I don’t know who needs to hear Jesse Jackson leading the kids on Sesame Street in this beautiful call-and-response reminding them that every child is somebody, but here it is
just parent your fucking kids oh my god!!!! no one made you have them!! be a responsible adult!
New post just out:
"The financial crisis theory of everything"
Why the 2008 crash was the WW1 of our generation that led to nearly all of the problems we have today - from the rise of the radical right to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(£/free trial)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
An M.I.T. study found that 95% of companies that had invested in A.I. tools were seeing zero return. It jibes with the emerging idea that generative A.I., “in its current incarnation, simply isn’t all it’s been cracked up to be,” johncassidysays.bsky.social writes.
A great many more people protested the plight of Sheffield Wednesday this month than have attended any protest against asylum hotels
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
The thing you don’t see about lengthy libel cases like this is the mental impact on witnesses - and on news outlets’ willingness to do similar stories.
Respect to all the women who chose to go to court to defend this story - plus Sirin Kale, Lucy Osborne, Paul Lewis and the Guardian team.
Photo of DOGE staffer Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old white man in a blue pullover, carrying a black backpack.
Photo of 53-year-old Afghan scholar Mohammad Halimi. He is sitting, wearing white pants and shirt with a brown vest.
On the left: Nate Cavanagh, a 28-year-old DOGE staffer and college dropout.
On the right: Mohammad Halimi, a 53-year-old exiled Afghan scholar.
This is the story of how DOGE targeted Halimi on social media.
Then the Taliban took his family. 🧵
I alerted Meta in Feb to a network of ~100 hoax pages connected to Vietnam. Instead of shrinking, the network expanded—using AI slop, deceptive “static video” & hacked accounts to exploit algorithms for profit & influence. I just found another ~130 pages.
As per previous tweet - Labour are missing as they didn't file their accounts in time...
![Party Income Expenditure
Total £90,879,328 £90,888,325
Conservative and Unionist Party £50,174,000 £52,027,000
Liberal Democrats £12,580,154 £11,516,811
Reform UK £10,832,716 £9,314,587
Green Party £5,217,767 £4,985,310
Scottish National Party (SNP) £4,506,027 £4,961,281
Co-operative Party £1,816,732 £1,754,930
Sinn Féin £1,068,608 £1,490,829
Plaid Cymru - The Party of Wales £1,033,111 £1,045,798
Scottish Green Party £544,939 £597,724
Communist Party of Britain £494,906 £276,853
Alliance - Alliance Party of Northern Ireland £475,562 £500,017
The Reclaim Party £475,061 £837,959
SDLP (Social Democratic & Labour Party) £474,574 £442,380
Women's Equality Party [De-registered 31/12/24] £471,464 £501,318
Democratic Unionist Party - D.U.P. £441,985 £436,146
UK Independence Party (UKIP) £271,722 £199,382](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:6laekojw3whqu64tlaxopvgx/bafkreih4dfafhrtb536om4c2ld2lp4vabgdubb3tpso7m2lwscmmiuvb5y)
Party Income Expenditure Total £90,879,328 £90,888,325 Conservative and Unionist Party £50,174,000 £52,027,000 Liberal Democrats £12,580,154 £11,516,811 Reform UK £10,832,716 £9,314,587 Green Party £5,217,767 £4,985,310 Scottish National Party (SNP) £4,506,027 £4,961,281 Co-operative Party £1,816,732 £1,754,930 Sinn Féin £1,068,608 £1,490,829 Plaid Cymru - The Party of Wales £1,033,111 £1,045,798 Scottish Green Party £544,939 £597,724 Communist Party of Britain £494,906 £276,853 Alliance - Alliance Party of Northern Ireland £475,562 £500,017 The Reclaim Party £475,061 £837,959 SDLP (Social Democratic & Labour Party) £474,574 £442,380 Women's Equality Party [De-registered 31/12/24] £471,464 £501,318 Democratic Unionist Party - D.U.P. £441,985 £436,146 UK Independence Party (UKIP) £271,722 £199,382
UK political party income and expenditure in 2024, out today from the Electoral Commission:
Hello. I wrote a nice long essay about AI and this very strange moment where we're constantly told we're living in the dawn of a strange new future but the only thing that's actually clear is that everyone feels pretty unmoored and uncertain. I hope you'll read it
this is so wonderfully weird, give her all the golds 🥇
Police report one arrest, for breaking a cordon line.
