

Gee, I wish we could have a white Christmas, just like in the old days. A Christmas blog www.onlyelevenpercent.com/gee-i-wish-w...

Mammoet expands electric vehicle fleet with massive XCMG hybrid crane

Being able to put 300 miles into your EV in only 5 minutes will make the people pumping look like fools who want to punish themselves.

Another milestone in the inexorable march towards the AI bubble bursting, a journey that will be taught in future economics and business schools (assuming we have any left).

Microsoft Scales Back AI Goals Because Almost Nobody Is Using Copilot www.extremetech.com/computing/mi...

This is what is clear in the Electrification Staircase. Lots of sectors can currently be done. More will economically feasible in the next decade.

As it is the anniversary of the first powered flight some photos of the Wright Brothers National Monument in 2022.

What the builder won’t tell you about home energy-efficient ‘retrofits’ www.irishnews.com/life/what-th...

Australia’s home battery program has been a remarkable success. ~160,000 batteries installed in just months — ~3.6 GWh of distributed storage added almost overnight. Households moved fast when economics aligned. A$5 b top-up vs A$2.3 b original → A$7.2 b total, more than 3× the initial plan.🔋⚡ #BESS

Arthur C. Clarke, regarded as one of the most influential science fiction writers of the 20th century, was born #OTD in 1917. His most famous works include "Childhood's End", "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Rendezvous with Rama" and "The Fountains of Paradise" beyondearthsky.blogspot.com/2025/12/arth...

This Christchurch home is so well built, the small heat pump they ended up buying is six times more powerful than anything they need.

In a compelling speech, this line from head of MI6, Blaise Metreweli, stood out for me. This is the crux and why gung-ho "abundance" and tech accelerationism is a disaster. We need mastery not surrender.

Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things

Genius-level strategy: Tesla "Robotaxis" keep crashing even with a human "safety monitor" in the car to intervene. So let's remove the "safety monitor" and that'll make it even more safer! #TeslaTakedown electrek.co/2025/12/15/t...

@commsbylmc.bsky.social the usual great Christmas card - thank you. Have a great holiday l.

As Peak has shown, NFPP can be run with only passive cooling, lowering complexity and operational costs significantly www.ess-news.com/2025/09/26/p...

Nice turn of phrase in the FT ‘In some ways, the American AI race looks not unlike the race to build the grandest cathedrals in late medieval Europe’ #AI #bubble

Second, Heath was right when he said that Europe was always about much more than trade and, frankly, this is the case that Starmer should be making now. Wilson’s retreat from East of Suez was a recognition that we were a European power. Again that’s even truer now.

At the Museum of Brands to see the Thunderbirds / Gerry Anderson exhibition - I still have 2 of the Annuals featured, a Thunderbirds one and a TV21 one

apple.news/ABsyNI4jCRZO... A fascinating detailed account of PLUTO - Pipeline Under The Ocean

Air passengers exposed to extremely high levels of ultrafine particle pollution, study finds - Levels during boarding and taxiing were far above those defined as high by the World Health Organization #airpollution Story by @drgaryfuller.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A good news story - amazing technology from a UK company

A handy list of Musk promises on self-driving on Wikipedia.

Silicon anodes are coming to market! Huge improvement in energy density (400 Wh/kg!) and charge rates (10 min rapid charging) for Li-ion batteries, and an alternative to graphite, which is almost all sourced from China now. This is one area where US could regain leadership in battery tech. 🔗⤵️ 🔌🚗 🔌💡

Just another sign that the AI bubble is nearing the top - Boom SST aircraft company ‘pivots’ to ‘proprietary’ gas turbines, which only exist on paper, for AI data centres and raises $300m

Great report title: "Small Modular Distractors"

"Uber Boat by Thames Clippers has launched the River Thames' first fully electric ferry service between Canary Wharf and Rotherhithe." www.businessgreen.com/news/4522896... via @stuartstone.bsky.social 🔌💡

Bombed Chornobyl shelter no longer blocks radiation and needs major repair – IAEA #nuclear www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

Thread on the huge shift in US policy towards Russia visible in the new National Security Strategy - the biggest change since the collapse of the USSR. 🧵

An honour to win the Special Recogniton Award at the #EnergySavingAwards

If anyone cares at all, EV battery recycling is now hitting 99% recovery for important metals Please remind me again what the recycle rate for fossil fuels is interestingengineering.com/energy/recyc...

Holy shit. Reuters reporting that new admin instructions on visas are if you worked at a platform in trust & safety or content moderation or on fact checking or online safety at an platform you *and your loved ones* are ineligible for H-1B visa. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

Quite breathtaking story - military grade drones at Dublin airport which flew on the path Zelensky's plane took. The drones reached the flight path of his plane exactly the time it should have been there, but just missed it because Zelensky arrived ahead of schedule:

Miguel Berdiel, owner of the coffee farm Hacienda Berdiel Torres in Adjuntas, has turned his land into a test case for a new agrivoltaic system because of grant awarded by Dems. This means his farmland not only produces coffee but also the solar powers his farm. www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/p...

ExxonMobil paid nearly five times as much tax to the U.A.E as to the U.S. in 2023 and 2024.

👀

1st album I ever bought - on cassette of course. Still love it.

Great to attend ep Architects book on the refurbishment of disused rail buildings - turning them into community assets. #railway200

In Romsey for the afternoon for EP Architects event related to the 200th anniversary of the railways #rail200

They really are all quite insane.

Cool!

After the controversial biopic “The Apprentice” fizzled into a long period of distribution uncertainty following some positive reviews at the Cannes film festival, it’s now available to stream on Netflix till 14 Dec. Don’t miss it. www.theguardian.com/film/2024/oc...

Interesting and alarming piece on the use of AI in Universities www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...

🎄 Day 2 🏡 CarbonLite is the AECB’s standard for energy-efficient buildings — designed for real-world impact. 🎁 CarbonLite homes can reduce energy use by up to 70%. buff.ly/q3sLIfx #CarbonLite 📸 thanks to Dan & Clare - self-build owners of Birdsong and first ever CarbonLite plaque!

Yeah, this is terrible news. A big part of the reason I sold my car was that these were available. Hopefully something will come up to save them.