Taken from a boat out in the river, a lined-up rising moon directly over one of the piers of the Thames Barrier flood defence in Woolwich. Colours are predominantly orange and blue with two red crosses lit up on the pier.
Barrier moon tonight
Apple's got a lot of announcements this week, but one huge risk might get overshadowed amidst the noise — the way they're adding support for video podcasts threatens to enshittify the last truly open online media. It's not too late to push them to keep it open. www.anildash.com/2026/02/28/a...
A sun-dappled lane leads beneath two trees under a blue sky with scattered clouds
It almost felt like spring yesterday (daily tree)
I don't know if she's on here, but Michelle Tsai's legendary pigeon sweater pattern was released on Ravelry today! Exciting times for knitters 🧶, bird enthusiasts 🦆, and Jeopardy fans ❕- aka 95% of Bluesky
www.ravelry.com/patterns/lib...
Pancake day special?
Earlier this month I had the privilege of MCing the @protocolsforpublishers.com event in London, bringing together people from publishers and the open protocols that might help them secure their futures. I wrote up my experiences: werd.io/building-tru...
Technology discourse is so unhinged at the moment. Just zooming out, beyond specifics, the fact that there are multiple movements to "protect" kids from smartphones at the same time as there is increased pressure to AI everything all the time is bananas
Threads’ new ‘Dear Algo’ feature lets you tell the algorithm what you want to see
Rain has now fallen in Reading for 25 consecutive days - the longest spell of rainfall ever recorded at our Atmospheric Observatory.
Dr Stephen Burt, said: “With further rainfall expected, the spell of consecutive days of rain may stretch to an entire month.”
Read more: https://rdg.ac/4agN55U
An analysis of why there are all these long-form AI manifestos and how they attempt to be persuasive www.scrollthefuture.ai
Young generations see limited opportunities for conventional routes to money, careers, houses etc so they're doing more "risky" things like betting or crypto to succeed. Social media reinforces this. www.collisiondetector.com/riskmaxxing-... (from @changeist.bsky.social)
carbon.txt is a text file for websites, like robots.txt, that discloses sustainability commitments and reporting from the organisation www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/news/carbont...
There's lots of research that social media makes us feel more informed about the news, but it doesn't actually inform us. Overall, our collective human knowledge is being undermined from many directions. www.wrecka.ge/landslide-a-... from @kissane.myatproto.social
I did lots of catch-up reading earlier in the week and here are some things I learnt...
If you're new here and happen to see this, here's a Critical Tech starter pack, full of interesting folk to follow go.bsky.app/VFxSES6 And if you have a small account (<10k followers) and would like to be added for visibility, let me know! (Although response times may be slow)
A frosty lane leading between bare trees. There is a light dusting of snow on the lane and frost on the hedgerows. The sky is blue. Sunlight highlights some trees in the far distance.
January tree
A muddy path leads underneath some bare trees with hedgerows on either side. The sky is clear and pale blue. A bird is silhouetted against the sky above the trees.
Last tree of 2025
A male downy woodpecker flys like a missile towards us with his wings folded tight against his body. His black and white markings contrast with the small red patch on the back of his head.
#ArtAdventCalendar
Dec. 17
Why use wings when you can just engage missile mode?
This downy woodpecker male was foraging among the spruce trees, and decide that for this short journey, wings were not needed!
#Birds #photography #wildlife
🪶
A path winds between some bare trees with frosty hedges either side. The sky is clear blue
December tree
He was very weary; the day had been long, and full of dragons.
Speaking of covers, what is the picture on the album cover?
I just came across this fantastic #birding visualisation and its author too, Mexican information designer Brenda Battaglia. 📊
Always amazed to be reminded, again and again, how much data visualization practice there is to discover out there.
brendabattaglia.com/Color-Atlas
The Word for World: an exhibition presenting the maps of Ursula K. Le Guin is now open at the AA Gallery! It's free and on until 6 Dec. Here are some photos from opening evening 🌀 www.aaschool.ac.uk/publicprogra...
‘The architect of Black Gen X sonic feeling and eloquence’: D’Angelo’s 10 greatest tracks
Counter-opinion: it’s a f***ing tragedy that corporate greed has broken the medium which facilitated Tahrir Square etc and is now doing its best to break the rest of the Internet.
Breaking news: In August 2026, the world's most famous cricket club, the MCC, will be sending a team to Iceland to take on our national side. It promises to be an exciting three match series involving three different formats. All will be live streamed.
Banger of an intro paragraph
When I see people write like this about finance, it spurs me to be braver in my own writing.
Very very well done @dsquareddigest.bsky.social
on.ft.com/47ZzGzI The grimdark future of credit risk models
First aired on this day in 1984, the BBC's adaptation of "The Tripods". A Tripod's leg found time to pop into Blue Peter on the way. Forever incomplete - but if you find yourself down The Pink Parrot tonight, raise a glass to what they *did* manage to achieve. A (mostly) impressive stab at it.
