David Wells

If we become a society of super-rich oligarchs and an underfunded state, it is the super-rich oligarchs that get to decide what to fund, what research to do - and what research not to do. They will set societal priorities.

Kids can't hang out in parks. They can't hang out at the mall. They don't have 3rd spaces because no one wants kids around and then we are surprised when they rely on SM for connection.
If you take that away, what do they have left?

A perfect summary of our moment from armond(dot)needs(dot)rest on IG and Tiktok www.instagram.com/reel/DUU20Vg...

Spanish PM Sanchez: "Social media has become a failed state, and when democracies start to impose order, their owners get nervous. We will move forward despite their threats."

‘I’ve lost my friends’: advocacy groups warn Australia’s social media ban risks isolating kids with disabilities Despite the ban’s aim to protect young people, experts are concerned that those in marginalised communities or living with disabilities could lose vital support networks

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

The impacts of locking under 16 yos from their social media networks are now beginning to bite for those young people who relied on them for social connection

how long until apple’s decision not to chase the AI hype starts looking like a competitive advantage?

I love the Olympics

The real reason I'm leaving The Great British Baking Show Trump is threatening bombing the likes of which Tehran has never seen Prue Leith

the Spectator accidentally recycled a subhed from a previous day’s article about Tehran

Commission preliminarily finds TikTok\'s addictive design in breach of the Digital Services Act Today, the European Commission preliminarily found TikTok in breach of the Digital Services Act for its addictive design.

EU tech law

EU Commission preliminary finding that TikTok has breached Digital Services Act re 'addictive design' ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

said elsewhere but it seems like the future of labor with AI in the mix is drifting toward cleaning up AI, filling in the gaps where it can't recover, being the scapegoat for legal reasons, etc

Genuinely dislocating to see McKinsey tell every client and journalist they can talk to that AI is inevitable and they must hire McKinsey experts to embed it throughout the economy, while also acknowledging it is a security disaster and, in many cases, makes work slower and lower quality.

Country’s Largest Air Pollution Permit Issued to Power Plant for Data Centers in West Texas, Developer Says It’s among a handful of similarly colossal ventures announced during 2025, making Texas the global epicenter of a gas power buildout.

New from @dylanbaddour.bsky.social at @insideclimatenews.org: Texas’ environmental regulator this week issued the largest air pollution permit in the country to an enormous planned complex of gas power plants and data centers. Only China has more gas power projects in development than Texas.

N.B. government to stop using social media platform X after request from advocate | CBC News Following a report highlighting concerns about sexualization and exploitation on X, formerly Twitter, the New Brunswick government will stop using the social media platform.

"After a report highlighting concerns about sexual exploitation on X, the New Brunswick government will stop using the social media platform." www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Bitcoin price falls below pre-Trump second term levels, now hovering below $67,000 Bitcoin's price continues its decline, dropping another 11% to $67,000. It has lost nearly half its value since hitting a record high in October.

Bitcoin's price continues its decline, dropping another 11% to $67,000. It has lost nearly half its value since hitting a record high in October.

Shock! as 'Prince of Darkness' revealed to be a dodgy, duplicitous wrong 'un Journalists who used Peter Mandelson as a resource for years are now pretending to be surprised about his character.

NEW | Journalists who used Peter Mandelson as a resource for years are now pretending to be surprised about his character…

Shock! as 'Prince of Darkness' revealed to be a dodgy, duplicitous wrong 'un

brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/shock-as-p...

We gotta come up with a better system than “everything rests on whether these twelve billionnaires are nice”

It's a finely balanced decision. On the one hand, you have the architect of a strategy that is not working, who could not do this job in opposition *the first time*, and buy the PM breathing space. On the other, moving it would involve admitting that some of the PM's old legal buddies were right.

Striking paper from researchers at Anthropic using a randomised control trial to look at the effects of AI use on skills acquisition.

TL:DR ‘We found that using AI assistance led to a statistically significant decrease in mastery.’
www.anthropic.com/research/AI-...

A senior at a public school in Pittsburgh asked Microsoft Copilot to trawl her message history in order to help her brainstorm topics in response to an essay question: What do you do for fun?

This was not the main point in this article about using AI in college admissions, but it stood out to me for so many reasons including the impulse to have the chatbot mediate all experiences including telling you what you do for fun. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/28/s...

This is a mask *very* specifically associated with Atomwaffen and Nazi Terrorgram (as OP notes downthread)

Do you think it might have been a mistake to make the machine where we're supposed to get all our work done the same machine that we use to talk to everyone we've ever met, experience every song and movie ever made, watch porn, play video games, and fight to the figurative death with total strangers

Read this thread. It’s honestly devastating that someone who has written important works on antisemitism—numerous of which are cited in my own work—has descended into vile Islamophobia.

Fear and nationalism and an inability to consider how one might become a perpetrator.

The Sánchez 🇪🇸 government has

- built Europe's boom economy
- hiked minimum wage from €736 to €1221
- cut insecure work from c.30% to c.13%
- regularised, not demonised, migrants
- stood up for human rights
- refused to humiliate itself before Trump

No wonder Musk hates it.

The Paris Prosecutor's office announced they are leaving X by stating they raided their offices.

What a way to leave X.

Why not wait and see how Australia's ban goes before jumping on the bandwagon?

Paris prosecutor's cybercrime unit searches French office of Musk's X The Paris prosecutor's office said a search was underway at the French offices of Elon Musk's social media network X on Tuesday as part of an investigation opened in January 2025.

Paris prosecutors raid the offices of Elon Musk's X.

www.reuters.com/world/europe...

‼️SPAIN'S PM SANCHEZ: SPAIN WILL BAN ACCESS TO SOCIAL MEDIA FOR MINORS UNDER 16

‼️SPAIN'S PM SANCHEZ: WE WILL CHANGE SPANISH LAW TO HOLD SOCIAL MEDIA EXECUTIVES ACCOUNTABLE FOR ILLEGAL, HATEFUL CONTENT

Christopher Nolan has cast a Genovian as Penelope and a Bostonian as Odysseus. And they will be speaking English, a language that did not exist in antiquity. This whole production is pure chaos.