Eliot Whittington

The left is missing out on AI As a movement, it has largely refused to engage seriously with AI, ceding debate about a threat and opportunity to the right

is there a technology that "the left" is excited about?
www.transformernews.ai/p/the-left-i...

Behold, the story of the Fed balance sheet in a single chart More Fed history (sorry), briefly put

🚨Behold, the story of the Fed balance sheet in a single chart
www.ft.com/content/cbe2...

The Bucket Stops Here UKRI’s new funding framework takes a stab at classifying budgets – but doesn’t yet govern research

Bucket theory is unglamorous but very important. @ersatzben.com is forensic here - a must read for those interested in UK research policy
www.ersatzben.com/p/the-bucket...

YouTube video by IPBES Secretariat #IPBES12 in Manchester, UK - and the Launch of the IPBES Business and Biodiversity Report

Nature, business, science & policy...a week of global collaboration and consensus at #IPBES12.

"Game-changing", "Inspirational", "A turning point" - an intergovernmental platform powered by experts, governments & stakeholders.

IPBES: Science and Policy #ForNature & People.

🔗 youtu.be/9895iTAMtLk

I don’t want to laugh at a small business but also VERY funny

These dynamics are clearly happening - seemingly creating larger oscillations / stupider decisions over time. But even if the stock market resets, there is also cumulative damage to America's international standing which is not reversed when trump steps back from the brink.

These are the icy mountains of Pluto. It took 9 years to get these magnificent images… and 4.8 billion kilometers.

Yes. One of my favourite energy efficiency stats is that 25% of UK economic growth between 1971-2013 was due to energy efficiency: ukerc.ac.uk/news/energy-... @jrbarrett.bsky.social

Germany, Sweden and Denmark are publicly debating conscription, food stockpiles and supply-chain resilience. We're still treating defence as a competing priority.

The PM's not wrong to focus on foreign policy so much- but he needs to be much more upfront with the country on why.

A Rush Hour Crush I got published on 7th January, 2015. To the sexy Spanish snorita on the No.30 bus to Highbury. I loved our heated chat on Friday but realise what I did was insensitive to your country. I'm mortified. Please let me make up for it, over tapas or paella or whatever. Bearded Man Who Used Discarded Burger Cartons As Castanets

Things are awful, so a little treat for the real Crush-Heads. It is now eleven years since I got this printed in the Metro.

Well that was dramatic. Although is it me or did Amanda not give the police a really bad name by being consistently wrong about everything #TheTraitors

The USA can withdraw from @ipbes.net but, IPBES Chair @davidobura.bsky.social observes, “unfortunately, we cannot withdraw from the fact that more than 1 million species of plants and animals face extinction.” 😞😠

It's all very well having a "weightless", digital economy, but that exists on a material base in semiconducting manufacturing that is far from intangible, & seeing diminishing returns on ever increasing capital investment.
Plot above from my blogpost from last year:
softmachines.org?p=3129

Useful thread of analysis on the US intervention in Venezuela

@pollymackenzie.bsky.social's substack makes this point well. This govt has not consciously chosen which political battles to fight. Combine that with a tendency to centralise, we are in a place where throughout government, ‘everything is a priority’, so nothing is.

How good is AI getting at CS? This is a Principal Engineer at Google speaking against interest on Claude Code.

Scene from the TV show MASH showing a conversation between two men wearing surgical masks. One is surgeon Hawkeye Pierce. the other, wearing a silver cross around his neck and a purple stole over his shoulders, is a Chaplain, Father Mulcahy Hawkeye: War isn't hell. War is war and hell is hell, and of the two, war is a lot worse. Fr. Mulcahy: How do you figure that, Hawkeye? Hawkeye: Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell? Fr. Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe. Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell, but war is chock full of them: Little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for a few of the top brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.

Great thread about the demand-side for non-democracy. Jacob unpacks a lot here and provides useful literature. Gather, folks!

10. We can only protect ourselves against threats we acknowledge.

But Europe needs to stop trying to impose an imaginary coherence on Trump administration foreign policy and to work out how to deal with the incoherent reality.

Statement of the obvious bought to you by a hungover brain seeking other things to think about….

Random thought for 2026: the world is unfair and you can make it fairer, but while you can fight against injustice, you need to build justice, not just argue for it. What’s required - everything from mutual respect to well designed institutions - doesn’t just exist, you have to create it.

Harvey Price time then.

In 2016, I had an ill fated stint as the Social Media Producer on Loose Women on ITV. It was a disaster, I should never have applied for the job, I certainly shouldn’t have been given it. I could do the actual job standing on my head, but the politics of the place…woof.

Two Voting Predictions For 2026 One obvious, one with potential

If you don't already read @jamesbreckwoldt.bsky.social's substack and you're into British politics, can I recommend doing so as a New Year's Resolution? Always enjoyable and thought provoking in equal measure - although maybe pass on this one if you're a Labour diehard and don't want to spoil NYEve!

The Hit Hollywood Didn’t Want - The American Prospect Ryan Coogler’s bloodsucker blockbuster is all about Black creative freedom. No wonder the industry saw it as a threat.

What a great piece! This just gets better and better as you read.

prospect.org/2025/12/11/s...

What if OpenAI is worth more dead than alive? Plus: data centre risks, fish science, mince pies, and an unwelcome sighting of Modern Monetary Theory

Here's this week's Substack wrap. It has links to all the FTAV posts you may have missed, as well as a bunch of other stuff.

substack.com/home/post/p-...

The challenge climate poses to the insurance industry is becoming clearer, but for the industry to respond it needs to think and act differently - working with others to trigger systemic responses. Do read our latest report supported by ClimateWise on this: www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/news-and-res...

Our annual deep dive on China’s climate transition is out! China’s CO₂ emissions are set to remain flat for a second year in 2025. Record additions of solar and wind, accelerating electrification, and declining construction-material demand are the main drivers.

3. The industry knows that words are important. If Moses had been obliged by labelling laws to promise the Israelites a land of mammary secretions and insect vomit, I doubt many would have followed him into Canaan, though these are accurate descriptions of milk and honey. 3/6

1. The European Parliament’s attempt to ban plant-based foods from being sold as “sausages”, “burgers” etc is a direct response to livestock industry lobbying. This is a short thread on how utterly bleeding ridiculous it is. 🧵1/6