The police did not intervene in the use of a "Kill 'Em All" banner, either by arresting the protestor, nor even in telling him not to display it.
83. heat
Philomena Cunk against a collection of classical statues. "Antigone's death is even more tragic than it actually is, which makes her a tragic hero"
Philomena Cunk looking thoughtful. "Goya continued to paint tapestries until 1792 when serious illness left him dead for life"
Philomena Cunk looking thoughtfully into the distance. "Society is slowly becoming more contemporary now"
Philomena Cunk looking into camera on a beach. "Diderot's Tahiti represents a typical male fantasy in which attractive young women are eager to engage in sexual activity with the French"
@gralefrit.bsky.social You have to see these! A friend of mine has been collating a series of images entitled "Things my students have written turned into Philomena Cunk quotes" and they're just glorious.
I’m doing a printed mag of type-in web pages (like ‘80s computer mags did with BASIC programs) and it just occurred to me that one of them could be an image
Any illustrators fancy the challenge of making an image that’s (a) a fun surprise when you see it, & (b) a very small SVG file when exported..?
“The AI in the study probably prompted doctors to become over-reliant on its recommendations, ‘leading to clinicians becoming less motivated, less focused, and less responsible when making cognitive decisions without AI assistance,’ the scientists said in the paper.”
Remember that viral story last week about Angela Rayner bulldozing allotments? Which even the allotment society somewhat debunked?
I looked into one of the sites and it’s wilder still: they are *increasing* the number of allotments, not cutting them. capx.co/angela-rayne...
Low-income and minority ethnic people in England most at risk from dangerously hot homes
- Homes are heating up as summers get hotter but least well-off are shouldering greatest risk, study finds
#climatecrisis
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Trump's Truth Social launched an AI "answer engine" reports @drewharwell.com. But "Truth Search AI contradicts the president by saying that tariffs are a tax on Americans, the 2020 election wasn’t stolen, and his family’s cryptocurrency investments pose a potential conflict of interest." [Gift link]
Original painting: art, deliberate, soulful
AI 'exploration' of original painting: not art, ghoulish, inhuman, emperor's new clothes
Putting the Doom UI over it: art, intentional, hilarious, human, quietly profound
Where 2024 Labour voters are now:
Still Labour: 52% (5m)
Don't know: 13% (1.3m)
Now Lib Dem: 10% (1.0m)
Now Green: 8% (0.8m)
Now Reform UK: 7% (0.7m)
Now Won't Vote: 4% (0.3m)
Now Conservative: 3% (0.3m)
Now SNP/PC: 2% (0.2m)
Now Other: 1% (0.1m)
Dead: 1% (0.1m)
As the US hits a 33-year high in measles infections, there is now a "race" to find a treatment for the disease.
One pharma company "is banking on a continuing decline in vaccination rates to fuel a need for measles treatments—and in turn, more investor interest"
🎁 link
www.wsj.com/health/healt...
"Asked to generate intervention plans for struggling students, AI teacher assistants recommended more-punitive measures for hypothetical students with Black-coded names and more supportive approaches for students the platforms perceived as white" www.chalkbeat.org/2025/08/06/a...
"Chemical pollution is 'a threat to the thriving of humans and nature of a similar order as climate change' but decades behind global heating in terms of public awareness and action, a report has warned."
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
this work saved millions of lives in 2021, won the Nobel Prize in 2023, and is cancelled in 2025
Reporters shouted to ask what he was doing up there and he said he was "taking a little walk." He said something about the White House ballroom and made some gestures but it's not really making a ton of sense yet. Normal stuff
This is amongst the most impactful two minutes of broadcasting I’ve ever seen.
By Emma Murphy, International Editor, ITV News. #Gaza
47% of people think immigration is primarily illegal. There were 4% irregular arrivals in March
New YouGov polling. A monumental failure of our political class to educate, a monumental failure of our media to report fairly, for a generation
