Ian Kirk

"I'll handle a sea bass however I like" | Anoosh & Will's weekly round-up | Daily Politics from the New Statesman

@anooshc.bsky.social & @willdunn.bsky.social I really enjoyed your latest podcast episode, thanks.

It's so refreshing to hear about some of the other things that happened this week when one political event risks becoming the sole topic of every political podcast (I know you covered this well too).

Photo taken at Somerset House London. In the lower half builders' tromp l'oeil hoardings of the facade contrast with the actual building in the upper half of the image

Google just reminded me about a photo I took six years ago at Somerset House.

Dario Amodei can't, in the same week, claim that Claude might be conscious and also decide on its behalf what it works on.

If Claude is conscious, wouldn't that be up to Claude?

Maybe Dario would argue that his product is more like an employee. But what do we call an employee that can't quit?

how do you say #unbombed in Persian

Bar chart of Gorton and Denton vote count from Financial Times. Green 14,989 Reform 10,578 Labour 9,364 Conservatives got 706 votes, Lib Dems got 653. Shockingly low for both parties.

👀

My cousin once went to West Hampstead to see a West Ham match.

Bird Flu Strikes California Elephant Seals for the First Time

A lethal form of bird flu, which has already killed tens of thousands of elephant seals in the Southern Hemisphere, is now spreading in a colony of elephant seals in California.

w/ @emilyanthes.bsky.social

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/s...

Most left-leaning political podcasters and commentators that I follow on Bluesky have done everything they can to increase name recognition and prominence of the Gorton and Denton Reform candidate.

I wonder if, on Thursday, they will regret never having mentioned Labour's Angeliki Stogia.

Micro:bit Educational Foundation Inspiring every child to create their best digital future

Don't be too disheartened. You're right that a lot of computer literacy in schools became basic office suite skills.

But on the other hand projects like BBC Micro:bit are amazing.

My nephew has used it for sensors, robotics and games programming. There are even machine learning projects for it.

Sorry, OpenAI. The vibes are off.

Thanks. I really didn't mean to offend. Of course what I wrote is a reply to your original post, but it is also a reply in public and that makes it harder to get the balance right.

Sorry I didn't mean to suggest you would not be familiar with the term. I just felt it needed elaboration to make my own comment clear.

One-day old chicks know bouba and kiki www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

God’s experiment with Creation was to create beings that were like Him except for a central exception, which is that for us there is a difference between speech and action. For Him they’re the same. We often indulge in the fantasy that this is true for us too.

Please join me on my minor hobbyhorse of returning to use 'performative' in this sense of saying=doing

'Performative' speech acts include a judge passing sentence or an officiate declaring a couple married.

'Ostentatious' or 'conspicuous' are often better choices than modern use of 'performative'.

I just thoroughly tried out Agent Swarm in Kimi K2.5

I replicated my own software as one enormous 7,500 word one-shot agentic prompt.

It worked brilliantly, replacing most of a large Python project.

If Kimi Agent Swarms could access MCPs or APIs, prompts could replace software, not vibe code it.

Amazon deforestation on pace to be the lowest on record, says Brazil Brazil’s latest satellite alerts indicate that deforestation in the Amazon has continued to fall into early 2026, extending a downward trend that began after a sharp rise earlier in the decade. Data r...

Some good news ....

Amazon deforestation on pace to be the lowest on record, says Brazil

Story by @rhettayersbutler.bsky.social
HT @carbonbrief.org
news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amaz...

I gave Kimi AI some notes about Carnaval in Brazil an asked it to do some more research and write a presentation about it.

It did a really good job. Here's the deck (it has been checked by a real person who know what he's talking about).

Happy to share the file if anyone wants it.

Rio de Janeiro carnival 2026 – in pictures Rio de Janeiro’s carnival is full of contrasts: wealth brushes up against poverty, joyful abandon unfolds alongside hard labour. Its visual expression also explores notions of power

I try to be positive and constructive on here. In this case I'm making an exception.

This from @theguardian.com is totally inadequate, misleading and irrelevant coverage of Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro.

It would be like showing a drunk in a chalet car park headlined the Winter Olympics in. Pictures.

I don’t particularly care what anyone misses out on in their personal lives. But if one set of activists/institutions/candidates makes use of AI, and another doesn’t because they’re a priori convinced it can’t possibly have any utility for any function, I’m concerned insofar as I care who wins.

Just cancelled my Perplexity Pro account after they greatly reduced monthly allowances.

Sorry to see it go, actually.

YouTube video by Virgil Widrich tx-transform – theory and film

@dylanschenker.com random follow up. I looked at Virgil Widrich's 'tx-transform' today, which I had not seen before.

It seems to be a practice-led implementation of Deleuze on Cinema. Hope you find his work interesting/helpful

youtu.be/pWRPNoUHTek?...

It's also odd that these ideas are sometimes used to argue, for example, that even people in their twenties should be treated leniently by the courts.

Experiencing the consequences of your actions is a very fundamental part of brain development!

Amsterdam's red light district being celebrated in Brazil's carnival. O bairro da luz vermelha de Amsterdã sendo celebrado no carnaval brasileiro.

Amsterdam - A City of Liberty Gay marriage being celebrated with huge cannabis sculpture in the background Amsterdã - a cidade libertária Celebração de casamento gay com enorme escultura de cannabis ao fundo.

Dutch cyclists Ciclistas holandeses

🇬🇧 Perfect Sunday evening in London. Watching Brazilian #Carnaval with a Dutch friend. They are comprehensively celebrating the Netherlands.

🇧🇷 Domingo à noite perfeito em Londres. Assistindo ao #Carnaval brasileiro com um amigo holandês. Eles estão celebrando a Holanda de forma completa.

YouTube video by Virgil Widrich Fast Film - by Virgil Widrich, 2003 [HD]

I hope you like it. Complete coincidence that we went back to it today.

You might also enjoy another of his short films, Fast Film, which even includes some monsters!

YouTube video by Virgil Widrich Copy Shop - by Virgil Widrich, 2001 [HD]

I don't have a Mac but there must be a way to do it.

I just checked your profile. Still on the theme of copying, I think you will like Virgil Widrich's short film Copy Shop. We rewatched it twice today and it seems aligned to your academic interests. You might know it already.

Clipboard History | Microsoft Windows Get the most out of your Windows 11 experience with clipboard history. Explore ways accessing clipboard history can help you by using copied or cut items later so you can paste them in other apps when...

Windows Key + V instead of Ctrl-V.

You can pin ones you use a lot and sync them between machines. It's really handy

www.microsoft.com/en-gb/window...

Windows and Anroid have this already. Its great. I expect you might already have it

YouTube video by Virgil Widrich Fast Film - by Virgil Widrich, 2003 [HD]

Followed by Virgil Widrich's Fast Movie