Chris Dymond

The Royal Society for Blind Children (RSBC) urgent appealing to children’s authors, writers and publishers to donate stories to its new bedtime stories app.

The charity relies on stories in the public domain but are running out of books.

Anyone willing to donate should contact media@rsbc.org.

It keeps him up at night, but not long enough to remember he also eats pizza with his hands.

Question: Does “tech prosperity” really mean U.S. firms investing in British startups that are building surveillance technologies ostensibly to provide compliance with the online harms act..?

The Dog that Caught the Car: Britain's 'World-Leading' Internet Billed as a “world-leading” child-protection law, the UK’s Online Safety Act has instead normalized surveillance and ID checks. “Tech policy wonk" Heather Burns writes that the model is spreading acro...

New from me at my favourite newsletter (again): the origins of the UK Online Safety Act were not grounded in child safety, but rather the authoritarian fantasies of the affluent white English right wing. So why aren't they over the moon about it?
internet.exchangepoint.tech/the-dog-that...

Here you go, enjoy the back catalogue:
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...

Ah I see. You were tricked :)
I came to it late, so some of its reputation inevitably bled into my expectations. I had no knowledge of the story though. But then again I’ve always struggled with rogue-likes a bit, at the other end of the spectrum.

It’s 💯% none of my business, but I’m stuck on figuring out what moment you’re talking about & why. Do you mean the end? I hated the decision but I loved the lesson that the character I was playing & identified with wasn’t actually me & made decisions I wouldn’t. Never felt my time was disrespected.

Nick Clegg says nothing at all in new book How to Save the Internet During his time as a Meta executive, Nick Clegg witnessed some of the biggest decisions to ever affect the online world. But this collection of tired tropes offers little insight, says Chris Stokel-Wa...

Nick Clegg's new book is absolutely atrocious and I cannot in good conscience recommend you read it. Instead, read my review for @newscientist.com about how bad it is www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

Best thing I’ve seen today. Man’s a hero.

He’s a moronic narcissist who’s been actively mentored by Putin since he declared he was going to stand for election in 2015.

See also South Yorkshire…

He’s surrounded himself with a sizeable chunk of the British population, no? And they’re laughing at all of us.
My point is, where’s the pushback? Especially in the information channels most adjacent to the white working class?
I can’t see it but I really hope it’s there…

That *is* the narrative that people are being fed. And it’s been clipped and disseminated right here again, without any pushback. Was Rylan shown any evidence to correct that narrative?

It very much is :)
No idea how many people will be there - some might be on holiday, the nice weather might bring others out. We might be sat outside, although there were building works going on nearby last week, so we moved indoors despite it being sunny. I’ll be there from around 9-ish.

UK government seeks way out of clash with US over Apple encryption Officials fear technology deals with Washington could be impeded after Trump administration weighs in

Poli sci students: study this carefully. This is the game of politics in action.

www.ft.com/content/3a3e...

It’s bonkers. The Home Office have essentially made Trump right on this issue. Pursuing criminals, terrorists and child abusers (egregious as they are) is so obviously of secondary priority to weakening security for millions (perhaps billions) of people 🤦‍♂️

4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment In the past two years, without much notice, solar power has begun to truly transform the world’s energy system.

Globally, roughly a third more power is being generated from the sun this spring than last. If this exponential rate of growth can continue, we will soon live in a very different world, @billmckibben.bsky.social‬ writes.

This is the most cyberpunk thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life 😲

Tweet from Matt Goodwin: Outrageous. A British Army Vet —who served seven tours—was forced out of military housing to accommodate Afghan migrants Plus pictures of the Army Vet for a GB News article

Just to be completely clear - this British Army Vet was NOT forced out of military housing to accommodate Afghans - who, by the way, put their own lives at risk to support and protect British soldiers.

Just ever more rage-baiting by Matt!

🧵1/14

Role specification for external panel members of the GDS Responsible AI Advisory Panel The Government Digital Service (GDS) Responsible AI Advisory Panel is seeking applicants for external panel members.

Please apply for this! While it's only advisory (and unpaid), it's a good opportunity to highlight what's working, and not working, in public sector AI adoption to ministers and senior civil servants.

www.gov.uk/government/n...

I think GDPR covers the means testing aspects, but there are additional market distortions introduced by pricing algorithms even if they don’t use personal data.

This review isn’t what I read, but I think it covers it & is more up to date;

chambers.com/articles/alg...

Ah yes, thanks! It was more than the GDPR provisions around personal data that I was thinking about, though, I read something a couple of years ago that was specifically about algorithmic pricing and anti-competitive practices.

Didn’t the EU ban algorithmic pricing that uses any form of means testing? I know it was tabled, but not sure if it became law.

How social media destroys democratic discourse, explained in 6 easy figures Where we all went wrong

I believe it is worth interrogating the fundamental forces re-shaping our information spheres away from liberal democracy towards myth, manipulation and magical thinking empowering autocracy and nihilism.

Here’s how it all falls apart—a 🧵 in 6 figures ⬇️
www.protagonist-science.com/p/how-social...

Ha! Top night then! 🎉

I’m sure I’ll see you at a GeekBrekky before long, anyway ☕️🥓🍳🥐

They’re always in the same place at the same time, every week - a bit of social operating system for geeks 🤓

Sheffield Digital: the association for digital industries

Oh brilliant!!
Well many of us assemble every Friday morning at HowSt - I won’t be there tomorrow morning, unusually, but plenty of other folks will.
And check out the calendar at Sheffield.digital & join our Slack to meet & chat to local tech folks online 👍

@kevinmarks.com Great to see you’re in Sheffield & attending Front End North, Kevin! Are you here for the event or more permanently?

If it’s the latter, it would be great to see you at GeekBrekky sometime - its every Friday morning from 9am at HowSt Cafe :)

It’s mind-boggling to me how much blame young people get for the failure of educators to excite, entertain, engage and motivate them. Of course they don’t have the resources of the digitised entertainment/advertising industrial complex, but so many educators do not even appear to trying!

Love this!
A rant so good it creates an entire language of resistance 🙌