Jon Butterworth

Anybody who had a vision to bring American levels of political, cultural and social polarisation to Britain - whether their motive was clicks or cash, ideology, boredom or anything else - would make it their top strategic priority to abolish the BBC, or to damage and diminish it at the very least

home.cern/news/news/ce...

Rosalind Franklin Award Lecture: Bright futures in a dark universe | Royal Society Watch the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Prize Lecture by Professor Clare Burrage.

Looking forward to @clareburrage.bsky.social's Franklin Lecture this evening!

royalsociety.org/science-even...

If you aren't in London/don't have a ticket and want to see it, there will be a live stream.

He is far from alone.
Do you know how many people I know, journalists, thinktankers, civil servants, politicians, who always excel at explaining to you why what is currently happening was always bound to happen, from which they conclude that it should happen?

Looking forward to talking at New Scientist Live next weekend. Come and say hello if you're going (and why would you not be? Lots of great speakers!)

live.newscientist.com/2025-talks-p...

This made an outstanding martini. Many thanks @bravelittlemuon.bsky.social

This is the judgment on the PPE/Medpro claim.

A cracking £122m win for the Government Legal Service

And is wonderful to see the government bringing a claim in contract against a shoddy supplier.

This does not happen often, and it should happen far more.

www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u...

IPPP 25th Anniversary IPPP 25th Anniversary We are very happy to celebrate 25 years of the Institute of Particle Physics Phenomenology at the University of Durham. Venue and Schedule We will celebreate in the top floor (CL...

On my way to Durham to help celebrate 25 years of the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology
conference.ippp.dur.ac.uk/event/1454/o...

BBC - History of the BBC, CEEFAX: world's first teletext service, 23 September 1974 CEEFAX started in 1974 and was the first teletext facility in the world.

23 September 1974: The BBC launched #Ceefax, the world's first teletext information service. #History #BBC #Television

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...

Don't use British flag to whip up violence, warns Starmer as he slams Musk SIR Keir Starmer today slams populists who “exploit” the England flag to stir up violence, division and threats to our democracy. The PM says Britain is “at a crossroads” and must rejec…

The PM has written for the Sun on Sunday about the power of flags to unite - citing Euro 96 - and challenging the promotion of racism and violence by the far right

News report from Sun. I don't yet see a link online to the column.
www.thesun.co.uk/news/3678608...

Starmer condemns populists who ‘exploit’ flag and ‘whip up hatred’ The Prime Minister hit out at Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk for ‘encouraging violence’ at last week’s protest.

Starmer on 'vile lies' of Musk et al: “When populist politicians, convicted criminals + foreign billionaires take to the stage to encourage violence, make racist comments, and threaten our democracy, it casts a dark shadow of fear and violence across our society”
www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

I feel wikipedia buried the lede on how Bill Wyman became a Rolling Stone

"The four Stones went searching for a bassist and drummer, finally settling on Bill Wyman on bass because he had a spare VOX AC30 guitar amplifier and always had cigarettes, as well as a bass guitar that he had built himself"

Miserable post

Sorry for the miserable post.

China turns on giant neutrino detector : 700 meters under a mountain, a 20,000-tonne detector and a giant sphere await elusive particles

JUNO neutrino detector switches on
www.theregister.com/2025/08/29/c...

The best argument Nigel Farage can make is that he didn’t care enough to actually check the facts of the ruling before giving an inflammatory quote about it. The worst is that he checked it and said what he said anyway, *knowing* it wasn’t true. He should be asked which it is.

Weird, I thought we'd had an election and a change of government at some point, but maybe not?
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

You know those days when they let you on the train in good time, and the seat reservation system and wifi just work like they should?
Nope, neither do I. #EastMidlands this time.

The ever-eloquent @rafaelbehr.bsky.social pointedly refusing to mince his words on what Farage has done for us. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Interesting thread.

Very glad to have participated. Thanks for organising Simon, and Leif, Anita et al.

Funny they don't seem so bothered by Jenrick's three homes (including a grade 1 listed manor) plus his forth home in his constituency rented at taxpayer expense.

Wonder why.

Just put the Sloe Gin on for Xmas.

I often wonder if we might do better if we just called such things "good luck", without any implication of virtue or guilt attached.

Police arrest 532 people at London protest over Palestine Action ban Met police say hundreds arrested at largest demonstration relating to Palestine Action since group was proscribed

Worth watching this video.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

📦 pip install contur or: gitlab.com/hepcedar/con...

Thanks to MIAPbP & our summer students! 🎉
#HEP #OpenScience #LHC #Rivet #Contur

🚀 Contur 3.1.3 released!
Works with Rivet 4.1.1 & YODA 2.1.1. Highlights:
✔️ New Rivet analyses & SM predictions (ATLAS ttbb, CMS Z+jets, etc.)
✔️ Config file support
✔️ New plots for Spey stats
✔️ Faster batch runs & heatmap tools
✔️ Numpy2 compat, optional LaTeX

Also the contrast between posts from the right about how the Online Safety Act is an authoritarian attack on free speech vs zero mentions of what's happening re Palestine Action.

🚀 New Rivet 4.1.1 release!

🔹 Remote HepMC source support (e.g. xrootd)
🔹 Differential negative-weight plots via MC_WEIGHTS
🔹 Runtime toggle for event smearing
🔹 ONNX inference supports both float & double
🔹 Improved DileptonFinder + DIS projection robustness
🔹 New & updated LHC/HERA analyses!

Will do, and we are. Hope you are too.

Susanna doing the same (first for ages) this morning :-)